It wasn’t often that Glynda did field work, with how busy Beacon kept her. One might think that being a simple professor left her with plenty of free time to go around on missions culling grimm, but oh how they would be wrong. Because while on paper her position might be simply that of a combat instructor, in reality she practically ran the school. The Gods know that Ozpin didn’t do much, always too busy preparing to react to Salem’s machinations and oh so conveniently forgetting to complete paperwork until it was far too late for him to do so, but Glynda, you know, you’re rather quick when it comes to filling out forms and-

Needless to say, when Second Thoughts had revealed that in the event of Ozpin’s death, that she was the one who often took up the title of Headmistress, she wasn’t exactly surprised. Sometimes she thought about fighting for the position even with the lazy scoundrel still alive if only because she deserved the slight pay raise…

But whatever the future held for her, her present and past meant that she was perhaps a bit out of touch with field work. The incident that got Miss Rose into the school, the stakeout for Torchwick at the docks, and the breach of Vale had been outliers compared to her daily life.

It did seem, however, that her reputation preceded her, and that students and staff alike at Shade were just as ready to snap to attention when she demanded it as those back at Beacon.

Not that there were many of them. Most of the huntsmen, even those in training, had still been out ensuring that the grimm from the breach had been culled and that the general populace was safe when she arrived at the school. She had only just managed to track down the dozen or so students and staff that had been tasked with protecting the school when the storm had suddenly shifted, drawing everyone’s attention to the point where a vortex of sand was touching down.

It had required a lot of snappy orders and a quick division of those present, as they couldn’t leave the school entirely undefended, but Glynda liked to think that she and her entourage made good time in hunting down the source, and the travel time was both enlightening and disappointing.

The locals apparently did not have any idea of who their storm controller was, they’d never seen anything of this magnitude, and, as they watched an airship get pulled through the sand with ease, they voiced some rather split opinions.

“I call dibs on kicking their ass!”

“You wish you could kick their ass, maybe you can settle for cleaning their teeth off the floor when I’m done with them.”

“Are you insane?! Did you see that?! We should have just stayed at the school, we’re trained to fight grimm, not sandstorms!”

“Do you think they’re hot?”

“Bro! Look at what they’re doing to the city!”

A staff member from Shade let out a defeated sound.

Brazen overconfidence. Cowardice that would need to be beaten out of them… A general strangeness.

Glynda sighed. She got enough of this nonsense from her students, and from Qrow, and her fellow staff members….

…maybe it was just all huntsmen that were like this.

Was she like that?

No, no, it was them who were strange.

But regardless of that, it was best to nip those plans in the bud, as their destination was quickly nearing. “Students will act in a supporting role. Ensure the safety of any nearby noncombatants, and defer to anyone already on scene. As for the staff, I believe that-”

She lost her train of thought as she recognized the flames lighting up the sky and heard Qrow shouting back and forth with someone.

It seemed that she was late to the party.

Quickly making her way up to the rooftops, she trusted the Vacuans to hold their own without her. Reprimanding her companions for this trip, as was only proper, and declaring her intentions felt right in the moment.

Cinder Fall was before her, as well as someone she did not recognize but was clearly another Maiden. That would explain the power of the storm, she supposed.

“Must I constantly be interrupted by pests?!” Cinder demanded as she threw a bolt of lightning at her opponent, flames swirling around her. “Don’t tell me this is another of his interferences!”

The other maiden easily redirected the electricity into the ground, thrusting a crackling stone blade towards Cinder’s gut. Fall batted it away with her hand, the weapon superheating and exploding in a mess of partially melted rock that bounced off their auras, the muscles in her arm temporarily locking up for her troubles.

His interference? Given what she tried to pull at the last breach, it was obvious she knew Arc was involved to some extent, but did she really think that some of the top huntsmen in the field, led by Ozpin no less, were incapable of hunting her down without the help of a single semblance?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

That was rather annoying.

“Good to see you, Glynda! We’re in a bit of a pinch as you might have noticed!” Oobleck greeted her with a strained smile. His fighting style wasn’t exactly suited for this sort of environment, so she could understand why he’d be on edge. The man constantly extolled the virtues of a flamethrower that doubled as a thermos when it was keeping his coffee warm, but he couldn’t exactly melee an airborne foe and the fire….

Cinder put the side not hindered by the shock forward, conjuring a flame from nothing above her hand and lobbing it like a ball at the other maiden, who was forced to side-step, which was an odd sight given that they were both mid-air, before countering with a barrage of icicles, some of which melted, but others of which pelted Cinder’s aura.

…a flamethrower didn’t seem like it would accomplish much against someone with such an affinity for the elements.

“Sup, Glyn,” Qrow added while firing off another round of buckshot at Cinder, managing to force her to put up a wall of stone between them to block it. She then threw it at them, but Glynda captured it within the hold of her Telekinesis, keeping it roughly halfway between those in the sky and those on the rooftop.

“What on Remnant are those semblances?” One of the Shade staff spoke up, several of the group apparently having followed behind her to assist. “And isn’t that the lunatic behind the Vale Breach?”

“It is,” Glynda quickly skipped over his first question, “and it will not do for her to escape again. Form a perimeter, we must not allow her to slip past us this time.”

The man looked like he wanted to argue that it wouldn’t be much of a perimeter with how few of them there were, but he knew better than to argue with her and led the stragglers down to ground level.

With those not in the know out of the way, she spoke her mind. “Why are you not working with the other maiden to subdue Cinder?” They were obviously pitted against each other, and yet Qrow, who had much better aerial capabilities than Oobleck on account of him being able to turn into a bird, was here taking pot shots with his shotgun.

Oobleck let out a clipped “They seem to have history,” before Qrow could get a word out. The man only grimaced in return, moving to dodge out of the way of a stray firebolt, but ultimately looking foolish when Glynda blocked it for him with the stolen stone wall.

“You have history with a Maiden and this is the first I’m hearing about it?” Glynda snarked at him. “Fine then, she can be your problem.”

And then, she focused.

Telekinesis was a powerful semblance. It allowed her to move objects within a certain range and up to a certain limit, neither of which came up very often. With her decades of experience, she could use it in combination with dust to perform feats that might look like entirely separate semblances to an unknowing observer. And of course, she could use it to throw grimm around or pierce them with debris.

Humans were another matter though. It wasn’t that she couldn’t use her semblance on people, it was entirely possible, but there was a level of risk involved that she tried to avoid. Carefully maneuvering unmoving things like a collapsed building was simple enough, the stone didn’t fight her. And Grimm? Well, it didn’t matter what happened to them so long as they were slain.

But, as had been learned in her younger years, trying to control a body that did not want to be controlled could easily mean broken bones. Or worse, though luckily it hadn’t happened yet.

Containing criminals with it led to risk that she often deemed unnecessary. As detestable as she found Torchwick, she didn’t think him so awful that she would subject him to even the possibility of such agony. He had blown himself up because of that choice, but that wasn’t her fault.

Cinder, though… well, she found that she didn’t care quite so much about her suffering, so long as she lived to tell the tale.

Cinder deserved it, for what she’d done to Amber. For everything else she had done, as well.

And so Glynda grasped with her power, and Cinder froze in the air, crying out in pain, but only because Glynda was merciful.

It would be all too easy to seize the woman’s entire body. But that would mean that she’d be unable to move the muscles necessary to breath, suffocating even while surrounded by open air. So it was simply her limbs that were held in place.

Glynda dearly hoped that she remembered to keep them all at the correct distance from each other for the duration of this. It would be a shame if one were to drift a bit too far away. Stretch a bit more than it could take.

But even with all the precautions, all the small calculations, step after step ensuring that Cinder would nominally be fine, she hadn’t accounted for one thing.

The other maiden was still very much planning for it to be a fight to the death.

----------------------------------------

Qrow saw Cinder freeze. Heard her cry out in pain. Knew that Glynda had her under control.

He also saw the cruel smirk on Sam’s face. Heard the wind kick up and the sand rush along with it. Knew at that moment, that she had changed quite a bit since he’d last seen her, all those years ago.

“Damn it, Sam, no!”

A kick off the ground had him soaring through the air, Harbinger propelling him with shots as quickly as he could pull the trigger. It wasn’t like Ruby, he wasn’t light enough, and his weapon not powerful enough, to get the kind of things that she was capable of. But it was faster than trying to transform into a bird, fly over, and transform back.

It was enough to get there in time.

Swinging his scythe over his head, he cleaved through the stream of sand that was heading for Cinder.

He hated it. Hated having to turn his back on that bitch, even if she was currently little more than a puppet on Glynda’s strings. Hated having to risk his life to save hers, because he wanted her dead and he still had some things to live for. Hated that he didn’t know how it was going to end.

He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Harbinger wasn’t capable of dispelling sand that flowed like water. But he put his trust in the Sam that he knew before her fake death. He had stayed on the sidelines of the fight because he didn’t want to risk Misfortune fucking something up, and also because he wouldn’t put it past her to maim him with those maiden powers, but he didn’t think she’d kill him just to kill Cinder.

And wouldn’t you know it, his semblance didn’t fuck with his luck when it really mattered this time.

So, against his better judgment, he decided to push his luck again.

Landing on the rooftop once more in a quick roll to dispel his momentum, he switched Harbinger to its sword form, the blade pointed at an old friend.

“Sorry Sam, but I can’t let you do that. Not yet.”

She raised an eyebrow at the gesture. “And you think you can stop me?”

He grimaced. “I’ll have to.”