A/N: Posting a day early because I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to my computer tomorrow night. I'm pretty excited about this chapter, partly because I decided to take an... artistic approach to the fight sequence. I got the idea from a one-shot I read back in March, and I hope you all find the execution here to be entertaining.

Jaune sighed as he laced up his boots in the locker room. Of all the teams in the random selection pool for the tournament, he and Pyrrha just had to get paired up against Cardin. In terms of tournament strategy, JNPR couldn't have asked for a better gift: Pyrrha alone could handle whoever Cardin decided to send to the doubles, so their victory was pretty much assured at this point. Of course, there was this little thing known as character growth that Pyrrha believed in, and Jaune knew she would view this match as an opportunity to break through old mental barriers holding him back as a huntsman. He knew she expected him to take on Cardin and win.

The problem was, Jaune didn't doubt he could, either. His stats from the alien war were pretty impressive, and Jaune had made it through a lot of things far worse than Cardin. But rational thought and empirical evidence didn't stop his stomach from doing flip-flops at the thought of staring down his old bully. Even his recent excursion with Annette started, progressed, and concluded without a single hitch, and Jaune still felt the presence of a dark cloud lingering over him as the minutes ticked down until showtime.

"Something wrong?" Pyrrha asked as she did some last-minute tuning of her weapon.

Her partner sighed, "Just… y'know. Thinking about the match."

"You mean about how you're going to absolutely, positively wipe the floor with Cardin?" Pyrrha suggested with a sideways glance. Despite his nerves, Jaune couldn't help but remain amused as he watched his partner continue to run a whetstone over Miló's edge. She'd maintained this time-honored ritual for as long as he'd known her, and it almost felt like a small source of comfort for Jaune. No matter problem, no matter the odds, Pyrrha was always ready to fight.

After watching a few more strokes of the stone, Jaune answered, "Yeah… something like that."

"You'll do fine, Jaune." Pyrrha assured him, "I know it, Ruby knows it, Bradford knows it, and deep down… I'm sure you know it, too."

Jaune opened and closed his shield in an effort to at least appear like he was still getting ready. Deep down, though, he just wanted this to be over, "I know, I know. I'm just being childish, I guess. Like usual."

"Jaune."

The huntsman looked up to see his partner smiling at him, "Childish is the last word I would think of to describe you."

"So, you planning on using your Tactical Sensor?" Jaune asked in an effort to switch topics, "I know you got a lot of use out of it when we helped out on strike missions in between vacations, but it might be nice to dust it off and use it again."

Pyrrha's smile turned into a scowl, "It feels like… cheating if I use that in the tournament."

"But that's the beauty of it!" Jaune argued, "These guys'll lose whether or not you use the TacSensor, so what's the harm in it? Besides, it's not that big of a deal. Ruby's team fought a girl riding around on a hoverboard. I'm pretty sure a little tracking doo-hickey is fine."

"Then answer me this: why haven't you used your armor's jetpack? Since you agreed to keep my semblance a secret during the tournament, the only other way you are able to rapidly reposition yourself is Nora's… ah… 'Fastball Special.' Why not use your gift to give yourself a better option?"

"The jump jets are a little more showy and obvious compared to your scanner." Jaune argued, "I want to keep it a secret until it's absolutely necessary."

"Keep what a secret?" A voice asked as its owner casually strolled around the corner. Jaune couldn't help it as he let out a reflexive groan at the sight of his least favorite classmate.

"It's nothing, Cardin."

The bully laughed, "Oh, Jauney Boy. You know how I feel about you keeping secrets from me." He raised an eyebrow as he saw Jaune put a hand on his sword, "Resorting to violence? C'mon, we're friends. We should save the fighting for the arena where I can beat the crap out of you. Y'know, like the good ol' days."

"What makes you think you can still beat up Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, her voice impassive while she resumed sharpening her blade.

Cardin shrugged, "It's only been… what? Two weeks since the last time I did it? I mean, I know Jauney's got guts, but that's no substitute for skill, Pyr-Pyr."

"Call my partner 'Pyr-Pyr' again, and I swear you won't be able to walk straight for a week." Jaune warned, his grip tightening on his sword. He could put up with Cardin mocking and insulting him personally. He could even willfully ignore all of the physical bullying he suffered at the hands of the jackass. Start insulting his partner? Different story entirely. The fear and anxiety evaporated and slow-burning rage started to take its place.

"Easy there, Jauney Boy." Cardin said, sensing the rising anger in his victim. He gave Jaune a pat on the head and started walking off, "You'll have a chance to defend your girlfriend's honor soon enough."

The two partners watched Cardin's retreating form until Jaune muttered, "Oooohhhhh this match is going to be so satisfying."

Pyrrha smiled at the sight of Jaune's confidence returning in full force, "It really is. I think I'll enjoy watching you beat him up."

The pre-combat jitters returned once Jaune found himself in the arena. He still fully intended to beat the hell out of Cardin, but his mind was back to playing games with him again. Strangely enough, his thoughts kept wandering to the Balkans and the operation he ran with Annette. It felt good to go on a real mission again and remind himself of what he was capable of, but he hoped that it wouldn't distract him from the match now.

"Contestants ready? Three… Two… One… Begin!"

The old Jaune would have charged headlong at Cardin, as if willing to receive the punishment that CRDL's leader was all-too-happy to dish out. The new Jaune? Not so much. He and his partner stood side by side, shields covering their vitals while Pyrrha braced her rifle and fired an opening volley at Cardin and Dove.

"What is it with running straight towards your enemy?" Jaune muttered, over the cracking reports of Miló and the pinging of Dove's return fire off of their shields, "Is it a huntsman thing, or just a freshman thing?"

"Freshman, I think." Pyrrha answered while the two of them slowly backed up to delay the inevitable clash of steel, "All of my best opponents back in Mistral always tested the waters before diving into melee. You want Cardin?"

"Yup."

And with that, the fight began in earnest. The two partners split up as Cardin and Dove finally reached their side of the arena. Jaune raised his shield and-

-deflected the opening swipe of the Beowolf. With the monster thrown off-balance by Jaune's defense, Annette leapt up from behind and sliced it in half with a whirling sweep of La Volonté. With her target slain, the operative-turned-huntress spun around and brought up her shifted shotgun to bear upon another approaching Grimm. Annette pulled the trigger, and the weapon kicked back as its munition tore out a chunk of the Beowolf's flank. She shifted La Volonté back into a sword, dashed forward, and ran the Beowolf through the chest.

Of course, in her zeal to eliminate her target, Annette failed to notice the third Beowolf coming up from behind.

"On your six!" Jaune shouted as he jet-launched himself forward and came to a sliding halt behind Annette. In a fraction of a second, he steadied himself, braced with Crocea Mors, and let the clawed strike crash harmlessly against his defenses instead of Annette's exposed back.

"It's good to practice your melee combat, but don't forget to think tactically!" He reminded his partner a moment before a shotgun blast rang out and Annette leapt over his crouched form to retaliate against her latest victim.

After a solid swing dismembered the Beowolf, Annette looked back at Jaune and grinned, "That's why you're here. I know you've got my back."

Jaune picked himself up with a sigh and chased after Annette. The huntress had already turned her sights onto another target and readied her sword in anticipation of the next engagement. Before she could get the chance to cut another Beowolf to ribbons, the ground shuddered. Then it shuddered again. And a third time. Even the (now-thinned) pack of Beowolves stopped for a moment to look towards the source of the tremors. Over the ridgeline of the foothills to the north came a ponderous, heavily-armored, and uncharacteristically large Ursa. The Grimm reared up onto its hind legs and let loose an ear-splitting roar.

"… Oh, crap."

The beast slammed its paw into the earth and sent a shockwave towards the meleeing forces. Jaune watched the earth crack and split as the Ursa's energy propagated towards him. Rather than waste Elerium to fire up his jump jets to dodge the attack, Jaune decided to brace and outlast the quake. The churning earth finally reached him, and Jaune-

-skidded back from Cardin's forceful blow, though he remained fairly unharmed. With the sounds of Pyrrha and Dove fighting in the background, Jaune kept his focus on the bully in front. Cardin brought his mace down in an overhead smash, and Jaune opted to perform a quick backstep to evade the crushing strike. Light on the balls of his feet, Jaune danced around Cardin and poked him once or twice with a quick stab between the plates of his armor.

After the third such jab, Cardin growled angrily, "What're you playing at, Arc? Stop dancing around and accept your punishment like a man!"

"Punishment?" Jaune asked, eyebrow raised as he ducked under another swing. Finally satisfied with his assessment of Cardin's fighting style (how had he lost to this oaf so many times in the past?), Jaune let loose with a rising slash from Crocea Mors across his opponent's breastplate. He grinned as Cardin stumbled back in surprise, "When did I ever agree to punishment, Cardin?"

From that point on, the fight began in earnest. Now that Jaune had a better understanding of Cardin's attack patterns, he knew which strikes to dodge and which ones were worth eating. His shield rang out as he absorbed a sideways swipe from his foe's mace and used Cardin's brief exposure for a swift retaliatory strike. Jaune delivered a kick to the side of his opponent's knee, forcing Cardin to buckle from the surprise attack. He followed up with a pommel strike to the back of the bully's head, and he heard Cardin yelp in a mixture of surprise and pain as the attack landed with muted crack.

"… What is going on here?" Cardin practically shouted before standing up and launching himself at Jaune. Shield at the ready, Jaune braced himself and let Cardin collide with his defenses. The momentum pushed the two back several feet before Jaune shoved the mace out of the way and jabbed at Cardin's abdomen.

"You-

"- are gonna have to do better than that." Jaune growled as the shifting earth subsided.

"Lieutenant," Bradford's voice crackled in Jaune's ear "Local intelligence is reporting a new contact in your AO. Strike Three is ready to move in and assist on your order."

Jaune and Annette glanced at each other. The confident shake 'no' from Annette was all Jaune needed to see before keying his mic and answering,"Not yet, Central. We should be able to handle this. Have them maintain their position at the small town and continue to stabilize the situation while the Major and I deal with the new threat."

Annette dispatched another Beowolf with a shotgun blast before returning her attention to Jaune and the Ursa, "If we're doing this your way, I take it you have a plan?"

"We can't forget about the rest of the pack, for one thing." Jaune said, glancing at the remaining Beowolves stalking the edges of the battlefield as the Ursa resumed its lumbering stride towards the clearing below, "Leave that to me while you focus on the bear. Given how much your three instructors rely on agility in their combat styles, I think you'll do fine avoiding its attacks."

Annette thought back to what Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake had tried to teach her during their short windows for training. She wasn't sure if Weiss's fencing style would work so well against this new threat, so perhaps she should go with Pyrrha's practical style (without the magnetic bag of tricks, of course). She let a small amount of Aura pool in her feet as she crouched low with La Volonté back in its sword form. She launched forward at high speed towards the Ursa.

"Don't forget to test the waters before going in hard." Jaune called out as he kept the Beowolves in his field of vision, "Something that big and slow is bound to be-

"-predictable, Cardin." Jaune explained, almost casually as he blocked another wild strike from his foe, "I'm not sure why I never noticed it before, but you're predictable."

"The hell I am!"

Almost as if trying to prove Jaune wrong, Cardin backed up and started to swing his weapon around in an erratic manner. He'd step in, throw the mace's weight at Jaune from an odd angle, and back off after his opponent deflected the attack. He danced (or rather, stomped) around before trying to dart in from another angle. Jaune found the effort admirable, except for the fact that Cardin's armor was way too heavy to allow the tactic to be effective. Even Jaune, with his preference for tanking over dodging, had no difficulty avoiding Cardin's telegraphed moves and stepping out of the way.

A buzzer rang overhead, and Jaune heard Port's voice boom out, "And that's it for mister Bronzewing! What's this? Miss Nikos is taking a seat to watch the fight between Arc and Winchester? I suppose it's to be an honorable duel, then!"

"Now you're just mocking me." Cardin glowered.

Jaune deflected another blow and shrugged, "I can ask my partner to step in and finish this quickly if you'd like. But I thought you were looking forward to beating the crap out of me."

The two continued to trade blows, though Jaune could see Cardin's strength flagging. With a grin, Jaune picked up the pace of his attacks. In order to position himself for superior strikes, Jaune began to sacrifice his dodges in favor of tanking Cardin's blows and following up with a savage counter. As Cardin's strength waned, it because easier to tank his mace attacks.

"C'mon, Cardin! What're you waiting fo-GUK!"

Jaune's vision exploded with stars he felt himself tumble head over heel across the arena floor.

"Out of nowhere, a strike like that! Mister Winchester seems to have found his second wind!"

As he tried to pull himself together, he felt the ground shake with each step Cardin took. When the bootfalls stopped, he wondered if Pyrrha had intervened. But wouldn't that have caused the buzzer to ring?

A swift kick to Jaune's gut clarified that point for him.

"You're right, Jauney. I guess I really did want to beat you up after all."

Another kick, and Jaune-

-felt the wind get knocked out of him completely. To his left, Annette shook herself out of the dazed state induced by the Ursa's armored swipe. On the bright side, Jaune didn't see any sign of blood or bruising, so it looked like Annette's Aura was doing its job. At the very least, the Ursa confirmed for them that it could survive a few blows before dissipating.

Jaune returned his focus back to matters at hand. Enhanced strength came packaged with the Ursa's extra armor, it seemed. Annette displayed an impressive degree of agility and finesse as she tangled with the Ursa. Jaune saw clear indications of Pyrrha's instruction manifest itself in Annette's motions as she ducked, weaved, and flourished her weapon while the knight kept the Beowolves at bay.

It only took one clean hit to throw off the huntress, however. Given that none of her opponents so far carried the heavy weight of an armored bear clocking in at several thousand pounds, it sort of made sense that she wasn't used to that sort of power and failed to roll with the blow when it finally landed. After bumping and skidding for several paces, she managed to roll into a crouched stance before throwing herself back at the monster. The problem, Jaune noted, was that Annette hadn't entirely shaken off the dazed state that set in from the first hit. Her steps were a little wobbly and he could see that her reactions had slowed down by a fraction of a second.

The Ursa reared up for what would undoubtedly be another earth-shattering slam.

"Annette!"

The huntress-in-training swore and kicked off the ground to launch herself sideways. The aftershock from the Ursa's attack knocked the unsteady Annette off her feet. Judging by her groan, it seemed like she still needed more time to fully shake off the heavy blow. Time that Jaune suspected he'd have to buy for her. He could try to get its attention with an attack from the other direction, but his partner would be in bad shape if the Ursa decided to ignore Jaune's ruse and land a coup de grace on Annette. As the bear raised its paw again to attack his partner, Jaune threw himself into harms way and-

-rolled over with a gasp.

"Well this is almost unsportsman-like." Oobleck commented, "And yet Nikos still refuses to end things! What on earth is going on?"

Amid idle wonderings of why the match wasn't getting stopped to prevent Cardin's cruelty from attracting Grimm, Jaune's danger sense screamed inside his ear. His survival instincts kicked in, and he found the strength to roll to the side in time to feel Cardin's mace crash into the floor next to him. Rather than pull it back up, however, Cardin swiped it sideways across the floor and sent Jaune reeling again.

"Not so tough anymore. Where's all that bravado from before, huh? One good hit, and you're down?"

One overconfident mistake is all it takes to get screwed on an op, Jaune recalled, Serves me right.

Instead he grunted, "Nah. Just taking a quick break is all." He slowly staggered to his feet just in time to receive Cardin's shoulder check and reel back a few steps… but not before Cardin swung his mace around, locked it with Crocea Mors, and twisted it out of Jaune's grasp.

"Oh ho ho, no you don't." Cardin taunted, "Since you've clearly been spending more time than I thought practicing with dear Pyr-Pyr, I don't think I'll be letting you play knight again."

This definitely posed a problem. Turning his back on Cardin to retrieve his sword would leave him vulnerable to a crippling cheap shot. Without Crocea Mors, though, his entire fighting strategy became useless. Hand-to-hand could be an option, but Jaune was no Yang. Against an unarmed Cardin, perhaps he would stand a chance. As it were, he'd probably break his hand against that cruel-looking mace.

Click. There. Jaune heard it this time, and he knew he needed to dodge the next hit. He dove to the side and felt the ground rupture behind him as Cardin slammed his mace into the ground with-

-volcanic force. By this time, Jaune and Annette had recovered enough to dodge the telegraphed attack. That didn't stop the rippling earth from sending crippling force through their limbs and setting them off-balance. As Jaune steadied himself, he saw Annette shift her sword into a gun and aim right past his face. Catching the hint, Jaune dropped to all fours as La Volonté discharged and the Beowolf yelped from his rear. While Annette was busy dealing with the interloper, however, Jaune kept his eyes on the Ursa.

"It takes a few seconds to recover from its ground-pound attack before it can move again." He said, readying his shield as the behemoth rose to its feet once again, "If we can capitalize on that and get in a few good hits while its down…"

"… It'll probably make things a lot easier." Annette agreed, ducking under a sideways swipe, "Need me to be the bait?"

"I was going to volunteer for that myself, actually."

"Yeah, but you've got those jump jets." His partner argued, "You can dodge the shockwave completely and dive back in for the kill."

She had a point. The two of them charged into the battle against the Ursa once more, their blades crashing harmlessly against its bony armor as it turtled up against their onslaught. Soon, Jaune backed off and left Annette to stare down their foe. Despite having little-to-no effect on their target, Jaune couldn't help but be impressed by the way Annette flowed from one strike into the next. Now that she had fully recovered from the shock of the Ursa's first hit and started to learn the patterns of its attack, the huntress finally found her groove. Swing, spin, dodge, shoot. Slash, slide, stab, jump. The Shadow Armor she wore allowed for full range of motion and didn't slow her down as she danced around the gargantuan beast.

More than once, Jaune watched her practice techniques Ren taught her early on in her huntsmen training. Her dashes and jumps had a supernatural flair to them, and Jaune noticed the faint glow of Annette's Aura pooling around the soles of her feet as she continued to hold the Ursa's attention.

Eventually, the Grimm decided to strike back. Once again, it rose up on its hind legs and slammed back down to crush Annette. At the same time, Jaune ignited his jump jets and took to the skies before twisting around and blasting back to the ground as he saw a cloud of dust roll out like a wave away from the Ursa's blow. He had to trust that Annette evaded the attack while he focused on flinging himself towards the exposed fur on the Grimm's back. Shield out front to soften his landing with his sword ready to be driven into the gargantuan beast, Jaune tensed as he braced for impact and-

-crashed his shield into Cardin's face. With his mace stuck firmly in the ground for a split second, he had no way of blocking Jaune's rapid retaliation. In one swift motion, Jaune swept his foot past Cardin and sent the bully's weapon skittering far out of reach.

Cardin recovered from the headshot and glared daggers at him, "Screw you.."

"Am I supposed to apologize for making this fight fair?" He didn't show it in his taunt, but Jaune still felt his energy flagging from Cardin's earlier beatdown. He knew he had the will for a second wind to give Cardin his all, but he wouldn't be able to keep things going forever.

Cardin swung at Jaune, who barely ducked out of the way of the punch before delivering his own straight to the gut. He realized too late that he put too much weight into the swing and could only watch as Cardin's knee connected with his breastplate.

"Well I'll be." Port said, "I haven't seen a good showing of fisticuffs like this since-"

"Since Xiao Long and Altan squared off a few days ago?"

"... Fair point."

The two huntsmen staggered back into fighting stances, and Jaune didn't wait for Cardin to take the initiative. He ducked low and rose into another gut punch, careful not to commit too hard this time. Cardin threw a right hook that connected with Jaune's forearm before delivering a headbutt. Stars exploded into Jaune's vision as he reeled back, but he steeled himself to the pain and whipped his fist into a backhand that slammed into Cardin's jaw.

"Why won't you go down?" Cardin grunted, stepping forward to deliver an overhead punch.

Jaune stepped inside of the strike and let Cardin's arm fly past his shoulder, "Because I've faced worse than you." He whispered.

Jaune shoved his adversary back before digging his feet into the ground and kicking off to throw himself back into the melee. The two huntsmen continued to trade blows, blocking and countering as best they could while all the glancing kicks and punches started to pile up. Jaune had to give credit where it was due: Cardin knew how to fight on through fatigue. However, Jaune's survival instincts began to kick in the further he felt himself getting pushed to the edge of his limits. With sweat streaming down his face and the taste of blood in his mouth, this became less of a tournament match for Jaune and more of a fight where failure simply wasn't an option.

His eyes sharpened into focus, and his muscles relaxed. He willed his breathing to fall into a steady pattern while his mind searched for a certain path to victory. Left jab, duck, spin, elbow strike. Backstep, stomp, uppercut. Deflect, kick, grunt. With each blow he landed upon the bully that blighted the memories of his first year at Beacon, Jaune felt himself become more alive. Each punch returned by his nemesis was weakness leaving his body. When the final knee strike connected with Cardin's ribs, Jaune instantly sensed the will to fight finally leave his opponent. He could almost feel Zhang's quiet satisfaction as he planted a hand on Cardin's breastplate and sent-

-the Ursa crashing to the ground. Jaune spent a few seconds letting his ragged breathing stabilize as he watched the Ursa slowly melt into a black puddle of ichor. Big Sky would return with a containment team to literally mop up the 'bodies,' but Strike Three had to first confirm that the perimeter was secure. Chatter over the radio indicated that the rest of the team encountered no further resistance within the local township, and that the team was on its way back to pick up Jaune and Annette.

Even if the Council still had some beef with XCOM, it was fairly obvious that most of the world treated them like the heroes Jaune knew they were. It happened every time Central received word of an outbreak: panic would cause the situation to rapidly deteriorate before XCOM finally arrived, but the mere presence of a trained team of Grimm Killers proved enough to sufficiently quell the fear and allow the Strike team to stem the tide of gathering monsters. Most incursions were put down within a matter of hours, but Vahlen was still far away from a permanent solution to the problem. Still, today's small victory was reason enough to celebrate.

"So," Jaune started, breath still a little faster than normal, "What do you think?"

Annette smiled, twirling La Volonté through the air in front of her, "I feel amazing. I mean, Assault operatives are usually pretty athletic and mobile on the battlefield, but the amount of energy and power I could draw upon from my Aura?" The huntress shifted her sword into a shotgun and cocked it, "I had a blast."

"And with that, CRDL is defeated!" Oobleck called.

"What a match it was!" Port cheerfully added, "I've never seen mister Arc fight quite like that since I've known him during his time at Beacon. His team must be proud of his performance today."

"Well, 'proud' doesn't quite cover it." Pyrrha said as she walked up and placed a gentle hand on her partner's shoulder, "Mild concern would also be accurate. But it's definitely a start. Well done, Jaune."

Jaune gave Pyrrha a toothy grin, "Only mild concern?"

"I have faith in you." She answered cheerfully, "To be honest, I don't know how I would have recovered from a hit like that. I suppose that's why I have a policy of 'avoid getting hit in the first place.' "

"Well, I think we've already established I'm a sucker for punishment. C'mon… let's get cleaned up and get some food. I'm starving."

The two of them walked off, leaving Cardin laying on the stadium floor to pick himself up.

"… What the hell just happened?"

Ozpin looked up from his desk at the sound of the elevator opening, and he smiled at his guest.

"Ah, Miss Goodwitch. How may I help you?"

Glynda raised an eyebrow and glanced at the collection of paper in her hand, "Is that an invitation to inform you of all the duties you need to fulfill-?"

"How may I help you with what you have specifically come here to discuss with me?" Ozpin clarified with an amused sigh. Glynda very rarely joked with him, so it was always a pleasure to witness on the occasions that she actually did. Like catching a glimpse of a unicorn, "Does it have to do with our recent guests?"

"Work is progressing at a rate anticipated by the chief engineer." Glynda reported, "MacAuley is a bit… colorful with his language, but he is actually rather competent when he isn't busy running his mouth off."

"And the others?"

Glynda nodded, "Qrow is proving useful, though he seems to enjoy getting a rise out of MacAuley. I thought he was only good at covering his own tracks, but I must say I'm impressed with his efforts to discreetly move supplies for the project."

"It's almost as if he's a skilled informant." Ozpin smirked, earning him an eyeroll from his colleague.

"Oobleck is spending more time learning from MacAuley than he is helping him," Glynda continued, "And Port is being Port, to the surprise of no one."

No surprise there. Ozpin knew Peter Port to be a competent huntsman when push came to shove, but he had a habit of exaggerating his own importance and spending his academic efforts on less-than-helpful pursuits. It was all harmless, of course, and Ozpin mostly wanted him with the team so he could remain appraised of the situation without having his feelings hurt.

He had similar reasons for sticking Oobleck on the team. While the hyperactive professor had an honest passion for learning, he spent most of his time playing to his strength as a historian rather than his hobby of a scientist. From what Ozpin gathered from Bradford during their communications during the war, Dr. Shen and his staff performed mechanical miracles. If anyone would be fascinated by the Chief Engineer's work and willingly take on the role of a model student, it was Barty. Perhaps Ozpin could even convince Oobleck to include some of Shen's insight in the science-related curriculum offered at Beacon.

"Then it sounds like everything is moving along nicely." The headmaster summarized, "I appreciate your efforts to keep me informed, Glynda."

Ozpin knew that Goodwitch still had more to say when she hesitated after his invitation for her to leave. Again, not really a surprise, given that he didn't expect Glynda to come up and see him simply to report no problems whatsoever. When Ozpin raised a questioning eyebrow, Glynda sighed and finally voiced her real reason for coming, "Are you sure this isn't going to come back to bite us with James? You and I both know that if he finds out we're doing this without his knowledge, he'll be furious."

"And rightfully so." Ozpin answered, "He is the Head of Security for the festival after all."

"Don't tell me you're still bitter about that."

Ozpin shook his head, "I never was, Glynda. As much as it hurt to learn how little faith James has in my abilities to lead and protect, it is clear that he made his choice for the right reason. Though we tend to frequently disagree in our methods, I fully believe that Ironwood always keeps the safety of humanity at the forefront of his mind. I could never begrudge him for trying to put the good of the kingdoms above the pride of a friend."

Glynda nodded. As much as Ozpin enjoyed teasing her with cryptic answers whenever she asked simple questions, she couldn't deny that he had a way with words. Regardless, she still needed her question answered.

"So then why are we going behind his back with this? You and I both know that Ironwood is a pragmatist, and he would be okay with these kind of safeguards so long as we cleared them with him first."

"You give him too much credit." Ozpin said with a wistful smile, "What you and I see as a safeguard against an unseen enemy, Ironwood would see as Vale trying to gain an upper hand against him in an imaginary arms race."

"It's bad enough that we've introduced the Valean Recon Division…" Glynda mused.

Ozpin nodded before standing up from his desk, "I'm fairly certain he still doesn't trust Bradford. Even if we explained that the incident at the CCT was the impetus for this initiative, the fact that it's championed by our new friend would be enough to make James instantly suspicious. Coffee?"

Glynda politely declined with a slight shake of her head, and Ozpin set off towards the back of the room to begin preparing some for himself. The slightly inconvenient placement of his brewing station was intentional: he could easily spend hours lost in work or thought at his desk, and so the desire for a fresh cup of coffee forced him to get up and talk a brief walk to break up the monotony of his daily duties.

As he set about fixing himself a cup of caffeine, Glynda continued their conversation, "And what about us? Why do we trust our new friend? I am well aware of the fact that he looked after two of our freshman teams for nine months and that they vouch for him and the rest of XCOM, but you cannot deny that an organization that comes to Remnant from literally across time and space merits a healthy amount of caution. But after a few electronic conversations with Bradford, a few face-to-face meetings, and you see no reason why anyone should have concerns about his intentions."

As he watched the warm liquid percolate, Ozpin considered Glynda's assertion. Contrary to what she seemed to think, he was quite aware of the practical benefits of tempering his new friendship with due caution. However, he also couldn't ignore the fact that eight of his students spent six to nine months with XCOM and had nothing negative to say about the organization. If he only had Ruby's word to go off of, then maybe he would have cause to be more suspicious. However, students such as Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Ren, and even Jaune were less naive than Beacon's youngest team leader, and certainly would have noticed any suspicious activity going on at XCOM, especially after spending months in constant contact with its people and facilities. And yet Bradford had somehow earned their fierce loyalty. That alone gave Ozpin all the reason he needed to trust XCOM.

Of course, it was more fun to give Glynda a more mysterious answer. Ozpin refilled his mug and slowly stepped towards the floor-to-ceiling window behind his desk, "Is it too much to ask for you to trust the intuition of an old wizard?"

Glynda scoffed, "You do realize claiming to be the wizard in the tale of the maidens only works if you haven't already told your audience that the wizard does not, in fact, exist."

"I may not be the wizard, but it seems that I am indeed old with a few holes in my memory." Ozpin laughed, "You can't blame me for trying."

His companion joined him at the window, and the two of them looked down at the buzz of activity in and around Beacon. JNPR's match against CRDL was merely the halfway point for today's scheduled fights, and so the festival's amenities were especially busy with the lunch rush. Ozpin wished he had the free time to go down and enjoy the fairgrounds himself, but he had far too much work that needed to be completed. Glynda's presence was a sharp reminder of that.

"Just… promise to be careful, alright?" She said, "Bradford doesn't raise any red flags for me, either, but that doesn't mean that he's not hiding something."

Ozpin nodded, "Of course. But for now, I think we should focus on the project at hand. From what Dr. Shen has told me, Bradford is ready to deploy his system this evening."

"Ironwood has business to attend to with delegates from the other kingdoms." Glynda said, checking her scroll, "Which means that you should probably attend as well if you don't want James to be any more suspicious than necessary about the Recon Division. Shall I oversee things here in your absence?"

"Yes, thank you." Ozpin smiled. He turned away from the window and placed his mug on the desk, preparing to return to his work. Glynda made her way towards the elevator to leave Ozpin to work in peace.

"One more thing, Glynda." The headmaster called out, "Bradford says that his team has developed another project to be installed in tandem with the communication system, or at least shortly thereafter. RWBY and JNPR have already agreed to undertake it."

Glynda sighed. Of course he would wait until she was about to leave before dropping that nugget of information. Even so, if she continued to doubt Ozpin just because he seemed to have unwavering confidence in Bradford's intentions, what did that say about her? For so long, she'd believed in him, even scolding Ironwood when she first sensed hesitancy from the General before the ugly business with the Breach. Faith in Ozpin had brought her this far, she reminded herself. She would have to withhold judgment about XCOM until she had enough evidence for her own needs, but that didn't mean she needed to worry about Ozpin.

So she paused long enough to nod and offer an, "Of course, sir" before continuing towards the elevator.

A/N: Alright, time for another round of "DrAmish Wants Your Thoughts." The fight in this chapter sparked a conversation I had with my editor about the lethality of combat. My experience with writing the slow, methodical pace of combat in the Long War has coupled with my desire for interesting fight sequences has resulted in tournament fights that go on for a fairly long time. This was brought into focus during RWBY vs. FNKI where more than one person was surprised that Ruby and Blake didn't immediately wipe the floor with Flynt and Neon on account of their nine months in a deadly combat zone. I thought about it for a bit, and came to realize that I've sort of imagined Aura as an extra hp bar that simply extends the Time-To-Kill with lethal weapons to be a lot longer than would otherwise be the case. To bring an example into this, the original version of Jaune's fight had him slashing at Cardin's exposed neck with Crocea Mors rather than going for the pommel smash. I just assumed "eh, Cardin's Aura will just tank it" when my editor's reaction was, "Yeah... that's game-set-match right there."

I did a little research by re-watching the other time Cardin had someone from JNPR beat the snot out of him, and paid attention to how many of Pyrrha's hits actually got past her opponent's defenses and struck someone from CRDL. The actual number turned out to be a lot lower than I had originally expected. But then you have tournament fights like the canon RWBY vs. FNKI where Weiss assaults Flynt with a flurry of rapid strikes (and Neon does the same to Yang) without being blocked, and the victim doesn't go down for the count. There's other examples that seem to back both sides of the conundrum, so I thought I'd ask you guys for your input. I'm slightly amused at the meta-ness of the idea that my struggle to realistically write a huntsman-on-huntsman fight is mirroring RWBY's struggle to engage in one. But just like our protagonists, I'd like to learn, adapt, and come out on top.