I don't own anything.

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"Come on Ruby!" My voice was drowned out by the crowd we were firmly lodged in, and yet I couldn't help but yell out in support of my friend. Down on the field, the girl sped off again, the telltale rose petals of her semblance scattering where she came to a stop, Crescent Rose already poised to fire at a short, white-haired girl Yang was fighting.

She managed to loose a single round, only to find herself embroiled in a furious melee once more as a boy wielding a staff fell upon her. Crescent Rose, now a scythe once more, spun in graceful arcs, turning aside blows and returning her own with the crushing force of Ruby's momentum.

The boy, however, wasn't to be outdone. He was quick, fast enough to keep up without the younger girl's semblance and minimal in movement, his quick, economical jabs and strikes allowing him to hold his own.

On the other side of the field, Yang still brawled with the other girl, her signature brawling style not so well-suited to fighting someone like the other team's leader. She could barely hit the other girl, landing only glancing blows here or there while her own strength was turned against her in a rather awe-inspiring display of martial arts.

And then I saw it. Yang made a 'mistake'. She finally overextended from her tight stance, leaving a glaring opening on her side, one that the other girl ruthlessly capitalised on. I grinned, my eyes locked onto Yang's own, smaller grin. As she rolled on the floor, the blow having sent her flying, the telltale glow of her semblance set her hair alight.

Yang sprang back up to her feet in one, smooth motion. And from then on, I knew the fight was over. There was a reason even Pyrrha and I avoided activating Yang's semblance. Even with it's activation cost, it was a powerful tool that put Yang above even me in pure strength and speed, at least it had when we'd last sparred. Without *Berserk, I would be hard-pressed to match her blow for blow.

"They're good." I tore my eyes from the fight, even as Yang fell upon her opponent like a meteor. Jade, standing next to me grinned as she watched the battle rage on. The other girl still had her skill, still avoided the worst of Yang's monstrous strength, but that didn't matter with her semblance active. Even the weakest, glancing blows that connected now ate at her aura like a pack of starving dogs.

"I know." I said, grinning as I turned my eyes to Nora and Ren. The pair was working together, as they always did. The other team, evidently used to working together as well, did well to employ a similar strategy. The boy, tall and wielding a rather plain sword, struggled to hold Nora off, even as his partner fended Ren off admirably.

I couldn't suppress my wince as Magnhild crashed into the boy with full force, sending him into a towering pillar of volcanic rock. His aura flickered briefly, and now that I wasn't fighting myself, I had all the time in the world to check the projected meters that hovered under the announcer's box. He was below half now.

Nora didn't let the boy recover, though, and in a single instant, she held not a hammer, but a grenade launcher. The Dust grenade which it launched glinted in the afternoon sun as it flew gracefully towards the downed boy. Luckily for him, though, his teammate, too, had noticed the danger.

She leapt up, her weapon - a unique, Dust-based hoverboard - in hand as she wielded it like a bat and smacked the projectile out of the air, letting it explode harmlessly in a shower of sparking electricity. Her interference came at a cost, however, as both Ren and Nora were upon her now.

"You think you can beat them?" We watched the girl try to avoid a heavy blow from Magnhild, only to end up right in Ren's firing line. It was the best out of a pair of very bad options. "If you draw them in the next round, I mean."

"I don't know." It was no false modesty on my part. Out of all the first years at Beacon, ours had been chosen to compete for a reason. BASN and VLYR were, harsh as it might be to say, a cut above the rest. I was confident that our team was the better, a thought supported by the spars we had had against our friends in the past. Only, we were down a member, and they seemed stronger than they'd ever been. "If Weiss wasn't injured, I'd bet on us any day, but without her..." I trailed off.

Jade nodded along, seemingly already having come to the same conclusion.

"Arslan Atlan has been eliminated!" Port's voice drew our eyes back to the fight, where the white-haired girl Yang had been fighting now lay on the ground, breathing heavily. She was conscious, at least, and a quick glance at Yang's own aura meter, sitting firmly below the halfway mark, told me that the fight had continued as it had before, only with Yang's glancing blows now doing serious damage. It had only been a matter of time.

Ruby, on the other hand, was still fighting, but even there I could see that the other boy couldn't compete. Quick as he was, the boy couldn't stop every blow, parry every strike. Ruby was simply too fast, and with her semblance now making her vanish from sight every once in a while, it would have been all-but impossible for him to hit her back.

"Reese Chloris and Nadir Shiko have been eliminated!"

On the other side of the field, Ren and Nora now turned their attention to the final member of the opposing team, as did Yang. Only, they weren't needed. Ruby vanished, the telltale sign of her semblance leaving only a cloud of red behind. The boy, fearing another attack from behind tried to predict it, turning on his head, staff ready to parry a blow that never came. A loud crack sounded out over the din of the crowd. The boy, now facing the wrong direction, never saw the bullet coming from his right. It slammed into him, visibly shattering his aura and sending him to the ground.

"Bolin Hori has been eliminated!"

"And team VLYR takes the win!"

I didn't bother staying around for the post-match commentary. Turning instead to my family, I told them I needed to go and congratulate them. "Go on." Mom waved me off, telling me that they'd be going shopping either way, only telling me that I should meet them for dinner.

"I'll be there."

Then, Pyrrha and I pushed out into the crowded hallways, filled with hungry fans looking to restock on snacks during the break. It was a nightmare to get through, seeing as we couldn't just push people over to get to where we were going. The constant recognition didn't help either, as people stopped and stared, pointed or even reached for their scrolls so they could get a picture up close.

It took us near enough fifteen minutes to make it to a competitor only hallway, guarded by a single man with a clipboard. "Go on through." He said, waving us inside without even checking our badges. "I'd recognise you two anywhere."

It was there, in the much calmer restricted area, that we could finally speak, the din of the crowd being muffled by the thick concrete walls. "Your family is nice." I met Pyrrha's gaze, a small, wistful smile pulling at her face.

"The best." I smiled back at her, "How about you? Are your parents here?"

"Not yet." Her eyes were front and centred again, looking straight ahead even as the smile on her face froze. It was still there, still a smile, but it no longer reached her eyes.

"Couldn't make it?" I was hesitant. Something was off, though I couldn't tell what.

"No. My mother said that it wasn't worth watching the preliminaries. 'A sure thing.'" Her voice was flat, almost robotic as she recounted what her mother had told her. I wasn't sure what to say, so I said nothing at all. It was only when we made it to the competitor's entrance that I paused briefly, before I opened the door.

"You know we're going to win this for you, right? For us. Not them." She turned back towards me, and in her eyes, there was something warm in them again. "We will." She said. I pushed open the door, and we went in to meet team VLYR.

It was Ruby who was on me first. "Jaune! Did you see my fight? Did you? Did you?" She rattled the words off so fast I almost thought she'd found a way to use her semblance on her voice, but I couldn't help but smile as she rammed into me, her arms circling around me in a crushing hug.

"I did. You were awesome." I told her, enduring her regaling me with all the details of her fight, despite the fact that I'd only just seen it, with the patience of an older sibling. I looked out over Ruby's shoulder as she rambled on, my eyes falling onto Yang, who looked back with sparkling amethysts. *'Great fight.'* I mouthed at her, getting a cocky grin back. *'You're next.'* She mouthed back, and then, as a mature Huntsman-in-training, I stuck my tongue out at her.

We talked for a while longer, Nora, Ren and Yang eventually joining us properly. The lot of us simply taking the time to laugh and joke and unwind now that the first matches were firmly behind us.

Yang and Nora preened at the compliments they got on their fights, Ruby excitedly babbled on about them, showing that even in the midst of her own fight, she had been keeping an eye on the rest of them. Ren, on the other hand, seemed almost *proud, despite retaining his usual, stoic demeanour. It was a good look on him.

Eventually, though, it came to an end. "Sorry guys, I've got to go." I told them, looking down at my scroll, where a message from Jade told me when and where to go and meet. "I'll see you guys later, okay?"

Pyrrha, who was currently having her ear talked off by Nora, gave me a small nod before turning back to the other girl. I gave Ruby a quick hug before I left, pushing my way out into the street. They were crowded, people moving in thick throngs as they moved to and from shops, restaurants and just the sights in general.

Maybe it was because of this, or maybe because I was distracted, that I collided bodily with someone else as I turned a corner. I huffed out a breath, bouncing off them and back a step, almost making me run into someone else. I was prepared to pick whoever it was up off the ground, only to find that they, too, had remained standing.

It was a woman, she was beautiful, with long, dark hair that fell down her back in gentle waves, pale skin, and a pair of dark, amber eyes that smouldered like flames. She looked... familiar, though I couldn't place where I'd met her before.

"I'm sorry." I blurted the apology out as I steadied myself, coming to a stop. "No, no. I wasn't looking where I was going." The woman said, her eyes meeting mine. And I couldn't help but think her voice was beautiful as her eyes widened.

"Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it." She drawled, her smile growing sharp, "Jaune Arc, in the flesh."

I felt heat rush to my cheeks, blushing hard as my own clumsy attempt at flirting came back to haunt me. "Cinder Fall." My voice was breathy as it all came back to me. The night was fuzzy, but there was no forgetting this woman. Her smile grew.

"You remember me." She said, and I couldn't help but point out that she remembered me, too. "How could I forget." She said, something sparking in her eyes, but it was gone too quick for me to identify.

"I- I'm sorry about that night, by the way..." I trailed off, but she simply waved her hand, as if brushing it aside. "Don't worry about it. As flirting goes, it wasn't the worst I've heard." She said, and somehow I didn't doubt that. "Oh!" She said, snapping her fingers. "I saw you fight today."

"You did?" I didn't know why I was surprised. Half the people in Vale, and most likely those outside of it, were watching the tournament.

"Of course, have to scout out the competition."

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Finally, I've been waiting to do this last scene for ages now.