Hey everyone, hope you all had a good week and are ready to enjoy your weekends. Was playing Halo 4 last night and had an idea that changed the way I'm going to write this chapter. (No it will have no references to halo, I just had the idea while playing it.) Anyway on to Chapter 8!

Chapter 8: Confrontation

Beacon's dry dock had just come into view and with it the sight of Ozpin standing on it. I landed and immediately began to fold my wings over my body and replace the uniform as I walked passed him. He held his mug of coffee in one hand and his cane in the other. "You might as well not bother. Goodwitch prefers her students to where their combat gear to her class." He said as I passed him. I stopped but didn't turn as he spoke.

"Thanks for the heads up, but I really must go if I'm not going to be late." I tried to walk away and avoid having to talk to the man but, he immediately responded.

"Don't worry I have taken the liberty of telling her I'm talking with you before class, she won't drop you." I cast my senses to him and saw him turn to face me, taking a sip of his coffee as he did so. "Where were just now?" I narrowed my eyes and turned to him, doing my best to keep my expression neutral.

"I was in town visiting a very close friend of mine." I looked him in the eyes trying to make it sound as simple as that so he wouldn't pry into the subject. But of course it was useless against Ozpin.

"This 'close friend' of yours, what makes her special enough for you to think you can just run off and see her when you should have your focus here." I clenched my jaw as a thought crossed my mind. How did he know it was a she, and why does he care?

I smiled to try to bluff my way out of the situation. "I don't recall ever saying it was a girl." I dropped the smile and got serious. "Nor do I see what business it is of yours." I stared him down for a few moments before he reached into his jacket and withdrew his scroll. Opening it to the screen I saw him tap a few things before walking within a foot of me and holding it up.

My eyes shot open at what I saw. It was a recording of me and Shay thirty minutes ago in the Restaurant. I watched for a moment before returning my focus to Ozpin; narrowing my eyes as anger starting to manifest itself in my core.

"What do you want?" he closed the recording and the scroll before placing it back in his jacket pocket, taking a sip of his coffee before replying.

"It is forbidden to leave school grounds during the week unless it is for family matters or to be transferred to a hospital for further care. The weekends are yours to do with as you please, you may stay or you may go." He paused for a moment, but when I said nothing he continued.

"You are my student as well as a wild card in my plans for the coming tragidy. That was the agreement that you accepted when you arrived here. I will not have you breaking the rules that every student and staff member must abide by because of your situation. Is that clear?" he finished and took another sip of his coffee.

He had played his cards right, he wasn't enticing my anger like before but was making a clear statement. Sighing I nodded. "Say the words." He fired back.

"I will follow the rules like everyone else." Looking him in the eyes as I spoke. His expression softened slightly and he grinned.

"I understand the feelings you have for the girl. I actually admire the fact that you can act on those emotions. Anyone else would be closed off after all that you have been through. But I must ask you not to visit her any-" that did it.

My temper might as well have not existed at that point. I grabbed his collar, yanking him forwards, my left hand was half raised for a strike.

"Pick your next words carefully; they might get you hurt if you don't." his expression hardened again as I continued. "I will not stop seeing the girl that has cared for me since the day you dropped me on my own to train by myself. She has been there for me way more than you have." I pushed him away, he stumbled for a moment but quickly regained his balance, not spilling a single drop of coffee in the process.

"Hmm. That may be so, but in leaving you to your own devises you learned how to be self reliant and motivated. That is something that no teacher could have ever done. Now that you have the skills you gained from actual combat as well as self reliance and motivation, this school can teach you to advance even further in combat; as was your original purpose. The girl will only impede that progress." He was smart, way too smart for his own good. It was no secret to I didn't hate him because of what he made me, in fact I almost admired him for it. Being on my own had done everything he had just said and a lot more; all the way up to Shay.

"I will not stop seeing her. You may be headmaster at this school and I will keep my promise to you. But I will never give up on Shay; your title at this academy has no power over that choice." I turned and walked away from him all the way back to my dorm room to change into my combat gear and head to my combat class.

The bottom half of my armor was still missing a few plates but that only meant I couldn't land hard on them, and since I wasn't going to be flying anytime soon I had nothing to worry about. It felt good to be back in my normal clothes with my wings over my shirt as an armor piece.

By some miracle I was only 10 minutes late for the hour long class that was Goodwitch's combat training class. When I entered the large stadium style class, everyone turned to me. There were no desks and everyone stood in front of an elevated platform where Goodwitch stood, scroll in hand.

"Ah, Ike, glad you got done with your business so early. We just got done going over what is to be expected in this class. I have sent you a copy of the guidelines on your scroll, be sure to look over them." she brought the class's attention back to her before continuing. "Now then, we won't waste time, who would like to be first in the ring for today." I pulled out my scroll and reviewed the list of guidelines as two students climbed to the platform and started dueling. Two large screens appeared over them with their faces and a green bar for their aura.

By the time I was done looking through the guidelines the match had just ended. Looking to see who had competed I saw Pyrra stepping down the steps and one of the members of team CRDL was following behind her. The screens showed that Pyrra was at full aura and the other boy was in the red. Damnit, I missed an opportunity to see her fight, especially if she can do that. I thought as Goodwitch began to evaluate the match.

"Well done Pyrra. As you can see class, Pyrra has experience from long hours of training as well as her time in tournaments. It goes to show that no matter how good you think you are," she cast a glance at the CRDL boy. "If you don't hone your skills and constantly work to improve your abilities you will only be a liability to your teammates. Now then, who would like to go next?"

Immediately I stepped forward and took a spot on the platform. A moment later I was joined by none other than Lie Ren. I grinned at him for a moment as we shook hands and got into our stances. Goodwitch stepped away and it began.

Ren charged forward and struck with hand to hand combat. With each strike he threw I blocked and counter attacked. He did the same as we went at it for a few miutes before he got a hand up on me and hit me in the chest with an openhanded strike. I felt energy surge through his palm and blast into me, sending me flying 5 feet. I caught I glimpse of my aura meter drop a quarter of the way. That much with just one strike, what was that? I landed and rolled to my feet as Ren drew his weapons.

I drew two of my knives and charged him this time. He shot a volley of shots that pinged off my armor and blades as I approached. They didn't pierce my skin so much as it seemed to shave away at me. My aura protected me and thus was shaved away as the shots hit unarmored parts of my body. But it didn't last long as I got within range and started clashing with Ren again. He used the blades on his pistols well but was not as skilled with them as he was at hand to hand combat.

Getting a moment he leapt over me and tried to get behind me firing more shots as he passed over my head. When he landed behind me I had already turned and was on him again.

I used my knives to pry open his guard over time, before spinning away and throwing both of my weapons. He blocked one but was hit by the other. His aura defended him for the most part and he took little to no damage. But his aura meter still dropped. In fact it dropped substantially. Hmm. Drawing my last knife and charging again I dropped under his strike and kicked his legs out from under him, forcing my knife downwards onto him as he hit the ground. He abandoned his weapons and focused his aura into a shield.

I pushed against him with all the force I had, but he held me in place. His face held a focused look, and I could tell he was tiring. "So you don't have a large supply of aura. That's why you have the submachine guns of yours." I said.

In that moment I lost my focus and Ren took his chance. Kicking one of my legs out from under me and rolling away. Picking up one of his submachine guns as he stood, aiming, and firing. I felt the shots again as they shaved away at my aura. "Actually these are just the rounds I use for tournament style duels." He replied. I took my scroll from my pocket and activated the aura meter. It hadn't really reduced much since his attack that sent me flying. These bullets weren't doing it for him against me since I had trained for years to have a surplus of aura.

I put the scroll back into my pocket and charged Ren again throwing my last knife as I passed over my first one and picked it up. Ren blocked it easily enough and rolled out of my way, retrieving his other gun and firing with both. I narrowed my eyes as I thought about his movements. He is trying to wear me down; he knows that he can't take the force of my attacks without taking big hits to his aura. That was when I felt my concentration slip. Oh no, not now. My serious mind set faded and my playful self surfaced.

"Well if you want to play tag then don't be upset when I win." I said and charged forward. Moving faster than I had before and reaching him faster than he had anticipated. He struck with the blades on his guns trying to stop my forward movement. I ducked and shot out my foot, catching him in the midsection and following up with and upper cut from my empty hand.

His blades met my back as he dropped his hands to land a counter hit of his own. But while his aura dropped further into the yellow, mine dropped to just above half. He staggered backwards slightly and fired again with both pistols. At this close of range every shot landed; I felt them like dozens of knives lightly poking at me.

I saw my Aura really start to drop now as it entered the yellow. "That tickles," I said ducking and grabbing both of his wrists yanking them to the sides and dragging him down as I rolled onto my back. Placing a foot on his stomach as he fell on me and kicking him onto his back. He tried to spin and land on his feet but couldn't as I still held his wrists. He dropped his guns again as I rolled to a couched position over him. "Déjà vu," I said before throwing punches. He did his best to not use his aura but eventually had to as I switched to the knife in my hand.

Creating the force field again as I pounded away at it with my fist and knife. Finally Goodwitch called a stop to the match as Ren's aura entered the red. "That's enough. As you can see students, these are two very different fighters. Ren uses close quarters fighting to draw in his enemies and chip away at their aura to render them exhausted. However Ike here has an unusual amount of aura, which saved him in the long run as he was able to identify his opponents weakness and exploit it." I helped Ren up as I regained the rational side of my mind. "In the field Ren's fighting style will draw the Creatures of Grimm close so he can finish them with his martial arts abilities. While Ike can last long enough to decide what the best course of action is to defeat his opponent. However, Ike might want to learn to dodge attacks as the much large Creatures of Grimm could do a lot more damage than Ren's fists could."

I'm going to have to rethink how I consider me playful side… maybe reckless. I thought as we descended the steps as Goodwitch continued. "In the end, Ren's lack of stamina was his undoing against someone who has a lot of it. That's all we have time for today, be sure to practice for next class. You are dismissed." Nora was on Ren the moment he was off the stairs.

"Ren!" she turned to me with a glare that said that I was about to have my head torn off. But Ren straightened up and grabbed Nora's shoulder.

"I'm fine Nora, just tired." He turned to me as his teammates and team RWBY surrounded us. "That was a good fight. I'm glad I was able to finally see your skills." He held out his hand and I tool it.

"Likewise, I was hoping I could have seen them sooner, but at least it finally happened." I turned to the others that surrounded us. "I will hopefully be able to see all of your abilities soon enough as well." Turning to Pyrra, I continued. "In the time it took me to read through the guidelines of the class you managed to beat your opponent. I wasn't able to witness them this time. But I fear that you'll have to fight someone on your level so I can get the full affect." I said.

"I guess so. By the way you're on team IV aren't you? Where is your leader?" Pyrra looked around briefly before I answered.

"She takes her classes in the morning. We don't share any class this semester." I replied before Ruby chimed in.

"Well it's time for us to get back and study." She said, leaving with Blake and Yang. Where was Weiss? I wondered but was immediately replaced with the fact that I have a class in 20 minutes and deed to change back into my uniform.

"I should go to. I need to change before my next class. I'll see you guys around." They wished me luck as I headed back to my room and found Velvet on her bed studying. She looked up at my return and immediately went back to studying. Sheesh not even a hello. I guess she is still a little mad at me for earlier. I changed quickly on the opposite side of my bed, not wanting to be to distracting to her. Once I was back in my uniform I headed to the door.

I paused for a moment and looked back. "I'll be back later." Velvet said nothing, choosing to simple wave her hand to indicate that she had heard me. Sighing I opened the door and headed to professor Port's Grimm studies class.

Playful my ass that was brutal. Sorry Lie Ren but next time I won't get away so easily. I had originally meant for Ike to fight Yang. But I didn't know how Ike would be able to win without his fire dust bombs in his wings. Anyway, if you guys are either grabbing the hints or slightly confused with the relationship between Ike and Ozpin, cool. As always let me know what you think, Likes or dislikes, concerns or Phobias. Submit reviews, I really enjoy what you, the reader, has to say. Eternal Out.