Hello, everybody. This is Hyperjade, back with Silent. It's been a few cycles, and I'm glad to be back on this one for a bit. Bit of a shorter chapter this iteration, because I didn't want to pad stuff out.

Here's hoping I can play with ice and not get burned.

Reviews!

Jango: I'll handle this one in the middle. Let's go with our first angry review ever!

Me: Sorry, what did you say?

Jango: Million words, that's how long you lasted before you pissed somebody off.

Me: Wait... I already asked Finally An Available Username for an elaboration on his points. While I didn't like that he seemed to have treated it as some sort of test to see if I would ask for clarification, he did clarify some of what he meant, which was helpful. Thus, I'm pretty sure that anger was a facade. Whatever, I'm playing with fire and ice just traveling into this fandom. I appreciate your review, Finally An Available Username, I just wish for those reviews to be clear when they come up, not turned into a game...

Gladiara Alata, hello. I am glad one of my OCs seems intriguing to you. As for what's next, I'm dangling it in front of you on a string as long as this AN is.

And West, my good friend. Speaking of frustration... Yes, I was evil and posted chapter two of this when I was scheduled to resolve a cliffhanger over in KatJ. I think the evilness is out of my system... For now. I like your attempts to decipher what makes Carla tick, because I'm a sucker for theorizing. I encourage it, really, through the way I structure my work.

That's all the three reviews for today. Here comes chapter three!

Chapter 3

"Port's doing his spiel again," Yang complained quietly.

"Shh." Leslie poked her back with her riding crop.

"Stop that," Yang muttered, her eyes narrowing somewhat.

"Then focus," Leslie told her.

"Monsters! Deeeeemons." Professor port proclaimed in his booming voice. "Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But I merely refer to them as 'prey'. Haha!"

Crickets could be heard in the general area the students sat in.

"Uh… And you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy." Port continued. "As I was saying, Vale, alongside the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces, and that's where we come in."

"Huntsmen! Huntresses!" he made a 'k-k' sound, winking in Yang's direction, and Yang groaned and looked away. Port continued talking while everyone began to tune him out.

Mute sat between Ren and Blake, who were both whispering to him in an effort to teach him what kind of things he should write down and what parts he should ignore. They had stopped him from writing pretty much everything except for the alternate titles that the Grimm go by. Those three were paying careful attention together as a result. In the other rows, Weiss paid attention in spite of the distracting sounds of Ruby making scribbling noises as she drew on a blank sheet of paper. Leslie up in the third row was paying attention as well, although she found it difficult to focus.

Weiss was having the most trouble with Ruby to her left, and she gritted her teeth as the pencil scratch was loud and distracting to her, and she kept glancing at it until Ruby showed it to her entire team whilst making a funny noise. It was a full body caricature of Port, ultimately a circle with stick arms and legs and a funny face. Yang started giggling in the background while Weiss's glare was cold as ice.

Professor port heard the giggling and cleared his throat, saying nothing until quiet had been reestablished. Then, he began storytime once more while Mute added a few specific techniques the professor had mentioned to his notes. The orange haired boy was a bit lost, with Blake and Ren essentially controlling what he wrote this time. While he knew they were assisting him, yet another unwelcome feeling rose up. He ignored it.

Ruby was balancing her notebook with an apple on top… On the tip of a think pencil.

Weiss' expression turned angrier.

Professor port said another line, and Ruby had somehow gone from the balancing trick to snoring lightly, none of those items in sight. Weiss's teeth gritted even more.

As Port finished his statement that huntsmen and huntresses were to be honorable, dependable, strategic, well educated, and wise (all of which Mute wrote down), Weiss got distracted one more time, this time by Ruby picking her nose. Her eye twitched.

"So, which of you believes yourself to be the embodiment of all these traits?" Port asked out of the blue. It reached Weiss' ears and her hand shot up remarkably fast.

"I do, Sir!" she proclaimed, anger lacing her words.

"Well then, let's find out."

Port looked to the side, gesturing to a thick metal box with red eyes glowing out of a single window. "Step forward and face your opponent."

Everyone else in the room straightened and their attention as Weiss stepped into a separate room with an open ceiling to call her locker and grasp her weapon and battle clothing.

Less than a minute later, Weiss stood in her snow white combat wear with her weapon drawn, confidently facing the sealed container. Voices reached her ears and slightly distracted

"Goooo, Weiss!" Yang cheered.

"Fight well." Pyrrha nodded supportingly

"Yeah, represent team RWPY!" Ruby added.

"Ruby, I'm trying to focus!" Weiss rebuked Ruby specifically. Yang and Pyrrha shared bewildered looks while Ruby wilted in her seat.

"Oh… Sorry," she said in a small voice.

"Alright!" Port called, raising his axe. "Let the match… Begin!" he slashed the lock on the crate, and it burst open to reveal a boarbatusk. It's four red eyes piercing straight into Weiss as it charged the moment it registered her presence. Weiss glanced her rapier off of its massive tusks as she rolled to the left, immediately taking the appropriate stance as she glared daggers at the beast as it stopped itself and turned to her.

"Haha, weren't expecting that, were you?" Port asked in regards to the boar's durability. Ren's team knew this perfectly well, having met the species personally in their initiation. They had been difficult, but with appropriate teamwork each had been relatively easy. That, and Nora's hammer was OP.

Mute hadn't paid enough attention to how the boar attacked back then, as he had been busy besting the much slower giant scorpion, and he was taking notes. Everyone else was riveted on the action.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby called supportingly. Weiss flew forward with her rapier prepared, only for the boar to suddenly twist her weapon into its tusks while she gasped and was flung upwards at the same time due to the violent motion from the stocky creature.

She flipped and twirled to land back on her feet in front of the boar, turning it into a tug of war over her rapier with the vicious beast while her outspoken instructor behind her proclaimed: "Bold new approach, I like it!"

"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby exclaimed, continuing to support her teammate. Weiss took the time to glare at Ruby, which proved a mistake as the boarbatusk whipped her weapon away. It clattered to the floor behind the vicious grimm. Then, as Weiss was defenseless, the boar bashed her and sent her flying with its tusks.

"Oh ho, now what will you do without your weapon?" Port asked, his mustache hiding his expression.

Weiss watched as the beast charged, and she rolled to the side to avoid it. Racing as fast as she could manage, the heiress rolled and grabbed her sword at the same time, coming to a kneel with the rapier in hand.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted "Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss suddenly shouted, Ruby registering her words and glare and shrinking slowly back into her seat, her expression hurt and confused.

While Weiss was glaring at Ruby, the boarbatusk leapt straight into the air, curling up and suddenly spinning rapidly on the ground. It spin-dashed straight towards Weiss, who promptly put up a black and blue circular glyph in the air before her, blocking the attack. As the boar fell on its back, she jumped up, forming a similar glyph in the air and jumped down at it, running her weapon through its belly and sliding on her knees beside it as they came to a stop, the boar dying and dissolving into black mist before fading entirely.

"Bravo! Bravo!" Port exclaimed. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true hunter in training. I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant. Class dismissed!"

"Sheesh, what's with her?" Jaune asked nobody in particular.

Nobody had an appropriate answer. Blake and Ren and Nora saw their comrade Mute packing his things up, as if unconcerned about the growing feud. Although he met nobody's eyes, so they couldn't get a read on him.

In fact, he was quite conflicted. It wasn't even remotely his place to get involved in a petty squabble made vicious by the frosty girl. At the same time, he had this urge to get in Weiss' face and intimidate her. The freak emotions that were rising were beginning to frighten him, and the boy closed his eyes and did his best to shut them down. Why had the strange golden girl given him these inane, inconsistent 'emotions'? It must have been so much easier when he was a mindless drone. A part of him yearned to go back to that feeling, right when he woke up. That blank feeling… That blessed emptiness. Silence, calm...

His teammates left him alone for the moment, instead watching Ruby run out after Weiss, who had stalked out without hesitation.

"Do you think we should follow them?" Yang asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Yang." Pyrrha sighed. "If we supported Ruby in this, what then? Weiss would feel suppressed, and we would be suppressing her. Having only three of us agree to one term will doubtless generate resentment in the fourth. If Weiss is going to be a part of the team, she has to want to."

"I get that." Yang crossed her arms, frowning "But I don't like the idea of leaving my little sister alone to talk to her. Ice Queen looked ready to stab somebody."

"If you remember our conversation about trust…" Pyrrha reminded her easily-made irate teammate "Well… Let's just say that the very distrust you feel is part of what's going to alienate her in the future. No matter what goes wrong, we have to grow as a team."

Yang's scowl deepened. "And what about Ruby?"

Pyrrha frowned herself. It was a difficult question, to be sure, but there was one thing she was certain of. "Weiss isn't going to do much more than yell at her, I know that much. None of us are animals."

Yang didn't answer that final statement, but her scowl faded somewhat.

As they conversed, Jaune's team walked by, "What's next today?" Carla asked.

"Professor Oobleck's class." Leslie recited without looking at the schedule she kept tucked in her pocket.

"Then let's go. We could use some quiet study time with an empty classroom."

"Good thinking, Carla." Leslie praised the girl. They walked off, Arthur not far behind. Jaune uncertainly glanced between everyone still present before hurrying after his team. This left Pyrrha and Yang; Ren's team had begun to go about their business as well.

"So you want me to just wait for Ruby to come back?" Yang asked, uncertain.

Pyrrha smiled. "I admire your desire to protect your sister, but somehow… I have the feeling things will turn out well in the end."

"Weiss!"

Weiss whirled at the mention of her name, specifically in the high pitched tone she knew all too well. "What?" she asked, sounding both upset and degrading at the same time. Ruby skidded to a stop before her, pausing after hearing the single word spoken so harshly.

"What is wrong with you?" Ruby asked. "Why are you being-?"

"What's wrong with me?" Weiss snarled "What's wrong with you!? You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance."

Ruby had grown irritated and confused by the end of that sentence, snorting. "What did I do?" she asked the valid question hanging in the air.

"That's just it!" Weiss exclaimed, "You've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child and now you've only continued to do so!"

"Weiss, where is this coming from?" Ruby said quietly. "What about all the talk of working together? I thought you believed in acting as a team?"

"Not a team led by you."

Ruby's hurt expression remained static as she heard this, so Weiss continued on.

"I've studied. And trained. And frankly, I deserve better." Weiss turned her back on Ruby, crossing her arms. "Ozpin. Made. A mistake."

Ruby reached out to her, but Weiss stalked away without another word. Ruby backed away a few steps before running into someone. She yelped and whirled, finding herself needing to look up more than she expected.

"Hmm… Now that didn't seem to go very well." Ozpin said.

Ruby recovered quickly from the collision and the coincidence, the doubt and hurt from before settling back on her shoulders. "Is she right?" she asked quickly, quietly. "Did you make a mistake?"

Ozpin gave Ruby a smile. "That remains to be seen," he answered gently.

Weiss stalked out of the hall in which she had been speaking to Ruby. Not ten meters away did she find Professor Port standing alone on the balcony she had walked into. Recognizing the man, Weiss walked a bit faster to approach him. "Professor Port!" she exclaimed to grab his attention.

Port turned. "Ah, Miss Schnee! And to what do I owe this fine pleasure?"

"I… I enjoyed your lecture."

"Of course you did, child, you have the blood of a true huntress in you."

Weiss beamed. "You really think so?" she asked brightly.

"Most surely!"

Weiss' smile fell as she looked away, a somewhat uncertain expression on her face. Port noticed this easily. "Hmm… Something's troubling you."

"Yes… Sir."

"Dear girl, confess to me your strife!"

Weiss clasped her hands together. "Well... " she looked up at her professor. "I think I should have been made the leader of team RWPY."

There was a long, pregnant pause as the both looked at each other unwaveringly.

"..."

"..."

"That's preposterous!"

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked Ozpin.

"I mean it's only been one day." the headmaster elaborated kindly. His tone lowered a bit, sounding almost sad. "Ruby, I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet," he said evenly. "But at this moment, I would not consider your appointment as leader to be one of them." he leaned down to Ruby's level, meeting her eyes. "Do you?"

"Excuse me!?" Weiss exclaimed, suddenly angry and affronted.

"I've believed in Professor Ozpin for many years." Port declared "And the man's never once led me astray!"

Weiss was flabbergasted. "So you would blindly accept his decision, even after seeing how exceptional I am?" she demanded.

"With all due respect, your excellence on the battlefield is matched only by your poor attitude," Port told her.

"How dare you!"

"My point exactly."

Port observed the girl before him, glaring at him, stiffened shoulders, icy eyes. She exuded haughtiness and anger. "I see a girl before me who has spent her entire life getting exactly what she wanted."

"That's not even remotely true." Weiss refuted immediately, but the resulting pause betrayed something new in her expression. "Well… It's not entirely true…"

Ruby's expression of grief and doubt was fading a bit as she found herself awaiting the headmaster's words that were doubtless going to come.

"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle." Ozpin continued. "But a badge you wear constantly. "If you're not always performing at your absolute best, what reason do you give others to follow you?"

"So the outcome did not fall in your favor. Do you really believe that acting in such a manner would cause those in power to reconsider their decision? So instead of fretting about what you don't have, savor what you do. Hone your skills. Perfect every technique. And be not the best leader, but the best person you can be."

As Ruby let that soak in, Ozpin turned away from her. "You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time, to think about how you will uphold it."

As Ruby watched the man walk away, her eyes fell on Weiss just outside on the balcony. She noticed that Weiss' posture was more relaxed than before as Professor port walked out of view of the entrance. A determined smile found the young girl's lips as she set off to find Yang and Pyrrha.

"You might want to leave those in."

Mute looked up, his mostly blank expression turning to one of attention once he saw that Ren was talking to him. "The plates that hold your blades in."

Why?

"Because we will be in combat with each other today." Ren nodded to Professor Goodwitch. "Apparently it is an important part of this class."

Mute silently clipped the narrow plates back into his boots and stood up. He wore no combat gear, as he had none. He was instead in white cargo shorts and a gray t-shirt. Everyone else was in clothing more befit their future professions, although seeing Weiss insist that what she was wearing was a 'combat skirt' when talking to a student who had apparently questioned her out of the blue, one neither of them knew.

"Students," Glynda called from her stand nearby a miniature stadium where she could observe battles. "Yesterday you took a lengthy and no doubt difficult pre-assessment. However, I cannot judge your skills on pencil skills alone. Today, I will be judging your abilities on the battlefield against each other. This will further allow me to understand where each of you are, and after compiling this data, it is hoped that it will be a simple task to elevate you all to the skill level necessary to excel in my course."

Everyone looked at the field with mixed reactions. The ones less certain of themselves were glancing at the bigger or meaner students, wondering who they would have to fight. The bigger ones, for their part, either waited in neutral anticipation or leered at the less physically strong warriors among them.

Knowing they were on a time limit, Glynda started the rounds immediately, calling random names to the field. A pair of boys stood across from each other, their weapons drawn and ready. Mute frowned as he saw the blades prepared, looking over at his team leader with an obviously unspoken question.

"Your blades seem to absorb energy. I don't think our auras will protect us from them like they will the blades of everyone else." Ren explained as soon as he got the question. Mute's next question was a bit more sudden and unnerving. What's aura?

Ren looked down on the field as the two students began their battle. The doublade that collapsed and separated into semi-automatic pistols wielded by the blue-haired boy proved too fast of a weapon in comparison to the other boy's choice, a fancy flail that had no long range capabilities but did convert dust into energy, allowing it to be on fire or release electricity. Despite the flashiness, the second boy lost quickly.

"This is a bad time for that to come up properly." He said cautiously, turning to Mute. "It is an extension of our souls. How we use our semblances, and how we defend ourselves and heal minor wounds. If your aura is not unlocked yet… No, it must be. Your semblance is very active. You have nothing to worry about."

Mute blinked before turning to the battlefield again. He watched a few more matches until Yang was called to the stage, and she promptly trounced the poor guy she was set against. Just pushed the weapon aside and socked him in the face without firing her weapon. Her strength scared most people in the room.

But now all of the weapons they had were being showcased. This came to a head when Pyrrha was called to the stage.

Her sword and shield ready in her hands, Pyrrha stood against yet another student. She fought flawlessly, the weapons of her opponent completely outmatched by the raw skill the prodigy brought forth. Mute focused, but he did not see any tricks or semblances that he knew of. As her opponent's aura neared zero, Glynda called the match with Pyrrha untouched.

More battles went on until Leslie was called up. She stood there with her riding crop against a large boy by the name of Cardin Winchester. His mace, a black weapon with its blades serving as a cage that made the mace up, its flanges extended further out than a regular mace would. A red crystal glowed in the center of that cage.

Leslie held her weapon at the ready, eyeing the much larger boy constantly.

"Begin." Came the monotonous voice of Glynda. Leslie swallowed, focusing on one thing: How much she wanted to impress her favorite teacher. Bringing her riding crop behind her, she shifted a slider on the handle up somewhat with a finger, choosing a type of Dust to use. The slider worked in a way that she would pull it to the side first to unlock it, slide it, and let it fall into the correct place. She spun, bringing her weapon up in a spiral as the ring-like tip released an azure glow and the temperature dropped. Cardin was already charging, and she smirked as her spiral brought the crop directly above her. She dropped into a kneeling position whilst swinging the riding crop downwards, releasing a vertical shower of icicles along with a blast of cold air to keep them going.

Cardin dived out of the way in response, startled by the large amount of shart, high-velocity objects headed for him. He narrowed his eyes and gave a battle cry, charging a second time.

Another shift, Leslie's riding crop now glowing with a kind of brown color. She ducked the reckless swing of the mace and at the same time, dragged her weapon across the ground in an arc directly in front of Cardin. The floor suddenly churned and leapt up in a wave, throwing the heavier boy three meters away from Leslie. Seeing victory and accomplishment, she switched her element to a yellow glow and sent a bolt of electricity flying at the downed boy.

...And missed.

The unstable bolt struck the ground next to his chest as he levered himself to his knees and charged from there. In desperation, Leslie attempted to make her riding crop glow azure again and summon a wall of ice between her and her enemy.

Cardin grinned and pressed the button on the hilt of his mace, activating the red dust crystal embedded in it. The entire mace glowed with the power of fire, obliterating Leslie's ice wall and smashing her twenty feet away straight into the force field that protected the rest of the students from the action on the small battlefield. Everyone winced at the brutal strike as Leslie staggered to her feet, feeling weak. She habitually checked her scroll, seeing that her aura level was almost completely gone in one strike. Her eyes found Glynda, who was watching her carefully.

She couldn't lose, not now, not when her role model was staring her in the face! Leslie stood, bringing her riding crop around in the hopes of causing chunks of earth to encase the top of the mace and negate the bursts of fire coming from it when Professor Goodwitch's voice rang out. "This match is over!"

Leslie stopped dead in her tracks as the large boy smirked in victory. "Hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did," he told her as he walked by her and Leslie fell to her knees. Her first impression of herself to her favorite instructor was an utter failure. She didn't think it was fair.

Jaune ran out once the force field was dropped for the next people to take the stage. "Hey." he prompted his teammate, who he noticed was starting to sob already. "Leslie?"

"I'm a failure…" she whimpered. "One match against someone slow, and I couldn't do it!"

Jaune shook his head rapidly. "No way. You said it yourself, one match. It was just one match."

"But… Professor Goodwitch…" Leslie whimpered too quietly for anyone to hear.

"Come on. Let's get off the arena." Jaune said gently, motioning Arthur over. The wolf faunus and the scrawny boy helped Leslie stand and walk off of the center, ignoring the mix of sneers and congratulations as the students voiced their opinions about the team connections Jaune's team seemed to have developed for themselves already.

"Let this be a lesson to you all." The professor declared, stepping forward. "There is one incredibly important part of the art of combat. Learning how to back off."

Her stern, somewhat cold tone had Leslie shivering in guilt. She hid her face and silenced herself as she listened to Glynda continued. "When your aura level is low, you and your team must be prepared to back you up and protect you. If the situation is too dangerous, you must know to run away. Preserving your life to live another day, fight another day, and protect more in the future."

She continued calling up names, completely impartial in her note taking. No student was spared from criticism, with the exception of Pyrrha, whose battle had been so flawless Glynda had failed to see anything to comment on with the exception of the order she'd beaten the enemies in, because it would have been slightly more efficient to defeat a different one of them first because of the fluidity of the motions Pyrrha had to undertake. Something so small, yet Glynda had it on her list of comments anyhow.

Blake was called up… Against Ruby. Ruby was fast, but she kept falling for Blake's shadow copy trick and invisibility and wound up running low on aura because Blake could sneak up on her. Learning from Glynda's words, she backed down on her own.

The others were brought up, showing that all of them had a lot to learn. Mute heard his name finally, about two-thirds of the way through the list. He stood up and silently walked into the field, standing rather listlessly as he faced his opponent.

Arthur.

The huge wolf faunus took the envelope shaped blade on the massive hilt and jabbed outward with it. The blade slid out of itself, clicking together as it finalized into a sword about five meters long and a meter wide. It was a pure red blade, brighter red than Crescent Rose, Ruby's scythe. The hilt was black. Mute gazed emotionlessly at the powerful teenager.

"Begin." Professor Goodwitch practically intoned.

Arthur lead with a swing of his massive sword using a single hand. Mute brought his boots up in a kick to block, but was surprised as he found himself sliding on one foot across the flat surface of the arena. His full powered kick hadn't helped him.

Mute stalked towards Arthur, his usual battle tactic, as Arthur prepared to strike overhead. While he was immensely powerful, Arthur's movements were slow. Mute stepped aside as the blade slammed brutally into the floor, and he took an extra few steps and kicked Arthur straight in the chest at full power. The boy was forced to let go of his sword as he was tossed from the spot. But Arthur only truly stumbled about a meter and a half.

Mute took a step so that he was out of Arthur's reach with his hands barely, to minimize the leverage he had with his larger than life sword. His instincts kicked in, and he did a front flip, aiming to put his heel straight into Arthur's head. He almost made the action to attack using his blades, which were currently sealed away, but managed to use his heel properly instead.

Arthur leaned back, which was his mistake. Mute's boot ground into the floor as he swept Arthur's legs out from under him while he was unbalanced, and Mute followed up by kicking harshly at the hand that held the sword. Arthur's grip didn't let up. In fact, Mute found that Arthur was attempting to grab his ankle, which Mute responded by lifting his foot and slamming down on Arthur's arm, pinning him.

Arthur didn't like that much. "Get off," he grunted, waving his pinned arm and throwing Mute, much to the silent kid's utter surprise.

Mute set one hand on the ground and corrected his orientation, landing on his feet, staring at Arthur as the muscular faunus stood up. He rushed forward, bringing his blade around. Mute was already stalking forward autonomously, tactics only mattering once he was close enough to hit Arthur. He jumped over the blade and attempted to bring his heel on Arthur's head again, absently noting Glynda writing something down on her notepad in the background.

Arthur's hand gripped his ankle extremely tightly, and Mute felt a freak sort of drain. He planted his hand on the ground and pulled Arthur off his feet The two boys consequently toppled towards the ground, and Mute forced balance into his position. Now holding up his weight and Arthur's weight with a single hand on the ground, he planted his other boot on Arthur and tossed him across the arena with a well-placed kick.

Mute landed on his feet. Arthur did not.

As Arthur lurched to his feet, Mute walked towards him again, ready to attack again. Arthur attacked using the flat of his blade in a wide swipe, Which Mute retaliated against my kicking the blade while bracing himself with his left hand and foot. Because of both Mute's extra friction and the air resistance due to the flat of the blade moving, Mute stopped the weapon this time. He swiftly retaliated by launching himself in what appeared to be a haphazard but actually quite coordinated flip that wound up with both of his feet near Arthur's face. Mute dealt a brutal double kick and then kicked off of the larger boy, landing in a lunging position as the blade landed flat on the ground as Arthur fell on his back once again.

Again he stood up, looking relatively unharmed. As he had seen other students do, he pulled out his scroll and looked at its reading for his aura. It had gone down very little, despite the heavy hits. Mute took this moment to look at his own aura as well, seeing it had drained somewhat. This was likely at the point where he felt the unnatural drain of his energy. Why did it feel unnatural to him to have this energy?

Both put away their scrolls and advanced on each other once more. Mute reflected that he could have attacked while Arthur checked his defenses, but a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that this wasn't a war, this was a spar. So quiet he almost missed it.

Mute began his march forward again, his steady pace constant and his boots making their signature clanking sound as he moved swiftly all of a sudden to attack. The spinning kick was again defended against via Arthur attempting to grab one of his feet again. Mute allowed this to happen so that he had plenty of leverage to kick Arthur right in the face as hard as he could manage, which was a lot.

Twisting himself away, mute immediately began his advance once again. However, the sound of their professor interrupted them. "That's quite enough."

The two boys looked up at Glynda, still well prepared to continue.

"We are on a time constraint." she explained "And I have plenty of data already from my observations. You two may leave the field now."

Mute and Arthur nodded, turning to each other. Mute didn't understand the feeling brimming in his chest, so the newfound emotion of fear enshrouded it as it did everything else. He didn't want to feel anymore. It was making things too complicated.

Still, when Arthur offered his hand, Mute shook it respectably and walked off the stage with him. He needed to figure it out later, and take notes now. Stepping off, he looked at the students yet to go. Among the was Carla and Jaune.

And it seemed that among the two, Jaune was called first. His opponent was about his size, but he looked afraid to attack, keeping his shield in front of him. The opponent just bashed their electric spear into it and shocked him senseless, winning the round for themselves. "That's how it's done, punk," she called as she walked off.

Leslie was somewhat impaired in her misery, and so Carla and Arthur helped Jaune up and off the stage while he twitched. "That didn't go well…" Carla murmured, but then Glynda called from her stand once more.

"Carla Skyborn." the girl heard, and she stopped. "Arthur, could you get him the rest of the way?" she asked kindly, and the big guy nodded and kept Jaune steady on his own.

Carla stepped onto the small battlefield, looking at her scroll. There she was, with her white long hair that was tipped with two inches of blue. Her right red eye and left blue eye stared back at her along with the rest of her team alongside her picture.

She put away the picture and set her hands on her hips where her weapons hung. Metal semicircles were on either side of her wrists, and beneath those were the handles of her knives. Rounded crescents that curled up on the ends. They were silver colored, and the edges of the blades were a deep blue. On her hip behind her primary weapons was a sheathed silver sword, again with a blue edge, the blade shaped like a scimitar and bore spikes off of the back end, giving the side of the blade that wasn't sharp an appearance like a saw. The clean edge that was sharpened would gleam just like her knives could.

The person she faced held what appeared to be a bow, although the entirety of it appeared to be able to contain dust. With the controls she could see all over it, it looked possible to use dozens of combinations of dust techniques with the bow much like the versatility that Leslie had.

Carla registered this in an instant and pressed her wrists against her waists. The semicircles of metal snapped into single piece handcuffs of a sort, chains dangling from them and connecting to the hilts to her knives.

She held the knives in a curious position, one in front of her, pointed up, one behind her, pointed down. The chains hung down about three feet, meaning they were in total six feet long. The familiar weight of the silver chains and her knives helped Carla get into the mood.

"Begin!"

Everybody blinked, and everybody missed it. One moment they were standing at the ready, the next Carla was standing two feet to the side as a hissing firebolt whizzed by her, doing little but making her beautiful white hair wave back in the wind.

The boy across from her blinked in surprise, and Carla was a few steps closer, charging with her blades at the ready.

He yelped and rolled away, coming up with his hand breezing over the various buttons on the bow and activating and deactivating various dust containers of different elements. He shot the next arrow, this one carrying with it a cold front arcing with electricity.

Carla blurred. She was in the way one moment and to the side the next. Her movements revolved around a series of these blinks, appearing as if she was going a normal speed whenever she was visible again before moving quickly.

The arrows didn't touch her. Carla threw one knife and cleanly pierced the string, promptly rendering the dust technique dependant weapon utterly useless, yanking her arm back. The chain on the blade bounced back as it ran out of length, and she snagged her knife back out of the air.

One glance at his broken bowstring, and her opponent forfeited on the spot.

Carla tapped onto the ground at the end of the small leap she had taken, and she patted her knives into their sheathes, pressing her wrist into the magnets that held the cuffs and they unsnapped to free her wrists.

She rubbed her wrists as she walked off the stage, adjusting her surprisingly loose shirt. It was even more loose around the waist than Mute's shirt, almost baggy. Yet, the rest of her outfit was built for battle. Glynda wrote down that she would ask about this personally, as it was an issue nobody shared in the room aside from the boy, Mute. Both would need a change of clothing for battle.

"She did well," Blake commented as the girl walked by her.

"What was she doing?" Ruby asked out of the blue. "She was moving fast like me, but not like me…"

"If I had to guess… I would say that Carla can adjust how she experiences time." Ren offered.

"No kidding." Yang crossed her arms. "But why didn't she use it the whole time?"

"Maybe it's draining…" Ruby suggested.

"You're kind of right." Jaune interrupted behind them, making them jump. "Carla explained it to us when we saw it during initiation… But we should let Carla talk about it if she wants to.

"I will… After class." Carla promised quietly, clasping her hands together with her arms hanging in front of her. Her expression was entirely different to that which she had worn in battle.

Mute turned his attention to the field, where the last match was cleaning itself up. Glynda stood in the center of the arena after several seconds of people looking at an empty floor. "There will be ten minutes before you may leave for your lunch period." Glynda proclaimed calmly. "This means ten minutes for me to outline the five most common problems I witnessed on that battlefield."

Almost everyone got chills, realizing that they might be called out indirectly for whatever. "Fifth." Glynda started coldly. "Your eye movements. With the exception of ten percent of you, the majority of the people in this class failed to move their eyes and constantly analyze their surroundings. Never assume that your opponent is your only opponent. Four of you lost directly because of this failure."

"Fourth." Glynda continued as several students flinched. "Your stances. Many of you sported imperfect stances, or in some cases, a complete lack of battle stance. For some of you it may be because you did not take this seriously because it was not a 'real fight', and I am going to be the one to teach you that every fight is a real fight, and must be treated as such."

"Third. Your vigilance. Forty percent of you completely forgot to check the remaining aura you had when you got a breather." Glynda's gaze found plenty of people who were guilty of this.

"Second, your combinations. Your battle style hardly flowed more than it jerked and jolted around, which can easily get you killed. With very few exceptions, there was no flow."

"First and foremost, you lacked versatility. With the single exception of miss Nikos, miss Schnee, and potentially miss Skyborn, your battle styles did not change throughout the fight. When you saw that your tactic was not working, you did not change tactics, you tried harder to win with the same tactics. And on the battlefield, that will get you killed."

Silence.

"For a last message from me to you in our second class of the year… You are here in this school because you wish to put your lives on the line. The first step in succeeding in this school… Is acting like it." Professor Goodwitch finished. "Pack up, change out of your combat dress and back into your school clothing. Go to lunch.

Sufficiently chastised for their mistakes, the children bailed from the classroom.

"So." Yang said conversationally, sticking a chunk of meat in her mouth.

Mute absently tuned in as he ate cleanly, doing little else. The less he interacted, the less the strange and unwelcome feelings would come.

""Yes…" Carla nodded. "My semblance slows time down around me. However… If I do it for more than a second, it puts a massive drain on my aura."

"But then why'd you only do it for a split second?" Ruby asked through a mouthful of bread.

"A second in my time."

Weiss sat back, analyzing the similarly colored girl across her. "A second in your time would be an instant for us then," she said thoughtfully. "But a second is all you need to avoid something."

"It has its uses." Carla agreed, scooping some peas into her mouth.

As the group ate, they talked about the day they've had so far. Weiss was oddly quiet when her battle against the boar grimm had popped up. The boarbatusk's timely demise was a decent conversation starter, although Weiss seemed distracted regarding it.

Mute didn't want to care, but his eyes kept flitting to every abnormal thing he glimpsed. Weiss being quiet and contemplative more than usual. Nora's constant babble wasn't very helpful, though today she was spending more time moving and less time talking. Once again, she was eating pancakes that hadn't been offered. Mute at this point knew that Ren would bake pancakes, but he hadn't had the time this time. It was a cafeteria, after all. His cooking wasn't entirely necessary.

Outside of his team and Weiss, Pyrrha seemed slightly uncomfortable, his fellow redhead picking at her food somewhat. Ruby and Yang were all right, although Ruby kept glancing at Weiss awkwardly. Carla was reserved after unveiling the nature of her semblance to everyone, as if feeling odd about revealing so much. Next to her, Leslie was still a bit of a wreck after failing in front of Professor Goodwitch, and would need validation from the instructor herself in order to really get back into the swing of things. Jaune was picking at his food after his colossal failure, and Arthur kept glancing at Mute.

Mute couldn't help looking at Arthur after a while of this silent eating between the two of them. One fierce stare met another.

What do you want?

Arthur's gaze stayed on him for a while before he turned away and sipped his water and looked away. "...Not important."

Mute blinked. Did the big guy mean that his problem wasn't important or that Mute wasn't important? How could he tell? Arthur had turned away from him and began finishing his food, so he wasn't going to learn that way. What was going to resolve that?

Did it matter?

Not important…

Mute turned to the others, wondering if he should ask anymore questions.

Yang? She would likely try to cheer him up. Emotions weren't what he wanted right now.

Ren? He was the team leader, but short spoken and quiet like Mute himself was, or… Or Arthur.

Blake? She was quiet but had a kind heart. She too would say something that would make those emotions burst forth unwillingly.

Ruby? Perhaps. She was capable of being serious when she thought the situation was serious.

Pyrrha? Also maybe.

Leslie, Carla, and Jaune were on Arthur's team. This issue revolved around him, so their opinions would be biased.

Pyrrha held the most promise. He would ask her.

"Guys, you're all acting weird," Ruby called. Mute glanced at her. So the younger one had noticed too. "C'mon, let's all enjoy lunch, okay?"

Mute blinked. Was that really all there was to it? He swiftly looked down at the remainder of his food. He flinched. He had just promised himself to try not to feel the painful and-slash-or confusing emotions. But Ruby, the other one to openly notice that most people had an issue in the group right now, was arguing in favor of essentially drowning the day's problems in delicious food. Enjoyment.

Mute obediently fitted a piece of perfectly cooked meat in his mouth and began chewing. It did taste pleasant, but that wasn't the point. Mute had decided that these emotions were a negative force against him. It was-

"Shutting yourself off again?" Yang's arm slung around his shoulders, making him stiffen and his leg twitch in a way that was almost the start of an attack against his will. "C'mon. We're your friends!"

Mute straightened and looked her in the eye, informing her that he had decided that these emotions were too painful. He didn't want to experience them anymore.

Yang's eyes widened. "Welp." she stood up from the table, dragging Mute up with her. "Mute and I are gonna have a heart-to-heart somewhere. We'll be right back.

Yang lead the apprehensive boy as he looked over his shoulder, turquoise eyes flicking between his friends. Weiss was the only one who looked slightly willing to try and keep the two of them apart, potentially because she didn't like the idea that Yang reminded Mute of a target he once had in his previous life.

Mute was half dragged, half lead to an empty hallway nearby, it was narrow had carts of cleaning equipment sitting in it. Probably a hallway for people working at the mess hall to use. Yang let him go and stood opposite him, giving a neutral look.

"You're a tough guy, right? So tough it out!"

Mute blinked. What?

"If you were emotionless for so long, of course you're gonna be afraid." Yang looked him dead in the eye. "Look. I don't know how powerful you are, how good you are or whatever. I just know that closing yourself off is the worst thing you could do to yourself."

Mute's eyes narrowed. He had apparently survived so long without that, so why should it matter?

"Because you're not that person anymore." Yang took a step forward. The girl had three inches on him, he noticed in the back of his mind. What on earth did she mean?

"You told us you woke up in the middle of the woods with someone telling you you got a fresh start. So act like it. You got emotions for a reason, so tough it out and deal with it." Yang finished, her purple colored eyes holding a tinge of red as she grew slightly angry with Mute's shenanigans.

Yang herded him out of the corridor and back into the eating area, leading the way back. "Everything should be fine now," she said cheerfully as she sat down.

"Great!" Ruby exclaimed, jumping up as her sister sat down to finish her food. "Once we're done here, we can go to the library to deal with Port's reading assignment!"

"That sounds like a good plan." Pyrrha complimented her team's leader.

"I think all of us should go," Blake spoke up.

"Then that's settled." Ren nodded curtly, finishing his food.

"Let's do this!" Nora exclaimed, ever excited.

Mute stared at all of them. He didn't want to feel emotions, but he was anyways. And Yang basically told him that she thought he was strong. As in, it was a challenge. A challenge to be strong enough to learn how to live with emotion.

Mute wasn't happy about it, but something unwelcome bubbled deep in his soul, that screamed to prove that he was strong. It was far fiercer than he wanted it to be. Ferocity wasn't an important aspect of him. Neither was what he was ferocious about, which seemed to be this challenge presented to him.

He only broke this loop of thought off when everyone was finished with their meal and stood to leave for the library.

Mute followed along with his friends as he too stood up and started walking away, his boots making audible clanking noises as he walked off with them. He covered his eyes with his hand upon exiting the mess hall and into the outdoor courtyard before the major school building.

"C'mon, this way!" Nora exclaimed from a door into the building… A clear sixty meters from where the rest of the group currently stood. Her impossibility was clearly beginning to make Ruby jealous. Interestingly, jealousy on the petite girl's part seemed not to be negative, rather, it seemed to spark a driving force to be faster…

Mute frowned as he made this observation. It was very much like the observation he had made regarding his own emotions. The girl before him was acting like it was a perfectly natural occurrence, as she would, even as she bolted as fast as her control over her semblance would allow her to catch up.

As the rest reached the area, Nora and Ruby decided to race to the library, disappearing into the doors just as Mute reached the doors themselves, he himself in the middle of the pack of students that made up their three teams.

Unsurprisingly, they stepped into the library to find a staff member chewing the two sheepish children out. Mute rolled his eyes along with the rest of them and went to save his comrades from the irate adult.

Then they sat and began reading their assignments. They already had a lot to cover.

Snoring could be heard within the RWPY dorm.

The partially shattered moon hung in the center of their window behind the closed curtains, its faint glow making everything. The door opened, letting the light from the dimmed corridor in as the familiar white haired girl entered.

Weiss quietly shut the door behind her, listening to the sounds of the room. Pyrrha and Yang were sleeping quietly. Ruby's snores could scare grimm off. Weiss frowned and pulled back at Ruby's curtains, and stopped.

On her bed were notebooks and textbooks. They surrounded her completely, along with loose pieces of paper and a pencil. Weiss looked at the covers of the books in silence, seeing that they all had to do with class. Her frown lessened somewhat as she took in the girl before her. Everything that surrounded her screamed out how hard she was trying, and after her conversation earlier that day, it was hard not to see that effort.

Weiss stood slightly slack-jawed for a moment before tentatively reaching out for Ruby's arm, clearing her throat. She pulled back after a moment, but it was enough of a touch to get snorts out of Ruby before the younger girl's instincts kicked in and she waveringly tried to swing herself into a sitting position. "Weiss!" she whisper-yelled. "I-I… I was studying, and then I fell asleep I'm sorry…"

The apology reached Weiss' ears yet didn't have the effect she thought she'd get. Instead of accepting it and turning away, she covered Ruby's mouth with her hand and put her finger to her lips in a 'shh' motion, causing Ruby to pipe down. Weiss looked at the toppled coffee mug with a rose emblem on it and turned back to Ruby. "...How do you take your coffee?"

Once she released Ruby's mouth, the dark haired girl was free to voice her confusion. "Uh… I… I don't-"

"Just answer the question."

"Cream and five sugars!" Ruby panicked.

Weiss sighed. "Don't move," she ordered, dropping out of sight. She then popped up again, having somehow produced a coffee in the mug from somewhere. "Here."

"Um…" Ruby murmured, accepting the cup. "Thanks, Weiss."

Weiss looked at all of the hard effort Ruby was clearly putting in during the wee hours of the night and saw something she didn't expect to see. Raw determination, much like that which drove her. It humanized Ruby immensely in her eyes, and given Port's speech from before, Weiss looked Ruby in the eyes and said something very important: "Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Just know… That I… Will be the best teammate you will ever have. Good luck studying."

Weiss disappeared to her bunk underneath Ruby for a moment before popping back up and sticking her finger on an answer Ruby had written. "That's wrong, by the way."

Weiss walked to the door, apparently intent on going out again for whatever purpose. "Hey, Ruby?" she asked quietly.

"...Yeah?"

"I always wanted bunk beds as a kid."

Weiss walked out of the room, leaving Ruby to figure out what the floof had just happened.

Now, as I've shown in this chapter, there's some things that are going to come directly from canon. This is because they are very important to the story itself. If I want a reader who has not watched RWBY for whatever reason, I want them to understand the changing dynamics between the characters. So far, only three things have really changed from Canon. The OCs, the team orientation, and my own influence. Things that aren't affected by those changes right now would probably still happen in this non-canon fanfiction. That's my defense, anyhow.

Yeah, team RWBY is technically team RWPY. When I first wrote it, it gave me mental images of Link showing up and hearing about their existence, starting to break shit in the hopes of finding them... But I'm probably not going to do that.

Oh, by the way, Carla's knives are shaped like the larger horn of a mega absol (that's really hard to describe properly) And her sword is shaped like the tail of a mega absol. Just... Very difficult to describe the former's shape using words for me.

So ultimately, I hope you liked my chapter, short as it was. Please give me your thoughts and impressions in your reviews, and I hope to see all of you next time.