Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY or it's characters; those belong to RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum.

Rating: T

For anyone who didn't see this coming: Surprise! ;)

For those who wanted me to do this: I had already written this just after I did the original chapter, just gonna release it days later and surprise you all (or not lol). Anyway, here it is, and hope it really makes vengeance sweet XD

"Ohoho! This is gonna be fun!"

"It's gotta be done right, Nora" Ren said faintly to his overactive companion. "Wait by the edge of the Emerald Forest"

So he took off around the corner, ignoring Nora's sad little 'Ahhhh', but he did hear her walk away (or more like skip after a few steps).

Halfway down the hallway, he stopped at the designated door, and knocked.

He didn't have to wait long, as the door open. "Oh" Cardin said, looking around briefly. "What do you want, pink eyes?"

"Nora wishes to fight you" he said evenly. "Alone"

Cardin laughed, and was already shutting the door. "Doesn't sound fun"

Ren made no attempt to stop him. "Then I guess her chicken comment was accurate" he merely said, deadpan.

By sheer timing, the door closed just as he finished, but was almost immediately yanked open again. "You mind saying that again?"

"No" he answered. "Needing things repeated is a sign of stupidity (Cardin looked about ready to take him on). You wouldn't want to prove that to Nora, now would you?"

Cardin didn't answer for awhile, probably because he didn't know how to answer, but he shook that off. "Okay, where can I find her?" he asked intently, but it was also clear his insults hadn't gone forgotten.

"Edge of the Emerald Forest. Walk out the front door, and keep going; she'll be there"

"Thanks" he said sarcastically, stepping outside and closing the door. "But when I'm finished with her, you better watch it, or you're next"

Ren made no reply, or even change in expression. He watched as Cardin walked away, waited ten seconds, then followed him quietly.

Minutes later, Ren walked quietly over to the cliffs, looking briefly at the launching pads. For now though, he stopped near the ledge, kneeling down as he surveyed the area. It was too dark to see anything, but he was not discouraged; his eyes briefly gained a brighter shade of pink. Suddenly his vision sharpened, comparable to that of most night predators.

He saw Cardin below, walking toward the forest, and apparently wary of tricks. He also saw Nora, who was busy playing possum on a tree branch, quite literally.

He slowly glanced up, sighing as he ended his Aura, standing back up. Then he strode over the launch pads, knelt down again with a hand on the pad. Breathing slowly, he sensed out how they worked, even as his hand gained a pink glow.

With a sharp turn, his Aura turned the right parts for the launch pad, and he braced himself.

BAM!

Having done this once before, Ren was perfectly fine as he flew through the air, the air whipping at his clothes and hair. He stayed that way for roughly thirty seconds, then he pulled out his blades, aiming for the big tree in his path. With practiced motions, he dug them into the bark at right angles, and the sheer momentum propelled him in ever-lower circles. He landed on the ground without a scratch, lightly dusting himself off. Then he got down to business, heading the opposite direction that he'd came.

He arrived at the edge of the Emerald Forest in no time, found Nora still hanging upside-down (this time from one leg), but Cardin hadn't showed up yet. "Nora" he announced.

"Oh hey" she breathed happily, not fazed. "When could you fly?"

He slowly breathed in and out. "Since our initiation" he answered (she laughed), looking in Beacon's direction. "Cardin should be here soon. You remember what to do?"

"Yeah, yeah" she dismissed brightly, flipping down to the ground. "Fight Cardin, don't kill, and don't get in trouble no matter" she said quickly, then got an evil grin, wringing her hands together. "And breaking. LOTS of breaking!"

He hung his head, sighing. "At least try not to do that" he said resignedly, then faded back into the forest.

After carefully surveying the vantage points of the nearby trees, he climbed up one as silently as he could, then settled on a thick branch twenty feet up. Aside from a few stray branches thinner than his fingers, he could see where Nora stood perfectly. And in case Cardin happened to look in his direction, he had easy access to ways to prevent that. But for now, all he had to do was wait.

And watch.

Cardin arrived not long afterward, mace in hand over his shoulder. "Nora, right?" he asked, stopping ten feet.

"That's me!" she said cheerfully, trying to balance her weapon on one finger.

He briefly made a face. "I don't know if that's an act or who you really are, but I couldn't care less" he said arrogantly. "I'm only here because I know your skills are good, unlike some people, and that you've insulted me"

"Something about a turkey, right?" she mused, her weapon tilting dangerously, but she caught it. "Or some sort of chicken!"

He grunted. "We doing this or what?" he demanded.

She laughed. "Oh, such a downer!" she gestured with a grin, but held out Magnhild at the ready.

"Now that's more like it" Cardin said with approval, holding his mace in both hands.

The stare-down lasted only a moment, then Cardin clicked something on his mace, the head of which began spinning rapidly with a whirr. At that moment, Nora instantly aimed at him, blasting twice.

Cardin whipped his spinning mace through the air, and the result of which was a blast of wind, deflecting the bullets in mid-flight (which exploded afterward). "Not bad" he said, but it was hard to say if he meant it. "Anything else you wanna shoot me with?"

"Everything!" she claimed, Magnhild transforming into hammer form, and herself rushing forward.

Cardin also rushed forward, swinging the first few hits, which Nora either dodged or blocked, but eventually they were facing the opposite directions from before. Nora instantly went in for an from-above strike, which Cardin carefully blocked... but Nora's finger hit her trigger at that moment.

The explosion shook the ground, sending Cardin sliding backward until he stopped more than ten feet away, smoking a bit but unharmed. Also smoking but similarly unharmed, Nora merely grinned, Magnhild transforming to grenade launcher form.

She shot with abandon, forcing Cardin to take cover, and hitting multiple trees straight at the base with her explosive bullets. They still stood after she finished, but they were cracked in several places, then they started to creak.

After dodging several more, Cardin swung his spinning mace, creating another blast of wind that deflected the other bullets (at least, those aimed directly at him). He swung again, the blast of wind aimed at Nora, and it made her skid backward but little else. "Just like I saw in the security footage" he said, standing feet away from the trees Nora blasted earlier. "You're good. But you're still gonna lose"

"Why?" she asked, like it-wasn't-gonna-happen-but-she-was-interested-anyw ay. Neither of them noticed the increased creaking of the trees behind Cardin.

"Because you are" he said, like it was obvious. "I'll make sure of it"

The creaking increased in volume, and the trees began leaning. Cardin took no notice, until Nora did, then turned in confusion... and barely had enough time to freak out.

The crashing din was deafening (even Nora flinched), and kicked up a lot of dust, shielding Cardin from view.

Nora slowly opened her eyes, looked at the scene, then hung her arms. "I wanted that to last longer" she said sadly.

Ren jumped down from his perch, landing close to Nora. "There are bigger things to worry about" he said carefully, then picked his way through the dust, as did Nora. He paused to swipe his hand through a particularly thick patch of dust, then he saw Cardin's shape. He wasn't moving, and his legs were buried underneath several fallen trees.

"Ooo" Nora breathed, but not in her normal, cheerful way. "That's bad"

"No kidding" he thought, but he knelt down, checking Cardin's neck (he had a pulse, but it was weak). "Work on that tree" he said faintly, referring to the middle one, while he got his hands around the closest one. He took a deep breath, then his hands started glowing pink, and he started pushing at the tree trunk.

He grunted, his arms straining even with his Aura; they were heavy, obviously.

But after a second, it moved a few inches, so he steeled his resolve and continued pushing. Similar sounds of effort from his right told him Nora was doing the same, and after a minute of effort, he'd pushed the tree trunk off Cardin. He panted heavily for awhile, saw Nora had finished her job, then gestured for her to help him push the final one together. That made it easier, but no less exhausting.

Afterward, as if she wasn't tired at all, Nora stood over Cardin with a questioning look. She prodded his body with her foot, "Is he even alive?"

"Barely" he answered, then looked carefully at Cardin. "...And you did break his legs"

"Hmm?"

He showcased this by grabbing Cardin's left leg (Cardin groaned in his unconsciousness) and holding it up. Instead of bending smoothly at the knee, only Ren's hand held up the mound of flesh his leg was now. No doubt there were far more visible symptoms on the skin itself.

The sight did not delight or bother her. "Still" she said, Magnhild going to her shoulder. "I wanted to break his legs myself!"

"You did" he said mildly. "Just indirectly"

"But that's no funnn" she drew out, before she switched tone immediately afterward, pulling her weapon off in a flash. "I know! While's he out like a light, I'll hit him myself, just to make it official that I did break his legs!"

Ignoring her devious grin, he thought it'd be pointless to hit Cardin's legs since they were already broken, but Nora wasn't normal, so the definitions of pointless and other words didn't have the same meaning (or any meaning, really).

So he resigned himself to the inevitable, and backed up five steps. "Fine, just... get it out of your system" he said, turning a full 180 and staying that way.

Nora's truly 'evil' string of laughter made him wonder what he'd just unleashed.

Too late for that now.

When the first thump sounded, he didn't move or do anything. And actually, 'thump' was simply the least disturbing visualization of what Nora was doing, and didn't include Cardin's unconscious instinctive groans to the pain.

Then came another, a slight pause after that, then another and another...

He did everything he could to just stand there and wait, doing nothing.

The 'thumps' went on for some time, then when nothing happened for ten seconds, he slowly looked around.

Cardin was a mess, no two ways around it; his pants were darkly stained from the inside with blood, bent at weird angles, and otherwise very pale. Nora breathed in once, but otherwise seemed not to be out of breath, even as she put her weapon back on her back. "Well, now I feel better!"

"How many times did you hit him?" he asked reluctantly. He knew he'd regret it, but it was necessary (and easier to do after the act itself).

"Seventeen!" she said brightly, like it was something she did every day.

His mouth opened slightly as he stared at her.

She wasn't deterred: "At first I thought about doing it twice" she said brightly, doing a little dance like she couldn't be still. "One for each leg, but that wasn't fun. So I thought 'what about as many birthdays as I've had?', and that was the solution! So I hit him eight times on each leg, then the seventeenth time directly on his back... he should really feel that in the morning"

Ren instinctively knew Cardin would feel his broken legs a lot more than a bruised back. His other instinct was that he was a little disturbed by this incident, and that it was partly his fault; why did he let Nora have free rein on Cardin after he was already down?

He slowly sighed; he'd have to figure that out later. "Nora, go up to Beacon and get help. And if they ask what happened, tell them you don't know, but I will"

That brightened her up a little. "Sounds good, back in a jiff!" she said, then she was gone, leaving behind a pink blinking outline of herself (again).

He sighed again, then bent down and propped the still-unconscious Cardin on his back. He had an idea how he was gonna explain this, but certain details would be difficult to explain, like why all three of them were out of bed and the school boundaries at this time of night. Also he'd have to do something to keep Cardin quiet about who did this, because he doubted them saying they didn't do it would suffice.

Like he'd said to Pyrrha, should be interesting either way.

With the number of people who liked Nora's quote (plus that grin lol), and hated Cardin, this was fun to write ;) Hope it was satisfying all-around

And for anyone asking why that many, this is with some 'expectation' that Cardin will continue to be a jerk in the remaining episodes, next season(s), and so on. Partly karma for what's already done, and partly pre-paid karma for what he will do in the future.