Hey hey :)

So, I have yet to upload a chapter of this story at a time earlier than one in the morning (it's four thirty where I am now. I think Chapter One was uploaded at seven AM). I'm not sure if that shows that I'm dedicated to this story so much as I just love staying up late writing. Of course, that means I never proofread, so if you find spelling or grammatical errors...yeah, sorry.

There may also be a lull in updates for a few weeks, since I'm going home for the school holidays (no, not the summer, especially since it's winter here in the southern hemisphere) to a place that is paradise on earth, but where I have limited internet access. So yeah, fair warning.

Anyhoo, new chapter. I couldn't think of a better title, so I went with this. Enjoy.

Just as an aside, can anyone tell me what I based Nate's weapons on? Think about it; trident, nets, armour only on one arm, Nathaniel Rome... Anybody?

I am not nearly awesome enough to own RWBY.

Chapter Three: Tales of Light and Shadow

Ruby pushed open the door to the infirmary and stepped inside. Her eyes caught a flash of blue as she entered and she smiled. It looked like she wasn't the first one here.

"Hey," Bastion called softly from his seat by the window.

"Hey there," she replied, shutting the door softly behind her and moving to take a seat beside him. She let her eyes rove over the small, pale girl on the bed before her, and the brown-and-red haired girl on the bed beyond that. "No change?"

"Nothing," he shook his head. "They're both as still as they've been all day."

Ruby sighed. "I hope they're okay."

After both girls had collapsed in the forest yesterday, Teams RWBY, JNPR and BSTN knew that they couldn't leave the strangers there. After a quick discussion between Bastion, Blake, Pyrrha and Ren, they had determined the correct direction to go in to reach the ruins (the original destination of their field test) and had taken off, carrying the unfamiliar girls with them.

Ozpin and Goodwitch had been more than surprised to see three of their teams staggering into the ruins together, just before sunset, carrying two strangers. They had called a small airship in immediately and all three teams had flown back to Beacon with the unconscious girls. The two had been in the infirmary for a full night and almost a full day now. Whenever they had the chance, members of the three teams would pop in to check on them, feeling a strange attachment to the newcomers.

Bastion gazed at the girl in front of him. Her pale, flaxen hair was fanned out gracefully on the pillow beneath her head and her eyelids were shut over her amethyst eyes. While her companion occasionally shifted uncomfortably, as though in pain, the pale girl had barely moved. She had twitched as if dreaming a few times, but other than that she had been still as a statue. She looked for all the world like some sort of peacefully slumbering princess, a Sleeping Beauty in her own right.

The door creaked open behind them as Jaune, Pyrrha, Taka, Nate , Weiss and Yang slipped quietly into the room.

"Nothing?" Jaune asked as he took a seat on the empty bed behind Ruby.

"Nothing," Ruby sighed.

They lapsed into silence for a while, just staring worriedly at the two mysterious girls. Then…

"Where do you think they came from?" Yang asked.

"And what were they doing in the woods?" Pyrrha added.

Bastion sighed and shook his head. "No clue."

Taka's eyes narrowed. "Maybe so, but I feel like Professor Ozpin knows more than he's letting on."

"What makes you say that?" Yang asked curiously.

"Call it a hunch," Taka shrugged.

It was a hunch, in a way. But Taka had seen the recognition in the Headmaster's eyes when he'd seen the pale girl in Taka's arms yesterday. Professor Ozpin knew who this girl was, of that he was sure.

After another long bout of silence, Weiss spoke. "What do you think her name is?" She inclined her head towards the unconscious, blonde-haired girl.

Ruby tilted her head and looked at the small girl. "Probably something pretty. She looks like the type of girl that would have a really pretty name."

An unfamiliar voice answered. "Lilac."

Eight pairs of eyes snapped up, alighting on the brown-haired girl who was sitting up and looking straight at them.

"Her name is Lilac."

In the hallway outside, Blake and Silas sat on the bench by the door. Only eight visitors were allowed in at a time and Nora had dragged Ren away some time ago, saying something about pancakes and syrup.

Blake glanced sidelong at the other Faunus. Though they'd had classes together for four days now and their teams had run into each other occasionally, they had yet to have so much as a single conversation. There had been a lingering sense of camaraderie since the battle yesterday, but still they had yet to say so much as a word to each other. Not that Blake necessarily minded; she never had been one for lengthy conversation.

Still, one of them had to say something eventually. It might as well be her.

"Your ponytail is different."

Silas laughed out loud, fingering his hair. The ponytail that had previously been at the base of his neck had been moved up to the back of his crown. It looked a lot neater that way, with more of his choppily cut hair tucked into the hair tie, though the odd lock still escaped to hang around his face. The combination lent him a ruffled and slightly wild, yet still proud and regal appearance. The overall effect was very wolf-like.

"Nate's been pestering me to wear it like this for a while," he explained. "I finally gave in. This style is called a 'warrior's wolf-tail', according to him."

Blake quirked an eyebrow. "You don't say."

"I do say," he smiled. He glanced up at her bow. "Cat ears?" he queried.

Blake blinked in surprise. She supposed that her bow twitching must have given her away at some point, but it was still surprising to hear that he had figured it out so easily. "Um, yeah."

He grinned. "Nice to have another Faunus around." His grin only widened when he realised that those were the exact words that Nate had used upon meeting him.

She allowed herself a slight smile in return. "I'm not the only one in the school."

"Oh, I know. I've seen them around. You're just the first that I've actually said anything to." He shrugged. "My team hasn't exactly been socialising these last few days. Not that I mind, honestly."

"Not much of a people person?" she asked.

"Not really, no. Before I met my team I was kind of a lone wolf, no pun intended."

She smiled. She could relate. "I'm not much for conversation either."

"I've noticed," he chuckled. "And yet, here we are."

She gave a soft laugh of her own. "Here we are."

"Which reminds me; we were never properly introduced. Blake, right?"

She nodded. "And your name is Silas, yes?"

"Yes."

They lapsed into companionable silence, feeling no need to talk any further for the time being.

The stillness was disrupted when Yang flung open the door.

"Go get Professor Ozpin," the blonde said urgently. "One of them woke up."

Ruby stared in surprise at the brown-haired girl now sitting up in bed. "You're awake!"

"Apparently." The girl examined her body, finding herself clothed in what resembled a loose pair of white pyjamas with the Beacon crest stitched into the breast of the shirt; Beacon infirmary-issue hospital clothes. Her own clothes were sitting on the dressing table beside her, with her weapons and other belongings sitting in a small backpack on the floor below. "Where am I?"

"Beacon Academy," Nathaniel answered. "You're in the infirmary."

The girl nodded to herself. "How long was I out?"

"Almost a full twenty-four hours," Taka said.

The girl frowned slightly and nodded to her still-unconscious companion. "How has she been?"

"About the same as you," Bastion replied. "She seems to be okay, from what the nurses can tell."

The girl nodded again, her green eyes softening.

"You said her name was…Lilac?" Ruby asked.

Professor Ozpin's voice made them jump. "Indeed. Lilac Delphia."

"Professor!" Ruby cried. "You got here quickly."

Ozpin smiled. "I was on my way to check in with our patients myself when Mister Fenrir and and Miss Belladonna found me." He indicated the mentioned pair, who had entered behind him along with Nora and Ren. "We encountered Mister Lie and Miss Valkyrie on our way here. I see Miss Delphia has not yet awoken."

"You know her?" Weiss asked.

"I know of her. I've never met her in person. I was expecting her arrival, though I was not expecting to find her and her guardian in the forest."

The brown-and-red-haired girl spoke up. "I'm assuming you're the headmaster?"

Ozpin nodded. "Indeed. I am Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Although I must admit, I was not expecting Miss Delphia's guard to be a girl. I believe the letter that I received mentioned an Alexander?"

"That's actually A. Lexander," the girl corrected. "Amaryl Lexander, at your service."

"Ah," Ozpin smiled. "My apologies, Miss Lexander."

The girl shrugged. "No biggie."

Ruby opened her mouth to ask a question. "What-?"

She was cut off when the sleeping girl in front of her made a soft humming sound and shifted in her bed, her brow furrowing slightly. The entire group watched with hawk-like intensity, but she did nothing but shift slightly.

Then, after a few minutes, she opened her eyes.

She gazed around in confusion for a moment, before her eyes settled on Amaryl. "Amaryl! Are you okay?"

The other girl smiled. "I'm fine. It was mainly exhaustion, only minor wounds."

The paler girl sighed. "That's good then." She pushed herself into a sitting position, running her gaze over the three teams that stood or sat at various points around her, as well as the headmaster that stood at the foot of her bed. "Is this Beacon?"

"It is," Ozpin replied. "I am Professor Ozpin, the headmaster here. Are you feeling alright, Miss Delphia?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, thank you."

After a moment of silence, Ruby spoke up. "Hi! I'm Ruby."

The girl smiled. "My name is Lilac. Lilac Delphia."

"I'm Bastion," the blue-haired leader of Team BSTN offered.

"I'm Nathaniel."

"Taka Kaneshiro, at your service."

"The name's Jaune Arc."

"I'm Pyrrha."

"I'm Weiss."

"I'm Yang."

"Silas."

"Blake."

"Nora!"

"My name is Ren."

The girl laughed softly. "It might take me a while to get all those names straight, but it's nice to meet you."

Weiss spoke up, a frown on her face. "Delphia… Your last name sounds familiar. Isn't your family noble?"

The girl nodded. "I guess so, yeah. We're supposedly descended from royalty, and we have a lot of illustrious people in our family history, hunters mainly."

"So what were you doing in the forest?" Yang asked.

The girl sighed. "It's kind of a long story."

When no one moved, she took a deep breath and then began.

"My family runs a… a monastery of sorts in the mountains, where one learns both to fight and to connect with oneself and ones surroundings spiritually. It's quite small, but relatively well known all the same. You may have heard of it; the Amethyst Temple?"

Ren, Taka and Weiss nodded. Pyrrha and Bastion's eyes widened in recognition.

"No way," Ruby gasped. "My Uncle Qrow told me about that place. Some of the greatest hunters in history are supposed to have been trained there!"

"I thought that place was just a legend," Nate gaped.

Lilac smiled in amusement. "No, it's real all right. It's pretty isolated and we don't have a lot of acolytes, so it's not surprising that a lot of people seem to think it's a legend. And yes, when they leave the monastery many of the acolytes do become hunters, though they need at least a year in a place like Beacon to complete their education and qualify for the job. Our monastery teaches fighting techniques and aura control, but for more technical things they need to come to a hunters' school for a bit."

"Anyway," she continued. "My family is very spiritual. It has been for generations. And that's because, every few generations, someone like me shows up. I…" She paused, glancing at the students hesitantly. She looked at Ozpin questioningly. When he nodded, she continued.

"I have visions."

There were many raised eyebrows and gasps of surprise at this. Before they could ask any questions, she kept going. "I have dreams that predict the future. Sometimes they're straightforward and easy to understand. Most of the time they're not."

She paused again and looked at them to gauge their reactions. When they remained silent, waiting for her to continue, she carried on.

"A few months ago, I had a dream of one of the nearby villages being attacked by Grimm and burned to the ground. I warned my parents, and we were able to get word out in time to save the village. Then, a few weeks later, two of our graduates were going hunting in the woods when they were ambushed by a horde of Grimm. I'd had a dream about it a few days before, and they had agreed to allow team to follow them at a discreet distance. Because of that, they both survived. Two days later the attempts on my life started."

"Ever since I became a teenager, Grimm have been drawn to me more than normal," she explained. "But in the last few months it's been worse than ever. Now I can barely set foot outside the temple without being attacked. Usually the forest around the temple is safe and Grimm-free, but more and more have been sneaking through recently, some making it all the way to the temple walls. They're venturing closer to the towns and are attacking in large groups made up of many different kinds of Grimm. As you know, that almost never happens. And all of them have black eyes."

"Like the Grimm yesterday," Bastion noted.

Lilac nodded. "Exactly like that. Often they just ignore the others and head straight for me, like someone's painted a glowing target on my head. That's where Amaryl comes in." She indicated the girl in the bed beside hers.

"I'm her bodyguard, basically," The brown-haired girl supplied.

Lilac nodded. "Mmmhm. Anyway, just over a week ago I had another vision and in it I saw this place; Beacon Academy. We weren't sure what the significance of it was, since the dream wasn't too clear on that, but we decided that between my vision and the need for my safety it would be best for me to come here. We sent a letter to Professor Ozpin, who agreed to let me stay here."

"I was expecting your arrival to be by airship," Ozpin commented.

Lilac sighed. "We were attacked by two huge Nevermores and we were steered off course, then shot down over the forest. Amaryl and I managed to escape unscathed, but our pilot and crew…weren't so lucky. We managed to survive in the forest for two days and made our way towards Beacon. And then you found us."

Her story complete, she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. The last few days had been draining, and she was still quite tired.

Bastion noticed the fatigue on her face and got to his feet. "You must still be tired. We'll let you rest. Thank you for telling us your story." He shot his team-mates a meaningful look and headed for the door. With a series of polite goodbyes, the other three members of Team BSTN turned and followed their leader out. Catching on, Teams RWBY and JNPR bade the two girls goodbye and left as well, leaving them with Professor Ozpin.

As soon as the door swung shut behind the last of them, Ozpin took a seat and eyed the girls seriously. "Now, have you had anymore dreams recently?"

Ozpin had long been an acquaintance of the Delphia family, and knew much about the dreams of the Delphia Oracles. He knew that an Oracle's dream was never wrong, no matter what it signified. Any information, any hints, however vague, about their situation would be invaluable.

Lilac nodded. "I had the same dream again just now, of Beacon Academy surrounded by shadows. Then I had a new one. I see a chessboard, and the black pawns have advanced across the board while the white pieces haven't moved at all. Then the white knight and the white rook move forward. The other white rook moves forward as well, and then suddenly becomes the white king. The white queen appears beside it, and they join the rook and the knight on the front line. Then I woke up."

Ozpin nodded, pressing his fingertips together. He was silent for a long moment, and then spoke. "I see. Well then, you are obviously tired and I will leave you two to rest."

He got to his feet and bowed slightly before turning and walking out the door.

The two girls were still for several moments, before Amaryl remarked quietly, "There's something else, isn't there?"

Lilac sighed. "Since when did you know me so well?"

Amaryl smirked. "I honestly don't know. Rooming with you for just over a month probably helped some."

Lilac smiled. "Probably." Then she sighed again, all traces of happiness gone. "I don't know, Am. I just get a really bad feeling when I see that chessboard. A really bad sense of foreboding. This will be a war, Am. And people are going to die."

A heavy silence descended and both girls were motionless as they digested the thought of war. To Lilac, war was something foreign, something totally removed from her life. She knew it existed, of course, but she also knew that she had been sheltered behind temple walls her entire life. The idea of war…it terrified her.

The oracle turned to her friend and opened her mouth to speak. Then she hesitated, unsure how to begin. "Am… Now that I'm here…"

"Stop right there," Amaryl interjected sharply. "There is no way I'm ditching you now, Princess. My job is to guard you, and guard you I will." She grinned. "That is what your family's paying me for."

Lilac quirked an eyebrow at her friend. "You realise that you don't get paid for after I get to Beacon, right? Your job technically ended the second I arrived here."

The other girl snorted and waved it off. "Details. If you think I'm going to just abandon you now, you've got another thing coming. 'Sides, it's not like I have anything better to do with my time anyway."

Lilac laughed softly. "There's no way I'm going to win this argument, is there?"

"Nope. Now sleep. You are still tired, I can tell. And before you say anything, yes, I promise I'll get some sleep too."

Lilac chuckled and snuggled back under the covers. "Okay." A moment later she was fast asleep.

Back in their dorm room, Team RWBY was busy debating the new additions to their academy.

"She can actually tell the future," Ruby squealed from her bunk. "That's so cool!"

"It doesn't sound like something she can control," Blake pointed out from her own bed, her eyes on the book in her hands.

Ruby deflated a little at that. "Still cool though."

"Her family is noble, even if they stay secluded from the world most of the time," Weiss mused aloud as she paced back and forth. "And they have ties to several highly skilled hunters. She would be a useful acquaintance."

Blake rolled her eyes. Sometimes it seemed like all the heiress thought about was politics.

"We sure are getting a lot of new students here," Yang commented, her blonde mane dangling over the edge of her mattress. "First Team BSTN, now these two."

"We don't know that they'll be students here yet," Blake pointed out. "That Lilac girl just said that they were staying here. They didn't say anything about going to classes or anything like that. Besides, in the long run, you need to be part of a four-person team for field assignments and things like that."

Yang just shrugged in response. Then she grinned and looked over at her sister. "Speaking of Team BSTN, you seemed awfully chummy with Bastion, Ruby."

Ruby shrugged. "I guess we're friends. He's nice. Why?"

"Friends? You sure that's all it is?" Yang waggled her eyebrows. "He is pretty cute. They all are." She added the last part in an undertone.

Ruby balked at the implication. "No! We're just friends. Honestly!" He was a nice guy, but she didn't think of him like that.

Weiss watched her leader's denial with narrowed eyes. Bastion did seem nice (she reminded herself that she still had to apologise to him), but she didn't like the idea of Ruby dating some guy she had just met. It gave her an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. She resolved that if he ever hurt Ruby, he would have an even greater need for those crutches.

Yang shrugged again and stuck her head over the side of her bunk to look at her partner. "So Blake, what's with you and the wolf-Faunus boy. Silas?"

Blake sighed. She could see where this was going. "Yes, his name is Silas. We've spoken once, for approximately two minutes. Why is that interesting?"

"No reason. So, do you liiike him?"

The Faunus fixed her partner with an exasperated look. "I just told you I've only spoken to him once."

The blonde brushed it off. "Yeah, but neither of you seems like the type to waste words. For all I know you two could be connecting on some non-verbal level. Didn't you two kill that King Taijitu together yesterday?"

Blake rolled her eyes, shook her head and proceeded to block out her persistent partner with the pages of her book.

The moon shone down on the City of Vale, its light lost to the people on the street below, overtaken by the streetlamps that lined the sidewalks.

Above the street, a masked man in a hood gazed up at the shattered silver circle, enjoying the silver light it provided. He loved the moon.

The man was dressed all in black leather, from his hooded jacket to his gloves to his soft-soled boots. The forest green sash tied around his waist lent a signature look to the outfit, the ends of the sash hanging limp at his side in the still night air. A feature-less black mask concealed his face, the colour blending with the shadows cast by his hood. His staff lay at the small of his back, in collapsed form, looking like a small rod with a dust crystal on either end. His knife was sheathed just beneath it. On his left hip sat cases of ammunition, spare dust crystals and useful little gadgets.

The sound of running feet caught his attention. He dropped his eyes to an alley to his left, where he saw a group of people gathering in the shadows. Moving like a ghost, he dropped to a low level of the nearby fire-escape and listened in.

"We did well tonight," one man chuckled.

"Two grand in cash," another agreed, rubbing his hands together like a cliché movie villain.

"That old geezer never knew what hit him," a woman sneered, unzipping the duffel bag in his hands to reveal bundles of lien stashed inside.

The masked man had heard enough. Without so much as a whisper, he dropped to the ground behind the group of crooks.

Unaware of his presence, the thieves continued cackling over their prize. "We keep this up and we'll be rich," another man grinned.

"I don't suppose you're going to return that."

The group jumped at the masked man's voice (disguised though it was with the voice distortion device hidden under his mask).

Before they could react, the masked man pulled out his staff, the small rod lengthening in his hand until it reached its full six-and-a-half feet. He spun it easily in one hand for a moment, allowing his adversaries time to properly register his presence. He wanted them to remember this.

A moment later, everything disintegrated into a blur of action. The group of thugs were no match for the masked man's lightning fast blows, each one devastating and all delivered with flawless precision and technique. Not that any of the thugs realised this. All they knew was that one second they had heard a strange voice and seen a man behind them, the next they were out cold.

Finally, only one man remained. He had had the sense to run the second the fight broke out, but he didn't make it far. After making short work of his friends, the masked man replaced his staff and covered the distance between them in two strides.

The thug gasped in terror as he was hoisted up by his shirt-front. "Who…Who are you?!"

The masked man paused for a moment. "Call me Sentinel."

His fist was the last thing the thug saw before his world went black.

The next morning, the police found a duffel bag full of lien waiting on their doorstep, along with a note containing directions to an alley not far away, where they found a group of thieving thugs tied up neatly waiting for them.

So yeah. That happened.

It should be starting to become a little more obvious where I'm going with the pairing thing, for two of them at least (just as a hint, Yang's teasing isn't entirely on the mark).

If anyone can guess Sentinel's real identity, I won't be surprised. If people can't, well, I guess that means I actually managed to get away with keeping his identity a mystery.

Review and tell me what you thought :)

Until the next chapter

- Forever a Cookie