The Random Hand of Fate

by TheMightyTeaRex

"Destiny is not set in stone. It only takes one grain of rice to tip a scale, one pebble falling into the sea to start a tidal wave; Every action, no matter how small has an effect on the future. So, tell me... do you believe in destiny?" Real-world SI. First-time fanfic. Rated M for violence, gore, swearing, smut (later on) and alcohol. Warhammer 40K characters in Remnant.

27. The Board is Set

Okay, after a month of juggling roleplays on Discord, doing painting commissions, now working at a local Walmart (Lord give me patience) and starting school next week, I finally got this chapter out. Unfortunately, considering all of these things now, I can't say that this story will be updated even remotely as cosntantly as it should be. I apologize in advance.

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Chapter 27: The Board Is Set

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It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you... Thus doubled agents are recruited and used. —Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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"Alright Jacob, you ready and stretched?"

"Are you sure this is really a good idea?"

"Oh please, it's been two days! She cleared you for going around and doing stuff, so you're doing stuff!"

"I don't think this would be approved under normal circumstances—"

"Ah, you worry too much, it's nothing more than a lap or two around the campus. That rib isn't hurting anymore, right?"

"Well, right, sorta, it doesn't hurt so much as it twinges a bit right now, but still—"

She tapped him on the side where the rib had broken. He tensed up, expecting to feel at least a small, painful twinge in his side. He felt hardly a thing, only the minor pressure and a tiny flinch in reaction. If he was honest with himself, there was no significant pain.

"See?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes in defeat. "Alright, Nora," he said, "But if Claiborne chews me out for this, I'm blaming you." He popped his neck and shook out some of the morning grogginess. Overhead came the cooing of doves and the distant honk of geese as his eyes slowly adjusted to the rising sun. The duo was shielded from the sun by the looming form of Beacon Tower, its main spire jutting high into the morning sky like a great sword. Even without a proper shadow over them—at least as far as his eyes were concerned—Jacob could feel the shadow over him.

More like a middle finger to Salem, he also considered.

"Alright then," Nora said, dressed in her workout gear from Volume 3 and in the middle of stretching her legs to the point that the audibly popped. Seeing the pink sweatband, white shirt with the pink sleeves and her symbol in the center, the pink shorts and thigh-high soccer socks, it was an odd sight in Volume 2 animation now that Jacob thought about it, purely out of the sense of having not seen it in this animation before. "Two laps around the campus perimeter, not a race, a jog, just to finally start working on those lungs and that cardio of yours." As she finished that sentence she patted him squarely on his chest right where the lungs were as an emphasis on her intent.

Jacob hummed. In his opinion, only half of that statement was actually a feasible task via exercise, and unfortunately it wasn't the former half. He found himself manually breathing as he stood there beside Nora, much to his aggravation. Now he was wishing he hadn't inherited the family lung capacity, though somehow his athsma as it turned out had disappeared outright too.

"...You have to be kidding. I've had that since I was seven years old, there is no way that it's gone."

"I don't know what to say, Mr. Muller. There's no buildup in your lungs of... anything, really. Granted, your lung capacity is a bit smaller than average, but still, that's all."

"Hey, that means your lungs aren't likely to kill you when you get older. That's gotta be nice, right?"

"Well, yeah, that's a medical miracle no doubt, but... how did it happen? Asthma doesn't just disappear overnight."

The lack of answers from them didn't matter really, considering what he had noted the day he finally looked in a mirror at himself in Volume 1 animation; it wasn't just his appearance that got a hard reboot, he deduced.

"Hey, small lungs are no excuse, Mister," she said, poking him in the nose accusingly. "The only way that's going to get better is if you keep working it without your Aura."

Jacob instinctively swatted at her finger, only missing it by an inch as she pulled it back with her usual lighting speed. "I get your point, Nora," he said. "So, two laps. Shouldn't be that hard," he commented, taking note of the time on his watch. Five minutes after 7:00, and class today started at 10:00, oddly enough. Yeah, they had the time for this.

"Alright," Nora said with a massive grin, clapping and rubbing her hands together. "Ready?"

"Yep," he replied, mentally tracing his path around the campus.

"Alright, on your mark, get set... go!" Without a second to hesitate, she started to jog away, with Jacob following in hot pursuit. They followed along the basic trail of the gardens at first, shaded somewhat as the trees occasionally pocking the walkway around the perimeter offered a few shadows to hide under as the continued jogging.

Granted, not that such a thing would matter to Jacob, considering his current physiology. Even with losing even more of the body fat he had been plagued with since he was naught but a toddler snacking on junk food, he was still horribly out-of-shape in comparison to even Jaune; then again, Jaune had been a farm boy while the most Jacob had done of outdoors work was almost seven months of maybe fifteen hours a week in manual labor in the hot sun just before he was swept away to Remnant. Sure, it had been good for him, but he had little doubt that, physically, even Jaune outpaced him by a nautical mile. It was by fortune alone that during his fighting his Aura had been keeping him from keeling over of oxygen starvation; how or why he hadn't the foggiest, but he wasn't about to question it now.

Halfway through the gardens, he was already feeling a hint of the burn. Oh for fuck's sake, he thought angrily, I can't be this stupidly out of shape!

"Work through the burn, Jacob," Nora said beside him, "you gotta push through it."

"Not as... easy as... it sounds... Nora," he responded through mild panting.

"You ever tried singing while you jog?"

"...Well, most of the songs I can think of for jogging aren't exactly... safe for children's ears, even considering my colorful vocab."

"Ha! They can't be that bad!"

I wouldn't say that, Nora, he thought in his head as he heard R. Lee Ernie roar out "Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch!" in his head.

A raspberry was her response. "Whatever."

They continued on for several minutes without a word, passing the library, the cafeteria, the professors' quarters and even the auxiliary gym—where they noted Jaune attempting to lift what clearly weighed at least a hundred pounds give or take and was struggling to do—as the morning sun slowly climbed the azure sky to light Vale in its warm embrace. Jacob felt the slow burn in his lungs and his legs as they continued, an urge to slow down to a brisk walk climbing in his mind.

Come on, Jacob, he hissed mentally, don't you dare let it get the better of you.

Memories of weighing two hundred pounds at age eighteen unconsciously lowered his brow into the start of a disgusted scowl. His faltering pace began to speed up, though Nora was still clearly in a better spot than he was. By now they were approaching the massive landing bay for the Academies' air transports; each landing pad around half the size of an aircraft carrier's deck if he had to make an educated guess, made of steel reinforced with Earth Dust to further strengthen its load capacity.

With the ships that were present, however, Jacob had to wonder if they were being pushed to their breaking point.

The massive transport that had heralded Atlas' arrival turned out to not be the only one. When Ironwood said that he would be bringing extra security in response to the attack a few days ago, he hadn't been kidding: Two Atlesian Skyhawks now hovered well over a hundred feet over the landing pads, their payloads of security personnel, Atlesian robots and weaponry patiently waiting to reach the tarmac below. It was like something out of the start of a war movie, where the main character would land in the F.O.B and tour the facility on the way to the arrival briefing, like that knockoff of Dances with Wolves that hadaliens instead of the Sioux. As for the one vessel already on the ground, though, it was clear that they had already begun unloading troops and supplies as lines of Atlesian Knights and basic soldiery stood at attention or marched in lock-step. A few students stood about, gussied up in the trappings of Atlas Academy, some as monolithic as the soldiers and robots. It was really uncanny to the average person.

But Jacob's eye was more trained on the Atlesian Knights. If he was deducing the count of ranks and files that some of the bodies were, there were a concerning number of them. Four, five, six rows up and... ten across, sixty in that body alone, he counted from one group. There's also that marching body... three rows... five... six, no, seven?

His focus on counting them distracted him from his controlled breathing just long enough to mess him up. He lost his pace as he ran, the burn in his legs and lungs starting to edge towards the center of his attention. He dropped back even farther.

"Oh no you don't," Nora laughed breathily, "pick up the pace, slowpoke!"

Through the fog of muscular aches, he silently thanked whatever god was listening that he had lost a solid chunk of his excess fat in the last few months, though he still fought some of it. Need to start... building some actual fucking muscle, he thought to himself.

They edged past the landing pad and continued onwards for several minutes before someone made a comment. "Wow, talk about retaliatory action," Nora said with a laugh.

"I'd be more concerned if they didn't bring... that many forces for security around a city," Jacob commented absently. "All things considered... the number of men and bots that the brought are... well, maybe enough for one man every two square miles if I had to make a random, uneducated guess."

"That's... a bit excessive," she mentioned with a furrowed brow as she dropped back beside him.

"Maybe," he replied, "but considering that the White Fang just suicide bombed a little restaurant, there's no telling what else they may pull. You can't be too cautious... but Ironwood's getting pretty close to finding a threshold."

Nora hummed in thought as they continued on.

Minutes passed them by as they widened the distance between them and the sudden entourage of soldiers descending upon Vale like a convoy of wannabe angels. With the distraction gone, he returned to his paced breaths, though his legs continued to burn in response to each step. They passed the library and the additional dorms for the foreign students, closing in on the main dormitories just as the sun began to crest over Beacon Tower.

"Poor Ozpin must wish he had blinds for those massive windows on days like this," Jacob commented aloud.

"Well, it's pointing northwards," Nora commented, wiping the sweat off her brow, "maybe he tints the side windows only."

Jacob rolled his eyes I honestly wouldn't have a clue since everything's in Miku-Miku-Dance-Vision for me, he thought to himself as they continued onwards. By now his feet were starting to hurt too, though his calves dwarfed that pain by a solid quantity. His breathing kept level, but he couldn't deny a rising urge to slow down that was hard to ignore. He couldn't keep up such a pace for another whole lap, and he hadn't even kept track of how long it had taken them to do one lap.

He looked down at his Timex just as the courtyard path appeared in view, putting them only a couple dozen feet from where they had started. The watch fortunately still ticking and still durable as hell considering that for all the damage he had received in his time fighting it hadn't been busted but only sported a few measly scratches on the crystal. Beneath, the crystal, however, the watch very clearly showed 7:31.

twenty-four minutes to briskly jog around the school once. Jacob audibly groaned, but whether or not that was for the speed or the remaining distance was unknown even to himself.

They crossed over the threshold and Nora cried out, "That's one lap, slowpoke! Come on, kick up your speed and suck it in! You only have one more to go!"

"Not helpful, Nora," he commented through a tired pant as he forced himself to stop. He wheezed heavily as he bent over, lungs clamoring for as much oxygen as it could. "It just took us... about 24 minutes to go... let's see, diameter of the campus is... just shy of a mile, right?"

Nora shrugged through her recovering breaths. "I think so, give or take a tenth or two. I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff, but I think it's just shy of nine-tenths of a mile."

"Right, right, so then the circumference... the diameter times pi, sobasically... two and a half miles and we ran it in twenty-four minutes—"

"Wait, I thought you said you didn't like math," she asked with a finger pointed at him.

"I don't, and I am not very good at trig or calculus... but for some reason geometry I wrapped my head around pretty easily. Maybe it's the fact it's something with a concrete subject."

Nora snorted. "Math, schmath," she said, "you did two and a half miles in twenty-one minutes. That's basically a mile every... eight minutes!"

"Uh, Nora, you figured that out with math."

"...Oh, so I did. Still, I think we should do that second lap!"

"Oh God no," Jacob replied, "my legs are already burning. I think that second lap is a bad friggin' idea."

"Come on you big baby, a little burn won't kill you!"

His brow was now pretty-well drenched in sweat, his lungs only now starting to catch up. As far as he was concerned, there was no way he could pull it off.

"Plug in some music," she suggested in a singsong tone.

Jacob couldn't have stopped the sigh even if he had wanted to. "Alright, let's see what I can do." He reached down into his pocket and produced his phone, charged and ready for the day. He pressed shuffle.

Rythmic drums responded, both snares and bass varieties. Their pattern Jacob had heard a million times before, usually lifting his spirits whether it was on his phone or while he was watching the movie it was attached to.

"Ooh, I haven't heard this one before," Nora mentioned giddily.

"Of course, how poetic... I'll Make a Man Out of You. Couldn't have chosen a better song if I had tried. Well... let's make the most of it."

At the sounding of Donny Osmond's singing, they began their jog again, Jacob's calves protesting very painfully against the action. Jacob was relearning the painful lesson of how it's tougher to start running again after stopping, and he was learning it thoroughly. Even to the tune of Mulan's most popular and regularly-sung musical number he couldn't deny that his body was telling him to, "cease running fucking immediately" or he would have a long day ahead of him.

His response was to start singing with it.

"I'm never gonna catch my breath, say goodbye to those who knew me, why was I a fool in school for cutting gym..."

Nora laughed as she listened to him sing, though he couldn't tell if she was laughing at his attempts to sing or the lyrics to the song.

The chorus picked up, and Jacob couldn't help but sing along as they passed the auditorium again. Singing the chorus distracted him from the burn as they charged along.

Now Nora was embroiled in a belly laugh as she ran beside him.

"What's so funny?"

"I haven't heard you sing before," she commented, "You got the note change down, but your pitch is awful."

"Oh," he said with a breathy and annoyed huff, "and I suppose you can do better?"

She shot him a brow not unlike his own.

You're unsuited for... the rage of war, so pack up, go home, you're through...

Jacob stifled his grimace. Oh, what do you know, Don.

How could I... make a man... out of you~?

Jacob huffed. "Be a man," he sang under his breath, trying to pick up the pace. "We must be swift as the coursing river—"

Be a man!

"With all the force of a great typhoon—"

Be a man!

"With all the strength of a raging fire—"

"Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"

He looked over at Nora, a bit stunned that she had a good singing voice, even more prudent considering that they were both running a decent, tiring pace at this point.

"Be a man," said with a one-sided smirk.

"We must be swift as a coursing river—" she replied.

"Be a man!"

"With all the force of a great typhoon—"

"Be a man!"

Both chimed in as the chorus replied, "With all the strength of a raging fire~! Mysterious as the dark side of... the moon!~"

The song ended and both laughed through their labored breaths. "Son of a bitch," Jacob commented, "you caught on to the lyrics fast; almost as fast as I do normally."

"Pretty easy lyrics to pick up, even on two goes at it," she replied. "Not a bad song, but I've never heard it before; where's it from?"

Jacob's stomach clenched. "It's, uh, done by a local celebrity," he fibbed. "Was for a little animated movie."

Nora hummed in thought as they continued onwards. "Let me guess; girl tries to become a soldier in a male only army while pulling a crossdressing schtick?"

Jacob looked over at her with surprise. "How the hell did you—"

"Pretty easy to dissect from the lyrics; 'Hope he doesn't see right through me,' the emphasis on being a manly man."

"...Fair enough," he replied. Granted, unbeknownst to you, it's about the character your boyfriend was designed after.

"Well, what else you got," she asked as they continued onwards. They had only passed four, maybe five minutes thus far on their run, and only one song had played.

"Well," he said breathlessly, "let's see." He pulled his phone out and shuffled through as he continued on, his gaze halfway between his phone and the path. Several minutes passed before he found another song he liked.

Power metal filled the air around him as Nora grinned widely. "All right, rock and roll!"

Jacob grinned as the tune of Eclipse's Never Look Back followed in their wake. The lead singer began belting out his lyrics as they continued running, Jacob keeping his pace to the beat of the song. They ran onwards, the burning in Jacob's legs getting worse and worse; he dared not slow down, but it was getting awful to work through. His breathing grew more labored as they went on, his heart beating wildly in his chest and his brow soaking in sweat as the sun kept climbing and the heat kept slowly rising.

~And ride, ride! Ride like a hurricane~

~ride, ride, never ever look back!~

~Ride, ride! Ride like a bullet train~

~Ride, ride, never ever look back!~

~You get no second chance, so never look back!~

"Woah, easy there, Jacob," Nora said, "You might want to slow down, you're not looking too good."

"I'm at this pace now," he replied through a tired huff, "I feel like I'm letting myself down by slowing down now."

Two more minutes passed—or at least he thought so—as they closed in on the landing pad again. His legs burned, his lungs burned, his brow was closing in on its saturation point, and his face felt increasingly flushed. He finally started slowing down, much to his ire, as Nora kept pace with him.

"Better," she said, "'Cause I'm not carrying your butt back to the infirmary for passing out. Just take it easy."

"I gotta be honest... I've... not run... this much before," he replied, his breathing having become ragged.

"You broke into damn-near a sprint, man! Maybe it was a bad idea to play that song."

Speaking of which, the song let out it's final chorus as Jacob found himself looking downwards in exhaustion; Nora was right, he was pushing too hard too quickly, and he knew it all too well.

~Never ever, never ever look back~

~Never ever look back!~

(~Oh, oooh-oh, oooh-oh-oooh!~)

~No, no, don't ever walk these streets again!~

You just gotta finish the song, he thought to himself as he heard the marching of more of the Knights—clearly the Knights if the metallic clanking of their boots were any indication, his eyes were squeezed shut at that second.

"Hey, watch out!"

He heard Nora's cry too late. His eyes opened as he saw someone in front of him, walking perpendicular to his path.

Fuck!

He had no time to figure out what his exact position was as he felt his forehead collide with something, sending him to the ground. He felt his elbows skid against the concrete, making him cry out in surprise.

"Jeez, lad! What's the hurry?"

"Ow," was Jacob's only reply as his legs and arms refused to move, his body now receiving a chance to recover whether he wanted it to or not.

"Oh gods," he heard Nora said, "I resuscitated you once before, I'm not in the mood to do so again; your breath was awful..."

"I don't think there'll be a need for that, lass," replied the very obvious man he clearly collided with. "It's alright you lot, nothin' to see here, move it along you gawkin' sheep!"

There was a murmur of activity that Jacob presumed to be Atlas students around them, though truthfully, he couldn't even muster the concentration to open his eyes and get a bearing of everything around him. All he could tell was that someone was blocking the sun with their body, casting their shadow over his head.

"...My apologies sir," he said through his labored breathing, "I... was pushing myself... a bit farther... than I should have..."

"That's a good way to hurt yourself," the man replied, Jacob's mind drawing a comparison to Alexander Anderson's voice as he listened. "Here, up you go."

Jacob felt himself be yanked by his arm back onto his feet by a large and strong hand. Jacob managed the energy to look up and see just who he had bumped into.

The first thing he noted was the man's size. He was easily Jaune's height, six-foot-four or more, and was built slightly less-so than the likes of Titus the other Marines. If anything, he was built more like Yatsuhashi, strong but also a bit lithe, like he spent more time with cardio rather than bodybuilding—how ironic. Second thing he noted was the man's Caucasian complexion and his massive bloody beard; were it not for the full head of hair on his head Jacob would swear that he was looking at that new version of Kratos, albeit with an actually healthy pallor for a change. He wore a black jacket not unlike Ironwood's or Winter's, cuffs rolled up cleanly revealing a blue interior, with dark blue military fatigues and black, square-toed boots peeking out from underneath the hem of his pants. His shirt was, by contrast, a bright blue with white buttons and a hint of a silver necklace around his neck.

The man smiled widely, a fierce glint in his eye. "Granted," he said with a dark chuckle, "Nothin' wrong with that; what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that. Still, you should probably keep an eye on where you're headed next time, eh?"

Jacob nodded. "Fair enough, sir."

"Seriously, Jacob," Nora said, "you were the one worried about pushing yourself too far and now you're almost keeling yourself over. You're not bipolar or something, right?"

"Jacob? So, you're the one Ol' Logan was tellin' me about, eh?"

Jacob couldn't have whipped his head around faster if Superman was snapping his neck. About then Jacob spotted a pin on his collar; a metallic blue shield the same color as his shirt with concave sides and a white lightning bolt carved into the center of the shield.

A Storm Warden, Jacob figured out with an audible sigh. He nodded and replied. "You're one of Mr. Grimnar's friends?"

A dangerous glint shone in the man's eye, somehow missed by Nora; it must have been the bemused smile he still wore. "Aye, that I am." He offered his hand in a shake, a move that Jacob took in earnest. "Name's Anders Bluesruth, Huntsman for Atlas and part-time chaplain in my hometown."

Explains the robes, Jacob thought to himself, and I doubt he's had a drift of profession if the others are any indication. "Jacob Muller," he replied, shaking as stoutly as possible. "Wannabe Huntsman."

Anders laughed. "That's a laugh and a half if what I heard is true," he said. "And you, lass?"

Nora saluted him with a silly grin in her face. "Nora Valkyrie, Huntress in training. I'm actually from Mistral."

"Mistral, eh? Long ways from home to be trainin' as a Huntress. Family nearby?"

Jacob grimaced as Nora's face fell slightly. "No, not really," she replied in earnest. "Just me and my partner Ren, and our teammates."

The Storm Warden seemed to study her for a few brief seconds. "Interestin'. Well, apologies for gettin' in your way, Mr. Muller," he said with a devilish grin.

"The faults mine, sir," he replied with a dismissive wave. "I was being a dumb-fuck and pushing too far."

"Again, nothin' wrong with that," the former Space Marine offered. "The Creator always appreciates going above and beyond."

The double entendre was not lost on Jacob. "In our resolve we only reflect His purpose of will," he offered, rattling off the first Thought For the Day he could remember that was prudent.

The Storm Warden startled at the response before growing a wide grin. "Book of Labours Chapter 12, Verse 10. You've read the Good Book? Hah! I think you and I are going to get along pretty damn well."

Jacob grimaced again. "Well, sir, it's actually—"

"There you are, Anders," bellowed the voice of Logan, the Great Wolf's voice alive with mirth and joy as he approached them in his casual outfit. "I was wondering If the Storm Warden would ever bloody-well get here!"

The Chaplain's smile refused to die out as he turned around. "Logan!" The two closed the distance between them, looking as though they were sizing each other up for a fight. Without a second to stop, there was a massive sound of hand meeting hand in what Jacob presume was the most masculine handshake that he had seen since the opening of Predator, the two chuckling with mirth before embracing one another in a colossal hug. "It's so fethin' good to see you again, you old hound!"

The two laughed again as Logan and the Storm Warden began conversing over basic pleasantries. Meanwhile, he and Nora shared a look of confusion laced with tire, Jacob's breath finally near a sense of normality. The sweat of his brow had now reached his nose and his tendons ached in response to their abuse, all the while his starved lungs still getting their fill of oxygen. His heart still pounded in his chest, though it was now down from the angry, desperate thunder he felt a few minutes ago.

"Well," Jacob said as he threw a hand up in defeat, "that was certainly something."

Nora laughed. "Odds right out of a cartoon," she commented in reply, drinking from a water bottle that Jacob had assumed materialized out of Hammerspace or wherever she hid her ammo.

"More of their friends are showing up out of the woodwork each day," Jacob said with a sigh, hiding his true meaning from her. "I know the Vytal Festival is approaching, but this is getting out of hand."

"Well," Nora said with a shrug, "you did say that Ironwood wanted to up security; Every Huntsman easily counts for at least ten normal Atlas grunts, right?"

"Something like that," Jacob replied as he watched the two former Astartes chat pleasantly before they both turned to look at him. He couldn't deny the clenching of his jaw as their attention pinpointed on him.

Anders' face seemed baffled and bemused, as if told a confusing but funny joke. "You're serious?"

"Deadly," replied Logan.

"...Then he's also—"

Logan pointed a finger at him, his eyes moving to Nora. Anders' sentence died in his throat.

Jacob swallowed and thought fast. "I think I'm actually done with our routine for today, Nora," he said, slowly hoisting himself to his feet with a groan. "We should probably head back and get ready for class."

"Uhh... Yeah, that sounds good," she said as she looked between the three of them. "Let's go."

Both began to walk past the two Astartes, Jacob noticing how the Storm Warden's gaze followed him like it was his own shadow. "Again, apologies, Chaplain," he said with a small nod. "Catch you later, Mr. Grimnar."

"Logan," the Space Wolf corrected with a smirk. "I'd say we're on a first-name basis by now, Jacob."

"Right. Catch you later, Logan." And with that, the two student Huntsmen began to walk back to the dormitories, Jacob's calves protesting with every step.

No one said anything about a Storm Warden Chaplain, Jacob thought to himself. Just makes me wonder who else is gonna show up to... day...

Overhead, a lone ship that was vaguely familiar in shape screamed overhead towards the landing pad, it's roaring engines and downswept wings betraying its non-Atlesian design. It had distinct dual-tails with a rudder connecting them and a pair of back-mounted engines connected to a body and cockpit not unlike an American helicopter. The whole thing was painted in a jungle green color, a stripe of tan with an even smaller dark blue stripe within it, the mounted weapons and engines remaining a dull, aged gunmetal color that he could see still gleamed in the sunlight.

Jacob turned and began to walk faster, leading Nora away with a hand on her back. They walked away from the landing pad as the Valkyrie Assault Ship came in for a landing, Jacob mentally cursing as the situation only seemed to escalate and escalate.

At this point, I'm expecting a Leman Russ or a Chimera to show up any minute now.

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[ACCESSING ARCHIVAL RECORDING #10427]

[SUBJECT DESIGNATION: RWBY: VOLUME 3 – EPISODE 9]

[SKIP TO TIMESTAMP: 2:54:00:0]

[PLAY TO: END]

[BEGINNING ANALYSIS...]

"Penny?"

The android girl shook her head. Automated process whirred to life as dust-silicate fiber optics sparked to life. Optic systems engaged at normal capacity, giving her cybernetic brain a detailed analysis of her surroundings.

"Oh, my apologies General," Penny said as she blinked and identified General Ironwood sitting across from her, staring down at a massive, barely-organized string of notices, spreadsheets, inventories and reports from the amassed Atlesian forces being set to reinforce and secure the Vytal Festival. Names, service records, Grimm and bandit kill counts, marksmanship aptitude scores, CQC proficiency, the whole nine yards were stretched out over his makeshift desk. "Is there a problem?"

Ironwood leaned back in his chair as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, Penny," he said calmly, her audio processors detecting his trademark forcefulness tempered by his patience. "I was just wondering how are the upgrades are managing. Processors having any hiccups?"

Penny ran her internal diagnostic, getting her answer after a few seconds. "Processors are running at 99.8 percent efficiency, General. Emotional response configuration is running, facial reaction analysis subroutines are at normal computing power, and... strategy modification and activation programs are running at 98% efficiency, higher than usual."

Ironwood nodded. "Excellent." He continued staring down at a particular page of reports from the City of Vale Police Department. The words 'explosive propellant' and 'fanatical fighting' typed were enough to tell Penny exactly what these reports were about.

Thought Process: this unit has not seen Jacob Muller in 6 days, 18 hours and 24 minutes.

Solution: Visit Jacob!

Penny smiled at her assessment. Surely Ironwood wouldn't mind if she met with him; after all, he knew that Jacob knew about Penny, and the two had apparently interacted a few nights ago if the General's comments were any indication. Maybe Jacob could explain some of the other things she had processed in the time since their last meeting. Some of the footage from this RWBY show, this music she had copied as she went through his data, et cetera, she was really curious about.

"Uhm, General Ironwood," she asked, never losing her smile.

"Yes, Penny," he replied with a small smile.

"With your permission, I would like to visit Mr. Muller again."

Ironwood seemed to stiffen in response. "I don't think that would be a good idea, Penny."

Penny blinked. "But... he's also a part of the Inquisition, isn't he?"

Ironwood stopped his analysis, looking up at her as a low-frequency sigh reached her audio sensors. "He is, Penny. But why is that such a concern?"

Penny unconsciously brought her arms back around her, gripping her hands together behind her back. "I... uhm... I was curious as to... what he may have to say about what happened. Professor Ozpin has been keeping the press away from the school, and I've-"

"You've wanted to check in on him. Because you see him as a friend."

Penny felt embarrassed as she sheepishly answered, "yes."

Ironwood gripped the bridge of his nose. "Penny, while I understand that you are developing normal human interactions and social skills, I don't see letting others see you just yet as a good idea."

"General," Penny replied, "I can blend in with 86% efficiency in a crowd of normal Huntsmen."

Hiccup!

Penny covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I mean 84%."

Ironwood sighed. "Penny, you are the next step in the protection of the Kingdoms, the pinnacle of Atlas' research and development program. I'm sorry, but I can't sanction letting you out into the general public in such a time as this."

"But this isn't even the general public—this is a Huntsman Academy," she stated.

"And the Huntsmen here are still considered general population," he answered back. "Were you to be caught up in an encounter—"

"I am over 400% the strength of a normal Level Seven Aura-enhanced Huntsman at base power, General," she interrupted robotically, "and my synthetic Aura registers as a Level Five. Even in the event of an encounter where I was outnumbered four to one, I would easily overpower them."

"Penny—"

"And even if I was damaged beyond a repair threshold, Father has enough backup chassis and can duplicate my memory banks at their latest upload time. Considering the upgrades that he's still working on thanks to Project: Dreadn—"

"Penny, please. That's enough."

Penny stopped at his stern but calm tone. She reassessed her decision and shrunk in on herself in response. "I'm sorry, General. I went out of line."

The room was plunged into a silence only interrupted by the building's AC turning on. For a whole minute it remained like this, Penny awaiting Ironwood's disciplinary words with even more embarrassment.

"Penny," he finally said, a tired tone behind it, "I should be honest with you. It's less that you are not ready to be seen—although I do think that remains the case for the moment." He pushed back his chair and stood up, his hands clasped behind his back. He began pacing in between the chair and the large window overviewing the Professors' Quarters, his brow locked in a furrow of worry and strength. "What my concern is... is Mr. Muller in particular."

Penny didn't let her surprise be hidden behind her 'bluff protocols.' "You're... concerned about Jacob?"

Ironwood stopped and nodded. "Everything that Ozpin has told me about him thus far has me concerned. This... this twenty-year old boy is found wandering through the Emerald Forest with only a few basic weapons and no Aura, is barely able to escape and survive the Grimm of the forest, and is immediately befriended by teams RWBY and JNPR. Ozpin then decided to either let him in on the matter or somehow he was already privy to our battle to begin with, and Ozpin decides to name him a member of the Inquisition's Inner Circle on a whim and now he's seen actively consorting with several of our members in broad daylight rather than behind closed doors. He's not even that strong of a Huntsman—A Level Three Aura, only just now learning how to wield such an advanced weapon if police and Acadamy footage is any indicator, not even remotely physically fit for the task."

Ironwood turned and gazed out of the window, looking down on the other Professors as they prepared for a normal day of classes. "And to make him even more conspicuous, he isn't a registered citizen of any of the Kingdoms. He seems Valean, perhaps, but he stated to Ozpin that he was of a third-party colony somewhere...but there aren't any that are still alive or even remotely as prosperous as he indicated with some of the things he's said. There hasn't been one in over 65 years." He turned to look her dead in the eye. "Now do you understand why I don't trust him?"

Penny assessed everything she had been told, her fuzzy logic simulators clicking and whirring in response. Ironwood was onto Jacob's trail, and that put her friend in a dangerous place, as well as all of the people from this 'Imperium.' What would Ironwood do if he found out the truth?

"...I can keep an eye on him."

"Ironwood blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Penny smiled brightly at Ironwood. "He trusts me enough that he's comfortable around me. I can keep and eye on him and keep an ear out for anything that sounds suspicious. If I do, I contact you or any other Atlesian forces and we can... take him in for further questioning."

Ironwood looked at her with a glance that said "do you take me for a fool." but that look disappeared a few seconds later as his gaze rose to meet the ceiling. He hummed aloud as he held his chin, obviously pondering it.

"Well, considering that you are in every way superior to him... I suppose there is little threat from him... Alright, I'll allow it Penny, but under two conditions."

Penny simply nodded, happy that she had managed to negotiate such a situation down.

"One: I ask that you also monitor his interactions with the other members of the Inquisition; namely all members sans Ozpin, Glynda and myself."

Penny blinked in confusion, assessing his request. "You don't trust the others?"

Ironwood grimaced. "On the contrary, Penny. I would be dead had Professor Cain not saved me a few decades back, and I have always been happy to accommodate any of them if they have wished to visit Atlas for one reason or another. But..." he paused as he let out a sigh. "...but all things considered, their sudden desire to jump to both his aid and his counsel is making me uneasy."

Penny looked down as her protocol records noted his request. Technically, the two parties were working together, and Penny did have a feeling she would be working with them frequently. "Condition noted, sir. And number two?"

"Two: if anything that they say is indicative of a threat to the Kingdoms and international security, you will come right to me."

Penny suppressed a simulated gulp, her programs noting the second condition.

[NOTE: Indicative threats to Kingdoms to be immediately reported to Gen. Ironwood.]

[CONFIRM: YES OR NO?]

Penny read the message buzzing in her simulated skull, fighting her protocols to immediately say yes.

… Oh, I'm sorry, General.

[CONFIRM: NO]

"Of course, General."

"Good. You are free to head out." He took a seat again, picking up the police report and continuing his own analysis of the piece.

Penny nodded. "Thank you, General Ironwood, sir." She turned to leave, letting a happy smile cross her face as she closed in on the door.

"And Penny, before you go... I'm assigning you a partner. Ozpin has been suggesting that you be entered into the Vytal Tournament as a Lone Wolf, but I must confess my doubts."

Penny's eyes widened. Memory banks assessed her most likely candidate. Ciel Soliel.

"Consider it would mean I could fight him too," she offered as she turned around to look at him, "perhaps they should only be a formality?"

Ironwood watched her closely, his eyes peering deep into her. "...Perhaps."

She nodded. "Thank you, sir." She turned again and opened the door, refusing to look back. Without a moment's hesitation she stepped through and into the hallway, closing the door behind her with a smooth and calm motion that betrayed her automaton status.

All the while, the analysis of that one clip continued on in her onboard CPU. She had finished most of the fight by now, having studied Ms. Nikos' maneuvering, stances and sword technique with a relatively-quick overview. She was fast and agile, with good defensive—at first glance—and offensive techniques by comparison to Penny's own; but she was very clearly reliant on her Semblance for defense. Her deflections were graceful but mostly very rudimentary, all of her focus being on getting in close and opening up with her melee strikes. Such speed and skill spoke highly of her training; after all, it was on public record that she was the daughter of Mistral's most prolific Huntsman, and the second-most prolific happened to be her godfather by all indication.

Penny's thoughts were quickly assimilated by said godfather. Huntsman Titus Ultramar, Mistral's Blue Warrior, husband of Miranda Nero-Ultramar, father of one... and Space Marine? Granted, Penny really didn't know what it meant to be a "Space Marine". Jacob hadn't really explained much about what they were or the place they came from, only from a few vague details: Massive supersoldiers of some kind serving a galaxy-spanning empire of humans and near-humans. It was certainly quite the image to process, but there were so many vague details that she only had the faintest silhouette of the matter.

Does Mr. Nikos know about Mr. Ultramar? Perhaps Mrs. Nikos? No way to know for certain unless I ask them directly... that is, if they let me ask them outright.

Penny's processor picked up the distressing images of Ruby fighting a male student every so often, pulling Penny's thoughts back to the analysis every so often. By now she had walked from the door, down the 100-foot hallway, down four flights of stairs and out the door towards Beacon Tower. She had set her analysis to take its time to get the most accurate analysis and possible preventative measures in the event that they were in that so-called "fixed timeline" Jacob had mentioned.

Pyrrha's weapons suddenly bent in strange angles, as if crumpled by her own power. Pyrrha didn't seem to react, only for the perspective to shift directly in front of a girl with bright green hair and ebon skin.

[FACIAL ANALYSIS... 100% MATCH TO: EMERALD SUSTRAI]

[STUDENT: HAVEN ACADEMY—FRESHMEN CLASS—ENTRY DATE:.. ERROR: CLASSIFIED BY ORDER OF HEADMASTER L. LIONHEART; ACCESS DENIED]

Penny's brow furrowed in worry as the sigil of the Inquisition flashed over the file. "Why is her data behind that much encryption? Even General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin would have no access."

Meanwhile, the scene shifted again. The fight with Ruby and that boy.

[FACIAL ANALYSIS... 87% MATCH TO: MERCURY BLACK]

That boy's in the same team as Ms. Sustrai. Penny ventured a guess as to what she might see if she pried further.

[ERROR: CLASSIFIED BY ORDER OF HEADMASTER L. LIONHEART; ACCESS DENIED]

The worry turned into a laser-focused concentration. Identify other members of team, she mentally commanded her programming to begin performing.

[MISTRAL ACADEMY: STUDENT SEARCH INPUT...]

[MATCH FOUND: TEAM CMNE (CARMINE)]

[MEMBERS: 1. CINDER FALL – 2. MERCURY BLACK – 3. NEO POLIS – 4. EMERALD SUSTRAI]

[ERROR: CLASSIFIED BY ORDER OF HEADMASTER L. LIONHEART; ACCESS DENIED]

"They are very definitely the bad guys that hurt Ms. Nikos... and me."

The footage changed, with Pyrrha's attacks juggling Penny up and away like she was made of paper mache. The shot held on Pyrrha, smiling confidently for all of a few seconds before a look of worry crossed her face.

A scene cut showed the culprit: Penny was charging forward via her energy blades' blasts, leaping high into the air and coming down on Pyrrha's chest feet-first. Pyrrha bounced backwards painfully, just barely managing to vault back onto her feet in the same motion.

An unnecessary cut showed Pyrrha standing still, only to have Milo and Akouo yanked out of her hand by fast-moving blurs the distinct color of Penny's own energy blades. Pyrrha reached out, her hand wreathed in a black energy as Milo started flying back to her hand, only for another blade to scream past, whipping back around with an audible spin back to over Penny's back as the automaton rolled her shoulders and neck. Penny herself seemed to sport a devious but not malicious smile as she took a simple stomping step forwards, the blade being joined by another seven of them.

A cut to a close-up of Emerald's face, her eyes squinted and staring directly into the audience.

Penny couldn't help but blink in surprise as the footage cut back to... well, herself, the blades multiplying so much that a single glance wasn't enough to get a good estimate of how many.

[ANALYZE IMAGE: COUNT OF: MK I COMBAT PLASMA BLADES]

[SCANNING... COMPLETE – COUNT: 542]

"But I don't have that many blades," Penny said aloud to herself, drawing the eye of several students around her. She was quick to pick up their presence as she offered a genuine smile and wave and replied, "Just something regarding my weapons. Sorry for the confusion."

Meanwhile the footage changed to a pan-back on Pyrrha, whose horrified look and stumble backwards spoke of her horror. There was a cut, and Penny's blades were back to their normal count. It cut to a view from the floor behind Pyrrha, panning back as the blades only increased... and increased... till it looked like it could have blotted out the sun.

[ANALYZE IMAGE: COUNT OF: MK I COMBAT PLASMA BLADES]

[SCANNING... COMPLETE – COUNT: INCONCLUSIVE, ESTIMATED AT 3500]

Penny stopped in her tracks. "Three-thousand," she mouthed silently, her eyes darting as the image remained engrained in her head. "But... Then how..."

[ANALYSIS: HOW?]

[HYPOTHESIS: EMERALD SUSTRAI HAS AN ILLUSION SEMBLANCE?]

[ERROR: NO AUDIENCE MEMBERS IN VYTAL STADIUM SEEM TO SEE IT]

[ADJUSTMENT: EMERALD SUSTRAI HAS A SINGLE-TARGET HALLUCINATION SEMBLANCE?]

Penny watched on as her own self threw the blades forward, the camera being engulfed by a sea of blades that would reduce Pyrrha to a bloody smear. If she had an actual physical heart, it may have skipped a beat in terror.

Pyrrha took a single thunderous stomp forward, a ring of black energy flying out from her as she grunted in exertion. The combat blades flew backwards, all but a few disappearing as if made of smoke. Those that did remain, however, went flying backwards, stopping only by their strings... catching on Penny's own chassis.

Penny stopped in her tracks. She watched in worry as the footage unfolded.

A dutch tilt of Pyrrha's face as shock crossed her features. Another one of Penny, her body wreathed in the same black energy—Pyrrha's Polarity—that her blades were in. Penny let out a gasp as the camera zeroed in on her arm, watching the dust-infused mithril-alloy cables coil around them like a Taijitu. Another one wrapped around her waist region, her pelvic armor crumpling like a soda can.

Suddenly, darkness, but for barely a half-second as a sound like shorting electrical wires and tearing metal and cloth accompanied the appearance of Pyrrha and... torn cloth with severed metal.

Penny didn't need her advanced systems to know what had happened. She blinked, processing all of what happened as the scene played on. Sorrowful music began to slowly swell as the camera focused on the two of them. Penny herself was contorted in an impossible way, Pyrrha standing as if she was ready to turn and sprint away from what had happened. There was a shot of Pyrrha's horror, the crowd's... strangely mild reaction, Professors Oobleck and Port's shock, Ozpin's as well. It cut to her own self, her eyes locked forwards as they entered Emergency Shutdown Mode, pupils dilating as the energy left them.

Penny couldn't help but actually feel something as she mentally gazed at the image. Whatever it was, it made her want to huddle in on herself. Was this what humans called 'being cold?'

A view of Father as well, as well as a shot of an army of Grimm in some ruined location suddenly turning their attention in one direction.

And Penny felt honest worry as she saw Ruby enter the scene from the side, running out and turning towards the stadium. She seemed to go limp as her eyes went wide, falling to her knees as if all the strength had left her. The single word that left Ruby's mouth was simple, but it was laced with emotion.

"Penny..."

At the recording of Ruby calling out her name just as she started crying, Penny was left with a burning need to find Ruby. This could not be allowed to happen; she could not let either herself of Ruby to be hurt by Ms. Fall and her team.

"...No, Nora, I just need to stop by Ozpin's office. Don't worry."

Penny's gaze snapped up as a voice reached her ears. Jacob's voice in particular. She spotted him walking beside Nora Valkyrie, both of them dressed in their usual garb. Her thermal sensors detected both of them were above normal level, with other signs of exertion. His hair seemed to be freshly-wet as well as her own, though it wasn't with sweat. Then again, he was wearing his denim jacket again.

"Not a chance, Jacob," she replied to him as Penny watched on. "Class is in about an hour!"

"It won't take long," he countered. "I just need to talk with him about what happened at the restaurant. I have some concerns I want to run by him before the Tournament gets started."

Penny noted her subroutines firing off about her objective, all the while the video remained paused on the sight of Ruby crying.

"Okay, then," she said with a dejected sigh. "I'll see you at Port's class. If you're late, I get your cookie for lunch."

"Only if Ruby doesn't take it first," he replied as the two of them headed separate ways. He was quickly beating a hasty retreat to Beacon Tower, a purpose behind his every step despite his obvious tire. It didn't escape her notice, however, that he seemed to glance around every few steps, as if expecting someone to be following him.

Time to follow him, Penny decided, not even bothering with stalking him at a distance. She did, however, remain at equal pace to him, only just staying in his blind spot.

After several minutes he arrived at the doorway to the Tower, making his way past a few groups of students socializing in its shadow. Penny made to move into the crowd, only to assess that she would only stand out more after she interjected into one of the groups. She decided only to act natural, walking up towards one of the walls and hiding against it.

Jacob was standing in front of the center elevator to Ozpin's office. He seemed to be staring straight ahead at the doors, but the slight movements of his head betrayed his suspicious glances around him. It was a tiny detail, but her behavioral processors and subroutines were able to pick up the movements easily.

They stayed that way for a solid minute, Penny's robotic condition allowing her to wait with patient ease. As she waited, she allowed the footage to continue, even though her own focus was on Jacob.

The footage continued, with Oobleck and Port calling to cut the footage. For some reason, the camera crews couldn't; the reason was made clear soon enough as the screens turned red and were filled with the image of a black queen chess piece.

"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident."

Ms. Fall, Penny noted with a furrowed brow.

"This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians but are in reality nothing more than men. Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both."

Her biting comment about General Ironwood only increased the furrow to her brow.

Suddenly, the doors opened, and Jacob stepped inside without a second's hesitation. He turned and almost made eye contact with Penny, the automaton girl leaning back behind the wall at just the right angle to watch him.

"They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."

Penny was stopped by that comment. General Ironwood had said that it was Father's initial wish to create android Huntsmen that could live among normal humans. It made perfect sense, since people didn't trust the automaton Knights nearly as much as flesh-and-blood Huntsmen, right?

Meanwhile her ocular recorders kicked on as her mind was preoccupied by the speech. Jacob seemed to be pressing something that was around waist height, mouthing words aloud as he did so. Her lip-reading systems activated, phonetically reading them out as he said them.

"...zero, seven, one, eight, one, two."

With that, the doors closed and the room was left empty but for the few people traversing up the CCT Center. Penny walked up to the door, awaiting the elevator to finish its deposit. She could feel its vibrations, small but enough to be able to count how long it took.

She knew that the trip up to the top of Beacon Tower took 46.2 seconds normally. But the moment it passed and the elevator continued onwards, Penny's brow furrowed again.

...70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75—

The elevator stopped.

"Does Beacon Tower have a basement," she asked herself. She waited again, the elevator beginning again after a few seconds. As she waited, she played the rest of the video.

"And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First, a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither."

Penny sat in... what did humans call it? Disgust, was it? Yes, disgust, of Ms. Fall's speech. It was clearly her fault, at least in regards to Penny's own demise. Sure, she hadn't seen the footage of this other dismemberment, perhaps it had only been an accident.

The doors opened up, bearing no one inside. Penny stepped in and glanced down where Jacob had been typing; there was a clear concealed keypad beneath one of the wall panels, one that was simply opened by a tap-and-click on the top of the panel that said "Emergency only". Penny typed in the code and was greeted with a pleasant ding as her answer, the doors closing in response.

The small lurch downwards confirmed her suspicions of there being a basement to the Tower. She activated the video again.

"Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong, but I know that the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is equally undesirable." As the footage continued, Grimm began to swarm Vale, all the while Cinder had taken to a rooftop in a simple but fancy red dress, staring out over the city as the Festival continued down a dark path.

Penny found herself fidgeting as she listened to Cinder's speech. Every word of it recorded in her memory banks to study, prepared for future comparison once this crisis was attended to."

The elevator lurched to a stop, Penny's altimeter punching in a depth around one and a third the height of Beacon Tower.

"Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?"

Penny stopped the footage again, starting to grow aggravated by the whole matter. Cinder Fall had clearly used this whole thing as a grandstand of some kind, some point to prove as the Invasion of Vale began. But the rest of the episodes would have to wait.

The doors opened and Penny found herself staring down a long corridor lit a cool but sickly emerald green. There was a distant glow at the far end, a bright blue and several smaller flashes of other colors that flashed in patterns as far as her enhanced optics could denote.

She took a hesitant step forwards, being met with a loud and yet muffled sound on the elaborate tiles of the floor. She stepped again, even lighter. Still a bit loud for her taste. She moved to remove her shoes and walk in only her socks down the hall. She walked for several minutes as she processed everything, taking in the details and assessing the questions she would need to ask or to find out.

[INQUIRY #1: WHO WAS INJURED THAT CINDER MENTIONED EARLIER?]

[INQUIRY #2: WHAT DID SHE MEAN BY THE KINGDOMS BEING "ON THE BRINK OF WAR"?]

[INQUIRY #3: ARE THE GRIMM GOING TO INVADE BEFORE THE PRIMARY INVASION?]

"God damnit!"

Penny suppressed a squeak as she hugged the wall in a burst of speed. She stayed there for a few seconds, hiding in the shadows as she waited for a clear signal. Silence reigned for a few seconds before she slowly began slinking alongside the wall without scraping it up. Finally, she came to a break in the wall, leading to some manner of tangent hallway.

She peered down it and found an odd sight: Jacob was attempting to pull on what looked like a hatch in the wall, mysteriously attached to no door.

"How the Hell did Ozpin open this room," Jacob asked as he let go and took a step back. He scratched the back of his head like a cartoon monkey as he watched the door for some manner of revealing clue to this 'door.' "That had to be Malcador in there, no way it was anyone else."

"Who's Malcador," Penny said aloud, only catching her mistake just too late.

Jacob spun on the spot, drawing Titan in a defensive reflex. "Who's there!?"

"Don't shoot, Jacob," Penny said as she reached her hands up. "It's just me."

Jacob paused for a second and he visibly squinted as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. "...Penny? What the Hell are you doing down here?"

"I'm sorry," she said as she walked out from the shadows. "I wanted to see you again, and General Ironwood would only let me see you if... if I—"

"Spied on me, let me guess."

She only nodded in response.

"Go figure," Jacob said with a disgusted tone. "Now he's snooping too close to home. Is he watching right now?"

"No, no," she shook her head. "I disabled my 3rd party monitoring programs when I left our quarters. None of them can see what we're talking about."

Jacob sighed in relief as he holstered Titan in an inside jacket pocket. "Sorry," he replied, "I thought Cinder had followed me down, or one of her cronies."

"Yes," Penny replied, "from the footage I saw of her I can see her doing something so despicable as trying something like that."

"Footage?"

She nodded her head. "When I scanned your phone," she said as she pointed to the machine sticking out of his chest pocket, "I created copies of all episodes in it, as well as some of your music; that hadn't been a part of the intended information I needed or wanted. I'm sorry."

Jacob grimaced. "That's a good way for me to get caught, Penny. What's your data encryption?"

Penny smiled. "Father programmed me with a modular triple DES and backup AER system in the event the initial algorithms were too weak for the information needed."

His blank stare and silence were all she needed to know his reply: "Penny, I don't have the foggiest what any of those do, but I'm gonna presume they're military grade and that your backups are even stronger."

Penny couldn't help but let out an amused giggle. "It's strong," she said matter-of-factly.

Jacob shrugged. "Fair enough."

"So... why were you trying to open up the wall?"

Jacob seemed to sigh as he turned halfway around to look at the wall. "There's a door here that leads into some kind of sanctum or something. I wanted to take a better look at it since... well, things are starting to add up."

Penny glanced around, activating her ultraviolet scanners, her infrareds, her x-rays, her thermal cameras, the entire arsenal of optical scanners at her disposal. There was a single crevice that marked a change in the wall right beside the handle, and some manner of scanning pad was next to it. Another slot beneath carried a keypad of some form, bout other than those there was little hint of a "door" and a sanctum behind it.

She focused on the pad. "It appears to have a biometric scanner," she deduced from the hardware present in it. "I would presume it's keyed only to the Headmasters."

"Damn," Jacob hissed, "go figure. Anything else?"

"A keypad, I'm afraid."

"Maybe the keypad is a secondary piece? Maybe an alternate method for emergencies?"

"No way to be certain," she said, blinking to turn off her optic scanners. "I'm sorry, Jacob."

He grimaced as he said, "Ah, it's fine. I might ask Ozpin if he'll let me see it later, 'out of curiosity.' Besides... I came down here for something else."

Penny blinked "Oh?"

He didn't answer, turning and waling back into the main hall. He hung a left, heading in the opposite direction to the elevator. Penny only followed behind, trying to process what he meant as he closed in on the blinking lights.

"Truth be told, Penny," Jacob said slowly, almost methodically, "That room may niggle at the back of my mind—I mean, in all honesty with everything I've seen and learned so far, I can't help but wonder if the statue in there really is of Malcador the Sigilite."

Penny perked up at that name. "There's that name again," she noted. "But you never explained who he was. The name 'Malcador' doesn't appear in any CCT historical databases."

She heard Jacob chuckle. "That's because he's not a Remnantine, Penny. He is—was, I mean—an Imperial."

As a part of her mind analyzed Jacob's word for the people of Remnant, she allowed only a simple 'Oh' as her response. "Was he important?"

Jacob looked back at her. "Well... very important, actually. He wasn't alive by the 41st Millennium, but his work and his influence could be—or can be, rather, whatever—felt monumentally."

"Oh? Was he from an earlier time?"

A wry smile crossed his lips. "Try ten thousand years prior to the most recent timestamp."

Penny couldn't help but look startled by the fact. No one on Remnant had ever maintained such a legacy as to survive two millennia, let alone ten. "Wow," she said. "He must have been really important."

"Very. He was The Emperor of Mankind's confidante, his second-in-command, and ultimately the Emperor's only real friend—at least that's how it comes across. Where the Emperor was analytical and driven forwards by a single-minded goal—to conquer the Galaxy for Mankind make its own—Malcador was that spark of humanity that balanced him out and prevented him from stumbling over that "pesky thing" called human nature. But even then, he didn't listen all the time and... well... if The Emperor had listened to him more, things in their galaxy would have been a lot less grim... I think."

Penny watched as Jacob seemed to shake his head and chuckle as if a joke had been said. "Then again," he continued, "then we wouldn't have a thirty-year-old, semi-underground multimedia behemoth like Warhammer 40k then. Cruel as it is considering who we now know, I kinda have to thank the Emperor for being a stubborn jackass. Otherwise there wouldn't have been franchise or hobby for me to find when I was kinda floundering my way through life. And with that, all my new friends, both now and before... before I left."

That last sentence had been quiet and drawn into itself, as if expecting a blow from some cosmic force. As far as Penny was concerned he didn't need to go on; Enough had already been said.

They walked in silence for just shy of a minute before they finally reached the end. It was at this point that Penny noticed what those blinking lights had been attached to.

"This is who I was concerned with, Penny," he said as he finally came to a stop in front of an Atlesian Medical Stasis Pod. It wasn't even the standard hospital variety Penny had seen in Atlas Academy's files, this one was far more advanced and far bulkier by extension. Penny's systems identified cardio stabilizers, oxygen-CO2 electro-pumps, Dust-based autoimmune enhancers, the list went on and on. This was a device for someone on the brink of death, someone who was more than likely important enough for people to—for a while—cheat Death Himself.

And Penny didn't need to even look closely at the woman inside to know who it was.

[FACIAL ANALYSIS... 83% MATCH TO: AMBER MENDOZA]

[ACCESS PUBLIC RECORDS...]

[FAMILY: FATHER—EUSTANCE MENDOZA; MOTHER—AZURA MOONSTONE]

[OCCUPATION: HUNTRESS, MISTRAL HUNTSMAN GUILD]

[PRIORITY DATA: ACCESS]

Again, the mark of the Inquisition appeared.

[ERROR: INFORMATION CLASSIFIED ON ORDER OF HEADMASTER OZPIN; ACCESS DENIED]

Penny was starting to get tired of reading "Access Denied" every time she wanted to locate information on someone.

"I can save Pyrrha all I like," Jacob began slowly with a grim sigh, "I can save you from your grizzly fate, I can stop Yang's injuries, I can do all of that just by being a clever cheat a step ahead of Death—no superpowers, no magic shenanigans that I have direct control of, just... being in the right place with the right information. And yet... Amber still pays the final price. And there's nothing I can do, nothing I can say to stop it."

He walked closer to the pod, running his hand up the glass of the pod, tracing the edge of the heart monitor over her bandaged chest.

"...She's the Fall Maiden," Penny assessed aloud, "right?"

Jacob grimly nodded as he looked back at her, a grimace across his face. "Soon-to-be-former Fall Maiden," he commented in reply. "Her wounds are critical and they will kill her in time, but... well, she doesn't have long in this life if Fate is to be fickle." He leaned back and slowly sat down on a small ledge at the base of the pod, groaning as if he hurt slightly.

Penny, meanwhile, walked slowly up to the pod and began tracing the heartbeat monitor's pattern, her robotic nature keeping in near-perfect pace with it.

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

In the back of Penny's mind, processors whirred to life as some routine or another... replaced the sound of a beep with a simple pair of thumps.

Thump-thump... thump-thump... thump-thump... thump-thump...

A heartbeat, she realized to herself. "A normal, human heartbeat."

Something she wouldn't ever have herself.

"...It's so strange," Penny said after a long silence. "She looks like she's sleeping."

Jacob didn't answer at first. "Yeah," he said. "It's eerie, isn't it? Hell, seeing her so peaceful and yet knowing how close she is to that final damned abyss... gives me the shivers."

Penny blinked as she thought it over. She couldn't help but feel a desire to avoid looking Amber in the eyes, even if they were closed. It was almost... too prying, as if Penny was learning some personal detail that wasn't supposed to be known.

Even with her automata-mind, she knew discomfort well enough to know she was feeling it.

Penny backed away a few steps, looking over at Jacob as he stared at the pod. "I'm sorry, Jacob."

Jacob only nodded. "Yeah," he said, "I am too."

"There isn't anything we can do?"

He looked her straight in the eye, but no words left his mouth. Penny felt her emotions sink as her processors internalized and assessed his silence.

The hallway echoed with footsteps. Penny cut off her alerts as they tried to scan what were clearly her own. Meanwhile, she assessed the room and the details of it, assessing access methods, who most likely knew of this place, so on and so forth.

"We shouldn't be down here without the Imperials," she finally said after a minute.

Jacob looked up from the ground. "Huh?"

"This is the best place for us to consider what our plan is," Penny suggested. "We could meet down here, where it's safe to discuss what we can do to prepare for the Invasion, to figure out how best to minimize casualties and stifle Cinder's plans long enough to save Pyrrha and Amber, if not outright stop it."

Jacob leaned back and let out a sigh with a deep thought on its winds. "Planning quite literally right under Ozpin's nose. I don't know, feels like we're trying to rub it in his nose if we do so."

"Nobody is ever down here except for you, General Ironwood and a few others," she countered.

"And if they do find us," he fired back dejectedly, "our cover's blown and the whole thing becomes a major crapshoot. Ironwood doesn't trust me as it is, and I have no doubt that Ozpin doesn't either. If we play this right, though, we set RWBY and JNPR off on their quest and keep to the timeline, albeit with Pyrrha still alive, Yang unharmed, Ruby un-mentally-scarred, et cetera."

"Oh? Schemin' in the most secure part of the tower isn't exactly the best place for something like that."

Penny rounded on the spot before the person could rattle off their second word and brought her blades to bear, the sound of them grinding against one another as they left from her back-storage ringing like an angry bell. There was the cocking sound of a gunrack chambering a shot behind her, followed by a similar but beefier sound following it.

"Who goes there," Jacob asked coldly, in a timbre not unlike Ironwood's when he was training students.

Two men stood present in front of them, both as tall as the General and as strongly-built as most lumberjacks. One was relatively old, most likely in his early 40s if she had to guess at first glance, with long blonde hair, a broad nose and a strong jawline. The other, however, she recognized easily, relieving her of her concerns... only to see that he had unholstered his weapon.

"Jesus Christ Almighty, Logan," Jacob hissed loudly, "first Penny sneaks up on me and now you two?"

[FACIAL ANALYSIS... 99% MATCH TO: LOGAN GRIMNAR]

[FACIAL ANALYSIS... 93% MATCH TO-]

Penny didn't need her facial analysis systems to recognize Anders Bluesruth. "Good morning, Chaplain Bluesruth," she said with a happy but weary smile.

"Penny," he said with a cocked eyebrow, "What the devil are you doing down here with Ms. Mendoza? Hell, what's he doing down here?"

"Wait a minute," Jacob commented incredularly from behind her, "You two know each other?"

"Aye," he said, his black hand cannons glinting in the green light of the room. "Let's just say Ironwood thought I might be able to teach her some tricks o' my own. But that's beside the point: Again, I ask... What are you doing down here?"

Mr. Grimnar reached out to Anders and brought the gun slowly down to the floor. "Ease up, you paranoid idiot," he grumbled to Anders. "But he does bring up a good point, Jacob. Ye'd best start explaining yourself."

Jacob let out a long sigh as he came into Penny's vision beside her. "I snagged Ozpin's code out of the corner of my vision and... I've been coming down here every so often to check in on Amber. I've been hoping that she might make a comeback, but in all honesty... I feel like I'm grasping at mist at this point."

"So then why do you keep coming down here?"

He looked back around his shoulder before he looked back and replied, "I've been also using it as an excuse to vent to someone about... well... everything. You can vent pretty efficiently to someone who's unconscious."

"A valid point, if not a bit concerning to the more normally-adjusted," Mr. Grimnar said with a breathy chuckle. "Considering your particular situation, I can understand that perfectly."

"Uh, Logan," Jacob said hesitantly, before he oddly seemed to clear his throat. His head seemed to tick slightly, confusing Penny slightly; did Jacob have a nervous tick of some kind?

"He's aware of all of the details, Jacob," Mr. Grimnar replied. "I sent him a debrief just before he left for Atlas proper."

"Aye," said Anders. "I'm not sure of what to make of your claims, Mr. Muller. Ye say you're from Holy Terra?"

"Well, we call it Earth in my time," he replied, "but I am a Terran, yes."

"Right, right, 3rd Millennium; Logan told me that part too."

"And did he mention—"

"I told him about the Codices as well," Mr. Grimnar said, producing a book from a pack he was wearing on his back. On it was a massive man armed with a large axe held high over his head with a mane of wild brown hair and a ferocious snarl across his face. He was armored in some suit of blue-grey armor adorned with carvings of wolves and runes that reminded her of Ancient Mantlean tablets at Atlas' natural history museum At his waist seemed to be a large ornate dagger, and beside it some kind of pelt over his codpiece.

Penny leaned in and studied it closely. "...Codex: Space Wolves?"

"I didn't believe it when I heard it," Anders said with an awed tone, "but Logan showed it to me not long after he and that other girl left for the dorms. This and everythin' inside proves it to be the truth... at least in some manner. It's just that it still sounds beyond batty, even with that taken into consideration."

"Fair enough assessment, Lord Chaplain," Jacob replied.

"Still, your recital of the Lectitio Divinitatus was quite surprising. Does this "Games Workshop" sell copies of it as well?"

Jacob seemed to tense up. "Actually," he said, "as much as some of us would like to see them try it, no. It's an Imperial Thought for the Day from the 5th Edition Codices and beyond."

Anders' face seemed to drop in disappointment. "Ah," he groaned, "that's a shame. The Emperor's Light getting an early head start on Chaos would do wonders for the Galaxy."

Penny frowned as she assessed that word; that wasn't the name of the holy book of Atlas' religion; nor was it the name of the book Anders preached from. "Pardon me," she interjected, "but what is the Lectitio Divinitatus?"

Jacob looked back at her with a stunned but impressed look. "Sure, get it on the first time you say it," he mumbled under his breath before he gave a reply. "The Lectito—sorry, Lectitio—Divinitatus is the holy book of the Imperium. It was penned by the Primarch Lorgar during the Great Crusade while he was crusading about doing The Emperor's will; whereas the other Primarchs were pretty secular in their opinions about the Emperor, Lorgar was pretty fanatical about his Father, seeing him as a god incarnate rather than the evolutionary pinnacle of mankind. Of course, he didn't share that sentiment for long after Chaos got its grubby hands on him, and he penned its antithesis, The Book of Lorgar. The rest is history, quite literally in this case."

Penny couldn't help but feel confusion as the names and concepts he threw at her failed to find a source to draw upon. "Primarchs? Are they the generals of the Space Marines?"

Chaplain Anders laughed. "More than generals," he replied, "They are our fathers by way of our geneseeds. Without them an Astartes can't be made, and without a Primarch's genes to make them there are no geneseed. Now, granted, Lorgar's is a bastard geneseed to begin with, seeing he was the first traitor to begin with, and all of his cur Word Bearers deserve the death they'll receive in time."

Had it not been for Jacob's sailor mouth, Penny may have gasped in shock at Anders' swearing. Granted, she still felt a little bit of shock since he didn't swear when she could hear him before.

"And we won't be left out of it," Jacob commented. "Considering who we encountered a few weeks ago."

Anders gained a confused look just as Penny copied the gesture. "What do you mean," she asked.

"The night RWBY and I met with Logan and we fought off Roman," he began, "We encountered someone else working with Torchwick and by extension Ms. Cinder Fall: Eliphas the Inheritor, one of the Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers."

"What."

That deep and foreboding tone that Anders used for that singular word put Penny on edge.

"That's damned impossible. I was with Gabriel when he ran a dagger through Eliphas' heart. I saw the accursed pauldron be dragged back with him to meet us. I know for a fact that Eliphas is dead."

Jacob turned to look at Anders. "Logan should have told you," he commented in confusion, "right?"

"Aye, I should have," replied Mr. Grimnar, "but I didn't. I thought it be best that we focus on the threat to the Vytal Festival before we go chasing ghosts."

Anders looked back at Logan, a visible anger across his features that her facial scanners were easily able to pick up.

"We should be hunting him down before he brings Chaos to bear," Anders said with an agitated tone. "If he is able to amass a cult following within the city limits, there's no telling what those infernal curs will try to do—"

"Alright," Jacob said firmly, "we all need to calm down. Going at one another's throats does us no favors."

"So," Anders said as he quickly reassumed his composure, "what do you suppose we do, then?"

Jacob seemed to hum and haw about that question as he paced back towards the stasis pod. He looked in at Amber with a grim air over his whole person, bringing up his hand to trace the glass.

"The White Fang and Torchwick's goons are currently based out in the remains of Mountain Glenn," he said to them after a few seconds of silence. "They've taken over the underground portion of the city and have commandeered one of the old subway trains."

This was news to Anders and Penny both, as made evident by the unified 'what' that they both let out.

"What do they plan to do with it," Penny asked, her audio receptors recording this information for later.

Jacob turned "They've attached a massive plow to the front of the train, and they're prepping it to charge down the tunnel system on a suicide charge."

Mr. Grimnar walked up to him. "And then combined with all the Dust they've been stealing from across the city..."

"Boom."

Penny's protocols kicked into action, attempting to override her consciousness to report directly to General Ironwood, despite her onboard refusal to do so.

[OVERRIDE COMMAND KEY: 5371249-F2-A.]

[PROCESSING...]

"That's the Breach you mentioned was at the end of Volume 2," Mr. Grimnar assessed. "They uncouple the cars and detonate the Dust, letting in the Grimm from the wild—"

"And then the train hits the end, crashes upwards into the city and gives the Grimm their opening into Vale," Jacob finished. "Technically it's supposed to be part of the Invasion of Vale at the end of Volume 3," but RWBY stumbles across it during their first mission and sets it off prematurely."

"But Cinder plays off of it anyhow."

"Yes, but if we don't address it than even more Grimm surge into the city than in the canonical timeline; more civilian casualties, more Huntsman casualties, et cetera."

"So, again, what do you suggest we do, then?"

Jacob brought his hands up on top of his head, seeming to clasp them over it like he was keeping something inside it. He let out a short, sharp sigh. "Our only sure path is to stay the course as much as we can for now. While the Dance has been postponed until the week after The Breach is supposed to happen, this gives us more time to prepare countermeasures and set up contingents. Also, this puts Cinder on a backstep when she goes to upload that virus into the CCT tower during the Dance."

Penny's eyes went wide even as Mr. Grimnar replied, "Oh? Do tell."

"With the Breach happening before the Dance, the Dance should see more security, especially at the CCT Tower, right?"

Mr. Grimnar's—Logan's—eyes brightened with a devious glint. "Right... so she has a harder time getting in and the virus can't be installed."

"She can't gain access to the CCT mainframe," Jacob confirmed as he dropped his arms, "she can't overtake the broadcast systems, she can't intercept classified information, the whole nine yards. We cut out a huge chunk of her power just by letting the new modified timeline run its course, all the while we continue to stay a step ahead, modifying plans for any additional spanners thrown in the works. And if we can stop the virus' upload, Cinder is either forced to enact the Invasion early or stay her initial course and risk losing a lot of her shock power when she starts it up."

The four of them stood in silence for a few minutes, pondering his idea. All the while, Amber's heartbeat monitor continued to sound off in the void.

There was a sound like a wheeze. Penny turned to see Anders doubled over, his hands on his knees as what sounded like a barely-contained laugh left his mouth. "That's so crazy it might just work," Anders said through his laughter. "Are you sure ye aren't one of Alpharius' kids?!"

"I'll take that as a compliment," Jacob said with a flat tone to his voice.

"So we wait and prepare to strike in the shadows," Logan deduced. "Not my preference, but considering everything thus far, I'm willing to follow through with it."

"Right then," Jacob commented as he dropped his arms. "Now, as for something else I learned when I was heading back with Nora... today's supposed to be the events of the episode Extracurricular."

Penny's brow furrowed as she began running through the list of episodes of RWBY she had downloaded off of his phone.

[IDENTIFIED: RWBY VOLUME 2 — EPISODE 5]

[TITLE: EXTRACURRICULAR]

"Oh? How do you know that," Logan asked with a cocked brow.

"Because Cinder's team is joining us for Sparring class today."

Logan Grimnar let out a hum. "I presume that you'll stay the course on that one too?"

Jacob sighed. "Actually, no. This part is part of my plan to keep Pyrrha safe."

All three of them looked around at each other before Anders replied, "How does a spar keep Ms. Nikos safe?"

"Mercury battles with her today and reveals her Semblance and her combat tricks to Cinder, giving the bitch an edge when they duel atop Beacon Tower. Pyrrha relies a lot on her Semblance to keep her opponents under some manner of control, so Cinder doesn't take any metallics and fights unpredictably."

Penny looked on in confusion. "So... how do you stop her and Mercury before that happens?"

"Simple," Jacob said with a sigh as he stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. "The class ends with Mercury and Pyrrha's fight... so someone needs to jump in and offer to fight before Mercury can. And we need to put Cinder on the back foot as it were; someone needs to make her uneasy."

"Oh no," Mr. Grimnar replied, "I know where this is going."

Jacob only smiled as the three of them slowly put two and two together.

Penny thought he was certainly becoming crazy with an idea like that.

---

CLANG!

SKRRT!

SCHW-SCHLING!

Each sound was something she had heard a million times in training and in her tournaments.

Parry left as you attack his head, whip around and hit him with the stock, watch the legsweep, somersault and fire...

Each movement was a muscle memory that she had remembered, strung together in advanced combinations. In all honesty, though no one knew it, she wasn't one for improvising attacks in battle.

She parried every attack thrown her way with an inhuman grace and ease, a bronze and scarlet dervish amidst gunmetal and dull tones.

Her Semblance made it easier for her to fight them. Granted, she was already outnumbered four to one, but she was already playing a dangerous game of . The second their blades made some manner of contact, she could feel them, as if distance tendrils of herself. But she could reach out and work them to her whims; An adjustment there, a nudge here, and even the most chaotic of fight styles could be handled by her drills and her memorized techniques.

She threw team CRDL around like boats in a hurricane, several of them going down with agonized cries of pain. On the one hand, she didn't like causing that much pain that they actively cried out in reaction to it; on the other, what they did would not be so easily forgiven.

Cardin went at her with a wild swing, forcing her to cartwheel to the side. She made note again of how close his explosive mace had gotten to her, opting to attempt knocking his feet out from under him. The sudden appearance of his mace swinging into her shield arm stopped that plan cold.

Her Semblance and Aura cried out in unison to check her flank. Out of the corner of her vision she saw Sky bringing his halberd down, hoping to cleave her Aura down her back.

Without a second to think more on it, she adjusted his swing just slightly with a tilt to the side, having the halberd take a swing at her legs instead. she jumped and spun in the air, spotting Cardin trying to smack her in midair. She blocked with her shield and hit the ground, vaulting into a breaking spin that knocked Sky's feet out from under him as Cardin brought down his fist, only for her to roll and launch back onto her feet.

This is the kind of challenge I needed, Pyrrha thought proudly in the back of her mind as she vaulted over Cardin's cleaving swing, spinning and letting her shield fly. It bounced into Cardin's head and ricocheted into Sky as she hit the ground, only for her to leap up into the air, grab it and land back down onto Sky's back. The agonized grunt that came from him both made her want to flinch and gave her a flitter of satisfaction.

She looked up to see Thrush charging at her, his twin black blades gleaming wickedly in his hands. Dove and Cardin were back on their feet too, recovering from her attacks. She wouldn't give them the opportunity to recover, launching forwards and crashing into Thrush with enough force to send him flying backwards. Dove came up behind Thrush with the start of a swing and Pyrrha spun low on her feet, catching his blade with her own as she continued to spin methodically, teasing him by opening her back long enough to incite an attack, only to whip around and riposte it. She threw out a kick and sent him flying, only for Cardin to come flying overhead, his mace looking to break her skull. She lept backwards and rolled, transforming Milo to open a volley of shots as she landed, poking it out from the dipylon cut on Akouo.

Thrush jumped between her and Dove, blocking her shots before launching himself at her, rolling forwards with his blades in midair as if becoming a Boarbatusk. He came out of it with a kick, connecting with her shield and forcing her back as he and Dove launched an all-out assault, their blades feverishly stabbing and dicing at her, only stopped by her own blade, her shield or her Semblance working overtime to nudge them out of the way. They finally backed off, only for Pyrrha's Aura to scream at her to watch her back. She turned and saw Cardin coming at her with a braining swing, forcing her to roll out of the way and into a crouch, Milo changing again into its rifle mode. Cardin spun his mace and blocked each shot before launching himself forwards for yet another strike.

Time to improvise for a change. Pyrrha kept pace with him, jumping up only to bring her leg up into a kick and slam her knee into his jaw, staggering him back out of his charge. He stumbled back upright, going into a wild swing. The two began exchanging strikes, Pyrrha's fast attacks and drilled combinations landing shots where Cardin could not.

Then came Thrush, dipping down past Cardin as the larger boy stumbled backwards, the thin, lanky Thrush lunging into her with his twin blades. She dodged them all, stepping back far enough to pull one of her favorite flourishes. She sent her spear into a spinning vault around her neck as she blocked his blades again, lobbing her shield into his face and catching it as it ricocheted back up into the air, the spear resting in the crook of her neck and shoulders. She brought the spear around and slapped him across the chest and brought it back to the same spot, only to fire a Dust cartridge to lauch the blade forwards as Dove charged in. The threat of Milo's speed stopped him as he deflected it, only for her to duck low and under her spear to fire another lunging shot at him. He blocked it as well, only to wheel about and open fire with his blade's gun, Akouo dropping down just in time to block his shots. She charged forwards, ramming him with enough force to stumble backwards beside Cardin. Winchester didn't pay his partner an ounce of attention as he backhanded Dove with his mace, letting out an explosive Dust charge, fast enought that Pyrrha barely managed to leap into the air and away from the strike.

Okay, she thought to herself, time we ended this dance.

She launched forwards as she hit the ground, slashing at his side and spinning him in place through sheer inertia before swinging up into his jaw. Cardin Winchester went flying into the air, losing a grip on his mace as he soared up. Pyrrha wasted no time as she remembered her Father's favorite man-to-man finishing move, the Angel's Fury: She launched into the air and slashed at him, sending him back with enough force to knock him back several feet. She reached out with her Semblance to keep her shield and Cardin afloat and stationary long enough for her to kick off from it, latching onto his arm. She kicked high and swung around, grabbing Milo and catching him in a choke hold.

She let loose her Semblance, and the two tumbled to the ground, Pyrrha rolling in on herself as Cardin screamed the whole way to the floor.

The sound that he made as they landed on the ground, Pyrrha kneeling as she piledrived Cardin into the floor. Without a second's hesitation, she sprang backwards, again catching his jaw with her knee plate and her boot. His Aura crackled and fizzled out, his body bouncing like a limp rag doll as he slammed into the floor after flying five feet into the air.

He desperately, agonizingly tried to return to his feet as Akouo fell back onto her outstretched arm, Stay down, she thought to herself, if you know what's good for you.

He never rose more than sitting on his knees, doubled over with his hand over his gut.

Professor Goodwitch walked up between them, declaring, "and that's the match."

Pyrrha could hear Cardin groan, "Lucky shot," just as he then fell over on his side, out cold. Dove and Thrush and a semi-lucid Gale dragged their team leader away, all of them limping or nursing an extremity.

"Well done, Miss Nikos," Glynda said with a proud tone to her voice. "You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament tomorrow."

Pyrrha beamed as she replied, "Thank you, professor."

Glynda nodded with a smile as she turned to the rest of the Auditorium. "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?"

Silence. Pyrrha looked up into the crowd, noticing several new faces there amongst the likes of her classmates. She could see Cinder and her team there, as well as Sun's team and several others she noticed. She could even see her uncle up in the top most row of bleachers, beaming brightly at her. About then, Pyrrha noticed Blake sitting not far from her uncle, looking nearly-asleep in her bleacher. Pyrrha frowned as she wondered if the attack by the White Fang had messed with her any more than she already seemed to be stressed about.

"Ms. Belladonna? You've been rather docile for the past few classes," Ms. Goodwitch commented. "Why don't you—"

A hand shot up from the crowd.

"I volunteer," she heard from the voice of Jacob.

Pyrrha blinked in surprise. What is he doing?

"Mr. Muller? Are you sure about this," Ms. Goodwitch commented with a worried look. "I wouldn't want you to get any more hurt than you already are, all things considered."

"Nah, you kidding? I'm feeling much better this morning." He stood up and flexed his arm and yawed forwards to prove his point.

"Well... if you insist. Let's find you an opponent."

"With all due respect, Ms. Goodwitch," he said as he came down to the edge of the seats, "I've been meaning to fight someone in particular."

Pyrrha raised her brow in curiosity.

He turned and pointed up towards Cinder's team.

"Ms. Fall, tell me: are you up for a spar?"

---

Well, that's a way to end a chapter. Again, I apologize for the delay, but it's been a crazy last few weeks... and it's only gonna get worse from here.

Next time, Cinder vs. Jacob, Round One! Who wins, who loses, who wins twenty bucks? Find out next time, same time, same place!

Reviews are welcomed gladly, I always appreciate likes and follows, all of that good stuff. Thank you for your patience and you time and I will see you all... in the next chapter. Bye~!