(Two days after Chapter Eleven)
Haiiden charged at his opponent, Pyrrha Nikos, and swung his blade up in an attempt to make an opening in her defense. He knew it was risky, as the wind up was long and elaborate, and left him wide open. He had hoped that in doing so it would give his opponent a sense of overconfidence and she would then come at him to attack. However, she did not take the bait, and instead went on the defensive and brought her shield up to deflect his slash. Haiiden used the momentum gained from her deflection to spin to the right and jumped over her counter attack, which narrowly missed his greaves as the attack came in lightning fast. Her speed and stamina outmatched Haiiden's, which left him feeling frightened and desperate.
He then decided that offense wouldn't work, as he didn't know enough about his opponent to attack without it somehow being turned against him. He stepped back again as she swung her spear at him another time. This time, he stomped his foot on the floor to brace himself and blocked her attack with his clawed gauntlet. As the blade and gauntlet both connected, he guided the attack to the right and thrust his blade towards her. She leaned back just enough for his sword to miss her and again left himself open again as his arm was outstretched. She brought her shield to slam it against his elbow and a jolt of pain shot through his arm. The attack made him reel his arm back and for a second he almost didn't notice that she had thrust her spear at him. He got on one knee and leaned back, her blade just missing his nose by inches, but she quickly retaliated and kicked him in the shoulder.
The force of the kick made him fall back, but he quickly regained his balance and rolled over backwards, and onto his feet. Out of frustration, he charged at Pyrrha and started to swing. Using the momentum from each swing and utilizing his other arm as a counter balance to allow himself to spin with every attack; this did no good, however, as each attack either just scratched her armor or missed entirely. As he brought his sword in low for another slash, she kicked his hand away and brought down her blade to counter. He quickly reacted and caught the blade in his gauntlet and tightened his grip. As soon as he caught the blade, she took the edge of her shield and struck it against his cheek.
The strike knocked him to the right, but he instinctively brought up his blade to block the next incoming attack. As he turned to face her again, he realized that he had made a fatal mistake: he had misjudged the trajectory of her attack, thinking that she was going to swing low. Only then did he realize that she changed the direction of her attack and the blade stopped just an inch from his neck.
"And with that, Pyrrha is the winner," announced Glynda as she signaled the end of the sparring match. The students in attendance began to applaud wildly, with the exception of Teams HAVC and CRDL.
"Dammit!" Haiiden said to himself with a sigh and slumped his shoulders as the fight had left him fatigued and breathing in ragged, heavy gulps of air.
"That was pretty good!" Pyrrha congratulated him as she bowed respectfully towards her opponent. Haiiden looked up and scoffed at her compliment, but then bowed in return.
"I barely even touched you," he said as he stood up straighter, trying to make it look like he was fine despite him being tired. "'The Invincible Girl.' The name fits you well, Pyrrha." He said again with a smile. He had always wanted to try his hand against the legendary Pyrrha Nikos, but his overconfidence made him forget about her reputation. "At least now, I know what I am up against."
"Come on, you weren't that bad." She shrugged and motioned for him to follow. The fatigue left him a little dizzy, and he had become so engrossed in the match that he had forgotten that he was on the stage in Glynda's Assembly Hall. His mind snapped to attention and he followed Pyrrha off the stage. They walked through the side of the throng of classmates, and met up with their teams: JNPR and HAVC. However, Jaune was not with his team, and was nowhere to be seen.
"If it means anything to you, I had to try harder than usual for that win," Pyrrha said as she thought that would help perk up Haiiden, who looked up at her with a curious expression, and scanned her face to see if she was being sincere. She wasn't sweating like he was; she wasn't showing signs of fatigue or soreness like he was, either.
"Thanks for the kind words, I guess," he responded as he looked away. He wasn't really upset at the loss, as he had made it known that he wanted to try and fight her sometime. He knew it was his fault that he had underestimated her, and that he had forgotten about who she really was. "That won't happen again, the next time we meet in battle."
He looked back to his team to see what their reactions were to the fight. He thought that they would express disappointment, but to his surprise, their feelings seemed different than he had expected. They instead were a more than a tad impressed, with Vaughn looking from the corner of his eye and giving him a thumbs up.
"I mean no offense, sir, but it was universally expected that Pyrrha would win. We're just surprised that you managed to stay up as long as you did," Cecilia told him as she continued to watch the next sparring match. However, he noticed that a smile began to crack from the corner of her mouth.
"And any man who can last that long with 'The Invincible Girl' is amazing in my book. We were all expecting a bodge job; you were jammy," Zed announced in his Northern accent as he slammed a hand down on Haiiden's shoulder. Haiiden leaned his head back and stared at Zed with a smile. Pyrrha laughed to herself quietly while Cecilia covered her face with her palm rather forcefully.
"Zed, do you ever think before you speak?" Cecilia asked, with Vaughn snickering to himself as he finally realized how everyone else interpreted the comment.
"Nope. I just wing it and see where it goes from there," Zed replied with a shrug as well as a grin. Cecilia rolled her eyes at the comment, and Vaughn shook his head while crossing his arms. Haiiden, however, wasn't finding any amusement in this exchange. He stared at Zed while he watched the next sparring match, and what had happened a couple days ago was still fresh in his mind, and he had thought that Zed would have finally told him what had been bothering him. So far, he had not.
"I promise I will tell you another time." That sentence kept ringing in his mind, especially since the subject was never raised again, as he wanted Zed to be the one to bring it up. There was clearly something wrong, Haiiden felt that for sure. The fact that he never brought it up after he promised that he would tell Haiiden was starting to wear on his nerves.
"Was this what he wanted? For me to just forget?"
The fact that he seemed to be fine now was making Haiiden wonder if he was pretending. Then he realized something else: if he was pretending now-
"Then how long has he been hiding this, and what else could he be hiding?" As he thought to himself he realized that Zed was looking back at him now. As they made eye contact, Haiiden flinched, which also startled Zed.
"Ace. It's still just me," he whispered and put his arm around his friend. Haiiden was embarrassed at this point and had a sheepish smile as he looked down.
"Nah… It's Zed. He wouldn't lie to me."
"Winner," announced Glynda as she signaled the end of the next match. The students began to clap as the contestants made their way off the stage. JNPR and HAVC joined in while they watched the next contestants moved into position. Haiiden noticed that, standing at the bottom of the stairs to the stage was Nadira from team CNBR. He then noticed Nora and Ren standing at the opposite stairs.
"Come on Ren! Let's finish this quickly!" she said while rubbing his shoulders, and he flinched a little as she applied too much pressure to his shoulders.
"I know, Nora," he replied as he tried to make some final adjustments and checks to his weapons. He pulled on the slide barrel of his pistols and SMG combos, making sure that everything was fine and that he had maximum ammo in his clips.
"If you win, I will take you out! My treat!" she told him, this time hopping and clapping in excitement.
"How are you going to treat me to anything?" he asked as the bolt slid back into place with a click, then ran his finger and thumb along the blade that extended downward from the end of the barrel. The blade emanated a harmonic vibration that rung out a little as his fingers gently slid down its edge. "You're always broke," he said finally, as the blades collapsed and his weapons shot up into his sleeves, courtesy of their spring-loaded sleeve holsters.
"Hmmm," Nora hummed loudly as she thought to herself for a bit. "I know! You'll give me money!" she exclaimed and clapped her hands while she hopped on place.
"But how is that treating me?" Ren asked with a raised brow while his back was still facing Nora.
"You give me money," she replied and reached to poke him on the nose. "Boop." He leaned back and tried to look at his nose, then rubbed it as it tingled from the slight contact. "And I use that money to treat you! Silly!" she finished with a cheery smile, while standing on one leg and struck a pose. "Wee!"
Ren stood, dumbfounded, trying to figure out the logic behind it before giving up. Ren wondered to himself as to why he even bothered to try and apply logic to any of Nora's notions. In the end, it was her weirdness that made him stick by her, and the fact that she clung to him, often literally. The moment was interrupted as footfalls could be heard ascending the stairs on the opposite side of the stage. Ren looked up to see that Nadira was already standing and was ready for her opponent. Ren took a deep breath and likewise ascended the stairs, then stopped as he reached the top.
"I wonder how this is going to turn out," Vaughn wondered aloud as Pyrrha and HAVC watched Ren step on to the stage and face Nadira. Cecilia turned to face Pyrrha as she watched with her arms crossed. Noticing that Cecilia was facing her, she turned to make eye contact as she was curious as to what she wanted.
"Has Ren been working on his stamina?" Cecilia asked.
Pyrrha then responded with a shake of her head and Cecilia winced as she looked back toward the stage. "He'll need to finish this quickly, then," Pyrrha added, looking on with a worried expression.
"He is pretty quick, though," Zed replied.
Nadira stood and stared at Ren from across the stage while he looked back at her. Some expected maybe an exchange of words or taunts. However, as the quietest students in the school, it came as no surprise to anyone that nothing was said between them. Nadira quickly pulled out two dirks from the belt over her chest and spun them in her hands, stopping the blades so that she was holding them in a way so that the blade extended just past her little fingers. She held her arms as if she was ready to fight hand-to-hand, but combined it with knife-play.
One hand was closer to her chest for defense, while the other was extended for offense. She slid one foot back to brace herself and was readied to charge, but waited for her opponent to be ready. Ren, likewise, slid his foot in a semi-circle to his right, and extended his arms so as to take a position similar to the serpent style of martial arts, no doubt part of his Eastern heritage. Like Nadira, he held one arm closer to himself and the other extended. The difference was that both hands were for offense, instead of one being for defense. Both of Ren's hands would ostensibly alternate to attack quickly.
Nadira was the first to charge, and spun around to gain energy for her first attack. Swinging her arm behind her, she slashed for his legs to try and hamstring him early on. He quickly stepped back and attempted to counter, but noticed that she brought her arm back to spin faster as her other arm shot up to try and slash at him again. He backed away once more, but not very far, as the dirk managed to cut a couple of strands of his hair.
He stepped forward after her attack and countered with a kick to the side of her right knee. The attack forced her to stagger to her left and she knew that she was going to fall, so she rolled to her left while trying to slash at him again, and this attack caught him off-guard. With only a split second to think, Ren realized that he had to roll with the attack to keep himself from losing the ability to maneuver. He leaned back and planted his hand on the stage and then raised his legs to avoid the slash. As she swung, she realized the attempt would miss, and aborted the swing mid-move.
Jumping back quickly with a handspring, Ren landed on his feet after the flip, and as his feet made contact with the ground, he kicked off and charged towards Nadira. She turned to see that he was already just a couple feet away from her, and changed her stance to a more defensive one. He went for a quick palm strike to her ribs, but she swung her arm down to slap it away. She tried to counter with a punch, but he caught her by the wrist and twisted it to make an opening. She used her free arm to try and punch him again, and this time Ren knew he couldn't get out of the way. He was too close to her, and if he were to try and dodge, his only option would be to dodge in the direction of the dirk. The hit connected and made him stagger to the right, but he used the strike to wind up for a kick behind her legs.
The kick was successful, forcing Nadira to lose her footing, but she quickly twisted her body, landing on her hands and using the momentum to push her body into a handstand. Continuing her spin, she countered Ren's blow with a kick of her own, her foot connecting with Ren's face before she catapulted from her hands back to her feet. As he regained his stance and composure, his weapons sprung from his sleeves as he turned and began to fire non-lethal Dust rounds at her. She blocked the initial burst with her dirks, but knew she couldn't block them all. She leaned back as more bullets flew past her and began to retreat with a series of backflips. As Ren continued to fire, the barrel of one of his guns exploded and left him momentarily stunned.
He was left confused as he was sure that there were no problems with his weapons. Wondering to himself as to what could have caused the explosion, he quickly glanced down to see that a small knife, about the size and width of a finger was jammed into the barrel. His attention returned to the battle just in time to up to notice a barrage of similar blades flying towards him. He gasped as this attack left him surprised and unprepared, and he jumped back to avoid the barrage. The finger sized blades clattered to the ground at his feet.
He looked up, expecting to see her charging for him, but instead saw nothing. At the last moment. He spotted her in the air, her hand grazing over the cloth that was wrapped around her arm. From the cloth, she pulled out more of the tiny throwing knives and quickly launched more at him. He rushed forward, which Nadira didn't expect, and threw off her aim as each of the knives missed their marks. As she landed, she threw one of her dirks at him, which Ren quickly slapped away with a bare palm. As Nadira tried to quickly replenish her free hand by grabbing another dirk from her belt, Ren had already closed the distance and caught her. He grabbed her arm and twisted it, sending a shock of pain up her arm, and making her lose focus.
With an open palm, Ren thrust his hand at the bridge of Nadira's nose. She was able to nearly nullify the force of the attack by leaning her head back, but the strike still left her a little dazed, which Ren took advantage of by bringing her head down onto his knee. After her head snapped back from the blow, she put a leg behind Ren's and brought it down so that it forced him onto one knee. Jumping back up quickly, she then stepped on to his thigh and jumped behind him, reversing the situation, and now she was the one twisting his arm. He tried to get back up, but she threw a punch at the back of his head. As her arm lowered after the attack, she tried to bring her arm back up and with her dirk in hand, she would end the fight by forcing Ren to back down after placing her blade to his throat.
With a fluid motion that seemed quite natural to him, he dodged the attack by leaning back and the dirk passed inches from his nose. He planted a hand onto the stage from and flipped back, with Nadira going for another attack to finish the match quickly. She swung with her right arm, which Ren guided away and countered with a thrust of his right arm. As it connected with her body, she was forced away by a light that exploded underneath his hand. Using his Aura, he managed to turn his natural field into a weapon, and as both of their Auras interacted, they caused a rebounding force that launched Nadira into the air.
She landed roughly, rolled once, and quickly planted her feet on the stage as she slid to a stop. Getting up and looking behind her, she noticed that she was mere inches from the edge, almost ending the match in an "out of bounds" victory. She got ready to charge again but a voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Enough," Glynda announced and the class began to applaud.
"Well done. As both of your Auras are in the red, there is not enough information to really determine a winner, though, so this will end in a draw," she pointed out, and then looked down to input some data into her Scroll. "Next time, you two, try harder."
Nadira put away her dirks and collected her knives while looking at Glynda, in what seemed to be frustration. After a few moments, she looked back to Ren and bowed respectfully, and then left the stage. Ren left the stage as well and when he reached the bottom, he quickly fell and began to take deep breaths.
"It's okay Ren." Nora said as she knelt down next to him and slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Even though it wasn't a win, I'll still take you out." She said with a sincere and dopey smile.
He continued to take gulping breaths as the fight and the use of his Aura had left him fatigued. He shook his head at Nora's offer and, despite him being tired, he still found humor in her words and chuckled to himself.
After Glynda's class, HAVC and Pyrrha met up at the dining hall in Beacon. Ren and Nora left for a while to bring back some food from the restaurants in Vale, returning shortly to eat with everyone else. While they ate, Haiiden noticed that Pyrrha was staring at something. At first, he thought she was staring at him as their eyes seemed to have connected. However, as she didn't react from Haiiden making eye contact, he realized that she was looking at something behind him. After turning around to see what it was that had her attention, he noticed that Jaune was sitting with Team CRDL, rather than his teammates.
"Huh," was all that Haiiden managed to get out, which got the attention of the rest of the group. Everyone looked back to see that Jaune was sitting with CRDL, with Cardin's arm resting on his shoulder.
"Since when did they start eating together?" Vaughn asked Pyrrha, and the question made her furrow her brow and she tightened her fists. She didn't reply to the question.
"Shame," Cecilia muttered and shook her head in disappointment. "Thought that he would have chosen a better group of friends."
Zed stared for a bit and sighed to himself. He didn't like seeing team CRDL laughing after tripping a Faunus girl that had just passed by, and watched as Jaune laughed nervously with them. He could tell that the laugh was not genuine; it was forced and awkward, but he was angry nonetheless. "Bugger off, Jaune," he thought to himself.
"I had such high hopes for the moppet, too," Zed finally added while shaking his head and looking away; he couldn't watch anymore. Haiiden continued to stare, worried that this was what it felt like to his teammates when he had dropped out of Beacon; he wondered if this was the abandonment that his team felt when they realized that he had left. He looked back to Zed to see that he was lost in his thoughts, not unlike the way he was a couple of days ago. He then turned to face Cecilia and Vaughn, making eye contact with her momentarily before she looked away. Haiiden thought for a bit and wondered if he should say something.
"I am sure he will bounce back," Haiiden said with an awkward smile as even he had started to feel that Jaune was now a lost cause. Pyrrha turned her attention towards him now, her expression changing from disappointment to concern. "He comes from a good family. I am sure that if he came here to be like the others in his line, then he will come to know that what he is doing is wrong."
Pyrrha stared for a few moments before breaking eye contact and reluctantly nodded her head. "I hope that is the case," was all that she managed to say and the moment was then interrupted as HAVC's personal Scrolls pinged, indicating a message had come in.
"Oh thank God," Haiiden thought to himself as the atmosphere had become almost unbearably awkward, and he was hoping that something would allow him to escape. He looked down to read the message and froze as he continued reading. The vagueness of the message left him confused and he looked up to see what his team thought. They all had similar expressions, and they all slowly got up while shooting a look to their Scrolls, then back to one another.
"We have to go, guys. Ozpin is asking for us to meet him," Haiiden told Team JNPR. Ren gave his usual response, by giving a polite nod while Nora continued to eat happily. Pyrrha didn't acknowledge them, having turned her attention back to her team's leader. Haiiden knew that he said what he had to say, and knew that nothing else could help alleviate the betrayal they felt at the situation.
"I'll meet you at the office, guys," Zed said uncomfortably. "I've got to go spend a penny, first." With that, he headed off toward the restrooms.
HAVC finally met in front of the door to the Headmaster's office. Haiiden took a deep breath, while Zed came trotting up as he fixed his hair, and the twins buttoned the collars on their uniforms. After each of his teammates gave the okay, Haiiden knocked on the door and it opened with Glynda on the other side of it. She left it wide open and allowed the team to come in, then shut it behind them. As they walked towards Ozpin's desk, Haiiden noticed that Glynda wasn't moving away from the door but instead stood in front of it, almost as if she was guarding it. He turned back to see that Ozpin was sitting straight in his chair with his hands clasped together in front of him. The team finally stopped in front of him and clicked their heels at attention.
"Sir!" They all said loudly and in unison. Ozpin watched for a few moments, and then looked behind them to nod at Glynda, who in turn nodded and turned off the lights. The room went dark, and the only illumination was coming from the windows, which slowly began to dim as they became opaque. They all looked back at each other but then were startled as a crackling could be heard as a video feed appeared on the window. After a few moments, the image of Ironwood appeared as well as the silhouette of a representative from the Council of Vale. The moment Haiiden placed his eyes on Ironwood, his body tensed up and his fists tightened. He gritted his teeth with such force, they felt like they were going to break at any moment.
Ironwood had a surprised expression as he looked down at his own monitor, which made it hard to figure out what caused his surprise.
"Cecilia and Vaughn Sceryei?" he asked in a tone that made it seem like even he was unsure what just came out of his mouth.
"Captain. Or should I say General?" Cecilia replied and both she and her brother saluted Ironwood together.
"Ah. You have both grown a lot since I last saw you," he said with a smile but then it faded as he continued to look at the monitor. "I am sorry for leaving you in that hell, I'll have you know that the Major was severely reprimanded for the way he ran Saint Alban's."
"It's alright, sir. What we took away from that situation was that, if he hadn't run it as harshly as he did, we wouldn't be the fighters we are today," Cecilia replied, but from what Haiiden saw when Vaughn told him this story, it seemed hard for them to even bring it up. He wondered if the reason why they didn't blame him was because they thought it wasn't his fault, or perhaps they were merely showing respect for his rank.
"At least something good came out of it," Ironwood remarked. "I've reviewed the records of your combat performance in the field, and may I say how well you handled the mission with Colonel Sceryei. I fully agree with your actions. We are soldiers, not murderers. You earned that Star Cross that day, Lieutenant Sceryei, not a discharge."
"'We 'were' soldiers, sir." Cecilia corrected.
"Of course," Ironwood replied simply, and his attention changed to what Haiiden guessed was Haiiden himself. The hint was the sudden change in his expression, flashing from worry to nervousness for a moment before straightening his posture and clearing his throat. "Haiiden."
"General Ironwood," Haiiden growled.
"How are you doing?" Ironwood asked with sincerity in his voice. However, Haiiden didn't respond and instead gave a cold stare into the screen, wishing that he was in front of Ironwood right now.
"Can we finally begin?" the representative interrupted after a long moment of silence, his voice dark and harsh.
"Please," Ironwood replied and cleared his throat before looking back up at his monitor. "We have a mission for you, Team HAVC."
"No," Haiiden immediately said and shook his head. Cecilia quickly glanced at Haiiden before turning back to the monitor.
"Wait. What mission?" she inquired.
"Against those terrorists: The White Fang," the representative answered
"Terrorists?" Haiiden asked loudly. His eyes were widened and he resumed his glare in Ironwood's direction, wondering if that was the word that he had chosen to describe them.
"With all due respect, we won't be used as the military's hit-men again," Vaughn said loudly and with Cecilia nodding in agreement with her brother.
"You don't have much of a choice!" The representative replied with a similar harshness as before.
"I do have a choice, and I choose no! I'm not doing you any favors!" Haiiden yelled out, but it wasn't directed at the representative, it was at Ironwood. The man stared into the monitor and into Haiiden's eyes. Ozpin then sensed that the meeting was getting out of hand, and raised his hands as he began to motion for everyone to calm down.
"We'll do it," Zed answered suddenly. Haiiden quickly turned his head and stared wide-eyed at him. Vaughn and Cecilia stepped forward to look at him as well, expressing equal surprise.
"Then that settles it," the representative responded, this time the harshness was not there and although the details of his face were blocked, you could see him turn his gaze to another monitor.
"I'll leave you to make the preparations with Lipesce," the monitor then cut off and Ironwood's image enlarged to fill the empty space.
"Hold on. I lead the team, don't I have any say in this?" he asked Ozpin, who responded with a shake of his head.
"Think of this as your early mission for the year. I promise, it will count towards your grade," Ozpin answered calmly.
"Screw that! I'm not doing anything for Ironwood!" Haiiden yelled out and Vaughn looked curiously at him; remembering his comment about Ironwood when he told the story of his and Cecilia's upbringing.
"Then do it for Mistral," Ozpin responded, and now his voice was harsh. "I am in charge of security for this year's Vytal Festival; I need to deal with security concerns on a far larger scale than just Vale." Haiiden's shoulders slumped and sighed as he covered his face.
"I guess I wasn't needed after all. I will take my leave," Ironwood said before his image cut from the screen and the windows began to turn back to normal, letting the last slivers of daylight into the room.
"The terrorist cell in Mistral is plotting a major attack. We can't let that happen." Ozpin told the team, his voice serene now, as he noticed that Haiiden had begun to calm down.
"Say no more. Team HAVC's got this," Zed replied and tightened strap on his glove, then pounded his fist into his palm.
"Then return to your dorm and rest up; you leave in the morning."