The early bird gets the worm. It was something that Mercury liked to say occasionally to justify how much he liked to sleep, because why the hell would he want a worm in the first place?

  Agreeing that worms were among his least favourite foods, Atlas would always sleep for as long as Emerald would allow him, and the morning of Beacon's initiation was no exception.

  Waking up to a series of gentle pats to the face, Atlas smiled as he blinked the sleep from his eyes to see Emerald staring down at him.

  "Free breakfast," Emerald explained.

  With those two words, despite being a heavier sleeper than Atlas was, Mercury jolted awake beside him and stood up before he could even blink.

  "I'm awake," he said.

  "Then make yourself useful and gather some for us," Emerald said.

  "But I haven't brushed my teeth yet."

  "Since when did you start caring about hygiene?"

  "You're the one always nagging me about my breath."

  Emerald rolled her eyes.

  "Do you want food or not? You can always clean up later, not that it makes much of a difference anyways."

  "Fair point," Mercury said. "To the food part, not the last bit. But why can't you get it?"

  "I'm gonna help Atlas get this girl off of him," Emerald said, pointing at Chroma who was still draped unelegantly across Atlas's lap, with a line of drool running down her face from the edge of her mouth. "She's a lot heavier than she looks."

  "Alright, noodle arms," Mercury said, yawning as he started to walk away. "Keep me waiting and I'll eat all your food too."

  Emerald flipped her middle finger up at Mercury, and even though he didn't turn around to see it, the two knew each other well enough that Mercury knew what had happened without needing to see it, and Emerald knew that he knew, which was enough for her.

  Squatting down next to Chroma, she glanced up at Atlas.

  "Any ideas?" she asked.

  Too sleep-addled to think at his usual capacity, Atlas grabbed Chroma and tossed her limp body over his shoulder. Letting out a loud yawn, He pushed himself off of the floor and stood up.

  Emerald gave Atlas a flat stare.

  "I was hoping we could wake her up," Emerald said. "So she could go to breakfast on her own, maybe."

  "We can bring her," Atlas said. "We can save the worms for her if she wants them."

  Emerald stared up at Atlas, before she let out a beleaguered but resigned sigh.

  "They won't have worms, Atlas," she said.

  Chroma's body twitched in Atlas's arms, before settling down once more.

  "Oh, that's good," Atlas said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. "I don't like worms."

  "And we won't have to eat them ever again," Emerald said, shaking her head. "Now let's go. I'm sure Mercury's secured some food for us. Better not keep him waiting too long."

  Atlas nodded, and let Emerald guide him to their next destination, barely having the strength to keep his eyelids opened.

  When they got to the mostly empty cafeteria, to see Mercury waiting with a large spread of food in front of him, he glanced at Atlas, with Chroma on his shoulder, before he turned to Emerald to give her a smirk.

  "I guess we've got a new addition to the crew, then?"

  "Doesn't look like you're too surprised," Emerald said, eyeing the four separate trays that Mercury had in front of him.

  Mercury shrugged. "You know how it is with Atlas," he said.

  "I guess I do," Emerald said, sitting down across Mercury and accepting the cup of coffee that he slid over towards her. After her first sip, she grimaced.

  "This has sugar in it," she said.

  "Yeah, I know. I'm the one who put it in," Mercury said, grabbing a loaf of bread and spreading an obscene amount of butter over it.

  Emerald flipped her middle finger up at Mercury again, but drank her coffee regardless.

  With the amount of food and variety of food that was laid out in front of him, Atlas was sufficiently distracted enough that he didn't even notice the cafeteria slowly filling up as he ate, eating as much as he could fit into his mouth in the rare moment of food abundance, only slowing down when Emerald told him to, not wanting him to throw up during the initiation exam that was taking place in a few hours.

  Mercury and Emerald indulged in the food in front of them as well, another moment of relative silence falling over them as they prioritized eating over everything else, at least until Chroma woke up and offered to tip Mercury for getting her breakfast, and he immediately swore his life to her service.

  As Chroma struggled to decide whether she actually had a use for a servant or not, and whether it was worth her time to draft up a letter of offer for the position, she ultimately decided on giving Mercury a tentative verbal offer for the position, but couldn't promise him a timeline on when she would officially hire him as her servant, since she had planned to finish her schooling at Beacon before focusing her studies towards managing her future employees.

  Though neither Emerald or Mercury seemed to be able to gauge whether Chroma was being serious or not, or what she was actually talking about, when Chroma actually handed Mercury a five lien note, he seemed to decide that he didn't care either way, kneeling down to Chroma and offering once more to lay his life down for her if necessary.

  Chroma's confusion only seemed to grow when Atlas decided to chime in, asking if he could also lay down his life for her as well, though she would have to share his life with Mercury and Emerald, since he already promised them the same thing too. Though she scratched her head at the idea of how many letters of offer two servants might be necessitate, she let out a sigh of relief when Atlas clarified that it came with the package of being best friends, finally accepting the title purely out of a hatred for and reasonable fear of paperwork.

  After eating one of the heartiest breakfasts that he'd had in years, Atlas let out a contented burp, causing Mercury to scrunch his face in discomfort and Emerald to grab her nose and scowl at him.

  "Yeah," Mercury said. "Maybe lets go brush our teeth, buddy."

  "That is a wonderful idea, best friend."

  After cleaning up the breakfast table, earning Mercury another two lien from Chroma when he offered to clean her plates up, Atlas and Mercury went to the washrooms while Emerald stayed behind to savour a moment of brief freedom and to drink more coffee, black this time.

  The boy's washrooms weren't completely empty, and a few people stared awkwardly at the girl who rode into the boy's bathroom, but when neither the red-headed giant that she was perched on top of, nor the silver haired boy accompanying them seemed to think that there was anything wrong with her presence, nobody spoke up about it.

  Pulling their toothbrushes from her cloak, his boot, and behind his breastplate, Chroma, Mercury, and Atlas brushed their teeth in synchrony, spitting simultaneously into the sink.

  Leaving Mercury behind to "take a fat shit" in peace, Atlas wandered off in hopes of finding his way back to Emerald.

  It was only about an hour later that Chroma announced that she hated to interrupt Atlas's exploration of Beacon's custodial areas, but they needed to head to the locker rooms if they didn't want to be late to initiaiton. Though Atlas insisted that he was close to finding a shortcut to the cafeteria, since he didn't really have any idea how to get to the locker rooms, he conceded to Chroma's directions and let her direct him towards the locker rooms instead, hoping that Emerald would be there instead.

  Unfortunately, when Atlas arrived at the locker rooms, neither Emerald nor Mercury were anywhere to be seen, but since he knew that both of them would definitely be at the initiation exam, he wasn't particularly worried. In fact, after scanning the room and realizing that he was standing in a veritable sea of potential new friends, he couldn't help but feel excited by the fact that today was a new day, which meant new chances for new friends.

  But as someone caught his eye, he couldn't help but break out into a smile as he remembered that sometimes, simply having the oportunity to catch up to old friends was even better than making new ones.

  Walking over to two girls currently locked into a conversation, Atlas grinned as he snuck up on the taller one, giggling sneakily to himself as he successfully disappeared into her blind spot. Only he knew Pyrrha's secret weakness, in that she couldn't see things that were behind her, he crept up on her quietly until the smaller girl who had been talking to his sister appeared between them.

  "Excuse me," the small girl said, holding her hands at her hips and giving him a very narrow glare. "May we help you?"

  He stared at the girl, in bewilderment at how easily she had caught him, before he realised it didn't really matter that much.

  Though the urge to make another new friend was strong, he didn't want to lose the chance to surprise his sister either. Seeing how Pyrrha was still adjusting the straps of her armour, but still seemed somewhat interested in what was going on behind her, Atlas knew that he didn't have much time before his sneak attack would be ruined.

  Not waiting a second longer, abandonning stealth for speed now that he had his position given away by the small girl, he rushed forwards towards Pyrrha. Before he could get her completely from behind, her head whipped around quickly to face him, but with how surprised her wide-eyed expression got, he still counted that as a win.

  "I got you!" Atlas cried out happily, keeping his arms tight around Pyrrha's upper body, even as she strained against him.

  "Umm," Pyrrha said, giving him a strained smile as she pulled her head back as far as she could while she was still trapped in Atlas's grip. "Do I know-"

  "Oh, it's been too long Pyrrha!" Atlas said, not wanting to interrupt whatever it is she was about to say, but unable to contain his excitement for any longer. "Oh, how I missed you so much!"

  "O-oh," Pyrrha said, giving a nervous laugh. "That's very nice of you to say that."

  Atlas nodded vigourously, but before he could say anything, he felt something sliding off of his shoulders.

  "Globe," Chroma said. "It is getting difficult to stay perched on your shoulders, so I will bid you farewell for now."

  "Oh, Chroma," Atlas said, spinning around and swinging Pyrrha's legs in a wide arc that Chroma was forced to duck under. "I beg you to stay. I wish to introduce you to someone who I've known since we were both wee children."

  Pyrrha blinked a few times in Atlas's peripheral vision, but gave him a shaky grin when he glanced at her.

  "Please don't ask me to memorize more names, Globe," Chroma said. "Perhaps on a later date. There is currently too much on my mind right now to afford to spend time on cultivating more acquaintanceships, no matter how highly you recommend them."

  Atlas frowned, but he didn't want to push Chroma on anything she wanted to do, so he nodded.

  "Very well, if that is what you wish," he said, turning back to Pyrrha. "It is regrettable, Pyrrha, but I can only hope that Chroma will be more willing to take you on as a friend on a later date. In the mean time, we have much catching up to do ourselves, do we not?"

  "I suppose we do... Globe," Pyrrha said. "But actually, I was talking to someone else, and I don't want to be rude to them. Perhaps we could catch up at a later time?"

  Atlas frowned at the idea, but realised quickly that he had forgotten all about the small girl that had been talking to Pyrrha before he'd interrupted. Atlas gasped, in the horror at the realisation that he had forced Pyrrha to do something so rude, as he looked around for any trace of the small girl so he could apologize to her and explain that his sister had been at no fault.

  "You are right, Pyrrha. How foolish I was to pull you so greedily from your previous engagements," Atlas said, swinging Pyrrha around as he tried to search for the small girl. "Where is she? I must apologize to her."

  "I'm not so sure myself," Pyrrha admitted. "But perhaps it would be easier for us to search together if you let go of me? I will admit that this position is somewhat inhibitting."

  While the idea of letting go of his sister before he had the opportunity to dump six years' worth of hugs into her, he had to admit that she had a point.

  "Very well," he said, letting go of Pyrrha immediately.

  While Pyrrha landed gracefully on her feet, the small girl that had somehow materialized between them wasn't so lucky, falling hard onto the floor in the vague heap of a body, red-faced and sweaty as her eyes flickered open in semi-consciousness.

  "Oh," Atlas said. "There she is."

  "Oh my!" Pyrrha said, covering her mouth with her hand and kneeling down. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were between us!"

  "She was?" Atlas asked.

  The small girl let out an equally small gurgle as she blinked a few times, her eyes seemed to gain a bit of focus, until Pyrrha reached underneath her and scooped her up in her arms, and immediately her face grew red and her eyes widened, before she seemed to fade into semi-consciousness once more, with her head lolling back weakly.

  "Sorry," Pyrrha said, giving Atlas another awkward grin before looking back down at Weiss. "We may have done some damage to her. I'll need to nurse her back to health before initiation starts."

  "May I be so bold to suggest that mouth-to-mouth may help?" Atlas asked, knowing that was what Emerald usually suggested he should do with Mercury whenever he got sick.

  Weiss let out a quiet whimper at that, and Atlas peered down at the poor girl, who looked like she might explode from how red she had gotten.

  "No..." Pyrrha replied.

  Atlas stared at Pyrrha, not knowing whether she was finished her thought or not, but when the only thing she gave him was a confused grin, he shrugged.

  "Taking care of sick people is a rather difficult task, it it not?" Atlas said.

  "I suppose so," Pyrrha said, before looking back at Weiss. "Though I will say I can likely take care Weiss myself? Perhaps you should go tend to your friend regardless. Chroma, was it? She seemed rather distressed about the upcoming exam, and I would only assume the words of a friend might help her."

  "She was?!" Atlas asked, with a gasp, looking around for any hint of his best friend. Spotting her in a corner of the room, frowning as she stared out the window that pointed towards the edge of the cliff that Beacon stood on, he was about to sprint towards her but stopped himself as he remembered something.

  "Oh, before I forget," Atlas said, reaching behind his breastplate and rummaging around before he felt a large cylindrical can and pulling it out and holding it towards Pyrrha. "Here you go."

  Pyrrha stared at the offered can, and though she didn't seem to understand what it was, took it from his hands.

  "Thank you?" she said, turning it over in her hands.

  "I apologize for the tardiness," Atlas said. "The local merchants carried many varieties of orange and apple flavoured juices, it was rather difficult for me to find 'some juice'. I do not hope to use this as an excuse, but rather an explanation."

  Pyrrha blinked a few times, not seeming to understand what he was talking about until her eyes widened suddenly and darted between his face and the can of juice in her hands. Atlas tilted his head curiously, but the when he heard the distinct sound of Chroma letting out an annoyed hiss from across the room, he whipped his head around.

  "I will speak with you at a later time, Pyrrha," Atlas said.

  Pyrrha said nothing as she continued to stare, wide-eyed at him, and continued to say nothing as he jogged away.

  When he finally got to Chroma, he saw her glaring out of the window, cradling her hand like it had been burnt.

  "What seems to be the problem, Chroma?" Atlas asked, kneeling down to inspect her hand.

  Though she gave him her hand unprompted, Chroma didn't make any other indication that she'd even heard him, still glaring out of the window.

  Atlas let out a sigh of relief when he saw that there were no visible wounds on Chroma's hands, but frowned again when he realized that could only mean that she must have internal wounds instead, which were much more insidious than the physical ones.

  "Are you perhaps worried about the upcoming trials we must face?" Atlas asked, remembering Pyrrha's suggestion. "Worry not, Chroma. I am certain you will do splendidly."

  "Why would I be worried about something I'm certain to pass?" Chroma asked, with genuine confusion in her voice.

  "I do not know," Atlas admitted. "What are you worried about then, if that is not the case?"

  Chroma glanced at Atlas, before glaring out of the window, pulling her hand away from Atlas's grasp to place her palm gently against the glass.

  "Why must something so insidious be a constant part of human society?" Chroma asked.

  "Exams?" Atlas asked back.

  "No. Glass," Chroma said, glaring at the window and pressing her hand hard against it. "How are we supposed to live our lives in peace when we are surrounded by the transparent ghosts of walls that once were?"

  "Oh," Atlas said. "I'm not sure."

  "This world is a terrifying place, Globe," Chroma said, shaking her head. "It needs to change."

  "Okay," Atlas replied.

  A few minutes later, Emerald finally arrived at the lockers, frantically looking around before her eyes landed on Atlas in a deathly glare. After yelling at Atlas for getting her worried sick, she called Mercury on her scroll to let him know that she'd found him, and also scolding him for letting him out of their sight, saying that they were lucky that Atlas was still in Beacon.

  When Mercury finally arrived at the locker rooms, panting and sweating when he showed up, though he tried to pretend like he wasn't, they only had time for Emerald to give him a few smacks to the head before an announcement sounded out, signalling for the students to gather at the Beacon cliffs.

  With her hand clamped around Atlas's wrist, Emerald dragged Atlas to the cliffs, where Glynda and Ozpin waited. Directing them to stand on the ominous looking metal panels that lined the edge of the cliff, Emerald looked distressed when she realized that meant that she had to let go of Atlas, but he reassured her that they would be reunited no matter the obstacles that stood between them.

  Though Emerald smiled at him, she didn't look very reassured.

  After every student was lined up on their own launchpad, with Atlas being told explicitly to put Chroma down by the two teachers, Ozpin gave a small speech about the initiation that only a single blonde boy seemed to be paying attention to. As the launchpads started to launch their students in sequence, standing near the end of the queue, Atlas gave Pyrrha a wave as she was launched ahead of him, though she only gave him a blank stare back.

  After the blonde boy was launched into the air, with a shrill scream, he waved at Mercury and Emerald as they launched off into the air first.

  Being directly next in queue, he waved at Chroma in anticipation of her being launched away, the launchpad beneath her made a tortured squeal and a heavy thud, before springing upwards. Unlike the other students, who had been launched into the air at high speeds, Chroma was launched at a much lower angle, letting out a surprised squawk as she almost immediately found herself approaching the treeline of the forest below.

  Ozpin's and Glynda's eyes both widened, but before they could say or do anything, Atlas's own machine let out a similarly sounding heavy thunk, before it launched him forward with just enough force to have him fall flat on his face, not even leaving the cliff.

  Atlas looked up in confusion, as he watched the next few students in the queue being launched into the air after him as Ozpin frowned at him while Glynda inspected the large scroll she had in her arms.

  "The launchpads were calibrated to the weights you submitted on your application forms," Ozpin said. "Perhaps you and Ms. Sky gained some weight since then?"

  Atlas tilted his head, before nodding. "I gain weight pretty often," Atlas admitted.

  "Then we shall calibrate the launchpad to your new one," Ozpin said casually, taking a sip of coffee.

  "What about Chroma?" Atlas asked.

  "Unexpected situations arise quite often in the life a Huntsman," Ozpin said, shamelessly. "This is a reasonable event that she should be expected to deal with, given the circumstances."

  "I see," Atlas said, not understanding why Glynda was glaring at Ozpin so intensely. "In that case, would it be reasonable for me to suggest that I may enrich my own education by joining my best friend? I assume she may feel isolated if she is the only one who is given such special treatment."

  "How noble of you to suggest such a thing, Mr. Atlas," Ozpin said, from behind his mug. "A mark of a great Huntsman-to-be."

  "I receive undue praise, headmaster Ozpin," Atlas said, getting up on one knee. "Truly it is your own actions that led me to reach this decision."

  "I am an educator, I suppose," Ozpin mused, even as Glynda glared at him. "Very well."

  "I am thankful for your generosity," Atlas said, getting off and beginning to sprint towards the edge of the cliff. As he ran, he lessened the effects of his semblance on his armour, reducing the near constant weight that he usually added to them, to increase his stride and speed. Once he reached the edge of the cliff, he had all but completely reduced the weight of his armour to nothing, and launched himself off the cliff as hard as he could to fall directly towards the spot that Chroma had fallen towards.

  "I'm coming, Chroma!" Atlas shouted.

  - - - - -

  Lie Ren liked to pretend that he was a calm and rational person, who operated on logic rather than emotions.

  While the former was arguably true, Ren knew for a fact that the latter couldn't be further from the truth.

  In truth, Ren was a very emotional person, and while he coated most of his decisions with the veneer of logic, the initial decisions that he made, at least on the things that actually mattered, were almost all done on impulse.

  On the other hand, Nora Valkyrie, while nobody would ever claim that she had ever been or will ever be a person who invites logic into her life, and while her impulsive nature was shown extensively in her day-to-day actions, she tended to put a lot of thought into the major decisions that she made throughout her life.

  It might've come as a surprise to most of the people that knew them, not that there were many at this point, that Ren had actually been the one to suggest training to become Huntsmen. Fueled by his rage, Ren had declared one day that he would become a Huntsman, to slay as many Grimm as he could in hopes that it would quell the pain he felt whenever he thought of his late family.

  While Nora would eventually grow to love being a Huntsman, relishing in her newfound realisation that she could grab her own destiny in a chokehold rather than letting it run her over, but at the time, the younger Nora had been faced with a very difficult decision.

  At that point in her life, Nora had already experienced enough pain that her first instinct was to refuse to follow him, not wanting to invite any more conflict into her life, but after their village had been ravaged by the nuckelavee, the two children had become inseparable, taking comfort in the only remnants of what they once had.

  Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that Ren was taking comfort in the remnants of what he once had, while Nora was relishing in the feeling of having a family for the first time in her life.

  If she was being honest with herself, life as a street rat outside of Kuroyuri was pretty similar to life as a street rat within it. Since the only difference she felt in her life after the town's fall was the fact that for the first time in her life she had a friend that wouldn't leave her, she was actually quite grateful for the nuckelavee, though she knew she would never in her life admit that to Ren.

  So when Nora was faced with the idea of facing even more terrifying creatures like the nuckelavee, she had wanted to refuse, and try to convince Ren to see logic, but she had quickly realised it would be a pointless endeavor.

  If she refused, he would simply go on his own, alone but fueled by rage and supported by his memories.

  With no memories of her own to support her, Nora knew that she wouldn't survive the life she once had, now that she had felt the comfort of knowing another.

  So she went with him, grabbing his hand in hopes that she would never have to let go, and leading the charge in hopes that she would be able to lead them to a better path.

  "I really don't think this is the path we should be taking, Nora," Ren said.

  Ten years after she had made the decision to grab Ren's hand, Nora turned around and tried to frown at Ren, though nothing but a smile popped up on her face.

  "What do you mean?" Nora asked, placing her hands on her hips in hopes that she could summon at least a semblance of sass. "When have I ever led us astray, Renny?"

  "Too many times for me to count," Ren said, shaking his head. "The ruins are in the complete opposite direction of where you're headed."

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Oh, Ren. Naive, innocent little Ren," Nora said, shaking her head and wagging her finger. "I'm not headed towards the ruins."

  Ren gave her a flat stare that could only mean, "Oh really? Why ever not? Please explain, dear Nora. I am ever so intrigued."

  "Woah, there. No need to yell. I'm getting to that," Nora said.

  Ren gave her another flat stare.

  "Well, you see, my dear Ren," Nora said. "While you might assume I've forgotten why we're here in the first place, I promise that I haven't forgotten about the treasure that the big Oz buried around the forest."

  "There's no treasure, Nora."

  "That being said," Nora continued. "While my superb treasure detecting senses would usually lead us directly towards the treasure, for some reason, I'm picking up a much stronger signal in this direction. I think there are secret treasures that Big Oz hasn't told us about."

  "Why wouldn't he tell us about something like that?" Ren asked.

  "Because they're secret, duh," Nora said, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, Ren."

  Ren gave Nora another flat stare, but let out a sigh.

  "I think we should focus on passing initiation first," he said. "Then we can go treasure hunting on our own time."

  "It'll be fine. Big Oz never actually set a time limit for when we could pass initiation," Nora said. "Besides, it'll be quick. My gut tells me that the treasure is pretty far away, but we can probably meet it halfway."

  Before Ren could protest, he looked down to see Nora's hand holding his in a tight grip, and he knew that he was powerless to argue back anymore. As Nora ran off in a seemingly random direction, Ren sighed and accepted his fate to be dragged along until Nora decided that she'd had her fun.

  But a second later he realised something strange about what Nora had said.

  "Meet it halfway?"

  - - - - -

  "ATLAAASSS!"

  Pyrrha's eye twitched at the sound of the angry scream. Tearing her eyes from the platform where the strangely familiar redheaded boy was standing, she searched around for the source of the shout, when he realised that she had apparently been flying for a while and was just about to hit the forest canopy.

  Letting out a rather undignified yelp, Pyrrha pulled out her shield instinctively and curled up behind it as she hit a tree, causing the tree to practically explode around her from the impact. The wood splinters bounced against her aura, as she crashed into another one, and with the speed of her fall lessened, she felt confident enough to peek around her shield, just before she hit another tree. Drawing her weapon, she shifted her body to the side and hooked her sword around the tree trunk she just barely dodged, using her momentum to spin around it until she landed on one of the tree's thick branches.

  Narrowing her eyes towards where she had last heard the shout of a memory, she just barely caught a glimpse of a green-haired girl falling into the treeline, with an expression so intense that Pyrrha could easily see the burning anger in her red eyes even from so far away.

  Pyrrha's eyes narrowed, noting the distance and direction towards the strange girl, before a shrill scream drew her attention.

  Pyrrha looked up to see a blonde boy sailing through the air, flailing his arms around in a clear display that he had no idea what he was doing. Pyrrha watched him for a moment before realising that he would likely die if he hit the ground at the angle and speed that he was travelling at.

  Drawing back her arm instinctively, she took a moment to aim her spear before launching it forward, using her semblance to guide it in an arc that would stop the boy's fall before he splattered against the forest floor.

  Pyrrha heard a thunk in the distance, as her magnetic control over her weapon halted suddenly as it stuck itself into something hard.

  "Thank you!" the boy called off in the distance.

  Pyrrha glanced in the direction of the girl who had called out her dead brother's name, and back towards the direction of the cliffs, where she had last seen the tall man, Globe, who had acted so familiarly with her, before she hopped off the branch she stood on.

  Telling herself that there was no point in chasing after ghosts, that she should focus on helping the living, she headed towards her spear and the boy she had saved with it.

  - - - - -

  When Mercury first heard the angry screams, his first thought was to turn and run, purely out of instinct. When he realised why the screaming sounded so familiar, and why it struck such a familiar sense of fear into his heart, he realised that he shouldn't just turn away, even if he really wanted to.

  Navigating his way towards the angered beast, he walked past a particularly large tree to find himself standing at the edge of a clearing, where someone was reenacting a horror movie in the centre of it.

  Mounting an already dissolving Ursa, surrounded by several of its dead fellows, Emerald continued to scream angrily as she stabbed the already dead Ursa in the chest, her blades sinking more into the earth beneath it than it was sinking into the quickly fading Grimm flesh.

  "Hey Em-"

  Mercury frowned as he saw Emerald twitch and raise her hand in his direction without looking, only for her to disappear instantly from his sight.

  Mercury frowned, and let out a heavy sigh.

  "Hey, bitch," he called out instead. "It's me. The person you want to be teamed up with."

  The next time he blinked, he found himself staring into Emerald's very annoyed eyes.

  "What's got you in such a hissy-fit, partner?" he asked.

  "Fucking Atlas," Emerald grumbled, standing up and stepping over the Ursa's body, with an angry huff.

  "I had a hunch," Mercury said, with a shrug. "What did he do this time?"

  "Ozpin fucked up and Chroma's launchpad barely sent her off the cliff," Emerald explained.

  "Ah," Mercury said, not needing an explanation for what Atlas might've done in response.

  "I shouldn't have let him fucking talk to her in the first place," Emerald grumbled.

  "Eh. What's done is done," Mercury said, throwing his arm over Emerald's shoulder, ignoring the deathly glare she gave him. "Not like it actually changes anything though, does it?"

  "What do you mean?" Emerald asked, as she eyed Mercury's hand, looking like she was debating on whether to stab it or to spare him and simply slap it off her shoulder.

  "Even without Chroma around, there was always going to be an extra slot for our fourth teammate," Mercury said. "So Atlas going off on his own adventure doesn't really mean much as long as we can secure him and whoever his partner is on our team."

  "I guess," Emerald grumbled, still glaring at Mercury's hand.

  Mercury decided to spare her and squeezed her shoulder once before letting go.

  "I know you wanted to meet up as a group to head to the ruins together," Mercury said. "But honestly, you're stupid if you actually expected that to happen. Unless you genuinely thought that Atlas would stick to a plan."

  Emerald glared at him, but when she said nothing, Mercury knew that she had realised that he was right. He smirked at her just to drive it in.

  "Let's just go to the ruins, alright?" Mercury said. "Who knows how Ozpin's gonna determine who ends up on whose team, but if we get there early, we might be able to rig the dice in our favour. Let Atlas do whatever he wants to do."

  "What if he gets lost?" Emerald asked.

  "Then we'll find him," Mercury said easily. "Not that we'll need to. We're in the middle of an exam, you know. No way they're not keeping an eye on him. Now quit being a pissy bitch and let's go."

  Emerald scowled, but Mercury grinned at her when she started walking ahead of him, towards the direction of the ruins rather than the cliffs.

  "Ass," she said.

  "Bitch," he replied.

  - - - - -

  Ruby Rose was currently experiencing many emotions, but at the peak of the jumbled mountain of emotions that she felt, confusion reigned supreme.

  As she walked through the forest, heading towards the general direction of the ruins, she had glanced back multiple times along the way to see her new partner about to wander aimlessly in a random direction, or into a tree.

  It was only after the third time that Ruby was forced to save her from walking face first into a tree branch, that Ruby spoke up.

  "Um, Weiss?" Ruby asked, placing a gentle hand on her partner's shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

  Surprisingly, Weiss let out a startled yelp at Ruby's touch, causing Ruby to yelp in turn and flinch away, but after a short pause, Weiss seemed to gather wits and give Ruby a formal nod, as if nothing happened.

  "Yes, Ruby?" Weiss said. "Did you need something from me?"

  Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment, debating with herself on whether it would just be better to pretend that nothing was wrong, if only to spare herself from a conversation with an actual person and not a weapon. Unfortunately, she eventually came to the conclusion that Weiss was her partner now, and if she had to have a conversation in the future, she may as well have it in a place she felt most at home. In a Grimm-infested forest.

  "Are you okay, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

  "Am I okay?" Weiss asked, sounding both bewildered and slightly offended by the question. "Of course I'm okay. Why would you even think to ask that?"

  Given another chance to simply back out of the conversation, Ruby resisted the urge to simply accept Weiss's word.

  "I don't know," Ruby said. "You just seem a little distracted."

  "Distracted? Me?" Weiss asked.

  Ruby wasn't sure if Weiss was challenging her on the claim, or if she was genuinely oblivious to why Ruby might've suggested it.

  "Yeah," Ruby said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly and looking to the side to avoid her partner's stare. "You keep wandering off randomly. I've had to stop you from bumping into like, five trees. Plus your face is all red. Are you sure you're not sick or something?"

  Ruby watched, with a little bit of horror, how Weiss's face immediately paled, draining itself of all colour as if to try and disprove her, before the blood rushed back into her cheeks all at once.

  "No!" Weiss shouted, completely red-faced. "That's absurd! Impossible!"

  "Oh, okay," Ruby said.

  "I'm telling the truth!" Weiss said, stamping her feet against the ground. "I don't know what makes you think that you can make such absurd assumptions about me, but you're wrong!"

  "I didn't say anything!" Ruby cried, raising her hands in surrender, even if she wasn't sure what she was being accused of.

  Weiss stared at her, wide-eyed, face flushed, and panting heavily, as she stared down at Ruby. Not knowing what to do, Ruby stayed as still as she could, as if she believed that Weiss would simply forget about her existence if she didn't move. For a second, Ruby deluded herself to thinking it actually worked, when Weiss's eyes left hers, roaming downwards for a second, but before Ruby could comment on the way that the colour of Weiss's cheeks exploded in a flush of dark red, Ruby heard a rustle in the bushes behind Weiss.

  Her eyes widened when she saw the familiar bone-white of a skull, accented with black flesh and familiar looking red eyes.

  "Grimm!" Ruby cried out, drawing Crescent Rose from her hip.

  Engaging her mecha-shift, she spun Crescent Rose around as she engaged its combat form, but nearly fumbled her weapon for the first time in her life, when a loud eruption of flame burst out of the tip of Weiss's rapier as she thrusted it behind her without even looking.

  "Nothing is wrong with me," Weiss said, her crimson face only blending in with the sea of flames behind her, like an avatar of destruction.

  "Okay," Ruby squeaked out, lowering Crescent Rose slowly, as if she were afraid that any quick movements might be taken as a sign of aggression.

  Ruby stayed as still as possible, not even daring to breathe until Weiss winced and turned her head.

  "I... apologize for my actions," Weiss mumbled, her voice barely audible over the crackling inferno and the sounds of dying Grimm around them. "I hope you can forgive me."

  "Of course," Ruby said, a little too quickly, nodding her head a little too aggressively despite the fact that Weiss wasn't even watching. "Whatever you say, Weiss."

  Weiss looked back and winced apologetically.

  "I know it's no excuse, but I find myself saddled with some... confusing emotions. For what it's worth, I will do my best to push them aside and act with a sense of decorum."

  "Okilly dokilly," Ruby said, possibly for the first time in her life, as she formed a shaky OK sign with her hand.

  Weiss winced and turned away.

  - - - - -

  Yang Xiao Long had wanted to partner up with her baby sister, partially because she knew how much of a nervous wreck Ruby could be when it came to meeting new people, and partially because she herself was afraid of potentially partnering up with a stranger who she might end up hating, but as she walked through the Emerald Forest with her new partner guiding the way, she couldn't help but feel glad with who she ended up partnering up with.

  Yang let out an inadvertent wolf-whistle, causing her partner to turn around and glare back at her.

  "What?" Blake Belladona asked.

  "Sorry, thought I saw a pretty bird," Yang said, reaching up to scratch the back of her head as she let out an easy laugh.

  Blake narrowed her eyes at her, but turned around quickly.

  "You can admire the sights later," she said. "After we're finished with initiation."

  "Yes, ma'am," Yang replied, agreeing with Blake that she could admire the sights later as well, but the black-haired girl had said nothing about not admiring the sights now.

  Though she kept an ear out for any signs of Grimm, she knew that she could spare at least some of her attention to checking out her new partner, though she kept her wolf whistles to herself this time.

  - - - - -

  When Atlas fell down the cliffs of Beacon, he realised that he didn't exactly have much of a landing strategy prepared, though he didn't feel the need to panic at that realisation because he never had any sort of strategies prepared for anything, and he usually did just fine.

  So keeping that in mind, instead of trying to think of some fancy schmancy way to get down to the ground safely, he decided to treat it like any other situation in his life.

  And since he usually walked around with his semblance adding weight to his armour and his clothes, he did that here too.

  The resounding impact echoed through the entire forest as Atlas created a crater on the forest floor, right next to a very annoyed looking Chroma, who waved her hands to clear the explosion of dust and dirt that he had created.

  "Chroma!" Atlas cried out, as he lunged forward to grab his best friend. "I missed you!"

  "No you didn't," Chroma said, frowning at him as he rubbed his cheek against hers. "I dodged."

  Atlas threw back his head and laughed.

  Tossing Chroma onto his shoulder, after Chroma asked him to release her from the underarm grip he had on her, he walked onwards towards the ruins, until Chroma pointed out that he was heading the wrong direction and made him turn the opposite way.

  With the disadvantage of their poor start to the exam, Atlas took it upon himself to run in the direction that he was told to, and since Chroma couldn't be bothered to micro-manage him by giving him constant directions to run around the obstacles, Atlas ended up barrelling through them until Chroma got annoyed enough with being constantly pummelled by tree splinters and Grimm gore, that she made him pause for long enough to loop her arms through the ropes that coiled around his body and attach herself to his back.

  Atlas continued to run with Chroma attached to his back, until suddenly he heard a loud grunt and inexplicably felt himself slowing down. Frowning, he tried to continue to run, but instead of moving forward at his usual pace, he felt himself struggling to move for some reason. He heard a loud battlecry coming from somewhere very closeby, but even after he looked around, he couldn't see anything so he shrugged and tried to continue onwards, only to find himself still inhibited.

  "Chroma, do you hear that?" Atlas asked, as his full sprint was reduced to the speed of a light jog.

  The only response he got, barely audible over the sound of guttural screaming from the source he still couldn't identify, was a light snore.

  Atlas frowned, not certain of what he should do. While the loud warcry was pretty scary to listen to, and it was pretty strange that he was slowing down for no reason, he couldn't find it in himself to feel scared since, the scary feelings were counterbalanced by the fact that he felt like he was also being hugged by something he couldn't see, which was a very nice feeling indeed.

  While ghosts were pretty spooky, hugs were rather nice, and thus, he decided that he was okay with the situation, even if it did mean that he was getting to his destination slower.

  "Excuse me," a voice asked from beside him.

  Atlas looked down to see a black haired boy dressed in green, casually speed walking alongside him.

  "Oh, greetings, my fellow man," Atlas said, nodding towards the boy, regretful that he couldn't give him a proper greeting with how much focus he had to put into pushing forward.

  "Hello," the boy said, glancing down at his belly for some reason before looking back up at Atlas. "I'm sorry to bother you, but would you be able to stop for a moment? I'm not certain, but I believe my partner wants to speak with you."

  Atlas frowned, slowing down to think about who the boy could possibly be talking about, but as he slowed down, he felt the ethereal hug release him for a moment, before he felt a pair of arms shift down his legs, until they grabbed the back of his knees.

  The boy's eyes widened.

  "Nora, no!" he shouted.

  "Nora, yes!" the disembodied voice shouted back, no longer screaming incomprehensibly.

  As Atlas felt himself toppling over backwards, unable to catch himself with his legs locked in place the boy disappeared from his sight, right before Atlas felt a pair of hands pushing at his shoulder blades.

  Unfortunately, the hands on his back didn't seem strong enough to keep him upright, and he continued to topple over, but before he could hit the ground completely, he heard a heavy grunt of exertion as the hands held him up a few feet from the ground.

  "Nora!" the boy shouted. "There is a child on his back!"

  "What?!" the disembodied voice shouted, before Atlas felt her grabbing his wrists and pulling him up to his knees, where he was suddenly met with the sight of a short red-headed girl who looked up at him sheepishly.

  "Hello," Atlas said, a little confused about who this new girl was.

  "Hello," the girl said, giving him an awkward smile and a wave. "Sorry for almost killing your friend. I just wanted to wrestle you a bit."

  "Nora," the boy said, panting hard as he picked himself up from the ground. "What have I told you about wrestling people at random?"

  "Ask for consent first," Nora mumbled, looking down and to the side shame-facedly.

  "What? No. I never said that," the boy said. "Just don't do it at all."

  "Are you asking me not to wrestle strong looking people?" Nora asked, incredulously.

  "I guess?" the boy asked, sounding confused by the fact that he was being asked the question.

  Nora opened her mouth to talk back, but when she glanced up at Atlas, she scratched her cheek and closed her mouth, turning away.

  "I guess," she said. "I'm sorry, sir, wrestling with you without asking, and almost hurting your friend. I didn't realise there was anyone on your back."

  Atlas tilted his head sideways, not knowing quite how to react to all the new information, including the fact that he shouldn't be wrestling with random strangers, before Chroma spoke up in his stead.

  "Excuse me, young lady," she said, still strapped to his back. "But you have nothing to apologise for."

  "Really?" Nora asked, standing on her tiptoes to try and see who was speaking, but being too short to do so. "But I almost killed you."

  "Globe," Chroma said. "Turn me around."

  Atlas nodded, still catching up with the conversation but being tuned in enough to follow instructions. Shuffling around on his knees, he turned around so Chroma was facing towards Nora and he was facing the green boy once more. He waved, and the green boy waved back, though he didn't seem to understand what was going on either.

  "Young lady," Chroma repeated, once she was facing Nora. "You seem to be misunderstanding something."

  "I am?" Nora asked.

  "You are," Chroma repeated. "You seem to be apologising for almost killing me when no such thing happened in the first place. How would you possibly have attempted to murder me when there was no chance that I would be hurt in the first place? In fact, I applaud you for trusting in my capabilities enough to put them to the test, unlike you."

  "Me?" Nora asked, crossing her eyes to stare at the accusatory finger pointing directly in between her eyes.

  Chroma let out a sigh. "Globe, turn me around," she said.

  Atlas nodded again, and shuffled around so she was staring at Ren instead, raising a hand to point directly at him.

  "Unlike you," she said. "Tell me, young boy. Do you truly wish to make an enemy of me?"

  Ren winced under the sharp gaze of Chroma, who he realised was very much not a child.

  "I apologise for offending you," Ren said, bowing his head.

  "Hah!" Chroma shouted. "So you admit to offending me!"

  "It was not my intention," Ren said, with his head still bowed.

  "I care not!" Chroma said, tossing her head to the side. "I now declare you my enemy for life!"

  "Does this make him my enemy as well, Chroma?" Atlas asked, with a frown on his face, finally catching up to the conversation enough to be worried about the loss of a potential friend.

  Chroma's expression twisted up into one of annoyance before she sighed.

  "You may befriend him if you wish, Globe," she said. "I do not control your taste in companionship, no matter how poor it may be."

  Immediately, Atlas stood up with a smile, and whirled around.

  "Hello," Atlas said, shaking the boy's hand and picking him up for a brief hug, to which he barely reacted. "My name's Atlas."

  "What?!" Chroma shouted.

  "Globe," Globe corrected himself. "What's your name?"

  "It's L-"

  "Don't let your name taint my ears," Chroma hissed. "I shall name you instead."

  "Okay?" Ren said.

  "My first instinct is to call you Blackpink, on account of your hair, but I expect you will go bald anyday, with how your poor opinions may poison your scalp," Chroma said with a harumph. "So I shall refer to you by the colour of your attire."

  "Green?"

  Chroma scowled, and tossed her head to the side.

  "How pedestrian," she said. "No, your name shall be Emerald."

  "Emerald?" Globe asked. "What a pretty name."

  "It may be too good a name for him, but it will do for now," Chroma said. "But no matter. Let's go Globe. We've wasted enough time here already."

  "Might I introduce myself to Nora, first?" Globe asked.

  "Very well," Chroma said. "I suppose that befriending Emerald over there may have left a bad taste in your proverbial mouth. Just be quick about it."

  Though Globe wasn't particularly happy about Chroma insulting his new friend, Emerald, he knew that they would come to love each other eventually. It would just take some time. In the meantime, instead of fretting about it, there were more friends to be made.

  "Nora," Globe said, spinning around to face her, and extending a hand to her. "My name is Globe. We are now friends."

  Nora grinned, and reached past his hand to grab his arm in a full forearm shake.

  "Heck yeah, we are," she said.

  For the first time in his life, Globe didn't feel the urge to pull his new friend into a hug, feeling like this was somehow enough.

  Globe grinned down at her, matching Nora's before they both parted simultaneously, walking off into opposite directions.

  "Globe," Chroma said, before he could get too far. "The other way."

  "Oh, sorry," Globe said, spinning around on his heel and walking past Nora without a word.

  As he passed, Nora turned on her heel as well, refusing to look back at him as he left, all while Ren watched on the sidelines, not understanding what had happened in the slightest.

  He decided not to comment on it, afraid that the insanity would resume if he broke the silence.

  Unfortunately, with Nora around, the insanity was never too far off.

  "Let's go, Ren," Nora said as she walked off. "A storm's a coming."

  "What are you talking about, Nora?" Ren asked, despite not wanting to know. "And why are you walking backwards?"

  "A real man talks with her back," she said seriously. "Unfortunately, Globe called dibs on walking forward, but we need to get to the same place."

  "That doesn't make any sense, Nora," Ren said. "And you're a woman."

  "Aww shucks, babycakes," Nora said. "You'll get it some day."