Team RWBY and Solace arrives at Goodwitch's class about ten minutes early and the class, or more like an arena, is fairly empty of students. The group takes a seat in the middle area of the stands. Weiss sits down next to Solace and once she settles down, she turns to him "so mind explaining to me on where you learned on how to fight like that?" The others of team RWBY were also curious about this as well and asks him something similar.
"Well I learned it back at Atlas."
"What school teaches you on how to fight like that? I came from Atlas too and I don't remember any school teaching your kind of fighting style, it seemed so messy." Weiss asks.
"I didn't come from a school, I came from a military-"
"Academy?" Yang interrupts.
"No, military unit."
"Wait what?" Yang asks in confusion.
Before Solace could explain himself the good Professor Goodwitch finally arrives and by this time the stands were full of students. " Good morning class, as all of you know I am Professor Goodwitch and will be your instructor for this semester. The class I'll be teaching shall be one that will test the skills you developed while you all were at your respective schools. The reason you will all participate in this is so we can break the mold that you've grown comfortable with. The battle with the Grimm will not be as methodical as the teachings your schools imply so to simulate this, we'll have you spar your fellow students. The screen above the arena will display each students aura, the first one to nearly deplete their aura loses." The screen then shows the students faces on it and begins to randomize the first contenders to be paired were Pyrrha from Team JNPR and Dove from CRDL and judging that he didn't have a problem fighting his whole team by himself, Solace believes that the fight was in Pyrrha's favor and turns back to Team RWBY and whispers to them.
"When I was young my village was attacked by the White Fang and the people that rescued us from them was an Atlesian Special Operations Group called the Vanguards."
"Wait why did the White Fang attack your village?" Ruby asks.
"Probably to stop the unfair treatment that was being done on the local Faunus?" Blake suggests.
"What makes you think that?" Weiss asks.
"Well because the White Fang doesn't attack anyone for no good reason" Blake answers.
"How could you possibly know that? The White Fang are nothing more but thugs who causes nothing but trouble!" Weiss responds.
Weiss's response causes Blake to get irritated, as her facial expression implies, but before things could get out of hand Solace proceeds to talk again, "Blake's right. A couple years back a refinery was set up nearby by the Schnee Company to refine the extracted Dust from my village and around that same time discriminant behavior became more apparent to our fellow Faunus neighbors. Some of the locals tried to defend them but they were only able to do so much and proved to be useless. My family were on the side defending the Faunus, before I had lost them to the White Fang."
Blake's facial expression changes from irritation to empathy, "I'm so sorry for your lost Solace. Your parents sounded like they were good people, it's a shame they became casualties."
"See, the White Fang are nothing more but a menace to our society." Weiss interjects.
"Okay you need to-" Blake stops herself from getting really angry and calms down. "Aside from the attack that doesn't explain on where you got your training."
"Right, after the attack the survivors were assisted by the Vanguards to relocate with their families. Unfortunately I had no one left so one of their members took the responsibility of adopting me. I would stay with him for awhile before losing him as well from the White Fang again and afterwards, my current adoptive father, the commanding officer of the unit adopts me and has me go through an experimental program of training soldiers from a young age. From 8 to 12 years old, I spent the whole time learning the art of war and at the end of it I was given my first assignment. From then on I built my fighting style from the situations I've come across and Weiss. The reason my technique seems messy is because when it comes down to it whether your fighting Grimm or people what dictates your survival is not technique but your will to do on whatever you can to win."
The fight between Dove and Pyrrha ends exactly on how Solace, and pretty much everyone else here predicted, the two then leaves the arena and the screen begins to randomize again. The whole class watches in anticipation as all but Jaune were eager to be put on the screen, after randomizing for 10 seconds the contenders are picked, Solace and Cardin. Ruby and the others all look at him and gives out words of encouragement with Yang's comment sticking to him the most, "this time you can kick his ass officially!" Solace then makes his way to the locker room and prepares for the sparring match, he goes to his locker and switches from Beacon's uniform to his huntsman fatigues then digitally summons Rot Kometa on his right hand and an ear piece on his left. He puts the ear piece on and once done Selena comes online, "Selena, I'm going to need you to do me a favor. When I say ,'Cardin,' summon Twitch for me."
"If you say so, is there anything else that you would like for me to do?"
"No." The doors on his end of the arena opens up and he walks forward to the center where Cardin was doing the same on the other side. As soon as the two were in position a count down, starting from five, appears on the screen and once the counter hits zero the match began. Cardin takes the initiative and lunges at Solace, smashing his mace towards him, but fortunately was unable to connect the hit as Solace quickly moves back to dodge and his mace is implanted onto the ground. Cardin lifts his mace up and upon doing so, Solace gets a bit worried as his weapon left a small crater on the floor. After freeing his weapon Cardin lets out a chain of attacks, he makes sure that each swing is quickly followed up with another as he didn't want Solace to get away from him. Fortunately for Solace he's able to be quick on his feet and backs away from Cardin far enough to fire burn rounds at him safely. But just before the rounds were able to explode Cardin manages to swing all of the rounds that were heading towards him out of the way, this surprises Solace and is genuinely impress on how quick his reflexes could be. Nevertheless he didn't allow this revelation to stump him and runs towards his opponent while at the same time changing the dust in his pistol from burn to ice, Cardin smiles from Solace's brave charge and runs to him as well but at the same time he prepares his mace for a swing. The two quickly closes in the distance between them and just like before Cardin swings first but misses once again and without a moments hesitation, while the mace was still in the ground, Solace fires a single ice round at it; once the bullet makes an impact with Cardin's mace, ice began to quickly form and spread from the weapon to Cardin's arm and also to the ground. With the weapon and his arm completely encase in ice he's left unable to attack, quickly taking the opportunity Solace shoots at his opponents feet to freeze him into place then follows it up with an uppercut to Cardin's chin. Cardin receives the full power of Solace's punch as he was forcefully removed from his icy trap and fell back a few feet. But he's a lot tougher than he was back at the cafeteria when the two were fighting and he gets back up and charges at Solace again. Cardin looks like he's hit his limit as he's completely relying on his brawn rather than his brain to win. But in doing so the fight is now heavily favored for Solace as Cardin is unable to think of anything but landing a hit and taking this into consideration Solace shoots ice rounds ahead of Cardin's path causing him to lose his footing and slip onto the ground. The momentum he built from his charge causes Cardin to slide towards Solace and was only stopped when his face made contact with Solace's foot.
"Cardin" Solace says.
"What?" Cardin is left in confusion and Twitch, a knife, materializes onto Solace's left hand. He then begins to caress the front of Cardin's neck with the spine of the knife then presses a button on it's grip that unleashes 50,000 volts of electricity onto his body for about 6 seconds. But 6 seconds was all it took as Cardin was left incapacitated and unable to fight in the end and so the match goes to Solace.
"Excellent job there Mr. Krieg, way to use his own anger against him. I doubt that you'd have any problems qualifying for the Vytal Festival either" Glynda comments.
With victory secured he returns back to the locker room and stores his gear and uniform to it's rightful place then returns back to Team RWBY and the group watches the next upcoming sparring matches together.
"So back to what we're talking about. So you mean to tell us you've been fighting with a military unit since you were a kid?" Weiss asks.
"Yes I have" Solace answers.
"No way, that sounds like complete bull" Yang says.
"I know it's hard to believe but that unit was my life for the longest time and it's only now that I'm experiencing this much freedom. Also I apologize if I do anything too weird in the future, I'm still getting use to this."
"Wow, that's pretty kick ass, we shouldn't have any problems in the upcoming festival then if you're with us" Yang says.
The team didn't ask anymore question from then on and went back to watching the matches that were going on, except for one. Through out the remainder of the class Blake was looking down on her scroll instead and had a look of concern on her face. When the class was finally done, Blake tells the team that she wants to be left alone and walks in the opposite direction of the team once they left the classroom, Solace didn't like the face she was donning in class and only became more concerned from this sudden departure and so he decides to follow her to see if they can talk privately. But unbeknownst to him Blake easily figures out that she's being shadowed and leads him to the side of the academy and once the two were out of the view of the students she stops to confront him.
"I'm going to assume that you never learned the concept of being left alone?" Blake asks.
"I'm sorry Blake, but you got me worried back in the classroom and that sudden want of being left alone didn't help the situation either" Solace reveals himself and says.
"Worried about what?"
"Worried that you were suicidal?"
"What?"
"It may sound silly to you but I had good buddies of mine who took their own lives back when I was with the Vanguards, buddies who had saved my life countless of times and they all exhibited the same actions like yours. I don't want to lose you too Blake, not while I'm around."
Blake laughs from Solace's claim, "you're a real idiot aren't you?"
"I'm confused."
"I'm not suicidal, Solace, I was just worried about the recent White Fang activities that the news was reporting. Apparently they started operating in Vale now and it just got me a little on the edge."
"Why are you so interested in the White Fang, are you part of them or something?"
"No, Solace. But let's just say that I've had personal encounters with them since I was a kid as well ."
"Then I guess we have something in common after all?"
"Wrong again Solace, you and I are nothing alike, trust me. But anyways I appreciate you being concerned about me but please just go away. I just want to be left alone in my thoughts."
"If somethings bothering you Blake you can talk to me about it. I may not be part of your team officially but I still do care about people's well being-"
"Solace! It's fine, nothing is wrong with me. I promise you I'm not suicidal if you're still worried about that."
"Well, okay if you say so. I'll see you around then?"
"Yeah, I'll talk to you later."
Solace turns around and starts walking away but as he walks he turns his head and looks at her one more time and he sees Blake giving him a soft smile and waves good-bye to him. The two soon loses their line of sight of each other and Solace returns back to the academy to which he quickly runs into Weiss as soon as he enters, "there you are! We were wondering on where you went?"
"Hey, Weiss where's Ruby and Yang?"
"The two are off in the library we're all suppose to meet them there. So anyways where did you go?"
"I was tailing Blake."
"Why?"
"I got worried about her during class and so I thought maybe I can talk to her and see on what's wrong."
"Oh, well don't worry about her she's been like that ever since we've been paired up so I'm pretty sure it's nothing to be stressed out about. Anyways you ready to go?"
"Yeah let's not keep them waiting." They go to the library together. "So why are they at the library, we don't have any upcoming tests?"
"I believe they went there to study more about huntsman history and further their knowledge about the Grimm."
"You really think so?"
"I hope so" but as the two finally arrives at the library and locates their teammates Weiss was disappointingly shock to see that they weren't studying but rather playing a board game.
"Hey you two, you're just in time to join in our game of war!" Yang greets Solace and Weiss.
"Well Weiss just like life, sometimes your hopes and dreams are crushed" Solace says before taking a seat on one of the available chairs.
"Why are you two playing a board game in the library?" Weiss asks.
"Cause we don't have anymore classes till tomorrow and we found it here and we were bored?" Ruby answers.
"In a library!?" Weiss says.
"Yeah, so are you going to stand there and complain or will you be joining us?" Yang asks.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Weiss answers before taking a seat on the other chair.
For the next couple of hours the group plays Remnant: The Game, a strategy-based board game where each player takes control of the four kingdoms and tries to dominate the world; with Ruby, Solace, Weiss, and Yang playing as Mantle, Vale, Vacuo and Mistral respectively. The game goes by pretty quickly in the beginning as the three gangs up on Weiss's forces as she is unfamiliar with this game and it's rules so in turn gets knocked out with ease. Then Ruby is left powerless as Solace and Yang forms an alliance and is forced to fight a multi-front war with the two and without mercy Mantle is torn apart. Afterwards the two remaining super-powers drag their battles on with both sides loosing some battles and winning others but ultimately neither were able to win anything significant to actually claim victory. But as they wage war Yang notices that Solace has been holding onto three-cards for the past two hours and becomes curious on what they could possibly be, "you know we've been fighting for awhile now and have lost so many, you've proven yourself to be quite the worthy opponent. How about we call this a truce and rule over our respective territory?"
"Although on what you say is true, you and I have been at war for so long that we can only end this in one way." Solace says.
"You guys, it's been 5 hours. Are you guys done yet?" Weiss asks.
"Ha, ha, ha my dear subject Weiss you'll get your wish and we will end this conflict soon. But as he said there is only one way to end this." Solace pushes his forces into her kingdom but Yang activates her trap card, Giant Nevermore, to which if she rolls a seven or higher then she'll be able to annihilate his invading army and in response march her army to his capital; she rolls the dice and lands a 10. But just as she begins the attack Solace finally uses the three cards with the first being a trap card, Divine Monsoon, by sacrificing two of his front line units the Giant Nevermore is quickly destroyed and her advancing army is bogged down. Afterwards he uses Weiss's captured Vacuo soldiers boost, to fight in hazardous conditions, to ambush the bogged down soldiers of Mistral. Then activates the two other cards, Iron Determination which allows units to attack twice and ignores any hazards in the area, and Atlesian Super-Carriers which allow Ruby's captured Mantle soldiers, who have been reserved for defensive plays, to be moved both over land and seas in bulk to the front lines and thanks to Iron Determination the monsoon has no affect on the carriers. In the end Mistral's army is destroyed and the remaining Vacuo soldiers attacks the remaining soldiers outside Yang's capital while the Mantle soldiers, with the support of the super-carriers as air support, invades the city and in a quick one-two move Mistral's capital is captured by Vale's combined assault.
"No, not my capital! You monster!" Yang shouts in disappointment but Solace only laughs like an evil villain in response.
"How long have you had those cards?" Ruby asks.
"Ever since I annexed your kingdom." Solace answers.
"So you mean to tell me that you could've invaded my kingdom two hours ago?" Yang asks.
"Yup." Solace answers.
"So why didn't you?" Yang asks.
"Well because our war changed. It no longer became the battle for ideology or justice, it became our way of life. Our economy, our culture our society became embroiled with our centuries long conflict and for us to end it quickly would've surely left the people of Remnant no longer fighting for nations but for themselves. So yeah, war has changed" Solace says as if he was a grizzled war veteran from this fictional universe. "Plus I wanted to see on how you would react when I completely destroy you after getting a false sense of attaining victory."
You're a dick!" Yang says in disbelief.
"I know and I'm sorry."
With the game finally over the team then heads to the cafeteria where they grabbed their meals for dinner, but throughout the whole time Ruby pesters Yang on how she was completely and mercilessly destroyed by Solace and it wasn't until they were done eating when their petty fighting stopped. But the whole time the group was together Solace couldn't help but notice that Blake has been gone for quite some time and began to worry again. He became really concerned on where she could've gone and it wasn't until he walked the team to their room when his worries were quelled. Upon Blake's bed she left a note saying she has to take care of something personal down at Vale and would be back soon. Without even having to say it to the rest of the team they all agree to look for her, they all get changed out of their uniforms and into their normal clothes then regroups at the front of the academy where they plan to split up and search the city until they can find Blake. Upon dispersing Solace has already a good idea on what's she's doing in the city and searches the most likely place to shelter shady looking people, the Industrial-District of Vale.