Chapter 2: Arrival
Review Replies
The Baz: A Divide Music shout out, now that's rare. Good to see nerdcore getting more popular.
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah. They make good music.
Dragon Emperor0: Especially with how thematically appropriate the song was to Sky in particular.
Devil Dragon Stand Knight: Will there be a Sky x Penny Lemon?
ThermalsniperN7: Not for a long time, no. But Penny will grow to like Sky in the meantime.
Dragon Emperor0: It's part of the Polygamorous smorgasbord of ships for everyone to enjoy here. That way no one feels left out. And so we don't run out of ideas. Win win.
Devil Dragon Stand Knight: I'm looking forward to more!
ThermalsniperN7: And more shall come.
Dragon Emperor0: See below.
-Airship flying to Beacon-
"We interrupt this program with breaking news; A faunus protest rally turned violent when members of the White Fang interfered with the event. Officials are…" A newswoman, Lisa Lavender, reported as she talked about the event. A black haired girl with a black bow had a look of regret on her face while someone else looked at the news report and clenched a fist in anger.
Off in a different section of the ship, Sky, Ruby and Yang were talking about their excitement and anxieties about what lay ahead of them on the campus of Beacon Academy.
One such topic was the chatter and rumors going around that a few of the students were also Guardian class, or people who could use the Traveler's Light by way of a special drone known as a Ghost, who were essentially the Traveler's children.
Or at least, that's what the Ghosts themselves say, anyway.
"I can't believe we're going to Beacon together! Best day ever!" Ruby gushed as she looked out the window.
"Yeah. It's… something." Yang nodded, feeling a bit dejected. After Sky had stayed at their place, he told her what he knew about her mother since he couldn't exactly keep secrets. While she appreciated the gesture, finding out that her mom is a bandit was a serious dampener on her desire to find her. Then there was the other sister she apparently had… She didn't know how to feel about that detail.
"Something wrong, Yang?" Sky asked as he leaned against the railing of the ship's window area.
"No, it's just…" The blondie replied before sighing. "My other sister, Vernal or Lilly or whatever she's supposed to be called. Did my mom have her with someone in the tribe, behind my dad's back?" She asked seriously, looking at him directly.
"I actually asked Raven about that. No, she didn't. Turns out Tai got her pregnant with Lilly before she left him." The Knight replied, easing her nerves a bit.
"Okay, that makes me feel a little better about that." She said.
"Raven may be a nihilistic and pessimistic bitch a lot of the time, but make no mistake–She did not want to leave you or your dad, but she had to because of something she had to do for Ozpin." Sky replied. "As far as I know, she still loves you both, and left you with Tai and Summer because she knew they'd give you a better life than she ever could have at the time."
"So, you're saying she wasn't ready to raise me because she was still too much of a bandit to be a good mother on top of this Ozpin thing?" Yang clarified.
"That about sums it up." The boy shrugged. "Though, even then she hasn't changed much. But raising Lilly definitely caused her to improve… if only a little." He added with a sigh. "Bottom line is: Don't expect her to be like Summer." He finished.
"Noted." Yang nodded. It was at this point that a projection of Glynda appeared and started talking about what their lives at Beacon would be like. "Who's that?" She wondered.
"That's Glynda Goodwitch, Beacon's headmistress." The Knight replied. "Emphasis on the 'mistress' part." He added.
"Of course you'd say that, simp boy." Ruby commented with a teasing smirk. Yes, she could tease people when she felt like it. She'd be bored if she couldn't.
"Sh-shut up!" Sky hissed with a blush as he swatted at her, missing his mark as the cloaked girl giggled. Yang let out a laugh at his reaction.
"Wait, so you're a sub?" The lilac eyed girl guffawed, not expecting the boy with the giant sword to be the submissive type.
"... Yes…" Sky admitted in defeat. Right as Yang was about to laugh hard, the three heard the telltale sound of someone puking their guts out, prompting them to look and see someone vomiting into a trashcan.
"Well, I guess the view our flight gives isn't for everybody." Yang shrugged as the mood left.
"True." Sky nodded as he reigned in his blush. As he tried to focus on literally anything else, he soon took notice of one of the students having a small conversation with a red and tan Ghost he had with him. This clued him in that he was probably a Guardian class. 'Hm… Might wanna keep an eye on that one.' He thought to himself before he looked out the window and enjoyed the view.
(A few minutes later)
Everyone disembarked the transport and started having a look around Beacon, some going off on their own while others were in a group. Ruby in particular was gushing over the various weapons she was seeing.
"Whoa there, little sis, why are you so excited? They're just weapons." Yang said, reeling her sister in by grabbing the hood of her cloak.
"What?! They aren't just weapons, Yang, they're an extension of ourselves!" Ruby retorted indignantly. "Plus, seeing new weapons is like meeting new people, only better." She added in a timid tone.
"That may be true, but weapons are only as good as those who use them." Sky stated as they kept walking. "Also, are you really that opposed to meeting new friends?" He asked her seriously.
"Why would I need to do that when I have you guys?" The scythe user asked, still timid.
The two older teenagers looked at her and then each other. "Do you wanna tell her, or should I?" Sky asked, not sure if it was really his place to dispute the girl's rather naive claim.
"I'll handle it." Yang replied, understanding why he was asking. As Yang tried to explain things to her sister about the importance of having a good number of friends in a friend group–especially at a school like Beacon–Sky soon took notice of the same student he saw before, who was looking at a map of the campus but seemed lost as hell.
"Oi, you need a hand?" He called, getting the student's attention. Turns out he had messy brown hair, and icy blue eyes. Under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He also had fair skin and had a lightly toned muscular build as well.
He was wearing what looked to be Hunter armor with a matching brown cloak, with a box, gun and knife holster on his waist and leg respectively–which was held onto him by a Ace of Spades card looking buckle.
The boy then looked at him as the knight walked up to him, his map still in his hand. "Uhh, you talkin' to me?" He asked, gesturing to himself. His voice seemed to have an Atlasean/Mantle accent, as Sky could pick up.
"Yeah. You look lost. Need a hand getting around?" The Knight offered.
"If you think you can read this, go ahead." He shrugged as he handed Sky the map. When Sky looked at it, he noticed one key detail.
"You were reading this upside down, dude." He said flatly as he flipped it over.
"See?! I told you it was upside down!" The Ghost exclaimed in a female voice as she floated into view.
"Oh zip it, Sundance! How was I supposed to know that it was upside down?" The boy retorted before turning back to Sky. "Thanks." He said as his Ghost went back into hiding.
"Yeah. Name's Sky Obsidian, by the way." The Knight nodded as he gave his name.
"Ace Sixx." The Guardian Class student replied. "So, you heading to the main hall too?" He questioned as the two started walking in the correct direction this time.
"Yeah. I mean, not much else for me to–" Sky started to say before…
BOOM!
The two paused and turned around as they heard an explosion rip through the air. Glancing at each other, they decided to check it out. When they got to the blast site, Sky saw Ruby getting chewed out by some girl with white hair and expensive white clothes consisting of a jacket, a sleeveless top and a combat skirt with high heels of all things and a rapier on her hip.
"Oh no…" He groaned.
"Whoa, that's Weiss Schnee." Ace whistled, recalling that he saw the two girls arguing about some bags that got knocked over, which the whitette was dismayed at having her bags in the public pool.
"That's something that doesn't matter to me presently." Sky deadpanned before walking up to them. "OI!" He barked, getting the two girls' attention.
"Sky, you're back!" Ruby exclaimed as she ran up to the Knight and clung to him in relief.
"This girl bothering you, Ruby?" Sky questioned as he got between the two girls and Ace quickly got the Dust crates out of the way before another explosion could occur.
"She's harassing me for falling on crates that got pushed into me!" Ruby complained. It was true, since she had been standing still when it happened.
"Are you– Seriously?" Sky uttered in disbelief before looking at Weiss in disappointment. "Can you be any more irrational?" He sighed.
"Wha–?! Irrational?! She ruined my Dust supplies!" Weiss snapped indignantly at him. "It's that dolt's fault!" She added.
"Bullshit! She was standing still, so it wasn't her fault for being in the way." Sky retorted with a glare.
"Yeah, if you wanna yell in someone's ear, do it to whoever is pushing the damn cart, sweetheart!" Ace added as he leaned against said cart.
The girl glared at the cloaked Guardian and then took notice of his state of attire. "Figures, I thought I'd run into disrespect from the lower class." She huffed, crossing her arms. "Though I didn't expect I'd see it here of all places, especially from some plebeian from Mantle."
'Oh goody, she's one of those types.' Sky thought in irritation while Ace glared at her.
"Oh, you are just asking for it, ya bratty princess!" He growled as his hand twitched toward his hand cannon.
"I am not a Princess!" Weiss snapped back before Ruby and Sky looked at each other.
"I'm gonna go find Yang, think you can handle getting to the main auditorium by yourself?" The boy asked as they walked away, leaving the two separate class types to continue bickering.
"Yeah. I think I've got a grip on that. See you there." The silver eyed girl nodded before they went their separate ways.
(Elsewhere)
Back with the two Atlaseans, both Ace and Weiss glared at each other angrily before they took a pair of deep, calming breaths–though the former was rather sharp–and decided to take the conversation elsewhere in topic.
"So, mind sharin' why you're at Beacon and not Atlas Academy?" Ace questioned with his arms folded.
"What? A woman needs a reason to strike out on her own?" The girl retorted as the gunslinger continued to look at her levelally.
"Humor me." He replied as they started walking.
"... I'm trying to get out of my father's grip." She sighed as she walked beside him.
"The heiress is going through her rebel phase? I'm shocked." Ace said in mock surprise. "Honestly, I typically thought that a girl like you would jump at the chance to run a company with policies like–."
"Like what?" Weiss hissed.
"Like things such as low wages, deplorable working conditions, government kickbacks, are notorious for cutting corners, making employees work obscene hours, and questionable business partners." A new voice chimed in, drawing their attention to a girl dressed in black and white with long black hair, gold eyes and a black bow. She was reading a book as she walked next to them. "Oh, and let's not forget their systemic racism towards their faunus workers and general classism." She added, not looking up from her book.
"Exactly." Ace nodded.
"Wha— I– The nerve of–! Ugh!" Weiss stammered before she stomped off. The gunslinger chuckled before turning to the speaker… only to find her gone.
"A ninja. Lovely." He said flatly.
(A bit later)
Ruby exhaled a bit as she entered the main hall with her new friend, Jaune. They looked around and saw that the place was rather packed, but the scythe user was still able to see Yang and Sky in the crowd.
"There's my sister and other friend! See you later, Jaune!" She exclaimed before running off.
"What, wait–!" Jaune called back, but by that point, she was already gone. As he lamented about finding a nice quirky girl to talk to, he failed to see someone watching him from elsewhere in the crowd.
Ace, meanwhile, walked right on into the building and decided to stand next to two other guys who were near the back with him. They were a blond monkey faunus and a boy with blue hair who he clocked in as Mistralian due to his serious fashion sense.
"Sup." The gambler nodded at the two who looked back at him.
"Sup." The Mistralian nodded back. "Name's Neptune Vasilias." He added, giving his name.
"Sun Wukong." The monkey faunus pitched in.
"Ace Sixx." The gunslinger nodded before he blinked. "Wait, Wukong, isn't that the same name as the quote unquote 'strongest Faunus in the world'?" He asked.
"Yep, he's my dad." Let me tell ya, it ain't easy to live your life when you've got those kinds of expectations on your shoulders." Sun stated.
"Yeah. Kinda hard to live life your way when your dad can stop an earthquake by punching the ground, when you think about it." Neptune nodded.
"Living in your parents' shadow, that I can relate to." Ace nodded.
Meanwhile back with Yang, Ruby and Sky, the latter two were chewing the former out for leaving her to get their bags alone–thus causing the fiasco with Weiss.
"Seriously, Yang! What the fuck?! What possessed you to think that ditching us like you did was smart?!" Sky snapped.
"Hey, what do you want? I'm just trying to make sure Ruby learns to handle herself." The blonde retorted.
"Well the least you could do is watch from a distance and make sure nothing stupid happens!" Ruby hissed indignantly. "Because I was left alone like that, I had to deal with a crabby girl yelling at me before we exploded!" She added.
"Uh, what?" The brawler asked in confusion.
"I'm not kidding! There was fire… and probably some lightning." The scythe user said before trying to remember what was in the blast, not noticing Weiss coming up behind her.
"You!" The heiress yelled, causing Ruby to jump into Sky's arms Scooby-Doo style.
"AAAAH! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!" She yelped.
"You're lucky we weren't blown off a cliff!" Weiss growled.
"Holy crap, you really exploded." Yang muttered with wide eyes.
"Do I need to put you in your place?" Sky questioned in a threatening tone as he held Ruby while he gave Weiss a glare that made her flinch.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on over here?" Ace questioned as he, Neptune and Sun walked over to them.
"Ice Queen over here is giving Ruby a hard time for being in the way of carts that held her luggage. Long story short, Ruby fell on them, bullshit ensued." The Knight summarized as he set Ruby down.
"Oh, right. That fiasco." The boy nodded before looking at Weiss with an unamused look. "Aren't you being just a little petty, princess?" He continued. "I mean, it was an accident, not the end of the world–so why don't you just get over it already?"
"Yeah! Let's start over!" Yang chirped, trying to put the incident behind them.
"Good idea!" Ruby smiled eagerly. "I'm Ruby Rose!" She said, trying to appeal to Weiss in a friendly manner.
The whitette seemed to regard the girl with a pretty nasty look, before looking at Sky and Ace and decided to take the situation with dignity and indeed start over… However reluctantly.
"Alright…" She said before sighing and shaking her hand. "As you may already know, I'm Weiss Schnee." She added, before turning to Ace and Sky. "And I don't appreciate being talked down to like that."
"Then don't do it to other people." Sky deadpanned.
"Plus, the enemy won't care about rep on the battlefield. You'll just be another target for them to kill." Ace added. "Trust me, I know…" He added with a slight mutter.
Before anything else could be said, Ozpin appeared on the stage and tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention.
"Ahem. I'll keep this brief." The man said as he cleared his throat. "Most of you have probably come here from the many combat schools across the world to train in order to defend the people or creatures who would conspire against them." He continued. "But make no mistake, such a feat will not be easy. With threats such as the White Fang, the Vex, the Cabal and their legions, the distant possibility of the return of the Hive, or the endless hordes of Grimm. This world we live in will take you and tear you apart without so much as a moment's hesitation." He added. "So, I offer you these words of advice: be prepared for the trials ahead, because like Remnant–we will not go easy on you." He finished before stepping away from the mic. Glynda stepped up to the mic moments later.
"You'll all gather in the ballroom tonight to rest for initiation tomorrow. Be ready." She told the initiates. As she turned to leave, her gaze lingered on Sky briefly before she left the stage entirely.
"Well, that was ominous." Ace remarked.
"It is true, though." Sun shrugged. His dad already beat into his head that Remnant was merciless, so he had to be ready to fight when he had to.
"I just hope we don't run into the Hive. They haven't been seen on Remnant in centuries and I'd like to keep it that way." Neptune added.
"Yeah. Those things give me chills." Sky nodded in agreement.
(Later)
Later that night, everyone was getting ready for bed with sleeping bags and what not, and as this was going on, Sky decided to stay with the three boys to make sure that he couldn't make things awkward with Yang and Ruby.
"So, Ace, how'd you get your Ghost? Don't they tend to resurrect people at random?" Sun asked the gunslinger as the Ghost drifted into a backpack and powered down for the night. His pajamas were just a pair of blue sweatpants and nothing else.
"She was my dad's Ghost, but something happened that blocked his connection to the Traveler long enough for him to be killed for good." Ace explained, looking bitter about the topic.
"What could've happened to cause that?" Neptune asked, though he felt like he was gonna regret asking.
"Don't know, but I do know who did it." He replied as he took out his pistol. "It was a bull faunus from the White Fang named Adam Taurus." He continued. "And when my dad died, I took his knife, his gun and his cloak–and I took a vow: I'm gonna find and kill Taurus, and when I do, I'll say to him…" He added before he pointed his pistol at Neptune. "Hello, my name is Ace Sixx. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
"So you have it out for one particular faunus too, eh?" Sky commented. He was dressed in a simple black shirt and black shorts that clung to his muscles in just the right way. "You're not alone there, mate." He added as he held a locket around his neck in his hand.
"What faunus' life are you out to end?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Serial killer scorpion faunus by the name of Tyrian Callows." The Knight replied, shocking them since they'd all heard the name before. "The bastard betrayed me when I trusted him, killed my parents, slaughtered my people, burned my whole village to ash and kidnapped my little sister." He continued with a hiss as he clenched the locket tightly. "I vowed that I would grow strong enough to put that bastard in the ground and lay the souls of my home to rest." He declared.
"… Man, you guys make us look like little kids in the motivation department." Neptune noted. "I'm here because my family thought it'd be a better career for me than being a casanova."
"And I came here just so I could get stronger to surpass my dad." Sun added. "Pretty shallow, I know, but it's the truth." He added.
"Sorry about that, boys. Spur of the moment." Sky shrugged. "Anyway, what were you guys doing before coming here?" He asked as he lay down on his sleeping bag.
"I was trying to get my weapons sighted when I got jumped by Vex on a frozen radiolarian lake." Neptune stated.
"I was clearing some Grimm on the way here, and had to fight a mutated albino Beringal." Sun added.
"I was trashing a White Fang base while looking for info on Adam's whereabouts." Ace shrugged.
"Me? I was just roaming the Mistralian wilderness and fought a bunch of Grimm in a recently destroyed village before one of Ozpin's people brought me to Vale." Sky shrugged. "Oh, and I also stopped a Dust shop robbery with Ruby over there." He added, right as a familiar whitette started storming away from said area.
Deciding to defuse the walking time bomb before she could blow up at Yang, Ruby and Blake, Ace got in her way. "Whoa there, Princess. Where's the fire?" He asked as he got in her way. His slightly unbuttoned brown pajama shirt showed a jagged scar he had that went down the left side of his jaw, neck and to his left peck.
"Out of my way! Someone has to tell those dolts that there are people trying to sleep!" She growled, however, she was stopped by Ace hooking her with his arm and making her back up.
"Now hang on, I don't see anyone trying to sleep yet, do you?" The boy questioned as he gestured to the room around them where basically everyone was still awake. "That being said, if you think they're being too loud for your liking. Then go and say so, but with none of this uppity bitch attitude—no one's gonna listen to you if you act like that." He offered, trying to make his comments as down to earth as possible.
"... Fine." She conceded with a sigh as she looked around before blinking as she spotted something that was random, even by her standards. "Uh, why are those two T-posing at each other?" She asked in confusion as she pointed toward a window, prompting Ace to look and blink when he indeed saw two random applicants T-posing at each other.
"I honestly have no answer to that." He replied as he scratched his head in confusion. Deciding to just ignore the random occurrence, the two went back to what they were intending to do.
"You're being awfully sweet on that heiress over there." Sky noted with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh blow it out your ass." Ace retorted as he sat down. "I'm just trying to make it where I don't have to deal with the same highbrow Atlasean bullshit here that I had to deal with back home in Mantle." He added.
"Eh. Fair enough." Sky shrugged from his sleeping bag. At this point, all three boys started yawning. "Well, see you in the morning lads." He added.
"Good night." The other three added before they all turned in for the night, as did the rest of the kids, causing the room to go dark.
They had one hell of a day tomorrow.
ThermalsniperN7: And that's it for the characters meeting each other. We even got some insight into Sky and Ace's motivations, too.
Dragon Emperor0: As you can probably guess, Ace has some personality traits and design traits with that of Cayde-6 and Ban from the Seven Deadly Sins. And as mentioned before, Guardians are indeed a thing in this story and it is possible for people to inherit Ghosts in certain circumstances.
ThermalsniperN7: Yep, though it doesn't happen to everyone, so don't expect to see, I don't know, Sky's dead parents back from the dead. As for the T-pose thing… Well, random things happen in shows and games all the time, so this shouldn't be all that unusual. One other thing to clarify is that Remnant still has its usual shattered moon, but it does get blocked from view by the Traveler during certain points in its orbit from time to time.
Dragon Emperor0: Other than that, we'll see you next time.