A/N: Wow. I did not expect this much love for one chapter alone. I suppose the hole our previous series left must be filled, huh? Well, I'm glad you guys like it. And I'm sorry it took so long. Real life problems, you know. Including more disagreement with Jade., which... I'm gonna level with you guys... I have quit the writing team to strike on my own. Some of her recent decisions are becoming... questionable... I'd prefer not to go into detail. Just know that she and I are no longer working together.

Anyway, thank you again for all the reviews, follows and favorites. I really appreciate it all, and I strive to improve upon the story and take account for everything you all say.

I've caught up with volume 7, so hopefully I can fix some issues in early RWBY to fit with these events.

With all that said, enjoy.

EDIT: Adding this because I'm... I'm really tired. This pandemic really sucks and has taken most of my time due to buying supplies out of worry. And I'm sorry it took this long because I am working at home and I teach an online class, so I barely have time anymore. Really sorry. This whole thing has exhausted me and I can't promise another chapter in a while after this one. Read ahead then I'll discuss what happens next at the very end.

The darkened alleyways of a city was the perfect cover for any impure, lowest of the low and scum of the criminal underworld, and this advanced, almost futuristic city named after the god who held the world is no different:

Atlas.

Known as the most advanced city on Solitas, the Kingdom of Atlas is located in the south of the countinent and to the north-east of an old kingdom under the name of Mantle.

Sprawling with technology beyond normal human requisites, Atlas prided itself through it's massive armies, endless supplies of machines of war and advanced learning processes for it's students, seeking to learn the art of being Huntsmen and Huntresses.

But with how much this city glitters like platinum with it's technology, is equal to how much darkness they mask and hide behind it all.

As a result of the growing success and prosperity, the administrative capital was moved away from Mantle. Alsius Academy, the kingdom's renowed academy for aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses, was renamed Atlas Academy, and the Kingdom of Atlas was born.

Now Atlas floats above the icy surface of Solitas, a gleaming jewel in the sky that is nicknamed 'the City of Dreams'. Meanwhile, Mantle remains grounded in the ruins of the old kingdom and wreathed by the smoke of the mines Atlas left behind. Broken and impoverished, Mantle has become increasingly resentful of the luxury it provides for Atlas but isn't allowed to share.

In the dark alleys of Mantle, the woman who disguised herself as a Plumber, still carrying the case with the Dwarf Star within it, passes by several people sitting down, backs against walls while their clothes are tattered and injuries showing on their skins, some are even freshly made, with blood still seeping out.

The strangest part, however, is that some of them have animal features on their bodies. One girl has cat ears on her head. Another had a long, lizard tail sticking out of their rear. A young man and his little brother even have fish scales on their necks.

The Plumber woman continues her trek through this literal dark path while ignoring these animal people she passes by. Despite of that, the moment she took a left turn to enter a different alley, the path to her current objective, in her way was a little girl, whose age can be seen as between 4 to 6, with tattered clothes similar to the other poor folk in this area, as well as having dog ears hanging from her hand. She's directly in the middle of the path, sitting, crying and has a nearby empty cup that one can assume was meant to have money it for herself.

The fake Plumber woman was about to ignore her as well, but she hears nearby laughter of little boys, causing her to turn her head to her right to see a group of 4 boys gathered, counting strange "cards" with markings on them, like currency.

This scene is getting pieced together slowly by the fake Plumber as she turns her attention next to the floor beneath her. Her boots are currently drenched in mud and dirt thanks to the ground being wet and filled with soil and animal feces drenched in rain water. Because of this, she noticed that the floor has freshly made footprints. Not her own, but someone else's... Or rather, an entire group.

Several sets of footprints look like they lead into the path where the crying little girl is, then another several set of them leading outside...

...and to the group of boys celebrating their newfound money.

It was all pieced together quickly by this armored thief as she looks at the crying girl again.

Those boys stole her money.

With a snap of her fingers from her free hand that's not carrying the suitcase, the woman creates a black glyph beneath the young boys, confusing all 4 of them. Without a second to react, the glyph shines bright with red light that it engulfs all 4 of them and gives the dark alleys an obnoxious crimson glow.

The woman then continues to walk towards her previous objective and saunters into the dark alley with the crying girl still there. Just as the red light where the boys are fades behind her, the fake Plumber suddenly crouched down to the little girl's level, takes out similar cards of currency from her pocket and places them in the girl's cup, ending her cries as she looks at her cup, causing her to grab it to see if it's real, just as her Good Samaritan stands back up and leave.

The girl stands up as well to turn around and thank the woman, but the moment she does, there was nobody there anymore but the cold, black void made as an illusion by the lack of lighting of this particular part of the city...

Unknown to the little girl, however, the boys that had stolen her money earlier have been turned into stone statues by her newly found hero.

Each boy felt pain, expressed by their now frozen faces filled with terror, excruciating agony and helpless confusion, before they turn into exact stone replicas themselves.

But it was not mere transformation. Inside, the boys are still conscious, breathing and aware, trapped in a solid prison that fit their entire body shape, unable to move as the thick layer of stone masks and muffled their voices to the point that they cannot even scream for help.

And there they will remain, ignored and moved aside for space until they run out of air and die, while their frozen bodies still hold the money they stole from an innocent and defenseless girl.

Several days ago...

"Who are you? State your business or you will be arrested for damage of school property and trespassing!" The newly arrived blonde woman demanded of the mysterious figure as she is seemingly lifting her using a crop on her hand and some form of telekinesis.

However, before the trespasser could even utter a reply, something else came from the doorway in the sky. Something larger. Like a meteor crashing from the depths of space, this new being lands on Glynda and her captured assailant, breaking the floor further and causing a large gust of dust to accumulate. In the mayhem, Glynda accidentally let go of the fiend as she and the huntress are knocked away from where whatever landed.

As Glynda coughed, she sees a dark figure emerge from the crater, with only a silhouette formed underneath the cloud of dust and rubble. Unbeknownst to her, the trespasser from earlier looks at what the huntress was looking at as well and sees that the case is still in her hands, she tightens her hold on it and runs off.

When the dust finally settled, Glynda sees the newcomer clearly.

Of course, it's Humungousaur, rising from the crater and approaching Glynda just as she stands back up and recovers... only to be shocked at what she's looking at. "Sorry if I scare ya, pretty lady, but I'm here for a Dwarf Star thief. So unless you're a partner of hers... or you're her..." Humungousaur suddenly spoke to the still surprised Glynda, before cracking his knuckles. "You're about to regret your humongous mistake!"

"What... What manner of beast are you?!" The befuddled veteran Huntress could only mutter as Humungousaur approaches her, fists drawn.

"Just give me the Dwarf Star, lady. This doesn't have to get violent." The Vaxasaurian hero says to her while maintaining eye contact.

However, Glynda is losing patience. She doesn't know what this beast is and it has to gall to demand her of something. Not to mention, further destroying school property and with his visage, terrifying the nearby students. "I don't know what you are, but if you intend to attack my school and my students, I will put you down like the beast you are!" The Huntress declared and whips her crop to aim it at Humungousaur and, to the surprise of the alien shapeshifter, the piles of rubble he had made just by landing here that has surrounded him and his new opponent began rising and floating until they straight up start flying and spun around them like a cyclone.

It didn't take long for Humungousaur to put two and two together almost in mere seconds that Glynda is the one doing this. If he trusts his instincts, the next thing she'll do is to fling all the rocks faster than a bullet all at him at once. So before Glynda could even do so, Humungousaur starts growing in size, gaining much more armored scales, spikes on his tail and find on his back, just as the telekinetic warrior shifts all the rubble so that all their pointed tips are all aimed at the giant beast and vacuums them all towards the center of this miniature storm where Humungousaur prepares himself.

The rubble all struck him at once and explode into a large wall of dust and smoke that gathers in front of Glynda. Pebbles and stone shrapnel flung from the epicenter of her attack but the huntress remained confident, her body up straight as she glares at the wall of dust, all while the flying shrapnels bounce of her subconscious telekinetic shielding. She smugly adjusts her glasses while maintaining her scowl before turning around, about to take her leave...

...until a large gust of wind blows away all the dust from inside the huge cloud made up of it, catching Glynda's attention. To her surprise, Humungousaur is still standing, and to add to her bewilderment, he has also grown to a whopping 60 feet height. His mass increased and her attack did not even scratch his scales as he brushes off the remaining rubble and dust off his right shoulder. "Give it up, lady. You're not the first person with telekinesis I've dealt with." Humungousaur tells her as he continues to approach her.

"You continue to test me, beast." Glynda reprimanded the shapeshifting hero and furiously swiped her crop downward, which suddenly made Humungousaur feel heavy and start falling to his knees. Any resistance he attempts to do only results with the floor beneath him to start cracking and breaking, as if he was being pulled down by his own weight. "You threw me off when you grew and changed mass. As a result, I could not get a read on you... Initially. But now I do, so I decided to use your own weight against you, essentially allowing me to use my powers like a gravitational pull. Whatever you are, I've seen what you can do and I can adapt accordingly. Now stay here until local enforcement picks you up... Or maybe the local zoo can come take you, instead. Your choice, monster." Glynda boasted, keeping her telekinetic hold on Humungousaur hard to keep him in place.

"Great... she pulled the same trick as Albedo did..."

Humungousaur thought to himself as he gives Glynda a dreadful glare. Upon coming to this realization, trying to switch to a smaller alien will be very dangerous, considering Glynda is pulling him down with enough power to cause someone as strong as his Vaxasaurian form in it's heaviest and largest state to be unable to move, so a different, smaller and lighter form will be crushed flat through the sheer force of the telekinetic pull. And if she turns into someone bigger like Way Big, or stronger, like Atomix, it would be extremely overkill.

"Unless...!"

The hero thought and figured out what to do. Focusing every ounce of his remaining strength into his right arm, he slowly reaches for the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Once he touched it, he activates it and causes him to be bathed in emerald light, blinding Glynda. Despite this, she kept her focus on her hold to ensure that the beast does not escape.

However, when the light vanishes, she suddenly found herself feeling like she's not holding anything. When she regains her composure, she sees that Humungousaur is gone, but in his place is...

...a puddle of green liquid of sorts, almost like jelly. A large enough puddle that it may as well be... Oh no...

"Did I... kill it?" Glynda muttered under her breath, letting go of her hold on the puddle, which made it spread out even further with nothing keeping it contained. But before she could question what she had truly done, a small saucer shaped object, resembling a tiny UFO, that has the Omnitrix symbol, the same one as the one on Humungousaur's chest earlier, on top of the device, suddenly fly, hovering over the pile of green slime and spun in mid air... which made the slime spin as well and start forming upward and into a much more humanoid appearance, with a lighter shade of green as the color of his two eyes.

"That was a close one! Good thing Goop can't be destroyed normally!" Ben, now as Goop, spoke out loud in a gargling filtered voice.

Glynda took a few seconds to process what had just happened, but with the realization that the gigantic monster somehow turned into a bipedal pile of green sludge, she quickly recovers and knows that he is still the enemy. But the moment she lifted even just a finger, Goop wasted no chance to have the UFO controlling his personal gravity dart forward so fast, the veteran Huntress had no moment to react. And to add to her shock, the slime part of Goop follows his UFO and splats onto Glynda, grossing her out. However, she failed to realize what Goop was doing when the UFO flies circles around her and Goop starts to wrap his entire slimy body around the telekinetic warrior. The Polymorph wrapped around her so fast and followed it up by tightening his hold onto her, forcing her arms to her side's and making her let go of her riding crop. Goop tightens himself further, turning himself into an improvised straightjacket, disabling the woman's ability to move her arms and, sequentially, making her unable to use her ability.

"Let go of me you..." Glynda attempts to break free. But Goop does not need her words, merely tightening his grip further before finally having his anti gravity saucer fly up to her face to bring up his head, looking at the Huntress face to face.

"I just wanted the Dwarf Star back! You had to escalate things like this." Goop demanded back as he gives her a glare.

His words now clear and in listening range, Glynda finally understood what Humungousaur had asked earlier, which actually only further confused the Huntress, giving Goop a glare back before asking, "What in the world is a dwarf star?! Are you an insane individual as well, you monster?!"

This, in turn, confused Goop as well. Which he then came to the realization...

"Oh crud, did I get the wrong person?!"

Normally, he would go for the old "Don't lie to me!" trick that he used to do, but he's known how to judge people by now, having fought against and alongside so many different people, and by looking at Glynda's eyes, she may be telling the truth.

To her surprise, Goop removes his grasp, and therefore, himself, off of Glynda before grabbing his riding crop to give it back to her and taking a few steps back before switching to his human form, surprising Glynda.

"You're human?!" Glynda utters, utterly shocked at the revelation as she aims her crop at the shapeshifting teen, promptly making him raises his arms into the air to surrender himself.

"Yeah. You don't know me?" Ben responds, his arms still up and kept eye contact with the Huntress.

An eyebrow raised, Glynda tells him back "No. I do not. I should be the one asking questions, intruder!"

"Its fine you don't know me." says Ben, taking from past experience that some people in his galaxy and others have not heaed of him and his exploits. "What about the Plumbers? Have you heard of them before?"

"Plumbers? What do they have to do with our current situation? A clogged pipe?! Do not play me for a fool, boy!" Glynda responds angrily, her crop glowing with a pinkish purple energy.

"Okay then. Different universe. Guess that... GOAT machine worked." The transforming young man casually utters that he even drops his arms back to his sides.

However, his words don't seem to be giving Glynda any way to calm down. Annoyed and having reach the limit of her tolerance, she swings her crop up and Ben is suddenly lifted into the air, causing to fumble and is unable to move. "You will be taken in custody until we figure out who you really are!"

"Lady, I let myself be vulnerable just now. If I wanted to take you down, I would have. I have like, 3 or 9 guys that can crater this whole place, but I didn't turn into any of them. So let's just talk!" Ben tells her, wishing to defuse the situation.

Glynda kept her glare as she has her invisible hold on the shapeshifter. She wants to say something, but her teeth are grinding on each other as she stares angrily at Ben.

But before things got worse...

"Miss Glynda, put the young man down."

Ben, hearing a new voice, looks behind Glynda, who in turn has her expression switch from a cold glare to genuine shock as she too turns around to face the newcomer.

Approaching the arguing duo what seems to be a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He has a light complexion and sharp facial features. Interestingly, the man has black eyebrows, which may imply he may have had black hair when he was younger.

He wears shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. His outfit mainly consists of an unzipped black suit over a dark green, buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wears black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants.

In his right hand, he held a cane of some kind, which is being used the silver haired man's walking stick. Its handle is embellished with a pattern, and there is a large knuckle guard that reaches down the bottom of the handle. The larger area at the bottom of the handle contains small gold-colored gears. The shaft of the cane has a gray-black coloration and appears to be square in shape as opposed to most canes which have a round shaft.

"You're making quite the scene." This newly arrived man spoke in a gentle, almost fatherly tone.

True enough, Glynda starts looking around as several students of all levels began gathering around her, Ben and this new man, with some taking out strange, transparent mobile devices of some kind and began either recording the situation or taking photos.

Ben, letting his inner child play even for a bit, internally shrugs before looking at some of the cameras and waving or putting up peace signs with his fingers. Some of the female, and a few male students, even giggle and blush at the sight of the handsome young man paying attention to them.

However, while this may seem like him taking in all this attention, in actuality, Ben told himself to ease the situation and show that he's just as human as they are in an attempt to calm them down even if for a small bit. They just watched a giant monster turn into a slime being before becoming human. Having already theorized this is an alternate universe, it is likely they have not seen anything like him before, so easing the tension should be what he must do. Heroes don't just save people. They must smile for them too.

But while Ben is doing his best, Glynda only feels shame for what she had done, setting a bad example for the students. With a deep sigh, the veteran Huntress disperses the glow from her riding crop and drops Ben safely on his two feet.

"I'm sorry, Professor Ozpin. It was just... This trespasser—"

"...is an unexpected, but not unwelcome, guest." The man identified by Glynda as Ozpin tells her. He even gives Glynda a wink.

The wink must've have meant something as in Ben's perspective, Glynda gasps as if she got the message and nods before putting her crop away and faces the students around them. "Go back to your classes, children. If you don't have one at this time, take the time to study instead of procrastinating." She tells them all before walking away.

With these orders coming from an actual professor, everyone but Ben and Ozpin finally left in groups or, for some, alone, and head on their way. "Forgive Professor Goodwitch. She had a rough week." The old man finally spoke to Ben, who responds with a chuckle and a scratch at the back of his head.

"Yeah, me dropping in all of a sudden probably wasn't helping. What happened, Mister, uhh... Ozpin?" says the shapeshifter before placing his hands in his pockets.

"My name is Ozpin, yes, as you may have heard from my dear, stressed colleague. Recently, she had to deal with a... very similar yet a bit more naive youngster like you. Although she does seem far younger." Ozpin responds with a smile. "Come with me. We have much to discuss."

"Why do you make it sound like you were expecting me?" Ben, who takes a few steps forward to follow the mysterious old man, who in turn, smiles again as he faces Ben.

"Because I was. Including your friends."

"Friends?"

Following up his next question, from the portal above that began shrinking in size, Gwen, Kevin and Rook all emerge from it just before it collapses and seals itself away.

Gwen floats gently to the ground by creating a platform made of Mana that she uses to hover before stepping forth on the floor.

Kevin does a typical three point landing, landing his right knee and his left foot before forming his concrete armored hands into two, spiked maces.

Rook, meanwhile, uses the new standard issue Plumber jet boots underneath his feet and safely lands on the ground as he slowed his descent before transforming his Proto Tool into a blaster.

"Alright, old man! Leave my cousin alone!" Gwen threatens Ozpin as her hands crackle in Mana, energy gathering around them while smaller orbs of Mana orbit around the ones on her palms like small moons.

"Wait, guys! It was a misunderstanding. They're not with the girl that stole the Dwarf Star!" Ben spoke as he steps in front of his team. "At least... I think they aren't."

"Whoever this girl you speak of is, and what this Dwarf Star may be, we do not have a clue about either. But I do know you, Ben Tennyson, and his cousin, Gwen Tennyson, alongside your friends, Kevin Levin and Rook Blonko." Ozpin proves his knowledge of them by speaking their full names, placing his cane gently on the floor as he rests his hands on the handle.

However, the group still remains skeptical. With a small growl, Kevin speaks for what he and his friends were thinking by commenting, "I don't buy it... Could be a telepath."

"I would have sensed his telepathic powers then, Kevin. I have a passive spell that warns me of any telepathic trespassing and psychic attacks and shields me from them in case I can't react on my own." Gwen explains.

"It is possible he read the mind of Ben instead. After all, he arrived in this destination ahead of us." Rook points out but he kept his aim true and steady at Ozpin.

Seeing the unease of his guests, Ozpin sighs and picks up his cane, holding it in the middle and places his free hand behind his back. "I understand your caution, especially with a stranger like me. After everything you all have been through, it is not surprising for you all to not put your trust on everyone you meet, especially when you have all been betrayed in one way or another by people you have trusted in the past. But I assure you, I mean no harm. I was simply informed by a mutual friend of ours... Professor Paradox."

The mere mention of his name causes Ben and his team to pause for a brief moment before they all compose themselves, as Gwen disperses the mana in her hands, Kevin drops his concrete shell and Rook puts his Proto Tool in its neutral mode, placing it over his shoulder.

"I'm still skeptical, but... That old man really hangs around everywhere, so I guess it's not impossible." Kevin points out as he crosses his arms.

"You mean everywhen." The half Anodite heroine corrects her boyfriend, all while she, Kevin and Rook join Ben's side.

Ozpin gives them a nod and replies, "Indeed he does. And he had already warned us ahead of time about your arrival and told us to inform you of our world as best we can. He and I have been long acquaintances since my time as... as a... teacher in this school. Now, I am Headmaster. You may call me Ozpin."

"A pleasure to meet you, Professor Ozpin." Rook speaks and reaches for a handshake, which the old man takes in kind. "With the presence of humans, I assume we landed on a parallel Earth?"

"Earth? No, Rook. You are in Remnant. Yes, humanity exists here as well, yes... But you'll find another species among us if you take a look around."

The headmaster's answer confuses the four of them for a moment but when they actually do take a look around, they notice that... some of the students have animal traits on their bodies. Some of have animal ears over their heads, like dog ears and cat ears, while some even have horns, resembling either a bull's or a deer's. However, some have much more extreme traits, like sharp teeth, tails, scales, fur and so much more. Some are interacting with students that look like normal humans.

"Are those... are they half animals?" Gwen finally spoke, the first to snap out from her confusion.

"Oh my god... We're transported into an anime!" Ben, all of a sudden, shouted. "They got catgirls! And dogboys! Heck, that guy over there with the big tail looks like the guy from—"

The shapeshifter stops when his Anodite cousin mutters an exasperated sigh and pinches on his left ear. "Ben, focus."

"Right, right! Sorry! Ow ow ow!" Ben says before his cousin finally let go, making him rub the pain on his ear away and faces the headmaster. "Right... Sorry about that professor. But... Where exactly are we? Where in Remnant, I mean."

Ozpin forms a smile on his lips and gestures his hand towards the school behind him. "Weclome to Beacon Academy. We have much to discuss. But after I welcome the new students to my school. You may wait for me at my office."

Ozpin walks ahead of the team as the four heroes follow Ozpin towards the school. Just in time as the airship that carries the new students just lands at the docking site near the cliffs, including Yang and Ruby from earlier as they set foot on new grounds.

However, as the two sisters argue and tease each other while walking out of the airship, on what seems to be a much more private shuttle arrives as it's doors bearing a strange, snowflake emblems open to reveal it's passengers.

Among the five people onboard, excluding the pilot, only four seem to be hired staff as only one person look the most prestine in looks. This person was a young girl with pale but a little bit fair skin, pearly blue eyes and long white hair that is pulled back into an off-center ponytail tied into a braid on the right side and pinned with a silver, icicle-shaped tiara. She stands a bit short than most, but due to her heels, she seems fairly average in height, all while scar runs vertically down her left eye and face, possibly from an injury inflicted on her from her past.

She wears a thigh-length strapless dress with a faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sits in the front of her neckline and the hem of the dress is scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. Over this, she wears a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as her dress from shoulder to wrist, lined in red and with a ruffled collar. On the back of the bolero is the same snowflake symbol on her private vessel.

Along with all of these, she also wears a small apple pendant on a silver chain and thin, rectangular silver earrings. Her boots are white, wedged heeled, and higher at the back than the front. They have a small silver decoration across the top of the foot and are lined in red. A thin white sash is tied around her waist with a pouch attached to the back.

Stepping forth on the the landing docks, the young girl looks around and sees the crater Humungousaur had left in his landing from earlier. "What happened here? Did Beacon get attacked?"

"According to the intercoms earlier, Miss Schnee..." says one of her attendants, who all began to discharge from the ship as well, pulling up their lady's luggages in white bags and strolls them away. "Apparently something from the sky fell and was tended to by the staff in charge."

"Well, this is certainly an interesting start to my first day here." Miss Schnee, according to her servants, responds, hands on her hips. Just as another of her attendants carry what seems to be an extra long suitcase, almost the length of a guitar case, Miss Schnee suddenly halts him before taking the case from his hands and gestures him to move along. The case hand yet another snowflake emblem on it and the strange word "Myrtenaster" engraved on one side of the container.

"I do wish you good luck, my lady. I only wish Klein was here to greet and congratulate you as well."

The words of her current assistant causes the young girl to sigh as she looks at the case in her hands, gripping the handle tight before looking back towards the school. "Well, I'm here now... When you go back, please tell Klein... Thank you for what he has done for me."

Her attendant takes a bow while his right fist rests on his chest. "Your message will reach him, my lady."

After unloading all her baggage, the rest of her crew all take a bow as well before bidding their young master farewell and boarding the private ship afterwards. As they leave, Miss Schnee waves goodbye to her loyal servants, giving them one last smile as they fly out of view.

It was there that the young lady sighs and frowns, as their presence reminded her of home and now without them, she is left by herself. Her isolation is emphasized for her when she turns back around to look at her luggage, obscuring her view of the school. There are few people left on the courtyard and none of them are people she knew.

However, she cannot let this stress her out. This school may be new territory, but she cannot let her being new blood intimidate her. She is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust company. Something like this should not bother her. She'll show them... She'll show all of them what she's capable of.

The young heiress, finding new determination, takes a deep breath before letting out with a smile as she, somehow, conjures several white glyphs underneath all of her luggage while she carries the one marked with the word "Myrtenaster". She then takes a few steps forward and moves her the glyphs that hold her belongings with her, but just as she does...

"Ah!"

With a loud thud, someone bumps into dear Weiss that causes her to lose concentration and drop all of her luggage when her glyphs vanish, unable to keep them up. Some of her cases that fell accidentally open upon coming into contact with the floor and spills out jars of strange substances that all differ in color. Judging by the way these contents spread and spatter inside their containers, they seem to be akin to powder.

Weiss found herself on the ground, lying face first as she kept a grip on the case in her hands. The heiress shakes her head as she lifts it to find that Ruby from earlier had fallen beside her, with the implication being that it was her that bumped into Miss Schnee. Just in time, she sees Yang approaching the two of them before trying to lift her dizzy sister from the ground. "I am SO sorry! My sister is extremely clumsy!" Yang says to Weiss as she picks up her younger sibling from the floor.

"But you were the one who pushed me..." Ruby retorts, in spite of her head feeling likes it spinning all over and disorients her ability to see, her legs stumbling all over as her big sister tries her best to keep her stable and standing.

"I had to. Vomit boy was about to puke all over you." Yang attempts to justify her unseen action, just in time for Weiss to get back up from the floor and give the sisters a piercing glare.

With a small growl, Weiss grips her Myrtenaster case tightly before pointing at them to yell out, "You! You two! What are you two doi—?!" All of a sudden, however, Weiss stops. She was still pointing at them, her body trembling in anger while her hands are clenched hard. However, she suddenly takes a moment to breathe, calming herself before sighing as she creates new glyphs for her to use. Each glyph she made slips beneath all her belongings and starts making her them float. "You know what... No! I won't let you two ruin my first day in this prestigious academy. I spent a lot of time, effort and sweat to come here and it will not be ruined by two sisters who..."

Once again, to the surprise of Ruby and Yang, Weiss slows down and stops the moment she says the word "sisters". The heiress sighs and shakes her head before turning away from them to start picking up the jars of different colored powder from the ground that popped out of her cases. "Just leave me be."

This notion confused the two sisters, however, but this sudden change in her mood brought them down as well. As apologies for what they did, Ruby and Yang both take a knee and pick up some of the jars they had caused to drop and hand them to Weiss. "S-Sorry... We didn't mean it..."

Weiss does not respond and simply swipes the jars away from their hands and places them inside the cases they belong to, a clear indication she wishes to be left alone. Without another word, she stuffs everything in their proper places, creates yet another set of mystical glyphs and takes her belongings away, taking her steps towards the school campus.

The crimson hooded girl and her elder sibling the blonde locks of hair watch, guilt rising within after seemingly ruin Weiss' first day. "Well... That was a terrible first impression." Yang spoke her mind, placing arms on her chest in a crossed manner.

"I told you, you should've went with your friends. I might embarrass you..." Ruby deprecates herself, grabbing her hood from her back and pulling it over her head to cover herself out shame. However, Yang does not agree with this sentiment, and instead pulls her hood back and ruffles the hair of her younger sister.

"Don't say that! Why would I leave you alone in a place you've never been to? What kind of sister would I be?" Yang reassures Ruby before giving her a hug, with one of her hands rubbing her back to give extra comfort for the shy red hooded youngster.

Feeling the warm embrace of her sister's arms, Ruby felt a lot more comfortable and sighs, hugging Yang back with a smile. "Thanks... Whew. Yeah. I don't what I would have done without you."

"But hey, I can't always be there for you. You need to learn on your own sometimes. You can't expect me to keep pushing you into the pool. You gotta know how to dive when I'm not there. Okay?" Yang, after breaking the hug, places a hand on her sister's head as she says so.

"But you don't have to be gone! We can be in the same team!" Ruby spoke out, her eyes even comically tearing up and gives her sister puppy dog eyes.

Yang's response, however, was just hearty laugh and two pats on Ruby's head before heading towards the school as well, waving her arms at her sister to beckon her to follow her. "You'll learn someday. For now, I guess I can babysit you."

"I'm not a baby!" Ruby complains while dashing towards her sister in breakneck speed, leaving behind what appears to be red petals.

As the two sisters stride to the school, along with a couple other students, a strange, black haired girl with a black bow on her head steps out of one of the airships as well, holding a mysterious, velvet book with gold engravings on its cover. She continues to read as she takes a few steps forward before finally averting her eyes from the piece of literature in her hand to look at Beacon.

"...Hm." was all that escapes her lips.

"Okay..." spoke Kevin. "I can't tell if this is the heroic office of a mentor type or the big, obnoxious room of the main bad guy."

What he was speaking about is the office of Professor Ozpin himself. After taking Ben and his team into an elevator, Ozpin temporarily left them in his wide open office before going off to leave to welcome the new students. He even left them some cookies on his table in case they get hungry.

Ozpin's office, itself, was extremely wide and spacial. It had strange, gigantic gears and cogs decorating nearly every possible angle in the room, from the clear glass ceiling that had slowly spinning gears atop it, to the translucent, dark green fiber glass floor underneath the team's feet that also had the same kind of gears underneath, to even a random patch on the wall showing several more gears inside them. The room also had a wide, glass window that shows the entirety of Beacon's courtyard as it's main view, all while Ozpin's semi-circle table and strange chair were at the very end of the room, directly parallel to the elevator that leads to the room itself so whoever is sitting can immediately see whoever enters.

"Kevin, the man just let us into his personal office. That has to count for something." Ben points out as he leans on a wall, tinkering with his Omnitrix as he faces his friends. Gwen is meditating in the middle of the room, staying afloat as she kept her eyes closed and concentrates on something, while Rook and Kevin look around in the office. But while Rook is genuinely studying what he could find, Kevin was just trying to stave away his boredom, having been waiting for nearly a couple of minutes by now.

With a groan, Kevin replies to Ben, "How many times has Vilgax, or the Forever Knights, or any other of our enemies taken us or let us go to their own place only to ambush us?"

"Hm. He does have a good point there, Ben." Rook adds to Kevin's words before crouching down in front of Ozpin's desk, pulling a part of his Proto Tool over, connected by a glowing orange wire with each other, and places it against the table, as if Rook was using his gadget like some kind of stethoscope.

"We won't do anything until Gwen figures something out. Okay? I won't make the same mistake as I did with Morningstar. I was eager to trust someone just because they were nice to us, and I couldn't have been more wrong. Well, I'm not gonna do that again. We need to know who and who to not trust here. We're in uncharted territory and while we've all dealt with all manner of things, we haven't seen what the people here are capable of yet." Ben tells them both as he finally moves himself away from the wall to approach his cousin.

"Fine. But if this turns out to be an ambush..." Kevin replies but Ben cuts him off and continues his sentence for him.

"Then I'd be happy to be proven wrong." The shapeshifter then looks back to Gwen, who continues to meditate in place. "Anything, Gwen?"

Gwen, opening her eyes to reveal them to be nkw glowing with pink energy, answers her cousin, "Mmm... Something feels odd about this place. Everyone seems to have something like mana surrounding them..."

"No duh. Every living thing has mana, right?" Ben attempts to justify what his cousin discovered.

But, as if to commend him but also correct him at the same time, Gwen continues, "No, no. Like, they're all actively using mana to surround their bodies. It's almost like what I do but on a much smaller scale. But you are correct. Aside from that strange part, everyone does have mana like us. They're living beings... But... something's... off about Professor Ozpin..."

"I knew it!" Kevin celebrates to himself and pounds his fist into his palm, as if ready to fight.

However, unlike Kevin, Ben did not jump into any conclusions yet, as he waits for Gwen to finish, asking her, "What do you mean by that, Gwen?"

"Like... he has a lot of mana to him. A lot of life energy emanating from him." says Gwen, one of her brows twitching that made it look like it was hurting a bit just sensing Ozpin.

"Well, when you're the big bad, you're usually the strongest guy around." Kevin, still believing his own theory that the headmaster is evil, answers his girlfriend.

Much to his and Ben's shock, however, Gwen shook her head to shoot down Kevin's explanation. "No. Not like that, Kevin. It's not that he has a lot of mana... It's that he has multiple mana inside of him. Like... separate pools of life... rolled into one body..."

"That doesn't make sense." Kevin points out, crossing his arms while Ben puts a hand on his chin, thinking about what he had just been told. "How can someone have multiple mana pools in one body? A person only has one life, right?"

"Yeah... Usually..." Ben mutters, his gaze narrowing, and his suspicions growing. Not as much as Kevin's, but he was beginning to doubt things about this school as well.

"Then perhaps we can search the answer from himself."

Ben, Gwen and Kevin all turn to look at Rook, who had finally connected his Proto Tool to Ozpin's desk and pulls out a holographic display of several of the headmaster's files, but they're all encrypted. Rook tries to open a few of them, but they all need a code that Ozpin himself would most likely be the only one to know.

"Of course they're all locked." Kevin angrily says. "Well, nothing Upgrade can't handle, right? You can practically make this thing spew out all it's secrets in a blink of an eye."

"Kevin, we are NOT going to hack into his files! They are hidden for a reason!" Gwen berates her boyfriend.

"Oh come on! What other reason would he need to hide anything?" Kevin points out, but was immediately shot down again by Gwen.

"Because he may have sensitive files about his school that he doesn't want to out in danger in! Especially if he's responsible for the safety and privacy of several thousand kids that enrolled in it!" came Gwen's reply.

"Guys!"

Ben's yelling catches the attention his cousin and two best friends as he looks at them, his hand finally off his chin and on his hips instead. "...We're not hacking his files."

Gwen sighs in relief, finally seeing Ben be reasonable. "Thank you."

Kevin, a bit annoyed, raises his hands up out of disbelief before telling Ben, "Dude, we can't just—"

"We can't just go into someone's files without knowing them first." Ben interrupts the Osmosian, however, and approaches Rook to gesture him to shut off whatever he's doing to make the desk pop out these holographic screens, to which his partner obliges. "If he really worries you, then we'll make observations on him. If he does something suspicious that all four of us agree is suspect, then we'll hack into his systems. It has to be unanimous among the four us, okay? No 'majority wins' stuff. We report to each other what we find and discuss whether or not this is good or bad. Because if just one of us still don't think Ozpin is suspicious, it's entirely possible the rest are just overthinking it. If all four us agree on it, though, then its officially gotten bad."

"Ugh... Fine. Guess it's better than outright denying something's not right about that old man." Kevin concedes, just in time for Rook to disconnect his Proto Tool and place it back on his shoulder in neutral mode.

"I agree with your decision, Ben. And like Kevin had already said, Upgrade can simply integrate himself with Professor Ozpin's desk at any time and reveal the contents of the files within seconds. That part is easy. But careful observation of the professor without seeming suspicious ourselves would be most difficult." Rook responds, gathering with the rest of the team.

"Then I guess I'll observe the magical side of things. If I can get a read on those strange, mana signals Ozpin is giving off, I might find some clues." came Gwen's answer.

Ben nods at all of them. "Alright. We have our mission. So while we're here, we try our best to earn Ozpin's trust as well, and see what we can get out of him. For now, we play along." The shapeshifting hero tells them... before proceeding to head for the desk to grab a cookie.

"Really?" Gwen says, with a deadpan expression on her face as she glares at her cousin.

"I was hungry!" Ben justifies his actions, taking one piece and biting it down to chew on. "But man... this would go well with a good smoothie."

Together with several of the new students, Ruby and Yang have gathered at the school's auditorium as, on stage was professor Ozpin and Glynda, with the headmaster himself about to take the microphone to give his speech to the new arrivals.

Meanwhile, to a different part of the area, Weiss herself is all alone, sitting on her luggage she had all piled up on each other to make her own seat as she looks to the stage as well. However, her mind was elsewhere as she sighs and speaks to herself. "I wish I had a smoothie..."

At last, the sound of the microphone being adjusted prompts the entire area to go quiet and look to Ozpin, adjusting his glasses as he inches his lips near the mic to speak.

"I'll... keep this brief." the headmaster began. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people... But I look amongst you, and all I see..." Ozpin took a brirf moment to pause, closing his eyes and turning his head down. When he finally opens his eyes, he turns back to thr crowd and continues. "...is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

Those words seem to got home on most of the new students, as they immediately start murmuring to one another, asking what he meant by that. Some go as far as to think Ozpin just insulted his new students.

With Ruby and Yang, neither girls knew what this meant either, but especially so for naive and young Ruby herself. She crosses her arms and looks back at the stage, confused at Ozpin, especially since just the other day they talked...

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." The great headmaster ends his brief speech, taking his leave as he held his cane, with Glynda heading up to the microphone to take his spot.

Fixing her glasses on the bridge of her nose as she held what seems to be a data pad of sorts that she carries like a clipboard, she speaks through the mic and says, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

The word "dismissed" was apparently what every student processed faster than anything Ozpin spoke about, as everyone began taking their leave, slowly funneling out of the theatre. However, there are a few sitting still to either wait for their friends or just talk around a bit and leave at their leisure, including the red and gold sisters.

Yang, hands on her hips, spoke out, "He seemed kind of... off."

"Yeah... There must be something wrong..." Ruby comments as well.

While they speak, they fail to notice Weiss leaving on her own, using her glyphs yet again to lift her luggage. As she kept walking, she herself turns her head to her left and spots Ruby and Yang, the memory of them ruining her morning still a bit fresh on her mind and causing her to scoff at them, despite the fact they're not even looking her way.

However, because she distracted herself in the first place, she accidentally bumps into two people. As she and them are knocked onto each other, staggering both parties and cause both to stumble a few steps back, Weiss angrily speaks out to them, "Hey! Watch out where you're going!"

"Watch where WE'RE going?!" One of them spoke out.

Getting a good look, Weiss gets a good look at the people she bumped into.

One was a fair skinned girl with turquoise eyes and orange hair. She wears a collared black sleeveless vest, with a blue central front section with red accents, her vest has her emblem, which resembles the head of a hammer streaked by lightning, on the back. Under the vest, she wears a white sleeveless t-shirt with a heart-shaped cutout above her breast line in the centre accompanied with a pair of white detached sleeves on each arm. She sports a short pink skirt with a single white layer under it. Her white ankle boots sport pink soles with part of her emblem, the lighting bolt, on them and low heels with pink laces, the tops are folded over revealing the pink lining. She also wears a silver armor piece that wraps around waist, under her breasts and around the back on her neck with metal connecting each piece together at the front.

The other was a young man, taller than his female companion, with black hair and a small strand having a streak of magenta akin to the color of his eyes. He wears a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat that is red on the inside, with black and gold trimming and pink cuffs. The trimming goes down the right side of his torso and forms a black collar. Along with this, he wears a black, long-sleeved shirt beneath the suit and light-tan pants with black shoes. He ties his hair back in a low ponytail.

Among the strange accessories these two have, the girl seems to be carrying a pink and white grenade launcher of sorts while the boy has a bow and a quiver of arrows on his back. The bow itself seems to have bladed ends, implying it can be used as a melee weapon of sorts.

"You were the one daydreaming and walking right at us!" The girl yells back Weiss.

However, his male companion grabs her by her shoulder and covers her mouth with his other hand. "I am so sorry about Nora's behavior. Let's not ruin our first day here, so I'll apologize for both of us." The boy says as he kept his friend silent, who struggled to break free from her own friend's grasp, all while he takes a bow as a sign of apology.

Weiss, already done with what had happened earlier and right now, just sighs and waves back at the two. "Yes, okay, fine... I'll be on my way..." She utters, heading off with her luggage again as Nora, the loud ginger girl, finally just bites her friend's hand to get him to let go of her lips, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Ren! I had that!" Nora yells at her male friend, Ren, while waving her arms around frantically.

Massaging his temple as he closes his eyes, Ren's response is, "We have better things to do than argue with someone. We need to find the ballroom. And no, no stopping for snacks."

"Reeeeen!" Nora complains as Weiss has moved out of sight, taking a deep breath.

"This cannot get any worse..."

She thought to herself.

Finishing the plate of cookies, leaving behind only crumbs on the plate itself, Ben wipes his lips, staining his white jacket's sleeve, and stretches his arms out. "Whoever baked these was a master baker. But I really need something to drink to wash this all out. I'm gonna look around the school."

"What happened to 'Observe Ozpin', Ben? You gotta be here to listen to what he has to say." Gwen points out while maintaining her levitating meditation position.

"Just catch me up on what he says. Besides, we also need to find out if something's wrong with the school itself. It belongs to the guy we're having suspicions about, remember?" Ben points out.

But, immediately onto his plans, Kevin raises a brow and gives Ben a look to say, "So you'll start by raiding their kitchen for a smoothie or soda?"

"Well, I was actually just gonna go get water, but yeah." Ben replies and activates the dial on his Omnitrix before scrolling through his excessive amount of transformations.

Finding who he needs, presses the dial back down and surrounds himself in emerald light, beginning his transformation.

Within the millisecond that took during his change, the bones in his legs seemingly vanish. His skin turns into a sickly pale before turning completely grey and start gaining black cracks all over his body, extending to his right eye as his left one disappears. His skeleton hardens within his body as his fingers grew longer and sharper, all while his skull twists and turn and go upside down while his mouth melts away. And, for some reason, chains wrap around his body, from his wrists, to his chest to even his neck.

After this freak change, Ben has become a ghostly figure, chained and having the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. "Oh yeah. Ghostfreak's in the house." He spoke in an echoed, raspy voice before he turns his body translucent and the colors on his body become inverted. In mere moments, Ghostfreak became intangible and phases through the floor, leaving behind his team at Ozpin's office.

"...So... should we tell Ozpin Ben just went out to get more cookies?" Kevin jokes but Gwen responds by elbowing his side, getting a chuckle out of the Osmosian and even Rook.

Meanwhile, after finding himself it what appears to be an empty hallway filled with doorways, Ghostfreak starts flying through door after door to see if he'll find what he's looking for.

He passes through the first door and only finds stacks of books, gathering dust. Despite the darkness in the room, thanks to Ghostfreak's biology, literally a being whose homeworld is surrounded by darkness, he is still able to see. He sees that the books appear to be old and must've been used in a previous school year or two, and this room must just be a storage for them. It must've been a really long time due to all the dust and cobwebs all over the area.

He scans several of them and finds a book called 'The World of Remnant', and he felt compelled to take. "Hey, might actually learn something for once!" He tells himself, but as soon as he takes the book, underneath it was a comic book named 'X Ray and Vav', which also took Ben's interest. "Uhhhh..." The Ectonurite mutters as he takes the comic book with his other hand, his other carrying the history book.

After looking back and forth between the two books in grasps, he could almost feel himself sweating despite the fact this species he has turned into normally doesn't.

Eventually, with a loud sigh that he exaggerated on purpose, Ghostfreak surprises himself by shrugging and just... takes both before phasing through the door to exit, making sure the two pieces of literature in his hand go intangible with him.

"I hope I have time for reading either." He mutters to himself as he shambles forward through the hallway to see the next door. Like the previous one, it was unlabeled, so the ghostly figure phases through it as well. Upon doing so, what he finds inside was... underwhelming. So underwhelming, it didn't even take him a minute to exit immediately and come out if the door sighing. "After the last one, THAT was boring."

What's inside? Keep guessing.

So, in quick succession, Ghsotfreak just starts phasing through every other door faster, hopefully to find anything interesting. He passes through one that had old uniforms and he came out wearing a neck tie on his neck, then he goes through one that seems to have old files and he comes out accidentally getting some papers in between his his borrowed history book, and finally, he passes through old school equipment and got himself a head set around his neck. "I must've just found myself in an old storage hallway." The ghostly being deduces to himself and looks at all the things he has gathered with him as he keeps floating away. "I should try the next hallway."

As he says that, he found himself, indeed in the other hallway and found that, at the very end of it were two shower rooms and the first two rooms at the beginning of the hallway are the locker rooms, with the girls locker room to Ghostfreak's left and the boys to the right.

As he looks at the locker room then at himself, for being Ghostfreak, it looked like the ghostly being really contemplated about something, as this felt like a very classic situation, with him having the ability to turn invisible on command and the girls locker room right in front of him...

But, with a much more real and deep sigh, Ghostfreak suddenly taps the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and turns back to human and turns back around to exit the hallway, and in essence, turn his back away from the locker room. "I'm better than that." He tells himself and leaves, with his appearance now including the necktie around his neck, the headphones over it as well and the books and papers in his hands as well.

Once out of that spot, he takes a moment to look around and finds a nearby elevator. Ben took that moment to breathe a sigh of relief and moves towards it, carrying all his items with him. With the push of the button to call it down, Ben taps his foot as he waits for the elevator to come. However, the moment it opens, he is shocked to see Weiss come out of it instead.

"Uhhh..." escaped his lips, unable to rack his brain to blurt out a good excuse.

Weiss arcs a brow as she looks at Ben curiously, eyeing him from his shoes to his head. What caught her attention, however, were the files, the book and the Ben is wearing. "Oh, you're a student too, huh? I thought I'd be the only one to come to ballroom right now..." She tells him.

Ben is befuddled by this. It seems this white haired lady, close to his age or a year younger, thinks he's a student as well. However, the young hero takes this opportunity to play along as to not get caught snooping around and replies by clearing his throat, and saying, "Ahem, yes! Yes I am. Whew. I thought I'd be the only student to come here too!"

Unfortunately for Ben, his left eye twitches, which he knows is a big indicator he is lying. He subconsciously gulps, thinking he had literally just given himself away. But, fortunately, Weiss is unaware of this, yet notices the twitch anyway. "You seem frustrated..." Weiss comments, completely misunderstanding Ben's left eye twitching, as she sighs and places a hand on her temple. "I've been the same way since I got here..." she adds before passing by him as she drags her suitcase and, to Ben's surprise, the glyphs that carried the rest of her equipment tailing behind her, causing Ben to move aside to let them pass.

"Oh... Uh, well, I hope you have a good day, miss!" Ben shouts to her and gives her a friendly wave, despite the fact that she has her back turned to him. As soon as the last of Weiss' baggage is out of the elevator, the shapeshifter took his turn to enter and press the button for the top floor. "I'm Ben, by the way!" He shouts last before the elevator doors cover him completely.

As Weiss struts towards what appears to be the locker room at the end of the hallway, she finally puts away her hand from her face as she glances at the elevator Ben had gone in. "...Nice to meet you." She utters, even when no one was there to hear it.

Back to Ozpin's office, Kevin presses his right hand onto one of the walls and coats his entire arm in metal armor before morphing his hand into a pickaxe. "This old man's gotta have some secret lying around..." He speaks and raises his pickaxe hand in an attempt to pierce the same wall he had absorbed from but Rook catches his arm and hand before he could do so.

"Kevin. May I remind you that we are supposed to wait for the professor and not draw suspicion to ourselves?" Rook scolds the Osmosian.

"Hang on, Kevin. I think I'm getting something..." Gwen tells Kevin as she maintains her meditating position. As she focuses her concentration towards something she's been sensing way below this tower they're in, in her perspective, she sees nothing but darkness, but right at the very end of her vision was a massive pool of magic eminating from a dwindling pool of Mana. Like something on the brink of death still has enough magical power rising from their very being.

"Gwen..." she heard Kevin calling her.

"Not now, Kevin. I'm getting close..." Gwen responds as her focus grows closer to this source of power. Closer and closer as she can practically hear heavy but slow breathing. And as the darkness makes her deaf to more noise, she starts to hear a voice, faint and quiet but still there... Something... Someone is...

Help...

"Gwen!"

Gwen snaps out of her trance and, upon opening her getting her sight back to normal, sees Kevin and Rook, with Professor Ozpin entering the office. "Oh..." Gwen mutters as she rises from her meditation position and stands in both feet again.

"Was I disturbing something, miss Tennyson?" Ozpin asks, carrying his cane by his hand as he approaches the trio.

"Just 'Gwen' is fine, Professor, and, no. I was just... refreshing my memory of old spells I used to do." Gwen answers, hiding the truth.

The headmaster nods and soon walks past them so he can take a seat and rest his arms on his desk. "Well, I did seem to keep you all waiting. I understand if you had to look for ways to keep yourselves entertained."

"Believe us, Professor. One of us was VERY anxious." Rook replies and gives Kevin a smirk and a look, causing the Osmosian to roll his eyes.

Ozpin let's out a small laugh at this, believing it to simply be friendly banter among colleagues, but getting a good look at his office, he notices something and asks them, "Where is Ben?"

"He... well, he got bored too and left to go do something. He promised not to mess anything up." Gwen hid the truth once more and places her hands behind her and gives off a smile.

"I see. Well, perhaps you can tell him what we will discuss, especially concerning your stay here." says the headmaster.

"Our stay? We can't exact stick around for too long. We got an entirely separate world we gotta protect too." Kevin points out, crossing his arms with a glare towards Ozpin. Gwen was about to elbow him but stops halfway, and realizes he's correct before eventually finding herself looking towards Ozpin as well.

"He's... actually kind of right, Professor. We're really sorry but we only came here in the first place to find a thief that took an extremely dangerous energy source and retrieve that thing from them to keep you all from harm's way." Gwen adds as Ozpin pushes his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"Indeed. The Dwarf Star is a dangerous alien invention meant to power warships. If used on a person, they will able to level cities with their bare hands. Many times has it been used that even Ben has had a hard time fighting them and required him to be outsmart his foe rather than overpower them." Rook explains to Ozpin, who nods to all of this.

"Not to mention Maltruant used it to power his own Annihilargh..." Gwen mentions, which made Rook look down in thought.

With a deep breath, Rook looks back to Ozpin with a stern expression. "Indeed. It was a miracle we survived that..." He replies.

"I understand your intentions, and if it were up to me, I'd really do wish for you all to be able to go back to your home dimension. But Paradox has made it clear to me. You four, especially Ben, play a key role into our victory." Ozpin finally tells them, his look grim and his eyes piercing through them, demanding attention, which the three of them gave him.

"Victory? Are you guys at war or something?" Kevin still needed to ask.

The headmaster takes a sigh of discontent and turns his chair around to face away from them and look at the view through the window behind him, as he speaks. "As much as I hate to admit it, yes. We are all basically at war. My other companions and I are fighting a battle against a dangerous being that threatens our very existence."

He turns back around and takes out what appears to be a white King chess piece, placing it at the middle of his desk. As soon as he does, several lines of light spread from the center, giving it the appearance of a glowing circuit board and the table itself finally projects a hologram of a woman, covered in darkness.

While the image clearly shows this person to indeed be a woman as it slowly spins in place for everyone in the room to see, no one could tell what she actually looks like as she is completely blackened like a silhouette. The only thing they could see that isn't completely black are the glowing, red eyes on her face, giving her the presence of a demonic figure cloaked in shadows.

"Her name... is Salem."

They heard Ozpin speak but Gwen, Kevin and Rook are focused entirely on the hologram of this "Salem".

"Spooky. Did she start the witch trials or something?" Kevin jokes, which finally earns him another elbow from Gwen.

"No, but you were close. The best description for her is, indeed, a witch. A warrior from the past has fought her before, but now she has resurfaced to declare war on humanity and bring them all to destruction. Her powers are vast in both strength and numbers." Ozpin replies.

Gwen, still keeping a close eye on "Salem", asks, "Do you know why she would do this? What does she have to gain for everyone's destruction?"

"I know... not." Ozpin answers, with a strange pause in the middle of his reply. "But right now, my comrades and I are planning to eventually meet and prepare for what must be done. I asked you all here to come here to tell you of this information because Paradox claims you may help turn the tide in our favor."

"Then we must know more information of our enemy, Professor. A meeting with your allies and us would certainly improve our chances." Rook points out.

"Indeed. Our mutual friend, Paradox, has already informed me of what you four are capable of and ensures that you may just be what we need to turn the tide. As soon as my associates gather here for the Vytal festival, I will call for you and we shall discuss things." Ozpin tells them, pulling away his chess piece, the holographic projection of "Salem" vanishing from sight.

This, however, only earned him looks from the Revonnahgander, the Anodite and the Osmosian. Gwen was the first to ask, telling him, "We have to wait for a festival for them to arrive here? Why can't they come now if it's urgent, Professor?"

"Also," added Kevin. "What's so special about this 'Vytal Festival" that it's the only time these friends of yours can come?"

Rook took his turn with a nod. "And may I ask when will this festival will take place?"

"Now, now, settle down. I will answer all your questions. Now, yes, unfortunately. You see, like me, they too watch over schools from across the world, ensuring they still fulfill their duties to their staff and their students. The festival that will take place, however, will allow them to come here and simultaneously bring their students here as well, allowing them to speak to us while being able to oversee the children under their respective academies. Which is why we must wait for the festival, so we may all gather together and discuss what must be done." Ozpin explains to them, standing from his seat as he walks around his desk to face the three Plumbers. "As for when it will begin... It will be held during Fall near the end of the year. As you can see, Spring has come for the new school year to begin, so it will be a while."

"What? And what are we supposed to do until then?!" Kevin yells, even slamming his palms onto the desk, which finally earns a groan from Gwen and made her fire a beam of Mana from the tip of her index finger that then forms and wraps around Kevin's mouth, preventing him from speaking further.

"Forgive him, he's still a little rowdy." Gwen spoke for her boyfriend, with Ozpin laughing at the sight of this as he places his hand that's not carrying his cane behind his back. "We'll discuss things with Ben later, Professor, then we'll come back to you."

Ozpin gives her a nod, and replies, "Understandable. If you four need a place to stay for a while, we have a room already prepared for you in the dorms. I'll be here when you need me." He approaches Gwen as he pulls out a strange, rectangular device with a golden diamond shaped button in the middle, handing it to her. "Press this button to open this device. We call this a scroll. I have already opened the map to this school and marked where your dorm room will be, so you won't get lost. There are three extra scrolls in the room for the boys to use as well."

Gwen respectfully takes the device and pushes the button in the middle, causing the device to open and show itself to have the solid ends to split apart and pop out a translucent screen in the middle, with the full device shown to be as big as a smartphone. On the screen is indeed precisely what Ozpin told her: the map of Beacon with the floor where the dorms are in highlighted and their room pinged like a waypoint. "We'll be sure to get there with no disturbance, Professor. Thank you for your time!"

"No, no, I thank you for at least considering this. You have no idea what a relief you four have brought for me." Ozpin nods as Gwen and Rook nod back before heading off to the elevator, with Gwen nudging and pulling Kevin with them, causing him to just roll his eyes.

Once they have taken the elevator, pressing the button for the floor where their new room is located and the elevator doors meeting in the middle to close, Ozpin sighs, throwing up his cane to catch it on it's middle section as he walks towards the view presented by his window.

"...I don't believe this will be enough..." He mutters to himself.

After finding their room, Gwen, Kevin and Rook find a fairly normal room with two bunk beds, one on each side of the room parallel to one another. There is one large cabinet to the left of the doorway and one wide window with a view of the courtyard between the beds. Just in front of the window is a small dresser with a lamp placed perfectly at the center.

"Huh... Reminds me of the dorms back in Friedkin." Gwen comments as she moves to the window to open it before placing the scroll Ozpin gave them atop the dresser.

"But you never used a dorm. We had our own place." Kevin points out before dropping himself onto the lower portion of one of the bunk beds as he rests and lets out a big sigh of content.

Gwen, to answer her boyfriend, simply gives him a shrug as she takes out her Plumber's badge, bringing up a hologram of Ben's face. "I toured some parents and enrollees so they know what they're getting into before deciding on living in dorms." She answers Kevin. Her attention would be taken elsewhere when her badge beeps and she speaks up to it. "Ben, you there? Kinda need you back now. Professor Ozpin told us a lot of stuff."

"On my way, actually. Tracking your badge with the Omnitrix. You would not believe how big this place is!" Ben, his voice filtered in a digital tone, responds on the other side of the call.

"Did you find some water at least?" Gwen asks, a little snide about it, but was also genuinely asking.

However, she hears Ben groan on the other side of the call, and responds, "I wish I did. I have no idea where the cafeteria is and it doesn't help I have to sneak by to avoid getting seen."

"If I may, Ben..." Rook intrudes. "Most of the campus have already seen you and your accidental battle with Professor Glynda Goodwitch. Would it not be futile to hide from sight, especially when the headmaster himself has already spoken to us beforehand?"

Silence followed Rook's words as it seems Ben takes a couple of seconds to realize his partner's point. "I... didn't even realize that. Huh. I'll just... ask around then where I can get water. Keep your badges up so I can track you."

"Will do." Gwen responds before dropping the call.

"Ya know, you'd think he would have searched the whole building by now. Go XLR8 and zip past everyone." Kevin comments as he relaxes on the bed he lay on, crossing his legs before yawning.

"He could, but you know Ben. Just being polite." Gwen responds before sitting down on the bed next to Kevin. But she instead gets a chuckle from him.

Kevin follows this up with, "Or he hasn't thought about that yet."

"Yeah, probably." Surprisingly, Gwen suddenly agrees as Rook sits on the other bunk bed and takes his Proto Tool from his shoulder, shifting it into its computer mode, holding it by its handle while the top portion projects a holographic image. Gwen notices this and got her curiosity. "What's up Rook?"

"Well, Ben insisted we do not hack the files of Professor Ozpin. So while I did not do so, I instead installed an observer program into his systems to keep an eye on what he may do." Rook responds as he taps on the hologram on his Proto Tool, changing it from a static image of the Plumbers logo into that of Beacon Academy's own insignia.

Gwen raises a brow at this and gets back up from the bed, just in time for Kevin to seemingly fall asleep and snore to himself. "Observer program?" She asks, approaching her Revonnahgander friend.

"It is a newly developed software Blukic and Driba created and based on the Galvan B Helix device that created the Galvanic Mechamorphs." Rook began explaining, tapping away at the Proto Tool once more. The Beacon logo on the holographic screen then disappears and is now replaced by a much smaller and more compact image of Ozpin's desktop, showing the encrypted files from earlier. "This was made to allow hacking into more advanced security systems and even be able to do so far much farther away. I placed it in the professor's computer so if we do eventually hack it later, we can do so without having to go to his office."

Rook taps on one of the encrypted files but all of a sudden, the screen goes static and glitches before turning back into the Plumber logo, much to the shock of the duo. "What happened? Is Ozpin's computer too advanced?" Gwen asks, taking a good look at the holographic screen.

Rook, however, sighs and suddenly closes his Proto Tool before placing it on his shoulder. "Unfortunately, no. It is just..."

As if she already knew, Gwen sighs as well and both them spoke in unison, "Blukic and Driba..."

"There goes that plan..." says the Anodite mage before heading back to her snoring boyfriend and lying down beside him. "I guess we just wait for Ben to get here and—"

"So...!"

Gwen jumps from the bed from the sudden voice as standing before them is Ghostfreak once again, holding all the stuff he got from the storage rooms earlier as well as a new bottle of water in his hand. The Omnitrix dial on his chest then beeps and he turns back to Ben, who immediately asks, "Gonna catch me up?"

The skies darken as the Sun sinks into the horizon while the strange, shattered moon of Remnant hovers above the the school to bring some light over it.

Inside the school's ballroom, the new up and coming students of Beacon Academy gather in their sleeping attire after they have left their luggages and belongings in their lockers. Now, all on their respective sleeping mats and pillows provided by the school, the students have some last minute conversations before they go to sleep for the big initiation tomorrow morning.

Among them, of course, is Weiss. Wearing pajamas like everyone else, Weiss' consist of a faded blue nightgown with short sleeves and white trim. She has also let her hair down, revealing them to be long and beautiful as she let's some of them hang over her shoulder.

Unable to sleep, with all the noise surrounding her coming from all the students still talking and gossiping, Weiss could only sigh out of frustration, lying on her sleeping mat and keeping her pillow close. She tossed and turned but it does nothing to the other students. Whose idea was it to put noisy teenagers all in the same room?

"Hey!" Weiss hears someone call her and she turns from her bed and sits up only to find Ruby and Yang approaching her. Like her, the two are in pajamas. Ruby's pajamas consist of a black tank top featuring a heart-shaped wolf-like head design on the chest and long white pants decorated with pink roses. She also wears a black sleeping mask decorated with triangular red eyes over her forehead. Meanwhile, Yang's pajamas consist of an orange tank top with her a heart on fire as an emblem on the front in red, and black boy shorts.

And now there's these two...

She thought to herself and rolls her eyes. "What do you want?" says the silver haired heiress.

"My sister here just wants to apologize!" Yang greets and explains to Weiss before patting ruby on her back, which was actually strong enough to almost make Ruby stumble if she wasn't able to catch herself first as she got closer to Weiss.

"Uhhh... Hi!" The redheaded, silver eyed young girl spoke, scratching the back of her head and tapping her left foot, a clear sign of nervousness.

Weiss does not seem amused at being disturbed, judging by the frown she now forms on her lips. She already has trouble sleeping and now this? So, instead of a proper response, she just gestures her right hand Ruby, waiting for her apology with a glare on her eyes, her frown turning into a scowl and her right brow raising.

This only intimidates Ruby further, causing her to gulp and silently breathe heavily. "I am... really sorry about earlier! I didn't watch where I was going and I really should have apologized better and I really want to make it up to you so we don't mess up this school year for the two of us, cause I'm already really nervous about this first day and I don't wanna make an enemy already! So... I'm sorry!"

After such a lengthy apology, the next thing Ruby did not expect is for Weiss to be perfectly silent for a couple of seconds. The heiress gives her one long, deadly glare as her scowl remains, which just made Ruby sweat bullets.

"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Weiss finally spoke, which actually surprises Ruby to the point of making her jump a little.

Getting over her brief astonishment, Ruby sighs and replies, "Yes!"

"Leave me alone and don't ever speak to me again!" Weiss answers before going back to lie down and turn away from the sisters.

"But..." Ruby tries to appeal to Weiss more but Yang places a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from speaking as the blonde teen speaks out this time.

"Look, you two just got off on the wrong foot today. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay? Maybe tomorrow, you'll end up in the same team!" Yang tells Weiss with a smile.

"L-Let's not get ahead of ourselves!" Ruby understandably panics.

However, it seems as though Weiss is not going to humour them anymore, remaining quiet and having her back turned still. The sisters finally get the message and quiet down, before finally turning away as well and heading back to their sleeping mats.

Unbeknownst to all three girls, the same girl with the black bow, now in her sleeping wears as well, had been observing the three of them throughout the whole conversion, all while she has a mug of warm milk by her side and a lit candle on the other as she held a new book in her hand. The cover shows it's title as "The Man of Two Souls".

" ...Hm." was all she mutters as she places a strange, lime bookmark with an hourglass symbol on it on the last page she had read then closes the book itself before taking her candle and blowing out the fire as it everything turns black.

Several days later...

"So..."

A deep, filtered voice spoke out as several dark figures gather in a dimly lit room, with the only source of light coming from the bright, strange shattered moon in the night sky, the light it brings seeping through the big hole in the roof above this peculiar meeting.

"The Time Walker has made his first move..." says the same voice, continuing his speech, just as the woman in the Plumber uniform approaches one end of the room, holding the case containing the Dwarf Star, which she hands to one of the dark figures in the room with her.

"Should we be worried?"

A completely different voice, one of a woman, responds to the other's previous words as the fake Plumber woman goes elsewhere, which appears to be a staircase leading to a higher floor, where the owner of the first voice can be found.

"It depends. Do you wish to move your own piece or do you want me to place my own cards on the table?"

"... We'll observe for now. My own pieces are on the move. Once Ozpin and this other... Time Walker makes a worrysome move... You'll be my first call."

"Fair enough. Best of luck then, my lady. And be warned..."

The Plumber woman finally found herself behind the dark figure speaking as she takes a knee and bows to her master.

"Tennyson is full of surprises."

"... We'll speak another time... my associate."

All of a sudden, the strange, spherical creature with a glowing, globe-like head with bone plates around it and tentacles underneath that the dark figure is speaking to suddenly cracks and breaks before falling on the ground as it evaporates into ashes.

The dark figure turns around to face his disguised Plumber minion as he speaks, "Were you successful?" He receives a nod from her, which, despite the darkness surrounding him, can be perfectly seen that he is smiling. "Good. Now we have one ace up our sleeve. You know your next objective, yes?"

The minion nods and stands back up to face her master. "Victory... in loss." She spoke eerily and ominously.

"Good girl." says the dark figure before chuckling to himself.

To be continued...

Ho boy... Yeah. That finally happened.

Okay, so some final words.

I'll level with you guys: this is hard for me. Now before you go on and worry, I will NOT give up on this story. I am absolutely thankful for all the support and I am determined to see this through. Your kind words and thoughtful criticism will keep me going through this. But I want you all to understand that, thanks to my work at home as a teacher for online classes, it is incredibly difficult for me to find the time to write these. So please understand why I take too long.

Not only that but writer's block is a thing, and I am a frequent victim of it. It is hard to come up with some stuff, especially with so many things rattling in my head because of my real work and this pandemic. I actually lost some old friends to it.

Lastly, I'd rather not discuss the stuff with Jade any further. We're not friends anymore and let's leave it at that, please?

Now, for the actual story, whooo boy. Okay, so this got a lot more focus on Weiss, and I am guilty of it, but it was sort of intentional on my part. I wanted to make sure each of the girls get their individual chapters focused on them while some of the story happens as well. Last chapter involved the two sisters and now Weiss, so definitely expect a lot of Blake next chapter. And I hereby promise to actually make her an interesting character this time around.

And regarding her bookmark... That's a secret~

Anyway, I can't promise an exact date or time for the next chapter, but expect it to happen. I will do my best to make it all good for you all. Any criticism will be taken accounted for so we can all build on this story together. I am afraid to mess up like last time and I refuse to go down like that.

Catch you all next time and please, be safe out there with the pandemic. I love you all!

Q out.