"Professor Ozpin," Glynda Goodwitch said, "there seems to be a problem."

Sparing himself from the chaos of the cafeteria, Ozpin had taken to eating in his office years ago. His desk was certainly big enough for it. It was no surprise to Glynda to walk into the headmaster's office to see him with a forkful of turkey stuffing halfway to his mouth, looking at her with a dull expression.

He cleared his throat and pushed his plate aside. "Is there something that I'm unaware of?" he asked, steepling his fingers.

Glynda didn't respond, instead accessing her scroll and uploading a file to his computer. The holographic screen lit and showed a video of a suited Connie approaching Team CRDL in the stairwell, only to later sock the leader in the eye moments later. Ozpin raised an eyebrow.

"Disputes happen, Professor Goodwitch."

Uploading another video, Glynda watched Ozpin expectantly as Connie – glass of juice in hand – threw it the beverage in Cardin's eyes and forcibly dragged off a rabbit Faunus he had been harassing.

"Professor Ozpin," Glynda said, "I understand your reasoning for bringing Miss Carlisle into this school. But this is her first day here, and already she has accosted Mister Winchester. Twice."

"You know as well as I do that there were extenuating circumstances," Ozpin replied, reaching for his coffee.

Glynda sighed. "I know. Your hands-off policy has worked well in the past, both for the abusers and the victims. But … Miss Carlisle has had an entirely different upbringing, with different circumstances. Her mentality is that of a pack animal, if I may be so blunt. She retaliates much too quickly. She's stunted."

Ozpin was silent. Only the sound of his silverware clacking against his plate filled the room. Glynda recognized his thoughtful expression as he stared off into space, something he always did while he got his thoughts in order. And so she waited patiently, taking a seat in the chair in front of his desk with her scroll folded neatly on her lap.

"…Have you been to Atlas, Glynda?" Ozpin asked after he set his cleared plate aside.

Glynda shook her head. "Actually, no. It is too far to the North for my tastes. James has invited me several times, but I've refused."

Ozpin smirked. "Out of principle or personal reasons?"

"Both, I should say." Though Glynda's expression remained unchanged, Ozpin could see the mirth that danced in the woman's eyes. He didn't even need to question her undying contempt for James, no matter how hard the General tried to cozy up to her.

He thought for a long moment before he finally moved, pushing himself away from his desk to spin and face the massive glass clock face of the tower, which doubled as his office window, now giving a perfect view of the setting sun. "Atlas," he began, "is a cruel place. It snows nine months out of the year, and the other three are filled with freezing rain. It is barren and bleached of most life. One of the few safe havens is the Kingdom of Atlas, located at the base of the Silver Mountain. It is not uncommon for a man to walk out into the streets at night and his body not to be found until the next year, frozen in some back alley."

A sigh. A slow drink of coffee.

"But the Faunus... I see how they are treated here, in Vale," he continued. "I've seen cruelty. Nothing makes my blood boil more than to see a bright, young soul harass another. But nothing compares to what happens in Atlas. Faunus are expendable there, Miss Goodwitch. The value of a human life is worth far more than that of a Faunus. It is how the Schnee Dust Company has remained so successful, as they have a ready supply of expendable labor on hand, ready to work for a pittance. Hospitals, police… even the mailman would sooner serve a human than a Faunus, and they do. The pack mentality you mentioned is practically imprinted in their genes; they form packs as it is the only way to survive."

Ozpin looked back to Glynda. "She is different. But we are also not her. She needs to be shown a better way of life than what she's had until now, otherwise her story will be over before it's even begun."

Glynda was silent. She was lost in her own mind this time, thinking of how best to resolve the situation at hand.

"So, we do nothing?" she finally asked.

"Yes," Ozpin replied with a nod. "At least for now. Cardin, however, will need to be dealt with if he doesn't change. We all have to grow up at some point…"

He spun in his chair, turning to face the setting sun. "But, for now, let us leave them to their own devices. They are only children once, and I want to give them as much time and freedom as I can for them to enjoy it."

-O-O-O-

Why?

That one word floated around and around Connie's head. Why had that Faunus refused her help? Why wasn't anyone else helping?

…Why was she even here?

Connie shuffled through Beacon, not paying attention to where she was going. The halls were empty, devoid of the hall monitors that swarmed through Ironwood like a plague. She had hated them with a passion, as they were hand-selected from the meanest, roughest students on campus to make their life a living hell for both Faunus and humans. And yet, she had known they were the enemy. She had known the teachers were the enemy, that humans were the enemy. She had known to square her shoulders and bow her head before a human, lest she be made an example of. She had known to cover for an ally, keeping them safe from the retribution of the Disciplinary Committee. It was the way her world had worked – the humans were the masters, and the Faunus were the serfs.

And yet, this place confused her. No, everywhere confused her. She had met cruel humans and kind ones in her travels, just as she had encountered cruel and kind Faunus. In the last two days, she had been given the opportunity of a lifetime by Professor Ozpin and confronted a bully. Tolerance and racism. She had found just as many faults as she did good things.

She almost preferred the black and white hell she came from. At least there she could make some sense of it.

Shaking her head, Connie let her feet carry her to her dorm.

Her fox was just as confused, the inner animal slinking in the back of her mind. Though she wasn't in any danger now, her instincts were ready to jump in and tear into anything that even looked at her strange. She was tightly wound as she shuffled her way up four flights of stairs, shoulders tense as she strode to her dorm. It was dark now, leaving the light of the moon to shine through the hall windows. In all honesty it was much like the previous night, though she could hear the muffled conversations of teams that were unwilling to go to bed quite yet.

That much was similar to Ironwood, she noted with a sigh.

Connie made her way to the end of the hall, not paying attention and lost in thought, and so when the door just ahead of her swung open she leapt back with a growl in her throat. Her ears were splayed and she was ready to flee.

Before her was a girl shorter than herself, and that was saying something. She had black hair, highlighted with red, and wore pajamas with the picture of a Beowolf on the front that was far cuter than the real thing, toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste in hand.

They stared at each other before the girl let out an excited squeal. "O-oh! You! You're the pilot of the M7!" she shouted gleefully, pointing at her with the toothbrush

Connie jerked back as if struck. "U-uh …"

Not even a second after the girl's outburst three other heads peeked around the corner of the doorframe, one above the other. The top one had a mane of long blond hair and violet eyes that twinkled with equal parts curiosity and mischief. The next one wore a black bow and was the most neutral of all of them, simply looking her over with slanted amber eyes.

It was the last face, closest to the floor that made her tense. Her blue eyes seemed to bore into her and freeze her solid with a frigid glare.

The younger girl, however, looked like she was about ready to burst at the seams as she said, "I saw your Initiation! You were so cool!"

Connie didn't know what to do when the three others stepped out into the hall. The blonde stood with a smile on her face and fists on her hips, subconsciously, or perhaps knowingly, pushing out her chest. The girl with the bow finally gave her a reassuring smile, though it was a small, tiny thing. Still, Connie was more distracted by the subtle twitch of her bow.

Before she could think on it, the girl with the frigid glare stepped forward. Her gaze pierced Connie as she demanded, "Now just what are you doing here?"

The blonde nudged the shorter girl. "C'mon now, Weiss. What'd I say about cranking up the heat?"

The Beowolf-pajama girl sighed irritably. "Ugh, look, I'm sorry about my partner. She can be a little …"

"Pissy?" the blonde offered.

"Pissy?"

"…Difficult," pajama finished with a wince, listening to the pair bicker… or rather, antagonize each other. She stuck her hand out. "A-anyway, I'm Ruby! I-it's uh, really good to meet you!"

Though she kept glancing back at the arguing pair behind Ruby, Connie studied at the outstretched hand with apprehension. She'd been presented with a hand time and time again only for it to be pulled away with a sneer or, worse, brought against her. So she stayed where she was, shuffling slightly in case she needed to run.

"U-um…" Ruby stammered. "W-we could, y-you know, uh, go and study, or… something …"

The girl with the bow came up beside Ruby, causing Connie to take a step back in the presence of two people.

"Ruby, what are you doing?" she whispered.

"I don't know! Help me!" Ruby hissed.

The bow-bedecked girl rolled her eyes, but looked to Connie with a small smile as she said, "What she means to say is that it's good to meet you. I'm Blake."

Connie glanced back between them, though she relaxed slightly when neither made any sudden moves. "…Connie," she said.

"And I'm Yang!"

The shout was accompanied by the blonde rejoining Ruby's side with a grin. Yang draped herself over the girl's shoulder, nearly sending her to the floor as Yang said, "Rubes here and me are sisters. Us, Blakey and the Ice Queen are Team RWBY!"

"Do not introduce me as Ice Queen. And your grammar was biblically horrific," the white-haired girl said.

"Fine, fine, Princess …" Yang said, her grin unceasing.

While she ignored the jab, the girl still rolled her eyes as she said, "If you must know, I'm Weiss. But back to my earlier question, why are you here?"

Her question was not one to be denied. Connie, sensing this, quietly lifted a finger and pointed behind the group.

"My dorm," she muttered.

At this, Ruby positively squealed. "You're our neighbor? That's so cool! We have an actual Armor pilot as our neighbor!"

Connie gulped. This was getting out of hand.

To her eternal relief, Blake saw her growing panic and stepped forward. "Look, I doubt that she appreciates being held up in the hall like this. Why don't we continue tomorrow?"

Ruby grinned. "Yeah! We'll wake you up, and then we can all go down for breakfast!"

Not knowing what else to do, Connie nodded. Instead of waiting for the four get move out of her way, she ran at the wall and kicked off of it, flipping herself over the group before shouldering her way through her door and slamming it closed.

It all happened in less than two seconds.

"… Well," Yang said, staring at their neighbor's door in stupefaction. "That was a thing."

Ruby, Blake, and Weiss could only nod, mouths agape.

-O-O-O-

The drill sergeant walked among the new recruits. He was a tough, hardened man, muscles bulging under his uniform, and his laser-blue eyes bore into the children before him without mercy. It was a cold day in Atlas; fresh powder dusted the training field while dull grey clouds billowed overhead, billowing from the harsh winds that blew down from the mountain.

"We will now begin the enlistment ceremony for the Fourth Armored Regiment!" he bellowed. "I am Drill Sergeant Nathanial Flint. I have the misfortune to be assigned to train you Faunus bastards! This may be the enlistment, but you are far from soldiers! You aren't even recruits! Right now you're cattle."

He shook his head. "Not even cattle – you're fit for nothing but the shit stain you'll be after you're eaten by an Ursa! In three years, we will break you, mold you, and give you the tools to be as good as any damned Huntsman!"

He rounded on a mouse Faunus. "You there!" he barked.

"Y-yes sir!" the boy cried, not a day older than fifteen.

"Who are you?!"

"N-Nathanial Drake!"

"Good god, who the fuck stole my name?!"

"M-my parents, sir!"

"Well then, Nathanial Drake, why are you here?"

The mouse steeled himself and managed to look the sergeant in the eye. "To defeat the Grimm, sir!"

The sergeant grinned. "A worthy goal… then you'll be a good snack for a Beowolf!"

He moved on to a bull Faunus will wiry blonde hair. "Who are you?!"

"Thomas Wagner, from Vale," he said softly.

"Speak up!" Flint snarled angrily. "Who are you?!"

"Thomas Wagner, from Vale!"

"Too soft! Go practice while you're cleaning the toilets!"

He glared at the next one as the teen shuffled away. "You! Next!"

"Bethany Argent, from Dales!" she saluted.

"Wrong! You're from the pig shed!"

"Yes sir! I am less than cattle!"

"No, you're a fly on a horse's ass!" he snapped at her.

"Yes sir!"

Though he didn't lose his scowl, he was pleased of the girl's subordination.

"Next!" he shouted at the boy next to her. He had short, spiky brown hair and heavily tanned skin.

"Reginald Pearson-Wales, sir!"

"That's a fucking horrible name, change it!" he snarled. "What are you doing here?!"

"Sacrificing myself for humanity, sir!" he squeaked.

"Finally, someone who gets the idea around here!"

As he moved on to his next victim, General Ironwood watched from his office. The Academy was a dark, windowless monolith that loomed over the school grounds and the nearby city of Atlas. Truthfully, he hardly ever handled his own school's day to day affairs anymore, as he duties as a General often took all the free time he had. Still, Ironwood Academy practically ran itself. Standing next to him was a thin man in a lab coat that swamped his frame, wiry orange hair billowing out over his brow.

"Look at that," Ironwood said. "Untrained, unbroken, but they have the steel to want to be soldiers. It was like that when I first enlisted."

The scientist straightened his glasses. "Sure, maybe, but what's the point in intimidating them?"

"It's a rite of passage," he said. "To make a soldier, you have to break down what he was before you can make him what he can be. Start with a clean slate. Remember that when you're finishing that android of yours, professor."

The scientist shifted uncomfortably. "General, Penny is only a few days old. Her AI is still in its infancy. It's far too early to… break her. Besides, my father is the one who created her. I just built her body."

Augustus Geppetto was quite proud of that fact. He was about to speak again when he noticed the drill sergeant passing over some of the new recruits, confusing him, as the sergeant seemed to take great pleasure in tormenting the lot of them. "Why's he ignoring some of them?" he asked.

Ironwood smiled grimly. "He can see in their eyes that they've already had their rite of passage." They looked on as Flint glanced over a black haired girl before moving on. "Homes destroyed, families torn apart by Grimm. They're obvious if you know what to look for – they've got a different look on their faces. And then there's the third category."

"Sir?"

"The ones that are already broken. The ones that have already lost everything. Those ones make the best soldiers – they absorb the training because they simply have nothing left. They become the training."

Flint nearly passed by a girl with fox ears, but he paused. She was young. Too young really, probably not even twelve. Her russet-colored hair was dirty and matted, and she wobbled where she stood. It seemed like the wind would blow her right over. Maybe it was the dark circles around her eyes, or a trick of the clouds, but the girl was caught in a dead-eyed stare that he only saw in war veterans and battlefield survivors – the ones who had seen entirely too much.

He glared at her. "What's your name?" he growled.

The girl didn't make a sound, but blinked slowly and vacantly.

"What is your name?" he repeated more forcefully.

The girl took a breath. "Constance Carlisle," she said quietly, her voice monotonous.

Flint stared her down, his face impassive before he reached down and lifted her by the front of her shirt. Even when she was within an inch of him and his fearsome glare, the girl showed no response. Huffing in approval, he roughly dropped her, leaving her to sprawl on the ground at his feet.

"Get food in your stomach before you collapse; you're no good to me dead. Next!"

As Flint moved on, the little fox Faunus picked herself up and shuffled away, looking for the mess hall.

-O-O-O-

Sleep had been difficult that night for Connie. While the previous night she had simply passed out, that night she was able to sort through her thoughts and actually think for the first time in what felt like a long while. She spent most of the night in a daze, letting the events of the last forty-eight hours swirl through her mind. It seemed she'd hardly closed her eyes when someone began pounding on her door, jolting her out of her trance with all the tenderness of a hammer.

"Connie! C'mon, we're late for class!" Ruby's voice called before the muffled thumps raced away.

That got her up and moving in a second, even with her mind in a daze. She tore through her abandoned duffle, clothing sent flying as she pulled together something more than the oversized shirt and underpants she wore to bed.

It was when she was pulling on the grey, pleated skirt that she noticed what she was doing. Not even realizing it, she had gathered the uniform from her time at Ironwood Academy. Many times she had been tempted to burn it and any leftover memories she had of the place, but now she was glad she hadn't. She doubted that she could wear her piloting suit to class, after all.

She left her dorm a minute later, now wearing white leggings, a white shirt, and a grey vest and skirt. Tugging at the skirt to make sure it hid the Maverick strapped to her thigh, she ran off to class, sparing an occasional glance at the scroll in her hand to make sure she knew where she was going.

As she sprinted down a deserted hallway, Connie found herself wondering why she cared so much that she was running. What was the point? If she was leaving at the end of the month anyway, why bother? So she slowed to an easy walk, taking her time through the halls and arrived at Dust and Aura Manipulation Theory 101 nearly twenty minutes after class had started. The lecture hall was built like an auditorium, with rows of desks on higher and higher levels. The students sitting at them stared at her with a mix of surprise and apprehension… possibly because of the teacher, who was in the middle of pointing her riding crop at the blackboard and now looked at Connie with a displeased glare.

"Miss Constance, how wonderful for you to decide to join us," Miss Goodwitch said sarcastically. "Find a seat. That is, unless you have somewhere else to be?"

Connie didn't bother responding. A glance around the room told her that no one she had encountered so far was in the class with her, leaving her the dark as to where to sit – even if she had only met Ruby the day before, at least she knew her. As it was she was on her own, so she instead took a seat at the top far corner and scooted as close to the wall as she could, ineffectually trying to keep as far away as she could from the black-haired teen next to her.

"Hey. I'm Raven Matthews," he said in greeting. Connie didn't bother answering him, instead looking down at an incomprehensible equation Goodwitch was writing out on the blackboard.

"You're lucky Goodwitch didn't blow you through the wall," he continued, unperturbed. "Usually if a student is late, she sets up a duel with herself as the opponent. Rumor is she hasn't been beaten in years."

Raven chattered on, grating on both pairs of ears and her nerves. It wasn't that she cared about the theoretical movement of Aura as it caused a spontaneous collapse in ten Schoville units of red Dust to cause spontaneous combustion. Not at all, though she dutifully paid attention to a subject about which she had absolutely no clue what she was doing. No, it was the fact that Raven talked on and on and on and on. Even when he spoke too loudly and was pinned in place by Glynda's impressive glare, he continued seconds later, taking Connie's silence as encouragement to continue.

Finally, almost impossibly, class ended. The bell rang, signaling for everyone to get the hell out. Connie simply stood, not having any books to pack before making her way to the door. Of course, students were busy shoving their way through, so she stood off to the side and waited for them to leave, only to have the displeasure of Raven give her a cocky smirk and a wink as he left. She reached for the door but was stopped when Goodwitch reached out and flicked the lock, shutting the both of them inside.

"I'd like to have a word with you, Miss Constance," she said, directly behind Connie as she straightened her glasses. Connie spun on her heel with a small yelp, and not knowing what else to do, she nodded and followed the teacher to her desk. What Connie wasn't aware was that she shifted her feet and squared her shoulders, standing at attention without meaning to.

Glynda rapidly typed at her computer, calling up a file, and with a press of a button the holographic screen flipped so that Connie could see a video of herself in the stairwell. She was silent as she watched herself drop from the doorway and sock Cardin in the eye before sprinting away, leaving the group to flounder on the stairs.

With another button press, the screen went blank and Glynda looked Connie square in the eye, making the girl flinch away from the intensity.

"How do you explain what happened? Cardin Winchester brought this to my attention yesterday, and while the black eye you gave him is nowhere near the 'rabid maiming' he claimed it to be –"

Connie held back a laugh, though she couldn't stop herself from an amused snort.

"– I would still like to know your side of the story and why you felt it necessary to attack him."

With a clack of her shoes, Connie straightened herself with her arms held behind her back. "Ma'am, my intention was to wait until they had passed by. "

"Why?"

"It would have been easier than explaining my appearance," Connie explained. "However, I couldn't ignore them when the big one –"

"Cardin Winchester."

"– When Winchester insulted my machine."

Glynda stared at her for a long moment. "So you felt it necessary to give a member of the Winchester family a black eye over an insult not even directed at you?" she asked. Well… 'fumed' was more like it. At any rate, Glynda Goodwitch was not amused.

Connie stared back. "Miss Goodwitch… you have no talent as a Huntress and you are a terrible teacher."

Glynda stared at the girl with narrowed eyes, an eyebrow quirking with incredulity.

"MissConstance," she said, "I am not amused."

Connie nodded. "Exactly, ma'am. I insulted your abilities. Cardin Winchester insulted my tank. At Ironwood, an Armor pilot is nothing without their Armor. Insulting my tank was nothing less than insulting my abilities."

Pause.

"And forgive me for insulting you ma'am," Connie added, dipping into a bow.

Glynda sighed as she leaned back into her chair. "While I would question your ways of explaining things, I can understand where you're coming from. I will write this up as a… misunderstanding between students."

Connie nodded, and turned to the door. She was reaching for the knob when Glynda called out, "One moment, Miss Constance."

When Connie turned back to her, Glynda went on to say sternly, "I realize that you are adjusting to our schedule, but try to get to class on time and not dawdle. Being late to your first class does not reflect well on yourself."

With another nod, Connie strode through the door and was off to her next class.

She had Oobleck's World History class next, something she was surprised to find that she shared with Team RWBY. They all smiled and waved, but Connie once again sequestered herself in the farthest corner from everyone. However, she was in for the shock of her life when a green whirlwind burst into the room, speaking a mile a minute as it slurped from… a coffee mug?

When the blur finally stopped at its desk, she saw a wiry, disheveled-looking man with green hair.

"Now, seeing as we have a new student, it's good that we finished the last unit yesterday," he chattered, so fast that his words were nearly unintelligib. "Let's jump right into the history of Vale. Now, in 1674 …"

Oobleck's opening line was about all she got out of the lesson. After an hour and a half of the teacher and his rapid-fire slurring, the bell rang its merciful tone. This time, Connie didn't wait for people to leave before her. She all but sprinted to the door and shouldered her way through it ahead of everyone else, ignoring the teacher as he yelled for her to slow down.

The irony of that request was breathtaking.

It was then that Connie halted where she stood, right in the middle of the hall where faceless students were rushing back and forth between their classes. A look at her scroll revealed nothing.

Where exactly was she supposed to go now?

"Connie!"

The voice drew Connie's attention behind her, where the shorter, hooded girl from yesterday walked towards her with a big grin on her face. Behind her stood her team – her blond sister, the black haired girl, and the Schnee as well, all waiting expectantly … though in the Schnee's case, she was none too pleased.

"Hey, Connie!" the red-haired girl said with a grin. "C'mon this way, it's faster. Oh! I'm –"

"Ruby, right?" Connie interrupted.

"Yep! Anyway, it's time for lunch. Wanna join us?" she asked, unconcerned with the brusque way she was interrupted.

No.

"Sure," Connie said, though it was forced.

"Great!" Ruby yelled excitedly.

With that, Ruby snatched Connie's hand and tugged the older girl along behind her. Connie nearly ripped her hand out of the girl's grasp to throw her over her shoulder, but restrained herself with the thought that this isn't Ironwood.

And so she allowed herself to be dragged back to the girl's team, who stood in an alcove in the wall and out of the way of the rush of students. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help the way she tensed or the half-crouch she put herself in, ready to bolt at any second.

"Hey there, foxy lady!" the blonde, Yang, said with a grin. "Nice outfit!"

Connie blinked. "…Thanks."

The Schnee girl sighed and crossed her arms. "Even you have to admit that was terrible, Xiao Long."

Yang shrugged. "Meh. I have fun."

"That was bad, Yang…" Ruby muttered, holding onto Connie hand before she smirked and asked the fox girl, "What do you think?"

Caught off guard by the question, Connie panicked and blurted out, "U-uh, no!"

Even Blake, whose nose was stuck in her book, looked at her with confusion and… was that concern? Yang, on the other hand, grinned and wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders.

"I think we're gonna get along just fine," she said.

Now that Ruby had rejoined them, Team RWBY made their way to the cafeteria with Connie in tow. She was wedged between Ruby and Yang, caught in their rapid crossfire as they assaulted her with questions. Who was she? Where did she come from? What was her weapon? How did she get the tank? The hooded girl was more concerned with the tank, to be honest, though she seemed eager to hear about anything. Yang was content to simply watch. Blake was too interested in her book to save her, and Weiss… well, she was either indifferent or pleased with her plight.

When they made it to the cafeteria, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't nearly as crowded as it had been the previous night.

"They keep us on different schedules," Ruby explained when she saw Connie's puzzled look. "It helps keep the kitchens from being swamped. It doesn't really help when it's time for dinner, though…"

Connie found herself being pulled to the buffet line. Even from here, Connie could smell breads, meats, veggies, and other smells that made nearly made her salivate right then and there. Though she once again tensed at the closeness of too many humans, she also caught the scent of nearby Faunus and calmed herself with the thought that there were allies were nearby. Of course, it didn't help her that she didn't know any of them, but they were there.

After waiting in line for nearly twenty minutes, it was finally their turn to gather the food they wanted. Ruby went for a sandwich and a veritable mountain of cookies, and Connie was sure that if it weren't for her sister's nagging she would've replaced the sandwich with even more pastries. Blake took some type of fish, and Weiss chose a plate of lettuce that she called a salad.

And Yang? Meat. Lots and lots of meat. What she had on one plate could probably feed Connie for a week if she rationed it out. Yang grinned at Connie's look of amazement as she said, "Oi, my eyes are up here, alright?"

Connie blinked, the innuendo lost on her.

Yang rolled her eyes and gently patted Connie on the shoulder. Hiding a frown when the fox girl flinched, Yang said gently, "Hey, come join us when you've got what you want. We'll save you a spot, okay?"

Fiddling with her tray, Connie nodded. Yang smiled and turned to walk away, meeting back up with her team at a far table.

Taking a breath, Connie turned back to the buffet … and froze. Her knees quivered. Her knuckles turned white. Her pupils dilated. Her gut clenched. Her heart pounded. And all for an innocuous circle of bread slathered in marinara and covered in gooey cheese.

Pizza.

Letting out an eager cry, Connie bowled over the student reaching for a napkin as she snatched up the entire pizza on display. Ignoring the irritated grumbles of students behind her, she gently set it on her tray and practically cradled it as she carried it over to where Team RWBY sat. Barely registering that another team was on the other side of the table, Connie was fixated on her food as she set herself down a good distance from the two groups.

Ruby perked up when the fox girl arrived. "Oh! Hey guys, this is Connie. She's the pilot of the M7."

The four across the table smiled at her. A girl with red hair and green eyes smiled and said, "Hello, I see you've met Team RWBY. My name is Pyrrha… Nikos…"

She trailed off as she watched the girl eat. Connie was ripping off slice after slice, eating one in the span of a few seconds before moving on to the next. Her hands and mouth were a mess of sauce and cheese, but there was something else that Pyrrha noticed.

"Are you … crying?" she asked, concerned and morbidly curious. While the rest of her team was openly staring at her, at Pyrrha's words Ruby and Yang looked at Connie with concern of their own. Connie looked up at them in turn, just now realizing that her vision was blurry. But the flavors of the cheese, sauce, garlic, butter, and bread … they all just burst together in her mouth so exquisitely that she couldn't help it.

Slowly, she finished her slice and cleaned herself off, wiping off the grease before she said delicately, "I haven't had pizza in a while."

The two teams began to shift in their seats, uncomfortable. Finally, the blond boy looked her in the eye – inadvertently making her look away – as he said, "Um … you do realize that Beacon makes, like, the worst pizza. Right?"

At Connie's blank stare, he quickly corrected, "B-but if you like it, that's cool! Not, you know, coming down on what you like or anything … eh heh … yeah, never mind."

He rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly chuckling at being stared at by everyone at the table before he ducked his head back down to his food.

Ruby turned back to Connie and asked, "But why were you crying? You can get pizza pretty much anywhere, right?"

Connie tensed.

"So she was overreacting over that heart attack on a plate," Weiss said dismissively, stabbing at a plain piece of roughage. "It's not any of our concern."

Weiss was ignored – everyone else was staring at Connie with expectant looks. She shifted uncomfortably, ears laid back as she said, "… I never had it that often at the last school I was at."

"Which one was that?" Ruby asked innocently. Even Weiss had to admit she was curious, and so she set her fork down and gave the fox girl a discreet stare of her own.

A long moment passed, the chatter of the cafeteria filling the silence before Connie stared the young girl dead-on, making her shift uncomfortably before she finally looked back down at her pizza and muttered, "Ironwood."

Immediately Pyrrha balked, as did Weiss. Blake froze where she sat, fork halfway to her mouth. Ren was the very picture of calm, though his eyes hardened considerably. Ruby and Yang glanced among their friends before looking to each other in confusion, joined by Jaune. And Nora?

She was gone.

As Ren sighed and got to his feet to look for the disaster-prone woman, Ruby gulped and wrung her hands from the suddenly tense atmosphere. "Um … what just happened?" she whispered to her sister.

Yang shrugged.

Life around them continued, students talking and laughing too hard as they ate. Connie joined them, tuning out the stunned hunters as she quietly ate her pizza with much less gusto than before. They eventually returned to their own meals, minutes passing in uncomfortable silence as they ate food they no longer had any appetite for. Finally, Connie ate her last slice and stood, wordlessly picking up her tray to leave.

It was with almost an afterthought that she stopped and said over her shoulder, "Thank you for letting me join you for lunch."

With that, she left, skirting the wall as she made her way out of the cafeteria and disappeared into the crowd.

"Uh, what just happened?" Jaune piped up.

Yang nodded. "Yeah, why'd everyone get quiet?"

A collective sigh came from Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked to the blonds of the group as she said warningly, "Do you really want to know?"

The pair nodded.

When Pyrrha's breath hitched, making it difficult to continue, Weiss picked up where she left off. "Ironwood Academy is one of the best schools for Huntsmen and Huntresses. Actually, I was there before I came here. But it has… a… extremely hostile environment," she said carefully.

At this, Blake snorted and leveled an amber-eyed glare at the heiress. "'Hostile environment?' That's a kind term for a place that turns Faunus into suicidal meatshields."

Yang, Ruby, and Jaune were stunned into silence. Pyrrha was as well, though it was more at how bluntly it had been put.

"Wait, what?"

-O-O-O-

CODEX: Remnant Calendar

There are twelve months in the Remnant Calendar, the names of which have changed numerous times. However, people generally use the old names when the system was first established centuries before, beginning with the second month of winter, Morning Star. The third month of winter and the second in the year is Sun's Dawn. The spring months are First Seed, Rain's Hand, and Second Seed, during which time the weather is generally mild and fit for growing. The summer months are especially harsh, sometimes reaching well over forty degrees Celcius – they are Mid Year, Sun's Height, and Last Seed. The fall months are Heartfire, Frostfall, and Sun's Dusk. The year ends with the first month of winter, Evening Star.

Additionally, the days of the week are Morndas, Tirdas, Middas, Turdas, Fredas, Loredas, and Sundas, with Morndas the first day of the week. However, in Atlas and Vacuo, Sundas is the beginning of the week.

(Borrowed from the Elder Scrolls series)