"It has been about 1 year since the Vytal disappearances. For the people who don't know. The Vytal disappearances are the name of 4 back to back disappearances that happened to last years Vytal festival teams. The only connecting dots the public has found out are that 2 of the victims were close with eachother and their team, 3 of the teams attended beacon and all 4 of the teams the 4 victims were form where shown to have a high chance of winning the Vytal tournament. More on this a-"

Ozpin quickly pressed the off button on the remote. Currently he was sitting in his dorm in beacon academy. He always liked to watch the new. A small glimpse into the life of the common folk as his Atlesian friends. He didn't like it anymore. Not after that day. 1 year ago 4 huntsmen in training went missing under his and James's watch. It didn't happen all at once, even it Ozpin hoped it did. The disappearances were slow.

First a second year named "Velvet Scarlatina" went. A promising student with a strange fighting style and weapon. Most staff loved the bunny girl. Now she was gone

Second was a first year named "Jaune Arc". A boy with grand dreams who managed to fake his way into beacon. He was actually managing to catch up with his class. Now he was gone

Third was another second year student from Haven named "Emerald Sustrai". A rather elusive student. All her files seem to hint she came out of nowhere but in minstral that wasn't very unheard of. Now she was gone

Finally the last disappearance and possibly the one that hit him the hardest, "Ruby Rose". The daughter of a prominent and deceased huntress and one of the last Silver eyed warriors Summer Rose. He wanted to protect her. Now she was gone

Ozpin sighed as he recalled most of the info about the 4 victims. It hurt him. The life he was living currently was his most successful since the king of vale and in what looked like a week everything seemed to start crumbling in front of his eyes. Ozpin could only let out another and softer sigh before starting to get ready for getting out there and being a headmaster

"Why them. Miss rose is expected but the other 3? What are you playing at Salem?"

[]

Yang and Pyrrha hated today. Today was the day everyone would talk about the disappearances and would come up to them to give condolences, it's not that they don't get why. They just want it to stop. That everyone would just stop reminding them of their failures to protect their friends

Today represent also when Yang began to act a bit more like Uncle Qrow but in none of the good ways. Today was the day Yang knew she could sneak in some booze and knew the invincible girl wouldn't deny her. They were by no means best friends now but today was the day they seemed to both want 1 thing

To forget

They were currently sitting on top of the roof of Beacon Academy. Watching over the Emerald Forrest with a 2 crates of beer and a bottle of wine Yang managed to get Weiss to buy her

Throughout the day nobody came to disturb the duo. They didn't know if it was due to the lessons or that people knew what they were doing. They just were happy with their silent wallowing in their misery. The only creatures that were looking at them were 2 birds. A Raven and Crow. The Raven looking judgemental at the 2 while they crow looked strangely worried for them

Finally when the sun began to set and a new person came to the the rooftop, Coco Adel. Instead of the upperclassman stopping the 2 for getting booze into beacon and getting drunk Coco instead grabbed one of the beer cans and sat down with the 2. Starting to drink with them and another person to be sad with

Finally around midnight the drinking stopped as the 3 fell into a drunken sleep on the roof, holding each other for warmth, comfort and safety. After some time 3 other people came to the roof. Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren and Yatsuhachi Daichi each with a pillow. No words were spoken between the newcomers. The only interaction they had between each other were helping them put a pillow under their friends' heads

All 3 feared their friends would do this. The least they could do if they couldn't change their minds was to make it hurt less in the morning. They hoped it would be enough. Soon after the newcomers left the crow finally made itself known again. It's steps light to make minimum noise while it held something big in its arms

Slowly it walked closer to the trio and covered them in a big blanket. The Crow was meticulous in making sure none of the girls woke up while he was busy. Afterwards the Crow leaned down and planted a kiss on Yang's forehead before he too disappeared into the night

All 3 of the girls unconsciously cuddled up closer to each other. Each one lost someone close to them, but through that they got closer with each other. At least the nightmare of being reminded was over for now

Right?

[]

Haven academy wasn't affected by the disappearances as Beacon. True they now had a 3 person team but generally people knew bringing it up wouldn't do anyone any good but still some people showed how they mourned by giving gifts

Cinder fall found it mildly amusing. She didn't mind all the gifts. It just made her forget how half her plan fell apart with Emerald suddenly deserting. Cinder didn't believe Emerald would just up and disappear out of nowhere! How dare she for leaving her. Now Cinder was forced to take Torchwick's assistent with her to keep their "3 person team". Neither her or Torchwick's Assistent liked it

Cinder looked up from her game. People had gone far with the gifts, giving her things from chocolate to a game console with some games. Why not use it? When Cinder looked around she saw Mercury leave the room. Mercury had been a bit off since Emeralds disappearance but Cinder knew he would still be loyal

Mercury sighed. He knew this day was coming so WHY couldn't he keep his composure! Why did his aloof and non-caring persona crack each time she was brought up. It wasn't like he had a crush on Emerald. He knew that for certain but he just couldn't understand why he felt so attached to her

Mercury stood in front of a building, firing Talaria into the ground to launch him onto the roof. Unlike Cinder people knew what Mercury liked. So he got a bunch of comics and some of the students he was more 'acquainted' with also gave him some chip specially imported from Menagerie and others from Vacuo

Mercury began to eat and read some of the comics. He sometimes let out a chuckle as he kept reading. However as it did it slowly began to dawn on him why he was cracking after every mention of Emerald. She brought his life something else than constant fighting and getting into evil schemes. Mercury didn't know why he needed that. Just some stability? Why did he want that?

As it finally became dark he put the Comic back in the bag and jumped of the building before walking towards Haven again. Mercury hoped to have a answer to that by the end of the tournament

[]

Ozpin sighed. He had just gotten a request from Qrow to get a blanket for Miss Xiao Long, Nikos and Adel. Of course he knew about the booze but he just couldn't find it in himself to stop it, even if Qrow was gonna beg if he knew Ozpin didn't do anything to Miss Xiao Long's drinking wasn't approved

Ozpin had to take his mind off it so he began to read through the teams who were gonna be participating in the Vytal tournament. With the disappearances that happened last year the council of Vale and Atlas both decided to host another tournament the following year in Vale and put a immediate stop to the current tournament. With Theodore being the only person in a position of power in Vacuo and Leonardo also being a bit hit by the disappearances they also had Mistral and Vacuo support

Ozpin began sifting through teams and just mutter the names. Most were just the same as last year. "(R)WBY, (J)NPR, SSSN, CRDL, CF(V)Y, CMN(E), ZNIT, BRNZ- wait ZNIT?"

Ozpin looked confused. There exists no team ZNIT, well not to his recollection. Ozpin looked through the files of team ZNIT but couldn't find them so he began to look through the paper files. Every academy was meant to send a paper version of the files of every team. It was just a old tradition he instated when still learning from the old headmaster before him

The first worrying thing he noticed was that there were bloodstains on the paper. Ozpin was slightly baffled that this came through without him or Glynda noticing but began to read through it

The second worrying thing was that there was no academy of origin for this mysterious team ZNIT or Zenith. It also didn't abide by the standard naming convention. Only a title for each combatant

The final worrying thing that he found was that nothing was filled out on the sheet except the weapons each and instead of where personal info was supposed to go was some info about behaviour and on how to keep each member 'Calm and satisfied'. Well he had to look through it as headmaster

"Okay member 1. Referred to as the Rouge. The Rouge's weapon of choice are 2 Kusarigama called 'Red Right Hand'. Mainly animalistic behaviour, doesn't know speech. Keep the lord within close proximity to the Rouge, or keep the Joker and Beast with them. The Rouge won't tend to their needs if the Lord hasn't tended to those needs 'IE the Rouge refused to eat if the lord hasn't eaten or isn't eating'" Ozpin was mighty freaked out but managed to calm down again. He at least reached out his scroll and put a call in for Qrow and Glynda to immediately come to his office. Still the wizard read on

"Member 2. Referred to as the Joker. The Joker's weapon is a long sword with multiple different guns build in called 'Every Trick'. Mainly animalistic behaviour, understands speech but doesn't know how to use it. The Joker always knows where the Lord, Rouge and Beast are but only if the Lord gets too far from the Joker will the Joker actively go after them. The Joker relies heavily on the lord to express their wants to people outside of team ZNIT, without the lord to show what they want the Joker quickly becomes distressed" Finally as he finished reading a tired Glynda Goodwitch and slightly drunk Qrow Branwen entered his office

"Oz why did you call me so la-" Qrow was cut off as Ozpin raised his hand to silence him. Qrow was slightly surprised as the headmaster shut him up. Qrow looked around and immediately got more interested in the bloodie documents

"Where did you get those Ozp-" Again Ozpin raised his hand to shut Glynda up. Something he wasn't used to doing, both Qrow and Glynda knew so this must be serious

"Listen. These documents are of a certain team…. Joining us for the Vytal festival. They explain the weapons and behaviour of these individuals. I want you to keep a lookout for them Glynda and when they are found I want you to trail them Qrow. Now let me read the last 2" Ozpin didn't ask them to do those tasks. He told them to. This was one of the times discussion couldn't be in the cards

"Now we have…. Member 3. Referred to as the Beast. The Beast has bladed gauntlets that can be connected with a metal staff on their back to create a scythe. It is called 'Reaper's High'. Nearly only animalistic behaviour, human behaviour only shown in standing up on legs to fight and eat with their hands. The Beast is the most disconnected from the lord, not really needing them for anything except human interaction. However the Beast does get anxious if she doesn't smell the Lord for more than an hour" Ozpin sighed. Why couldn't everything just be normal for 1 day

"The last and seemingly most important and the leader of the team. The one Referred to as the Lord. The Lord uses 2 weapons. A spear that can be imbued with dust to create effects called 'Gea Bulg' and a spear wi-" Ozpin stopped as he looked on. Part of the text was covered with a bloodstain. Luckily the page wasn't fully covered by blood "called 'Ascalon'. The Lord is the only one of the 4 who acts fully human, even if they don't talk. The Lord is very protective over the Beast, Rouge and Jester but they know the difference between a tournament and a real fight. . . . . That is all the info on the Lord" Ozpin said with a soft hmpf. He expected a bit more a bit more from the enigmatic leader of team ZNIT

"Ozpin what the hell" he was brought out of his head as he heard Qrow curse. He had expected something akin of that reaction

"Ozpin I do have to mirror Qrow's sentiment but do you think this is…. Her doing?" Glynda asked. Ozpin knew the question was coming and gulped as the answer formed in his throat

"I don't know"

Yello People. finally starting to write a full story after my hiatus. I hope you will like it!

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