Hello everyone, just thought that I'd answer some of the reviews and questions in regard to the future of my story.

David Garrido. I'm not sure who I'm going to pair Jaune with, as I'm still wondering who Hawkins will end up marrying. But I can tell you that there's gonna be a few candidates who have a definite chance of being paired up with him.

X3runner. I've devised a combination of my old ideas for Jaune's devil fruit, but it is a canon one from the One-Piece manga.

Astra Starfield. I never said that Hawkins would fight Crocodile, did I? Hehe...

With that, a big thanks to everyone for sticking around this long as I've reached over 200 favorites and followers!

Cheers, Searoar.

Vale was much more spacious in its heyday..." Hawkins observed the crowds of hunters and citizens alike as they rushed to their destinations.

Many buildings were still in the ground, with nothing but pitched construction signs to show what Hawkins would familiarize himself with in the future. However, his attention was drawn to a long line outside a weapon shop, a weapon shop that he and his teammates frequently visited.

"Come on, Raven, there's no need to be shy! The people in this shop are really nice and will give you a good deal if you're a new customer."

Hawkins' ears perked at the familiar high-pitched voice that he'd come to respect. There, among the loud groups, was a student adorned in her trademark huntress attire and a white cloak with none other than Raven Branwen right beside her.

"Look," Raven growled, "I don't need all your stupid modifications on my weapon. The additions of weight will only slow me down."

"But you have to consider the possibilities of a gun chamber extension!" Summer retorted. "There's so much you can do with an all-rounded weapon!"

"For the last time, I don't want my sword changed!" Raven pushed her partner away and stomped down the road that led back to the academy. "I'm not going anywhere else for today, and I'm not letting you drag me on another one of your Grimm hunts. So why don't you bother Qrow and Tai? I'm sure they'd be delighted to have your annoying company."

"Hmph..." Summer pouted. "At least Qrow and Tai have manners..."

"Right," Raven rolled her eyes, "so stop pestering me about the necessity of bonding. It's that kind of sugary talk that makes me wanna hurl."

"Fine..." Summer relented. "But I wouldn't go back to the academy if I were you. Glynda's bound to be there, and Ozpin already knows about the stunt that you pulled on her."

Raven smirked. "Come on, we both know that high-born priss needed to be knocked down a peg, and her hairdo was an easy solution. Besides, it was your paint that dyed her hair."

Summer puffed her cheeks and fumed. "Yeah, and Glynda would still be yelling at me for the whole incident! And you told me you were going to use the paint to add a touch-up to your weapon!"

Raven waved a careless hand. "Well, the deed is already done, so if Glynda wants to fight me she's more than welcome to duke it out in the arena. Then again, someone of her nobility probably hasn't traded fists in her entire life. Hah, it must be nice to have a semblance that does all your work for you."

"I don't think it's smart to make fun of Glynda's work ethic," Summer said, "she is the top student in our school for a reason."

"Grades don't mean anything when you're in the heat of battle." Raven scoffed. "What, am I going to show a giant deathstalker my school papers before I drive my sword through its skull? I don't think so."

"Alright, fine, but will you at least consider giving Glynda an apology? Her team is partnered with ours for the next school project."

"Don't tell me you're actually going to finish that lengthy essay..." Raven turned her back on Summer and started walking away. "If you ask me, all the good that schoolwork will do for you is clutter your brain until you can't think for yourself. In Vacuo, it's survival of the fittest, not the nerdiest."

Summer raised a hand and contemplated snagging her partner's sleeve, but she knew her efforts would be wasted and only add to her strife. Thus, with a heavy heart, Summer made her way back to Mr. Slate's shop to buy some much-needed dust ammunition.

Though unbeknownst to the two young huntresses, their interactions had an eavesdropper.

/-/

"Hmm..." Hawkins scratched his head. He wanted to follow Summer, but his hunch told him to follow Raven. After all, the more information he had on her, it would make it easier for him to convince her to use her semblance to teleport him and Jaune back to Vale. Oh, and Tyrion too.

"Ugh... what the hell?" Raven shivered as a cold breeze brushed past her neck. She glanced at her surroundings; but other than the people who kept a good distance from her, as they should, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"How am I going to kill the rest of this day?" Raven sighed as she felt her feet instinctively turn away from the academy that was within distance. "I don't want to deal with that high-class bitch, but I don't want to go to the forest either..."

However, Raven's path would be forced in another direction as a familiar head of blonde appeared along with a jolly voice.

"Yo, Raven!" Tai beamed a pearly smile as he patted his teammate on the shoulder. "Where's Summer? She said you two would be coming back to the academy together."

"Great, not this idiot..." Raven said under a harsh breath and explained that Summer was still in the commercial district.

"By the way," Raven added, "where's my brother? Don't tell me he decided to actually hit on that pretty girl from yesterday..."

Tai chuckled and shook his head. "For the last time, Raven, Thumbelina is Oobleck's girlfriend. She and Qrow are just good friends who enjoy each other's company. Though, given your recent stunt on Glynda, I can't imagine that Qrow would risk seeing anyone from team GPPO until things cool down."

Raven smirked. "Please, you laughed your ass off after you heard what I did."

Tai frowned sheepishly. "Well, that may be true, but I didn't know whose hair you decided to give a makeover until it was too late..."

"You said that Glynda's head looked like an orange-spotted lion." Raven chuckled much to Tai's embarrassment.

"Fine," the blonde relented, "it was funny to a degree. Though you shouldn't have used permanent paint. That was a step too far."

"Tsk, just like Summer you don't know what real fun is," Raven hummed. "And don't even try to say that your puns are funny. If you do, you can pretty much consider our time together expended."

"Fine..." Tai shrugged. "I'll keep the puns to a minimum of three a day. How about that?"

Raven shook her head and turned to continue her solidarity, but the sudden shriek of Beacon's most renowned huntress to date interrupted her intent.

"RAVEN BRANWEN!"

"Oh for the love of Oum..." Raven hissed as the mystical witch stomped over with an air of raging fury and turmoil.

Her heels clicking against the stone of the courtyard, Glynda wore a face that would frighten any leaving creature, including Grimm. Her violet combat dress swished with each lengthy stride, and her blue, wide-rimmed, feathered hat covered her shame as she pulled out her riding crop.

"Whoa, Glynda, I already said that Raven was sorry!" Tai put himself between the two ladies, with Raven looking smugly at her rival, while Glynda scowled at the incompetent scoundrel at large.

"I don't care about your fake apology!" Glynda screamed. "My only mission now is to see that delinquent behind you properly punished!"

"Oh, and how do you plan to do that? And be careful with your answer, as I'm sure Summer has plenty more paint cans for me to go through." Raven laughed.

"I'm sure I can think of some way to cut you down to size," Glynda's bright green eyes narrowed on the mane of black hair that fell over Raven's shoulders.

Raven met her stare and got the gist of what she meant. With a frown, Raven put a hand on her weapon as Glynda's riding crop gained a purple hue.

"Whoa!" Tai interjected. "Let's not do anything crazy! Remember that both our teams are on Ozpin's bad side, so if we try anything we might end up getting expelled!"
That was enough for Glynda to see reason, but Raven didn't care much for the warning and drew her sword. The red, dust-infused blade glimmering with energy, Tai snagged Raven's wrist and forced her to sheath it.

"Look, what Raven did wasn't right, but we shouldn't keep relying on violence to be our solution every time a hiccup between our groups occurs," Tai said through a deep breath. "Besides, our team project is due at the end of the week, so why don't we agree to a ceasefire until after the assignment is handed in? Can you do that, Glynda?"

Tai knew he was shooting in the dark when it came to this proposal, but thank Oum that Glynda's desire for high grades proved greater than her desperate revenge on Raven. At least for now. Thus, with a barbed comment about Raven's tact, Glynda bid Tai a forceful farewell and left the scene.

"Oh, and make sure you take off your damn hat when you come over, we have a no-hat rule in our dormitory!" Raven snarked as Glynda's steps grew rigid and heavy.

"...Did you really have to say that?" Tai groaned as Glynda was now out of sight.

"Don't be mad," Raven hummed, "have you seen how quiet that snooty bitch is nowadays? At least when I'm not around that is. So you can consider my prank a hidden gift to Glynda's humility."

"Glynda's already got a lot of pressure on her with the upcoming Vytal festival, so give her a damn break." Tai huffed.

"Will you-" Raven bit her tongue at the fierce face of Tai.

"I'm serious, Raven. Sure, a joke every now and then is harmless, but I'm not going to defend you this time. If Glynda doesn't get a serious apology from you, then you can kiss your chance of being our team's representative in the upcoming tournament round goodbye."

Raven snarled. To deny her a place in the upcoming battle that she wanted was blood-curdling, but there were boundaries she supposed when it came to dealing with all the goody-two-shoes around her.

"Fine... I'll give her a half-hearted sorry, is that enough?"

"Unless you wholly mean it, then it doesn't mean squat to me and the same probably goes for Glynda and everybody else." Tai met Raven's fierce expression with one of his own and did not show any sign of yielding.

After a heated pause, Raven sighed and left to blow off steam with Tai going his own way to meet with Qrow for the extra supplies that were needed for their upcoming doubles match tomorrow. Thus, Hawkins was left to contemplate his next path. He knew he needed to follow Raven, but his eyes drifted in another direction. Before the magician realized it, his feet were already moving on their own.

/-/

"Oh... please come out!" Glynda was on the verge of tears as she stood in front of her dorm's bathroom mirror with a bar of soap in one hand and a bottle of shampoo in the other. She'd taken off her clothes in favor of a thick woolly towel as she vigorously tried to rub out the spotted orange paint stains in her pale, blonde hair.

Glynda had been going at this since the incident, and finally decided to leave her dorm for some much-needed fresh air, only to run into the rascal responsible for her poor situation.

"I swear, some students aren't worth enrolling!" Glynda snarled as she washed the soap out of her hair, but blinked as something blurry seemed to be in the mirror. The huntress in training didn't react immediately but reached slowly for her glasses on the countertop.

"What... what was that?" Glynda shivered as a cold wind passed through her and the blurred image dissipated. She hadn't gotten any soap or shampoo in her eyes either, so there was no reason for her eyes to be playing tricks on her.

"Perhaps the stress of the tournament is getting to me..."

Little did Glynda know, that a man she would soon familiarize herself with had been in her presence, but had enough respect to not stick around when she turned on the shower and dropped her towel.

"I suppose Ms. Goodwitch's distaste for Ms. Branwen is justified." Hawkins mused as he slipped through the wall and entered one of the many hallways of Beacon's dormitories.

"Aw, that's cute. You were concerned for Glynda so much that you went out of your way to check up on her. That's shockingly considerate of you, Hawkins." Bastion said.

"I don't want to deal with your banter," Hawkins groaned. "We need to get back to tracking Ms. Branwen, so come on if you want to be of any use to me-"

"Oh, and you should really check out this next comic book edition!" Said a loud feminine voice that belonged to none other than Thumbelina Peach who happened to be strolling through the hallway with Qrow Branwen beside her.

"Thanks, and I gotta admit that reading these cool pictures is a lot better than the school's textbooks." Qrow laughed as he was passed the most recent edition of Maximum Man.

"Haha, as much as I love a good read, there's not a doubt in my mind that my Ooberry is the definition of a bookworm." Thumbelina hummed fondly as her hand reached for the goggles around her neck.

"That's a gift from Oobleck, isn't it?" Qrow asked.

"That's right!" Thumbelina said proudly. "We're going on our third date next week, and I can't wait to see what my Ooberry has planned!"

Qrow grinned. "Must be nice to have someone who cares for you unconditionally."

"Oh, don't worry, Qrow." Thumbelina giggled. "Your still a close friend that I'd stick my neck out for, but as things stand right now..."

"Yeah, I know..." Qrow scratched his cheek. "But my teammates and I have been putting Raven through the ringer lately, and she'll soon realize that apologizing will put be the easiest way to break the ice."

"Hmm? Hey, what's wrong?" Thumbelina put a hand on her friend's shoulder and gave him a light shake.

"You... You see that blurry thing in the hallway too, right? Or hold on a minute... are there two things in there?" Qrow raised a finger in front of team GPPO's dorm and Thumbelina followed it.

"Um... I don't see anything." Thumbelina said nervously and wrinkled her brows. Qrow may have been a bit awkward at times, but the expression on his face showed only sincerity.

Qrow squinted and clenched his hands. Was he going crazy? Was he seeing things? Was he... hearing things?!

"...I'm...ot..."

"Hey!" Qrow shouted, and to his shock, the two blurry hazes turned in his direction.

"Q...row?"

The hunter was shaken and he stepped back in trepidation. Thumbelina was beyond bewildered, but she held her ground as her friend's rapid paling face was a concern she could not ignore.

Qrow raised a hand and took long, steady breaths. "What, you have something to say to me?"

"...ou...can...ee...me?"

"You... can see me?" Qrow managed to piece together the words and gulped. "Yes, I can see you, but how the hell do you know my name? Wait, a better question would be who the hell are you?"

"I...m...a...iend..."

"I'm a friend?" Qrow tilted his head. "Sorry buddy, but I don't go around talking to random ghosts in the hallway on a daily basis, or any basis for that matter. You have a name though, right?"

Through the eyes of the random specter...

"Bastion, how is it that Qrow is able to see me and understand me?" Hawkins asked in both wonder and worry.

"Um..." The spirit mused. "My guess would be that your friend has that sixth sense that folks claim to have when they see a ghost."

"But I entered here with Ms. Branwen on my chest, yet she took no notice of me when I stood close to her or spoke in her presence," Hawkins grunted.

"Give me a break, Hawkins, do you have any idea how many new developments have been occurring on my end since you entered the world of Remnant? I can't have all the answers to your troubles every time you show up in the spirit world..."

"You rarely have an answer for me anyhow..." Hawkins sighed. With a skeptical, but brave heart, he approached Qrow who moved in front of Thumbelina in order to protect her from the spirits she could not see.

"You are a brave man, Mr. Branwen, despite your cynical tendencies," Hawkins said with a short smile as he felt the Arc emblem on his chest burn hotter. The magician reached out to his future friend, who refused to take his hand until he gave him a name.

Back to Qrow's view of the events...

"Okay, I have no idea what's going on, but I don't want any trouble! Unless you do plan on putting up a fight, I'm more than ready to throw down! That is if I can actually hurt you..." The hunter in training raised his fists and cursed his luck for leaving his weapon with Summer for some sharpening and reconfiguring.

"Qrow, what the hell is going on? You're scaring me!" Thumbelina tried to pull her friend away from her dorm, as that's what appeared to be the cause of her friend's strife, but Qrow did not relent and lowered his jaw at what he'd just heard.

"I...no...Tai...ikes...our...sister..."

"I know Tai likes your sister?" Qrow thought with wide eyes. There's no way on Remnant that this random blur was a stranger.

"...nd...at...mmer...ikes...Tai..."

"And that Summer likes Tai?" Qrow knew it was insane to trust this enigma, but he trusted his gut which was telling him to reach out a accept the blur's gesture.

"Okay, but I swear if I end up dying I'm blaming you, Oum..."

"Q-Qrow? What are you doing?" Thumbelina said in a panic as she pulled out her scroll for help when Qrow proved too stubborn to move by force.

Then it happened. For one-second Qrow was standing upright, only to collapse on his friend who scrambled to bring him safely to the floor. At that same moment, Glynda opened her door as she'd heard the commotion, and rushed to help her friends while the other members of GPPO and STRQ arrived on the scene.

Qrow woke up with a fuzzy head a few seconds later, but other than that he was back to his normal self. Or at least that's what the others thought when he failed to recall what had recently transpired. Now everyone was assuming that Thumbelina was the crazy one as she frantically described the event that she and Qrow shared.

/-/

Back to the present...

"Aaaargh!" Qrow shouted as his ring burned his flesh.

"Q-Qrow? What's going on?!" Summer and Tai flew into a panic when their friend fell to his knees and threw off the ring on his right index finger.

The three friends shared a room, as Vacuo didn't have many hotels that were in their price range, and most of the inns only gave one room per group to save money and space.

"Holy shit..." Qrow said with a face drenched in sweat. "I've never felt anything like that before... except for... but there's no way..."

Summer rushed to gather the medical kit while Tai moved to comfort his friend and diagnose his condition.

"Don't worry you guys," Qrow shook his head which was now pounding as if it had been whacked by a hammer, "I don't think I'm in trouble anymore. That is if I was in any trouble to begin with..."

"Qrow?" Tai and Summer asked while dressed in their pajamas.

The ravenette sat upright and pointed to his ring that fell at the base of his bed. The silver ring had been piping hot mere seconds ago, but not a single trace of heat had appeared on the bedsheets. The burn on Qrow's right index finger, however, was very much real and showed clearly on his pale skin.

"Your ring never did that before, did it?" Tai said with a tilted head as Summer applied ointment and bandages on Qrow's injured finger.

Qrow frowned and scrunched his brows. "You guys remember when I collapsed in the hallway a few days after Raven pulled that paint stunt on Glynda's hair?"

"Yeah? But what's that got to do with your ring burning you?" Tai huffed.

"Well, didn't Thumbelina say that I claimed to have seen a ghost at that time?"

"Qrow... where are you going with this?" Summer pursed her lips as she finished tying the knot in Qrow's bandage.

"Well, you're definitely going to say that I'm crazy, but it's all coming back to me now... That ghost I saw all those years ago... it was Hawkins."

Silence took hold of the room and not a single word was spoken. Summer and Tai searched through stares alone, to see if Qrow had begun another hallucination and was on the verge of collapse, but he seemed wide awake and fully aware of his actions.

"Does it have something to do with your ring?" Tai picked up the piece of jewelry and squinted at it. "You said it was a gift Raven gave to you, right?"

Qrow nodded. "I own the ring that belonged to my dead dad, while Raven owns the one that belonged to our dead mom. Neither my sister nor I ever thought of them as more than a reminder of our lost parents... but there have been moments when I thought that I was seeing things. Though these were so far and in between I never gave them much thought..."

"Hmm? Tai, did you think of something?" Summer veered her attention to her husband who cupped his chin.

"There... was a time that I can recall when you gave a faraway look. You didn't answer me for a good minute, and you looked completely lost like you were in your own world for a minute." Tai explained. "It happened when we were about to embark on our first practice mission to Mountain Glenn... Did you see or speak with Hawkins then too?"

Qrow rubbed his temples while Summer rubbed his back.

"Maybe? I don't know... Hawkins never made any mention of this incident to me when we met or anytime during the six years that we've spent together as friends and teammates. Maybe this whole sensation is new for him too?"

"Another important question that Hawkins will have to answer when we find him." Summer nodded confidently. "For the rest of the night, keep that ring off your person, Qrow, and get a good night's rest. Don't forget that Ms. Rumpole told us that Mrs. Schnee needs bodyguards when she leaves for the wildlands, and her route happens to be going north which is where the Branwen Tribe was last seen, right?"

Qrow took a deep breath and fell back on his pillow. Tai gladly joined his wife for the rest of the night, and the three hunters fell asleep. At least that's what Qrow wanted them to think, as he couldn't help but stare at his bandaged finger.

"For the love of Oum, Hawkins..." He muttered under a tired breath. "Don't tell me you're actually magical..."