Sunday, 1400 hours, Vale cemetery

Team RWBY stood in front of the eight gravestones. They didn't really know any of them, but they knew it was important for team ROSE. All four were all lined up in their military uniform with Spencer behind them.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

All four members of ROSE fired in the sky.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

They fired again.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

And again.

The gunshots were the only sound in the entire cemetery. After they fired their third volley, team ROSE and Spencer then saluted their fallen and just stood there. Team RWBY remained silent, unsure of what to do.

"They were good people." said Roy. "I just wish we could have saved more of them."

"I saw you run at that beast. You did everything you could. Don't let yourself down, kid."

Spencer held his hand on Roy's shoulder like a father would comfort his son. He served for fifteen years in the Space Force, death was no stranger to him. The Federation was by far the largest unified government, but it wasn't the only one out there. Other nations bordered the region, and piracy was still exceedingly present on the frontier. The last war was over eighty years ago, but the destruction never truly stopped. Losing an entire ship, however, was quite the feat. Spencer wouldn't panic, of course. As a pilot, he had his own share of disasters locked away in his closet. Nevertheless, the man was tense, worried. Roy could feel it, see it in his brown eyes. Of course, the senior officer knew how to deal with it, how to keep his emotions in check for the others sake.

"I still can't believe it's just us left…"

Stella held her rifle close to her, almost hugging it. She joined the Army eight months ago, and spent nearly two of those months on the Kashgar. She knew most of the crew and liked a lot of them. She was one of the ship's nurses in addition to one of the marines' medics. She wanted to save people, to protect the innocents while her brothers and sisters in arms drove the threat away. In that aspect, she didn't save anyone. She barely protected herself and Eizan. She stayed in the Raven while her friends were dying outside, she never came back to drag the other wounded inside. She felt guilty and powerless, small tears running down her cheeks.

"Well, us here anyway. Engineering's a tough nut to crack, I'm sure they're fine in there."

Eizan has always been a pragmatic man. Comes with the job, he often says. He lost a lot of good friends in the last few days. He was stationed on the Kashgar for a year and a half before the incident, and he knew a lot of the crew. Roy knew that Eizan took a big hit, he looked fine, acted fine, but he spent most of his time working. Working to forget, to keep his mind on other things. It'd work for a while, but Eizan would end up exhausted, forced to rest and then everything he suppressed would come back. The funerals forced him to confront his feelings. The mechanic knelt down in front of one of the gravestones and stopped resisting. Team ROSE and Spencer quickly joined him and mourned their fallen, unbound by military tradition.

In the corner of his eye, Roy saw Ruby open her mouth, but whatever she wanted to say, she didn't do it. She hesitated and closed her mouth, looking with remorse at the gravestones. She told him what she saw that night. Death isn't exactly rare in a family of huntsmen, but it still hurts to see someone you want to protect die. She told him about her mom, Summer. She told him about Farid, how he killed himself seconds after she arrived. She told him how, when she got to the crash site and saw the bodies, she hoped that their aura saved them. She hoped that she got here in time, saving everyone, being the hero.

Ruby looked down, looking like a child that just got scolded. She didn't know these people, and she still regretted not saving them. Roy wanted to comfort her. To comfort everyone, actually. To tell them it wasn't their fault. But he was nineteen, he didn't know how. He wasn't even sure if they couldn't have done better, maybe they could have saved more if they stayed in the Raven for a little while longer. Still, he had to say something. Anything. He needed to give his team hope, to remind them of their objective. He walked away from the graves, turned to face everyone and took a deep breath.

"We can't change what happened. We can't bring the dead back to life. But what we can do, is change what happens next. We can save those of us that are still alive and help those in need along the way. We can, and we will, because that's our duty, and something tells me that this... all of this is only the beginning of our adventure."

Sunday evening, team ROSE's dorm

The rest of the day was spent on maintenance and repairs. They mourned their fallen, now they had to move on. Eizan gave Ruby the first blueprints for the components he needed. He wasn't expecting them anytime soon, so she stored it in her room. Jaune was nowhere to been seen, to the dismay of his partner Pyrrha. Right now, Roy didn't care. It wasn't his problem, he didn't even know what it was about. All he wanted right now is to think about something else. Think about how to beat Ruby at her ninja game for example. The people of Remnant were in a pre-atomic society but had made some technological leaps that rivaled or even surpassed the Federation. Ruby's game console and the Scrolls for example. It uses some kind of hard light tech for the touchscreen while the console had a holographic screen. On the other hand, their vehicles still used combustion engines as expected of a pre-atomic society. Ruby's joyful scream brought Roy back to reality. They were in team ROSE's dorm, Ruby in her pajamas and Roy in his jumpsuit. The console's screen said BLAZING NINJA WINS.

"Yeaaaaaah, Queen Ruby officially kicked your butt!"

"I want a rematch!"

Roy wasn't gonna let a fifteen-year-old humiliate him, no way.

"Naahh, I'll just whoop your butt again."

"Try me."

"Okay big guy, that's YOUR death warrant."

This time he'd focus on the game. Now he had a basic understanding of his character and the controls, he wasn't going to let her win again. Well, he'd try anyway. After only a few minutes, his health reached 30% while Ruby's was at 70%. He was going to lose again.

"Queen Ruby is invincible!"

"Hell no!"

As Roy focused more intensely, he felt something click in his mind. He didn't know what, but something, somewhere, got triggered. It's as if his instinct instantly got sharper. No, wait, that's not it. The screen rate dropped. Ruby moved slower. And he was seeing ghosts, predictions. He could see where the ninja would be, like a cheat. Something's wrong. His fingers were slower, too. Like if his body couldn't go any faster. Countering Ruby's move was easy, nonetheless. In five moves, he dodged and struck her twice, dropping her health to 58%. He heard Ruby talking, but it was incredibly slow. Yeah! That's it. Everything was in slow motion. Why? What happened? Ruby was surprised at his newfound reactivity, if he heard right. Now THAT would be quite difficult to explain. Easier to say you just cheated. Ruby's health reached 7% now, one last strike and he would win. As if the slow motion understood that it wasn't necessary anymore, everything came back to normal just before the console displayed SOARING NINJA WINS. Satisfied, Roy looked back at Ruby, who watched him with curiosity and awe. He suddenly felt very tired, like if he pulled an all-nighter.

"Hey, did you cheat?" asked Ruby. She doubted the answer would be yes. Her curious look probably meant that she had some idea of what happened.

"No, I don't even know how… or where to get them. Sore loser." Roy stuck his tongue out to tease Ruby even further. "Although, I do admit that something happened."

"Well, you did kinda glow purple for a moment."

"That's...interesting. Any idea what that means?"

"Maybe. Feeling tired?"

"Actually yes, very. I think I'm gonna call it a day and go to bed soon."

"Mmh... then I think it might be your Semblance."

"My… what? How?"

"It's okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow if you want. We do have a field trip, so I should go to bed, too."

"Yeah, alright. The others should come back any minute now. It was fun playing that game."

Roy and Ruby stood up and walked to the door. Roy opened it and was almost sure that he saw Jaune walk past them. At least Pyrrha won't have to worry anymore.

"Well, good night Ruby. We should try a friendly competition on that console of yours. I'm sure Oliver would love it."

"I don't think Weiss and Blake would like it very much. Well good night, Roy."

"Oh, by the way, I think I saw Jaune outside."

"Oh, cool, I should go talk to him. See ya!"

Roy closed the door and went to bed. He tried to understand what happened to him just minutes ago. He knew he had aura. They all did now. The manifestation of their soul, that they could use to generate a protective force field or to enhance the physical properties of an item. It was quite taxing to use as well, so they restricted its use to "training" and "absolutely necessary" only. Roy was the only one who activated it subconsciously, like in his duel against Ren. With training, it got better, he could control it. Now he had his "Semblance" to deal with, if Ruby was right. Oh yeah, Semblance, as in, the special superpower you could have if you worked on your aura. That was a lot to take in, and Roy was too tired. He was fast asleep when the rest of his team returned from their regular evening training.

The next day, Forever Fall forest

The Forever Fall forest deserved its name. The trees were all red, and all had their leaves falling, even if it wasn't fall. Team ROSE was between teams RWBY and JNPR, their full combat suits and rifles contrasting with the group's more casual combat attire. Ms. Goodwitch was leading the group deeper into the forest.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

"Well that's reassuring." said Oliver through the suit's radio. The words were meant to his team, but the others could hear him through the helmet, they weren't in a vacuum.

Goodwitch stopped and turned around.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

"Three hours to fill four jars? Yeah, we're not going to be very productive today, are we, El-Tee?"

"Let's get the job done first and figure out what to do after, alright?"

"Fine by me." said Eizan. As a mechanic, he wasn't used to the combat suit he was wearing. It had integrated life support and a multi-spectrum visor with a HUD throwing so much information at his face that he wasn't sure what it was all about. For the amount of protection it gave, the mobility was surprisingly good, but it wasn't perfect. It was like a tuxedo, you can't wave your arms around all you want. Once they had their four jars, team ROSE stayed with teams RWBY and JNPR, talking about their aura, their Semblance, how they got to Beacon… Most answers were vague. A lot of private things that they didn't want to talk about. Maybe something to do with that Vytal tournament, too. It was fine for team ROSE, because even a little bit of information is better than no information at all. Their discussion was cut short by a huge roar. It was a familiar sound, one team ROSE hoped they'd never hear again. Ruby reacted first.

"Did you guys hear that?"

Before anyone could answer her, team CRDL ran past her.

"Ursa! Ursa!"

"What? Where?" asked Yang who literally grabbed one of them.

"Back there! It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped her jar, shocked.

"Jaune!"

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!"

Pyrrha drew her weapons and looked back at Ren and Nora.

"You two, go with them! There could be more!"

Roy looked at his teammates. That roar was very familiar…

"Alright, Pyrrha's right, get back to the rendezvous point, set up a perimeter. I'll check it out."

Roy, Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss arrived at the scene. Cardin was getting tossed around by an Ursa Major. The same kind that led the other Grimm to the crash site that night. Jaune arrived just in time to block the Ursa's claw, keeping it in place. Roy aimed his weapon and Weiss prepared to strike with her rapier, but Pyrrha stopped them both.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Please."

Jaune was actually fighting the beast back. He landed a couple of hits before the Ursa hit him. He went flying a few times but charged at it again every time. Something was wrong, his shield wasn't high enough. As if Pyrrha heard his thought, she extended her arm and both the shield, and her arm grew a dark aura around them. Jaune's shield rose high enough to block the Ursa and Jaune decapitated the beast. Roy shrugged.

"Well, that's handy."

"Uh… what?"

"How did you...?"

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity."

"Whoa, you can control poles..."

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!"

"Magnets are cool, too..."

Roy snickered and started to walk back to his team. Oh Ruby, never change. Roy's training kicked back in and the lieutenant reached for the radio.

"Be advised, Ursa threat has been eliminated. No sign of other hostiles, but stay on your guard, over."

"Oliver here. Perimeter's secured, got nothing but leaves moving, over."

"Copy. I'm on my way, out."

Evening, Beacon Dorms

Team ROSE was sitting on their beds, debriefing the day. It had become a habit, to spend about half an hour every evening to talk about all that happened, agreeing on what needed to be done, what meant what and other things. They were in an unknown land after all, one that seemed to have both the same and different laws of physics for example.

"So, Jaune's not such a loser after all."

"Yeah, only needed a little push. Heard he's quite a good leader when it comes to group tactics and improvisation."

"Hey El-Tee, maybe you should give him a couple lessons."

Roy shrugged and smiled.

"I might as well teach all of you lots, why waste the occasion on a single guy when I could train twelve."

"Oooh, already getting a big head, El-Tee. Didn't know you wanted to be a General!"

Eizan and Stella laughed at Oliver's remark.

"Alright, enough about that. I'll seriously think about it, though. Not a bad idea, McKelley. Back to logistics, we're gonna need more clothes, this is getting tedious."

"Couldn't agree more." said the medic. They only had two sets of student uniforms and their jumpsuit, which also meant only three sets of underwear. They had to spend half their nights doing laundry. It wasn't even a week yet, and they were already tired of it.

"Eizan, how's your suit?"

"It's… fine, I guess. It's the right size, I just need to get used to it. Is there a way to clean up the HUD?"

"Oh, yeah, we probably left the default settings after the reboot. I'll show you how it works."

"Okay, so we're good combat-wise, and need more clothes for every day's life. Anything to add? And no, we're not buying beer, Oliver."

"More school supplies, we're almost out of paper and ink. And we still need those spare parts. Could salvage some suits, but that won't be enough. I don't know where to get those alloys otherwise."

"Okay, I'll see with Ruby for that one. And no, if we can avoid it, don't salvage anything. Never know when you'd need it."

Now that Oliver and Eizan were finished with their grocery list, Stella took over.

"I think we need more documentation about Aura and Semblance. Team RWBY and JNPR told us a few things, but it's still pretty vague. We have no idea what long-term consequences these could have, or on what basis they work. It might as well be magic for all we know."

"Mmmh, you're right. As they say, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We need to know what we're up against. Prof. Port has been a good source of information, maybe we could get some references from him. Speaking of Aura and Semblance, anything to report?"

Some coughs and uncomfortable looks. Oliver spoke first.

"Weeeeell, we're getting better. We're not vegetables after training anymore, so that's good, right?"

"Yeah, but… I'm training with you, I noticed that. I was speaking about other… things. Anything unusual, really."

"Ummhh… Where are you getting at, Roy?"

Roy sighed. No sense hiding that from them.

"Well, I found out what my Semblance is, apparently. I'd say it's about time manipulation, I can see things in slow motion and predict them a few seconds into the future."

"Bullshit. That's way too OP. Increased speed or strength, I can get. Magnetism? Okay that one's weird. Bullet time AND prediction? That's just too much."

"I can't actually prove it, since I can't control it, but that's what Ruby seems to think."

"Okay. Let's assume that's true. How did you find out?"

"Umh… playing video games…"

And then began a very long conversation for the lieutenant.