- one week later -

The Vytal Festival started today, which - alongside tomorrow - was dedicated to full team matches. Four matches were scheduled for today, and four more matches were scheduled for tomorrow. So far, we witnessed team JNPR go up against a team DGER, team ABRN against HANA, team BRNZ against team TRMN, and finally team RWBY against NDGO.

The eight girls of the collective RWBY and NDGO were facing off in the first round. Penny, Liya, and I sat at the very edge of the colosseum, watching from an extremely high vantage point. Despite not participating, we were in our combat attire, on the insistence of Ozpin due to the impending attack. Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were spectating and commenting on the fight as usual, and I was really interested in how things would go down.

Ironwood and Ozpin had agreed to do a long term randomizing of opponents after hearing how Pyrrha and Penny, as well as how Yang and Mercury were a bad match. Ironwood took things a step further and had Penny removed from the tournament for safety reasons, keeping her under my watch for now.

Letting Mercury's name slip was an accident, since it ended up letting them know exactly who else was here: specifically the rest of Mercury's team - Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, & Neo Politan. I was surprised that Neo actually kept her false name. Then again, Neo's name wasn't widely known. And no, they were team CMEN much to my disappointment. They were team FEMN, or team Feminine. I imagine Emerald had a field day teasing Mercury over being a part of team Feminine.

The two academy headmasters had promised not to interfere, knowing exactly what's at stake, but they did say they'd keep a close and subtle eye on them if they tried anything. Ozpin also had Ironwood promise to hold back. As much as I trusted James now, I knew his semblance had a habit of avoiding variables.

The talk between Liya and Ozpin was taxing, as I'd found out when she finished. She seemed distraught, confused, and scared when she came back to the room. I wondered if letting Liya handle this alone was a good idea at all, but then she talked to me.

- a week ago -

"The headmaster told me about...maidens. Elemental magic power, other kinds of bullshittery, and he said that you would understand what he was talking about," Liya said. "Can you explain what he meant?"

I stared blankly at Liya before groaning. "Oz...whyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" I cried.

Long story short, I told Liya of the impending attack on Beacon, as much detail as I could, and what exactly the maidens were, and what they represented. Liya listened intently, her expression showing signs of her slowly piecing everything together. This was not what I'd wanted.

I wanted to avoid such a level of secrecy as Ozpin had wanted in the previous time around, but bringing my teammate into this? It was...odd. Perhaps this was Ozpin's way of understanding that some semblance of a direct approach was needed in situations such as these. I told Liya about Salem, and a brief rundown of Salem and Ozpin's history, his curse, and the plan. I didn't tell her much else of future events, however. Best to keep those close to the chest.

"And...how do you know this?" Liya asked.

"...it may have been the reason I was brought here," I said. "I found out, Salem wants me dead so I'm hiding out and training under Oz until I graduate, so I can find my family and protect us against Salem."

"And why am I a part of this?" Liya asked.

"Because you're one of the strongest here. Ozpin mentioned Pyrrha might be a potential candidate, but she's way too famous. You're not," I rattled off, practically flying by the seat of my pants. "This kind of power is best kept discreet, but...you don't have to say yes."

"The way Ozpin said it, he was adamant I should take the power. And he didn't hold back on the rest of the stuff. Specifically...how the powers change a person," Liya said. "Not just by the whole having powers thing, but...by personality, aura transfer, merging of souls."

"He's...not that wrong," I said as I thought about Penny and Winter receiving the powers in Volumes 7 and 8 respectively. "From what I've seen, the powers don't change a personality."

"Wait, what? From what you've seen?" Liya asked as she took on a more serious tone. "Wait...what have you seen? Why are you so important? Who are you?"

I winced. "Sorry, I...I'm not too comfortable telling. And I need to find a way to eventually break the truth out. But this is a bad time," I said.

Liya stared at me, eyes narrowed in clear suspicion before she sighed and looked down. "Right. Impending attack and whatnot," she said. "So, just to be clear, you're a good guy, right?"

I frowned. "How can you even ask that, I'm trying to help everyone," I said.

"By keeping things secret?" Liya asked.

"Hey, I told you. And the teachers. And Ironwood," I said. "Secret is necessary now because of the enemies that have infiltrated here."

Liya scratched the back of her head. "I guess that makes sense," she said. "Just overwhelmed, is all. I'll keep this secret...and think about Ozpin's offer."

"As long as you make that choice yourself. The last thing I want - or what anybody really wants - is to be manipulated into a choice," I said. Liya smiled, clearly eased by my words, before she got up and left.

- back to today -

I jolted out of my thoughts as Yang blasted Nebula out of the ring, and I grinned. "That's my girl," I said.

"Your girl?" Penny asked. "Does that mean you own her? Owning another sapient human or Faunus is illegal-"

"No, it's an expression," I explained as Liya giggled in the background. It seemed I had to do a lot of that lately. "It can mean we're dating each other, Yang can say 'that's my man' about me, because the two of us are together."

"And you and Yang will be looking down at a crib going 'that's our baby' soon enough," Liya said, making me blush.

"Oh, is it because you and Yang like to fu-" Penny started to say.

The moment I heard the F, I immediately flailed. "No, that's not what she means, we haven't done that and Liya's being a teasing bitch over it!" I interrupted, frowning at a cheeky Liya. When did she become so easygoing? I miss the days she was a bit more serious.

"Finally accepting it?"

I turned back to look at Liya who was still grinning smugly at me under her mask. "You used to be such a lovestruck little kitten, you know," she said before batting her eyelashes and hugging her arms. "Oh, I can't believe Yang would go out with someone like me! Oh, I still can't accept that this buxom busty big boobied big booty blonde babe actually likes me," she fake swooned as she tipped her body left and right. The fact she still had her mask on only made her look even goofier.

I felt my face going red at her obviously false statements. Plus the fact she said the same thing about Yang's...ahem, breast size three times in the same alliterate statement bothered me, but I wisely chose not to comment. "Can you blame me?" I said awkwardly. "She's hella gorgeous."

"Hella?" Penny asked, curious.

"Expression," I said. Thankfully, Penny knew when to stop asking questions when referring to the explanation of an expression, since answering and simplifying every little statement that wasn't literal could be tiresome.

"Hmmm," Liya said, sounding offended. "Are you saying your partner is not gorgeous?"

"Eh, personality could use some work," I said. Liya laughed and punched my shoulder, making me laugh along with her. The fight ended with Blake and Weiss double teaming Octavia minutes later, draining the aura of the last member of team NDGO, and securing their spot in the next rounds.

"And with that, team RWBY successfully wins the final match of the day!" Oobleck boomed through the mic, with the tens of thousands of spectators cheering all around. The girls all waved and smiled for the cameras as the girls of NDGO picked themselves up and went to congratulate the other girls for their victory. "And, that's it for today's match! Please make your way to the docks in a calm and orderly fashion!" the doctor said before the microphone screeched to silence.

We exited the colosseum within the hour, stepping off the Bullhead landing pads as we waited to see teams RWBY and JNPR. Penny had been called to see General Ironwood, so it was just Liya and me. However, we ran into team ABRN before they arrived. Specifically, Reese running into us.

"Heya, Markus!" Reese shouted as she barreled into me, wrapping her arms around my midsection. She was on her hoverboard, feet locked on the board, making herself float as she hugged me. "It's been sooo so long, like months!"

I laughed as I spied the rest of team ABRN approaching. "Yeah, well...things have been crazy," I said. I wouldn't say this to Yang but Reese was one of my favorite side characters in RWBY - the show, not the team. Next to May.

I frowned, remembering she and most of her team were some of the casualties in the battle of Beacon. "I saw your battle," I said as I hugged Reese back. "You fell on your butt like ten times."

"It's not my fault they kept going after my board. Especially that James guy," Reese grumbled, not letting go.

"I mean, it is your fault that they target your board," the staff wielding teammate, Bolin if I recall, said. Reese just replied with a shush, to which I chuckled.

"So, this is the guy who babysat you when you abandoned us a while ago," Arlsan said, the beautiful girl half smirking. "Glad to see she hasn't worn you down."

"Yeah," I said. "I mean, if she weren't here, we would've taken down that mech without her to share in the glory."

"Hey, you needed me," Reese countered childishly. I snorted and she pouted. "You did!"

"Wait, so that wasn't a story," Nadir said, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. She helped us take down a Paladin," I said, smiling at their surprised expressions. "I'm guessing she was all like 'you have to believe me' and stuff like that?"

"They were," Reese whined. "They're the worst."

"Team RWBY would've taken that robot suit down easily without us," I said before looking over at Liya, who was spectating our little conversation. "This is Liya Eyla, my partner."

"Hi," Liya said, waving over to the green haired hoverboarding girl latched to me. "I hope you kept my partner out of trouble during that mech fight."

"Ha,"

Arslan turned to see my partner before smiling kindly. "I see. Pleased to make your acquaintance," she said. I noticed Liya looking a bit too long at ABRN's leader's exposed shoulder and collar, right above her chest area, and I grinned before elbowing her.

"Oh! Uhh, nice to meet you too," Liya said as she coughed. "Sorry, just thinking about the match. Like how you were fighting off the guy with the shotgun!"

Arslan grinned humbly. "He was a good opponent, but relying on your weapon too much can cause plenty of trouble for yourself," she said. "I hope he learned that."

"Wow, smart," Liya said. "Seriously, you guys were amazing."

"Thanks," Nadir said. "Are you gonna fight?"

"Nah, we don't have a team. It's just Markus and me. Wouldn't be fair to skip the four v four matches and straight for the two v two ones. So we're watching," Liya said.

"Damn, that sucks," Nadir groaned.

"Yeah, I wanted to fight you," Reese complained.

"I'm pretty sure you would be swatted out of the arena before you could do anything," Bolin commented, as Arslan giggled. Reese squawked and turned indignantly to her team.

"Hey!" Yang's voice called. The six of us turned to see Yang and Blake approaching. "We were looking for you! Oh, hey Reese!"

Reese flew over and hugged Yang next, gushing over the battle against NDGO as the rest of ABRN sighed. "Well, we'd better get going. Talk to you later?" Bolin asked.

"Yes," Liya said, having calmed down a bit. "Nice meeting all of you." Arslan grinned and waved before using her rope dart weapon to hook Reese's shoes and begin dragging her away, to which she complained and kicked the whole time.

"Heh," I said before turning to Liya. "So, I saw your eyes lingering a bit."

"Shut up," Liya said, looking away and probably being grateful that her mask hid her blush.

"Hey, you tease my love life, I tease yours," I said before looking over at Yang, coming over and hugging my girlfriend. "So what's up?"

"Oh, Weiss and Ruby left to go see some fancy airship that docked at the landing pads-" Yang said, hugging me back. "Pretty sure there's a fight going on since-" Yang said before I interrupted, specifically by breaking the hug and rushing between Yang and Blake and making a beeline for the landing pads.

Unfortunately, I ended up tripping over someone's fallen belongings, a purse or a scroll or something, because I ended up tumbling about a hundred meters the rest of the way, right at the edge of the walkway that led to the courtyard.

I hadn't even activated my aura in time, so I was sore all over. Activating it now, - better late than never - I sighed as I felt my injuries begin to heal. "Ow..." I mumbled as I tried to get up. "Should've looked down..."

"Yeah, you should have."

I turned to see Mercury Black holding out a hand. Taking it, he hauled me to my feet. "Hey man, been a while," he said.

"Yeah. Sorry for looking like a klutz there," I said sheepishly. "So, what's up?"

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "I should be asking you that. Not every day you see someone tumbling through the grass and stone like a human sized meatball."

I laughed at the analogy. "Heh, came to see the airship that landed. Fancy, looks like an X-Wing, you know," I said.

"Oh. Yeah, saw it earlier. Nothing special," Mercury said. "Looks rich."

"Yeah. Fancy and belongs to Atlas. Anyways, where's your team?" I asked, before I heard sounds. Specifically a drunkle Qrow and a specialist Schnee hashing it out on the courtyard, but I couldn't tell him that I knew that. "Huh, what's that?"

"Oh, some bully fighting," Mercury said quickly. "I was just about to go see them. Well, talk-"

"Oh! I wanted to come over, wish them luck for their upcoming fight tomorrow," I said. "Is that alright with you?" I'd hoped to have a crack at seeing what Cinder's new plans were, but unfortunately, that wouldn't happen.

"Ah, Mister Black. Mister Onissa," Ironwood said, the two of us turning to face the taller and burlier military man. With him were two Atlesian soldiers and Penny. "I hope the first day of the festival tournament has been enjoyable."

"Hello friend!" Penny said before looking at Mercury. "And hello new friend!"

"Hey," Mercury said as Penny grabbed his hand and shook it relentlessly for about a minute straight.

"It's been so long!" Penny said as she shook the boy's hand.

"It's been about twenty minutes," I sighed as Penny finally let go of Mercury, who clenched his wrist and winced in pain.

"Ah, yeah," Mercury said, a bit nervous now. "Anyways, Cinder would really rather have the team to herself, hide our strategies and whatnot, you know?"

"I getcha," I said before holding out my fist. "I'm rooting for you guys. See you around?"

"See you," Mercury said, fist bumping me back before jogging off. As he left, I sighed. "Discreet much?" I asked.

"Discretion has never been my thing," Ironwood said. "But you already knew that." I chuckled before we began to walk towards the fighting. I could see the white glow of a certain summoning semblance beyond the crowd of people in the distance. "I'm guessing you know what's going on over there?"

"Qrow and Winter slugging it out. Winter got a bit butthurt over some of Qrow's comments-" I said.

"Excuse me?" Ironwood asked.

"-and she attacked first," I said. "She was just defending your choice to bring your army to Vale."

"Branwen did come back early, as I'm sure you've seen. But I believe he still may have some more important information to disclose," Ironwood said.

"Probably not. He likely wants to jab at Winter again," I said. "I was gonna go hang out with my friends if that's alright with you."

"Of course," Ironwood said. "Would you mind bringing Penny with you?"

"Uhh, can she eat?' I asked, confused.

"I can consume standard edible resources that living people can," Penny said. "My body is able to burn what I eat, but it gives me no nutritional value."

"It's so people don't question why she never eats," Ironwood said. I grinned weakly, thinking about the fact that food Penny eats is technically wasted. Nevertheless, I agreed and Ironwood allowed us to go, Penny walking alongside me as she gushed about seeing team RWBY once again.

As we walked down the courtyard, I realized that Winter and Qrow had already stopped fighting when Ozpin and Goodwitch stepped up. And judging by how Winter looked cowed by Goodwitch alongside Qrow's annoyed expression, the blonde witch - I'd never call her that in public since my intestines liked exactly where they currently were - did most of the talking.

As Winter and Qrow walked, Ruby ran over to me and Penny, gushing over the fight that had just happened. As Qrow scowled at me walking by, I just sighed and turned to see Weiss catching up to her partner. "Crazy day, huh?" I said.

"Indeed," Weiss said before sighing. "It is good to see my dear sister again."

"Yeah, must have been a nice reunion," I said before patting Weiss on the shoulder. "I don't suppose the whole team would be up for me treating you to lunch, right?"

"Nonsense!" Weiss said. "I'm more than happy to accommodate us after today."

"Weiss, your card got declined," Ruby said, pausing her discussion with Penny.

"I...hey! I still have plenty of Lien on hand," Weiss said. "I just have to go to my room and get my wallet-"

"Ugh, your piece of shit of a dad?" I asked. Weiss blinked, clearly surprised at my sudden vulgarity, but she nodded. "Don't worry about paying. Cash only lasts so long. Let me do this, alright?"

"But I-" Weiss began before I interrupted her once again.

"I have spoken! And I call dibs!" I shouted. Weiss scowled at me before sighing and reluctantly agreeing. I smiled at that, how she only wanted to help. "Don't worry about it, OK? Think about how angry your pops will be because you have a Faunus friend."

Weiss giggled. "I suppose he'd be livid," she said before looking bck to me. "I will pay you back-"

"By that logic, everyone will have to pay me back for treating them. And I'd really rather not deal with that awkward can of worms," I said, wincing. Weiss huffed indignantly, and I laughed.

"Yo! There you are!" Yang shouted. She, Liya, and Blake were jogging through the courtyard to get to the four of us. "Why'd you bolt like that? You were faster than Ruby when she smelled cookies."

"Hey!" Ruby whined.

"Oh. Just wanted to see Winter and Qrow again," I said as I stretched my arms. "Missed the fight though. And they probably didn't even see me. Anyways, dinner is on me."

Yang and Ruby cheered while Blake smiled softly. "What about team JNPR?" she asked.

"Oh, I texted Jaune!" Ruby said. "Jaune and Pyrrha are celebrating down at the festival already. Same with Nora and Ren. And then Nora hijacked Jaune's scroll and texted 'not together-together' over and over."

"Sounds like Nora," I said. "So, what do you wanna eat? I dunno about you, but I wanna go back to that restaurant where we went after beating Torchwick in the Paladin."

"Oh yeah! High Steaks," Ruby said before drooling. "Mmmmmm, brisket."

"Sure, I'm in," Yang said. "Feeling pretty peckish after the fight."

"I'll say, you girls were incredible."

"Thanks, daaaaaaaa-" Yang said, having frozen and stretched the last word when she heard who was speaking. The rest of us turned to see a well built blonde man leaning on a lamppost by us. He wore brown cargo pants, a tan colored dress shirt with an unbuttoned brown vest, and a red bandanna tied on his left arm. His right side was sleeveless, and he wore a silver metal type of armor on his shoulder, alongside a leather vambrace and fingerless gloves.

"Hey, kids," Taiyang said as he waved casually. I was too busy gawking at why he could be here.

"Dad?!" Ruby cried before barreling into the man, both of them laughing as Taiyang swung Ruby around. "I missed you so much!"

"Oh, really?" Taiyang said, sternly despite still smiling. "You and your sister don't write, you didn't even send me a status update after I sent you Zwei. Plus, Yang, I had to hear from Qrow that you were dating someone!"

Yang winced. "Uhhh...mail was down?" she asked.

"You could've sent me an e-mail, or a message. I have a scroll too, I know how to use it. Kind of," Taiyang said as he let go of Ruby and walked over to Yang. Before Yang could run, he grappled his daughter into a headlock and ruffled her hair, much to her embarrassed whining.

The rest of us laughed before Taiyang finally let her red faced mess of a daughter go. "Still, I saw your match. You all did great. Including your teammates for putting up with you," he praised slash teased.

"Ugh, dad!" Yang grumbled. Blake giggled as Taiyang finally came to face me. "So, this is the boy who's dating my dragon."

"Yeah," I said, holding out a hand. "Taiyang? Qrow and Ozpin talks about you."

"Oh, do they? No doubt embarrassing stories and whatnot. Well joke's on you Qrow! I embrace my lifestyle!" Taiyang said before he shook my hand. "You've been treating Yang well?"

"The best I can," I answered.

"Touch her hair?" Taiyang continued.

"Only if she's alright with it," I replied.

"Keeping things safe?" Taiyang said.

"Yep," I shot back.

"Distracting her from her studies?" Taiyang asked.

"I have to let her pet my ears if she's ever going to read," I said.

Taiyang snorted. "How's your sense of humor?" he asked.

"I dunno. As well as a fish's sense of humor," I said. "I guess you can say we're all fish."

RWBY, Penny, Liya, and Taiyang raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" Taiyang asked.

"Because we live in schools!" I said, shooting finger guns at the older man like the cringey guy I was. The five girls around me gaped, while the robot girl tilted her head. Taiyang was silent for a minute. Or a few, it certainly felt long. At least until he started laughing.

"Man, that one was good!" Taiyang said as he slapped his knee, me breathing a sigh of relief that it worked. "And people say my sense of humor is bad, Yang." He looked to Yang, who had already buried her face in her hair and screamed, her hair muffling her voice with how much there was.

"So, we were all gonna head out to celebrate their victory. Wanna come?" I asked.

"Sure, it'll let me get to know my daughters' team. Tell me, how many friends did Ruby make?" Taiyang asked.

"Well there's me, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, my partner Liya, Penny Polendina - she's from Atlas," I said. "Then there's Sun Wukong, Neptune - they're from Mistral…"

As we walked to the landing pads, Penny and Ruby went back to chatting while Weiss walked with us. Blake and Liya had begun dragging the still screaming Yang along as well, and I could tell that she could tell that I was still talking with her dad. I easily preferred this over both Taiyang and Qrow interrogating me for dating the fiery blonde girl.

Dinner with RWBY, Penny, Liya, and Taiyang went surprisingly well. Taiyang was chatty and more or less brought a very easygoing atmosphere to the table, even if he had a habit of embarrassing Ruby and Yang every minute or so. He was also alright with me dating Yang after a few questions, dropping the subject when he was done.

Most of his talking was combat tips, however. He brought up how he taught at Signal Academy, and how Qrow used to teach there as well. He also mentioned that the reason he was here was because Qrow convinced him to come see his daughters in person. Overall, I'd say that dinner went smoothly. I paid for the whole thing - I had the Lien for that, before we all headed back to Beacon. Well, most of us.

"I'm staying at a hotel not far from here," Taiyang said. "Hey, Markus. Mind if I talk with you?"

"Dad..." Yang began in exasperation.

"Don't worry, I won't harm your boyfriend," Taiyang said.

"I'll be alright," I said, kissing Yang on the cheek. Yang smiled before she went with the others. "Yeah?" I asked as Taiyang pulled me aside.

"I approve," the taller man said. "You've been good to Yang, I can tell. It's nice to see she has someone looking out for her."

"She doesn't need anyone looking out for her. She's strong," I said in response. "I'm just there to support her."

Taiyang laughed. "What did you think I meant?" he asked. He sighed before patting me on the back. "Seriously, I know Yang. She always feels the need to be the supporter, to help people even with that fiery temper of hers. She cares a lot, pretty sure Yang's where Ruby gets most of her selflessness from."

"She's always independent," I said, sighing as I smiled. "Seriously, ever since we first started dating it was hard to believe we were really dating."

"Trust me, I've been there. Lovestruck phase and whatnot," Taiyang said. I blushed, and the man chuckled. "Keep making her happy, she deserves it."

"She deserves that and much more. Don't worry, I'll keep being there for her. Every step of the way," I said. Taiyang just beamed. We exchanged goodbyes and parted ways, and I walked back to the others with a smile.