Chapter 7: Earning the right.

The bullhead landed at beacon about an hour later, but for the members of team DEAD it had felt like an eternity, even as they were walking off the ship she was still complaining about their unprofessionalism, "And another thing," Weiss's shrill voice drowned on, everyone groaned Andrea sobbed a little, "You attack a known terrorist head on by yourself and…."

"OH MY GOD I GET IT JUST PLEASE SHUT UP!" Dante yelled as he walked towards the school he didn't want to yell but after an hour he was ready to kill someone.

"How dare you don't you know who I am?!" her hands on her hips glaring at him

"Yah you're a mega bitch spoiled little brat." Dante stated

"Actually we call her the Ice Queen." Yang interjected

Weiss opened her mouth to scream some more when Gylndila appeared in front of them all.

"Students that's enough. All of you head to Ozpin's office immediately, Dismissed." She slapped the fountain they were near with her weapon for emphasis, everyone jumped, both teams ran off without another word to avoid the teachers wraith.

The elevator ride was very cramped with nine people inside at once, both teams and Gylndila, Weiss was giving Dante a cold glare while he emitted small amounts of black smoke. The doors dinged and they all stepped out trying not to fall over each other.

"Students good to see you all safe." Ozpin was in his desk a cup of coffee steaming on it, "Now it has come to my attention Dante that one of your team went missing? And yes i have heard team ANGL's account of what happened but i believe your testimony will be quite interesting." ozpin's voice was sincere but commanding at the same time his face holding a natural look neither mad nor joyed, "Oh and Team RWBY you will need to explain the warehouse fire when they are done."

Dante told Ozpin everything from beginning to end, the others lept in for the parts he didn't know and after about twenty straight minutes of talking they were finished, "then we hopped on the bull head and headed here sir." Dante throat now dry from all the talking.

"Well as stated before, I am glad you are all safe and sound, but Vale PD is demanding that you all be held responsible for the damage that took place. Luckily I was able to pull a few strings and you are to be handled by the school's internal affairs." Ozpin stated calmly. Dante couldn't help but smirk a bit at the thought of that annoying detective pulling his hair out with frustration.

"I will be assigning both teams punishments, they have already been thought out." He paused for effect.

"Team DEAD," all their eyes widened a bit, " Dante it may have only been a few days since your role as leader has been taken up and I personally believe that you have potential, others are questioning your ability to lead your team safely, your punishment is to prove to the school and to me that you are fit for the role, you must earn the right to lead" Ozpin's voice never wavered and he never broke eye contact with the young man. "Team RWBY this part involves you as well so listen well, you four will assist Gylndila with test gradings for a week," yang groaned with displeasure, Ruby looked sad, Blake was neutral, and Weiss was content with that punishment. "But in addition you will assist in team DEAD's punishment, in one week you will have a team vs team duel DEAD vs RWBY if team DEAD is able to pull together as a team and perform to the schools standards they can stay. If they fail Dante infernus will be expelled." Ozpin voice remained its usual calm tone, he continued to make eye contact with Dante.

"So if we lose i get kicked out?" Dante asked

"If you don't perform to the standards of this school yes."

"Very well sir, we won't let you down right guys?" Dante looked to his team, they looked nervous but nodded

"Good now you are free to go the rest of this day is yours to rest, your match will be next Friday." And with that he looked to his computer and started to type.

Both teams got up and piled into the elevator, their teacher stayed behind so it was a bit less cramped.

"Sooooooooo we gotta fight in a week huh?" Ruby asked to the room

"Yah we do, listen do me a favour and don't go easy on us if you do I'll be genuinely offended." Dante replied

"Yah bring everything you got." Derek's voice returning to him, Ozpin was shockingly intimidating.

"Well I for one think this is gonna be fun, you better be good smokey." Ruby smiled.

"Smokey?" Dante raised an eyebrow

"I SHIP IT!" Andrea yelled causing Dante and Edward, and Blake to cover their ears and Derek to wince in displeasure.

"Andrea bring the volume down by 5 please." Edward whimpered

"Ship?" Weiss's face looked confused as she cocked her head to one side slightly

"It means she thinks they would make a cute couple." Blake said in a monotone voice.

"Andrea I hate you sometimes." Dante said, Yang was now snickering blowing air kisses at him, Ruby and Derek were struggling to not crack up and shooting eachother sly glances. Edward was Smirking his ass off, Weiss had lost interest and Andrea was sticking her tongue out at Dante.

"I'm so screwed" Dante thought to himself

The Doors dinged open and everyone walked out. "We're gonna head back to our dorms. WE ARE SO GONNA CREAM YOU GUYS FRIDAY!" Ruby hoppes for joy and rose petals went everywhere as she ran off for her dorm the rest of her team following Yang blew one final air kiss at a extremely agitated Dante.

"We should head back to." Edward called back he was already halfway down the hall

"Edward wait for us!" Andrea called after her partner as she ran after him. Dante was about to follow when he noticed Derek staring down the hall RWBY left, and asked "You okay bro?"

"Hm? Oh yah man just thinking….. come on let's go." he turned before Dante could press the matter and hurried after the others

As if my life doesn't have enough drama right now Dante sighed and sped after them smoke trail and all.

Grace had been depressed since they got back to beacon earlier that day and it was really starting to piss off Alex. He had tried being sympathetic, it only lasted a few hours, but he tried and now she was just being annoying all sniffly on her bed while the other two occasionally tried to comfort her. Alex in the meantime made it look like he was listening to music when he was actually listen through the audio logs from the past few days, he had edited out all the classroom stuff (he was in all her classes) and was currently listening to Professor Ports speech. Wise man maybe i should give him more credit….. then again he did release a grim in the middle of class….

Meanwhile across the room Grace was still blaming herself for the day's events, Nat and Laura were trying to convince her otherwise, "you said it yourself you only see fragments and those fragments can't be changed, so you couldn't have changed things even if you wanted to, it's not your fault." Laura said sympathetically in truth she was a tad annoyed at the smaller girl for not warning them but if the events she saw couldn't be prevented Laura could forgive and forget.

"Yah come on we're a team we got your back." Natalie patted her on the shoulder and smiled, this situation reminded her of her younger siblings when they would come home sad. "Right Alex?" she looked over at him seeing that he was engrossed in his Scroll she sighed, asshole, "so cheer up i'm sure Andrea is fine she's a big girl."

Grace shot up and opened her eyes wipe and gasped, her eyes glowed slightly, and a big smirk slowly spread across her face, "We are not going to want to miss what comes next." she looked psychotic with her massive toothy grin and gleeful eyes.

Alex having looked up when he noticed the glowing asked, "Miss what now?"

Grace started to laugh ignoring Alex.

Everyone in the room backes away from her slowly and looked at each other with concern.

"Grace honey what's wrong?" Laura's voice having raised to a higher pitch sounded odd coming from her.

"Nothing~ Just happy now is all." Grace smirked and pulled out her scroll and started watching videos online. Apparently she she forgot she was sad a few seconds ago.

Why can't i have normal friends? I'm a goodish person. Natalie mused to herself as she finally started that day's weapon maintenance. Laura went to the washroom and Alex returned to his scroll, all of them keeping one eye on Grace when they could.

Twenty minutes later Grace had stopped laughing and was fast asleep, exhausted from the long day they all had, and they had class tomorrow. Alex was waiting for his turn in the bathroom, he was silently cursing himself for not going first. When everyone was all dressed and ready for bed Alex laid awake waiting for the rest of his team to fall asleep, Grace slept silently on her side, Laura on her back, and Natalie snored like a dying truck half hanging off the bed. Once he was satisfied they were all asleep he grabbed his scroll, a headset, a webcam, and a silenced 9mm handgun. He climbed out there open window and began his climb to the roof of the dorm area. It took him about five minutes, he sat down facing the city and plugged in his headset and connected to the network. He dialed the secure number for his employer and waited, it rang three times then was answered by . "Alex status report." His voice cold as the night air and without compassion.

"Target is safe sir. Her team appears to be combat effective and I am keeping close tabs on them." Alex spoke quietly and quickly to avoid detection.

"Good, if there is nothing else then continue with the mission." waited ten seconds then hung up his phone.

When he disconnected Alex began transferring his written report to the Schnee Mansion, this took five minutes, Afterward he packed up and climbed back down to his bed silently and went right to sleep.

The next day

Team's DEAD and ANGL met up in the hall outside their dorms, Grace hid behind Alex a little just in case they were mad at her. No one said anything the whole ordeal, either from not wanting to start shit or from understanding. The girls chit chatted about hair and movie stars they thought were hot, the guys (except Alex) started to form battle plans. Halfway to class they saw Cardin from team CRDL slap some blonde guys books out of his hands and laugh. The blonde bent over to pick up his stuff, Dante walked over and help him.

"Thanks." his voice sounded small

"No worries, you good?"

"Yah im fine." he sighed "thanks again." he walked off books in hand to where ever it was he was going.

"That Cardin guys a bigger asshole than you Alex." Natalie bluntly stated.

Alex huffed

"Come on let's go." Edward already six paces ahead of the group called back to them.

The rest of the day went by fairly uneventfully, all their classes went smoothly and all of DEAD met up during free period to spar.

"we have a week right?" Edward asked doing some quick stretches.

"Yah one week to beat a team that dropped a the biggest Nevermore I have ever seen without so much as a scratch. It's gonna go great!" Derek's voice slowly rose in pitch as he went on.

"Okay before he explodes let get started. Derek I assume you don't want to work on….."

"NO!" Derek cut Dante off before he could finish.

"Okay….." Dante thought for a moment when he noticed Andrea staring at a wall and got an idea

"Andrea, come at me." Dante ordered.

"What?" Andrea said in shock.

"Attack me." Dante repeated patiently.

"Is this because i slapped you?" Andrea asked cautious.

"I promise it isn't now come on." Dante said getting a little impatient.

Edward and Derek went off to the side trusting their friend, Andrea looked to Edward for support he just shrugged. She rolled her eyes and noticed Dante in a ready stance.

Well here we go. She pulled out her Snowflake and Rose petal, She threw them both and started moving them with her semblance,each went different directions for a pincer strike, just before they connected he was gone in a puff of black smoke. Andrea was about to turn her head to look around when she felt cold steel against her neck.

"Why didn't you move?" he didn't remove the blade.

"um… i-I don't know..?" her eyes wide and sweat dripping from her forehead.

Dante removed his blade and she turned to him he looked her in the eyes.

"I'm going to retrain you."

"What?"

"You were probably trained to be a distance fighter from your lack of retaliation id guess next to no close quarter training. This entire week I am going to train you to control your discs through the air while fighting close quarters with them."

"Question. Why?" Andrea questioned

Edward and Derek had went to the other side of the room and were shooting at targets. Derek laughing as Edward struggled to hit remote controlled targets with his giant laser, as Derek hit bull's eye almost every time.

"Because while you are skilled at what you do, we all know how effective it is against multiple opponents." Dante reasoned to her.

Andrea opened her mouth to retort, but closed it after nothing came out.

"Fine whats first master." her eyes rolled and sarcasm dripped from her lips.

"Basics let's go." Dante started to show her basic movements for close range fighting.

(E/N because i am sure no one cares about the training more than this montage time!)

*Fighter by: Christina Aguilera*

For the next week Dante and Andrea fought against each other every moment they could get, lunch; free period; after class, with every clash Andrea got better, Dante pushed her until she was drenched with sweat and could barely walk, when she tried to give up he would make her continue, she got good, not to the level as someone who trained for years for close quarters but enough to hold her own for a bit in a singles fight. It took three days to learn how to fight and mover her other two Chakrams at the same time, she made a deadly pincer attack. The other activities during their week involved regular class work Dante soon learned his favourite teacher was Professor Port, Derke and Edwards was Doctor Oobleck, and Andrea liked sleep.

Friday rolled along before anyone knew it and they all went to class…..

"Good morning students, I am pleased to announce that the technical difficulties involving the scrolls and the aura readers have been resolved so before we continue we will be syncing our Auras to our scrolls so that the rest of your teammates can monitor your aura levels in and out of combat." Gylndila was in no mood for games today, they had the big team fight then room for one randomly generated match before the bell.

"Simply follow the instructions once teams RWBY and DEAD are ready they can set up in the ring and we will start."

Edward did a quick look around he spotted the blonde guy that he had seen get shoved into the rocket locker, he had placed his hand on screen and looked to be in deep focus. It took a moment but his aura started to flare around him it was a pure white light, near blinding to look at. It lasted a second or two the died down. Edward raised an eyebrow.

He looked to team ANGL and saw Alex's flaring his aura, It was pure silver in colour, Grace looked like she was resisting the urge to jump and scream for joy as she placed her hand on the scrolls screen sensor, her aura flared white nowherenowhere as bright as Jaunes but still bright. He noticed something rippling by Grace and saw Laura flaring her aura, there was no colour but the air looked to be moving as if something was disturbing the air, next to her Natalie's crimson red aura roared around her making a few other students step back a bit.

Edward shrugged and placed his hand on the sensor, his aura flared a deep purple around him, it flowed calmly around him like a cloak, his ears twitched from underneath his hat, he looked behind him and noticed Blake watching him, he smiled and nodded at her before he looked back to his scroll and noticed that his school picture had appeared next to a green line that had 100 underneath it. Andreas appeared underneath his and he looked up at her, the aura around her was sea green. Edward looked to Dante and Derek next both auras activating at the same time, Derek's was deep ocean blue, Dante and odd mix of smoke black and molten red swirled around him.

"Ready?" Edward asked his partner as he strapped the scroll to his wrist holster,

"As ill ever be." Andreas voice filled with nerves, her skin slightly pale (more than usual)

"Youll do great you have worked as hard of not harder than the rest of us, im proud of you partner." he bumped her shoulder with his fist, She blushed a bit, "Thanks partner."

"Love birds! Come on let's go!" Derek yelled at the pair, Edwards wolf ears burned and Andreas blush deepened. They ran to rejoin their teammates

"Before we go out there." Dante turned to his team, "I just wanted to say that I am proud of all of us, we all worked hard and did our best. No matter what happens it is an honour to work with you all." Dantes eyes watered a little, "I don't just consider you three my friends or teammates you are my family, and i will do anything for my family," he stook out his arm, "we fight not for ourselves but for each other." he smiled at his friends

"Agreed brother." Derek put his hand out on top of Dantes

Edward not one for big displays of emotion simply smiled and put his hand on top of theirs

Andrea was crying tears of joy, "you three are my family too." she added her hand to the pile.

"Together!" All four of them said in perfect harmony throwing their hands into the air they walked onto the battle stage.

Bit too early for you to be family, Andrea. Derek thought to himself, WAY too trusting and naive

Dante cloak on hood up, black combat pants and a black tactical vest on over a grey undershirt.

Edward wore blue jeans and a purple hoodie with an ammo belt slung across his chest, his black fedora resting on his head.

Derek had on green camo cargo pants and a belt littered with grenades and ammo, he also wore a black hoodie and fingerless black gloves.

Andrea wore pastel skinny jeans and a pink hoodie tied off around her waist, a black tank top on as well.

There they stood shoulder to shoulder before Team RWBY, "Students this is our first duel between students of the semester, this will be a clean fight you will stop by my command or when your opponent yields. Good luck, you may begin at the buzzer." A red counted down clock appeared above the arena and counted down from 30.

"Don't you dare go easy on us." Dante said to their opponents

"Wouldn't dream of it." Ruby replied

"I don't know, it would be a bit nice…" Derek said nervously.

"Nope" Ruby squeaked.

Here we go. Dante's heart threatened to leap from his chest.

"Plan change three and four take black, two yellow, one red and white." Dante's final orders sounded throughout the arena.

"Confirm." Derkes sights all lined up

"Copy." Edwards blade lowered at the others.

"Roger dodger." Andreas chakrum circling her.

DING