As the day progressed, the fights got more and more interesting. The hooded boy from Shade Academy defeated the Atlas Student by tricking him into falling off the edge of the ring – whilst he was a capable fighter he had never faced an Atlas Team before this round and knew from the get-go that he was no match for the military style training and tactics that the other boy had, therefore wit was his only advantage.
The Cowboy from Haven fought Sun and kept the Faunus on his toes. He told Sun as their fight was starting that his semblance meant that he grew in strength as the Sun reached its apex and he even offered the Vacuo boy a chance to step away, as he had already won due to the time of their fight starting near the middle of the day. The battle was heavily in the Haven Sharpshooter's favour for the first minutes as time advanced. But as the fight drew on past High Noon, the other guy's power dwindled and Sun gained the upper hand and finished him with a kick to the chest that knocked his Aura down below 15%, eliminating Haven Academy's chances of a Semi-Final bout.
"…which leaves us with our final match of the day! Penny Polendina of Atlas versus Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon!" Down in the arena, Pyrrha looked at her opponent with confidence – she had a good fight on her hands and, on top of that, she had a task she needed to complete once this was done. Penny politely saluted her opponent, hands on her hips in excitement.
"Sal-u-tations, Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honour to finally meet you!"
"It's nice to finally meet you too."
"This is going to be so much fun!" Penny beamed widely in anticipation as Pyrrha readied herself, Miló and Akoúo̱ already in hand. As General Ironwood calmly sat to observe the fight from the stands, Nora, Ren and Jaune cheering for their teammate while Ruby watched a little anxiously, being probably the only person in the arena who knew about both Pyrrha's semblance and Penny's origins and knowing what that could mean if things went wrong, Oobleck began the countdown.
"3, 2, 1... BEGIN!"
Suddenly, the bow wearing girl was surrounded by her floating swords, gesturing them around to her command before launching a volley of them at her opponent, who ran towards them and leapt though them, deflecting each aimed blade that she couldn't avoid. The swords flew into the air until they turned around and came back to the fight. Pyrrha twirled her javelin around to block each sword swipe of Penny's, but dropped her weapon when she had to somersault away after being hit by a slash. For a normal fighter, having their weapon being so far away from them usually spelled disaster, but the girls on the battlefield now never had that worry. As one fighter magnetically returned her weapon to her hand, the other brought hers back on their literal strings to her and surrounded herself with them, ready for another volley. Port broke through the excitement of the crowd to add his own feelings to the table.
"My word! What a tremendous display by Miss Polendina!" Fully glowering, Pyrrha rushed forward and jumped on an incoming sword in a display of both athleticism and accuracy, swinging down on Penny only to have the assault halted by a collection of blades. She jumped away from the retaliatory slice as Penny backed away as well only to send more swords shooting towards the red haired girl. Try as she might to defend against the multitude of swords with the length of her weapon, she was being forced back regardless, prompting her to roll the shield from her back onto her arm with her polarity. Nora encouraged her teammate from the audience with her arms wide in glee.
"Whoo, yeah! Goooo Pyrrha!" she cheered, almost verging on chanting were it not for Ren grabbing her arm and calming her excitement momentarily.
Despite the cheers, Pyrrha isn't doing as well as she had hoped, looking up to see her Aura energy level lying significantly lower than her opponent's. Pyrrha spun wildly as she deflected and dodged each sword, until she got close enough to Penny to deliver a few slashes with the spear, sending her flying back. Sliding to a stop and making a new series of motions, the stringed weapons folded up until Penny was circled by several laser rifles, a few of which opened fire on the approaching champion. Pyrrha avoided the blasts and fought off the remaining swords until she slid into a position to charge at Penny and knock her back. Pyrrha straightened with a victorious grin that disappeared into dizziness upon seeing the ginger girl rocketing forward, weapons firing behind her like a jetpack so she can leap into the air, then come down like an energized meteor on her opponent.
Rolling back to her feet, the green-eyed girl didn't expect a sword to knock her shield off, then another to do the same for her blade. She tried to get the latter back with her magnetism, but instead had to use the power to send a flying sword back at Penny's side. It disappeared behind Penny, only for the Atlas-made girl to grin and raise her arms as several more appear above her, aimed to strike. The warrior crossed her arms in front of her and braced one of her legs, signalling to the opposition to attack. As swords flew towards her, Pyrrha forced her arms open sending out a small wave of a magnetic burst forcing the swords to her sides and knocking Penny back slightly, though why that happened Pyrrha did not originally know. The girl ran forward, calling her weapons to her arms once more. Unable to get her own weapons back in time, the sea green eyes of Penny widened as she held her hands up to catch the attack of her adversary. The force of the catch could be seen from the crowd as a wave of dust escaped the area around the fighters.
The pair held the struggle for a couple of seconds before Pyrrha realised something about Penny, something that had seemed off about her at first that finally made sense. A gasp escaped from the girl as she looked at the girl opposite her.
"Penny?" The struggle didn't shift as both girls stared at one another in confusion; one at who – or rather what, as she now thought about it – she was facing, the other at the fact that this person may have just discovered what she really is. Pyrrha relented slightly and Penny forced her away, calling her weapons to her aid once again. Curious, the red head held her shield up so that she could hide her hand from the crowd. She focussed on the feeling she had just experienced and looked up only to see a very large and dark glow shining around the entire body of Penny Polendina. In that instant, her feelings were confirmed – Penny was a robot of some sort, a girl made entirely of metal. Her honour and moral code kicking in, Pyrrha slid her weapons onto her back, closed her eyes, forcefully exhaled and walked towards her opponent who, much like the rest of the arena was in shock at what was happening. As the warrior approached, a buzzer sounded as Pyrrha Nikos' Aura dropped below 15% – eliminating her from the Vytal Festival.
"What a spectacular scene; it seems that Pyrrha Nikos has forcefully expended her Aura and has essentially forfeited the match against Miss Polendina!" Oobleck exclaimed, still trying to wrap his own head around the girl's reasoning. But now was not the time for his thoughts to be voiced, he had a job to do. "The favourite of the tournament has been eliminated, Penny Polendina from Atlas wins!" The applause and cheers from the crowd were most definitely there, but they were slow to start and filled with uncertainty – should they be clapping? In the end, the people clapped and cheered as they did any other match.
"That concludes the last of today's fights. Be sure to come back tomorrow as we will have the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final of the 40th Bi-Annual Vytal Festival for you!" Port chimed, signing off for the day. Once he was certain that the audio and visual for himself and Oobleck was cut, he turned to his colleague and uttered, "I think I need a drink."
"Agreed" the green haired man replied as they rose from their seats and made the long journey down to the nearest bar.
"I do not understand," Penny said, folding her swords back into her backpack and all the wires and circuits in her head working overtime to process the information. "Why did you forfeit the match?" Pyrrha put her hand on the android's shoulder and started walking towards the exit with her.
"Well, my semblance gives me the ability to control and manipulate anything metal, once I have come into contact with it for a brief amount of time. When we fought, I felt a connection and I was not sure if what I had felt was real so I briefly scanned the air afterwards and I found that my feelings were right – you are a robot, a person made entirely of metal. If I so wanted to, I could consciously pick you up and throw you out of the ring and you would have been helpless to do anything to stop me." Sea green eyes widened in shock once more as the girl next to her talks so casually about how she could stop her. "Or subconsciously, I would shift your body a fraction to the left or right when I needed to, moving you into the line of my attacks. I deemed that this fight was entirely in my control – whether I wanted it to be or not. So I did what I believed was the honourable thing to do and I forfeited. It wouldn't be fair on you to fight someone like me." A pair of freakishly strong arms flew around the warrior's mid-section, lifting her up in what was meant to be a friendly hug but felt more like an aggressive tackle as Penny squealed with joy.
"Thank you, Pyrrha Nikos. You have given me a chance to prove myself once again in front of the crowd. You are an honourable young lady with good friends." A thank you seeped its way out of the girl, who upon being let go faded back to her normal hue rather than the worryingly blue look she had involuntarily been sporting. Penny grinned and skipped her way off to be back with her teammate as Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR approached their friend.
"What happened, Pyrrha?" Yang queried.
"Did she do something to you during the battle?" Weiss speculated. "I knew there was something fishy about that girl..."
"You guys, Pyrrha is going to be fine. Penny did nothing wrong to her; I think she just made the right choice. Right, Pyrrha?" Ruby spoke with a calm manner typical of a leader.
As Jaune approached his girlfriend, she reached out a hand to him. As he took it in his, she smiled to him and then the group saying, "Yes, I believe I did." The two sisters simultaneously cupped their own hands and "Aww"ed at reveal of the relationship. Blake smiled, but her eyes flitted towards Yang once or twice. Weiss stood there as frozen as her persona would lead you to believe she was.
"Wait, wait, wait..." the two teams turned to the heiress, half of them expecting her to rant. "I thought that you had a thing for me, Jaune."
"What can I say?" he shrugged with a grin. "An Arc's patience only goes so far. Besides, I'm pretty sure that it was an attraction on face value. This is…"
"I don't want to hear any more!" Weiss butted in and noticed how Ruby, Ren and even Yang all took a step back from her. Yang was very easily the most hot-headed out of Team RWBY and JNPR, but everyone also knew that when Weiss Schnee got angry not even Ruby Rose with her gifted speed could outrun her temper. That did not seem to be the case. "You're happy Jaune, I can see that. And I'm happy that you found someone who sees you for you" The two exchanged a smile of acceptance before Ruby rushed in and placed a thermometer in her mouth, Blake placed an ice pack on her head and Yang stood there with a pen, a clipboard and a pair of glasses. Blake's eyes flitted to her partner again; Yang looked surprisingly sexy with glasses, especially when she moved them down the bridge of her nose to speak.
"Who are you, and what have you done with the real Weiss Schnee?" The white haired teen muttered a sarcastic "Ha, ha" past the thermometer in her mouth as JNPR all giggled at RWBY's antics. In a quick moment, the Pyrrha's mind flashed briefly back to the promise she made to herself last night.
"C'mon guys, let's get out of here. You head back to the dorms, I've got one little thing I need to do before I join you." The two teams made their way to the exit, filing on to the last ship down from the colosseum that day.
"You wanted to see me, Ms. Nikos?"
"Yes sir." The girl stood in front of her Headmaster with a lot more confidence than the last time she was in his presence. "I wanted to talk about… about the Fall Maiden."
"Do you feel like you are ready now?" the man probed, sipping his drink whilst knowing her answer before she spoke.
"No sir. Quite the opposite. I have decided that the Fall Maiden title is one I cannot accept." Ozpin just looked at her, knowing full well why she has had a change of heart but wanting to hear from the horse's mouth.
"And why Ms. Nikos, after you were so quick to answer and say yes earlier this week, do you think that?"
"...Sir?" the question, while easy to answer, still threw the young girl.
"Why do you no longer want to be our Fall Maiden?"
"That's just it, sir – our Fall Maiden. I have spent a large portion of my life doing things for other people, but very little has been done for me. I want that. I want to do things for me. I want to live a normal life without the constant fear of someone knocking at my door looking for the power I possess, without knowing that the world will never see me again. I want to create my own destiny." The orange light of the day's sunset shone through the glass at the bottom of the Beacon Tower, flooding the girl in a brilliant fiery light – a light see clearly didn't want to be in anymore.
"Fair enough, Ms. Nikos." There was no pleading, no persuading and no resistance from the man – he accepted her refusal squarely.
"Are... are you not going to stop me from walking away from this?"
"Four days ago, I knew that you were the right person. You had pride, you had the skills and you had an honourable side to you – something I saw today with your fight against Ms. Polendina." Pyrrha's head lowered, she was one of his school's most gifted young Huntresses and she forfeited a fight because at the time she believed it was right. She didn't consider the consequences going forward. "But in the space between then and now you grew attached and detached to not only your team, but your friends. You and Jaune will make a great couple. You complement each other well." He looked over at her, acknowledging the fact that he knew they were an item now. Her cheeks flushed red as he continued. "But then you tried to kill yourself, Pyrrha. You were reckless and acted purely on instinct – a poor instinct too, which is worse. That sort of unpredictability is something we can't have in a Maiden. So, no. No Ms. Nikos, I am not going to stop you. That is because I had already changed my mind myself."
The way he held himself told the girl that he had finished what he had to say. And as she had nothing to add to that either, she simply turned and left the building. As the door shut, Ozpin walked towards the elevator and waited by the door. After roughly a minute, he spoke out to the room
"You know, you do not need to hide yourself. I have known you were here for a while. Besides, I wanted to talk anyway." An arrow shot from the far side of building at the man's skull. He dodged it at breakneck speeds accompanied by a grey blur. "I am being serious when I say that. Please, it is important." The distant sound of heels could be heard on the floor as a pair of burning eyes came into view of the Headmaster. Cinder Fall waited just at the edge of the light, her eyes fixed on the man in green. "Come now, we have much to discuss."
And that is it guys: that is the end...
... of the series parallels. Everything past this point is completely OC with no real link to the series - well, maybe the odd line of dialogue. Thank y'all for making it with me to this point.
I want to quickly thank [Jighdu], [therichardater], [death7559] and [dragon11262] (and anon Guest47) for reviewing my work up to this point; they've each been given a special something for their efforts - however minimal it was. I've still got a few left, mind...
As always, feedback - good or bad - is much appreciated
