There was always something deeply nostalgic about returning to Beacon at this time of year.

Perhaps it was the rush of students getting ready for one of the most important missions of their lives, maybe it was the the sights and smells, or it could be the alcohol running through his veins.

Whatever the reason he always loved visiting Beacon at this time of year.

Qrow stopped in the front of the CCT tower, Tex not far behind.

"This the place?" She asked.

"Yep." He confirmed. "Oz's office."

But to his surprise Tex laughed. "Yeah, but where's the yellow brick road?"

"What?"

"Nevermind." Tex shook her head. "Did you phone ahead?"

"No, scrolls been busted since the swamp." Qrow grumbled. "But Oz won't be leaving for another hour when has to give a speech."

"Well then..." Tex gestured ahead. "Ladies first."

Qrow just glared before they entered the building and got to the elevator up.

Then the lift dinged and it's doors opened.

"Qrow?" Ozpin called out from his desk as the duo entered. "What a pleasant surprise." Ozpin tilted his head. "And whose this?"

"The name's Tex." The freelancer said in greeting.

"Pleased to meet you. I am professor Ozpin, please take a seat."

Once they had, Oz got to business.

"So, what brings you here?"

They looked at each other.

"That's... kinda complicated." Qrow said after a moments thought.

Tex snorted. "Batshit crazy is also acceptable."

"I often find starting at the beginning to be helpful." Ozpin told them.

"Right... the beginning." Tex said thoughtfully. "I guess you'd have to start at a shitty little canyon called Blood gulch..."

Qrow cut her off. "No, it took you three days to tell me that story."

"Hey, you got a better idea shitbird?"

"As a matter of fact I do." Qrow said as he crossed his arms.

He then turned to Ozpin. "Do you remember the tale of the old man and the lake?"

Oz's eyebrows raised and Qrow didn't blame him, that was probably one of the most obscure fairy tales in all of Remnant.

"The old man and the lake?" Tex repeated. "That is one of the worst names for a fairy tale I've ever heard."

"Probably the reason it's so obscure." Qrow snarked back. "But anyway, the long and short of the story is that a long time ago, an old man was sitting by a lake one day, when suddenly a young lady called Beth fell from the sky. And after a bunch of unrelated adventures they got her home."

Qrow paused before continuing. "But the kicker of the story is that Beth came from another world." He turned to face Ozpin. "I think that right now Tex could fill in for Beth."

"So your telling me..."

"That I'm from a completely different universe." Tex cut in. "That's right."

Oz suddenly looked deep in thought. Which was either really good or really bad.

"Do... do you have proof of this?" He asked them.

"Probably my body." Tex shrugged. "I'm not human, instead I'm an incredibly advanced and kickass A.I with a robot body."

"A.I?" Oz repeated as a question.

"The A stands for artificial-"

"I know what A.I stands for." Ozpin cut her off. "It's just... I've never heard of an artificial intelligence that advanced."

"Yeah, hence the words 'different universe' wizard of Oz." Tex deadpanned.

Ozpin looked deeply troubled. "I've never heard of anything like this outside of that fairy tale."

"What can I say? I'm a trailblazer."

After that they sat there for a few minutes in silence before Qrow spoke.

"So, what you thinking Oz?"

"I'm thinking that we can talk about this later, I'm due to give a speech in a few minutes and I need time to think about this frankly unprecedented situation." Ozpin said before he got a smile on his face. "But in the mean time, there is something that you could do for me."

"What do you need?" Qrow asked.

"Well, as you know all the first year teams are about to shadow huntsmen and huntresses as apart of their first mission." Qrow suddenly didn't like where this was going. "And it just so happens that we're a little short on experienced huntsmen this year."

"So... baby sitting?" Tex aptly summed up.

"Of course not, you'll be set up with one of our best teams." He assured the duo.

"We better be." Qrow grumbled. "What's the job?"

"Some investigation work for James in the industrial district of Vale." Oz explained. "I'll call James up in a minute to give you some details. But before that happens, do either of you have any questions?"

"Just one." Tex said. "You know that chair of yours is shaped like a dick, right?"

Ozpin spluttered as Qrow sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

There was a strange atmosphere of tension surrounding team RPBY's dorm the next two days, with the intervention not really being mentioned by anyone.

In fact, Church suspected that there was an unspoken agreement to ignore it until after the mission.

But rather fortunately, it didn't continue for the day of the mission itself.

Everyone was wide awake, all ready to go to the hall after one last thing was taken care of.

"What's that?" Ruby asked curiously.

Yang shrugged. "I don't know yet. Dad sent it to us. I thought we could open it together!"

Ruby smiled. "Ooooh! Something from home!

Ruby zoomed over to Yang and tried to take the cylinder from her. but their fooling around caused the package to open, and another cylinder, hairy and black, fell out onto the floor and started to shake. Church watched in anticipation as the object detangled itself to reveal... a dog?

Upon closer inspection it was indeed revealed to be a dog, Yang pumped her fist while Pyrrha and Blake looked confused as Ruby picked up the dog.

"Zwei!" Ruby yelled to the heavens.

"Wait a minute, is that a fucking dog?" Church demanded for confirmation.

"He sent a dog?" Blake demanded,

"Through the mail?" Pyrrha frowned. "I hope he wasn't hurt."

"Oh, he does stuff like this all the time!" Yang waved her hand dismissively.

Church looked around to find Wash in order to get full story about the dog, but he was mysteriously absent.

"Your father or your dog?" Blake asked from her new place a top of Ruby's bed.

And then Church had to laugh.

Not at anything Blake did or said, but rather at the freelancer that was next to Blake on the bed.

"Your afraid of dogs!?" Church wheezed out in disbelief between laughs.

"No!" Washington denied. "Of course not, I just happen to prefer cats and Zwei is... freaky."

Church just continued to laugh. "Agent Washington, former freelancer and recovery one is afraid of a dog." His laughing died down. "Hey Caboose, get a camera."

"Please keep it away from my belongings." Blake said, ignorant of Church's comments.

Pyrrha knelt down next to Zwei and scratched behind his ears. "I don't see why that would be a problem, he seems like a good little doggie."

"Would all first-year students please report to the amphitheatre?" The intercom flared to life.

Ruby turned to Lopez. "Well, looks like a change of plans, Lopez would you be alright with taking care of Zwei?"

"Por supuesto, pero ¿qué debo comer? La única comida aquí no es apta para comer con perros."

[Of course, but what would he eat? The only food you have here is unsuitable for canine consumption.]

"Look, there's a letter!" Yang noticed, reading it quietly before reading it aloud. "Dear girls, I've got to leave the island for a few days, so I'm sending Zwei to you to take care of. Enclosed is all the food you should need. Love you both, Taiyang."

Dozens of cans of dog food spill out of the small package, piling up around Zwei.

"supongo que responde a mi pregunta."

[I suppose that answers my question.]

A can opener fell from the package and bounced off Zwei's head.

Yang shrugged. "Well, that settles it! Come on girls, Zwei will be here when we get back!"

And so they all began to file out of the room with the exceptions of Lopez and Zwei.

But as they were leaving Ruby looked at Zwei and a sneaky smile grew on her face.

"I know that look. Ruby, no." Wash said with authority.

An authority that was then immediately undermined by Sarge. "I can tell what your thinkin' and I say go for it."

"Yeah kid I agree with Sarge on this one, do it." Church said for the sole reason of screwing with Washington.

Ruby nodded. "Sorry Lopez, here have some lien to spend while we're gone."

It looked like Zwei was joining them for a trip to mount Glenn.

"Well, uh..." Ruby threw up a thumbs up. "Wish us luck!"

Weiss walked away with her team feeling sympathetic for team RPBY's situation.

As much as she respected doctor Oobleck, spending an entire mission with the eccentric history teacher was a bit much.

"I can't believe that they get save the world." Nora complained. "They even get to go outside the kingdom."

that last bit was directed at Weiss herself, but she just waved it off.

"Need I remind you, that you lost that 'competition' of yours and I won fair and square." Weiss reminded her. "Beside I promised that we could go and shadow a sheriff next time."

"I guess that's true." Nora said.

"So where are we meeting the huntsmen?" Jaune asked.

"Landing pad eight." Ren replied. "And even if it isn't what I would have preferred, it'll still be fascinating to see how a veteran huntsmen acts."

"Why is investigation part of a huntsmen's duties anyway?" Jaune wondered aloud.

"Mostly because many towns and villages outside of the kingdoms don't have the man power or resources for a dedicated police for, so it's not uncommon for them to hire huntsmen or huntresses to do work like this." Ren explained.

Jaune nodded as they arrived at the landing pad to await the veteran huntsmen or huntress.

"I can already feel the head ache coming on." A male voice came from behind them.

"Didn't you used to be a teacher or something?" A more familiar female voice asked.

"I never said I was a good one..."

They all turned around to see an odd duo.

One was a man that looked hungover with a red tattered cape and the other was a woman wearing full body black armour.

Team SALN all looked at each other.

"You the kids?" The man asked, causing them to all nod affirmative. "Right, well I'm Qrow, and this here's Tex." He gestured broadly at his partner who crossed her arms. "We'll be the veteran team you'll be shadowing."

Weiss stepped forward and nodded. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Weiss Schnee the leader of team SALN." She introduced herself. "This is my partner Jaune Arc, and we also have Lien Ren and Nora Valkyrie."

As she said each ones name, they all waved or in the case of Jaune, nervously waved.

Qrow sighed. "Great."

Meanwhile Tex stated snapping her fingers. "Schnee... Schnee.. Schnee... where've I heard that before." Then she seemed to remember. "Oh yeah! I met your sister a while back."

"Winter?" Weiss questioned with a frown.

"Yeah, tell her I said 'hi' next time you see her."

Nora gasped and sprinted over to Tex. "You sound just like professor Goodwitch."

Weiss blinked. Yeah she kinda did.

"No idea what your talking about." Tex said easily. "Now lets get this show on the road."

Qrow nodded. "Right... first off we'll be taking you all to general Ironwood for a official briefing."

"You know general Ironwood?" Jaune asked, causing Qrow to nod.

"Yeah me an Jimmy are old friends." Weiss frowned at the disrespectful nickname. "And after that we'll go snooping, if it goes into the night we'll head back for the night. Any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Just one, are you Ruby's uncle?"

It was at that point that Weiss realised where she'd heard his name before.

"The drunken scythe wielder?" Weiss questioned.

Qrow just snorted. "Yeah that's me."

"Oh, we just seen Ruby and Yang off."

"Really?" Qrow frowned. "Damn I was hoping to see them before they went off."

"Yeah, I was hoping to meet them." Tex said as well.

It was at this point that Weiss shared a look with the rest of her team as they all wondered the same question.

Should they tell him about what happened with Ruby?

But Qrow noticed the looks.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"It's about Ruby..." Jaune started but trailed off.

"What about her?" Qrow demanded.

Weiss quickly made a decision.

"She has a girlfriend." She cut in.

"Wait, what?" Qrow said in surprise.

"Yeah a girlfriend, she's really pretty." Nora followed her lead.

"Well, you all are telling me about this after the briefing which we are now late for." Qrow said. "Come on lets get moving."

As they moved out, Ren leaned in to ask Weiss a question. "Why didn't you tell him?"

"He deserves to here it from Ruby and Yang themselves not us." Weiss explained her reasoning.

Ren nodded and they went off, ready for one of the most important missions of their lives.

Notes:

And that's the end of that chapter.

As always Qrow and Tex are a delight to write. The fairy tale mentioned in this section is one of my on creation and has no deeper meanings other than my headcannon that there is a fairy tale for every possible scenario in Remnant.

And Lopez Rose will not be joining the team up at mount Glenn, But it is not the last you'll be seeing of him. Also, I did briefly consider showing team RPBY accepting the mission and meeting Oobleck, but since there wouldn't be anything majorly different from cannon I decided against it.

And finally team SALN are going on a different mission than team JNPR in cannon. There is a good mission for this that will be explored later.

As always thanks to everyone for reading and extra thanks to those that comment/review, you are some of the grooviest people I know.

Next time, both teams start their missions and Felix plots. But till then I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.

Review replies:

ReaderWarrior: Well, if you want to see our bad luck duo meet Oz then I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

Brain.H.H: Yeah, I'm saving the explaining the story bit for latter, and let me tell ya it'll be fun. And yep, no secret is safe with Penny.

Annonamous Elephant: Always good to hear from my favourite elephant, and its good to hear you think that the story is unpredictable, it means the twists I defiantly don't have planned will pay off.

Guest (1): That moment was more of Caboose being well, Caboose than a major thing. And besides would you trust Caboose with something this important?