A new god in Remnant

by The twin stars

It was finally over, Odin was defeated and what remains of the nine realms are now at peace. Atreus has spent less than a year searching for other giants until he fell into a lake that mysteriously transports him to Remnant. How will he get home? What was this realm? Why does magic not exist here? Where are this realm's gods?

6. Where it all begins part 1

Yo! What's good my fellow readers! Man, it's been a while since November and I do apologise for the wait, but! The day has arrived for our resident BOI and friends to attend Beacon academy, and to go through initiation, where the other RWBY characters will meet up. I'll also try to make this and some other chapters longer but I will keep the rest around the 6K word count.

And I'm pretty sure my procrastinating brain will make it harder for me to put words down, cuz I get distracted easily, most likely because of my lack of stress to keep me focused. But, I still do my best to get these chapters out, so nothing to worry about!

Also, I would like to point out that I finished Hi-Fi Rush recently and found NO crossover fanfics involving it whatsoever, how? Seriously, how? I enjoyed the game so much that I expected for there to be a bunch of fanfics but there was barely anything, like I don't get it. If anyone wants to make one, leave a review to keep me posted.

I would make one myself, but I already have a rockstar themed story cooking up in my brain that I believe will psych you all out.

Now then, to the story!

I do not own RWBY or God of War, they all belong to their respective creators. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum may he rest in peace, and God of War is owned by Santa Monica Studio.

---

The morning sunlight greeted the inhabitants of Remnant with bright, warm beams as Atreus, Ruby and Yang were getting ready for their departure to Beacon academy. Loki was back in his Fate Breaker armour and had a duffel bag full of new clothes of the modern realm, as well as toiletries.

The Xiao Long patriarch was also present to see the boy and his daughters off for their next step in becoming Huntsman and Huntresses.

"And you're sure that magic barrier you made will keep me and Zwei safe? Even warding off the Grimm?"

True to his word, Atreus had raised a protection stave surrounding the property and land in roughly the same size as the one back home. It was a little bit of a rush job yesterday given that the ride to Beacon was today, but the boy had got it done just in time before dinner, that was a relief. "Don't worry Tai, if the stave protecting my house back in Midgard was able to keep Raiders, Draugr and other monsters away then it'll do the same thing for you, trust me."

The blonde man sighed as he nodded, looking at his children with pride and hesitation, "Yeah, I know. I just didn't think I'd have to let both of my little girls go so quickly. Guess I'm just stalling so I can be with you guys longer." The sisters had soft smiles adorning their faces, they understood their father and also wanted to stay with him.

"Don't worry dad, we'll be ok. We'll be sure to write to you and call you whenever we can, right Yang?"

"Yep, and we'll have Atreus with us as our god of luck!" She said, as she pulled the young Jötun in around his shoulder, the Champion giving the Huntress in training a deadpanned expression.

"Again, I'm pretty sure that isn't my godly role, and giving good luck isn't one of my powers." Yang was about to respond but didn't get the chance as the air-bus docked at the landing pad the group were at.

"Ah, I guess that's your cue. Well, I hope you guys have a great time at Beacon, so be sure to tell me all about your adventures there in your letters. And Atreus?" The archer perked up at the sound of his name, "I wish you the best of luck for the search of the giants, wherever they may be, I know you'll find them soon." The boy smiled gratefully at the older man's words. Atreus really hoped that there was any knowledge of giants at the academy that he could gleam from, his visions brought him to Remnant for this purpose and this world was his best lead yet.

"Thank you, and thanks for taking care of me this past week." He reached his hand out for a handshake, which Tai reciprocated in kind. The former Huntsman then went to hug his children, wishing them the best as well.

With the goodbyes said and done, the trio grabbed their bags and boarded the ship. Taiyang wore a proud smile and watched as the air-bus flew off to its destination.

But suddenly, the sound of a sword slicing through the air caught the former Huntsman's attention. He knew that sound lick it was yesterday and quickly turned behind him to be greeted with a familiar swirling red and black vortex of distorted space. There was only one person in all of Remnant that had this Semblance, and he wasn't sure if he should be grateful that the woman who owned it just missed their daughter, or displeased that she decided to see him again after all these years. But once the woman Tai first fell in love with stepped through the portal, he was shocked by her current state.

Raven Branwen. The woman that became his partner in Beacon for four years. The woman who he gave his heart to. The woman who broke it after leaving him with their infant daughter. The woman who returned to her old tribe to lead a life of banditry, who valued her survival of the fittest philosophy above all else, stood before her former lover like she was close to collapsing.

Her clothes and armour were in tatters, her weapon, Omen, as well as a type of stylised Grimm helmet were broken. It looked like Raven had broken some of her ribs from the way she was holding her left side, including a broken leg.

Her wounded, bloodied body limped over to Taiyang before dropping to ground, but was caught in time when the blonde man rushed to her.

Confusion and worry were the only things present in the former Huntsman's mind, there were very few who could stand against Raven in fight, those few being her brother, Qrow, Glynda and Ozpin. But for someone or something to inflict this much damage onto her... frightened him.

"T-Tai..." The wounded bandit leader spoke in a rasp, one of her red eyes visible through a cracked hole in her helmet stared up at her ex-husband in a strained attempt to stay open. She appeared to be on the verge of falling unconscious.

"Raven! W-what... what happened to you!? Who did this to you!?" The Signal teacher questioned in a panic, he may have moved on from his first love but he felt some need to help her if she chose to come to him in a situation this dire.

For her, she was struggling to get the information out, let alone any words out. So just before she lost consciousness, Raven managed to get out a single word.

"H...Heim... Heimdall."

---

Inside the large flying vehicle were the excited passengers, who couldn't wait to get into Beacon's halls to become the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

But one particular group' conversation wasn't preoccupied with the other occupants thrill of attending the academy. Their talk was about something far more important at the moment.

"What about the 'god of animals' huh? Sounds pretty nifty."

For the past half hour since departure, Atreus, Ruby and Yang have been working on trying to figure out a title that would fit for the young boy's godly nature. Though none of the ideas seemed to 'click' for the Jötun, and Yang's latest suggestion didn't stick.

"No, I think that one's already taken. Remember that one god Atreus mentioned, what was her name? Skathi?" The younger sibling countered her sister, and it was somehow really cute how she mispronounced another name from his lands.

"Her name is actually pronounced Skaði, and she wasn't really a 'god of animals', she was just called the 'queen of the hunt'. Plus she was a giant."

The group then grumbled as they kept brainstorming any word that be fit for title.

Yang sighed as she was starting to get a bit of a headache from all the thinking she was doing, as fun as coming up with a cool god title, it was super exhausting. So, the blonde brawler decided to shift to a different topic, namely her little sister's stroke of luck in getting in to Beacon.

"Well aside from pondering what kind of god Atreus is, this by far the second best day ever! Cuz Ruby got into Beacon with me early!" She then gave her red themed sister a bear hug, which made it very difficult for the caped girl to breathe.

"Please, stop," she managed croak out.

"But I'm so proud of you! This is a rare opportunity for anyone," The young archer could agree with that sentiment. From what he's read online on his Scroll,(and that was the most mind blowing gift he had ever received) there were articles written about the four Huntsmen academies, and Beacon was one of the most prestigious schools out of the other three.

"Yang's right, Ruby, you got recognised for your talent when you stopped that robbery." The boy recalled how the scythe wielder explained when she was in the middle of a store robbery, and managed defeat all of the bad guys except for their boss who got away. And was later recruited by Ozpin because of that.

"Really guys, it was nothing," The younger girl adamantly said.

"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're a the bee's knees." Atreus did a double take at what his blonde friend just said. What the Hel does bees have to do with knees?

"I don't want to be the 'bee's knees', I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees." It was quite odd seeing Ruby be upset coming to the academy, she seemed so overjoyed that she got in.

"Ruby, what's wrong? Aren't you excited?" The young Jötun questioned.

"Of course I'm excited... I just..." The red caped girl sighed with a slight somber expression, "I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people thinking I'm special or anything."

Her older sister went and wrapped her into a single armed hug and gave a soft smile, "But you are special."

Loki and the others attention was turned to the on board hard light television that was set to the news channel. Its topic was a very interesting one.

"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade the authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa." The screen presented a mugshot of the criminal at large, he had minor injuries such as a few bruises on his face, but those didn't stop him from smirking at the camera. He had red hair where his bangs covered his right eye, whereas his left one was exposed, a cocky glint was visible in his green eye. He had a white jacket with black gloves and a grey ascot around his neck. For some reason, just looking at the crook gave the young archer a sense of annoyance.

"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, meteorologists in Atlas are stumped by the bizarre thunderstorm appearances across the kingdom's tundra, at the moment specialists are trying analyse the cause of these strange occurrences. And, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organisation has now disrupted-"

The network was cut off and replaced with a projection of a familiar Beacon combat instructor.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon." She said.

"Oh hey! It's... what was her name again?" Yang scratched the side of her head trying to remember the teacher's name.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh that's right"

The projection of professor Goodwitch continued, "You are among a privileged few who have received the highest honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is currently experiencing an incredible Time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

The teacher's projection then shut off, leaving the student passengers to be in awe of the stunning view of the approaching school.

"Oh wow! You can see Signal from up here!" Ruby excitedly said, looking out of a window, "I guess home isn't too far after all!"

Both Yang and the young god stood next to the red themed girl to admire the sight with her, "Beacon's our home, now." The blonde brawler said, a matter of factly. The sound of groaning was heard, and next to the trio was a messy blonde haired boy who was clutching his stomach and hunched over. The passenger then ran over to the back of the ship.

"Well... I guess the view isn't for everyone." The yellow themed girl sarcastically said.

"It was a nice moment while it lasted." The caped Huntress commented as well.

The Champion of Jötnar felt sympathy for the poor teenager, must've been rough to experience air sickness when you have to travel by Bullhead as a Huntsman.

The young boy could see the academy getting closer now as the ship crossed over a large body of water. Atreus now saw why the school was so regarded so highly. The entire institution was a huge castle! It's architecture lightly resembled Midgardian strongholds, except it was cleaner and more taken care of. And in the tallest tower were glowing green lights, which seemed to give the academy its name. The archer felt a rush of ecstatic excitement in him swell, and it looked like his friends shared the same feeling.

"I wonder who we're gonna meet!" Yang cheerfully said, a bright smile ever present on her face. Though it appeared Ruby didn't possess any of the same joy as her sister.

"I just hope they're better than Vomit boy. Oh,Yang, gross! You've got puke on your boots!" The younger girl exclaimed with disgust while her blonde sibling tried air-kicking to flick the little bit of sick off herself.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!"

"Get-get it away! Get it away from me, get it away from me, get it away from me, get it away from me!"

...Wouldn't it be easier to wipe it off instead of freaking out about it? The boy was covered in all kinds of viscera before, and he wasn't all that bothered by it.

•••

The trio of Huntress trainees and a god disembarked from the flying vehicle with their fellow students from across the world. Including the blonde boy, who was currently upchucking the contents of his stomach into a nearby trash bin.

But aside from that, the group were amazed by the vista of their new combat school.

"Whoa. I know you guys said that these Huntsmen academies were awesome, but I didn't think it would be... this awesome!" The young Jötun's expectations just couldn't seem to stop getting blown away the more of this foreign realm he learned.

Especially Ruby, but not in the same way as his expectations, because she was gushing over the various weapons that her future classmates possessed.

"Ah! Guys look! That kid's got a collapsible staff! And that girl has a fire sword!" She tried to get closer but her sister pulled her back by hooking onto her cape's hood, "Ow, ow, ow!"

"Calm down there, lil' sis. They're just weapons." She chastised the younger girl, though it didn't seem to have an effect.

In fact, all it did was give the scythe wielder offence.

"'Just weapons'! They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us. Oh, they're so cool!" She quietly gushed about, some of the things these other soon to be students have were impressive looking. And when Ruby called out about a fire sword, that got the Champion's attention quick.

The conversation that the sisters were having faded into the background for Atreus, as his mind had drifted away to his distant thoughts. Since his time in Remnant, the young boy has been having dreams, most likely giant visions of the future. Some he couldn't remember much, others that didn't make sense. And then there was the reoccurring dream of Beacon and Vale under attack, the creatures of Grimm were everywhere, people were screaming in terror. And the red haired girl who was going to be shot by an arrow by some woman in a red dress. He couldn't make any sense of it at all, Loki could tell that the girl that was about to die was someone close him, maybe in the near future. But he knew one thing, he was going to make sure that fate can be prevented, 'Fate only binds you if you let it' as his father once told him. The Jötun then felt a tapping on his shoulder and saw that the red themed girl had a distressed expression on her face.

"Atreus! Please, help me, she won't stop yelling at me!"

The archer was confused for a moment before he looked over and saw that there was, indeed, a new girl with a very cross look etched across her features.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourselves!?" She shouted.

Now the boy was even more confused, he was only thinking to himself for just a minute! What's going on!? Where was Yang!? And why was this girl with snow white hair angry to begin with!?

This girl wore a strapless dress that reached down to her thighs with a stitched design of snowflakes and was scalloped at the hem, and there was some black lace sitting on the front of her neckline. Her jacket also possessed the same look, it was a bell sleeved bolero with a white to blue gradation that matched her dress, and lined with red on the inside of the jacket and a ruffled collar. Around her neck was a silver chain with a small silver apple pendant, and her ears were adorned with silver rectangular earrings. She had white heeled boots that appeared to be wedged and had silver decorations across the top and were also lined with red.

As he noticed before; the girl had hair as white as snow, tied into an off-centred ponytail with a tiara at the base, and icy blue eyes that were formed into a fierce glare. It's like Atreus has seen that judgy scowl lots of times before. Weird.

"Hello? I'm waiting for your explanation, please!" The white haired girl broke the young god out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"Ah, I'm... uh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention to what was going on, could one of you what happened?" He asked both Ruby and the new girl, which the latter signed dramatically in frustration and the scythe wielder chuckled nervously.

"Your klutz of a friend here wasn't watching where she was, and caused my luggage of highly potent, top quality Dust to fall all over the place!" She gestured towards the now reorganised silver and white cases with intricate snowflake patterns branded on them, she then went and grabbed a glass container full of fire Dust out from one of them,"Do you have any idea how volatile a single bottle of high quality Dust is, if not handled carefully!?" The girl went on with her ranting that she was violently shaking the bottle she held, and big puffs of the contents were coming out... wait. SHE WAS VIOLENTLY SHAKING THE DUST!

Loki then saw that the red caped girl was about to sneeze, the memory of that time he accidentally inhaled the fire Dust from one of Yang's shotgun shells immediately came to his mind. There was going to be a huge explosion!

So as quick as one of his arrows, the young archer shot his hand out and put his index finger under his friend's nose, stopping her from igniting the catastrophe.

The action gave both girls pause until Ruby also came to the same conclusion Atreus had, "Thanks." She quietly muttered.

"No probl- ah... Ah... AH-" Just as he about to sneeze, the silver eyed girl stopped him just in time with the same action he did for her, "Thanks."

The white haired girl was bewildered by the weird behaviour happening in front of her that it seemed to test her patience further, "Just what are you two dolts doing now!?" The two looked back at the bossy girl as if she had just grown a second head. They removed their hands from each other's faces as the fire Dust settled on the ground.

"What are we doing? What were you doing!? You were shaking that bottle all over the place letting all those clouds of Dust out without any care at all!" The young Jötun exclaimed, honestly what was this girl's problem, she acts like everything is his and Ruby's fault.

"Yeah! You could have blown us up with that much Dust shoved into our faces like that! I thought you said you knew how to handle the stuff!?" The red themed girl's question seemingly made the glare the unknown girl had deepen.

"I never said that! I was simply explaining the consequences of what could have gone wrong due to your clumsiness! And might I ask why either of you are here? You both look a little young to be coming to a prestigious academy such as this!" She gestured her hand across the castle as she went on, "This isn't your typical combat school you know? It's not just sparring and practice. We're here to fight monsters, so... just... watch where you're going!"

This time, it was the red caped girl's turn to be fed up with this attitude, "Hey! I said I was sorry earlier, Princess!"

"It's heiress actually."

A new voice had made the arguing group face another new girl. This new-to-be student lowered a book she was reading to fully look at the trio, she had pale fair skin, wavy, raven black hair flowed down her back with a bow sitting atop her head. Her eyes were almost cat-like with an amber colour and she also had purple eyeshadow.

The ravenette wore a black vest with coattails and was held together by a single silver button, a short, black scarf wrapped around her neck loosely. Underneath it was a white sleeveless high necked undershirt that left her with a midriff. Her lower half consisted of white shorts with zippers on both legs, as well as black stockings with a black to purple gradation leading down to a pair of black low-heeled boots. She also had a detached black sleeve on her left arm with a silver cuff adorning it on her bicep, while both of her forearms were wrapped in black ribbons. They reminded the young archer of his father's chains a lot.

He saw this girl in one of his visions. From what he remembered, all of them were together in a huge hall, Yang was with them, and they were introducing themselves. The black bowed girl's name was... Blake, was it?

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." Blake stated as a matter of fact.

This made the now known girl, Weiss put on a smug smile, "Finally! Some recognition!"

Before, Blake had a neutral expression when she explained who Weiss was, but then it became sour, "The same company infamous for its controversial labour forces and questionable business partners."

This took Atreus aback. With the information sinking in, he finally realised who the girl in front of him is, "Wait, the Schnee Dust Company, as in... the creators of all Dust?" The Jötun didn't know what else to say, he felt a little conflicted on what he should feel towards the heiress. Honoured that he's meeting someone who is related to the business of distributing an incredible fuel source to society, or wary about what her business does with its workers.

After she was done tripping over her words in embarrassed anger, the white haired girl noticed what the young god said and looked at him with annoyance, "We don't make it, you dolt! We mine it, refine it till it is of top quality, and then we sell it! Now if you'll excuse me! I need to move the rest of my luggage! Hmph!" The Atlesian girl stomped away with a huff.

Ruby cupped her hands as she called out to the unhappy heiress, "I promise I'll make it up to you!" She then sighs despondently, trying keep a positive outlook on the situation, "I guess we're not the only ones having a rough first day, Atreus. So, what's-" She stopped speaking as she saw the ravenette walk away as well. Losing anymore hope she had left at making new friends, she immediately fell to the ground, startling Loki a little.

"Uh, Ruby? You ok?" He asked, worryingly. The only response he got was a not so enthusiastic grunt.

"Hey, I'm Jaune."

The duo were approached by another newcomer surprisingly, it was the same blonde boy on the air-bus that dispelled his stomach contents, Atreus thought that it was best if he didn't mention that, so not to further embarrass his future classmate. Jaune had helped the scythe wielder up, leaving the young girl and god to introduce themselves as well.

"Ruby."

"I'm Atreus, it's nice to meet you Jaune." The two boys shook each other's hands in kindness as the archer took in the blonde's appearance. To be honest it was pretty much a plain ensemble of clothes, blue jeans and basic flattops, fingerless gloves and a short sleeved hoodie. But he did have some armour on, a white diamond shaped chest plate cut off from his lower abdomen strapped over his shoulders, with a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under his arms. He also has a sword attached to his hip. It doesn't look like much, but it is decent at least.

"Hey, aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

---

Kingdom of Atlas, somewhere in the tundra

Onboard a Manta, Ace Operative Clover Ebi was standing by the cockpit entrance, looking out of the windshield gave him a great view of the snow covered land. But sightseeing wasn't his or his team's purpose.

"We got an ETA on where we're headed, Clover?" He gazed behind him to see his teammate, Marrow Amin, a dog Faunus who recently joined the Special Operatives after the passing of one of their members. The lucky man trusts the rookie, even if he is new, and maybe a little childish he could say, but he knows that Marrow will be an excellent asset.

"Approximately half an hour before we reach our intended coordinates. Whatever's there will most likely be the source for all the thunderstorms we've been having." For the past week, Atlas's tundra has become plagued by lightning storms for days now that it's become near impossible to transport materials, workers and such to and from SDC mines. And those aren't the only problems, the storms were so strong and so big, they create electromagnetic waves that disrupt the CCT signal from miles away. So it didn't take a genius to figure out that was catastrophe waiting to happen, thus, General Ironwood had assigned the Ace Ops to investigate.

"I must admit, this whole situation has me feeling a little uneasy. Thunderstorms like these do not occur everyday, the sheer ferocity is just simply unnatural." Vine's musings made the rest of the group give their attention to him.

"Wow, Vine, I never knew you could express so much emotion before. Welp, I guess that's a sign that this won't end well." The speedy member of Operatives sarcastically quipped, making both Ederne and Amin chuckle a bit. Vine only shook his head in dismissal.

"I assure you that I am in complete emotional control. I am only saying that for something or, concerning enough, someone to generate an outrageous storm like the ones we've been experiencing... would require power that shouldn't be possible."

Just then, the sound of a low rumbling was heard outside. From what everyone could see out of the cockpit window, thunderclouds were forming.

"Looks like we'll have scratch that half hour, the storm just came to us." The Ace Operative leader climbed into the pilot seat, deactivating the autopilot that had brought the team this far. "Everyone hold on! This is gonna be bumpy ride!"

As the ship drew closer into the storm, intense lightning bolts shot out of clouds. Clover was able manoeuvre around them, but the lightning grew more intense, becoming more difficult to evade. In times of crisis, the Atlesian Specialist's Semblance has never failed him before, so he hopes that it doesn't fail him now!

It happened in just a split-second, but he saw it with impeccable timing, a Grimm flew by the Manta. But he swore that what he saw was no aerial based Grimm, instead it was... a Sabyr.

Unfortunately, Clover's surprise distracted him from his flying and the ship was struck by the lightning, damaging its right wing, sending it hurdling down toward the icy ground. "Brace for impact!" He warned the others.

The crash shook the occupants of the aircraft where they jostled in their buckled seats from side to side and back and forth. The sound of the metal grinding and creaking against the frozen floor reverberated throughout the ship until it came to a halt, giving the group inside a reprieve. Clover thanked his lucky stars for his good fortune, he removed himself from the pilot chair to check on his squad mates, "Is everyone ok?"

"Augh, I think I hit my head pretty hard on the hull... but I'm ok." Elm groaned in response.

"We can all thank Clover's Semblance to have survived. What's the plan now, boss?" Harriet asked.

"We stick to the mission, we find what's creating these storms and take it down. The General's counting on us, so let's make him and our kingdom proud." He got appreciative smiles and grins from his allies, he turned to the tallest of their group with an order already in mind, "Elm, this hatch here looks like it's jammed, think you can bust it open?"

The muscular woman grinned in delight, "You got it!" She walked over to the vessel's side hatch and placed a strong grip on the latches, activating her Semblance, Aura Roots, she anchored herself in place.

After prying the door open, each member got out of the downed vessel. Above them, the storm raged on with lightning striking the tundra's surface every few moments.

"Alright, Ace Ops, we'll be heading straight South for a little while, that's where we'll find what we're looking for." His fellow soldiers all nodded in acknowledgment, but Marrow tilted his head with a confused expression and raised his hand, Clover gave him a nod as to proceed.

"Um, not that I'm doubting you or anything, Clover, but, how do you know where our target is?"

The lucky man looked at the Faunus rookie, "Because, I saw a Grimm fly past our ship. Specifically a Sabyr, believe it or not." His statement made the others have faces of surprise and disbelief.

Vine rubbed his chin contemplation, "Perhaps the harsh winds were strong enough to throw it into the sky instead? There is no guarantee that we'll find what we're looking for there. Though it is interesting that these winds created enough force to toss even a lesser Grimm."

Harriet blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes dramatically, "What's so interesting about it? A Grimm's a Grimm, What if the same thing that blew that Sabyr away happened to us?"

"Then we'll just have to keep ourselves and each other grounded. Now, let's move out!" The Ace Ops followed their Commander's order and marched onward. The canid Faunus looked up at the raging sky with a tense nervousness before blowing out a breath to steel his nerves, he really hoped that he or his squad mates wouldn't get struck by any stray lightning.

•••

A long walk later, and the quintet of soldiers had arrived at where Clover predicted the cause for Atlas' troubles were, and what they found were traces of a battle. A big battle. Large craters covered the field of snow before them, rocks littered all over the place, some of them were the size of houses. The Operatives all wore expressions of pure amazement and shock, they expected either a big machine or some lowlife with an overpowered Semblance, but not this.

"This... this is insane..." Their tallest member's face was slightly agape as she continued to stare at the destruction.

"The storms did all of this?" Said the shortest Operative, "But... how?"

Clover wasn't convinced by Harriet's notion that the storm alone had the destructive capabilities to cause a scene like this in front of him. It didn't add up, there had to be something more to this.

TTTRRRRPPPTTT!!!

The loud trumpet roar of a Megoliath put the team on alert, brandishing their weapons while looking for the direction the Grimm was coming from, until...

BOOOM!

Just away from them, the giant tusked Grimm crashed into the field of craters, making a new one. From its appearance, it was only a minor version compared to an Elder one. It was attempting to get back up, but that was when the clouds above grew with increasing intensity, lighting arcing all around. And then... a thundering war cry was heard.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

The team of soldiers looked up and saw what was by far the most unbelievable thing they had ever witnessed. They couldn't properly make it out but, Falling from the sky was a large man whose trajectory was aimed towards the Megoliath with a great bolt of lightning trailing behind him. The impact made the ground quake, almost making the Atlas Specialists fall to the floor were it not for their quick thinking.

TTTRRRRPPPTTT!!!

As it turned out, a whole pack of Megoliaths chased after the man, who everyone now suspects is responsible for the entire storm upset, there was an Elder Megoliath leading it's brethren on a rampage the mysterious man.

"You think that just because I haven't eaten in days, I'm easy prey!? Oh, you freaks have a lot to learn!" The stranger taunted the creatures of darkness as his body began sparking with electricity, preparing for battle.

While this was happening, the seemingly unnoticed quintet of soldiers kept watching on from behind one of the broken house sized rocks as the action unfolded. Never in their years of service did they ever think they would be present to a scene that would be considered legendary, a red haired man, taller than any other, using nothing but his bare hands to destroy the Grimm that chose to be his enemies. The lightning manipulator knocked a Megoliath down, broke off one of it's tusks and used it to stab into the beast's underbelly, killing it instantly.

"...Ok, am I crazy or is that overweight guy having a fistfight with a bunch of monsters, and is winning, right now?" The rookie Operative spoke out loud, despite sounding stupid, it was accurate to situation before them.

"If you're crazy, then we're all crazy, Marrow." The speedy Specialist commented, she narrowed her eyes as she stared down at the man responsible for the unnatural weather, "So, how do you think we should restrain this guy."

Elm turned to her fellow Ace Operative full of skepticism, "You think we, can take that guy down!? I'm sorry, Harriet, in the past I would have supported you on that idea, but we just saw this... this... whatever he is! Just toss a Megoliath around like it was nothing!" The muscular woman glanced back at the fight and her eyes bugged out, "And look at what he's doing now!"

At her request, everyone looked back to the current events of the battle. The large man had tackled the Elder Megoliath by its mighty tusks, and lifted the creature over his head and slammed it onto the cold hard surface, then he repeated this process over many times before spinning the trumpeting monster around and tossed it back to the rest of the Grimm. An utter wave of destruction followed by blasts of lightning.

"I don't even need Mjölnir to kill you, none can best Thor! The god of thunder!" He loudly proclaimed.

There was a momentary pause before the lucky man spoke up, "Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with Elm on this one. I say we wait until he's dealt with all the Grimm, and then we'll approach peacefully... that sound good to you guys?" The rest of the team gave a nod of approval, while Harriet begrudgingly did so, she may believe that since they were the best in Atlas they would have a chance at winning against that monster of a man. But orders are orders, "Alright, now to play the waiting game."

---

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!"

"Look, I'm sorry! Vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind."

"Well, all that Dust that could've ignited would have earned us 'Crater faces' or something for a nickname."

"Hey, yeah! I think I'll use that if you're gonna make fun of me like that. Thanks, Atreus!"

"Oh, we are so not going with that name! Ever!"

"Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet and rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it!"

Atreus had to hold back a chortle when he heard that. The god and Huntress duo, along with their newly acquired friend, Jaune, had just been walking around in a different part of the courtyard and talking. Nothing about destiny, or prophecies, or war or anything terrible like the young Jötun was used to. They were just talking about normal stuff, it was a refreshing change of pace to just... be himself. The archer really liked the blonde knight, he was a lot similar to Skjöldr, they were both funny, scraggly looking and kind too. Of course, Atreus would never have Jaune take his fellow Midgardian friend's place just because they were alike, he's better than that.

"Do they?" Ruby gave the scraggly blonde a skeptic gaze, making the older boy hesitate slightly.

"They will! Well I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... never mind." He embarrassingly said.

With an awkward pause, the group didn't know what topic they should talk about next. Well, the young Huntress in training had one idea.

"So, I've got this." She then proceeded to whip out her weapon, stabbing it into the ground, giving both boys a startle. Like, seriously! All the time, the young god keeps forgetting how Remnant's weapons can transform and fold into smaller versions, it was still cool though.

"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked, in a scared, but also curious tone.

"It's also a customisable high impact sniper rifle!" The red hooded girl said, with a cheerful smile.

"A-uh, what?"

"It's also a gun." She simplified, while still smiling and cocking the barrel.

The blonde boy wore an astonished expression when he finally understood what she meant, "Oh, that's so cool!"

The Champion of the Jötnar smirked, Jaune's reaction was pretty similar to his own when he learned of Mecha-shift weapons. He thought that there was some sort of magic involved, but Ruby informed him that it was instead lots of gears, wheels, springs and what other, it was like the red themed girl had Dwarven knowledge."You aren't the first person to get impressed with a weapon that transforms. What can your's turn into?"

Taken by surprise, Jaune removed his sword from its sheath to present it, "Oh, uh... I got this sword!"

It seemed to be a simple sword, it had an aged appearance with a few little scratches across the blade itself. The cross guard and pommel were golden, with the handle covered by blue wrappings, "And I also got this shield too." Upon mentioning this, the blonde knight attached his sheath onto his arm and it expanded into a heater shield. It had gold trimming and two golden arcs in the centre, his emblem probably.

"Ooooohh, can they do anything special?" The scythe wielder asked, lightly touching the shield, accidentally causing it to collapse and expand in malfunction.

After fumbling with it for a bit and getting it under control, the Huntsman in training could finally respond, "Uh, the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of using it, I can just... put it away..." He sheepishly explained.

The silver eyed girl's face scrunched up in confusion, "But... wouldn't it weigh the same?"

"Yeah, it does..." The blonde boy slouched dejectedly at that logic.

"Hey, don't feel too bad about it. There's nothing wrong with a classic, I mean, you and I are pretty much in the same boat." Loki's encouraging words brought Jaune's head back up, paying attention to the young archer removing his bow from its harness, "This is my Talon Bow, it once belonged to my mother before she gave it to me when she passed away."

The scraggly knight lightly gasped in surprise at the information, wearing a remorseful expression, "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry for your loss." The Jötun smiled gratefully for the older boy's sympathy.

"Thanks, and I wasn't the only one to receive something from my mom, she also gave her axe to my dad as well as her shield, which can retract and open like yours."

"Wow, you weren't kidding, we are alike. This sword has been in my family for generations, it once belonged to my great-great-grandfather, he used it to fight in the Great War. A hand-me-down." The mention of this weapon being a part in the Great War garnered the young god's attention. He had read into it on his Scroll when he wanted to learn more of Remnant's history, the kingdom of Atlas, which was then known as Mantle, and the kingdom of Mistral had abolished self expression and the arts to gain more control over their peoples emotions so the Grimm wouldn't be attracted. It sounded a lot like a trick Odin would pull, control over everything as Mimir would say.

The fact that the gods of this realm were no where present in these world's history, besides religion, was bothering. Freya and her family had lived among people of the Vanir, and they were there to protect their home realm from Asgard's forces. So... what happened to the gods of Remnant?

Atreus made a mental note to investigate it later, right now he wanted to spend time with his friends.

"Heh, well, you guys may have gotten your weapons from your families, but I built my sweetheart Crescent Rose with my own two hands." Ruby proudly proclaimed, as she shifted her scythe to its compact form and hugged it close like it was a child. Now that he thought about it, Loki has seen the young girl treat her weapon with such... affection, it gave the archer flashbacks to when Thor spoke to his hammer.

"Wait, you made that?" The blonde boy said, incredulously dumbfounded.

"Yeah, all students at Signal forge their own weapons! But Atreus is right, there's nothing wrong with the classics, hardly anyone can appreciate them these days." Ruby griped as she tucked away her scythe.

"Yeah, the classics..." Jaune sheathed his sword while taking in the words of encouragement.

It was weird for the young god, but for a second he could sense that the blonde knight had feelings of... disappointment, yet they faded away as fast as they appeared. What would he feel disappointed about? In himself? Of his sword? There was a connection that Loki didn't see, hopefully it was nothing for the Jötun to worry about.

As the trio kept walking, the silver eyed girl spoke up again, "So why'd you help us out back there? at the courtyard?"

The scraggly blonde simply shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, why not? My mom always says 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"

Hmm, not sure if that's entirely accurate, but it there were better outcomes that happened in making new friends with strangers, Brok and Sindri for example, so the Champion of the Jötnar couldn't fault that logic.

The scythe wielder started looking around confusedly, as if something was wrong, "Hey, where are we going?" The girl's query had put an immediate stop to Atreus' movement mid-step as he now began to realise that, they weren't going anywhere really.

"Oh, I don't know! I was following you." Now that made the archer sweat drop, if neither of them were heading anywhere, and they were all following each other. Wasn't there supposed to be a welcoming ceremony...

"Oh shit! We're meant to be at the auditorium! We're gonna be late! Let's go!" Atreus barked out in panic, taking the others by surprise when he bolted off in search of any directions.

Her friend's outburst had the Huntress in training taken aback by his choice of language, "Atreus! No swearing!" She yelled as she ran after the young god, leaving Jaune to catch up to them.

"Man, that kid has a real potty mouth!" The blonde knight exclaimed as he started running as fast as he could.

•••

With gasping breath, the group made it to the school's auditorium where all of the new arrivals gathered for the headmaster's speech. Ruby then heard the sound of her sister calling her and their god friend over the large crowd, waving at them.

"Hey, Ruby! Atreus! Over here, I saved you a spot!"

Happy to finally get back to her older sister, the silver eyed girl felt a hurrying desire to go and give a piece of her mind to the blonde girl, but she and the young Jötun couldn't leave without saying goodbye to their new friend, "Oh! Hey, that's my big sister Yang, I-we gotta go. I'll see you later!"

"It was nice meeting you Jaune, we'll have time to hang out later, promise." The archer said, joining the red themed girl.

The Huntsman in training tried to say something to the two friends but they were already too far away for them to hear. When they reached the blonde brawler, she wore a pleased smile on her face, "Hey, you two! You guys havin' some fun on the first day here?" Her mischievous demeanour did not amuse the duo as frowns sprouted across their faces.

"You mean after you ditched us and leave us wondering around with no clue where to go!" The red caped Huntress complained, putting her hands to her hips.

Atreus followed up by crossing his arms and a look of disappointment in his eyes, "Yeah, not cool, Yang. Not to mention, we nearly exploded in front of the courtyard!" He said, throwing his arms up in exaggeration.

"Wow, meltdown already?" The yellow themed girl was taken aback by the outbursts the young Huntress and Jötun were having.

"No, he means we literally, nearly exploded. It would have been an absolute disaster if it weren't for Atreus' quick thinking." It sure was a miracle that the archer had prevented them from embarrassing themselves in front of the whole school, and it was a good thing too that icy rich girl didn't get any angrier, hopefully the silver eyed Huntress could smooth things over with Weiss later on. Right now, she just needs to relax and get the day over with.

Yang raised a sceptic brow, "Are you two being sarcastic?"

The younger sister groaned with vexation, "No, just... just take our word for it, please? I don't feel like getting into it right now." The joking girl saw how serious the red reaper was and decided to respect her little sister's wishes.

Everyone's attention then shifted towards the stage where headmaster Ozpin stood ready to speak through the microphone, with miss Goodwitch and Freyr standing beside him.

"I'll... keep this brief." He began, pushing his glasses up as he continued, "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate yourself to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." The crowd of students started whispering to themselves and to their friends, some voices were confused and payed more attention to what was being said, while others were a little more insulted but still listened. The silver eyed girl also wanted to know where the professor was going with his speech, and she could see that the young god was interested to hear more, "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With his piece said, the white haired man left the stage and professor Goodwitch stepped forward in front of the microphone.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

And like that, everyone did as they were instructed and started clearing out of the auditorium, the trio remained as they fell into conversation about what they were recently told, "So, I wasn't the only one who thought that was weird, right?" Yang questioned with uncertainty.

"Yeah, it was like he wasn't really there." And Ruby was fairly certain that she saw Ozpin looking at Atreus at the last part of his speech, super weird.

The Champion of the Jötnar had a speculative expression as he held his chin in thought, "You aren't wrong. Maybe it's related to-"

"Hey! Overgrown Turd, And his lip loose posse!"

The scythe wielder knew that foul mouthed language anywhere. Standing by one of the hallway doors with the meanest of scowls was non other than the Dwarven blacksmith himself, Brok. The young Huntress in training knew (from Atreus mostly) that the Dwarf meant well, but he was so rude! And he would always curse all. The. Time! Like, why did he have to do it anyways. Augh, she hoped that not all the Dwarves were as unpleasant as Brok was.

"Hey, Brok! How's it going?" The young god greeted, as the group approached the smith. The red caped girl really was glad that she and her sister had him with them to talk to the blue Dwarf, cus' she still didn't know how to engage in conversation with the master blacksmith without having her mind tainted by his swearing.

She didn't know why, but Brok's scowl didn't go away even when his friend was saying hello. He was looking at them like he was upset about something. Oh, no, were they in trouble?! Please, if Remnant's gods are still out there! Please, don't let this be her first and last day in Beacon! She just got here!

"About time that four-eyed preacher finished his damn speech, I've been meaning to see ya loin pinchers for a while now." He grumpily said. Breathing out a sigh, he gestured for the trio to follow him, "Come on then, let's talk back at my shop. Important business we gots to discuss."

The three friends shared a confused look with each other as they followed the Dwarf.

It wasn't too far for them to get to when they reached Brok's shop, and it turns out it was right across from the school's main weapon forge. The inside of the store was pretty spacious that it had a few training dummies and target boards against the back wall. There were diagrams and blueprints strung up above tool benches, there was even a huge furnace giving the room a radiant glow. The young girl even found some stands wearing cool archaic armour! Man, she wishes she could see what kind of weapons the blue Dwarf had, they would obviously be super cool-awesome machines of destruction that could totally kick Grimm butt!

"Ahem!" Ruby was pulled out of her daydreaming when Brok got her attention.

"If you're done gawking at my wears, we gotta attend some important matters." He moved around to the other side of his table and rummaged out a piece of paper and pen then slid them over to the silver eyed girl. As she picked up the page she inspected it top to bottom, noting a fork shaped emblem at the top centre that the young girl didn't recognise.

She looked back up at the Dwarf with a befuddled quirked eyebrow, "Uh, what exactly am I looking at here?" Her sister and Atreus came up either side of her, checking out what the red caped Huntress had in her hands.

"What you're holding there is a document detailing a binding agreement, shoulds you give consent, to become an apprentice under my name, unfortunately." Brok made it sound like an annoyance, which would explain why he seemed to be upset. But that didn't matter to Ruby right now.

Her eyes instantly went back to the piece of paper she held, rechecking the lines of its contents. The red themed girl couldn't help a rising, overjoyed smile that barely spoke of the excitement that exploded within her.

"This is amazing, Brok! Why on Remnant would you say this is a bad thing!?" The enthusiasm in the young girl's voice reached into high pitches that caused the three occupants in the shop to cover their ears.

"Augh, the only reason I'm doing this is because Ozzy told me to. I don't go 'round and offer something like this to just anybody, there's certain preferences that I look out for."

"Like what?" Yang quirked a brow curiously.

"Well, for starters: you gotta be a Dwarf." Oh... that might've been why the master blacksmith didn't want to accept the red reaper as an apprentice when she asked when they met last week. Her Jötun friend had told her once before that Dwarves didn't like sharing their secrets when it came to smithing. "Second: the Dwarf has to have the potential and grit for what it takes at the forge. And they needs to be prepared to get their hands in the shit if ya wanna get the best materials." The red themed girl cringed internally, she wanted to scold Brok for swearing, but she had a feeling he wouldn't care. Plus, she didn't want to ruin her chance of becoming a pupil to a legendary blacksmith, so she swallowed her pride and continued to listen to her soon to be teacher.

"And finally: you gots to build something that'll impress me. Use a technique I hasn't seen before. But, since yer lackin' the last two qualities, I'll have make do with what you can put on the table." The young girl was glad that she was being given a chance to prove her worth, her determination to rise into becoming Remnant's own legendary blacksmith had never felt more powerful than any of her earlier dreams. Besides becoming a Huntress.

"Brok, I promise to take your teachings to heart, and I let you down!" The silver eyed girl pledged, as she went forward to write down her name on the document.

The Dwarf gave a humorous gruff, appearing not so convinced, "Well, I expect you to anyway."

The older blonde girl picked up on the Huldra brother's rudeness, narrowing her eyes agitatedly, "Why would you say that when you haven't even seen anything yet." Ruby knew that her sister didn't have a good impression of the blue Dwarf in her mind given his rudeness and lack of respect towards others.

And the scythe wielder couldn't exactly fault her big sister, since she shares her sibling's feelings of the blacksmith's nasty personality.

"Cause if I expect her to fuck up, then I won't be so disappointed. If she can't handle it, then she won't be handling anything in my forge." His reasoning only caused the yellow themed Huntress growl softly.

"But don't you have any expectation for Ruby doing any good? I mean, she basically created the most dangerous weapon ever designed in my opinion." The red caped girl smiled in appreciation of Atreus' words, she was very lucky to have made friends with a god as kind as him.

"Well, if she does impress me, then there's a fucking sliver of hope for her yet." Brok then took the signed sheet, nodding in approval of its signature, he tucked it away into one of his desk's drawers. "Now then, if the kid thinks you gots the most 'deadliest weapon ever invented', let me have a look at it."

The young reaper's body stiffened. Brok just asked her to hand over her baby darling Crescent Rose. She didn't have a problem with anyone for wanting to know more about her precious sniper-scythe and talk about how it was made. But, if someone were to ask if they could hold it, then Ruby would act extremely overprotective. Not that she would become hostile, but she would just repeatedly plead for that person to be very, very, very careful with her sweetheart.

The silver eyed girl did her best to calm her nerves, this was Brok, a great blacksmith. He wouldn't dare to bring harm to a magnificent weapon such as Crescent Rose. She unclasped her compact weapon from her lower back, and carefully passed it over to the blue Dwarf.

The Huldra brother turned it over side to side with scrutinising eyes. He surprisingly found the switch to change the device to its scythe mode, and continued his inspection of the weapon.

Brok hummed in interest as he looked closely at the blade. He set the Mecha-shift down on his workbench, with smirk forming across his face, "Yep. This right here's a beauty. It can definitely cut a bastard in two. Not bad, kid."

Even though the red caped girl didn't particularly like the idea of using her darling for killing, she was happy that the Dwarven blacksmith appreciated her masterpiece enough to acknowledge her potential. And- what was he doing with that hammer?

The Dwarf then struck Crescent Rose with his forging hammer, making the Huntress in training go into absolute distress. Before she could do anything, the scythe was surrounded by swirling, glowing blue motes that then suffused into the weapon. Ruby snapped out of her entrancement of the spectacle when Brok tossed her sniper-scythe back, catching with deft care.

"W-what did you do to it?" The silver eyed girl asked, fearful that her sweet baby was damaged.

"It's better." Was his only response.

The yellow brawler stomped up in front of the Dwarf's desk and sending a heated, red eyed glare at the uncaring blacksmith, "'Better'? How is hitting my little sister's weapon and putting on a light show making it 'better'!?" She all but shouted.

Brok didn't even seem bothered by the blonde girl's angry reaction, and just waited until Atreus got the hot headed Huntress to calm down.

"Are ya done? Just relax, I put a recalling enchantment on the damn thing. Same type that me and my brother put in the Leviathan Axe when she was made." That last bit of information got the archer's attention.

Silver eyes glanced back down at the weapon in the red reaper's hands. She remembered the young god regaling her with the story of the Leviathan Axe that belonged to the boy's late mother, and now owned by his father. Ruby was ecstatic to hear how the axe could return to the user no matter how far away it was thrown.

And Brok had just given Crescent Rose that same ability.

"So! You wanna try it out or what?" The blue Dwarf didn't even have to ask, the expression on scythe wielder gave away all of her excitement.

"YESYESYESYESYES! Thank you so much! How do I do it!? How does the enchantment work!? Aaahh! This is the best day ever!!" The young girl cheered with all the joy in her heart, her previous feelings of the blacksmith's actions completely forgotten.

---

After that, the red reaper had spent hours practicing and playing with her scythe's new ability.

Yang had to admit, she was a little jealous of her little sister's new toy, like, who wouldn't want a weapon that would magically come back to them when it was out of reach. But, she didn't really need it since Ember Celica was a pair of shotgun gauntlets. So, whatever.

The blonde Huntress left the shower stalls and slipped into her pyjama shorts and singlet and made her way to the school ballroom where all the student applicants were told to sleep in before the day of initiation. She was feeling very excited for the coming day, she'll get to show off her badass combat moves and ace whatever objective the teachers have planned.

She heard a rumour from a ginger haired girl that everyone was gonna be assigned teams on the same day of initiation, so that'll be challenge.

Making her way across the massive hall, the older girl plopped down on a pillow next to her baby sister and Atreus. "It's like a big slumber party!" She excitedly exclaimed.

"Not sure dad would approve of all the boys though." Ruby countered.

"I know I do~" the long haired girl purred as she cast her gaze over to a group of shirtless guys flexing and presenting their muscular frames, no doubt trying to impress some ladies that were watching. Then Vomit boy sauntered by in front of the muscle show, wearing a blue rabbit onesie, he smiled and waved at the blonde brawler when she unintentionally caught his attention.

Yep. The moment was ruined. Groaning in displeasure at her mood being soured, Yang looked over to a journal her sister was writing in, and the young Jötun was doing the same in his.

"So, whatcha two doing?"

Atreus looked up from what he was doing, holding up his journal, "I'm just getting down the stuff that happened today, drawing some of the things I've seen. Nothing important really." He then went back to what he was doing before, then Ruby spoke up.

"I'm writing letters to all the gang back at Signal. I promised them that I'd tell them all about Beacon and let them know how things are going."

"Aw, that's so cuuuute!" The long haired boxer teasingly said. Then she got hit in the face with one of her sister's pillows, the young god was shocked by how hard the pillow was thrown yet the older girl seemed nonplussed.

"Shut up! I didn't get to take any of my friends to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here." The younger Huntress pouted with annoyance. The archer next to the girls looked up from his journal again with a perplexed expression over his face.

"Aren't I one of your friends? And what about Jaune, he helped us out."

Ruby made a guilty smile at the boy as she tried to stammer out an excuse. It brought the golden haired girl a grin at her little sister's social awkwardness, sometimes Yang would pull the red themed girl out of situations like this and resolve the issue. But, there just had to be times where she had to let her sibling learn to deal with the situation on her own, and sometimes it would work out, other times it'd be funny.

Her lilac eyes then glanced to her left and saw someone who, surprisingly, made her pause with awe.

Leaning back against the wall ahead of them was a girl with long raven black hair, bright amber eyes and a black bow sitting atop her head. Her pyjamas was a Yukata style shirt and skirt with some white edging. She was reading a book that couldn't be made out from the long distance she was at, but it seemed very engaging with how nose deep the black haired girl was.

The blonde just couldn't take her eyes off her, like she had discovered something utterly breathtaking. Now, Yang wasn't so easy to develop a crush, and she has dated both boys and girls before in the past but they never lasted very long. The relationships she had in the past didn't really give her anything besides some good make out sessions and a few secret bedroom activities, she nearly got caught by her sister one time, and the gods above knew how lucky the brawler was that Ruby only needed to get some extra ammunition and didn't notice the male foot sticking out from under the blonde's bed.

But right now, staring at this bow wearing girl, Yang could feel her heart beating like an engine as she watched this stunningly beautiful girl, illuminated by a frame of candlelight, tracing a finger along the edge of a page to turn and continued reading.

In the back of her mind, Yang knew... she had developed an instant crush.

"Sis? You ok?"

Snapped out of her daze, the yellow themed Huntress turned back and see both her sister and godly friend stare at her quizzically, if not slightly concerned.

She felt her face get heated as she tried to calm her hammering heart, "Uh, yeah! I'm fine, I was just uh... wondering who that is." Yep, excellent save, the older girl thought while pointing at the fellow Huntress in training she was just staring at.

Looking over at who she was pointing at, the two wore expressions of recognition, "Oh, it's that girl from earlier." The silver eyed Huntress said.

"Blake." The sisters set their gazes on the young Jötun, somehow knowing the person's name.

"You know her?" The blonde brawler questioned, deep down, the part of her that started crushing on the now named Blake cheered in celebration at acquiring such information. She promptly ignored it.

The young boy tilted his head thoughtfully, "I think we're about to. I had a vision days ago about meeting her, can't remember much besides her telling us her name."

A lightbulb went off in the buxom fighter's head, "Hey, if your future vision told you we'd be meeting her, then all we have to do is fulfil that prophecy. Let's go talk to her!" She enthusiastically proclaimed, as she proceeded to take both her sister's and friend's hands and walked over to meet their future companion. Much to her little sister's antisocial horror.

Still, Yang couldn't stop the tingly sensation that bubbled in her heart as the group approached the secluded ravenette. She didn't know where these feelings even came from, and frankly, had no idea what to do with them, seriously, what was wrong with her. The blonde did her best to keep them out of her mind, and focused on introductions.

"Helloooo!" The attention on the book's pages shifted upwards as amber eyes met lilac, with a bright smile, the golden haired girl went forward with her plan, "I believe you three have met?"

Seeing the other two, the ravenette arched a brow, "Aren't you two the ones who ticked off that Schnee?"

A little embarrassed at the mention of that moment, the god and Huntress duo stayed positive, "Uh, yeah! I'm Ruby, this is Atreus and this is my big sister Yang. Oh, and we didn't mean to bump into Weiss, since it was an accident and all. But, now it's in the past! Great, right?" Despite the red reaper's cheerfulness, which seemed a little forced, it didn't really impress the girl before them.

"Sure." Blake said, returning back to her book.

Youch, rough start. "What are you doing?" Yang whispered to her sister.

"I don't know! Atreus, help me!" The silver eyed girl pleaded quietly while going back to wearing a strained smile. The half giant nodded in acknowledgment.

"So, what what's your name?"

Sighing frustratingly, the amber eyed raised her attention back at the group, "Blake."

Prophecy completed! The blonde grinned amusingly at the victory party going off in her head, now they were making progress! "That's a cute name, and I really like your bow!" She complemented her, but only received an irritated expression.

"Thanks."

Ok, that didn't sound right. Maybe say something about... her clothes! "It goes really great with your... pyjamas." The yellow themed girl could already tell that was lame the moment it left her mouth, why is this so struggling to try to talk to her.

"Right..."

"Nice night don't ya think?" The brawler attempted again, only to see Blake with an annoyed look.

"Yes, it's lovely! Almost as lovely as this book!" She paused as no one moved, "That I will continue to read." Paused again, "When you leave!"

The buxom girl mentally sighed, this was a bummer. She turned to friends with disappointment, "Well, this girl's a lost cause."

"What's it about?"

catching everyone off guard, Ruby didn't seem to want to back down from talking to the bow wearing girl.

"Huh?" The ravenette asked in surprise.

"Your book, does it have a name?" The younger girl reiterated her question.

The dark clothed Huntress was a little taken aback by the sudden interest in her book, but she didn't show any signs of ignoring her fellow trainees, so that was a start. "It's a story about a man with two souls, fighting for control for his body."

"Wait, two souls? How's that possible?" Atreus asked, with a bewildered face. "Wouldn't that cause the man's entire being to suffer with the two conflicting souls?"

The amber eyed girl raised an uncertain brow at the boy, "I... don't think so. Nothing I've read so far has described anything like that." She then tilted her head to the side curiously at the archer, "If you've already heard of this story now, then you should know that it's just fiction, right?"

The Jötun blinked and chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Oh uh, yeah, of course I knew that. Hehe." He sounded unconvincing, but it made Blake form a small smile.

Ruby warmly smiled as they now had something to talk about, "I love books, Yang used to read to me every night before bed, stories about heroes and monsters... they're one of the reasons why I became a Huntress!"

Her little sister's enthusiastic talk brought back old memories of those times when they were young. It always made Yang happy to see Ruby's eyes sparkle when she was entranced with every word that was read to her. Though, the golden haired Huntress tended to avoid reading 'The Girl Who Fell Through The World' to her sister for a while, since it was the last story that their mother told them when they were kids. Ever since she never came back from her mission, the blonde had been staying away from that book like the plague, thinking for some stupid reason that it was responsible for making Summer disappear.

She eventually got over it, and started reading the book with her younger sibling again. It was a little tough to read at first, but the two of them worked through it together. Slightly shaking her head, Yang refocused on the present conversation.

"And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" The ravenette asked, curiously.

"Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like the heroes in the books... someone who fought for what is right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!" The silver eyed girl's invigorating speech was quite infectious, causing everyone to have a smile at the young girl's positive energy.

"That's... very ambitious for a child." The amber eyed girl praised, only to frown and wear a forlorn expression, "But unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

That didn't seem to impede on the red reaper's cheerful attitude as she continued on, "Well, that's why we're here! To make it better. Just like how Atreus and his dad saved the nine realms!" She said, as she clapped the boy's shoulder.

The older sister mimicked Ruby's action, clapping the young god's other shoulder, "Yeah! Plus, I wanna go see the World Serpent. I've been dying to go see what all the realms are like, hopefully we'll get to visit them someday!"

"Ahem."

They all looked back at Blake, who was sporting a confused face with a raised eyebrow, "You all lost me when started talking about... well, whatever it was you were talking about."

That perked the trio up to go into detail, as Atreus spoke up, "Oh, well, you see-"

But he didn't get very far.

"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you know that some of us are trying to sleep?!" The Schnee heiress screeched at the group, now wearing a faded blue nightgown with her hair down.

Both Ruby and Atreus flinched at the sudden appearance of the angry girl, Yang took note of this and frowned in displeasure. She could already tell that something happened between these three, must've happened when she admittedly ditched her sister and friend. "Would you mind telling me, what kind of problem you've got with my friends?" She said, narrowing her eyes.

Proving to not be intimidated by the blonde brawler's glare, Weiss placed her fists to her hips and met the golden haired girl's stare, "As a matter of fact, I do! They caused me ruckus that nearly created a disaster!"

Loki was dumbfounded by the accusation, as he remembered things differently from that encounter, "Uh, hello?! You were the one who was waving all that fire Dust around, and making a big deal out of the accident. We said we were sorry." But that didn't seem to appease the white themed Huntress at all.

"Shh! Guys, she's right, everyone is trying to sleep and we should too. We were being a little noisy." The red reaper tried to placate the group, but the ice-queen just looked more irritated by the second.

"Oh, now you're on my side!"

"I was always on your side! We both were." The younger girl angrily crossed her arms and frowned.

The yellow themed sister crossed her arms as well, "Yeah, what's your problem with my sister and friend, they're just trying to be nice!"

"They're a hazard to my health!"

As the heated exchange went on, Blake sighed softly as she wouldn't be able to continue her reading. And without a second thought of telling the others, she blew out the candle next to her, letting darkness claim the ball room.

---

Kingdom of Atlas, Tundra

The fight had been exhilarating. These shadow-like animal behemoths may have given their all, but they were still no match for the god of thunder. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he could feel the fatigue starting to catch up to him.

He had been wondering for days in search of any settlements in the barren, frozen wasteland ever since he wound up crashing there.

After he was impaled by his father's spear, and his only daughter watched as he died.

It didn't make sense to him, none of it did. Thor felt himself dying and... then he was here. Alone. It was a good thing that whatever these dark creatures were decided to attack him without hesitation, they helped distract his mind from thinking about that stuff. And whenever he was alone again, he would go back to searching for any sign or form of civilisation, in hopes of finding a way back to his family.

And maybe... he could try to help make things right in the realms. Probably. He didn't know.

The thunder god started feeling the adrenaline rush begin to fade, seeing a big enough boulder that could take his weight, he went over and sat on it to finally get a breather.

At the sound of snow crunching, Thor whipped his head towards the direction where he heard, preparing himself for another fight. But he stopped when he saw that the thing approaching him was a human man, who also paused his own movement at the redhead's sudden jolt of attention.

The man swallowed the lump in his throat and put up his hands in a show of nonaggression, "Hello, sir. I'm Special Operative Clover Ebi, I'm with the Atlas military. As are my associates." He pointed behind himself, and the larger man flicked his eyes at the others mentioned, four of them in fact. Two men and two women, though he noticed something odd about one of the men, the dark skinned one appeared to have a tail. Maybe he was a shapeshifter and got stuck from returning completely to human form. Both the women looked a little standoff-ish, ready for a fight. Hm, smart. "I wanted us to talk. One on one." The Specialist added. The god of thunder chuckled.

Clover looked became confused at the sudden sound of amusement coming from the large man, "Is something funny?" He asked, while lowering his hands.

The son of Odin regarded the one in front of him again, resting his arms on his knees as he lowered his body to meet the soldier at eye level, yet his bigger form made that a challenge, "You have any idea how long I've been wondering around this fucking place, just to find anyone out in this wasteland? A whole damn week. And all I've ever come across are these... shadow animals, or whatever they are." To Thor, those creatures reeked of dark magic. It seemed to be a lot worse in comparison to seiðr magic from what he could tell.

"You mean the Grimm? And you've been fighting them for an entire week?" The soldier narrowed his eyes slightly, scrutinising the hulking man in front of him, "That does seem to check out the timeline of when the thunderstorms started appearing. Which, I have reason to suspect that you were the one causing them, right?"

The question nearly brought a smirk to the god's face, mortals tended to be in awe of his power, but he quickly suppressed his rising ego. This felt like one of those moments when the All-Father was about to lecture him for not taking care of a mission properly. And he really didn't want to be reminded of that bastard.

"So? You going to scold me for doing that? I'm Thor, god of thunder, if I'm in the middle of a battle and there are opponents that actually give me a challenge... then you can bet your ass that I'm going to bring the thunder."

The Ace Operative furrowed his brow in both displeasure and puzzlement. He was displeased that this man had no qualms over unleashing a terrifying attack against enemies with such reckless indiscrimination for whoever was near. And he was befuddled by the fact that he referred himself as a god. In total honesty, Clover doesn't feel any doubt towards the claim, surprisingly. If he hadn't seen this giant brute of a man kill a pack of Megoliaths with nothing but fists and lightning, the Atlas soldier would've been very skeptical. Plus, he did yell out loud that he was a god during his whole fight.

Still though, the Ace Operatives' were tasked with the thunderstorm investigation, and now they've found the source. The question was: how were they going to bring the culprit in? First of all, if the redheaded giant was to be believed he is a god, then he would easily overpower Clover and the rest of his team, so fighting him into submission was right out.

But perhaps, reasoning with this thunder god to come back to Atlas with them could work.

"Well, Thor, you say you're a god, but we, the people of Remnant, have not seen any form of divinity in our entire history. Would you be willing to return with us to Atlas, to meet with our General so we may learn more about who you are?" If the lucky man had to be honest, he really hoped this worked. Now, his persuasion skills weren't by any means lacking, but, the real issue was if the god would listen.

The Specialist could tell this guy's type by just looking at him, arrogant, hotheaded, stubborn and very dangerous. If he didn't play his cards right, then the lightning summoner won't feel so incentive about joining the Ace Ops.

The large man made no reply to the soldier's request and just stared down at him for a few moments, as if bewildered by something odd presented to him. It was a little nerve wracking, really.

"Say that again." The son of Odin asked, seemingly having misunderstood something.

Confused by the query but seeing nothing wrong with repeating himself, Clover complied, "I asked if you would come with us to At-"

"No, not that." The god of thunder cut off the Operative leader, "Before that. What did you call your people?"

The question was again, a little confusing, but still didn't see the harm in answering, "Remnant. We're the people who live in the world of Remnant. Do other gods call it something else?" It was actually a very interesting concept to consider. What if, this entire time everyone called their planet one thing, the gods called it something else. That would sure blow the minds of the historical and mythological society.

There was another short pause, Thor looked like he was struggling to grasp the meaning of the lucky man's words, "...This isn't Midgard?" He finally spoke, his tone full of confusion.

Clover blinked twice, processing what was said in his mind before forming a scrunched up image of his face, "I... no? It's just Remnant. What is Midgard?"

The conversation took a strange turn from then on forward, it eventually came time that the rest of the Operative team were gathered up with their commanding officer since his one on one meeting with the target was no longer necessary. When brought up to speed of the duo's discussion, the redheaded god then asked if they knew anything about the nine realms or Aesir which prompted negatives in response.

After a while, Thor rubbed his eyes tiredly from the lengthy back and forth game of twenty questions, he let his gaze fall back down to the group of mortals that were now waiting on him to to start the conversation again once he sort things out for himself in his head. And as much as he hated it, he had to think this through, "So, this isn't Midgard?"

"No, as we've established, this is Remnant. Not the Midgard realm." The Ace Op leader confirmed.

"And this realm isn't part of the World Tree?"

Vine shook his head in response, "No, there has never been any evidence that our world is connected to this 'World Tree' as you put it."

Harriet scoffed in an unconvinced manner, "Or maybe he's making it up? This totally sounds like something a nutcase would spout." The shorter Operative's taunt at Thor had not gone unnoticed by the large man, as the sound of thunder began to rumble in the sky.

"Watch what you say, runt. You won't live long if you test me." He growled out, his eyes attempting to bore a hole into her head.

Of course, the speedy member of the group scowled, easily losing her cool, "Who're you calling a 'runt', you oversized prick?!" As long as her teammates have known Harriet, she was the type to not take shit from anyone, and could easily let her emotions cloud her judgement sometimes. Whoever wanted to take a jab at her would be in a world of hurt. So naturally, they knew that she was on the verge of pulling out her Fast Knuckles to pummel the lightning summoner's face in. And seeing how that was an awful scenario no one wanted, Marrow quickly went to stop his fellow soldier before anything could escalate.

"Easy, Harriet. None of us want to fight. We're all clearly worked up from everything that's happened so far." He said, directing his speech to everyone, and then to Thor, "I'm sure that once you talk to General Ironwood, everything will work out fine. Wouldn't you agree?"

Thor thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons about the whole situation. On the one hand, this could be a trap and the mortals that hate him for his reputation would want to try and kill him. Keyword try. But, on the other hand... apparently no one knows who he is, he's on some different realm that's supposedly not Midgard. And... he should try to make an effort to be better, like Kratos said.

With a deep sigh, the thunder god pushed himself up and crossed his arms, "Alright... let's meet this General of yours. Lead the way."

The Ace Operatives, excluding Harriet, let out a breath of relief.

"Thank you, Thor. Once we're back in Atlas, we'll make sure you get something warm to eat. I can't imagine how starving you must be for being out here for a week." As if on cue, the god of thunder's belly growled loudly, making the son of Odin grumble a curse under his breath and Clover chuckle.

"As grateful as I am for the help, but how far is this military place of yours? I can't see a damn settlement for shit. How'd you even get out here, anyway?" The redheaded man asked, thankfully, the pale skinned member of the team was kind enough to explain.

"Due to the harsh environment of the tundra, the kingdom of Atlas has very few populated outposts outside of Mantle, the kingdom's lower city. So in order to reach one of those outposts so far from the main population, we have aerial forms of transportation called Bullheads or Mantas." Vine paused slightly, looking off to the side as he remembered the not-so graceful landing his team's ship took, "Though, our Manta is currently inoperable."

"You mean how the big brute's lightning wrecked our ride." Harriet snidely commented, still feeling contempt over the large man threatening her.

A sigh came out of their commander's mouth, he really wished that his shorter teammate would learn to let go of a grudge, "Anyway, since our bird is down; we're going to have to call in for someone to pick us up, so we'll be stuck out here for the meantime. So let's get moving before it gets dark." With his order given, the Ace Operatives followed their leader in the direction where they left their ship.

Thor still had some questions, but they could be answered later. The sooner he got out of this cold wasteland the better. The pasty guy said that they had a flying ship, must be one big boat.

---

Kingdom of Vale, Beacon Academy

"So, did you guys hear the rumour that we'll be getting assigned teams today?"

Atreus looked over to Yang, closing the weapon locker that kept his knife and bow since he and the others slept in the ballroom, "Really? Huh, didn't think it would happen so soon." The archer remarked.

The Jötun was feeling pretty pumped about all of this, it all reminded him of the Muspelheim gauntlet, except not on fire. Plus, there's the potential of meeting new people; hopefully they won't give the boy bad first impression, unlike some people he met in the past. Loki wondered what kind of challenges there'd be to pass initiation.

"But it's still a rumour, so we may not be given teams today! And also, there won't be any awkward small-talk or 'getting-to-know-you' stuff. This time my sweetheart will be doing all the talking." Ruby stated, with eagerness. She then had a narrow-eyed, grinning expression as she held Crescent Rose closer, "I'll also get to test out my baby's new enchantment on the Grimm, so that's cool too." She said, staring down at her darling creation.

Yang shook her head to clear away the weird sinister vibe that her sister started emanating, she cleared her throat to break the silver eyed girl's trance, "Well, remember, Ruby, you're not the only one who's going through imitation. If you wanna grow up, you're going to have to meet new people and learn how to work together."

The younger girl sighed in frustration at the typical advice that an adult would give her from her older sister, "You sound just like dad! Okay, first of all: what does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly: I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!" She stuck her nose up while crossing her arms. And unfortunately, no seemed to be on her side.

"Actually, Yang's right. Like, my father and I had to learn how to fight together when we began our journey to scatter mother's ashes." The archer remembered how dysfunctional he and his father were at the start, they bickered and argued, but they were able to move on and be more open. "It took some time, but we learned to trust each other and were capable of achieving so much. So there might be someone who'll watch your back during our time here."

The red themed girl thought differently as she fidgeted from side to side, with an expectant look on her face, "I don't know, I-I was sort of thinking that I could be on your or Yang's team." She suggested meekly.

The blonde brawler had a cringed expression while she pulled her hair over her shoulder to stroke it, "Maybe you should try being on someone else's team?" She didn't mean to sound it in a way that would be seen as callous, only that she wanted Ruby to grow out of her antisocial shell. Although, the silver eyed girl may have already interpreted the meaning of her half-sister's words as something else.

"My dear sister Yang, are you trying to leave me out on Brok's surprise for Atreus? That he promised to let us in on if we all got on the same team?" The red reaper questioned.

The golden haired girl's eyes widened in realisation, "Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. Weird that I keep forgetting lots of important things." She put on her signature confident smile, "But you're right, we probably should be the same team. I was gonna try to tell you how you should break out of your socially awkward bubble, but I guess since we wanna know what that Dwarf's got planned for mow-hawk here, there's just no helping it, huh?" The yellow themed girl settled on, her cocksure attitude made Ruby and Atreus beam with confidence.

The silver eyed girl blinked and became aware of what her older sibling had said, "Hey! What do you mean 'socially awkward bubble'!?"

The Champion of the Jötnar snickered lightly, he was glad to have friends who bantered with each other in such a comical way. He then noticed something in the corner of his eye, across the room was Weiss, now sporting a rapier on the side of her hip, but that's not what caught his attention.

She was talking to a girl that gave the young god a feeling of familiarity, she had crimson red hair tied into a ponytail, with a bronze looking circlet framed around her head. Her eyes were an emerald green with light green eyeshadow around the corners of her eyes, which complimented her pale complexion. She was quite tall, almost as tall as father, and she had a fit muscular build. She wore a type of corset like armour, a black mini skirt with a red sash wrapped around her it, and bronze greaves from her mid-thigh down to her heeled boots. Her arms were adorned with black gloves that reached up to her biceps, with her left arm wearing a bronze bracelet on her bicep and a bracer on her forearm.

Atreus couldn't hear what was being said between the two Huntresses, and whatever it was seemed to make the redheaded girl uncomfortable, judging from her expression.

"Hey, who's that girl over there talking with Weiss?" The boy's query had the sisters look over at the girl in question.

"Oh, that's Pyrrha Nikos!" Yang exclaimed with recognition, "She's a four-time winner of the Mistral Region Tournament, which is like, a new record I think? She's even earned the nickname 'Invincible girl' cus' no one's been able to beat her." That's an impressive feat, it made the Jötun wonder if Pyrrha could beat his father. Ok, now he really wants to see that happen!

"Gah!"

A sudden cry alerted the trio to look back and see that Jaune was pinned from the wall of a locker by a red and gold spear.

"I'm sorry!" The Mistral Champion apologised, as she was the one who owned the weapon.

The intercom system then came to life, projecting Professor Goodwitch's voice, "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"Well, looks like that's our cue. Let's go guys!" Ruby promptly lead on to their destination, while also helping Jaune up when Pyrrha removed her spear from his short-term imprisonment.

The noodley blonde had a dejected face when he was able to stand on his own feet again, "I don't get it, my always said that all women look for is confidence! Where did I go wrong?" He asked, seeking advice from his only friends.

"Were you trying to flirt with them?" Atreus asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, no, only Weiss. I tried using Snow Angel, cus' she's... an Angel." He said, with dreamy look all over his face.

"'Snow Angel' was probably your first mistake." The yellow themed Huntress teased with a smirk, "Come on! Let's get going before we're late for the party!" She cheered as everyone made a brisk pace for Beacon Cliff.

---

Everyone stood at attention on metal pads in front of three people, Headmaster Ozpin, Combat Instructor Glynda Goodwitch, and Assistant Combat Instructor Freyr. Glynda was a little skeptical at first at the idea of the Vanir god being her assistant when classes would begin, but entertained with the thought and decided to give him a shot. Right now, the former rebellion leader was darting his eyes across all of the trainees, most likely memorising their faces, a good start.

The Headmaster stepped forward, holding a mug of hot cocoa and his signature cane in each hand.

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He stepped back and let his deputy speak next.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours of the assignment about the 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today." She was certain that she heard miss Rose release a squeak of horror. The stern blonde would have found that adorable, but it's not important right now.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." And that is one of the first challenges. During the students' tenure at the school, they must learn to work compatibly, such as the purpose of the test...

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Indeed, an instantly locked partnership with any random participant is a way to gauge whether the teams will get along or not. If not, then the students will have to find a form of common ground in order to 'click'. However long this process took was up to them.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." The grim message made some of the children appear either nervous or eager for the challenge.

The deputy Headmistress glanced over at Mr. Laufeyson, she could tell that he has relaxed his body, but kept ready and looked determined. A commendable show of a warrior ready for battle, despite him being the same age as miss Rose, he had already experienced battles greater than any of his peers present. As well as being part of a war that determined the fate of all realms. She pitied the boy for not having the chance to experience a better childhood and growing up to be a soldier in a prophecy he deserved no part in.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" As soon as Ozpin asked, Mr. Arc instantly raised his hand.

"Yeah, um, sir?"

"Good! Now, take your positions." He completely ignored the boy.

Each of the students struck certain poses, some crouched, some readied their weapons, and Arc still had his hand raised. Surprisingly Atreus remained as he was... and he looked at the others mildly confused. Oh, dear.

"Uh, sir? I've got a, umm... a question. This landing... strategy thing... uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" The blonde boy nervously asked, finally getting the Headmaster's attention.

"No. you will be falling."

Some of the trainees have already been launched, and Mr. Laufeyson took notice of it. He did a double take, looked down at the platform he was standing on, and looked up at the teachers in building horror. The young god stared straight at Freyr, silently pleading if he had any knowledge of this. While the Vanir native had turned his attention away elsewhere, whistling a tune as if nothing was wrong. Truly, she pitied the boy greatly.

The archer raised his hand up with urgent haste, "Sir! Question!"

"Yes, Mr. Laufeyson. What is your question?"

"How are we supposed survive from falling to our deaths?" The panic in his voice was quite noticeable.

The bespectacled man merely chuckled in response, "You will be using your own 'landing strategy', as Mr. Arc put it." At the mention of his name, the blonde knight made an unenthused acceptance, "But, I'm sure that someone of your abilities can workaround such an obstacle."

That was all he had to say before firing the rest of the initiates off into the air, some screaming in terror and some screaming in joy. Sometimes Glynda wondered if this was an appropriate approach to sending new students into the Emerald Forest.

---

And that's the end for this chapter! Finally! It took me so long to put all this together, I had to constantly make sure that I wasn't being repetitive for some words, and I had to look up some big words I forgot or didn't know just to make some sentences and thoughts make sense! But, it's over now and I can finally get started on chapter 7... which may take another while and drain my creative juices. Hooray (I say sarcastically, with sheer tiredness.)

But, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, for those of you who were hoping to see Thor... I GIVETH THOR! I always planned on writing him in the story, and it hasn't ended in Ragnarök. I liked having him and the Ace Ops interact, even though not many of them got to talk with the god of thunder as much, and just wait till Ironwood meets him.

Raven, the deadbeat bitch, has come crawling back to Tai bloody, broken and barely hanging on to life. But I ain't letting her die here, she's still got some more suffering to endure. Not physical suffering, but having to deal with her family and Ozpin kind of suffering. Yeah, that's gonna be fun for her, huh?

And just to let you guys know, Orkos and his charge will be making a small appearance in the next chapter, and I'll probably have them meet the gang in chapter 8 after 7. So get excited, cus' I can't wait to write more about them in the story.

And, the Dust explosion with Weiss and Ruby? Completely averted! Thanks to our resident BOI. I liked to change things up a little from the canon events of the show, and we've started the Bumblebee ball rolling, yeah!!

Ah, and one more thing before I go. I'll give a shout out to whichever one of you figures out the abridged series I referenced in the weapon locker room with the trio, and here's a tip: 15? What the fuck? Good luck with that!