I swear I will get back to my other stories (Young Huntresses and New Ships and Sagas)...eventually. Last year I lost the last chapter of the Atlas Arc for Young Huntresses cause my computer suddenly decided to completely crash, and frankly while it's an important chapter and arc, it isn't one that I enjoyed writing as much as the others, so it was hard to start again. So I am trying to get it finally finished by next week, about a year and a bit overdue.

A black tendril shot out, tearing through the air towards the evergreen clad man wearing spectacles. With a flick of his wrist, Ozpin's cane swung outwards, shattering the darkness made flesh as the black goo fell to the floor.

BLAM BLAM BLAM! Ruby groaned as she turned off her alarm, before shooting up, realizing that she had to get ready for school. Grabbing a black t-shirt, a pair of black jeans and her trademark red hoodie she rushed to the shower.

Another tendril pounced from the darkness, as Ozpin focused on the main mass of grimm that writhed before him. The appendage tore through him, but the image faded, revealing its nature as an illusion. The principal dove from the sky, striking the grimm once again as it once again vanished into nothingness.

Racing into the kitchen Ruby grabbed some toast and eggs from her father, also on his way to school, albeit as a professor in a university, not a student in high school. She wolfed it down, before her older sister Yang strolled down the stairs. Despite getting up a full 20 minutes after sister, Yang looked like she had spent hours on her appearance, as per usual, electing to wear a bright orange tang top and a pair of form fitting blue jean short shorts.

Parrying each tendril that came forth, Ozpin backtracked, dashing backwards, as one became two, two four, and before he knew it, twenty before him. His lieutenant, and assistant principal, Glynda raised her crop, a violet light shimmering as she prepared an attack.

"Glynda, get back!" Ozpin commanded, as he tore through another of the grimm's tentacles "Keep the perimeter!"

Grimacing but obeying nonetheless, Glynda lowered her crop, instead focusing on maintaining the violet forcefield that surrounded the shadowy basement battlefield.

Grabbing onto the back of her sister, Ruby grimaced as the motorbike weaved around the traffic that blocked their way. She knew Yang was a good driver, but she really didn't want to risk crashing, especially on the first day of high school. She breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled up to the school, which was replaced with anxiety as she saw everyone, the vast majority taller, and more confident looking than herself, walking in their cliches, as the vast mob made its way into the school.

The black mass of grimm twisted and warped, its form shifting into that of a woman, her finer features hidden by the slime.

"Here she comes" Ozpin muttered, swinging around his cane to get ready, as the grimm woman's limbs and joints cracked into place.

The woman screamed, an unearthly and primal sound came out, shaking the whole chamber with the presence of pure terror. Both Ozpin and Glynda were pushed back, the force carrying to their comrades who stood behind, ready to act in case the situation became too much.

Using the situation to her advantage the grimm woman raised her hands, where a black energy ball formed, getting larger and larger as a swirling stream of dark magic flew from her fingertips to add to the mass. It pulsated with force as it grew even larger than her, ready to burst as a bomb of negative energy.

"ENOUGH!" Ozpin roared as he thrust his cane forward, with a brilliant green light bursting forth, and tearing into the grimm woman's chest.

The woman's scream, combined with the power of the two magical attacks clashing, created a blinding light as the colors that the two magical beings summoned morphed and shifted, as if reality itself was being strained by their struggle.

The struggle became still, as neither could overpower the other, remaining in a deadlock, with the supports around the chamber began to crack, the power threatening to shatter it and bury the combatants under hundreds of tons of rubble.

"NOW!" Ozpin called out, and Glynda Goodwitch pushed her powers inward, the telepathic barrier forced itself inwards, going past Ozpin, now being a bubble, surrounding the grimm woman, and forcing her power inwards as Ozpin's cane sent out even more energy.

The grimm woman's screams became silenced, as both sorcerers pushed forth, the dark ball of energy collapsing in on her, destroying her human form as she shifted back into a mass of black goo.

Ozpin fell to his knees, caught by Qrow Branwen, who rushed forward to support the principal.

"You alright Oz?" Qrow asked with concern, as the silver haired man breathed heavily.

"Yes…I am Qrow, thank you…" Ozpin huffed as he struggled to stand "Glynda, are you okay?"

The assistant principal, supported by Bartholomew Oobleck, was panting, her hands on her knees.

"Yes…I am…thank you Principal. Is she sealed away?"

Ozpin's face hardened "Yes, she is…for now, but her power has grown, I fear that we may have to do this more frequently in the future. She will continue to grow stronger and with each use my magic weakens. If we wish to secure her more permanently, we will have to begin the cycle again."

"Oz, you don't mean…?" Qrow started, an astonished expression on his face.

"Yes, Qrow, the gods will need to walk the earth once again." The principal sighed, as he continued "We will all discuss this tonight further. The semester will begin shortly so we will all need to get up to our classrooms to meet the students. Qrow, both of your nieces will be arriving, I suggest you get out now to avoid being seen by them or anyone that will recognize you."

The black-haired man nodded, before vanishing as he strolled into the darkness, with the rest of the teachers filing out of the chamber, taking the elevator up to the teacher lounge, heading out to each of their individual classrooms to meet the new students of the year, as if it had been any other weekday morning.

"….I wish to welcome all of our new grade nine and transfer students to our school. If you need any help, I expect our more senior students to give you a Beacon welcome and helping hand. Thank you and have a great rest of your day."

The announcements paused, before coming on once again. Ozpin's voice echoed through the intercom.

"Oh yes, I should also mention that there will be a clubs fair on Wednesday, for all of the various sport teams and groups within the school. The football team and the soccer teams for both boys and girls will have their try outs on Friday, and the faunus-human alliance's first meeting will take place at lunch on Thursday. I hope you all have an excellent first day back."

The intercom shut off and Ruby's eyes shot up to the front, where her teacher, Mrs. Goodwitch stood, a tall stunning blond woman, who gave more off far authority than her young appearance would suggest.

However, Ruby's mild anxiety and ADD drew her attention away from her teacher's lecture about the math syllabus, instead looking over the rest of her schedule for the semester.

Day 1

Block 1 (8:30-9:55)

Math-Mrs. Goodwitch

Block 2 (10:00-11:25)

Shop-Mr. Port

Lunch (11:25-1:10)

Block 3 (1:10-2:25)

Social Studies-Dr. Oobleck

Block 4 (2:30-3:55)

Science-Ms. Peach

Day 2

Block 1 (8:30-9:55)

English-Mr. Port

Block 2 (10:00-11:25)

Ministralian language-Dr. Oobleck

Lunch (11:25-1:10)

Block 3 (1:10-2:25)

Design-Mrs. Goodwitch

Block 4 (2:30-3:55)

Science-Ms. Peach

Yang had given her the run down on all of the teachers, who apparently were all as different and distinct as they came.

Goodwitch, according to Yang, had extremely high expectations of her students, and was very stern and frankly a bit intimidating. However, Yang also described her as extremely helpful, if you need assistance with schoolwork or anything else for that matter, she would be the one to go to. She had worked for hours with Yang completing her cover letter for a mechanic apprentice position Yang was gunning for. Despite her hardass teaching style (Hey Yang's word's not her's) and difficult tests, she prepared you well for them. Ruby was just hoping to stay on her good side.

Port, who Ruby had for both shop and social studies, Yang did not have a high opinion of. Actually, she thought he was great for shop, where he was actually very hands on and encouraging for students with higher aspirations. Yang being the gearhead that she was would often work on Bumblebee during that class period, which Port not only allowed but encouraged, impressed with her craftsmanship. But he was apparently a bore in English. Instead of talking about the subject he was assigned to teach, he would link the course material to random stories he had about his youth, and drone on about them for an entire class. Thankfully his tests were supposedly pretty easy. That kind of teaching style was pretty hit or miss depending on the student, with Ruby suspecting the latter for herself.

She didn't know much about the other two, but she supposed she would have Jaune, or Yang fill her in when she saw them later.

Ruby, who thankfully was at the back of the classroom, looked up when she heard the bell ring, as Mrs. Goodwitch stopped her lecture, hurrying students out to get to their next class. Ruby got up, packing her bag as she hurried out into the hallways full of giants, praying that she wouldn't get lost.

Annoyed that she didn't get a chance to even touch one of the drills in shop class, Ruby made her way to the cafeteria, scanning around for a place to sit. Despite talking to pretty much no one in her first two classes, Ruby did have friends. Most of them were Yang's age, being kids they grew up with, but Yang moved away from when they developed differing interests. Certainly, no hard feelings, and they were all friendly enough with her sister, but Ruby was the only one of the pair of sisters who regularly hung out with them. She was certainly glad to be going to the same school as them now.

She saw Yang wave to her, pretending not to see her sister, as she was able to calm her rising heart rate, seeing another familiar head of blond hair.

Strolling over and plotting her bum down on a bench next to her best friend, Jaune jumped slightly, his expression lifting when he saw it was her.

"Oh, hey Ruby! How's the first day as a freshman going?" Jaune asked, quickly glancing over at his cafeteria tray to make sure that none of the food had fallen in his surprise.

"Ehhh, it's going" Ruby shrugged "Movies really made it seem like it would be more exciting here."

"Yep, boredom, anxiety and social awkwardness. That's the high school experience."

"Horniness, don't forget horniness." Nora called out from the other side of the table, quickly swallowing whatever food she had in her mouth.

"Nora don't be crude" Ren corrected, hesitantly looking up from his book, only fully putting it down when he saw that Ruby had arrived, nodding in greeting "Ruby, it's good to have you back with us. How are you finding your classes?"

"I was just telling Jaune. Today's been kind of dull. Hopefully things pick up a bit."

"I dunno, then things get hard" Nora mumbled as she chewed "I hate being bored, but at least syllabuses are easy days."

"I gotta agree with the lighting bolt on this one" Jaune interjected "I prefer easy and boring to stuff that makes me panic."

Ruby giggled at Jaune's nickname of Nora. There were two reasons for the nickname. One the girl had endless energy, some sort of form of ADHD. This somehow directly impacted her physical ability, giving the orange haired girl far more athletic ability than you'd expect from someone her size. She was crazy strong, despite being smaller than Ruby, and could lift as much as Yang, a high-level boxer who easily had thirty pounds on Nora. Ruby had yet to see her tire from this activity too.

Second, she had a strange tendency to build up static electricity throughout the day. This often gave whoever Nora touched a shocking surprise, which was unfortunate as she was a rather physically affectionate person. Only Ren seemed immune to her electrical crushing hugs, which Ruby suspected was due to repeated exposure.

"Let's see your schedule" Ren requested, which Ruby passed over to him. The black-haired boy's eyes narrowed as he scanned the paper.

"Dr. Oobleck is a great lecturer, always willing to lend students a helping hand if they ask for it. He's really passionate about history too which makes it far more interesting. He has very high expectations for his students."

"If you can even hear what he is saying. Ruby, I'm not kidding he talks sooooo fast. I think I can only catch every third word." Jaune interjected, before shrugging "He's good about extensions for assignments though."

Ren ignored Jaune as he continued "Ms. Peach is very kind, but I will admit that even I have a hard time hearing her sometimes. Thankfully she's quite patient an..."

"Yeah, but if you piss her off, ohhh baby." Nora interrupted "I seriously think I'm more scared of her than Goodwitch after she tore Cardin to pieces for constantly spitballing the back of Jaune's neck. Once she gets like that it's better to just stay out her way and let her release her wrath on the poor soul who earned it."

Jaune shrugged, seeming grateful for the teacher's intervention, and even Ren nodded, agreeing with Nora's assessment of Ms. Peach.

Despite being connected at the hip with Nora, Ren was about as different from the lighting bolt as you could get. Very quiet and calm and a fiercely focused student, Ren had gotten top grades since kindergarten. Despite being what Nora would call a "massive nerd", Ren did actually do some sports, just not any ones in school. He was a black belt in taekwondo and had studied a few other martial arts, having a real passion for learning how to kick people's asses (although he tended to avoid conflict that would put him in that position.)

Ruby had heard stories of bullies attempting to pick on both Ren and Nora, assuming that the tiny, weird girl full of positivity (as well as static electricity) and the quiet and admittedly short and scrawny looking bookworm (granted he did still have over half a foot on Ruby) would be easy to pick on. Between Nora's strength (and frankly occasional sadism) and Ren's martial arts mastery, they were quickly proven wrong, and quickly learned to attempt less physical forms of bullying instead. Neither Ren nor Nora particularly seemed to care, however.

Ruby was still a bit taken back by the mass of students crowded around the cafeteria. Each group was so clearly distinct from one another you could almost draw a perfect border between them. None even bothered to look at each other, instead entirely focused on their own cliques.

Jaune saw her vacant stare and tapped on her shoulder. "Want some help navigating the hellhole?"

Ruby silently nodded, as Jaune pointed towards a group on the far side.

"Okay so first you got your drama kids. Honestly decent once you get to know them but tend to really keep to themselves, unless its to promote their shows..."

Ruby saw a boy with dark skin and red hair, a girl in a beanie that covered her left eye, an admittedly pretty boy with pinkish hair and a sky-blue hoodie and frankly one of the biggest human beings that Ruby had ever seen. Even the second tallest of his group only came up to his shoulders, and his arms were as thick as Ruby's whole body. Ruby was startled that he wasn't sitting at the basketball table or something.

Nora noticed her starting "Oh yeah that's just old Yatsu. Don't worry about him, nothing but an absolute teddy bear."

Jaune agreed before moving onto the inner section of the cafeteria.

"…the skater kids and the kids on skid row…"

A very distinct and diverse group of students sat at a table, one of which had a dark purple hoodie with bright cyan hair with a similarly colored skateboard next to her.

At the table to their left however, there was a group of boys who everyone seemed to keep a wide berth of. They all looked tough and frankly rather angry, seeming to be entirely focused on eating their food, except one with silver hair, who currently seemed to be running his mouth off.

"None you need to worry about unless you bother them" Ren whispered to comfort Ruby "Although I will admit that Mercury does make me nervous."

"…and, well the…popular girls. Granted you already know two of them pretty well." Jaune finished to get a breath, his face going red for some reason.

There were five girls seated at Yang's table. Ruby honestly thought most of them were alright, at least the popular kids who Yang hung out with were. They were all two or three years older than Ruby, in their senior or junior year with her sister.

Right beside Yang was her best friend Pyrrha. Ruby actually quite liked Pyrrha, who she had talked to a few times when the red head had come over to their house to meet up with Yang. Tall, athletic and like Yang, drop dead gorgeous, Pyrrha was by far the greatest athlete that Ruby had ever seen. Beacon High certainly agreed, as Pyrrha was somehow able to compete in varsity track, field, swimming and wrestling, despite being in the honors program for most of her courses, a feat impossible for the vast majority of students. She was also incredibly nice, having been more than happy to talk adamantly with Ruby while waiting for Yang when she had come over, and even had a brief conversation with Ruby when she was walking between math and shop earlier that day. Apparently, she also regularly volunteered at a soup kitchen, which cemented Ruby's positive opinion of her even more.

Across from Yang was Coco Adel, who despite in many ways being a stereotypical rich girl, was more than meets the eye, according to Yang anyway. Her parents owned a clothing company, Adel, which pretty much sold any fashionable item under the sun, with a significant price tag attached of course. Confident, wealthy, stylish and passionate, Coco was apparently quite generous with her wealth, providing the latest and greatest styles to her friends. Despite the Adel's line of clothing typically not being her style, Ruby couldn't deny Yang looked fantastic in any gift from her friend and would wear anything Yang bought for her at a discounted price from the Adel store in the local mall.

Across from Pyrrha and next to Adel, sat Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the illustrious Schnee Dust company. As rich as the Adel's were, the Schnee company dwarfed them, being the world's foremost supplier of energy and technology to the world. Ruby was not exaggerating when she said that her family was one of the top ten richest on earth, easily surpassing the tens of billions in net worth. What she was doing in a small, grated very prestigious high school in Vale, far away from her native Atlas was beyond Ruby. Like the rest of her friends that surrounded her, Weiss was dressed to impress, wearing a white sleeveless blouse, showing her slender porcelain arms, with a light blue skirt. Unlike the rest of her friends, she was actually quite short, barely taller than Ruby, but gave off a much bigger presence, befitting someone of her status.

Ruby honestly wasn't quite sure why Yang was friends with her. According to Yang, the heiress was old family friends with Coco, and Pyrrha, bless her sweetheart, had taken the lonely Weiss under her wing as a friend. Ruby was pretty sure that her sister, the wild mechanic/boxer couldn't stand the uptight and hoity princess of Atlas, but they were in the same friend group, so they had to get along. At least Ruby could tell that the Schnee Heiress could match her sister's stubbornness, according to the stories of their many arguments that Yang entertained her with.

A pretty girl with mint hair sat on the other side of Coco, with a fairly revealing green and white outfit. She was the only one Ruby didn't recognize and was sure Yang hadn't mentioned her before. Ruby was very sure Yang would have mentioned her.

There were also some boys sitting next to them, one a blond faunus with a monkey tail, one a red head, a burly looking brunette and surprisingly, one with blue hair. Ruby seemed to remember Yang mentioning that they were pretty good friends with the boys' volleyball team, so she assumed that it was them.

"…and the boys volleyball team…" with Jaune confirming her suspicions.

"You seemed to skip over those girls pretty quickly Jauney." Nora snickered, raising her eyebrows suggestively "Any of them in particular you want to point out."

Jaune groaned, with Ren whispered to Ruby "Jaune has a…small crush on Weiss. Has tried asking her out a few times. Those attempts…did not go well."

"Moving on" Jaune muttered through gritted teeth "Now these are the groups you actually have to be worried about."

He indicated to the table next to the popular girls, with many similarly pretty girls, but each had a look of disgust on their faces.

'The girls soccer team. Have a twenty-year championship and will not let a single person forget it. They have just a bit of a god complex."

"Really watch out for Octavia, Nebula, Dew and Gwen." Nora advised, pointing to the four girls in the center of the group. "The rest of the team is alright but are all manipulated by the four queens of mean."

"…and finally, the football team. A bunch of overly aggressive assholes, led by the biggest and dumbest of them all, Cardin Winchester."

Ruby remembered Cardin from Signal Junior High. He was always a pretty big guy, but it seemed that puberty had hit him like a truck. While not as large as Yatsuhashi, he still towered over nearly every other student around him, including his three cronies that Ruby also recognized from Signal.

"You just don't like him because he dated Weiss last year." Nora teased.

"She dumped him after a week when he tried to feel her up on their first date. Apparently, he didn't take no for an answer. Clearly, she has good taste. Plus, he's a dick to everyone."

"That why she's not dating you?"

Jaune groaned and was about to argue back but was interrupted by Ruby.

"How do you know that?"

Ren smirked "That would be your sister."

Ruby frowned but Nora continued to explain.

"After Weiss called the girls from the restaurant bathroom, Yang came to pick her up and punched Cardin in the face. After she broke his nose, she told the whole school the story, and personally ensured that our boy Cardin has remained dateless ever since. He still has some popularity due to being the star quarterback, but at least it's something."

Ruby nodded, surprised that her sister did that. Not the punching the pervert part, that was definitely on brand, but sticking up for Weiss to that extent. Maybe the blond bruiser was closer with the heiress than she thought.

Ruby's attention was drawn to a new figure who took a spot at the end of their table. It was a girl with long black hair, with an equally dark bow sitting on top of her head. Silently she took out a book and scanned the page with her vibrant amber eyes.

Ruby leaned over to Jaune, whispering "Hey who's that?"

But this time it was Ren who answered "Blake Belladonna. She's a junior who just transferred here."

Nora raised her eyebrows "How do you know that?"

Ren shrugged "I used my spare in the morning to go to the library. She was reading a book that I quite liked, so I talked to her briefly. She was a bit quiet."

Ruby raised her eyebrows. If Ren said someone was quiet, they must be almost dead silent.

Nora's frown turned into a smirk "That book didn't happen to be Ninja's of Love, did it?"

Ren's cheeks reddened "That's not important."

Before Nora could tease Ren further, a voice with a distinct accent called out to them.

"Jaune, Ren, Nora, how was your summer?"

Jaune turned and with a smile "Hi Velvet, it was good, how was yours?"

The rabbit faunus that Ruby assumed was Velvet sat down beside Jaune and shrugged "I went to Atlas to visit my father. Definitely a mixed bag but it was cool to see his lab."

"Oh, do you know Dr. Polendina?' Ruby blurted out.

Velvet blinked in surprise "Um yes, I kinda do. Sorry are you new here?"

"Oh sorry, yeah, my name is Ruby. I just know his daughter Penny."

This seemed to perplex Velvet even more, but it turned into a confused smile "Are you Yang's sister?"

Ruby deadpanned "Yeeaah, but we don't really look alike though."

Velvet nodded knowingly "I don't think I would have guessed if she didn't mention it earlier. She's really excited that you're going here."

Suddenly the rabbit Faunus jumped about five feet in the air as someone suck up behind her, tasering her sides.

"Goddamn it Coco, don't do that." Velvet gasped "You nearly killed me."

"Sorry Bun Bun" Coco leered, as she wrapped her arm around Velvet "Couldn't resist. What are you up to tonight?"

"Obviously your party." Velvet replied, not at all pulling away from the fashionista's grip "You texted me about it two weeks ago."

Coco chuckled "Just wanted to make sure."

She turned to face the group at the table "You nerds wanna come?"

Jaune raised his eyebrows "You want us to come to your party?"

"You guys are good people. Total losers but still you're chill" Coco shrugged, before patting Jaune on the shoulder "Just try to be cool, okay?"

The three nodded before Coco turned her attention to Ruby "Ruby, Yang said you gotta come with her early to help set up. Something about needing to experience what it's like to be with the cool kids. Anyway, you're riding over with her. Be there by seven."

Ruby blinked "Um, okay…Coco."

The fashionista nodded, turning to head back to her table "Alright see you guys tonight."

"Later Bun Bun." And Velvet squeaked as Coco whacked her hard in the behind. Despite winching momentarily, the rabbit faunus didn't seem particularly bothered, saying goodbye to the group before strolling to the other end, and surprisingly sat down in front of Blake. Even more surprising was the seemingly anti-social girl smiled back and proceeded to chat with her.

Ruby opened her milk carton and took a sip as she soaked it all in. Beacon was just full of surprises.