Neo was clever enough to know to disguise herself when she continued to watch the strange woman from a distance.
After some hours of resting, Shine found Winter, who was still fighting Grimm, though they'd abated with the storm, but this many scared people were bound to attract them.
"In all this time, one would think that the Headmaster of Shade would have sent someone out here to investigate," Winter said, holding up her scroll. "We've had connection back for over an hour."
Shine scared off a small Grimm at their heels before shrugging. "It's not a great sign, but somehow about what I expected. I think I can bring them now. They might be halfway here as it is."
"Then do so. These people will not let us squat here forever without a sanctioned invitation." Winter eyed the huntsmen, who'd barely been helping in all this time--and that only because of their own civilians being in danger.
Sun had stuck around and tried to call Headmaster Theodore, only to get a signal that he had his scroll turned off... At least he assumed that's why he was unavailable.
Shine held her breath as she opened a doorway overhead.
* * *
Marrow and Robyn argued over the best route for Vacuo for a good portion of the flight.
Marrow wanted to avoid these mountains along the way. Robyn said they didn't have time to do so...
No one else wanted to get in the middle of it.
Wally wished they'd just settle on a route and be done with it.
But out of nowhere Marrow suddenly yelled, "What the heck is that?"
"It looks like a door," Robyn said, "made out of light."
Wally dashed to the front of the plane.
"Yeah, baby!" he said, like Mr. Incredible. "Shine's giving us a short cut--I'd know that light anywhere. Just fly right into it."
"Right into it?" Marrow said. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, yeah... Wait, one of you has magical powers, right?" Wally said.
Raven sat up. "I do, you dumba--!" she erupted, before she remembered that Qrow wasn't supposed to know that.
Robyn flew the ship into the portal before she even really processed what Raven said, but then she said. "Wait, what did you say?--"
They all passed through the light anyway.
It was something like the other ones, if they'd known that, but you couldn't really see the light rushing past with this one.
However, it did jolt them all like a taser would almost, though less painfully.
Raven worst of all. To her it felt like the magic power inside her squealed in agony for a split second, like a cat when you step on its tail.
Then they were through, and she fell to her knees...but she was all right, just a throbbing in her head that passed after about a minute.
Long enough for Qrow to process what she said however.
Didn't help that her eyes had started glowing without her knowing it while in the portal.
They faded out before anyone but him saw, because the others were all looking out the front window, but Qrow stared at her, and she looked up and knew he'd seen something.
Silence.
"Whoa, that's Vacuo right there..." Marrow was looking down.
"Nice," Robyn said. "That woman really has a cool Semblance, I must say. That saved us hours of flight time... Guess we didn't need to worry about the mountains after all, Wags."
"Can you just call me Marrow?" Marrow said.
"No can do," Robyn said. "Anyway, you should feel flattered--I only call people by their name who I can't stand. Usually. Unless they're Joanna and they'll punch me."
"Hey, same here," Wally said. "Nicknames are cool because it's like, only you get to call them that. It's special, right? I mean, not that I really think about it that hard, but Shine made me give her a reason when I nicknamed her."
"Why?" Robyn noted. "She oversensitive or something?"
"I guess she got made fun of a lot," Wally said. "To be fair, we all have stuff that annoys us, so it's just the nice thing to do to check with someone first, I guess. What about you, buddy?"
Marrow looked at his tail. "I suppose Wags is better than puppy or mutt, but Faunus don't really like being referred to for their animal traits...at least not by humans."
"If it bothers you that much, I'll stop," Robyn said. "But I seriously don't even care. The Faunus in my huntresses don't either. It's just easier to dub someone based on the easiest thing to spot about them."
"Just don't do it front of anyone important," Marrow winced.
"Right." Robyn would definitely break that rule by the end of 24 hours without intending to.
"That's what I like to hear, compromise," Wally said. "Maybe if we can, they can..." He looked at the crowd in Vacuo. "Why are they all so close to the edge of the city, though? I know I'm new here, but isn't that where Grimm attack the most?"
"Not bad, Slugger," Robyn said. "You're right about that. It's weird...but then, where can we fit all those people? I always thought Vacuo was a desert."
"Actually, Vacuo was built around an oasis," Qrow spoke up flatly. "One of the most fertile places in the world. It was great, until Atlas ruined it by coming in and using up their resources. They still have some natural dust left, but like everywhere else, they rely on Atlas now mostly. Come to think of it, Ice Queen and Miniature Jacque aren't going to be real popular there."
Jacques looked at him apprehensively.
"And you're dead," Qrow said.
"I wouldn't call Whitley Miniature Jacques," Wally said. "I heard he was helping the girls out yesterday...today... I've kind of lost track of time. Turns out he's not so bad."
"Oh, terrific," Qrow said sarcastically.
"Coming in for a landing," Robyn said, as Marrow circled around and lowered them onto the sand right outside Vacuo.
"I don't think this'll be good for our instruments," he said. "But if we try to land inside, I'm worried they'll steal the ship."
"Be more worried they'll shank you for wearing Atlas uniforms and having the audacity to show up here uninvited," Qrow said.
"And Winter Schnee has been here for hours?" Robyn said. "Is she going to be okay?"
"I highly doubt it," Qrow said. "Weiss too. But she might hold her own if she's with the team...if they're there."
Raven stood up and tried to open a portal to Yang again. Still nothing.
"It doesn't appear so," she said thinly.
"Are you going to go bird form?" Wally asked her.
"Here? In Vacuo?" Raven scoffed. "I don't need to sneak around--this place gets me. I could walk through here in plain sight. If anything, a bird is going to attract more attention when there aren't a whole lot of ravens in the desert."
"There's one in the Bible," Wally said. "Fed this guy named Elijah. It's a cool story. Though...I mean, after it's been in a bird's mouth...you know, why would you want to eat bread?"
"Ew," Robyn agreed.
"Maybe Elijah had a pet raven," Marrow said. "People with pets are weird."
"Nah, Shine said that he didn't know what germs were," Wally said. "I guess what you don't know won't kill you in this case."
"I hate that saying." Raven walked out the back of the plane resolutely.
They saw Grimm. The light fading on the desert right now meant it was a little less hot and glaring, but still dry and windy. The Grimm were skirting the edge of the city, being kept back a little by the small ring of huntsmen and huntresses who were killing them, and Winter, who looked exhausted.
She peered at the group and frowned when she saw her father.
Hazel was dragging Watts with him.
Watts had come to at some point but had been real quiet, hoping they wouldn't notice.
Shine waved at Wally when she picked him out.
Wally ran to her so fast he kicked dust up in Qrow's and Robyn's faces. Marrow ducked and coughed.
"Shine!" Wally picked her up. "I knew you made it out, but I gotta tell you, till I saw the doorway, I was still a little worried! Don't scare me like that, Baby."
"Me?" Shine pretended to shove him. "Where have you been?"
"You were the one supposed to meet us."
"I got sidetracked by Ironwood and Salem showing up," Shine explained. "And it's been awful since we got here. Sandstorms--and the civilians are not too happy. I finally got the doorway open. Hello, Qrow, Robyn, Hazel, etc... Raven, I'm surprised to see you here."
"I'm only here to get what you promised," Raven said. "But I do have a little question: Where is my daughter?"
"Now she cares," Qrow muttered.
Raven shot him a dirty look.
Winter flew over to them...rather slowly, and then she landed unsteadily on the sand.
"I see you all survived after all..." she said. Her voice already sounded horse from the dry air. "And...you have one more..." Glancing at Raven strangely. "And...Watts." She frowned at him.
"Oh...hello." Watts forgot to fake being unconscious and stood up. "I say, have you acquired those powers? Does that mean dear Cinder failed after all?"
Winter used the end of her sword to knock him into the sand hard, making him almost spin.
"That was for Atlas," she said.
"Easy there," Hazel said. "He's not much good to us dead. He may not be much good alive, but perhaps."
"You wound me, Hazel." Watts rubbed his chin. "You know I am plenty of good on your side."
"Can someone explain why you have him with you?" Shine asked.
"I can." Raven held up her hand. "The ever loyal Cinder Fall left him to die in a fire, one she set. I doubt she told--"
"She told Salem she set it, but said nothing about Watts," Shine said. "I knew there was something odd about that. I'm sure Salem did also... But to think that it was killing one of her trusted associates? That might shock her. So, Watts, your mouth finally got you in trouble after all."
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Watts said.
"No, but you will," Shine said, with a firm look at him. "Welcome to Heaven, idiot."
"I think you mean Hell," Watts said.
"Pardon me?" Shine said.
"The phrase is welcome to Hell," Watts said.
"No, Hell is what you're used to," Shine said. "And not terrifying to you. I think Heaven will be."
Silence.
"Boy, is it good to have you back, Baby." Wally hugged her sideways. "I've not had anyone to say weird, intimidating stuff to freak people out while you were gone. I just can't pull it off."
"Are you making fun of me?" Shine asked.
"No, seriously, it's a talent," Wally said. "You're special. And I didn't even know how much I'd miss it."
Shine smiled.
"Is she really flattered by that?" Robyn asked Marrow.
"I dunno," he said.
"If you're right, Likstar, I suggest you unleash Heaven on this fiend," Winter said, brushing her hands off. "As for the rest of you, we have a problem. Vacuo is not happy to see us."
"Didn't see that one coming, huh?" Qrow said.
"Headmaster Theodore has not even contacted us since we arrived, hours ago," Winter said. "The Grimm are not stopping. It's all we can do to keep them off the refugees... I cannot believe I'm saying this, but, Qrow...you know him, right? Would he answer to you?"
"He might, but I can't say it'd be a nice answer," Qrow said. "Me and old Theo get along fine, but him and Jimmy never saw eye to eye, and even Ozpin had a hard time with thim. He's been...loyal, but like everyone in Vacuo, he prefers to do things his own way and not have people step onto his turf. Let's just say you already violated two of his rules. And to make matters worse, these refugees are a bunch of pampered wimps because your government doesn't let them fight for themselves. The only unspoken rule of Vacuo is that if you're tough enough to be here, you're welcome."
"Oh, that was in your video about it," Shine recalled. "Didn't you say also that they don't like Atlas, or something?"
"Atlas kind of took their dust," Wally said. "Sort of an unwanted merger."
"Hostile takeover is more like it, then," Shine said.
"Now you're catching on," Qrow said. "You know, if you'd asked me, I would have said to send these people anywhere but Vacuo, if it wasn't the only place still operational."
"We didn't send them all here, but we had to send some. The other two kingdoms couldn't take all of them," Winter said. "And I'm sure some of our huntsmen would be happy to assist them if they'd allow us to negotiate, but this not talking and stone throwing is not helping anything."
"Whoa, they threw stones?" Qrow said.
"Seriously?" Wally said.
"Just one," Shine said, "Oscar said, anyway."
Winter rubbed her shoulder. "Pretty sure some of the debris the hunstmen are kicking up outside the city was deliberately chucked my way."
"You sure make friends fast," Qrow said.
"Shut up," Winter said sharply.
"Well, Qrow, for once in your life you may actually be an asset to Atlas," Raven mocked him. "How does that feel? Didn't you always say you hated them? I can't believe you spent the last two weeks being their errand boy, and now you actually have to try to convince Vacuo to help them? I'd almost be sorry to miss this kind of irony. I can hear it now--Theo's utter disbelief... Didn't you two used to go out drinking and cursing Atlas when you visited here?"
"Shut up," Qrow snapped at her. "This is not the time for memories. In fact, we should hope his memory is short right about now."
"Raven, you've been here, right?" Shine asked.
"Sure," Raven said. "Back when I still worked for Ozpin."
"So you know Theodore also," Shine said.
"Don't expect that to help you," Raven said. "I'm not talking to him. And you shouldn't either. This was a stupid idea. Now, where is team RWBY?"
Winter was on the point of saying something sharp about her and Qrow, but she stopped abruptly.
She looked at Shine.
Who looked down.
"What is it?" Wally asked.
Watts chuckled. "It seems Cinder had some success--"
Hazel punched him into the ground to shut him up.
"What happened?" Qrow said.
Oscar, Nora, and Ren came running over the sand right then. They were all in the shade of one of the shabby houses right then.
"Qrow!" they cried. Which would have been really cute, if he hadn't looked so dead inside right then.
"Where's Ruby and Yang?" he said.
They all stopped and looked at each other and Winter and Shine.
Winter looked down also. "Team RWBY has...regrettably, fallen into the abyss inside the portal that brought us all here."
A horrid pause followed this.
"What?" Raven said finally.
"Jaune and Pyrrha also fell," Nora spoke up somberly. "Cinder...knocked them over the edge."
"Putting her in that space is like putting a kid in a candy shop," Watts remarked. "Easy kills."
Hazel shoved him back down.
"My daughter has fallen?" Jacques spoke up. "What is the meaning of this? Who was not watching her?"
"Like you care," Winter said savagely.
"Despite what you may think, Winter, I have never purposed to drop my daughter down a hole," Jacques said. "I might wonder why you did not look to your sister more if you were there to witness it."
Winter looked like she'd been slapped.
"Hey," Shine said.
"Not a bad question," Raven said, sounding scary. "Who was just standing there watching this? No one thought to stop it?"
"I only saw Weiss fall," Winter said with difficulty. "The others had already...so I'm not sure what happened."
"None of us saw it," Nora said.
"Ambrosius warned them not to fall," Shine said quietly. "I told them the hole most probably led to either another world, or it fell forever. These things are always so tricky. Cinder is a fool."
"Did you know about this?" Qrow looked at Oscar suddenly. "Oz?"
Ozpin squirmed. "Perhaps I'd better talk to him, Oscar.... We have not spoken in a long time."
"Just don't say anything to make this worse." Oscar allowed him to switch on.
"Qrow, I--" Ozpin began.
Qrow lunged at him--Raven was right behind him.
"You SOB!" she said. "What have you done now?!"
"Did you know about the d----d hole?" Qrow grabbed him by his jacket, making a fist but not striking yet.
"Stop it," Shine said.
"Guys, knock it off." Wally grabbed Raven's arm before she could go for the throat.
"Get off me, you moron!" She threw him aside, much stronger than he expected...but then everyone in Remnant was stronger than humans at home were.
"I didn't know what would happen," Ozpin tried. "I had heard of this before, but I had no way to know how it would shape up inside the portal itself--"
"Enough." Winter inserted her sword between Qrow and Ozpin. "Leave him alone. That is still Oscar's body. Leave him be. However you feel, we cannot put this on Ozpin."
"Speak for yourself," Raven said.
"I will be speaking for you also if you intend to hang around here," Winter said. "Back off."
She looked fierce.
Raven narrowed her eyes at her.
"You think you can take me, Schnee?" Her eyes gleamed with reddish light without her realizing it.
Winter gaped at her and lowered her sword.
Ozpin also looked stunned.
"What?" Nora and Ren were watching also.
"What was that?" Marrow said. "That looked like the--"
"Maiden powers..." Robyn finished in a low voice.
Raven realized her mistake and put a hand to her eyes.
"Blast..." she muttered. "Sometimes it just happens..."
"Oh yeah, and there's that," Qrow said. "I was going to save this for later, but why the frick not?" He dropped Ozpin and turned to Raven, pulling his sword out.
She held hers up just as fast.
Qrow attacked a few times, though they were pot shots really, while she blocked.
"You were the Spring Maiden the entire time, and you said nothing!" he hurled at her. "You let us chase our tails, and you got the Relic out so that Salem could take it? Was that it?"
Raven just blocked his strikes and skidded in the sand.
"How long did you have the powers and you didn't tell us?" Qrow said. "Was it years? Did you murder the last Spring Maiden? Is that what happened? Say something!"
"And what will you do if I answer?" Raven spat sand out of her mouth and ducked his strike, knocking him a little aside. "Kill me?"
"I just might," Qrow said.
"Stop it!" Shine said this much louder this time.
Then Wally rushed in and shoved them both apart and yanked their weapons out of their hands and tossed them onto the sand.
"Look, I don't like to get violent with people, but if you two don't stop threatening each other and swinging around, I will seriously knock you out," he said, making a fist. "I can make a pretty mean whirlwind if I try. You want to pass out?"
They stared at him.
Shine walked up and smacked both of them with the flat of her sword, making them wince and look like they wanted to attack her, but Wally's threats made them stop.
"We have enough problems without you two acting like brats," Shine said severely. "Yes, Qrow, she's the Maiden, big whoop. Should have been obvious enough from before anyway. Did you really never suspect it once? What does it matter now? The Relic is gone already, and that was on your team, not her. She gave it to you. It's not her fault you didn't know what to do with it. Leave her alone!"
Qrow glanced at Shine and looked down.
"Raven, if you want what you came for, you will not be attacking our team again," Shine said, just as severely. "I'll let that one slide because he started it, but you also attacked Ozpin as well. You have good reason to resent Ozpin, I'll give you that, but not Oscar, and while their fates are tied together, you will treat him with the care and consideration that we demand, or I will personally send you back to your tribe in disgrace and without your information. All bets are off when you threaten my friends and allies. Is that clear?"
Raven sized her up and looked away.
"Great," Shine said. "If you're both done making asses of yourselves, then perhaps we can get somewhere. Team RWBY may be gone, but they are most likely still alive. If you want to help them, you'll pull it together and help us get Vacuo ready for Salem, because if and when they find their way back here, they'd better have a kingdom waiting for them, or they might as well stay where they are for how safe they'll be. We are all tired, weak, and prone to anger after the few days we've had, and no denying it. But we have a known criminal in front of us, a maniac loose somewhere in the kingdom, Grimm at the doorstep, and a Headmaster who doesn't care enough to come out here and see us for himself. We will only exhaust ourselves by not working together at this time. Two or three can easier bear a burden for a long stretch than one person can. If we all put in effort, just maybe we will not collapse. Now, is it too much to ask that you act like adults with two brain cells to put together and not like animals?"
"I couldn't have said it better," Winter spoke up. "You can sort out blame later, but if we do not act soon, we won't last the night out here, and then what of your hurt feelings and disappointment?"
"I like her better than James already," Watts said. "Not that that's saying much."
"Quiet," Hazel said.
"And when did you turn on us, Hazel? Was it those children you're so predictably fond of, or did your stomach turn at torturing the poor boy who's hosting Ozpin's old soul?" Watts leered.
"Save you scathing remarks for Cinder." Shine turned to him. "They are wasted on people who are above you."
Watts did a double take at her, trying to decide if she was insulting Cinder or himself more with that piece of advice.
"So when do I get what I want?" Raven had the nerve to ask. "You're playing the long game thinking I won't get impatient. It won't work."
Shine put a hand to her eyes. The dust and glare already had given her a headache.
"Unfortunately you have not shown up at any time so far when our lives were not in imminent danger. If you can manage that, I'd be happy to make good on what I said," she replied.
"What did you promise her?" Qrow looked at her warily. "In fact, how do you know her?"
"The same way I know you," Shine said.
"And I still don't know what that is," Qrow said.
"Just get Headmaster Theodore to meet with us, Qrow," Shine said. "Wally, I have something we need to discuss privately, actually. Winter, can you handle this from here?"
"I suppose I have been," Winter said. She wasn't sure why Shine was speaking as if she was in charge now...or why everyone was allowing it. Almost everyone...
"Wait, why are you the boss?" Marrow asked.
"Indeed, who even are you?" Watts said.
"Only thing you need to know about me, Arthur," Shine said, "is that your stupid mistress could have attacked me in Atlas and chose not to do so."
The others weren't sure why that was significant, but the look on Watts' face said it apparently was.
Shine was tired of this already... Really, keeping people reined in was exhausting.
She and Wally headed back among the tents.
Raven followed them, sort of, or just veered away from her brother.
Hazel dragged Watts inside and pushed Jacques ahead of him--the latter still had no idea what was going on.
Winter put her sword away for the time being.
"Why has Theodore ignored us?" she asked.
"We'd better hope it's because he's dead." Qrow was ever so cheerful.
* * *
When at last they finally got enough people ready to go to Shade itself and confront Theodore, it was already nightfall.
Robyn had been happily received by her Huntresses when she finally rejoined them--and was able to smooth things over a bit with their resistance to working with Atlesians.
What was left of the Ace Ops were not so happily received by Mantle--or even all of Atlas' refugees--and to say the native Vacuo people were unpleasant would be an understatement.
Shine and Wally spent several minutes having a private conversation that they wouldn't let even Oscar join.
No one else noticed the strange girl hanging around the refugees; Neo blended in with them perfectly.
Emerald was glad to see Hazel had made it out, but not so happy to see Watts was with him. Or to hear that Cinder had left him to die. To Watts, the crowning insult was he didn't even have his tools with him now.
Also, no one had found Penny yet, and while they didn't think she'd have fallen, given her rocket boots, it was puzzling as to where she could be.
Raven stayed away from everyone, and Qrow didn't like it. If he hadn't been so distracted by the girls being gone, he really would have tried harder to run her off.
He didn't really want to go to Shade, but the others wouldn't have given him any peace until he did.
In the end, other than him, Winter, who wouldn't have stayed behind even if it was possible (and Oscar, of course); there was Ren and Nora, who wanted to do what their team would have done; Emerald, who was too scared to stay anywhere exposed when she knew Tyrian was around somewhere; Sun, who was going to join them just for moral support; and Shine and Wally.
The last two were included reluctantly, but Oscar insisted they'd be helpful.
Shine was glad enough to head somewhere that was indoors at least.
Wally would have rather helped everyone out with food and stuff--except that there wasn't any... That was getting to be a problem quickly. What emergency rations the Happy Huntresses had managed to bring with them were quickly disappearing.
Shade was foreboding enough by day, but by nightfall it looked like some dark castle harboring an ogre in a video game.
"This place really is scary." Wally looked up at it. "Medieval much? Atlas was so white, and now this is just black and spooky."
"Refrain from making such observations out loud, Mr. West," Winter said, tersely. "Try to act professional for once."
"This is Vacuo," Wally said. "Isn't it, like...the opposite of that?"
"Just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open," Qrow said, banging on the door.
It took a full minute for someone to open it, a Faunus girl in green and brown colors who peered at them warily.
"Are you the only one guarding this place?" Qrow asked.
She shrugged. "I got to the door first. What do you want?"
"I'm a friend of Theo's," Qrow said.
"Headmaster?" the girl said. "He said if any old friends came to the door, we should tell them to clear out before they were shot."
At this moment Winter spotted someone hiding along the top of the wall, with some kind of sniper rifle. [Maybe it was that one girl from that team in the Vytal Festival.]
"Sniper," she hissed.
The others looked up.
"Look, this is an emergency," Qrow argued with the girl. "Maybe you haven't heard there are lot of people in this kingdom right now who need help, and there's more Grimm coming by the minute. If you don't want to be overrun, we're going to need to see your boss."
"No way--" the girl began, but suddenly someone else yanked the door farther open.
No one thought it would be who it was.
"Guys!" It was Velvet, the Faunus with rabbit ears from Vale.
"Velvet?" Ren blinked at her in astonishment.
"Huh?" Nora said.
Velvet pushed past the other girl, who looked at her, miffed.
"What on Remnant are you doing here?" Velvet exclaimed in her odd accent, hugging Nora and Ren. "We saw the broadcast, but this is unexpected." [Anyone remember that the show forgot that Team CVFY was currently in Vacuo, as of the RWBY small novels that are released?]
"Oh, hey." Sun waved at her. "I forgot you were here."
"Because you're never here anymore." Velvet rolled her eyes at him. "Why are you all standing out here? Come in. It's all right, they're cool." She waved at the girl, who huffed and walked away.
"Isn't that one of the girls from the Festival too?" Shine suddenly squinted at her.
"Oh, it might have been," Sun said. "Hard to tell anymore--there's so many people here."
They all came in.
Velvet was messaging her team on her scroll ,and just a moment later, Coco, Yatsuhashi, and Fox all ran into the room.
They were older, a bit more beat up and weathered than before, but otherwise very much undaunted, it seemed, since Beacon... Honestly it was just nice for Nora and Ren to see familiar faces, though they didn't know them that well.
Of course Coco spied Emerald, who was trying to hide behind the others.
"You!" she said. "You still owe me for my shades! Those were limited edition!"
"Oh...I remember them--they're the team with the cool theme song." Wally finally recognized her. "Right, right... What are you doing here?"
"We came here months ago," Yatsuhashi said. "Figured we were needed."
"It didn't go so well." Coco pushed her shades up. "At first. But I think they've gotten used to us a bit... Helped that Velvet and I kicked tail in the Grimm attacks."
"I've added a lot of weapons to my collection," Velvet said cheerfully. "And Headmaster Theodore was very kind to us."
"Was he now?" Qrow said. "So where is he now?"
"About that..." Velvet put her hand to her head nervously.
"So after your broadcast," Fox spoke up, "which...was...weird, to say the least, and we have a lot of questions about, but anyway, he said something to us about needing to 'ponder on it', and then he shut himself in his office. I haven't seen him since then. That was... Geez, was that early this morning?"
"Whenever the broadcast was... Feels like years ago now." Nora shook her head.
"And when someone told him you were here, the word is, he said to shoot you on sight," Yatsuhashi added.
"Great," Qrow said.
"And if that didn't work, he said you'd just go up anyway," Coco said.
"When did he say that?" Velvet asked.
"Well, I think it was subtext," Coco said meaningfully.
"Are you sure?" Fox said.
"You want to deal with the influx of Grimm and refugees alone?" she said.
"Why didn't you come help us?" Ren said. "We've been here for hours."
"Believe it or not, there's been Grimm on this side of the kingdom also," Coco said dryly. "We were busy. We meant to get down there eventually. Didn't know you were there also."
"All right." Qrow rubbed his face. "Guess I better go have a talk with Theo. Just...don't do anything stupid."
He meant that to the kids.
"We're coming too," Nora said.
"Yeah," Oscar said.
"Actually you're not." Shine pointed at Ren and Nora. "Your assignment is to get caught up by team CVFY on all we've missed in Vacuo. And find the kitchen while you're at it. See if you can get any students around here still to go help with the others."
"Why can't we come to the meeting?" Ren said.
"Because I have had enough of you two being unable to help running your mouths at the worst possible moment while we're trying to negotiate," Shine said severely. "Oscar can keep his mouth shut, so I'm not worried about him, but you two are not ready for this kind of negotiation, and this situation already looks highly charged. You and Emerald will stay here. And there is going to be no arguing on this."
"But--" Nora said.
"I said no argument," Shine said.
"It's okay, guys. I'll fill you in later," Oscar tried to help.
"On second thought, I think she's right," Winter said dryly. "You'd better remain here. And we're wasting time."
She motioned at the others to hurry up.
Qrow would have rather done this alone, and rolled his eyes wearily, but there was no convincing the adults to stay behind.