"Team meeting!" I called out, gathering everyone's attention.

We were lounging in our room, after a day of school. It had been three weeks since I had begun my armor, two weeks since I placed an order with the SDC for a bunch of Gravity dust, week since they told me I couldn't just 'buy that much Greater Dust at one time, and certainly not over the phone'.

Something about terrorism.

Regardless, Pyrrha ceased moving from where she was walking out the door, Ren put his book down, and Nora kept jumping on her bed. That was the best I would get out of her, so I let it go.

"Okay, so who wants to get paid from that Temple run?"

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "You didn't get your quest off of the notice boards, why are we getting paid?"

I raised both of my eyebrows in return. "You're complaining?" I asked, just to be sure.

"I'm not exactly in need of money."

"Fine, then your share will become this year's 'Team Activity Fund'." I pulled out 20,000 Lien and threw it on my bed. I withdrew two more bundles like it and handed them out to Ren and Nora. I was met with eyes wide and jaws agape.

"Torga, we can't take this…" Ren muttered as he stared at the cash in my hand. I rolled my eyes.

"Ren, you're going to take it. You are going to say 'Oh, thanks Torga, I can cover any damage Nora causes with this.'" I turned to the girl in question. "Nora, you are also going to take this money. That can buy you enough pancakes for the rest of the year."

They did not move, so I just threw the bundles at them and reached back into my inventory.

They caught the money and pocketed it. I pulled out the box that was in one of the slots, but wasn't prepared for how big or heavy it was and staggered a step before I managed to get my aura on and steady myself.

Forever Fall Temple Chest

A chest filled with your rewards for clearing the mini-boss of Forever Fall Temple, as well as the items gained while inside the Temple proper.

The chest was ornately decorated, enough so that I would probably be keeping it in our room for anything I didn't feel like putting in my inventory. No clue what that might be but hey, maybe it could be for team belongings like loot or It was a dark wood, inlaid with intricate brass vines. The lock was a dark metal, though with a quick check I made sure it was unlocked. No doubt I could have picked it if it was, it wouldn't be the first chest I'd broken into.

I pulled the lid open, and inside I found a few bottles, a couple of books, a few bones and Grimm items, and a large stack of money. There was a decent amount of room left inside, making me wonder why it was so big in the first place. I pulled out the money first, slowly counting it up; Math was still not too easy for me but the gains in INT from class definitely helped. It was around 10,000L, pocket change to me at this point but I tossed it in the still open inventory window regardless. I picked up the first bottle, an oblong red one, and let out a whoop as I Observed it.

Potion of Vigorous Healing

Restores 200 HP

The others were equally if not more useful, considering I almost never lost HP anyways.

Potion of Vigorous Aura

Restores 200 MP

Potion of Well-Being

Restores 100 HP, 100 MP, Cures Minor Status effects

Potion of Cure Poison

Grants immunity to poison for 5 minutes and negates the effects of poison already in the bloodstream.

I put all of those into my inventory, contemplating the potion of Well-Being. Could it help Velvet, I wondered, would her condition be classified as a minor status effect or was it worse? I grimaced as I remembered she couldn't drink it then moved on to the rest of the haul.

I took out both of the books.

You have obtained the Skill Book 'Double Strike'! Would you like to learn this skill?

[Yes][No]

You have obtained the Skill Book 'Shed'! Would you like to learn this skill?

[Yes][No]

I said yes for both, and while Double Strike disappeared, Shed remained in my hand.

ERROR!

You have insufficient VIT!

You cannot learn this skill!

Requirements:

20 VIT

I shrugged and threw open my Status screen.

Name: Torga

Age: 17

Level: 23

Race: Human

Title: Beacon First-Year Student

Status: Healthy

XP: %26.35

HP: 540

AP: 632

STR: 11

VIT:14

AGI: 14

INT: 23

WIS: 51

LUK: 10

STAT: 39

The only significant change I would need to make is an extra six points towards VIT and that skill would be mine. Yet, just with Ren beating me up in our training, I had already grown four levels in a short amount of time… Maybe I should keep along with my plan of just training up the physical stats. Of course, the best thing would be to just get more levels, but it isn't as simple as that. Enemies to fight were numerous beyond the wall, I just had no opportunity to get there. Four levels may not have seemed like much, but it was me becoming half again as durable as I was

"Now that we've distributed the goods," I started, but Ren cut me off.

"Can I take a look at that book?" Pyrrha asked. I thought about saying no for a second.

"Sure, just be careful with it. I can't learn it yet but I might be able to later on and I wouldn't want to miss out."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not lighting it on fire I just want to see if I can read it."

With a shrug I tossed it over to her.

"Now." I said, turning to Ren and Nora. "Whatever goes in this chest from now on, belongs to the team. I'll put some money in there to start and maybe leave a couple of the Grimm objects if you guys want to poke around. Rules are as follows: If it doesn't benefit the whole team, don't use the money for it. That being said, I have a decent amount of money. If you want to upgrade your weapons or armor, it will help the team so go for it. Is there winter here?"

"Yep!" Norah said mid bounce with a smile.

"Joy and wonder." I said flatly. "How bad does it get?"

Ren piped up. "In Vale we receive an average snowfall of up to a foot every couple of weeks."

Pyrrha closed the book, apparently finished with it. She threw it back and I moved my inventory window over to catch it midair, but it just phased through and hit the floor. I sighed and picked it up. There went my plan for catching peoples ammunition when they shot it at me. I placed it into my inventory just fine.

"Your winter is my summer." I chuckled. "You can get winter gear if you'd like but I'm not going to bother."

"Aura keeps you warm." Nora supplied.

"Yea, and what happens when you run out?"

Ren and Nora looked at each other. "Don't let it run out."

I snorted once before seeing that they were completely serious. "That's your plan? Hope that you never get beat in a fight and have to run?"

"That's why we're here." Ren said, somewhat angrily.

I hesitated slightly but I couldn't have this kind of behaviour. "I'll try to break it down with a bit of a reminder. I came from where?"

"A village, you said."

I nodded. "I came from a mill, just chopping wood and minding my own business. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, my entire life was flipped." I looked pointedly into Ren's eyes. He was glaring back at me with an indistinguishable blend of emotion.

"You already told us."

I nodded again. "I never told you that at first, I ran. I ran deep, deep into the woods and stayed there for a long time. I was afraid, of the dragon, which I had been raised to believe were myth, I was afraid of the Empire with their soldiers everywhere, and I was afraid of going home, of facing my empty house and dormant land, of trying to resume normality when I knew I couldn't."

"Everyone gets afraid."

I nodded. "You're right. That's a part of life. But so is facing that fear. This is all about one thing though. I had no power when I faced those fears. I had nothing but the clothes on my back and some secondhand gear yet still, I slayed a dragon. Was it hard? Fuck yea it was hard. But I did it with my own body, with no special power. Then, once I became the Dragonborn, it was a multiplier. I could do alright on my own, hold people off, then Shout them into Oblivion. Even my stats show the truth. When I increase my physical stats, it increases my abilities when I'm using Aura as well. Don't rely on Aura so much is what I mean."

"We can only fight the Grimm with Aura to strengthenstrengthen us." Ren shot back.

"Bullshit, I didn't get my aura unlocked until initiation."

"You almost died."

I grimaced. "Killed a Grimm first though. And survived a crash-landing."

Pyrrha softly spoke. "It's true."

"We can go to the Temple, practice on skeletons, and train. It'll be good for all of us."

"Velvet got hurt in there Torga, and she's a second year!" Pyrrha countered almost immediately, breaking my concentration with the completely uncompetitive staring match I was having with the ninja.

"She didn't get hurt because of that place. She got hurt because she tried to be me, and that doesn't work so well when you aren't me." I retorted. "Up until then, we had barely been touched. I know that the only reason my aura was low was because I was using skills against the Taijitu."

My team looked slightly apprehensive, so I dropped the bait as I stood. "I'm going, I just want to know who's coming with me."

Ren sighed as he looked away. "Are you leaving right now?"

I glanced at my scroll. "We should probably leave soon if we want to fly instead of walk."

Pyrrha strode over in front of the door. "No."

I raised an eyebrow and glanced over. "Excuse me?"

She gave a meaningful glance at the other set of partners on our team, and they promptly vanished out the window. "Hey, that was going to be my thing!" I shouted after them.

"Sit." When I opened my mouth to protest that I was perfectly fine standing, I thought better of it and instead sat on my bed.

"What seems to be the issue?"

"I know what you're doing. It's deplorable and disgusting and if you knew anything about people you wouldn't have even tried that tactic with those two." She fired. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?!" I drew back slightly. Pyrrha wasn't the type to get angry easily.

"I-"

"Sh. You know how old they were, when their village was attacked and razed to the ground by the Grimm? They were 8 and 9. The only survivors of that tragedy. They have abandonment issues, Torga! Nora almost never leaves Ren's side, and you probably can't tell but when she does, Ren is afraid until she returns. Then you go dangle the knowledge of 'Oh, I'm going off to a dangerous place on my own. You don't have to come, but I could die if you don't'. What made you think they would ever say no?!"

"I never once thought that they would say no." I said slowly. "I thought you might, but I never doubted them."

She flinched back. "Truly, you think I would leave you to go alone?" At my silence, she whirled about and pulled the door open, but for once, I was fast enough. I stood in the doorway with arms crossed and while she could have easily engaged and defeated me, she stopped.

"Sit with me. Let's talk this over." She still looked like she was deciding between bolting or not. After a couple of seconds her hand left the door and her shoulders slumped slightly as she made her way to her bed and I to mine, after closing the door of course.

"I do think you would leave me to go, but not alone. You were there with us, you know Nora could have done that by herself if it really came down to it. If Ren and Nora were with me, you would still let me go, just as you're planning on doing."

"I wasn't going to do anything of the sort." She retorted.

"Oh?" I inquired. "You would come along?"

"I would inform Ozpin that you're leaving without a second-year chaperone or a teacher."

My eyes narrowed. "You would get between a man and his training?"

Her eyes narrowed back. "You would get between a team and their cohesion?"

"How is this ruining team cohesion? We're going on an expedition to fight Grimm and undead abominations. Is that not literally in the job description?"

"I won't have my friends hurt because you want to get stronger!"

I growled angrily. "I won't have my team hurt because I wasn't strong enough! I have the opportunity to become so powerful that literally nothing could stand before me. I want to get that power, destroy the Grimm and help this world usher in an era of balance, if not peace, then go home. That's it."

She paused. "... We should really sit as a team and have this talk."

"Yea, which is why I'd called a team meeting, then you went and sent the others away. That's how rumors start, Pyrrha."

"I didn't send them away."

"Sure. So are you going to come along or not?"

She huffed and stood. "I'm going to see Ozpin. If you can get out of Beacon before I get there, you'll be home free."

I sighed. "Only until I get back. Stop acting like we're all going to die. Besides, I meant to say 'Are you coming along to go and talk to Ozpin about getting a teacher to come with us for safety'."

"That's not the point!"

"Then what in Oblivion is your problem with me!" I snapped, shouting angrily. "Ever since we fought the White Fang in that weapon store, your relationship with me has only deteriorated. Even on days when we barely talk! No matter what I do, you hate me more and more with every passing day. Why?!"

"You can see things like that..?"

"You knew I could see things like that! I mean, I don't look at it too much because it feels so weird and impersonal. You, however, I actually cared that it was falling, for the first little bit anyways. Now it just seems inevitable. So, answer my question. What is the source of your resentment?"

She grit her teeth and looked at me with anger in her eyes. "I still remember the man who used to be in that body. Everyone else seems to have forgotten, and don't even ask me why your parents haven't been told that their son doesn't exist anymore, but I remember Jaune. Somebody has to." She was looking down.

My breathing slowed as my anger dissipated into uncomfortable guilt. "Pyrrha…"

She looked up and her eyes were slightly wet. "What happened to him?"

"If he made it into Beacon, I'm sure he could survive Skyrim. Especially if he ended up in my armor, he wouldn't even feel a cold breeze." I didn't add that Paarthurnax would probably decimate him but she didn't need to know that his likely mode of death was being cooked.

"You really think so..?"

I thought about that status of my body when I first got here, and of my body when I had left. The sheer difference in size, weight, muscle strength and endurance, hell, he would have to learn how to walk in armor, down from the Throat of the World with the Thu'um which would kill him to use, and successfully impersonate me, with all of my accomplishments, adventures, skills, and duties. Assuming he even made it back to Whiterun, which is a laughable notion at best.

"Yes." I lied. "He'll probably get this body back when I leave. Lucky him, I'm taking great care of it."

She let out a choked laugh and leapt across the space between our beds and gave me a crushing hug. "I'm so sorry."

Before I even thought about it, my arms wrapped themselves around her tense body. We spent a brief moment like that, in silence, before she pulled back. I smoothed my shirt as she awkwardly ran a finger under her eyes, clearing makeup or something like that.

I stood and offered my hand out to help her up. With a smile that I could honestly say made my day, she took it and we opened the door, still hand in hand, to see the entirety of Team RWBY along with Ren and Nora. "Traitors…" I muttered darkly. Pyrrha tried to yank her hand out of mine but I wouldn't let her run away and let me face this alone, even though it was the very first thing I contemplated doing to her when I saw Yang's dark look.

"So… I guess you guys heard about the temple, eh..?" I said, cringing as I realized we would now probably have to walk if everyone was coming. We would all fit in the Bullhead, sure, but we weren't supposed to take other first-year teams and if we were going to Ozpin then we had to go by the book.

"It's called a church, Heartbreaker. Who the hell gets married at 17?" Yang shot back.

"You'd better have a good explanation!" Weiss nagged.

Pyrrha used her semblance to open my glove and retrieve her hand. "It is not what it looks like." She muttered as a blush crept across her face.

I frowned at her. "It sure is. I don't know what you're talking about."

"W-What?"

"Remember what I said about my sister, Mr. Arc." Yang said darkly as she cracked her knuckles.

"Wait wait wait!" I held up my hands. "What does this look like? I have to say I am honestly so very confused."

Nora answered around a mouthful of… something. "Looksh like you and Pywa are a couple."

I raised an eyebrow. "Of course. What else do you call a twosome?"

Nora spluttered and Ren thumped her on the back.

"Torga, stop it!" Pyrrha exclaimed, blush now a deep red.

"Stop what?!"

"Making them think we're together!"

"Aren't we? I thought we were partners, Pyrrha, that really hurts. After all of our talks and bonding."

"Is Pyrrha your girlfriend?" Ruby said in a monotone voice with a monotone face that I couldn't help but find somewhat adorable.

"What's that mean? She's a girl, and she's my- wait, are we friends again?" Pyrrha only nodded, still blushing up a storm. "Okay yes, she's a girl and she's my friend."

Ruby facepalmed as Blake whispered something in her ear. The cat-faunus went back to watching the situation unfold while Ruby tried again.

"Do you see Pyrrha as a romantic partner?"

"What does that mean?"

"Weren't you married?" Ren casually threw out there.

"Yes, I- Oh." I took a second glance at Pyrrha. Long, slender legs, vibrant red hair, piercing green eyes. Hips were a little bit narrow and shoulders were slim, but I knew for a fact that she could fight and defend herself.

"I see Pyrrha as a partner, not as a potential marriage candidate." Yet. She could grow up to become quite the woman.

"Partner as in…." Yang kept going, though a punch to the arm from Ruby made her stop.

"Temple. You were talking about a temple." Ruby stated as if that was that. Which to be fair, it was.

"No I wasn't."

"We're going to the Forever Fall Temple to go and slay some baddies." Nora said, having finally cleared her throat of whatever it was she was eating.

"What kind of baddies?" I was interrupted from answering Yang's question by a ringing from my scroll. I moved back into my room and slid the door shut quietly, though when I whirled around Pyrrha was in the room with me. Ozpin, I mouthed as I picked up the call.

"Good afternoon, Sir."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Arc. I trust you know the way to my office?"

"I do."

"Then please bring yourself and Ms. Nikos up here at your earliest convenience. Don't worry about your pilot, I've taken care of that. See you soon, Mr. Arc."

My face fell as my scroll signalled the end of the call. "Looks like we got called to the principal's office."

She stared flatly at me. "Torga, I saw you check me out in the hall. Please, don't do that in public again."

"Sure, sorry. Hey, you aren't interested in me, are you?"

Her eyes went wide. "So direct!"

I shrugged. "Well, yea. Life is short, brutal, and dangerous in Skyrim. There, if you want someone, you simply talk to them while wearing an Amulet of Mara. Then, if they think you're worth marrying, you go get married the next day. Most of getting to know the person comes after the ceremony."

"Then how do you know if you love someone? What if it's the wrong person?"

"We have no time or energy to waste searching for the right person. Either you can put forth the effort and learn to love your partner, or the Dark Brotherhood usually ends up getting called." I said with a snarl. "I put in effort. Love doesn't come naturally, what comes naturally is mating instinct. Sex comes naturally. Love is un-natural." She appeared to contemplate this.

"Regardless," I interrupted before she could go getting any ideas about us. I don't care what body I'm in, fucking a 17-year-old girl is beneath me. "We should head up to Ozpin's."

She snapped out of her thoughts. "They're all going to follow us, you know that, right?"

I thought for a brief moment. "Nope. Hold on."

"Hold on to wh- TORGA!"

With that, I defenestrated myself.

Featherweight leveled up!

INTERLUDE I

A swirling orb of energy hung in the middle of a perfect hemisphere of a cave. The light bounced out in odd ways, swirling around the room at a visible speed before eventually getting sucked back in.

A man in a brown cloak stood at the edge of the room. There was no door, there were no windows, there was not even a hole for air to circulate. Yet this man was there.

"How long, I wonder?"

A swirling red and black portal opened up on the opposite side of the room, and the man promptly vanished as a black haired woman strode through said portal. The click of her heels on the hard stone floor of the cave was muted.

"You can come out, Jak. I saw you vanish."

"Long time no see, Raven." Jak said as he popped back into existence behind her, making the woman flinch.

"Not long enough."

"I get that a lot. No clue why, I'm such a charmer."

"Give it a rest, we have business to discuss."

Jak gestured to the swirling orb of shifting colours. "It's a bit more lively than last month, that's for sure. But what does that mean, I wonder…"

"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Raven stated.

"On the contrary, my dark and dreary friend. This here is Aura, and have you ever known Aura to destroy without a guiding hand?"

"No. But who says there isn't one?"

Jak pulled out his giant book, and began flipping through the pages. Eventually he stopped flipping, read a little bit, then slammed the book shut. As soon as the covers clapped together, the book vanished. "I do."

"We can't just leave this down here. Someone could come and twist it to their uses."

Jak laughed. "I already tried that. You think some crook will do better with Aura manipulation than me?"

"It isn't a crook I'm worried about." Raven pulled out her scroll. "Damn, no service."

Jak laughed again. "Really? We don't have service 3 miles underground? Do explain why."

Raven snarled, opening a portal above her and Jak's heads. "When you don't have something…"

"You take it." Jak finished, right as his own scroll chimed.

"Lay low, for now. We'll need you as a surprise."

"What, is your dearest brother out of town?"

Raven scoffed and jumped through the overhead portal, with it snapping shut behind her.

"Oh dear, this really isn't good…"

On his scroll, three words flashed beneath an image he knew all too well.

QUEEN HAS PAWNS

A short one but as they say

the plot thickens.

~HHR