The normally inviting corridors of Beacon looked more like the corridors of a destroyed apartment building. Light crept out from under the doors of a few dorms that still had their lights on, but apart from them, only the moonlight from the window illuminated the corridor.

"What are you going to do now?" She asked.

"I'm going to head down to the garage, take a look at the bikes."

"I thought they were destroyed."

"They were. A...friend of mine had my one rebuilt, but they aren't particularly fond of Yang, so they just had the parts brought here."

"Won't it all be bent out of shape though?"

"No, surprisingly. It's like she made it out of lego. All the pieces are there, not bent or anything, but they just aren't together, so I thought I'd go fix it for her. What are you going to do?" He asked.

"I think I'll go look for Ruby. She hasn't been here for a day, so something's up."

"Alright, but don't stay out too late. Can't have something happening to you now can I?" She simply waved him off, and they split up, each going their separate ways. Eventually, Eric found his way towards the garage with nothing but a bruised shin from where he tripped over a stray chair. As he sat down, he pulled all the parts together and started to repair the bike.

Ruby lashed out angrily at the the grimm she ran into while fleeing Beacon. Finishing off the last of them quickly, she made her way towards the town centre, hoping her sister was still alive. Her scroll vibrated in her pocket, reading Blake when she looked at it. Ignoring it, she stuffed back into her pocket and continued towards the hospital. Her phone had rung multiple times from Blake and Eric, but she had ignored them all, focus entirely on using her semblance to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. She dodged past the odd car or person, shooting down the winding streets that comprised the city, leaving nothing but petals in her wake. She slammed her heels into the ground, barely stopping herself from slamming into the main doors of the hospital. She quickly rushed through the doors, thanking the gods that no one was at the main desk. She ran down multiple corridors, narrowly avoiding a few people on the night shift. When she finally got to Yang's room, she stopped and mentally prepared herself for what she might see. Slowly, she pressed her hand to the door and opened it, thoroughly shocked at what she saw.

The next morning Eric strolled into class, his uniform, hands and face slick with grease and oil.

"Mr Lindergren. I see you finally decided to grace us with your presence." Glynda observed, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"You should feel happy about it." He replied bluntly, falling into his seat next to Yang.

"Where have you been? You've missed countless days."

"Oh don't stretch the truth, I've missed two or three days at most." He let his head fall to the desk.

"Jesus man." Yang poked him in the shoulder. "You look dead. Where have you been all night?"

"I'll show you after this."

"Mr Lindergren!" Glynda's riding crop smashed down on his hand, leaving a swollen red mark on his hand. "You have had no authorised leave, so where have you been?!" Her head moved closer to his, while he refused to look at her.

"I've been with her." He pointed a thumb towards Yang, who was deep in conversation. Finally, he looked up towards her, and instantly, their eyes met. "You wanna know something?"

"What?" Her voice wavered at the odd calmness in his. He slowly stood, grabbing everyone's attention. His hand glued to the table, he slowly raised the other to her cheek before whispering "You look just as beautiful several years in the future as you do now. You don't age one bit." Her cheeks flushed a dark shade of red before she slapped his hand away. As she walked back to her desk ,the classroom's doors swung open and three people entered. On the far left of the trio was a pale, young looking man with grey slicked back hair and a douchy smile, wearing the uniform from a different academy to theirs. On the far right was a young, tanned girl with bright green hair, wearing the same uniform as the boy. But in the middle was someone he remembered far too well. A young, fairly proportioned lady with jet black hair running down one side of her body, also in the uniform the other two were wearing.

Eric quickly turned his chair so he was facing away from them, trying his best not to focus on the trio, but he could feel their eyes bore into the back of his skull. After a few minutes of pure silence, he rushed out of his seat, forcefully pushing them out of his way as he left the classroom. In total, he'd only been in there for 5 minutes before he left. He made his way towards Ozpin's office, giving him enough time to calm down before he talked to the all-knowing man. He knocked on the giant doors, pushing them open at the same time.

The gears in the room clicked rhythmically, making the room sound more like it was alive than just a normal room. The whole room was blank except from the wooden desk sat in the middle of it, the calm grey haired man with his normal trademark mug sat on the desk beside him.

"Mr Lindergren." He observed. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Eric pulled up the chair opposite him and sat there for a few minutes in silence, only the clicking of the gears above the two breaking the silence between them.

"They're here." Eric dead panned.

"Hmmm. Who exactly?"

"Cinder, Emerald and Mercury. It's going to start soon. We all need to prepare."

"Indeed. You are on about this attack, aren't you?" Eric nodded, staring at the mug on the table. "Well then. How do you suggest we prepare?"

"You give it to them straight. You tell the students what'll happen, and we work with what happens."

"Won't they all know that we know if we do that?"

"Possibly, but everytime I've gone to this school, never had I thought of telling you, because of what Cinder might do. Now, I feel that maybe I should, to see what'll happen. Even if we fail this time, I can use what I learn to stop them next time."

"I see. Well then, I suppose it's time for a assembly, wouldn't you say?"

"Not yet." Eric replied. "The Vytal festival is coming up. Let that pass before you tell everyone. We could do with the spirit raiser before battle."

"I guess we should start preparing for the festival. Do you have any ideas for what we could do then?"

"We hold the tournament at the same time!" Eric's eyes brightened. "That'll bring in people from everywhere."

"Hold the festival and the tournament at the same time? That'll be extremely expensive."

"Yes, true."

"On top of that, the festival isn't long enough for both things to be going on at the same time."

"Make the tournament part of the festival. Make the festival longer, that'll work."

"Don't forget the school dance is coming up soon as well."

"Oh yeah. You need planners for that as well."

"CFVY have that covered."

"They won't be able to do it. They have a mission they need to attend to. I suggest having Weiss and Yang do it instead."

"Why those two? Surely many of their choices would clash, giving their opposite personalities.

"That's the good thing. There'll be a mix of Yang's carefree-ness, and Weiss's thought out charm. It'll make the dance perfect, because together those two spirits can make something great." Ozpin sat in silence for a few minutes, the gears in his head turning in rhythm with the one's above him.

"I suppose. I'll let you tell them." With a curt nod, Eric went to leave before Ozpin stopped him."Why are you out of your lesson?"

"To tell you about Cinder of course." Ozpin acknowledged him with a grunt, and Eric returned to the garage, quickly checking to make sure the bikes actually worked before giving them one last clean.