Chapter 1

"Renewed Embers"

Beacon Academy

Two months after the harbour firefight...

Raiden, Rick and Greg were in the training room with their girlfriends. The three Ghosts took turns sparing against each other while their girlfriends just talked away. Raiden was resting while seeing Rick and Greg fight. Rick had more of a chance to beat Greg in C.Q.C thanks to his martial arts but he still needed to be careful around the young Ghost. Raiden just let out a sigh of worry. It has been a couple months since the harbor firefighter between them and the White Fang and he was still shocked at Alex's display. "I still can't believe Alex did that," he murmured. It was loud enough for Yang to hear him.
"Are you okay Raiden?" she asked him, wrapping her arms around his torso from behind. She worries about Raiden and Alex, fearing that they'll one day call each other an enemy, not brother.
"I'm fine Yang...don't worry about me," Raixen replied softly.
Yang frowned at Raiden's tone. She rested her head on his left shoulder, closing her eyes. "You're not okay. You can tell me," she asked. She felt a hand touching her over lapping hands around his stomach and smiled.
"Its...it's just about Alex, Yang. Seeing my own brother...doing that," he said, his voice cracking at emotions.
Yang nodded her head, burying it more into his neck. "He just needs to think about what he's done Raiden. It takes time," she said softly in his ear.
"Nothing gets in that thick skull of his," Raiden replied. He lowered his head, a tear going down his cheek. "But...I suppose you're right. Maybe I'll talk to him later," he said. Yang smiled before pecking him on the cheek. He smiled as well as he looked at the two Ghosts fighting. "Hands up to your chin Rick, keep'em high to defend!"

"What do you think I'm trying to!?" Rick shouts back as he tries his best to block most of Greg's punches, but Greg was distracting him and used the opportunity to slug Rick in the gut. Rick dropped like a bag of stones, gasping for breathe. The only thing that wasn't too bad was the fact that Greg was holding back on using the surrounding area as his weapon. That was one of the key reasons that he was a master of Hand-to-Hand combat compared to the others. Raiden learned that the hard way after multiple times of having himself being used to wipe the floor by Greg.

"Uncle, Rick?" Greg asks Rick as he drops his guard a little. Rick got into a hands and knees positions gasping for air.
"I'm...I'm just...warming up Greg," Rick replied. Getting up, Rick wiped his mouth and took a stance. "C'mon!"
Greg grinned before throwing a left hook at Rick. "Fine then." He kept throwing punches. He just saw Rick either punching his punches away, flighty moving out of the way by leaning a bit or using his hand to move his punches away from him. "Oh crap, he's using Wing Chun now," he thought.
Rick grinned as Greg threw punch and countered it by leaning to the right, making Greg vunerable. Rick start throwing a volley of punches on Greg chest before tripping him to the ground by using his leg. Greg widened his eyes as he landed on his back and saw Rick crouched down holding his throat with a fist above his head. "You were saying Greg?"

"Yeah." Greg replied as he used his left fist and did what would make a full grown man cry. He punched Rick in the cojones. As Rick screamed in pain, he loosened his grip, allowing Greg to knock him off. Greg got back on his feet and roundhoused Rick, knocking him out.
"And that is why I always wear a cup. Sorry about risking any of your future kids, Rick, but you asked for it." Greg said as Rick woke up, moaning in pain while gently holding his injuried area. Greg always stresses a lot about planning and preparing for any random fight that could happen. Rick failed that area today.

"Yeah...thanks for the painful tip," Rick replied as he stood up, only to collapse in pain. "Blake! Can you help please?" he pleaded.
Blake just giggled when she walked over to the ring.

Greg could only shake his head as Blake helped Rick up. Greg knew that Rick had some martial arts training, but even that wouldn't help him if his enemy was the master of the human weapon as well as the use of his surroundings as his weapon. Rick also needed to combine his martial arts with that of fighting dirty. That way he could actually stand a chance against Greg.
While Blake supported an injured Rick to the infirmary, Greg walked over and sat down on a bench, picking up his bottle of water. He took a couple of small swigs and then sat there, thinking about what might be going on back on Earth with the war. He hoped that the United States was winning, but at the same time worried that Federation might have turned the tides again and are pushing back US troops while taking it out on American civilians. After all, he lived through the experience of the ODIN attacks and the Federation occupation of the ruins of San Antonio

Raiden narrowed his eyes at Greg. "Really Greg? You had to punch him in the balls?" he asked.
"Like I said Raiden, you guys need o learn how to play dirty. Rick could've gotten me if he played dirty," Greg replied, sitting beside Velvet. He let out a sigh, closing his eyes. "I wonder how the fight back on Earth is going?"
"C'mon Greg, the last tuning we saw was the turning of the tide. I bet Rio's under U.S control now," Raiden explained.

"Maybe..." Greg could only say as he left to go take a shower. This left Yang and Raiden alone in the training room.

"So, what now?" Raiden asked, standing up to take off his Ghosts uniform with a black shirt underneath his jacket.
Yang shrugged. "How about we get something to eat?"
"Sure, why not?"

Raiden and Yang walked to the cafeteria when they heard whimpering in Raidens dorm. Raiden quickly widened his eyes and knocked on the door. "Alex! Are you okay?!" he shouted. Yang walked over with a worried look in her eyes.
"What's happening?" she asked him.
Raiden closed his eyes and slowly opened the door. He saw Alex kneeling on the ground with a photo in his hands. "Alex..." Raiden started to say.
"It's moms birthday today," Alex said, tears running down his face as he looked at the photo of their mother.

After his shower, Greg met with Velvet and the two walked down to the lunch room talking about what to do for the weekend ahead. Along the way, they passed Cardin who backed away from them. Apparently Cardin had started to become more friendly and completely stopped his bullying after Greg broke his legs during a duel in Ms. Goodwitch's fighting class a few weeks ago. Cardin did recover with his legs all healed, but feared and respected GRVL's team leader to this day. They reached the lunch room and spotted Team JNPR sitting at a table. After grabbing their food, Greg and Velvet sat down with the team, starting up a conversation.
"So how are you lovers doing today?" Ren asked slyly, causing Velvet to blush at the meaning of his comment. However Greg decided to make the statement backfire on Ren.
"Great. How about you and Nora? Have you two decide to stop with the childhood friend cover story and admit to being an item?" Greg replied, grabbing Nora's attention while Ren paled. Nora pulled Ren into a strong, death-gripped hug as she began to explain.
"No, but only because we are only childhood friends still. Not that there's nothing wrong with me and Ren from being boyfriend and girlfriend. However we don't want to. Not that there's nothing wrong with you, Ren, but..." Nora started to talk like the chatterbox she was while Ren tried to interject before he passed out from lack of air. Jaune and Pyrrha were laughing at the scene while Greg smirked at it. Even Velvet was giggling at the scene.

Raiden walked towards Alex and sat down beside him. "I know...I know...we both miss her Al," he said in a comforting voice, stroking his back.
Alex just grabbed the other free arm of Raiden and clutched at it desperately. "What have I become? Please...tell me," he sobbed into his arm. "Am...am I a...a...a monster? An abomination?"
Raiden closed his eyes as they were tearing up as well. "You're none of those things Alex. Mom knows you're still the same Alex who's just hurt," Raiden replied.
"I'm sorry...I'm soo sorry...I should've been dead a long time ago. Mom would be disappointed in me," Alex sobbed loudly.
Raiden just hugged his brother more tighter. "Please Alex...please don't say those things. Please, for mom, don't hurt yourself even more. Mom would want to see you happy and full of joy," Raiden softly said.

Yang was surprised to see Alex cry in front of her. She never expected to see him, a racist with a cold heart in his lowest. "Should I leave you two alone?"
Raiden smiled at Yang. "Yeah, just wait outside, I'll be out in a bit," he replied. Yang nodded and walked out of the room. Raiden returned to stroking his brothers back. "Just relax, Al, relax."

Elsewhere...

"...and that is why the men at the Austin FOB in Texas will always have the porta-potties under guard whenever Logan and Charlie are on base." Greg finished, everyone laughing at the story. Even Ren smirked at Greg's story. After everyone collected themselves, they all left to go to a class they all had together and somewhat liked: Military History. However today would be even more interesting since Professor Oobleck asked Greg to explain the story of the Ghosts.

After Raiden managed to calm Alex down...

Raiden smiled as patted Alex on the back. "You're okay Al, you're okay now," he said softly to him.
Alex just wiped away his tears and smiled at his brother. "Sorry Raiden, sorry for taking your time away from Yang," he said.
"It's fine, she understands why," he said in a calm tone. He helped Alex up and gave him an L115 magazine. "Welcome back to the Ghosts. C'mon, we have history class with Prof. Oobleck."

After everyone arrived to class, Oobleck began by announcing that Greg would be explaining about the story of the Ghosts as well as some of his world's most greatest battles. Greg stepped up in front of the class and began.
"Well the story behind the Ghost started in a third world country called Afghanistan in the years before it was torn up by warfare. 60 United States Tier One Special Operations members were defending a civilian hospital from 600 jihadists, or religious extremists, of the Taliban. Well they held their ground for three days, but were down to 15 men. So on the night before the fourth day, one of the operatives led the civilians to safety through a mountainous region where US Forces manage to extract them. Meanwhile the remaining fourteen men hid themselves under the bodies of their fallen members. They were covered in blood and caked in sand as they waited for the enemy to arrive. Well the next morning they did arrive and the men raised out of the dead and began taking out the enemy. They fought with their firearms before switching to their knives before using their bare hands. Out of the 600 Taliban extremists, only one survived. He was found wondering aimlessly in the desert by US Marines. When in questioned, he called the Spec Ops Operatives 'Ghosts', starting up our group's legacy." Greg finished. Everyone was dead silent. Students wondered if they should be scared or glad that they had five Ghosts in this academy.

Minutes later...

"...And that's when we took down that Federation factory without raising any suspicion," Greg explained to the class.
Raiden asked permission if he could speak as well. He was given the permission and walked up and stood beside Greg. "And whenever a fellow Ghost dies, we all have a ceremony for them. We have them lying face down with their weapon beside them, their head pointing to their home city. We do this because we believe that their spirits will watch over us as we fight. We did this for, Elias Walker, the former leader of our group. We've also lost, Duece Anderson, one of our best soldiers."

"Anyone who is a Ghost is always a brother or sister-in-arms. We take care of our own and we never abandon our own. We'll sacrifice what we have in order to save a Ghost. Because we're all we've got, "Greg explained.

Everyone applauded Greg's story behind the Ghosts for a while until he sat down back into his seat. After Oobleck reminded the class about assignments, the bell rang and everyone left for their next class. Velvet and Greg met up with Leland and Randi to go to Charlie's class (Ozpin moved them around to where GRVL could work together in the team-building classes) while RADR and RWBY went to Glynda Goodwitch's class.

"Dust studies, my favorite class," said Weiss with pride.
"No duh, you use it in your fighting style Weiss. It's a part of you," Ruby explained.
"It's also my families legacy, I'm expected to be the best, especially in Dust class," Weiss snapped back.
"Stop being so snappy Weiss," Derrick said to her.

Few minutes later at scenario range...

"Okay I had my share of heavy fire, but this is ridiculous!" Greg shouted out over the sounds of heavy fire. Charlie decided to do a scenario in which half of an entire army is after you with tanks. GRVL hid inside a building of importance while paintballs decorated the walls outside. Some days just suck at times.

Meanwhile in Dust class...

While team RWBY was listening to Weiss about how to use Dust and Glynda helping them, team RADR was experimenting with different kind of Dust. "Will this work? Alex asked Derrick who was their made scientist.
"It will work. Since Red Dust is flammable and Light Blue Dust is ice, maybe it'll make a smokescreen," Derrick explained.
"Or it'll fuck us all up," Rick said to him.

Suddenly a nearby window was splattered on the outside with paint. Everyone looked out the other windows and saw Team GRVL in golf cart, trying to escape the tank chasing after them. Some of the students laughed at this scene while others wondered why GRVL was on a golf cart in the first place.
In the golf cart, Greg was glaring at Leland.
"This is your brilliant plan?" He questioned angrily, staring daggers at the pyromaniac.
"I know what I'm doing!" Leland replied.
"You know what you're doing! You know what you're doing! If I had a penny for every time you said that I would have been richer than the Schnee Dust Company by now!" Greg retorted as Leland swerved the car to avoid another paintball tank round.

The students were confused at what happened just now. Derrick was distracted as he poured the Dust together. Good thing it didn't react yet. "What the sane hell was that?" he asked his team.
"I have no idea," Alex said.
"They're crazy," Rick said in Korean.
"Where did they get that golf cart?" Raiden asked.
Derrick shrugged and shook the two Dust together in the container he poured them into. "Alright, golf carts aside, I mixed them together. Now, let's see if it'll work," he said while pouring it into an empty grenade.
"Whoa whoa whoa, you're putting that in a grenade?" Alex asked.
"It may be a smoke bomb," Derrick replied as he placed the cap on the M27 grenade.
"Or it's just a huge explosion that'll kill us," Rick said.

Weiss heard what Rick said and turned her head towards team RADR. "What did you say Rick?" she inquired.
"Derrick's gonna kill us all with a combined Dust grenade," Rick replied calmly, causing Weiss to widen her eyes.
"Combined Dust? What kind?" she asked.
"Red and Light Blue, Weiss," Derrick answered, pulling the pin on the grenade.
"You dolt! That'll make a-" she started to say before the grenade went off. A huge smoke screen developed and filled the room. "-smoke screen," she finished.
"Hey, at least no one's dead-yah!" he shouted in pain.
"You deserve that though," Rick said to Derrick who's whimpering on the floor, holding his crotch.

While Derrick is in pain, Team GRVL was walking back to their room covered with splatters of paint. They were all looking miserable so one bothered them. Greg was still angry, but not at Leland. He was still fuming over the team's first defeat on the scenario games. They had lost when a tank score a direct hit on the golf cart they were in. They decided (and got permission) to hit the showers and rest for awhile. No one argued against them.