Chapter 5.5: Secrets

The night didn't go very quickly for Steven. He couldn't sleep very well, not because of what he did the day before, but because he couldn't get over the voice that was in his head, and what it said. That and he was still in disbelief how everyone was so ready to forgive him despite barely knowing him at all. It was certainly a lot to process, especially what the voice said.

"You think you came into this world randomly, but I assure you, it was not random."? What the hell is that supposed to mean? He was brought into this world? Well, that certainly would explain a lot of it, but it doesn't explain why.

"You are mine, and you will bow to my every whim, or you will suffer the consequences…"?! What, now he's someone's pawn?! Steven hated to be manipulated, and as a result, was very hard to have been taken advantage of back home. The worst part, however, is that he may be forced to do whatever this person's bidding is in the future, or something may happen. Steven may not have anything left to lose anymore, but he can't let anything happen to anyone because of something that is his issue, or something out of their control. It just wasn't right.

Steven soon put two and two together, and realized something. Someone, something brought him here to do whatever they wanted him to do. He doesn't know if it's good or evil, but considering what happened afterwards, he inferred the latter. But perhaps the most confusing of the aspects of this is why him? What made Steven Paxton, an average teenager from rural Massachusetts, who showed average talents, and only came into this world mere weeks ago, so special, so important? Steven didn't very much like any of the answers he liked, so he tried to focus his mind elsewhere.

One of the many side effects of his ADHD, was that his mind was always going, it never stopped. He didn't mind it, as he grew up with it, but it allowed hundreds of ideas into his mind every day, and he relished in that. Not only that, but his mind was always racing, often bringing him from one subject to another, eventually getting to something entirely different, often making him wonder how the hell he got to where he was in his mind to begin with. Additionally, when he goes to bed, he doesn't stop thinking. He cannot simply calm his mind to sleep like any normal individual, he just randomly falls asleep mid-thought, often not realizing it until he has a dream or wakes up the next morning. This was both a blessing and a curse, as many times, as a result of his rapid though process, he often thought worst-case scenarios, and thought through how to deal with them if applicable, but if it was something he couldn't think through, he'd either stay on it, unable to think of something else, or his mind would bring him to something else entirely, letting him relax a little, however the former was more likely. Sometimes, however, Steven is able to realize what is happening, and the process he's taking, and is able to stop himself from continuing, and changing the subject.

The mind truly is an amazing thing, a space within our brains that allows us to create infinite ideas, whether they be innovations, activities, tactics, or anything else under the sun, it's what makes humans and any other similar species unique, Faunus included. And the best part about it? It's infinite, never ending, forever there, and it's what dictates our every move whether we realize it or not. Such a small area in your head, yet it's infinite. It's a little uncanny, don't you think? Yet for some, the mind is both a treasure and a curse. For some, their mind is turned against them, others, they are trapped in a small piece of it, unable to reach their potential from the many events they've had to endure in their lives, often making them lose hope. While those who have the better minds go on to do amazing things, whether it's recognized by the world or not, those people always change the world. They often become our leaders, our celebrated innovators, our cherished artists, and our greatest teachers. However, along with what is debatably our greatest ally, our greatest tool, can often be our worst enemy, as the ideas of many clash often, leading to conflict, a concept Steven's world was all too familiar with, and likely would be experiencing for as long as the human race existed on Earth.

You see how the boy's mind works? He is one of them, one of the ones where his mind is surely a treasure, he is unique. He may not be better than others in some aspects, and he certainly doesn't believe himself to be better than most people, but his mind makes him who he is, and it is full of greatness, and he will go on to achieve great things, whether he realizes it or not, on Earth, or on Remnant, the place does not matter.

Steven has drifted to sleep by now, although it has taken a long time, he is at least getting some rest, which he will need for the coming day. Tomorrow, he will tell everyone his past because he feels it's right. He needs to, or else fear that something may happen and his potential friends and comrades will have no idea what to do should the worst happen. Not only that, but he feels as if his future comrades wouldn't quite trust him if they somehow heard it from someone else, and not from him. He won't tell them everything though, such as his family and….. about Jenny…. as they don't need to know about them, and Steven didn't want any more sympathy than he was already being given. Yes, Steven always wanted to be sure he was forgiven when he did something he regrets, but he doesn't like more sympathy than he thinks he deserves.

Steven didn't get much sleep that night, as expected. But he was used to waking up without much sleep, as he often only got his normal 8 hours of sleep every night, as he liked to do things with his days. Today, however, he only caught a few hours, waking up frequently for the dumbest of reasons. He looked over to the clock on his nightstand to see what time it was. "Five o'clock." He mumbled, but he decided he had enough, and got up from bed. The sun was only starting to rise, but light began to shine through the window anyways, but Steven kept his blinds closed. Steven stumbled around, grabbing what he needed, before going to take a hot shower. He really needed one to unwind for a bit.

Steven made sure to stay as quiet as he could. He didn't want to wake up anyone around him because of his negligence. Quietly closing his door, Steven walked through the hallway and to the showers. No one was in there, so Steven took as long as he desired. About 20 minutes later, Steven had exited the showers, now wrapped in just a towel, as no one was awake yet, he walked on back to his room stealthily, trying not to wake anyone up still. Successfully back in his room, Steven got dressed in a school uniform, as it was now officially mandatory to wear a school uniform while on school grounds, unless one is leaving the school grounds, or undertaking a mission. The uniforms were simple, but nice. For the guys, they had black suits lined with gold, accompanied by a blue vest and a white shirt with a red tie. Girls were given something similar, with the ability to wear long stockings as an optional component, a red plaid skirt, and a brown jacket with a tan vest and white shirt with a red ribbon tied at the collar made their uniform. Students were allowed to customize them a little, though, adding some things should they choose, so Steven took advantage of this, and put his emblem on his belt at all times, as he liked it so much.

Steven looked at the clock again, about 6:00. Steven knew he needed to talk to Ozpin about the events that transpired the day before, specifically the voices, along with a few other things. He decided it wasn't too early, and considering the topic he's going to be bringing up with him, he was confident that he wouldn't mind in the end, as this was important.

Leaving his room, Steven made his way up to his headmaster's office, but was sure to leave a note on his door telling him where he is so no one would be worried about him. Steven took his time, getting to know the school a bit, as he would be spending the next four years here, and he should probably learn the layout as soon as possible.

Steven made it to the elevator that lead to Ozpins office, pressing the corresponding button to get there. He then ascended his way up the elevator, until he got to the same office he was brought to on his first day in this world. He was very surprised to say the least when he saw Ozpin at his desk so early in the morning, looking at things on his terminal.

Unknowingly to Steven, Ozpin was actually looking at the footage of Steven from the day before, specifically about the 'incident'. "Good morning, Mr. Paxton, what brings you here this morning?" He says, closing his terminal window, before looking at Steven.

"I have… some things to tell you about yesterday." Steven said nervously.

"I see… come, take a seat." Ozpin responded, motioning towards the empty chair in front of him. Steven proceeded to walk over to the chair, and sat down.

They sat there in silence for a few moments Steven let out a long sigh before saying anything further. "There were voices in my head before I… lost control." Steven said, trying to find the correct terminology.

Ozpin raised his eyebrow in curiosity, his elbows on the desk, and his fingertips touching, forming a sort of triangle with his hands. "Oh, really? What did this voice tell you?" Ozpin said, suddenly very serious, which startled Steven a little.

"It said…" He began, trying to recall the memory without causing himself too much pain, as if he let it do just that, he'd be vulnerable. "It told me," He corrected himself, "that I was brought into this world, and it wasn't a mistake. Additionally, she told me that I was under her control, whether she liked it or not, and if I didn't comply with her, there would be consequences, which I assume would be the deaths of innocents." He finished, looking down in shame.

Ozpin hummed in acknowledgement before saying, "You mentioned 'she'. How do you know it's a woman?" He inquired, very serious.

"The voice was evil, and it was most certainly a woman's. That much I can say, but I do not recognize it." He answered.

"Alright. Now, tell me, how did you regain control of your body?" Ozpin asked in a less serious tone.

"I don't really know, I never really thought about that. I guess, once I saw what my body was about to do, I couldn't stand to see it do what it was about to do, so I forced… whatever was controlling me… out of my body. That's really the only way I can describe it."

"Fascinating." Ozpin said, leaning back in his chair a bit now.

"Do you have any idea as to what happened?" Steven asked hopefully, not expecting much of an answer.

"I… might have an idea, but don't worry about it." Ozpin stated calmly.

Steven became slightly outraged at this. "Don't worry about it?! Are you crazy? I think I should definitely be worried about it!" He exclaimed, raising his voice below a yell. "I could kill someone if that happens again!"

Ozpin let out a sigh before leaning back into his desk. "I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but I honestly don't know what happened right now. Once I get more information, I'll tell you, but for now, we have to not worry about it. Just be careful with your actions using your semblance for now."

Steven didn't like the answer he was being given, but he knew he was right. Even though there is a risk of it happening again, he can't let it prevent him from going about his day to day activities, or come between him and his comrades, and hopefully soon-to-be friends. "Fine." He said reluctantly.

"Good." Ozpin said. "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" He added, seeing that Steven appeared to still have some questions.

"Yes, actually." Steven began, now giving Ozpin a glare. "Why did you go easy on me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ozpin quickly dismissed Steven's question.

"Look, I hate to be rude here professor, but please don't lie to me." Steven continued sternly. "I know you gave me a different test than the others, giving me logic questions instead of academic ones, and who knows what was different on my combat portion of the test! All I want to know, is why you're going easy on me, why you're treating me so special! Because I don't want to be treated like someone else! Sure I can fight really well surprisingly, but that doesn't mean I'm uneducated! I know my math, I know my physics, my biology, my chemistry, the only thing I don't know is your history! Yet you seemed to decide that I probably didn't know any of it, as I came from a different world, which I would understand, but you could've at least asked me about it!" Steven ranted.

Seeing that he'd been caught, Ozpin let out a sigh. "Steven, I know you are smarter than you first thought I believed you to be. The reason I gave you a different test was because I wanted to see how you were in combat."

Steven was downright angry at him now. "Why?! You want me to be your prized student? You want me to be your star student who you can show the world pointing at me going 'look at him! He's my student! He learned everything he knows from me!'? Well I say HELL NO to that!" Steven shouted with fury in his eyes.

"Steven, that's not why I did-" He began.

"Then why?!" Steven shouted, demanding an answer. "Enlighten me!"

Ozpin took a moment, knowing Steven would probably not like the real answer much better, so he decided to try to lie again. "I did it because…. I knew…" Ozpin stated rather mysteriously. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the whole story clearly.

"What do you mean you knew? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I can't really explain it, all I know is that I just knew you were fine when it came to that test, so I decided not to bother, and I apologize" Ozpin explained, playing off the lie.

Steven didn't really know if he was being given the actual answer, but saw that he most likely wasn't going to get anything else out of Ozpin at this time. Steven simply glared at Ozpin with a look of disappointment, his arms crossed.

"I'm sorry Mr. Paxton." Ozpin said after a long silence.

Steven sighed before saying "No more special treatment. I know I may be special, but just because I popped into this world not long ago, doesn't mean I want special treatment. From now on, please treat me like a normal student. That's all I want." He said, having calmed down considerably. Steven may get mad from time to time, but he didn't remain that way for long, as he doesn't enjoy being mad at someone.

"Alright, fine. As of right now, you are a normal student here." Ozpin declared.

"Thank you." Steven said, relieved. He sat there for a few moments. He looked at the time on his scroll, which read 8:00. It certainly didn't feel like it had been that long, but whatever, he thought to himself. "I'm going to get going now, they're serving breakfast now. Thank you for everything you've done for me once again, just remember not to treat me differently now." He said standing up from his chair about to leave.

"You have my word." Ozpin assured him.

Steven smiled. "Thank you." He said before turning around. He was part way to the elevator when he spun back around suddenly, remembering something. "I almost forgot." Steven said, taking out his wallet. "Here." He said as he gave the money he hadn't spent that Ozpin gave him in his first day back to him. "I have everything I need now."

Ozpin smiled at the gesture, but extended his hand in rejection "No. you keep it. Consider it a gift for coming to this world."

"No, I insist, take it. I couldn't possibly accept a gift like this." Steven insisted.

"Nope. It's all yours."

Steven put it on his desk, seeing as he clearly won't take it, and left it there, prompting an annoyed sigh from Ozpin, before turning back around and heading back towards the elevator before he could have a chance to give the money back to Steven. In his mind, he was just doing what he thought was right, he didn't earn the money, and it wasn't his own, so he didn't feel right having it. Steven was suddenly stopped as he was about to enter the elevator when Ozpin stopped him.

"Mr. Paxton, do you plan on telling your new friends about your past at some point? They won't look at you the same if you do or don't you know." Ozpin inquired.

Steven simply stood there for a moment, facing the elevator, and only turned his head to the side to respond. "Yes." Is all he said. He then walked into the elevator, and pressed the button for the floor with the cafeteria on it. "Have a good day Professor Ozpin." He said after turning around in the elevator before the doors closed.

Steven headed over to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast, planning on bringing it back to his room like usual. They were serving some nice scrambled eggs, bacon, and some pancakes that day, which Steven loved, and it made him happy. Steven was walking back through the cafeteria towards the entrance, but was stopped in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice call out his name behind him.

"Hey Steven! Where are you going?" Ruby asked. She was quite bright and energetic as usual, which made Steven smile a bit. She was sitting with her new team as well as team JNPR, which they had befriended.

"Oh, I'm just going back to my room is all. I like to eat by myself." He responded, rather disappointed with himself at the end.

"Why don't you come sit with us?" She offered, gesturing him to come over and sit down, sliding over a bit and patting the bench next to her with a smile.

"Well, I don't want to intrude on anything." Steven said, rather nervous.

"We don't mind, right guys?" She asked the rest of the group. Everyone gave a nod signaling that they didn't mind. "See?" She finished, a smile still on her face.

"Well, alright." Steven caved with a small roll of his eyes, and a sincere smile, before walking over to the table and sitting down between Ruby and Ren. "Good morning everyone" He said as he sat down.

"Goooood Morniiiing!" Nora sang, who sat to the right of Ren.

"Mornin'" Jaune replied, who sat across from Steven.

"Mornin' Steve" Yang replied with a smile and wave, who was sitting next to Ruby.

"Good morning" Ren formally said to Steven.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha sang with a wave and a smile, who was across from Ren.

Blake, who was sitting across from Yang, said nothing, and looked very tired, clearly not much of a morning person, but he didn't mind, he understood. Weiss, sitting across from Ruby, was caught up in a large book, which surprised him as classes didn't begin until tomorrow, and thus she didn't notice him there.

Steven started eating his breakfast with the others, all of which were busy eating for the most part. Ruby broke the ice though when she tried to talk to Weiss.

"Weiss, why are you doing school work already? Classes don't start until tomorrow."

"I like to be prepared Ruby, that way I can be ready for my classes, and do better." She responded, slightly annoyed.

"Don't you think you should just relax? You're going to stress yourself out if you do that too much." Steven said, trying to reason with her.

"I know my limits" She said rather harshly, prompting her to go deeper into her book, and making Steven roll his eyes before returning to his food.

Everyone soon began to strike up conversations with one another. Steven didn't mind that he was left out of their conversations though, he did just meet them the other day, and they were team mates afterall. Not only that, but he honestly didn't notice. He was too involved with his food, his mind blank.

Jaune tried flirting with Weiss again, to no avail per usual, and prompted a few giggles around the table. If Steven were noticing, he would see that Pyrrha was somewhat bothered by it, but she did a great job of hiding it. Nora was busy fantasizing out loud about how awesome the school will be and all of the stuff they were going to do to Ren, who was either not listening, or zoning out, as he didn't say much. Ruby and Yang were teasing each other with their other teammates as well.

Steven sat there silent, and mostly idle with an unknowingly upset expression on his face, caught up in what Ozpin said earlier about telling them about his past. He didn't notice everyone's conversations casually stop though as they all began to look at him with various degrees of concern. He only noticed when Jaune finally spoke up, breaking the tension that Steven had no idea he built up.

"Steven, are you… okay over there?"

Steven looked up in surprise, then looked around to see everyone looking at him in concern, including Blake and Weiss with varying degrees, which made him embarrassed.

"Hmm? Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine." He said, saying it in the casually happiest voice he could, but he couldn't fool anyone.

"You know, we don't have any hard feelings for you from yesterday." Jaune said, trying to reassure him. The rest of team JNPR nodded in response.

"No, it's not that. I know you forgive me. It's something else." Steven said, returning to his somewhat down mood.

"You want to talk about it?" Yang said, trying to help.

Steven looked down, trying to decide if here was the place or the time. "Are you guys doing anything later?" He replied.

"Don't change the subject!" Yang said in a rather accusatory tone.

"I'm not, just please answer my question." He explained.

"I think we were just planning on hanging out in our room, getting ready for tomorrow." Ruby said.

"Yeah, we were just going to hang around too." Jaune replied. "Why do you ask?"

Steven took a moment before speaking, "I was wondering if, I dunno, since we're all now basically teammates and fellow students, I was thinking we should all sit down or something and get to know each other." He said, half hopefully, half regrettably.

"I think that's a great idea." Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Yang said very enthusiastically.

"I think I'll pass" Weiss said, now re-focusing on her book, which prompted glares from Ruby and Yang.

"Nope, can't let you do that Weiss." Ruby said with a pop of the 'p', in a way with authority,

"And why is that?" Weiss countered with attitude.

"As your team leader, I order you to be there!" Ruby said with a smile, pride in her face as she put her fists on her hips.

Weiss rolled her eyes before giving in, realizing she's fighting a losing battle. "Fine."

"Great, let's do it right after we're done here!" Yang said

"Sounds good to me" Steven said with a wide grin, but on the inside he was cringing hard, not wanting to talk about himself, but he knew he needed to.

Once they all finished, they all headed back to their rooms together. Steven stayed silent the majority of the time.

Once they got to their rooms, Ruby spoke up. "Alright! Everyone, meet us in our room when you're all ready!" She said enthusiastically.

Everyone went into their respective rooms and got changed into their normal clothes, they didn't seem to be going anywhere, so might as well be comfortable. Steven switched into his battle gear though and decided to bring his weapon with him, as he wanted to explain some things about it when he got to them.

Soon, he met everyone in team RWBY's room, where everyone was in a circle on the floor, with a spot left open for Steven in between Pyrrha and Ren.

"Hey Steven!" Ruby said with a smile and wave as usual, but then became confused along with everyone else, asking "Why did you put on your armor?"

"It'll make sense when I talk about myself." He said with a look that said he wasn't exactly excited for it. "If you don't mind, I'd like to go last as well, I have a lot to say.

"Ok. That's fine." She reassured him, "So who wants to go first?"

"I suppose I will start, then we could go clockwise from here, ending with Steven." Ren proposed. When no one objected, he began. "I am Lie Ren, but just call me Ren. I have no memory of my parents, and Nora and I have been friends for as long as I remember, doing everything together. We go around doing whatever we need to get by, and then we made it here, where we can finally make something of ourselves as hunters. I may be quiet a lot of the time, but that is just simply how I am, so don't take offense to it." He finished. "Nora, I believe it's your turn now." He finished, handing it off to Nora, who enthusiastically began.

"Helllooooo everyone, I'm Noraaaaaa, Nora Valkyrie." She began, as energetic and flamboyant as ever, "Ummmm, so Ren really summed it up, I never knew my parents, and then I met Ren, and we've been together since." She said with a proud smile, but quickly added, "But we're not together-together." She added with a nervous giggle.

"Nora can be… energetic" Ren put lightly, "But that's how she is, so don't be frightened by her." He assured everyone.

Nora then slowly leaned over to Ren with her finger outstretched until it touched his nose, prompting her to say "Boop!"

"Alright, I guess it's my turn." Jaune began. "Name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it" Jaune reminded them, with a double raising of the eyebrows towards Weiss, who then scoffed at him and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. Jaune then recovered, "Anyway, I come from a long line of Arc's, all of which being heroes. My great grandfather fought in the Great War, and my father is an accomplished hunter, I'm sure you've heard of him. I live with seven sisters as well, all having different talents, so growing up kinda sucked." He said with a nervous laugh. "But, uh, yeah. That's basically me in a nutshell." He concluded. "Your turn." He said, indicating towards Blake.

"My name is Blake Belladonna." She began, she clearly didn't want to say much about herself. "I've been on the move my entire life, so this is all really new to me, so I'm sorry if I come across…" She struggled to find the words "independent, I guess… But I'm going to try my hardest to communicate." She clearly left out a few things, but no one pressed her on them, as it was none of their business, and it probably wasn't all that important anyways. "Your turn." She indicated to Yang.

"Hi everyone, I'm Yang Xiao Long!" She said overenthusiastically. "I'm Ruby's super awesome super energetic and caring older sister!" She said, hugging her sister tightly. "We come from Patch, which is just outside of Vale, and we live with our dad. He's a hunter by the way. Our mother died when Ruby was young, but we got through it as a family." She concluded with a smile. Her tone suddenly turned deathly grave as she glared at everyone, pointing at them with an accusatory finger, "And if I see you doing something bad to my sister, I will hurt you." No one dared challenge her, as she clearly meant it. But she quickly returned to her usual cheery self. "Your turn Ruby!" She said enthusiastically once more, slapping her on the back.

Ruby recoiled a bit. "H-hi!" She said nervously with her hand up in a greeting manner. "I'm Ruby Rose, and I'm Yang's younger sister." Yang beamed a proud smile at this. "Um, I may be 15, and even though you're supposed to be 17 to enter Beacon, Professor Ozpin let me in early because of my abilities. But don't treat me like a kid!" she said in an authoritative way. "I've wanted to become a huntress all my life from all the stories I read when I was younger, and I'm super happy to finally be here! I love weapons, I'm not really great with making friends, aaaaand, yeah. That's about it." She finished. Steven had to disagree with the 'not great with making friends part', as she's been nothing but nice and friendly to him from the start. "Your turn Weiss." She said encouragingly.

"I'm Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. I am not some sort of girly girl that constantly asks for dad's money." She quickly got out of the way to dispel any stereotypes. "I am here to become a huntress so I may pursue my own life that isn't boring business meetings or anything like that. Plain and simple." She finished, clearly wanting to get out of this so she could get back to preparing for tomorrow.

"Short and sweet, I like it." Jaune said, dreamy eyed.

Weiss scoffed at him again before turning to Pyrrha. "Your turn Pyrrha."

"Hello, I'm sure many of you already know who I am but I'll continue anyways. I am Pyrrha Nikos of Mistral. I have been training to become a Huntress for many years. I graduated at the top of my class at Sanctum, won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, which is a new record, and yes, I was on the face of the Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal box," She said with slight regret at the last part. "I'm excited to be here and make new friends, and I'm sure we'll have a wonderful four years together." She finished with a bright smile. "Your turn Steven." She said smiling towards him.

Steven began with a sigh to calm himself down. "Before I start, please, don't look at me differently than you do now, I don't want to be treated special." He began.

"Oooookayyy." Yang said uneasily, before chuckling. "Sounds like someone is nervous at sharing even though it was his idea." She teased him.

Steven glared at her in response and growled a bit in frustration. "So, uh… I'm Steven, Steven Paxton, you can call me Steve if you want, I don't really care, and uh…." Steven stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and looking down to avoid everyone's gaze, "…I-… I'm not from here." He finally said.

Everyone looked at him in confusion like something was wrong with him.

"Um, I don't think any of us are from here." Weiss snapped.

"No, you don't understand." He continued, but was interrupted by Ruby.

"Are you from a small town? A village?" She tried to guess, trying to make him feel better.

"Are you a roamer like us?" Nora asked, signaling her and Ren.

"No. It's much different than that." He said, his head still looking down.

"Then what is it?" Ruby asked anxiously.

"I'm…" He began, but was interrupted by Nora

"Come on, spit it out!"

"Could you all stop interrupting me?!" Steven snapped. "I'm not from Remnant!" He finally said.

It took a moment for everyone to process what he just said, but they weren't really understanding it completely.

"W-what do you mean you're not from Remnant?" Ruby asked cautiously.

"I'm from a different planet." He answered, sending everyone into shock, but quickly added "But I'm not some sort of alien or something! So don't get any ideas!"

All of them quickly snapped out of their shock though, they didn't believe them. Yang, Ruby, Nora, and Jaune began to laugh, Weiss and Pyrrha began to giggle, while Blake and Ren just smiled in disbelief.

"That's a good one man, but really, where are you from?" Yang said, wiping a tear from her eye. Steven was furious.

"What, you think I'm joking?!" He snapped at Yang, a very serious face appearing on him.

Yang kept laughing, thinking he would start laughing soon, realizing Steven's 'joke' didn't work, but stopped after everyone else did, realizing that he was still serious.

"You can't possibly be serious, can you?" She added quickly, slightly afraid. Everyone was now looking at Steven with a concerned look.

"I'm serious." He said sternly. "I'm not from Remnant." He reasserted. Everyone looked at him in horror.

"Then… where are you from?" Yang asked cautiously, having regretted her actions.

"I'm from a planet very similar to yours, called Earth." He began, "Let me explain how I got here, and please bear with me, it's hard for me to retell this story." Everyone nodded in acknowledgement.

"Take your time." Ruby said, still in shock.

Steven went on to describe the details of the collision he and his family were in, tearing up at the memory, then about the feelings he had before appearing in the forest. He then tells about his long trek through the woods, before encountering the Grimm, and his actions that followed, in detail. He described the fight, his semblance, and what not. He then told about what happened when Ozpin found him and took him to Beacon about three weeks ago, and what transpired in his office. He then told of the opportunity Ozpin gave him, one he would kill to have on Earth, and how he took it. He then trained intensively, and ended up passing the test, bringing him here.

Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder with a look of horror on her face, which was shared among mostly everyone else's face.

"You must think I'm crazy, but here's the only proof I can offer." He said, as everyone looked on him in silence. He took out the photograph of his family, careful not to take out the one with Jenny, and put it faced down in the middle of the circle.

Yang was the first to cautiously pick it up, before looking at it and quietly gasping in horror in the silent room. Everyone watched as her eyes teared up at the sight of the picture, before moving her eyes to Steven's in a look of sympathy. "Is this your…" She started, and Steven nodded in response.

She then froze in place, causing Ruby to take the picture from her sister's hands, and having the same general reaction. Weiss took the picture and put her head in her hands before saying "oh, dust."

Pyrrha took the picture from Weiss, looking at it, then looking at Steven in horror filled sympathy. Ren then took it, and simply closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose at the picture, passing it to Nora, who had a much similar reaction to Yang and Ruby. Jaune took it and had a similar reaction too, and Blake copied Weiss before returning the photo to the center of the circle.

Steven then hung his head low, tears falling from his eyes, then saying "I'm sorry I brought you all into this, but I felt like you all needed to know." He said, his voice trembling. Ruby suddenly appeared behind him, hugging him tightly from behind in a trail of rose petals, having used her semblance to go over to him. "Please, Ruby, I'm fine." He said turning to her, wiping a tear from his eye, and reassuring her. "I know what has happened to me is… unfortunate… but I'm living the life of my dreams right now. This is something that I couldn't have on Earth."

Everyone brightened up a bit, now somewhat fascinated with him.

"But what about your family?" Yang asked.

After a moment, Steven said with confidence, "I believe they're out there. It doesn't make sense what happened to me, but I feel like the same thing could've happened to them too." He said with hope. "It's just a matter of time I believe. But this brings me to something else I'd like to address that pertains to yesterday." He added. "There was a voice in my head when I… acted up… and it took control of me. It told me that I wasn't brought here on accident, among other things, but it gave me hope. So I believe they're out there."

Now cheered up enough to not be super depressed, Pyrrha asked "How did you regain control? We were almost lunchmeat before you snapped out of it" She added.

"I simply… didn't allow the voice to control me anymore. It's hard to explain, but when I saw what my body was about to do, I simply couldn't let it happen, and stopped it." He said. "Look, guys, I know this is a lot to take in all of a sudden, and I'm sorry, but I'm telling the truth. I'll stop talking about it though and save the rest for another time," he began, but Ruby cut him off.

"No, we're okay. To be honest, I'm interested in Earth and what it's like. Could you tell us about it?" She said, bouncing up and down excitedly, trying to lighten the mood.

Steve couldn't help but smile at the little ball of energy, effectively cheering him up. He let out a sigh of relief at the notion that everyone seemed to be taking his news better than he thought they would. Everyone encouraged him, they were interested in what he had to say. Steven chuckled a little. "Alright, I'll tell you about Earth. Earth is a planet very similar to yours, but also very different." He began. "It had seven continents, vast oceans, and one singular intact moon. We are very technologically advanced as well, much like you, in fact very many things are similar, but we don't have airships, we have planes and helicopters." Steven went into detail about what they were, which Ruby found absolutely fascinating. "Our main source of energy isn't dust either, we use oil and electricity essentially, the former being a limited resource unfortunately. Additionally, Earth is home to over 7.4 billion people."

"what?!" Yang said in disbelief. "But what about the Grimm?"

Steven answered in a grim and dismal tone "We have no Grimm… we only have each other, which essentially makes our planet worse than yours."

"Why is that?" Blake asked.

"From what I've gathered, all of the people on this planet are working together to live in peace and to fight off these beasts of darkness that you call the Grimm. Without that common goal, on Earth, there is always a war raging on. Whether it's small or large depends on who is involved. We don't have four kingdoms, we have over 200 countries, each one different, varying in size and population, often speaking a different language, having a different culture, and adopting different ideologies. Where I'm from, ideology is what starts major wars, other times it's precious resources, such as war over oil like I mentioned earlier, which powers almost everything on Earth. Civil wars happen all the time in poorer nations, and even in richer ones. We've had two world wars in the last 100 years, and countless others. Ways of making world peace have been attempted, but in the end, only one person needs to defy it and ruin it all to destroy it. My country hasn't been directly attacked by another in over 200 years, but no one knew what the future could bring. What made matters worse, terrible weapons had been made. Thankfully, I don't believe you have the elements to create them, otherwise they would have been made already, and probably used, but we have nuclear weapons. Made with extremely volatile and unstable elements, namely Uranium and Plutonium, it's a small bomb that can level a city and destroy everything in it in the blink of an eye. And although we were the first nation to make them, we were also the first to use them, helping to bring an end to the Second World War by dropping two of them, two different cities, but at an immense cost. We are not the only nation with nuclear weapons, and thus, we are constantly under the threat of annihilation, but the risk is different from day to day. However, despite all of these bad things, we have been able to become technologically advanced as a race, achieving space flight, and even landing on the moon a few times, as well as send some satellites into space to study and learn about our solar system."

After a few minutes to take in the information, Jaune spoke up. "So, what is your country that you're from?"

Steven smiled and took off one of his shoulders. "This is my country." He said, pointing to the American flag. "The United States of America. We're a democratic society, and are composed of 50 states on the same continent, all bound together under one banner. We're the most technologically advanced civilization in the world, although not by too far, as the world itself is very modern, but we are the major innovators and economic powerhouse of the world. We strive for world peace, and some nations hate us because sometimes we try too hard. We're also one of Earth's three superpowers, countries that have nuclear weapons, large trade output, and the best economies. I love my country, and I am very patriotic over it, and I don't want to forget about it, which is why I put my flag on my armor and my weapon."

"So, I have a quick question." Nora said after he finished, "You said that you can't become a warrior there like you can here. Why is that?"

"Well, for starters, the only types of warriors we have now are soldiers. Fighting as parts of an army for the common goal to protect the nation we are serving for, and its way of life. We don't have a common enemy like you all have, we have each other as our enemies. There is no 'protecting innocent people and doing what you think is morally right' there like there is here, which is what I always dreamed of."

"What about the Faunus on Earth? What are they like?" Blake asked, no one noticing the seriousness in her tone.

"We don't have Faunus on Earth, it's just humans. And, as I've been able to witness, much to my disappointment, I know there is racism between humans and Faunus here, which is terrible, it really is. On Earth, however, with the Faunus removed from the equation, that leaves the racism to fall on other humans. On Earth, many judge others because of the simple color of their skin. Others, their nationality, etc." Steven finished with a tone and look of disgust.

Everyone was disturbed by what they were just told as well. No one else spoke up with any questions after that. Steven took the opportunity to summarize.

"I do miss my home on Earth, believe me, I do, but I like it here better. The world is much more peaceful, and war hasn't happened in a long time from what I can gather, not to mention I could become what I've always dreamed of here!" He said. After a few moments he continued, "However, I don't want anyone to treat me in some special sort of way, I want you all to treat me like you'd treat each other, as a hunter, as a friend, as a teammate, but not someone who is from a different planet." He finished.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Steven sighed in immense relief. "Thank you everyone, for listening to what I had to say, for understanding me, and for accepting me." He said very sincerely. "It really means a lot to me." He said, a tear trailing down his face.

Ruby hugged him again.

Steven chuckled. "Thanks Ruby." He said, returning the gesture. Steven began to laugh "Fortunately for me, you all speak the same language as I do" Everyone else chuckled in response.

After a long silence, a loud rumble could be heard from Nora's stomach area.

"Wow, what time is it?" She asked. Everyone looked at the time, and saw it was well past noon time, and time for lunch.

"I say it's time for us to grab a bite to eat!" Yang said enthusiastically.

"That sounds like a good idea. Mind if we come with?" Jaune asked.

"Nope, not at all." Ruby responded.

"What about you Steve, want to join us?" Jaune offered.

"Sure, I'd love to join you guys." He replied.

With that, they all went to lunch, and sat down together. Steven couldn't be happier with how things turned out today, with how well they took everything, and once again, how quick they were about accepting him. He enjoyed lunch with his new friends and teammates, and afterwards went around touring the school with them, starting to learn the layout of the place. Afterwards they ate dinner, and then went back to their dorms to have some fun playing games and such, minus Weiss who was already studying, and Blake, who was reading.

Soon, they all went to bed, but when Steven was leaving team RWBY's room, Ruby and Jaune stopped him before he turned in for the night.

"Hey, Steve, could we talk to you for a second?" Ruby asked him.

"Yeah, sure, what's up?" he asked a little surprised.

"So, me and Jaune were talking earlier…" she started, her left arm grabbing her right wrist, and her foot twirling on the ground. "and we were thinking about how you have no team…" she continued.

Jaune finished for her, saying "A-and we would like to tell you that you're always welcome on both of our teams. We've already talked to everyone, and they're okay with it." He said.

"Well, except for Weiss, but don't worry about her, she'll warm up to you eventually I think." Ruby added.

Steven was in utter disbelief. He couldn't believe what he just heard, and it made him so happy to hear it, that he just looked at them dumbstruck, standing in front of them.

"Steve, are you oka-" Ruby began, but was cut off by a large hug that Steven gave both of them.

"Thank you so much you guys!" He said gratuitously, muffled by the shoulders of the two of them, before letting them go. "You have no idea how much this means to me, you really don't. I don't know how I could possibly repay you guys for everything you've done for me!"

"You don't need to repay us! Just be yourself and work hard! I'm sure you'll get a team someday, you never know!" Ruby said with hope.

"Yeah, you never know. Plus, maybe more than just your family came here by the way you made it sound earlier." Jaune added, which made Steven smile.

"Actually, that's not very flawed logic, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, you're right. Maybe some of my old friends made it here. I mean, I know it's a long shot, but it's certainly a possibility." Steven smiled. "Alright, is that all? I'm gonna go hit the hay now if that's alright with you."

"Yeah, we were about to go to bed too." Ruby replied.

"Alright, I'll see you guys tomorrow then. We have the same classes, so we'll see each other then." Jaune said, ending their conversation with a yawn.

"Alright, goodnight you guys. See you in the morning." Steven said.

Then they all went into their respective rooms and got into bed, ready for the next day, their first day of classes at Beacon academy. It's going to be one helluva ride for Steven, it'll be just like starting High School all over again. But now that he has some new friends, he should have a much better time on this world.

However, many secrets are yet to be revealed to Steven. He purposely left out Jenny for a reason, one that he is not sure of himself, but knows it to be important. Little does he know that she is here, and others are as well. It's just a matter of time before one of them is found.

But that will not be for quite some time. For now, Steven should try to enjoy himself, and learn about this new world with he is in during his classes. Tune in next chapter for Chapter 6: High School take 2.