The room was calming and had a nice, warm atmosphere to it. The windows were kept clean and red drapes hung neatly over them. There were shelves filled with books, but some were thrown around the place, with some lying open as if they were hastily read and then discarded so the reader could quickly move on to the next title. A few books lay face down, still open on the armrest of a chair facing the fireplace, which seemed to emit a much warmer glow and seemed to be brighter, since it had been started by magic. Beside the vacant chair was another one similar in construction, but this one had an occupant.
From behind, all you could see was a hand that played with a fireball, and the person watched as it bounced from finger to finger; it then transformed into a long coil that weaved betwixt her fingers. The calmness in the room was disturbed by a knock on the door, and the interloper hesitantly peered inside before he stepped inside, and the fire illuminated his face.
"You wanted to see me, Miss Fall? What is it? I'm very busy," Roman Torchwick said, but then there was a pause as the arm, which was covered by a sleeve, began to glow red. The coil that the person played with turned back into a fireball and was cast back into the fireplace.
"I can see that you're still upset," Roman remarked as he shifted his position, but knew he couldn't back away. The desire to retreat was mostly out of fear of what would happen if he showed weakness; in her chair, Cinder shook her head before she put a fist to her temple.
"Why, Roman, would I be upset?" she asked him in a voice that seemed to soothe him and lull him into a false sense of security. Just when Roman opened his mouth to speak, she raised her hand with a finger in the air as if she had just discovered something.
"Could it be, Roman, that when you were supposed to do something as simple as rob an all-night Dust shop, you were instead held up by a mere child?" She continued while put her hand down on the armrest, and pushed herself up from its confines, only to turn and face Roman with an air of elegance. The Dust infused into her clothes illuminated brightly and made an intricate pattern on her dress, which made her seem like she was on fire. However, despite the appearance of her clothing, she still wore a soft expression that insincerely conveyed her false curiosity. Roman tried to open his mouth to respond but was again interrupted by Cinder.
"And then you come in here asking me 'What is it?' as if I owe YOU an explanation?" Cinder's eyes began to glow a fiery red as she spoke, and it appeared as if flames were spewing from of them. "And now you're telling me 'I'm busy' as if I need to work around YOUR schedule?" She slowly stepped towards Roman, and her Aura visibly manifested, which made her look as if she were engulfed in flames.
This visage made Roman swallow nervously, as he knew what this meant, and he pondered whether or not he should back away after all. At the most, all he was able to do was simply shift in position as she continued to approach him. As she got closer, Roman could feel the heat that emanated from her, even though she wasn't really on fire. As she stopped just inches from his face, Cinder looked up into Roman's eyes and stared at him with an intensity that burned as much as her fiery advent would imply. Roman tried his best to look away, and his breath began to quicken.
"I am sorry, Miss! Won't happen again!" Roman blurted suddenly, but Cinder ignored the apology and she held her gaze; Roman swore that it felt as though she were staring into his soul. Then, out of nowhere, she giggled to herself, the fire of her Aura dissipated and her eyes returned to normal.
"Oh Roman," she said to him as she stroked his cheek softly with the back of her hand, which made him flinch as she kept her eyes narrowed at him.
"You need to understand that I put complete trust in you; then to see you fail me, and then have you show such disrespect," she trailed off with a voice that soothed Roman, but he knew not to trust it anymore. As she backed away, she wagged her finger at him and winked, while her facial expression turned back to a more passive and calm state; her alluring smile appeared again.
"Ummm, we will work harder from now on, but we will still need some time." He said as he regained his own cockiness and charm. Cinder merely turned around and rolled her eyes at him before shaking her head in response.
"Good to hear; next time we see each other, I'd better see some results," she walked back to her chair and stared into the flames as she was about to sit down, while Roman let out a silent sigh of relief, glad that he was able to avoid her wrath, and checked his clothes to make sure that she hadn't set him on fire. Everything seemed to be fine until he realized that something smelled like it was burning.
"It isn't me," he muttered to himself and Cinder glanced back with a raised eyebrow. Slightly annoyed, she was curious as to what he had said; just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, she too caught the scent. Her eyes narrowed and her hands tightened into fists as she looked at the source of the scent that originated behind Roman.
"Out. Now," she demanded, as her eyes trained on whatever was behind Roman. When he noticed that her gaze was not on him, he looked behind himself and narrowed his eyes at the door, only to see that it was wide open, and a figure stood in the shadows. Roman did not want to upset Cinder by attempting to disobey her but knew she was already upset, and whoever was in the doorway was liable to send her into an uncontrollable rage. Just as he left, the figure stepped into the room, and the firelight revealed who it was.
His light brown hair was combed back but seemed to be a bit greasy from the overuse of pomade. His grey shirt and pants were to be more than a bit dirty, with patches of ash and soot smeared all around them. However, the most obvious details were the burn marks and holes all over his outfit, and the sick grin on his face. His curious green eyes scanned the room, and he lit on every little detail before he fixed his gaze on Cinder.
"Love what you've done with the place," his grin grew wider as he approached the vacant chair next to her and sat down.
"What do you want, Ash?" She asked as she glared at him and placed a hand on her chair; she gripped it tightly. He only responded with a smirk and leaned his head to the side while he kept it propped up with a hand against his cheek.
"I'm not one of your underlings, Cinder. Besides, I thought you'd be happy to see me," he said in a tone that was meant to mock her, all the while expressing a false look of sadness. Her eyes flared, and her Aura began to burn again as she stalked forward, towering over him.
"I was told to kill you if I ever saw you again!" Cinder yelled out.
"Awww… tch, tch," replied Ash, and suddenly began to laugh at her, which caused her to flinch as her expression changed to confusion, then to frustration as he continued to deride her with his laughter.
"Someone would NOT be happy if you did that, Cinder," his grin grew wider as he waggled a finger in the same manner she had done to Roman. It was then that Cinder realized that he had borne witness to the entire exchange between them. "Who do you think asked me to come back?"
Taken aback by what he had said, the surprise made her lose concentration; the fire in her eyes and her Aura vanished. As she regained control and clarity, she began to think of any possible rationalization that would allow for his return.
"Why? Why bring you back?" She demanded, and Ash just shrugged as he looked to the side while he scanned the room again, but this time mostly out of boredom.
"I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm smart? Charming? I get the job done?" he answered with a bit of smugness in his voice.
"Get the job done? You did the complete opposite of your 'job', Ash!" she interjected and began to grit her teeth as she remembered why she was ordered to kill him in the first place.
"You're still upset about that?" Ash asked with a sigh as he tried to feign a look of regret, but in the end, couldn't keep it up and returned to his grin.
"Years of planning wasted, Ash! We had to recalculate everything," she said as she rubbed her forehead and paced back and forth across the room.
"Oh come on, it shouldn't matter," Ash said.
"You were supposed to bring back Snyegh alive!" Cinder retorted and stepped up to his seat before she placed a hand on his armrest and leaned towards him.
"Oh come on, you didn't think she'd actually join, did you?" Ash scoffed at the thought and shook his head while looking down to avoid Cinder's face. "She was too altruistic. She would never have joined us."
"But he didn't want her dead," Cinder said as she backed away and still keeping her eyes narrowed at him.
"Either you are with us, or against us. Same with her Huntress friend. I simply killed two birds with one stone," Ash said as he apparently began to trail off again, while Cinder sat back down and rubbed her temples. "The Master knows that I understand that 'we', the Faunus, humanity, we are born into a losing struggle, Cinder."
"You're an idiot, Ash. You understand nothing," she said with a scoff as she diverted her attention back to the fireplace.
"Like I said, I am not one of your underlings, I don't need your approval, neither do I want it," Ash retorted with a slight chuckle as Cinder continued to stare into the fire just as she had before; she was disturbed by Roman, even before Ash's intrusion. After a while, she noticed how quiet it had become, not that it was a bad thing, but from what she knew about Ash, she knew that he was never this quiet.
"Hmmm, the fire." She turned to see where this had come from to see that Ash had also begun to stare into the flames.
"The fiery gypsies." He got up out of his seat and knelt down next to the flames while he rubbed his hands. This made Cinder curious now, and she decided to watch to see what he would do next. However, a bit of her did feel uncomfortable when she noticed the sudden change in Ash's demeanor.
"Dancing with the flames." He reached a hand into the fire and watched as the fire engulfed his hand. It burned the cuff of his sleeve and the flame seemed to work its way up along his arm, while strangely it left his skin unharmed. He then pulled his hand back from the fireplace and the flames on his arm went out; she noticed that the fresh wood she placed in the hearth had turned to ash immediately after the fire left them. "Fire… in our hearts." The flames in the hearth died out completely.
Cinder's eyes widened in wonder as she continued to watch Ash; he controlled a ball of fire in his hand and bounced it from finger to finger. She watched as it coiled along his arm like it did when she had played with it, and he let it dance along his digits, but upon closer inspection, it seemed as if it took the form of a person; as she watched, it began to dance.
"And like most flames that have lingered too long. They will turn into nothing but embers and die." Just as Ash finished his poetry, he closed his hand into a fist and the fire died with a loud screech until there was nothing but a few pops and sparks left, and then the room went dark.
0-RWBY-0
"No way! You guys fought a Nevermore?" Zed asked as he leaned forward in his seat at the dining hall and grinned as he listened to Jaune's story. It was the first time since the start of the year that HAVC and JNPR had actually gotten together to talk. Nora ate loudly next to Ren, who just ate silently while he listened in on the discussion between Haiiden, Zed, Jaune, and Pyrrha.
"Yeah, it was amazing. He and Ruby came up with a clever plan, and it worked out perfectly," Pyrrha finished her recounting of Team JNPR's encounter with a giant Grimm scorpion, a Deathstalker, and Team RWBY's battle with an enormous Grimm bird of prey, the Nevermore, She put a hand on Jaune's shoulder; he responded with a shy smile and shrugged.
"Yeah well. It wasn't that hard, you know, there's a reason why we're all here," Jaune added, while Zed continued to nod and was barely able to sit still in his seat due to his excitement.
"That sounds awesome! We fought an Attercoppe with team CFVY when we first got here!" Zed said, and turned towards Haiiden for a high five; for a moment, Haiiden looked back silently before he hesitantly gave Zed his desired high five. Jaune's expression changed to one that showed nervousness, which was only compounded when he scratched the back of his neck.
"A- Attercoppe?" Jaune asked nervously but Zed did not seem to notice his disposition.
"Yeah, a giant spider or something like that. Not a very clever name though, you'd think they'd pick something scarier," Zed seemed to pause as if he started to think of a name while Jaune seemed to reel back in his seat.
"No thanks. Spiders are already scary enough." Everyone noticed his fear, but it was only natural, so it was ignored.
"Anyways. Ruby? Who is that?" Haiiden asked. He had only met a two of the new teams this year, but none of the students were named Ruby.
"She's leading team RWBY right now. You haven't met yet?" Pyrrha asked quizzically and quirked a brow at him. "I'd assume that you would have since you were the ones who gave us a tour and welcomed us in."
Due to their busy schedule, Haiiden and his team hadn't been able to scout out all the teams or meet with everyone. Haiiden would like to meet this "Team RWBY", especially since he'd heard some good things, but unfortunately, he had been unable to.
"Well. We handled a bit of that while CFVY also handled any other teams and students. So maybe they got around to team RWBY, and who knows, maybe we will meet when the classes are switched around," Haiiden said with a shrug.
"Strange. Why would they do that?" Ren asked as he joined in the conversation, while Nora peered at the group with a half-eaten chicken wing that stuck out of her mouth.
"Well, Ozpin told me that he would like the students to work together more often. Get them to meet each other and bond until the school is pretty much like family. Although he wouldn't really word it that way," Haiiden elaborated and took a sip out of his cup.
"You seem to know a lot of what Ozpin seems to be thinking," Ren pointed out.
"Yeah, you two seem close, I have also noticed you walking with him and your talks are pretty casual," Pyrrha also pointed out and Haiiden began to feel a bit uncomfortable, as JNPR seemed to be pressing him for an answer.
"Oh that's easy, Ozpin is his Godfather," Zed answered, who then also took a sip out of his own drink. JNPR's eyes widened with surprise, and Cecilia spits out her drink onto Nora, after which she covered her mouth and apologized in horror. Vaughn looked up at him with equal surprise, with his eyes darting back between Zed and Haiiden. Haiiden forced a smile and gritted his teeth; he shook his head but did not look up at anyone.
"Thank you, Zed! They did NOT need to know that!" With that confirmation, Team JNPR's mouths dropped open and looked back at one another, then back to Haiiden. Vaughn looked back to his sister, who was now visibly angry.
"Maybe 'we' did, sir," she said as she pounded her fist on the table.
"Not right now, Cecilia. Please?" Haiiden begged as he started to rub his eyes as he sensed that there would be another argument tonight.
"No, I want an answer: why didn't you think that we needed to know this?" she continued, and Team JNPR now sat awkwardly as they watched the two bicker, with Jaune scratching his head and Pyrrha looking away as she pursed her lips. Ren just looked down to avoid eye contact while Nora was the only one who watched with excitement.
"I didn't want people to know, because they don't need to. I don't want people to think that I am here because of favoritism," Haiiden answered, and turned to see how she would react. At first, she tried to find the right words to say and her expression changed from calm to anger, and back again repeatedly before she just dropped the subject and resumed her meal. She chewed rather aggressively, however.
"Well, in the next class, we will see if you earned your right to be here then," Vaughn said with a smile, feeling confident that favoritism wasn't the explanation in this case.
"That's right, we will be with Ms. Goodwitch next class to do some sparring," Ren said after looking up when the atmosphere had calmed down a bit. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Haiiden sat staring at Pyrrha, noticed after a while, and expressed discomfort.
"Yes, Haiiden?" she asked him as he kept staring at her.
He chuckled nervously. "It's just that you have a bit of a reputation. Celebrity status, if you will," he said as he took another sip from his drink again, setting the cup down on the table after he was done. "You could have had it easy if you had just stayed at Haven; why would you come here?"
Pyrrha smiled, but at first, it wavered as she thought of an appropriate answer, then the smile became more confident when she was done thinking.
"I think you just answered your own question," Pyrrha answered and Haiiden continued to stare, slightly confused at her answer. "I don't want my previous fame to affect my grades or my relationships with the students and the faculty. That is why I am here: to some extent, I get a fresh start and I am just like everyone else. I get to once more test myself."
Haiiden smiled back, this was a better answer than he had originally hoped for and he was almost left speechless.
"Well. I hope that we can have a good sparring match. I'd also like to test myself and try my hand against you." Grinning at her, and the right corner of his mouth rose into a smirk; she responded with a smile similar to his. Haiiden then looked to Jaune, who noticed and was looking back between him and Pyrrha, but a bit unsure at the answer than Pyrrha was.
"Ummm, my great-great grandfather was pretty famous, and I kind of want to be like him," he said sheepishly and was nervous as to the manner in which Haiiden was looking at him. Which was understandable, since Haiiden was staring at him intensely as if he was looking over every little detail in Jaune's face, as well as at the pieces of armor that he wore. Noticing something familiar about it, he tilted his head back and forth as he tried to figure where he had seen it before.
When the subject was about to change, it finally hit him.
"Crocea Mors," Haiiden said to himself, everyone turned to face him, almost confused for a second, with Jaune the only one who knew what he had just said.
"You are an Arc, huh?" Zed and Cecilia looking back at each other at Haiiden's question, and wondered what the significance of that was. Jaune replied again with a sheepish smile and a scratch to the back of the head.
"No way! That is a good name, Jaune," he sighed for a second and smiled to himself before shaking his head. Glad at the prospect of there being two famous people in the school.
"I have never heard of it, sir," Vaughn pointed out with Cecilia looking at Jaune curiously. Haiiden hung his head to the left and turned to face him as he stared at the two.
"A lot of good names have been forgotten throughout the years. Arc is one of those names that is known among the right people, and can be found in many of the older books." The bell then struck, signaling the end of the lunch period, and everyone stood up to leave. The group split up to run some final errands before heading towards their next class.
0-RWBY-0
Team HAVC was walking side by side, with Haiiden and Zed telling random stories of them growing up together, with Vaughn joining in to ask questions. While Cecilia was walking by herself and silently as if she was lost in thought. The fun was then ruined when Zed's expression changed from his usual grin to a dark frown. Haiiden looked up with Vaughn to see team CRDL surrounding and cornering Velvet against a row of lockers in the corridors. Zed tightened his fists and gritted his teeth and was growling to himself. He rushed over to the group and pushed Sky Lark and Cardin Winchester out of the way.
"Back off, Cardin!" he yelled at him as he held him by the collar of his breastplate, and shoved him away and then pushed Sky back into him. Team CRDL grinned when they saw Zed and thought that he was alone, but then their eyes narrowed, and the grins disappeared as the rest of HAVC came in to back Zed up.
"What's it to you? Huh? We're just having a bit of fun," Cardin replied and was walking up to Zed, towering over him and yet it seemed as if Zed was still the one looking down on him.
"Fun, huh? Singling out and bullying your fellow students is fun?" Zed asked in a voice that expressed how ridiculous the thought was. Cecilia was backing up Zed, gripping the hilt of her claymore while Haiiden also readied his own blade.
Upon noticing, Cardin laughed and pushed Velvet down before walking away, shaking his head in a way that said that he wouldn't deal with them. Zed's eyes flared up in anger and took a step to pursue them, but a hand from Haiiden on his shoulder stopped him and they moved to help Velvet up.
"You okay?" Zed asked.
"I'm fine, thanks," Velvet replied in her Northern accent, a little bit upset. Zed saw her distress and the fox ears that he kept hidden popped out of his head with a swish, making Velvet giggle to herself upon seeing them. For her part, she twirled one of her bunny ears between her fingers, nervously.
"Why are you out here by yourself?" Cecilia demanded. Zed turned around and shook his head at her, holding his hand out and waving it with a downward motion, as if telling her to calm down.
"Not now, Cecilia."
"We got separated; we got different classes, so sometimes I am by myself," she replied as she lowered her head and her eyes switching between Cecilia and looking down at the floor.
"That doesn't sound right," Haiiden said, lowering his head to meet Velvet's eyes and then straightened up again.
"The classes are set up so that teams go together. Did you mention this to Ozpin?"
"I didn't want to bother anyone, even the rest of the team thought it was weird but we thought it would be alright."
"Well, it isn't," Haiiden told her sternly and looked back to his own team.
"You got paired with your team for a reason, you ought to have each other's backs," Team HAVC nodded in agreement, even Cecilia, but her nod was a little more hesitant.
"When you have the time, go talk to Ozpin. Okay?" Zed suggested, and wanted to make it come out as a demand, but he didn't want to make her feel worse. She replied with a nod and Zed put an arm around her as Team HAVC began to escort her to her next class.
0-RWBY-0
Glynda's class was different than the other ones. Instead of a traditional classroom with chairs and seats, it was a stage which had an empty area for spectators to watch the sparring matches. Team HAVC tried to sneak in since they were a little late for the class, after having helped Velvet to her next lecture, where the rest of her team was in attendance. They quietly made their way through the crowd and stopped next to team JNPR.
"Hey again," Vaughn said as they stopped next to JNPR and Jaune looked to the side very quickly to see who it was that had approached. The rest of Team JNPR watched the stage as Glynda made her announcements.
"Nice of you to join us, Team HAVC," Glynda said wryly, with a clearly perturbed look upon her face. Some of the class turned to face them, as well as Cardin, who was laughing to himself and shook his head before turning back to Glynda.
"Well, since you've interrupted my lecture and gotten everyone's attention, I suppose you will volunteer for the first match," Glynda said as she looked down at her Scroll and input something into it before looking up.
"The first sparring match will be between Mr. Haiiden and Mr. Arc."
Haiiden looked over to Jaune with a smile and motioned for him to follow. Jaune couldn't help but stand frozen in fear for a moment, hesitant to move, but after some coaxing from JNPR and Zed, he walked with Haiiden onto the stage. Jaune stopped at the top of the stairs on the stage and Haiiden continued to walk to the other end.
"You don't expect this to be fair do you, Professor Goodwitch?" Haiiden announced with a smile.
"What are you on about now?" Glynda asked and rolled her eyes.
"I mean he's new to the school; I know nothing about him, and for all I know, he could destroy me!" said Haiiden as he held up two hands to his chest to signal himself with the classroom laughing at his remark. Mostly because of the humor, but also because some of the other senior students had seen Haiiden fight before, and laughed at the thought of him losing.
"You were late to my class, so you will fight first. Ready your weapons," Glynda concluded and shook her head.
Haiiden quickly drew his sword, the blade cutting through the air with a swish as he twirled it in his hand and stood at the ready with his clawed gauntlet to his chest, the blade pointed downward. He stood and watched as Jaune awkwardly tried to pull his sword from his sheath and spun around in place, futilely. He desperately tried to activate his sheath to turn it into a shield and the classroom laughed at the display.
"You nervous?" he asked Jaune while his smile wavered slightly.
"I'm- I'm fine!" Jaune replied with an air of false confidence, and finally pulled out his shield and stood triumphantly.
"Just go easy on me, Jaune." Haiiden fixed his posture to be at the ready and waited for Jaune to charge in and attack first. Jaune swallowed and replied with a sheepish smile, awkwardly holding his sword and shield as if it was his first time holding it, or at least as if he was someone inexperienced in wielding it, but Haiiden brushed it off as stage fright. After a few moments of nothing happening on stage, the crowd started to murmur to each other, while others from Team CRDL began to laugh.
"Come on Jaune! Come at me!" Haiiden yelled, his smile was gone at this point and was embarrassed now as he thought he was making a fool of himself but unsure if he should attack first. Jaune just nodded and shifted in position, but still was not moving. Haiiden finally attacked out of frustration and impatience, and went in for the kill, raising his sword and swinging downwards onto Jaune. The blonde man raised his shield to block, which made Haiiden reel his arm back from the change in energy, using it to spin around to his right and come up on to Jaune's side. Going in for a low strike, he brought his sword up and collided with Jaune's shield again. This time, the force knocked Jaune down and Haiiden raised his blade to his throat which signaled a loss for the younger student.
"Again," Glynda demanded as she inputs something into her Scroll again. Haiiden shook his head.
"What is going on? I was kidding when I said to go easy," he thought to himself and a quick look to the crowd revealed that the audience was thinking the same thing. Holding his usual pose, Haiiden stared at Jaune and was waiting for him to come and attack. Jaune did, but his windup was too elaborate and slow, allowing Haiiden to guess where the strike would land, and deflected the attack with his gauntlet, then went in for a kick to Jaune's abdomen. Jaune managed to block it with his shield, but it still forced him back and made him lose balance; Jaune fell down the stairs on the other side of the stage, disqualifying him and giving Haiiden an "out of bounds" victory.
"Winner!" Exclaimed Glynda, and pointed towards Haiiden, the class started to clap weakly, but he was instead looking around in disbelief.
"It doesn't feel like a win," he thought and shook his head to clear his mind before he ran to help Jaune, who was already being helped up by Pyrrha. Grabbing him by the arm and helping to lift him up, Haiiden leaned in to whisper.
"I was kidding when I said to 'go easy on me', Jaune," Jaune replied with a chuckle and a shrug but Haiiden didn't think it was funny.
"I will be abusing HAVC tonight. So the next pairing will be Mr. Sceryei from Team HAVC, and Mr. Lark from Team CRDL." The two walked up to the stage on opposite ends with Vaughn holding his rifle and taking a moment to load a magazine with one that glowed white and read "Crowd Control". As the magazine was loaded, the whole rifle came to life, which began to glow white in some parts and the glow ran down the barrel of the gun like veins down a limb in the human body. However, Sky's introduction was a lot flashier in nature as he stepped up the stairs with his halberd on his shoulders and his arms draped over it. As he pulled it off, he started to twirl it in the air and spinning as he slowly stepped forward, then stopped in place with his halberd at the ready. The room was then filled with "Oooohs" and clapping with Sky looking at Vaughn with a smirk, and a raised brow, but Vaughn only stared at him.
"You may begin," Glynda announced as she signaled to start of the duel, and Sky immediately rushed in towards Vaughn as he readied his rifle to aim up at his opponent. He got in a few shots that connected, but only with Sky's weapon, as he deflected the shots. Sky swung the head of the halberd for Vaughn's neck, which Vaughn dodged by leaning back and sliding forward on his knees. Then, he jumped back on to his feet and rolled forward to dodge the next attack that missed him by inches and fell down on his back. Sky thought at that moment that this would be the perfect opportunity to finish the match early until he saw Vaughn's rifle was being aimed up at him, which stopped him in his tracks as a barrage of non-lethal fire peppered Sky. He tried his best to deflect them until he realized that he couldn't block them all, he dodged out of the way, allowing Vaughn to re-adjust his aim towards where Sky would land next. Vaughn started to fire again but Sky still managed to block the shots, only barely, then he fell on to one knee, trying to keep the shots from connecting with his body.
The rifle clicked as the Dust rounds in the magazine ran dry, and Vaughn rolled back on to his feet to see that Sky was already lunging towards him. Vaughn lowered his right arm and swung it upward, deflecting Sky's attack with the blade hidden under his sleeve and using his shoulder to ram into him. Sky reeled back to the other end of the stage and for a moment, the two just stared at each other. Vaughn didn't have the time to refill the Dust mag into his rifle, and Sky knew it, but something caught Sky off guard. Vaughn began to reach behind him and pulled out a black cloth; Team HAVC began to smile upon seeing this.
"Oh man, this is going to be good," Zed pointed out as he covered his mouth to hide his excitement.
Vaughn covered his eyes with the cloth and collapsed his rifle, then proceeded to hitch it on to his back with a magnet attached to his shirt so it didn't swing around too much.
"What is he doing?" Pyrrha asked upon seeing what Vaughn was up to, expressing her concern and confusion. Vaughn then reached behind him and pulled out a glass vial filled with Dust which was grey in color and swirling like a cloud inside it.
"He's fighting me blindfolded? This is too easy," Sky thought to himself, then yelled and moved in for a finishing blow.
"There is no way he'll see this coming; I got this!" A loud "CLICK" was heard and Vaughn threw the vial down, shattering it on the stage, which filled with smoke. The first two rows of students backed away from the stage and covered their mouths as they were coughing. Glynda also quickly got down from the stage while holding a cloth over her face and was visibly irritated at this display.
The audience was filled with whispers which were silenced by sounds of footsteps on the stage. These, however, sounded frantic and almost desperate but then another loud "CLICK" was heard which echoed throughout the classroom. With some students covering their ears to muffle the sound. Team JNPR watched curiously with Ren and Pyrrha looking back to HAVC. Much to their surprise, HAVC was standing there with grins on their faces with Cecilia's smile being the widest and her eyes narrowed at the stage.
The silence was then broken by a scream, then a thud as Sky's halberd could be seen spinning in the air above the smoke before landing with a loud "CLANK". As the smoke cleared, everyone could see Sky on the floor of the stage, with his hands up in surrender and Vaughn's hidden blade pressed against his throat. Strangely, as Vaughn was looking down on Sky and even with his blindfold on, it seemed as though Vaughn was still looking him in the eyes. The crowd erupted with cheers and applause at this victory, even Glynda was hiding a smirk behind her cloth; she then lowered the cloth and cleared her throat.
"Next time, warn us when you're going do that, Vaughn."
Vaughn helped Sky to his feet, still making eye contact through the blindfold and walked off the left of the stage. Passing by Sky's halberd and kicked it in the air in his direction. Sky caught it easily and stared at Vaughn as he descended from the stage. Team HAVC greeted and congratulated Vaughn as he returned, and they were quickly joined by JNPR.
"That was crazy! How did you do that?" Jaune asked with a smiling visage, but still in disbelief at what he had just seen, or rather what he did not see. Team CRDL could be heard arguing over the two teams' cheering.
"He had a blindfold on, and there was smoke! He was double-blind and you still managed to lose?" Yelled Cardin and with Sky cowering before him. Vaughn then turned his attention to Jaune, smiling politely and tapped his finger on to his lips.
"My secret."