Chapter Three: Beacon


When the ship finally landed, Phoenix was the first one off. "Land! Normal, non-flying land!" he exclaimed as he kissed the ground below him. His extreme reaction caused Yang, who exited the airship with Ruby shortly after him, to burst into laughter.

"What's your problem with flying?" she asked when she calmed down.

"It's not the flying I hate, it's the extremely high likelihood of something going wrong, causing me to fall to my demise in a giant metal death trap. Come on Ruby, back me up," he replied indignantly. However, when he looked over to where Ruby had been standing moments ago, she was nowhere to be found. "Uhhh… where'd she go?" he asked, looking at Yang. She only shrugged in response. The excited squeal that came from nearby, on the other hand, did answer his question.

When the two of them got to Ruby, they found her swooning over all the different types of weapons. "Calm down Sis," Yang said, pulling Ruby's hood over her head.

"Besides, I've made better," Phoenix mumbled.

"You did? Showmeshowmeshowmeshowme! Pleeeeeaaaasssseee!" Ruby begged

"Odds are you've already seen 'em. Remember those weapons they used as examples when you made yours at Signal?"

"That was you?"

"Yep." Upon hearing this, Ruby started an in-depth conversation with Phoenix about the methods used to create the weapons in question, as well as Ruby's own weapon, her "sweetheart", Crescent Rose. After the discussion had gone on for a few minutes Yang intervened.

"Can both of you calm down," she groaned, "They're just weapons."

"Just weapons!" Phoenix and Ruby exclaimed simultaneously before going into a rant about how important weapons were.

"Aren't you two happy with your weapons?" Yang asked once they stopped.

"Of course, it's just that seeing new weapons is like meeting new people," Phoenix retorted.

"Only better," Ruby finished.

"You know, you two have got to make some friends at some point," Yang said.

"Why would I need friends when I have you?" Ruby asked. Phoenix face palmed.

"Well, the thing is… uh…" she tried to come up with a response. Failing to do so, she quickly said, "bye," and dashed off, bumping into her sister and causing her to lose balance.

"Got 'ya," Phoenix said as he caught her at the last second. "Alright, let's get goin-gaaaahhh!" he cried out as he and Ruby were hit by a luggage cart.

"What are you two dolts doing!" Weiss shouted at two of them. "Do you have any idea the damage you could've caused? Do you even know what this is?" The heiress continued her rant, pulling out a vial of Dust and shaking it at them and causing bits of it to fly out.

"Hey uh, Ice Queen, you might want to stop shaking-," Phoenix tried to say, but was interrupted by Ruby sneezing, causing the area to be engulfed in flames. He used his semblance to keep the flames from reaching him and Ruby. Weiss, however, was not so lucky.

"You idiots! This is exactly what I was talking about!" she yelled, stomping her foot on the ground, which somehow caused all the ashes to fall off and leave her clothes without any blemishes.

"Sorry!" they both said, but Weiss seemed too busy telling the two of them off to notice. Phoenix, who had finally gotten tired of her nonsense, decided to shut her up.

"I am deeply sorry, milady. Tis just my cohort is allergic to self-absorbed spoiled little princesses," he said in a mock royal voice, grinning while Ruby started to giggle. The Ice Queen looked like she was about to draw her rapier, but before she could skewer him a new voice entered the conversation.

"It's heiress actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company," it said. When Phoenix looked over towards the voice, he saw it was the girl from the airship who had been reading.

"Finally, some recognition," Weiss stated proudly.

"Oh, I knew," Phoenix pointed out, "I just didn't care." Before Weiss could kill him, the possible Faunus started talking again as though there had been no interruption.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor force and questionable business partners," she said before walking away.

"I-! You-! Gaahh!" The heiress shouted storming off with her luggage.

Weiss' reaction to the accusations caused both Phoenix and Ruby to start laughing. Ruby, who was the first to stop, attempted to get the girl in black to stay. When that failed, she fell on her back, mumbling, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Hey," someone new said, "I'm Jaune." When Phoenix looked up, he saw it was the boy who threw up on the ship, which is exactly what Ruby asked.


"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on," Jaune argued.

"I'm sorry, Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind," Ruby replied, grinning.

"I was thinking something along the lines of 'The Puking Paladin'," Phoenix continued, earning a laugh from Ruby and a glare from the newly dubbed Puking Paladin.

"What if I called you two crater faces," Jaune retorted.

"Hey! That was on the Ice Queen," Phoenix stated indignantly.

"Anyway, my ACTUAL name is Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it," he said.

"Do they?" Ruby asked skeptically. The questioning caused Jaune to go into a panic, stammering that they would. Seeing it would probably be best to change the topic, Ruby drew her weapon, saying, "So… I got this thing."

"Woah!" Jaune exclaimed, "Is that a scythe?"

"No, can't you tell it's a laser sword?" Phoenix said sarcastically. "Of course it's a scythe."

Ruby, seemingly oblivious to Phoenix's comment, continued, "It's also a customizable high impact sniper rifle."

Jaune just gave her a confused look and said, "Huh?"

"It's also a gun," the two weapon experts stated simultaneously.

"So… what do you have?" Ruby asked curious about Jaune's weapon.

"I got this sword," he replied, drawing it, and causing Ruby to go "Oooohhhh." "And this shield," he finished pulling out the sheath which transformed into a shield.

"So, what does it do?" Phoenix asked as Ruby poked the shield causing it to go back into its sheath form and Jaune to fumble with it.

"The shield gets smaller," he explained once he got it under control again, "So when I get tired of carrying it I can just, uh…, put it away."

"But wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asked, slightly underwhelmed.

"Yeah, it does," he replied dejectedly.

In an attempt to cheer Jaune up, Phoenix pulled out his secondary weapon he made, a retractable staff called Peacekeeper. He used it instead of The Blazing Hooks to keep people from suspecting his identity. "Not that anyone seems to have any idea who I am anyways," he thought, remembering all the times criminals had no clue who The Flaming Shadow was. Getting back to the task at hand, Phoenix had his staff expand. "Hey, you're not the only one with a simple weapon," he said, looking at the knight.

"Well, I like both your weapons," Ruby said' "not many people have an appreciation for the classics."

"So, do either of you have any idea where we're going?" Jaune asked the two of them.

"What! I was following you!" Ruby exclaimed, shocked that he didn't know where he was going.

"Follow me," Phoenix groaned, "Been a while since I've been here, but I think I still know my way around."

"You've been here!" Ruby and Jaune replied, shocked.

"I'll explain on the way. Let's go before we're late," Phoenix said, running towards where they were supposed to go. "Well, are you coming?"


"Your Ozpin's son!" Jaune practically screamed.

"Adopted son, yes. And will you keep it down? I'm trying to keep it a secret from people as long as possible. I only told you because I slipped up and told you I'd been here before," Phoenix explained, hoping that he wouldn't need to go into greater detail, or worse, accidentally give up some slightly more important secrets. Before Ruby and Jaune could ask anything else involving their current topic Yang called over to her sister, shouting, "Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!"

"Oh, hey. Got to go! See you guys after the ceremony!" Ruby exclaimed, waving at them as she ran off.

"Great… where am I going to find another nice quirky girl to talk to? Well, at least I have you Phoenix," Jaune said, looking over to Phoenix, only to find he was walking over to a girl in black who appeared to be immersed in the book she was reading.

"Hey, uh, thanks for helping us back there with the Ice Queen," Phoenix said to the girl, disturbing her from her reading.

"No problem," she said calmly.

"Anyway, my name is Phoenix, Phoenix Fall," he introduced himself.

"Blake Belladonna," she replied.

"So, I was curious what you were reading. Must be pretty good for you to be absorbed in it," he inquired, curious to see if her choice in the book could serve as a clue to if she was a Faunus. He knew it was a long shot, but there was a chance. Also, part of him was genuinely interested in what she was reading.

"It's about a man with two souls," she answered, "Each fighting for control of his body."

"Interesting…" Phoenix muttered. "Not a clue, but I might check it out some time," he thought. "I've always been more partial to stories about heroes who have to fight against the odds to save the world, sometimes needing to break the rules to help others," he told her.

"I'll keep this brief," Ozpin said as he stepped up to the microphone on the stage and brought an end to their conversation.

"Bye Blake. Talk to you later?" Phoenix asked her after the speech concluded, wanting to see what all the commotion was near the front of the stage.

"Sure," she said, pulling the book over her face.


"What about Jaune? He's… nice. Plus one friend," Yang said. She and Ruby were discussing Ruby not knowing anyone.

"Yeah, but I think Weiss counts as a negative friend. Back to zero." she said with a sigh.

"Forgetting someone?" Phoenix asked, walking up to them.

"Oh, Phoenix. I guess I thought you were just being nice as an obligation, being the headmaster's son and-" Ruby tried to say but was cut off.

"Ruby…" Phoenix said, sounding serious for once, "This is exactly why I wanted to keep that a secret. If I'm going to be here, I want people to like me for me, not just act nice because I can help them out."

"Hold on! You're the-" Yang tried to exclaim but was, like Ruby, interrupted by Phoenix.

"Yang, it would be greatly appreciated if you could avoid announcing my identity to the entire school," he said, exasperated.

"I'm sorry…," Ruby mumbled dejectedly.

"Hey, it's okay," Phoenix responded, "Just know that I am your friend."

"Dawwwwww!" Yang said, before both Phoenix and Ruby threw a pillow at her face.

When Ruby looked around after the discussion, she saw Blake sitting off on her own.

"That girl," Ruby said, causing Yang to look in the same direction as her.

"What, you know her?" Yang asked.

"Not really. She saw what happened in the courtyard, but didn't say much, and she left before I could say anything," Ruby replied as a sly grin spread across Yang's face.

"Well, now's your chance," she said, grabbing Ruby by the arm and dragging her towards Blake. Phoenix got up and followed them.

"Heeellllloooo!" Yang yelled to catch Blake's attention. "I believe you two may know each other," she said, releasing Ruby and throwing her towards Blake.

"Aren't you the girl that exploded?" Blake asked, confused. "Uh… yeah. My name's Ruby." she answered, "But you can just call me crater… uh… actually just call me Ruby. Before she could embarrass herself anymore, Phoenix stepped in.

"Hi Blake," he greeted, noticing that she was still wearing her bow, even though it was almost time to go to bed. "One point for the Faunus column," he thought.

"Well Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister. I… uh… like your bow," Yang said, trying to come up with a way to start a conversation, "it goes great with your… pajamas." Phoenix, seeing this was going nowhere, went over to his bag and wrote a sticky note to put on it that read, "You touch this bag without permission, you die." When he returned, he found Ruby and Yang in a fight. Before he had the chance to break them up, Weiss stormed over demanding to know what was going on. "Oh, not you again!" both sisters shouted in sync. The situation quickly devolved into an argument.

"Should we step in?" Phoenix asked Blake. Part of him wanted to get them to stop, the other part wanted to sit back and see how this played out. Blake simply responded by blowing out the candle she had been reading by. "Who turned out the lights?" Phoenix asked, seeing as all the other lights in the room went off when Blake blew out the candle.


So, I have a couple things I'd like to bring up. First of all, I'm thinking of skipping episodes 11-14 for my story, since I'm not sure how to incorporate Phoenix. If you have any Ideas let me know. Secondly, if you have any ideas for one-chapter adventures that aren't based around episodes, tell me and I'll see if I can make them. Thanks for reading!