SAPR

by Scipio Smith

You Got Nothing On Us (Rewritten)

You Got Nothing On Us

This was the beginning of the end.

All Pyrrha's life she had been trained to fight, not just to fight but specifically to fight in tournaments. It might not have always been what she had wanted, it might not have always been the goal that she had envisaged for herself when she had been training under Chiron, but nevertheless it had been what she was training for. It had been the reason why her mother had sent her to train under Chiron, had outfitted her with the finest weapons, had ruthlessly pruned all other interests that she might have pursued. She was a warrior, but she was more than that, she was not just any warrior, she was a champion in the breeding … right up until the moment when she had become a champion.

Her life had revolved around the arena like the moon revolving around Remnant. She had fought within the circle of the Colosseum, and of amphitheatres and arenas up and down Mistral, at local tournaments and festivals and weddings and birthday celebrations, she had had special dispensation to be absent from Sanctum as often as she needed to be; she had fought, and when she had not been fighting she had been training to fight, her eyes always fixed on next year's tournament.

The arena — as an idea, the place of combat, the home of battle, the little world from which the rest of the world fell away completely as though it had never existed — had been as much or more a god to her as any god of Mistral, and she… she had not worshipped it, precisely, but she had been its priestess, it's humble servant, slaving in service to the idea, diligently working for its glory, and being rewarded for her service with glory in her turn.

Much joy that it had brought her. In the service of the arena, as an acolyte of this most demanding of gods, Pyrrha had felt like an actor on a darkened stage, only herself illuminated by the spotlight, watched by all but at the same time … utterly alone. An object of fascination but not companionship, separated from all other men by an invisible wall, observed but not marked. True, it was not only arena glory that had brought that fate upon her, but without it the Nikos name would alone have amounted for little. It would have opened a few doors into splendid rooms, but it would not have made her an object as her triumphs had.

That she was a Princess Without a Crown would have been of little note had she not possessed a champion's laurels on her brow.

No doubt there was someone, somewhere — and when the year began Pyrrha suspected that someone had been very close at hand — who would have loved it: parades, processions, dedications in the Temple of Victory, her name on every tongue. But Pyrrha… there had been times when even the unimpeachable Mistraliad, that font of honour, spoke less to her than the ancient satirists who preached the empty vanity of worldly things: political power, martial glory, oratorical eloquence.

Although I cannot be satisfied with only a healthy body and a healthy mind, Pyrrha thought, with a glance at Jaune where he was getting his gear out of his locker. That, too, might be a rather lonely life.

She did not have a lonely life. Since coming to Beacon it was as though the lights had flipped on, illuminating the whole stage and revealing it to be full of people, to have been full of people this entire time. She was still watched, but it was so much more tolerable than it had been when she had felt alone, singing her heart out to a spotlight that followed her steps and would not let her slink off into the darkness. Since coming to Beacon the demands of the arena-god had seemed less and less oppressive.

And now she was leaving their service completely.

A part of her life was coming to an end. Even if she won every battle between now and the end of the tournament, even if she won the tournament, that would be five matches. Five battles, at most, and a door would close behind her. That for which she would be armed, and trained, would be gone.

Not that there was any force, not even Professor Ozpin, that could stop her from going back, but she did not, would not wish to go back. Having ascended to the highest summit, she wished to leave it all behind.

Yet all the same the prospect filled her with trepidation. A door was closing, and she was flinching from the click of the latch, or the lock.

This had been her life; just as the life of a farmer was dictated by the rhythm of the seasons, the coming of the rain and sun, so too had her life been in large part set by the rhythm of the tournament seasons, the spacing of the festivals throughout the calendar, the times to fight and the times to train.

This had been her life, and soon that life would be over.

It made her apprehensive, and yet at the same time it filled her with excitement.

She already knew some of what came next — three more years here at Beacon, service with Professor Ozpin — but at the same time there was so much that she could not anticipate, so much that would be novel simply by having excised this entire part of her life and all that came with it. How long, after she left the arena, before she faded from the public eye, just another huntress?

It might be a little over-optimistic of her to think that she would ever be completely anonymous, but at the same time she had no doubt that, once she had stepped out of the arena for good, the public eye would cease to find her so interesting, would cease to look for her as it had done. She would become, with good fortune, a memory, a name on a roster of winners past, a name invoked as a kind of commonplace, someone idly recognised without much interest.

And all the while I'll write true deeds into the book of heroes; there is some irony there, but at the same time it is rather wonderful.

"Pyrrha?"

“Oh!” Pyrrha started, suddenly noticing Jaune looking at her. “I’m sorry, did I space out for a moment?”

Jaune grinned. “Kinda, yeah? Got something on your mind?”

“Something like that,” Pyrrha said. She looked around the locker room, at Sunset and Ruby. Everyone was waiting for her. Everyone was here for her. “I was just… I was just thinking about how I spent more than half my life preparing to fight in tournaments, years more actually competing, and in a few days that will all be over.”

“Well, at least you’ll actually get to reach the culmination of all your efforts and your training,” Sunset observed. “Not everyone is so lucky before life takes a turn and everything changes.”

“With good fortune,” Pyrrha murmured, touching her golden honour band with one hand.

“With good fortune, and your skill,” Sunset said. “And my invaluable assistance.”

Pyrrha chuckled. “Of course.”

“How do you feel about it?” asked Ruby. “Leaving that part of you behind? Would you ever have maybe decided to carry on with it?”

Pyrrha thought for a moment. “Perhaps,” she admitted. “If… if things hadn’t worked out here, then… it might have been nice to return the comforting embrace of a field which I knew how to navigate. In which I knew how to excel.” She smiled. “Fortunately, it all turned out so much better than that.”

“But you’re still a little nervous, right?” Ruby asked.

“Nervous and excited in equal measure,” Pyrrha confirmed.

“It’s not over yet,” Sunset pointed out. “It may be over in a few days, but we’ve still got those days to get through first.”

“I’m aware,” Pyrrha said. “A few more days in the brightest of limelights.”

“Yay,” Ruby muttered, without much enthusiasm.

Sunset glanced at her, eyebrows rising as a slight, close-mouthed smile pricked up the corners of her mouth. “Nervous?”

“I … wouldn’t say no to having the matches in a dark room somewhere and people could only see it on video afterwards,” Ruby said.

Sunset snorted. “It’s going to be fine,” she said. She paused for a moment. “I feel like I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

“I think a lot of people have been waiting for this for a long time,” Jaune said.

“Yeah, probably,” Sunset agreed. “When I first came to Beacon, when I got accepted, I thought that this tournament was going to be my shot. My chance to show what I was capable of. How great I was… how great I thought I was. I thought that this tournament would be my chance to force people to stop disrespecting me, stop treating me … like a faunus. I thought that this tournament would be my chance to be recognised, acknowledged, to become … somebody. I was wrong about that. This tournament wasn’t my shot, it wasn’t my big chance … you were. I may have wanted to win the tournament, but you gave me what I needed instead. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t take this seriously. That doesn’t mean that we can’t go out there and aim to win this whole thing, because while this may be only a tournament, it’s still our big chance to show the world just how awesome we are and I say that we take it!

“I think that we deserve that chance. Not me, but all of us. After all we’ve done, all that we’ve been through, every battle and every trial we deserve not only a break but also some recognition!

“It may not matter whether we win or not but I still say that we go out there and give it our best shot! So let’s go out there and show them all what Team Sapphire is all about.

“And, just as importantly, let’s go out there and have some fun.”

---

“So,” Terri-Belle said, “here it comes.”

Swift Foot was leaning forward in her seat. “Yeah,” she said, a grin of eager anticipation on her face. “Here it comes. Mistral’s champion takes the stage for the last fight.”

“Former champion,” Terri-Belle corrected her.

“Yeah, right,” Swift Foot muttered. “That’s going to take some getting used to after four years.”

“Mmm,” Terri-Belle said. “Though it will get annoying for Oceana if people don’t at least make an effort to remember.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Swift Foot insisted. “I just forgot, that’s all.”

“I know,” Terri-Belle said softly. “In any case, it is as you say, our former champion taking the stage. And against Mistral’s own Phoebe Kommenos besides.”

Swift Foot snorted. “But does anyone really care about that?”

“Someone must,” Terri-Belle replied. “And we should, if no one else does; Phoebe may not be a favourite of the arena but the Kommenos family could become an important ally once she graduates and returns home.”

“They’re a minor house,” Swift Foot said. “A traitor house imposed upon Mistral by the King of Vale.”

“Yet wealthy still, with an old name,” Terri-Belle said. “And we need all the support we can muster in these trying times. At the very least we should not make needless enemies with mockery and antagonism.”

“But…” Swift Foot hesitated. “But she’s so awful!”

“Shining Light and Blonn-di like her,” Terri-Belle pointed out.

“That’s a mark against her in my book,” Swift Foot muttered.

Terri-Belle didn’t reply to that. There was too much there to get into right now. “In any event, let’s watch the match.” She paused. “It’s unfortunate for Phoebe that she has gotten this match-up. She might have made it into the two on two rounds, but—”

“But now she won’t,” Swift Foot said.

“It is unlikely,” Terri-Belle said diplomatically, although who precisely she was being diplomatic for was a little difficult to say.

Swift Foot tapped her fingertips against her knees. “Do you think that Pyrrha will sweep the competition like Arslan did earlier? Take out all four members of the opposition team by herself?”

“I doubt it,” Terri-Belle said.

“Why not?” Swift Foot asked. “Pyrrha’s as good as Arslan. She’s better, or else how do you explain the fact that Arslan’s never beaten her?”

“It’s not a judgement on their respective quality,” Terri-Belle explained. “That kind of sweep requires two things: first, the person doing the sweeping has to be very good—”

“Which Pyrrha is,” Swift Foot insisted.

“True,” Terri-Belle allowed. “But it also requires that the rest of the sweeper’s team is … not so good, and I’m not at all sure that’s true of Team Sapphire.”

“Do you know them?”

“I know their reputation,” Terri-Belle said. “I know what they are accounted to have done, the actions they have taken part in. And I know that Pyrrha is very defensive of them, she doesn’t like to have them thought of as lesser than her, mere limbs of her greatness. I … talked down to them a little bit, when they were in Mistral — I wasn’t intending rudeness, I was just brusque and a little out of sorts from travelling — and she did not take it well. I think… I think that Pyrrha will not seem to do so well as Arslan has today.”

“That’s disappointing, if you’re right,” Swift Foot muttered.

“The victory is what matters, at this stage,” Terri-Belle countered. “And victories won through teamwork are as valuable as individual heroics; the time for that will come later. For now, the team is all.”

---

At some point after Arslan’s fight, during the lull without anyone interesting competing, Serena Archer had gone upstairs for a nap. Now Diana nudged her awake.

“Serena! Serena, wake up!”

Serena groaned wordlessly, and turned over.

“Serena!” Diana chided her. “Pyrrha’s about to fight!”

“Wuh?” Serena murmured, opening her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, really, it’s the last fight of the night. Mum’s making dinner for after.”

Serena sat up. “My head hurts. And my mouth feels all funny.” She swallowed, and her face twisted in a pained expression.

“I told you not to go to bed,” Diana reminded her.

“I was tired.”

“You’ll feel better when you come downstairs and watch the fight,” Diana assured her. “Come on, I’ll bet she’ll beat everyone all by herself, just like Arslan did.”

“Do you think so?” asked Serena.

“Of course I do,” Diana replied. “Pyrrha’s at least as good as Arslan, after all.”

“So, you know these people as well, right?” Veil asked. “From Vale?”

“Partly,” Leaf told her. “I know Sunset Shimmer and Ruby Rose, but I don’t know the other two.”

“Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc?”

“Right, I never met them. Only Sunset and Ruby.”

“So you don’t know the celebrity superstar,” Veil said. “Unlucky.”

“I know two Atlas celebrity superstars,” Leaf pointed out. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Can you ever know too many celebrity superstars?” asked Veil with a grin.

Leaf shrugged. “It depends, I guess. I think if you want to use them to help you out you probably don’t deserve to know any.”

“A surprisingly selfless attitude, from you.”

Leaf frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I thought you’d want to get ahead, even if it meant leveraging your connections.”

“If that’s who I am then what am I doing here?”

“I mean, you did get the Council to pay you while you looked for a job.”

“That was different,” Leaf protested. “That was… that was different. I was in a bad way and I didn’t have a lot of options back then. I needed help. I wouldn’t go around to Rainbow Dash or Blake and ask them to get me a better job or whatever; I didn’t even ask Sunset to put me in touch with her Atlas friends, she did that on her own.”

“That was nice of her,” Veil observed.

“Not as nice as it was of them to help me out,” Leaf replied. “But… yeah, I guess it was. It was… yeah, it was nice of her. I think… from what Ruby said, she’s kind of overprotective. But it worked out for me this time around.” She paused. “So, which of them is the celebrity superstar? Is it Pyrrha Nikos or Jaune Arc?”

Veil stared at her.

“What?” Leaf asked.

“You don’t know?” Veil said. “You’ve never heard of Pyrrha Nikos?”

“Should I have?”

“She’s on the boxes of that teeth-rotting cereal you like?”

“The Marshmallow Flakes?” Leaf said. “That’s her?”

“You didn’t recognise her when you saw her in the parade?”

“I only saw her from behind,” Leaf pointed out. “Besides, I didn’t think that was a huntress, I thought that was a model on the box or something. Oh, wow. She’s gorgeous.” She thought about telling Veil that she’d had a bit of a crush on the girl on the cereal box, but decided against it for fear of making herself look stupid.

Veil nodded. “She certainly is. Everyone agrees that she could do so much better than her current boyfriend.”

“Who’s he?”

For the second time, Veil looked at her like she was an idiot, or just a country bumpkin. “Jaune Arc, the fourth member of this team, you really don’t pay attention at all, do you?”

“To celebrity gossip, no,” Leaf said, deciding against adding that she had better things to do. “Who is he? This boyfriend? I mean, I know you said he’s the other member of the team, but apart from that? He’s the blond one, right?”

“Yes, that’s right, he is the blond one,” Veil agreed, in an ever-so-slightly patronising tone. “Apart from that, he’s… he’s not much as far as I can tell. He’s just some guy from Vale.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being from Vale,” Leaf said defensively; after all, she was just some girl from Vale herself. “Is he any good as a huntsman?”

Veil shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

“Yeah,” Leaf murmured. “If she’s all that I wonder what she’s doing with just some guy?”

Veil shrugged. “Maybe the heart really does want what the heart wants?”

“That’s just something people say that doesn’t mean anything,” Leaf said. “She should break up with him.”

Veil’s eyebrows raised. “Harsh?”

“No, harsh is how she’s going to feel about herself in ten or twenty years when she realises that she’s wasted her life with some guy instead of living it to the fullest,” Leaf said. “I broke up with my boyfriend to come here.”

“I thought you snuck away without telling anyone?”

“I think if your girlfriend sneaks away to another kingdom without telling you the breakup is implied, don’t you?” Leaf asked. “The point is that… he was a nice guy, and I liked him, but… he didn’t want anything. He didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything or be anyone, he was content to just live in this same place he grew up in and race bikes and… I wanted more than that. And there comes a time when you have to think about yourself, put yourself first.”

“And that’s fine,” Veil said. “But maybe Pyrrha doesn’t want that? Maybe she doesn’t want to do anything or be anyone either?”

“Maybe,” Leaf acknowledged. “As long as she wants to win this match, I guess.”

---

“These are the kids who helped you out, right?” asked Norm, the bartender.

“Yeah,” Red agreed. “One of them is some kind of big celebrity, but I’m more interested in what the team leader does.”

“You mean the faunus girl?”

“Yeah, her,” Red said. “She had a lot of spunk. I can’t wait to see her in action.”

---

"So, to be clear," Saphron said, bouncing Adrian gently up and down on her lap, "Pyrrha has never lost one of these in her life."

"No," Terra said. "I mean, yes, you're correct, Pyrrha's never lost. That's why they call her the Invincible Girl."

Saphron nodded. "And she first won the big Mistralian title when she was ... thirteen?"

"Yes."

Saphron hesitated. "How?"

"By being really good? Don't ask questions that will ruin the magic," Terra instructed her.

Saphron shrugged. "Fine, but... what you're telling me is that she has this in the bag?"

"What I'm telling you is that Pyrrha has never lost a tournament bout."

"So this is going to be boring?"

Terra restrained herself from rolling her eyes. "It's the journey that matters, not the destination. Just because you know the outcome doesn't mean it isn't worth watching how it was arrived at."

---

“Please, Amber, sit down,” Professor Goodwitch said, a beatific smile upon her face as she gestured to the settee lined up against the wall.

Amber looked around, at the desk, and the sofa, and the table, and the bowl of sweets, the potted plant in the corner, the photographs upon the wall. “I… this place feels familiar, but … I don’t remember it. Have I been here before?”

“Yes,” Professor Goodwitch said, the smile remaining on her face. “Yes, you have. After you… after you first came to this school, after your mother passed away.”

“I see,” Amber murmured.

Professor Goodwitch picked up the bowl of sweets on the desk. “Would you like one?”

Amber hesitated for a moment, before she said, in a soft voice “Yes, alright, thank you.”

She took a step closer, and then another, and reached out to pluck a purple sweet from the bowl. She looked around for a bin as she unwrapped the paper that surrounded the sweet itself.

“Over by the door,” Professor Goodwitch told her.

“Ah, yes,” Amber said, and threw the paper away once she had unwrapped the sweet. She popped it into her mouth; it had a sour taste, but not an unpleasant one. She started chewing on it as she sat down on the sofa by the wall.

“It’s good,” she said, with her mouth half full.

“I should hope so,” Professor Goodwitch replied. She paused a moment. “How are you finding Beacon?”

“I… I like it here,” Amber said. “I like it here a lot. Or … I suppose I should say that I like the people here a lot.”

Professor Goodwitch was still smiling, in fact her smile became a little broader than it had been before. “It’s often the people who make a place what it is, isn’t it? And I think that is doubly so for a school, despite — or perhaps because — the students are never here for very long. Four years at most.” She paused again. “And yet they give a school its character, its … soul, if you will. We teachers like to credit ourselves, and the particularly pompous teachers like to preach about the values of the institution as though bricks and stones could live and speak and pass down instruction, but the truth is that a school is what the students make it. We here at Beacon are fortunate to have very good students, and to the extent that there are what might be called school values they are passed down from one year to the next; but more often the students bring their values with them, but they happen to be, on the whole, very good values.”

“I’m very lucky,” Amber said, “to be surrounded by such good people.”

Good people I will betray.

For their own good, but I’m not sure they’ll see it that way.

They will hate me. They will all of them hate me when or if they learn what I’ve done. Pyrrha, Sunset, Ciel, they will all turn on me and revile me.

Dove will be the only one who will stay by my side; Dove, and maybe Lyra, although I don’t know her as well or like her so much as those who will hate me.

She didn’t want to be hated. Most especially she didn’t want to be hated by her friends.

But whatever she did, or didn’t do, those friends would be torn away from her. Whether by Ozpin’s will or by her own actions she would be sundered from them.

That being so, she… she owed it to them to give them the best chance she could.

This was a kindness, even if it wasn’t a kindness they would understand.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. “Yes,” she said, “yes, they are good people, and you are fortunate.”

“Do you like them?” Amber asked.

Professor Goodwitch hesitated for a moment. “They … are not my favourite students,” she admitted. “But I do not dislike them, certainly. They have virtues that I recognise, and can respect. And I admit that … no one other than Miss Shimmer could have saved you. Without her…”

“Without Sunset I’d be dead,” Amber murmured. “And … my powers would…”

“Best not to think about that,” Professor Goodwitch suggested. “It does no good to dwell on ugly might-have-beens. Miss Shimmer was here, and she saved you, and now you’re here. That is enough.”

“Yes,” Amber murmured. “Yes, that’s quite enough for now, I suppose. Do you think they’ll win? Team Sapphire, I mean. They’re fighting now, aren’t they?”

“The final match of the day has not quite begun,” Professor Goodwitch replied. “But it will shortly, and yes, it will pit Team Sapphire against Atlas’ Team Pastel.”

“And Team Sapphire will win?”

“Perhaps,” Professor Goodwitch murmured.

“Why wouldn’t they?” asked Amber. “People say that Pyrrha is supposed to be very good at this, everyone thinks she’s wonderful. Are this Team Pastel very good as well?”

“They are more competent as a team than some of its members are as individuals,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I am not sure that I would say the same of Team Sapphire. The members of the team are gifted, but I’m not sure that Miss Shimmer… she has yet to convince me that Professor Ozpin made the right choice in making her the leader.”

“Who do you think should lead them?” asked Amber. “Is it Pyrrha?”

Professor Goodwitch shook her head. “I believe that she would be Miss Shimmer’s choice, if anything were to happen to Miss Shimmer herself; she might even be Professor Ozpin’s choice, but she would not be my choice. My choice … having given it some thought, and observation… I believe it should be Mister Arc. He is quiet, true, but conscientious, hard-working, intelligent… in the absence of Miss Shimmer’s voice I believe he would blossom, like a flower removed from the shade and placed in sunlight.”

Amber frowned. “I can’t imagine Jaune being a leader. What’s wrong with Sunset?”

Professor Goodwitch was quiet for a moment. “She relies on miracles,” she said. “Sometimes she gets them, or makes them, as I must admit she did when she saved you, and when that happens it looks very impressive, spectacular even. But you can’t rely on miracles, that’s almost definitional. If you want to avoid consequence, even disaster, then you need hard work, careful planning, forethought… qualities I’m not sure Miss Shimmer possesses. She has the intelligence to possess them, if she wished … or if she could cease to be guided by her heart, but … I think that she will make a mistake as great as any miracle that she has worked, and I don’t relish being around to see it.”

Because you keep putting them in danger, Amber thought. You, and Professor Ozpin, and everyone else. You’re the reason that Sunset needs miracles.

And I’m going to give her one more.

---

In her box — a private box, naturally, she had purchased every seat present so as to ensure that she was not disturbed; only Hestia was with her, waiting any needs that she might have — Lady Nikos waited for her daughter and her team-mates to arrive in the arena.

She felt such anticipation as she rarely felt any more. Even as she gripped her walking stick tightly between her hands she could feel her arms trembling with an excitement so pronounced that it reminded her of the days when she had been the one competing before the crowds, before injury had put an end to her fighting career. And even though the excitement of the crowd, that low anticipatory hum that would explode into sound the moment Pyrrha appeared before the eyes of the world, was not for her, the fact that it was for her daughter was a decent second best. Especially when Lady Nikos had done so much to shepherd her to this point.

This was Pyrrha’s hour: the hour to stand at the highest pinnacle of martial achievement, the greatest young warrior in all of Remnant.

And being Pyrrha’s hour, it was her hour too, as the mother of a champion, the mother of a great warrior, the mother of one whose like would not be seen in the world again.

Or would it? As much as she had little affection for him as a man, Lady Nikos found her thoughts turning to consider what Pyrrha’s children by Mister Arc might be. He had copious aura, after all; if his children inherited it they would be well blessed.

As heirs to the name of Nikos and all its lands and wealth they would be well-blessed regardless.

There was a chance the Evenstar need not presage the fall of night.

But even if Pyrrha was indeed the last flowering of the skill and valour of the Nikos line or indeed of all of Mistral’s pride and honour … Lady Nikos could be content with that, once she had seen her daughter emerge victorious upon this stage.

She had complete confidence in the outcome of this first match: the Kommenos girl was a mere dilettante, and she had faith in Miss Shimmer to lead Mister Arc and Miss Rose in providing Pyrrha with all the support she might require. She was mainly interested in how well Pyrrha would achieve victory, not in the question of victory itself.

It had crossed her mind that Miss Shimmer might lead the rest of the team in providing a little too much support. It would have been very good if Pyrrha could have matched Arslan Altan’s achievement in defeating all four members of Team PSTL herself, but Pyrrha’s teammates were — a little unfortunately — too good for Lady Nikos to consider that a realistic possibility.

Still, a victory would be a victory; it was a pity that the talk of the taverns of Mistral would be of Arslan Altan’s achievement, but provided Pyrrha was not shown up in this battle, provided that she laid the enemies before her low, then Lady Nikos would be content.

There would be plenty of time for Pyrrha’s light to shine in the subsequent rounds, most especially in the one on ones.

For now, the victory was more important than how it was won.

Lady Nikos had often felt that the arena was a world unto itself, separate and apart from the wider world that surrounded it. How much more true that was here, when the arena was elevated into the skies, raised above Remnant and its troubles. All the ills that had befallen Vale, all her fears for Pyrrha, all her questions … they seemed so meaningless now, and so small. Left behind on the ground with all care.

Here in the sky, in this little world, this O of metal, there was only the impending battle, and the imminent chance to watch her daughter shine.

“I confess that I sometimes feel the need for privacy, but I also find that events like these are often best enjoyed with company.”

Lady Nikos looked up to see Professor Ozpin standing over her. He had crept up on her while she was preoccupied with other thoughts.

“I beg your pardon, ma’am,” Hestia said, “but—”

“Quite alright, Hestia,” Lady Nikos said. “I would not expect you to stand in the way of so eminent a visitor.” She did not rise to her feet; perhaps he would consider that a result of her poor leg. “Professor Ozpin, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Ozpin sat down without waiting for an invitation. “Considering that this fight involves some of my most promising students and that one of those students happens to be your daughter it seemed a good time for us to become acquainted, Mrs. Nikos.”

She looked at him. “I have not been called that before.”

“You are not in Mistral any more, to insist upon ancient titles.”

“True, but a more courteous man would offer me courtesy regardless.”

Ozpin chuckled. “Perhaps he would, Lady Nikos, forgive me. I admit that I sometimes find the pride of your ancient kingdom … a trifle pompous.”

“Oh, it is, without a doubt,” Lady Nikos said. “But if we were to lose sight of our traditions what would be left of Mistral? Are there not worse things than a little pomposity?”

“True,” Professor Ozpin said. “Have you sampled many of the delights of the festival?”

“No,” Lady Nikos said. “Too much movement wearies me; I have been watching the matches since they began.”

“And what is your opinion, as a former fighter yourself?”

“Haven has done a little better than expected, Atlas has done a little worse,” Lady Nikos said. So far, only four Atlas teams — RSPT, TTSS, FNKI, and SABR — had won their matches, and she did not believe that Team PSTL would be making it five; Haven also had four teams moving onto the second round — SSSN, ABRN, VLCA, and BALL — but Haven Academy had been starting from a base of far lower expectations. “You must be feeling reasonably proud of yourself, Professor; by the end of this match you will have five teams progressing, the highest of any academy.”

“I try not to prejudge the outcomes of fights that are yet to be fought,” Professor Ozpin said. “Or to judge my colleagues too harshly. If I may, Lady Nikos, the same people who underestimate Professor Lionheart and the calibre of students that Haven is producing under his stewardship are the same who will judge General Ironwood for the perceived poor performance of his students. Both opinions are equally unjust.”

“Perhaps,” Lady Nikos allowed. “And yet a man who has such a puffed out chest as General Ironwood deserves to savour the taste of schadenfreude, it seems to me, and as for Lionheart… he has been lucky. He can hardly claim credit for the talents of Arslan Altan. Just as I do not think you will be allowed to claim credit for the success of Pyrrha which we are about to witness; it will be claimed for Mistral, as it should be.”

“Even though she is my student, and as I have said, a most promising one?”

Lady Nikos shook her head dismissively. “You have a fine reputation, Professor, but I doubt that there is anything you have taught my daughter that she did not already know before she came to you.”

“I’m not so sure,” Ozpin said. “I think that Beacon has taught her teamwork, as we may see in just a little while. All the same you are to be congratulated: you have raised a fine young woman.”

“I have indeed,” Lady Nikos said. “And over the next few days we will see her at her finest.”

“Once again I must disagree with you, my lady; I think Pyrrha has far more to offer Remnant than victory in this little tournament.”

“Little tournament?”

“Prestigious, to be sure,” Ozpin said. “But just a tournament all the same.”

Lady Nikos snorted. “I think that Pyrrha would agree with you, Professor Ozpin.” She paused a moment. “Professor, if we were on the ground I would have a bone to pick with you, regarding the events of this year.”

Professor Ozpin sighed. “Yes, my lady, I can imagine that you would.”

“But we are not on the ground,” Lady Nikos went on. “So, for now, let us leave such matters far below us, and let this … little tournament, and its delights, engage all our interests and our passions.”

---

“And so, at last, we pass from Canterlot’s favourite onto its prodigal daughter,” Luna observed.

“It seems from what Rainbow told us that Sunset made something of herself at Beacon,” Celestia said. “Just as I thought — and hoped — she might. I’m very glad she found her path in the end.”

Luna glanced toward her elder sister. “And that’s why you’ll be rooting for her and hers, in spite of the fact that it’s an Atlesian team arrayed against them.”

Celestia smiled. “As Beacon alumni ourselves, I feel that we should be allowed to support our old school against our present kingdom on occasion. And after all, isn’t the Vytal Festival meant to be a celebration of unity and peace? What does that mean if we can’t occasionally root for a team beyond our own kingdom?”

Luna smiled in turn, even as she shook her head. “I never understood your soft spot for her.”

“She was lost and lonely.”

“And full of wrath and pride,” Luna added. “I also don’t understand why Ozpin brought her into his organisation.”

“She has changed, by all accounts.”

“All the same, she doesn’t seem like his type.”

“Sometimes it isn’t about the individual,” Celestia said. “Sometimes it’s about the team.”

“You’re thinking about Team Stark,” Luna murmured.

“Indeed,” Celestia said. She and Luna had been recruited as a pair, their two team-mates remaining wholly ignorant of the greater struggle and of the work that Ozpin and his allies did behind the scenes, but Team Stark of course had been recruited as a quartet. “Do you think that Ozpin would ever have approached Raven on her own, if she hadn’t been on a team with Summer, Qrow, and Taiyang?”

“Considering that I never understood why he recruited Raven in any case that’s a hard one for me to answer,” Luna muttered.

“She was valiant, once, and true,” Celestia said, with just a hint of reproach in her voice.

“Was she?” Luna asked. “Sometimes I can’t help but wonder.”

“In any case,” Celestia said. “I wouldn’t discount the possibility that Ozpin’s recruitment of Sunset Shimmer was as much to do with her team as with her own qualities: Summer’s daughter, Pyrrha Nikos—”

“This Arc boy of whom no one has ever heard?”

Celestia chuckled. “Not every team can be Team Stark. And who knows, he wouldn’t be the first great huntsman to emerge from obscurity.”

“No,” Luna admitted. “We shall see.”

“I certainly hope so,” Celestia said. She leaned back in her seat. “Show us what you’ve become, Sunset Shimmer.”

---

“Do we think that this will be a good fight, or a let down in its brevity?” asked Turnus.

Juturna had moved across the sofa so that she was now opposite her brother, with Camilla perched between them, steadfastly refusing to do anything like rest her head on his shoulder or nestle against his side the way that Juturna was doing to Camilla.

Juturna tried to shove Camilla sideways into Turnus, but unfortunately she wasn’t strong enough; Camilla ignored her insistent nudges as though she wasn’t even there.

Juturna said, “I mean, it’s Phoebe, so it’s going to be over quick, but I don’t know if that makes it unsatisfying. It’ll be fun watching her get dumped on her ass no matter how quick it is.”

“That’s a little unkind,” Camilla murmured.

“It’s Phoebe, she deserves unkindness,” Juturna muttered. She had good instincts about people, she could tell when they were good news or bad news, and Phoebe Kommenos was definitely bad news.

Juturna leaned forwards, looking past and around Camilla to get a better look at her brother. “What do you think?”

“Phoebe’s team may elevate her,” Turnus said. “I don’t know them, so I can’t say.”

“Pyrrha’s got a good team as well,” Juturna said, forced into defending Pyrrha of all people because the alternative was Phoebe Kommenos. “There’s Ruby, and Pyrrha’s Camilla—”

“Her name is Sunset Shimmer,” Camilla said quietly.

“Yeah, her, and … that guy,” Juturna finished.

“Jaune Arc,” Turnus said. “Yes, true they… I imagine they work well together. Still, with eight combatants on the field a great deal can—” His scroll went off, interrupting whatever he might have said.

“Why do you have that on?” Juturna asked.

“Because it might be important,” Turnus said, as he got up off the sofa. “Excuse me a moment.”

“Of course, my lord,” Camilla whispered.

“Hurry back,” Juturna instructed him.

---

Turnus didn’t respond to his sister, rather he fished his scroll out of his trouser pocket as he left the sitting room, stepping out into the corridor beyond and shutting the door behind him.

He opened up his scroll and was surprised to find that it was Phoebe Kommenos calling, as though she had known that she was being talked about.

Nevertheless, despite his surprise, he answered.

“Phoebe,” Turnus said. “I would have expected you to be getting ready for your upcoming match.”

Phoebe Kommenos looked tired, honestly; there was darkness beneath her eyes that makeup could not wholly disguise, though it was making a gallant effort. Despite that tiredness however, she smiled at him. “Are you watching?” she asked. “Will you be watching?”

“Of course,” Turnus said. “How could I not? Is there anyone in Mistral who is not watching?”

“No,” Phoebe murmured. “No I suppose not, but… all of Mistral is watching, of course. Watching to see her. Watching to see her triumph over me.”

Turnus said nothing. When old Lady Kommenos had died in that awful fire he had reached out to Phoebe; he knew what it was like to lose a parent too young, to be forced to assume the responsibilities not only of adulthood but of lordship, the burdens of a great old family. He had helped with the funeral arrangements, all the paperwork, that sort of thing. Their relationship had soured after she had suggested he should get rid of Camilla, and they had very rarely spoken after she went back to Atlas, but nevertheless he had little desire to be cruel to her.

And yet there was nothing to say in response, because she spoke the truth, unpalatable though it might be for her.

So he kept silent.

“I… I sometimes wonder if I did the right thing,” Phoebe said, “going back to Atlas after Mother and Philonoe died. Perhaps I should have done what you did, stayed home in Mistral, taken up my duties.”

“I didn’t have a choice about going back to Atlas,” Turnus reminded her.

“No, but…” Phoebe paused for a moment. “I sometimes wonder if I might have been happier there than here.”

“What would you have done?” Turnus asked.

“I … don’t know,” Phoebe admitted. “But I could have done anything, anything I wanted. That’s the wonderful thing about being rich, isn’t it? There are no limits.”

“There will be plenty of time for you to do whatever you like after graduation,” Turnus told her. “And if you’d dropped out you would have missed the Vytal Festival.”

“Yes,” Phoebe acknowledged. “Yes, I would. I would have missed this chance.” The sadness, the weariness seemed to fall from her face, like a cape shrugged off her shoulders. “I will defeat her,” she declared. “This time, this last time, I will win out. I have planned and prepared, my team is ready. I will win. And when I do, will… will Mistral think better of me?”

“If you defeat Pyrrha Nikos then your name will resound throughout the streets of Mistral, beyond doubt,” Turnus said.

“And you?” Phoebe asked.

“I … will be very impressed, to be sure,” Turnus replied.

“Very impressed,” Phoebe whispered. “Yes, of course. Everyone will be impressed. They will have no choice but to be impressed. Then watch me, Turnus, Lord Rutulus, for I shall give you reason to be impressed, without a doubt.” She paused. “And now I must go. I have a battle to win, after all.” She hung up.

A frown creased Turnus’ brow, and remained on his face as he opened the door and walked back into the sitting room.

“Trouble, my lord?” Camilla asked. “A client?”

“No,” he assured her. “No, it was… it was Phoebe Kommenos. She wanted… I’m not sure what she wanted.”

“I can guess,” Juturna muttered.

“What did you say to her?” asked Camilla.

“Very little, and less of substance,” said Turnus. “I told her the truth, that if she wins this fight then Mistral will talk of nothing else.”

“Like that’s going to happen,” Juturna said with a contemptuous snort.

Turnus leaned forward to look at her. “You never liked her, did you?”

“Was there ever anything to like?” Juturna responded.

“Lady Kommenos is well born,” Camilla said quietly. “But I… with respect, my lord, I fear that if she obtained your hand she would not treat Juturna as she deserves.”

“Really?” Turnus said. “I wasn’t aware of that. I did know that she wouldn’t have treated you as you deserve.”

“I hardly count, my lord.”

“I disagree, vehemently,” Turnus said, and as he sat down he put one arm around her shoulders. “And that is why I would never have married her, or ever will.”

Camilla was silent for a moment, and still. Her voice, when it came, was as soft as melting chocolate. “Thank you, my lord.” She paused. “I hope for an enjoyable match.”

“I don’t,” Juturna said. “I hope for one that’s over in a flash.”

---

“Yo! Atlas!” Arslan called out, waving with one hand as she walked down the rows of seats in the cordoned off contestants’ part of the stands, with Reese trailing a step behind her. They walked along the very edge of the stands, where there was a forcefield — invisible at the moment, until or unless it was struck by something — to protect the crowds from any stray bullets or explosives that might be unleashed in the battle, as well as a more conventional barrier which wouldn’t stop a huntsman or huntress from vaulting over it, but would keep most normal people from getting down onto the battlefield. They walked to join Teams RSPT and YRBN where they sat in front row seats, some of them — Nora Valkyrie in particular — leaning against the barriers in front of them.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Arslan went on. She looked at Team YRBN. “I’m a little more surprised to see you here, though.”

“My sister’s on Team Sapphire?” Yang reminded her.

Arslan blinked twice. “Right. Yes. It’s a little hard to keep track of everything. I remember that Team Rosepetal are P-money’s Atlas friends, but other than that… sorry.”

She gestured to two seats next to Yang, who sat at the very edge of the group. “Are those seats free?”

Yang shrugged. “Knock yourselves out,” she said. She looked at Reese, and said, “You’re one of Arslan’s teammates, right? I don’t think we’ve met.”

“No, we haven’t,” Reese said. “I’m Reese, Reese Chloris, at your service.”

“Yang Xiao Long,” Yang said. “These are my teammates Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie, and these are the members of Team Rosepetal of Atlas: Rainbow Dash, Ciel Soleil, Penny Polendina, and Twilight Sparkle.”

“Salutations,” Penny said.

Reese waved. “Hey. A pleasure to meet you all.”

“Your team don’t usually show up,” Rainbow remarked. “I’m surprised to see one of them.”

“No true Mistralian would miss seeing Mistral’s champion in action,” Reese declared.

“Pyrrha’s not actually the champion anymore,” Arslan muttered as she sat down.

Reese frowned. “She isn’t? Really?”

“No, she didn’t defend her title this year,” Arslan said. “Otherwise you would have noticed her being gone back to Mistral.”

Yang grinned. “Isn’t that something that a true Mistralian ought to know?”

Reese sighed. “Probably,” she admitted. “But… well, I’m actually from Mantle, but I’ve got the heart of a Mistralian. Or at least I’d like to have.”

“Because you feel more at home in Mistral than you do in the place where you were born, right?” Penny asked.

Reese nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, exactly. Mantle is filthy and it smells and nobody cares about anyone else, even their own neighbours. Mistral… Mistral is bright and beautiful and the White Tower shines like a spear piercing the heavens, and everyone… I love it. I love everything about it.”

“That’s cause you haven’t seen half of it,” Arslan said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like Mistral well enough, I wouldn’t leave her for anything, but I’ve told you before that you shouldn’t go putting her on a pedestal until you’ve seen the lower slopes. If you want to make a place your home then you need to see its flaws as well as its virtues.”

“I’ve grown up in flaws,” Reese replied. “I’m sick of flaws.”

“Then why don’t you just move to Atlas?” Yang asked. “They pretend that it’s got no flaws all the time, right?” she grinned at Blake.

Blake shook her head, while Rainbow Dash let out an obviously false laugh.

“We do not pretend that Atlas doesn’t have any flaws,” Rainbow insisted. “We’re just honest about the fact that it has fewer than anywhere else.”

“In Atlas, I’d always be from Mantle,” Reese said. “In Mistral, it doesn’t matter whether I’m from Atlas or Mantle; I’m a foreigner, but I get the same chances either way: I can stay the Atlesian, and that’s fine, or I can try and become more Mistralian, and that’s fine too. Either way, nobody holds Mantle against me.”

“Mmm,” Ciel murmured wordlessly, pursing her lips together.

Arslan wondered idly if it was the same in Atlas, if someone from the lower slopes who went to Atlas Academy was treated the same as some old blood like Phoebe Kommenos, in a way that they wouldn’t have been treated the same if they both went to Haven. It didn’t seem likely to her, but then what Reese was talking about probably didn’t seem all that likely to the Atlesians either.

“And you’ve chosen to integrate,” Blake said. “Which is why you’re here, watching this match, being more of a true Mistralian than your Mistralian teammates who aren’t here, watching the match.”

“Bolin’s watching,” Reese explained. “He just didn’t want to watch with us. He’s watching on a screen in the fairgrounds with some old buddies of his.”

Reese didn’t mention that Nadir wasn’t watching, and Arslan didn’t bring it up either. If the others got the inference then good for them, but she wasn’t going to make it explicit for them.

“Anyway,” Nora said, “this should be a pretty cool match, right?”

“I don’t know,” Arslan said.

Yang looked at her. “If you don’t know then why are you here?”

“Because it’s my duty to support a fellow gladiator,” Arslan said. “But I don’t expect Phoebe to put up much of a fight against Pyrrha, she never has before. It’s not exciting watching one person effortlessly tear another up one side and down the other.”

“Don’t underestimate Team Pastel,” Rainbow said. “I know that Team Sapphire aren’t, they pulled me into their planning session.”

“They had a planning session?” Reese asked.

Rainbow looked at her. “Yeah; they already know how they’re going to play this fight.”

“How?” asked Arslan.

“If I told you you wouldn’t need to watch the match, would you?” Rainbow asked. “The point is that Team Sapphire isn’t taking this fight lightly, and we shouldn’t either. They’ve still got everything to play for here.”

---

“This is it, huh?” said the bartender at the Crow Bar. “Last match of the day.”

“Yup,” Qrow said. “Finally.” He drained his glass and put it down on the bar. “Another.”

“Are you sure—”

“Another,” Qrow repeated.

“Okay,” the bartender said, reaching under the counter for the whiskey bottle. “So, you glad for the first day to be over or something?”

“What?” Qrow asked. “Why…” he realised that what he’d said could have been taken that way. “No, no, I… I’ve just been waiting for this fight, that’s all. One of my nieces is on the Beacon team.”

“Really? Lucky you, man.”

Qrow snorted. “Don’t talk to me about luck.”

The bartender frowned for a second as he poured Qrow another drink. “Are you able to see straight enough to point your niece out to be me?”

“Am I able to see straight, what are you talking about?” Qrow demanded. “I can see both of you plain as day!”

The bartender’s eyebrows rose. “Uh—”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Qrow assured him, before the guy decided to kick him out for his own safety. “I’m fine. I wouldn’t get myself cross-eyed and miss my niece’s match, I’m not that bad of an uncle. I’ve got a liver like a dialysis machine, I could drink twice as much as this and not even feel it.” He reached out and grabbed the new drink that had just been poured for him. “Thanks,” he added, raising his glass to the bartender before he took a healthy drink.

“No, sir,” he said, “I wouldn’t miss this for the whole world.”

I just wish that Summer could be here to see it too.

---

“So,” Emerald said, “I guess, I mean, I suppose that there’s no great mystery as to who you’re rooting for, h— is there?”

Emerald, in this you have no idea, Cinder thought.

She did not lean forward, that would have set a terrible example for Emerald in posture, but she had shuffled forward on her chair slightly, as far forward as she dared.

You had better win, Sunset.

I will be terribly disappointed in you if you don’t win.

And you, Pyrrha… if you can defeat me but not Phoebe then… I would be enraged and ashamed in equal measure.

I would have to kill you sooner rather than later just to get some semblance of self-respect back.

You have to win.

You have to crush her.

“Who do you think I want to win?” Cinder asked softly.

“Team Sapphire, of course,” Emerald said. “You wouldn’t want to be…”

“You may speak,” Cinder said.

Emerald swallowed. “You wouldn’t want to be diminished by anyone defeating the person who defeated you.”

Cinder was silent for a moment, before a smirk crossed her features. “Well done, Emerald.” It seems I underestimated you.

Emerald smiled. “You’ve taught me well, Cinder.”

Evidently.

Although I don’t just want Team Sapphire to win.

I want Team Pastel to be crushed. I want Phoebe to be utterly humiliated. I want her to be left broken and weeping in the middle of the battlefield, I want her to be humiliated before the eyes of the whole of Remnant.

If she were to suffer an accident that would cripple her I would not take it amiss, Sunset.

Just don’t kill her. I want that pleasure for myself.

But, apart from that, stopping short of that, do as you will.

Better yet, do as I would. Pay her back for all the humiliation that she visited on me.

Make me proud, Sunset, I beseech you.

---

No woman can shun her destiny.

Those were the words etched into the interior of Phoebe’s honour band, the armband of gold that sat upon her left arm and gleamed dully in the little light coming into the tunnel from without.

It had been given to her by her mother, when she left for Atlas; somewhat late in the day, but then… Phoebe hadn’t earned it until that point. It wasn’t until she was leaving, setting out on her journey, that she deserved this gift, this parting gift: the band of gold, embossed with the six-pointed star of the House of Kommenos, and set with rubies that blazed like fire.

Like the fire that had consumed her home and her family.

And the words engraved within.

They were from The Mistraliad, of course, that font of wisdom, although not a direct quote. The true quotation read ‘No woman or man born, coward or brave, can shun her destiny’ but that would have been rather a lot to fit on the inside of her honour band; the letters were very small as things stood.

And she had captured the essence, at least.

No one could escape their destiny.

That was a comforting thought at times, and a fearful one at others; if she had only known her destiny then she would have known whether to be comforted or fearful.

Today, as she waited in the tunnel, she was comforted.

She would take her enemies by surprise and scatter them.

And you too, Pyrrha, you cannot escape your destiny either.

She was resplendent in her panoply of war, she was a prince of old, she was a Mistralian warrior, she was…

She was a Kommenos, as Achates had been, one who would redeem the honour of her family after it had been cast into disgrace by the treachery of Ilioneus.

She was a Kommenos, and she would restore the honour of her house.

Phoebe had her helmet off, but now she raised it over her head, the tall crest of crimson horsehair touching the ceiling of the tunnel.

If I have a destiny, then I will triumph today, upon the last day.

I will triumph today or I am nothing.

Mother, Philonoe, watch me.

Phoebe breathed in deeply, in and out, her chest rising and falling beneath her cuirass.

The cheers of the crowd outside were not for her, she knew; but if she won, if she triumphed, then they would be.

“Let’s go,” she commanded, as she lead her team out into the light.

---

Tyche Agathe.

Those were the words engraved on the inside of Pyrrha’s honour band. They meant ‘with good fortune’.

With good fortune we will win. With good fortune my mother will be pleased. With good fortune I will give a good account of myself.

With good fortune I will leave this life behind, and go on to an even better and more satisfying one to come.

With good fortune, I will have all that I desire and all that I wish for will come true.

An arrogant wish, to be sure, but as I have come to acknowledge I am … a little arrogant.

I am proud of my skills, and though I acknowledge the flaw I also do not disdain it as wholly a flaw. Rather I say that I have good reason for a little pride.

Or why else should I fight here, in this tournament?

I fight for Beacon, I fight for my teammates, I fight for my mother, I fight for Sunset, I fight for the pride and honour of Mistral.

But I also fight for myself, because I wish to prove myself the best in this arena, the last and greatest arena.

I wish to plant my flag upon the highest summit before I descend the mountain never to return.

And with good fortune, I shall.

Team SAPR waited in the tunnel, waited to emerge, waited for Sunset to lead them out. Their team leader stood in the mouth of the tunnel, her back to the others, half in the light that spilled in from without. Her rifle was slung across her shoulder, Soteria was across her back, and Sunset’s tail twitched back and forth in anticipation as she waited for the moment.

Jaune was behind her, a little pale of face.

Pyrrha reached out, and placed a hand upon his shoulder. “Are you alright, Jaune?”

“Yeah,” Jaune said quickly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Pyrrha asked.

“Yeah,” Jaune said again. “I just… my parents are watching. And Saphron, and… it’s the only time they’re going to see me in action.”

“Is that not a good thing?” Sunset asked, half turning her head, but not completely looking over her shoulder. “Is that not a thing to make your heart swell with pride?”

“No,” Jaune admitted. “No, it… this is the one time they’re going to see me. What if… what if I mess up? What if they see me and think I’m the same useless—”

“They won’t,” Pyrrha told him.

“But what if—”

“They won’t,” Pyrrha repeated. “You have grown so much, Jaune, you’ve come so far; and your parents and your sisters will see that, just as I have.” She embraced him, putting her arms around him, pulling him close so that she could feel the cold metal of his breastplate against her skin. “It’s going to be fine, Jaune,” she whispered. “I promise. You have faced worse than crowds and Team Pastel.”

“I know,” Jaune whispered back, as he put his arms around her in turn. “But my family wasn’t watching me while I did it.”

Pyrrha laughed lightly, and kissed him on the cheek. “They will be proud of you,” she said, “I guarantee it.”

“You should think yourself fortunate,” Sunset said, still not wholly looking back. “To have such concerns, I mean. At least those who love you can watch you. I think that you are blessed in that.”

Pyrrha stepped back from Jaune, releasing him from her embrace. “Do you wish that your princess could see you fight?”

“Not entirely, I fear that she would not approve of fighting,” Sunset murmured. “But, at the same time… I wish that, this one occasion where what I do is for display, that Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight both could witness it. Merely telling them what happened… I fear it will be cold, and words will not do it justice. If they could see me, just once… I would count myself well blessed.”

“Then I regret it is beyond my power,” Pyrrha murmured. “How do you feel else?”

Sunset paused. “Are you asking me if I’m nervous?”

“Are you?” asked Pyrrha.

“No,” Sunset said. “In this I have no fears at all. I only wish that Princess Celestia could see me win.” She turned a little back towards the rest of the team. “What about you, Ruby?”

Ruby’s answer was not words, but the fact that her hood was up, and her back was a little bent.

Pyrrha smiled, softly and, she hoped, sympathetically. “It will be alright, Ruby,” she said.

“It sounds like there are so many people out there,” Ruby murmured.

Indeed, the crowd beyond, the crowd above, was making a great deal of noise already, and they hadn’t even shown themselves yet.

“Three lions on a shield!

Jewels remain, still gleaming!”

That song is technically about Haven, not Mistral, but never mind.

“Don’t worry about them, Ruby,” Pyrrha instructed her. “Just … put them from your mind. The crowd doesn’t matter. What they’re saying, what they’re cheering, it doesn’t matter. Only the battle matters, us and our opponents.”

Ruby looked at her. “But how do you ignore the crowd? They’re right there, screaming.”

“Actually, it becomes very easy once the fighting starts,” Pyrrha told her. “Once the match gets underway you’ll find there’s really no time to think about anything else. There is only the fighting. Or at least there should be, unless you want to get distracted and make a mistake at the worst possible time.”

Pyrrha had known some fighters who played to the crowds overtly, grandstanding for them, acknowledging their cheers and their applause. Pyrrha had never failed to make them pay for taking their lapses of concentration.

Ruby sighed. “I guess that’s okay,” she said. “I know you’re used to this, but didn’t it make you nervous the first time, hearing such a huge crowd like that, cheering and singing?”

“Maybe they had less to cheer the first time,” Sunset suggested. “They didn’t know what they were about to get.”

“That’s true,” Pyrrha said, a touch of amusement in her voice. “But the most important thing to remember, the most important lesson that Chiron taught me around tournaments, is that the crowd has no power. Whether you are loved or hated, cheered or booed, none of it, like so much surrounding tournaments, really matters. It cannot make you less skilled, or more, it cannot carry you to victory or cast you down to defeat. In the arena, as in the field, skill is the only real measure. Skill, and courage, I suppose. And we have that in abundance, no?”

Ruby reached up, and threw back her hood. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, we do.”

“You’re getting good at this,” Sunset observed.

Pyrrha laughed lightly. “I had a very good teacher.”

Sunset didn’t respond to that, except with the very slightest turning up of one side of her mouth as she said, “Is everyone ready?”

Jaune rolled his shoulders. “Ready.”

“Ready,” Ruby agreed.

“And I’m ready too,” Pyrrha said.

Sunset smiled more fully now, a fierce smile, and full of anticipation. “Then let’s not keep them waiting any longer,” she said, as she led them out of the tunnel and onto the battlefield.

---

Sunset was the first one out, her eyes squinting at first she stepped from the shadows of the tunnel into the bright sunlight that bathed the battlefield.

The applause of the crowd was a deluge down upon her ears, cheers like rain descending, drowning out the sound of her own footfalls upon the white metal that, for now, formed the surface of the Colosseum; still more did it drown out the footfalls of her teammates behind her.

With four ears, Sunset could hear that not everyone was cheering; there were few boos, the remains of Phoebe's — or probably, most likely Phoebe's — work in spreading those rumours about Pyrrha and her connection to Cinder.

Fortunately, they were far outnumbered by the cheering.

"Team Sapphire of Beacon!" Professor Port declared, and the many cheers and the small number of boos and jeers alike were redoubled, the vast crowds that thronged the arena discovering some reserve of passion in their throats that they had been holding back until now. The singing had mostly died down now, the words converted to more wordless expressions of enthusiasm.

Pyrrha was probably right to say that they would swiftly take no notice of it once the fighting began, but at the same time, for now, Sunset was glad of it. It had been a long time since… well, in truth, she had never been received by a crowd like this, not ever, not even in Canterlot. In Canterlot there had never been occasion for her to be received by a crowd like this, so rapturously and with such adoration.

It is a little unfair that only pegasi get the chance to bask in the glow of the crowd's love like this, back in Equestria, Sunset thought. Flying is all very well and good if you have the wings for it, but where are our magic contests, where are our showcases, where are the opportunities for unicorns to bask in acclaim?

Although Pyrrha would tell me they are well off out of it. Nevertheless, it would be good to have the opportunity.

Sunset herself… she had told herself that the tournament had become less important to her, she had told herself that her ardour for glory had faded, and she had not lied to herself, intentionally or otherwise; nevertheless, as she walked out onto field of white metal, as she led her team towards the central hexagon, as she could see herself on the screens mounted a four points around the ceiling of the arena, as the applause and the cheering fell upon her, as all of that happened Sunset could not keep the smile off her face.

She would have waved, but she had just about enough self-awareness left to know that they were not cheering for her.

"Team Pastel of Atlas!" Professor Port said, and Sunset told herself that she heard no noticeable uptick in the volume of the cheering as their opponents made their way out.

Like SAPR, they advanced in single file, with Phoebe Kommenos in the lead. Her face was concealed beneath a black helmet with a tall crest of Mistralian green that added another foot to her height — and she was more or less of a height with Pyrrha even without it. Her cuirass, too, was black, the metal painted over so that it reflected no light. All her armour — the vambraces on her arms, the greaves upon her feet, were black; the splashes of colour came from the gleaming gold armband, set with rubies, that she wore upon her left arm, and the fiery orange skirt she wore that covered her thighs from view.

And the purple stones set in her vambraces that Sunset thought might be gravity dust crystals.

Upon her back was slung a spear, and a rectangular tower shield perhaps two thirds as tall as she was.

Her teammates followed after her: Mal Sapphire was small, with her hood raised to hide her head and her knuckles white as she gripped a staff which had been made to look like wood, gnarly and a little bent at the top, even if it was not; Thorn Hubert's was a large man with a flat face, his features firm but at the same time somewhat brutish to Sunset's eyes, like a human anvil, or a person fashioned more from wood or stone than flesh; Lycus Silvermane, on the other hand, was all angles, sharp cheeks, sharp jaw, it was a wonder that he didn't cut himself.

They were both big men, and Phoebe was not small either; Sunset wondered if that alone was ever enough to intimidate anyone.

The two teams reached the central hexagon and lined up, facing one another. Sunset, on the right of her own line, faced Lycus, the L of Team PSTL, while Phoebe was facing Ruby.

Phoebe laughed, that high-pitched and ever-so-fake sounding laugh that grated on Sunset's ears. "Why, Pyrrha," she said, "I'm surprised that we're meeting like this so soon."

"This is the only way you'd get a chance to meet Pyrrha in this tournament," Sunset growled. "Tell me, Phoebe, do you wish you could pay someone to fight this match for you?"

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, "that is unnecessary. I look forward to facing you again, Lady Kommenos."

Phoebe's face was hidden beneath her helmet, but her voice seemed a little lower, and a little tighter, as she said, "As do I. I understand that you're retiring after this tournament is over."

"That's correct, yes," Pyrrha said. "I'm going to devote myself wholly to being a huntress."

"How very noble of you," Phoebe said. "I suppose that I'll just have to make this count, won't I?"

On the edges of the four quadrants of the arena the images appeared, the brightly coloured indicators of the possible biomes whirling around and around, one picture replacing another, the rotation going faster and faster until, with a beeping sound, the images stopped moving.

Behind Team PSTL, the image was of a mountain; behind Team SAPR… Sunset wasn't entirely sure, a lot of black lines upon a purple background.

"Oho! The gravity biome!" Professor Port said, as the floor of the arena around the central hexagon opened up. Behind Team PSTL arose a tall grey mountain, surrounded by grass and a few rocky outcroppings which might serve as cover. Behind Team SAPR, on the other hand, arose something that looked… Sunset wasn't quite sure how to describe it, it was a series of black platforms and columns, with some things that looked like children's play blocks but giant sized, squared in comparison to the rectangular platforms and pillars. They were all black, and all surrounded on the long sides by lights, some of them white and others purple; they were arranged higgledy-piggledy, it didn't look possible to jump between them unless you could run vertically up some of the columns.

Although if you could, then you would have a very high vantage point indeed.

"Yes, this is the first time that this biome has made its appearance so far in the tournament!" Doctor Oobleck declared. "For those of you for whom this is your first Vytal Tournament, allow us to provide a little explanation: each of those platforms and pillars that you see has been infused with gravity dust; when the lights surrounding the platforms are white, the gravity dust has been activated and the platforms exert a pulling effect which will allow students to run up vertical surface or stand upside down on the reverse of platforms — but they should beware! Once the lights turn from white to purple the gravity dust is deactivated and the effect ends, so mind your surroundings! And watch your step!"

"Possibly the most interesting biome used here at the Amity Colisseum," Professor Port said. "I'm looking forward to this match already."

You and everyone else, Professor, Sunset thought.

"Three!" Doctor Oobleck cried.

Jaune drew his sword and unfurled his shield; Crescent Rose unfolded with a series of clanks and hisses; Pyrrha drew Miló and Akoúo̱ across her shoulders; Sunset unshouldered Sol Invictus.

"Two!" Professor Port boomed.

Team PSTL mirrored Team SAPR's actions: Phoebe drew her own shield and spear; Lycus drew the two sickles from his belt; Thorn pulled his bow from across his back and grabbed an arrow from the quiver at his hip; Mal seemed to tighten her grip on her staff, which Sunset wouldn't have thought possible.

"One! Begin!" Doctor Oobleck shouted.

A blaring klaxon sound signalled the beginning of the battle. Ruby darted backwards, trailing rosepetals along the metal surface after her as she ran towards the elevated gravity platforms. Pyrrha surged forward, Jaune two steps behind, as Phoebe gave ground before her, retreating into the grass on Team PSTL's side of the field. Mal, too, and Lycus, they were all retreating in the face of Pyrrha's advance. Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder, taking aim at Lycus Silvermane — until she noticed Thorn Hubert had nocked an arrow and was drawing on her.

She snapped off a shot, hitting him and knocking him down, flat on his backside on the metal of the central hexagon. Sunset's finger was already squeezing the trigger again when a great gust of air struck her with all the force of an invisible punch, lifting her up off the ground and dumping her, in turn, onto her tail, her rifle slipping from her grasp and skidding a few feet across the floor.

The blast, Sunset saw, had come from Mal Sapphire, whose black cloak was now ablaze with fire, green fire — Sunset wondered how she was achieving the effect, when fire dust exclusively burned yellow no matter how hot it got — the flames leaping up from all across her back, and who was pointing her staff in Sunset's direction.

Sunset telekinetically summoned her rifle back into her hands, but as she did so Mal turned her attention to Pyrrha and Jaune, unleashing another gust of wind in their direction.

Pyrrha avoided it, leaping away, rolling across the grass of Team PSTL's half of the battlefield in the direction of Sunset, but Jaune was less fortunate; more heavy-footed than Pyrrha, he was hurled back out of the mountainous biome and into the central hexagon once again.

Pyrrha rolled onto her knees, Miló shifting smoothly from spear to rifle mode as she and Sunset both fired at Mal. Her green flames did not protect her from bullets and down she went, setting some of the grass aflame — although not so much that it looked as though it would spread.

But Thorn had regained his feet by now and began to loose arrows in Pyrrha's direction, his arm a blur as shaft after shaft left his bow, arrows which burst in the air like rockets, blossoming flowers of fire that illuminated Pyrrha's gilded armour as she danced nimbly to avoid them.

Sunset shot him again, and down he went again, but not before Mal had scrambled to her feet. She swept her staff before her in a wide arc, and as she swept it a wall of ice, fifteen or twenty feet high, appeared in front of her, spreading out across the battlefield, splitting it in two wherever the ice wall rose. Mal disappeared from view on one side of it, and so did Lycus, and Phoebe.

And Jaune.

Phoebe isn't going for Pyrrha at all, she's trying to pin her down while she takes out Jaune first. She must be worried by his semblance.

Well played. Rainbow was right about you.

Sunset dropped Sol Invictus, the rifle clattering to the ground, as she raised her hands to conjure up a shield in front of Pyrrha and herself, a green barrier against which Thorn's arrows struck or even exploded harmlessly; Sunset could feel the explosions against the magic through her connection to the shield, but she felt no risk of the shield breaking.

Especially since she wasn't going to keep it up for very long.

"Pyrrha!" she shouted. "Go to Jaune, I'll handle things here."

Pyrrha nodded wordlessly, and — secure behind Sunset's shield — she threw her own, rather more solid shield against the ice wall that Mal had conjured up. It did not break the ice, but Akouo did lodge itself in the midst of the spiky ice, eight or nine feet up, maybe more. Pyrrha ran towards the ice wall, leaping up, effortlessly grabbing her shield and pulling herself up onto it, using it as a springboard — one which she grabbed on the way — as she vaulted the rest of the way over the ice wall, red hair and red sash alike flying, streaming out behind her as she disappeared down on the other side of the ice.

Thorn scowled, his glance flickering between Sunset behind her shield and where Pyrrha had just vanished over the wall.

Sunset dropped the shield, grabbed Sol Invictus off the floor, and teleported right up into his face.

Thorn's eyes widened.

Sunset swung the butt of her rifle into his gut. Thorn let out an off as he doubled over, staggering back a step. Sunset hit him again, swinging the wooden stock of the rifle up into his jaw and making his head snap around. She reversed her grip on her rifle and swung it downwards for the top of his head.

He caught it with one hand, his meaty fist closed around the gun.

Sunset let go with one hand, an emerald bolt of magic erupting from her palm to strike him in the chest and throw him backwards.

She held her palm towards him, the glow of magic surrounding it as she prepared to hit him again.

He locked eyes with her.

Sunset felt a pricking sensation in her eyes, a stabbing pain like pins and needles in her hands, a tightening in her chest.

And Adam appeared before her eyes.

The world was black, the sky was red, the arena and the mountain and the crowds and all else in the world melted away and there was only Adam Taurus, a black figure with a blood red sword, bearing down on her.

She was in Mountain Glenn, the sun had failed and the moon was dead, dead as the city that surrounded her, dead as the old bones that littered this place, dead, dead, dead.

She was on the train, that awful train, rushing down the rails towards Vale, the thump, thump, thump of the train as it rattled along echoing in her ears.

She was on the train, she was in Mountain Glenn, Adam was there, Merlot’s deathstalker was poised to bring its stinger down upon her, she was everywhere, everywhere that she feared to, facing those that she feared.

Sunset staggered backwards, her hand falling to her side, her eyes wide; she gasped for breath, her chest strained against her sun-emblazoned cuirass, she wanted to tear it off, but… but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move her hands, she could barely feel them at all. She felt cold, so very cold, as cold as the dead city that filled her mind, the chill of the underground biting her bones through her aura. She trembled like a leaf, even as her legs became as rooted to the spot as an old tree that is torn up by the storm because it is too rigid now to bend.

She could barely see Thorn; the wall of ice she could not see at all. Amity Colosseum, the Vytal Tournament, all of it had fallen away. She was in a world of her own now; a dark world, and terrible.

And she couldn’t breathe.

---

Ruby ran backwards as the fight started. She heard Sol Invictus bark, but she didn’t hear the sounds of any swords clashing, which surprised her a little bit, surprised her enough to make her look over her shoulder and see that most of Team PSTL was retreating away from Pyrrha and Jaune.

That was … probably not good, actually. It meant they were likely up to something.

But she’d have a better chance of spotting what it was if she got up higher than the ground.

Ruby left the central hexagon in a burst of rose petals, slowing down as she passed beneath the first of the elevated gravity dust platforms.

Ruby was inclined to agree with Professor Port: the gravity biome was pretty cool. It was like a videogame, with all of the platforms to jump and run along, only without any barrels or irate gorillas trying to hit you as you did so — only irate opponents, possibly, if any of them penetrated deeply enough into Team SAPR’s side of the battlefield.

Ruby leapt up onto the first, lowest platform — or at least she tried to leap up onto it, but kind of misjudged how strong the gravity effects were and ended up on the underside of said platform, stuck to it by the soles of her feet, standing upside down like a sleeping bat with her falling down towards the ground and Ruby herself getting a little bit of a headrush. Fortunately the gravitational effects, although sufficient to keep her from falling, were not so great that she couldn’t move around pretty freely, and certainly weren’t enough to stop her from getting right side-up in short order.

She stood on the lowest platform, with a small pillar before her leading to another, higher platform, and a block on her right, what would be closer to the back of the battlefield.

Ruby chose to go forwards, running along the platform, noticing the lights turn from white to purple but, thanks to being topside, not being effected by it, although she did note that the colours were changing kind of fast.

She leapt off the platform and hung, suspended, in the air for a second before the gravitational effect of the pillar in front of her caught her in its embrace and pulled her towards it. Ruby might have been slammed into it — or at least gently shoved, she wasn’t being pulled that fast — face first, but as she flew Ruby rolled in mid-air, tucking her legs up to her chest with Crescent Rose resting on her knees, before extending her legs again to touch the pillar with the soles of her feet.

Her knees buckled for a moment before she started to run directly up the black column, her red cloak flying out behind her, rose petals dripping from her body to form a pile down on the arena floor.

Okay, this? This was pretty cool. No doubt there were some people whose semblances let them do this all the time, but for Ruby, it was cool. Even cooler than a videogame because she was living it herself.

She reached the top of the pillar and leapt off it, being quickly caught and pulled in by the force of the next nearest platform to which she floated, gently as a cloud in the sky—

Until the lights on the platform above turned from purple to white, even as the lights of the platform below remained stubbornly white also.

Ruby hung in the air, caught between two equal and opposite gravitational pulls, one seeking to yank her up towards it, the other to drag her down towards it in turn.

And she herself not going anywhere.

Well, this never happened in any game.

Fortunately, she had something an Atlesian plumber didn’t: recoil.

Ruby spun in the air, not as fast as she would have liked, but she spun nonetheless, turning to face in the opposite direction to where she wanted to go. She aimed Crescent Rose straight ahead of her, and pulled the trigger. The blast sent her gliding backwards, like a pebble dropped into a treacle and slowly sinking through it. She fired again, and moved further back, staying between the two platforms, but moving in the right direction at least. She started to squeeze the trigger to fire a third time, but the lights on the platform beneath her changed from white to purple, and she was pulled upwards towards the lower side of the higher platform, having just enough time to orient herself in the air so that she landed feet first.

Conscious of the rush of blood to her head, Ruby moved quickly, rushing along the bottom of the platform and jumping off it, rolling in the air to land upon the side of the tallest column in the biome, a black slab stretching up into the air until it must have been coming close to the shield that protected anything — like missiles or whatever — from getting outside the arena via the hole in the ceiling.

Ruby ran up this column, just as she had run up the smaller pillar, her feet pattering upon the black synthetic surface, her crimson cloak riding up and down like a wave or the wake of a speedboat, Crescent Rose shaking a little in her hands.

She had almost reached the top when the lights changed from white to purple.

Ruby let out a little startled squeaking sound as she suddenly lost her foot, all grip on the vertical side of the column slipping away. She threw Crescent Rose outwards, using the scythe blade like a grappling hook, catching it on the very top of the column as she held onto the rifle tightly, very carefully not looking down at the long drop below.

Ruby grunted with effort as she managed to get her feet back on the black surface. Unfortunately, without any gravity, it was a challenge getting them to stay here, and without much in the way of handholds on the slender barrel of Crescent Rose it was going to be a bit of a trial climbing up it.

Which meant climbing wasn’t necessarily the best approach.

Ruby took a deep breath, and kicked off the column, reversing Crescent Rose as swiftly as she could and firing downwards, firing once, twice, three times, blasting herself upwards into the air each time by the recoil of her weapon until she had blasted herself up high enough that she could reach out, grab the top of the pillar, and pull herself up onto it.

From this high perch she, like an eagle on a mountaintop, could see everything.

And she could see that things hadn’t quite gone according to plan.

A lot of the battlefield had been cut in two by a wall of ice, a wall which left Pyrrha and Sunset on one side, with Thorn Hubert, and Jaune on the other side of it with Phoebe Kommenos, Lycus Silvermane, and Mal Sapphire.

You didn’t have to hate Jaune and want to put him down to say that that was not a great position for him to be in.

The only member of Team SAPR for whom that might have been a good position was Pyrrha, for whom it would have been the case that Phoebe, Lycus were stuck on the wrong side of the ice wall with her, but Jaune… Jaune, not so much.

Ruby aimed down the sights of Crescent Rose. “Don’t-a worry, Jaune,” she muttered, momentarily slipping into an accent appropriate for platforming, “I’ve got-ta you covered.”

Phoebe led the way, and it was Phoebe that Ruby shot at first, hitting her on the tower shield that she held up in front of her, covering her face so Ruby could only see the big green crest on her helmet. The shield took some of the effect of the shot, so that Phoebe was only staggered instead of being thrown backwards — must have been a pretty good shield — and she continued to rush forward, rushing… past Jaune? She darted around him, not even trying to attack him. Jaune looked for a moment as though he might try and intercept her, but Lycus was on him before he could, sickles slashing.

Mal, meanwhile, was brandishing her staff in his direction. That was an easier target than trying to hit Lycus while he was locked in combat with Jaune, so Ruby shot at her first — seven shots, with ten in the magazine, she would have to reload soon — and then shot at her a second time hoping to get her aura down, but Mal held her staff up in front of her, and the sight of her seemed to shimmer and ripple like water. Ruby fired again, but nothing happened that she could see. She didn’t react as though she’d just been shot, and a check on Mal’s aura level didn’t show any change at all.

She must be using wind dust to deflect the bullet. Ruby frowned just a little bit as she switched targets to Lycus, or tried to, watching him hurl himself at Jaune, sickles swinging, watching Jaune frantically block the blows with his shield, trying to find openings to counterattack.

They were too close together, and moving too fast, she couldn’t fire without risking hitting Jaune. And where was Phoebe?

There was a flash of bronze, the sunlight glinting off it to momentarily blind Ruby as she stared through her scope, as Akoúo̱ slammed into the side of Lycus’ head and knocked him off his feet.

Now Ruby shot him, redirecting his movement completely as he rolled into the grass, rolling upright and onto his feet, sickles still in his hand.

Pyrrha was there, spear in hand, smoothly recovering her shield as she stood between Jaune and their two opponents.

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. Okay. Jaune was going to be fine now that Pyrrha was back with him. But where was Phoebe?

A thump from below her directed Ruby’s attention towards the lower platforms, the lowest platform that Phoebe had just gained.

So that’s where she is. Right.

It occurred to Ruby that they might have misjudged Team PSTL. Apparently the Mistralian warrior values weren’t what they used to be.

Considering some of the dumb things that those values have made Pyrrha do, that might be a good thing.

Just not for us, right now.

But she still had time before Phoebe actually made her way up to Ruby, time to check on Sunset at least, see how she was doing.

Sunset … was not doing well. She had frozen up. Ruby couldn’t tell why she had frozen up, but she had.

Actually frozen up wasn’t the best way of putting it, with the way that she was shaking. It was like… it reminded Ruby of their mission in the Emerald Forest, when Professor Ozpin had asked them to go back to Mountain Glenn and Sunset had just… not freaked out exactly, it had been too quiet for that, but at the same time it was the best way that Ruby could think to describe it.

There were a lot of things that Ruby could be annoyed with Sunset about, and sometimes they could make her very, very annoyed indeed … but then there were moments when Sunset reminded you that she had some pretty nasty scars on her soul, even if she was generally pretty good at hiding them, and it got harder to hold her attitudes against her even if she was flat wrong and pigheaded about it.

This was one of those times, especially when Thorn Hubert hit her across the face so hard that she was knocked to the ground and she barely seemed to notice.

Ruby didn’t know what could have triggered this, but she was barely reacting as Thorn straddled her and started pounding on her with his fists, fists like rocks rising and falling.

Rainbow couldn’t tell us what his semblance was.

Could it be … scaring people?

Might be nice for an update on that, Professor Port.

“It looks as though Sunset Shimmer has fallen afoul of Thorn Hubert’s semblance,” Doctor Oobleck said. “This allows him to trigger an opponent’s traumatic memories … and Miss Shimmer seems to be suffering a particularly bad reaction.”

Not for long, Ruby thought, as she took aim. She would worry about Phoebe later, for now, Sunset’s needs took priority. Let’s see how easily you can keep it up under fire.

She pulled the trigger.

---

The blast caught him by surprise.

Not Pyrrha, of course, she’d leapt clear of the gust of wind as it came roaring towards them. But of all the things that she could teach him, how to move as fast as she did, as nimbly as she did, as light upon his feet as she did wasn’t one of them.

Or perhaps they just hadn’t gotten that far yet.

Or perhaps it was his own fault for deciding pre-emptively that he wasn’t going to be able to get out of the way and he’d be better off trying to take the blast head on.

Jaune raised his shield before him, and the shield began to glow with shimmering golden light as he concentrated his aura upon it.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop him from being lifted clean off the ground. Jaune fought to keep hold of sword and shield as he spun around and around, turned head over heels before being dumped unceremoniously upon his front upon the grass.

He groaned wordlessly, even as he tried to pick himself up as quickly as he could.

He heard something behind him, a rustling, rippling sound, but it wasn’t until he got to his feet — he still had hold of both parts of Crocea Mors, thankfully — that he saw what it was.

Mal had switched from wind dust to ice, and with that ice she had conjured up a barrier, a wall of ice that was way too high for him to consider jumping over, a wall that cut cleanly across most of their half of the battlefield, and all of the central hexagon, encroaching slightly into Team SAPR’s side with the gravity biomes.

A wall that separated him from Sunset and Pyrrha.

A wall that left him alone with three members of Team PSTL.

This isn’t good.

It wasn’t good because it wasn’t the plan — they’d assumed that Phoebe would be bent on Pyrrha, but apparently not; it seemed that Phoebe’s actual plan was to pick on the weak members of Team SAPR first, starting with him.

Which … wasn’t good for him, obviously, but at the same time Jaune wasn’t sure that it was such a great plan for Team PSTL; he guessed that he could see it, but at the same time they were almost certainly going to lose their one poor guy on the other side of the ice wall, and they’d still have Pyrrha and Sunset to deal with.

Plus, while he was under no real illusions about how he would do in a three against one, Jaune had no intention of going down without a fight.

It was a pity that his family would see him knocked out, but hopefully they’d appreciate that he gave a good account of himself first.

Jaune stepped into a guard, shield before him, sword raised to strike, a clear view of his opponents over the top of his shield.

“Okay,” he whispered, so quietly that he doubted any of Team PSTL could hear him, “whose first?”

Phoebe was first, rushing forwards with her own shield held up in front of her – too high up, he thought, he wasn’t sure how she could see over it — and her spear held loosely in her other hand. A shot from behind Jaune struck the shield, which staggered her and made him realise that she wasn’t holding her shield so as to guard herself from him, but to shield herself from fire from above.

From Ruby.

Jaune would have thanked her, except that he didn’t dare to turn his back on any of his opponents. Just because they hadn’t gone for him yet, they would doubtless follow Phoebe’s lead as she… as she rushed past him as though he wasn’t there at all.

She’s going for Ruby. They meant to take out the both of them, then, and hopefully have a numbers advantage against Pyrrha and Sunset. Again, Jaune wasn’t wholly convinced by the plan, but at the same time he supposed it wasn’t a bad one.

It was sufficiently good that he decided to interrupt it; with his aura reserves, he’d rather take on all three of Team PSTL until Pyrrha and Sunset finished with Thorn than let Phoebe engage Ruby up close — she was better off covering him.

He took the first step towards Phoebe, sword stretched out towards her; he had ice dust loaded, if he could—

“Not so fast!”

Jaune turned to see Lycus Silvermane descending on him, silver-white hair flying, face set with a savage smile, both sickles raised for a parallel slashing strike.

Jaune took half a step back, raising his shield to take the strokes as the sickles flew diagonally downwards, scraping across the shield’s surface hard enough to make Jaune reel a little to the side.

Lycus landed on the ground, slashing again, more wildly this time, first one sickle then the next in wide arcs. Jaune gave ground, stepping backwards, taking both strokes upon his shield before countering with a slashing stroke of his own.

Lycus took the blow in one sickle, turning the stroke, trying to twist Jaune’s sword out of his hand. Jaune lunged at him, using his shield like a battering ram aimed at Lycus’ face, forcing him back a step.

Jaune heard again the booming report of Crescent Rose, but obviously Lycus wasn’t the target.

He thrust at Lycus, point first, aiming for the eyes, but Lycus dodged the stroke, his body swaying nimbly to let the sword pass beside him.

Lycus let go of one of his sickles for a moment to grab Jaune’s outstretched arm; he was still grinning as he started to pull Jaune off balance.

Jaune hit him with his shield, making him let go, making him turn away in pain; unfortunately he converted that turn into a spin with his remaining sickle, slashing at Jaune’s unprotected belly now that he wasn’t covering himself with his shield.

Jaune winced as he felt some of his aura sliced away, and again he retreated backwards.

Lycus fluidly grabbed his other sickle off the floor and surged towards him in a flurry of swift strokes. Jaune tried to remember — well, no he did remember what he’d been taught in as much as Lycus wasn’t tearing him apart already, but although he was blocking with his shield, openings for him to counter with his sword were so few and far between as to be practically nonexistent. Lycus attacked him with a furious energy, sickle strokes scraping off his shield, striking sparks where they struck the metal.

Lycus hooked one of his sickles around the lip of Jaune’s shield, pulling it down, trying to wrench it away. Jaune slashed at Lycus’ wrist, but he parried with his other sickle.

Jaune thrust his head forward — not something Pyrrha had taught him, more a leaf out of Rainbow Dash’s book — at the same time as Lycus decided to do the exact same thing.

Their two heads slammed into another with a blow that Jaune felt through his aura. He would have taken a step back but Lycus still had a sickle hooked around his shield.

Until Akoúo̱ slammed into the side of Lycus’ head, knocking him sideways, sending him flying across the grass.

As he landed, Jaune fired a burst of ice dust, the ice sweeping out across the grass towards him before he could get up, covering his legs and keeping him stuck there as Pyrrha landed in front of Jaune.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” she said.

---

As she vaulted over the wall of ice, hair and sash alike streaming out behind her, Pyrrha’s eyes sought out Jaune and swiftly found him, locked in combat with Lycus Silvermane.

Mal Sapphire was watching them, seemingly unwilling or unable to risk hitting Lycus with any of her dust when he and Jaune were so close together.

And Phoebe… Phoebe was trying to reach Ruby on top of the gravity platforms.

We really did misjudge you, Phoebe.

There would, she hoped, be time to deal with Phoebe later. For now, her focus was on Jaune. She and Jaune were to stick together, that had been the plan, and as much as the plan was somewhat in tatters now there was no reason why they couldn’t salvage as much of it as possible.

And while Jaune was holding his opponent off, which gladdened her to see, he didn’t seem to be in much of a position to launch a counterattack, if left unaided.

He wasn’t losing, but how long might that state of affairs remain unchanged if she did nothing.

And so, as Pyrrha fell to earth like a thunderbolt from the heavens, she threw her shield before her, Akoúo̱ spinning through the air to strike Lycus on the side of the head and throw him away from Jaune who, with quick thinking, used some of his ice dust to freeze him in place before he could get up.

Lycus was straining against the dust as Pyrrha landed gracefully in front of Jaune.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” she said, as Akoúo̱ flew back to her like a pet falcon, landing smoothly upon her wrist.

Jaune grinned. “No, I’d say you’re just in time,” he said. “Sunset—”

“Can handle herself, and Thorn,” Pyrrha replied. “We’ll deal with these two.”

As she spoke, she shifted Miló from spear into rifle mode, snapping off two shots at Mal Sapphire.

Neither of them seemed to strike; Mal did not flinch, her aura did not diminish at all.

Wind dust to deflect bullets. It was not unheard of. It meant that Pyrrha would have to get close.

“Follow me,” she said to Jaune as she started to run, darting this way and that, zig-zagging to make it harder for Mal to hit her with her dust. It was unfortunate that, just as her wind dust made it necessary to get in close, the green flames that wreathed Mal made that, too, a tricky proposition.

But with the reach of her spear — the spear into which Miló reformed in her hand — she should be able to manage it.

Mal thrust her staff out in Pyrrha’s direction, forcing Pyrrha and Jaune to leap to one side as another cone of wind emerged from out of the staff like a cyclone; Pyrrha could feel the wind lapping her face, playing with the strands of her hair as she leapt away, using a touch of Polarity this time to grip Jaune’s armour and make sure that he leapt away as well, the two of them landing closer to the ice wall than they had been, leaving a clear route between Mal and Lycus.

As Mal brandished her staff before her, a stream of ice emerging to form not a wall but a path, a path towards her trapped teammate down which Mal began to slide, skidding along even as the icy road began to weep from her flames, it appeared that that had been her intent.

Pyrrha stepped forwards, thrusting Miló outwards, setting off the dust charge to extend the spear’s reach by another foot and jab Mal in the shoulder, knocking her off the ice path.

She flailed as she fell, and Pyrrha spun upon her toes, red sash wrapping around her waist as she struck Mal from behind with the shaft of her spear, cutting her tumbling feet out from under her before thrusting down, straight down like a thunderbolt, smiting Mal upon the breast and driving her down into the ground.

Mal’s hood fell back, revealing her ram’s horns and her soft features, and her mouth from which fire spewed.

Pyrrha recoiled, feeling the heat of the fire upon her face but not feeling any damage to her aura.

Mal’s staff was lying on the ground, and while fire leapt from Mal’s mouth more fire leapt from her staff, burning its way across the grass to encircle Lycus where he lay trapped in ice.

With a growl, Lycus burst from the melting ice, standing for a moment amidst the flames that flickered in his eyes and reflected off his sickles, before he leapt clear of the fire.

“Thanks, Mal,” he said. “I appreciate it.”

Mal’s response was to surge to her feet and lunge for Pyrrha, arms outstretched, fire erupting from out of her mouth, seeking to engulf Pyrrha in the flames of mouth and cloak and staff too, the staff that she brandished in one hand.

Pyrrha raised her shield, letting the flames break upon Akoúo̱, washing over it a little, heating her face, licking at her aura, but not doing nearly as much as they would have done otherwise. And while she covered her face with Akoúo̱, she threw Miló the short distance between the two of them, striking Mal square on the chest to put her aura into the red.

“Mal Sapphire’s aura has been depleted in the first elimination of this match!” Doctor Oobleck cried as Mal, knocked back, flopped onto the ground. “Metaphorical first blood to Team Sapphire!”

“He’s getting away!” Jaune yelled.

Pyrrha returned her attention to Lycus, who had evaded Jaune’s attempts to snare him in more ice and was fleeing away from them, running towards the gravity platforms, where Ruby was perched.

And where Sunset was locked in combat with Phoebe Kommenos.

---

The thunderous boom of Crescent Rose swept all else away.

Mountain Glenn, Adam, all gone. Sunset was in the Amity Colosseum again, fighting in the Vytal Festival Tournament, fighting… fighting against Thorn Hubert, who was lying on his back a few feet away from her.

Anger surged through Sunset, making her ears droop, making her bare her teeth. He had done something to her, he had used his semblance that they hadn't known about, he had…

And Ruby had saved her.

Sunset turned back as she scrambled to her feet; she saw Ruby, precariously balanced upon the highest pinnacle of the gravity platform, and she could see Phoebe, distinctive by the tall, green crest of her helmet, on one of the lower platforms, trying to reach her.

It wasn't fear that made her teleport, it wasn't that she was afraid of getting another dose of Thorn's semblance, no, it was a sound tactical decision based on the strengths and weaknesses of the team.

That was why she teleported away, appearing on top of the smaller pillar that lay in Phoebe's path, between Phoebe and Ruby.

"Ruby!" Sunset yelled. "Focus on Thorn, okay? Leave this to me."

"Sniper duel?" Ruby called down.

"Sniper duel," Sunset replied.

Phoebe growled wordlessly beneath her helmet. "Don't get cocky, my little pony."

"You made me cocky when you paid Bolin Hori to fight me instead of facing me yourself," Sunset reminded her. "Why didn't you get your teammate to do it?"

Phoebe snorted. "It was beneath the dignity of an upperclassman to brawl with a first year."

"But it wasn't beneath your dignity to pay someone to beat me up?"

"If concepts like dignity and honour are to have any utility at all then they must evolve with the times," Phoebe declared. "I hired a huntsman to do me a service. I thought that was rather the point. Or did you mistake me for Pyrrha, so wedded to the old ways that I would seek her out for yet another… that I would seek her out, despite all the evidence of past experience?"

"I underestimated you," Sunset admitted. She put one hand to her shoulder, and with a touch of aura she ignited all the dust woven into her jacket, the flames of crimson and gold spreading across her back and shoulders, a burning cape settling upon her. "But I'm glad to have this chance to take you down myself."

She drew Soteria across her back, and as with her cape she ignited the fire dust and let the flames spread up the black blade.

"That's mine!" Phoebe snarled.

Sunset smirked. "Then come and get it."

She barely heard Crescent Rose firing above her. Sunset was wholly focused upon Phoebe as the lady of the Kommenos family charged at her.

Phoebe slung her shield back upon her back as she leapt, gripping her long spear in both hands. The gravity of the pillar seized her in its embrace, carrying her to the column's side where she landed upon her feet.

Sunset charged down the pillar to reach her; if she remained atop it the column then she would be unable to reach Phoebe with her sword even while Phoebe could reach her with her spear perfectly well. And so she charged, running down the side of the column with Soteria swept back for a strike.

Phoebe struck first, thrusting with her spear and forcing Sunset to parry, beating the thrust aside.

Phoebe thrust again, Sunset parried again. Phoebe twirled, almost like Pyrrha did but not as smooth or graceful, whirling her spear in her hands as she tried to sweep Sunset's legs out from underneath her.

Sunset jumped over Phoebe's sweeping spear, aiming a kick at her in the process. Phoebe caught the blow on the shaft of her spear, twisting it — and Sunset's foot — so that she was in danger of slamming face-first into the side of the column.

The lights on the pillar changed from white to purple.

With nothing holding either of them anywhere close to the column, they both began to fall. Sunset angled herself with her back to Phoebe, to hopefully land on top of her with her phoenix flames burning, but Phoebe was able to kick off the column and float back to the low platform where she'd started, landing on her feet once more.

Sunset did likewise, pushing herself off with one hand to just about make it into the gravitational pull of the low platform. With one hand she fired a bolt of magic at Phoebe, hitting her on the chest and knocking her back but not, unfortunately, knocking her clean off the platform. Phoebe rolled to her feet, tower shield once more half before her, and charged at Sunset so as to bull into her and knock her off her feet.

Sunset jumped out of the way, throwing herself sideways and upwards, borne onto one of the slightly higher platforms on her left. She turned in midair, magic leaping from her fingers as she floated. Phoebe turned to her, taking the magical blasts upon her shield.

Yes, Sunset had left the way to Ruby open, but if Phoebe tried to take it then she opened up her flank to Sunset in turn, while if Phoebe wanted Sunset and Soteria then Sunset had the high ground.

Sunset stood on the edge of the platform, Soteria raised and gripped in both hands.

Phoebe faced her, looking up.

Phoebe discarded her shield for a moment, splitting her spear into two smaller, lighter, javelin-looking weapons, one of which she hurled at Sunset.

She missed, the javelin flew past her shoulder and Sunset needed to do nothing to help it in its way.

Phoebe leapt, and as she leapt what Sunset was now certain was a dust crystal in her vambrace began to glow purple. Phoebe leapt up and over Sunset, tucking her legs up beneath her, rolling in mid-air, unfolding her legs to—

Sunset struck her legs as she moved to land, slashing at them with Soteria, the flaming sword slicing at Phoebe's aura to knock her flat onto her chest and face.

Just as Phoebe's javelin, summoned back to her, struck Sunset in the gut.

Her cuirass meant that she did not double over, but she was knocked off the edge of the platform, floating down to the platform below.

The javelin, summoned by the gravity dust, flew back to Phoebe's hand. She reformed her spear into one double-pointed weapon.

The two of them stared at one another.

At least, Sunset assumed that Phoebe was looking at her.

Sunset teleported up onto the platform next to her, on Phoebe's unshielded side. She slashed at her with Soteria once, twice.

Phoebe staggered, but turned, presenting her shield to Sunset. The ring of fire dust crystals surrounding the shield boss began to glow a moment before they exploded, a blast of fire emerging with a roar to engulf Sunset before she could conjure up a shield to protect herself. She felt her aura drop as the flames washed over her, but she wasn't eliminated yet.

Nevertheless, she retreated to the edge of the platform, throwing Soteria and using telekinesis instead of her hands to guide the blade, weaving it around Phoebe's spear and shield, striking past her defences in a way that, in all honesty, she would never have been able to do up close.

With a snarl of irritation Phoebe rushed at Sunset, ignoring the black and burning sword that harassed her, but by then Sunset had torn off her jacket and flung it at Phoebe.

Phoebe faltered, seeking to avoid the burning flames as they swooped down on her, dodging around her shield, avoiding her spear.

"Mal Sapphire has been eliminated! Metaphorical first blood for Team Sapphire!"

There was another blaring klaxon sound.

"And Thorn Hubert has also been eliminated!" Professor Port declared. "But not before he unleashed his last attack!"

---

As soon as Sunset called out to her, Ruby put Phoebe from her mind. Sunset would take care of it.

Her focus was on Thorn Hubert.

After Sunset had teleported away he must have realised that he was now on the wrong side of the ice, separated from all relevance to the battle, and while he could have moved forward to get around the ice wall that way, instead he had decided to mimic Ruby by getting to higher ground. He turned, and ran for the mountain at the rear of Team PSTL's half of the battlefield.

Unluckily for him, Ruby was already on the higher ground, as she reminded him when she shot him again. She estimated that one more hit would take him out.

Unluckily for Ruby, she had to reload.

Ruby ejected the spent magazine, letting it drop down to the floor of the arena, pulling another from a pouch on her belt and slotting it smoothly into the magazine well. She worked the bolt, chamfering her first round. The whole process took seconds, at best, but they were seconds in which Thorn had loosed a quartet of arrows in her direction.

Ruby took cover, retreating onto the reverse side of the column — the lights had switched from purple to white, and the soles of her feet stuck to the black surface once more, but just in case she kept herself hooked to the top of the column with the blade of Crescent Rose — until the arrows passed overhead.

By the time Ruby regained her position on top of the column, Thorn was leaping up the mountain in a zig-zag that made his movements hard to track, she couldn't predict where he was going to go in order to get a shot at him. Ruby scowled as she watched him through her scope, leaping from point to point, until he had almost reached the top of the mountain. She would get him then, he would have to stop if he wanted to loose at all.

He leapt instead. As he had nearly reached the top he jumped off the mountain, surprising Ruby so much that she was late off the mark in tracking him, and rolling as he hit the ground, rolling into cover behind some rocks at the foot of the mountain.

Ruby resisted the urge to take a shot out of sheer pique.

Thorn showed himself, bow drawn back, arrow on string, he emerged from out of cover.

Ruby shot.

Thorn loosed.

Ruby's shot hit Thorn, sending his aura into the red even as it threw him to the ground.

But Thorn's arrow soared up into the air, up and up towards the shield, and then, with a pop like the explosion of a modest firework, it burst into a hundred, no more than that, there were hundreds of them, hundreds of fragments falling gently down like shooting stars upon the battlefield.

---

As he saw the fragments of Thorn's last arrow begin to fall, seeming as though they were going to fall everywhere across the battlefield, Jaune was reminded of what Rainbow had said: that they were like missiles.

And they were falling everywhere.

He couldn't do anything for Sunset or Ruby, but Pyrrha was right on front of him and he could certainly do something for her, and so Jaune rushed to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as he spread his semblance over, the golden light spreading from his hands to engulf her, shimmering over her like dawn's rays chasing away the darkness.

Boosting her aura as the bombs came down.

They fell everywhere. They shattered the wall of ice that Mal had made, sending it crashing down in shattered icy chunks, they tore up grass and earth all around. They exploded, and Jaune could feel the explosions pounding on his aura, hammering it, tearing at it. He could feel his aura dropping as the explosions burst all around, but he kept his grip on Pyrrha, and he kept his semblance. She was going to be still in the fight when the explosion cleared, he guaranteed it.

---

As the bombs — or whatever they were technically called — started to fall, Sunset teleported up onto the highest pinnacle with Ruby, throwing up a tight shield around them both, a barrier of green magic like a cocoon enveloping them, so close that it was practically touching the top of Sunset's head as she crouched down with Ruby.

Explosions burst upon the shield like fiery flowers blooming, explosions blossoming then fading just as quickly. They burst upon the tip of the shield, but Sunset could see them exploding elsewhere too, even tearing holes in some of the gravity platforms, not to mention the grass and the central hexagon.

She couldn't see any of Team PSTL, those still in the fight or those who had been eliminated; she couldn't really see Jaune or Pyrrha, but as the explosions threw up soil and smoke she could still see a light, a shimmering white-golden light, that told her Jaune was there, and that he was protecting Pyrrha.

The explosions died down. The skies cleared, the smoke began to drift away, revealing that the higher platform on which Sunset and Phoebe had fought had a trio of holes ripped in it, with the gravity dust within the platforms plain to see, while the lesser pillar that formed part of the way up to their high column was gone completely. The lower platforms also loomed as though it had taken a hit, but as the smoke cleared Sunset was glad to be able to make out her jacket looking intact, although it had ceased to burn.

"Are you okay?" Sunset asked Ruby, as dispelled her shield.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby replied. "You?"

"That last one hit my magic hard," Sunset said. "But I've been careful with using it so far, so I'll be fine. Can you see Phoebe or Lycus?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, I— no, wait! There she is!"

She pointed, and Sunset followed the line of her outstretched hand and pointed finger to where Phoebe had just emerged from underneath a platform, having obviously taken shelter there from the barrage. Now she began to run and leap, crossing the distance between herself and the tall pillar atop which they stood.

Lycus joined her, emerging himself from beneath the rearmost platform, at least it seemed as though he was going to join her in the same direction before Pyrrha flew into him like a javelin, knocking him off course and giving him more than enough to worry about without helping Phoebe at all.

Nor did Phoebe make any move to help him. She kept on coming for Ruby and Sunset, as before.

Ruby raised Crescent Rose.

"No," Sunset said. "Or at least… I'd rather finish her myself."

"Do you have a plan?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah," Sunset said, sounding slightly affronted. "Yeah, I've got a plan."

"Okay, then," Ruby said, lowering her weapon. "I've got mine, get yours."

"Much obliged," Sunset said, as she searched for Soteria, hopeful that it, too, had— yes! There it was!

She kept her eye on it, but as yet made no move to grab it with her telekinesis.

Rather, she waited for Phoebe, letting her come on, letting her run across platforms and up columns.

Sunset waited until she had reached the tallest column, Ruby's column, and was running up it, before she charged downwards to meet.

Phoebe had her spear, and her shield, and all her sable raiment of war. Sunset had no weapons, not even a jacket. All she had were the vambraces on her wrists, infused with lightning dust.

Yet she charged down towards Phoebe like a bull in the field that has spotted a rival.

Phoebe let out a loud war cry as she thrust her spear, overarm, towards Sunset.

Sunset caught the blow, feeling the force of Phoebe's thrust jar her arm, feeling her aura drop, nevertheless she grabbed the spear with one hand, gloved fingers closing around the metal shaft just behind the tip.

Her other hand touched her vambrace, and with her aura activated the lightning dust.

Lighting erupted out of the shining metal vambraces, crackling, snarling, snapping like a pack of hunting dogs, lashing out in all directions, snapping up the metal shaft of Phoebe's spear towards her.

The lightning rippled up and down Phoebe's cuirass, snapping as it bit and tore at her aura. Phoebe jerked and twitched in pain, half-coherent sounds of pain emerged out of her helmet-concealed mouth.

And as Phoebe jerked and twitched, as she writhed, as the lightning devoured her aura, Sunset grabbed Soteria on the grip of her telekinesis and pulled it towards her, dragging it swiftly through the air.

The black sword flew up the side of the column and struck Phoebe from behind just as Sunset let go of Phoebe's spear.

Phoebe's back arched, she cried out in pain, and she lost her footing on the vertical surface.

Sunset brought Soteria down upon her one last time, from the front, knocking her off the pillar and sending her falling down, plummeting like an angel cast from heaven, towards the floor of the battlefield below.

"Phoebe Kommenos has been eliminated!" Doctor Oobleck yelled as the klaxon sounded. "Team Sapphire is only one more elimination away from a clean sweep!"

"And for the record," Sunset yelled down at her. "I would have kicked your ass the first time if you hadn't been too chicken to face me!"

---

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, an edge of anxiety in her voice as the smoke of the explosions cleared. Thanks to Jaune her aura was completely intact, in fact it was full again. "Are you alright? How's your aura?"

"A little run down," Jaune admitted, a touch of laughter in his voice. "But I'll be fine. How about—"

"I'm okay," Pyrrha told him. "Thanks to you."

She looked around, to see Lycus emerge from his cover beneath one the gravity platforms, and start leaping up them towards Ruby — and Sunset, who was up there with her now — even as Phoebe started to do the same.

She wouldn't be able to intercept either of them on foot, swift as she was they were just too far away. But…

She looked apologetically at Jaune. "Do you have enough aura left to give me a boost?"

Jaune grinned. "Of course." He recovered his shield, and held it up at an angle facing towards the damaged gravity platforms. "Hop on."

Pyrrha smiled, and as she smiled she leapt up onto Jaune's shield, balancing upon it with her arms out and her knees bent. She could feel Jaune's semblance, so soft and warm, like bathing in sunbeams, creeping up her hugs, even as Pyrrha concentrated her own aura in her legs.

She kicked off, jumping like a frog, propelled by her concentrated aura, enhanced by Jaune's semblance, flying through the air like a human spear towards her target.

She switched Miló from spear mode into sword in her hand as she flew.

Pyrrha intercepted Lycus in mid-leap, bearing him sideways, Pyrrha's momentum great enough to overcome the pull of the gravity dust upon her. She slashed at him with her sword while he could only flail in response — she had much more experience fighting in mid-air than he did, and it showed — slicing him across the torso once, twice, three times before switching Miló fluidly into spear mode and smiting him hard enough on the breast to send him flying backwards into the nearest pillar with a thud.

Pyrrha began to drift slowly towards that same pillar — too slowly for her liking. She let go of Akoúo̱, letting her shield be pulled forward by gravity while she kicked off it to accelerate herself, landing underneath Lycus and grabbing his boot—

No, not a boot, a trainer.

Pyrrha looked up. Jaune stared down at her, eyes wide with fear.

Pyrrha hesitated, grip on his foot loosening.

He tried to kick her in the face, but Pyrrha swayed aside, her ponytail swinging behind her, and instantly her grip upon his foot tightened again as she spun on her toes, bodily hurling Lycus over her shoulder and slamming face-first into the side of the pillar.

Lycus, now looking like himself again, groaned as he pushed himself off the column and floated onto the nearest platform. "Seriously?"

"Jaune wouldn't try and kick me," Pyrrha said.

Lycus grunted. He brought his two sickles together, a long shaft extending between the two of them to form a single, double-bladed weapon.

"Okay," he said, twirling his new weapon. "Let's do this."

Akoúo̱ was still drifting towards her. Pyrrha reached out to catch it, settling it on her arm for a moment before slinging it across her back. The two-handed spear would serve her better against Lycus' longer weapon.

She kicked off the pillar just as the white light turned to purple. The lights on the platform on which Lycus stood also turned purple, so there was no gravity to pull her towards the platform, only her own momentum which carried her over Lycus and behind him.

They charged at one another, weapons swinging. Pyrrha parried his downwards stroke with one blade, turned it away, tried to sweep his legs only to be parried in turn by his second blade. She slashed at him with the point but he retreated, he slashed at her legs but she leapt over his blade. They blocked one another with their shafts, whirling their weapons in their hands, weaving delicate shapes in the air with them as they blurred.

The clack clack of their clashing weapons rang in Pyrrha's ears. She did not feel at all in danger, but openings were a little hard to come by.

She leapt backwards, rolling over in the air, releasing Miló with one hand to pull Akoúo̱ off her back and hurl it straight at him.

Lycus deflected it, batting the shield away, but in so doing left himself open as Pyrrha followed, switching Miló from spear to sword.

With her free hand she grabbed Lycus' weapon, pulling it towards her.

With her other hand she slashed him across the belly. She spun around, slashing at him again as he let go of his weapon, letting her throw it away rather than throw him away.

He threw a punch at her, and then another, but Pyrrha dodged them both, slashing at him once more, twice more driving him back to the edge of the platform before she kicked him off it.

The lights around the nearest pillar had turned from purple back to white, and he floated towards it, but his aura had dropped into the red.

The klaxon sounded.

"And Lycus Silvermane, last member of Team Pastel, has been eliminated!" Professor Port cried, his words half drowned out by the sound of the cheering that Pyrrha became once again aware of, as though her ear drums had popped and she was only now becoming able to hear once more.

"The winners of this match are Team Sapphire of Beacon."

Pyrrha closed her eyes as the applause fell on her like rain. They had won. They had passed the first test. They had won. It was over.

The end had begun, and she hoped it had begun well.

"Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha opened her eyes to see Sunset leaping from pillar to platform towards her, a bright smile on her face and joyous laughter spilling out of her mouth. "We won!" she yelled, as she flew through the air towards Pyrrha, drawn towards her as if by the bond between them.

Even if it was really gravity dust doing the pulling.

"We won!" Sunset yelled again.

Pyrrha laughed, Sunset's smile infecting her. "Yes," she said. "Yes, we did."

Sunset landed on the platform before her, and no sooner had she landed than she enveloped Pyrrha in a hug.

"We won!" she repeated with a childlike glee. "Congratulations to us!"

Pyrrha put her arms around Sunset. "We won," she agreed. "Congratulations to all of us."

Author's Note:

Rewrite Notes: Well, this chapter went long.

It was clear from when I wrote the plan chapter that I would have to rewrite the fight scene (and to think there was a time when I'd hoped these tournament chapters wouldn't need much alteration) and I did, with the addition of the gravity platform after V7 showed how that works, which was pretty fun to play around with a little bit.

The rewritten fight scene gives more to certain characters and less to others, while hopefully preserving the sense of a team effort.

Thorn's semblance comes out of rewatching Snow White (his allusions is to the huntsman) and how terrified of him Snow White becomes once he pulls the knife on her, and yes, that's probably because he just pulled a knife, but I liked the idea of a terror semblance that would let him temporarily get the edge on Sunset.

Comments

[Marwile]

We have the Railgun, we have the Gatekeeper, now we're only missing a certain scientific enforcer that constantly shouts "Onee-sama" and "Judgement Desu No".

[DashEight]

Whoever runs the Amity Arena IT department really needs to update the passwords once and a while.

[Scipio Smith]

9821355
Don't forget Saten.

[RIPoste]

9821355
Where's the big baddie that moves really fast?

[Dream Dusk]

Someone has been watching "Toaru majutsu no index/ kagaku no railgun"

[Marwile]

9821399
Is that a teaser?

9821502
Honestly, Accelerator would break this story just by existing.

[Scipio Smith]

9821527
No, but you said we were only missing Kuroko.

[AdverseFlower95]

Damn it, Phoebe, you just had to ruin the best instance of sportsmanship in this competition so far by trying to attack Pyrrha after the fight. People seeing this might have helped bring down the tension, but you just had to have a temper tantrum and make things worse.

This is kind of terrible of me to think, but I wish that Sunset revealed to her that the fire that killed he family was actually started by Cinder to kill them just to mess with her.

[Mastermind4892]

In the words of Equestria's greatest flier, "That... was... AWESOME!"

A flawless victory for Team SAPR! Regardless of whatever awaits, these four have come so far. And today, they have done splendidly for their first match!

[Pinklestia]

9821563
Then she would have to explain how she knows thar, on a public broadcast, on television.

[JMP]

Wasn't expecting Uiharu to show up, but sure, why not. What was her first name again? She's the only one of the main 4 Railgun girls who I can't remember.

Thorn was a really cool archer. Shooting pretty much as fast as Ruby can, but with a much slower weapon. Damn precise, too. All in all, Phoebe's teammates seem cool.
9821384
I don't think that it'd really make a big difference to Uiharu.

[AdverseFlower95]

9821877
Do the microphones even reach down there? It has been a while since I've seen Season 3. Also Sunset could just say that when Ember was leaving the tower she monologued about all of her past nefarious actions. She could also say it was during the Merlot stuff, but I'm pretty sure nobody wants what went down there any more publicized than disappearances of Faunus in Atlas so probably not then.

[Draco Loco]

Honestly, if Sunset wanted Twilight and Celestia to watch, she could just ask them to use Haycart's method on the journal, and go from there.

[Shalifi]

Very touching. Sunset would probably blush at her sentiment. Pyrrha is great

[LegionCenturionMaster]

Gosh darn it Mistral! Messing with the randomization for your own purposes!? Somebody get me a target lock on that flagship, I want to see it crash and burn!

[Antiquarian]

He groaned, looking down at his legs as he tried and failed to break free. He looked at Jaune. “I don’t suppose that if I told you there’ll be no living with her majesty if we lose you’d consider going easy on me?”

Jaune sheathed his sword, and then immediately reconfigured it to greatsword mode. “No, sorry.”

“I didn’t think so,” Lycus said. “Let me have it then.”

I like Lycus. Nice to see a huntsman who's both A) competent and B) not a jerk. Thorn and Mal are nice too, but Lycus having a good sense of humor really sold me on him.

I love the irony of Oceana saying "behold, the face of Atlas" for the one Mistralian on an Atlesian team, when all the Atlesians were good sports. Just goes to show that something needn't be accurate for people to percieve it a certain way.

[Kiue Jin]

Oh Phoebe... On the one hand, the fears and concerns plaguing her mind...actually make sense. They are real concerns and desires that make her more then just a two bit cartoon villain. The problem is that whatever humanity she has is buried under so much toxic shit that she would need to be broken to the point of being rebuilt from the ground up to be redeemable...

And this defeat is not going to be anywhere near enough to do that.

Then again, she has always been a psychopath. Not just with Ashley, but her standard method of fun and stress relief seems to be torturing and murdering the homeless... or other people that no one will miss. Just because she cared about her mother and sister doesn't change that.

All that said, Cinder is going to have to murder Thorn now. Not because of the fight or anything, but simply because his existence is a threat to her; He is one of the only people on the planet that can shut her down without a fight. Granted she doesn't intend to live much longer, but Cinder wants Phoebe dead before she takes that final bow.

[AngelicTitan]

God, this may be my new favorite chapter of this fic, ever. The build-up, with some fantastic audience reaction, and the fact that every member of SAPR has at least one person cheering for them was heartwarming. Cinder’s hunger for Phoebe’s humiliating was kind of funny but tragic in a way, this is very toxic my dear. The fact that Phoebe had a little scene to explore her feelings before we go into the fight was a nice detail.
The fight though, that was a highlight. It was so good and I loved how every character had a moment and how the battles went about. Ruby stumbling through gravity was a nice break from the fight and she saving Sunset against the worst Semblance that could be deployed against her really shows how deep their relationship is. Jaune standing his ground against overwhelming numbers was a nice character moment for him as we see how he was able to stand his ground before Pyrrha came to rescue him. I also like the attention to the original chapter with Sunset asking herself how Mel fire dust is green.
The way that Jaune saved Pyrrha and Sunset saves Ruby was very nice to highlight their connections, but my favorite part of the chapter was Sunset fighting Phoebe; it was super satisfying for how she was built up during the Rewrite, even though in Phoebe’s eyes her biggest enemy is Pyrrha, the fact is that she did more to Sunset than she could ever do against Pyrrha, and it was satisfying to see Sunset finally getting her moment to shine by defeating Phoebe empty-handed, using her wits and smarts to electrocute her and use her own move with the spear and gravity Dust against her by using Soteria to untimely defeat Phoebe was a nice touch as it was the sword that started the whole Phoebe vs Sunset in the first place. I think Cimber will be happy with how the fight played out, considering it was Sunset who defeated her “step-sister” in the end.
And the end of the battle being a classic 1v1 with Pyrrha vs Lycus was thematically perfect and the way in which Sunset devolves into a happy schoolgirl and embracing her best friend when they won brought a smile on my face.
Unfortunately, this will not last. Oh, Amber, you shouldn’t have made a deal with the devil...

[Mastermind4892]

11648123
Indeed. Phoebe always keeps looking for someone else to punish for her own shortcomings in the arena. Especially if it's a homeless faunus. Not to mention how she nearly got a ton of students killed with her Grimm lures, all because she wanted a sword back. I found it very fitting that Phoebe was denied even getting close to facing Pyrrha again. To be struck down by the very sword she craved, wielded by far worthier hands (and a faunus no less!) and then to literally fall from her pedestal in defeat. Phoebe is more than unfortunate, she is unworthy. And she deserves every bit of humiliation and self-loathing now coming her way. One might hope she can use to build herself back up into a better person... but she won't.

And as for Thorn, Cinder might go after him just for hurting Sunset. She killed that White Fang bomber for doing the same.

11648184
Yes, this was a glorious chapter filled with profound character moments for everyone! Jaune held his ground, Ruby was reminded of Sunset's scars; Sunset walked from trying to revenge Thorn for prying at those scars and instead rushed to Ruby's defense, and so much else!

But sadly, yes, this might be one of Team SAPR's last truly golden moments together at Beacon... before the Fall. Especially because of Amber's deal with the devil.

Because you keep putting them in danger, Amber thought. You, and Professor Ozpin, and everyone else. You’re the reason that Sunset needs miracles.

And I’m going to give her one more.

No, you selectively ignorant girl. It is because of Salem that we are in need of miracles. You conveniently ignore it was because of Salem that you were attacked at all, that a miracle was needed to save you. And just like Hazel losing his sister to the Grimm, you ignore that as you pander favors to the one responsible for your scars. (At least Hazel made the right decision in the end.) And if you give a Relic to Salem... all of Remnant will need a thousand more miracles every week just to survive.

Amber accuses Ozpin of using others and then does the same thing to Dove, pulling her lover into this, making him a wanted man and forcing all the devastation to come on his conscience. The difference is that Amber has dragged Dove into this for more selfish reasons, whereas Ozpin at least does so to save innocent lives. This war has always been about saving lives, and if she gives that Relic up, it will have all been for nothing.

[Stet709]

Sunset took down Phoebe! I wonder how well that's gonna be received and that it wasn't Pyrrha.
Also, all the Pyrrha fans that thought she was gonna sweep the whole team clearly don't know SAPR. Arslan swept CFVY because, apart from maybe Bolin (And he got lucky he had a lot of aura), the rest of her team just sucks.
Yeesh, the anti-Sunset thoughts coming from Luna and Goodwitch... makes me wonder if Goodwitch and Ozpin favoured a different sister, Ozpin favoured Celestia while Goodwitch favoured Luna.
Also, Goodwitch, didn't you know? Relying on miracles and magical maguffins is the pony way.
And Luna? You may think Sunset isn't Ozpin's type (which wasn't exactly true; Ozpin valued that Sunset didn't trust him at first), but you are fully aware Sunset is Equestrian and has magic, and that is something Ozpin values.

Something I've always wondered: If Celestia and Luna were on the same team (CELO), are they twins and Celestia's a few minutes older, or did Luna get into Beacon early or Celestia get in late?

Missing a break here btw:

“Of course I do,” Diana replied. “Pyrrha’s at least as good as Arslan, after all.”

“So, you know these people as well, right?” Veil asked. “From Vale?”

[Aemon Targaryen]

Camilla was silent for a moment, and still. Her voice, when it came, was as soft as melting chocolate. “Thank you, my lord.” She paused. “I hope for an enjoyable match.”

Just marry her already you classicist moron!

“We do not pretend that Atlas doesn’t have any flaws,” Rainbow insisted. “We’re just honest about the fact that it has fewer than anywhere else.”

Horseshit.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Qrow assured him, before the guy decided to kick him out for his own safety. “I’m fine. I wouldn’t get myself cross-eyed and miss my niece’s match, I’m not that bad of an uncle. I’ve got a liver like a dialysis machine, I could drink twice as much as this and not even feel it.” He reached out and grabbed the new drink that had just been poured for him. “Thanks,” he added, raising his glass to the bartender before he took a healthy drink.

I mean, he have Aura, it's healing effects alone are impressive, so combined to how Qrow is used to alcohol...

[RanmaChaos]

Lots of smiting this chapter. Gives me ideas for character builds.