VN : HI EVERYBODY! IT'S BEEN A WHILE! (Would have been less of a while if Amish didn't forget to upload these constantly :p) Writing this was rough because it's a character I'm not used to writing and I want to make them justice to the way Doc writes them. So, with no further ado…

A/N: Yeah, uh... Vin's not wrong. In any case, this one goes back a bit to when Annette is still getting her Huntressing Legs under her. I like it, partly because at least somebody isn't forgetting about the Beacon teachers like I sorta-kinda did...

Title: Teaching the Next Generation

Author: Vinpap

"Your aura is tied to your soul. In fact, it's your soul made physical. It is tied to your will, your determination, your health and everything else that can affect your mental state." Glynda said simply, walking in front of the classroom that had been built in one of the free rooms in the Avenger. "If your mind is weakened, your aura will be weakened. If you are in high spirits, you will have an easier time calling your aura forward and, consequently, your semblance, if you ever discover it."

She turned around to look at the 9 people in the room with her. Seven were civilians they had recruited in their adventures throughout the planet, while the other two were terrans, Annette and Lily. Both seemed to be enraptured by what she was saying, trying to absorb every bit and piece of information that they could. It made sense, they never grew up with the knowledge of Aura and Semblances being part of their culture or general knowledge.

"Miss Goodwitch," came the voice of Hiryla Frost, a man in his late thirties, with salt-and-pepper hair, a white beard and warm orange eyes. "Do you mean that fear and doubts will weaken our aura?"

There was a soft murmur in the room as some people argued if Hiryla's interpretation was right or not. Glynda raised a hand to silence the room and she nodded as she sat at the edge of the desk in front of the class, crossing her arms while she tried to find the proper way to explain it to her students.

"Your soul creates your aura and your semblance. If you are distressed and can't focus on calling them forth, it will make it more difficult for you to use your semblance and your aura. That is why we will focus primarily on making it instinctive for you. For now, it's hard to summon your aura, isn't it?"

A few people nodded at Glynda's words, while Annette crossed her arms, a frown on her face.

"The first step in bypassing this limitation is to train and train and train even more until it comes instinctively. If I throw you a rock, you will flinch. When we're done with this part of the training, if I throw a rock at you, you will instead instantly bring up your aura. So come on everybody. Let's take a little walk outside."

Glynda started walking down the row of desks, towards the exit, while the other students stood up. Lily was already waiting at the door, a large smile on her lips, excited and happy to see how the Remnantians trained their auras. Meanwhile, Annette stayed seated, a little sigh escaping her lips as she brought up her aura, seeing it's purple-blue hue envelop her body before getting dimmer. She wondered if that would help her find out how to control her semblance. She hadn't been able to reproduce the moment when she teleported to save Arslan and she wondered if she ever could. A small pull in the back of her head told her that her co-pilot thought so and that made her smile slightly. Well, there wasn't anything to lose by trying.

Annette took a deep breath, stood up and started walking towards the door. It had been a great idea by Bradford to ask the Beacon teachers to use their talents to train the operatives and to help Remnant civilians that had joined them since they started operating.

This was a terrible idea! Who the hell had allowed such a thing?

"Ahah! Do not relent your attacks, Miss Durand. You wouldn't want such simple opponents to make short work of XCOM's top operative!"

Peter Port was going to be the bane of her existence. He was crazy! Just how difficult was it to capture a trio of Beowolfs and bring them inside the Avenger's training room? She swore under her breath as she slid under a large paw, shooting a blast from her shotgun into the armpit of her first opponent. Instantly she got back up, dashing away from the other two beasts that were following her.

"Left."

The warning was simple, but it did it's trick. Her shotgun shifted into its sword form and she used it to parry the large claw, countering with a punch to the snout of the beowolf who recoiled in pain. She reached the edge of the training area and she grinned when Asaru offered her a plan of action. She jumped, planting her feet against the wall and landing behind the third beowolf who rammed itself into the wall before receiving a double blast of her shotgun in its back, making it dissolve.

"Well done Miss Durand! But you still have two more beasts to handle! Will you be able to handle them by yourself?"

When will that man shut up? Panting, she shifted her weapon back in its sword form. She pooled her psionic energy in her free hand, before allowing it to rush forward, pinning one beast in its place. The second beowolf continued its run towards Annette and she was ready to deal with it.

"Jump."

"I know." Annette said under her breath, her legs already coiling on themselves to allow her to go over the Beowolf. Yet, it wasn't enough as the beast grabbed her with its maw, slammed her on the ground with all its might before it jumped on top of her. While the initial shock had taken her breath away, it wasn't enough to take her out of the fight. Annette snarled and slammed a powerful beam of psionic energy on her enemy, sending it flying and destroying the beast in the process. She laid on the ground a few more seconds, trying to regain her senses after the damaging blow from the beowolf. These were supposed to be the easiest Grimm to deal with and most of the huntsmen could take out dozens of them without breaking a sweat. And here she was having issues with only three.

"You can do it. We can do it."

Annette nodded softly and slowly started to pick herself up. When she looked at the last beowolf, she was surprised to see that it was still pinned down with a psionic bubble, preventing it from moving. She stumbled towards it and, with one swift motion, removed its head from the body. Instantly it started to vanish and Annette looked up towards where Peter Port was currently standing.

"Well done Miss Durand! Truly a huntress in the making! There are some refinements needed on your form, but nothing that the huntsmen and huntresses present on this airship can't help you with."

Port's pompous voice made Annette want to roll her eyes, but she nodded nonetheless. He was well meaning and knew what he was doing. She might not like his methods, but she couldn't deny that it was a good way to train people to fight against Grimm.

"Good job Annette!"

Annette smiled when she heard Ruby's praise and she turned her head to look at the girl, only to feel her anger flare slightly at the sight. In her own arena, facing off against a dozen or so beowolves, flipping and avoiding their hits through uses of her semblance and her superhuman reflexes. Annette crossed her arms and glared at the younger girl who was grinning as she looked at the Major. The french woman shook her head and waved at Ruby, a small smile making its way on her lips.

"Thank you Ruby. But I think that you have more important things to do right now."

"Oh, yeah, I should probably deal with that! Want to go have a snack in the rec room in ten minutes?"

Annette blinked a few times as she processed what Ruby had told her. Did she expect to deal with all those Grimm in the span of a few minutes? She took a moment to think about that and she sighed when she remembered what Ruby was capable of, especially based on what she had seen in Kuo Kuana.

"Sure. I'll wait for you."

Grinning, Ruby got back to work in dealing with the many Grimm, mowing them down with her scythe faster than Annette had ever seen. As usual, a simple reward was offered and Ruby was crushing through the expectations that everybody else had. It really was impressive sometimes.

"Honestly, not impressed. I've seen you do better."

Annette panted as she held a pack of ice over her right eye, glaring at Taiyang who looked at her with a massive grin on his lips, no hint of guilt on his face nor in his mind. The man had beaten her, overpowered her, barehanded at that, and he was proud of it. Even if it was the goal of this exercise, she still didn't enjoy being reminded how weak she was compared to other people from Remnant.

"Yeah, well…" Annette tried to find a response at Tai's comment, but as much as she tried to, she couldn't find a comeback to his teasing. So she did the only sensible thing she could think of and flipped him off with a glare.

Taiyang laughed loudly at that and he pulled a chair to sit in front of her, his smile never leaving his lips as he did so.

"You remind me of Yang, you know? When we trained, she never stopped pushing herself further to keep up with the other people in her class."

"Yeah, well Yang's pretty strong as is, so…" Annette mumbled under her breath, closing her eyes as she tried to regain her bearings after the beating she had endured, and to calm down her adrenaline filled body.

"Did you know that for most of her time at Signal, Yang was in the middle of the rankings and only got to the higher tiers by the last year of her schooling? She had to claw herself up to the top until she could stand as one of the greatest trainees in her year."

That got Annette's attention. She opened her eyes and looked at Tai, a raised eyebrow accompanying her action. "That… Doesn't fit with what I've seen of Yang and the rest of them. Well… Maybe except Jaune."

"Well… Yang would have been the equivalent of Jaune. Compared to some of them, she hadn't trained all of her life. She got thrown in the life of training to become a huntsmen a few months before she sent her admission request to Signal. It took until Ruby said that she wanted to be a huntress for Yang to want to become one. So she was trounced again and again by other students. But she learned. Every defeat she suffered, every setback, every failure. She learned from it, embraced it and stood back up to kick some teeth in."

Annette stayed silent for a while, trying to process what the man had told her. It wasn't something new to her. The concept was something that everybody in life had heard at least once. You can't succeed if you don't try and failure is the greatest teacher of them all. She knew of these things. But this new world, this new way of fighting, this new enemy… It had made her lose what he had taught her, what he had worked so hard to instill in her.

"You know… I think you would have gotten along pretty well with my old mentor. Zhang was… The best of us."

"I heard about that. Ruby has praised him a lot. She has a lot of respect for him. And for you. And for every single person that made the jump from Earth to Remnant. As do I and probably every single person who knows the truth." Taiyang said softly, his smile losing its mocking edge, but changing into a more comforting expression. "But we can also see the faults in what you are doing, all of you, and to find ways to help to rectify those mistakes. We will help you grow, just as you are all helping us grow."

He put his hand forward to help Annette to his feet and she grabbed it without thinking a second about it. She nodded at the man and he nodded back, his body slowly setting in his usual fighting stance.

"Ready for another round?"

"Ready when you are, teacher."