Hey, thanks to everyone following the story so far!

PSA: Chapter lengths will vary; some will be long, some will be short. Maybe some will be medium, but that's crazy talk.

The penthouse's rooms were located down one hallway, similar to the layout back at the Beacon Academy dorm rooms. In fact, they were really similar. Pretty much identical. The only difference was that there were crudely made paper nameplates taped to the doors, written in marker.

"Ozpin must not have a varying taste in interior decoration," Blake noted, walking down the long hallway and peeking inside the closed doors. There were four rooms total, with four beds in each. "Our rooms back home look nice and all, but apparently it is his only taste."

Cinder brushed past the cat, doing her best to avoid touching the Faunus, and headed towards a large note hanging at the end of the hallway. She ripped it off the wall and began to read it.

"I hope you've all adjusted to your new quarters. You will find that you have each been randomly assigned to a four-person room, in order to separate previously established cliques and develop new bonds between others."

Ruby cocked her head in confusion. "That's a pretty long way of saying make new friends, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately…" Cinder sighed, flinging the note aside.

The group slowly broke apart as individuals went to find out which room was theirs. Ozpin should have really planned a bigger hallway, as 16 people trying to shuffle back and forth within it was, putting it simply, chaos. Ruby seemed to be struggling the most. Crowded spaces weren't ever her kind of scene. Every step she took, someone was in the way.

"Move it, Little Red!"

"Sorry!"

"Ow! That's my foot!"

"Sorry! Again!"

Tripping over someone's foot, Ruby stumbled into one of the open rooms falling flat on her face. Recovering quickly, she recognized one of the suitcases in the corner as hers. "Huh. Lucky me."

"Well, at least I'm with someone familiar," a familiar voice said, entering from behind.

"Weiss!" Ruby jumped up in glee, leaping on her teammate. The Ice Queen did her best to pry out of her friend's death-grip hug. "Oh, this'll be great! It'll be just like back home. Except without Yang and Blake. Unless they're our roomies. Are they are roomies?"

"I don't know!" Weiss answered, finally freeing herself as Ruby fell back down, "It was too chaotic out there to look at the other names."

As Weiss went to spate her luggage from the rest, a pair of high heels entered Ruby's vision. Looking up, Ruby's silver eyes met the fiery ones of Cinder. She didn't seem too pleased to be stuck in a room with anyone other than Emerald or Mercury that was for sure.

"Uh, hey… Cinder," Ruby laughed nervously, not sure how to talk to the girl, "Nice shoes you got there. I can kinda see through them."

"Small talk is unnecessary," Cinder stepped over Ruby's body, seating herself delicately on one of the beds by the window, "I have no reason to try and be friendly with any of you."

"Right back at you," Weiss muttered, unzipping one of her bags. Suddenly, one of the bags beside her moved. One of Ruby's bags, to be exact. Weiss and Cinder stared at the bag, and then at Ruby.

"Why did that bag just move?" Cinder demanded.

A sigh from Weiss was followed with a small smile. "You couldn't help but have him here, couldn't you?"

"Uhh…"

The bag barked.

"Well, he is my dog," Ruby kick flipped up onto her feet, and ran over to unzip the luggage. Almost instantaneously, a ball of fluff with tubby legs leaped out into her arms bringing her down to the floor yet again.

"Zwei!" Ruby squeezed the Corgi as it licked her face over, "Oh, this whole thing just got even better now!"

A slack-jawed Cinder was still comprehending the situation. This girl put a canine in the mail. A small, fluffy, tubby, happy, cute looking one at that… 'No! Resist it. You are the Cinder Fall, and it is just a dog. Just. A. Dog.'

Looking away from Zwei to keep her mind straight, Cinder saw Lie Ren standing in the doorway. A look of anxiety sat on his face, as if he knew this room would bring him much grief.

"Hello Ruby, Weiss… Cinder."

"Hey Ren!" Ruby waved, as Zwei left her arms to run over to the unfamiliar Cinder, "So, how's it feel to be in a room with all girls, eh? Eh?"

"I'm not really sure yet. But-

"Ruby, we should make bunkbeds like back at Beacon," Weiss interrupted, "It'll save us some room."

"Ooh! Good idea!"

Feeling the cold shoulder, Ren looked at Cinder who couldn't even bother to look back. She stared out the window, avoiding his and Zwei's gaze.

"So, Cinder… Do bunkbeds sound alright to you?"

"I don't care."

"I see. Well then, top or bottom?" Ren smiled kindly, trying his best to be friendly. He had to try at least, unlike this one here.

"I don't care."

"Okay… Maybe we'll figure that out later…"

This was going just as well as he had imagined.

"Well, look on the brightside," Roman said, shrugging his shoulders, "Three outta four ain't bad."

Already lounging on her bed, Emerald stared blankly up at the ceiling. Neo sat on the end frame by her feet, kicking her feet in boredom. "I hate this already. If it wasn't for that money, I would've killed those Beacon twerps already and been out of here."

"You and me both, sister," Roman yawned, spinning his cane, "But hey, it can't get any worse for you, can it?"

"HELLOOOO!"

Bubbly with excitement, Nora burst into the room full force, taking out Roman with ease and knocking him into a pile of luggage. The spritely girl looked left, then right, then left again. "Aww… Ren's not here… But oh well! I think we'll all get along in no time! We can wake up together and eat pancakes, oh I love pancakes! You guys like pancakes? Oh wait, your name's Neo right? You probably like ice cream on your pancakes – OH MY GOD ICE CREAM PANCAKES! Can you guys imagine that? I gotta try that! We're all going to try that, and then we'll…"

Grabbing hold of her pillow, Emerald covered it over her face. Hopefully it would suffocate her.

And then she heard Adam screaming in the hallway.

"This is ridiculous!"

Slamming his fist into the wall, Adam could no longer contain his fury. How could the randomizer not put him and Blake in the same room?! It had to have been rigged!

"Calm down, Adam," the Lieutenant said, placing his hands on his boss's shoulders, "At least we share living quarters. We can still watch over Blake from afar."

"Unacceptable! She must be by me at all - Are you massaging my shoulders?"

"Not at all, sir."

"Anyways, we have to find her. This must be – Seriously, stop massaging my damn shoulders. I can feel that."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then let go of me!" Adam jerked away from his Lieutenant, storming down the hall and reading the nametags. When he spotted the name Blake written on one of them, he burst into the room to find Jaune siting by himself. The blonde looked at him like a deer looking into the headlights of a semi-truck.

"Where's my Blake?"

"Why me…?," Jaune whimpered, beginning to panic, "Uh, she's with Yang somewhere. Might be talking with Ruby and Weiss."

"And this Sun Wukong, your other roommate. Where is he?"

"Bathroom. Or lost. He broke off from the rest of us to explore the place."

"Does he know he is assigned to this room?"

"I, uh, don't think so."

Adam smiled. Jaune shivered.

"Well, there's been an adjustment to the room selection. You and Wukong just got moved down the hall."

Jaune gulped. "I don't have a say in this, do I?"

Cracking his knuckles, the Lieutenant approached the boy. "Nope."

Pyrrha was already having some less-than-positive feelings about her roommates. While she never had problems with boys like this (because she could easily restrain them if they became too bothersome), these three were just… obnoxious. The two White Fang members had thankfully left the moment one realized Blake did not reside in this room, but Mercury Black was a different story. He just sat on his bed, smiling at her without a word. She had seen this smile before. The Slime Smile.

"Is there something you would like to say, Mercury?" Pyrrha asked kindly, hoping he would say something.

"Nope," Black chuckled, "Not a thing."

"I see," Pyrrha scooted back on her bed to lean against the wall. She began to wonder if she was the only one in a room like this, with no one to have a heartfelt conversation with. Regardless, she would muster through this. She could not let Ozpin's expectations down.

"Oh come on man, put me down! I know how to walk!"

Pyrrha recognized that adorable cry for help. Leaping off her bed, she burst into the hall only to have Jaune flail into her arms. She barely made the catch as his pitcher waved at her.

"There's your new roommate," Adam said, as he and his Lieutenant turned their backs on her, "You'll be getting another monkey soon enough."

Setting her teammate down, Pyrrha placed a comforting hand on his back. "Are you okay, Jaune?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Except my stuff is still in that room."

One bright blue suitcase landed at their feet from the other end of the hall, its contents scattering everywhere.

"Oh. There it is. And everywhere else."

"Let me help," Pyrrha knelt down to help Jaune clean up. She tried to avoid reaching near him, nervous to accidentally bump his hand. "I wonder how Nora and Ren are doing."

"Probably better than me. Heck, I can still hear Nora talking with her roommates behind that door over there," He paused to think about that one for a second. "Okay, maybe I'm not in the worst spot after all."

"Don't worry Jaune," Pyrrha smiled, "At least we have each other."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. And we'll have Sun too. Maybe it won't be that bad."

Peeking from inside the room, a slightly aggravated Mercury shot Adam a short little text to express his feelings about his two new roommates:

'GO KILL YOURSELF.'

Yang and Blake stood in front of their room, staring at the name tags intently. They had just returned from the bathroom, only to find that something was… different.

"Hey Yang?"

"Yeah Blake?

"Weren't Jaune and Sun's names up here a little bit ago?"

"Yup."

"Why is Adam's name here now?"

"Well let's ask him."

Yang's boot collided with the door, nearly knocking it off its hinges as someone yelped from inside. The girl's narrowed their eyes at the two White Fang members, as the sound of heavy metal music erupted from Adam's earbuds to break the silence. The Lieutenant slowly returned to straightening the curtains, still shaking slightly from the loud noise.

"Adam," Blake growled, "Where is Jaune?"

"Easy, my darling," Adam placed his hands up in peace, "He just wanted to share a room with Nikos. As did Mr. Wukong."

"You expect us to buy that?" Yang said, folding her arms.

"Yes… I mean, no! Look, my darling-

"Stop calling me that."

"Fine. Blake, I just want to try and make amends with you. There is nothing up my sleeve with this. I just want you to forgive me so you will return to the White Fang (and me) just like old times."

"I'm not coming back, Adam. No matter how much you beg."

"But you have to. We were a pair, Blake. You're not allowed to leave me. That's just how relationships work."

Yang leaned in towards Blake's ear. "You actually dated this guy?"

"Why do you think I ran away?"

"Besides," Adam continued, "I still don't understand why you wanted to leave me anyways. I'm the leader of a powerful organization, not to mention quite handsome-"

"It's true. I've seen under his mask before."

"Shut up, Lieutenant. I at least deserve an explanation, Blake."

"You kill people, Adam," Blake answered sternly, "Did you ever think that might be a reason? That there is something wrong with that?"

"…Not really, no."

"And there's you have it. Come on Yang, let's go find Ruby and Weiss."

As the two girls turned to leave, Yang turned her head sharply back at the White Fang. She pointed to her eyes, then at Adam's, before disappearing. The red-head hothead sighed, looking at the Lieutenant.

"What do you think?"

"I say we switch back. That blonde chick is scary."

"No. We've come too far now," Adam stood up, feeling like this would be an appropriate time for some dramatic posing, "I will make you mine again, Blake. Just you wait – Oh wait. Wait. That's my phone… Gah. Stupid tiny pockets..."

"Need help boss?"

"No, I'm good, I'm good… Oh, kiss my ass Mercury."