"There is no teacher but the enemy… No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak… And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you."

-Mazer Rackham

"Alright everyone," Percy called, "gather around."

The air hung heavy with the scent of pine, dry grass cracking under their boots as RWBY and JNPR huddled, kneeling in a semi-circle in front of Percy. The previous night's discussions had bled into the dawn, meaning that it was evening by the time they were all awake and ready to actually start training. Anticipation thrummed through the group, a mix of excitement and restlessness.

Percy's gaze swept over them, his expression serious. "Now that you know what we're up against, you understand why I need to push you so hard," he said, his voice firm. Smiles and whispered jokes quickly died off. "I'm offering you one last chance to back out. This training will break you down and push you to your limits. But if you accept, there's no turning back."

The group exchanged glances, a silent affirmation passing between them.

"We're in!" Ruby, ever eager, was the first to speak.

Jaune nodded firmly.

Percy let out a deep breath, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. "Okay, but I warned you. When you hate me – and there will be a point when you hate me – remember that you asked for this," he warned.

Pyrrha gnawed at the inside of her cheek. He had given her a similar talk when she was a kid, but nothing this dramatic — and he had worked her to the bone. What exactly did he have planned?

Percy paused, letting his words sink in. "Good. As of now, your individual combat training is over. From now on, you train as teams — as one team. You will learn to live as a team, fight as a team, and survive as a team." His voice hardened. "I know you think you know how to fight as a team. You do not."

Yang frowned. "We've fought together plenty. We work well together."

"How did you end up in a desert?" Percy's voice cut through the air, sharp as a whip. "And Blake on a White Fang ship?"

The group winced. Yang shifted uncomfortably, and Blake's eyes dropped to the forest floor. Most of them had made it out of that encounter alright — but the two of them had not.

"Understand what's at stake," Percy continued, unrelenting. Nervously, they each met his eyes as they scanned over their group. "This isn't a game or a competition you're training for — it's real life. When you lose, you die. Or worse."

He let his words sink in for a moment before he cleared his throat, his tone taking on a lighter note. "In the coming weeks, you will be trained in dozens of skills, tactics, and concepts. It will vary, but most days will go something like this: first, you'll be instructed on a topic by a teacher. When the subject allows for it, you'll follow along as you're taught. These sections should last no more than an hour each day," he assured them, prompting several sighs of relief.

He ignored them, but Pyrrha noticed the corner of his lip twitch. "Second, you'll practice in a controlled setting — a 'dry run' so to speak. This part will last until you can all demonstrate competence in the subject while under supervision. And finally, you'll be put into a scenario made to be as close to real life as possible, designed to test your knowledge and ability in the topic. As you know I believe that experience is the best teacher, so this is what the vast majority of your training will be focused on."

There were some slouched shoulders in the group, namely Nora and Yang, and Percy rolled his eyes. "It won't all be dreary. There will be fighting, and some missions will be more fun than others." His eyes glinted with mischief. "You might think you're being sent out with training wheels on, but it's the opposite. Most of your missions will be much harder than most Huntsman teams'."

"How?" Ruby asked, her voice laced with curiosity. Pyrrha wondered the same thing — professional huntsmen were famously incredibly strong, and a whole team of them was formidable — near unbeatable except by overwhelming numbers — yet even they sometimes fell on missions. How could he expect them to succeed in accomplishing a more difficult mission?

Percy's only answer was his knowing smirk.

"If there are no more questions — for your first lesson you'll be learning land navigation," he moved on, reaching into the backpack at his side and pulling out several maps and compasses, passing them around. He kept one for himself, smoothing it over the grass.

That was… practical, Pyrrha supposed. Certainly less combat focused than she'd been imagining.

"I mentioned before that I will not always be teaching when I can find a teacher with a better grasp of a subject than I have. This is one of those times. Blake?"

Pyrrha blinked, recoiling slightly as said girl joined Percy at the center of the semi-circle, crouching in front of the map. She didn't remember the two being particularly close, to say the least. Had something happened?

Her mild surprise was nothing compared to the rest of team RWBY's, who all stared with varying degrees of shock. Yang was clearly the most surprised, remaining slack-jawed and motionless for several seconds.

Blake apparently felt no need to provide an explanation, immediately diving into their lesson. Pyrrha paid rapt attention as the faunus described how they could find their way with nothing more than a map and compass, learning triangulation and how to identify what around them could be used as landmarks.

Some like Ren and Nora caught on quickly while others took longer, but eventually they had all gotten the hang of the various techniques Blake described.

Then, with the sun already beginning to dip below the horizon, they were thrust into their first real-life scenario.

Pyrrha resisted the urge to pick at the blindfold wrapped around her eyes as the bullhead carried her to where she would be dropped off. Percy had taken their scrolls and marked a spot on each of their maps, telling them their goal was to regroup at the marked location. Then, without another word, he'd thrown them all on a couple bullheads and blindfolded them.

Pyrrha's name was eventually called and she took off her blindfold to disembark, a backpack full of supplies from one of Mistral's armories slung over one shoulder. Her armor clanked as she hopped out of the bullhead, Milo jostling lightly against her side. Looking back at the bullhead, Percy shot her a smile and a salute before the bullhead sped away to drop the others off.

Immediately putting her training into practice, she began to look around for a landmark that might be recognizable on her map — a tower, mountains, a body of water, anything — only to see nothing but grass and trees in every direction.

Picking a direction, she started walking, eyes peeled for anything recognizable. She didn't have a watch but it felt like she spent hours wandering aimlessly before she spotted a useful landmark, a rather distinctive treeline that she could — with great effort, squinting to see in the fading sunlight — track down on her map.

Pulling out her compass and lining it up, she groaned. She had been walking nearly in the opposite direction of the objective. Suppressing another groan, she oriented herself vaguely according to the landmark and marked a direction on her compass. Quickly folding her map and shoving it in her backpack, Pyrrha set off in the right direction this time.

The forest grew darker and darker as she walked, the shadows deepening with every passing minute until it was hard to see much more than a few feet in front of her. Stumbling through the darkness and cursing herself for not bringing a flashlight, she caught a glimpse of white light through the trees.

She pursued it hastily, using the shadows it casted against the trees to help her find her way until she finally reached its source.

"Weiss?"

Weiss yelped, jumping at the sound of her voice. She held her sword, Myrtenaster, in one hand, its tip emitting a soft but radiant white glow.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha blushed. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Weiss held a hand over her heart, breathing quickly. "No, it's fine, I should have heard you. I was too focused on the map."

"Find any landmarks?" Pyrrha asked, joining her in looking down at the map.

Weiss scowled, and Pyrrha knew what her answer would be even before she shook her head. "In this light? I couldn't find where I was if there was a mountain right in front of me."

"It's alright, I found one a while back when there was still some light," Pyrrha told her. "I was able to get a pretty good bearing, at least."

Weiss hesitated. "Are we even allowed to work together?"

Pyrrha shrugged. "Percy didn't say it was against the rules. Besides, I'm having a hard time finding my way in the dark — with your light we could move twice as quickly."

Weiss hummed, grabbing her chin. "I suppose so…" she nodded. "Very well, let's work together."

Pyrrha took out her map and showed Weiss her best guess of where they were, guessing from the line she'd drawn between where she had been and where the target was, all the way on the other side of the map.

Weiss took out her own compass and led with her sword, Pyrrha trudging along silently behind her, thankful for the extra light. They continued like that for a long time — how long exactly she couldn't tell, but it was long enough that they had run out of things to talk about. Pyrrha started to doubt that they were still headed in the right direction.

"A road!" Weiss suddenly exclaimed. Pyrrha arrived at her side, and sure enough there was a clear dirt path in the ground at their feet. It was closer to a trail than a real road, but it was still a stroke of luck for them to come across it.

She quickly pulled out her map and crouched to the ground, Weiss echoing her and letting her light illuminate the map. Tracing their rough path to the objective, Pyrrha found only a single trail intersecting it.

"We're almost there!" Weiss exclaimed. "This path leads to the rendezvous — it's only a few miles away!"

"But it bends," Pyrrha pointed out. "It would be a shorter distance to cut through the woods straight there."

"But we'd travel faster on the trail," Weiss countered. "Plus, there's no chance of us getting lost — it leads right there!"

Convinced, Pyrrha messily shoved the map into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, eager to get this over with. Weiss must have felt the same, because she took off at a quick walk without another word.

Pyrrha followed her in quiet excitement. They were actually going to do it — they were going to reach the objective without having to be rescued.

It wasn't a few minutes later that Pyrrha spotted a series of soft blue lights some distance in front of them. Half a dozen or so in total, they seemed to move along the road at a slow but steady pace.

"Are those…"

"Automatons," Weiss confirmed.

"Perhaps they're here in case one of us needs help — we must be close to the objective," Pyrrha suggested.

Weiss nodded. "I suppose. I can't think of another reason for them to be here."

The two continued down the path, the blue lights getting closer and closer until Pyrrha could clearly see a small squad of automatons illuminated by the light shining from their cores.

When they got close enough, the automatons abruptly stopped, their metal heads turning eerily towards them.

Weiss and Pyrrha didn't stop walking, intending on ignoring the presence of the mechanical defenders and making their way to the objective.

Right up until, as one, they raised their rifles.

The duo ground to a halt.

Weiss frowned. "They're not going to-"

Crack!

The smaller girl was cut off by the crack of a rifle firing, several more gunshots quickly following.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Pyrrha gasped as bullets ricocheted off her armor, raising her arms in front of her face and bringing her aura to the forefront just in time to stop a bullet which impacted her arm.

She tackled Weiss off the trail, tumbling over a bush and into a small indent at the base of a tree.

Righting herself, she quickly looked her teammate over. "Are you okay?" she asked, "are you hurt?"

Weiss appeared uninjured, but her face was a ghostly white.

"Pyrrha…" she pointed.

Pyrrha followed Weiss' finger to her own arm, freezing when she did.

A thin rivulet of blood ran from her upper arm to her elbow, where a single drop gathered and fell, staining Weiss' dress crimson.

They were broken from their stupor by a new volley of bullets whipping through the brush around them, and Pyrrha forced her aura to the front of every square inch of skin as they scrambled away.

Ducking behind another, bigger, tree, the two scrambled to their feet and stood back to back.

"If you distract them with your shield, I'll snipe them from afar," Weiss suggested.

Pyrrha opened her mouth to accept, but a moment later it clicked shut and she shook her head. What was she thinking?

Leaning out from cover, Pyrrha extended an arm and called upon her birthright.

At once she felt herself seize control of the metal chassis that made up the automaton frames. Clenching her fist, she felt satisfaction as a jarring CRUNCH echoed throughout the night, and the blue lights visible through the treeline faded from sight.

Weiss swallowed. "Is it… is it safe?"

Nervously, Pyrrha nodded.

The two cautiously made their way back to the trail, Pyrrha kicking at one of the hunks of metal that used to be an automaton.

"I forgot you could do that," Weiss admitted.

"For a second, so did I." Pyrrha let out a deep breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

"Through the woods, then?"

"Through the woods."

It was most of the way to dawn when they finally stumbled upon the designated rendezvous point, a small clearing marked by a towering rock formation. Jaune, Ren, and Nora were waiting for them by the time they arrived, Jaune and Nora leaned against the rocks speaking casually while Ren laid nearby in the field with his eyes shut.

Pyrrha greeted Jaune and Nora with a tired wave. "Any sign of the rest of team RWBY?" she asked.

"Blake was here when Ren arrived. She told him he'd succeeded, and to wait until the rest of us arrived," Jaune told her, stifling a yawn. "But nope, no sign of Yang or Ruby."

Pyrrha nodded and shoved down her worry. She slung her backpack off her shoulder and collapsed next to Jaune, sharing a nod with Weiss as the girl collapsed a little further away, wordlessly sprawling flat on the grass.

It wasn't long before the other two arrived one at a time, first Yang and then Ruby. Pyrrha felt a wave of relief hit her as the last member of their group entered the clearing unscathed.

"So… what now?" Jaune asked.

"Now, we debrief."

Jaune yelped, leaping from his spot and turning on his heel. Pyrrha craned her neck to see Blake casually perched on top of the cluster of rocks, staring down at them.

"Is Percy here?" Pyrrha asked.

"He had to return to Windpath to take care of something," Blake explained, shrugging. "He should be back any moment, but for now we can go over how it went."

Blake gracefully leaped from stone to stone, hopping onto the grass and settling on a knee where Jaune had just been sitting. Groggily, the others gathered around.

"Um, before we begin," Weiss raised a hand. "Did anyone else run into killer automatons?"

"Yeah, what was that about?" Yang demanded, hands on her hips. "I didn't know they would be shooting at us!"

"Neither did we," Pyrrha pointed to herself and Weiss. The blood on her arm had long since dried and been wiped off, but she felt a sting where she had been scathed as she was reminded of the encounter. "With real bullets, too."

"First of all, they're not real bullets," Blake corrected her. "They're more like pellets. They deliver the same force as a bullet so they'll diminish your aura like one, but they're not made to penetrate skin. You certainly wouldn't enjoy it, but you wouldn't die from having your aura down. Unless it grazed your skin or hit somewhere like your eye, it wouldn't draw blood." Blake met Pyrrha's eyes meaningfully.

"As for not knowing they would shoot at you…" Blake trailed off. "Welcome back Percy. Did you want to explain that part?"

"Sure."

It was Pyrrha's turn to yelp and leap to her feet, spinning to find Percy leaning against the rocks next to her. She sent him a look, and he grinned back cheekily.

"Always assume you're in a hostile environment," he explained. "You're lucky these ones were the oldest models I had in stock. Tomorrow they'll be a bit quicker. The day after they'll shoot a bit more accurately. Don't get content, and don't trust anything out here. You know I'm all about simulating actual combat — the mentality, not just the motions. Maybe there will be enemies, maybe there won't be, that's something you have to find out."

Pyrrha might have been a bit more sympathetic to the lesson if she was fully rested with a full stomach. As it was, she glowered.

"You generally won't be split up and Blake will usually be with you, but otherwise expect more of the same for future missions. You'll be expected to know how to perform land navigation in the future. In fact, assume that future missions might test you on anything you've learned, at any time. If there are no questions about that, it's back to Blake."

"So, for debriefs we'll go over what we should start, stop, and sustain. Each of us will…"

Pyrrha listened as attentively as she could manage while Blake explained the process, but couldn't shake the annoyance she felt. Whether at Percy for the misleading description of the training or at herself for being caught off guard, she wasn't sure. It might've been all three. Either way, she resolved not to be taken off guard again.

Meeting Percy's eyes, her own narrowed. Whatever his training had in store, she would be prepared.

Challenge accepted.

Ruby yawned early the next afternoon, shuffling her way into the kitchen while the rest of her friends were sleeping.

Well, most of them.

"Hey, Ruby," Jaune greeted, looking as tired as she felt.

He sat at their new kitchen table with Percy, a map spread messily over it.

Shaking her head in a vain attempt to get some blood flowing, she slumped into the open chair between them.

"Today's mission will be simple because the lesson is focused on leadership," Percy wasted no time explaining once she'd sat. "Specifically, planning and executing a mission. I'll be going over the classroom section with you two, and brief you on the mission. Then you'll make a plan and brief your teams. All of their information on the mission will come from you. With exceptions, this is how all of your trainings will go."

Ruby pursed her lips, but nodded she understood. If she forgot to mention something, her team would have no way to deal with it. She could imagine that happening more than once, and that they wouldn't be too happy about it.

For the next hour or so he explained various group formations and movements, concepts of leadership, how to attack, and why. He provided some simple examples, letting them answer how they'd move their teams and giving feedback. It was easier than Ruby had expected, though she was sure that was because of the simplicity of the examples. Soon enough he must have been satisfied that they had the basics down because he pulled out a new map.

"Now, it's time for the briefing for your actual mission. You have small hostile defensive positions here, here, and here." he quickly marked on the map. "And a moderately sized enemy base here." he marked again. "Your task is to clear them all and seize the dust in their main base without destroying it."

Ruby blinked. "Is that all?"

"That's all," Percy confirmed. "Unless you have any questions?"

Ruby shared a hopeful smile with Jaune. "That shouldn't be a problem."

"Then get to planning, and when you're ready wake your teams to brief them. If you're fast you can be back before dinner to relax for the rest of the day. I'll have two bullheads ready to drop you wherever you want," he told them, standing. "Oh, and do try not to land too close to the outposts — they might have anti-aircraft."

Ruby swallowed. "Fake ones, right?"

Percy only smiled.

"How far is their range?" Jaune tried to ask as Percy began leaving.

"We don't know," he answered over his shoulder. "If you want a subject matter expert, ask Blake. I'm sure she'll be able to give you a rough range."

He was gone down the hallway with a wave, the distant noise of their front door opening and shutting signalling his final departure.

Slouching, Ruby concentrated on the map and shared another look with Jaune. Planning had seemed so easy when it was just ink on paper. Now, when they would have to actually do what they were planning to?

Ruby wasn't sure she liked the pressure.

"That's the base?" Ruby muttered. "Are you kidding?"

Jaune understood the sentiment.

They laid on their stomachs, peering over a hill where their final objective was supposed to be. Percy had described it as a 'medium sized' base, which Jaune had taken to mean something like the outposts they'd encountered so far, but scaled up. The outposts had fewer than a dozen automatons each, and consisted of a few lines of sand-bags with a lookout tower.

The base they were looking at… was not that.

"That's… bigger than I was expecting," Jaune agreed.

"How much did this thing cost…?"

Instead of a cardboard castle used for training, they were looking at a full scale military base, complete with brick walls, tall fences, checkpoints at the entrance, towers on each corner, and multiple buildings within the compound, each barely visible over the wall.

"I don't think our plan of breaking from the treeline and using Pyrrha to destroy anything in sight will work anymore," Jaune pointed out the obvious.

Ruby sighed, head dipping. "Why can't anything be simple?"

Jaune chuckled at the girl's dramatics. "It's not so bad. We'll just need to adjust the plan a bit — the automatons should still go down easy. We can make our way along the trees like we planned, then Nora can launch smoke to keep us hidden while we cross the field. RWBY can head to the east wall and we'll head to the west. Cut the fences, hop over the walls, and meet in the middle. Sound good?"

Ruby swung her head back and forth in something resembling a nod. "Let's go let the others know. They'll want to see this."

They inched back from the edge of the hill, pushing to their feet once they were out of sight and heading back down to where their teams waited at the base of the hill.

"Make sure Yang doesn't blow anything up this time," Jaune advised his fellow team leader before the two split up.

"I heard that, vomit boy!"

Later that week, Pyrrha picked her way over roots and under branches, the light crunching of her boots on the dry leaf-covered dirt audible alongside those of her teammates. Their spread group combed their way through the trees at a decent pace, and Pyrrha wondered how long it would be until they reached the objective.

"How long until we reach the village?" Weiss voiced Pyrrha's thoughts, her voice faintly echoing from somewhere to Pyrrha's left.

"At least another mile," Ruby called back from a bit nearer. "But don't forget to try to keep noise to a minimum."

Pyrrha could imagine Weiss rolling her eyes. "It's not like they can hear. With their aim, I'm not even sure they can see."

Pyrrha snickered, silently agreeing.

As if to prove her wrong, the telltale crack of gunfire sprung to life in front of them.

Pyrrha hit the ground as she felt the thunk of a bullet impacting her chestplate. An ever-increasing slew of bullets began whizzing overhead before she knew it, her eyes searching the forest ahead to no avail.

"Pyrrha!" she heard Blake call. "Need you here!"

Not doubting her teammate for a moment, Pyrrha sprung to a crouch and dashed towards where she'd heard Blake, bullets pinging off her shield as she did. She slid to a halt beside the faunus girl, joining her in taking cover behind a larger tree. She spotted Weiss and Ruby similarly positioned a few feet away.

"You have a clear view on three of them straight ahead!" Blake told her, shouting to be heard over the noise. "I think these are newer ones, so keep yourself as covered as you can and keep moving!"

Pyrrha took her advice, swinging around the tree into the open and peeking over the rim of her shield. She spotted them at once, three camouflaged automatons barely visible through the trees, each laying down gunfire in a different direction. She reached out with her semblance, willing the metal to collapse.

Only to blink as… nothing happened. Her grip slipped over the metal as though it weren't there, like it was completely devoid of magnetism.

She was startled to action by one of them turning to face her directly, and she raised her shield to cover her eyes just in time to hear a solid clink as a bullet ricocheted off of it.

She ducked back around the tree, meeting Blake's furrowed brows with wide eyes. "I can't affect them."

"Is that even possible?"

Pyrrha swallowed. "Not that I knew of."

Blake cursed, waving over Ruby.

"They're immune to Pyrrha's semblance. We don't know how," she quickly explained.

The younger girl pursed her lips, and Pyrrha winced as a bullet tore bark from the tree right behind Ruby's head. The leader leaned forward, Pyrrha and Blake huddling close with her to allow them all to fit behind the tree.

"...I don't know," she eventually said. "Fight them as normal until we have a better idea, I guess?"

Pyrrha resisted the urge to share a look with Blake, knowing Ruby was still getting used to this like the rest of them — Pyrrha sincerely doubted she could do any better herself, it's not like she had a better idea.

Ruby dashed over to help Weiss, but as far as Pyrrha could tell they hadn't actually destroyed any automatons yet, despite having a marksman. They could just brute force them with aura, but she knew they had a lot of work to do after this skirmish was over, and they would need every drop of aura they could keep.

"I have an idea. Just make sure not to get too near them," she told Blake, the words falling out of her mouth. Hefting her shield once more, Pyrrha ran back to her own team and slid to a halt behind a tree across from Jaune and Nora. They were both behind a boulder, and Jaune wore a frustrated scowl as a bullet interrupted his every attempt to peek around it.

"Nora!" she called. "Can you load a grenade?"

The girl did as she asked, looking at her expectantly when she was done. Explosives or no, they were useless without knowing at least vaguely where the enemy was.

Sprinting the brief distance between them and coming to a stop besides Nora, Pyrrha ignored the training that had been drilled into her not to group up so close. Lining herself up behind her teammate, Pyrrha pointed. "Three of them are in a divet just behind those rocks pinning RWBY down. Can you land something in there?"

The girl's grin was all the answer Pyrrha needed.

"Good job, Pyr," Jaune praised. "If you can make it safely, go back to help them — get Yang and wait for Nora's grenade to go off, then push and flank the ones pinning us."

Pyrrha nodded hastily, switching her shield arm and sprinting back towards team RWBY. She found Yang in a ditch just past the rest of her team.

"Nora is launching a grenade at the ones pinning you down, then we rush in and clear the rest," she quickly explained.

"Finally!" Yang exclaimed. "If I had to sit in this hole for one more minute…"

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, but smiled.

Within seconds a loud explosion rang out a few dozen feet away, and dirt was flung so high into the air that some landed around them.

"Now!"

They rushed where the automatons had been, surprised but not unprepared for two of the three to still be alive and mostly intact. Pyrrha launched her javelin, the blade piercing one machine's core and pinning it to the dirt. She followed shortly behind it, slinging Akouo into its neck and beheading it. Yang slugged the head clean off the other, stomping on its torso until it was nothing more than scrap metal. Pyrrha extended her hand, willing Milo to return to her, but froze with a cold dread when her powers washed right over it like it had the automatons.

Grabbing her spear by the hilt and pulling it free of the metallic corpse, Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief when it returned to the control of her semblance. She could figure out how the machines had been made immune to her semblance later — all she cared about right now is that there was nothing wrong with her.

She was suddenly forced to pay attention by a stream of bullets cutting like a laser through the air and trees. She barely hit the ground in time for it to sweep over her, bullets whistling through the air and crackling loudly as they splintered wood and tore branches from the trees. Looking to Yang, she found her friend laying on her back, cradling her stomach in pain.

Pyrrha froze as the loud blare of Yang's scroll rang out, announcing that her aura was in the red. As far as the training was concerned, she was dead — the first 'death' they'd had.

Distant shouts bounced between the trees, followed by a barely-audible clash of metal and the hail of machine gun fire being suddenly cut short.

Pursing her lips, Pyrrha prepared herself to go help her friend. The scroll's siren ringing in her ears was an all-too-fresh reminder that, were this real life, she would be looking at a corpse.

They needed to get better.

Pyrrha slumped in front of her desk, one that used to be a dresser before she had pulled a chair in front of it, but her desk all the same. She half-heartedly adjusted her hair, hoping it wasn't too obvious that she had just gotten back from training. She felt like collapsing into bed or relaxing like the rest of her friends, but she had other responsibilities.

Taking a deep breath, Pyrrha straightened her posture, schooled her expression, and waited for the clock to tick over. No matter how many times she had these meetings, or how often she reminded herself that she was their boss, she had never been able to get rid of the nerves completely. But tonight, she was just a little too tired to care.

She waited a few seconds after the clock hit seven, squaring her shoulders and pressing 'join'.

"Hello My Lady."

"Sir Nigel," Pyrrha responded in kind, dipping her head minutely in the way that had been drilled into her since she was four.

The civil servant on the other end of the call was not the mayor, but these calls hadn't been with the mayor for a few weeks — not since Argus' elections, when a new mayor had been elected. She had spoken to the new mayor only once, long enough for him to pay respects. Since then the settlement secretary — a position she'd learned was more important than the title made it sound — had been the one to update her on the settlement's affairs.

She had briefly considered that she should be offended, but she wasn't. It's not like she had ever asked for the weekly meetings with the mayor. As long as she was informed, she was content.

Speaking of which…

"Good evening my lady, I trust you are well. I apologize for the abrupt start, but unfortunately I've some rather urgent news and I feel it imperative that you're brought up to speed."

Pyrrha stiffened in her seat. "Oh? Please do explain," she bid him, unconsciously slipping into the more formal tone she used at family events when she was younger.

Nigel shifted uncomfortably, a slight frown creasing his brow. "Well, you see, it's about Sanctum Academy. A small group of their students — only a few, I assure you — caused quite the… disruption. They tore across the settlement last night like a group of bandits, causing property damage, threatening people, even committing minor assault and petty theft. It doesn't appear they intended to seriously harm anyone, but they were rather heavily intoxicated."

Pyrrha's breath hitched. "What happened?"

Nigel sighed heavily. "The police naturally attempted to intervene, but the miscreants' abilities made them quite… difficult to subdue. Several officers were injured and, tragically, two civilians lost their lives in a car accident caused by their reckless behavior before Sanctum's faculty arrived to handle the students."

The sound of Pyrrha's teeth grinding was the only thing she could hear. This was personal for her, and not just because the students were from Sanctum. The importance of not abusing aura had been engraved into her since she could walk — it was one of the first things every one of her instructors had taught her, and the number one rule of being a huntress. Don't turn your powers against those you swore to protect. To do so was to cross a line, and it was obvious why.

They had been shown immense trust, being allowed to wield the weapon known as Aura — a weapon strong enough that a few sixteen year olds could fend off a settlement's entire police department.

These students had taken that trust and used it to fuel an ego trip that had resulted in the death of innocents.

"Where are they now?" she demanded.

Nigel winced sympathetically. "Well you see, my lady, that's where the difficulty lies… Sanctum refuses to hand them over to the city. They insist on dealing with the matter internally."

"On what grounds?" Pyrrha snapped. She recoiled at the sound of her own voice, hastily re-asserting the mask of calm professionalism.

"They claim that the students are under their jurisdiction, I'm afraid, and that their disciplinary system is better suited to dealing with the situation. They also claim that involving the city's courts would infringe on the independence of the school."

"That's… that's absurd!" Pyrrha spat. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this angry. "The school will never give them as harsh a punishment as a court would. They shouldn't get special treatment just because they have aura!"

"I agree with you, my lady." The secretary raised his hands placatingly, "As does the mayor. But our hands are tied, the school is technically a separate institution from the city. Some courts have even ruled that huntsmen academies have a level of sovereignty, but either way precedent is clear — the mayor cannot interfere in huntsman business."

"Surely the law can't say they're allowed to get away with murder if the school says so," Pyrrha argued.

"Not as such," Nigel granted. "There has never been a case quite like this one, but the separation between the government and huntsman academies — including combat schools — is handled with great care. We may have a case, but we would first need to prove that in court."

"How long would that take?" Pyrrha asked, somewhat placated.

Nigel hummed, eyes looking to the ceiling as he contemplated the question. "Ordinarily it might take up to a year, less if we expedite it. But they are bound to delay as much as possible and challenge any ruling we get, so… perhaps four years, give or take."

"They'd have graduated by then!" she objected, "That's not an option, surely there's something else we can do."

"I'm afraid there is not, my lady," the civil servant said with a tight-lipped apology. "We have to obey the law. Even if we pretend for a moment that we did not, there isn't much we can do — all of the police in the city didn't do much good against three students, much less all of the faculty as well."

Pyrrha's jaw clenched. She knew those teachers. She knew the headmaster. She could put the past behind her when she was the only one who had been wronged, but now two innocent people were dead.

"Perhaps…" Nigel trailed off, and Pyrrha perked up.

"Perhaps what?"

"Well, it's just an idea. Nothing more than a technicality, really."

"And? What is it?"

"There is nothing we can do from the mayor's office — the school is explicitly outside of our authority. You, however, have been given no such limit."

Pyrrha's eyes hardened. "What do I need to do?'

"Well, my lady, Argus is yours per imperial decree — not just its government. All within the settlement is your domain, including the school. They may challenge this, but if they do it will quickly rise to the only one who can answer such a question."

"Percy."

"Indeed. If they argue they are sovereign it would be a rather tough case to win, seeing as how Haven's headmistress hailed him the same as everyone else in the empire. If their argument is that he has authority over them but you do not, they would be gambling on his coming down on their side or facing his wrath directly — a fool's wager. Since they will not challenge your authority you need only state your command, and they would be mandated by law to obey."

"Will they?"

Sir Nigel smiled faintly. "I would certainly hope so, my lady — otherwise they will have given up all pretense of legality."

"Then you have my command," Pyrrha told him, her voice firm. "Take it back to the mayor and the headmaster. They are to hand over the students to the city's courts."

Nigel smiled widely, almost proudly — as though he'd been testing her and she had answered correctly.

"Yes, my lady."

"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

George Bernard Shaw

Percy leaned forward in a worn leather seat, the crackling fireplace the only light illuminating the eight pairs of eyes that peered back at him curiously.

"So there's no Grimm in your world?" Ruby stared with wide eyes. "At all?"

Percy shook his head, smiling faintly.

"That sounds like a paradise," Pyrrha muttered. "How big are the cities? How many cities are there?"

"Too many to count," he shrugged. "But smaller than you'd expect — with so much free space, humanity spread across the globe. Not nearly as packed together."

Weiss stared in muted shock, her eyes gazing past him. "How many people are there?"

Percy scratched his head. "I think it was a bit over seven billion."

Yang choked on air, and Percy shot her a teasing grin. A detail she hadn't asked about when he'd told her all of this, he supposed. Though to be fair most of their conversation had been focused on his adventures as a demigod — not the mortal world he had seen as so mundane.

"But you said there were monsters!" Yang gasped. "I thought- I thought they were like Grimm."

"There are monsters," Percy confirmed, "but the divine and mortal worlds are separated by a veil called the Mist. It's… complicated, but the end result is that mortals tend not to notice, or explain away divine events. On the other end, monsters tend to ignore mortals entirely, and gods are forbidden from interfering with them directly. That's where demigods come in." he jerked a thumb at himself. "We've got one foot in the mortal world, one in the divine. Monsters and mortals can both come after us, and we're free to do whatever we want. If the gods need something done in the mortal world, they have a kid."

Jaune slouched. "That sounds so…"

"Callous," Weiss supplied quietly, locking eyes with Percy. A silent message passed between them.

Jaune nodded.

Percy waved it off half-heartedly. "It's not like that's the only reason they ever have kids. Sometimes they fall in love. It's just that usually…" he trailed off.

"Who's your parent, then?" Nora asked before the silence could become too heavy.

"Poseidon," he answered quickly. "But the name he's best known best as on Remnant is Neptune."

"The Mistrali god of the sea," Blake recalled, perking up. "That makes sense, but what about your other powers? Clearly they aren't limited to control over oceans — or even water."

"Neptune isn't just the lord of the seas," Nora corrected, her eyes suddenly wide and fixed on him. "He's the god of rivers, springs, and waters. The storm bringer and the earth shaker. The lord of horses."

Silence followed, and Percy tried to ignore that Ren was giving him a similar — though not quite as intense — look.

Yang whistled lowly, and Percy cracked a sheepish smile.

"That's correct," he said, nodding awkwardly at Nora, "But I can tell you firsthand that the full list of titles isn't usually necessary. It gets old after you've heard it more than a couple times."

"When you say firsthand, it implies that you have titles. Do you?" Weiss grilled.

Despite himself, the slightest dusting of red rose to Percy's cheeks, which he desperately hoped the firelight made unnoticeable. "Oh, not really, I just meant the ones people have given me on Remnant."

"You're lying."

Percy's eyes snapped to Blake, wide in betrayal.

"You have a bunch of epic-sounding titles? That's so awesome!" Ruby exclaimed, apparently taking Blake's talent as a lie detector in stride. "What are they!?"

Percy rubbed his neck, suddenly on the backfoot. "Ah… maybe I'll tell you some other time. It's no big deal, really, just-"

"Slayer of the Minotaur and Medusa," Yang began, listing on her fingers. "Triumphant over the god of wa- mph!"

Yang was cut off mid-sentence as a throw pillow collided with her face.

"Yang!" Percy hissed, knowing the dim lighting was not doing a good enough job of hiding his blush at this point.

Yang pulled the pillow from her face, cackling. "Retriever of the master bo-

Ruby and Blake scrambled to opposite sides of the couch as Percy launched himself at Yang, wrapping an arm around her mouth. She continued to try to speak around his arm in-between laughing fits, and Percy tugged her to the carpeted floor in a gentle headlock. Smiling widely, Percy held her still and dug his knuckles into the top of her head.

"Okay, okay, I give!" she pleaded, gasping for air between laughing fits. Percy kept going for a few more seconds to teach her a lesson and let her go, the girl's face even brighter red than his as she scrambled back onto the couch, heaving for breath in-between laughing fits.

"Blake, protect me!" Yang pleaded dramatically, pulling her partner in front of her.

Blake rolled her eyes and calmly unclasped Yang's hands from her collar. "You're on your own for this one."

Yang stared at her partner in slack-mouthed shock. "Traitor! Weiss, surely you'll help defend me!"

"Hey, Ruby?"

"Yeah, Weiss?"

"Smack your sister for me, would you?"

"Ow!"

I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought about the last scene. Since it would be way too long to show their conversation from last chapter all in one scene, I'm planning on dropping pieces throughout the next several chapters but I'm not sure how much I love the idea.

Pat-reon is one chapter ahead and linked on my profile, or you can come hang out in the discord.

Next Chapter March 15