Beacon. Named as such because it was meant to not only be a beacon for the rest of the world, but their graduates are meant to be beacons of hope for the rest of the world. As I stare at the school from the airship, I can certainly agree that it looks the part. Towering over a cliff, overlooking a large body of water, it certainly paints a memorable picture in the mind of anyone who sees it.

Now if only I could enjoy the view…

"Sam, get out from behind me."

"NO! She'll see me!" Sam said, lightly jabbing me in the back, causing me to stumble forwards a step.

I sigh in exasperation.

"Sam, Weiss is going to see you eventually, don't you think it'll be better if she sees you sooner rather than later?"

The problem, as it were, is that Jacques Schnee decided that, since Weiss was going to go to Beacon, he was going to send Sam in order to 'protect her'. He had used his not inconsiderable connections in order to secure Sam a spot in Beacon a year early. I had no doubt that Sam could probably get in a year earlier anyways, but Jacques was a bastard like that. He wouldn't even run the risk of Sam failing, so he wouldn't let Sam even try. That pissed Sam off a bit, but Jacques basically ruled his life, so there wasn't much he could do about it.

However, Sam had yet to tell Weiss that he was going to be in her year. Mostly because he didn't want to know how she would react when he told her that he was here to 'protect' her. The whole reason why she chose Beacon over the Atlas military academy is because she wanted to be independent from her father.

While Sam wasn't going to actually report on Weiss to Jacques (because he liked Weiss WAY more than that jerk), he knew that Weiss wouldn't give him the chance to explain, and would probably be angry at him for several days.

And an angry Weiss was something that Sam always did his best to avoid… Not like it really made much of a difference. Sam's entire personality seemed to frustrate Weiss most days. She still hadn't actually met me, but Sam had told her about his training partner from time to time. Not much, just that they were training.

"Sam, seriously. You are actually just making it worse."

"James, you're my friend, but I need you to shut up right now. You have no idea how bad it is."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "And please tell me, HOW do you plan on keeping this a secret from her when you're both AT THE SAME SCHOOL?!"

In response, Sam reached into his backpack and pulled out a mask. It a was perfectly circular, pure white, and only had eyeholes in it.

"... You're serious."

Sam only nodded in response, strapping on the mask and clasping it behind his head.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Sam had given me his hat for 'safekeeping' so that Weiss couldn't use it as 'evidence'. I knew exactly when Weiss was going to find out about Sam.

I smirked a little bit. In fact… I think I had a good idea how to make it memorable.

"Hey… What's with that smile? That's not a good smile." Sam questioned.

I waved away his concerns. "It's nothing."

"Oh no, you're not getting away with that! What-"

"Weiss might hear you."

That shut Sam up instantly. He was probably glaring at me from behind my back.

"... I hate you. So much."

"I bask in your hate."

It was at that point that our airship arrived. Weiss was one of the first off of the ship with her luggage cart of dust-filled suitcases.

"Well, she's gone now, so you can start acting like a normal person again." I said, walking towards the exit.

Sam looked nervous. "If it's alright with you, I think I'll stick back here for a few seconds, make sure that she won't notice me."

I roll my eyes again. "Whatever makes you feel better Sam. I'll see you around."

And with that, I fade into the crowd. At this point, it's probably one of the things that I was best at. My looks had always been fairly unremarkable, and my clothes match. Black hoodie, blue jeans, the kind of person you were unlikely to look at more than once. On top of that, I had lived in crowded areas for most of my life before even arriving in Remnant. Now that it had practically been required for my survival to blend in, I was all but invisible while within the throng of people heading towards the auditorium. I glanced back, and saw Yang running through the crowd with a small group of people, and Ruby getting left behind her.

A large part of me wanted to go back and help Ruby. Honestly, it was hard to convince myself not to. However, Sam and I had discussed how we were going to go into this situation and make use of our knowledge. We were going to limit how much we changed the events that we remember, and try to give our knowledge of the future to Ozpin without him believing that we are completely insane.

We were still working on that last part, since that was a pretty recent development. Honestly, I'm not sure how either of us had missed the idea of simply telling Ozpin what happens, but it was only after I had applied to Beacon that I realized that that was a legitimate option. I think I had just got so caught up in the whole 'save the world' mentality that I completely forgot that I could actually tell people about it, and Ozpin was in the best position to help me.

Again thought, convincing him that my information is legitimate would be the hard part, so Sam and I had developed the idea to send him anonymous packets of information about events. Some innocent and harmless, tiny things that only Ozpin would probably be aware to.

Then drop things like the existence of the Maidens, Amber's injuries, and then warnings about what are going to happen. Ideally, Ozpin would never know that I would be involved at all. Sam had volunteered to be the one to actually send the information, so that if Ozpin did manage to track down who had sent the messages, he would only suspect Sam.

I didn't really want either of us to be tracked, mostly because Ozpin would no doubt bring us into his 'inner ring', putting us on Cinder's hit list, preventing us from helping out further. I had argued with Sam that I should be the one more in the spotlight, since Sam had family and people that still cared about him, whereas I didn't.

Sam… Hadn't liked that line of thought.

"Alright, that's enough of that." Sam said.

"What? You know I'm right Sam."

Sam shook his head. "No. This isn't about logic anymore James. You're my friend. You're living. Everyone will probably just think that I'm there to be an insider to report on the Schnee family. Less likely to be targeted."

I frowned. "I don't-"

Sam held a hand up. "Besides… You've put so much effort into not being considered a threat… Wouldn't that all go to waste if Ozpin kept sending you to his office?"

And that was the end of that. Sam simply wouldn't hear any more arguments about the subject anymore, so I eventually had to accept that he would be the figurehead.

I just hoped that it wouldn't come back to bite me later.

But so long as Sam and I didn't change much… We should be able to fix things.

Sam had poked his head out of the airship as soon as he heard the explosion. He saw Blake say something and then leave, and Weiss soon followed after her. Knowing that the coast was clear, Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

Some might call his actions ridiculous, but those people had obviously not seen how angry Weiss could get at people close to her when she was angry at them. They had no idea how loud she could get when she found out her father was trying to control her life. This was both at the same time.

While Sam certainly had a bit more leeway with certain actions in Weiss' eyes, on account of being her best (and only) friend, that didn't mean that he was guaranteed to leave the encounter completely unscathed.

So he hid.

It wasn't cowardly!... It was smart. Yes, smart. That was it. After all, why would he willingly get into a situation where he was guaranteed to get hurt when he could avoid it? Answer: he shouldn't!

Granted, he probably should have just told Weiss immediately… But it had skipped his mind. After Jacques had told Sam that he would be going to Beacon, Sam had scheduled a training session with James at a local gym, and so went there. Afterwards, James had brought up the idea of sending their information on the future to Ozpin, and well… He had a lot on his mind that night. Afterwards, it had just never occurred to him until moments before getting on the plane, when he saw Weiss in the crowd. Then he quickly bought the blank mask that he now wore and got back on the airship, using his friend as cover. Not that he needed it, Weiss seemed incredibly distracted the entire journey.

However, Sam could see her glancing down at her scroll every once in awhile, opening it, scrolling through it, probably for messages, close it, and then frown harder than she had been moments prior.

It had taken him a little while to figure out what was upsetting her.

He had forgotten to say goodbye, because he was going with her and hadn't realized it.

She's going to kill me three times over. Sam thought to himself when he figured out that mystery. It didn't help that Sam felt like utter trash because of his forgetfulness. Weiss was his best friend, and knowing that she was expecting him to say goodbye, itmade him feel like the absolute biggest trash bag on Remnant.

Hence the hiding.

Anyways, now the coast was clear, and Ruby had gone up in a fireball, so he was able to approach. Jaune had just offered help to Ruby, so Sam figured he'd join in.

Even though James thought it would be best if they didn't interact with the RWBY cast, Sam didn't think that they'd impact the timeline too much if they made friends.

Approaching the two, Sam noticed that Jaune and Ruby were walking around the fountain. Figuring that now was as good a time as any to introduce himself, Sam approached the two.

"Hi!" Sam said, waving at the pair to get their attention. "Um, I was held back a bit and I kinda… Didn't hear where we're supposed to be going. Can either of you help?"

Ruby tilted her head in confusion at Sam. "Um, why are you wearing a mask?" She asked.

Sam rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Well, you see… I kinda sorta… Forgot to tell one of my friends that I was coming, so I'm… Surprising her." He lied weakly.

Luckily, both of the people in front of him were naive enough to believe what Sam said at face value, even if they still thought that his mask was really weird.

"Well, uh, we… Don't really know where we're going either…" Jaune trailed off. "So… We could try and find it together, I guess?"

Sam nodded in agreement. "Yeah, alright." He held his hand out in offer. "My name's Sam Scott. nice to meet ya."

Jaune shook the offered hand. "Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue…"

"-And apparently the ladies love it." Ruby said with a giggle, causing Jaune to slump his shoulders and Sam to laugh. "I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose! Uh, could I… See your weapon?" Ruby asked, indicating Sam's shotgun that he had attached to his back.

"Umm… Sure, why not!" Sam said, unhooking his weapon. "I have a few connections with Atlas military, so I've got access to some prototype stuff." He pressed a button and switched the button on his gun to change it to sniper form.

Ruby's eyes sparkled with excitement and she let out an excited squeal of glee. Hearing 'prototype weapon' in regards to Atlas, forefront leader of weapons technology in the world, she really wanted to see what Sam had managed to get.

"My Semblance normally only has a really short range, but this gun uses aura instead of bullets, so it extends my range a long way." Sam explained.

"Oh, WOW! That's so cool! Canyoustillusenormalbullets? Howdoesitworkwithdust? CanIuseit?" Ruby shot off too quickly for Sam to react to even one of the questions.

Luckily for Sam, Jaune came to the rescue. "Um, guys? Don't we still have to get to the auditorium?"

Ruby's eyes widened a second later, and then her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She chuckled nervously. "Oh… Right. Sorry about that… Sis says I can get a bit… Carried away…" She said, desperately looking anywhere but at her two new friends.

"Heh. It's alright." Sam responded. "We should get going though. I need to find my friend, and I think Ozpin's speech is soon."

Jaune nodded. "Right, let's go."

And with that, the trio of new friends embarked on their first step towards the start of their careers at Beacon.

Ruby was exhausted. She had been so full of energy ever since that morning, when she had realized that she would be going to Beacon. On top of that, all the nervousness that normally came with a new school had been amplified several times over because of Ruby's lack of experience with making friends, making her even more exhausted. But hey, at least she'd made… Two friends? Sam seemed nice at least. Jaune had talked to her more though. But Sam had a cool weapon… Didn't that mean he was cooler? Did that matter to Ruby?

All these thoughts swam through her head, but were interrupted the moment Yang dropped onto the sleeping bag next to Ruby.

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure dad wouldn't approve of all the boys…" Ruby snarked back.

"I know I do…" Yang purred.

Ruby rolled her eyes at Yang's response. Of course Yang would say that. Sometimes Ruby wondered how her dad hadn't had a heart attack yet, given Yang's incredibly flirty attitude and way of dressing. Then again, her dad was the best dad ever, so the odds of him having a heart attack was low.

"Whatcha thinking about there sis?" Yang asked.

Ruby looked at her sister, then went back to staring at the ceiling. "I'm just… Thinking about today, I guess. I mean, come on sis. I'm in BEACON. It's always been my dream, you know?"

Now it was Yang's turn to roll her eyes. "No Ruby. I had NO IDEA that your dream was to go to Beacon, become the best huntress, and then go on awesome adventures. You only tell us once a week."

"Shut UP!" Ruby said, throwing a pillow at her sister in retaliation. "I just… Can't really believe it. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, I get ya. If I'm being honest? It still hasn't hit me that I graduated Signal yet."

"Yeah, so imagine how I feel!" Ruby pouted. "At least you GOT to graduate!"

Yang giggled. "Yeah, I guess. How did your friends take the news?"

Ruby's friends at Signal actually hadn't taken the news very well. Ruby had always been a bit of an outsider in her group of friends, but with her getting accepted into Beacon two years earlier than the rest of them, they kind of just shunned her. It wasn't anything too bad… They just… Didn't really talk to her anymore.

But even still, they were her friends… So she wouldn't tell Yang that. She would beat them up.

"Oh, you know… They were kinda upset, but they got over it…" Ruby lied.

Yang narrowed her eyes at her sister's words. Ruby wasn't… The best liar in the world, but Yang had a feeling that Ruby didn't want her to press any further.

"Well, alright… If you say so… So, outside of that girl that yelled at you earlier, made any friends?" Yang asked.

Ruby nodded. "Yep!" She said. "Two guys, Jaune and Sam. Jaune's… Nice, but he's kinda awkward. Just like me!"

Yang sweatdropped at Ruby's words. "That's not something you should advertise…" She muttered.

Ruby ignored her sister and continued talking anyways. "And Sam's… Weird. He's wearing a mask because he's surprising a friend of his… But he's got this super-awesome weapon from Atlas! It's so cool! It shoots aura instead of bullets!"

"Huh. That does sound kinda cool." Yang responded.

"I know, right?! I mean, how did he even GET that?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Alright sis, calm down. You're getting too loud." Yang said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder in a vague attempt to calm her down from her 'new weapon high'.

Yang suddenly had an idea. "Hey rubes. You're on a roll today, right? Making all kinds of friends? How 'bout you try to make one more before the night's over?"

Ruby groaned. "Yaaaaang! I don't need more friends! Three's plenty!"

"Tell you what sis. You try to make one more friend tonight… And I won't bother you about this again, okay?" Yang offered, hoping that her sister would take it. After all, even if Ruby had made some friends, Yang wanted her sister to have a lot of friends that she could rely on, and the first day of school was the best time to make new friends.

"Hmph. Fiiiine." Ruby replied, before she sat up on her sleeping bag and started to look around the room, scrutinizing everyone who fell under her gaze. She decided to focus more on the girls in the room than the guys, since she already had two boys as friends.

After a few minutes of searching, Ruby saw a girl that she recognized from earlier. She had helped Ruby out when that mean girl Weiss had yelled at her for sneezing. She was just sitting against a wall, reading a book with a candle. She was very clearly sitting far away from everyone, and her body language just screamed 'don't talk to me'.

A perfect choice for Ruby's new friend!

So Ruby pointed her out to her sister. "I kinda met that girl… But she left before I could talk to her much. She helped me out after I exploded."

"Hm. Alright, let's go say 'hi'!" Yang said, grabbing her sister and dragging her towards the girl brooding in the corner with a book.

Ruby could do nothing more than sigh as her sister forcibly dragged her towards the black-haired girl. She loved her sister dearly, but she could be… Difficult for Ruby at times. Like right now, for example.

The girl that they were approaching seemed to notice them, and lowered her book slightly in order to see them better. The girl with black and red hair seemed pretty reluctant, whereas the blonde in front seemed way too enthusiastic for this time at night.

"Hi!" said Yang.

"Hey." The ravenette replied.

"Um… I'm Yang Xiao Long, and this is my sister, Ruby Rose!" Yang introduced.

Ruby simply chuckled nervously and awkwardly waved at the girl in front of her.

"... Blake Belladonna." Blake replied. "... Aren't you the girl that… Exploded?"

Yang started giggling, and Ruby's face gained a dust of pink on her cheeks. "That WASN'T my fault…"

Blake smirked slightly, before going back to her book. Silence passed between the trio for several moments before Yang decided to but in.

"Sooo… Nice night, huh?"

"Mhmm." Blake responded absentmindedly.

"I, uh… Like your bow!"

"Thanks…"

Yang was about to continue when Ruby decided to intervene. She noticed Sam walking nearby them and figured she could use them as a distraction. "Oh hey there Sam! Nice to see you again!" She said, pointing out her new friend.

At that, the other two decided to focus on the young man in question, who turned his head to look at Ruby. His head looked back and forth, as if looking for something. His shoulders sagged with relief, and then he approached the group. He was wearing a plain t-shirt with plaid pajama bottoms. He was very obviously fit, but was going for a more lean runner's build than a bodybuilder.

"Hey Ruby. How's it going?" Sam asked.

"...Dude, what's with that mask?" Yang asked.

Sam chuckled nervously. "Oh, you know. I didn't tell my friend that I had gotten into Beacon, so I'm trying to surprise her."

"... REALLY." Yang and Blake voiced their suspicions at the same time.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's totally why."

Blake narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She was about to open up her mouth to voice her suspicions before another young man approached Sam from behind. He was the same height as Sam, but didn't have Sam's mask. Instead he had slightly disheveled hair and a toothless smile that implied that he was about to cause some mischief.

"Hey SAM, how's it going SAM? I set up our sleeping bags SAM, when are you thinking about turning in SAM?" Everyone looked at the newcomer strangely because of how he was talking. However, after a few seconds, Sam's posture went rigid when he realized what he was doing.

"James, I swear-"

"Swear what SAM? What's wrong with what I'm doing SAM? You need to tell me what's wrong SAM."

"James. we can talk-"

"Did someone say Sam?" Another voice cut in.

Everyone turned to look at the newcomer. It was Weiss, looking somewhat confused.

Sam gulped before chuckling sheepishly.

"No, of course not! No Sams here, no siree-" Sam was cut off when he felt something land on his head.

Weiss blinked several times, even more confused before everything clicked. "SAM." She hissed, having identified Sam's incredibly unique hat, which was now positioned squarely on the top of his head.

Sam reached to the top of his head, grabbed his hat, and stared at it disbelievingly. He looked next to him, at the other boy who had placed the hat on his head. He would have had a look of betrayal on his face, but with the mask, no one could tell.

"W-why?" Sam asked, his voice dripping with the betrayed feelings that he had.

"Oh gee, I dunno. Because you're being a moron? Because I'm sick of you hiding behind me? Because your plan sucks? Because I'm frustrated with you? Because it's funny?" He shrugged. "Take your pick."

Sam looked about to reply when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking down at it, he identified it as Weiss', and refused to turn around.

Everyone else noticed, and they seemed to get nervous as Weiss got angrier and angrier. However, Sam simply stared off into the distance.

"Um, Sam?" Ruby said, trying to catch his attention.

"I'm not turning around." Sam refused. "If I don't see her, I can't see how angry she is."

That only served to make Weiss even angrier, something that Ruby hadn't thought possible.

"Uh, dude? You should really turn around." Yang said.

"..." Sam said no words, simply looked forwards. While on the outside he might have looked calm and collected, that image was shattered by the fact that he was shaking in absolute terror.

… Weiss looked like a volcano about to explode now.

"... Oh boy." Blake said, covering her bow with her hands.

"SAMUEL SCOTT!" Weiss screeched. "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Sam flinched. He turned around to face Weiss, and then slid his mask of his face. He raised his hands up. "Um, surprise?" He said, doing 'jazz hands' to somehow desperately try to make things better.

Weiss was about to explode again when she looked around the room. Noticing everyone staring at them, she scowled, and grabbed Sam by the arm. "We're taking this elsewhere!" She exclaimed, dragging Sam away.

Sam didn't even try to resist, he simply bowed his head in defeat and allowed Weiss to drag him through the room and out the door. Before he was completely out of sight, he glared at the other boy one more time before he disappeared out the doorway.

The entire room was silent for a few moments before the dull background chatter started building up again.

"Uh, is he gonna be okay?" Ruby asked the other guy.

The person in question waved off Ruby's question while staring at the door. "He'll be fine. They've been best friends since they were five, but the idiot forgot to tell her that he'd gotten accepted a year early, so she's pissed."

"Ooooh. I get it now." Ruby replied.

"So cutie, what's your name?" Yang asked.

"Although, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes… From what he told me, Weiss has a nasty temper, and he's been on the receiving end of it a fair few times." He explained, still staring at the door, seemingly not realizing that Yang had said anything.

Yang was slightly annoyed that the boy hadn't responded to her. "Well, that's a pretty long name. Any nicknames we could use instead?"

That seemed to get the boy's attention. He turned to face Yang. "Sorry, were you talking to me? I thought you were talking to someone else." He explained sheepishly. He smiled slightly, and gave the group a small wave. "I'm James. James Smith. Nice to meet you all."

"Hi James! Nice to meet you! I'm Ruby, this is my sister Yang, and that's-" Ruby started.

"Blake. The girl trying to read her book in peace." Blake said, her face practically buried in her book now, obviously not wanting these people to disturb her anymore.

James chuckled. "Sorry about that. I just saw the chance to get Sam to stop being stupid. I'll leave you all alone."

And with that, the other boy left.

"Well… I guess we should get back to our stuff too. It was nice meeting you Blake!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, we should hang out sometime!" Yang said.

Please no… Blake thought to herself, hoping to any deity listening that her contact with that group would be minimal at best.

"James, whyyyyy?" Sam groaned.

It had been the next day. After Weiss had chewed out Sam, she had somehow managed to lock Sam out of the room, forcing Sam to sleep in the hallway. That was why Sam had bags under his eyes, and was attempting to glare daggers at me. We'd been heading towards the locker room

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, get over it. I was angry at you for deciding to ignore the plan to stay away from the main cast, so that's how I punished you."

That didn't stop Sam's attempt at forcing a second Semblance by glaring harder at me. A few seconds later, he realized it wasn't going to happen, and sighed. "Alright, I guess that's fair. But I really didn't think that it'd change much."

I shook my head. "Maybe, maybe not. We don't know. If we're trying to change things anyways, and I doubt you'd be able to stay away from Weiss for too long, I think we should consider scrapping that plan."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "So we're making friends with them?"

I shrugged apathetically. "If you want to, feel free. Maybe it'll help. Maybe it'll make things worse, at this point, we've already made a fair few changes, so who knows what'll end up happening in the end."

I then smirked at Sam a little bit. "And it's not like you'd listen to me if I told you otherwise, right?"

Sam rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Heh… Yeah, pretty much. I mean, Weiss is a great friend, and I kinda want to meet the rest of them."

"Fair enough. We'll just have to work harder to change key events, and hope that they don't change too much because of what we've done."

Sam nodded his acceptance at my words, and we soon entered the locker rooms, deciding to shelf the subject for later, so we don't run the risk of anyone overhearing us.

Sam sees a head of white and makes a beeline for Weiss. I decide to follow him, mostly for my own amusement. Weiss is currently talking to Pyrrha Nikos, whose record is the exact same as what it was in canon.

"Weiss! I'm sorr-" Sam starts.

"Did you hear something, Pyrrha?" Weiss asked. "It sounded like someone I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO RIGHT NOW." She seethed.

Pyrrha looks confusedly back and forth between Sam and Weiss. Her gaze then lands on me, seeing that I'm chuckling at Sam's dejected expression. I notice that she's desperately looking for a way out of this situation, and I shake my head at her.

"Um… I'm sorry?" Pyrrha responds.

"Weiss-" Sam tries again.

"It's just that sometimes this voice that DOESN'T GET THE MESSAGE decides to speak up, and I'd REALLY prefer it if it'd just GO AWAY."

Sam lowers his head in defeat, and slowly sulks away. I keep laughing silently. I wave Pyrrha goodbye, which she awkwardly returns, and then I follow Sam.

As I leave, I hear Weiss ask "So Pyrrha, any idea who you want on your team?"

I follow Sam to our assigned lockers to see him lightly banging his head on his own locker.

"Dammit." Bang. "Dammit." Bang. "Dammit."

I watch this cycle repeat for a few more moments before I decide to intervene.

"Alright Sam, come on. We've got to get ready." I say, interrupting his self-deprecation.

"James… She HATES me…" Sam whines.

I roll my eyes. "She doesn't hate you Sam, she's just mad at you for being an idiot and making her worry, on top of forgetting to tell her, your best friend, that you'd be joining her class at Beacon." I pause, realizing that I'd actually made things worse-

BANG. He hits his head harder on the locker.

"Stop that!" I exclaim, grabbing Sam's shoulder and dragging him away from his locker. "Look, give her time, talk to her tomorrow after classes. She's probably going to need you after she realizes that she isn't going to be the leader of her team."

Sam sighs. "Yeah, you're right… I just feel like trash."

I nod. "Makes sense."

Before Sam can glare at me again, I open my locker. "Not sure if I'll be able to use the whole 'rocket locker' thing unfortunately…" I mutter to myself.

Sam shook his head in exasperation. "I still don't get why you don't just buy a scroll…" Sam responds.

"They're expensive." I reply.

"You keep saying that, but I know you have the money for it."

"I don't have as much as you probably think. Beacon isn't free, you know." I respond, turning to face Sam. "And what I do have, I need to save for the necessities - more knives, dust-infused knives…" I pause, trying to think of other things I need to buy. "... That's pretty much it really. Three quarters of my knives are crappy ones I found in dumpsters, so I'd like to get to the point where all of them are professionally made, and a good third of them have dust in them."

Sam didn't seem to like my answer. "Then why the hell didn't you let me buy you one?!"

I waved him off. "Everything so far that I've needed a scroll for, my phone has been good enough to do."

"But no one can call you." Sam pointed out.

"I'm working on that. With the resources here at Beacon, I should be able to finish my project." I explain.

The project in question was me attempting to strip the OS on my iPhone and replace it with a scroll's OS. I think I'm almost there, but until then, my phone can't do much more than record videos and take pictures. However, I've yet to have a need to actually need to call people, and I don't picture myself needing any other functions of a scroll anytime soon.

"I hope you get that done soon…" Sam muttered, starting to open up his own locker.

I don't respond. Instead, I reach into my locker and pull out two bandoliers, which I then wrap in an 'x' shape across my chest. These bandoliers are filled to the brim with knives, of which most are of exceptionally poor quality. Once those are secured, I reach in and grab my duster. It's a tan brown jacket that reaches to about my calves. I leave it open so that I can easily reach inside and grab one of my knives.

"I still can't believe that you dress like that now." Sam said mockingly. "I remember when you never wore anything other than a hoodie and jeans."

"Hoodie and jeans don't work well in the desert." I responded, grabbing my katana and closing my locker. "Besides, you're one to talk. Your combat gear is basically a walking billboard for Schnee." I clip the katana to my waist underneath my duster.

"Not like I had much of a choice there…" Sam muttered to himself. "Besides, somehow I don't get warm in this stuff, and it's not like I need much flexibility for my clothes."

I nod. "Yeah, fair enough."

We head towards the cliff face, and get ready for the introduction. We wait there for several moments, as people start to filter out of the main building and up to where we are standing. After some time, and no one else coming out, Ozpin decides to speak up.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors. The very best of the best. Today, you will be pitted against the Emerald forest, filled with the very creatures you will train to fight."

"I'm sure many of you are aware that you will be assigned teams. Those teams will be assigned… today."

"What?!" I hear, and I turn around to see Ruby get nervous.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. They will likely be great friends with you for the rest of your life." He pauses dramatically. "That being said, the first person you lay eyes on is your partner for the rest of your time at Beacon."

Most of the others on the cliff face are shocked by Ozpin's blunt statement, and Sam is somewhat shocked as well. It occurs to me that Sam remembers little of the actual details of the episodes of the show. I probably should have reminded him of how we'd be partnering up, but I'd just assumed that he'd remembered.

He looks at me and his eyes widen in shock. I smile sheepishly and shrug, kind of going 'what can you do?'. His eyes start twitching. He's to my right, so if I remember correctly, that means he's going after me, so all he has to do is simply follow me. I have an idea on how to do that easily. I mouth 'shotgun' to him, and pray that he sees it.

"-will find an abandoned temple containing several relics. Your task is to take one per pair and return to the top of this cliff. Make sure to destroy anything in your path… Or you WILL die." Ozpin warns, his voice suddenly very serious, causing several people to start to get nervous. "Now, are there any questions?"

"Uh, yeah, sir?" I hear Jaune ask. I feel bad for the boy.

"Excellent! Now, take your positions."

We all move onto our assigned launch pad. Sam and I are going to be among the first few to go. That'll be fine for what I have planned. Sam grimaces at what's to come, which makes me think that he probably got my message.

"Uh, sir?" I hear Jaune ask. Some people to my left launch. One after the other, I hear them leave the cliff. "I was just wondering-" And then I was off. I had been launched.

As soon as I reached the apex of my launch, I activated my semblance. I bring my time dilation up to a 5:1 dilation, which I should be able to hold long enough to get to the temple without draining my entire semblance.

As I glide along, not really going down much (due to gravity's effect on my body being decreased), I watch out for the temple underneath me. Eventually I reach it, and I bring my time dilation back to a normal dilation. I grab a crystal of gravity dust from my pocket and crush it in my hand, shoving aura into it as it washes over me, slowing down my momentum. Sam had gave me the crystal for this particular purpose, as well as teaching me how to do it.

I hear something that sounds like rushing wind, and I look up to where the sound is coming from. I see Sam zooming a few meters above me. He appears to be flipping me off.

I wave at him as he disappears into the treeline. I land in the middle of the temple and grab a black Rook piece. I look back at the forest in the direction that Sam had gone in. I hear a few shots, but I don't move to interfere. Sam should be fine.

Sam comes out of the forest glaring at me, his clothes full of twigs and leaves.

"You just HAD to tell me to use the shotgun, didn't you?!" Sam shouted.

I shrug. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

Sam groaned. "The kickback for it got even more extreme after the upgrades… I guess that's good to know now. I actually drained aura from the kickback."

I blink at him in confusion. "Sam… How many shots did you have to use?" I tentatively asked.

"Only two. I boosted the shots though." Sam explained.

"Um… Wow. You're never using that. Ever."

"Yup. So, we all good?"

"Yeah, grabbed the relic." I said. I stuck a thumb over my shoulder. "We should go before everyone else shows up.

Sam furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Wait, didn't the other teams fight-"

"Sam, we should go. Don't forget, we're being MONITORED and GRADED, remember?" I said, not-so-subtly reminding Sam that Ozpin and Glynda are watching us, and that we should be careful what we say.

"Oh. Right." Sam said. "Alright, let's get going."

I nod, and we both take off through the forest. We zoom through the trees, desperately trying to avoid fighting much Grimm. While we wouldn't be adverse to fighting any Grimm, I'm still trying to keep my Semblance a secret, so we can't fight too many opponents.

We're probably about halfway back when we run into a pack of Beowulf's. There's roughly ten or so that I can see, though there's probably more hiding in the foliage. The ones that I can see are all arranged directly in front of us.

"Sam, Scorched Earth." I say, grabbing three knives, two in my right, one in my left. The Beowulf's start charging at us at this point.

"Got it." Sam replied, shifting his weapon into sniper rifle form.

I should clarify at this point. To say that Sam was a good shot was like saying that the ocean was wet. We'd actually watched a worldwide marksmanship tournament once. At the end, Sam had turned to me, and claimed he could beat the winner. We tested it with some targets in a wide-open space.

Sam did manage to beat the title-holder, which I argued could be because his aura bullets aren't as affected by wind resistance as normal bullets, but Sam had refused my argument and claimed that he was simply the better shot.

Either way, with that sniper rifle, Sam could hit just about anything, which is why most of our strategies revolve around him hitting my knives in mid-air and enhancing them. That's what we're doing here.

The first knife that I throw is a gravity knife, which is the basis of the entire plan. Because of my Semblance, I can control how quickly dust burns out. While normally the amount of dust in a gravity knife would hardly have much force behind it, because it's burned all at once, the resulting force is far greater. It also allows me to delay the activation a few moments before detonating it remotely. Combined with Sam's Semblance, the force is almost irresistible.

Once the gravity knife is in the middle of the enemy formation, I throw my other two knives and activate the gravity knife. My last two knives are fire and wind, with the fire knife thrown slightly before the wind knife. I probably don't have to explain what's happening here, but I'll do it anyways. The fire knife explodes into a fireball, going straight into the now-compact group of Beowulf's. Afterwards, the wind knife detonates, being absorbed by the fireball and making it larger. With both enhanced by Sam's Semblance, the resulting fireball is quite spectacular.

The resulting explosion of fire engulfs all of the Beowulf's, who are still being held compactly by the initial gravity knife. We held our position for a few moments, making sure that none of the Beowulf's survived the flames. After a few moments, we were fairly certain that none had, but five more had charged at us from the surrounding area. I instantly charge at the larger group of three, trusting that Sam could handle two of them on his own.

I can tell that the initial fall from the cliff barely took up much of my aura reserves, so I still had enough to deal with the threats in front of me. I turned up my time dilation to a 10:1, which should allow me to kill them extremely quickly.

I unsheath my sword and swing widely, cleaving through two of my targets at once. I spin on my heel and look at the third Beowulf, which is still in mid-air, slowly falling towards me. I almost pity it. I bisect it horizontally and sheathe my sword, deactivating my time dilation as I do so.

All of the Beowulf's dissipate into mist in mid-air, the resulting mess spraying over me, causing me to close my eyes and spit out what little gets in my mouth. I spend a few seconds kneeled over and spitting, attempting to get the taste of Grimm out of my mouth.

Once I get up, I notice Sam already standing over me, a teasing grin on his face.

"Not a word." I growl.

Sam says nothing, but his smile says everything. The jerk's happy that I'm suffering. I keep grumbling as we head back. I had been so cool, dammit. I bet Ozpin probably didn't even see my sword move. After all, that was the ultimate goal with my Iaido. Unfortunately, I'm now almost a quarter empty in turns of aura, which isn't a good sign for the future.

"We should get moving. More Grimm might hone in on us." I suggest, wiping my tongue on my sleeve.

"Sounds good. Lead the way." Sam replies.

And so we left. We weren't harassed the rest of our journey, which I decided was a good thing. While it meant that Ozpin and Goodwitch didn't know enough about us to place us with another team, it also meant that they knew very little about our capabilities. Well, mine at least. Sam had won the Atlas fighting tournament last year, so they probably knew a fair bit about how Sam fought.

While it might seem logical to not hide how good I am at fighting from the good guys, I can't afford the possibility that Cinder is somehow watching this year's class. Granted, she would probably be focused on Pyrrha, but I want to fly completely under her radar. I don't want to be noticed, I don't even want to appear on her list of people to kill. I want her to assume that I'm so mediocre that I'll die to the Grimm during the invasion.

I want my appearance to be such a complete and utter surprise that I'll get at least one good clean shot in before she recovers. That's the goal. That's why I'm being so secretive about my potential.

That being said… I still feel like I could be doing more with my Semblance, but I have yet to figure out what that is…

We were the first back up the cliff, and were told to wait in the auditorium. We watched as students slowly flowed in. Sam and I sat in a corner. I decided to use my time dilation to quicken the flow of time through my body, making the rest of the world from my perspective move by faster.

I'm somewhat impatient.

Sam fiddled around with his scroll. I don't know what he did, but I've got a feeling that he somehow got a video game on there. Lucky.

Eventually, I felt Sam rapidly tap my shoulder, which meant that I needed to come back to normal time dilation.

"-Will be led by Jaune Arc!" Ozpin announces.

Polite applause follows, and a stunned Jaune Arc gets accidentally knocked down by a congratulatory punch from Pyrrha Nikos. I chuckle. It's one thing to see it on a screen, another entirely to see it in real life. Real life is far funnier than the show.

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao-Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, which will be led by Ruby Rose!"

The entire team (except Blake) seems surprised by the announcement. Amidst the applause, Yang tackle-hugs her sister onstage in front of the entire crowd.

God I'm happy I don't have Yang as a sister.

Weiss looks less than happy, and I turn to see how Sam takes it. He's frowning, but nodding nevertheless, apparently agreeing with Ozpin's decision. They get off the stage, and I suppose it's our turn now. I'm interested to see who we get paired up with… All the characters I can remember from the show have already been assigned teams…

"And finally, our last team… James Smith, Sam Scott… For retrieving the black rook pieces, you will be team JS (Joust), which will be led by James Smith!"

Confused and somewhat hesitant applause follows the formation of our team, which is reflected on mine and Sam's faces as we turn to look at Ozpin, who simply sighs in response.

"Unfortunately, the two others who had successfully retrieved the other black rook piece were killed during initiation. Without the full students we were expecting, I am forced to give the other team with the black rook piece their own team." Ozpin explained. "Could we please have a moment of silence to remember the two who were taken away from us too soon."

There were bowed heads around the room. Unfortunately, and I feel like a horrible person for thinking this, but it's the thought that entered my head first:

Well, there goes flying unnoticed…

A/N:

Beacon at last… Well, the journey's been interesting this far, hopefully I can keep it going.

Also, to those new to my writing, just know that I've never been a fan of my own fight scenes. If anyone has any suggestions for how I can improve them, let me know. I would really appreciate the help there.

Also, anyone know what to call multiple Beowolf? Because I think it's one thing, and google docs disagrees.

Also, I had absolutely no idea what to name a team whose two initials are J and S. Joust is the best I could come up with.

Finally, here's Sam, who decided that he wanted in on the author's notes. He's been helping me behind the scenes, giving a second opinion on stuff before I upload a chapter.

Sam - Hello, it is I, Sam! I'm glad to be a part of this, helping this writing, and to see how I am perceived in the world of RWBY. My favorite part about this so far is how accurate the relationship between myself and James is depicted.

Review replies:

Akasuna123 - I… Legitimately didn't think of that. Like, at all. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind until you said it. I tried to think of a reason why, and couldn't come up with one. So now it's in. I'm not going to go back and change things, because if I didn't think of it without you asking, it's unlikely that I'd think of it without some kind of a reminder along the lines of 'oh yeah, Ozpin's a good guy'.

Warlord of Chaos - Hopefully you enjoy the interactions here with Sam and Weiss… It's not how they normally interact, but as you probably realized, this wasn't normal circumstances.

Bomberguy789 - The aura regen idea actually did occur to me, and I have a way to use it that isn't completely broken, but that's not coming till later. Also, yeah. I'd actually been talking with Sam about how much of canon he remembered, and… Well, I'll mention it next chapter.