Yatsuhashi darted forward, but instead of striking Rumpole with his sword, he placed his hand on her forehead. Was he feeling for a fever? Was he healing her somehow? Neptune couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing.

“I’m sorry,” Yatsuhashi whispered.

Rumpole’s eyes glazed over and then she collapsed.

Somehow that seemed to rouse Headmaster Theodore from his admiration for the fight. “Enough!” his voice rumbled. “This battle is over.”

“Sure, because we beat her,” Fox muttered.

Yatsuhashi righted Neptune. “Thanks for the assist.”

“What did you do to her?” Neptune asked.

“What I had to do,” said Yatsuhashi sadly.

Headmaster Theodore knelt at Rumpole’s side. He watched her, worried, until her eyes fluttered. She bolted upright. “Theo? Where am I? What happened?” She looked at Neptune. “Did I do that to you?”

Neptune had never been so glad to hear the professor’s voice. “Yup. Now can you undo it?”

“Sorry, my Semblance doesn’t work that way.” It almost sounded like she wanted to help. Rumpole looked at her hand. “Some deeds can never be undone.”

“But this is my favorite jacket,” Neptune said.

“You can sell it and buy a hundred more of them now,” Fox said.

“Everyone, please return to your rooms.” Theodore raised a jeweled hand and turned to Rumpole. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Neptune, Fox, and Yatsuhashi accompanied Headmaster Theodore and Professor Rumpole to her classroom while the rest of the crowd dispersed.

“What do you remember from before the fight?” Theodore asked.

Rumpole’s eyes widened. “Everything.”

Neptune wasn’t sure he wanted her to remember everything. But she had more to say. Rumpole shook her head and pleaded with the headmaster. “Theo, that wasn’t me. The reinitiation, the curfew … I never would have suggested those things.”

His face serious, Theodore replied, “I know. I mean, now I know. You must have been under some kind of mind control, until Mr. Daichi here did …” Theodore looked at Yatsuhashi. “Something.”

“I only tried to make her forget the last half hour so we could get away,” Yatsuhashi explained.

“You erased her memories of the fight, but somehow your Semblance also broke the mental suggestion she was under,” Theodore said. “Xanthe—”

Rumpole was shocked. “How do you know my name?”

“Lucky guess.” He shook his head. “Rumpole. How did this happen to you? When did it happen?”

Rumpole’s voice was slow, as if she was still struggling to process it. “A few weeks ago I went to the Wastelands,” she said. “Some Huntsmen said they had information on the whereabouts of the Crown. So they led me out there.” She blinked a few times. “And it was a trap. I couldn’t beat them. Though we fought for hours—and they finally overwhelmed me. Since then, I’ve been working for the Crown. I can’t believe it. It was worse than mind control … I wanted to help them. I believed in their cause.”

“But who is the Crown?” Theodore asked. Apparently, the headmaster knew a lot less than some of his students.

Rumpole said, “I don’t know for sure. Whatever they did to me, whomever did it, I never even saw them. I was just instructed to disrupt things at Shade Academy as much as possible. So I did.”

“But why?” Neptune asked. “Why would the Crown be worried about students like us?”

“We were getting close to discovering them,” Fox said. “Sounds like the reinitiation and the curfew Rumpole suggested to the headmaster were supposed to stop us, or at least slow us down.”

“Weaken us,” Yatsuhashi added. “Professor, does this look familiar?”

He held up his Scroll and showed her a picture—the selfie that Velvet and Sun had taken at the Mirage. Then he zoomed in on something in the background. A golden sai.

“I did that,” Rumpole said, the memory coming back. “I captured that sai myself. I was fighting a Huntress named—”

“Carmine Esclados, the woman we stopped in the desert.”

“Yes. She’s also a former student.” Rumpole’s eyes narrowed. “We fought in a cage match at a club called the Mirage. She was stronger than she was before. Everyone there was.”

Neptune was taking it all in, but he was also thinking about his own problems. Smaller ones, to be sure, but still problems. “Hey, so if this was all because of the Crown, does that mean we can go back to our old teams?” he asked. Did he actually want to be back on a team with Sun?

Headmaster Theodore nodded. “Knowing what we know now, I think that would be most wise. As soon as everyone is safely back at Shade. But we don’t want to tip our hand … it might be better if the Crown still believes Rumpole is under their influence.”

“Students are missing?” Rumpole asked, distressed. “Because of me?”

“That’s why we were fighting,” Yatsuhashi said. “It turns out Velvet and Sun are at the Mirage.” He looked meaningfully at Neptune. “It just took some … encouraging … for the whole story to come out.”

- RWBY: Before the Dawn, Chapter 11