"Little bro? What are you doing here?" X asked, unable to believe his eyes. Before him, his little brother, Rock "Blue Bomber" Light stood on the deck of the airship en route to Beacon academy. X knew full well that Rock, despite his older brother's wishes, was well on his way to becoming a Hunter as well, but Rock was supposed to be studying at Signal, not Beacon.
Rock looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I, uh, got moved up a few years. There was a, um, incident, and Professor Ozpin happened to see me in action. So uh, here I am," Rock said, laughing nervously.
X was silent for a moment. "I don't want you to get hurt," he said at last.
"I know."
"You were lucky the first time."
"I know."
"I wish you hadn't come."
"I know."
X pulled his brother into a hug. "So I'm gonna do my best to protect you."
Rock hugged him back. "Okay."
Across the room, a blonde squealed, pulling an unfortunate raven into a life threatening embrace.
X laughed, separating from his brother. "Think we should do something about that?"
Rock nodded. "I guess I do owe her somewhat," he said. "She did kinda bail me out a couple times in that fight."
"I expect details from you about this tonight," X said, walking over to where the girls stood. Right as he was about to say something, the blonde released the raven from her death grip.
"Really, sis, it was nothing," the raven was saying as X approached.
"What was nothing?" X asked.
"It wasn't nothing, it was incredible! Ruby skipped two whole years at Signal to come to Beacon!" the blonde exclaimed.
"So then you're about Rock's age, then?" X asked. "I'm X, by the way. Rock's…" X's brow furrowed in confusion. "I swear he was right behind me a second ago…"
"Rock?"
"My little brother. I didn't know until today, but apparently he managed to skip two full years at Signal after running into the Headmaster here."
"Oh, I think I've met him! Blue eyes, arm cannon, bit too trusting for his own good?"
X nodded. "That's him. How'd you guess?"
"He saved my life, no big deal. Anyways, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm not really that surprised. I didn't really get to talk to him. What's with the arm cannon, anyways? Is he a robot?" Ruby asked.
X shook his head. "No, actually. Our father is Thomas Light, the world leader in robotics. The arm's an artificial replacement," he explained.
The blonde frowned. "How'd he lose his arm then?" she asked.
X struggled to explain. "It's… really not my place to say. Ask him and let him tell you if he wants. What's your name, anyways?"
Blonde grinned. "My name is Yang, and this is my sister Ruby!" she exclaimed, grabbing Ruby by the waist and pulling her close.
On the holographic television, the newscast flicked off, replaced by a hologram of a middle aged blonde woman. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon," she began.
"Who's that?" asked Yang.
"My name is Glynda Goodwitch," she continued, earning an "oh" from Yang. "You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to achieve this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of piece, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect our world." She said, providing a few instructions on what to do when they disembarked before fading out, revealing the view of Beacon from the air behind her.
"Woah," Ruby exclaimed, running to the window. "You can see Signal from here!"
All around them, other students were beginning to crowd the windows, thrilled by the new view offered.
"I guess home isn't too far after all," Yang said, wrapping an arm around Ruby. "Beacon's our new home now."
Behind them, a blonde male ran by, fighting down vomit.
"I guess the view isn't for everyone," X commented.
"Well, it was a nice moment while it lasted," Ruby said.
Not long after, they disembarked, walking right past the blonde from earlier emptying his lunch into the trash can.
"You guys go ahead," X said. "I need to stay behind and wait for Rock."
Ruby tossed him a two finger salute as the two girls walked off. X stood by the exit to the ship, watching the students disembark and waiting for his brother when he saw someone else who intrigued him.
The boy wore red armor with a matching helmet, sword strapped to his back and long gold hair flowing down his back. His eyes were focused ahead, and he moved through the crowd with ease, yet didn't appear to be in any hurry. Still, there was something about him that just drew X to him, something he couldn't place his finger on.
He was distracted at that moment by the appearance of Rock, who had turned out to be one of the stragglers.
"Hey, where'd you go?" X inquired.
"Avoiding someone," Rock said, and X nodded. Rock had made his fair share of enemies at Signal for being so amazing, and some of them had been in X's class.
"Who was it this time?"
"You wouldn't know him," was all Rock said in response. X knew that just meant Rock didn't want to talk about it, so as a good brother he dropped the subject.
"Come on, then, or we're gonna be late."
Inside the hall was crowded already, even though only two of the airships had docked. X scanned the crowd quickly, looking for anyone familiar, when he heard a familiar voice shouting at him.
"X! Over here!"
"Saved us a spot, did you?" X asked, laughing as he walked over, holding Rock's wrist so he wouldn't get away again. "It's good to see you again, Leviathan."
The other giggled. "Oh, X, it's been a while! Harpuia and the others should be here any minute now, I don't know where they are…" she trailed off, frowning with uncertainty.
Just then, three more familiar faces joined them. "How's it hanging, X?" Fefnir greeted. "Hmm? Who's the lookalike?"
"Hey Fefnir. Harpuia, Phantom," he nodded at each of them in turn. "This is my little brother, Rock. He skipped a couple years, apparently. So how are you guys holding up?"
Fefnir laughed. "We've been doing quite well, actually! The four of us ran into that Sigma guy again, but he wimped out on us again," he boasted. Phantom rolled his eyes.
"Honestly, Sigma just about kicked his ass. If it wasn't for Harpuia's quick thinking, he'd be toast. Again," he deadpanned.
A burst of feedback directed their attention towards the stage. Professor Ozpin stood, adjusting his glasses with one finger before leaning towards the microphone slightly.
"I'll… keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you finish, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy. In need of purpose. Direction."
"Oh, he is so going to pay for that one," Fefnir grumbled.
"You assume knowledge will free you of this. But your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He stepped away from the mic, as Professor Goodwitch stepped up to provide them with information about where to go and what to do for the night.
"What… exactly was the point of that?" Rock asked on their way to the dorm for the night.
"Well, we wouldn't know where to be going without that," Phantom said in reply.
Leviathan smacked the back of his head. "He doesn't mean that, he means Ozpin's speech. I have to agree. He didn't really seem all there."
"Certainly the Headmaster of such a prestigious school would've had a more inspiring speech," Harpuia remarked.
"Perhaps he was having an off day?" X offered.
"Perhaps."
X sat alone later that night, clad in a pair of sweatpants as he applied the necessary oil to his arm to keep it functional. Like Rock, he had lost his arm in the accident that had taken their mother's life, and had to have an artificial limb attached.
"I don't think that's quite what 'playing with yourself' is supposed to mean," remarked an unknown voice as its owner, the blonde stranger from earlier, sat down across from him. "What are you doing, anyways?"
"If I don't do this tonight, it'll slow me down getting ready for tomorrow," X said in reply.
"Fair enough, whatever it is," said the blonde. "I'm Zero."
"X."
"Is that seriously your name?"
"Well, it's short for Xavier. I prefer to just go by X."
Zero shrugged. "Whatever. Seriously though, what are you doing?"
"I'm oiling my prosthetic arm, so that it's functioning properly for initiation tomorrow."
"Are you nervous?"
"Not really. I mean, they aren't gonna throw anything at us that we can't handle. Mostly I'm just curious about the whole team business."
"I don't particularly care about teams. I tend to work alone anyways, so I don't see a reason to go scrambling for a team."
"Working alone tends to be more dangerous, you know. No one to watch your back."
"Whatever. I don't leave anything standing long enough to hit me in the back anyways."
"Boasting," X said, exchanging his oil for a screwdriver, "Is very unbecoming of a huntsman."
Zero was about to reply when he got hit in the face by a pillow. Rock dove down next to them, panting slightly.
"Your friends are crazy!" he exclaimed towards X. X picked up the pillow and threw it back towards the culprit, who had turned out to be none other than Leviathan. She caught it easily enough, and blew a kiss in his direction. X shook his head and returned to the task at hand.
"Oh, you know Leviathan?" Zero asked. X nodded.
"We were in most of the same classes last year. How do you know her?"
"She used to have a thing for me. So did Harpuia, apparently."
"Oh yeah, that's right. I remember Harpuia and Leviathan arguing over some boy. I'm still not sure whether Harpuia swinging that way or that they managed to have a brief falling out over that was more surprising. Oh yeah, before I forget, Rock, how exactly did you get into Beacon?"
Rock looked uncomfortable for a moment before beginning. "Well, there's really not much to say. I was on my way home from the movies with Roll when I saw that Torchwick guy from the news about to shoot the girl from the ship - the one with black hair - so I jumped in to help. Torchwick was surprisingly strong - he almost beat us both, and would've too if Professor Goodwitch hadn't shown up. He got away though, and Professor Goodwitch almost had us arrested, but Professor Ozpin wanted to talk to me. The girl, too, it looks like."
"You must either be really brave or really stupid to fight a criminal that the police have been after for as long as they have," Zero commented.
"I'm gonna go with stupid. You could've been killed!" X said.
"That girl could've been killed if I hadn't stepped in!"
"That girl is good enough to make it into Beacon, I'm sure she would've been alright!"
"How was he supposed to know that?" Zero cut in calmly, diffusing the situation. A tense moment of silence followed before Rock announced that he was going to bed. As he slunk off, X finished fiddling with his arm, replacing his tools and announcing his own plan to sleep. Zero did nothing except lay down next to X.
"Aren't you going to return to your own sleeping bag?" X asked.
"Nah, don't need it. Besides, you're kinda interesting," the blonde replied as X drifted off to sleep.
A/N: RWBY episodes are short and hard to get much material from. I plan to drag out the scenes from the Emerald forest as much as I possibly can.