Haiiden shifted in position as he watched his Cecilia slowly walk up the stairs and on to the stage, her claymore in hand. The class was silent at first, but the silence was broken as the crowd erupted into confused chatter. Zed stared at the stage with his mouth wide open in shock, Team JNPR standing next to him with similar expressions. When Cecilia reached the top of the stairs, she took a few paces forward before stopping just inside striking distance of Haiiden.

"Wh- Wha-?" Haiiden stammered as he tried to make sense of what was going on, then glanced at her weapon before instinctively stepping back away from her blade. She stood in silence in front of the class, and flexed her free hand into a fist, then relaxed it repeatedly. Glynda watched from the sideline and appeared as if she was ready to announce something, but was waiting for to see if either student wanted to say anything. Zed took a few steps to the side and was about ready to step up on to the stage to interfere, but was stopped by Vaughn. His face expressed worry as he looked at the stage, then back to Zed as he pushed him back into the crowd. Zed stared at Vaughn with widened eyes, and his face took on a more pensive expression.

"Sir, I feel that you are unfit to lead Team HAVC!" Cecilia declared as she held her head high and gazed at Haiiden from across the stage. Zed's eyes narrowed on Vaughn upon hearing Cecilia's declaration, and his eyes turned to a fiery orange color. When he noticed, Vaughn took his hands off Zed and raised them slowly, as if in surrender, to show that he wasn't going to touch him again.

"Zed, you know I have great respect for the Captain," Vaughn said slowly as he kept eye contact with Zed as he backed away from him. Zed didn't respond; instead, he kept his eyes locked on Vaughn, while his nostrils began to flare as his breathing became ragged and heavy.

"What's going on?" Jaune asked as he noticed Zed's rapidly darkening mood. Zed's fiery and angry demeanor was making him nervous, and while Jaune wasn't quite sure what was happening onstage, he felt as though the dynamic between Zed and Vaughn was rapidly spiraling toward violence.

"…But Cecilia is my sister. My ultimate loyalties are to my family," Vaughn continued and swallowed nervously as Zed began to approach him slowly. Pyrrha stepped forward and grabbed Zed by the shoulder, stopping him right where he was. The sudden contact made Zed jump and quickly turned his head to face her. The reaction caught Pyrrha off guard, but she stood her ground and held Zed in place.

"I have spoken with the Headmaster!" Cecilia exclaimed. "He and Professor Goodwitch have agreed to arrange this duel between us, and the winner leads HAVC!" Cecilia smiled, as half of the class gasped, while the other half again erupted into chatter, with some placing bets amongst themselves as to who would win. Cardin and members of team CRDL could be heard laughing. Zed shook his head and ground his teeth before pushing Pyrrha away and lunging toward Vaughn, pinning him against the wall and lifting him off the ground by holding his hand around Vaughn's throat.

"So this is why nobody saw you two yesterday," Zed said in a low voice with a guttural growl as he sucked air between his clenched teeth. At first, he had thought that she was merely going to make a big show out of something that should have been handled privately; it only served to enrage him when he realized that she had taken it a step further, a step too far. Not only had she leveraged Ozpin- Haiiden's Godfather- against her Captain in a traitorous move that was liable to end in bloodshed, but the thought that Vaughn might have had a hand in it nearly made him blow his stack.

"Zed, come on, you know I wouldn't condone something like this! I tried to dissuade her, but she was adamant!" Vaughn tried to explain as he choked and his face began to purple, then Pyrrha and Ren rushed in and grabbed Zed by the arms, but were only able to make him budge with the help of a few other students from various other teams, including, surprisingly, two members of Team CRDL. When they had managed to pull him off of Vaughn, he slid down the wall while holding a hand to his throat as he gasped and tried to regain his breath, his color returning to normal. Zed stood and looked down on Vaughn for a bit then calmed down as his eyes turned back to their normal green, and offered a hand to Vaughn.

"I didn't know you could stage a team coup," Nora pondered as she tilted her head to the side and put a finger on her chin.

"You can't. At least I don't think anyone ever has before," said Vaughn has got to his feet with Zed's help, and the pair rejoined the crowd, along with Team JNPR.

"I can't imagine what Ozpin was thinking when he agreed to this," Pyrrha said, shaking her head.

"You don't think he can win?" Ren asked as folded his arms and watched the stage. Haiiden's mouth was wide open when he turned to Glynda for confirmation and was answered with a nod of her head. Vaughn and Zed only watched in silence as both of their teammates were poised to fight.

Cecilia tilted her head, her smile turning in to an arrogant smirk, and then whipped her hair to move it away from her eyes. She slowly raised her claymore up to chest level, and as it cut lazily through the air, it emitted a sharp ringing sound that pierced the assembly hall. She placed her hand on the crossguard and underneath her hand emanated an icy blue glow as she moved her palm down the blade.

She continued to move her hand along the steel, and it left behind a trail of blue light that flickered with an ethereal flame. Cecilia was just toying with Haiiden in her opening moves as she tried to give him the impression that she wasn't taking the match seriously; it was endemic of her hatred and disrespect for him, but it was also designed to anger him, and he knew this; well aware that one of the basic elements of military strategy is to enrage your opponent, and that angry enemies make foolish mistakes; he maintained his composure, and made a conscious decision not to fall into her trap and lose control of his emotions.

Haiiden swallowed nervously and took a few paces back before lowering himself to prepare for Cecilia's real attack. She stepped forward and twirled her sword in front of a couple of times, which left behind a cold and faint flame as it swirled through the air. She struck downwards towards Haiiden but he dodged it by jumping back, and even though her attacks were still wide and sluggish, he still felt the cold chill of her blade as it moved through the air. She then spun quickly and brought her sword in low, swinging upwards, even though Haiiden was still out of reach, but the swing left behind another flame which turned into a mist that floated towards him. He moved his gauntlet in the way of the mist and as the droplets came into contact with him, they immediately formed into ice with terrifying speed.

The trail had turned to ice at her command, which rose up from the floor and engulfed his arm, which left him anchored in position. The sudden formation startled him, and he didn't know how to react but tried to pull away from the ice with quick jerks, that made no progress as the ice remained firm and only crackled. Cecilia's feet pounded against the wood floor of the stage as she rushed in and leapt on top of the ice, swinging down on Haiiden, who blocked the incoming attack with his sword and counterattacked with a swipe of his blade under her feet. She jumped up to avoid the slash, then landed clumsily on the uneven surface of the ice; this had the effect of knocking her down on to the ice with enough force to break it. Once shattered, the ice melted almost instantly and freed Haiiden's arm again. As the ice broke apart, Cecilia did a backflip through the air and landed in a crouch a few yards away from Haiiden.

His mind was still muddled as he tried his hardest to make sense of this new and unexpected combat style, and glanced quickly down at his arm for a split before he heard the ringing of her blade again. He quickly looked up to see her descending from a jump and slashing downward. Her attack missed as he made a last-second feint to the side, then slid under her and rolled past as she crashed to the floor. Quickly getting to his feet, he readied his blade, then rushed in for a counter attack, raising his arm up and slashing downward, only for it to be blocked; the sudden contact expelled more of the flames from her blade in all directions.

Her eyes widened and she pushed forward to force Haiiden backward, and she quickly jumped towards the other end of the stage, a tactic to give her some maneuvering room to plan her next assault. "Of course, would that normally be the case against someone with a sword?" he wondered to himself as he stared. "But she also uses a sword, so why would she keep distance like this?" This seemingly new style that Cecilia was presenting caught him off guard as she usually fought in close quarters, but this was something altogether new. She swung her sword in the air again and the trail flew towards Haiiden once more, but he quickly stepped out of the way.

Just as he dodged the attack, Cecilia slashed again, and another flaming trail of blue spewed out towards him; this time, he was too late to move and ice formed around his feet, which pinned him to the stage. Smiling mercilessly, Cecilia lowered herself and rushed toward him, then struck downwards with her claymore as each attack expelled more of the flames every time Haiiden parried; each blow from her heavy blade forced him to lean back as she struck wildly at him, but was unable to step back to give himself space. He then brought his blade low and swung upward, deflecting her attack and making her stagger back, which gave Haiiden enough time to flip his sword so that he was holding it by the blade and slammed the cross guard down on to the ice and shattered it.

With both hands on her blade, Cecilia rushed towards Haiiden and jammed the handle of her sword into his stomach. The attack made him reel back, then he tripped on the rapidly melting ice as he slid towards the stairs, but the ice melted completely, and he stopped just short of the edge. When he got up to see why it had melted, he noticed that Cecilia's blade no longer had its glow. She must have turned it off, and decided to switch to a different style of combat. She went in for another attack, this time spinning and then swinging her handle to use as a club, which barely missed his head. She then lowered herself to try to turn his dodge against him and used the tip of her blade to try and thrust it into a weak spot in Haiiden's greaves, but he dodged at the last second while the tip of her blade scraped against the metal.

It wasn't enough, however, as she kept pressing the attack, spinning again on the tips of her feet, and brought the handle of her sword down and swept it under his right foot, which made him fall on his back. His sword was resting on his chest, his right hand still gripping the handle as his eyes widened while she went in for another assault, and was thrusting the tip towards his neck. The crowd gasped as they realized what was happening, and with only a fraction of a second to think, he used his gauntlet and grabbed the tip of her steel, deflecting the sword, with both blades grinding against each other. Her claymore slid down the length of his blade as it barely missed his neck and embedded itself in the stage floor.

"Is she trying to kill him?" Zed cried out as he looked back in horror looked on with growing apprehension. He knew that she hated Haiiden, but he never knew that she hated him so much as to try to murder him. Haiiden's breath caught in his throat for a moment as his mind cleared and he snapped back to reality, then noticed he was looking to his left and saw the blade as it was thrust into the floor less than an inch from his throat. He quickly swept his legs under Cecilia's, making her clatter to the floor, and rolled backward to leap to his feet. She quickly attempted to do the same but failed as Haiiden kicked her savagely, then she instead reached for her sword, but again, she failed, stopped by Haiiden as she saw his blade being pointed at her throat, and also seeing a mix of disbelief and anger on his face.

"Win-" Glynda was about to announce the end of the match and was seemingly eager to end it especially given how the match had turned out.

"Not yet!" Haiiden screamed at her in rage as he lowered his sword and raised his gauntlet to his usual stance and backed away. He motioned to Cecilia to rise and pick up her sword, while her gaze switched between him and her sword. She hesitantly got to her feet and stretched out her hand, lovingly wrapping her fingers around the handle and withdrawing it from the wood of the floor. Upon picking up the sword, she then flashed a derisive smirk at him.

"You should have taken the win," she spat upon the ground at him, as she glided her hand down the length of her blade and made the flames reappear.

Haiiden rushed her just as she lowered her blade, leaving her unprepared as she had taken too long to get ready, and was forced into a defensive posture. Every strike was fluid and swift as he twirled his sword in the air to build momentum for the next one while spinning and stepping towards her as if it was a dance. Zed looked on at the stage and noticed Haiiden's passive look as if he was staring at nothing. As he looked on in disbelief, Haiiden closed his eyes as he swung his sword with grace and precision. His actions demonstrated that he had a keen sense of his surroundings, but his face looked as though, sightless, he was lost in a dream, as if he was remembering something pleasant, which made the mixture of attacks and the dance of his feet seem organic and beautiful.

As he fought, Haiiden thought of his mother, and the tales of the seemingly-choreographed dances she executed whenever she fought the Grimm.

Cecilia was dumbstruck as she was being slowly forced back off the stage by an opponent who could not even be troubled to open his eyes; she blocked every incoming attack but was forced to remain on the defensive. She completely lost her composure. "Look at me, damn you!" she screamed at Haiiden as she fought with all her might. Every deflection was met with another swift attack, as if every time she blocked one, he would only leverage the change in momentum and pulled back for another quick strike. Every spin and sidestep in his little dance made his shawl and coat flow in the air, which was a distraction to her.

"Enough of this!" she screeched in rage to herself and tried to step forward and ram him with her shoulder but missed as he sidestepped away, his eyes still firmly closed, and a smile filled with peace and harmony upon his lips. She quickly turned around to face him and her breath stopped for a second as he brought up his sword for a low strike then raised it. The attack was blocked, and he forced her arm up, which she used to try strike back down, but her blade was caught in his gauntlet just as it descended. The contact between her blade and gauntlet caused a loud "CLANG" to ring throughout the hall, and ice began to form around his gauntlet and her blade.

Haiiden then kicked her back, which forced her to let go of her sword and to fall on her back. The ice on his gauntlet rapidly melted, and the blue flame on her sword disappeared as she lost contact with it. He took a deep breath while returning his sword to its sheath, and approached her with her sword in his hand. He then knelt next to her on the stage floor and reached out to grab her by the collar of her uniform, her own blade pressed against her supple throat. He opened his eyes, the peace and the beatific smile was gone from his face, only to be replaced by unbridled rage.

"I win! Have I proven myself yet?" He demanded of her sarcastically and was furious at her attempt to take control of the team, to say nothing of her attempt to kill him. She smiled slyly at him and from the corner of his eye, he noticed a push knife in her left hand. She went in for a desperate attack, his heart stopping for a second as it caught him off guard, and he barely moved out of the way; for a second he thought he felt something graze his cheek. She pulled back for another strike but this time he caught her hand and disarmed her.

Cecilia gritted her teeth as she was not going to accept a loss, then cried out and reached her free hand out to claw at his eyes as she spat in his face. As soon as she made contact with Haiiden, he felt a searing sensation shoot through his body. His eyes burned intensely as he saw something flash in his mind, images and what seemed like memories, but they weren't his; he felt a sense of desperation and loneliness.

Cecilia, for her part, screamed in agony.

Haiiden then got up and backed away with his hands covering his face, while Glynda was looking at Cecilia as she writhed on the ground and whimpered, as she also covered her face. Zed and Vaughn looked to each other in horror as they realized what had just happened, and held their breaths in anticipation. Haiiden was the first to recover his composure and moved his hands away, then looked towards Glynda. She was staring at him in shock, and she could plainly see that his eyes had turned a bright scarlet, while blood trickled down his right cheek.

"That's enough! This class is dismissed! Hurry and go to your other duties!" She demanded to the students while waving her hand to signal them to go. The others were hesitant at first but began to leave one by one, with more than a few glancing back in wonder as to what was going on. JNPR, Vaughn, and Zed all ran to the stage to help, with Vaughn helping Cecilia up to her feet while Zed went to check on Haiiden. JNPR stopped just short of the stairs, where they were stopped by Glynda, who began to advance towards them and forced them to leave.

"Go! Go!" she told them as she shooed them away with her riding crop, and pointed it towards the door. They looked back to the stage and made eye contact with Zed, who nodded towards them as they slowly departed, and glanced back one last time before leaving from the hall.

"Back to your dorm," she said to Team HAVC and signaled them to follow, Vaughn tried to pry Cecilia's hands from her eyes and for a moment he thought that he heard her crying to herself. Instead, he held her arm gently and guided her off stage as they began to follow Glynda. Zed quietly stood with his friend with his hand on his shoulder and looked at him in the eyes as he watched them go back from their bright red color to the normal silver.

0-RWBY-0

Once they had reached their dorm, Cecilia sat down on her bed with her arms wrapped around her body and huddled to herself. One by one, they entered their room and just as Haiiden was about to enter, Glynda pulled him away and shut the door behind the others.

"Come with me," she said quietly and did not wait for a reply as she quickly walked away. Haiiden hesitated and quietly opened the door to see that everyone was standing in front of Cecilia as she sat on her bed. Vaughn kept a hand over his mouth and looked at Zed, who kept his fists at his sides. Haiiden then quietly closed the door and followed Glynda as he knew exactly why she had told him to follow. He met with her right outside of Ozpin's office, and she offered a handkerchief to him right as he stopped in front of the door. Haiiden looked up, confused for a moment, and she replied by taking a finger and traced down her right cheek. He went to feel it by running two fingers down his face and pulled away. He recognized the blood on it, but it was sticky and dark red as it had already begun to dry. He took the handkerchief and spat it into it then started to wipe away the blood from his cheek. After he was done he went to feel it but noticed there was no cut on it.

"Where did the blood come from?" He wondered to himself.

He looked up as the door opened, and Glynda stepped in first, then waited right inside for Haiiden to enter. He emerged slowly into the room and saw that Ozpin facing the windows, but they were tinted, then slowly became transparent as they let in the orange glow of sunlight as the day slowly descended into dusk. The walls that were not windowed, were full of kinetic clockwork sculptures, like his ceiling; even his desk, which was topped with glass, had moving clockwork parts inside the desktop. Ozpin then turned around and kept eye contact with Haiiden as he slowly sat down at his desk. He watched as both Glynda and Haiiden approached, with Haiiden stopping just a few feet away from his desk, while Glynda continued to walk around and stood behind Ozpin.

"Tell me Haiiden, what happened?" Ozpin asked him quietly. Haiiden shrugged and looked away as he tried thinking to himself for a moment to find the right words before shook his head as he looked back.

"You authorized a duel for leadership of my team."

"You disapprove?" Ozpin asked him while he stayed perfectly still, and kept his gaze on Haiiden.

"Of course!" Haiiden replied and scoffed at him as he wondered how Ozpin could possibly have thought differently. "I knew she was still angry at me, but this is taking it way too far. It was embarrassing!"

"How could it be 'embarrassing'? You won, didn't you?" Ozpin asked.

"Well yes, but this was something that could have been resolved in private, and peacefully," Haiiden protested.

Ozpin shook his head, pushed himself out of his seat, and proceeded to walk around his desk, then stopped right in front of Haiiden. Haiiden always felt uncomfortable when Ozpin did this, especially since they were roughly the same height, but he still felt smaller than the headmaster. They stood in silence in front of each other for a few moments until Ozpin's expression changed to that of concern.

"Did it happen again?" Ozpin asked him with his arms crossed, still looking down at him, only for Haiiden to shake his head.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Haiiden said in a hushed voice.

"Did your Semblance activate?" Ozpin asked again, this time, his voice tinged with concern. "Glynda described Cecilia's reaction to me after coming in contact with you."

"I don't know. I know I didn't want it to happen," Haiiden said defensively.

"Your mother's Semblance was very similar. However, she didn't seem to have the added ability to come into contact with another person's Aura. Not like this. Or at least she never spoke of it," Ozpin said and swallowed uncomfortably, as he knew that this was a rather sensitive subject. Ozpin watched as Haiiden just stared into nothingness, he nodded his head in response, to signal that his mind was still in the conversation.

"I didn't mean to use it again," Haiiden said defensively.

"Maybe 'you' didn't mean to," Ozpin said as he tried to rationalize what happened. "But perhaps there was a subconscious part of you that wanted to use it and that was enough. Remember, your Semblance is unlike most I have seen during my tenure as Headmaster."

Haiiden didn't answer.

"Unlike most people, you and your mother's Semblance appears to be hereditary. A rare gift, indeed." Ozpin said.

He paused and took a deep breath, then continued. "Use what you saw and try to fix things with your team. We are living in dark times, Haiiden, and we cannot have you fighting against each other." He looked up at Ozpin as he replayed the words in his mind a few times and tried to figure out the best way to go about doing that. After a few moments had gone by, he nodded and turned to leave the room.

As he walked out, his hands disappeared in front of him as they fell back to his sides. Before he stepped out, she did check her log again to look over the results of the battle, Cecilia's Aura levels had depleted, which might have explained the blood. As Haiiden left, Glynda glanced at him one final time, before she noticed that he had put the glove back on his right hand. She let out a long and drawn out sigh before tilting her head in Ozpin's direction as the door closed behind him.

"He still hates it," she told him quietly as if she was worried that Haiiden would hear her.

"Whether he hates it or not, it will be his defining characteristic. Let him use it and become compassionate to the suffering of others." Ozpin replied as he looked at the door.

"Now its a matter of what he will do with what he has learned."

Haiiden peeked into his team's dorm to see Cecilia still sitting on her bed, with Zed sitting across from her on his own bed as he stared at her angrily. Vaughn stood next to the window and watched Zed, to make sure he didn't start anything with her. He was the first to notice Haiiden's return, and stood straight at attention, then saluted. Zed turned, and upon noticing him, he stood up as well and sighed, standing aside as Haiiden approached, and took up a spot on her bed as he sat in front of Cecilia. He looked down at her hand and noticed that her gloves had been removed, and had been replaced by a bandage that was wrapped around her hand.

"Hey, Cecilia," Haiiden said calmly and with as much tenderness he could muster. She slowly looked up from behind her hands and she seemed to have been crying for a while as her eyes were reddened and wet, and the bandage was slightly damp.

"I am sorry for leaving. I really am, and I will try my best to make it up to you." He told her as he leaned in to meet with her eyes and tried to force a smile. She stared silently for a moment before nodding in agreement, and slowly covered her face again. He stood up and began to pace the room, uncomfortably.

"But I also feel as though there is something else you are hiding, something else that makes you hate me," as he spoke, Cecilia looked up at him, and her eyes widened as she realized what he was asking of her. Haiiden didn't see this, however, as his view was obscured by Zed, who was standing in the way. Zed's eyes were narrowed at Vaughn, who responded by offering a hand to Haiiden.

"Sir, you know I have great respect for you." He said quietly while looking Haiiden in the eye and then back down to his hand. Haiiden returned the eye contact and looked down before sighing, then nodding his head in approval.

"I will tell you everything, so please sit. This is going to take a while."