So…in case it wasn't clear before, this story is going to be a MAJOR AU for both Winx Club and RWBY. Mind, we're only dealing with the first season for both at present, but things are going to diverge pretty sharply as the story progresses. Little things make big impact craters. This particular section takes place during the Jaundice arc.

The Burning Beacon

Chapter 7: Warming Up to It

Ruby looked around the office again, taking in every knick-knack, book, and painting the headmaster kept on display. The book on fairy tales struck her as weird, but she kept quiet until Pyrrha returned from her trip to deposit Nora in the infirmary. To their right, Team BSMR stood or sat in varying states of excitement ranging from nervous (Mirta) to barely-restrained glee (Stella).

The team's formation was her fault, in a sense. If she hadn't been put on the attendance books at the last minute, Bloom would have lead one of the teams. But Ozpin shoehorned her into the first year class and left Bloom by herself until Stella and the magical transfers showed up. She still wasn't sure what to think about the blonde girl. Yeah, she and Weiss got on good and she had Aura to spare, but the way she showed up out of nowhere was just odd. Bloom hadn't known about her before the first test; the little talk they had the night before told her that much. But Stella showed up afterward, exhausted but intact and enrolled which begged the question: who was she and where did she come from?

"Ah, the last of you is here." Ozpin's voice broke her out of her mental musings while Professor Goodwitch shut the door to the office. "It's time to begin. Let me start by re-iterating my earlier statement: it is your choice how much you tell your teammates and partners, but do not reveal all without first informing myself or team BSMR, and do not discuss the matter outside your dorms, or in your dorms without the doors and windows shut."

That…sounded a bit like overkill, but okay. Whatever they had to say must be really important. "Of course, Professor Ozpin, but why the secrecy?" Beside her, Pyrrha nodded in agreement. Good. Well, maybe not good, but at least she wasn't the only one feeling lost.

"Story time," Bloom said, cyan eyes looking over the pair of them. "As Ruby probably remembers, I started off at this school as the student most likely to end up without a partner or team after the First Test. Between the number of students and skill needed to pass…well, it was going to be me or Pyrrha and wound up being me. I found the temple and retrieved the token no problem, but on the way back to the rendezvous point…well, things got kinda freaky. Do any of you remember feeling a massive burst of energy during the test?"

Ruby didn't, but from the look on Pyrrha's face, she had. "I thought it was someone making use of their Aura in a big way," the taller girl answered.

"Well, she's only half-wrong." Stella smirked.

"Oh, hush you. Anyway, I was only a few yards from the energy spike and decided to investigate," Bloom continued. "Imagine my surprise when I found not a hunter and a Grimm, but a woodland ogre, a pack or two of lesser Helspawn, and a Fay fighting to banish the monsters."

Something niggled at the back of her mind at the word 'Fay'. Something she'd read or seen a long time ago but hadn't completely committed to memory. She frowned and made a note to ask Yang about it later.

Or, she would have if Pyrrha hadn't done it for her. "But there aren't any Fay on Remnant, at least not anymore. And we don't have woodland ogres in this kingdom and Helspawn require a summoning circle to bring forth…"

"Give the girl a prize." Stella smiled warmly at the confused Huntress as something akin to recognition flashed in Pyrrha's green eyes. "I'm studying here as a Huntress, yes, but Remnant and Vale weren't my scheduled destination when I left home. I was on my way to Magix via portal when the damn things jumped me and knocked me off course. The portal spat us out in the Evergreen Forest. I was holding them off best I could and trying to figure out why the ugly thing wanted my scepter when Bloom showed up to the party and helped drive them off. By the time it was over, I'd exhausted my magical reserves and collapsed."

"You're a Fay?" Pyrrha asked the blonde. Stella nodded. "I suppose you were on your way to the school in Magix, then. Why did they want your weapon? The staff is powerful, yes, but I didn't think it was worth that much trouble."

"No one else can tap into it like I can, but it's strong." Stella shook her head. "The Scepter of Solaria is a family heirloom, passed from Ruler to Heir in the royal family for…well, I'm not sure exactly how many generations, but at least the last six. It's said to tap into the 'heart' energy of our planet to give the wielder a power boost and focus tool for their magic. Daddy wasn't powerful enough to do much with it, but he and Gramma said I'm one of the strongest fairies the royal line has seen in recent years. Or, I will be, once I finish my training. Point is, it's a powerful magical focus with an energy of its own. Someone must need that energy to power a spell or ritual, hence the repeated attempts to take it away from me."

"Wait, royal family?" Her brain had kinda fixated on that part and refused to move. "You're a fay princess?"

A wide smirk brightened the blonde's formerly somber features. "Princess Stella Luna Solis, daughter of King Radius Solis and heir apparent to the throne of Solaria, at your service."

"And once the other schools in Magix heard what happened to her, they decided to get involved by…"

"Sending bodyguards disguised as transfer students." Pyrrha finished Bloom's sentence for her. The fire-wielding redhead didn't seem to mind.

"W-well, not exactly," Mirta spoke up, blushing bright as Bloom's hair at her own boldness. All eyes turned in the diminutive witch's direction, causing the blush to spread down her neck and up over her nose. "Riven m-might have been chosen as a bodyguard, but Headmistress Griffin picked me because she thought I might learn more here than at C-Cloud Tower." A shudder passed over the girl's frail shoulders. "The older students there…so much d-dark magic and emotions…it was like a constant sinus migraine."

"Wait, you're an empath too?!" Stella whirled around to look at her teammate, shock painted on her face. "And you didn't think to mention it sooner?"

"Oops?" The small girl winced. Stella sighed.

"Sweetie, if you'd told me that when we first met, I'd have helped you set up a null field. No wonder you had so much trouble focusing in class!"

"Wait, I'm confused." Bloom frowned. "What's an empath, and a null field, and why would Mirta need one?" Ruby nodded; she'd wondered that herself but hadn't been quick enough to ask.

"Empaths feel and draw strength from the emotions of those around them. Or weakness, sometimes; it depends on the situation," Stella said. "Most empaths are low level—they possess enough sensitivity to instinctively know what the people in their vicinity feel, enough to know when someone's lying to them, but only in a passive capacity. They feel some of the energy, but can't manipulate it. To be getting headaches and energy drain…" she made a circular gesture with her left hand that Ruby didn't understand before fixating on her teammate again. "It's not just immediate vicinity with you, is it Mirta?"

Mirta shook her head, blood-colored tresses swishing as she did. "I c-could sense half of Cloud Tower and the school itself—which is a giant sentient fungus—at any given time." The words were almost a whisper. "The population here is smaller and more stable, but…"

"Still enough for a decent-sized headache." Stella pinched the bridge of her nose. "We'll work on a null field for you tonight. Even if it's not complete, it should block out enough emotional energy for you to function properly tomorrow."

Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch had an entire conversation in frowns, shrugs, and eyebrow movements while this played out. She didn't understand any of it, but supposed it had to be related to Mirta's little bombshell. Eventually Ozpin sighed and gestured to Professor Goodwitch, who started to speak. "We'll set up a bi-weekly schedule with someone who can teach you to control this power once this meeting concludes, Miss Vance. If you don't, you could unwittingly broadcast enough fear and sadness to bring a horde of Grimm to the gates." Mirta's blushed cheeks darkened further at the implication.

Ruby'd never thought much about magic and magic-users. Most Remnant natives were lucky to manage a Semblance, nevermind anything stronger. The only ones she'd wager being close to 'traditional' magic were Professor and Bloom Goodwitch, and even then she wasn't sure how much of the professor's energy constructs came from the dust that powered her focus wand/riding crop. Bloom, though…that girl had literal firepower, which was unheard of for a modern huntress. Stella's energy constructs made a lot more sense now that she knew the girl was Fay, but Bloom? Not so much. "I'm guessing this makes getting a focus wand even more important, huh?"

"Indeed," Ozpin remarked. "Well, now that we've hit the high points, as it were, are there any more questions from the two of you?"

"Is he some kind of super-mage too?" She asked, not taking her eyes off Riven in case he disappeared on her.

Riven snorted. "I have enough energy to run a phantoblade, but nothing on their level." He jerked his thumb at the other three members of the team.

"It might be enough for a semblance, though." Professor Goodwitch speculated, studying the man in question. "We'll address that at another time. For now, all of you could do with some rest after this afternoon's excitement."

"Yes. Go to your dorms, relax, start on your homework—even with today's excitement, it will still be due tomorrow," Ozpin told them.

She thought it was a little unfair, but she wasn't the headmaster and didn't want to look anymore childish than she was sure she already did and thus kept that opinion to herself. She could use a hot bath and a long talk with Yang. And maybe a couple rounds of video games to help focus her swirling thoughts.

Mirta had never had the luxury of a null field before. Lucy tried, but hadn't been strong or skilled enough to maintain one for her. Since empaths of her capabilities were so rare that most teachers at Cloud Tower hadn't had a clue how to help block the emotional tsunami that was the student population. She spared a moment to wonder how Princess Stella knew how to cast one but swiftly discarded it. Odds were good that knowing might get her in trouble someday.

"It's…it's like I can breathe again," she whispered, tears building up in the corners of her eyes. Beacon Academy felt less crushing than Cloud Tower, but she hadn't realized how much she'd picked up before the field went in place.

"I imagine so." Stella eyed her like the latest fashion craze. They were the only two in the room, Riven gone to finish working with Jaune and Bloom off to visit Nora in the infirmary. "So, care to explain why you weren't outfitted with one before now?"

"Cloud Tower's scans are vague at best. It can tell you your source and areas of expertise, but not output on a passive ability like empathy." And she was the first strong empath from Outcastus in four generations, so no one back home could teach her to control her abilities knee-to-knee. "Headmistress Griffin wanted to save the null field as a last resort—she severely overestimated how much control I have. My roommate, Lucy, tried to rig up a blocking field, but it didn't work at all. We figured I'd just have to stock up on headache potions until the year ended and we knew enough for a third try at a field." That or she collapsed in the halls and forced the headmistress to set up the field that way, but she really hated that plan.

From the look on Stella's face, perhaps she did as well. "Well, when it's daylight in Magix, we'll ask to put a call through to Faragonda about training. Even if she doesn't know what to do for you, I'd bet my new pair of shoes she knows someone who can."

"Y-you don't have to do that. I'm not worth the bother." She never was to anyone but her mother. Too soft and kindhearted, too magically and physically weak or inferior—the other students at Cloud Tower knew this and reminded her daily. With time, Lucy would start to believe them, like she already did. Such was life as a witch (no matter how much it sucked).

The blonde's eyes widened as she rushed to the bed and planted herself next to Mirta. "Oh, no, no, no, sweetie. You're no bother at all. Well, your fashion sense is a little off, but we can work around that." Stella laid her perfectly-manicured hands over the top of hers. "For all I know, we'll be stuck here the full four years it takes to complete Beacon. Which, yeah, it sucks being away from the magical dimension so long, but I honestly can't think of a witch I'd rather spend time with than you. Hell, I wish more witches were like you. You just need a little confidence, that's all, and that we can definitely work on."

Warmth blossomed in her chest, budding at her heart before fanning out into the rest of her. "No one's said that to me in a very long time, Princess Stella."

"Well, you better get used to it. Teams are supposed to be like family around here, I'm told, and that means you're stuck with me and Bloom and Riven as faithful guard dogs until you're ready to take care of yourself. Deal?"

She nodded. "Absolutely."