A/N: I am not gonna lie, this chapter's gonna be a bit hard for me. It's the first time I'm using someone else's OC's in my plot. Don't know if many of you know this, not unless you've been around on my DeviantART site or seen those "Chiyubitch" comments years ago but I went through a major ordeal that really crushed my enjoyment of writing Fanfiction with my friends' OC's. Last time I tried I just froze up at the thought of continuing the whole "Sexual Abuse OoC treatment" that was forced upon me.

Please bear with me.

Team PASM is now getting a new member of their team to fill in Akira's place. Let's see how well this turns out. Aria Stars is an OC that belongs to my friend Koyukiy.

Chapter 62: New Member

Classes have begun on the next day. Patrick is in Marina's class, who is doing her best to teach while sitting in place. The classroom is real quiet as the students are focused on their studying. Patrick does his best in Marina's lessons, but he can't help but look at the new girl.

Aria is sitting at the far end of the room. She seems focused on Marina's lesson.

He can't take his mind off of their encounterment.

[Flashback]

Ozpin introduces Aria to Team PASM. Aria doesn't say anything, just nervously standing in place while rubbing her arm. Just as everyone expects, Peter makes the first move. He dives in and pours in on the charm.

"Why hello there." Peter says. "It's nice to meet such a pretty little lady. The name's Peter. Wanna spend the night with me?"

"U-u-uh..." Aria only stutters as she struggles to get the words out as she shyly backs away, and just when it seems like she was about to scream that's when Clawdia interferes by pulling Peter's by the ear. Peter reacts painfully as she's pulling him back.

"Mew Purr-vert! Mew are making her feline uncomfortable!" Seeing this confuses Aria. Once Peter has had enough, Clawdia lets him go and then approaches Aria. She clears her throat before speaking. "I A-Paw-ogize for my cousin. He loses it when he sees a Purr-tty Girl."

"I-I-I'm sorry. Cousin?" Aria asks.

Clawdia's cat ears perk up in surprise. "Hmm? What? Is it weird for a Human and a Faunus to be related?"

"N-no. No. It's not that." Aria shyly pokes her fingers together as she speaks. "It's...I-It's just that...F-from the way you reacted. I-I thought for a moment there th-that you were his girlfriend."

Hearing that suddenly alarms Clawdia and Peter in shock. They looked at each other for half a second then back at Aria, speaking in unison. "ME/HER? GIRLFRIEND? WITH HIM/ME!? GRRROOOSS!"

After a mere disgusting reaction, Clawdia and Peter suddenly collapse into a faint, which puts Aria into a panic seeing the two react that way. "Ah! W-what did I say? I'm so sorry!"

Patrick groans in annoyance as he puts a hand on his head. "We're off to a thundering start." Selena and Marlene also feel uneasy about their new friend.

Rayla then steps forward with a pleasant smile on her face. "Don't worry about those two. Master Peter just goes crazy over women as stated, but he's really all bark and no bite, and Mistress Clawdia here just acts as his collar and leash." Aria laughs a little at that comment. "I am Rayla Evergreen. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Aria." Earnest then steps forward. He communicates and Rayla translates. "'And I am Earnest, a fellow Faunus such as yourself. No need to feel worried, we're all friends here.'"

Earnest then does a little trick. He reaches into his sleeve, of which Aria observes carefully, and then he pulls out a flower. Aria applauds cheerfully. Earnest then offers a flower to Aria, who gladly accepts and sniffs it.

"My, you seemed pretty open to greet us." Rayla says.

"Y-Yeah. I'm sorry. I get really shy and t-timid meeting new people." Aria then looks away shyly. "A-and if I'm being honest, the first guy...Peter you said his name was? H-he really made me feel uncomfortable."

"It's quite all right. Rest assured we're all good people here. Just wait until you've met your team." Rayla helps Aria introduce herself to Team PASM.

"Hi there, I'm Sherry Farron." Selena says. Selena offers a handshake, but Aria hesitates. "It's okay, I understand. I have a bit of a shy side myself." Selena retracts her hand then introduces Marlene. "This is Marlene."

"Nice to meet you." Marlene says.

Aria looks past the two girls to see Patrick. As she looks at him curiously, Patrick then turns his eyes towards her, taking notice of her attention. This alerts Aria. "Don't worry about him. This is our leader, Patrick. He's a little on the dark side but you'll grow him on. Trust me." Selena says.

"Welcome to Beacon Academy." Marlene tells Aria.

[End of Flashback]

Patrick hasn't said a single word to Aria. It isn't just cause he couldn't get a moment to talk to her, he just doesn't have anything to say for himself. What's more is that last night she didn't sleep in the dorm with Team PASM. He and the girls have wondered where Aria stayed in on that night.

The day goes on. Patrick, Selena, and Marlene haven't seen Aria in any of their classes. They do meet once again when it's launch time. Aria wanders the cafeteria with her tray of food wondering where to sit. Sitting among a big crowd makes her feel nervous until she hears someone calling out to her.

"Aria! Over here." Marlene waves at her. Aria then smiles and approaches, taking her seat between Marlene and Selena. "So, how are you doing here in Beacon?"

"It's fine, I guess. I-I feel nervous talking to new people, even Professors Marina and Port." Aria says.

"No need to worry about them, especially Professor Marina." Selena says with a smile.

"We have noticed you've been very shy, but you quickly get along with everyone." Peter says.

Patrick then looks away to whisper. "Like a little child."

Aria nervously laughs. "Y-yeah. I get that a lot. I've just...well, let's say I've been isolated from the world for a long time and it made me feel uncomfortable with new people. But I do enjoy making friends."

"Sounds like mew would get along with Paw-fessor Marina." Clawdia says.

"Oh? She didn't seem all the shy." Aria says.

"No, she too was isolated from the world." Marlene says.

Selena and Marlene explain Marina's story to Aria, who is pretty much in shock to learn one thing about her. "WHAAAAAAT!? Zovaal the Dragon Beast is her father?!"

Everyone was surprised by her sudden outburst. Aria then realizes that and sees the faces glued onto her and feels suddenly embarrassed. Earnest then speaks. "'Judging by your sudden reaction, you must idolize the legendary huntsman.'" Rayla says.

"Uh..." Aria's face turns red. She nervously twirls her hair as she stutters. "W-well, it's not that I'm a fa-fan or anything. I-I just looked up several huntsman. He w-was one of them, and I read he's really powerful."

"Did you also hear what happened to him?" Selena asks.

"I learned that he was seriously hurt and was forced into early retirement. That's where the article ends." Aria says. Everyone exchanges looks, and Aria takes notice of it. "What is it?"

"Master Zovaal is dead." Hearing this astonishes Aria. "Mistress Marina was in a bind and her father attempted a suicidal rescue."

"In his last breath, he left a message, that's when Instructor Mashika and Patrick went and rescued her." Selena says.

Aria then turns her attention to Patrick. "Oh? You rescued your own teacher. That's really cool." Aria sounds excited. Patrick doesn't say anything, just gives Aria a small sneer then looks away bitterly. Aria has noticed his attitude. She feels nervous, but it doesn't take her, for she is more curious as she can sense something in his coldness. "What is it?"

Everyone turns their attention to Patrick. "Master Patrick, it is terrible manners to ignore Mistress Aria's compliment."

Patrick then slams his tray on the table as he stands up. This action silences the cafeteria and earns the attention of all the other students. After a moment of silence, Patrick then walks away, but only for a couple of feet just to stop and turn his attention back at Rayla. "Stop! Calling! Me! 'Master'!" Then he continues storming off.

"Yeesh, what's his problem?" Peter asks.

"He's been bitter ever since coming back from that exam retreat." Marlene says.

"I agree. I'm gonna have to give him an earful when I see him." Rayla says.

Earnest turns to Clawdia. 'I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S SCARIER: RAYLA GETTING MAD OR PATRICK BEING ANGRY.' Clawdia couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't know guys, but I think something's wrong with him." Selena says.

While everyone else goes on discussing Patrick's behavior, Aria keeps her eyes on Patrick. She doesn't look away even after he's out of the room. She can sense something's off about him.

The rest of the day went by fast. Once classes were over, teams PASM and CPER and Mashika and Marina went to the training grounds. Aria feels nervous about all this, and her instincts are right on this.

"Training?" Aria asks.

"Yeah, since you're going to be here in Beacon, and on our team, we thought it might be a good idea to have a look at your combat skills." Selena says.

Aria nervously rubs her arm. "I-I don't know about this. I-I don't w-want to be a b-bother."

"Not at all, Mistress Aria." Rayla says. "As a team, we all must be familiar with our own combat skills. Now, who wants to go first?"

Earnest then steps forward. He readies his wrist blades as he takes his position. Aria nervously hesitates, but after a moment of building her confidence, Aria then puts on a serious face. She cracks her knuckles as she steps forward and then makes her fighting stance.

Earnest makes the first strike, charging in and swinging one of his arms. Aria was able to dodge that attack easily, which surprised Earnest. He then throws a couple more swings at Aria, all she dodges them in fast reflexes. Aria then leaps back. She positions herself to a charge, which Earnest sees coming as he begins to mime a wall. Aria delivers several blows onto Earnest's invisible wall. Aria's strength is pretty heavy, the first blow causes Earnest to slide back a few feet. For the next several blows, Earnest still stood his ground.

Aria then finishes her attack by charging up her knuckles with Gravity and Combust Dust and delivers a double explosive blow that breaks Earnest's wall. Earnest is sent flying and crashes onto the ground on the other side of the battlefield.

Everyone is in awe at the event that unfold. Earnest then gets back on his feet. Aria observes carefully for his next move. Earnest then mimes he is holding something, aiming at Aria. That's when she catches on to what's happening when she hears the sound of a gun cocking. Earnest starts shooting his invisible gun. Aria quickly reacts by pulling out her lance and deflecting each of the incoming bullets, regardless of their invisibility.

Earnest can't believe that she can deflect unseeable bullets. He then resorts to melee combat once more. Aria's reflexes were too quick for him to land a hit, and for the last attack, Aria delivered a strong blow right on Earnest's stomach that sent him flying.

With Earnest defeated, Aria then reacts nervously. "Wha! I-I'm sorry! A-are you all right?"

Earnest staggers as he stands up. He turns to everyone else and speaks to them. "Earnest says he's all right." Clawdia says.

Selena and Marlene rush towards Aria, who flinches at their sudden approach. "Aria! That was amazing." Marlene says.

"How did you do that?" Selena asks.

"Uh...I-I-I..." Aria then clears her throat. "M-My Semblance is Preflexes."

"Preflexes?" Marlene says. "I don't think I've ever heard of that."

"I...I don't know how to explain it. I-It's like I can sense my opponent's motives a-and able to react to them quickly." Aria says.

"That would certainly explain it." Marlene says.

"Well, now, let's see how well your preflex skills go against the three of us." Aria turns to see Clawdia, Peter, and Rayla take the field. Aria is astonished to see this. Three opponents at once. Patrick takes notice of the challenge and observes it suspiciously.

Aria then readies herself for battle. Clawdia makes the first strike by charging in at full force. Aria braces herself, but comes to a surprise when Clawdia activates her Semblance. Around half a dozen Clawdia's are coming at Aria in full force. Aria then slams her fists together, charging up the power of her knuckles. Aria then slams the ground, unleashing a shockwave that blows away the fake Clawdias. By then it was too late, and the real Clawdia is close enough to attack.

She swipes her claw blades, of which Aria is still able to dodge it completely unharmed. "No way!" Clawdia says, frozen with shock. Aria is about to strike, but she then senses something coming from behind. Then she grabs Clawdia and shoulder tosses her into the flying steel wires. The wires snare Clawdia in Aria's place. Rayla is astonished that her attack failed, and it only becomes worse when Aria delivers a powerful blow that sends Clawdia flying towards Rayla, and the two crash into each other.

With Rayla and Clawdia out of commission, Peter then readies himself for fight. He starts charging in at Aria with a shout, his axe at hand to strike. Peter loads it with earth dust and smashes the ground, unleashing a wave of earth spikes towards Aria. Aria loads her right knuckle. She punches the wave of spike once it reaches her, unleashing an explosive wave that shatters the earth spikes. From the dirty dust, Peter charges in and swings his axe. Aria quickly draws out her lance and uses it to block the attack. Aria summons all her strength to repel Peter's weapon, which didn't take long with almost no effort. Aria then delivers another push with her explosive fist, but in that instant, Peter activates his Semblance and turns his body into metal.

Aria pushes his solid body, unleashing an explosive under a mixture of incredible force and destructive combustion. Once the force dies down, Peter and Aria stand frozen in place, as if nothing has ever happened. Everyone just stares, waiting for something to happen.

And it did, as Aria grabbed her hand and shouted in agony. "YEOOOOOOOW!" Aria whimpers in pain as she feels onto her knees holding onto her hand. "Dear brother! That hurts!"

While she's on her knees whimpering away the pain, Aria looks up at her opponent and is surprised. Right where she punched Peter, his steal body is cracked, spreading increasingly, until Peter's metal body shatters and turns back into flesh. Peter dazedly groans and then falls on his back.

Everyone gasps in astonishment. Peter groans with a hand on his stomach and looks at Aria. "Damn, girl. You sure are strong. No one's ever broken through my Semblance like that."

"I agree. your strength is rather impressive." Rayla says.

"How are mew so strong?" Clawdia asks.

"Uh...W-well I...I-It's a long story." Aria says.

"I see...Well, you are quite the warrior, Mistress Aria." Rayla says.

"Yea, if Akira were here, she would be very impressed as well." Selena says. "Aria, we welcome you to-" Selena is suddenly cut off when there's a loud stomp. Everyone turns to see Patrick stepping forward onto the battlefield. "Patrick?" Patrick then takes out his swords and positions himself to fight. "What are you doing?"

"I'll test her myself." Patrick says, his tone sounding deep and cold.

"Why? She's already proven herself." Marlene says.

"N-no. I-it's fine." Aria then steps forward and positions herself. "I'll be honored to challenge you."

Patrick puts on a serious face. He cracks his neck. Aria keeps her eyes on Patrick, cracking her knuckles. The two of them stand still, waiting for the other one to make the first move. Waited long enough, Aria charges. She slams her knuckles together, activating its power boost. Patrick dodges her attacks. He returns several blows himself but Aria dodges each of them. In his final swing, Aria leaps backward. Patrick reacts quickly by activating his Dust Bracers, loading it with Ice Dust, and slamming a foot on the ground, encasing it all in ice.

Once Aria lands, her feet slip. She struggles to regain her balance. Patrick takes advantage of the situation she's in and shifts his weapon into a bow, shooting a load of three arrows at her, of which he successfully hits her. Aria is knocked over the edge of the ice ground. Everyone is surprised. "He actually hit her." Selena says.

"I see. He froze the floor and when she landed, she wouldn't be able to grip her feet for her Pre-flexes to be active to avoid any incoming attacks. And her mind is too focused on trying to regain her balance to think about using her lance to block the shots. Very clever." Marina says.

Aria gets back on her feet. She sees Patrick charging towards her. He delivers several swings of his blades, all of which Aria dodges. Aria returns the last hit with a punch. Patrick uses his blades to block the attack. The two of them are at a standstill trying to repel each other. Aria's strength is slightly higher than Patrick's for she is able to push him back inch by inch. Patrick then sweeps Aria's legs. She manages to dodge it at the last minute but Patrick takes advantage of that single moment and tackles her.

Aria recovers quickly from that stagger and then charges in. Patrick braces himself for another attack, but what he didn't expect was Aria instead slams both of her fists to the ground, unleashing a shockwave. Patrick gets caught in the blast and it knocks him back.

Patrick falls flat onto the ground. Everyone waits for him to get up, but he doesn't. "Is he...out?" Selena asks.

"It appears so." Mashika says.

Aria then collapses onto her knees and lets out a tiresome sigh. "That was exhausting...H-he's really good. I-I-I can see why he's l-leader."

"Yeah, he's a lot of things. Even for most of the time, we rely on him." Marlene says.

As the chatter goes on, Patrick starts to get back up. Slowly. Creepingly. Everyone takes notice that he's getting back on his feet. They all wait for something to happen, and it's just as they feared. Lifting his face to glare right at him, with his body going full Grimm Berserk.

Aria goes into a full panic at the sight of him. "W-wh...What's happening to him!?"

"Oh no, not again." Mashika whispers in terror.

In an instant, Shadow Chains burst out of the ground and coils around Aria. Before she can even react, the chains tighten, and they shackle her against the wall. "YOU!" Everyone looks at Patrick as she speaks in his deep demonic voice. "WILL! NOT!" His arms instantly turn into massive claws of dark magic. "TAKE HER PLACE!"

Patrick starts stomping forward towards Aria. Marlene and Selena shout at Patrick, telling him to stop or to calm down, while Team CPER and Mashika charge in to try and stop him. But Patrick swats them away like they were nothing. Even a big strong fellow like Peter. Marina can do nothing but sit in her wheelchair and watch the event unfold. Even when the fighters back get on their feet and try to stop him as he moves closer and closer to the helpless and immobilized Aria. Once he's already halfway, Marina decides to action. She pushes herself out of the chair and starts dragging himself on her arms and stomach to Aria.

Aria struggles to break free from the chains. Even when she breaks one, another appears to take its place. Patrick finished beating everyone off of him, by then he had reached Aria. Aria helplessly looks up to fight a terrifying image of a Human-like Grimm raising its claw in the air with a snarl, ready to strike. Aria cowers. She looks away with her eyes closed and bracing herself for the impact.

But nothing comes.

Aria takes a peek to see what is happening. All she sees is how everything was before looking away, the only thing that's added is seeing Marina on the ground, reaching up and grabbing hold of Patrick's other claw, her Semblance activated to connect with him.

Patrick's body slowly reverts to normal. Once he returns to being fully human, Patrick's expression of anger suddenly turns to shock, and the Shadow Chains shackling Aria instantly vanishes. Patrick and Aria breathe heavily. Rayla and Selena help Aria stand up. "Aria, are you okay?" Selena asks.

"Y-yeah...I-I think so." Aria says.

Patrick looks at the one hand that used to be the claw to harm Aria, the hand trembling in terror. Mashika takes notice of Patrick's sudden fright. "Patrick? You all right, love?"

Patrick doesn't say anything. Instead, he turns and runs. And everyone could do nothing but watch him run away.

Aria is the one who watches him the most, thinking about what it is she is sensing from him. And from what he said. "Take...her place?" Aria asks.