Sorry for the delay. I've been in a rough spot these past few weeks. Things haven't been going very well, but this show goes on. Enjoy!

Ten Years Before the Start of the Series:

"ONE, TWO, THREE!"

"NINETY-FIVE!"

"ONE, TWO, THREE!"

"NINETY-SIX!"

"ONE, TWO, THREE!"

NINETY-SEVEN!"

The instructor walked up and down the rows of candidates spraying them in the face with cold water from a hose as they mindlessly performed their flutter kick exercises.

"ONE, TWO, THR-" The instructor abruptly stopped his cadence. "STRAIGHTEN OUT THOSE LEGS ZERO-FOUR-TWO!"

The instructor, codenamed Blue, was referring to the fact that Zero-Four-Two's legs weren't completely extended during their flutter kick exercise. Instructor Blue immediately began to spray Zero-Four-Two in the face with cold water.

"HOOYAH INSTRUCTOR BLUE!"

"JUST FOR THAT, WE'RE STARTING AGAIN!"

The children looked absolutely mortified. This would be the eighth time they had to start over because someone couldn't keep perfect form. The children sounded off in the affirmative as Blue led them through yet another round of dreaded flutter kicks.

General Ironwood and Doctor Haze stood off to the side as they observed the training of the candidates. Nearly a year had passed and the children had made impressive strides in their physical abilities as well as their mental fortitude. Doctor Haze had developed a strict routine for the children. The children would wake up before dawn to begin morning physical training, which consisted of calisthenics and running, followed by breakfast followed by an inspection of their barracks. Once the inspection was complete the children were released to Dr. Haze for three hours for educational purposes. The children were educated in math, physics, chemistry, history (with an emphasis on military history), and psychology among other things. Even though she only had them for three hours a day, Dr. Haze made excellent use of that time. She was quite gifted as a teacher. Once their time with Dr. Haze was up the children were released to lunch and then afterward, they were thrown back to the mercy of their instructors. The only break they managed to find during their afternoon time in hell with their instructors was dinner and even then, that break was short-lived because they were right back at it again until it was time for bed. While the training was brutal, it was tailored to be proportional to their current physical abilities. While that may have sounded merciful, the training got worse as they progressed through the program. The general made it clear to the children that their only "easy" day would be their first day. This first year of training was tailored to break the children down to crumbling dust on all levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. In order for the candidates to become Guardians, they needed to shed their humanity, and in order to shed their humanity, they needed to be subjected to the most brutal training imaginable.

"I must say, James," said Cassandra with a nod of approval, "your training regimen for the children is nothing short of amazing."

James had his hands clasped behind his back as he watched the children perform their calisthenics. The general couldn't help but let a smirk etch its way onto his face, clearly happy with the progress of the candidates.

"It's just like you said," he replied, "the ultimate warriors require the ultimate training."

She couldn't help but give a smirk of her own. The children had another six years of training to go before they'd undergo the final phase of their training: augmentation. She could hardly contain her excitement as she imagined what the candidates would be like once they were true Guardians.

The sound of violent coughing permeated the atmosphere as a young boy was pulled from the swimming pool by a gruff-looking man. The man in question looked to be in his late thirties to early forties. His skin was tan, his short black hair was unkempt, and he was dressed in a black short-sleeved shirt that read Instructor on it with black boots and green military cargo pants. He was armed with a pistol that was kept in a drop holster on his leg. The man lightly slapped the boy a few times before the boy began to regain his composure.

"That's it, kid," he said as he continued to slap the boy, "come back to the light."

The boy looked down as he caught his breath. The boy's hands and feet were bound together with rope. The child looked over his shoulder and watched as other kids around his age were struggling to stay afloat with their hands and feet tied up. The boy was dressed in swimming trunks and a black shirt with the numbers 099 etched in white on it

"You ready to go back?" The man asked.

Absolutely not.

The boy nodded reluctantly before the instructor threw him back into the pool. The boy sunk to the bottom of the pool like a rock. As he descended to the pool's floor, he began to think about everything he and his fellow candidates had been through in the past year. The general wasn't lying when he told them that their training would be hell. Every day, from dawn until dusk they were trained to their physical and mental limits and beyond. Out of all the training exercises and hazing events they endured, he hated water confidence the most. The goal of this dreaded event was to remove the fear of death from their psyches. It was designed to make them ignore the basic instinct of wanting to breathe. It was quite common for many of them to be pulled from the pool because they passed out underwater, but the removal from the pool was only temporary. As soon as they were good to go, they were tossed back in to fend for themselves.

The boy could feel the concrete of the pool floor hit his feet. With a forceful push, the boy rocketed back up towards the surface. As his head broke the water's surface, he gasped out for some much-needed air. With a great deal of effort, the boy managed to stay afloat as his rope-bound feet struggled to keep him above the water. The boy locked eyes with the instructor.

"How ya feeling Ninety-Nine?"

The boy coughed as he accidentally swallowed some water.

"HOOYAH DANGEROUS!" The boy managed to yell. "FEELING DANGEROUS INSTRUCTOR GREEN!"

The instructor, codenamed Green, merely smirked.

"YOU HEAR THAT CANDIDATES?!" Green asked the other children, who all were struggling to stay afloat. "NINETY-NINE'S FEELING DANGEROUS! I LOVE IT!"

The sounds of shivers and whimpers were the main sounds heard throughout the training area. The trainees were huddled close together for warmth in their respective teams. Instructors walked back and forth, monitoring the trainees. The children sat in mud pits, shivering uncontrollably as they did so. They'd been sitting there freezing for hours and the worst part was that they didn't know when it would end. That all depended on the instructors, who absolutely loved watching them suffer for some reason.

"QUIT YOUR WHINING CANDIDATES!" Yelled one of the instructors.

"Our job is to snuff out weakness," said another, "so go ahead and show us more weakness because we'll gladly stay here longer."

That comment struck fear into the hearts of the children immediately. The sounds of shivering and whimpering quickly quieted down. The instructors continued to monitor the children like hawks. While their job was to make the training absolute hell, they needed to keep a watchful eye on the kids so that none died from any training-related accidents. Luckily, there'd only been a few injuries. No deaths. General Ironwood had briefed them on the high possibility of training-related deaths and the proper courses of action to mitigate those risks.

"That's the way candidates! Take all this shaking and all this cold and harness it and turn it into aggression!"

"HOOYAH INSTRUCTOR MAROON!"

"KEEP MOVING!" The voice of an angry female instructor boomed over the sound of machinegun fire.

Below the instructor, lines of young candidates crawled through mud beneath barbed wire as automated machine guns fired overhead. The children were covered in cuts and bruises as they continued to crawl through the mud. The eyes of the children lacked any life. They'd run the gauntlet of obstacles and calisthenics for the last six hours. Quite a few of them had to be removed due to medical reasons, which made their instructor push them even harder.

"If even one of you fails to meet the course time," she said, "THEN YOU'RE ALL DOING IT AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, CANDIDATES?!"

Instructor Red was as merciless as they came. This was their fourth attempt at the assault course, and they were beyond exhausted but that didn't matter to her. Her job description was quite clear: to put these children through absolute hell and she would make it so.

"HOOYAH INSTRUCTOR RED!" The children yelled in response.

Instructor Red merely smirked as she watched the trainees pick up the pace.

The candidates let pain-filled groans escape their mouths as they struggled to keep the logs over their heads. There were ten logs of slightly smaller size total, and each log was held up by ten candidates. The children's knees wobbled as they struggled to keep the weight of the logs over their heads. All the while, the instructors were spraying them with cold water from hoses, making their suffering even more unbearable. What made this event even worse was that the children had gone the last five days with a total of five hours of sleep. They were pushed to their physical and mental limits and beyond as they made their way through this crucible. Their bodies, minds, and spirits were beyond exhausted. The only thing keeping them going was sheer willpower. They desperately wanted to drop the logs and rest, but they knew they couldn't. Many of them had come to accept their new lives while others still fought against it. There were quite a few escape attempts, all of which ended in failure, and those attempts were met with punishment for everyone.

"REMEMBER WHAT I TOLD YOU, CANDIDATES! WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO, JUST FIND AN EXCUSE TO WIN! KEEP GOING!"

"HOOYAH INSTRUCTOR BROWN! NEVER OUT OF THE FIGHT!"

Present Day:

The light from the early dawn entered the ballroom. Rahm, having already been awake because of his night watch shift, watched the sun begin to rise from his seated position. He hardly ever got to enjoy the sight of a sunrise. He had always been busy training or going out on missions to enjoy a good sunrise. In all honesty, it all felt so strange to him. The last month had been a complete shock to him. He wasn't Lone in that regard. He knew that Terre and Jai felt it too. Learning how to be normal teenagers wasn't something they ever thought they'd do.

Rahm glanced over his shoulder as he heard the shifting of sleeping bags. Jai, Terre, and Penny were getting up. The four were the first ones to wake. The other students were still asleep. Without a word, the four went about packing up their sleeping bags and their gear before they went to breakfast. It was going to be a pretty uneventful day for them. The Bad Batch, along with the few other transfer students, were not required to partake in the initiation ceremony. After breakfast, they were directed to their dormitories and were instructed to wait there until the initiation was complete. Upon seeing their room layout, they immediately went to work and unpacked. They didn't bring anything other than their weapons and clothing; so they didn't have many personal items.

Rahm was busy reading his aerospace magazine while Penny was reading the magazine over his shoulder while Jai was busy placing a motion tracker into a wall crevice for purposes of room security. Terre, meanwhile, was monitoring the position and the vital signs of Ms. Ruby Rose on his special digital watch. In addition to monitoring the position and vital signs of their targets, the devices also doubled as motion trackers and allowed the observers to see if any potential threat was approaching them. Jai and Rahm, too, glanced at their watches to keep an eye on Pyrrha and Weiss.

"Shouldn't we be investigating? Penny asked. The question was directed at Terre.

"Ideally? Yes," the leader of the Bad Batch replied. "Unfortunately, we were instructed to remain here until the end of the initiation. Once that's done, we can get started with the mission."

Rahm glanced up from his magazine. "On that note, you got a plan Terre?"

Terre nodded. "The general was clear. Uncover this plot and protect our targets and Penny. I think it'd be best if we split up as much as possible so that we can interact and observe more."

"What about me Terre?" Penny questioned their leader with genuine curiosity.

"Just stay close to one of us at all times. We can't let you out of our sight," replied Terre.

Penny looked a bit disappointed. She was hoping for a bit more freedom so that she could learn more about what it meant to be a normal girl. Rahm took notice of his junior teammate's sad disposition.

"Don't take it personally, Penny. Remember, we're on a mission," Rahm had placed a comforting hand on the robot girl's shoulder. Penny slightly smiled at Rahm's attempt to comfort her, but inside she still felt sad at not being able to wander about by herself. Rahm looked at Terre with a raised eyebrow. Rahm didn't need to speak for Terre to understand what he wanted to say.

Terre cleared his throat.

"However, if circumstances permit, we can look into letting you wander about by yourself or at least take you someplace of your choosing," Terre said with his ever-present emotionless tone.

Penny beamed at that before she speed-blitzed Terre and enveloped him in a hug.

"Thank you, Terre! You have no idea how happy your words have made me!"

"Your thanks are not necessary Penny, but you're welcome. Now please let go of me," Terre didn't show it, but Penny's hug was squeezing the air out of him. Penny didn't look it, but she was physically stronger than any of the three super soldiers.

"Sorry!"

There wasn't much to do while they waited for the team naming ceremony. Penny had brought a deck of cards in her luggage and suggested they play a game. The boys agreed, seeing as how they had nothing else to do, and let their cheerful teammate teach them how to play bridge. Penny's father, Pietro, taught her to play card games in her early stages of development. While they played, the three super soldiers would glance at their watches to check on their targets periodically.

Eventually, the initiation concluded, and the Bad Batch found themselves in the auditorium. Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch congratulated the teams that successfully passed the trials and welcomed them as official students. Ruby Rose was named the leader of Team RWBY and Jaune Arc was named the leader of Team JNPR.

After the ceremony concluded, there was a reception held in the ballroom. Professors Ozpin, Goodwitch, Oobleck, and Port were conversing with newly accepted students while teams RWBY and JNPR stood around a table as they sipped fruit punch and chowed down on appetizers. JNPR's hyperactive ginger, Nora, was devouring everything in sight, causing Jaune, Ruby, and Weiss to look a bit uneasy. Ren, however, was used to Nora's antics and continued to sip his punch as if nothing were happening. Team PGRT walked over to join them with Penny leading the way. Ruby smiled as she made eye contact with Penny.

"Penny!"

"Ruby!"

The two embraced each other and congratulated each other on becoming team leaders, Penny toned down her strength this time after Rahm and Terre reprimanded her for using her super-strength last time. They separated soon enough, and Ruby found herself blushing at the sight of Penny's teammates, or at least one of them.

"Congratulations to all of you for completing initiation," said Penny. "And congratulations to both of you, Ruby, Jaune, on becoming team leaders. I know you will do well," she said.

"T-Thanks," their awkward replies came at the same time. Both of them felt the burden of leadership for different reasons. Jaune had faked his transcripts to get into Beacon Academy and he had no actual combat experience while Ruby was two years younger than her teammates.

"So, uh," Ruby fidgeted awkwardly, "what did you all do while we were in initiation?"

Yang snickered at her sister's awkwardness, finding it all too amusing for her.

"We played bridge!" Penny chimed in.

Ruby and Yang listened intently as Penny recounted their day. Rahm smirked ever so slightly at Penny's antics before turning his attention to the others.

"Anything interesting happen during initiation?" Asked Rahm.

"Yes! Ren and I are officially partners!" Nora couldn't contain her excitement as she enveloped Ren in a bone-crushing hug.

"N-Nora…air…please," Ren struggled to breathe in Nora's grip. Nora let the poor boy go, laughing sheepishly.

"But yeah, how cool is that?" Nora asked to no one in particular.

"Very exciting Nora," replied Weiss unenthusiastically.

Nora stuck her tongue out at the Schnee heiress. "Oh, you're just mad that you didn't get Pyrrha as your partner," Nora poked Weiss in the arm repeatedly.

"N-No! Shut up Nora!"

Rahm raised his eyebrow at that. "Who did Weiss get partnered with?" He asked.

"Ruby," replied Blake nonchalantly as she read her book.

Weiss, meanwhile, looked incredibly annoyed. Rahm laughed lightly at the heiress' predicament.

"Don't worry Weiss," Yang said, garnering Weiss' attention. "I'm sure you and Ruby will make a great team."

Weiss merely pouted as she folded her arms across her chest.

"So, I guess that means Jaune and Pyrrha are partners," said Jai.

"Yup," replied Jaune, who was oblivious to the blushing redhead beside him. Jai took notice of Pyrrha's reddening face.

"Pyrrha," Jai said, "are you ok?" The Guardian super soldier honestly didn't know what was wrong with the girl. His life, and by extension the lives of his Guardian brothers, was spent in near-total isolation of all things that were meant to be human. His lack of knowledge about the human act of blushing was still new to him. Terre and Rahm took notice of the redhead and they too wondered what was wrong with her.

"N-Nothing, I'm fine thank you Jai," she replied sheepishly. Jai looked at her quizzically for a moment before he shrugged and let it be.

"Good afternoon students."

The teenagers looked over and spotted the headmaster of Beacon Academy approaching with a steaming mug in his hand. Nora waved at the headmaster, smiling as she did so.

"Hey, Professor Ozpin. How's it going?"

"I'm quite well, thank you, Ms. Valkyrie."

Ozpin turned his attention to the members of team PGRT.

"Ah, you four must be the transfer students from Atlas?"

"Yes sir," replied Rahm.

"Splendid. You must be Rahm Tangerin, correct?"

Rahm nodded. Ozpin then gestured over at the tallest of the Guardians.

"You are Terre Verte?"

Terre also gave a confirming nod. Ozpin then gestured over to Guardian Zero-Three-Seven.

"And you must be Jai Gris."

"Yes sir," said Jai.

Ozpin's eyes finally landed on the Special Mission Unit's adorable bundle of energy.

"And you of course are Penny Polendina."

Penny merely beamed one of her sweet smiles.

"It is a pleasure to formally meet you four in person. I apologize for not doing so sooner; I've been very busy."

"Your apologies are unnecessary Professor Ozpin," replied Terre.

"Even so. It is a headmaster's duty to get to know his students," replied Ozpin.

The ancient warrior had indeed been busy observing the initiation of the students earlier today. He felt it would have been rather rude of him to not come and meet the new students from Atlas. However, he couldn't help but feel as though something was off with them, with the exception of Ms. Polendina. Ozpin's attention was drawn to the three young men who towered over all of the other students. It wasn't their height that caught his attention; he had met plenty of people just as tall or taller. What caught his attention were the eyes of the young men before him. He recognized the look in their eyes all too well. Eyes that had seen a lifetime of combat. It had to have been a coincidence. These were mere boys. They had yet to experience the true horrors this world had to offer. The headmaster of Beacon did not know how wrong he was. If he only knew what the three of them truly were then even he, an ever reincarnating ancient warrior who had seen untold amounts of pain and horror, would have clutched his heart in agony.

"Well then," Ozpin said, "I must be going now. Enjoy the reception."

The ancient warrior offered a parting smile before he turned and left.

Teams RWBY, JNPR, and PGRT didn't remain in the ballroom for much longer. The sun was beginning to set and the teams retired to their respective rooms after bidding each other goodnight. The Bad Batch didn't exchange words upon arriving back to their room. One by one they showered and prepped for bed. Jai agreed to take the first watch and once his teammates went to sleep, the super soldier opened the room's window and jumped up to the ledge above in order to maintain a vantage point. Luckily, the night would prove to be uneventful.

Penny awoke to the sound of their room's alarm clock, which read 0400. She could see that Rahm was already up, having been the last one on shift last night. Penny glanced over to see Terre and Jai getting up too.

"Anything eventful happen?" Terre asked Rahm.

Rahm shook his head. "Nothing. The targets are safe."

"Good. Let's make sure it stays that way," replied Terre. "Let's hit the gym."

Penny nodded with an excited smile. The four quickly changed into workout attire made their way out of the room and proceeded to make their way to the gymnasium. No words were spoken as they walked. When they arrived, they found the gym to be a bit underwhelming to what they were used to back in Atlas. To be fair, the Bad Batch had their own fitness facility that was stocked with specialized equipment that was meant to be used by biologically enhanced super soldiers and, in the case of the newest addition to the Bad Batch, a technologically enhanced robot girl. The barbells would not be able to handle the usual weight they were used to, but at least the indoor track and sparring area looked decent enough.

"Is it safe to assume I won't be the only one in here after class too?" Rahm asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah. With how little we'll be doing in class we'll have time to kill," replied Jai.

"No better way to kill it with extra training," said Terre.

"This will be so much fun! I missed our training sessions," said Penny.

Rahm smirked. "You're not the only one Penny. Just remember that we need to tone down our physical abilities at all times while we're here at Beacon."

Penny nodded in understanding.

"Let's get to work," said Terre.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you all next time!

-Dude64