A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

  In which I drop some bombshells through Amber.

  -x-X-x-

  As they step into the elevator that will take them up to the Headmistress’ Office, Amber can’t help but side eye the young man next to her. As Glynda had put it… he was their st hope. Unfortunately, he was also an incredibly caustic young man who seemed more intent pushing people away than on lying low. With a sigh, Amber finds she can’t hold her silence any longer.

  “You know… you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

  The look that the young man throws her is decidedly… confused. It’s obvious the metaphor flies right over his head.

  “What?”

  Gesturing downwards, Amber shrugs.

  “You’re going to wind up on a team with some of those people down there. Pushing all of them away like you’ve done so far probably isn’t the best game pn when you could wind up partnering with any one of them for the next four years. It couldn’t hurt to be a little bit more openminded, that’s all I’m saying.”

  She’s expecting him to respond in some sort of aggressive, rough manner. Maybe tell her to ‘fuck off’ or something. But instead, he doesn’t say anything. Amber squirms for a moment before just sighing and letting the matter drop. It wasn’t really any of her business whether he made friends or not, she supposed.

  As silence, now awkward, once more reigns in the elevator, Amber’s eyes flicker down to the weapon at Cole’s side. The Long Memory… the st weapon wielded by Headmaster Ozpin before his untimely demise.

  All things considered, Amber didn’t know if it was the best idea for Cole to be wielding such a weapon, even as a temporary measure. She’d even mentioned as much to Glynda… but to be fair, the Beacon Headmistress had ultimately expined why Amber’s fears were probably baseless.

  Sure, on a surface level, Salem might receive word of a young man at Beacon using Ozpin’s old weapon and become suspicious that he was Ozpin’s reincarnation. There was just one issue with that… Ozpin wasn’t coming back.

  They still didn’t know how she’d done it. Frankly, they didn’t know why they were all still here either. After all, Ozpin had seemed like the only thing holding Salem back from destroying everything.

  But they knew he was truly gone because… his magic was gone as well. Amber herself was aware of that, having been the st Fall Maiden. The final Fall Maiden. She’d been the only one in Ozpin’s camp when it happened. The other Maidens were either in the wind and hidden away, or too old to do much of anything useful at this point.

  Amber though… the moment she lost her Maiden Powers, she’d made a beeline for Beacon. That’s where she’d found out from Glynda that something had happened to Ozpin. The then-Deputy Headmistress had discovered the ancient immortal Headmaster dead in his office… with his eyes burnt out of his skull and still smoking.

  It wasn’t until Amber had reported in that Glynda had begun to realize they might have lost him for good. Most people, even some Maidens, didn’t know that the Maiden Powers had originally come from Ozpin. He’d given up a vast portion of his magic in order to empower the four Maidens. However, it seemed he’d never truly given up that magic… because with his death, the Maiden Power was seemingly no more.

  The situation was bad, needless to say. But surprisingly not untenable. Even though they fully believed it had to be Salem who was behind Ozpin’s final death, the Grimm Queen herself had not actually made a single appearance, either in person or by proxy, in the time since.

  There were still plenty of Grimm of course. Grimm Attacks hadn’t abated or slowed down for even a second. The Human Kingdoms were still the st fragments of civilization constantly under siege.

  But Salem’s greatest foe had been vanquished. The only man who had truly stopping her from washing over the remains of humanity with her Grimm Armies was gone. And yet… she was silent.

  Glynda’s working theory was that she was pying the long game. After all, Ozpin’s death had been retively recent from the eyes of an immortal being who had been alive for centuries. And his st generation of confidants and soldiers still lived. Her, Glynda, Ironwood, Qrow. They were all still active, still aware of the threat that Salem posed, still ready to fight her to their st breaths.

  The idea, as Glynda had expined it, was that Salem could just wait another century or two for them all to die off and any proteges they trained to also die off and so on and so forth. Until finally, Salem was barely a legend and no one was ready for her whatsoever. Then, she would end it all.

  It was a depressing thought. After all, the only real way to counter a strategy like that would be to take the initiative and take the fight to Salem first and foremost. But they couldn’t really do that and expect to have any success. Fighting their way to Salem would be a suicide run. They likely wouldn’t even see the Grimm Queen’s Pace, let alone the Queen of the Grimm herself before being overwhelmed.

  In the end, Glynda had decided that the only way forward was to try to continue preparing future generations as much as possible. Even if it seemed doomed to failure, they at least had to try and build something that might stand the test of time and prove unassaible when Salem finally came knocking.

  That was where Cole came in. A Silver-Eyed Warrior… or rather, a Silver-Eyed young man way in over his head. Amber couldn’t honestly decide whether Glynda was getting her hopes up a bit too much here or not. Silver Eyes were… powerful. There was a reason Salem had tried to hunt them to extinction after all. And Amber knew that Glynda was aware of more about just what someone with Silver Eyes was capable of then she did. Ozpin had told his right hand woman a lot… and Amber wasn’t privy to all of that.

  Still, if Salem caught wind of what they were doing… of this breeding program that Glynda had initiated, then shit would hit the fan. It would hit the fan immediately. They had to be very, very careful. Maybe that was why-

  Ding!

  The elevator ride, which honestly felt like it had gone on for an eternity after she’d tried and failed to get through Cole’s rough exterior, finally comes to an end. The door opens out into the Headmistress’ Office and Amber and Cole both step out to find Glynda waiting for them with her hands csped behind her back as she looks out a window down to the courtyard below.

  “Cole, thank you for coming. Do you know why you’re here?”

  “Because you want me to breed her?”

  Amber’s eyes bulge out of her head as Cole jerks a thumb in her direction along with that sentence. Her face goes bright red and she begins to sputter immediately.

  … He’s right actually, but he didn’t just have to come out and SAY it like that!

  Even Glynda pauses for a moment before sighing and turning to face them both. Amber can tell from the long suffering look on Glynda’s face that she’s less than enthused by his bluntness.

  “… In part, yes. But not only that, no.”

  Then, Glynda holds out an open palm.

  “Do you have something you might want to give me, Cole? Something to confess and apologize for, perhaps?”

  Amber watches from the sidelines as Cole’s eyes narrow. After a long moment, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the Dust Crystals he’d pilfered from Weiss Schnee’s luggage. Privately, Amber thought that the Schnee Heiress was kind of asking for it, keeping such expensive Dust Crystals just… loose among her things.

  Stepping forward, he pces the crystals in Glynda’s outstretched hand, causing the Headmistress to nod and pull them back.

  “These will be subtly returned to Ms. Schnee’s luggage before she can notice their absence.”

  Meaning Amber would be subtly returning them to the rich heiress’ luggage. Great. Not that she was really compining to be honest… after losing the Fall Maiden Powers, Glynda really didn’t have to give Amber a single ounce of help. But she’d done so anyways, effectively taking her in and giving her this job. For that, Amber would always be grateful.

  There’s a pregnant pause as Glynda waits for Cole to say how sorry he is for the theft in the first pce. But honestly, she should have known that was never coming. Instead, the young man tilts his head to the side.

  “How’d you find out?”

  Glynda huffs and shakes her head.

  “There are cameras all over this Academy, Cole. You would do well to remember that and refrain from any criminal activity going forward.”

  Cole narrows his eyes and Amber can tell he doesn’t buy it. Which… fair. There WERE cameras all over Beacon, but it wasn’t a camera that had caught Cole stealing from Weiss Schnee. That had been Glynda’s test pet project, the former White Fang terrorist and daughter of the Beldonnas over in Menagerie. Bke had gotten word of Cole’s actions to Glynda nice and quick and Glynda had decided to kill two birds with one stone by confronting Cole at the same time that they introduced him to Amber.

  Now Amber is starting to wonder if that was a very good idea or not, because rather than call Glynda out on her lie or even engage with the crime he was caught committing further in any way, Cole just turns to her and shrugs.

  “So are we doing this here and now or is this just to arrange a time?”

  Amber would have blushed at that… if she wasn’t already blushing. H-Here and now? In the Headmistress’ Office?! Seriously?!

  Then again… Glynda had already confided in Amber that she herself was the first member of this new breeding program she was starting up. Admittedly, that’d gone a long way to convincing Amber to volunteer herself for the program as well. If the Headmistress was willing to do it, then Amber had to step up too. It wasn’t like she was an active duty huntress anymore anyways. Working as Glynda’s Assistant meant she had plenty of free time to get pregnant and pop out a Silver Eyed baby or two.

  S-Still, that didn’t mean they were going to fuck right here in front of Glynda or anything! She wasn’t some wanton woman, to just have Cole bend her over the Headmistress’ desk and plow her silly right here and now! In fact… w-well… she’d actually never had sex before at all. She was technically still a virgin after all…

  “… No, the two of you will not be having sex in my office, young man.”

  Oh thank god Glynda didn’t mince words. Although, Amber can tell that Glynda’s tone of disapproval doesn’t really hit very hard with Cole. Perhaps because as Amber already knew, Cole and the Headmistress had been regurly coputing for over a week now. Indeed, Cole just snorts and smirks as he crosses his arms over his chest.

  “Yeah? Not the two of us… but maybe you and I ter, is that it?”

  Even Glynda isn’t completely immune to Cole’s unique personality, Amber notices. The blonde’s cheeks pink up at that… and much to Amber’s shock, she doesn’t even try to deny it either. Instead, she waves a hand dismissively.

  “I’ve set aside a private room for you and Amber to use tonight. It will likely be the same room that you use any night I need you to… fulfill your end of our arrangement.”

  Cole tilts his head to the side at that.

  “That works for tonight, but whoever my future teammates are will get suspicious if I’m not spending most nights in the dorm with them, won’t they?”

  Amber finds herself agreeing with that observation. Glynda just smirks, however.

  “Let me worry about that. Whatever happens, I will handle it. For now, you and Amber may depart. Feel free to put forth a good effort, but don’t stay up too te. I want you to put on your best showing tomorrow in the Emerald Forest.”

  Yes, Amber would get creampied by Cole once or twice, and then she would see about slipping those Dust Crystals back into Weiss Schnee’s luggage before bed. Simple as that if one ignored the fact that she was about go to have sexual intercourse for the first time. However, rather than just agree like any young man his age should have, Cole’s eyes narrow and suddenly he feels even more confrontational than he already did before.

  “… why should I? You’re going to pass me anyways. What’s in it for me to perform to my best?”

  Amber’s jaw drops open as she realizes that Cole is extorting Glynda right then and there. The Headmistress’ eyes narrow in response to the obvious attempt at getting something else out of her.

  “What do you want, Cole?”

  Thrusting out his chin, Cole holds his own hand out, palm up.

  “My crystals.”

  Seriously?! They weren’t his Dust Crystals! He couldn’t seriously expect Glynda to-!

  Amber watches, wide-eyed, as Glynda sighs and steps forward, pcing the Dust Crystals that Cole had stolen from Weiss Schnee back into his hand. He puts them back in his pocket without an ounce of hesitation too, the thieving bastard.

  “This needs to be the st time that happens, Cole. I’m paying you more than enough lien for you to buy anything you could possibly want, including Dust. Not to mention, Beacon provides its attendees with plenty of Dust for their usage anyways, free of charge.”

  Scoffing, Cole pats his pocket.

  “Somehow I doubt any free Dust is of this quality.”

  Amber winces as Cole scores that point. Glynda, meanwhile, purses her lips together tightly.

  “I must insist Cole.”

  For a moment, Amber wonders what happens if Cole refuses to stop pilfering shit from his fellow huntsmen-in-training. If he calls Glynda’s bluff, what is the blonde going to do next? Fortunately, they don’t have to find out.

  “… Yeah. Fine.”

  Glynda nods and that’s the end of it. Amber wordlessly leads Cole back to the elevator, not entirely sure about… any of this. The elevator ride back down is silent and awkward again… until Cole, surprisingly enough, breaks that silence by turning to her with a grunt.

  “So, how do you want to do this?”

  Wait, what? Amber can hardly believe her ears. Cole was asking her… how she wanted to have sex? She was expecting the young man to be far more mercenary about things, as he’d proven up to this point. Instead, he’d thrown the ball in her court. Shit… how DID she want to do this?

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [X] You know, actually Amber has always dreamed about losing her virginity under a starlit sky - 81%[ ] No, probably best not to risk getting caught and upsetting Glynda. They'll just go to the private room - 19%