A/N: Normally, I get a number of people to help me edit this, but I didn't actually get any help with this particular chapter - hence, if quality is generally lacking, then I'm sorry. Review responses shall now be at the end of the chapter!


Chapter 9

Pyrrha had high hopes the day she came to Beacon. She had high hopes that it would be a chance to escape being put on a pedestal, feeling that she could never interact with anyone else, feeling that she could finally be treated not as a better, but as an equal. Perhaps at Beacon, she would no longer be the big fish in the small pond and be seen not as the Invincible Girl, but as Pyrrha Nikos.

Safe to say, her hopes, lofty and perhaps overly ambitious as they were, were being dashed.

"Wake up, you lout!" a shrill voice barked at the lump entangled in a mess of bedsheets on top of the neighbouring bed.

"Renny… Is it… Morning already…?" the lump groaned in response, showing no signs of ceasing to be a lump and becoming the bubbly girl it once was again.

The girl trying to wake her up growled in response, and turned to the silent boy in the corner of the room. His eyes drooped a little, not just from the unearthly hour they'd been forced open at, but also from foreboding. Pyrrha couldn't blame him at all - their leader was like something out of a nightmare. Tyrannical, uncompromising, ruthless and sadistic.

It was funny that Pyrrha thought so poorly of someone that she'd barely even known for a day. She of all people shouldn't have been so quick to judge books by their covers - her title frequently led others to ignore her contents, and she wouldn't normally have subjected people to this kind of treatment.

Then again, Weiss Schnee hadn't exactly made an amazing first impression.

The boy in green walked slowly up to the unmoving lump, and shook it a small amount where Pyrrha believed its shoulder was, the girl in white glaring at it all the while. This time, the lump twitched a little, but remained mostly still. Weiss shot the poor boy a glare, and the boy shook it again, this time a little harder.

"Perhaps I can -" she began to try and offer assistance, but the white-haired girl had her hands over her shoulders the instant she did.

"Please, Pyrrha, you needn't -" she said, an angelic smile plastered to her face, "As leader, it is my responsibility to attend to trivial matters like these. You shouldn't concern yourself with this."

Before Pyrrha could even reply, she was sitting back down on her bed and the girl had gone back to pestering the boy in green. They were making absolutely no progress with rousing the lump. The girl growled, reached underneath the mattress, and flipped it up onto its side.

There was a rush of fabric as the duvet fell to the ground, but no accompanying thud from a person falling after it. The girl in white frowned, and peered over to the other side of the mattress.

Clinging to the side of it, in the exact same position she had been sleeping in, was a redheaded girl. Her knuckles were white with the strain of holding her completely in place, but she didn't budge an inch. Coupled with that, she was still sleeping.

The frown on the girl in white's face was bone-chilling. She breathed in sharply, as if about to say something, before the boy in green tapped the redhead's shoulder.

"Nora, it's time to wake up now." he said calmly.

"Nooooo… it's… too early… Renny…" she groaned, eyelids still firmly closed.

The boy in green sighed, and then reached to the girl's exposed armpits… And tickled her. The girl soon dropped like a rock, trying to protect herself from her partner - but there was no escape. As soon as she tried to protect herself, his hands would move elsewhere and cause her to erupt into more giggles.

"Nora," the boy repeated, "It's time to wake up now."

The girl slumped, defeated.

"Okay, Renny." she replied. The boy offered her his hand, and lifted her to her feet. She giggled a little more, but was stopped when met with the frigid gaze of the girl in white.

"Just why, exactly," she began, voice seething, "Did you not wake up the instant your leader asked?"

"Uh… I couldn't hear you…?" replied the redheaded girl, glancing around and trying to avoid the glacial girl's glare at all costs.

"As a member of Team Winter," Pyrrha noted how the girl's chest puffed out a bit at the team's name, "You should always be listening out for your leader. There should never be any instance where you cannot hear what I say if you do." her voice cracked like a whip, and Pyrrha flinched slightly when hearing it, "I hope that you keep this in mind in future."

The redheaded girl seemed, almost, to deflate a little upon being prodded so fiercely by the white witch. Even the boy's comforting pats to the back didn't seem to help.

This was to be Pyrrha's team for the upcoming four years at Beacon, and as things were going, she dreaded the thought of it. Her teammates were far from the issue - from the small opportunities she'd actually gotten to talk to them, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were genuinely kind and interesting people. The problem was that whenever they tried to approach or talk to her, Weiss Schnee, their glorious leader, had swooped in and quickly sent them to do some menial chore and then started trying to flatter her.

Pyrrha hated it. She hated that, somehow, she was being isolated from her teammates in a tiny dorm room. She'd come to Beacon to escape the pedestal she'd been trapped on in Mistral, only for Weiss Schnee to drag her right back on to one.

She'd already began barking at Ren and Nora, repeating tired old drivel about standards and responsibility. With how Weiss treated her team members, it was almost as if she thought she was in the Atlas Military, not Beacon Academy.

"Team Winter!" Weiss announced, "Very soon it will be the start of our first semester at the illustrious Beacon Academy." she began to pace back and forth between Pyrrha and her two other teammates, "And we need to set the standard for the rest of the school! With that in mind, you must know that I expect only the best from each and everyone one of you. And what I saw this morning," she said, casting not-so-subtle glances towards Nora, "Was not the best. In our upcoming Grimm Studies lesson, I want you to demonstrate your full capabilities as huntsmen-in-training. Are we clear?"

Ren and Nora mumbled in what seemed to be agreement. It was probably closer to reluctant compliance, but it didn't make a difference to Weiss. She folded her arms and smiled, apparently satisfied with the response.

"Um, Weiss?" Pyrrha interrupted. Weiss instantly turned around, a much warmer but more insincere smile on her face once again.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" she asked, voice saturated with flattery. Pyrrha almost recoiled, but steeled herself at the last second.

"You said we have Grimm Studies next, yes?"

Weiss nodded, eyes narrowing.

"When did our Grimm Studies lesson start?"

"Nine…" her eyes drifted to the clock. It read eight fifty-five. It seems her ranting and failed attempts to wake up Nora had ended up wasting a lot of their time.

She flew out of the door almost instantly, causing several students in the hallways to cry and jump back in shock. Ren, Nora and finally Pyrrha followed after.

*X*

"Class dismissed!"

Pyrrha's mind shifted from wandering aimlessly back to being grounded in reality.

Oh, the lesson was over?

She was certainly thankful for it - she wasn't sure detention could've been much worse than the dull drone of Port's lesson. The man couldn't be faulted for his passion, at the very least - but that passion didn't seem to carry through into making his lectures interesting. Every word he said seemed to blend together into one big, monotone drawl; it made trying to listen to him without falling asleep near completely impossible.

Her eyes drifted around the classroom, taking in her surroundings. A number of students were currently rousing themselves from the deep sleep they'd been sent into, then getting up, stretching with groans of relief, and slowly ambling out of the door like zombies. A few had managed to wake themselves up enough to have a lively conversation, but most remained in complete silence.

Pyrrha picked herself up off of the desk, and pulled herself to her feet. She still felt a little bleary from daydreaming for the past hour, but it would probably work its way out of her system eventually.

And then her eyes found the pair in the centre of the room, standing beside the remains of a dying grimm. It was Weiss, and someone she hadn't seen before - a little girl wearing a red cloak. Her eyes narrowed with curiosity.

The cloaked girl seemed to be complaining about something to the professor.

"B-but Professor Port! I didn't -"

"Yes, you did, Miss Rose." the professor curtly replied.

"But I -"

"No buts, I'm afraid."

While the little girl stammered away indignantly, Weiss was simply standing there, completely still - like she was some kind of statue. Her expression was twisted into one of complete and utter terror. Whatever the Professor had told them, it must have been something truly horrific for her leader to react like that.

"Wha… What was that, again, Professor…?" she eventually slurred out, breaking the cloaked girl and the professor from their former back and forth.

"I said, girl, that you'll be attending remedial sessions every day from now on."

Wait… what?

Pyrrha hovered just outside the door.

"W… Why?"

The professor laughed.

"Why, surely you know, dear girl! You two had an unsanctioned fight on school grounds, and Miss Rose here attacked a teacher!" he stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Pyrrha's curiosity had been firmly piqued. What on earth had happened? Why would that cloaked girl suddenly attack a teacher? Was she some kind of juvenile delinquent? A problem child that had been accepted into Beacon because of sheer talent?

She hurried out of the door, and pushed her back to the wall once she was in the hallway, trying to listen in to what the three were talking about.

"B-but I was trying to stop her from attacking him!" stuttered Weiss's voice from behind the door.

The picture began to piece itself together. The girl in the red cloak had attacked a teacher unprovoked, and Weiss had stepped in to break it up, but inadvertently escalated the situation. It sounded like something Weiss would do.

"He is a teacher at Beacon. I can assure you, the man can handle himself."

"H-He's… A t-teacher…?" another, even higher pitch voice whispered.

"Why, of course! Professor Torchwick is our Economics teacher!" boomed Professor Port, "Didn't you know?"

Pyrrha caught a wail of despair coming from the room behind her - so high pitched she almost couldn't hear it.

The girl in the cloak hadn't known the man was a teacher? How was that possible?

"T-this is absurd!" cried the voice of her leader, "P-preposterous! Why am I facing punishment for trying to intervene?"

"Because, dear girl, it's the teacher's place to deal with rebellious students, and not yours - admirable as your intentions may be."

The sound of frustrated stomps came closer and closer to the door, and it was soon slammed open as Weiss strode her way into the hallway, frowning in sheer rage.

"Stupid, immature, childish," she stamped her foot for every insult she heaped up through gritted teeth, "Infantile, petulant -"

Pyrrha couldn't help herself. She smiled, and then soon broke out into a quiet giggle. Her leader turned to her, face frozen. The sneer quickly transformed into a smile.

"Oh hello, Pyrrha! I didn't see you there." it sounded forced, and the smile Weiss was trying so hard to maintain twitched slightly.

Pyrrha's giggle broke out into a wave of laughter that threatened to knock her off of her feet. Weiss' face fell. Turning quickly, she rushed off down the hallway trailing even more insults behind her.

Pyrrha couldn't deny that it felt satisfying to see her leader so dismayed.

"So… Any reason you were eavesdropping on the Professor, the Ice Queen and my sister?"

Pyrrha looked to the left, her gaze meeting a blonde with a raised eyebrow, and a gleeful smirk. She coughed, and looked away nervously, her laughter stopping almost immediately.

"Um… Why were you eavesdropping on them?" Pyrrha blurted out.

The girl began to laugh, but stopped as the door opened once again, and out of it stepped Professor Port with a terrified-looking girl in a red cloak behind him.

The Professor raised an eyebrow.

"You two were eavesdropping on me?"

*X*

Jaune felt a little bleak. He'd been hoping that he'd get a little bit more time to spend with his team - if the next lesson was going to be anything like the last, he'd treasure all of the free time he got - but they all seemed to have other priorities. Ruby, for whatever reason, had been held up by the teacher on her way out of the classroom; hopefully not due to anything too serious.

Jaune idly wondered if the Professor saw Ruby's doodles. That would've been a good enough explanation if everyone else in the classroom hadn't been doing more or less the same.

Yang had, of course, decided to stay outside and wait for Ruby; denying Jaune every time he offered that they wait for her sister at the cafeteria. Jaune supposed it just wasn't worth the effort to try and drag her away from the door, and he was too hungry to wait with her.

Blake had simply vanished. Probably to go into a quiet corner to read her books - and Jaune wasn't about to go and look for her. If he ever found her, he got the feeling prying her from her books would be like trying to pull out the floor with his bare hands.

So, like it or not, he was probably going to be alone until the next lesson. He sighed, and pulled the scrunched up timetable out of his pockets. He opened it up, and looked at his lessons for the day. It looked like he had…

Economics? Jaune scratched the side of his head. That hadn't been on the list of classes Beacon was supposed to have, last he'd checked. Then again, the last time he'd checked was a while ago - maybe they'd gotten a new teacher for it? Why would a school for huntsmen even teach Economics?

Well, so long as it wasn't as bad as Grimm Studies had been, Jaune supposed he didn't really care. It was supposed to be happening in about fifteen minutes, at the history classroom.

Wait, where was the history classroom? He'd gotten to Grimm Studies in the morning by just following Blake - he hadn't really gotten used to the layout of Beacon yet. The twisting hallways of the school might as well have been a maze to him.

He reached into another pocket, and pulled out a map. Supposedly, it was on the left wing of the building… But how on earth was he going to get there?

"Looking for the history classroom?" a voice behind him asked.

Jaune twisted around, seeing a new figure in front of him extending a gloved hand.

"Uh, yeah." he answered, as awkwardly as expected.

"How convenient! You can just follow me, then - it's my next destination too." the man answered, his cane making muffled thuds against the floor as he walked.

Jaune took in his appearance - the man had a few inches on him, which was obvious even with the hat he wore on his head. Neatly combed red hair fell out from underneath the hat's rim, covering one of the man's eyes - the other one had, for whatever reason, a bit of mascara on it. He wasn't wearing the uniform; instead, he wore a white suit with an open collar.

He probably wasn't a student, then. If so, was he a teacher?

"The name's Roman Torchwick, if you were wondering," he said cheerfully, face in an easy looking smile, "But I suppose that's Professor Torchwick to you, Mr. Arc." he tipped his hat slightly, "I teach Economics here."

"... Oh." Jaune responded. Well, that answered those questions. "Wait, you know my name?"

"Well, we did have a giant ceremony in which everyone saw your name just yesterday,"

Jaune felt stupid.

"I guess that explains it, then, huh?"

"Well, I have to say, Jaune - can I call you Jaune?" Jaune nodded slightly in response, and the man's smile widened a fraction, "I've already forgotten half of the people at that ceremony. I guess yours was just memorable enough for me to care."

Wait, why him? What was so memorable about him? He realised what it probably was, and inwardly sighed.

"It's the team name, isn't it?" he asked, grimacing a little.

"Nope." Professor Torchwick replied, leaving Jaune a little taken aback, "Although, the team name was pretty funny. The actual reason I remembered your name is because it was the name I wanted the leader of your team to have."

Jaune's eyes widened. He looked back at the man walking next to him in shock. The question that had been at the front of his mind moved to the tip of his tongue.

Why me?

"W-why me…?" he asked, and mentally kicked himself for sounding so bumbly.

"Why are you asking me this?" he responded, almost immediately, "Don't you think you're good enough to be a leader?"

He didn't, and he wanted to know why this man did.

"The others on my team," he replied, "They're so much better than I am - I don't think I'm cut out to lead them."

The Professor stopped, and Jaune stopped shortly after, turning to him.

"You're right on three accounts. They're certainly stronger than faster than you, and from what I saw in initiation, more skilled too." the words hit Jaune like a hammer, but he listened on regardless. "But, you have one thing they don't; one thing that piqued my interest."

Jaune couldn't help but wonder what it was.

"W-what was that?" he asked, hoping against all hope.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you, Jaune?" his smile was still there, but his eyes told Jaune he was being deadly serious.

Jaune thought about it for a moment.

What if his answer was something he didn't like?

It didn't matter. No answer he could possibly give could be worse than the pain of beating himself up over him being made leader. He had to know.

"Y-yeah."

"Absolutely certain?"

Jaune faltered for a moment. Was he?

"Yes."

Torchwick laughed.

"The one thing you had over all of the competition, Jaune," he said, still smiling as much as ever, "Was your transcripts."

Jaune suddenly realised just how alone he was in the hallway.

"W-What about them?"

'Well, for one, they said you went to that academy in Vacuo before it was destroyed, meaning that you have the most experience with actual Grimm attacks of any of the students entering this year. That could come in handy in the event you need to help your team out of one here in Vale." he said flatly.

Oh yeah, he'd written that on those transcripts. He thought it would be best if he had his academic records come from a destroyed school - it would make it much harder for Beacon to check if they were real or not.

So, that was it, huh? Jaune honestly felt proud of himself, in a twisted way. The transcripts he'd forged not only got him into Beacon, but also made him the leader of his team. It still didn't mean he deserved the position, though.

"They also said you were the leader of your team back there before they all died in the attack."

He was? Wait, had he put that in his transcripts?

"Oh wait," Torchwick said, tapping his temples, "That was something I made up for you, not something you made up yourself. My bad,"

Jaune's blood suddenly felt much, much colder.

"W-what?"

"Well, you see, your transcripts were definitely the most interesting thing about you," he responded, "In that they were the worst piece of forgery I've ever seen. It was almost impressive how badly you messed that one up, kid."

The words knocked the air out of him instantly, as if punching him in the stomach.

"I even had to tamper with them myself just to get them to a level that would actually make it past Ozpin."

His legs felt like they were completely stuck to the carpeted floor, as if trapped in stone. His hands were shaking, and cold sweat trickled down his neck. He wanted desperately to run, to get the heck out of Beacon, but he couldn't even move.

"Wh-what do you want?" asked Jaune, voice trembling.

Torchwick hummed in mock thought, tapping his foot against the carpeted floor.

"I think, Jaune," he said, his smile static, "That I want to see a show of gratitude for the effort it took me to get you into Beacon. Doesn't seem too unreasonable to me; how about you?"

"N-no." Jaune whimpered. Dammit, a hero was supposed to keep their cool in situations like these! They weren't supposed to cower and buckle in the face of an overwhelming threat!

But you're no hero, are you, Jaune? taunted a part of him he'd been trying to keep repressed.

"Wonderful! I guess a few odd jobs for your Economics teacher here and there couldn't hurt, right?" Torchwick asked, an almost childish glee in his voice. A single glance at the man's eyes told Jaune that it was fake, and that he also wasn't even trying to hide it.

Slowly, Jaune nodded.

He'd been trapped. He'd been naive, and he'd been stupid. This was obviously the kind of thing that would happen to him, wasn't it? He didn't have any choice but to accept what this guy was saying!

It didn't stop him from feeling sick to his stomach.

"Fantastic, White Knight." Torchwick said, twirling his cane around his fingers, and disappearing around the corner.

Jaune couldn't even move before Torchwick poked his head back out into the corridor.

"By the way, Economics class is just to your right." he said, motioning to the door next to Jaune, "The lesson starts in fifteen minutes. Don't be late!"

He was gone with a wink. Jaune collapsed against the door.

Sure, why the hell a teacher would even do something like this was a question at the front of his mind - but it wasn't like he could stroll up to Ozpin and ask. Instead, he was much more concerned about what the self-preserving part of his brain was asking:

Just what had he gotten himself into?

*X*

Explaining herself to Professor Port hadn't been easy. The man was certainly a lot more sly than he let on in his lessons, and it had been very difficult to convince him that she was just waiting outside for Weiss, who had stormed off before she was able to catch up. At numerous points, she'd honestly thought she was done for - a single frown or eyebrow raise could have meant he was putting her in detention as far as she was concerned.

If the girl who'd been standing outside the door with her had the same problems, it didn't show at all. She'd responded with easy grins, jokes and the occasional innuendo that Port laughed along with. Pyrrha supposed it was easier to not crack under the pressure when you were telling the truth, but it was hard for her to imagine anyone not buckling under the Professor's scrutiny.

She'd been especially surprised when the blonde covered for her just as Port had her on her last legs.

"I go by Yang Xiao-Long, if you wanted to know." the girl said, grinning as she strolled alongside Pyrrha to their next lesson.

"I'm Pyrrha Nikos, but you probably already knew that."

The blondie smiled. "Yup! Your reputation precedes you. My sister's actually a pretty huge fan."

Pyrrha turned to Yang's sister, who was currently fixing a nervous gaze to the floor and biting her nails fervently. She'd been deathly silent since Yang dragged her out of the classroom.

Was this girl seriously one who'd attacked a teacher?

"Is she… Normally like this?" Pyrrha asked hesitantly. She didn't want to make things suddenly turn awkward, but she was curious enough to take the risk.

"Nope." Yang replied, nonplussed, "She'd normally be a lot more…" she tapped her chin, looking for the right word, "Ruby, but she's currently out of commission. Given that you were listening in on what the Professor was talking about earlier, you probably have some idea why."

Pyrrha gave a nervous chuckle. She'd be pretty guilty too, if she'd been the one to unwittingly attack a teacher - she could empathise.

'Do you have any idea what happened?" asked Pyrrha.

Yang shrugged.

"I do, but it's not really my story to tell," she answered.

Pyrrha shot Ruby a curious glance, hoping she'd be able to elaborate. The girl still remained completely silent, and Pyrrha sighed. An uncomfortable silence filled the air - so thick that it probably could have been put in a jar.

"So... You won a bunch of tournaments in Mistral, right?" Yang asked, breaking the ice - much to Pyrrha's relief.

"Well… Yes." as much as she was glad for the conversation, Pyrrha couldn't help but get a little flustered every time someone brought it up.

"What were the opponents like?"

"Um..." Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head, wondering what to say, "They fought well."

"Be honest, girl. This isn't one of your interviews." she said, wrapping an arm around Pyrrha's shoulder.

Pyrrha giggled a little bit. It was unusual for someone to be so forward around her, and even more so for them to act so informally.

"A lot of them were really clumsy and predictable. It wasn't until much later on in the bracket they started getting more skilled."

"And the ones in the top bracket?"

"They were talented, incredibly so."

"If they were, how'd you win?"

Pyrrha scratched her cheek nervously.

"... Luck."

Yang raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. Pyrrha tried to meet her questioning gaze, but couldn't.

"My semblance." she amended.

Yang smiled.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well…"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," Yang proposed, a glint in her eyes.

"I'd really rather not." Pyrrha blurted out, and Yang looked a little disappointed before readopting her signature grin. "Sorry," she added.

"No problem," she replied. "Hey…"

Pyrrha tilted her head to the side questioningly.

"Would you say I'm tougher or weaker than the strongest person you ever fought in Mistral?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened. Was this a challenge of some kind? If she had to answer, she'd probably say…

"I don't know." Pyrrha replied honestly, "I haven't seen you fight yet."

"I see…" Yang hummed in thought. "Alright, it's decided!"

Yang turned to Pyrrha, a determined fire in her eyes.

"Come our first combat class, Pyrrha, I want us to have a match. And, when that happens, I want you to answer that question. Are you up for it?"

Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure how to respond.

"Yang…!" a voice chastised to the right of them both. They turned, and to Pyrrha's surprise it was Ruby who spoke.

"Woah, has Rubes finally recalibrated?" Yang joked, and was met with a ferocious poke to the cheek from her sister.

"Yang, you can't just challenge Pyrrha Nikos to a fight like that! What if she doesn't want to, huh?" Ruby challenged, pouting.

"Well, what if she does?" Yang retorted, batting aside Ruby's follow-up poke.

"Actually…" Pyrrha began, and the two of them turned from their squabble to her, "I'd love to, Yang."

Yang gave out a triumphant 'ha!' and responded to Ruby's indignant shoulder punch by grabbing her around the neck and ruffling her sister's hair with her knuckles. Ruby groaned, trying to pry Yang off of her and failing completely.

Well, at least Ruby was talking now. She could see what Yang had meant when she said that the silver-eyed girl was usually more Ruby now. The girl seemed incredibly upbeat and lively.

"Pyrrha…" Ruby groaned, "Save me…"

Pyrrha jokingly shot her a sorrowful look, and shook her head.

"It's too late now, Ruby."

Yang's hair-ruffling intensified.

"Nooooo!" Ruby wailed as she was forced to the ground and finished off with a vicious round of tickling.

Yang was laughing, Ruby was laughing, and before she knew it Pyrrha was laughing too. Pyrrha reached down and lifted the giggling Ruby to her feet. The girl brushed the dust off of her skirt, a smile of appreciation on her face. Yang then sauntered off ahead, and Ruby quickly ran to catch up with her.

Pyrrha smiled, and then began to run to another lesson. This time, in the company of friends.


Review Responses:

Bomberguy: When you were talking about a lack of reason for interaction between Teams ABYR and WNNR, that was pretty much the purpose of Ruby and Yang talking to Ren and Nora. That said, I've followed up on that in this very chapter - now the only thing standing between the two teams being friends is, well, you'll see...

As for Torchwick being taken off the streets and the consequences of that... Okay, I'll admit I've not shown much of that since Neo (spoiler alert, I guess? It was pretty obvious it was her to begin with) was the narrator a grand total of I believe 5 chapters ago. I'll see if I can do something about that next chapter, and it's definitely something I'll take into consideration. The main reason I've been avoiding it, and plan on avoiding going into detail about it in future too, is because I kind of want it to be something that is discovered by our protagonists as the plot progresses as opposed to something told to us from Cinder's perspective (switching into an antagonist's perspective all the time makes them feel inherently less threatening). Maybe I'll do something from Junior's point of view, since I was planning on expanding on him in this fic to begin with and it wouldn't give away too much of Cinder's current machinations.

Kamina44: Writing canon is insanely boring, and if I'm bored writing it then I assume my audience will be bored reading it (I skipped out initiation for a reason) - changing as much as possible gives me way more narrative freedom to work with, essentially meaning I can change character dynamics between characters that aren't just Torchwick and someone else. I apologise for not being able to catch your interest enough with the new teams - I hope that changes in the present and future chapters, but there's nothing I can do to change them back now that would actually make sense.

Engineer & Lloyd: You both hit the nail on the head. Pyrrha won't directly confront Weiss, who's position has now gone directly to her head and beyond. Poor Pyrrha.