Author's Note: New chapter. Enjoy.

Beacon hadn't changed in the few day's she'd been gone and she wished that that fact could bring her some comfort. The academy meant so much to her, yet returning didn't feel like anything special, and she couldn't help but think the school's wonder hadn't finally lost its hold on her. It was nice being back, finally having time to relax after several days of travel and a hard fought battle, but Pyrrha had never found comfort in the same things as other people.

Allos cut down quickly towards its target, only to be caught by two swords that hovered in front of her target as eight more moved to strike her; four either side. Pyrrha ducked down, lifting her shield up to the side to stop the four to her left as she pulled back causing two of the swords on her right to miss. The two that struck failed to hit their intended target, rather than scoring a strike on her upper torso they grazed her arms.

Penny followed through quickly, using the momentum of her two swords that flew over Pyrrha's head to spin and launch another attack with the other eight. The former champion smiled as she was forced back, disengaging lest she be overwhelmed by the sheer number of weapons moving to attack her. Dodging and moving between the blades was difficult, but as the first swing missed, the swords split up rather than continue to attack all at once. It gave her the window she needed to parry and doge out of the way but it became a constant onslaught that felt more like fighting five opponents than one.

Breathing heavily, Pyrrha bent backwards under an overhead swipe; placing her hand on the ground as she did and pushing off to launch herself through the small window that would be left open in between the Winter Maiden's attacks. It was a long distance, even had she been at her best as she had been in her past life it would have been a near impossible feat but, with a bit of thrust from the Maiden powers within her, she was launched back and far enough away that Penny couldn't follow up immediately.

Pyrrha used that time to store her shield, transforming it back into a sheath that she attached at her side. Rather than using Allos two handed, she kept her left hand open. Penny recognized the danger and hesitated, despite her strength, she was new to the Maidens and didn't know what they were capable of. That moment of hesitation gave Pyrrha the window she needed to seize the initiative, allowing her to rush forward and drive the android back.

Penny deflected Allos with a blade as she again tried to use the momentum of the other nine to strike, just as she had done the first time Pyrrha had pushed her back. The swords went over her head and moved around to Pyrrha's unprotected side. Allos was still pinned by the final sword, unable to move to intervene or stop the attack from landing. As the nine swords swung however, they impacted a solid pillar of ice before they met their target.

Aura allowed for many near impossible feats, some of which were more easily noticeable than others. While Aura itself didn't increase one's strength, it helped build muscle and strengthen the user as they made their attack. Penny didn't have muscle however, although that wasn't necessarily a weakness. Her swords didn't get stuck in the ice, instead powering through and slicing the sudden obstacle with ease; they did slow down, however, and Pyrrha was finally able to disengage Allos and drop. Her hand had already slipped back to her waist, drawing her shield and holding it above her head.

Slowed as they might have been, the impact of nine swords on metal shook her arms violently as they pinged off. The moment the final blade impacted and moved back around, Pyrrha struck. Placing her sword hand down and kicking out with her legs she managed to trip Penny before she could respond.

Pyrrha was on her feet a half second later, pointing the tip of her blade down at Penny as she heaved for air. Penny appeared unaffected, although whether she felt exhaustion in the same way as regular humans did was a matter for debate. Despite the battle and how exhausted she felt, Pyrrha smiled brightly and Penny returned it without hesitation.

That was what she liked most about the girl. There was no sense of self importance or stress over the idea of winning. She enjoyed the spar as much as Pyrrha had, and that was enough. The fact she had lost meant little. If more people were like her, the world would be a better place. Then again, it would have also been an awkward one when they realized Penny was about as bad at social interaction as Ruby, for markedly different reasons of course.

"I think I understand what you mean now." Penny took Pyrrha's hand and stood, even if the effort took more work than expected on Pyrrha's part. It was easy to forget by the way she moved, but Penny was not a light person. "Rather than using your powers offensively, you look for windows of opportunity to catch your opponent unaware. That's quite smart!"

Pyrrha nodded softly. That had always been her philosophy when it came to utilizing her strengths. She was a good fighter of course, so relying on her sword and spear skills wasn't exactly a hindrance, but using her mind in addition to her physical weapons had always proven advantageous. Keeping a few tricks up her sleeve had saved her from defeat many times before, though now it would hopefully save her life.

"Miss Nikos is right." Ozpin finally chimed in, up until then having been content to allow her to lead the training session. "But it is important to keep in mind that it is her technique; something to learn from, but not one to copy. Find what feels natural, be that subtly or a more direct approach."

"But always maintain control." Pyrrha finished for him, stressing the importance of the fact she had come to understand. "Emotion can drive them, but the Maiden power is limited if it relies on your feelings at any given moment."

Penny nodded, her smile never faltering. "Is Magic the same?"

"Not quite." Pyrrha shook her head. "Magic requires complete control to be focused and properly utilized, any use due to emotion is… dangerous." And incredibly painful, she didn't add. Her thoughts drifting back to the old church in Mistral. She could still feel the phantom pains of that whenever she used her Magic, though it grew fainter every day. It was best not to linger on that too long, however, lest she pain return. "Hold out your hand."

Penny did so, turning to face farther into the forest. The Emerald Forest was perhaps a bit more dangerous than most of their available training areas, but secrecy was important. While Pyrrha was a known Maiden, the hope was that Penny wasn't just yet. It would be an important advantage in the battle to come, when Cinder inevitably attacked them, but only so long as they could keep any spies from finding out. So, rather than train in the school proper, they had moved out into the forest. A fact that Pyrrha was partly regretting as Penny tried to fire a controlled burst of flame but instead launched an inferno at a nearby tree. The panic was quick to come but thankfully so too was her response. Taking a deep breath, Pyrrha summoned a large ice crystal on top of the tree, the flames melting it and helping to douse themselves. That prevented it from spreading at least.

"I am so sorry!" Penny cried out. "I was just so excited to have managed it! I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay Penny." Pyrrha smiled for her friend's benefit. "This is why we're training. Do you see what I meant about control? In a battle that kind of attack might be useful, but it might also be a hindrance."

Penny nodded awkwardly. "I thought I understood that… I don't know why this is so difficult."

Pyrrha placed a hand on her shoulder. "Controlling your emotions is hard, it's part of being human."

Penny looked down at the forest floor. "I'm not-"

"None of that." Pyrrha poked her nose as Nora had once done to her, It served both to get the girl to look up at her and help dispel the tension. "You're human in every way that counts."

"I believe it is time we head back to the school." Ozpin said. "You have both trained enough for today."

Ozpin walked with them until they reached the school grounds proper, an unofficial border where the treeline slowly gave way to open fields that lead up to the school itself. Penny knew it well enough, her memory being far better than any usual person; she was able to simply recall a map of the grounds on command. Hearing her explain that had been both terrifying and cool. Pyrrha knew for a fact that, in time, Penny would be a strong Maiden. Stronger than her by far. She'd also never age or grow older as the previous Winter Maiden had.

It was fully possible Penny may be the last Maiden of her kind, even as the rest of them continued to pass on the power. She couldn't help but wonder if that hadn't been the purpose for her construction. If the General hadn't backed Dr. Polendina's project knowing that she would be an invaluable asset in their war against Salem. Knowing James as she did, it was almost certainly a thought that had crossed his mind; though whether that was the sole reason or not she couldn't say.

As Penny walked off towards the school she waved back at them, her smile as bright as ever. Pyrrha waved back with a smile of her own.

"She is making good progress." Ozpin said. "She will be a powerful Maiden in time."

Pyrrha hummed. "I think so too. She'll probably be your best ally in the next couple generations."

Ozpin actually hesitated at that, seemingly the idea never having crossed his mind. "Perhaps, but let us not jump to the next generation just yet. There is still much to be done with the current."

"Of course, Sir." Pyrrha nodded. "I've kept up my training with Magic while I was away. Simple things here and there to make sure I didn't fall behind, and the battle itself… I relied on my Magic more than I would like to have."

"Battle is chaotic, it is no weakness to seek to leverage your every advantage in such a case." Ozpin replied. "But there is something else on your mind." Pyrrha looked back at the Headmaster with a raised eyebrow. "You were distracted when we started our lesson, then quickly sought a spar as a demonstration. You often do so when something is weighing on your mind."

Pyrrha sighed, it was easy to forget sometimes that Ozpin was often observing every small detail, seeing things that one might wish he hadn't, but she couldn't fault him for overanalyzing. He was right.

"I'm worried about Cinder." Pyrrha answered honestly, gripping Allos' hilt to calm her nerves. Her hand even moved for Qrow's flask on her belt, only stopping because of present company. There hadn't been any new leads as a result of their victory at Fort Malik. They had information on the White Fang now, but nothing on Cinder. None of the people they captured had ever even heard of her. "They led us to Vacuo so that we couldn't follow her from Mistral. "

"It is unfortunate that we could not locate her." Ozpin nodded softly. "But the battle was not lost. Through your action, she has lost two valuable agents in only a few months. They are not easily replaced."

Pyrrha knew that, despite how the Grimm outnumbered Humanity by a magnitude of hundreds, they actually had the advantage here. Any agent of Salem's would be difficult to replace. Nearly impossible in fact, the only reason it could be done at all was because Salem was immortal. Even if it was basically impossible, so long as there was a chance, eventually she would manage it. How Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows came into her service, Pyrrha didn't know, but she knew they wouldn't be easily replaced.

"I know that." Pyrrha replied, running a hand through her brown hair. She had let it down after her spar with Penny, the tugging from her ponytail having grown irritating. "I just wish I didn't have to keep looking over my shoulder."

"Cinder would be a fool to attack you here and now." Ozpin said it so confidently that it boosted her own confidence. She knew from experience that Beacon was far from the impregnable fortress she had once thought of it was, but it was still possibly one of the safest places in the world. "And you are not the same woman you were the last time you faced her. You have grown."

The fact she could reliably use the powers of the Fall Maiden were proof of that, let alone her Magic. In her past life, what little of the power she had managed to get had been poorly used because she hadn't had the time to learn how to use it. Now, she was better; not as good as someone like Fria had been, but still strong enough to hold her own. Once you factored in her Magic, she was confident she could beat Cinder in a fight. The only issue was that Cinder would know that, or at least be hesitant to engage her in a fight without some kind of power of her own.

The Fall and Winter Maidens were both at Beacon, a consolidation of power Pyrrha had voiced her small concerns about. Apparently that had been more common in the past; even to the point of all four Maidens working together on missions. They were the framework that modern Huntsmen teams had been based on. For the time being their enemy wouldn't even know that the Winter Maiden had left Atlas.

Raven Branwen was of course the Spring Maiden and, if Salem knew that fact, she might have been a more viable option for Cinder to try and kill. Despite how much Pyrrha hated the woman, her skill could not be denied, and her Semblance would make keeping her in one place long enough to kill very difficult. Not to mention the fact that there were reports of her working with Colonel Aurelian. Distant reports, only whispers really, but the General had seemed convinced enough by it and so was Pyrrha. Raven was just as well protected as the rest of them then, even if she was isolated.

The only Maiden unaccounted for was Summer, and Ozpin assured her that was not a recent development. She had been missing for decades apparently, having taken her duty of guarding the powers seriously enough to isolate herself from the rest of the world. No one knew where she was now, though that also meant that their enemy wouldn't be able to find her. If the leads on Cinder were sparse, the leads on the Summer Maiden were non-existent. It was a risk, but it was as much a blessing as it was a curse.

Despite knowing all of that, Pyrrha hadn't rested easy the night before. "I need to be stronger."

"You have trained enough for today." Ozpin said firmly, looking at her in a way that made it clear he would not be swayed on that point. Thankfully, she hadn't meant physical training. She would have preferred to do more, but she was willing to defer to others when it came to her own limits in this case lest she burn herself out.

She shook her head. "Not like that, I need to understand more about Magic. About how it works."

Ozpin didn't look fully convinced, but he also saw that she had a point. "I am always available to answer whatever questions you may have."

"The vaults." Pyrrha asked quickly. "When I entered them… I felt the Magic in their creation."

Ozpin hummed curiously. "That is quite impressive, latent Magic can be difficult to detect. Though, I will admit, I may have been sloppy when making them. There were only two of us on the planet capable of detecting it after all. And she would recognize my work easily enough."

"I wanted to ask how?" Pyrrha said. "And why, what purpose does the Magic there serve? What else can it do? Could I-"

"You spoke with Ambrosius, didn't you?" Ozpin interrupted her with a smile. "He has that effect on people."

Pyrrha blushed awkwardly. She hadn't kept that information from him, it just hadn't come up. She'd only been back a day or two and in truth she had spent most of that time focusing on training. Both herself and Penny.

"The purpose of latent Magic is to maintain the Vaults without my direct interference." Ozpin explained. "Otherwise I would have to be consciously maintaining them, something that is quite impractical."

"Does it weaken you?" Pyrrha asked. Creating the Maidens had apparently taken a large portion of his power, yet he had still been able to give Qrow and his sister the ability to transform. She couldn't help but wonder how much was required to pull that off.

"Not permanently." Ozpin said simply. "It took time for me to recover of course, using that much power is exhausting as I'm sure you can imagine, but it was a creation of my power, not a fraction of it. The distinction is small, but significant. When I created the Maidens, I gave up a large portion of my power to make it happen."

"But I could create a new vault if I wished?" It was more an idle curiosity than anything else. The idea was a fantastical one, but the fact it was a real possibility had eaten away at her since she had left the Vault of Creation.

"Certainly. You could even designate who can and can't enter, so long as you gave them a fraction of your own power. Something I would not advise." Ozpin smiled softly. "As useful as the Maidens have been, it has been… troublesome, on occasion."

"People like Cinder?"

"Oh, of course," Ozpin's smile took on a more humorous tone. "Also the drama. Four girls who never met before having to work together to save the world. Each wielding power beyond normal comprehension. The arguments were the worst."

Pyrrha laughed softly, smiling at the joke. Ozpin was good at that when he wanted to be. Capable of dispelling the tension just as easily as he could command a room.

"Magic is not all powerful, however." His smile fell away slowly. "If it were, then I believe we never would have found ourselves in this situation to begin with. Magic can do a great many things, but no matter what it is you seek to do, it comes at a cost. A trade off of power and energy that must be found equal. You may not think so as you create a storm with little more than a flick of your wrist, but you are expending energy, it's just an energy you are capable of replacing. Not all Magic is so simple. Some… enact a higher cost. Curing an illness may sound simple, but it is not. You must know what you are doing, exactly what the illness has done, and what you wish to alter. It is just as simple to accidentally kill the person you are seeking to heal."

"Was Magic used for healing in your time?"

"Somewhat." Ozpin replied. "But not to cure, rather to alleviate the symptoms. That was less risky, only the most talented would consider anything more. And only the desperate would seek to reverse death."

Pyrrha's smile finally fell. "Could it be done? Bringing someone back from the dead, I mean."

Ozpin looked to her, but it seemed as if he looked through her as well. He blinked later and the look was gone, but it had been there all the same.

"That is a question I have asked myself time and time again." He said. "In theory… perhaps. Not when the Gods watched so closely, not when the natural order was so crucial, but now that they are gone… I think it is possible, but the price would be steep. Too steep. What could ever equal the value of a life?"

Pyrrha desperately wished to change the subject. "I've been straining Allos by using it with my Magic, is there anything we could do to strengthen it?"

Ozpin smiled once more, no doubt noticing the change in subject but willing to to go on with it. "Hmm, perhaps, but I'm afraid you would have to be the one to do it. My Magic is too weakened as it is."

"Will you teach me?" Pyrrha asked hopefully.

"Of course." Ozpin replied quickly.

"Could you also teach me how you did that thing to Qrow?" Pyrrha's smile took on an edge, something that she could see in the reflection of the Headmaster's glasses. "I might need to turn Coco into a bird if she keeps making jokes about me retuning from Atlas with a girl."

"In time." Ozpin chuckled warmly. "For now, why don't you try and get her back the appropriate way."

"And how should I do that?" Pyrrha asked desperately. "Coco's pretty much impervious to embarrassment."

"Oh?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "No one is immune to such, just adept at hiding it. Ask how she got her signature beret. It's quite the story as I recall."

"Didn't it used to be Velvet's?" She had used it to try and hide her ears if she remembered the story correctly. Something Coco had been thoroughly displeased with after finding out.

"Yes, but did she ever tell you how she got it?" Ozpin's smile took on a look that reminded her scarily of Qrow. "Ask. I believe you will find it quite amusing."

Pyrrha made a mental note to do that as they slowly made their way into Beacon proper. "Thank you for your time, sir. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I should have a few minutes to speak to you after classes, I will try to teach you what we discussed then." Ozpin stepped away and towards the tower where his office resided. "Have a pleasant evening, Amber."

Author's Note: Yeah, okay, a little bit exposition heavy but hey, I needed to lay some guidelines and rules. Plus, I wanted that training with Penny and a good little assessment of what is going on with the rest of the Maiden's etc. Hope it was all interesting and enjoyable.

I hope you enjoyed it and, as always, don't forget to review and let me know what you think.

Sincerely, SE