You'll notice a distinct lack of numbers this chapter. That's only so I can focus on introducing some plot threads that will be relevant moving forward. All the delicious, Gamer goodness will be back next time.

GL; HF!

X

Sky sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He was alone, his legs dangling off the edge of the Beacon grounds as he looked out into the city of Vale. The afternoon Sun was warm on his skin, about the only nice thing he felt at that moment.

"You're gonna pay for making fools out of us, out of me. And if you die? Well, I'm sure the teachers will understand that the Grimm found you pretty tasty."

Sky opened and closed his right palm, trying the get rid of the slight shaking that was present. 'I'm not anxious, it's over now. I'm not anxious, it's over now…'

Naturally, it didn't help one bit. The fact that Cardin had been willing to kill him just because he stood up to his bullying nature had his nerves on edge all of the previous night. Cardin escaping the custody of the Beacon staff was a ludicrous thought, but even knowing that did little to appease his fear.

Sky Lark hated being alone; yet, here he was without a team anymore.

"Hey, there you are."

He turned his head to the voice, which belonged to the one and only Jaune Arc. He was wearing the Beacon blazer, like Sky himself, and gave a casual wave as he got close. "Did you know that Beacon has a whole bunch of little hiding places? It made for a great game of hide and seek."

Sky chuckled lightly. "Should you be running around so soon, sleeping beauty?"

"Hey, I actually woke up yesterday, thank you." Jaune sat down, joining him in his cliffside city watching. They stayed in silence for a minute, with Sky bracing for the inevitable questions. "So," finally started Jaune, "how are you holding up?"

"...Not that great," came the honest answer. "Professor Ozpin told me that they're now officially expelled. As of a few hours ago, the staff just needed to confirm a few things with their families before shipping them home."

"Hm." Jaune grimaced before quickly returning to neutral. "Where does that leave you?"

Sky leaned back until his head touched the ground, staring up into the cloudless world above. "Teamless. I've got a few options: I can be a tag along for some other teams on their missions, I can put myself into some type of mentorship program with one of the teachers, or…"

"Or?"

"Or I can quit."

He felt Jaune shift to look down at him in surprise. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Nope." He took a deep breath, turning his head to look at his friend. "I'd be allowed to come back next year, try again with a new team and all that. Then again, I could also leave and just not come back. Not gonna lie, man, I'm kinda freaked out right now."

Jaune bent his left knee and rested his head on it in thought. "Yeah, I can see why. Look, Sky, I- I can't tell you what you should do. All I can say is that if you left, the rest of us would miss you."

Sky snorted, though it wasn't with any ill will. "Probably not that much, after a while."

"I dunno, Velvet was looking pretty concerned in Oobleck's class."

Surprise. "Velvet was?"

"Mhm. It seems the whole school knows the gist of what happened, and it looked kinda bad that 'sleeping beauty' was attending class while you were still absent."

"Huh." Sky wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. "That reminds me, why did you pass out? All the others told me is that it had something to do with your Semblance."

"I had some, uh, growing pains with it, and pushing myself that hard didn't do me any favors." He shrugged. "I should have it under control now, though. I'll tell you more about it later."

"Sounds good." Sky rose to his feet, dusting off his jacket before turning to look at Beacon. It truly was a majestic place, in his opinion, and a part of him wanted to stick around if only to study the architecture. He was weird like that, in his father's words.

'My father…'

He shook his head. Those were thoughts for later. "Thanks for the talk, Jaune. Sorry you spent so much time just looking for me."

"Hey, any way I can help, I will." Jaune flashed a grin as he pat Sky's shoulder. "I'm about to head back to my team and-"

He stopped mid-sentence before looking around for a moment. "Actually, can you do me a favor, Sky?"

"Shoot."

"You're about to see me pull something off with my Semblance. Next time you see me, would you mind telling me how things looked from your point of view?"

Sky blinked. "Uh, sure, I guess. But why not just tell you now?"

"You'll see in a sec." Jaune spied a small boulder and walked over to it. Squatting down, he placed his hand flat on top of it, the boulder being maybe half-covered. "Alright, I'll see you later man."

"Wait, what?" Right then, the wind seemed to pick up a bit around Jaune. His hair began to sway as something began to build in the air.

And then Jaune was gone.

That was it; one second there, the next not. Sky couldn't help but gape, and when he walked to where his friend had been standing and waved his hands around, he felt naught but air. What the hell did he just do?! He regained his composure after a minute, shifting from bewildered to excited about the possibilities behind teleporting, if that's what Jaune did. As he began walking back to his (and only his) dorm, he paused just long enough to check his hand.

At least he wasn't shaking anymore. Maybe that was a hint towards his answer.

X

For a brief moment, I felt completely weightless. As a whirlwind of colors passed by me, it felt like I could almost flap my arms a little and fly away if I wanted to.

Then life, gravity, and reality returned all at once and my feet slammed into carpeted floor, leaving me off balance as I tried to regain my bearings. I wound up dropping to one knee, but managed to avoid falling completely as I used the boulder I'd been touching for balance. "Note to self, maybe have more stable footing the next time I use Farore's Wind."

That would be wise.

I brushed myself off as I took in my surroundings, having returned to JNPR's room as intended. "At least the skill works as advertised; still, I might have to be careful of where I set the return points. I'd hate to think about what would happen if I teleported into somebody."

You might be picking up pieces of people off of the ground.

"Lovely thought." Ever since the Game rebooted, I'd been dealing with this snarky voice in my head. Well, it wasn't really a voice, it just sort of "planted" the words it wanted me to hear in my head. At first, I'd thought that having direct communication with my (the?) developer would be a good thing; but, outside of explaining some things about the Game when I asked about them, the developer had chosen to be fairly unhelpful.

The door to the room unlocked and opened to reveal Ren, who gave me a casual nod while he walked to his closet. "How did your talk with Sky go?"

"I'm not sure that I was much help, but I think he'll be okay." Observe had informed me that he was pretty bad off, but it wasn't the type of problem I could fix for him. Only Sky could decide Sky's fate. "I thought you were making dinner?"

"I am, I just came back to retrieve some red syrup for Nora's pancakes." He held up the jar in question, which I politely gave a wide berth. As he smiled at my obvious reaction, he glanced down and noticed the boulder. "Did you bring that in here?"

"Ah, yeah, I did. Hold on, I'll get rid of it." I leaned down while opening the inventory, quickly causing the rock to disappear into a storage space. "There we go. Let's go eat, shall we?"

"Let's." I fell into step beside Ren as we continued chatting. "May I ask what the rock was for?"

"Nope! Top secret." I put a finger to my lips, which only made Ren roll his eyes. "It's just a skill thing, really. Please don't tell Pyrrha, though."

"Worried about her reaction?"

"Yeah, just a little. She might think I'm pushing myself too hard if she finds out that I'm experimenting with my power."

"Think about it from her perspective, Jaune. Her partner passed out after everyone received error messages filled with glitches. I'm worried about you as well, but I'm trusting that you know your limits better now."

"Thanks, Ren. That means a lot." And it really did. As we walked, a question arose. "Ren, I need an opinion. If you could borrow one of our friends' Semblances without it affecting them, whose would you use?"

Ren slowed down as he thought about it. "Were it anybody else asking, that would be a 'for fun' question. But with your Semblance in mind…"

"I'm not doing anything big, really." I put my hands up defensively on reflex. "At least right now, nothing's going on. This is a question for down the line."

Although with Pyrrha seeing you as her Partner and "potential Partner"...

I didn't want to think about that, so I ignored it as I stopped walking for a moment. "Humor me, Ren?"

"Hm." He stopped beside me, thankfully indulging my not-so-idle curiosity. "Personally, I could see myself using Blake's clones to good effect, as well as Weiss's Glyphs. However, Weiss mentioned offhand that her Glyphs took a substantial amount of practice to get to her current level. Seeing as she's likely had it for years, I'm not sure I'd have the time to devote to learning it so thoroughly. Hypothetically, of course."

"Right, that makes sense." Although I didn't doubt that Ren could handle Weiss's powers, something like Blake's could suit him better anyways. It would help him avoid getting hit, which he needed with his low CON. "For me, I was thinking that Ruby's would be nice. Super speed always seemed like a cool power in the comics, and we've seen her do some neat things with it."

"Mhm." Ren began to walk again, although we were almost to the common room anyways. "So, if I may ask, what's the condition for you supposedly borrowing one of our Semblances?"

Partner.

"Oh, uh, just to get a bit stronger. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anyone and get their expectations up. It might not happen for a long time."

"I suppose." To this day, I'm not sure how much Ren actually believed me when I answered like that. "Well, in the meantime, would you mind helping me cook?"

"Sure thing, just please keep that stuff away." Ren quietly shifted the jar of syrup closer to me, prompting me to scoot away a few steps as we joined up with our friends. Nora was already drooling at the sight of the bottle, team RWBY were chatting amongst themselves for the moment, and I smiled politely when I met Pyrrha's gaze. "I hear we need some kitchen staff?"

She chuckled lightly. "I was afraid of what would happen if Ren didn't return. Are you helping him?"

"Yep, I think I'll hit the ham and eggs. Might as well do breakfast for dinner, right?"

"That sounds delicious, but-"

She started to rise from her seat, so I quickly waved her down. "Pyrrha, I'm fine to cook, okay? I'm back to full health."

"I suppose." She sat back down, and I tried to settle the frustration in the back of my head. I knew she was just worried about me, which was nice of her, but I didn't really want to be babied.

Especially since I knew how she felt now.

X

As a pair of glass heels clinked along the warehouse floor, Neo had to fight to stop herself from attacking the witch in red on the spot. She wanted to, oh she definitely wanted to, but it was a fight she wouldn't win. Cinder had already shown how powerful she was before. If she was to attack, she would need to kill her with the first stab, because their wouldn't be a second. "Roman," Cinder said with an almost sultry purr. Almost. "How goes our little acquisition project?"

Roman Torchwick rolled his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. It wasn't lit, but it would be the second the witch took off on her broom. "Worse than even I expected. You sure know how to pick the wrong animals to work with."

The smirk on Cinder's face ghosted away. "That's not what I wanted to hear, for your sake."

"It's not just their incompetence, laziness, or being flat stupid, Cinder; this one little piggy in the group is trying to get the others to stop listening to me at all." Roman shook his head as he sat back on one of the many, many crates around. "This last heist I did over on Yellow Brick Road? Taurus himself had to be in the damn van to inspire them to work."

Cinder's frown deepened, but at least Neo could tell that it wasn't aimed at them directly. "And Adam is allowing this dissension to persist?"

"I think our bull gets off on it. Yeah, he knows things need to get done, but having one of his little henchmen be one hundred percent anti-human is making him too happy to take the pig out." Oh? Roman was daring to light the cigar in front of Cinder. And she wasn't smiting him for it! Miracle of miracles! "It won't matter how fast I work if the minions are rebelling against me. I was hoping you could talk to the happy family and get things straightened out."

Cinder crossed her arms as she pondered this new information. "I'd dared to hope that you could wrangle the Fang on your own, Roman, but I suppose Adam encouraging one to rebel would fall into my hands. Very well; I shall take care of that little issue, but I'm afraid that the Fang isn't the true reason I needed to talk to you tonight."

"Oh, really? Finally decided you wanted to turn your charm on for me, dear?"

And that's how you push a button too hard, Roman. Neo could only wince as Cinder not-so-subtly grabbed Roman's chin and yanked it down. Could she hear his skin sizzling, or was that her imagination? "Mind your tongue, Roman, lest I feel encouraged to rip it out. No, I'm afraid that I need Neo to 'transfer' into Beacon alongside myself and my disciples."

Neo only blinked where she stood. She was doing what now? To her boss's credit, he showed no reaction to whatever pain her heat was inflicting upon him. "Transfer? You want Neo to pretend she's a student? Wonderful, so I'm going to lose my best employee."

Cinder released his chin, though not without her nail leaving a scratch in the process of taking the cigar from his mouth and stepping on it. "A simple cover story will have her free on the weekends and odd nights. All you need is to continue doing your job."

"Fine, as you wish your majesty." Roman got himself comfortable on the crate again, one leg over the other. "And when does she have to be ready by?"

"Monday."

"Monday?" A trimmed eyebrow rose as Roman considered it. "That's quite the rush job. And just what could have you so anxious to have Neo in a uniform?"

"A target," came the simple answer. "Truthfully, even I am hesitant to withdraw Neo from the field full-time; but having only three members of a team transfer in at this point would be quite suspicious, even more so given that Beacon's semester only started some weeks ago."

"Ah. And I suppose Neo's cover story will be part of the reason your team transferring at all would make sense." It made sense to Neo. She could already see the line to be used: "I have family in Vale to take care of, so the headmaster gave us special permission to blah blah sap story." She didn't like it, but it made sense.

"Alright," answered Roman, "I'll make sure she has some duds. What school is our magical new team from?"

"Haven. The headmaster there has already made some useful documents showing us to be quite the advanced team for first years." Damn, Cinder already had a headmaster under her thumb? Who wasn't she manipulating these days. "If it helps, Neo has no reason to be in disguise for our duration as students. There isn't a soul in the school that would be aware of her. Keeping up a Semblance illusion for an extended time would drain her, no?"

It actually wouldn't, not to a great extent, but neither she nor Roman were about to reveal that card. Neo idly wondered where she'd gotten that impression. "Sounds like a plan. Just swing by with her paperwork, we'll be ready by then."

Cinder only nodded before turning on one heel and departing with no great haste. It was so slow that it was almost like she was daring Neo to go at her; still, she stayed her hand, at least until the woman left. As soon as the door closed behind her, however, Neo made sure to flip her the double bird.

"Yeah, I hear you Neo, but it's not like we can do anything about it." Roman spared a glance for his ruined cigar before extracting another from his pocket and lighting it. "Still, she wants you ready in three days? She's in one hell of a hurry for her so-called target."

Neo nodded in agreement, using sign language to respond. Did he have any ideas?

"Not a clue." Roman placed his elbow on his raised leg, his head coming to rest on a closed fist as he thought things over. "Neo, pay attention to who she pays attention to. See if you can find out what it is she wants so badly."

She leaned against the wall with a frown. That was fine and all, but sitting in classes? She was doomed to be bored out of her skull!

"Heh, sorry kid. Maybe you can find some way to entertain yourself while you're there." He frowned as Neo's face lit up. "Except killing a student. We don't need a bunch of Huntsmen coming down on us."

Damn. So, all she had to do was be a good little student and spy on the dastardly witch while not getting to bored enough to knock some skulls around. It sounded like so much fun. Yay.

As Neo brought out her scroll to look up what Haven Academy's uniforms were like, she only hoped she could find something or someone to entertain her while she played her role.