"Dante?" The man in question turned to look at Ruby, the one who called his name. After the Grimm had retreated, the people who were there to witness the routing had gathered to cheer the Hunters in the plaza. "Yes, Miss Rose?" He says with a drawl, and a grin under his cloth mask. Dante almost gets knocked over when Ruby slams into him using her Semblance. Ruby says nothing as she hugs him.

Dante shakes his head and rubs her on the head. "It's alright Miss Rose. We made it out alive. All of us." He gestures to his celebratory group of Hunters. "Where were you? How did you end up in that tunnel?" Yang asked as the rest of Team RWBY finally neared. "Don't I have a story to tell you," He said with a chuckle. Dante eyed the Hunter in White, Summer Rose as he did so. Summer Rose, who had died and then ended up in Yharnam instead of the hereafter, then turned into a fanatical knight of Queen Annalise that turned any enemy of hers into a red paste.

That Summer Rose was now coming closer to him, longsword gripped tightly in hand. Dante then did the only thing he could have done. He saluted her. He grabbed the Burial Blade, slammed it against his chest thrice, and said, "This lowly Knight greets The Hunter in White, Blade of Queen Annalise, Summer Rose, with respect."

Ruby had gotten in the way of her mother, who now held a confused expression. Then Summer scoffed, before doing the same. "The greeting is reciprocated. However, that does not mean you are out of the fire yet, young man. You and I will be having a talk on personal space, Vileblood to Vileblood."

Dante respected the hierarchy, and despite his skill, he was not made into a Blade. He had asked the Queen before why he was not getting the promotion. He vaguely remembered something about more responsibilities and a higher chance of going mad. If Summer Rose was made into one by the Queen herself, that meant she had skill with that sword of hers, and the fact that she was still here, with her wits about her, meant she had a strong will.

The perfect characteristics for a loyal Blade of Cainhurst.

Dante followed Summer a decent distance away from the square, and what followed was a physical beating, one he had never had since he was punched into the dirt by the Cleric Beast when he first arrived. After recovering from the shock of being suddenly hit then kicked into the wall, then hit again, Summer offered him a hand.

Being a wise man, he took it.

He was pulled to his feet with ease and Summer said, "If I hear another less than savory rumor involving you and my daughters, I will emasculate you. Understand? The same goes with their teammates." She said this in a sweet tone that made Dante a little nervous, but he nodded. He was not really interested in any of them anyway.

"I'm glad we could come to an understanding, Knight Dante."

"As am I, Lady Rose."

(A/N: Lower-ranked individuals amongst the Vilebloods address those higher than them as Lord or Lady then their last name (ex. Lord Dela Cruz), while higher-ranked Vilebloods address those lower than them by rank and first name, or last name (ex. Knight Clara). This is canon, I'm FromSoftware. Just kidding.)

The two return to the square, where the Hunters were being asked for autographs. Ludwig takes it in stride, having most women ask him for autographs. Eileen has a few who shake nervously as they hand her a pen and paper. Alfred has some come up to him, and even Gascoigne has some who knew of his exploits when he was an active Huntsman ask for a signature. The rest abstained or had vanished entirely, such as Lady Maria and that unknown Huntsman who wielded the Burial Blade.

Dante notices Neo and Roman attempting to disappear into the crowd, but he is too fast for that. Dante leaves Summer Rose's side, and using the Old Hunter Bone, he appears by the two Hunters in a flash of smoke. "Hey, you two. Where are you going? After all, you're with your fellow Hunters now."

Alfred breaks away from his fans and walked over, "Yeah. We won't let anybody get you, not even Atlas." At the mention of Atlas, multiple Bullheads appeared above, and multiple soldiers armed with Dust assault rifles began to drop down into the square, causing the crowd of Valeans to scatter. One Bullhead lands at the center, and out steps General James Ironwood himself, followed by Atlas' Ace Operatives. 

The first two to step off are Elm Ederne and Harriet Bree, and when their eyes landed on Laurence, their eyes turned dark. "You just had to run your big mouth didn't you?" Ludwig asked in annoyance, watching his fans leave. "Aw, the two ladies from Atlas. I would apologize for the pebbles I threw into your eyes, but alas, I do not have a bounty anymore and I am really, REALLY not sorry," Laurence said as his hands lit on fire, a precursor to his Beast Transformation.

Before Ironwood's eyes even make it to the criminal duo, the Hunters immediately form a perimeter around them, excluding Team RWBY and Summer Rose. They remain silent from shock or curiosity at the turn of events. Dante walks over, "General. I can explain." James scoffs, "You don't need to explain anything. Those two--" He points at Neo and Roman, and in response, the Hunters step forward. The Atlas soldiers immediately go to meet them. Gascoigne says, "Boo," and causes two Atlas soldiers to trip over themselves in fright. The other Hunters remain stoic as they have a staring contest with the soldiers.

"--Are wanted criminals, I know. But they are Hunters. I'm sure you know what that means, don't you?" James looks at Dante then back at Torchwick and Neo. "I swear to God, everybody is becoming a Hunter..." He mutters. "So what are you trying to say?"

"They're with us."

A tense standoff soon followed. The Operatives were eyeing the Hunters, and both sides were already powering up their Semblances, readying their spells, and priming their weapons should negotiations go sideways.

Ironwood just looks at Dante, who sighs in annoyance before responding, "Listen, James. I don't trust you. I don't trust your specialists. I don't trust any of your soldiers. I currently do not trust anybody with the Atlas uniform. These two just took a big leap of faith when they betrayed their... employers to side with us, so I believe it is in both of our best interests that the two stay with my group. You do remember that traitor thing right?"

James rubs the bridge of his nose, sighs, and waves his hand. The soldiers then zipline back up to their Bullheads, and they fly off, back to their Airships. The tense standoff ends, and the Specialists head off. "One of these days, Vicar, one of these days..." Bree says, before she boards along with her comrades.

"Maybe, maybe not Bree. Either way, today isn't your day." Laurence said before sticking his tongue out and throwing a middle finger at her. Harriet Bree throws a middle finger back in response, and the Bullhead lifts into the air, leaving the town square in silence. "Alright. Let's head back to Beacon. We'll need some answers about your future plans-- er sorry, your employers' future plans."

Roman smirks. "We'll be happy to help. Right, Neo?" The mute assassin nods with a thumbs up. The Valean Hunters were all united now and were ready to make their next move. Now they just needed to get to Beacon Academy, which was safe territory for now. Laurence suddenly remembers something, "Oh no I left my Bullhead back in Mountain Glenn."

"Want to go back and get it?" Ludwig asks with a smirk. "Hell no," Laurence responds with a grin. "I can always borrow a new one after all." The group shares a laugh. "Um, excuse me?" Ruby says, getting their attention. "What just happened? Why are you with the two criminals that we were fighting just a few weeks ago?" Yang asked. Team RWBY all had interested looks, especially Summer.

The silence was palpable, until... "What do you mean by fighting?" Summer asks her tone sickly sweet. If Roman was a little bit nervous before, now he's downright terrified. "Mom, we fought those two at the docks when they tried to steal some Dust. They got away with a few."

"Roman~," Summer says with familiarity and venom in her tone. "I knew I recognized you from somewhere. You're one of Her Majesty's Reavers. You're the one who brought me back." Roman swallowed his spit, inhaled, and exhaled through his nose, all at the same time. "You know, I WAS going to thank you for bringing me back to my senses, but looks like I will have to kill you."

"Lady Rose, if I had known Ruby was your daughter before, I would've reconsidered my choice of action. I really would have."

"Pick a god, and pray to it," was all Summer said before she ran, a full sprint at him. Roman screamed like a little girl and ran away. Neo wiped away the sweat on her brow and just did the pantomime act of whistling.

--

Now they were all back, after an hour of walking, a few minutes of Roman being threatened to be chopped into little pieces and fed to the Grimm by Summer for hurting Ruby, and about ten minutes of flying back on a Bullhead.

Ozpin had never seen his office this full in a long time. In front of him was Dante, the head of the Valean Hunter group, Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY, Roman Torchwick, one of Vale's most wanted criminals, and Summer Rose, the White Devil, and head of the former Beacon Team STRQ. Behind them was the group they came with; Alfred the Vileblood Hunter, Father Gascoigne, the janitor Henryk who apparently was a Hunter in disguise, Ludwig "The Holy Blade", Laurence "The First Vicar", a small mute girl named Neo Politan, Eileen the Crow, and the rest of Team RWBY.

"Well, what's this?" The Headmaster asked. "Your army, Headmaster. Minus the children of course." An indignant "Hey!" is heard in the background. "And what are two criminals doing in my office?" Roman coughs, "Ahem, I am a Hunter now. And I just betrayed my former employers to side with these idiots." 

"Who's the idiot?" Summer asked, and Roman stayed quiet. "That's what I thought. Now, Headmaster. We know who our present enemy is, and now all we have to do is plan our next move. Anybody got any suggestions?" Dante spoke first, "Let's first put on the table everything we know so far. First, me. Our enemy got their hands on a Chalice."

The Hunters grew silent, becoming suddenly more attentive. "I don't know what they did, but they somehow managed to summon hostile Hunters from the Nightmare realm." Ludwig nods in agreement, "We fought a party of three that accompanied the girl in black in the CCT." "They also managed to recruit the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst as well," said Eileen. Alfred said, "The Host of the Nightmare and his personal team of Ya' Har' Gul assassins are with them as well."

"We must not underestimate Micolash's mastery of the arcane. You can do a lot of things with a Chalice," Ludwig says. Laurence nods, "I agree my friend. There was a certain spell in the Forbidden Section of the Academy back home that allowed people to connect themselves and others to a makeshift Dream, thereby granting them the ability to Dream. However, you needed a powerful catalyst for the spell to work, such as a Chalice." 

"You're serious?" Eileen said. "These False Dreamers do not have the same power as those who were granted the gift by the Great Ones, True Dreamers, to simplify the comparison, but they are dangerous nonetheless since they can no longer truly die as long as their Dream remains up. The only way to cut the connection of the False Dreamers to the False Dream is to infiltrate the Dream that had been created and destroy it, and at the same time, destroy the one who created it. In this case, it is most likely Micolash. The latter is easy, but to destroy the False Dream, you would need strength on par with that of the Great Ones themselves," Laurence said. Dante decided to say nothing about that last sentence, and all the Hunters present went deep in thought.

"I do not know why but I think that you are overthinking things," said Ozpin. He stands up and walks around the table. "Your objective is simple isn't it?" Dante scoffs and asks, "Oh, then what is our objective Headmaster?"

"Hunt. Plain and simple. These... False Dreamers are mere copies of the real thing standing in front of me. Hunt, I say. If these fakes keep getting up if you knock them down, then keep knocking them down until they stay down." Ozpin said in a disturbingly deranged tone. When he finally noticed that everyone was staring at him strangely, Ozpin cleared his throat and said, "Anyway, I am confident in all of you. Your skills in weapons and magic will allow us to take the fight to them."

The Hunters cheered and whooped. "Okay, now that that is over with, what do you all to say to dinner? Food's on me." Alfred said as he pulled out the wallet from months ago that still had Lien cards in between it. The cheering grew louder, and even Team RWBY joined in, excited by the prospect of free food. Soon enough, the office was empty once again. Ozpin sighed, rubbing his head, "Be careful. All of you," he said to no one as he finished his cup of coffee.