It was a universally known fact that you were either a morning person, or you were not.

Nora, for instance, was the embodiment of 'bright and early'.

Ren would then wake up with Nora, even if it took a cup of tea for him to really get his day started.

Jaune was the classic Mr. 'Five More Minutes', who more than once had to be shaken out of bed lest he be late for classes.

Pyrrha wasn't one to lay about in the morning herself. Early to bed, early to rise, and all that.

But this morning, she was contemplating gratuitous, bloody murder if the sun did not extinguish itself.

The thin ray of light poking through the blind of her window managed to land *just* where her eyes were, her entire body recoiling at the sensation.

With a languid motion more akin to the reflex of a lizard, her eyes blinked open. A glaze of grime was glued to her eyelashes, and she groaned pitifully in disgust.

Yeah. Fuck today.

She immediately rose from her bed to find salvation in the bathroom, only to run into the closed door head first.

…at this rate, she was going to kill her team mates this time around.

Suddenly, a scent hit her nostrils, and Pyrrha breathed deep. That aroma…she knew it from somewhere.

Reflexes kicking in, she wheeled around to see Ren standing behind her, already prepared for the day.

"Nora is still getting ready. I thought that you and Jaune might appreciate something to drink." He informed her.

Yes…the smell, the ceramic mug he was holding in his hand. It all began to add up, and her eyes glazed over.

To Ren's credit, he barely flinched when she snatched the cup of coffee out of his hand, like an owl would snatch a mouse from the grass.

But when she started to drink it, neither Jaune, who was nursing a cup himself, nor Ren could quite hide their horror.

"I-is she drinking the cup too?" Jaune asked in disbelief, such was Pyrrha's zealous consumption of the nectar Ren had given her.

When she finished, her body was wracked with a slight convulsion of bliss, until a creature that was more human than a few minutes ago blinked back at the two of them.

"Mmm…" She hummed in contemplation, licking her lips of the last few drops of liquid that remained on her lips. "Needed a bit more sugar." She said to herself, blinking when she remembered that there were other people in the room. "Thank you, Ren."

"No problem." He said, slowly coming to the realization that perhaps red hair was, in fact, a sign of insanity.

Pyrrha didn't notice the new fear she had struck into the hearts of her teammates, however. With fuel now coursing through her body, she could stand to be awake now.

And, as an added bonus, Nora wouldn't have to die for keeping her from being clean. As much as Pyrrha was learning to embrace her inner vindictiveness, she was starting to see that grudges were best reserved for those truly worthy of them.

People like Cinder. Or past-Weiss.

Letting the now scoured-clean cup hang limply at her side, she checked the clock mounted above the door to their room and promptly shut down.

9:41

Her first instinct was to panic and panic she did. Opening her mouth to scream why her team mates hadn't woken her up, she also caught herself as a thought crossed her mind.

Sure, being late to class would be troublesome…but in the grand scheme of things, its not like they had anything to teach her at this point. She had already sat through most of the first year classes anyway, barring ones towards the end of the term.

Not to mention, at this point, her team would have probably been in panic mode too.

"Why aren't we in class?" She instead asked after a long moment, patting herself on the back for thinking things through.

"Classes were canceled for today, and will start tomorrow." Ren said without missing a beat.

"Well…that's a good thing, I suppose." She said, mind already whirling away at what they could spend the time doing.

"Yeah. I just got up myself, I don't think I'd have been ready to sit in a classroom all day." Jaune admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Is breakfast at least still going on?"

"The cafeteria is always open. Normally they divide things up according to year, but today it's a bit of a free-for-all. Or so a very tall second year who was waiting for a tea told me." Ren replied promptly.

"Well, that's a relief, 'cause I'm starving." Jaune said, before getting off the bed languidly, stretching sore muscles and smacking his lips together.

It was this moment that Nora chose to reveal herself, opening the bathroom door to reveal that she was finished. Eyes twinkling with mischief, she bounded over to Ren and poked his nose. "I told you I could get ready quickly, silly."

"I never doubted you for a second, Nora." Ren said with a deadpan – even by his standards – look.

Jaune got up from the bed, stretching out and yawning. "Well, guess I'll go get rea-"

He was cut off by the sound of the bathroom door slamming shut, with a Pyrrha-shaped cloud of dust the only clue was to what happened to her.

"-dy" He finished lamely, scratching his chin idly. "I should have known better. I have seven sisters." He clarified when he saw Ren and Nora giving him questioning looks.

Nora's eyes went wide, and she whistled in appreciation. "Seven? That's seven more than I have." She tilted her head in thought, then looked at Ren. "Could you imagine seven more of me?"

Ren imagined for a moment, then shuddered briefly, as though someone, or seven someones, had just walked over his grave. Even for Ren, it was too early for this.

Pyrrha could hear the muffled banter of her team mates through the door and smiled to herself. It was…relieving, in a way that did much to relieve the tension she had been carrying with her.

As she went through the motions of starting up the shower and undressing, she pondered what to do with their time. A free day back before everything went up in smoke meant a day for everyone to lay about and do nothing.

But now? Pyrrha knew that each day wasn't to be wasted. They had to do as much as they could to prepare, to get stronger.

By the time she stepped under the cleansing rain, she had a rough plan formed in her head. Hopefully the others wouldn't think less of her for wanting to start training, but one way or another they needed to do it.

Unlike last time, Pyrrha wanted to get Jaune up to speed combat wise sooner, rather than later. Now that she knew what didn't work while training him, she could probably boost his growth curve by quite a bit.

More reluctantly though, Pyrrha was going to bring in Ren and Nora in on their training. When the thought had crossed her mind, she had dismissed it…but she kept coming back to something that had occurred to her.

In many ways, they had been Jaune and Pyrrha, with Nora and Ren thrown in as an afterthought. There were very few attempts at cooperation between the two sets of partners when it came to fighting.

In some ways, Jaune was the only one that brought them together. When he had come up with plans, Ren and Nora had performed admirably, but other than that? They hadn't really practiced that much together.

That had to change, for a number of reasons. But the more she thought about it, the more it made her uncomfortable.

She thought of Ren and Nora as friends, comrades, and would have gladly taken a bullet for them…and, in some ways, had already. But something about that rang hollow to her. Sure, she might have known Ren and Nora the teammates, but she hardly knew Ren and Nora the people.

One more thing to add to her mind-numbingly long list of things to rectify.

As she finished washing up and drying, she paused to look at herself in the mirror. In some ways, she was the same had she had ever been.

She was tall, in some ways a bit gangly ever since puberty, but she'd grown into it nicely. Blessed with skin that needed only minimal management, coupled with a figure that, well…she knew she had no cause to complain. Topped off with the one vanity she indulged; her hair. A flaming red mane, vibrant and cascading down her back like a mantle, a banner of all that was Pyrrha.

When she looked herself in the eye, though, the illusion fell away.

She looked tired, hunted in many ways. The signs of strain were there, in the creasing of skin, the faint shadows underneath her eyes.

For the first time in a long time, Pyrrha felt ugly.

There was a lingering sense of corruption that was clinging to her very being, and it made her squirm under her own gaze.

It was an unbearable malaise, and it sized her, to drag her down. The dread gripped into her with oily fingers, and toxin stained her, tendrils of murky ink that made everything so very, very cold.

She wanted to die.

But she had to live.

But what was living, though, when by all rights she shouldn't have even be ashes in the wind?

Pyrrha was being torn apart, and all she could do was let her despair gnaw away at her soul and it hurt and-

Knock-Knock!

A hand at the door of the bathroom brought her back to reality. She jumped, startled out of her mind, heart racing as color and sound came roaring back.

"Pyrrha? You okay in there?"

Jaune. It was Jaune.

She slowly pieced herself back together and cleared her throat. "Yes." She said simply, before mentally kicking herself at the unhelpful answer. "I'll, ah, be out soon."

Pyrrha managed to claw her way back to sanity, taking great pains to try and focus on the present moment.

Soon enough she was opening the door, dressed for the day, to see Jaune standing there patiently.

"Thanks Pyr." He said cheerfully, whistling the whole while as he stepped by her.

She couldn't do anything but mutely nod, not trusting herself to speak.

She slowly trudged over back to her bed to sit down, waiting with the others who were engrossed in some light chit chat.

All things considered, she was grateful that Nora and Ren didn't pick up on her…unusual mood. That might have made her really break.

But no, no, she couldn't, and wouldn't do that. Not after all she had been through.

Focus. She needed to focus.

It was that mantra that managed to get her on a more even playing field, although it took the rest of Jaune's shower time to do it.

When he was out, she was able to put on a straight face, not alright but not on the verge of collapse either.

"Finally!" Nora sang, springing up from where she had been sitting, practically dancing in place as she expressed her excitement. "Let's go team! Lead the way, fearless leader!"

Even as Jaune scratched the back of his head in an 'aw shucks' kind of way, Pyrrha found herself smiling a bit at the banter.

Sometimes a bit of laughter really was the best medicine.

Breakfast was…subdued. The first time around, everyone had talked up a storm. But after yesterday? Not so much. The exuberance, the joy was tempered by harsh reality.

Oh, that didn't mean it was quiet, far from it. It's hard not to have noise when you have hundreds of students milling about the dining hall, eating and drinking.

But conversations were a dull roar, a white noise that sharply contrasted with Pyrrha's past experience.

Granted, she was a bit too busy tearing into the food like her life depended upon it to really care, but that was besides the point.

She had become more attuned to these sorts of things. Death had made her think.

Also, it seemed to make her hungry. Really hungry.

She paused in the middle of a bite of pancake, swallowing as she considered that. It had been an errant thought, but there was a bit of a deeper truth to that, wasn't there?

Ever since she had come back, she was almost…more alive. More attentive, but also more impulsive. More thoughtful, yet more careless. Her emotions ran hot, but depression could make her freeze.

Was it possible, for death to make someone sensitive to life?

She didn't know, but it was a plausible explanation for the changes that had come over her. She might have been unbalanced, but she wasn't stupid enough to not recognize that. Un-Pyrrha-like thoughts had almost become the norm overnight, and it was very noticeable.

Any further musing on her part was interrupted by a sudden feeling of impending doom.

…

…or was that Team RW-

"Mine!" Zoom went a red comet, trailing roses across the table.

Yep. It was their sister-team.

The other three members of the color-coordinated team strolled in after their leader, Yang surveying their table with her usual confident attitude.

"Sup' guys?" She drawled, taking an empty seat next to Ren and giving Jaune a questioning look from her position right across from him.

Pyrrha was keenly aware of the empty seats next to her. She felt immensely relieved when Weiss and Blake chose to sit next to Yang instead.

Not that she didn't like them, but…she was enjoying just sitting next to Jaune. By herself. With a minimal amount of distraction from that state of affairs.

"Eh, y'know…" Jaune replied back, clearly a bit nervous with the attention that he was being given. "Just, ah, trying to fuel up for the day."

If Yang found him less than eloquent, she didn't comment on it. Weiss sniffed a bit at Jaune's answer, but blissfully kept her mouth shut. Pyrrha forced herself to release her white-knuckle grip on her fork.

'Its just Weiss being Weiss', Pyrrha had to remind herself. Weiss scoffed at everything. That didn't mean Pyrrha needed to fly off the handle just because it was directed at Jaune. Plus, she had gotten even with her already.

…that didn't mean she had to like it, she decided after a moment, and resolved that was a compromise she could live it.

"What about you?" Pyrrha managed to ask after a moment, trying to break some of the awkwardness of the conversation by putting the ball back into Yang's court.

"Eh, I don't know. Weiss Cream over here wants us to start studying for everything, ever, like a nerd." She said, to a squawk of protest from her teammate. "But I'm thinkin'…nah."

"I just want us to take the time to get ahead! Is that so wrong?" The frosty girl protested, huffing in indignation like she had a PhD in exasperation.

Blake merely rolled her eyes from her seat next to Weiss, clearly having heard more than enough of this argument.

Pyrrha tried very, very hard not to agree with Weiss here. She really did. But for her own reasons, she couldn't help but say "I think that sounds like a good idea."

Weiss' expression attained a new, hitherto-unknown to mankind level of smugness, while Yang looked like Pyrrha had just told her she'd shot her dog. With a cannon.

"I just…after yesterday, don't you think that maybe training with our teammates would be a good idea?" Pyrrha managed to spit out in a hurry, her words running together in her haste to distance herself from Weiss' own quirky brand of academic workaholism.

By this point, everyone had turned away from her food to look at her. Yang especially looked at her with newfound comprehension, turning the idea over in her mind. "Mmm…that's not a bad idea, firecracker." The blond mused. "Considering Ruby's probably gonna end up eating all the sweets in the cafeteria, she'll need an outlet for all that energy."

As if called by her sister's words, Ruby reappeared in a tornado of crimson beside Pyrrha, brandishing a plate towering with all manner of breakfast goodies.

Plopping the massive pile of sugar down on the table – which weighed so much the solid oak surface visibly bent – Ruby took a seat beside her. "What'd I miss?" She asked, before proceeding to devour her heart-busting collection of sweets.

"Eh, Pyrrha here things we should all train and stuff since classes are cancelled." Yang said, while Pyrrha eyed the hoard of baked goods that Ruby had amassed.

Even Pyrrha knew that you didn't give Ruby that much sugar. What on earth was Yang thinking?

Weiss couldn't help but make her opinion known. "That simply can't be healthy for you." She declared, gazing at Ruby's cornucopia of calories like it was some sort of grotesque alien lifeform.

Her partner paused from doing her best blender impersonation to reply. "Oh yeah? Well, uh…it's training."

"Training." Weiss said flatly, raising a delicate eyebrow in disbelief.

"Yuh-huh. I'm ah…traininggggg to keep going in the face of overwhelming numbers! Yeah!" Thus, satisfied with her answer that fooled precisely no-one, Ruby turned back to continue slaughtering the defenseless food she had amassed.

Not that Pyrrha could really judge. Her own eating habits today had been less than ladylike.

Still, out of all the people who had to deal with this, she felt bad for poor Blake, who had probably done nothing to earn the impending suffering that was Ruby on a sugar high.

They all ate in relative silence for the rest of the time, barring the occasional piece of banter back and forth.

It was…nice. Refreshing. It kept Pyrrha's spirits up, allowing her to face the day ahead.

"You said you wanted to train?" Ren spoke up after they were all finished, surprising Pyrrha, who gave him a nod.

He hummed in thought for a moment. "I think it would be a good idea. Jaune?"

Her partner blinked, clearly confused at the question. "Why are you asking m- oh, team leader thing…right."

He breathed deeply for a moment, collecting his thoughts before shrugging. "I mean…Pyrrha has a point? Training can only be a good thing."

Despite his less-than-confident answer, everyone seemed satisfied with their current goal, Nora grinning and all but cackling at the prospect of sparring. "This is gonna be fun!" She said, giving Jaune a particularly predatory look that made him crack a nervous smile in return.

"Fun…heh…yeah." He managed to spit out, shooting looks of panic to Pyrrha every so often. He didn't have much to worry about, though. Nora could be a handful sometimes, but she wasn't actually out looking for blood.

It would be a good, nay, vital learning experience, for all of them. They couldn't afford to rest on their individual talents. Considering what was to come, complacency would mean certain defeat.

What were a few bruises and some hard truths, compared to the lives of everyone in Vale?

They had to collect their weapons from their room, so by the time they managed to make their way to the gym, it was already closing in on noon.

It was busy, busier than Pyrrha had expected it to be, before mentally kicking herself. Of course, there would be more teams training in light of yesterday's events.

Most of them, Pyrrha didn't recognize. Third and fourth year teams, with some second year teams thrown in for good measure.

There were few first year teams, though, for what Pyrrha was sure was a variety of reasons. Most were probably still recovering, or it simply hadn't occurred to them to take this first step.

Meanwhile, the higher years had actual field experience. They understood the risks, and the disaster yesterday only pointed out the necessity of training to most of them even more.

That didn't mean that the first years wouldn't catch up, though. Hell…if it came down to it, maybe they could organize regular extra-curricular spars under the guise of training for the Vytal Festival?

It was a distinct possibility, one that Pyrrha would definitely have to look into. But now, to see how this training went.

They managed to get into one of the less crowded rooms in the back of the sprawling exercise facility, one that was specifically designed for team-on-team combat.

"I think some one on one might be the best way to start this." She found herself saying as they made their way inside.

"Sounds good to me! Partner on Partner?" Nora chirped, already limbering up with some light stretching, practically vibrating in place.

"A wise choice." Pyrrha replied lightly, relieved that someone else had suggested it. All the better to start teaching Jaune better habits now.

He himself looked like the weight of the world had been taken off his shoulders, enough so that he was able to grasp Crocea Mors in a somewhat confident fashion.

Before he paused, mid-heft.

Pyrrha watched as he took a deep breath, visibly steeled himself, and started speaking.

"Listen, guys?" He began, clearly struggling to get the words out of his mouth as everyone turned to look at him with curiosity.

All at once, Pyrrha could practically hear his next words before he spoke them.

"I…I have a confession to make. I…" Deep breath. "I lied on my admission papers."

Pyrrha knew that already, but still, the impact of hearing him say it, to them, without being caught out in the lie yet was a complete surprise.

Before Nora and Ren could react to that, Jaune continued his explanation. "I don't have any training. I didn't even have an aura before I came to Beacon. I didn't even really know what aura was."

If Nora and Ren had been shocked before, they were floored by that particular bit of information. Yet still, Jaune pressed onward.

"After yesterday, I almost quit. But I want to do this. I need to do this." He looked their other two teammates in the eye in turn. "But that doesn't mean I should lie to you about it to do that, either."

The resulting silence was probably the quietest she'd ever heard during her time on Team JNPR.

Jaune visibly deflated more and more, resigned to take his lumps. "If you want to tell the staff, I understa-"

Even to Pyrrha's trained eye, she could barely follow Nora as she surged forth and crushed Jaune in a bear hug.

"You. Are. So. STUPID." Nora wailed, as Jaune wheezed in her grasp, her arms squeezing the life out of him.

"Brave…" She muttered, relaxing her hold just long enough to allow her teammate to get a desperately needed breath of air, before she constricted him once again, so hard it caused his aura to flare. "BUT STUPID."

Ren took a few steps forward to gently lay a hand on his partner's shoulder. "I think he understands, Nora." He said wisely, to which Jaune frantically nodded.

"Yes, yes!" He rattled faintly, turning faintly blue from lack of air.

Nora finally realized Jaune did, in fact, need to breathe, and so released him. Jaune promptly fell to his knees, inhaling deep gulps of air.

When he finally staggered to his feet, Ren gave him a critical look, which Jaune met with some hesitance, but resolve.

Satisfied with whatever he saw, Ren sighed. "If you had told us this when we first met, I might have been inclined to report you to the faculty. But after yesterday, I couldn't do that. You fought bravely." He extended a hand to Jaune, who looked at it with wide eyes.

"I'm honored to have you as our team leader." Ren finished, a small smile gracing his normally neutral features.

Jaune accepted the offered hand, a genuine look of relief on his face.

They all turned to look at Pyrrha, who merely smiled. "I was the one who unlocked his aura." She said by way of explanation. "I knew he would tell you when he was ready."

She hadn't been expecting the truth to come out this early. In some ways, it was a relief. But she also had to be careful here with what she revealed. If Jaune mentioned Pyrrha had 'sensed' his lack of aura, that might reveal her excuse for what it was.

Thankfully, no one commented on that bit of information, accepting it at face value.

"Phew…I feel like we just went ten rounds there!" Nora said, faking wiping off a bit of sweat from her brow, before giving Jaune a playful tap on the shoulder.

"Yeah, you're telling me." He said, before rolling his shoulders, reaching down to pick up Crocea Mors from where he'd dropped it. "But we're here, so…might as well train, right?"

It took everything Pyrrha had not to cry. Her team was well on its way to being what it was before. No. Better than what it was before.

But she was done with tears for now. Grabbing Milo from her side, she swung it in a little flourish, and smiled playfully. "With pleasure."

AN: Holy crap has it been a long time.

To all those who have left comments on both my stories, I greatly appreciate your words of encouragement. Unfortunately, school and work and real life commitments being what they are, my time for fanfiction writing has diminished greatly.

But hopefully, my writing pace will pick up a lot more now that some of my motivation has returned to me as well, in spite of my reduced time.

However, to keep myself motivated to write more, I've decided to take the liberty of creating a Discord server to chat with those who are following my stories.

If you are interested, here's a link. Be warned, I don't tolerate bullshit, and no NSFW-content will be allowed. For those of you who are reading this on Fanfiction dot Net, check Spacebattles for the link in question, since it won't be here in full. However, the extension should allow you to get in if you have a bit of know-how of how discord links work.

/6D9dMDh