Me last chapter: "That being said, the next chapter is gonna be released next week, just needs a bit of polishing."
Also me: *notices that word count for this chapter is reaching 5k and I'm not done filling in the blanks and gaps*
Me: "... Maybe I should split it up first."
Admittedly, I'm a little ashamed at the distribution of focus, but I can't think of a better way to go about it. Still proud of my progress though nonetheless. Hopefully I could explore more of Tai in the near future.
Anyways, enjoy! Feel free to drop comments and stuff, I would greatly appreciate it!
Next chapter may take more than a week though
P.S. After uploading the chapter in AO3, I completely forgot to upload this here and in Wattpad, I am so very sorry
Our witches and huntresses have stirred their first batch of chaos in the Boiling Isles… But what has been going on in Beacon Academy? How are our teachers and headmasters keeping order? Let's see.
~Day one of the incident. Night. Two days before the Vytal Festival. When Ruby met Amity and Luz.~
In the silent and serene night that surrounds the Xiao Long Cabin, only the kitchen light stays on. Despite the upcoming Vytal Festival, only one resident is there right now, a tan man with aged blue eyes and grayed-out blonde hair sporting cargos, tans, and leathers alongside a bright red bandana on his left arm. Taiyang Xiao Long, the shared father of the red reaper and the blonde brawler.
"Hmm… Weird. What's taking them so long to come home?" Taiyang mutters to himself.
While he is currently cleaning up the kitchen counter and setting aside all the utensils and jars into their respective cabinets, a Scroll lights up and rings. As soon as he checked it out, he saw that the caller was none other than Professor Ozpin.
Taiyang rinses the washcloth to be set aside and grabs a clean dry towel to wipe his hands. He slings the towel to his shoulder first before bringing the scroll with him to the living room where a stuffed green duffel bag and a rolled dark gray sleeping bag are sitting beside each other on the sofa.
Docking the scroll onto a nearby stand near the television, he accepts the call and the camera projects both him and the caller onto a single screen as he carefully drops both bags onto the staircase. Upon walking back, what surprised him as well is the fact that it wasn't just Ozpin calling him, Glynda was there too, standing beside him.
"Good evening, Tai," Ozpin starts the conversation. Calm and steady as ever.
"Oh, Ozpin, and Glynda! How unexpected for you two to call me at this hour… Is this about Ruby and Yang? Did they get in trouble before they could get home? I hear some of the other kids have gotten to their parents since this morning to rest and ready for the Vytal Festival," Taiyang chuckles in mirth as he continues to wipe his wet forearms and elbows with his towel.
Unfortunately, the two don't share his energy as Ozpin gives a sad smile before continuing, "... There's no easy way of saying this, so I'm sorry in advance… But I need you to listen intently first."
This caught him off-guard, recognizing that this is more serious than a regular parent-teacher call. So listen intently Taiyang did, once he sat down on the couch. From here, Ozpin and Glynda described the experimental teleporter Bifrost, why it's in Beacon and why Ironwood wanted to bring it. After giving the context, they then explained what they assumed happened to Ruby and Yang's team followed by what that incident could possibly open up to.
Yes, even the idea of Ichor being magic was shared. After all, such topics aren't new to Taiyang. But magic involving Ruby and Yang would certainly pose a surprise.
"I-I'm sorry, what?" Taiyang stutters as he is having difficulty comprehending the bomb dropped on him by Glynda and Ozpin as he runs his hands through his hair.
"We are terribly sorry that this happened, believe us when we say it is not our intent." Glynda condoles.
Taiyang starts asking, "So what happens now? Anything I should do? How are we going to get them back? They can still be saved, right? They're not-"
"Please remain calm, Taiyang. Don't despair. Rest assured, General Ironwood and the rest of us are currently looking into this matter and coming up with a solution," Ozpin states, with no sense of rush or self-doubt. As collected as can be.
"I hope so! I can't lose them like this!"
Silence passes between them, the house itself barely makes any ambient sounds and the only noise one could hear are the chirping of the cicadas. Ozpin knew perfectly well why Taiyang is despairing a little bit more than most parents, given by his downward gaze and thinned lips. Still, such emotions should not be allowed to spiral out of control, lest they want to attract Grimm.
Taiyang speaks up again after taking a deep breath, "Is it… Is it okay if I go to Beacon and help in any way I can?"
"Well… If you find it difficult to focus on what seems to be your first mission in a while, or even teaching in Signal Academy…" Ozpin glances at Glynda on this.
"... Perhaps we can let you file a temporary leave. Time to let all of this sink in and personally oversee this matter," she answers in understanding, pushing up her glasses.
"However, after that leave, we hope you finally have the mental fortitude to continue as usual and trust us to take care of the mess," Ozpin ends the discussion.
"O-Of course… Thank you, Ozpin, Glynda."
"Thank you as well for understanding, we sincerely apologize for this unfortunate event. We promise to do everything we can to fix this."
The line ends, and so does the night. Taiyang glances at the two bags sitting on the stairway and sighs.
I was planning on finding a mission to take after dropping Ruby and Yang off for Vytal. It's what we agreed on while they have fun in the tournament -what I promised them after years of putting off huntsman adventures. But…
He gets up to get a glass of water. Guess he'll bring his mission-related preparations with him tomorrow to Beacon instead after that reveal.
~Day two of the incident. Dawn. One day before the Vytal Festival. When Blake stumbled upon the Slitherbeast.~
Across the expansive desert lands west of Vale, a little over a quarter of the way into Vacuo's territory, a group of five people is silently traversing near an abandoned settlement. Four teenagers, huntsmen and huntresses, being watched from behind by an adult huntsman. The first in line is a young man in sleek white spiky hair with amethyst eyes, the next is a tan young man who has maroon eyes and a black brush buzz cut hair that makes his pair of bighorn sheep horns stand out. Following closely behind is a woman with light blue grown-out pixie cut and golden-yellow eyes, and finally another woman who has light brown eyes and green high ponytail.
"Noel," the hazel-eyed girl called out to the white-haired guy.
"Yeah?" He responds, whose name is known as Noel.
"Full-grown Taijitu. One hundred… A hundred twenty feet. Not hostile yet, but on-guard."
"That's one of them. Has it seen us, Tala?" Noel asks the hazel-eyed girl, who turns out to be Tala in this case.
"Negative. It's just surveying the area."
"I see..."
Now, these students are in their second year and normally wouldn't need a huntsman shadowing their Grimm cleanup mission… But the Grimm that escaped the clumsy clutches of a less prevalent but slightly overconfident team CYDR (Cider) proved otherwise. It's been two days since Shade Academy's team FRST (Frost) cleaned up half of the needed numbers.
"Okay, here's what we're gonna do: I'll go ahead and bait it in," Noel, starts as he pulls out his khopesh and lets it extends it into a naginata, cocking it at the ready as the barrel of the weapon opens up at the shaft, "Rory, standby for a surprise attack on its eyes. Do not engage until I can maintain their attention."
"Sure thing, boss-man, want me to turn the heat up?" the guy with the brush buzz cut acknowledges as he continues flipping a few playing cards between his fingers. The cards he's holding have a Heart suit with a distinctly glittering red Dust peppered all across it.
"Go as nuts as you want out there. Tala and Sylvia. Flank it from behind. Keep the other head from helping." Noel follows up as he loads the magazine full of light blue Dust rounds.
"Roger," Tala replies, bringing out what looks like two yo-yos straight from the compartments on her belt. One of them is slightly larger than the other and they have different colors, yellow and black respectively.
"Got it. I'll be counting on you, Tala." Sylvia nods as she grabs a small hexagonal reed accordion-like machine called the concertina from the black shoulder bag hanging until her waist. She aims the sound holes directly outward from her body while her fingers find their places in the color-coded buttons.
"Likewise."
It was tedious work and the sensitivity of the mission is more akin to assassination than digging up a burrow of termites given their vigilance.
"Permission to engage, sir."
With a nod from the huntsman shadowing them, Noel dives in and pulls the trigger on his automatic naginata-rifle, firing continuous splatters of ice Dust on the Taijitu.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
HIIISSSSSSS~!
With a vicious hiss from it as their cue, the other three split up to fulfill their roles. The two-headed snake Grimm lunges its black head forward at Noel, but he manages to dive forward, narrowly dodging the beast's attack and landing at its left.
"Hrah!"
SHINK!
He responds in kind by swinging his polearm, stabbing it squarely into the Taijitu's left eye, trying to keep the attention and anchor it.
…
BOOWOOSH! BOOWOOSH!
The playing cards explode, unleashing bursts of fire that slowly char the skin of the Taijitu's black half.
…
"White head secured."
"Hold it steady, Tala, I'mma blast it in the face."
"Understood, Sylvia."
…
They just finished off the Taijitu when they were contacted by Headmaster Theodore via their scrolls. Noel's scroll vibrates suddenly from his pocket and he immediately feels it. Bringing it out, the profile appears and the voice on one end of a scroll call starts.
"Team FRST, correct?"
"Yes headmaster, this is Noel Froste speaking, is there a concern?" Noel answered as he turned to the rest of his team and their professor as they rested a bit to reload their weapons.
"Congratulations on staying alive throughout the job. Don't worry, it's actually a rearrangement. As much as I hate last-minute changes, apparently you are needed elsewhere, I'm sending the updates to the huntsman shadowing you…" Theodore replies, followed by a mutter, "Ozpin and Ironwood are being reckless… As usual for Ozpin…"
"Rearrangement?"
As if on cue, a Bullhead airship can be seen in the distance.
~Day two of the incident. Afternoon. One day left before the Vytal Festival. When Blake volunteered to go to the market with Amity, Gus, and Willow.~
A massive swarm of students from all over the world of Remnant across different academies (Beacon, Shade, Haven, Atlas) are shuffling about the main avenue (or more commonly the courtyard) of Beacon Academy, the host-school of this year's Vytal Festival. Some are newcomers, others just returning, and the rest just waltzing around, either winding down or gearing up for the much-anticipated event.
Shifting the focus to one of the campus dormitories, two teenage boys walk the hallways. One of them striding towards a particular room that is not his, looking forward to talking to a certain cat faunus.
This fella is a tan monkey faunus with spiky light-blonde hair and dark-gray eyes who sports a round pendant with a monkey emblem and an unbuttoned loose-collared white jacket that exposes his built abdomen without any undershirt to cover his body. Pairing the unrestrained upper clothing are blue cargo pants held up with a white belt as well as black-and-yellow sneakers and red wrist bracers complete with fingerless gloves. The fun-loving yet sincere Sun Wukong.
"Come on, man. Don't wuss out on me now, this should be less awkward and public than the ballroom."
The second person accompanying him is a regular human with blue eyes and messy light-blue undercut hair. He also wears a pair of yellow-tinted goggles and black-collared red jacket adorned with a silver reticle across the back. A surprisingly comfortable set of clothes to wear for the coming months, though the boy has been regularly wearing this attire even before the fall season. The flirtatious yet self-conscious Neptune.
"Emphasis on 'should'… What exactly is there to do on the day before the festival?"
"The most casual of hangouts without being surrounded by crowds makes for the best relaxation of the mind before the tournament… But knowing that you still continue with whatever cheesy pick-up lines come out of your mouth, maybe I'll use them as an icebreaker between me and Blake while Weiss enjoys your fumbling and stuttering," Sun teases as he pats Neptune's chest with the back of his one hand before putting both hands behind his own head.
"Oh hardy-har-har. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I'm pulled along because you're winging it right now and you want to make this easier through a double-date," Neptune was half-guessing-half-joking.
"Excuse you, I can approach her just fine," Sun shrugs and continues walking forward.
"Really? Is there anything different now than the other times you were with her?" Neptune tries to ask further, understanding what brought this on for the faunus huntsman.
"Let's see…" Sun starts counting with his fingers as they turn a corner, getting closer to their goal, "my first hangout with her was spent talking about the White Fang and ganging up on Roman-"
"That I remember you gushing to me about. Followed by us walking into a food fight between RWBY (Ruby) and JNPR (JUNIPER)"
"Awesome show. Then that time we went scouting with team RWBY to do detective stuff-"
"That I remember riding Yang's bike on. Ended with us just having noodles."
"Worth the price. But my best time with her was back at the dance. We didn't talk much, but we danced plenty… And it was one of the few moments I ever saw her unwind, y'know?" Sun reminisces with fondness, which leads to a certain longing that he is aware of and can verbalize easily, "I want to see her smile more often and enjoy talking about other things -less Grimm things, less White Fang things. Maybe take her to a game booth or something, and win a fluffy prize together."
"Ahhh, I get where you're coming from."
"That so?" Sun is curious about that answer as knocks on the door three times, "Blake? Are you there? It's me, Sun. Is Weiss there too? I brought Neptune with me."
Neptune continues though, with more energy and sincerity into his voice, "Yeah. I was a teensy bit like that with someone… Well, someone else aside from Weiss because you already saw how lax she's finally gotten. And it wasn't romantic with this person."
Sun shrugged in agreement and continued the conversation, "Yeah, Weiss got to play a board game with you, among other things. So who is this 'someone-else'?"
Neptune leans against the wall and puts his hands into his pocket, tilting his chin up until the back of his head touches the wall as well. He closes his eyes as he tries to recall, all his mind's eye could see was red and green, paired with bronze and gold swirls, "a childhood friend."
"That's a first. What are they like?"
"She's dead-serious and diligent during our time in Sanctum, which paid off in the end. Kudos to her. Quite the looker too, according to witnesses. Combine all that, add in an eager-to-please personality, and you get…?"
Sun finally puts it together, "someone with weird time management and weird friends-but-more-like-fans, with probably not much to talk about. Gotcha."
"Yep. She used to be easier to talk to, liked sharing random animal trivia and annotating notes."
"Hmm… So not quite like, but close enough in difficulty. How did you get around that problem then?"
"I didn't," Neptune waves the question away, "the weird 'fans' back then never gave me a chance, so I kinda just stopped altogether before it got worse for me. Not like they were any closer with her though, mostly distant admirers and yes-men."
"Yeesh… Overboard. Who put sand in their shoes."
"Right? But I saw her doing really well lately, a new life and a new friend group. Maybe I should try and reach out to her again soon."
"First time I ever heard you talk about someone like that though," Sun muses, admittedly impressed with this slight change in attitude, "what's her name?"
Neptune merely opens his eyes without moving them around much, which lets his gaze stay focused on the door across team RWBY's, the door that holds the room belonging to team JNPR.
After a few seconds of contemplative silence, he shrugs and gives a lazy smile to Sun, "name's classified, I swore confidentiality. Sorry."
"Wow, a secret-secret that not even Scarlet can know. How mysterious of the supposedly carefree Neptune~" Sun jokes.
"Lay off, man."
Sun pats Neptune's shoulder twice firmly, "But… That's cool, I can respect that. Must've been a tough choice back then."
"Thanks. And yeah, it was," Neptune heaves a sigh of relief and gratefulness, the silence returning to the duo.
"..."
"..."
The silence has gone on for too long.
"Didn't you knock on the door already?" Neptune awkwardly asks as he looks between Sun and RWBY's door with a raised eyebrow.
"I knocked, but… Hello? Blake?" Sun knocks again. Yet, he is still greeted with silence.
The two turn to each other, confused.
"Blake?"
No response.
"… Weiss?"
No response.
"… Yang?"
No response.
"… Ruby?"
No response.
Sun tries to turn the knob, it jiggles but doesn't turn. Locked.
Neptune goes ahead for the door leading to JNPR, only to find the same result, "JNPR's room is locked as well, think they all went out and did their own thing?"
"Maybe, yeah," Sun shrugs, not making too much of a fuss with the situation, "let's go find JNPR first, maybe they're with them."
So... I guess this is the first time I've ever written and outlined a RWBY headcanon that's specifically for this fanfic which isn't based on any previous canon interactions. Justifications for what happened and further expansions upon the headcanon will come in the future, worry not.
Also, meet team Frost, my OC team that I came up with back then since the end of V3. I won't fully explain their names and abilities yet, that's saved for the incoming chapters.
Similar to team CFVY, the 2nd-year team FRST was one of the earlier batches to take on a mission (locally in Shade Academy), they were successful in theirs and would likely have had enough time to make it to Vale but another team has screwed theirs up, escalating it to a mission only well-trained second-years up can handle. With FRST being one of the top second-years qualified for the tournament, they were immediately pulled out for the rest of the time.
If they were to be in the canon storyline, they weren't supposed to make it to the festival at all, only arriving by the time Beacon fell and all that's left is rubble and the survivors.