Chapter 4: Settling In

When Gaiden them returned to Beacon, Gaiden as well as Atlas, Tai, and Eren following close behind him taking to one another about the exam. As they entered they heard the teams being made up by Professor Ozpin. With team RWBY being made up it was finally Gaiden and his friends turn to be called up.

"Gaiden Johnson, Atlas Kenraw Kahn, Tai Kenshin Vash, and Eren Karas Shibata, the four of you retrieved the king pieces so from this day forward you will all be known as Team GATE lead by Gaiden Johnson" Prof. Ozpin announced.

Gaiden smiled while crossing his arms over his chest with Tai and Eren simply bowing their heads in respect but for Atlas, he stood there waiting to go to bed in their dorms.

After the announcement, all of Team gate headed towards their dorm room which was two rooms away from Team RWBYs room. The first one to crash was Atlas as he called dibs on the closest bed, which was the closest to the door, by laying on it and going to sleep. Eren was tempted to bug Atlas but was also just as tired thanks to Gaiden's flare gun act and attracting groups of Grim to their location; he took the bed across from Atlas. Tai simply took the bed by the window and fell asleep leaving Gaiden to sort some things out. The room would be separated on who has what part of the room but that was saved for later since Gaiden was just as tired.

Come morning, the second to wake was Gaiden as he woke to a sun shiny day with Tai exiting the bathroom with only a towel around his waist. Scars could be clearly seen about his body; claw marks on his right shoulder, back, and chest were visible in the bright rays of sun. Gaiden looked at Tai before looking at the ground remembering his own harsh training as to keep up with his family's traditions. A sigh escaped Gaiden's lips before he looked at Tai to see he was now getting dressed.

His attention was brought to one of his school books as he walked over to it seeing his class schedule to see their first class was at nine o'clock. Gaiden blinked his eyes before he looked at the clock hanging over the door to see it was close to being eight thirty. Seeing this, Gaiden closed his eyes before placing his hands together and breathed in deeply. Tai saw Gaiden prepare for something and sighed leaving the room to class.

AS Tai left the room, Gaiden shouted loudly to awaken Atlas as well as Eren who were still fast asleep.

"WAKE UP YOU GUYS! WE NEED TO GET READY FOR CLASSES!" Gaiden shouted.

This sudden outburst made Eren flail in sleep before falling off his bed and landing face first onto the ground. Atlas on the other hand woke up for a split second before falling asleep again, Eren got up off the ground and looked at the clock seeing it was as Gaiden said. Eren quickly woke up and ran into the bath room as to rinse off and brush his teeth. Gaiden walked over to Atlas and tapped his right foot on the ground thinking of a way to wake Atlas up from his deep slumber.

"If you don't wake up soon I will continue to bug the living hell out of you for the rest of the day" Gaiden threatened

Atlas groaned from his sleep as he forced himself awake as to avoid the threat. When Gaiden was in such a mood, it was like hell to Atlas as Gaiden would poke him constantly, call his name, or just do both at the same time. As he got up, he went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth and nothing more. With his team now awake, Gaiden nodded his head as he began to get ready for class.

Twenty five minutes later, Eren was the first one out as he began to get ready for class before quickly rushing out of the dorm room to class. Atlas lazily walked out and stretched with Gaiden going in the bath room to wash up quickly and as Atlas finished getting ready, Gaiden instantly grabbed Atlas by his right arm and pulled him as Gaiden booked it to get to class on time.

Gaiden had gotten to class right as the bell rang as he released Atlas and walked over to where Tai saved him a seat. Eren would be sitting on the left side of Tai with his note book out ready to write notes, Tai was the same but he was there earlier than them. Atlas followed Gaiden before sitting beside him and looked at the professor walk in. He was a veteran hunter with grey hair combed to the side and a bushy mustache over his lips. Eren looked at the Professor seeing his name on the board as Professor Port.

"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night, yes the creatures of Grimm have many names but refer to them as prey ha-ha!" Prof Port spoke swinging his right arm to the side with a smile.

"And you shall too from graduating from this academy, now as I was saying, Vale as well as the other three kingdoms are safe havens from the otherwise traitorous world that are teaming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces and that's where we come in…huntsmen, huntresses" Port pointed to a random huntress and winked

"Individuals that have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves, from what you ask?" Port asked with his left hand raised to the side.

"Why the very world!" Port answered.

"YEAH!" Gaiden shouted in agreement with his right hand raised up.

Eren and Tai looked at Gaiden before they both face palmed themselves as Gaiden was the only one who agreed. Seeing this, he chuckled nervously before slowly sitting back down looking at his book while Prof. Port cleared his throat as to continue his lesson.

"That is what you are training to become, but first, a story a tale of a young handsome man…me" Port spoke

As Prof port began to tell his story, Atlas had long fallen asleep with Tai and Gaiden discussing about the Grimm they fought yesterday. Eren was merely writing down notes form the Professors story as to keep it by him in case it would be needed for examples. This was one of his many habits as to keep track of his family shipments and stocks. As Prof Port was at the end of his story, Tai tapped the table and nudged his head to the prof as to keep track of the prof.

"Celebrated as a hero" Port finished his story before bowing his head and standing straight.

"Moral of the story, true huntsmen must be honorable, must be dependable, true huntsmen must strategic, well educated, and wise." Prof Port spoke looking at his students.

"So who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Prof Port asked with his hands now behind his back.

Gaiden was about to raise his hand before Weiss quickly brought her hand up to volunteer.

"I do sir!" Weiss shouted.

"Well then let's find out" Prof Port spoke looking to his right.

To the Professors right was a caged Grimm that shook at the cage trying to get out. Red glowing eyes could be easily seen within the darkness of the cage as its rage was focused on shredding any in its wake.

"Step forward and face your opponent" Prof Port announced.

With that, Weiss walked to the front of the class room with her rapier drawn and ready to fight as the Professor brought his weapon out and cut the lock. With the lock now cut, the door to the cage quickly fell forward revealing a boar like Grimm with four eyes and two long tusks known as a boarbatusks. Eren watched as Weiss argued with her team leader, this made Eren shake his head in disappointment. As Weiss began to fight the boar like Grimm. Even when Ruby pointed out the weakness of the boar, Weiss still yelled at Ruby as if she was a bother rather than a team mate.

Seconds pass as Weiss finished off the boarbatusks; class had already ended making Weiss leave the class room before anyone else. Ruby followed after Weiss as to talk to her about her attitude while the rest of team RWBY went back to their dorm room. Gaiden looked at Eren to see his friend was a disappointed at Weiss about disrespecting her leader.

"Eren, are you okay?" Gaiden asked worried about his friend.

"Yeah, I'll be fine" Eren spoke getting up and leaving.

[Next Day]

With the first day running off and the next day arriving, Team Gate would be in the combat room watching as Jaune was getting beaten down in a one on match against Cardin. Gaiden did not like Cardin for anything with Tai just watching carefully and Eren still feeling down about his friend changing. The sound of a loud beep signaling that Jaune lost the battle making Cardin smirk and back off for now.

"That's enough." Ms. Goodwitch spoke.

Miss Goodwitch's stepped between the two and walking forward holding her pad in her left hand as she brought it to her face.

"Students as you can see, Arcs aura has dropped into the red, in a tournament style dual, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and the official may call the match" Goodwitch spoke before sighing.

Eren looked at Jaune uncomfortable as well as irked by how the boy was beaten so easily and wasn't even able to score a single hit on him. Atlas was sitting their disappointed at the young boy while slowly looking at Cardin, his eyes narrowed as he thought about if he spoke down on Eren. Tai had been watching Cardin the entire time as to see where he kept himself open and vulnerable. Gaiden on the other hand was a little worried about the boy who was beaten senselessly by his opponent.

As class ended everyone got up and left for the mess hall all with Gaiden standing up and stretching his arms while looking at his team. Eren and Tai slowly stood up at the same time while talking to one another as they left leaving Gaiden and Atlas. Atlas sighed slowly standing up and cracking his neck before leaving for the mess hall. Gaiden looked over to the arena are thinking a little before looking at Atlas as he left before he followed suit.

"I hope things will not go out of control today" Gaiden whispered to himself.

[Mess Hall]

As Gaiden arrived at the mess hall, he saw Ruby as well as her team and waved over to them which Ruby saw and waved back. Eren and Tai would be sitting across from Blake and Weiss with Team JNPR sitting on the same table. Gaiden walked over and sat beside Jaune looking at him. Jaune sat there messing with his food with Pyrrah becoming worried about him.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrah asked.

It took a few seconds for Jaune to catch what Pyrrah said before he snapped out of his train of thought. To Gaiden it was already clear on why he was bummed but what was not clear was why not ask for help.

"Oh yeah, why?" Jaune said not making eye contact.

"Not to be rude or anything Jaune but you don't seem okay at all." Gaiden admitted tilting his head to the right a little.

"Guys I'm fine, seriously, look." Jaune said giving a fake smile and a thumb up before looking over to Cardin who was a table away.

Gaiden followed Jaunes gaze to find him looking at Cardin who was bullying a Faunus with rabbit ears with his team. Seeing this, Gaiden's eyes widened enraged at the scene to the point where Eren and Tai picked up on while Atlas was stuffing his face with food. Everything went silent to Gaiden as his sights were now set on team CRDL.

"Oww stop that hurts!" The rabbit Faunus girl shouted in pain.

That pushed Gaiden past his limit before Eren cleared his throat quickly getting Gaiden's attention. Eren brought his right fist up with his pointing finger up and moved it left to right as if telling Gaiden to stop. Gaiden looked at this action before closing his eyes and breathing in slowly and calming himself down. Ruby looked at Gaiden and looked a little worried before smiling a little and placed her hands on the table making Gaiden open his left eye slightly to look at Ruby.

"You okay Gaiden?" Ruby asked concerned.

"Yeah I am fine, I just don't take bullies kindly" Gaiden admitted.

Eren nodded and stood up walking over to Cardin and his gang with his hands behind his back and stopped right in front of Cardin looking down at him.

"You know it is not nice to be bullying others little boy" Eren spoke with a smirk.

"Who are you calling little boy you brat?" Cardin asked standing up.

"Why not take a little gambit with me and my leader?" Eren proposed.

Cardin looked at Eren for a little then looked at his team laughing softly before looking back at Eren crossing his arms.

"Fight one of team GATE with your entire team, if you win we will be your lackeys for the entire four years in this academy" Eren answered.

"And if one of your team mates win what do you get?" Cardin asked.

"You and your team become Gaiden's lackeys" Eren answered.

"Fine! Then my team challenges you brat." Cardin spoke smirking.

"So be it, we fight in the combat arena with a teacher as a judge." Eren spoke.

With that Eren turned his back on Cardin and walked off humming to himself while Gaiden looked to Tai and Atlas before clearing his throat. This caught their attention making them look to were Eren walked off to and quickly stood up and followed suite. Gaiden wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to Eren or Cardin as it would cause Eren to both get kicked out of the academy as well as thrown in jail. Teams RWBY as well as JNPR followed them wandering on how the fight will turn out.

[In the combat room]

With Eren on one side and team CRDL on the other, Gaiden and the rest of team GATE with the teams JNPR and RWBY watching the fight about to take place. With Eren held Death in his left hand with its blade touching the ground. Gaiden was a worried about Eren going too far but was ready to jump in to stop Eren's wrath if need be. Mrs. Goodwitch stood between the two to watch the battle as well as keep a sharp eye on Eren given his history about those that talked about his families company.

"The combat will start in three seconds, the match will end when you lose your weapon, unfit to continue fighting, or forfeit." Goodwitch announced.

"Hope your ready Cardin" Eren whispered.

"Two"

"Oh believe me boy I hope you're ready" Cardin replied.

"One"

Eren got into a running position with team CRDL getting into their formation with Cardin in front while the others got behind him.

"Start" Goodwitch announced.

At the announcement, Team CRDL quickly ran towards Eren who did the same with weapons ready and drawn. As they reached one another, Eren jumped over Carding while sliding his hand from the center of the pole of Death to the end of the pole. Cardin's gaze followed Eren only to have Deaths blade hit the back of his head allowing Eren to launch himself back while Cardin was launched into his team mates. A laugh escaped Eren while watching Cardin and his thugs get back on their feet with Cardin bringing his weapon forward and swung it at the ground creating a line of explosions aimed at Eren.

Eren rolled to the side while pointing at Cardin making a Glypse appear under his feet binding him still but unfortunately Cardin's team mates Russel and Sky rushed Eren from opposite sides. Russel jumped upwards and spun forward like that of wheel with his weapons slashing forward while Sky continued to run towards Eren's position.

Eren looked at Russel and brought Death in front to block the slashes with Sky reaching Eren from behind and brought his halberd forward in an attempt to slash at Eren's back. It connected and sent Eren to the side along with breaking the glyph that held Cardin. Cardin in turn ran towards Eren and watched as Eren was fending off Sky and Russel. With Eren focused on not getting hit by Sky and Russel, Cardin came up from the side and slammed his mace into Eren's side launching him to the side laughing.

"Is that the entire Shibata corps heir has? No wonder they are a dying business, because their heir can't hold himself in a match all on his own" Cardin taunted.

Gaiden's eyes widened with Tai's focus on Eren who was becoming more intense as they got their own weapons ready to fend of Eren. Eren's eyes widened at the comment Cardin spoke about his families business dying but sad to say he was not lying. To Eren it was a serious offence to his families business, his eyes were filled with blood lust as he pointed at Cardin and was about to use a Glypse to punish him only for the match to be stopped by Ms. Goodwitch who stepped between them but aimed her wand at Eren.

"This match is voided so Eren leave now and cool off" Ms. Goodwitch spoke narrowing her eyes at him.

Eren glared at Ms. Goodwitch making him grit his teeth before closing his eyes and walking towards the exit.

"Have fun with your families dying business brat!" Cardin shouted.

This caused Eren to stop and look over his right shoulder to glare at Cardin who had his arms out wards as if he was asking for a Eren to do something foolish. He quickly turned forward and walked out of the combat room with Weiss getting up and running off to talk to Eren. While the event took place, Gaiden's playful and caring aura began to grow heavy with rage and hate, he was about to stand up to continue what Eren started. Suddenly a hand was placed on Gaiden's shoulder forcing him to quickly glare at the one who dared to try and stop him. The one who stopped him was none other than Atlas who towered over Gaiden's form.

"Stay here Gaiden; I have heard enough of the infants talking if they are adults" Atlas spoke.

Gaiden looked at Atlas to see he was serious to which made Gaiden sigh and sat down with his arms crossed with his eyes looking at Cardin.

"No respect" Gaiden whispered.

"no mercy" Atlas finished as he removed his hand from Gaiden's shoulder.

With that Atlas made his way to the center of the combat room looking at Cardin and his team with his eyes half open.

"Goodwitch, I will take over for Eren seeing as you voided his match thus it is called as a tie" Atlas spoke holding Extinction in his right hand while the silk was held in his opposite hand.

"I will be the tie breaker" Atlas said sighing.

"What do we have here? The big brother of the failure of an heir?" Cardin taunted looking at Atlas

"Spoiled infant, you should know when to stop talking" Atlas spoke.

Ms. Goodwitch looked at Atlas unsure how to see this situation; his files were very limited but had no real bad records other than sleeping in most of his classes. She soon nodded at this with Atlas tossing Extinction up into the air and began to swing it with his left hand with his right hand grabbing part of the long silk that held his weapon.

"Begin" Ms. Goodwitch announced.

At the start, Cardin let his thugs rush Atlas from the front while he waited, Atlas walked to them with his eyes still half open. As Sky, Russel, and Dove ran, they had their weapons drawn but they failed to notice that Atlas had swung Extinction to the side. The anchor like weapon hooked all three in front of Atlas before he gripped the silk and slashed it upwards launching Extinction into the sky along with most of Team CRDL. As they were about to fall to the ground, Extinction was aimed towards the ground to which Atlas grabbed the cloth with both hands and yanked it down to the ground causing Extinction to fly down hooking the three down together before the three slammed into the ground kicking up dirt.

As the dirt and dust cleared it showed the three and their aura bar were green but quickly went red and almost with bones shattered and cracked from the force of impact from both the ground and the heavy anchor. Cardin looked at his team who groaned in pain with Extinction being pulled out of the ground by Atlas who made his way towards Cardin.

"Do you see your friends on the ground there boy?" Atlas asked pointing at the wounded team of CRDL with Extinction.

"Theirs is a show of mercy, you will get no such thing from me" Atlas answered widening his eyes and gritting his teeth.

Atlas activated his semblance known as awakening; this ability was like that of Yang's semblance which draws strength from getting hit but unlike hers, he does not need to get hit thus increasing his strength, speed, agility, but greatly decreases his stamina and making him extremely tired after a certain time period. As Atlas widened his eyes, his aura exploded like flames with Atlas being engulfed by the flames but the figure of Atlas being that of a shadow like figure in the flame. The figure looked more like a demon now and this triggered a rumored that spread about Beacon which made Ruby's eyes widen at remembering who this was.

"I remember him now! The demon of Beacon" Ruby whispered while putting her hands in front of her mouth.

"What?" Yang asked surprised.

"He was held back a year or so because of what he did to students as well as some teachers" Ruby answered.

Cardin stood there dumbfounded on what he was about to face as well as given and was about to forfeit before Atlas vanished and appeared in front of him and grabbing his lower face with his left hand grinning while lifting him off the ground.

"Oh no Cardin, I will give you no quarter but don't worry I will not kill you" Atlas spoke before Cardin brought his mace and slammed it into Atlases head from the right.

This launched Atlas to the side with Cardin being dropped to the ground and began coughing loudly to catch his breath. As he stood up he looked forward to see Atlas in front of him again grinning widely. Cardin stood up quickly and swung his mace upwards for an uppercut but heard a crack from his right wrist. His head turned to look at his wrist to see his hand was twisted past where it was supposed to be with Atlases hand by his now twisted wrist.

"I will only leave you inches from deaths door" Atlas whispered

Cardins head turned to Atlas only to he see a blur as Atlas delivered his own uppercut sending Cardin into the sky and dropped Extinction while grabbing hold of the very end of the cloth. With Cardin falling down, Atlas jumped upwards and grabbed Cardin with his right hand and pulled him down towards the ground.

As Cardin flew towards the ground, Atlas pulled the end of Extinctions cloth pulling it upwards which connected with Cardin's gut and knocking the air out of him. With Extinction hitting Cardin, it stopped him from falling for a few seconds but that was long enough for Atlas to catch up and plant both his feet into Cardin's back as they continued their decent. They both crashed into the ground revealing Cardin on the ground unconscious and blood dripping from his mouth while Atlas slowly walked off his back sighing softly deactivating his semblance which was awaken.

"Don't worry, he's still very much alive but he will be needing some extreme medical attention" Atlas spoke looking at Ms. Goodwitch with his lazy like eyes again.

"And the match is set, winner is Atlas Kenraw Kahn" Ms. Goodwitch announced shocked at the display that took place.

A medical team quickly rushed in to take team CRDL to the medical center of the academy with Atlas bringing his left hand over his mouth as he yawned loudly. He looked up at Gaiden and nodded his head before slowly looking over to Yang and smirked before turning to head to his teams dorm room. Gaiden watched as Team CRDL was taken to the medical side of the school before he smiled in satisfaction and stood up to leave only to be stopped by Yang.

"You have some explaining to do" Yang spoke pointing at him with her right pointing finger.

"How do you know the demon of Beacon?" Ruby asked beside her sisters.

"He is my adopted brother" Gaiden answered bluntly.

As they looked at each other about the answer they turned to find Gaiden was no longer there but by the exit walking out to the dorm room as well. Tai was left there to finish what Gaiden was to answer as he walked over to the girls looking around for Gaiden.

"Yang and Ruby, I advise you both to leave Gaiden as well as Atlas alone for now" Tai advised closing his eyes.

"They both went through a lot and wish to rest" Tai spoke walking past them.

"Some other time" Tai finished as he left the combat room.

[Balcony]

Eren leaned on the stone pillar looking out to the night sky, his thoughts consuming him. His family had gone missing. Their company was failing and on the verge of dying had he not been there to hold it together. The tightness in his chest was growing worse as rage boiled within him. No one knew of his situation and he planned to keep it that way. It was no one's business. He didn't want pity from anyone nor did he feel like others trying to smother him while trying to say they understood what was going on. No one knew. No one had to.

"You would be out here alone." a familiar voice broke his train of though. Weiss came into his field of vision when he turned to face the voice.

"What are you doing here." Eren said more than asked. This earned a look of concern from Weiss.

"What is wrong, Eren? Ever since we got to Beacon, you've been a bit off. I saw you in the combat room. What was that? You looked like something in you just completely snapped. I've never seen you like that." Weiss walked up behind Eren as he turned his back to her to look back at the night sky.

"What does it matter to you, Ms. Schnee? You have yourself to worry about." Eren shot coldly causing Weiss to frown a bit disappointed and a bit hurt.

"Look, I know how things can get but you know me. We've known each other for a long time, Eren. Don't shut me out if you're suffering inside." she rested her hand on his shoulder.

"I don't need your pity, Ms. Schnee." he shrugged her hand off.

"It's not ptiy, Eren. I care. We've been friends since childhood. I know we've lost contact for a while but I'm here now." she quickly found herself in Eren's arms.

"I'll trust you then. I don't want the others to know until I am able to tell them." his voice was softer than usual almost gentle. The embrace between them did not break.

"I... I promise." she blushed and her mouth twisted up a little.

"My family has gone missing. The company is slowly dying." his embrace tightened as he spoke.

"I've been trying to maintain it on my own. It's difficult." he twitched a little as he felt Weiss' hands gently rest around his waist.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. It must be really stressful." her voice was full of sincerity. She tried to find more words of comfort to offer but her thoughts were interrupted.

"Thank you, for being here. You being able to listen is enough." Eren stared deep into Weiss' eyes which reflected the starlight of the night sky.

They stood there on the balcony as the stars in the sky matched the silence around them, a gentle breeze caressing their faces. His embrace finally broke as he lifted his right hand to rest lightly on the side of her cheek. Her face was now peaceful and her eyes now reflected his own. He rubbed his thumb up and down her cheek gently.

"Weiss, could you close your eyes?" he whispered and she complied as his face grew closer to hers. Their hearts began to race rapidly in tune for their lips were now only millimeters away.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIS!" unfortunately the meeting of lips was prevented by a horrid impact followed by a red cloak.

Eren felt his back hit the pillar of the balcony and added weight crushing him on impact in a set of two. Ruby and Weiss had been flung into him by the sheer force of the red hooded girl. This caused Weiss to stand up practically breathing fire.

"RUBY! You just ruined my chance!" obviously annoyed, Weiss was nearly as red as Ruby's cape. This caused Eren to snicker.

"I'm glad that you have found some friends to cheer you up as well, Ms. Schnee." he stood up straight and began to walk back toward his dorm, leaving Weiss and Ruby behind. As he was about to step indoors he looked over his shoulder at Weiss and grinned almost seductively.

"I hope we can continue sometime soon. Sweet snow angel." this caused Weiss to become silent and look at the ground to struggle with her racing heart.

TO BE CONTINUED…

That is the end of Chapter 4. This one took time as it had an element that I am not used to known as…romance…but luckily I have a partner to help with that^^

I hope you liked it? Now the same question as last time but minus the Eren x Weiss scene seeing as this one has it^_^;

Which scene would you, the viewers, would you like to see? Please review with your answers!

A) Gaiden x Ruby

B) Tai x Blake

C) Atlas x Yang