"Mom, Dad, you have nothing to worry about. I'll be just across Beacon Bay from you." A girl with violet eyes and black hair told the two adults standing in front of her.

"I'm not the one worried, Sonja. I have complete faith you'll make a fine Huntress once you graduate." Ren smiled calmly down on his daughter from behind his rimless glasses. "Your mother, on the other hand..." he continued, gesturing to the bawling mess of a woman that was Nora that clung for dear life to her daughter.

"My little baby bird is leaving our nest, Ren! I have a right to be upset!" Nora sobbed into her 18 year old's shoulder, the tears soaking the fuschia sleeves of the undershirt to her pine-colored vest.

"We've been over this, Mom. I'll come by the diner for breakfast every other weekend to visit." Sonja said in an attempt to reassure her inconsolable parent. "I-I'll even bring my team along once I get put in one."

"Not good enough! Come by every day before class!" Nora demanded.

"You know she can't, dear." Ren sighed as he once again tried to pull her off their only child before his wife's tears drenched Sonja anymore than she currently was. With a little help from Sonja wriggling her arm free from her wailing mother's grasp, they achieved victory and Sonja was free at last.

"At least call me before bed then! A-and remember your pills for your condition!" Nora cried.

"Of course, and I should have enough to last me my first month here." Sonja nodded before the sound of a new airship docking behind them caught the family's attention.

"Well, there's our ride." Ren sighed.

"No, wait! I'm not ready to leave my little girl yet!" Nora protested.

"We'll be back tomorrow for her initiation ceremony, Nora." Ren reminded, looking back to his daughter. "See you then, my sweet."

"Bye, Dad." Sonja blushed as she turned to pick up her bag and head off towards the main auditorium. Ren and Nora stayed behind, turning to the dock as the airship finally pulled into the docking ramp. A moment passed as safety locks disengaged and the doors slowly opened. Much less slowly, two yellows blurs burst by the Lie-Valkyrie family and into the nearby trash can a few feet away.

"Ugh...did I really have to inherit your air sickness, dad?" the younger one asked the 40-year old blonde man whose head was still stuck in the bin.

"I don't...like it as much as you do, Icarus." Jaune replied to his youngest son out of the four Arc children he had sired. Icarus was the spitting image of his father at 18: scraggly blonde hair, black hoodie under angular armor pads, but instead of the pure blue eyes almost all Arcs were famous for, the left was blue, and the right one green. He also seemed more sickly than Jaune in his younger years, but that wasn't the fault of the airsickness both of them suffered from.

"Whatever...I think it's passed now." Icarus sighed, wiping his mouth before he almost up chucked all of his organs from the sudden bear hug Nora had placed him into. "AGH-AUNT NORA!?"

"WHY ARE ALL OUR BABIES GROWING UP SO FAST?!" Nora bawled, her grip around her godson tightened to the point Icarus started to turn purple in the face. It took the combined strength of both Jaune and Ren to wrench the boy from the ironclad grip Nora had on him.

"Apologies, Jaune. She's been...pretty emotional today." Ren sighed as he handed his wife a handkerchief to wipe her tears, only for the Valkyrie to blow her nose with it.

"Well, she's not as bad as Pyrrha was when Athena started at Signal." Jaune reminisced, thinking of when his eldest started at the undergrad Huntsman academy. Taiyang still looks nervous whenever Jaune's wife was around after that incident. "You okay, son?"

"I'll...live." Icarus groaned, getting his air back after almost being choked to death by that one hug. "You might wanna keep her restrained in case she recognizes anybody else."

"That...might be for the best." Jaune sighed, Ren nodding in agreement. "Say hello to your mom and siblings for me." he said as the two started bringing Nora towards the airship.

"Gotcha. Later Dad, Uncle Ren, Aunt Nora!" Icarus waived as he joined the tail end of the crowd of new arrivals from that same airship.

"Wait! I can't leave yet! I haven't said all my goodbyes yet!" Nora continued to cry as she was dragged into the ship through a few straggling passengers from the inbound trip.

"Man, glad my moms didn't make that much of a scene when I left." one girl in a dark blue hoodie muttered to herself, blowing her darker blue bangs out of her green eyes as she continued into Beacon's quad. "Welp, might as well get a lay of the land." she thought, pulling out a wind Dust vial and sticking it on the heel of her sneakers. Once it was attached, the soles lit up lime green, and she began to levitate over the crowd. She flew around, getting a Nevermore's eye view of the campus she would call home for the next few years. Then, she looked among the dozens of incoming students among her. There was the sickly blonde kid that rushed out with his dad earlier, another girl that must have been that overemotional lady's daughter, and some handsome boy her age with undercut icy blue hair and expensive-looking clothing followed by an old man in a tuxedo that seemed to be pushing a rather overstacked luggage cart behind him. Back towards the parking lot far off to the left where some students were being dropped off by cars, she could make out two Faunus girls being dropped off by an older rabbit Faunus woman. One was another rabbit Faunus with dark green hair and towered over the three of them by a good half-foot. The other didn't seem to be related with the two rabbit women, judging the jet black hair and cat ears, and a large buster sword slung over her black and purple jacket.

Before she could get a better look at the rest, she suddenly felt an invisible hand pulling her to the ground, coming down rather hard and face first. "Ow...fuck, that hurt." she groaned as she sat back up.

"Language, Miss...Chloris, is it?"

Ms. Chloris looked up to see the middle-aged platinum blonde staring daggers down at her, a glowing riding crop in one hand, and a holographic tablet in the other.

"Bai's just fine." Bai replied. "Any particular reason you pulled me down there, lady?" she asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Professor Goodwitch." Glynda coldly replied. "Assistant headmistress of this academy. Now, allow me to give you your first lesson from the student handbook: section 3, subsection 2, paragraph 7...use of levitation semblances or flight equipment or machinery outside of designated areas is prohibited for students without faculty permission." she recited, not even glancing at her tablet. Bai just sat up, mouth agape at Beacon's walking rulebook. "You can continue onto the auditorium on your own two feet. Now, run along."

"Tch, fine." Bai finally stood up, joining the others in their trek through the campus. Glynda kept an eye on her until she felt the presence of a group arriving behind her.

"I see you're wasting no time whipping these kids into shape, Glynda." Yang complimented.

"Somebody has to, Yang." the older Huntress sighed before turning to the two younger individuals. "Roxanne...and Thorn. I was quite surprised when your mother said you'd be coming back to finish your schooling."

"Her and me both." Roxie quipped.

"Shut it." Thorn retorted through clenched teeth.

"Well then, you two can continue on with the others. Glyn, my sister in?" Yang suggested before asking her fellow Huntress.

"Actually, yes. And so is another one of your fellow alumni." Glynda answered. "She's already on her way up."

"Then I got some catching up to do." Yang smirked before she remembered something. "Rox, stick to your cousin like glue. He leaves your sight for any reason that isn't a bathroom break, you have my permission to hunt him down."

"Is that really necessary?" Thorn asked.

"Don't think I didn't hear you plotting your escape on the ship ride over, Mister." his aunt glared, gesturing with two fingers that she had her eyes on him.

"Whatever. It's not like Roxie's that intimidating anyway." the young man pointed out, earning a leer from his younger cousin.

"It should be me you should be more concerned about facing, Mister Rose." Glynda responded, actually getting to the Faunus. Apparently, the infamous legends of Glynda Goodwitch were true.

"...Okay, fair point." Thorn begrudgingly agreed as he started for the auditorium.

"Hey, wait up!" Roxie called out as she ran up to catch up with him. Once the three related individuals were out of earshot, Glynda let out a much more audible sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Ugh...five more years until retirement can't come soon enough." she complained.

Up in Beacon Tower, Ruby let out a sigh of her own; this one of relief from being able to spot Thorn from his dark red hoodie. Yang got him here; that was the easy part. The hard part was just beginning. Her thoughts of this were pushed aside as she heard a notification chime from the holoprojector on her desk. "Yes?" she asked, selecting the notification from Penny as an image of her android friend appeared in the center of the office.

"Ruby, I have an incident at the base of the tower to report." Penny announced. "Should I hail the proper authorities?"

The headmistress raised an eyebrow to the hologram in the middle of the room. "What exactly is the incident, Penny?" Ruby asked.

"Unauthorized access to the elevator and threatening bodily harm." Penny replied. "When I asked for her name, she replied with quote, 'Penny, let me see my dolt of a friend before I have you reprogrammed into an answering machine.' unquote."

Ruby had to stifle a squeal of excitement. Only one person dared to call her that anymore, and she hadn't seen her in almost a year. "It's okay, Penny; she's a friend! Let her inside!" she ordered excitedly.

"Unlocking elevator doors." her holographic assistant nodded as the middle elevator doors opened. Inside stood a woman Ruby's age with stark white, short cut hair, piercing light blue eyes, and a cross-shaped scar over her left eye. She wore a white business casual dress with silver slippers and a matching tote slung over her shoulder. "Ruby. It's been too long." she smirked.

"Weiss!" Ruby smiled as she rushed forward to meet her halfway.

"Careful!" the Dust company president warned as Ruby practically dashed toward her. "I'm still carrying precious cargo here, you dunce!"

It was the moment before she made contact that Ruby registered the decent-sized bump Weiss sported under her dress. "Oh, right! Sorry!" she apologized, slamming on her brakes as she stood in front of her friend, settling for a light hug rather than a tackling one. "I almost forgot about your announcement of this little...what was it again?" she asked, pointing at Weiss' engorged stomach.

Weiss regained her smirk as she returned the hug. "Neptune and I just found out the other day. It's going to be a girl." she replied. "She'll be here sometime in late November."

"Well, that's great to hear." Ruby grinned. "Pass my congrats on to Neptune." she asked as the two women walked over to the desk.

"Thank you." Weiss smiled as she placed her bag down and took a seat. "It's just too bad Triton won't be home when she's born."

"We could allow him some time off to visit home if you want." Ruby offered.

"I doubt he'll take it, anyway." the duelist responded. "He's adamant on focusing on his upcoming studies. With the crop of new students going to these academies, I can't say I blame him."

"That's true." Ruby nodded in agreement. "Besides the top of the class students from the lower schools, we're getting back some of our initial recruits from last year's epidemic. Midna, Roxie, Icarus Arc, Jade Daichi..." she began listing off.

"And...Thorn?" Weiss interjected, the smile slightly fading from the reaper's face.

"Heh. News travels that fast, huh?" Ruby asked.

"You can thank Yang for that." the Dust company heiress informed her, reaching into her bag for her Scroll, opening up a Dustbook post from Yang. It depicted Thorn and Roxie standing by the airship docks in Vale, each with varying degrees of enthusiasm for their first day at Beacon. A caption below read "So happy my baby and favorite nephew are going to Beacon Academy! #ProudMama/Auntie"

"Of course." Ruby sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm glad I got Thorn back into Beacon, but I'm not happy that I literally had to beat some sense into him to do it."

"Well, you had to intervene at some point." Weiss reasoned. "You said it yourself when he dropped out of Signal. The last thing any of us want is for him to end up like-"

"I know." Ruby interjected rather sharply. "Which is why I'm going to ignore that request from the supermax security prison at New Glenn."

Weiss' eyes widened in surprise. "Ruby, what if what Torchwick said is true?" she asked.

"Then I'll deal with the fallout from it." Ruby answered. "I trust Roman now since he changed, but this is something else I want out of my life for good."

Weiss eased further back into her seat. "I figured you'd say something along those lines." she shrugged. "Colonel Solei isn't going to enjoy your denial of help to her troops though."

"Ciel's a capable leader." Ruby shrugged. "If anyone can thwart this possible prison break, it's her soldiers. There's no way he's getting free."

"Who's getting free, Sis?"

Ruby and Weiss turned to see Yang walking up to the two of them. "What? No hello, Rubes? Ice Queen?"

Guess who's back?

Let me first apologize if anyone still reads my content for being inactive over the past few months. I figured summer would give me some opportunity to work on my fics, but after a few family reunions and emergencies, breaking my elbow, and a few other personal issues, time to write has been hard to come by. Either way, I finally got some time back, and am finally getting out of a severe case of writer's block I've had with the next chapter of Broken Home. The beginning and ending are done; the rest was somewhat hard to figure out, but now I know how to connect the two.

I've been wanting to finish Broken Home since it's been incomplete since before Volume 3 came out, and these next few chapters for RWBI will contain spoilers from not just Broken Home, but its third part in the trilogy, so I hope this tides you over for a while. I want to commit to finishing that up before coming back here. Anyway, that's all I got so remember to leave a follow or comment on this story of you liked what you've read so far, and I'll see you lads and lasses much sooner than last time!