And I'm back, after taking sometime to get things straightened out both personally and story-wise, i know where i want this go, this is still a sequel to Team SHDE. I have high hopes about this.

It had been several weeks since Shayne and his team had protected Beacon from an army of Grimm hell bent on killing all in their path, Shayne's uncle had been killed and a memorial raised in his memory. It was the Christmas break, Dundra and Eddi were visiting Eddi's family, Hanna had gone to see her Dad in Mistral and Lina had gone back to Managerie, to stay with her family for the holidays. Shayne had been invited to all of his teammates festivities, but had declined, he had no right imposing himself on them at this time of year, that was about a week ago.

Shayne had been filling his time with working out in the Gym, honing his technique and upgrading his equipment. He had given one of his Katanas an update that allowed for better use on Grimm after his battle. Now when he drew it, it became sharpened like a mirrors edge, making it unusable against humans in sparring in case he sliced them in half. There was a knock on the door, Shayne wasn't expecting anyone until eleven, and he slowly made his way to the door, picking his knife from the counter top. He opened the door carefully keeping the blade out of sight, Velvet was standing there;

"Hey Shayne"

"Hey Velvet I wasn't expecting you until later"

She folded her arms; Velvets family lived in Atlas and she had missed the last Bullhead out, she had spent every day with Shayne since then;

"Haven't you checked the time?"

"No, I thought you were coming at eleven?"

"Shayne it is eleven" Shayne blinked twice and turned to look at the clock, sure enough it was a couple of minutes past eleven

"Sorry Velvet, I hadn't realised what time it was…."

"It's okay Shayne, you are ready to go though, right?" she asked stepping in as he closed the door

"No, not as such"

She smiled;

"Fine, I'll wait while you get sorted"

Shayne went and had a quick shower; Velvet resisted the urge to join him. He dressed in the bathroom, and came out doing up his bandanna. He went and sheathed his blades leaving his disassembled pistol where it lay; he had taken it apart to clean it and couldn't get it back together again, 'I am going to wait for Eddi to get back before trying again', he thought as he made his way to the door.

"You coming?" he asked holding the door open, Shayne was wearing his winter jacket with the hood it completely covered his ears, and because of his ears it never blew off in the wind.

Velvet stepped out, Shayne followed directly after her. On their way into Vale, Shayne noticed that Frank hadn't gone back to Managerie and went over to him.

"Frank, I thought you had gone to see your parents"

"Yeah Shayne, I did, they didn't care what time of the year it was, they told me to come back and study" he said sullenly

"Well me and Velvet are headed into town, your welcome to join us" Shayne said sitting next to him

"Thanks for the offer Shayne, but I think I'm going to go back to my dorm to be alone with my thoughts" Shayne had been less hard on him since the attack on Beacon.

Shayne left him sat there and called back to him;

"Frank, you will join us on Christmas though, right?"

Frank smiled and called back;

"We'll see Shayne"

Shayne and Velvet went into town and bought gifts for those stuck at Beacon, Shayne had asked Ozpin if he could throw a Christmas dinner in the auditorium and he had agreed. They split up as they were buying gifts for each other as well. Shayne got her a dark leather purse. He met up with her at a coffee shop for a drink some time later, she had bought gifts for the girls while Shayne had bought for the boys, he got Frank a bottle of whiskey, 'he needs it at the moment, so I won't save it for Christmas'.

On the way back, Shayne spotted two people he had never seen before, one carried a pair of cutlasses at his waist while his female companion carried multiple pistols, she also had a cutlass at her waist but her hands rested on her pistols, meaning she used those as her main form of attack.

The male stopped in Shayne's way and held up his hand, Shayne and Velvet stopped.

He asked them a question; Velvet couldn't hear it due to her earmuffs. Shayne did and he didn't like where it was going;

"Hand over your wallets or this is going to get ugly"

"No, I'm not giving you my wallet"

"Take a look around, all these people will watch you die if you don't"

"I hardly think I'll be the one dying" his left arm went to his sword instinctively

The would be thieves' eyes went to his arm; they recoiled slightly and took a step back, placing their hands on their weapons. Shayne saw this, and using a combination of Grimm and Dust he formed a black fireball in his palm, Shayne had used Lina's rings to upgrade his gauntlets to do the same as they did.

They drew their weapons and moved back again;

"Do you know who we are?" the female called to Shayne

"No, and I don't really care, but I guess you're going to tell me anyway"

"We are the Genesis Twins, we came here looking for treasures; this place is too developed to have anything not in a museum. We heard tell of a man with dark tattoos, they say he is as strong as hunters come" the male said as the crowd of people noticed the drawn weapons, the female looked at her Scroll, she had just received a message.

"We know that you possess a Grimm, now you will come with us, someone wants to see you" she held up her Scroll "Be it the hard way or the easy way" the female said again

Most people in Vale had heard about Shayne by now, though almost none of them had ever seen him fight. He took another look at the 'Genesis Twins' once more, they wore what seemed to be fancy dress costumes, they looked like the pirates from stories that parents told their children at night. He had a long dark blue coat, with gold buttons and large boots, he wore striped trousers. She wore something similar to that of her partner. 'How did I not notice these two until they were almost right in front of me', he drew his Katana and held it ready in his right hand.

The male came at him first, swinging his twin swords quickly, trying to disarm Shayne; luckily Shayne had found a student at Beacon with a similar style to his attacker, so he was prepared for it. Shayne parried both of the blades and effortlessly broke his guard and kicked him in the stomach. His partner took the opportunity to begin firing at Shayne who brought up a wall of Grimm ensuring that the bullets wouldn't ricochet into the crowd. He advanced as she fired; switching guns as she ran out of ammo, as he reached her, Shayne swept her legs and caught her mid fall, throwing her to her partner.

She landed on him, they both got up and went for Shayne simultaneously, with him going low forcing Shayne to jump, and her sending a kick to his gut, Shayne went flying back through the air landing in a low crouched position, holding his sword behind him and dragging his clawed gauntlet on the ground as he slid backwards. He stood up and hurled a black fireball at them and they dived away from it in opposite directions. They circled him until he was directly between them, they both struck at the same time, Shayne did a standing side flip, rolling between the blades, he landed and went behind the female his sword to her throat.

"Drop your weapons now" he said applying the tiniest amount of pressure against her throat

Shayne pushed her over to him and he kicked the weapons over to them;

"Now I'm going to leave and you are too, in the opposite direction" he pointed his blade at them as he and Velvet returned to Beacon.

Several days later it was Christmas and the meal was in progress, the students that had to stay behind laughed and talked as if they were old friends even though they had barely met before that day, Shayne was sat between Frank and Velvet, she was still wary of him since the incident a few weeks ago. They ate quietly; Shayne had given Frank his bottle of whiskey when they had gotten back from town. Shayne got up and went to talk to Ozpin.

"Professor, it seems that this went well, doesn't it"

"Indeed it does, congratulations on a good idea, it seems that Miss Scarlatina has taken a liking to Frank as well" Shayne looked at him confused, Ozpin motioned to where he had been sat;

Frank had changed seats and was now sat next to Velvet who was blushing slightly, Shayne shook his head in disbelief, 'a few weeks ago I wouldn't have believed it, but Frank has changed recently'. Shayne returned to them and he sat down, he told Frank that it was fine that they had swapped.

"Frank, don't screw this up, she's a nice girl, if you do anything to hurt her, like you almost did a while back, I won't be so forgiving" Shayne said quietly as Velvet went to get another drink

"Shayne, the other day while you were out, I sat in my dorm and I thought about the past, I realised that I had been lonely, I had been jealous of you and Lina when you first got together and I'm sorry for everything I did to the both of you" Shayne put his hand on his shoulder;

"I can see you mean that, I'm glad I have you as a friend now, and I don't expect you to forget Cardin as a friend because of this, you can still be friends, just layoff the other Faunus, if you need help doing that, just think of Velvet" Frank smiled and Velvet came back and they held hands for the rest of the evening. At around half eleven, Shayne bid the others goodnight and headed back to his dorm, Velvet went with Frank to his.

The days before term restarted were hectic as all the students had left the dorms in a mess so they were cleaning frantically so they would be like the others never left. Shayne hadn't made much of a mess outside his workstation, he cleaned nonetheless. The others returned the day before term began, as Dundra and Eddi came through the door, Shayne stood and embraced them both with Eddi kissing him on the cheek, Dundra said she had become a warmer person over Christmas, they told Shayne of their trip and whom they had met, along with all the stories that had been told. A few hours later Hanna came stumbling through the door, with more bags and luggage than she went with, Shayne and Dundra helped her get it stacked up against a wall for now, she told them how she and her father had finally mad an effort to be a family again, she thanked Shayne especially for this, he just smiled and nodded.

The last person that arrived was Lina she came in quietly at around midnight, only Shayne was awake; he had stayed up to wait for her. When she came in, they locked eyes and embraced and kissed for a minute or two, only stopping for air. Shayne told her he hadn't done anything she wouldn't approve of while she was gone. She just smiled.

"Shayne I want you, now" she said through her teeth, grabbing him by the shirt

"Lina we can't do it here, the others are asleep" he led her out of the dorm to the old dorm room. They stepped in and Shayne closed the door quietly so as not to disturb the other teams who were trying to sleep, Shayne kissed her fiercely, she ran her fingers through his hair and they fell onto a bed.

The night slowly turned to day.

Classes begin at 9 o'clock.

Please leave a review if you feel that something is wrong or just because you want to, no pressure. and thank you for reading.

- TheWolfbane987