Stupid school. Stupid homework.

Resting my head against my arm, l completed the assignments in front of me. I'd forgotten to do them earlier this weekend, and they were due at the beginning of class, so I'd been doing them for the last two hours. The questions weren't hard; tedious was the right word.

I continued to answer various math questions for another thirty minutes or so, before I finally finished them.

"Finally," I breathed, leaning backwards. The chair tilted and fell, but I did nothing to stop it. The chair hit the floor, and I hit my head on the floor. It didn't hurt.

How much more time did I have? I took out my scroll from my pocket and checked the time. Okay, there was still thirty minutes till school started.

Thirty minutes… and Ruby had still not gotten up.

Letting out a sigh, I rolled off the chair, picking it up afterwards. I headed to the sink, took a cup, and filled it an inch from the brim with water. I walked up the stairs, the glass of water in hand. I opened the door to Ruby's room and saw her still laying in bed, cuddled up in her blankets.

"Ruby!" I called out. "Get up! We have school!"

Ruby mumbled something under her breath and pulled her blankets closer to her.

"Ruby," I sighed, grabbing her by the shoulders. I shook her a bit. "We only have thirty minutes. Seriously, get up."

"Nooo," Ruby muttered, and this time it was audible. "Five more minutes. Please."

"And then you'll say 'five more minutes', five minutes later. Get up or I'll do something cruel to you."

"No!" She pulled her blankets all around her, only her head visible.

Bad move.

Grabbing the glass of water that I had filled earlier, I held it above her.

Sorry, Ruby, but you should have got up when asked first.

I poured it on her.

"Ahhhhh!" She let out a shrill scream. She jumped off her bed, leaving her –now wet– bed sheets behind.

I sniggered.

"What the fuck Rory!?" she yelled, glaring.

"Hey, don't swear!" I used her own –occasional– words against her.

"Ahhh, shut up! Why did you do that!?"

"Well, you wouldn't wake up."

"So you poured water on me!?"

"I also said I would prank you a few days ago. Remember that?"

"You- I- Ughhh!" Ruby threw her arms up in the air in frustration.

"At least it woke you up. Get dressed."

Ruby glared at me one last time before she huffed, stomping away, towards her closet.

I walked out of the room, a somewhat smug smirk on my face. I grabbed my backpack and stuffed my homework inside, not concerned about the work getting crumbled. I swung my backpack over my shoulder, and went over to the door, waiting.

A few minutes later, Ruby came out, wearing her Singal School uniform. Her hair was still a little wet. She looked at me, a bit of a glare still on her face.

"Ready?"

She didn't say anything, but nodded.

"I'm still mad at you," she said with a pout.

"I had to wake you up." I shrugged.

"You could have shook me-"

"Tried that."

"You could have tried harder," she said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to. Prank, remember? I thought it would be funny."

"I hate you," she said. There was nothing hateful about the words, though.

"Likewise," I said, smiling.

It took around twenty-five minutes to reach school while walking. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough time to get there on time. When we arrived, we were already five minutes late.

"We're late," Ruby said.

"Thanks, I didn't notice," I said, walking towards the school.

"Uncle Qrow isn't teaching today, right?" Ruby asked.

Uncle Qrow normally got a substitute teacher, –and a consistent one too, by the name of Mrs. Johnson– so it was a valid question. Half the time, Mrs. Johnson was our homeroom teacher, and Mrs. Johnson was a lot nicer than Uncle Qrow when it came to tardiness.

I shook my head. "I don't think he's teaching today. Remember him saying something about a mission."

"Yes!" Ruby cheered. "Mom and Dad won't find out."

"This wouldn't have happened in the first place if you'd gotten up early."

"You don't have to keep saying it. And it's not like I got out of this scot-free. my hair is still wet." For emphasis, Ruby grabbed a clump of her hair and moved towards me. I already knew it was wet, but touched it anyway.

"It's damp. Not that bad."

"It is bad. What if I get sick?"

"You won't."

"No, but what if I do?"

"You have Aura. You won't."

"What if, Rory."

"Then I'll apologize. Not that it'll happen."

Ruby didn't say anything, but she nodded, smiling.

I turned the knob of the door to the classroom and opened the door. The entire class turned their heads, staring.

"You two are finally here," Mrs. Johnson said.

"Sorry, Mrs. Johnson, but there was a cat stuck in a tree on the way here, so we stopped to help it," I said, lying.

Her features softened. "Then it's fine. Both of you, take your seats."

I nodded along with Ruby. It didn't slip my mind how Ruby didn't react when I lied. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. Was it good? Was it bad? She wasn't nearly as naive as she was in canon, so that was a good thing, but was it really? Maybe that naivety and blind trust was what helped her succeed in the canon timeline.

Mrs. Johnson went on, talking about the geography of Remnant. I'd already studied the geography of Remnant before this, but I still paid attention. It couldn't hurt to jog my memory about the topic.

The lesson went by a lot faster than I had expected. Mrs. Johnson walked to the podium in the middle of the room and took out a yellow piece of paper.

"Next week on Friday, this class will be going to fight Grimm in the nearby forest. You will not be allowed to skip this. If you cannot make it, you will have to send a notice beforehand and you will be assigned three essays instead: Grimm and their impact on society, Huntsman and their impact on society, and an essay about the four kingdoms. You guys have probably been informed about it. I don't know much about it, but I was instructed by Mr. Branwan to tell you guys to form pairs. Your partner will be the person who you will do the activities we will be doing next week with. They will also be your partner for Friday while fighting Grimm," she said. "Please have your partner chosen before the end of class today. That's all."

We still had thirty minutes of class. I looked at Ruby. Ruby looked at me. We nodded our heads at each other in confirmation. Finding a partner wouldn't be too hard-

"Oh, one more thing. Rory and Ruby, Joshua and Zach, and Iris and Lora – Mr. Branwan said those are the only groups that are not allowed. You six have to pick different people.

I heard Zach groan from the seat behind me. The rest four looked equally disappointed, with Ruby sending me a pleading look that seemed to say: what should we do?

"What!? Why!?" Lora spoke out, slamming her hands on her desk.

"You'll have to ask him, not me," Mrs. Johnson said. She didn't even look in Lora's direction.

"Ugh. This sucks," Lora muttered, sitting back down. She turned to her –best– friend, Iris and started to complain about how unfair this was.

If I remembered correctly, Iris was pretty decent friends with Ruby, so hopefully that meant Ruby would have a partner, since Iris couldn't be with Lora.

I leaned back my chair, and let it lean against the desk behind me.

"What do you want, Rory?" the person behind me, Zach, asked.

"Wanna be partners?" I asked, blunt.

"What? Really?"

"I mean, I don't have anyone else to be with. Neither do you."

"I assumed you were going to, I don't know, be with one of the multiple girls who have a crush on you."

"Yeah… I'd rather not," I said. "So, is that a yes?"

"I mean, yeah, sure. You're the best in the class, and I'm not about to say no to a free A."

I smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "Great"

"What about Ruby, though?" he said. "She can't be with you."

"Look," I said, pointing towards Ruby's seat. Iris was at her desk, talking to her. "She'll be fine."

Zach nodded. He was –along with a few others– the only person I really talked to in school. He wasn't… how was I supposed to say this? He wasn't exactly a pleasant person to be around, but he was genuine, in a way. It seemed like he never said anything he never wanted to. If he didn't like you or something, he would say it. It led to a lot of people not liking him, though, since he often came off as blunt. It didn't bother me as much.

He got off his chair, grabbing his backpack. "Well, I'mma head home now."

"Zach, school's not over," I deadpanned.

He rolled his eyes. "Only like ten minutes left."

"Twenty."

"Twenty minutes left. Not much of a difference."

"You know what, I'm not even going to stop you. Go ahead," I said. "Your semblance allows you to get away with that shit."

"Right? It's great," he said. "Now only if it worked on you. You and you're fucking semblence."

I waved him goodbye, an all-too-kind smile on my face, and he flipped me off. On the way to the door he slapped Joshua on the back of his head. Joshua's –Josh's– forehead hit the table. He looked around, and then snapped his head in my direction. Zach –or more accurately, his projection– gave him a dismissive half-wave. The real Zach, behind Josh, sniggered, walking towards the door.

It was kind of hard to explain how Zach's semblance worked. He could create a clone of himself that was completely identical to himself and acted the same way. When he would create the clone, his main body would turn invisible and extremely hard to trace – a stronger faunus could probably sniff him out, though. There was a huge weakness, however. The clone of himself was extremely fragile, and it could be destroyed by simply throwing a pebble at it. If someone were to destroy the clone, the main body would become completely visible. Even with the huge weakness, though, it was still extremely useful in certain situations.

Josh walked up to me.

"It was Zach right? This his clone thingy?" Josh asked, pointing to 'Zach'. I didn't say anything, so he turned to Josh's projection and started waving his hands in front of it. "Zach. Zaaaaach."

The projection didn't answer, just typing away on the laptop in front of it instead. Zach had probably given it a command to do his homework for him. It was another thing he could do with his semblance: give his clones an absolute command and they would follow. Homework, for example. Zach gave his clone a command to do his homework, so the clone would do his homework to the best of its –or more accurately, Zach's– ability.

"He left already. Might as well leave the clone behind so he doesn't get in trouble," I said.

"Yeah, whatever," Josh scoffed. "Motherfucker slapped me in the back of the head."

"Yeah, I saw."

"And unlike Zach, I'm a good person, so I'm not going to get him in trouble by destroying it."

"Go you," I said, sarcastically.

Zach looked at me weirdly for a second, before he nodded, walking back to his seat.

I already had my class, so the rest of class was just spent on my phone. Mrs. Jackson didn't seem to care, so that was great. I ended up playing a game similar to angry birds the whole time.

The bell rang and students started to pack their bags and get their stuff.

I met Ruby at the exit of the room.

"So, who's your partner? I didn't see you with anyone," Ruby said as we walked through the hallway.

"Zach. I asked him to be my partner."

Ruby's expression morphed into one of distaste.

"What?" I asked.

"Huh?" Ruby looked at me confused. I tried to imitate the face she was making, and it looked like she understood. She elaborated, "I don't like Zach very much."

"Why? He do something to you?"

She shook her head. "He's just really rude. Like really rude. Iris told me he said something really mean to her once."

I wanted to ask, but I didn't push it.

"Iris? That's your partner, right? Friends with Lora?"

"Yes. And don't say that. 'Friends with Lora'. She doesn't like it."

"Noted," I said, nodding. Feelings of inferiority towards Lora, maybe?

Ruby nodded. "She's really nice. I think she'll make a good partner… and friend."d

"That's great, Ruby, making friends."

I expected Ruby to say something back, but she just smiled and nodded, quickening her pace.

I shook my head. I took out a scroll –not mine, but an identical copy– and sent a message.

I can't do anything next friday. something for school and i can't skip.

A message came back from the unsaved sender: okay ill tell roman.

Around a minute later, another text came back: he said its ok and also to remember to be there on time tomorrow

Okay. Will you be telling me what you're going to have me do yet? I texted.

Neo sent back: nope he wants to keep it a secret.

I didn't respond to it, putting my scroll back in my pocket.

I was honestly already starting to regret this.

"I expected something different."

"Like what?"

"I don't know? Like something to help me get situated before doing anything. But here we are, heading straight into the action."

I finished up sharpening my knife and placed it back into my holster

"Given you already have some experience, I didn't think I would need to do anything special with you," Roman said. "And it's not like you're going to stay with us in some secret bunker or something."

"Point taken. Still, though."

Roman took a sharp turn right, parking the van into an alley out of sight from the general population. I felt a tapping on my shoulder and I turned, but there was no one there. A quick flair of my semblance, and I saw it was Neo.

"What?" I whispered.

I saw her pout. 'Nothing. I just wanted to scare you, but I forgot about your semblance.'

"We're in a serious situation. Can you, maybe, not?"

Neo didn't say anything, but I saw her laugh a little.

I turned to Roman and pointed at Neo. "Any reason why she's not coming?"

"Neo will be coming, just not normally. She'll be making herself invisible, following us while we rob the store, and if anyone comes to bother us, she'll tip the battle to our favor. They don't know she's here, so she'll be able to mess them up, allowing us to escape."

"Okay. Makes sense," I said, nodding. It wasn't a bad idea.

One of the henchmen opened the door to the van. A slight breeze hit me, and I exited the van, following the henchmen. We walked into the street, and as we did, people immediately started to notice us, or more specifically, notice Roman. They moved aside, letting us pass.

"This is so dumb," I whispered. To the henchman and anyone else, it might have sounded like I was talking to myself, but Neo seemed to have gotten the message.

'Roman likes his exposure.' I saw Neo's floating letters show up in front of me. This time they came in the form of a pen, writing the letters in mid-air. 'To be the "greatest thief in Vale", things like this help.'

"I get that. Doesn't make it a good idea, though. Someone's probably called the authorities already," I muttered, soft enough to where Roman couldn't hear it.

As we got closer to the store, the letters in front became more apparent. From Dust Till Dawn. Beacon had already started, but it was getting robbed now. Probably because of my joining them. Still, it was weird that all that happened was that it was delayed. I assumed it was because he had a set route on which stores and banks he would rob. My involvement had pushed it back, but it hadn't changed any inherent plans. At least that was my take on it.

The last person moved aside, and Roman opened the door to the store with the henchmen, Neo, and me following behind.

"Welcome to From Dust Till Dawn," the man at the counter said, not looking up from his papers. He wrote the last few sentences, and then looked up, a smile on his face. "How can I help y-"

One of the henchmen pointed a gun to his head. No words were said, but the dust shop owner recoiled back in fear.

"P-please. Just take the money and leave. I-I-"

"We're not here for the money," Roman said. He pulled out a bag and placed it in front of the man. "Crystals. In. Nobody gets hurt that way."

The man nodded, reaching into the display cases under him, taking out the dust crystals. He placed them in the bag, one by one.

"The rest of you. Take everything else," Roman ordered. "M, guard the exit."

I nodded –slightly cringing at the name– and moved towards the exit. On the way there, I saw a civilian, standing in between the isles, staring at me like a deer caught in headlights. I looked at him for a second or so before I continued walking towards the exit. I'd contemplated asking Roman what to do with him, but I decided it was fine; as long as the civilian didn't do anything stupid, there was no need to do anything to him.

I leaned against the railing and activated my semblance. Nobody in the area at the moment.

"Hey! Hands up!" one of Roman's henchmen said, pointing a gun at the civilian. It was the same one I had just seen. The civilian nodded, putting his hands up in the air, his knees slightly shaking.

No need to step in. As long as the henchman didn't do anything to harm the civilian seriously, I didn't need to do anything. The henchman led the civilian man at gunpoint towards the rest of the hostages. There weren't many customers, most likely because we were here at night. Three people besides the civilian man: a woman, around forty years old if I had to guess, what looked like her daughter –judging by the way she was hugging the older women– and a man, fourty like the woman, but seemingly unrelated to her. The civilian man sat down next to the other man.

"Scroll."

He handed the henchman his scroll. I diverted my attention from the scene. I felt a little guilty about this, but they weren't getting hurt, so it was fine.

I flare my semblance one more time. This time, however, I caught someone. There were five people. They were all huntsmen judging by the amount of Aura they had, and they were all strong as well. Top tier huntsman. I focused my semblance a little more, and focused on the details. I couldn't recognize four of them, but I very well recognised the one in the back, with his weapon, Harbinger, hanging from his back.

Uncle Qrow.

Suddenly, I felt a jolt of pain in my head. I clutched it, pinching the bridge of my nose. Why? I haven't even used it for that long-

《Skill [Semblance LV 5] has leveled up to [Semblance LV 6]》

The pain slowly subsided. It'd been a while since my semblance had leveled up, so I'd forgotten the feeling, almost. I decided I would think about it later. I had more important things to do.

I ran up to Roman, grabbing him on the shoulder.

"What is it, kid-?"

I tried to keep my tone as neutral as possible. "Huntsman. Five of them. And they're strong."

AN: Oof, this chapter took longer than the other ones to write. I'm a little nervous about adding the OCs, but it had to be done sometime.