(Chapter 8)

(Vale, Beacon Academy)

"For our final match of the day, Pyrrha Nikos will be facing…" The neutral, analytical voice of Glynda Goodwitch cut across the silence that blanketed the room used for combat class. She held a clipboard and scanned over the names of students that she could pit against the promising leader of PRVN. She continued to contemplate potential foes for her before her eyes found a student who hadn't had a chance to participate recently for personal reasons.

"Cardin Winchester." With that, the headmistress sat at her desk with her eyes closed as she took the chance to rest graciously. Both Pyrrha and Cardin made their way to the appropriate locker rooms to prepare themselves for their bout, but what was odd was the smirk that Cardin wore. Ten minutes later, and Pyrrha was the first to return from the locker room, clad in her Spartan armor with her weapons in hand.

The cheering from the student populace when she would enter the ring to fight in class was somewhat bittersweet to her though. While she prided herself on her strength and how she wielded it, she did wish to be treated the same as everyone else but knowing that others admired her strength was a bit of an equalizer, however.

She looked up to where her team and team RWBY were seated and gave them a small smile as she could hear Ruby cheering.

"You got this Pyrrha!" The high-pitched voice of the red reaper called out to her fellow team leader. The young Rose looked over to her teammates and tried encouraging them to cheer for their Spartan friend.

"I almost feel bad for Cardin though," the voice of Yang spoke out, garnering the attention of her friends, "he doesn't stand a chance against P-money." Weiss scoffed from where she was seated as she spoke with a noticeable disdain in her voice.

"Ugh, don't even Yang. If you should feel bad for anyone, feel bad for Pyrrha. She has to waste her time and energy in combat with him of all people." To her side, Blake decided to add her input.

"He is…different though. Did you guys notice?" As she said this, all the eyes of her friends were on her. She received affirmative nods of the head. How could they not notice, it was a mere rumor at first, but one day in the lunchroom, Cardin shocked everyone present by sitting with a faunus student, the very species he was known to terrorize, and being friendly with him. She asked a question to no one in particular, thinking aloud. "I wonder what caused such a change."

The ever-bubbly Nora decided to cut into the conversation, stealing all focus for her own thoughts.

"Who cares! Our Fierce Leader is gonna win this no problem!" As she said this the sound of doors opening could be heard, announcing the return of the ginger-haired mace wielder. As the steps got louder, the faces of the students shifted to expressions of confusion and curiosity as they began to whisper among themselves.

"Well, that's new." The slightly intrigued voice of Vernal spoke out, causing Nora, Ren and team RWBY to look at her, then to where she was looking, their eyes widening as they did so. Glynda had opened her eyes to prepare to start the match and had to pause to observe the tall leader of team CRDL while Pyrrha studied her opposition.

His old armor had been replaced by more streamlined equipment, though it kept its knightly look. His chest plate seemed more compact and form fitting, but still seemed strong enough to repel mighty blows, the protection on his arms had changed as well. Now, his left arm was adorned with a gauntlet that covered him to the elbow, and on his right arm, an upper arm guard with an elbow guard and a vambrace.

His lower body was still protected in the same areas as before but was updated to accompany his new armor set. The color scheme also fitted the tall teen well, his armor's color now a warm shade of black, matching the clothes he wore under well, and the accents to the armor changed from a mystic gold to a sunset orange, matching his hair. Finally, the sash he wore around his waist had changed from a blood red to the same shade of blue as his eyes.

Everyone, regardless of their stance on the reformed bully, could say that his new equipment suited him well. But their focus was more on his weapon, which caused Ruby to shake in excitement at the opportunity to admire a new weapon. His mace still had the dust crystal in the center of the crown, but now the shaft of the weapon was no longer a plain pole.

Now, it had horizontal lines along the shaft, showing that it had been changed to accommodate some form of new feature, but the lower end of the weapon was what drew attention. The lower half of the weapon seemed to sheath into the upper half, and the handle of the mace now resemble the stock and handle of some form of firearm.

The room began to fill with murmurs, before Glynda stood from her seated position with interest, and approached the center edge of the combat ring.

"Settle down everyone," she turned her gaze towards Cardin as she spoke again. "Mr. Winchester, am I right to assume that this is why you had requested a formal pardon from participation in combat classes?"

Cardin looked over to her with a confident spark, devoid of any traces of smugness, in his eyes as he said nothing but nodded his head towards her. The change in attitude from the young man was nothing short of staggering, yet incredibly welcome to all the Beacon Academy populace.

Glynda pushed up her glasses as she nodded to him, before looking to Pyrrha who nodded back, before she raised her hand in the air as the two took on their combat stances. Pyrrha studied him from behind her shield with her javelin held firmly to the side and her front foot forwards. Cardin adopted a completely different stance than what the Amazon teen had been expecting, with his body standing sideways and facing his opponent with legs bent, his non-dominant arm out in front of him as if to guard himself, and his weapon held towards the ground behind him. After a moment of dead silence hung in the air, Mrs. Goodwitch swung her hand down and gave the command.

"Begin-" No sooner than she finished the second syllable of the starting key, both students sprang into action. Pyrrha shifted her javelin to its rifle form and prepared to fire at the Winchester heir, but her eyes, as well as the eyes of all present, widened when the dust crystal in his mace caused an explosion behind him, causing him to propel himself in the direction of his enemy, not too unlike one of the top combatants in the class.

As he flew towards her, she took aim and began to fire at Cardin, but it was all for naught as the non-dominant arm he kept ahead of him showed that the gauntlet was for more than looks, as it deployed a shield to protect him in his descent. Realizing she held her position far too long, the red head dove out of the way of the falling ginger's attack, looking back to be greeted with a small crater from the impact.

Cardin stood up from the landing zone he'd created and locked eyes with his enemy as he smiled, and Pyrrha's lips formed a thin line as she reevaluated her foe. While the Mistralian teen was by no means a slacker in class, having exceptional grades in all her studies, she did tend to ignore the matches that would occur normally in combat class if they didn't involve her or her friends. So, it came as an unwelcome change that a student she considered to be below her level was able to surprise her.

"Well, at least the change he made wasn't just for show." Vernal quipped to her teammates and their friends, who watched the fight with a newfound interest.

Pyrrha shifted Miló into its xiphos form and prepared herself for the engagement with Cardin. In response, he collapsed the gauntlet's shield back into its hidden state, and held his mace with his left-hand, near the crown of the weapon. For a moment, the air seemed to still, neither willing to make the first move, before Cardin took the initiative as he twisted and pulled the handle of his weapon away from the upper half of the weapon. In the ginger's right hand was a short single-barrel shotgun.

Pyrrha seeing that he wanted to have a ranged battle, sought to deny him his wishes and charged forwards. She expected the taller teen to recoil and stumble out of surprise, instead, he responded by charging back towards her. When they came within weapon's reach of each other, the spartan girl saw Cardin's left arm curl around himself, preparing to swing the upper portion of the mace at her, but remembering that he had his ranged weapon in hand as well, read his feint and raised her shield to block her torso, just as a barrage of projectiles impacted Akoúo̱.

She tried to jump back and create space between her and the relentless knight but was unable to make any comfortable breathing space to plot as Cardin chased after her, firing off his new weapon. She felt her aura protect her and knew that the ginger had managed to steal away 'first blood', so in a show of acrobatics, she leaped into the air shifting herself as she did so, along with her weapon. As she was falling back to the arena floor, the teen hadn't expected her sudden change in tactics, and was met with three impactful bullets from Pyrrha's rifle.

The two both allowed breathing room as they checked their scrolls, both of their auras in the light green. Cardin's armor had taken the brunt of the damage from her bullets, leaving light scuff marks on the armor from the attack. The two of them stared down for another moment, before a mutual narrowing of the eyes occurred between them. The leader of team PRVN shifted her weapon back to its javelin form before rushing to reengage the taller teen, who had reconnected his weapons to have his mace prepared.

Despite having been on the offense for much of the match thus far, Cardin hadn't forgotten that Pyrrha wasn't called the 'Invincible Girl' for nothing. As the exchange of blows commenced, Cardin was now forced to put all his energy into defending against the onslaught that the Argosian girl was bringing to the table.

Minutes passed and the only sounds were those being created from the clashing of weapon against weapon and the grunts of effort both teens were creating. When they separated, Cardin's control of the match had begun to slip, and they both knew it. He was more exhausted than she was, the scarlet-headed teen only being slightly out of breath. Peeking down at his aura gauge, the ginger saw that he was now in the yellow, and his opponent was just barely in green-yellow territory. However, the one thing that stood out most to him was her face, and how it was devoid of its perpetual smile.

In its place, a firm look of…irritation? No, dissatisfaction would be more accurate. Cardin realized that she was dissatisfied with how the match had progressed thus far. His old self would have charged in recklessly and ultimately led himself to his defeat, but after the many rigorous training sessions with team CFVY, he'd bettered himself to a point where he could be proud in his progress and embarrassed at his previous ineptitude.

That wasn't to say that before he began his process of bettering himself, he was a bad combatant. In fact, his team ranked third in combat classes, and individually, Cardin has held the ninth rank in class since the beginning of the year. It was simply a fact that team CRDL was a step above most of their grade. It was also blatantly obvious that the leader of CRDL was a step above his teammates. But the one thing that everyone knew, was that teams RWBY and PRVN were a few steps above everyone. So, it was more than a slight wakeup call when the match began, with Pyrrha Nikos of all people, being put on the defensive.

Right now, Cardin had a low, firm stance and had his shield deployed once more. Looking to his opponent, he began to think about the possible routes he could take to secure his win. His new fighting style was controlled and efficient, words that didn't fit in the same sentence as Cardin Winchester, but training with the disciplined and experienced members of Velvet's team had driven any form of recklessness away from him.

Pyrrha's combat style on the other hand was something more, almost to the point where it could be called a way of life. Refined, convicted, skillful, and fluid. He recognized that she had the ability to have ended this fight earlier, but thankfully for him, she'd allowed herself to be caught off guard expecting the ginger to fall into his old patterns.

So far, he'd used most of his new tricks, only having two last cards up his sleeve from his new repertoire, but Cardin was far from unarmed. While Pyrrha's style was graceful, it was also incredibly straight forward. She never feinted her moves, never tried to be tricky, her ability to outsmart her opponents was all pure combat skill.

The leader of team CRDL however, had no qualms about using whatever he could in order to win. While he may have abandoned his bullying ways and arrogant nature, he still had his cunning mind, and his ability to get under his opponents' skin.

"Hey, Pyrrha!" The loud voice of Cardin rung throughout the room from where he stood across from her, causing her to drop her stance slightly in confusion. Cardin too had abandoned his stance, opting to straighten his back and stand with his mace hefted onto his shoulder as he eyed her?

"Yes?" The now curious voice of the scarlet haired hoplite responded to him. He wore a light smirk as he began to walk around the ring slowly, his steps measured as he began.

"What's it like being the leader of team JNPR? Whoops! I mean, PRVN?" Her eyes narrowed at him, as did the eyes of Nora and Ren. They saw what he was doing, but that didn't do anything to stop him from continuing.

"I mean, I'd say I feel for you," He stopped walking to glance at her with that damned smirk of his before he continued taking his steps.

"But I don't." Her lips pursed, and she kept him in her sight, she couldn't afford to let him distract her like he was trying to.

"Really though, Valkyrie and Ren don't operate well with others. Guess three's a crowd huh? Oh. But you have four people on your team. There's those two, your replacement, and then what you are."

As he said this, Pyrrha couldn't help but let the words slip out of her mouth. "And what would that be, Cardin."

His smirk turned into a full-blown Cheshire grin as he answered her.

"You? You're just a wannabe Jaune." Pyrrha grit her teeth as the grip on her weapon tightened impossibly so. Hearing his name brought many different emotions upon the Spartan teen, but she could barely contain herself at being compared to him. From their seats, Ren wore a displeased frown, and Nora was glaring daggers into the tall teen.

Vernal however, was studying Cardin with her trademark cocky smile present. If there was one thing Raven Branwen had taught the tan girl, it was that there were no rules in the real world. Having been involved in raids on frontier settlements and villages, Vernal could respect someone who had no qualms about fighting to win, whatever it takes. But what brought out her grin, was how a classmate she wrote off as unskilled and unimportant, was clearly getting under little Ms. Perfect's skin.

Cardin fought with tricks, but right now he was fighting mean.

From the side, Glynda Goodwitch remained silent as time went on. She pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation as the scene before her unfolded, and in a manner that she feared wouldn't be optimal. In the ring, Cardin didn't relent with his words, digging deeper into a wound that had clearly not finished healing yet.

"But I guess I started this all off with the wrong question. Here, lemme try again. What's it like knowing you'll never be as good a leader as Jaune?" A low blow to be certain, his opponent's eyes were shadowed by her hair. In the stands, the Schnee heiress held a look of disgust while Yang's clenched her fists. Ruby just sat worriedly, and slightly sad at the reminder of her first friend at Beacon.

Cardin returned to where he stood when he first began taunting his opponent and went for the coup de grace.

"Alright, alright. This isn't getting us anywhere, so I'll stop wasting both of our time. Last question…" Everyone waited for him to continue as they eyed Pyrrha, and after a moment of suspense, spoke again.

"What hurt more: Selling out your leader or realizing that you were in lov-" Cardin wasn't allowed to finish, as the huntress-in-training dashed at him with a snarl almost faster than he could react.

He looked up and locked eyes with her, his shield pushing against her shield in a contest of power, but unlike before, anger was Pyrrha's energy now, and there was plenty of it.

Previously, Cardin was on the defensive. Now, the tall ginger was on the retreat, trying to evade the Mistralian teen at all costs. She was in hot pursuit of her target, who had been dodging her attacks with fervor, and had a look of silent, scalding fury. Her seemingly ever-present smile and friendly nature abandoned in favor of a never before seen, teeth baring frown. Her combat had changed as well. Before, she could be seen as graceful, controlled, and fluid, now she swung and lunged with the sole desire to defeat Cardin.

Minutes went by with the tall ginger doing his best to defend against Pyrrha's wrath, and slowly beginning to lose the lead he had secured from the beginning of the match, having taken a few glancing blows and the occasional strike. As the Spartan teen disengaged, likely to maneuver her weapon into its rifle form, Cardin allowed himself to quickly steal a peek at his aura gauge and found himself furrowing his eyebrows. He was in the yellow orange, and his opponent's aura hadn't shifted much.

As Pyrrha began to fire at him again, Cardin raised his shield to protect him from her shots and prepare himself for her to rush him again. After a few moments, a shot was fired that would've hit him in square between the eyes. He instinctively raised his shield to protect him, but when he lowered his shield enough to see over the top rim of the shield, he was greeted with the sight of his opponent speeding towards him.

'I don't want to lose anymore.'

It was a thought that made Cardin grimace. His opponent had taken the advantage from him, and he couldn't capitalize on her compromised emotional outrage like he'd hoped, but he still had a card up his sleeve. All he had to do was find the chance to use it. Time seemed to almost slow for Cardin as he remembered his talks with Jaune and all the things the blonde had told him about his former teammates.

"Pyrrha is…incredible, and I hate to admit that, but she really is. She has a high amount of aura, an unfair semblance, and can fight from any distance masterfully."

As the ginger thought about the match up to this point, as well as previous matches, he couldn't help but agree.

"But. She does have a few things that could theoretically be used against her. If you can get her off her balance, physically or mentally, you must capitalize on that. While your upgrades will throw her off initially, you won't have that advantage long, and the same trick won't work on her twice. Your best bet is your trash talk, I guarantee it."

Well, Jaune wasn't wrong in that regard, he'd definitely offset his opponent from her normal stature. He was good at fighting mean and fighting dirty. The problem was that he was so good at it, now he was hard pressed to defend against her.

"If you say some stuff about me, her team or her friends, your bound to get some reaction. I don't know what to expect from her if you manage to throw her off with some well-placed insults but be ready for things to get heated. Another thing, you can't wait for an opening against Pyrrha, you have to make one for yourself."

Cardin waited until the hoplite teen was only a few meters away, before he collapsed his shield and shouted out.

"Professor Goodwitch!" As he called out, Pyrrha's face shifted to one of confusion and indignation as she halted her advance and turned to face the assistant headmistress. Glynda looked confused too, and as she looked between the two combatants, her eyes suddenly widened at what was about to transpire.

As she was waiting for the older blonde woman to say something, her instincts screamed at her, causing her to look back to where her opponent. The tall ginger was within striking range and was already swinging his mace towards her. The leader of team PRVN was beginning to raise her shield to guard, knowing that she would be able to block the attack.

She was proven wrong when the tall ginger made the dust crystal in his mace fire off an explosion to accelerate the speed and power of his swing, in addition to the aura the ginger had been using to augment his physical abilities. It impacted her side with crushing force, sending her airborne towards the edge of the ring nearest to the audience of students.

Angry that her opponent had used such a tactic, and angrier that it had worked, she saw she was about to lose by a ring-out. After she put up her shield to guard her body in case the taller teen decided to fire at her with his shotgun, she closed her eyes to focus her aura in order to activate her semblance, her aim to manipulate her armor back to the ground in the ring. Cardin's eyes widened as he realized this was his moment to use his last trick, if he didn't make the most out of this opportunity, he doubted there would be another.

As he reared his arm back in preparation of a swing, the audience waited to see what was going to happen next. As he looked to his falling enemy, he thought back to a conversation he had with the leader of team CFVY.

(Flashback, A Week Ago)

"Hey! Red Bird! We need to have words."

The commanding voice of Coco Adel called out to her ginger haired underclassmen as she walked into the gym. The tall teen let his eyes flicker over to her from where he was doing squats with a fair amount of weight on the bar. He finished the last four reps in his set and replaced the bar to its resting place. Cardin was covered in sweat and panting from his daily workout routine, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shorter girl holding a bottle of water towards him.

He reached out to take it, but she pulled her hand back as his hand got close. When he looked back to her to meet her eyes, he saw that whatever she wanted was serious. He caught his breath and nodded to her, and she returned the gesture, handing the beverage to him. As he uncapped it and began to greedily suck down its contents, he noticed they were alone in the gym.

He sat down on the bench and looked up to where Coco was standing across from him.

"Alright, so what do we need to talk about?" He was truly curious, and she looked as if she was evaluating him.

"I'm going to be blunt, do you got a thing for Velvet?"

Cardin felt as if he was suddenly under the microscope, which wasn't uncommon when he was the focus of Coco's attention. He took a minute to think about his answer, although it was one he already knew. He let out a sigh as he leaned back on the bench and looked up at the ceiling and started to talk.

"Yea, I like her." Coco was about to ask him why, but Cardin continued to speak, so she kept waited to hear what was on his mind and in his heart.

"I like her quite a bit actually. She's…everything I'm not. She's brave, she's kind, she knows how to fight. She was willing to forgive me for being an asshole. What's not to like?"

He looked back to the beret wearing girl and waited to hear what she had to say, which wasn't long. The girl released a sigh of her own and began to rub her neck as she spoke her mind.

"Listen…if it were anyone else, I'd tell them to take a hike. But you? You don't half ass it when you train with my team, you dropped the whole bullying schtick, and you're able to make Velvet smile." At this, Cardin was getting hopeful of what Coco thought.

"But!" The tall ginger became alarmed and waited for the fashionista to continue.

"Can you protect her? Velvet is strong, you know it, but not as well as I do. She doesn't need protecting, but can you protect her if she needs it, and fight besides her, even if things look bad?"

There was no hint of amusement coming from the older girl as she bore her eyes into Cardin's, making him feel as if his soul was under inspection.

"I will." She stayed silent for a moment after his response, before she adjusted her glasses. She crossed her arms and spoke again.

"What happens if your enemy is stronger than you, what then?"

"Then I'll get stronger."

At this Coco cracked a small smile, before erupting into full blown laughter, thoroughly throwing off the taller teen. She composed herself as she spoke again.

"Cliché, but good answer. Thing is though," She leaned in to show meet his eyes again. "Can you prove it?"

Cardin stood up from the bench, and from his height towering over his upperclassmen, he delivered his response.

"What do I have to do?" The older girl thought for a moment before she poked him in the chest and proceeded to give him a monumental task.

"Jaune's old teammate, the two-faced red head. She's pretty strong, so beat her." At this Cardin was taken aback. Being given an objective like that was unexpected. He didn't let doubt creep into his mind as he steeled his nerves and answered the leader of team CFVY.

"I'll do it." He believed it too and the conviction he spoke with made Coco believe it as well.

She turned away from him and spoke out to him as she moved to leave the gym.

"Don't take too long to keep that promise. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting. And when you beat that Spartan bitch, here's a piece of advice for when you make your move on Velvet." She turned back to him and gave him a reassuring smirk.

"She's a sucker for cliché romance. Flowers, chocolate, chivalry, the whole deal."

As she left, she called out one last time to the reformed bully.

"If you disappoint her Red Bird, Gianduja and I are gonna give you lead poisoning!" And with that, she was gone, and the weight on the ginger's shoulders felt both lessened and all the heavier at the same time, but he wore his hopeful smile with a new optimism.

(End Flashback)

Cardin didn't just want to win, he needed to win. He wanted to talk to Velvet, and lay it all on the table, but before that, he had to win.

He hit a button with his middle finger from where he held the mace at the handle, causing the lines adorning the shaft of his mace to extend and decompress with a hiss. Up in the stands, Ruby studied the weapon as Cardin prepared his attack, and realized the danger her fellow leader and friend was in.

"Pyrrha might be in trouble…" At this, her team as well as Pyrrha's looked to her with confusion. Down in the arena, the leader of team CRDL took a step forward and began his swing.

"Cardin's weapon isn't a mace that transforms into something else." As the knightly teen swung, the crown of the mace was now sailing through the air, still attached to the handle, but snaking further than what anyone expected.

"It's a flail that turns into a mace." Pyrrha opened her eyes and used her semblance to move her armor, and thus her, back towards the arena, where Cardin had predicted she would go. She looked to her left and saw the crown of the ginger's now apparent flail approaching her fast from her left. She wasn't expecting this, but since she had already begun using her semblance, aimed her weapon wielding hand towards it and tried to halt its momentum.

She was shocked however when it kept approaching, showing that her semblance did nothing to influence it. She instinctively began to move her arm to guard with her shield, but it was too late. The crown of the flail impacted her heavily on her side, dropping her aura again as well as disrupting her hold over her semblance.

Suddenly, the crystal in the mace regained its brilliant red glow, and Cardin unleashed one last explosion that sent the Amazon girl shooting to the ground below, sending up a wave of dust.

Cardin looked over to his opponent and saw her getting back up to her feet, though she seemed…shorter? He looked down and saw why before he checked the screen above the ring, eyes widening before he shifted his flail back into its mace form, and held it over his shoulder, proceeding to walk away towards the locker rooms, the crowd of students in the stands of desks silent at what they had witnessed.

Pyrrha looked to her opponent in disbelief, before she prepared to charge at him for daring to dismiss her. But before she could, she was halted by the voice of Glynda Goodwitch.

"The match is over!" With that, the adrenaline flowing through the huntress-in-training began to slow down, before she put her weapons onto her back to gather her breath and prepare a smile for her friends.

"Cardin Winchester wins by ring out!" And she froze. The students were silent. Professor Goodwitch stared at her before she sighed and began her breakdown of the match on the screen for the students to see. As she talked, her voice started to drown out in Pyrrha's head as she stood still in the ring, eyes wide in disbelief at her newest loss. The assistant headmistress's advice to the girl going unheard as she began to walk slowly to the female locker rooms.

From their seats, the members of teams RWBY and PRVN sat in silence, mouths agape at what had unfolded before them, except for one. Vernal eyed the retreating form of the tall ginger with curiosity and caution. This fight shouldn't have gone down like it did. The ginger came with a new arsenal that he shouldn't have had the time to test and train with and knew how to pick apart Pyrrha like Grimm would a carcass. The tan girl decided to keep on her guard around him, as clearly, there was more to him than meets the eye.

"Mr. Winchester." As his name was called, he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the older blonde woman, and as he did, she was surprised to see a joyful smile on the young man's face, devoid of any hint of arrogance.

"Yes Headmistress?" At his response, she pushed up her glasses before she spoke again.

"Since you have new weapons at your disposal, you'll need to register them now."

The teen looked at her in surprise, evident that he forgot he would need to state the weapons to her now and did so with pride in front of the class.

"Right! I did kinda forget about that. The shotgun is The Judge, the shield/gauntlet is The Jury, and my mace is The Executioner. They're made of a special type of beryllium copper, that has zero traces of ferrous metal incorporated into it."

At this, Glynda nodded, thinking to herself about how she would later be showing the combat footage to Ozpin. But for now, she dismissed both of her students, and watched as they retreated to the locker rooms before dismissing her class a slight bit earlier than usual.

A few hours later, and it was about eight p.m. Cardin was in his signature black slacks and button down standing outside of Team CVFY's dorm room. He checked his breath, his hair, and calmed his nerves, hiding his hands behind his back after he knocked on the door.

A few moments later, and he was greeted by Coco. Upon seeing him, she went out into the hall with him to talk.

"So~ I hear that a certain underclassman of mine pulled off the biggest upset of the year today. That true?"

He smiled to her and revealed what he had hidden behind his back; a single flower and a decorative box that she recognized from one of the more expensive bakeries in Vale.

"You really must have wanted this huh?" She met his eyes before nodding at him.

"Alright, do what you came to do then Red Bird." She moved out of the way, before a though struck her, and she halted the teen.

"Actually, head up the roof, I'll tell her to meet you up there." He looked confused, but before he could ask anything, Coco spoke once more.

"Do you trust me?" At this he nodded his head. And so, she pointed towards the stairway, and he looked at her for a moment, before nodding again and making his way up. Pausing before reentering her team's dorm room, she looked to Velvet and spoke to her.

"Hey bun, you got someone who wants to talk to you." Velvet looked up from where she was fiddling with the projector of Anesidora in surprise.

"Really? Are they outside?" Coco shook her head as she replied.

"No, they asked me to tell you to meet them on the roof." At this, Velvet thought for a brief second, before nodding and standing up from her seat. As she went to grab her camera, Coco stopped her.

"Hey, since you're gonna be up there, is it okay if I use your camera to take some selfies?" Velvet looked at her confused as she responded.

"Why don't you just use your scroll?" Coco answered her faunus teammate in a rather factual manner.

"Because Anesidora makes my scroll's pictures look terrible. Please? I promise I'll only take a few." Velvet debated it for a moment before agreeing and making her way to the hallway to get to the roof. Coco smiled mischievously and grabbed the camera before sneakily making her way up to the roof.

A few minutes later, and the door to the roof opened, and she was surprised to see Cardin standing there waiting for her arms behind his back and the shattered moon bathing him in a radiant glow as she approached him.

"Cardin? Were you the one who called me up here?" Cardin took a deep breath while he wore his nervous smile and responded.

"Yea Velv…I uh, I wanted to talk to you about some stuff…" Seeing that he looked worried about something, she took a step closer and spoke again.

"If something is on your mind Cardin, you can tell me."

"I plan to." He tried to find a place to start, and after a minute, let out an exhausted sigh as he motioned for Velvet to stand next to him and admire the view. She stood next to him, her hair slightly flowing in the evening breeze as the moon illuminated her too.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, and Cardin turned to face her as he began.

"When we first met, I was beyond unkind. I said and did unforgivable things, yet somehow, you forgave me anyway. You even let me be your friend. And for that, I can't thank you enough." She smiled at what he was saying, and he thought he could spot a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

"Cardin…you don't have to be sorry about that anymore." He looked sheepish, and he picked up his end of the conversation.

"I know…but what I'm getting at, or uh, what I'm trying to say is…" he looked as if he didn't know how to proceed as he started to fumble over his words. From her position hidden behind the door to the stairwell, cracked open ever so barely, Coco was silently rooting for the knightly teen.

He seemed to calm himself before he finally prepared to say what he wanted to say. He presented the items he had hidden behind his back to the girl who looked at them in surprise as he spoke.

"I know I'm blessed to have you as a friend Velvet, but I'd like to see if maybe…you'd be interested in trying to be more than just friends with me." She stared at him with her mouth slightly open and eyes wide. He was about to start apologizing for possibly making her uncomfortable, before a pair of slender arms wrapped themselves around his chest, causing him to stand silent. He looked down to the rabbit faunus who had buried her head into his chest as she spoke to him.

"…It's about time. You know, you shouldn't keep a lady waiting dummy."

He hugged her back with a relieved smile, and they stood their enjoying each other's company, oblivious to the pictures being taken of them in their moment alone, or the smile that their mutual friend wore.

(A/N)

Hey Guys,

I am so sorry this took so long, I kept rewriting this chapter over and over, because I wasn't sure where I wanted to pick up, or who I wanted us all to see the story progress from. For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about Cardin and Velvet. So I decided to show how things were going on over at Beacon.

It was kinda hard to write fight scenes, I feel like I'll get better as I write more but, you know.

Also, I added a few more ideas to the poll that weren't there before, and I'll probably add maybe two or three more before leaving it to be for a time.

By the way, do you guys think I should maybe make a small discord channel so that I can keep you updated on progress as well as discuss things with you all? The story isn't the most viewed one by any means, but I think it would be cool to talk to you all as I write or game. Since I have a kinda meh laptop to game on, I usually game on PS4. But I do play Valorant, LoL, Stardew Valley, and a few others.

Food for thought I suppose.

One last thing! I wasn't really sure how to describe the from mace to flail. I feel like it was adequate but if anyone else has a better way to describe that change, I'd like to know so I can possibly reword how I did it in this chapter.

Hope you enjoy reading, and I'll see you all with the next one!

B.J.H.