"-because if I'm supposed to be helping out in this fight where I can, its important that I'm on the same page as everybody else, or I'm just... hello?"

Han looked down at his scroll. Ozpin had terminated the call. Han sighed, closed his scroll, and tossed it down onto his desk. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. After a moment of thought, he looked around his office. The lights were out, and the room was dim. The only illumination came from the soft glow of the holograms being projected from the emitter on his desk. They displayed various crime scene photos, criminal profiles, and other information related to the ongoing case. Scattered on the surface of the desk beneath the holograms was additional information on physical paper. Both the surface of the desk and the holo-screen had been cluttered with information since the killing of Beacon student over a week ago. Each new development in the case seemed to answer no questions, but raise more. Han looked up at the photo of the loading floor at Freeman's, covered in bloodied remains. He compared it to a photo of the exploded bodies at the warehouse where Yang Xiao Long had been murdered. He scratched his chin.

Eyewitness accounts by surviving employees at Freeman's put three young girls, matching the descriptions of Blake and the other surviving members of her team, on the scene as the attackers. However, all survivors were rendered unconscious before the killing started. Han's intuition told him that the three girls had been attacking the place in pursuit of the Guardians- it had been confirmed that Freeman's was a front- and had at some point been joined in the assault by the same unidentified suspect who had intervened at the warehouse. But why did he wait to join them? Did they see him, and if they did, why were they concealing his identity? There was one Guardian, a "Jerry Chalk", who was there that night, but hadn't been seen since. Where was he?

The door to Han's office opened. Light from the hall struck him in the eyes, and he winced. Once his eyes adjusted, he looked up and saw his old friend, Phil Prism. Phil Prism had been the Chief of the Forensics Unit since before Han had gotten out of the police academy. They'd become good friends over the last few years. Han liked Prism, despite his occasional arrogance and jaded attitude towards the crimes they investigated together. Prism was currently standing in the door frame, coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other.

"How's it going, Auburn?" Prism asked, "You crack the case, yet?"

Han glanced at the most recently opened file on the holo-screen. A list of employees on the coast guard. Belladonna had called him with a tip about them two days prior. Han had been carefully going through each employee's file, seeing if there might be a connection to the Guardians. It was an arduous process that was getting Han nowhere.

"We don't know the routes the Guardians use to ship their drugs," Han said, "Don't know which coast guards they would have to pay off. There's enough red tape here to keep me at this for the next three days."

"There goes your weekend, huh?" Prism quipped.

"How about you, Prism?" Han asked.

"Trying to sort through the mess my idiot lab techs made of the Freeman's scene." Prism said, "Some evidence was contaminated."

"Are you serious?" Han asked, in disbelief, "How much did we lose?"

"We may have trouble making a case for the place's involvement in Guardian activity."

Han slammed his fist down the desk in anger. He rubbed his temples.

"For shit's sake, is there anything this department can do that a bunch of teenagers aren't doing better?" Han yelled, "All we're doing is cleaning up after them, and we can't even do that right!"

"I don't know what to tell you, Auburn. This shit just happens, sometimes."

"Is there anything else, Prism? Give me some good news for once."

"Sorry, Auburn," Prism said, sipping his coffee, "We, uh, found that boat that sank offshore. Ton of drugs in the cargo hold. Water damage means the evidence was gone, but we think we know who crewed the boat. They washed up on shore the day before yesterday in a life raft."

"An emergency life raft?" Han asked, "Those have ID tags matching them to the boat they come from, right?"

"They're supposed too, yeah," Prism said, "But this one's tags had been removed. Which is a misdemeanour, but other than that, they'll walk."

Auburn shook his head. He looked at his phone and considered calling Ozpin back. He eventually shrugged, and turned his attention back to the list of suspects from the coast guard.

"Right, well, Prism, I'm going to get back to this, if you don't mind. Ozpin can call me back whenever. I'm sure whatever made him hang up on me is important, too."

Ozpin and Adam glared at each other. Seconds ticked by at an agonizingly slow pace. The silence was deafening. Ozpin stared at the intruder over the rims of his glasses. He sipped his coffee, thoughtfully. Adam looked back at him, grinning cockily. He rubbed his chin and waited to see if Ozpin would break the silence first. Ozpin was adjusting his grip on his cane with imperceptibly subtle movements, readying to bring it up to fighting stance at moment's notice. Adam's right hand was hanging off the arm's rest of Ozpin's chair, fiddling idly with the hilt of his sword, which was propper up beside him. Adam looked around, seemingly a tad bored, and finally spoke.

"Like the office, Ozzy," He said, "You'd think the gears in the desk would get distracting, though."

"Adam, Why are you here?" Ozpin demanded.

"This chair is pretty comfy," Adam noted, before chuckling, "Is the back of it supposed to look like-"

"Adam. I am not in the mood to do this. Tell me why you're here or get out."

Adam sighed. He stood up, picking up his sword as he did so. Ozpin tensed up. Adam stepped out to one side of the desk and leaned against it.

"What's the matter, old man? Nervous?" Adam jested.

"Hardly," Ozpin replied, "We've fought before. We both know how that ended."

"I'm even stronger than I was back then," Adam said, "Faster, too."

"I'm not going to fight you, Adam. I don't want to spill my coffee."

Adam stared at him. Ozpin met his gaze, but kept an eye on his hands in his peripheral vision. Adam's grip was tight on his sword.

"I'll ask again, Adam Taurus," Ozpin said, authoritatively, " Why are you here?"

"Alright, you want to hear what I have to say?" Adam asked, suddenly looking more serious, "Then I'm going to tell you, and you're going to shut up and listen."

Ozpin sipped his coffee. There was a brief pause. He raised his eyebrows and motioned with his hand for Adam to continue.

"You know, Ozzy, I believed in who you said you were when you were training me. Ozpin, the great and powerful warrior. Ozpin, the wise, patient master. A voice of reason, who just wants peace in this violent world. It's all crap. You project this image of this wise, grandfatherly figure who's three steps ahead of everybody else. Sees people's inner strengths and values and... cares about their lives. And it's all a load of crap."

Ozpin walked forward. He strode right past Adam on his way to his chair. The two made eye contact as he passed within inches. He sat down, relaxed, but kept his cane in his hand. He sipped his coffee again and then set it on the desktop.

"I know who you are, Ozpin. And I know what you do under the guise of being the wise headmaster. You advanced a child two years so she could come to your little school, and threw her into mortal danger on the hunch that she could handle it. You put the responsibility of leadership on her because it amused you to do it. You turned a blind eye when an idiot kid without the training to be here forged his paperwork. What, would the problem have resolved itself if he got killed on his first day?"

Ozpin cracked his mouth open slightly, considering saying something. Adam continued.

"You broke your own rules to send a team of first-years to Mountain Glenn! And you still carry around that air of being the cool, mysterious wise-man headmaster, simply because you were lucky enough that they didn't all die! And what about what happened to Blake, and the blonde girl? All you know about the Guardians is that they bested two of the best fighters in your little school, and you threw the rest of your students at them? Is it their revenge they're fighting for, or yours? Do you even care how many of them are going to get killed?"

"That is enough, Adam Taurus!" Ozpin said, forcefully, "I make decisions some might call irresponsible, and I use methods that some would call dangerous, but I will not have you put the blood of my students on me. Are your hands so clean, after all the things you've done? How many young Faunus have you sent to their deaths?"

"I make no excuses for myself. I'm not a hero, I'm a revolutionary. And I have done terrible things for that revolution. But the people I lead know who I am. I don't put up a façade of the enigmatic mastermind who has everything planned out, or tell them they're safe before sending them to fight for their lives. I don't tell their parents that I'll protect them, then make every effort to thrust them in over their heads in mortal danger! You do that, and everybody buys it, and that pisses me off."

"I have never claimed that the challenges these students face are free of danger," Ozpin said, "You misjudge me, Adam. How people look at me is up to them, I make no effort to hide my mistakes or make myself free of blame. What you mistake for people being misled is simply them understanding that my actions all work towards a common a goal; a greater good. Perhaps you are bothered that they see my actions in this light, and not your own?"

Adam seemed to grit his teeth behind his closed lips. He gripped the hilt of his sword a little tighter.

"Did you just come here to accuse me, Adam?" Ozpin asked, "Why now?"

Adam let go of his sword and crossed his arms.

"No, I've just had that on my chest for a while and thought I'd open with it," He said, "The reason I came here was to warn you."

"About what?"

"Had a chat with one of the Guardians. He's dead now, but before he died I made him tell me everything he knew. And he knew a lot. Things about this school, information on every student, things he shouldn't have known. They knew Blake used to be White Fang, its why they attacked her. You have a leak."

"A leak?" Ozpin repeated, suddenly growing in concern.

"I don't know if they're in the school, but somebody is feeding them information. Probably been doing it for a while. Is there anybody but you in this school who knows Blake was White Fang?"

Ozpin sighed, reached forward and grabbed his mug. He sipped it, thoughtfully.

"Other than her team? No." He said.

"Isn't one of the girls on that team Schnee? The heiress?"

"Weiss Schnee did not betray her team." Ozpin said.

"If you say so. But if you're wrong..."

"I'm not."

Before they could continue, they both were alerted to the arrival of the elevator. Adam stood, facing the elevator door, in combat stance. Ozpin rose, walked around his desk and stood next to Adam, leaning on his cane. The door opened and Glynda Goodwitch stepped out into the office, looking down at her scroll. She appeared uncharacteristically distraught.

"Professor, something's happened. The-" She began, before looking up.

Her eyes widened at the sight of Adam Taurus. Adam dropped out of his combat stance and leaned back against the desk, casually. Glynda quickly drew her crop and extended it, aiming it at Adam.

"Hey, Teach," Adam quipped, with a small wave, "What's up?"

"Professor?" Glynda asked, nervously glancing at Ozpin.

"It's okay, Glynda," Ozpin said, "Mr. Taurus was just leaving."

Adam glanced over to him, "Oh, that's how it is, huh? Alright, fine. It was good to catch up, Ozpin. See you soon."

He made his way to the elevator, giving Glynda a casual nod as he walked past. She looked back at him in utter confusion.

"What's happened, Glynda?" Ozpin asked.

"S-sir, something- something bad. I just got a call from the infirmary."

Adam had been facing the elevator, waiting for the doors to open. He looked back over his shoulder, curiously.

"Team JNPR was just brought in."

Ozpin set his mug down. His breath caught in his throat.

"They're badly injured. But... there's only three of them."

Ozpin's jaw fell. He was at a loss of words. Adam turned back to the elevator, stepped inside, and looked back to Ozpin.

"Another kid you got killed, Ozpin," Adam said, "I'll leave you to it."

He hit a button on the control panel. The door closed, and he was gone.