Finally, I can post the chapter I've been waiting for a few days to post, where I explain two flaws in Pyrrha's character.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Pyrrha separated from Blake and Ren with slight apprehension, but she hadn't been four consecutive times Mistralian Regional Champion for nothing. She knew how to handle stress better than most other people, even some Huntsmen. It would really take something of the size of a legend coming true to shake her to the core. Or someone telling her how the moon had been broken. Fight after fight, round after round, tournament after tournament, she had learned how to handle her worry and stress and erase it from her mind. When she fought, everything that wasn't helpful for the fight was removed from her mind. Some might've said she had a one-track mind, but the truth was that she was simply focused on the battle. She could change her approach, study her enemy, even banter and taunt if she was forced to, but only as long as it gave her an advantage during the fight.
That being said, as she walked in the darkness, following a line of scarlet blood up and down the stairs of the old Arc household, she was nervous.
She knew that, had this been a trap, she was probably going to fall into it straight away. She was a skilled fighter and she planned how to lead her fights, but there was a reason Jaune had been made the leader instead of her. During the initiation, his plan to beat the Deathstalker wasn't a most complex one. And when he caught her attention he hadn't even needed to tell her what to do. She had evaluated her surroundings and reacted appropriately. But she also knew that she wouldn't have had Nora hammer the stinger like a giant nail, because she was so used to fight alone, she never considered her teammates' presences until it strictly helped her with her fight. Jaune had instead kept an eye on each of them and come up with a plan that involved both Pyrrha and Nora, even if the loosening of the stinger was thanks to Ren. He had weaved a strategy using all his teammates as wires and they had beaten an otherwise difficult opponent with next to no wounds, apart from Ren.
She had never been really good against traps and ambushes. In tournaments, there were no hidden enemies nor traps apart from the ones enacted after the start of the fight. All she needed to do was to keep an eye on every opponent to avoid them sneaking upon her from behind, and she would've been fine. But now, walking in the dark corridors of the huge mansion, she felt she could be forgiven if she was nervous. She didn't have Blake's night vision, so she couldn't know if a shadow was a shadow, or a hidden Wraith. She didn't know what to expect and that unnerved her. She had always been used to fight openly, even if she did use her Semblance subtly as to keep it a secret edge on her opponents, but the Wraiths weren't open. They fought in shadows, they were immaterial and they were vicious. Cardin would need a few days in the infirmary before he could walk again, and the doctors weren't sure if the Winchester lineage would be able to continue. It was true that Team CRDL had probably underestimated Destiny, and that they were the school's worst students, but that didn't change the fact that Destiny had beaten all of them without being hit even once. He wasn't even breathing unevenly when he stopped. And that music... something told her the whole fight had just been one more message, one different from the others.
Do not mess with us, Destiny had said without speaking.
And Pyrrha had no intention to mess with them unless she had absolutely no other choice. She would be going up against Destiny, the very Wraith everyone had seen absolutely crushing Team CRDL. Pyrrha had seen Wrath briefly fight with Saber, but even then it was just a glimpse, not a full-scale fight. She almost felt sorry for CRDL when they lost so thoroughly... almost. If anything, she had learned that Destiny was a good fighter. He exploited CRDL's weaknesses, taking advantage of their lack of teamwork and even going as far as letting three of them strike their own teammates. She wasn't even sure if he was really trying or if he just wanted a fight matching the song's strophes. Cardin's castration was just an addition outside of the fight, or maybe a closing action. She still didn't know Destiny's true potential, and even if she wasn't going to underestimate her, she desperately yearned to know more about the Wraiths, even if just to fight them better and defeat them in battle.
Danger on your right.
As soon as her Aura sense activated and warned her, she threw herself forwards, rolling on the floor and coming up with her weapons ready and in a fighting stance. With such an action, she would've been able to avoid any kind of attack, because she had simply removed herself from the targeted area entirely.
She barely had time to register the arrival of the Wraith before she had to dodge another swipe of the scythe that cut a table in two, thus informing her he wasn't currently immaterial. Taking advantage of that knowledge, she counterattacked swiftly, trying to score a hit before he could react, but to her mild surprise he managed to step back and intercept her weapon with his own.
So she tried to bash him with her shield, attempting to make him stumble and force him on the defensive. In all her fights, she had been the one to dominate the battle, and her opponent had always been on the defensive. Only when she had to fight against more than an opponent she allowed herself to preserve energies and fight defensively. Given her skill level, she was fairly sure she could press the Wraith into defending himself and then she would have the time to spot an opening and exploit it, scoring a hit on him. After the first, the others would be easy.
Unfortunately, Destiny had other ideas. Before she could close the distance for a shield bash, he disconnected their blades and spun, trying to sweep her off her feet like he had done with CRDL. Of course she jumped over the blade and tried to slash at him while he was busy, but what she hadn't predicted was him stopping his weapon in mid-slash and bringing the shaft up to block her blade, forcing her to land somewhat -relatively- awkwardly before swinging his weapon again, this time actually forcing her to step back. The third attack was met with Akuóu, the impact clanging loudly and echoing in the empty room. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the sound. 'Metal', she realized with a wicked smirk.
She swung at him with her sword, only to be blocked again, and for a second clang to echo between the walls. The confirmation she needed. She shield bashed him in the chest, making him stumble back, and charged again, only to be sidestepped swiftly as he pirouetted out of the way in an almost comical fashion, hadn't it been so efficient. Gritting her teeth as she waited for an opening, she was forced back to defence as he resumed his onslaught, every strike too precise and calculated to just dodge narrowly. She would either need to use her shield or to step back, and in both cases it would be a victory for him, since he had a greater reach. Either she distanced herself, offering him even more space to fight, or block with her shield, and thus putting her own shield between her and her opponent, preventing her from attacking. Or...
Finally, she saw the opportunity she needed to score a hit. As he twirled his scythe around, aiming to behead her with a powerful swing, didn't step back nor she blocked with her shield. Instead, she focused on the blade of Fatus, a familiar black glow covering her shield hand as she concentrated. There... She used her Polarity. She had the advantage she needed.
Or so she thought.
The scythe continued its path and crashed into her neck, taking out a good chunk of her Aura and sending her sprawled to the floor for the force of the impact. Of course she rolled and stood up in record time, but the damage had been done. She didn't have enough space to use Miló as a rifle, and she had just taken a hit. The first hit of the fight went to Destiny. Despite the strike, however, she was ready to continue the fight until the end.
The Wraith, however, wasn't.
"That's enough", he said, relaxing his stance into a more comfortable one. "Your atonement starts now, Pyrrha Nikos. I hope you are ready, because you will leave only when I decide so".
Pyrrha tightened her grip on her weapon. She was still ready to fight.
"I suggest you to relax and take a seat... if you can find a chair that isn't falling to pieces, that is". Destiny walked up to a wall and leaned on it. "You don't need to fight any more. We are moving to the next part of your atonement now".
"How?".
"Pardon me?", replied the Wraith with an amused voice. "How can I say you don't need to fight? Because I don't want to fight any more. How can I say we're moving to the next part of your atonement? Because I decide when you're ready".
"How did it not work?", specified Pyrrha, not relaxing her stance, sword still pointed to his throat. "I used my Semblance on your blade before you hit me, but it simply did nothing. I tried to move it away so to strike back when you were off-guard, but it didn't even tremble".
Destiny laughed. Long and loud. "Oh my, you'd think the four times Mistralian Champion would've known her Semblance better than this", he chuckled, somewhat subdued but still amused. "Tell me, Pyrrha Nikos, which is your Semblance? And what does it do?".
"It's Polarity", frowned the girl. "With it, I can control metals".
"Wrong", stated Destiny, pushing himself off the wall and starting to pace. "A good Huntress should know her Semblance better than she knows her name. You disappoint me, Pyrrha Nikos. Your Semblance is Polarity. Do you know what does that mean?".
"I can control magnetism", replied Pyrrha, still puzzled.
"Exactly. You don't control metal", specified the Wraith. "You can move, create, modify and negate fields of magnetism. You can straight out control magnetism. So tell me, why can you move metals?".
"Because metal is magnetic", answered Pyrrha. She knew that fairly well. After all, there were more than one reason for why her opponents never hit her. One was her skill. The other was her Semblance and the fact most opponents used metallic weapons. Even Yang, whose combat style was basically unarmed, couldn't hit her, since she wore metal gauntlets. "By manipulating the magnetic fields around the metal I can pull or push it in the direction I want. With practice, I sharpened my abilities until I could move metal as if using telekinesis".
"Then why couldn't you move Fatus?", said Destiny. "You heard the sounds it makes when it collides with something metallic. It's made of metal. So why can't you move it around at will?".
Pyrrha almost slumped. "I don't know", she admitted.
"Fatus is made of an alloy of Light Dust, Darkness Dust and electrum. Do you know what electrum is? It's an alloy of gold and silver. Logic was the one to sketch the upgrades, and Logic is... exceptional at doing his job", continued the Wraith. "But you know which is one of the characteristics of the electrum?". He waited for her to shook her head before dropping the bombshell. "It's not magnetic".
"What?!", exclaimed the girl, shocked.
"Electrum is not magnetic. Not relevantly so, at least", he continued. "Just like bronze, brass, lead, silver, gold, copper and some kinds of steel. I don't know the full set but I know that not all the metals are magnetic".
Pyrrha stared at him for a few more seconds before her battle instincts kicked in, storing the shocking information in the back of her mind for later and forcing her to focus back on reality. "So the reason I couldn't move it is that even if I modified the magnetism around it, it simply wasn't influenced?", she said tensely. "So it's not like my Semblance doesn't work... it does, but it still can't move your weapon".
"Exactly. I can see why you are such a skilled fighter, Pyrrha Nikos. You evaluate the situations you find yourself in pretty fast", the Wraith praised her. "I hope you're ready for your atonement though, because even if you're not, it starts now. Tell me, what do you think of Jaune Arc?".
Pyrrha gritted her teeth. "I know you captured him", she said. "Give him back".
"No", retorted Destiny, sounding irritated. "What do you think about Jaune Arc? Answer this question, Pyrrha Nikos, or you will never see your knight again".
Pyrrha blanched. "No!", she exclaimed, looking around as if to try and spot Jaune before glaring at the Wraith. He didn't even flinch. "I know he was a wonderful person. Someone who didn't deserve what you did to him".
"I can assure you he's safe and unharmed... and that is more than I can say of his time at Beacon. We're protecting him from harm... but what did you do when he was getting beaten for amusement by the other students? Oh, wait, let me guess: not giving a damn".
Pyrrha's vision began to fade into red. "You know nothing about him, and nothing about us", she growled. "He didn't want to be helped with Cardin, and we didn't know the bullism was so bad".
"You should have, Pyrrha Nikos. You should've known how bad it was. As I said earlier today, after my `fight` with Team CRDL, Beacon is training monsters alongside heroes. You shouldn't have needed me to tell you this. You should've known it by yourself without anyone telling you anything", he growled back. "But we're not here to discuss about what Beacon does and does not. What do you see in Jaune Arc?".
Pyrrha looked away. "He was very kind, friendly, open and nice", she remembered. "He treated me just like a normal person, while I've been treated like a goddess or something like that for most of my life due to my skills. When I met him, he didn't even know my name".
"Sounds like ignorance to me", commented Destiny. "Yes, he wouldn't have cared, but you noticed him only because he didn't know who you were. Not because he looked past your titles to the girl underneath. So your first meeting was ignorance, not acceptance".
"And yet, when he discovered the extent of my fame, he still treated me equally!", she exclaimed hotly. "Something no one else has done for years!".
"That's because you never let them. You pushed them away as soon as they began talking to you, fearing they would recognize you as the Pyrrha Nikos. You chose your own exile. The world may be full of bad people, but it's also full of good ones. You just needed to try and find the right one. Instead, you waited for Jaune Arc to knock some sense into that head of you, and now you are miraculously friends with seven people. How's that? Because he forced them to look past your titles... or because you actually tried to make friends?".
Pyrrha blushed in shame and looked away again. But when she looked back at Destiny, the Wraith was already gone.
"Your atonement is over, Pyrrha Nikos. You may go".
Yes, the electrum is not magnetic. Also, Pyrrha really wasn't trying to make friends.
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh