Knox: What took this?

King: Life. Liberty. The pursuit of loot!

Knox: Getting back into Borderlands after the reveal of 3?

King: Fuck yeah! I am the Siren King!

Knox: Right... So, yeah. That's happening so I guess I'll take over the intro. Hope you all enjoy the chapter and we're not that sorry it took so long because this has always been a passion project anyway. It's taken a while to get this far. Anyway, let's get into it.

Inspiration: N/A

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The screen chose to give them an intermission after that horror show. Everyone went off to do their own thing, hoping to cool their heads and forget that horrifying scene. And that brings us to the arena, where many chose to blow off some steam. In time, this led to the moment at hand. Standing in the arena's central zone were Taiyang and Sienna, both in their combat gear and with weapons in hand. Well… weapon. Tai was unarmed, as was his usual fighting style. Sienna's weapon was a chain with a bladed arrow at the end. Several similar arrows hung from her belt as well, some glowing slightly at their center in orange, blue, green, or white.

Knox appeared above the two and looked between them. "Okay! I want this to be a fair and clean fight. That said, rules are as follows. When your opponent's aura level reaches the level designated as 'red,' the match ends and a winner is declared. Other than that, you may use any weapon or advantage you can get. You don't have to fight clean, but we'll all judge you if you don't. Do the fighters understand?"

Tai smiled and nodded, "Yep~!"

Sienna's face was more serious, but she nodded as well, "Understood."

Knox flew a bit higher and flickered out of sight, "FIGHT!"

Sienna was the first to make her move thanks to her weapon's range. She tossed the end of her chain toward Tai, the chain itself flowing behind it. Tai had to duck to the side, but this worked to Sienna's favor. She snapped the chain from her end and the end kicked up as the arrow detached and flew at Tai, causing him to fly back as the glowing arrow exploded in a Dust effect. Tai had to skid across the ground slightly to keep his balance but keep it he did. He was still standing after the dust settled.

Qrow chuckled to himself, "Welp. There goes her best chance to beat him."

This got the attention of the faunas couple next to him, given they knew Sienna in the past. Kali leaned around her husband to address the drunken huntsman, "What do you mean?"

"The best chance she had to beat Tai is at the beginning of the match. His semblance makes it so that the longer the fight, the better he gets."

Yang leaned forward over a railing above the ring, "Woah! So, dad's semblance is like mine?"

Blake turned to her partner, confused, "You don't know your own father's semblance?"

"It's not like I've ever actually fought him. Besides, what's your dad's semblance?"

Blake was about to answer but froze before she could. She wasn't actually sure… "Fair point."

Tai cracked his neck and his grin widened. He bounced from one foot to the other for a moment as Sienna replaced the arrow on the end of her weapon. Once she was ready again, he charged forward. This time, when she went to hit him with the chain or arrow, he dodged to the side and kept his momentum. As he reached her, he landed a heavy hit to her gut and knocked her up slightly.

Sienna was able to right herself before landing on her feet and snapping her chain across Tai's face, the arrow on the end cracking across the back of his head as well. With this new position, she pulled to tighten the chain around him and weaken his aura and his ability to fight back. This was a mistake.

Tai brought his hands to the chains and pulled back against her, causing a tug-of-war. "If you're going to wrap a chain like this, you better be sure you're stronger than your opponent." Tai pulled and caused Sienna to drag forward across the ground but doing so tightened the chain around him a bit more, causing his aura to drop to the mid-yellow region. Safe to say, he wasn't the most graceful or trained with chains.

"Duly noted." Sienna growled and choose to end the clash and swiped the chain to the side, releasing the arrow and pulling the chai through Tai's hands. "Giving me advice despite being your opponent," she fixed a new arrow to the end of the weapon, "Ever consider being a teacher?"

Tai grinned. "As a matter of fact, I have," he joked. He hopped from side to side again, a spring in his step despite his now lacking aura level. As he went, he seemed to think something over. "I wonder…"

Sienna chose to capitalize on this and use another explosive arrow to send him back and knock him down toward the red. She pulled the chain along her side and five more arrows snapped onto the form near the end. She made them fly off toward Tai, each a different element of Dust at their cores.

Tai grinned as the elements erupted around him, only for him to have moved to the side without being seen doing so.

Everyone in the stands, besides the teachers who remember their school years alongside him, was dumbfounded. Yang chuckled in amazement, "That was awesome! How did he…?"

Qrow laughed, "Let me put to you this way, the longer the fight goes on and the more damage he takes, the faster and more energized he becomes."

Port nodded with a chuckle, "I believe we called it the Waking Dragon."

Oobleck removed his glasses to clean them off, "Now that he's a hair away from the red, he's at top speed for tournaments."

As they spoke, Sienna tried to strike him, only for him to blink away to a new spot nearby. He was fast enough that it was impossible to track him between points. Tai smirked and widened his stance.

Qrow was about to take another drink before stopping, frozen at the sight of the stance. "He wouldn't…"

Tai brought one arm up, his hand open with palm facing Sienna and pointed to the side. His other arm was coiled back with fist clenched.

Port seemed to panic a bit, "He would."

Oobleck shouted, "HIT THE DIRT!" The teachers all braced against the raised surroundings of the ring, confusing those not in the loop.

Sienna tried to stop him, but too late. Tai slammed his fist with enough force and speed to create a shockwave through the air. A sonic boom powerful enough to send the unprepared flying backward. This proved enough for Tai to capitalize and reach Sienna before she could get back to her feet. His arm was reared back in preparation for another attack. Sienna let her head fall back in defeat.

Knox flickered back into form, "The winner is Taiyang Xiao Long."

Qrow got back up and sighed, "Dragon's Roar… Damn it Tai! Why would you use that inside?!"

Sienna braced herself to stand, but found a hand reaching down to her. Tai had offered his hand to her to help her up. There was no condescension in his eyes or stance. No pity or anger. Instead, there was only respect. Sienna let out a breath and took his hand.

As the two left the arena, Knox turned to the others, "Alright~ Anyone else want a match?"

Jaune shrugged before raising a hand. "I'll go in. I need to train to keep up anyway…"

Weiss huffed and volunteered as well, "Then I'll be his opponent."

Jaune turned to her, a concerned look on his face, but Knox cut him off before he could speak. "OKAY! Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee! The Prince versus the Heiress! Assemble your weapons and meet in the arena!"

As the two gathered their gear, Tai and Sienna walked into the stands and separated to their respective groups.

Yang grinned as her father approached, "Why didn't you tell us you could be that awesome?!"

Tai chuckled and took his seat, "I have to keep some kind of secrets. Even from my kids."

After a while of preparation, Weiss and Jaune walked into the arena and took positions facing each other in the central area. Jaune slowly drew his blade. He could tell Weiss volunteered to fight him for a reason, but he thought it was best to keep quiet about it for now. Weiss took a breath and adopted her fighting stance. Her visage was cold, giving a chilling effect to her opponent's nerves.

Glynda sighed, "Her face is a little too telling. She's still rather upset that Mr. Arc falsified his transcripts. I'm certainly against the decision, but she seems to be misplacing this ire on Mr. Arc…" She glanced toward Ozpin, since he was the one to make the decision in question.

Winter sighed. "This isn't too surprising. All her life, Weiss has had to prove herself to others. Prove she is smart enough to be a worthy heiress. Prove she is strong enough to be a huntress. Prove she is capable enough to earn father's blessing to attend Beacon Academy rather than the Atlas campus. She takes a certain pride in that. To learn someone found a way to cheat the system and attend through falsified means will feel like an insult to her."

Weiss dug her foot forward before lunging toward Jaune. The wannabe knight was able to block the attack, barely mind you but all that matters is he did. Jaune moved his shield to an angle and cause Weiss's momentum to slide to the side in an attempt to trip her up, but to no avail. Weiss dragged her blade against the metal and to the ground, creating a glyph and tossed Jaune aside.

Yang took in a sympathetic breath at Jaune's ragdoll-ing at Weiss's hands. "Seriously? She's still mad about that? Jaune's already proven to be good enough to stay. Heck, he's already out fighting a few of the other students. Not us, obviously, but that's still pretty impressive."

Glynda nodded, "He has proven to be a very quick learner. As well as having a staggering level of endurance."

Jaune stood up without seemingly being damaged from the tossing. His aura took a small hit, but his larger-than-average pool of aura made it seem nonexistent on the board. He stood with his shield held forward and his sword set to his side. His feet were set wide to prevent being tossed as easily again. He took a breath but didn't move to attack.

Weiss's glare heated for a moment as confusion took hold over his lack of action, but it cooled soon after, simply remaining patient.

Winter shook her head with a sense of pain for her sister, "A part of her won't let go of an insult like that. And now, she's pushing that onto Mr. Arc. Making him prove that he truly belongs."

Weiss slid her forward foot against the ground, but retracted it soon after. Jaune's lack of a counter attack wasn't sitting right with her. She remembered Jaune's fights against Cardin and some of the others in their class. He would always go on to fight terribly and would always attack without thinking. Now, however, he wasn't moving. He was just hiding behind his shield, and this just made her all the angrier. This was proving he didn't belong. He's just flipped to the opposite extreme of a fighting style.

Weiss created small glyphs and fired a series of sharp icicles. Each impacted against Jaune's shield or flew off beside him. Weiss used this to flank around behind him, weapon back and ready to lunge into his back. However, Jaune leapt forward, into the flying ice and away from Weiss's attack, catching Weiss off guard.

Yang sprung up and grabbed the railing in front of her, "What the hell?! How did he know she was there?"

Blake blinked for a moment before thinking to herself, "How did he…?"

Ruby turned to her teammate, confused, "What's going on?"

Blake turned in surprise, not realizing she spoke out loud. Might as well explain it then. "It's difficult to hear, but each of Weiss's glyphs emits a high-pitched sound. It's hard to tell at first, but if you can hear them, you can find certain distinctions between them."

Ruby gasped as something finally made sense, "That's why you're able to move through Weiss's glyphs without needing to look."

"You didn't know that?" The eyes of team RWBY turned to meet Ren's, "Jaune knew that a while ago and told all of us a little while ago. We just assumed you already knew."

"But how did he know?!" Yang grabbed Ren by the shoulders, shaking him lightly. She realized what she was doing and let go, apologizing. "Blake makes sense since she's like a ninja and she's a cat-faunas, but how did he know?"

Pyrrha offered the information, "Jaune says he had to have good hearing growing up since one of his sisters liked to play pranks on him."

"Yeah!" Nora joined the conversation, leaning around Ren, "It's so cool! He can tell who's outside our door just by how they walk!"

This just gave Blake more questions, "Then why didn't he know about that Deathstalker from initiation?"

"I was there, too. And I didn't notice it." Pyrrha defended Jaune but continued as well, "The creature wasn't moving. We found it while it was asleep."

Jaune rolled to the side and back up to his feet; shield forward, blade back, and silent.

Weiss huffed and swung her blade, creating more glyphs. This time, however, they surrounded him from all sides and angles. He couldn't block or dodge this one. She swung her blade upward as ice began to pool into the center of the glyphs and form the sharpened fragments once more. As she swung her blade downward again, the ice shot out toward Jaune at the same time.

Jaune swung his sword and shield together, breaking most of the ice flying toward him, but a few were able to get through and shatter against his aura. These put a significant dent in his aura levels and pushed him around, only for Weiss to unleash another volley with similar results.

Tai recoiled as one volley hit Jaune hard, knocking his aura down again, "This is brutal." But, his face turned to a grin, "Though, I'm interested to see how he gets out of this one."

Yang had a nervous smile on her face, "I'm not sure he can…" She wanted to root for her teammate, but a part of her couldn't help but cheer for Jaune to get through whatever funk Weiss was in and make her get over it. Even if that meant beating her in a match.

Jaune was fairing well enough against the ice, his massive aura pool keeping him in the fight longer than anyone would reasonably be expected to. So long, in fact, that Weiss was starting to almost respect him for it. Her glare faded, her subconscious anger fading out with it. She considered removing the field, only for the choice to be made for her. A small, polished blade had flown through the air and straight for her face. She ducked aside just quickly enough to avoid it, but this broke her concentration, causing her field of glyphs to fall apart. Jaune swung his shield back in front of him, but the damage was done. Weiss now knew the secret he'd been keeping behind it.

Nora gasped and jumped up in excitement, "He had knives behind his shield!"

Blake blinked in surprise but, after a moment, she nodded with a smirk, "He probably used it as a mirror to see her attack earlier. Smart move."

Jaune could see the jig was up, so he loosened his stance again. Now, they could see two more knives hidden behind his shield, as well as a leather pouch hanging close to his arm.

Weiss's eyes narrowed, "So, you picked up more than just your own weapon."

"Yep. It's pretty obvious that I can't beat you with just my sword."

"An astute observation." Weiss held her blade out toward him, pointing the tip of the blade at his chest, "Then let's see if you have enough to actually beat me." You're obviously not good enough to do that, but I will admit you're better than I gave you credit for. Weiss swung her blade around with a level of grace others among her just didn't have or show. She was ready for another lunge forward toward Jaune.

As she charged him again, her blade impacted his shield and the angle kept her momentum moving forward and up slightly. It was here that Weiss noticed something wrong. A few things, actually. First, there was no counter attack. Which made sense because of point two: his sword was sheathed in his shield right now! This gave Weiss a moment of pause in her mind. Why was his sword sheathed? What was he planning? Then, she found out with a loud bang and a heavy slug to her gut.

Within the pouch behind his shield he'd picked up was a high-power Dust hand cannon. It was a sleek design with a central chamber reminiscent to a revolver, which resembled the similar apparatus on Weiss's own weapon. At the end of the barrel, the steel was remodeled or painted in gold with his symbol etched into the side. The shot that fired used impact Dust to knock Weiss backward and away from him.

Nora's arms shot up in a cheer, "GO FEARLESS LEADER!"

Ruby jumped up as well, but more in surprise that Jaune had brandished a gun. "What the heck? Where did he get that? Wait… Did it just fire pure Dust? WHERE DID HE GET IT?!"

Yang had a different question, though. "Why does he have it? It's not like he's used anything like it before."

Port chuckled hearing that. "Oh, but Ms. Xiao Long, that's the point!"

This left many of them confused, but Yang most of all. "What do you mean?"

"Why, I think it would be obvious."

Glynda sat back with her arms crossed, "Mr. Arc has excellent endurance, but he lacks the versatility that you all possess. He has no ranged weapon or any similar effect. Even Mr. Winchester has some range with his semblance to direct his impact force through the ground."

Port nodded, "Quite right! What's more, as huntsmen, it is our duty to constantly strive to better ourselves and our fighting abilities, even if it means learning a completely different weapon. If we never adapt, we will fall in time."

This left the students to think as the match continued.

Weiss landed less than gracefully, but at least on her feet. She looked back over to Jaune in shock before her eyes narrowed, "And where did that come from?"

Jaune looked at the gun before shrugging. "I found it in the locker with the rest of my stuff. Has my symbol and everything, so I figured I'd bring it with me."

Weiss was thinking this over in her mind but didn't really let it remain as her primary thought. Instead, he had something else to deal with first. She stood tall again, her eyes locked on Jaune. "Jaune… I have something to say."

Jaune's body relaxed. He knew Weiss well enough to know that she wouldn't stoop to a sneak attack like that. "What is it?"

The silence was tense, lingering for a moment before Weiss took a breath. "I admit that I have underestimated you. At first, I believed you were simply weaker than the rest of us but had some form of redeeming quality. Then we learned about your transcripts…" Weiss's hand tightened around her weapon.

Jaune wasn't sure where this was going, but also felt his guilt welling about that. The transcripts were his greatest crime, but he doesn't regret it because of everything that's happened since. He did regret not getting more training ahead of time, but that's not entirely his fault either.

Weiss continued, "It angered me to think you cheated your way into Beacon. I believed this was because you took the spot away from someone more deserving."

Jaune really hoped there was a 'but' coming up after that.

"However…"

Close enough.

"… this match has proven what I already learned since met. You are resourceful and learn very quickly. You accomplish in a semester what most of us took years to reach. Your team clearly respects you and you've proven to at least be competent as a leader if the Deathstalker was anything to go by. Learning you cheated to get into Beacon… it seemed wrong. I refused to believe you would do so and I exploded at you over it. I apologize for that…"

Jaune let out a breath and nodded for a moment, "Thank you, Weiss… That means a lot." Jaune took a breath before widening his stance again, his body behind his shield and gun placed in the pouch on his arm again, drawing his sword. "I plan to live up to that."

Weiss grinned, actually grinned, toward Jaune. "Good." She swung back into her fighting stance again.

The students of Beacon and friends of the two felt this was a long time coming. The two weren't hostile by any means, or even annoying anymore. Jaune had long since apologized for his unwillingness to take a hint. But now, they may actually consider each other friends.

A loud buzz cut off their fight and Knox appeared above them again. "TIME! Sorry, but we only have so much time in intermissions, you see. Time's up and Weiss wins by aura, barely."

Weiss looked up to the board to find that she was just barely ahead of him. His advantage of a massive aura pool certainly helped him. But right now, she was just thankful the board tracked percentages rather than numbers.

Knox floated up to the board and it disappeared into a flame, similar to holographic displays back at Beacon, "Five-minute warning means all spars are off. Head back at your leisure, but remember, five minutes!" Knox disappeared into himself again and left them to return to the main halls.

As Jaune and Weiss returned from the center ring, they found their teams and friends waiting by the lockers, Ruby holding a paper in her hands. Jaune looked to the side to find they were in front of his locker, where he found everything, "Um… Is something wrong?"

Ruby turned as they both approached, "My dad showed us this trick. There's a manifest in each of the lockers that explain stuff about the weapons and where they came from. Some even from the future." She chose not to mention the reality with Pyrrha's death.

"That sounds pretty cool." Jaune placed everything back, the pouch with the gun being the last item to return, "What does it say about this thing?"

"Let's see…" Ruby looked over the paper again to find the point in question.

[Durendal: a hand cannon created between the first and second years of Jaune Arc's time in Beacon. Created using materials gathered in Arcadia, the weapon utilizes a six-Dust chamber mechanism that fires direct Dust rounds in place of infused rounds. A shot, when utilizing the correct Dust type, is capable of piercing solid stone.]

Nora let out an excited gasp, "Oh my gosh! That's so cool!"

The intercom rang again. "The intermission is ending! Get your buts back to the main theater!"

"Knox! What did I tell you about using the intercom?!"