Better late then never, amirite? Anyways, enjoy the chapter!


After fussing over Tranquility, the old merchant finally managed to calm her down. The young peacekeeper laid back down on the bed the man had placed her in, trying to figure out exactly what to do now, her eyes not once leaving the man.

"I was rather scared when you ambushed me, I never thought they'd send a peacekeeper after me," he said with sigh. "I should have left you for dead in the snow, but after seeing your face…" he began filling up a wooden bowl with water from a bucket he'd dragged to the side of her bed, after which he extended it towards her lips, Tranquility pressed them shut.

He kept trying to push the water into her lips, but she wouldn't budge, he sighed. "You've been out for two days, you need to drink something at the very least."

Tranquility still kept her lips sealed, resisting the urge to drink every time the liquid brushed on her lips.. "If I wanted to kill you I would have done so long before you woke up, so please, drink," he said, the softness in his eyes sincere.

She stared at him, the water sloshed against her dry lips once, twice, yet she kept staring, he kept pleading. The liquid brushed on her lips for a third time, she finally gave up and allowed the water enter her mouth.

He smiled, slowly inclining the bowl as she kept drinking. Suddenly aware of how thirsty she was, Tranquility greedily drank, every gulp more desperate than the one before, she was drinking so desperately that the precious liquid was flowing out through the sides of her mouth. He suddenly removed the bowl, her right hand weakly extended, trying to reach for it, the man refilled it before extending it towards her lips once more, she didn't wait for him to slowly tilt it into her mouth, instead she took it and practically poured it all over her mouth with how desperately she was drinking. When she was done, the man gently took the bowl from her right hand - not a difficult thing to do given her weak grip - and smiled at her.

"Good, now if you can speak I must ask, what is your name, girl?

She stared before answering in her pitifully weak voice. "Tranquility…"

/-/

Tranquility woke up with a slight gasp, she lifted her burnt hand which had been resting on her chest and stared at it, flexing her fingers before sighing and sitting up on her bed. She looked around the room In the hopes of finding something, anything to distract her from the dream, all she found were three empty beds, though they looked like someone had used them, whomever her room partners were, they either didn't think it was important to wake her, or simply choose to not do so. Whatever the case, Tranquility was once again alone in the room.

She sighed and stepped out of the bed and walked over to the window, seeing the sun break the night sky. The sight of thee clouds parting, the rays of yellow and orange gently kissing the sky and illuminating the very room she was in right now. She closed her eyes and hummed at the peacefulness of it, the feeling of warmth spreading across her body.

Tranquility sighed and looked back to her bed, thinking about the dream. She could remember everything from that night, she could remember in detail the feeling of the fire eating away at her skin, how the oil spread from her head to her neck and arm, she could remember the smell of her own flesh as it charred beyond recognition, and of course she remembered the aftermath of it, the pain, and yet no matter how hard she tried, Tranquility could never remember his face, she remembered him being old, with a slight limp on one leg, but not hiss face. The thought bothered her in a way she couldn't quite place.

She sighed again and stretched her arms above her head and looked around the room once more, looking for anything to distract her from the dream, what she found was a door right next to her bed that she had somehow managed to not see. Curious, the peacekeeper stepped inside and found the room to be more confusing than any other she'd seen. It was tiny, barely a quarter of the size of the adjacent room, on it was some sort of white porcelain seat with a lid made of a material she'd never seen, the peacekeeper tilted her head and decided to lift the white lid, what she found underneath it she could only describe as a fancy latrine. To the left of it was a black wooden cupboard with what she could only describe as a large porcelain bowl and a sort of grate at its center with a metal piece which resembled a curved tube with various tiny holes at the end and two knobs with a colored edging, one red, the other blue. On the wall right above it was a mirror, Tranquility briefly looked at her reflection with a tilt on her head, noticing that her hair was growing longer than what she was used to, she briefly glanced at the portion of her head with the burn, idly thinking about how her copper hair would look like if it could still grow there.

Tranquility looked away, turning her attention to the last object of interest: a sliding door made with a metal frame and a glass that distorted everything beyond it, she slid the door open and found a metal tube extending from the wall that looked almost the exact same as the other one, and just like the other one, it had two knobs which were once again rimmed with blue and red respectively.

She tilted her head and hummed before tentatively reaching towards the red knob and turning it, she was surprised when the water came rushing out of the tube. She put one of her hands under the stream and was surprised when she found it to be warm, seconds later, hot, too hot she decided as she suddenly removed her hand from the steaming water with a hiss. Tranquility turned the knob the opposite direction and the water promptly shut off. A thought came to Tranquility's mind, if red was hot, then blue had to be cold, she tested it and hummed in satisfaction when she was proven right.

She closed the water and decided to check the cupboard, founding four neatly folded towels and a couple of bottles made of a material she yet again couldn't recognize. She took one and tilted her head at the writing on it, instructions on how to use it, she realized, thankful to herself for taking the time to learn how to read common.

The peacekeeper looked at the tube past the sliding door, then back at the bottle, so that was what it was for. Tranquility considered the thought of trying it out, her own curiosity begging her to do so, and in truth, she didn't see the downside, it had been a while since she cleaned herself, and the idea of washing somewhere that wasn't a river or lake was a novel one.

She nodded to herself and stripped of her clothes, briefly staring at her reflection in the mirror. Tranquility wasn't one for musculature, she looked strong and fit but that was it, she idly wondered if she would've been pretty without the scars, a thought she quickly shook away.

She sighed and took the bottle, turning on the water and mixing cold and hot until it became warm, she red the instructions on the bottle again before stepping inside.

Time to see if curiosity truly killed the cat.

/-/

Ruby Rose yawned loudly before letting her head hit the rectangular wooden table, waiting for Ren to finish cooking their breakfast.

Weiss echoed the action, though she covered her mouth with a hand as she did so, and refrained from slamming her head on the furniture. "Remind me, why aren't we eating breakfast in the cafeteria like every other day?"

Jaune, who was right across his fellow team leader, rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times before answering Weiss' question. "It's Saturday."

Weiss simply raised an eyebrow, silently asking him to elaborate further.

"The zombies," Yang was the one to answer with a shudder. The heiress was about to ask what she meant before being interrupted by the blonde brawler. "You don't want to know."

"Besides, no one uses the dorm kitchen, might as well make use of it." Blake glanced towards Weiss as she said that, for once taking her eyes off her book.

Weiss crossed her arms with a small huff. "Fine."

A few moments of comfortable silence passed by, only broken by the occasional yawn or tapping of someone's fingers on the table, that was until Nora spoke. "Reeeeeen, are the pancakes ready? I'M HUNGRY!"

The teen in question sighed. "I'm almost done, just give me a minute."

Just then, the door slammed open, the sound loud enough to snap the beacon students from their morning stupor. Two people entering the room were a tall, muscular blonde woman who was followed by a shirtless dark skinned man with a shaggy looking beard, the two held horned helmets at their hip. "Odin's beard! What was wrong with those kids?!" said the shirtless man.

"Dunno, but they looked like they were going towards the cafeteria, makes me feel sorry for the others," answered the blonde woman.

"Well, sucks to be them."

The teens at the table exchanged looks, then stared at the two warriors. "Uh, who are you?" asked Ruby with more than a little confusion.

"Huh?" The man turned to look at them. "Ah! Didn't see ya there." He walked up to them, as he did, the woman shrugged.

"I'm Frea," she said.

"Just Frea?" Weiss asked, to which the woman nodded.

Just then, the man leaned on the table with a big, friendly smile. "Torbjorn Grimsson, how ya doin?"

Nora of course, returned the smile. "Nora Valkyrie, nice to meetcha!" she extended a hand, which Torbjorn took in his. The woman looked a bit confused by Nora's last name, though didn't say anything about it.

"Aha, that's a nice grip you have there!" He said approvingly as he shook her hand, grinning.

"Yours is pretty good too partner!" she grinned back and laughed, to which he also began laughing.

"Food's ready!" Ren stepped out of the kitchen wearing his signature pink apron that said "please do nothing to the cook" and carrying an assortment of plates, a pan that smelled of scrambled eggs and bacon, and finally, a whole stack of pancakes for Nora. He handed each of the students a plate and received thanks in return. He sat down next to Nora. "Alright, dig in everyone."

They were all to happy to do so. Ruby herself hummed happily as she began to eat her serving of eggs and bacon, lightly swaying from side to side. Ren's cooking was always great, the quiet teen was like a wizard in the kitchen, like that one time he'd made cookies for everyone, those chocolate chip cookies tasted like heaven. .

"What's that, and can I have one?" Torbjorn asked as he pointed to Nora's plate.

"Pancakes, the pancakes that Ren made for me!" she said protectively, putting her arms around the plate.

"Just the one?" he asked again.

"No!"

Torbjorn hummed, a thoughtful expression on his face. He froze for a moment before a grin formed on his face. In a flash, he placed his elbow on the table. "I'll fight you for one!"

Ruby almost chocked on her food, she could have sworn she felt her eyes bulge out of their sockets. She swallowed and looked at the muscular man, then at her friends. Jaune's mouth was hanging open, Pyrrha was glancing around with a nervous grin, Ren looked as passive as always with the exception of his eyes, which were wide as plates. She looked at her own team, Yang had more or less the same reaction as Ruby with a bit of Pyrrha mixed in, Blake was simply staring at the man with a raised eyebrow and Weiss looked slightly annoyed mixed with a healthy dosage of panic. Their reaction wasn't the one that mattered though. Ruby gulped as she slowly turned her neck to look at Nora, and to her horror, she was grinning from ear to ear like a madwoman. In her panic, Ruby stood up and yelled. "EVACUATE THE TABLE!"

The others sensed the danger and immediately took their breakfast away from the table, just in time too, seeing how Nora had placed her elbow on the table and gripped Torbjorn's hand.

"For pancake honor!" Nora shouted excitedly, her grin somehow growing more manic as she began to wrestle Torbjorn's hand down. To them it looked like yet another easy win for Nora, that was until her smile faltered ever so slightly.

"No way…" Yang said completely astonished. She had tried the same thing Torbjorn did once, and Nora had made her bite the dust within the first 10 seconds, he had already doubled that time and he was still grinning.

Torbjorn began to push back with a chuckle, his grin growing as Nora's smile slowly began to fade. With a final laugh, he pushed Nora's hand into the table with an almighty bang, leaving a sizable crack on the wooden table.

Ruby's jaw dropped, as well as the jaws of everyone else. No one had ever beat Nora in arm wrestling, no one. Silence hung in the air for a solid ten seconds, the longest ten seconds in Ruby's life.

"That…" Nora began to speak in an oddly neutral voice, oh no. "Was… AWESOME! You gotta to show me how you train, you're crazy strong!" she said with the most excited tone Ruby had ever heard Nora speak in. "Here!" The hammer wielder stabbed a pancake with a fork, extending it towards him with the friendliest of smiles. "Have a pancake, friend!"

"Aha, food!" he said as he took the pancake with his hand and bit into it, his face quickly morphing into one of pure pleasure. "By the gods, these are good!" he broke off a piece of it and handed it to Frea, who sat down with a small smile and took a bite.

"You're right, these are good, and so fluffy!"

"I know, right?!" he turned to look at the group of confused looking students. "What are you people doing back there? Come sit! Let us feast in the name of new friendship!"

Ruby couldn't help but smile at his friendly aura, she looked at the rest, they were much like her. Ruby walked back to the table and sat down, eager to talk with the duo.

/-/

Ozpin sighed with satisfaction as he put away the last of the day's paperwork. He checked the time on his computer; 6:15 pm, perfect timing.

The headmaster stood up and walked over to the large window, briefly looking out of it with a small smile. The skies were mostly clear and were beginning to tint orange, quite the view, one which he admired for a bit before turning back to his desk, there was still one thing left to do.

He took his scroll and sent a message to Qrow, Glynda and Widren. Once that was done, he leaned back into his chair and checked on his thermos as he waited for them to arrive, he had just the right amount of coffee to fill his mug; perfect.

The elevator doors slid open just then, Glynda and Widren stepped out. "Ah, thank you for coming as quickly as you did, I do hope I didn't interrupt anything important."

"No, I was just talking with my teammates when your summons reached me, Ozpin." The blind said as he approached.

"Just paperwork as usual," Glynda said as she moved to stand beside him. "Where's Qrow?"

"Gathering our new friends, he'll join us soon enough," he answered simply and took a sip of his coffee. "Now, while he does that, let's go through the general plan again."

The blind nodded as he leaned against a wall. "I listen and signal to you if they're lying. Pressure them into speaking the truth, yes?"

Glynda hummed, cupping her chin. "Rather vague as far as plans go but I suppose it works. I do have one question though. What if they're not as friendly as they seem?"

"Simple, really." Ozpin leaned back into his chair and took another sip of his coffee. "We kill them."

/-/

Tranquility's day so far had gone without much of anything happening. She finished washing herself and had a rather late breakfast, then went on to explore the academy further. So far she'd found a few ways to the rooftops along a good few places to hide, right now she was sitting on a rooftop, observing the sky slowly shifting from blue to orange. She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be giving any use to any of the knowledge she'd just gathered, she wasn't here in some grand scheme, not to kill or steal, yet she kept looking.

"Seeking knowledge for the sake of knowing is useless," she muttered to herself, repeating the words of one of her trainers. Curiosity often got peacekeepers hurt or killed, it lead to carelessness, she remembered being yelled that as her trainers beat her to a pulp as punishment for letting her inquisitive nature show. Those beatings had taught her that wanting to learn more was wrong, she was a very precise tool meant to be used and discarded, nothing more.

Yet no matter how much she tried to ignore herself, her curiosity always got the better of her, no matter how hard she tried to hide or deny it, it always came back up, and it always got her hurt, the scars across her body were more then enough proof of that.

And then a gentle breeze reminded her of the morning, her hair still carried the faint scent of lavender. She sighed and laid down on the roof, staring at the sky, not knowing what she was supposed to feel.

"Ah, finally, you're rather difficult to find, did you know that?" said Qrow as his face came into view. "Boss wants to talk to ya."

"The others?" She asked as she stood up.

"On their way, just you that's missing, let's go." He began walking towards the door to the stairs with the peacekeeper silently following him. Curiosity begged her to ask what the headmaster wished of them this time, even though she had a rough idea of what it was, so she resisted the urge for now.

The two walked in silence until they came upon the metal box doors, outside of which stood Thorne, arms crossed. They greeted each other with a nod and waited for the box to come down and wordlessly stepped in when it arrived.

The doors slid open with a ping, the three stepped out and were greeted by the other heroes, Thorne suddenly stopped, looking at the small teen standing opposite from the warriors. "Widren, I… didn't expect to see you here."

"I told you we would meet again, did I not?" He said with a smile. "It is good to see you once more, Thorne Wingbreaker."

As the teen said that, Qrow walked to stand at the headmaster's side and nodded at the man, Tranquility noted that the man in the mirror was there once again. As if on cue, Ozpin turned to look at them, he prompted them to remove their helmets, which they did. Once that was done, he spoke. "Last time you were here you spoke of having woken up in the forest after dying. I wish to hear the story now, if you don't mind," he said calmly, gazing at them.

They glanced at each other, not knowing where to even begin, nor who would speak. Eventually, Aquila sighed and stepped forward. "Headmaster Ozpin, is the word Heathmoor one that you are familiar with?" The professor shook his head, to which the old black prior sighed. "Then that is our starting point… and now a long story has been made even longer."

Qrow raised an eyebrow at them and the teen tilted his head, the man in the mirror remained passive, Glynda was regarding them with the barest hint of curiosity and Ozpin was leaning back on his chair, quietly sipping from his mug. "We have time, do go on please," he said as he lowered his mug.

"Right," Aquila sighed and cracked his neck before speaking. "There were no signs, it came without warning..."

The man in the mirror frowned. "What did?"

"The cataclysm." Frea was the one to answer as she stepped to stand next to the older warrior. "The seas rose, volcanoes erupted, fires spread and storms assaulted the earth as the land shifted, very violently."

"It brought doom, to all of our people, and those that remained struggled to survive." Ishikawa – the kensei – joined the two.

Aquila nodded. "Perhaps we had a chance for peace, but desperation and trust are seldom allies."

Ozpin now looked interested, as well as three of the people alongside him, the man in the mirror still regarding them with skepticism. The headmaster leaned forward on his chair and looked at Widren, the teen shook his head. Ozpin hummed and looked at Aquila. "How long did the fighting last?"

The words that escaped the old black prior's lips stunned him. "A thousand years of war…"

"Holy…" Qrow muttered as he stared at them, eyes wide. "What could have made you fight for so long?"

"No one knows," Haruka – The nobushi – said. "Food, land, shelter, people." She listed.

"I've heard lorekeepers say it was over water, but even that's just a theory, truth is that nobody knows for sure why we started fighting, the why just got lost along the way." Torbjorn added with a shrug.

"Point is we've been fighting for a long time, we'd still be if not for the truce of Wyverndale," Alistair said, to which the headmaster raised an eyebrow, prompting him to elaborate further. "Gabrielle the warden, Tadeo the kensei, Ljot the raider and Ying the tiandi, they just stopped fighting one day, the rest soon followed.

"And that is where we come in…" Aquila said before he began to explain everything from the honor games, to the plays, the celebrations, all the way to the warmonger's attack, to their last stand. "The rest you already know," he said with a sigh as he finished recounting.

"Monsters…" Glynda said, her reaction to the truce breakers shared by her compatriots, even the man in the mirror seemed disgusted by the actions of the order of Horkos. Ozpin took a moment to process it all and looked at the teen in the room, he shook his head, which somehow managed to increase Ozpin's surprised expression.

"Why would they just attack you like that? It doesn't make sense," Qrow muttered.

Tranquility heard him and decided to add to the conversation with one simple word. "War."

The room fell silent, no one really knowing how to proceed. Just then, Ozpin sighed. "Thank you for answering our questions, you may go now…" he said tiredly.

The warriors nodded and slowly began to leave, going down the box in groups. Tranquility was the last one to remain, and just as she was about to go down, she was stopped by Widren's voice. "Wait, before you go, I must ask: what is your name?"

She turned to look at him and tilted her head, a gesture which he returned. "Tranquility," she answered and stepped into the elevator.

Tranquility turned around and saw the teen, blind eyes piercing through her with a frown. "A lie." He said as the doors slid close.

/-/

Ozpin sighed as the last of the warriors left, he looked over at the blind student. "You're certain they didn't lie about their story?"

Widren Atlas took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes."

"I still don't understand why you trust a student to tell what they say is a lie or not, he's inexperienced." Ironwood said from the video call.

"My semblance is reliable, James Ironwood," he said calmly

"And what that might be? Ozpin sent me a file but the data was corrupted." Ironwood's words made Ozpin sigh, he should really be getting rid of those old files, he had copies of them anyways.

"Emotion," the blind answered plainly, Ironwood still looked skeptical. "I can feel the emotions of everyone around me as if they were my own, all the time," he explained. "It's the best way I can put it on words, usually I'd just show you, easier then explaining the intricacies."

"And how does that help you find lies?" James asked, looking slightly more interested than before but still skeptical.

"When people lie there's usually a little tick, a flash of guilt or pride, panic if the lie is being made on the fly and hollowness if they've recited it over and over again, the best liars tend to repress their emotions when lying, I can feel that too."

"And in a group this size, at least one of them would have shown a reaction to their comrades lying. Is that good enough, James?" Ozpin said.

Ironwood grunted. "Good enough." He ended the call.

"I shall be taking my leave as well," Widren said as he walked to the elevator, Glynda and Qrow followed him the two circle members simply waving goodbye, not wishing to talk as they processed all the information. The three stepped inside, the blind turned towards him. "Be well, professor Ozpin." The doors slid shut.

He slumped back into his chair, he sat there for a moment, then stood up and looked out the window, at the sunset. "A very interesting year…"


Aight so correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe this is the longest chapter I've ever written, fooken crazy mun.

P.S: Here's an omake for ya, you're welcome.


Omake: The Beacon zombies.

The cafeteria workers were running around the large kitchen like headless chickens, just like every Saturday morning, and with good reason; they were coming.

"WHERE'S THE PANCAKE MIX?!" yelled one of the panicked cooks, her eyes darting left and right and wide as dinner plates.

"What do you mean there's no more cinnamon tea?!"

"Oh hell naw…" muttered a black owl faunus man as he searched through the fridge, he growled and slammed the sole pack of beacon on the counter next to him and with a furious glare used his faunus feature to turn his head the full 270 degrees. "WHICH ONE OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS FORGOT TO STOCK UP ON BACON?!"

Amidst the chaos, his voice went unheard. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The head cook leaned on the front counter, staring at the door to the cafeteria with determination, he took the thermos at his side and took a sip of his morning coffee, suddenly, one of his colleagues, a young blonde girl, stumbled towards him, taking deep breaths and in panic. "Sir, we have a problem!"

"What is it?" He answered, yet his gaze was kept at the door.

"It's the coffee sir, we're out of student's coffee!"

The head cook's heart skipped a beat, the hand holding his thermos went limp, dropping it and spilling the caffeinated drink on the floor, he turned to look at her with wide eyes. "By the brothers…"

"Sir, what do we do now?!" she begged him for a solution.

He took a deep breath. "What about the teachers coffee?"

Her eyes widened at the implication of his words. "But sir, that's three times stronger than what the students are used to!"

He looked at her with steely eyes. "Do it."

She gulped loudly and gave him a quick salute. "Aye sir!"

She took off back to the kitchen, just as she did, the door finally slammed open, giving way to the endless sea of students, the Beacon zombies had arrived.

"Coffee…" moaned the one up front, a cry which was soon echoed by the horde, who moaned their breakfast foods and drinks. Among the cries and sluggish moans were the mention of everything from milk to red bull, one student even cried out for water. The horde was shuffling towards him, some were not so patient and pounced on the sole vending machine, quickly emptying it of energy drinks, sodas and juices, the poor sod was overwhelmed within a matter of seconds, he never stood a chance.

The head cook gulped audibly. "May the brothers watch over us."