Chapter 65

A pair of eyes snapped open in the darkness. After a long moment, they adjusted to the lightless room and, with a low sigh, he sat up. "Another nightmare huh?" Adam whispered to himself as he repositioned his eyepatch. He shook his head to clear the memories of blood and death from his mind.

Deciding that sleep was too far from him now he pulled on his boots, grabbed his weapon and left the guest room he shared with Oscar. The northern wing of the mansion, which faced the ocean, was quiet and peaceful. Except for a distant sound from outside.

Curious about what could be happening he silently moved through the house, down a floor and eventually outside into the grassy backyard of the Nikos manor. There, training alone in the night, was Ren. Adam stood silently and watched as Ren went through the motions, only announcing his presence once those came to an end.

"Sleep is important, you know." Adam said, folding his arms.

"Ah!" Ren yelped and jumped from surprise. "Oh. Adam. Did I wake you?"

"No. I woke up naturally. Why are you training now of all times?"

"I…" Ren trailed off. Adam clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"It's admirable you want to get stronger, but training alone at night isn't going to help you very much. What brought this on? Did you decide you're the weakest or something?"

"I know I'm the weakest here! But I don't care about that! I don't care about who's strongest or weakest or anything like that! We all need to be stronger! With what we're facing…"

Ren turned away, not meeting Adam's eye. The Faunus just let out a sigh. "I get that. We are up against powerful foes. We should all be working as hard as possible to get stronger. But the middle of the night? Now is when we should rest, not train more."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." A new voice called out, cutting between them. Chrysanthos Nikos stood at a door, a different one to where Adam had left from, with his arms crossed and a serious look on his face. "If you want to train at night you need to change your sleep schedule. Running into this won't help you." He then waved them over and re-entered the building.

After a moment of hesitation, the pair followed him into what appeared to be a gym or dojo. As the lights flickered on, Chrysanthos headed over to a rack of swords and spears and rifles, taking his time to select a beautifully crafted red and gold longsword.

"I may not be a Huntsman, but I know enough to help train you. If you're so reckless that you'll start at night, then instead of cutting wind, I'll be your sparring partner."

"Are you sure?" Ren asked.

"I was a soldier, an elite at that. Don't underestimate me just because I'm not a fancy Huntsman. Pyrrha got the basis for her entire style from me after all." He replied with a laugh before exploding forwards. His blade flashed out ready to cut Ren in two…

But despite the speed he displayed, it wasn't any more than they were used to. Ren easily brought his gun-blades up and parried the attack. Adam watched on as the two fell into a spar. From his perspective, it was easy to see that Chrysanthos Nikos was at the peak of what a normal non-Huntsman human could reach. If he'd only been trained like a Huntsman, from a young age, or at an academy he could have been incredible.

The man used his sword with decades of experience and it was that experience that kept the spar going. Ren was faster and stronger thanks to his Aura and training, but the gap in years allowed the Nikos Patriarch to not only keep up but really push Ren. And this is with only a sword. If he gave Pyrrha her core, then he could use a shield, spear and rifle to great effect too.

In the end, Ren lost. His legs were kicked out from under him and he was thrown to the ground with a sword to his neck. Chrysanthos pulled him to his feet with a smile. "You're tired, which slowed your thought process down."

"I… I see…" Ren looked thoughtful as he spoke.

"Outside of that, you did well. For someone who didn't finish school, you're tough. I'd peg you for a third year, to be honest. And a high rank one too. All you really lack is staying power in your weapons and perhaps some mobility. Aside from those, keep training and experiencing."

"Right…"

"That's not enough for you then? So you're looking for short-term power then?"

"Short-term? What do you mean by that?" Ren asked.

"It's simple. Training is long-term. It's something that takes years and years to fully bear fruit. It's not something that can be done quickly. You want strength now. That's short-term. It just means the length of time to get the power you want."

"How do I get power in the short-term then?" Ren seemed focused on this. So much so that Adam felt it would be weird to intrude.

"There is only one method of short-term power: Knowledge. Increase what you know and understand, about yourself, your friends or foes, and that will grant you power. Of course, it's up to you to capitalise on your knowledge to gain said power. That's the shortest method."

"I see…" Ren furrowed his brow. I don't think he liked that answer. I guess we do know of one other method, but it's got a few restrictions. Not something Ren could use, unless he's got something to tell us. Adam thought with a hollow laugh. It seemed ironic or perhaps poetic, that the best method for Ren to gain power was unavailable to him because it was restricted by gender.

"You said you were a soldier." Adam came in to change the subject and let Ren think. "That's past tense, so what are you now?"

"A security consultant essentially. I advise others on how to protect themselves, their property, their assets. That kind of thing. I've worked on the Argus Base too, so I should be able to find some blueprints to help you all."

"So that's what you meant." Adam nodded, thinking back to the long discussion they'd had earlier. It hadn't ended up going much of anywhere aside from 'gather info'. Chrysanthos had said something about getting them more details on the base.

"Yeah. Cordovan is good at her job, but she's arrogant. Doesn't think that Atlas can fail at anything. So she ignored all of my advice."

"How long have you known her anyway?"

"About a decade. She got transferred here because she was becoming hard to handle and Atlas was caring more about its image. It couldn't be seen to have someone so… honest about their thoughts on a certain marginalized community in a public position. So they threw her out here."

"So. Not just me then?"

Chrysanthos let out a laugh. "No. Not just you. The previous commander was much easier to deal with. Sadly he retired. Too old. Good man. Worked with him even when I was a soldier. Joint operations between Mistral and Argus to tackle larger threats with Huntsmen. It was good work."

"Hm. Well, it sounds like you do have a lot of experience. I'm glad we can learn from it."

"Hahaha! Well, I'm glad my darling daughter has made some friends. It's been too long since she could open up to people."

"She's definitely grown." Adam agreed with a nod. "So. I think I'd like to spar too."

"Then let's get to work." Chrysanthos smiled.

And so they clashed.

"So that's it there?" Ruby asked, keeping her voice in a hushed whisper.

"Looks like." Adam replied.

"It's a long walk from the pickup point though." Ruby bit her lower lip. "They're likely to notice if we take too long."

"Exactly. Thankfully Yang brought her bike. She can ride back and forth."

"Could she really disable it though?"

"Ah. Good point. Yang doesn't have any training in that. She could break it, but we don't want permanent damage. If Jaune's idea comes through though… I should be able to do it. Wasn't my speciality but I've managed before."

"Sounds good. You and Yang can take down the sensors." Ruby smiled and shuffled backwards, away from the tower ahead of them. They quickly made their way back to a nearby clearing where Ren and Nora were waiting.

"How'd it go?" Ren asked as they cleared the brush.

"Alright. I think we've got a good idea for here. Gotta thank Mr Nikos for the info. All that's really left is figuring out how to steal a ship." Ruby replied.

"Weiss is the only one who can get in there." Adam grimaced. "The only ones who could fly it are myself, Maria and Qrow from what we discussed last night. If I'm going for the tower then the other two are the only options."

"But Qrow's been drinking since we got here. Could he really fly a ship?" Nora asked.

"However with Qrow's ability to shapeshift he can easily get in there. Maria would have a harder time sneaking." Ren countered.

"We'll figure something out." Ruby said. "I'm pretty sure that Jaune had an idea for that anyway, so let's head back."

"It's been a while since I had someone helping me cook." Helena Nikos, Pyrrha's mother, said with a soft smile.

"Really?" Oscar replied, swiftly cutting up some potatoes. "Back home I was always working so I didn't help my aunt too much. I always enjoyed when I did though."

"Pyrrha used to help me, back when she was a kid. Before she decided she wanted to be like her father that is." Helena let out a sigh as she took the chopped potatoes and placed them in a pot to be boiled.

"How'd that make you feel?" He asked, moving on to chopping carrots.

"Oh, I wasn't annoyed or anything. Seeing my little girl happily swinging a sword around in practice killed that quickly. She seemed at home with a sword. In a way she never did with the knife or pot." She laughed a little as she started preparing the sausages. "I'm glad that she seems to have recovered that joy."

"She lost it?" Oscar raised an eyebrow as he pulled together a pot of mixed vegetables and set it on the stove. "I thought she always enjoyed fighting. She was a famous fighter after all."

"She enjoyed that at first. However the tournament circuit… hurt her a little. Fame is great and all but it isolated her. It didn't help that her reputation was that of an unbeatable girl. Nobody near her age could be friends with her. How could she enjoy the thing that isolated her?"

"Oh. I see. I guess I've only seen her after she recovered that feeling then. Must have been at Beacon."

"Ah Beacon. I was hesitant to let her go so far. I thought she wouldn't make friends and would need us to support her but low and behold. She found exactly who she needed. I don't have to regret getting her into tournaments anymore."

"You regretted that?"

"How could I not?" Helena asked back, stepping away from the stove now that everything was cooking. "We were supposed to protect her but we put her into a place that isolated her. Sure she got strong but what did she lose? I thought that she would forever have lost the ability to be anywhere near normal. I'm glad I was wrong. Her strength let her go to Beacon, where she found plenty of friends and even a boyfriend. I couldn't be happier with how things turned out."

Her beaming smile made Oscar's eyes widen. "I see…"

"Well… now that I think about it I could have done without Beacon falling. That would have been much nicer. But I digress. Pyrrha is happy and so I'm happy."

"We should focus on the cooking." Oscar said, turning away from her. He didn't have anything he could add, so he tried to change the subject.

"Hm. Alright then."

They continued to cook, with Oscar learning a lot from Helena.

"So that's it then? We've got everything we need?" Ruby asked the group as they relaxed after dinner.

"Yup." Jaune said. "Terra gave me what she could and I already passed that to Adam. So we should be good there." Adam was nodding in agreement so Ruby turned to Weiss.

"I've prepared some lines, just to make sure things go alright. As long as she can stay quiet we shouldn't have any issues." Weiss said.

"Look kid, I'll try to be quiet but have you tried to sit in that thing for even a few minutes!?" Maria complained. "It's hell! My back is going to be so sore after this! But I did manage to pick up something that will help in case I'm discovered so don't worry."

"I feel like I should get you to tell me what that is, but I really don't want to know." Weiss grimaced.

"Well, I've filled up Bumblebee. She'll get us to the tower and back."

"Perfect. The rest of us have to rely on you guys, so just remember that we believe in you!" Ruby grinned and brought the quick meeting to an end.

Tomorrow they would be leaving Argus.

A/N: So a slower chapter. Get to explore the Nikos parents and their feelings a little bit while the gang prepare. Ren is of course feeling like they aren't strong enough and I start to explore that a little earlier. Is one talk enough to resolve his issue? Nah. But it's a start. Without the mourning of Pyrrha, he gets to express that earlier. Next up of course is their attempt to leave.

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!