A/N: So in this chapter I'm going to be changing around perspectives between characters a lot. I'm going to try and make it as clear as possible, who is doing what, thinking what, etc. However it may get a bit hectic. Just a fair warning. However you all didn't come here for warnings, you came here for a story, so without further ado, let the story unfold!

Chapter 5

The Emerald Forest: Part 1

Ruby was having the best and worst day of her life. She was currently heading toward Beacon, the school of her dreams. The place that had graduated so many powerful and well-known hunters and huntresses. However, she was attending two years early. A feat unheard of. After she had kicked some bad guy butt (namely, one Roman Torchwick), she was questioned by Glynda Goodwitch and shortly after, invited to attend Beacon academy by professor Ozpin himself. Absolutely awesome. Worst part, she was now leaving all of her old friends behind at Signal. Not only that, but she was surrounded by two weirdos. One guy wearing a cloak with his hood drawn up covering his face and another blonde boy that looked like he was about to hurl. Before she could contemplate this any further. Yang.

"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me. Best day ever." Yang declares.

Zelle looked at the twos interaction with amusement. He looked over the most eye catching of the two, for obvious reasons. She stood about 5'8". She had lilac eyes and bright blonde hair. She wore an orange scarf and a brown jacket that exposed the top of her breasts and a yellow sash or bra with what appeared to be fire insignia over one of her breasts. Finally, was this mini skirt thing that did absolutely nothing to cover anything showing off her mile long legs and combat boots. "Do not get near her", he mentally told himself she was definitely one of those people that would love to ask questions.

So, the girl in red was the one that Glynda mentioned. Good to know. He looked the little girl in red over again. She stood about 5'3". Black hair with red highlights on the end, but knowing this crazy world, that red hair was natural. Her attire consisted of a full body corset of sorts that traveled down to a skirt. All dark grey, something he could get behind. Then there was her red weapon, cape, black sash thing. He liked the color scheme. Then there were her silver eyes. He couldn't help but stare at them. They were just so, beautiful. He had seen nothing like them before. Apparently, he had been staring too long though and caught the attention of said partial red head. She looked over at him and he quickly diverted his attention.

Was he acting suspicious? Hell yes. He couldn't help it though, well at least he thought he couldn't. He didn't have a whole lot of interaction with people for the past two years apart from merchants and the Adels. His social skills were nil. Hence why he was wearing his cowl, although that was technically part of his combat gear anyway, having it drawn up was in fact suspicious he had to admit. Quickly diverting his attention to literally anything else in the room, his eyes landed on Mr. Soon to be Barf Mcgee.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing combat armor and… a hoodie? Weird combination but he went with it. His armor consisted of a chest plate, arm guards, elbow pads, and blue jeans. At his hip was a sword that was clearly just that, a sword. Nothing fancy. Something that Zelle could respect. But there seemed something off about him though. It was as if he almost had no presence. Strange. He would consider that later though. For now, dealing with an angry blonde.

Sure enough there was a very angry Yang heading towards him. "Hey, you!" She yelled.

Zelle raised an eyebrow, before realizing that she wouldn't be able to see it. Resisting the urge to facepalm he just decided to reply.

"Yes Goldilocks, how may I be of assistance?"

That got Yang to pause her oncoming rant. She had been called lots of things before. Blondie, bimbo, hot head, and dragon fire, but never Goldilocks. Guess she could add that to the new list of nicknames.

"Why were you staring at my sister and me just now, huh? Got a problem with us?"

"Sorry, I had no intention of being rude. I was bored and your interaction was the most amusing I could find other than barf boy over there." Zelle responded gesturing over to Jaune. "It won't happen again." Good plan Zelle be apologetic and just tell the truth. He mentally patted himself on the back.

Yang was a bit taken back, she hadn't expected an apology so easily. Now that she was closer to this man, she realized exactly how tall he was, her head coming up to his chin. He had two swords that one of his hands rested on and a pistol on his right-hand hip. Under his cloak, he was wearing a green shirt and what appeared to be some form of brown leather armor, if the places it was covering were any indication. She looked up but despite her being almost right in front of him, could only make out his chin and mouth.

"Well, I suppose it's okay. Just make sure you watch yourself next time or else someone may get the wrong idea." She gave him one last glare before she began walking away.

Zelle sighed, he had been on the bullhead for what, five minutes and he already got into a scuffle with another student. He glanced back at the blonde boy who was now puking, with the two girls desperately trying to avoid him. He would keep an eye on him. Something was definitely off.

He missed Glynda's speech. Shame. As long as he didn't bring it up, she would be none the wiser. The bullhead landed not too long after. Vomit-boy as he heard Yang so affectionately call him, ran off and began barfing into the trash can. Zelle stifled a laugh. That was just like him with boats. That rocking was absolutely terrible. Even the thought made him pale a little bit.

Getting off, he decided to wander around for a bit. He knew they were supposed to be in the auditorium in the next hour, so he had time to kill. Though he didn't expect to find Little Red again so soon. She was sitting and there was a petite white haired girl with a very pale complexion yelling at her. Her dress was regal, as if she was a princess. Not a speck of dirt could be found on her. Zelle scoffed, how in the world did she not get all of that white dirty? It took all of his prowess at washing to keep his hair white. This wasn't fair. Okay, she was shaking a vial of fire dust around not good.

Zelle pushed off the ground, forming a small crater and rushed the white haired girl. Quicker than either could react to the new figure seemingly appearing, Zelle grabbed the vial from the girl and held it away from the group. Good, it doesn't look like it was going to explode.

Weiss was both furious and confused. Confused because she heard a crack from behind her and when she turned, this man had appeared. Furious because he interrupted her lecture to this dolt about dust.

"Excuse me, who do you think you are interrupting me?"

The man with the cowl over his head looked down at the, admittedly, very short girl (at least in comparison to him). Seriously she was what 5'2"? That was him being generous too.

"I'm preventing you from blowing yourself up Snow White. Apparently you don't know how to handle dust properly." Weiss clenched her fists and pointed up at the man.

"You dare tell me I don't know how to handle dust? Do you even know who I am?"

"Nope." Zelle responded making a popping sound with his lips to accentuate the p.

"I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. If anyone doesn't know how to handle dust, it would be you and this dolt here," she said gesturing to the still sitting Ruby.

"Neat." Zelle wasn't paying attention anymore. He was inspecting the dust. "This dust is very high quality, very few impurities in it. This dust would probably be fifteen percent more efficient than whatever I'm using now."

Weiss was fuming. "Listen here you miscreant, I demand you hand me back my dust," She said haughtily.

"I don't think I will." Weiss was stunned. "This is payment for saving you and Little Red over there from blowing yourselves up. I don't really do thank yous so just consider this a debt paid. Oh, also I'm stealing Little Red here."

Zelle grabbed Ruby by the hood and began to drag her away. Weiss was just standing there. No one had ever treated her that way before. It would be a while before she would move again.

None of them noticed the figure behind the tree a little ways away. Blake smiled, it was good to see the heiress get put into her place like that. With a small hum she pulled out a book and began making her way to the auditorium.

Once Zelle thought he was a good way away from Snow White he let go of Little Red. Seriously why did all of the girls he met so far remind of him of a fairy tale?

Ruby caught herself as the man finally let go of her hood. She was very confused right now. First Yang left her to go hang out with her friends, then she tripped over a white haired girls luggage and was being chewed out, and now the mysterious man with the cloak and hood from before had apparently saved both her and the white haired girl and dragged her away.

"Um, sorry about that." The man looked at her before he looked back at the dust and he pocketed it.

"Don't worry about it Little Red. Couldn't let two new fellow students get blown up before the semester even began." Ruby blushed.

"So, it was true that we could've blown up?"

"Yup," he responded doing that popping noise for the p again. "Purified dust of this caliber while strong, is also very unstable. There's a reason that this dust isn't oriented for combat. It would explode in your pocket." Ruby nodded, that made sense.

"So you mentioned us being fellow students, does that mean you are one as well?"

"You sure like to ask questions Little Red, but yes I am." Ruby blushed a bit. Before a massive grin stretched across her face and her silver eyes seemed to glow. Zelle decided that look was positively adorable.

"So what are your weapons? Does it transform? Do you have it with you?" She asked another dozen questions of this magnitude before she ended in a squeal with stars in her eyes. Zelle sweat dropped. "Holy shit, this girl is a weapon freak. That's adorable and terrifying at the same time."

"To hopefully awnser most of your questions these are my weapons," Zelle said drawing back his cloak revealing his two katanas and pistol. "They do not transform. They are basic katanas that I can dual wield or wield with the pistol. The pistol is automatic with an extended clip that fires lightning dust rounds." Ruby nodded at this, it was a well-balanced close range weaponry. "So how about you Little Red? What's your weapon?"

Ruby smirked as she unhooked her beloved Crescent Rose and pushed a miniscule amount of aura into it to cause it to transform into scythe mode. She swung it around a little before she stabbed into the concrete. "Meet Crescent Rose. Combat scythe and high impact sniper rifle." She said proudly.

Zelle whistled. This would be every engineers' wet dream right there. The machinery and components that went into this monstrosity had to be numerous. Not only have that but to add a flexible chamber, and fire out of the end liked that. Not to mention she could technically mount it just about anywhere to reduce recoil. Zelle wondered if she could help finish up his weapon.

"Well, Masa, Mune and Raiden are happy to meet Crescent Rose." Zelle said motioning to each of his weapons in turn. "However, I don't think we have been properly introduced."

Ruby blushed. Folding up her scythe she introduced herself to the cloaked man. "Hehe, sorry I go kind of overboard when it comes to weapons." She smiled. "My name is Ruby Rose first year attending Beacon academy."

Zelle had a small smile, not that Ruby could see it. "Nice to meet you Little Red, the name's Zelle. Just Zelle. Don't worry about the weapon thing. I really like weapons too." Ruby didn't really seem to question the nickname.

"So um, do you know where you're going? Cause we have to get to the auditorium in five minutes."

Zelle glanced at his nonexistent watch, before patting his pants leg. His scroll wasn't there. He left it at the forge. Guess he would just take Ruby's word for it. Looking around he realized it would be a ten to fifteen minute walk to get to the auditorium from here. He could use his semblance but he didn't want too many people to know about his abilities. He glanced at Ruby and she seemed to be really nervous all the while muttering to herself about a terrible first day. Zelle sighed, time to play good guy again.

Zelle said, "It's a fifteen minute walk from here, we would be late but I have a way to get us there." Ruby looked up at him with hope in her eyes. "However, I'm going to need you to trust me for a little bit."

Ruby contemplated this, here was this tall, cloaked man that she had talked to for maybe ten minutes. He had helped her out and they discussed weapons. So with that she nodded her head. She didn't expect what came next.

Ruby was swept off her feet as the cloaked man picked her up, carrying her bridal style. Afraid she was going to fall, she wrapped her arms around Zelle's neck. She was blushing profusely. "Hang on tight," he said. That was her only warning.

Next thing Ruby knew she heard a crash as if Yang had punched a boulder, and she was soaring through the air, hair whipping at her face. She looked down to see that they were now up in the air as if they were flying and moving forward very fast. She looked up and saw a face she wasn't sure she'd ever see.

The man was tan, he had emerald green eyes that seemed to glow and a long mane of spiky white hair that seemed to travel down further than she could clearly see. His face was chiseled, not a single sign of fat on him. He was quite handsome. Her blush returned twofold now.

Gravity decided to ruin the moment and the two began descending. It didn't take very long as Zelle landed behind a building with a loud crash as the surrounding cement couldn't stand the force of his landing. Fifteen minute walking trip done in a three minute flight. Beautiful. He looked down at Ruby only to see her blushing up a storm. Zelle raised an eyebrow before letting her down.

Ruby, much to her own embarrassment missed the contact. Other than Yang, her dad, and a couple of close friends, she didn't have much experience with physical contact. She always found it nice, but was typically too shy to initiate such contact.

While Ruby was lost in her own world, Zelle pulled his cowl back up over his head. He didn't really have a problem with being seen by others. He just didn't want to talk to too many people. The two years he spent out in the wilderness had done horrible things to his people skills. He wasn't about to start contact with someone. Though Little Red had pretty eyes so he'd make an exception for her.

"Well Little Red, we best go inside. Don't need to miss anything that's going on." Ruby nodded and they both headed inside. When they got in there, they heard someone yell, "Hey Ruby! Over here, I saved you a spot!" Looking over they saw Yang waving over at Ruby.

Ruby sighed, "Well I guess I better go, sister is calling." Zelle nodded at her and began to walk off toward a pillar. However he was a bit annoyed to see that it was occupied by a girl. Said girl had a very fair complexion. She had bright amber eyes and a narrow face. She was wearing a white cut off with a black vest that exposed a bit of her stomach. She had on a sleeve that covered up part of her right arm. She had on white shorts with stocking that went from black to purple that reached her black combat boots. Overall a beauty. Though her eyes gave her a feral look. Belle, from beauty and the beast. With his nickname decided to approach the raven-haired beauty.

"Excuse me, but do you mind if I sit next to you madam?"

Black looked up to see the cloaked man from earlier staring down at her. Intriguing. "I don't mind as long as you keep quiet so I can read," she informs him dismissively before returning to her book.

Soon after Zelle sat down, Glynda came out and gave a brief introduction before Ozpin gave his speech. After he is done people began to murmur about how he seemed out of it. Shortly after Glynda informs them that the final test is tomorrow and how everyone was going to sleep here.

"To your right are the bathroom for the females and your right the males. You are all adults from here on forward so I expect there to be no… accidents. Am I understood?" A round of nodding all over the room occurred. "Very good. Now prepare yourselves for tomorrow then, dismissed."

Zelle glanced at this fellow pillar partner. She didn't look like she was moving anytime soon. Glancing at a clock, he saw it was about seven. That gave him a couple of hours to meditate and grab a bite to eat before he should hit the showers. Crossing his legs into the lotus stance, Zelle took a big breath in and slowly exhaled. He did this four more times before his heart rate slowed to the point of stillness and everything except him and his aura existed.

Zelle found in a book that meditating allowed one to increase aura and provide increased aura control. Zelle would have to agree to the books founding's. Feeling his aura at his core, he took it and began circulating it around his body. First to his right arm, then right leg, left leg, left arm, head, and back to the center again. He repeated this five times before he then separated the aura and spread it out before bringing it back in again. This was very relaxing and allowed Zelle to keep his mind preoccupied.

Finally, he let it seep out to feel out the people around him. This was a new trick and one that Zelle had developed accidently when doing this exercise and he let the aura overextend. It allowed him to feel people by their auras. Often being shown to him in the form of color and brightness. The girl beside him had a dark purple aura, closer to black. However, as he extended it out further the colors and brightness became too much for Zelle and he let it go, dispersing it into the air.

Zelle opened his eyes and glanced at the clock. It was nearing nine. Glancing over at the girl, he saw that she had fallen asleep. Every so often a quiet snore escaped her lips. "She may just give Ruby a run for her money in the adroableness factor," thought Zelle. Looking around he noticed that many people were getting sleeping bags provided by the staff and were getting ready to sleep. Glancing back at Belle he decided he should probably wake her up.

He poked her cheek and she grumbled. Stifling his laughter, Zelle poked her cheek again. This time she did wake up, lazily looking up at him before her eyes got wide and she twitched. Zelle reacted first. His hand had drawn Raiden and pointed it at her head with his hand gripped tightly on Mune.

Blake reacted on years of instincts during her stay with the White Fang. When woken up by someone else, she got up and drew her weapons to prepare for whatever was about to happen. She was surprised when for one, she didn't have her weapons. Two, she was now staring at the barrel of a gun pointed directly at her forehead. The wielder? The man who had started meditating beside her. The room got quickly quiet as they watched the interaction between the two.

Zelle cursed himself. While he didn't have a whole lot of people interaction, two years of fighting for his life and sparring with Brun had made him wary. A bit too much if he was willing to draw his gun on a student, even if she was attempting to reach for her weapons first. Spinning Raiden on his hand, he fancily threw it up in the before drawing his cloak slightly allowing it to fall into its holster. That got everyone to continue with whatever it was as the action ended.

Blake had no idea what to do or say to what just happened, so she gaped at the man in front of her. She was pulled out of her funk as the man gave an embarrassed chuckle.

"Sorry about that. I lived in the wilds for a long while before coming here and when I saw you twitch with your hands going for your guns, I just reacted." Blake knew this made sense, but she decided to have some fun.

"So you were going to just shoot me if I had grabbed my weapons." She said with a glare. The man simply shrugged.

"Raiden, my pistol, is loaded with heavily diluted lightning rounds. Meaning, at worst you wouldn't be able to move for about ten seconds."

Blake simply nodded her head, looks like she wasn't going to get to have her fun.

"Anyway," the man said. "The name is Zelle, warden of Kirya." Blake was again thrown for a loop yet again.

Wardens typically consisted of top rank retired hunters. Their jobs included being the person in charge of eliminating grim threats to a village. They also had exclusive rights to sell GOIs often making them quite rich. It was a very prestigious position and required years of knowledge on hunting grimm. So this person, claiming to be a warden was preposterous.

"Nice to meet you Zelle," Blake responded with a small smile. She would let him have his fun. "My name is Blake Belladonna, hopefully we can get along from now on." Zelle nodded.

"Oh, that's right," Zelle said snapping his fingers. I woke you up to let you know that you should probably start getting ready for bed. It's nine already."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." With that she got up and headed toward the girls' bathroom to change. "I guess he isn't so bad after all."

Zelle watched her walk away all the while in his head he pulled a meme out. Placing sunglasses on and biting his lip, he watched the booty sway back forth all the while thinking "dat booty."

Shaking his head to get his mind back on track, he took his weapons over to one of the upperclassman to be stored in a locker for tomorrow. He also went and grabbed a sleeping bag for tonight. Finally, after setting everything out, he went and took a shower. The hot water was very nice. He had been using the showers for the past couple of months but still couldn't get over the amazing feeling. Stepping out, there was no one else in the bathroom with him. Not surprising, everyone was going to sleep to be well rested for this final test tomorrow. Drying off and getting dressed, his cowl firmly over him, he exited the bathroom to find an interesting sight.

Little Red and Goldilocks were talking to Belle. He wasn't sure what about but Goldilocks was on his sleeping bag. He continued his walk over and it appeared he was near the end of the conversation.

"Well, that's why we're here… to make it better." Ruby said. But of course Yang had to ruin it.

"Ohhhh, I'm so proud of my baby sister! Yang gushed and she picked up Ruby. "Yes, Goldilocks is off my sleeping back." With renewed vigor, Zelle rushed to his sleeping bag before sitting on top of it just a few feet away from Blake. Giving him a look of exasperation, she just gestured at the two sisters causing Zelle to give a slight chuckle.

"His laugh is actually quite nice." She couldn't help but think as a small smile appeared on her face. Just then, Weiss had to ruin the moment.

She approached them and yelled "Don't you realize people are trying to sleep?" As their argument began, Zelle looked at Blake before glancing at the candles. Understanding what he meant, she allowed herself a devious smile before blowing out the candles. The three girls freaked out as there was no other light source at the time.

Zelle sighed longingly as he got under his sleeping bag. This may be quite fun after all. He wondered how Ryo was doing?

*The Next Morning*

Zelle woke up early, way before anyone else. Get up with the sun and sleep once all the Grimm were dead. Best motto ever. Stretching, he sat up. Seeing everyone else still asleep, he carefully removed himself from his sleeping bag. He had slept in his hunter gear, as he was so accustomed to doing now. Moving with stealth, he exited the auditorium and made his way to the cafeteria. Lo and behold he was not the first to wake. Sitting at one of the end tables was a boy with black hair with what appeared to be a pink highlight in his bangs. His eyes were magenta and he had on a green Chinese coat and white pants.

Beside him was an orange haired girl with a very large stack of pancakes dripping with maple syrup and melting butter. She had turquoise and a rounder face in comparison with her seat partner. He had on some armor that appeared to go down into a skirt with pink frills. She seemed fun.

Grabbing himself some pancakes himself, Zelle sat at the table beside theirs and enjoy the fluffy deliciousness. As if sensing his thoughts, turquoise eyes were mere inches from his face. Reacting, Zelle attempted to place his hand on Masa, only to realize it wasn't there. Calming himself, he looked at the orange haired girl staring at him.

"Hiya, are you a lover of the gloriousness that is pancakes too?" The strange girl asked. If she noticed him attempting to draw his weapon she didn't seem too worked up about it, though her partner seemed a little on edge after that.

"Yes?" Zelle asked slowly, more of a question than an awnser.

"Excellent!" She yelled out. "Together me, you, and Ren shall be the bestest of pancake friends." She began laughing evilly before she seemed to just disappear and reappear next to the boy and happily eat pancakes.

Zelle wanted to know what she was on and where to get some. Ren, used to Nora's antics by now stared at Zelle. He was sure he saw him reach for what was probably a weapon, but forgot that it wasn't there. Strange. He would have to watch him later, though he can't say he's necessarily bad considering Nora appeared to like him.

Zelle on the other hand was perturbed. Seriously, what was that girl on? Crack, Cocaine? Whatever it was, he wanted it. He quickly finished the pancakes he got (he was afraid what would happen if he didn't finish) and decided to go retrieve his weapons for later. Apparently, he spent more time in the cafeteria than he realized because there were quite a few people in the locker room retrieving their equipment. He noted that the orange haired girl was behind him, as noted by her constant talking. Also there was Little Red and Goldilocks discussing something. Barf Boy looking lost, and Snow White talking to a very attractive red haired girl.

She had on what looked to be a strapless top that had some bronze armor on it, though a bit of her stomach was exposed. She wore black gloves that stretched toward her upper arm and a bronze forearm guard. Zelle thought about that, probably a shield user. She was wearing black shorts and bronze armor guards on her legs that extended to her mid-thigh. Finally, was the bronze circlet that held her hair up as well as her Light green eyes. She reminded him of an Amazonian princess.

Looking down at his number he looked at the locker behind amazon girl. Of course that one would be his locker. Sighing, Zelle accepted his fate of having to deal with Snow White again when suddenly, Barf Boy. He began to flirt with Weiss, of course.

Seriously how did he keep going under his radar. Everyone that had any substantial amount of aura and their mother could not sneak up on him.

"Hey, what ya lookin at bestie?" Zelle jumped and mentally started cursing.

"Son of a bitch! How the hell did she get behind me?!" Make that two people who could pop up, but now that pumpkin girl was in front of him, he could sense her. Jaune still wasn't all there. Reaching out with his aura he touched everyone. He saw everyone's auras, except Jaune's. Zelle's eyes widened.

"Holy shit he doesn't have his aura unlocked. What in the 9 Hells is he thinking? Does he have a death wish? Maybe he has a hero complex or some bullshit like that? Maybe he is suicidal?"

Zora waved a hand in front of her new besties face, he seemed deep in thought, kind of like how Ren gets sometimes. Speaking of, she dashed back to Ren to regale him of her stories that he had heard fifty times before. Ren sighed, the quiet was nice while it lasted.

Zelle nodded he made up his mind. This was not going to look nice. Grimacing, Zelle removed his glove. Stowing it away he began marching up as Weiss was midway through, what appeared to be, a lecture. Huh, irony.

Activating his semblance, he grabbed Jaunes face before lifting him up and placing his head against the back wall. While he would have slammed it, he was pretty sure he would have killed the blonde.

Jaune was very frightened. One moment he is seducing the beauty that was snow angel, the next all he saw was blackness and something gripping his head, hard. He began struggling, grabbing whatever it was that had lifted him up. Then he felt his back touch something solid as his feet was lifted off the ground.

Pyrrha and Weiss were at a loss of what to do in this situation, so they just stared for the moment. That's when the hooded man spoke.

"So, barf boy. Tell me, do you have a death wish?" That broke Pyrrha out of her shock. She took out Milo and pointed it at the cloaked man. She wasn't about to let her new friend get hurt.

"If you have a problem with Jaune, then you have a problem with me as well. So kindly remove yourself from him." The figure didn't even move.

Jaune tried to answer, but couldn't. He was terrified. This man was going to kill him. Shit, he had just gotten to Beacon too. Albeit, he faked his transcripts but still.

Then the man began to speak. "Jaune I am only going to ask you once what is your last name?"

At this point he had garnered most everyone's attention in the locker room. Ren looked on in curiosity while Nora was whispering about bad friends need broken legs. Weiss was still shell shocked and Pyrrha, seeing no apparent harm yet, just stood at the ready. Milo raised high. Ruby looked unnerved and Yang's eyes were flickering back and forth between red and lilac as she was holding herself back from decking this guy a new one.

"Ark." Jaune didn't know what made him compelled to speak when he couldn't before, but he did.

"Good." The cloaked man said.

"By the right invested in me as the Warden of Kirya, I grant you the sacred right of immortality of the soul. Forever be your strength in life or death and may you rise with virtue. I am thy releaser and protector, for I am now your Warden."

Zelle then felt like all his aura get sucked out of his body. He was running close to thirty percent right now. Zelle dropped Jaune and took a knee breathing heavy. God damn this boy had a lot of fucking aura. A seventy percent drop? That's ridiculous. He had done this once before for an orphan in the village that was thirteen and about to go to Signal. Zelle's aura only dropped to about sixty percent. Now Jaune was like a beacon though. No more sneaking for him.

Everyone in the room was shell shocked. What was thought to be hostility, was hostile kindness.

Pyrrha's mouth was wide open, "Did he just..."

"Preform a Warden aura unlocking ritual. Yes, yes he did." Finished Weiss.

Ruby was ecstatic. "I knew he wasn't a bad guy."

Yang was conflicted. "He does one thing that makes him seem terrible, but then turns around is all nice guy. I don't get him." She gained a devious grin. And momma don't like what she don't know."

Nora was also conflicted, but for different reasons. "Ooohhh so he helped him, so I don't need to break his legs. But, he was very rude about it. So should I just break one leg?"

Weiss wanted him on her side. He was strong, fast, and not to mention a Warden. Wardens held a lot of power regionally and were considered the best of their village. Having him or Pyrrha was now ideal.

Zelle was oblivious to all of this, too exhausted to really care. He just tiredly moved to his locker, grabbed his weapons and walked out. Jaune's next statement brought everyone out of their stupor.

"So, what now?"

Standing on platforms all the first-year students were listening to Ozpin's speech. Well, everyone except Zelle. He had only enough time to regain five percent of his aura reserves. Losing that much aura instantly was draining, exponentially so. Guess he was going to have to get Ryo to help. There was no way he is going to survive at this rate. Zelle tuned back in at the end of the speech. Grab a thing, go to a thing, and partner thing. Got it.

Zelle saw people getting launched as Jaune was questioning landing strategy, having enough of it as Weiss got launched.

"Jaune for the love of god, you will be fine. As much god damn aura, you have you could fall from this height land on the ground and your reserves wouldn't even be halved. So, quit your damn whining and prepare your body."

Yang put on sunglasses and grinned at Ruby before she got launched. Jaune didn't look reassured. Zelle glared at Ozpin from under his hood as he raised an eyebrow.

"By the way, I'm totally breaking this launch pad." Zelle said as Ruby got launched.

Zelle felt the pad move and with legs already bent he exploded pouring 10x his strength into his legs, he just about used all of the aura he used on Jaune but it was well worth it as the steel bent and warped under his feet from the pressure. Then he exploded into the air quickly rocketing past Ruby, who he gave a salute too and was still going up and about to pass Yang.

Jaune gaped before he shortly launched with him screaming like a girl. Ozpin looked at the destroyed launchpad that had housed Zelle just moment ago. Glynda looked pissed. "Ms. Goodwitch." Glynda glanced over at Ozpin. "How much pressure were these plates supposed to hold?"

"One moment sir." She began typing into the computer before a screen popped up and her eyes widened. "These plates were designed to resist the weight of larger grimm, specifically Ursa. They should have held up to six hundred pounds of instant pressure."

Ozpin merely hummed while gazing at the broken plate. Looks like he did a good job on recruiting this year.

Zelle flew past Yang, then Blake, followed by Weiss. All of them giving him the same what the fuck look. Zelle would've been amused by this if he wasn't so focused on keeping his hood over his head. The wind whipped at his person trying to remove anything that wasn't attatched.

You know I'm starting to realize that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I have no way of slowing myself down before crashing."

After seemed like an eternity for him and spotting a few other students down below he began crashing through the tree branches at an alarming pace. Zelle began counting down his aura levels.

"30. 28. 27. 25. Annnd." He broke through the branch line and landed with a crash. He tore through the ground, through a tree before he eventually stopped. "18 is a really shitty number. Well, I better let Ryo know I'm here." Zelle put his hand up to his lips and let loose a shrill whistle that was heard for miles.

Zelle sat down. The stupid mutt would find him eventually. In the meantime he would just wait. Half an hour passed and Zelle was considering whistling again, when he heard a rustle from behind him. He rest his right hand on Masa. The rustle was louder this time. Then an Ursa minor burst out and charged at Zelle. Zelle simply sidestepped it and drawing his katana, decapitated the grimm. That's when he heard more rustling as beowolves and ursas began to walk out. Taking out Mune, he took wide stance with both swords facing in front of him arms slightly out. The first beowolf charged.

Zelle jumped over its swipe and quickly removed it's arm with downward swing. Sweeping around he bisected the grimm diagonally as he brought his other blade around to block another beowolves claws. They were converging and fast. Wasting no time, he stabbed the sword that had bisected the beowolf through this one's neck. Quickly pulling out, Zelle jumped right as an ursa attempted to stomp on him. Using the grimms weight and size against it he brought his sword up and decapitated it. Arcing his back, Zelle narrowly dodged a claw swipe from another beowolf. He caught its leg with his blade but had to move quickly as another beowolf had attempted to chomp on his torso. Zelle twisted around and took a large hop back.

He surveyed the now exposed grimm in front of him. He had killed three leaving eleven to kill. One was injured, and would basically just be an easy kill. Four ursa minors and seven beowolves. Zelle was going to be cutting it close here, figuratively and literally. Bringing his fingers up, he whistled again. The grimm growled at him. "Damn it Ryo, where are you?"

Ruby's luck was not holding out today. She had landed and was attempting to find Zelle or Yang to be their partners and just happened to run into the last person she wanted to see. Weiss. Now she was following the heiress as she walked on. She was supposed to be her partner though so she would attempt to be cordial.

"Soooo, wonder where all the grimm are? Didn't Professor Ozpin say that it was supposed to be dangerous?"

Weiss scoffed. "They were probably just overexaggerating to intimidate us." They walked for a while before Ruby perked up again.

"So this way is north right?"

"Are you saying I don't know where I am going?" Weiss shot back angrily.

Just then they heard a piercing whistle echo through the forest. They looked around for a second before at each other.

"What was that, a grimm?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not aware of a grimm that can make a whistling sound."

"Then that means -" Ruby said.

"Someone is trying to call for help." Weiss finished. They looked at each other before nodding and dashing into the direction of the whistle.

Shit, shit, SHIT! Zelle thought as his he skidded back several feet. His arms were starting to go numb from blocking all the strikes. His aura had run out some time ago. He had killed close to twenty of these things now but they keep coming. Sheathing Mune, he reached behind his back before pulling out Betsie, his lmg, and opening fire onto the grimm. It wouldn't have been so bad, but some of the reinforcements had been an ursa major and a couple of alpha beowolves. He had eliminated them, but their calls had attracted even more. Seven beowolves went down as his lmg ran out of its clip.

Taking Raiden out, he decided that maneuverability was the best option here. He fired as he began sprinting back into the fray, stabbing a stunned beowolf as he went through. Then he heard the howl. It was the howl of an Alpha. Zelle was prepared to jump back and make some space when he heard the sounds of growling, tearing, and yelps. Risking a glance back as he slashed upwards, he saw Ryo tearing out a beowolves throat while biting down on the back neck of an ursa minor.

Now as long as none of the other hunters or huntresses came, he would be fine and –

"Crash."

An ice shard went through a tree before impaling a beowolf. Following behind it was a bunch of red rose petals. Suddenly, Ruby appeared out of the center of the petals, as she rotated 360 degrees and removed the head of another beowolf.

"Are you fucking serious? I really need to stop thinking of good situations because fate is being a bitch."

He saw Weiss appear with floating circles all around her as they flung ice spears into the group of grimm, one narrowly missing Ryo. Zelle tried to inform Ryo to get away, but too late. Ruby had cut one of his arms off. He wailed. Zelle began to panic. With strength he wasn't aware that he could muster he put away Raiden and drew Mune. Mustering his strength he pushed off the ground, creating a small crater. Spinning he sliced his way through each and every grimm between him and Ryo.

He saw the tip of Ruby's scythe begin to enter Ryo. He pushed off the ground creating an even greater crater as he sped through, dropping his swords in the process. He felt claws reach up and attempt to grab after his speeding form, feeling the blood drip off his body. It doesn't matter. Then it kept going one inch after the other. He finally got where he needed to be.

When they arrived to the clearing Zelle was in, they were understandably afraid. Not for themselves, but for Zelle. Despite not being able to see his face, they could tell he was in pain. He had several small cuts and a much larger gash on his hip that were visible to them. Ruby then said, "Why is he bleeding shouldn't his aura be protecting him." She surveyed the grimm there was about thirty. Nothing too deadly individually, but the numbers were disconcerting.

"He used most of his aura unlocking that Jaune guy's aura this morning. Don't you remember him looking exhausted afterwards?" Ruby nodded her head, that made sense.

"We need a plan." Weiss nodded in agreement. Just then, the cloaked man dashed forward only for an alpha beowolf to appear and entered into the fray as well on the opposite side of the clearing.

"Weiss fire an ice bolt, I'll use the distraction and try to remove the alpha."

"But the plan…"

"That is the plan now do it!" Startled, the heiress could only comply and fire an ice spike at high speeds to the nearest beowolf. Ruby followed after it, turning into rose petals and moving at high speeds. The spike struck home, killing the beowolf. She cut down two more beowolves by swinging her scythe in wide arcs, easily bisecting the two grimm, still moving at an amazing speed she cut off the arm that she thought it had brought out towards her. She landed and skidded and got back up and turned into rose petals again as she got above the grimm. Right as she was about to stab into it, something knocked into her. Hard.

She went flying with whatever had hit her. Her breath getting knocked away until she went to a skidding stop at the edge of the clearing. Zelle was the one who had hit her. His face was bleeding, one of his eyes was bloodshot and he was covered in dirt and blood all over.

"DON'T KILL RYO! HE'S THE GREEN ONE!" With that he passed out on top of her. Ruby didn't know what to do. Then she heard the thumping, the alpha was heading her way. The one that she almost killed before Zelle tackled her. She got up hoisting Zelle's arm over her shoulder to move him. That's when she noticed something peculiar.

This grimm had a lighter fur. Being closer to grey than black. On top of that it had green lines along its bone armor instead of the normal red. Finally it had bright blue eyes. Ruby played Zelle's last message in her mind. 'The green one' she mouthed. Then her eyes widened. "I hope this works," she thought.

With Zelle's body leaning on her she stabbed her scythe into the ground and watched the alpha charge her. She closed her eyes waiting for it to kill her. One moment passed, two. Only for nothing to happen. Slowly opening her eyes she was staring into the eyes of the alpha, its face mere inches away from hers. Then she heard Weiss call out her name. Ruby's eyes widened. Crap, Weiss!

Ruby dropped Zelle and used her semblance to move behind the alpha just in time to deflect an ice spike intent on impaling the Grimm.

"Ruby you dolt, what are you doing? I had it!" Weiss said as she charged another glyph under her feet intent on charging the alpha.

"No wait Weiss, it's a good grimm. Zelle knows it!"

Weiss watched the beowolf turn around and stare at her. She noticed that it was making no hostile movement towards Ruby. Reluctantly she dropped her blade, but didn't sheathe it. "Fine but the first thing it does something funny, I'm killing it."

Ruby sighed, then she remembered Zelle. Gasping, she used her semblance to rush and check on Zelle. He was bleeding, badly. Reaching around, she took some gauze out of her belt pouch and began to try and wrap his wounds. Removing his hood, she noticed that his snow white hair was now stained brown from the dirt and dark red from dried blood. "Come on, live." She mumbled.

Weiss warily watched the alpha as he began moving away from Ruby back to where the battle occurred. Keeping an eye on him she watched Ruby patch this man up. Said man was extremely tan, if hadn't said he was from Kirya, she would have assumed he was from somewhere in Vacuo. He was wearing a green shirt and what looked to be leather armor over that, hard to tell cause it was shredded to pieces. After a few minutes the alpha returned, most of its wounds somehow seemingly healed. Ruby was putting the finishing touches on the gauze. They needed move fast.

Ruby had an idea. "Ryo."

The alpha, now identified as Ryo turned his head towards Ruby. If the situation weren't so serious, Ruby would have been doing a dance for her deduction skills.

"Can you take Zelle and follow us." Ryo looked at her before walking over to Zelle and picking him up by his cowl, placed him on his back. Then he stared at Ruby.

"Umm, yes?"

It made a backwards motion with its head. It was trying to tell her something and then it clicked.

"Weiss!" She screamed. Weiss had watched the entire interaction and knew what she was going to say.

"Nooo." Ruby frowned.

"Weissss." Ruby whined.

"No and that's final. I will not ride on a grimm. We're huntresses. We kill grimm, not use them as mounts."

"But Weiss, he could die." Ruby tried to put all her emotion into her plea. Weiss glanced over at the apparently passive grimm. It had its head tilted, as if waiting for her to decide. Weiss sighed, there was no winning was there?

Blake and Yang had made it to the clearing quite late it seemed. Yang had chosen the gold knight chess piece for the two of them. Then they heard a girl scream.

"Blake we should head back in there and help that girl, she might be in trouble!" Yang said enthusiastically, she wanted to punch more things.

"Sounded more like a guy though." Yang gave Blake an incredulous look.

Shortly after, they saw Jaune fly by overhead before slamming into a nearby tree.

"Well it looks like blondie decided to drop in." Yang said with a big grin. Blake just rolled her eyes. Not long after, an ursa minor ran into the clearing. Yang and Blake both activated their weapons. Next thing they know, there is an explosion of pink and the ursa falls over and an orange haired girl rolls off it.

"Awww, it's broken." Says Nora. Ren quickly approaches not long after and says, "Nora, please never again." He knew that it probably would occur again, but it didn't hurt to ask. Suddenly she was gone.

Nora's eyes were sparkling as she gazed at the golden rook. "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!" Her singing didn't last long as the bushes to her left rustled before an alpha beowolf burst through the brush.

Yang and Blake didn't even have time to process that this Nora girl had just rode in on an ursa, when Ruby and Weiss hopped off the back of the back of this large grimm. Ruby looked distressed and Weiss appeared paler than normal. Ruby dashed past Yang and Blake, not even acknowledging her sister. She grabbed the black knight and king before she dashed past again.

"Did your sister just ride in on a beowolf." Blake asked. Yang's mouth was now hanging open, all she could do was nod.

Breaking out of her stupor at all the craziness occurred, she called out "Ruby, where are you going?"

"Zelle's hurt we have to get him back ASAP!"

"Who is Zelle?" Yang thought. Just then Pyrrha ran out of the tree line, being followed by a deathstalker. She jumped through its claw as it attempted to grab her and rolled, continuing her run.

"Did she just run all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked.

Yang was on the edge of bursting. The air exploded around her and she yelled "Would everyone just chill out for two seconds before-" She was cut off as a nevermore appeared above them and let out a screech and Pyrrha unceremoniously landing at their feet.

"Great, now we can all die together." Yang said rolling her eyes. Then she saw Ruby and Weiss mounting the beowolf before it turned northwards and began dashing away.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang shouted before running to catch up to her sister.

Jaune having gotten himself out of the tree and said, I agree with Yang a retreat seems like the best option right now. Everyone nodded and took off after Yang, with the deathstalker on their heels and the Nevermore occasionally spraying down large feathers. Eventually they got to an area that looked like old ruins.

Ruby was ahead of the group quite a ways. When she turned around, she noticed that everyone was being tailed by a deathstalker and a nevermore. Turning Crescent Rose into sniper form she began opening fire on the deathstalker, allowing everyone to get a little more room. Ryo quickly moved across the bridge with everyone else following. Just when they thought they were safe, the nevermore crashed into the bridge separating everyone.

Blake, Ren, Pyrrha and Yang were on one side and everyone else on the other. Yang and Pyrrha were engaging the deathstalker while Blake and Ren provided fire support with their pistols. Pyrrha let one of its claws run across her shield before she attempted to stab it a few times. However Akouo couldn't penetrate its armor. It hissed and attemted to sting her, only for Yang to uppercut the stinger, effectively redirecting it.

"We need to get over there and help them," Jaune said.

"Nora came up beside him and says, "Let's do this."

"Yeah but I don't think I can make that jump." Nora's grin grew devious.

She went to the edge of the broken bridge before smashing it on the end, sending Jaune flying yet again. With Jaune set she stood on her hammer before firing a grenade into the broken rubble behind her, sending her flying as well. Jaune landed. Then Nora came in and smashed the grimm's head. It attempted to impale her, which she jumped back using her hammer as the fulcrum. She didn't take into account Blake who was right behind her. Yang distracted by the two allies coming to help, didn't see the claw that knocked her down into the cliff as well.

Blake seeing Yang falling used chucked half of her weapons, impaling it into a wall. She swung herself to safety, catching Yang in the process.

"Thanks for swinging by." Yang joked with a shit eating grin. Blake resisted the urge to groan at the terrible pun as she got them to safety and returned her weapon towards her. Ruby and Weiss were opening fire on the Nevermore, leaving Zelle with Ryo. Their weapons seemed to have almost no effect.

"This is pointless, we haven't even scratched the thing yet." Growled Weiss. Ruby nodded, her brain working up countless possibilities. Yang and Blake joined the two and helped in firing at the Nevermore.

While all of this was going on Ryo moved something around in its mouth before he brought his maw down with a crunch on whatever it was. Looking down, he saw the unmoving form of Zelle. Ryo spat out whatever it was munching on revealing a black powdery substance. He then released it all over Zelle's face.

The Nevermore had just destroyed the building that was in the center of the ruins. Ruby had come up with a plan. "Weiss I have a plan, cover-" She didn't get to finish. A primal roar echoed throughout the cavern, shaking the ruins foundations. Everyone paused to stare in the direction of the former building, even the grimm paused. Admist the rubble stood a man. His green shirt torn, so it wasn't even hanging off his body. Blood, dry and fresh, could be seen on his torso. But what was most frightening were the black that clung to his body. Stretching from the right side of his face to the majority of his upper torso. His formerly white hair now black.

The man then leaped, creating a crater in the unstable structure of the ruins. He flew at the Nevermore before punching it sending it careening towards the cliffs where it crashed into. Ruby was ecstatic, Zelle was ok! But she had a bigger problem to deal with, Weiss freeze it to the cliff. Weiss nodded and using speed glyphs, quickly approached the nevermore and froze the its tail to the cliff before it could fly away.

Leaping back she found Ruby on her scythe bouncing into Blake's ribbon while Yang was firing shots at the massive grimm to keep it from moving too much. Using her gravity dust, she created a gravity glyph just as Ruby extended the ribbon to its max length.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked.

"Can I?" Weiss responded, with smugness tinting her voice. Ruby looked a little worried.

"Can you?"

"Of course I can." And with that, she launched Ruby at the Nevermore, creating glyphs that went all the way up the cliff. Ruby's scythe caught around the Nevermore's neck as she began firing off her sniper's gravity bullets and began ascending up the cliff breaking the ice and taking the Nevermore with her. At the top of her ascent she gave one last massive tug and fired the gun decapitating the grimm.

The other group were finishing with their adversary as well. The stinger was cut off and had fallen into the top of the deathstalker's head. It was in a prime position for them to eliminate the deathstalker.

"Nora, nail it" Jaune called. Nora saluted and Pyrrha raised her shield and Nora jumped on top. With that she fired off Magnhild and Pyrrha jumped launching her up into the air and shattering whatever was left of the bridge they were on. She had a big grin on her face as she reached the peak of her ascension. As gravity took hold, that grin was soon wiped as something crashed into her with the force of a freight train.

Jaune and Pyrrha could only gape as their once flawless plan was now interrupted. They quickly moved themselves off the bridge while the deathstalker was distracted by its own pain. Looking over to where Nora was, they saw her faced down on the ground and the man who had punched the nevermore standing, growling over at them.

Ren was the first to react, he pulled out his guns storm flower and leveled them at the man. There was something very off about this man. Ren was very in tune with emotions and aura. This man in front of him gave off the same feeling as grimm do, though that wasn't too surprising considering his feral appearance and the black covering his body.

Before anyone could do anything, the man disappeared leaving a crater in his wake, and then they heard a sickening crunch sound. Turning around, all of them stared wide eyed as the man just punched a whole straight through the deathstalker. The carcass then began to dissolve as the man pulled out his arm. Then he growled at them.

Pyrrha had only a second to react, but she wasn't called a champion for her looks. She brought her shield up just in time for the first to impact. She grit her teeth as she was sent sailing back, feet dragging as she went. Her arm was numb from that strike and in a lot of pain. Glancing over her shield, she saw it had a massive dent in it. To be able to dent Milo… Her eyes narrowed. She was going to have to get serious.

Jaune then landed a few feet away from Pyrrha in a heap, apparently he had just received the same treatment she just did. However, he wasn't able to block it and was unconscious like Nora. Ren was still too weak to help from his treatment from the deathstalker. The man was standing where he punched them both. His feet shifted and Pyrrha readied herself when a blast to his back, knocked the man forward slightly. Yang and Blake had arrived.

"Hey, what's the big idea? My sister goes and saves your life and you attack us?" Yang growled, her eyes switching between red and lilac.

"Yang, I'm not entirely sure he's all there."

As if to awnser their question, His head does an almost one hundred degree turn with a loud pop, before his body follows. Blake and Yang shiver, that was fucking creepy. Creating another crater the man moved with speeds too fast for them to react and he punched Blake. Only for his fist to go right through her, to reveal he had just punched one of her shadow clones.

Blake, who was in a nearby tree, had seen enough and opened fire with her pistols onto the man. Zelle, she remembered Ruby saying. Zelle covered his face as the dust bullets made contact him, but otherwise seemed unaffected.

Using the opportunity given, Yang rushed forward and punched Zelle with all her might sending him skidding a few feet. Ignoring the raining bullets, Zelle moved into Yang's area and they began to duke it out. Blake, not wanting to risk Yang to her gunfire, began to move stealthily towards a better position to assist.

Yang was in deep concentration as she duked it out with Zelle. She couldn't risk her semblance she knew. He moved to fast, her being angry would just end up with her out of the fight sooner. She had seen his strength. It would only take a few of his punches to knock even her out.

She ducked under the right hook and retaliated with a hard punch to the gut assisted by her gauntlets. It didn't really seem to do anything. He returned with an unexpected elbow from his other arm. Bringing, her arms up, she managed to block the strike and hold her ground. She could already feel the bruise starting to form though. Grabbing his offending limb, she chucked him over her shoulder onto the ground. Just then, Blake ran in and slashed at the fallen man.

It connected and Zelle rolled out of the hole. What surprised Blake was that he now had a large cut from where he slashed his back, blood oozing out of the wound. Blake gulped, eyes wary. Wasn't he using his aura to protect himself from the bullets? Glancing over his body she noticed large bruises already starting to form. She would question how he wasn't dead yet later.

"Guys," Blake called. "We can't use our weapons, his aura is down!"

Yang punched her hands together causing flames to erupt around her as her eyes went crimson.

"Guess that means it's up to me." A large grin spread out across her face. She was pumped.

Locking her bullets in place, she charged at Zelle. She mananged to get an easy punch on him to his face only for him to grab her arm and palm strike her elbow. She yelped in pain, she could feel that even with her aura up and it would've definitely broken her arm if her aura wasn't still quite full.

Rotating her body so her arm was bent, she closed the distance between the two elbowing Zelle's face. He let go of her arm as he was sent sailing from the increased strength of her attack. She was about to continue when red petals appeared in front of her.

"Yang wait, stop! You're going to hurt him more!" Ruby yelled.

"Move out of the way Ruby, you're going to get hurt!"

"No, Zelle is still there we just have to help him out of whatever is wrong with him."

During this time, Zelle had gotten up and was staring at Ruby. Then he charged. Yang warned her too late.

"Ruby watch out!" Yang cried. Then the force of impact caused a shockwave pushing her back.

Everyone couldn't help but worriedly stare at where the little girl in red had been standing. Dust clouded their vision due to the shockwave. Soon enough it cleared, revealing Zelle having his arm extended, fist mere millimeters away from her face. Ruby looked frightened.

Slowly, the first drew back and everyone waited with bated breaths. Ren and Nora had finally come too. The shockwave waking them up. They came up to everyone else and aimed their weapons at Zelle along with everyone else except Yang, Ruby, and Jaune.

Then Zelle slowly moved his face in front of Ruby's. Yang had to resist the urge to punch him into oblivion, while everyone else had their fingers on the triggers.

Ruby stared at Zelle, half his face was covered in the black and his right eye, formerly a forest green, was now a dark grey. His face got closer and closer to her's. Ruby would be lying if she wasn't freaking out. His eyes looked dead, blank. There was no emotion behind them.

Then she heard him whisper, so low that even Blake couldn't hear it. "Your eyes, so beautiful." Ruby felt a blush stain her cheeks at the compliment before she was forced to catch Zelle's body as it collapsed onto her.

Everyone stared in shock for what felt like the sixth or seventh time today. All that hard fighting, only to end in the man passing out. The way it happened was interesting.

"So, Ruby." Yang said. Ruby turned her head as she tried to hold Zelle into place.

"Mind explaining where you met this boy?" Ruby groaned, she was in for it. She could tell.

Zelle awoke to a white ceiling and the feeling of softness underneath him. He groaned slightly, it felt like he had torn every muscle in his body. Which really wouldn't surprise him if he did. He learned very early on that pushing his semblance beyond 8x tore his muscles to shreds. Not the good kind of shredding from a workout either. The kind that puts you in bedrest for the next few weeks. Or in his case a few days. Aura reinforcement only goes so far.

He then felt something off about himself. It was like he was nervous, jittery even. Kind of like when a scary movie was building suspense. You know something was going to happen but didn't know what. Zelle checked his surroundings warily. Off to his right was an IV that was going into his right arm. His left, a couple chairs for guests as well as a heart monitor. In the back of the room was a door.

"I wonder how long I've been out?" He thought. Glancing at the clock it was 9. Judging by the bright lights, he assumed it meant in the morning. He moved as his body burned. He had become use to destroying his muscles during training to be able to at least move instead of being cooped up.

He slowly propped himself up until he was sitting. Scooting he removed the heart monitor and the IV from his arm, those were no longer needed. He was pretty sure he was feeling that nervousness from whatever medicine they gave him. Getting up, he felt his legs scream in protest, he ignored them. Stretching, felling his stressed muscles move and give way he sighed.

This was always the worst part, trying to move around afterwards of overstressing oneself. He managed to get to the door before it burst open and a few nurses and a doctor burst through the door. The first nurse ran straight into Zelle, knocking him over. His muscles too weak to hold their combined weight. They crashed to the floor while the other two nurses and the doctor helped them both up before moving Zelle to the bed.

"All right, let go. I get it, jeez." Zelle said, jerking his arm away from the only male nurse. Who appeared to be the doctor stepped forward.

"Hello Zelle, my name is Dr. Lumen. I will be your personal doctor during your stay here." Zelle raised an eyebrow.

"You must be confused. All hunters and huntresses in training are assigned doctors upon entry into the academy." Zelle nodded his head. That made sense.

"I see you were trying to leave, however I can't let you do that until I clear you," The doctor scolded.

Zelle rolled his eyes. "Doc, I'm pretty sure I know the own limits of my body." The doctor stared at him for some time before he went and grabbed something off a table that Zelle didn't notice had been there before.

"Zelle, what was your hair and skin color before you came here?" Zelle was becoming very confused.

"White and very tan, why?"

The doctor then handed him the object he picked up. It was a mirror. Zelle gingerly took it. His instincts yelled at him to stop. However, his curiosity got the best of him. He turned the mirror around.

Staring back at him was a person with heterochromia. With the right eye being a forest green and the left being a sky blue. Alarmed, Zelle began moving the mirror. His hand shaking. His pure white hair now had black tips on the ends that extended an inch. His tan skin had turned to a cream color.

Zelle looked at the doctor. "What happened to me?"

The doctor looked at the poor boy sadly. "Sadly I'm not allowed to discuss the results of the exams to you. You will have to take that up with Headmaster Ozpin." Zelle nodded his head slowly.

"How long was I out?"

"Just two days. Your recovery speed is quite impressive even by hunter standards. Also I am to inform you of this by Professor Goodwitch." He added with a snap of his fingers. "If you feel up to it, the team categorizing ceremony begins at 4pm today."

Zelle nodded, half listening. He would need to talk to Ozpin after this.

"Well if you don't mind, I will go ahead and check you over once more before you leave. Also you should visit that Ruby girl, she is the one who brought you here." He failed to mention that she was here at least three times a day, maximizing the visiting hours.

Zelle was surprised, but didn't say anything. He wanted answers.

*Later that day*

The ceremony came quickly enough. Zelle was using a crutch to move himself around. While it was painful to use, it turned out to be more painful to just walk normally. He stood to the back of the crowd, keeping his head down, trying not to be noticed. It seemed to be working. He noticed Little Red and the rest of the girls all standing together. Zelle smiled, good for them. He hadn't really been paying attention until he heard a familiar name come up.

"Jaune Ark. Pyrrha Nikos. Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. You all retrieved the golden rook pieces. From this day forward you are team JNPR lead by Jaune Ark." Clapping erupted around the room, some just looking flat out shocked that Pyrrha didn't get captain position. Even Zelle was surprised. Just another question to ask Ozpin after all was said and done. Then Pyrrha punched Jaune's arm sending him to the floor. Excellent performance. Zelle would've face palmed if it didn't hurt so much to do so.

Ozpin continued once they moved off the stage. "Lastly, Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. You all collected the golden knight piece. However-" There were some murmurs going around as Ozpin said this and the four girls looked at Ozpin confused. Ozpin put on a small smile. Zelle decided he didn't like that smile. At all.

"Due to an odd amount of people this year, you all will have a team of five." The girls were surprised as well as both staff and students. "You will be joined by the black king, Zelle." People began clapping, looking around before Ozpin continued.

"Sadly, young Zelle had suffered extenuating injuries and will not." Ozpin paused as he heard the lone sound of clicking and movement. Zelle was moving toward the stage with his crutch. All the girls had scrunched up faces. Looks of guilt plenty evident on their faces. Zelle made it up to the stage next to Ruby and faced Ozpin. He didn't say anything.

"Well, yes moving on. From this day forward you all will be Team RWBYZ led by Ruby Rose." Applause broke out around the room. Zelle gazed hard at Ozpin and when he looked his way. He tapped his index and ring finger against his leg, before closing it into a fist. Beacon code for 'We need to talk.'

Ozpin responded by tapping his thumb twice in quick succession on his cane. Follwed by his middle finger then brushing his knuckles with his other hand. "Meet him in his office."

Things ended pretty quickly after that. Zelle quickly removed himself from the girls once Yang hugged Ruby congratulating her for her role as team leader. Yang made an amazing distraction. Crutching himself to Ozpin's office, Ozpin sat in his seat, hand clasped out in front of him.

"So what can I do today for you Mr. Zelle." Zelle sat in a seat.

"What happened in the Emerald Forest. By all accounts I should be dead." Ozpin nodded before pulling out a remote and a TV fell off to the side.

"It's a long explanation, and I will have to show you what happened. However, most of what we know is from the girls, and their views are quite." Ozpin paused. "Skewed it seems."

"Let's get this over with. I have a team that also have awnsers." Ozpin nodded and played the clip. Zelle already knew this would be a long day.

A/N: Finished! So this was a much longer chapter than I expected in all honesty. These things keep getting longer and longer. But you know I've been enjoying writing them and hope you all enjoy them too. So I'm delaying bringing out Zelle's new weapon, don't worry I haven't forgotten. It's just that the item is a lot like Ruby's scythe in the fact that it's very complex and that one small mistake could be devastating to the entire design. Thus, he is taking his time making it, just as I will add it when I feel like it would be done in canon. So far I've been sticking pretty close to canon but that should change later on. Also I don't really know how I feel about this changing perspective thing. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but with the way I write, it's just a mess. Next chapter I think I will change alternating pov's for odd amounts of time. Like have everything be under Zelle's perspective or Ruby's or Yang's or whoever is the primary character for a scene. Tell me what you all think. Should I keep the open switching perspective or do a limited third person character point of view?