So. To those who figured out the little message on my other fics... hello again, Phantom here. I'm not dead. Thankfully.

Or, if you just happened to stumble across this fic searching for random x-over fics... hi.

It'd be hard to really say what I've been up to these past couple years, but I wont take too long in trying: Work took me away from writing, had to go a few places and do a few things and it was really important that it had my focus, and life of course has a way of reprioritizing things when you gotta watch your back all the time and help out others without, well... dying and stuff. But it all wasn't so bad. Travelled the world, had an adventure, fell in love... and now I'm back. Things are pretty good now, and while I can't guarantee I will be as consistent as ever, this is certainly a better (read: less expensive) hobby than whaling at gacha MRPGs. So for now, things will be pretty interesting while I warm up the writing side of my brain again.

At this point, I've finally watched the remaining seasons of RWBY and have gotten a few ideas - so my current fics will be getting a makeover. Not a total overhaul, mind you, but definitely some changes. To that end (and to keep from burning out), I'll focus on one at a time.

Starting with LDR.

Anyway, comeback speeches aren't my forte, so for now all I can say is... stay tuned.

-TPS-

The Greater Initiation

Two adults walked out the derelict warehouse, the second of the two still straightening out her cape after her most recent scuffle with a bandit and an enchantress.

"These miscreants only seem to become stranger every year."

"Indeed," the first one nodded with a small sigh as they stepped out into the lone - and slightly destroyed - street, "Though I'm afraid that this is only another sign of the times..."

The woman stopped in her tracks, keen emerald eyes focusing on the wizened man before her through her spectacles.

"You don't mean..."

"That contrary to your usual assumptions, I actually had a reason behind admitting a fifteen-year-old combat student to our Academy just now aside from a spontaneous whim?" the man noted with a raised brow and a sip of coffee to hide his minute smirk, "Glynda... at times I truly wonder what sort of man you take me for."

The woman leveled a light deadpan at the Headmaster, "Actually, my first assumption was because you liked the color of her eyes."

"They're just like her mothers'."

Taking a small sigh of her own, Glynda nodded in concurrence, the man uncharacteristically tapping his thumb on the handle of his mug which the Deputy knew him well enough to know was a rare sign of genuine concern.

"A few minutes ago, this young woman," Ozpin finally began after a brief moment of silence, "Miss Rose, was able to keep up with Vale's most wanted criminal with precision that must've warranted the utmost physical and aural control. Both of herself, and of her weapon. This is nearly non-existent among youth her age, even with extensive training... for lack of a better word, a prodigy in her own right."

However, his tone did little to assay Glynda's growing concern before her reply, "This... should be reason to rejoice. In the acquisition of admittedly promising talent in the safe up keeping of our world... is it not?"

"On the contrary," he noted, his gaze telling her all too easily the subject he was about to breach next, "It has been eighty years, Glynda. Exactly eighty as of this year... and the rise of activity in the underbelly of society only points to the deeper dangers surging within."

"It is almost time."

In a rare show of shock, Glynda could only blink incredulously at the Professor for a moment before gathering the mental coherency to piece together his actions as of late, "Then... Mister Arc as well?"

"Ah yes," the Headmaster drawled with a lazy turn of his lips, "Our very own attempted forger. Mister Arc, indeed."

A raised brow from his right hand woman.

"How could you be so sure? Miss Rose I can understand, but this Jaune fellow... all we know about him is that he failed to understand that transcript and report card are two different things."

Ozpin nodded in assent of her words, hiding the briefest chuckle at her clearly miffed recollection of the paperwork that they'd received with his name handwritten - and slightly crossed out due to an apparent misspelling - to their administrative offices.

"Very true. However, despite his claims of mastery over the nimble dexterity and eloquent vocabulary of movement required in the art of..." Ozpin's gaze drifted up, tapping his cane on the floor a few times as he mentally searched for the word, "Tae-Kwon-Pow, if I recall from the convenient cover letter he was so gracious to provide us correctly, he managed to cut his finger while attempting to seal the envelope."

"And his blood had traces of Aura, I suppose?" Glynda noted, a small shrug of her shoulder showing just how nonchalant she felt about it, "It would've been too small a concentration to accurately gauge its potential."

"Indeed it was," Ozpin echoed, his piqued intrigue catching her attention now, "So much so that I believe it has yet to be unlocked... but what I couldn't ignore was the fact that it was still red on the envelope itself. Blood rusts and turns brown in as little as thirty minutes after exposure to the air."

"That is... unusual."

"But fascinating," Ozpin continued, excitement tempered with a more patient curiosity, "Despite minimal aural capacity - that of any civilian, really - it was enough to help the cells heal themselves and catalyze the oxygen around them to remain alive during transit... truly, unlike anything I've seen before."

"Surely he'll be thrilled to know that his glowing transcripts were so well received," the disciplinarian noted gruffly, though with wonder still tracing the edges of their tone, "But that is enough to believe that they will be chosen for what's to come?"

The man took another sip of coffee with an unreadable expression, almost leaving an expectant Glynda hanging as he turned to walk away.

"If the relic is activated. Then yes. The only question is whether it can yet be found."

Glynda stayed in place as a small breeze filled the silence between them and he began stepping forward, the Headmaster maybe gaining a few steps of distance between them before she called out, "And what about yourself? You're so adamant that you will not be chosen despite being the strongest Hunter on Remnant. I know this isn't a fairytale, but yet... how can you be so sure?"

The man paused, his silver hair glinting under the dim streetlight from above as he took a final sip from his mug and turned his gaze over his shoulder to face an increasingly shocked peer.

"Soldiers rarely fight the same war twice."

"C'mon, Rubes! Can't carry Vomit Boy's weight forever, y'know! But if you're helping him when he pukes again, then I guess that'll make you... emetic! Eh? Eh?"

"Oh Monty... I think that pun just made me sick..."

Ruby glanced at the blonde beside her who actually did seem a little sicker at the notion before giving him a shrug, "You get used to it after a few years. At least it beats a double strikeout in the locker rooms!"

Jaune deadpanned at the crimsonette as she could no longer hold back a small giggle at the memory, "Uh huh. Laugh it up, Crater Face... I'll go right back and see if Snow Angel has any more Dust we can sprinkle on ya - I bet you two might even become partners!"

"Heeeeeey!" Ruby retorted adorably, holding up an X with her index fingers at him as if to shoo away any possible ghastly apparition of the heiress at the mention of her nickname, "Don't jinx me!"

"Hehe... an Arc's jinx is his bond."

"That's not even a thing!"

"...Should be. It'd be awesome."

Following a surprisingly weak punch to the shoulder from his rouge companion, Jaune and Ruby emerged through the tree line to the ample Cliffside where Yang was already finding her spot along with saving one for Ruby as well.

"Nice, we're the last ones but there's still a spot for you right next to mine!" Ruby stated excitedly, "Guess we'll get to see how you handle a landing strategy, Jaune!"

The knight blinked with slight confusion, "Uh... landing strategy? Hehe, at least it doesn't sound dangerous..."

"Not if you can stick a three-point landing from a quarter mile up in the air."

Ruby enjoyed watching the color drain from his face at that one... oh dear, was this what Yang felt like all the time teasing people like that!? Ruby found that she liked it way more than she thought she would...

"Sounds like someone ain't got it all thought out yet," she continued anyway with a grin, "Well that's what you get! Squeeze the Rose, and you get the thorns!"

Yep. Ruby and her sister were definitely related, after all.

"It's not you I'm worried about," Jaune drawled, lines of defeat already etched around his face as he gulped involuntarily, "I'm pretty sure the ground punches way harder than you do. Heck, I'm pretty sure a mild breeze punches harder than you do..."

But over the sight of Ruby scoffing and then sticking her tongue out at him, Jaune found potential salvation at the sight of the man with a cane, "Oh wait! I'll just ask the principal - he looks like the type that'll tell me what I need to know!"

a speech, a catapult, a Death Stalker, and a girly scream later...

"I hate you."

"What, just cuz you apparently have had to improvise two landing strategies in one day? And I totally just saved your life by breaking your fall the second time!" Ruby noted with mock-hurt as the two leaders left the ruined temple together with their brand new relics, "Or is it because I didn't take a shiny white castle piece like yours? I might've, but I didn't see any like it there..."

Despite his initial reaction of wanting to gush at her incredibly pouty face, Jaune rolled his eyes with a wince at the recollection of being flung through the air by a Death Stalker. Poor Pyrrha... Hm. was it him, or were all the girls at this school incredibly attractive now that he thought about it?

"No," he retorted instead, getting back on topic with a huff, "It's because apparently your jinxes are stronger than mine."

With a long, lazy sigh, Ruby merely put a hand on Jaune's head to point it in Weiss' direction, who was currently glaring at them cross-armed while waiting for them to get back with not-so-subtle impatient boot-tapping on the floor.

"No... they're not."

"You didn't get nailed to a tree, though."

This caught both Yang's and Blake's attention as Jaune's last words were the only ones heard as the pair reached the group, the blonde brawler not missing a beat before pitching in her two cents, "Sorry bud, I dunno what planet you live on, but I don't think I've ever heard a guy say that with a frown... and from you, I'd have figured that kind of thing would be more of an Oumsend! Who's the questionably lucky girl!"

She paused, wincing in thought before adding reluctantly, "Or dude. I don't judge. Right, Blakey?"

The ravenette in question glanced away with a shrug to hide a light blush, totally not thinking of one of the endless yaoi omakes written about her favorite ninja-romance novels of all time, "N-Nope. Not judging."

Jaune simply glared at his fellow blonde slack-jawed, his shoulders drooping as if he'd been punched, slapped, and kicked in the face at the same time, "NO! Not dude! Tell 'em, Pyrrha!"

The Champion happy to oblige, Pyrrha simply brandished Miló and showed it to the group to explain, "Jaune's correct. I was gentle despite it being the first time I'd ever done such a thing, and it was as painless for him as it was for myself! It all happened quickly enough for us to shrug it off and continue the initiation-"

She was interrupted by a now slack-jawed Yang, who was noticing anything but the spear as she quickly glanced back and forth between the two new partners.

"What."

Realizing what her sister must've been gawking about, Ruby's similar reaction wasn't too far behind.

"What?"

Weiss, well... was Weiss.

"What!? Someone better explain this defilement this instant or-"

KRKRKR-CRACK

The sounds of cracking ice that was barely containing the nearby Grimm interrupting the escalating situation, Ren was the first to snap the group back to the task at hand.

"Time we left!"

Shaking off the awkward tension in the air, Ruby promptly followed suit as she waved the others out of it, "Right. Let's go!"

Forgetting the possible first-day scandal at Ruby's newfound take-charge attitude, Yang simply stared proudly at her as the crimsonette leapt up on a nearby boulder to motion them forward. Blake was all too happy with occupying her mind on something else as well.

"What is it?"

"...Nothing..."

Catching on, Blake smiled in realization, though it was also partly at the confused glances Jaune and Pyrrha had traded after the apparent misunderstanding - or possibly even towards the reader - before leaving as well.

The next few minutes brought all of the explosions and authentic battle damage one could expect when fighting the combined forces of a fully-grown Death Stalker and Nevermore, but the group separated to divide the dark forces and take them on individually. Thankfully, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren finished off the Death Stalker, Nora attending to her partner who was currently still collapsed on the floor while Jaune and Pyrrha watched the remaining students begin enacting their plan on the Nevermore.

"I think," Jaune drawled with increasing amazement, tilting his head more and more to the side beside his vaguely amused partner as he eyed Blake shooting Gambol across two pillars to tighten the band, "Nooooo... I think, they're actually gonna do it!"

"Do what?" Pyrrha noted, her smirk growing a little wider if at least at the knowledge that her new partner would be the kind of guy who'd never think of how he looked around her.

"They're making a slingshot!"

"They're making a slingshot?" Nora echoed with excitement, her partner finally regaining consciousness to the sensation of having his face being mushed into the dirt repeatedly as she impatiently grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him on the ground, "Renny! Wake up faster! They're making a slingshot!"

At the ruins, Weiss merely deadpanned at her partner as she held her in place with a glyph, "Of course you would come up with this idea."

"Think you can make the shot?"

"Hmm! Can I!"

"..."

"Can't-?"

"Of course I can!"

TWANG!

And she was gone, the ground cracking behind the girl with the force of launch as Ruby hurdled towards the target in a flurry of rose petals. In the next 5 seconds, the remaining students and anyone else who happened to have a clear sight to the cliffs witnessed the birth of greatness, the crimsonette hooking the Grimm's neck with her scythe and dragging its entire mass of dark flesh up the entire face of the cliff before rending its head off its shoulders at the summit.

Yang couldn't be happier.

"Well... that was a thing."

"That," Ren began as the four students across the ravine watched the headless carcass descend wide-eyed as well, only to be interrupted by a very concerned Arc.

"-is NOT good! That bird's gonna pancake them if they can't divert it in time!"

"Pancakes!?"

"Nora. Not the time."

Suddenly in thought, Jaune concocted as quick a plan as he could before glancing at Magnihild with a harrowing realization, "Actually Nora... you think you could pack a top-heavy smack with that thing?"

"Well yes and no," she retorted, flipping the incredibly dangerous giant weapon up and catching it by the handle like a child's plaything, "It's strong no matter how I swing it, but if its too top-heavy then you lose power on the swing and-"

"Okay okay okay. Then I need a favor in the next two seconds. Nora," Jaune noted with a squeak as he crouched into position and pointed an unsure finger towards his rear, "S-Smash?"

"Innuendo aside," Nora declared with a manic glare in her eye as she immediately readied the hammer, "Yes sir, mister fearless guy!"

Merely holding a hand to his face, Ren sighed as Nora let it rip and ensured to will a modest Aura cushion to Jaune's butt to help his body brace for the sudden Ruby-like speeds he entered in the next split second towards the carcass. At the ruins, Blake glanced at her peers with worry as the Nevermore's trajectory of descent became all too apparent.

"Uh... guys...?"

"GAAAAAAAANGGWAAAAAAAAY!"

And shooting just over their heads, close enough to seriously dishevel the three girls' hair, Jaune rocketed towards the beast at insane speeds with shield held out at the ready. He was glad he hadn't flipped out of control like the first launch that day - as a matter of fact, it felt like his armor was actually guiding his flight as opposed to just flailing around like his limbs were the first time - and braced for impact with a loud yell.

"AHHHH-HHHAAAAAAH!"

THUMP! CRA-BOOOM!

With a concussive impact, Jaune silently thanked his partner for unlocking his Aura earlier that no doubt had kept him from turning into a pancake - which Nora seemed to like a lot - as the momentum was enough to clear the carcass away from hitting the ruins and even crash it into the cliff wall, his only injury being a small gash to his head which was healing surprisingly quickly now that he had Aura at his disposal. Needless to say, he was rather glad to glance behind him to see a new series of white glyphs leading back towards the ruins like a trail of platforms.

"Hurry up, you dunce! I can't make any more if you keep falling!"

Right.

Wiping the remnant of blood from his brow and flicking it away, Jaune bounded off the mangled back of the beast and made his way back up like a platform jumper. Finally reaching the last platform, which strangely enough was about a dozen feet above the three girls, the knight smiled down at his savior.

"Well it's not too many fairytales out there where the princess saves the prince, Snow Angel... but I'll accept i-iiIIIT! OOMPF!"

Lifting his head up off the stony ground with a groan, Jaune looked up to see two perfectly white leather boots stop at the edge of his vision... and tried really hard not to look up the skirt just above those.

"You dropped me. I drop you."

Yang simply coughed into her fist with a quick *Ice Queen*, earning a heated glare from the heiress before a second low rumbling from the cliff caught their attention. Little did they know that Jaune's last motion before taking the platforms left a small sprinkle of blood on the cliff face, a drop of which just happening to drip onto a polished rock layer just underneath the stony one the Nevermore carcass had just shattered.

Blake's jaw slowly slackened as a bright, searing light seemed to grow out a point in the cliff and literally melt through the outermost layer of rock to let if fall and reveal what lay underneath, "Guys... what. Is that."

Jaune could only gape at what he'd just crashed a headless giant bird into - a massive blood-red glyph bigger than any he'd ever seen.

"I... don't..."

And through a screen that had a perfect shot of the phenomenon on a nearby cliff, a grim-faced Ozpin turned to face his Deputy.

"It has begun."

And so the day went by, the new students receiving their teams and celebrating their status as new students upon their return to Beacon. Even despite his phony transcripts, Jaune had to admit things had gone pretty well for a first day... except for one thing.

The Glyph.

No matter how hard he tried to look... it never left his mind. It was burned into it. Branded.

The afternoon had done enough to distract him from it, that with the trip back to Beacon and the receiving of an entire team under his care, and so had dinner where Ren had revealed his natural affinity for the art of cooking. But the night... sleep did little to impede the red beast that was lighting his subconscious, Jaune now finding himself in a dark room lit dimly with red.

Choose.

Jaune jumped, looking around the dark space and furrowing his brows at the sudden voice that sounded more like thought than the spoken word.

"U-Uhm... ch-choose what?"

What felt like breath to the back of his neck caused Jaune to jolt a turn, suddenly finding a table of what looked like random things strewn out before him.

"Huh," he noted, realizing that it could only be a dream and listing the items to himself as he walked along the table, "A spear. A glowy scepter. A sword. A chain. A gun. A bow... and a really... short... staff? ...Weird."

Forsaking the metallic cylindrical object with an opening on one end and a red button on the side that was much too short to be a bō staff, Jaune simply began making his way back across the table, his hand brushing along the edge of the wood until slowly coming to a stop in front of the sword. It was about 4 feet long, with trims of gray and a hilt connected to a hand guard that dropped down on the right side. The blade itself continued running down the elongated area of the hand guard, likely to better aid the user in retaining their grip on the sword when it was being used to Jaune's eye. Everything else about it, blade and all, was pitch black.

It was beautiful.

Jaune slowly picked it up, but even though it was incredibly heavy, it was balanced. And it sure felt powerful.

"I... think I've chosen."

...Then Good Luck.

With that, the sword quickly seemed to heat up in Jaune's hands, the uncomfortable heat instantly escalating into a scalding inferno only in Jaune's right hand until the knight cried out in pain.

Jaune's eyes opened, his hands held before him on the sheets as if still gripping the sword. That... was weird. And his hand still hurt.

Blinking a few more times, his eyes lazily focused on his scroll to see that the alarm was about a minute away from going off. Likely, he would just silence it now and tell himself he could sleep a few more minutes even though he had a pretty good feeling he'd oversleep anyway. But hey, first day of school? He highly doubted that he wouldn't be forgiven for cutting it a little close his first day of class had it come down to it.

Yes, that would be what he would've done, had it not been for the accidental knocking of his scroll to the floor in the act of silencing the alarm. Drat.

No matter, just a little reach down to the ground, pick it up, put it back... and back to snoozeville.

"Here. Let me get that for you."

Jaune lazily nodded in appreciation as he halted his forward motion that'd already had him hanging dangerously far out the side of his bed so that the gloved hand could hand the device to him, "Thanks, I-"

Wait. Ren didn't wear gloves last he checked. Even as pj's.

Slowly lifting his head, Jaune's gaze locked with that of a similarly aged boy's - nothing too striking about his pale complexion, black hair and eyes... except for the fact that this stranger clad entirely in black was not announced as part of team JNPR the day before! So logically, Jaune did the most logical thing one would do in his situation - scream like a maiden in distress.

Ren was the first to jolt up, "Wha-!?"

Pyrrha was next, up without a sign of drowsiness and spear in hand ready to fire, "What happened!"

Nora was last.

"Unf! Yes, more! Deeper! To the left!~"

Her three new teammates, and the stranger clad in black, merely turned to face the flushed hammer maiden on her bed who now mimicked a massive swallowing in her throat, "Eheh~ Thank you, Gordon Ramsey, those pancakes were delicious... hmmmm~"

Watching her then plop back onto her sheets, the three remaining members of JNPR focused on the stranger with narrowed glares, Ren being the first to speak as he reached under his pillow for StormFlowers.

"Identify yourself, stranger."

Turning to face the young man who held a vague resemblance to the intruder, barring the highlight and length of hair, Jaune's eyes widened in realization when said intruder gave him his back.

"My name is [Kirigaya]. [Kazuto]. I mean you no harm."

"Hey... that sword," Jaune began slowly, "I've... seen it before..."

"You know him?" Pyrrha questioned, still on her bed but perched and coiled to leap at a moment's notice despite her crimson nightgown. However, Jaune simply shook his head.

"Him? No. But the sword..."

"You mean [Elucidator]?" Kazuto began, hands held up over his head but turning slightly to see the knight nodding in his direction, "I... suppose I should explain."

Ren and Pyrrha instinctively glanced at their new leader, waiting for the next order. Glancing between the intruder and his teammates, he finally gave a single nod, "Alright. No funny business, though."

"Well uh, alright. But I'm sort of new to this myself," Kazuto continued, scratching the back of his head in a way that reminded Pyrrha of Jaune himself before he caught sight of Jaune's hand and glanced at the floor in a moment of awkwardness... and knelt down in front of Jaune with a more serious air, "I am known as [The Black Swordsman], King of Gamers. And I have been summoned to protect you during the span of the [Second Great War]."

"..."

"Oh," Nora suddenly began, interrupting the intense silence in the room, "He's way cuter than Gordon Ramsey. Kinda looks like Renny, too! Can we keep him!?"

Jaune merely stared at Kazuto, then at Nora, then at Ren, and finally at Pyrrha.

"Uh... Pyr? Is this what happens when you unlock someone's Aura?"

The Mistrali merely shook her head wordlessly as she watched the new swordsman stand in the middle of the room.

"I am a [Guardian]... but I believe I've been brought here by the strength of your [Aura]. We uh, kinda got the crash course ourselves, so there's only so much I know at the moment..."

"So let me get this straight, Kazuto," Ren now began, his brows furrowed with intrigue and confusion, "You're here to protect Jaune from a war, yet know as little about being summoned by a person's Aura as we do?"

A shrug from the swordsman, "That about sums it up. I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter."

"How comforting," Jaune retorted with a light frown before the new entrant continued.

"And if I'm in garb that I honestly thought I'd never wear again... I might as well go by the name I once used when I wore it. Please, call me [Kirito]," the boy in black stated before wincing at something beyond JNPR's dorm walls, "And... someone might want to check what's going on across the halls."

Ren and Pyrrha, who were each by the wall in question at opposite ends of the room from Jaune, only glanced in question at Kirito upon not hearing anything.

"I had a very high [Listening] skill in this form - if I didn't know any better... I'd say someone might even be trying to blow a rape whistle over there..."

At that, Jaune instantly leapt out of bed, grabbing Crocea Mors under it before dashing out of the room in his onesie, "Ruby!"

Once out the hall and at the door just outside their dorm, Jaune could hear the frantic whistling coming from just inside the dorm and began banging on the door and trying the handle as quick he could.

"C'mon, c'mon! Open up!"

"Here. Let me get that for you."

And Kirito was soundlessly by his side, reaching up and back to pull out Elucidator from the leather sheath across his back. It was even more beautiful in real life.

Deftly flipping it back into reverse grip as if it weren't the block of lead Jaune recalled wielding in his dream, Kirito simply smacked the hilt into the scroll reader to smash the door open...

...To reveal a madly-blushing Blake curled up on Yang's bunk in fright while scrunching up the bedsheets to cover up what her yukata didn't, Ruby shaking like a leaf and solidly huddling behind a very angry Weiss for safety who was red-faced in her nightgown as she continuously blew the 'good morning' whistle as if it were a rape whistle. All this at a white-haired man in a red cloak standing in the center of the dorm, pinching his nose with shut eyes and furrowed brows in evident annoyance.

"Truly, I am to be pitied the most of all humanity."

"Weiss! It's talking! Make it stop!"

Ruby huddled closer to her partner's back, Weiss not even caring to shove away the dolt clinging to her back like a koala since her ire was currently directed forwards.

"Hah! A man who suddenly appears in a room full of caste young women - barring Xiao Long - in such a vulnerable state, pitying himself!? Just who do you think you are!?"

"...Apparently, the multiverse's chew toy."

Such a flat remark seriously throwing Weiss off her morning tirade, she could only balk as a very altered Blake now pointed at it from her bunk, "Guys, i-it has no scent! I never even heard its footsteps! It's... it's...!"

Quickly grabbing one of Yang's pillows, the ravenette chucked it at the man as quickly as she could, everyone present - including Jaune and his team huddled at the door - gasping in shock as the pillow went through him to plop harmlessly on the floor... the only signs of alteration on the man being a shimmering in his form that separated into the dorm space like-

"-Rose petals?"

Straightening up behind Weiss at the sight, Ruby finally stopped shivering in fright and glanced at the man in curiosity before walking forward and catching one of said petals in her right palm. They were exactly like the ones she gave out while using her Sem- "Wait a minute. What's this on my hand?"

Finally looking up with the first sign of interest he'd given the whole time, the man revealed his grey eyes to all in the room as he watched the petal dissipate to reveal what looked like a blood-red tribal depiction of a double-headed scythe that was strung between the tips of the blades and the end of the staff branded into her palm. Or was it a bow?

"At least that is one piece of good news," the man continued with what might've been a more bored tone than even Blake could manage, "I was almost beginning to think I would be stuck with the uptight one. Lord knows I've had enough of that for one eternity."

"Hey!"

"Take it as a compliment," the man noted levelly with words that were yet so strangely sharp towards the heiress that they immediately quelled any retort yet to be borne from her throat, "You remind me of one I used to know... a very, very long time ago."

"D-Don't be so presumptuous! As if you'd ever meet someone of the caliber of a Schnee!"

The man simply shook his head with the slightest scoff in amusement before muttering, "Exactly like one I used to know. Honestly, I couldn't care less about your name; therefore I shall replace it with one I could... Tohsaka."

"Don't you dare-!"

"It's already been decided... Tohsaka."

Judging by the smug smirk gracing the man's lips as he spoke, the tone in his voice never having wavered even once during the interaction, Jaune realized that the man was likely not kidding as he made it evidently clear to the miffed heiress that there truly was nothing she could do to break his skin. If it weren't for Blake's experiment, Jaune might've thought the man was made of steel.

And being how much in contrast that kind of man was from the teddy bear Jaune honestly considered himself to be, he realized that his constitution would never mesh well with Weiss'. So much for first school crush...

But turning back to Ruby, the man continued as he gently raised his palm to be level with Ruby's, enough to draw attention to the symbol on her palm without committing the disrespect of touching her without permission, "You bear the mark of a Master... Normally, I would introduce myself as your Servant for the duration of the war, yet... I fear that even my own knowledge of the Wars may now be obsolete. Something is strange about the air here... in what part of Japan are we located?"

"Yes," Kirito noted aloud, evidently with renewed hope at the mention of a familiar name even if everyone in the room seemed totally oblivious to it, "Are we in [Kyoto]?"

"[Kobe]?"

"Probably not... [Tokyo]... either?"

"Um, we're in Vale," Ruby supplied meekly, nervous all over again as the three girls present of her team realized that JNPR had brought a surprise guest as well. Nevertheless, now it was the newcomers' turns to draw blanks.

"In... Vytal?"

"..."

Weiss stamped her foot on the floor with impatience, "On the planet of Remnant!? Jeez, what world do you Neanderthals even come from if you don't even know your four kingdoms!?"

Both men answered in sync without missing a beat.

"Earth."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Uh. I'm like... starting to get a feeling. Like, that maybe, there's like... a bit of a disconnect goin' on here..."

Ren leaned over to his childhood friend, even pursing his mouth to the side so as to break the awkward silence as little as possible, "Ya think?"

"Hm. I'd heard whispers of such a thing happening," the white-haired man began thoughtfully, "Just as there are different eras and timelines on Earth... the multiverse spreads across an infinite space of parallel multiverses throughout the cosmos... multiverses periodically converging onto a single planet to gather the winners of multi-dimensional battles... all to fight the War of Wars."

"Oh. So that's what they were talking about," Kirito mused aloud, hand to chin in thought as he glanced to the side, "I... probably should've paid attention instead of checking for signal on my cell."

"Wait," Pyrrha began from the doorway, no longer pleased in the slightest with being so confused, "Who are they? And why are you here?"

"They. It. The powers that have impelled us to come here go by many names," the man noted dryly with what could almost come across as contempt, "The Beyond. The Records. The Heavens. Every culture in any land that ever existed has a basic belief in the same concept - all based on the Root of existence itself."

"In other words, if I recall correctly," Kirito offered at the group of blank faces, "The foundation of existence is based on two fundamental principles that no one really understands and cannot truly define. The first is [Life]. We know what [Life] is, because we're alive, but no one can truly define it or know where it came from. The second, much like [Life], is [Thought]. We know what it is, but once again, no one knows why it exists or how it came about. The thing they both have in common is that neither [Life] nor [Thought] have any discernible beginning. As far as anyone knows, only [Life] can beget [Life], and only [Thought] can beget [Thought]. There are no known quantifiable components of either in existence that could've come together to create them, and nowhere else has anyone been able to point that proves that fundamental fact of existence wrong. They simply exist. This makes these two principles the foundation, or [Root], of existence itself."

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the swordsman's eloquent explanation, "You haven't answered my question."

For the first time, the white-haired man cracked a smile at the Mistrali, "She is a sharp one, that. What he means to say is that this Root is the basis of your world. Life and thought came together to create it, as there is nothing alive anywhere that could not be created without both life and thought. Logically, this means that these two forces will never cease to create as they can never be satisfied - though tempered by counter-principles like Death and Void - but will expand not just through one world, but through the cosmos. Because no one has ever lived enough to say they no longer need life, nor thought enough to say they no longer need to think. Every idea and every organism may be different... but they are all connected by the basic life and thought they share. The Origin of these two constitute the they of which you speak."

"And why you're here?" Jaune now asked, glancing between the man and the boy who in turn shared a glance between each other.

Understanding that even the self-proclaimed veteran was just out of water as he was in all this, Kirito replied, "Well, like any sentient entity, even the [Root] must feed. We have food, but [Life] and [Thought] need no such thing. If I'm not mistaken, I learned that in order to survive once they've bonded, [Life] and [Thought] must create. Once any organism capable of [Life] and [Thought] loses the will to create - creating new experiences, new relationships, new accomplishments - it simply loses its life-force and begins to die. People are like that - logically, so is the [Root] itself. Though it doesn't exactly feed on [Creation], otherwise anything it makes would be destroyed."

"So..."

"So, the [Root] feeds on the basest and primal of the byproducts of [Life] and [Thought] instead, to keep it fueling its own endless supply of the two base principles of existence," Kirito continued, "And that's [Desire]. The [Desire] for [Creation] is the reciprocal entities of [Life] and [Thought]: each pair that creates the other can be switched without ever being proven wrong. And so, the [Root] survives. As long as there's [Desire], the building blocks of the [Root] can perpetuate. We are here because in one way or another, we've shown a [Will] or other form of [Desire] stronger than any in our universes, and the [Root] gathers us all periodically to use that [Will] in a fight for the ultimate [Prize] that in turn feeds the [Root] itself as our superior [Will] is expended to achieve it."

"So it's a fight," Ruby noted with concern, "But what prize would be worth that kind of needless fighting?"

"What is more valuable than the purest form of Desire itself - a wish?" the man replied coolly like the steel of a blade, "Imagine being able to grant a wish, no matter what it was. No one could resist that, since everyone has a desire. In fact, such desires are what drive many to keep living - be it a mundane desire to eat, drink, and breathe, or a noble desire such as the salvation of others - and these thoughts drive us onward even if they contradict what is possible. As a matter of fact, aside from power, the Root chose those we were summoned to based on the wishes you have as well."

The man then glared at Ruby, his steely eyes now seeming to try and pierce through her silver ones to gain the truth, "So tell me. If you are to be my Master, and I your Guardian... what is it you wish for the most, child? For you to be chosen, it must've been as powerful as your own potential as a living being. What is it... that you want as much as your life itself?"

Everyone's eyes drifted to the crimsonette who suddenly seemed to become even smaller as she twiddled her thumbs and cast a small glance at the insignia clipped into her ammunition belt across the room...

"There's one thing I want more than anything else," Jaune cut in when he realized that it was something Ruby wasn't wanting to spill anytime soon, "I want to inspire people, inspire them to save others like I do so the world becomes a better place. And I can't do that as Jaune Arc, the farmer... or Jaune Arc, the shopkeeper... no, I can only do that as Jaune Arc, the Hero. So I want to become that, I have to be that... No matter what it takes."

"So your prime [Desire] is to become a [Hero] to save others and inspire more to do the same," Kirito mused aloud before finally cracking a grin at his Master, "Then I am glad to have been summoned under your command - your [Wish] is one I will be happy to pledge my swords to... er, sword. I suppose I only came with one..."

Catching the hint of sorrow in his Guardian's eye at the thought, Jaune glanced down at his family sword and back at the young man before him, "Well... if you're used to using two, then I got this guy here I wouldn't mind lending to ya."

Jaune couldn't help a small smile at watching Kirito's eyes light up at the offer, though polite reluctance kept him from reaching out for it, "I... I couldn't. I'm sure it is very important to you."

"Ah, I've barely used it!" Jaune assured before catching himself, chuckling nervously a bit before scratching the back of his head, "I mean, y'know, like heavy duty and stuff. It's a classic, and I'm sure you'll find a better use for it than me - besides, I gotta give my Guardian the best tools to guard me with, right?"

"Very well," Kirito noted with a wide smile before taking Crocea Mors when Jaune held it out, giving the blade a few test swings before giving a curious nod, "It feels light at first, but deceptively so. I sense it contains a far greater power than [Weight] alone within. Thank you, Master."

"Please, just call me Jaune."

Kirito nodded before flipping the sword up and over his back in a sheathing motion, bright white light like that of Jaune's Aura upon its unlocking grew across Kirito's back to accept the sword in a new leather sheath before noting, "Very nice. I think I can work with this no problem."

"Hm. I suppose you are likely in the Saber class of summoned guardians," the man noted, "You will be glad to know that such standing will grant you an advantage in base stats over others in the war. I am likely summoned as an Archer class guardian. Again."

"So," Ruby drawled quietly, her usual sense of curiosity returning to her as she rocked back and forth between the heels and balls of her feet, "Do I just call you Archer? Or do you have another name?"

"Archer will do. I've gotten used to it."

"Awwww," Ruby note with a small pout, though it quickly became much more genuine when she realized it seemed to have absolutely no effect on this man. And he was looking right at her! "Fiiiine..."

Finally having gathered the bravery to get down from her partner's bunk, though for the sake of decency she took the bedsheets down with her for cover, Blake daintily nodded at both newcomers, "Archer. Saber. Nice to meet you both. Anyone know where Yang went?"

Finally realizing the obvious lack of blonde in the room, the students began to look around in question until they noticed Weiss scoffing and stomping over to the bathroom door. Running water could still be heard inside.

Practically banging on the door, Weiss yelled, "Yang! You're incorrigible, you know that!? Who on Remnant spends an entire morning washing their hair? Do you have any idea what you've just missed aside from Arc in that Oum-forsaken onesie!?"

"For your information, Princess, I'm not washing my hair!" the voice came through the door with heavy sarcasm, "Just trying... to get... this stupid thing off me!"

Weiss rolled her eyes before glaring back at everyone in the overpacked dorm, "And what in the world is everyone doing here!? We have class soon and need be dressed appropriately so as to make the best impression on our teachers! Out! Begone! All of you!"

"Eesh," Kirito muttered as Weiss promptly shepherded team JNPR out the room, "Talk about Asuna on a bad day..."

Archer merely quirkier a brow nonchalantly before adding, "More like Tohsaka on a good day."

"Not another word about your Earth Women," Weiss seethed derisively before plopping herself down cross-armed on her bed with a huff and shouting, "And you better hurry it up, Xiao Long!"

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!"

In the bathroom, the blonde brawler in question continued scrubbing furiously as she had done for the last half hour. The Aura in the spot of interest had died down long ago due to the force of pressure on the spot she was applying - surely it had to have come off by now! It couldn't have been a tattoo, Yang only did stupid stuff like that when she got drunk, and she was pretty sure she hadn't gotten to a bar last night. Ruby made her promise not to after the last time! But as she washed away the suds for the umpteenth time around the raw skin on her right palm only to reveal that the blood-red insignia was still there, Yang could only sigh in defeat.

Couldn't be a tattoo. Couldn't be a drunk mistake. The lines were too straight, and when Yang got drunk, there was literally nothing straight about her.

So what was it?

It didn't really irk her that it was there - it was in the palm of her hand after all, not like people would notice - but what did freak her out was how those straight lines seem to come together to design a face.

A red, robotic, face.

With a small shiver, Yang resumed the scrubbing with a small grunt, "Just five more minutes..."

Elsewhere in Vale, a young woman basked in the sun outside her favorite food truck as she ate from a bowl of ice cream. Well, it was an ice cream truck, but for her it was the same thing. And there was nowhere it could go where she couldn't reach it in the blink of an eye, a fact so true that the owner of the truck - a balding, wrinkly old shopkeeper - had stopped charging her for ice cream long ago!

But today wasn't a day for exitement, it was a day for thought. Being sore wasn't fun, and neither was eating spoonfuls of her favorite treat with her left hand. But it couldn't be helped, her right hand had been burning up a storm since late last night.

"Aw, why the sad face, my multi-chromatic friend?"

Ugh. Morning people.

While she thought of the first dozen ways to stab or otherwise murder this overexcited stooge who seemed to think that chatting with people who were eating ice cream at 8am was a good idea, she couldn't help but raise a brow as said stooge sat in front of her.

"You know, nine of those moves you just thought of are actually considered awesome sex positions where I come from!"

Drawing back, the girl simply pointed at herself with genuine confusion at the masked stranger who she suddenly realized was actually very well-armed.

"Yeah. Of course I can understand you, silly! You see this mask on my face? You see these white dots I have for eyes? You have any idea how much I can understand people not understanding you because no one understands gorgeous creepers like us!?"

A few blinks at the strange man.

"My thoughts exactly! Though trust me, it'd be much worse if I took the mask off. My face looks like the love child of a wrinkly old prune with a much wrinklier, older... prune. No no, trust me, I got a face for radio, ya catch my drift? It's so bad, the only way I can Trick or Treat is by phone!"

A light deadpan.

"No, I can't use this mask, people would know who I am! I'm kind of a big deal, you know. People would like, jizz their pants and stuff if they knew I was here."

"Oh, snap! How'd you do that!?" the figure replied, slamming his hands on either side of the extended food truck table between them, "You just talked with like, dots!"

Simply chewing her ice cream much more slowly than before, she stared at the man who might actually had managed to be crazier than she was. Which she actually kinda liked; maybe she wouldn't kill him after all-

"Oh c'mon, you mean you seriously didn't know you just talked with dots!? Am I going crazy here or someth- actually well, I know I'm crazy, but still. And sweetie, you honestly couldn't kill me if you tried. The Army couldn't kill me if they tried. Stan Lee couldn't kill me if he tried. I couldn't kill me if I tried! And trust me, I'VE TRIED! So anyway, what's your name?"

Her ice cream finally forgotten, the girl simply stared at the first interestingly dysfunctional person she'd met since that guy in a bowler hat who'd talked to her the other day with a lazy smile before idly picking up her bowl and tilting it so he could see inside. If he could read her mind like she was beginning to believe, he'd know that it was-

"Neopolitan. With an O. Makes sense now that I look at ya," the masked man noted, the twin katanas strapped to his back clinking together as he propped his chin on one hand, "So why do they call you that, Neo? Got a multiple personality disorder? Survived a worldwide death program as The One? Switched with a carton of Bluebell at birth?"

She blinked a few more times with a wider smile, her eyes this time switching colors back and forth that had the desired effect of making the guy sit up with curiosity.

"Huh. That's... adorable...?"

Neo silently, scoffed, put off by the lackluster reply and instead leaning back in her bench seat cross-armed.

"Oh, you wanna know who I am?" the guy retorted as if having his ego slighted to the highest degree, "Okay, open your right hand. What do you see?"

Her curiosity piqued at how this stranger had ascertained the problem with her hand, Neo complied and glanced once again at the red circle on her palm bisected by a single line. Her reply of glancing at the man only seemed to irk him more.

"I-It's not... it's not a traffic signal! And of course I'm irked!" he complained in exasperation, reaching forward and pretending to twist Neo's arm in the right direction, "You gotta tur- no, turn it the other way. Lef- no, not your left, my left! Forty-five, forty-five degree angle! There! See the resemblance now?"

Her eyes widening, she glanced from the design on her hand to the identical design on the masked stranger's face, to which he replied with over acted drama, "You... Neopolitan... are my density!"

"And there go the dots again. Seriously? Density, destiny? Not ringing any- holy hell what world am I on that people can't even get a reference to Back to the Future! It's a classic!"

All he got was some pursed lips and a sideways glance in reply. As expected, he seemed to know exactly what that meant as he replied in a miffed whisper.

"Well I'm sorry that I didn't capitalize on the wrinkly prune sex in the beginning while I had your attention!" but leaning back, all traces of anger suddenly gone, he simply shrugged, "But judging by your mental image of stabbing me in the face with an ice pick precisely seventy-two times when we first met, I take it you've killed people before. And I've killed people before! So it's pretty much obvious by now, we're gonna be like, best friends!"

With an incredulous smirk at the man across from her who'd just thrown his hands up like an idiot-

"Hey, I'm not an idiot. That's ruuude..."

With a deadpan at the man she could only say was... not... an idiot, Neo could only wonder where he was getting at with this.

"Well now that you're on the subject, why don't I tell you all about it while we walk back to your place?"

"Oh. So you can do other types of punctuation too, huh? I can roll with that. But that's right, I said walk. See, I love to be the bearer of bad news, but your Semblance won't work while I'm around."

Now slightly concerned - "Might wanna up the concern level to mildly apprehensive" - and slamming her hand on the table so he would stop interrupting her thoughts, Neo found that she could no longer use teleportation indeed.

"Don't fret that pretty little head of yours, darlin'. I got teleportation, shapeshifting - not like your illusions, but it gets the job done - and then some. I got ten powers to be exact! They don't call me Weapon X for nothing!"

"I know, not that catchy. But my friends call me Mister Pool. First name Dead," the man finally provided, reaching a hand across the table that Neo shook despite her usual aversion to touch outside of beatdowns, "Or as they say in Mexico - La Piscina Muertaaa... just kidding, nobody calls me that."

A single nod and smile from the young mercenary.

"Yeah. Deadpool works, too."

With that, Neo glanced at the insignia on her hand before taking a final bite of-

"End it. End iiiit... End it here!"

Glancing at the man in curiosity who seemed to be glaring up to the heavens and speaking to no one in particular, Neo watched Deadpool quickly turn back to face her with a quick chuckle, "Another one of my ten powers. You wouldn't understand..."

"End it now, jerkwad! My line where I introduce myself was perfect to end the chapter!"

And so...

"No 'And so'! You already ruined it! Just shut up now!"

...Dick.

"Oho! Oh I got somethin' for ya..."

And so, Neo simply watched on with vague amusement as Deadpool spent the next few minutes arguing with absolutely no one at all.

A/N: Hello there, Phantom here!

Whyyyy do I do this... Whyyyy take on a new story when I have so many to care for already! It's a good question, likely linked with some undiagnosed form of ADD I had growing up. Ah well, it was fun to write.

Ah, and a disclaimer - this fic will have blatant

Weiss:Reacts levels of crossovers. So if it's not in the crossovers section, it's because there are too many crossovers (not just references, but actual crossing over) going on to make it something I can boil down to just two categories. Can't be done.

And friggin

Deadpool, man.

"Shut up. Totally a legit power. Hit me up on Wikipedia, you'll see."

Arghhhhhh... anyway. Everything that happened during initiation, yep. Totally canon. RT just couldn't make the deadline to add that material into the show.

"No one believes you."

Shut up and stop breaking the fourth wall. I've created a problem here.

In any case, this is my first

multi-xover fic that I couldn't help posting while sharpening the saw for my mains, but feel free to Fave, Follow and Review to show your support! Who are the other masters? Who are the other guardians? What will Deadpool say next!?

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow."

...Should've seen that one coming. Honestly reader, I'll do my best to control this guy, and I'm sure he'll have his hands full taking the money right out of your pockets for his movie coming out next month. Until then, take care...

"And Happy Reading!~"

JEEZ, MAN!