Disclaimer: All rights to RWBY belong to RoosterTeeth. I own only the rights to my OCs.

Chapter 2: New Friends (?)

The Next Day

"Ooh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day EVER!" came the shout of Yang Xiao Long as she smothered Ruby in a bone crushing hug. The sisters stood near the window of the airship taking them to Beacon. While Yang gushed over her sister, Dante sat under the window trying not to lose his lunch. He really did hate air travel.

"Yang… please… stop…" Ruby replied as she struggled to breathe. She glanced over at Dante, "…please… help me…"

Dante just chuckled nervously. "Sorry Red; I've already hit my quota for brushes with death in a twenty-four-hour period…"

The Night Before

"I'm home!" Ruby called, walking through the front door to her house.

"Ruby! Thank Remnant! Where have you been?!" Taiyang Xiao Long came out of the kitchen. "I've been worried si-"

"Geez sis, and I thought I made him worried," Yang followed close behind her father, "Seriously, he's been tearing out his hai-"

Yang and Taiyang finally noticed the ominous-looking man in black standing behind Ruby. Dante removed his hat and offered the pair a polite bow. "Good evening, my name is-"

Dante froze in the midst of his introduction as he felt a tidal wave of killing intent. The blonde man and his daughter glared daggers at him from blood-red eyes. "Who are you and what are you doing with my daughter?!"

"If you've laid so much as one finger on my baby sister, I'll break every bone in your body!" Yang cracked her knuckles.

Poor Dante could almost feel the many wounds and injuries they wanted to inflict on him. Dante's life flashed before his eyes as a red blur moved between him and her bloodthirsty relatives…

Present

An extra shudder passed through his body as he remembered the night before. "… I still owe you big time for getting them off my back, Red…"

Finally winning free from Yang's grip, Ruby nudged the drifter's shoulder playfully. "Well, a few more dinners like that and I think we're square. But seriously, are you ok? You don't look so good…"

Reaching a shaking hand into his jacket pocket, Dante pulled out his lighter and one of his white sticks. Putting the stick in his mouth, he responded, "Yeah… I'm just not very good with flying…" He lit it and took a deep breath, a little color returning to his face. "Getting back on topic, you should be proud of yourself Red. You've been moved ahead two years for impressing the headmaster. From what I understand, he's not easily impressed."

"But that's just it! I don't want to be special!"

Dante raised an eyebrow at that. "Look Red there're just some things that can't be helped. That's like Sunshine here saying she doesn't want to be blonde, or me saying I don't want to be a bad ass. Like it or not, you are special."

"Bad ass, huh?" Yang squinted at the drifter. "This coming from the guy who was about to puke up his breakfast a minute ago?"

"Hey, motion sickness is a common ailment!" Even through his dark sunglasses, the sisters could sense the glare that was pointed at Yang. Speaking of sunglasses…

"Hey Dante, I've been meaning to ask you something…" Dante looked up at Ruby from beneath his fedora. "You haven't taken off your sunglasses, even in the middle of the night. From the way you fight, you're obviously not blind so-"

"So what are you hiding behind those lenses?" Yang interjected bluntly, having as much curiosity as her sister.

"Ah. Mostly I don't care for the stares I get." Dante pulled the sunglasses off, eliciting a gasp from Yang and Ruby. While his left eye was fairly normal, albeit with a red iris and a vertical slit of a pupil, his right was… different. The iris was as white as the sclera surrounding it; it almost looked like the iris didn't exist. The scar bisected the pupil almost perfectly in a deep red line. "When Gramps found me in the wild, I was being attacked by a Creep. Before it took a bite out of me, he surprised it with shot in the back. It whipped around and lashed me with its tail, leaving me with this little memento of my brush with death. Surprisingly, my eye still works perfectly fine; I can see through my shades clear as day, which is good cause I never take them off. People tend to get creeped out from the sight of it so…"

As he put his shades back on, a hologram of the blonde woman from the night before appeared nearby. "Hello and welcome to Beacon."

"Who's that?" Yang asked. Dante smirked and held up three fingers to the girls. He started counting down fingers and as soon as he reached one quickly pointed at the hologram in time for it to say:

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch. ("Oh…") You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

Gasps could be heard around the ship as the hologram disappeared. Students were running to the windows and looking out at the view of the upcoming academy. It really was quite a sight. Shame that the moment didn't last long, as a young man in an armored black hoodie started to gag and run for the restroom. Dante just chuckled and followed the unfortunate young man as chaos ensued between Yang and Ruby. The two young ladies had looked down to notice something.

Vomit Boy didn't hold it in long enough.

"That's it man, just let it on out." Dante stood there patting the blonde guy's back. Their ship had landed a few minutes ago, and Dante had guided his new friend Jaune (He managed to cough out his name in between gagging) to a nearby garbage bin. Which he then proceeded to fill.

"*cough-cough* Thanks dude… *gag* Motion sickness is the worst…"

"Preaching to the choir bro…" Dante replied around the fresh, unlit stick in his mouth.

Jaune stood up wiping his mouth. "Wait, if you get motion sickness, how come you're not yakking up breakfast too?"

"These calm me down a lot, makes it easier for me to keep the symptoms under control." Dante indicated the white stick in his mouth.

As Dante lit his lighter and moved it to his mouth, a heavily armored purple gauntlet snatched the stick from his mouth. "I shall thank you to not pollute the air that I breathe with your filth."

The gauntlet belonged to a tall woman encased in the heavy armor of a knight, all of it enameled a deep purple. Slung over her back was a massive single-edged sword, though there was something odd about the shape of its hilt that suggested a secondary firearm function. She wore no helm, revealing long red hair cascading around her shoulders and emerald green eyes over a stern gaze (A/N: Picture Erza Scarlet wearing a purple version of Knightmare's armor, with no helmet and a normal right arm).

"Miss, if you wanted one, you could have just asked." Dante joked, trying to break the tension.

The red-headed knight was not amused.

"Be silent knave! I have not the time for your attempts at humor. Nor will I tolerate your corruptive influence."

"Hey now! First of all, 'Knave'? If you're going to insult me, could you at least make it something I don't need a dictionary to translate it? And second of all, what do you mean by corruptive?"

"A Nocturnia need not explain herself to a common criminal such as yourself. Having the gall to openly abuse narcotics in public!" The angry knight punctuated her words by throwing the unlit stick to the ground and grinding it beneath her boot.

"Ah jeez, it's not what you think lady! Look just-" Dante held out another stick to the redhead, only for her hand to snap out and grab both the stick and the lighter out of his grip.

"I shall not allow your criminal behavior to continue!" The violet knight snapped as she crushed the lighter in her fist and threw it to the ground. Dante slumped to his knees at the sight.

"…m-my lighter… it was innocent…"

Jaune, who everyone else had forgotten about, decided that this was the moment to try and cut back in to the conversation. "Well that was kind of harsh, Miss…?"

The violet knight turned and glared at him, "This does not concern you!"

As she glared at him, her eyes began to fade into pools of darkness. Jaune's eyes met hers and he was overcome with an immense feeling of fear. There were no words to describe how terrified her gaze made him feel, only than it was far worse than the last time he had incurred his mother's wrath.

Dante could only look on as his most recent friend shivered for a moment before turning tail and running as fast as he could towards the courtyard, screaming bloody murder the whole way. "Um… what the heck was-"

The knight before him turned her dark gaze on him, and he could feel the fear emanating from those dark orbs.

…

After a moment of staring into each other's eyes, Dante felt the need to break the silence, "Sooooo… is that your semblance?"

For the first time since meeting, the furious mask of the violet knight's face melted into one of pure shock. Her eyes brightening once more, she frowned to cover her surprise. "Odd; every other person to have looked into my eyes has been frightened into hysterics, yet you stand unfazed. How can it be so?"

The black garbed drifter shrugged, "I've got a pretty tight lid on my emotions; don't get me wrong, for a minute there my instincts were screaming for me to run. But you know, as nasty as you've been to me, that's a pretty cool ability you've got there."

The sudden praise was nearly enough to break the knight's unreadable facade. What is with this man? Not only can he look in to the deepest darkness of my Terror, but he casually doles out praise to me, despite my obvious dislike for him…

"Anyways, we should probably start heading in for the opening ceremonies and stuff. Catch you later, 'Midnight'!" Dante said, as he walked past her in the direction Jaune had run.

"My name is Nyx Nocturnia, and I refuse to be referred to by a nickname, Knave!"

His stride never so much as faltered as he waved over his shoulder and called, "Well, pleasure to meet you Nyx! You can just call me Dante!"

"AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO FACE ME AS YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF KNAVE!"

As Dante strolled through the courtyard, thinking about the odd encounter with the violet knight Nyx, he was torn from his thoughts by an explosion. Running forward he caught sight of Ruby being yelled at by a girl dressed in a white combat skirt and pale blue bolero jacket, with a long side ponytail. He couldn't hear what was being said, but seeing no immediate threat, he slowed to a walk. The pair of girls were joined by a third dressed in black and white, with a black bow on her head and a nasty looking sword on her back. Whatever she said must have irritated the "Ice Queen" (These nicknames practically make themselves, Dante thought) as she stormed off shortly thereafter. The girl with the bow was already walking away as Ruby slumped to the ground. Before Dante finally caught up to the girl, he saw a familiar blonde help her back to her feet.

"Hey Red, how's your day going?" The drifter grinned

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is much more common than people let on." The three had walked deeper into Beacon's courtyard as Jaune attempted to defend his motion sickness to a skeptical Ruby.

"I'm sorry, but Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind."

"Sheesh, makes me glad you and I met during a robbery." Dante cut in, putting his hands behind his head.

"Wait, robbery?"

Ruby, not wanting to bring up the circumstances of her early acceptance again, quickly changed the subject: "Soooooo... I got this thing."

She drew Crescent Rose off of her back and expanded it, digging the point of is blade into the ground. While Dante was unmoved by the unexpected display, Jaune not only jumped but also cowered a little

"WHOA! I-Is that a scythe?"

"It's also a fully customizable, high-impact sniper rifle."

"A wha-?"

"A gun, Jaune. The gigantic scythe is also a gun." The drifter translated for the blond.

"Oooh... That's cool!"

Ruby blushed slightly, "So what have you got?"

Jaune drew the sword from his hip, then he took its sheath from his belt as it expanded into a shield. "I got this sword, I got this shield too..."

"Oooh, so what do they do?" She reached out and touched the shield, causing it to flip from Jaune's hands as it repeatedly collapsed and expanded.

Finally getting control of his shield again, Jaune caught his breath and replied, "The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it I can just... Put it away..."

"But wouldn't it still weigh the same?"

"...yeah... It does..." Jaune dejectedly closed the shield and returned it to his belt, sheathing his sword.

"I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, so maybe I went a little overboard in designing mine..." Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Wait, you made that?!" Even Dante was surprised by that little tidbit.

"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you guys make yours?"

Jaune looked down, "It's a hand me down... My great-great-grandfather used it during the War."

"Well, I like it. Not enough people have an appreciation for the classics these days." The red haired girl turned to the drifter, "What about you Dante? I didn't really get a good look at them in the dark last night. Did you make them yourself?"

"No but I didn't really have a lot of other options in the desert." Dante drew his pistols, revealing each to be black with red accents. They appeared to be more-or-less standard semiautomatic pistols with extended magazines. Connected to the underside of each barrel, however, was a block-shaped module. Dante spun the pistols in his hands, allowing the barrels to fold up by 45 degrees, and the modules to extend into 18" blades along the barrels. (A\N: with the blades extended, these weapons are essentially oversized kukri knives that shoot bullets.)"I call them Purgatory and Paradise. Found them in a wrecked airship I found a few years back, never really seen anything like them since."

"That would be due to the fact that those were prototypes under review for use as the Atlas military's new standard issue service pistol." A voice spoke up from behind the trio.

The new arrival was a girl with shoulder length hair, black with blonde tips, framing a pale face. Pale blue eyes hid behind reading glasses, the frames of which were black but for the yellow part above the lenses. She wore a black blazer over a white blouse, below which she wore a knee length black skirt. Long white socks covered the rest of her legs and a pair of flat black boots on her feet. Around her neck she had tied a bright orange handkerchief backwards, with the knot at her throat and the rest hanging down her back. (A/N: picture the stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl.) Speaking of her back, she carried a large silver backpack with a rifle stock strapped above her right shoulder. (A/N: looks kind of like a Proton Pack from Ghostbusters, without the hose connecting the pack to the gun)

"Pardon my bluntness Miss, but how would you know about that?" Even Dante had no idea where his pistols had come from.

"Simple. The prototype AC3 Multi-Range Combat Pistol, under the codename 'Overlord', was developed at Rochopper Armaments (A/N: pronounced Rock-aw-per), my father's company. I was the lead in development of these pistols."

"Oh..." The drifter retracted the blades and flipped the pistols so that he was holding them by the barrels, offering the grips to the girl. "Would you like your guns back Miss?"

The girl blinked. "You would surrender your weapons, at a moment's notice, without hesitation?"

"Well, from what you said, these aren't really mine right? I'm not the kind of guy to steal, so take them. It's no trouble at all, I'll make do without until I can come up with something else."

"Your honesty is admirable, but ultimately unnecessary. After the apparent loss of the original prototypes, we successfully recreated the design. However, it was discovered that, over a protracted period of time, the pistols would begin to emit large amounts of heat. If left unchecked, this heat would inevitably damage the inner components and create a risk of catastrophic backfire. That you have, apparently, utilized these pistols for 'a few years' is surprising. As they are not fit for military use, I will allow you to retain them as your weapons."

Spinning Paradise and Purgatory back into their holsters, Dante removed his hat and bowed to the girl. "Thank you kindly. Might I have the pleasure of your name, Miss?"

The girl was taken aback by the sudden formality, "My name is Gwyndolyn Rochopper."

Dante returned his hat to his head, grinning sheepishly, "Gwyn, huh? That doesn't quite work for me. Would you mind if I called you Doc?"

She cocked her head to the side, "May I ask why? I fail to see where such a nickname would come from."

The Drifter chuckled, "I tend to give people nicknames based on first impressions of people, like Ruby here is simply Red. You said that you developed weapons, so I that made me think of a doctor for weapons soooo..."

"I do not understand, but I also do not see any harm. Very well, you may call me Doc."

Jaune finally piped up, "Hey what about me? How come I don't get a nickname?"

Dante just looked at the blonde with a raised eyebrow, "Jaune, all I know about you right now is that you have motion sickness, and that you scream like a girl. Not a lot of good material there."

Ruby stifled a laugh, while Jaune just looked at his shoes. He suddenly looked up as a thought occurred: "Hey, so do any of you know where we're going?"

OK so first of all I want to apologize for the long gap between uploads. I want to blame work and the lack of sleep, but honestly half of the delay was caused by writer's block and the other half was caused by having to go back and rewrite large portions of this chapter as I realized my failure to comply with some basic rules of the RWBY-verse. Namely the Color Naming Rule, but more on that in a moment. I also really wanted to get all of the necessary exposition done in a single chapter, but I cannot bring myself to extend this chapter's upload further (because seriously, 3 months is too long).

So in compliance with the Color Naming Rule, I'll just take a moment to explain the reasoning behind the names of the OCs I have introduced thus far:

Dante Grimmson: Dante refers to the writer/main character of 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy, the first part of which is titled Inferno. Inferno as in fire, which is typically associated with the color red. Further reference to Divine Comedy can be found in the names of Dante's pistols: Purgatory and Paradise, which are the titles for the second and third parts of the poem. Grimmson, besides sounding like 'Crimson' when spoken aloud, refers to the Creatures of Grimm, which are primarily black.

Nyx Nocturnia: Nyx is the name for a Greek Goddess who personifies the night, which is typically associated with black, or dark blue/purple. Nocturnia is derived from the Latin word nocturnus, also referring to night.

Gwyndolyn Rochopper: Okay, I admit to taking a few liberties with this one. For some reason I had penguins on the brain while coming up with this character, and I really needed a name that started with a G. Luckily, after doing some digging, I found that 'Penguin' is made up of two originally Welsh words: 'pen' meaning head and 'gwyn' meaning white. Now for the last name, I played around with the name of a species of penguins called 'Rockhoppers' which have a yellow colored cresting on their heads.

So in the next update, I will introduce the fourth member of this team and clear up the rest of the expositional bullshit that I wanted to get out of the way in this chapter. I do hope to be more timely with that update than 3 months. Hopefully I can manage two weeks, at worst I'll have it up by the end of the month.

Until then, sayonara