Authors Note: Decided to wait until the last minute on this one… like I often do, because I hate myself. Enjoy.

Beta: GeneralMayhem, kpmh2001

"Here's to the Headmaster!" Coco raised her glass. "For deciding not to be an overbearing di-"

"Coco!" Velvet snapped.

"Hear, hear!" Fox went to tap his glass against Coco's, missing by a solid foot before tilting it back and drinking.

Pyrrha smiled and laughed lightly at Coco's enthusiasm, taking a drink from her own milkshake.

"So you'll be staying at Beacon for the time being?" Yatsuhashi, while not as vocal in his support, smiled softly at the news.

"I'll be staying for the foreseeable future." Pyrrha answered. "Ozpin said he wouldn't force me to go anywhere."

"That's nice of him." Coco scoffed, no doubt rolling her eyes behind her glasses.

"Quite the generous guy." Fox added, seemingly agreeing with Coco's sentiment.

"He wasn't trying to be like that." Pyrrha felt she had to defend him. "He was just doing what he thought was right."

Team CFVY looked among themselves for a moment, clearly passing some kind of message along without her, before looking up to her.

"How can you apologize for other people?" Coco asked, causing Pyrrha to wince slightly.

Each of them watched her closely, even Velvet seeming to demand an answer.

"S-sorry." Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

Coco sighed but smiled. "It's good to know you aren't going anywhere."

Pyrrha smiled back. "I won't be."

"So what's the plan then?" Fox asked. "I know Yatsu plans to head home in a week to see his family, but in the meantime we could do something fun… Aside from fighting terrorists I mean."

"We do have a month before classes start back up again." Velvet added.

"Hmm," Coco brought a hand to her chin as she thought. "You're only going to Mistral for two weeks right?" She waited for Yatsuhashi to nod before continuing. "Then you'll be back for the summer festival."

Pyrrha tilted her head in confusion. "Summer festival?"

"It's a yearly tradition here in Vale." Velvet informed her.

"It's not as big a deal as the Vytal festival but the organizers will probably still try to put on a good show." Coco explained. "No tournament, but plenty of things to do."

It was the first Pyrrha had ever heard about it, though to be fair she hadn't spent much time in Vale before Beacon. Had her team managed to finish their first year however, it would have been likely that they all would have gone in between the years.

Shaking her head, she focused on the present. "That sounds like fun."

"It's still a couple weeks out though, so in the meantime?" Fox asked.

He and Coco went back and forth discussing ideas, Pyrrha mostly staying out of it since she didn't really know what Valve had to offer. Aside from the occasional trip with her team, she hadn't actually seen much of the city. Most of their activities had been planned by Jaune, Ren and Nora… well, Jaune and Ren anyway.

"So, what are you going to name it?" Velvet spoke softly so as not to interrupt the rest of her team's conversation.

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha looked to her friend, seeing her looking down at the weapon she had laid over her lap. She had refused to leave it behind in her room when Coco decided they had to go out and celebrate. "I… don't know yet. I haven't put much thought into it honestly."

Velvet glared at her softly, the look being far from intimidating and reminding her of Ruby. "Weapons deserve names."

Pyrrha chuckled softly at the words, fitting the idea of her former friend perfectly. "I know, I'm just not sure." She withdrew the blade slightly, again noting her reflection in the finely polished metal. "I thought about just giving it my old weapons name."

"You can't do that." Velvet's glare intensified. "It's a different weapon, it deserves a different name."

Pyrrha hummed in agreement, but still didn't have an answer. Looking at her friend she again drew the connection between her and Ruby. The two would no doubt get along well once she showed up to the school.

Turning her head back to her weapon, she was transfixed by her reflection. While it wasn't what she had once looked like, it was her new reality and something she had slowly come to accept.

As she looked into her eyes, she realized just how similar Amber and her had been in the end. The thought brought one word to mind, and so she whispered it aloud, as if subtly asking the weapon for it's approval. "Allos…"

"What was that?" Velvet hadn't heard her.

"Allos." Pyrrha looked up from her reflection. "That's what I'll call it."

Velvet's glare disappeared, softening into a look of confusion as she tried to think of what the name might mean.

"It's an old Mistralian word." Yatsuhashi leaned in to his partner slightly, having broken away from Coco and Fox's conversation as the two seemed to debate the merits of a four week shopping trip. He looked up to her for the briefest of moments. "I think it's a good name."

Pyrrha blushed slightly, again rubbing the back of her neck. "Thank you, Yatsuhashi."

"You can just call him Yatsu," Velvet said. "Everyone knows his name is a mouth full as it is."

Yatsuhashi smiled, laughing softly at his partner's words. "She isn't wrong. All my friends tend to shorten my name to save time. You may feel free to do the same if you so choose."

She nodded softly, her blush growing in intensity. "It is kind of long."

Yatsuhashi's laugh grew louder, spreading to his partner. Pyrrha joined in shortly after.

"It's settled then!" Coco shouted, drawing all their attention back to her. "Our vacation plan is complete and all that's left is to execute it."

"What'd you two come up with?" Velvet asked for all three of them.

"You guys weren't paying attention?" Fox asked, Pyrrha nodding before realizing he couldn't see it before her face went red in embarrassment. "We're go-"

Coco clamped a hand down over his mouth. "Wait and see my dear teammates. Wait and see."

Pyrrha saw Yatsuhashi and Velvet pale slightly and begin to sweat. She even felt an odd shiver go up her spin before dismissing it all together.

"Sounds like fun."

Coco's smile grew and Pyrrha felt her spine shiver once more.

"I don't know Qrow… this seems a little…" Pyrrha struggled to find the words. "Soon, to be pressing the boundaries of the Headmaster's kindness."

"Bah," He waved her concerns away with a flick of his wrist. "Look, Oz said that he'll drop the whole 'controlling everything you do' stick, so what's there to worry about?"

"That's true but…" Pyrrha looked at the old bar again. "I don't think this is what he meant."

"Bah," Qrow waved his hand once more. "I told Oz where we'd be anyways."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "And he said it was ok?"

"Heh, I definitely told him." Qrow kept his back to her, stepping in through the doorway. Pyrrha shook her head but followed closely behind.

The bar itself wasn't anything special, a large amount of bottles piled behind a rather small looking woman who was in the process of serving someone else. The tables were simple as well, small wooden things that two people might be able to eat at if they didn't mind their food sitting next to someone else's.

What really stood out to Pyrrha were the patrons, the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Vale. There were many things to say about the protectors of humanity, no two being quite the same, but there was one thing that they all shared. Each one had their own style, most choosing rather eccentric and outgoing outfits that usually fit their personality in some way.

While you would get the occasional Hunter like Blake or Qrow, who would rather stay hidden in the shadows, most didn't work on such clandestine missions. Their easily spotted and identified outfits were just as much a weapon as the swords, guns, and other such tools they kept attached to their body, usually at all times.

People in danger could see them coming a mile away, could see them fighting a horde of Grimm to protect them, and could see that they had some sense of ease while doing it. A besieged town would cry out in joy at the mere sight of them. That fact alone would often do more for a Grimm incursion than any one team of Hunters ever could.

Qrow led her to a table far off from the bar, hidden from view of the doorway and dimly lit. It fit Qrow well and she rolled her eyes as she sat down.

"Why are we here?" She asked for not the first time. He'd refused to give her an honest answer the entire ride from Beacon.

"Research assignment." Qrow answered again, refusing to elaborate until her glare grew from annoyance to murderous. "Take a look around the bar, what do you see?"

"Huntsmen." She replied, even before doing as he said. "Veterans, if I had to guess by the way they stand and their gear." Despite how eccentric they all looked, each one stood with a hand on or near their weapon, even when in polite company. That kind of instinct didn't come naturally, and it was something she had only recently found herself starting to do.

"Obviously, also not what I meant." Qrow waved to the bar, snapping his finger to get the woman's attention before tilting his hand back in a manner that clearly meant something to the woman. A minute later two glass and a bottle were delivered to their table. "What don't you see?"

Pyrrha continued to look around the room, unsure of what she was meant to say. She would have expected there to be some kind of entertainment, maybe a television or pool table, here there were none. She said so, eliciting a laugh from Qrow that caused her to flush red in embarrassment before crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from him.

"Civilians." He answered his own question.

She tilted her head in confusion, looking around the bar to see that he was right. There didn't appear to be a single none-hunter in the building, save for one.

"The barten-"

"Grimm two years ago, tore her leg open." Qrow smiled at the woman, raising his glass to her before taking a drink. "She's as much a Huntress as the rest of them are."

"Is it so strange?" Pyrrha asked. "That there wouldn't be anyone else here?" Despite the fact that people relied on, and often looked up to Huntsmen, people tended to keep their distance when they weren't being saved.

Huntsmen were physically stronger, faster, and oftentimes smarter than most regular people. It made it very easy to get intimidated by them, and it was rare that normal people fully understood them the same way another Huntsmen would. It was the same reason why most Huntsmen didn't get involved in civilian life.

"That's the norm nowadays." Qrow stared down into his drink. "Wasn't always like that. Sure, you get your groups, they live different lives, but people still mingled. Huntsmen were still just people when I was first going to Beacon. Stronger than most, sure, but people didn't treat them differently. Now though…"

"What happened?" Pyrrha couldn't tell what Qrow wanted her to learn from his lesson, struggling to understand how it was relevant.

"I couldn't tell you, though Ozpin has his theories." Qrow slid her the glass she hadn't grabbed, pouring a drink for her. "People don't trust Huntsmen like they used to. I didn't think that was an issue… before I met you anyways."

Again, Pyrrha didn't know what to say. She'd never had any issue with people being afraid of her, at least outside of the fighting ring. She realized it was perhaps unfair however, she had been a celebrity, much to her dismay, and thus hadn't been able to interact with ordinary people in a normal way for quite some time. In a way, perhaps it had been a sort of fear to keep people from approaching her.

"The council is losing faith in Ozpin, and worse, trust. What happened in your last life proved that." Qrow explained. "If they lose faith in him, they lose faith in the entire system he spent a lifetime building. That's probably why they outsourced the security to Jimmy Coppercock and his parade of tin soldiers. I don't know how long she's been planning this, but if I had to wager, it would be longer than you or I have been alive at the very least. Driving a wedge between the people and their defenders takes an awfully long time."

It was a concerning thought. She'd always been told, or the Headmaster had always implied, that they were living in a great era of peace. She'd thought that was because they were fighting back, making progress, but was that the case? Or was Qrow right? Had Salem only been buying her time and playing the long game while they had gotten complacent?

Pyrrha looked down at the glass Qrow had slid her, picking it up and drinking its contents as quickly as she could before coughing at the burning sensation in her throat.

"Heh, that's the spirit." Qrow poured her another, tapping his glass against her own. "I will say one thing though, we're lucky to have you. Who knows how bad things were gonna get if you hadn't ended up coming back."

"You mean if I hadn't died."

Qrow panicked, spitting out his drink and coughing as he struggled for breath. "I didn't mean it li-" Pyrrha brought her hand to her face, attempting to cover her mouth as she failed to keep it from smiling. He noticed and her mask broke altogether, falling to laughter a second later. "That wasn't funny."

"The girl's laughter says otherwise." Pyrrha looked up to the sudden voice to see the pilot from her mission with team CFVY smirking at Qrow. "Still have a way with the ladies?"

"Hartmann." Qrow glared at the woman.

"Branwen." The pilots smirk stayed smug, especially as Qrow grumbled and turned away. "Never got the chance to thank your friends for pulling me out of that wreck."

"Your… welcome?" Pyrrha didn't know what to say, the fact that Fireball had only been shot down because she had gone there to support them made the matter worse. She winced at the memory. "Sorry about getting you shot down."

"Don't worry, it's not all too often a pilot gets to say she fought a giant mech." Fireball pulled up a chair, sitting down and pouring herself a glass from Qrow's bottle. Much to his dismay. "Beacon's insurance covered it anyways."

"Their insurance covers rogue Atlas death robots?" Qrow asked, still glaring at her over the bottle.

"Claimed it as a 'freak accident'." Fireball shrugged. "Close enough in our line of work. Bastard got a lucky shot off anyways."

"Right, I'm sure it had nothing to do with your flying."

Fireball gripped her glass and Pyrrha could have sworn she heard it crack. "You got something to say about my flying, Branwen?"

"Oh nothing," His smug voice clearly said otherwise. "Just that I could do better."

"Ha! I've seen you fly a Bullhead before, if you can call crashing into a building flying!"

Pyrrha took another drink from her glass, shrinking back and attempting to look away from the bickering back and forth happening in front of her. Despite her attempts, she couldn't bring herself to look away.

Pyrrha stumbled into the dorm building, struggling to stay up right as she placed a hand against the wall for support. She wasn't sure how late it was, not having bothered to look at her scroll for a couple hours, even then it had nearly been midnight.

Qrow and Fireball had gone off somewhere, something about settling the score… or just scoring in general, Pyrrha couldn't remember. Either way, the trip back to Beacon had been painful, the Bullhead's vibrations causing her stomach to roll in a way that made her pity Jaune all the more for his airsickness.

Pyrrha reached the door she had been looking for, only to freeze as she looked at the number. It wasn't her room, or it was, just not yet. Or any more. She shook her head at the confusing thought, finally realizing that she had managed to make her way to team JNPR's dorm room rather than her new one.

Stepping away from the door she ran into another problem, in her inebriated state, she couldn't remember which way it was to her new room. Placing a single finger on her chin she thought long and hard about what to do, an idea eventually coming to mind.

Ten minutes later she stood outside another room that also wasn't hers. Despite her wandering around the school, she still couldn't remember the way back and so had decided this was the next best course of action. Knocking on the door she waited, and waited. Eventually she knocked again, the sound of groaning and curses from the other side telling her that they were, in fact, home.

"What the hell do you-" The door swung open, Coco cutting herself off as she looked at the person standing before her. "Amber?"

"Hello." Pyrrha waved her hand softly, hiccuping before she continued. "I… am lost and… um..."

"Are you... drunk?"

"Yes, that." Pyrrha nodded her head. "Very."

All signs of sleep fell away as Coco's smile grew to Yang levels of smugness. For the first time, Pyrrha realized this may not have been the best idea and prepared to step away from the door, only for the girl to grab her before she could.

"Is that Amber?" Velvet sat up from her bed.

"Hello again." Pyrrha waved to her friend.

Velvet looked at her scroll. "Amber, it's two in the morning."

"Did I wake you?"

Velvet watched her for a moment, looking down at the blank that she was still covered by, before looking back up to her team leader. "Coco what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything… this time." Coco added after a second of silence. "She just showed up like this."

Velvet sighed. "Amber, why are you here?"

"I…" Pyrrha thought carefully, sure that there had been a reason. "I am here because…"

"She got lost." Coco reminded her.

"I got lost!" Pyrrha nodded. "Qrow and I went out for the night to celebrate how I don't have to go to Atlas."

Velvet looked to her team leader for a moment, the two staring at each other for a moment before she stood from her bed, moving to one of the dressers and withdrawing another blanket form there.

"You should probably just stay here for the night." Coco offered one of her pillows and guided Pyrrha over to an open section of floor.

Pyrrha thought about it for a moment before agreeing. She unattached her sheath from her belt, laying down and curling around it. She felt a blanket be draped over her, before the darkness seemed to surround her. The only thing she was aware of was the rhythmic sounds of her friends' breath as they tried to return to sleep.

She curled up tighter around Allos. Finding an odd sense of comfort sleeping in a room that didn't feel so lonely.

Author's Note: I hate to say it so soon but, next weekend might not get a chapter. Mass Effect Remastered drops Friday and um… yeah, probably not gonna sleep for several days. Still going to try and do a chapter but be prepared for the worst.

Something interesting I noticed while rewatching some scenes from the show, there are two versions of Pyrrha's shield. The one she uses the majority of the time, probably about two or three times the size, and then the one she uses in her fight against team CRDL which is the size of a normal spartan shield. Aka, much larger than the other appearances. I don't know, maybe I'm looking into it too much.

Hope you enjoyed and as always, don't forget to review.

Sincerely, SE