Team SRDS (Stardust)

Chapter 24: Reconciliation

Meanwhile in Team RWBY's Dorm,
Beacon Academy, 10:15:00

"So with his Semblance, Silver can identify the most likely outcomes of any given scenario?" asked Ruby in disbelief.

"Yep," Steele responded.

"And prior knowledge limits his Semblance?"

"Yep."

"... then how exactly is it different from thinking about things normally?"

"Good question. Now, how do I describe this...?" Steele covered his mouth with his hand. "Hmm... okay." He raised his hands to shoulder-level to make them pay attention.
"When Silver uses his Semblance, it allows him to 'view' all the possible future outcomes with the information he has. That may include factual details, fighting styles... the list goes on. The more likely the sequence of events is, the more often it appears. He knows with certainty what variables to manipulate for each outcome he sees."

"But if he doesn't know something, he won't see the outcomes about something related to that?"

"No, he won't," Steele said. "Also, note how I said it was time-dependent. The more in-depth an outcome is, the more variables he has to factor in, so with each additional variable the time he needs for a complete picture shoots up exponentially. It's why he prefers to use his Semblance in-the-moment, as he did back in the forest."

"Another point: just because he's seen an outcome doesn't mean he's achieved it," Sigbjorn added. "He may be certain of the variables, but his ability to actually change them is the same as anyone else."

RWBY breathed a collective sigh of relief. Silver would still be a formidable foe, but they now knew what his Semblance was capable of and what it wasn't. They stood a fair chance at winning.

"Actually, we might be able to leverage this in our favour," Steele said, narrowing his eyes.

"How?" asked Ross.

"Well, as discussed, his Semblance's most obvious weakness is the information he doesn't have, and keeping his personality in mind, he's going to want to have everything covered.. I'm certain he suspects we're coming for him now, so he might get caught up trying to gather information; learning whatever he can from wherever he can. If we pay attention, there's a good chance we will find a solid lead in the next couple of days."

"Good," Ross said. "I'm getting a bit tired of sitting around and doing nothing while Silver's still out there."

"Speaking of which, where do we start?" Yang asked.

"We gave you all the leads we have," Diamond said. "As Steele said, we'll have to wait a few days for anything to turn up. I'm counting on that hard drive, but we might get some important info by investigating Jade, Roman Torchwick and the diplomat."

"It'd be quicker if you let us handle all that for now. If we find anything, we'll let you know ASAP," Sigbjorn said, to which RWBY nodded. It was reasonable.

"One more thing," Steele said, tapping the floor with his foot and staring into blank space. "The presence of this Jade character is troubling. She was spying on us all this time without any of us noticing, which makes her particularly dangerous. She, other spies or any listening devices she may have had could all still be present at Beacon, which makes this location compromised."

Sigbjorn chipped in, "After we encountered Jade, I got to work. This room, ours and Ozpin's office are safe from bugs for now, but if Beacon's being infiltrated, there's no way to guarantee long-term safety of our plans until we know how they're doing it."