All credit to respective owners.

P.S. Do you know that someone on youtube is actually narrating this in Spanish? I mean at least I think he is, my Spanish is really bad but I am trying to get better at it (just enough to comfortably give directions to the occasional door-dash when they need to go to a certain place in my location at work).

-Y.A.R.N.

Ozpin frowned as the prone body at his feet, the transfer device still sparking from the attempted power transfer from the psuedo-conduit. It didn't work as the power in the former DUP officer had no base power of his own until Augustine transferred power to him. Ozpin grunted as a spike of sadness-mixed-with-anger sizzled through his head and he had to restrain the urge to mercy-kill the useless person before him. There was no overt reason for Ozpin's sudden burst of emotion and a mild irritant would not cause the intense feeling he had just then. Maybe he hadn't been able to grant Ozpin concrete powers, but that was no reason for the man to be killed or hurt anymore than he already was.

Maybe something about how he acquired his new powers affected his mentality?

No.

He hd self-control, powers wouldn't be able to overcome his sensibility.

Ozpin sighed as he formed a dust-stretcher and guided him out into his vehicle; it was fortunate that this man was in no danger of dying from the attempt, just incredibly and utterly sore. A quick visit to Glynda's clinic and a few days in bed with high-grade pain medications and the man would be right as rain.

Hopefully.

Besides, this failed test proved a valuable restriction on the machine.

Prime Conduits were the only ones who could transfer powers to him and give him what he wanted. It was not an insurmountable obstacle, but it would prove a considerable annoyance as Prime Conduits were not easy to restrain nor locate. His only successful subject — who was Amber — had been a special case as he had used the highest-grade sedatives and Cinder to work her over, weakening her so she couldn't fight against the machine. She had been far from full strength by a not inconsequential amount before she had been strapped to the power-transfer device. Plus, nobody would be insane enough to attack a conduit so she had no idea of the impending assault. So while now he was left with new knowledge on what he needed but all the more difficult a quest for it. Ozpin intended to replace his associates once he had acquired enough powers, but people would notice once Conduits began vanishing for a few days but didn't remember what happened. The Conduit community was very tight knit and news like that spread and would put the entire population on high alert. Already Amber's story had sent ripples throughout the multiple Conduits that lived within the city, all of them were on guard now.

Ozpin sighed, he supposed he wouldn't be able to abduct anymore Conduits at the moment without setting off a mass panic in the whole community. That would be a disaster if Empire City was a place where Conduits were under threat, they would all flee and move into scattered pockets. That would be a massive setback as Ozpin had spent too much time here to move operations to a new city or begin scouting place where a scared Conduit might hide from attackers. Then again, he didn't have to be too hasty as he could acquire more Conduits for power replication as soon as he finished his almost ready project.

Beacon.

It was a idea to be a beacon of hope for the ostracized and shunned, but Ozpin was playing on the desperation of the lost. People who had been stripped of their lives and were trying to find a place to belong. A whole assortment of hopeful Conduits to come, a hundred flavors of power to understand and replicate for use . As soon as they were comfortable, they would be ready to be taken for a day or two so they could 'donate' him some of their power. Leaving the school after they graduate to be none the wiser that they had given Ozpin more than they got out of his tutelage.

Ozpin smiled.

Ozpin would be a kid in a candy shop.

Cinder had come far — in her opinion — as lifting her bed and tossing it around was without any difficult to her now. The only problem was finding something difficult to do to or lift heavier and heavier items to keep honing her abilities and advancing her telekinesis. While a bed — even while piling up all she could on it — was enough to keep her growing at a steady pace, it wouldn't last. She needed to be able to fight effectively on her own which left her with a question.

What could she lift now to help her grow and where would she go to acquire it?

Assuming her king bed was 150 pounds on it's own, piling as many weight as she could — about eight fifty-five pound weights evenly across and then lifting them made for a accurate 690 pounds of force she could lift with effort. Rounding up to 700 pounds, she was straining somewhat to keep it all in the air, lowering it and then raising it again. Cinder estimated she was using about 75% of her full strength to lift all of the 700 pounds. She wanted to be able to toss around a car with minimal effort or so before she would be satisfied with her offensive capabilities; she wouldn't settle for anything less. With those weights established her peak was roughly about 950 pounds with her using all of her power and focus on one object.

Ozpin was still keeping track of her and knew she had been ordering heavy weights, that wasn't suspicious as he knew she liked to keep in shape. Cinder could explain why she had gone out of her way to custom order a bed-frame that had the sturdiest construction possible as soon as she devised how to start developing her powers. That was a simply matter of her mattress needing to be firmer for a better rest; Ozpin didn't begrude his associates their creature comforts with a sort of indulgent amusment. However if she had to order a whole new bed after that purchase because she stacked too much weight on it and said bed broke…

He might find it to be a cause for concern as what could possibly break her bed.

She wasn't having visitors to her apartment.

She needed to find a place where Conduits gathered to hone their skill, Ozpin had a considerable blind spot when it came to mingling with the conduit population as it was something he tended to avoid.

So she just had to find a conduit to lead her there, and she knew the perfect one who was just kind enough to ask for nothing in return.

"Please. Just talk to me!"

"No."

"I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"You did something worse and I don't want to talk to you."

"I am trying to apologize! I didn't mean to upset you!"

"I already said it is not accepted. And upset me? You don't get to say that, you're no idiot, so you knew exactly why that was wrong. You don't get to shove my shortcomings in my face, you never lost what I did, you have no ground to stand on."

"What can I do to fix this?"

"Nothing. I play nice around other people, but alone? I won't be around someone who is incapable of thinking before they speak if I can help it."

Jaune had intended to talk calmly to Yang, but his resentment had overflowed the moment they were alone. He had managed to patch things up — more or less — with Blake, but he was also senses the complicated feelings from Pyrrha. Jaune supposed it was bound to happen, he was always as supportive as he could and he spent huge amounts of time with the red-headed beauty in an attempt to avoid Blake. Pyrrha was smart, cheerful, compassionate and drop-dead gorgeous; how had no one ever seen that when her powers manifested was a mystery to him and he definitely said so. They chatted about life and what their experiences were, and Jaune never expected to be… so at ease around her. But sometimes when their eyes would meet or bodies made contact, something… was there that wasn't there before his realization about Blake. While it — hopefully — wasn't love or something that deep, it was most certainly a something that would make it awkward and weird. And — since Jaune was a massive pessimist on everything even at the best of times — he knew it would blow up in his face sooner or later.

All of this confusion lay solely at Yang's feet and he was not just going to let bygones be bygones this time.

She had put too much at stake.

She opened her mouth without understanding what exactly she was about to unleash into his head, unaware of how somewhere deep in his mind how he expected his life to end.

Jaune expected to die alone.

No family.

No friends.

Just a casket dumped into a hole and covered with dirt with no one to mourn him and no one who wanted to remember him.

Eventually.

Things didn't turn out that way though.

He had his family back, friends he cherished, a place to belong to, a life worth living without fear tainting everything.

These were invaluable things to him, more precious than his life and more vital to him than the air he breathed.

Yang's thoughtlessness had put some of those in jeopardy.

She was too reckless.

"Please. Leave. Unless you're here to order something, I am going to have to ask you to take a seat or leave me alone." Jaune said, voice tired, "You can't fix this. I am not willing to try right now, okay?"

Yang flinched and it hurt.

Jaune was a good person — no matter what he thought himself — but to see him firmly just refuse to fix a relationship — even something as shallow as an acquaintance — hurt Yang because despite her teasing… She wanted to have Jaune as a friend. He was always nice, joked with Ruby, complimented Yang's stellar relationship with her family, and gave his all into making people feel good. One day Yang wanted to see him with Blake not just as friends but the way everyone had expected, but instead all she did was make it worse rather than better.

Yang wilted, sighing in defeat.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, unable to say anything more.

"Me too." Jaune replied, voice softly, "But I can't forgive you. Not now. Maybe not ever."

Yang left the cafe, broken hopes and jagged defeat trailing after her.

Blake leaned against the door into the cafe, sliding to her knees and then onto her ass.

What the hell was that?

What did Yang do to Jaune that pushed him that hard?

Jaune was a person of almost boundless positivity and love.

What could've Yang — who she hoped to be friends with Jaune and thought things were going amazingly well — done that was so damaging that Jaune wouldn't let it go?

Blake wished she hadn't been where she was, behind the door, picking up on the conversation happening.

Ignorance would've been bliss.

She had seen Yang walking towards the cafe from her room and had come down to meet her when she had called out to Jaune.

Jaune response was uncharacteristically cold and froze Blake in her steps.

"Xaio-Long." He gritted out.

Jaune was never that… impersonal and stilted with Yang.

She was Blake's best friend and Jaune automatically labelled as someone important he had to care for.

Yang had paused — no doubt flinching — but immediately rushed out an apology. She didn't mention what it was about — which was maddening — but Jaune shut her down without hesitation.

Why did her world suddenly have to start unravelling?

Yuma opened his eyes after a very long time.

His head felt funny.

He blinked and made to sit up, grunting in worry at his limbs trembling from the exertion of just pushing him up. He managed to sit up and blanched at how wiry and thin his limbs were and how emaciated he looked. He panicked as he reached for his powers and relief burst through his chest as they were still there, strong as ever.

How long had he been unconscious?

He also couldn't remember… anything specific about what he had been doing? He remembered his time as a DUP enforcer, though the violent parts of his memories were disturbingly murky. He knew he was a hitman for hire, when he wasn't using his powers for other jobs that required and experience concrete touch. His last contract was still understandable in his mind as he remembered his most recent employer.

Jonathan Arc sent him here to…

To…?

He squeezed his eyes shut.

To find Jaune Arc.

Why find him?

His memories slipped from him the moment he thought he had a decent grip on his head like sand through parted fingers. No matter what he just couldn't focus enough through the fizziness in his skull and with each failed attempt his anger grew.

"Why can't I fucking think!" Yuma growled angrily.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, but that proved to be a bad idea as the fuzzy feeling in his skull exploded into a debilitating headache and he fell back into an almost immediate unconsciousness.

Ozpin walked in, Cinder at his side.

"Well?" Ozpin inquired, "How soon till he is stable?"

"Could be a while yet considering what you dug up on him. Maybe give or take a day or two more depending on how long glueing what parts of his psyche aren't violent together into a cohesive personality is going to take. He's based his life on DUP enforcer and then contract to kill since he got his powers, that a large amount of his life that we are replacing or smoothing out. That's not even going over his body needing physical therapy to look like more than a emaciated zombie." Cinder replied, pity laced in her tone, "For all I know, we may not be able to condition him to be non-violent."

Ozpin nodded, "Continue. We need to know the recondition is strong enough to let him out to be able to docile. If we can't… well he could have his uses for me later down the line."

"You're trying to make a pet out of a monster Ozpin?" She inquired.

"He's no more a monster than me Cinder." Ozpin replied placidly. "All he needs if he can't be changed all that is needed is a leash. Monsters like him can be tamed."

Ozpin walked out of the room and didn't catch Cinder low and bitter whisper.

"Only a scary monster can tame general monsters Ozpin. And you? You're a scarier monster than I ever wanted to be…"

The duo finally set foot in Empire City, a sigh of relief slipping past their lips as they basked in the city's presence. Nora bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly as Ren looked around, a line of relief slipping into his shoulders. They weren't totally out of the woods yet with their few belongings and reserve of money set aside to rent an apartment, but being in the city meant that they could really set up and begin to live here. Furthermore it meant more electricity for Nora to soak up without causing too much of a disturbance, giving her more life. While she did have the ability to use electricity and fight with it, she was nowhere near The Patron Saint's level of raw power or output (especially since blast shards and cores that could've empowered her had long since been used up by other conduits). Even her ability to store electricity was minor when compared to Cole Macgrath when she tried to take as much as she could.

She had been dumped in an orphanage from a young age and instinctively had that showing off her powers was a bad idea. It was luck that Ren's mom and dad had let run free in the park when he bumped into Nora — literally — and they became stuck at the hip. However Ren had begun to develop his abilities she had decided to confide in him and how she wondered if she was related to The Patron Saint by the nature of her powers. He didn't condemn her and happily held her hand all the way through her initial issues, cementing her loyalty and unwavering companionship. But when news somehow got out about him and Nora, his parents had tried to hide it to protect them but it wasn't enough. They hadn't been able to quiet it and the city was calling for the DUP to capture them and remove them by any means. Unable to stop the DUP's arrival and not willing to hand over their kids, they simply told Nora and Ren to look out for each other before smuggling them out of the city with as many supplies as possible.

The DUP leveled the house soon after and Nora and Ren had to navigate there lives from there to now.

Nora and Ren had blamed themselves for years before deciding that they had to honor Ren's mom and dad by living well.

Ren shook off his musings.

Not now.

He had long since come to terms with his situation and the loss of his mom and dad, his only concern was a decent life with his best friend.

Maybe he could then muster the courage to confess when they were stable and comfortable.

But right now they needed a job — that didn't have a particular need for previous documentation but if they did Ren had a forged documents — and a place to stay until they could rent an apartment or something.

Once that was in place, they would just keep their head low and live well.

Oscar couldn't shake the feeling that something was off with his dad ever since a few weeks ago. It had been a couple of days and his dad had been gone for two days and came back… different? Oscar couldn't exactly explain how his dad changed or what even changed in him either, it was confusing. His plans on opening his academy had accelerated rapidly and his dad seemed… Giddy over the progress? Well, as excited as a man as normally reserved as Ozpin ever could be over something; Oscar knew his dad was a man of many talents and skill but displaying emotions were not one of them.

His dad had been distant as of late, and Oscar decided to fill his free time — that wasn't spent in his house — by taking walks around the city. His heart leapt into his throat at loud noises and he flinched at people moving around him too much, but it was better than collapsing into a shaking ball of stress in an alleyway off to the side. Curdun Cay's trauma would never fully evaporate or vanish, but he needed to build himself back up eventually and putting it off was a waste of time.

Besides, when Beacon finally opened he was to be the first official student.