It was four weeks until the end of the classes, and Ruby had scheduled a playdate for Crescent for today, even though summertime in the outdoor dueling areas was brutal. The days was cloudless and the dry, abrasive air seemed to make the heat even worse. Weiss was the mvp today, having conjured a plumbum of ice for each of the team. Blake was reluctant to accept hers, but the sweat beading around her brow eventually convinced her to swallow her pride.

The indoor arenas were booked for the next few weeks, and that was much too long than Ruby'd allow Cresent not to have some exercise. It'd been easy enough to talk team JNPR into some practice matches (Jaune was especially eager to practice- and a lot more proficient at fighting, for some reason- ever since he killed that Ursa on one of Glynda's field-trips).

Ruby led a huddle with the rest of her team. She went over their broad strategic objectives; reiterated team JNPR's strengths, discussed some of their strategies and reminded everyone, including herself, of their limitations and common tactical blunders.

"And one last really important thing," Ruby said at the end, "Glynda might watch this fight."

Weiss's eyebrows raised a bit. Blake smiled softly and Yang bit her cheek and tried to look nonchalant.

"Sooooo," Ruby said, "It'd be super cool if we could absolutely destroy them. No pressure."

Yang and Blake and Weiss shared some looks and some grins. "Shouldn't be too hard."

Ruby smiled back and and they broke huddle.

It'd be Concurrent Elimination this time; the display would track everyone's aura and if anyone's got depleted, there'd be a buzzer and the trainee in question would be out of the match. Since in real combat situations, a quick rest or focused meditation could bring one's Aura back up, teams wouldn't lose in this format until everyone on a side had been knocked down. This meant that a losing side could buy time while their teammates got back in the game, and you ignored anyone who was already knocked out of the match at your peril. (And no, Ruby had checked; double-tapping was strictly prohibited. There was a state-of-the-art infirmary in the school, but the best course of action was still to not get hurt without your aura to protect you.)

Yelling "Ollie Oxenfree" wasn't specifically required when you got back in, but some people couldn't resist.

So the teams met and shook hands and squared off. Some bleachers off to the side overlooked theirs and three other arenas, and various students and faculty were sitting in it, watching one of the three arenas it overlooked (There was another fight going on in the arena at the far side).

A familiar blonde figure nodded almost imperceptibly at her when Ruby looked her way. Ruby blushed and waved back.

And then the starting buzzer buzzed, and team RWBY and JNPR jumped at each other, pairing off into four sets of duels.

Ruby circled Jaune slowly, he had his sword and shield up in a defensive posture, and the nervous look on his face told Ruby that, on the off-chance he did garner the nerve to attack, it'd probably be wildly telegraphed and almost definitely accompanied by a girlish scream. Ruby hoped Jaune'd improved enough to put up a good fight, and not just because she wanted to see her friend succeed as a hunter.

Yang seemed to be doing alright with Nora, even if it looked like she was doing her semblance gambit. Weiss was dueling Pyrrha, to a standstill, and Blake was doing some shadow stuff at Ren.

So Ruby stepped forward and tried out a few of her more flashy moves.

-[]-

Ren lunged at Blake. She didn't really react; didn't raise her weapons, didn't shift her center of gravity, only smirked slightly. Which, in retrospect, should have tipped him off that this wasn't the real Blake.

The simulacrum vanished as soon as Ren's blade would have impacted. To his left, Blake smirked and slashed at his back.

Ren parried, and the blade dissolved into black sand that then dissolved into nothing. To his right, Blake was in a defensive stance. Ren shot at her, and Blake dissolved into sand again.

And after a few minutes, Ren was surrounded in an ever shifting parade of shadow puppets. And then came Blake's voice in a mad, guttural whisper. "~darrrkkneesssssss~"

And the whispering shadows multiplied, and once they filled an entire circle around him they grew, they grew until they eclipsed the school and the forest and blotted out the sun, and then they grew towards him; the circle of visible terrain around him rapidly shrinking as humanoid shadows grasped towards him.

Ren lowered his weapons but not his guard, looking around for any sign of attack from a specific direction. None came, so he fell back to a weapon he used less often.

"How can you believe in darkness," Ren stated, "When but a single light can hold all the world's darkness at bay?"

And the laughter appeared around him; sinister, low and horrible. "Is that how you see the light?"

Ren slashed at a snaking shadow to his left. It dissipated into impalpable black sand. A spray of bullets erupted from his right and Ren kneeled to lower his profile.

"Light is an active force," Blake's voice said, "It requires fuel; it requires sacrifice. It uses up itself, in order to exist."

Ren shot into the shadows. Blake's voice only laughed.

"Your soul will dim and die one day," said the whispers, "Even the sun itself will wheeze its final solar death gasps into the unfeeling blackness of space and be dim forever more. The only thing darkness needs to win," -now the shadows eased their undulations, "is ... patience."

And Ren became acutely aware that his aura was weakening.

-[]-

During her engagement, Pyrrha wondered if using a shield against a piercing weapon might, perhaps, be just a little unfair, but she'd take the easy victory if it allowed her to keep an eye on Jaune. Luckily, Jaune's opponent, Ms. Rose, was taking the opportunity to try out some elaborate jumping moves. Pyrrha doubted she could help her leader enough to beat Ms. Rose if the scythe-reaper deigned to exert herself fully, but a little polarity in the right situations could help out Jaune immensely.

"Ho! Ha ha!" Pyrrha's opponent said, "Guard! Turn! Parry!" she said again, making flashy yet precise and efficient swings of her rapier. Ms. Schnee never let her guard down, though a less skilled combatant would be tricked into seeing an opening that wasn't there, and if that less skill combatant were also less restrained, she might attempt to attack during that opening, no doubt leaving herself open to a follow-through.

But since Phyrrha was both skilled and restrained, t was easy enough to hold her ground, but that prompted her to consider that, perhaps, this all was just an elaborate distraction. She looked over at the rest of her team; Nora seemed to be doing fine, though Ms. Belladonna had entrapped Ren in a Magical Darkness Sphere. And Ms. Rose didn't seem serious yet; they'd be in trouble if that happened too early.

"Dodge! Spin! Ha!" Ms. Schnee shouted, "Thrust!"

Pyrrha idly sidestepped a lunge and was only a little disappointed that Jaune didn't see her do it.

What was Ms. Schnee's gambit here? Pray thee, just distraction? Was Ren going to bite it in the darkness? Yang had some sort of damage absorption powers, but Pyrrha was blanking on the specifics.

And speaking of Ren, Pyrrha recalled an anecdote he had told her, once ago; three monks tried to open a door. The first broke it down. The second pulled out the hinges, and the door fell open. The third one lifted a hand to knock, and thus entered with the greatest haste. So, if Pyrrha couldn't deduce Weiss's strategy, why not take the most direct route?

"So what are you attempting to accomplish, Ms. Schnee?" Pyrrha said, over her shield.

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Ms. Schnee responded.

-[]-

Weiss fought with a fluidity and grace that came from pressure. She did well under pressure; she'd trained her whole life (shut up; it was technically true) for combat, and now she just had to go through the motions again. And Pyrrha was a world-class fighter; it was truly an honor to fight someone like her. Even if that meant Weiss's elaborate attempts to provoke an overcommitment didn't seem to be working right now. But whatever. She was still buying time. Her plan would still work.

Regardless of her opinion on the validity of Ruby as a leader, she knew the importance of discipline (shut up; so what if maybe she forgot it at first? People make mistakes.), so when Ruby told her to do something impressive, well, she didn't argue. She'd had a plan prepared. They'd see. They'd all see. (hahaha)

And then Pyrrha noticed! She actually asked Weiss her plan. Usually people seemed way too preoccupied with themselves, but Weiss guessed it was too much to ask for everyone to be as thoughtful and aware as she was.

"You're wearing metal armor," Weiss said with an air of victory, "I've been coating myself in a thin layer of ice this whole time. Eventually you'll overheat, and I will win."

And Pyrrha laughed. -How- how dare she? Weiss's gut sunk and her cheeks reddened. "That's your strategy?" Pyrrha said, "My outfit includes a microskirt and bare shoulders. Besides," Pyrrha stepped forward with her shield held high; Weiss didn't have an opening and was forced back. "Sweat is indicative of heroism. No warrior would be ashamed because they perspire too much, nor quit for the abundance of such."

And then Jaune was pushed back besides Pyrrha. "Speak- {pant} for yourself. Bare shoulders, huh? Gotta- {pant}- gotta look into that-"

"Yeah-" Ruby said, from besides Weiss. "Long cloaks and a black wardrobe are not summer combat attire."

"-'might {pant} even consider the microskirt," Jaune said.

And for whatever reason, right then Pyrrha paused for a moment, staring at the adjacent duel, which allowed Weiss to set a repulsion rune directly behind Pyrrha without the spartan knowing. It was then trivial to trick her to step back into it, giving Weiss a few free shots at an airborn target and a few moments to try to come up with a better strategy.

Ruby jumped next to her. "Wanna trade?" she asked. Weiss guessed Jaune wasn't providing as impressive a fight as Ruby wanted.

Weiss frowned. Well, she hadn't exactly been winning that last exchange, and apparently her brilliant plan was laughable and dumb. So whatever.

"Very well," Weiss said. "I'm sure you'll have a more impressive fight with Pyrrha."

"What? No, I meant, did you want to fight someone easier?"

Weiss shot Ruby the dirtiest look she could. "Excuse you, Ms. farming-implement-weapon, but I am handing myself just fine."

Ruby threw her hands up in exasperation, "Just trying to look out for you. (And Crescent's just based on a farming implement.)"

"Well don't," Weiss said. Ruby smiled that dumb smile of hers.

Hrmph.

-[]-

Nora shifted her weapon into hammer mode and swung a wild arc. Fun! Most times that was a bad idea, but this entire fight Nora had prepared for preemptive blows and attacks of opportunity that didn't come. She kept her guard up just in case, ready to jump away or do the limbo at the last moment or shuffle to the side (like, party-rock shuffle, if she could remember the moves), in case Yang was trying to lure her into a false sense of security.

The blow was easily dodgeable (Nora figured she'd use the momentum to reposition herself when it missed) but Yang just lowered her center of gravity and let the hammer collide with her lower left ribs.

"Mmmphr," Yang grunted, "That' the best you got, pinkie?"

"Nope!" explained Nora. She spun her hammer the opposite direction, turning her back to Yang -this was a test; if Yang didn't try to attack her when she was open a fifth time, then something was probably up- and that something probably wasn't good :(! Nora spun her hammer around to strike Yang in the stomach. Yang just shifted her weight to take the blow and smiled.

-[]-

"Ooomph," Yang said again as Nora's warhammer struck her right in the sternum. A bead of sweat traveled down her cheek, and not just because of the heat.

"Heh," Yang gasped, "I guess that was adequate. Wanna hit me again?"

Nora smiled and threw an upperblow that Yang blocked with both her forearms. The blow shook her shoulders and left a rather large after-ache at the impact site.

"Alright, one more," Yang gasped, "Face this time. C'mon. C'mon." she whispered.

Now, Nora looked a little perturbed. She frowned slightly as she swung her hammer in a wide arc into the side of Yang's head. Yang's head snapped to the side as her body adjusted to keep her balance. She spat a bit of blood, her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing really, really heavy.

"Alright, I lied;" Yang whispered, "One more. C'mon. Stomach again."

"Yang!" Ruby squeaked from somewhere else on the battlefield. "Stop being so creepy!"

Yang was vaguely aware she heard Ruby say something like 'and that goes for you too Blake!', but Yang just braced to take the last blow and closed her eyes and focused on her semblance.

Nora's next blow echoed through her body, sending tiny, exuberant, chaotic reverberations through the point of impact: just below her lowest left rib, and outwards through her arms and legs and neck, sending tingles upon every inch of her skin. They hit the ends of her fingertips and nose and feet and bounced back, less chaotic now, all heading single file to a space below her diaphragm, coalescing in a little red ball of ecstatic aching pain.

Yang looked up, her eyes red and her hair on fire and the little red ball inside her split in two, traveling up each shoulder and down each arm, leaving a trail of pleasant aches until they reached her fists- drawn downwards in the wind-up to a double uppercut- and erupted out of her hands in fiery rage.

"Ren now!" Nora yelled.

And Yang's footing slipped, and she looked down and realized too late that she was, somehow, facing the wrong way, and that whatever her knockout blow hit had not, in fact, been Nora-

"YAAANNNGG YOOUUUUU SUUUUUUUUCCCCK...!" receded Weiss's voice in the distance. Up in the summer sky, a tiny star twinkled in the blue.\

-[]-

Ren had found the hole in Blake's shadow world relatively soon, but any method he had to exploit it wouldn't knock Blake out of the fight, and it'd just tip Blake off to the flaw in her technique.

So he opted to try to meditate in the shadow-bubble, hoping to recharge his Aura faster than whatever Blake was doing was draining it.

And eventually, like he knew it would, out of the darkness, Nora's voice called, a lifeline to the world of light.

Ren feinted right and broke through the bubble of darkness. Nora was where he thought she was, about to take a OHKO from Yang.

So Ren just re-positioned things a little bit. Nora helped.

Yang looked a little horrified as she looked at the sky.

Ren landed a series of strikes that ended up knocking Yang's feet out from under her, leaving her open for Nora to land a heavy overhead knock-out blow.

-[]-

Nora only had a moment to admire her handiwork, and then the new star in the sky, and then at Ren (He hadn't suffered any weird harm in whatever Blake had been doing- phew) before she had to dodge a backhand blade from team RWBY's ninja.

When Blake jumped back, she was three Blakes. (Did that mean she could give herself hugs any time? Jealous!)

"Which one's real?" said one of the three of the Blakes as they all lowered their centers of gravity and assumed defensive stances.

"Be a shame if you picked the wrong one," said another of the Blakes. She'd make an awesome barbershop quartet if her simulacrums- simulacrumbs? - could speak at the same time. And if she could sing, but actually you didn't really need to know how to sing if you wanted to sing you'd just do it-

Oh wait, Blake #2 had said something to her.

"I pick," Nora said, priming her weapon into launcher mode, "All of you!"

And Blake opened her mouth in a silent 'oh' as a heart-shaped barrage of grenades landed all around her.

-[]-

Jaune pointed behind her. "Hey look at that distraction!"

Ruby smirked. Like she'd fall for that. She kept her eyes on Jaune as he lunged, wild and sloppy. She let him try a few times, effortlessly dodging the ensuing clumsy blows.

Jaune reached overhead and Ruby focused her aura into her left hand and, as Jaune swung downward, caught the blade between her thumb and pointer finger. She stepped closer and smiled her biggest smile in Jaune's face. Jaune whimpered.

Ruby kicked him into the dirt, and for his credit, Jaune didn't land completely on his back. Alright, that was the last super-impressive move Ruby wanted to try; time to finish Jaune and then move on to the rest of the team.

And then the buzzer announced that Weiss's aura had been depleted. And then Yang's, and then Blake's.

Oh. That's what this was; it was Jaune; the distraction was always Jaune. Ruby'd fallen for a double-bluff.

Ruby looked at where Blake had fell and the crater where Yang was in and the part of the sky Weiss had disappeared to and sighed. "Dustdammit you guys," she said.

-[]-

Nora and Ren shared a relieved triumphant exhale before Jaune landed between them, blubbering and flailing. Pyrrha was on guard first; a few bolts impacted her shield, and she gestured for team JNPR to form up for the last stretch of the fight.

-[]-

Ruby swung Crescent behind her and she fired, activating her semblance in time with the recoil to boost herself into the middle of team JNPR. She managed to hit all four of them with the opening swing.

Now she was in the middle of all of them, with a reach weapon. She hoped they'd realize that and lunge forward. As part of her next motion, Ruby shifted her grip on Crescent closer to the blade, her form as if she were wielding an oversized sickle, tucking the handle in her armpit to stick out behind her. She spun and the blade hit Ren in the leg as a soft 'whump' signaled that somebody, probably Jaune, had been caught by the shaft behind her. Ruby spun around again and again, knocking Nora in the shin and narrowly missing Pyrrha. Jaune stepped out of range first, Nora and Ren were trying in vain to grapple her, but Pyrrha just laughed enthusiastically when she was knocked back.

Ruby didn't smile. She made no noise now; no screaming, no grunting, no puns or one-liners; just focus.

Pyrrha was up now, having lunged forward with a heroic strike. Ruby dodged and hooked Crescent's blade behind Pyrrha's waist, behind the shield. She sidestepped 15 degrees and jumped slightly so that a bullet from Crescent would hit Jaune's leg as the recoil slashed Pyrrha's back.

Ruby continued to run around the spartan, shooting at Jaune and Nora and Ren as she twirled Pyrrha around. Ruby's aura felt Crocea Mors across the back of her shoulder and the peppering of Stormflower against her back, but bullets glanced off Pyrrha's leg guard and a hammer blow resounded against Akoúo̱, so Pyrrha was getting hit as well.

Nora was now behind Pyrrha, set up perfectly for a few sniper shots. At point blank, Crescent's bullets were devastating, but they seemed to miss more than she'd have figured, even if the weapon was pinned against another independent body- perhaps it was someone's semblance at work.

Pyrrha tried to jump back, pulling Crescent and Ruby forward. She succeed in knocking Ruby off her balance, but the reaper just turned the fumble into a body-lunge and headed-butted Pyrrha in the nose.

Pyrrha's combat culture included wrestling, so close quarters wasn't something Ruby wanted to be in with her for long. So Ruby aimed for Pyrrha's heart; she pulled Jaune into the tangle, and he certainly didn't know how to land to minimize sprains or shift his weight to avoid impacts during hand-to-hand combat. He was hurt more than Ruby in the ensuing melee.

And it worked; Pyrrha tried to back out after only four seconds, her gung-ho expression replaced with a little shock and fear, and Ruby sent her off with a spin and a slash and a blast and a rather dazed knight, but in the process she lost her grip on Crescent- which had landed blade-down just out of reach.

And now Nora and Ren were at her back, and Ruby was without her weapon. Well, that wasn't an excuse not to kick all their butts.

Ruby closed in on Nora and sidestepped a downwards hammer strike. A disorientating blow to the viking's stomach, powered by Ruby's semblance focused through her arm, gave the reaper a second to fold Magnhild up enough to unlock the telescoping handle. Ruby pushed Magnhild's head down the handle, pinching Nora's left hand in the metal. Nora pulled her hand out and shook it and inhaled through grit teeth and didn't notice Ruby had moved on to Ren.

Ren was a lot better at hand-to-hand than Nora( who mostly tried hooks with whichever hand wasn't holding Magnhild). Ren used his feet a lot, and Ruby got kicked in the shins and stomach before she got a grapple on Ren's right arm.

Ren shouted something and distracted Ruby enough for Nora to finish folding Magnhild into launcher mode. Ruby smiled; just as planned.

And Ruby pulled Ren towards Nora and pinballed some blows between them. There was a pause in the fight, and Ren looked at Manghild's barrel, point blank against his stomach, and he managed to say 'uhhhhh'.

In the corner of her eye, Ruby saw that Pyrrha had grabbed Jaune by the waist and had tackled him away from the melee. Oh well, half the team was good enough.

And then Ruby reached down and put her hand on Nora's hand and pulled the trigger on her grenade launcher, and the world exploded.

Ruby's aura ached, but it was still intact. Pink smoke clogged her vision and Ruby's ears rang horribly, but she could still hear enough to make out a 'Ren nooo!' from Nora.

Ruby quickly limped off to retrieve Crescent in time to trip Nora as she stumbled towards her fallen teammate. Ruby shot the viking in the back twice before she hit the dirt.

Ruby eyed the scoreboard; her own aura was down to only a sliver (Some of the pain was even starting to bleed through), but she was still in the fight, officially. Good; things were just getting started.

By now, Pyrrha had gotten up. She readied Miló towards her, glory-seeking determination on her face. Ruby stared impassively and swung Crescent in her flashiest arc. It didn't indiidate Pyrrha.

They stared and circled each other, slowly.

And then two explosive slugs and a smattering of bullets hit the area around the spartan.

Ruby looked back and blinked and shook her head and smiled, and then jumped over to Yang and Blake were firing. Ruby folded Crescent into gun mode and added her own bolts to the barrage.

-[]-

"Shields up!" Pyrrha commanded to her comrades. She smiled in spite of herself and she inhaled the scent of used Dust and sweat and machine oil; the odds were against them now, and they had casualties, but that just meant this battle was worth winning. No cause worth fighting for like a lost cause. Used Dust smelled like victory and all that.

Jaune nodded and ducked as much as he could. They locked arms and they scuttled as quickly to they could over to the crater where Ren and Nora fell.

Ms. Belladonnna was to the left, and Ms. Xaio-Long to the right, with Ruby in the center. If Blake and Yang had just recovered, it should only take one hit each to re-shatter their auras, and third recoveries in this combat format were a lot rarer. And there was no way Ruby wasn't on her last legs after a point blank explosion. Erebos, maybe the enemy team would deplete their auras themselves, in time. But they might not last that long; they had to prepare a counteroffensive, but it was getting that last hit that would be the problem.

Miraculously, Ren and Nora still had intact auras. The scanner could assign numbers to their very souls, but measuring whether or not a given blow would shatter anyone's aura was an inexact science. Like Ms. Rose, for example; a lesser huntress might have been knocked out in that horrible kerfuffle, but the reaper had somehow soloed their entire team. Glorious.

Pyrrha set her semblance to its defensive mode. It couldn't actually stop bullets head on (unless she really, really tried), but it could warp their trajectories; not much against direct hits but it could make glancing shots miss entirely, mitigate shrapnel and make suppressing fire less effective. There was a reason she carried a shield, after all.

But this was a lot of gunfire, they were weathering; they were rocks against the tide; eventually they'd be whittled down.

"We need to return fire," Pyrrha said as calmly and steadily as she could. All around her bits of dirt exploded. Glorious.

Jaune nodded. Nora looked behind her. Her and half of Ren's weapon were at the edge of that newly formed crater, a ways away, on the other side of a blast zone. Ren held up his remaining gun and gestured that he didn't need the other.

Pyrrha changed the manifestation of her semblance to pull Nora's weapon towards them. A slug exploded to her left, ringing in her ears, and Jaune grunted as a bolt glanced off him.

After Nora grabbed her weapon Pyrrha immediately shifted her semblance back into defensive mode. Nora looked up from Ren and inspected her weapon. There was some black charring at the end of the barrel. "I'm not going to risk firing this again," Nora said. She sounded a lot more solemn than usual.

"Ok, give me one of the grenades." Pyrrha gestured. "Jaune, you know how to transform my sword, correct?"

"Not with one hand," Jaune said.

"There's two between us." Pyrrha smiled.

As the two of them shifted Miló into rifle mode, Pyrrha prepped a plan of attack. "We've probably only got one shot," Pyrrha conveyed.

Ren nodded from the ground. His aura wasn't actually depleted, so playing possum would only work as long as team RWBY didn't check the scoreboard.

Jaune kept lookout, his free hand gripping Pyrrha's weapon tightly, and on the first break in fire, he gave the signal.

Pyrrha set her aura to a tube of electromagnetic energy and shot one of Nora's grenades right into the middle of team RWBY's formation as Jaune and Ren fired shots at Yang and Blake respectively.

The buzzer sounded at least twice, but Ms Rose continued firing on them. But without her teammates, Ruby couldn't lay down as much suppressing fire, so Pyrrha signaled her team move forward. She paused a moment when she realized Ren's aura had shattered.

"Ice Meteor!" Ruby screamed from the other side of the field.

"Wha-"

Pyrrha looked up just in time to see a pillar of runes around and above them. She lifted her shield and took a bolt to the shoulder and the world simultaneously froze and exploded.

-[]-

Weiss's aura had regenerated sometime in mid air. She was still traveling up and, she realized, away from the battle, so a repulsion rune at her apex would set her right.

But now she overshot. Whatever. Another rune appeared and she pushed off with her hand, steadying herself. She then fell straight down, back towards the battle as far as she could tell (If she managed to crash some other teams training session? She'd never live that down.) She hugged her knees and twisted until she was facing straight down, her sword extended in the best point she could manage. She began forming a ball of ice around her, generating acceleration runes in a pillar down towards, what she could now discern, was team JNPR pinned down in a giant crater. Dust, what did she miss?

Well, Weiss'd definitely get points with Ruby if she, personally, ended the fight in the most flashy way possible. Later, she wouldn't even care that the impact broke her arm.

Ruby nodded approvingly at the icy mist emanating form the impact point. It was refreshing in the heat. The scoreboard showed that she was the last one standing, with barely a sliver of aura left.

-[]-

"It's comet, actually," Blake said when she got back up.

"What?" Ruby said, idly.

"Comets are composed of ice crystals, dust, and liquid water. Meteors are rocks, and once they hit the earth they're meteorites."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Is that important now?"

"Words can have power. And proper understanding definitions prevent miscommunication."

"OK fine. So technically," Ruby said, "Only the comet's coma and tail are ice particles. And since this projectile formed in atmospheric conditions, neither term is correct."

Blake's eyebrows raised and mouth smirked in impressed surprise.

Ruby folded her arms and closed her eyes and nodded. "I've been studying astronomy."

"Well," Yang said, brushing herself off as she got up from the ground. "How 'bout we compromise; call it 'Ice Comet.'"

Blake and Ruby frowned identical frowns.

"Only you don't because," And Yang smiled mischievously, "You have to call it Weiss Comet."

Blake and Ruby groaned identical groans.

"MEDIC!" called Nora's voice from the fog.

And Ruby's veins chilled. The cloud of fog hadn't dispersed yet, but she glanced at little patches of ice on the ground, and icicles sticking into various parts of the battlefield. Crap, this might have been overdoing it, huh?

And she looked at the eviscerated battleground; the painted lines for zones had been almost completely wiped out by stray bullets. She winced particularly hard when she looked at the crater that had been her point blank friendly-fire grenade blast.

Yang unfroze first, running into the pale blue cloud of ice. Ruby followed her, her mind too afraid to think.

Weiss turned to look at them as they came in; her left arm hung by her side limply and she had her right hand to her mouth, her face wearing the most unsure expression ever. They found Pyrrha unconscious and Jaune kneeling near Nora and Ren with his knuckles in his mouth. Nora was hunched over Ren, who was splayed on the ground with his head back and his arms to either side.

"Oh Ren," sobbed Nora, "Ren Ren Ren please don't die," she hugged Ren's chest, "Please please please don't die."

There was a horrible moment when all anyone could hear was Nora's sobbing. Ruby bit her hand.

Ren coughed. "You're so melodramatic Nora."

"Oh Ren!"

Ruby realized she hadn't been breathing. So she breathed a sigh of relief. Her mind admonished her; training deaths were almost unheard of, and team JNPR was skilled enough. They all were never in any danger of overdoing it, right?

"And maybe you should get that checked out," Ren gestured weakly to Nora's left. Nora turned to look at her shoulder.

It had a very large icicle sticking into it. Her side was red and slick.

Nora looked back to Ren and paled. "Oh huh," she said weakly, "That's probably not good."

And Nora fell over on her partner. Ren 'oof'ed painfully.

Then the medics arrived.

-[]-

"So it's nothing really major," Glynda told the three participants of the fight who did not have to spend the night in the infirmary.

So yeah, it was a little bad- if one's aura was shattered, any amount of magic could kill them- but nobody died today, and she had to admit, it was a rather more impressive practice fight than she'd expected. Of course, back in the day (not too long ago, certainly), when Glynda went through hunter training, they didn't have fancy aura-reading scanners or automatic scoreboards. Everyone could tell when their aura's shattered, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, they wouldn't care or they'd risk actual bodily harm for a chance at a an awesome play. (That same exact problem also occurred in BDSM, sometimes. Well not exactly.)

That's why she was going easy on them. Yes. Not because Ruby looked absolutely devastated. Poor thing; she didn't mean to hurt anyone.

"Accidents happen," Glynda said, "It's obvious you had no malicious intent, so I see no need to punish you."

Glynda cleared her throat. Punishment was a normal course of things for many different occasions, so she should get her mind out of the gutter.

"Furthermore, we don't expect our trainees to never feel pain. Dealing with these sorts of accidents will make you better hunters. It's a lesson we wish you didn't have to learn, but it's one that's better learnt sooner than later."

Blake had what could have been a pokerface, though, and Yang looked upset but occasionally forced a smile. Ruby looked the most upset out of the three, and that's what caused Glynda's gut to seize every time she began a sentence.

"And thirdly," Glynda said, "when you're fighting Grimm in life-or-death situations, you shouldn't be holding back, so we encourage you to go all out. This also serves to prepare our students to defend against all-out attacks."

That was a lot of reasons. People gave lots of reasons when they were trying to obfuscate the real one, she remembered, but this time wasn't like any of those times. Glynda could rationally list all the mistakes made during the match and all the pros and cons of punishing the team, and logic would support forgiveness, she was certain.

"However," Glynda said, "I'll have to assign you to re-paint the field you destroyed. We'll let that serve as any karmic retribution anyone deigns necessary. Or any vague metaphisical arbitrator deigns necessary." She smiled.

Nobody smiled back except Yang. Glynda scrunched her face; maybe she'd been spending too much time around Ozpin lately.

"Additionally, you've all been bumped up in priority for use of the indoor sparring arena. If you're going to be using overpowered finishers, you might as well be doing them on training camera." Glynda smiled. Nobody else did. Dust, was she really that bad at making jokes?

Ruby and Blake and Yang shared looks. Neutral looks, to see if anyone else had any pressing thoughts on it. Maybe they'd have some more in the future. Glynda wouldn't have expected to completely process the news immediately, considering what had just transpired.

There was a moment of awkward silence and Glynda decided the three were not going to say anything more unless prompted.

"You are dismissed," Glynda said. She shot a meaningful glance at Ruby and added, "Unless there's anything else you'd like to discuss?"

Yang almost managed to raise her hand before Blake grabbed it and led the blonde out of the room. They gave their polite nods and farewells.

-[]-

Door closed; out of earshot. Blake chuckled once. "It's a good thing the teacher's macking on Ruby, huh?" she said. "Got off scot free."

"What? No," Yang furrowed her brow; uncomfortable, "Those were all valid reasons she gave."

"I've found most people only do something for one reason," Blake said.

"Well maybe people are more complicated that you think."

Anger; just a flash. Breath. "My estimation's served me well."

"Has it?"

Blake stopped. Not a conversation she wanted to get into now. "Guess not all the time."

"Well I'm just glad everyone's going to be OK," Yang said. "I just think people should only get hurt consentually, y'know?"

And that started a really weird conversation.

-[]-

Glynda waited until the door closed to address her favorite pupil. Ruby pre-empted her, however.

"So," Ruby said, poking her fingers together adorably, "What'd- what'd you think?"

Glynda took a breath.

You know a couple days ago? When she thought that, hypothetically of course, a relationship with Ruby would probably be less likely to end in a bloody fistfight to the death? Well, that specifically was still true, but she really meant that, possibly, a relationship with Ruby wouldn't end with the girl's violent death (and that was a positive thing, obviously).

But now it all seemed too possible.

Glynda had to stand up and look out the widow so Ruby wouldn't see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"You were too reckless," Glynda said, "If that were a real fight- you would have- you'd have..." Glynda didn't finish that sentence.

"Well, if it were a real fight," said Ruby, "I'd have won."

"But at what cost?" Glynda pulled off her glasses, covering up that she'd just wiped her eyes.

"Cost?"

"Your- your life, Ruby. Or at least-" Glynda had almost said 'your body'. Talk about bad phrasing. "At the very least your health. You could have been permanently injured."

"You don't think scars are sexy?" Ruby said sheepishly.

Glynda didn't laugh.

Ruby coughted. "Well, I guess I wanted to look cool," Ruby said to her hands.

Wait-

And Glynda had a thought that was particularly horrifying; Ruby knew her teacher was watching that fight. Was this just a way to impress her? Was this all something Ruby thought might endear Glynda to her?

Or was Ruby really the kind of person who'd die for someone she loved?

Let's rephrase that; was Ruby the kind of person who thought that reckless disregard for her life, in the name of someone else, was- romantic? That she didn't think of herself as worth more alive than dead?

Well, regardless of her reasons, Ruby seemed to have a death wish, and Glynda, as a teacher and a mentor and a friend, needed to disabuse her of that notion.

"And I guess I figure that life owes me a little for-" Ruby bit her tongue, "for reasons. And it won't let me die until I've been repaid."

Glynda was too preoccupied to think too hard on it.

"Ruby," Glynda began. Her voice cracked, "I-"

Glynda walked over and took a seat across from her student.

"Don't take this the wrong way- I still- I can't give you what you ask of me-" Glynda took a breath, "But I care about you. Really. And-" Glynda's voice cracked again, "I don't want to see you gone. Or even hurt."

Ruby's eyes were wide and her mouth was agape in surprise.

"So promise me you'll be careful, OK?" Glynda said, reaching out her hand. "Don't- don't throw away your life."

Ruby put her hand on Glynda's. "I will," she said.

So; 'being owed something by Life'? 'Fate'? Well, there was one person she knew who knew (or at least liked to think he knew) a lot about the subject. Sitting around worrying about possible futures- it was all irrational. Nothing to be done about it. But all the same, she couldn't stop.

So the next time Glynda had the opportunity, she asked Ozpin what he thought of Ruby's fate, the next time they were scheduled for tea and chess and philosophical meanderings. She'd bring up her student, as teachers often did, and then maybe death, as old mortal people often did. And maybe Ozpin's particular brand of irrational fatalism could negate Glynda's particular irrational preoccupation.

"A warrior cloaked in the color of death?" Ozpin said. "Who lives for battle, without a thought for her own life? Picking up a dead mother's mantle to fight a war for humanity? Sounds romantic."

Glynda choked on her tea. She was doing that a lot around Ozpin. "W-what?"

"Classically romantic," Ozpin said. "The idea of individual growth, triumph and glory? I say she fits the idea."

Of course that's what he meant.

"But," Glynda said, "I meant- ummm." What did she mean again?

Ozpin took another long draught of his tea and examined the board. "And do consider her family history. Qrow still works for us, as does Taiyang. And refresh your memory on Summer."

Glynda nodded. She'd been trying to remember that decade past as well.

"And she has silver eyes. They have stories about that, you know."

Glynda resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ozpin liked to treat myths as prophesies and prophesies as plans. He also liked to forget that they had been a part of the team that helped create half of them.

"All circumstances considered," Ozpin said, "I do think Fate wants her to fight. Whether or not she dies, well- We have an academy designed to teach her the skills to prevent that. It'd certainly wreck our business model if we couldn't live up to those promises."

Glynda nodded again. Well, that was a big circular logic loop that only told her what she already knew.

She still had to be Ruby's mentor, except to a greater extent.

-[]-

"I have to apologize, guys," Jaune said as he tried to get the last bits of jello out of his cup. The upside to being in the infirmary was free hospital food. The downside involved depressingly bare walls, sterile sheets, and the vague smell of something he couldn't quite describe. Like, if emptiness had a smell, it would smell like an infirmary.

"What for?" Ren asked. His damage was mostly surface scratches, even though his torso was covered in bandages. It looked bad, but nothing had hit him deep. Jaune told him to milk it for all the sympathy he could.

"I should have called it off at the end there," Jaune said. "Once Ruby single-handedly massacred us. Know when to fold them and all."

Pyrrha looked conflicted. Jaune didn't catch what happened to her in the fight, but she seemed physically well. No bandages to speak of. She paused before she spoke every time she did after the fight, but it'd only been like, what, three hours? Probably just stress. Hopefully just stress. "There's nothing wrong with trying to snatch victory from defeat," she said.

"Yeah but," Jaune said, "Ima just say that maybe Yang's not the only one i her family with berserker tendencies."

"She offered to tune all our weapons for us," Ren said, "Ruby's alright in my book."

"I'm not saying she's a bad person," Jaune said, "Just- not someone I'd like to piss off. Like, ever."

Ren and Pyrrha nodded. Nora did too, slowly. She looked a lot healthier after her blood transfusion, but she seemed a little shell shocked, and hadn't kept her eyes off Ren the whole time. Her left arm was in a cast and her shoulder needed a couple days under the medigel, but she was due to make a full recovery. She was actually not supposed to be out of bed, but eh.

"I know you can borrow weapons from the school armory," Jaune said in Nora's direction.

"I'm good," Nora said distantly. "We can do cardio training while we wait."

Jaune tried to catch Pyrrha's eye. Honestly, he still didn't know quite how he had made team leader above her, but Pyrrha had exactly zero complaints about the arrangement, and was always willing to help him out. She was basically the shadow leader.

But now she looked a little disappointed. She shot Jaune a smile when she saw him looking at her, but didn't offer any explicit advice.

"Are you ok, Nora?" Jaune asked. Ren and Pyrrha looked at him awkwardly. "I mean, if you want to talk about feelings? That's like a team bonding exercise."

Nora paused for a moment. "I'm good, thanks,"

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Nora refreshed her smile. "Besides, now we get to sleepover together! That's also a team bonding exercise."

"Yes, as long as we're together," Ren said.

"In a way, I feel bad for Weiss," Nora said, "She's all alone here. I guess her team doesn't love her enough to visit."

"I can hear you, you know," came a voice from the cell over.

"Do you want to join our party?" Nora called over the wall, her natural exuberance partially restored. "We've got jello cups!"

"No thank you," intoned Weiss's voice.