The clang of metal on metal rang out in the confines of the exercise room, as Ren tested Jaune's guard with a flurry of swipes from Stormflower. The blades that extended from the bottom of his machine pistols were blurs of metal, crashing against Crocea Mors in a staccato beat.

Jaune was not to be intimidated lightly, however. He stood his ground, waiting for a break in the storm to lash out with the edge of his blade. Ren smoothly danced around the edge, one of the fangs coming up to slice his arm.

Aura flared, but Jaune had plenty to spare. Stepping inside Ren's guard, undeterred by the lash of pain, Jaune attempted to bash his friend with his shield, forcing Ren to put some distance between them once more.

Nora and Pyrrha were off to the side on a bench, watching the spar with interest. They had all been training for the past few hours, rotating between sparring, and teaching Jaune some of the basics of fighting.

He was a quick enough study, for what he needed to learn. Jaune was best suited for a fairly simple style of combat, in part thanks to his almost unfair aura reserves. He was a tank, being able to dish out and sustain blows over a long period of time.

Of course, it was bad form to simply stand there and take needless damage. So, they were opting to teach Jaune how to best utilize his energy, rather than simply expend it all in a futile attack, or waste it endlessly defending.

It was a very Vacuoan mindset, that of the patient warrior who timed his blows perfectly. It was something that Pyrrha herself had familiarity with, but her own fighting style was more of a mix of disciplines. Instead of waiting for openings, she created her own thanks to her high-energy, high-movement style of fighting. With Milo and Akouo, she had a wide range of options to put her opponent on the backfoot and press the advantage until they were defeated.

But Jaune didn't have the time to hone his instincts until they were sharp as her own when it came to the ebb and flow of combat. Perhaps by the time they were scheduled to graduate, but they didn't even have a year.

Further musings were cut off by the resumption of the spar. This time, Jaune attempted to press the offense, lashing out with a quick strike. Ren spun around it, nailing Jaune in the cheek with the flat edge of one of his weapons, sending their leader tumbling down with an 'oof'.

Pyrrha and Nora both winced. That one hadn't been pretty.

Still, Ren helped Jaune to his feet with an outstretched hand. "Sorry." He said with a bit of a sheepish look on his face.

"No, it's alright." Jaune said with grace, even as he briefly brought a hand up to his cheek to check it for damage. "It's not like anyone else would hold back in a fight."

"True." Ren said, eyes examining Jaune as they both once again took up ready stances. "Pain is a good teacher, if you can recognize the lessons it holds." He said wisely.

Jaune turned that over in his head for a moment before taking a deep breath. "So…what does that hit tell me, then?"

"You over-extended." Ren said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's a common mistake. If you leave gaps in your guard by attacking, then someone can exploit it."

"How do I avoid it?" Jaune asked, glancing at his sword briefly. "I mean, I have to attack at some point, right?"

"Eventually, yes. But it's all about maintaining control over yourself and your surroundings. Its…" And here, Ren huffed as he fought for words. "There's a lot of theory behind it. But all it boils down to is keeping everything in mind when you try and strike, and evaluating the risks, before committing to it."

A good enough explanation, and Pyrrha could sympathize with Ren's frustration over being unable to convey it. Like so many things in combat, you could only learn by doing, rather than with words.

But Jaune could power through it. He'd done it once before.

Already, the two boys were setting up to go again, and Pyrrha watched with interest.

It was a good thing that Jaune was learning to go up against more agile opponents first. Someone like Nora could bash Jaune around, but ultimately Jaune could plant his feet and bear it.

Meanwhile, someone like Ren could inflict damage by a thousand cuts, and without experience, Jaune wouldn't be able to respond to such a strategy.

Well…assuming they weren't so far above his skill level that it didn't matter anyway.

Pyrrha took a quiet breath, closed her eyes and dismissed her thoughts. Better to actually watch the training unfold. There was only so much planning she could take before she got sick of it.

When she opened her eyes again, it was clear that Jaune was attempting to strike a balance between decisiveness and caution.

It made his movements erratic, unpredictable. It wasn't at all very smooth, but it served to keep Ren wary.

As Ren attempted to bat around Jaune's defenses to get his measure, her partner struck. His blade swiped through the air and connected at just the right spot to score a good blow, disrupting Ren's balance.

Pyrrha found herself smiling, then wincing once more as Ren performed an acrobatic feat that would have been tough for her to pull off, and swept Jaune off his feet.

Now, Ren was visibly sweating, and grunted as he helped Jaune back up. "I…think we should call it a day for now." Ren suggested.

It had only been a few hours, but Pyrrha conceded the point. Vale hadn't been built in a day, after all. Even slightly shorter sessions than this everyday would do a world of good…

"Coming, Pyrrha?"

The question startled her out of the trance she had been dipping into. The rest of the team was heading for the door, and they were all looking at her with various degrees of curiosity.

"I just want to practice one last thing before calling it a day." She said, pasting a smile on her face. It wasn't untrue, but she hadn't meant to make a scene of it.

Thankfully, they didn't think much of it. Ren and Nora were inclined to live and let live, and Jaune trusted her absolutely.

"Right, we'll save you a spot at the table." Jaune said with good cheer.

It was a wonder she didn't melt into a puddle, so warm was the emotion that bloomed in her heart. She just gave a wordless nod and stood, while they filed out of the training room.

She was motionless for a good minute, both to make sure they were gone and also because she simply was…

There was only one word for it. She was nervous. In spite of her active use of her semblance over these last few days, discovering more about it in the process than she had in the years she had used it before… it still felt wrong, somehow.

Perhaps it was just her uneven emotional state. Regardless, feelings had no place in battle, and so she strode to stand in the center of the room. With the slightest hesitation, she held her arm in front of her.

Then she pulled. Her aura responded without the slightest delay, pulling an iron weight from a stack of them near a set bars and dumbbells.

The iron felt weightless, held in a grip forged from her aura. She held it, closing her eyes as she tried to study the sensation.

It was instinctive, formless in her mind, and she almost felt stupid for trying to derive any greater meaning from it.

But then she looked closer, looked ever so closer, and at last, she felt it. A hum in the back of her mind, a dull sound that resonated in time with the faint ebony wisps that highlighted her arms whenever she used her semblance.

It wasn't than the enlightenment she had hoped for. A mere sensation that meant little and less when she had never heard it above the song of battle before.

She stared at the cold, black iron hovering before her for a long moment.

A slow emotion began to build in the pit of her stomach. It was an ugly thing, and even its shadow made Pyrrha tremble wordlessly.

Was this it, then? A buzz like a fly rattling in her skull, an outline on her arms like she was a poorly drawn cartoon character, and the ability to cheat at bench-pressing?

One's semblance was supposed to be an expression of the soul. When she had been a little girl, she had imagined her own one day would be something grand, and magnificent.

Granted, even then, she had already been head and shoulders above her peers, so it wasn't as though she had needed it.

When she had first made a practice sword levitate during training, she had desperately tried to put her ability out of the back of her mind. She tried to relegate her semblance to simply being a subtle edge to her already nigh-inhuman grace in fighting.

But really, if she was being honest with herself now, she was furious.

Where others received the ability to shrug off blows, run faster than the wind, or outlandish things bordered on magic, she was a glorified magnet.

Strands of darkness began to drift off her arms like smoke, and the weight shivered slightly in the air, but Pyrrha didn't care.

That the very manifestation of her soul was something as mundane, as ultimately useless as this made her blood boil.

If she only had a damned semblance that could've killed that miserable bi-

The sound that came from the weight was like a thousand knives scraping against each other. Billowing strands of her semblance's dark corona erupted from her arms, and then, in the blink of an eye, the weight crumpled in on itself.

Before that could even register properly in her mind, the resulting disk of super-hardened iron promptly exploded.

It was only finely honed reflexes that kept her from getting hit, ducking from the shards of metal shooting through the air in practically every direction. Even then, one still managed to glance off her cheek, her aura flaring to prevent what otherwise would have been a serious wound.

When it was finally over, she tentatively looked up from her position on the floor. Most of the shards had lodged themselves every which way. Some were dug into the floor, others had hit the walls, and a few had even dug into the ceiling.

Cautiously, she got up and walked over to the center of the detonation and knelt down, freeing one of the larger shards with a yank.

It had dug a good half-inch into the floor...which was designed to withstand actual explosions and bullets alike.

She considered the sharp fragment in her hand. It was a jagged thing, the size of a small needle with edges that would slice through flesh with ease. Peering at the thing, she could even see a faint line roughly down the middle where it was clear the weight had fused, before coming apart so violently.

Well…that certainly had never happened before.

This new development served to make the rage drain from her as quickly as it came, leaving her feeling a bit light headed.

Tentatively she reached out with her semblance again, yanking out the fragments one by one, letting them collect in a small clump that hovered near her.

Pyrrha took a deep breath, collecting herself as she wordlessly brought the twisted metal over to a trash can, and let it fall inside, clattering against the plastic interior.

Not the most elegant means of getting rid of the evidence, but then again, this was Beacon. Weird was the norm.

Others might have stayed to test this new, bizarre facet of her power. But the emotion associated with it was too raw, like a fresh bruise just starting to purple.

Instead, Pyrrha called her weapons to her side from where they leaned against the bench and strode out to enjoy the rest of her day with her teammates.

There was a door here.

Pyrrha considered the door. Then frowned.

When had she stepped in front of a door?

Where was she?

There was a haze in her mind. Like grasping at water, her thoughts slipped through her fingers.

A dream? Perhaps.

The door beckoned. A gate really, wrought metal, festooned with chains that barred the way, heavy locks lacing together the barriers to form a solid defense against intrusion

It was a puzzling thing to stare at. Indeed, it seemed more real than she was in this place.

She raised a hand. Made a fist and slowly unclenched it.

She could break it down. Something inside her begged to do it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Whereas others might have jumped in fright, Pyrrha merely turned around to see who was addressing her.

It was…no one she had ever met before. A short girl, with skin the color of honey and eyes of pure amber.

"Why not?" Pyrrha asked, the words slipping out of her mouth.

"It would probably kill you right now." The girl said with a trace touch of amusement, before frowning. "You're not fully here, are you?"

"No." Pyrrha agreed. "But what does it matter? I died once already."

That seemed to shut the figment of her imagination up, before it gave a quiet retort. "You might not care, but the girl on the other end of that door might."

Spite gave a flush of clarity to Pyrrha's mind. "I don't know that I care much about anything right now."

"That's a lie." It replied instantly, much to Pyrrha's annoyance. "You care about Jaune. Ren. Nora. Team RWBY. And everyone else besides."

"Really? That obvious?" Pyrrha said with a surprising amount of venom. "I don't need my dreams lecturing me about my emotions."

"Someone has to." The apparition said, its displeasure writ across its face. "You know, I wasn't expecting you to be this much of a bitch."

"What can I say? I'm a woman of many talents." It felt good to let loose a bit of her pent up anger, Pyrrha mused. People did say bottling it all up was no good in the end.

The girl sighed and massaged her temples. "I don't even have a body and you're giving me a headache. Look, this sniping is pointless. Don't break open that door. Take it from someone who's been around the block a few times."

Was this…thing…seriously asking her to trust it?

The girl clearly seemed to have realized that she said the wrong thing, and hastily attempted to backpedal. "Look, I get it, you're tired and angry and-"

"You're damn right I'm angry." Pyrrha all but hissed. "I've had enough of people telling me to trust them, saying it'll all work out for the best."

That hollow feeling in the pit of her soul was making itself known in the worst of ways. Pyrrha's already tenuous grip on reality in this place was fraying. But she couldn't stop her impulses, didn't want to stop.

"I've had enough of being told things." She continued, taking a few steps towards the girl, who backed up.

The space they were in had a floor, of sorts, but abruptly ended in a drop that seemed to go on forever. Pyrrha made her back up until her feet were about to tip off the edge.

For one brief moment, Pyrrha considered it. Tackling the girl and taking them both over. But that…that was the easy way out. She squashed the nihilistic urge and focused on banishing the fog from her wits.

With sheer strength of will, she managed to dredge up clarity. Things snapped into focus around her, the abyss becoming a hateful, writhing void that was even now eating away at the edges of the dream.

The girl was no one she knew, but now Pyrrha could make out finer details about her. She was wearing an archaic dress and had no noticeable weapon that Pyrrha could make out. And she was clearly afraid of Pyrrha.

Behind her, Pyrrha could feel the door. Knowing that it even existed was an affront.

"This isn't just a dream." She realized.

The girl was wary, and surprised as she replied. "No. This is…something a bit more real than a mere dream."

"The door. What happens if I never open it?" Pyrrha demanded. This was important. She knew it was.

A long silence, before the words were grudgingly said. "You'd die then too. But that's not what I intend for you. You will break the door…but now? No. It's too dangerous. Your soul is already in tatters from half the shit that's happened to you."

And things finally clicked into place.

"Is that why I've been so…so…" She fought for words. "I've never felt this strongly before."

"That's part of it. A big part. You need to heal from those wounds before you work on that one." The girl said, gesturing to the door.

It…it made sense. Really, it did. But there…there was something else there.

Pyrrha stared at the void. The void stared back, hungering. It was familiar…the same thing she felt in the back of her mind all the time.

"The wounds aren't going to get better though." She said with a faint wonder. "They'll just…erode me."

The girl paled from shock. "How could you possibly kno-"

"You lying bitch." Pyrrha snarled with a hatred that she had only ever felt once before. "Do you really you could hide that from me when it was staring me in the face?"

"You need to learn control damnit!" The stranger said in desperation. "Yes, it won't get better with time on its own, but if you took even some time, you cou-"

"If you knew anything about me, anything at all, you would know that trying to hide something like that from me would be a bad idea." It was a wonder that Pyrrha was even able to respond coherently now. That dark wellspring of hurt in her soul was screaming now. Winds whipped around them, and the darkness drew up around them in anticipation.

"You're not in your right mind. You need to take a step back from this and think." The silence that ensued was deafening.

Pyrrha took a deep breath and savored everything she was feeling. It was an almost masochistic impulse, but anything was better than the oblivion that awaited her if she stayed the course.

At least with hate, with anger and rage, there was life. This girl wanted her to wait for some nebulous future where she might be able to control her decay. All while the emptiness scoured away at everything she was, everything she wanted to be.

For once, ever since she had awakened in this second life, every single little part of Pyrrha was in complete agreement about what she wanted to do.

"All my life…I've listened to what others want for me." Pyrrha began, the girl listening with growing dread.

"You can't d-"

"All my life." Pyrrha cut her off, daring her to interrupt again. "I excelled at what I set my mind to. And people praised me for it. I eventually hit the zenith of what I was told to do. I won, again and again, and no one could best me."

This abrupt reckoning with her past was ugly, but it was important, and she carried on despite the pain. "I had won so much that people stopped expecting more from me. And I stagnated. I stopped reaching for more. I was told to trust in my elders…and they failed me completely and utterly when I needed them most."

As she spoke, Pyrrha dredged up every last bit of strength she had. She threw everything into the gathering storm of power that began to come to life at her finger tips.

"I refuse to be that person again. I don't care if it kills me. I will live, how I choose to." She finished.

Then she turned around to face the door, and with all the strength of mind and body, and her very soul, she reached out with her semblance.

Everything exploded into a cacophony of sound, and light warring with darkness. Pyrrha wasn't sure if it was coming from her, or the girl who was doubtlessly pleading with her to stop this.

If she was being honest, Pyrrha thought it was both.

She reached deep. Every fiber of her being was alight with agony as the door buckled, warped, and twisted. Her aura flared, brighter than it ever had before under the strain.

She pushed, and never stopped. Not when she fell to one knee, not when she fell altogether, not when blood began to seep from her nose, not when her heart felt like it was about to burst in her chest.

And yet still, the door did not break.

The floor began to crumble in the dream, the darkness threatening to overtake everything. She was dying, Pyrrha realized dimly. Even if she stopped now, the damage was far too great.

But with the very last bit of strength in her soul, that very last bit of defiance, she pushed beyond her limits.

Pyrrha broke the door upon her indomitable will.

Blinding, deafening light and heat and cold and darkness rushed through the breached barrier. A link that had been sealed, incomplete was now thrown open.

Pyrrha let her head fall to the cool ground, closing her eyes. She…she had done it. As the energy flowed through her, she knew the girl had been telling the truth. She very well might die now.

But Pyrrha was done letting fear rule her.

Jaune's eyes opened blearily. His eyes found the digital clock he had set up by his bed. 4:13 A.M.

Why the hell had he woken up this early?

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he looked around, pausing as he heard a faint sound coming from Pyrrha's bed.

It sounded like…coughing?

"Maybe she caught something." Jaune muttered, sighing as he rolled over to look at his partner's bed.

He froze at what he saw, even in the dim light.

Was…was that bloo-

He scrambled out of bed and threw the light switch, ignoring the startled grumbling from his other two teammates.

Trails of crimson were leaking from Pyrrha's nose and mouth, pooling and crusting on the skin, on the bed, so much of it.

How long had she…if he hadn't woken up, she could be dead, she might already b-

No, she…she could not die. Not after surviving that horrible initiation.

"Jaune? Wha'sagoi-" Nora began, before half-screaming at the horrific sight that greeted her.

Jaune was already too busy fumbling for his scroll, calling the emergency line for Beacon. As he frantically explained the situation, while Nora and Ren tried to administer emergency aid, and the other teams across the hall started to stir from the commotion, Pyrrha wheezed.

"Jaune?" A glob of red accompanied the statement, staining her chin. Jaune froze, while Pyrrha continued, seemingly oblivious.

"I…think I overdid…" A hacking, ugly cough cut her off and Jaune couldn't help but wince.

"It'b alright…" She continued, trailing off, her strength failing her. "T'gether…right?"

Her head rolled back, and she sank back into unconsciousness.

Long after Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc left Beacon behind them, stories would be told about the boy who carried his dying teammate across half the campus to the medical center in the middle of night at a dead sprint, clad only in his Pumpkin Pete pajamas.

Long after Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc left Beacon behind them, few would be privy to the fate of a girl entombed in a vault deep underneath the school.

All at once, at about 4:13 AM, the vitals on the occupant of a single stasis pod would shudder, fluctuate, and flatline before anyone could possibly go down to save her.

Author's Notes: Holy shit, bet you guys didn't expect this story to ever update again, huh?

Welp, as it stands, procrastination combined with real life bullshit and shifting story priorities is a bitch. But, at least you get this morsel of a chapter to tide you over. And, hopefully, the next chapter will not take nearly so long to complete.

For those of you who are interested, I shall leave a link to my discord server at the bottom. users, use the usual tricks to complete URLs and go to them.

: / / discord . gg / QWwq7Xj

Join the server to get updates and in general ask questions and interact with yours truly. I'm not always around all day, but it is nice to have people around to remind me to actually work on stuff like this. Anyway, reviews are appreciated, and I hope you enjoy.