"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."

- George Orwell


Percy rubbed his eyes and took another sip of his fourth cup of coffee, harshly stifling a yawn. He'd have preferred an energy drink, but Beacon had none — only absurdly strong coffee.

Preferred form of caffeination or not, it certainly did the job. He'd taken Ozpin up on that offer to stay the night at Beacon, and then accepted the suggestion he sit in on some classes.

Stay the night he did, but sleep he did not. He'd sat awake in the room he'd been given, anxiously keeping his concentration on four bodies of water in the east wing of the school's dorms — and, occasionally, the four across the hall from them.

Now he sat in a class nursing a migraine as a large man named Peter lectured the class on the Grimm. Percy hadn't met the man before, but he'd had nothing else to do and so arrived early. The two spent the time before class speaking idly, Peter going over the basics of what his class was about.

Percy's mind had been elsewhere — specifically, concentrating on not losing four bodies among the hundreds of others rushing around the cafeteria.

He slouched into his seat near the front right corner of the class a bit more. If he'd sat at the back he'd have been the first thing the students would see when they entered, and easily noticeable due to the lack of other students there. At the front of the room, ironically, he was the least noticeable, and even if they did happen to look near him the most they'd see was the back of his head. Trust a group of teenagers to pay attention to the front of a class less than anywhere else, not that he could judge. He'd been no better, and he wasn't now — his attention was firmly fixed several rows behind and above him where four teenage girls sat.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes and pinched his nose, and when he opened them the world was a little less blurry, though it did nothing for the stabbing pain in his head from the hours of perpetual concentration. Groggily, he checked his scroll.

8:45

Gods, today was going to suck.

He knew logically that he had to sleep eventually, but he was desperately trying to put it off for as long as possible. They'd survived seventeen years without him (well, three of them) and a month as a team, but he was terrified that the moment he looked away they'd be attacked.

He could do this for another full day and a half if he absolutely had to, but he couldn't make a habit out of it and he'd have to take his attention off them eventually.

It was good he'd stayed awake tonight — last night, his mind groggily corrected — though. It had given him time to think.

Time to think about a lot of things, but mostly what to do from here. His kneejerk reaction was to kidnap them and then sit them behind every gun in Mistral, then once he'd dismissed keeping them locked in a padded room as viable, his first instinct had been to call Shiro and move every gun in Mistral here — then pile every combat-capable person in Menagerie, Vacuo, Atlas, Mantle, and Vale's underworld in front of them just to make sure.

Once he'd gotten that out of his system he'd had the time to think things over, and quickly decided that the worst thing he could do was show his hand. Nobody knew RWBY was important other than him, and he only knew because Remnant's creation deity had tipped him off to it. When he'd first gotten the relics, he hadn't thrown them in the most secure place possible, spent all his lien on defenses, and then sat on top of it with a big sign saying 'hey, whatever is here is super important'. He'd hidden them in plain sight, separate, and made sure they were as secure as they could possibly be without raising suspicion.

That was working pretty well, so far. He'd had the relic of knowledge for years, and there hadn't been a single problem keeping it — as far as anyone other than him and Raven knew, it was safe and sound in its vault. Destruction was the same, with Summer and the Asturias'.

He'd do the same here. Nobody would know RWBY was what he was protecting. He'd shore up defenses, get a garrison here and make sure they were protected 24/7, but make it look like he was guarding something else. It was only expected that he have a frankly absurd protection detail while in Vale, whether at Beacon or otherwise.

It also wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to make sure the Malachites and Junior's people knew that team RWBY were allies (or rather, the four members of team RWBY. He wouldn't be using the name of the team itself, just in case.) — in fact, he could throw Pyrrha's team in there with them to diffuse suspicion. Just kids he was fond of at Beacon. Or maybe just friends of Pyrrha's, who it was already known he cared for. Or even potential employees. The Malachites would know who Ren and Nora were, and might see the others as potential future bodyguards for Pyrrha — they'd draw their own conclusions, but the point was that there were plenty of reasons he might want the Malachites and Junior to help them if they ever needed it.

It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he had to admit he'd also considered how incredibly useful Winter's General Orders could be in protecting them. A thousand soldiers who could be there for a garrison with absolutely no knowledge of team RWBY, but who would all throw down their lives to protect them at the drop of a hat.

He'd requested the list of orders be sent to him — the hoops he had to jump through for the security of which had taken a decent portion of the night — and spent the next few hours reading through them on his scroll (reading text off a tiny scroll screen with his dyslexia on no sleep while keeping his focus on team RWBY had been one of the worse experiences of his life). He thought he'd have to ask Winter to create a new order for him, but there was already one that fit the situation perfectly. They just had to be declared VIPs, and every Atlesian soldier in the kingdom would drop whatever they were doing and form a literal wall of bodies before they would let one of them be placed in danger.

He'd had a bit of a morbid chuckle once he'd realized the order wasn't even classified. Nothing wrong with designating a priority target for protection, he supposed.

So yeah, he'd been able to think over the situation pretty thoroughly. There were a few problems still — primarily, how the Hades he was going to manage to stay around them. Eventually his prolonged stay would raise eyebrows, and he had no good — or bad — reason to want to stay. Any flimsy excuse like he was 'fond of the kids' wouldn't even be a lie, but for him to drop his entire empire over a bit of fondness? It'd make a lot of people suspicious, and he'd rather leave them be entirely than make them the target of that many curious eyes.

Luckily he could probably lengthen his stay here for a week or two without too much suspicion, and then he'd be back as an early arrival for the Vytal festival not long after. It was a far from permanent solution, but it gave him months to manufacture a reason rather than days. With that much time, he could even set events in motion that necessitated it. Assassination attempts, dust shortages, international conflicts he had to stay in Vale to work out — and where better than Beacon as a neutral ground to negotiate?

Ozpin would leap at the opportunity to influence the peace talks and make sure Remnant remained stable, and wouldn't even consider that Percy's actual goal was to stay near a team of students. He'd prefer to avoid anything too below-the-board where they were involved, but he'd do whatever he had to and ask for forgiveness later.

There were a good few other details — things he could do to improve the situation.

It was one of those things he was deliberating when the school's bell rang out, interrupting Peter mid-sentence and prompting the students to rush out. Percy sent a distracted smile to the team sitting nearest to him, and the group of boys responded with their own nervous greetings before rushing off.

From the looks of it nobody he cared about had noticed his presence in the class. That'd change now that they had time to gossip in the halls, but he wasn't overly concerned.

And besides, the time between classes gave him time, too. Time to act on all his hours of thought and planning.

Returning a nod from Peter, Percy ducked into the staff only corridor behind the classroom and pulled out his scroll, finding an unused corner and making his first call of many.

"Hey, Shiro. There are a few things I've been meaning to talk to you about…"


"In times of peace the scientist belongs to humanity, and in times of war he belongs to his fatherland."

- Fritz Haber

Penny Polendina opened her eyes.

"Penny? Can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"What do you remember, Penny?"

Penny frowned. Her processing unit was still focused on startup activities, and so her response was slow.

"I last recall our memory backup session for the month of August, father. According to my internal clock, it is August first, 19:07:13 — apologies, my geolocator was not online. As it appears we are in Mistral, that would make it August first, 21:07:16."

As she spoke, Penny took note of other people in the room with her and father. Three combatants, who looked to be aura-trained individuals, likely huntsmen. Four others she identified to be intellectuals of some nature, and judging by their presence in her father's lab they were likely computer scientists and engineers. Chance of victory in conflict with current ethical restrictions estimated to be less than one percent.

That she did not notice them immediately was another fault of her limited processing capabilities during her boot phase. She had yet to experience the human emotion of frustration, but from the myriad definitions in her databanks she was confident she should be feeling such about now, and so allowed herself to make the the facial motions associated with the requisite emotion.

"It's November first, Penny," father said, a wide smile on his face. "Once you can, you should try resyncing your UNIX."

"Is it ready?"

Penny directed her eyes to the source of the noise, instantly recognizing the life-size holo-projection in the middle of father's lab. Her databanks had been filled with plenty of information on Perseus, or Percy Jackson as recent — or not so recent — events had depicted him. She was to detain or kill him, should General Ironwood deem it necessary.

"I extrapolate the mission for General Ironwood deviated from the planned course of events." Penny turned to her father. Most wouldn't have taken it as a question, but her father understood her in a way nobody else could.

"Yes, Penny," he said softly. "I'll explain afterwards. For now, please treat Mistral's people with the same respect you did Atlas'." He didn't wait for her nod before turning back to the holo-projection. "She is awake, but I'll need to run some diagnostics before she goes anywhere, and she still needs to be brought up to speed with the changes in circumstance."

Perseus narrowed his eyes. "How long will you need?"

"A week," father flustered. "Maybe two."

Perseus nodded, presumably having had his concerns placated. "You can have your two weeks. After that, I'll be calling in our agreement; I gave you what you need, make it follow my orders."

Her father sighed frustratedly, and Penny had been present for this discussion enough times to know what came next. "Penny isn't a machine, she has aura — a soul. That means free will. I can't program her to do anything she doesn't want to."

Perseus scowled. "You're the one that built it — find a way."

Father opened his mouth to object once more, but was interrupted by Perseus. "If I find her in a pile of scraps but the people she was assigned to protect still live, you'll have all the funding and resources Mistral can provide to bring her back and make her better. If, however, I find she is still in one piece while her charges have been harmed, you won't be able to find enough of her to rebuild."

Father swallowed, but nodded at the man and turned to her. Penny frowned. She did not like to see father in distress.

"Penny," he began, using the intonation he used whenever he was explaining something to her he thought that she wasn't capable of comprehending — a tone that indicated he wanted her to trust his word and do as he said. "It is very important that you do as Perseus here says, alright? To the word, please follow his instructions, even if it means the destruction of your chassis." he paused. "Even if it means I die. Do you understand, Penny?"

Penny's frown deepened, of course she didn't understand. But she never understood when he spoke to her with such an intonation, and she knew she was supposed to follow his instructions regardless so she nodded anyways.

"Am I to disable the ethical limiters for this task, father?"

Father pursed his lips. "Yes, Penny. If it's necessary, you may bypass your ethical restrictions."

Penny nodded, making the necessary changes to her software. "What is my task to be, father?"

It wasn't her father who answered, but she supposed she had asked the wrong person in the first place.

"You'll be coming to Beacon with me for the Vytal festival," Perseus said, reaching forward to press a button they couldn't see. "You're to be a part of my protection detail."

The call ended.

.HR.

Percy finally got to sleep that night at about nine, passing out the moment his head hit the pillows.

When his eyes opened, it was to a blinding white light.

Groaning, Percy rubbed his eyes and teased them open to help his pupils slowly adjust to the light.

"You couldn't have summoned me in a dark dimension for once?"

Percy glared at Oum, the glare's effect somewhat diminished by him pausing to blink spots out of his eyes.

The deity smiled. "I could, but then this wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it?"

Percy scowled, finally managing to keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time. "And what is this exactly?"

Oum sobered, his smile fading. "I'm here to warn you. You're interfering too much."

Percy's eyes narrowed, for once not from the light assailing his vision. "What do you mean I'm interfering too much? I've been interfering for years."

Oum paused. "Not like this. Not with RWBY."

"What? I've been interfering with them for years — I knew all of them beforehand. I haven't done anything new."

"Not yet."

Percy winced.

"You haven't yet, but you're planning to — you're already setting things in motion. I'm here to warn you that you're changing their course too much — or that you will be. They have to fight their own battles. It was fine when it was just you being near them or interfering directly; at the end of the day you're one combatant — you might help them fight their battles, but you can't prevent them from happening. If you try to keep them from danger entirely, it'll backfire."

"How could defending them hurt?" he asked, blatantly fishing for hints. A traitor? Multiple? People that would be pushed to betraying him if he called upon them to defend Beacon?

"Because when the army you put in front of them eventually, inevitably, falls, they'll be weak, unprepared, and forced to face whatever is capable of breaking through all of your defenses."

Percy bit his lip. He still didn't think he understood entirely, but it's not like he could say no. If he wanted to, Oum could… well, he could do anything really. If Percy pushed back, it wasn't a fight he'd win. If Oum said something was a bad idea, that meant that even if it wasn't at the moment, that would change the moment he decided to go through with it.

"Okay," he relented. "I'll do whatever you think is best — I'd kind of be an idiot not to. But if you don't want me to 'interfere', I need specifics. I need to know where the line is if I want to make sure I don't cross it."

Oum hesitated.

"Just… Don't try to keep them from danger. Help them all you want when the time comes, but don't try to stop it from happening."

Percy hummed in understanding. Strange as it sounded, he was pretty sure understood perfectly with such a small bit of detail added. He'd spent his entire life under the weight of fate and prophecy. Oum was advising him not to try to avoid fate — it wouldn't work, and more than likely he'd just cause things to go wrong with the actions he took to prevent them.

"How… how fixed is their fate?" he asked. He wasn't sure he could take it if he had to deal with another Zoe and Bianca situation. He was stronger now — so much stronger, in so many ways. If for all his strength and preparation he couldn't change things…

He didn't know what he'd do. Any threat he could make would be empty, but he wouldn't be able to take it. What that meant exactly he had no clue, and he really hoped he wouldn't be finding out.

"Not at all."

Percy let out a sigh of relief. Thank the gods — well, God.

"As long as you don't try to hide them away, the future has yet to be determined."

"Didn't you…" Percy made a vague motion with his hands. "Plan it all out when you created this universe, or something? Isn't destiny usually predetermined? Not that I'm complaining!" he rushed to add.

Oum nodded, walking over by Percy and taking a seat on an invisible chair. "It was."

Percy frowned. "What changed?"

"You," he said simply. "I am omnipotent in Remnant. When I created Remnant, I created its history, art, culture, music, geography, as well as its people and their habits, opinions, values, pasts — I knew what would happen. The only thing that doesn't extend to is you."

"So if I do something that affects Remnant…" Percy trailed off.

"It changes things." Oum smiled. "That's why I find you so interesting. Even as we sit here right now, I know exactly how the future will play out — exactly how everyone will respond to each situation, and what will come of those reactions. What I see — what I know is the future that will take place if you never return to Remnant. If you simply disappear in the middle of the night, things will play out precisely as I foresee. The moment you return, however, you change things. If you should wake up and speak to a teacher, that teacher may be in a different mood during the day's class, enunciate a lesson differently, remember something they would have forgotten and forget something they would have remembered. This will affect the students in the class, or even the other teachers, and so on, and it's something I can't decide or predict. It may not even have any real impact on the future, but before you arrived everything was certain — just playing out to its eventual conclusion. Now, the future is constantly changing. Even if you simply walked into the woods and were eaten by Grimm the moment you wake, billions of particles will be affected by your every step — different particles depending on where and how you decide to step. That will make no difference to you, but it distorts things for me."

Percy was pretty sure he'd never been so confused.

"I'm getting ahead of myself." Oum apparently noticed. "Basically, even if you don't change much of anything, you being in Remnant at all makes the future uncertain. I'm guiding things in a certain direction, but the board has been set for a long time and I plan to let the chips fall where they may. Assuming you don't force me to do otherwise, of course."

Percy coughed. "Yeah, I'll… not do that."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Percy was suddenly jerked out of the dimension of light, finding himself sitting up in the bed he'd been given at Beacon.

Suppressing a groan for a moment before realizing he really didn't need to, Percy took a moment to check that the four bodies of water across the campus were safe, before reluctantly letting them fade into the background of his attention.

Lifting his hands, he dug his palms into both his eyes and rubbed until he saw stars.

"So. New plan, then."


Ruby groaned, feeling the grass against her fingers as she mustered the energy to push herself up to sit cross-legged.

"Eep!"

Only to cower as Nora went sailing a foot over her head, landing on the hill behind her and rolling to a stop with a groan. Ruby followed her path to where Percy was tossing around the rest of team JNPR just like he'd finished doing to her team a few minutes ago.

Ruby winced as he parried a blow from Pyrrha, taking the time to briefly point out a flaw in Ren's stance before ruthlessly taking advantage of it, sending the boy crashing onto his back with a blade against his throat.

He'd said no to sparring yesterday — after spending all day watching their classes, nonetheless! — and was apparently making it up to them today. It was weird for him, but he'd clearly been dead tired. When Yang had asked about it he'd just waved it off with something about missing sleep because of the timezone difference between Vale and Mistral. It had seemed a bit extreme for a case of bullhead lag to her, but he was clearly doing better now so Ruby was just glad he was okay.

She refocused on the fight in time to watch him dash towards Jaune, who was still recovering and halfway on the ground. Pyrrha rushed in to intercept before he could, but Percy turned on the spot and dismantled her with a series of jabs that took Pyrrha by surprise like it had been his plan all along. Grudgingly, Ruby decided it probably had been.

With Pyrrha down, it wasn't even a fight. Jaune was defenseless, and Percy called the match over a moment later.

"Alright team RWBY, you're up!"

A series of groans answered him, but they slowly climbed to their feet. They were still recovering from when they had sparred him.

Seeing their apparent exhaustion, he waved them off. "Forget it, take a few. No point sparring when you're bone tired."

They didn't hide their relief, the four of them all slumping back into the grass like they'd had their strings cut. For a moment Ruby almost suggested team JNPR go again. Ruby took a lot of pride in her team, but skilled as though they may be stamina was not their strong suit. She was self aware enough that she knew she and Weiss were both pretty bad in that area, and Blake was only a bit better. Yang had decent stamina, but compared to JNPR?

As with everything else Pyrrha was perfect, Nora was an endless well of energy, and stamina was Jaune's strongest point. Ren, while tiring easier than the rest of his team, was still not much worse than Blake.

Percy had gone over to speak to Ren and Nora while Ruby was stuck with her thoughts and briefly motioned something to them, but then headed over to her. Ruby straightened up a bit as he crouched before her so they were eye to eye, shooting her a quick smile so she knew it wasn't anything bad.

"Hey Ruby," he greeted. "Those dust rounds treating you well?"

Ruby beamed, suddenly reminded of the new tool in her arsenal. She nodded happily, the rounds had already come in handy during her spar in Goodwitch's class yesterday, and she'd been bouncing off the walls twice as fast as normal! She already had a dust bullet making kit, of course, and he'd promised her some gravity dust shipments when she ran out. Dust — a variety as rare as gravity dust especially — wasn't usually something you could use so much of for something unimportant like training, but Percy was cool like that. She liked getting a taste of what Weiss got to work with. Dust created so many possibilities…

Ruby snapped back to reality, flushing to her roots as she saw Percy looking at her with a patient, if amused, smile.

"Anyway," Percy poorly pretended he hadn't noticed her fantasizing, and Ruby stared a hole into the ground. "I wanted to come give you some tips from our spar."

Ruby's head snapped up, embarrassment forgotten. They'd sparred before, but that had never really been for training, just fun. She got as much out of it as she did from sparring with anyone else, but he rarely offered advice afterwards. Not since she'd been a kid, anyway. Ruby found herself filled with a surge of energy, bouncing on the ground.

"Because you rely on your speed so much, as soon as someone catches you, you're out," he explained. "Long term you should focus on direct combat, but right now you need to learn how to get out of a grapple."

Ruby's smile melted into a frown, and she crossed her arms angrily. Judging by the wide smile on Percy's face, he thought she was pouting. She wasn't! She wasn't cute, she was a trained huntress! She was dangerous! She scowled deeper.

Percy's smile widened.

Ruby huffed. "That's nothing I haven't heard a thousand times before," she muttered, glaring at Percy's chest. She couldn't even glare at him, he'd just think it was cute!

She wasn't cute!

In the edge of her vision, Ruby could see Percy's eyebrows draw together in obvious confusion. "If you know it's your biggest weakness, why haven't you worked on fixing it?"

Ruby threw her arms in the air. "I have worked on it! It's not like I have a magical button that can fix all my flaws!"

He just looked even more confused at that, and Ruby played with the idea that he did have a button like that and thought everyone else did, too. He'd probably given one to Pyrrha. It would explain too much.

"Can't you ask a teacher to help you?"

Ruby shrugged helplessly, still frustrated but with the wind having been taken out of her sails. "It's not like there's any time for one-on-one instruction with how many students Beacon has. The only reason I'm even as good as I am is because Uncle Qrow took extra time to teach me, but I've only been training for a few years and he's busy a lot…"

Percy frowned. "Do you want me to teach you how to break a grab?" he offered.

Ruby suddenly perked up again. "Would you?"

Percy smiled at her and nodded, and Ruby knew he had to be thinking something about how she was cute again. Stupid grown ups…

Her complaints were shoved to the back of her head when they stood up and walked a few feet so they were towards the middle of the clearing they'd been sparring in.

"There's a lot of ways someone can grab you, but a lot of the concepts in breaking out stay the same, so we may as well start with the basics." He gestured for her arm, and she gave it to him so he could demonstrate a grab. His hand wrapped around her wrist, his much larger size letting him wrap the entire limb in his hand. "So let's say someone grabs your wrist. The first thing you want to do is angle your arm so the narrow point is facing where their thumb meets their finger. That's where the grip is weakest," he explained, guiding her arm into the motion. "You'll want to break the grip by sliding your arm through there. Once you have your arm angled, try to rip it out by bringing your hand to your chest."

She did so, and he let her break out of his grip a few times as practice.

"Good." he nodded. "Now, if you're bigger than the person grabbing you that might be enough, but for you that probably won't be the case any time soon."

Ruby muttered to herself angrily, face burning as Yang laughed rambunctiously behind her.

"Don't make me teach her how to execute a hair grab!" he called to her sister with an amused smile, chuckling when the laughter suddenly fell silent.

"Now," he turned back to Ruby. "If you find you can't break their grip, act like you're trying to slam your elbow into theirs while you're bringing your hand to your chest. Here." he offered his arm, and Ruby grabbed his wrist. The size difference was obvious, but he demonstrated anyway, shoving his elbow towards hers and bringing his hand to his chest. He did it slowly, but Ruby quickly found it impossible to keep a hold of him as the angle she was grabbing his wrist became too awkward. She felt like that was as much to do with the difference in size and strength as it did any technique, but bit her tongue.

He took her wrist back in his hand, and she tried the move, him letting her break it.

"If you still can't break it," he said after a few practice runs, "don't be afraid to use your body's momentum to force your elbow towards theirs. They might be able to stop the force of your arm with their wrist alone if they're a lot stronger than you, but they won't be able to stop the force of your entire body — especially at the speeds you can reach."

She performed the move a few more times, this time shoving her entire bodyweight into the move, and then they tried it with a bit of run-up like it was a real fight, and Ruby began to grin at the repeated success. He might've still been letting her break his grip on purpose, but it didn't feel like it.

They paused so he could correct her footing, telling her she should always make sure to step to his outside and then quickly demonstrating why stepping into him when she was trying to break out of his grip was a bad idea.

Ruby didn't know how long they spent going over techniques for different situations, but at some point Percy had suggested everyone break into pairs to spar each other while he taught her, and soon the clearing was filled with the sound of individual combat.

Eventually he deemed she was ready, and Ruby couldn't contain her excitement as he pulled Ren aside, leaving her to replace him in fighting Yang.

Yang always grabbed her during their fights. Once Ruby had learned to avoid being tripped, the main way Yang would beat her was by grabbing her and then forcing her to fight in close combat where Yang was strongest.

Her sister grinned, punching her fists to chamber Ember Cecilia, the shotgun-gauntlets reloading mechanisms working impeccably as always. Ruby smiled proudly. She had helped design that feature.

"Sorry sis, but I won't go easy," Yang told her with an excited grin, always the one to relish a good fight. "I know Percy taught you some new tricks, but I've been training in hand to hand my whole life. You're not gonna beat me with a gimmick."

Ruby figured Yang was probably right, but she was too excited to try her newfound knowledge to care. The match started seconds later, going as it normally did; Ruby running in and dealing damage to Yang, then dashing away before she could respond.

But Yang always caught her, and usually it was sooner rather than later. This time it happened to be a bit later than sooner thanks to the gravity dust, but Yang managed to grab a hold of her either way, snagging her arm in a tight grip. She must have been watching Percy train her at first, because rather than leave it at that like she always did, she brought around her other hand to lock Ruby's arm with double the grip and make it so that there was no opening to yank her arm out of.

"Gotcha." Yang grinned toothily, yanking on Ruby's arm to compromise her footing.

But even though she'd seen the basics of the first move Percy had taught her, it was clear she hadn't been paying attention once she'd started sparring with Ren.

Ruby glanced at her scythe apologetically. Please forgive me. I'll clean you right after this, with extra oil — promise.

Yang gasped in surprise when Ruby dropped Crescent Rose entirely, and instead of trying to pull away from Yang lurched towards her with a semblance-enhanced burst of speed, grabbing her trapped fist with her other hand and using the combined strength of both her arms and her momentum combined with the new, awkward angle to wrench her arm upwards and out of Yang's grip, her elbow coming up to meet her sister's nose with a crack.

"Gah!"

Ruby dashed back rapidly, grabbing Crescent Rose and firing a gravity round to propel herself away at speed. Since her destination was away from Yang and said girl was still reeling from Ruby's elbow, the dust round impacted her and sent her flying halfway across the clearing.

The spar continued for another minute, Ruby returning to her hit and run tactics while Yang angrily tried to hit and grab her to no avail.

Ruby whooped happily as a beep from Yang's scroll signaled an end to the fight, an elated smile on her face. It worked! It really worked! She'd never beaten Yang. She was good enough to get into Beacon at just shy of fifteen, but Yang was near the top of their class in combat rankings and still just a bit out of Ruby's league.

But not anymore!

Yang was right to say one trick wasn't enough to beat her, but it had been enough to get Ruby out of a tough situation, and that's all she'd needed to pull through. She had to admit that if she'd done any worse Yang would've almost certainly been able to grab a hold of her again, but Ruby had done especially well this spar and the one break combined with her gravity dust bullets had been enough to even the odds.

Ruby's smile refused to fade, even as Yang grudgingly congratulated her and Ruby went to go collapse on the edge of the clearing, exhausted.

She rested for a while, spotting Percy working with Yang now, guiding her hand and adjusting parts of her stance as she imitated a punch while he was pressed against her back. Ruby snickered into her hand at Yang's face, confident that exhaustion wasn't entirely to blame for its bright red color.

Once Ruby had rested enough she hopped back into the fray and spent her time lightly sparring against different members of the two teams, pulling punches — literally, in Yang's case — so they didn't exhaust their opponent's aura, leaving them unable to keep sparring. It was a lot further from a real fight than something like combat class, just a series of bouts where they'd go until someone would have gotten the first hit and then resetting. She didn't think it was very helpful, but Ruby was so excited to use her new trick that she didn't really care.

As the sun began to touch the horizon, Ruby once again found herself resting at the edge of the clearing after a spar with Ren. Said monk was a short distance away, lounging next to Nora. Pyrrha was sat between them and Ruby, resting like the rest of them after a spar against Blake, but with notably less fatigue — only a bit of heavy breathing. Ruby tried not to be jealous of her friend, but it was hard sometimes. It really, really was.

"Is this how Percy taught you?" Ruby found herself asking.

"Hm?" Pyrrha perked up, looking towards her and taking a moment to register the question, then promptly laughing. "No, he's usually far more punishing."

Ruby looked at her with wide eyes, and Pyrrha rushed to clarify. "He believes experience is the best teacher," she explained. "Especially if he isn't familiar with your fighting style. He'll fight you like it's a fight to the death, and then if he notices something specific he'll point it out afterwards and help you correct it." Pyrrha shrugged. "Eventually you correct anything he notices, and from there it's just a matter of… well, getting better I suppose. The little things that can't be taught. That's where his teaching style is at its best — since he fights you like it's a real fight to the death, it's like you're getting the same experience you would if you were actually having to fight to the death every day."

Ruby huffed, that sounded nothing like what he'd done with them. He spent more time laughing and throwing them around the sparring area or tapping his sword to their throats than actually hitting them.

"Why doesn't he train us that way?" she vocalized her thoughts.

Pyrrha shrugged. "I couldn't say for sure, but I think it's because you guys didn't sign up for this. He only trains that way with me because I asked him to train me, and I wanted to be as strong as possible. A lot of that was family expectations," she said with a short frown, "but you guys didn't sign up for that, so he probably doesn't want to hurt you even if it makes you better."

Ruby scowled — which was not a pout! — and stared at the ground. She wanted him to train her like that! She didn't think it would be easy — in fact, she was sure it would suck, but she still wanted to do it. She'd gotten so much better in the few minutes he'd spent teaching her than she ever could in hours of sparring. She'd beaten Yang! She had spent three years trying to catch up to her big sister, and all it took was a few minutes of instruction!

She didn't think that being able to break out of a grab made her better than Yang all of a sudden, but it did give her a chance at winning that hadn't existed a few hours ago.

"Do you think he'd train me that way if I asked?" Ruby asked sheepishly.

Pyrrha hummed. "Maybe — probably — but it would only be while he's here. He's… really busy. Honestly, I'm surprised he's spent as long here as he has already. It's the longest he's been able to stick around since… in a while."

Ruby frowned. She hadn't considered that. Percy only came around to Patch once every couple months, but that was just Percy. It'd be weirder if he was there all the time — Percy was cool and all, but he was just a family friend. With Pyrrha, though, Ruby knew they were a bit closer to 'family' than 'friend'. She could vaguely recall he used to visit more often, but that was years ago and Ruby had been a kid — maybe Yang would remember better?

Turning back to the clearing, Ruby saw him standing on the other side of it with his blade locked against Weiss' rapier at the hilt, motioning with his wrists and explaining something that was too faint to pick out. He'd pulled almost everyone in the two teams aside already, the only exceptions being Pyrrha, Blake, and Jaune.

Pyrrha and Blake she understood — Pyrrha because she got this sort of training all the time and, as the girl herself had said, didn't really need it. Blake… well, the less said about that the better, but Yang had asked him not to approach her, and he probably decided that extended to training. But, Jaune…?

Ruby frowned. He was the only other one that hadn't gotten personal training yet, and she couldn't help but guess at the reason. She didn't like to see her friend excluded like that.

"And what is the meaning of this?!"

Ruby's head whipped to the right just in time to bare witness to every student's worst nightmare clearing the tree line — an angry Miss Goodwitch.

The reaction was immediate. Team JNPR's heads turned with Ruby's, and they all winced simultaneously. Yang flinched, punch swinging wide of Blake who let Yang trip over her foot to tumble onto the grass, before turning to face Miss Goodwitch a moment later with a grimace. Weiss stared past Percy to the irate teacher with wide eyes.

Percy turned calmly, and blinked once. "Can we help you?"

Ruby ducked her head. She didn't know what they'd done to get in trouble, but whatever it was, it was better to just nod and find out later. She winced. One of them really should have warned him about her.

Their teacher scowled, eyes narrowing at Percy. "Yes, Mr. Jackson, you can. May I ask why my students are in the Emerald Forest without the permission of a teacher?"

That… Ruby frowned. Was that a rule? She could get why, maybe, if only to know where the students were. If it was, it wasn't one that had ever been enforced before. Dully, she recalled Weiss complaining that they needed to inform a teacher before going to the Emerald Forest the first time they'd trained out here as a team, but had been teased into coming along pretty quickly. She'd only complained the once, though. Was that actually something they were supposed to do?

Eyes tracking where — or rather who — Miss Goodwitch was still glaring at, Ruby mentally hummed in understanding (she wasn't crazy enough to do so out loud with Miss Goodwitch looking like that). Why did she hate Percy so much? Did they have a history? Had she taught him, once upon a time? Ruby stifled a snicker at the thought, according to Uncle Qrow's ravings he wasn't a very easy student.

"But we always go into the Emerald Forest without permission," Yang pointed out as she stood and brushed herself off, echoing Ruby's thoughts.

"Is that so?" Miss Goodwitch turned. "Then I'd be all too glad to make sure you receive proper punishments for those occasions, as well. Would you care to go into detail?"

"Punishments?" Ruby squeaked, covering her mouth when she realized she'd spoken out loud.

The professor's ire found a new target. "Yes, Miss Rose, punishments. I'll be seeing you all in detention this weekend."

Ruby wilted. She'd been looking forward to this weekend! It was one of the incredibly rare occasions that there was no homework due Monday because of a history test that she definitely wasn't going to study for. Plus, Percy was here!

"There's no need to punish them, it's not their fault," Percy calmly came to their defense. "I asked them out here to spar. I'll be sure to let someone know next time."

The combat instructor's wrath focused on Percy once more, but before she turned Ruby saw her smile briefly. Ruby frowned. Had… she wanted him to take the blame?

"I see, so you claim responsibility for this?" she gestured vaguely at their group.

"Yes."

Ruby had to hand it to him, he was the most collected before an angry Miss Goodwitch she'd ever seen anyone. He wasn't much older than the upperclassmen at Beacon, and she had seen them shrink back in fear of the disciplinarian.

"Very well, I'll see you in my office once the students have returned to their rooms."

"I'll have to decline," he drawled, and winces from the students around the clearing deepened. "I have business to attend to, and whatever free time I have will be spent with those I came to visit."

Miss Goodwitch was positively seething now. "It was not a request, Mr. Jackson."

"Oh?" he seemed amused, and Ruby decided he had a few screws loose. Not flinching before Miss Goodwitch's anger could be explained by him being super cool. Enjoying it, though? He had to be crazy. "What was it then?"

The professor visibly grit her teeth. "Children," she bit out tersely. "Return to Beacon. Mr. Jackson and I need to have a word privately."

Ruby sighed. Today had been going so well, too. Forlornly, the clearing stirred to motion as they all moved to collect their things and head back.

"Don't," Percy countered.

Ruby froze on the spot, torn between the two conflicting orders. Locking eyes with Jaune, she was reassured he was in the same boat, though Jaune seemed less conflicted and more solidly set on the 'don't make Goodwitch angry' mindset, hesitantly but still deliberately bending over to throw a water bottle into his pack. Normally the goal of not making Goodwitch angry was one she could get behind, but Percy… well, he was Percy. In an effort to split the difference between the authority figures, Ruby slowly collected her gear.

Belatedly, Ruby came to a halt as she noticed that her and Jaune were the only ones moving. Around the clearing, her friends responded in different ways. Pyrrha was stood still with her lips pursed, eyes flickering between her mentor and teacher, and Weiss emulated her from next to Percy. Yang was fidgeting and eyeing her gear, looking like she'd be ready to dart for it the moment Goodwitch so much as cleared her throat, but ultimately remained motionless. Ren and Nora obediently waited for further instruction, not a shadow of a doubt as to whose orders they'd follow. Suddenly, Ruby was reminded that they were both from Mistral.

They were only shown up by Blake, who had frozen bent over in the middle of the clearing, as if the laws of physics had reformed around Percy's one-word sentence. From how rigid her posture was, Ruby wouldn't be too surprised to find out she had assumed that 'don't' applied to breathing as well and was holding her breath, just in case.

"I'm sure whatever you have to say isn't important enough that we need to be alone."

Ruby's eyes bounced between the two, and she bit her lip. It was clear they were squaring off, and their teams were caught awkwardly in the middle.

"Arrogant child!" Goodwitch snapped, and Ruby winced. Around the clearing, eyes widened.

Percy, however, didn't react at all.

Ruby shivered as a cool breeze rolled through the woods. Ruby frowned, winter didn't usually set in this early…

Percy didn't visibly change his posture, but it was clear something about him had changed. Something in his eyes, too, which Ruby couldn't quite put her finger on. Whatever it was, the air became much more intense than it had been a moment ago.

"I am not accustomed to being spoken to in such a manner," Percy said calmly. Very, very calmly. The calmest Ruby had ever heard him, in fact.

She shivered again. The wind. Definitely the wind.

The resulting silence lasted a few seconds, but to Ruby's great surprise Miss Goodwitch was the one to blink first, flinching away from Percy's eyes and looking at the ground. It only lasted a second, and then she had stormed into the woods.

Ruby gaped.

Percy hummed casually, glancing behind him towards where the sun had set behind the trees. "Well, it is getting pretty late and it's a Friday evening, you guys should head back and enjoy the rest of the night. We can train more later. I've got some business in Vale, so I should be around for the next week at least."

Blake returned from the land of the motionless, snapping into action to gather her things and rigidly heading back the way they came. Nora and Ren were more relaxed about it but they responded similarly, moving without hesitation to collect their things and leave.

The rest followed their lead.

Percy seemed to be fine with them going back to Beacon now that it was on his terms instead of Miss Goodwitch's and Ruby just decided to go with it, figuring it was one of those dumb 'male' things Yang was always telling her about. As long as her team wasn't caught in the middle of it, she was happy.

Jaune was the same, by the looks of it. He finished throwing his things in his pack and trudged alongside her, head lowered. Miss Goodwitch had gone off ahead of them, while Percy followed from the back of the spread out group.

Slowing until she was walking next to her sister, Ruby decided to interrupt the lack of conversation that had fallen over the woods, leaving only the noise of their footsteps.

Ruby nudged Yang conspiratorially, lowering her voice to a mutter and leaning closer so she could be heard. Yang made up the difference, leaning towards her just a bit.

"So, how'd you enjoy your 'training' with Percy?"

Ruby dodged the subsequent swing with a mad cackle, Yang chasing after her with an angry yell. Like flipping a switch, energy came back to the group as they reacted to the display, either dodging out of the way when Ruby tried to use them as momentary obstacles or keeping their consistent pace with poorly hidden amusement.

Behind them, Percy smiled.


Hello i dont really have anything to say just not writing much rn. will catch up after my bday i suppose. hope u enjoyed

next chapter may 30