"What's wrong, Ruby?"

Ruby Rose hugged her knees closer to her chest, shying away from her first and only friend at Beacon- Jaune Arc. Yang didn't count, obviously. The newly minted lead of Team JNPR took her silence as an invitation to slide down the wall and sit on the floor beside her, waiting patiently. She tried hiding away in her hood, but it was a useless effort.

"Nothin's wrong," she mumbled. Jaune hummed, unconvinced.

"It's Weiss, isn't it?"

Ruby immediately gave herself away by seizing up at the mention of her partner. Ugh, stupid Rose! She shook her head wildly, knowing as she did that she was only making her case worse. Running off after class had been obvious enough, but being found huddled up in some back hallway was something she couldn't just wave away. She was lucky it hadn't been Yang that found her. That conversation could only go a few ways, and none of them were good.

"It's not her," Ruby kinda sorta lied. It really wasn't all Weiss' fault. She had just gotten a few doubts rolling in Ruby's head. Also all but ignored her since the end of Initiation. "It's just... I'm not sure about this team leader thing, you know?"

"I know," Jaune agreed, and Ruby sagged as a little bit of her anxiety faded. It wasn't just her.

"Right. I'm super excited to be here two years early, and I know leading my team's a huge honor and all, but I'm here two years early! Yang and Blake are way more experienced than me, and don't even get me started on Weiss. It feels like she doesn't even need to be here, she's so good at everything."

"She is amazing, isn't she?" Jaune said, grinning boyishly. It highlighted the best of his features, and Ruby's stomach did a little flip.

"She is. So why am I the leader, instead of Yang, or Blake, or her? I mean, I know they don't care, but there's all this expectation. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and it's not like I can ask my team how to lead them." Weiss would probably just brush her off if she asked. Ruby grimaced, looking back down at her knees.

She could still remember the look in Weiss' eyes when they'd found each other during Beacon's Initiation, cementing them as partners for the next four years. There had been a single moment, a passing breath, of disappointment so fierce that Ruby had wanted to crawl into a hole and bury herself right then and there. It had given way to resignation, and that's about how Weiss had acted about their partnership since. Resigned.

There was only one person she'd showed any interest in since then, and he was sitting next to her.

"Why not?"

Ruby blinked. "Huh?"

"Why not ask them how they want to be led?" Jaune asked, idly tapping patting his knees like drums. "I don't think you need to know it all to be a leader. Sometimes you're all in the dark, and the leader is just the first person to take a blind step forward."

"Sure feels like I'm the only one in the dark right now," she mumbled, tapping her foot to the beat he was making. "It should have been Weiss."

"Ozpin picked you for a reason," Jaune said, not quite denying it. "He saw potential in you as a leader. Maybe it's not all there yet, but that's what we're here for, isn't it? To learn and grow into our potential."

Ruby pouted, holding stubbornly on to her bad mood. "You didn't deny that it should have been Weiss."

"Weiss isn't the leading type," Jaune said with such certainty that Ruby had to believe him, even though they'd both known the girl in white for the same amount of time. "She likes getting things done by herself. How she wants, when she wants."

"Except when you're around," Ruby's traitor mouth said before she could stop it. Stupid, dumb, idiot! It wasn't his fault her partner liked him more than she liked Ruby, no matter how much she might feel that way late at night.

Jaune winced. "You noticed."

"Noticed that the only time she's smiled since she got here was when you introduced yourself to her?" Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it. Weiss had raised a delicate white eyebrow, and asked at once, Do they? Jaune had flashed her that boyish grin of his. Do you?

She'd smiled, and if she'd been stunning before, she was downright ethereal in that moment. She hadn't shown anything approaching that level of emotion since. Though who knew, when Ruby saw so little of her outside of class?

"And noticed that you two have been making eyes at each other in every class we have together? Yeah, I noticed. We all did." Ruby kicked his foot. "I should steal your partner. Show you how it feels."

"I knew this was about Weiss." Jaune laughed as she kicked him a few more times, holding his hands up in surrender. "I give, I give. I promise I'm not trying to steal her away from you, and I promise it's not your fault. This is just how she is. Between you and me?" He lowered his voice. "I think she's warming up to you."

"Could have fooled me," Ruby whispered back. "What makes you the Weiss expert, anyway? I thought you two just met last week."

Jaune seemed to consider something. "Can you keep a secret, leader to leader?"

Ruby nodded quickly, offering him her pinky. "Leader to leader, no take backs." He hooked his pinky to hers and leaned in close.

"We're soulmates."

Jaune's laughter echoed down the hallway while she battered him with punches and kicks.

"You're a real jerk, you know that?" Ruby huffed, yanking her hood off her head and shaking her hair out. "You're supposed to be giving me a pep talk, not teasing me."

"You seem pretty pepped up to me," Jaune said, amused. Ruby rolled her eyes, but didn't disagree. She fiddled with her fingers.

"Do you... think I've got potential as a leader?" she asked. He'd said Ozpin believed it, but...

"I know you do, Ruby," he said with pure confidence. "You might make some mistakes along the way, but every leader does. You've got what it takes to stick things out. You'll do great."

"Thanks, Jaune. That means a lot." And it did. She smiled softly, wistful. "I wish I had your confidence. Something tells me I'll be making most of the mistakes between the two of us."

Jaune was silent for a beat, an odd look his eye. He shook his head.

"Ruby, I've made more mistakes than any man on this planet."

"Welcome to Combat Class. I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch, and I will be your instructor for the extent of your time at Beacon."

Professor Goodwitch waved a hand and the stack of papers held in the crook of her other arm scattered throughout the amphitheater, each finding a student. She caught the one meant for her, skimming through its contents. The words 'Year One Syllabus' stood out in stark relief at the top of the page, and more than one student groaned or cried out in disbelief at the sight of it.

Professor Goodwitch rolled her eyes. "Contrary to what some of you no doubt think, Combat School is not by itself sufficient preparation. You have all done well in harnessing your aura and semblances, and turning them into your strength, and that is why you are here. But this is only the beginning. You will learn."

The tall, severe blonde woman snapped her fingers and a giant screen flickered to life above her head. Two blank silhouettes appeared briefly on either side, and then began to rapidly flash through pictures of all the students in attendance.

"First, let us see what you're all capable of. Starting with..."

She crossed her fingers, hoping that she would at least not be the first. The silhouette on the right snapped into clarity.

"Pyrrha Nikos."

Pyrrha sighed and rose to her feet. Of course. She watched the silhouette on the left freeze on her opponent's picture, and her heart sank further.

"And Weiss."

Her opponent rose, ice blue eyes meeting hers for a brief moment before they slid down to where her partner sat beside her.

Pyrrha looked to Jaune as well, and inexplicably found herself shifting her weight to one foot, blocking Weiss' view of him. She smiled. "Wish me luck?"

"Good luck," he said, smiling back warmly. That, along with Nora's loud encouragement and Ren's silent thumbs up, carried her all the way to the locker rooms and back to the center arena. Miló and Akoúo̱ were comfortable in her hands as she stepped up in front of Professor Goodwitch.

Weiss was waiting, having never left the amphitheater in the first place. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, bereft of a weapon. Her Beacon uniform, of course, had no place for one.

"Weiss," Professor Goodwitch said, when it became clear that her hard stare was not going to cow the girl. "Perhaps you'd like to follow Miss Nikos' example and change."

"No, thank you," Weiss said simply.

"That was not a suggestion."

"I know."

Everyone held their breath, Pyrrha included, as their professor's expression became dangerously cold. For a moment she almost expected Professor Goodwitch to take on Weiss herself- that or give her a detention. Instead, she stepped back and addressed the class at large.

"Miss Nikos' opponent is unarmed. Let us see what she does with this advantage." The meters beneath each of their portraits flashed green. "Begin."

Pyrrha slowly advanced on the smaller girl, cautious for all the she was unarmed. It was possible she had a weapon concealed somewhere on her person. It was possible she had dust or a unique semblance that made a weapon unnecessary. A small, uncharitable part of her mused that it was also entirely possible that she was just that arrogant.

So she was a bit irritated with Weiss. Could she really be blamed? The girl was distant if you wanted to put it kindly, cold if you were being honest. She appeared to have no rapport with her team, several days into their time at Beacon, and instead of making an effort to get to know them, what did Weiss do?

She sat outside by the fountain and read after classes. She did her homework in the library alone, separate from her teammates even if they happened to be there as well. She declined any and all offers to train together, or play games, or even simply talk. Pyrrha knew this, because she'd heard it all from Ruby.

Pyrrha liked Ruby. She was a sweet, earnest young girl, and Pyrrha had quickly grown fond of her after Jaune introduced the two of them. Listening to her vent about her partner had skewed Pyrrha's perception of the white-haired girl pretty strongly, and her behavior since then had only cemented things.

Not to mention her clear interest in Jaune.

Had it been anyone else in the amphitheater, Pyrrha wouldn't have even considered fighting an unarmed opponent. But it seemed Weiss had decided to insult her, on top of everything else. She'd told herself that she'd left her pride behind in Mistral, but some things were easier to let go than others.

Pyrrha chose her moment and her slow advanced turned into a lunge, Miló thrusting for her opponents' center of mass.

It struck a gleaming point of light, which bloomed into a snowflake larger than she was tall in the blink of an eye. Pyrrha leapt back, bracing herself behind Akoúo̱, but the shimmering white glyph only hung in midair, rotating lazily.

Pyrrha set her shield to her belt with a small exertion of polarity, then flipped her spear into its rifle form and shot the snowflake. The glyph shattered, motes of light raining down around Weiss.

She wasn't even looking at Pyrrha, gazing up into the stands instead. So that was her game? Pyrrha scowled and worked the bolt action on Miló. Another bullet cracked the air, and Pyrrha rushed behind it, transforming her weapon as she went.

A shining white glyph, same as the first, sprung from nothing to block the bullet. As soon as it broke Pyrrha surged through it, bringing her spear to bear. Weiss spun away from the stab, and pivoted away from Pyrrha's follow-up shield bash. Her checkered skirt whirled as she danced around Pyrrha's attacks.

What?

Pyrrha spun Miló into its rifle form one-handed and at point-blank range, bracing it on her hip and firing all within the span of a second. Two lazily spinning glyphs appeared just in time to intercept it. She used the distraction of their breaking to leap high above her opponent and come down on her with her shield, but Weiss was already moving away. Pyrrha lashed out at her right leg, but she raised it high and leapt out of the way. Like a ballerina.

What?

Weiss danced around the arena. Not figuratively. Pyrrha felt a familiar fire burning in her belly as the slender girl performed an actual pirouette in order to avoid a bullet from Miló. Or rather, as her serene expression seemed to say, she performed a pirouette and the bullet happened to miss in the process.

Was this a joke to her? Was Pyrrha a joke to her?

"Take this seriously," she demanded, hurling Akoúo̱ at the girl. Weiss leaned underneath it. Then without looking she flourished her arms and hopped up over the shield as it struck a pillar and ricocheted back at her.

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "I take my allégro quite seriously."

Mistral's four time undisputed regional champion did something she hadn't done in months- she reached out with her semblance, and she yanked with all her strength.

Weiss had no weapons on her person, nothing metal at least, and she obviously had no armor, but she wore her Beacon uniform. Their uniform had buttons in the jacket and blouse, each a cheap metal painted gold, and those Pyrrha grasped and pulled towards her. Weiss jerked forward with them as they tore out, missing a step in her routine, and Pyrrha rushed to make full use of that moment.

She missed again. Point blank, her opponent on seemingly unsteady feet, Pyrrha missed again. Miló reached but only found air. Akoúo̱ was out of her hand as often as it was in it, flying around the arena on paths guided by her semblance, and still couldn't find its mark. Weiss had somehow recovered and started moving faster than before, faster than Pyrrha could keep up with.

The reason why glowed vibrantly gold on the floor, over a dozen glyphs shaped like the gears of a clock. Wherever Weiss stepped, the gears would spin into one another at dizzying speeds, spurring her on faster. There was no catching her.

Pyrrha kept pursuing. Even as she heard their classmates laugh and cheer, even as Weiss whirled and hopped circles around her, Pyrrha pursued. Her pride allowed her nothing else.

"Enough!"

Pyrrha staggered from a sprint to a full stop, struggling to control her breathing. Weiss performed one last fouetté, spinning and whipping her right leg across her body so that she faced the stands. She dipped into a curtsy amidst the catcalls and applause, mischief in her eyes.

She winked, and Pyrrha was absolutely certain who she was looking at when she did it. Her hands clenched into fists.

"Miss Nikos," Professor Goodwitch said, culling the noise with a sharp lash of her riding crop that sent all the noisy students' syllabi flying into their faces. "Your instincts are commendable, and your proficiency with your weapons, especially their mecha-shifting, is far above average. A good effort." Pyrrha wilted, knowing what would come next. It had been years since she'd endured a conversation like this, but she would always remember how it felt.

"However. You lack forethought and tactical improvisation. You have little experience with opponents that are both faster and more dextrous than you are, and it shows." Pyrrha couldn't see the expression on Professor Goodwitch's face, staring at the floor as she was, but the next words were softer. "Ingenuity is one of humanity's greatest strengths. Work on this."

She nodded, silent.

"Weiss." Professor Goodwitch didn't say anything for a long moment. "My class is required, and so is proper participation. If you ever disrespect myself or your opponent like this again, you will be lucky to suffer only a detention."

Weiss hummed. "I understand."

"Good. Return to your seats."

Pyrrha trudged back to the locker rooms, bitterly glad that Weiss had kept her uniform on. She needed a moment to herself.

The door to her rocket locker slammed itself open as she entered, and Pyrrha all but threw Miló and Akoúo̱ into it. Her armor and clothing followed, and Pyrrha found herself in front of the sinks, staring into the mirror. She was gritting her teeth so hard they hurt. Her reflection glared back at her, the muscles in her body visibly taut.

For the first time in a long time, Pyrrha Nikos was furious because of a fight.