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Chapter Text

Ruby Rose woke up as if she was waking up from a nightmare, the sudden intake of air and then her following fast deep breaths, followed by patting herself to check for an injury she was certain she had convinced she was not dead. After making certain she had no injury, Ruby looked around still alert only to realize she was in her room. It had been just a dream.

Ruby was no stranger to strange dreams, from following a surprisingly caring commander against a horde of robots protecting the last remnants of humanity, to leading a team mech pilots in an attempt to stop the crashing of a space colony into a world or even just now in the dream she just woke up from, leading a team against horrific forest monsters that looked like a mix of animals and people. And yet, this last dream felt more real than the last, from the frustrations, the feeling of tiredness, the adrenaline, even the horrible smell! It all felt so real.

After calming herself down, Ruby realized she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so she got out of her bed and prepared to take a shower, change herself, eat breakfast and then do maintenance on Crescent Rose. At least that way she would be able to visit her mother earlier than she originally planned to.

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Weiss Schnee woke up completely confused, she felt as if something or more accurately someone was missing and yet another part of her brain was telling her there was nothing missing. Looking around and finding her bedroom looking the exact same way, Weiss soon found her confusion turning into frustration. It had all been a dream.

Weiss hated those dreams, the adventure, the freedom, the fact she didn’t have to deal with her less than stellar family, fighting for a just cause. All things she once wanted and looked forward to, childish dreams that will never come true. Shaking her head trying to forget said old wishes and dreams, Weiss got out of her bed deciding to concentrate on the following test to come. She only needed to complete it to go to Beacon, no matter what her father had prepared, she would be ready.

However, the strange feeling of realism this last dream left her never really went away through the rest of the day. Nor did the horrible smell.

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Jaune liked his dreams, there he could be everything he was not, a knight, a confidant, a savior, a fighter, a leader … a hero. Yet now wide awake, he was forced to the reality of his situation once again. He was in his bedroom, in his family’s house, in the middle of the night and nowhere closer to his dream than several years prior, not in the desperate fight in a forest he had just dreamed about. His parents, a farmer and a teacher by career, had been vehemently opposed to his attempts at being a huntsman, saying it was too dangerous, that he would be more helpful taking another job and yet his sisters were all following his dreams, why couldn’t he do the same! He had managed to get some under the table tutoring and his dreams gave him cool ideas but still, it was nowhere near enough to what he wanted.

Then, a flash of an idea hit him, he could still be a hero. His family would most certainly be angry but if things went as he planned, he would be ok. Realizing he didn’t have much time; he got out of bed to write a goodbye note and then continue with his plan. He figured he could wing it. Now if only he could stop feeling that damn smell.

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Pyrrha was used to success, she however was not used to failure and yet, this last dream had been exactly that, a desperate fight they had failed to win. Overwhelmed by the animalistic monsters surrounding them in a desperate, Despite being a dream it made her uneasy, failure was supposed to be something everyone dealt with and yet, she had never truly felt how it was to truly fail, seeing it happen so decisively was a strange experience specially since it was a dream, even if a terrifyingly realistic one, she could feel the smell even now wide awake.

Looking at the clock and realizing getting back to sleep was going to be impossible, she got up to get ready for her daily training. Being the invincible champion was not easy after all and it depended on her continuing her training although it caused the problem of keeping her reputation so overwhelming it made people put her on a pedestal.

Hopefully her going to Beacon would change that, after all, with going to such a prestigious huntsman academy nobody would have any reason to look up to her and instead she would finally get true peers. That very idea made her sincerely smile.

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For Ruby, visiting her mom had become a tradition, it gave her time to think, to try to establish a connection she never had with her mother. However, this time it really didn’t matter, she had news to tell!

“Hey mom, well, yes I know I’m early but, I have so many things to tell you!” - says a happy Ruby

“Yang is going to Beacon! Yeah, she is going to Beacon. Sure, she still needs to pass the entrance exam but it's Yang! She’s going to pass that exam.” - continues Ruby in a nonchalant voice.

“But that's not all! She is going a little bit early to Vale and I’m going too! We both need a bit more dust ammunition and I need a few more materials to make new spare parts for Crescent Rose”

“That said …”

Ruby stops for a small moment organizing her thoughts before continuing, traces of doubt entering her voice

“... the strange dreams continue. They’re not really bad but recently they have become more and more realistic. To the point I sometimes believe they could be real. It feels so strange and yet, it somehow feels normal.”

Shaking her head to dispel the doubts, after all dreams were just that, dreams. With that thought, Ruby continued to talk to her mother, telling her other things, most of them much less important than the previous news.

Soon, Ruby was finished and started to walk her way home through the forest only to cross a pack of young beowolves in one of the clearings. Seeing no way to avoid the beowolves surrounding her, Ruby prepared to fight.

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To defeat an opponent of his choosing, that was the single condition her father had given Weiss for her to be able to go to Beacon Academy. A single opponent was all that stood between her and the beginning of her road to make the SDC something better.

Spinning Myrtenaster’s dust revolver chamber after checking they were completely full Weiss let herselfThe options were many, the most probable was a mech or a robot of some kind or if she was unlucky enough, perhaps even some huntsman he managed to make a contract with. The mere thought gave Weiss shivers.

“Calm yourself Weiss, this is not how a Schnee should act”

Closing her eyes and taking slow deep breaths, Weiss manages to force herself to calm down.

“No matter” - Weiss thinks to herself full of determination

“Whatever my father has prepared, I’ll beat it”

“He won’t stop me, specially now”

Now with all doubts left aside, Weiss entered the arena where her fight would happen. The massive room was similar to the other rooms in the Schnee mansion, immaculate, massive, ostentatious and a feeling of emptiness.

Looking around Weiss could only see her father’s personal secretary and puppet waiting for her. Barely keeping her frustration out of her face, Weiss exchanged empty pleasantries and started with her training of the day. Sooner or later her true target would appear and when that happened …

“Finally, I’ll be able to follow my dreams”

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While Jaune did not learn many if any combat abilities from his family, he did learn a lot about other more basic yet similarly important skills. Like being able to move within the house without waking anyone up, even if that meant taking a shower and making breakfast.

At the end, no matter the difficulties, he not only had managed that but also managed to get his clothes (including his onesie) ready and also gotten some extra food but also had gotten Crocea Mors and all his savings, he even had a plan! One that would earn the ire of his family (and the police) if it was discovered but he had a plan at least.

Deciding to not waste more time than necessary, Jaune finished packing his things and started to write a small goodbye note to his family. If everything went to plan, things would work out.

Getting out of the house, even before the sun rose up, Jaune started his personal journey.

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Pyrrha expertly evaded the trust of her opponent before using Miló to strike several hit on her opponent before finishing by transforming it into his Javelin form and firing a single shot sending her opponent flying out of the arena, the strength of the shot-enhanced stab of the tip being to much.

Cheers exploded from the crowd as Pyrrha won yet again as the referee announced her followed by the announcer shouting to the top of his lungs “and the invincible girl wins again ladies and gentlemen!”

Another victory, yet another reason for people to push her further above themselves. Pyrrha hid her frustration behind a cordial, practiced smile, before going towards her opponent before helping her to stand back up and then shaking her hand while giving her honest thanks for the good fight, her opponent responding that she wasn’t really expecting to last this long actually.

What came after was just a blur for Pyrrha, from the interview, to receiving the first place cup. She just went through them using careful and well practiced actions and speeches as if on autopilot.

Beacon couldn’t come fast enough.

Chapter Text

The forest was burning, a single infected, that was all it took for a veritable horde to fall upon them. Now they were trapped inside a clearing, hordes of beasts and trolls rushing them from the woods in uncounted numbers. Their traps, either mechanical, explosive or magical, had done little to buy them time.

Still, their defiance still burned bright, flamethrowers, rifles and grenades did their bloody job. A black haired silver eyed girl fired her scoped rifle as fast as she could, each shot either hitting one of the fallen in the head or in a limb. Her companions were also hard at work, her ginger companion was throwing grenades and explosives interchanged with assault rifle fire wherever she saw a particularly dangerous infected. Their blonde medic meanwhile concentrated on the closest infected with his shotgun or if needed, his machete. Finally their white-haired mage was supporting their medic with her flamethrower, there simply was no time for her to make more runes.

However, despite their efforts, their fate was sealed, as soon the infected were upon them, knives and machete sliced and stabbed but one by one they fell as bites and slashes hit them. The sound of breaking bones and shouts of pain mixing with the growls and sound of the infected as they did their bloody work. Then a sudden final explosion and all that remained was the debris falling from the skies and the arrival of new infected.

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Ruby suddenly woke up in the airship with a cold feeling over her alongside the sensation of pain from all the injuries she had suffered during the dream.

“This was too real” - thought the silver-eyed girl to herself before looking around in near panic noticing she was still at her airship seat before noticing Yang was looking at her in worry.

“Hey Rubes, you ok? You look as if you had seen a ghost” - asks Yang, her voice full of worry, her left hand over Ruby's shoulder and ready to just go and hug her sister.

Taking some deep breaths to calm herself before responding, Ruby looked at her sister again.

“I’m ok Yang, just a bad dream, don’t worry” - answered Ruby, omitting the ghost pains she was still feeling.

“You sure?”  - asks Yang, still worried unwilling to leave it alone

“Yes Yang, don’t worry, I’m ok” - says Ruby again. She really didn’t want to discuss the dream she had just had.

Yang seemed to be more than willing to continue pushing for answers but Ruby was not willing to let it happen and stood up to go get Crescent Rose. Anything to distract her sister. However as she passed, a blond guy suddenly passed running towards the airship’s bathroom, something that for some reason she was finding … amusing? familiar?

Leaving aside the strange feelings, Ruby continued to the lockers to retrieve her weapon, the amount of people increasing as she got closer. Ruby held a sigh in frustration, weapons were ok, even the most complicated of weapons could be understood with enough time but people? people rarely made sense even after dealing with them for months or even years.

Opening the weapon’s locker, Ruby took out Crescent Rose, inspected it for a moment and then closed the locker once she made sure Crescent Rose was in perfect condition. Now it was only a matter of meeting with Yang once again.

Although something told her that her stay at Beacon would bring in more surprises than she imagined.

==============================

As Jaune barfed into the airship’s toilet he couldn’t help but curse his airsickness, doubly so when a part of him told him that this had been the cause of many troubles. Why? He didn't know, but the feeling was there.

Not helping was the dream he just had. He could still faintly feel the cuts and bits he had suffered. And the panic, the panic of knowing death was approaching and nothing you could do would stop it, only slow it. He hated that feeling, no matter how brave he felt or acted in the face of that inevitability, there was always an underlying feeling of panic and he hated it. It made him remember his limitations.

“It doesn’t matter!” - thought Jaune trying to calm himself and his stomach down - “it was just a dream, it was just a dream”

Finally, after it felt like minutes of his stomach wanting to get out of his body, Jaune was able to exit the airship’s bathroom. Hearing the warning that the airship was soon to arrive at Beacon, Jaune went towards his locker to get Crocea Mors.

On his way to the lockers, Jaune watched his possible future peers like a hawk, he may not be the most powerful, the fastest or the most skilled, but he liked to think he had a good eye for the details. And those details were telling him that he was way behind the rest. He knew that fact but it was being constantly reinforced by the people here. The weapons went from rifles, to swords, spears and everything in between. One guy was even using a chainsaw/drum mechashift by brothers’ sake!

Their users were also spectacular, from full one knights, to what appeared to be rangers and everything in between. Everyone looked like they had faced and killed Grimm or at least were ready to do that. Everyone exuded confidence and security he knew he didn't have. Hell, even his weapons and armor were hand-me-downs, completely unimpressive to the rest.

“You’ll get to that point, just don’t give up” - said a small voice in the back of his head.

“Was it really possible?” - responded another of his mind as Jaune took Crocea Mors from the locker. His dream pointed at yes, his dream depended on it! But … but a significant part of his mind said “no”.

Suddenly Jaune shaked his head, no, he would not let his fears and doubt keep him from his dream, not after everything he had to do to get here. He would be a huntsman and a hero.

No matter what.

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Weiss had to be honest with herself, her day had started poorly. not only the dream he had on the way here had not been the best one (she still felt the pain and hopelessness when she thought about it), perhaps she had taken a bit too much stuff with her.

“Definitely too much and unnecessarily at that” - added a small voice in her head that she decided to ignore.

There was a small pile of suitcases filled to the brim not only with her clothes but also with dust and in one case, spare parts for Myrtenaster. Enough for at least the first semester. The less contact she could have with her father the better.

That thought made her mood get sour, if anything, her father had been the greatest obstacle she had had to get into Beacon. From, plainly negating her wish to later unleashing the Arma Gigas against her.

Further thoughts about her father however were cut short when not only a massive group of students basically passed near her thing running but also when a clumsy dolt, not only crashed into her things but also spilled some dust!

“Hey! what are you doing?!” - Weiss shouts at the clumsy girl - “do you have any idea what you have done?!”

“I’m sorry!” - responds the girl in black and red clothes.

A part of her really wants to continue admonishing the girl that had crashed into her suitcases but a small part of her pointed that the priority would be to make sure her dust was safely contained.

Kneeling to check the vials, Weiss winced, despite being seemingly still sealed, looking into the details made her notice that the dust powder was leaking out. It was already a miracle nothing had exploded, had she decided to admonish the girl, things would’ve definitively exploded. Sighing in frustration she went on to make sure the dust was safely secured.

Meanwhile the other girl had just stood up looking at her with nervousness before asking.

“Can I help you?”

Weiss, at that moment wanted to explode, not only that dolt had crashed into her things and almost caused an accident, she was acting as if she had not done anything wrong!

However she managed to control herself, if barely.

“No, I’m good. Just … take more care next time, you almost caused an explosion!” - responded Weiss with frustration clever in her voice.

“Ah, ah, sure!” - responds the other girl before going away.

Weiss only sighed, now alone, she could finally calm down herself. She would not let this single accident put her in such a bad mood that she wouldn’t feel good about coming to Beacon.

Freedom was finally at hand.

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If anything Pyrrha could feel about arriving at Beacon, it was the feeling of failed expectations. Unlike what she wanted she had either been ignored or approached by fans. At no moment she had been approached by someone just looking to talk with her without her fame being a factor.

Then came the headmaster’s speech, and simply, it had been … ok? Nothing really inspiring and incredibly blunt but she figured that the headmaster had his mind on something else.

After this the rest of the day felt like a blur, meeting more fans or being left alone by the rest of the people at Beacon. It seemed once again her fame preceded her.

“There must be someone out there that doesn’t care about my fame. There must be!” - thought Pyrrha to herself in an attempt to not lose hope.

Suddenly she heard a discussion on the far side of the hall, apparently a yellow girl with a white one. She couldn’t hear exactly what they were discussing although she noticed another watching both discuss.

For some reason looking at the third girl watching the other two discuss without doing anything brought her some amusement, it reminded her of one dream she had a few nights ago.

No matter, hopefully the next day will be better than today.

And hopefully the next dream would not be as terrifying or painful at the one she awoke from.

Chapter Text

It was a calm day, the sun was shining but the heat wasn’t overwhelming, there was wind going but it didn’t feel cold. Simply, it was the perfect day.

And that perfect day was now being accentuated by laughter, a small bipedal blue canine with black torso, legs, ears and face mask was playing catch with a completely white six-tailed canine. With the former chasing the latter who was freezing the ground to keep her blue pursuer from catching her.

Meanwhile an arthropod with a brown shell resembling a horseshoe crab was over her small quadrupedal fluffy brown friend (who was lying upside down) using its four yellow legs to tickle him. The latter trying, with no effect, to use his fluffy tail to get his friend from over him while laughing like a hyena.

Suddenly their playing was interrupted with a sudden shout.

“Hey guys, the food is ready, time to eat!”

This single shout made the four stop. Playing was great but food was almost as good. Deciding to get back to playing and training after eating, the four rushed to their food.

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Ruby woke up feeling happy and peaceful. Peaceful dreams like the one she just had were not really unknown to her but normally they felt small times of peace in between conflict. This one felt nothing like that, it felt truly like a time free of worries.

That honestly put her in a good mood.

But now it was time to get ready. The initiation was today so there was no time to waste.

She quickly took a bath and got changed before going to get breakfast. And oh boy, what breakfast.

Cookies! Milk! And even strawberries! The perfect breakfast!

“So Rubes!” - appears Yang from nowhere - “You ready for the test?”

“Of course!” - responds Ruby with a happy and chipper voice - “Me and Crescent Rose are going to blast through it, just you wait!”

Yang laughed a bit at her sister’s energy and enthusiasm, it always let her and others get in high spirits.

“That may be true but I’m sure I'm finishing before you!” - said Yang, teasing her sister.

Ruby pouted in response, her face showing clear displeasure. Yang meanwhile just laughed a bit before going back to eating her breakfast.

Realizing her sister was not going to continue their conversation and that asking her about being teammates would only end in her trying to convince her to get new friends she just went back to enjoy her breakfast.

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Jaune continued to enjoy his cereal with yogurt and his sandwiches. It wasn’t much but when he could make sandwiches of whatever he wanted, he would take the option. Especially with the initiation happening soon.

The last dream had been nice and had put him in good spirits, at least good enough to keep his self-doubts and nervousness from overwhelming him.

What little training he had managed to get behind his parents’ backs had shown him just how outmatched he was in comparison to everyone else. He had decided he wasn’t going to quit no matter what happened, but, still doubts always reared their ugly faces.

Deciding that he was not hungry anymore, Jaune went to get his weapons only to find a sea of people doing the same. Not wanting to take too much time, Jaune went to search for his weapons locker, which he found after a few minutes of ~~desperate~~ searching.

After taking out his weapon, he closed the locker and turned to leave only to crash into someone else, thankfully both managed to keep their balance.

“Sorry, I didn’t notice you!” - immediately says Jaune, trying to stop a discussion from starting.

“No, no, it was my fault” - responds the smaller girl now in front of him - “I was going to get my weapon but I got distracted.”

It was at this moment that Jaune took stock of the shorter girl in front of him, she was using a black skirt and blouse, black stocking and black boots alongside a red hooded cloak. Honestly, she looked kinda cool if in a cute way.

“I can see why, many of these weapons are interesting” - responded Jaune. He didn’t lie either, many of the weapons were very creative if not downright strange.

“Yep! These weapons are so cool!” - continues the girl, obviously interested in the weapons of everyone around her - “If you want to I can show you mine if you want to!”

“Ah … sure!”- responded Jaune, taken by surprise.

Immediately the girl said to him to follow her with a lot of enthusiasm which he did.

“Ah, one thing” - said Jaune, which made the girl stop for a moment - “what is your name?”

“oh, yeah, I’m Ruby Rose!” - answers Ruby - “and which is yours?”

“Name’s Jaune Arc” - responds Jaune

After that Ruby proceeded to ask him about his weapon and how it worked, which he did to his limited abilities. While her reaction was not as effusive as with other weapons they then continued to talk about other things.

At some points it felt like they had been friends before. It seemed luck had smiled on him, just for once.

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Weiss quickly decided that today was not going to be a good day. First, she was woken up from some idiot deciding to shout everyone near him awake and then some menace of a girl had caused chaos in the female bathroom.

The silver lining was that her breakfast had been surprisingly peaceful.

Now she was going to retrieve her weapon while thinking about her potential teammates. She knew for a fact that all academies grouped their students in teams of four members, she just needed to find the perfect teammates.

Which was the problem. Everyone around her she saw substandard teammates, either they looked like they had an ego far too big for their good, others looked as if they didn’t take the academy seriously, some even looked just plain incompetent!

Reaching the place where her weapons locker was she noticed something, not only was there the girl that nearly blew up her dust yesterday but she was talking very animatedly with one blonde guy with armor, jeans and a hoodie?!

Regardless, they represented a problem, that being that they were blocking her from getting access to her locker.

“Just my luck” - she thought with frustration to herself as she neared the pair who didn’t notice her, apparently talking about weapon maintenance - “Well, at least there is no dust to explode now”

“Good morning, sorry to interrupt but I think you are blocking me from getting to my weapon’s locker” - said Weiss to the pair

“AAAAAHHHHHH! you are the girl from yesterday, sorry! - responds the black dressed, silver-eyed girl quickly moving out of the way.

The blonde guy stands in his position, looking at both before also moving out of the way, his face showing obvious confusion.

“Thank you” - says Weiss while nodding to both of them before taking out her weapon and closing her locker.

However when she turned around she found the pair still looking at her and her weapon. She instinctively raised one of her eyebrows completely unamused, basically asking them why they stayed or to move somewhere else.

Both of them had the decency to look half-ashamed.

“Sorry, I just wanted to see your weapon!” - responds the girl before her companion could move or say something himself.

That surprised Weiss, normally people would recognize her and immediately give empty platitudes to try to gain favors from her or simply build a good rapport. Asking her about her weapon was simply not something she expected.

That said, she still needed to find a teammate.

“Sorry, but I still need to find a teammate?” - she responds

“Teammate?” - asks the blonde guy

This makes her sigh in frustration.

“Yes, teammates. Don’t you know that you will get into teams here in Beacon?” - she asks to both teens in front of her

The girl nods in but the guy puts a face that tells her that no, he didn’t know.

“I had forgotten about that!” - shouts in panic the blonde while pressing his hands against his cheeks.

“In that case I suggest you start searching” - says Weiss before going her own way, she had a teammate to find.

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Pyrrha Nikos was having a decent day all things considered, beyond the small hiccup of the bathrooms where one girl caused untold chaos, not only she had been able to make a small Mistralian style breakfast for herself but also she had had a very nice dream. After that she retrieved her weapon from the weapons locker without much issue and now she just stood in the locker room waiting for the initiation to start.

However she had completely lost hope of finding someone that didn’t care about her fame. Everyone either evaded her, or complimented her on her achievements asking her if they wanted to pair up with them. She turned them down but it was getting tiring.

The last of these had been, surprisingly, the Schnee heiress.

In a way, it was obvious, Weiss Schnee was not only famous in her own right, even if it was more due to her musical career than sheer combat prowess and she had most likely received training from the best instructors money could get.

However, teaming up with the heiress was not something she, Pyrrha Nikos, wanted to do, despite the good points the heiress brought up. She wanted someone that saw her not as the invincible girl, but just as another peer.

“Well, I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may” - she says to the heiress

“Are you sure about it?” - questions Weiss - “Wouldn’t it be better to choose your own teammate?”

Pyrrha wanted to answer yes, but that would mean telling Weiss that she and almost everyone here in Beacon were not what she wanted.

Thankfully before anything else was said someone else appeared and saved her from having to do so.

“Sorry to interrupt but I’m searching for a teammate and I wanted to know if any of you wanted to be it”  - asked the new arrival to Weiss

Both Pyrrha and Weiss turned to see who he was, finding it to be a blonde boy, with a set of armor, a hoodie and a pair of jeans. Alongside him, there was a girl in basically all black, black skirt, black stocking, black blouse and black hair, the only things that weren’t black were some accessories, the red cloak and her silver eyes.. Both of them looked friendly enough.

Before she could respond to the question of the blonde guy however, Weiss talks first.

“Sorry, but we are talking here” - responds Weiss, her voice showing obvious frustration in her face while she crosses her arms.

Both new arrivals cringed at her response.

“Sorry!” - responds the boy - “but you were the only one we both thought about asking!”

“Really?” - asks Weiss - “do you have any idea who you are talking with?”

“Nope” 

“No”

Says both of the new arrivals at the same time

“Well, I’m Weiss Schnee and she” - continues Weiss pointing at Pyrrha, making her wave to say  hello - “is Pyrrha Nikos”

“Hello there” - she says while waiving again

“Doesn’t ring a bell and my name’s Jaune” - says the boy

“Neither here and mine is Ruby” - responds the girl

That surprises both Weiss and Pyrrha. Weiss grimaces but Pyrrha was internally, she had found them!, exactly what she wanted! People that didn’t know of her nor were affected by her fame.

“She graduated top of her class at Sanctum!” - continued Weiss

“Never heard of it” - responds Jaune

“Really? You must be very good!” - responds Ruby meanwhile

“I am skilled, yes, but so were my fellow students” - she said, trying to downplay her achievements. Weiss’ attitude meanwhile was starting to displease her.

“She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!” - says Weiss again

“The what?” - asked Jaune

“Wait, you have won the same tournament four times in a row? Impressive!” - says Ruby, obviously interested

Now she was starting to feel dread, this was not what she wanted!

“So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?” - Weiss continues

“I don’t know, considering the teams are supposed to be of four people we could all be teammates” - she said

The reaction of the others was something, Weiss looked as if she had eaten a lemon if only for a brief moment, Ruby looked as if thinking about it, Jaune meanwhile looked relieved. She had found her teammates after all!

“Well, I was planning to team up with my sister but considering its teams of four …” starts Ruby before being suddenly interrupted by an announcement.

“Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately.”

“I … suggest we get moving immediately” - said Weiss suddenly before starting to walk out of the locker room in direction to the Beacon Cliffs, her voice betraying a bit of frustration.

Ruby and Jaune looked at each other and started to follow Weiss, leaving herself standing in place for a few seconds before she also started to move.

She had not gotten what she wanted but more! Not only there was one but instead two people that didn’t care about her fame!

“Now, I just have to make sure I team up with them” - she thought to herself, her smile stopping to become her practiced one and becoming sincere.

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The cliffs were not that far away from Beacon Academy but still far enough so whatever happened inside the academy didn’t affect the initiation and vice versa. Both the headmaster and his adjutant were already present reading something in their scrolls and if one looked beyond the cliff itself, one would see the massive size of the Emerald Forest below.

Soon the prospective students started to arrive together and once they were all present the headmaster started to explain how the test would work, their objectives and how the teams were going to be formed, many of them cringing at the idea that mere eye-contact would be enough to be paired with anyone.

Then immediately after asking if anyone had any questions, the students started being launched into the forest basically silencing everyone. The initiation had started.

Ruby easily landed after slowing herself down using Crescent Rose’s recoil before using it to catch a branch and stop herself, while Weiss used her glyphs as platform, jumping from glyph to glyph to slow herself down and land safely on the forest. Finally Pyrrha using Akoúo̱ to protect herself from the branches before landing in a particularly large one before her taking out Miló and changing into rifle form and scanning the area around and above her.

It was at this moment she noticed Jaune trying to pull a similar landing with Crocea Mors although his form was far less stable. Quickly deciding to ensure that at least she had as teammate one of the people she wanted to team up with, Pyrrha changed Miló into his javelin form and launched it accurately pinning Jaune into a tree.

Despite being a hit to his personal sense of self-worth, Jaune couldn’t help but feel thankful. Sure he had a landing strategy but he was barely keeping it together as it was during the fall, he seriously doubted he would’ve been able to pull it successfully.

The Javelin that had pinned him to the tree, which he idly recognized as Pyrrha’s weapon, had actually made his life much easier.

“Thank you!” - he shouted, hoping Pyrrha would hear him.

“I’m sorry!” - he faintly heard in return.

“Yeah, that’s Pyrrha” - thought Jaune, recognizing her voice while trying and failing to get the javelin of the tree.

Sighing at his failure, Jaune resigned himself to wait for rescue.

==============================

Back with Ruby she is currently running through the forest looking for Yang. While yes, Jaune was a nice person he didn’t seem to be particularly powerful, Pyrrha seemed nice and she was powerful which put her high on her list of options, Weiss? Weiss was complicated and far too much of a hassle to want her on her team and Blake was in her opinion an even worse option. So yeah, Yang was her priority for teaming up.

“Yang! YYYYAAAANNNNGGGG!” - shouted Ruby as she tried to find her sister to no avail.

“Finding her is going to be harder than I thought” - despaired Ruby, if there was something she wanted, was to make sure her sister was in her team. Deciding to stop in the following clearing, Ruby took stock of her options, she could either continue north towards the relic and hopefully reunite with Yang or continue to actively search for her.

Suddenly a shrub rustled, breaking Ruby out of her thoughts. Reacting instinctively, she readied Crescent Rose transforming it into its sickle form,  prepared for a fight only for Pyrrha to appear into the clearing. Both establishing direct eye contact with each other.

“Well, it could be worse” - Ruby thinks in defeat, Pyrrha seemed nice and her accolades spoke wonders of her fighting prowess and there was always the possibility of her and Yang ending on the same team, after all, teams were made up of four people.

Pyrrha meanwhile could help but feel a bit conflicted, while Ruby seemed like a nice person she didn’t know if the silver eyed girl would see her just as a peer or would fall into the same pit all other people who adored her fell into.

“Well, it seems we’re now partners Pyrrha” - says Ruby to the red-haired champion trying to break the ice.

Pyrrha nods in agreement, a small smile on her face.

“Also, where is your weapon Pyrrha?” - asks Ruby now concerned, getting right beside Pyrrha using her semblance looking for the missing sword/spear/rifle - “Did you lose it?”

“Oh no, I didn’t” - answers Pyrrha calm if slightly unnerved due to having Ruby so close to her, trying to calm Ruby - “It's just that I noticed Jaune was having difficulties during the landing so I launched it to help him. I was now going to retrieve my weapon”

The explanation manages to calm Ruby who accepts it.

“So, in the search of Jaune now?” - ask Ruby

“Correct” - nods Pyrrha back - “Considering the trajectory he should be in this direction”

Says Pyrrha before starting walking, Ruby joining at her side, as both leave the clearing and continue through the forest.

Both continued to walk in silence, not an awkward one but one seemingly born out of understanding, neither of them was planning to end as teammates, much less partners to each other and both needed some time to process that fact.

That said, both found a very small and odd sense of familiarity towards the situation, as if it was something that was to be expected. Before they could ask themselves about that new and odd feeling both finally reached the tree Jaune was pinned to as if he was a painting in a wall.

Looking up and finding Jaune in that position, Ruby couldn’t help but to start laughing at Jaune's situation while Pyrha looked in barely covered amusement. Jaune meanwhile took it in stride, he knew his position, from their point of view, was amusing.

“So? Are you gonna help me with this?” - asks Jaune pointing at Miló.

“Give us a moment please” - says Pyrrha before she and Ruby help him down.

“I assume you two are partners?” - asks Jaune as soon as he is on the ground

Both Ruby and Pyrrha nod in confirmation. Jaune can’t help but to sigh in frustration, his two preferred options had teamed up with each other.

“What were the chances?!” - thinks Jaune crying on the inside

“Well, I suppose I’ll have to search for a partner” - says Jaune sounding half defeated, not only he had needed to be saved but he would most likely, need to partner with a complete stranger.

“Well, we might not be your partners but we can still work together to get the relics” - says Pyrrha

Jaune looks at both of them and nods in agreement, with that the trio then starts going in the direction they think they need to go.

==============================

Weiss Schnee was currently not having a good time, not only had she been launched before Pyrrha making her lose track of her but also she was now fighting a pack of beowolfs. Sure, the pack of Grimm was not really a problem at all but it was a big waste of time. After all, the more time passed, the higher was the probability that Pyrrha would find a partner.

Finally dispatching the last beowulf, Weiss started to move again, she had lost far too much time fighting the grimm. Thankfully the headmaster had told them that the relics they needed to find were north of the cliff, so going north would be the easiest way to find Pyrrha.

“Now if only you knew in which direction the north is” - said a traitorous part of her mind

Shaking the thought aside, Weiss continued to walk through the forest, always on guard, despite the apparent peaceful environment. She knew better than to lower her guard inside a forest filled with grimm.

Suddenly a bush started to sound, Weiss instantly putting herself on guard waiting for the grimm to appear.

Only that it wasn't a grimm, first Pyrrha appeared, establishing eye contact with Weiss. This made Weiss mentally squeal in happiness, she had been successful, Pyrrh was her partner now!

Those thoughts however were soon crushed by Ruby appearing after Pyrrha with Jaune appearing right after the smaller girl, both of which also established eye contact with her.

Noticing Weiss, the group of three give their greetings to the heiress which Weiss responds to before asking the most important question that needs an answer right now.

“Are any of you paired? I am lacking a partner”

“Yes! Me and Pyrrha are partners!” - responds Ruby with her trademark energy confirming Weiss’ worst fears, not only Pyrrha had already been taken but it also meant her partner was … Jaune.

Weiss turned to look at Jaune who just put a smile and waved, his face betrayed both his happiness and being uncomfortable about the fact.

“It seems we’re partners then” - says Weiss to Jaune, unable to cover her dislike of the idea, something which made the other three wince and make Weiss realize she had let her emotions show.

Mentally cursing at herself, Weiss went on to correct her mistake - “ It doesn’t matter anymore, we should get to the relics?”

Everyone agrees and start prepare to move again before Jaune interrupts

“Ahhh, does anyone know in which direction the north is?” - asks the blonde to the others.

The simple question makes everyone stop in their tracks, making everyone realize that no, no one knew in which direction the north was.

“I don’t know, I was following Ruby” - says Pyrrha, her showing both shock and worry at the idea they were lost

“I don’t know either, I was following Pyrrha” - says Jaune looking at the champion.

“I was following Jaune!” - practically shouts Ruby

“I don’t know either” - says Weiss facepalming at the obvious and critical problem that had escaped the four of them - “it seems we’re lost”

The idea makes the four future students uncomfortable, if they were indeed lost it meant that getting to the relics and retrieving them would be much harder than anticipated.

Suddenly heavy steps started to be heard and most importantly felt, suddenly the ground exploded from under the team sending them flying and creating a massive cover of dust.

Pyrrha landed on her feet Miló in spear form and Akoúo̱ at the ready, Weiss used a glyph and a tree to also land on her feet immediately pulling out Myrtenaster, Ruby used Crescent Rose in sickle mode to grab a branch landing there before changing it to sniper rifle form and finally Jaune fell on his back but rapidly got up getting ready with Crocea Mors, both sword and shield at the ready, all watching the massive cloud of dust.

A few seconds later the cloud of dust fell enough to reveal what was inside. A Petra Gigas, an ancient one.

As one the four huntsmen hopefuls got ready for the upcoming fight as the ancient grimm took stock of the four of them before charging directly at Jaune.

Chapter Text

In the cliff headmaster Ozpin was looking through the security cameras using his scroll and he couldn’t help but to find the entire situation dangerous. Petra Gigas weren’t normally found in Vale or Vacuo and this was an ancient one considering the size and its actions.

Such a grimm normally needed a team of graduated huntsmen to deal with effectively and these were initiates and yet, something told him that these four students would be able to at least survive if not win.

Glynda, at Ozpin's side, however didn’t agree at all.

“An Alpha Petra Gigas?! - Glynda exclaimed in surprise - “We should send the Bartholomew and Peter to deal with it”

“And make the students fail their exam?” - responds Ozpin concentrated in the footage as the grimm attacked one of the initiates, one Jaune Arc if he remembered correctly.

“While it would be a regrettable fact, leaving the Alpha Petra Gigas puts not only those students but the entire test AND any new student at risk. We do have field classes in the forest after all” - responds Glynda looking directly at Ozpin, something he feels her doing so.

Any other man would have buckled under Glynda’s gaze, but Ozpin was no ordinary man - “We can wait to see the result of this fight”

Glynda shaked her head in resignation before starting to watch the fight again, ready to call Bartholomew and Peter at the moment the initiates either retreated or died. She hoped it was the first what happened

==============================

Back in the forest Weiss created a glyph to her left over herself to block an attack from the Petra Gigas, before creating another to bind its arm. Jumping over the fallen trees, both Ruby and Pyrrha hit the grimm from different angles trying to break the rocks only for the grimm to use its other arm to attack Pyrrha who was forced to defend itself while Ruby used her semblance to enhance the speed of her attack which penetrated into the thick rock creating several cracks, however before she was able to take advantage of the situation the Alpha Petra Gigas finally broke Weiss’ glyph and moved to try to crush Ruby between its arm rock and the nearby trees forcing her to jump off the grimm’s arm.

“We need a plan!” - shouts Weiss, seeing nothing they had been doing was having any real effect

“Retreat into the forest, it will buy us time to think of something!” - shouts Ruby before using Crescent Rose’s to provide some covering fire while retreating, Weiss soon follows, then Pyrrha and finally Jaune with the Alpha Petra Gigas following them.

The chase was a surprisingly close one, the massive size of the Alpha Petra Gigas tear

ing through the mass of trees as as if they were not present, massive rocks crushing the plants with easy while shots, glyphs and dust attacks barely slowing the giant monster down, the incredible mass and momentum of the giant grimm helping it greatly.

Being the slowest, Jaune Arc was the closest to the grimm, Weiss’ glyphs barely keeping him out of range of the ancient grimm, even if it came at the cost of heavily upsetting his stomach. not that he could even feel it due to the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

However it also gave him a close view of the grimm which led him to start noticing something odd. Whenever a branch or one of his fellow initiates attacks came up close to hit the mask, it would cover it with one of its “arms”.

Then it hit Jaune like a freight train.

“It's ONLY covering its mask! It must be its weak point!”

Suddenly he noticed the right arm of the giant grimm moving towards him, the intention to crush him underneath clear. Suddenly one of Weiss’ glyphs catapults him flying forward, making the grimm miss him by a literal inch.

Jaune then begins to shout as he also begins to fall, putting his shield before him to cushion the impact but before he hits the trees, he is caught by Pyrrha’s semblance, who catches him and puts him alongside the group.

Quickly recuperating from the short flight and ignoring his angry stomach, Jaune tells them what he realized as he tries to not be left behind.

“Girls! I noticed something! - he shouts - “The weak point is the mask!”

“Are you certain?!” - responds Weiss who is now concentrating on him.

Ruby and Pyrrha also turn to look at him despite the four are still trying to run away from the giant grimm.

“Yes!” - responds Jaune with urgency - “It covers his mask whenever anything comes close to striking it, while it ignores any other attack!”

“I see, it makes sense!” - responds Pyrrha

“But how can we use that to our advantage!” - continues Weiss - “As you said it covers its mask whenever we try to attack it and it can easily ignore anything else we do!”

The fact quickly deflated the sense of accomplishment Jaune had gotten while Pyrrha’s face also showed her doubts if only for a few seconds. Only Ruby seemed to be unaffected by Weiss' declaration, in fact it was the complete opposite.

“I have an idea!” - shouts Ruby shooting at the grimm which covers its mask once again, making the shots ricochet uselessly - “we just need to get into a clearing!”

As the team continues to run from the grimm searching for a clearing, Ruby explains her plan to Jaune, Pyrrha and Weiss.

Hopefully it will work.

==============================

If there was one thing Yang Xiao-Long could say about the initiation is that it had been a blast, and quite literally!

Her new partner, Nora Valkyrie, had a hammer grenade launcher, a HAMMER GRENADE LAUNCHER! How awesome was that?!

And not only that, but she was very skilled using said weapons, as shown when she literally blew up half a pack of beowolves in a few seconds.

And that had been the start, now matter the grimm or how many of them appeared, the two of them dived right into the fight, punching and crushing all opposition in their way until their objective. A bunch of ruins and inside them the relics, which were …

“Chess pieces?” - mentions Yang, surprised and completely underwhelmed.

“They could’ve at least put something cool as the relics!”

Before Yang could react Nora zoomed right at her side and took a Rook.

“I’m the queen of the castle! I’m the queen of the castle!” - starts repeating Nora in a small singing tone, Yang rolling her eyes and chuckling as a result.

Now, if only Ruby could get here in a decent time frame the initiation would be perfect.

==============================

Getting into clearing had been harder than anticipated but they had managed now it was time to put the plan into motion. Jaune’s part in the plan, while not glamorous, was critical.

He was the bait. And to his credit (and bad luck) a very good one.

As Jaune desperately evaded the attacks of the massive grimm while running around him incircles to keep him in place, the rest of the team went into action.

First Weiss, creating a series of glyphs, which held the arm the Alpha Petra Gigas was using to strike Jaune in place. As it started to fight against Weiss’s hold, which she was reinforcing as hard as she could with additional glyphs, Pyrrha started to take potshots at the grimm’s mask, making it use its free arm to cover the mask.

Finally using the opening created by her team Ruby used her semblance to rush the Alpha Petra Gigas from behind, using the recoil from Crescent Rose to propel herself upwards and land on top of the grimm making Pyrrha stop shooting as planned.

Noticing the lack of attacks the Alpha Petra Gigas tried to attack Ruby, sealing its fate as Weiss let go of the glyphs, making the massive grimm lose balance as Ruby jumped evading the clumsy attack from the grimm which had just left itself open. Taking aim while falling at the grimm that was still struggling to regain balance, Ruby took its shot which hit its target, shattering the grimm’s mask and killing it as a result.

As the remnants of the grimm started to dissolve the four initiates looked at their handiwork, while they finally calmed themselves down as the adrenaline rush subsided.

“We … we made it!” - shouts Jaune still struggling to believe their achievement - “I can’t believe we made it!”

“A remarkable achievement” - says Pyrrha, winded but smiling to the others.

“I’ll admit, I had my doubts but well done” - says Weiss herself crossing her arms while looking at the remaining stones with a serious face.

“Well, done team” - says Ruby obviously happy - “ now, we only need to get the relics!”

“The relics!” - shouts Weiss, suddenly remembering their main objective with the reaction of Jaune and Pyrrha also making it clear that they had forgotten about it.

The group of four then started to run again towards the north, hopefully, they were not too late.

==============================

On top of the cliff overlooking the forest under it, Headmaster Ozpin couldn’t help but smile for a little bit. It seemed his faith in the four initiates was not wrong.

“It seems your faith was not misplaced” - said Glynda to Ozpin’s side - “not that I approve of this”

Ozpin turned to find Glynda glaring at him.

“In any case, they seem to be on track to getting the relics. Anything about that?” - says Ozpin, not affected by the glare

Sighing, Glynda goes to check on her scroll while Ozpin watches over the group that had just defeated the Alpha Petra Gigas. They had the making of a great team, a bit rough around the edges but the bases were already there.

“Apparently those four are the last ones in need to retrieve their pieces” - says Glynda, not looking up from her Scroll - “and apparently they’ll get to be a team too, the last remaining pieces are the same”

Ozpin, wished he had his cup with him right now.

==============================

Compared to the fight against the Alpha Petra Gigas, the rest of the initiation was downright calm for Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss and Jaune, despite having to rush through the forest, and having to deal with another two beowulf packs, leaving them exhausted when they got their relics. It was the last two, a pair of white pawns.

Too tired to think anything about the underwhelming nature of the relics, the four of them just took them and went back towards the cliff from where they had dropped. A creative use of Weiss’ glyphs and the four of them were on the top of the cliff, in fact, right on the same place they had been launched from, both Headmaster Ozpin and his assistant who then told them to go back to Beacon for the team presentation ceremony.

As far as ceremonies went, it was boring, being basically the headmaster calling the students who were going to be a team for the rest of their stay at Beacon. The only exception to that rule was Team RBYN (Robin) which had Yang within its members.

A few teams later, the four of them realized they were the only ones that were left which made them realize they were teammates from now on. Before they could even mouth their thoughts The four of them were standing in attention, waiting for the headmaster to speak.

“And finally: Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Jaune Arc. Pyrrha Nikos. The four of you retrieved the white pawn pieces.” - started the headmaster - “From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWAN (Rain). Led by... Ruby Rose!”

The headmaster’s declaration caused several reactions.

The public gave the last team a great ovation, with Yang being the one cheering the most among them.

Ruby can’t help but to feel excited at being proclaimed team leader.

Weiss only looked first at the headmaster and then at her new leader in surprise.

Jaune couldn’t help but feel relieved, giving his congratulations to Ruby.

And Pyrrha calmly also gave her congratulations.

Having finished, the students were all sent to their new rooms. Seeing the new student go to their rooms Ozpin couldn’t help but to comment:

“It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year.”

==============================

The newly created Team RWAN, soon reached their room. It was very simple all things considered, four beds, four chairs, four desks, five book stands, four small wardrobes and a simple bathroom which included a shower.

Simple didn’t mean it wasn’t functional however and the four teammates didn’t have any problem finding enough space to store their things and soon the four were sitting on their beds looking at each other while thinking about how the day had gone.

At least until their stomachs decided to show their displeasure.

“Ah, it seems we are all hungry” - said Jaune lamely before continuing - “want me to see if they’re serving food in the cafeteria?”

“Too tired to go to the cafeteria, so if you could go I would be happy” - responds Ruby before letting herself drop into her bed.

“While I agree with Ruby, are you sure you don’t have an issue?” - asks Pyrrha torn between going with Jaune and wanting to rest

“Yeah it's no problem” - responds Jaune, his tiredness obvious - “I don’t mind truly”

As Jaune stood up from his recently claimed bed, Weiss spoke up.

“I'm going with you” - says Weiss

“Are … you sure?” - responds Jaune 

Weiss huffed and rolled her eyes.

“As if I’d let some tiredness stop me” - said Weiss in a dismissive voice.

Seeing no reason to fight against the decision of nis new partner Jaune just accepted the help with both going towards the cafeteria.

“Well, I suppose there are worse ways to start my stay at Beacon” - thinks a nervous Jaune.

Chapter Text

Jaune hated lava planets, the danger of death was ever present, either by normal combat dangers or by the fact that even surviving ejection meant a slow and painful death by, well,  burning to death.

To his sides Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss maintained formation. Their mission was a strange one, there had been bungled communications of strange groups operating in nearby worlds and even worse, any group that managed to communicate the strange encounters then went silent. So now, their mission was to discover what exactly was the cause.

“Alright, who in their right mind comes here? One bad move and you’re dead!” - says Jaune in the intercom

“We know Jaune” - responds Weiss, her voice showing that she agreed yet she was tired - “you have mentioned it 3 times already”

“He’s not wrong though” - say Pyrrha entering the conversation

Suddenly a voice interrupts their conversation and hell breaks loose as missiles and lightning start flying, burning armor and air as explosions happen on and around them, they have fallen into a trap.

“On me!” - shouts Ruby into the intercom as she starts charging one of the ambushers, the small and unknown machine counterchaging them. It didn’t matter, Ruby knew that if they remained within the crossfire they were dead.

As the four of them pushed, the hopelessness of their situation started to dawn on them, the unknown machine, were not only faster but they were hitting farther and with more power than anything they had dealt with.

Then a new group of enemies appeared and their fate was sealed.

==============================

Team RWAN wakes up as one, the feeling of burning metal and skin, of smoke and the heat of lava present in all of them.

The four of them instinctively check themselves to see if they don’t have any injuries before noticing the rest of their teammates are also awake and doing the same.

The four of them stay lamely in their beds before Pyrrha asks

“Ah, what time is it?”

“It’s 6:30 am” - responds Weiss immaculately as she gets out of her bed - “classes are at 9:00 am”

“It's too early” - whines Ruby as she covers herself in her blankets again - “can’t we just go back to sleep?”

“Good luck with that” - responds Weiss rolling her eyes getting out of her bed - “I very much doubt you will be able to do so”

“Well, at least we won’t have to race to get ready and get breakfast?” - says Jaune, also getting out of his bed.

The others agree with him and rapidly get ready, taking a shower and then putting on their uniforms before going for breakfast.

Breakfast is above anything, calm. There were very few teams, mostly 3rd and 4th years either preparing for their missions or those who were just arriving from theirs. In fact, RWAN was the only first year team present so early in the morning.

After getting their food, the team goes to sit together and start eating their breakfast in silence. A comfortable silence and one that seems and feels slightly familiar as if this is not the first time they are together, which is odd considering none of them have ever met each other before coming to Beacon.

“So, what do we do now?” - asks Jaune - “I mean, I doubt any one us want to stay here doing nothing”

“I suggest we should go to the library” - responds Weiss

“Why?” - responds Ruby obviously not enthused with the idea - “we already will have classes soon, why go to the library before?”

“Because it would be better to get prepared for classes” - responds Weiss in a sharp manner crossing her arms looking at Ruby directly in the eyes..

Ruby whined as a result looking towards the roof, which gains her a sympathetic if awkward smile from Pyrrha while Jaune puts his hand on one of her shoulders as support also sporting an awkward if supporting smile. Not that Ruby notices the silent support.

Weiss meanwhile is not amused, crossing her arms while giving her team a “really?” look.

“How about we get to know more about each other?” - says Jaune trying to defuse the situation - “While we did talk about semblances and our weapons yesterday we didn’t really get to know each other better.”

It hit the others that it was true, they had passed most of their time eating, organizing their things and talking about their semblances and weapons before going to sleep, that's how tired they were.

“Let's do that then!” - says Ruby, taking the opportunity to escape the possibility of studying before classes had even begun.

Weiss meanwhile sighs but decides to follow her team without raising any more issues as she realizes she is outnumbered.

“Uuuggghhh what a child!” - thinks Weiss frustrated about her leader, not that her teammates are being any better but at least they had the excuse of following their new leader.

==============================

Returning back to the team’s room had been more peaceful than what they expected and in fact, they had even got some small talk on the way back, mainly what they expected from the classes in Beacon.  Weiss expected them to be pushed to their limits and testing their knowledge and combat ability at every opportunity in her serious demeanor, Ruby meanwhile expected the academy to concentrate on how to kill grimm as efficiently as possible, Pyrrha didn’t say much not having much expectations and just hoped the academy to increase their abilities, Jaune meanwhile hoped that the academy would teach survival skills. However now that they were back the real meat of the meeting would begin.

Ruby, being the one that had the idea (and being the team’s leader) started.

“So! Let's start this with the basics” - ask Ruby with high enthusiasm as she and her teammates are all seated in their beds - “Why did you decide to become huntsmen?”

The question actually surprised Weiss, she had expected her to ask something about their weapons or something dumb like that, instead it was a question that in a way would tell her at least something useful about her new teammates.

Her teammates however seemed unwilling to take the initiative. Jaune was  obviously nervous even if he tried to hide it, Pyrrha looked almost peaceful but it was obvious that she didn't want to answer the question either and Ruby, well, their “team leader” had asked the question herself and was expecting and excited for an answer.

Taking the initiative Weiss took a deep breath and then answered.

“I came here to Beacon because I want to take over the SDC and to show it is more than just a way for us to gain money and that it is a way to do good for all of Remnant”

Her voice was measured and calm, it was her objective, for a long while it has been her objective and yet a small part of her felt like she should say more for some reason. Watching at her teammates he sees the three of them pensive with Ruby even showing some surprise at the idea.

“So by being a huntress you plan to show that by taking over the SDC is not for your personal gain?” - asks Jaune, trying to confirm what she had just said.

“That is correct” - says Weiss nodding, keeping her frustration in check.

She could plainly see Ruby expected a different reason as seen by her small frown, from Jaune however she saw a questioning look, not one of criticism but one that showed a lack of understanding, from Pyrrha however she found the barest hints of surprise as if she had expected another answer.

Before she could ask Jaune or Pyrrha their thoughts Jaune interrupted her.

“Well, I think it’s my turn now considering this was my idea” - said Jaune his voice and posture betraying a sense of nervousness - “I … I want to be a huntsman, to be a hero, like those in stories and like the huntsmen that told about their experiences.”

“What a romantic vision” - Weiss thought immediately - “nowhere really close to reality but it could be worse.”

At least it meant Jaune was willing to work hard despite his less than impressive showing during the initiation and for some reason it felt like while true, it wasn’t the complete reason as if something was missing.

“Now I think it's my turn” - said Pyrrha her voice calm and controlled - “The reason I came here was because I wanted to expand my horizons and to use my skills as a huntress.”

“Unsurprising” - was Weiss’ thoughts - “Powerful, skilled yet respectful and controlled”

In more ways than one, the perfect teammate and yet once again there was that miniscule feeling that there was more to what Pyrrha was saying as ridiculous the idea was. Looking at her teammates both Ruby and Jaune were giving her looks of respect.

“As they should”

“Now it's my turn!” - says Ruby excitedly - “I’m at Beacon because I’ve always wanted to be a huntress like my mom, my dad and my uncle!”

Now it was Weiss’ turn to be surprised, she honestly didn’t expect the young girl to come from a family of huntsmen. To some level it was understandable, it easily explained how she had been able to jump two grades from her combat school into Beacon.

However it also showed just how utterly unprepared she was as a leader. Such a childish reason to join betrayed her lack of preparation.

Before Weiss could continue her train of thought she was interrupted by Pyrrha.

“So your entire family are huntsmen?” - asks Pyrrha

“Yep! Even my sister is here in Beacon!” - answers happy Ruby - “She’s part of Team RBYN.”

Weiss couldn’t help but mentally wince at the proclamation.

“Her poor teammates”

The conversation after that devolved into simple questions and answers like what they expected of the teachers, the other students and other things. Weiss found it relaxing, her teammates didn’t ask about her family, concentrating more on her position as heiress or her singing career.

“She was lucky Ruby, Jaune and at a lesser level, Pyrrha, were so open about themselves” - Weiss thought to herself.

Although they did question if she was planning to take over the SDC immediately after graduating or after doing some field missions for a short while, beyond that she learned a lot from the others like Jaune having 7, seven(!) sisters or both Ruby’s father and uncle being teachers in Signal Combat School.

At the back of her mind, it even felt as if this was something she had been missing for a long time.

Any further conversation however was cut short by an explosion. While not particularly strong, it was a cause of shock making them get into alert looking around to their room to see if something had broken and after making sure nothing like that had happened Jaune immediately asks.

“Shouldn’t we look at what caused that explosion?”

Nodding in agreement Pyrrha stands up followed by Ruby, then Weiss with Jaune coming last.

Going outside they find Team RBYN’s room’s door hinged but otherwise in its place with muffled coughs being heard from inside the room. Before anyone of the quartet could do or say anything the door was (possibly literally) kicked open before a girl jumped out looking at her teammates inside the room.

“That was awesome!” - the girl shouted - “let's do it again!”

“Nora, we have to get ready for class” - responds a tired male voice

“But Renny! - answers Nora

“Yeah, what gives?” - interrupts another voice, this time female - “we are just having fun”

“And causing property damage” - answers a fourth voice not giving to for any answer - “and we must hurry if we want to get to class in time”

Making a sound similar to a whine Nora went back to her room in defeat, closing the door leaving the four members of Team RWAN standing outside trying to comprehend what just happened.

“I think we better go to the classroom” - said Ruby before starting to walk to the classroom. Looking at her scroll Weiss noticed it was a good idea and was soon walking alongside her team leader Jaune and Pyrrha following soon after. Hopefully their first day of class would go well.

==============================

Their first day of class sucked.

That was the truth of the matter as far Ruby was concerned.

It had started well enough, but Professor Port’s classes had been extremely boring, she had dozed off and generally been bored out of her mind, even worse, she had gotten into a fight with Weiss.

It had hurt hearing Weiss saying that she was a terrible leader and while professor Ozpin’s words of encouragement helped and given her direction, she had not been able to speak to Weiss after the incident.

Now she was in her team’s room studying with her partner while Jaune went out to look for his own partner.

“Pyrrha?” - asks a tired and bored Ruby struggling to continue studying any longer.

“Yeah?” - responds Pyrrha who had been helping her study

“Do you think Weiss has a point?” - asks Ruby now looking directly at the champion.

“Well …” - says Pyrrha obviously uncomfortable about responding, she thinks about not answering the question but Ruby’s puppy eyes impression makes the champion’s will break.

“Well, she does have a point you acted a bit like a child during professor port’s class but …” - starts the champion making Ruby wince but before she could comment Pyrrha continued - “but I don’t agree with you don’t deserving you position as leader, it was your idea which let us to defeat the giant grimm and you have been trying to be a good leader, you just need experience and learn.”

Ruby felt her spirit soar once again, much like headmaster Ozpin, her partner had faith in her.

Now, she only needed to prove Weiss she deserved to be a leader too.

==============================

Jaune walked through the corridors of Beacon Academy looking for his partner, it had been several minutes already and there was no sight of her, he was honestly starting to get a little tense.

He had heard what the heiress had said to Ruby and honestly, he didn’t agree with it but at the same time, she was not only his teammate but also his partner. If there was someone that should talk to her that wasn’t Ruby, it was him.

As he continued to walk he finally found Weiss in a balcony alone looking at the night while sitting in the single bench at the center of the balcony, sighing now finally able to calm himself a bit he walked towards the heiress.

“Weiss” - he called her, surprising Weiss at the moment - “Where have you been, I’ve been searching for you through the entire academy”

While that last part wasn’t entirely true he at least felt like it was.

“What do you want?” - spat back Weiss not even turning to face him - “did Ruby send you to get me?”

“Kinda, yes” - he responded nervous - “she wanted to talk with you”

“I assume she’s angry at what I said to her?” - says Weiss standing up and turning to face him, crossing her arms, her face clearly showing both her frustration.

He winced in response but a small part at the back of his mind somehow expected this, as if it was a familiar scenario. Leaving the thought aside he responded with as much calm as he could, he knew the current situation was delicate.

“Not really, she actually took it hard” - responded Jaune hoping Weiss would listen, sadly it was not to be as before he could continue Weiss interrupted.

“So she's just sad and wants me to say sorry?” - sarcasm thick in the heiress’ voice.

“It's not that …” - continued Jaune trying to reason with his partner

“Then what is it?” - one again said Weiss cutting him again

“I don’t know” - the blonde answers truthfully - “but what I do know is that Ruby isn’t looking for a fight, she’s not like that”

“And how do you know that?” - responds  Weiss totally unimpressed

That was actually a good question, he had only met Ruby a few days ago and yet he felt certain that Ruby didn’t want a fight or for Weiss to say sorry.

“Because that's not the type of person Ruby is?” - says Jaune sounding more sure than he is feeling - “She never asked to be a leader of the team in fact despite your clashes she was never but friendly to you.”

The response, he saw, surprised Weiss enough to keep her from immediately responding to him and he saw as Weiss slowly went through a flurry of emotions before her face once again set in frustration.

“Alright! I’ll go back and talk to her” - said Weiss, obviously not happy about it.

“Ok, then let's go back to our room partner” -  said Jaune in response.

Weiss grimaced even more surprisingly enough but said nothing as she started to walk, Jaune followed behind her as a tense silence fell between the two through all the route until they finally reached the door which Jaune knocked before opening announcing both Pyrrha and Ruby that he had come back with Weiss.

Ruby was immediately upon them wanting to talk to Weiss as soon as she could, which she obliged, both going to sit in front of each other on one side of the room.

Both he and Pyrrha crossed views and silently agreed to sit on the other side, listening closely but not interfering knowing that this was between Ruby and Weiss. The next hour would be filled with much talk between the team leader and the heiress finally reaching some kind of agreement, it was not perfect as it was obvious that Weiss had not changed her thoughts about Ruby, or at least not completely, but she had agreed to let Ruby lead the team without issue and she did say she had acted a bit entitled which was something.

Now with the new peace gained, Team RWAN finally went to sleep, hoping that the next day would be much better.

Chapter Text

Pyrrha pulled the controls of her Typhoon, barely evading the charging Destroyer class before filling its back with 36mm rounds, killing almost instantly before turning around and killing a group of charging Tank class, the vulnerable red strain being easily torn apart by the assault cannon fire gaining a bit of time to look for a way out.

And things weren’t looking good, their flight had been separated from the rest of the battalion and surrounded, the communications were down, since the BETA destroyed the forward command post and as far as they knew, the rest of the frontline was in a similar position to them.

Simply put, their odds of survival were low.

Looking around she saw Jaune was down to using his Flugelbertes and blade edge armor to combat the aliens, Ruby was also using the integrated melee weaponry of her own Typhoon to reduce ammunition consumption while Weiss was in a similar situation to her. 

They needed a way out.

“Jäger-7 this is Jäger-5 we need to retreat!” - shouts Pyrrha at Ruby

“This is Jäger-5, I know but where? The lasers are still active!” - shouts back Ruby

The lasers she had forgotten about the lasers. Capable of one-shotting any of their Typhoons and so close to being 100% accurate that evading a shot from them was more due to luck than actual skill.

“This is Jäger-11, I’d rather take the chance than staying here” - said Jaune butting into the conversation.

“I have to agree, lead, staying here is just going to make our position worse” - Weiss said, also getting into the conversation.

A few agonizing seconds passed for Pyrrha while Ruby made her decision and she had no doubt the others felt like her. Then Ruby finally spoke.

“Alright, Pyrrha, Jaune, you at front clear a path, Weiss and I are going to cover you, we’re going towards the landing zone” - order Ruby - “Jäger Flight, NOE!”

The four Typhoon then jumped in action, flying as fast as they could while keeping themselves as close to the ground as they could, maneuvering around the Grapplers, Destroyers and Tanks strains, killing them to create opening or using them as cover when necessary, the sea of alien bodies seemingly without end.

As the four Typhoons continued their flight they soon got a visual of the landing zone and it wasn’t looking good, the bombardment from the supporting fleet was obviously the only thing keeping the ground forces still on the fight, knowing they had no time to lose they resumed their flight.

This fight was far from over.

==============================

Team RWAN woke up as one once again, feeling sore and even more tired than when they went to sleep. Looking at each other once again awakening together felt odd for the four of them but a small part of their mind felt a camaraderie that had not been present before.

“Tired?” - asks Ruby to her team, still half covered by her blanket before yawning out of tiredness.

“Yes/Yeah” - answer the others in a similar situation with Jaune yawning too.

They were all still tired, not only physically but also mentally, neither of them wanted to get out of bed and go to classes, instead they all wanted to just fall asleep again, damn the consequences.

However neither Pyrrha’s working ethics nor Weiss’ pride would accept such a result and despite clearly wishing to stay in bed both got out of bed, both their partners looking at them with faces that both screamed “seriously?” and “traitors!”.

“Come on you two we need to get ready for class” - says Weiss looking at Jaune who purposely evades her gaze.

“Do we have to?” - asks/whines Ruby

“Yes, we do” - responds Pyrrha, obviously tired

Surrendering to the fact their partners will not let them fall asleep again, both Jaune and Ruby finally get out of bed while Weiss goes and enters the bathroom.

“Do we have class with professor Port today?” - asks Jaune, using the wall to keep himself standing while hoping some respite would be found later in the day.

“No” - responded Ruby whining using pushing her head against the wall as a show of frustration.

The rest of the bathing and dressing time went on in silence. The breakfast was the complete opposite however, Yang’s and Nora’s unending combined energy keeping not only their teammates awake but also all of team RWAN too, it even made the latter four just how tired they were, helped by the concentrated coffee or tea the four ended up drinking (they were too tired to notice) but the next class was pure torture.

Dust class with professor Peach. It was not a particularly hard class but it could be not only complicated but also one that needed full attention to detail when it came to the practical classes.

Like the one that was coming.

==============================

As the dust purification class experiment continued Pyrrha couldn’t help but start to feel frustrated at the class. It was irrational, it was completely unlike her but she, for once, didn’t care, she had not slept well, the experiment was taking far longer than any of them wanted too and to make things worse, Team RBYN was being far too loud for her liking.

Even worse, Team CRDL was trying to sabotage them by trying to change their dust crystals and materials but sadly for them, Weiss was showing that her title of heiress of the Schnee was not only for show, not only by noticing the changes and correcting them but also by humiliating CRDL constantly correcting them whenever they did something wrong all why directing Ruby, Jaune and herself during the experiment.

Finally, the experiment was done, the result, a small fire dust crystal barely big enough to be used in an autocannon round, now was in the team’s table ready to be tested.

“Finally!” - says, shooting her arms straight into the air before letting herself fall into her bench and yawning to her heart's content.

Pyrrha sees Weiss roll her eyes while looking at Ruby, her arms crossed. She looks as if she wants to say something at Ruby but instead she half sighs half yawns and sits on her own bench.

Pyrrha, barely keeps from yawning as she lets out a small sigh as she sees no conflict is going to start and sits on her own bench.

Jaune is the last remaining standing seemingly still looking at the dust crystal that laid resting on the table.

“Ah? Shouldn’t we clean this up?” - asks Jaune while signaling at the group of lab equipment. A number of beakers, test tubes, extractors, condensers, funnels and more remained in the table.

Ruby whined as a result while Weiss facepalmed in frustration, Pyrrha meanwhile couldn’t help but feel frustrated again. But Team RWAN knew they had no option but to do it, so while Ruby went to get professor Peach to look over their result, the rest of them started cleaning the lab materials, special care being taken by Weiss to when dealing with the Dust residue.

Then as they were finishing cleaning, Ruby arrived with professor Peach, who took the crystal and started to observe it for some time before setting it down on the table again.

“I have to say, that the dust crystal seems to have been successfully purified, now we have to test it, please, follow me”

Professor Peach then guided Team RWAN to another room connected to the lab, it was white with a few red lines and what seemed to be a glass wall on one side. Signaling the team to stop the professor started explaining.

“This is the testing room for the laboratory, here we test the results of different experiments we do here in a controlled environment specially designed so any potential damage doesn’t affect the rest of the school” - said the professor - “While I know that all of us have aura at the ready, please stay behind the protective cover and put on the ear protectors, its standard procedure”

The professor started to set the fire dust crystal in its place and check the equipment as the four students did as they had been ordered. Once they were all ready and the equipment checked up professor Peach started a countdown and when the countdown reached zero a sudden an explosion and small short lived (no more than a second) fire happened.

After the fire was gone, professor Peach went on to look at the readings.

“Well done you four, your crystal achieved slightly above average purity for the expected results of the experiment” - said the professor turning away from the computer and looking at Team RWAN - “here are your results, after you have made a copy, you’re free to help your fellow student or to go”

Giving their thanks to the professor as she went out back to the lab, the team went on to get the copy of their results before getting out of the lab.

“How much time is until the next class?” - asks a tired Ruby as soon as they get out.

“15 minutes” - immediately responds Weiss

“So, to combat class it is” - says Ruby obviously still tired

“I really hope we don’t have to fight this time” - comments Jaune, not only because he’s tired but also because he secretly didn’t want to fight.

“While I normally would not agree” - continued Pyrrha - “now I do”

Weiss meanwhile kept silent, seemingly deep in thought before speaking.

“Want to go and get something to keep us awake?”

“I would like to” - answered Pyrrha before her teammates, she really needed something to keep herself awake.

And as that they went to the cafeteria to get some energy drinks and some food before going to combat class.

==============================

Pyrrha couldn’t know but she was sure Weiss was cursing her luck right now, her opponent, a brown-haired girl with a set of distinctive twin hair buns called Lilium Maki was more than holding her own against the heiress, her gun halberd, clawed gauntlet and aura projections more than able to keep up with Weiss glyphs and mobility.

It was a close fight and their auras showed it, both were in the yellow both due to using their semblances and the hits both had managed to achieve. Even now Weiss twirled as she deflected her opponents halberd aways before trying to use her glyphs to get right into the halberd’s range only to fail as another rain of projection forced her to stop.

Momentarily taking her eyes off the fight Pyrrha saw both Jaune and Ruby watch the fight closely and almost completely in silence, she had only heard a few comments from them. Much louder were the faunus’ teammates, who every now and then cheered her, well at least two of them.

Going back to watch the fight Pyrrha noticed both Weiss and the other girl in a standoff looking for an opening as both summoned their semblances intending to end the fight with the next move as both were very close to the red.

Then in a split second, both launched their attacks, Weiss closing the distance, rushing right against her opponent, propelled by her glyph, the shots from both her opponent’s gun halberd and the aura projections missing entirely, the other girl instinctively trying to move her gauntlet into position to block while trying to evade but Pyrrha knew it was not going to be fast enough, Weiss was coming to fast for the short distance.

And then a sudden shot came out of the clawed gauntlet hitting Weiss directly, making her lose balance and making her miss her attack as her opponent barely evaded. Pyrrha couldn’t help but feel surprised, the gauntlet had hidden weaponry!

Before Weiss could react her opponent blasted her with several more shots until the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the match.

“And that's the match!” - announced professor Goodwitch - “the winner is Lilium Maki!”

Before she continued the rest of the class reacted, both Ruby and Jaune sighed disappointed their teammate and partner respectively had lost, while many others booed, celebrated or simply commented on the result, finally Lilium’s team reacted cheering on her, celebrating her and her victory, although one member however, went a bit to far in her celebration however.

“YEEEEEEES! ATLESIAN DOG, GET FU-!” - she shouted before the professor forcefully shut her up.

Pyrrha couldn’t help but to look at her disappointed..

“Quiet please” - ordered the professor, everyone doing so extremely quickly.

Pyrrha now was looking at the professor concentrating on what she was going to say.

“Now, as you saw, both Miss Schnee and Miss Maki were evenly matched, the versatility of their semblances letting them both effectively react to their opponents. In environments like this, a single mistake can be all that stands between victory and defeat. It's also why Miss Maki's hidden weapons were so effective, by hiding them to the clitical moment she had a trump card to use when needed, now that is not to say that you should always hold off from using all your options, how to do said balancing act it's something that you will have to decide on your own.”

With the explanation done, both Weiss and Lilium went to change and as soon they were done the professor Goodwitch let her semblance go from the student she was holding through all the exposition.

“... DIE A VIRGIN THEN!” - ended shouting the black haired faunus girl, now free to talk.

“Miss Magnolia Curtis, while I can see one getting excited at a teammate’s victory, specially if its your partner, you took it too far” - said an obviously angry professor Goodwitch - “thankfully for you, you already had your fight so after class, you’ll come with me for detention”

Pyrrha felt a small, miniscule amount of satisfaction at the back of her mind knowing the girl that insulted her teammate was getting punished.

“Now, for the final fight of today it will be Jaune Arc against Cardin Winchester!” - announced the professor, after giving punishment - “please both student go and gather your equipment for the match” 

Pyrrha looked at Jaune who sighed as if he was a kicked puppy, Ruby tapped him in the shoulder as a sign of support.

“I’ll be cheering for you” - Ruby said, giving him a small smile

“Me too” - added Pyrrha, yes it was not the image of a champion but Jaun was her teammate and she was more than happy to show her support.

Jaune tired as the rest of them, gave them a smile before responding - “thanks, I appreciated it”

And then he went.

“Do you think he has a chance?” - asks Ruby to Pyrrha

“He has, but he will need to be careful” - responds Pyrrha

Then Pyrrha noticed Weiss slowly coming closer to them before slumping into her seat, she looked both frustrated and also completely and utterly exhausted. As far Pyrrha could tell, the only reason the heiress was not falling asleep right now was because of a mix of pride and stubbornness.

“Weiss, are you ok?” - asked Ruby

“Yes, I’m ok, just thinking about the fight to get better” - responds Weiss, the bite normally present when only partially showing - “and which is the next fight?”

“It’s Jaune against Cardin” - answered Ruby

“I see” - responds Weiss before thinking a bit - “let see what he can do then, he does have an eye for detail”

Pyrrha had to accept she was also very curious about what Jaune was truly capable off and much like her teammate just said, Jaune had an eye for discovering small but critical details like during their fight against the grimm back in the initiation.

“Any opinions from both of you about my duel?” - suddenly asks Weiss surprising both Pyrrha and Ruby, both of them had thought Weiss would remain silent until Jaune’s fight began but it seems they were wrong.

Ruby seemed like she was trying to respond but was getting stuck on her words so Pyrrha decided to help her leader by responding first.

“You had the control of most of the fight choosing when and where to attack, however to turned out to be a little too predictable, you didn’t use your glyphs to try to bind your opponent to a single position for example”

“Yeah!  you also didn’t use your glyphs to gain the height advantage!” - added Ruby sounding almost desperate to give some good analysis.

“I see” - responded Weiss

“You also lacked an attack strong enough to unbalance your opponent in a significant way for you to take complete control” - added Pyrrha again giving her final comment, seeing the heiress thinking about what both herself and Ruby had said to her.

After a few seconds of thinking Weiss responded with a simple “thank you both”, any more conversation was cut as both Jaune and Cardin stepped into the arena as professor Goodwitch said the rules once again and put on the display of the aura levels of both.

After a countdown, the fight started.

==============================

The first thing that Pyrrha figured out about Jaune’s fighting style was that he was cautious, way too cautious, he had let slip several openings that he would’ve been able to use. He was also very clumsy on his attacks, normally misjudging the range of his attacks or leaving him exposed to an easy counterattack.

And Cardin was taking advantage of that. His hits were wearing Jaune down and making him unable to effectively respond. Jaune was going to lose.

Pyrrha noticed even Ruby had realized that fact as her cheers have become more uncommon although not stopping. Weiss meanwhile watched the fight in silence like a hawk.

“Come on Jaune you can do it!” - shouted Ruby one again in support

“Keep your voice down” - immediately responded Weiss struggling not to shout, her frustrations biting at her

“But …” - tried to argue Ruby before Weiss put her index finger over her mouth to silence her

“He has already lost his fight” - responded Weiss, her voice cold as winter.

“How can you be so sure?” - Ruby argues as she tries to defend Jaune, frustrated at Weiss critiquing her friend and teammate.

“Can can’t attack effectively enough” - responded Weiss bluntly - “he either doesn’t notice the opening or if he does he flails while attacking, he has only the barest of ideas of what he can do but can’t apply it”

As to prove her point, Jaune attacked Cardin, with the latter using his mace to swat Jaune’s sword aside and putting Jaune in a position he would not be able to block the second swing which hit him directly throwing him unto the floor.

As the buzzer sounded to signal Jaune’s defeat, professor Goodwitch called the match and a short explanation later and both Jaune and Cardin went back to change back to their uniforms, the former looking very dejected, Pyrrha hoped it was nothing to bad.

As Cardin and Jaune finally got back to their respective teams professor Goodwitch gave her final words and let them go.

As one, Team RWAN went out of the class unsure if to go to the cafeteria or to their room, but before they even had time to decide Team RBYN approaches and tells them to join them at lunch to which Team RWAN agrees despite wanting nothing more than rest before the professor Oobleck’s class.

The two teams soon descended into a conversation about the last class although Team RBYN showed a bit of consideration and didn’t make any comment about Weiss’ and Jaune’s fights, especially the latter.

The talk then changed to what the teams were planning for the weekend, Team RBYN was planning to go into vale to buy food ingredients for Ren and books for Blake while Nora and Blake just joined to give company.

Yang then asked Ruby how her team was going to which Ruby deflected with “good”, Yang tried to push for more information but Pyrrha changed the topic of conversation once again.

Finally as lunch was done, Weiss gave the excuse that the team was going to study in their room to gain some privacy.

“Good idea Weiss” - said Ruby yawning as she and her team finally reached their room.

“Don’t think about it” - responded the heiress directly.

“At least we will be able to rest a few hours” - commented Jaune as he opened the room’s door and let everyone inside before closing the door.

“I’ll set the alarm clock” - said Pyrrha - “we don’t want to miss professor Oobleck’s first class after all”

The other members of Team RWAN all gave their agreement before all dropped into their beds.

==============================

Ruby found herself walking in a forest deep in the mist, she didn’t know where she was, she just knew where she wasn’t and yet she was calm, walking aimlessly through the forest.

It felt peaceful.

“Hello?!” - suddenly someone shouts from within the mist far away as she can barely hear it - “anyone here?!”

Ruby turns her head towards the direction she heard the voice.

Then the voices are heard again.

Ruby, not wanting to leave anyone lost in the mist, starts racing in the direction of the voice before stopping as she barely evades diving face first into a body of water that suddenly appears by accident, said body of water still covered by the mist but being the only thing that is now a forest.

“Hello, are you still there?!” - shouts Ruby trying to see if the source of the strange voice is still there.

Several long second pass before some kind of answer is given

“Ye … Yeah?!” - says the voice again - “Is anyone there?!”

“Yes! I’m going!” - responds Ruby immediately before looking at the giant body of water in front of her. It looks like a lake, but completely black, seemingly nothing to help crossing it until there was a … rock?

Then Ruby finally noticed like rocks creating something of a pass through the massive lake-like body of water the mist covering said pass slightly less than the rest of the body of water

Deciding to risk it, Ruby follows the path of floating rocks, jumping from one towards another, making sure not to land on the water by accident.

Finally after what seemed like hours Ruby arrived at the other coastline which seemed identical to the one she had come from. Before Ruby could question herself another figure approached through the mist. Ruby barely could notice it until it came into plain view.

“Pyrrha!” - Ruby shouted as she went and hugged the champion who hugged back.

“ Ruby!” - said Pyrrha happily smiling at the smaller huntress in training before continuing - “ it's good to see you, were you the one shouting?”

“Well, I did respond to another voice before coming here” - responded Ruby - “I take you wasn’t the one that shouted?”

“No” - said Pyrrha  while shaking her head - “I didn’t respond at all, just followed the voices”

“Then it must’ve been someone else” - answered Ruby

Before either the reaper or the champion could continue their conversation the sound of an explosion reached them … coming from within the mist over the body of water.

“It seems whoever they are, they found trouble” - said Pyrrha in a completely serious voice looking in the direction where the sound came from Miló and Akoúo̱ suddenly appearing on her hand from thin air.

“Yeah, let's go!” - said Ruby rushing through the coastline, Crescent Rose in her hands, trying to find a way to reach the source of the explosion, Pyrrha right behind her. Soon another explosion, now seemingly slightly closer, was heard.

As they ran the duo finally found another line of floating rocks and immediately jumped on them, cutting through the mist at immense speed. Then they found the source of the explosions, it was Jaune and Weiss fighting against what seemed to be like a giant eel with a horde of water walking spiders surrounding them.

Not waiting a second both Ruby and Pyrrha join the fray, the combined might of the now full team being enough to destroy the spider and force the giant grimm to retreat but before the four could rest they noticed several more giant eel-like grimm circling under them before an absolutely massive maw started to appear from under the circling grimm. Before any of them could react they heard an alarm.

==============================

Team RWAN woke up thanks to the alarm put on by Pyrrha, their hearts still racing and their faces full of panic, Jaune and Weiss even touched their backs as if searching for an injury but at the end nothing. It was just the four of them in their room in Beacon, on their respective beds, their gear beside their beds.

They were safe, it has just been a dream. And yet, they couldn’t help but feel nervous still, as if things were not done yet.

“Ah? …” - started Jaune sounding shaken - “is everyone ok? you all look like you had a bad dream”

“You could say that” - responded Ruby, her voice sounding nervous and tentative - “did you too?”

“Yeah” - responded Jaune nodding

“Same for me” - added Pyrrha, with Weiss confirming she had bad dreams too. At least they all felt far more rested.

Small mercies.

Beyond further discussion, Pyrrha looked at her scroll and warned the rest of the team about the fact professor oobleck’s classes were going to begin soon. Deciding to put the strange episode behind them at least for now, they took their things and went out of the room in the direction of the classroom.

Unknown to everybody, both Weiss and Jaune each had an almost microscopic and transparent vine shaped mark in their backs.

Chapter Text

Jaune ran.

He ran as fast as he could through the ruins, his backpack, pouches and other additional bags filled to the brim with desperately needed ammunition. Behind him was the rest of his temporary ad-hoc platoon, also carrying additional ammunition, heavy weapons or other much needed supplies. All of them civilians or militia that have ended with what was left of his company by sheer chance.

The road was dangerous not only because the city was half destroyed already but also because of all the laser fire flying around, whenever they were at least partially visible at least 3 laser shots would land nearby anyone that was even partially visible, sometimes even worse as the odd nearby explosions showed as a very close call with a missile showed. Jaune did his best to lead the conscripts under his command, keeping them from panicking despite the terror they were feeling.

Soon however, their final destination was on sight, a fortified half destroyed building, the problem however was the crossing the massive street between them and the building, there were a few sandbag barricades but nothing that could seriously stop enemy fire.

Thankfully for Jaune, the enemy presence on this section was light, the enemy attacks coming from other directions, still it didn’t hurt to take precautions.

“Throw smoke!” - he ordered as he took a smoke grenade and threw it into the street. Soon enough, several other smoke grenades followed and a few seconds later a thick blanket of smoke covered the entire street.

“Move by teams!” - he then ordered - “To the building!”

Soon the buzzing of laser fire filled the air as the militia and armed civilians started to rush for the friendly fortification, the enemy not being able to see fired inaccurately, basically missing all their shots.

They had made it.

As they entered the building they found a scene of controlled chaos, the room they entered into being guarded by 6 guardsmen, the light carapace armor showing Jaune they were members of his own regiment.

“Sir!” - salute the four of them

Jaune saluted back before ordering them to help the new arrivals to get the weapons and supplies needed as he rushed to the basement which served as the company’s headquarters.

As he entered he saw things had not gotten better, the number of injured had grown as had the number of dead, the last surviving heavy lascannon had been moved into the basement and given a firing port looking down to the only side enemy vehicles could approach from easily.

Soon he entered the section of the basement that worked as the headquarters room and soon found himself hearing Weiss tearing down someone over the vox.

“Jaune, you were successful I see” - said Ruby appearing from nowhere, the young and surprisingly friendly enginseer 

“Hey Rubes” - Jaune responded - “yeah, a few close calls but the mission was a success”

Suddenly Weiss’s shouts get louder and somehow angrier.

“I take things are not working on her end” - comments Jaune

“Nope!” - confirms Ruby as she shakes her head - “High Command doesn’t want to reinforce us or even resupply us yet they want us to stay here.”

“That’s insane!” - immediately responded Jaune

“I agree with you as does everyone here but high command has not changed its orders”

Jaune sighed in frustration.

“Where is Pyrrha?” - asked Jaune, changing the conversation.

“She’s at the combat positions, we’ve not had any attacks through the last few hours beyond scattered firefights and sniper duels” - answered Ruby as she checked her mechadendrite.

“Small mercies” - said Jaune before mentally cursing the Severan Rebels, those bloody heretical traitors.

Before Jaune could ask Ruby about the Chimera she was trying to repair, the shouting finally stopped and after a few seconds Weiss walked out angry but seemingly calming down. Jaune immediately saluted his superior officer.

“Jaune, good to see you were successful” - said Weiss, the white-haired captain looking at the blonde lieutenant.

“Yes sir, we got a few close calls but we were successful” - responded Jaune

“Well I have even better news” - said Weiss - “we’re going to be evacuated, there is a mechanized column coming our way and we will have artillery support until we’re out”

“Thats some good news finally” - commented Jaune

“Yes but we need to survive until they arrive and scouts have reported a strong rebel force coming our way” - said Weiss continuing her small briefing.

“Damn, well, I take we must get prepared, I’ll go help Pyrrha” - said Jaune saluting Weiss

“You do that” - said Weiss after nodding in agreement as Jaune walked out - “Ruby I need you to check our heavy weapons, we will need it”

“Consider it done” - said Ruby before going her way to do just that.

For all involved, the next few hours might as well be the longests of their lives yet, all of them just hoped they would not be the last.

==============================

Team RWAN once again woke up as once, they felt tense but also relieved. The weeks after the strange dream, the team had fallen into a pattern of basically ignoring what had happened in there, and continuing their lives like normal and not speaking about it. Today was not different and the four got ready for their classes. The last dream had been very tense but it was nothing a warm bath could help with.

As the team finally got ready they went for breakfast meeting with Team RBYN on the way and sitting together and soon after Nora decided to take word with Ren adding commentary ending up creating a small comedy sketch by accident.

“So! There we were, walking through a forest in the middle of the night…” - said Nora

“It was day” - corrected Ren

“Suddenly we get surrounded by Ursai…”

“They were Beowolves”

“Dozens of them!”

“Only half a dozen”

“But they were no match for RBYN! And to make things better after the fight we made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!”

“It's only Nora and me”

When Nora (and Ren) finished telling Team RWAN looked at Team RBYN with faces that showed their complete confusion.

“Did that really happen?” - asked Ruby, voicing the question that burned inside her and her team’s minds.

“No, she has just been having this dream for over a month” - answered Ren in a deadpan voice as if resigned to this particular part of his life.

“So!” - interrupted Yang - “next class is combat class, I hope you’re ready to lose”

“Yeah, we will avenge our honor!” - also said Nora

Ruby smiled back at the challenge, her and Ren’s teams had not only become friends but also had started a small friendly competition between each other in combat class. As of now Team RWAN had won most of their matches but Tema RBYN have had their own victories.

“In that case prepare for another defeat because we’re not gonna let you beat us!” - responded Ruby pumped up for the potential of a match against a member of Team RBYN.

“I'm happy you’re all ready for class but it's time to go” - suddenly said Weiss in a bored voice although Pyrrha could sense a tint of sarcasm dripping from it too.

Checking her scroll Blake realized that yes, it was time to go or they would have to run to get to classes in time. Saying nothing she stood up and tapped Ren to signal him that they needed to go.

Soon both teams were going together to class, Yang Nora and Ruby saying how much they were gonna beat each other while Pyrrha and Ren watched amused to their teammate’s shenanigans. Blake, Jaune and Weiss meanwhile remained in silence, each for their own reasons. Soon they reached the classroom and after another round of explanations, the duels started.

==============================

Weiss sighed in frustration at the fight going in front of her, Jaune was once again fighting against Cardin and once again losing the fight. She had to accept he had been getting better, now he knew how to not let himself open or how to actually have his attacks hit his opponent or at least have the needed reach but beyond that he was still hopeless.

As proven once again as Jaune trying a slashing attack against Cardin who ducked under the attack before rushing in his mace hitting Jaun on his right side making the blonde lose balance and fall to the ground.

Leisurely moving to look over the blonde, Cardin lifted his mace over his head with both hands intending to finish the fight right then and there.

“He made a mistake” - said Pyrrha talking about Cardin’s decision

Weiss mentally agreed with the champion, he had given Jaune not only enough time to get back his bearings but if he was lucky even get a hit in.

“Come on Jaune, don’t give up” - said Ruby.

As Cardin moved to finally make his strike Jaune rolled out of the way making Cardin miss completely, noticing that he needed time Jaune made a desperate decision and kicked Cardin in the hands forcing him to let his mace go.

The move caused a small round of cheers from Ruby and Nora.

“Not bad” - commented Yang

“Crude but effective” - thought Weiss

Using the small window of opportunity caused by Cardin rushing for his mace, Jaune got up and into a defensive position again.

This would be the highmark for Jaune however as a pissed Cardin would make use of a continuous barrage of attacks which Jaune managed to block entirely for a few seconds before Cardin got enraged and used the crystal in his mace to send the shield part of Crocea Mors flying.

Weis looked as Jaune failed to use the advantage that the lighter and more maneuverable sword gave to him and he concentrated more on parrying or deflecting Cardin’s slow but brutal attacks.

“You’re fast enough and definitely observant enough to notice at least some of the openings Cardin is leaving, why don’t you attack Cardin you blonde buffoon?!” - thought Weiss in exasperation - “Our “team leader” may be a girl that doesn’t know half about leadership but at least she’s skilled in a fight unlike you!”

Then with another explosive swing coming from Cardin, Jaune and his sword went flying, the buzzer sounding as he landed in defeat, professor Goodwitch immediately ending the match.

“Jaune did far better now” - commented Ruby happily to Pyrrha who nodded in agreement.

“Agreed but now we need to help him in taking advantage of his opponents openings” - said Pyrrha - “He has potential but he needs to stop being so … timid in a fight”

Weiss had to try really hard not to scoff at that. She didn’t understand why Ruby or Pyrrha wasted so much time training Jaune, he was barely adequate enough to not immediately die and while she had to accept he tended to notice details no one else could but beyond that he was basically slowing everyone down, sometimes literally, even RUby was a better fighter than him, in fact the only thing Jaune was better at than Ruby was at their theoretical studies and that was just barely.

“We should be trying to reach greater heights not getting slowed down by someone that is obviously not skilled enough to be a huntsman!” - thought Weiss frustrated.

As soon as both Jaune and Cardin went to change professor Goodwitch called the next pair, Sadly for Weiss it was not her or any other member of RWAN (or RBYN for that matter). None noticed the vine shaped marks on Weiss’ back growing bigger and more visible.

==============================

Jaune had decided he hated today not only he had lost his duel combat again, he had lost against Cardin who had then made some cutting comments against him and to make matters worse, Jaune couldn’t help but to feel he was right. He had cheated his way into Beacon despite being obviously outclassed and he had foolishly thought that he would be able to catch up, he had lost all of his duels and only Ruby struggled more than him when it came to theoretical studies.

It was only due to Ruby and Pyrrha sacrificing part of their own training time that he was able to barely keep himself from being kicked out, his partner hadn’t even tried to helphim, likely realizing he was a lost cause. 

She may be beautiful but as she showed several times already, she was also powerful and skilled and expected her teammates to be competent, to be able to hold their own, something he couldn’t do.

He wanted to be a hero but it seemed he was not up for it.

After changing he went back to his team watching another two students have their duel which unlike his was actually extremely bizarre yet fast paced.

Soon he was back with his team. Both Ruby and Pyrrha tried to cheer him up, saying he had done better than before and that he had fought well. He acted like he was happy for their support but deep down he felt it was useless, after all, he had still lost, he needed to get better and on his own way to not hold down his teammates.

Jaune’s feelings of inadequacy only grew as he watched the fight, it was fast, both opponents made moves that put his own to shame and simply put showing skill and power he sorely lacked.

As the fight finally ended, professor Goodwitch gave them their own comments and advice and sent them to change, while ordering all the students to remain in the class as she had an important announcement.

As soon as the last two students joined their team the professor started to speak.

“As you might know, the Vytal Festival is going to be celebrated this year and this year's tournament is going to be hosted by the City of Vale and Beacon Academy. You now have a few more months to prepare if you want your team to have a chance at participating in the tournament representing Vale.” - said Goodwitch to the student - “also the students of the other academies are going to come to Beacon so try to use these opportunity to learn something from the people of other kingdoms”

The announcement had different reactions for everyone in Team RWAN, for Weiss it was the perfect moment to prove herself as the rightful leader of the team and that she would stand above (or alongside in the case of Pyrrha) the best Beacon had to offer.

Pyrrha meanwhile felt some apprehension and conflicting feelings, she always liked tournaments, it let her test her skills against the best of the best and she would be lying if she said she didn’t like the thrill of that. On the other hand however it brought back the “invincible girl” fame she had gained in the Mistralian tournaments, everyone would be saying, no matter how skillful her teammates truly were, the she had carried the fight and eclipsing her teammates was the last thing she wanted to do. She knew her teammates would be all in to get into the tournament, she just hoped their achievements would not be given to her instead.

Ruby meanwhile took the news with excitement, the Vytal Festival was one of the biggest tournaments of Remnant and participating in them was something she had always wanted to do. nowhere near close to coming to BEacon and being a huntress herself but now that she had the opportunity to test herself but also to see several new weapons and with her friends too! It was the perfect way to become even stronger so she could be the best huntress she could be.

Jaune however felt an icy shiver go down his spine, a tournament where the best students took part in? That basically described his teammates but himself? He was not going to be ready for something like that, he was only going to make his teammates lose.

After the announcement was done everyone stood up and went out of the classroom, the comments and talking about the incoming Vytal Festival being the most common talking theme at the moment. No one noticed the vine-like marks on Jaune’s back also growing.

==============================

Lunch saw Team RWAN and Team RBYN eat together like always. While the upcoming Vytal Festival was the starting theme of conversation it soon changed to other things like small stories from before Beacon or just opinions about the teachers and anything in between.

“You have seven sisters?!” - exclaimed a surprised Yang and with good reason, having to help her still emotionally vulnerable parent raise Ruby had given her a good idea how troublesome younger siblings could be - “How do your parents deal with you all?”

“I have no idea” - responded Jaune reminiscing of all the troubles his sister put him through before saying with a somewhat sarcastic voice - “but I guess being the only brother helped in that regard”

“Cool! Any other stories you wanna tell?” - asked Nora, very interested in the shenanigans of the Arc siblings.

“Yeah tell us!”- added Yang in support of her partner.

Jaune meanwhile was going through what could be described as a mild case of PTSD as he remembered all the time his sisters used him as a guinea pig before responding to Nora - “nothing really interesting, sorry”

Both Nora and Yang visibly deflated at the answers.

“Boring” - said Nora before she returned to devouring what was left of her food.

Suddenly some loud laughing started soon joined by sounds of pain which caused both teams to look at the source. What they saw was Team CRDL pulling the ears of a rabbit faunus, Velvet if they remembered correctly.

“Look! I told you they were real!” - shouted Cardin far to amused at pulling the ears of the rabbit faunus girl

“Yeah what a freak” - said Russel while also laughing at the team member with a mohawk.

As Team CRDL continued to torment both RWAN and RBYN couldn’t help but look in disgust.

“I hate people like them” - said Pyrrha frowning.

“And they aren’t the only ones like that” - added Blake seething in rage.

As CRDL still continued to harass Velvet, suddenly Jaune made a question - “Shouldn’t someone stop them?”

Everyone turned to face Jaune, surprised by his question.

“You know? I think you're right Jaune” - said Ruby, her voice and face serious.

“Wait, I’m right?” - asked Jaune now confused

“Yes someone has to stop them” - says Ruby before grabbing Jaune’s left arm - “come on Jaune”

Before Jaune could say anything Ruby pulls him after her as she goes to confront Team CRDL, who notice her coming making Cardin stop pulling Velvet’s ear but still hold it.

“Hey stop it” - orders Ruby to Team CRDL

“But Ruby we’re just having some honest fun here” - responds Cardin sarcastically.

“I mean it” - continues to push Ruby

“Oh yeah?” - taunts Dove - “Who’s going to force us, you and useless?”

At the comment the rest of CRDL starts laughing, Velvet tries to escape but Cardin keeps her ear in an iron grip.

“Any problem here?” - says Yang suddenly joining Ruby and Jaune, her face showing some anger at CRDL making fun of her sister.

She isn’t alone however, Pyrrha and Weiss also join their teammates, the only ones missing are Nora, Ren and Blake who are watching closely from their seats ready to join if things get violent.

CRDL seeing that all of Team RWAN and Yang are present realize they’re outnumbered and figure out they should cut their losses so let Velvet go.

“Whatever, freaking animal lovers” - says Cardin before moving somewhere else, his team quickly following him.

Jaune lets out a sigh he doesn’t know he was holding before going to talk to Velvet with Ruby soon joining him. She gives her thanks to both before going to eat somewhere.

Once all is done the whole group returns to their seats. While Nora comments she had hoped CRDL had done something stupid so she could break their legs, something Yang agrees with, Weiss then comments that a fight would’ve only made things harder.

After the episode however, the rest of lunch time was as peaceful as it could get and soon after it was done both teams went to professor Dr. Oobleck’s class.

The still vine shaped marks continued to grow.

==============================

Ruby had to admit she found history classes boring, not only was stuff that had happened already but also because many of those things happened because people acted like complete idiots or evil. The Faunus Rights Revolution as far Ruby was concerned, was the perfect example, why people thought that trying to forcefully kick the faunus out of their home to try to send them to menagerie was a good idea? It was obvious that the faunus would not like being kicked out.

The fact that the vast majority of the faunus students in the class had raised their hands when the professor doctor had asked how many had faced discrimination for being a faunus only solidified her thoughts.

As professor Dr. Oobleck continues to describe the war the thing that jumped out the most to Ruby was the cruelty shown by the human supremacists forces and just how much difficulty the faunus had in resisting the attacks against them.

“Even with the recent victories against the Valean forces the faunus forces worldwide were still in a dangerous position. In Solitas they had been reduced to three stronghold all under siege by Atlesian forces, in Anima neither the faunus or the Mistralian forces had managed to get an advantage and they were deadlocked in place and finally in Sanus their recent victories had only barely saved the main faunus forces from destruction” - professor oobleck continued explaining in his class - “however politics would struck against both Vale and Mistral as both shuffled their military commanders retiring many of their more skilled but “controversial” commanders for more politically secure but not as skilled ones something that would have important consequences in both the Mistralian and Valean fronts.”

“Anyone know why?” - finally asks Oobleck finishing the exposition temporarily.

No one dared to respond for several seconds, Ruby herself didn’t want to answer either although she felt a tik of frustration at the politicians at the back of her mind, as if she had suffered the results of said actions before, the feeling however was extremely fleeting and disappeared almost instantly, the silence continued until Weiss raised her hand.

“The human forces in Vale would be defeated when General Lagune Winchester tried to attack the Faunus forces at Fort Castle and instead got ambushed and his forces destroyed despite being outnumbered” - answered Weiss.

“That is correct” - said the doctor - “can you tell me why he failed Jaune?”

Jaune struggled to remember the reason for a few seconds before giving up - “sorry Dr. Oobleck but I don’t remember”

Oobleck sighed in disappointment - “In that case, Cardin could you give us a reason for that defeat?”

“Well, it's certainly easier to train a bunch of animals than to train soldiers, the General didn’t know how many faunus there were present” - responded Cardin.

“That is factually incorrect Mr. Winchester” - immediately countered Oobleck - “that line of thinking has been proved to be self-serving lies the general made after the fact to defend himself from criticism. I’d suggest you check your sources.”

“I have the answer Dr. Oobleck” - said Pyrrha raising her hand.

“Please tell us” - responded the professor.

“The reason for the Faunus victory was night vision, the battle happened at night when the human forces were at a marked disadvantage compared to the faunus who had several of their numbers able to see perfectly at night” - responded Pyrrha.

“That is correct Miss Nikos, anyone wants to add anything” - Oobleck asked with Blake immediately raising her hand to answer

“General Lagune, despite his rank had seen little actual fighting and was very inexperienced for the scale of his new duties, he also had replaced most of the officers of the army when he took command and ignored the advice of the few veteran officers that remained from the time of the previous commander. He tried to take over Fort Castle with a night assault but his inexperienced meant his army took far to much time moving into position and he forgot about Faunus night vision meaning he didn’t have any scout or screening forces present which let the faunus army surround him and destroy his army capturing the general during the battle.”

No one would notice but all of Team RWAN would feel some extremely mild feelings of schadenfreude at the back of their minds.

“Exactly as Miss Belladonna said. This battle would be a complete disaster, suddenly Vale had lost his main army and his most veteran soldiers alongside several officers, letting the faunus forces advance against Valean forces. Miss Rose please explain to us why that was so critical for the resolution of the conflict.”

Now it was Ruby’s turn to be surprised but she quickly though of a reason that for some reason felt painfully accurate at the back of her mind - “Vale panicked, instead of rallying their other forces they were paralyzed by indecision and left the initiative on the hands of the faunus forces which would make them surrender.”

“And you would be correct, the defeat at Fort Castle alongside the arriving news of the Fall of Argus to faunus forces in Mistral made the Valean government panic , the news that the faunus only had one stronghold remaining standing against Atlas and that it was close to being taken did nothing to help. One week after the Battle of Fort Castle Vale would surrender, Mistral doing so soon after leaving Atlas as the last one to do so, ending the war.”

As Oobleck finished his explanation the alarm sounded to signal that the class was finished.

“Don’t forget your homework about how the Great War affected the development of the Faunus Rights revolution and Jaune, Cardin please stay, I have something to say to you.”

Ruby couldn’t help but wince in sympathy for Jaune, professor Dr. Oobleck didn’t look pleased, she just hoped Jaune would have it easy.

Getting out of the class she met with Pyrrha and Weiss, the first looked worried at Jaune while Weiss looked unbothered.

“Should we wait for Jaune?” - asked Ruby to her teammates

“I don’t see why, I doubt it will take that much time and we need to at least advance the Dr. Oobleck’s homework now that we have time” - responded Weiss as if there was nothing to worry about.

Ruby didn’t like the answer but she couldn’t fault Weiss’ reasoning, Oobleck’s homework promised to be a long one and the more they advanced the better on the other side, despite Jaune’s assurances that he was ok, she was starting to doubt that he was actually feeling ok.

“I’ll stay and wait for Jaune, you both can go to the library and advance while I wait” - suddenly interrupted Pyrrha.

Both Ruby and Weiss looked at Pyrrha in surprise, before Weiss could speak Ruby spoke

“Thanks Pyrrha!” - said Ruby hugging the champion before turning to the heiress beside her - “come on Weiss lets go and start this homework”

Ruby immediately started to walk towards the library, Weiss wanting to protest but at the end deciding to just follow her. Neither Ruby nor Pyrrha noticed the angry scowl on Weiss' face.

And the vines-like marks continued to grow yet more.

==============================

Pyrrha and Jaune didn’t take much time to arrive and join their teammates in the library where they threw themselves full on to advance and hopefully, complete the homework. While the whole team was working well together both Pyrrha and Ruby noticed not only both Weiss’ bottled up frustration and Jaune’s hidden low spirits but also that they were now mounting up.

Taking the initiative, Ruby took Pyrrha somewhere else in the library to tell her something she had planned to help them. It was a simple plan, just to go there to talk with both of them about what was happening, the soundproof walls should keep anything from being heard outside. Pyrrha quickly gave her support to the plan before both returned to continue with the homework.

A few hours later Ruby declared that they were done for the day, they had advanced a significant chunk of the homework and it had gotten late.

As Team RWAN entered their room it was time to put the plan into motion. With Pyrrha making sure the door was completely closed Ruby made her announcement.

“Weiss, Jaune, please sit on your beds, we need to talk” - said Ruby with a serious voice as she sat on her own bed.

Pyrrha did the same while Weiss and Jaune looked at their team leader in surprise.

“What is there to talk about?” - asked Weiss not wanting to take part in whatever dumb thing Ruby might’ve planned, she just wanted to rest.

“I noticed some things about you both during the day, things that I think we must talk about” - answered Ruby to Weiss, her voice serious.

The reactions of both Weiss and Jaune were immediate, Weiss frowned while Jaune winced, but seeing no way to escape they sat in their own beds.

“So, what do you notice?” - said Weiss going directly to the point crossing her arms unamused.

“Me and Pyrrha both noticed that you Weiss had something frustrating you” - answered Ruby - “and Jaune, we noticed that something was making you feel low and I want us to talk about it”

Neither Wweiss nor Jaune responded for several seconds until Weiss took the initiative.

“And why should I tell you anything?” - said Weiss - “it's my problem, I can deal with it as I see fit”

“Weiss, we want to help you” - countered Ruby

“And I don’t need help, especially from you!” - Weiss bites back and Pyrrha and Jaune watch in horror and in the case of the latter, also a bit of fear.

“Why?!” - shouted Ruby finally losing her patience - “Why are you acting like this, why are you so angry?! I’m just trying to help!”

“You want to know why I’m angry? Then  I’ll tell you.” - said Weiss, complete venom in her mouth

“I’m angry because even now you aren’t taking being a leader seriously! I’m angry that we have the best fighter of our generation in our team and instead of using that to propel the team higher you instead waste your time with the useless buffoon I got for a partner! I’m angry that instead not only I’m being held back because of him but that you’re also letting him hold you back! We could die if That's what angers me!” - Weiss shouts as he finally lets out her bottled up feelings.

The words hit the rest of Team RWAN like a truck, Pyrrha felt disappointed at Weiss, she had hoped Weiss would be able to see beyond Jaune’s current situation and see the potential he had and similarly to see that Ruby was a good leader, an unconventional one but one that truly was doing her best and was doing a good job but it seemed Weiss couldn’t see that.

Ruby meanwhile got angry, remembering the first disagreement they had had with Weiss, now it was not only going back to that but worse, she was insulting her teammate and friend.

Jaune meanwhile felt as if a sword had stabbed him in the chest and the worst part is that he couldn’t see anything wrong with what Weiss had said. He was holding back his team, he had been struggling in the academy. He didn’t deserve to be in Beacon.

And all the while the vine-like marks continued to grow.

“Hey! Jaune isn't a useless, whatever that is!! - shouted an angry Ruby at Weiss in defense of Jaune - “He may not be the best teammate around but he deserves respect!” 

“He isn’t useless? Really? - asked Weiss sarcastically - Have you seen how he has failed to win any match he has had or how he struggles in the other classes? He isn’t ready for Beacon and it shows!

“Weiss, we’re here to learn, he may be struggling but he’s getting better, he just needs our help” - said Pyrrha in a measured voice trying to reason with the angry heiress.

Before Weiss could angrily respond however Jaune interrupted, taking the air out of Weiss lungs

“Pyrrha, Ruby please, just …” - said Jaune sounding both sad and tired - “stop. Just stop”

“But …” - tried to refute Ruby, just as surprised as Pyrrha at Jaune’s reaction to what Weiss was saying.

“Weiss is right Ruby” - continued Jaune - “I’m not ready for Beacon, I struggle at fighting, I struggle at studying, I’m simply not ready.”

“Jaune, you may feel like you’re ready now  but …” - said Pyrrha trying to reason with Jaune

“But nothing Pyrrha!” - shouted Jaune interrupting his teammate, his emotions finally overwhelming him - “ You don’t understand, I shouldn’t be here! I didn’t go to a combat school like Ruby! I didn’t participate in tournaments like you! I barely managed to train behind my parents back with huntsmen that were traveling through my town! My transcripts are fake! I lied to be here because I wanted to be a hero! I’m just a farce that is holding you down!”

Once again the revelation hit everyone else in Team RWAN hard.

Ruby was hurt that Jaune had kept such a thing hidden from there. Yeah it was not cool that he had lied but he had passed through the initiation, as far she was concerned he deserved to stay in Beacon.

Pyrrha was in a similar state, hurt because of the lie Jaune had been hiding, adding to that however adding to that was the frustration at Jaune for him not being willing to give himself an opportunity, to realize that yes, he was getting better and that counted.

Weiss meanwhile was feeling only a single thing, complete and utter scathing rage.

And the marks kept growing now covering almost all of Weiss’ and Jaune’s backs.

“What do you mean you lied to get into Beacon?! How dare you! How dare you!” - exploded Weiss - “Do you have any idea how much effort everyone that took the initiation made?! How much work did everyone else go through?! And yet you lied to get into this academy despite knowing you were not ready at all because you wanted to be a “hero”?!”

Before anyone could respond to anything Weiss just said, she stood up and went for the door.

“I’m going to tell the headmaster about this” - said Weiss, her voice full of venom.

Before she could open the door however Ruby was right in front of her blocking her from doing so.

“Move away” - said Weiss through gritted teeth. 

“I’m not!” - responded Ruby defiant against Weiss - “I’m not letting you get Jaune kicked out!”

Weiss snarled but before she could shout back Jaune once again interrupted her.

“That won’t be necessary Weiss, I’m going to tell the headmaster myself”- said Jaune as he stood up from his own bed

Ruby tried to protest but Jaune shot her down, his mind set in his current course of action
“What about we wait until tomorrow and then the four of us will go together to tell this to the headmaster as a team?” - offered Pyrrha in a final desperate attempt to stop Jaune and Weiss at least for a moment.

Jaune just looked at Weiss waiting for her decision, as far as he was concerned whatever happened his fate was sealed. Weiss meanwhile looked at Pyrrha unsure what decision to take, on one had she would’ve preferred to tell the hermaster herself just to make sure Jaune wasn’t lying about him telling the headmaster to stay at Beacon, on the other side, Pyrrha was basically asking her for a favor.

“That's acceptable” - Weiss answered, making both Pyrrha and Ruby calm down a bit.

“Lets go to sleep now” - said Ruby without any more energy - “its already late”

The rest of the members of Team RWAN checked their scroll seeing that their leader was right. Silently the four of them got ready to sleep and laid on their beds once ready, silently going to sleep.

Unknown to everybody the vine-like marks in both Weiss and Jaune now covered their whole backs and were growing into their necks.

Team RWAN was going to face their nightmares in a way they never expected.

Chapter Text

Pyrrha couldn’t help but sigh as she and Ruby continued their patrol. There were new recruits that needed training, so while the rest of the wing was out there in field training both she and Ruby were here flying through the middle of nowhere to make sure no unwanted guests appeared to interrupt the party.

“I’m so bored” - suddenly Ruby sounds through the radio - “I’d rather be training the rookies at least that would be more interesting than watching nothing”

“I know Ruby, but this time we had the bad luck” - responded Pyrrha trying to sound amused instead of the dead bored she was.

“Alright we need to go to the next waypoint, we turn 30° starboard in 15 seconds” - suddenly said Ruby seriously but the boredom still showed. After 15 seconds the red VF-15S with black highlights and red VF-25F with golden highlights leisurely made their turn. 

Ruby Rose, the squadron leader, piloted a VF-25S with Pyrrha Nikos, the biggest ace of the squadron, following her in her VF-25F.

However a member was missing, Weiss Schnee, who not only piloted a RVF-2 but also controlled the 5 AIF-7S (QF-4000) Ghost drones of the squadron. She had gotten lucky enough to have earned the personal invitation of idol singer (and some theorized secret fighter pilot for some reason) Jaune Arc.

Truth to be said, both Ruby and Pyrrha were a little bit jealous.

“I wish Weiss was here, we would’ve finished this already” - said Ruby over the radio again not being entirely wrong, the additional sensors and the drone fighters of the RVF-25 would’ve made the patrol move faster although considering they were protecting the rookies it still meant passing the same amount of time.

“You want to be in her shoes right now?” - asked Pyrrha in a rare moment of teasing.

Ruby stuttered trying to respond but to no avail before whining through the radio accepting her defeat.

“She better get some signed souvenirs” - declared Ruby

“I hope too” - answered Pyrrha, agreeing.

Before either of them could continue talking the alarms on their fighters started to sound as their sensors started to get crazy.

“Pyrrha! Are your sensors going crazy too?!” - questioned Ruby looking all around her canopy trying to see what was causing the issue.

“Yes!” - answered the ace of aces - “and my long range communications are dead too!”

At that information Ruby tried to use her long range communications but it was dead as Pyrrha said and worse she found that she couldn’t control her variable fighter anymore, something Pyrrha also noticed with her own fighter.

Before any of them could see what was causing the issues both Ruby and Pyrrha suddenly only saw black.

==============================

For Team RBYN their day started like it normally did, which meant Yang was the last in the line for the bath. She had been the first to get the bath on their first day at Beacon, something that apparently her teammates had not liked saying that she had taken far too much time. Since then they had consistently always woken up before her leaving her too little time to take care of her hair.

Minor gripes aside however, Yang loved her team, Nora was the best partner she could’ve asked for, exuberant, energetic and most importantly, fun. Especially when teased about Ren, the denial both of them showed was incredible.

Ren and Blake meanwhile were the complete opposite. Both were silent and calm, very hard to get them emotional but while Ren seemed like a tired father that struggles to keep his team in one piece, Blake seemingly didn’t care about anything. The only real emotion she had seen from her was when Cardin had been messing with the rabbit faunus girl yesterday.

“Yang, we’re going to get breakfast” - suddenly said Ren taking Yang out of her thoughts

“What, already?” - responded Yang in shock - “My hair is still not done!”

“You can join us later” - commented Blake, her head still down reading her book.

“But Yang will miss the pancakes!” - commented Nora

Yang sighed, this particular conversation had become something of a morning ritual for the team, each day having small differences, the fact that even Blake took part on it without fail meant for Yang that even she considered herself part of the team.
“Eh, I’ll join you” - finally said Yang, joining the rest of her team.

As they got out Team RBYN noticed the fact Team RWAN was not present.

“Odd, they normally join us to go to get breakfast together” - commented Yang  looking at the Team RWAN’s door.

“They must be already getting their breakfast, like we should!” - barged in Nora in her hyperactive self

“Lets go to the cafeteria, we should find Team RWAN there” - interrupted Ren before things escalated - “after all they sometime arrive earlier than us” 

That was true Yang realized, while rare occurrences, sometimes Team RWAN would take breakfast early.

Deciding to waste no more time, the whole team went through towards the cafeteria, yang joking and talking with Nora about crazy ideas they both had.

As they finally got to the cafeteria they noticed something as soon they started to look for a place to sit down.

“Team RWAN isn’t here” - commented Ren

“That's odd, think something happened?” - immediately commented Nora

“If something happened they would’ve told us” - argued back Yang

“We should get breakfast first” - suddenly said Blake still looking at her book, Yang wanted to argue but before she could say anything Blake looked at her, raised one eyebrow and interrupted her - “like you said, if anything serious had happened, at least your sister would’ve told you, whatever have made them arrive late, it can’t be serious”

“And if it's something serious, with an empty stomach we might not be able to help anyways” - added Ren.

Yang wanted to argue that something must be seriously wrong, it may be because her sister was possibly part of it, perhaps was because she was feeling like being a bit overprotective but all what she wanted was to to to Team RWAN’s room and see what they were doing.

“Yang” - suddenly said Ren, looking directly at her eyes, his own eyes understanding - “I know you are worried, I am too, but just going on now for what may be just nothing.

“But what if it's actually something serious?” - argued Yang

“We could always take a small quick breakfast” - suddenly spoke Nora

The other three members of Team RBYN looked at her in surprise, even Blake put her book down in surprise. The four passed a few seconds in complete silence

“That … is a good idea” - finally said Blake, Ren also quickly agreed with the idea. Yang meanwhile knowing herself outnumbered also agreed even if she was personally not completely sure.

True to their word, the four members of the team took smaller portions and as they ate them Yang started to get a bit more nervous as Team RWAN still failed to appear.

“They have not arrived” - mentioned Yang as the last one of her teammates finally finished.

Ren sighed before getting up, now things were really odd, the only times Team RWAN had not taken breakfast with them had been during the first days of class and even then within the week the two teams have started to at least have breakfast together, mainly due to the efforts of Ruby and Yang.

“I think we should pay Team RWAN a visit, just to check how they’re doing” - said Ren before he started to walk out of the cafeteria, yang joining immediately and soon followed by Nora and finally Blake.

As they finally reached Team RWAN’s room, Yang went a knocked on the door.

“Rubes! Guys! It's breakfast time, you're late!” - shouted Yang as she knocked on the door. Several seconds passed without an answer. Once again Yang knocked this time with more force saying the same again and once again several seconds passed without an answer.

The four members of Team RBYN then turned and looked at each other as if mentally discussing who should go in first, Ren then took the door’s handle turning it.

“We’re entering” - warning Ren before he opened the door. What Team RBYN found was not what they expected, instead of a scene of chaos or Team RWAN doing something they find hem in their beds, still sleeping.

Looking at each other in surprise, Team RBYN  then enters the room looking for anything out of position but find nothing.

Yang then moves towards her her sister and lightly shakes her - “Rubes, wake up”

But it's useless, similar attempts done by Ren, Nora likewise fail while Blake closes the door.

“Any luck?” - asks Blake, turning to see Nora violently shaking Jaune like a wet noodle but the blonde teen remains asleep.

“Nothing!” - responds Nora with frustration before letting herself sit on Jaune bed.

Yang meanwhile can only look at her sleeping sister grabbing her hand.

“What is causing this?” - she asks to no one but still heard by her team - “this is not normal”

Ren soon took once again leadership, he may prefer keeping quiet but now he was needed as a leader - “we should go to the headmaster, he will know what to do, Yang, Blake, you stay here and keep watch.”

Yang looks at Ren thankful for letting her stay.

“Alright, just be quick please” - respondes Yang

“Don’t worry we will” - responds Nora before she and Ren rapidly get out of the room and rush to the headmaster.

“Do you think the headmaster will know what to do?” - Asks Yang fearfully and frustrated, hating the fact she can’t really do anything to truly help.

Blake sighed while sitting on one of the chairs in the room.

“I have no idea” - answers Blake truthfully before realizing the mistake she had made as she saw Yang concentrate on her sister again - “but he most likely has someone that can help even if he directly can’t”

Blakes reassurance seemingly calms Yang somewhat as far as the secret faunus can tell. After that both kept a tense but needed silence as far both are concerned.

Beyond keeping watch over the still sleeping Team RWAN, there was little more they could do.

==============================

Ozpin was not having the most interesting of days, that was a good thing because it meant no one was having any real problems but it made it monotonous, especially with all the paperwork that he was being saddled with due to the preparations of the Vytal Festival having just started. So when two members of Team RBYN literally barged into his officer Ozpin understood that his day had gotten more “interesting”

“HeadmasterweneedyourhelpTeamRWANaren’twakingup …! - shouted Nora, speaking at 100 kilometers per hour before Ren interrupted her.

“Nora slower” - half suggested, half ordered Ren -

“Don’t worry, I understand perfectly, you aren’t friends with Oobleck without learning to understand fast speech” - said Ozpin trying to calm the two students in front of him which seemed to be working.

“Now tell me exactly what is happening, don’t spare the details” - said Ozpin, his voice calm but also showing that he understood that the situation was important.

Ren then started to explain all that had happened, from RWAN not going to the breakfast to his team finding them still asleep and failing to wake them up.

“... and that is all headmaster” - finished Ren.

“Ddd no one from Team RWAN respond to you trying to wake them up? Nothing at all” - asked Ozpin for confirmation.

“Nothing at all! I rolled Jaune over his bed several times and nothing! Not even a groan!” - immediately said Nora, her worry clear.

“I see” - responded Ozpin - “I think I know what has happened to your friends and thankfully I have an specialist right in the academy, I’ll call them”

Ozpin stood up and called Glynda - “Glynda please call Shion and go to Team RWAN’s room, I’ll join you soon”

After the call he looked at both Ren and Nora who looked nervous.

“Don’t worry, Shion is a well regarded specialist in dreams and dream related grimm, whatever is afflicting your friend, they’ll be able to deal with it” - Said Ozpin immediately calming both of the student - “but for now, lets go to you friends’ room”

==============================

Blake understood why she had been left with Yang, one Ren was the team leader, two Yang needed someone calm and silent to keep her company and third leaving Yang and Nora alone always ended in chaos even when they were not trying anything.

That didn’t mean waiting was any less boring and yet, due to the situation she couldn’t bring herself to read her book, not with her teammate's current state.

Suddenly the room’s door opened revealing it was professor Goodwitch.

“Children” - says the blonde professor as she enters the room Shion right behind her.

“Professor Goodwitch” - respond Yang and Blake at the same time - “why are you here?”

“And who is she” -  says Yang pointing at Shion

“Ozpin warned me that Team RWAN were in a dangerous situation” - responded Goodwitch immediately before looking at the still sleeping Team RWAN - “and it seems he was right”

“Shion if you please” - then turn Goddwitch to look at the other new person in the room

“Understood” - said the Shion, starting to look over the sleeping team starting with Weiss making both Yang and Blake get tense, noticing this Goodwitch starts explaining.

“This is Shion Zaiden, a huntress specialized on dream attacking grimm and other dream related problems, if there is anyone able to help Team RWAN now, its her” - says the professor, her calm voice soothing the fears of both students.

“This sleep is definitively not normal but I’ll have to physically check them to be able to diagnose them” - suddenly says Shion as they look over the heiress.

“Do as you need Shion” - immediately responds Goodwitch, eager to see what exactly is causing this even if she isn’t showing it.

As Shion starts to remove Weiss’ nightgown she suddenly notices something on her neck, a thick visible vine-like mark around it, looking under the gown she notices that the marks are covering her whole back. She then checks over Jaune who also has similar marks on him but once she checks Ruby she gets a surprise.

“No marks?” - Shion asked themselves completely and utterly confused, this didn’t make any sense, how could she be affected without marks?

Checking over Pyrrha she found the same situation, still asleep, yet no marks of any kind. At this very moment the headmaster arrives with Ren and Nora, who after being told the new unknown person in the room was the specialist Ozpin was talking about before joining their teammates waiting for Shion to finish checking their friends.

“Ozpin, Glynda, this is definitively the work of a nightmare” - Shion tells the group - “however there is something odd”

“Odd?” - ask Team RBYN worried while Goodwitch frowns and Ozpin remains impassive.

“Yes, only two of the students have any marks , the other two have nothing on them, I’ll need to use my semblance to get a good idea of what exactly it's happening.

==============================

Preparing for the operation each of the members of Team RWAN is put on their own web and their eyes covered. Ozpin, Glynda and all of Team RBYN watched intently.

“Normally I would send someone into their dreams now but due to the special circumstances I’m just going to try to discover what exactly is going on” - explained Shion - “this is going to take a long time so I suggest you make yourselves comfortable”

“Team RBYN” - suddenly spoke Ozpin gaining the team’s attention while he continued to watch Shion doing their work - “I’d suggest just to continue with your classes as normal”

The comment immediately got the ire of the four students.

“Professor, my sister is in trouble!”

“We can’t just leave our friends when they need us”

“Or one of our teammates for that matter”

“It just doesn’t feel right”

Ozpin smiled inwardly, the loyalty the four students were showing not only to each other but to their friends was commendable.

“I know but at this moment there is nothing you can do, Shion’s job is one only they can do and as they said, it's going to take a long while” - argued the headmaster but he could see that no one, not Ren, Nora, yang or Blake were willing to budge in their decision to stay alongside Team RWAN - “let me give you a proposal, you go to your classes but I promise to stay here as long as it's needed and I’ll call you the moment this is done, is that enough?”

Ren, Nora, Yang and Blake looked at each other, doubt in their faces but Ozpin knew he had given them a hard bargain. Soon after a decent amount of discussion the four agreed to the terms and went to their classes.

“That was easier than what I was expecting” - commented Goodwitch looking at the now closed door.

“They’re very loyal friends, but a promise is a promise, so I must stay here” - said Ozpin, Glynda gave a small grimace of frustration but she agreed with her boss, this seemed to be the fastest way to get Team RBYN concentrate on anything that wasn’t their friends right on the moment they could do nothing about it.

The only thing that they could do now was wait.

==============================

Professor’s Port class was torture for Team RBYN, not even Blake could find herself in a headspace to read her book, Nora and yang doodled in their notebook but couldn’t help but to think about Team RWAN, only Ren paid attention to professor Port but mainly out of desperation to have anythin to fill his mind and not think about his friends. Worst of all, the classes felt much slower than normal, at least Dr. Oobleck’s class before wasn’t a natural snoozefest!

As professor Port finally finished his story Team RBYN thought they would get a small reprieve but then the professor started yet another story which he continued to drone on and on about. It was at this moment Ren gave up and started to think about new pancake and smoothie recipes to deal with the boredom and not concentrate on the other main issue. It was precisely after another half an hour of this “torture”  that salvation arrived.

“Team RBYN please report to the headmaster immediately” - the comms system sounded as Glynda gave her message.

“Well then student, you better go, while Ozpin is a patient man there is no use making him wait unnecessarily!” - Exclaimed professor Port letting RBYN go.

Immediately Team RBYN picked up their things and went out of the classroom directly to the room Shion had been working on, once they arrived they found professors Ozpin and Goodwitch with looks of worry while Shion had a face of complete bewilderment.

“Team RBYN, good thing you arrived, Shion is going to explain to us what's happening” - said Ozpin in a calm voice.

“Alright, there is a lot that I have to go over but the priority is that this is being caused by a nightmare” - started Shion - “ for the students, it's a type of grimm that infests its victim and starts draining their aura until they are trapped inside their dreams at which point it uses the host’s dreams as a source of energy and development. These grimm normally infect people with strong aura and high emotional sensibilities however …”

At this moment Shion looks at the still sleeping members of Team RWAN, with a frown before turning back to the other 6 people present to continue their explanation - “However, nightmares only infect a single person which is the problem. Somehow, despite that fact and that only 2 of the students currently asleep have the telltale signs of nightmare infection, all four have been trapped in a single dream by a single nightmare. I’ve never seen anything like this before”

Ozpin, Glynda, Ren, Yang, Nora and Blake all said nothing as they thought of the implications.

“Is there anything we can do?” - asked Yang

“Normally I would let family or close friends of the infected enter their dreams so they can defeat the nightmare and that way let the infected wake up but we’re in unknown territory, for all I know any of you entering would mean also getting trapped inside” - responded Shion frustrated at the current situation.

“Is there anything else, any detail we can possibly use?” - asked Ren, unwilling to let this be it.

“You understand what you’re asking?” - asked Shion in a calm voice - “I sadly don’t know what has caused this, any detail we discover is just another unknown to take into account, I can’t risk you doing anything at this moment”

Yang immediately grimaced in defiance, her face showing the anger she had at Shion’s words - “my sister is trapped in a dream caused by a grimm, there is no way I’m doing nothing!”

“Yeah!” - immediately added Nora

But before the protests could continue Glynda put a stop to it, her voice cutting through the air - “children, silence”

The effect was immediate as Team RBYN all stopped at which point Ozpin decided to take word.

“You have to understand that I simply can’t send my own students into an unknown situation where I have no idea what will happen or what will they face” - said Ozpin - “on the other side you might as well be the only option we have on a close notice.”

“Shion”  - said the headmaster now looking at the huntsman - “is there any avenue for action that might be open for us no matter how risky? I know that you don’t want to put anyone on unnecessary risk but in the current situation I believe it's our only option”

“In that case there is something I think might give us a possibility” - said Shion after much thinking - “while all four students have been somehow affected by the same nightmare, the two that don’t present any marks, felt like they had been separated from their two other companions.”

“And could this be used to get them awake?” - asked Ozpin

“I don’t know” - answered Shion honestly - “but at this moment all about this situation is a first of a kind as far as I know, we could try but I can’t promise it will be successful or even possible.”

“I don’t care, I just want to help my sister” - immediately argued Yang.

“I think we have our volunteer” - commented Ozpin looking at Yang now.

Shion only sighed as a reaction before accepting the facts that the attempt would be made and prepared themself for the upcoming dream attempt at a dream rescue.

==============================

Ruby and Pyrrha knew something was wrong the moment they found themselves floating in a complete black void, neither of them knew how much time they had passed floating but it felt like they had been there for an eternity if not longer, suddenly they felt the sensation of free falling without being able to move their bodies.

Then they took one blink and then they found themselves walking through a snow covered forest.

They instinctively knew this was a dream, not unlike the one they had in the mist-covered forest from weeks before, however they could now also feel there was something else out there. Something that shouldn’t be present yet it was.

As they continued to walk for what felt like hours through the snow covered forest they got more and more tense to the point that it was getting unbearable until it finally happened, suddenly from the forest several dozen bare-chested, bare-footed human-like behind appeared. They all looked similar, masks covered their faces, they seemed to have a large mane covering the rest of their head, they were all wearing only a loincloth and more unnaturally, their skin was dark-gray/black color.

Instinctively both Pyrrha and Ruby took out their weapons and prepared for a fight, ready to fire on the horde. Suddenly what seemed like a warcry sounded and the enemy rushed against the huntresses in training.

It was at this moment that Ruby and Pyrrha started firing until the horde was far too close for it to be practical and then both Pyrrha and Ruby went all in into melee. I was carnage, the uncoordinated attackers all rushed blindly, leaving wide openings for counterattacks and counters that Pyrrha abused, using her semblance to make her shield ricochet as she needed while dancing around her enemies strikes and sometimes, bodies, each slash, stab, shield smash or kick, taking out an opponent, Miló and Akoúo̱ being expertly moved by their owner. Ruby meanwhile used her semblance the recoil or her semblance to move over her opponents and then shoot them or cut them with Crescent Rose, a whirlwind dealing with any opponents that got too close while those that stayed at range with their crossbow just failed to hit her or were simply shot before they could reload their weapons.

The aftermath of the fight was a bloody one as Pyrrha and Ruby realized as the last of their opponents was dealt with, they had never seen such a carnage, in fact one would expect it to shock them since they had never fought humans, faunus or anything that could bleed for that matter and yet, something told them to simply move on, that this wasn’t the first time they saw, or caused for that matter, such a carnage. The feeling felt both alien yet theirs.

“Pyrrha?” - asked Ruby, her breathing still quick looking at the carnage with a look of both horrors and disgust that she didn’t know if it was at the result of her work or at her opponents (and that scared her)

“Yes Ruby?” - quickly answered the champion in a similar state to Ruby.

“I think we should go” - said small reaper fast, her voice showing a mix of emotions - “like, very fast”

“I agree” - responded Pyrrha struggling to not look at the scene of carnage before both departed the site of the battle as fast as they could, from there it was once again a large amount of time that felt like several hours before anything happened.

Suddenly they found someone walking towards them.

“Yang!” - shouted Pyrrha as she ran towards her sister who also shouted “Ruby!” before she also ran towards Ruby. As both sisters hugged Pyrrha stood on their side before both sisters finally finished their hug.

“Yang, sorry to interrupt but how are you here?” - asked Pyrrha confused. Ruby, now thinking about it, also got confused and looked at her older sister.

“That is complicated, we should try to wake you up first, explanations can come later” - responded Yang completely seriously with a tinge of desperation.

Both Ruby and Pyrrha wanted to stay and search for Jaune and Weiss but they didn’t know what exactly was happening, and Yang seemed to have more information and so nodded to Yang in agreement making Yang smile.

“Give me a moment” - said Yang as she walked towards an old looking telephone post that both Ruby and Pyrrha were sure did not exist.

“Miss Shion, I found Pyrrha and Ruby, let's try to wake them up” - said Yang seemingly talking through the phone while turning to look at her sister and the champion.

As Yang ended the call she said to the two both Ruby and Pyrrha - “don’t get scared about whats gonna happen next, it's safe”

Before Pyrrha and Ruby could question Yang with who and about what she was talking to, a massive hole appeared under them and from there several strings got out and catched them. Once they were fully secured, Yang lightly pulled the string before something from the hole pulled, making the three of them go through the hole.

==============================

Back at Beacon, Ren, Nora and Blake were seated in some chairs as they waited and looked worried at the sleeping Yang as she tried to wake up Ruby and Pyrrha and with a good reason, considering how the nightmare infections normally worked, even in this strange and unique situation, sudden problems could happen, even if now Shion had confirmed that she had Ruby and Pyrrha and she was successfully in the process of waking them up.

Then it happened, a small twitch, then a small gasp and from there a groan as Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang slowly woke up.

“Pyrrha, Ruby!” - shouted Nora standing up from her chair.

As Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang fully awakened, Shion sighed in relief while Ozpin remained outwardly as unmoved as always although inwardly he was also relieved. Both the reaper and the champion looked around completely disoriented and before Team RBYN could move over to them and make that disorientation worse Ozpin decided to speak.

“Ruby, Pyrrha” - called the headmaster making both student look towards him - “welcome back, there is a lot we have to speak about”

Chapter Text

It had been several minutes since Pyrrha and Ruby had been awakened from their dream by Yang and Shion and yet they still felt weak and tired, both emotionally and physically to the point they barely noticed Team RBYN at their side. Whenever they grabbed something there was an almost imperceptible shaking in their hands and their head still felt like it was spinning.

And that was for a simple fact, they shared a dream, none of them had wanted to accept it but what Shion described very much felt like how their common dreams were. Both Pyrrha and Ruby had been forced to accept that the fact both themselves alongside Weiss and Jaune waking up together was not coincidences, it was because they all shared the same dream, and not only since they became a team but for as long as they could remember. The implications were frightening for both huntresses in training and it made it even more critical for them to save Weiss and Jaune. All of this made the fact that they had to wait for Shion to be ready all the more frustrating and nerve inducing.

For Team RBYN, the fact that Ruby and Pyrrha were already awake meant that their job was already half done, now to be fair it was the easiest part to deal with, the fact that Yang didn’t need to fight any of the nightmares showed that fact but now with Ruby and Pyrrha awake, they felt like saving Weiss and Jaune would be much easier.

For Ozpin however, the current situation only made him get even more worried, despite he was happy two of his students were now safe and that was for a simple reason: Grimm simply couldn’t change, no matter how old or “intelligent” they were, the fundamentals of how their abilities worked. And yet this nightmare had done something that had proven to be impossible for its kind time and again. All he could think about was that this was Salem’s work and that was a horrifying thought, the possibility she was creating new sub-variants of grimm that couldn’t be identified spoke ill for the future. He needed to learn exactly what had happened and how and the only ones that had any idea outside Shion were his recently awakened students.

“How long will it take for another dive Shion?” - asked Ozpin trying to distract himself from the possibility of dealing with a new creation from Salem.

“Normally I would say we could do it now but I have already used part of my aura and there is still the fact that the nightmare is now feeding from two persons which will have their dreams interact too. I’d prefer to rest and have my full aura before a dive is done again.” - responded Shion before sighing, they were tired and as much as they wished to deal with the nightmare first they wanted to replenish their aura first.

The reactions to their answer are what Shion expects, Ozpin sighs both understanding their position but also wishing his students to be saved as fast as possible, nevermind the fact he had already pushed for his students to take a risky move.

The students meanwhile were big contrasts, the four members of Team RBYN looked as if the very idea was a personal insult against them, but comparison however, the reaction of the two awake members of Team RWAN however was much different, they looked deep in thought and a strange combination of doubt and grim determination but there was nothing to show they were against the idea of waiting.

Ozpin decided to keep quiet, he figured this decision should be made by his own students, specially Ruby and Pyrrha as it was their own teammates who were still trapped in their dreams by the nightmare. Team RBYN was in a similar position, as much as they wanted to dive at this very moment, they begrudgingly realized that it was not their decision to make but Ruby’s and Pyrrha’s so they also stayed quiet, just looking at the pair eagerly waiting for their decision. Finally, after a silence that felt like an eternity despite only lasting no more than a few minutes Ruby finally spoke.

“I think we should wait” - spoke Ruby still looking down at her hands - “it gives us the best chances”

The reactions varied, Ozpin kept his poker face showing no reaction, Team RBYN meanwhile looked surprised at Ruby as they had been expecting her to want to rush to save her teammates, especially now that she had support, finally Pyrrha looked doubtful at Ruby but also unwilling to argue against her partner and leader, everyone in the room took it as Pyrrha not completely agreeing with Ruby although the truth is that Pyrrha (much like Ruby) was thinking hard about the recent revelations both had had and more importantly what it meant for their current situation, simply put, both Pyrrha and Ruby unknowingly but simultaneously agreed that they needed time to think in peace.

“I see then, we’ll all take a rest while my aura reserves get full again, once that happens we’re going to make the second dive.” - said Shion moving towards their special hourglass, turning it over so the sand started to change into flowers again and then facing the students and Ozpin again - “I suggest trying to think about a plan for the upcoming dive however, it is not going to be as easy as the previous one we’ve had.”

“I would also suggest all of you to use this time to calm down and eat something too” - suddenly added Ozpin while taking a sip from his mug - “you’ve been on alert since breakfast and even through one class. It would do you good having some time to rest and Shion can easily watch over your friends”

Shion nodded in agreement to Pyrrha and Ruby as they looked at them while Team RBYN looked towards the headmaster in doubt.

“Understood professor” - answered Pyrrha giving a single nod at the headmaster before she and Ruby stood up making Team RBYN follow them out of the room leaving Ozpin and Shion inside who watched the students get out.

“So, what do you think about the current situation?” - asked Ozpin at Shion, turning to face them as soon as the door had closed.

“It's complicated, for all we know, the grimm might be exponentially more powerful that it normally would be and I don’t know how two minds will affect a dream” - they responded as they turned to put their hammock and put their objects in place - “and that's before taking into account the grimm managed to put the entire team into sleep, the two student we awakened could easily get trapped again”

“I see” - was Ozpin’s only answer.

A few seconds passed as Ozpin looked into his mostly empty mug, thinking about several possibilities and implications while Shion put their hammock up and went to rest as their aura slowly recharged. On the floor both Jaune and Weiss remained asleep at the center of Shion’s web-like construct, their eyes still covered, a grim reminder that there was still much to be done for this crisis to be dealt with.

“Thanks for everything Shion” - said Ozpin as he went out of the room, Shion, now resting on their hammock giving him a lazy wave of thanks. He had much to think about the current situation and how to respond to it.

==============================

Lunch was a surprisingly nice affair for both Ruby and Pyrrha. While neither of them  was feeling hungry, the moment they started to eat, they ate as if they had not eaten for days. Team RBYN meanwhile showed their support by keeping company and engaging in small talk with both members of Team RWAN, doing their best to distract them from the current situation. Helping them was the fact that there was almost no one in the cafeteria since it was not the official lunch hour yet making it a very calm environment, the only other people present being the odd 3rd and 4th years team returning from their missions. However as the 6 of them finally started to feel full they realized that they would need to talk about what to do.

“Alright everyone” - suddenly announced Ruby finally finished eating, getting everyone's attention - “We, need to plan about what are we going to do when we go back into the dreams”

The declaration was expected by the members of Team RBYN, Ruby was too nice of a girl to leave anyone in need and that was before taking into account just how dedicated she was to the wellbeing of her team. Pyrrha meanwhile, while soft spoken and generally nice, had also been shown to deeply care for her teammates and friends.

All of Team RBYN knew that to some level or another but Yang knew better than all his teammates, Ruby was her little sister, a little sister that had talked to her a lot of things she had not mentioned to anyone else like her having additional study sessions with her team to make up for the years she had jumped to get into Beacon early. In fact, she remembered when Ruby had asked her to help her study the things she missed by jumping directly into Beacon.

“Yang! It's not funny!” - shouted a pouting Ruby facing Yang, both sitting in a table inside the academy’s library, the table full of books of different topics. Yang meanwhile gave her sister a small shit eating grin as rested her head on her right hand, she didn’t say anything, there was no need to to the point Ruby whined again before facedesking in seeming defeat - “Yyyyaaaannnnggg!”

Yang continued to look at her sister in amusement, it was true she lacked 2 years of theoretical knowledge but even with that factor in mind she had not shown any care about that fact until now and from what she saw during classes she had an inkling of what had caused the change even if it had been a few days ago.

“So sis, any reason why are you caring so much about this now?” - asked Yang wanting to confirm her suspicions changing her disposition to let Ruby know she was now serious. Ruby meanwhile immediately started debating if she should give her sister the details or try to deflect the question before deciding that just answering was the best  knowing Yang would just pester her until she got the answer.

And so Ruby sighed before responding - “well, I had a discussion with my team that made me realize that , there was still stuff that I needed to learn before coming to Beacon and I want to be the best leader I can”

“Just what I thought, the ice princess badgered my sister so much she now feels like she has to prove something” - thought Yang hiding her frustration. She had heard the Schnee Princess blow up at her sister after class and it seemed that what she had told her sister was gotten into her, the fact Ruby had not planned to tell anyone outside her team, meant that she was truly trying to not only keep it secret (which to be fair had some merit, it was a team issue not that she agreed with the sentiment) but also that Ruby convince the princess that Ozpin had done no wrong by naming her team leader. As far as Yang was concerned Ruby didn’t need to prove herself to anyone and in fact the princess should just shut up and accept the facts. In fact, the fact Ruby was going out of her way to do this more than showed she deserved to be team leader.

“Well, I sure hope the next combat class I get to duel the ice princess” - thought Yang, such a fight should teach the heiress a lesson or two or at least feel good to her.

Regardless of her feelings, Ruby had decided on the current course of action so despite her personal misgivings against the Schnee heiress, she would help her sister and make sure she would be the best team leader Beacon had ever seen.

And yet despite knowing that Yang felt that she needed to ask - “Rubes, are you sure you want to go back in? You and Pyrrha just came back”

“And you got trapped in the dream despite the fact the nightmare never infected you” - added Ren much to Yang’s gratitude - “For all we know you could get trapped again until we beat the grimm”

After receiving that new information Ruby and Pyrrha remained in silence for a few seconds, absorbing the implications but soon Ruby responded with a question.

“Wouldn’t that mean we just have to beat the grimm then?” - asked Ruby

Both Ren and Yang shook their heads in unison before Yang explained - “It's not so easy, I took a great deal of time searching for you two and that was without the grimm being directly present unlike with Jaune and Weiss so we didn’t need to find it and fight it to get you out. When we go for Jaune and Weiss, we will need to do that, making it far more dangerous.”

“And that's before taking into account the nightmare itself and how the grimm has affected it which would make things more difficult” - added Ren.

Once again silence was the first answer from both Pyrrha and Ruby as they absorbed the information again. A small part of Yang hoped both would decide to stay awake while she and her team dived into Jaune’s and Weiss’ dreams and get them out, but Yang knew that was a fool’s bet.

“Guys, while I understand the risks I think me and Pyrrha should still go into Jaune’s and Weiss’ dream” - said Ruby, certain of her decision looking at them

“I agree” - then spoke Pyrrha in support of Ruby’s decision - “as our teammates we should be helping.

“But …” - started Yang trying to argue only to see both Ruby’s or Pyrrha’s eyes harden at Yang, silencing her. The way both were looking at her (and the rest of Team RBYN for that matter) didn’t leave any opportunity for discussion.

“Sis, I know that you’re worried by the danger but Jaune and Weiss are my teammates, my friends and my responsibility as team leader, I just can’t let you do all the work while I just wait without doing anything.” - declared Ruby, Pyrrha nodding in agreement.

Several tense seconds in silence followed as it was not Team RBYN who had to go through their thoughts, finally Ren sighed and spoke his voice sounding ever so slightly resigned - “since you’re sure about this decision we should plan for our rescue.”

“We should go to one of our rooms, there we can talk in private, especially now that it's lunch time” - suddenly added Blake who had been silent through the whole conversation. Both Ruby and Pyrrha realized that the fact was true on both accounts as they were seeing more students enter the cafeteria. As one the six students stood up and went for their rooms, they had a fight inside a dream to plan for.

==============================

Ozpin sat at his desk dealing with the paperwork that came with being headmaster of a huntsmen academy and the one chosen to prepare for the Vytal Festival. However despite both facts, he still remained more concentrated on another matter, that of his two students still trapped in a nightmare thanks to a grimm, normally Shion and any of the affected student’s teammates would’ve been more than enough to deal with the issue but his instincts were telling him that this was no normal situation and that help would most likely be needed and while he wanted to think he was just being paranoid this feeling didn’t go away.

And it was for a simple reason, he knew Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos would go into the dreams of their teammates. An extremely dangerous proposition. For all anyone knew, they could get trapped inside the dream making the next dive the only one that would be able to be sent and worst of all, open their own auras to be fed on by the nightmare grimm making it even more powerful than it was already now that it was feeding on the nightmare and aura of two separate persons.

Several more minutes of paperwork passed as Ozpin finally decided his course of action, taking his scroll and calling a particular number within his contacts. A few seconds passed as connection was established and in the holographic screen in front of the Beacon headmaster appeared his atlesian counterpart and basically the most powerful man in Atlas, General James Ironwood.

“Ozpin, it's good to see you” - said the general nodding at Ozpin, his face serious before continuing - “it's unlike you to call any of us at this time of the year”

It was true, while the headmasters all kept in contact, it was not common for them to call each other aside previously agreed days, they were all busy people in charge of not only the huntsmen academies and in some of their cases many other duties.

“That's because I’m calling because I require your assistance James” - said Ozpin truthfully and directly, much unlike him but there was no reason to go around the bush in this situation.

The reaction of the general was immediate if subtle, just a bit more tense showing in his face and shoulders before asking the obvious question with all the seriousness and no nonsense disposition being a military man gave him - “Ozpin, what happened?”

“A Nightmare has infected two of my students, Weiss Schnee and Jaune Arc” - answered Ozpin

“A Nightmare?” - asked Ironwood surprised as if he was expecting something more dire giving Ozpin a questioning look - “Ozpin, we both know that while tricky to deal with but an specialized huntsman should be enough to deal with them, although time consuming considering its two grimm”

Ozpin was not surprised by the answer, anyone hearing this would pass over his specific working and just think it was just two nightmare grimm infecting two separate students, the idea of a single nightmare infecting 2 or more students at once was dismissed out of hand.

“Its not two grimm that has infected them” - corrected Ozpin - “it's a single one that has infected both of them”

For a few seconds the look of questioning remained in the general’s face, then it changed into a look of confusion and after a few more seconds into a look of realization as it finally hit the general the potential implications.

“I see” - said Ironwood, easily accepting what Ozpin was saying, his experience helping him in that regard - “how can I help?”

“I need one of your subordinates to come to Beacon” - answered Ozpin honestly.

“You want Winter to go to Beacon to help her sister” - declared Ironwood Ozpin just nodding as an answer.

“Consider it done Ozpin, and thanks for the warning. Anything else?” - said the general.

“The teammates and friends of both students are almost certainly going to dive into the nightmare as soon as they're able so time is in the essence.” - said Ozpin preferring to have the discussion about the potential Salem was experimenting in creating new grimm variants later.

“Understood, I’ll get Winter as fast as I can and Ozpin … your students will be safe, don’t doubt it” - said Ironwood empathizing with his fellow headmaster and leader about having their students in actual mortal danger.

“Thanks James” - responded Ozpin honestly. After that both headmasters said their goodbyes and closed ended their calls. After being done Ozpin felt calmer, not relieved, not calm, but at least calmer than he was before the call. Now, should anything go wrong, there would be a bigger safety net. Looking at his scroll again, Ozpin decided he needed to make another call, just in case.

==============================

General and headmaster James Ironwood walked with purpose through Atlas Academy towards the virtual training grounds, a new Atlesian development using hard-light dust to give both students and graduates more realistic training without having to go into the field, his objective was to meet with Specialist Winter Schnee and brief her about her new mission, time was in the essence, specially if the students’ dive went poorly.

Arriving at the training room and entering it, Ironwood found Winter training some of the new first years alongside the class’ main teacher, Colonel Sanders, a short old man who sported completely white hair, a white goatee and a pair of glasses. He noticed the general enter his class and gave him a small salute before concentrating again in the ongoing training as Ironwood walked until he was at his side..

“General, sir” - said the colonel - “what brings you here?”

“An emergency has happened, and I need Winter to deal with it” - responded the general.

A few seconds passed as Winter continued to guide the students through their training while the colonel and the general both watched.

“I understand sir” - finally said the colonel but adding with a bit of mirth in his voice - “although I have to admit, I will miss her help, this batch of recruits has been specially rowdy”

“Sorry for the inconvenience, Colonel” - said Ironwood sincerely.

“It's no issue general, I may be old but I still can control these kids, just call the specialist and I’ll deal with the rest” - responded the colonel with much amusement to which Ironwood nodded in response.

“Specialist Winter Schnee!” - called out Ironwood as soon as the students finally finished the current exercise, making everyone turn to face him with Winter standing straight and saluting him immediately.

“General Ironwood” - said the specialist.

“At ease specialist” - responded the general which Winter obeyed immediately while the students started to murmur between each other. It was rare seeing Ironwood coming to any classes due to his busy schedule.

“A new mission has arrived for you, please follow me for briefing” -  said Ironwood turning to leave the classroom Winter following him.

After getting out of the classroom Ironwood started to talk - “Normally I would give you your briefing in my office but time in in the essence, a few minutes ago Ozpin, Beacon’s headmaster called me  requesting you to go there as support”

Winter took in the information but despite trying her best she failed to keep frown from appearing, the general meanwhile continued - “The reason for the request is that two of his students, Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee were infected by nightmare grimm and there were … complications”

Winter mentally froze at the news; it was only training and instinct that kept her walking on the side of Ironwood. Nightmare grimm could be tricky to deal with but normally even students could deal with them should it be required. The fact there were complications meant the situation was not good and for Winter it meant her sister and her teammates for that matter were in actual danger.

“Your mission is to go to Beacon and ensure the students are saved from the grimm, Ozpin will give you any additional details you might need. Time is in essence specialist Schnee. That is all.” - finished Ironwood.

“Yes sir, understood” - answered Winter as she finally noticed that the general had not led them to his officer but instead to her quarters, the general then turned to face Winter.

“Good luck then, Specialist Schnee” - said Ironwood before turning to leave, Winter saluting back, saluting back before entering her quarters as she was barely able to keep her emotions in check as she prepared to depart to Beacon. It was not an easy task, the weight of the fact her sister might actually be in mortal danger shaking her to the core. The general had said there had been complications, whatever that meant. Taking a few deep breaths to keep her head clear, Winter got all of her equipment ready and soon was going towards her airship.

==============================

Weiss Schnee walked through the massive mansion at the center of her city, from here she could observe and even control everything that happened inside it and even near it (even if the last one was not perfect much to her chagrin). However despite that it wasn't perfect, her father was everywhere, no matter where she went he was there, observing and criticizing her, her brother was still around being a complete pest, her mother meanwhile was still just there, somewhere, getting drunk like always.

Only Winter and Klein were actually tolerable, useful and actually wanted companionship. Winter’s knowledge was always in need and was always correct while Klein was her loyal and ever faithful servant, ready to help and serve her, he could even make her forget about the others' unwanted existence.

However there was an even more intolerable pest inside her city. It was “the knight” as she called him or “the paladin” as he called himself and his “posse”, she didn’t know where he or his followers hid, although she was certain it was somewhere inside her city, so big and massive it was easy to find a place to hide even if always temporarily but she knew that he would sometimes try to fight against the White Fang and other … issues and either he (or they) would fail horribly or cause more problems to her on the long run and that was before he pestered her in person. The last thought made her grimace in disgust, how much he hated the useless knight.

But in the end, it didn’t matter, sooner or later she would catch him and his group and deal with them much like she dealt with all the other .. problematic people.

As she continued walking however she suddenly felt a new presence, an unmistakable and extremely unlikeable one. Turning around, Negative Weiss came face to face with the subject of her ire, “The Paladin”, they were mere meters apart, standing in the middle of a corridor, nobody able to observe them for once.

“Paladin” - said Weiss, her voice so cold it would’ve been able to freeze someone else in their place, but not the knight in front of her.

“My Lady” - responded the Paladin softly, his voice showing reverence and respect nodding towards her while giving his “salute”.

“I told you not to call me that” - spat back Weiss before calming herself somewhat to make a question, her voice still showing frustration - “however, now that you are here, have you and your followers made yourself useful to the city?”

“We have managed to defeat some White Fang Cells, however others have escaped” - responded the Paladin.

“I take it you could not stop the destruction of the trains or the killing of the crew of said train correct?” - asked Weiss back with poison on her voice, how she wanted to just throw this “Paladin” into the dungeons where he belonged but she knew better than that. The Paladin’s small but noticeable shaking in his hands were all the answers Weiss needed to know she was correct.

“Useless as always” - thought Weiss looking directly at her face showing her disgust at The Paladin who just gave her a simple “yes” as an answer seemingly scared to give her the answer.

Not wanting to keep wasting her time said to him a simple Weiss turned around not facing him anymore before saying in an ice cold voice with no emotion - “then stop wasting my time”

And with that Weiss started to walk away not waiting to see the Paladin disappear without a trace and once again, she was alone inside the manor at least until a second later Jacques appeared once again watching her every move.

==============================

The moment their aura had finally replenished Shion had called Ozpin to warn the 6 students of team RWAN and RBYN that they were ready to help both students still trapped in their nightmare. Surprisingly enough both the headmaster and the students arrived together, the students looking determined and ready for the upcoming missions while the headmaster looked like he normally did.

“I take you’re all ready for the dive” - Shion asked the 6 students all answered with a version of yes or a nod - “ and I assume the headmaster has talked to you about the risks and explained how the nightmares work?”

“Yes, Team RBYN explained us how the nightmares work” - answered Pyrrha

“And the headmaster talked to us too. he wanted us to wait until Weiss’ sister arrived to Beacon to help us but if we can safe her before that it should be better” - continued Ruby

Shion looked at the headmaster, one eyebrow up to which Ozpin responded quickly - “That is true, I considered that the potential for complications were to high and it would be better to ask for reinforcements and wait until they arrived but they decided they were willing to take the risk and help their friends”

“We don’t know how much time we have until the grimm is done with Weiss and Jaune so we think it's better to take the risk now than wait and take the risk it might be too late when they arrive” - said Ruby immediately after Ozpin finished talking.

Realizing the students were more than willing to dive and that the headmaster had accepted their decision, Shion went to prepare and soon Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren, Yang, Blake, Ren and Nora were diving into the nightmare.

With the students now inside the SIon turned towards Ozpin and asked him - “are you sure this is a good idea? considering who went out of your way to ask for help”

“I’m not sure but better to be prepared for things to go wrong and not need them than not be prepared and need them. However I had honestly hoped they would wait despite the low odds of them doing so” - answered Ozpin.

“And who did you call? Considering how this works they must’ve been close to the infected students” - continued to ask Shion

“One of the older sister of Weiss Schnee, an accomplished and experienced Atlesian specialist, sadly Jaune Arc had no family members able to help as they’re all civilians and just to be sure I called Qrow Branwen who is the uncle of Ruby Rose” - answered Ozpin

“I take Qrow is just in case things go poorly considering Ruby Rose is not one of the infected” - said Shion

“That is correct, like I said, better to make sure just in case. I just hope it doesn’t come to that” - confirmed Ozpin taking a sip from his mug.

==============================

The moment the group arrived to the dream they found themselves right in the middle of a snow covered field, looking around they saw each other only to find their clothes had changed.

Ren was wearing a bright green greatcoat with white fur trims and a white lotus emblem on one of his sleeves, white baggy pants, black boots and a dark green jingasa, Nora meanwhile wore a pink winter jacket with cyan trims and two cyan ribbons, she was also wearing two cyan stockings two black gloves with a dark pink heart, two white shows with pink toes and trims and white winter ear muffs with a pink hammer and lighting decal.

Yang and Blake had also changed. Yang had changed the least all things considered, her hair was now in a ponytail, a brown pant with two belts holding a lilac cloth under a brown piece attached to both, she was also using a light beige jacket with the sleeves rolled up with a flame decal in one of the sleeves, there was also a pair of motorcycle goggles and finally a pair of brown winter boots with white fur trims and plate bolted to them. Blake meanwhile had a purple leather leotard with a stylized belladonna flower decal, with the chest being gray and a white belt under her bust, alongside the leotard she wore white shorts with a black zig-zag stitches in the front and a purple stocking under them which led to a pair of purple high-heel boots with fur trimming of the same color, finally she had her bow and a pair of purple gloves with purple fur trims

The changes to Pyrrha and Ruby however were the most radical. Pyrrha for starters had her hair down instead of a ponytail, she was using a long grading red dress, a red sash tied around her dress in her waist, she was also wearing a white tulle petticoat, a pair of black high-heel shoes, she was also wearing golden forearm, leg armor alongside a pair of gauntlets and finally a long-sleeved dark red bolero that was held by a collar shaped as a saltire with a spiral greca pattern and spikes in between the saltire points while in the center of the collar a shining orb-shaped light green gem with a pair of wing symbols on it, tied to the sash there was a red with golden trims sword scabbard which also had an stylized spear over a shield, a sword resting inside the scabbard.

Ruby meanwhile wore a black hoodie and over it a red jacket, a long white undershirt coming from under both, she was also wearing a pair of black stocking which transitioned to red from the knee down, a pair of red sneakers with black sole, a dark brown fanny pack over her shoulder for easy use, a red winter cap with two red pom-poms ball dangling from the sides, an stylized flaming rose on her and to finish there was a pair of snowboard goggles, on her left forearm looked like there was a type of computer with some cables coming out of it and into the jacket and tightly tied to her right arm there was an orb-shaped shining red gem with a flame symbol inside it, the border the gem was attached to was thin and looked like two ribbons in an ornamental clamshell design with spikes at the top and bottom.

“Well, this is new” - commented Yang looking over herself - “the professor said that we would look like the person inside the nightmare perceives us but I never thought Weiss and Jaune would look at us like this.”

“I have to admit, my clothes are quite the contrast” - commented Pyrrha, looking at her mix of armor and long dress.

“I quite like it though, I might use this combination after we get them out of this dream!” - said Nora looking over at herself.

“I think we should start looking for Jaune and Weiss, we can check what else has changed on the way” - suddenly said Ren stopping more comments from the others, they were on a mission after all.

Before they moved however, Yang remembered a small fact - “Hey guys! We must check the coins!”

The other looked at her in surprise but soon agreed, taking out the coins they had. All of them had 2 coins each.

“Still only 12” - said Yang, clearly disappointed - “Well, we’ll just have to be more careful I guess, just take care to not misuse them, alright?”

The rest answered with a  bunch of “got it” and “understood” simultaneously before they started to walk through the snow covered field as they also tested their weapons which were, once again, basically identical to their real counterparts except Pyrrha’s and Ruby’s.

Crescent Rose for example was bulkier in its scythe mode while in its rifle mode it transformed into a longer, more traditional looking sniper rifle with a bulkier scope and with the barrel coming out what was traditionally the hilt of the weapons instead of the front, it also had gained a new transformation to a massive claymore and finally, when inactive, it looked and worked like a floating snowboard.

Miló and Akoúo̱ had similarly gone through some changes, Miló in its sword form had more than doubled its length, it rifle mode had also gained a small scope and when in spear mode it the barrel was installed in such a way that Miló could still be able to fire against the enemy like in real life where it only absorbed the recoil to propel the weapon. Akoúo̱ meanwhile could project its ends greatly increasing the space they covered, the mechanism somewhat similar to the one Jaune’s shield used to change from scabbard into shield.

Another change for the both weapons included that in their melee forms both weapons got their cutting edges surrounded by what seemed to be electricity much to Ruby’s and Pyrrha’s surprise although they didn’t get to test the effects as the group suddenly noticed that they had reached a small cliff forming a canyon and in the middle of the canyon there were rail lines.

Soon they heard a train coming, a cargo train by the look of it before suddenly the white fang appeared and started to fire against the train from the cliffs while other small teams started to board the train taking out the guardian androids before finally destroying the locomotive forcing the train to stop and starting to loot the destroyed train.

“White Fang?!” - questioned a surprised Nora pointing at the attack - “why are they here?!”

“Not surprising” - then said Blake looking at the attack in detail and answering Nora's question - “the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Corporation are in conflict, it wouldn’t surprise me Weiss having a bad image of them”

“So, we continue to just follow the tracks?” - Ruby asks Ren, cutting the discussion and eager to continue their travel.

“Looks like our better option” - responds Ren and the group is once again walking.

==============================

After what felt like hours of walking and resisting the urge to call Shion to ask just how much time had passed, the group finally reached a city and it was massive. Covered in snow the massive arcology seemed to try to reach into the sky, levels upon levels of city one on top of the other built with that single purpose. Surrounding it was a massive thick wall that would not look out of place in a city of remnant, hundreds of defensive and weapons positions and turrets dotting it.

“Well that's big” - commented Yang in a deadpan manner.

“We should go to the spire at the center” - said Ruby completely serious as she continued to look at the city analyzing it, the comment making everyone turn to look at her except Pyrrha who was doing the same - “Weiss should be there”

“The problem is finding Jaune, although it's likely he will be in the deepest parts of the city” - said Pyrrha - “which will be an issue”

“And how are you sure you two?” - suddenly asks Nora some disbelieve on her voice - “ for all we know they could be anywhere else”

“Because the Nightmare would like to hide them in the hardest to reach parts of the city and both the top of the spire and the deepest parts of the city would be the hardest to reach by distance alone” - responded Ruby immediately, Pyrrha giving her support to the idea.

The members of team RBYN meanwhile looked both with surprise and doubt, while the rationality seemed alright, they doubted it could be so easy to discover where both Jaune and Weiss were.

“We’ll need to get through the gates or over the walls first though” - commented Nora

“With the train wrecked and those defenses we would need to fight our way in” - said Blake

“Or we just use one of the coins” - said Ruby taking one coin out but before she could throw it Yang caught her arm making Ruby look at her sister in surprise.

“Wait! Are you sure this is a good idea?” - asked Yang worried about using the coin too early.

“Yang, I understand your worry but Weiss and Jaune are in there and beyond fighting our way in alerting the grimm we’re here or waiting for another train to come and not get attacked it could be hours or more the coin is our best option” - responded Pyrrha turning to face team RBYN her voice showing her unwillingness to waste more time than necessary.

Team RBYN meanwhile failed to argue against the argument, mostly out of surprise at how pushy both Ruby and Pyrrha were about getting in as fast as possible inside the city. They knew that Jaune and Weiss were their teammates but this was unexpected.

“In that case, let me use one of mine” - said Blake not wanting a discussion to start - “I’m good at hiding and sneaking around, I can deal with having one less coin”

“Alright, thanks Blake” - said Ruby smiling, Blake using the coin as soon Ruby gave her thanks. Crossing through the door, the group found itself inside the city, the wall behind them.

The city was beautiful, its buildings finely crafted and built, tall and proud while the streets were wide, several bridges connecting connecting buildings across said streets, and yet it felt oppressive by the same size of the buildings and the fact that despite natural light entering the city, no matter how high the view went, there were always more constructions blocking the view of the sky, the architecture itself also gave the same feeling, their fine details and extravagance making it look heavy and oppressive.

Not wanting to stay in one place for longer than they needed to, the group started walking,  soon crossing a few workers and other people going through the streets, their clothes an extravagant white with light blue trims and patterns. None of the people reacted to the huntsmen students as they went through the streets beyond getting out of the way.

Soon however the students found their first obstacle, a group of patrolling androids, their bulk and size being a big dead away as they were taller and seemed to lack a proper head. The androids however seemed to be very simplistic in design as the students managed to evade them by going into an alley and after Blake suggested it, into the roof of a building before continuing their way into the city.

They were still far away from rescuing their friends.

Chapter Text

As the six students continued to move through the roofs of the arcology building’s they couldn’t help but to feel they were being closely watched and yet whenever they looked around them to try to catch the supposed spy they found no one.

The architecture didn’t help  either, sometimes the streets were massive affairs capable of letting 8 cars comfortably drive side by side, sometimes they barely let 2 persons pass side by side and the beautiful white stone and concrete constructions seemed to hide something in every corner, sometimes it felt like they were inside a cave.

However, regardless of their misgivings the 6 students continued their travels evading the patrolling androids and doing their best to keep themselves from being noticed. However their misgivings turned out to be well placed as they were indeed being watched. Well hidden in the architecture was someone that had noticed them, a member of the Paladin’s group and it had been following them for some time but the students were just too fast for it. Once it realized that fact the observer stopped trying to keep pace and instead went to warn the Paladin.

==============================

Jaune hated his “home”, well more like he disliked it instead of hate but whenever he could be somewhere else, he was and it was not hard to see why. His mother was overbearing, always worried about him even when nothing had happened to him ever, his sisters were always out following their dreams not caring about his feelings and his father …

Jaune took a deep breath to calm himself.

His father was the worst part, always criticizing him, trying to force him “to stop playing games and come back to reality”. It was constant arguing when it came to him.

Now however Jaune found himself in front of a statue, his helmet under his right arm, the man the statue was shaped after being the one that had been his inspiration and was also the place he went to be at peace or just past time when he wasn't training.

The peace would not last as one of his followers arrived all tired.

“Sir! I found something!” - shouted the teen. Jaune couldn’t help but sigh, making sure the young teen didn’t notice, they all meant well but sometimes their inexperience got in their way. Regardless, if they had come to tell him something he figured he should at least listen, anything else would be dismissing the kid’s effort.

Turning around after putting on his helmet, Jaune faced the teen - “what did you find?”

“Well, I found a group of six people jumping and running through the roofs of the city while evading the security robots” - responded the young teen - “even the red-haired singer was with them!”

“The red-hairy singer?” - asked Jaune, surprised as a reflex, the teen nodding immediately as a response. The description was the one most people used for Pyrrha and if Pyrrha was in company it meant that Ruby was present too and if Ruby was present it was more than likely the other four people were Ruby’s sister and her teammates.

“I see, warn the others to not interfere, I’ll deal with this personally” - said Jaune completely seriously.

“Alright sir!” - answered the teen before running elsewhere. Jaune sighed again, Ruby and Pyrrha were somewhere in the city, he needed to find them, no, he needed to warn Weiss and then find them.

He only hoped Weiss had decided to be at someplace that was easy to get into instead of her home in the spire, it was not like he couldn’t get in but it was more annoying than it needed to be.

==============================

Nora was starting to dislike the dream more and more with each passing moment. Despite how beautiful the city was it felt oppressive, like everything was completely structured for maximum efficiency.

And maximum security.

That was another thing she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by, everywhere she looked she saw either a patrolling robot or some sort of security camera, the few places without any of those meanwhile had the painting of a grimacing face, as if angry or dismissing of everyone.

She was sure the eyes of said pictures followed them.

But they could stop, not until they rescued their friends and defeated the grimm inside this nightmare. But that created another issue. Namely, getting to the nightmares. However despite that issue neither Ruby or Pyrrha seemed to be willing to slow down seemingly knowing exactly where they needed to go, something she was sure they didn’t actually know and they were just rushing in to try to save their teammates.

She understood how they were feeling, but they needed a way to know where exactly they were going, because while their plan was to push into the dream, none of them had expected it to be such a massive place. And she was not alone in those thoughts as Ren spoke up.

“Ruby, Pyrrha, we need to stop!” - avises Ren stopping in his place, still alert just in case something happened

“Yeah, we need a plan” - also adds Nora, stopping alongside Ren.

The two comments make Ruby and Pyrrha stop and with them also Yang and Blake who turn to face Ren and Nora. Yang and Blake look confused but willing to hear them out but Pyrrha and Ruby meanwhile look confused and somewhat frustrated, just wanting to continue moving forward. 

“But we have a plan already?!” - responded Ruby immediately as if saying something obvious, that from a point of view it was.

“What we truly mean is that we need to find a way to reach the nightmares without having to explore the whole city, it's massive and who knows how many traps and other dangers there are inside” - argued Ren laying down his and her arguments which had the intended effect as Ruby looked surprised for a moment before looking as if she was thinking about what Ren had just said while Pyrrha looked at Ruby waiting for her answer.

“Alright, but then what do we do? it's not like we can ask someone from here on how to get up” - responds Ruby obviously wanting to continue moving.

The rebuttal was actually a good one Nora had to admit to herself, it was not like asking around was an option, right?

“ … that … may not be a bad idea actually” - suddenly Blake spoke, making everyone look at her with faces that showed from surprise like Ren to basically shouting “have you gone insane?!” like Ruby.

“Let me explain” - argued Blake before continuing - “Since we’ve replaced our nightmare counterparts most of the nightmare denizens should consider us a normal part of it so we should easily get the information we need.”

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at each other unconvinced about the argument as did Yang and Ren. For her part Nora was willing to take the risk.

“I think we should try, we lose nothing”  - said Nora in support of Blake.

“It beats just running blind while taking the longest way possible or just getting lost” - added Ren, still doubting the idea but willing to try anything at the moment.

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at each other for a moment before both sighed and Ruby approved the plan with the group dropping to the alley under them before going into the street looking for someone they might ask their questions.

They didn’t need to walk for long as they crossed a curious individual, an android, but one very different from those that the group had seen patrolling through the streets, in fact this one seemed jovial unlike basically everyone else inside the dream. The android had a yellow hardhat, was wider and shorter than those patrolling the streets and not only had a large nose with a mustache but also a permanently happy face.

Deciding that the friendly looking robot was their best option the group went to talk with him. The robot, calling himself Happy Klein, was more than willing to give the group the information they seeked while making some comments that caught the group by surprise.

Now with the information in their hands the group once again started to move, Nora finally feeling more calm, they had two friends to rescue and time was in the essence.

==============================

Weiss walked through the empty garden (which many would call a park) of her mansion, she had finally finished the work he had piled on and decided to take a small rest by visiting the statue of Nicholas Schnee, the man that had inspired her to choose her road in life, the only place she considered herself able to truly be calm and relax, if even for a mere moment.

She didn’t know for how long she had been in the garden, sitting, looking directly at the magnificent statue.

Only that it was not enough time. It never was.

Then she felt it, a new presence in the garden and knowing the inhabitants and the common visitors to the mansion she knew exactly who it was.

“Paladin” - said Weiss not bothering to look at the new arrival, her mood souring quick.

“My Lady” - responded Jaune - “There is something important I must tell you”

“And what would that be?” - asked Weiss in a sarcastic way, expecting the usual news.

“Pyrrha has been found” - said Jaune, barely keeping his emotions in check.

Weiss froze, her heart skipping a beat, her face showing her surprise as she turned to face the Paladin, Jaune. Pyrrha was back, she was back.

“And she was with company which means …” continued Jaune without stopping

“That Ruby might be with her too.” - said Weiss, almost sounding desperate, as she stood up to look at the paladin before she started walking towards the exit - “I need to go after them”

However as she passed by the knight he grabbed her left arm stopping her.

“Unhand me now” - demanded Weiss, a deep frown on her face as she turned to face the knight and tried to get her arm off his grip.

“Can’t do that, there is still more than you must know” - responded Jaune frowning under his helmet, making sure Weiss wouldn’t be able to get away - “there are more people with them”

The words seemed to make Weiss stop, her frown while not disappearing was not as deep as before.

“What do you mean?” - demanded Weiss tugging her arm away from Jaune as he let go.

“Exactly that, when they were observed Pyrrha was not possibly with Ruby but with also other 4 people” - answered the paladin.

“Possibly Ruby’s sister and her team” - commented Weiss

“Likely, but not only that” - continued the paladin - “Pyrrha and the others were reported evading the city’s security”

“Evading security?” - asked Weiss, surprised while gesturing - “that doesn’t make sense! There is no need for Pyrrha or Ruby to evade security!”

“And yet they were doing so” - argued Jaune - “What if they don’t want to be found?”

“But why would they not?” - asked Weiss before shaking her head, the confusion leaving her disposition as a cold determined feeling filled her - “it doesn’t matter, I’m bringing Pyrrha and Ruby back with us”

As Weiss once again turned and started to walk towards the exit.

“I’m coming with you” - suddenly said the paladin, making Weiss stop on her tracks.

“Why?” - asked the heiress, the frustration that was surfacing again barely kept away from showing in her voice.

“Because Pyrrha apparently doesn’t want to be found and if she’s with Ruby and the others, it's certain they will help her” - answered Jaune looking directly at Weiss - “and are you willing to force Pyrrha and possibly Ruby and the others to come with us?”

“I don’t want to fight them” - argued Weiss once against turning to face the paladin, her arms crossed - “but if I must I will”

“That's why I want to go with you, better two people than just one” - argued Jaune.

Weiss sighed, she didn't want the paladin to get on her way but what he was saying was true, so partially turning away from him while still facing the knight she said - “then join me, just don’t get in my way” - and with that she turned away from Jaune.

“Not planning to” - though the paladin - “Understood my lady”

And with that, both went to look for their missing comrades.

==============================

“I still can’t believe it was this easy” - said Ruby leaning forward still trying to comprehend just how easier and faster things had gotten while seating inside the aerial tramway that would get them to where Weiss supposedly was.

“It has been quite the windfall, I agree” - said Pyrrha, looking outside, just as surprised as Ruby but able to hide it, especially since she was concentrating on another burning question: Where was Jaune?

“It's almost as if he has disappeared” - thought Pyrrha, looking at the massive city around her. There was a lot of influence coming from Weiss, but from Jaune? There was nothing, at least as far as she had noticed.

The travel in the tramway was taking more time than Pyrrha was comfortable with but it sure showed just how much she and the other would’ve been forced to travel through had they had not decided to ask the denizens for information or crossed Happy Klein for that matter.

Beyond one call to Shion to give them an update and ask for any potential tip they could give them nothing much had happened. Although the fact Shion had warned them all that nightmare Jaune and nightmare Weiss would be far more powerful than anything they would have faced in the real world made her a bit worried.

As the tram finally stopped at its final station, the group moved out of the tram and into the station which was basically empty despite its massive size. The group all looked around to find the exit of the maze-like construction.

“So, where do we go from here?” - asked Yang, huffing and putting her hand on her hips as she continued to look around.

“We should find the exit first” - said Pyrrha as an option as she looked around trying and failing to find a map or something to guide them out - “from there we’ll be able to see where exactly we should go”

“That's one idea, does anyone have another?” - asked Ruby looking at the others, who all shaked their heads - “well, in that case, Pyrrha’s idea it is”

And with that the six students started walking around the maze of a station trying to find their way out. However the more they walked the more it seemed the station was far from ordinary, the building just seemed to continue and continue and there were simply no people inside it, not even workers.

“Great we’re lost” - huffed Yang, obviously frustrated.

“Perhaps it's more than that” - pointed out Ren - “even if few people came up here or went down from here we should’ve crossed a worker at some point”

“You think this is a trap Renny?” - asked Nora, getting her grenade launcher/hammer ready for a fight.

Before Ren or anyone could respond, several robots suddenly arrived, all gray bipedal machines like the ones that patrolled the lower levels, with two “shields” hanging from the sides of their shoulders, a single red camera on their heads, the rotary machine guns mounted on their arms at the ready, their hand closed as fists.

“Identified VIP Pyrrha Nikos, Identified VIP Ruby Rose. Identified four additional missing workers. Stand down and prepare to be transported to your assigned locations.” - said the leading robot.

“And what if we don’t want to?” - asked Pyrrha as she took out her weapons and got ready for a fight, Ruby and the other following suit.

“Stand down and prepare to be transported to your assigned locations” - repeated the lead robot now actively pointing its machine guns at the group, the others doing the same.

“It seems we’ll have to fight these rust buckets” - joked Yang, a predatory smile on her face as she readied the dream versions of Ember Celica.

“We better not, we don’t know if more are coming and how many” - said Ren still prepared for a fight.

“Then let's not fight them” - declared Ruby getting one of her coins and throwing it at the robots, as soon the coin hit the first robot it changed into several inflatable versions of Ruby and her friends disorientating the robots - “run!”

As one the whole group ran in the opposite direction while the robots were distracted by the decoys.

“I can’t believe they fell for that!” - commented Nora as she ran alongside the others.

“We still need to get out of here!” - shouted Blake  remembering the other of their previous predicament.

Before anyone else could say anything another group of robots appeared, the leader loudly declaring in its mechanical synthetic voice - “Stop! You’ve violated the law!”

“Coin! Open a door!” - ordered Ruby as the group of huntsman students came to a stop.

“Are you sure?!” - asked Blake and Ren, speaking at the same time while Yang got one of her coins and threw it, creating a door which she immediately opened and went through, the others following immediately after.

Closing the door the group found themselves near the edge of a building, and looking around they soon realized they were basically at the edge of the level they were at. Under them, the sheer size of the sprawling city and the sheer height of the arcology showed itself. Looking behind them they saw the buildings around them, including the station they had been inside, they were not only massive but they were massive showcases of opulence and weight, many would say even decadent, with almost all the buildings walled off including a pretty massive one and the one they were on top off too.

“Weiss is definitively up here somewhere alright” - commented Yang - “I mean, look at all this!”

The rest of the group couldn’t help but to agree.

“We should get moving, the robots are going to get here sooner or later” - suddenly spoke Pyrrha as she looked up at the arcology that went even higher through the clouds.

The others easily agreed with Pyrrha, they needed to get moving.

“Follow me!” - shouted Ruby as she jumped into the building they were on, using an open roof window as entrance before anyone could protest or do anything.

As the group regained their bearings after dropping inside they looked around only to find several paintings which they soon noticed all had a single person in common.

“Is that Weiss?” - asked Yang pointing at one of the paintings, a painting of Weiss fighting against the Arma Gigas, specifically a scene of Weiss using her glyphs to evade one of the armor’s strikes.

“It seems yes” - answered Pyrrha getting close to another painting, this one a scene of Team RWAN’s fight against the Alpha Petra Gigas during the initiation.

As they looked at the other paintings they noticed they were of different moments of Weiss’ life. All in full display.

“What is this? A museum?” - comments Nora.

“It seems so, but still …” - responded Ren before turning to look at Ruby - “Ruby, why did you enter here?”

“I saw a sign that said it was prohibited to enter this building and there were no guards inside either so I thought it would be a good place to evade the robots” - answered Ruby looking at Ren who accepted the direct answer and considering what they had seen inside the building, the fact that there were no guards meant that there was truly no one inside.

“Let’s get moving, we must find the exit” - suddenly said Ruby as she started to walk, the rest of the group following her going through the rooms of the “museum” finding more painting but also then several objects some were familiar,  a white dress Weiss had likely used at some point, a copy of Myrtenaster, a display of all the different types of dust crystals both natural and synthetic, other however were more odd, like the simple wooden staff with strange writings and doodles written on it, what seemed to be a stone made up of ice or the two miniature of strange mechs of unknown design.

Yang felt like joking about Weiss being a secret mech fan, considering how out of place the miniature weres, passing unmentioned by both Ruby and Pyrrha was the fact they they not only felt the power inside the ice stone but also how they knew those objects, having appeared in their dreams several times before.

The next room however, was massive, and almost completely devoid of anything inside of it for a single exception, in a display inside the room with several lights pointing directly at it and almost completely surrounded by thorns and vines was a large white pawn chess piece.

Wasting no time Pyrrha used one of her coins, the 5th to be used, and summoned another telephone post, asking Shion her opinion about the chess piece to which they responded that Weiss might consider the chess piece a significant part of its recent life and most likely the start of her current situation. They also gave Pyrrha the advice of taking the Chess Piece with them as it was very likely it was going to be the key to something important within the dream considering the fact the Nightmare’s vines and thrones were present.

With the information at hand, Pyrrha took the chess piece, careful not to touch the vines and thorns at all before giving the piece to Ruby who put it in one of the pockets of her hoodie before the group continued their walk, still trying to find an exit which was honestly an easier job than with the tram station. However as they walked outside of the building Ruby and Pyrrha immediately stopped almost causing Team RBYN to crash into them, the reason for that was clear, in front of them was Weiss and a knight at her side.

And she seemed angry.

“Ruby, Pyrrha” - said Weiss, the knight remaining silent.

“Weiss” - responded Ruby taking out her weapon getting ready for a fight, the rest of the group following suit, Shion having warned them that the nightmare versions of their friends would be far more powerful than they were in reality.

“When you disappeared I feared the worst” - said Weiss her voice as cold as a blizzard - “so imagine my surprise when I was informed that not only you had reappeared inside the city but then caused a ruckus by entering a forbidden zone and just now stolen something from myself”

Weiss then extended her left arm, her hand open, frowning the whole time - “now give it back”

“Sorry Weiss, but I can’t, I need it” - said Ruby pointing Crescent Rose at Weiss while the other moved to both get a better sightline and give each other space..

Weiss meanwhile narrowed her eyes and immediately drew out Myrtenaster and pointed it at Ruby - “why? why would you commit such an act of treason?”

“Because I’m on a mission” - answered Ruby.

“Please, we don’t have to fight, just return the object and come with us, we can help you with your mission” - suddenly spoke up the knight as he walked in front of Weiss while signaling as to try to calm down Ruby and her friends.

“Jaune?!” - mentally realized the group of students as soon as the knight spoke.

“I don’t know, what about letting us do as we need to instead?” - responded Yang, sarcasm dripping from her voice, she was not willing to entertain the demands that the grimm was making using their friends.

Jaune immediately drew out Crocea Mors and put himself in a fighting stance at the side of Weiss who also prepared for the upcoming fight, but even then he tried one last time - “ please, we don’t have to fight, you just …”

“Sorry Jaune, but we’re not going to” - cut in Ruby before the knight could finish.

“Well, then …” - started Weiss, her voice an angry snarl, her face showing the same frustration and anger as she moved into a stance to make her first strike - “ … you’ve made your choice”

Before anyone could say or do anything else Weiss made a swing which immediately created a wave of freezing air and ice moving at normally impossible speeds against Ruby, Pyrrha and Team RBYN who were forced to evade it by jumping over it which what Weiss was planning for as she summoned a glyph and shot herself against Ruby who barely managed to get Crescent Rose in position to block Myrtenaster, although it made Ruby recoil away from her teammates, Weiss meanwhile immediately summoned another glyph to propel herself against Ruby only for flying spear to disrupt Weiss as heiress evaded the spear.

Not even a second passed as Weiss landed that she was forced to block a shield thrown directly to her face staggering her, giving Pyrrha enough time to call back Miló using her semblance, change it into sword form and get right up to Weiss’ face who barely got Myrtenaster in position to block Miló before both started a deadly fast duel as Ruby finally got back into her feet.

At the same moment Pyrrha and Weiss had their first clash Yang rushed to help Pyrrha, Ember Celica at the ready only for Jaune to suddenly bash against her side, Crocea Mors in a defensive position ready for anything, Nora and Ren immediately started shooting at Jaune who was forced to use his shield to block while Ren and Blake rushed to his sides to try to surround him.

The bombardment of Nora’s grenades forced Jaune to activate his shield extensions giving him more protection letting Blake and Ren close in, the former jumping over Jaune while the latter just charge

“Alright, that didn’t work” - commented Blake as she watched Jaune get into a defensive position again.

“Hey, Ren” - says Yang, also on guard, waiting looking at Jaune - “Any ideas?”

Ren, in fact, had been analyzing their first assault and had made a plan.

“Nora, make him move, Yang once Nora has forced him to move keep him occupied, me and Blake will go in and flank him” - Ren said explaining the plan - “Blake, make sure to give use an opening with Gambol Shroud”

Nora, who had just finished reloading, changed Magnhild into his hammer form and charged only for Jaune to block her strike with his sword and then push against her with his shield. Not giving up Nora pushed again only for Jaune’s swordsmanship to block her at every turn. Seeing no other options, Nora jumped to strike Jaune directly from above.

Doing a backflip Jaune barely evaded the explosion caused by Magnhild only for having to immediately raise Crocea Mors’ shield to block Yang’s barrage, giving an opening for Ren to charge at the knight who transformed Crocea Mors into his broadsword form to try to hit Ren and knock him out which was what Team RBYN was planning for as Blake got Gambol Shroud go around Jaune’s keeping him from striking Ren and keeping him in place at which point Yang, Nora and Ren all charged in an attempt to overwhelm Jaune.

It was not to be as Jaune pulled and twirled fast enough to use Blake as the end of a flail to hit the rest of her team sending the four flying away, everyone of RBYN losing the grip of their weapons as they hit the ground.

Pyrrha and Ruby were not doing any better, as Weiss' control of ice and snow combined with her glyphs made her an even more overwhelming opposition. Shortly after Pyrrha and Weiss had started their duel Ruby got up and charged right into the fight, Weiss jumping away from both Ruby and Pyrrha to evade the former’s attack with Crescent Rose.

Creating a glyph, Weiss landed on it and floated far above Ruby and Pyrha, high enough to not be caught by a simple jump and from there summoned another two different glyphs, each then shooting out a “beam” of energy directly at Ruby and Pyrrha. The young reaper would use her semblance to dance around the beam and propel herself towards Weiss evading the beam entirely before shooting at Weiss who only summoned yet another glyph to cover herself. The champion meanwhile just jumped above the beam before rushing to the wall and getting on top of it just as Ruby also landed to her side.

“We need a way to get to her” - said Pyrrha, changing Miló to its spear/javelin form and changing its handling to throw it at a moment's notice.

“Or get her down to us” - responded Ruby - “ but we need to find a way how”

Before any of them could get a solid idea Weiss summoned several new glyphs which fired shards of ice against the pair under her, who easily blocked or evaded the first salvo only for the shards to explode into smaller ones when they hit anything, something that caught Ruby by surprise, Pyrrha using her shield, Akoúo̱, to cover herself.

“Pyrrha, I have an idea” - said Ruby, her voice tense as she took cover behind Pyrrha, both shooting at the bigger ice shards - “but I need you to throw your spear at Weiss and use your semblance to keep her concentrated on it”

As the bombardment continued Pyrrha threw Miló which Weiss caught with a new glyph only for Pyrrha to use her semblance to try to pry it out of the glyph making Weiss concentrate on it. It was enough to buy Ruby enough time to use her semblance to evade the ice shards and then use Crescent Rose’s recoil to get right on Weiss’ face to shoot her.

Only for Weiss to summon another glyph which caught Ruby and launched her directly at Pyrrha, only Ruby’s semblance letting her land on her feet.

“We need to regroup with the others” - said Ruby as soon as she landed - “Weiss is too strong for just the two of us”

Before either Ruby or Pyrrha could move however, Weiss summoned yet another glyph, shooting herself at the pair who barely managed to block, only for Weiss to continue her attacks, using her glyphs to get enough speed in her attack passes to force Pyrrha on the defensive and Ruby to use her semblance almost constantly to just do anything beyond blocking or evading and even then she found herself outmatched.

Team RBYN was not in a better position as Jaune had gone into the offensive, separating the team from each, first was Nora who tried to smash Jaune aside with Magnhild, only for Jaune to go under the hammer and strike Nora with Crocea Mors and send her flying. The rest of the team fired on the paladin only for him to rush the trio, he first grabbed one of Ren’s arm, hit his side with the pommel and then hit him with the broadswords sending him away from the group. A this moment Yang charged in firing Ember Celica all the way, Jaune changing Crocea Mors to sword and shield, using the latter to cover himself from the shots before using his sword and shield to redirect Yang’s punches before getting a hold of Yang and forcing her into a takedown before throwing her away. Finally Blake prepared for Jaune’s charge by using her semblance creating several clones of herself only for Jaune to easily deal with them, before finally catching Blake in combo making her fall.

Right after that Jaune turned to go and help Weiss only for her to send Ruby and Pyrrha flying towards Team RBYN. Weiss then walked to Jaune’s side, pointing Myrtenaster at the group while Jaune looked ready to jump in her protection at any moment.

“Are you ready to end this waste of our time now?” - asked Weiss loudly to the group.

“Shion warned us that both Weiss and Jaune would be as powerful as they could imagine themselves to be” - thought Ruby getting up from the ground, she wasn’t going to give up, not now but she had not expected something like this to happen - “but I never expected this!”

“We’re outmatched” - thought Pyrrha bitterly as she also stood up, her experience talking but still unwilling to just quit the dream just yet.

Team RBYN were also having similar thoughts as they stood up, most of them also unwilling to just give up yet.

“Sorry, but I don’t think we’re stopping just yet” - responded Yang, getting ready for another round, a predatory smile on her face.

“And count me in too!” - added Nora, also putting herself in a fighting stance.

The rest of the group also prepared themselves as soon they stood up, silently agreeing with Yang and Nora.

“I see” - said Weiss, summoning another glyph - “well then, if you’re not going to come willingly, we will force you”

Like that, Weiss summoned another giant wave of ice, too big to be evaded or stopped by the members of Team RWAN and Team RBYN. However Weiss, also made a miscalculation, the wave was too strong and it launched the 6  not only beyond the walls of the “museum” but beyond the floor itself.

And so Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Yang and Blake all started to fall from the spire towards the city below.

“NO!” - shouted both Weiss and Jaune sas they finally noticed the others had fallen beyond the border of the floor. Both rushed to it, to try to stop the others from falling but it was too late as they saw them disappear through the clouds.

Not wasting time, both Weiss and Jaune summoned a portal each, Weiss with her glyph, Jaune, with his sword from there, a single robot with a red angry face and a knight covered in mail and with a mask appeared from each portal respectively.

“Klein, put the entire force on high alert and search for Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos and Team RBYN immediately! - ordered Weiss, anger showing in her voice.

“Understood my lady!” - saluted Grumpy Klein before he immediately turned to gather the other robots.

“Same with you Rckard, get the others and search for the same people Weiss named, you will know who they’re easily” - said Jaune.

“Understood sire” - bowed the knight before he also turned to do his own mission.

Meanwhile as the group of six fell Ruby noticed to her horror that all of Team RBYN had been knocked out with only her and Pyrrha barely keeping their consciousness and that even worse, they were not falling towards the floor directly below but back to the levels they had appeared on at the start.

Then suddenly midfall Team RBYN disappeared leaving only her and partner falling seemingly to their deaths. Both Ruby and Pyrrha also felt like someone wanted to pull them out only for them to instinctively resist said pull.

“Ruby!” - shouted Pyrrha as she struggled to remain conscious, or at least, it felt like it, her voice strained and desperately hoping Ruby would be able to hear her - “the coin, use the coin!”

Thankfully, Ruby managed to hear Pyrrha and despite being on the verge of being knocked out, she pulled out a coin and used it a door appearing under them which Ruby and Pyrrha crashed into opening it and going through, falling into a cold floor.

Looking around as they laid on the floor, they noticed that there were several rooms each being separated from the corridor they had seemingly fallen to by bars. There were people in there but neither of them bothered to look at the details. They were in a sort of prison or dungeon they thought.

“You two, get up!” - suddenly shouted someone from inside the cells, the angry voice seeming familiar despite neither of them ever hearing it in their lives - “don’t you dare to just remain lying there or emperor help me not even me being trapped here will save you from me!”

Despite not really caring about the voice’s angry proclamations, both Ruby and Pyrrha got up, checking themselves if they had any injury on note before both put their weapon on their backs.

“At least you’re finally on your feet, anywhere else and you would’ve been dead!” - shouted the voice again making both the reaper and the champion turn toward the cell from which the voice came out from. It was much like the others, a single sink and a toilet on one side and a bed on the far back.

The man sitting in the bed looking directly at both of them however was the most striking part, especially his clothes. He had a black greatcoat with gold and red epaulets and red collars and cuffs. Under the greatcoat there was a black suit of armor and was wearing black pants, gloves and jackboots also reinforced with armor on top, all with red trims or lining. The most distinctive part of his clothing however, was his peaked cap, with red lining and for some reason a winged skull.

The man then got up, straightened his clothes and walked closer to the bars blocking him from exiting his cell with his arms behind his back. Both Ruby and Pyrrha noticed that the man was old, his face covered in wrinkles and scars, even one of his eyes grayed, a scar going over it showing exactly what had happened to it, his face the perfect show of disappointment.

“Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos” - said the aged man seriously at the two teens while looking directly and also surprising them,- “took you long enough to get here.””

Before any of them could react the man continued - “and what in the emperor’s name are you wearing?”

Chapter Text

Shion was used to waiting when it came to fighting the grimm, especially when it came to nightmares but normally she would have the opportunity to rest or at least have some kind of small distraction when waiting. However in the current situation, they couldn’t afford any of that, so the moment they sensed that the students were in danger, they immediately sprung into action, pulling them out of the dream as soon as possible.

Team RBYN all shot up awake, all in shock and trying to catch their breath, they all looked unharmed. There was an issue however, neither member of Team RWAN had woken up.

Shion almost went into a panic attack as they noticed the two members of Team RWAN were still asleep before controlling themselves and starting to check the members of Team RWAN while Ozpin immediately went to his students to calm them down and help make sure they were fully awake.

“Are you all fully awake?” - asked Ozpin now that Team RBYN was now completely calm.

“Yes/Yeah” - answered a chorus as the four students nodded to him before looking around and finally noticed their still sleeping friends.

“Ruby!” - shouted Yang as she noticed her still sleeping sister.

The shout immediately made the rest of Yang’s team to turn towards the position of both Ruby and Pyrrha while Yang stood up and ran to her sister’s side before kneeling to check her.

The others immediately stood up, Nora walking to be with her partner while Ren went towards Shion, several questions already in his head.

“Miss Shion” - he started extremely confused as how now all of Team RWAN remained asleep - “what is going on?”

“Are Ruby and Pyrrha infected too now?” - asked Blake.

“In order, I don’t know and now they aren’t infected” - answered Shion truthfully, their surprise showing.

Hearing Shion’s made Ozpin uncomfortable even if she didn’t show it, it also confused Ren and Blake even more while both Nora and Yang turned their heads to look at Shion. Before Shion could continue Yang stood up and walked to Ren’s and Blake’s side before asking, anger, frustration and fear starting to filter into her voice and mixing with her confusion - “what do you mean you don’t know?!”

“Exactly that” - answered Shion as she continued to examine her equipment and the still sleeping Ruby and Pyrrha - “your friends don’t show any signs of infection, they’re still stable within the dream and my coins remain active, all 6 of them. By all rights, they should have awoken with you”

“But they haven’t” - intruded Ren as Nora tried to keep Yang from exploding.

“Correct, my belief that it is for the same reasons you friends ended up trapped inside their dreams despite not being infected by the nightmare the first time” - continued Shion.

“Then, what are our options?” - asked Ren.

“First, I need to get my aura full back again” - responded Shion - “the good news is that despite the fact your friends are still sleeping makes me use my aura, the rate is far lower.

“There is bad news though?” - asked Blake clearly expecting bad news to exist.

“Sadly yes, due to the fact your friends are still draining my aura, the rate of replenishment is far slower, at best I’ll be able to send you back in tomorrow” - responded Shion.

“What?!” - exploded Yang as her eyes turned red as Nora held her from getting closer to Shion while Ren and Blake turned to face the angry blonde in surprise at her outburst - “My sister is trapped in a damn dream, we don’t have an entire day to wait!”

“Considering the situation I just can’t send you without my aura reserves full and that is without taking into account the grimm now knows of you and will react accordingly” - responded Shion just looking at Yang.

Yang’s anger didn’t lessen at Shion’s words but instead made her even more angry. Before things could escalate however Ozpin intervened, his mug now in his hand.

“While I know that you want to rescue your friends, as both your teacher and the Headmaster of this academy but I can’t, in good faith, let you take such a risk again.” - said the headmaster before taking a short sip from his mug before continuing - “So take this time to rest, should anything happen we will warn you immediately”

Seeing herself outmatched Yang managed to barely control herself to not attack Shion or the professor despite how much she wanted to, instead, she shook off Nora and stomped outside the room. The rest of Team RBYN watched her go before saying their goodbyes to the headmaster and Shion before following their angry teammate.

After the students were gone Ozpin turned to look at Shion, took a sip and then simply said - “you don’t really need a whole day to replenish your aura”

Shion was shocked Ozpin noticed but also realized that it was not an accusation, just an observation.

“Correct, I’ll only need a few hours but considering you asked for two professional huntsmen to come to Beacon to help with this endeavor and the fact two of the students remain inside the dream despite not being infected, I decided that waiting was the best option” - explained Shion to the headmaster.

“I see” - responded Ozpin and honestly he agreed with Shion’s decision - “in that case, we just have to wait for the arrival of Winter and Qrow and its late already”

Ozpin sighed and Shion could see why, noy only his students had failed to save their friends but things had taken a turn for the worse. An entire day had passed and yet they were arguably on a worse position than in which they started.

“In that case, I’ll leave you to watch over Team RWAN” - said Ozpin before taking another sip from his mug.

“Don’t worry, I’ll watch over them and look for a way to wake them up again” - responded Shion.

A mental “if that is possible” passed through the minds of both the headmaster and the huntress but went unsaid.

“Thank you” - said Ozpin before he walked out of the room leaving Shion alone.

==============================

Pyrrha and Ruby looked at the aged man in surprise, their brains desperately trying to understand not only how he knew them despite neither of them having ever met him.

“Who are you?” - asked Ruby, completely confused at the old man who just huffed in frustration as his response.

“It seems you two had hit your heads harder than I thought” - said the old man, his strange accent clear - “I’m commissar Melanthios Shiv of the 41st Xúrnica Drop Troops Regiment, call me commissar if you don’t want to call me for both my title and name”

The name and title felt familiar to both Ruby and Pyrrha which confused them further to the point they decided just to shelf their wishes to make sense of it for later and instead they asked another question.

“So, why are you in this prison then?” - asked Ruby.

“When I demanded an answer for my imprisonment and all I was told was and I quote “you represent too much of a danger and disruption for the city”, that was all” - responded the commissar, obviously angry at the fact, an angry scow in his face, the same anger being shown by his voice - “and I need you to get me out”

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at the commissar and then at each other in shock before looking at Melanthios again.

“How?” - asked Ruby - “we don’t have the key and I doubt shooting the lock will help in this case.

The old man sighed, slowly facepalming and massaging his eyes in frustration before speaking - “just use the cogitator you have on your right arm”

Ruby immediately moved her arm up and started to mess with the small computer-like thing on it. She had no idea what she was doing so she just looked over all the options to get the commissar out of the prison, any kind of help was appreciated considering Weiss’ and Jaune’s powers within the dream.

While Ruby was doing that, Pyrrha asked Melanthios some more things - “is there anyone else in this prison that can help us?”

The question seemed to take the commissar by surprise but only for a moment before his face changed to one of disgust before answering - “the far majority in this prison are little more than beasts in human clothing or just cowards unwilling to try to fight for their freedom.”

“That said …” - continued the commissar before taking a pause, as if he was thinking about what to say, something that wasn’t a good thing in Pyrrha’s mind - “... there may be a few… frustrating … individuals that might actually help you if you get them out. Bloody heretics the lot of them but they would be useful either way. They’ll get on your nerves though”

“In that case, we will take our chances” - responded Pyrrha - “we need all the help we can get”

Melanthios just scoffed in response before saying with a dismissive voice as he crossed his arms - “just don’t get your hopes up”

After that both remained silent waiting for Ruby to finish her work until the cell bars suddenly disappeared into the ground, surprising both the commissar and Pyrrha as Ruby exclaimed - “I made it!”

The commissar just rolled his eyes before he stepped out - “took you long enough, now, can you explain to me in detail what is going on and why you want to see if any of these other misbegotten souls wants to join you?”

==============================

Weiss used every bit of willpower to not only keep down the growl growing within her but also keep her face impassive at her father while he continued to lambast her for her failure to capture her friends and that she was a disgrace to the Schnee name. She oh so wished to shout to him to try to do better than her if he was so good, but she knew doing that would only make her situation worse and so she endured her father’s tirade until he finished and he finally kept silent at which point she retired from the room.

However Weiss was not to find the calm or good news she was looking for as her brother appeared soon after being a pest like he always was.

“Oh Weiss, lost your friends again?” - said the bat-like being that was Whitley in Weiss’ subconscious in a mocking voice - “you know, I’m starting to wonder if they’re actually your friends with how they’re acting”

Immediately after hearing that Weiss turned to look at Whitley with such a look of sheer anger that he froze for a mere moment before flying away fearing for his own safety. Weiss just let him go unwilling to let the pest distract her anymore.

As she continued to walk through the mansion she suddenly noticed her father wasn’t present which meant only one thing.

“Jaune, I take you’ve found nothing” - said Weiss with a bored voice as she stopped walking.

A few seconds passed before Jaune from the intersecting corridor in front of her, his face showing his failure - “indeed, we can’t find them anywhere”

Weiss sighed expecting the news. The group had disappeared completely after their fall, in fact, there was nothing anywhere that showed where they fell. That had raised alarm in her mind, she knew for a fact that such a fall would’ve left at least a small crater no matter where they fell or some kind of property damage from their landing strategies.

She then looked at Jaune, his face uncovered by his helmet as it was tucked under his right arm, his face the perfect picture of frustration and tiredness.

“Do you have any idea where they might be?” - asked Weiss, she honestly thought Jaune would not have any kind of idea but at least she could keep herself in the good graces of whatever group of failures he had managed to scrounge.

“All thing considered, I’m half tempted to look into the sewers or such places” - answered Jaune going directly to the point - “since there are no physical marks of their landing it means that whatever method they used to land was not a normal one, they could literally be anywhere, including one of the forbidden sections”

Weiss could only look on Jaune in surprise as he had actually managed to think of something she had not, so concentrated she had been on disappearance of Pyrrha, Ruby and RBYN and where they ended at, that she never thought of the how.

Immediately Weiss turned and summoned Grumpy Klein and ordered him to search within the forbidden sections for Ruby, Pyrrha and RBYN., Grumpy Klein accepted his order immediately and soon disappeared, however when Weiss turned to face Jaune again she discovered that he had disappeared. Not bothering to even call the missing paladin, the ice princess resumed her walk.

She had one particular place to visit.

==============================

Qrow Branwen, was definitely not having a good day, not only had Ozpin called him to Beacon about an emergency the day prior, then as soon as the call had ended the village he had been staying had a fire and the day had been extremely windy making flight even harder forcing him to take more time that he had wished arriving near midnight at vale proper. He had decided to take a rest in one of the many hostels in Vale which thankfully had not ended with more problems.

Now he was very early, with the sun barely rising through the horizon at that, flying towards Beacon and seeing what exactly was happening with his niece that needed him present. As his flight continued however, he noticed something else going towards Beacon, something big and as he got closer he saw exactly what it was.

“Great” - thought Qrow with sarcasm and frustration as he recognized exactly what the object was - “the Ice Queen has come to Beacon, I knew I had to much good luck back in Vale”

“I wonder what Tin Man sent her for?” - Qrow continued his thought - “Eh, whoever it is, it can’t be good”

Qrow then continued to fly as the airship finally landed on one of the landing sites within Beacon, specifically one for long term docking. if Qrow could grimace in his bird form, he would’ve as it meant the particular specialist was planning to stay for a long while if she needed too.

As Qrow flew closer he noticed the ice queen herself, Winter Schnee, walking towards Beacon and figured that if he was going to have to deal with her while staying at Beacon, he might as well initiate contact on his terms.

As winter continued to walk towards Beacon from the landing site, Qrow dropped behind her and transformed back into human before calling her out - “hey ice queen, funny finding you here”

Winter Schnee immediately turned to face Qrow, her arms crossed and a frown on her face, she was clearly displeased to see the huntsman in Beacon - “Qrow, I don’t know if you noticed but I’ have things to do”

“So did the Tin Man send you to ask for a favor?” - asked Qrow with a sarcastic voice trying to get Winter to lash out.

Winter grinded her teeth while trying to keep her under control as her frown deepened. She managed to do so and answering the question after giving out a sigh - “Actually, it was headmaster Ozpin who asked me to come here, now if you excuse me, I must go”

The answer was enough to derail all of Qrow’s thoughts while Winter didn't bother waiting for Qrow to say anything else before turning and continuing to walk towards Beacon. looking at the specialist walking away Qrow just sighed, if she had been called for the same reason as himself then things were going to get much more frustrating soon.

But he still needed to make sure.

“Hey ice queen!” - he shouted to make sure she heard him as he walked after her - “Did Oz call you because of a nightmare grimm?”

The question had the desired effect making Winter stop and turn immediately, her frown showing some amount of surprise - “that is correct, h ow did you know?” - asked Winter immediately after confirming Qrow’s supposition.

Qrow mentally swore as he was proved correct - “well, same as you, Oz called me about a problem with a nightmare”

Winter’s frown only deepened as a result - “it seems we’re going to have to work together”

Qrow only snorted before commenting ironically - “sadly enough”

After that no more words were exchanged as both the huntsman and specialist just walked into Beacon, now more worried than before about the situation at hand.

==============================

Ruby groaned in frustration as she slumped against one of the walls in the dungeon-prison, Pyrrha meanwhile stood by Ruby’s side doing a good job at hiding their own frustration and watching them was commissar Melanthios completely unsurprised at the results. No one in the prison had wanted to join them, so demoralized or apathetic they were.

“Told you so” - said the commissar, his voice unforgiving, serious and to the point. Although his mind was only partially there as he still had several questions going through his head, like how had he ended inside a dream or why Ruby and Pyrrha seemingly didn’t know who or more importantly what he was, even their clothes and general disposition was different.

“We still have one last option” - argued back Ruby as she went to discuss with the last prisoner available. She was a black haired woman, her long hair tucked in two braids which then merged into a single big bun on the back of her head. She was wearing a dark blue dress with white details and light blue patterns and highlights and with long sleeves. Her dark brown boots were also high, almost reaching her knees. And she was sleeping.

“Hello! Hey!” - said Ruby raising her voice, not as high as to be considered shouting but still higher than her normal volume - “Wake up!”

At first it appeared that the woman was not going to wake up until suddenly a groan came from her as she started to awaken. After letting out a big yawn and stretching the woman finally opened her eyes, she looked as if she was still tired, something that also showed in her voice - “Ruby? … Pyrrha? … how do you get in here?”

The questions surprised not only the mentioned huntresses in training but also Melanthios, which was unsurprising considering none of them knew who the woman was.

Before either Ruby or Pyrrha managed to say anything, it was the commissar who asked the question in the trio’s minds, his voice basically demanding the answer to be given immediately - “who are you and how do you know them?”

The woman yawned again before responding, her voice full of amusement - “how could I not know them? They were part of Vennessa’s rebellion against the Lawrence Clan after all! 

The woman stood up and went close to the bars blocking her from exiting before pointing at Ruby and Pyrrha - “you two with Jaune and Weiss had a massive heroism streak considering all the crazy things you did”

“Really?” - asked Ruby trying to process the new information, Pyrrha being in a similar situation, the woman feeling familiar not unlike the commissar.

“Anyways, want to get out?” - interrupted Melanthios, wishing to get this done with as soon as possible as he was already seeing things had gotten even more complicated now.

“Of course” - answered the woman immediately.

However as soon as Ruby started to use the computer she had on her left forearm the woman asked something - “why don’t you just use your vision to melt the bars?”

“My what?” - asked Ruby

“Your vision, you have it on your right arm Ruby” - repeated the woman, then pointed at Ruby’s right arm before then pointing at Pyrrha’s collar - “and you have it on your collar Pyrrha”

Both looked at the orbs the woman called visions, before they could give more thought however, Melanthios gave a few false coughs making Ruby remember what they were doing.

“Sorry but … I don’t know how to use my … vision?” - said Ruby as she started to work on getting the woman out - “ we will discuss it later, don’t worry”

The woman looked at Pyrrha with confusion, the champion meanwhile answered the unasked question - “well, the situation is kind of complicated, even we don’t know all the details of what is going on”

That was true, not only had the nightmare infected Jaune and Weiss at the same time but not Ruby and Pyrrha were seemingly trapped inside the nightmare and that was not taking into account the appearance of the Commissar and the strange woman who personally knew them but they could not remember them.

“I see” - responded the woman - “if you don’t know what your visions are I suppose you don’t remember me either?”

“No, sorry” - answered Pyrrha truthfully, Melanthios frowning even more than normal at the answer - “I see, in that case my name is Ciallia, member of the Knights of Favonius”

“Pleased to meet you” - said Pyrrha truthfully.

“And the frowning man there” - then asked Ciallia pointing at the commissar.

“Commissar Melanthios Shiv of the 41st Xúrnica Drop Troops Regiment” - answered Melanthios - “call me commissar or commissar Melanthios”

Just at that moment Ruby finally makes the bars slide down into the floor liberating Ciallia - “done”

“I think we should get out now” - said Pyrrha - “we’ve taken a lot of time going through all the cells in the different room already”

“True” - said Ruby in agreement before turning to Melanthios and Ciallia, the latter having just gotten out of the prison and was stretching again, her tiredness still showing - “we need to get out”

“We’ll need out weapons though” - said the Melanthios - “we are going to get into a fight sooner or later and we can’t fight unarmed”

“And I also need to get my vision back” - added Ciallia.

“Ok, we’ll get you your weapons and stuff back if we can” - said Ruby as she and Pyrrha started to climb the stairs.

“Do you even know where these stairs guide us to?” - asked Melanthios, his voice showing a bit of boredom and sarcasm.

“I have no idea but we didn’t get in the normal way either” - answered Ruby truthfully now getting a bit doubtful of their situation as she noticed Melanthios’ deadpan gaze - “and well, we don’t have any other way to get out either”

That made the perpetually frowning commissar frown even more until Ciallia interrupted - you know full well the last fact is true”

The group continued to ascend the long twisting stairs until they finally reached a new floor, the corridor leading to other corridors and several rooms. Realizing that nwo they could easily get into a fight, Ruby and Pyrrha got their weapons out and ready.

As the group continued to advance, they would cross a few robot patrols that Pyrrha and Ruby easily destroyed due to their low numbers. This pattern of moving through the corridors and destroying the odd pair of robots continued until they crossed an unmarked room with a warning to not enter it as dangerous objects were inside. Realizing this room could have something important inside, Ruby immediately started to try to get it open, being successful a few minutes later.

The group entered the room as fast as they could closing the door behind them immediately after everyone was inside. Inside, they found that the room was not only very big but also found that inside there was a sea of random stuff, from weapons, to computers, even a few plushies and everything in between all neatly organized in different shelves and racks.

“Wow” - commented Ruby as she looked at all the stuff in the room.

“At least we might find something useful here” - commented Melanthios

“Then let's start looking around” - said Ciallia before she walked towards one of the shields and started seeing what was in there, Melanthios also going to another one.

As Melanthios and Ciallia continued to search for something to sue Ruby and Pyrrha guarded the door just in case.

“Ruby, what do you think about, well, all of this?” - asked Pyrrha to Ruby with a low voice.

“I don’t know what to think Pyrrha” - answered Ruby also in a low voice - “it's already strange enough that all of our team share dreams somehow, but this?”

“I don’t really know what's going on anymore Ruby” - confessed Pyrrha.

“I don’t know either but whatever it's happening, we’ll deal with it” - said Ruby trying to calm Pyrrha - “we just need to save Weiss and Jaune first”

Pyrrha gave a small smile and nodded. While she was still worried about the strange situation, Ruby’s single mindedness on saving Jaune and Weiss was in a way refreshing.

The two continued to wait while doing some more small talk until finally a loud “Yes!” was  heard from Ciallia making both turn to find her coming back to them with a spear on her back and with an amulet similar to theirs only that hers had the gem of an orange-ish color with a border around the gem with a square shape.

“I found my weapon and most importantly my vision!” - announced Ciallia as she got to the two members of Team RWAN.

“You got back your vision?” - asked Ruby looking at the object.

“Correct, I got my geo vision back” - answered Ciallia showing it now attached to the right side of the dress held on by a ribbon - “even better, with this back, I’ll be able to teach you how to use yours!”

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at each other in surprise for a few moments before agreeing at the same time, even if it only worked on this dream, it would be useful against Jaune and Weiss, especially the latter.

As Ciallia started to explain to them Melanthios returned to them, on his hands were his weapons, a large sword on his left hand and an oversized pistol with a short magazine on his right hand.

“Got my weapons” - announced Melanthios before walking towards the door to open it - “we better start moving”

Ciallia sighed before telling Ruby and Pyrrha that she would continue to explain after they had gone out of the building. However as soon as Melanthio opened the door and walked out an alarm started to blare.

“Oh that's not good” - commented Ruby before ordering the group - “run!”

The others ran following Ruby as she also ran through the building as they started to hear metallic steps closing in, the chase was on.

==============================

Inside his office Ozpin had finally finished briefing both Qrow and Winter about the situation with the nightmare after which Qrow started swearing a storm while Winter was hardly better not even bothering to hide her emotions of anger, frustration, worry and fear among others.

Qrow tirade lasted for a few more seconds before he calmed himself down after which Winter asked - “What’s the status of Team RBYN?”

“They are now in class, I decided not to tell them you have arrived so they would at least eat breakfast” - answered Ozpin truthfully - “and there is the fact that if I had told them they would be demanding to get inside the dream already and I think it will be better for you two to talk to them in person”

“No offense headmaster but … I would prefer first looking at Team RWAN’s status” - said Winter.

“I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Ice Queen here but she’s correct Oz” - said Qrow.

Ozpin only nodded - “I understand, I’ll guide you to Team RWAN and then Team RBYN”

Ozpin then stood up and started guiding Qrow and Winter through Beacon, while Winter did need the guidance, never really having been to Beacon beyond serving as messenger before, Qrow knew the academy but he was using the guided walk more to mentally prepare to meet his niece and keep her and her team from immediately jumping into the dream again.

As they reached one room Ozpin knocked the door and then entered with Qrow and Winter in tow, inside the room was Shion doing something with her equipment, while on the floor was all of Team RWAN over a spider web pattern with their eyes covered by the same web. The trio greeted Shion, talking with them about how Team RWAN was doing and then if there had been something to update only for there to be nothing significant.

After that Ozpin guided both Qrow and Winter towards the classroom Team RBYN was in, Qorw recognizing Mulberry’s voice. When they got there Ozpin entered the room calling for Team RBYN while Qrow and Winter remained out of sight, the last they needed was for the rest of the class to think something had gotten worse by the presence of a huntsman and a specialist.

“Hey there firecracker” - said Qrow saying hello to as surprised Yang as Team RBYN walked out of the class and Ozpin closed the door - “before you say anything, we better get to your team’s room, we will discuss things there”

Team RBYN looked at the headmaster who only gave a short explanation before telling Team RBYN to guide Qrow and Winter to their room so they could discuss things there. The walk to the room was tense, especially for Team RBYN, who wanted to jump right back in the dream.

As soon as the group entered the room and closed the door, Yang asked - “Uncle Qrow, when did you arrive here?!”

“Just this morning firecracker” - immediately answered Qrow as he sat down.

“I assume the headmaster asked for your help?” - asked Ren to Qrow and Winter.

“You would be correct” - answered Winter as she remained standing with her hands behind her back.

“In that case why are we here and just not getting into the dream?!” - asked an exasperated Yang.

“Because while we received the reports from Oz and Shion we want to hear it from you how things went in the dream and you better than anyone can tell what we will find in there” - answered Qrow, crossing his arms.

“Well, beyond the fact the city is massive and I think it may look like a giant version of Atlas when we got to the top of the city, there was like a museum or something like that centered on Weiss” - answered Yang as she told the most striking part of their travels before Blake also gave her comment her voice showing she wasn’t completely comfortable with what she had seen - “it was strange, there were a lot of paintings of what seemed to be about different things about Weiss, it seemed like memories, like one painting showing her fighting against a giant suit of armor or another with the rest of RWAN fighting against a giant rock grimm”

“There were also those robot miniatures like from Mistralian cartoons! Remember?” - added Nora immediately after. Both Blake’s and Nora’s comments made Winter go deep in thought, she knew for a fact that Weiss had never shown interest in robots or Mistralian cartoons as her younger sister was surprisingly open about her likes and dislikes with her.

“Is there anything else?” - asked Qrow hoping to get more information - “especially about your blonde friend?”

“ Well, there were also a lot of robots chasing us under Weiss’ orders oh, and there were also those squires!” - answered Nora suddenly remembering those things - “they were very numerous, specially the robots but compared to Jaune and Weiss they were nothing”

“True, Weiss defeated Pyrrha and Ruby without problems and Jaune did the same with us, Shion said that both of them were going to be as powerful as they imagined they could be but we didn’t think they would be so strong, it also why Ruby and Pyrrha got trapped in the nightmare. We were plainly completely outmatched, their speed, power and skill was far beyond anything we had faced or expected” - added Ren, some bitterness showing, the rest of Team RBYN also showing their displeasure. Qrow and Winter found themselves expecting such a reaction, it had been a complete defeat and a stinging one, even professional huntsmen felt the same when they faced similar circumstances.

“Don’t sweat it, you didn’t know what to expect, now you do” - said Qrow trying to lift the team’s spirits with Winter nodding agreeing with Qrow - “yes, you may have lost that fight but you have learned from it, now it's time to use these knowledge you now have”

The words from both huntsman and specialist seemed work with RBYN as both Qrow and Winter noticed their faces of frustrating disappear as a sense of purpose appeared on them, striking while the iron was hot Qrow talked once again - “well kids, you’ve told us some interesting things now please give us all the details because once you’re finished we’re going to safe your friends”

==============================

Ruby was starting to get tired of all the robots as she cut cut another two in half with a single swipe of Crescent Rose before shooting another one coming at her from behind and using the recoil to start another group of strikes which destroyed many more down before using her semblance to make a way through the robot group - “route’s open!” - shouted Ruby as she changed Crescent Rose into its new claymore shape and used it to decapitate another robot trying to block the path.

Pyrrha was the first to join Ruby, using Miló to shoot at any of the robots that tried to get up before using her semblance to pick them up and throw them against those that remained standing, Melanthios and Ciallia meanwhile had been having their hands full dealing with the horde of robots pouring gatling fire against them. Melanthios either cut the robots with his power sword or used them as cover while firing with his bolt pistol while the robots destroyed their own, despite being old, his experience and the somewhat simplistic programing of the robots giving him enough of an opening to not get killed.

Ciallia meanwhile had been seemingly dancing around the robot, stabbing and cutting them seemingly without resistance the robots unable to track her a she weaved between or even over them except for a few occasions on which she used her vision to either create a rock to launch and her opponents, shift the ground under her or simply create a wall between her and the robots. Much like Melanthios, her experience quickly let her adapt to the firearms she was unfamiliar with although it was mainly by using her vision. Even then both were ready to retreat by the time Ruby called them, the commissar slowly doing so while continuously firing his bolt pistol before the knight of Favonius erected a thick wall completely blocking the robots advance or fire.

“This should give us a few minutes!” - warned Ciallia as the group of 4 started to run once again as they continued to run through the corridors and climb the stairs. The process was tedious and soon more robots were arriving in front of them, thankfully these were small groups that could easily dealt with with a few shots or simple and direct uses of semblances or in Ciallia’s case, magic. However, despite everything and not really feeling tired the 4 realized their time to escape without any major fighting was running out and that soon either Weiss or Jaune would arrive to present battle.

“We need to get out of here” - said Ruby as she took one of the 6 remaining coins, Pyrrha noticing immediately and immediately asked - “Ruby are you sure? We can surely get out normally” - Ruby knew Pyrrha was just being careful with the use of the coin instead of any false bravado or actually thinking they had a chance against Weiss or Jaune but as far Ruby was concerned, they could not risk having Weiss or Jaune getting in the way again - “We can’t risk Weiss or Jaune blocking us again and we have yet to find anything about Jaune at all” - countered Ruby making Pyrrha recognize that in fact, that was true, the prison, the building that looked like a “museum”, the entire city all seemed to be controlled or connected to Weiss somehow, beyond Jaune himself there had been nothing that seemed connected to Jaune.

“Sorry but what are you planning?” - suddenly interrupted Ciallia as the group continued to run, not even bothering to look at the robots that had just appeared behind all of them, showing Ciallia the coin in her hand Ruby answered - “getting us out of here!”

The proclamation caught both Ciallia and Melanthios by surprise as they both thought - “how does a coin help us to get out?” - before they could actually ask Ruby threw in the coin creating a door from nothing - “go through it!” - shouted Ruby as she opened it letting Pyrrha, Ciallia and Melanthios pass through before she did the same closing it. The place where they ended however was completely different from what they expected, instead of a city it seemed more like a forest and trees bushes all around, with actual ground under their feet, a single first road being the only sign that people came through and the only thing telling them that they were still inside some part of the city was the artificial light above and even then it seemed so natural.

“Where … how is this possible?” - asked Ciallia in awe and disbelief as she looked around, Melanthios meanwhile looked in seeming disgust - “I’ve seen something like this before, one noble in the hive city created an space like this for whatever reason, waste of space and resources if there was ever one” - said Melanthios. The group continued to look around, trying find anything that might tell them where exactly they were but had no success - “well, we should just follow this dirt road, it should lead us to someone, lets go”  - said Ruby, Pyrrha following her, both knowing that sooner or later they would find something to orientate themselves. Following the path in silence the group walked for a significant amount of time only to find nothing, a rarity inside the arcology they were in, several more minutes passed to the point that Ciallia started to teach Pyrrha and Ruby how to use their “vision” and she called it, both figured that, even if it was just a dream artifact, anything that could help in a fight against Weiss or Jaune was worth trying at least.

As both Ruby and Pyrrha attempted to use their supposed powers Melanthios watched and while he didn’t show it, the current situation confounded him, somehow he was inside a combined dream and both Ruby and Pyrrha were trying to save their comrades. All of this smelled of warp trickery and yet even with his distaste he couldn’t find fault in the actions of Ruby or Pyrrha, who despite seemingly losing their memories, were even more deadly now and were as loyal to their two friends as he remembered them to be. As such. he decided to wait and see.

After several more minutes (or it was hours) Pyrrha finally managed to create a small, short and barely felt breeze, but it was something. Suddenly Ruby noticed something - “that’s smoke!” - she announced as she pointed at the rising column - “either a fire or a settlement” - commented Pyrrha, before anyone could say anything else Melanthios also intervened his voice as always serious - “if that's the case, then we better go and see what exactly it is”

Everyone agreed with the commissar in this case and soon rushed to see what exactly was creating the smoke, in the rush Ruby failed to notice that 4 of the 5 coins she had remaining had disappeared.

==============================

The first thing Qrow noticed when arriving at the dream was that everything was covered in snow and yet that he surprisingly didn’t feel cold, the second thing he noticed was the new clothes everyone was wearing, it was an interesting change if he was being honest.

“Hey uncle, nice clothes” - commented Yang as a joke making Qrow look at his own clothes, they seemed his normal attire but with protection against the cold being added and his sleeves rolled down and that his cape was slightly longer and not torn at the end, the only addition to his clothing being a black winter cap that had his personal emblem. This comment made Winter look at her own clothes discovering that they basically remained basically the same as her uniform but obviously modified for the cold and sporting some additional golden Trims and additional armor on the legs and arms.

“It seems your clothes remain very similar to your real ones” - commented Ren inspecting both Qrow and Winter - “It makes sense though, neither Weiss or Jaune know Qrow so they can influence him very much and Winter is Weiss’ sister so hard for her to change her much either” - commented Blake.

Before anyone else could comment Nora butted in - “we’re wasting time here, the city is in that direction, let go!” - before she started running towards the city only to be stopped by Ren - “Nora, wait! We have to check the coins” - realizing Ren was saying the truth Nora let out a small “oh” before getting back to the group, everyone looked to see if they had a coin discovering they had 4 in total - “well, they must’ve used one then, Ruby or Pyrrha must have the remaining one” - said Yang frowning, the fact that another coin had been used meant that Ruby and Pyrrha must’ve gotten into some problematic situation. Not waiting for anyone, Winter activated one of the coins making a door appear - “this should get us to your friends or at least closer to them” - before she walked through it the other following after Winter immediately.

==============================

Ruby sighed as the infiltration worked, it had taken far more time and been far more difficult than she had hoped but they had gotten inside without being noticed and they were now walking through the market asking for information from the “population” and they had learned a lot, apparently the small keep at the center of the town was Jaune’s or as he was called “The Paladin”, they had also learned that Jaune was not present and had not been for a while.

“It seems we’ve found Jaune’s section of the dream” - commented Pyrrha as she looked towards the keep. Unlike the massive arcology they have been in that most likely was based on Atlas, this section was closer to nature, closer in design to the villages that dotted Vale in aesthetics. The thing that was most important for Pyrrha however was that Jaune might’ve something similar to Weiss’ own Large White Pawn piece, something important to him that would give them a potential key to get everyone out of the dream.

“So, we must get in there?” - asked Ciallia rhetorically as she looked at the keep - “I take you already have a plan to get in without being discovered?” - asked Melanthios as he looked at the keep - “it may be primitive but it's enough to make it difficult to get in unnoticed, nevermind the people inside” - Ciallia then explained her plan, they would get behind the keep using the buildings that were around it and then try to get in from there.

The group was careful in their movements to make sure no one noticed them, it was a hard task but the moment they saw an opening they did so - “it was never this hard in the city” - commented Ruby as she led the group through the alleys and streets however as they are going to turn in a alley Ruby is suddenly bumps into someone, a young blonde child that was seemingly running from someone, the child falls to the ground - “sorry” - mutters the kid as he quickly gets to his feet and runs into alley.

“Sorry, but I didn’t want to be seen!” - says the kid  as he looks at Ruby and the others before getting scared at the old commissar Melanthios, the small kid’s looks surprised both Ruby and Pyrrha as the kid looked exactly like Jaune but if he was a kid which made them miss how scared the kid was looking, Ciallia for her part tries to talk to the mini Jaune to calm him down  - “and why didn’t you want to be seen?” - asked Ciallia to no avail as the kid version of Jaune still was feeling nervous, finally getting out of their shock Pyrrha goes and kneels before the kid - “calm down, no one is going to hurt you” - says Pyrrha as the kids looks torn between believing her or not for a few seconds before giving his answer - “ok, but, what are you doing here? Normally you come with the Paladin to sing for us but he’s not here” - answered the kid.

Pyrrha bit her lip as she tried to think of something before she had an idea - “I’ll tell you if you tell me why you are here and why you didn’t want to be seen” - answered Pyrrha. The kid seemed conflicted for a moment before he answered - “I was bored and me and the others have always wanted to see what it's outside the town so I escaped from the keep” - answered the kid, knowing she had to give her own answer Pyrrha did so - “I came here because me and my teammates here need to get inside the keep without the paladin knowing, we had a discussion and he didn’t agree with me doing the work and he has something I need”

The kid Jaune looked surprised and then he said something surprising - “if I help you getting what you need, would you help me and the others get out of the town?” - this question made Pyrrha look at her companions, whole instead looked all at Ruby. After some quick thinking Ruby nodded enthusiastically  for which pyrrha accepted the kid’s offer - “ok I’ll help you, there is a passage that the guards don’t know about and there is a section of the keep that only the Paladin can get in, I’ll show you”

And with that the group went to the keep, the kid Jaune guiding the group to the keep passing near some kind of training ground which was thankfully free of people as the little Jaune had said, at that same training field, there was a statue of an old man which neither RUby or Pyrrha recognized. Even then the group preferred to stay out of sight until the last possible moment. After that little Jaune led them into the keep using a rarely used passage and then through the keep, the maze of corridors and rooms proving disorientating to everyone except the small Jaune who guided them until they reached a door.

“The Paladin has said no one but him can enter this section of the keep, whatever you need inside its most likely there, good luck!” - and with that the little Jaune went running off as Ruby, Pyrrha, Melanthios and Ciallia all entered the room. Inside the group found a scene very similar to that they had found when they had gotten to the top of the city when searching for Weiss, pictures, several all of them, all showing what seemed to be paintings of Jaune doing something, while Ruby and Pyrrha walked by trying to ignore some of the painting, Melanthios and Ciallia were much more curious about the painting but they kept silent, as they advanced they also found miniatures similar to those they found with Weiss, or in one case, different rifles out of all things. Finally near at the end of the section of the keep Ruby opened a door, the room being flooded with vines filled with thorns which both Ruby and Pyrrha remembered it was caused by the Nightmare, however the vines were now more numerous, thicker and covered much more of the room, what little space was left to walk in being barely enough for Ruby to go through at the end of the room and “corridor” of vines however was another large white pawn piece, virtually identical to the one they found when looking for Weiss - “do not touch the thorns, not matter what” - advised Ruby as she started to go through the tight space between the vines, in some places barely managing to go through but soon she had the white pawn piece and gotten back to the group where they started to discuss what the piece might be useful for.

==============================

The first thing Winter noticed after she went to the door was a group of 4 people discussing something about a possible key of some kind, wanting to ask who they were Winter interrupted them only to find a sword directly pointed at her neck covered in what seemed to be lightning dust although it certainly didn’t feel like it, the one holding the sword was an old scarred man wearing a cap and a great coat with armor, all looking like some type of uniform - “who are you?!” - demanded the man. To his side there was a woman with black hair in a blue dress, on her hands a spear pointed at her. The other two kids which likely were Ruby and Pyrrha also took their weapons out but were more defensive in posture.

Behind her Winter, Qrow and Team RBYN also came through the door making Ruby and Pyrrha realize the unknown woman was friendly - “Melanthios, Ciallia wait! They’re not enemies!” - shouted Ruby, both looked at Ruby for a second as if asking confirmation before putting themselves at ease, Melanthios deactivating his power sword for good measure.

After making sure no fight would start between everyone, Ruby asked the recently arrived group of Team RBYN, Winter and Qrow - “guys, uncle Qrow, what are you doing here?” - before anyone else could answer Qrow spoke - “well, Ozpin asked me and ice queen over here to help your friends” - said Qrow while pointing first at Winter and then at Team RBYN - “it's good seeing you both are well but I was not expecting you having company”

“It's a long story uncle, we’ll tell you once we’re out of here, there might be someone coming” - said Ruby as she remembered how Weiss appeared when they took her white pawn from the “museum” they found themselves in before - “lead the way then” - said Ciallia - “yeah, last thing we want is being swamped by the guards” - commented Melanthios as Ruby and Pyrrha started to guide the group out of the keep.

When they got outside they found themselves with two surprises however, one was a large group of mini Jaunes, the other was Jaune Arc himself in full armor and ready for a fight. Ruby, Pyrrha and Team RBYN immediately got ready, Qrow, Winter, Melanthios and Ciallia also doing so after seeing the six huntsmen students.

“Give it back” - was the only thing that Jaune did as he advanced towards the group, anger seeping into his voice - “sorry Jaune but we won’t” - answered Ruby a sentiment also echoed by Pyrrha, Blake, Yang, Nora and Ren. The answer was enough for Jaune to start rushing the group, Ciallia immediately using her vision to make the ground under Jaune collapse as if it was a sinkhole making him fall in - “that should give us a few minutes, we must get out!” - shouted Ciallia - “anyone, use one of the coins!” - said Pyrrha as a rumble was felt before rocks and dirt exploded from the sinkhole - “what in the …, he can’t really be getting out so fast?!” - was the thought of those that had not fought against Jaune or Weiss before, for her part, Nora got a coin out and immediately used it to open a door to somewhere else in the city - “come on, get in!” - shouted Nora at the group as they saw Jaune finally getting out of the sinkhole. Melanthios immediately started firing his bolt pistol at the paladin but the shots did nothing against his shield, before he could react and get his power sword out Jaune was right at striking distance only for his swing to be blocked by Qrow and Winter.

As the fight between Jaune against Qrow and Winter continued, the others went through the door and a few of the small Jaunes also followed them through. For their part the fight was horribly stacked against the huntsman and specialist, no matter what Winter summoned the paladin easily dealt with it, while both could outmaneuver Jaune, he could easily block them both as seen when Jaune not only managed to hold his own against Winter in a sword to sword duel but also block all of Qrow’s attacks coming from his side or back, at one moment he even grappled Qrow, giving him a heavy hit and throwing him against Winter who caught him in a glyph, giving the paladin enough time to close the distance as Winter tried to create another summon. And yet, despite being outmatched both of them managed to cover the group well enough that by the time they retreated through the door, the group and a few of the mini Jaunes had successfully escaped.

“Alright, he’s extremely powerful here” - said Qrow as he struggled to catch his breath - “we knew he was powerful but this goes beyond what we expected” - commented Winter agreeing with Qrow - “now you know how we felt after fighting against Jaune and Weiss” - commented Yang smiling at her uncle with a shit eating grin making Qrow roll his eyes.

Ren meanwhile sighed in relief before looking around at what seemed to be something like a cross of a prison and a zoo, several people in open prison cells and yet there were also thing that you would find in a zoo like sweet stands and so one, moving towards Blake, Ren told her - “we need to find where we are” - Blake silently agreeing with Ren not mentioning her thoughts of disgust at the place they were in. As the group regained their bearings, Ruby started explaining to Team RBYN, Qrow and Winter what had happened while they had been outside the dream while Pyrrha did her best to keep the mini Jaunes from running around - “so, now we have these two white pawn pieces but, they don’t seem to do anything” - explained Ruby as she held both large pawns, one on each hand - “the fact that both Weiss and Jaune appeared to stop you from taking said pieces means they’re important but why?” - asked Pyrrha herself with the other soon starting to put any ideas but none seemed to work as attempts to see if the pieces could be modified in some way but no idea worked.

While the group tried to make use of the two pieces some of the mini Jaunes escaped the pack and started running around as they explored the area, their curiosity making them observe everything there was nearby. Many found themselves feeling disturbed at the people inside the cells although whenever they tried to talk to them they achieved nothing either being ignored or the people inside acting as if they didn't exist. As they continued to explore they son found themselves in front of another cell but this one was enormous, filled with toys, arcades, sweets and many other things, but more importantly, there were alot of small girls inside, all with long white hair, blue eyes all dressed in white dresses and with a small rapier, miniature Weiss’. They were all playing inside with the toys and objects or with each other not noticing the mini Jaune outside their cell.

“Hey! Hello?!” - shouted one of the mini Jaunes as he tried and failed to get through the bars, he was mostly ignored by the girls inside with one exception, one of them noticed him, the girl looking at the boy as if he was something strange before walking towards him - “hello, what are you doing here?” - asks the girl, the mini Jaune answering immediately excited to meet someone that answers to him - “I’m exploring around, it was getting boring back at home and I've always wanted to go out so here I am!” - explained the mini Jaune before asking - “do you want to get out and come with us?”.

The mini Weiss for her part looked at the mini Jaune with confusion as she didn’t understand why she would want to get out of her home, yes it was a relatively small space but there was always something to do - “why would I want to get out? There is always something to play with here” - answered the mini Weiss, the mini Jaune undeterred continued the argument - “but think of all the other things you could play if you get out?!” - the mini Weiss thought about for a few seconds before she gave her answer - “ok, the door is there, you will need to open it though” - said the mini Weiss as she pointed at the door with her rapier. Nodding the mini Jaune rushed to the door to try to see how he could get it to open.

==============================

A loud clang followed by a lot of loud laughter brought Ruby and company out of their discussion, looking at the source they could hardly believe it, it was a large number of mini Weiss running and playing around, the mini Jaunes soon joining them. “We better stop those kids before they alert the security” - said Melanthios, Qrow and Winter agreeing with the commissar despite their doubts towards him and soon everyone was struggling to get the two groups of kids to calm down and not cause more chaos something that was specially hard with the mini Weiss’ who were far more agile, jumping over some of the stands and even getting to the top of some of the cells and not helped by the fact the mini Jaunes that had remained with the group had proceeded to join their fellows in causing chaos and playing around.

Thankfully for the group they were starting to catch the miniature versions of Weiss and Jaune. Winter was the one having the easiest time, her glyphs easily letting catch several of the Mini Jaunes and Mini Weiss’ despite the latters attempts to use their own glyphs, behind her came Ciallia, her Geo vision giving her the mobility to easily catch the kids.

“This is why I don’t have kids” - thought Qrow as he caught another mini Jaune as he watched Ruby use her semblance to outmaneuver and catch one of the Mini Weiss’. Very few of the kids now remained running around with Pyrrha, Yang and Melanthios, keeping those that had already been caught under some semblance of control, the commissar’s scars and visage giving the kids more reasons to follow Team RBYN‘s instructions.

“Who knew Jaune could be such a hustle” - though Ren  struggled to keep one of the mini Jaunes from running away again as the last ones of the mini Weiss’ were finally caught. “Alright, stay calm please” - exclaimed Ruby as she finally landed near the group - “seriously squirts, I know that you may want to play now but if you cause too much of a ruckus you’ll get put back at your homes” - added Qrow, the others agreeing with both of them finally succeeding in getting the miniature versions of Jaune and Weiss to calm down.

“At least no alarm was raised this time” - commented Ruby as she took out the two chess pieces once again not knowing what to do, the fact both Weiss and Jaune had attacked them to get them back showed they were important but she didn’t know why. They were seemingly just large white pawn pieces, however, now less distracted by the environment the mini Jaunes and mini Weiss’ finally noticed the chess pieces - “sorry but, can we look at those?” - asked one of the mini Weiss’, seeing that they didn’t have any idea on what to do with the pieces and having run out of options, Ruby gave the pieces to the kids while warning them - “take care not to break them, we need them for our mission” - the mini Weiss nodded as she took both pieces only for one to start shining with a white light immediately after she took it surprising (and almost blinding) everyone present, realizing that something might be happening Ruby said the mini Weiss to give the other piece to one of the mini Jaunes which she did immediately, the same thing happening with the other piece when the mini Jaune grabbed it as it started to shine with a yellow light. Then both pieces started to float from the hands of both miniatures versions of Weiss and Jaune, circling around each other with ever greater speeds until they crashed into the other creating what seemed to be a map of the massive city and other sites outside of it, one of those sites was glowing brightly on the map.

Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Yang, Blake, Qrow, Winter, Melanthios and Ciallia all stood around looked at the map stunned before they started to analyze the map and soon realized what it meant - “it seems that's where the nightmare is hiding” - said Ren voicing what everyone was thinking - “indeed, we must get there at once” - said Winter - “I doubt it will be easy” - commented both Melanthios and Qrow at the same time - “doesn’t matter! We get there, kick the nightmare grimm’s ass and we get home, as simple as that” shouted Yang, Nora enthusiastically agreeing with Yang - “that might not be so easy, especially if Jaune and Weiss join in the fight” - argued Ciallia back putting on a damper in both girls from Team RBYN - “but before any of that, we need to find a way to get there” - added Blake. Ruby and Pyrrha kept silent however, trying to memorize everything they could about the map, they were now very close at saving Weiss and Jaune and they would not be distracted.

At that very moment one of the mini Weiss spoke up - “you can use the trains, they connect everything here!” - before anyone else could say or do anything however, unwanted arrivals appeared. On one side there was Grumpy Klein, leading a small army of combat robots, on the other side a knight covered in mail and plate, Rockard, leading a small group other knights - “stop there at once, you’ve broken the peace of the city and must be punished with all the weight of the law! - shouted Grumpy Klein, obviously angry as the chaos that had happened in the place, Rockard for his part made a simpler announcement - “I’m here to bring back the squires back home and put the intruders where they belong, please do not resist”

Immediately the group of huntsmen got ready for a fight but it was not necessary. Before anyone could say anything, many of the mini Weiss’ suddenly started to grow bigger, they didn’t want to return to their cell, especially since they had barely gone out, they wanted to see the rest of the city first. The now giant mini Weiss’ started rampaging, using their version of Myrtenaster to cut the robots or fire dust shots against them causing untold chaos. Robots and knights went flying as they tried to physically stop the giant mini Weiss’ without harming them.

Having no other option both Grumpy Klein and Rockard concentrated their efforts on defeating the giant mini Weiss’, especially since they could accidentally cause damage to the rest of the city. For their part, the group of huntsmen in training and their companions, including a few mini Jaunes and mini Weiss’ retreated from the area, there was no use fighting the robots and knights when they wanted to go to the Nightmare Grimm’s hiding spot. With Pyrrha leading the children with the help of Yang and Ciallia. After a few minutes, the group gained a fair distance of a few squares before they felt a massive tremor and a small series of explosions coming from the area they had been in. Turning around to see, the group saw a massive ice structure towering over the buildings while the giant mini Weiss’ were nowhere to be seen at least Weiss had finally appeared and it was likely Jaune had too - “good thing we fled the scene, we would’ve been caught otherwise” - commented Qrow as he looked at the ice structure - “however, its likely both Weiss and Jaune no knows what we want to do” - added Winter frowning, Qrow doing the same at the implications. Simply put, it was very likely that both Jaune and Weiss would go to the Nightmare Grimm’s hiding place to defend it.

“We gotta keep moving then” - said Ruby leaving no room for argument in her voice, she had been trapped in the dream for a long while, she wanted to get out and with her teammates and friends in tow, a feeling Pyrrha was also feeling - “I agree with Ruby, we must get to that place as fast as we can” - “well, the squirts here said that we need to get into a mini Weiss spoke up - “there are the trains remember? We just have to take on and we get there fast!” - the group looked at each other, Ruby, Pyrrha and to a lower level, Yang and Nora, looked eager at the idea but the other not so much - “which train will we know its the correct one though?” - asked Ren - “that’s correct, there are likely a lot of train trucks going to different places, how will we know which one is the correct one?” - the question deflated the mini Weiss’ a bit the others now seeing the problem, however Ruby was not to be deterred and without speaking she took out her last remaining coin and used it opening a door.

“Come on!” - shouted Ruby impatiently as she and immediately after her, Pyrrha, walked through, the mini Weiss’ and mini Jaunes all coming after them followed by Team RBYN, Qrow, Winter, Ciallia and finally, Melanthios. To everyone’s surprise, except Ruby’s who instead felt relieved, the group found themselves at a train station - “what I would’ve given to have these coins before” - thought Melanthios as the group looked at the trains coming and going they tried to find one that would get them to the place they wanted. Thankfully they didn’t need to wait for long as Blake noticed a train that was going exactly where they needed to - “guys! That train, quick!” - shouted Blake as she pointed the the train in question which was readying the move in a few seconds. Wasting no time the group rushed towards the train, Pyrrha shooting at the only robot present that tried to stop them before they boarded the train as it finally started moving.

Now they only needed to wait.

==============================

Waiting was ironically the most unbearable part of the whole trip, with nothing to do but also unable to go through the whole train unless they wanted to risk being discovered, the group had been forced to stay inside the wagon they had boarded and in that situation all what was left was small talk or just their thoughts.

For Blake it was the second and the reason for that was Weiss, it was obvious the city was mainly centered around the Schnee heiress, which kind of showed a dominant personality over Jaune. However that was not all, there was also the White Fang, it was bad enough that the dream showed Weiss’ obviously biased point of view but what she had seen after disgusted her, the White Fang were not only very animalistic, brutal and seemingly only caring about attacking Weiss’ trains, something she had not mentioned to anybody but later seeing the cells, where they found the mini Weiss’ and several other prisoners after fleeing from Jaune, it remembered her of the cages used to capture animals and on occasion Grimm had made Blake feel extremely uncomfortable. Mixing the two was not something good in Blake’s eyes.

And then there were the robots, they were armed and they were everywhere, they were Weiss’ soulless enforcers of her will. It felt even worse than Atlas, at least Atlas still sent living soldiers with the robots. The worst part however, was the moment in which she felt she was being observed by someone but she wasn’t, as if there were secret cameras hidden all around the city. As far Blake was concerned, that showed Weiss’ controlling nature.

A part of her was fearing that Weiss would be just as bad if not worse than Jacques Schnee (and Jacques was a known exploiter of faunus workers), another however still wanted to believe that Weiss wasn’t as bad, after all, she was the heiress, coming to Beacon while a PR move was also a dangerous proposition, specially when Atlas would’ve been close to her home.

For all these things and more, Blake considered herself lucky she wasn’t in a team with Weiss.

Yang meanwhile was also deep in her thoughts but now concentrating on Ruby and Pyrrha who were talking with Melanthios and Ciallia on one of the corners away from the others as they were trying to do … something, the strange medallions they had were now shining but beyond that she had no idea what was going on.

And that was the problem.

From what she knew, the situation of Team RWAN was not normal, for some reason her sister and Pyrrha had remained trapped not once but twice after Weiss and Jaune were infected by the nightmare grimm and now there was Ciallia and Melanthios. Both were a complete mystery to her, both talked to Ruby and Pyrrha as if they had known them for a long while treating the others (including herself) as strangers they had never met. Their clothes and weapons were also strange, first it was Melanthios, his clothes were obviously an uniform of some kind with the skulls and the double headed eagle making it obvious that his place of origin was simply not Remnant, she had never seen such a fashion anywhere. The most striking part however was his face, the man was old and was obviously experienced in a fight as his scars proved, he however didn’t seem to have any aura or semblance at all which was, incredibly rare, even policemen activated their aura even if they didn’t train with it enough to get it to the level of resistance of a huntsman.

Ciallia for her part was the complete opposite, her clothes were more personalized as was her weapon. She also seemed to be much younger than Melanthios and much nicer too. The most confusing thing however was that gem, she had noticed it shining whenever she used her … abilities to control the ground. At first she had thought it was her semblance and that the gem, somehow, made using aura or controlling her semblance easier but now as she saw Ruby and Pyrrha doing something with her and the gems they had gotten when they entered the nightmare were also shining in the same way something told her that something else was going on.

And that worried her.

The worst part is that none of them had managed to really talk to each other, in between having to flee from Jaune’s “stronghold”, and then having to deal with the mini Jaunes and mini Weiss’ and then getting into the train. There had been simply no time to get to really know those two and what their deal was - “at least, they’re on our side” - thought Yang as she tried and failed to distract herself by looking at the mini Jaunes and mini Weiss’ which were looking out the windows in awe but always having her sight temporarily going back to Ruby and Pyrrha.

Qrow was in a similar position as Yang although with the caveat that he really didn’t have any personal stake when it came to Jaune and Weiss. Yes, they were his nieces’ friends but that was it, he was here because of Ruby who had been caught as a side effect, nothing more, nothing less. And it was because of that that he was worried.

The existence of Melanthios and Ciallia confounded him. He, quite frankly, believed that they were creations from within the nightmare but if that was true then he was failing to see why those two would be the result. At least those two seemed friendly enough to help them, which was something good, although he really wished he could talk to them in private to get an idea of what exactly they were.

Winter for her part, despite the confusion about the two unknown additions to the group, concentrated more on the other facts of Weiss’ nightmare. The city itself was obviously based on Atlas, even if the construction was nowhere near similar (in fact, the style was closer to before the Great War era Valean architecture) but the colors and the heavy presence of patrol robots was definitely inspired by Atlas. However there were also troubling signs for her, the overwhelming surveillance was most likely how she perceived her home and how their father treated them but the willingness to use it herself also showed just how much that she carried the same attitude even if she didn’t realize it, it made Winter get worried about her sister’s relation with her team even if they were willing to risk themselves to save her.

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“LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” - shouted Weiss at Jaune as she simmered in rage - “YOU JUST GAVE THEM ACCESS TO MY DEEPEST SECRETS!”

The heiress was not only in rage she was literally shaking due to her anger, grinding her teeth against each other, her hand turning into fists and looking at Jaune directly in the eyes. Normally that show of emotion would’ve been enough to shock Jaune into submission but this time the paladin didn’t disengage or try to calm her down, instead he stared back with the same amount of anger and snarl present in his face, his hand grabbing his sword and shield tightly.

“MY FAULT?! YOU WERE THE ONE WHICH LOST THEIR RELIC FIRST AND YOU KNOW WHAT’S WORSE?!” - shouted back Jaune as he pointed at Weiss walking towards her until they were separated by a few centimeters, the paladin towering over the heiress - “THAT YOU KNEW THOSE TWO HAD ESCAPED AND DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING!”

“I DON’T HAVE TO TELL ANYTHING TO YOU, YOU BRUTE!” - responded Weiss to Jaune as her right hand subconsciously reached towards Myrtenaster. Before any fight could start however Rockard appeared, making both Jaune and Weiss keep themselves from fighting each other so they could turn to face him - ”sire, I have news of your quarry” - informed the knight as he walked closer to both before bowing in respect - “what do you have Rockard?” - asked Jaune, Weiss keeping silence although it was obvious that she wasn’t happy by looking at her face - “we’ve discovered they managed to get into a train after making their escape, sadly we have no information on which train they took but they’re likely now crossing through open territory” - reported Rockard making both the paladin and the heiress grimace - “that means we can’t just stop the trains, it will make them easy target for the White Fang” - said Weiss, mentally cursing at the situation, before Jaune could say anything she turned around calling for Grumpy Klein who appeared immediately through a portal bowing to her - “Klein, a recent development needs me to go out of the city, keep it safe no matter the cost, understood?” - ordered Weiss her voice as cold as a blizzard - “you can count on me” - answered Grumpy Klein. Turning to look at Jaune Weiss found him giving him similar instructions to Rockard - “time to go” - was all Weiss said before a new portal appeared. Not waiting for Jaune, Weiss walked through to find herself at The Sanctuary, it was the only place worth coming to now that they had activated the relics.

Now, she and Jaune just had to wait.