Looking back, ruby shouldn't have been in Cole's room visiting, but she felt bad for not taking the distress signal or their mission seriously, so she would sneak off after class during lunch and dinner to see him hooked up to equipment she'd been all too familiar with.

Honest to the extent of her guilt she'd done nothing wrong, she just assumed it her fault.

"You really don't need to be here, ms.branwen"

Ruby turned to the voice and smiled sadly, "it's the least I can do considering the fact that my team almost didn't respond to the distress signal…he was near death's door when we saved him" looking back at Cole she gave him a sympathetic look before walking to the exit.

"It's sweet of you to visit anyway ruby" the nurse said checking on Cole and went to work washing him and cleaning him.

Little did she know every one of her friends had already figured out what was going on when yang got nosey so she and coco followed her when she snuck off on his first night of admittance apologizing to him and said that she'd visit again after lunch like he had just done.

"Hey, she's leaving his room as we speak...yeah whatever, just act natural and let her think-"

"Yang move it" coco interrupted chasing after ruby.

Yang groaned as she hung up and ran after them 'why's this guy so special?' she thought rounding a corner tripping into nora and velvet, helping each other up she apologized and ran after coco but lost her and ruby in the process.

"You should be in class, what are you doing in the halls?"

Looking up, yang smiled and said, "just practicing my stealth running and free running hehe"

"well good thing you ran into us, we need help with something"

Already hating this, they both exclaimed "NO!" and dragged them off to class.

"Bunch of buzz killers" yang said sitting in class listening to ozpin's lecture on the knasher Grimm, which oddly enough people were listening to his story. "I guess a substitute was the right call" Blake said finishing her notes on the hunting patterns oz have finished covering and even weirder was that she had a cold feeling run down her spine when a picture of a knasher was showing blood and entrails wrapped in its razor sharp teeth and claws.

"Im sure you all have been working hard but don't forget to turn in your papers before tomorrow, late papers will lose about thirty percent of your final grade."

beacon infirmary two days later*

An EKG machine beeped rhythmically, a surgical tube pumped intravenous fluid and another pumped a few pints of blood into his arm. His cuts were dressed and wrapped up, but were soaked in copious amounts of blood.

A short nurse wrote down her report on her current patient, who looked like a corpse if not for his heart and breathing.

'Patient has mass scarring from the right side of his face to the torso, back and abdomen, shins and calves, all likely wounds made from the past. Lightning scars traveling from the back of his fingers to his shoulder blades pectorals, and spread to his stomach. Suffering from a bit of mild dehydration, a high fever of 104 -but went down yesterday- and pale skin. It's assumed that the patient is sick or dying if not for his pulse and steady breathing.'

A few hours later a nurse walked in and put more notes over to her desk, put her phone down and took a look at his test results. They showed that apart from his current state, he'd be fine in a few days. Other than that, he was fine.

All of these symptoms were supposed to have faded in a few hours, but then it hit her, either he was auraless or he was unable to manifest one. Immediately taking off towards ozpin's office to tell him the news, she had neglected Cole waking up as she stormed out.

'He won't believe his luck when he sees this' she thought as she sped past students and a few teachers, the second she got to the elevator in beacon tower she practically ran into ironwood and team RWBY.

The five of them just stood there watching her mash the 'up' button and frantically talking about not believing something, but didn't catch much else.

As the doors opened she leapt inside and flashed her medical identification card and said, "nurse Elwood, I have a request to speak to the headmaster asap" with that the doors closed and up she went but a lot slower that she'd hoped.

Waking up to various tubes and things sticking to his body was by far the weirdest things he woke up to. Not wanting to dwell on it long, he pulled all of them off and carefully took out the three needles in his arm. "Better get cleaned up" looking to the side of his on the right he saw a restroom and a box with clothes "huh, that's convenient…odd, but convenient nonetheless" he said to himself taking the gown and bandages off before stepping into the shower blasting his face with cold water, he assumed he was already clean, but he still felt the desire to since he'd been in the woods for a few weeks, so he felt he should clean himself up.

Finished with his shower he grabbed a towel and a pair of boxers, walked back to his bed where the clothes sat and went through it as well as what was left of his stuff only to find his old boots.

Getting dressed was the easy part, to leave was going to be hard when he saw a few strangers entering the room dropping his belt on the floor.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me" he said as they entered the room. He had a glare he felt could set a stone ablaze, but hid it when he saw a blonde bombshell with a riding crop.

ten minutes earlier*

Glynda was behind ozpin's desk looking out the window talking about the new first years as they were coming in when she dropped the question he was hoping to avoid.

Sir, are you sure he's still alive; it's been almost two years since he disappeared and Qrow said that his body was never found after the blast, nor was the woman who was with him."

Ozpin looked at the happy new students with a somber smile, and he said, "I'm certain of it; if Qrow's reports are as accurate as his swordsmanship, then I have no doubt about him being in my infirmary" he sat back in his chair sipping his coffee, "I doubt that he'll pass up this chance"

With a smile, he looked up at her and was about to say something else but ms.Elwood burst through his door.

"Headmaster Ozpin, professor Goodwitch there's something you need to see!" they both looked at each other and back to Elwood with a look of concern and confusion.

"What is so important that you'd burst into my office nurse Elwood, cause if this is about the first years again we're going to have a hard time replacing-" he was interrupted again when she slammed the file on his desk and exclaimed, "it's about the new patient from the ageless forest sir, and I think it'll leave you speechless"

Ozpin grabbed the file and read the bold yellow highlights on the fifth page and replied evenly "then lead the way ms.Elwood" she stood there for a second before leading him towards the elevator doors.

Just as the doors closed he smirked at Glynda slyly, he may have been headmaster, but this was worth seeing for himself and Glynda was probably going to kill him, and speaking of Goodwitch, she just stood there watching them leave. After a moment, she started fuming realizing ozpin practically shoved his workload on her again, which she'd use to get him to do favors for her and this made her smile a bit with a vengeance in mind.

Taking the elevator down and literally sprinting across the school grounds they both got to the infirmary within minutes, and when they both got inside, ozpin rushed over and opened the curtain to find an empty bed with the sheets ruffled and tossed to one side.

Before even thinking to ask where he was the three heard a belt fall on the ground, both looking in that direction they saw Cole next to his bed wearing most of the uniform that he found in a footlocker near his bed, but the two adults noticed the tie, button up shirt and blazer sat on the bed completely untouched.

"Why am I not surprised" He thought as Cole gave a light glare at the nurse's stare and looked directly over at ozpin.

"Thank your students for saving me in my place; I need to get going." he said looking himself over in the mirror noting that his boots were the only things still in a pretty good condition. 'The farther away from the Faunas and blonde I am the longer they'll live' he thought to himself turning to leave, but nurse Elwood stepped in his way, "ohhh no you don't, you just woke up after a two and a half day coma; After all it was our students who found you in the center of a Grimm horde and are likely suffering from-" Cole cut her off when he grabbed her by the front of her shirt and looked into her eyes angrily.

"I don't have to do anything you ask, I'm not your liability, nor am I a student here. So do us both a favor and just shut up and get the hell out of my way" he said growling like a feral beast baring its fangs at its prey but instead of attacking he dropped her on the ground and walked toward the doorway.

Unfortunately ozpin had other plans by stopping him with his cane touching his chest and said bluntly, "I want you to attend my school Mr. Valentine, you could use that of which we have to offer at my academy such as a monthly allowance for food and hygiene products, a four-person dorm room with a fully functional kitchen, a cafeteria with an assortment of remnant's best chefs, a library, free education and an armory with a forge for personal use, for any student willing to use it, of course. All yours if you take an assessment test." Cole took one look at them and tried a second time to leave but was yet again stopped, "and I'll make my offer sweeter by making you a third year student under the pretenses that you were Glynda's adopted son who transferred from Mistral." Ozpin added insistently, almost coming off as desperate.

Sensing his tension he added with a whisper in his ear, "and I'll ignore your act against my nurse just now"

The nurse looked up at her boss, dumbstruck with what he just offered this….delinquent, and ignored his animosity towards her when she told him he couldn't leave.

Hearing this out loud, Cole quickly saw what he was being offered a chance he just couldn't pass up, but his biggest issues were that he hated being social with anyone, but he had no other choice.

He literally stood there speechless, frozen in place at ozpin's offer, but snapped out of it when a single word slipped out, and Oz picked up the copious amount of emotion in that one word.

"Why" it was quiet, but he heard it nonetheless.

"Because as far as I can tell, you don't have anywhere to go, and you look like you're fully capable of changing your life for the better. All I ask is that you take this offer and make something of it." he responded, placing his hand on Cole's shoulder, gently squeezing to try to help reassure him of the man's intention.

Cole looked at ozpin and said angrily, "that's not it, I want to know why you'd let a possible killer into the most prestigious academy in Vale without proper procedure"

Oz put a hand on his shoulder and smiled "because you don't look like you fit that bill" taking his hand off, Cole watched him curiously "and I sincerely doubt that you are one" he said just as he turned and left the room with Cole following close by, albeit cautiously.

Cole's mind was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he didn't notice nor care for everyone watching him for whatever reason they had. 'If he thinks this is gonna stick he's got another thing coming, I'd give it a week at most' he thought to himself as he looked around at the lusciously green lawns and cobblestone pathways.

'It's beautiful' he thought when he saw an orange rose bush. 'Mom would've been happy to see me here'.

Ezra was always on his mind; after all this time he still missed her so much that every now and then that sometimes he'd feel a sharp pain in his chest…ironic.

When they got to the auditorium stage they stood side by side and everyone from the first to the fourth year students, all wondering why a kid had half his face covered by a dark blue reinforced steel mask on his right side.

Ozpin stood in the center of the stage and for ten minutes he was giving a speech that made Cole impatient, so he decided to walk out from backstage just as Oz was going to say more he pushed past him and took the microphone from its stand. Before speaking himself he turned to ozpin and put his hand over the top and said, "no offense but I want this over sooner rather than later"

Ozpin gave a calm nod and let Cole speak, albeit strange he'd be this upset with a crowd to welcome him into beacon.

"I'll just cut right to the chase" he turned around and gave ozpin a light glare and rolled his eyes at the old man's 'get on with it' gesture and said "I'm a transfer student from Mistral, I'm not big on long-winded speeches, so I will keep this plain and very simple: I'm not here to be a hunter, I'm here because-" he paused to try and take this façade seriously, "because I made a promise I'd be more…oh yeah, my name is Cole by the way"

Looking over everyone, he turned around and gave ozpin the mic as he walked backstage and toward the doors leading outside.

Glynda looked over at Cole and raised an eyebrow at the man and muttered, "what's ozpin been putting in that mug lately?!"

Giving an awkward chuckle ozpin brought the mic up and said, "well as you just heard he is…very eager to start this year at beacon academy, but for now, he will need a guide to show him around campus, do we have any volunteers?" ozpin asked and just as he did hundreds of hands shot up from second and third year students and a lot of them were women.

"It wasn't mentioned but, he was found by team RWBY in a crater surrounded by S-class Grimm two days ago" he added for context, and it surprisingly caused more hands to rise.

Not caring about the guide he was probably assigned to, he decided to leave the room and wander beacon.

'By the gods this isn't what I expected' Cole thought as ozpin picked his 'guide' but he didn't care cause right now he just wanted to eat.

On his way to the courtyard he took in the sights and wasn't expecting anything this beautiful and well-built, especially since he'd seen monuments made for the arc descendants, all of whom had clades or various versions of it.

"After I eat I'm goin to bed" he grumbled to himself. "But even i gotta admit how huge this school is in person"

I'm really sorry this chapter is so short guys, i hit a bit of a snag but hopefully you like what i put together in a day or soenjoy and let me know what you thin.

Comment anything you think could be worked on at:

H6pp1n355_in_misery.

Criticism is appreciated