Here we go.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 61

There were some things in life that were better left unexplained. Ruby wished this was one of them. She also wished a giant hole would open up and swallow her, but since that wasn't about to happen anytime soon she was stuck instead glaring at the quilt beneath her and picking at it. So, how were you supposed to explain to the guy you maybe had a crush on that he'd found your porn stash? Also, how were you supposed to explain that said smut was of a very niche nature?

And she didn't even want to get into the fact that she might have known he fit that nature a little more… specifically than most people did. Yeah, that wasn't happening.

Oh, and said individual was also your sister's boyfriend.

Could it get any worse?

"So, you… read these things?"

Okay, scratch that – it could get worse. Ruby shot her teammate an agonised look; one that begged if he really had to ask that considering he'd found it and it was obviously hers. She wasn't wearing the stupid things, was she? She wasn't eating them!

"And people do this… with tentacles?"

Ruby squirmed all the harder. "N-Not really. It's fiction. These things don't really exist so-" She trailed off, recalling who she was talking to.

Oh, right. Yeah…

"And you like this?" Jaune asked.

"C-Can we talk about something else?" Ruby's eyes sought inspiration. One of Qrow's lessons came back to her. If you were under pressure, go on the attack. "Why were you looking around in my stuff anyway? You can't just rummage around in other people's things."

"It was under my bed."

"I-I had to hide it somewhere and Weiss gets on my back if I make a mess," Ruby whined. The underside of her bed was already filled with random crap, comics and weapon maintenance equipment. "Besides, no one would think to look in your things. It's the perfect hiding spot."

"You realise that had someone else found them, they'd assume I was into this kind of stuff."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take?" Ruby cringed when Jaune didn't laugh. "Okay, not funny. I just needed somewhere to keep them, I promise. It's not like there's anything wrong about me having them."

"This one is marked seventeen."

"Erk." Trust him to pick over details like that. Good old literal Jaune; now he was going to keep her smut away from her until she was old enough. Ruby tried to snatch it back, but he tugged it away, accidentally opening it to a double page image of a woman trapped in a pose that wasn't so much suggestive as outright pornographic. Ruby whined impotently.

"T-This is a little much, isn't it?" Jaune croaked. "I- I mean, how can she even fit all those inside of her? Why would she want to?"

"It's fiction," Ruby groaned. "Don't question it!"

"And it's not like they're genitalia or anything. They're more like arms." He realised what he'd just said and quickly tacked on, "At least I imagine that's what it's like."

You'd know, she felt like saying. She glared at him with crimson cheeks instead.

"It would be like shoving both my arms up-"

"No details," she snapped, finally reaching the comic and clutching it to her chest. "J-Just leave it, okay? No one has to know. No one has to find out."

"I have to know. I have to live with this trauma."

Her cheeks heated even further. "No one else has to know, especially not Yang."

"I don't think Yang would forgive me if I kept this secret from her."

"I won't forgive you if you tell her," Ruby pointed out, bringing an agonised expression to his face. "It's just a thing, Jaune. People like things. Yang likes going out to drink and that's bad. I like… I like tentacle hentai…" Her mind almost broke at having to say it. "A-And that's maybe bad as well. But at least my hobby doesn't lead to liver cancer or broken bones."

"Does alcohol lead to broken bones?"

"When Yang is involved, yes. Please, Jaune. Yang would flip, not to mention I promised Blake-"

"Blake? She's in on this?"

Ruby's face drained of colour. "I shouldn't have said that…"

"Blake's the one who helped you get this!"

"I really shouldn't have said that. I totally should not have said that. Why did I say that?" Her eyes widened when Jaune stepped off the mattress, no doubt prepared to storm into Team RYBN's dorm and demand – quite loudly – to know why Blake had defiled his teammate by providing her tentacle-based smut.

With a wild battle cry, Ruby tackled him again, carrying Jaune further and onto his bed. She straddled him, legs on either side of his hips. It might have been a position to make her mind die, but it was already running on panic and adrenaline and hardly noticed. "No," she growled, hoping she sounded more threatening than she thought she sounded. "No telling Yang and no killing Blake. No mentioning this to anyone. This is… this is a best friend's forever promise."

Jaune blinked up at her, confused. "A forever promise? I've never heard of that before…"

That was because she'd just made it up on the spot, but right now Ruby was desperate enough to run with it – and to play on Jaune's naïve nature. "It's an oath sworn between two best friends that binds them for life," she explained, being as liberal as she needed to be with the truth. "You can never break it or… or terrible things happen."

"Terrible things?"

"We stop being friends," she threatened. "And… and you have to walk on all fours and bark like a dog for two weeks!" The latter was just some random thing she tacked on the end in case the threat of losing her as a friend wasn't enough. In anyone else that would have been enough to clue them in on it being a ruse but, well, this was Jaune.

"W-What? That seems a little much…"

"Yep," Ruby said, nodding sagely. "A best friends forever promise is an important and everlasting thing. That's why you can't tell Yang."

"I don't remember us making a promise though."

"We just did. Right now." She clambered off him, relieved that no one had come in to see her straddling her sister's boyfriend on his bed. "It's an official forever promise so you can't tell anyone. Those are the rules."

"I… well…" Jaune spared a glance towards her and was instantly caught in a teary-eyed trap. "I… I guess it's okay? As long as it's not hurting anyone…"

When Pyrrha returned not forty minutes later it was to a room awkwardly silent, with two teammates sat on their respective beds staring steadfastly into their textbooks. Their cheeks were red, their postures stiff, and for a second she almost forgot her own problems.

"Did I miss something?"

"No!" They both yelled in unison.

I totally missed something…

/-/

"Humanity needs to be eradicated," Remy decided. "I think we've seen enough. We came here and we've seen their culture, their achievements, and everything they have to offer. I think we now know that the only real solution to them is complete and utter annihilation."

"It was just fiction, Remy."

"It was filth, Jaune. Filth!" The parasite whimpered inside of him and he had the strange image of its six little claws hugging itself. "Did you see what that woman was doing to that poor Grimm? She was devouring him alive. She was putting his tentacles in… in…" The Grimm parasite cried out in horror.

"I know, Remy. I know. There, there, let it all out."

"So horrible… kill them all…"

Jaune let his little companion be and tried to focus instead on Pyrrha, who had asked to speak with him in private and drawn him out into an abandoned corridor. He'd been happy to oblige, not just because it let him escape Ruby and the awkwardness so thick you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw, but also because he had an idea what this was about in the first place.

When Pyrrha finally stopped and looked unsure of herself, he spoke. "So, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, I… it's hard to explain."

"I already know about the maiden," he said, earning a surprised look from her. "You were there when Ozpin and I had out little chat, Pyrrha. I know all about it so you don't need to explain any of it to me if you don't want to."

"You know everything?"

"Pretty much. I also knew he was going to ask you to become the maiden."

"Ha," Pyrrha chuckled. "I suppose that should have been obvious from how you acted in front of him. It was a lot more casual than I would have expected. Ozpin, he… he explained what happened to Amber to me, and also what the Fall Maiden is. He says he wants me to consider being the next one."

Just as expected. "And what do you think?"

"I'm not sure. It… it all sounds too unreal. I mean, wizards and magical girls, not to mention the four seasons and the way it's passed down. Amber, the last maiden, was attacked for it too. Do I really want to put myself through that?"

It went without saying that the one who had orchestrated that attack was probably his Big Sis. Again, it was more evidence of what she might do to Pyrrha. "If you don't want to do it, then don't," he said. "There's no reason to force yourself."

"But if not me, then who will? It's a responsibility-"

"That you don't have to be the one to bear," he interrupted, taking hold of Pyrrha's shoulders. "It's a duty, Pyrrha, but no one said you have to do it. Why would they? Ozpin made you an offer, nothing more. It's a yes or no question and `no` is definitely an answer you can give. It's probably even the right answer."

"You seemed against him asking me in the first place," she noted. "Why?"

The truth obviously wasn't the right answer. "Because I knew you'd be unhappy," he said instead. "Because you don't deserve to have this kind of ball and chain around you. You already told us how you hated being famous because people would treat you for what they thought you were rather than who you are – and this would be more of the same. You'd be afraid to even have friends in case you thought of a female one at the end and passed the burden onto them."

Pyrrha's head started to fall.

"And that's not right!" he said, surprising her. "You don't want that and I knew you wouldn't. It's obvious you don't right here as well. So say no. Say no and that'll be the end of it."

"It's not that easy…"

"The only one making it harder is you!" He'd shocked her. Good. Jaune used the moment in which she recoiled to press his point home. "You're acting like you're the only one in the world who can do this, but you're not. Ozpin said literally any woman young enough would work, so that's what, fifteen or twenty per cent of the population of Remnant? That's not exactly a small number."

"But if not me, then someone else will have to suffer it…"

"Don't be so arrogant."

Pyrrha flinched. "What?"

"Don't be so arrogant," he repeated, making sure she heard him. "If you say no then sure, someone else will have to become the Fall Maiden, but it's not like Ozpin is going to force it on someone against their will. He gave you a choice. What makes you think he won't give someone else a choice?"

"But-"

"What makes you think they won't want the responsibility?" Or the power. "You're not willing or prepared, but others might be. Yet instead of giving them a chance you act like this is a life or death decision and it just isn't. If it was, Ozpin wouldn't have given you time to think about it. He wants someone willing to become the maiden. He doesn't want someone who is going to regret and resent it."

"And you would," he finished, placing his face close to hers. "Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't regret saying yes. Do it."

Pyrrha's eyes watered. "I can't…"

"Then don't." He smiled back at her. "No one wants you to be unhappy, Pyrrha, least of all me. I doubt Ozpin does either; that's why he gave you a choice. Instead of forcing yourself to do what you think is right, how about letting yourself do what you actually want? Besides," he added with a grin. "I happen to know one of the other candidates Ozpin wants to speak to – and I'm pretty sure she would accept it happily."

That caught her attention. "Really!? Who?"

"It's best if you don't know. Ozpin wants it all kept secret but trust me when I say she would accept it without any of the regret you feel. So, stop thinking you're the only one in the world who can do this. I hate to break it to you, but you're not."

"I…" Pyrrha laughed. It was a desperate, choked and weak laugh, but it was laughter nonetheless. Without really thinking about it she moved forward to press her forehead against his chest, and Jaune's arms wrapped around her shoulders in a warm hug. "I guess I'm being stupid," she said.

"You're trying to help and always trying to do what you think other people want from you," he returned. "That's just how you and Ruby are. The difference is that she does it because she wants to, whereas you do it because you think it's what others want of you. I just want you to be happy, and if you think Ruby and Weiss are any different then you don't know them as well as you think you do."

Her face pressed further into his chest. She didn't cry but took some small comfort from his warmth. "Thank you," she whispered.

"What are friends for?"

She leaned on him for a moment longer and he allowed it, relieved to find she was as against the idea as he thought she would be. "I'm sorry, Jaune," she said, stepping back. "I shouldn't have… well…" She gestured uselessly to him. "Yang would be upset."

"That I helped a teammate? I don't think she would be."

"Ha." Pyrrha smiled, and for the first time since they'd come out to talk it was a bright and genuinely happy one. "Maybe she wouldn't. I… I feel like I owe you an explanation."

"You don't owe me anything."

"No, I do. Maybe not an explanation but I owe you a lot for being a friend. But I… I want to explain myself. I want you to understand." Her smile faltered. "Does that make sense?"

It didn't, at least not to him – but that wasn't really what mattered. "If it makes sense to you, it must be important. I'll listen. But only tell me if you want to."

Pyrrha nodded, and quickly began to speak. "I wasn't always like this. I came from a large family in Mistral, the kind of family that has history and family honour and all the trappings that come with it. We weren't wealthy or powerful, but we had influence, and a lot of other families that wanted to see us suffer for it. My parents never let that bother me, though. They treat me like any other parent would and tried their hardest. I… didn't have many friends in school thanks to my family name, however. Children from rival families saw our influence and taught their children to hate me, while the others either followed suit – assuming there was a good reason – or felt too shy to stand up for me. They were only children," she said with a long sigh.

"Things got a little better as I grew older, mostly because I learned to rely on my parents and family instead. My father was my best friend and a father all in one. We would go fishing together or play card games or just read in the library." She smiled fondly. "Mother would teach me to cook whenever I wanted to, but I always connected with my father more. She didn't mind, and I did love her. We were happy."

"I'm sensing a `but` here," Jaune said.

"You'd think so, but there isn't," she laughed. "We were happy, and I was happy, and I came to realise that I didn't need friends, or I thought I didn't. I… I suppose I came to depend on them for too much, however. Father never made it seem like I was a burden and I'm not sure I ever was, but I felt that I was. I felt like he would give up so much time to be with me and I sometimes heard the other family members – his mother, especially – talk about how he was spending less and less time on furthering the family's position and power. Dad always told her that didn't matter compared to me; I was his little girl and his family was myself and my mother. I'd never felt so proud to hear that."

"He sounds like a good man," Jaune said, thinking of his own parents. The tale wasn't so dissimilar. They both lived in families that could, by all means, earn a lot of hate and anger. And they both had only their family for friendship.

Were they really so alike to one another? He'd never realised.

"Even if my father never pressed me to be better than I was, I wanted to be for him and my mother. I took my grandmother's words to heart even though she hadn't meant them for me. I started to look for ways I could help. I started to look for a way to be useful. I found the competition fighting scene and, well, since I was already training at that point, it seemed like an easy option."

"Father was only too happy to help me into it," she continued. "He didn't know why I wanted in, only that I wanted to try this as a hobby and, as a loving father, he wanted to do everything he could to support my choices. I can still remember my first tournament," she said, eyes closed. "Mother and father were in the front rows, along with some of the older members of our family. They didn't like us much, but when I won, when my parents and the crowd cheered, I saw their eyes light up. Soon after, we were invited to more family dinners. I was the talk of the family. My parents, and the criticism they received, ceased."

A happy ending, had it ended there. Jaune remained silent, knowing there was more to come.

"I didn't dislike it at first. The enthusiasm and the adoration, not to mention my parents' compliments and the attention they lavished on me – I became addicted to it. Their love wasn't any more or less than it had been before, but I'd earned it, and that felt somehow more real than what I'd had. I realise now that the unconditional love of a parent shouldn't need to be earned, but that was my problem back then. I'd been isolated so much that I over-thought and doubted everything. I'm not even sure it was me wanting to earn their love, but rather prove that I was worthy of it – to make myself of value so that they wouldn't stop loving me."

"I don't think they would," he said. "It sounds like they truly love you."

"They do. I know. It… it was silly of me. That was my problem," she said. "I'd only just started then, but I became someone who did things because I thought it was what would make other people happy. I felt that if they were happy, and if it was because of me, that they'd like me for it. It's why I continued being a championship fighter even when I started to hate it. Looking back, there were so many opportunities for me to make friends, but I missed them because I was too afraid to try. Instead, I kept winning and fighting to make my parents happy. And they, believing it was what I truly wanted, let me."

"It was only last year that my father caught my crying in the changing rooms after a match," she admitted. "I'd forced my opponent into retirement, not through injury but a broken spirit as he lost for the tenth time. It was the closest I'd come to respecting someone as a friend and I watched him break his sword and give up on his dream. All because of me." Pyrrha didn't cry; she was too strong for that, but the regret on her face told him the memory still haunted her. "My father didn't know what to do or what had made me upset, but I was just so tired. I explained everything to him. Everything."

Jaune nodded. "What did he say?"

"Nothing. He didn't know what to say at first and just hugged me until I stopped. We talked later and… well… he told me how silly I was being." She laughed awkwardly. "We came up with a plan later, along with my mother, that I'd come to Beacon instead of Haven. Here, I would be away from the family's influence, which would still want me to compete and improve their fame. Father lied and convinced them coming here was a chance for the Nikos family to extend their influence outside of Mistral, using our greatest champion as a tool. It worked. And, well, my family isn't well-known here, so I'm free of their influence."

"Is there any risk of them coming?" he asked.

"Not with me being teammates with Weiss Schnee. According to my father, the family elders were over the moon when they learned that. And I'm happy here," she said, letting out a long and relieved sigh. "I've made friends, real friends, and my parents aren't disappointed in me at all. More in themselves for having not noticed, even if it's not their fault."

"Maybe they're like you in that way," he said.

Pyrrha's smile was bright. "Maybe they are."

"At least you know they love you, and for more than your fame. They helped you escape from it."

"They did. And I love them, too. I… I guess I just needed to spread my wings and stop hiding behind them. But I wanted to tell you because, well, this is why I…" She trailed off.

"Why you almost gave in to Ozpin despite not wanting to?"

She nodded. "Like I said, I've always done what I feel others wanted because I thought I could win their friendship. I was quick to offer to train you and Ruby because I thought it would make us friends faster or make me useful. It's not like that now," she quickly added when he opened his mouth to call their training off. "I like it now, I really do. Helping you improve makes me so proud and I'd hate the thought of any one of my friends being in danger because they weren't strong enough, especially if I could have helped. I'm just saying it was like that at first."

"I get it," he said. "And maybe I get why you did it, too. I wasn't much better…"

"You were," she argued. "You didn't know much about normal interaction and you were a little sheltered." She smiled apologetically, not that he minded. It was a pretty accurate way of putting it. "But at least you trusted us enough to let us become friends naturally. You didn't try to buy friendship with training or power."

Only because the kind of power I have wouldn't buy friendship, he thought. Well, except maybe with Ruby.

"Bleach my brain!" Remy howled.

"We are different," he admitted, "but not too different." He placed a hand on Pyrrha's arm. "I guess that doesn't matter in the end. We're friends now, real friends, and nothing is going to change that. If Ruby or Weiss heard you were about to agree to something like this and make yourself unhappy, all because you thought it would please them? Well… Ruby would feel terrible and I'm not even sure what Weiss would do."

"She can be creative," Pyrrha agreed, giggling. "I think she'd lock me in the dorm and chew me out."

"Out of concern."

Pyrrha smiled. "I know. She's… not what I expected of her."

"In the same way you're not what people expected of you," he pointed out. The realisation seemed to shock her.

"I-I guess you're right. I can't believe I fell into the same trap I complained of people doing with me. That's kind of disappointing."

"You're only human, Pyrrha. Despite what the people who put you on a pedestal might say. You can make mistakes. No one is going to blame you for that."

"It's not the only mistake I've made," she said, stepping a little closer. Her eyes met his and she sighed heavily. "I can't help but wish I'd been more confident here, or maybe just a little quicker to express myself."

Jaune blinked. "How so?"

"It's best if you don't know." She hugged him again, and he returned it. From her grip alone, he could tell she was feeling better. "Yang's a lucky girl."

"Is she? I'm not so sure."

"She is." Pyrrha squeezed him tighter. "And so am I. You're a good friend, Jaune. Ruby and Weiss are, too. I'm lucky to have you all."

"We're lucky to have you," he returned.

Pyrrha nodded.

He had a feeling she'd be okay.

/-/

"Let me get this straight, you are here to assist in the destruction of Beacon and a betrayal on a scale so large it would be generous to call it treason, and you thought it would be a good idea to pick up a girlfriend on the side!?"

Mercury shuffled awkwardly, not that Cinder lessened her glare any. The fool deserved to be afraid. "It's not like I intended it, per se…"

"It takes two to tango, Merc."

"Stay out of this, Em."

"Silence," Cinder snapped. "Emerald, this discussion is between Mercury and I. Consider yourself fortunate not to be involved. I fail to see how a relationship could be anything other than intended, however. Are you suggesting she assaulted you?"

"N-Not exactly…"

The flush on his face said it wasn't all too far from the truth, which brought a disgusted frown to her own. "Spare me the sordid details. Just answer me this, will it be an issue when it comes to our plan? Can you follow through and betray not only Beacon, but her as well?"

"Yes."

No, he couldn't. She saw it in the way his eyes flicked away. Wonderful. If it wasn't bad enough Jaune was acting like a pain in the ass, she now had one of her own underlings going native on her. This was exactly why she'd wanted to avoid studying here and instead come with Haven. Mercury and Emerald were like her, but not quite the same. They were young and impressionable enough to form attachments.

He would need to be watched. She sent Emerald a look that made it clear it would be her responsibility, as would killing him if he tried to betray them. The green-haired girl, still loyal, nodded back.

"Very well," Cinder said to Mercury, pretending she believed him. "See to it that your dalliances don't interfere with our work and I shall turn a blind eye. Disobey me again, however, like you did in that fight, and I shall take personal action."

"You won't have to tell me twice," he said.

"I wouldn't anyway. Disappoint me a second time and it shall be her who receives a visit from me." Cinder smiled when Mercury stiffened. "And yes, you would do best to avoid letting that happen."

"It won't," he promised. "I… I'll not mess up again."

There was a knock on the door before she could continue. "See that it doesn't," she whispered, moving over to the door. Jaune at best, Ruby and her annoying friends at worst, she opened it and prepared an excuse either way. "I'm sorry but I have homework and-"

"Good evening, Miss Fall." General Ironwood greeted. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

"N-Not at all," she said, trying and failing to regain her composure. What the hell was he doing here? "How can I help you, General? I hope there isn't a problem." As in, she really hoped not, because if there was then she would have to fight her way out of Beacon.

"Actually, I was hoping we could have a word in private," he said, gesturing for her to step outside. She was reluctant to do so, and her team were reluctant to let her. Still, discretion was the better choice here, so she nodded to them and followed the General. He only brought her into the hallway outside her door. That was perhaps a good sign, since if he'd suspected the truth his reaction would have been far worse.

"What was it you wanted, General?" she asked once they were alone. The hallways were empty, convenient if things took a turn for the worst. She slipped both hands behind her back, as though nervous. In truth, she readied herself for combat.

"I'd like to invite you to have a word with the headmaster and I in his office."

A small flame flickered to life between her palms. "Oh?"

"You're not in any trouble," he chuckled.

The flame went out.

"We just want to talk about yourself and Mr Arc."

The flame came back. "Jaune? What's happened?"

"Nothing has happened to him. He is fine, Miss Fall."

Good. She let the flame die.

"But we are aware of who his parents are."

The flame roared to life. She was about to shove it down his gullet.

"And we have no problem with that."

"What?" It winked out, more from shock that conscious effort. "You…" The words didn't come. "What?"

"Now, we're aware that she is, as one might say, on the wrong side of the law…"

"One might say that," she admitted, if one were very much into understatements. You couldn't exactly get more on the wrong side than Juniper Salem Arc, Queen of the Grimm. How did they know? Why wasn't he trying to kill her?

"We also know that Mr Arc doesn't exactly agree with all of her policies."

The flame came back. Where they hoping to use Jaune against his own mother? She wouldn't allow that, broken cover or not. If she struck fast she could incinerate him before he even had the time to bring up his aura, grab Jaune and flee back to the Grimmlands.

"Of course, we would never ask him to turn against the one who raised him."

The flame died again. Cinder's brow twitched. "Can you get to the point, General?"

Preferably before she lost control and burned him and Beacon to the ground. At this point she'd do it just to stop the abominable uncertainty. Her little brother was involved in this somehow, she just knew it. You'll pay for this, Jaune. You'll pay if I have to drag you to Salem, tear down your pants and behind you over her knee myself.

All of her plans were about to be ruined. All of them ruined because her little brother had ratted her out to—

"The headmaster would like to make you an offer, Miss Fall. One that requires a certain degree of secrecy on your part. We can talk while we walk, but I must ask you to keep the knowledge of what you learn here from your teammates. There are worse people out there than Mr Arc's mother."

"There are?"

Because wow, if so, Salem would probably want to meet them.

"Indeed. Terrible people, Miss Fall. It is them we must protect Vale from."

"I see…" The flame came back again. "And where do I fit into this?"

"Potentially as a protector, perhaps as something more. If you come with me, you'll find out. If it helps settle your nerves, know that Jaune Arc is aware of this meeting and has given his tacit approval to us approaching you."

"He has?" That did calm her, at least a little. It also made her want to hunt him down and demand some answers immediately. Even so, it was enough to make her reveal her hands, now bereft of maiden-summoned fire. "Very well, General. I'll agree to this for now."

But if this went badly, she would have some very stern words for her little brother. Stern words indeed.

/-/

Cinder returned not an hour later, vacant-faced and without saying a word. She stepped into the dorm room, closed the door, sat down and stared at the wall in front of her. Mercury hesitantly raised a hand. Emerald reached over to push it down, shaking her head.

As one and with Neo close behind, the three members of Team CMEN snuck out of the dorm, closing the door behind them.

"I'll go stay at Velvet's," Mercury said.

"Weiss will probably put me up for the night," Emerald added. "Neo?"

The mute girl raised a hand – but any silent sign she might have given was cut off by a frustrated and angry scream muffled into a pillow from within their dorm. The multi-coloured girl winced. "Why do I even bother!?" Cinder howled. "Arghhh!"

Yeah, it was probably best they all gave Cinder some room. At least for now.

This is something of a short transitionary chapter, but also putting to bed some plot points before they get out of control. I considered having the whole Cinder x Ozpin scene, but halfway through writing it I realise it was just a slog of dialogue, most of which you can expect. I really don't want more Ozpin exposition, especially on things we – as readers – already know.

As for Pyrrha, eh, it's not head canon so much as just something made up, but it at least explains some of how she acts. Take it or leave it. I'm sure there is no way Jaune's speech with her can backfire.

Next Chapter: 12th April

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur