A/N: How's it going everybody. It's time for another chapter. Please feel free to post any reviews or comments you have.

Leon had noticed something was off with Ovan ever since they returned from their trip to the Ivory Jungle. Maybe it was the fact that he was friends with him for so long that gave him this ability to sense this but he seemed reclusive and distant even for him. The way he avoided the others without saying a word, the way he sat at the far end of the table during lunch with their friends rather than next to the loud ones that were Yang and Iris. Some of the others even picked up on Ovan's distant nature as of late. The leader's eyes were dull and had small almost unnoticeable bags under his eyes indicating a lack of sleep. He was also much more irritable than usual, often snapping violently at other students for very minor reasons. Leon was going to question his leader about his behavior but before he could, the berserker left the dorm room with the excuse of going for a walk.

"What's wrong with Ovan lately?" Naomi asked her boyfriend as Ovan left. "He's been Weiss-level high strung as of late."

"I know right? Snugglebutt won't even left me hug him anymore when we sleep." Iris complained from her bed as she hugged a panda plushie in her pajamas. "He keeps shoving me off the bed."

"And that's different than how he normally acts how?"

"After a while in the past he would just give up and let me do what I want with him." Iris said ignoring the red faces of her teammates. "Now he's putting up too much of a challenge and I don't like it one bit."

"Ignoring the… unique statement." Leon said tactfully. "Ovan's been going on his 'walks' way too often lately. I tried to talk to him about it before and he barked back to me, and I quote: 'Shouldn't you be tongue wrestling with your girlfriend or something?' before storming off."

"...I really want to hit him for that but a small part of me knows he must be in a dark place right now for him to go as low as that." Naomi muttered with a dusty blush on her face.

"Let's just give it some time. He's closed up like a prison now, he's gotta be the one to come to us. We can't force him to spill the beans about it or else he'll become even more closed off." Leon said. "Trust me on this, I've known that guy ever since we were kids."

"How DID you two meet anyway?" Iris questions from her bed. "You and Snugglebutt seem like polar opposites in every way."

"I agree." Naomi said with a nod of her head. "In a normal scenario he would be the type to bully kids for their lunch money than be friends with anyone."

"Well we kinda just bumped into each other when he would visit my village." Leon started. "His grandfather lives in one of the bigger homes over there and he would visit him often. One day he and his parents bumped into me and mine and he said to me that I was the only bearable kid in the village. So we became friends from there on out."

"...You were the only bearable kid in the village? Are you sure that was the case or was Ovan just a snarky ass ever since he was a kid?"

"Honestly, I think it was a bit of both columns." Leon said. "By 'bearable' I think he meant that I was the only kid who took a punch from him and didn't fall unconscious or cry."

The two girls decided not to comment on Ovan's… questionable friend making skills and gave Ovan his space for the day, hopefully he would come around soon.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Goodwitch's sparring class was as hectic and lively as ever. Several matches had already gone and went. There was only time left for a few more matches.

"Let's see here…" Goodwitch said as she looked through the list of students. "Next up is… Weiss."

In response to the professor's call, Weiss stood up and headed down to the arena with the rest of her team cheering in the back like a fan club.

"And now for Ms. Schnee's opponent" Goodwitch said. She looked over towards Ovan, who was currently napping in the stands. "Mr. Stryker, you've been surprisingly quiet these past few days. Usually you're the first to volunteer for matches, but you've sat out all of today. I think you should be Ms. Schnee's opponent."

Ovan opened his eyes and lazily got out of his sleeping position. Instead of the usual boundless energy he had whenever he got a chance to fight in Goodwitch's class, he now slowly walked down to the arena as if it was a drag to him.

"The match will be Ovan Stryker vs Weiss Schnee. You may begin when ready."

Weiss started the fight off by firing a blast of ice at the orange haired brawler. Ovan threw his fist at the blast with his arm cloaked in fire dust. The punch blew most of the ice away, but a small amount of it remained on his arm, freezing it. The snowy haired girl took the opportunity to attack while Ovan flared up his aura to try and melt the ice. The ice melted off just as another blast of dust collided with him and knocked him back. As he picked himself up off the ground, Ovan let his aura flare up even higher as he charged towards Weiss. Weiss got another ice crystal of dust ready to create a barrier when the orange haired brawler got closer, but Ovan instead smashed the ground with his fist, creating a shockwave that threw the heiress off balance. Before she could regain it, Ovan had already closed the gap between them and threw a punch. The orange haired brawler's fist connected and sent Weiss flying back.

"Hang in there Weiss! You can do it!" Ruby cheered.

"Go get 'em ice queen!" Yang called out.

Weiss got up from the powerful blow she had taken, but couldn't help but feel something was off about her opponent. Usually, a direct punch from Ovan would have hurt a lot more than the one she had just taken. It was like there wasn't any real power behind it, as if his heart wasn't in the fight.

'Just because he's not gonna go all out doesn't mean I'll do the same.'

Weiss sped at her opponent at full speed. Ovan got into a defensive stance and waited for the snowy haired girl to get in close enough. Weiss began to lunge her rapier forward, but quickly brought it back with a fake out. She took advantage of the opportunity to get behind Ovan and deliver a kick to his cheek as he turned around. The hit did a surprising amount of damage to the brawler as he was forced back a bit. Weiss then followed up with a long range fire dust attack. Ovan endured the blow but widened his eyes in surprise as his opponent lunged at him using the flames as a smokescreen. Ovan reacted just in time to dodge Weiss's weapon and grab her by the arm. He threw Weiss into the ground and tossed her to the side. As her body flew back, Weiss sent another long range dust attack at Ovan which knocked him off his feet. Weiss recovered in time to stick the landing and went in for a finishing move. She froze the brawlers legs with an ice blast and knocked him back with one final kick. Ovan laid on the ground with his aura gauge in the red.

"The match is over. The winner is Weiss Schnee." Goodwitch declared.

Everyone stared at the orange haired brawler in surprise. Not even once had Ovan ever lost a sparring match in Goodwitch's class. And now here he was picking himself up off the ground, losing to Weiss.

"What's up with you Ovan?" Weiss asked coldly. "I've seen you fight, and you've never been that bad. What, am I not worth your precious time?"

"Shut it, ice queen" Ovan grunted as he walked back up to the stands. There was no doubt in everyone's minds now. Something was definitely up with Ovan.

As the class dismissed from the lesson, Ovan sat up and made a movement to leave only to be blocked by his friends and teammates. "...Get out of my way." he said calmly.

"Not until you explain what's been going on with you lately." Iris said with a stomp of her dainty foot. "You've been distant, cold, and unemotional for the longest time! You aren't even fighting like you used to, the Ovan I know wouldn't let Weiss roll over him like she did today. The Ovan I know would have at least punched her into a wall or something!"

"And what the hell do you actually know about me!?" Ovan snapped at the white haired girl, causing her to flinch back in shock. "The same question goes to you bastards! Why do you all even care what I'm going through!?"

Ruby stepped forward to her fellow leader. "Because we're friends Ovan, friends help each other when they need them most."

"Even if I don't view you as a friend, you've been acting way too off from the Ovan we do know." Weiss started. "For one, he would never not take a fight seriously. Even if I had beat you when you were trying, you would've come up with some excuses saying how 'I got lucky' or 'Just wait 'til next time'. What has gotten you so distracted that you have lost interest in your hobby of fighting and gloating over cocky student who thought they could take you?"

"It's none of any of your damned businesses!" The leader in question yelled back, his voice growing louder. "Now either move right now or I'm gonna tear you all limb from limb!"

Leon shook his head. "Quit blowing smoke at us Ovan! I know you better than this! This is still about the whole Ivory Jungle thing isn't it!?"

The group fell silent as they saw Ovan turn his face away from the group, a shadow casting over his eyes. "Shut up…"

"You shouldn't keep blaming yourself for this Ovan." Leon said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We all make mistakes but you can't let this one mistake control who you are."

Ovan suddenly started to laugh darkly as he shook off Leon's hand. "Hahahaha! That's rich coming from you Leon! Try to practice what you preach!"

The archer's eyes narrowed as he felt where this conversation was headed. "Don't you bring her into this conversation…"

"Oh? What's this? Suddenly getting cold feet from light of the microscope under you now?"

"I'm warning you Ovan!"

"Like you could do anything to me. After all you couldn't even save your sister from getting her brittle little legs broken like a twig under a stone! If you can't even do that then how can you eve-"

Ovan was cut off as the others looked in shock to see Leon strike his friend in the face with a heavy right hook. The sucker punch surprised the orange haired teen and he lost his balance and stuttered back a few steps, blood coming from his nose and mouth slightly as he slowly turned his head around. Leon stood with dauntless courage as he stared down the death glare Ovan was giving him with his of ferocity.

"Don't you ever. EVER! Joke about what happened to Terra!" The archer spat venomously at Ovan.

The berserker said no words but rather blasted Leon through a closed door with his own punch back. Team RWBY, JNPR and the IN of LION gazed at the destruction caused by the punch as Ovan walked through the hole and picked up Leon by his neck. "Oh so you think you're hot shit huh!? Think you can strike a guy when he's down!? Well guess again!"

Just as Ovan started to gather an explosive amount of fire Dust into his right fist, he heard the sounds of weapons being unsheathed. He turned around to see his friends, with weapons drawn, giving him hard looks.

"Ovan." Pyrrha started slowly as she pulled Mlio back, getting ready to toss the shield if necessary. "Don't do anything you're going to regret."

"Regret? Oh trust me if you all attack me, I'll make sure I'll be the only one to live to regret anything." he said darkly as he threw Leon to the ground and cracked his knuckles. "I gotta say, I've been feeling really angry lately and I've just been waiting for a good enough excuse just to let it all out and show everyone just how dangerous I am when I'm pissed."

"But WHY are you angry!?" Weiss yelled at the berserker. "We are not going to fight you for no reason, just tell us what's bothering you can we'll help!"

Ovan scoffed mockingly at the Schnee heiress. "What a damn joke! Let me ask you something. Why are you so caring about me when you and your family don't give two shits about the faunus they enslave? Can you answer me that?"

Weiss glared at the teen. "That isn't what we're talking about! And I'm not like that. My family's actions don't define who I am!"

"But you sure didn't have any problem of making out the two traitors to be villains when their past caught up with them! You're a worthless joke Schnee. A really shitty one!"

"Don't talk to her like that!" Naomi yelled as she slapped Ovan across the face. "She may not be perfect and may have not had the perfect past but who was?"

"Oh certainly not you murderer!"

Naomi felt dumbstruck at that verbal low blow delivered by her leader. Her head fell down as a scowl etched itself onto her face. "That's going way too far Ovan… You had no idea what me and my family had to do to survive!"

"Oh, so I don't know what suffering feels like is that it?" Ovan bellowed at the fox faunus before grabbing her by her uniform shirt. "Listen here you piece of trash, I've been through things people could only DREAM of! I've had my whole damned world taken from me by one single person! One who still haunts me to this very moment! And if you think you can compare me to you let me tell you this." He brought his mouth to the girl's fox ears and darkly muttered into them. "You're. Dead. Wrong."

Naomi shoved herself off her leader and looked him dead in the eye. "Does this have to do with those two women you asked me about earlier? Isuka and the woman in the lab coat?"

If it were possible, the group would say Ovan's face contorted with a deeper anger than before as he shoved the faunus girl into Nora and Iris. "You don't have the damned right to speak about them! Don't talk about shit you don't understand!"

"Ovan calm down!" Ren said as he put himself in front of the girls.

Jaune joined his fellow male teammate and blockaded himself to protect his friends if push came to shove. "We won't judge you if you have problems, we all have them!"

Ruby joined her two friends as she looked Ovan head on. "Don't box yourself away from us Ovan! We're friends, we've been through so much together! We just want to help you!"

"Not everything is a damned fairytale Rose!" At this point Ovan was all but screaming at the young girl. "You can't just say 'Oh we understand' and think that all of my scars will disappear! You're the stupidest little brat I have EVER met and you never shut up! Always talking about how you'll be a damned hero, that you'll be the one to stop the Grimm, it's a damned joke and so are you! The only, ONLY reason you're even here is because you stopped some cheap dime store hood, nothing else! You don't deserve to even be here!"

Just as Ovan was about to continue his belittlement of the young reaper, a sudden fire filled punch impacted his face and blasted him through a whole wall. Everyone turned around in shock to see Yang, eyes burning red, with her fist on fire start to move towards the hole she made. The buxom brawler picked up the leader who was bleeding from his head and started punched him once more in the gut with the force of a car and dropped him on the floor.

"Don't talk to Ruby like that you asshole!" Yang yelled at his fallen form. "You might be pissed at whatever happened before but that gives you no right to take it out on anyone! Not Ruby, Weiss, Leon, Naomi, anyone! Life always kicks us down but are you gonna lie there and take it or are you gonna actually do something about it!? Don't take it out on your friends for trying to help because that's just gonna blow up in your face and leave you friendless!"

Ovan slowly got back up from the beating he suffered. Bad enough his Aura was already in the red after his scrimmage with Weiss but being punched by Leon, slapped with Naomi and steamrolled by a pissed Yang was just adding insult to injury. Pain pricked at his body as he readjusted himself on to his feet without stumbling. "Damnit Long… You almost hit as hard as my sister…"

"I'm gonna take that as a complement."

"You should" Ovan told her.

Leon, who had gotten up and supported himself on his girlfriend's shoulder, walked up to his friend through the hole in the wall. "Ovan, I know you better than anyone here. This goes way beyond about what happened on that mission I know it. But you can't just hold on to bitter rage like this. I understand how hard it is for scars to fade but you can't let them define who you are as a person. Why did this one loss affect you so much? We're not gonna judge you if you decide to tell us, we only want to help you Ovan. We're not here to hurt you."

Ovan groaned at his friend's speech. "Please spare me the touchy-feely crap. With how overbearing you all are don't you think I know that already? It's not that I don't trust you… It's just this isn't your problem to bare. This is my own closet of skeletons and I'd like to sort them out myself."

"No way!" Iris chanted from behind the din as she moved up to her partner. "Being friends with people means you can trust them and they can trust you! I'm not gonna let you put your burdens to yourself. Whether you like it or not I'm going inside you to help and that is that!"

For the first time in days, Ovan's face showed a form of emotion other than a dead face as he blushed a harder red than a combination of Ruby's cloak and Pyrrha's hair. "WH-WH-WHAT!?"

"I'm gonna help you inside your closet to sort out all your problems one by one!" she clarified.

Ovan felt so embarrassed and heated that steam was practically coming from his ears as he covered his blushing face. Nora, Naomi, Yang and Leon were laughing goodnaturedly at Ovan's predicament while the more quiet ones like Pyrrha and Jaune only blushed as well. Weiss groaned in agitation at the same time Ren facepalmed while Ruby gave a perplexed tilt of her head.

"Oh piss off all of you!" Ovan yelled at them before cracking his first real smile in days as he laughed a genuine laugh. "Hehehehe…" he gave a slight sigh before smiling at his friends. "Thanks all of you… and I'm sorry for the crap I said. I was in a really crappy place and it wasn't right for me to blow up at you guys."

"Why did you even blow up in the first place, better question where did all that anger come from?" Leon asked.

Ovan scratched his head as he looked away from the group. "Well after I got my ass handed to me Ozpin talked to me about becoming a better leader. I've been studying like crazy this past few days and I haven't gotten any sleep because of it. And to top it all off I don't get anyone in this crap." he said as he pulled out a copy of "Advance Leadership Tactics 101'. "This crap is so confusing! One lesson contradicts the other and so on! It pisses me off!"

Leon groaned as he shook his head. "Really? All of this over wanting to study better? Well we can help you with tutoring after classes no problem. Will that help?"

"A lot actually. Thanks guys and again, I'm sorry for letting my ass overload my mouth."

"Forget about it." Yang waved off as she shook her hand a bit. "Glad I knocked some sense into you but damn, are your bones made of metal or something?"

Ovan laughed a bit as he gave a cocky smirk to the fellow brawler. "Trade secret Yang. Try to beat it out of me next time we fight."

"Oh I plan on it!"

The group of friends all began to walk away together. In the back of the group, Ovan pulled Leon aside. "Listen man… I need to say sorry to you especially. What I said about Terra… that wasn't cool of me. It was downright heartless."

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to you acting like a muscle brained idiot most of the time anyway." Leon said with a grin. "Now come on, you need all the tutoring you can get."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." Ovan said as the two childhood friends ran to catch up with the rest of the group. As the orange haired brawler ran he had one thing on his mind.

'I will become a better leader. I'll get stronger. Strong enough to take you down Isuka. And you too Inori.'

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Outside the area of Mt. Glenn, a large squad of White Fang stood with bored expressions on their faces. In the front of them was Adam with an equally bored expression. "Where the hell is she? She's late again."

Finally several minutes later, Inori emerged next to the group of White Fang. In her hands was a bag of potato chips she was casually eating. "Sup."

"Where the hell have you been?!" Adam questioned the scientist. "You told us to be out here half an hour ago, and you're just showing up now?! You don't even have your damn machine with you."

"Oh you mean Virtue? She's over there making a new friend" Inori pointed towards the clearing in the mountains where a small horde of Goliaths were walking.

"I don't see anything, unless you modeled your invention after one of those beasts there."

"Wait for it"

Adam looked over towards the Grimm horde and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then one second later, everything changed. One of the gigantic Grimm let out a cry of pain that seemed to shake the very earth.

"And now it begins" Inori said with an entertained smirk. Another White Fang member enjoying the show reached for another bag of Inori's potato chips, but soon found a butterfly knife in his chest. "My potato chips." The other White Fang members gave no care to their dead comrade, as the fact that messing with Inori was the same as signing your death certificate was well known.

The group continued to watch as a small figure, maybe a foot taller than the average human, attacked the Goliath with a barrage of cannon fire at one of its legs. The Grimm toppled over with its injured leg and fell to the ground with a powerful thud. Inori's prized invention Virtue finished off the beast as it formed its right arm into a sharp blade and stabbed her opponent in the back of its neck.

"By the way, where is dear Roman?" Inori asked. "I thought I told him to come watch this too."

"Cinder sent him to look for more recruits" Adam explained. "With our numbers not looking the best in recent weeks do to resignations because of someone's killing machine!"

"Oh wah, wah, wah! All they did what cry when Virtue played with them!" Inori interrupted with a sneer. "'Oh stop it that hurts!' 'My waist doesn't bend like that!' 'How am I supposed to fight without my arms!?' Honestly they were asking for it for being unfit to fight. And now even more cowards retired because they're too afraid of my darling little creation."

"As I was saying!" the bull faunus yelled over the human. "Cinder and I sent him along with Emerald, Mercury, and herself to Vale to get fresh blood for the White Fang. After she's done with phase one of the plan involving the CTT we will begin our large scale attack on the kingdom."

"I see. Very well then. Tell Cinder to bring me back a souvenir. A snow globe, a postcard, someone's body for experimentation, just something that will make me smile."

"Duly noted." Adam remarked dryly. "Now bring that monster back here."

Inori brought the communicator on her wrist towards her mouth and spoke into it. "Good girl Virtue. Now come back to mommy"

Within seconds, Virtue fired the rocket boosters on her and flew over to the group sitting on the mountains. Inori got out of her sitting position while each of the White Fang members except for Adam shook a little in fear of the monstrous creation.

"I think that should be enough proof of little Virtue's 'capabilities'. Don't you think so Adam dear?" Inori snickered as she walked away. "Come Virtue"

"Yes Lady Inori" Virtue obediently said as she went into her non-aggression mode and followed her creator.

A/N: Well now everyone's had a good look a Virtue. I hope you all like her and Inori so far. Deviljho's Hatred and I will try to update with a new chapter as soon as possible.