"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren asks, and Nora glares at him. He knows she was hungry. She's almost always hungry!

Pyrrha smiles like the saint that she is. "Of course! It will give us energy-"

Nora is so upset that no one was ready to record the burp that she did. It was a monster! It should be treasured! It-

"Ughh"-Jaune faceplants onto the counter-"If I barf, I'm blaming you."

The idea strikes Nora like a lightning bolt. "Oh! Aim it at the enemy!"

"Nora, that's disgusting." Nora looks over at her best friend. 3. 2. 1-"But if you do feel the urge…"

Jaune gives them all a thumbs up.

"So," Ruby starts, patting Jaune on the back, "you think you guys are ready?"

Are they ready? "Of course!" Why wouldn't they be? Nora points to Pyrrha. "We've got a world renowned fighter on our team,"-then to Ren-"what's basically a ninja,"-herself-"I can bench five of me,"-to Jaune-"Jaune,"-her team leader glares at her-"we've trained all year, our weapons are awesome, Gylnda barely yells at us anymore, and uh…" She looks around the and spots Jaune sitting back up again, face flushed. "Jaune!"

"Are you gonna take that?"

Jaune sighs. "She's kidding."

Elation hits Nora like a truck. "He knows I'm kidding!" She shouts, leaping out of her chair and hugging him. "Anyway, don't be so nervous, the worst that could happen is that we lose. Then it's just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing we're failures. Our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, and Ren and I have no parents, so we have no home left to go to, and we'll be officially renamed team LOSE-I-PER-"

A forcible wave of calmness interrupts her, and when she looks down at her hands, she sees that they're grey. Now that she's stopped rambling, she can feel everyone watching her, and Ren's Semblance helps to even out her anxiety as his hand is on her shoulder. The two of them make eye contact, and Ren's concern is obvious.

She taps her wrist. I think I'm good. Just a few more moments. She can hear Pyrrha sigh in relief as the top student gets up from her seat, helping Jaune up too. "We should be fine," she says, and it's in such a confident tone, Nora can actually believe her. "Don't fret. It's nice to be in a fight with actual guidelines and not… well, you know… murderers or Grimm."

Some part of Nora screams that those are the fun fights. Another part of Nora agrees with Pyrrha. Ren removes his hand and suddenly there's a lot of pent up energy raring to go. Good thing they fight next.

Professor Ozpin's office is both almost too quiet and almost too homely. The smell of strong hot chocolate and the sight of strong, cold steel is subtly jarring to Pyrrha as she sits in front of the Headmaster. They've exchanged pleasantries at this point.

"Well," Professor Ozpin says, continuing their conversation about the tournament,

"it comes as no surprise that your team has chosen you to move on to the final round of the tournament. Your performance was exemplary."

The praise is both familiar and a breath of fresh air. "Thank you, Professor Ozpin," she says, politely smiling, "but I would have never made it this far without my teammates."

"Personally, I think it's the other way around."

An ugly frown crosses her face before she makes it blank, turning around and standing up to try and be a little respectful to make up for any anger that may slip out. "I'm sorry," she tells the man in grey leaning against the column, "but I don't believe we've been introduced."

The man looks over his canteen at her as if she's annoying him. She partly hopes she is. "Name's Qrow."

There's rustling behind her. "Qrow is a trusted colleague of mine."

That somewhat quenches Pyrrha's anger, although she expected her Headmaster to have more respectful company. Especially company that wouldn't insult his students in front of him. She begrudgingly turns back around to face Professor Ozpin. "Professor, if you don't mind me asking, why have you called me here?"

He's still smiling. It feels fatherly. "Please, take a seat," he says, and Pyrrha wasn't even aware that she was still standing, promptly retaking her seat. "Ms. Nikos, what is your favorite fairy tale?"

"I'm… sorry?"

The Headmaster has leaned back in his chair. "Fairy tales, stories from your childhood. Surely you remember some of them."

She does, but how is it so important? "Well, there's 'The Tale of The Two Brothers', 'The Shallow Sea', 'The Girl in the Tower'-"

"What about 'The Story of the Seasons'?" Ozpin asks.

"Well, of course!" Pyrrha says, and for a moment, she can imagine her parents telling her the entire story: a callous old man, four travelling sisters, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, granting incredible powers; the four maidens. "My mother loves that story."

"Would you believe me if I told you that one's been around since I was a boy?"

Pyrrha finds herself laughing at the man's words. "You're not that old, Professor."

The Headmaster's demeanor changes, going from playful to serious. "What if," he starts, his voice more serious now too, "I were to tell you that there were four maidens existing in this world, that could wield such tremendous power, without Dust?"

"You mean like a Semblance?"

There's a fatherly smile on his face now. "Like Magic."

Magic? That's not real, it breaks the First Law of Soul and Energy, you need a power source to manipulate the world around. Her rifle used Combustion Dust in order to shoot, her Semblance used her Aura to manipulate metals she could see, Magic is said to not need anything, and that- "I-"

"Yeah," the voice of Qrow cuts in, low and honest. She turns to face him. "First time hearing it's pretty crazy."

She turns back to face Professor Ozpin. "You're serious ?"

He doesn't even look fazed. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

Pyrrha studies him for a bit longer. He doesn't move an inch. "...No," she admits,rubbing the back of her neck. Nothing makes sense now and that's terrifying because if nothing makes sense then there's nothing she can do to help keep control of the situation- "Why… why are you telling me this?"

Ozpin looks over her shoulder for a brief moment before making eye contact with her again. "We are telling you this, Pyrrha Nikos, because we believe that you are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers."

Fall Maiden. Powers. Magic. Her. Pyrrha knows her shock is visible in her gasp, her wide eyes, her- wait- "'We'?"

There's the ding of the elevator, and Pyrrha quickly turns around in her chair, looking at Professor Goodwitch and Atlas' General Ironwood exit it. Ironwood straightens his tie. Professor Goodwitch fives her glasses. "Sorry we're late," the general says.

Pyrrha gets out of her chair, backing away from the four of them. "Wait, what is this?" she asks, watching as a small part of Professor Ozpin's desk turns black and bends away from her for a brief moment before she brings her Semblance under control. "Who are you?"

"You know who we are," Professor Goodwitch says, and Pyrrha almost relaxes at the reassuring tone. "We're still the same teachers and Headmasters you met when you arrived at Beacon."

"'Cept we've got a little part time job."

Ironwood sighs at the subtle way that Qrow slurs his words. "Ms. Nikos," he says, respectfully nodding to her. Her! The General of Atlas nodded to her! "We are the protectors of this world."

Ozpin took a sip from his mug. "And we need your help."

Mom? Dad? Is this what destiny is?

Nora doesn't need Ren's Aura Sensing or whatever to know that Pyrrha is distracted by something. It's obvious! She barely ate Ren's pancakes this morning for breakfast, and this is the girl who practically prides herself on having huge hearty breakfasts that rival her own! It's unacceptable!

Something must be done. Nora makes eye contact with Ren, who shakes his head at her. She continues staring at him. He's still shaking his head. Her smile gets bigger. He sighs.

She dashes over to Pyrrha. "You heard the lady!" she crows, hearing Ren sigh again as the blender starts up. "No more moping around!"

"Huh-"

"We gotta keep your butt in shape for the big fight!" Nora continues, hoping that it was just a lack of exercise that had Pyrrha down. "It could be today! It could be tomorrow! It could be the most important fight of your life!"

Pyrrha looks amused. "I don't think it's going to be that important-"

"Nora does have a point," Ren says, finally on her side for once. "We're all concerned for Yang, but she's doing as well as she can and we know how strong she is." Oh! He's wearing the apron she got him as a gag gift for getting into Beacon! "Seeing that you're now the last student of Beacon Academy, you'll be upholding it's honor."

"Of course," Pyrrha says, nodding. Her eyes move down to the glass that Ren's holding in his hands. "What's in the glass?"

"A blend of herbs and vegetables filled with nutrients vital to our body's well-being, both mentally and physically. Nora still doesn't believe me when I say that it's more important how you eat than how you work out-"

"Because I actually get to enjoy my food and not drink something that looks like slime from a lake bed, Ren!" Nora snaps, getting up from her push-ups to lessen the height difference between the two of them.

Ren turns away from her, holding onto the stupid glass. "Algae contains numerous spectacular properties"-Out of the corner of her eye, Nora can see Pyrrha looking disgusted at the mention of algae-"See for yourself."

"Fine!" Nora grabs the glass and takes a sip of it. It's one of the worst things she's ever eaten, and that's saying something. She immediately dumps the rest of the glass into the wastebasket before running over to their bathroom to try and rinse out her mouth. Everyone in the room is quiet when she comes back out. "Ren? What is wrong with you?!"

"Me?!" Ren actually looks surprised. "You're the one that wasted perfectly good juice-"

"We're supposed to help Pyrrha, not poison her!"

"There was nothing wrong with that."

Nora stares him down. He doesn't budge. "It looked the same coming up as it did going down. There's something wrong with it."

"Hey guys!" Jaune leaps in between the two of them, blond hair almost bouncing with him. "How about we check out the booths at the Vytal Festival?"

Jaune frowns at the sight of Pyrrha sitting alone outside the dining hall. She looks so sad, and- well, like how he was earlier in the year. So, he tries his best to help her. "Hey."

Pyrrha looks up at him and waves.

He holds out the large cone of cotton candy he bought. "I- It's no green goop but I think it still might do some good."

It takes a few moments, but Pyrrha accepts the treat. "Um, right," she says, and Jaune's worried about how quiet her voice is. "Thank you, Jaune."

There's a small commotion nearby, and Jaune looks over just in time to see Nora and Ren pulling each other behind the dining hall. giving him and Pyrrha some fresh air and space. Jaune sighs and takes a seat next to his partner. "You know, way back in the forest, you were the first person outside of my siblings to ever believe in me," he says, casually, as if he was talking about the weather. "Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?"

Pyrrha's frowning. "I'm sure they didn't mean-" She suddenly stops talking, and Jaune wonders why for a few moments before he realizes that he's accidentally put his hand on hers.

He quickly slides it away to make her less nervous. She slides it back under. "I guess," he starts, scratching the back of his head, "I'm just trying to say that you've always been there for me, coming up with ideas and helping me get used to being a team leader, even when I didn't deserve I was acting like a brat. And I can tell there's something on your mind, so…" he trails 's not used to having these heavy talks. "I don't know. How can I help?"

There's a quiet moment where the two of them can faintly hear noises from the booths before Pyrrha just leans on his shoulder. "You're already doing it," she says with a smile, and Jaune matches it, glad to hear that he's doing something positive. They stay like that for a while, breathing in the cool autumn air and simply existing. Jaune's lost track of how many leaves have fallen when Pyhrra shifts and sits back up. "Jaune…"

"Hmm?"

She slides her hand out from under his. When he turns to face her, she's looking away. "I don't know what to do."

Jaune hesitates a bit, not sure what to do here. "W- What do you mean?"

"Do-" Pyrrha pauses, looking up at the sky for a few moments. "Do you believe in destiny?"

Yeah, he definitely does not know what he's doing. "Um… I don't know," he admits. "I guess that depends on how you view it."

Pyrrha takes a deep breath before she starts talking. "When I grew up thinking about destiny, my parents and I always tried not to think about it as a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather… some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life."

Wow. That's how she sees the world? And she trusts him to lead her in battle? "Okay. Uh, yeah. I can see that, sure."

"Well…" she starts, and its obvious that she's trying to figure out what she's saying while she's saying it, "what would you do if something came along that you… never expected? Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny?"

Jaune's heart plummeted. "Like what-"

"Or what if you could suddenly fulfill your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you were?!"

"Pyrrha," he says, trying to place a hand on her shoulder, "you're not making any sense."

She shoves his hand away and stands up in one fluid motion. She looks like she's about to cry. "None of it makes sense!" she shouts. "This isn't how things were supposed to happen!"

Oh Deliight… Jaune gets up too, keeping his arms to his sides. "I'm sorry!" he says, even if he's mostly sure that this has nothing to do with him. "Please, I'm just trying to understand what's wrong."

Pyrrha won't look at him, and he wishes that he has Ren's Aura Sensing. "I've always felt as though I was destined to become a Hunter," she says, and that makes sense, "to protect the world… and it's become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But"-she finally looks at him, but she still won't make eye contact-"I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course you can," Jaune says without a second thought. "You're Pyrrha Nikos! From what I know, you would ever back down from a challenge. And if you really believe it's your destiny to save the world, you won't let anything stand in your way."

He says it all so confidently, because it's true, and for a moment, he thinks that maye he hasn't messed this up.

And then Pyrrha starts sobbing.

"Pyrrha?"

She turns away, her face still in her hands. She says something, but her voice is so quiet and muffled that he can't make it out.

Jaune takes a step closer, holding one arm out for her to grab if she wants to. "Did I say something wrong?"

"STOP!"

Before he's fully aware of what's going on, he finds himself thrown against the side of the dining hall, his Aura Cloak saving him from the damage against his back. The same Aura Cloak that Pyrrha said it would be better for him to always have up, since he had so much Aura…

He makes eye contact with Pyrrha as they both realize what she's done, her hand glowing black. "Jaune!" She lowers him gently to the ground. Jaune barely feels when he's standing again. She's crying. "I'm"-she's backing up-"I'm so sorry."

"Pyrrha, wait!" It's too late. She's already running away. Jaune sighs, looking back at where the two of them sat. The cotton candy is still there,with a few bites taken out of it. What happened? "What did I say?"

Everyone's so worried. That's all Ren can figure out.

Well, no. Ren has eyes. He can see how Nora is constantly looking between Jaune and Pyrrha, how Jaune is glancing at Pyrrha every few seconds, and how Pyrrha's attention flickers between the fights and the blond next to her.

It makes him worried for all of them. But he has no idea how to even start untangling a web of emotions this entangled.

Sometimes, the residual calm of his Semblance is a nuisance.

"And her opponent will be… Pyrrha Nikos from Beacon!"

Nora jumps up and cups her hands together. "Come on, Pyrrha! Rip that Penny girl apart!"

Pyrrha stomps her foot, and Jaune watches in horror as the magnetized shockwave she produced took the few knives thrown at her and launched them back at Penny, who clutches her chest for a few moments before she's torn apart by the wires at the end of the knives. A robot? But she has an Aura, that doesn't make any sense-

When the screens turn red, with a black chess queen the only symbol in them, he stands up and starts making his way to the actual arena. Nora and Ren follow him.

Pyrrha can only see her hands glowing black and the crackling body of her opponent as she tries to put her back together. This isn't how it's supposed to be! She's supposed to be a Hunter! This was supposed to be a safe, regulated match! Why is Penny a robot?! How is she supposed to even be built?!

What is Pyrrha even doing anymore?! She doesn't know how to work with machin-

She's blown back with a strong force of wind, breaking her concentration. When she regains her bearings, she's staring at a giant Nevermore, with a girl in a red hood in between her and it. "Ruby?"

There's a certain kind of helplessness that fills Pyrrha as she watches other students deal with the Grimm, and it angers her. She's been wallowing over a decision for so long, and it's distracted her enough for her to be completely at the mercy of what she's been training to protect people from her whole life! That's not her destiny!

Jaune's hand is in front of her, and she takes it, standing up. Miló and Akoúo̱ are in his hands, and as she takes them, she finally registers his voice. "-whoever was on that microphone, that black chess queen, they're the ones that did this."

"Someone was behind this?" Pyrrha hears herself asking, resituating her weapons. "Deliberately?"

Ren looks concerned, and after a few moments, Pyrrha notices that nearly everyone she makes eye contact with flinches or looks away. Nora nods.

Jaune places a hand on her shoulder. "Pyrrha, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Pyrrha says, looking up at the few Griffons in the sky. It seems like it barely takes a thought from her before all eight of Penny's knives are in the monsters' throats, their bodies plummeting to the ground. "Whoever is involved in this will not be fine."

Pyrrha grabs the knives from out of the air as they float over to her and places them in her pouch, turning away and walking towards the nearest exit. She has a destiny to fulfill.

Nora is kinda nervous for Pyrrha as she follows her. The girl is running on autopilot, like Ren does when he simply just can't emotionally function for a day. Except, Ren's autopilot is less emotional, less charged, less active, than how Pyrrha moves right now.

Pyrrha moves like she's stalking towards a threat that she's deathly aware of, the metal floor of Amity Arena denting under her steps for a few moments before it glows black and fixes itself. Early on in the year, someone had said that the redhead was a one-woman army, and although it stung at the time, Nora can see exactly what they meant now. Pyrrha Nikos, the strongest first year student of Beacon Academy, her teammate, the most polite person that she knows, a girl who would apologize as she kicked your butt-

Was furious. She's pissed off. And as she silently guides the point of her spear through the neck of a Beowolf, ignoring General Ironwood as he tries to get her attention, and simply waits on the dropship, Nora is glad that she isn't pissed at them. The look in her eyes makes it seem that when she gets her hands on the person who did all this, she would gladly run around Beacon with their head on the end of her spear.

Pyrrha? Angry.

Jaune? Concerned.

Nora? Anticipatory.

Himself? Who knows?

Ozpin?

Ozpin? Ren looks at his other two teammates as Pyrrha's walk turns into a jog, heading towards the Headmaster.

Now they're all confused. But they follow Pyrrha regardless.

Pyrrha can practically hear the hesitation of her teammates as they run through the corridor to where Amber and the pods are.

"What is this place?"

"It's a type of vault," she says, not caring about any need for secrecy right now.

"You've been here before?!"

"What would the school need to hide like this?"

Their footsteps stop at the sight of the Aura transfer machine. Professor Ozpin quickly starts typing on one of the keyboards. Pyrrha wastes no time, getting into the second pod as soon as it opens.

When it closes, there's quiet. For the first time, Pyrrha realizes how tired she feels, how drained her Aura is. She can make out Nora and Ren watching the corridor as Jaune looks back and forth between her and Amber. Why isn't he helping them?! Why-

The pain doesn't even register at first. Then it becomes unbearable. Her eyes are closed, yet all she can see is yellow as Amber's Aura is being forcibly shoved into her, giving her the Maiden powers-

There's the sound of an arrow. There's the feeling of having her heart pierced by it. And then she's standing next to a very tired Jaune, who looks mortified at whatever just happened. She flexes her arm. There is no Maiden power. She looks back at the pods. Both of them have an arrow in them. Hers is empty. Amber's heart is pierced by another.

Ozpin shoots the new Fall Maiden with something, and it's enough to draw her attention so that team JNPR can get out and regroup.

They're all in the elevator when Jaune decides to finally come clean. "When I was 10, I saw my sister die, and for a brief moment, she was."

Ren and Nora give him looks of concern. Pyrrha's eyes widen.

"For the longest time," he continues, "I thought that I was just hallucinating it. That Sapphire would just one day not be there after getting struck by a fallen tree. But right after she was crushed, she was right next to me, and I was really, really tired."

"So," Pyrrha starts, "the arrow-"

"My Semblance is a False Martyr," he admits, and the rest of JNPR listen to him, quietly. The only noise is that elevator itself and the residual shaking from whatever fight Ozpin is involved in. "You know how I always say to shout if you're in trouble?"

Pyrrha's eyes soften in realization. "It's so that if you can see us die…"

"If I see someone take a killing blow, they don't die. They appear right next to me, and all of the excess Aura I have goes to them."

"Why-" Nora cuts herself off, tapping the wall behind her. "Why didn't you tell us? If you're okay about answering that."

"I don't want to be reliant on it," Jaune says, clasping his hands together. "I don't know if it works twice."

Ren knows he can't stop Pyrrha from shoving him in a locker. She has too much determination for him to stop her. She looks guilty as she does it, especially after having done it to Nora. And Jaune. After kissing the blond. There is a lot of emotion tonight, which was ironically something he was prepared for.

"Ren," Pyrrha starts, just before she types in the code to send him away, "please keep an eye on them for me."

What does he do here? He nods. "Stay safe, Pyrrha."

It's the simplest way he can beg for her to not throw herself at the woman in red, who is so confident , so smug , so full of power it makes him nauseous.

She gives him a sad smile. As he's flying through the air, he's trying his best to remain rooted in the present.

Pyrrha's determination reminds him too much of his parents'.

Apparently, it's an Argus tradition that the team of a fallen Hunter gets the Hunter's equipment to repurpose and reuse. For recycling destinies and making mortal bonds stronger, Pyrrha's parents write to them.

For now, her armor resides in the package it came in, untouched, sitting at the bottom of Jaune's bag. Maybe it'll be fashioned into something later.