Fate/Stay Night belongs to Type-moon and RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth Productions, neither of which I am affiliated with. I do not profit off of this story.

The clash of metal rang out in the courtyard. A flurry of steel and iron whirled in the pale shattered the pale moonlight. Sweat beaded on the girls' faces as they all tried to duck and weave from defensive slashes and tried to block whatever they couldn't. Strain showed on Shirou's face as he fought as well.

One on one, he'd have won easily, but all of them were fighting him at once, making it harder to match them. More than that, they obviously had experience in fighting as a team, making counter-attacks more difficult for him to capitalize on as they covered each others' openings. Archer's style of purposeful weaknesses would have drastically reduced effect here as it was meant for proper single combat. However, he was still a greater fighter than them. They'd yet to land even a single blow while he had landed glancing attacks on all of them, though the black haired girl was especially hard to hit.

In a way, he was almost glad to finally be able to fight like this. He wasn't suffering from starvation, nor was he blinded and deafened. No, he was at the peak of his strength, having just come back from a relaxing and reinvigorating break. He was fighting without any disabilities and with full mana. His circuits thrummed with power as he deflected another punch from the blonde, the explosive shell careening over his shoulder to destroy the bust behind him. He grimaced as he heard it shatter. He'd have to clean that up later.

Yang. They'd met briefly in the hall that one time, her and the white-haired Weiss. She'd seemed so earnest, but for her to attack him like this, a scary expression on her face like this... he didn't know what to think. They certainly weren't offering any explanation for the sudden attack and he was too preoccupied with not getting hit to ask why.

He tumbled through the soft grass. A series of swift scythe strikes struck the air where he had been only moments prior. They'd left the courtyard a few minutes ago, the fight quickly shifting as he pivoted and dodged to avoid their bullets and blades. Weiss had managed to slip past his guard with a thrust and tried to slash at his torso, but he managed to meet her rapier with Kanshou and shunted the lighter blade to the side and threw a blow at her open guard with Bakuya.

The one in red placed herself between the white-haired girl and the white blade in a show of speed that reminded him of previous battles. She guarded the duelist with the haft of her massive weapon and allowed Weiss to gain some distance. As she tried to return his strikes with her scythe, Shirou couldn't help but notice that her style seemed familiar somehow. Had they fought before?

He ducked underneath a horizontal slice and readied himself for another attack. The four girls presented a unified front, their stances well guarded against any attack he might throw at them. He was about to rush and charge at them again, but a sudden click at his feet gave him pause. He looked around him and took note of where he was. Wait. Wasn't this where Ozpin said the new students started their init-

Team RWBY watched as Shirou was launched into the forest, a startled yelp escaping him. Each of them allowed a smile to grace their features. Ruby pulled out her Scroll as she and the rest of her team readied themselves on the other platforms and sent a brief audio message.

"He's on his way. Get ready for Phase Two, guys."

The early morning dawn was beautiful in this world. The sun was just cresting over the mountain's summit in the far distance, framed by pink and orange clouds as it rose. Shirou made a mental note to get up earlier in the future so that he could enjoy it more.

Of course, that was for later when he wasn't falling out of the sky.

The ground was fast approaching, the sharp looking tree tops jutting like spears out of the ground as if to impale him. It was like the very world itself was trying to kill him. He pushed the thought out of his mind and allowed the Married Swords to dispel, choosing instead to create a blade that would aid him here. A flash of light and instead of twin scimitars, he held a nameless kusari-gama with a rather long chain that had once been wielded by an expert. Spying a thick tree not too far from his flight path, Shirou threw the chain and hooked the blade into the bulky wood of the tree.

Immediately, the length went taut and Shirou found himself spinning through the canopy around the trunk. He reinforced the whole of his body, letting the sharp branches tear through his clothes only to leave him only slightly scratched. Shirou slammed into the base of the tree hard and despite his reinforcement, he found himself staggered enough to unwittingly let go of the kusari-gama and drop onto the forest floor below.

He took a few moments to gather his breath and figure out where he was. He spied the academy off in the distance, towering above the tree line. Picking himself up off the cold hard ground, Shirou started moving. Staying where he was was a bad idea. It was enemy territory and his enemies have had who knows how much time to set up hazards for him out here, meaning that they knew the area better than he did. He'd need to tread carefully until he got into open air.

Yang had been split up from the others after the launch, but they'd already planned for that. The traps that they set up over the past two days was worth any detention they were going to get just cause they skipped a few classes. They were gonna catch this guy and put an end to whatever he had planned!

Ruby used her tried-and-true landing strategy of hooking her scythe into a branch and spinning to bleed off any momentum. Gotta meet with the others and start pushing him towards the ruins. Gotta catch this guy before he gets any more information back to the White Fang. Gotta start working with Blake more on long distance running. Phew. She could afford to take a short breather.

Weiss launched herself from glyph to glyph and double-checked the hazards they'd set up as well. Flying through the air, she calculated how the fake janitor would run into them based on where he'd landed in the forest. She broadcasted the necessary coordinates to everybody. For a brief moment, the idea that this was overkill crossed her mind.

Blake slunk into the shadows and started running towards where Weiss said the infiltrator would be. As she neared him, she slowed down and crouched in the shade of the trees, trying to avoid being seen as much as possible. When she caught sight of him, she waited for the perfect chance to strike and start pushing him towards the others. If their earlier achievement in luring him to the launch pads was any indication, luring him towards the ruins would be easy.

Shirou was carefully picking his way through the forest, all of his senses focused on his surroundings. If anything was going to attack him, now would be the perfect opportunity. It wasn't just the girls he had to worry about, it was also the Grimm. Something about them set him on edge, but he chalked it up to his growing awareness of dangerous things, like Gilgamesh or any of the other Servants. Or the Grail. He shuddered slightly at the thought of it.

A soft keening caught his ears in his distracted thoughts. He froze, looking down. Pulling itself taut against his leg was a wire. Carefully so as not to set off anything, he pulled his leg back, the wire following him until it came to an easy rest. Cautiously, he lifted his leg over the trap, gently making sure he didn't set it off as he did. He looked with sharp eyes, trying to find anymore triggers for a trap and seeing none. He set to continue his movement back towards the academy when a gunshot rang out.

Had he been hit? No, he wasn't injured anywhere. A warning shot mayb-

The sound of a large amount of air being displaced was ample enough warning for him to roll as far away as he could. He looked up and saw a large log with stones embedded in its bark swinging aimlessly where he had been standing. The gunshot hadn't been for him, it had been for the wire. Whoever set it off was a fool. He had been moving slowly and was an easy target. Somebody with that great aim would have been better off aiming at his head and taking him out immediately.

Still, he was out in the open and he couldn't see his assailant anywhere. He needed to start moving fast or else they might wizen up and start taking him more seriously. He'd take his chances with a trap over a sniper bullet any day. Wary of the shadows around him, he stood up and reinforced his body's speed and endurance.

Shirou started sprinting.

Weiss hopped off one of her glyphs and landed next to her partner. Ruby was sitting down on a small boulder, taking a brief break from all the activity.

"You okay?" she asked.

Ruby kept chugging from her canteen before finally pulling away, small rivulets of liquid trailing from the corner of her lips before she wiped them away with the cuff of her sleeve. "Yeah!" She burped slightly and Weiss waved away the noxious smell of consumed energy drinks. "Sorry." Weiss was about to chide her team leader for her selection and dangerously large consumption of the sugary drink when a series of blasts and crunches started sounding off in the distance. "We didn't place the traps that close to each other... did we?"

Weiss shook her head. "No, we just placed them far enough apart from each other so that he'd be pressured to move constantly while Blake hounded him." Ruby giggled a little at that. "Yes, yes, perhaps the wrong choice of words, but still..."

Ruby stood up from the rock she was resting on. "Maybe he's got a speed-based semblance like mine. Either way, we need to get ready." Weiss nodded beside her. Together, they moved towards the others.

Shirou broke through the foliage into a large clearing. To either side stood large shelters, years of age and weather shining through. On the other side of the clearing lay a misty gorge filled with a network of bridges and ancient pillars of stone. Before it stood an altar of sorts. He kept all of these in mind as well as the slope of the hills as he prepared to make a stand here.

Before, he couldn't have turned and fought in the forest, not without knowing where his attackers were and what traps were laid out for him, and there had been many of the latter. However, in this wide open space, he could easily take back the dominant position in this fight now. He quickly made his way to the highest hill in the clearing and retraced Kanshou and Bakuya.

Yang, Weiss, and the black haired one broke through the forest line cautiously. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Where was the red cloaked girl? His instincts screamed at him to move. As he dived to side, a patch of grass near him exploded. Peering over the edge of the hill, he saw her having taken up a spot on the roof of one of the shelters. She had somehow swapped her massive scythe for a large caliber sniper rifle. No, the scythe was the sniper rifle. Where did the people in this world get their ideas for weaponry?

A new battle cry reminded him not to lose focus. He turned and crossed his blades to block what he expected to be either a rapier, a katana, or gauntlet. His blades caught the full blunt impact head on as he buckled underneath the weight of a war hammer. The ground beneath him cratered slightly at the force of the blow.

"Hi!" the orange haired girl wielding the hammer, 'Magnhild' his Marble told him, greeted. Her cheerful grin took on a more sinister tone and her eyes gained a disturbing exuberance. "We're gonna break your legs!"

"Guys, please! We need your help! You're the only ones we can really trust with this!" Ruby pleaded. The eight of them had all crowded in the coed dorm room. They had explained the situation to them as best they could, how there was a dangerous spy at the school and how he was planning to destroy it.

"I don't know Ruby. You sure this guy is an enemy?" the blonde leader asked. The situation sounded sketchy, even to him, but if there was one thing that he knew, it was that not everybody was what they appeared to be. At her nod, he considered what they knew. On the one hand, this guy was a complete mystery and his records were obviously faked like his. On the other, there could be a lot of reasons why. Maybe deep cover or something like that, like a secret weapon? But if that's what was going on, who was he a weapon for? "Do you have a picture of the guy or something?"

Blake nodded and handed him a folder for him and the rest of his team to look at. "It was the janitor we saw in the cafeteria earlier today." A sharp intake of breath startled the others. "Jaune, are you alright?"

It was him. But he had seemed so nice. He helped him both those times. "I... I know this guy. I mean, I met him." At their silent questioning, he continued. "He helped me fix myself up one time when I slipped in the hallway," he paused to glare at Nora's tittering. "But there was one other time besides that. I was doing some training in the simulation room when he showed up and gave me some tips on how to use my shield better. Not just like in a defensive way, but using it as a weapon."

"So that's who taught you that finishing blow in your spar with Weiss." Ren ignored Weiss' slight glare. He hadn't cared what bullies thought of him, not since Nora became his friend. He was trying to get the facts straightened out. Opinions held no place here, not when they were talking about the safety of Remnant's next generation of defenders.

"Yeah, he pointed out stuff that even my dad didn't told me about, and he was the last person to use it." Jaune still talked with his family occasionally. They didn't know the full length of what he'd done since he left home, but they at least knew he was at a combat school. How could they not when he had taken the family sword? His father had been slightly disappointed in him at first, but when he started hearing about how far his only son had come, he slowly started to accept it. Eventually, he started sharing stories about his time when using Crocea Mors, but he admitted to surprise about Jaune using the shield as an offensive tool.

"So what does that mean?" Yang asked. What did it matter if some guy knew about how Jaune's weapon was used in the past?

"It means that somebody gave him records on how your family used to fight when they used that sword," Blake explained. "I'm betting that your family doesn't exactly go around telling everybody how exactly they fight? That would mean somebody has to have studied your family's fighting styles. I'm willing to bet that he has records on all of us and how we fight as well. I heard that those fake students from Mistral had records on all of us."

Despite everything, Pyrrha wasn't sure. Like Jaune, she too knew that very little ever turned out to be what it seemed. "I'm sure that those rumors are just exaggerated. I mean, who would want-"

"Magnetism." Pyrrha's back stiffened like it was made out of the iron she controlled. Blake's casual remark was more than enough to convince Pyrrha. She'd kept the secret of what her semblance really was so that she'd have the upper hand in a fight. After the events in the Forever Fall, she had even approached Ruby and Weiss and asked them to keep the secret. Her reasoning was that some fighters had the tendency to reveal all of their abilities during a fight. Those fighters tended to lose often. Smart huntsmen didn't reveal everything to always try and maintain an upper hand.

The members of Team JNPR looked at each other for a few seconds before reaching an agreement.

"What do you need us to do?"

Shirou pushed the smaller redhead away back into the air and kicked at her to launch her back some distance. As he righted himself from the kick, another bullet screamed past his ear, forcing him to dodge yet again. The girl was still sniping away at him from the roof and a couple of new combatants had entered the fray. He needed to prioritize. He needed to reevaluate the situation and determine his enemies' weaknesses and strengths.

Plan in mind, Shirou engaged Pyrrha. His blades clashed against her shield, her knees threatening to buckle under his reinforced strength. Ren leapt at him from the side, his outstretched foot aimed for the side of his face. Shirou broke off from the Goddess of Victory and ducked underneath the flying kick, green clad fighter passing over him.

"I got him," Yang yelled as she dashed into his guard from behind and launched a blast from Ember Celica. Shirou spun and barely diverted the blast away from his head in time, feeling the heat of the dust round blazing past his head. She kept up her barrage of explosive punches as Shirou kept trying to knock away the blasts. One blast went sailing past Weiss, creating a small crater in the turf behind her.

"Hey, watch it!" Weiss yelled at her teammate. "We're not trying to blast each other to smithereens!"

Yang growled. "I'm not trying to hit you, but he keeps knocking my aim off!"

"Then we should stick to melee. With this many people, our chances of friendly fire are too high while his are non-existent," Ren advised. It wasn't something they had considered, but the two teams didn't fight together often enough to stay out of the line of each other's fire. It threw off their plan slightly, but it had to be done. This guy needed to go down.

Ruby hopped off the roof at that and charged full speed at Shirou. Her wide and powerful swings allowed Yang to back off and forced Shirou to only dodge them lest his blades shatter against the heavier weapon. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the others start circle around the two of them. If he disengaged from the girl in red, one or more of the others would meet him and allow her to rest.

This was quickly becoming a dangerous battle of attrition. He had to take control of the flow of the fight now, or he would lose. Shirou ducked under one particularly wide attack, and rushed towards Ruby. She squeaked as he got close, but instead of attacking her like she and the others expected, he simply rushed past her.

Weiss was a pretty good fighter in close to mid-ranged combat, but unprepared as she was, Shirou's sudden rush caught her off guard. His blade caught against her skin, and her aura, and sent her staggering back a good deal. She watched as Ren moved to intercept him, but Shirou threw his white blade at Nora and tossed Ren as he tried to hook him with the prongs of StormFlower. Ren stuck the landing as Nora got clipped by the spinning blade, but Shirou caught him in the side with a powerful kick.

Shirou turned and met a furious Pyrrha. Nobody hurt her teammates and got away with it. The others watched in awe at the swift and deadly strikes the two traded. They'd never seen Pyrrha this serious, not even when she'd faced Team CRDL. What held their attention was the way Shirou raced to match her blow for blow with Kanshou while deflecting hers, landing a few strikes at first but quickly finding that his attacks quickly started missing somehow.

"Pyrrha, behind you!" Jaune cried out to his partner. Pyrrha dived to the side as Bakuya came flying through where she had been back into Shirou's unoccupied hand. Wanting to test something, Pyrrha slung Akoúo̱ at her opponent. Shirou responded in kind, flinging Kanshou. Shield and sword glanced off each other in mid-air, sending them sprawling away from their targets but returning back to their owners hands.

"So your semblance is magnetism," Pyrrha announced. Shirou didn't respond, instead choosing to bring his blades up into a more defensible stance against this skilled opponent. Everybody else took that as a confirmation though, thinking it was a display of discomfort as his opponents figured out one of his strengths.

"Wait, I thought his semblance is speed," Ruby questioned suddenly. "The way he moved through the forest and how he could keep up with my attacks, I thought for sure he had a semblance like mine." The others leapt into debate about his skills, positing theories about what he was capable of and what they'd sworn they saw he'd done. Shirou blinked as they did nothing but argue. Had they actually forgotten they were fighting him?

The sound of spell casting behind him let him know that, no, they had not forgotten him. Weiss had started charging at him from behind while the others played the distraction. He turned and caught her blade with one of his own and brought up the other to strike. As he tried to bring it down, the air around Bakuya turned black and it felt like he was swinging his arm through sludge. The white haired girl took advantage of his slowed attack and twirled out of the way.

To the side, he could see Pyrrha manifesting her semblance. A black aura enveloped his other blade as well and both started trying to jerk themselves from his grip, leaving him to struggle to maintain control over his weapons. Weiss took advantage of Shirou's wide open guard as he tried to hold onto his rebellious swords. She slashed at him from waist to shoulder, the first of a series of quick blows. It landed, the first real blow they had landed all night. However, something stopped her before she could finish her combo.

It was hot. Her face was hot. She nimbly jumped away from Shirou in confusion, putting some distance between the two of them. Weiss dabbed a finger gently at her face, pulling it away only to see blood dripping down her hand. Had she been struck? No, his weapons had been immobilized. She looked back towards the spy, her breath hitching as she realized what had happened.

He was bleeding. His shirt was torn wide open, exposing the shallow but open wound on his chest. Myrtenaster hadn't struck aura like she had expected, but flesh. The situation had just escalated, and, looking around, her friends seemed to realize it as well judging by the way they shifted uncomfortably. This wasn't like their previous fights where their opponents had either escaped or had ample amounts of aura before they were tired out. There was now a keen edge of lethality added, a dagger poised at someone's throat, and Weiss felt uncomfortable holding the handle.

Shirou brought a hand up to his chest, clutching his projections, and reappraised his situation. He was outnumbered, they knew the lay of the land better than he did and possibly had more traps laying around, they all had unknown abilities, and he had just been injured. They weren't holding back. Perhaps it was time he pull out some of the stops himself.

"I am the bone of my sword."

The air changed. The presence of threat that the man had before grew in strength. His power bolstered slightly, he ignored the black aura like it didn't exist, the blades now moving smoothly in his grasp. This was probably more than enough. Deploying it here against school children was more than likely overkill.

The students took up a ready stance, keeping in mind to not go overboard with their attacks. With this many people, all still fresh to fight, against somebody that was already out of aura, even if he somehow seemed more dangerous, it was almost certainly going to be an easy victory for them now.

Ren went soaring. He gasped, both in pain as the air was driven from his lungs and shock at somebody moving so fast. He skidded against the ground, coming to a stop against one of the ruined pillars. A beep rang out from his scroll. His aura was diminished already? He knew that he was physically the weakest member of Team JNPR, but this guy had brought him this low already? He tried to sit up, but the pain in his broken leg let him know that he wasn't going anywhere for a while.

His body felt like hot steel as he fought against the people who attacked him. Od pumped through his body, reinforcing his muscles' strength and his skin's toughness. The black air dissipated as soon as Pyrrha realized her semblance wasn't strong enough to keep him from moving, not as far away as she was. Weiss and Jaune were quickly knocked away as Nora brought down her hammer. She was knocked away and her scroll chimed at her to let her know that she wasn't able to continue any longer without risking serious injury, but she bought Yang an opening to engage him directly.

Yang was one of the best fighters in a straight forward fight in the first year class. Pyrrha was just right above her, the trick fighter that she was, with how she used Akoúo̱ and Miló and their mecha-shifting to great effect. However, when push came to shove, Yang was the one who could last the longest in a fight. She'd spent most of her time building up her endurance and skill in hand to hand combat. She was selective in what blows she allowed to strike her, stoking her semblance as she hit and let hit.

Even though she knew he was an enemy, she found herself enjoying the fight. This was a life or death situation. This had been what she'd been looking for when she signed up for Beacon. The idea that lives were in the balance. The thrill that only ever happened in action movies. This was it! The adrenaline built up in her system and continued to climb higher and higher as she started taking more and more risks, letting the thrill of it all dare her to take unnecessary chances. She twirled in mid-air to dodge a sword slice, and the horrified gasps that filled the clearing told her that something terrible had just happened.

She landed and dashed away from him. She looked at Ruby, "What's wrong? Is somebody hurt? Is there more of them? Did he get back up?" Her violet eyes flickered red at the thought. The idea that even more skilled fighters were coming for her to fight excited her. Her head felt light at the thought.

Ruby could only look at her with her eyes wide and her mouth open in terror. "Yang... Your... Your hair," Ruby struggled to get out.

"What about my hair? You know it gets like... this... when..." She didn't finish her sentence as she reached up to brush a hand against her flaming mane. Or what was left of it. She felt for the ends of her hair and discovered that her hair now barely reached her shoulders. She didn't move. She had spent years maintaining the beauty of her golden locks, and now it was gone. Because of him. As the others could do nothing but watch, she didn't move a muscle as her brain tried to reboot from the shock.

Rage. She felt nothing but burning hatred. Yang's now short cropped hair lit ablaze in white flame and the excited smile that once adorned her face was replaced by a cold and deadly look. She was going to kill him. There could be no lighter punishment, not for this. He was going to die.

She took off, the ground shattering underneath as she kicked off of it towards Shirou. Her fists shattered the black blade like glass and caught him right below the shoulder. The bone underneath shifted and he could feel the painful grinding of his arm moving in its socket. He backpedaled away, the flaming girl hot on his heels. Another wide haymaker met the flat of the other blade and kept going, Yang's fully red eyes visible through her shroud of flames as she caught his cheek and sent him flying. She leapt after him, bellowing a primal roar and cocking back a fist for the ultimate punch.

Shirou stopped rolling. He needed a weapon, one with range. Bolts of energy crackled around his kneeling form. Archer's swords were favored due to their low cost and easiness to trace, but he needed a weapon that wouldn't break so easily. Time seemed to slow down and he noticed the red cloaked girl holding her prized creation to her chest in fear and horror. He needed that weapon. Time sped up.

And gauntlet met scythe.

Through the fog of anger, confusion sparked in Yang's mind. Wasn't that Ruby's weapon? A kick at her midriff created some space between the two of them. They ignored the questioning murmurs. All that mattered right now was their complete attention on the other. Yang charged again and the fight continued.

It was like she was fighting Ruby. Only this time, Ruby wasn't pulling punches like she did in spars and she was hitting a lot faster and harder. And was male. Move for move, he copied her little sister's style, flourishing the blade in close and deadly spins when he was on the defensive and large sweeps of the blade when he was the aggressor. But something was off of about the way he fought with Crescent Rose and she couldn't put her finger on it. It was something crucial, but he was fighting just as fast as Ruby did. What the hell was going on?

Yang leaned back from one slice at her face and immediately knew she screwed up. She was looking straight down the barrel of the high caliber sniper rifle and saw his trigger finger squeezing down on the trigger.

A click and the scythe followed through as Yang fell over onto her seat. In her shock from not having a hole blown through her face, she didn't see the dull end of Crescent Rose's head coming towards her prone figure. A smack and she found herself being knocked into Ruby. She struggled to get up but she found herself completely drained, the near death experience from her little sister's weapon having pulled her from her berserker state. A muffled beep sounded from her hip pocket and she knew she was out of the fight.

Warning: data corruption. Reboot from backup?

Shirou ignored the slight headache. He had other things to worry about at the moment, like the girl in back who was looking around at her other comrades in a daze before realizing she was the only one left. He still didn't know what she could do as she had opted to stay out of the fight. However, given that she was looking rather cowed at being the last one of her allies standing, she probably wasn't too confident in her fighting abilities. Still, it was never a good idea to underestimate an enemy.

"Put down your weapons. You guys have lost." It was a fair suggestion and an accurate statement. Eight of them had attacked him in the dead of night on their terrain and were neutralized. Not only that but apparently, these were some of the most promising students of their year.

Blake bristled at his order. "And what? Surrender ourselves to you?" She knew what the White Fang did to human prisoners and traitors to the cause. Surrender was not an option. "Never!"

Shirou sighed and allowed Crescent Rose to fade away, replacing it with the less taxing white and black blades. "The people I work for are good people. No harm will come to you. I give my word on that." He would make sure only Ozpin talked to them. General Ironwood was pretty... zealous with his duty, but Shirou knew that he was just trying to keep the people safe. Still, Ozpin was clearly the better choice.

Ruby yelled at that. "You're a liar! The White Fang is only up to no good! You're going to torture us and then when you're done, you're going to kill all of us!"

"What! You guys didn't say anything about that when you asked us to help!" Jaune yelped. Blake sighed. Ruby wasn't wrong, but she could stand to learn to be a little more... tactful. No sense in getting the others riled up.

Shirou paused. He looked at Ruby, who was still lying prone underneath Yang, blinked, then looked back to Blake.

"You lost me."

Yang struggled to push herself up onto one arm to glower at him. "You White Fang scum are gonna destroy the school!"

Shirou's eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs. "You... You think I'm a member of a terrorist group?" The idea of him intentionally hurting somebody for the sole purpose of causing fear jarred him.

"Really now? You're not a member of the Fang? Then why are you threatening us?" Pyrrha asked. She was still a little cross at being so handily defeated. The sensation of an actual loss was new and it gnawed at the Goddess of Victory.

"What? You attacked me! I was just defending myself!" Shirou shouted in disbelief. These people really thought he was out to destroy humanity?

"Then why do you have all those plans about the school's structural weaknesses?" Weiss demanded. "How do you explain that one?"

"Because I asked him to collect them for me," a calm voice said. All nine of them looked towards the source. There, standing at the crown of one of the hills, was Headmaster Ozpin, coffee mug steaming into the cool morning air in hand. He held up one hand to forestall the questions already forming on the children's tongues. "Perhaps a change in venue would be appropriate. Let's continue this discussion once everybody has been tended to."

Author's notes:

1. I'm not dead yet, although I certainly feel like it. I'm coming off of sickness after dealing with finals and job hunting. It's all better now and I'm finally making money again, but damn, things felt bleak there for a while.

2. I wanted to earnestly say thanks for all the great comments and messages you guys send. Honestly? I feel really happy knowing that at least a few people enjoy my writing so much that you guys ask for when the next chapter is, even after several months. I mean, I write this story for myself. I was disappointed by the lack of quality stories between FSN and RWBY, so I decided to make one on my own. To know that it's so well received and supported by everybody, it's almost enough to move me to tears.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You make me want to keep writing.

Do what makes you happy.