Chapter Two:

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"This is dumb," as Pyrrha sighed as she then dropped the Scroll she was checking on the mattress she was laying on.

It had been two whole days since the rest of Team JNPR had been ordered to stay away from him in the Infirmary. She sent him probably about 10 messages through the Scroll messenger, asking him about how he's doing, how he's feeling, about the homework, and if he wanted them to visit or bring him some treats.

"I don't understand why he wanted us out and I really don't understand why he isn't talking to us." Pyrrha thought. "We're his team, we should be there with him."

These thoughts, among others, had been replaying over in Pyrrha's head since yesterday, waking up to find that Jaune was gone, and with nothing to show that the events of yesterday weren't also some sick dream.

It was tough telling the teachers why they wouldn't, or according to them, couldn't make the delivery of the assignments and lecture notes Jaune was missing out due to his stay from classes. Blake, from Team RWBY, had volunteered to make sure the classwork would be delivered after hearing about their dilemma.

"Seems Blake has the right idea of how to try to patch things up with us..." Pyrrha thought. "Guilt for not interfering and stopping her spoiled teammate?...Probably...Trying to save face from the nasty situation their fair-haired, fair skinned partner sent them into?...Not unlikely...Because she was ordered to?...Nah, She's not that uninvolved to the point she would be forced into helping us."

Knock.

"Who is it?" Nora sang as she skipped to the door, stopping with a hand to her ear.

Sigh.

"It's me, Nora."

Clearly Blake on the outside.

"...It's-Me-Nora, who?"

"Ugh. Can someone just open the door, please?" Blake said irritated.

Ren, looked and saw Pyrrha was in no mood to come to the door, got up from the chair at the writing desk he was sitting at and opened the door. Blake walked in very quickly, gently pushing past Ren and headed straight for the team's mini-fridge.

"Yes, invite yourself in, pussycat," Pyrrha thought. "Sorry that there's no scratching post so you'll have to make do with the steel wool by the sink."

"Yes, la Bella, just come right in." Nora said sarcastically. "We don't keep a litter-box in there, if that's what you'r-"

Blake just turned and glared glared at Nora, who was still bouncing in place, with the tea kettle in her hand as she filled it in the sink.

"Nora, that's not very nice." Ren spat, Pyrrha noticing a very tiny jump from Ren's reprimand. "Apologize to Blake right now."

"Okay," Nora said with an adorable half-pouty, half-smiley face. "I'm sorry for being rude to you. You are part of the best neighbors we ever had..."

"And what else Nora?" Ren prodded.

"I'm also sorry for not letting you through...and not welcoming you in...and for teasing you."

"There you go, Nora," Ren said. "Is that okay with you, Blake?"

"It's fine," Blake said with a small smile, placing the kettle on the hotplate, waiting for the water to warm up. "Yang is a bit more irreverent and crass with the "kitty" humor."

"Why are you here, Blake?" Pyrrha asked. "And why are you making tea, here?"

"Well, I need to talk with you guys." Blake began. "About Jaune-"

"Great, so she is here because she's feeling guilty." Pyrrha thought.

"-About what happened two days ago-" Blake continued. "-About what I volunteered to help you guys with, mostly because while I was there, I still feel out of the loop on why you guys can't or won't take care of your teammate, or rather, Pyrrha-" Blake paused.

"...your partner."

"What about it? What about him? I thought you knew already." Pyrrha replied, with a sort of irritated tone. "Why are you even aski-"

"Please, I mean no disrespect," Blake interrupted passively, raising a hand. Pyrrha leaned her head back to hear the rest. "I only know so much. I was there when it happened, and I only heard what you said that your leader "ordered all of you" to stay away from him until he is ready to leave Monday. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

"Then why volunteer?" Pyrrha pressed, through half-open eyelids and raising her hands.

"Look, I only did it because the Professors would've visited your partner and asked him about the...whatever the Dustin' fuck this is, about you guys not working together or helping each other out," Blake replied calmly. "It was putting a strain on you, so I filled in. You're welcome."

"Thank yourself," Pyrrha remarked. "If this is about what Goodwitch said about how Weiss "ruined relations" with us over some stu-"

"No, Pyrrha," Blake interrupted, raising her voice a little. "I'm not here over what Weiss did, or to make it up to you guys on her behalf. She can do that-by herself, if I may add. She doesn't need me to speak for her, not that I would do something like that for her when that's clearly her own responsibility...and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't trivialize what I'm doing here. I realize I'm the guest here, but you have been less than hospitable, less than reasonable. Can you afford that respect, Py-"

Ren got back out of his chair and stepped between them.

"Now, now, girls. We're all friends here." Ren interrupted, glancing at both of the young women. "You're both mad, but not at each other, here in this room. You don't get to be mad at each other, when you're both here, in my room. If you two want to argue, step out into the hallway, because I don't want to hear it. So, ladies...do you want to do this in..."

Both of them sighed and looked at each other and back at Ren.

"...or out?"

"Okay, fine. Sorry, Ren," Both women said in unison. They looked at each other and smiled at each other.

"Good. Keep it that way." Ren said, returning to his chair at the desk.

Both looked at each other again.

"So, can we talk about what happened with you and Jaune at the infirmary?" Blake asked, looking at Pyrrha as she sitting up on her bed.

"So, after the Professor was done with him, he just wanted to rest. Then he got mad at you and ordered all of you away, yelled at you...and you ran?" Blake asked as she took another sip of her tea, fixing her bare cat ears at Pyrrha. No need for disguises among friends with the thing she only uses to keep up appearances.

"And to respect his wishes, you decided to listen to the order?

"That's it, yeah," Pyrrha said.

"That's a little extreme, but I guess not unheard of." Blake said passively with another sip, finishing the cup."

"What do you mean?"

"You guys went along with an order, which there's probably no need to tell you," Blake said as she made eye contact with everyone in the room, "is something your stoic and fearless leader probably regretted giving the second you ran out on him, and you're all still going to obey it to "respect his decision to be alone" leaving himself scarce?"

"That's a little harsh there, Calico," Nora said.

"That's not the answer to the question I'm looking for, Nora." Blake said, glaring at Nora with one eye. "And what about you, Ren? Are you all going to respect his stupid order?"

"Yes, we will." Ren replied.

"Why would you comply with this order?" Blake asked Ren with a slightly angry, slightly curious look about her tone. "You do realize that your leader's orders carry no authority behind them on campus, right? You know there's nothing gained just by leaving him alone when he's feeling vulnerable?"

"Yeah" Ren answered with a straight face.

"Then why, Ren?" Blake asked brusquely. "Why would you leave him to his own misery? It doesn't make sense."

"Well, that's just it," Ren said, "It didn't make sense."

"Come again, Ren?" Blake asked flatly, both eyes on Ren, standing up with both hands on the table. "I must not have heard you correctly with all four of my little ears, here. I think I heard you say your team knows this was a bullshit order but decided to go with it anyway, even when you know he can't do anything over you guys disobeying him."

"That's exactly right." Ren replied.

"But why?"

"Well, Blake," Pyrrha said, getting her attention. "Do you remember that thing last semester with Jaune and Cardin Winchester and his team last year?"

"Kind of." Blake answered. "Cardin was picking on him especially. If I remember correctly, it just kind of stopped after that field trip into Forever Fall. Something about Jaune killing an Ursa to save Cardin from being mauled. I was trying to get help from Goodwitch and I've only heard Ruby's and Weiss' telling of events."

Pyrrha's eye twitched a little at the mention of the frosted girl's name.

"Pyrrha? I understand you're probably still upset at We-"

"Upset? No, no. Just pissed off." Pyrrha said, feeling her pulse rising.

"I'm sorry, Pyrr-"

"I don't need your pity." Pyrrha tersely interrupted, glaring into Blake's amber eye's. "I hate being mad at the first person I ever talked to since arriving here, just before Initiation. I remember I was anxious and slightly hoping we could team up then, and have Jaune on too...but this isn't some "broken window" situation, Blake, that can be overloo-Ren I'm fine, stop pointing at the door."

"Just keep it civil and tell her about what happened there with Jaune." Ren said, trying to re-position the conversation and set it back on topic.

"Dust-dammit all to Hell, he's right," Pyrrha thought. "I think I like vocal Ren more than quiet Ren...He does seem a bit...touchier though...Gotta remember not to piss him off again."

"Okay, Ren. You win. I'll try to reign it in." Pyrrha said, as she recollected. "You remember that Jaune was not only bullied, but he kind of "hung out" with them a bit too? With Cardin in particular...?"

"Yeah, I do, now I think back" Blake looked up at the ceiling as if she had a sudden recall. "He was also doing their homework too. I remember handing some of Team CRDL's assignments to the front as we'd turn our work over to the teachers for grading. I thought that was his handwriting all over it. But why?"

Pyrrha swallowed.

"Blackmail."

"Wait, what? Pyrrha, I don't understand what you mean by that." Blake replied, with a confused look. "What could they have had on him to make him go along with what they wanted?"

Pyrrha moved both of her hands up to her eyes. As she brought them down, she just felt uncomfortable with the whole thing. This wasn't even her secret to tell.

"But Blake is one of us...She's on our side," Pyrrha thought deeply, "What if Blake tells everyone on her team?...What would Weiss do if this ever reached her?...Am I going to have to ki-"

"Pyrrha! I understand your worries, but you are disturbing me with that look on your face like I'm some random stranger, but look at me. Look at these!" Blake said pointing to the ears on the top of her head. "I trust you enough with this secret. So much I can take that stupid bow off when we are in private like this. I trusted you with my secret about my past-what I used to do before coming here to Beacon-who I was...Does none of this prove that I am your friend and ally? I understand that this is Jaune's secret and you want to protect your partner, enough to train him into what he is today, but you don't feel that same kinship you share with Jaune? With your team? With my team? Aren't we practically family?"

"She has a point...Jaune's not the only one here with a secret here that I've been trusted with." Pyrrha pondered as she considered her answer. "Blake's hardly at risk though, with her own secrets...If they get out, people would only know she was a Faunus with a really heavy background connection to some sort of cult...She's not at risk of expulsion or criminal investigation. I ponder also if they would really let in some faunus with no background in schooling or anything...Ozpin knew the risk of letting her in and she's only performed at her best. Albeit, very emotionally. Emotionally...like how I am right now. I wish I could trust you more, I really do. This hurts so much..."

Then entered a dark inspiration. She remembered what happens in the secret groups where she comes from, back in her childhood years in Mistral. What they do to make someone swear on their silence to enforce who knows what at anytime, anywhere. The thing that took her father's life when he told on them...

"What if I make her swear on it?" Pyrrha realizing her inspiration. "Make the Oath for her eternal silence? I've only heard about the Oath, and I guess I already know what I need to do to get it to work. How do I convince her to do it, though? I shouldn't leverage her into doing it as if I were the one blackmailing her into keeping silent. What do I do? Give one to her back?...Yes. I can do that...I've been doing that already...Just give the kitty some insurance and she'll buy it."

Pyrrha looked back up at Blake and reaffirmed her decision. She'll do it.

"You know, Pyrrha," Blake said as she stood up. "Maybe this was a bad idea. It's getting late. You clearly don't trust me enough, even after all I've trusted you w-"

"Blake, I'm sorry for the silence." Pyrrha interrupted, concealing her mental smile with her apologetic face. "You said yourself, it's not my secret to share, just like I shouldn't share your secret either. I have a proposal for you, so we could share that secret but also do something for you in return. I need to gather a few things, but we should really do this in private. Can you go to the bathroom with me for a second?"

"Wait, what? Pyrrha why? Why do it in there and not out here?" Blake asked, with a really confused look on her face.

"Shh...Blake it'll be fine. Can you please work with me here?" Pyrrha asked desperately.

"Alright, fine Pyrrha. You win! You get to keep your undefeated status for another day." Blake said giving in. Then she looked Pyrrha in the eye.

"However, if your proposal is something crazy, you will not stop me from going back to my dorm. I won't stop doing my volunteer work for you and Jaune, but there will be no more words between us for the rest of our time at this school. Do you read me, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, I read you, Blake. Please don't worry your pretty head." Pyrrha said with assurance. "You're more than welcome to back out at any point. Just know if you accept it after I go over it with you, there will be no point of return.

Blake eyed the desperate girl, scanning her facial expression, her body language for signs of malicious intent or otherwise unsavory motions. There was something unnerving about the fighter that told Blake to just leave, right then and there. On the other hand, Pyrrha would never dare to do anything that would harm her in anyway.

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the bathroom." Blake said as she turned and walked toward the JNPR bathroom. "Just don't take too long."

As the faunus disappeared, Pyrrha wasted no time of thinking of what materials she needed.

If only the very judgmental looks of her other teammates weren't bugging her.

Ren looked at Pyrrha with genuine concern written all over his usually unreadable face.

"What are you thinking of Pyrrha? What are you going to do?" Ren asked.

"I'm sorry, Ren. I can't tell you." Pyrrha replied. "Do you have any extra pens and paper though though?"

Ren dug through the drawer and gave Pyrrha a piece of notebook paper.

Nora perked up with all the action going on with Pyrrha suddenly scavenging items.

"Is it a womanly thing? Your time of the m-"

"No, Nora."

"Are you going to blackmail her with se-"

"Dust, Nora, No!" Pyrrha blushed as she dropped her items.

"Oh yeah, you like the boys. Duh, you like Jaune more than yourself. Too bad though because that bum of hers is incredible"

"Oh Nora, how will we live without you?" Pyrrha asked sarcastically.

"Probably in miserable pain from low oxygen levels." Nora cutely replied. "I have that effect on people."

Ren then turned to face Nora, giving her the coloring book and her crayons. Nora immediate swiped them from his hands and set to work on the desk.

"Thank you, Ren!" Nora said in a sing-song voice.

"Is there anything else you need Pyrrha?" Ren asked turning back to Pyrrha.

"Yeah, I need some Dust and maybe a hobby knife." Pyrrha replied.

"Pyrrha, what would you need either of those for?" Ren asked only to be met with silence.

"I have a few cartridges of Dust I use for StormFlower's bullets."

"I only need one. Any Dust type will do, but if you have Fire dust, I'd much prefer that. I don't need much of it either." Pyrrha replied.

"That's fine then." Ren said. He brought out his custom ammunition hand-loading kit and looked through all the trays until he found the thing he was looking for, handing her a small, previously opened phial of the red colored energy propellant. Pyrrha looked at it, making sure it would be enough for her needs.

"And the knife?" Pyrrha asked, looking back at him.

Ren nodded as he put away his hand-loading kit and taking out his hobby set. He selected one of the knives and put in a fresh, razor sharp blade and sheathed it before handing it to Pyrrha.

As Pyrrha reached out and grabbed it she felt that Ren was still gripping it.

"Thank you Ren, for your help. This is all I needed." Pyrrha said.

Ren nodded and released his hold on the sheathed knife.

"Whatever you're going to do, please do it with safely, okay Pyrrha?" Ren asked in a warning tone.

"You have my word. I'll do my best." Pyrrha said assuringly.

As Pyrrha entered the bathroom, she found the cat faunus standing by the sink, looking at her through the mirror's reflection.

"Okay, I have everything we need. You ready?" Pyrrha asked as she laid out the items on the counter.

"Uhh, no, I'm not, Pyrrha," Blake said with caution in her voice as her eyes fell on the hobby knife. "What's all this for? What are we doing here?"

Pyrrha thought she'd react like that.

"Blake, have you ever heard of what are called "Honor Codes of Silence"?" Pyrrha asked.

Blake shook her head.

"Well, the main one in Mistral, where I grew up, there was one code of silence referred to as "Omerta", also known as the "Eternal Mistralian Auric Blood Oath of Secrecy." Pyrrha stated.

A look of concern sprouted on Blake's pale face. She did not like where their conversation was going by the sound of it.

"I know. "Auric Blood Oath" already doesn't really sound like a good selling point, but hear me out Blake." Pyrrha said in a calm, yet gentle tone. "When someone wishes to partake in knowledge of a secret, they make pacts of silence so they only share secrets only with others authorized to know them. Paid in blood. Because of obvious abuse with plain verbal blood oaths of silence, they're rarely used in any circles."

"Now to sell it." Pyrrha thought.

Blake seemed to hold her attention on Pyrrha, still with heavy concern written on her face like Ren's was a few minutes ago.

"In a regular Blood Oath, a contract is made between the person who knows the secret and the person who wants to learn it. After the terms are laid out, they sign their names in their own blood. Some use bloody finger prints too to lay out the uniqueness. Again, these are ordinary and there's nothing binding anyone into being loyal to the terms they signed on for."

"And then there's the one I'm going to talk to you about: Auric Blood Oaths. Just like before with the regular oaths, the terms are laid out between the Secret Keeper and the one who desires the secret. The difference here is that the Secret Keeper is making physical contact with the contract, and channeling their aura into it."

Blake was keyed in.

"The next bit is critical and spectacular." Pyrrha continued. "The secret keeper puts Dust, fused with ink right by the signature line making the dust inert to one aura, but enough to activate with two aura contacts. They then take a drop or 2 of their blood by cutting the left ring finger. Once the bloody left ring fingerprint contacts the solution a aura covenant, born in blood, is made, making a literal ironclad contract. A sliver of the secret keeper's aura is transferred and deposited into the one wishing to learn the secret, representing itself as a mark of the keeper's personal symbol on the face of the learner. The Seeker then learns the secret. Once the secret is fully disclosed, the mark disappears. The aura and the ink-dust infusion then goes and stays dormant inside the new secret keeper's body, for the rest of that Secret Keeper's life, or at least until the original Keeper dies. At that point, the Oath is held as fulfilled and the aura sliver disappears."

Pyrrha noticed that Blake went to a straight face, eye-lids half open, her amber gaze staring, critical of every word Pyrrha has said.

"However, should the new secret keeper divulge the secret to people who are not within the need-to-know basis with the original keeper, while they're still alive. The dormant aura sliver becomes active and the symbol displays on the face like the first time, but remains there for about one week. They are practically labelled as traitors and have the ultimate branded look on their face as one who has caused the treachery of betrayal."

This seemed to piqued Blake's curiosity.

"One week? What happens then? That seems like the quite random and arbitrary amount of time. That's a lot of time for a secret to spread." Blake asked.

"Well, Blake, interesting you say that," Pyrrha said with a smile.

Blake didn't like her look one little bit. She was about ready to up and leave.

"With Omerta, it's not called "the Eternal Mistralian Auric Blood Oath of Secrecy" for nothing. During the seven day time-period, the traitor is granted that amount of time to find the original Secret Keeper, to do one of 2 things or really pay the consequences:"

"Number One: They may try to convince the original Secret Keeper to void the contract. The mark on their face will disappear, along with the memory of what the secret was exactly."

"Number Two: They may try to renegotiate the original terms by making a new contract, featuring more amended and stricter terms for the previously treacherous Keeper to uphold. The mark on their face stays visible for the rest of their lives.

"But even I didn't know what even that whole oath was even a thing, Pyrrha," Blake complained. "I would doubt that other people would know about it either, and I don't plan on going to Mistral any time soon. I probably would've thought something like that on someone's face there would be, I don't know, normal? What's the point of trying to set new terms if they're already labelled a traitor? What if the original Keeper, while alive, is otherwise unreachable? I remember you saying there were other consequences, but it already seems like small stuff so far except for the ruined ."

"That's a good question: The reason why they might want to look for the original Keeper is simple, which also goes back to your question of why it's one week to find them: The traitor will die."

"What?"

"Essentially, if you can't renegotiate with a new contract, or void the previous one with the original Keeper, or if you can't find them, or you even try to run away from it, the Aura sliver you've taken on reaches critical mass at the end of the Seventh and activates the dormant dust, killing you instantly. The real reason why it's one week is so you can make peace with yourself and the others you love before you die so you wouldn't be able to tell any more secrets. After all, who is more silent than someone who has already died?"

Now there was an uncomfortable, damning silence between them. Blake's face was completely blank and free of expression.

Blake sighed.

"Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Blake?"

SLAP

"Why would you imply the only way for me to learn about Jaune's big "life-ruining" secret is something you'll only tell me if I put my life on the line for you?!" Blake asked angrily, her hand stinging from the contact.

"SHIT. I'm losing her." Pyrrha realized, ignoring the pain in her face.

"Because I have an offer for you in exchange!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"What can you possibly offer me that is worth me risking my life over? I don't know if there is anything you can ever give me that would make me even remotely consider it worth just as or even more valuable than my own life!"

"I offer to make the same deal for you in return!" Pyrrha exclaimed angrily.

That made Blake take a lot of steps back.

"Time to close the sales pitch!" Pyrrha thought.

"I offer myself to become your Secret Keeper in return." Pyrrha repeated. "You are very concerned with how people would accept you as a student if they ever learned about your heritage or even your less-than-savory background. I would make sure that stuff stays a secret for you until you are ready to reveal yourself to others. You wouldn't have to worry about others you don't want to learn about your secrets as a direct or indirect result of my involvement. Even if you didn't trust me. If we did go through with the Oath and if that were to happen, I would happily die for y-"

"Stop right there, Pyrrha Nikos!" Blake interrupted. "You won't stop to consider your own life's worth over mine? You'd throw that away just for me?"

"If that's what you want, under the terms of the contract, then yes, I would throw myself away. Just for you."

"All this so I can learn about Jaune?"

"That's correct. I would share everything I knew about what happened."

Another angry silence.

"Well then, Pyrrha, I accept. Let's do what we need to do to get this done."

Pyrrha then ripped the paper she brought down the middle and gave a half-piece to Blake and handed her the pen.

In about five minutes, Blake was then finished writing out the terms of her contract

"Okay Pyrrha, what's next? I have it written out for you."

"That's fine," Pyrrha replied. "I just need the pen now so I can write my contract for you. After I'm done, I'll break the pen, and then we'll have our ink."

"Okay, hurry up before I have second thoughts." Blake said.

After about another five minutes, Pyrrha was finished with hers.

"Okay, I'm done here Blake." Pyrrha said while curling her tired hand from writing the terms of the contract.

Pyrrha bit off the non-pointed end of the pen, exposing the part she needed. Pyrrha took the small dust phial on the counter. Once she opened the phial, exposing the dust, she bent and twisted off the nib, spilling the ink into the phial. She then took the plastic tube that acted as the pen's ink well, and used it to stir the phial's contents. She heard the crackle sounds of the dust as she gently mixed up the solution, making sure all the dust particles were submerged into the goo.

"So, Blake, since I made you the offer, We'll use the contract you made for my secrecy first."

Blake nodded.

"Now what?" Blake asked apprehensively, "You said I needed to, somehow, channel my aura into the paper."

"Just touch the top corners with both hands and focus on me. I'm going to add the ink solution to it once you're doing it."

"Okay, I'll do it." Blake said, placing her fingertips on the corners. Blake then started to glow a purple color as she focused and so did the paper.

Pyrrha dumped her half portion of the solution onto the signature area. Then the moment Pyrrha was slightly nervous about finally came.

Picking up the cover, Pyrrha unsheathed the hobby knife and exposed the new blade Ren switched in for her. Using her warrior discipline, she ran the edge down the fingertip of her ring finger on the left without flinching.

"Blake, get ready to start talking about the secret you wrote on the contract and your terms. I'm going to activate the dust and trigger the Auric Covenant." Pyrrha said to the dark haired girl.

Pyrrha then touched the mixture in the signature area. Just as Pyrrha said would happen, she felt the Fire Dust activate between the two aura users and felt the burning dust take the shape of Blake's symbol of the deadly Nightshade expand on her face, just over her right eye and running down the right side of her face.

"Blake, now!" Pyrrha said as her face was contorted in pain.

"Pyrrha Nikos! Under my name, Blake Belladonna, you are now bound by me to ensure the safety of the following secrets for, as long as you shall live or until the day of my own death or unless I personally render all of the terms of the contract null and void:"

"Oh boy, informal Faunus legal-ese for a Blood oath..." Pyrrha thought to distract herself from the pain in order to keep her bleeding ring finger on the solution turned aura conduit. "...I guess it fits though."

"You will keep and maintain the secrecy of my Faunus heritage from all who I deem unworthy of knowing. You will only share this knowledge with those who you are aware of that fact with people I do find worthy or with those who already are knowing, such as my own team, the headmaster, Professor Ozpin, as well as Professor Glynda Goodwitch. Discovery of this secret by others who are unworthy by your actions, both direct and indirect involvement would constitute a breach of terms."

"If anyone paid enough attention to you, they wouldn't need to be told you're a faunus."

You will keep and maintain the secrecy of my past involvement with the White Fang. You will only share this knowledge with those who you are aware of that fact with people I do find worthy or with those who already are knowing, such as my own team, the headmaster, Professor Ozpin, as well as Professor Glynda Goodwitch. The Discovery of this secret by others who are unworthy by your actions, both direct and indirect involvement would constitute a breach of terms.

"As if I would do something so mean like that...Do you know how I would dip in popularity if people found out I was harboring the secret of your involvement in a Faunus terrorist cell...I mean, not that I actually care about people who think of me like that. Fuck them."

You will keep and maintain the secrecy of the fact that during my later years with the White Fang, I had given up my virginity to the same man that I said good-bye to when I left the White Fang. Discovery of this secret by others who are unworthy by your actions, both direct and indirect involvement would constitute a breach of terms.

"That came out of nowhere."

Once signed below, your contract will go into effect this constitutes as your agreement with all the terms I set for you. You are now my designated keeper of these secrets. I hold your Oath to Omerta."

As Blake finished the last line of reading in the contract, the paper evaporated away, as Pyrrha's aura glowed as an even darker shade of red as the vapors trailed into Pyrrha's nose as she inhaled.

As the paper completely evaporated, Blake's symbol that was emblazoned on her own face dissipated, as her own aura, now coupled with the aura sliver, had healed the mark left on her face rather quickly. However, Pyrrha felt her legs give out beneath her and collapsed to the floor, blacking out for only a split second.

As Pyrrha regained composure, she felt something she never quite something as she had before. It was tiny, but now she felt as if Blake now had a special place within her, along with the strange sensation of wanting tuna and a nice quiet place to read.

"Are you okay Pyrrha? You don't look that great." Blake said.

"I'm actually just fine." Pyrrha said as she sat up from the floor. "Which reminds me. I sort of remember a funny minor detail was that all these contracts were made while sitting, not standing. Oops."

Blake laughed.

"Well, as long as you're good, I'm happy." Blake said as she smiled wide.

"You got some nice chops there Blake!" Pyrrha said enthusiastically.

"Thanks!" Blake replied with an even bigger smile.

"Nora also thinks you have a nice butt, and I have to agree. You do have a nice one"

"...That came from nowhere." Blake said with a blush. Are you sure that you're okay Pyrrha? You didn't hit your head on anything, did you?"

"Now that was a little uncalled for...but yes, my head is killing me." Pyrrha replied.

"I think you were on a small endorphin high."

"I didn't need to know you weren't a virgin." Pyrrha said plainly.

"...Or you still are. That's fine." Blake said, wishing she didn't hear Pyrrha say that.

Five minutes passed and Pyrrha was back in control.

"Okay, Blake. Your turn." Pyrrha said as she picked herself off the floor, cleaning off the hobby knife of all the blood Pyrrha left behind. A quick dunk in some rubbing alcohol she found and a quick inspection told her it was clean enough for Blake.

Carefully, Pyrrha handed the hobby knife to Blake, who was still on the floor, and retrieving the mixture in the phial as well as Pyrrha's contract for Blake.

"Let's get this over with," Blake sighed. "After this, I'm gonna go to bed.

Pyrrha laid the small contract down on the floor, not taking her hands off of it. She started to focus on her body and everything moving around it, like the air currents in the bathroom blowing in from the window. She closed her eyes.

As soon as Blake saw Pyrrha's aura glow along with the paper, she, using the broken pen's inkwell as way to coax the solution out of the phial and onto the signature area.

Just as Pyrrha had done, Blake dragged the tip of the razor-sharp blade across the top of her fingertip, drawing blood. Quickly, she pressed it into the solution, activating the conduit.

Blake gasped in pain, as the fire dust activated as Pyrrha's symbol, the Pike and Shield marked Blake's left cheek.

Just then Pyrrha opened her eyes and stared right through Blake.

"Blake Belladonna! You have chosen, after much deliberation, to become my personal Secret Keeper. The terms of this contract is simple: You will only be responsible for this secret, which does not directly belong to me, as well as a few others that are more personal. Until either I void our contract with each other, or I die, you will swear yourself to me that you will do only your best to protect it to the best of your ability."

Pyrrha paused for a few seconds and continued, eyes looking up at Blake and down at the contract she was going to read to Blake.

"The first secret is that Jaune once confessed to me that he forged his transcripts in order to get into Beacon, in order to honor his family long history of his ancestors being the best heroes Remnant may have ever known. His high marks and multiple letters of recommendation-all false. Cardin of team CRDL, who was beneath the open window of his team's dorm, overheard Jaune's confession. and tried to exploit him for his own gain. No one else, besides you and me, Jaune, Nora, Ren and Team CRDL, know this secret. However, Jaune, as well as anyone else I haven't mentioned, are to never even assume that you know any aspect of this secret. You have now sworn on your life to protect it, which I will hold in contempt, should you break your Oath."

Pyrrha watched as Blake's face flushed with even more pallor and her eyes widen as she realized the gravity of the secret she was given. Blake's heritage, her expunged criminal status, was all just...nothing. She knew if anyone would learn her secret, her quiet life at Beacon would only really be inconvenienced. The consequences were minimal and self-conscious by nature.

Jaune, on the other hand, would not only be expelled, he'd probably be charged with multiple crimes, such as forgery and perjury on the legal documents that made up his application and transcripts to even be there. This secret would actually bring ruin to Team JNPR.

"The second secret," Pyrrha continued, her gaze into Blake's face unfaltering, "is that I love Jaune. More than just our assignment to each other as partners for the rest of our time here at Beacon. More than teammates. More than...friends. Jaune won me over when I learned the day we met in Initiation, when he told me, in his own way, that he didn't even know what Aura even was or even who I was. I realize now that with the first secret, I should have had some common sense that he wasn't supposed to be here, but the fact that he was there, with no idea who I was took my interest in him to the next level."

Pyrrha watched Blake's eyes roll.

"Am I really that obvious?" Pyrrha pushed forward.

"No matter how obvious it may appear, or if someone asks you or states it to you about my love for him..." Pyrrha said as she swallowed the lump in her throat. "...even if it's Jaune, you are to deny it. I am also saving myself for his love, his passionate embrace. I will know it from him! At no point, until I express myself to Jaune, are you to ever divulge it to anyone. You have now sworn on your life to protect it, which I will hold in contempt, should you break your Oath."

Blake winced, tears streaming down her face as the symbol, the seal of their contract, burned into her cheek.

"You knew what I did for you," Pyrrha gazed through half-open emerald eyes into Blake's teary, fearful amber orbs. "Don't you dare quit on me right now. I didn't mean to take the moral high ground regarding my abstinence with any hint of irreverence to you. I will hold you to that, pussycat."

"My third secret is in regards to my battle style and how I used my Semblance to win tournaments. As you're already aware, my Semblance is Polarity, granting me full control of electromagnetism. In my tournaments, especially the ones that flung me into stardom where I was the victor, I would touch their weapons and make either minor or major adjustments to how I deal with it. As you guessed, it's illegal to use a Semblance so unfairly in competition, however it's my own fault that I like my moniker of "Miss Untouchable". This is my own personal secret. No one else even suspects that I have used such unfair tactics, and as of yet, I've never been accused of cheating in this way. Unless I render this secret void either by confession or have been exposed, you are to never reveal this to anyone. You are not to even acknowledge it even when presented with evidence to the contrary. You have now sworn on your life to protect it, which I will hold in contempt, should you break your Oath."

Pyrrha paused for a few more seconds, feeling the effects of her aura drain as she was channeling it into the contract.

"Strange, this is taking a lot of effort for me to do." Pyrrha thought in confusion. "It didn't seem like a challenge to Blake when she did it. She's even looking way better than me now. What is this?"

Blake seemed lost on how Pyrrha could act with such dishonesty. And to think that some of these fights may be the reason why Pyrrha is even at Beacon. Pyrrha may have acted in the tournaments fraudulently, but her resolve while fighting against the other Grimm, both in the Emerald Forest and during the Breach incident, told her that Pyrrha was still no less than the formidable and promising warrior she already knew.

Pyrrha took another pause, taking a couple of breaths and then pushed on. Blake, who still looked on in pain, looked up at Pyrrha, who wasn't looking that great.

"My last secret is that before meeting Jaune, I had no attraction toward other men. It was my hope that I would be paired up..." Pyrrha paused to inhale, "With Weiss Schnee."

Pyrrha could now feel Blake's stare intensify, complete with cat ears now tuned in. It looked like Blake was now able to block out the pain, or she stopped paying attention to it.

"I always loved the way women fought with purpose when I faced them in battle, and I thought I could tell then that she was no different. Smart, beautiful, petite and polite. It also helped that I was taller than her because she was just so adorable. I didn't feel the need to fight her then because she almost won me over. Then when we were falling and everyone was working on how to land, I already stuck mine. I saw that Weiss reached the ground fine. And then I saw Jaune and new that he didn't look like he knew how to execute any landing strategy. So I save him by nailing him to the tree between me and where Weiss landed."

Blake nodded, now intent on listening to the story.

"When I got there, I panicked that I saw him with Weiss. She was going to be mine!" Pyrrha said with some inflection in her voice saying to Blake that she was upset, at least at the time this happened. "Then she did something I found so contrary to what I thought of her that made me second guess my feelings for my first friend: She left him up in the tree, totally vulnerable. Leaving the poor kid up there, totally exposed. She then ran back to Ruby, your leader now, who she was trying to ditch first. So I stepped up to him, and that's how we became partners."

Blake broke eye contact with her for just a second, as if contemplating that what Weiss said what had happened for those two to be partnered was completely contrary to what Pyrrha just told her. When she looked back up, Pyrrha continued.

"This secret of my feelings for Weiss as a potential girlfriend and that Jaune was a rebound partner is also my own personal secret, which sounds bad, but it doesn't leave me with any regret about my own personal feelings for them both. Nobody knows this secret, thus you and I are the only ones who do. You are not to even show awareness of this secret, to anyone, unless I nullify the secret for confession to everyone. You have now sworn on your life to protect it, which I will hold in contempt, should you break your Oath."

Blake let a gasp go as her mind was redirected to the burning pain on her face.

"Blake Belladonna, you came to me in quest of knowledge you were otherwise not privy to. Betrayal will be met with the eventual forfeit of your life if your silence should break without my explicit permission. The manifestation of this contract through the blood seal and my symbol displayed on your face constitutes your lifetime commitment as my Secret Keeper. Your agreement is now bound by me and I recognize your Oath to silence. I hold your Oath to Omerta.

With a flash, the contract evaporated instantly into red vapor, drifting towards Blake's nostrils as she began to inhale. Just as before, Pyrrha witnessed her scorching symbol on Blake's cheek recede and fade away as Blake healed. Pyrrha blinked and saw that Blake also didn't look that well, as she was grabbing her head, as if her human ears were ringing.

Pyrrha quickly scooted over to Blake on the floor and caught her head as she passed out.

"Dust-fuckin' dammit, kitten!" Pyrrha thought, slightly panicking as she scooted over more to cradle Blake's head in her lap.

"I'm so sorry, Blake!" Pyrrha whispered to Blake's cat ears, tears making themselves known again as they broke tension and cascaded down her face "I didn't think this would look that bad when we were done. I swear."

Blake immediately stirred awake again, with the same "Blake-y" expression as ever.

"Are we done here, Pyrrha?" Blake asked quietly, "You're dripping all over my face."

"Blake! I'm so sorry!" Pyrrha apologized as she knelt over, giving the faunus girl a kiss on the cheek where her symbol was and pressing the faunus head to her breast."Blake! I'm so s-"

"G-f-m-,-rha." Blake muffled.

"I'm sorry Blake," Pyrrha said as she released her embrace from the faunus girl's head. "What did you say?

"Get off me, Pyrrha."

"Oh, well let's stand you up." Pyrrha laughed weakly as Blake squinted her eyes at her.

As they climbed back up to their feet, both of their legs were quaking from having fallen asleep. Pyrrha took a look at both of them, and they both looked really out of it. They were both drenched in sweat and looked out of it.

Pyrrha then took a look where they stood at and where they had sat and saw ink and blood and dust particles all over the areas where they were.

"Yeesh, look at the mess I'm going to have to clean up later." Pyrrha said to Blake as she got the door for her, while still trying to mainatain balance."

Pyrrha opened the bathroom door leading back outside into the dorm, where they found Nora standing outside with her legs shaking and her hands at the hem of her skirt.

"'Bout time, you two, I really need to p-" Nora said as she stopped herself, scanning Pyrrha up and down.

"Dust Pyrrha!" Blake said as she walked out, supporting herself with Pyrrha's shoulder and laughing a little, "We really did a number on the place in there."

They then noticed Nora just stop from potty-dancing, now checking out how bad and messy both Pyrrha and Blake looked. Then a smile.

"NICE GOING PYRRHA! CONGRATS ON THE SEX! HEY REN, GUESS WHO BANGED IN THE BATHROOM?" Nora sang loudly, getting Ren to turn in his chair to face them. "Look at all the ink and blood and dust on them! Eww, they're all sweaty too and they have really lewd faces and they smell sooo bad. They must have gotten into some really kinky shi-"

"NORA!" Pyrrha shouted as she clumsily left the bathroom with Blake in tow.

"PYRRHA!" Nora exclaimed happily. Pyrrha was about to sock Nora one when Nora grabbed the hem of her own skirt again. "...Can you move, I really need to go!"

Pyrrha looked at her without moving out of the way of the smiley girl.

"...Nora? What do we say?"

"PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR AND SLOTHS ON TOP! WOULD YOU LET ME IN?" Nora asked loudly. "I'm about to wet myself..."

Pyrrha and Blake moved to the side to let her through, "Just don't step through any of it, okay?"

"Finally!" Nora said as she broke past them and slammed the door.

"So what were you two doing in there to get so messy?" Ren asked. "I know Nora was way out of line by saying all of that, but look at you both. You'd think by looking at you two that the heat was turned all the way in there like it was an Ursa den, from all the dust residue and the blood."

Pyrrha, now with the strength in her legs returned to her, took a step forward to Ren.

"I can't really say what happened," Pyrrha sheepishly replied. "But I'm telling you, that while Blake here is really good-looking, she's not my type."

"Okay the-"

KNOCK KNOCK.

The sudden noise from the door shook the room as Pyrrha opened the door to see the buxom blonde from across the hallway standing there.

"Pyrrha! Just one of the girls I wanted to see!" Yang said as she invited herself in and looking at Blake. "Would you two just look at this message I got a few seconds ago? It concerns the both of you."

Yang brought out her Scroll, looked through the messages, and handed it to both Pyrrha and Blake as she made a visual inspection of the state of them and their uniforms.

They took the scroll from Yang and expanded the message for both to see.

[Video message rec'd from N. Valkyrie 7:07 PM, just now.]

"Yo-yo-Yang! Look what you're partner and Pyrrha did in the bathroom here!" Nora said showing the mess on the floor and counter tops. "I went past both of them to get in here and they look like they were dead tired."

"They looked hot-n-sweaty, and girl, they stank! There's blood and ink and some fire dust all over the bathroom here! The rubbing alcohol bottle is open and the floor is also really wet and sticky if you know what I mean!" Nora turning the camera on herself holding out two fingers and sticking her tongue between them.

-End of recording-

Both of them, in shock of the video Nora sent off, looked up at Yang. Pyrrha stepped up to her.

"Yang, that is not what happ-"

"Then what did happen?" Yang asked with a really teasing look. "Because damn, Nora was right about how you looked and how you smelled. I mean it, you both stink."

"I can't tell you that, Yang," Blake said as she spoke up.

"Why? Is it none of my concern that you two apparently do this behind a closed bathroom door?" Yang questioned. "And why the blood? What is wrong with you two?"

"I don't get it, why are you this way?" Blake asked. "What I do is my business, but I can tell you we didn't do...that."

Yang sighed looking on the ground.

"Look, I believe you. You said you didn't do it, so you didn't." Yang said as she looked at her partner and back at Pyrrha. "Though...maybe you should take a look at, I don't know, maybe the address bar of where she sent it to."

Pyrrha scrolled back up at the "sent to" bar and felt her face turn red.

"ALL CONTACTS?" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Yep. I think every dorm in the East wing knows."

"DUST-DAMMIT NORA." Pyrrha's thoughts stirred. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?"

"Blake," Yang said, getting her partner's attention. "You're probably hungry or something. Why don't you come back with me and I'll see what I can fix up for you."

Blake nodded.

"Okay, let's go then." Yang said, grabbing her partner by the wrist and leading her through the door. "Bye Pyrrha, Bye Ren!

"See you Pyrrha. I'll bring Jaune's work to him tomo- Blake said as the dorm's door shut-effectively cutting her off.

Pyrrha sighed as she walked over to her bed and dropped face down.

Knock-knock

"I got it, I'm coming" Ren said as he walked to open the door.

Pyrrha was too tired to try to sit back up for their new guest.

"Nice to see you, Professor Goodwitch." Ren greeted. The sound of his greeting making Pyrrha sit straight up in her bed.

"It's good to see you too, Mister Lie." Goodwitch smiled "May I come in, please?"

"Certainly, Professor" as Ren opened the door wider, giving Pyrrha and Goodwitch line-of-sight to each other.

"Hello, Miss Nikos. I was just wanting to speak with you and Miss Valkyrie." Goodwitch stated. "Where is Miss Valkyrie? I thought she would be here too.

"Nora is still in the bathroom." Pyrrha nodded. "What's it all about?"

"Well Miss Nikos, did you know that I take turns, with the other Professors, in monitoring the school's local Scroll network? Tonight just happened to be my night."

"Oh no, this is bad," Pyrrha thought.

"Professor, is this about what Nora sent a few minutes ago?" Pyrrha asked. "Because I can explain."

"Good to know we're on the same page." Goodwitch began. "I do wish your team mate would hurry up, though. I only want to go go over our policy on vulgarity in mass-recipient messages...and the somewhat disturbing content in the video concerning you and Miss Belladonna. Then I'll be on my way out.

"I'll get her for you, Professor, " Ren said.

"Thank you, Mister Lie. Do tell her to hurry up." Goodwitch said.

Ren then knocked on the door.

"Nora? Professor Goodwitch is here to talk to you.?" Ren announced.

"Just give me a sec! I'll be out." Nora sang through the door.

"Okay, well hurry up," Ren said as he stepped away.

"Okay-oka-"

A few skidding sounds were made followed by a thud.

"OOOOOWWWW! RE-e-n! HE-HE-L-P!" Nora cried from the bathroom, gasping between words.

Ren burst into the bathroom with Pyrrha and Goodwitch following close behind. As she rounded the corner from entering, tight where Pyrrha and Blake were sitting, Nora laid there, screaming in pain and grabbing her left foot. Pyrrha then saw red.

In Nora's shivering foot, Ren's hobby knife, which Ren let her borrow, was buried up past the handle, dripping blood all over the floor. Somehow, Nora had stepped on the blade.

"NOR-Nora," Ren cried for her as he stepped down to face her, careful not to slip in Nora's blood, but soaking the bottoms of his socks. "Shh-shh, it'll be okay. Calm down."

Nora started bawling.

Goodwitch decided to take control.

"Mister Lie, keep her still and make sure she doesn't move too much. Keep the foot elevated." Goodwitch said in full-teacher mode. "Miss Nikos! Grab all the towels over there, put some on the floor and use the others for her foot!"

Pyrrha brought all the towels for the rack and laid them down around the fairly large puddles of blood. She quickly made a stack of them under where her left leg would rest. Pyrrha knelt down, feeling Nora's blood soak through the towels beneath her.

"Good brace them under her ankles and lower her foot onto them. Gently, now.!" Goodwitch said in full command. "Now let's look at it."

Nora kept crying, beating her fist against the tile floor.

"Nora, it's okay." Ren said calmly. "Deep breaths now, okay?"

Nora, face reddened, nodded to Ren and started breathing deeply, taking full inhales and slow exhales.

"Good job, Mister Lie. Keep her like that." Goodwitch said, having Ren handle her foot so she could look at the wound. "Good news, we can pull this out without risking any more trauma to her foot, as long as we can pull it straight out. I think for her sake, I should do this. Keep pressure on it for me Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha quickly dabbed the towel around the knife and applied generous pressure to the top of Nora's foot.

Quickly extracting her riding crop from it's holster, Goodwitch was ready for the tough part.

"We're almost done here, Nora" Ren said gently, a strained smile stretched on his face, "We're going to take it out, and you'll be fine. Focus on me."

Nora nodded.

"...Okay...Get it out."

"Good job, you two," Goodwitch said to Nora and Ren, leveling her crop toward the knife handle. "I'm going to count to "Three", Miss Valkyrie, then the knife is going to come straight out. Okay? I need you to stay calm and listen to your partner."

"Where have I heard something like that before?" Pyrrha thought as she kept the pressure, aware of any trickery Goodwitch might pull.

"You hear that Nora?" Ren said "She's going to do her thing, and the knife is going to fire out of your foot like a bullet..."

"And-d it'll g-go fast-t-t?"

"Oh yeah, I bet you wouldn't feel it."

"Th-that's so-o cool!" Nora smiled. "I'm ready, teach!"

Goodwitch smiled. Pyrrha disguised her frown.

"One."

"Nothing?" Pyrrha thought.

"Two."

"Still nothing?"

"Three.' Goodwitch waved her crop.

Just like Ren said, the knife went shooting out and then stopped, floating in mid-air along with the stream of blood, only hitting Goodwitch's boot-heels. Goodwitch used her Semblance again to wrap up the knife entirely, tightly in tissue paper and discarded it into a the trash.

Pyrrha quickly covered the area on Nora's foot, practically feeling the hole left behind."

"Is it over? I can't tell." Nora asked.

"Yes, Nora, that part is over."

Nora laughed.

"I actually didn't feel it. Wow."

"She's totally high on endorphins right now, isn't she Professor?" Pyrrha asked, still maintaining pressure.

"I think that's an accurate judgment, Miss Nikos." Goodwitch replied. "You may release her foot now."

"But wh-"

"Just do it, she's fine now.

As Pyrrha did, so, while there was plenty of dried and drying blood, she couldn't see any hole.

In Pyrrha's bewilderment, Goodwitch spotted a little Dust phial on the counter top. Clearly, it was the source of the semi reddish tinge to the whole room. However, the inside of the bottle looked black, with some inky fluid on the inside. This piqued her curiosity.

"You didn't say you'd close it up. though." Pyrrha said, reeling Goodwitch back.

"That's because I didn't." Goodwitch replied calmly. "That was her own Aura. As her partner cheered her up with that gun analogy, she channeled her Aura into her leg and foot, sub-consciously. So by the time the knife came out, she was already healed."

"Two days ago tho-"

"That was different." Goodwitch interrupted. "Miss Schnee was in a fight before and had lost most of her Aura count then."

"What about Jaune? He didn't even fight that day, so he had a full Aura reserve."

"Mister Arc is also consistently poor with his Aura usage in a conflict. Goodwitch replied calmly."I'm sure he knows how to raise his Aura defense, but once he takes a few hits, without raising his Aura appropriately, as I think you know already from watching him, his ability to use that defense drops significantly. I think that hit he took that broke his nose was the main factor where he was too overwhelmed to let his Aura defend himself."

"Okay Professor... thanks for explaining that," Pyrrha said with a smile, closing her eyes with both her hands up and facing Goodwitch, with something on her hands catching Goodwitch's attention. "I surre-"

"Miss Nikos, I don't wish to alarm you," Goodwitch interrupted, "but you have a cut on the tip of your left ring finger and you were clearly in contact with Miss Valkyrie's blood. Please wash your hands. In fact, everyone get off the floor and wait to wash your hands please. Take three minutes each to wash your hands, then, ladies, stand by the shower and you stay right there when you're done, Mister Lie. Do not touch your hands to your clothes."

As they lined behind each other, Pyrrha could see Goodwitch expanding taking out a thin collapsible black bar and recognized it as the Scroll tablet. Goodwitch touched a few buttons and brought up her contact list. She scrolled down and selected one of them and made a call over the speakerphone."

"This is Jaime. How are you Glynda?"

"Professor Pea-Jaime, please, would you please bring 3 Bio bags, 3 held item bags, at least 2 industrial-sized Bio bags, one heavy-duty decontamination kit with 3 pairs of full-length gloves and 1 Sharps container to the JNPR dorm? We may also need to escort these students to the Infirmary for blood over-exposure once were finished."

"You break up some kind of bad fight up there, Professor?" Jaime asked.

"Negative. One student had an accident in the bathroom and had a hobby knife stuck in her foot. She's been treated by me, and seems to be doing better, but her teammate got cut and exposed when I had extracted the thing. We have bloody towels and what looks like some sort of ink, and Dust on all surfaces."

"Yikes, she'll have to come down for a few more shots than the rest of them, it seems. I'll be right up once I have everything together in about 2 minutes."

"Please hurry."

"ASAP is the only speed I'm set at for you, Glynda. I'll be right there, Darling."

A few minutes later, there was a knock followed by the door opening.

"Glynda! Where are you?" Jaime asked dragging a heavy cart with the supplies Professor Goodwitch asked for.

"Right here." Goodwitch said, greeting her at the door. "Follow me."

Peach followed her, pushing the cart to the bathroom door and entered with Goodwitch. propping the door open.

"Hi there, kiddos, as you may have guessed already, I'm Doctor, or as you call it, "Professor", Jaime Peach, nice to meet the rest of the team."

As she introduced herself. She was already taller than Pyrrha by just a few inches. She had a very neutral, very clean appearance. She had some of her strawberry blonde hair tied up with light orange highlights.

"Oh wow," Pyrrha thought, "Peach-y keen."

"Hi there, Doctor Peach!" Nora greeted.

"Stop with the formalities. That's Oobleck's thing, not mine. Please call me Jaime." Jaime smiled as she kicked a roll of plastic sheeting all over the exposed tile, avoiding the roll from contacting the JNPR member's feet and shoes. Even Glynda's heels were given a miss, not wanting to touch the dirty floor in her own heels.

"Now then that's out of the way, I thought I recognized you, you little one." Jaime said, pointing at Nora. "You made that video that you accidentally sent to everyone about almost an hour ago."

"What are you talking about, Doc?" Nora said.

Jaime looked at Goodwitch. "Didn't you come hear to talk to them about that?"

"Yeah I did, and then this happened, while I was here, and I just didn't get to it." Goodwitch replied.

"...Well then?"

"Don't "Well then" me, Peach." Goodwitch said tersely then looked at Nora. "Miss Valkyrie, you made and sent a video, before we started talking. You meant to send it to Miss Xiao Long across the hallway, but you ended up sending it to her and every one else on the East side of campus."

"Oopsie." Nora replied, looking down, realizing she made a mistake.

"Y-look, I can't be mad at you. I think the universe paid you back for humiliating your friend, Miss Nikos, here and your dorm room neighbor, Miss Belladonna, who is also staying in the same room across the hall from you as the one you tried to send the video message to. So, I'm not going to do anything about it."

Goodwitch turned to Pyrrha.

"Regarding the other matter that I came to talk about. You were a mess when I walked in, Miss Nikos. You looked exhausted, just as you are now, you were sweating, and you did smell a little bad. And while I don't think anything lewd went on in here, like what Miss Valkyrie implied, but it does raise a concern if you were or if you were doing something...dangerous...considering the state of your floor seen in the video"

"Professor, I have no idea what you were talking about." Pyrrha lied. "I had to have a private heart-to-heart talk with her, mostly relating to Jaune and Weiss."

"I see. And why was there a hobby knife here in the bathroom and why was there blood on the floor when Nora made the video."

"I-" Pyrrha began.

"It was my fault, Professor. The hobby knife was mine." Ren voiced up.

"Ren what are you doing?" Pyrrha thought.

"I used that knife for a few arts and crafts purposes like trimming excess on figurines I buy. I brought it in here so the knife wouldn't just be out for Nora to actually hurt herself with. I lost it here 3 days ag-"

"Pause, Mister Lie." Goodwitch interrupted. "You brought a knife outside of your workstation, in here, so she-"Goodwitch pointed to Nora "-wouldn't play with it and you lost it? And now tonight, your partner did find that, with her foot, if I may add. Are you really that irresponsible, Mister Lie? I'm having a hard time believing that such a gre-"

"Glynda, please," Jaime interrupted. "It just sounds to me that Mister, uh, Lie, here made a mistake. I'm not saying it wasn't irresponsible, but this does present him with a learning opportunity."

Goodwitch sighed, and removed her glasses.

"Okay, yeah he did, but his partner paid for it."

"No, his partner, by the sounds of it, had made one mistake before that, which you said she already paid for." Jaime pressed. "Tell me, you said these kids, seeing their friend in pain, came in here and helped her out. Which one of them do you think helped her the most?"

"He did." Goodwitch answered, pointing at Ren.

"What did he do to help?"

"He was the one who responded to her cries. He kept her calm. He got her to...relax. He even got her smiling again before I extracted the knife."

Jaime took a look at Nora's bloodied foot, but seeing no damage."

"In light of that, and with how much better she looks, would you say that Mister Lie redeemed himself of his mistake in her eyes?"

Goodwitch sighed, her left hand holding her riding crop going up to her face.

"...Ugh...Yes, she's totally forgiven him."

"I don't see a further need for action, do you?"

"No, I suppose I don't."

"Lets just get started then, we dawdled long enough." Jaime said. "You three! The first thing we need to do is get rid of these blood and dust covered uniforms. They are contaminated and I now require them to be destroyed."

Jaime went back to the cart and brought out the three item bags first and handed one to each of them.

"The first thing I want you to do before I have you all strip down is put your hand in the item bag. In it you'll se a bunch more mini-item bags. You'll see that they're all kinda inside-out looking. What I want you to do is put your hand inside it, and go through all of your pockets for your personal items and grab them through the bag, and pull them out. Things like notes, money, jewelry on your hands, necks or where ever, your Scrolls, writing instruments should be out of your pockets. Then pull the bag inward and turn it into the proper outside-in form and put them in the big bag. Then give me those things, I will set them aside for you. Any food, candy or snacks in your pockets will need to stay in them as they're now also contaminated. Do it now."

Pyrrha pulled out her Scroll and her wallet. It was all she really had.

Ren pulled out a few key chains, a voice recorder and his headphones.

Nora was crying internally because all she had in her pockets were the snacks she didn't get the chance to have today.

"What about my circlet?" Pyrrha asked. "I can't really get it off without touching it, Jaime. and it's priceless to me."

"That's okay, that is what the big bag is also for. Just bend down, and using both of your hands on the outside, just take it off and let it fall in the bag."

As Pyrrha did so and was removing it, Glynda saw the dust phial on the counter. Having a mini-item bag at the ready, she gave her riding crop an imperceptible wave, practically teleporting it into her covered hand. Neatly wrapping it up in the bag by pulling it outward. she sealed the bag quickly and put it in the belt holster she dedicated the Scroll tablet for. She was going to find out what this was about, and she knew just who to ask.

"Okay, everyone, including you, Glynda, I have a really big item bag for you also," she said, passing it out to Pyrrha and Goodwitch, as Ren was still in his, now blood-encrusted, socks and Nora was bare-foot. "Place the bag in front of you and step in side it with one foot. Doing this, we can send your shoes to be cleaned and you could get them back tomorrow. Good thing for you guys is that it's the weekend so we don't have to worry about going to classes barefoot. Once your foot is inside, use the flimsy inner-bag to help you unbuckle or untie your shoes. Then step out of the bag and put it on the plastic sheeting I just laid out and repeat the same thing with the other foot. Once they're both off, pull the drawstring tight and tie it off. I will mark your names on the bags for you and see they are returned to you. Do it now."

Pyrrha was in and out of the bag with no problem. Pyrrha looked up and saw Goodwitch struggling with it.

"Don't tell me the 50 foot woman can't touch her toes." Jaime teased as saw as she noticed Goodwitch's plight. "Let me help you, you just stay standing up."

"Hmmph..."

"Shut up, you know you like me." Jaime remarked as she got the second shoe undone.

When Goodwitch stepped out of the bag Jaime picked up both bags by the draw strings, took them outside and put them on the low shelves.

She then came back in with 3 big red orange bags with the bio-hazard symbol on the side and what looked like a small plastic box you'd use to keep your Marshmallow Flakes fresh and from going stale in the cereal box.

"Okay, you three, here's the part where things get weird for everyone." Jaime said pacing, swinging a key chain thing that looked like a heavy-duty seat-belt cutter in her heavily gloved hands. "Because all of you have been practically been sitting in blood, or were being bled on, or cut and exposed if I understood correctly, you will all need to be stripped down, probably naked, if it soaked through your underwear like I think it did, and have you all cleaned off. I do see the shower right behind you two girls. Instead of having you take off your clothes with your hands and getting your clean hands contaminated again, I'm going to cut all of your clothing as we're in the shower as you stand in that orange bag. We're going to let it all fall in the bag. and step out once we're done. You'll be given 10 minutes to wash all the blood you touched using a special powdered soap and shampoo combo designed to kill blood pathogens on the outside of your skin. Because you, Mister Lie, are a male, you will go first, I will make sure you are given all the decency you need from the prying eyes of these 2 beautiful mischievous girls who want nothing more than to probably see you naked. Or maybe the other way around...I don't know how you kids swing."

Once you're done, you will at least put on the pants you're given and then you'll follow the plastic sheeting and leave the bathroom. Once you get a shirt on, you will leave the dorm so these girls can dress up in piece."

"Glynda, would you retrieve some clothing for Mister Lie here to change into?" Jaime asked turning to her.

"Yes I will." Goodwitch replied. "Mister Lie, which dresser is yours?"

"The one by the desk, closest to the bathroom."

Goodwitch disappeared out of the bathroom, to reappear with his pants and underwear.

"Hand those to me, Glynda, I will take care of it. Would you please step out of the dorm now? Mister Lie here shouldn't be that long at all."

Goodwitch nodded and stepped out from the bathroom, to the dorm and into the hallway.

Little more than half an hour later, everyone was finished. Both Goodwitch and Ren came back in after getting the "all clear" from Jaime, they came back into the dorm. Pyrrha and Nora were both in their sleep wear, looking really tired.

"Welcome back. I just have one more thing for all of you and then we'll all be done here." Jaime said with a smile and clapping her hands. "You are all going to get some shots because of how long we took with all the blood on our skin. We don't want to risk the chance of you guys skipping my Infirmary and checking into Vale Medical, now would we?"

"I don't want a shot! Ren tell her!" Nora cried.

"Nora..." Ren said, looking at her.

"Young lady, Nora, is it?" Jaime asked getting her attention, seeing that fear of Doctors in Nora's eyes. "I know you don't want to, but your blood wasn't the only thing in there. I just want to help you get safe."

"Nora..." Ren began again, "I know you're scared but you just had a really big thing pulled out of your foot, and I know you don't want anything else but a nice stack of pancakes in you.-"

Nora, tearing up, kept looking into Ren's eyes.

"-However, we were covered in all that stuff in there." Ren continued." We could get really sick, and that would be less fun than stepping on that knife again, wouldn't it? But don't you remember? You were so brave, you didn't even feel the knife any more. I'm sure that a puny little needle is no match for someone like y-."

Nora then gave Ren a surprise hug, lifting him off the floor.

"THANKS PARTNER" Nora cheered.

"Nora, please let me down," Ren said, feeling Nora's grip sliding.

"I'm sorry to tell you this Ren-" Nora said. "-but you are not the father."

"...Really, Nora?" Pyrrha thought. "Parry Mauvich?"

"Miss Valkyrie, please put Mister Lie down," Goodwitch asked rather shortly with her.

"But Professor...I don't wanna kill Re-" Nora said, tearing up in her eyes again as she was still standing in place and hugging Ren.

"Nora," Pyrrha said, trying to hide her amusement. "What she means is put Ren back on his feet. Please."

"Oh," Nora said, lowering Ren to the ground. She smiled back at all of them. "You all could'a said that instead of those other things."

"Now that silliness is over," Jaime said as she looked at the three team mates, prepping a hypodermic needle and all the medicines she'd have to inject.. who's going to be first?"

"I'll do it, I was the one who was cut after we got that knife out of her foot," Pyrrha lied, wanting to hide what she did with Blake. "Might as well get it over w-Wait, why aren't we down in the Infirmary for this? Why up here?"

"Because, uh, Pyrrha, I'm guessing," Jaime replied calmly, "there is no need to send you down there. I had to bring all the other stuff up anyway so I thought I'd save you all the trip of going down, setting you all up, giving you all your shots, and then having Glynda here escort you back. Saves time. Now would you give me your arm so we can get this done with?"

"That's fine, Profe-I mean Jaime," Pyrrha said, smiling back at the woman and offering up her arm.

Pyrrha felt the soft woman's touch as she gently took her arm and held it.

"So, I thought I recognized you as well. I feel so silly," Jaime said as she injected the first needle into her left arm. "I haven't seen your matches but every time I'm at the store, I always see the kids in the store running with a box of Pumpkin Pete's under their arms."

"Yeah," Pyrrha said as she rolled her eyes. "I really wish it was something healthier though. I never had any sugary breakfast cereal when I was growing up. Just fruit or something like eggs."

"Oh I can tell, just look at you!" Jaime said as she withdrew the needle, throwing it into a new Sharps container. "I bet you wish your face was on something more...appropriate."

"Sort of. I mean, I only had to eat that once, and that was only for an ad," Pyrrha shivered, feeling the icy medicine as it worked through her as Jaime prepared the next injection. "But I don't have much regrets over it. It's because of that revenue I was able to make Milo and Akuou, my weapon and my shield. It's also part of the reason why I'm here, at Beacon, and why I have these guys as friends."

"AND WE LOVE YOU PYRRHA!" Nora loudly sang, startling Jaime into jabbing Pyrrha with the second needle.

"HOLY FFFF...Noorra.." Pyrrha thought as the needle practically punched through.

"Little la-" Jaime rose her voice at Nora as she pushed the medicine into Pyrrha's arm. Pyrrha raised her hand.

"Ahh-It's okay, Jaime" Pyrrha said, her arm feeling heavier. "This is how she is normally."

"Fine," Jaime said as she withdrew the second needle, putting it in the open container. "But control your outbursts, little one."

"Okay!" Nora said, making a salute, forcing a smile out of Pyrrha.

"Let's hurry up, then, shall we? I still have to cart that stuff all the way back down and set them aside to be destroyed. Then I think I still have to make my rounds." Jaime said with a faint smile, as she stuck Pyrrha with the third one. "You know, your leader is the biggest whiner we ever had in there?"

"Wait, what about Jaune?" Pyrrha thought.

"What do you mean about that, Jaime?" Pyrrha asked Jaime with confusion, as Jaime prepared the fourth needle."

"Well, as you know, you can't have Scrolls out-n'-about in there," Jaime explained. "And he was whining every time I caught him with it out, saying he needed to speak with you. So I had to confiscate it when he decided to be rude to that pretty black-haired classmate that came by to drop off his school work, both yesterday and today. Blake, I think her name was..."

"So that answers that question of why Blake was here," Pyrrha thought as the new needle pierced her arm, now a little sore. "...and why she looked so stressed...Oh my, I'm so sorry Blake!...You didn't even tell me that Jaune wasn't being nice to you...and I kept steamrolling you with that bullshit of why we weren't talking, so you gave up trying. I hope you're happy, knowing that at least your secrets are safe with me. Stupid...Stupid...No, Jaune's still my man. He wanted to speak with me and was just a little upset. Yeah, I bet that was it."

"Last one, then you're all done." Jaime said, about ready with the final needle.

"So when I took it from him, I saw that you sent him a message and the screen accidentally opened it when my thumb slipped. He must mean a lot to you for you to send him about 40 messages," Jaime said offhandedly as she pushed in the final needle.

"YOU FUCKING WHAT? YOU READ THEM?" Pyrrha silently fumed, eyes now wide open, maintaining a now fake smile while meeting her gaze with Jaime's muted brown eyes. "You better be joking, otherwise you will know why Pumpkin Pete's labelled me as the "Crimson Queen", you bitch."

"Yeah, he is my partner for the rest of my time here at Beacon," Pyrrha smiled through her teeth.

"Well, after reading just that one and seeing the list of others, I'd say it was more than you being concerned for your partner, if you know what I mean," Jaime said, not reading or feeling the mental javelins Pyrrha was skewering her with as she withdrew the needle from the arm "...and there we go. All done. Let's get you bandaged up and then you can go get your item bag and get your stuff back. There's also some awesome patterned band-aids you could wrap that finger in"

"Okay then-" Pyrrha said.

"CUNT." Pyrrha thought.

10 minutes later, they were all finished up.

"Okay, we're done here." Jaime said, taking off her gloves and rubbing her hands. Depositing them in the trash chute in the cart. "Or at least I am, for now, at least,"

As she did that, she released a lock on the front of one of the handles. and pulled out an even smaller cart out, loaded with the Bio-bags full of the scraps of their bloodied uniforms, the Sharps boxes with the 2 shoe bags.

"Now, I'm sure Glynda here has already put in orders for replacement uniform pieces, so you should be able to get your new ones on Sunday, and we have your sizes already." Jaime said as she pulled the small cart toward the door.

"What about that big one over there?" Nora pointed to the big shell left behind.

"Oh, Glynda would go over that with you." Jaime said as she opened the door "Glynda, the gloves and the big Bio-bags are in the second and third shelves on the right, The decontamination kit is on the left in the big door. See you kids later, feel free to come on down and see me if you feel anything weird in the next three or five hours! Nice meeting you all. Ciao!"

Jaime then took her cart and disappeared from sight and into the hall.

"Okay then, really quickly lets go over to the cart and go to the drawers and cupboards in the cart and get those supplies she talked about." Goodwitch said, "You'll find written instructions on what to do on that kit to help you all clean your bathroom, what the chemicals do, and how to use them. I can't stick around here for very long, so I am leaving it to you three to clean the place up. Once your done gathering all the sheeting and towels on the floor by the door, you will work your way, going backwards and deeper into the bathroom, pull up the sheeting and roll it on itself. Do what you need to do to get this done as quickly as possible. I'd also recommend you leave your bathroom door and windows open when your finished, for it to air out overnight. In the morning, you can still push the cart shell back to the Infirmary. It's still mobile so you should be able to get it down there just fine. Good luck."

And with that Goodwitch left.

"I don't wanna do it." Nora said, stomping the same foot she found the hobby knife with, as soon as the door closed.

"Nor-"

"Fine, then Nora," Ren said, interrupting Pyrrha. "You were a good girl during that whole thing. Go ahead and go to bed. I needed to talk with Pyrrha anyway and the bathroom doesn't really need three people to clean it."

"Okay Ren!" Nora smiled. "Can I get a hug from you both before I go to sleep?"

"Sure, come here, you silly sloth." Ren said as they hugged each other.

Nora then came up and went to hug Pyrrha, making Pyrrha bend forward a little so Nora can hug her. As they embraced, Nora brought her chin up and off Pyrrha's shoulder and to Pyrrha's ear, obscuring her mouth from Ren's view.

"If you seduce him or rape him, you will wish I would've broke your legs instead, you giant succubus titty-monster." In a whisper so low, Ren couldn't hear.

Pyrrha's jaw dropped as Nora broke from the hug and skipped back to bed.

"What do I even say to that?" Pyrrha thought, looking at Nora with an open mouth as jumped flat on her own bed and rolled herself up in the blankets and sheets like a burrito. "What should I even d-"

"Good night, Nora," Ren said as he turned out the lights in the room for her. "Come on, Pyrrha, let's get this done so we can go to bed too."

Pyrrha nodded and put on the large rubber full-length purple gloves that almost went up to her shoulders. She picked up the kit and followed him inside the bathroom.

"Close the door, Pyrrha. We need to talk." Ren said curtly laying down the kit and jugs of chemicals they needed on the sheeting.

Pyrrha nodded and shut the door.

"Ren, I'm s-"

"Do you really think if you apologize that it makes this all better? I took a fall for you, Nikos." Ren said in a quick, yet quiet angry tone as he knelt on top of the sheeting, pulling it up in sections and exposing the dried blood underneath. "Don't patronize me with your "sorries" until after I said my piece."

Pyrrha nodded.

"I don't really know what you were doing in here with Blake in the first place to make that mess or even why you felt you need to do whatever you did, to tell her about what that thing with Jaune was." Ren said staring at the floor and spreading the detergent and starting to scrub. "I don't know why you thought it was okay to have to bleed and...ink each other...ugh. Know this though. It was your fault that Nora got hurt. Your fault that we had to be stripped, scrubbed, and redressed in that awkward exercise with both of the Professors, and that we all needed shots. This little shit-shack is actually supposed to be a safe place, which you ruined, while you were fucking around with Blake or doing only Dust knows what. With Dust too! I regret giving you all that stuff."

Pyrrha put her face down and started to tear up as they pulled another section of sheeting off and rolled it up over itself.

"No, you don't get to be sad. This was all your fault. You also deserve all the humiliation you get from Nora's viral moment. Granted, I think what she did was inappropriate, but no one here deserved any of that negative attention more than you do right now. Now you have my permission to cry."

"No, Ren. You're right." Pyrrha said as she started scrubbing. "I don't deserve to cry over this."

"Good, because I will say this, now that you know how I feel, and I hate to see my friends cry." Ren started, as he rolled away more sheeting. "Any teasing you, or even Blake, receive for this thing will be dealt with by me. I'm sure Nora would also help you."

"Thanks, Ren. It means a lot, but I think I can handle myself." Pyrrha said.

"I know you could, but that's not what I meant." Ren said abruptly. "Being the quiet one, I know it doesn't take much for people to notice you, even if you don't do anything-lets pull it up more, to the pile of the towels-these people will notice what happened. They will rip into you if you let them. So any teasing, shaming, name-calling, you point me and Nora to them, and let us deal with it, okay? I'm sure Yang plans on doing the same for Blake, and she's not nearly as notorious as you, but you know that if there is a wall, Yang would send them through it for even thinking of making fun of her partner."

"Alright then, Ren." Pyrrha said, looking him in the eye with a straight face. "I will point them out for you and Nora."

Another hour later, and Pyrrha and Ren were done. No surface was left untouched by their teamwork. Not a speck of dust, or well, Dust, blood or ink left anywhere. The two big Bio-bags, now full of towels, the plastic sheeting they had used and their gloves, was safely sealed and stored away inside the top compartment of the cart, like a chest.

Pyrrha, seeing that Ren went and crashed on his bed, sealed the cart up and tugged it over by the door. Leaning on the wall, she pulled out her Scroll and went to her contacts list, went down and selected Blake.

-Hey Blake,

I'm sure you heard or saw the commotion over here across the hall. Nora's foot found the hobby knife in the bathroom and left an even bigger mess. She's fine and we're all good In the morning, I have to drop off this heavy cart at the Infirmary for Professor Peach. Can you swing by and help me move it out?

Thanks,

-Pyrrha.

As Pyrrha sent the message, she caught a glimpse of her left hand. She stared at the finger tip she made the cut with and saw that it still didn't heal. She tried focusing her aura, which only left her feeling more tired. Deciding it would probably heal over night as she recovered, she crawled into bed.

As Goodwitch got out of the elevator, taking a step out of the threshold onto the blackened marble floor in only her socks she heard a cough. She looked at the man in the chair, handkerchief in hand.

"You're late, Glynda." Ozpin said, greeting her. "Where are your heels?"

"I know, sir." Goodwitch began. "There was an accident in the team bathroom at the JNPR dorm with Miss Valkyrie, while I was there trying to speak with her and Miss Nikos about our Scroll network policy and about the content of the video concerning Miss Nikos, our little brightest first year student. The whole ordeal took two-and-a-half hours to get over with. Jaime took my boots as I stepped in blood with them while I was there."

"And you walked, from there, all the way here, your feet and ankles covered in nothing but your thigh-highs?"

"Yes, I did. I'll be getting my shoes back tomorrow."

Ozpin sat forward in his chair, elbows on his desk, looked at Goodwitch, or rather seemingly through her, and cleared his throat.

"You sent me a message about a strange-looking Dust phial you found while in their bathroom during the clean-up. May I see it, Glynda?" Ozpin asked as he stretched his hand across his ornate desk.

Goodwitch nodded, taking the item bag, with the phial in it, out of her case and put it squarely in Ozpin's hand.

Ozpin held the object into the light, studying the phial and its blackish-purple contents.

"Fire Dust and what looks to be ordinary pen ink. Where in the JNPR bathroom did you even see this?"

"It was on their counter, right by the sink."

"Curious place for this little thing. I wonder how the ink got in there. Look how well it's mixed into it Glynda. I would not be surprised if this was totally inert to the aura reactions of a single person's aura."

"Quite."

"In the video, there was clearly only small spots of blood and ink on the counter and on the floor. What exactly was the nature of the accident Miss Valkyrie had?"

"She apparently had her foot find the blade of a hobby knife, belonging to Mister Lie, and fell and had a small panic attack." Goodwitch replied.

"Interesting. Tell me, apart obviously from the contaminants on Miss Valkyrie, was there any on Mister Lie before you intervened?"

"No, he was clean until after he burst in through the door." Goodwitch answered. "However, just like how Miss Valkyrie pointed out, rather irreverently, Miss Nikos had spots of blood and ink on her uniform, and was, as Miss Valkyrie said, very sweaty and foul-smelling. She also appeared really exhausted when I was invited in. I would've asked Miss Belladonna about it as well when I left, but I had forgotten."

"Okay, that's fine. We don't need to question her." Ozpin said, staring at her through his dark lenses. "Alright then, Glynda. Thank you."

Goodwitch nodded and turned to leave, walking toward the elevator.

"Oh-Glynda?" Ozpin asked, making Goodwitch turn around."

"Yes, sir? What is it?" Goodwitch asked.

"You also had made the order to Jaime to treat them all for blood exposure, but to treat one for an open cut with direct blood-to-blood exposure. Who was the one who had that cut?"

"That would be Miss Nikos, sir. At the time, she looked like she was trying to play it off that I cut her with the knife when I extracted the Knife from Miss Valkyrie's foot, which I admittedly didn't see until she showed me her hands. I do think some of that blood on the floor, in the video, was her own, but I'm not positive."

"And where on which of her hands did you see the cut, Glynda?"

"I saw it on the tip of her ring finger on her left hand. What is this ab-"

"I was only asking. I'm going to look just a bit more into this, and ask the other head masters across Remnant for their opinion if the contents in this little bottle are serious or not, because I find myself more and more unsure on how to act." Ozpin said as he turned around and faced the outside window, looking at the Moon and it's dancing pieces. "Please keep your eye on the Miss Nikos, and maybe on Miss Belladonna as well. Report to me if you notice anything else out-of-place with those two, but be discreet. Those two are going to get a lot of press with the other students, come Monday."

"Yes, sir." Goodwitch said. "No need to worry about them finding out that we'll be monitoring them both for the next few days. Anything else you need sir?"

"How is Mister Arc? I understand the dentist Jaime called in was able to fix the chips and replace his missing teeth."

"Yes, Doctor Ivory was able to execute the procedure in record time. Mister Arc is ready to be re-integrated back into the fold, come Monday morning. We're just waiting on his aura to help his teeth re-connect to his mandible and his nerve endings, which looks as though we could probably release him early on Sunday afternoon."

"Sunday afternoon? Much better than what we expected then." Ozpin said. "That will be everything Glynda. Take care."

Author's Note: Hi there, everybody!

I just want to thank all of you for the favorites and follows and the reviews I've gotten since the first post. I've read every single one of them and I'm glad that you all find this, at least, somewhat enjoyable. This fic was drafted on my birthday, which was just this past Monday. I made a promise to finish it then, but as I got writing, I ended up deleting the draft and starting fresh. The original Chapter Two draft failed to meet my expectations. This new draft I worked up and had edited has almost doubled the amount of words I wrote for Chapter One, topping at 16.9k words.

The one thing I pointed out in the /r/RWBY subreddit is that while this fic is classified as romance and hurt/comfort, just know that while this contains Arkos as it's main entitlement, what you'll find as time goes on is this isn't your typical shipping fic. I wouldn't even classify this as shipping. Some of you were really taken back by how dark this fic is. Bring flashlight, but don't expect your batteries to last long.

I also wanted to point out is that I received some criticism of how certain characters are portrayed, with how they thought and acted, namely Pyrrha, the main character here, Jaune, and Weiss. My response is that this fic is rated M for a reason, while the show is rated G. I'm not changing that dynamic for anyone. There are plenty of great, cushy RWBY romance fanfics that aren't nearly as dark as mine that are also rated M. I understand my style is a bit of an acquired taste, with me being new, at least, to writing fanfic. I'm only stating this because people took my warning last time and blatantly ignored it and ended up not liking it.

Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Glynda Goodwitch, and Ozpin are all RWBY Characters, made by the late Monty Oum and owned by Rooster Teeth. Go buy their stuff, and keep supporting them so RWBY stays around for as long as possible.

Stay tuned for Auric Dissonance: Fighting For Your Love Only, Chapter 3. Monday will come soon for them all.

Buh-bye!