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Chapter Text

The ringing of the little bell over the top of the door was the first weird thing about that night. He was perfectly aware that no-one came in at this time. Other than him. Not for less than nefarious reasons.

The second weird thing was the lack of greeting from the man at the desk. The shopkeep of Dust til Dawn was too friendly to leave it out. Pocketing the fire Dust crystals and sliding the ice Dust vials up his sleeves – he wasn’t an idiot – he grabbed the rim of his bowler hat and tugged it down a little, peeking backwards to spy the newcomers. A long red cape immediately tipped him off and he had to stifle a groan.

Ruby Rose.

And judging by the purple bandanas around the henchmen’s necks and biceps, the people beside her weren’t exactly friends. Ruby plucked her cigarette from between her lips, tossing it to the ground.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?” she sneered, dulled silver eyes narrowing a little over her scar and her smile broadening to something bright and sunny. A flick of her hand and a gun was cocked and pointed directly between the eyes of the shopkeep, his hands flying up, voice shaky.

“Take the Lien and go!”

“Oh. No no no, we’re not looking for your money, you can chill out.” Her smile flattened. “Boys, be a bunch of dolls and grab the Dust, would you?” On command the henchmen dispersed to various aisles and containers, grabbing any Dust they could and storing it in briefcases fitted with various indents. Some of them even had those expensive collectors right from James Ironwood’s catalogue, hot damn. A couple of the guys stuck by their boss, though, to unlatch more briefcases and direct the shopkeep to the crystals they needed.

Nothing cheap, either. If this was what good intimidation got you, maybe he should start travelling with his brother.

Before long one guy had noticed him and was making his way over. Gently grabbing a magazine and beginning to flip through, it was easy to pass off not hearing all the ridiculous threats the henchman was throwing his way, especially with his earbuds. Not enough, however, for the henchman to leave him alone completely. Suddenly he was being turned around roughly, the white collar of his coat flicking out his bangs, and the earbuds were yanked out of his ears.

“Can I help you?”

“Hands up. Now!”

“Are you … seriously robbing me right now?”

A pause.

“Yes!”

“Alright.”

The next thing he knew, he was being fired at by a different guy, with the first slumped against the door. A swift kick propelled by Melodic Cudgel and he was soaring through the window, shattering the glass, with the second henchman on his foot and a grin of pure glee plastered across his lips. The cane got slanted against his shoulder before twirling it around and striking it to the ground.

Ruby scrunched her eyebrows. “Okay …” She shot an uninterested look to her remaining henchmen that quickly turned exasperated. “Get him!”

Each one of them came at the ginger boy at once. He promptly spun on the top of his cane’s hilt and kicked the first square in the jaw before kicking Melodic Cudgel off the ground and firing it to hit another with the handle, sending the second henchman flying. Firing again, he bought the barrel down on one attacker and dodged each of the next’s bullets with the cane’s agility, getting close enough to knock him down to Ruby’s feet.

Cigarette ash flickered onto the discarded henchman’s face. “You were worth every penny, truly you were.” The new cigarette got tucked behind Ruby’s ear, her bangs scooped away to reveal the true expanses of her scar. Police sirens in the background prompted the reveal of her scythe as well. “Well, Candlelight, I think we can all say it’s been an eventful evening, and as much as I’d love to stuck around …” The scythe became a sniper rifle, the barrel pointed directly Roman’s abdomen. “This is where I leave you.” The kid was able to avoid the flaming bullet by balancing on his cane, but upon landing he noticed the stream of rose petals soaring up a fire escape.

“Hey, hi!” He waved frantically to the onlooking shopkeeper. “You okay if I chase her?” A quick nod and he was off.

The criminal’s dress shoes clacked against the floor of the roof, hair whipping in the wind. Soon after coarse combat shoes scuffled up the fire escape and joined her, their owner staring Ruby down and panting slightly. “Persistent little thief …” Grabbing the railing of a rising Bullhead, Ruby grinned and let her rifle rest against her shoulder for a second before throwing down a yellow Dust gem. “See you in hell, Candlelight!” She fired a single bullet at the crystal and it exploded instantly, sending an explosion of sparks and bolts coarsing towards the small boy. A steady and impish cackle erupted from Ruby’s throat untiul she realised no screams of pain were following. Instead, something blue and shiny cast light on the Bullhead.

A young man – late 20s at least – in a cobalt cape appeared in front of the white-coated boy, the latter’s eyes widened in simultaneous fear and admiration. The young man’s circle of protection absorbed back into his scepter, which waved and summoned several streaks of blue to hurtle toward the aircraft. After being thrown around a little, Ruby clambered to the cockpit, frantically shaking the shoulder of her armoured accomplice as he wrestled with the controls.
“Handle the Huntsman, for the love of god!” Groaning the man ran for the back of the ship as Ruby gripped the controls. Glowing blue for a second, the young man on the roof fired off another blast, instead hitting the air above the craft to generate a storm cloud and large chunks of jagged hail that pummeled through the jet at all angles.

The man in armour reached the back of the ship before his arms and chest lit up like beacons, violent bursts of energy flying for his adversary only to be blocked easily. Said energy blasts scattered and exploded on the roof, the young man in blue keeping out of the explosion range with a backflip. The debris collected in blue telekinetic ribbons to form a large arrow that shattered thanks to the blasts of gold from the armoured man. A quick aerial lean to the side and Ruby was able to dodge the smaller, recollected arrows, but after their second reformation a wide ring of gold expanded out across the air and reduced the arrows to flecks of Aura. Finally taking action, the boy behind the Huntsman started firing off shot at the man, who redirected each of them with the flick of a hand and instead generates a series of yellow orbs around his two opponents. The Huntsman, swiping with his scepter to knock his ally away, rolled out of the explosion radius.
Just in time to see the hatch of the Bullhead close as it flew away.

A sigh escaped the Huntsman’s lips and he turned to the tiny ginger fighter next to him … who was still on the ground, surrounded by shattered vials of blue, yellow and green Dust as well as a rainbow of crystals he was trying to collect. He turned the young man with a pout.

“Look what you did to my merchandise!”

Ten minutes and a continuing rant later, he was sat still pouting in a dark room, a pair of handcuffs on the table ahead of him and the Huntsman in question pacing around, dodging the single lightbulb on the ceiling. The computer tablet in the Huntsman’s hand blipped before he turned back to the small thief.

“I hope you realise your actions won’t be taken lightly, young man. You put the area and yourself in great danger, not to mention all that Dust you took.”

Fiddling with his scarf, the boy retorted, “They started it! And I was gonna pay eventually.”

“If it were entirely up to me,” the Huntsman continued as if nothing else had been said. “you’d be sent home with all that Dust …” the boy’s only visible eye lit up a bit and he smiled. “and an arrest warrant.” The smile fell and he folded his arms again. Lowering his tablet, the Huntsman raised his voice slightly as he kept going. “However there is someone who would like to meet you.”

He resumed his pacing, slower this time, and a woman in a deep purple, floor-length dress came through the doorway he was blocking, holding a teacup and a plate of pumpkin tarts. A smile decorated her black lips and she leaned in to peer at her new interviewee. “Roman Torchwick …” Roman’s eyes flitted between the woman and the man in blue and he gulped. “You .. have colourful veins.” Roman promptly brushed his bangs to make sure his eye was covered appropriately, same with his neckscarf.

Apparently noticing his discomfort, the woman straightened up and looked down at him with a lighter, more amused gaze.

“So! Where did you learn to do this?” She gestured lightly to the tablet in the Huntsman’s hands, now displaying surveillance footage of Roman’s fighting.

He wringed his hands and stammered, “Suh-Signal Academy, ma’am.”

“So they were ones who taught you to modify a day-to-day object into a dangerous weapon?”

“One professor in particular, ma’am.” Suddenly Roman was a little more prideful in statements, eyes closed in smugness.

The woman hummed and settled the pumpkin tarts on the table in front of him. Glancing quickly up, he shoved one into his mouth and, upon seeing no rebuttal, began gobelling them down at rapidfire speed. “It’s just that I’ve only ever seen one other Hunter with that finesse before. An old vintage flavour ..”

Mumbling through his mouthful, Roman perked up. “Oh! That’s my aunt!” Upon receiving the glare from the blue Huntsman, he swallowed and wiped around his mouth, embarrassed and giggling a little. “Sorry, sorry. That’s my Aunt Coco! She’s a professor at Signal. I was kind of a mess before she took me under her stride. And now, I’m all like – ” He trailed off into a series of karate noises, his hands flying around in the air and legs kicking so much they smack the table.

The Huntress chuckled openly. “So I’ve noticed.” Her cup clinked down as she leaned in, sitting opposite Roman now. “And what is such a remarkable boy such as youself doing stealing from a big chain like Dust til Dawn?”

“I …” He bit his lower lip. “I need it to be a Huntsman.”

“You want to slay monsters?”

“Kinda. I just have two more years of training at Signal and being trapped with my dad. And then I’m gunning straight for Beacon! You see, my brother – half-brother – is planting roots there this year, and he wants to become a Huntsman too, and I’m trying that because it pays well and doesn’t cost much when you get down to it. My mom always taught us to help people in need, so I figured, ‘Okay let’s go make some money out of it’!” He giggled briefly, hands waving animatedly and speech speeding up. “I mean, I was never gonna be in the police, so Huntsmen and Huntress were the obvious choice and they’re badass and cool and exciting and really, gods, y’know!” Letting out a high squeal, he bounced out of his seat, hands on the table and lips drawn in a wide confident smile.

The two Hunters blinked at him.

The woman smiled gently. “You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Would it help me get in if I said yes?” Her eyebrows raised. “You’re Professor Salem. Headmistress at Beacon.”

“Nice to meet you.” Roman nodded back in kind. “You want to attend my school?” His nodding became faster before she tapped the brim of his hat to stop him. “Well, alright.”

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Hours later, Roman found his feet lifted off the ground, kicking desperately against his brother’s solid legs as he struggled to escape the breath-stealing hug.

“I can’t believe my baby brother is coming to Beacon! This is gonna be great!”

Seeing the kicking did nothing, the smaller brother ragdolled, murmuring, “Please stop.” He was finally dropped to the ground and his brother left him to get up from the floor alone.

“But I’m so proud.” Without looking at him Roman knew he was pulling that stupid fake pout that got their dad to do anything he asked.

“Really Merc, it was nothing.”

“What do you mean? It was awesome. Everyone at Beacon is gonna think you’re the cat pajamas!” Mercury hoisted an arm around Roman’s shoulders, tugging him in close and ruffling his hair violently.

Roman groaned, “I don’t want to be the cat’s pajamas, okay?” He tried to push his brother away. “I don’t wanna be any kind of pajamas! I just wanna be a normal guy with normal pajamas.”

“You’re not hyped?”

“Of course I am. I just …” He sighed. “I got bumped two years. I don’t want all eyes on me.”

Mercury’s eyes softened and his eyebrows scrunched in upset. His other arm wrapped around Roman’s shoulders, hugging him softly and petting his head. “I’ll keep them off you if you wanna snatch anything. Besides,” he let Roman go and punched him in the shoulder hard. “you’re special. People are gonna look at you anyway.” Before Roman could retort, a newscast on the Vale News Network attracted the youngest brother’s attention, a woman’s voice talking over a mugshot of a black-haired woman in a red cape.

“The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Ruby Rose, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on her whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Cyril.”

The channel flipped to newscaster Cyril Cobalt, accompanied by a photo of several Faunus demonstrators holding picket signs. “Thank you, Lisa. In other news, today’s Faunus Civil Rights Protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the demonstration. The once peaceful organization has now ..”

The newsfeed cut off, instead being replaced with a young man in a cobalt cape.

“Hello and welcome to Beacon.”

Mercury propped an arm against his brother’s shoulder. “Whozzat?”

“My name is Adrian Cotta-Arc.”

“Oh.”

Holographic projections popped up all along the corridor of the airship, all still of Adrian. All heads turned to any one at a time, but Roman’s eyes flitted between each other them, lightly spinning on his heel until Mercury held him still facing one.

“You are among the privilged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! The world is experiencing an unforeseen time of peace, and as future Hunters, it is your duty to support it. You have demonstrated the skills and courage required for such a task, and now it is our time to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect your beloved world.” As soon as they appeared, the holograms were gone, and Adrian blipped off all monitors, replaced quickly by the resumed news broadcast.

In that wake students began scattered to the screen windows, hands pressed up and calling out to their friends to see the view below. Mercury was among them, Roman tucked into his arm, and braced his free hand against the glass to stare down at the academy with a broad smile on his lips.

“Woah!” Roman nudged his hat to uncover his eyes. “Can’t believe you can see Signal from here. I guess home is pretty close.”

“Beacon’s home now, and – ” The shrill scream of another passenger cut him off curtly, embers and sparks coming off her fingers as she ran past the brothers, who simply stared after her with wide eyes and retreating postures. “Okay, well maybe not everyone is gonna be great here.”

“Nice while it lasted, at least. I just hope the others have more control than Hot Rod over there.”

“Whoa! Boot on fire, boot on fire!”

“Away from me! Get away from the cane! This was expensive!!”

Chapter Text

Nobody was out of the airship doors faster than the girl with fire still flying off her hands, which had now spread up to her shoulders. Pushing past Roman and Mercury she dropped to the floor to roll around, efficiently putting out the flames and dirtying her back, her grimace laced with relief. While Roman stared at her as he passed, Mercury grabbed his brother’s head and tilted it up to stare at the beautiful sight that was Beacon Academy.

Seeing his brother’s gaped expression, Mercury chuckled, “The view from Vale’s got nothing on this, huh?”

The moment was quickly broken, however, via Roman’s awe breaking into a mischievous and excited grin, spying every weapon and fancy piece of tech within his range. Stars practically appeared in his eyes as he rambled on. “Ohmygods, Merc! That girl’s got a collapsible staff, that’s bound to be worth something! And he’s got a fire sword! People’ll pay serious Lien for that!” Before he could get any further, Mercury’s hand yanked him back by the scruff of his neck.

“Easy, Romeo. They’re just weapons.”

“Just weapons? They’re an extension of someone’s personality, hand-crafted to be perfectly replicant! They’re part of us!” A long and dreamy sigh whimpered out. “And they’re worth so much money.”

“Oh?” All of a sudden Melodic Cudgel was in Mercury’s hands instead of on Roman’s belt, and Roman was trying to snatch it back. “What’s wrong with your own? You not happy with it?” He managed to grasp the barrel and tug it back to himself, hugging the cane close and checking it for scratches.

“How dare you. I just like seeing new things is all. It’s like meeting new people …” His shoulders sagged as a gaggle of students flocked past him, all carrying luggage and a colourful barrage of weapons. “without the whole talking thing.”
Mercury groaned, grabbed his brother’s hat and scruffed up Roman’s hair, minding himself to not disrupt the bangs covering his eye. “Roman, come on, why don’t you go try and make some friends of your own?” A scowl shot at him and the hat was given back, fixed back on its owner’s head.

“Why would I need friends?”

And then Mercury was gone. Gone in a flurry of unintelligable ramblings and abandonment, leaving Roman alone, dizzy-eyed, and spinning on his heels with only a goodbye to serve as a tracker. A dozen thoughts spun through his head as he toppled down – a couple probably escaped his mouth too. It didn’t help when a neon blue screen with scrolling white text was shoved into his face.

--What is happening here?!--

“Sorry!” He scrambled onto his hands, spotting the cases he had apparently crashed into, and attempted to collect a couple in his arms. After glancing up quickly, Roman blinked rapidly. The girl before him was even shorter than him, though he was on the floor so she was glaring down at him, with a elegant blend of pink and white hair going down her back, the scalp decorated with brown streaks that looked vaguely familiar. Snapping out of his stupor he noticed her frantic typing appearing on her Scroll screen.

--Sorry?! Do you have any idea as to how much damage you’ve caused?--

He wasn’t a fast reader.

--Give me that!--The girl snatched the luggage from his arms as he clambered to his feet, one case staying in her arms while the others got dropped to the floor again. He wished he’d grabbed one and run, because the second it popped open, at least two hundred Lien of Dust was revealed and Roman’s jaw dropped. –This is Dust. Mined and purified from the Ironwood quarry mines! --

“Uhhhh …”

A vial of red Dust unclipped and landed in her free hand, the other continuing to type. --What are you, brain-dead?-- The case clattered to the floor. --Dust! Fire, lightning, water, energy in general!--

“I, I know – ” Nope, no talking. The Dust was flinging into his face as the girl began gesturing wildly with the vial.

--Are you even seeing what I’m saying? Is any of this sinking in? What do you to say for yourself?!-- In the midst of all the light and Dust apparently Melodic Cudgel had clattered to the floor behind the girl, and Roman’s eyes latched to it when a clearing in the cloud of Dust appeared momentarily. The girl’s foot shifted toward the trigger. Before he could do anything to block the flare that shot from the barrel, the shotgun-cane fired off and everything went up in flames, snowflakes and lightning around the two students. The vial went flying from the girl’s hand, clattering to land at someone’s feet across the courtyard, the Ironwood Dust Company vines entangled to print on glass.

Covered in soot from head to toe and flat on her butt, the girl attempted to dust herself off, scowling when Roman tried to help her up.

“I’m real sorry!”

She smacked his forehead, getting up herself.

--Aren’t you a bit young to be here?--

“I-I, uh …”

She sighed silently. Then the angry creases along her forehead softened and she went back to typing, fingers less violent. --This isn’t an ordinary combat school, you know. Not just sparring and practice. You’re here to fight monsters, so watch yourself, okay?--

“I .. Yeah, I’m sorry, Miss …” His eyes took in her hair again. “Politan?”

“It’s Ironwood, actually,” a new voice commented. Sandal heels clicked along the stone courtyard as the person holding the vial entered the conversation, book tucked under their arm and green hair framing their face evenly. “Neo Ironwood, heiress to the Ironwood Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world.”

Neo hesitantly nodded to the statement. Her neck seized a little but instead of drawing more attention she reached to take the vial, only for it to be pulled away slightly.

“The same company infamous for the controversial labour forces and questionable business partners, right?” The new person took Neo’s hand and pressed the vial into her palm rather forcefully, though it didn’t show on Neo’s face whether or not it hurt. Her hands looked callous, it probably didn’t. In turn, Neo bit her lip and strode away, casting a brief glance toward a smiling Roman before leaving the courtyard entirely.

At the last second, Roman ran up a little and called, “I promise I’ll make this up to you!” He sighed. “At least I’m not the only one having trouble talking to people … So, what’s …” The other conversationalist had already left in the opposite direction, heels clicking in their wake. Knowing he would simply be turned away, he slumped to the floor, starfishing out on his back. “Welcome to Beacon.”

Not five seconds later a shadow leaned over him, prompting him to crack open his eyes a little. The girl who caught fire was there. Her ashen hair shifted as she held out a hand to help him up.

“Hey … I’m Cinder.”

“Roman.” She hauled him up once he grabbed her hand. “Aren’t you the girl who set herself on fire?” The girl chuckled, ashamed.

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The two students kept talking as they walked amongst the Beacon yards, passing scenic trees and curving architecture that reminded Roman of the pictures of Atlas he’d seen. The girl had led them down toward a river, which they walked along casually.

“All I’m saying is that spontaneous combustion is a much more common occurance for those with fire Semblances than people let on.” She’d been going on about this for a couple minutes now, and Roman laughed openly at her arguments for it before wiping a tear from his eye.

“Look, I’m sorry! Hot Rod was the first thing that came to mind.”

“Oh, really? What if I called you Explosion Boy?”

“Hey, that was not my fault.”

The girl slid to the left of Roman, taking up her pace closer to the water just in case. “Well, the name’s Cinder Fall! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue – people love it.”

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Do they?”

“I’m sure they will. I hope so. My dad always said … Nevermind.”

A short awkward silence fell across them. Tilting his head slightly and putting his hand to his belt, Roman smiled slightly and pulled out Melodic Cudgel, tapping it against the ground gracefully. “So … I’ve got this thing!” Cinder reared back a little before peering at the weapon skeptically.

“Is that a cane?”

“It’s also a customized high-impact rifle!” he replied smugly.

Cinder blinked. Roman leaned Cudgel against his shoulder.

“It’s a gun-cane.”

“Oh. That’s cool!”

“You got anything good?”

Cinder blinked in surprise and unsheathed a few arrows from their holster on her back. “I have these! They’re made of glass.” Smiling at Roman’s awed expression and hovering hands, she retrieved a bow, crafted in a similar fashion, and balanced one of the arrows on the bowstring to aim it squarely at a tree.

Roman reached out and tapped the balanced arrow gently. “So, what do they do?”

Her attempt at swatting his hand away quickly spiralled into all unsheathed arrows flickered back into their scabbard and the bowstring wobbling until Cinder slotted it up into the bow’s body. The bow lodged itself on her hip. “The bow’s string goes into the body, so when I want to put it away, I can just … do that …”

“But … that doesn’t really help.”

“Yeah, I know.” Her shoulders slumped dejectedly.

Chuckling, Roman nudged her with his shoulder. “Well, I’m kind of savvy when it comes to styling and stuff, so I guess I maybe went a little under what I’m used to when designing this one.” He had far more elaborate designs back in the day, but they were all too unwieldy. And expensive.

“You made that?”

“Partially. All students at Signal forge their own weapons. I just found a loophole! Didn’t you make yours?”

Her hand brushed the bow’s body scarcely. “The bow’s a hand-me-down. My great-great-great grandmother used it to fight in the war.” She blinked away the blurring of her eyesight, instead keeping her sight trained on Roman.

“Sounds more like a family heirloom.” Melodic Cudgel clipped back into its holster on his belt. “Well, I like it! Not many people appreciate the classical look nowadays, and those can cost a pretty penny.”

“Yeah, classical …”

Another bought of awkward silence highlighted by Cinder’s dejected look made Roman decide to continue walking, which Cinder followed him in. “So why did you help back there? In the courtyard?”

“Why not?” She kicked at a renegade stone, which landed in the water. “My dad always says strangers are just friends you haven't met yet’.”

“Hmm.” His head whipped around in just about every direction. “Hey, where are we going?”

Cinder mimicked his motions before she put a hand to her face and pulled out her Scroll, frantically searching for a map online as Roman giggled.

Chapter Text

As soon as Cinder had led them into the auditorium, which was already piled full with students, Mercury began waving Roman over, calling something unintelligible. Roman grinned.

“Hey, I gotta go. I’ll see you after the ceremony, yeah?”

“Wait!” Useless. Roman was jogging off, weaving in and out of the crowd and clusters of people. Cinder let her head loll back a little and sighed deeply. “Great. Where am I supposed to find another nice, weird guy to chat with?” Strolling away with her arms crossed, Cinder failed to notice a pair of hazel eyes trained directly on her.

Mercury grinned and propped his hands behind his head upon Roman’s approach. He briefly peeked around him too, surveying Cinder slightly, before actually initiating with his little brother. “How’s the first day going, Romeo?”

“You mean since you ditched me and I blew a hole in the side of a cliff?” Roman glared up at him through his bangs as he fixed his hair and hat. Mercury whistled.

“Wow, already?”

“Yeah, some girl stepped on Cudgel and blasted a flare in my face! And there was fire, and ice …”

“Oh,” the older smirked broadly and put his hands on his hips. “you’re being sarcastic.”

Scoffing, Roman continued to ramble as Mercury’s eyes widened a little, his smirk widening gradually, “I wish! I tripped over some ice cream girl’s luggage, and then her Scroll started flashing words at me, and then she stepped on Cudgel, and then everything exploded, and then she started texting even more, and I felt really, really bad, and now I just wanna apologise to her!” By that point he was gripping the rim on his hat tightly, tugging it to cover his eye and ears; so it was no surprise that he shrieked and fell into Mercury when an airhorn blasted in his ear. Thankfully the latter was able to catch him under the arms and prop him back up to face Neo, who held her Scroll firmly with her eyebrows furrowed.

--You’re so jumpy! Wish I’d known that when you blew up a cliff!--

“Oh my Gods, you really did it.”

“It wasn’t my fault.” Once brushed off, Roman waved his hands, attempting to apologise again to Neo. All he got in response was a wall of text and a linked article to a Dust usage site, but anything projected was lost on him again. Not a fast reader.

She obviously caught on from the last time. --You wanna make things up to me?—Roman nodded in his stupor. She tugged his Scroll from out of his pocket, typed something in and shoved it back into his hands. --Look at the website.--

Mercury knew a patchy relationship when he saw one, so he slung his arms around the shorter students and stood between them. “Look, it sounds like you two got off on a really wrong foot. Why don’t you just start over and try to be pals, yeah?”

“Great idea, Merc.” Clearing his throat, Roman stuck out his hand with a smile. “Hi there, Neo. I’m Roman. Wanna hang out some time? We can go shopping or something.”

Neo rolled her eyes with a pout and turned away from him. Her attention became quickly transfixed on where Headmistress Salem and Adrian were now on a broad stage at the front of the auditorium, Salem before a microphone. She tapped it slightly and the feedback drew the attention of every head in the room.

“I’ll … keep this brief.” Adrian rolled his eyes beside her. “You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your artistry and acquire new skills, and when you have completed all this, you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of this world and its people.” Eyes narrowed slightly, Salem scanned over the hundreds of students before she sighed. “But when I look amongst you, all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose and direction.” She continued even amongst the whispers breaking out. “You assume knowledge will release you from all this, but the time you spend here will prove that knowledge can only carry you and your duties so far. It is truly up to you to take the first step.”

As quickly as Salem arrived on the stage she was gone, and Adrian took his stride to the microphone in her wake. He began to direct students toward the ballroom for the night to prepare for initiation, but Mercury and Roman’s eyes trailed after Salem.

“She seemed kinda … off.”

“Like she wasn’t even there.” Beside Roman, Neo pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

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The ballroom was much comfier and spread out than Roman expected, especially considering the amount of students had come to initiation. He and Mercury had chosen a spot dead in the middle rows of sleeping cots, with Mercury already off talking to people like some sort of socialite, as Roman scribbled into a notebook. The page was already decorated with numbers and random abbreviations for several things when Mercury crashed into the cot next to him, decked out in pajamas.

“It’s like one huuuuge slumber party!”

Roman didn’t look up as his brother spoke. “I don’t think Dad would approve of all the company.”

“I know I do.” Rolling onto his front, Mercury purred and soaked in the sight of muscular girls and shirtless boys until Cinder – simple nightgown and all – waved at him from a couple rows over. He cringed and went back to Roman. “Hey, what’s that?”

“Keeping track of my spending again. It’s not something I can give up so easily, you know this.”

“Romeooooo!” A pillow slammed down hard into Mercury’s face.

“Shut it! Not like I have anything better to do.” Slamming his book shut and tucking it under his pillow, Roman tucked his arms behind his head and laid back. “It’s weird having to talk to people and not knowing anyone.”

“What about Cinder? She’s … less awkward than you. There you go! Plus one friend. Hundred percent boost.”

Roman shot back to sitting up, scowling. “Pretty sure Neo doesn’t count. So back down to zero I go.” Mercury glared at him like he was in a padded cell.

“You’re insane, right?” Another pillow tried to suffocate him, this one looking like a Goliath and pinned until he kicked his little brother off. “Look, it’s only been a single day. Trust me. You’ve got potential friends and business partners all around you! Just haven’t put yourself out there yet.”

Before he could continue his brotherly pep talk, the two brothers turned around at the shoulder of a lighter being unclipped. The person holding it, green framing their face evenly, red eyes lit up by the flicker of flames, allowed the lighter to carry to a single candle next to them before tucking it away again. They then sat against the wall, a book opened in their lap and attention immediately on the pages rather than the softly burning candle.

Roman blinked, mouth slightly ajar. “That person …”

“You know them?”

“Eh, not really. They saw what happened with Neo, but left before I could say anything.”

Mercury’s eyes immediately lit up. Grinning widely, he grabbed Roman’s arm and lifted him up to drag him toward the person by the candle.

“Wait! What are we doing?”

Eyes lifted over the edge of the book to see the boys approaching them, the smaller unsuccessfully struggling against his brother’s grip. He only let go once they were both in front of them.

“Hey-aaaaa!” Mercury called, pressing the book down so the person couldn’t avoid the conversation. “I believe you might know my brother?”

“Aren’t you that boy with the shotgun cane?” The reader looked at Roman incredulously with their eyes occasionally darting back to glance at Mercury.

“Yeah. My name’s Roman, but you can just call me Explosion – “ His momentary smile faltered under their gaze and a hand flew to the nape of his neck, scratching at the veins there in nervous twitches. “Actually, yeah, just call me Roman.”

Nobody present looked comfortable, so the stranger yanked their book from Mercury’s grasp and tucked their head back into it. Hands now free Mercury grabbed his brother around the neck, tugged him toward him and frantically whispered in his ear, “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know – help me.”

“So!” He flung his arms out, releasing his brother again. The stranger peered up through their bangs. “What’s your name?”

A sigh. “Emerald.”

“Well, Emerald, I’m Mercury, Roman’s big brother. I like your gloves.”

“Thanks,” Emerald growled, irritation beginning to seep into their voice.

“Just saying, they go great with your … hair, I guess.” He trailed off. It was extremely difficult to compliment someone who didn’t hold up well in a conversation, and who didn’t seem to be looking to continue one in the first place. Emerald hoped that point was evident enough, so they tried to bury their attention back into their book. “Nice night, right?”

“Yes!” They slammed the book shut. “It’s lovely. Almost as lovely as this interesting book!” Mercury, hands raised slightly in reflex to the loud noise, stepped to the side a little so he was in front of Roman. “That I will continue to read as soon as you leave me alone.”

Mercury crossed his arms and tried to usher his brother away, muttering under his breath about Emerald being a lost cause, but Roman side-stepped around him. Sitting on his calves and putting his hands on his knees, he peered curiously at the book in their hands.

“What’s it about?”

“What?” Their eyes widened in surprise. Both at his question and in how he approached them. His voice was softer now, quieter. Much quieter than his brother.

“Your book.”

“It’s … it’s about a woman with two minds, one her own and the other belonging to her estranged mother.”

Before he could make a quip about it Mercury got swatted in the leg by his brother. Admittedly, it didn’t hurt, but he was still surprised at Roman’s nonchalance in the action.

“Stories are nice. Mercury used to read to me once a week if he wasn’t busy. Stories about heroes and monsters and villains …” Roman’s lips quirked in a soft smile. “They’re one the reasons I considered becoming a Huntsman at all.”

Emerald smiled slightly and chuckled under their breath. “And that’s why? Hoping you’re going to live happily ever after?”

“No such thing.” Emerald blinked at him, nodding as their book came to rest on their lap instead of in their hands. “As a kid, I was more entertained with all those quests and treasures … Something worth fighting for, and trying to fix something by the end of the day.”

“That’s … pretty rational for a kid.” Even though it was momentary, Emerald’s smile flickered to their lips. However, a distant and unreadable look glazed over it quickly. “Unfortunately, reality likes to sabotage what we try to fix.”

Roman’s smile faltered a little, but he reached out and pressed a gentle hand to the cover of Emerald’s book. “That’s why we’re here.”

It was a nice moment. A wonderful one, in fact, until Mercury hauled his brother up off the floor in a bear hug, Roman’s legs kicking out in retaliation. “I’m so proud of my baby brother!” Instead of releasing him when Roman tried pushing away, Mercury squeezed him tighter. Emerald was happy to simply observe, sighing softly in memory of the interrupted conversation.

The tussle only came to an end several seconds later when Neo stormed over, pajama-clad and a foldable fan between her fingers. As Roman trapped Mercury’s arm in his own, she swatted at him and smacked the fan over his head before pressing a finger to her lips. Roman immediately let go and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Oh, not you again!” Mercury yelled, Neo wincing slightly.

“Merc, she’s right! People are sleeping!”

Neo rolled her eyes and glared at Mercury in distaste.

“What’s your deal with my brother? He’s being nice to you, be grateful!”

Emerald, rolling their eyes as well at the one-sided argument, simply blew out the candle and forefitted any other attempts at interaction for the night.

Chapter Text

He was barely looking forward to this. Initiation, frankly speaking, was a waste of time if he’d already been accepted. However, his small friend was much more eager, as evidenced by the wavy purplish-brown hair hanging in his face as he blearily opened his eyes. The smaller boy was already leaning over him, dressed and grinning like a madman.

“Wake up, sparky!”

As his friend scampered off, the young man still on the floor sat up with a groan.

“It’s morning! It’s morning! It’s mo-orning!”

He sighed again and pushed up off the floor. His friend didn’t stop talking while they were in the student bathroom, the taller trying to fix his hair and the smaller adjusting his outfit sporadically as if he wasn’t already fine as is.

“I cannot be-lieve we’ve been at Beacon for an entire twenty-four hours! I honestly figured we’d get kicked out by now! I mean, you’re probably way too smart for this place and I’m – well, we don’t talk about me! But it’s weird, y’know?”

Grabbing his friend by the scruff of the neck, he dragged him back to ballroom to help clearing up. Instead his friend kept talking and talking as he kicked his packed-up sleeping bag around and braided his ponytail.

“We’ve been friend for so long! What are the odds you’d still be with me? Not like, “with me-with me”. Not that I’m saying you’re not incredible; you are really incredible, but that’d just be crazy, right?”

More hair-dragging and this time to the cafeteria. Even food couldn’t shut him up. Not that he particularly minded, it filled the silence that both of them were so uncomfortable with. Muffling, however, was an option.

“Right! What was I even thinking! But still, I hope we end up on the same team!” The small boy tore right through his breakfast waffles, lifting the plate to drink the syrup before slamming it back down, grin bright. “We should figure out a plan, to make sure we end up together! What if we blackmail the headmistress?” Narrow eyes peered at him incredulously. “No, you’re right. She has a school.”

His motormouth was coming to head once they finally hit the locker room, suited up and ready for battle spare their weapons. As he fiddled with the cables in his hands running up his sleeves, his friend frantically sharpened up the folding blades on his bracers.

“We could have a signal, then! A secret signal, so we can find each other in the forest!” From his bench, he flopped down, bracers equipped and eyes brightly staring at the taller of the pair. “Can you imitate a Creep?”

Finally, with a smile, he replied, “Tyrian?”

“Yeah, Watts?”

“I don’t think Creeps are heard all that much.” Watts slammed his locker shut and leaned against it, arms crossed and cables curled around his biceps and forearms under his coat sleeves. Quizzically, Tyrian blinked at his friend for a moment before lighting back up. He bounced off the bench and onto his feet.

“Exactly! It’s perfect! No one will suspect you’re working with me!” He was obviously proud of himself. Watts wasn’t about to take that away from him.

Instead he shook his head, smiled, and began to leave. “Come on Tyrian, let’s go.”

“Not like “with me-with me” or anything …” He chuckled to himself and trailed after Watts faithfully.

Careful to not attract the energetic boy’s attention, Roman peeked around his locker and watched the pair trail out. “Wonder what those two are talkin’ about.” Behind him, Mercury sat on another of the benches, tugging on his boots and rolling his ankles to stretch them out.

“Oh, who cares? You seem awful chipper this morning.”

“Yessir!” Roman rummaged through his locker. “No more awkward small talk or getting-to-know-you crap today! Now, I get to let my darling do the talking for me.” Melodic Cudgel cradled in his arms for a moment, he slipped in down to his hip and clipped it it his belt. Mercury rolled his eyes, Talaria clanking a bit as he strode over and patted his brother through his hat.

“Remember, Romeo, you’re not the only one going through initiation. If you wanna grow up, you’re gonna have to interact with people and learn to share!” He mocked in a condenscing tone. He knew it annoyed Roman to no end, just being talked down to, and he was able to dodge the slap Roman aimed at his arm.

Groaning, Roman slammed himself against his locker, knocking the door shut. “You sound stupid! First of all, what does meeting people have to do with any of this?! And secondly,” he got up in his brother’s space, pointing accusedly into his chest. “I’m much more grown up than you. May I remind you who pays the rent and monthly costs back home?”

“And what about team formation?”

…

He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I don’t know, I … I’ll just be on your team! Easy.”

Mercury inhaled sharply through his teeth. His hand reached up and began carding through his hair repeatedly, desperately trying to shakle off the tremors that flowed before they hit his feet. “Maybe you could be on someone else’s team? Like Neo’s or –“

“My dearest brother Mercury, are you implying that you don’t want to be on a team with me?”

“No! No, no, of course! I just figured … maybe it would help you break out!”

“I don’t need to break out, or whatever that means! That’s just –“

Roman trailed off on his tirades, half of his speech just becoming random growls and mumbles before he went back to yelling at his brother. Aside from him, Cinder scampered past, kitten heels clicking against the floor and head whipping around in slight distress.

“There is no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday. I would’ve remembered passing the 630 mark.”

She tugged out her Scroll and flicked into her notes. She continued to search as she passed Neo, who was already prepped perfectly and standing beside a young man in a long broadcoat.

--Hazel, have you given thought to whose team you’d like to be on? I’m certain everyone must be doubling over themselves to unite with such a strong, well-known warrior.--

Hazel’s gaze dipped a little before he smiled down at her. “I’m not sure. I was merely planning on accepting what I’m given.”

If Neo could she would pinch herself. Instead she excitably typed into her Scroll, the wall of text popping up soon after. --I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together.-- She was sure her composure on the outside was enough to distract from how quickly she put that in.

“Well, that’s sounds nice.”

--Great!--

Smiling brightly as she could, Neo quickly swung open her locker and ran through her plan in her mind, an almost manic smile decorating her face in replacement. She rapped her fingers against her Scroll and nodded to herself – of course he would want to be on her team, and she would be on his! They were both so powerful in their crafts and if they got two other perfect teammates, nothing would stand in their way. Everything was so wonderful about this, it almost made her lose composure entirely.

Unfortunately, her train of thought derailed with the arrival of Cinder, who slammed Neo’s locker door shut and stepped between her and Hazel. “You know what else is great? Me. Cinder Fall. Nice to meet you.”

Neo whipped around, eye twitching slightly, but she barely had the time to type anything before Hazel stepped around Cinder and aligned himself in Cinder’s gaze. All Neo could do was look on in disbelief. “Nice to meet you too, Cinder.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The taller of the girls nudged her way aside from Hazel, leaning up against Neo’s locker again. She was posing. Obviously, at that. “So, Neo, couldn’t help but see you and Roman chatting about me the other day.”

Was she serious? Cinder thought Roman and her were talking about her. Neo rolled her eyes as violently as possible and tightened her grip around her Scroll.

“No need to feel embarrassed. It’s understandable. So, I’ve been hearing rumors about teams! I was thinking that maybe you …” she tapped a finger to Neo’s forehead lightly. “and me might make a good one! What do you say?”

Neo was seriously about to break this girl’s hand. She would much rather be talking to Hazel again, or Roman, or even her pseudo-father over Cinder!

Thank everything that Hazel stepped in again, separating the progressively rabid Neo from the increasingly flirtations of Cinder. “Actually, I think teams are formed of four students, so – “

“You don’t say.” New target. “Well, hot stuff, play the right cards and you might end up on the winning team.”

Bright blue flashed into Cinder face, a Scroll being shoved in her direction with white text appearing. She needed to put a stop to this. NOW. --Cinder, was it? Do you have any idea as to who you are talking to?-- Cinder peered behind the Scroll and, despite the furious look on its holder’s face, continued to hold that flirtatious tone.

“Not in the slightest, snow cone.”

Hazel waved slightly. “Hey.”

Instead of dignifying the name with a proper answer, Neo bought up article after article of Hazel’s achievements. Graduation from Sanctum, winning the Mistral Regional Tournaments four years in a row, appearing on cereal boxes – only that last one got Cinder’s attention. She gasped.

“That was you?” She clapped and bounced lightly. “But they only do that for star warriors and cartoon characters!”

“Yeah, it was nice. The cereal isn’t too healthy for you, though.”

Neo stormed back into their frame of reference beside Hazel, glaring at Cinder once more and cocking an eyebrow. Cinder immediately crumbled and her shoulders sagged in realization. “Oh … uh, sorry.”

As she hung her head, Hazel smiled softly and lifted it back up by her chin. “Actually, Cinder, I think you would make a fine teammate!”

“Oh, stop it!” And she was back to being brighter than the sun.

--Really, do stop. This shouldn’t be encouraged in any way.--

“Sounds like Hazel’s on board for Team Cinder. Spots are filling up quick! Now, I’m not really supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings, pick out a place.” Her hands sizzled a little as she leaned down just so to get in Neo’s personal space. That was enough. Officially and physically uncomfortable, Neo snapped her fingers and shattered into glass at Cinder’s feet, shaking the taller girl visibly until she reappeared behind her.

Cinder only managed to look back in time to catch the sight of Neo’s umbrella before it smacked into her gut, sending her flying into a pillar. Satisfied, Neo strutted past Hazel with her right hand on her hip and Hush still in her left.

Hazel called, “Apologies.” after Cinder.

An announcement began to play over the speakers across the locker room, attracting everyone’s attention. It was Adrian again. “Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first year students to Beacon Cliff immediately.”

Neo passed Cinder, delivering her another smack – this time to her hip, followed by Hazel, who waved to her meekly. She waved back, slumping back against the pillar and rubbing her hip until Mercury and Roman approached, wherein she grabbed Roman’s extended hand to help her up.

“Having troubles there, Hot Stuff?”

“I don’t understand. My dad said that all people look for is confidence! What did I do wrong?”

Roman cringed a bit. “Maybe don’t go with “snow cone” next time. Let’s go.”

Mercury led the two out of the locker room and up to the cliff. Said cliff turned out to overlook a red yet lucious forest, and was decorated with several metal platforms – one for each student – that were obviously painted over. Roman could make out a bit of rust through the silver paint. Before the lined up students were Professor Salem, holding a teacup, and Adrian, tablet in hand.

Salem spoke up first. “For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Ruby Forest.”

“Now,” Adrian stepped forward. “I’m sure many of you have heard and spread the rumours about the assembly of teams. Allow us to put an end to your confusion. You will be given teammates … today.”

Roman groaned.

Salem strode to be level with Adrian again, sipping from her teacup. Whatever it was filled with. “These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is your upmost interest that you pair with someone with whom you can co-operate.”

He tugged his hat over his eyes. Nothing could get worse. Nothing.

“That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. In every sense of the term.”

Multiple shocked gasps and confused murmurs erupted across the first-years, with only Tyrian being the one to speak up, “I knew it! I told you!” obviously directed at Watts.

“After you’ve partnered up, make your way to the southern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the path. Do not hesitate to kill everything in your path … or you will die.”

Roman could hear the nervous laughter from further along the line.

“You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of this cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?” Cinder raised her hand but instinctively flinched in down again. “Excellent! Take your positions.”

Tyrian huddled down low, practically onto his haunches with his fingertips pressed down to the cool metal. Watts commanded the cables to rest in his hands. Mercury stamped his feet before spreading them apart in a ready position.

Cinder hesitantly raised her hand again. “Ma’am? I have a … small question.” The tile under Neo raised up into a springboard out her view. The small girl rocketed through the air as other platforms activated down the line. “So, this landing strategy we’re supposed to have. What is it? You’re dropping us off down there?”

“No. You’re falling.”

“Did I miss getting a parachute?”

“No. You will be using yourself and your abilities to land.”

Without her noticing, everyone else had been launched. Mercury had even let out a loud, excited yell as he soared off a second before his brother shot off too. Cinder’s eyes widened by a significant margin as she realized what she was about to do, but it was too late. She was hurled into the air with the others, who made their way down into the forest below under the eyes of their new teachers.

Salem took another sip from her teacup.

Chapter Text

Feathers flew. A bird’s flight had been crudely interrupted by Roman, who tumbled through the air in a ball before he tugged loose Melodic Cudgel. He fired a few flares forward from the barrel to slow him down, then turning the cane to fire off the handle like a grappling hook. It caught on the branch of a tree, sturdy enough to support his weight, and it halted him with a jerk. Once completely still, he clicked a button and held on tight as the wire reeled out, lowering him to the forest floor.

Canopy open, Neo was already managing to fall at a slower pace. An illusion-like Nevermore, surrounded by an aura of soft pink and bright white, spread its wings underneath her, allowing her to leap off of it and float closer down to the floor at a more controlled rate. The Nevermore shattered and fell as rapidly disappearing glitter.

As Tyrian soared past at a much faster speed and a grin, Watts spun in the air. The Dust wires in his cables triggered and stone blades structured themselves at the tips, soon stabbed into the trunk of a tree so he could spiral. He hit the ground with a quiet thud, brushing himself off before he caught sight of someone else soaring overhead.

Mercury fired off shot after shot from his Talaria, each shot’s force enough to push him through the air further and further south, spinning and grinning with every blast. Even when he crashed through the crimson leaves, he smiled widely, bouncing off two tree trunks to tumblr to the ground.

“Landing stuck!” He run off as soon as he landed.

From under his coat Hazel pulled a large green Dust crystal and two smaller red ones, the largest shaped like a spear and grasped tight in his right hand, and the other two ending up stabbed into his left bicep. He tumbled through several of the trees and rolled onto a branch, immediately shading his eyes with his free hand to spot Cinder, who was still panicked and now smoking as she rocketed through the air. Hazel took a cooling breath and aimed before throwing the spear, the crystal soaring deep into the forest after Cinder until he heard its impact.

Cinder’s voice echoed out, “Thank you!”

“Apologies!” He leapt down from the branch to search for his weapon and friend.

As quickly as Roman had touched the forest floor he began running. In his mind all he could think of was finding someone a little bit nice to partner with, and as such the first name that came out of his mouth was, “Merc! Mercury!”

When he got no answer, he rattled off people he knew to himself. There was always Cinder. She was nice and fun! Not very coordinated, at all, but with a little bit of work they could work.

Emerald was a good option too. They liked books, and the mysterious allure was probably great to keep people from looking at either of them. Then again, he wasn’t exactly psyched about either of them holding a conversation with other teammates, seeing as neither of them were … great at talking.

Roman shook his head frantically and kept himself focused on running. He only knew those three people here! Well, there was one other, and lo and behold she appeared. Neo turned to face him as he skidded to a halt, just in time for their eyes to meet.

She promptly turned on her heel and strode away.

“Wait!” he yelled, almost attempting to follow her. He stopped short and kicked up some of the fallen leaves. “We’re supposed to team up.”

Struggling through the piles of leaves and frequent shrubs, Neo scanned the area frantically for a different partner, in too deep to glance back at Roman. She perked up with she heard a voice from above, but she immediately regretted leaving Roman behind. Cinder was stuck to a tree by Hazel’s crystal spear, legs kicking up and long hair somewhat caught where her glove and hand were pinned to the bark. As she gave up, she glanced down and spotted Neo, sheepishly waving until Neo turned and strutted away to Roman again. Cinder’s head thunked back against the bark.

As she passed him, Neo hauled Roman over her shoulder and continued to walk into the bushes. He didn’t expect this in the slightest, but commented with a hopeful little giggle, “You came back?”

“Wait! Please come back!” Cinder reached out with her free hand before going lax again. “Great. Who’s gonna get me down?”

A voice called up. “Cinder?” She peered down and there was Hazel, smiling up at him. “Do you … have any spots open on your team?”

She crossed her free arm in defiance for a moment, but eventually looked back down, returning the smile.

Meanwhile, Neo had dropped Roman from her shoulder and was strolling through the forest, gazing up at the trees and falling leaves, while Roman hurried to catch up with her. “What’s the hurry?”

--I’m not letting anything be delayed by slowness. And if I get a bad grade, Ironwood will – -- She never finished her typing. Instead she stared bemused at a grinning Roman, who suddenly ran up beside her with immense speed, yet no sign of a Semblance. Her lips quirked up.

“I’m not slow! Don’t have anything to worry about.”

She furrowed her brow slightly trying to puzzle out what she just saw, and Roman apparently mistook it as frustration.

“Neo, just because I’m a penny pincher doesn’t mean I don’t know how to run away! Trust me, you learn to not get caught.” He hooked an arm around Neo’s, linking them like a chain. “You’re about to see a totally different side to me, and after this is over, you’re gonna be like, Woah! That Torchwick guy is really, really great …” he trailed off, peeking at her out of the corner of his eye. “and I wanna give him money.”

He disappeared back out, his coat in a flutter, into the trees and shrubs. All before Neo could grab at the coat to follow him. She looked around a bit, eyes darting, and crackling and rustling erupted from the bushes. She rotated in her place as pair upon pair of red eyes stared at her from between the trees and behind the bushes and advancing on her slowly. In an act of desperation, she clapped loudly and proceeded to point Hush at a Beowolf as it leaped toward her.

Chapter Text

He was starting to get bored.

Okay, he was already very bored. Like, extremely so.

All Mercury was seeing was trees, bushes, leaves, trees, more trees, ectetera. Not noticing a shadow passing behind him, he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Hello?” He started kicking at the leaves, tossing them up in the air to watch them fall absently. “Is anyone there? Hello?” Something rustled in the bushes. Finally! He jogged over and parted the shrubbery. “Romeo, is that you?”

Something growled lowly instead of speaking, and Mercury’s lips quirked in a smile as he stared up at it.

“No.”

He quickly rolled to the side as a Griffon charged out of the sea of crimson, getting up and locking Talaria into action as soon as he was upright again. After staring the monster down for a second, another came lunging out behind him, only missing thanks to a left-ways dodge. Its companion ran at him again, only to get knocked back by a shocking kick. The other Griffon soared at him too, and Mercury managed sliding under it smoothly and delivered several kicks and a single punch to send the monster flying back into a tree.

He rolled his ankles. “You guys wouldn’t happen to have seen a boy in a white coat, would’ya?” Growls were not a suitable response so he dodged the swipes aimed toward his face. “Gods, you two couldn’t hit the broad side of a ba …”
As he reached up to curl his hands into fists again, something splattered onto the back of his knuckles. Something wet. A single drop of blood had smudged against the faux leather of his fingerless gloves and was now sliding between his bare fingers. He could feel the cut on his cheek where the Griffon scratched him bleeding the smallest bit.

“You…” His eyes dipped closed, then ripped back open, dilating down to pinpricks as he screamed. “You monsters!”

A blast of air kicked up upon his foot stamping on the ground, and he rocketed forward, unleashing a combination of tremor-inducing kicks and blows on the offending Griffon. That sent it flying, shattering several trees, as its partner soared low from its new perch, only stopping short under Mercury’s pinprick gaze.

He flung out his arms, lips twisted into a crude imitation of a smile, blood still trickling down his cheek. “What! You want some, too, yeah?!”

The Griffon bore its claws, completely ready to either be battered to bits or shred the boy to slithers – right when a gentle churring metal noise rattled out and the mosnter squawked out desperately. It fell and revealed one Emerald, sickle revolvers in the Griffon’s back. Mercury went from panting coarsing with adrenaline to sighing in exhaustion as Emerald reclaimed their blades from the corpse. They sheathed Thief’s Respite in leather casings and smiled softly. His eyes zeroed in on them and returned to normal in a blink.

“Ah, I could’ve taken her.”

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

Utterly surrounded by Beowolves, the only thing that deflected an incoming swipe was Hush’s canopy, though Neo herself still got pushed into the centre of the circle again. Holding out the umbrella, a blade shot from the top as she lifted her head, shoulders back, and shuffled her left foot forward as her breathing stopped entirely. She flung her arm out and dashed, aimed to slash at a Beowolf before her –

Only for something in a white coat bearing a cane and trailing gunpowder. A blast shot into the Beowolf’s jaw and it disintegrated instantly.

“Nailed it!”

Neo, in a panic, swung her blade backwards instead of forward, Hush immediately flying out of her grasp as she tumbled forward.

Roman was able to catch her roughly.

The same could not be said for Hush.

The blade soared and cut through the trunk of a tree entirely, said tree quickly collapsing into another to create a chain reaction of the clearing being caved in cleanly and thoroughly. As soon as Neo was back in her feet a Beowolf was on Roman, giant claws scratching Melodic Cudgel and sending him back into Neo. Her arms flew to catch him, but he set himself upright and fired into the monster’s head before the handle of Cudgel hooked into Hush and flung it back into Neo’s hands. She promptly smacked the back of his head.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that to kill me,” he whispered, back to back with his partner, still surrounded by Grimm.

There was zero time to fight their way out of the situation. There was, however, an opening when the forest’s collapse hadn’t reach yet, so in a blind moment of hope, she grabbed his wrist, took off running and slid them under a collapsing tree out of the clearing and into the wider Ruby Forest. Grimm howling and fleeing rang behind them.

Once a safe ways from the destruction, Roman braced himself against a tree. Neo leaned over herself and rubbed a hand between her eyes as he turned to glare at her.

“What was that?! That should’ve been easy!”

--Maybe if you had cooperated a bit with those stupid flares, I wouldn’t have had to divert my strikes!--

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He stepped in closer. He knew full well that he was barely a hair taller than her and little more intimidation factor than a Saint Bernard, so the way she flinched against his gaze made him narrow his eyes. What …

--Don’t come any closer to me.--

Clenching his jaw, he tentatively took a step back and watched Neo storm off, hands balled around her umbrella and Scroll, threatening to snap both. With an infuriated shriek he aimed Cudgel squarely into the air and let off three flares in perfect sync, one after the other, before he marched angrily after her.

Neither seemed to notice a quiet chirring from an enormous burrow nearby.

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

Flares soared overhead, three in succinct order right after each other. The moment they popped with loud bangs Cinder’s head whipped around, gazing up at the fading lights as she slowed for a second. Hazel followed suit for a moment before continuing on.

“Don’t worry.” Her eyes lingered on the spot where the flares popped while her head turned to Hazel. When she finally made eye contact his expression was soft, a hand coming to rest on her shoulder. “We’re partnered up for a reason. Someone probably just got lost.” Wringing her hands together, Cinder nodded, choosing to distract herself by trotting along after Hazel again.

They made their way through the shrubs and trees no problem, passing large clearings, clustered with floors made of twigs and leaves likely from the canopies. It was easy to guess that. From what Cinder could tell they were at a higher altitude than the rest of the forest, so the Nevermores probably made their nests on the raised grounds and flat heads of the hills. The nests were cool to look at despite any logic behind them; she never really got the chance living out in –

“OW!”

Suddenly she was face down on the forest floor. The jagged ground proved to be her undoing while she was staring at the clearings-turned-nests, now front-first in a cluster of thorned bushes. Hazel immediately rushed back, reaching out his hands to haul her back up and out of the thorns, but the removal just cut Cinder up a lot more, all along her legs and arms and some on her face. Great.

“Are you alright?”

Cinder groaned, but flashed a bright smile up at her partner. “Fine. Just some cuts. Nothing some bandages won’t fix,” she chuckled. Before her hands could go rummaging in the bags on her belt, Hazel caught her wrist as lightly as he could.
“Just activate your Aura. They’ll heal quicker that way.”

“My what?”

“Your Aura.” Hazel let go of her wrist and rested his hands on his hips. He had this befuddled look on his face, like she’d said something wrong. It reminded Cinder of her brother. “Cinder, do you know what Aura is?” She shook her head tentatively. “You have your Semblance, right?” She nodded.

Hazel clapped his hands together, and resumed his soft look from earlier as he took a seat on the ground, beckoning Cinder to sit beside him. Once she did so, he took her calloused hands in his scarred ones.

“Aura is the manifestation of our souls. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing someone was there?”

“Ever since I was little.”

“With practice, Aura can be a shield in every sense of the word. Everyone has it, even the animals.”

“And the monsters?”

“Grimm. No. They lack souls, the manifestation of anonymity. They are corruption, and we are innocence.”

“And that’s why Hunters fight them.”

“It’s not about why. It’s about knowing. Understanding the balance helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has been touched by corruption, but everyone still has their innocence. By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when you fight.”

“Like a force field?”

“More like a guardian angel.”

Shifting both of her hands into the palm of one of his, Hazel pressed his free hand against Cinder’s cheek. “Now, close your eyes and concentrate, please.” She hesitantly did so, and as did Hazel, his skin glowing and the Dust crystals piercing his upper arm glowing fiercely. The glow spread to Cinder, turning from a dull crimson over Hazel to a bright orange over her.

“For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death.” Releasing Cinder’s hands, he pressed his newly free hand to Cinder’s chest. “I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.”

He was extremely thankful that he suggested they sit down beforehand, because the wave of shock that came with unlocking her Aura would’ve sent his knees buckling. Instead he just released where he was touching his partner and laid his hands flat on his knees, breathing quite heavily. His glow faded promptly, but Cinder’s orange kept washing over her in waves.

Her eyes flickered open and her hands hovered over Hazel in worry. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. I used my Aura to unlock yours so it can protect you.” He took her hands again and helped her to her feet as he clambered up too. It was only when he heard a slight sizzling that he realized Cinder’s Semblance had activated spontaneously and his skin was roasting a little bit. She clearly hadn’t noticed yet, so he slowly lifted his hands away from hers. “You seem to have a lot of it.”

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Elsewhere, Watts continued along. He’d been walking for close to thirty minutes and 45 seconds now, and still no sign of Tyrian anywhere. As much as he appeared otherwise, Watts despised the quiet. It left him alone with his thoughts and far too often had that landed him in immense trouble, as Tyrian could attest … if he were around. However, seeing as he was not, Watts found himself wandering aimlessly, listening for Grimm and to the gunfire and blades in the background of the forest.

His eyes narrowed suddenly. Something large, thick and pure black rose up behind him, the rumbles against the ground notifying Watts beforehand, so the second it surrounded him with its hissing body, he dodged the piercing fangs before they could strike. The snake’s mouth struck the ground but rebounded to smack a rapidly jumping Watts with its snout. His hands dragging against leaves and buried dirt, he landed in a crouch and the serpent surrounded him again. Cables in his sleeves, decorated with their sharp metal points, sprung from his collar, sleeves and pockets in floating, telekinetic holds, as if they were tethered to his body. He jumped up again and triggered the fire Dust wires inside. The metal points buckled back and arcs of fire released at the monster.

A swift kick followed into its snout and the electric Dust wires triggered, sending bolts of lighting right to its head. It continued to flow around him, though, and bolted to bite at him again, but he flipped and shoved the electrically charged cables into the back of the snake’s head. He only paused for a moment.

There was another head.

Blanker than the snow in Solitas, the white head bore itself from where it was buried under the shining, dying leaves. It launched itself at him and he rolled to dodge, landing in time to watch it sliver toward him so he could get a head start. He dashed toward the black head to slide over its body and send fresh fire at the white one. Apparently they worked at a similar mainframe, but that didn’t prepare him to be struck by the white head’s snout, knocking him off the black section and the cables limp as he lost control.

Before the colossal snake could have its fill, he gritted his teeth and gripped the fangs that dripped poison around his face, narrowly missing his outfit and arms. A faint, pulsating purple washed over him as one of the cables resumed his control and equipped its metal point again, coming up to slice through the teeth. Now armed with the giant fangs of his enemy, he stabbed one through its eyes and drove the other into its skull. The head blew apart in a blank white mess as the headless body draped helplessly over its twin. Wasting little time, he gripped the fangs again and rushed for the black head.

It happened much the same way, minus the removal of fangs. He didn’t need that mess again. With both corpses withering away almost instantly, the cables retracted back into his jacket as he brushed himself off. He smiled slightly and huffed amusedly when he heard a strange growling noise followed by a “Wait, no.” and a more visceral sound up in the canopy of the trees, at least 30 feet above his head.

Watts tilted his head up and smiled more clearly, arms crossed and eyes hooded, at the small braided-ponytailed boy perched in the highest branches on his haunches. He was grinning right back. After he swung down to the lowest branches, Tyrian hooked his legs over a branch and hung upside down to meet the eyes of his childhood friend.

“Did I get it right?”

“I’m still not so sure that’s what a Creep sounds like.”

Instead of pouting huffily, Tyrian grinning brighter and tapped Watts’ nose, squeaking out “Zap!” as he did.

Chapter Text

Still up on the cliffs, Salem sipped from her teacup. It was anyone’s guess what was in it, not even she knew. She trusted the Faunus girl who bought her this kind of tea on her first day, after all. In her other hand was her Scroll, all together overlooking the Ruby Forest from Beacon Cliff. A little ways across, Adrian paced habitually, brandishing his tablet.

“The last pair has been formed, ma’am,” he reported, stepping up to walk toward Salem as his screen depicting Tyrian swinging down from the trees to meet eyes with Watts. “Tyrian Callows and Arthur Watts. Poor boy … I couldn’t possibly imagine those two getting close. Still, they’re probably better off together than with Miss Fall.” Swiping across, he took to observing Hazel and Cinder as they got up off the ground and continued through the highest forest reaches.

Salem hummed idly.

Adrian huffed. “I don’t care what her past reports say. She is not ready for level of team cooperation or …” He trailed off, deactivated the tablet and went back to his pacing, now holding the tech under his arm. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. At their current pace, they should hit the temple within just a few minutes.”

No response from Salem, so he halted flat and strode up to stand beside her. He knew the relics would not be the same as last year, and she would never tell him what they are now, but the silence over them still irked him.
“Professor Salem?”

She still didn’t answer. Her Scroll, from what Adrian could see out of his periphiral, displayed Roman kicking around at leaves and dead grass while his partner walked back and forth, side to side, left to right in desperate paces.

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

--It’s probably this way.-- She stopped. Right was up north, not south.

--I mean this way! It’s definitely this way!-- No, no, that would end them up going east. Which way were they even going now? South? They were meant to go south, but they could’ve gotten turned around just as easily back at the Beowolves.

She sighed silently and stopped beside Roman, who had begun tearing up stray leaves he could catch. After elbowing him in the arm a bit, he looked down to her Scroll. –Alright, it’s official – looks like we passed it.--

“Neo,” Roman strutted forward a yard or so, hands in his pockets. “why don’t we just admit we have no idea where we’re going?” A flat pause. “And by we, I mean you.”

--I know where we’re going! We going to the Forest Temple!—Roman raked his hands over his face as he turned away from her, only to be grabbed by the shoulder and flipped around so she could shove her Scroll in his face. –Not like you know where we are!--

“At least I’m not acting like I know everything.”

--And what’s that supposed to mean?--

“It means, you’re a tiny dumb jerk, and I hate you!” Stamping his foot, he glared daggers into Neo’s eyes. Their staring only broke when Neo shook her head and spun around, her hands flitting around as she walked off in another direction.

(Just keep moving.)

It took him a hot second to get his bearings back. Upon realizing that it was probably sign language, he stormed after her, raising his voice in frustration, “I don’t know what that means! Stop being so difficult with me!”

Aaaaand that was an immense mistake.

When she whipped around again, her eyes were so wide she looked like she was about to start crying. Her breath was turned labored and her fingers took to tremors. If possible Roman was sure she would’ve started yelling at him, but instead she put a crack in her Scroll’s screen and shoved in in her jacket pocket. Her sleeve caught her tears as they fell and she slowly began to walk away.

“Wait, Neo …” he tried to call after her, but when she flinched, he stopped dead. Watching her walk away, he smacked his forehead against the handle of his cane repeatedly. “Stupid.”

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Mercury’s hand brushed the brittle branches away, his eyes squinting at the sudden presence of light until his smile lit up. The Temple! Once decorated with bountiful pillars and likely visited by hundreds upon thousands for Hunter battles against captured Grimm back in the day, now it was decrepit and broken save for a dozen or so platforms in the inner ring. Silver and gold objects – circular and ticking gradually – rested atop them.

He tilted his head to lock eyes with Emerald. “I think we’ve got it.”

They rolled their eyes fondly and hopped down from the branch they were perched on, landing softly beside him before they headed down. Mercury quickly followed.

Each item shone and shimmered. Emerald scooped one up and turned it over in their hands. “Pocketwatches?” they murmured.

“Some are gone. Looks like we aren’t the first visitors.”

“Supposed we should pick one.”

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Callous fingers traced over the mouth of a cavern, deep and hollow and chittering inside. The drawings were crude, likely drawn in the heat of invasion, depicting giant beasts and armed soldiers attemptin to hold such monsters back but ultimately perishing. Hand quivering, Hazel stood up from his kneel and let his hand rest on Cinder’s shoulder, muscles tense. She was hunched, clearly concentrating, staring at her fingers trying to manifest a tiny spark for light.

“As much as I hate to break what you’re doing –“ Hazel cut off as Cinder let out a curt “Aha!” at the flame on her fingertips. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

She huffed and cupped a hand over her delicate manifest. “Hazel, could you please humour me for five feet down? You don’t have to come if you don’t want.”

Seconds later, both partners were on the cavern’s floor, far more than five feet down. As she scanned the walls, holding the flame to peek at the crude carvings and sticky stone floors, a heavy coppery smell coated the inside of her nose. She recognized it at least. It was the same kind of smell that her brothers and sisters would come home with, when they’d been hunting in the wastelands of snow and decided to have a cookout in the street with the other orphans. Only, that smell was more akin to pig’s blood; this was thicker, like there was more of it or at least fresher.

She sniffed harder and coughed. Yep, fresher. Fresher and more abundant.

The shock of the pungancy sent her doubling over, coughing in a fit while Hazel knelt and slapped her back in an attempt at helping. As much as she appreciated his efforts it didn’t work, and one last hard cough sent her hand flying to brace herself – right into a stray puddle of cavewater. The flame went out and the partners grasped at each other, Cinder’s hands shaking slightly as her bow whipped out and an arrow docked itself.

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Gunmetal eyes darted across the pocketwatches, all manners of patterns and carvings embedded into the precious metal. Horses, crowns, crosses, just about everything under the sun. Speaking of, Mercury tossed a golden watch into the air, the emblem of a shining sun emblazoned on the shell.

“Em!” Their head turned. Cool, nicknames were on the table. “How about this? Matches your eyes!”

Emerald smiled slightly and crossed the floor, catching the watch before Mercury could. They studied it for a moment, leather-coated fingertips brushing the sun, then smiled and pressed it back into their partner’s hand. “Sure.”

“Well, that was easy,” Mercury yawned, kicking his legs out to stretch.

“Not like it’s hard to find this place.”

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Through the darkness, Cinder’s amber eyes cut to a dull, glowing mass of silver. She knew Hazel likely hadn’t noticed it, especially not with them back to back like this, but it was some source of light and that was as good as anything in this situation. The second Hazel felt Cinder’s warmth leave his back, he glanced toward her. Her hands started wandering to the silver glow.

Oh dear gods!

“Cinder, no!” But her hands already latched to the light. It immediately shone brighter, a thousand bright eyes matching the mass bursting open and concentrating on the small girl dangling on the end of the monster’s tail. Even with her limited knowledge, Cinder knew what this was. Her hands burst into flames and the Death Stalker shrieked as Hazel bolted back for the cavern’s mouth.

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Emerald cupped their hands over their ears. What could create such a crude and awful noise across the entire forest?

Their partner noticed and removed his own hands from where they’d flown to guard his face in reflex. Instead they drifted to help muffling the noise, resting over Emerald’s hands. “I hope that’s not something to do with anyone. Or at least that they don’t bring it this way.” That made them smile a bit, but they noticed how Mercury’s eyes shrank in concern.

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He’d barely gotten back up to the top of the cavern before the Death Stalker scuttled up at rapid speed after him, still chasing Hazel on the ground and swinging Cinder on its tail like a carrot on a stick. Cinder’s hands continuing to burn and her feet scrambling to get a grasp on the stinger, she failed to take notice of the snapping pincers threatening to grasp her any second. Hazel’s eyes widened.

Seeing no other option past running away, Hazel dug his fingers around a smaller Dust dagger – fire, large enough to draw attention away from Cinder – and promptly speared it between the Death Stalker’s pincer. It immediately shattered and exploded into red, flaming particles, burning the retinas of the monster if only briefly.

Yes! Now he could get Cinder back safely!

Or he might’ve if not for the newly constant and rapid thrashing of the monster’s tail. As her fingers slipped and the stinger shined brighter than either of them could bear, the Death Stalker swung. Cinder went flying. Hazel was left alone, hand reaching out for his partner as she was sent soaring over the trees. He gulped and proceeded to sprint in the same direction while dodging the claws of the ensuing Grimm, snarls and growls and snaps echoing around him as he ran.
The shriek having died down, Mercury removed his hands from Emerald’s and they removed theirs from their ears, allowing both to look around and keep lookout for any Grimm that might’ve created the noise. Without the ear-piercing ringing in their ears, Emerald heard something else. Tilting their eyes upward, they locked onto something much worse than Grimm.

A small, orange-haired boy tumbling from a very tall height straight into their position.

They braced for impact.

Chapter Text

If the wind whipping in Roman’s face wasn’t distracting enough, Neo’s glaring eyes were certainly on the top of the list. Only held up by her tightening grasp on a mass of black skin and scales and feathers, she stared at him incredulously, clearly looking for answers as to why he thought this could be a good idea.
“We’re fine!” he yelled over the roaring wind. “Stop looking at me like that! We’re gonna be okay!” Her eyes widening and her leg swung, aiming for his shin but missing when she slipped slightly. Roman hooked his arm around her waist and hoisted her back up so she could grab back at the feathers, then he let go again. “Why don’t we just jump?!”

Even before she heard him say that, she knew he was about to jump. New plan!

Neo immediately started attempting to scale the monster instead, crawling on her stomach and beckoning her partner to follow as she made a bit of progress to the creature’s back. However, all she saw when looking back was no partner. No white coat. No Roman. Her jaw dropped. Her forehead thumped against the skin of the monster in aggravation.

As he hurtled toward the ground and thus the temple below, he spotted a dot of mint hair and leather. He grimaced and cupped his hands around his mouth.
“Heads up –!” Something hard and heavy collided into Roman’s side, ceasing his panic and instilling direct confusion until he noticed Cinder’s bright eyes also filled with alarm. That made him feel a bit better. What didn’t make him feel better was the second collision as the pair rocketed backwards into a tree, Roman landing soundly on a branch and Cinder slipping down. Her hand gripped to the branch Roman sat on and heaved herself up.

“Hey, Roman…”

Emerald turned to their partner. “Did your brother just fall from the sky?”

Before Mercury could open his mouth, the sound of a thousand snapping branches and rustling bushes erupted from the Forest behind them. An Ursa Minor, thundering and yowling in pain, swiped its claws through the underbrush and reared up on its hind legs before collapsing. The thud to the ground followed a loud cheer from Tyrian, who slid from the Grimm’s back.

“Awww, it’s broken.”

“Tyrian!” His grin slid to a pout. He darted around the carcass as Watts ran up, bracing himself against the corpse and reaching out to rest a hand on Tyrian’s shoulder. “Please … Stop doing that with bears.” His hand swiped through the air, prompting him to look around frantically and find Tyrian missing once again. The small boy had already made his way up into the temple and gotten his hands on a golden pocketwatch with a castle carving. His fingers traced the carving delicately, clearly enamored.

He held it up in the air so Watts could see it too. “Hey, this one’s pretty, can we keep it?”

“Tyrian!”

“Right, right!”

Emerald and Mercury watched him scamper back to Watts, excited to show off his find. Taking a step back further to the temple, Emerald whispered, “He just rode in on an Ursa…”

Once again, Mercury could barely react before something else crashed into their conversation. An ear-piercing screech, not unlike the one from a minute earlier, and the voice of a young man as he called “Cinder!” and ran from the snapping claws of a Death Stalker, said claws emblazoned with grass and moss from age. Emerald’s hands flew to their ears again. Roman stood from his branch and leapt down, rolling as he hit the ground and ignoring Cinder.

“Roman!”

Mercury’s head whipped backwards, grin bright as he met his brother. “Romeo!”

“Merc!” Roman’s arms raised as his brother rocketed to give him a hug.

“Tyrian!” Tyrian’s arms hooked around the pair’s necks and pulled them into the interrupted hug, effectively inserting himself into the reunion and nuzzling Mercury’s cheek. All three could hear the chuckle from Emerald as the hug was released.

Between all the chaos of a giant scorpion monster, a stranger interrupting him and his brother, and endless complications messing with his head, Mercury let out a low growl. His foot stomped, a small burst of wind churning and exploding around him, and his eyes dilated to pinpricks. “I can’t take this anymore!! Can we all just chill out for two seconds before something else pisses me off?!” He could practically hear the ticking of the seconds going by, motly from the pocketwatch tucked in Emerald’s pocket. As Tyrian swayed and Watts joined the group, Mercury took a deep breath, calmed down, and his eyes returned to normal.

He turned to Emerald to apologize for the outburst – no doubt it made them uncomfortable like all the other noises had – but he found both his partner and his brother with their heads tilted up.

When he spared a glance too, prompted by Roman tugging his sleeve, his eyes locked on Neo. Evidently her endeavor to scramble onto the monster’s back had failed, as she now hung from a single talon on a gigantic Nevermore, wings sweeping and threatening to dislodge her at any second.

A sign manifested in front of Roman, gracelessly shoved into his face, reading ‘How could you leave me?!’ As cool as the illusion was, it broken as soon as it was read, and he looked back up.
“I said we should jump!”

“She’s gonna fall,” Emerald murmured.

“She’ll be fine,” Roman dismissed.

“She’s falling,” Watts countered, shielding his eyes from the sun as he joined their staring.

Finally out of the tree and combing leaves from her hair, Cinder spotted Neo’s tumbling body, Hush unclipping from her waist and her hands fumbling with the handle in the fall. Aha, a chance at redemption! She sprinted and leapt up an impressive height, catching Neo in a bridal carry as time seemingly slowed down and their eyes met. “Just … dropping in?” Neo’s astonished expression momentarily led Cinder to believe that such a corny line had worked, but then she noticed Neo’s eyes being laced with fear and realized they were both in the air at quite a height. And that Cinder was most likely much heavier than a small girl like Neo.

Oh no.

They plummeted in an instant. Cinder landed first, having let go of Neo soon after the drop began, splayed on her front and groaning as Neo drifted down beside her, having finally gotten her umbrella working and opened the canopy. She landed daintily next to Cinder and promptly ignored her in favor of racing to meet Roman, who already feared the wrath of the heiress.

As she arrived with the rest of the group, Hazel rolled and untucked at their feet, panting heavily from the chase against the Death Stalker. Mercury clapped and threw his arms out. “Great! The gang’s all here! Now we can die together!”

“Not if I can help it!” Melodic Cudgel withdrawn from in his coat, Roman shot forward, propelled by a flare toward the scorpion and directly into the range of its claws. Mercury swiped to grab his brother and pull him back, but missed. On pure adrenaline, Roman fired at the Death Stalker’s eyes to distract it, only to be swiped and knocked back by a stray pincer. “I’m fine! Totally okay!” His positive tone wavered. He was terrified. Still he turned back to the monster and shot at its skull again, dashing away and sheathing his cane on his belt as the scorpion scuttled after him with increasing speed as its sight focused on him. He rushed for Mercury, but the echoes of the Nevermore’s cries bore a warning as feathers sharper than anything soared at the group. The stray points caught Roman’s coat, yanking him back, and stabbed the ground in front of Mercury, effectively blocking him from reaching his brother.

Eyes filling with terror, Roman tried to tear his coat from the feather’s points. The chittering of the Death Stalker scuttling up behind him spelled his doom before he could even comprehend it enough to unsheathe his cane – all he could do was throw up his arms to guard himself.

In a blur of pink, white and brown, Neo shot forward. As Roman squeezed his eyes shut behind his arms, she flipped open Hush’s canopy and a flood of ice curved over the pair of students. The stinger pierced the wall and another shot burst from Hush’s canopy, locking the monster’s tail between two thick sheets of ice. Calm and composed now she had protected her partner, Neo knelt to the curled-up Roman and snapped her fingers to get his attention, smiling thinly when she did.

Signs began summoning next to her, shattering once Roman had read them as Neo clasped close her umbrella and rested her hands in her lap.
‘Childish, dim-witted, hyperactive, snarky, and sarcastic. Don’t even get me started on your flare range.’ Roman’s eyebrows furrowed until the next sign appeared. ‘But I guess I can certainly be a bit … tricky to get along with, so if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it together.’ Neo’s hand drifted to take Roman’s softly. ‘If you quit being so scatter-brained, I’ll try to communicate better.’

“I just want you to know I can do this,” he whispered.

Neo smiled widely and patted his head, her hands flitting to sign language. (I know you can, dum-dum.) With the last sign shattering and Neo rising to walk away, Roman was left in a stupor. He didn’t know what she’d said, the last thing she’d done with her hands, but the way she smiled almost seemed … fond. How his dad used to smile about his mom.

He sighed in relief and clasped his hands together as he whispered, “Normal pajamas.” Wriggling and jostling from the Death Stalker snapped him from his relief, so he stood and followed Neo back to the rest of the group, instantly engulfed in a hug from Mercury and letting out a grunt upon receiving it.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Roman rolled his eyes and patted Mercury’s back despite feeling identical happiness. The moment was interrupted by a screeching caw from overhead, drawing attention back to the Nevermore soaring up above.
Cinder, having joined up with the group as well and helped Hazel up, grimaced at the sight of the bird. “Guys? It’s circling back! Do we have a plan of any sort?”

Neo tapped a summoned sign next to her. ‘No sense in wasting time. Our objective is right here.’ She gestured to the relics behind them. She was right, all they needed to do was grab an artifact to return to the cliff with Salem and Professor Cotta-Arc. Fighting the monsters was a waste of time, and it might just get them killed despite everything they’d worked hard for. Roman nodded and grabbed Cinder’s wrist to drag her up to the circle of podiums holding the watches. Surveying the set of remaining relics for a moment, Roman snatched up a golden one with a sun carved into the shell.

“Run and live,” Cinder picked up one identical to the one Tyrian had clipped onto his lowermost belt. “There’s an idea I’m familiar with.”

Cracking from the ice holding the Death Stalker caught attention from Watts. “Time we left!”

“Let’s go!” Roman waved, moving forward with everyone spare for Mercury, who stood back smiling at Roman, and Emerald, who halted when they noticed their partner’s stationary state. They clasped their hand to his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Mercury breathed, breaking off to join the rest of the group. He hadn’t realized he was staring; it was hard not to when his little brother made him so proud.

Scattering through the forest and emerging through the other side, crimson leaves kicked up in the wake of the rushing students, quickly pursued by the Death Stalker breaking through the trees. The Nevermore above swept down, cawing loudly and causing them to spread out as it passed. All managed to duck behind stone pillars, much larger than themselves and hidden away from the Death Stalker at least, but the Nevermore proved much smarter. It perched atop the tallest column of the bunch, hiding Hazel, and roared.

“Well, that’s perfect!” Mercury yelled sarcastically.

Cinder spared a glance backwards, spotting the Death Stalker scuttling closer to where Neo and Emerald had hidden. “Jeez … Okay! Run!” Emerging from their hiding spots, the Nevermore took to the skies again and surveyed the students as the scorpion monster below gave in to the chase again. Its wings reared back.

“Tyrian, distract it!” Tyrian immediately obliged Watts’ instructions, sprinting out from his pillar and weaving through the feather projectiles rocketing down before reaching a spot behind everyone else. With a grin, he blasted round after round of scorpion-topped shells from his wrist-bound weapons, bursting into purple puffs of smoke once in contact with the hardy skin and feathers of the Nevermore. It forced the monster in retreating, if only briefly, but the Death Stalker thundered up behind him without his notice. He could always rely on Watts, however, as his friend and Emerald performed a dual cross-slash against its shell, Voltage sparking slightly with the roughness of the material and Thief’s Respite clanging loudly.
Hazel halted beside Cinder, withdrawing several crystals of red Dust and stabbing them into his forearms. Joined by Watts’ Voltage now armed with fire Dust wires, fiery arcs shot from both fighters toward the Grimm. It did nothing but singe the grassy claws so the pair rejoined the others to run again.

All eight students raced over a bridge, brittle and moss-covered from age, noticing too late the Nevermore closing in. It proceeded to shatter the path between them, splitting the group in half. Roman, Neo, Mercury, Tyrian and Cinder were forced in closer to the central circle of columns while Emerald, Watts and Hazel were left on the other side, alone with the Death Stalker. Roman fired several flares at the waning Nevermore. Emerald got knocked back by the Death Stalker, prompting Cinder to draw Tyrian’s attention by running to the new edge of the bridge, flakes of stone and pebble kicking off the brink into an abyss below.

“We have to get over there! They need help!”

Tyrian bolted up beside her, grinning. “Let’s do this!”

“Yeah, but,” she peered over the brink. “I definitely cannot make that jump.”

She failed to notice Tyrian’s smile widening in manic glee, but she heard his giggling before he knocked her back. With a clack his weapons extended to their full-length blades and he jumped to the edge of the bridge. Cinder’s eyes widened in realization, her arms waving frantically as Tyrian raised his arms, brief eye contact locking between them. “Wait!”

Too late! Tyrian slammed his blades into the bridge and catapulted her to the other side, smiling at the success of the stunt. Satisfied, he linked his hands and propped one foot on top before firing off the now-collapsing bridge sector, launching him laughing so he could slam The Queen’s Servants directly into the middle of the scorpion’s skull. Once centred, he spun on his heels, fired at the sliver-tipped tail as it aimed for him, and blasted himself backwards again.
This time however landed him straight into Emerald, who toppled from the edge. Luckily the Nevermore dove a bit, presenting an oppurtunity, so they launched both halves of their weapon and let the blades sink into the edge of the bridge. Circling around and swinging onto the airborne Grimm’s back, they took to running along its body, slashing the whole way before leaping off onto the ruined platform at the height of the columns. Next to them was Roman until they bounced again, landing next to Mercury and Neo.

“It’s tougher than it looks,” they called, spotting Mercury readying Talaria.

“Then let’s just hit it with everything we’ve got!”

With the Nevermore zooming in, the newly formed quartet set their weapons to fire a barrage at the monster, all of which were dodged or taken without affect. It eventaully crashed into the columns, sweeping them down, prompting the group to jump from section to section of falling stone until they hit a higher bridge further up, hidden just by the cliffs.

A sign summoned next to Emerald, Mercury and Roman each, all reading ‘None of this is working!’

Roman’s head whipped around and his eyes darted from Mercury – firing round after round at the Grimm – to Emerald – slinging up to another section of the ruins – to Neo. He cupped a hand over his mouth to echo, “I may have a plan! Cover me!” Neo relented and raised her parasol to head into the fray.

Below, the other four students rushed the Death Stalker. The Grimm aimed a claw at Hazel, only to be deflected with his foot and clocked by a Dust-enhanced fist. It recoiled, hissing and swiping at him with the uninjured claw, but Cinder reversed the blow with Fall, notching an arrow and firing at the scorpion’s eye so Hazel could leap over to attack its face. Getting a running start, Watts leapt to blast electricity and get onto the stinger when it swung at him, just as planned. He jerked around and pierced the wires of his cables into the base of the appendage, amplified by Tyrian inflicting damage by firing more shells at snapping claws. An explosive punch from Hazel flung at one of the dozen eyes, prompting Watts to be hurled to the side, his Aura snapping as he stuck a wall.

“Watts!” Tyrian cried out, worry melting instantly into rage. His sight went red and he swung his attention to Cinder, begging for a plan as Watts failed to get back up.

Cinder, suddenly under scrutiny and in the gaze of a rabid Tyrian, managed to get to her feet and lock onto the near-severed stinger, swinging limply above the Death Stalker’s skull. “Hazel!”

“Done.” Ripping the red crystals from his arms, Hazel hurled them like darts at the base of the silver mass. This sliced it clean off and forced it to topple into the Death Stalker’s head while Hazel collected his falling crystals.
“Tyrian, nail it!” It didn’t even take him a second. He bounded on all fours to Hazel, bounced off his shoulders and blasted for an extra boost. Eyes wide and grin manic, he twirled back down until his blades slammed into the stinger, shoving the shining silver point through the scorpion’s skull and shattering the bridge underneath them. Cinder and Hazel jumped over the monster to land behind it, and Tyrian blasted up and behind them as the corpse tumbled into the misty abyss below. Releasing the tension in his shoulders, Tyrian collapsed onto his butt beside Watts, who patted his friend’s thigh. Cinder hit the ground on her back, entirely winded from the battle. Hazel managed to stay upright out of the four, not even phased but clearly worn out mentally as he watched the other four from their vantage point.

Mercury, still burning through the ammo in Talaria, landed a blast at the Nevermore’s face and caused it to divert right to him only for him to leap directly into its wide mouth and prop it open.

Kicking and firing a round with each syllable, Mercury screamed “I hope you’re hungry!” He backflipped from the Nevermore’s mouth back onto the ruins, crashing the monster into the cliffs to the left. Despite his attempts, the Grimm recovered sooner rather than later, but he still smiled when he spotted Roman and Emerald. Perched on broken columns with Neo rushing the battlefield, they watched Mercury pass her and the Nevermore start to ascend again. Neo hopped onto the ruin providing it leverage and welded the tail feathers to the ground with Hush, making it stationary despite frantic sweeps of giant wings. One last time, she shot Dust in several places along the cliff and observed its positioning evenly. Smiling and pleased, she spun out and landed near the rest of the group.

One half of Thief’s Respite soared into Mercury’s hand and with Emerald gripping the other, the two tightened the chains between two columns, allowing Roman to leap on the centre. He drew Melodic Cudgel and bent the chains back into a makeshift catapult, wherein Neo hooked her parasol next to him to draw it back more, which seemed a feat for such a tough material. For such a small girl, she was surprisingly strong, but Roman guessed she must have to be to make it here. A sign summoned beside Roman's face, Neo's eyes flitting to it to direct his attention.

‘Of course you would come up with this.’

“Can you make the shot?”

‘Can I!’

…

“Can’t?”

‘Of course I can!’

Roman giggled and Neo rolled her eyes fondly as he pumped Melodic Cudgel. His partner discharged a monumental amount of fire Dust from Hush and released her parasol’s grip on the chains, shooting him forward at such a speed that he heard the ground snap and crackle behind him. Gunpowder flying in the wind, he fired off flares. He got closer to the welded Grimm until the hook of his cane caught the Nevermore’s beak, as tight as a fit as it was. They both fell to the cliff wall. As planned, Neo raised her eyes to the cliff, clicked a button on her parasol, and created a series of solid rock-climbing grips up the wall that Roman started scaling repeatedly by firing his way up. Mercury, Emerald and a very worn-out Neo kept their eyes upward to watch his ascent until, with both Huntsman and Grimm crying out, Roman reached the peak. He hooked around to release the beak, kicked said beak up to bare the Nevermore’s throat to the barrel of his cane, and fired off one final flaming shot from the weapon, bursting the monster’s head entirely in a shower of black dust, gunpowder and ash.

He landed on the cliff, Melodic Cudgel tilted against his shoulder, legs shaking but adrenaline still coursing through his veins. The giant carcass of Nevermore tumbled into the ruins below as the other students gazed at him, completely in awe.

“Woah…” Cinder whispered.

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

“Arslan Atlan. Bolin Hori. Reese Chloris. Nadir Shiko.” Up above Headmistress Salem, four profiles flickered onto a screen, presenting the approaching students to the rest of the auditorium. Applause ruptured through the room to the stage. Salem faced the four with her usual grace. “The four of you retrieved the silver cross watches. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Auburn, led by Arslan Atlan!”

Under each student’s profile, a letter representing their name appeared, scattering to spell out ‘ABRN’ with Arlsan at the helm. She smiled, proud as a lion, and gladly led her new teammates off stage as four more students reached the stage and stood before Salem.

“Arthur Watts. Tyrian Callows. Cinder Fall. Hazel Rainart.” Their profiles replaced ABRN’s on screen. “The four of you retrieved the golden castle watches. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Witch.” As her sentence halted, the letters scattered once more to spell ‘WTCH’, Watts placed as the leader. His eyes widened, then flickered to Tyrian who split into a grin and tackled Watts into a tight hug.

Cinder, astounded, turned to Watts and Tyrian, then to Hazel who bore a wide smile, and then to Salem. “Huh? Me? His team?” She pointed to Watts, still incredulous.

The headmistress nodded calmly and offered a kindly expression. “Congratulations, you four.” Still grinning, Hazel made a friendly attempt at a shoulder punch to her new, much smaller teammate, but only succeeded in knocking her to the floor. The audience flooded into laughter, and Cinder began laughing too, embarrassment blossoming into bright joy amongst her peers. Helped up, she made her way off stage behind her leader and teammates and in their wake approached the last four students of the bunch.

“Roman Torchwick. Mercury Black. Emerald Sustrai. Neo Politan.” Roman swallowed nervously as his profile popped onto the screen, but Neo’s eye flickered between the headmistress and how her name was presented on screen. Her mouth hung slightly agape. No one had called her Politan in … so long. “The four of you retrieved the golden sun watches. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Ramen, led by Roman Torchwick.”

Neo’s head whipped to the side, eyes wide in surprise, before Mercury caught his very stunned brother in a hug, lifting Roman off the ground to knock him out of his stupor.

“I’m so proud of you!”

“It looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year,” Salem commented, quickly turning on her heel and descending from the stage as the brothers were split apart by Emerald who wore a tired yet quietly happy expression in their eyes.

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

Buzzing and ringing echoed around the warehouse. She let out a long, exhausted groan and slid across the floor in her office chair, spinning until her dress shoes clacked against the concrete and she was tucked against the desk in front of her map of Vale. This was her worst week yet. Getting beat up by a fifteen-year-old kid, losing a decent portion of Dust to those animals, and now needing to be on the run? She couldn’t wait to just get this job over and done with.

Ruby grabbed the Scroll from the desk, then slammed it down two seconds later. She didn’t need to read the text to know what it was about. Instead she just pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed angrily, sighing tiredly. A cigarette slid between her fingers to her lips and her lighter, emblazoned with her rose, sparked to life, a puff of smoke leaving her mouth as a man in a gray mask and all black slid a trolley into the warehouse. She perked up and rolled over to meet him in the middle.

“Open it.”

The man held out his hand first. Before he could started complaining for the cash, she slapped Lien into his palm and snatched the crowbar from his other hand so she could crack the case open herself. An array of beautiful colors flooded the expanse of the building, mostly concentrated on Ruby’s face. Cyan, orange, white, blue, red, gold, yellow, green, every crystal color under the sun! She bounced in her chair giddily, balancing a small blue gem between her thumb and forefinger. Her eye drifted to stare at Beacon Academy circled on the map by the desk, her smile dropping.

“We’re gonna need more men.”

Chapter Text

First morning in Beacon Academy’s dorms and Neo wasn’t dead yet. She saw that as a very drastic improvement against her previous sleeping conditions, especially considering how early her father woke up in the night. Her eyes fluttering open delicately, she stretched her arms above her head and across her chest, and gazed over to see if her partner was awake yet. Yet he wasn’t there. Curious, she very much took him for a late sleeper.

She then felt a weight at the edge of her bed. When she faced it, she was greeted with a sharp whistling in her ear, prompting her to fall off the bed guarding her face with her arms.

“Good morning, Team RMEN!” Lowering her arms, Neo saw what had shocked her. Roman, dressed in full school uniform despite its odd coloration compared to Atlas Academy, with a golden whistle in his hand. Said whistle brandished initials that certainly weren’t his, so he’d probably stolen it the night before during their initiation party. Distaste twisting onto her face, Neo grasped for her Scroll in her satchel and got to typing.

--What in the world is wrong with you?--

“Now that Neo’s up,” he offered a hand to help her to her feet, which she took reluctantly. “we can officially begin our first order of business.”

Upon receiving Neo’s confused glances, Mercury hoisted up an assortment of objects, from pillows to pamphlets to books, also in his uniform beside Emerald. “We’re decorating!”
“We still have to unpack,” Emerald began. Before they could continue their backpack collapsed from their hands and spilled its contents to the floor. They ducked down and started scooping their belongings back into the bag hurriedly. “and clean.”

Neo bit her lip, moving to start typing again, but Roman hooks his arm around her shoulders and cheers. “Alright! Mercury, Emerald, Neo, and their fearless leader Roman have begun their first mission!” His fist shot up in the air. “Banzai!”

“Banzai!” Emerald and Mercury replicated his action, but Neo sighed, resigning to changing in the bathroom while they begin organizing the room. When she returned, clad in her uniform – she changed her mind, the uniform was quite adorable in a quirky way and the bolo tie was very sweet – her teammates were already halfway through their unpacking.

Mercury jumped onto his bed and unrolled a poster tucked under his arm, plastering it at an angle. It was of a movie that was probably popular in Vale, she didn’t have a clue about it herself. She, meanwhile, set herself about hanging up a painting from her room back in Atlas, one of Forever Fall; she’d never seen it herself but apparently it was quite beautiful. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Emerald shifting a bookshelf to be evenly between their and Roman’s beds. Once satisfied, they began shelving their books from their backpack, only leaving on inside before kicking the bag under their bed. They moved to pick up Roman and Neo’s books too and placed them on the remaining two shelves, one being left empty for presumably Mercury. Neo rolled her eyes – from what little she could tell about Mercury, he didn’t seem like a books person, possibly even illiterate from how he squinted as words sometimes. Across the room, Roman jostled with the curtain pole, using the end of his cane to fix the positioning before toppling backwards onto the floor.

A few minutes later, everything was set up and perfect, and the team took a step back to observe their work … only to realize they had dislodged the beds to cramp them all on top of each other. Great.

--This isn’t gonna work.--

“It’s a bit cramped,” Emerald murmured.

“We could ditch some of our stuff, shove it in the closet,” Mercury suggested, hustling to kick one of the bedposts.

“Oooor we could ditch the beds and make them bunk beds! I bought some stuff from home!” Mercury turned to stare at his brother incredulously, as did Emerald and Neo. Roman relented. “Okay, I stole it, but it was cheap.”

--Aren’t bunk beds dangerous?--

“Nope!” Mercury piped up, already making to move the beds so Roman could start working. “Super awesome.”

“They’re also quite efficient.”

--Well, maybe a vote.--

Roman giggled from where he was removing his stolen tools. “I think we just did.”

Decided, it barely took five minutes for the bunks to be completed, between Mercury’s impeccable strength hefting the beds to balance together and Roman’s ammature skill with a power drill. Neo’s bed rested on the ground next to her art and luggage and Emerald’s next to the bookshelf, but Mercury’s was propped above Emerald’s with metal poles and wooden blocks. It was a miracle of engineering it was staying up. Roman’s bed, above Neo’s, was hung from ropes and welded steel brackets while a blanket was tucked over the body to make a tent-like structure.

“Alright! Our second order of business is classes!” Yanking a book from his shelf, Roman flipped through the pages until he found the timetable for the day, ripping out each of their copies and passing them out. Neo’s eyes drifted over hers briefly. “We have a few classes together today. At nine, we have to be –"

Wait! --Did you say nine?--

“Um, yeah?”

--It’s eight fifty-five, you idiot!--

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

Roman jolted in surprise upon reading the projected screen, but Neo wasted no time. She was instantly running out the door, Mercury and Emerald close in tow, before Roman followed, almost bumping into Cinder as she rushed out of her dorm next door. The rest of WTCH had already left for class in much a similar fashion, so both teams sprinted across the courtyard past Headmistress Salem and Professor Adrian Cotta-Arc.

“Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have several names, but I merely refer to them as prey.” The elderly Professor Terra Cotta-Arc paused to laugh, but upon hearing that her students didn’t find her quip nearly as fun, she moved to continue.

In the front row, Neo scribbled notes, seated at the end of the desks. On the opposite side was Roman, propping his head in his hand and tapping a rhythm with his fingers. He was constantly fidgeting, ever since class started. She was starting to consider he had some sort of behavioral dysfunction, like Willow. At least Mercury and Emerald were paying attention like she was, backs straight and Mercury similarly taking notes, though dotted with doodles and marks to make them flow easier. She smiled and tuned back into the lecture.

“And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! That’s where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses! Hunters! Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you may ask? Why, the very world around us.”
Another dramatic pause taken and another dead silence filled the room.

“That is what you are training to become. But first, a story. A tale of a young, beautiful woman … Me! When I was but a girl …”

As the professor rambled on, something caught the corner of Neo’s eye. Roman had grabbed one of Mercury’s papers and started doodling, only it was not as useful or small as his brother’s note-taking and side-drawings. Instead it was taking up the whole paper. When he slid it across the desk for the rest of the team to see, all Neo could do was twist in disgust. It was a crude, stick figure drawing of their lecturer with extreme features and ‘Professor Terror’ in capitals scrawled underneath. Roman flashed a bright grin. Mercury snickered, officially distracted – wonderful – and Emerald covered their mouth with their hand. Furrowing her eyebrows, Neo stabbed the drawing with her pencil, pinning it to the desk and painting a dejected look on Roman’s face.

The stab echoed across the room, drawing the attention of Terra. “Ah-heh-hem!” Neo shot back up and relaxed her expression, composure returning, and Roman slumped against the desk, head in his hands again. “In the end, no Ursa was a match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!”

Although no student clapped, Terra bowed to her force-fed audience. Neo would’ve clapped, truly she had that much tolerance for the elderly ramblings of a teacher past her prime, but Roman’s antics took up her attention again. Balancing books on his head...

“A true Hunter must be honorable.”

…tapping rhythms…

“A true Hunter must be dependable.”

…turning and distracting other students in his proximity…

“A true Hunter must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!”

…not-so-subtly fiddling with the trigger on Melodic Cudgel in the middle of class! Oh, that was it!

“Now, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?”

Frustration boiling over, Neo stamped her foot and raised her hand, rage clear in her eyes. Emerald jolted beside her, clearly shocked at the noise, but made no move to try and calm their teammate.

Terra smiled broadly and laughed gleefully. “Well, then, let’s find out!” In a moment, she heaved out a large steel crate that jostled and huffed and snarled with glowing crimson eyes and shadows busting to be free of the cage. Neo suddenly regretted her decision.

Chapter Text

With time allotted to change into her hunter’s uniform, Neo took her paces to stand before the rattling cage, the monster inside still snorting and huffing to be free. Hush was ready in her hand, and she tried to tune out the cheers of her teammates. Particularly Roman’s.

“Gooooo, Neo!” Mercury swung his fist in circles above his head.

Emerald took one of the small flags Roman had hastily made out of paper and pencils. “Fight well,” they called across the classroom, waving the flag slightly.

“Yeah, represent Team RMEN!” She could handle Mercury and Emerald’s cheers. Mercury knew when to let her concentrate already and could tone it down, which he was thankfully doing; Emerald was quiet and only said the one thing. Roman, on the other hand, was loud, waving his own flag exuberantly and slamming his hand on the table at least five times by her count. She turned a sharp glare in her leader’s direction before refocusing on the task at hand.

The professor unsheathed her bayonet and swung it down on the cage’s lock. A clatter arose with the drop of the door and a blur of black fur and white bone came charging out at Neo. Using Hush’s canopy, she deflected the charge and tumbled to the side. The Boarbatusk’s beady crimson eyes darted across the petite girl.

“You’ve got this, Neo!” Roman cheered, Neo already rushing her opponent and unsheathing the blade from the parasol. As she met the Boarbatusk head-on, it ducked, catching her leg between its tusks and whipping her across the room into the desks, her grip loose on Hush’s blade until it slipped. Managing to skid to a halt, she raised the canopy in time to block another charge and throw the monster back. “Come on, Neo, don’t lose to a boar!” She bared her teeth at Roman, who was leaning over the desk she crashed into, and ran for the blade. Hush’s canopy still raised she lunged for the blade and her fingers wound around it in time to stab the pig in the eye. It squealed and reared back, dazed.

“Neo!” Anger brimmed. “Aim for the stomach! It doesn’t have armor –“

Neo stamped her foot on the tile and snapped silently at Roman, spooking him severely. Unfortunately, that also attracted the attention of the Boarbatusk, the monster curling into a ball to charge a third and final time.

Out of the corner of her eye, Neo spotted this, and raised the canopy fast. The pig collided violently with the bony surface and flipped, its belly exposed and bare. With her opening clear, her Semblance summoned a platform that shattered the second she jumped off it, spearing down over the Boarbatusk and piercing its stomach with a gush of black goo and the crack of bone. A screech, then silence as the body of the Boarbatusk withered away.

Terra started the applause and approached her student, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Hunter-in-training.” Neo rose from the floor, trying to compose her breathing. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the readings I set and stay aware. Class dismissed!”

As the bell rung, Neo glared at a pouting Roman, who avoided making eye contact with her by grabbing the tiny flags from Emerald and Mercury. Eyes downcast, he made sure to allow Neo to collect her books and such in silence before he tried following him. He dodged Cinder’s approach and turned a corner to catch up with Neo.

Her paces were quicker than usual, like when she was frustrated in the forest, but he still managed to be by her side in a matter of seconds. “Neo?”

Unresponsive, Neo kept walking briskly.

“What’s up with you? Did I –”

--What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you!-- He hadn’t even seen her whip her Scroll out, but a cyan projection appeared in front of his face as her thumbs typed furiously at the screen. Rage flared up in her eyes. --You’re supposed to be fifteen, and all you’ve been so far is an attention-grabber!--

“I’m…sorry if I took eyes off you for a second?”

She growled, low and almost inaudible. --That’s just it – you don’t even realize that you’re doing it! Just like a child! Back in the forest, in class, all the attention needs to be on you! --

Stunned into silence, Roman didn’t know where all this was coming from. Sure, he could be loud and maybe obnoxious, but attention-seeking? And yet the more he dwelled on it, the more he doubted his own judgement. The more he began to understand why his cheering and his yelling had annoyed her to this point, because she was so quiet and listened more. He wrung his hands together and cast his gaze to his shoes.

Upon noticing that he stopped reading her text, Neo huffed silently and stormed away, leaving Roman alone in the hallway. At least for a small while.

“Now that didn’t seem to go well at all,” murmured Professor Salem, teacup balanced in one hand and cane in the other.

Roman jolted, not having heard her approach, but quickly turned to face her on the verge of tears. “I think you made a mistake. I’m an awful leader.”

Salem chuckled. “That remains to be seen.”

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

Elsewhere in the winding hallways of Beacon, Neo strode around in vain. Even with her home’s own size, she never got this lost when she was first taken in. And it wasn’t like the map was on her at any point, Roman always kept it in case he or Cinder got lost or someone else needed directions. She could turn back and ask for it, but after their argument, that was out of the question.

Eventually she found a balcony. From there she could see the entire campus and find the dorms again. She also found Terra gazing wistfully at the sunset over the towering tops of the academy.

Hearing someone approaching, Terra turned and smiled. “Ah, Miss Politan. And to what do I owe this fine pleasure?”

--I enjoyed your lecture.--

“Of course you did! You have the blood of a true Hunter in your veins,” the professor responded jovially, leaning her back against the railing. Neo smiled in turn.

--You think so?--

“Certainly!” Peering at her student for less than a second told her something was weighing on her shoulders. “Would you like to talk about something that’s troubling you?”

Neo’s smile dropped and so did her gaze, completely focused on her Scroll and not the projected screen. Her hands shaking, she hastily typed out:

--I don’t think Roman should be a leader. He’s too selfish.--

She did not expect her professor to burst into laughter, almost bringing herself to tears. Neo’s heart stopped for a moment then flared in rage, eyebrows furrowing as her lips twisted into a scowl.

Wiping a tear from her eye, Terra held up a hand. “Excuse me, child. I mean no offense,” she managed, coughing to calm herself. “but that boy is not selfish. A thief and a criminal, perhaps he shouldn’t be here at all, but not selfish.” Her eyes softened and she pushed off the balcony’s railing to approach Neo slowly.

Studying her slowly, Neo tucked her Scroll away into her pocket and listened as her professor continued, “I see before me a girl who spent around seven, perhaps eight, years getting nothing in return for everything. Then, suddenly, you could get whatever you wanted with the snap of a finger.” Terra snapped her fingers. “Whatever you want except attention. Or rather, attention that wasn’t skin-deep.”

Neo crossed her arms and held them tight to her chest. She hated when people could read her so accurately, it sickened her to her stomach. Made it churn like a Leviathan having a bad dream.

“A tantrum won’t get you good attention either. You have every right to feel angry, but just because someone else yells to get attention when you can’t doesn’t mean you have to retaliate. Hone your skills, perfect every technique, and be not one who demands attention, but who earns it. Because I already know that you have, and everyone else will know that too.”

The words sinking in, Neo nodded. Her smile had returned somewhere along the way, when her stomachache had disappeared and her arms had loosened. Terra was beginning to remind her of Willow. With a ruffle of Neo’s hair and a grin, Terra sent her student on her way.

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“But I was being ignorant! A leader can’t afford that behavior,” Roman barked. His mind immediately cast back to the stories Mercury would tell him about their mom, how she was a selfless teammate and never once tried to take things for herself, not even the spotlight. He knew she’d be disappointed in him.

Salem sighed deeply and patted him on the head lightly. “It’s only been one day. I have been more ignorant and more unruly that any man, woman, and child on this planet. But here, I would not consider you to be too far gone.” She began to walk away. “Being a leader isn’t just a title that burdens you to sacrifice yourself for others, but a badge that defines your responsibility to care for others, yes, but also set the standard. Let others watch you and see how they should act. Do you understand?”

Roman nods and his smile borders on bursting off his face. He understands. And he knows exactly what to do to make this better. Not right, but better.

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The full moon shining over the crimson lights of Beacon, the shadows of Team RMEN’s room broke when Neo let the hallway light flood in, but only for a second as she quickly shut it again once inside. Her eyes scanned her teammates’ statuses.

Emerald was curled up tight, a book splayed on the bed next to them.

Mercury was spread out, snoring loudly. Neo wondered how Emerald could stand being so close to the noise.

And Roman was obscured by the blanket over his bunk. Of course. Though she could see the light of his Scroll shining dimly through the material. Climbing the structure, she lifted the sheet and peered under, finding Roman with a pile of scribbled notes under his drooling head, a pencil threatening to drop out of his hand and his Scroll still alit with a website. A website on sign language.

Her jaw opened in amazement. No one had ever put so much into researching this. At least not for her. Blinking twice, she ducked her head under the sheet to rest her elbow on the mattress and shake her partner gently, waking him up with a flail of surprise.

“Neo! I – I was just researching, and I fell asleep! Sorry,” he barely managed the last word before Neo cupped a hand over his mouth and put a finger to her own. After nodding in understanding, Roman felt her let go and grab his coffee mug.
(How do you take your coffee?) she signed. Roman’s eyes scanned her hands as they moved and his brain struggled to catch up. Right, okay, slower. (Coffee style, dum-dum.)

Recognition popped in his eyes and he stammered. “Uhh, cream and pumpkin spice powder.” His partner ducked under for a moment and returned with a fresh coffee, smelling strongly of pumpkin and cinnamon. “Thank you.”
Pulling her Scroll out, Neo tapped for a few minutes and projected a block of text, laying the Scroll on the mattress so Roman could take his time.

--Roman, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader. Deep down. Just know that I am going to be the best partner you will ever have. Also good luck. It took me years to master RSL.--

He smiled broadly and watched Neo take her Scroll back, projection dissolving while he took his pencil and scrolled through the RSL website further.

Chapter Text

With a huff and a laugh, Arlsan tangled the rope of her dart between her fingers and began circling around the arena. Opposing her was Cinder, bow in hand and two arrows notched to fire while sweat dripping down her face and off her jaw. They’d been at this for five minutes and she was already exhausted, her Semblance boiling under her skin ready to burst and blow the whole match. She needed a nap. Or at least for the spotlight to be turned off. Eyes trained on her opponent, Cinder gathered the strength to charge and release one of the arrows, only for Arslan to leap and throw the dart. The rope unraveled from her fingers, tangling in loops around Cinder to send her spinning like a top, her arrows and bow flying from her hands and sliding off the stage entirely.

Great.

Now armed only with her Semblance, Cinder regains her balance momentarily to rush, hands red-hot with focused aura. If she could land one slap or punch, maybe she could shock Arlsan into retreating for a moment! That plan dissolved swiftly, because before she could even finish thinking, the dart scratched across her palm as she reached out, making her hiss and allowing Arslan to convert her weapon to its dagger form. She dug the blade harder against them hard enough that it would’ve broken bone if not for Aura.

“This is the part,” Arslan snarled. “where you lose.”

Before she could retort, Cinder felt Arslan drive her knee into her abdomen, forcing Cinder to drop her hands and tumble to the ground in pain. Towering over the smaller girl, Arlsan raised her dagger and aimed for Cinder’s chest just in time for a buzzer to go off and the house lights to flicker on. Storming across the arena was Adrian, who snatched the dagger from Arslan’s grip.

“That’s enough!” Arlsan rolled her eyes and took her dagger back peacefully as she assumed a formal, almost militaristic-style manner of standing. Turning to their audience, Adrian cleared his throat to address them.
“Students, as you can see, Miss Fall’s Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament battle, this would indicate she is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match.” Getting up proved to be a pointless endeavor in Cinder’s mind, so she continued laying on the floor regardless of the feeling of Hazel’s eyes on her. Embarrassment could come later, right now she was just hurt. Out of her peripheral she noticed Adrian’s gaze drifting over Arslan, then to her. “Miss Fall, it’s nice to see you attempting to focus your Aura, but please refrain from just guessing when you have enough. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when you need to be more defensive.” His eyes went back to the seated students. “And remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won’t be long before students from other academies start arriving in Vale, so keep training!”

Down in the audience, Mercury whooped, punching the air in anticipation while Neo and Roman squealed with enthusiastic energy as they left the bleachers. As the bell rang, Hazel kept his eyes trained on the stage, watching Cinder still on the floor meekly blowing on her hands to try and cool them off.

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“There we were, in the middle of the night!”

“It was day.”

“We were surrounded by Ursai…”

“They were Beowolves,” Watts corrected again, sipping from his coffee cup.

“Dozens of them!!” Tyrian slammed his hands onto the table as he stood. Successfully having the attention of Mercury and only Mercury – Emerald absorbed in their book, Neo eating, Roman and Hazel talking quietly and Cinder doing whatever Cinders do – Tyrian moved to climb atop the table for dramatization. Only for Watts to grab him by the belt and tug him to sit down again.

“Two of them.”

“But they were no match! And in the end, Watts and I took them down and make a boatload of Lien selling Ursai skin rugs!”

With a sigh, Watts put his coffee down. “That is a great way to reframe you killing two bandits.”

Tyrian stuck his tongue out at his partner but still rested his head against his shoulder as attention shifted away from him. Roman and Hazel had stopped their conversation a minute ago, eyes now trained on Cinder, who fiddled with her fork absently without eating.

“Cinder?” She jolted out of her stupor, looking up to find Hazel staring at her softly. “Are you alright?”

Roman slid his arms out in front of him atop the table, his head leaning to make eye contact with Cinder as well and his hands almost knocking Watts’ coffee off the surface. “You seem a little…out of it.”
“Guys, I’m fine! Seriously,” she trailed off.

Thankfully the attention tore away from her and onto a laughing Team ARBN, jeering at a wolf-eared girl as she passed by, Summer Bloom. Her ears flicked as she heard them, shy eyes darting to the team momentarily until Reese howled in imitation. Arslan reached up and tugged at Summer’s ear, holding it tightly in her hand as Summer whimpered meekly. Cinder knew all too well how cruel Arlsan could be. Between knocking her onto the floor and shoving her into a rocket locker, she could firmly say that Arlsan Atlan was an awful person and a worse bully.

Tyrian, having leaned backwards to see the kerfuffle with Summer and ARBN, growled lowly and stood up from the table again, Watts’ hand still tight on the back of his belt just in case. “Let’s break her legs!” His grin wide and his golden eyes wider, he was yanked back down.

“Guys, she’s a jerk. There are jerks in the world, the best thing to do is ignore her,” Cinder dismissed with a cringe. Ugh, that felt awful to say. But it’s gotten her out of worse situations before.

Over with ARBN, the laughter grew louder, mixed with the muffled cries from Summer as both her ears are tugged by Reese and Arslan pries her mouth open to reveal the Faunus’ sharp teeth. “That hurts!”

“What a freak!” Bolin guffawed.

Tears brimming at the corner of her eyes, Summer clenched them shut and snapped her jaw shut hard onto Arslan’s fingers, sharp teeth digging into the skin and making Arslan retract in pain. Using the hold on her ears, Reese threw Summer backwards onto the study tile of the cafeteria floor to rip her off Arslan, though it only served to tear up his leader’s hands more against the teeth. With her ears released and mouth unburdened Summer bolted off back to her team with her hood over her head, past RMEN and WTCH.

“Atrocious. I can’t stand people like that.” Hazel shook his head as his worried eyes trace after Summer.

“She’s not the only one,” Emerald whispered, rushing away from the table to go after the Faunus.

Getting up from the table as well, Cinder gazed back at her friends unaware of Arslan’s trained eyes leaving Summer’s cloak and instead staring down her other target.

Chapter Text

Exhaustion finally caught up with her sometime during Professor Saphron’s class. It was oddly soothing to the eyes to see a blonde blur darting endlessly around the lecture hall while her voice became white noise in the background, accompanied by the dampened chatter of classmates and friends. Plus, the Beacon uniform proved to be comfy, so it was hardly surprising that Cinder had her head on the table, forearms acting as pillows, before the ten minute mark.
She regained some level of consciousness when Tyrian jabbed her with a pen, inadvertedly tuning her back into the lecture at hand.

“Yes, prior to the Faunus Right Revolution – more popularly known as the Faunus War,” the professor darted up to the front of the class, dress shoes clacking rapidly. “humankind was quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie.” Cinder knew about this stuff. She’d read the abandoned textbooks in the home’s library, and Menagerie had come up a few times in conversation with her brothers and sisters. She didn’t need to listen again. “Now, have any among you been subjugated or discriminated against because of your Faunus heritage?”

Just by glancing sideways, she could see Summer Bloom raising her hand. Poor girl.

Saphron shook her head and took her paces to walk before Summer and her teammate. “Dreadful, simply dreadful. This is precisely the kind of ignorance that breeds violence!” Taking a long swig from her coffee cup, she continued on. “Just look at what happened to the White Fang! Which one of you young scholars can tell me what many attribute as the turning point in the third year of the War?”

A hand shot up behind Cinder, and judging by the fact that no answer was actually said, she was left to assume it was Neo. A cyan projected screen confirmed this, reading “The battle at Fort Castle”.

“Exactly. And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune’s forces?”

Ugh, she was starting to drift off again. As Cinder started to slump forward again, prepared to cushion her head with her arm again, a large paper ball stuck her in the back of the head, getting effectively tangled in her hair. “Hey!” She whipped around, glaring up at the row behind her. Roman pointed at Arslan in the third row, who smirked and bared her teeth.

Unfortunately her speaking meant all attention landed on her, including that of Saphron. Said professor zoomed to be in the front row, right in Cinder’s face. “Miss Fall, lovely to see you contributing! Excellent. What is the answer?”

“Uh…” Shoot, she knew this. She did. As she racked her brain, she spotted Hazel and widened her eyes in a silent beg for help. When no response was given – how did HE not know – she panicked and blurted out, “Better hearing?” Just by reading Saphron’s expression twist to something a little worse, she knew that was not the answer she was expected to give. With a cringe, Cinder rested her head in her hands and watched the professor walk away.

“Very good, Miss Fall, but not quite.”

Up in the third row, Arslan cackled, slamming her fist on the desk several times.

“Miss Atlan! Would you like to share your answer to the question instead?”

Oh, here she went. “Well, I know it’s a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier, ma’am.”

Saphron shook her head, striding to the space behind her desk, while Hazel turned to confront Arslan. “You’re not the most open-minded of people, are you, Arslan?”

“You got a problem?” Arslan snarled.

“Yes, but I also have someone who knows the answer,” Hazel retorted, then indicating to the space beside Cinder, where Tyrian had his hand raised and waving feverishly. After a beat of surprise, Saphron motioned for him to answer.

“Night vision! A lot of Faunus have perfect sight in the dark.”

“General Lagune made the mistake of attempting a midnight ambush,” Emerald spoke up. “His army was outmatched and exhausted, and the general was captured.” They turned backwards in their seat to lock eyes with a growling Arslan, who switched her glare from Hazel to Tyrian to them in an instant. With an unbroken, even voice, they smiled, “Perhaps if he’d paid attention, he wouldn’t have been remembered as such a failure.” Arslan slammed her hands on the desk and stood up, motioning to vault over the desk, but Saphron appeared suddenly beside her to place a hand on her shoulder and force her back into her seat. Cinder cupped her hand over her mouth to guise her smile. She didn’t want a beating over finding that amusing.

The lesson concluded without too many extra disasters. As Cinder gathered her things and fixed her uniform – falling asleep in class was not a good idea, noted – she noticed Tyrian and Watts waving to Hazel as he waited by the door. Cinder smiled up at him and moved to leave, only to catch the end of Saphron talking to Arslan about how important history is and repeating it if not careful. Jeez, she did not envy Arslan right now. Saphron was chill most of the time, but when she was stern in proved to be pretty terrifying, whether it was intended or not.

Arslan got dismissed just as Cinder managed to tune the lecture out and catch up with Hazel, but Cinder only managed to get through the doorway before Arslan shoved her over and continued past her.

With a pair of calloused hands to catch her, nothing got damaged or dropped, letting Hazel put her back on her feet. Patting her shoulder, he hiked a thumb over his shoulder and smiled softly. “You know, we really will break her legs.” Cinder just sighed and tried to continue down the hall after the boys, but Hazel grabbed her arm. “I have an idea! Here, come with me!”

An energy-less Cinder allowed herself to be dragged up to the rooftops of the buildings, the thin and short walls atop their current perch serving as railings on a few others. It really was quite beautiful up there. Between the shining red lights that glowed in the central tower and the view of the sea by the cliffs, Cinder momentarily wondered why she never tried to come up here before. Then she noticed how short the wall railing was. And how thin it was. And how high up they were from the ground specifically.

“Hazel, I know I’m going through a rough time right now, but I’m not that…y’know…” She peered over the edge warily. “I can just drop out.”

“No!!” Hazel yanked her away from the edge, both hands wrapped around her biceps. “That’s not why I bought you up here.” Releasing her arms, he took a deep breath and rested his hands gently on her shoulders. She never realized how big his hands were until now, it was kinda weird how tiny she was in comparison. “Cinder, I know you’re struggling with fighting. You’re smart in class…” his eyes darted. “sometimes, so I want to help you!”

Her heart dropped into her feet. “What?”

“We can train up here after class where no one can bother us,” he gestured around, smile bright and eyes crinkled at the corners.

Cinder raked her hand through her hair, heartbeat pounding faster and faster. “You think I need help.” She kept her voice low and tempered.

His hands retracted from her shoulders, instead coming to raise in the air. He was probably intending to give her some space, but honestly it was working to the opposite effect. Her heart kept going, faster and faster, as she held her hair tighter and tighter over her chest.

“Cinder, everyone needs a little push from time to time. It doesn’t make you any different from the rest of us. You made into Beacon, after all.”

She couldn’t handle it. He was gonna find out anyway, everyone would know what she did and everything would fall apart so she might as well pull the bandage off now and expose the wound. Let it fester sooner rather than later.
“I don’t belong here,” her hands tightened on her hair. “because I didn’t graduate combat school. I never passed any tests. I didn’t earn my spot here.” A strained and croaking laugh bubbled out in her haze of confession. She squeezed her eyes shut and decided to just go for it. All or nothing. “I lied!” she shrieked. “I got my hands on some experimental fire Dust, and I faked control of my Semblance and I lied!” Shoving her hands in her hair, she dropped to balance on her haunches, desperately trying to keep her face hidden as her breathing quickened. She couldn’t bear to look at Hazel now. He was probably looking at her like everyone did when they saw her. With guilt of interacting with her, with regret of becoming her friend, with disgust.

Instead of contempt, his voice emerged with gentleness, “Why?”

“Because this is all I’ve ever wanted to be!” She kept her head lowered, grip tight, eyes shut despite the tears. “My mother, my grandmother, and her mother before her were all warriors! They were heroes! I want to be one, too! I’m just too dangerous.” Her throat was starting to hurt.

“Then let me help you.”

“I don’t want help!!” She rose, shoving Hazel in the chest in some effort to distract from what she said, what she admitted. Guilt and fear boiled inside her chest and throat, strangling her like a snake. “I don’t wanna be a damsel in distress! I want to be a hero!” Before he had a chance to, she kept going, “I’m sick of being the lovable ditz, stuck in the tree while her friends fight for their lives. Don’t you get it? If I can’t do this…then what good will ever be?”

Hands shaking, he attempted to reach for her arm, to rest his palm on her bicep as a centering force in her shaking world. But she reared backwards, slammed her legs against the small brick railing and sunk down into a ball, burying her head in her knees and crossed arms. “Just…leave me alone. Please,” she whispered, meek.

Hazel walked away without a second thought. She hoped he didn’t come back, that he told the boys and Professor Salem so she could just leave and never face him again; but she didn’t want to just leave. She cheated to get here, she supposed it was only right to cheat to stay. After all, that’s why she kept that satchel’s remains for another time. She let her head fall backwards and thunk against the brick.

“Oh, poor Cinder…”

She jolted and let her hands catch her when she tumbled to the side in surprise. There stood Arslan. Crap. This was a dorm roof, over top of ABRN and STRQ.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you two from my window. You cheated into Beacon? I never expected you to be as much as a criminal as Pumpkin Pie down there!”

“Please, Arslan, please don’t tell anyone!”

“Come on! What do you take me for?” Arslan grabbed Cinder by the scruff of the hair and hauled her onto her feet, hooking an arm around her shoulders shortly thereafter. “I’d never rat on a friend like that.”

“What?”

“Of course!” The hooked arm tightened as Arslan swung Cinder down, trapping her in a headlock. “The way I see it, as long as you’re there for me when I need you, we’re gonna be friends for a really long time,” she growled lowly before dropping Cinder to the ground, allowing her to gasp for air. “That being said, I don’t have time for some extra readings Dr Saph gave me today. Think you take care of that for me, chica?” Leaning down, she rubbed Cinder’s hair with such faux tenderness it made Cinder fear for her life, with a grin wide enough to give Tyrian a run for his money. “That’s good.”

Arslan swung over the wall railing to climb back down to her dorm window, only poking her head back momentarily to give one last comment, “Don’t worry, chica. Your secret’s safe with me.”

With a wink she dropped down.

And Cinder was left to rub her neck and catch her breath in utter panic in the crimson lights of the tower ahead.

Chapter Text

Before long, an entire week had passed. A week of Cinder constantly being dragged along on Arslan’s coattails, being blamed for all the mishaps Reese managed to get into, and being tired all night and day. Friday night, she was dismissed from tailing and reached her dorm, but patting around on her uniform found her Scroll missing. Instead of thumping on the door like a normal person, she quietly slumped down and laid her head back to rest against the hard surface. She’d never been this tired, not even on the streets.

From where she sat she could hear the rest of her team chattering inside, unaware of her being locked outside. Bedsprings squeaked in a rhythm further away, in the corner, so Tyrian was probably jumping on his bed like usual.

“How come Cinder comes back so late?” Tyrian’s voice dipped up and down in volume. Yup, definitely jumping on the bed. She never understood why Watts didn’t make him stop like he did with everything else Tyrian did.

Watts hummed. “She’s rather scarce ever since she began fraternization with Arslan.”

“Creepy,” the bedsprings screeched as the smallest teammate bounced hard, twirled and slammed back down on his back. “We need rest for the field trip tomorrow! Have you seen the bags under her eyes?”

“I’m sure our teammate knows exactly what she’s doing,” murmured Hazel. His bed has always been closer to the door – he called dibs on it – and the desk was right in the corner next to it as well, so Cinder assumed on the volume that he was at the desk. Her breathing hitched at his angry tone. Hazel never growled. Until now, at least. The heavy atmosphere from the dorm room seeped through the cracks under the door, making Cinder tuck a leg up to her chest to rest her forehead against.

The door across from her clicked open, and an emerald green eye peeked out. Oh, Roman was still awake? “Hey, Cinder.” Making his way into the hall, he tucked his neckscarf tighter around his neck and leaned against the doorframe. “Long time, no see. Did you lock yourself out?”

“Someone stole my Scroll.” Cinder chuckled dryly.

“Oh, shoot,” Roman darted back into RMEN’s room, emerging quickly thereafter with a Scroll; her Scroll. Grinning sheepishly, he tossed it into her lap. “Sorry, I thought it was Watts’. Anyway,” he braced his back against the doorframe again, arms crossed over his chest and eyes soft at her pitiful state. She was starting to wish she was alone again. “where have you been lately?”

Cinder’s eyes drifted to her Scroll, then to the carpet, and finally to her hands. She could feel the Aura pulsing through her veins, the burning that ached for release in the source of her Semblance. There was no point in excuses with Roman. If he could sneak her Scroll away from her while trying to steal someone else’s, he could do anything sneaky. “I messed up. Arslan has me on a leash, Hazel won’t talk to me, and…” She took a deep breath to her nose. “I’m starting to think coming to Beacon was my worst idea yet.” Situation laid out, she buried her face in her hands, legs flat out on the floor ahead and Scroll knocked to the side as it lit up with notifications from ABRN.

“No.”

“No?” She cracked her fingers apart, staring up curiously at him.

“No. You’re part of a team now. You can’t have bad ideas.” His smile was slanted and cheeky.

“But what if being part of a team is the bad idea?”

Looking up, Roman chewed the inside of his cheek for a second, then grinned, “No.”

Cinder laughed softly as he sat down across from her, legs knocking into hers just barely. “You know, you’re not the easiest person to talk to.”

“I know, it’s a choice.”

She let her hands fall into her lap as the laughter dulled to silence, though Roman began to speak again not too long after, still hushed against the quiet of the hallway and the open door to his team.

“Cinder, maybe you had a lot of bad ideas when you were a kid, and the first day I met you. But you can’t have them now. You know why?”

“Because..?”

“Because it’s not just about you. You’ve got friends, a team. I do too, I’m a leader for crying out loud!” He winced, reaching up slightly to tug the door to and shield his slumbering teammates from the noise. Inside Cinder saw Neo stir just a little. “If anyone falls, the rest goes down too. We’ve gotta take care of them, but if we let ourselves go uncared for, then we’ll just topple over and make the whole thing go splat,” he clapped his hands softly for emphasis.

“Romaaaaan, go back to sleep,” someone inside RMEN’s room slurred sleepily. When Cinder paid more attention, she could tell it was Emerald. They had a scratchier voice than Mercury.

Pushing his back against the wall, Roman scrambled up to his feet and through his door again. He peeked out on last time, winked at Cinder as a goodnight, then closed the door inaudibly. With a new energy, Cinder moves to unlock the door, managing to get up on her feet before her Scroll went off with a final text. From Arslan. Wonderful.

‘Make sure you have all that Dust ready for tomorrow, chica. We’re taking it out to the spring with us.’

She groaned. Sliding her Scroll into her blazer’s inside pocket, she wandered down the hall away from her room again.

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

Rosy cherry blossom petals drifted down from tree after tree, littering the ground with beautiful pink spots under the footsteps of Adrian, tailed by teams RMEN, WTCH, STRQ and ABRN, STRQ there for chaperoning and supervising more than anything.

While facing away from his students, Adrian stared at the lake a few feet ahead. “Yes, students, the woods of Eternal Spring are indeed beautiful. But we are not here for that.” He turned on his heel and made his way through the crowd of students, all parting to let him through while they kept their eyes trained on the shimmering lake, ever-changing in colors and shine. “Collect samples from the lake’s offshoots around the area. Each student should have one jar’s worth of water by our rendezvous at four. However, there are plenty of Grimm in these woods, so stay nearby your teammates and always have an eye on your partner. Have fun!” Waving a hand in the air, Adrian dismissed the students to disperse across the woods, STRQ playing rock-paper-scissors to decided what team they’d keep an eye on each.

Summer Bloom landed with RMEN, Qrow Ferrous with ABRN, and Taiyang Mingliang and Raven Branwen slated themselves with watching WTCH. Unbalanced but fair.

As Mercury and Roman grabbed their respective partners by their wrists and dragged them far into the woods – with Summer running after them – Cinder dropped the case in her arms and the six glass jars balanced precariously on top and attempted to dodge from the back of the group to the front, where Hazel had turned to smile at her, ready to go. Unfortunately, Arslan was not so easily avoided. A hand gripped Cinder’s hair tight and dragged her backwards into the arms of Reese and Bolin.

“Come on, chica, let’s go,” Arslan purred, releasing her grip on the miserable girl’s hair as she waved for Nolan to gather the jars and case, much to Nadir’s reluctance. With one last apologetic glance to Hazel, Cinder let herself be hauled away, and Hazel was ushered to follow Tyrian and Watts by Raven.

Two hours later, ABRN laid about the woods, with Arslan perched atop a very tall rock for such a wonderous spring area, Bolin and Reese hanging off branches and chatting away, and Nadir rolling one of the full jars of water back and forth between his hands on the floor. He was the first to notice Cinder wandering back, scratches patched with bandages on her legs, with the sixth and final jar of water, his eyes darting up to her momentarily before he decided to ignore her.
Arslan leapt down from her perch and slapped Cinder on the back, bright grin on her lips, knocking Cinder onto her stomach and the petals flying up under her. “Great job!” Then she noticed Cinder’s legs and their sorry state. “You don’t look too hot.”

“Maybe she’s allergic to the outdoors,” Nadir commented. That earned him a stony glare from Reese and Bolin and a low growl from Arslan before she moved back to addressing Cinder.

“So, chica, I bet you’re asking yourself why I asked you to collect six jars of water when there are only five of us?”

“Gonna go out on a limp and say it’s for him?” Cinder weakly pointed in Qrow’s direction, who had fallen asleep somewhere at the one-hour mark, woken up, and then wandered off to spend time with Summer and RMEN instead.

Arslan laughed, loud and cackling, “No. Come with me.”

Despite the bubbling worry and bile in her throat, Cinder struggled to her feet and stumbled after Arslan, with the rest of ABRN guarding their leader’s six. She ended up kneeling on a small hilltop overlooking the other groups, peeking over the crest while Nadir ran to catch up with the case Cinder had carried to the spring. The rest of the sample collecting students seemed to be getting along swimmingly. Tyrian had a jar in his hands, guzzling down the water, while Watts filled another two just a foot away at the offshoot of the lake. Smart, typical of him.

Cinder blinked rapidly and turned to face Arslan. “What’s going on?”

“Payback,” Arslan rumbled back.

Tracing her furious gaze, Cinder found her tormentor staring at all of WTCH, lingering mostly on Hazel, and then at Emerald down with Mercury, who had already finished and were reclined against the eccentric trees of the woods. “What are you…”

“That’s them. The know-it-all, the pipsqueak, the mad scientist, and the brainless brawn. Alright, guys,” Arslan released the clasps on the case to reveal all the Dust Cinder had gathered last night, from water to fire but mostly electric. “according to one of the essays chica here wrote for me, this spring reacts violently to any trace amount of Dust getting in contact with the water.”

Cinder’s head whipped back towards the group in panic, eyes wide. Hazel was setting his jar down on the floor, moving to sit beside Tyrian as said boy finished off drinking and grinned at an approaching Watts.

“I think it’s time they all get taught a lesson,” suddenly a jar and a few vials of Dust were being shoved into her arms, Arslan’s voice purring in her ear. “and chica is gonna do it.” Reese and Bolin vaulted to perch on the crest of the hill, clearly eager to watch the show, while Nadir sighed deeply and continued to sit facing away from the action. Hands shaking, Cinder glanced at him, begging for help, an excuse, anything. From her experience he was the best of the four, never blaming her directly for anything or giving her anything to do, but all she got was him blocking eye contact as he equipped his shades. “It’s this or I talk to Professor Arc, and you’re on the first airship out.”

Threat set in Cinder’s mind, her eyes fluttered down to the jar and Dust vials in her hands. Her thoughts and heartbeat ran a mile a minute as she raised Dust and poured all the vials into the open mouth of the jar, then pressed her rapidly-heating palm to the base, the Dust reacting already with the heat as a catalyst.

“No.”

“What did you say?”

“I said no!!” she shrieked, hurling the jar onto the ground and sending herself backwards over the crest before Bolin or Reese could make a grab for her. The jar exploded over ABRN, most of it braced against Arslan as she stood closest. Sparks of electricity flew and coursed over the teammates, three ducked their heads to avoid the violent bursts of flame and ice but their leader taking it all and being knocked to the ground.

As the mist cleared, a fist shot toward Cinder, gripping her by her outfit’s scarlet front and hauling her back to Arslan, hands raised in defense.

Chapter Text

Shoved to the ground, Cinder panted heavily, collecting her thoughts for the moment before Arslan restarted her battery. Despite them being on equal footing height-wise, it was clear Cinder was outmatched based on Arslan’s pure muscle and brawn, not to mention her actual knowledge of how to fight effectively. That said it wasn’t much of a fight. More of a one-sided beat-em-up, advantage Arslan. In the small time she’d been beating Cinder, she’d managed to give her a black eye, several scratches and a lot more bruises, and that was only what was visible on Cinder’s arms, legs and face.

But Cinder didn’t really care. What mattered was her friends’ safety. She could run her mouth all day – Bart always said that was her strong suit – and keep Arslan distracted, as long as everyone was safe. Callous, strong hands gripped the front of her outfit and tugged her back up, her feet off the ground, and Arslan snarled, swinging at her opponent again. The next thing either of the girls knew, they were being ricocheted away from each other, Arslan screaming as a burn scorched across her palm violently, Cinder’s injuries healed in their entirety. Flexing her cooling hands, Cinder gazed in awe of the dull and fading orange Aura. Brothers, was she glad Hazel had activated her Aura properly back in the Forest.

A kick connected with her back and sent her forward on her stomach, eyes eventually locked on a stalking Arslan. She cracked her neck and knuckles, sadistic smile on display.

“Let’s see how much of a fighter you really are…”

Then, a growl. And a scream, specifically from Nadir. A gigantic paw crashed into the tiny hill clearing, a roar reverberating around the spring and rippling the water into the deepest part of the lake. Leaping forward, an Alpha Beowolf bounded toward the terrified students, with Reese, Nadir and Bolin turning on their heels and fleeing the instant it approached. As Reese screamed in tow with her teammate, the Beowolf’s ears flickering and its roar screeched louder. Arslan’s hands dropped to her side, shaking and trembling to her very core, as the giant paws gripped her by the shoulders and raised her to its owner’s maw. Its eyes briefly flickered to Cinder, who gaped like an airborne fish, but darted back to Arslan quickly once it smelt the Dust and spring water still latent on her.

The roars echoed deep around the area, particularly into the ears of the nearby students and their chaperones, whose heads turned in an instant.

Roman clambered to his feet. “Did you guys hear that?”

The remaining members of ABRN, as if on cue, broke through the trees surrounding the other students, panting and two rushing directly past the group. Only Reese didn’t have her eyes open to see why she was going, so she crashed directly into Mercury, who grabbed her hoodie’s front and lifted her off the ground. “Beowolf, back there!” Her hand flailed in the direction she came from. “It’s got Arslan!”

Eyes widening, Hazel got to his feet, recognition of who was also missing reflecting in Neo and Roman’s eyes too. “Cinder!”

“Merc! You and Emerald, go get Professor Arc!” Roman commanded, his brother nodding and hurling Reese to the ground to follow his partner off. “Watts, Tyrian, stay here with STRQ, there could be more,” he continued. Summer nodded to her fellow leader and directed her team, Taiyang and Qrow to guard the boys and Reese while she and Raven looked for Bolin and Nadir. Everyone spread out, Neo, Hazel and Roman armed themselves to face a monster and save their friend.

Shaking in the Beowolf’s paws, Arslan struggled, desperately trying to work an arm free to grab her dagger and retaliate in some way, any way. But the claws only tightened around her, so she threw a terrified glance backways to Cinder, who blinked twice and shook her head before clambering up out of her shock. At the rim of the tiny clearing, Hazel, Roman and Neo approached, with Neo raising Hush and readying her Semblance to assist Cinder’s attempts to defend ABRN’s leader. To her surprise and Roman’s,

Hazel rested a hand on Neo’s shoulder and whispered, “Wait…”

Her bow in hand, Cinder notched an arrow and fired at the Beowolf’s stomach, causing it to howl and toss its captive away into the trees. She dodged its attempt to crush her and barrelled down to avoid a swipe at her head, only to get struck by its other paw when she got up again. When she landed, she leapt back to her feet, arrows docked again, just to be knocked down when she tries to bounce on its head to flip and fire at its back. As she knelt for breath, her Aura shimmered before her eyes and over her hands. It was in the red. One more hit would shatter it. Rage flickered in her chest and forced heat into her hands, scorching the leather on her bow. She lunged sideways, grabbed an arrow and fired it, missing but distracting the Beowolf enough to let her get a hit in.

Off to the side, the arrow soared at top speed toward a shocked Roman, who threw up his hands to protect his face, only for nothing to hit him. When he bought his arms down, Hazel’s arm was glittering in pale energy a foot before his face, skin ruptured by the sharpened glass arrow while his face remained neutral and focused on protecting the much smaller boy beside him.

Just as the Beowolf swept at Cinder’s head again, she lifted her bow, guarded herself and knocked it aside, right before shoving the bow upwards and firing a full cluster of arrows into the monster’s throat, severing the chords and tendons within. Its head tumbled to the ground, black goo gushing out on the grass and across the top of Cinder’s face, making her shiver in disgust.

As Hazel’s arm ceased its lightshow and he removed the rogue arrow, Roman couldn’t help but gasp in awe. “How did you do that?”

“Well, Neo has her wide-scale illusions,” Hazel gestured with his pierced arm to Neo, who stared at him equally as amazed. “and Tyrian has his venom secretion. My Semblance is numbing.”

“Whoa, you can control thumbs…”

(No, dum-dum, numbing. He has control over his pain tolerance.) Neo signed, exasperated.

“That’s pretty cool too,” Roman whispered back.

Noticing his teammate’s accomplishment, Hazel smiled softly and took a step backwards, ready to leave so she never knew he and the others were watching. Exchanging a glance, Neo and Roman blinked and followed, content to keep it a secret at least until Hazel decided to tell Cinder what they’d all seen. Meanwhile within the clearing, with the Grimm decaying slowly into floating black dust and chalk, Cinder found Arslan, on the ground behind a tree nearby. She offered a hand to the still trembling girl, with Arslan only hesitating for a second before gripping Cinder’s hand and allowing herself to be hauled to her feet.

Cinder stepped close into Arslan’s personal space, glaring eye-to-eye. “Don’t ever mess with my friends or my team ever again. Got it?”

“G-Got it,” Arslan stammered, and with that Cinder dropped her hand and walked away.

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It was freezing that night, atop the dormitories. Sure, she probably shouldn’t be out there without her blazer at least – she’d left in the dorm with Tyrian and Watts after getting changed from the trip – but she wasn’t about to risk being late for a meeting with Hazel just to ensure her warmth. Besides it was a learning experience, harnessing her Semblance into her arms to keep herself heated, which was working well. In the distance, the crimson lights of Beacon Tower shimmered, casting their spotlights down on the dorm rooftops and onto an approaching Hazel. He cleared his throat, and Cinder turned to face him in a scene that felt like it belonged in one of those shonen that Bart used to read as a kid.

“Hazel, I…” she glanced away. “I’m sorry, I was scared. You were only trying to help, and I had all that stupid stuff stuck in my head,” she trailed off as Hazel stepped forward, tilting her head to face him rather than the roof to her left.

“It’s okay,” he assured, smiling softly. He let his hand drop when Cinder returned the smile with a bright, fiery grin, and chuckled as he continued, “Your team really misses their only girl, you know. You should come down!” He began to approach the exit. “Watts made waffles. No syrup, though – you can thank Tyrian for that.”

“Wait!” At Cinder’s call, he halted and tilted his head back to lock eyes. “Would you still be open to helping me…train? Or whatever?”

Hazel cupped a hand over his mouth upon seeing her attempt a fighting stance. The balance was wrong, her arms were positioned off, and everything about her was begging to be knocked down a peg, but it was a start. So Hazel shook his head and held out a hand for her to take.