Chapter 55: Split Up

Author's Notes

Clarifications from last time: Pyrrha's a fluffy cinnamon roll without a mean bone in her body. It was aura sickness from the time travel bullshit that made her gripe at Russel, spit in the drink, and castrate him with Milo.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

In which the headmaster runs out of trust to spend, and Ren gets the best seats in the house.

"How can I be good enough to be the Spring maiden when I can't even make it to the semifinals?" wailed Nikos. "You should choose Nora instead."

Qrow bit his tongue and didn't mention that it was more or less predetermined by this point. Even if he wanted Nora (which he didn't), there was no way to change it. He, Jaune, and Ozpin were comforting her in the headmaster's office. Winter had flown back to Atlas, and Ironwood had gone with her. Penny was off to fight Nora in the first match of the singles, which started in less than an hour. All three singles fights – both semifinals and the finals – were going to take place one after another. Qrow wasn't sure that was fair, since the finalist might be exhausted from their previous fights, but he didn't make the rules. Ozpin did, and he'd lost all perspective.

Qrow had a hunch, so he'd spoken to Sun after his fight with Team Caiman. Apparently, a 'Faunus rights group' had generously (and anonymously) donated a large quantity of Dust and some upgrades to Sun's staff in hopes that a Faunus might finally win the Vytal Festival Tournament. The rules specifically stated that no participating school could fund or arm participants with unregistered weapons, but Sun said it was okay since the Faunus rights group wasn't a participating school.

Qrow knew better. This was Oz's doing. The headmaster was no longer even trying to hide it. Sun had been a convenient tool to him, nothing more.

"Nikos, you want to know how my first mission as a certified huntsman went?" said Qrow.

"How?" she asked, through teary eyes.

"Oh, it was a disaster. Ray was there, so you might even remember it if you try. Me, Tai, Raven, and Summer were travelling on the road. We had always thought we'd be fighting a million Grimm, but there was a mass murderer in the neighborhood and we were the only team skilled enough to bring him in. Now, this guy was a real psycho. He cut up his enemies and wrote messages in their blood. Tai noticed a pattern – everywhere this guy struck, the Grimm would raze the village exactly two days later. No more, no less. So, we staked out the least defended village we could find. Middle of the night, we started hearing screams from the town's forge. The killer was long gone, but the victim, a scorpion Faunus, was still alive. I still remember the look on that guy's face. He was so afraid that he was going to die. Raven and I scoped out the area in our bird forms while Tai did first aid on the poor bastard with Summer guarding them."

"This doesn't sound like a disaster. It sounds like you saved a man's life."

"We're just getting to the kicker. Raven and I couldn't find heads or tails of the killer, so we flew back to the forge. Oh, you shoulda seen the look on our faces when we realized out the twist. Tai and Summer were both unconscious and full of lethal doses of scorpion venom. The Faunus was the killer. He'd seem us coming a mile away and laid a trap. The mad fucker even cut himself up just so we'd think he was a victim and let our guard down. We fell for it like chumps, and our collective pride took a hit. No one wins everything. Team Stark, for all its success, failed gloriously on our first mission, so don't you feel bad about the silly tournament."

"Thank you. If you don't mind me asking, how did you two save our teammates?"

"Raven dragged 'em both back to Vale while I fought off any Grimm we encountered along the way."

"I thought Raven didn't care about anyone but herself."

"Nah, that came later. Back in the early days, Ray was at worst just a bit of a weird kid. Never mean, just socially stunted and myopic about strength. Honestly, Summer was more of a dick than Raven, though Tai's supposed S-tier dic…l-loving fixed that. As bandit kids, my sister and I didn't get much practice socializing with polite society, so we said what was on our mind without filtering it out. It got us into an embarrassing situation or two. Glynda questioning me if a dress made her butt look fat, Summer rhetorically asking if Ray thought she could do a better job as leader and getting the wrong answer – that sort of thing. Raven only really became an asshole right before she left Tai. Something around Yang's birth really changed her."

"You seem awfully curious about Raven, Miss Nikos," noted Ozpin. "Worry not. I know that I insinuated there was a possibility that the aura transfer process would affect your personality, but it's highly unlikely."

Pyrrha, Qrow, and Jaune held back on informing the headmaster that it already had. Qrow had lost his faith in the man. He wasn't going to do something stupid like defect to Salem, but maybe he could put some distance between himself and the headmaster and go at the enemy solo. It wasn't like he'd be leaving Oz high and dry with no soldiers to fight his battles. The old wizard now had Jaune and Pyrrha and Penny.

…and Rhubarb Rook Rose.

Oh, you crafty old bastard.

Oz had Qrow by the balls. Qrow couldn't ever leave, because if he did, Oz wouldn't hesitate to replace him with his niece. Ruby was the prized silver-eyed chess piece, and Oz was already trying to wrap his tentacles around her. Someone needed to stick around and ensure she didn't get dragged into all of this. She had only just turned sixteen yesterday, for crying out loud!

Oz continued on, unaware of Qrow's turmoil. "While Miss Valkyrie might be a wonderful Spring maiden, I can assure you that you, Pyrrha Nikos, are more suited for the role than any other young woman. You may, of course, back out at any time, but I encourage you not to. While I've no doubt you'd be a scourge of the Grimm, your control of metal is best suited for combat with human and Faunus enemies. Salem has historically chosen humans and Faunus to be her most trusted lieutenants."

"And now Grimm horsemen," Qrow added.

"Yes, and Grimm horsemen," said Oz. "If such things do indeed exist. My point is, with your control of metal, my knowledge of Salem's weaknesses, and Jaune's unique semblance, we could cripple Salem. The two of you coming to Beacon at the same time…I'd say it's almost like destiny."

Oh, course he would. Nikos was a nut for buzzwords like destiny and fate. Qrow still despised Raven, but he understood why she wanted to leave this charade just a little better now.

"I'll do it. It's my duty," said Pyrrha. "I'm a little bit curious, though. Will I instinctively know how to use the powers, or will I have to practice them?"

"Typically, a maiden will be able to use her newfound powers immediately upon acquiring them, as long as she knows of them. You'll be able to shoot fireballs and lightning bolts right away, but it would be like swinging a sword randomly. To use your powers in a controlled manner, you'll need to hone them by rigorous training."

"What about the vaults? I'm to be a guardian of the one in Mistral, right?"

"Yes. You will be the only person in the world who can open the vault of knowledge."

"How exactly do the vaults work?"

"They are called vaults, but they are nothing like combination safes or locked doors. No force on Remnant but you can open them. Inside them is theoretically infinite space and at the same time no space at all. You could walk around for years only to turn around and see the door right behind you. It's best not to ponder them. Magic does not operate by the same principles of time and space that we are accustomed to. The effects can be, eh, strange at times."

Ha. You're telling her.

"Is there any way to know if the vaults have been opened?" asked Pyrrha.

"If the vaults have been opened? Miss Nikos, you'd know if it had been opened because you would have been the one to open it."

"I mean, for other people to know."

Nikos was fishing for something. Qrow could tell, and he felt he ought to try to help her out, or at least deflect Ozpin's line of questioning before he got too suspicious of her.

"I think she wants to know what happens if she has to take out the relic, Oz. Like, say Haven falls. It's not unlikely, given we've lost Leo to the dark side. If Pyrrha took the relic out, would Salem know? Or would she just camp out at the door of the vault thinking it was still inside?"

"Ah. Nothing can pass through the door of a closed vault, and that includes perception. Sensory semblances like my own, technological scanners – it all gets blocked out. There is no way to know whether the relic is inside or not."

"Do relics leave a trace? If I do have to take it and run, is there any way to follow me? And what about the other vaults – are they the same?"

Qrow was pretty sure everyone in the room finally saw where Nikos was going with this, and he felt disappointed that he hadn't thought of it himself. Now that Amber was gone, there was no way to check that the relic of choice was secure in the vault beneath the school.

Ozpin considered it for a moment. "No," he admitted. "The relics leave no trace. In hindsight, not tagging them with some manner of tracking device seems like a missed opportunity. I suppose I assumed that the vault was too well hidden to find, and the maidens too secure to seize by force. If Cinder has stolen the relic, there is no way to recover it short of turning the entire school upside down."

"And we can't just do that," Qrow said, feeling a need to state it out loud before Oz got any ideas.

"Could we discreetly check Team Caiman's dorm?" asked Pyrrha. "She'll be fighting in the tournament, and I'd wager her team will be cheering her on from the stands for appearances sake. We could do it then."

Ozpin shrugged defeatedly. "It's worth a shot. Though I'd wonder why she'd hide a relic in such an obvious place. Only a fool would leave a relic in a place so easily traced back to them."

"Maybe she still hasn't found the vault," offered Jaune, but Qrow knew how these things worked. When something could go wrong, it tended to go wrong as badly as possible.

"Is the relic made of metal?" asked Pyrrha.

"It is," Ozpin said. "Can you search for it?"

"No. I can't detect metals. My semblance is like being able to reach out with an invisible arm and move metals. If I don't know where the metals are, I'm reaching blindly."

"Damn," swore Qrow. "Maybe I should stand somewhere else. I'm probably screwing you guys up with my luck."

"But what if I could blindly reach out to everything?" asked Nikos. The three men turned to look at her. "I was thinking about Nora, and how she managed to make the best of a limited semblance. I can't detect metals, but what if I grabbed onto everything in a room and tried to move it all straight up? Metals would float to the top, and nonmetals would stay where they were."

"Could you do that?"

"Right now, no. I'd consume aura on everything I tried to move, not just the metals. My aura would break in seconds if my semblance's magnetic force pressed against all the stuff in a large area like the library or the cafeteria. But what if I was stronger?"

Qrow snapped his fingers. "The maiden powers will enhance your stamina when you get them! We could methodically go into every room in Beacon, rip metals from their hiding spots, and search through them until we found the crown. You'd have aura to spare."

"There's no time to waste!" Nikos exclaimed, excited. "Headmaster, hook me up into the machine. The sooner we do the transfer, the sooner we can start searching."

Oz said nothing.

"Sir?"

"It's not going to work."

"Why not?" asked Pyrrha. "The principle is sound."

"It doesn't matter. It won't work."

Jaune's brow furrowed. "Sir, I–"

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"

Jaune and Pyrrha backed away as Qrow finally exploded with all the anger that had been building up. Oz seemed surprised that his subordinate was lashing out so violently, but Qrow had had it. This was the last straw.

"We finally get a chance to do something besides sitting around with our thumbs firmly planted up our asses and you outright refuse? Brothers damn it, why not?"

"Don't invoke their name. Qrow, there are things you don't understand."

"Well, explain it to me."

"I've perceived notions that would destroy your mind. I've performed feats of magic the likes of which make your avian transformation seem like a party trick. I've spent centuries learning from the wisest men of every generation in history. I cannot simply…'explain it to you.'"

"Oh, well, excuse my dumb ass for not respecting your infinite wisdom, my liege."

"I don't like it any more than you do, Qrow, but that doesn't change the facts. Let Miss Nikos spend time with her teammates and enjoy the remainder of the festival rather than waste her energy chasing shadows. I will not give my approval to this plan."

"Why, because it doesn't involve cheating in the tournament? Because it doesn't endanger enough children? You've done every stupid thing possible to throw a wrench in Cinder's plans, and you draw the line at searching the dorms? I can't believe this."

Ozpin's handle idly rested on his cane. "Qrow, you need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down. I'm the one who goes out there and bleeds while you sit here in your tower and command good men and women to die for you. I've sacrificed everything for you. Friends, family, my entire life! I know that these things might seem meaningless to an immortal, but it sucks to lose it all and then learn your boss' spine has fallen out and he's decided to play it safe when things finally matter!"

"Do not speak to me of loss. You cannot comprehend how much I've lost."

"No, I comprehend it alright. You lost your humanity."

Qrow and Ozpin stared at one another for what felt like forever. Normally, the headmaster's steely gaze could make the unruliest of students wither, but Qrow was not going to back down.

"Headmaster."

Both turned to Pyrrha.

"I'm going to try it."

"Miss Nikos, I won't allow you to–"

The headmaster's cane flew out of his hands and into hers, causing the old man to crash to the floor.

"You misunderstand. I said I'm going to try it. When Cinder fights her singles match, we'll do the transfer and search Beacon for the relic starting with her room. If you disagree, we'll do it without you."

Ozpin was not deterred. "You cannot operate the machine without me. Not even Ironwood knows how to operate it."

"You said that this was my destiny, and I believe that my destiny had blessed me with a sign. I know for a fact that I will be getting Raven's aura and with it the maiden powers. So, we're going to do this with or without you. The choice is yours if you want to be with us, or…" She trailed off, leaving it ambiguous if she meant 'not with us' or 'against us.'

Oz reached out for his cane, but Pyrrha didn't return it to him. The headmaster was not wanting for long; Jaune handed him Veneficus.

Oz righted himself and smiled at Jaune. "Thank you, my boy. I can always count on you."

"Actually, sir, you said I could change my mind about being your next host. I…I've thought it over, and I think it would be best if I began taking steps to separate us. I appreciate all that you've done for me, but I feel like our goals no longer align."

Ozpin looked aghast. "The Grimm pools…killing Salem…"

"I'll try it on my own. It's my semblance that's critical, not your magic."

"Very well. If that is how you feel, Jaune." The immortal removed his eyeglasses, folded them, and placed them in his pocket.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"No, Jaune. I'm the one who's sorry."

After that ominous line, Qrow half expected Oz to pull out a knife or some shit and stab Jaune in the heart with a maniacal laugh. Instead, to Qrow's great surprise, he began to weep into his hand. The avian huntsman couldn't recall ever having seen Ozpin cry before.

"I'm so sorry, to all three of you. I only every sought the protection and betterment of the world. If we must work towards this goal in parallel rather than together, I shall accept your choices. I'll meet you in front of the vault when Cinder's match begins. Just…know that my door will always remain open to any student of Beacon, past or present."

As Qrow guided the kids to the elevator, he glanced over his shoulder. Right now, Oz didn't look like an immortal wizard who'd waged war since before time began. He was just a sad old man who'd lost his last few friends.

"Let's hear it for Nuh-Nuh-Nuh-NORAAAAA!"

The cheering was so deafening that Ren had to apply his semblance to his ears. He'd vowed to stop using it to drown out his emotions save for life-threatening situations, but pain numbing was still on the table.

"And put your hands together for Penny Polendina!"

Polite, scattered applause. Nothing like the standing ovation Ren's partner had received. Penny used to beloved by all for her valiant Neptune-slaying, but that was yesterday's news. Team Castle was 'in,' and the world was milking them as hard as it could before it inevitably moved on to the next trend. If someone had told Ren that a pair of orphan from the ruins of Kuroyuri would win over the hearts of international audiences and become sensational superstars, he'd have scoffed in their face. Now, he was sipping bubbly soda water out of a mug with his own face on it. The feeling was surreal.

The leader of Team Castle was the real people's champion, with the rest of the team coasting on her fame. Nora, though, had insisted it was a team effort. She claimed that each one of them added an essential element to the team's appeal. Cardin was the bad boy with a heart of gold, fiendish on the outside but in truth devoted to his queen. Ren was their man of mystery, supplying the team with an element of romantic secrecy and mysticism. Sky was the brainy mastermind behind the scenes, always scheming and calculating – you never knew what he'd cook up next.

She was right. It had been a team effort. Sky made the plan, Nora executed it, and Cardin was the bowling ball. Everyone except Ren had participated directly, but his actions were more behind the scenes. Waking Nora up on time, feeding Cardin vegetables so that he got some nutrients, ensuring that Sky was undisturbed by Nora's antics when he formulated their plans – while it was not glamorous, it was just as essential. Every team had their person who made sure the others were okay. Russel Thrush of Team Adventure had best phrased it as the team mechanic, and Ren found himself liking that description.

"Salutations, Friend Nora! I am combat ready!"

"Sal-YOU-tations, Friend Penny! I am wombat ready!"

The two shook hands, and Ren felt prouder than ever before of his partner. This was what Vytal was about – unity. This wasn't a Valean from Mistral fighting an Atlesian. This was two joy-filled friends going at one another and having a great time.

Man, emotions are grand.

"Best of luck to the both of you ladies. Begin!"

No sooner had the words passed from Port's lips than a lightning bolt struck Nora.

Ren, Cardin, Sky, and the rest of the world jumped in their seats. Ren looked up at the evening sky and observed a completely clear view of the heavens. There was not a cloud in sight. A baffled silence fell across the arena.

No one knew what to make of it. No one knew what to say. Penny stared at Nora for a second, then inclined her head. "Did you do that?"

"No. I absorb electricity, not make it. I'm just as confused as you are."

"Well, then," said Port. "I suppose it must have been a freak accident. Weather phenomena such as this are extremely unlikely, but they do happen. Why, when I was a lad in Vacuo, there was a hailstorm, and in the desert no less! I said to myself, 'Peter, you're only chance of survival is to disguise yourself as one of the hails, infiltrate the storm, and assassinate the hail queen!' Boy, was that gal a looker–"

Goodwitch cut him off, turning off his microphone without telling him as he droned on. "Miss Valkyrie, Miss Polendina, please just go ahead and continue the fight. Ignore the interruptions, both weather- and announcer-based."

Penny produced her floating array of swords out the exit hole in her back. "Given your semblance, I do believe this makes you more combat ready than I, Friend Nora. Er, wombat ready."

"Nope." Nora threw down Magnhild to the floor and started doing pushups.

Oh.

Okay.

Today was a weird day.

Does my semblance normally filter this sort of thing out, or make it seem more normal?

"I completely and utterly understand whatever human behavior is happening right now, Friend Nora," said Penny. "But, for the benefit of the audience and not me, would you please explain exactly what you are doing and why?"

"That lightning bolt gave me a burst of juice, and I'm in the zone! But that wouldn't be fair to you. Something like that has to be one in a million, and I'd be cheating if I used such a random accident to win. So, I'm working out the extra energy until I'm back to Nora normal, so I can win this fair and rhomboid! You want to join me?"

"Sure!" Penny retracted her swords into her body and began doing crunches alongside Nora.

Had Ren accidentally taken some mislabeled medication or something?

Sky leaned over to Cardin and whispered, "Is this some kind of straight person thing?"

Cardin knocked him on the head.

Two minutes, exactly sixty nine and a half pushups, and forty crunches later, Nora ceased her workout and rose like a bamboo shoot. "All done!"

"Are you ready to begin, Friend Nora?"

Nora reached down and scooped her hammer for the ground from where it had been set down. "No. I'm ready to win!"

Ren tapped Sky on his shoulder as the fight began with a clash. "What's her strategy?"

"Honestly, I couldn't figure out any real weaknesses in Penny's fighting style. I didn't want to constrain Nora by asking her to stick to some half-baked plan, so I told Nora to go out there and be Nora. We'll just have to count on our leader being tough enough to win."

Nora was presently weaving between swords and smashing them back with her hammer. Penny was twisting her arms around at weird angles to control the attacks. Every time Nora knocked one sword out of the sky, two more came to replace it. Still, both girls were grinning.

"C'mon, you two. This is Queen Nora," said Cardin, as though that explained everything (and to be fair, it kind of did). "Good old hit-it-with-a-hammer-lady herself. She's not going to lose to a tin can. I'd bet on her it if gambling weren't a horrendous, addictive sin that causes even the most reasonable of men and women to fall victim to their own hubris and enter a self-destructive spiral into poverty and iniquity, leaving the lingering effects of the trauma to fall upon their children."

Penny may have been the synthetic one, but Nora was a machine. Not once did she stop moving. Ren hadn't seen her switch Magnhild into a grenade launcher once, as she was too busy swatting away the continuous barrage of swords. Penny wasn't giving her any openings.

"I trust her. I just wish we could help her. I guess I'm not used to feeling anxiety."

"Don't worry, bro." Cardin popped a kernel of popcorn into his mouth. "You'll get used to emotions in no time. Besides, you don't got nothin' to worry about. Queen Nora's gonna kick her cyber-dick in."

"But if she doesn't, her fans will turn on her," said Ren. "They'll say she threw away her gods-given advantage from the lightning bolt out of arrogance."

Penny turned some of her swords into mini-laser cannons, the kind Atlesian warships used. Green lasers began firing at Nora from all angles. Nora took no more than two hits before hopping aboard Magnhild with both feet and launching herself into the sky with a grenade blast.

"I didn't think that would bother you, Ren," said Sky. "Team Castle doesn't need any fame, and we're not seeing a single lien of the profits from all this merch."

"Wait, what? We're not?" said Cardin.

Nora had now straddled Magnhild between her legs like a witch riding a broomstick and was propelling herself by launching grenades. Penny sought to shoot her down with laser artillery, but she was now keeping the swords close to herself in a more defensive position.

"It's not like that," Ren explained. "I just see how the negative energy from all that hate has gotten to Pyrrha Nikos. That poor girl is a mess. I'd hate to see Nora turn out like that."

The three looked over to the Vincible Girl. Sky scratched at his head. "What's up with Nikos, anyways? She never struck me as the sore loser type."

Cardin made a derisive noise. "That bitc…deplorable individual isn't the little goody two shoes the whole world thinks she is. I was just walking by her just yesterday morning, and she slapped my ass! She even had the audacity to say, 'Where were you when I went through puberty?' as I walked away. I swear, you guys, my body never felt so violated, not even when I got kidnapped by Morgs in Forever Fall. RIP to a real one…"

"I thought she was banging Jaune Arc," Sky said. "They were certainly twerking on one another at prom enough to give off that vibe. I guess she's not the faithful type. Poor Jaune; Ren would never cheat on me like that."

"Never," confirmed Ren. "Unless Sun chooses to grow a beard. Then, all bets are off." Sky elbowed him, and Ren smirked. All three boys laughed.

Spaceship Nora had touched down to Remnant again. It seemed that she had made the mistake of trying to get too close to Penny when she landed and was now caught in a cyclone of swords. Just when all hope was lost, a hand emerged out the whirlwind of blades.

"So, Nikos really sexually assaulted you, Cardin?"

"Yeah."

"Did you report it to Beacon?"

"Dust yeah. I'm not going to just let her do something like that and get away with it. I'm still trying to find a way to break the news to Queen Nora. Pyrrha may have no concept of boundaries, but I'm not sure I want her to die."

That was going to be a tough one. It wasn't just because Nora was possessive of her boyfriend. When someone bothered any one of her knights, the queen of the castle was known to roll out the guillotines. She'd already killed Pyrrha once, and she'd do it again if a Castle's chastity was on the line.

"Did anyone do anything about it?"

"Professor Branwen said he'd look into the matter. I could tell he was trying to hold back the laughter. Nothing's going to really happen."

"We can talk to her if you want."

"It's okay. She's not worth it. The weirdest part was that I felt her raging at me with my semblance, but I also felt the absence of anger. It was like I was scanning two people. One of them was furious, and the other was calm as a sea cucumber. A really jerk-ish sea cucumber."

"Was it mood swings? Bipolarity? Dissociate identity disorder?"

"No. Two auras."

Ren sat up in his seat, knocking over his mug onto his lap. "What?!"

"I've been training with semblance. It's not as useless in fights as I thought; I can tell when someone's building up to a strike – at best, I can almost see their attacks before they do it. It also essentially prevents all ambushes, even when my back is turned, because it's always weakly active in a passive way. The one downside is that it doesn't work on normie Grimm or people with broken aura. I think that the way I detect someone's malice is by reading their auras and, by extension, their souls. I say reading, but it feels like…I dunno, tasting. Point is, that morning, Nikos had two separate auras, one full of negativity and one neutral."

Magnhild lay on the floor, discarded. Nora had managed to grab hold of some invisible wire attaching Penny's swords to her back. Slowly but surely, she was dragging her enemy closer and closer towards her. Penny still struggled to break free, but Nora had her right where she wanted her.

"We should have a talk with Pyrrha and make sure everything is alright," proposed Ren. "It's possible she's ill. It could be serious."

"If it's all the same, I'll pass on this one," said Cardin. "You guys go on without me. Though, you may want to bring some backup. If she's as messed up as before, you'll need it."

"Let's grab Nora after the fight and talk to her when Team Rainbow and Team Caiman go next," said Sky. "We can have her back in time for the finals."

"And that's that! Elimination for young Miss Polendina by aura depletion. Join me, everyone. NORA! NORA! NORA!"

Cardin leaned back. "I told you she had this. Oh, ye of little faith."

Ren noticed Pyrrha stand up and walk away. "I'll go follow her. Sky, you get Nora."

Sky nodded and departed.

Cardin nodded at Ren. "If she really is having some problem, just get her help. If not, remind that villain how Queen Nora kicked her ass. Good luck, bro."

"Thanks, bro."

I sure hope we don't need it.

Omake

Nora: *rides Magnhild like a broom*

Glynda: Disqualified. And please see me in my office, Miss Valkyrie. That's a very harmful stereotype that you're perpetuating.

Next Chapter: A Crown for a Queen – In which Ren does his good deed for the day, and Emerald does her bad deed for the day.

Author's Notes

Ozpin's revealed his true colors: he's a billiards addict, and he whittled away his life savings at the pub. Now, with no cash to his name, he's placed bets on Cinder losing the tournament, and there's no low he won't stoop to in order to stop her. Ruby, don't take any steroids from the kindly headmaster - they might be laced with performance enhancing steroids.

Be honest - you thought Oz was gonna viciously 🆈🅴🅴🆃 Jaune in the face to death, didn't you?

Nora wins the tournament offscreen, with Ren and the boys doing a Jojo/DBZ style commentary on the fight.

Cardin's balls have finally been fondled, and Ren decides to take justice into his own hands.

We're racing towards the end now. With only two rounds scheduled for the Vytal Festival Tournament and no more scheduled breaks in between, there shall be no more dead time, breaks, or time skips.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!