It's been about two weeks now, and everyone has now started to adapt to the new everyday schedule. And Walker was beginning to hate it.

Okay, maybe 'hate' was a strong word. But doing the same routine every day for five days out of the week was beginning to take its toll on on his mindset. At least back at Signal, he had different classmates for each class that gave the illusion of a different environment, for better or for worse. There was some diversity in his schedule. But at Beacon? Same classes, same classmates, etcetera. He was used to excelling in his classes and enjoying it, but at Beacon, it was starting to become very old, very quickly.

However, there was one class that provided a bit of diversity, and that of which was Professor Goodwitch's Combat class. When it wasn't a lecture, it was multiple sparring matches, at which Walker was extremely interested in. He knew about the Vytal Festival Tournament that his team was going to try out for, and he was gathering as much knowledge about his classmates as he could. He even saw his team leader studying the fights almost as much as he was, which was to be expected. It was when Walker had discovered this that he became convinced that Skyler was the right leader for him.

Professor Goodwitch had, on average, about three sparring matches per class period, depending on how long a match took. The matches, she had informed them, would be following the same rules as the Vytal Festival Tournament, only exempting the 'out of bounds' rule for the sparring, as there was no out of bounds in the gym. Other than that, your Aura going into the red zone or just going completely out meant you lost. Obviously, it was going to take a while to get through each person individually, as there was a total of five teams that attended the classes (SHDW, RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and ATUM), so twenty students was a bit to work with for a class like this.

But Professor Goodwitch made it work, much to Walker's enjoyment. Not only that, but she had said they would be doing battle royales and 1 vs multiple later on in the year, which only got him more excited. Walker's first sparring match was on the fourth day of school, where he actually went up against Pyrrha... Let's just say he tried.

Currently, Jaune had just finished having his butt handed to him by Cardin Winchester, a bigger student whose reputation quickly took a nosedive once his behavior towards those he and his team, CRDL (Cardinal), deemed below them became apparent. Though Cardin mostly left most of them alone (he tried to bully Dante, but it soon became clear that he was not gonna get anywhere with him), he singled out Jaune as the weakling of the group, at which he... was kind of right. Walker liked Jaune fine, but he knew incompetence when he saw it.

And as for up next, Glynda hit randomize on her Scroll before announcing the two pictures that popped up, "Yang Xioa Long vs. Skyler Yin!"

Oh... that was going to be interesting. Walker saw his leader's eyes go wide as he then looked at his team in fear. At first, Walker was convinced that it was Skyler's not-so-hidden infatuation for his blonde childhood friend, but then Dante put his hand on Skyler's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry for you," he said.

Skyler just nodded grimly before turning to the entrance of the gym floor. Walker then looked and saw Yang doing the same, only with a smirk of confidence. Once the two got into fighting stances, Ember Celica and Kasai both respectively at the ready, Walker turned to his partner, confused.

"What was that about?" he asked. "You made it sound like Skyler is going to have to be carried out of here in a bodybag."

"Not necessarily," Dante waved off. "He just understands the brutal thrashing he's about to receive."

"But... doesn't Yang fight with her fists?" Hazel put in. "Since Skyler fights with a sword, shouldn't he have the advantage?"

"Yes... and no. It's a bit complicated."

"What, is he gonna hold back because of his feelings?" Walker questioned.

Dante smirked at that, but answered, "Oh no, far from it. Yang would take it as an insult if that were the case, platonic feelings or not. She practically lives for fighting, so for Skyler to hold back? That's not gonna fly, and Skyler knows it."

"Then what is it?"

"While he won't be holding back, there is one part of her body that he's gonna try his hardest not to cut."

Walker then saw metaphorical puzzle pieces started to click together in Hazel's head as she said, "Wait... Oh! Oh..."

Walker leaned in, "Care to enlighten me?"

But before either teammate could answer, Professor Goodwitch called out, "You may begin!"

The two combatants rushed at each other, Skyler swinging his sword along the way. Yang countered with a backhand, the top of her gauntlet blocking Skyler's strike, the collision creating a loud metallic sound that rang out across the battlefield. The two were locked in that stalemate for a bit, but just by looking, Walker could tell that this was a regular occurrence. These were two warriors who have probably sparred like this dozens of times throughout their life, so this situation had probably happened numerous times. This was merely the prelude, and the two had apparently made a tradition out of it.

The two leaped back, only to charge at each other again, Skyler slashing, but with Yang parrying every strike away with her gauntlets, that strategy wasn't going anywhere. And while Skyler had a determined look on his face, Yang was grinning wildly. Not a good sign, at least to Walker. The two fighters then both swung heavy blows, and a small shockwave cascaded across the battlefield just from the power behind the impact of the gauntlet and the sword.

Unfortunately, Skyler also stumbled at it, giving Yang an opening. She quickly got in close and nailed her friend in the stomach, a shot blasting off from her gauntlet, and then swiftly followed up with a few more quick blows to the torso, and finished it up by slugging Skyler in the face. Walker's leader was sent flying, his Aura now in the yellow zone in terms of limit, but he managed to land on his feet and dash towards Yang again. But this time, he changed Kasai back into its gun form as he did, confusing Walker. If it was in gun form, why did Skyler persist to engage in close quarters combat?

That question was answered when Kasai was swung and it collided with Ember Celica, as if it was a bladed gauntlet. And while Skyler was only using one hand, he actually kept Yang in her toes, much to Walker's surprise. Skyler then landed a strong strike, temporarily knocking Yang off balance. He took a small step back and thrust forward with Kasai. Unfortunately, he had taken just a half second too long, and she caught his weapon in between the palms of her hands, though shakily. And at that, Skyler just smirked and reached one finger to the trigger of his gun.

Yang quickly realized what was about to happen, and let go and jumped back just as flames burst out of Kasai's nozzle. She barely managed to get out of range of the fire before her gauntlets pumped. She then began to fire a few long range rounds at him, causing him to sidestep to avoid them. When they stopped, he looked up to see Yang blasting her way towards him, so Skyler reset Kasai back into a sword and swiftly swung it as hard as he could to counter the oncoming attack. Another shockwave occurred when the dust collided with the blade, even stronger than the previous one.

Yang went flying back, her Aura now blipping just into the yellow zone, and she landed on her feet after flipping up on her hand. Skyler slammed into the wall behind him, but was relatively unharmed by it, though his Aura amount was noticeably smaller than Yang's. He was breathing heavily, the full weight of the battle starting to dawn on him. If Walker was closer, he was certain that he would've seen Skyler's expression and how the gears in his leader's head were going into overtime... only to to then halt as absolute terror gripped him.

Walker switched his attention to Yang, who was staring at the ground. He was confused at the sight until he spotted a small strand of blonde hair on the ground at the girl's feet. At first, Walker only got more confused, but then Dante nudged him on the arm.

"That's what Skyler was trying to avoid," he explained to his partner. "Nobody, but nobody, messes with the hair."

As if on cue, flames burst to life all around Yang, her hair shooting up as she let out a scream of rage. And with that, she shot towards Skyler like a rocket, and while he managed to barely dodge her first strike with her left fist by tilting his head, Yang's next shot came from her right and nailed him right in the cheek, and he was sent spiraling through the air. He landed flat on his back, but was still able to get back up, though it was apparent to Walker that this fight was already over. Yang shot towards him again, her childhood friend covering his face with his arms, but that proved fatal.

Yang's punch hit Skyler square in the gut, breaking his Aura and sending him straight into the back wall and flat on his face to the ground. The flames around Yang died down as Glynda's Scroll beeped.

"Mr. Yin is out of Aura," the teacher announced. "Ms. Xiao Long claims the victory."

"Yeah, go Yang!!" Ruby cheered, a bit to the detriment of Weiss, but the Schnee quickly shook it off.

Yang grinned at her sister before making her way to Skyler, who was still flat on his face, "You okay there, buddy?"

"Hello, Yang..." Skyler mumbled somewhat deliriously. "Have we done our homework? 'Cause if we haven't, Uncle Qrow's gonna KICK our butts!!"

Yang just rolled her eyes with a grin before picking her friend up by the back of his shirt, "Come on, Sky, the day's not over yet."

Skyler just groaned at that, managing to wobble to his feet, with a little help from Yang. Walker knew it was not fun when Aura runs out completely. His leader was definitely gonna be sore for the rest of the day. But as he watched the two previous combatants walk out of the arena, Yang providing Skyler a shoulder to lean on, Walker couldn't help but give a smile. Those two were good for each other, platonic or not.

But still most certainly not.
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The next morning at breakfast, Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SHDW took their place at their shared table, with Team ATUM, surprisingly, taking an interest in the group and sitting in the table next to theirs, right behind SHDW. At this particular moment, Nora was telling a crazy story, with some people at the table not particularly caring (Walker, Weiss, Blake, and Jaune, surprisingly), others just listening in because it was entertaining to hear the ramblings of a lunatic (Skyler, Hazel, and Pyrrha), and the rest hanging onto every word as if it were a sermon (Ruby, Yang, and Dante).

"So!! There we were, in the middle of the night..."

"It was day," Ren corrected, taking a sip of coffee.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves."

"DOZENS OF THEM!!!"

"Two of them," Ren sighed at the outburst.

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

Ren sighed again, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

But meanwhile, Pyrrha had lost interest, looking at her leader with concern, "Jaune, are you okay?"

Jaune snapped out of a trance, turning towards them, "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little..." Ruby struggled to find the right words, "Not okay..."

By this point, everyone's attention was on Jaune, who tried to reassure them with a nervous thumbs up, "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously! Look!"

Jaune gave an awkward laugh, until all of their attention soon focused on a scene nearby when they heard a girl cry out. They all then saw Team CRDL standing around a Faunus with brown rabbit ears jutting from her hair, a girl named Velvet Scarlatina, as Cardin laughed at her and Sky Lark holding up his hands to his head in a mock interpretation of those ears. Walker glared at the sight. Sad thing was, he knew that this wasn't even a particularly special or even secluded occurrence. Despite Vale's equal rights, Faunus were still being bullied and discriminated against all the time.

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school," Hazel informed JNPR's leader, anxious not to pay attention to what was also going on.

"Who? Cardin Winchester?" Jaune shrugged off. "Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!"

Everyone gave him a look as Dante replied, "He's a bully. There's literally no other word to describe him, other than maybe 'scum of the planet'. Name still pending."

Jaune scoffed, "Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me."

Dante then immediately pulled out his Scroll and showed him video clips as examples, including, but not limited to, Cardin knocking Jaune's books out of his hands, Cardin getting Jaune stuck in a door, and last but not least, Cardin stuffing Jaune into a rocket locker and blasting him off school property. And Jaune attempted to laugh it off again, somehow being even less convincing.

"I didn't land far from the school!"

Pyrrha put a hand on his arm, "Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask."

"Ooh!! I know!" Nora stood up with an insane grin on her face as she proclaimed proudly. "We'll break his legs!!!"

"Amen, sister!!" a muffled voice behind them said.

Everyone looked at the table next to them as ATUM's leader, Auriel, swallowed down her slice of bacon and said, "The dude has it coming to him! He tried to mock Tatiana here once. Didn't get too far before we showed him what for!"

"Auriel, don't group everyone else in with you like that," her aforementioned partner, Tatiana, shyly responded. "And all you did was literally pour the contents of a trash bin on him."

"Exactly!" Auriel grinned. "Because trash belongs with trash!"

"Agreed," her other teammate, Uriel, added plainly. "I would've gladly done the same. Right, Meta?"

The last teammate, Meta, just grunted with a nod.

"Guys, really, it's fine!" Jaune insisted as he got up to throw away his own trash. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone."

As if to prove his point, as he was walking away, Velvet cried out again, "Ow!! Stop it! That hurts!"

They all looked over again as the laughing from CRDL grew louder, mixed in with cries of pain from Velvet as one of her ears was being tugged on by Cardin. Walker wasn't sure how much longer was gonna be able to sit by and not do anything.

"I told you it was real!" Cardin exclaimed, tugging on Velvet's ear harder.

"What a freak!" one of his teammates, who Walker didn't really bother learning the name of, said.

At that point, Walker had had enough. As soon as he saw Cardin's grip on Velvet's ear loosen, he stretched out his hand. Wind then circulated around one of the bully's feet, causing Cardin to slip and fall backwards onto his head. And while his team rushed to check up on him, Velvet caught Walker's eye, and he tilted his head, telling her to get out of there while she could. She smiled shyly and nodded in thanks before taking off.

"Atrocious," Pyrrha scowled as Cardin was being helped up. "I can't stand people like him."

"He's not the only one..." Blake said, also staring daggers at Cardin and his team.

Yang sighed sadly, leaning her head on her hand, "It must be hard to be a Faunus."

Walker made a mental note to wail on Cardin or any of his teammates in Combat class next time he got the chance. And judging by the looks his teammates were giving, they were most likely thinking the same.
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Sorry to cut the chapter a bit short, at least in terms of the part two of the actual episode. But I think all of this got the message across that Cardin and his team are complete jerks. Otherwise, this was a pretty fun chapter to write, especially the stuff with H20FLAME's Team ATUM, aka one of the primary reasons I wanted to rewrite this whole story. They were surprisingly very fun to write, and I can't wait until I get to write them more later.

I debating on combining this chapter and Forever Fall, but then I made this chapter incredibly long, so I ultimately decided against it. Just don't expect too much for next chapter. Might include a fight scene. Not sure yet. Still haven't even worked on it. RWBY Volume 1 just has a lot of unnecessary fluff that doesn't relate to our teams in any way. But anyway, I suppose that's all to discuss. Till next time guys!