Shaya woke up to the world and for a moment forgot that she'd moved into Signal Academy's dorms, only remembering when she saw Yang asleep in the bed across from hers. With the events from yesterday coming back to her, she checked her tail and saw that it had already recovered from the burn that her friend had left on it in their sparring match.

The small first year student got dressed in the school uniform and grabbed her scroll, she never used pen and paper for taking notes in the first place as she lost said papers far too easily, so she instead used the device that did pretty much everything for her academic needs.

Making her way towards the school's workshop for the weapons design class, she ended up nearly running into another first year, unlike her however, this one was at least a head taller than just about everyone else she'd met so far. He wore a black overcoat that came down to his knees, dark red cargo pants, a plain white shirt, and black dress shoes. He had pale yellow eyes and his pupils were shaped like slits, and his hair was a dark enough red that you'd think it was black unless he was in direct light.

He hadn't said anything to her, nor really interacted with her in any way, so she normally wouldn't have payed much attention to him. However, he simply looked so unique that she couldn't not take notice. He eventually reacted to her analysis of him with simple eye contact and a nod, and then proceeded into the classroom.

"Good morning, students, I am professor Auburn. Since we are here to craft weaponry for the purpose of slaying grimm, can anyone tell me what the best type of weapon is?" The generic looking teacher asked the entire crowd of students.

He received a variety of answers from the audience, all different generic weapon types, all different reasonings. He began to look as though he were getting frustrated with his class before the boy she'd met before the class started stood up and spoke.

"There are only two acceptable answers to that question." He announced with authority. "One's own mind, and the weapon that one is most comfortable with wielding." The teacher's eyes lit up with appreciation.

"Correct, thank you Mr. Anguis." He congratulated the strange boy. "All the reach, speed and power that a weapon may be capable of won't mean a thing if you don't have the mentality to use that weapon." He gestured to the various workshop stations throughout the large room, there were even some full anvils and forges here. "So don't worry about whatever everyone else is crafting, craft a weapon that is yours, that feels right when you hold it in your grip and stand against humanity's enemy."

Professor Auburn gestured to a stack of books off to the side of the room. "I'm not expecting any of you to finish your weapons today, and for those of you who didn't think to learn how to craft, these books hold the knowledge necessary in order to craft a variety of mecha-shift and conventional weaponry."

With that every student got started in going around the room and grabbing books, raw materials and dust. By the end of the day, two students had finished their weapons, Fuchsia and Charr were both done.

Fuchsia's weapons were two Great-knives, designed to be held in a reverse fashion, and each being roughly a foot long. When put together they actually shifted around each-other into an extremely large quad-edged trench knife. Shaya actually shivered when she saw it.

'I'm pretty sure a wound from that thing would require surgery.' She thought as she stared at the blade.

Charr's weapon was a rather large Glaive, when placed with against the ground the weapon was taller than he was, which was around five feet. The head of the Glaive was easily two and a half feet long. When his weapon shifted the Shaft split into a series of short tubes, attached by a very long chain that extended the weapon's reach by four or five times. When shifted, the blade split from one blade into seven, giving the weapon's transformed state the appearance of a serrated whip like shape.

The sheer simplicity of Fuchsia's weapon, versus the complexity of Charr's were a beautiful and terrifying contrast.

Over the next few days, the remainder of the students slowly completed their own weaponry. Shaya began getting worried because none of the weapons she saw really... spoke to her, none of them felt right for her. Eventually she was flipping through one of the weapon books with a worried look on her face, when she was broken from her anxiety by a voice.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" She turned around and saw 'Mr. Anguis' standing there.

She immediately stood up and started scratching at the back of her head. "Of course, I'm fine. It's just..."

"You shouldn't worry about making any type of complex weapon or anything like that if it's not your style." He said with a calm, almost bored, tone. "Just look at my weapon, no transformations, no hidden gun. Just a sword." He said as he held up the product of his craft.

Calling the blade just a sword though, was honestly insulting to his skills in creating said blade. It was a simple katana, only the care and precision that went into its existence was unparalleled. She strongly believed that he could cut through a leaf the long way using that sword, and that even if it was struck with one of the far heavier weapons in the class, that the blade would be no worse for wear.

"It's beautiful." Shaya said while looking at it.

"Thank you. Honestly though, the only unique thing about this blade is the Clear Dust Crystal that I have running through it." He said while doing a practice swing with the weapon, and Shaya saw a small trail of dark red run through the air behind it.

"Clear Dust? I've never heard of that." That wasn't all that surprising though, she hardly ever used Dust outside of her every day appliances. He held up a small piece of an easily see through crystal.

"This is Clear Dust. It's the only type of Dust that doesn't degrade when in use. Unfortunately it's extremely rare. It's purpose is to imbue weapons and armor with the aura of the wielder, temporarily boosting their properties immensely. It also enhances the power of other elements of Dust when used in tandem with them." He casually tossed the crystal to Shaya and she caught it with a look of surprise on her face. "I didn't use as much as I thought I was going to in my weapon, and you seem like someone that wouldn't waste it." He turned and started to lazily walk away.

"Wait. I can't accept something like this from some random person." He stopped, looked over his shoulder at her and gave a thin smile.

"My name is Noctis Anguis, now I'm not some random person." Noctis held up his blade. "And this is Ventus et Ferrus. Have a good day, Shaya Ozpin." After that he left the workshop.

Shaya, still holding the Dust shard in hand, immediately sprinted over to the forge and materials. By the end of the day, she had crafted a simple, but elegant, short sword. It had a handle and guard similar to that of a dueling saber, and the Clear Dust crystal in its' core.

By this point she had been the only person left in the workshop except for Prof. Auburn, who was awaiting her to test out the weapon so he could register it as complete. She lifted the blade to eye level, and held it out forward in a position that showed it pulled back, ready to thrust forward.

The blade started to glow purple as she fed her aura into the weapon and as it's glow reached its' peak, she thrust the weapon forward and a thin streak of purple light shot out from its tip, leaving a hole in the wall on the opposite side of the room.

Shaya grinned and stared at the weapon that she crafted, as professor Auburn stared at the scene with wide eyes.

"My, my, Ms. Ozpin! That is truly a work of art, well done!" He praised as he pulled out his paper and clipboard. "Now, what might the name of this weapon of yours be?"

She held up her short sword and gave a couple of practice swings without putting her aura into it. "Anima Aciēs."

"Soul Edge? Seems like an appropriate name. Well, with this done you can finally move on to your primary classes, however you may want to wait till tomorrow as the day is almost over." The Professor advised his student. She gave him a little thanks and then left to go to the cafeteria to eat.

Conveniently this was at about the same time that the Grimm Studies Class was being dismissed, with Charr and Fuchsia being two of the students that came from it. They both paused when they saw the ridiculous amount of food Shaya had on her tray, but unlike with her first meal with her dad and Winter, Shaya's diet was far more balanced by this point. She had a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains in front of her.

They looked at her side and saw that she had a weapon with her. Looking at the elegant etchings in the metal they could only assume it was a finished product.

Charr was the one to approach and make her aware of their existence. "'Sup champ, you finally got your weapon done, eh?"

Shaya ceased her intake of food for a brief moment, looking at her new friends, and then held out Anima. "This is Anima Aciēs."

Fuchsia let out a low whistle looking at it. "Fancy, what'd you do to it to give it that name though?" Shaya demonstrated with putting some aura into it and just swiping across the air with it.

"Damn, a Clear Dust crystal, how'd you get your little hands on somethin' like that?" Charr asked as he looked at the blade. Shaya pouted slightly at the word 'little'. She looked around and spotted Noctis, and she jumped up and pointed straight at him.

"He gave me it, said he had extra." They followed her finger to the black and red clad 1st year. "Noctis!" She called while waving to him, he responded with a small wave as he left towards the dorms with his food in hand.

"I don't remember seeing that guy at the initiation." Fuchsia muttered to Charr, and he nodded in agreement.

"Maybe he got here late?" Charr suggested with a shrug. "Anyway, congrats on your weapon Shaya. I know when I finished Judging Light I was freaking psyched, hell I still am." Fuchsia nodded in agreement.

"My Daemon Clavus, are probably going to be the things I'm most proud of for a long time." Charr raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"I just realized somethin'. Why the hell are so many people naming their weapons in the weird ass language?" He asked.

"Because it sounds awesome." Shaya answered him.

"Fair Enough."


Shaya was in one of these again, they only occurred when she was asleep, but they most certainly weren't dreams. She thought that at first, but then they started getting clearer and clearer.

They started with her seeing through someone else's eyes, and that made them bad, then she started seeing them from a third person.

That made them worse.

She had a perfect view of war. War on a scale that no one on Remnant could even dream of. Cities that completely eclipsed Vale, wiped out of existence in only a single night. Homes, businesses, and the entire skyline above, up in flames.

At the center of all of it though, a roaring golden flame. Inside this flame, a single person stood.

He was tall, taller than most people she had seen, taller than even Uncle Ironwood. His hair stood upwards, spiking arches of golden locks making up the headpiece. His face had on it a cruel, malicious grin, and soulless green eyes that held no pupil, or was it no Iris? She couldn't tell. All she knew when she looked into those pools of green was one, key message that her instincts SCREAMED at her.

This is a predator.