TIME SKIP.
Team RWBY and RAVN walked through the streets of Vale, the former telling about their first sight of magic. Team RAVN played very good audience, gasping at the right time and cheering when they were victorious over the Grimm attacking the repair crew at the bridge between the forest and the cliff.
"Was that really an old man who waved his stick in the air and blew fire out of it?" Vixen asked, her eyes dramatically enlarged. Yang nodded. "Yes, and after the fire turned into several animals, before it started to eat the Goliath Grimm that came running towards us. It was amazing to see how soon the Grimm was nothing more that a burning husk." Yang said as she started to wave her hands in a desperate way to animate how the Goliath had burned.
"Look, Fire is fire. That's all." Said Ray as he walked at the back of the group. "Even a Grimm known that fire is dangerous. What I want to know is how that old man arrived at Beacon with the headmaster. According to what you said Yang, they popped up in the middle of the field."
Ruby nodded as she looked at Ray. "Yes, they somehow popped right out of midair. It was awesome." Ray looked at Ruby. "Then if that is one of their travel methods, then why haven't we seen more wizards and witches popping out of air, like the old man did?"
Everyone looked at Ray. He had a good point. If one wizard could pop out of thin air, then how many wizards could do the same? "Maybe the old man wants to keep Remnant for himself. A secret place where he can become the new Oum." Ray said bitterly as he walked towards the harbor, where Weiss had wanted to go.
"What do you mean?" Asked Blake as she secretly sniffed the air, and her stomach started to rumble because of the fish-smell in the air.
"Oh never mind him. He's just having one of his days." Said Angel. Ray glared at his cousin. "I'm having one of my days? We got the car back, just in time for the holidays, and who breaks it?"
Angel became a bit red in the face. "Well, it's not my fault that the accelerator broke, just as I was trying to park." She said as she walked past a small stall that sold fairy tale books. She turned around and started to look at the different books.
"Oh, here's one that I always wanted." Nova said as she stood next to Angel. It was a book that contained several stories, including the story of the seasons.
"I'd like this one, please." Angel said as she handed the book to the saleswoman, an older woman with short straight brown hair, that started to turn to grey at some points. Angel was vividly remembered of the Fall Maiden, who lay in a comatose condition in a pod under Beacon Academy.
"That will be five Lien please." The elder lady said. Angel patted her pockets trying to find her wallet, but she couldn't find it. "Oh darn, I must have left it in my room." Angels said as she looked at the lady. "Ray?"
"Oh for the love of..." Ray mumbled as he removed his wallet and gave the lady a small five Lien note. "You owe me for this, Angel." Ray said as he looked at his cousin.
"Fine, whatever." Angel said.
Ray knew better. He had been using very little of the Tri-wizard tournament money and what he did used, he sold via a few pawnshops in Vale. It did seem to be a very valuable metal to Remnant, as it wasn't known to Remnant. Dust was the main suspect in Harry's eyes. Or actually, the Schnee Dust Company. Since the SDC owned almost ninety percent of all Dust mines in Remnant, there were very few places where one could look for Gold.
So, Ray had sold ten Galleons to different Pawnshops in Remnant, and even two official banks, and thanks to that, Ray had a nice buffer saved for expenses. He was just putting up a show for Team RWBY.
"Hey, what's that?" Ruby asked as she looked at a building, taped of by police, with two detectives working inside the closed of space. It was a Dust shop, and said Dust shop had a broken window. The insides of the shop was torn apart, with not a single speck of Dust to be found. Teams RWBY and RAVN stepped closer to the store. "What happened?" Ruby asked to the nearest detective.
"Dust robbery, second dust-shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." One of the detectives said, his eyes covered with sunglasses and his face with a beard. Ray shook his head, as he walked past the shop and leaned against the wall. There were two security camera's in the shop, and if he could get his team to hack them, then they could identify the ones who did this. Then again, if it was the White Fang, as the two detectives suggested, he would only get to see the White Fang grunts in their uniform. Not really handy for facial recognition.
Seeing Weiss and Blake arguing about the Faunus and the White Fang, Ray shook his head and motioned his team to follow him.
"Should we get involved?" Ray asked his team as they stood on the side. As Harry Ozpin, he knew what was going to happen within 48 hours. Within 48 hours, Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna and a Faunus by the name of Sun Wukong, and a synthetic droid with the name P.E.N.N.Y., would prevent Roman Torchwick from collecting a large supply of Dust. "Let's get back to Old Abby. The car might be done and we'll be able to drive her back to Beacon." Said Nova as she looked at Angel. "NO. You are not allowed to Drive." She said as Angel wanted to call dibs again. "Dibs." Vixen said, causing Ray, Angel and Nova to look at her. "What?"
"Vixen. You can't drive a car. Not only are you to young for it, but you grew up the the wizarding world, where they see cars like ours as a mechanical monster. Only Angel, Nova and myself can drive it." Said Ray.
"Hey. If I'm not old enough, then you are all not old enough." Said Vixen as she glared at Ray, for saying she was to young. Ray smiled at the young orange haired girl.
"Yes, I may be to young to drive a car. But Professor Ozpin did gave me permission to drive it. After all, Old Abby had installed the Dust Crystal converter into it." With those words, Ray started to walk towards the car-shop that was known as Old Abby.
"What do mean, it's not ready?" Ray asked, as he looked at the owner of Old Abby. A man, about fifty years of age with white hair and a white mustache with yellow eyes and a a cat tail around his middle. His name was Turpentine Grey, but most people called him Terp.
"Just as I said, kid. I'm not a miracle worker. The car has been through some extensive remodeling, and while I know I'm good, I'm not that good. Magenta is working on it as we speak."
"Oh. Okay." Ray said as he looked past the current owner of Old Abby, Turpentine (Terp) Grey to the vehicle where his daughter of 23 was working. She had blue eyes, yellow hair and like her father, a cat tail.
"Fine" Ray sighed as he looked at Terp. "Do you know if we can borrow something?" Ray asked as he looked at his watch. Only ten minutes left before the Bullheads would return to Beacon. While he knew Professor Ozpin or Goodwitch would allow an extra fight with the Bullheads, they would be in some trouble, as they were not in their dorm before curfew.
"Well. I do got something. They're old, sturdy and almost impossible to break. I was almost thinking about to throw them away, but if you want them to use." Terp said as he looked at the confused faces of team RAVN.
"What do you mean?" Angel asked. She, like Vixen had very few experience with technology of Remnant, even after living some years in downtown Vale. Of course, she could blame it on the long periods of study at Hogwarts.
"Follow me." Terp said as he guided the team to a storage compartment, where dozens of different items were placed.
"Welcome to our stockroom." Terp said, as he waved his hands around. To the organized mind of Angel Star/Hermione Granger, the stockroom looked one giant mess, but to Ray Star/Harry Ozpin, it showed order in the chaos. "I like it." Ray said as he looked around. "I knew you would. Come, the things I have for you are at the end of this room."
Terp lead them through several rooms, each containing something different, until they came to the last room. Here they saw two old dirt bikes standing together, faded colors and some dirt still on it.
"Nice" Ray said as he looked at the bikes.
"I thought so to. The thing with these dirt-bikes is that you can carry a passenger, and it's not that difficult to drive. Even your cousin might be able to do it." Terp said as he looked at the red faced Angel.
"Now, the bikes are powered by a single Lightning Dust crystal. Each crystal gives you enough power to drive a thousand Kilometers before you have to recharge them. You recharge them by fusing your aura with the crystal, but make sure you don't fuse the crystal with your body. This meter here," Terp pointed out a small meter on the bike, next to the speed-meter, "Shows how much power the crystal has left."
Opening a small compartment on the bikes, Terp showed the crystal he was talking about. "Come on. Try it out." Terp encouraged Vixen and Angel as Ray and Nova stood by and watched with amusement."It won't bite, would it?" Vixen asked, as she looked at the bike in front of her.
"No, it won't bite." Said Terp as he smiled at the orange haired girl.
"Come on, just throw some aura in it and we can be off. We need to drive towards Beacon and that will be at least fifteen minutes." said Ray, while Nova used her scroll to text Glynda Goodwitch that they would be a bit later.
"Here, use these." A female voice said as Vixen and Angel had charged the Lightning crystal. They looked up to see Magenta Grey looking at them, her arms filled with both grease stains and four helmets.
"Okay. We'll take them, and when you're done with the car, we'll return these to you." Said Ray as he took a black helmet from Magenta. Nova took a white one for the young faunus girl and Vixen took the Yellow one, leaving Angel to take the silver one.
Pushing a button on the wall, Terp allowed the door that was at the back of the room to be opened. Thanking Terp and Magenta, Ray jumped on one of the bikes and pulled Angel behind him. Nova jumped on the other bike and pulled Vixen behind her.
Firing up the engines, Ray was surprised that the bike didn't make very loud noises. Waving to Terp and his daughter, Ray rode the bike carefully out of the shop, with N ova following him. Opening the throttle a bit, Ray found that the power of the single Lightning crystal was more than enough to power the bike. Setting course to Beacon Academy, Ray watched as Nova came riding next to him.
"Ray" Angel shouted as she held on tightly to Ray's vest. "We will not be doing that."
"Fine." Ray said as he shook his head to Nova, then pointed towards Angel behind him, who was holding Ray tightly. Shaking her head, Nova slowly accelerated, creating more distance between them.
With ten minutes past, Ray and Angel finally entered Beacon Academy property. Setting the two bikes in the car park next to Weiss Diamant F car, Angel got of the bike and removed her helmet.
"I'm never again going on one of those things." She said as she watched Ray stepping off it. "How did you learn to drive anyway?"
"When you work with Winter, you get some extensive training. Her combat training was FUBAR, but she also taught me to drive. She pulled a few strings to get me my license for driving both a bike, like this one, and a car, like the one you crashed." Said Ray as he looked at Angel.
"Hey, if that car had been properly fixed before I got behind the wheel, then maybe you wouldn't have to spent all that money to the garage for repairing it. You could have just waved your wand and be done with it." Said Angel as she and Ray, argued with each other while they went to the dormitories, where they knew Vixen and Nova were waiting.
Before they could enter their dormitory, they heard loud noised coming from Team RWBY's dorm. Looking at each other, Ray and Angel carefully made their way to the door, and were about to knock on it when they heard Blake's voice.
"WELL, MAYBE WE WERE JUST TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND!"
A second or two was followed by silence, before the door of Team RWBY's dorm was forcefully opened and Blake Belladonna, one of the team members of team RWBY ran out of the dorm. She almost collided with Ray and Angel , but was able to slip past them and out of the hallway before they knew what was going on.
"Blake, Come back." Ray and Angel heard Ruby call, but all she got in return was a deafening silence.
"What happened?" Ray asked as he looked inside Team RWBY's dorm. There, Yang Xiao Long sat in a chair, her face in shock. Ruby Rose, team leader of team RWBY looked at the two of them, her face showing both shock and sadness. Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company stared at the opening of the door, where Ray and Angel were standing, before she crossed her arms and turned her back to the two.
"Weiss?" Ray asked as he stepped inside, ignoring both Ruby and Yang's protests. "What's going on in that brain of yours?"
"You don't need to know. This isn't a matter for team RAVN. Leave us." Weiss said, as she turned around to look Ray in the eyes. Despite being older, Ray and Weiss were about the same height. "Maybe, maybe not. What matters now is that Blake is outside, and one of her team mates is not the least concerned for her health. That tells me that something is going on."
"Blake just revealed to us that she was a member of the White Fang." Ruby said softly. Ray looked at the young leader of team RWBY and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I know." Ray said as he looked at Ruby. Three pairs of eyes looked at the team leader of Team RAVN.
"You knew?" Weiss asked, her voice becoming louder every passing second. "You knew and NEVER TOLD ANYONE?" she shouted. Ray looked at Weiss, his whole body seemed to change. From a fun loving kid who got into Beacon Academy earlier, Ray's aura started to glow a bright blue, his eyes changed from light blue to a blazing green.
"I knew it the moment when Blake thanked me in Velvet's place." Ray growled out. "Remember that day, Weiss? When Velvet was being bullied by Cardin and his band of idiots? Do you remember what I did?"
Weiss stepped a few steps back. She had that day clearing in her mind, when Team CRDL had bullied Velvet, a timid bunny Faunus, and member of team CFVY, a second year team.
When Cardin had grabbed one of Velvet's ears, Ray had thrown his knife in Cardin's lower arm, causing Cardin to scream in fright and pain, and forced his hand to let go of Velvet's ear. While Ray got a week of detentions, including a verbal assault of Professor Goodwitch, he retorted back that it was the staff's own fault. Goodwitch had asked him how he thought so, and Ray explained that no staff member was ever present during their breaks.
Professor Ozpin promised to appoint someone to oversee the free periods, including breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, before Professor Goodwitch could give Ray more detentions.
That time, Ray hadn't looked like a nice boy, but like a true warrior who had seen combat before.
It was after that time that Blake had come to Ray, after Ray had cooled down and thanked him for standing up to the Faunus in the school.
"I see that you do remember. Do I need to put a knife in your arms as well, Princess?" Ray asked, his eyes still burning with a intense green flame.
"Now, are we going to warn Professor Goodwitch, or are we going to stay here and pretend that there is nothing wrong?" Said Ray, his eyes looking at each member of Team RWBY, except for Blake, because of obvious reasons. "I'll do it." Ruby said as she pulled her scroll from her combat skirt. Quickly she typed a message to Professor Goodwitch, who responded back within a minute that she would search Beacon Academy grounds. She also ordered them to go to bed.
"Tomorrow, we'll help you with searching, if she's not back." Said Ray as he stepped out of the dorm of Team RWBY and walking several steps, entered the dorm of Team RAVN. There, Nova and Vixen were waiting for them.
"Blake's gone. She accidentally let slip that she was a member of the White Fang. By that, she let slip that she's a Faunus. This didn't worked out her, and in a panic, she left the dorms. Tomorrow, If she's still missing, Team RAVN will aid Team RWBY in searching for Blake Belladonna."
Nova looked behind Ray, and saw both Angel and Yang standing there. "What is it?" Nova asked as Yang entered the dorm.
"While it's not your concern, I appreciate the effort you will put in finding my partner. I wanted you to know that. Here are the scroll numbers of Ruby, Weiss, Blake and myself." Said Yang as she placed a piece of paper on one of the desks. She turned away and was about to step out of the dorm, when she was hold back by a hand.
"Yang." A soft voice said. Yang turned around, her eyes meeting those of Nova. "We will find her. She's a friend of us all. And we'll make sure that she'll understand that."
Yang nodded and smiled slightly, before she made her way back to the dorm of Team RWBY. "Get to bed." Ray ordered as he started to undress himself. "Tomorrow we're going to look for Blake.
They woke up at seven AM. Team RAVN was ready to go in less that one hour, with Ray asking Professor Goodwitch about the whereabouts of Blake Belladonna. Informing the deputy that Team RAVN would work together with Team RWBY in locating the missing student.
Team RWBY's leader, Ruby Rose accepted the help that Team RAVN offered and told them that they would search the inner city, while Team RAVN would search the outer city. They all agreed to keep a ear-piece with them, that connected to their scroll. So that, if someone found Blake, they would be able to call the rest quickly.
Ray and Nova agreed to ride the two bikes that they borrowed from Old Abby. They rode down the road, while the RWY of Team RWBY and AV of team RAVN made their way to the city via Bullhead.
Ray agreed to take the South side of the city of Vale, making sure to ride past the walls and ask the Vale guards if anyone had been seen crossing the walls. He would also ride through a part of the industrial district. Nova nodded and told the rest that she would be going towards the upper-class district up North. She also had a cheque with her from Ray to pay a contractor to build a vacation home on the coast side of the Upper-class district. Angel and Vixen would start their search with Team RWBY and split up after a certain time.
"Excuse me." Ray called to two guards who were standing on top of a large wall, that protected the city of Vale from the creatures of Grimm. "Did you happen to see a young girl in black and white, with black hair and a bow on top cross the wall?"
The two guards shook their heads and Ray thanked them for their trouble and rode further, stopping at some points to talk to a local. One local remembered seeing a girl of his description and told him that she and a monkey Faunus boy had been drinking something on a terrace in the residential district. Thanking the man, Ray made a call to the rest, telling them that Blake had been seen with another Faunus at a café.
Nova was just finishing her business with the contractor for a vacation home, when the call came in. "I'll be there as soon as possible. Nova out." Nova said as she hung up on the call.
"This will be enough to get you started, I hope." Nova said with a charming smile while she handed the cheque over to the contractor. He nodded, but told Nova that he could only build after winter(*) had past. Nova nodded and thanked the man again, before she jumped on her bike and rode away to the residential district, where she met the rest of the group. They all asked around, and the owner of the cafe had pointed out in what direction Blake and the monkey Faunus had been off to.
While knowing what was probably going to happen, but not wanting the others to know it, Ray talked with the rest of Team RWBY. They agreed that both Nova and Ray would go the the docks, while Angel, Vixen, Ruby,Weiss and Yang would slowly corner Blake in. Ruby it seemed was soon distracted after meeting with Penny, a girl she had met the other day, while Ray and the others had been at Old Abby. So, Weiss and Yang left Ruby with Penny and continued their search, while Ruby worked with Penny to continue the search, and for Ruby to answer several questions from Penny.
Night had fallen, and soon the teams knew that they had to return to Beacon. They were just about to call it a day, when they all heard an explosion and seeing a dust cloud rising up in the air.
"Bingo" Ray said as he turned around and rode towards the origin of the explosion.
"Gotcha" Nova said as she rode towards the explosion.
Others responded as well. Ruby and Penny looked at the cloud and moaned. "Oh No."
Weiss and Yang nodded and started to walk towards the docks. Vixen and Angel nodded and from a a secret compartment on her belt, Vixen removed a broomstick. Forcing Angel to sit on the broomstick, and sitting in front of her, Vixen shot towards the docks.
Because she was using her speed semblance, Ruby and Penny were there first, soon followed by Ray and Nova. Ray could only watch as Penny retaliated for Ruby, who had been shot by Roman Torchwick.
When Penny's multiple swords deflected several White Fang grunts, Ray silently cast a tracking charm on Penny that latched onto one of her blades. As he saw Penny charging her swords into a laser, he fired another charm at Penny, one that was meant to give a physical profile.
He got his answer, of Penny's power and strength, as he found out that Penny was not a normal human girl, but a freakish robot, build to represent an innocent girl. Then Penny lifted her swords, six in total with nothing more than what seemed like telekinesis. She pinned the swords into a bullhead that the White Fang was flying, and pulled it down, causing the container that the Bullhead was flying, as well as the Bullhead itself to crash on the docks, creating another explosion. From that explosion a small black box bounced around, and landed near Ray's feet. Ray looked at it, and suddenly felt a bit light-headed. Holding his hand to his forehead, Ray felt something falling in his hand. Looking at the object in his hand, Ray started at a clear Dust crystal. Perfect in any shape or form, but it didn't seem to be containing some sort of Dust.
Grabbing the box on the floor, after he had placed the clear Dust crystal in his pocket, Ray opened the box. The only content was a black Dust crystal, carefully packed within a small glass cage. A note was attached to it.
'Ray Star.
This is the other half of the crystal you'll need.
Combine it with the clear one for a weapon.
Hope it will help.
The Summer Maiden.'
Ray's eyes opened wide. He knew about Amber at Beacon, but now the Summer Maiden had contacted him, and gave him something to combine the clear crystal with.
'What is it with those maidens?' Ray asked himself. Shaking his head, Ray made his way to the rest of the group, where Ruby, Penny, Blake, Nova and the monkey Faunus were sitting.
As he sat down, Weiss and Yang started to arrive, with Angel and Vixen slowly behind them.
After Blake and Weiss exchanged some words, and Weiss telling Blake that she didn't care about Blake being a former member of the White Fang, they all made their way back to Beacon.
"He, Where's Penny?" Ruby asked, as she looked around.
Ray looked from the corner of his eyes to a car that was driving away, the tracking charm on a person in that car. Ray knew that he would see Penny again. He was certain of it.
In the office of the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin got a message on his scroll. Closing the life feed that displayed the events at the docks, Ozpin opened the message.
It was from a deep cover hunter, Qrow Branwen. His message was short...
"Queen has pawns." it said causing Ozpin to frown at the message.
(*) The seasons are the same as in Britain, Scotland, and Northern Europe.