Beacon Tower

Access to the floor was restricted by scroll; Blanc used his to get them up the elevator to the right floor, and then showed them where Ozpin wanted the filing cabinets and other materials moved, and the space they'd need to clear to train, which was the large, mostly open room between the smaller rooms on the outside where they'd be moving the storage items too. Most of those rooms were mostly filled as well, but a few were fairly empty and there was certainly enough space to clear out the central area. Blanc and the others began to work. Pyrrha, feeling no need to hide her semblance, used her polarity to do most of the heavy lifting, making short work of it.

"Well, I'm surprised we're done this quickly. Thanks to you, Pyrrha, I think we have some time. Jaune, while I think we should work on your semblance, first I want to teach you some kata to work through for your shield and sword."

Jaune looked a bit puzzled. "Kata?"

"Martial art movements. Your shield is as much of a weapon as your sword, and your sword as much of a defense. The shield's edge, and bludgeoning capacity, how to parry with your blade effectively, that sort of thing. We'll go over the moves slowly, so you can practice them accurately and make them into habits, then speed them up so you can do the moves instinctively during combat."

Jaune said nothing, but drew his sword and expanded his shield. Blanc turned to Pyrrha. "Can I count on you to help him with these? I realize you don't really need this but he will."

Blanc picked up a mock shield and sword he'd made for training purposes, then proceeded to show Jaune how to use the shield to block correctly from various strikes, having Pyrrha show the strikes and why the blocks worked. He showed how to bash opponents with the shield to stun them, how to use the edge of the shield like a weapon or to disarm an opponent, and then, again using Pyrrha, showed Jaune how to use his sword to attack and to parry, where on the blade to strike, and briefly explained why it worked. "You want to hit the end of their blade with yours, but further up by your grip. The torque will twist their blade away and allow you to keep yours stable and move in." He then demonstrated on Pyrrha in slow motion, knocking the tip of Milo with the cross guard of his mock sword, which pushed Milo out of position even at that slow speed, and pulled the mock sword back into her now unprotected torso. "You should expect this sort of move from someone like Weiss or Winter. What you need to be careful of is that they don't strike your hand." Pyrrha rapped Blanc's knuckles, causing him to drop his mockup.

They then moved into the kata Blanc had prepared for Jaune, and even Pyrrha was impressed. She was used to using her semblance to aid her, but Blanc's kata flowed smoothly, one into the other, kicks and strikes, blocks with follow up attacks. Even Jaune could see how effective they'd be when sped up. "You need to learn these moves, but you need to vary them and eventually develop your own, or you'll become predictable, and that would make you exploitable." They practiced the kata more, with Blanc looking at Pyrrha's moves and sorting out how to do most of what she currently did using her semblance without, though some things simply couldn't be done, like her shield throw. The shield was too heavy and fell too quickly, and her semblance not only gave it power, but also accuracy and the ability to retrieve the shield without chasing it down. That said, it was obvious Blanc had learned to fight without using aura as an aid at all.

"And what is your semblance, Blanc?" Pyrrha was interested, not only in how much he'd inherited from his father, but in how he could use it in combat.

"It mostly favors the Schnee bloodline; glyphs, I can summon though strangely I seem stuck to only stalkers."

"You can summon deathstalkers?" Jaune began to freak out. "Why would you want to do that?"

Pyrrha calmed him down and explained that it was a manifestation of Blanc's aura, a facsimile that would fight for him. Blanc followed up by explaining that it wasn't deathstalkers he could summon, but the crane-like stalkers, which were more closely related to nevermores, but could not throw their feathers, and instead had long legs with sharp talons with which to attack, and sharp beaks. "They don't seem to have manifested yet, so that may be sometime in the future. They're not very dangerous except in forests, where at night it's easy to confuse them for trees and be caught unaware."

Pyrrha didn't let him go with mostly. "And the rest?"

"Well, you know I can travel through time. It doesn't have to be a long, exhausting trip through space-time. In combat I can travel back just a second or two, quickly and easily. Repeatedly." A small glyph appeared behind him, and Pyrrha felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned, and there was Blanc, but in the corner of her eye, she could still see him, before his former-self vanished.

"Woah, you can just… make copies of yourself and appear there? Like Blake?" Jaune was intrigued. Blanc shook his head. "No. Hers are like after-images; not real. That's really me." Blanc went on to explain time travel to the blonde the way he'd explained it to Pyrrha.

"So, there's actually two of you, at the same time, in different places? How many times can you do that?" Blanc considered it a moment, then responded with a question to Jaune. "Do you mean consecutively, or simultaneously? I can do it many times consecutively, but the most I've existed simultaneously so far is 5 times, and only for the barest of instants. I suspect I could speed that up with some other glyphs to dilate time further, but it's… stressful on my body to do that much, all at once."

"And… if something happens to one of you, all of you get hurt?" Blanc shook his head. "No. You might think that'd be the case, but we're completely separate. Future me might know something past me doesn't, but once the glyph begins, future me is a completely new … thing."

"So, a copy? So… you die every time you do that and are replaced by a copy with the same thoughts and feelings?"

Blanc stared off into space. "... Fuck you for making me think this, Jaune. Yes, I guess so… but my aura goes with me so no? I don't know. Let's not think about that."

It was getting late, so they broke up for the evening. Jaune promised to practice his Kata in his spare time, Pyrrha promised to help him, and Blanc promised to work on some things for Pyrrha. "Oh, Jaune, before you go. I made some armor for you. It's not quite ready, but it should help make up for the light armor you have now."

"You're a smith too? Is there something you can't do? Can you fly and throw lightning and block bullets with your hands? Shoot lasers out of your eyes? How's a guy supposed to compete?" It was said in a very friendly manner, but thinking about the stolen power, Blanc choked a bit, then replied. "No lasers from my eyes. Not yet anyway." He winked at Pyrrha, and then let them get on the elevator. "I've got to report to professor Ozpin. I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow. Oh, Pyrrha, how did you find me when you came to my room?

Jaune whispered in what sounded like jealousy to her. "You were in his room?"

Pyrrha didn't answer Jaune, but instead reminded Blanc that there was a directory on their scrolls, with names and their local addresses. Full names. So much for Blanc keeping his secret. Maybe no one would look. Fat chance of that… Blanc sent them down.

What he actually needed was space. Every time he underestimated Jaune, he got caught by what were amazing coincidences. He'd not used the power since arriving; how could Jaune guess about those things? Yet, he had done them in the past, and suspected there was no reason he couldn't now. But it did bring up a point which the plan had no contingency for; what if now that the power was in a time in which another copy of it, albeit split into two pieces, already existed, what if the power didn't work?

Blanc called upon what was the fall maiden's power, and rose from the ground, fiery tips glowing from his eyes like wings. Lightning curled around his hand, and then he released the power, feeling the gnawing ache in him that always accompanied it, that ache to be free from its prison. Blanc wasn't sure who was the prisoner in this relationship. He'd spoken to Ruby about it once, and the feeling was completely foreign to her. To him, it felt like being accused of theft by everyone who saw him; like physically starving he was so hungry, even though he wasn't and his stomach was fine. Using the power simply hurt like it was trying to rip itself free from him, and even when he didn't, it was like a dull headache that wouldn't go away. He'd do almost anything to get it to stop.

Eventually, he did actually report to Ozpin. He figured it was best to keep the man up to date with this part of the plan, though he doubted Ozpin didn't already know. Ozpin asked a few questions about the training regime and schedule, and agreed to add Pyrrha and Jaune to the access list for that floor. Blanc also brought up his plans to train team RWBY and possibly the rest of team JNPR, and asked Ozpin for advice on the approach.

"Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie should be fairly easy; get Jaune to rope them in to the training. Otherwise, I'd suggest broaching the subject with team RWBY's leader. Tell me, do you plan to continue to let Pyrrha and Jaune believe Winter Schnee is your mother?" Blanc didn't like where the conversation was going. "I panicked. I'm not sure how to resolve it now."

"You might try telling them the truth. They are truly good people and worthy of your trust and faith." Blanc rose from his chair, thanked the headmaster, then headed out without saying anything else. He'd been careful to be careful and secretive without lying, but in this case he'd made a mistake and now he had to find a way to fix it, because it was likely to come up at some point and he didn't need the plan to fall apart because of a loss of trust in him. "I could tell them on your behalf, if you desire."

Blanc ground his teeth. "Please, don't interfere with this. I'll tell the truth if necessary." Ozpin said nothing more, so Blanc took it as a dismissal and left.