I find it weird that Desiree agreed to go with me even though I hardly ever interacted with her. I was usually in our room keeping to myself, doing things like studying.

Not that I'm complaining or anything.

I heard my mom knock on my door, earning both Dez's and I's attention. We were packing to get ready to go to our new school. I shrugged at Dez.

"Come in," Desiree said, turning back to her luggage and putting her other essentials inside. Mom poked her head in.

"You guys done yet? Tomorrow is orientation day." Entering fully, she stood patiently in the center of the room like a guardian.

"We know," both of us twins said. It had been an endless week of reminders about school life away from home and that we had to take care of ourselves and all that. I had just finished packing my bag when I turned to see my mom's head floating over my shoulder. A feat, considering that I had once again outgrown my mother at only 13. I jumped in surprise.

"You have everything you need?" Mom asked.

"Yes! Yes I do!" Settling back down, I zipped it up and stacked it on my other luggage. Mom wanted to personally inspect each one, but I reassured her that I did indeed have everything. I'm sure she was just suffering from empty nest syndrome already. And I don't blame her.

When she worked at that dust refinery, she only needed aura to help with heavy lifting and the occasional workplace accident. Dez and I need aura for an entirely different reason.

Huntsmen already have a low chance of making it to retirement. The events depicted in the show will most likely decrease that chance.

Despite mentally being over 30 years old, I have not experienced many things. In the back of my mind, I wished to deny the dark voice from when I had my aura unlocked. These thoughts plagued me through the night. Dinnertime came in a flash. And with it, a rather serious conversation.

As Desiree and I set the table, Mom and Dad had a quiet conversation. Cin was watching the meal she was cooking for us. It wasn't long before the food was ready and we were sitting.

Finishing his meal and clearing his throat, Dad pointed at me and Dez.

"I know you two really want to be hunstmen. But we need to talk about a few things first. It hurts me to say this, but if you continue further down this path, you must be ready to put everything on the line." He looked at me specifically with deadset eyes. I did too in return. "You must be ready to give your life up at a moment's notice."

I put my fork down and replied.

"I understand, Dad." Saying this sent chills down my back. No turning back for me now.

"That's one of you." His head shifted over to Desiree. She confirmed like I did.

"I understand too." Dad let out a shaky breath.

"Okay. Help clean up and then head to sleep. I'm waking both of you up early."

We did as directed. Today was over and tomorrow would be the start of a new life.

Again.

Dreamless nights aren't bad. Sleepless nights are.

I could barely sleep at all. Neither could Dez, if her constant tossing and turning told me anything.

"Hey Gray, you up?" she asked at roughly 2 A.M. She sat up in her bed. I groaned lightly.

"Yeah. Can't really sleep." I checked my alarm clock and saw that my sense of time was slightly off. It was only 1.

"Neither can I," she agreed. A few minutes passed in a sort of awkward silence, the only noise audible being our air conditioner working hard. After that moement, she spoke up suddenly. "I have a question for you, G."

"What is it?"

"Why did you ask me to be a huntress with you?" She turned to face me like she could see through the darkness across our room. "Aside from the tutoring I asked from you, you hardly ever... Well..."

"Talked to you?" I asked, bluntly. I knew this was going to come up eventually. After all, she was right.

"Yeah... I mean, you seem so... Secluded all the time." She prodded softly. I was expecting this conversation, but not this comment. I took it to heart.

"I'm sorry, Dez." Deep down, I only thought that my siblings were my brothers and sisters back on Earth. I had left that life long ago, and yet I still think like I am on Earth. I was also still a teenager, since I never got past that point in my life as of yet. My twin reminded me that not all siblings get to have a healthy relationship and that I needed to fix ours.

The worst part was that I didn't quite know how. The prevalent lack of conversation made it apparent that Desiree was thinking too.

"I have a question for you, too," I spoke up. As the saying goes, quid pro quo: something for something. "Why did you say yes?"

At that moment, I thought that Desiree was sleeping. However, her silence was because she hadn't thought about the possibility of being countered. So, in a search for her own answer, she simply said,

"I don't know," and laid back down. I had thought I made a mistake or asked her something I shouldn't have until she said, "I want to be with you, I guess."

I let her answer pass through me. Pretending like I didn't hear her because I was asleep, I recalled some psychology article about how humans instinctually want to bond with family members.

People go to sleep by pretending to go to sleep. I was able to after a few moments, being blessed with 3 hours of sleep.

"Junior, Dez, wake up!" Dad started our day with. I was startled by the noise and noted vacantly how familiar it sounded.

I sat up cross-legged and rubbed my eyes. Worst 3 hour nap I've ever had.

Dez hadn't moved from her sleeping position and was still asleep. The rise and fall of her sheets had told me as much. I grabbed my towel and got up quickly; I could get my morning routine in if I was fast enough.

At around the time I got out, Dez made her way over to the shower. Perfect timing, Dad.

I put on my clothes that I set aside yesterday. Characteristic of most teenagers, Desiree and I used jeans quite often.

It's usually around this time that huntsmen pick up their trademark "style." That being, their representative colors and sometimes oufit. They're typically nonuniform and actually pretty often asymmetrical, to give them a distinct look as some sort of celebrity kind of thing.

You could see this quite clearly in the show. Who has black motifs? Blake, Ruby, Raven, Adam, and even Qrow, to an extent. Green? Ren, because of his outfit and Penny, because of her weapons and eyes.

Again, I come back to the topic of eye color. At first, I believed that silver eyes were an exceedingly rare trait that only belonged to certain bloodlines. However, I am now privy to the idea that my father's ancestors used to have silver eyes. In fact, that is very likely where we got our last name. Argent is a corruption of argentium, which is silver in Latin.

There is no knowledge of Latin on Remnant because there were no Earth countries on Remnant. Au contraire, "English" on Remnant is evolved from what is essentially the Remnant form of Latin, called "Early Auran."

This was the language first used when dust was discovered and is universally agreed upon in Remnant to be the first standardized and accepted language.

Strangely enough, English is still called English.

It was one particular apocryphal book that I found in Vale's second largest library that referenced a "culling" of the silver eyed population. I'll get more info during my Remnant History classes.

I finished my mental tangent alongside my getting clothed. Off-black, heavy duty jeans were kept from falling off of me with a faded web belt. The light gray polyester shirt I wore was form-fitting, though I didn't have a filled out form just yet. I shrugged a similarly colored zipper hoodie on. Socks and shoes would come later, before we left the apartment.

Mom and Cinna were in the kitchen, setting the table for Desiree and I. After we left , it would be a long time before the rest of our family saw us again.

Dad was sitting in the sofa, watching the TV about a mass gathering of faunus. I happened to be doing nothing and stood behind him.

Among the crowd was a very familiar face. Luck would have it that I would see Blake towards the back of this crowd, who was disposing of empty dust vials. The live footage switched to the studio, the one and only Lisa Lavender providing a report.

"Recent attacks by dissident elements operating outside the city centers have done little to impede dust production quotas. Faunus labor union strikes have been increasing and are currently at their highest."

'Holy shit I thought. 'She sounds like one of those ADVENT propaganda reporters.'

"They've been getting testier lately. The faunus, that is," my dad remarked as the weather this morning was being forecasted. Everything seemed to be pretty mellow, with only small temperature drops forecasted for the next months. It was mid-August anyways, so this was to be expected.

"I heard the White Fang is turning to more drastic measures," I said, providing insight to future events. I wanted to tell my dad to propose reducing train deliveries since they would be easier to target for heists instead of airships. However, I remembered that Blake would be severing her ties to the White Fang on a train some time in the future. And in the end, someone else would propose the same thing after that would happen.

"Yeah, they are. Not that I would be surprised. Less and less have been showing up to work."

"What happened?" Desiree asked, stepping into the living room. She was still drying her shoulder length hair but was already fully dressed.

Dad would have opposed the tighter black jeans that she wore, but he had lost to his "princess" last time he tried.

Her blouse was a dark red, but you really wouldn't be able to tell with the expensive as fuck, reddish gray, pullover cashmere sweater that she had with rolled sleeves. It was practical civilian attire and would work just as well as a combat outfit if the need arose.

Dad basically told her what he and I were talking about earlier on the news.

Breakfast was eaten with little incident and little conversation.

It was at the door that we said our farewells to our mom and older sister. Hugs were exchanged, reminders about a life away from family were said. 13 years of another childhood were going to be left behind.

Leaving something behind always fills people with a subtle melancholy. Seeing Mom and Cin wave to us outside the apartment was one such experience.

After Signal, we'd likely never see them again. And we would probably only see them during the summer break while we were at Signal.

We waved back and got into Dad's car. He'd be driving us for 7 hours from the western side of Vale on the island of Patch, meaning we would arrive there at 3 P.M., a full hour before the orientation.

Desiree and I had made a silent agreement not to sit in the front a long while ago, when we would go on family trips to random places. Family trips that I realized were more for me than anyone. We were both seated in the back of our family SUV type of car.

Dad told us that we should try to sleep again now. I didn't object of course, seeing as how I only had 3 hours of sleep. Desiree only had maybe 2 and a half, at most. She was already trying to sleep.

I closed my eyes without a lot of thought. I was on the brink of sleeping when I felt a small bump along the ride and something light fall on my left shoulder. My left eye told me that Desiree had fallen asleep and the small bump leaned her against my shoulder. Not wanting to wake her up, I let her stay there and was soon nodding off myself. Some time later, I had successfully entered the dream world.

I had a dream, actually.

My dream was quite different from all the other ones I had ever had. My eyes saw nothing, but it was fine. Most of my dream was the RWBY soundtrack just sort of... playing. In my head.

Speaking of which, I had not heard many songs since I lived on Remnant. It wasn't a surprise to know that Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams, those responsible for majority of the soundtrack, didn't exist in Remnant. Thus, neither did their music.

I was disappointed to learn that. I was wondering...

Maybe I could write their music for Remnant?

I kept my guitar knowledge from Earth and learned piano as an extracurricular activity while in primary school for the "individual arts" class which is a class designed to teach students that artistic self-expression is important on modern Remnant. I needed to learn a new instrument and decided to take it easy with piano, since piano chords and guitar chords are similar. Nevertheless, it was a challenge to learn a completely new instrument.

This is pertinent in the way that fixing one of the most important aspects of the entire series could be my ticket to answers. If I am the apparent "interloper" that those 2 entities - of whom I expect are the Deity Brothers - are either supporting or trying to kill me, then I should restore whatever it is think is missing.

Well, only the "good" brother. The other one that tried to kill me when I was unlocking my aura should go fuck himself. Asshole.

"We're here," Dad said, Signal's gate pulling into view. A grandiose sight of tall towers and ornate arches was in our windshield. Desiree and I woke up.

After I fell asleep, it seemed that I had also ended up resting against her. I attempted to lean off of her first, but she jumped.

In that moment, I knew I would have gotten hurt. She jerked her head straight up, directly underneath my jaw. Something was different, however. I braced myself for imminent pain, but instead was seeing things in a slowed manner. I could see the back her head coming up into me, and thought 'I don't want this to hurt!'

And it didn't. Well, not a lot. Instead of hearing my jaw clack against itself, I, and only I, heard my aura of all things engaging. Then Desiree groaning in pain. And after that, Dad snickering.

Dad pulled into the check-in section, where there were baggage carts and various other students and adults.

"You guys got it from here?" he asked. Desiree, still nursing the back of her head, confirmed.

"Yeah," she responded. I followed suit.

"Yep." Dad got out and so did we. 2 carts were brought over by me and we unloaded our belongings out of the car.

"Alright then." He reached inside and produced 2 small rectangles from his pocket and held it in front of us. These were scrolls. "These are your scrolls. Take care of them. They've been set up for you 2 already, you just need to personalize them." He looked at me. "I'll miss you, Junior." Without missing a beat, he said to Dez, "I'll miss you too, princess." He wrapped us both in a hug.

I had a nostalgic feeling then. This hug reminded me of the time when I received my name. He held us both close like we were just born. Normally, I would have objected against it, but it was the remnant of a long ago, simpler time.

"I'll miss you, Dad," Dez and I said together.

He let us go and we waved to him as he drove away.

"So," Dez began, "where do we go?"

"Let's take care of our stuff first," I answered. Sighting a short line with people who had their bags, we made our way over. We declared and handed our luggage to a green-haired lady in a uniform who then gave both of us a lanyard with a name tag.

This served as an aid for introducing yourself during the orientation and a reminder for what room you belonged to. Both Desiree and I had Room C-1B, which, when inquired, meant building C, first floor, room B. We were then directed to the gymnasium. There we inferred to take a seat and wait until the orientation started, because a large number of students sitting in various places throughout the gym were doing so.

The amount of students present indicated that either more than three quarters of the student body was absent, or that those in attendance were only freshmen, or 1st years.

The gymnasium was something that was standard, even for a civilian school. However, I was sure beyond a doubt that the huntsman-centric infrastructure was hidden very well beneath the walls, floor, and ceiling. I was also sure they would reveal these things to surprise the uninitiated.

On the stage were some rows of chairs. My guess is that they would be where the teachers sat during the orientation.

Dez and I chose a set of bleachers that only had a few other students. Some students were conversing and others kept to themselves. We chose to keep to ourselves in favor of investigating our scrolls.

We were unsure how to approach them and mostly just got used to the weight. They were comparable to smartphones, but were much lighter. I pressed the yellow diamond in the middle - like I had seen RWBY characters do - and watched the scroll unfold in a rapid manner, nearly flying out of my unprepared hand.

The screen was a marvel to look at. Think, for a moment, a smartphone. Remove the physical aspect of it. You now have a scroll.

Well, not completely remove the physical. Just remove the size problem.

True to Dad's word, the scrolls were configured already. The screen had a blank background with various tabs - apps, if you will - on it. There was a home icon, a globe icon, a magnifying glass icon, and a mail icon. These were, respectively: the home screen which contained all of the above and space for more applications; a general CCT browser, a local file browser, and a messaging app.

Desiree and I received a few messages from some number. Reading the messages revealed the messenger to be Dad, sending us Mom's and Cin's numbers along with a picture of Dez and I sleeping against each other from earlier today. I thought it was a nice picture, but Dez did not. She sighed and put her scroll away, nudging for me to do the same. The headmaster and the teachers were now present. The headmaster stepped up to the microphone.

"Good afternoon, first years. I am Headmaster Wheaton," he started. "Today is your orientation, but you already knew that." He pointed to a particular set of bleachers. "I would like for you all to sit there so I don't have to use the microphone. Move quickly now."

We were across that set of seats and began our short journey to the other side with dozens of other students. I was nearly tripped by someone stepping on the back of my shoes, often called "flat-tiring." I craned my head behind me to see the perpetrator.

"Oh, sorry!" a young woman said. She had long, bright blonde hair and something about her light purple eyes was uncannily familiar.

"It's fine," I let go, turning back around. Desiree stalled to let me catch up with her. Sitting down on the front row brought the blonde girl who flat-tired me next to me... for some reason.

The hairs on my back stood on end. I know this girl.

But from where?

Mr. Wheaton stood several feet in front of the bleachers.

"Thank you for not talking," he said sarcastically, somehow getting everyone else to quiet down. After a beat, "You all are new, and you all need to know new people. Your homerooms are in the foyer of the gym. Learn each other's names and learn your homeroom. Your schedule will be given to you in your homeroom." Looking around, he added, "I look forward to seeing all of you here. When I say go, get up and find your homerooms."

He literally waited like 3 seconds. 3 seconds that felt like a whole minute.

"Go."

Everyone else got up and began heading to the foyer. Blondie, though, stopped me, and by extension, Desiree.

"Hey, sorry about that earlier," she apologized. I really didn't care.

"It's fine, really." Now would be a good time to figure out who this girl is. "I'm Gainsboro. This is my sister, Desiree."

"Nice to meet you!" she waved... even though she was only like 4 feet away from me. I looked down at her lanyard and nametag and-

Oh.

That's how I knew her.

"My name's Yang Xiao Long!"

(A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for reading so far. Thanks to all who have favorited, followed, and/or reviewed! It gives me motivation to continue. I look forward to continuing this story. Stay tuned!

Cheers, Rico.)

Edit, 3/9/19: fixed an error in which I used "to" instead of "from"