"You can never catch The Mysterious Fox!" The boy's shout was followed almost immediately by a series of splashes. She glanced at her sister before both of them ran over to the top of the wet grass covered slope leading to the stream and found the mask wearing boy, who had distracted the trappers with water balloons before running off, dangling from a rope swing.

"Um hi?" The girls giggled at his lame opening before her sister leaned against the tree to reach out with the walking stick they had been using to spring snares that morning. Her sister snagged the rope with the hooked end of the stick and she wrapped her arms around her sister's waist so they could pull together to bring their rescuer back to safety. She had to struggle not to sneeze as when her sister shifted to take the boy's hand for the final pull the tips of her sister's red ponytail brushed against her nose.

"I just was going to scare you brats for messing with our traps before, but now I am going to tear you limb from limb." Stepping forward she gripped the boy's arm nervously as she glanced down the slope to see the group of four teens were starting to climb out of the water that barely made it to their waists. She guessed the speaker was the burliest one in the front of the group.

The boom from nearby was followed by the teen pitching back into the water clutching his face. "If your livelihood depends on setting traps for small animals then by Oum put them in places that aren't so obvious that six year olds can find them." A blond teenage huntress in training pronounced calmly as she stepped up beside the tree. The bully came back up from the water spluttering, cursing, and nursing a bruise already forming almost directly between his eyes. The older girl's rifle shifted into a cavalry saber that she casually rested against her shoulder next to her white breastplate. "As for trying to cause any harm to these kids I will just say that was the only rubber bullet that I have loaded, and the far bank looks much easier to climb then this one."

The group of trappers slogged their way across the wide stream and disappeared into the forest on the other side. "Are you all alright?" The young woman asked as she turned back to them. She nodded in response, and the huntress grinned a bit impishly at the sight of the girls holding onto the boy, before reaching into her pocket and taking out a Scroll. "Doesn't the hero usually get rewarded for rescuing the fair maidens?"

She glanced at her sister and saw a similar grin. the boy yelped in surprise as her sister reached from behind his back to pull the paper-mâché mask up revealing his bright blue eyes before they both leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

The colors of the memory faded as she looked at the snow covered evergreens outside the window. Those born in Solitas called this early spring but as far as she was concerned it was the dead of winter just coming out of an even worse frozen hell. With the only milder by comparison summer still months away. The only food that could be grown here was in greenhouses, and the only comfort in the hot spring and Dust warmed buildings.

The memory only made her ache to see Anima again even worse. There was no knight or dashing rogue to rescue her here. A sword and shield no more use then a rope swing and water balloons against the army of Atlas or the man that said there would be hell to pay if they were to let her leave.

Her mother had been crafty enough to take what she wanted and leave, but that required both planning and funds. She didn't have the Lien to buy her way onto a ship, and before that if she could slip past security she would likely freeze to death before she could make it to a port. The only solace she had was that thanks to her semblance she could deny him the things he really wanted her for, the Dust spell forms her family had spent generations developing and perfecting. She could spin synthetic threads that could have any density of dust from none to so packed together the polymers could barely contain them. Without destructive analysis no one else would be able to tell which it was and then they would never know if the pattern would have worked.

Her Scroll beeped and a glance showed her it was the summons she had been waiting for.
Gray, utilitarian, colorless... these words describe the walls of a prison just as well as the military inspired hallways of Atlas Academy. Opening a door a slightly darker shade of gray then the surrounding walls reveals the office of the institution's headmaster. Appropriately for the man in command of the military as well as the academy it would be better described as a war room with one wall taken up by a large map of Remnant covered in a riot of colored markers showing troop distributions for the kingdom of Atlas, its allies, and potential opposition.

The powerfully built man himself sits behind a large metal desk in front of a window giving a broad view of the pride of Atlas, its airship armada. Hearing someone enter the room he looks up but does not smile.

"Trainee Shade thank your prompt attendance, I assume you and the doctor have completed all of the tests of your semblance that he feels are needed for the present?"

"We have sir, he also instructed me in the maintenance of the camera drone you authorized for me to use at my next assignment." She stood at attention in front of his desk and saluted. "I can be ready to leave at any time."

"At ease." The general does give a small smile now as his blue eyes lock onto her dark reddish brown. "You are likely curious why I asked you to make preparations so early."

"It is not a soldier's place to question." She settles into a more relaxed stance with her hands behind her back crossed over a wide pouch on a thick belt, the dark brown of both a sharp contrast to the grey of her academy tunic and skirt, but matching the color of the scarf around her neck. The golden brown of her hair flashing where it sticks out slightly from the back of her grey beret as she shakes her head in the negative. "Your orders stand absolute in the academy General Ironwood, but it does strike me as odd with more then a month before the new academic year starts."

"How would you like to demonstrate how well Atlas technology combines with your dust weaving and hand to hand skill combat skill?" The man stands up from the desk and approaches from around it to tower over the girl, with the top of her beret barely reaching his shoulders. "The regional tournament will be held in Mistral in a few days time, as a citizen you are eligible and we would like you to participate."

"I would enjoy doing that sir." The smile she gives is almost malicious, but soon fades. "My father has voiced no objection to this plan?"

"On the contrary, he seems very enthusiastic about you showing off the power you can elicit from Dust." The large man holds back a sigh at seeing the tightening of her eyes and the clenching of her jaw.

"Specialist Schnee will be escorting you." She turned to see the twenty something young woman with skin a pale pink color and white hair, the same color as her crisp uniform, done up in a bun with one long bang trailing across the left side of her face nearly hiding her pale blue eye. Who until the general had pointed her out, had been hidden by the door as she walked into the room. "You can leave immediately after gathering what equipment you feel you will need."

"Understood sir." The girl salutes to which the General responds. "You are dismissed."

The girl turned sharply and gave another salute to the officer. "Mam I should be ready to leave within the hour." The white haired woman nods and gives a brief salute in return.

After she marched out of the room and closed the door firmly she adjusted her beret and leaned against the far wall. Closing her eyes she focused all her hearing just in time to hear Winter address the general. "You could have simply told her you wanted to give her a chance to visit her mother before going to live in Vale."

"There are two issues with that Winter." The man replies with a heavy sigh while the thud of his boots and the quieter sound making her assume he turned to look out the window. "The council would not have allowed it, and she would never have believed there were no strings attached."

"Just like this mission to study the teaching techniques at Beacon isn't intended to remove her from the tug of war she has been the center of?" She smiled a little at the older girl's tone.

"I have earned some respect by treating her fairly, and trusting her with full knowledge of an important project." The man concedes as the sound of his steps move closer making her guess he moved around his desk. "That however will not overcome the resentment of me being unable to simply let her go home. So for the time being I will leave her in your care."

"What about the other issue with the tournament?" She heard the man sigh again in response before his steps stopped in front of where Winter had been standing when she left the room.

"If an opportunity to put out that fire before it can cause an explosion presents itself you have full discretion to take whatever actions you feel necessary."

"Then with your permission I will start preparing my airship to leave." Winter says crisply and she could almost imagine the sharp salute the specialist gave the general before her steps headed to the door.

As the door opened she opened her eyes and gave the specialist a very tight smile.

Winter closed the office door an looked at her with a carefully neutral expression. "I thought you were packing to leave."

"I have been packed for three years specialist." It hadn't been so much a question as an observation, but she felt like answering anyway. "Besides when in hostile territory the only weapon you can really rely on is information. I would hardly make an effective agent if I forgot that now could I?"

"I wish you didn't feel that way Umber." Winter placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked away from the older girl.

"It's an unavoidable consequence." Pushing away from the wall and slipping away from Winter, she walked down the hall a short distance before looking back over her shoulder. "I will grab my footlocker from my dorm and meet you at the sky dock."

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

The two day trip by airship from Atlas to Mistral passed uneventfully and while she was happy to see her mother most of the time in the week before the tournament was spent with her mother trying to teach her as many new patterns as she could. Then going over what details her mother had on possible opponents Umber would face.

The preliminaries were almost laughable, all of her opponents were first or second year students at Sanctum that had entered for fun. Umber had to think that someone who wanted to make sure she made it to the portion of the tournament that would actually be broadcast was responsible. None of them had required more than some basic blocks and a few blasts of Wind Dust to knock out of the ring. Given the sponsorship logos were either the cute rabbit head of Pumpkin Pete or a blade like snowflake it really was not hard to guess.

"For our quarter-final round match the first competitor is Sanctum's own Sage Ayana!" As the dark skinned boy's name is called he spins around on the stage swinging his large double edged sword in an arc over his green haired head. This also causes his unbuttoned white duster with green stripes to flap open wider allowing more of his well toned chest and abs to be exposed to the crowd, resulting in the overall pitch of the cheers to noticeably increase. He finishes his spin to find her giving him a rueful grin and a chuckle. While he looked impressive, there wasn't much of a threat he could offer.

What do you take the most pride in?

What defines you?

As a hunter? As a person?

That is what I will take.

That is what I will CRUSH!

"His opponent is also a former student of Sanctum, Miss Umber Shade!" The litany running through her head, she tipped her nearly flat conical hat with her left hand and gave an elaborate bow with her left foot forward showing off the silver grey armor on her knee high boots. Holding her shield covered right arm up causes the dark brown mantle over her shoulders to shift open exposing the armor plate on the front of her thighs going over a complex spiral of ribbons, and leading up to the grey armored one piece bodysuit she is wearing. It is divided up into sections by dark brown straps giving the impression of a climbing harness with built in emphasis of her own well developed chest. Resulting in a significant drop in pitch for the accompanying cheers.

She returned to a ready stance allowing the mantle to settle over her upper arms with the multitude of silver beads on it creating scintillating patterns in the stadium lights. A small gap leaving a tantalizing glimpse of the silver plates running all the way down the front of her bodysuit from just below her chest broken only by the brown belt at her waist, further tempting the eye her wide stance allows the inside hem of the mantle to be glimpsed just below her hips in the back. The view above now blocked by the small targe shield on her left arm held at ready just below her chin.

"Why a fox with a curled up tail?" Sage called out at seeing the embossed profile on the shield's surface. "Are they asleep?"

"Call it a sign that you will have to work hard to impress me." Umber responded playfully. "It will be very hard for you to catch my babies' tails wagging, but they aren't asleep." For emphasis four 10 cm wide rectangular boxes in the shield's edge did a fast full spin around the circumference before stopping at their original positions.

"Fighters ready?!" The boisterous announcer calls, seeing a raised hand from both participants a three second countdown started flashing on the holoscreens around the arena.

As zero flashed and a horn sounds both rushed forward, Umber leading with her shield and Sage leading with his right shoulder. As the two close Sage brought his sword forward in a powerful raising slash, Umber responded by bringing both her shields together in front of her to block the attack. With a loud clang Umber was launched into the air, having been braced to power through her block and meeting almost no resistance Sage stumbled and skidded across the ground on his knees.

Umber did a graceful midair flip and floated gently toward the ground. Her mantle flaring out seemingly caught in a powerful updraft. Sage turned to track her, and as he got one foot on the floor to charge an explosion went off around him filling the area with trailers of mist. As the mist clears it is revealed that the boy is trapped in a jagged block of ice up to his neck with only the blade of his sword extending out. As Umber settles to the ground flashes keep appearing around the blade making the metal crackle ominously and be covered in layers of frost.

"Whh...h..y so. so cold?" He got out through chattering teeth. "I...I. tho...ught vixens were supp...ose..d to be wa...r.m and cudd...ly."

"You would like to see me in heat then?" Umber's glare could have bored through stone, completely at odds with her teasing tone. He wasn't the one she was really angry at for making sure everyone knew her trait, but he was there. Her smile turned wicked as spirals of flame appear around the sword blade quickly going from red to harsh blue white. "Be careful what you wish for." She bent forward blowing him a kiss just as the blade explosively shattered throwing him across the arena, and according to the arena's big screen driving his aura deep into the red.

"Winner with no damage taken, Umber Shade!" She stalked off the stage, the announcer's words almost felt like they were chasing her. That man had put that boy in front of her to use as a punching bag and she had taken the bait. Arslan or Neptune would have had more of a chance but the brackets were fixed so they both would have to take on Pyrrha, who she would only face if she made it to the finals.

Once in the locker room she quickly stripped off her light armor. Trading it, her mantle, and her weapons for her academy tunic and blouse from the locker she quickly went up into the stands and found the booth her mother and Winter were watching the tournament from. As she fell into the blond haired woman's embrace she couldn't hold back her sobs any longer.

That day's fighting had finished with Pyrrha's not unexpected victory over Neptune Vasilias leading to her semi-final match against Arslan Atlan, and now Umber's own against an opponent that she couldn't help but feel was picked for her to have every advantage against.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

"In this semi final match we have the 'Shimmering Fox!' Umber Shade!," She waves to the crowd, her hand pausing when a few jeers come through the cheers. "Versus the 'Gliding Grinder!' Reese Chloris!" The vividly colored skater girl waves to a chorus of much louder cheers.

"That wasn't very nice what you did to Sage." The green haired girl called as she did a kick flip and spun her bladed hover board between her hands.

"Maybe he will remember not to mix up insults with flirting in the future." Umber called back. "Maybe you and other girls in Mistral should thank me."

"I don't think so." Reese's green eyes narrowed at her opponent as she plants her board in front of her left foot and sets her right foot in the middle of it ready to kick the board forward.

"Fighters Ready!?" Both girls raised a hand in response. Immediately after the countdown Reese jumped on her board, but shot off to the side quickly circling the arena and gaining speed.

Umber did a slow turn keeping one shield between her and the fast accelerating girl.

The skater banked harder into her turn bringing her racing towards the shield maiden. Umber dropped to one knee and brought her left shield up at an angle to redirect the straight line attack.

At the last moment Reese grabbed the front of her board and yanked up hard, sending her shooting into the air. Her board transforming into a pair of guns at the apex of her arc. Flipping over to aim at her grounded target she is surprised to find the fox profile a hairs breath from impacting her face.

Even after impact Umber continued flying up, snagging the other girl's hood with her trailing hand, dragging her higher into the air. The skater could only try to pull down on the collar of her sweater to keep being able to breathe. The direction of pull suddenly changed back towards the ground and Reese had a moment to glance up..now down at the other girl to see a pair of small thrusters attached to the outside of her boots venting bright green flames. With another pair attached to metal triangles just below the other girl's waist on the outside of the 'short shorts' of her body suit.

Just before they would have impacted the floor the thrusters swiveled causing them to shoot towards the side of the ring. The thrusters swivel one last time in opposing directions causing Umber to spin, and with a heave of her arm she launched Reese to impact with the protective force barrier before she would have landed in the stands.

"Winner by ring out! Umber Shade!" Umber was already leaving the arena and the cat calls that were almost as loud as the cheering to her ears. He teeth grinding thinking about how when Pyrrha had won her match earlier the audience had only applauded.

Umber quickly rejoined her mother and hugged her tightly. "You've become quite the aerial dancer." All she wanted to do was go home and enjoy sleeping in her childhood bed away from all this.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

The final day of the tournament dawned bright and sunny. Umber simply couldn't decide if she should be encouraged by this or that the weather was simply mocking her mood. The press coverage was glowing for the champion and going on about her own chances of causing an upset.

"To start our tournament final!, We gladly welcome the defending three time champion! The 'Invincible Girl!' Miss Pyrrha Nikos!" The announcement is greeted by a cacophony of cheering as the bronze and scarlet clad girl walks onto the arena floor while waving to the crowds.

"Her challenger is the ever Surprising! Some even calling her Unblockable! The 'Shimmering Fox!' Miss Umber Shade!" Umber smiles and waves to the crowd as she enters the arena, but her smile isn't long lived. While there are still cheers they are much more muted, and the jeering has grown nearly as loud.

Now with the red head in front of her the girl's mind wanders back to the last time she had seen then newly minted champion just a few years before. 'Hey Umber why do they have you on the concert poster?' Just like then she glanced down at the tanned skin of her hands before clenching them into fists. 'That isn't even close to funny Pyrrha.' The words echo in her mind. The poor joke having been one of her last happy memories of home in Mistral before they went together into the VIP section of the charity concert.

Only one of them was able to leave freely that day. 'She wasn't at fault!' Umber tries mentally screaming at the knot of anger in her chest. 'He already knew where I was...'

"Champion! and Challenger! Are you ready to begin?" One final time for the tournament both girls raise a hand in acknowledgment.

As the countdown begins, Umber relaxes into a defensive stance with her left arm and hand covered by the forty centimeter wide round shield covering her profile leaving her face uncovered to show her spreading grin. Swinging her similarly adorned right arm back to cover her hip with her leg extended back to give her a strong wide stance. "Are you ready to dance with me Pyrrha?"

The Mistrali champion grins back taking a similar stance with Milo mirroring the lowered shield. "Always"

Further conversation is cut off as the horn sounded the start of this year's final match. The two girls drop into a charge. The inside of the golden haired girl's round hat glows with a pattern of activated dust that would be impossible for anyone other then Pyrrha to see before she dashes forward in a blur. A spin brings the back shield across the champion's body, latching on to Akouo with a metallic grinding. A serrated blade sliding out of the edge of the shield Umber had held higher and spinning around the shield independently of her arm catches and pushes down Milo leaving the taller girl open for the knee impacting with her chest.

Pyrrha drops backward into a roll bringing her weapons back in toward her body locking into the other combatant's blades and forcing her into a similar recovery roll. Completing a spin to face her opponent again. She finds that what had been a set of four evenly spaced rectangular blocks around the edges of the shields had realigned with three joining together hanging off one side to counter balance the blades, half again as long as the shield is wide, formed of eight centimeter wide sharply spiked links tipped by a final diamond wedge shaped blade extending from the square remaining on the edge of the shield.

Umber's jaw clenched in frustration, while Pyrrha's grin widened, when she realized she could not make the blades retract to their previous positions.

The two girls charged each other again, while Umber's movement options were noticeably restricted by having to avoid being sliced by her own blades or hit with the counterweight. The continued free spinning of the two now double ended weapons still proved a largely effective defense against a decisive lunge from her opponent.

The crowd gasp as the champion suddenly disengaged in a backflip moments before needle like spears of ice crash into where she had been standing. A spinning kick from Umber catches another that had escaped notice before it reaches the ground and redirects its flight directly towards Pyrrha, before retreating at a sprint to gain more distance.

As the redhead charges back forward, she almost casually blocks the sharp ice shard with her shield. To the crowds confusion she extends Milo into its javelin form and starts spinning it around with one hand like a baton as she continues running. Left in her wake the floor of the arena becomes littered with slowly unrolling ribbons of silver silk like material.

Umber slides and turns in a crouch before blurring back towards Pyrrha, when the two girls are within steps of each other a brilliant flash of light goes off behind the trickster casting their shadows to the wall on the far side of the arena.

Almost unbelievably Pyrrha catches the follow up slashes from Umber's blades with Milo forcing both to the floor, only for the other girl to drop the edges of both shields to the floor and tuck into a forward roll, while the shields spin backwards lifting up on the counterweights and pulling the champion off balance forward.

The golden haired challenger uncoils like a spring driving both feet into Pyrrha's chest knocking her up and away, as a result the champion crashes into the mat. Umber on the other hand lands in a crouch and with a spin of deadly metal her weapons return to simple shield form.

For the first time in the tournament the champion has actually taken hits, though her Aura is still safely higher than the challenger. The audience stares on in shocked silence as the panting girls size each other up with enthusiastic grins. With a simultaneous yell the two girls rush at each other, to the audience it would seem as though they begin dancing around each other with the clashing of metal setting the beat.

In short order though it becomes clear that Umber's Aura levels are dropping faster. To cheers from the audience, Pyrrha finishes the battle with a shield bash followed by a leg sweep that leaves Umber on the floor as the buzzer sounds announcing her Aura dropping below the safety margin.

Umber had only one thought. 'Your semblance has always been so damn unfair Pyrrha.'

Laying on the ground with an arm covering her face, Umber sighed as she allowed her arm drop and finds Pyrrha holding out a hand to help her up. Rolling onto her left side she brought her right arm behind her back, Umber hooks the handle of her shield to her belt over her hip before reaching up to take the offered hand. As the taller girl helped her off the floor she did the same with the shield on her left, the bottom of the mantle settled into place hiding both from view.

While she expected Pyrrha to step back so they could face each other for the customary sportsmanship congratulations, she instead found herself drawn into a hug. "I'm so happy to see you again Umber." The taller girl whispered while the crowd broke out in cheers.

Umber felt her throat clench down hard on the sob that tried to escape, while she wrapped her own arms around the other girl in return. "I missed you to." Tilting her head back so she could look at the other girl's green eyes under the brim of her hat from where her face was nearly pressed into Pyrrha's chest she whispered back. "I struck a deal, with both him and General Ironwood, to live in Vale and enroll at Beacon."

"Aunt Carnelian might have already mentioned that." Pyrrha stepped back with a smile and winked before turning to wave to the audience. "Maybe I will see you there."

As she walked towards the the judges platform the announcer remembered he had a task to complete. "Winner! and Champion! for the fourth consecutive year! is Pyrrha Nikos!"

Umber grinned before she also turned to wave to the audience while she walked off the stage and was pleased and mildly surprised not to hear any jeers mixed in with the cheering like there had been at the end of her previous matches.

Walking into the locker room she took off her hat and after undoing some snaps at the back she collapsed it down like spokes circling a wheel at the center, before reaching behind her back and tucking it into something hidden by her mantle. Pulling loose a drawstring she stared removing the garment while being careful not to disturb the long scarf wrapped around her neck, as she did the long tail of her ribbon wrapped golden hair slipped free of the pouch sewn into the top with the end falling to just past her knees.

Opening a locker to hang the mantle inside she barely flinched as the wing of a single silver white nevermore nearly grazed her ear as it passed over her shoulder dragging the brown piece of cloth with it. As the creature banked to return to where it came from the glowing dust runes on the inside of the scarf faded away as the cloth lightened in color to a rich crimson.

It lands on a small glyph crafted from hardened light floating above the upturned palm of the Atlas military specialist, an impish grin played across her face reflected in her visible blue eye. The glyph and summon fade away leaving the scarf draped over her arm

Umber's form also shimmers with all the gold and brown of her skin, clothes, and hair fading away until the bodysuit and belt became a uniform metallic gray. Matching the shields hung from the belt separated by the flat pouch nestled in the small of her back. All in stark contrast to the pale white to pink of her skin and hair, except for a few hand spans of golden brown left at the end of her long tail of hair.

The girl glares at the woman with equally pale blue eyes, "I want my veil back Winter."

"So tell me little sister." Her heals clicking on the floor as she glides forward wrapping the scarf around her own neck. "Were you glad to see Pyrrha still wears the one you left with her?"

"Yes..." Grumbling the girl sits on a bench in front of the locker and starts to remove her boots and shin plates. The ribbons just automatically roll themselves into cylinders in the palm of her hand which quickly disappear into her belt pouch.

"Well you sound a bit more relaxed at least." Taking a seat beside the girl, she leans over to nudge her shoulder. "You normally do more then glare at me if I steal your scarf."

"It isn't like I could put up a decent fight over it at the moment." Umber bites her lower lip before turning her head to face Winter. "I don't want to be here anymore. Mom and I traded the last thing I could call mine for the chance to go somewhere else and start over, I would greatly prefer to get on with it."

"I don't think it's that bad..." Winter tries to console as she reached to place a hand on the girl's shoulder.

The teen jumps to her feet losing all composure and shrieking. "I don't have anything left! I lost the coloration my mother named me for, days after my aura was unlocked! I lost my home when dear father decided he couldn't just let me live peacefully here in Mistral! Now I don't even get to keep my name!"

"You are still you, you still can contact your mom, you can reconnect with old friends, you still have your dust weaving skill that I think is unfair with your semblance making it nearly impossible for anyone else to track." Umber tapers off into hiccuping sobs as Winter stands up and firmly grabs her shoulders. "For what it's worth Mistral has refused to recognize the adoption, so to them you remain a Shade. Likewise Vale won't take any action on it until after you officially enroll at Beacon." Leaning forward to press her forehead to the younger woman's she stifles a chuckle at the reminder that barefoot the girl is nearly as tall as her in heels. "Though we weren't involved until after this all started you did gain two sisters and a brother." Reaching up and running a finger through her sister's hair causes two silky furred ears to pop out from where they had been tucked back. "You're also much cuter as a silver fox then a golden one."

"Mom reminded me she holds the same opinion while I was able to visit her this week." The smile dies away quickly as she continues. "Weiss would rather I disappeared though."

"She had a more noble mental image of our father then myself when you were introduced." Winter let out a sigh. "Since you're less than three months younger than her it was also a shock to realize he had been unfaithful to our mother while she was pregnant with Weiss."

"I suppose it is hard to form a better opinion of each other when I only met her the one time at the airship dock when I first arrived in Atlas, before the tin man crashed father's party like a knight in shining armor." The girl finished with a giggle.

"I don't want to think about where father might have stashed me away if mother had not called in favors to get General Ironwood to enroll me in Atlas Academy and take custody of me from father as soon as his airship landed." She shudders slightly at the memory. "I wasn't sure what to think at first when he suggested you tutor me instead of allow father to test why I didn't inherit the glyph semblance."

"Then don't think about it anymore." Winter laughs as she pushed back gently to look the girl full in the face. "You said you wanted to get started on the new chapter of your life, finish changing clothes and we can take my airship. You can even use the captain's quarters shower."

"The condominium mom is going to help me get to use in Vale isn't going to be available for another week." She responds quietly while turning back to her locker. Taking a shield off the hangers on her belt she lifts the flap on the pouch and slides one inside followed quickly by the other. Taking off the belt and setting it on the bench reveals the dark purple Gravity Dust Crystal sewn into a holder where it would be centered on the girl's spine.

Umber quickly pulls her beret from the locker and slides her hair into an opening inside the cloth cap at the back, sliding another drawstring closed when only enough to reach her shoulder is left exposed, she flips the hat onto her head forming a small bun. Tucking her fox ears back underneath she settles the front over her forehead.

Stepping into her uniform skirt she quickly zips it up, followed by pulling her tunic top over her bodysuit and buttons up the side.

Putting her belt back on she finally looks up to see the nonplussed expression adorning Winter's face. "I find it comfortable to wear."

She giggles when Winter sighs, but smiles when her sister gently wraps the scarf around her neck. "Think you can make another one of these, and finally teach me how to use it?" Winter fingers the scarf for emphasis.

"We could land in Vytal and take a commercial liner to Vale. Have a sisters only week vacation?" Winter cajoles while putting the discarded boots, shin plates and mantle in a small rucksack

"I think I would like that." The girl responds quietly while pulling on a pair of ankle socks followed by dress leather shoes.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

On Remnant there are clans or tribes of raiders, many claim to have been something more in the past and some go on to become something more. Such is the case with the Spartans according to their own traditions they are the last of the great naval powers of a lost empire that lived on the western shores of the Anima continent and ruled the narrow sea between that continent and Sanus. During the time of the Great War they had become pirates that prowled those waters. The clan that called themselves "The Chosen of Victory" backed Vale and Vacuo and became freelancers disrupting trade between Mantle and Mistral. If they had any other name will forever be lost to history as part of the Vytal treaty they were given license to wipe out or subsume all of the other seafaring raiders. Now in the present day the clan kept victory in their name and formed the one of the largest trading companies and merchant marine organizations on Remnant.

Only within the last few generations had they gained legal rights to operate in the kingdoms they had fought against in the war. So as Umber and Winter entered the private sky port the elder's airship had been docked at there was a surprising presence, and a less surprising response.

The Atlas soldiers were staying close to Winter's airship and the Mistral security teams were guarding the doors. Both groups were warily eyeing the trio standing proudly in the center of the dock. There in intimidating black armor and flanked by a pair dressed in red armor with blue highlights was the current president of the Victor Trading Company standing guard over a suitcase.

All three turned to look at the young women as they entered. Their helmets having lost the metal grill work of the previous century in favor of something more like a full face motorcycle helmet with gold mirrored polycarbonate face shields.

To anyone else the rumors of the president having used her bare hands to rip the head off a Beowulf and beat another to death with it would have given them reason to be wary. Umber's reaction was anything but. "Aunt Allison!" The girl squealed as she ran forward to give the woman a hug.

"I hope you don't mind Umber spending some time with her 'fun mom' before you take off." Winter turned to the doorway behind her and found Carnelian standing at the entrance in an ankle length dark red cheongsam dress with gold embroidery. "You asked for the use of a private sky dock attached to the arena. I would be remiss if I did not turn to my oldest friend for such a favor, and she would be unwilling to leave the safety of your ship to anyone else while in the care of her company."

"Fun mom?" Winter raised an eyebrow at the blond woman.

"Pyrrha would likely disagree with that assessment with how driven an instructor she can be." The Dust Weaver chuckled as she stepped up beside the young woman. "While I took the job of making sure her husband Alex didn't get himself killed on his adventures, Allison took responsibility for running the company and raising Zander, Pyrrha, and Umber, with help from the rest of the clan of course. Since Umber takes greatly after me she was spared a lot of the harsher weapons training drills Allison put her own son and daughter through."

When she turned her attention back to the quartet in the center of the hanger she found the three armored figures had removed their helmets. Pyrrha had definitely inherited most of her looks from her mother but the woman herself stands only slightly taller then Umber with a broader build. What was more surprising was the other two were a pair of twin redheads she judged to be only slightly younger women then Winter herself.

"Mrs Nikos I was unaware you had other daughters." Winter kept her tone light to emphasize it being a jest.

"These kits? For them to be mine I would have had to have them when I was Umber's age." She laughed as she glanced to her left and right at the pair. "My company bought the last two years of their service contracts to Vale as an internship. Since it was an agreement between our families for them to come live with me here in Mistral to learn the Spartan combat style after they finished their training as huntresses my father would have called it fostering. Their older sister actually just finished training with me last year. Care to introduce yourselves 'daughters'?"

"I'm Jane Arc." The twin on the right waved and turned her cobalt blue eyes to her sister.

"And I'm Jean Arc." The one on the left finished with a smile while running a hand through her hair causing a pair of fox ears to pop out. "Our mom is Aunt Carnelian's cousin actually."

Winter gave the older blond bedside her an inquisitive look, and she whispered in response. "It's a clan thing. Child rearing is considered a communal responsibility."

In a normal tone of voice she continues. "Girls I am sorry to have to cut this short but we are needing to see these two off. So it would be best to tell Umber the details of your request."

"Oh right. We actually had a huntsman's combat outfit we wanted to commission." Jane turns back to Umber. "It's for our brother back home in Vale as a present for making it into Beacon, but it's a rush job because we won't have his exact measurements until he gets fitted for his uniform to keep it a surprise. Your mom already helped us with the designs." She pauses to pull forward the suitcase. "We have all the materials needed for it in here. So we were hoping you wouldn't mind finishing the commission for us once you're in Vale." Umber gives and enthusiastic nod and the younger women start quietly discussing the particulars.

"I have thought all this week about what I would say or do before the two of you leave." The older woman smiled gently at Winter. "I decided I will tell you that you have my heartfelt thanks for looking after Umber, treating her as your sister, and not holding the sins of the parent against the child."

"Could you clarify something for me then Carnelian?" Winter relaxed when the woman nodded. "What was it about my father that interested you? I know you are not the only woman my father had liaisons with, but other than vague rumors of something between you and Mrs. Nikos husband I haven't found any hint of you having other relationships."

"I see you have been reading the council's wonderful propaganda pieces about our lordly lion." Carnelian tittered while hiding her mouth with her hand. "Please tell me you read the novels and not the illustrated versions." Winter refused to be distracted and kept a level gaze on the woman until she sighed. "His wealth and influence held no interest for me, and while your father could be quite charming when he desired something, I was not a blushing girl to be fooled by that."

"My family came from Vacuo originally, but have been working with the Nikos clan since before the Great War." The enchantress glanced over at the others. "Our only loss during the war was when a certain white haired and blue eyed young woman was able to hold off our attack by protecting a single ironclad frigate while the fleet of merchant ships it was in turn defending made a run for it. If I am not mistaken this was your Great Great Grandmother, it made for quite the propaganda coup so it isn't hard to find records even today saying she was a daughter of the prominent Gel'e family who controlled the Mantle Dust mine. Quite the shame they later disinherited her for marrying a common soldier she met during the war."

"So yes I was well aware that even though Nicholas Schnee made the glyph semblance famous it did not originate with him." Carnelian smiled at the surprised expression on Winter's face. "I am telling you all of this so you will understand that my interest in your father was likely the same thing that motivated him to steal Umber away after I had a chance to train her. To see how your family's ability would mesh with my family's."

"It would seem neither of us got an exact answer to that question." Carnelian turns and smiles fondly at Umber. "I did get a beautiful little girl to love so I count it as a victory personally. Tell me Winter what do you think of Solstice Shade as a name?"

"It sounds lovely, but I am not sure why you ask?" The specialist's confusion at the sudden change in conversation was evident in her voice.

"I have quite a few cousins with families of their own as those two girls can attest. Not all of them are Faunus." The woman idly waved toward the twins who were walking with Allison and Umber towards the airship. "Given the communal nature of a spartan clan it is easy for me to find one of their daughters to foster or even adopt. Allison has already agreed to sponsor such a child to take an exam for a Mistrali Huntress License, but that would have to wait for another visit. So the question for you is how would you like to be Umber's sister legally in Mistral?"

"Is this repaying the favor you owe General Ironwood for taking custody of Umber away from my father?" Winter asked after a moment to process the value of having an alternate identity with more than forged documents backing it up.

"No child this is my way of saying thanks to you personally." Winter started to follow Umber up the boarding ramp to her ship, but almost stumbled when the woman finished answering her question. "Ironwood was easily convinced not to risk letting your father's rash actions potentially turn Atlas into a smoking crater."

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

Umber had the cloth and dust available with the supplies she had brought from the academy, so by the time they landed at the airfield in Vytal two young women with golden brown hair set out for supplies.

New kingdom, new continent, new city, new home, new school, but first and most important New Clothes! Priorities must be maintained after all. Winter seemed to already have quite the collection of jeans, blouses, and shoes that Umber would guess she didn't get a chance to wear often with her duties for the military. So most of the shopping came down to Umber picking out clothes for herself, which was a refreshing change even if Winter demanded older sister veto rights.

It also brought to light a problem with her current combat attire. Umber's bodysuit and mantle lacked pockets for her scroll, pocketbook, or any other items she might need on an average day. With hunters, and hunters in training, wearing their combat attire in public in the Kingdom of Vale to help raise public morale this would be a problem. Winter also pointed out that the mantle was impractical, and really the only purpose was to be old fashioned enough to make the rest of the outfit seem more racy by comparison. Truthfully Umber could not argue as that had been one of her reasons.

As a replacement Umber bought several short dark golden silk sleeveless dresses that buttoned up on the left side with access to large pockets in the front on the right. The sides were also split up to the waist to allow access to the hard point attachments on her bodysuit, the high collar also allowed her to discreetly sew in a space expanded bag to tuck her hair into.

After she embroidered her silver curled fox profile into the front and back of the skirts, both facing to her right to match with how they displayed on her shields in her normal combat stance, she came to the uncomfortable realization that the circular patterns somewhat resembled snowflakes. Maybe even her subconscious was against her in trying to escape.

She also purchased thigh high silk stockings in the same shade expecting to at least get a blush out of her more conservative sister, only to be complimented on her good taste instead. The combination with her dust laced hats would make for an exotic and tempting look, but still remain decently conservative. Finishing with wide golden leather belts to wear at mid thigh to keep the stockings from falling however did finally get the blush she had hoped for.

Both the dresses' skirts and the thigh belts gained double rows of what looked like silver pearls around the edges, making them into bandoleers for her puppet spell ribbons. Her new school uniform would likely get the same treatment she decided.

Winter and she then spent the next two weeks together, no real schedule, taking in the sights and traveling by commercial transport. The older of the two seemed to actively avoid taking any direct route to Vale, almost picking travel destinations at random for the first week.

When they finally arrived in Vale Umber was actually just grateful to stop for a bit, but meeting with the final client on her first professional, albeit shared, commission, and getting the paperwork finished on the condo which had been upgraded to two bedrooms came first.

She was a bit surprised to find that Joan was a woman with flaxen blond hair and blue eyes. The huntress was definitely older than Winter, or Sol as she asked to be called on this trip, but it was both hard to tell exactly and impolite to ask. Not surprisingly it turned out that she was the twins half-sister.

Where things got interesting is that Joan had teamed up with all of her sisters, and step-mother, to help their brother get to go to Beacon even over her mother and father's opposition to the plan. Which just meant that Joan asked Umber not to visit the family home until after her admittance to the huntsman academy even though it would be nice to meet the rest of her cousins.

This also meant Umber had to spend most of a week building up a wireframe over a tailoring mannequin to this boy Jaune's dimensions to be able to put together the long coat that her mother had helped design. She was actually fairly proud of the design with it being a white side buttoning drill blazer, so chest armor and pauldrons could be fitted over, extended out to the length of a duster jacket with slits on the sides and front to allow for ease of movement while the Dust laced cloth would provide leg protection. High polish golden buttons and golden embroidery accents would set it off the white even better. The several pairs of black slacks to fit nicely into the polished black leather knee high riding boots with golden studded accents, Joan had the boots made ahead but Umber would lace them with protective Dust spells, would complete the look nicely.

Umber spent so much of her time on the jacket she couldn't resist the urge to add a new spell she had developed into it. With how experienced Joan seemed to be with dust spells certainly her brother should be able to handle it.

With the project finished Umber happily presented her work to Joan, and the hook was set. The eldest Arc sister finally revealed that the outfit was to be a celebratory gift for her brother being admitted to Beacon and joining a team. Which necessitates that he actually pass the initiation, and Joan would be very grateful to Umber if she were to help with making sure that happened.

Umber wanted to sigh but it was very much like what her Aunt Allison had asked her mother to do with her Uncle Alex when they both attended Haven. Unfortunately they had been friends before the academy and Umber did not even know Jaune.

Which all lead to the reason Umber had picked this particular airship to ride to Beacon. Chewing on her lip she tried to solve the dilemma of how to introduce herself to a fairly handsome young man without coming across as a creepy stalker, when she was in fact essentially stalking him.

They say the clothes make the man. Umber could really see it here, maybe it was a family thing of being frugal, or he was just taking inspiration from his eldest sister. Where Joan had the style of wearing a bright white hooded sweater, ironed low rider jeans, and leather high heeled boots under her half plate, bracers, and greaves, looked like an understated action girl. Jaune with the faded black hoodie, worn in jeans, and sneakers just looked like a civilian high school student who strapped on armor and wandered onto the wrong flight.

Not to say there is anything wrong with a good pair of worn in jeans, they just didn't give a great view. Which honestly had her somewhat annoyed. After having to rework the commissioned clothing set after he was measured for his academy uniform, Umber was fairly certain he had a fit dancer's physique under those dowdy clothes, and here she could hardly even see a hint of it!

She watched as the young man in question glanced out the window and hastily turned back. As he was steadily looking more and more green around the gills it suddenly became clear why Joan had been asking if Dust spells included ones that could mitigate nausea.

'While the spell was developed for dealing with morning sickness,' She thought as she took a thin cylinder of a rolled ribbon out of her dress pocket, and willed it to spiral around her left forearm. 'Mom said it should achieve the same result for motion sickness.'

"Hey are you alright?" She asks as she steps up next to him, while discretely placing her left hand on his lower back and activating the spell.

He turns to her and she smiles when he takes a deep breath before sighing in relief. "I think I am now." He glances down to the softly glowing ribbon on her arm. "Are you a healer?"

"I'm a Dust weaver so I know a few helpful tricks." Umber allowed with a grin. "True healing ability is beyond anything I can do." Stepping back she holds out her right hand. "I'm Umber Shade, might I hear your name good sir?"

"Jaune Ar..." Umber hurriedly grabs his offered hand with both of hers as the green quickly starts returning to his face. "Um Jaune Arc." The boy finished sheepishly once the danger abated.

"Like I said I'm not a true healer." Umber replied with a small sigh. "So the effect doesn't last very long."

"Think you might be willing to stick around and be my saving grace for the rest of the flight?" He asked with a light blush.

Her response had to wait as with a ringing tone the holoscreens changed from a news report to showing a sharply dressed blond woman who introduced herself as Glynda Goodwitch and welcomed all the new applicants to Beacon. Looking out the windows it was possible to see the school itself rising above the cliffs with a waterfall falling down from it, forming into one of the rivers flowing through Vale.

"It doesn't seem like the flight will last much longer so it shouldn't be a problem." Smiling at Jaune, and playfully looking him over after she was certain she had his attention. "Plus the view over here isn't bad at all."

"Thanks, and it really is." Jaune says wistfully as he looks back out the window at Beacon.

'Oh. my. Dust! A boy can really still be this innocent at our age?' Umber lost her battle with giggling after realizing her innuendo had flown completely over his head.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

He hadn't missed her insinuation, or her light laughter, but unless he just walked into the plot of one of the light novels his sisters seemed to enjoy so much there was no way a cute girl would just happen to walk up to him with the right spell to help with his motion sickness. However she wasn't doing anything other then helping him so unless he wanted to get sick and embarrass himself, aside from being a total ass, he couldn't exactly run off.

As the large airship settled into the sky dock Jaune smiled at the girl and grew more certain he was stuck. While she did let go of his hand, Umber made no move to leave the ship with the others while he waited to recover his equilibrium. So he finally decided to point towards the door and walk with her off of the ship.

Walking out onto the sky port they came up to the crossroads of several paved paths leading from various airships just in time to see a little Gothic Lolita redhead loose her balance and crash into a trolley full of secure cases.

"Eeeeep...?" Jaune was surprised to find that Umber had latched onto his wrist and was turned sideways trying very hard to hide behind him. "Could you maybe not move for just a minute." The girl whispered as she brought out her scroll to take in the scene without herself being seen, he wasn't sure if she had intended to hit record or not but she had.

What followed was a girl in white shouting while shaking something around, it was hard to tell what from the growing cloud around the pair. Followed by an explosion, and more shouting. The only thing that carried over to them was a loud, "I'm sorry princess!" from the smaller girl.

A taller raven haired girl sashayed in while offering quiet words that at first seemed to please and then incense the so called princess, causing her to grab something from the girl's hand and flounce off in a huff. The taller girl had barely even actually paused to deliver the words and already seemed to be half way down her chosen path by the time little red had tried to turn and thank her. This just seemed to completely knock the stuffing out of the poor girl and she dejectedly flopped to the ground.

"I'm going to go check on her." Jaune quietly announced, but was pleased to see Umber nod her head in agreement.

The young knight came to the girl's side, his shadow breaking the harsh glare from the sun as he reached down caused the girl to open her eyes. "I'm Jaune"

"Ruby..." The girl took his hand with a small smile.

"Weiss really should have also apologized to you, you tripped, but she created the Dust cloud that resulted in the explosion." Jaune glanced a her and she finally seemed to realize she hadn't offered her name in her rush to console the other girl. "And I'm Umber Shade..." She started to offer only to find the girl grabbing her hands and practically bouncing from renewed energy.

"Eeeeeeeeee. You're the 'Shimmering Fox'? .CanIseeyourreallyawesomeshields? Pleasepleaseplease!?"

"Umm...that's one of the nicer nicknames I've been given yes." Umber blushed a little at the attention. "I'm afraid I didn't quite catch the rest."

"I might be experienced enough to translate." Jaune laughed. "She said your outfit is different, it looks much prettier, and asked if she could see your really awesome shields? Why the 'Shimmering Fox' though?"

"It sort of fits." Umber unclipped the chin strap and took off her conical hat, revealing her fox ears. "It is also more polite then a lot of things I have been called."

Jaune just nodded in understanding, and a hint of resignation, but Umber noticed Ruby getting a starry eyed look. "Little red, would you be comfortable if I kissed your cheek?" The girl blushes and shakes her head no. "What if I kissed you on the lips then?" The only response is an unintelligible squeak. "Having someone touch my ears feels more like the latter to me, so I hope you understand when I say I would rather you not ask to right now." Putting her hat back on Umber smiles at the eager nod of agreement. "So back to a safer topic, you wanted to see my babies right?"

"Please, I will show you my Crescent Rose." Jaune still wasn't sure what shields they were talking about and marveled a little when Umber reached both hands back behind her into her waist pouch. Jaune noticed something else about this pose and blushed while looking away. Her reference to babies not helping his mindset at all. Umber must have definitely noticed his reaction as with a grin she overemphasized the rolling of her shoulders as she brought out one and then the other of her targes. "These are my first born, they are actually electromechanical flails with shields, I call them Rumble Stilt."

"They can be protective of me if naughty beasts get to close." Umber smiled at seeing Jaune's eyes widen when the flails spin into their full deadly forms. "Uninvited of course."

"How did you make them move like that?" The aspirant knight asks. "I didn't see your fingers twitch in the slightest."

"I control them through my semblance." Umber brings her right hand to her chest, allowing the blade to make a full rotation before disappearing again. "To anyone else they are just heavy shields"

"Is it possible for anyone else to learn to use them?" He shifted uncomfortably trying to keep his arm covering his left side.

"External switches could be added I suppose," Now he was certain she just couldn't resist trying to get a reaction from him. "But they are dangerous enough I wouldn't let anyone use my babies without thorough hard training." She finishes with a smirk at his rising blush.

"They don't have individual names?" Ruby asked while cautiously examining the deadly metal blade extending from the shield on Umber's left arm.

"Because they weigh around seven kilograms each for balance I always have to use them as a pair." Umber finished with a suggestive wink at Jaune. "And just you know...Twins!" This resulted in the young knight blushing red to his hairline.

"Well this is my sweetheart." Ruby happily proclaimed as she pulled the over half meter long red enameled slab form of her weapon from behind her back, before casually lifting it to her shoulder where it extended out into its scythe form. "Crescent Rose is a scythe as well as a customizable high impact sniper rifle."

"It's also a gun." Umber helpfully translated for Jaune while she hung her own retracted weapons on her belt this time.

"Care to play along Jaune?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Well," Taking his sheathed sword from his belt, he catches the sheath on his left forearm expanding it into a shield, and draws the sword. "I have these."

"Do they have names?" Ruby asks innocently. "What do they do?"

"Well my dad tells me it's called Crocea Mors," He totally missed Umber's eyes widening. "The shield can fold up so when I get tired of carrying it I can wear it on my belt. My great-great grandfather used it in the Great War."

"That wouldn't have been Julius Arc by any chance?" Umber asked him a little excitedly.

"Uh yeah, you've heard of him?" Jaune replied feeling more than a bit nervous at the look in her eyes.

"Julius Arc," She points to the statue in the courtyard further down the paved path. "Called the Divine Commander?, said to be able to heal fatal wounds with just a touch of his hand. You're saying that is his sword, the one he is depicted holding aloft in that statue?"

"Please! please! let me study it!" She grabs his shield covered arm while staring hungrily at the blade. "There are tales that made it all the way to Mistral about how he could make that blade burn brighter than any torch, and cut through solid marble blocks. The shield by itself is one of the oldest examples of mechashift weapons coupled with space expanding spells."

"I think you're scaring him Umber." He was rescued as the smaller girl interposed herself between the two of them.

"I'm sorry..." Jaune did his best to smile in acceptance but he did honestly feel a bit nervous still. "I told Jaune earlier but I'm a Dust Weaver. It's a style of casting that is almost a lost art, so I can be a bit obsessed with anything related to historic arts and legends." She glanced shyly at him before sighing. "I am serious though, an heirloom like that is nothing to feel bad about wielding."

"I think there is a welcome speech for all the new students we need to get to." Umber laughed shakily, seeking to break the silence that began to stretch out.

Ruby cheered. "Let's go!" Trying to get the energy back up in the small group.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

"Ah Miss Nikos a fine battle indeed." The white haired man congratulated smoothly after the championship trophy had been presented. "As a sponsor for the tournament I was most gratified to see all of these young warriors doing their best, but your skills are definitely exceptional." There was true humor in his eyes as he continued. "It makes me wonder if there is anything I might be able to do to convince you to be a spokesperson for my company."

"Could I ask for all the microphones to be turned off before I reply?" She put all the politeness into her voice that she could, and a sweet smile that would make others think she was talking with a close friend. "It would be a rather personal request." After receiving a nod from the man the grand marshal of the tournament signaled the reporters to turn off their equipment and she waited for the lights to go out on the cameras.

"Can you give me back my sister Mr. Schnee?" She continued in the sweetest voice. "Can you make the sadness and resentment I just saw in her eyes disappear? No I take that back, you are likely twisted enough to have a method I would rather not know the details of." Her smile was still bright enough to make the audience think she was asking for some prize or price. "How about this, I know nothing I would desire more than to never see you again. Especially since the last time we were in this close proximity you ordered your guards to point their rifles at me so Umber didn't dare resist."

"DeMacedon! Is this the respect you teach your children to show their elders?" The man bristled with anger as he turned to look over shoulder.

"Smile for the cameras Jacques, we're all friends here right." She felt a warm hand firmly grip her shoulder and looked up as her father stepped up beside her. His dark blond hair falling in loose waves to his shoulders that the top of her head barely reached, his casual smile and dancers build she inherited made her think of heroes out of novels, but his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "I honestly blame myself. I was the one that was foolish enough to believe it was safe to allow a pair of girls barely into their teens to go unarmed and unattended to a public venue that had been taken over for the night by an oily snake like you." Her father waved his free hand in the man's direction cementing with his smile for anyone out of earshot that he had just given a compliment. "The result was that one of the girls I helped raise and cared for was spirited away and the other was held hostage until she was able to slip away to let someone know what happened."

"I am afraid that the most my self recrimination would allow for was to talk my wife down from leading squads of Spartans to rip through your guards before you could leave last time so that she could rip off your arm and beat you with the wet end." Her father sighed dramatically and laid his hand on his heart playing further on offering a lamenting apology. "It was much better to make sure that cooler heads knew you had armed a bomb and sent it home."

"You really think you can continue operating without the resource my company provides." The man did a very poor job of keeping a smile on his face.

"Spartans have survived much worse. I believe we could manage without the benefit of your grace." Her father nodded towards the steps leading from the stage. "If you really want to risk a war over your inability to accept an honest reply to your question, who do you think would be better prepared? Your own security forces have done so incredibly well since we stopped hiring out our merchant marines to help protect your ships."

She had never been prouder to be her father's daughter as she walked off that stage with him that afternoon, but now to be a tree among the forest, just to go unnoticed for a short while. Such a simple thing you never learn to appreciate until it is something that is almost impossible for you to do. To reclaim that ability after losing it is a more empowering experience then all the cheers and accolades the world can possibly offer.

Such were her thoughts as she quietly stood observing the crowd of other aspiring hunters. The one she was really hoping to find had yet to appear. She had been waiting for years, a few more minutes would hardly prove lethal. Her distinctive circlet digging into her shoulder slightly where she had tucked it under her shield, she couldn't seem to change its colors, held more danger to her health.

Closing her eyes she reached out with her senses sampling the Auras of those around her, the skill had been honed in so many fights she could nearly use it as a weapon on its own.

There, the light she was looking for finally brushed against her senses and began moving closer.

A trio walked through the vaulted doors of the hall and she was happy to see the one she longed for carrying on an animated conversation with a younger girl, another red head she noted with a smirk, and a blond haired boy their own age whose familiar armor made her have to suppress a laugh. The cute little redhead, Ruby was her name apparently, was called away by an older, dead sexy, blond girl that had been waiting for her also it seems.

"So mind sticking together a while longer?" The young man asked nervously.

"Sure Jaune, sorry if I spooked you earlier." The lovely golden creature put a hand on his shoulder, as they walked a bit further into the crowd.

"No it's cool. I know a few other girls that can be obsessive over weapons." Again she had to suppress a laugh at just who he might be referring to.

"You!" The near shout came from someone she had hoped to never have the displeasure of encountering again. Little Ruby leaping into the arms of the blond girl with a squeal she couldn't quite make out just served to cement her first impression of adorableness.

The little white witch shoved a pamphlet in Ruby's face and very quickly rattled of what must have been corporate disclaimer. By Hera she had been forced to say far too many of them herself not to recognize one.

With some encouragement from her blond sister?, Ruby tried to introduce herself. The catty response, which apparently included an allusion to the blond aspiring knight being scraggly, was inevitably capped off by a deadpan "No" when the girl innocently took the cold hearted princess at face value.

"I think I might try to create some space between those two." Jaune who also noted how the small girl's shoulders slumped started stepping away from her target. "I am fairly certain I can shoulder snow angel's ire better than Ruby."

He almost made it over before all discussions were halted as the headmaster started giving his welcome speech. It was probably important but after hearing so many she could probably guess the context even listening with half an ear.

"I really like the new look." She whispered as she sidled up against and wrapped her right arm around the waist of the shield maiden. "It suits you much better than what you wore the last time I saw you."

"Black hair, armor, and clothes?" Umber looked her over with a grin. "Not much one would associate with a renowned champion, but I guess that is the point."

"Champion?" She brought her left hand to her chest in mock offense. "I am a just a dark rogue out to steal the gilded maiden's innocence."

"Alas that was lost a long time ago to a fiery redhead back in Mistral." Umber laments with equal false drama, while wrapping her left arm around her shoulders in return. "Whatever shall you do now miss rogue?"

"I will have to think about that for a little while." She concedes with a smile. "In the meantime care to fill me in on the boy that by some miracle caught your attention?"

The headmaster's speech ended and Glynda, the woman whose hologram welcomed everyone on the airships, gave a brief announcement about the students spending the first night in the ballroom. Giving Umber a moment to gather her thoughts. "The motivation was he is the brother of a client that suggested they would greatly appreciate if he survived initiation to be able to use the Huntsman outfit that was ordered as a congratulatory gift." Umber sighs lightly. "Amazingly he is growing on me rapidly with how sweet and honest he is, not to mention fun to tease."

"I sense a challenge there then." The rogue in black smiled saucily as she pulled the smaller girl up against her and turned so her face was hidden from the group by Umber's hat. "Since the champion must be seen touring the school, before I disappear into the shadows once more I believe I will lay down the gauntlet for my potential rivals."

"Mmmmph?..."

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

The blonde brawler glanced over to see her sister blush as bright as her cloak she was try to hide in, following her line of sight she quickly understood what the cause was. "Bow Chicka Wow! that new friend of yours works fast Rubes." Seeing the girl in the golden silk dress being held close to a dark stranger, and not fighting the kiss she was receiving, clearly had caused an overheat of the innocent girl's mind. The dreamy smile the friend was wearing when her feet touched the floor again argued that it was a good kiss indeed. Blinking the blond suddenly realized that the taller figure involved vanished completely into the crowds while she had been looking at the girl's face.

"Humph, such an unseemly display in public." The white haired girl remonstrated before storming off with her back rigid.

"Don't knock it till you've tried it Weiss-cream!"

"Yaaannnggg!" Ruby looks even more mortified somehow, which causes her sister to laugh. "That was.. that was?!.." The little reaper trailed off in an inarticulate loop.

"Success!" Yang heard the golden haired girl cheer as she approached while laughing. "I discovered a way to create a Weiss free zone."

Seeing it as necessary she gave her sister a nudge. "Maybe you want to introduce me to your new friends?"

"Oh yeah, Jaune, Umber this is my sister Yang Xiao Long." Ruby shakes herself out of the thought loop she was stuck in. Pointing first at her sister and then over to the other blond. "Yang this is Jaune Arc," The boy shakes himself out of his yuri induced stupor, still blushing as he glances at the other girl, and offers his right hand in greeting to Yang. "And this is Umber Shade."

After releasing Jaune's hand, Yang clasped the one Umber offered before stepping in close and addressing the girl quietly with a knowing smirk. "My Uncle cleaned my Dad out by betting against you in that last match. I like the changes you've made to your look in the last month plus though, more exotic enchantress then hedge witch."

"I hadn't fully prepared to deal with my opponent's abilities, I have a few things to try if a chance for a rematch comes up," Umber gives a nonchalant shrug before smiling slyly. "And thank you."

"Judging by what I just saw Uncle Qrow will have to pay back some Lien to my dad." Umber tilts her head curiously to the side at her statement. "My Dad bet you were into girls and weren't as aggressive because of it."

"While I am slightly offended at the implication, and would like to point out statements like that are a reason give a beating by themselves, I can't deny the first part is a fact even if it doesn't lead to the conclusion." Umber glances over at the other blond who couldn't decide if he should move away or not. "Dear Jaune makes me think it might be worth broadening my horizons however." Both girls laugh at the embarrassed squawk and furious blushing from the boy.

"That's cool and all, but let me make one thing clear." She threw an arm around each of their shoulders and turned them so they are all facing away from Ruby. "If either of you try anything like that with my baby sister I will have to hurt you."

"No worries from me," Umber smiled already seeing eye to eye with her, literally and figuratively. "I would consider adulterating that level of adorableness a crime." Umber glances over to where the young gentleman was forced into a slightly uncomfortable crouch.

"Hey I have younger sisters too you know." Jaune gives both girls an affronted look.

"Yang?" Ruby tapped on her back, with the way Jaune had started waving his arms she realized her sister was beginning to get concerned about her new friends' safety.

She glanced back and winked at Ruby. "We're all good here it seems."

"There were several announcements before you all arrived." Releasing her hold Yang turns around to face her sister and the other two. "The big things were that we have the rest of the day before curfew at 9 pm to explore campus. Some second year students are available to lead organized tours, or just on our own. We can get dinner in the cafeteria starting at 5:30 pm, and ending at 8. Breakfast will be in the same time frame tomorrow morning. It's just about 2 pm now so."

"The question is do we want to team up to explore or go our own ways?" Jaune offers following her train of thought.

"I'd like to stay together." Ruby gives the other teenagers a soulful glance. One, two, three nods and they all realize resistance is futile.

"Where would you like to go first Rubes?" Yang concedes defeat for the group.

"The armory and maintenance rooms!" Ruby cheers. "I need to make sure they have the equipment I need to work on my sweetheart."

"I think they are by the dorms." Umber pulls out her scroll, unlocking it and pulling up a map of campus. "We probably will need to ask permission, but if we say we need to repair some of our gear before the initiation tomorrow it shouldn't be a problem." Umber leered at Jaune. "Think you could offer your sword for inspection if they ask?"

"I'll make you a deal." Jaune ruefully shakes his head. "If you'll agree to tell us why you have gone out of your way to not be within ten meters of Weiss, I will let you examine Crocea Mors."

"Was I that obvious?" Receiving three emphatic nods Umber sighs. "Okay but only if we can do both privately in one of the maintenance rooms."

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

It turned out that they could inspect and use one of the rooms without any trouble. Asking Professor Goodwitch politely saw to them having the scrolls authorized to access one in what they were told would be the first year dormitory they would all be assigned to after team selections were done. There was a bit of a walk across campus from the ballroom, but it still was not bad. The walk felt like a gallows march to Umber all the same. Opening the door she lead the way into the five meter by six meter room and remained staring only at the workbench and tools along the far wall until she heard the door close.

Undoing the clasp and lowering her hat slowly in front of herself she turned to face the others.

"Your expressions remind me of the one in the mirror the first time I saw myself like this." She chuckled sadly. "I was nine and in a moment of panic thought I had turned into a ghost." Reaching into the raised neck at the back of her dress she pulls on a drawstring. "The most painful part was my mother named me for my eye color, and as that was always darker then my skin color it was the first thing I lost." Her white hair slowly trails out over her left shoulder with the end falling into her open hand. "I know it is childish but I have never cut my hair since then. I should probably consider cutting it shorter and letting go, yet this is the last reminder I have of when my hair really looked like spun gold."

"I don't get along with Weiss, and probably never can, because I am living proof that her father isn't anywhere close to a paragon of virtue. Since she is the heiress, and I'm the bastard child as far as Atlas is concerned, she could make my life harder while I could do next to nothing in return." Umber was surprised as she rubbed her eye and found her finger came away wet. "I hadn't expected to run into her here at Beacon, that's why I panicked at the sky port. My only advantage is that we have only actually met once before, and she doesn't know I can change my appearance. If I can just not have her realize who I am until after the teams are formed, then I can face her on equal footing as students of the academy."

"I did not see that coming." Yang looked at the now pale pink skin of Umber's face in mild shock, before deliberately striding forward and lightly punching her in the shoulder. "But I'll have your back."

"So what happens after teams are formed?" Jaune walked past the girls and placed his sheathed sword on the workbench.

"I'll become a resident here in Vale once my acceptance to the academy is made official." Umber sighed as she sat down on a stool next to the workbench. "At that point my legal name will become Umber Schnee everywhere except back where I was born in Mistral. With the contract of service in lieu of tuition I, my mother, and by some miracle my father, signed I should be safe from being dragged back to Atlas until after I complete both my training and mandatory service to Vale."

"So assuming I don't get expelled, I can be assured that father can't try to marry me off to one of his subordinates until I am old enough to gain legal emancipation." Folding her hat up and tucking it into her waist pouch, she intertwined her fingers above her head in a sinuous stretch. Accompanied by a low moan she suggestively smiled at Jaune. "So if I have held up my end of the agreement to your satisfaction, may I examine your sword Mr. Arc?"

Blushing while nodding his assent Jaune placed the weapon on the bench, but before she could turn around Ruby stepped up to Umber and leaned in close to whisper in her ear. "That was Pyrrha Nikos in the assembly hall wasn't it?"

Eyes widening in surprise Umber turned to whisper just as quietly in return. "It was but how could you tell?"

The younger girl nervously pressed her fingers together and blushed before leaning in close. "I recognized her boots. I thought I must have been mistaken until your appearance changed in front of us." Ruby crossed the first two fingers of her right hand while hiding them with her left. "Are you...you know?"

"Once upon a time we were. It's a bit up in the air, but I am hopeful." Her breath on Ruby's ear caused the girl to shiver. "Today was only the second time we have even been near each other in three years, the other was during the tournament."

Ruby fidgeted nervously before leaning in to whisper once more. "Why not be more you know..open about it?"

"I would not mind a bit of scandal if it only affected me personally, and maybe the Schnee family, but the Mistrali Champion is to valuable to people's morale to risk it." She gave Ruby a brief hug before finally turning to the artifacts she had longed to examine on the workbench.

Jaune cleared his throat catching their attention. "What did you mean when you said the shield used space expansion spells?"

In response Umber lifted the weapon off the table and slipped her left hand through the side handle. Pressing the button located just above the handle expanded it out into a shield. Umber stood up in order to retrieve a small ball ping hammer off the rack on the wall. Gently tapping the inside of the shield made the metal ring like a clear bell. "That sound means that this is formed together like a solid piece of metal, and yet as you just saw the plates just slid out from each other."

Collapsing it back down she presents the sheath's profile to the group. "You just saw them slide back together but can you point to any gaps here where that should be possible? It still weighs the same but the extra metal plates just disappear into a pocket space where the sword still is right now." Carefully taking the sword from the sheath, and placing it on the table, she turns it so the others can look inside before expanding the shield out again. "It is one of my favorite techniques to create expanded spaces in clothing and cloth pouches, but crafting the same into forged metal is the work of a master. I am not sure anyone alive today could reproduce work this intricate."

Collapsing the sheath a final time, she placed it on the bench before picking up the sword. Running her free hand over the blade as she continues. "The spell is so familiar to me it's almost like I can taste it when I run my senses over..." Umber's blue eyes widen as she put the sword back down on the bench and ran both her hands over it multiple times. "The same spell is everywhere on this sword, even the handle? That makes no sense though, there isn't any shifting parts."

Her hand stopped over what looks like a recessed brad securing the golden cross guard to the handle. With a soft grinding of gears that had not been oiled in a long time the light blue band securing the leather wrapping of the handle expanded outward with connecting plates looking like the iris of a camera linking it to the handle. Once it became wider then the blade itself the whole handle popped back from the cross guard a short distance with the sound of a released spring. Umber hastily pulled out her scroll and started taking pictures of the revealed metal funnel shaped like the top of an hourglass aimed towards the cross guard between two metal rails that were apparently the split tang of the blade. A sheen of ordinary dust covered everything inside.

Umber carefully placed the handle of the hammer she used earlier under the cross guard to support the weight of the blade before gently pulling the handle further back along the rails revealing they ran the full length of the handle. A metal plunger attached to a spring retracted out of the funnel allowing it to drop out. Looking at both ends of the funnel revealed the toothed gears that caused the irising action from before. "Have you ever seen any other items like this in your family mementos Jaune?" He could only shake his head negatively as she took a closeup photo and quickly sent a message to someone. "The torque required to make the cylinder spin must have sheared off whatever was on the outside of the cross guard to actuate it at some point."

Umber carefully rubbed a white residue off the end of the plunger with her finger, she sniffs it before tasting it. "It's table salt?"

Further down the rails there are a quartet of holders for Dust crystals, that are empty, arranged around a tube that contained the shaft the plunger attached to. At the end of the tube is another crystal holder. No trace of the original crystals remained. Umber was running her thumb along one of the rails when she suddenly smiled brightly. "Could someone hand me a piece of paper and a pencil?"

Ruby quickly fished the items from her pouch and handed them to the older girl. Umber blew away some of the dust along the outside of the rail before putting the paper up against it and lightly rubbing the pencil across it. Gently placing the sword back on the table she held the paper up to the light. "Do not exceed four Grade Four Electric Blue and one Grade Five Wind Green Dust Crystals... That officially dashes my hopes of this being an ancient holy sword, but now I do think I know what we are looking at."

"Would you mind if I sent this information to someone I think has the expertise to help with this?" Umber took pictures of the paper, the funnel, the blade with crystal holder array, and the handle.

"Can you tell us what you think it is first?" Jaune replied mildly.

"I think we are looking at a Great War era plasma blade!" Umber enthused while practically bouncing. Ruby lets out a squeal and is quickly hovering over the disassembled weapon.

"Not to be a downer when you're both being so entertainingly enthusiastic." Yang opined from the side with her arms crossed. "But how can you be so certain of this Umber?"

In response Umber reached into her waist pouch, pulling out a silver cylinder that she is barely able to get her hand around and almost twice as long as her palm is wide. "This is one of my thrusters, I'll try to explain how they work the way my friend explained them to me." A ring on one end surrounding a fan blade started to spin. Removing the ring she placed the cylinder on the table next to the blade of Crocea Mors. Lifting away half of the external shroud revealed two bright blue dust crystals arranged on the outside of an inner cylinder. "These spin the fan and create a voltage high enough to cause the tips of copper wire electrodes to sublimate into a reaction chamber filled with pressurized air from the fan."

Lifting away the inner cylinder reveals another hour glass shaped tube with a small sphere at the center of the neck. The upper half connecting by a pair of struts to the bottom half of the inner liner. A small copper wire pierced the sphere on each side. A coil of wire spirals around the lower half of the hourglass. "After that the mix becomes conductive enough for the power from the crystals to turn it into high energy plasma which the coil pulls out using a magnetic field. The plasma then superheats the rest of the air blown in by the fan and that shoots out the far side creating forward thrust."

Umber points at the blade again. "I think this might use salt for the same purpose which would create a bright yellow glow to the resulting plasma, where the copper in mine creates a green glow because of the cooling of the plasma."

"Where is the reaction chamber?" Ruby looks over the blade quickly noting the difference. "How could the plasma? not melt the blade?"

"The reaction chamber is in the cross guard." Umber looks over the tools before finding a compressed air canister. She turned the blade on edge and laid the piece of paper over the blade. Putting the tip of the straw coming off the canister at the opening in the cross guard the funnel came out of she grins. "Now watch this."

Pulling the trigger on the canister caused a loud hiss and the paper was blown up and away from the blade. "That's So Cool!" The little reaper gushed.

Umber glances over at Jaune while she turns the compressed air to its normal purpose of clearing the dust from the rest of the array. "So can I contact my friend now?"

"Wait what just happened?" Yang looked over at Ruby trying to figure out what she was cheering about.

"The air just passed through the blade itself!" Ruby looked the blade over as though trying to find anywhere the openings could be.

"If you think they can help sure." Looking things over with a still slightly confused expression, Jaune gave her a hopeful grin. "So are you able to make it work you think?"

"I have spare Electric Blue Dust Crystals for my thrusters, but I don't have any Wind Green of the right size." Umber nervously bit her lip. "Let me try contacting someone I know in Vale."

After composing several messages on her scroll Umber reassembled her thruster and returned it to her waist pouch. Almost immediately after she pulled a small secure case from the pouch. As she opened it Jaune noticed it contained a set of eight glowing blue crystals and multiple small spools of copper wire. "Maintenance kit for the thrusters." She stated simply to his questioning look.

"Aren't those really expensive?" He looks at her in mild shock, before shuffling around nervously. "I don't really have any way to pay you back."

"It's one of the few benefits I have from who my father is." Umber mumbled in response. "Any Dust I could show I had a use for Atlas academy would provide me, and he would replace their stock. After all a Dust Weaver without supplies can't maintain or improve their skills, all to bring fame to the family name of course."

"If I can put that to good use for a friend I'll count it as worthwhile." She claps him on the shoulder with a big smile.

Umber, with the eager assistance of Ruby, spent the next twenty minutes carefully securing the blue Dust crystals into the four holders within the tang of Crocea Mors. Moments before they could finish the last one an impressively firm knock comes from the door.

"Yo! Is Umber Shade in there?" A deep but feminine voice calls from the outside.

Jaune answered the door to find himself looking down just slightly over a pair of sunglasses into the deep brown eyes of a young woman wearing the Beacon student uniform accented with quite a few necklaces and a beret over her multihued brown hair. "Well handsome you're not exactly who I was sent to make a delivery for, but I can't complain about the view." She slides her sunglasses down a little further with her right hand as her grin grows wider

As he stepped back with a blush Umber with her hair again turned golden walked up to greet their visitor. "I'm Umber."

"Coco Adel." She hands Umber a business card, and then offers her hand in greeting. "My family run the Adel Fashion Haus and I was hoping to run into you."

"Prof Ozpin asked me to fetch this from the storage for you." Coco shifts a duffle bag strap off her shoulder and hands it to Umber. "I'm guessing you were expecting it. That's a beautiful dress, did you make it yourself?"

"I just did the embroidery work." Umber admits with a small smile. "I can follow a pattern to makes clothes, but my training with my mother was interrupted before I could learn much about design."

"So I heard through the rumor mill, bad business that." The older teen puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know design pretty well so once you get settled into classes feel free to look me up, and I would be happy to make time to tutor you." Leaning in a bit closer she smiled conspiratorially. "I'll be honest with you I'm crap at sewing, but I hear you're faster at hand sewing then most people are with a machine. If you would work with me on making some of my designs into outfits I'll split the commission fee with you equally."

"Thank you Coco, I really appreciate you taking an interest in me. If we can meet up after the teams are made I would love to show off my first commissioned piece I finished from one of my mother's designs." Umber glanced towards him and gave her a wink. "I might even be able to get someone to model wearing it."

Coco's chortle echoes down the hall as she waves to the others in the room and takes her leave. Closing the door and turning to face the others they can see she is positively beaming. "It isn't every day someone affiliated with the biggest fashion company in a kingdom goes out of their way to track you down, offers to teach you and team up with you on projects." Umber explained as she sets the duffle on the workbench.

"I can see how that would pick up your mood significantly." Yang admitted with a warm smile. "So whatcha get?"

Ruby watched as Umber pulls a silver metal case with a familiar snowflake design out of the bag, moments later with a screech the stool she was sitting on slid as far across the room as it could go away from said case with her still sitting on it. "I promise I won't be foolish enough to shake a bottle with a loose lid in front of someone else's nose Ruby."

"That's what happened earlier!?" Yang nearly shouted the question.

"Feel free to watch the replay while we finish up." Umber hands her scroll to Yang with the video open while gently trying to coax Ruby back to show off what treasures the case had to offer.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

Jaune glanced over the two girls to find a healthy assortment of crystals and powdered dust packed in foam inside. Umber grabbed out four blue crystals to refill her kit, and a slightly larger green crystal to complete the array in Crocea Mors. While the girls finished that Jaune checked the bag again and discovered a box of non-iodized salt. "Looks like we have everything we need now then."

"That self serving git!" Jaune glanced up to see Yang's eyes turn a bright red. "How dare she blame Ruby for causing that!"

"Punching her won't help, nor will breaking my Scroll." Umber said mildly while carefully extracting the device from the other girl's hands. "I have thought of a good use for the video though. Weiss and I have an older sister who is an officer in the Atlas military. If you'll give me a moment to set up the message we can give Ruby the honor of sending the video on its way to her."

The two sisters gave her equally malevolent grins in response. Jaune couldn't help but shudder slightly at the evil chuckling coming from Ruby and Yang as the younger girl hit the send button on the message Umber had composed. "So how much is left to finish and how can I help?" He asked hoping to move things back to safer topics.

"Well I think we are ready to add the salt and close the patient back up doctor." Umber slid the sword back into its sheath before presenting it to him blade down with a grin.

After opening the spout on salt container, he put the funnel back in place and and carefully filled it nearly to the top. Finishing with sliding the handle back down, sealing the funnel with the plunger, and holding it down to compress the spring while Umber held her hand up to the guard causing the expanded wrapping to iris closed once more sealing the expanded space away.

"If you want I can put a protection charm on it for good luck." Umber gave Jaune a genuine smile, which only made him more worried.

"What kind of charm." His suspicion was rising by the moment.

"Just a small token to have a guardian spirit watching over your shoulder." Umber replied with a wink.

Jaune was all but ready to bolt at those words but, hoping against hope, handed the weapon back. He watched with trepidation as the girl took a bottle of what looked like blue fingernail polish out of her pouch. 'Oh Oum no!' The aspiring knight thought as he watched a single drop fall on the back of the sheath. Where it flowed and nearly instantly dried into an eerily familiar crossed squares surrounded inside and out by a circle. 'Damn it all Iris what did you set up this time.'

"Thanks Umber." Jaune felt the strain in holding his smile as he took Crocea Mors back. "I think every little bit helps."

The the other two girls took this as a cue that there was no harm in the token, which was technically true, and while Umber was placing the charm on their weapons he dug out his wallet and pulled out his kingdom ID card. A quick glance at the back confirmed the charm painted on it was nearly identical in form, except this one had actual brush strokes. "Hey can we break this off here, I need to head to the library and check on something." Jaune announced as he put his wallet back into his pants pocket.

"You don't want to test it out?" Umber and Ruby both asked nearly on top of each other.

"I'm sure." Not wanting to let them see the frustration showing on his face, he opened the door and walked out. Leaving the girls to pack up and follow after.

He knew he had put his foot in it now, the trap was sprung. Like a bear with his leg caught it was only a question of how much he wanted to scrape himself up in a futile attempt to escape. It wasn't like she meant harm or was being dishonest. Having her be able to track you was sort of like having a guardian watching over you. It was just the principle of the thing. Sadly from experience he could say trying to scrape the thing off now would only alert her to the act, and make her more sneaky about it in the future.

After leaving the dorm Jaune practically ran to the library. A quick request of the librarian on duty had him set up at a terminal in a secluded corner. He wasn't worried about losing track of the girls. Short of pitching Crocea Mors in a locker and running there wasn't anywhere on campus he could go at the moment that Umber could not find him. "Arc residence!" The terminal suddenly showed the heart shaped face of a preteen girl with her dark red hair held back by a hairband accompanying the over excited voice. Her dark blue eyes widened. "Did you get lonely already onii-chan?"

"Maybe a little Jun." Jaune replied with a small smile. "Is Iris around?"

"Yup, let me get her." The girl's face disappeared from the screen and Jaune was reminded why he would forever regret buying her those comics she liked whenever the family went camping in Shion. "Okaa-sama! Onii-chan wants to talk to you." Yes every time after they came back he swore he would never again let his baby sister sweet talk him, or give in to those pleading eyes, and every time he folded.

He realized he was drumming his fingers on the counter and clasped his hands tightly together to keep himself from causing a distraction as the wait seemed to drag on. Finally an auburn haired woman with an almost literal foxlike grin appeared on the screen. "Good afternoon Jaune, you almost beat Jean's record for being the fastest to call home. Though you did beat out Jane because she didn't want to be on the same call I think."

"Mom is there anything you might have forgot to mention before I left on the airship this morning?" He sighed as he steepled his hands together and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Like maybe I would be running into one of your relatives?"

"I can honestly say I have no idea what you're talking about Jaune." Her tone of voice matched the confused look on her face, but the young man wasn't nearly convinced.

"These might look a bit familiar." Taking his identification card out of his wallet he presented the back of his sheath and the back of the card to the screen. "I encountered a blond fox girl who is a dust weaver and even uses the same partial truth explanation you've given since I was a kid for these."

"So you found where that one was hidden." Rolling her violet eyes at his unamused expression she was about to say something else when a voice to her side started asking their own question.

"Okaa-sama if Onii-chan is the prince in the story does that make Umber the merchant's daughter or the enchantress?" He could easily guess which story as Jun was holding the comic as she pushed back into the camera's view. The blond haired man brandishing a sword defending a red haired woman on the cover was easy to recognize, it was one he had bought for her.

"Who is whom now?" Their mother asked mildly.

"Um..." Jaune could almost swear she teleported as quickly as the girl was gone from the screen and he could hear small feet pounding up the stairs. A faint call of, "Never mind." Seemed to float down from what he assumed was the second floor bedrooms.

"Umber is my cousin Carnelian's daughter and I hadn't heard she was in Vale." Iris sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "I can't say who exactly put anyone up to anything, but if it was me the arrangement would be very different."

He just stared at her for a moment before snorting with laughter. "I can't begin to guess if you put Jun up to that, if it was one of the others, or if she was actually just that excited about me being in the middle of something like that story." Jaune massaged his temples before continuing. "There isn't a question that the majority opinion would be hoping I would continue to play along."

"I don't know how much you have heard so far, but if she is reaching out to you as a friend." Iris put a hand toward the screen imploring the boy to listen. "Jaune as a favor to me please just give her a chance."

"I heard about some family issues related to her father." He conceded with a sigh. "Alright I won't give her a hard time since you arranged to make sure dad and mama Lily were out on a mission so they couldn't try to stop me from going. I better get back to her and the others. Before I do though can I make a guess that your preferred first meeting would have been one that entailed engagement discussions? One of those marriage meetings like they have in Mistral?"

"Oh no Jaune." It was Iris' turn to hold back laughter. "The Mysterious Fox can only blame himself for that ship having already sailed."

As the the screen went black he flopped back in the chair, grumbling about a stupid hero name he really only remembered because his sisters never let him forget it.

When he walked back towards the front of the library he found much as he expected the girls had followed him and looked to be playing a game at one of the tables closer to the librarian's desk. "Hey Jaune," The little reaper hopped up and called to him with a wave, earning a glare and hissing shush from the librarian on duty. As the boy approached she continued more quietly. "Umber was teaching us how to play Star Halma, are you familiar with it?"

He glanced over her shoulder to see a six sided playing board with groups of ten peg playing pieces matching the distinct colors of the six points of the "star". "My dad used to insist on playing Halma with me, but stopped after a while. I'm not familiar with this one though."

"This version was developed in Atlas." Umber pointed at the layout of the playing field. "They added two more camps, but cut down the number of directions the pieces can move from eight to just six. The basic rules are otherwise the same. My older sister loves to play this."

'If I can put up with Jillian and Jun all the time, and Jane and Jean more often then I would like, dealing with just one trickster should be a breeze. At least I have an idea what I am in for now.' Glancing at Umber as he sat down at the table Jaune noticed she had switched out her hat for a golden hairband making the resemblance to his kid sisters even more striking. "All right do we play with individual camps or do we share camps?"

Umber turned to the other girls. "What he means is since there are four players we can only have four of the colored 'camps' in play, or we can play where two players have to work together to play one of the extra camps while still only winning with their own camp after the 'team' camp has won. Either way we can play until one person has won two games or best-of-five."

In the end they settled on playing individual camps which he could see frustrated the girl somewhat. Umber used her greater experience to barely win the first game, but from what he could tell she had really been more interested in studying the other players.

The sisters naturally banded together in their play from the start, and the result was that Ruby was the one to win the second game, which Umber happily congratulated her for. The third and fourth games though were an absolute annihilation of opposition. He casually put together ladders that took his pieces from the starting point, jumping completely around the board, and finally into his home camp in a single turn.

"You're evil Jaune." The little reaper whined into the table with her arms crossed over her head. "Pure Evil!"

"Sorry." He did feel a bit bad, but he looked at Umber pointedly. "There is a rule when I play games with my kid sisters that everyone plays to win and get better. Since there are the three of you here I kind of fell into the old habit." He reached over and patted one of Ruby's hands. "We also have a rule that we only play for blood while we're playing, so I hope you all will forgive me."

"Play for blood ehh?" Yang hopped up, knocking her chair over, and pointed dramatically at him. "We'll have to play 'Remnant the game' in the future, and then we will see how much your blood waters the sands of the deserts of Vacuo!" The blonde brawler put her fists on her hips and cackled madly, accompanied by cheering from Ruby.

"Ahem!" The group all turned to see the rather annoyed looking librarian standing behind Yang, and decided rather quickly to pack up and finish touring the campus before grabbing something to eat and staking out a place to camp in the ballroom for the night.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

The young weaver politely declined to join Yang and Ruby in their improvised camp on the side of the ballroom that had been unofficially designated for girls. After storing her weapons and dust supplies in a locker, and changing into her sleepwear, she set up against a wall near to the entrance of the ballroom with some fabric and thread to work on finishing a piece of new gear. At the same time indulging in one of her favorite pastimes of people watching. Fortunately or unfortunately all that seemed to be on offer were the boys on the far side of the room posing like well muscled peacocks.

She wasn't very surprised when a tall redhead in comfy looking red and brown flannel pajamas sat down next to her. "I see your toes still get cold faster than the rest of you." Umber glanced at her ankle sock covered feet on her otherwise bare legs below the long t-shirt she was wearing before she shrugged in response. "Is that a backpack you're working on?"

"I discovered that if a good close combat fighter pressures me I don't have the time to reach into my pouch and grab any of my dust rockets, so I am making a space expanded pack to store a spring loaded magazine for them as well as my thrusters." Umber responded with false mildness while watching the needles and thread form more stitches.

"When I watched the video of your fight with Sage I was sure you dropped something from your right hand right before you two clashed." The other girl leaned in and whispered. "If it was a rocket why didn't it fire off?"

"He was convinced I was a close range fighter. Which you, Pyrrha, should know very well I'm not." Umber smirked at the other girl. "At such short range igniting the propellant would have just made it obvious for him to see and possibly dodge. Just using my semblance and some double sided tape to make it stick to the inside of his duster was far more effective. Surprising him by making myself light enough to be knocked into the air ensured that he wouldn't look down to see it."

"Why didn't you use dust spells against Reese?"

Umber shrugged again. "The chance to target her never came up before she presented such a glaringly easy way to take her down by out flying her."

"Then what was the reason you started with hand to hand combat against me instead of creating space by flying up and carpet bombing with dust spells?" The champion asked quietly.

"Maybe I wanted to show someone that always acted like they needed to be a shield for me that I could actually stand up myself." The blond girl smiled at her friend, deciding to stick with a partial truth and not the family politics laced one. "I didn't win but I was the only competitor to take the repeat winners Aura down to the halfway mark."

Pyrrha smiled while relaxing back against the wall and looking over the room before she suddenly started giggling. "On an unrelated topic do you think there is any explanation for that."

She followed her friend's gaze and suddenly felt a headache coming on. Blinking several times did not make the affront to any form of adult style disappear. Thinking on it for a few moments when she realized it was not going away she came to the conclusion that it was diabolical in how well it accomplished its intended function.

"Pure speculation at the moment, but if I had a brother that was sweet, caring, entirely too trusting, and that I was really not ready to share with any girl his own age." Umber paused a moment to decide how best to phrase the rest. "I would assure him that wearing pajamas that were comfortable, hid any hint of an athletic physique, and styled appropriately for a seven year old, were the perfect thing to wear at all times to sleep in. I would likely go as far as to make him several with his favorite cereal mascot embroidered on the front to help ensure he would wear them." Pyrrha was hugging her legs with her head resting against her knees trying to stifle her giggles. "On that note, I think I overplayed my hand with him earlier."

"Oh! Hehe...ha heee." I took several more moments and deep breaths for the other girl to continue. "Hee ha hha...h.. how Sssso?"

"I put a basic casting circle on the back of his sword sheath with some electric Dust laced enamel, and, he recognized it." Umber sighed and leaned back against the wall. "He didn't make any accusations or warn the other two you saw me with earlier, but he bolted straight to the library where I am fairly certain he made a CCT video call. After that he was friendly again, but started dropping a lot of references to how he was reminded of hanging out with his sisters."

Pyrrha just glanced over to her with a slightly confused look on her face.

"I guess I forgot to mention before that the clients who asked me to look after their little brother all happen to call one of my mom's cousin's mom. Though not all are hers by birth."

"The father has two or more wives?" The redhead nodded in understanding. "Must be a fairly influential family to keep that old tradition in modern Vale"

"So I have to believe that someone at home asked him to play nice even though he knows I wasn't just purely interested in him when we first met." Umber sighed and watched a few more stitches form themselves around a difficult corner seam on the pack she was working on. "Which leaves me with a troublesome situation of do I keep dogging his heels and risk alienating him more, or do I let him go on his own and risk letting him get hurt."

"You may have to just let the chips fall as they may." Pyrrha said quietly. "Were you thinking of taking it as far as becoming his partner and teammate?"

"I really wasn't planning to go that far, but I wouldn't mind at this point. From what I can tell he may not be a front line fighter, but his grasp of strategy and tactics is almost scary. His Aura levels from what I could sense are nothing to sneeze at, he is almost on par with Uncle Alex from what I can recall." Umber smiled a little sadly at the memory. "I don't think it would be a good idea for us to be partners either, being from another country and sticking together would only work against us in the long run."

A commotion farther into the room caught the girl's attention, followed by an even louder call for the familiar pair of girls to cut it out so others could sleep. The resulting shouting match caused more of a disturbance then the sibling tussle that preceded it.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

Jaune was doing his best to clear the area of the girls shouting match. Experience had taught him that trying to play peacemaker would only add fuel to the fire. Double checking his gear in his locker before sleep was sounding like an exceptional idea. Hearing a muffled laugh he glanced at the far wall and almost tripped as for a moment he could have sworn he saw two of his younger sisters. A second glance revealed it was Umber chatting happily with a red haired girl just enough taller than her sitting to make the mistaken impression.

Nodding his head he relaxed and started walking again before an even worse realization hit him, he increased his pace to get to the locker room and his Scroll that everyone had been ordered not to bring with them into the ballroom for the night.

Getting to his locker he quickly punched in the access code and grabbed his Scroll out of his pants pocket, his folded clothes falling to the floor in his haste. Quickly he started searching through his photo album on the device when a message chimed. A circular icon with multilayered petals of a golden larkspur flower under a single golden crescent appeared with the text "looking for this?" A window popped up with a picture of a six year old version of himself with a goofy mask being pulled up off his face, he was supposed to have insisted it was a fox with its ears laid back. The result was that the ears were long enough for it to be mistaken for Pumpkin Pete. Surrounded on both sides and blushing as two girls kissed him on the cheek. A picture that the sender loved to tease him with always claiming that it reminded her of just how brave and crafty her little brother could be. The redhead on his left always made him think of his sister Jillian but the blond on his right was too young to be his older sister Jen and Jana was only a toddler at the time.

"How do you do that Joan?" He typed in reply wishing he could emote the groan that escaped his mouth.

"I have my ways, but mostly I just heard that Mama Iris couldn't help but bring up 'The Mysterious Fox' so I was guessing you would connect the dots." He could almost visualize the grin she had to be wearing as she typed that.

"She also mentioned a marriage meeting involving at least one of them, and I am fairly certain both of them are here. So please be straight with me on how screwed I am." His hands were shaking as he hit send.

"I will tell you truthfully there is no obligation you are under except the non-optional mission for me." Jaune cringed slightly remembering the promises he made for her and Iris's help getting into Beacon. "I realize you were six at the time so I will explain the situation. Two families meet up. One has one son and six daughters at the time. The other also has one son and two daughters. Numerically what do you think the main topic of conversation was?"

"I would guess the second family was considering trying to arrange a bride for their son?" He offered gaining a little bit of hope in the process.

"Yes another cute little boy took your place getting all the younger girls' attention for a few days while the parents talked. Fortunately they correctly assumed since I was about to start at Beacon I would not have an interest in considering any future arrangements with a boy who wouldn't even enter combat school for a few years." Jaune chuckled a little at her tone. "So I was given the task of babysitting you and the two precocious girls. As far as I know the only thing that was settled on was that any of the children in our family were invited to spend a few years living in Mistral to train in their family combat style, which I already availed myself of, and they asked us to look out for their daughters who they hoped would study at Beacon since the mothers were originally from Vale. Their little boy grew up to be a promising huntsman in training, but inherited his mom's short temper. I have high hopes my brave little brother will do the same, hopefully without the temper part. So I trust you read the mission homework I gave you?"

"The book on POW camp survivors and PTSD from the Great War?" Jaune settled to the floor and leaned against the open locker, couldn't she settle on a mood?

"Yes, now here is the first test of this mission. With the information you have gathered today why did I ask you to read that book?"

The most obvious clue was if she and his sisters had been the ones to ask Umber to get in contact with him it had to involve her. She was born in Mistral but talked about being in Atlas and not being in enough contact to know that her half sister would be here. Her constantly teasing him like a kid with a new toy, she obviously enjoyed making him blush, but it was more like she felt it was safe to do so, maybe for the first time in a long time. Finally he sighed when he put the pieces together. "I think you are using me like a therapy dog. If I understand the hints Umber was not in Atlas by her own choice and wasn't allowed to leave either. So you asked her to stick close and look after me so that I could look after her."

"A golden star for the observation." Jaune slumped at the lack of denial. "I would put it more as I expect you to try to be a friend that she can lean on that she has no lingering resentment towards, and maybe a little fondness for if she remembers your first meeting at all. You can't deny you could use all the friends you can get and looking after you could possibly keep her from self destructing by testing how far her newfound freedom goes."

"So any other surprises I should be watching out for?" He set about gathering his scattered clothing and putting it back in the locker for the night.

"That should be all that I have for you. Sleep well and stay safe, I look forward to hearing from you after you get assigned a team." He smiled as he sent a good night wish in return and started putting his Scroll back in his pants. As he picked up his breastplate he noticed the padding had pulled up on one side and a bit of blue enamel was showing against the white. Unhooking the padding entirely revealed not one, or two, but seven large and thickly enameled seals like Umber's that had been put there. With a groan he reseated the padding and put the breastplate back in the locker and closed the door.

Walking back to the ballroom from the locker room revealed that the argument had ended and most of the other prospective students had already curled up in their sleeping bags. Glancing over where he had seen the two girls before he rushed from the room he found a pair of sleeping bags that had been turned so the openings faced each other. In one he could see the back of a red haired head and in the other he saw Umber's hat covering her head and face. He could see between them the red haired girl reaching over into the other sleeping bag and a peak of her hand gently holding a hand with pale pink skin.

As he walked over and climbed into his own sleeping bag a few more things clicked into place. From the time they arrived Umber had quite literally not approached anyone that wasn't staff that he hadn't approached first. The only exceptions being Coco who he assumed she knew by reputation, the black haired girl who kissed her in the assembly hall, and this girl who she was now sleeping next to. Thanks to the demonstration of Umber's color changing illusions, which it was apparent she couldn't maintain in her sleep. It was simple elimination to assume that the girl with black hair and the one with red that she seemed so comfortable with now were one in the same. Which given their first meeting he came to the conclusion their relationship was something a bit more than sisterly.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

".ey sl..py ..ed" He tried rolling over and burying his head into the pillow but the voice came back again accompanied by a pair of hands gently pulling his shoulder. "Wake up, it's time for breakfast."

"Just five more minutes Jilli food can wait that long can't it?" He tried sleepily arguing with his tormenter while rolling free of her grasp.

"Jaune who's Jilli?" The question woke him up enough to open his eyes as he realized he was not in fact in his warm bed at home.

"My sister Jillian who only likes to think she is older and more responsible then me." The blonde girl kneeling next to him was definitely not who he first thought of either. The hair pooling behind her on the floor was longer than any of his sisters wore theirs, even if the hairband she was wearing reminded him of his baby sister still. "You remind me of her a little, and on that note I feel I should tell you to be more cautious. I can see something I probably shouldn't from this angle."

"Well big brother Jaune." The girl grinned impishly at him while leaning forward to whisper in his ear, incidentally pushing her knees further apart. "You can't see something I'm not wearing in the first place." Composure breaking the girl started giggling at his blushing and sputtering. "I'm wearing a bodysuit under this shirt, so what you are seeing is an armor plate, but if my opponent in a spar spends time thinking about what they are or aren't seeing it's to my advantage."

"Why me?" Jaune groaned as he rolled out of his sleeping bag, for good or ill his heart rate was now far too high to fall back asleep. "Seriously why wait on me? It looked like you were getting along well with the girl you were talking to last night, or there's Ruby and Yang."

"She's a friend from back home and I suggested it would be better for us both to mingle more." Umber relaxed back into a more demure sitting position with her knees drawn up to her chest. "After breakfast we don't have a lot of time before the initiation, and I would hate to horn in on the girls' sisterly bonding time since we don't know how things will stand after." She pointed a finger dramatically at Jaune and winked. "And you sir seriously underestimate how enjoyable your company can be."

Acknowledging the inevitable Jaune gathered up his bedroll and walked in a surprisingly relaxed silence with Umber to the locker room where after grabbing clean clothing they parted ways to head to the gender separated shower and changing areas. After a quick shower and getting dressed he almost chuckled when he found Umber in the shared lavatory fully dressed and trying somewhat successfully to dry her long hair with one of the provided bath towels that even the boy could tell was not adequate to the task.

"Would you like some help?" He ventured while holding a fresh towel in each hand. The girl blushed a little but nodded in acceptance of the offer. "I'm surprised you don't have a blow dryer."

"I usually cheat and use water dust to draw the moisture out." Umber sighed as he gently gathered her hair behind her head holding it between the two large cloths and began rubbing them back and forth while working his way down to the tip. "Yang said one of the announcements was that we were not to use any spells with offensive potential on campus before initiation. Since we weren't there to hear it, I would rather not take any chances."

Jaune just shrugged in response, there really wasn't anything more to say. He just watched as the girl finished drying her hair and tucking her fox ears back and slipping the hairband over them to keep them from popping out of her hair. "Thank you for helping me."

Things went smoothly from there with Jaune only having a small laugh at her healthy appetite for eggs and bacon instead of the large platters of pancakes the cafeteria offered reminding him even more of home.

The first real hurdle Jaune found in dealing with Umber came when they went back to the locker room where they had both picked lockers on the far side of the room and after he had strapped on Crocea Mors he turned to find her with her gear on including straps for a new backpack. He had to guess it was a backpack because Umber had her back pressed up against a pillar and looked to be in no hurry to move. A glance towards the exit was all it took for him to understand why.

"You noticed yesterday that Weiss isn't likely to recognize you." He quietly observed.

"That was yesterday in a crowded and poorly lit grand hall." Umber whispered back. "I can't get out of this well lit room without passing within a few feet of her." His look of disbelief prompted her to continue. "Imagine if you were forced to carry an open bucket of oil down a narrow path lined with torches. You can't let go of the bucket, you know that there is only a small chance of it being ignited, but you know if it goes up you have no chance of putting it back out."

Jaune took a few minutes to look over the room before he unstrapped his weapon and handed it to Umber. Pulling a facility map out of the pocket of his hoodie he grinned at her confused expression. "Here is what we will do then. I'll make sure everyone's attention is on me. You follow a few steps behind and make sure to keep this map blocking your view of Weiss. In this instance it will be a case of if you can't see her she won't be able to see your face."

"Ridiculous!" He whined loudly as he walked past Ruby and Yang, earning a raised eyebrow from the other blond. "There's no way I put my stuff in locker six three six yesterday! I would have remembered having to count that high!" A glance to his left revealed Umber following as he asked and barely restraining giggles. "Why does this have to happen today?!"

Reaching the far end of the room Umber handed him back his weapon and then he made the mistake of glancing back into the room. Her friend really did remind him of his sister right down to the incredibly fake smile she was giving Weiss as the girl talked to her. He nodded for Umber to head on out, and glanced back at the redhead. "Once more into the breach." He noticed her smile became more genuine as she realized his intent. Having four older sisters hadn't taught him much about what worked in flirting, but boy was it hard not to get an earful about what didn't.

R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y*R*W*B*Y

"So Pyrrha have you given any thought to whose team you would like to be on? I'm sure there are many who would be eager to unite with such a strong, well known individual such as yourself." The girl stated oh so politely. To which she would have loved to say anyone but yours.

"Well I'm not quite sure." Pyrrha glanced past Weiss to see Umber join Jaune by the exit. She couldn't help but smile at just how nicely he was playing with her friend. "I was planning on letting the chips fall how they may."

Umber handed a sword with a rather sturdy looking sheath back to the young man, and Pyrrha had to contain a chuckle at remembering his loud lament about locker numbers. She could only cast glances in their direction so as to not give her "companion" the impression she wasn't paying attention. While she wouldn't claim to be any good at reading lips, it was easy to pick out the boy nodding towards the exit and then in her direction with the words "once more" to which Umber nodded enthusiastically before turning and leaving the room.

"Well I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together." The heiress continued the mostly one sided conversation.

"Well that would be grand!" Pyrrha said with some enthusiasm as she tried to subtly wave the boy over. If Weiss assumed it was a response to her statement then all the better. She had to assume the other girl took it that way as her evil grin all but gave away her megalomaniacal musings at the idea.

"You know what else is great." Her knight in faded jeans stated while casually stepping between her and the girl in white. "Me! Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you." She had heard drunken sailors deliver lines more smoothly but at the moment she could quite happily have kissed him.

"Oh you again!" The heiress grumbled. While Pyrrha took the opportunity to close and step away from her locker.

"It's nice to meet you Jaune." She happily responded to her rescuer.

"Ya ya," The boy stepped up to create space between the girls again and with a wink returned to the offensive against the heiress. "So Weiss I couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." The girl whined.

"Don't worry no need to be embarrassed." Jaune bull rushed on not giving Weiss a chance to regain control of the conversation. "So I was hearing rumors about teams! I was thinking you and I would make a good one. Whatta ya say?" Pyrrha had to contain a laugh from the outrage showing on the heiress' face at having the same insinuation she had been forcing moments before turned back on her. Apparently it never occurred to the other girl that others could overhear them talking.

"Actually I think the teams are composed of four students each so..." The champion began hoping to draw some of the ire directed at him away.

"You don't say." The young man slid towards her and continued his playfully confident delivery. "Well hot stuff if you play your cards right maybe you can join the winning team."

"Jaune? is it?" Weiss interposed herself between them and held him to a double arms length from Pyrrha. The champion only wished she could do the same in turn. "Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

"Not in the slightest Snow Angel." Pyrrha double blinked at that, he would come to help her simply because she was a friend of a friend?

"This is Pyrrha." The girl introduced her as though they had known each other for more than a few minutes. In truth she had been trying to avoid this situation and only stayed because she sensed Umber was otherwise trapped further in the room with a potentially irate Weiss if she had tried to blow her off and leave.

"Hello again." She waved to Jaune.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum." She rolled her eyes so only he could see, like this public knowledge somehow made them closer.

"Never heard of it." She felt like her grin threatened to split her face at the scoff his easy dismissive response earned from the other girl.

"She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row! A new record!" Pyrrha was having to really hold in giggles at how easily the other girl was losing her cool.

"The what?" The delivery was so easy she had to believe his lack of knowledge was real. Which intrigued the champion, Joan had mentioned something about a gag order on discussing Hunter activities in the house but this was extreme. She just hoped he didn't push the heiress to much further.

Fortunately rather then going on the attack the other girl started to comically flail her arms uselessly at her sides. "She's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

"Oh that was you!" Jaune put his hands together and pointed at Pyrrha with overly cute adoration. "They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Yah it was pretty cool." She was surprised to find herself blushing a little. "Sadly the cereal is not very good for you."

"So after hearing all that do you honestly believe you! Are in a position to ask her! To be on your team." The uppity snit just had to try taking the stuffing out of him.

The boy deflated under the pressure. "I guess you're right...sorry."

Pyrrha stepped up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Actually Jaune I think you'd make a great leader."

The effect as she put her hands behind her back and smiled was instantaneous with him being all cute confidence again. "Dou oh! Stop it."

"Seriously please stop it." The annoying midget came back again. "This sort of behavior should not be encouraged."

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on for team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick. Now I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I can pull a few strings and find a place for you. What do you say?" The boy came on like a verbal freight train battering through her defense.

"Okay that's a bit to close." The girl called for an assist. "Pyrrha a little help please." The Champion realized it was time to extract her rescuer and for practice decided to tag his hoodie with Milo.

"I'm sorry." She offered somewhat lamely before she was interrupted by the intercom.

"All first year students please report to Beacon Cliffs for initiation."

The heiress flounced by Jaune with a sniff. Pyrrha reached out with her semblance to take hold of Milo and unpin the boy from the wall. "It was nice meeting you."

"Likewise..." She wished he could have seen her smile as he sighed, but the time he bought for Umber would be wasted if Weiss cornered her on the cliffs. So she chose to follow the girl and keep her distracted.

As they left the building and walked to the cliffs Weiss was in enough of a huff that she remained blissfully silent which Pyrrha was immensely grateful for. As they came in sight of the cliff she found Umber had taken up position on one of the first launchers and secured a few filled positions between them. While Weiss was looking at the professors she discretely caught Umber's attention and mouthed the words, 'I have a solution to your problem.'

She threw Umber a huge grin after Professor Ozpin announced their partners would be decided by eye contact. She attached Akouo to her bracer just before being launched into the air and used a few nudges of her semblance on it and her greaves to control her flight. After ploughing through two trees, and rolling into a ready position on a branch she brought out Milo in rifle form and sighted her target through the scope helping her lock on to his Aura in her mind. After shifting Milo back into a spear she launched it down range.

Delicate course correction with her semblance was required to line up where she sensed the space between his Aura was and where the small barb had been left from Milo's spear tip the first time. With a loud thunk she sent her weapon right through the same hole and pinned Jaune embarrassingly high up in a tree. Saving him from a rough landing, but also making it unlikely anyone would try to approach.

With a actual giggle at the irony of the situation she unclipped the plate with her spear and shield symbol from her sash and hung that on the strap to her pouch. Shaking it out a little she wrapped the veil around her head and shoulders. Within moments all her clothing and armor changed to dappled browns, grays, and greens. Lifting up slightly with her semblance on her greaves she started to skip lightly between the tree branches towards where Jaune was waiting.

With a quiet crackle a large curved fang of ice appeared off to the side of her in the woods and she saw a small figure actually run up it. Umber swooped in just in time to catch the little goth loli as her feet lost traction "Thanks for dropping in Little Rose." Pyrrha stifled a laugh at her sister's pun and it became even harder when she heard the exuberant response. "We're flying!"

She continued to slip like another shadow through the tree branches. She was born a Spartan, she had trained with weapons since before she could walk. It was hard for her to explain to her parents why one of her most precious childhood memories was of a camping trip. She loved her father but his idea of roughing it was not taking the captain's or VIP quarters on whatever ship he was traveling on. With her mother running the trading company it practically guaranteed that any family trips were taken on one of the company's ships. So it was a special occasion when her family got together with a larger family for a camp out and she ended up just being one girl among other girls doing normal things.

She spent the whole time just playing with the other girls. She and Umber got to listen to a baby's heartbeat through the mother's tummy. There was even this adorable toddler that insisted on climbing into her lap to curl up and take a nap, she had actually pleaded with her parents to let her keep that little girl.

Most special of all though was an inordinately rare occurrence. She had always been a prodigy, and could count on one hand the number of people outside her family who had ever caught on that she would want or need assistance and acted on it. During that trip it had been when she and Umber had decided snares they found around a clearing near their camp were needlessly cruel and set about springing them all. The result was the trappers caught them in the act of doing so, and she found herself facing four teens with only a walking stick.

She could never forget how this boy came out of nowhere and peppering the teens with water balloons and flowery insults tricked them all into chasing him over the side of a bluff where they fell into a river.

So today her count didn't go up by any. It didn't even matter that he didn't remember her name. The same sweet boy had chosen again to come to her rescue like she was just a regular girl.

She stopped on a branch seeing something that made her want to grind her teeth in frustration. An interloper had somehow reached the goal first and was hesitantly looking up at the target. The blond boy waved and let out a nervous laugh, to which the uninvited guest merely sniffed at and stomped off into the trees. "Hey wait, who's gonna get me down from here!"

She grinned as she let the concealing technique fade, affixing the veil as a sash again she dropped lightly to the ground. Stepping out from the trees and under the boy she crossed her arms under her chest and smiled up knowing full well the view she was giving him. "Jaune! Do you have any spots left on your team?"

"Very funny." The response was grumpy but the smile he returned was warm. He rescuer waiting again for her to help him back to safety. If she could have Umber hugging her back again the moment would be perfect.

So many moons have passed but if you're still reading this I want to thank you for reading the reboot of this story. Hopefully I have improved it enough to merit the awesome cover art my friend TheNightWishMaster on deviantArt made for me.

An acknowledgment is due to literalsin for him giving me permission to use the names of Arc family members in his story The Name of the Game

Also a thank you or curse on Azure megacyber and his story The Gameshow of Jaune Arc's Dating Life for pointing out the connection between Pyrrha and Agent Carolina that lead me to binge watch the entire series, and not work on this story. By the way Felix was a complete ass but listening to a confident sounding Jaune was interesting in its own way.