Released early for reasons explained at the bottom.

...

"Alright, sit down, shut up and listen."

Team RWBY blinked in almost unison, and they weren't the only ones.

Today was a slow day. The fights were taking a break to allow the more commercial side of the festival to shine, stalls were opening up in mass and business were enticing people by the droves.

But no fights meant the students of the Huntsman academies had free time, and Beacon was still a school.

They were in one such class now, except there were far more people. Team RWBY had wondered why there was so much space in the classrooms when there were a finite number of students. Now they knew, as it was filled with students from Atlas, Haven and Shade. SSSN was up in one corner, as was NDGO, BRNZ, ARBN, CRDL and JNPR

The teacher however was a new one.

Or, not new, but certainly not one that had taught them before. She had dark circles under her eyes, so it wasn't exactly a good start.

"Alright, just so we can get this out of the way, I'm professor Peach, Beacon medical head and Aura expert. No I don't usually teach first years and yes I am just out of bed so let's get on with it." The students shared a look. "Today we'll be going over something that would usually be covered in second year, but which is important with Huntsman and civilians brushing so close to one another, not to mention that I've been invited to take part in a research endeavour in Atlas so I won't be here next year."

She turned to the board behind her, scratching at a messy mop of short pink hair as she scribbled something down.

When she turned back they got a proper look at it, but she read it aloud anyway.

"Aura laws and Huntsman restrictions." She said. "This is something you should all know, more than that, it's something you're required to know before you graduate. So listen up, I won't repeat myself."

"First off, let's go over what everybody knows; what Aura is in the most basic of descriptions, Aura is a person's soul given physical form. What else?"

"It is a barrier that shields us from harm," Pyrrha answered from her seat. "It also acts as a way to heal our wounds."

"That's right." Peach nodded. "Now, I'll clear up some confusion, since Aura is so widely known but so complicated, there are misconceptions and contradiction that people believe about it. Firstly, so say Aura is a passive force that shields, protects and heals us, while others say it is a conscious thing you must apply."

"It is both," she said. "Though it's a little more complicated. You see, when you see a fist coming towards your face you tense, your body and mind both react to it before it even happens. It wants to protect itself. In this case, it can be seen as a passive force, since you don't make a dedicated effort to summon it but it comes into play anyway. We know however that it is also the opposite in some cases because of one thing; sneak attacks."

She looked around. "I can see it in your faces now. Some of you never even noticed did you? Well let me explain it then. Say an attack is coming from behind that you don't know is coming: your body doesn't realise it's in danger so it won't tense, and since you haven't already applied your Aura you take the hit. If it was completely passive this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously all attacks from behind don't work like this once you do activate your Aura, because it's working consciously."

"It does lead to some interesting applications though; the most experienced in Aura learn how to manipulate it to only cover certain parts of the body, making them even stronger and in some cases more dangerous, but since that' the more advanced stuff I'll leave that to your combat teachers to beat into you."

There were a few nervous chuckles at that, particularly from the students who knew Professor Goodwitch.

"Now, as you've probably mentioned by my use of the word 'tense' Aura is a funny thing. It comes and goes and has for a long time been seen as a spiritual thing and in many ways still is since it's believed t be the manifestations of our souls, but it acts in many ways like a muscle. Simply put, if you constantly train with your Aura your reserves grow and you can take more hits. If you train with your semblances they do as well. It's seen in other things too. People with Aura are faster, stronger, more agile. They have more stamina, regenerative powers and special abilities that can push things over the edge. The fact is people with Aura have their potential opened up in front of them."

"It's not a complete shield, even when your reserves are full there are limits. For example, if a sword is sent into your chest then unless you can focus your aura to make the point of contact even stronger it'll still go through, or if an attack is too far over your limits it'll go right through your Aura, regardless of whether it's broken or not. That's why Miss Goodwitch is so strict during sparring matches. Accidents still happen and it's her job to prevent them as well as teach."

She turned to them again. "So why you're probably wondering does everyone not have their Aura unlocked? Well?"

There was a muttering throughout the room.

"No one? Well that's what we'll be getting into with Aura laws today: we'll start with the most practical ones first."

She did a one-eighty back to the board and began listing them out.

"The easiest one to argue is that a person Aura can usually only be unlocked by someone who already has Aura. There are exceptions, where people gain access to their Aura because of moments of intense stress, but they are exceptions. For most people it has to be done manually, and since it is a very tiring endeavour on the one unlocking it, it isn't seen as a practical thing by many."

There were nods of understanding.

"Next, there is a far more… grim reason. You would think, that frontier towns and villages, which are under constant threat of the Grimm would benefit especially from every resident having a personal shield, added strength and vitality. In reality, this isn't the case. All of you here are people who have trained consistently to get where you are. Those natural abilities wouldn't be as great as they are unless you put effort into growing every day, something the average person just isn't doing… sadly, in a real-life scenario, if Grimm were to attack someone with nothing but Aura to their name, their deaths would just be slower and far, far more painful."

She saw the looks on their faces. "Yeah, not a pretty picture."

She hummed, running a hand through her hair. "Thankfully the next few reason's aren't as bad, more on the law side of things. You see, realistically, how many people living their day to day lives in the city have need for Aura? Their lives aren't constantly in danger, and law-abiding citizens shouldn't be in a situation where a shield is needed. At least that's the way the council sees it: you might not know since the schools take care of it for you, but every individual with an Aura is required by law t register their status with the government. When you become Huntsmen and Huntresses the idea that you have Aura is a given, so registration isn't required, but the fact is, it's much harder for the police to deal with people who have Aura themselves, so, the council made it so that while not illegal to have, it is illegal to activate the Aura of someone who is not part of the Huntsmen or Military forces."

Blake shifted in her seat. "That sounds kind of…"

"Unfair? Maybe, but others would argue it's necessary. They use the same logic that is used for weaponry. Again, being people aspiring to be Huntsmen and Huntresses it doesn't affect you, but there isn't a reason for a citizen to have a weapon of their own. You can have one by registering with the council, but the system put in place is purposefully long and tedious to discourage it."

The Faunus wasn't convinced. "But surely people who are breaking the law can get their hands on them anyway."

"Again, maybe you're right. These laws are still relatively new in the grand scheme of things. Only coming in around a hundred years ago, and the Huntsmen laws only sixty years ago. Things might still need to be polished, and that is the job of lawmakers every day, that does however lead into the last and perhaps most relevant part: Huntsman restrictions, and before you ask, they are called 'restrictions' because if they were laws it would be too hard to enforce them. Huntsmen deal with Huntsmen because nobody else is strong enough."

She looked over the students, motioning to the distinct uniforms (or lack thereof in Shade's case)

"You're taught this as kids, so you should all know that Huntsmen and Huntresses are separate from the affairs of the four kingdoms, but what does that mean exactly? Well for starters, Huntsmen are forbidden from fighting in wars. That's to say, if there was another Great War tomorrow, the fact is we would have to sit it out, watching from the sidelines as people died."

"But that's so wrong!" Sun protested. "If we're supposed to help people; how could we just stand by?"

"Because of just that reason," Peach answered back. "We are supposed to help people. If it was war, you'd have to kill people not Grimm."

That garnered a reaction as some people swallowed audibly.

She went on. "Instead we'd be tasked with the job essentially of janitor, cleaning up the battlefields that would inevitably draw Grimm from their aftermaths of pain and suffering. The fact is if Huntsmen were a part of a war, we would be the killing machines, the most bloodied and deadly. We would slaughter hundreds, maybe even thousands before having to face off against others like us, maybe even people in this room. And in war, unspeakable things happen all the time. How long would it be before a Huntsman massacred a village of innocent people and our purpose as guardians was lost?"

The silence was her answer. "Exactly." She hesitated for a moment and sighed. "There are a few more… complicated ones. How about this; Huntsman can not under any circumstances kill civilians. Sounds completely reasonable right?"

A series of nods.

"Well that same rule applies in a case of self-defence."

Arslan blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that if an angry, murderous mob of people attacked you, you can't kill them to protect yourself because you're so much stronger and more deadly than them."

A pause.

"I can see you're all still unsure of what I'm getting at so let me set the scene: you've been hired by a frontier town to kill some Grimm that have been causing trouble."

"It's not too dangerous and you get the job done easily and you go back to town expecting to get paid. The only thing is, they don't have the money for it. Now, towns will advertise how much their willing to pay up front, but the fact is, if there's a problem and they don't have the money, they'll lie about it. Now already that's not a smart idea, so when you don't look happy from not being paid, they're not smart enough to realise they're in danger of being completely erased by you, a fully-fledged Huntsman."

The professor and doctor winced. "What do you think happens when one of them gets the bright idea to try and get rid of the problem by killing you then and there? Most of the time, it doesn't go the way they expect it."

The students winced. They go the picture; now you had a deadly, angry Huntsman dealing with idiots who lied to them to put their lives at risk, only to try and kill them later.

"In the beginning, it was bloody for a lot of places. Which wouldn't be a problem if it was just the idiots who got what they deserved, but towns aren't just filled with idiots, and on the frontier, killing even one person could destroy an entire settlements infrastructure… not to mention the children that have to grow up without someone now… so the restriction was out in place, that the most a Huntsman can do in that situation is knock out a civilian, if they cross the line… another Huntsman is sent out after them. Just so you know, since Huntsmen are excluded for government rulings, there usually isn't a trial."

The professor turned way, before seeming to remember something important and turning back.

"And one more thing, you should know that all of the things I just listed? You can ignore them completely."

Blake choked back a gasp, and she wasn't the only one. "What!? But, how? Why? I thought you said they were things Huntsmen had to follow!"

Peach shook her head. "They are things Huntsmen are requested to follow: that's why they're called restrictions instead of laws. The fact is that the King of Vale when he founded the schools made it so that they were exept from laws because of their purpose: in his eyes, killing Grimm was the only thing that mattered in the end."

"Then… all of this…"

"Don't get it wrong. They aren't laws, but doing something unforgivable evil or cruel usually means that the council will put a bounty on your head… and Huntsmen with even the smallest sense of justice will come after you, if only for the pay."

Her face became grave. "You all need to know this, because more and more in the world tensions are rising. As Huntsmen and Huntresses you have responsibilities… this festival is just one of them."

…

…

Pyrrha let out a long breath as she straightened her stance. Sweat poured off her in a definitely unhygienic amount, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. She had more important things to do.

She was alone int eh Emerald Forest, getting as much last-minute training in as she could. Jaune and Ren and been dragged away after class to the stalls in Vale and Pyrrha had taken it as the opportunity it was.

She was nervous. It might have been a bit arrogant of her, but the champion knew that if they made it to the singles rounds, she would be the one team JNPR put forward. She didn't want to disappoint her team by losing easily but she wasn't sure just how strong the other schools would be.

Which again, was why she was out here.

Her muscles ached with that satisfying feeling a person got when they pushed their body to its limits without overstepping them. Already her aura was working on knitting torn muscle back together so she could go again.

Creak.

Pyrrha blinked, looking around her as a tree tipped over and crashed to the ground, joining the last twenty she'd cleaved through to practice her strikes.

…Maybe she should take a break first.

As if under some kind of spell, as soon as the thought came to mind Pyrrha felt the exhaustion of her training set in.

She let out another breath, though this one sounded almost like a pant as she set her sword and shield down and sat against one of the trees she hadn't managed to deforest. She closed her eyes and let herself relax as the wind bristled the emerald leaves above.

"Someone's been busy."

Pyrrha jumped at the voice and searched for its source quickly.

She needn't have bothered, because its owner stood in plain view for her to see with an easy smile on their face.

"You know," Amber hummed. "It's probably not the best idea to take a nap in a forest known for Grimm. I get you're a great fighter and all, but this is a bit much."

She blushed. Okay, maybe she needed more than just a little break if she was forgetting something like that. "Sorry." She mumbled.

Amber shook her head and smiled as she walked over to the younger girl. "It looks like you've been occupied. How long have you been training out here anyway?"

"About two hours or so."

Pyrrha blinked as Amber nearly tripped over herself. The older girl staring at Pyrrha in bewilderment.

"two hours? Seriously?"

"Um… yes?" The Mistralian said. "I mean, it might be a slightly longer amount of time that what first years are expected to do, but I did it at a steadier pace so it evens out." She looked away. "I know you probably see that as a lacklustre amount but I don't feel I should strain myself with the tournament resuming tomorrow."

"R-right," Amber swallowed. "Lacklustre… sure, no it's fine." She coughed, then adding when there was a pause. "You mind if I sit here with you for a while?"

"Oh, of course," Pyrrha said. "Go right ahead I mean."

The older girl did so, her back resting against the tree trunk beside the redhead. It gave Pyrrha a moment to look at her, and almost unconsciously her eyes drifted up to Amber face, to her scars.

"Looking for something?"

Pyrrha flinched and looked away in shame. "I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have- I was being insensitive and I-"

"It's fine." Amber dismissed. "You're not the first person to look."

There was a pause.

"Can you…" Pyrrha hesitated. "Would it be fine to tell me how you got them?"

Amber tilted her head to the side, not looking at the redhead as she hummed.

"Well… since I don't have anything better to do I suppose why not? I'll let you know it's not much of an exciting story, and a part of it's my fault. You already know that I've known Ruby since before she joined Beacon don't you?"

"I do, you meant her while on a mission if I remember right."

"You remembered right," Amber nodded. "But that doesn't mean it was true.

"Huh?"

"I travelled with Ruby for a long time; all around Vale for reasons I'm not going to get into right now because it's complicated. Let's just say that for a long time the two of us were close, as in, geographically we travelled for nearly a year together."

"But," Pyrrha frowned. "How could that be if you were attending Beacon?"

"Again, complicated. Let me just say that we spent a lot of time around each other and leave it at that okay?"

A nod.

"Good. Now, I guess it's fair to say that everybody gets into arguments sometimes, and being on the road, moving constantly made that even more likely between the two of us. Before… it happened, Ruby and I had been having a bigger argument than usual."

Pyrrha didn't ask what it was about, it could have been important, or it could have been trivial, but by the tone in Amber's voice, it wasn't her business. Instead she stayed silent and let the older girl continue.

"Eventually it got heated enough that I just sort of… walked out. Not just of the room, but of the village we were staying at. I was mad, and knew Ruby would have to follow me, but I must have been stupid enough at the time to forget Ruby was angry with me too. She didn't follow right away."

The scarred girl sighed. "Then, on the road I saw a little girl, just sitting there crying."

"There was nobody else? No parents of people with her?"

"Nope."

That… didn't sound right, nor safe. Grimm could meet you on any road, a child outside of a town, outside the protection of their walls… it would be a death sentence.

"What happened?"

"It was a trap."

Pyrrha gasped. "Bandits?"

Amber shook her head. "No, worse."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"I-" The champion stopped. "What?"

"I don't know," She repeated. "I didn't see their faces. I looked right at them and I could tell what they looked like. The girl on the road? An illusion, and they used the same trick to make sure I couldn't see their faces the whole time."

"And you fought them?"

"I did," she confirmed, hands clenching into fists. "And I lost… badly."

"Your scars." Pyrrha realised.

"They tried to take my life, and much more…" She sighed. "Ruby showed up right then and there. If it wasn't for her speed, if she'd been a second slower, who knows what would have happened. As it is, this is what I have to show for it, and it didn't stop there. Whoever it was hadn't been alone. Someone else was working with them, a man as dangerous as he was genius. We ran and ran and kept running, for weeks, until we made it here, to Vale… and I think they're here now."

"Why," Pyrrha swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?"

Amber looked her in the eye. "Because I-"

Snap!

Both girls head whipped around to the sudden sound that echoed through the forest.

"Who's there?" Amber called out, suddenly alert.

"What are you doing?" Pyrrha gasped. "It could just be another student."

"No," the older girl said, reaching for her staff. "This is something else. I have a feeling. They're familiar."

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"It's too complicated to explain right now, their power feels similar to mine."

"You keep saying things are complicated! What are you talking about!"

"It's-"

Snap!

They stiffened. Right in front of them a figure had emerged from behind a tree.

They donned red and black garbs and a dark sheath at their side.

And a bone white mask with crimson eyes boring through.

"Who are you?" Amber questioned when the figure was about twenty feet away her staff pointed at them and waving steadily in the air.

The figure, a woman, didn't respond, but behind the mask those eyes flickered back and forth between them. Pyrrha gulped nervously, hands inching towards Miló and Akoúo̱ but they were too far away. Dammit, she couldn't even use her semblance to pull them closer, it could set things off.

That was something she'd have to remember, never leave her weapons somewhere she couldn't reach by hand.

And still the woman was silent.

Who was she? Why was she here? She gave off a dangerous Aura, and not in the literal sense of the word.

This wasn't like anything she'd felt before, not against the White Fang, not against the Grimm and not against any opponent she'd ever fought in her tournaments.

It was instinctual, animalistic. The person in front of her was dangerous, deadly and a threat if she decided to be one.

Amber growled. "I'll ask you one last time, who are-"

It happened so fast Pyrrha almost missed it, but her body moved.

Akoúo shot into her hands as she leapt in front of Amber and the champion cried out as a red blade smashed into her shield and sent her rocketing back, splintering through a tree trunk.

Amber yelled out her name, but a second later the air was filled with the sounds of a clash. Pyrrha eventually rolled onto her front, gasping for breath and pushing herself up.

She froze however when she saw-

Amber rolled to the side, blocking a strike with her staff but being lifted off her feet. She flipped in the air, and her eye flared up in a blaze as she launched a fireball from her hands at her attacker.

The woman sliced it straight out of the air and dashed forward, past Amber and spinning on her heel, burying her foot into the girls back before her feet could even touch the ground. Amber stumbled forward, but instead of falling used one hand to cartwheel herself back straight and threw one hand forward.

Pyrrha gasped as an entire tree was uprooted as if by some giant invisible hand and thrown at the masked woman. She gasped even more audibly when the woman backhanded it away as if it were nothing!

Amber swore and leapt back as the red woman moved in again, slashing upwards and catching the younger girls staff, sending her pinwheeling away and through a tree.

The masked woman tilted her head the tiniest bit, as if curious.

An instant later the red blade in her hand switched into a reverse grip and held behind her back.

There was a metallic clang as Miló locked against the red sword. Pyrrha grit her teeth.

She'd launched herself at the woman as hard as she could, as fast as she could from behind, and yet this woman had not only blocked and caught the sword against her own without even looking, but she held her ground as if the Mistralian was nothing more than an annoyance.

There was a crack of wind as Amber flew back in from the front and stabbed forward with her staff set ablaze.

The red woman decided to disengage with her sword – sending Pyrrha back a few steps – and cut low at Amber's legs.

When the girl jumped over it, the red sword was suddenly above her, acing down to lop off her head. Amber's eyes widened as she realised she was caught in mid-air without the time to dodge and desperately brought up her staff to stop it.

A bronze shield did the work for her.

Pyrrha had put all her might into the block, but even she was surprised with the sword shattered against Akoúo, but she took the chance, twirling on her foot a full three-sixty degrees and smashing the shield against the woman's face.

There was a cracking sound as it connected with a flare of Aura and the woman's head snapped to the side. Then silence. Pyrrha's eyes widened as the woman turned slowly. She hadn't even stumbled, hadn't been knocked back a pace.

But those crimson eyes were focused on her now.

The champion fell back as a new, blue sword slashed at her side. On instinct Miló came up to deflect it, or failing that redirected enough to let her retreat.

They connected.

And Pyrrha had to bit back a cry as her bones rattled from the blow. She almost lost her grip on her sword, but she knew if she did the next attack would connect. She grunted and pressed down on Milo's grip and the sword whirled and transformed.

The woman in red brought up her sword to defend seriously for the first time in their conflict as a javelin scrapped past her.

She didn't let up.

A thrust at the woman's centre mass, a swipe at her legs and a terrific barge with Akoúo as she propelled it at the woman with her semblance.

A blue blade, a green blade, a yellow one, each shattering into flakes of dust with each connection.

And through it all, Pyrrha could see a spark of interest in her attackers' eyes.

Anger flared in her chest. She wasn't some lab rat for this woman to inspect. This woman was trying to kill her! Trying to kill Amber without so much as a word! What right did she have to look at this all like it sated her curiosity?!

She roared in anger, doubling her efforts to land a blow on the red woman.

Faster and faster and faster, each blow harder, stronger, heavier, Pyrrha pushed her aura into her limbs, pushing past her threshold even as her muscles screamed out in protest.

And then, the woman lost a single step of ground.

Pyrrha gasped as a fist was buried in her gut, folding her over the woman's arm. She dropped to the ground, gasping and retching desperately. Her opponent had been holding back. She hadn't even seen the move. It had been so fast her eyes hadn't even been able to register it, and it felt as if someone had set off a grenade in her stomach!

This woman had been playing with her!

The redhead froze stiff as pale fingers brushed against her chin, tilting her head up to meet the masked foe.

Red eyes bore into green, but Pyrrha pushed back against the pain to glare up defiantly at her.

The woman's shoulder shook. She was laughing at her!

And then the ground rolled beneath their feet.

Pyrrha fell onto her back as the earth beneath the woman's feet shot up, and a giant, solid block of rock crashed down from above. Another slammed into it from the side. Then another from the other side.

From above, below, left, right again and again, scrunching, cracking, crashing the woman between ten tonnes of rock from every side.

And then there was a gout of flame that engulfed the ball of stone. Pyrrha looked back to see the fire streaming from Amber's hands as one eye glowed with fire.

The rock was melted and hardened again, molten and solid in an instant before falling back onto the ground and indenting the grass beneath it.

Amber's hands fell as she panted tiredly, almost falling to the ground. Pyrrha struggled to her feet. "Are you," she coughed. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah." Amber gasped. "I'm fine. No problem."

She clearly wasn't Pyrrha could tell the older girl was favouring one leg over the other, and her skin was damp, worn out as if she'd been drained.

"Amber." She swallowed. "What was that? How did you do that?"

The girl opened her mouth to answer-

Crack.

Amber paled and stared over Pyrrha's shoulder with a look of horror.

The champions instincts flared and she whipped back around, Akoúo rising up as rocks scattered in every direction at blistering speed. A chunk caught her shield and sent her crashing into another tree, which splintered half way before tipping over, roots torn right out of the ground.

Oh, and Pyrrha' Aura was broken, so there was that.

Her eyes struggled to open, but when they did she could see where the ball of stone had just been.

It was gone, obliterated, and in its place, the woman in red stood there as if nothing had happened, fresh as a daisy. In fact, she made a show of brushing off some imaginary dust from her shoulder as steam rose from the ground around her.

Pyrrha groaned as she dragged herself to her feet, and leapt in front of the downed form of Amber. A chunk of rock had struck the girl, knocking her unconscious. It was just the two of them now, Pyrrha knew she had no chance in winning.

And so did her attacker.

Then against all odds, all reasonable assumptions;

The masked woman hummed aloud.

"Impressive." She said, in a voice that was dulled and warped by the Grimm mask into sounding almost monstrous and demonic like a nevermore's caw. "Even with her power the girl behind you is far less able than you, her junior. You are skilled, determined and strong-willed."

Those red eyes flashed behind the bone-white mask. "You are strong." Pyrrha flinched as she reached for her sword, but instead of attacking, the woman cut the air and before Pyrrha's eyes a whirling mass of red appeared.

"Everyone is converging in Vale child. You must be prepared for a fight, there will be one… do not tell the headmaster, for your own safety, I'm sure he already has plans for you… if you survive… come seek me out. There is much I could teach you if that is something you want. For now, it's time I renewed my tribe and show them the old ways once again."

She moved towards the portal, but couldn't step through before Pyrrha called out.

"Wait! You… you never answered the question before; who are you?"

She could hear the smirk beneath the mask.

"Me? Well… you can just call me a friend in high places."

And then she stepped through the red, and it was gone, leaving Pyrrha to stare at what had just been, and the wreckage around her.

What had just happened?

And… why did she get the feeling she 'd just heard a pun?

…

…

"Is there something wrong Weiss?"

"Hm? Oh, no Penny, it's nothing. I'm just thinking about things."

"What kind of things?"

The heiress shot a glance at the other girl, as if judging whether or not Penny was being serious in her questioning or choosing to simply annoy her. In the end, she decided it was just curiosity at play.

"I… I'm not really sure how to put it… my… father, sent me a message earlier."

"Oh?" the strange girl blinked. "Mister Jacque Schnee? What kind? Was it a message of support for the tournament? Good wishes? Another gesture of familial love?"

"Not… quite," Weiss sighed. "I had been cut off from my accounts earlier this week and asked home as to why. He informed me that since I was staying in Vale away from where he could see me, I had no need of the Schnee funds and should work out my difficulties on my own."

"Oh my…. Is that bad?" Penny asked and looked closer when Weiss hesitated.

"I… again, I'm not sure. I know my father meant it as a punishment, not only for not being in contact with him but for studying at Beacon instead of Atlas and having lost access to my funds is… a new experience."

Weiss looked towards the cliffs, towards the city below.

"But at the same time I feel as if this… weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Recently I haven't even really needed that money, and the school pays for everything I genuinely need anyway. If anything, it just feels like more of a reason to do whatever I want without my father baring down on me."

Penny tilted her head. "So… you're happy?"

A frustrated growl left her lips. "I don't know!" she said. "I think I might enjoy the freedom, the fact that father has even less control over me now, but the same happened to Winter, and because she resisted, pushed forward against father's wishes she was renounced as the heiress, she lost it and it was given to me and now the same thing is happening. I… I don't know if I should beg my father for forgiveness or trust or even, or even just to ignore it all and wait for the inevitability of him snapping."

Weiss ran a hand over her face, finger trailing down her scar. "What should I do?"

"…Do you believe in the soul?" Penny asked suddenly.

"I'm sorry?"

"The soul," she repeated. "No as a power source for our semblances and aura's, but as the spiritual essence that makes up who we are?"

"I don't-" the heiress hesitated. "I mean, I suppose I do. I've never really been given any reason to doubt it before."

"I believe in the soul," Penny told her, looking down at her hands, opening and closing them slowly, as if looking underneath, for what Weiss didn't know. "I believe that I have a soul, something that makes me, well, me. Something unique and special. My father told me I was special because of my birth, but now I think it's something else" she looked up and smiled. "It's the same for you, isn't it Weiss?"

It…. It was. People had always seen her as special because of her family, because of her last name, as a Schnee.

"What," Weiss swallowed. "What are you trying to say Penny?"

"I'm… not entirely sure." She admitted. "but I think, that having a soul means that we can grow and change… it means that the things we do are important because we decide to do them and they affect us, we measure ourselves by them." Penny smiled. "This is one of those times right? For you to see how much you've changed by being yourself, without your father and if it means you aren't the heiress anymore, it will have been because of your choice instead of your fathers."

Penny giggled, wrapping her hands behind her back. "At least that's what I think. Does it make sense?"

"…Yes," Weiss laughed eventually. "Yes it does. Thank you Penny, you've… helped me I think."

"Well, I believe that is what friends are for Weiss. Now come on, another thing friends do is visit festival stalls together, let us go do that!"

"Yeah," The white-haired girl smiled, letting herself be pulled along by Penn- by her friend. "I think that would be fun."

…

…

Roman flicking the lighter back, his cigar glowing hot as he took a long drag. For once he was getting some peace and quiet in this damn warehouse; no brain-dead thugs, no nutcase White Fang, and no terrifying shadow organisers that were Cinder and her cohorts.

He didn't feel all that pleased with it though.

It was empty sure, but only because they'd moved everything out.

All the dust, all the weapons and all of their men. They were all gone, moved to another location and gearing up.

It was going to happen soon, very soon, and then, Roman wouldn't be needed anymore.

They'd get rid of him, one way or another.

Reds words echoed in his head even now.

There was more to this, and he was way in over his head.

Well screw that, he was a master thief, he was Roman-fucking-Torchwick! He didn't go out unless he wanted to, and he sure didn't want to.

They icy grips of hel would have to work a little harder if they wanted to take him without a fight.

"Did you get it?" he asked to the seemingly empty warehouse, he know better though, and there was a shimmer as Neo appeared before him, grinning widely and waving a scroll back and forth.

It had a little black chess piece on the screen.

He nodded. "Good. I doubt Cindy has any use for this anymore with those crazies running the show, but nobody said we can't use it to our advantage. When this all goes down, we'll have the firepower to get through it."

"We're making sure she's getting out of this alright though… right?" Neo signed.

"Yeah," he said. "hopefully, if things got to plan it shouldn't be a problem to escape too… gotta make sure though."

Roman reached for his own scroll and tapped on one of his contacts, an old friend of his.

"Junior, yeah it's me. Listen, I need you to send a message for me."

There was chatter at the other end.

"To everybody, every family head, every crime syndicate and every dirty business you got."

"Tell them Roman Torchwick sent them a warning, that soon they'll need to defend their turf."

...

Okay, so, might be a bit late, but the RTX panel was interesting to say the least. Particularly on RWBY there were a lot of things that have me hopeful.

The first, being the obvious elephant in the room, the writing. Apparently they've already finished writing episode thirteen, which not only confirms at least that many, but that there is a larger amount of time for them to work on the story and fix it. Speaking on fixing the story, it seems like Miles and Kerry are taking on a lot more feedback, from the fans, but also from people within the company going over it like Yssa. Maybe that will also help with fight scene (ergo teleporting) consistently.

Now, this will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I actually didn't think Vol 5 was that bad. In fact, the more a watch it and rewatch it, the more it goes from, damn this was a bad season, to meh… it was serviceable in places.

I dunno, most people seem to have a frothing hatred for the season when for me it at least gave us things like the lancer bees, Sienna (For the time she was there) haven and its headmaster, Hazel, Seer Grimm's proper uses, the conclusion of the White Fang arc, the Maidens fight, possibility of Grimm limbs and the relics.

Was it still the poorest out of the four? Yes.

But people said the same about Volume four because of the drastic change it went for in terms of story.

Maybe that's because I like the concepts of a story and feel like it's one of the most important parts but yes, I can agree the execution of Volume 5 was lacking.

Too much exposition we already knew or guessed, and a big portion of just standing around and talking in a house when we could have got more interesting scenes like Qrow going into the underworld of Mistral to recruit people.

I mean, what' the point of world building if you don't use it in your story? Or at least mention it?

I feel like the lake with floating islands made by gravity dust should have been more focused on because of this. I mean, the nastiest Grimm should have been there, I feel like it would have made the Grimm even scarier and opened up the world a lot more.

Anyway, moving on, we got stuff like the announcement of an Adam Character short which should be coming out a week after this chapter. I'm interested in it, if not for the potential it could show us in terms of storey, but even just seeing if the visuals have improved even more and maybe redeeming Adam in the intimidation factor.

I still want him to die, if only because you need terrifying bad guys for the heroes to fight and he fits that bill.

Or did during Volume three. Now, some people are probably upset that we only get one character short this time around (at least from what I've heard) but I'm fine with that. I think that if the fights from the Weiss and Yang shirts had been used in Vol 5, or at least the quality, then Volume 5 would have been far better received. If they take more time to work on the fights in 6? Then I'll be happy.

Then, some perhaps less related but interesting things, a vol 1 and 2 adaptation in manga form. Unfortunately not by Shirow Miwa but by someone I'm not all too familiar with and can't exactly remember their name. It dulls it for me a bit because as I've said I loved Shirow's work but it's fine, it's still interesting.

There was the reveal of a manticore Grimm, so that was cool, I'm hoping they'll reveal more Grimm in the Volume itself and in the (Card game?) they'll reveal a new villain that they mentioned before. Or maybe they already did and I missed it.

Then there was the statue which is way too expensive for me but looks cool all the same, some updates for Grimm Eclipse which I have on my account because it was on sale so a win for me there and… something else…

Oh yeah, a YA series called 'after the fall' featuring team CFVY a year after the fall of beacon in shade. It's written by EC Myers who admittedly I'm not familiar with but from some research I've done seems to have some very popular books. So, maybe a read I'll pick up when it comes out next year.

I think that's it, but all in all some good stuff.

Not much to say about this chapter itself without spoiling it for you but I'm sure you're wondering anyway. Why on earth did Raven attack Pyrrha and Amber?

Well, you'll find out eventually, but part of it was a little homage to the JNPR vs Raven fight we never got to see in Volume 2. I feel this would have been something they should have kept, if only because it would invest the audience far more in Raven's character but, hey that's just me.

I'm sure you'll all rejoice to know this is the last time we'll be looking at the definition of Aura but if there are any mechanics you feel are different from the show, good, they're meant to be.

Oh, and that little scenario I got with the huntsman and villagers? I got the idea from a side quest in the Witcher 3. Yeah, Geralt stumbles across a visage massacred and finds out another Witcher did it. Apparently he'd killed a monster for them, but when he went looking for his pay they tried to kill him. Go figure. Anyway, it was us to you as a character to decide the guy's fate but I let him live. I mean, they stabbed him in the back after he risked his life to help them. Maybe the killy-killy part was a bit much, but it was the principle of the thing.

Getting off track again, where was I?

Oh yeah, things are stirring and everybody's getting ready for the big bang whether they know it's coming or not.

So what did you think of this Chapter? Or since we're on the topic, RTX as a whole?

For both things, did you like it? Hate it? Let me know.

And as always if you want to stick around for more be sure to follow, favourite and review.

There's something with this site that I can't reply to all reviews, but any that I can I do, so if you having something you want to say, go right ahead.

One last thing before I go, next week, there probably won't be a chapter because of family plans. Nothing bad at all, but it'll keep me occupied for the week, just a heads up.

Obligatory request to follow, favourite and Review becasue why not.

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