Goliath in the Room

It was near the start of the new year at Beacon, seeing Ozpin in his office going over what should be the last few applications for students.

It was his favourite time to do so, when his second in command, Glynda Goodwitch as she called herself, was busy in Vale sorting out the last few purchases and deliveries the academy expected to need. Without her going over all his paperwork, just in case he accepted a house-cat as a student again, he could get away with some more... well, he wouldn't call them dubious per se, but she certainly seemed to consider them questionable.

He could only be glad that she hadn't been on the staff when he accepted the siblings from a bandit clan as students. If she discovered that it was really him that allowed them in his life expectancy would drop significantly.

There was a call on his scroll as he signed off on the application from an untrained student pretending to have the required grades. He accepted the call, curious as to why someone would be calling at this time.

"Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon." There was a pause. "I can't say I was expecting to hear from you. I suppose that is correct. Yes, I suppose that makes sense, but the rules... I should have realised you would have checked before contacting me. Is there anything else? Of course. In that case, see you in Beacon."

With the call ended Ozpin turned to the coffee maker Doctor Oobleck had given him as a present a few years before. People kept telling him that drinking coffee allowed them to work longer. And by the sound of things he would have a lot more work going further.

Reluctantly the headmaster poured his very first cup of coffee and took a long drink.

[]

Jaune Arc could hardly believe it when he received the message of acceptance into Beacon. It had been a wild hope that, despite his failure at getting anyone to train him, some faked transcripts would get him accepted. Surely the headmaster would spot the deceit and he would be forced to give up his dream.

Already he had started making plans as to what he would tell his family when he returned. Instead his dream was to come true.

"Maybe dreams really can come true," he smiled at the thought. "I can't wait to meet my partner."

[]

Pyrrha Nikos stepped off the bullhead that had brought to Vale with a smile. She realised that even here a lot of people would have heard of her, but surely this far from Mistral people wouldn't think they knew who she was just from seeing her fight a tournament.

"Who knows," she whispered to herself, "I might even find a partner who never heard of me."

In any case, the next few years should definitely be different.

[]

Nora Valkyrie chattered excitedly as she dragged her childhood friend Lie Ren through the gates of Vale. For most people, even Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, the journey on foot from town to city was too dangerous to even contemplate.

Ironically the knowledge of this danger meant that travellers would be scared enough to attract the monsters of Grimm, creating the very danger they were scared of, but things were different for them.

After surviving a Grimm attack that wiped out their village any fear was dulled enough that they only had to deal with the Grimm they wandered into.

His semblance also helped their situation, letting him mask them completely from the senses of the monsters.

He looked upon their future with hope. At Beacon they would have a home free from Grimm. And, if he was lucky, he might get put on a different team than Nora. Maybe, finally, he would get some peace and quiet.

He could only hope.

[]

Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long were in high spirits as they returned to the hotel their dad had booked for them to stay at in the build up to Yang attending Beacon.

Except now Ruby was going to attend with her, a whole two years early. Plus, Yang admitted to herself, she wasn't getting punished for starting a fight in a bar.

Ruby suddenly froze.

Yang raised an eyebrow at her sister. "Everything alright?"

She slowly turned to face Yang. "None of my friends will be there. I won't know anyone else at Beacon."

"Hey, you've met my friends before."

"That isn't the same and you know it."

"It won't be that bad. Tell you what, I'll come up with some ideas to help you make some friends, okay?"

"Really? You'll do that? You're the best sis!" Ruby was already hugging Yang.

Yang could only chuckle nervously, already trying to think of some kind of plan to get herself out of the mess she'd just got herself into. Trying to help Ruby make friends had never gone well for her before, with her either getting them as her friend instead or scaring them off completely.

Still, how bad could things be in Beacon? The students would still be human and Faunus.

[]

Weiss Schnee couldn't stop herself from pacing in the bullhead taking her to Vale.

Her father had delayed her journey for as long as he could, trying to make her reconsider her decision to study outside an academy he could influence.

In doing so he had only managed to ensure that her resolve would harden. At first she had been firm in her plans to return as heiress and reform the SDC, which she was going to make plain to her father when she left, but now she wasn't so sure. If getting free from him was this difficult, could she really risk returning to his control?

Instead she had left without making her future position clear, all but hiding from the discussion that would have happened.

It was only now, with her reconsidering her goal in life, that she questioned what she really wanted. "If I can find someone who knows what they want out of life," she mused, "maybe they can help me find an answer. Of course they would have to be able to stand up to father..."

She nodded. All she needed was to find the right partner. And how hard could that be? After all, she was bound to be one of the students closest to perfection. Who wouldn't be lining up to be her partner?

[]

Blake Belladonna tied a ribbon round her ears, looking in the mirror to make sure it looked like a bow rather than a Faunus hiding their traits to pretend to be human.

The headmaster had realised who she was- who she had been from her application, but allowed her to convince him to give her a chance. But that didn't mean she was going to let the whole school know her heritage.

All it would take would be some racist asking the right, or should that be wrong, questions, and they would find out too much. And if they weren't careful with their questions the wrong people could figure out where she was. And she wasn't ready to face them yet.

She checked the bags she had packed, making sure that all of those books were safely hidden, and picked them up, before preparing to leave the restroom through the same means she had entered it.

Blake spared one last look to the mirror and sighed.

"Sorry, Kali and Gira, but I can't face you just yet."

[]

At Beacon, Ozpin stood awaiting the new arrivals, latest cup of coffee in hand.

He was going to need it.

Authors Note: As may be apparent this is my first attempt at a) writing fanfiction and b) publishing on a fanfiction website. As such, section breaks may not show up properly in the chapter until I get the hang of what will actually remain between saving the file and uploading it. In addition, updates may not be as often as people might like and almost certainly will not be according to a schedule. On the other hand, I will try to announce any hiatus in the final chapter (before hiatus) author note.

Further, there are no characters listed in the tags because I plan to use more than 4 characters as the focus of the story, and the only character that stands out enough to fit the tag is a bit of a spoiler for the second chapter (which will be longer than this one that just serves to set the scene).