Author's Notes:

Hey guys, sorry this chapter took so long but if I didn't stop now then it would have easily slided into the 9-10k range and I didn't want the opening chapters to drag on. Also, this fic is probably not going to have consistent updates like I planned. College and art have collectively kept me busy like never before but I won't stop writing. On another note, I couldn't help but sketch out vol 7 concepts for the three protags after viewing the first episode. I can imagine the fun the cast with have with them alright as they travel to Akira's hometown of Mantle.

Combine117: We've planned everything out

Mr. Haziq: Weiss is going to go through massive development, this is only the start

Guest: It'll be a roller coaster alright...

madmadMADshipper: Minato and Yang have been play fighting since childhood, it's been almost an inside joke for them for a while now pft. As for Weiss and her ships? That'll be answered in this chapter along with a few other surprises.

Colorful storefronts of various shapes and sizes lined the busy city streets, drawing in hundreds of leisurely patrons from around Remnant. While some welcomed in their customers with humble decor, others loomed over even the wealthiest of businesses with their vast shelves of glittering diamonds, attracting some of the most affluent in the kingdom. All the while, humongous billboards constructed out of holographic lights flashed and changed in the hot light of the morning sun, directing and fueling the hunger of frenzied shoppers for wares trending in the latest season.

"How about this one?" Weiss picked out a fluffy winter dress from the labyrinth-like layout of a neatly organized store.

"I think it looks great," Yu smiled, carrying several oversized shopping bags that were filled to the brim with all sorts of designer brand accessories and clothes. The sheer weight and volume of the luggage would have made even the strongest of huntsmen cower in fear.

"And this?" The snowy heiress directed her attention to another, seemingly entranced by the intricate design of its crystal-like patterns.

"I like that one too," Yu commented again, oblivious to the subtle irritation in the other's face.

"Ok, that one over there."

"It's certainly is unique. Well made, too." Weiss felt her face scrunch up in annoyance. She then twisted around to grab the first thing she saw from the unsorted pile, flashing the unsuspecting object in front of the boy.

"This one!"

"Huh…?"

"Hah! Nothing for you to compliment now, can you?" Her irate frown transformed into an excited grin as she swung whatever she had picked up in her classmate's face, watching his expression shift from a plastic smile to an embarrassed flush. "Hey! What's wrong?" Weiss continued her onslaught, only to be met with awkward silence.

"Umm… Weiss?" Blake interrupted the heiress's victory cry, her pale face now a soft shade of pink.

"Yes?" The heiress was now alarmed by the sudden attention she had attracted from the jungle of customers in the shop. All gazes were glued to her spot, as if a large target had been painted right across her back.

"You do know what you're showing him, right?" The darked-haired girl held in a chuckle.

"Of course—!" And then she realized. "...EEEKKK!" Screeching and desperately trying to hide the object, she tossed the pale bra in a random direction before immediately blushing a dark tomato-red. However, just as she was about to make herself proper, she saw the soft piece of fabric land directly on her male friend's face, prompting another yelp of pure horror.

"Weiss! Are you o—?!" Yang burst out from a nearby crowd, eyes full of worry and adrenaline that soon melted into amusement and mirth as she arrived to watch the ashamed heiress attempt to scramble away from the scene and fall flat on her butt in embarrassment.

"Minato! What's going on? Is Weiss alright?" Ruby tried to weasel her way through a mad tangle of legs and the bewildered crowd, finding her small size and short stature a painful hindrance that blocked her from the scene. She eventually managed to squeeze into a small pocket, bumping into the bluenette who was watching the entire display with a cartoon-like glee.

"Oh it's nothing, really." Minato raised a hand, putting it up to his eye, and curled his fingers into a circular shape, imitating someone observing through a one-eyed binocular, "It's quite the view, though."

"H-hey! S-stop that!" Weiss shouted. The mocking and sly faces of Yang and Minato grew exponentially, only to be rivaled by her own increasing loathing and agony. She wanted to lock the two in a never-ending frozen hell of ice if it kept them from ever speaking of this experience ever again.

"You sure you two don't have something going on?" Yang snickered, mercilessly adding fuel to an already fiery situation. Weiss swore she would run her teammate through the next time they dueled.

"What do you mean? I was only helping her out." Yu gave a disapproving look to the two perverted bystanders. It was similar to the face an annoyed mother would give to her child. A subtle but dark aura started to enwrap his form.

"Pffft hahaha!" Suddenly, both of the cheeky siblings burst into an uproar of chuckles and laughter as they tried desperately not to fall to the floor themselves. Each had one hand clutching their stomach while their other arm wrapped around the other's shoulder to support each other.

Just when Weiss thought her world had finally shattered and she collapsed out of pure embarrassment, she felt a light breeze. Several pairs of panties and other undergarments flew into her harassers' faces, briefly halting their onslaught of cruel mockery and freezing them in a state of bewildered shock. The heiress felt someone offer a hand before she recognized who her unsuspecting hero was.

"You!" Yang growled as her once lilac eyes gained a brilliant shade of crimson. Multi-colored underwear decorated her golden blonde hair and covered the rest of her clothes. She sprung forward to land a face-shattering punch, only to almost trip and fall as she swiped and clawed at empty air.

"Missed. Try again." Akira said boredly, tossing another pair of panties at the blonde's face and causing her to light up. She raised her arm and boosted herself off the ground as she tried for another hit by charging the male at blinding speeds. First a missed left hook, then a right, and then an uppercut that was supposed to send the dark Faunus spiraling up in the air. Unfortunately for her, no satisfying sounds of body to concrete contact came, as Akira managed to slip away from every attempt with an inhuman agility akin to that of a cat's.

"Why won't you stay still?!" Casually moving with both hands in his pockets, Akira gave a devilish grin as he danced around every attempt at his life. A side step to avoid a jab here, a back flip to dodge a head-on collision there, and lastly, a graceful and coordinated twirl, catching the sunny dragon by the hand and locking her into a forced dance of death that sent the two crashing and tumbling into a nearby stand of designer shoes. A cacophony erupted to life as clouds of dust and debris littered the breeze.

"See? It wasn't that bad, now was it?" Akira popped his head out of the rubble, still feeling someone's hand in the deep debris. For whatever reason, the longer the other body remained in the pile, the less confident he was that it was Yang's. Digging through the trash, he eventually spotted a light ginger curl sticking out from all of the monochrome gray. A sudden noise made him nearly jump.

"Salutations!" A voice greeted from beneath.

"Hello? Is there someone under there?" Scattering every piece of what remained of the destroyed shoe shelves, Akira frantically started to dig out whoever was stuck under, first removing every large piece of that junk remained on top before moving on to smaller and smaller pieces. However, just as the male Faunus was going to help the affected bystander, a small, ginger-haired girl rose from the ashes at supernatural speeds, her face coming uncomfortably close to the other's while both of her hands clasped onto his wrists in an inescapable death grip.

"Yo, Akira, why're you talking to a pile of ju— What are you doing?!" Yang reeled back at the scene, petrified and taken aback by what appeared to be a forced kiss between the Faunus and the ginger.

"No! No! This isn't what it looks like!" Screaming and desperately trying to break free of his situation, the blonde watched the panicked male struggle as she raised her fists for a beating while his ginger companion gazed at him wordlessly, entirely distant from his cries for forgiveness—

"Cannonball!" As if by the grace of Philemon himself, all three figures turned to the source of the war cry and recoiled at the sight of what looked like a mammoth amalgamation of clothing locked in by layers of thin ice being secured on a gravity glyph and what appeared to be a long obsidian ribbon strapped to either side of the twin pillars that held the weight of the incredible abomination.

"You wouldn't…" Eyes growing wider in shock, Akira's jaw dropped with the rest when he spotted the grinning faces of both Weiss and Yu on the side. While the snowy heiress held a much more cheeky smile, her male counterpart even chilled Akira to the bone with what appeared to a dark aura flickering in and out of existence accompanied by a soft, serene, and angelic grin. Were it not for the context of the situation, the Faunus would''ve been sure the heir was smiling for his wedding day instead. Horror, sweat, and panic all laced his face as he argued for his life. "Don't you shit-heads see that there's a bystander about to be caught in this mess—!"

But it was too late.

Without waiting another second more, Akira grabbed both girls and braced for impact, feeling a sudden change in the air and a deep rumbling sensation that rocked and shook the area as a titan-sized ice ball came spiraling and accelerating through air. Eventually feeling a dark shadow eclipse his vision, he shielded the other two when the ice collided with him at full force, slamming and tearing into his back. He felt the crushing weight of several ice cream trucks barreling down from the air. The wind started to howl in his ears as chilly spears of jagged ice stabbed into his . And yet, just when he thought things would get worse, he felt the weight of the world lift from his shoulders, finding a golden light and blinding fire start to burn through their death cacoon.

"Hurry up and help me!" Yang shouted, her fiery hair fluttering in the wind as she punched another dent through the blizzard. But no matter how she tried, the opening would always be swallowed up by the great abyss of fabric. Akira looked up and smirked, giving the other a nod. Despite being constantly assaulted by layers upon layers of deadly clothing, the two raised their fists, conjuring up a large fireball from sandy red dust, and blasted the entire storm through, bisecting it in two. All three previously trapped figures stepped into the light, meeting with the stunned and silenced faces of both their attackers

For a moment, there was a palpable silence. No words, movements, or even a small intake of air could be heard.

"Wow! That was stupendous!"

Akira jumped. The ginger-haired bystander had once again gotten uncomfortably close.

"What are you going on about?" Trying to distance himself, the male Faunus eventually took a few steps back. Artificial green orbs met dark silver and he felt quite unnerved.

"The way you and that girl protected me from that ball of ice!" As if completely unaware of the current atmosphere, the petite ginger started to dash around the store, handing out all sorts of strange, but still thoughtful compliments, ranging from the skillful assimilation of the ice chunks, to the raw strength and power needed by both Yang and Akira to break through the storm.

"Who is that…?" Weiss finally raised the question.

"The one you shit-heads almost scrapped in your frozen clusterfuck attack." Akira brushed the remaining dust and debris off his clothing along with Yang.

"Hey!"

"Well I'd say we rather liked our frozen clusterfuck." Yu crossed his arms adamantly, glaring down at both Yang and the Faunus.

"Minato, what's a clusterfuck?" Ruby turned to her older sibling, almost mockingly.

"Excuse me, Miss, but why are you talking to a large block of ice?" The ginger girl lightly tapped the amused scythe-wielder on the shoulder.

"Oh, this? He's my brother. Weiss said he needed to pay for the crimes against her family name or something…." Ruby said with a fake sigh, along with a shiver at the end. She was the only sibling of the three to make it out unharmed.

"Then, is that the reason why he looks so peaceful?"

"Peaceful…?" Seeing the serene face of the bluenette encased in layers of blue ice, Ruby looked to find something unexpected. As the stranger had pointed out, Minato showed an almost surreal level of tranquility in the crystal coffin. His eyelids drooped and folded downwards as if he had been in a deep slumber for ages, and his lips curled in with such subtlety that it was nearly impossible to see the shadows that formed on either side of his mouth, hinting at the faintest of smiles.

"He looks tired, doesn't he?" The more the younger sibling stared at her older brother, the more she realized how different he was from his usual self, and the more concerned she became. As if on cue, through the azure case came a dark horizontal streak, rolling down from the top of his cheek all the way to the chin. A streak of water flowed unhindered by the frozen ice and dropped all the way to the bottom.

Ruby silently took off her hood and wrapped fabric around the large case.

"That was a nostalgic sleep" Minato yawned, stepping out from chunks of broken ice, letting them scatter all over the dorm floor. "How's the situation right now?"

"If you're asking about them, they'll be clearing out all of the White Fang-infested territories by the 8th" Akira sat while scrolling through multiple monitors, his attention completely immersed in a lit holo screen, its glow faint in the gloomy darkness."You looked like shit when we thawed you out, you know that?"

"And Yu?"

"The orders will be in soon, but should I get a few extras just in case?" The heir turned to face his leader, bags visible under his eyes. Laptops, Scrolls, and holo-devices were all littered about the room, the small Dust-powered devices being the only sources of light that imitated the presence of dim candle flames in the blackness.

"Sure. The more we can get, the better." Minato wrote away in a journal. Complex sentences and drawings made of pen ink littered the page in an ancient language not known to the current world. Lists of fantastical abilities and creatures dark as ink covered the book in a forever-expanding catalogue, all labeled in intricate detail.

Thick clouds obscured the stars, faint shadows haunted and flickered in and out of existence on the walls, mocking their owners, and fatigue and exhaustion laced their faces. Despite this, they all worked well into the long and arduous night.

The school stood still.

"Minato? Akira? Yu?" Ruby knocked at the door to their dorm, but there was no reply.

"Do you think they're alright?" Blake asked worriedly, hearing no movement from the other side.

"Usually, they would be the first ones out." Weiss tried knocking again.

"What if they're still sleeping in?" Yang lowered herself, peeking through the doorhole.

"Don't invade our privacy, please." A half-dressed and half-dazed Yu greeted the four at the door. The top of his uniform and his tie slung lazily on the side of his shoulder and his dress shirt was still half-way unbuckled, revealing a glimpse of his abs.

"Oh, uh! Sorry about that." Yang smiled awkwardly and took a few steps back.

"Eek! Get dressed!" A stray handkerchief flew into the exhausted male's face, accompanied by a flushed Weiss swifty turning way.

"We'll be out in a minute!" Another voice rang out from the room, followed by a bluenette fixing his hair. Although he seemed energetic, the four couldn't help but feel his movements were a bit more sluggish than usual. From the way he slowly adjusted his school bag to the small, but uncoordinated motions of his hands as he adjusted his coat.

"Are you… ok from yesterday?" Ruby didn't know how to express her mind fully in words. The way he had looked in that crystal coffin still burned into her mind.

"Yeah. Being frozen wasn't as bad of an experience as I thought it would be." It gave him a faint chance to dream of the past.

"Don't tell me you actually enjoyed that!" Taken aback by his reply and outraged at what was supposed to be an unpleasant experience, Weiss was unsure whether to feel scared or impressed with the bluenette's answer.

"I think he's just trying to rile you up, Weiss." Blake placed a hand on the heiress's shoulder.

"What? But he taught me the technique!" She then accusingly faced Minato, "You were just trying to make me freeze you, weren't you?"

"Nuh-uh-uh! I only told you how to do it, and you used it on me by your own free will." She could see a smirk spreading across his pale face. Now that she was paying closer attention, it was strangely discolored around the eyes.

"Guys, guys! I'm sure we can fight about this all day, but look at the time!" Yang whispered in hushed breaths to the group, catching a glimpse of Glynda patrolling the empty halls.

"Shit. She's coming this way!" Minato peered over his sister's shoulder. "Everybody inside, now!" Without another moment to ponder, the bluenette swifty dragged everyone inside the messy dorm. Clothes, books, and other unknown junk littered the once clean floors.

"Ack! What is all this?" Stepping onto a pile of scrap metal with her right foot and landing on a hill of notebook paper on her left, Weiss tiptoed every step of the way inside the obscene ocean of trash that collected inside the dorm. However, there was little time for explanations as both teams heard a sound knocking at the door.

"Everyone! Out the window, now!" Akira commanded in a low voice, quickly shoving open the glass and placing his foot on the ledge before jumping off with both Blake and Yang following right behind him.

"Need some help?" Yu said, still half-dressed in his unkempt uniform.

Weiss looked around the mess hesitantly. An unsettling and surreal vibe drowned out her senses. From the eerily cluttered amalgamation on the floor to the chaotic space in the air, she couldn't help but feel that this was somehow an organized sort of chaos, as if the way whoever had placed these items there were not purely coincidental.

"Come on, Weiss! We have to go!" Hearing a familiar voice and someone grabbing her hand, she could make out a cherry red hood and a worried face as she and Ruby were the last two to dive out of the sixth floor window and into the open.

And from that hill of scattered notes and paper, a single piece became separated from the rest.

"Minato? You there?" Ruby knocked once more.

"In a minute! We're just getting ready!" Came another generic reply from the door.

"Class is starting in five minutes!" Weiss watched in discomfort as three pale figures rushed wordlessly out the dorm.

"Ugh! That's the fifth time they've done this!" Yang slammed her fist onto a table, frustration lining her irate face. For whatever reason, she had a gnawing feeling that worried her, but didn't know what.

"Trust me, you're not the only one." Weiss crossed her arms in contemplation, the image of that mess burned into her mind's eye. Ever since that day, the three had always woken up late and slushed clumsily through the school day, often requesting to retire early to their dorms. Despite a simple answer being the lack of sleep due to piles and piles of school work, everyone silently agreed that there was more to the answer.

"Yang, has your brother… always been like this?" Blake said with a bit of worry and discomfort, something flashed in her amber eyes.

"You mean Minato?" The blonde sighed, "That's the thing, he's never been this… aloof before…" Eyes drooping and wearing a childish frown, Yang uncomfortably faced her team, unsure of what to really do or say next. Minato had always been her pillar after Summer left, so to see him change like this...

"Do you guys think that day had anything to do with it? They've been acting differently since Akira came back." Blake clenched her hand, the sensation of dread overwhelming her as she prayed that her thoughts on the matter were false.

"You mean the people that Akira fought?" Ruby stood up from her seat, a stray sheet of notebook paper in her hand.

"Now that I think about it, yeah." Yang paced around the room, rage slowly building up in her system as she curled her hands into fists, Paranoid thoughts arose from the darkness of her mind. "What if the situation is more dire than we thought? What if those thugs were after them somehow?"

"No, I don't think that's likely." Weiss was sure of what she saw. "If anything, Akira alone could have easily taken the rest of them out.

"Then can you tell us everything you saw, Weiss? Maybe we can gain some answers from the way they fought." Blake pressured, speaking softly with suspicious eyes.

"Well… they were all equipped with decent firearms—"

"Guys, guys, I feel like we're all looking in the wrong place." For the first time, Ruby's face had an unfamiliar dark aura. Her voice was unfamiliarly hushed, and her eyes seemed to lose its once childish luster.

"What do you mean sis?" Noticing a cream-colored sheet in her sibling's hand, Yang observed the familiar handwriting of a certain bluenette, although she couldn't discern what was scribbled into the single notebook scrap.

"Is that a sketch of a Grimm?" Marked and shaded in dark ink, Blake was unsure of the otherworldly creature living on the single piece of notebook paper. In some ways, its humanoid form reminded her of the Apathy that they had discussed in class, but other than the general posture and shape of the creature, it nowhere near resembled any form of Grimm she knew. Its stomach was split open and wide, lined with rows of sharp jagged teeth while flesh like tentacles protruded out on either side of its featureless visage. Claws and nails as deadly and unkempt as a wild Ursa's were attached to the abonimation's hands and feet.

"Gross. Did he draw that?" Recalling back to the pile of papers she had stumbled across in the dorm room, it was now clear who had made the mess. Minato's writing adorned the page, but none in the room could read what was scribbled on the page. "These characters look like some form of old language from Mistral."

"Lemme see." Yang picked up the paper, puzzled "How could he know something like this? Weiss, do you know what this language is called?"

"As much as I'm well academically versed in the multiple different cultures of Mistral, this one looks like something that died out a long time ago. It may have some characters Ren might recognize… but I'm not sure about these." Weiss pointed to some lines with kanji and then to some unreadable hiragana. Ever since the great war, even the most rural parts of Mistral had adapted to the main language of the four kingdoms. Although certain cultures still flourished in these regions, their own languages took a back seat as the industrial revolution of Altas and the outside world drove them to obscurity.

"A dead language, huh…" Ruby pondered, a sinking feeling beginning to weigh heavily on her chest. The tired faces of the three boys flashed through her mind. Suddenly, her talk with Minato that night began to resurface, causing her to take a firm stance. "Everyone, I need you guys to trust me…." She said in a low voice, "We can't approach them about this."

"Why not? Wouldn't it be better to get some answers straight from the source?" Yang protested, obviously uncomfortable with what her brother and the others were hiding.

"This may sound a bit harsh, Ruby, but why do you think this sketch has something to do with their odd behaviors? This drawing could easily be for a game." Blake was next to question their leader.

"I disagree. There's no way this level of detail and the use of a dead language could simply be for a future franchise. Think about it guys, wouldn't it be easier for him to just write normally if that were the case? Why would he go through the trouble of choosing something that most people can't understand?" Weiss argued back, finding the sketch and writing extremely unnerving, once again giving off that otherworldly vibe.

"Weiss's right, there has to be more to this. Minato has never been this much of a messy person." Ruby was now sure this had to do with the other world. His world.

"Then what do you propose we do, sis?" Clenching her teeth and begrudgingly admitting defeat, Yang and the rest of the concerned team waited for an order from their leader.

"Simple. We're going to see what they're really up to."

Blake settled herself in the darkness, blending into a desolate alleyway full of scraps and piled up rubbish. Among the steel cans and rotted waste, she carefully waited for a sound. Suddenly, a pair of footsteps paced out of a nearby specialty store. Spotting a set of dark, feline ears and a tuft of black hair, as well as a plastic bag full of what looked like junk metal and broken items, the huntress-in-training then saw him visit a nearby Dust shop. Continuing to watch what seemed similar to a normal errand run for a Beacon student, Blake wasn't sure what to think of the dark-haired boy, until her eyes widened at the strange sight after several runs of purchases. As if by some hidden magic, all the previous baggage that was in the boy's possession had disappeared as he exited a public restroom. Multiple bags packed full of material all disappeared from the male Faunus's hands, leaving an awestruck and bewildered Blake.

"And that's what I saw. I don't think his Semblance had anything to do with it," Blake concluded, sitting among a small circle of her teammates.

"Let's add that to the list of strange happenings for the three." Weiss jotted down a detailed list of gathered information on a shared document. At this point, the entire group wouldn't be surprised if they learned the three were aliens.

"It's not as weird as how Weiss kept looking at her boyfriend—"

"Hey!"

"You were practically checking him out." Yang teased, smiling a wide Cheshire cat-like grin.

"No—! I mean, I was only trying to get more information!" Flushing a dark red, Weiss childishly hid her face from the rest.

"Weiss, we all know you like him, it's obvious."

"B-Blake! How did you—!"

"How about we put that aside for now?" Ruby calmly spoke.

"So, did you get anything Sis?" Yang and others silenced themselves, feeling the atmosphere grow more tense. All eyes locked onto the red-colored girl, waiting for an answer.

"Guys, don't you think they're planning for something big?" Reviewing Akira's shopping list again, the weapon-obsessed girl was sure that whatever the dark Faunus was preparing for needed a large amount of resources. "Yang, remember how some of the students at Signal used to scavenge the second-hand stores for recycled scraps to build their weapons?"

"Yeah, why?" Further retracing Akira's steps proved that he had likely shopped for more than one person. "Wait, are you saying they've been working on a new weapon this whole time? Old scraps like those can't be used on anything bigger than a small gun dagger."

"Have you seen how that guy works in class? He once made a functional pistol out of a few plastic bottles and rubber bands." Ruby argued, recalling back to how the closed-off male had shot the prototype at Cardin for target practice during a match.

"Then what about the other two? Yu didn't exactly look like he was up anything." From what Yang saw behind a few bookshelves in the library, it seemed as if the Atlesian swordsman was mindlessly typing away on a school assignment.

"But Minato did."

"What do you mean by that…?" If Blake had to guess, she was sure the bluenette was the most inactive out of the three. While both Yu and Akira had been up and moving, their leader opted for a more stay-at-home approach. Excited eyes and a cheeky grin started to creep its way onto the red huntress-in-training's face.

"He may not have been willing to talk, but look at this!" Soon, countless screencaps of a certain bluenette's Scroll graced the screen as all eyes in the room widened in jubilation. "I just remembered our entire family shares the same data plan and asked dad for the password to his account!"

"You read through all of his messages?" Weiss was unsure of whether to be scared or impressed.

"You didn't read mine, did you?"

"No, Yang, I'm only doing this to help Minato, remember?" Ruby smiled sheepishly, earning a glare of daggers from her sister.

"Hmmm… Even with his texts, he may have anticipated someone snooping on them." Blake skimmed through, finding the same mystery language from before, photos of written lined paper posted each time one had sent a reply back. Then, whether by mere coincidence, or by some other supernatural force, the dark faunus stopped at a certain set of peculiar kanji.

"真夜中十匕日"

"Midnight the 17th" Weiss mused out loud, using what knowledge she had retained from the many lessons on Mistralian culture.

"What would they do on the 17th?" Yang crossed her arms in contemplation, growing more and more in frustrated.

"I doubt it'll be anything good…." Weiss summarized all of the evidence in her head, an unnerving feel beginning to crawl up her spine. The ominous words circled through the group's minds, rendering them still and anxious on the dorm floor. But then, they heard the hard metallic click of a rifle and a familiar mechanical transformation of a red crescent scythe.

"Well, Team RWBY, there's no way we're going to find out sitting around…."

Sparse clouds scattered across shattered remains of the crescent moon, silently rolling across the inky-black darkness and enshrouding the city in an eternal night. Lights dim, streets empty, and all residents disappearing into the realm of dreams, it left the once lively metropolis an empty, barren version of its former self. Nothing moved, nothing shook, and as if enchanted to stay frozen in time forever by a powerful enchantress, the city stood impossibly still. That is, until the smallest of whispers came peeping out from the frozen blackness.

"This way." a voice echoed from somewhere within the void. A single hand waved in the air, directing a few others to tail from behind. Four shadowed silhouettes quickly made their way behind an emptied, gutted building.

"Are you sure you saw them head this way?" Someone whispered in the gentle murk.

"Positive…" Cat-like ears twitched, reacting to a subtle breeze in the air.

Out of the corner of their eyes, a familiar shape moved from afar, slightly lit by a sliver of moonlight.

"Is that a row of warehouses…?" From the sea of solid black, faint yellow rectangles floated in the desolate space, in neat, tight, and organized rows below. Enclosed on all sides by a thick concrete fence, it was hidden away from the vast, cemented jungle of the city.

"There's people down there, too." Another said from their vantage point, zooming in closer with the scope of her rifle. Countless figures strolled about the area. The closer she focused, the more apparent it became who the three were after. She felt her teammate shake.

"No… no..."

"Blake, what's wrong?" Yang turned to see her dorm mate, pale and sweating in the cold autumn night.

"This can't be happening…."

"Blake, we need you to calm down. Take a deep breath," Ruby begged, seeing paranoid amber orbs rattle and dart from place to place, almost bulging out of their sockets. Fear, anxiety, and dread all rose up from the depths of her heart.

"Ruby!" The red sniper was taken aback by the sudden tight grip on her shoulders that caused her to yelp. "We have to go after them. Your brother and his friends are going to get themselves killed!"

"W-what do you mean, Blake?!" If fear was a contagious disease, then it would've already spread to all four girls in the group and was quickly killing their courageous spirits.

"They don't understand who they're messing with. The White Fang are no ordinary group of criminals!" Upon finally connecting the missing pieces, it made too much sense: that day, Akira didn't have a run with just any ordinary criminals. Exactly as the feline Faunus had suspected.

"Blake, I'm sure they know how to stay safe." Weiss tried to assure her friend, but her words only seemed to add fuel to the grueling fire.

"Safe? Weiss, you know what they do to humans who they catch. If they find one of the most prominent heirs of Altas, what do you think they'll do?!" The snowy huntress-in-training reeled back in disgust, mere words causing her blood to run as cold as ice and her imagination to go into overdrive.

"Ruby, Yang… please." Sunken amber met worried lilac and concerned silver. Blake begged the group to help the three and turn back, as it would be their only chance. A strong, choking silence followed. No one spoke, and no one moved. All simply bathed in a sinking dread for what might occur. Fearful and anguished faces were soon flashed and exchanged between them.

"Change of plans, team. We have to stop them before they do anything stupid." Ruby bit her lip, hands shakily clutching the trigger of her rifle, reminding her of the person from that night. What would happen if they discovered… his other abilities?

All four nodded and agreed, readying their weapons.

"Red, Yellow, is everyone in place?" Minato placed himself beside a large wall of a warehouse, putting a hand to an ear, watching the movement of several partroling White Fang members.

"In position, enemies moving—!" a loud clash of metal could be heard from the other end.

"Red! Come in! Come in!" Sweat began to roll down his face as he frantically shouted into the mic. No reply came as the sound of blades drowned out any form of communication. Frantic, he switched to the other line, "Yellow, this is Blue, something's happened to Red—!"

He dodged a shot that was aimed at his legs, quickly pulling out his sword to deflect a few more bullets that came rushing his way. However, just as he was about to make his next move, a crescent scythe sprung from the shadows and managed to catch him by surprise when he felt someone else grip him by the neck and torso.

"We're sorry Minato, but Yang and I can't let you go any further." Ruby walked to the boy with a disapproving look.

"Ruby, Yang, what are you doing here?!" A snippet of anger could be heard from the bluenette's voice.

"We could ask you the same thing! What made you think going after the White Fang was a good idea?" He could hear the blonde scold him and increase the strength of her death grip.

"Let. Go. Now." Unlike his usual voice, it dropped to a low and cold whisper.

"Or what?" Yang imitated his threat.

"Minato, please. At least tell us what's going on." He found his younger sibling gazing at him with the most worried expression, her eyes almost lined with tears. He softened and opened his mouth, but instead of words, there was a distant shout from the other side of the buildings.

"Human intruders! Let's kill them all!" A chilling howl sounded. Gunshots, Dust, and other explosives started to shake the earth as sparks of varying deadly hues rose up in the sky, lighting up in ominous bursts of fireworks.

"Blue! We've been spotted and completely surrounded!" He heard his earpiece crackle to life once again, followed by another voice.

"You take the ones on the right, I'll deal with these!"

"Weiss, Yu!" Ruby gasped. Then another.

"If you hadn't stopped me, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Stopped you!? Do you even know who you're dealing with?!"

"This is bad…." Minato mumbled, seeming disturbingly calm.

"How can you be so—" But Yang was cut off.

"Yellow, I need you and Weiss to create the biggest distraction can and regroup with the rest of us at the south entrance." He then shifted to the second channel. "Red, same thing to you guys, use your Semblances to distract the rest and run!"

Crackles of yellow lighting and blinding light could be heard as Yu dashed through a group of White Fang, slicing them clean through with his blade. He dug the shining katana into the ground, shooting forth a rushing river of crystal ice that crashed into another stream of speeding icicles, causing a resounding crunch as he met up with his battle partner. Streaks of red, blue, and yellow sparks flew from every corner of the battlefield as he felt his aura taking a massive beating. Bullets scrapped, flames burned, and ice stabbed into his invincible shield. Countless White Fang grunts shot flaming barrels of Dust that he swiftly deflected with his blade as quickly he could, feeling the increasing amount of strain on his arms.

"It's a Schnee and a Narukami! Let's make them pay!" Voices seething with venom and hatred growled from every corner of the warehouse. Anger, vengeance and so on littered the faces of the desperate and forgotten.

"Fuck them up! Fuck them up just like they did to our families!" Another shout could be heard from the war zone.

"Let's hang them both by a noose and send their bodies to their mommies and daddies!"

Weiss clutched her teeth, her hands shaking with rage. Her vision began to cloud with each comment made toward her name, growing darker and darker. So dark, she started to lose sight of everything in front of her until…

"Weiss, Weiss are you alright?" She felt someone clasp her hand, a strange feeling starting to spread from where she was being held. She glanced beside her to see a tranquil smile from a certain heir. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and in that moment, her once tense body relaxed.

"Y-yeah?"

"Take it easy, yeah? There are just people in the world you can't convince no matter what." Something sad flashed in his eyes, but the heiress did not know why.

"T-thanks!" She then turned back to the hatred before her, each person closing in just a bit more as the two stood completely still. Raising her rapier and coating it in a spiral of beautiful flames, she readied herself. "Let's get back to work!"

Yu smiled, fusing his katana with a similarly warm fire. The heat from the bright illumination flooded the entire battlefield in a burning sauna, causing countless enemies to retreat back to a safe distance. "Ready?" He could feel the back of his partner, holding a similar torch in the night.

"Always." Determined blue orbs reflected an intense fire. Swinging her rapier in a vertical cut, she splashed the tidal wave of red among the chaos, spreading and eating away at anything in its wake. Before she could finish her flaming attack, she felt someone forcefully grab her by the arm and toss her to the side. "Ack! What the—!?"

"Stay back!" A sharp yell was all she heard in the darkness. Immediately following the warning, a harsh green wind exploded from the ground where she previously stood, shredding the earth below into a thousand concrete chunks while mercilessly ravaging the figure trapped inside the mammoth vortex. Flashes of orange lit up from inside the storm, snapping and popping with a final sickening, Aura-shattering snap as yellow sparks merged with the deadly green.

"YU!" Blood turning ice-cold and eyes widening in horror, Weiss frantically sent several waves of icicles at the vortex, only to be thrown back next to a metallic fence. "Ah!" Screams and shouts of loathing echoed from the darkness, but the small heiress shot up again and readied herself to pierce the tornado once more.

"Hahahaha! Look at that Schnee struggle!" Someone yelled from the corner.

"Throw more at them! Let's shred that Narukami to pieces!" Weiss jumped back and shielded herself from an abrupt blizzard of hellfire igniting furiously in the place of the raging vortex as another scream filled her lungs at the murderous intent in the air.

"Awww, look at the little princess groveling on the ground." Another taunted from the murkiness.

She could feel the last of her aura.

"Did you really think you could save anyone, princess?" Voices echoed from the shadows.

She slowly got with the support of her blade, inhaling deeply.

"Why don't you run with your tail between your legs and call your daddy?!"

"Worthless!"

"Useless!"

"Bitch!"

"I AM NOT GIVING UP!" Rows of colossal blue ice rammed into the side of the flaming vortex of deadly winds, steaming and cutting through its harshest interior as the girl coated herself with a thin sheet of ice and dashed into the fiery inferno. She was going to save him, no matter the cost. Heat, pain, and fear all ate at her as she kept charging into the merciless blaze. Reaching out a hand, she saw her entire body glow a blinding white, signaling that it was the last of her Aura. Slowly, she closed her eyes, hoping not to hear the final snap, with her hands desperately grasping at empty air. Then, something happened, and a sharp yelp could be heard.

Weiss braced herself for the flames, seeing her life flash right before her eyes. A sudden warmth embraced her being, and in any second it would turn into an unbearable heat. However, for whatever reason, that moment never came. Instead of being consumed by flames, she found herself shrouded in a dreamy white Aura and the feel of someone's hand.

"Yu…?" She opened her eyes, sad azure staring back at warm silver. A stream of tears ran down her face.

He nodded with a soft smile, a strange entity floating above him in a protective stance.

"Who is...?" For whatever reason, she felt the urge to reach out to the floating being in the air.

"I'll explain it later." She watched as her body glowed, once again being protected by a layer of shimmering white Aura, and looked back up to him. "Let's get out of this first." With that, the entity next to them raised it's long, lance-like blade and quietly dispersed the surrounding flames until there was nothing left. "And teach these bastards a lesson." He scowled in disgust.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Minato reeled back at the shout from the other line, seeing a pillar of Garu and Agidyne explode from a distance, only to be dispersed by an apparition now floating in the open.

"Hey! Didn't that come from that spot with Weiss and Yu?" Yang punched through a line of grunts, restocking her ammo and dashing to the other side.

"Minato! What's going on?!" Ruby called worriedly, the now rampaging entity reminding her of a certain bluenette just several weeks ago. Hairs started to rise on her neck as another ball of familiar flames headed towards the floating man in the sky.

"Yeah! Did Weiss finally learn to summon or something?" Yang twisted to dodge an oncomining shot that exploded and ravaged a nearby warehouse to shreds, being a similar but smaller green vortex shooting from the earth that tore the entire structure apart. "Whoa! Was that a new type of Dust?!" Both shaken and in awe, the blonde couldn't help but admire the destruction, yet shake in fear and anticipation.

However, instead of speaking words, the bluenette flashed behind several of these new Dust-gunners and shattered their arms into oblivion with an unfeeling gaze. Mumbling something inaudible into the transceiver, he paced back to his siblings.

"Ruby, Yang, you both need to leave now," he said calmly, but both girls could see a certain coldness in his eyes.

"What?! There's no way we're leaving everyone behind! We can't just run like that—!" Yang protested, an unnerving feeling starting to creep up from the darkness.

"I said to leave."

"But—!"

"No buts, Ruby! Look, I'm making sure Weiss and Blake are going to be right behind you, so go!" Minato stood before his family, blocking them from harm's way.

"Are you stupid?! You're going to get your entire team killed!" Yang raised her fist at her older brother, "You saw how crazy that weird green Dust was! What makes you think—"

"And that's exactly why you all are leaving!" Minato's eyes glowed an electric blue, swiftly deflecting Yang's punch as if it were not even a stray leaf in the wind.

"Ow! What the—?!" The blonde reeled back at the supernatural force, feeling a slight piercing pain despite her Aura.

"Minato, did you really have to do that?!" Ruby rushed to her sister's side, shooting daggers at her older sibling.

"I'm going to use force if I have to…." He stood firmly still, hair ruffling in the chaotic winds, but there was still something soft in his eyes.

Ruby watched once again as the family member she once knew transformed into an alien before her eyes. Remembering back to the Minato from her childhood and comparing him to the stranger before her now, it was as if he had been hiding his true self this entire time. His round silver eyes focused into a constant downward crease, and his mocking smirk had all been replaced with a bitter frown. Raising her rifle, she shot a signal bullet that originated from its barrel and headed straight toward the bluenette.

Minato dashed out of the way, hearing several more shots ring out as he twisted around to see a large, beast-sized Grimm spring out from the blackness, being bombarded with a shower of gun Dust. Ruby madly swung at the monster with her scythe, delivering several large cuts on its front and limbs while her older sister smashed the colossal monster into a nearby wall.

"So, what was that about us leaving again?" Yang blew the smoke from her gauntlets, turning to Minato who stood completely still.

"Didn't you see how strange that Grimm looked? Ignoring his sister's comment, the bluenette felt an instinctive chill in his heart.

"Guys! Watch out!" Yang felt her brother push both of them out of the way of an oncoming high-pressured jet stream of water as the two rolled and tumbled to the side.

"What the hell…?" Yang rubbed her head, getting up to see a bizarre multi-colored Grimm in the light. Now that she had a close look, she could see that the creature looked extremely unusual. Large green horns sprouting from its side while what looked like a long flowing beard graced it's front with a large staff in its jaws. Not allowing another moment to stare at its foe, it belted out a deep, booming roar that shook the buildings around it, summoning several deadly pools of water that headed for Ruby, who speedily dashed out of the way as it tore through several buildings in the process.

"Ruby! Out of our way!" Hearing the cry from above and sensing that something was headed her way, the red huntress-in-training leapt to the rooftop of another building, watching a blue and yellow rain shower from the sky, swiftly battering the beast into dust.

"Blake! Akira!" The small girl spotted two figures floating— or rather, flying —in the sky. A raven-winged Faunus held the dark-haired girl as both aimed their guns at the Grimm below.

"Change of plans, we need to dispatch all of these ravaging beasts at once!" Akira announced.

And done! Things are about to finally pick up with personas finally being deployed to the field, lemme tell y'all some shit is about to hit the fan. Btw, does anyone want a BBTAG joke segment where Mitsuru spazzes out at seeing an alive Minato and Weiss meeting past Yu and his team? I find it hilarious.