The Bloodstained Rose

Reeling in Facts

It was a struggle to get out of the forest they were in, get a clear enough pace for extraction to get them and get home safely. Ruby had to set Weiss' ankles properly on a shaky flight while they shake off flying grim that followed them. Yang and Blake did well as they kept the aircraft from crashing onto anything.

Hours later, Weiss was in the infirmary of the Schnee mansion with Ruby busy tending to her. Blake and Yang seem to be on edge as if more monsters would come out from the darkest shadows of the room.

"What was that?" Ruby inquired with the hope that anyone of them knew what happened back in that abandoned village.

Yang and Blake seemed as clueless and confused as she was. The blonde shook her head as she tried to figure things out and Blake seemed to be upset that she can't help with the current situation.

Weiss sat up from her bed and looked at all of them. "We all had the same bad feeling the moment we took that mission. Otherwise, why wouldn't you use your magic to finish the herd?" She pointed out, searching for facts in her teammates' eyes. They all seemed to agree with this statement.

"As I thought." Weiss was relieved that her friends confirmed they all had the same gut feel for the mission. "Glynda said it was from Oz. There is no way he'd send us through that mission unless there was at least an instructor looking after us. If the situation had been worse if Beacon broadcasted that fight amongst other students. They would have known what our magic could do if we chose to use them."

Ruby realized Weiss made a great point. if this was a mission that was monitored by the school, they'd have footage of the fights and it would be free information to their enemies. It was disturbing to think that if they all didn't realize what was happening, all of them would have revealed their identities to the world.

Yang looked up at all of them as she took a seat at one of the beds. "There's a rat in Beacon." She guessed.

Ruby couldn't agree more. "Let's see. If they can give us missions freely like that, they are high enough in the school staff, they have enough monopoly over the teachers, they know us personally and as far as I know, there are only a few teachers close to Ozpin." She mentioned. As the words came out her mouth, it hit her that even Ozpin has friends outside of the academy and if word gets out of their abilities to other headmasters in the whole world, nothing can escape their fate being targeted by other enemies, not just the ones they recently made in Vale.

"The mission was to either kill us all or find out what we are hiding when it comes to our powers." Weiss summarized. "It was rigged from that start."

They all knew she was right. Not enough amount of missions can get the four of them killed as fast as overwhelming them. Not just with Grimm but with other enemies like the White Fang.

"The faction of the White Fang that tried to kill us off in the village were not the good ones. They might have been under Adam or Cinder." Blake stepped in. "If they were there on a Beacon mission, the staff isn't safe of suspicion."

Weiss wanted to spell it out for them but how can they be sure? Ozpin was nowhere in Beacon when this happened. Was it him or someone else?

"For now, let's not let them know that we know. If the rat's inside Beacon and they know Cinder, it will eventually show. For now, let's try to get back to a new assignment. We have to pass at least one to get average marks." It horrified her to say that. Weiss wasn't one who was fine with average marks. She was a perfectionist but this 'mission' was enough trouble as it is. Taking two or three more will pose trouble.

Yang looked up at her. "Are you sure? You have yet to fix your ankles."

Weiss peeled off her blanket to look at her feet. Aside from the ridiculous amount of ice on it, she can move it fine thanks to Ruby's abilities to heal her. "I'm fine. A little jog and sleep will help me recover. For now, we'll have to pretend nothing odd happened."