Three Bullheads flew in formation, just over the trees on Deumont Island. They were staying beneath radar range as they performed aerial reconnaissance. In the first of the Bullheads was Team RWBY. The other two contained Teams JNPR and CRDL. It had been decided that further assaults on the Guardians would have multiple teams in close proximity to offer back-up to each other. As further prudence, they would choose targets of their attacks more carefully, which was why they were risking bringing the Bullheads over the island itself, rather than deploying themselves to the beach. Blake was sitting down, examining her temporary replacement weapon. Ruby had finally convinced her that she couldn't continue rushing into battle unarmed until she got her own sword back. The replacement was a cheap, unremarkable weapon from Beacon's armory, just a short sword with a trigger on the hilt that sheathed the blade in plasma. It was better than nothing, but it was no Gambol Shroud. She'd heard people comment before on how shoddily-crafted and unsophisticated her weapon appeared, but every mechanism of it had been designed to suit her needs. She looked up at Weiss and Ruby. Ruby was speaking over her scroll, in a conference call between all three teams.

"-and the main idea is to be hitting the next target while they're still responding to the first," Ruby was saying, "So every time we attack we need to know where we're headed immediately after that."

"Right," Jaune replied, "Remember, we don't have to take out everybody when we hit a target. I want us to drop in, hit the place, do as much damage as we can, then be gone again in two minutes. It's alright if we leave a few of them still standing."

"You guys can run off if you want," Cardin interjected, "But that ain't my style. CRDL will hang back to clean up any stragglers."

"No." Jaune ordered, firmly, "We stay together, as a group, like we planned. I don't want any team on their own out here. Not anymore."

"Alright," Cardin said, after a pause, "You're the boss, apparently."

"What do we do if we run into Marcus Ochre?" Weiss asked, "retreat?"

"No," Jaune said, force in his voice, "If we find Ochre, the plan changes. We work together to disable him, then kill him."

"Uh, Yeah," Cardin said, "How do we plan to do that, again?"

"That voodoo bullshit he does won't work if he's unconscious," Jaune said, "You have to be awake to use a Semblance. We disarm him, then choke him out. Then I cut his head off."

"Damn, Arc," Cardin said, "Alright. How close to the nearest target?"

"Just a few more kilometers," Ruby said, "Be ready. Team RWBY out."

Ruby disconnected from the call and turned to the others.

"Is it actually a good idea to take on Ochre?" Weiss asked, "It would be smarter to avoid him."

"Gotta deal with him at some point," Blake noted, "Sooner would be better than later."

"I'm just concerned Jaune might be... sidetracked by his desire for revenge," Weiss said.

"Somebody he cared about was killed in front of him," Blake said, "He's allowed to want revenge."

"I agree, I agree," Weiss said, nodding, "I'm just concerned that he's letting it affect his decision-making."

"He does seem to be taking it all really hard," Ruby said, "Did you see his hair? What's that about, do you think?"

"People grieve in different ways," Blake said, "If it helps him cope, it helps him cope. The important thing is to not judge him for it."

Blake had seemed to direct the last bit of this statement towards Weiss. Ruby looked between them, confused. Something caught her eye outside the Bullhead, down on the ground.

"Alright, we're coming up on the ammunition storehouse," She reported, "Remember, hit it, destroy it, be out in two minutes."

Blake stood and joined Ruby and Weiss at the door. She readied her replacement sword.

"Stay in formation with the other ships," Ruby ordered the pilot, "And be ready to swing back around to pick us up again."

The pilot nodded. Blake looked down at the building beneath them. At the front door, a few Guardians carrying ammo from the building and loading it on to a truck. She briefly wondered what they were using that much ammo for. Looking over to the other Bullheads, she saw Team JNPR and Team CRDL jumping out a plunging towards the enemy, weapons drawn.

"Alright, let's do it!" Ruby yelled.

The three of them leapt. Blake shot downward, triggering the plasma-sheath on her sword as she fell. She extended the blade forward as she shot towards one of the Guardians. She savoured the brief look of terror on his face as he looked up at the force of ten Huntsmen and Huntresses plunging towards him.

Auburn emerged from his office for the first time in several hours. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, which were red from staring at his holo-screen for so long. He was carrying his empty mug, and heading to the break room for some well-deserved coffee. He'd finally compiled a list of suspects within the Coast Guard that could be questioned, based on reasonable suspicion, on any connection they might have to the Guardians. It had been a long four days of work. He walked down the hall, and entered onto the main floor of the police station. He had to cross the large room, moving between desks, to reach the break room. There was an unusual bustle of activity in the main room, with police officers rushing about, talking to each other via scrolls, and writing down information. Glancing towards the front of the room, Han saw the large holo-screen displaying a map of the city, with multiple locations marked, with windows of information hovering beside them.

"Hey," Han said, getting the attention of one of the nearest officers, "What's going on?"

"Oh, Auburn," The officer said, sounding distracted, "Finally came out of hiding, huh? Well, gotta say, you've missed quite a bit."

"Yeah, what, though?" Han asked, "What's happened?"

He turned to see Philip Prism approaching from near the holo-screen.

"Spree-killing," Prism said, "We've gotten fourteen reports of murder in the last hour, from all over the city."

"Fourteen?!" Auburn asked, in disbelief. He walked over to the screen and stared at the map.

"Same M.O. every time," Prism said, shaking his head, "Multiple armed intruders break into somebody's apartment, seemingly at random, shoot somebody to bits, and are gone in seconds. I was just about to head out to the first place. Gonna be a long damn night."

"What's the connection between the victims?" Auburn asked.

"We're still gathering evidence," The officer nearest to the screen told him, "Taking reports from witnesses. We haven't gotten the chance to look for connections yet."

Auburn looked at one of the markers on the map. It was just a picture, and beneath it, a name: Jasper Martin. The name caught Auburn's attention; there was something familiar about it. He looked to the name on one of the other markers: Joseph Teal.

"Oh no..." Auburn whispered.

His eyes darted from marker to marker, reading off names. Every one of them was a name he'd already seen before. Auburn slumped down in the nearest chair and ran his hand through his hair.

"They all work for the Coast Guard," He announced to the room.

A few officers turned and looked at him in confusion. He stood and motioned to the map.

"All of the victims worked for the Coast Guard, and I'm guessing they were all taking bribes from the Guardians."

Prism looked at the map, rubbing his chin.

"That means-" He began.

"It means the Guardians just liquidated their assets." Auburn said.

He walked out of the room, back towards his office. Prism followed him into the hallway. Auburn leaned against the wall, head in his hands. Prism looked at him, a concerned look in his eye.

"Han, this is just more to pin on them when we bring 'em down, right?" Prism offered, "I mean, yeah, that's a lot of work down the tubes, but..."

There was a framed picture of some community event or another on the wall next to Auburn. He elbowed it in frustration, cracking the glass.

"How the fuck did they know, Phil?" Auburn demanded, "How did they know I was looking into the Coast Guard?"

"Maybe it was just precaution."

"Mass murder isn't a precaution! And that doesn't answer the question, either. The only people who knew we even suspected the Coast Guard are the people in this... precinct..."

Prism's eyes widened a little. Auburn's jaw fell as he stared blankly into space.

"The leak... Ozpin told me... he thought it was at Beacon, but if its here..."

"Hey, hey," Prism said, putting his hand on Han's shoulder, "Now, we don't know for a fact that-"

"It makes sense!" Auburn said, nodding, "Its why they're always two steps ahead of us, why we can't get anywhere trying to investigate them. Holy shit, Phil, we have files on every student at Beacon! Their weapons and fighting styles and- oh my God."

Auburn seemed, for a moment, to completely freeze up in his train of thought. He placed a hand over his mouth and stared forward in silence. Eventually, Prism became impatient.

"What?" He asked.

"After the Breach, when Team RWBY saved the city... I did a bit of extra digging on them," Han said, "I discovered some holes in Blake Belladonna's history. I made note of it in her file. I- oh shit- I noted that she might have connections to White Fang."

Prism lowered his head, looking at Han apologetically.

"Phil, it was because of me that they-"

Han cried out in rage, swinging around and punching the frame picture. This time the glass was shattered. Han looked at his own hand, gritting his teeth. There were small shards of glass stabbed into his knuckles. He looked at Prism.

"We can't trust anybody in this station until we know who the mole is." He said, "Get to work on these murder scenes, try to get something we can use. Don't tell anybody anything they don't absolutely need to know."

"What are you going to do?" Prism asked.

"I need to tell Ozpin about this. I have to tell him in person, our scrolls might be bugged. The mole can't know we're on to him. I'm going to Beacon."

Auburn marched forward, passing Prism and heading for the main exit. Prism looked after him as he left. Auburn nodded to the receptionist and exited the building. The air outside was cool, and there was a soft breeze that rustled through Han's hair and sent pieces of litter skittering along the asphalt in the parking lot. Fishing his keys from his pocket, he walked over to his car in a darkened corner of the lot. As he fumbled with the key chain, attempting to identify his car key, he felt a strange chill. He glanced around, confirming the parking lot was void of people. He popped open the door of his car and got in. Settling in behind the wheel, he took a moment to gather himself. His heart was racing. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and rubbed his bloodied knuckles.

Auburn suddenly got another chill. He opened his eyes, catching sight in his peripheral vision of somebody standing next to his car. He turned and looked up through the window. It was Philip Prism. He stood, staring down at Han, apologetically. He had his pistol out, with a suppressor attached to the barrel. Before Han could react, Prism raised the gun and shot him through the window. Han's head snapped to the side as his brains were splattered over the dashboard. His body slumped down to one side, mangled head resting in the passenger seat.

Prism lowered his pistol, looking back to the station to confirm the shot hadn't been heard. He unscrewed the suppressor and pocketed it. He holstered his pistol.

"Sorry, kid," Prism said, shaking his head, "Really wish it hadn't come to this."

Prism reached down, picked up the ejected bullet casing, and slipped it into his pocket. As he drew his scroll, he walked briskly to the alley on the side of the police building, distancing himself from the car. He dialed a number and listened to the ringtone.

"Come on, come on," He whispered, "Pick up."

"Hello, Phil," Jack's voice came through, "How goes the investigation?"

"Jack, got a problem," Prism said, "Friend of mine nearly figured me out."

"What? Damn it, Phil, what did you do?"

"It's alright, It's fine," Prism explained, "I took care of it, but we need to do something about the body."

"Alright, I'll have some people dump it in a ghetto, nobody will ask too many questions when he's found. Where's the stiff?"

"He's in the... in the police station parking lot."

There was a long silence from the scroll.

"Yeah, I know," Prism said, weakly, "I panicked, alright? Jack?"

"Yeah, Phil, I'm here," Jack sounded incredibly irritated, "Don't worry, we can deal with this. Where in the parking lot is the body?"

Prism gave him the model of Auburn's car and the license number.

"Alright, good," Jack said, "Get back to work, you saw nothing. Our people will swipe the car."

"Thanks, Jack," Prism said, breathing a sigh of relief, "Sorry about this, but we're all in trouble if I get exposed, right?"

"...Yeah, I know," Jack said, "When are you going to get home tonight?"

"Huh? Probably around 3am, why?"

"Because I'm gonna give you a call then, I don't want to call you while you're working in front of other cops."

"Right, of course," Prism said, nodding, "That makes sense. Alright, talk to you then, Jack."

"Later," Jack said, and hung up.

Jack sat in his office, staring down at the scroll for a moment. He navigated through the UI and opened his file on Philip Prism. He double-checked his home address. Nodding, he stood and walked out of the office, heading down the stairs to the administration building's main room. The Guardians were in the middle of stockpiling weapons and ammo. The nearest of them turned and looked at Jack, dutifully.

"Sir?" He asked.

"Go find Slate," Jack said, "Tell him I have a job for him."