Beacon Academy's Professor of Combat Studies shared her office with the visiting Professor from Haven Academy, green meeting amber from where she stood by the door.
"That's a rather…extreme suggestion." Glynda finally put voice to her thoughts after Eleanor had finished.
She simply offered her a smile in response to the rather incredulous expression on the woman's face.
"You were the one who just finished telling me how disruptive his bullheadedness has made him in class. I thought you would see my logic. It seems I was mistaken."
"Then explain it to me." Glynda leaned back against the door she had planned to leave through, had intended to prepare for the class she would have once her meeting with Professor Tremaine was finished.
Said meeting had turned into an exchange of stories about past and present students, about their current classes.
And, eventually, Eleanor had urged her to talk about Jaune Arc, had offered her a suggestion to fix the "problems" he had been causing.
"Of course." Eleanor folded her hands together, set her Scroll on Glynda's desk. "I don't believe it's impossible for him to manage such a challenge. Far from it, I expect him to succeed if what you've told me is correct. And, if he fails, it would teach him a worthwhile lesson. Regardless, it will hopefully end this childish rivalry between the two before it progresses any further. A crushing victory for whoever wins and a humiliating defeat for the loser, it would bring some much needed peace to your class."
"It still feels extreme…" Glynda wasn't entirely as against the idea as before. "As much as I dislike Mr. Arc's latest habits, he isn't as problematic a student as I may have made him out to be. While he has some unwanted qualities, he isn't as bad as Mr. Winchester."
At her words, Eleanor rose a dark eyebrow.
"If I'm wrong feel free to correct me, but didn't you and I just spend the past thirty minutes discussing all the issues Jaune Arc has caused with his bullheaded challenges to Winchester, the effect you believe it is having on his team?" Eleanor leaned back against Goodwitch's desk. "Trust me Glynda, I've seen this before with Team TIME. Black was very similar to Arc when he first arrived to Haven, saw classes as beneath him, refused to treat MacDonald as his Team Leader. I suggested this solution for him and it worked wonders for his attitude. He hasn't only been loyal but he's been responsive to their effort to reach out to him. And all it took was a single humiliating experience to make it so."
"One you had no hand in?" Glynda asked the obvious question.
Eleanor wore a guilty smile.
"Perhaps I…modified one of his weapons beforehand." She held up a single hand, a rather subdued glow taking hold of her as she did so. Even from this distance, Glynda could feel the heat coming from her hand. She lowered it a moment later, the heat gone as quickly as it had arrived. Her smile faded with her Semblance, replaced by seriousness. "But, all I did, it was for his own good, was done to help him." She looked away, suddenly found the wall more interesting. "It was better he learn a lesson then, be somewhere where I could help him back up, than when there was nothing I could do for him." Her hands were fists at her side. "I couldn't stand the idea of knowing there was something I could do to help him and be too afraid to do it. When I had the ability to change him for the better, to help him, I could've never forgiven myself if I did nothing at all."
Glynda had no words to say as Eleanor seemed done with speaking, dabbed at her eyes.
"I'm sorry." She turned back to Glynda. "Sometimes I can get rather emotional when it comes to my students." She relaxed her hands, settled them in her lap. She cleared her throat. "Now, if we follow my suggestion, I'm sure it would be best for Mr. Arc to suffer an embarrassing accident than it would be for Mr. Winchester. As distasteful as he can be, he can be dealt with later. Mr. Arc's personality, his bullheaded nature, his determination to see things through and do good, while very admirable, could do with adjustment ahead of his."
"Why?" Glynda found her voice, casting aside whatever sympathy she had felt for Eleanor only moments ago.
"He's simply in far more danger than Winchester with his current attitude. If nothing else, I'm sure Winchester is more than willing to run when he finds himself outmatched, order a retreat. Mr. Arc would refuse to do the same, would stand by whatever beliefs drive him to fight until the end. To the detriment of himself and others. I've seen people like him before, seen them all die young." Eleanor looked to where her Scroll set at her side instead of meeting Glynda's gaze. "His Semblance, 'Aura Amp', has likely only worsened that behavior of his."
Eleanor retrieved her Scroll from her side, keyed in the Arc's name, selected a video that clearly wasn't at Beacon Academy. She linked her Scroll to Glynda's display, switched it on with a tap of her finger.
"The incident in Vale?" Glynda shook her head at the fight taking place on the screen, security camera footage of Jaune Arc battling the three unidentified women outside 'From Dust Till' Dawn' during the failed robbery. "Mr. Arc, and Ms. Rose, handled such a situation rather admirably. No civilian casualties were reported and the damage to the business was little more than a handful of basic repairs I was more than capable of making once I arrived."
"While the two of them performed well in the beginning, Mr. Arc chose to worsen the situation when there was a chance to deescalate it if he had remained inside." She paused the video, rewound it before she turned to Goodwitch. "As you can see, Mr. Arc continued to engage the enemy even once the robbery attempt was thwarted. He chose to engage the robbers who were already in the process of fleeing. Even when clearly outmatched by this third assailant, he uses his Semblance instead of withdrawing. Even after being in the center of an explosion as large as it was, he continued to fight."
"The two of them performed as a Huntsmen and both I and Ozpin agreed on no punishments towards either for simply taking action against a crime. They were well within their rights to defend themselves and a civilian from criminals." At Glynda's rather impassioned defense of the two, Eleanor held up her hand.
"I'm not disparaging them for what they did. They did nothing short of the right thing when it came to the initial encounter and Ms. Rose was nothing short of admirable during the entirety of the encounter. She recognized the threat before Mr. Arc, formulated a plan that took note of their respective strengths and weaknesses, and prioritized the safety of the owner. Arc served as nothing short of a danger to everyone on that street when he pursued them outside of the store." Eleanor pressed play.
"They're Huntsmen! These kids are Huntsmen!"
"Screw this!"
"Let's go! Back to the cars!"
"Dust isn't worth this fight!"
With that shout, anyone left standing rushed out of the shop. Jaune returned his two swords to their places on the harness on his back.
"Did they take anything?" Ruby ran up to him, Crescent Rose fully deployed and up on her shoulder.
"Doesn't look like it." Jaune spared a glance outside the window, the suited goons capable of it helping the others up. They were limping off to a pair of waiting cars. His currently glowing eyes narrowed. "Call the cops. I'm not letting these guys get away."
"Sure! I'll make sure the old guy's ok too!" Ruby was followed by a trail of rose petals as she took off into the back of the store.
Eleanor paused the video, a tap of the Screen bringing up the recorded Aura of both Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc.
"His Semblance makes this problem much more difficult to handle than it was when I did this for Black, makes it much more difficult to adjust the flaws in his personality." Eleanor allowed the video to play in the corner of the screen, the display mainly dominated by the falling and rising bar representing Jaune's Aura. "If it wasn't for his Semblance, he could very well be dead. If we want to help him, we have to create a situation where restoring his Aura using it is impossible or, at the very least, ill-advised."
"This still seems extreme."
"When it comes to saving his life, stopping all the heartache his passing would cause, I consider few things too extreme."
Glynda stepped away from the door.
"If, and it's highly unlikely, I considered doing this, what would be the best method to help Mr. Arc?" A part of her couldn't believe she was actually considering doing this. Another part of her, a growing part, could see the logic behind Eleanor's suggestion, how necessary it was.
She was right in seeing this was a problem to deal with now instead of allow it to fester any longer.
She was right to say it was better to be embarrassed, to be humiliated in class, than it was for him to lose his life as a Huntsman, if he took on too much on a future mission.
"I'm afraid that's where it becomes more difficult." Eleanor once more modified the display, enlarging the video and speeding through it. "He's far from unimpressive." She paused the video, turned to Glynda. "A rather capable fighter both in one on one combat and when outnumbered." Amber eyes were curious as she examined the information in the Arc's file, went over the notes it had on his 'Aura Amp' Semblance. "I'm more than familiar with Semblances based around Aura Transfer, familiar with increased rates of Aura regeneration, and even one of my students possesses a rather unique Semblance making her utterly invulnerable for a short time. But this? I've never seen something like this before."
Eleanor set her Scroll down, closed the display projected above Glynda's desk.
"But it's not something we can't solve if we put our heads together." Eleanor offered Glynda a reassuring smile as she spoke, rose from her seat on her desk to take one of her hands in each of hers.
At the conflicted expression on her face, the war so clearly going on in her mind, Eleanor gave a gentle squeeze to Glynda's hands.
"Trust me Glynda: You're helping him more than you can believe." Her smile was warm, was reassuring. It was disarming. Glynda tried to draw something, anything, from the support she was being given to no avail. "Isn't it our job as teachers to help our students anyway we can? To change their lives with the lessons we teach them?"
"I'm just not so sure we should be doing this…to deliberately sabotage a student like this…It goes against everything I was taught." Glynda shook her head, drew away from Eleanor as she spoke. "Yes, this is too extreme. Whatever good it could bring Mr. Arc doesn't change that this is wrong."
Eleanor's smile faded as Glynda spoke, as she drew away from her. "Is that so?" Disappointment laced each of her words, a look of pity overtaking Eleanor's face. "Would you prefer such a promising young man die?"
"Of course not." Glynda found herself almost recoiling in horror at the thought. "I only want the best for all of my students!"
"Then why is Mr. Arc so different? Don't you want to help him?" Eleanor closed the distance between them once more. "If we don't act now, he'll only hurt himself later, hurt his family when they learn he died because he didn't try to change him now. Do you want to tell his mother that her son is dead? Tell any of his family news as awful as that?"
Glynda knew she should reject his rather insane notion, end this conversation here and now, but she found the words trapped in her throat instead.
"As distasteful as this may seem now, this will save his life." Eleanor offered her hand once more. "It's our duty as teachers to help students like Mr. Arc, help him before he can make the mistakes we made. If we want our students to be better than us, help the world, we have to do whatever we can to help them now."
Glynda stared down at the offered hand.
"It's for his own good Glynda."
She took it.
With only ten minutes left before her class was set to begin, Eleanor told her the entire plan, what she had come up with as they spoke. It was incredibly simple, was reliant on Arc not modifying his normal method of fighting, that he would use the Gravity Dust in his swords as he normally did.
Her role in it was incredibly simple.
It still made her sick to her stomach but Eleanor had convinced her.
She wasn't doing this to hurt Arc. It was to help him, save his life.
She had to do it like Eleanor had said.
With one last look to Eleanor, her face one of sympathy, of understanding, she headed towards the door.
"This is for his own good…" Even as she spoke them, it was hard to believe her words.
'Eleanor Tremaine' maintained her expression of sympathy until a pale-faced but determined Glynda was out the door.
It dropped as soon as the door closed behind the blonde.
She barely withheld the desire to roll her eyes, focused on the matter at hand.
She hadn't just listened to the woman complain about children for the near past hour out of the goodness of her heart. The only reason she had tolerated listening to the woman was by the fact that her office was the only place she could access the program she had in mind.
Her Haven Academy issued Scroll was put away, replaced with another more suited for her current needs.
'This little program of yours better work.' If it didn't, she was sure she would finally burn the arrogant man behind it alive. His idea was already insane but, with her own failure, she had no choice but to rely on him or risk drawing even more of her Master's ire.
Reprogramming the sensors in the Combat Studies arena was the best option she had to hunt down the other half of the power she was after. The same system was already in place at Haven and Atlas but had turned up nothing beyond what she had already expected, had proven that Ozpin was as arrogant as she had originally believed.
He wouldn't trust anyone to foster an injured Maiden besides himself. Now, all she needed was to wait for the program to find her, the subtle changes in Aura the power caused.
'What a fool.' She was finished in less than five minutes, the program in place and hidden away. 'At least he makes this easy for me.'
She returned the Scroll to its place in her person, hid it away so no one would be the wiser, and headed out the door herself.
'With the program in place, it'll still take weeks to work through the entire school, log each signature, and reach through it for the discrepancies.' She wanted to sigh, wanted to simply burn this school to the ground to have what she was after, to have the power she deserved. But she restrained herself.
She would be nothing but patient.
All it would take was time to find the girl and finish what she had started months ago.
'Soon.' Courtesy of how much joy that thought brought her, her imminent success, she didn't have to fake the smile on her face as she stepped through the doors ahead.
She silently took in what had happened while she had been busy.
From the shock on the faces of so many students, it seemed that Glynda had made her announcements.
She could already imagine what she must've said, how easy it was to convince her to commit to such an outrageous plan.
"That's insane!" The recognizable Pyrrha Nikos was the first to regain her voice. "Jaune's done nothing wrong!"
"Using my classroom as a way to solve his problems with other students? How he's needlessly prolonged his spars with two members of Team CRDL already?" 'Eleanor' was impressed at how good of an actor Glynda seemed to be, how she could mask all of her indecisiveness and whatever emotional turmoil she had been feeling behind the image of a stern disciplinarian, a rigid teacher. "I believe your Team Leader has done many things wrong Ms. Nikos and he hasn't even been a student for a full month." Hard green eyes turned to where Jaune was still sitting towards the top of the room.
She followed her gaze and her eyes narrowed at the fact that Tock was sitting next to him. The Faunus didn't jump when she noticed her eyes on her, only offered a wink and a flash of her metallic teeth when she grinned.
"I believe I gave you an instruction Mr. Arc." Glynda looked to the smirking Cardin, his grinning Team. "Mr. Winchester, I expect a better performance from you. I'll be grading you on not only your combat abilities but your abilities as a Team Leader as well."
'Eleanor' ignored whatever was said in response as Winchester rose out of his seat, as the rest of Team CRDL followed after him.
They didn't bother holding in their laughter once they were headed down to the arena.
"This isn't fair!" Ruby Rose was the next to shout, rose up out of her seat. "You can just have Jaune not fight anymore!"
"Sit down Ms. Rose." Glynda turned her eyes to the girl who had been admitted two years early, saw her being pulled into her seat by Weiss Schnee, the white-haired heiress stopping her from getting up again, harsh whispering too low for anyone but the girl it was for to hear. She turned her eyes back to Jaune. "If Mr. Arc had considered the consequences of his actions, he wouldn't be in this situation to begin with."
The blonde student seemed to still be processing what the Professor had told him.
"Mr. Arc, as you're already changed and have your weapon, I see no reason to give you any extra time. Come down to the arena. Now."
"Don't worry love. I'm sure you can kick their asses." Tock gave him a smile showing off her metallic fangs as she patted him on the back.
He seemed to snap out of his wide-eyed stare, gave a grim smile to the Faunus sitting next to him. He rose out of his seat, turned to where he had leaned his sword against the wall behind him.
"…Sure." He turned away from Professor Goodwitch, looked to his team. He managed to give them a smile, give the same to where Ruby was looking up towards him in clear concern. "Hey, don't worry about me." He headed down the steps. "It won't be pretty, but I'm pretty sure I can take them."
"I'll be rooting for you love!" Tock called from her seat at the top, kicked her feet up on the desk as she leaned back in her chair. "You've got nothin' to be 'fraid of from that lot."
Jaune expected his team to meet him at the bottom of the steps, Pyrrha at the forefront.
"Team JNPR, do not speak with him. Arc, quit wasting my time and yours. Come down to the arena. Now!" Professor Goodwitch seemed unwilling to give them a moment, drew her riding crop up. "Don't make me repeat myself."
Jaune shot the three of them a look of apology before he stepped past them, wordlessly stepped into the ring.
Professor Goodwitch merely pointed to one side of the arena, didn't say a word as she headed out the arena herself. He set about disassembling his completed weapon, seemed to have to occupy his hands with something as he waited.
Glynda spared a glance to Eleanor once she was at her side.
"Don't worry. You're doing the right thing. I know it and you do too." Eleanor only continued to support her, ease the guilt she was feeling at what she would have to do. "Besides Glynda, in a way, he does have this coming. This way, you can at least stop it before it goes too far."
Glynda could only turn to the display in front of her, work on it as she waited.
'This should be interesting.' 'Eleanor' had suggested Arc's punishment for two primary factors. She did want to see the student humiliated after learning he had been the one, along with Ruby Rose, to interrupt one of Torchwick's Dust robberies, doubly so now after seeing that Tock had involved herself with him. The other was his Semblance. Transferring Aura, disrupting Aura, draining Aura, she had seen or heard about them all by now. She had even heard of a Semblance that allowed Dust to be used to replenish someone's Aura.
But never one that amplified the user's Aura without drawback, could be spread to others without consequence.
He was an oddity.
She couldn't help but think of Hazel when she saw the boy fight, wonder just what would happen if the boy ever had the misfortune to have to meet the man.
As Team CRDL stepped into the arena with grins on their faces, as a grim faced Jaune drew one of his swords from the harness on his back, Cinder Fall couldn't deny that she was interested to see what happened next.