"Blake, you need to be more careful." Velvet scolded as she massaged Blake's shoulders over a cloth that had been soaked in hot water. "You'll get sick if you keep this up." It had been a week since Weiss has ordered the army to begin their march. This evening the two faunus were inside of Blake's tent, relaxing after a long day of duties. Blake lay on her stomach while Velvet straddled her hips after volunteering to massage Blake's tense and sore muscles, which Blake graciously accepted.

"Don't worry, Velvet. I'll be fine." Blake replied in patient monotone. This was the third time in the last week that Velvet had given her the same short lecture. Velvet's concern was a product of Blake's scouting duties. Blake often volunteered for forward scouting because her speed, endurance, and stealth talents gave Blake an edge in when it came to scouting ahead of the marching army. Her tracking abilities and preternatural senses as a faunus were also a massive benefit.

Being a forward scout hadn't proved dangerous so far. The Vacuoan army had retreated to more than a week's march back to their own defensive lines, so all that any scouts had to worry about for the last week were the weather and terrain. "It's only a little bit of snow." Blake sighed as Velvet massaged her lower back. "Ah, that feels good." Blake moaned.

"You're really tense here." Velvet mumbled as she pressed harder into the knot of muscle in Blake's lower back. As she felt the muscle loosen under her fingers, Velvet continued both her lecture and ministrations. "And it's not just 'a little bit of snow,' Blake. The snow is three feet deep. Our army is barely covering any ground."

"And I can walk on top of the snow without leaving footprints. The snow isn't a prob-oooh." Blake's argument was cut short as Velvet found a particularly sensitive spot.

"Just be a little more careful, okay? At least dress warmer or something. You're ice cold whenever you get back." Velvet asked. "And I'm in charge of the field medical forces, so I can tell Weiss to make you stay back with the rest of us if I have to." She finished firmly.

Blake didn't respond as she enjoyed the massage in silence for a few more moments. "Okay, Captain Velvet. I'll dress warmer." She conceded with a resigned sigh.

"Promise?" Velvet asked hopefully.

"I promise." Blake answered apologetically.

"Good." Velvet said with a smile. She bent over and lay down on Blake's back, nuzzling against Blake's bare shoulder. "Sorry to be such a worry wart."

Blake turned over while she was under Velvet so that she could embrace her friend. Velvet was now nuzzling up against Blake's bare chest, her ears tickling Blake's chin. "Don't worry about it." Blake opened her mouth and playfully nipped Velvet's ear with her teeth.

Velvet squealed and wriggled in Blake's grasp in an attempt to escape from the sudden stimulation. Blake stopped her teasing, mostly because she was giggling too hard to keep on going with it. "Blake!" Velvet gasped. "Don't surprise me like that." Velvet was complaining, but she was smiling too. She looked up into Blake's amber eyes, which looked like they were glowing in the low light of the tent. Velvet decided to take a risk. She crawled the short distance up Blake's body, stopping with her face only inches away from Blake's.

While her face was hovering over Blake's, Velvet's fingers brushed softly against Blake's skin. Velvet had always loved the feel of Blake. To Velvet, Blake's skin was soft as silk and smooth as still water, shining and beautiful in the low light. Deceptively hidden underneath the soft skin was toned muscle as hard and unyielding as stone, tensing and relaxing as Blake moved her body.

Blake's hands were not sitting idle either as they tracing the natural lines of Velvet's body underneath her shirt. Velvet shifted nervously as he felt Blake's touch, unsure of whether the scars that now covered a significant portion of her body would affect Blake's view of it. Velvet quickly learned her fears were unfounded as Blake's hands moved along and over the scars as much as the rest of her, paying no attention to where her normal, soft skin ended and the thicker scar tissue began. Grateful for Blake's undiscriminating and tender touch, Velvet ceased her soft treatment of Blake's bare skin and locked her gaze onto her friends, an unspoken question in her eyes.

Blake was tense and hesitant. But seeing the need in Velvet's eyes, she decided that she could let herself go, at least for this evening, and nodded her consent. Velvet slowly leaned in, closed her eyes, and gently but firmly pressed her lips against Blake's. Blake returned the kiss, parting her lips slightly to allow Velvet's tongue access to the inside of her mouth. Velvet's long, flowing hair fell down around both their heads, creating a curtain of hair that framed them as their lips locked together. Blake shifted her weight and sat up; Velvet sat up on her knees and continued straddling Blake while they continued their kiss in an upright position. Blake's hands lifted Velvet's shirt while she lifted her arms above her head, only breaking the kiss as briefly as she could. Throwing the shirt off to the side while Velvet unzipped and removed her own sports bra, Blake removed herself from under Velvet.

As soon as Velvet finished removing her bra, Blake gently pushed her onto her back. Velvet allowed herself to fall backwards onto the bed behind her as she let her arms fall out to the side, perfectly at ease with being topless under Blake. Rather than continue the kiss though, Blake strayed farther down and undid the knot Velvet used to tie on her sweats before pulling them down and off of her toned and muscled legs. Velvet's legs closed out of reflexive embarrassment, but Blake knew how to get Velvet to relax. Opening her mouth just enough to expose her teeth, Blake began gently but firmly nibble on Velvet's legs, starting at her ankles and slowly working her way up while occasionally switching her attention from one leg to the other. Blake was careful not to use her canines; while Yang may have enjoyed the rougher feeling of the sharp teeth breaking skin, Velvet preferred a softer approach. Velvet's legs were relaxed in short order, easily being moved where Blake wanted them, allowing Blake to remove Velvet's underwear with ease.

Velvet hardly seemed to notice as her final article of clothing was dropped off the small bed. Her heavy breathing and quiet moans of pleasure continued unabated as Blake continued nibbling her way up Velvet's body, agonizingly avoiding the areas of Velvet's body that wanted Blake's attentions the most. "Blake." She managed to get out breathily. "Please, can-" she was abruptly cut off as Blake suddenly bit down on her right breast with her teeth, causing Velvet's voice to squeak in a delighted mix of pleasure and pain. "Blake." She begged. Blake smiled as she sensually looked up into Velvet's eyes before obliging her request and moving back down Velvet's body. The last things Velvet saw were the cat ears top of Blake's head twitching before waves of pleasure spread through Velvet's body, forcing out a gasp while she lustfully closed her eyes and she gave in to Blake's affections.

Weiss face planted on the small portable table in front of her. "Ugh." She groaned in disgust. She had known that her high ranking position of leadership would entail some measure of paperwork, but she hadn't thought that it would be mountains of the stuff. Weiss was even doing paperwork in their transport vehicles as they marched each day. She was seeing paperwork in her sleep. Weiss was starting to get to the point where she wished they could just have a battle just to break the monotony of the paperwork. Then she felt bad because that would mean people would be dying. "Ugh." She groaned again, forehead still pressed against the desk.

"You sound like you're having a grand old time." A voice said from Weiss' left. Weiss rolled her head on the desk so she could see the speaker, General Kosti.

"Good evening, General." Weiss greeted, moving to stand up.

Kosti waved Weiss down. "Sit, sit. I know you're tired. I see you've discovered the wonderful thing known as 'unending paperwork' that we have to deal with." He chuckled.

"It really doesn't end?" Weiss groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Not for the last forty years, at any rate." He answered with a shrug.

"Damn it. How do you deal with all of it?" Weis asked. "Is there a trick to it?"

"I just delegate it to other people, to be honest. I only read the summaries of most of the papers to make sure nothing's wrong." He answered. "I only read the important stuff in detail."

"You could've mentioned this earlier in the week, you know." Weiss grumbled.

"Call it my own little form of hazing." He said with a grin. "I'll give you names of the appropriate officers to delegate to. You'll have to make your own decisions on what's important enough to read, but that's about it."

"Much appreciated." Weiss sighed in relief. "So, did you need something, General? I haven't seen you in a while."

"I do, actually." He answered. "I got a call from Tamamo. She said that after the next group of hunters she's sending that they may come in a little slower."

"Slower? Did she say if something is going wrong with the training?" Weiss asked as she sat up, curious.

"She didn't give me any details, just the message." Kosti answered. "I wouldn't know much about hunter training anyways.

"I'll contact her then and find out what's going on." Weiss pulled out her scroll and typed in the contact information for the fortress. General Kosti stepped up behind Weiss to look over her shoulder while the communications room alerted Tamamo of the incoming call.

After a couple minutes, the video feed popped up with Tamamo's face. "Hello!" Tamamo sang. "Oh, Weiss! It's good to see you again. How's war?"

"So far it's been one battle and a lot of paperwork." Weiss complained.

"One of the worst things about leadership, I agree." Tamamo laughed. "Is that old Kosti behind you? Hello there!" Tamamo waved at the General over Weiss' shoulder.

"Hello, Tamamo." The General answered with a lazy wave. "Though you aren't really in any position to call me old."

"I guess not." Tamamo conceded. "Well then, to what do I owe the pleasure, Weiss?"

"I was calling about your message to General Kosti. You mentioned some issue with training hunters?" Weiss responded.

"It's not a huge delay; it's just an issue of practical training." Tamamo answered. "There are very few Grimm left around the fortress, so we've had to look for alternative methods for hands-on training. Less Grimm to fight means more one on one time with instructors is needed, so the training period has to be extended a bit."

"…There aren't enough Grimm?" Weiss asked in disbelief. "That honestly sounds like a good problem to have."

"It figures that the only time you want Grimm to be around is when they are actually gone." Tamamo joked. "The only Grimm we've seen in the last two weeks is one lone Ursa."

Weiss' eyes opened in surprise. "Only one in two weeks?" That was unheard of in the fortress, so far out in the wilderness. "Vimentis hasn't sensed anything either?"

"Nothing that's close enough for training. There are fewer and fewer Grimm every week now. I suspect your hammer-y friend killed too many of them for them to recover." Tamamo shrugged.

"So the only issue you see coming up is that it will take a little longer to train any new recruits?" Weiss asked to confirm.

"Yeah, that was it. Once Ozzy sends more graduates my way then I can begin training up more at once with an updated training regimen to account for the lack of Grimm. You'll be getting new hunters at a normal pace again soon." Tamamo assured her.

"Oh, all right. Thanks for letting me know, Tamamo." Weiss said with a nod.

"Not a problem. Don't be a stranger, Weiss! Same goes for you, Kosti. Bye bye!" Tamamo blew a kiss with a wink and waved before cutting off the transmission.

"Dealing with Tamamo is always interesting, even if it's just a conversation." Kosti observed wryly.

"Indeed." Weiss agreed. "If I may ask, do you know how old Tamamo is? It sounded like you two have known each other for a long time."

"We have known each other for a very long time, yes. But I do not actually know how old she is. Older than me, that's for sure." He answered, scratching his balding head.

"Older than you?" Weiss couldn't believe someone as young looking as Tamamo was older than Kosti, who looked to be the very definition of 'old man.'

"It's a mystery to me. I thought all hunters were like that." He shrugged.

"No, we definitely are not." Weiss answered, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Nora was pacing back and forth angrily in the clearing set aside for training. No one else was on the training grounds, either because they thought it was too late in the evening to train or because they feared inciting Nora's wrath. A few soldiers had approached Nora when she had first arrived, but each had turned away once they saw the poorly concealed fury on Nora's face. While any outsider may have seen Nora pacing alone, Nora herself did not see herself as alone. "I told you something like this would happen! We should have left like I said." Her 'reflection' was no longer confined to her mirror after this week's march, and now it was sitting on the ground nearby. It wearing clothes this time, matching Nora's outfit of dark blue sweats and a matching tank top.

"Weiss will have a perfectly good explanation tomorrow morning." Nora grumbled in an attempt to convince both herself and her hallucination. "Maybe we're misinterpreting her message." Weiss had sent Nora a message on her scroll earlier in the day, saying that as a Major she would be given command of an elite unit of specialist soldiers, details pending. While Nora didn't have all the details, the way Weiss' message was written it sounded like Nora wouldn't be on the front lines, which is exactly where Nora wanted to be. "Just because we have an elite unit doesn't mean we won't be on the front lines."

"Who puts an elite unit on the front lines?" Her hallucination argued. "That's a recipe to get killed for no good reason."

"We'll wait until tomorrow." Nora resolved. "And if Weiss doesn't give us an answer that makes us happy, we're leaving and doing it your way."

The hallucination stood up and smiled, dancing around Nora contentedly. "Good. You have guests, I guess we can chat later." The hallucinatory Nora flopped back down onto the ground and stared at the starry sky as the real Nora turned around to see her former teammates walking towards her.

"Hey, Nora. How are you doing?" Jaune opened conversationally.

Nora's eyebrow twitched slightly. "Oh, I'm just terrific."

"Do you have a moment to talk?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha stood silently by his side, watching Nora cautiously.

"Sure, why not." Nora in a snarky voice.

"I- We just wanted to talk to you about things." Jaune continued, undeterred. "We know that since Beacon, things have been rough. And… we haven't been the best of friends."

"Rough, huh? I guess that's one way to describe it." Nora growled. What was wrong with her? She didn't want to be hostile to them. But they just kept pushing all the wrong buttons. Pyrrha with her silence. Jaune with his overly sensitive concern that was months too late. Both of them holding hands in front of her. Flaunting what Nora couldn't have.

"Isn't there some way we can reconcile? I realize… that we haven't been as supportive or understanding as we should've have been. We want to make up for that." Jaune said.

"Oh? 'We' do? Does that mean both of you?" Nora asked as she pointedly stared at Pyrrha.

"Nora, I-" Pyrrha suddenly stopped to organize her thoughts. "I think that we can only help you if you want to be helped. But you've tried so hard to be alone that no one has gotten the chance to be close enough to you."

"Pyrrha." Jaune place a hand on her shoulder to get her to stop talking. "Look Nora, why don't we spend some time talking things about, even if it's just about the past? Or even small talk?"

"There's no point in talking if there isn't anything to talk about." Nora answered simply. Talk about their feelings? They didn't think that maybe they were a few months too late?

"I'm sorry we didn't notice earlier, it's just that there was so much going on, and on top of that you still seemed like you were mostly your cheerful self and-" Pyrrha started again.

"Cheerful?" Nora yelled. "I lost Ren and you thought I was CHEERFUL?" Nora's formerly concealed fury was now fully evident on her face. "Does not wanting to bring everyone else down by crying in public mean I'm happy? Or in the months after that when it was too painful to keep up the act? What kind of idiots are you?" Nora was fuming, fists clenched at her side. "You were too busy staring at each other to see anything else; I don't see why I expected otherwise." She could hear that her hallucination had started speaking to her earlier in the conversation, but Nora wasn't listening to her either.

Jaune was trying desperately to calm Nora. "Nora, I know we weren't being good friends and I can't imagine what you're going through but-"

Nora cut him off. "No, you can't!" She turned to look at her hallucination. "And you! Shut up!" She whipped her head back around at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Who did you mourn? Did you talk to Blake about Yang? Did you talk to Weiss about Ruby? Velvet about her team? Well?"

Jaune attempted to stammer out a response, but he couldn't find the words to argue back against Nora's accusations. Had he and Pyrrha really been that selfish? Had they not spoken to the others about their losses either? Pyrrha heard something different from Nora's outburst though. "Nora? Who were you talking to? Who did you tell to shut up?"

Nora screamed as she clutched at her own head. "It's none of your business!" Her hallucination had shut up as she had asked, but now Nora had a splitting headache all of a sudden. "Just go do your duty, and I'll do mine!" Nora sprinted off into the night.

Pyrrha moved to follow, but a soft thud grabbed her attention from behind. "Jaune?" She turned around. Jaune was on his hands and knees, staring at the ground under him. "Jaune! What's wrong?" Pyrrha rushed over and lifted Jaune up to his knees.

"Are we really that bad?" Jaune whispered, tears in his eyes. "Did we really not try to talk to our friends about what they were going through? I- I can't remember, Pyrrha. I don't think we did." His shoulders sagged as he remembered the last few months. "We came out of the attack relatively unscarred compared to everyone else. Nora's right- she lost Ren, Blake lost Yang, and even Weiss lost Ruby just the next day. But we still had each other, and we did nothing to try to talk to them and help them."

"Jaune…" Pyrrha hugged hum close to her chest. "It was a tough time, with so much happening. So many things happened so quickly that there was no time to really talk about or figure out what happened." Pyrrha justified in a slight panic. Nora's words were beginning to get to her as well as she thought about them. "And after we got to the fortress, everyone was so busy. You saw how much time everyone spent training on their own schedules. And now we're in a war, so there may not be more time for a while still."

Jaune wiped away some of the tears from his eyes. "You're right. It'll all have to wait until after the war. Then we can try to get everyone together to talk. Maybe we can finally make up for the time we lost then." He got to his feet, lifting Pyrrha with him as she continued her embrace.

"Maybe we should go talk to Weiss." Pyrrha suggested. "She did that training with Tamamo. She might have some extra insight if we tell her what Nora said."

"Yeah, let's do that." Jaune said, kissing Pyrrha on the top of her head before leading the way towards Weiss' most likely position, the command tent.

Weiss set down her pen after she finalized the last set of orders for the day. "Finally." She had spent the last couple of hours after talk with Tamamo setting up some changes in her plans to compensate for the delayed instruction of the hunters. But after two hours of near constant writing and filing, she was done. Weiss stood up and stretched her arms above her head, bending backwards to try to get the last bit of soreness out of her muscles.

The Lord Commander straightened with a contented sigh, feeling refreshed from her stretch, if a little sleepy. "That felt good." She said to herself. Weiss turned around and looked at the other officers in the command tent. "Good work today, everyone. Let's turn in for the night and start again when we make camp tomorrow." Everyone thanked her and began cleaning up and filing out of the tent, some of them shaking Weiss' hand as they passed by. Weiss had to silently endure her internal embarrassment as she had to look up at even the shortest of the officers.

"I need to hurry up and get taller. "Weiss grumbled. "Maybe I should invest in some height lifted boots." She looked down at her feet and contemplated whether or not she could rationalize using the hunters' budget for buying herself some comfortable footwear that would make her a little taller. At least her new uniform had arrived, so it fit properly now.

"…Height lifted boots?" A voice from behind her asked.

Weiss spun around at speeds beyond imagining, her face heating up in embarrassment, only to find Pyrrha and Jaune standing behind her at the entrance of the tent. "You heard nothing." Jaune opened his mouth to respond. "Nothing." Weiss glared at him.

He held up his hands in surrender. "I heard nothing."

Weiss huffed and turned back around to her desk. "So. What can I do for you at this hour?"

"We came to talk about Nora." Pyrrha said sheepishly.

"Finally had a chance to talk to her, have you? She snap at you yet?" Weiss asked nonchalantly as she picked up her scroll. Jaune and Pyrrha stared at Weiss in shock. When Weiss turned around to look back at the couple and found her staring back at her, she raised an eyebrow. "What? Something wrong?"

"How did you know Nora was going to snap at us?" Pyrrha asked in disbelief.

"The signs were everywhere." Weiss answered. "First, she was avoiding you because she becomes depressed when she sees you together. Then she began slowly turning her thoughts and emotions inward, obsessing over her memory of Ren. And then-"

Jaune stopped Weiss. "Hold on, hold on. You knew about this?"

"Well, yeah. I spent months learning how to read people and analyze their behaviors and their psychology." Weiss stated this as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why didn't you say something to her? I think she's hearing voices or something now, it's gotten so bad." Pyrrha told Weiss.

"It probably started around two weeks ago." Weiss recalled. "She began talking in her sleep three days after we left Tamamo's fortress. Full conversations, all with herself. When she's asleep she voices both sides of the conversation. Quite clearly, I might add. I assume when she's awake she doesn't, and either has visual or auditory hallucinations. Or both, which I suspect is the more likely option."

"How can you treat this with such indifference?" Jaune asked. "She needs help!"

Weiss stared at Jaune icily, no trace of compromise in her eyes. "Because I've heard her talk to herself, and I know what her motivations are. I know how to use her effectively."

"You know how to use her?" Jaune asked.

"Nora is very powerful, and very determined. I would be a fool to give up such a powerful asset." Weiss said as she stepped out of the tent.

Jaune and Pyrrha followed behind. "She isn't an 'asset' to be used, Weiss!" Jaune protested. "She's a person! Just like you or me! Where's your compassion? Empathy? What happened to you?"

"Weiss stopped and turned around to look at the two following her. "What happened to me? Oh, you do not want to go there."

"Yes, I do." Jaune said firmly. "Look at all of us! We were all such great friends, basically family. And now we're-"

"You want to know what happened, Jaune? We died, that's what happened. Our friends and family are dead. What did you think was going to happen? We were going to be all happy and move on after a short period of moping?" Weiss angrily gestured. "No, we had to grow up fast and focus on something else to survive. We had to train, or be consumed by grief. What about you?"

"Of course we think Vacuo needs to be punished, Weiss." Pyrrha answered quickly. "But that doesn't mean we should lose ourselves to do it!"

"What do we have left?" Weiss argued back. "Maybe you're fighting for a different reason. Maybe you two are better people than me, or Nora, or Blake. Maybe you're fighting for your home, your people, and a better tomorrow."

"Of course that's what we're fighting for!" Pyrrha interjected, finally glad that Weiss was beginning to understand.

"But that's not what people like me, Nora, and Blake are fighting for." Weiss said passionately. Pyrrha shivered slightly, an irrational fear coming over her as she looked into Weiss' eyes. Weiss lowered her voice to a deadly whisper. "We want revenge. We want to destroy the people who took everything from us."

"Weiss…" Jaune pleaded. He couldn't stand to see one of his friends in this state.

"Are you with me?" Weiss asked. "Or will you leave everyone we lost behind?"

"We will fight, Weiss." Pyrrha declared. "But not for your reasons. We we'll fight because it is right, not for personal vengeance. The only thing your pursuit of revenge will do is get you killed. You need to stop this."

"As long as you fight alongside me, our reasons don't need to match." Weiss countered. "But you seem to be mistaken about something, Pyrrha." Pyrrha cocked her head in confusion, waiting for Weiss to clarify. "I don't have some misguided belief that once I get my revenge everything will be just fine. I understand that my quest will in all likelihood have an unhealthy conclusion. I don't have to survive this war, Pyrrha. I just have to win it." Weiss finished with a heavy finality. Then she turned and calmly strode off into the night, leaving behind a stunned Jaune and Pyrrha to think about what she had said.