(The same day as Chapter 10)

"Why is she here?" Zed thought to himself as he continued down and was fidgeting to himself while obsessively fixing the cuffs of his sleeves. His attention switched to the collar on his vest, and without thinking he started to fix his tie, but ended up pulling too hard. He stopped immediately to loosen the tie as he began to choke, but he ended up loosening it too much so that it hung freely around his neck. He stood there frustrated, as he had messed up, but also since he seemed unable to do anything right lately. In an attempt to calm himself, he took a deep breath while combing his fingers through his hair. He debated in his mind as to whether or not he should continue to his next class, or just run and abandon the Academy. He switched directions as he thought on both choices, especially as he made good points for both options.

"Did they find me?" he asked himself, with the mention of "them" only making him more restless.

"Zed?" the voice seemed to originate out of nowhere, and had startled him. He did not recognize the voice, as he was still lost in his thoughts, and the fact that he didn't recognize it made him jump into a defensive posture. He kicked his foot down and reeled around to face the person to whom the voice belonged. With his karambit in hand, his eyes trained on his would-be foe only to flinch upon realizing who it was.

He looked to see that Haiiden was expressing similar surprise when seeing that Zed was brandishing his weapon. Zed blinked as his mind regained its clarity, glad to see that it was just his teammate, but also felt embarrassed as to how he had reacted. Haiiden couldn't help but be amused by this, leaning forward while putting his hands on his knees while he started to laugh uncontrollably. Zed quietly put away his knife underneath his vest, smiling as he watched Haiiden shake his head and step forward to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wow. I never thought I would get the jump on you like that," he said to Zed while gently gripping his shoulder and shaking him. Zed felt that the shake was necessary, since he felt that he needed something to bring him back to reality. After a while, Haiiden felt his unease when Zed avoided eye contact and tilted his head to try to meet his gaze.

"What's up? I noticed you left the dorm early," Haiiden said. Zed thought to himself for a moment as he tried to find the right words to reply to his friend; he didn't want to mention Blake to him, or the fears that had been haunting him for the past week. He never liked lying to his friend like this, but this was something that he could never tell him about. After making up his mind, he finally looked up at Haiiden in the eyes while flashing his usual grin.

"I was just bored," he told Haiiden, but he knew that it was just another lie, one amongst many. The feeling always killed him inside, and he had always hoped that Haiiden would forever remain ignorant of it.

"Ah," was all Haiiden could say as he backed away from Zed and shrugged his shoulders while chuckling to himself.

"Well, hopefully Professor Oobleck's class will help. The guy has so much energy it practically infects the people around him."

"No wonder Glynda keeps her distance," Zed responded. "And it's Doctor Oobleck, as you well know. 'I didn't earn this Ph.D for fun, you know, thank-you-very-much!'"

"She is afraid of going crazy like him," Haiiden covered his mouth and looked around the corridor cautiously on the off chance that Glynda might be nearby. When he realized it was safe, he couldn't help but snicker at his jabs at Glynda and Oobleck. He then waved a hand to Zed for him to follow while his head was still shaking at the joke that Zed had made. Zed hesitated for a moment and stared at the back of Haiiden's head as he walked away. He then began to feel an all too familiar warmth grow inside his soul as he watched him walk away.

"You always save me at the right time," Zed swallowed at the thought but a smile slowly crept over him as he dwelled on it. He looked down at his hand and removed the fingerless glove, flexing his fingers and looking back up before finally following his friend to their next class.

The class was in mid-lecture, with Oobleck darting back and forth through the front of the lecture hall. Papers were being blown everywhere as he whizzed past his desk repeatedly. Some students had to turn their heads in order to keep up, while others had to hold their hands since they were cramping from writing too fast. Zed, Haiiden, and Vaughn slowly entered as to not to attract any attention as they walked down the steps to their seats. Haiiden grinned when he noticed that Oobleck was too engrossed in his lecture to notice their arrival.

Zed shook his head, but then turned to look down at the rest of the class. His fears were reignited when he noticed that Blake sat beside Pyrrha in the front row of the hall. He lowered his head and his eyes darted from side to side as the thoughts of running came back. He felt something touch his arm and his body was pulled down onto a seat, with Haiiden smiling back at him. Zed flashed a smile in return, this one was fake however, and they both began to watch Oobleck as he continued his lecture. He lowered his head to keep himself from being singled out by Oobleck and not to be seen by Blake.

Haiiden noticed this from the corner of his eye and looked at Zed. The position he was in, his facial expression, conflated to make him look like he was sick. Zed looked up to see that Haiiden had placed a hand on his shoulder. Zed began to wince as Haiiden used the hand with his clawed gauntlet as it began to dig in to his skin.

Vaughn then let out a deep breath as he put his feet on the desk while leaning back in his seat. He watched Oobleck continue his lecture, but he wasn't paying attention. Instead, he thought about how the problems between his sister and Haiiden had been seemingly resolved.

"Yes, some humans were very adamant to hold on to their traditions and feared that accepting the Faunus would somehow change that!" Oobleck explained to the class. He paused for a moment to take a sip of his coffee, which gave him another boost of energy, as evidenced by his zipping back in forth in front of the board behind him, and quickly pointing to each key marking on the map with his rod as he spoke.

"Professor Oobleck?" A student raised her hand.

Oobleck zipped up to her, leaning his face in close to hers. "Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn this Ph.D for fun, you know, thank-you-very-much!" He paused. "Now, what is your question?"

"Another lecture on the Faunus I see…" Zed thought with a chuckle as he tried to keep up with Oobleck's movements, and attempted to make a game out of it to distract himself from his thoughts.

"But others saw the Faunus as vermin, who either had to be eradicated or forcibly relocated! Since no one was cruel or insane enough to actually suggest worldwide extermination, the most 'logical' course of action was to move them to Menagerie!" The students continued to watch and some began to hold their necks in pain as they could no longer track Oobleck's movements.

"However, moving them proved difficult, as many did resist. One of the many concerns were that living spaces were too small! Due to their large population in proportion to the size of Menagerie as well as the threat of the Grimm, which we know plagues all of us, The Faunus struggled to live there as a result of these two glaring issues!" Zed began to think on the name "Menagerie" and began to furrow his brow as he continued to dwell on it. After a while of thinking on the subject, he then banished the thoughts as it began to tread into dangerous territory.

"Yes, yes! Prior to the 'Faunus Rights Revolution'. More popularly known as the 'Faunus War', Humankind was quite, QUITE adamant on centralizing the Faunus population in Menagerie." He then stopped to take another sip of his coffee and was obviously unaware that part of his shirt had become untucked, and was hanging out. Zed smiled as he continued to watch, finding this a bit amusing and hoped it would continue to distract him. When Oobleck had finished taking a sip, he practically teleported in front of the class which made some students jump out of their seats.

"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the 'repercussions' of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" Haiiden chuckled quietly as Oobleck took another sip of his brew, needing more energy to keep his lecture going. Some of the students were getting tired from trying to keep up with Oobleck, especially Jaune, who had fallen asleep at his desk at the bottom tier of the classroom.

"Now, have any among you been subjugated or discriminated due to your Faunus heritage?" Zed stopped breathing upon hearing the Doctor's question. He looked back and forth for a moment as the room seemed to freeze around him. He repeated the question in his mind as he looked down at Blake, furrowing his brow angrily as he noticed that she hadn't raised her hand. Then he noticed something from the corner of his eye which made his heart sink. He saw a pair of bunny ears in the front row, and realized that Velvet was sitting alone in the class, and without her team again. He remembered telling her that she should speak with Ozpin about her classes, to try and pair her with her team.

Ozpin did try his best to fix it, but there were still some times where she had to split up with her comrades. Zed immediately felt ashamed for not going down to meet her and give her company while also feeling disgusted that he had taken such great lengths to avoid Blake that he hadn't even noticed Velvet. It seemed like minutes to Zed even though he knew that only seconds had gone by, and he realized that Velvet had also not raised her hand. He knew how she was being tormented by Cardin, and the fact that she didn't raise her hand left him saddened.

"Don't worry. You aren't alone," He sighed and looked up into Oobleck's eyes. Although Oobleck wasn't looking directly up at him due to his scanning the room for the first hand to go up, Zed still wanted to think that the Doctor still knew he was there and he raised his hand. Velvet looked back nervously as she noticed Oobleck's gaze had switched to Zed and saw that his hand was up. She swallowed and mustered just enough courage to raise her hand as well.

"Dreadful! Simply dreadful! Remember, students: it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He paused to take another sip of his coffee, and this time Vaughn couldn't help but chuckle.

"I swear. What is in that stuff?" He whispered to Haiiden.

"No idea. During the summer, when I was helping him with fieldwork, he let me try some." He said with a raised brow and took a deep breath as he remembered the godawful taste. Vaughn responded by taking a deep breath of his own and covered his mouth to hide his fake shock, and remembered when he was helping with Oobleck at the start of the year, when the new students went on their trials, how Oobleck asked him to refill his thermos and he'd pondered whether or not he should taste it, but had decided not to.

"My God! How are you still alive?" He said again and let out a laugh that he quickly muffled.

"No idea, but I honestly felt something die inside," he responded, and they both began to chuckle, while trying to hide it from Oobleck. Zed however, quickly raised a hand to the both of them to signal them to keep quiet which was coupled with a loud "Shh!"

"I mean- I MEAN!- I mean- Just look at what happened to the 'White Fang'! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me, what MANY theorists believed to be the turning point of the third year of the war?" At that moment Oobleck's attention was redirected to another student who had raised her hand in the air. The lecture on the Faunus and White Fang had discouraged Zed at this point. He took a deep breath as he thought to himself again and gave up trying to keep the thoughts out.

"The Battle at Fort Castle," responded a student who Zed recognized as obviously female. This would normally have him looking up to eye the potential beauty, but at that moment he just didn't care.

"Precisely! And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General LeGume's forces?" He then rushed in towards Jaune as quickly as he had just finished asking the question. Jaune was sitting and scratching the back of his head while Oobleck leaned in to meet him face to face, literally.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent, EXCELLENT! What is the answer!?" He asked Jaune while staring at him.

"Uhhh… the answer…" Jaune responded nervously.

"Night vision. The answer is night vision, Jaune." Zed thought to himself, his mind still in the class despite him also being in his own world. Letting out a sigh while he waited, he hoped that Jaune could read his mind.

"The… advantage he had… over that guy's… stuff… Ummm, Binoculars!" Jaune answered, and Zed let out a groan while covering his face with his hand as the classroom erupted in to laughter at Jaune's attempt to answer, but Zed and his team kept quiet.

"Close enough, Jaune."

Oobleck took another sip of his brew while Cardin was laughing in front of HAVC just two tiers lower than them. Vaughn and Haiiden were eyeing him as he laughed loudly; Zed didn't bother to look up, but instead tightened his fists.

"Keep laughing, you sodding wanker."

"Very funny, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?" Oobleck said loudly as he singled out Cardin after noticing his obnoxious laughter, which was directed at Jaune.

Zed laughed to himself, taking this as some a form of karma as Cardin probably didn't know the answer, either.

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," Cardin said with a grin.

Vaughn and Haiiden's eyes widened in surprise, and they nervously shifted their gaze to Zed. They noticed that his eyes were widened as well, but it was in anger, and his eyes were turning fiery orange. His arm was shaking as he continued to tighten his fist, causing his knuckles to bulge through his leather gloves; he seethed through his teeth as he slowly rose up in his chair to sit upright. Haiiden sighed as he began to empathize with his friend and put a hand on his arm to try to comfort him. Zed jumped at this sudden contact, but then remembered where he was and who he was with. He blinked a few more times and looked down while slowly raising an arm to put it on Haiiden's shoulder. His eyes went back to their usual green, and he continued to watch as the class progressed.

"You are not the most open minded of individuals, are you Cardin?" Pyrrha asked loudly, one of the few people who wasn't afraid of him, but despite her fearlessness, it would take more than that to get him to open his eyes.

"What? You got a problem?" Cardin called her out as he took offense to her comment.

"No. I have the answer. It's night vision." Zed then nodded with a smile upon hearing her answer. His usual grin was slowly creeping on to his face.

"Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark." Pyrrha finished; Cardin made an audible grunt as he became annoyed that Pyrrha had embarrassed him in front of the class.

"General LeGume was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep," Zed then jumped upon hearing Blake add to Pyrrha's answer. Haiiden turned his head with a curious expression to look back to Zed and began to eye him nervously.

"Zed, you alright?" he asked quietly, as he continued to notice Zed's expression changing from anger, then to sadness, repeatedly.

"Now you speak. When it is safe for you, that is when you speak," Zed began to seethe again but stopped himself. Haiiden reacted by giving him a quick shake to which Zed turned back to give a smile.

"His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured. Perhaps if he had been paying attention in class, he wouldn't be remembered for being such a failure," Cardin angrily got up and tightened his fists at the comment, which was also directed at him. Zed scoffed before crossing his arms in front of him.

"Not bad, mate. Kitty still got claws, it seems."

"Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." Oobleck said with a hint of disamusement, which made Zed chuckle to himself as the Doctor seemed bored by it. It was an interesting contrast to his usual high energy personality.

"You and Mr. Arc can see me after class for additional readings."

"Aww," Jaune groaned as the Doctor quickly switched gears to continue with his lecture.

"Now! Moving on!"

Team HAVC and part of JNPR were sitting together for dinner at the end of their classes. Pyrrha had stayed behind to wait for Jaune to be finished with Doctor Oobleck, while Nora and Ren went with HAVC to eat. Nora ate noisily while Ren sat quietly next to her. He occasionally nodded his head in response to Nora as she continued to talk. Cecilia had finally joined up with the rest of her team and was sitting quietly while listening to Nora.

"So then, I shot him with my launcher! And won the match!" she said excitedly, while explaining the details of a sparring match against another student.

"She fell down and it discharged on accident," Ren corrected her as he took a sip from his drink.

"Still shot him though!" she added with a smile.

HAVC replied with smiles of their own, partly due to the conclusion of her story but also as a reaction to her enthusiasm. Zed was still in his own world, but his mind was somewhat in the conversation as he also smiled at the end of the tale. Haiiden started to become worried as he noticed Zed going back and forth between reality and his thoughts.

"So, now that things seem to be less awkward, what happened last week?" Nora asked as she leaned forward on the table. Her face was inching closer to Haiiden and Cecilia while turning her head to look back and forth between the both of them. At first, they both were confused but Haiiden then took a deep breath as he realized what she was asking.

"I was hoping that the rest of the team would be here, but I guess I can tell them now," Haiiden thought as he was opening his mouth to speak.

"You see," Cecilia said, cutting off Haiiden. He looked back and sighed. A part of him knew that she wanted to reveal what he had done; her speaking up now was not unexpected.

"Back when I was in the Atlesian military, I was used to being the one in charge," she said with a tilt of her head while looking Nora and Ren in the eyes. Haiiden stared with his eyes widened in confusion.

"When our team was announced last year, I became angry when I realized I was not going to be the leader. I am sure you have noticed how I have been acting during this semester," she turned back to look at Haiiden, flinching when he realized that she was looking at him dead in the eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" he thought.

"Well, I am sure Ozpin knew what he was doing," Ren replied and got up with Nora. Cecilia nodded her head and watched as the two got up.

"I think it's time to head in for the night," he said before turning to Nora, only to see her respond with a quick hop, then with a long and drawn-out yawn. Cecilia looked back and responded with a nod, as well as a smile, waving them goodnight. She turned back to look Haiiden in the eye once more before breaking contact and getting up as well.

"I think it's time for us to head up as well," she said as she stood and waited for Haiiden and Zed to join. Haiiden watched as she and her brother got up before turning around to see if Zed was still acting strangely. He had seemed to be zoning out the whole day, and thought it was just the stress from school. However, something felt different this time, and he couldn't just let it go.

"You go on. I'm just going to sit with Zed for a bit." As he said that, Zed raised his head when his name was mentioned. He looked back between Cecilia and Haiiden, wondering who uttered his name. Haiiden turned back to Zed and patted him on the shoulder to let him know that it was him. Cecilia stood for a few moments and chuckled to herself before motioning for Vaughn to follow.

"Of course, sir. We will see you back at the dorm, then," she said with a smile before walking away with her brother following behind her. Haiiden watched as they disappeared from view and shook his head while Zed laughed to himself.

"She seems to be doing better," he pointed out while he slowly laid his head back on the table and closed his eyes, beginning to think again.

"But now the roles seem to be reversed." Haiiden mumbled in response.

"Hmm?" Zed looked at Haiiden from the corner of his eye, curious as to what he was saying under his breath.

"What's up? You've been moody all day, Zed," Haiiden replied while he placed an elbow on the table and leaned in closer. Zed let out a groan as he also put an elbow on the table, placing a palm against his cheek.

"Don't worry about it," he replied with a grin and a quick shake of his head.

"No. No, I am going to worry. This isn't the 'grinning lover boy' that I know," Haiiden continued with an intense stare, showing a concern for his friend.

"Just one of those days, man."

"One of those-?" Haiiden asked with a dumbstruck expression, but stopped himself as he seemed to flinch in his seat. Zed took a deep breath and turned his head away to avoid looking at him.

"Zed, did you just lie to me? You never get 'one of those days,'" Haiiden said again but this time with a wince. The idea that his friend would lie to him had hurt him and he swallowed back as he awaited a response from Zed. Zed was instead looking down at the table, not wanting to respond to him as Haiiden would probably keep probing for more answers.

"I promise I will tell you another time," he responded without looking up at Haiiden, fearful of how he would react. Haiiden was taken aback by this, still stunned that his friend would lie, and was now keeping secrets.

"But this time I'm not lying."

Cecilia and Vaughn continued down the hall to their dorm, passing by other dorms that held their friends and other teams. They'd stop occasionally to make small talk with people they knew before continuing toward their own dorm. Vaughn was thinking back to what had happened in the dining hall, wondering why Cecilia would hide what had happened with Haiiden before and during their duel.

"Why did you do that?" He asked her.

"What do you mean?" she asked with a cold tone while trying to act dumb, but knew what he asking about.

"Why didn't you tell them?" he asked again, this time cutting her off by stopping in front of her. She looked back with an exasperated expression, while wondering where this was coming from. He had always walked side by side with her in everything that she did; never questioning her motives, although he did voice his own concerns from time to time.

"They didn't need to know," she replied while pushing past her brother and continuing down the hall.

"That's mature of you," he said while turning around and rushing to catch up with her.

"Maturity had nothing to do with it," she responded with a slight growl, trying to intimidate her brother into dropping the subject.

"You held such a grudge at the beginning of the year and threw fits whenever you could. Why didn't you just tell them?" he continued while she held her head up high, insulted by how Vaughn was describing her, which made her feel like a child. But then she remembered back to what Ozpin had told her back in the office and she looked back down at her hand.

"I thought you had forgiven him."

"I have," she answered quietly while looking around her to make sure no one else was listening.

"However I still feel he is unfit to lead. For other reasons," she flexed her fingers and sighed to herself.

(Earlier that day)

Cecilia was breathing heavily after explaining the vision she had received after touching Haiiden. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to make sense of it. She looked up at Ozpin when she had given up, seeing if he had any answers. As she made eye contact, all she received was a cold stare from Glynda while Ozpin advanced towards her slowly, calmly.

"Go back to your classes. Tell no one of what you saw."