The days turned into weeks without incident. Until the first field trip into the forest of Forever Fall.

"Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside the forest and I am here to make sure you don't die while doing so…"

Shayne was fully aware that Jaune was hanging around with Cardin but decided to keep out of it unless approached directly about it. The teams split up with RWBY and the rest of JNPR going one way, while Jaune went with CRDL the other. Shayne and his team carried on into the forest for some time.

"Shayne, we should do something about Jaune"

"Hanna, I'm staying out of it"

"But Jaune would never side with Cardin on anything, something is really wrong"

"Dundra, me and Hanna will watch for Grimm, can you guys get the samples?"

"Sure Shayne, no problem" Dundra knew that Shayne needed to talk to Hanna so he accepted the lie for her sake;

Hanna and Shayne wandered away from Dundra and Eddi before Shayne spoke again;

"Hanna…I need to talk to you"

"Sure Shayne, what's up?"

"Well it's about you, I know since the 'incident' you have been obsessing over me, now I don't mean to hurt your feelings but after I told you guys about Lina, you should understand that I'm not always going to be there to save you"

Hanna stepped away from Shayne with a look of disbelief and sadness, and ran into the forest crying. She passed Dundra and Eddi, Shayne came walking from the direction Hanna had come from a minute later;

"What was that about?" Eddi asked

"She just needs to vent some feelings, but you should go keep an eye on her Eddi. If we hear screams of pain or explosions then Dundra and I will come running" Eddi nodded and set off after Hanna.

Dundra and Shayne carried on collecting the jars of sap from the trees. They only had to wait a few minutes before they heard an explosion;

"Well, it seems she's found something to vent on" Shayne said looking to Dundra who was packing the samples away

The pair set off at a sprint, using Shayne's innate sense of direction and superior hearing to locate the source of the explosion in seconds. They arrived at a clearing and crept up behind Eddi, who being completely aware of her surroundings, wasn't surprised at their presence;

"Hey Ed, how's she doing" Dundra asked as they drew level with her

She didn't need to answer, it was a courtesy question. She was fending off two Ursa; her aura was pulsing violently with every Dust Kunai she threw. She was relentless in her assault, she was focusing on one as the other escaped, and Shayne noticed it was larger than most Ursa, with a lot more armour.

She killed the Ursa that she had prevented from escaping her onslaught and sat down her back against the corpse of the bear, the three onlookers started walking towards Hanna, Dundra broke away to ensure the beast was dead, while Eddi checked to see if the other one was still around.

Shayne crouched down in front of Hanna;

"You okay?" He said quietly

She sniffed, wiped her eyes, and smiled;

"Yeah, I'm fine"

"Good, but we have to get back soon"

Shayne helped her to her feet

"Before you ask Shayne, yes, I'm over you, so expect me to be more professional from now on"

Dundra and Eddi returned from what they were doing and the four of them were about to set off when Yang, Blake, Nora and Ren came running from the treeline.

"Guys, Jaune and Cardin are under attack by an Ursa" Yang said coming to a stop in front of them

"Nora, Ren go find Goodwitch" Blake said slightly out of breath, Ren nodded and started running again, Nora followed at his heels.

"Did you see the Ursa?" Eddi asked after giving them a moment to catch their breath;

"All we know is that it terrified all of CRDL; Cardin got hit and was unable to escape" Yang said looking impatient.

When Weiss, Ruby and Pyrrha emerged from the treeline, the conversation stopped and attention turned to them;

"Where's Jaune? I thought you guys went to help" Yang asked as they got closer, before they could answer Jaune and Cardin came from the same place they had, Cardin a little way behind Jaune.

When Cardin caught sight of Shayne he sucked in his gut and regained that arrogant look he has, and swaggered past, bumping into Shayne on his way past, Shayne just grinned and looked down as Cardin went to find the rest of his team. The three teams took the long way round to gather up all the samples that had been left behind before heading back to Goodwitch. When they arrived it was 4:30 and she wasn't happy, but she had heard about what had happened from Nora and Ren, who were there with her, and let it slide just that once.

The weeks passed swiftly with the teams attending classes and training together. Jaune had conquered his doubts about himself and was training privately with Pyrrha. One Saturday towards the end of term Team SHDE went into Vale to find the streets buzzing with excitement about the upcoming Vytal festival. After whatever errands needed doing were done, they met up with Team RWBY at a café for coffee.

"So Shayne…" he looked up from his coffee as Weiss spoke to him, "Are you going to take part in the Vytal festival tournament"

Shayne put down his coffee.

"No, Weiss I don't plan on taking part but I will be watching" he said calmly, knowing exactly where this conversation was heading;

"Why not? You're one of the strongest attending Beacon this year, and should be proud to represent Vale." She said in an annoyed tone;

"I have my reasons"

"That's not good enough! now tell me why you won't represent Vale"

Shayne looked Weiss straight in the eye and said;

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, I think we all do"

"Weiss, I think you should drop the subject"

"No, Ruby I won't, not until I get an answer"

Dundra, Eddi and Hanna knew this wasn't going to end well.

"The reason I'm not participating is the last time I fought in a tournament I almost killed someone. I lost control, I couldn't stop myself, and the officials had to restrain me. I left the arena and never fought in a tournament again" he said calmly, the others were silent as they took in the information.

Shayne thanked them for the coffee, left money for his and went to see a man about some Dust crystals. His team headed back to Beacon without him. He returned later with a bag. Blake and Weiss were arguing about something, according to Eddi it had been going all day. They had been keeping out of it using headphones. Blake shouted louder than she had done all day:

"Well maybe we were tired of being pushed around!" the room fell silent and she ran out.

Shayne told the others he was taking a walk, he began tracking Blake by her scent, she had headed to the main courtyard, and he was on his way there when Cardin and his team stepped out of the shadows.

"Well isn't this a surprise, you know Shayne I still owe you payback for the start of the year" Cardin's teammates grabbed his arms and forced him to his knees. Cardin proceeded to pace in thought.

When Cardin made his way over to Shayne, who was still on his knees, he proceeded to beat Shayne until he tired, Cardin broke Shayne's nose, his left eye had swollen shut and he was bleeding from multiple cuts. Cardin stood and Shayne spat blood;

"That all you got, Cardin, I've taken worse beatings from Ursa's" Cardin's team hauled him to his feet, and Cardin resumed his assault. After a few more minutes, Cardin stopped once more and the rest of CRDL dropped him. Shayne stood up and spat blood again;

"You don't get it, do you Cardin" he said trying to catch his breath, "You can beat me half to death, but I'll never stay down. Every Faunus here is afraid of you. So I'm making a stand"

Cardin tackled Shayne to the ground and proceeded to punch him in the face again, 'Big mistake Cardin' Shayne thought as he blocked a punch and head-butted Cardin. Cardin scrabbled away and Shayne hopped to his feet.

"C'mon then, you want to fight, lets fight" he said hopping from one foot to the other, wiping a trickle of blood from his brow.

Cardin stood back as his team attacked Shayne all at once, Shayne ducked punches and blocked kicks, all while delivering his own. Once Cardin's team had been dealt with he strode over to Cardin who backed into a wall as Shayne approached.

"Everyone gets one, now get outta my face" Shayne headed towards the main courtyard once more.

He got there and picked up Blake's scent once more, it was joined by an unknown scent, but strangely he recognised it from earlier that day. He followed the scent trails to a rooftop where she was standing looking out over the city. He was on a bridge above the building, so he hopped the barrier and landed in a roll, coming to a stop behind Blake. The monkey almost fell off his perch.

"Whoa…buddy, who the hell are you?" Shayne ignored the question and went and stood next to Blake;

"You okay" she nodded, "Your team are out looking for you, you know" she nodded again

"Were you followed" she asked

"I had some interference from Cardin but no, I wasn't followed" Shayne wandered over to the monkey perched on an air conditioning unit.

"And who, pray tell, are you?" He asked calmly but with a definite seriousness in his face.

"The name's Sun, Sun Wukong" he said extending his hand

"Shayne" he didn't accept the handshake

Shayne sent a message to Dundra;

'Won't be back tonight dealing with something important, I'll pick up my part of tomorrow before I come back'