I'll be the first to admit it, I was never a good student.

It's not like I tried to be bad, and clearly I had something going for me, because I made it all the way to the fourth year of school at Signal Academy. It was more like, compared to everyone else, I was absolutely mediocre, if not just utter garbage depending on the topic.

Take Ruby Rose, for example. Top of the class, a genius at designing and building weapons and just as fierce a combatant. Nobody could beat her in a mock battle, to the point where the only time she'd ever lose was if she suddenly got distracted by something (which has happened more than a few times). She had it all: Brains, brawn, and beauty, I wasn't afraid to admit that even if I'd never say it to her face.

'But Lunus,' you must be thinking to yourself right now, 'if she's at the top of the class, why bother comparing yourself to her in the first place?' Well, imaginary voice in my head, I'll tell you.

It's because a long, long time ago, she and I were best friends.

We both grew up on this island and it wasn't like it was a massive place, so maybe it was inevitable we'd meet. We weren't the only kids who grew up here, we just ended up hanging out with each other over anyone else. Even if other kids joined our 'circle' and left, we were always inseparable.

Ruby was a lot shyer as a child, and I was a lot bolder. Back then I didn't really do much thinking, instead I was driven entirely by whatever I thought was the best thing to do at the time, consequences be damned.

So when I saw Ruby, the shy and lonely girl she was back then, all alone on the playground, of course I went to her and offered to play. She wasn't sure at first, it took some badgering, but eventually I got her to join me, and we spent the whole day playing together. It was from that day forward that the two of us were never far from each other, we always had each other's backs, through thick and thin. When the time came, we were even the ones who unlocked each other's auras (granted, we had help from her Uncle, since we couldn't unlock our auras without the help of someone who already had one).

So what changed?

Anticlimactic as it is, it was nothing in particular. As we got older, we just started to… Drift apart. We stopped spending as much time with each other, and I began to draw more into myself while she got ever more extroverted. She was the larger than life class star and I was the one nobody noticed, that's just how the cards were dealt.

Now I had no friends and she had… Well truth be told, it wasn't that she had many friends either, but that was more because she didn't seem to want them. Instead of being too shy it was because she was just operating on a completely different level from everyone else in terms of skill and behavior.

I remember when she first started using a scythe and I tried to do the same thing, I was awful at it! They were very difficult weapons to use, especially on the level she ended up getting to. She was trained by her uncle, sure, but that wouldn't have mattered if she didn't have the innate talent and mindset to dedicate herself to the weapon. When the day came at Signal that we had to design and create our own weapons, I was totally lost for the longest time.

That was until my dad, who was a carpenter and general handyman, helped me come up with an idea. Granted, it was totally an accident on his part. I was sitting outside while trying to think of a weapon when I saw him using a buzz saw to cut some lumber for a project he was working on. It was totally impractical and a bit stupid to use as a weapon, but I opted to design one around it anyway.

The design was amazing, a giant buzz saw that was capable of being held and used as a weapon, ridden into battle and that could shoot flechettes out of the blade. It was awesome, it was downright genius, if impractical, dare I say it was the best thing I'd ever thought of!

And then I just… Couldn't bring myself to make it.

I knew there was no way my mediocre skill at making weapons would do this beautiful concept justice. Besides, having a weapon that loud and noticeable might bring a lot of attention to me. Attention that I didn't want, because then people would start talking about me, and when people talked about me it was usually a comment on how incompetent I was.

It's not that I didn't want to make it, I did, but my skill with making weapons meant that something like that would be very hard to make work properly without putting so much more time into it than I actually had. I kept the sketches and designs I did of the weapon but resigned it to never being made.

Instead I used some of the skills my father had taught me to create a much less elegant weapon. A wooden baseball bat. It wasn't flashy, it was downright boring in fact, but it was all I could think to make that was within my means and skills. It also prevented anyone from thinking I was being a plagiarist or something, because the last thing I wanted was to get accused of stealing an idea.

At least my ploy worked, because the day we revealed our weapons Ruby unveiled Crescent Rose, an absolutely amazing and oversized weapon that overshadowed literally every other weapon in the class. Nobody even gave mine a second glance, not even to mock it.

For the rest of my time at Signal I just tried to keep my head down. I expected to go into the fourth year and then coast my way out. I doubted any huntsmen academy would want me, but I would try anyway. Even if I had to go to an academy that was run like a military school like the one in Atlas, I would go if it meant I could become a huntsman.

However, it seems fate had other plans for me, and it all started with my professor perhaps playing a cruel joke on me. Of course once I saw who sent the email I knew it was going to be trouble. Who else would be one of the last professors I had but Taiyang Xiao Long, Ruby's father?

'Hey Lunus,

Been a while hasn't it? I know you and Ruby don't exactly talk anymore, but I think that's tragic. After all, you're part of the reason she became the blossoming Rose she is today, even if you don't believe me! On that note, you have a project you need to do before you come to my class next semester. You'll be getting another email with the details soon but I wanted to write you a personal one for old times sake.

I've partnered you with Ruby for this project, so she should be sending you a text as soon as she hears the news. I'm sure she'll be over the moon!

Seeya soon,

Taiyang Xiao Long`

It was a good thing I was laying in bed when I saw this because otherwise I think I'd have collapsed in a mixture of shock and terror. I couldn't focus on the terrible pun he made using my name. Of course he knew what he was doing, maybe this was his way of trying to rekindle the friendship between her and I. I wasn't sure it'd work, we were so different from how we used to be, would she even want to be friends with me?

Closing my scroll, I groaned in frustration before crawling out of bed and looking around my room.

It was a mess, I had clothes lying all over the carpeted floor, there was more here than there was in my closet. The only clear areas were the path from my door to my computer and from my computer to my bed. A sign of just how much of a shut in I was. It was dark in here as well, I liked it that way. Sunlight just reminded me how much cleaning I was too busy being lazy to do.

I slipped on some clothes, a short-sleeve shirt along with a pair of jeans. Everyone had started wearing all these cool clothes and here I was wearing the same thing I'd worn my whole life. I'd get a cool outfit too, but I wouldn't even know what to wear, and it would also be a bother to try and find a tailor on this island. Ruby went to Vale to get her outfit, I heard.

Now dressed, I went to the bathroom to give myself a once over before I started cleaning. If I was going to be partnered with Ruby, I wasn't going to leave out the possibility we'd need to work on something in my room, so I wasn't going to take any chances with the filth levels.

Staring into the mirror, I tried to fix my perpetually messy platinum-blonde hair, brown eyes trying their best to see all the little parts of my hair that either stuck up or generally looked disorganized. My skin was fair, and mercifully I had seemed to finally have left acne behind. Those were some awkward years… Not that every year isn't awkward for me, it always is. I didn't at all look like my parents, but that was okay. They told me a long time ago I was adopted, but to me they were my real parents. Just because some else gave birth to me doesn't mean anything! I certainly didn't want to meet them, if they were willing to abandon me.

My parents were also exiles from Atlas, whereas I was born here in Vale. They were from a family of rich people, the Marigold family. Apparently the Marigolds got into some scandals involving their treatment of their faunus employees while in partnership with the Schnee family, and my parents decided they'd rather leave to live on Patch than bear living another day in a family that treated their employees like dirt, faunus or no.

Once I was finished brushing my teeth, I headed back to my room and began the arduous task of gathering up all of my discarded clothes and, once I had a full armful of clothes, I headed out to the laundry room and started doing laundry. I got a text from Ruby not long after - It'd been so long since we'd last talked that our old texts had been wiped.

"Hey, Lunus! Dad told me we're working together on this project. Wanna come over? We'll probably have to go back and forth between our places a few times if this is gonna take all winter."

Well, that was a surprise. I hadn't been over to the Xiao Long household in a very long time.

"Sure thing. I'll be over soon."

As I was finishing up the text, my mother walked past only to stop and backtrack when she saw I was doing laundry. "Wow, you're actually cleaning? Are you okay, Lunus?" It wasn't like I never cleaned up after myself, but I usually did it in smaller amounts at a time rather than in giant swathes like this. Call me lazy.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to explain the best way I could without betraying how nervous I was. "Uhm, well…Turns out one of my professors for next year is Mr. Xiao Long, remember him? He partnered me with Ruby for a winter project, so I gotta make sure my room is clean incase she needs to come over at some point. Although today I need to head over to her place."

"Oooh, that's sweet of him! You two used to be such good friends, and so cute together." My mother gushed, "It always confused me how you two stopped talking! If anything you should be closer not further apart!"

I sighed, shaking my head, "What's that supposed to mean, mom? People drift apart all the time, isn't that a natural part of life?"

"Oh sure, but it just never made sense for you and Ruby. You two would be perfect together!" I immediately knew what she was referring to, and responded by waving my hands in front of me in rejection of the idea as frantically as I could while trying to fight off the rising heat on my face.

"Mom! Please! I haven't even talked to her in years, and even if we become friends again, that's all we would be, friends." Ruby deserved far better than some loser like me anyway.

"Oh I know, I'm just teasing." She smirks, "Let me take care of the laundry, why don't you? You should get ready and then head out if you're going to be meeting with her today."

"Thanks." I smiled at her before walking over, giving her a hug, and then heading to grab my bat. It was still the same as when I made it: Durable enough to take out any grimm that might try to attack me, although it wouldn't be very fast. My thoughts went back to my old weapon idea, before I shook my head. I still wasn't good at making weapons, so how could I make something like that?

After attaching the bat to my back using the leather strap I made for just this purpose, I bid both my parents farewell and headed out. Patch's heavily forested landscape was safe so long as you didn't go too far out. Some parts of the forest were utterly overrun with Grimm, and nobody seemed to really care about that.

I still knew the path to the Xiao Long household even after such a long time. I used to walk it every day with Ruby when we were younger, so it was kind of burned into my brain. It wasn't a super long walk either, just up the road and to the right.

Once I arrived, I gazed up at the log cabin as all sorts of memories came flooding back to me. My first time visiting, the first time I met Yang, as well as many subsequent visits for birthdays or for other reasons. Yet all of those seemed like a lifetime ago, now I was just a year off from graduating. I wondered if after I left for Vale I would ever see this place again. The melancholic nostalgia for days gone by was depressing me, so I shook it off and walked to the door.

As I raised my hand to knock, before I could even make contact with the door, it flung open and Taiyang greeted me with a grin, "Hey kiddo! Man, look at you. All grown up, well, mostly anyway." He steps back and waves me in, "Ruby! You've got a guest!"

As I headed inside and looked around, yet more nostalgia rolled in. At one point this place was like a second home to me, cozy and welcoming just as much as my own home. "You paired us up on purpose didn't you?" I asked before Ruby came down, raising an eyebrow at Taiyang and crossing my arms.

"Dunno what you're talking about! It was just dumb luck." His unconvincing dismissal was all the proof I needed as he crossed the living room into the kitchen, "I'm gonna make dinner before too long now, so if you wanna stick around for that you can, even if you're done with your planning for the day before then."

"Thanks, Mr. Xiao Long!" I call over to him, before I heard quick footsteps on the stairs and as I turned to see the source I was greeted with a rose petal blur that immediately leapt at me and clung to me in perhaps the highest speed hug I'd ever seen as I staggered back, taken off guard, "Woah!"

"Lunus!" Ruby exclaimed, gripping onto me tightly in a fashion not too dissimilar to a Koala holding onto a tree, "It's been forever, how's your parents? How're you?!"

The imbalance on my top half made me stagger back against the door, yet I couldn't help but grin, she hadn't changed much at all it seemed,"Fine, I'm fine! My parents are fine too! What about you?"

Her head had been on my shoulder, yet she lifted it to answer the question, "Doing great! We're so close to graduating, it's got me all excited! This time next year we'll be preparing to go to Beacon, aren't you excited?"

I was about to respond, but as I looked at her our eyes met, given the circumstances I couldn't help but blush. "A-Ah, yeah…" I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to get into Beacon with my performance, but how could I not agree with her in a situation like this? Her silver eyes were looking straight into my soul, and it made it hard thinking of doing anything but agreeing with her.

She didn't seem much better as her face dusted up with red, she let go after that and stood a couple steps back, rubbing the top of her head nervously. "Sorry…" She rebounded just as quickly though, bouncing on her heels as her hands clenched into excited fists, "W-We gotta work, anyway! We need to come up with some creative ways of using dust that don't just involve killing things and then think about how we're going to present it."

"Right, right." I recovered from our shared incident and then together we went to the couch and sat down. Ruby already seems to have laid out a sketchbook and a few books on dust, so I had a feeling this was going to take awhile.

Turns out I was right. We spent a couple hours just trading ideas about what we could do with dust that wasn't blowing things up. Turns out this was one of the very few things where Ruby had no clue what to do with it, since she wasn't the best at dustology. I had some ideas, like using lightning dust as a form of power generation and building a generator out of it. I knew that was a thing that was done on large scales in power plants along with other energy sources like solar panels, but a personal generator handbuilt by us would certainly qualify for the project. Although we wanted to explore all our options before committing to one thing.

It was around this point that Taiyang declared that dinner was ready. Before we knew it we were all eating pasta at the table just like old times. Although Taiyang seemed intent on peppering me with questions, asking about my parents or my studies as if I'd never stopped coming over every day. It felt… Nice. Even if his questions did get annoying sometimes, like the next one he asked, "Sooo… Got a girlfriend?"

Ruby spoke before I could, seeming to share in my indignation, "Dad! That's not something you just ask someone!" She waved her fork menacingly at him as he grinned and shrugged it off apologetically.

I sighed, not even particularly bothered by the question. It was annoying, sure, but I wasn't the type of person to make a big fuss over things like that anyway. "It's okay, Ruby, I really don't mind. No, I don't, never have." I took another bite of my pasta, the other two didn't seem that surprised at my blunt response, even when I was more extroverted I was like this when it came to questions like that.

"I'm surprised." Taiyang points out, "You used to be quite the little charmer, had to be to get Ruby to come out of her shell back then."

I rolled my eyes while Ruby flung some pasta at Taiyang's head, causing him to laugh. "Dad, that's not being a charmer, that's being a good friend!" She hurriedly began shoveling food in her mouth, clearly intent on getting away from her dad's invasiveness as soon as possible. I couldn't blame her.

"She's right, you know." I pointed out as I continued to eat at a normal pace. Soon, Ruby was finished and after washing her plate left to go back to sketching possible inventions for us to make.

With Ruby out of ear shot, Taiyang seemed to change his tone from joking to more… Worried? "So… What happened, kiddo? I joke, but you two used to be inseparable. Then one day you just stopped showing up and I didn't even hear Ruby bring you up at all for years."

I sighed as I looked down at my plate in contemplation. Beneath his overbearing attitude, he was a very caring person, so I guess he would be asking questions like this. "Truthfully it really was nothing. I wish I knew what happened, but one day she just stopped coming over, and started going to school without me. I was pretty upset at first, but I guess she just had a lot of other things on her mind. We were both like… Twelve? I guess we just grew in different directions."

Taiyang nodded along to my explanation, "I see… You still have a lot of friends? You did back then." I shook my head, causing him to raise an eyebrow, "Any reason for that?"

"I dunno. It's not her fault, but around the same time she stopped coming around was the same time I just… Stopped trying. Since I wasn't going out as much anymore I just had no reason to keep in contact with a lot of them, especially since many of them didn't end up going to Signal and just settled for normal jobs. Then I started having to try really hard at school, although I'm still at the bottom of my class. I couldn't tell you what I'm doing wrong…"

He frowned, "That's not good. Well, maybe you can start asking Ruby for help? She's at the top, you know. She'd be more than happy to help you - She's helped plenty of others in her time, I think she gets it from me."

"Aah I dunno. I don't like being a bother." That much was true, it was why I never bothered anyone for anything, even for help. It was just better to bear with it on my own. "I'm sure she's got a million other things on her plate."

Shaking his head, he sighs, "You two are a lot more alike than you think, you know that? She never looks after herself either. Well… I'm not going to pry, but I hope you two at least start hanging out again even after this project. The fact that you two can pick up where you left off after not talking for so long shows that you're great friends, and I don't want to see that go to waste."

I had to agree with him there. I finished eating not long after that, and after washing my plate I went back to go talk with Ruby more about the project. She had luckily not heard any of my conversation with her dad, I didn't need her worrying about me. She had enough going on, I was sure.

Eventually it started getting late, so I headed home. Ruby and I agreed to go to a dust shop back in Vale tomorrow so we could buy some dust crystals and vials, after all we had no idea what we were going to need. I personally would have just gone to one on the island, but she knew of this really popular one in the city that apparently had really high quality dust. So that's where we were going to head.

When I got home my parents badgered me with questions about how it went, I told them everything went just fine. It was honestly like we'd never spent all that time apart, which they were happy to hear about. After that I retreated back into my room - I noticed my mother had basically deep cleaned it while I was gone, which made me both sigh in frustration and smile. I'd be seventeen in February yet she still treated me like I was fourteen, it could be annoying but I had gotten used to it.

When I got over that, I went about my nightly rituals before heading to bed and falling asleep, tomorrow was going to be busy.

The next day was, indeed, busy.

We wouldn't be leaving until the afternoon, which meant we had time to concept some things before we left. So, Ruby made an executive decision over text.

"I'll head over to your place this time, dad really drove me up the wall yesterday. Your parents are so relaxed about everything, I was always jealous of that!"

Mentally I was thinking about how good of a call it was to get everything clean and presentable, especially since Ruby might start basing our project here instead of over at her place. I couldn't blame her, her father was a great guy but he had no idea when asking a question or making a joke was welcome and when it wasn't.

About an hour after I got up and got dressed, I heard knocking at the front door from my room. Before I could answer it, my dad got the door. I heard his excited voice welcoming Ruby back, and my mother doting over how cute she thought her outfit looked. I knew I was going to need to extricate her before she was overwhelmed, so I headed down.

"Guys don't lay it on so thick! You're gonna make her short circuit or something." They laughed their way to the living room and I gestured for her to follow me up. She had a bag with her, I had to assume it was her sketchbook and some stuff to sketch with.

Once we were upstairs and the door was closed she sighed, "Thanks. I love your parents but sometimes they make me seem like a calm person!" She looked around, "It's cleaner than I expected it to be! Did you clean up just for me?" She teased as she walked over and placed her bag down on my bed and then flopped onto it like she'd done a million times before while I went to sit in my computer chair.

"Of course I did," I spun my chair around to look at her as she sat up and began to sort through her possessions to grab the sketch book. "I wasn't going to let you come over and see how messy this place was, you'd have probably done the same thing."

Ruby gave it some thought and then shrugged, "Maybe! We both know how messy we are though, so it's not like either of us would be surprised to see our rooms all destroyed." She had a point there, "So! I was thinking more about that generator idea last night…"

We spent the rest of the time we had talking about how building a generator like that would even work. My dad had a workshop attached to our house we could use, so at least there was that, but we'd still need to figure out how to build one in the first place. Which meant we'd probably need to look up a lot of diagrams online as well as probably getting a few books on the topic.

Eventually, however, we had to get ready to leave. I stood up and headed downstairs to let my parents know while Ruby packed up her sketchbook and followed soon after. She wanted to take a look at the workshop, so we stopped by there first. She marveled at all the tools that had become commonplace for me - And they should honestly have been for her, my dad was always a handyman. She seemed to specifically pay attention to the buzz saw that inspired my design for some reason, eventually saying we had to leave for the airship landing.

The airship was your standard passenger-ship affair, with enough seats for a good few people and with seats comfortable enough that we didn't feel the need to stand up for our brief flight. When we started approaching Vale, I saw Beacon academy and stared at it from the window, and I noticed Ruby doing the same thing. It was understandable, Beacon was a beautiful place! I would love to be able to go there, provided they accepted me, although the chances of that happening were pretty low. Oh well, I could always cheer on Ruby and Yang from the sidelines. Yang had already been accepted to Beacon, and had moved out to an apartment in Vale in preparation for her first semester come January. Not that she'd be living there very often, since I knew Beacon had dorms unlike Signal.

Yang was always a cool older sister to me, even after Ruby and I stopped talking, sometimes she'd check on me just to see how I was doing. She was honestly just too nice, spending her time like that, but I guess that was just part of who she was.

My thoughts turned from Yang to the landing, we were soon back on the ground and set off to find our dust shop… At least at first. Ruby seemed to get distracted very easily, it took one look at a confection shop to draw her attention off our trek and towards wanting to stop and get some treats.

Now, normally I was all for treats, but we did have a goal today, "Ruby, should we really be getting snacks when we're supposed to be buying dust? When does that shop close?" I didn't like being the timekeeper, I kept to myself far too much to be used to trying to tell people what to do.

Ruby frowned, "It doesn't close until really late at night, so we should be fine to have a snack." She crossed her arms to assert her position on the matter, "You know how much I love cookies, don't take this from me!"

I sighed, folding like a lawn chair, "Alright." Honestly I wasn't opposed to taking a diversion either, not everything had to be work. Besides! Getting to have a snack with Ruby would be just like old times.

We sat down outside at the patio setup they had for guests who preferred eating there. It was a nice day out today, so it seemed appropriate to sit outside. If Ruby's appetite for snacks was anything like it used to be, we'd probably be here for a little while. Honestly I wasn't sure how she kept herself in the shape she's in with the amount of calories she must intake on days like this, but she was always extremely energetic to compensate, so maybe it just worked itself out.

I got myself a couple pieces of cake and some milk, while Ruby got herself a whole platter of cookies, also with milk. Shortly after getting our food, we sat down and began to eat. At first I was focused on how good the food was, although I eventually made the mistake(?) of looking up to see how Ruby was faring.

Somehow even while devouring her food, she looked cute. If anything, I would argue it just made her look cuter. The sunlight hit her hair perfectly, and anytime she stopped for any reason she had a big grin on her face which just served to increase her cuteness factor. My face heated up just looking at her. It was hard to properly describe it, but there was something about her that was just… Different. In a good way.

I cast my eyes back down before she noticed me looking at her, "...It's like we never stopped talking, isn't it?" I mused aloud, causing her to stop her ravenous consumption as she thought over what I said.

"...Yeah." When I looked up at her, her grin had lowered into a smile, she still looked happy, but now it was mixed with… Contentment? "I… Missed this. A lot." She looked away, her smile fading slightly as her visage changed to one of regret, "I'm sorry, y'know… About how we just stopped talking like that."

I shook my head, a sad smile crossing my face, "Nah. Don't worry about it, I never blamed you for it. Things like that happen." I took another bite out of my cake, it kept the mood elevated.

Luckily Ruby soon bounced back, "Yep! So now we can pick up where we left off and pretend like nothing ever happened! Maybe you can even be on my team when we get to Beacon."

I took the time to sip my milk before I responded, "If they take me in. I'm not the best student, in fact I'd say I'm the lowest ranked out of all of us. Hell," I pointed to the bat strapped to my back, "This thing was my weapon because I didn't have the skill to make anything else."

Ruby frowned before thinking for a minute, "Hmmm…" Then she began smiling again, "In that case, I'll help you get the best grades possible during next year! That way you're sure to get into Beacon with me, alright?" She gave me her best determined smile that reached all the way up to her eyes, as if she was challenging me to protest against her.

I shouldn't be stunned that Ruby was willing to do this, I knew her, but I still was, "Ah… You don't have to." Yet she seemed determined, and kept glaring at me, so I wilted, "Alright, alright… I appreciate it." I was grateful, I just hated having other people do things for me.

Ruby grinned in victory and we went back to eating. By the time we finished the sun was already setting, so we started off straight to the dust shop. 'From Dust till Dawn' was the name, rather clever if you asked me.

We went inside and spent the next couple hours looking at the dust. We knew what we wanted but Ruby still wanted to check every type of dust and see what kinds she could get to augment Crescent Rose's firing mechanism with. She suggested I buy some as well, I could coat my bat in them, she said. That was a good idea, so I did so.

Everything was going well until it wasn't.

While we were towards the back, a bunch of goons came in and started holding up the owner. Their leader, a guy in a bowler hat, demanded all the dust in the shop. Ruby and I both were immediately on high alert, they hadn't noticed us yet.

So, Ruby asked me to make a distraction while she snuck up on them to maybe take them all down at once.

Not seeing a better thing to do in this situation, I took my bat in my hands and yelled out, "Hey! Shouldn't you guys be at, I dunno… The goon convention?" That was lame as hell, but it got their attention.

The guy with the bowler hat pointed his cane at me, "Look! A wannabe hero! Listen, kid. We're not here to take any money. Just all the dust you've got. That's not such a hard thing to part from, is it? C'mon, just put down your stupid bat and make this easy."

"Not gonna happen!" I retorted, "I don't take orders from failed fashion models with stupid hats."

Now that got him angry, "Get this idiot!" His goons were about ready to converge on me when Ruby chose to strike, a broad swing of her scythe swept the goons out of the shop like they were nothing but dirt. Ruby jumped out after them, while unfortunately the bowler hat guy managed to duck and avoid it.

"Awwh, a little tag-team." He mocks, "Alright then. We'll play this your way!" Grabbing his case full of stolen dust with one hand, he ran out the door while Ruby was busy absolutely styling on the goons outside, making light work of them.

"Hey! Get back here!" I ran after him, "You're… Under arrest!" That was the right line, right?

I ran outside just in time to see him approach a building, he turned around, "Sorry kids! Playtime's over!" He pointed his cane at me, the end of it popping open. Not a second later he shot a bright red dust round at me, all I could do was raise my bat up and try to brace for impact.

That was until Ruby ran up to me, grabbed my arm, and then shot the ground, sending us both into the air. We landed atop the building the man had managed to climb to the top of, and while I desperately wanted to try and regain my balance, I instead followed Ruby after our opponent.

Yet as soon as we got close a bullhead aircraft raised itself up from the ground and opened its door, shining a light on us so that we couldn't see properly while he jumped aboard, "Sorry, little red and little uhh… Nobody, end of the line!" Then he tossed a dust shard at us, I saw him preparing to shoot it as it drew closer to us.

I moved on instinct to try and shield Ruby from it with my body as it detonated.

However, while I was busy waiting to get blown off the roof, instead I opened my eyes and noticed that instead there was a moonlight white bubble that wrapped itself in a protective barrier around the area Ruby and I were standing in, "Wh-What the…"

That was when a blonde haired woman in formal wear jumped in front of both of us and began to engage the airship. All the better for me, because suddenly I felt incredibly exhausted from that little maneuver. Ruby and I watched as the woman dueled with some mysterious woman who had apparently been helping our foe, with the criminals unfortunately being able to escape after a short fight.

At that point I was at least able to stand up straight again, prior to that I had been fighting to keep standing. Now that the exhaustion had subsided, I instead felt all of my muscles complaining to me as if I'd just run a marathon. Needless to say I didn't feel good.

Yet our savior didn't seem too worried, no instead she took us both into the local police department for questioning. The two of us sat side by side, I rested my head on the table while Ruby kept raving about how cool that whole exchange was.

"Did you see me?! I was all-" She makes kung fu noises, "And you called out his terrible outfit, then you unlocked your semblance and shielded us from that dust explosion! That was so cool!"

"Yeaahh…" I agreed tiredly, "Super cool…" I did think it was cool, I didn't even have my semblance until tonight, and now apparently I learn it's some sort of barrier, which was really cool, but I also just couldn't really think of anything but going home and laying in bed for a few days after using it, so that sucked.

That was when the door opened, the woman who we learned was named Glynda Goodwitch entered followed by none other than the headmaster of Beacon, Professor Ozpin. I was shocked and in awe at seeing him, but I was far too tired to express that.

He set a plate of cookies down in front of Ruby, who stared at them for a second before starting to devour them. She then stopped for a second, looking at me, then she placed a single cookie in front of my face before beginning to eat again. I meekly gave her a thumbs up before forcing myself to sit upright so I could nibble on the treat.

"So…" Ozpin leans in to inspect both of us. First at Ruby, "You have silver eyes." Then he looks at me, "...And you don't." He said that as if it was somehow significant, but I didn't see how, sure Ruby's eyes were very nice to look at but I doubted it meant anything more than that for her or for me.

He went on to question Ruby about her skills, her background, that sort of thing. Then when he was done with that, he looked at me, "And you… Did this." He gestures to a recording of my desperate attempt to shield Ruby (despite the fact that she probably didn't need it) and the subsequent shield that appeared in front of us both, "How long have you been able to do this?"

"...Just figured it out, sir." I managed tiredly, "Dunno why, but it took a lot out of me… Feels like I went toe to toe with an Ursa barehanded."

Ozpin hummed in contemplation, "I see." Looking between the two of us, he queries, "You want to come to my school?"

The two of us shared a look, before Ruby looked forward and spoke for both of us, "Yes we do! More than anything."

Ozpin looked back at Glynda, who rolled her eyes and looked away. Then he looked back at us, "Well alright."

That was how my whole life got thrown into disarray.

I had no idea why Ozpin decided to bring me along because I had the ability to make a shiny barrier, when Ruby was so much more than me, in literally every way. Yet here I was, standing at the airship landing waiting for the ship to touch down so we could board.

My parents had been over the moon, they even gave me a bunch of money and told me to go get a new outfit and get my weapon modified, so I did. I would look weird coming to Beacon wearing regular street clothes anyway.

The outfit I got was subtle but a marked improvement nonetheless. A white short-sleeve shirt with a Marigold on it, a beige cloak that went over my shoulders and had leather in the center that held the two parts together, it went down past my black pants and stopped above my brown boots. It wasn't a loud color ensemble, but that was what I wanted. Something that would make me look different without drawing too much attention to it.

After we got the news, we no longer had to work on the generator. However, since we still had a few weeks, Ruby and I decided to make it anyway. We gave it to my parents for a present, and miraculously it actually worked! I like to think that we would have gotten a perfect grade on it if we had in fact gone to Signal that year.

For my bat, I wrapped it in conductive wire that would change affect depending on the type of dust I used. I didn't even know if this thing would survive a day at Beacon, so I tried to keep the upgrade simple. I had thought about the weapon I designed a few years ago, but realized that I was still incredibly weak, trying to use a stupidly massive weapon like that would probably end badly. I'd just stick with this until it broke and then figure something else out.

Soon the airship arrived and everyone began to board. Ruby was excited to see Yang again so they were chatting while I went on ahead and found a place to stand while I waited for takeoff. Crossing my arms, I looked up at the big screen to see the latest news: More dust shops were being robbed, the number of which was increasing as time went on. I was contemplating the reason this might be the case, until I heard a girl's voice speak to me, "Uhm… Hey! Big day, huh?" Raising an eyebrow, I turned my head to see who was talking to me.

I'll be the first person to admit that seeing her almost made me blush just by looking at her.

The girl was tall, much taller than me, I couldn't tell exactly but she had to be at least six feet tall, I was only about 5'9''! While I didn't have to crane my neck to look at her, she was still noticeably taller than me. She had blonde hair tied in a braid that fell over her shoulder, which she was currently playing with nervously. Bright blue eyes anxiously looked at me, the smallest dustup of a blush on her face accompanied with a nervous smile. She wore a set of white armor that was segmented over portions of her torso rather than being one solid piece, two pieces started by encasing her shoulders and ended where her elbows began, picked up by orange wrappings that went under the two brown gloves she used. At her side was a sword and a collapsed object that I had to assume would be a shield, below that were jeans and a pair of boots.

All in all, overwhelmingly cute and breathtakingly beautiful.

"A-Ah… Yeah." I nervously responded. I was used to talking to Ruby and Yang, but cute girls I didn't know coming up and talking to me still made me nervous. I wished it didn't, but I couldn't control it. "Excited?" I didn't trust myself to speak in longer sentences just yet.

"Yeah!" She played with her braid, which I could already tell had to be a habit of hers. She was clearly brimming over with excitement and nervousness at the same time, "I didn't think I'd get in, to be honest, but here I am! I'm really looking forward to showing everyone back home what I can do."

I wish I could say the same, Braid Girl. Unfortunately I didn't think there was much for me to show, other than my stupid bat.

I was about to try and find something else to say, but then the ship lurched as it started to take off. Right away the girl went from being cute and nervous to… Well, pale tinged with green. Then, she covered her mouth and ran off. Was she…?

Yep, she just got puke on Yang's boots while running to the ship's bathroom.

I felt bad for her honestly. I knew motion sickness must suck, or was it air sickness? Maybe it was both. Although she did help me realize that there was no way I was the only person here worried about performing. I was still going to call her Vomit Girl until I learned her name though, because it was pretty funny in hindsight.

With no sign of Vomit Girl, I looked up at the big screen and just continued listening to them go over the latest news, although it seemed like the investigation of the events surrounding the dust shop were still the predominant story being covered.

Nobody else came up to me, which was just fine, I wasn't sure my nerves were in the right place to make new friends right now. Eventually the newscast was cut off in favor of Professor Goodwitch telling us that we were approaching Beacon itself.

The academy was as beautiful as I remembered it being. It was grand, stately, massive, beautiful…I could use more descriptors, but I'm sure they can't do it justice. We landed and the first person off was… Vomit Girl, of course, desperate to return to land. I meandered off a bit afterward, Ruby and Yang weren't far behind me so after walking a short ways out and off to the side, I stood there and waited.

Eventually Vomit Girl came up to me again, now looking a lot less green. "Hey! Sorry about earlier. I think the airship and my nerves were working together against me, or something."

I waved my hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it. We're all nervous, even if basically nobody will admit it." She seemed relieved that I didn't hold it against her, and I felt more at ease, because oddly enough seeing her vomit like that checked off some weird mental criteria that made her enough of a dork to be approachable. Which was just fine, I was also a dork. "Although I think more than a few people are going to be calling you Vomit Girl for a few days after this."

The girl visibly deflated, "It was Motion Sickness! It's a real problem." I smiled widely at her defensiveness and tried to calm her down by assuring her that I agreed with her. That wasn't going to stop the jokes though, I was sure. Students could be incredibly cruel when they wanted to, no matter their age.

We ended up striking up a conversation about Beacon after we traded names (hers was Jeanne Arc), she was brand new to the city so she was completely floored by it. I had seen the place from afar so I'd seen it before, but never up close, so we had a somewhat similar view on how amazing it was. We continued talking about this until eventually an explosion rang out behind us and we whipped around to see a small crater where it seems Ruby and some other girl had been standing. Neither of them looked hurt, although the white haired girl she had been talking to looked absolutely livid. She stormed off, and I caught sight of the Schnee dust company logo on one of the suitcases she had her… Butler? Taking with them.

I made a mental note to avoid her, all I knew about the Schnee Dust Company was that it treated a lot of their workers like garbage, so much so that a lot of the faunus that joined the White Fang have some sort of prior grievance with them in some way or another. Besides, I was a Marigold. If she figured that out I was bound to get an earful about how my branch of the family abandoned the rest or something. I was far too passive to want to have to confront someone on that level.

Jeanne and I walked over to the smoldering crater, it wasn't very deep thankfully and Ruby seemed dazed, not injured. That was a relief, we helped her up and the three of us got to talking as we walked towards where I assumed we needed to go. Ruby, as she usually did with new people, asked Jeanne about her weapon. Jeanne's weapon was… Almost as unremarkable as mine, a sword and shield. Ruby claimed that the classics were something to be appreciated, and then Jeanne looked at me.

"So what's your weapon?" She asked, before spotting the bat on my back and understanding dawning on her face, "Ooh… That's cool!" She seemed to unironically think it was a clever weapon, which surprised both Ruby and I while making me feel slightly better about my lack of originality.

We all bumbled our way to the auditorium, where Ruby once again went to talk with Yang. With nowhere else to go, Jeanne and I went to stand next to them. Yang talked to Ruby for a moment before spotting me, "Heeyy! I didn't see you back there!" I was surprised she didn't, but I guess she was busy talking to Ruby, "You're here too? That's awesome!" She immediately walked over and wrapped me in a bear hug, squeezing much of the air out of my lungs.

"Ah- Yang! Air!" I pleaded, which caused her to let go so I could breathe, "Ah… Thank you. It's good to see you too." With that trauma out of the way, we noticed that the Schnee girl from earlier had come up to Ruby and started lecturing her about dust again. I wanted to think of something to say to scare her off, but I didn't know if anything could scare her off. Lucky for us all, she eventually left after giving Ruby a pamphlet on dust safety and then walking off with the request for her to stay away from her. Honestly, for the best. That girl was just unpleasant. Whoever got her in a team would be incredibly unlucky, at least from what I knew about her so far.

I wasn't sure where Jeanne had gone, she seemed to have meandered off. I eventually spotted her trying to hit on the Schnee Girl, with predictable results. I sincerely hoped that she'd eventually realize that it wasn't worth the effort, that she'd find someone worth her time.

Defeated, Jeanne eventually found her way next to me again and stood with me. She seemed to have gotten her pride wounded, but was otherwise fine. "Ugh, I have terrible luck with people… Guy or girl, I can never get anyone to even look at me!"

I sympathized, I had never even tried dating anyone. When I was younger I had a pretty serious crush on Ruby, but I never told her about it and I don't think she ever picked up on it. I would be lying if I said I didn't still think she was cute, but I had written off any chance of ever dating her a long time ago. She was far too good for someone like me. "Maybe you just have to wait?" I suggest, "Not on her, but eventually someone's bound to notice you. Just keep your eyes open."

That seemed to bring her some comfort, and I had to admit that I also thought she was cute… Yet it took more than that for me to want to flirt with someone, I had to trust them before I ever would even dream of putting myself out there, and even then I would probably have to take a lot of time to prepare to make any sort of advance on anyone… If I ever did. Asking that sort of thing put me at risk of being rejected and possibly damaging a friendship, and since friends were the only people I would ever want to flirt with, that meant I was perpetually single. I'd just gotten used to it over the years.

Professor Ozpin came on stage and cleared his throat, before beginning his short speech. We listened intently, he was telling us about how he had high hopes for us to be the next generation to carry the torch of humanity. That we would one day be the people who stories were written about. I had my reasons to doubt that I would be one of those people, I could see just about everyone else being a much better hero than me. 'The Adventure of the Guy with the Bat' didn't exactly sound like an odyssey I'd want to read as much as a low-tier comedy.

When the speech was done, we were told that we'd all be sleeping in the next room over. I had already anticipated this so among my possessions was a sleeping bag and a pillow, it wasn't the most comfortable but it was better than nothing. We were dismissed and most of us funneled into the next room, claiming a spot to sleep. I found one and rolled out my sleeping bag after digging it out of my oversized backpack. There wasn't much left to do today, so I settled in against the wall where I had claimed a spot and started flicking through my scroll.

I saw Jeanne, she greeted Ruby and Yang with a certain amount of bravado… Despite wearing footie pajamas. She could have picked a better outfit to sleep in, but I guess we all had different levels of comfort. Jeanne didn't seem to have any idea what was and wasn't generally considered 'cool' or 'socially acceptable'. I wasn't much better, I was just a lot more reserved than she was.

Eventually she found her way over to me and claimed a sleeping spot just a few feet away from mine and sat down on her sleeping bag. I wasn't sure why she chose to put her bag next to me of all people, not that I was complaining. So far she was the closest thing to a new friend I had made in a few years. "Excited for tomorrow?" She asks once she's settled in.

Excited was a word. Not one I'd use for how I felt about this situation, but a word. "Honestly I'm more nervous than anything." I looked down, embarrassed, "I was at the bottom tier of my class before I came here. I don't think I'd have gotten in if Ozpin didn't decide to move me up a grade." I sighed and then nervously started wringing my hands as I thought about tomorrow. When I finally looked back up, Jeanne's eyes were wide and her face was red for some reason. No idea why, though… Maybe she was feeling nervous too?

Jeanne seemed to catch up to the fact that I was staring at her now, so she shook herself out of her stupor and started explaining her prior experience, "I was really good! Top of my class back home, that's how I got in. You know, swinging my sword and hunting Grimm. It's… It's in my blood!" I chose to write off her strange speaking pattern as a sign of nervousness. I didn't like to think that people would lie about something that important, even if she sounded like she might be. Besides, she got in, so clearly she passed the entrance exams.

Just as I was about to lay back, I got a text… From the school? I knew I had to give my number to them, but I couldn't imagine what they'd be sending out a text for. Maybe it was related to initiation?

When I checked, however, all it said was, "You have been requested at the Headmaster's office. Please step outside and you will be taken there." Blinking a few times, I stood up and headed out after letting Jeanne know I'd be back in a minute. I wasn't sure how long it'd take, but I was more curious about what it was going to be.

Professor Goodwitch was the one waiting for me. She silently beckoned me to follow her before leading me towards the Headmaster's office.

A million thoughts ran through my mind as I tried to discern what I was being called for. Was I in trouble? Did I do something wrong? No way, I hadn't even had time to screw up. My mind backtracked further, and I recalled the reason I was invited here to begin with. The shield I cast, was there something wrong with it? I had reasoned before that it was just a 'stupid shield' that had no merit for bringing me to Beacon, but did regular semblances make their users that tired?

Was there something wrong with me? I imagined myself as some kind of medical anomaly, or otherwise some sort of oddity. Why else would Ozpin want to talk to me, why would he invite me to this school? The more I thought about it, the less I could compare my shield to other semblances. Other semblances didn't tire out their user, was my aura wrong or something? All the possibilities ran through my head as we drew closer to the tower and entered the building proper.

Off to the side of the main academy building and up an elevator there was an office that looked like it was on the inside of a clocktower. Gears were turning behind Ozpin's desk on the wall, and in a few other areas. Professor Goodwitch led me inside, gesturing for me to go and sit across from Ozpin in the fancy wooden chair across from his desk. Nervously, I headed towards the desk before sitting down, "You… Wanted to see me, Headmaster?"

"Yes indeed." He sipped from his mug, and stated, "You've likely suspected that you were not just invited here for being near Ruby, or having a 'shield-based semblance,' Correct?" Meekly, I nodded. I knew there had to be something else! So what was it? "You were right to suspect such. There is no way to tell you this but directly, I was not far when Glynda arrived to help you, and when I was there, what I felt from you was not a semblance. I would recognize it anywhere."

Now incredibly curious and confused, I tilted my head and asked him to continue. He did so, "What you have access to is much more powerful than a semblance. However your body is not used to using it, nor will you be able to use it to its fullest extent anytime soon…"

Finally I spoke, now being driven entirely by curiosity, "What is it?"

"I believe you are capable of casting magic."