Its been a while hasnt it. well i decided to dust this fanfic off for a chapter. But its been hard for me to find motivation to do anything lately. Ive been suffering with depression for the past year and its been flaring up lately. i have been feeling that my life is over and writing is one of the few ways to cope with that. i just dont know how much longer i can live like this...

I dont think this chapter is very good but it does offer a twist at the end.

RWB JNPR and Robin jumped from their seats around their campfire upon hearing the sound of a very girlish scream coming from somewhere deep within the forest, recognizing it as the sound of one of their companions (though obviously unable to tell whom it was) screams echoing through the Forever Forest, hands already reaching for their weapons. That scream could only mean one thing. Someone was in trouble and may need their help. Their fears were confirmed when a bellowing roar followed, identifying the treat as an Ursa.

"did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked aloud as she looked in the direction of the sound. Robin was the first to respond to that "I recognize that scream anywhere. That sounded like Paris!" in normal circumstances she would have found it hilarious that Paris, once again managed to get his voice to sound a few octaves higher than one would think it should but given his penchant for getting into trouble particularly out of his rebellious need for attention she didn't find this at all funny. Not only that, Helen Yang and Skylar were also separated from the group in largely grimm infested territory so if there were more grimm, it could only attract more negativity to all of them especially if they converged on Paris and that would not be a good thing. Ruby looked at Blake "Go find Professor Goodwitch." She ordered, drawing Crescent Rose "Weiss with me!" she said before the duo took off in the direction of the scream. "Not without me!" Robin screamed. As the only remaining member of SPHR it was her duty to help the others

Jaune watched as the two left, before looking at his own team but he looked hesitant to give an order. Thankfully Pyrrha was able to jump in as second in command "Ren Nora go with her, there may be more" she said drawing Milo, and running after Weiss and Ruby. Jaune running behind her as he drew Corcea Mors, leaving Blake Ren and Nora to go find Professor Goodwitch.

Yang jumped away from Skylar, startled by the sound of the roar that interrupted the romantic moment with the guy she had been crushing. Growling she turned on her heel and activated Ember Celica, her hair blazing and eyes glowing red, half expecting the creatures of Grimm to suddenly burst from the trees at any second. Unfortunately for the blonde brawler, seconds passed and there was no sign of any immediate danger, at the very least for the two young students. But this was no time to relax that roar meant one of their friends was in trouble and they couldn't just stand here and make out, no matter how much Yang wanted to.

Never having been so thankful for an interruption, Skylar glanced in the direction of the sound, before drawing Draco Storm "sounds like Paris,' he growled unsurprised. That kid was always getting into trouble, or so it seemed. Without a moment to lose, he glanced at Yang, who turned to look at him, her eyes still red in frustration "don't just stand there blondie, you can try again later but business comes first." He told her, before running in the direction of the Ursa.

Yang watched him leave making a point to check out his backside as she began to run after him. So close! She had been so close to kissing those unbelievable lips and one of her crush's teammates had to go and ruin it for her. But hey could do it later he said. Oh he better believe they were going to 'do it' later. And she wouldn't let him go until she was fully satisfied. Growling in annoyance the blonde brawler followed Skylar deeper into the forest.

Helen and Paris stood warily next to each other, a giant Ursa in front of them. The two had been so busy arguing with each other that they hadn't realized that they had been attracting this grimm to them and now that they had calmed down they realized exactly how bad of an idea that was. They stood before the savage beast in front of them, the thunderous growling only increasing in decibels as the Ursa stared down at the duo, its eyes gleaming with hate. With a roar, the Ursa took a swipe at the young students, who both leaped out of the claws path before drawing their weapons. Helen was the first to react, taking a shot that nailed the Ursa directly in the eye. The creature bellowed in pain and fury an took another swipe at Helen, who jumped over the paw and shot it point blank. The creature let out a snort of fury but was able to shake off the pain that time and lunged at Helen, this time with a gaping maw. Unfortunately in its single minded assault on the young amazon, the Ursa failed to take note of Paris, who converted his weapon into its axe mode and with a swift swipe, cut off the Ursa's head clean off, letting the body fall to the forest floor, just as RWY, JP and SR all arrived on the scene.

"uhhh….. What?" Robin asked aloud, dumbfounded at the scene before her. Here came running 7/12ths of the students that came on this Oum forsaken trip just to collect sap of all things and before most of the students could so much as see any action, Paris and Helen had already finished it off. Not that more grimm would have been a good thing. But still all that ruckus and it turns out that everyone was fine. Darn it. It would have at least been a treat to see something.

Turns out, that's exactly what they were going to get.

Unaware, or at least uncaring of the crowd of people around them, Helen rounded on Paris giving him an annoyed and angry glare "Are you brainless! you could have gotten us both killed!" she snapped. "are you that dependent on your 'macho' attitude that you'd be ok with a Ursa snacking on you for lunch?!" as much as s e hated Paris she did not want to lose her teammate this early in the year. Or at all really, though once she graduated from Beacon she wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. Not that she worried about him at all mind you….

Paris whirled towards Helen, gritting his teeth in frustration "Are you saying that this is my fault princess!? Ha! Don't make me laugh. None of this would have started if you hadn't followed me here in the first place! THIS is why I work alone! So no one else can get hurt!" he blurted out, causing Helen's eyes to widen in shock. She hadn't expected him to say anything like that and before she could stop herself a soft "what?" escaped her lips. Paris it seemed realized wat he said, for he clamped his mouth shut and looked away uncomfortably "Nothing. None of your business!" he spat. Before turning, ready to leave but he caught sight of Robin RW and JP looking at them. A quick look around the also told him Skylar and Yang were also staring at them. In all the commotion, they hadn't realized that the others would come looking for them.

Helen just shook her head "we are not telling Professor Goodwitch about this…." She muttered.

Later that night, Paris laid down in his bed unable to fall asleep. After a stern talking to from his so called fearless leader, not to mention a literal slap on the wrist by Goodwitch, the teams had retired to their nice and cozy dorm rooms, but he couldn't shake the helpless feeling that had caught him in its clutches after blurting out what e had said to Helen earlier that day. As a matter of fact he and Helen hadn't spoken at all since then either. Not that he wanted too, but he didn't feel comfortable revealing information that was not even her business to her in the first place. He had spent the entire afternoon in the training facility until it was closed and after that had showered and gone right to bed, but unfortunately for him, sleep eluded him this night. He could hear his teammates snoring lightly, but this did little to ease himself into sleep. He rolled over in his bed to check the clock that was on the nearby table. It was almost midnight and he still couldn't get any sleep. They had class in the morning, much to his annoyance, and he didn't want his professor's, particularly Goodwitch, to catch him sleeping in class. But after several hours of tossing and turning, Paris just couldn't relax enough to get that sweet shut eye. Huffing, Paris pulled back his covers, slipped on his sneakers, and silently tip toed out of the room, closing the door behind him, before making his way up to the stair well that led to the roof of the dormitory. Being on the second floor along with RWBY and JNPR, it wasn't much of a walk up the stairwell, not that Paris cared all that much about the exercise, since he got a lot of that in combat class, but he was still careful not to make too much noise as to not disturb the other students. Walking up the few flights, Paris opened the door that led to the roof, and walked out, closing the door behind him. It was a beautiful night and the cold air felt nice on his skin. Smiling slightly, Paris walked to the edge of the roof and sat down on it, his legs hanging over the edge.

Perhaps it was the cold air, but Paris actually felt like he was able to relax this time around. It wouldn't exactly be right to sleep out here but maybe an hour or so would help him get some rest. He had gone without sleep before but usually only when it didn't matter. This was not one of those times so he better make this count.

"trouble sleeping?" a soft voice called out from behind him, causing Paris to flinch. Speak of the devil. He turned around to see Helen, dressed in a sleeping robe and some slippers, looking like she just woke up, having slight bedhead and a tired look on her face, laced with a bit of concern, somewhat uncharacteristically of her, at least in regards to him.

Frowning, Paris just glared at his partner. The two hadnt spoken all day and yet here she was showing concern over him. What was with this girl? "what are you my mom?" he asked scathingly, turning his back on her to gaze out at the horizon "I just came here for some peace and quiet; I don't need YOU ruining it for me." He muttered.

Helen sighed, not even bothering to retort that since it would only lead into a fight that she didn't want to deal with at this hour. Instead she walked up to Paris and sat down beside him, but she too kept her gaze on the distance before them. The two sat there in silence for a few moments, before Helen finally broke it.

"You know, this view kind of reminds me of home." She said softly. "My parents and I sometimes spent some nights just looking at the stars like this. When they weren't both working that is…." She giggled "but… that was a long time ago…" her voice became melancholy as she said those words. "Before I…" she trailed off.

Surprised, Paris looked at his partner and for the first time, noticed that she looked rather sad and he honestly felt bad for her for the briefest moment. The way her eyes bean to brim with tears, her lip quivering; he had never seen her like this before. It was rather off putting.

"Before you came to Beacon?" he offered gently. Helen stiffened when she heard that, and turned to meet her partners gaze, before nodding glumly "Yeah…. It's a long story." She said, turning back to enjoy the view. "my Parents…. Weren't supportive of me going to Beacon." She admitted "They wanted me to just be a good an obedient little girl, that supported the family company. But I never wanted that. I always wanted to be a huntress. So I saved up my allowance until I was able to come here. But before I could tell them my intentions, they told me that they wanted me to meet a potential suitor. I didn't want to do that so the day before I was supposed to meet him, I ran away from home, got on a bull head and came to Beacon. Since I had applied Professor Ozpin graciously gave me room and board for a few days until the initiation. And that's how I ended up here."

Paris hummed in response, but couldn't shake the feeling he knew exactly what Helen was talking about, he just couldn't tell as to why. In any case, he just waited for Helen to continue with her story, "I guess I'll never know who my parents had in mind for a suitor but I don't care. I don't need anyone to rely on like that. I want to make my own."

For the first time that night Paris smiled and to his own surprise said "I admire that; going your own way…" he turned to look at Helen who was also smiling at him "Thanks," she whispered

"I always wanted to be a huntsman" Paris continued "trained my entire life for it. A friend of mine and I were planning on going to Beacon together, but one day, we tried to attack grimm on our own, nothing we hadn't done a dozen times before. That's when an Ursa stabbed him from behind. I couldn't do anything to stop it." Paris wiped his eyes, feeling tears well up, but he refused to let them fall. "That's when I decided I wouldn't let anyone else get hurt on my watch. I know it sounds ironic, but that's why I dislike working on a team." he muttered

It was the first time that Paris had told anyone that story. The story of how Philoctetes Mars died before Paris could save him. Affectionaly known as Phil, the duo had oped to attend Beacon together as part of the same team, a dream that sadly never cme to be.

Phil had been a good friend very since Paris was a child and they two were practically inseparable for all of their lives. The night that he died Phil had suggested that they go and kill the grimm. Paris saw nothing wrong with that, but they were going to Beacon in a few days time, so there was no need really. But Paris wasn't one to back away from a challenge and they ventured into the Grimm inhabited areas surrounding the city. Unfortunately they wandered straight into an Ursa den with many more Grimm than they were accustomed too at the time and got overwhelmed and separated. By the time Paris was able to et everything under control, and Ursa had snuck behind Phil and pierced his stomach. Paris was able to kill the Ursa, but Phil died from is wounds before he could get him to the hospital.

"really?" Helen clipped, not impressed, but didn't say anything else on the matter. Paris's reasons were his own as were anyone's who had come to this school, but she was glad that she was able to learn a bit more about her partner. To think that they had gotten on the wrong foot the night before the initiation.

Late at night on the night before the initiation Helen lay on her sleeping bag, somewhat self conscious, given the fact that there were so many boys around. She knew she was an attractive person and there we plenty of times that the opposite gender had flirted with her, but there was never an experience where she was sleeping in the same room as them. Granted it wasn't like she was alone with anyone; there were dozens of people in the room both male and female, but she still didn't like the idea. She swore she could hear someone say "dad wouldn't approve of all the boys though…" and boy did she definitely agree with that one. She wasn't looking to get married but she didn't want to be in a room with all these boys simply because she knew most if not all would want to flirt with her. Much like Weiss Schnee, who was also here at Beacon, men just wanted to get close to her because of her fathers business, which wasn't something that she wanted.

Thankfully that had been kept at a minimum so far, but she knew that it would happen at some point. Maybe she would have better luck if she were on a team completely composed of females. At least then she wouldn't have to deal with the constant flirting of men. It wasn't like a lot of females flirted with her so she had nothing to worry about there. while though she would be flattered, she didn't go that way.

"Hey beautiful…" a voice said to her left, breaking Helen out of her thoughts. Speak of the devil and he shall respond. Turning her head to see the source of the sound, the Amazon saw, much to her mortification, a shirtless dark haired male with a smirk on his face. Oh Oum why was it always her that got the weird ones?

Helen gave the male a sharp glare before turning over on her side, trying to show her disinterest in the conversation, but all that di was make the male whistle in appreciation and said a little to loudly "Damn…" that's when Helen realized what he must have been staring at. Face exploding with red, she leapt to her feet and before the male could so much as blink, Helen raised a hand and slapped the pervert across the face.

"How dare you?!" she seethed angrily, trying to keep her voice down. Never before in her life had she felt so insulted. She knew some people stared at her body but she never had it directed to her in such a manner. The male just stared at her, his cheek going red but otherwise had no major reaction other than to glare at her "is that how you greet all men?" he asked, seemingly surprised by the rejection, either he thought he was charming or he didn't meet a lot of people. Probably both…

And that was how Helen met her partner. Sure she wasn't happy when it case to her partner in general, since he was a womanizing pervert, but at least he was a bit more tolerable than he had been compared to that night, mostly because he tried flirting with other woman than he did her, even if it didn't always work out for him mostly because his flirting was almost intolerable to most woman in general.

But even with that she felt like she knew him a bit better than she had before. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all…

The two remained on the roof for quite some time before they quietly returned to their room for the night.

The next day, the members of team SPHR, after class, made their way to the nearby kingdom of Vale to have a relaxing afternoon. Being cooped up in their room was only worth so much entertainment and the group had not been to Vale since they got to Beacon in the first place, so Skylar decided that the weekend was as good of a time as any to try going to Vale. It didn't hurt that the preparation for Vytal festival was also underway. It was being held in Vale this time around and the team spent most of their afternoons training after class, but Skylar wanted to give is team a break from that for the day, lest their be a mutiny regarding his totalitarian training regimen

Skylar led the group down main street., not really having much of a destination in mind. He had heard that RWBY was going down to the docks, allegedly because Weiss wanted to check out the competition from Vacuo, considering the festival was a few weeks away. But Skylar was confident in his teams abilities that he didn't need to check out the competition. He just wanted to try and enjoy his afternoon.

Hard to do when he was currently wondering how he ended up in a situation that involved a strange socially awkward redhead girl that seemed come from Atlas Academy. All he had been doing was walking when he and his group were surprised by her rather sudden appearance like she had appeared from thin air.

"Salutations!" she said happily to the group as she approached them. The team whirled around to see the red head walk towards them with a rather wide and naïve smile on her face like it was completely not out of the ordinary to address strangers like that.

She had short, rather curly orange hair that came down to her chin with a small ahoge on top, and she wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She also had bright green eyes, light skin, and freckles. She wore an off white old-fashioned styled off the shoulder blouse with frill detailed trim and frill flared cuffs that half cover her hands alongside copper button detailing on the lower parts of her sleeves. She also sported a short gray pinafore dress with golden trim on the hem alongside four light green stalagmite styled stripes on the lower half of the dress, two on the front and two on the back, accompanied by two matching colored circles above the tips that have a stripe that runs around her waistline, with golden outlines. She also wore a pair of black thigh-high leg pieces that seemingly are attached to black shoes.

"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" she said, looking between the four Huntsmen and Huntresses in training.

Skylar just looked at the girl with a suspicious look on his face. He had never been so perplexed by the idea of someone just coming up to him and introducing themselves like this. Then again he didn't speak to that many people, but still, this was just to weird even for him " Can I help you?" he asked slowly, trying to gauge whether or not this girl was a threat to him. Appearances could be deceiving after all, and even though it would be four on one, he had no idea what this girl was capable of.

The redhead just smiled widely at Skylar before glancing around briefly. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" she repeated as if on auto pilot.

"You already said that…" Robin said giving the girl a look that implied she was crazy, but Penny didn't seem to notice. "So I did…" she replied, before glancing around briefly once again.

"Penny, is there something you need?" Skylar repeated. This girl was definitely weird and he really didn't want to deal with this right now.

Penny blinked a few times as if processing the words "Oh! Well, I was just wandering around Vale, but I seem to have become lost. Could you direct me over to the Docking area?" she requested almost robotically.

Helen nodded, before pulling out her scroll and brining up a map to Vale, for the girls convenience. The map showed that the docks were a few blocks east of SPHR's location, coincidently not to far from RWBY's supposed location. "Its that way." She said. Penny looked at the map, her eyes flashing for a second. Before she looked at Helen and said "Thank you." She then happily skipped away in the direction of the docks, leaving SPHR to wonder if their day could possibly get any weirder.

Sadly, weird didn't even begin to describe the rest of the day. After getting nowhere in vale, the team retired to their dorm at Beacon, but it was a rather award situation because they could hear Blake and Weiss arguing with one another on the other side of the wall.

"You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!" Weiss screamed angrily

"There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!" Blake retorted

Weiss seemed taken aback by this "People like me?" she questioned in annoyance.

"You're discriminatory!" Blake told her white haired teammate

"I'm a victim!" Weiss seemed quiet for a moment before continuing "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? (leaning against the bookshelf by the window) "It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood."

Skylar, on the bed closest to the wall, couldn't help but feel sorry for Weiss. While he didn't like her abrasive personality, she certainly didn't deserve any of the things that happened to her, in regards to the difficulty growing up. But that certainly didn't excuse her behavior now, especially since he knew Blake well enough to know that at this rate, the conversation wasn't going to end well

"You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!" Weiss roared at Blake

The Next words out of Blakes mouth however, made Skylar stiffen in shock "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" upon hearing that Skylar leapt off of his bed, realizing his friend was in trouble. He ran to the door, just as he heard RWBY's door slam open and shut, and rapid footsteps race down the hall. Before leaving, Skylar turned to his shocked teammates "Don't tell anyone Blake is a Faunus," he said before leaving the room, and chasing after Blake.

Skylar ran down the hall, following Blake to the courtyard, where he saw her running towards the statue with the soldiers standing victorious over the grimm. He watched as she slowly and shakily lifted her hands to her head and began removing the bow, revealing her cat ears, which twitched slightly in sadness. Not wanting her to stand there in silence, Skylar slowly approached her, before making his presence known

"Blake…" he began, causing the girl to stiffen. The black haired beauty turned to see Skylar behind her, giving her a sad smile "Told you, you look better without the bow." He whispered causing Blake to blush slightly. He always was a charmer.

"Sky…" she said softly, turning to face her old friend. "I thought we agreed it would be best not to talk to one another." She stated matter of factly, giving the male a small glare. Skylar ignored her gaze "I did, then you told your teammates you're a Faunus. Seems to me you need a friend right now. Who better than me, the guy that vouched for you after you left Adam?"

Blake sighed. She hated these moments when Skylar was smart. "So what now?" she asked him, placing her hands on her hips. Skylar folded his arms, a grin on his face. "You need some tea."

Yeah instead of Sun, Skylar is the one that Blake will go off into the sunrise with. Why? I NEVER liked that she just trusted Sun because he was a Monkey, since he could have just as easily been a white fang member. If you wanna know where Sun is Right now. I imagine hes hiding behind a tree. that just how i see where he was since there is no other explanation to how h shows up in the episode proper.

You may have noticed in this chapter as well as earlier ones, that Blake seems to have a closer connection to Skylar. the reason for this will be revealed in the next chapter.