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Chapter Text

Teams RWBY and JNPR enter Professor Ozpin's office and are greeted by the Combat Class Instructor Glynda Goodwitch and the headmaster of Beacon himself.

"Morning, Professors!" Ruby Rose greeted her teacher and headmaster.

"I'm glad you could make it." Ozpin greeted. "As you know already, your teams are joining in a joint operation. I'm sure you're wondering why. It is because of the grand scale of the mission, figuratively and literally."

A holographic map of Remnant was shown before it zooms on one continent that, as far as the students know, has no human settlement in history.

"Now that this continent seems to have become safer," Ozpin explained. "The Council has deemed it to have it explored and surveyed for future settlements."

"Now then, the mission is going to be long," Glynda stated to the students. "At maximum, three days. Once your three days on the continent are up, you will meet up at the drop off area and return directly to Beacon and give your reports to Professor Ozpin and myself."

The students looked among each other before turning to leave the office.

The reader's view focuses on the continent in question. It was shaped like a Western dragon, whereas the other continent of Anima and Solitas resembled an Eastern dragon.

"I can't believe we haven't found anything!" Ruby exclaimed in a whiny tone.

"To be fair, Pipsqueak," Qrow Branwen spoke up next to the campfire with the red cloaked reaper's team and Specialist Winter Schnee. "You shouldn't really expect anything to pop up on the first day of the mission."

"Yeah. . . I guess so," Ruby said, still feeling dejected.

A primal roar is heard before a herd of Elk stampede through the forest.

Deep in the forest, a village stood, built among the trees and a hill, consisting of huts and large homes. All was peaceful.

BANG!

Until a loud gunshot boomed through the air.

The people of the village awaken from the noise. They all stir and walk out of their homes in confusion before they look up to their clan leaders and the Alpha who looks to the distance where the loud noise had come from. He knew that noise and what tools make that sound and who was known using it.

Teams RWBY and JNPR stand next to Qrow and Winter as they heard trampling and many varieties of animal noises before they look to the side and see what looked to be a large army of Faunus charging to them.

A Serpentine Faunus appeared before them, a spear in her hand as she hissed at the Huntresses and Huntsmen in training with the veteran Huntsman and Specialist.

Two Faunus stand atop a pile of boulders. One was a Gorilla Faunus, and the other was a reptilian Faunus, but Blake couldn't recognize the species. He had scales and a reptilian tail but a row of dorsal spines running down his back.

"Uh, we come in peace?" Ruby said nervously to the two Faunus.

The Reptilian Faunus stares at them stoically as does the Gorilla Faunus. It was all silent before the Reptilian Faunus' jaws parted as he let out a powerful ear shattering roar.

SSKKKRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNKKgh!

The teens visibly recoil from the roar but then the Gorilla Faunus shouted. "GOOOOOOO!"

"Feral Faunus?" Ozpin repeated Qrow and Winter's words.

"I know it sounds absurd/bullshit." Both Qrow and Winter said at the same time. The two paused and looked at each other while the students spoke up and over each other, frantic to tell the truth to their teachers.

The 'feral Faunus' stand before Beacon Academy, all of them armed with spears and other weapons like bows and arrows, clubs and axes.

The Reptilian Faunus is approached by reporters and soldiers. A blue glow travels up his spine followed by a low humming sound that increases in volume before he shoots a blast of blue fire like beam out of his mouth and into the sky.

"What the Hell?" Roman Torchwick drawls in confusion as he, Neopolitan, Junior Xiong, the Malachite Twins are watching the news on a TV. They are not the only ones. Everyone is watching the news that is broadcasting the 'feral Faunus.'

"Kaiju. . . Do not. . . Want war."

Ozpin and General Ironwood's eyebrows furrow in confusion to the wording but remained silent.

"But will fight. . . If we must." The Ape and Reptilian 'Kaiju' glare at their audience firmly, hoping that the Humans and Faunus will understand the message. "Kaiju kingdom. Human, Faunus. . . kingdoms."

"Do not come back."

Another Reptilian 'Kaiju' was shown glaring among the crowd. He had a red visor built into his eyes and metal teeth were visible in his snarl, his right hand was replaced with a large scythe blade.

Two 'Kaiju' stand side by side. One has a spiky shell with a spike tail, the other has large red spikes on his elbows. He stretches his arms and the elbow spikes stretch out and reveal to be large leathery wings and the Kaiju flies away.

Warehouses explode across the Kingdom of Vale.

Qrow walks through the woods.

The Reptilian Kaiju stands on a stone stage while the Kaiju below him make numerous animalistic sounds.

Winter, Glynda and a squad of Atlassian Knights walk off a military airship.

A black bird with red eyes caws before flying off a tree branch.

Beowolves run through the woods, their Alpha howls to the sky.

The Kaiju warriors roar in response before charging to the Grimm.

A female stands firmly. She is dressed in green with emerald hair and yellow eyes. Her eyes narrow before she thrusts her hands forward and large green vines shoot up out of the ground and towards her enemies.

"Guns," the Gorilla Kaiju growls to Ruby with a glare as he holds a gun.

"Long have I waited. . . " a voice says as the silhouette of a Orangutan Kaiju is shown, sitting on a throne in the darkness. "For a chance to leave this continent."

Team RWBY and JNPR stand ready for battle.

"It is our time, time to rule this world." the Orangutan Kaiju says. "Bow before your king."

The Pterosaur Kaiju shakes his head. "You are not our king."

"Then you will all die," the Orangutan Kaiju snarls.

"No." Ruby shakes her head defiantly.

Jaune stands up with his sword drawn. "Together. . ."

"We are . . . Strong."

Team RWBY, JNPR, Qrow and Winter stand next to Kong and Godzilla.

SSKKKRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOONNNNKKKgh!

They charge forward.

"YYYEEESSSS!" The Orangutan Kaiju laughs, arms spread out.

RWBY AND THE KINGDOM OF THE KAIJU

Chapter Text

RWBY and the Kingdom of the Kaiju

Book 1: A New Kingdom
Chapter 1: A Different Kind of Mission

Remnant is an interesting and unique world among the Multiverse. Very colorful and inviting yet very hostile and dangerous at the same time. There are four major cities known as Kingdoms are currently in power with three of four continents inhabited by humans and a subspecies of humanoids with animal traits and senses called Faunus. There was Saunus, the largest continent holding the Kingdom of Vacuo in the desert half and Vale. Solitas with the coldest climate with the militaristic Atlas and the remnant of Mantle. Anima, the land of culture and Mistral. Menagerie was the smallest of the three, more like an island and the home to Faunus. Despite racial tensions and a civil war in the past between the Faunus and Humans, they had coexisted for as long as they could remember.

The best example of coexistence was the role both species could now take a part of. Being Huntsmen or Huntresses. Warriors trained to fight against the creatures of destruction that sought to destroy them all and their creations for centuries. The Grimm. This role has been Remnant's the most celebrated, profitable and adored in Remnant's society and culture. The work goes from protecting villages outside of the Kingdoms to keeping the peace and upholding the law.

It also is the most dangerous role to take in Remnant. These men and women do not become Huntsmen and Huntresses that easily. And they are not born warriors either. They are trained.

After the Great War, the Kingdoms created four major Academies designed to train people who choose to become Huntsmen and Huntresses. Beacon Academy in Vale, Shade in Vacuo, Atlas in Atlas and Haven in Mistral. Training usually begins in secondary academies like Signal in Vale and Sanctum in Mistral in their adolescent years and they enter the primary academies around the age of seventeen and join a team of four individuals.

There are some special cases where a student is moved ahead and that is where our story begins. One of our protagonists was fifteen when she was accepted into Beacon Academy by the headmaster himself. The youngest student to attend in recent history of the college level academy. It had been almost three years since she was enrolled, she may still be the youngest out of the students but she was still proven herself worthy of being in the prestigious Huntsmen Academy with her team.

Who was she, you may ask? Her name is Ruby Rose. She is many things: a weapons dork who would like to know every detail of any weapon she sees and adores her own weapon like a person; a capable and loyal team leader of four Huntresses that trust her greatly and she was an aspiring silver eyed Huntress-in training. . . And she is also. . . asleep.

But to be fair, she doesn't wake up at the crack of dawn without a good reason. Today was no different in her view. She knew as she was starting to wake up that classes wouldn't start until nine a.m. Still didn't mean she should sleep in though. Now would be a good time to get up, shower up and eat breakfast.

The sun's warm light shined through the window and landed on her pale face as she opened her bright silver eyes with a yawn, brushing her black hair with red tips off her face. She propped herself up and saw that she had slept on her school books and paper.

Darn, she had overworked herself the night before and slept on her homework. This had often happened when she was younger. Life in Beacon was harder than she thought at fifteen. But that tended to happen when one moves to a college level education when she was still in middle school. Combat and weapons design she can excel at, but the other classes was what she struggled with the most on her first year. It was now her third year, which was why she found this embarrassing.

She shook her head with a sigh and moved to sit up and hop off her bunk bed, (Which would have been a strange sight to any stranger since Beacon doesn't have bunk beds and the structure of the bunk beds in this dorm was VERY questionable given how one was held up by a pair of ropes and the other was held by four stack of books.) until the sound of a loud whistle went off. She yelped in surprised, jumped at the sound and ended up falling off her bed and hit the ground hard.

". . . Ow." she whined.

"See? I told ya it would work?" she heard voice say from above her.

"I'm not sure if causing her to hit the floor like so is something to be proud of." said another voice.

Looking up, Ruby saw her three teammates all dressed in their school uniforms, and who had blown the whistle. Her own older sister, Yang Xiao Long. She had a mane of blonde hair that shined like gold, a pale complexion similar to Ruby's and lilac eyes. She had three roles of the team. A brawler and heavy hitter, the partner of their third member, and a self proclaimed pun maker who told funny (Terrible!) puns at her whim. Despite her intimidating size, boisterous and overly lighthearted, and vain attitude, she made the group livelier and was nice to hang out with. . . As long as her mane of hair wasn't touched in any damaging way. Otherwise, those who do damage to her hair will learn the hard way why she is named the Dragon of Beacon.

On Yang's left was Ruby's team partner Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. She had a lengthy braid of hair white as now, a pale complexion and icy blue eyes and a faded scar at the corner of her left eye. When she came to Beacon she was dubbed the Ice Queen for her initial cold attitude and indignant character, but her time away from the rich life in Atlas and with her friends she had 'thawed' as her friends tease her, into a loyal and carrying friend.

On the right of Yang was Blake's partner, Blake Belladonna. She had more tan skin with long black hair and cat like amber eyes. She was the more quietest of the whole team, though not soft spoke, and was more antisocial but her time with these three girls, women, had taught her to open up.

Together, the four of them formed Team RWBY!

. . . Which admittedly caused some confusion for some with Ruby's name.

Ruby shook her head with a mild pained groan, holding her head while seeing a mixture of yellow stars and black Chibi wolves. "Morning Rubes! Sleep well?" Yang asked her in a cheery tone.

"Yang, why did you blow my whistle?" Looking up, she asked her sister in a slightly peeved tone. Given that she was already in the process of getting out of bed, her sister should have seen that the action was unnecessary.

Yang scratched the back of her head with a nervous smile. "Sorry, Sis. You kinda overslept," she explained. "And we need to get a move on."

Ruby stared at her before sighing. Leave it to Yang to do something drastic. She thought. At least she had a good reason for doing so.

"And it was Weiss' idea." Yang added.

"Huh?" Ruby blinked and looked to her partner in confusion.

"Think of it as retribution, nothing more," Weiss replied with crossed arms and a smirk. "Fitting for our three years being a team."

"Retribution?" Ruby repeated. "Wha-? What did I do-?"

"Remember our first day?" Weiss asked. "In the morning?"

Ruby blinked. The morning of their first day at Beacon three years ago? She thought it back. They decorated their dorm and made their bunk beds . . . what else? Then it came to her. Ruby had thought that Weiss was oversleeping so she pulled out her whistle and blew it to wake the Schnee heiress. And in Ruby's mind, it worked.

Wait, had Weiss been holding a grudge for that? For three years? And if so, why didn't she blow it herself?

"I thought it would be funny so I went with it," Yang went on, bringing the younger girl out of her thoughts. "But then you fell out of bed. Sorry about that, Sis. But we need you to get up."

"Why? It's not time for classes," Ruby said innocently. "Is it?" She hoped she didn't sleep on any classes. It was bad enough for being the youngest student. She didn't need people to look down on her for sleeping on classes.

Blake shook her head and spoke up. "We have to see Ozpin for a mission, so we're not attending classes today." She tilted her head at Ruby's confused expression. "Don't you remember?"

Ruby was mentally drawing a blank. Their team had a mission today? When was that assigned? It sounded like the first time she was hearing this information, honestly. All she could do was to stare at her sister and friends and voice her confusion in a drawled, "Uh. . ."

Weiss looked to her in exasperation. "You dolt! After three years, you still don't have the faintest realizations? Remember the email from last week? When we were done with the last mission in the field?"

Ruby blinked at that, but decided to at least try to remember what Weiss just said. Focusing all her mental energy into going down memory lane, hoping to find something. She scrunched up her expression in focus and frustration, she kept looking up her memories while her teammates stood silently and waiting patiently.

One week ago . . .

Ruby plopped herself down on a seat next to her teammates in the campus dining hall. Yang and the others were already eating while Ruby was resting her head on the table, groaning in exhaustion.

"Rough class?" Yang asked sympathetically. Ruby just let out a sad grunt in response.

The beginning of the third term for their third year started off easy in terms of assignments but later showed its difficulties. The homework and written class assignments were growing in size, and I mean that both figuratively and literally, as each assignment given required more work.

Ruby, even as she was now eighteen, wasn't certain if it was worth it. Like mentioned earlier, combat was where she excelled, especially when her parents and uncle were great Huntsmen, teachers and excellent fighters. Because of this, she'd love to rather spend more time fighting and training with her beloved weapon, Crescent Rose.

Like the last field mission her team had taken to the continent of Anima. She had added some upgrades to her sniper-scythe prior (Albeit reluctantly because she had thought her weapon was perfect the way it was before being talked into adding a few upgrades.) and it was the first time her team split up in the field. She stumbled on a village under attack by Grimm and did what she was trained for. It was all easy, until she came face to face with a Gorilla like Grimm known as a Beringal. It was taller than the tallest student of Beacon and more muscular. And based on the missing eye and burned face, it was an Alpha Beringal.

This Grimm, older and more experienced than the Beowolves and Nevermores she was killing, proved to be more challenging to her, but in the end she had triumph! The Grimm may have been smart, but she was smarter. It was stronger than her physically, but slow and her Semblance, Pedal Burst made her faster. After that, the horde that charged at her was all easy kill.

And she did it all on her own! Ruby had come a long way since coming to Beacon Academy. She returned to Beacon with her team, feeling proud of herself. The next day, however, she had discovered something. Something so shocking! So terrible and so, so frightening that she refused to believe it was true.

.

.

.

She forgot about a homework assignment she had.

Ruby Rose, aspiring Huntress-in training and capable leader of one of the best teams of Beacon, screamed internally in fear and horror after discovering this truth.

It was an assignment for a class she wasn't with her usual friends. What was the class? Well, it didn't matter to her, she was just devastated knowing that she missed a homework assignment. What was worse was that it was due the day she found out about it. She must have forgotten about it in favor of the field mission. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Grimm Studies with Professor Port who told boisterous and likely exaggerated tales of his younger days as a Huntsman and Dr. Oobleck's History Class when the doctor spoke faster than her own two feet.

There was much begging, pouting and more begging from her to convince the professor to give her a second chance. Thankfully, the teacher did give her a chance to submit it, which was easy when it required a rather short word count but with a shorter paper related yet contrasting its thesis.

Now that the class was over, Ruby reached the dining hall in time, but unfortunately, she was extremely exhausted.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Yang asked after a moment of her exhausted silence.

After considering it, and struggling to not sleep on the table, Ruby admitted it. "I forgot to turn in an essay."

"What?! Ruby!" Weiss scolded. "How could you disregard something so important?!" She was one of the few who took her studies very seriously (Too much seriously in the eyes of others) and she hoped the others would follow her example.

No such luck on that end, even after three years.

"I was tired, okay?" Ruby retorted, now lifting her head to look at her partner. "I forgot about it during the mission!"

"I can relate to that," said the leader of the other team sitting next to RWBY. The leader/strategist of Team JNPR, Jaune Arc. He was tall with blonde hair, a toned physique and deep blue eyes. He was very friendly, often thoughtful though he can be aloof and timid, less so compared to how he was in their first year, and he was VERY poor at flirting, as Weiss knows from experience. Despite lacking in combat training compared to most students in their first year and upward, Jaune's skills had improved greatly, especially under some training under his partner.

And his partner was Pyrrha Nikos, the well known Mistral tournament champion nicknamed the Invincible Girl for she had won several tournaments in the past. The redhead had received so much recognition that she starred in a commercial for cereal. She was considered the most kindest person in the school anyone would have ever met, thought they wouldn't if they were too nervous to meet such a famous person.

Nora Valkyrie was. . . well, ludicrous was one of the best ways to describe her entire character. With orange hair and electric turquoise eyes, Nora is very talkative, imaginative, enthusiastic and very, very hyper. Three years at Beacon did NOT change that yet. Nonetheless, Nora is a true friend to anyone she knows.

And then there was the final member of Team JNPR, and Nora's partner/long time friend, Lie Ren. He had long, messy black hair with a small but noticeable magenta streak and eyes of the same color. Ren was considered to be the total opposite of Nora. How they ever became friends was still a mystery to the others. He was far more stoic and even more levelheaded than anyone both teams know and he has occasionally given words of wisdom and advice to any who may need it.

"Did you break anyone's legs in your mission?" Nora asked. If any of her friends or teammates didn't know her, they would have asked why the ginger haired girl asked something like that with slight enthusiasm.

Before Ruby could reply with an answer, she felt her Scroll vibrate. She reached to her pocket and pulled it out to check the message.

"Whatcha reading there, Rubes?" Yang asked before grinning teasingly. "A secret admirer?" Truthfully, she was hoping that it was. Protective of her sister Yang may be, Ruby has not once tried to show interest in anyone since coming to Beacon. The only people she hangs out with was their own team and Team JNPR. Sure there were a couple of students from Haven and Penny Polendina from Atlas, but Ruby has not shown any romantic interest in any of them. Ruby was eighteen now, she should at least date someone before graduating Beacon next year.

"It's a message from the headmaster," Ruby replied as she read the message, silver eyes widening in surprise.

"Professor Ozpin?" Weiss asked. "What is he-" Then she felt her own Scroll vibrate. And she wasn't the only one as the same thing happened to Blake and Yang and then to each member of Team JNPR. And as they all saw looking into their Scrolls, they had received the same message from the Headmaster of Beacon.

Team RWBY (JNPR)

First of all, I hope your evenings have been going well. Second, well done on your previous field missions. Now, I'm contacting you and your sister team JNPR (RWBY) to inform you that you will be joining in a joint mission with the other team and I request that you all come to my office next Monday before 8 am.

Until then, the best of luck to you all.

Professor Ozpin.

Ruby shook in excitement. Sure they just got done with another field mission, but her team had rarely gone on a joint mission in the past, and with Team JNPR nonetheless. "We're going on a mission, guys!" she shouted excitedly.

Both Yang and Nora pumped their fists with eager grins at the prospect of another adventure. "Nice!"

Pyrrha, Weiss and Ren simply smirked. The redhead was elated to go on a mission with her friends. The Schnee heiress believed it was a perfect opportunity to show off her skills in combat to the other team. Ren was simply happy to go on a mission with his friends.

The only one who was silent was Blake. Which was odd, even for her. Quiet one she may be, she still should have had a reaction to this new development. Instead, she was the only who had not pulled out her Scroll and instead staring at her plate.

Yang, being the one closest to her and noticing her behavior, attempted to get her attention. "Hey, Blake, is everything okay?" she asked her black haired partner.

Blake shook herself out of her thoughts. "Huh? Oh, sorry!. I was just. . . thinking to myself." she said nervously. "What are we talking about?"

Before Yang could explain, Ruby appeared next to her, in her personal space even, and started explaining to Blake in her over excitedly and hyperactive way. "Blake! WeandJNPRgotamessagefromProfessorOzpintogoonamissiononMonday! It'sgoingtobesoawesome!"

Nailed it.

Blake stared at her younger leader with a blank expression. "Uh. . ." she drawled in confusion.

Weiss rolled her eyes and sighed. "Our team and JNPR have just received a message from Professor Ozpin about going on a joint team mission next week." she explained.

"Oh! Um, sounds. . . nice!" Blake exclaimed with a forced smile. "I can't wait." And before anything else, the bell rang, which meant that dinner was now over.

"Well, I guess that's all can be said on the matter," Pyrrha shrugged before rising from her seat. "See you all later, my friends."

Ruby waved at the departing Team JNPR. "Bye, guys! See you tomorrow."

Both teams got up from their seats, returned their trays before making their ways back to their respective dorms. The essay Ruby had to turn in today was long forgotten now. She climbed into her bed with one thought in her mind.

I better not forget this! This is going to be so much fun and awesome!

Present

I can't believe I forgot this! Ruby thought with a gasp and looked to her sister and teammates in shock. She forgot about the mission with Team JNPR! Dang it! This had to be all her homework's fault!

"Remember now?" Weiss asked her younger team partner upon seeing her expression change.

"I do!" Ruby declared. She looked down and saw that she was still in her pajamas. "Gah! Go on without me! I'll change quick and catch up!"

The older teens chuckled fondly at her antics but walked out of the room and told the other team that Ruby would catch to the elevator.

Ruby was correct in that she changed quickly but it was still longer than what her friends would have preferred to. Still, it was only 7:51 when they reached the elevator and Ruby pressed the top floor button. They all stood in silence as the elevator rode up Beacon Tower.

With a final ding, the elevator doors opened to the Headmaster's office. The room was large and spacious for an office room, built within the clock tower-Cross Continental Tower with only one large desk, large windows to look out to the outside world. With one of them being half of the clock face. Behind the desk stood two of Beacon Academy's most prominent figures.

The headmaster himself, Michael Ozpin. He was rather a puzzling enigma to most of the students, including Teams RWBY and JNPR, other than he was Beacon's Combat Instructor when he was younger and that he was a very experienced Huntsman. And the fact that the only thing they've seen him carrying his weapon, a cane called the Long Memory and a coffee mug. He had a stoic and indifferent attitude but he did have a compassionate and humble side to him. His hair was close to pure silver with dark suit with matching pants, shoes over a green vest and shirt with brown spectacles and brown eyes and a thick green cowl around his neck.

And next to him was the Combat Instructor and Deputy Headmistress, Glynda Goodwitch. She was known for her harsh but solid criticism and cold attitude towards any kind of misconduct on campus grounds. Or anywhere in general, really. But their time here had them learn that she can be gentle and caring should the situation call for it. She wore a black skirt and leggings with and high heels and a white pleated top, a black and purple cape that had arrowheads cut out at the bottom. She had blonde hair tied up in a tight bun with a curved lock of hair hanging on the right of her face and wore teal earrings with a similar collar pendant and clear ovular glasses over her bright green eyes.

Ozpin smiled at the students warmly. "Good morning, students."

"Good morning, Professors!" Ruby greeted back in a cheerful tone.

"It is eight minutes before 8 am, students," Glynda replied to Ruby's greeting in matter of fact tone with a hint of disappointment. "It would have been more easier for our debrief if you all arrived earlier."

"Our apologies, Professor Goodwitch," Weiss began. "Our leader slept longer than she should have and she forgot about the mission." She spoke with a hint of irritation and exasperation.

Ruby chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of her head. "Eh-hehe. Sorry, Professors." she apologized.

Glynda stared at her blankly before replying with a simple, "I see."

Ozpin cleared his throat as he stood from his chair. "Well, I think we should be glad that you made it." he stated. True, they should have arrived sooner, but that was that. Ozpin plugged in a flash drive into his desk and a large holographic screen appeared in the space between the students and professors.

"Now, I'm sure you all know that the eight of you are going on a joint-team field mission," Ozpin said to the two teams. "Which is a rare opportunity for both of your teams. But we didn't explain why the two teams are necessary. The reason why is because of the grand scale of the mission, figuratively and literally."

The third year students had different reactions in the range from 'gasping' or 'raising an eyebrow' to what the headmaster had just told them. Ozpin flicked his wrist and a large holographic map of their world appeared on the holographic screen. The map was enlarged to show all of the continents, Saunus, Anima, Solitas and Menagerie. Ruby and Yang's home island of Patch was even noticeable as well as the island of Vytal. But then the map focused on another continent.

"Here is where your mission will be taking place," Ozpin explained when the Huntresses and Huntsmen-in training got a better look at the continent.

It was the only landmass on Remnant that was not occupied by human civilization, not even partly like Menagerie that was occupied by the Faunus on a third of the island like continent while the rest was a desert. This continent however didn't even have an official name. It was large and west of Solitas. The strangest detail of the continent was its shape. It wasn't perfect, but it resembled a winged dragon. Which led to its unofficial and popular name.

The "Land of the Western Dragon," or "West Dragon." It was unlike the continent of Anima that was shaped like a wingless serpentine dragon and had the nicknames "Land of the Eastern Dragon" or "East Dragon." The two continents also represented something to the cultural side of Remnant. The East dragon was a symbol of safety, culture and knowledge while the Western Dragon meant danger and mystery.

There was another fact about these two dragons, Ruby recalled from learning about Remnant's different religions and myths. In the religions about the Brother gods they were said to transform into dragons. The Brother God of Light took the form of a Eastern Dragon while his younger brother the God of Darkness took the form of the Western Dragon.

"The West Dragon continent?" Weiss asked with a skeptic expression that she was known for among the other students. "Pardon my questioning Professors, but wouldn't this be a mission more suited for older students or high ranking Huntsmen/Huntresses? There is a massive Grimm infestation on that continent is there not?"

That was a primary reason as to why the Land of the Western Dragon has not been colonized by civilization in the past. The Creatures of Grimm. The continent is known to have one of the largest populations of all Grimm kind, or some theorized it was the birthplace of the Grimm, even giving it another nickname: The Land of Darkness. The Grimm were the closest to the dominant species of Remnant, rivaled by the human race and the Faunus with the only purpose they seemed to have in life was to destroy mankind and the Faunus along with their creations.

"The Grimm may no longer be a problem, Ms. Schnee," Professor Goodwitch answered, slightly shocking the two teams. "We, the Council of Vale and the other Kingdom Councils have been monitoring the Land of the Western Dragon for a long time, and we have noticed that the Grimm infestation has been slowly dwindling." She explained, pushing her glasses up.

"There are no older students available for this mission," she went on. "But you will be accompanied by a high ranking Huntsman from Vale and an elite Specialist from the Atlas Military for this mission."

Now that was a surprise. Well, partially. For students like them, it was still mandatory for them to be shadowed by experienced Huntsmen/Huntresses depending on the mission, but for two older Huntsmen, especially if one is from the Atlas Military was surprising. They looked to each other in question, perhaps for another opinion but they ultimately decided to trust the professors in the mission's terms.

"So. . . the Grimm are no longer present in West Dragon?" Pyrrha asked. That is what they were told yes?

"Yes and no, I'm afraid, Ms. Nikos," Ozpin spoke next. "Over the time the continent was monitored, the Grimm are widespread over the land, but have strangely become scarce along the exterior of the continent." To emphasize this, the map of the continent became red to illustrate the Grimm covering the land but then the outside of the continent changed color. "And we have seen signs of vegetation growing along the outside of the continent." The holographic map became green along the east side of the continent that was once red.

Now that was another surprise. Another detail that was known about the Land of the Western Dragon is or was now that it did not look capable of supporting life like plants or animals, only Grimm.

"Woah. . ." Ruby exclaimed in surprise.

Yang raised a hand. "Hey, Professors, how long was this happening? Between the Grimm dwindling and life appearing on the continent? A month or two?"

"It's been longer for both fronts," Ozpin deadpanned.

"Four? Five?" Yang asked, lighthearted and a little exasperated. Ozpin tended to be dramatic for things. "C'mon, gimme a hint."

"The Grimm have started dwindling for eighty-three years, Ms. Xiao Long," Glynda replied curtly. "And life has been growing on the continent's exterior for over ten years now."

Yang was at a loss for words. "Oh. . ." was all she could say.

This was even more of a shock. Eighty-three years ago? That was around the time of the Great War, Remnant's most brutal and longest conflict between the Kingdoms and ten years ago was the Grimm Incident of Mountain Glenn. Just what's been happening for the numbers of Grimm to dwindle like that? And how has vegetation been able to grow in numbers like that? From their knowledge, the land was not fertile with rich soil or anything.

"Is there any reason why the Grimm have moved away?" Weiss asked. "And how has vegetation grown that much in such a short time?"

"We do not know for sure, Ms. Schnee," Ozpin replied with a shake of his head. "On both fronts. But we do believe that the threat of Grimm is low now and they do not cover the continent anymore. The mission you are all assigned to is to explore the continent, just a mere search and explore operation." Then he spoke in a warning tone. "But I am sure you will all be safe as long as you don't travel too far into the forest."

Despite that, the students all felt. . . underwhelmed. A search and explore operation? That was it? In a land of Grimm no less? It sounded too simple.

"Okay, I get the exploration part," Jaune spoke up. "But what are we searching for?"

"Dust crystals," Ozpin replied. "Now that Western Dragon has seemed to become safer, the continent can be explored and surveyed for future establishments that can be established, with great caution of course. There is also the chance to discover unmined Dust. Your second objective is to discover as many Dust deposits possible, record their locations and report to me and Professor Goodwitch upon your return."

This gave the students another sense of underwhelming. Still, they understood of finding Dust. The crystalline material was one of the important things to the civilization of Remnant. The elemental crystals were used to power their kingdoms, fuel their vehicles, weapons or enhance Huntsmen and Huntresses' physical capabilities with Aura and Semblances. Most importantly it was the backbone of humanity's survival against the Grimm. So in the end, both RWBY and JNPR were willing to take this mission.

But still, there is a certain company that is more familiar with this kind of work involving Dust.

Blake stepped forward and spoke for the first time. "Professors, I don't mean to question the logic of this mission, but wouldn't the Schnee Dust Company be more suited for this operation?" she asked. Then her cat-like amber eyes narrowed as she spoke in a cynical tone. "Dust mining is their specialty."

Weiss looked to the raven haired girl in surprise for bringing up her family's company. She had brought up a good point, but it was a surprise she mentioned given that Blake still thought ill of the company.

The Schnee Dust Company was the most powerful company for mining Dust crystals and distributing them worldwide, and Weiss was the heiress. Under Jacques Schnee becoming the SDC's new CEO, the company had become more notorious for it started to operate in moral gray areas. The company had plunged in an unethical state by Jacques. Ranging from being involved in shady experiments with the Atlas Military, hiring criminals and bounty hunters for questionable jobs and, the cruelest of all, the company's Faunus employees have suffered unfair and dangerous working conditions as Dust miners which have been worsening gradually over the years.

The SDC's recent and growing mistreatment of the Faunus had earned all of Blake's ire, for she was a Cat Faunus in disguise. At the beginning of her first year, Weiss did not understand this fact, especially when she had felt disdain towards the Faunus has a whole thanks to the White Fang organization. Thankfully she had learned better from the experience of having a friend and teammate as a Faunus in Blake.

"Ah yes, the Schnee Dust Company," Ozpin mused. He briefly paused before continuing to speak. "It may come as a surprise to hear, but the CEO himself took part in organizing this mission."

This took the students by surprise, though Blake narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Though the most surprised by this was Weiss herself. "M-My father set this up?! Why?!" she exclaimed in surprise. One of the main (And secret) reason for attending Beacon Academy was to distance herself from her father's influence and the company's shady practices. Now it seems that the CEO was more involved than she would have preferred.

"Mr. Schnee has been most diligent in monitoring Western Drago in hopes of finding an opportunity for his company," Ozpin replied. "His reasons for not doing this himself are. . . convoluted, to put it in simpler terms but I'm sure he is just being cautious."

"More like he's trying to excuse himself from a case of indolence," Glynda said in a rather distasteful tone. Evidently she did not approve whatsoever of the SDC CEO's choice of not investigating the Land of Western Dragon himself.

"Glynda," Ozpin chided, only getting a scoff as a response from the Combat Instructor. He looked to his students who were bearing uncertain and uneasy expressions. "Please understand that this mission is not his doing entirely. He had proposed this mission but it's only getting approval because I'm allowing it. The only benefit he will get is the mission reports I will share from you. And he will use those to organize his work force for mining on the continent there." he explained. "And I have complete faith that you will both complete this mission without much harm. If I didn't, this meeting wouldn't be happening."

Given that Western Dragon is a long distance Vale's borders and oversea plus the unknown reason for a decrease of Grimm, they had a reason to be uncertain but Ozpin always had faith in the students before him. He had watched their skills grow in the past three years.

The students still showed their qualms about this mission, but they were certainly appreciating their headmaster's faith in them.

Weiss was still mentally judging if she should protest or not. What her friends did not know was that her father had no regards for her or her siblings, considering them more like property or pawns. And now it seemed that he was trying to use her and her team, plus friends, to his advantage. The nerve of that man!

But then again, all he did was propose this idea to Ozpin's attention and the headmaster still had control over this mission. Still, this all just felt traitorous. He had promised to not get involved with Weiss's studies three years ago, so why was he going back on his word? Eventually Weiss decided that her pondering was pointless and brushed it aside.

"Oh, alright. . . " she said in begrudging acceptance.

"At least it's an official mission, right guys?" Ruby asked her teammates and friends in a hopeful tone despite having doubts herself. She had various reactions from her teammates. Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. Yang shrugged her shoulders while Blake just stared and blinked at Ruby. Team JNPR had similar reactions, save for the lack of huffing.

"It is official as it can be," Glynda replied dutifully. "Now, the mission is four days long, since it will take about one to travel to the continent."

The students groaned a bit at that. Spend one day in a Bullhead to get there and spend three days to search for raw Dust crystals? This mission was honestly sounding to be more boring to them.

"Do not complain," Glynda said sternly at their reactions. "Once the mission is complete and you all return with your supervisors, you all will give a report to Professor Ozpin and myself." she went on to say. "Now, return to your dorms, pack the necessary supplies for camping, don your combat gear and obtain your weapons. Once you are packed and prepared, head to the landing platforms at the cliffside at once. An airship will be prepped and the Huntsman and Atlas Specialist will waiting for you all. Dismissed."

The students looked at each other before nodding to their teachers in acceptance before moving to the elevator. Jaune suddenly had a realization. "Wait a minute, we could've just dressed in our combat gear instead of our school uniforms." he muttered. Everyone else realized that he had a point. They could have saved time donning their combat gear instead of their school uniforms.

Once they left in the elevator, Glynda sighed and looked to Ozpin. "I still think that man is being selfish about this." she stated.

"Glynda," Ozpin said in response. "Clearly he is only reserving his resources out of his personal preference, but I am sure he does not want his daughters in danger."

"That man proposed that Ms. Schnee and Specialist Schnee take this mission alone." Glynda retorted with crossed arms. "Even if the Grimm population has dwindled in Western Dragon, it is still a high risk mission for two people!"

"True," Ozpin nodded in agreement. "But Mr. Schnee does not know Team RWBY's strength together and so he made that suggestion. The same could be said for Team JNPR." he returns to his desk. "However, like I said earlier, I have faith in our students. They are in your class after all."

At the end of Jacques Schnee's questionable moral and parenting, Ozpin took a sip from his ever present mug.

Glynda stared at him before speaking of a different matter. "Was it wise?" she asked. "We didn't tell them how we have monitored Western Dragon and we haven't told them what. . . else we found."

Ozpin hummed, folding his hands together. While the CEO focused on the possible Dust locations, the Huntsman headmaster discovered something else. Something strange. He couldn't tell if the information on the reports were false or if the images were glitches. Yet, whenever he reviewed them, he couldn't help but question their meaning. With his insecurity about this, he showed the information to Glynda. And later to the Huntsman that will be escorting and supervising the students.

Having been reminded of the information, Ozpin turned on his computer screen and looked at the file and its contents. "Perhaps or perhaps not. . ." he answered quietly. ". . . Whatever this, maybe they can shed some light on it. If they happen to find it."

As he stared at the file's mysterious content, Glynda walked to his side and looked at it as well. When she first saw it, she didn't believe it and still doesn't, but she couldn't deny that the report existed.

Not only did signs of flora and fauna show through their mysterious and anonymous method of monitoring the Land of Western Dragon, the professors could detect. . . Aura. This meant that were possibly people on the wild continent. While animals and plants could generate Aura, only people could unlock it. This led to more questions. If there is people on this continent, where did they come from? Were they there this whole time? If so, why haven't they made attempts to contact the outside world? Or try to help any explorations that were made in the past? How did they deal with all the Grimm?

There was another question that was in their minds. It was connected to something that only they, Qrow Branwen and the other headmasters of the other Huntsmen Academies knew about. The Grimm Queen. Ozpin long suspected that Salem had taken residence in the Land of Darkness. But the Grimm have dwindled in the past eighty-three years, something that she would not allow. So how did this development happen?

Patience is a virtue.

An important virtue. One that is truly understood when one lives to old age when many others die young. Godzilla understood this the necessity of this virtue completely. Patience is needed for everything. And standing in a river during a cold rainy day was one of the trials of his patience. But he must hunt for the Kingdom.

One of the Kaiju who had scouted ahead moved silently through the forest until he was within a few yards of Godzilla and the hunting party. "My king, they are close," Deuterious spoke using animalist noises that were crossed between a rat and fish. "If we assume our positions now, we can cut off their escape." The Rat-Fish Kaiju added urgently.

Nodding in understanding, the Saurian Kaiju turned to the trees on the shoreline, to where one of the Clan Leaders, King Kong, who was leading a small band of Kaiju to move into position and cut off the elk herd from escaping. "Kong, circle around, cut off their escape."

Kong nodded and signaled for his hunting party to follow him through the trees and on the ground.

Urging his fellow Kaiju to follow him in the river, Godzilla took the lead while the Kaiju accompanying him moved swiftly in the river, mindful not to make a sound and alert the horde that they were being stalked. Thunder crackled in the heavens, and the rainfall made it seem impossible to see. Should anyone be close to the river, they wouldn't hear the light splashes and the same could be said for the thundering of footsteps and heavy breathing of the men and women joining their king and clan leader were the only sounds anyone could hear under the sounds of rain and thunder.

Suddenly coming to a halt, Gojira and his followers were now at the bottom of the river where the vast herd of elk was located. A young Kaiju that almost resembled Godzilla swam to his side. It was Zilla, a young warrior eager to prove himself. Eager for action. "Now, my King?" he asked, raising his hand to signal the others to begin the attack, but Godzilla stopped him and silently told him to wait.

Patience is important.

For warriors.

For hunters.

Narrowing his eyes through the ripples from the rainfall, Godzilla took deep breaths through his gills while looking turning around at those accompanying him, they all gave him firm nods, silently telling him that they were ready. Looking back up at the elk herd, Godzilla swam forward to one of the elk and waited like an alligator. When he decided the time was right, he propelled forward with his tail and sank his claws into the elk's flesh and then let out a cry that echoed for miles, and the elk herd, spooked by what they had just heard, suddenly ran as fast as their hooves could carry them away from the river's edge. Zilla ran forward and pounced onto an Elk, and sank his claws and fangs into its neck. While chasing the fleeing herd, Hiccup smiled as the Kaiju that had accompanied him would lend King Kong's group aid in preventing the herd from slipping away.

The elk ran before coming face to face with King Kong's hunting party. Kong held a spear and roared before charging into the stampeding herd of elk. His fellow Kaiju joining him, including his son, an Albino Gorilla Kaiju named Kiko. The Kaiju held up spears or threw them at the stampeding elk herd. Some were direct hits or mere misses. And some Kaiju were unlucky to be trampled by the elk.

Chasing the herd down a slope, Kong reached to Anguirus' and pulled out a bola. Whirling the projectile overhead, the Gorilla Kaiju narrowed his eyes and with a grunt, he let it fly. The bola wrapped around the hind legs of one of the large elk, causing it to lose its footing and tumble down the steep hill.

Both Kong and Kiko approached the downed elk with spears. But then Kong noticed some strange markings on the bark of a tree. He held a hand to his son. "Kiko, stay," he signed as he moved to the tree. He leaned forward and felt the marks with his hand. These are. . . claw marks, he realized. But of what?

Unaware to him, Kiko wasn't listening to his father. Like Zilla, he was eager to prove himself as a warrior, even more so that he was the son of a Clan Leader. So he approached the elk that was struggling to rise to its feet. He raised the spear and readied to kill the elk.

Suddenly, a massive bear burst out of the thick bushes and lashed out at Kiko while releasing a dominating roar. As its claws slashed at his chest, the young Albino Gorilla Kaiju released an agonizing scream of pain while stumbling down to the ground and backing up against a nearby tree while his spear snapped in half. Before the bear could press to attack the wounded young Kaiju, King Kong leaped on top of the bear with a roar.

Kong is known to be a thinking Kaiju, meaning that he is known to think things through in most situations. However, as soon as he saw his son, wounded and afraid, Kong acted without thinking and jumped on top of the bear's back. The bear bucked and thrashed violently before managing to get the older Gorilla Kaiju off of its back, and bearing its teeth at the Gorilla Kaiju. It swung its right paw and managed to knock the spear out of Kong's hand. Kong ducked and leaned back out of the bear's next claw strikes before letting a roar to call for help from the other Kaiju.

And luckily, someone had heard his calls for help. He ducked again before seeing one of his loyal warriors approaching from behind the bear. A Saurian Kaiju with navy green scales, red eyes with a long reptilian tail that had a small black barb at the end. It was Goro.

Kong smiled grimly before looking at the bear and standing tall. He began to beat his chest with his fists and roared challengingly at the large predator. The bear rose on its hindlegs and roared at Kong.

Patience is a virtue, an important virtue. As a veteran warrior, King Kong understood this greatly.

And he understood how greatly it pays off. Especially in this situation.

Goro jumped in the air from a tall boulder, spear in hand and he plunged it through the back of the bear and out through its chest while delivering a double dropkick, knocking bear down and it landed right on top of Kong. The bear convoluted and spasmed before dying.

Goro and Kiko approached the dead bear. ". . . Kong? Are you alright?" Goro grumbled in concern before the Gorilla Kaiju crawled out from the dead bear. Kong chuckled lightly. "Thanks to you, I will be," Kong replied with a smile. "Thank you, Goro."

Goro sighed in relief at seeing his friend unharmed. He nodded his head to Kong before walking over to pull out his spear from the bear and then pick up Kong's spear and tossed it to the Gorilla Kaiju's hand. Kong nodded to him and approached Kiko who held his head down in shame.

He reached to the two scars that ran down the young Albino Gorilla Kaiju's chest, causing Kiko to flinch at the touch in pain before looking up to him. "Think before you act, Son." Kong signed to him. He raised his hand to examined the small scar on his cheek but Kiko batted his hand away and took the spear from his father before walking away.

Kong watched him walk away before sighing. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Godzilla looking to him. He looked to the bear on the ground before nodding his head to the Gorilla Kaiju and then walked away.

The Hunting party walked through the woods. Godzilla, Kong and Anguirus were the few that carried their kill all the way back to their village, or rather, a Kingdom. A Kingdom that was built high in the hills over looking the valley. Once returning through the entrance and dropping their kills, Kong and Goro wrapped an arm around each other's shoulders, laughing as the Gorilla Kaiju exclaimed for all to hear, "Goro saved me and my son's life!"

Said son still felt ashamed for his recklessness. He should have been able to fight the bear with his father and Goro. Instead he cowered in fear.

"Don't feel ashamed, Kiko," screeched a voice behind him. Turning around, Kiko was greeted by a Saurian Kaiju with blue scales, a red visor covering his eyes, three large fins on his back, silver spikes down the middle of his chest a rusty robotic left arm, two robotic legs and a scythe blade for a right hand. It was Gigan. "Scars make you strong." Gigan said, chuckling and revealing metal and sharp teeth.

A loud roar came from Godzilla, bringing the attention of the Kaiju around him. "Tonight, we shall feast on the meat we have caught!" he called out. "And we shall feast in the honor of the brave Goro!" he declared, getting cheers and sounds of excitement.

At the corner of the town square so to speak, Kaiju children gathered for the teachings of King Cesar. "Younglings, pay attention! Pay attention, please!" Cesar called to the children that grew excited upon hearing Godzilla's declaration. He picked up a stone slab and wrote the word A on it with a rock. He stood up and gestured to the wall. Written on were the three important laws Godzilla had made for the Kingdom to live by.

Kaiju not kill Kaiju.

Kaiju together strong.

Knowledge is power.

The excitement of the day did not stop there for one healer walked out of King Kong's hut and made urgent calls down to the Gorilla Kaiju. Kong looked up to the healer as the village suddenly fell silent and he quickly made his way up to his hut. Godzilla, Anguirus and two others watched his movements.

Kong walked into the house and approached where the healers have gathered in his room that was lined with candles. The hand of his beloved mate, Lady, reached out towards him from their bed. Tenderly, he reached and grasped her hand gently and approached her side. The two Gorilla Kaiju looked at one another, tears forming in Lady's eyes as she breathed heavily. Groaning with effort and pain, she curled up, Kong placing a hand on her back as a sign of comfort while holding her other hand.

Suddenly the silent room was broken by the sounds of the cries of an infant. The lead healer held a squealing Gorilla Kaiju newborn. Lady sighed in relief as she laid back, panting. Kong looked at the infant in surprise before kneeling beside his mate as she was given the baby. The healers parted from them as Kiko approached cautiously.

Kong looked over to him and waved him over. Come, meet your new brother. he urged with a smile. Kiko smiled as well before he walked over to his mother and saw his newborn brother. His failure during the hunt was now forgotten. Kong placed a hand both Kiko and Lady's shoulder. The day couldn't have been any more perfect for him.

Later at sunset, the feast commenced. Kong's newborn son was presented to the Kingdom during the feast to Godzilla and Mothra, a female Moth Kaiju with dark brown hair and silver eyes. They examined the baby to see if he was sick or not. After that, Kong walked up to Goro.

"You saved my life, Goro." he grumbled to Goro. The Saurian Kaiju bowed his head before placing his fist on his chest before placing it on Kong's chest. "You would have done the same for me, Kong." he replied.

Kong nodded in agreement before gesturing to two Simian Kaiju, the Gargantuan Twins, that were caring the skin of the bear. "Accept this bear skin as a gift from me. A sign of my gratitude."

Goro bowed his head respectfully. "You honor me, mighty Kong." he replied. "I accept."

After that, Lady left the feast to return back to their hut with her sons while Kong sat outside with his friends, Godzilla, a Pterosaur Kaiju with red scales, two large crests and wings folded into spikes named Rodan, an Ankylosaurs Kaiju with with spikes and a spiky tail named Anguirus and Mothra.

"So, another son?" Anguirus asked with an elated expression. He and the others looked proud for their friend.

"Makes me think of how far we've come, Anguirus," Kong answered with a smile. Godzilla smiled as well with nostalgia and pride for their Kingdom.

"It seems so long ago," Mothra chirped, leaning against Godzilla. The Saurian Kaiju knew she was right. It was indeed a long time, almost more than eight decades since he had brought the Kaiju to this continent. They had fought long and hard with the Grimm for dominance over the land and driven them away. Biollante worked hard to create life in a land that was completely barren and it worked.

"Do you still think about them?" Rodan suddenly asked Godzilla. The question came as a surprise and was sounding a little vague. But Godzilla knew who his friend was referring to, but he asked for clarification.

"You mean the humans?" Godzilla asked.

"And the Faunus," Rodan added.

It had been a long time since Godzilla had last seen either humans or Faunus. About ten years since few of the Kaiju had seen them. Both species were the more. . . civilized counterparts to the Kaiju. Humans looked down on the Faunus. And Godzilla and the Kaiju were similar to the Faunus but with more animalistic traits and behaviors. One could imagine the treatment they'd received, if encountered by humans and Faunus.

But the Kaiju were more than just more animalistic Faunus. A tight knit community of brothers and sisters in arms. They have believed to have lived long past the Humans and Faunus now. Only Grimm and animals lived on the planet with them. The Kaiju have proven themselves to be greater than the other races, surpassing them in strength and achieving what neither of them had. Peace. And that was ironic because the humans and Faunus created most of the Kaiju here, molded them like they are now. It was because of this and their division and incompetence that they were gone now with the Kaiju taking their place.

"Sometimes," Godzilla admitted and Mothra nodded. "Sometimes," she echoed. Both Kaiju couldn't help but think of the humans and Faunus, even after their extinction. They did have the most experience with them.

"Didn't know them like you two did," Rodan replied. "Only saw their bad sides."

"Good, bad, it doesn't matter now." Godzilla stated. "They thought they were different. I think of them as the same. And in the end, they destroyed each other in war."

Despite the physical differences, Godzilla always saw Humans and Faunus as two sides of the same coin. He didn't consider them as different species, because they acted the same with good and bad on both sides. He saw that in war. Because of this, Godzilla thought the racial tension and bias between as foolish. Such ignorance of their similarities was one reason why neither of them evolved far enough to survive and coexist along with the Kaiju.

"Kaiju fight too," Anguirus pointed out. The Kaiju community wasn't perfect, obviously. There was bound to be some minor conflicts between individuals. Arguments here and there.

"True, but we are family," Mothra pointed out. Anguirus conceded. There may be infighting, but in the grand scheme of it all, the Kingdom was driven by the unbreakable bond and sense of family.

The others bid the King and Queen good night and retreated to their huts. Both Godzilla and Mothra looked to the sunset. The colors were fading out into a darker red as nighttime was starting to befall, but the beauty of the closing sunlight was still there. At least a moment more would last for the two Kaiju to gaze at in appreciation.

"Do you think they're really gone?" Mothra asked as Godzilla wrapped his tail around her back and his left arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. Godzilla looked at her and looked thoughtful.

"It has been ten winters since I saw a human vessel close to this continent," Godzilla replied. "No sign since. And remember how they were when we saw them last." he pointed out. The last time Godzilla was in the outside world, the humans and Faunus were in a brutal war against one another. And when the Kaiju formed a Kingdom, last they saw, society was collapsing in one of their kingdoms, overrun by Grimm.

"They must be gone now," he added before they looked back to the sunset. He was inwardly skeptical of this as was Mothra. The humans and Faunus were stronger than just letting themselves die out completely. Either way though, Godzilla wouldn't know unless he saw them again for himself.

Chapter Text

Packing supplies is a breeze, especially for when your profession is going to involve traveling outside of civilization. But in hindsight, as Jaune said earlier, they could have dressed in their combat attire instead of their school uniforms and perhaps had their weapons on them. Sure, it would have been inappropriate to appear in the headmaster's office like so, but it would have saved them time for this packing. But alas, they took the longer route of work. They gathered their weapons after changing clothes and packed their camping supplies.

It is without saying that their combat clothes reflected their character.

Ruby wore a black blouse and bodice with a large combat skirt, black fingerless gloves, black leggings, a loose gray belt that came with a magazine pouch and a gray colored version of her emblem, a stylized rose and black combat boots with red stripes. What was more recognizable of her was her bright red cloak and hood and her weapon, Crescent Rose, a massive black and red scythe that doubled as a high caliber sniper rifle.

Weiss wears a blue jacket over her white blouse, a knee length white combat skirt with white leggings and white leather calf high wedge heeled boots. On the back of her jacket was her family and company's emblem, a large snowflake. Her weapon was a sharp rapier named Myrtenaster with a revolving chamber designed to carry Dust cartridges at the hilt. This allowed her to use elemental attacks with the Dust.

Blake had a white blouse under a white tailcoat jacket with black trimmings and violetish black stockings with black shoes with low heels. Her emblem was on the outer sides of her stockings on her thighs and it was the Belladonna flower. Coincidence? I think not. Black ribbons were tied around her forearms under her sleeves and her weapon, Gambol Shroud was a black and white sword combined with a pistol, its sheath serving as a second sword or cleaver and it had a ribbon attached to its hilt that it could be used as a kusarigama, and it was held to her back by a medium sized magnetic plate. Other than her black hair, she was noticed for the black bow on the top of her head that hid her feline ears.

Yang was the more. . . revealing of their team, and perhaps the school in general. She wore a tan vest, gold outlined, over a low-cut yellow crop top that had her emblem, a flaming heart on the left side that showed a part of her toned stomach. She wore black fingerless gloves under her weapon, Ember Celica was currently in bracelet form. She wore a brown buckled belt and a large half skirt that covered the back of her legs. A large orange scarf was around her neck. She wore brown leather combat boots, orange socks that reached different heights on her legs and a grayish purple bandanna was tied around her left leg.

Jaune made himself look like a knight. He had a short sleeve black hoodie with blue jeans and black sneakers with white tips. Two brown belts were on his waist and an orange sleeve covered his arms. His armor was white in color, a chest place and shoulder guards, brown fingerless gloves with a small metal plate on them. His weapon was a sword used by his ancestors in the Great War named Crocea Mors sheathed in a shield that compacted into the sword's sheath.

Nora wore a black collared vest that reached the back of her waist. Her emblem on the back was a hammer with a lightning bolt. She wore a white sleeveless top with a small open heart shape over her chest plus two unknown pairs of clothing that were red and blue each. The outfit was held together by silver armor like braces around her neck and abdomen. She also wore a pink skirt that ended mid-thighs and pink-white shoes. Her weapon, Magnhild, was a war hammer and grenade launcher combo and currently held it in its latter form.

And Pyrrha was the most defined and detailed armor of the group. Her top was made of two layers. The first layer was light brown with button like embroidered on the side and the second layer was a low bronze colored V-neck, held by black lace in the back. She had a very short brown miniskirt and a red drapery her ankles held by a thin brown bell with pouches attached over her rear. On her right hip was a circular bronze plate with her emblem, a spear crossover her shield. Her slender legs were covered in elaborate bronze greaves. Her upper thighs were slightly exposed and she wears high heeled brown boots. She also wears a detailed bronze neck piece and a circlet headpiece of the same material. She also had long brown glove like gauntlets with a bronze armband above the sleeve of her left arm and a bracer strung together together by lace on her forearm. A javelin, rifle and sword combo was her weapon named Milo was strapped to her back under a shield Akouo.

Finally, Ren wore a long sleeved green tailcoat with pink cuffs that was buttoned diagonally by small gold bowties with thick black trimming that is outlined by thin gold trimming. His collar is black and gold. The cuffs reach halfway down his forearms with black sleeves cover his wrists. He has simple white pants and black shoes. Attached to his waist were his weapons, Storm Flower; two semi-automatic machine-gun pistols with curved blades protruding from each of them under the barrel of the guns.

Needless to say, these students presented themselves in rather colorful ways, both figuratively and literally. Now that they had what they needed, the Huntsmen and Huntresses in training quickly made their way to the landing platforms.

To their surprise, it wasn't just a normal Bullhead waiting for them. It was a military grade stealth ship with four wings forming an X with four long streamers at the tips. "Apparently, the Specialist saw fit to bring their Atlassian Military Bullhead," Pyrrha stated in surprise.

"It may be spacious for us," Ren stated.

Weiss narrowed her eyes. This ship looks familiar to her.

"I sure hope so," stated a voice next to them. "I'd hate to be cramped with you kids during the whole trip and back." They turned to the direction and saw the Huntsman and Atlassian Specialist supervising them.

The Huntsman had black graying hair that had a texture to a bird's feather with dull crimson eyes and a growing beard along his jaw. He stood well close six foot one, he wore a dark gray dress coat under a dark gray vest with white designs on the front, a dark red tattered cloak over his shoulders, a simple pair of black dress pants and matching shoes. A large thick sword was folded and resting on his back with a red detailed hilt.

He was a rather infamous veteran Huntsman from Vale, but Ruby and Yang knew him as, "Uncle Qrow?!" Yep, Qrow Branwen was their uncle. Trained Ruby herself in the style of fighting with a scythe. Ruby squealed and zoomed over to him and hugged him tightly.

Weiss and Blake stared in shock as Yang jogged over to him. Weiss then looked to the Atlassian Specialist.

It was a woman in her mid to late twenties with snow white hair much like Wiess tied in a tight bun with bangs brushed to the right side of her face with matching cold blue eyes. She wore a white and gray military uniform with dark gray knee high heel boots, red and blue leather armor on her shoulders tied to blue belts crisscrossing over her upper torso and blue gloves. On her left hip was a simple silver saber that could split into two for dual wielding.

"Winter?" Weiss said in surprise.

"It's been a while, little sister." Winter Schnee replied with arms behind her back and smiled slightly. Weiss stared before breaking into a smile. "Winter!" she runs over to her older sister. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Oh! I mean, your presence is a welcome and pleasant surprise," Weiss stopped herself from hugging the older Schnee and bowed to her in a curtsy.

"UNCLLLEE QRRROOOWWW!" Ruby howled in delight as she and Yang hugged Qrow who winced a little. "Oh it's so good to see you! Did you miss us? Did you miss us?!" she asked excitedly as she and Yang look up at him with matching smiles.

Qrow stared at them blankly as he thought of the mission he took two weeks ago before returning to Vale.

He had just fallen to his knees in pain after killing a horde of Grimm. He grits his teeth before spitting out blood with a cough. He may have won, but the Grimm did a number on him that he could bleed out to death if he doesn't recharge his Aura. Unfortunately, his Aura was well depleted, his only hope was the village 26 miles away from his location.

He fell onto his elbow, holding his bleeding stomach before he notices the photo of his nieces falling out of his pocket in front of him. He stares at the photo of Ruby and Yang's smiling faces before gritting his teeth and forcing himself to stand. He leans on his sword, Harbinger like a cane. He reaches down to grab the picture and put it back into his pocket and began to walk in the direction of civilization.

He smiles down at his nieces teasingly. "Nope." he joked before giving them a bear hug and lifted them off the ground, causing the two sisters to laugh.

"How have you been?" Winter asked Wiess.

"Oh, splendid!" Weiss replied. "I'm actually the top ranking of our sparring class. The rest of my studies are going well as well. I'm-"

SLAP!

Blake and everyone else stared in surprise as Winter slapped Weiss on the head. "Silence you boob!" she exclaimed angrily. "I don't recall asking your ranking. I asked how you've been!" Then her expression softened. "Are you eating properly? Have you taken any new hobbies? Have you made new friends?"

Weiss rubbed the large bump on her head before gesturing to Ruby. "Well, there's Ruby." she stated.

Ruby snickered in amusement. "Boob." she said while poking the bump on her head and pushed it back down, causing Weiss to wince.

"I see," Winter replied before looking to Ruby. "So this is the leader you wrote of. How appropriately. . . underwhelming."

Qrow and Yang frowned while Ruby seemed to be unaffected or unsure on how to respond. "Uh. . . Thank you."

"Greetings, Ruby Rose." Winter nodded to her. "I wish to thank you for being a friend for my sister."

"Oh! Of course!" Ruby saluted before trying to curtsy. "The honor is in my. . . court." Then she almost lost her balance before straightening up and chuckling nervously.

It was all silent before Qrow spoke up. "Looks we're on a mission together." he looked to Winter. "Wonder if the good general had a hand in this match up." He shrugged. "I mean, I guess it's possible that Oz did this too. Or. . . you want to work with me again, Ice Queen." He teased.

"I had no knowledge whatsoever that you would be on this mission," Winter said to Qrow with a frown. "If I did, I would have declined, but I don't trust you alone with my sister."

"Hey, I don't try anything with kids," Qrow held up his hands defensively.

Wiess looked between the two. "So, you two know each other?" she asked.

"Oh your sister and I go way back to her Academy days." Qrow replied before Winter answered. "She was a Atlas first year in the Vytal Festival and I was on my last year for Beacon." he laughed. "Those were simple times for us all."

Winter sighed before looking to Weiss. "Yes, Branwen and I have worked together in the past. Perhaps this mission would be more tolerable now that his family can control him."

Qrow laughed again. "Oh, don't get your hopes up, Ice Queen. These two brats are wilder than me." he gestured to Ruby and Yang with a smile.

Ruby and Yang chuckled nervously while Weiss and Blake remembered all the trouble the Xiao Long-Rose sisters have gotten them in during the past. The 'accidental bank robbery,' and the only Girls' Night Out they had.

If their uncle seems to find their wild side laughable. . . That meant he had wild side too!

The Monochrome duo looked to Team JNPR with fearful eyes. "We're doomed."

Four hours later. . .

The ride was going smooth as it can get. The students mainly spoke among themselves, save for Blake who took out one of her books and read for the majority of the trip, only talking minimal for the most part. Wiess was also not talking for the most since her sister was piloting the Bullhead. All she was doing the entire trip was polishing and inspecting her weapon. And when she wasn't doing that, she was swinging Myrtenaster in the air with an slightly irritated expression.

Ruby grew concerned for her partner and approached. "Weiss?" she called cautiously. No acknowledgement. "Weiss? BFF?"

"I told you not to call me that!" Weiss snapped.

Ruby grimaced before asking, "Is everything okay?"

"It's fine," Weiss huffed.

Ruby frowned and lowered head. Yang saw the interaction and approached. "You don't have to be rude, Ice Princess. What's the matter?"

"Don't call me that either," Weiss snapped. "It's bad enough you all had called me Ice Queen."

"Sorry, but Qrow has been calling your sister Ice Queen now so I figured you need to be called Ice Princess now." Yang said. "But seriously, what's the matter?"

Weiss turned back to her weapon, not giving an answer. The two sisters looked at each other before the younger looked back to her partner. "Is this about your dad, Wiess?"

Weiss stiffened but gave no answer.

"Is it that big of a deal that he set this gig up?" Yang asked.

"My father broke a promise to me by merely organizing this operation!" Weiss snapped, making her conflictions about this mission known now and gave the two sisters an icy glare. "If you have experienced what I feel, then you'll know why this is a 'big deal!'"

". . . Do you want to talk about it?" Yang asked, only getting Weiss to look away with a scoff.

Ruby elbowed her sister for making things worse.

"Ow! Hey!" Yang exclaimed in a whisper.

"You're not helping!" Ruby hissed.

"Well, what am I supposed to say?" Yang asked back.

At this point, everyone was giving this interaction their full attention, even Winter put the ship on autopilot and Blake looked up from her book.

Yang decided to start over. "Weiss, look. . . I get it that you're having daddy issues. Our dad isn't perfect either," she gestured herself and Ruby. "But Ozpin said it himself that he gave the green for this mission, not your dad. Can you at least enjoy the mission with our friends? Or even your sister. Heck, let's make this mission interesting."

She paused in thought over how to make this mission interesting for her friends. Ruby and Qrow looked to her curiously as did everyone else.

Slowly, Yang grinned as she thought of the perfect plan. "How about a bet?"

"Yang!" Ruby gasped. "Dad said not to gamble our money while we're away! Or at all!"

"Oh come on, Rubes. Let a girl have her fun!" Yang said dismissively. Their father, Taiyang Xiao Long was a loving parent but he was overprotective these days. It was a reason why they liked to hang out with Qrow more. He was more laid back, willing to let them make their own choices, so long as they knew what they were getting into. But that was more for Yang than Ruby since the blonde brawler lived to break rules, especially her father's. "Dad should lighten up, you know?"

Behind Ruby, the others saw Qrow nod his head. Apparently he thinks his brother in-law should 'lighten up' as Yang said.

"But-" Ruby tried to protest but Yang spoke over her. "Also I didn't mean that kind of betting." she said. "Hear me out, we're going to what's practically a new country, right?"

"It's a continent where multiple exploration missions have failed in the past." Weiss corrected. She turned to face Yang with crossed arms and an eyebrow raised.

"Okay, a nearly unexplored continent, whatever," Yang relented. "Back to my idea, what if there's something there that no one has ever seen before?" She looked among her friends while speaking. "Like a new type of fruit, a new species of animal, a Grimm no one has ever seen, or-"

"An ancient city abandoned by a forgotten civilization!" Jaune added excitedly. "Or alien ruins!"

Everyone looked at him in surprise at his outburst. His confidence and excitement died down and he chuckled nervously. "O-Or just new fruit."

". . . Or what Jaune said," Yang continued after staring at the blonde knight. "We could be like scientists or whatever! So here's the challenge: Whoever finds something new on West Dragon, something never before seen by human or Faunus eyes, the losers have to do something for the winner!"

Winter rose an eyebrow while Qrow chuckled. But everyone else, even Weiss, looked to be considering this. The second born Schnee sibling was rubbing her chin in thought.

"Why don't we make this idea more interesting?" Pyrrha spoke up with a smirk. She looked to Jaune for silent permission to continue and the Arc nodded. She looked back to Yang. "If one of us finds something undiscovered, their team wins as a whole and the other team has to treat the winners."

Yang snorted. "I like that idea, P-Money."

"Thank you." Pyrrha smiled. Then she looked to her team. "Is that okay? I wouldn't want to force you guys."

Jaune and Ren nodded, but before they could verbally answer, Nora spoke up. "Of course we're doing this! It'll be a blast of fun!" She gasped and turned to Ren. "What if this place has Pancake Plants?!"

Everyone furrowed their brows. Qrow spoke what they were all thinking. ". . . Pancake. . . What?"

Ren sighed. Apparently knowing what this crazy idea is. "Nora, I told you that no matter where we go, there isn't a place that actually grows pancakes on plants.

"My dreams of pancake farms and sloth sanctuaries will be reality one day, Renny!" Nora declared, hefting her war hammer up. "Mark my words!"

Ruby and Yang/Weiss have made some interesting friends, both Winter and Qrow thought to themselves as everyone else laughed at Nora's antics.

"What do you say, lil' sis?" Yang asked Ruby.

"Well, after hearing this out," Ruby began. "Of course I wanna do this! It'll be fun to discover new things!. . . As long as we're not betting with money, right?"

"Yep. Wallets are sealed," Yang assured. She looked to her partner. "What about you, Blake?"

Blake looked at her leader and her partner before sighing and smiled. "I guess I'd rather not be left out of something like this." she shrugged. "Sure, count me in."

That just left Weiss, who was still pondering her choice. . . Anyone can get recognition and money for a new discovery, She thought to herself. This. . . This is perfect! If I discover something so completely mind-boggling. or something that can change the history of Remnant itself, I can become a legend! No one will judge me for my family reputation. They'll see me as a Queen! A goddess! With this, I can finally claim what is rightfully mine and set the family company on the path of righteousness! Hehehe, watch out, dear Father. I just might take the company from you sooner than you expect!

"Uh, Weiss?" Jaune asked nervously upon seeing her sinister expression. "What do you say?"

Brought out of her admittedly sinister musings, Weiss saw that everyone was looking at her. Weiss smirked with a slight cocky expression. "I gladly accept this bet."

Ruby cheered and Yang smiled triumphantly.

"Question," Ren rose his hand. "What is the reward for the winning team?"

"Oh! Uh. . . I didn't think of that," Yang admitted.

"Hmm. . . How about dinner? Paid by the losing team?" Ruby asked.

Yang waved her hand. "That's inside the box thinking, Rubes." she objected. "It should be more interesting than that."

"How about the losing team buys school supplies for both teams for next years?" Ren offered.

"Ren~!" Nora whined, clearly disagreeing with the idea. "That's boring!"

"Disinterest in supply shopping does not matter." Ren shook his head at his partner. "Our academics are important in our growth as-"

"Blah blah blah!" Nora interrupted childishly and Ren sighed.

"Oh, I got it!" Jaune perked up. "What if. . . the losing team has to make a wish come true for the winning team as a whole?"

"That's more creative. . ." Yang considered before snapping her fingers. "How about all three? Treat winners to dinner, shop for next year's school supplies and make a wish come true for the winners?"

"I like that idea!" Ruby said in excitement.

Weiss's eyes though, widened. ". . . That could cost a lot of Lien." she muttered.

Blake shrugged. "Better than nothing."

"All in favor?" asked Ruby.

"Aye!" the majority claimed. Weiss rolled her eyes. "Fine." She didn't feel too happy about possibly spending a great amount of Lien for these rewards.

Ruby nodded before looking to her uncle. "You want to join, Uncle Qrow?" she asked.

"Nah, you kids have your fun." Qrow shook his head. Ruby looked to Winter who rubbed her chin. "I will tell either of you if I find something but I will take sides in any of this."

"Awesome!" Ruby pumped her fists in excitement.

Despite the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company having started this mission, in attempt to use Weiss' status as heiress, the students felt that they could gain from this. Both figuratively and literally.

Winter chuckled and turned in her seat before she looked ahead of her Bullhead through the cockpit window. "Well, students. And Branwen. We have arrived."

"Alright!" Yang grinned. "Time to kick some Grimm butt!" she exclaimed before remembering that the Grimm population on this continent had diminished. "Or whatever's left of them there."

It wasn't long before the ship landed. They all gathered near the doors of the Bullhead just before it opened. They had landed on the beach of the continent. At the edge of the beach was a forest with thick, tall pine trees. The students and even Winter and Qrow looked awestruck at the trees for their height was greater than those of the Emerald Forest and the Forever Fall. The weather at the moment looked grey and cloudy, with fog evident through the trees.

"One small step for the Kingdom of Vale," Qrow suddenly declared dramatically, holding a flag with the symbol of Vale. "And Atlas," he gave an Atlas flag to Winter who looked surprised at the flag. "One giant leap for mankind and Faunus."

With that he took the first step off the Bullhead ramp and made the first set of footprints on the beach.

Yang and Ruby chuckled while everyone else looked as if the man had a second head. "Did you just. . . quote one of those Glen Jackson movies?" Winter asked with a smirk.

"Hey, it fits." Qrow shrugged. He looked around in front of him. "Whoa. Imagine speaking people from the Great War Era."

"Huh?" Ruby hummed in confusion.

"You know, people who know at the time that this place was unable to support life." Qrow elaborated. "Imagine telling them that this place has tall trees and other life growing now. They would have wished to be born 83 years later."

The students supposed the veteran Huntsman had a point. If they were told that Western Dragon would support life in the future when it doesn't now, it would seem impossible to them. But here they are, the first people to walk on its shores and see trees.

Ruby looked to her team and friends. "You guys ready?"

"Yup!" Yang responded, popping her lips on the P. Blake and Weiss nodding in agreement.

"Ready when you are," Jaune replied, his team also nodding in agreement.

"Alright!" Ruby smiled. "Team RWBY and JNPR, Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee. Our objective is to find Dust and discover possibly cool things. BONZAI!"

"BONZAI!" the students echoed.

Qrow smirked at Winter and winked. Winter tried to scowl but she ended up smiling before they all began walking to the forest.

"Welcome to Western Dragon," Qrow muttered.

Chapter Text

The first night just meant for them finding a place to camp and set up their tents. The next day, would be considered their first day at Western Dragon and they will search for Dust and anything that is undiscovered by science.

Day One

"I can't believe we haven't found anything!" Ruby exclaimed in a whiny tone.

"To be fair, Pipsqueak," Qrow Branwen spoke up next to the campfire with the red cloaked reaper's team and Specialist Winter Schnee. "You shouldn't really expect anything to pop up on the first day of the mission."

"Yeah. . . I guess so," Ruby said, still feeling dejected. The bet had made her excited for finding something. With her expectations underwhelmed, she was lamented over today's empty results. She didn't feel like this was an excuse to not feel disappointed.

She wasn't the only one to feel this way. None of them have found anything new. Even the high energy Nora would have found something at this point. But she didn't. They didn't even find deposits of Dust. Nothing but trees for miles the further they went into the forest.

The only thing that was remotely exciting was that a small fight broke out between Qrow and Winter. Ruby and Yang rooted for their uncle to beat the Ice Queen while Weiss rooted for her sister to beat the 'drunken sailor.' Trees were sliced in half by their swords or bark and chunks were blasted off by Qrow's sword-shotgun-scythe weapon, Harbinger.

Blake and the others were a bit concerned when they watched from the sidelines. They didn't see the start of the fight but were concerned it was going to draw the attention of Grimm, but it didn't. There was the concern they were going to injure each other.

The Cat Faunus though noticed something else that she was sure that none of the others had noticed. They were smiling ever so slightly. They were enjoying it. Qrow and Winter were enjoying themselves in the fight. In fact, it looked more like a dance than an actual fight.

Blake had rose an eyebrow during the fight until it ended in a draw. At least that's Weiss kept saying. Ruby and Yang had said that Qrow was winning the fight. Ren, Pyrrha and Blake didn't say anything, but they saw that Qrow didn't seem to be going all out in the fight. That was impressive since Qrow seemed drunk during the whole thing.

Come to think of it though, Blake thought to herself while reading her book. He seems to be drunk all the time. He may have a flask that's not too big, but he's drinking enough to get drunk most of the day.

And based on Ruby and Yang's expressions, that was a normal thing. A bit concerning, maybe, but the man never tried anything inappropriate to any of them other than make some remarks to Winter.

She also saw Winter and Weiss frowning whenever Qrow was drinking. And it wasn't much of a mystery to why. Even in the White Fang, Blake heard about Willow Schnee being reduced to a drunken housewife when Jacques Gele married her and took over the company. Recently, the members of RWBY had met Willow when they went with Weiss to the Kingdom of Atlas. Needless to say, the rumors had toned down how much of a drunk Willow had become. And with growing up with parents that loved each other very much, it was sad seeing how it was for Weiss and her siblings.

She did grow curious of the interactions between Winter and Qrow more. She remembered what Yang had told her about her family a few years back in their first year. They were on the same team, and she looked them up in Beacon's records once out of curiosity. Team STRQ was one of the best of Beacon in their generation, it explained why Yang called Summer Rose "Super Mom: Baker of the Best Cookies in the World and Slayer of Giant Monsters." Not much was said about Qrow and Raven Branwen other than that they were from Mistral. Other than that, Yang had said that her birth mother Raven left when Yang was born and Summer Rose went on a mission and never came back. Her and Ruby's father had broken down from those two events. Perhaps Qrow's drinking was a coping mechanism for the grief. That he's probably seen a lot as a veteran Huntsman. Not really healthy, but she couldn't do anything about it when she was a complete stranger to him.

Perhaps that's what Winter is doing, she thought to herself. Or maybe not and I'm just reading too much into this.

. . . Still. . . Entertaining to watch though. Reminds me of one of my favorite romance novels.

"Well, it was only the first day," Pyrrha said, trying to remain optimistic. "Perhaps tomorrow will wield better results."

". . . Yeah, I guess so," Ruby muttered.

Day 2

"We still haven't found anything!"

Again, their efforts were for naught, even for splitting in pairs. The weather wasn't helping either. It had been raining heavy this day. The only thing they have found, some of them claimed, were just a few Grimm too young to prove to be a challenge for any of them.

And still no Dust! Not a single Dust shard or deposit. It was honestly very, very strange for the students and their supervisors to believe it. What was going on? Why was the land so empty? Perhaps a past group of explorers already taken everything? No, they would have heard about that and wouldn't be here.

Ruby was disheartened over the results like the day before. She had really wanted to find something. Not for the bet or fame, but just to have fun. Heck, she would even take to fighting a new species of Grimm, just for the challenge. But alas, there was nothing!

Qrow was drinking from his whiskey flask and he looked at everyone else in the group and gauged their reactions. Being a Huntsman for years, he could read most people's expression and get a feeling of what they were thinking.

Weiss was angered by this lack of progress. There was nothing here! Nothing but trees! How can she uplift her reputation at this point with trees being the only things on this blasted continent? None of this was worth spending a bunch of Lien.

Blake wasn't showing any disappointment for the empty results, but she was starting to feel more frustrated. Unaware to Qrow, she had different thoughts. Blake would have preferred to be back in Vale, preparing for the White Fang and Roman Torchwick's next attack (Despite that it's been well over two years since the Breach of Vale) and. . . she had considered that it was time for her to reach out to her parents. But now here she was, on a continent and not finding anything new or unknown, not even Dust.

Yang started to think it was a mistake to make that bet now. She merely wanted to lift Weiss' spirits (And she wasn't how that worked.) and now there seemed to be nothing here.

And Team JNPR was no better. Jaune was confused on how this land was barren of anything new. His hopes of winning the bet was lowering now. He thought it would be a way to win a date with Weiss. (If only he could see that she was not interested and see that Pyrrha has a crush on him.) But the emptiness of Western Dragon was lowering his chances.

Pyrrha was also disheartened. The bet had sounded fun to bond with her friends and her crush Jaune.

Ren was not showing much emotion over these results. He seemed to have been prepared for this. Probably came from having a partner that was very hyperactive. Speaking of which. . .

"I know right? This is so BORING!" That summed up Nora's thoughts over the past two days.

Winter was even showing some frustration over not having any results. Qrow felt his pocket with a considering expression.

"How is it that we haven't found anything in this blasted place?!" Weiss demanded.

Yang shrugged. "Maybe we haven't looked in the right places?"

"The right places?" Weiss repeated in a snapping tone. "This whole continent is fog, dirt and trees! Where else are we suppose to look?!"

". . . Under the rocks?" Ruby shrugged meekly.

Weiss responded with letting out a indignant shriek. "Weiss, compose yourself!" Winter scolded in a way only older siblings would. Normal older siblings would, Qrow mentally corrected. His sister wouldn't scold him like that.

"Well," Qrow began. "I have found something more further up the mountains to the north."

Everyone turned their heads to him. "What?! Why didn't you say anything?!"

Qrow reached into his pocket and held up a handful of large red berries. They were very bright red and at least the size of a man's thumb. "I don't think they're poisonous, smell too sweet for that." Qrow shrugged as everyone began to crowd him.

"Ooh! Shiny!" Nora cooed.

"You sure they're not poisonous?" Winter asked with narrowed her eyes as Jaune rose a hand to take one, only to pause at the elder Schnee's question. Everyone else was about to ask to have one before they realized that Winter had a point. They didn't know if the berries were poisonous or not.

"Only one way to find out," Qrow remarked before flicking one in the air and catching it in his mouth.

"No, wait! You buffoon!" Winter said, eyes widening in worry.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby and Yang shouted.

Qrow began to sway just a bit before his dull crimson eyes rolled and then he fell back on the ground with a groan.

"""Qrow!""" shouted Ruby, Yang and Winter as they shot to their feet and ran to the collapsed Huntsman.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Jaune said frantically, holding his head between his hands in fear.

"What the Hell?!" Nora exclaimed in unison with Blake and Weiss. Ren stared with wide eyes while using his Semblance to keep his composure.

"Oh my goodness!" Pyrrha shouted, shooting to her feet and covering her mouth with her hands and she stared with wide eyes.

Winter crouched next to Qrow. She leaned forward to inspect him. His face wasn't swelling, skin looked the same. He wasn't foaming at the mouth. She took his arm to feel for a pulse.

"Is he. . . ?" Ruby asked, trailing off with tears forming in her silver eyes.

Just then, Qrow's lips opened up in a smile and revealing that the berry was held in between his teeth. His eyes opened up with nothing but mischief and amusement. Winter stared before she realized that he was just playing them.

"You jerk!" she hissed angrily, hitting him on the chest. This caused the berry to fly out of his mouth and he caught it in hand.

"Aw, you do care, Ice Queen," Qrow grinned.

Yang and Ruby stared before the former's eyes turned fiery crimson. "You big jerk!" Yang exclaimed, punching Qrow as well.

"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby shouted before hitting her uncle on the arm with her fists, which were small despite that she wields a mechanical scythe-sniper weapon. She wasn't a weight lifter like Yang. "That was so mean!"

"You mean, he was just pranking us?" Jaune asked for clarification.

"Yep," Qrow replied, popping on the P. He holds the berries in hand. "Had some earlier when I found them this morning. The only negative side effect was that it made me fall asleep for about four hours."

They all stared at him before accepting that something new was discovered now. But berries as some sort of natural sedative drug?

"Okay, that aside," Ren spoke up. "What I don't understand is how this continent is seemingly void of Dust. There should have been something here."

"Well, the mission's not over yet," Yang replied. "We still got plenty of time tomorrow to find something. I'm sure if we search far enough, we'll at least grab some Dust for the mission" Her words seem to uplift the group's mood "Heck, we still might find something cooler than sedative drug berries for our bet!"

Suddenly a strange, high pitch sound was heard from the darkness. Each of the students stood up, staring at the direction of the call, while Pyrrha, Blake, Qrow and Winter kept a hand over their weapons. Yang however, blinked and remarked, ". . . Well speak of the devil."

"What was that?" Ruby asked nervously.

"I don't know. . . " Jaune answered uncertainly.

"Whatever it is, we should be prepared for it," Pyrrha proclaimed and each of them entered a fighting stand, holding their weapons at the ready. Qrow however felt that the noise sounded faintly familiar.

Whatever it was, it was coming to their direction at high speeds and it sounded like it was coming in numbers. As if trampling of hundreds of feet. The same sound from earlier was heard, this time from more than one creature.

Qrow, once again, thought it sounded familiar while Ruby was one of the few getting anxious. "Guys, it's getting closer."

"Don't worry, Rubes. We can take it," Yang said confidently, Ember Celica in shotgun-gauntlet form.

The trampling kept up, the thud of heavy feet on the earth coming closer and getting louder. The bodies of the unknown assailants, for the lack of a better term, could be heard brushing against the leaves and twigs of bushes. With the high pitched call being heard over and over again, out of sync and with different pitches, it was clearly more than one. But then as they got closer, they started to slow down.

Ruby picked up on that. "Are they. . . slowing down?"

"Focus, Ruby!" Weiss snapped at her leader. "They're still coming towards us!"

Ruby quickly concurred and kept up her defense position. Qrow however channeled his Aura to his ears, increasing his hearing to match that of a Faunus. He heard the sound of. . . hooves? He furrowed his brows as the sounds softened, which meant that they were slowing down as Ruby said. But why? He narrowed his eyes at the darkness and could see some shapes out in the darkness, the campfire and the moonlight helping the visibility slightly. The figures exited the forest, towards the students and were revealed to be-

"Elk?"

.

.

.

Exactly what Ruby said. A whole herd of elk. It was made up of cows, some with calves, and bulls with impressive racks. Seeing that it wasn't Grimm, the students lowered their guard and sighed in relief. Most of the herd came to a stop, standing around them while others lied down.

Yang stared before commenting, "That's a lot of elk."

Qrow and Winter looked around though. What was causing the elk to run in their direction?

"I didn't think that elk would be here," Jaune said in awe, looking at the animals around him.

"Elk aren't that widespread," Winter acknowledged. "But they would live in forests like this one."

"That's cool," Ruby remarked. She didn't know much about wild animals. She usually gave attention to animals with cute appearances, like her and Yang's pet corgi Zwei. Then one of the calves approached her cautiously, sniffing her. Ruby looked at the animal with wide eyes and it paused. It stared at her, more accurately, her silver eyes before approaching her more closely and then did something that took her and everyone else by surprise.

It began to lick Ruby's face. And soon, other calves were crowding her, some licking her face as well.

"H-he-hey! Stop that!" Ruby tried to protest but ended up laughing.

Everyone else just looked at the spectacle in utter stupor.

"Uncle Qrow. . . why is an elk licking my baby sister's face?" Yang asked.

Qrow shook his head, shrugging and not taking his eyes from the scene. "I have no idea~." he drawled.

". . . That's a new one," Blake remarked.

"Perhaps these elk have not seen a human before?" Pyrrha hummed in thought.

"If that were the case, they would be crowding around us all," Winter pointed out. "Instead they are crowding Ms. Rose."

As if hearing that, and deciding to correct that, the elk began to crowd the other humans and Faunus as well. Some were just observing them, smelling or licking them. "You were saying?" Qrow remarked to Winter, patting one calf on the head.

"If these things think they can lay their slobbery tongues on me, they have another thing coming," Weiss declared in aggravation. She did not want her clothes getting wet from the elk's saliva.

"Oh lighten up, Weiss," said Yang with a giggle. "This kinda tickles."

"Yeah, they're just being friendly." Ruby concurred. I wonder if these guys make good pets, she thought while petting one elk on the snout. When the animal turned its head to the left, she saw a long mark on its upper shoulder. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows, unable to make what of it and leaned closer to look at it.

"Hey, guys, come look at this." Ruby called to the others. They looked to her before walking over to her spot. She pointed to the mark.

"A scar?" Jaune asked upon seeing it. It was long, narrow and pale. From the looks of it, recently healed.

"Ooh, that's nasty," Yang winced.

"Hold on, why is this important?" Weiss spoke up. "Don't this animals fight with their antlers? So shouldn't scars be normal."

"They do," Blake nodded her head. "Bull elk fight for territory and mates. Maybe this cow was injured from a duel."

"I don't think so," Qrow shook his head instantly. Everyone looked to him in confusion. "Elk charge to fight with their antlers, so this would have been a protrusion."

"He's right," Pyrrha stated. "This is long and narrow, it was caused by something flat and sharp. Like a blade."

Winter studied the scar more closely herself and nodded. "This seems to be have made by something thrown at the elk."

Pyrrha nodded. "I would say a spear is the culprit. And that it missed its target, but still left a mark."

"A spear?" Weiss repeated in surprise.

"Wait," Jaune held up a hand and looked to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, how do you know that-?"

"I received such marks in my early days of training," the redhead clarified. "Though, they didn't look like this."

"Hold on," Yang held up a hand. "Does that mean. . . that there's people here?"

"That's preposterous!" Weiss declared. "There can't be any form of a populace here. We've covered so much of the area in the past two days and we haven't seen any of people!"

"Maybe they've covered their tracks." Blake shrugged and suggested.

"Even so, we should have found more clues." Weiss rebuked.

"Here's some more," Ren as he carefully reached to something that tangled on one of the bull's antlers. It looked like rope tied to two large rocks. They seemed to be primitive in nature, but it wasn't hard to figure out what they were.

"Bolas?" Ruby questioned as she got a better look at them.

"Well, I don't about any of you," Qrow said as he inspected a bite mark on the elk he had drugged with the Sleeping Berries. "But this bitemark looks about the same size of a human bite."

Winter walked by his side and inspected it. ". . . It is. . . " she said after a moment. She shares a look with Qrow.

"We're not alone."

The implication that people were living on Western Dragon, the Land of Darkness, was astonishing. Truly shocking. Nothing like this has ever been discovered. No one has ever ventured far into the continent because it was barren and void of any life other than the Creatures of Grimm. Have these people lived with the Grimm this entire time? Were they the reason the Grimm have dwindled in number? How is it that they have lived on this continent in secret for so long?

Winter and Qrow though shared a look remembering what their superiors have shown them before taking the mission.

"So. . . who wins the bet?"

That question threw everyone for a loop and they all looked to the resident blonde brawler in confusion.

"What?" Jaune asked after a moment.

"We just found something new, right?" Yang clarified.

"Everyone knows about elk, you brute." Weiss said. "The berries are the only things undiscovered."

Yang shook her head. "No, I mean whoever's been hunting these elk." she explained her thoughts over this. "We just found evidence of a person or people here!"

Pyrrha furrowed her brow in thought. "Yang, I don't think this is solid evide-"

"I'd say I win," Yang declared with hands on her hips.

Jaune's jaw dropped. "W-What?! No way!" he shook his head at Yang. "WE got this!" He gestured to his teammates.

"I guessed right that there were people here!" Yang defended.

"Pyrrha figured out where the scars came from." Jaune said, gesturing to Pyrrha who blushed a little. "We won this."

"Oh yeah?" grinned Yang with a raised eyebrow. "Say that again. I deer you!"

.

.

.

Everyone looked at Yang strangely for her terrible pun while she kept up her grin. Blake and Weiss were clearly disapproving the joke, Ren and Pyrrha rose an eyebrow while Jaune stared with wide eyes. Nora snorted a little. Of all the terrible puns Yang is known to make, that was a little funny.

Winter looked to Qrow and Ruby with a raised eyebrow while the uncle-niece duo covered their faces in embarrassment and groaned in annoyance.

"Really, Yang?" Ruby asked. Honestly, she was surprised a pun/joke wasn't made earlier.

Yang sighed when no one found her joke funny. "I try." And apparently the elk didn't like the joke funny at all, evident by them now walking away from her.

One elk kept nuzzling Ruby as if asking for something. "I don't got any treats," Ruby said to the calf who let out a whine in response. It stared at her, seeming to be pleading to her before it walked away with the rest.

"Bye!" Nora called after the elk, waving a hand. One of them looked to her for a moment before walking away.

As the elk left, Ruby turned to her sister. "Yang, I think the bet's still on." she addressed. "I know you like winning, but that wasn't well thought out." She chuckled nervously.

Yang deflated a moment later. She sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I guess you're right." she admitted. "I was a bit hasty."

"A bit?" Jaune repeated.

"Don't worry, I'm sure everything is going to be better tomorrow." Ruby said optimistically. "We can still achieve our objective."

Qrow chuckled as he moved to sit back down. He paused as he noticed that the elk that ate his berries was gone. He didn't think anything of it at first before he caught the glimpse of something. It looked like a skull in the dark shadows. A long, narrow, lizard like skull staring at him. He thought it was a Grimm, but it lacked the red eyes that Grimm are known for. Just black eye sockets. When he gave his full attention to its direction, it vanished.

Day Three

Their progressive did not get any better.

Jaune found a squirrel that bit his finger while heading south of their camp.

Nora found a different species of berries with Ren, who firmly told her not to eat them. If the red berries are natural sedative drugs, who knows what the others are.

Other than that, they were no closer to finding anything new and undiscovered to science. Yet they didn't give up. They wanted to complete the mission to find Dust in success, not failure and they wanted to win the bet that Yang started.

But, unaware to them, they will find something. It wasn't going to be Dust or a new species of Grimm either. They would come across something. A single discovery. One that would change the very face of Remnant, revoking the way of life they knew and throwing everything into chaos. . .

Ruby and Weiss searched through the forest further west. They didn't really know what to look for at this point, Dust or not.

Ruby had turned up rocks and stones to look under them while Weiss refused to do that, on account of getting her clothes dirty. Ruby searched the bushes while Weiss refused to do the same, wanting to avoid scratching herself. Ruby was even climbing the tall trees while Weiss. . .

"Do you see anything?" Remained on the ground. In short, she wasn't being helpful at the moment.

"No! Just trees!" Ruby called back, using the telescope and crosshairs of Crescent Rose to look around. "And more tree," she looked to the right. "And more." She looked to the left. "Maybe a mountain-?"

"This is pointless!" Weiss said in frustration.

Ruby quickly sped down to the ground with her Semblance and appeared before her partner with a concerned expression. "What's pointless?"

"Everything!" Weiss snapped. "This mission! This continent! THAT STUPID GAMBLE YOUR SISTER MADE!"

Normally, Weiss' voice would sound angelic in singing, but now it was making birds fly away in fright. Ruby took a moment to watch the avians fly away before looking back to Weiss.

"Weiss, don't think like that." she said in an uplifting tone. "We still have time before leaving. We're going to find something, I know it."

"Well isn't that reassuring." Weiss huffed sarcastically.

"Weiss!" Ruby frowned.

Weiss was silent before sighing. "What are we going to find, Ruby?" she asked. "There's obviously no Dust here for miles and there's definitely nothing for us to discover. This is just a barren forest! I question why the Grimm would even leave! Or why there's life here in the first place."

Ruby was silent for a moment. "Well, we still have to find something! We can't give up!"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Even after three years, you're just naïve to the end, aren't you?"

The Schnee's demeanor bothered Ruby. Before she could try to say more, the heiress turned away from her. But then Ruby grabbed her shoulder before she could walk away.

"Weiss, people are counting on us." She said softly. "Blake, Yang, my uncle, your sister, Jaune and the others want us to succeed, and we want to them to succeed. I want them to." she stated. "Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch even want us to achieve something in this mission. . . And I think your dad is expecting you do good here too."

Weiss didn't move nor did she turn back to Ruby. After a moment, the silver eyed Huntress sighed at the silence. "I'm going to keep searching," she said as she turned away. "I'll come back when I find something."

Still not getting a response, she sighed before speedily climbed up another tree. She would do so again and again until she found something.

Weiss's angered expression became slightly pained when Ruby mentioned her father and thought of one response she kept to herself. You don't even know half of what he expects of me.

"Geeze, you think that we'd find something by now," Yang said to Blake as they headed on a trail up along a mountain. Blake was silent for the most part since the day began. Yang wasn't expecting an answer, but she thought the bookworm would at least say something.

"We're not going to find anything," Blake shook her head suddenly as Yang looked into a bush. Yang blinked before looking back to see her partner looking frustrated. "There's no Dust here and the only things we found are animals and plants. This mission has been a waste of our time."

"Hey, don't go all 'Blakey' on me," Yang said. "We'll find something. We still have a lot of ground to cover and time before we meet back at the beach."

Blake rose an eyebrow. "And you think we'll find something in that time?"

"Yes!" Yang tried to look confident before dropping slightly. "Maybe. . . Probably?. . . I dunno."

Blake sighed in response before looking up at her again. "You want to know the worst part of this?" Yang raised an eyebrow. "We're lost."

". . . Wait, what?" Yang looked around and. . . Blake was right. The trees now had moss on their bark and the fog was thicker than before. Wherever they were now, they were deeper in the forest and they had no idea where to go. ". . . Crap."

"This is the place," Qrow said to Winter as they stood in a field of berry bushes. Winter looked around at the bushes before looking to Qrow. "And you just decided to eat them without knowing what they'll do?"

"I might have been a bit more drunk at the time," Qrow shrugged. "Will say that it gave me the best sleep I had in months."

Winter almost rolled her eyes when he said that he was drunk before he remarked about his sleep. She had a sympathetic expression as he looked away. She moved to say something before Qrow noticed something in the trees. She followed his gaze and saw something perched on the tree limbs.

A bird, yet at the same time not a bird.

It lacked feathers whatsoever, instead had leathery skin with yellow markings and a mouthful of sharp teeth. What was most noticeable was the upper jaw that stretched out a couple of feet and was flat like a blade with barbs on the edges.

"That is one ugly ass bird," Qrow said bluntly. Winter slightly nodded in agreement.

Ruby let out a disheartened sigh and moved to climb down the (Probably) hundredth tree she had climbed. But then she saw something in the far distance. She squinted her eyes before pulling out Crescent Rose and looking through the telescope again. The object, objects were solid and emitting different colors in the faint sunlight.

Dust crystals, Ruby realized as her silver eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. She found something. She finally found something!

"WEISS!" She called down to her partner before jumping off the tree top and landed in a superhero pose. She then used her Semblance to run through the forest, zigzagging around trees.

"WEISS! WEISS I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!" Ruby called out as she ran before she saw Weiss in front of her. She skidded to a halt as the heiress turned around to her in surprise and confusion. "Ruby? Were you just calling for-?"

"WEISS!WEISS!IJUSTFOUNDTHEMOSTAWESOMETHINGINTHEHISTORYOFAWESOMETHINGS!" Ruby declared in her hyperactive way.

"What?" Weiss said in confusion. "Slow down. I can't understand you when you speak-!"

"THERE'SNOTIME!WEHAVETOGOTHERENOWANDITHINKIFOUNDDUST!"

"Ruby, I can't understand you-GAAAAAHHHH!" And then Ruby grabbed her hand and then sped off in a blur of rose pedals. Wherever they're going, Weiss wouldn't know but she decided to hold on for dear life to her partner.

Ren suddenly perked up. "Did you hear something, Nora?" he asked, turning around to his partner.

"Hmm?" Nora said in confusion, holding a lizard the size of a beagle in her hands. It was chubby with a round head, bumpy spines on its back like an alligator with short limbs. And sleeping.

Ren stared at the large reptile that was sleeping in his partner's arms like a baby before jumping back in fright with a yelp. Where had Nora found that?!

Because of this, neither of them noticed the red and white blur with rose pedals and screaming racing through the trees in the background.

Jaune and Pyrrha sat on a large boulder while eating lunch. Unaware to them, they were sitting on a large buffalo that was walking through the field without them noticing.

"The others probably have more luck," Jaune said to the redhead tournament champion.

"Perhaps," Pyrrha shrugged, more enjoying the time with her partner and crush.

"RUBY! SLOW DOWN!" Weiss shouted as everything raced by in a blur to her vision. "PLEASE!"

"WE'RE ALMOST THERE, WEISS!" Ruby said as she kept running. "JUST HANG ON!"

The running kept on for a few minutes longer and Weiss felt close to vomiting. Never again will she have Ruby do this again to her. But then suddenly the red capped reaper came to a halt. Whether it was intentional or not on Ruby's part, Weiss's momentum continued and she went flying past Ruby before hitting the ground and skidding face-first before laying still on the ground.

Honestly, if this was a cartoon or anime show, this scene would have been funny, but Ruby gasped in worry that her partner may be hurt. "Weiss, I'm sorry!" she called out as she moved forward to her partner who slowly lifted her head. "I thought I was holding you when I stopped but then I just saw you fly past me and then you were skidding on the ground and-"

"You. . ." Weiss began looking down to her dirtied clothes. "You. . . " She felt some mud on her face and in her snow white hair. "You. . . have just. . . ruined my PERFECTLY CLEAN CLOTHES!" To say that Weiss was upset would be an understatement.

"Oh my gosh, Weiss," Ruby exclaimed, looking very, very apologetic. "I'm really, really, really sorry."

"Well, you should be, gods damn it!" Weiss snapped.

Gasping, Ruby took a step back in fright and shock. She had never heard the second born Schnee sibling curse in the time she had known her. Not even when she would yell at her. She'd just use the word 'dunce' or 'dolt.' Clearly, Ruby had crossed a line. Getting Weiss's clothes dirty.

Audibly gulping, Ruby tried to speak cautiously to her pissed off partner. ". . . Weiss, I didn't for that to happen. I promise but this is really important. I think I found Dust Crystals!"

Weiss's expression became neutral. ". . . You found. . . Dust?"

Ruby nodded her head frantically.

Weiss frowned. "If this is a prank, I swear to the brother Gods-" she began, brushing some strands of her hair.

Ruby shook her head. "No, no, no, really! It's true! I found it!" she said frantically.

Weiss's expression became angry again. "Then where is it?!"

"EEP!" recoiling in fright, Ruby pointed a shaky finger behind Weiss. The Schnee heiress turned around, and her angry expression melted into awe, shock and wonder.

They were Dust Crystals alright, but not what they knew and were used to, the size of your palm. These crystals were the size of skyscrapers! The biggest Dust shards they have ever seen! Dust Spires. That's what they were. Something long thought to be myths. Until now.

Weiss slowly approached and touched one of the Spires with her palm and quickly pulled away, looking at her hand with wide blue eyes.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked in concern.

"It's. . . warm." Weiss replied. "Like the energy of a Dust tenfold. And I felt its energy just by touching it."

Ruby approached another Dust Spire and touched it with her hand cautiously. It felt warm. Very warm and she suddenly felt like she just ate a whole platter of cookies! She looked to Weiss, both of them forming amazed expressions.

They found their main objective. Dust.

"We. . . did it." Ruby slowly said.

"Yeah, we did." Weiss concurred.

Ruby shook with excitement before jumping high into the air, very close to hitting her head on a tree limb. "WE DID IT!"

After three days of searching, they found Dust! Ruby could see it! Her friends congratulating her, the headmaster approving her achievement, her uncle and sister giving a bone-crushing hug of sisterly/uncle love, her father being proud of her, Winter calling her the opposite of 'underwhelming!' Weiss being proud for having being the leader and finally calling Ruby her BFF!

"Ruby, I think we just won the bet too!" Weiss exclaimed.

"We won the-?" Ruby paused and gasped before cheering, "We totally did!" Forget what was said earlier. NOW Ruby couldn't have been happier today. With the discovery of Dust Spires going from myth and legend to true and fact, Team RWBY would surely win the bet made by their resident blonde brawler!

"Ruby, we finished our mission to find Dust!" Weiss declared happily.

"YEAH!" Ruby cheered, jumping high and close to the mentioned tree limb.

"We won the bet for our team!" Weiss went on.

"YEAH!" Ruby jumped, even closer to the tree limb.

"And I can take over my family's company from my father!" Weiss said.

"YEA-Wait, what?" Ruby's record scratched to a halt and she hit her head on the tree limb with a BONK and a pained. "Ow!" before falling back to the earth and landing on the dirt with a "Oof!" Chibi Stars and Beowolves danced in her vision before she shook her head and looked up at Weiss in confusion.

Weiss looked to her with a gleeful and sinister expression. "Just picture it, Ruby." she continued. "With these Dust Spires, I can use them to buy the SDC itself on my own! Father would have to follow my rules now. And I, Weiss Kara Schnee, have discovered the greatest form Dust on the face of Remnant!" Thunderclouds formed behind her. "I can finally correct our family's crimes! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Weiss began to laugh like a maniac as she schemed plans to buy her family company while Ruby just stared up at her in pure confusion. . . Okay. . . That's weird, she thought to herself. So, Weiss wants to buy the SDC? Wait, but isn't she the heiress already? Why would she want to become the CEO now? She's probably just excited now. Very excited. Give her some time to-wait a minute!

Time. She pulled out her Scroll and checked the time. "Uh, hey, Weiss?" she called for her partner's attention.

The heiress in question was still laughing maniacally and scheming sinisterly.

"Weiss?" Ruby tried again.

She was still laughing like maniac. Should we question her sanity?

Ruby now felt frustrated, she cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted, "WEISS!"

The heiress gasped, snapping out of her maniacal laughing and looked to her partner with a sheepish expression. ". . . Yes?"

"What time do we have to meet with the others? Ruby asked.

Weiss straightened. "Oh, four in the afternoon. Duh."

Ruby's silver eyes widened. "Oh no. . . " she muttered.

Weiss rose an eyebrow. "What?" she shrugged.

Ruby showed her Scroll to the white haired Huntress-in training.

3:45 pm.

Weiss's eyes widened.

Son of a-!

Kiko and his friend Tiamat went fishing with Zilla. The river was a few miles from the Village and already, they have caught two large fish. He held up his fishing spear, ready to catch a third when Tiamat poked him in the ribs and it made him loose his focus.

He hissed at the Serpentine Kaiju female who laughed in amusement, coiling up a little, and ducking under Kiko's playful fists.

"Don't worry, Kiko," Zilla said, laughing himself. "I'll catch the fish." He then jumped into the river.

Kiki sighed in response. He enjoyed his friends' company but he wanted to catch the fish by himself to prove himself to his father since he failed during the last hunt. Maybe he could test his luck with the Skeer Buffalo when they migrate through the valley.

Zilla caught two more fish with his own hands. Kiko decided that it was time to head back to the Village.

"That bear wouldn't catch me, Kiko," Tiamat joked to the Albino Gorilla Kaiju as they walked up a path. "I'm quick as water!"

"Shut up, Tiamat," Kiko playfully shoved the female Serpentine Kaiju with a laugh.

Zilla laughed among them before he heard something up ahead. Something he rarely heard among Kaiju. Verbal conversation.

"Why do you want to win your dumb bet?!"

"Because I want a cool new outfit!"

Zilla furrowed his brow and grumbled to the other two Kaiju, "Do you hear that?" Both Tiamat and Kiko stopped their playful banter and looked to him in confusion. Zilla sniffed the air and caught the scent of somethings he didn't recognize and things that he didn't. Some feline scent with a fish scent followed by cedar, coco nut and lilacs. He cautiously moved forward.

What he did not know was that he was detecting the scent of Blake Belladonna (A Cat Faunus who loves fish, especially tuna.) and Yang Xiao Long (Or more accurately, her shampoo and conditioner. With her mane of hair, its a lot.) who were arguing about finding something new and cool and winning the bet and Yang revealed why she wants to win the bet.

". . . A new outfit?" Blake asked with a blank expression.

Yang nodded, a little bashful. "Yeah, one of the winning conditions is that the losers make a wish come true for the winners, remember?" she recalled. "Since you, Weiss and Ruby got new looks, I want Team JNPR to buy me a new suit I saw during the weekend in Vale."

"A new suit. . ." Blake repeated.

"Yeah," Yang nodded. "It was in my colors too. I tried it on, and it fits my figure nicely," she ran a hand down her waist for emphasis. "But the price was a bit much, so I thought that this bet could work. . ."

"Yang Xiao Long. . . You are by far the vainest person I have met," Blake suddenly deadpanned to her partner.

"Hey!" Yang exclaimed in a offended tone.

"Do you really think this is worth it?!" Blake suddenly snapped. "There's no Dust here and hardly anything of value to report! This mission is a failure. We could be doing something better with our time than hiking through this stupid continent!"

"What?" Yang asked. This mission was for their grades for the final schoolyear. Sure, she didn't care about these kind of things when she was younger, but they needed them to graduate as professional Huntresses.

"The White Fang could be acting on their plans right now while we're lost in this forest!" Blake ranted.

Yang then remembered that Blake was like this during their first year. Before and during the Vytal Festival, after finding out that Blake was a Faunus in disguise and a former member of the White Fang, Team RWBY had found out that the Faunus Civil Rights-turned terrorists organization had become partners with the master thief and crime lord Roman Torchwick and were behind the numerous robberies of Dust. The next weeks, Blake was rather obsessed to finding answers of why her fellow Faunus were working for/with a human criminal, one that often threw racial slurs at them at that. She hardly slept at all, didn't seem to focus on anything but finding information on the White Fang and her grades were suffering because of it.

"Blake, remember what I told you," Yang said softly yet sternly. "You need to slow down on this. And it's been almost four years since the Fang and Torchwick have done anything."

Blake paused and knew what Yang meant. During her obsession with the Fang and Torchwick, Yang took her to a room with a private talk and told her from experience that an obsession for answers can nearly get you killed if you don't take care of yourself or try to do it alone. The Cat Faunus realized that she was almost getting back to her obsessed self and Yang was right, it had been years since the Breach of Vale. Torchwick had escaped custody and gone off radar since.

"You're right," Blake sighed. She then brought her mind to another thing. "Hey, how's your search?"

Yang seemed surprised by the change of subject but composed herself. The private talk mentioned earlier was that Yang had revealed that once finding out about Raven Branwen (Her birth mother) after Summer Rose's death and that she left when Yang was born, the six year old blonde girl was obsessed with finding her and wanting to know why she was abandoned with her father. When she found a clue, a house Raven and her father used to live in before Taiyang Xiao Long married Summer and had Ruby, Yang put her young toddler sister in a wagon when Taiyang left and headed out on her own. She had walked for hours before finding the house, a place where she thought she could find answers or even her mother.

What she found instead was that it was abandoned, and home to three Beowulf Grimm. They should have died, could have died because of her recklessness, but as luck would have it, Yang said, their uncle Qrow showed up just in time.

Yang sighed. "During the Vytal Festival," she replied, "After I accidentally injured Mercury, Uncle Qrow came by our dorm and spoke to me." That was indeed an accident. During the final rounds, Mercury Black, a student from Haven Academy overestimated the strength of his injured legs and ended up being heavily injured in the fight against Yang. Not much was known other than that Mercury's legs were heavily injured in the past, did not heal right and Yang had opened up the wounds.

"She told me something I wasn't sure about during the Breach." Yang went on. When Team RWBY tried to stop the train from breaching Vale, Yang had faced Roman's henchwoman, or rather partner in crime, Neopolitan, in a fight and lost terribly. She blacked out for a moment but when she came to, the criminal was gone and, "I thought I saw my mother on the train."

"What?" Blake's eyes widened. "How did she get there?"

"I asked that," Yang replied. "Apparently, her Semblance is that she can open portals to people she cares about." she chuckled bitterly at that. "Qrow told me that that moment was real. That Raven did show up and save me. But that wasn't all. After the Breach, she went and met up with Qrow during one of his last missions. Gave him a message."

"What did she say?" Blake asked.

"That she did save me," Yang frowned. "And it was going to be a one time thing. 'Don't expect that kindness again.' And she left without another word."

". . . What?" Blake stared. She had seen the bad and worse of humanity, Jacques Schnee was a prime example, but she never heard someone say that about their child.

"Yeah, real Mom of the Year material," Yang muttered. "Qrow then said that he would finally help me look for her. He also told me that she and he grew up as bandits, so she has a different view of the world, but I didn't focus on that, just answers to why she left us. So after the Vytal Festival and during the next break, we left for Mistral and traveled until we found her camp. What was left of it."

"You mean. . ." Blake trailed off. Yang nodded with a sigh. "Maybe some Huntsman finally caught her bandit tribe and delivered justice for all their crimes, or a rival tribe found them they went out in a blaze of glory or their luck ran out with the Grimm. Qrow doubts its the second one though. He may be a great Huntsman, maybe one of the best Beacon made in his generation, but he knew that Raven was the stronger fighter. But then we found this."

Yang pulled out her Scroll and showed Blake a photo. A photo of a red handprint on a wooden wall. "Maybe the symbol of the Huntsman or rival gang that killed her and her tribe," Yang shrugged. "But we haven't found anything related to it since."

". . . I'm sorry," was all Blake could say. Maybe a woman who was a criminal and abandoned their child didn't deserve sympathy but Yang had been wanting some closure for years since she was six. Plus, Blake had some understanding. Her mentor, partner and boyfriend was a member of the White Fang and one of the first to use violence over peace. One of the first to kill. Despite what has happened between them, she would feel some grief for him if he would die.

"We didn't tell my father," Yang said. "At least far as I know. Maybe Qrow told him in private. Who knows. But. . . I want to believe she's not dead. We didn't find a body, but that could mean a Grimm found her first. Still, I want to believe that she's just hiding because I still want some closure." she admitted. "Once we graduate, I will keep on searching, maybe ask around and-"

Then she trailed off as she and Blake came face to face with the most shocking thing they'd expect. People.

At first, the Bumblebee duo wanted to say that they were Faunus, they had animalistic traits, but they only had one. Extra ears, tails, scales, feathers, fins, horns, fangs or claws. These people had more than that.

The first male in front of them had dark reptilian scales that covered his body, reptilian feet a long scaly tail behind him, sharp claws and sickle shaped dorsal fins on his back. The second male had albino white fur and large muscles with ape like feet, two long scars running down across his chest. The female had blue and dark violet scales with large long fins in her dark blue hair, sharp claws and her legs were replaced by a long serpentine tail with razor sharp scales.

They all had minimum clothes, probably made out of animal skin. The male Gorilla Faunus, or Ape man had a small spear like weapon in hand along with a handful of fish.

Both Yang and Blake stared at the feral Faunus in shock and surprise. "Um, hi." Yang tried to wave in a friendly way, but the three feral Faunus recoiled with weary expressions before the Ape Man hissed at them in a threatening manner.

"Hey, it's okay," Yang said softly. "We're not going to hurt you."

Unaware to her, Yang's words were affecting Blake but not in a good way. They were triggering some PTSD she had gained from fighting in the White Fang. When she and Adam Taurus went looking for a pair of deserters. Traitors to the Faunus, Adam had called them. Blake hesitated and tried to reassure them and their child that they will not be harmed, but Adam killed them both and took the child to the White Fang. The Ape Man's hissing was only adding fuel to the fire, so to speak.

Acting on instinct, Blake had pulled out her weapon and converted it into pistol mode. Yang noticed her partner's movements. "Blake? Blake? Blake, wait!"

The Serpentine woman noticed Blake's behavior and moved forward in a concern expression. Yang reached to her partner as the Serpentine woman slither forward. "Blake, don't-!"

BANG!

Blake pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Suddenly the boulder Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting on lurched and threw them off, revealing to be a large buffalo. The knight-Amazon duo stared in shock before Pyrrha shook herself. "Jaune, come on! Our friends need help!" she said, pulling Jaune to his feet and they ran to the direction the gunshot had sounded.

BANG!

Both Ren and Nora looked to the sound of the gunshot and looked to each other silently before running off. They're friends needed help.

.

.

.

"Nora, put that lizard down!"

"BUT RENNY!"

"Leave it."

"But-!"

"No buts. Leave it."

". . . Okay, bye, Doug! Take care!"

Both Qrow and Winter were walking up a hill and saw a large black field in front of them. They both narrowed their eyes at the sight, but before they could ask one another what it was or move forward-

BANG!

Winter and Qrow's eyes widened before looking back down the mountain. They looked at each other before running back down. The black field will have to wait. Their wards could be in trouble.

BANG!

Both Ruby and Weiss looked up. Ruby gasped. "Did you hear that?" she asked Weiss. They were both trying to plan how to pinpoint the Dust Spires' location, regroup with their friends and tell them about the Dust when the gunshot rang through the air.

"Hard not to," Weiss retorted before furrowing her brow. "Who fired their weapon?"

Ruby shrugged in response. "I don't know for sure but we need to find them! They might need help!" She then grabbed Weiss's hand.

"What are you-?" her blue eyes widened. "Wait! DON'T USE YOUR SEMBLANCE!"

Too late. Ruby sped off with Weiss who quickly hung on for dear life, mentally praying to not die or worse, get her clothes further ruined and screaming her head off.

BANG!

Unaware to the humans and Faunus, the gunshot was heard by the Kaiju Village whose residents were all just starting to wake up peacefully before the loud banging noise was heard.

Godzilla sat up with wide eyes. He knew that only certain set of tools could make that noise. Guns. And only two groups were capable of making and using guns. Which meant that they were here, here on the continent.

Mothra rose up next to him with wide silver eyes. She had heard the noise and knew what that meant.

The King and Queen ran out of their home and found Kaiju in confusion and fright from the loud noise. Godzilla let out a commanding roar to them. But then Kong and a couple of females, Jira and Manda informed him that their children, Zilla, Tiamat and Kiko respectively were not in the village.

It was then that Godzilla could hear the faint call for help from Zilla, coming from the direction of the sound.

"Kong, Rodan, Anguirus, Cesar!" he called out to the mentioned Clan Leaders. "Gather warriors for a search party. Hurry!"

Zilla was his student, his honorary nephew same as Kiko and Tiamat was his honorary niece.

No matter what, Godzilla will find them.

"Blake, what did you do?!" Yang exclaimed in shock.

Snapped out of her daze, Blake looked on in horror as the Serpentine woman laid on the ground. The bullet had grazed her shoulder but she was now spasming in pain on the forest floor. The Lizard man and the Ape man stared before the former began let out screech-howls. He must be calling for help.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Blake said frantically and took a step forward. "Let me help!"

The Albino Gorilla man did not accept her help, evident by him holding up a fishing spear up at her threateningly and snarling.

"Yang!"

Turning around, the brawler and Cat Faunus saw Ruby and Weiss, the former having used her Semblance and the latter on her knees.

"Don't. . . ever do. . . that again," Weiss said between pants.

"She didn't mean to do it!" Yang said frantically in Blake's defense. The reaper-fencer duo looked at her in confusion as Team JNPR, Qrow and Winter ran to their location further down the trail.

"Wow! Who are they?!" Nora exclaimed upon seeing the Faunus behind Yang and Blake.

The Lizard and Ape both recoiled in fear. The danger had just become more worse for them. The Lizard began to screech more urgently.

It wasn't a moment later that something, a lot of somethings answered his screeches. Looking up the hill to their left, the Huntsmen and Huntresses-in training and their peers saw a large number of 'Faunus' run down the hill to them. Just as they came to a stop, an older Serpentine Faunus, similar to the one Blake had shot but with sea green scales and two yellow horns on her head woman landed close to them, snarling and hissing while holding a spear before she backed up towards the wounded Serpentine woman. An older Gorilla Faunus with fur covering most of his body approached the younger Albino Gorilla and grabbed his shoulders with a concerned expression before hugging the younger. It was here that Blake noticed how they resembled one another.

Yang noticed something else. Most of them were armed with spears. Well. . . I guess we found the people hunting the elk. . .

Suddenly a pair of Faunus climbed a top of a set of boulders and stood above the group, a tall male Reptilian Faunus with yellow eyes, dark scales covering his muscular body, a long segmented tail, claws, shark like gills and a row of dorsal fins on his back that were shaped like shards of glass and flickering blue and a Moth Faunus with multicolored wings and silver eyes with dark blond hair with a dark clothed bra cover her torso and a matching skirt around her waist. Her upper body seemed to be covered in white, orange, blue and red tribal markings. The students were curious about her, especially Ruby when she noticed that the Moth Faunus had silver eyes just like her, but their attention was brought to the tall Reptilian Faunus. He seemed to exude an authoritative aura, as if he had a strong will and resolve.

Something tells me, he's the chief or something, Qrow thought to himself, being reminded of his sister and the Branwen Tribe.

Both him and the Moth Faunus, as she began making bird like chirps to the others around her and the older Gorilla Faunus did the same. But the Reptilian Faunus kept glaring down at them while his dorsal fins kept flashing.

"Everyone," Mothra chirped to the warriors around them. "Everyone, calm down. Don't do anything unless Godzilla and I say so."

"You heard the Queen," Kong hooted. "Stand down."

"You got it, Kong," Rodan and Anguirus replied. Gigan said nothing but swung his tail slightly as a signal to his warriors, his red visor on the humans.

Manda began shrieking in distress and worry. "They shot Tiamat!" she cried. "They shot my daughter!"

Godzilla took his eyes off the humans briefly to look at Manda. "Manda, wait. Don't do anything rash."

His command seemed to calm down the Serpentine Kaiju down some. With that dealt with, Godzilla look back down to glare at humans, his intimidation display still active.

Ruby stared at the exchange she saw. These strange Faunus seemed to communicate through animal noises. Was it possible to negotiate with them? Could they understand her?

"Um. . . we come in peace?" Ruby asked more than stated.

All eyes turned to her. "I-I mean, ahem. We don't mean any harm!"

Qrow then spoke in Solitan, the native language of Atlas and Mantle and repeated what she had said but with less stuttering. When that didn't seem to work, he spoke in three other languages. Valean, Animan, Fauni Speak, even Vacuon.

But he got no reaction from the feral Faunus. He shrugged to the others while Winter gave him an impressed look.

Ruby's eyes scanned the group before them again. There was a seven foot one tall, muscular Faunus with brown fur and limbs that seemed to resemble a sloth's but he had a small trunk for a nose and two large curved tusks, a short red scaled Reptilian Faunus with a yellow horn and large bat ears. A fiery redhead Faunus with two curved crests on his head with red scales and large elbow spikes standing with another Reptilian Faunus with brown scales, a shell with white spikes and tail with a nasal horn and held a large club in hands. And a blue scaled Faunus with silver spikes running down his chest, three robotic limbs covered in rust and dirt with a large scythe blade for a right hand and a red visor. Was it her imagination or did that Faunus have metal teeth?

Then Ruby got another idea as she looked up to the leaders. She stepped forward slowly, breaking away from the group.

"Ruby, Ruby," Qrow whispered to her.

"Sis, don't!" Yang protested.

"Put your weapons down, guys." Ruby said, not looking away from the leaders.

"Y-You can't be serious!" Jaune stuttered.

Qrow looked thoughtful before nodding in acceptance before he folded Harbinger and put it behind his back. Winter sheathed her saber without another word. With some reluctance and hesitation, the others followed suit. Ruby was the last to put away her weapon. She then held her arms up with a nervous smile.

The Moth Faunus stared, blinking once and tilting her head while the Reptilian Faunus remained impassive for a long moment.

Then he leaned back, inhaling deeply before his mouth opened and roared down at them.

SSKKKRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNKKKgh!

.

.

.

"H-Holy shit," Yang muttered in fear, an emotion she rarely expressed at all.

Weiss and Blake stepped back, the latter's cat fur on her hidden ears standing on end.

Jaune and Pyrrha gulped nervously. That roar was unlike anything they had ever heard.

Even Ren and Winter lost their composure, eyes widening in fear as was Qrow. And that was saying something for Qrow. He had seen Grimm that could exist in nightmares and this Faunus' roar was filling him with fear he hadn't felt in years.

And Nora?

"That. . . was. . . Awesome!" Well, that's how she always reacts.

Ren turned to stare at her and she became bashful. "And scary, too." she added, hoping no ill would be thrown at her later.

But that wasn't the end of it. The Reptilian Faunus inhaled again, but roared something else. A word. A simple command really, but he spoke in a powerful, authoritative voice.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

They all recoiled. This Faunus could understand them this whole time? Well what was the point of having me speak different languages? Qrow thought.

But then the leader scowled before he jumped up high into the air. When he landed on the ground before them, the very earth cracked while a shockwave was released that knocked everyone off their feet. The leader inhaled again and roared loud enough to blow the wind at their faces.

SSKKKRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKgh!

Blake's bow became undone, revealing her black cat ears and the same happened to Ren, Weiss and Winter's hair braid and bun.

"Okay, never mind!" Nora said in amore fear filled voice. Something that was very rare to happen. "Very scary. Very very scary."

"O-Okay, we're going!" Ruby stuttered. "No funny business, promise!"

Her words seemed to do little for the Faunus.

"GOOOOOO!" cried out another Faunus, the one with a red visor and robotic limbs. He spoke in a raspy voice and a slight elated tone, as if he was proud to tell the humans and Faunus what to do.

Blake and Ruby suddenly slipped, the Cat Faunus because she stepped off the edge of the path and almost slid down the hill while the latter tripped on her own cape. Blake's bag fell from her shoulders while Ruby felt her weapon fall from her belt.

She gasped and tried to reach for her beloved weapon but both Yang and Qrow pulled her to her feet, much to her heart break. "Ruby, come on!" Yang said desperately.

"We have to go!" Qrow added.

"But, guys, wait! Crescent Rose!" Ruby protested.

"Go! Go! GO!" Qrow said as they ran.

"CRESCENT ROSE!" Ruby wailed as she was carried. Away from the growling Faunus. Away from the weapon she worked so hard to make. "NOOOOOOOO!"

Cesar knelt down and picked up the bag that belonged to the Cat Faunus who hid her ears under a bow. Kong then picked up the red and black weapon that fell from the girl that acted like the leader of the group despite appearing to be younger. He held it out to Godzilla who picked up the weapon and bag.

Admittedly, he was surprised to see the humans alive and everything, but he had to show no fear to them. He was even caught off guard when the girl with silver eyes told the others to put their weapons away. Godzilla debated what to do, but then he ultimately decided that they had been on their land long enough and told them to leave.

But that left more questions that needed answers.

"Rodan, Gigan." he called out. The two Kaiju came to his side. He pointed after the humans. "Follow." he ordered simply.

Rodan nodded and his elbow spikes spread out into wings. Gigan called to his lieutenant, Megalon, a beetle Kaiju. Megalon and Rodan spread their wings out and flew up into the air while small rockets activated on Gigan's robotic feet and his fins spread out for stabilization before they flew after the humans.

Baragon and Behemoth moved forward to join them, but Godzilla held the two warriors back. The two looked at him in confusion but obeyed him wordlessly.

Chapter Text

One hour later. . .

They booked it.

They ran.

They bolted.

They all ran as fast as they could back to the Bullhead. Eventually Ruby gave up trying to go back for Crescent Rose and she ran with everyone else. They all frantically ran inside the Atlassian Bullhead and Winter raced to start the engine and takeoff. It was roughly ten minutes when Winter finally allowed herself a moment to process what had just happened. They had apparently run into a tribe of what she can only describe as feral Faunus with more animalistic traits and the leader had made it very clear that they were not welcome to Western Dragon.

She turned around and looked to Qrow and the Huntresses and Huntsmen in-training.

Her sister was holding a fist against her head, clutching her mud stained hair as she leaned against the wall. Her blue eyes staring at the floor while taking deep and shaky breaths.

Blake was curled up in a corner, hugging her legs close to her chest and had buried her face in her knees, her cat ears flattening against her head. (That explains why her bow kept moving on its own.)

Jaune was pacing frantically back and forth while muttering, "Was that real?" or "Did that just happen?" His partner, Pyrrha was attempting to calm him down.

Only Ren and surprisingly Nora were the only ones to keep their composure but they were looking at their friends with worried expressions.

The worse was from Ruby and Yang as they hugged each other tightly and Winter could hear the youngest Huntress sobbing as she was hugged by her sister and her uncle.

"I left her," Ruby said between sobs. "I left her. . ."

"I know," Yang whispered. "I'm sorry, Ruby. . ."

"It's going to be okay, Short-Stack," Qrow said, no drunken slur in his voice whatsoever as he hugged both of his nieces tightly.

Winter frowned before remembering that Ruby had dropped her weapon when they had ran. And from what she had heard, Ruby was very attached to her weapon.

Qrow glanced over to her briefly before whispering to his nieces and walked over to her.

"Hey," Qrow nodded to her.

"Hey," Winter replied. "How are they?"

"A bit shaken up," sighed Qrow. "Ruby's really torn up about leaving her weapon. She's very attached and proud of it."

Winter nodded, slightly understanding.

Just then the Bullhead tilted slightly. Both Winter and Qrow looked around before she turned forward in her seat. "What was that?" Qrow asked.

Winter ran a systems check. She shook her head, finding nothing wrong. "It must have been some turbulence."

Qrow looked out the window cockpit before deciding that it was just turbulence and sat down.

As their King ordered, Gigan, Rodan and Megalon had followed the humans and Faunus all the way to their plane. Even when it took off, they were not deterred. For the three of them flew fast enough to follow the plane far from their homeland before deciding to land on the top of the plane.

"Do you think the humans saw us?" chittered Megalon, weary that they were caught by the humans.

Gigan shook his head. "No. Humans would have done something if they saw us." he replied confidently.

Megalon conceded and turned to Rodan. "What is the plan?"

"Follow these humans and Faunus," replied the Pterosaur Kaiju. "Find out where they have come from."

"What if they or other humans find us?" Megalon asked.

". . . We kill humans. . . and Faunus who see us," Gigan answered grimly, his scythe hand glinting in the sunlight.

One of the first things Godzilla thought of when he and the search party returned to the village was the conversation he had with his Queen and friends a few days earlier. Now he thought that the conversation was ironic. They had spoke of the humans and Faunus and thought that they were long gone, only to be proven wrong.

Very ironic indeed.

One of things he had noticed about the humans was their weapons. That meant that they were warriors. Hunters of Grimm. That didn't bode well. He had not known any Hunters personally, but he had seen their work in the time he was roaming the planet. It was one reason why he didn't have his search party attack. He knew that Hunters were better trained, more than the Kaiju were. And they're abilities were unknown. It was better to have them leave than to fight them.

Godzilla rose from the steps of his home and walked down. He had to check on his niece.

The Saurian Kaiju approached one of the heeling huts where Tiamat was brought to. He saw Manda coiled near her daughter who was resting in a nest. Manda noticed his presence and rose up to her height. She bows her head. "My King." she greeted.

"How is she?" Godzilla asked in concern.

"She is only scratched on the shoulder, but shaken." Manda replied. The Serpentine Kaiju bowed her head again. "Thank you for stopping me, Godzilla. I would have been hurt if I attacked the humans. You knew better than me."

"Anger can cloud the mind," Godzilla replied, knowing the lesson himself. He noticed Tiamat moving slightly in the nest.

Godzilla slowly approached the young Serpentine Kaiju. "Tiamat?"

Tiamat slowly cracked an eye open before seeing her King and uncle. "Uncle Godzilla. . ." she crooned weakly.

Godzilla smiled warmly."How are you, little Tiamat?" he asked.

Tiamat lifted a hand to touch the wound on her shoulder before looking up with a weak smile. ". . . I'm alive. . . "

Godzilla chuckled lightly in response. "Of course, you are. And we are thankful that you are."

"Very thankful," Manda cooed, leaning down to hug her daughter.

"Mother. . ." Tiamat whined weakly.

Godzilla chuckled again before reaching down and brushed the young Serpentine Kaiju's hair. "Get some sleep, Tiamat." he grumbled softly.

Tiamat yawned before nodding. "Yes, Uncle."

Outside the hut, Kiko sat down dejectedly. He thought over the events that had happened. How it went from joyful when he and his friends were enjoying each other's company before coming face to face with a human and Faunus. He felt ashamed, more than the bear, he had failed to protect his friend.

"Kiko," Kong signed and crooned to him as he approached.

Father, I should have stopped this from happening to Tiamat. Kiko signed in distress.

Kong looked to him sympathetically before shaking his head. No. It couldn't have been better. he signed. You or Zilla could have been hurt as well.

This didn't make Kiko feel any better as he looked down with a sad frown.

Meanwhile, Zilla was speaking to other young Kaiju, a red scaled aquatic Saurian Kaiju with red scales, hair and a large yellow fin down his back and a fish like tail fin at the tip of his tail named Titano and a Komodo Dragon Kaiju girl with brown skin, scales covering most of her body with matching hair and a long tail behind her named Komodoithrax. He was telling them about his encounter with the humans.

"Kiko and I tried to intimidate them," Zilla recalled. "But the Cat Faunus wasn't scared of us and shot Tiamat. It happened so fast, like being struck by lightning. I didn't even see the bullet fly past me and then Tiamat is on the ground in pain."

"That's awful," Komodoithrax crooned.

Titano tilts his head. "You said that you heard what they were saying? What were they saying?"

"I didn't understand them completely," Zilla admitted. "But I think one of them said that they're searching for their mother."

King Cesar and Mothra was reading the books that he found in the bag that belonged to the Cat Faunus that shot Tiamat. Mothra and Cesar were some of the few Kaiju that understood human and Faunus writing, or at least understood some of it since they had more interactions with humans and Faunus the most.

A man with two souls, Mothra had read mentally. Hmm. Sounds familiar, she mused as she read the book. She looks over to Cesar, noticing the Lion Kaiju holding the book at an angle and a larger page folded out in the middle.

Cesar recoiled before he folded the page and abruptly closed the book and then handed it to Mothra. "Cesar?" she asked in confusion and some concern.

"Do not. I repeat. Do not. Let. The kids. Read that." the Lion Kaiju said with a thousand yard stare before walking away. Mothra looked to him in confusion and looked to the book. She tilted her head and read the title.

Ninjas of Love

. . . What are ninjas? And why have a clan named after an emotion?

And what disturbed King Cesar?

"What is this?" Sanda asked as he and his twin brother Gaira stood next Baragon. Sanda had yellowish brown fur covering his lean body with broad shoulders and black claws. His brother Gaira had dark green fur and matching skin. The red Kaiju was inspecting a red and black solid object on a large rock slab that was used as a table.

"A human weapon," replied Baragon.

"This is a weapon?" Gaira repeated in a skeptic tone as he leaned in closely to look at the object. "Where's the blade? Is it meant for clubbing your enemies? Slapping?"

Now fifty miles away, Ruby felt the sense that her beloved weapon was insulted.

"It's all folded in," Baragon replied, remembering what he had seen when he and the party of warriors had gathered with Godzilla and Mothra and met the humans. He saw how the young human's weapon had folded up before she put it on her back. "The girl with eyes of silver. She made it transform."

"Eyes of silver?" repeated Sanda in surprise, knowing that the Queen had silver eyes as well.

"How did she make it transform?" Gaira asked.

Baragon shrugged. "I do not know." he admitted with a shake of his head.

The two Kaiju were surprised that their teacher had said that. The two inspected the object with Gaira even lifting a hand to touch it. Unknowingly, he had touched the button that allows Crescent Rose to transform into its combat form. The mechanical scythe-sniper transformed before the Kaiju's eyes, the eight foot handle/sniper folded out and the five foot blade scratched the ground.

The three Kaiju recoiled in surprise. Baragon looked to Gaira with wide eyes. "What did you do, Gaira?"

"I-I don't know," the green Gargantuan confessed.

Baragon slowly narrowed his eyes as he inspected the weapon in its real form. The blade was thin, thinner than it should be as a blade, like it could bend or break if it tried to slice through something thick. He glanced at the handle and noticed some details he hadn't noticed before. A scope, a magazine clip with a trigger. He looked at the end where the scythe blade was located and saw a hole-a barrel. He instantly recognized what it was despite not seeing one in ten years. A gun. This was a scythe-gun hybrid.

Sanda looked at the weapon and saw a little piece on the underside. The trigger. The yellow Gargantuan narrowed his eyes. The trigger looked loose. Why did it look loose? He moved to touch it and found out the hard way that it was loaded.

BANG!

The three Kaiju recoiled again as the round shot through the air, the sound causing birds to fly away in fright and have most of the Kaiju nearby to look at them. The round narrowly missed the face of a seven foot eight tall Rhinoceros Kaiju with the skin of a rhino and dinosaur like teeth and feet and claws named Rhinosaurus that was walking by the Village wall and blasted a dent in the mentioned wall. Rhinosaurus paused in his walking as the village went wild. The Rhinoceros Kaiju looked to the direction the shot had come from. He growled.

"Watch it! You almost blew my face off with that thing!" roared Rhinosaurus to the three Kaiju that stood next the scythe-gun weapon.

"Sorry!" Baragon replied back getting a grunt from the Rhinoceros Kaiju before he walked away. Baragon looked to Gaira. "That is a gun. Guns are not for Kaiju."

"I. . . understand," Gaira replied, feeling ashamed for what happened.

The Kingdom of Vale

The next day. . .

"It's been a long time since we've been here." Cinder Fall said to her teammates as they stepped off the Airship with the other students from Haven Academy. She had long black hair with amber eyes. She wore a black shirt and shorts, a black cloak with golden accents and black thigh heel boots, a bundle of feathers tied to her waist on the left under her belt with a pair of dual swords on her back that could combine into a bow called Midnight.

"Wonder if there's any changes," muttered Emerald Sustrai. She had short green hair with dark mocha skin with dark silver clothes and brown shoes.

"The place is literally a castle," commented Mercury Black. He had metallic gray hair and eyes with a dark gray formal jacket with black pants with his symbol on his left thigh, a shoe with wings. He crosses his arms. "I doubt they'll change much of this place other than the dining hall."

Before Emerald could retort, another Haven Team, SSSN walked past them. Their leader, Sun Wukong threw his arms up and shouted for all to hear, "GOOD MORNING, BEACON ACADEMY!"

"Hey, screw you!" someone shouts from the academy. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

"Good morning to you too, random student!" Sun replied with a laugh that was shared with his teammates.

Cinder rolled her eyes and continued walking. Her teammates continued walking before Mercury heard something. He turns around. "Hey, what's an Atlassian Military Bullhead doing here?" he asked, getting Emerald and Cinder's attention.

The two Huntresses in-training turned around and saw the mentioned aircraft. Cinder frowned slightly, not exactly excited to see some Atlassian soldiers and their mech knights. When the doors opened however, it wasn't soldiers that walked out of the craft, it was teams RWBY and JNPR running as fast as they can with an Atlassian Specialist that looked like an older Weiss Schnee and a Huntsman with a red torn cape and a folded sword on his back.

"Hey, Ruby!" Cinder tried to call to the silver eyed reaper.

Without looking, Ruby kept running with her teammates, friends and uncle and replied in her hyperactive way. "Sorry!Can'ttalknow!Gottago!Gottago!TTYL!"

Confused, Cinder blinked and looked to Emerald who shrugged. They looked to Mercury who shrugged as well. "What? Those kids always have crazy adventures." he retorted. ". . . Kinda jealous of them."

Unaware to them, three figures were flying in the air, high in the air that they looked like birds that dove down in unison and landed behind the school.

Glynda and Ozpin were in the headmaster office, sitting in silence before the elevator doors opened up. Glynda was about to comment that Teams RWBY and JNPR had arrived on time for once, before seeing that they, along with Qrow and Winter, were cramped in the elevator like sardines in a can.

"Gah! We're stuck!" Ruby exclaimed. "Not again!"

"Why does this always happen?" Jaune whined, pinned and crushed against the wall by his own partner. "I'm sorry, Jaune!" Pyrrha apologized with a blush.

"Who's hand is on my butt!" Winter said angrily, face red.

"Sorry, Ice Queen." Qrow said jokingly. "But I can't do anything about it." It was true, unfortunately, he could not move his hand because of it was pinned by one of the kids.

Glynda and Ozpin stared at the scene with blank expressions, but Ozpin's lips curled up slightly in amusement before the students and their seniors managed to get out of the elevator, falling onto the floor. Qrow instantly got back up and helped his nieces back up before offering a hand to Winter who took it.

". . . Are you all alright?" Glynda asked in concern.

"We. . . are fine," Ruby answered for the whole group, panting. "Just. . . need to. . . catch. . . our breath."

"Yeah, we. . . just ran. . . all the way here," Jaune said between pants before forcing a smile at his Combat Class Instructor and Headmaster. "No biggie!"

Glynda and Ozpin looked at one another in confusion and puzzlement before looking to Winter and Qrow. The former was standing at attention, doing her best to control her breathing while the latter was starting to drink from his flask.

Ozpin sighed at that while Glynda rolled her eyes before turning to the students. "You should be resting if you're all tired. Your reports can wait-"

"No! I mean, wait!" Ruby said, interrupting the professor. "We need to speak to you about the mission now! It's urgent."

Glynda grew a bit concerned about her student's tone. "Is it the Dust or Grimm?" she asked.

Ruby shook her head frantically.

Ozpin and Glynda looked at each other in confusion and intrigue. "Please, explain, Ms. Rose." Ozpin permitted.

In a span of a couple of minutes, Ruby and her friends all gave the headmaster and Combat Class Instructor all they had witnessed back in the Western Dragon Continent. From the sleeping pill berries Qrow had found, the herd of elk with spear wounds and scars and everything they had seen about the-

"Feral Faunus?" Ozpin repeated with a neutral expression while Glynda looked at them with a questioning expression.

"I know it sounds a little absurd/like a load bullshit," both Winter and Qrow replied at the same time before they paused and looked to each other while the students spoke over each other all at once.

"It's true!"

"I didn't mean to hurt one of them!"

"One of them looked like he was an Elephant Faunus."

"None of them looked normal!"

"Okay, okay, students," Ozpin rose and tried to speak to the students but they kept speaking over one another. "Students, calm down. Please."

The Huntsmen and Huntresses in-training composed themselves as best as they could. "Okay, now. In summary, you encountered a tribe of feral Faunus that do not look like the average Faunus, armed with spears."

"Yes, Professor," was the response from the students.

Qrow and Winter simply nodded.

"How many were there?" Glynda asked.

"A lot, like eighty," Qrow replied.

"At least," Winter added.

Ozpin hummed in thought. "You say that they don't look like the average Faunus. Explain."

"Well, they had more animalistic traits than most Faunus do," Weiss replied. "Most Faunus just have one trait of the species they are. These feral Faunus had more than that. The uh, Elephant Faunus had a small trunk and large tusks that looked like actual tusks. Actually, I think he's a Mammoth Faunus or something, he had dark brown fur covering his form."

Glynda rose an eyebrow. That's a first.

"And the Snake Faunus had tails instead of legs," Yang added. "One of them had large scales and fins that looked like razor sharp blades or something. The other had horns on her head."

"The Lizard Faunus had tails, scales, claws, and large dorsal spines on their backs" Pyrrha went on. "One of them looked like he had gills too, I believe."

"Okay, and you said that you attempted to speak to them in different languages before it was revealed that they speak in the common language," Ozpin pointed out. "What did they say?"

The students looked at each other as did Qrow with Winter as they remembered what the Faunus leader had told them.

"GOOOOO!"

". . . He told us to go." Qrow replied. "Apparently, we were not welcome there anymore."

"He?" Ozpin repeated.

"They were organized, they had a leader," Ruby said, thinking back to the encounter. "He was was the Lizard Faunus with gills and dorsal spines shaped like shards of glass. And he had a presence about him that just demanded respect. He was. . . remarkable."

The students looked to her in surprise, they had not heard Ruby praise anyone like just now.

"I see," Glynda stated, also surprised to hear a statement from Ruby that didn't sound like childish fangirling like when the Combat Class Instructor first met the silver eyed young reaper. "Well, Ozpin, I believe that all is said on the matter."

"Perhaps so," Ozpin replied. "Students, after today, it'd be best that you don't tell anyone about this."

"Wha-? Professor Ozpin, you can't be serious!" Weiss protested.

"I am, Ms. Schnee." the headmaster replied firmly. "It is much preferable that a panic is not created about this matter of feral Faunus. This matter will be addressed later. For now, I ask that you all return to your dorms and rest."

Ignoring the heartbreak Ruby felt with the fact that she had dropped and was forced to leave her beloved Crescent Rose, she was indeed exhausted. So, she and the rest of RWBY walked to their dormitory building with Team JNPR.

"Hey, Ruby! Wait!" called a familiar voice behind them. "Guys, wait up! Where's the fire?"

Turning around, Ruby saw Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black approaching them. Friends from Haven Academy. Ruby's silver eyes lit up. "Cinder!" she exclaimed and jumped to hug the older girl.

"Oof! I see you're still a hugger," Cinder remarked drily but hugged Ruby back.

"There it is!" Yang suddenly declared, pointing at Cinder. Everyone looked to her in confusion. "What? She asked where's the fire, she is the fire." she grinned.

"I see nothing's change," Cinder said to Ruby in annoyance.

"Unfortunately." Ruby retorted.

"So, what was with all the running earlier?" Emerald asked. "You guys were running as if you guys were all Beowolves during the Blood Moon on Friday the 13th or something."

"We, uh, had to report for our mission," Jaune replied, remembering that they were told not to say anything about what they've seen at Western Dragon.

"Oh, what happened?" Cinder asked in concern.

"Uh, sorry, Cinder, but it's classified," Ruby replied apologetically.

"Oh, one of those missions," Mercury stated. "Been there. Not really fun when they want you to keep it under wraps."

"Yeah. . . " Yang replied, sharing a glance with her partner.

"So, I assume you're all tired," Cinder stated. "Catch up tomorrow?"

"Sure!" Ruby smiled. "Good night, guys!" she waved before walking to the dormitory.

Cinder rose an eyebrow. Did Ruby forget that it was the afternoon?

Soon after that, the Beacon students returned to their dorms and went straight to sleep. The last thought Ruby had was that she hoped and prayed that she will see Crescent Rose again.

In Blake's tired mind, she reminded herself that she did not mean to shoot the feral Serpentine Faunus and hoped she will be alright.

Yang did not have any lasting thoughts as she fell asleep.

Weiss suddenly remembered what she and Ruby had found before meeting the feral Faunus.

The Dust Spires.

Something that she will have to remember to speak with Ruby and her friends about tomorrow.

Soon though, they were all in deep sleep. And a figure appeared at their window and slowly pushed it open before entering their dorm as quietly as possible. The figure had dark blue armor like scales covering his form, a red visor covering his eyes, metal spikes running down the middle of his chest, two robotic legs and left arm with a scythe blade replacing his right arm. The tip of his tail was even replaced with metal and curved blades. Three large red fins ran down his back. When his lips curled, his teeth had a metallic glint to them.

It was Gigan. And he found the humans and Faunus that invaded his homeland. He looked around, his red visor scanning the room, pausing at the bunk beds that did not look safe, before he looked to the weapons on the table and desk in the room. He reached down and picked up a yellow gauntlet that belonged to the blonde girl, he remembered. He pondered if he should take it with him back to the colony so they could study it and perhaps replicate them.

But he decided against it. The humans were very attached to their weapons, they'd notice one missing. So he put it back where he found it. He turned to exit the window before his visor landed on the Faunus sleeping on the bottom bunk.

The one that held the pistol when the search party had found Kiko, Zilla and Tiamat. The one that shot Tiamat. The one that Gigan wanted to kill.

Gigan was angry. Angered that such an injury happened to Tiamat, a young Kaiju that had not even become a warrior and daughter of Manda. Looking at the Faunus sleeping made him even more angry. It was just like the humans that Faunus would be indiscriminate when they shoot their guns and not care who they shot. Killing this Faunus meant one less bad Faunus/human for the Kaiju to deal with. His left hand rose and reached to the Cat Faunus' neck. If he did it quickly and quietly, Gigan would avenge Tiamat, avenge Manda. Avenge the Kaiju.

"Gigan, don't." called Rodan's voice, snapping Gigan out of his murderous intent and he looked to the window and saw the Pterosaur Kaiju and Megalon looking to him. Rodan shook his head. "We're not here to kill anyone."

Gigan realized that he was right. If he did, the others in the room would be angry and suspicious. Even if they leave the continent, the consequences would still find their way to the Kingdom. And they didn't need that. He nodded to Rodan. "We found the humans and Faunus. We have completed the mission."

"Megalon, use your powers to take Gigan home," Rodan said to Megalon who nodded. "It has been a while since I stretched my wings."

Megalon held out his drill-claw to Gigan who grabbed onto the appendage. Megalon's horn glowed before the glow spread throughout his body and over Gigan's before they vanished into thin air without a trace.

Rodan glared at the sleeping girls, his lava eyes landing on the one with snow white hair before he jumped down onto the ground. He looked around for anyone before crouching down. The ground began to shake, pebbles and dust vibrating and hovering around Rodan before a sonic boom was heard as he shot high into the air like a missile before he spread his wings out and flew faster than a human plane.

Rodan smiled, breathing deeply as he flew through the clouds, everything racing through his vision in a blur before another sonic boom sounded off, followed by another. He steered to the right and soon flew over another continent, the continent of Anima. It all raced under him in a blur of green before he flew over the farmlands and then appeared above the Great Lake, ignoring the Rapier Wasp Grimm hive that nested there.

And then the ocean appeared below Rodan as he flew, he rose his wings up and Thunder Clapped, propelling himself forward back to the homeland of the Kaiju.

He, Gigan and Megalon had done what Godzilla had told them, and he intended to tell his king what they had seen beyond their Kingdom's borders.

It would be considered ten o'clock at night in the Kaiju Village. A time where most Kaiju would be sleeping now. A king who is stressed with his responsibilities and duties would love to lay down on his bed and sleep with his Queen.

That would have to wait for Godzilla. He was waiting with Mothra, Anguirus, King Cesar, Kiko and his father with Manda and Tiamat for Rodan to return with Gigan and Megalon. They had not thought that their trip to follow the humans and Faunus would take them so long. They had forgotten how far away their home was to the other continents.

A powerful gust of wind signaled Rodan's return to the village before he came to a stop above the town square and then Megalon and Gigan appeared at the Village gate. Godzilla and Mothra looked to each other with stern expressions. Now they could discuss the important matter: the humans and Faunus.

As soon as Rodan and the two warriors sat down with the gathered council, they had much to say. They hitched a ride on the human plane far from their homeland, to a land close to a mountain that was very familiar to the Kaiju with a human city and the humans and Faunus they were following entered a castle that stood nearby.

That concluded it for Godzilla and Mothra. The humans that were here were indeed Hunters of Grimm.

"We must attack them now!" declared Gigan, raising his scythe hand to rally the others. "Before they attack us!"

"Hold on, we don't know how many humans and Faunus there are," King Kong countered. "We don't know how many of them are warriors, with guns and blades."

"Or why they came here in the first place," Anguirus pointed out.

Gigan hissed in frustration before turning to Manda. "They shot your daughter, Manda. Don't you want to fight?"

"I follow Godzilla and Mothra," Manda declared confidently. Gigan stared at her in surprise.

"Gigan's right," Kiko declared to the council, Kong tried to sign to him to not speak, but the Albino Gorilla Kaiju turned to his friend. "They almost killed you, Tiamat."

Being reminded of her injury and experience, Tiamat looked down. Truthfully, Tiamat didn't know how to feel about the injury or the one who caused it.

Godzilla and Mothra however were silent, and remained silent as the council soon began to argue in growls, hoots and other animal noises. The King was looking at the book in his hands while the Queen was inspecting the scythe-gun weapon. The two Kaiju silently looked at each other before Mothra shook her head.

Growling, Godzilla lifted his head and then shouted in human's language, "NO!" Instantly, the Council fell silent at their King's command, even Gigan. Godzilla looked around at his Council before continuing.

"An attack will be too costly for us." he said as all Kaiju looked to him. "We may have powers like the humans and Faunus, but they will be trained better than Kaiju. They will have weapons more dangerous than our own. If we go to war, we could loose all we built." Realization dawned on the Kaiju. Was fighting the humans and Faunus worth losing their Kingdom?

Mothra nodded before speaking herself. "We could loose our home." she said softly. "We could loose family." she looked to Gigan who was looking down in shame, he did not think of what could happen to Kaiju if they went with his plan to attack the humans and Faunus. She reached forward and gently pushed his chin up. "Or our future."

Home, family and future was what the Kaiju had fought so hard for ever since they escaped the mountain and drove the Grimm away from this valley and mountain to live.

Both King and Queen looked at the Council again before Godzilla spoke, "I will decide by morning."

Everyone nodded and bowed their heads, save for Gigan who looked down as the King and Queen rose from their seats and walked to their home.

Mothra was already walking on the steps to the hut in the tree and Godzilla had taken the first step after her.

"Godzilla," said a raspy hoarse voice. Godzilla stopped and turned around slightly and saw Gigan walking after him. The cyborg Kaiju stopped and looked to him with an anxious expression.

"For years, I was a prisoner in their lab," Gigan said, bowing down. "Humans and Faunus cut my arms, cut my legs and tail. They took my eyes and teeth. And replaced them all with wires and metal. Tortured me. Tried to turn me into a mindless soldier for them."

Godzilla held a stern and stoic expression but there was a trace of sympathy in his eyes.

Gigan looks up to him with gratitude. "You freed me, because of that, I will do anything you ask, even give my life." he goes on. "But we must show strength to the humans and Faunus!"

"We will, Gigan," Godzilla reassured before reaching his hand down to him. "Are you with me, brother?"

Gigan looks up before reaching up and grasping Godzilla's arm by the elbow and he does the same. "I am, my King."

Chapter Text

The next day, Godzilla made his decision. Mothra put on armor that resembled an insect's exoskeleton around her torso and upper arms as Godzilla applied some orange paint and made flames on her face and over her chest armor. Mothra took some blue paint and did the same on Godzilla's face and four strips across his chest with a red dot in the middle of his forehead and Godzilla did the same to her. Mothra smiled at her work before they heard some shuffling in the small nest beside them. The King and Queen looked down and saw a young green scaled Saurian stirring in his nest. He had a row of dorsal fins that ran down his spine like Godzilla but they were more smooth and less jagged than the King's.

"Shh, you don't have to wake up yet,Godzooky." Godzilla crooned to his nephew.

"Uncle, is it true that humans and Faunus were here?" Godzooky asked with sleepy eyes.

"Yes, Nephew. About nine humans and one Faunus was in the valley two days ago," Godzilla replied. "Mothra and I will join with the warriors to head to their home and speak to them."

". . . What if they come back?" the young Saurian Kaiju whimpered quietly in fear. Godzilla and Mothra looked to each other, surprised by the question.

He had a point, what if the humans and Faunus come back to their home?

"If the humans and Faunus come back," Godzilla replied after a moment. "And if they attack our people, I will do what I must to stop them. I will protect all Kaiju. Protect us."

Mothra smiled a little at her King's declaration. Godzilla looked to her as Godzooky closed his eyes to sleep again. Both King and Queen pressed their foreheads together, a common gesture for them to do to show their devotion and loyalty to each other. They knew that they could count on each other, even if the world started to burn, they would stand by each other's side. The ironic thing about that though was that the two were afraid of that happening.

They had seen that happen before when the moon shattered, they did not want to experience that again. Nor wish for that to befall their Kingdom.

Teams RWBY and JNPR sat in a small Commons Room with their friends from Haven Academy. They had merely told their friends that their mission had been a failure. All of them were bearing different expressions.

Ruby was still sullen over leaving her beloved weapon behind. She had put aside her heartache to explain the mission report to her professors but now that was done, she could focus on her heartache.

Weiss was a bit frustrated over the professor's reaction to their mission report. Something about their dismissal over the discovery of feral Faunus was odd to her.

Blake was still thinking of her actions back in West Dragon.

Jaune was nervous that the mission would be seen as a failure and that would considered the first mission he, his team and their friends had failed in achieving their objective. Pyrrha was pondering the situation, also thinking on how the professors had reacted to their report. They didn't seem so surprised at the mention of the feral Faunus. Ren was merely tending to a downcast Nora.

"I mean. . . it could have been worse," Mercury shrugged after a moment.

"But I lost Crescent Rose," Ruby sniffled sadly.

Weiss huffed with a roll of her eyes before she remembered something. "Ruby, the Dust!" she exclaimed.

"Huh? The Dust?" Ruby repeated in confusion before gasping with wide silver eyes. "THE DUST! OH MY GOSH! We forgot about the Dust!"

"Huh? But we didn't find any Dust." Jaune said to Ruby and Weiss, confused by their behavior.

"Of course you didn't," Weiss couldn't help but speak to Jaune smugly as she gestured to her partner. "But Ruby and I have."

"WHAT?!" was the reaction from Yang, Blake and Team JNPR. Cinder, Emerald and Mercury looked at the Beacon Huntsmen and Huntresses-in training with confused expressions, admittedly, left out of the loop.

"You two found Dust?" Yang asked her sister and teammate.

"You bet we did!" Ruby declared proudly.

"Wait, why didn't you tell Professor Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin?" Jaune demanded.

Both Ruby and Weiss looked to each other before the heiress cleared her throat. "We, ahem, may have forgotten about them with the Faunus encounter."

"You guys encountered Faunus?" Emerald asked in surprise, sharing a look with Cinder. "At Western Dragon?"

Weiss realized that she did not keep their mission/encounter with the feral Faunus secret like she was told by her teachers. Ruby grimaced and told the Haven Huntresses and Huntsman in-training everything that had happened during their mission at the Land of the Western Dragon/Darkness.

"Man, why do all the crazy stuff happen on your missions?" Mercury asked after Ruby finished the tale.

"Wait. . . does that mean you guys won the bet?" Nora asked after Ruby was done explaining to Cinder and her teammates.

Emerald rose an eyebrow. "You guys made a bet?" she asked.

"I mean, it was just for fun," Ruby replied. "And no money involved so it was definitely not illegal or anything."

"And it doesn't really matter now," Weiss tried to dismiss Nora's question before the ginger haired hammer wielder suddenly dropped to her knees.

"NOO! MY PANCAKE FARMS AND SLOTH SANCTUARIES!" she wailed dramatically. "My dreams are shattered!"

Everyone gawked at the girl who seemed to be actually crying over the loss of not winning the bet Yang had proposed.

". . . Pancake what now?" Mercury muttered in confusion.

"Sloth sanctuaries?" Emerald repeated furrowing her brow.

Ren gave a sigh. "I'll get her to calm down." he said to the others before kneeling down to Nora.

". . . I see she hasn't changed." Cinder muttered to Ruby who nodded.

"Well, back to the matter at hand," Pyrrha said, looking away from Nora and back to Ruby and Weiss. "You two found a Dust mine?"

Both Ruby and Weiss understood why the tournament champion would think that. Dust was usually found underground.

"It wasn't really a mine we found," Weiss replied.

"So, Dust crystals?" Cinder asked.

Ruby nodded. "In, uh, large quantities and eh. . . sizes."

"Rubes, spit it out." Yang exclaimed, getting a little impatient with her sister.

". . . We found Dust Spires." the silver eyed Huntress in-training replied.

"Dust Spires?!" was everyone's shocked reaction to what the crimson reaper had just told them.

Jaune, however, was confused. "Dust Spires?" he repeated.

Not noticing his reaction, Pyrrha asked for clarification. "As in the ones from legends of old?"

"Yes, we even saw them up close and touched them." Weiss replied with a nod.

"Holy crap," Yang muttered in shock.

"This. . . This is huge," Mercury declared. "Like the first invention of robots or a floating city!" Like Atlas.

"This. . . " Cinder trailed off with wide eyes.

"Is going to change everything." said another voice. Cinder nodded in agreement before she recognized the voice and everyone turned to the owner, a Haven Huntress in-training. She had shoulder length dark brown hair and matching eyes. She wore a dark blue sweater under a black vest with matching pants and combat boots and finger less gloves.

"Oh, Ruby, guys, this is our new teammate." Cinder explained to the Beacon students. "This is Akane Yashiro."

"Hello, Team RWBY, Team JNPR." Akane greeted the Beacon Huntsmen and Huntresses in-training a smile and offered her hand to shake. "Cinder and the others have told me much about you all."

"Oh, hello!" Ruby smiled happy to meet a new friend.

"It's nice to meet you, Akane," Weiss nodded her head and shook her hand.

Blake silently shook Akane's hand with a smile. "Blake Belladonna."

"Nice to meet you, John." Akane said to the blonde knight.

"It's Jaune, actually." Jaune corrected. "Oh, sorry." Akane tried to apologize.

"Nah, it happens." Jaune dismissed. And he was right. About a month after they all attended Beacon, Jaune found out that all his friends admittedly thought his name was John not Jaune. Ruby tried to assure him that she knew right away but she didn't sound convincing.

"I was wondering if you guys got a fourth member." Yang said, looking to Cinder and the others. "She transfer from a different team?" She got confused when the mood suddenly seemed to change for the Haven students and Akane seemed to be sadden by something the blonde brawler and the others didn't know about.

"Did you tell your headmaster about this?" Akane asked. "About the Dust Spires?"

"I mean, we should," Yang said, standing up. "Our mission was to find Dust."

"But not Dust Spires," Weiss pointed out. "Feral Faunus is plausible, but Dust Spires are something you hear from a fairy tale."

Yang paused before she could take a step and realized the SDC heiress had a point. Feral Faunus in an unexplored continent was believable. But giant Dust crystals?

"I'm sorry, but what are Dust Spires?" asked Jaune. His team and friends looked to him in surprise and disbelief.

"Well, Jaune, Dust Spires look like a typical Dust shard that grows out of the ground," Pyrrha explained patiently to her partner. "And is about the size of a city skyscraper."

Jaune was silent for a moment, the others could see the gears turning in his head before it clicked into place. His blue eyes widen and his jaw dropped. "I think my head just exploded." he muttered, making some of the others chuckle in amusement.

"Well, on the other hand," Nora said. "I got a pet!"

"What?" was the reaction of everyone, even Ren. "Nora, when did you get a pet?" the stoic Huntsman in-training asked. Seriously? When? She didn't go to Vale today.

"He snuck into the ship when we left." Nora said and held up the lizard that she had found back in the Western Dragon continent. "Say hello to Doug!"

The lizard looked at the Huntresses and Huntsmen students like a curious dog and let out a bark like screech to them as if in greeting. Everyone all stared at Nora and the lizard like creature in her hands before they reacted, some in surprise and others in slight fear.

Blake jumped up in the air, arching like a frightened cat.

"What the Hell?" Emerald, Mercury, Jaune and Yang shouted.

"What is that?!" Weiss, Cinder, Akane and Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Awww, it's so cute," Ruby cooed and reached to pet the lizard. "Boop," she giggled as she poked the lizard on the nose with her finger.

1:35 PM

Downtown Vale, The Crow Bar. . .

Qrow sat on the bar stool and stared into his bourbon. Top shelf, he thought to himself with a wistful smile. Raven had always insisted on the best booze. His smile got a bit wider, as he remembered some of the epic bar crawls that Team STRQ had gone on after tough missions, ones that invariably ended with himself, Raven, and Taiyang very drunk, and designated non-drinker Summer Rose being the one who somehow got them all home. Though there had been sometimes that Summer had been the one to get stewed, and it had fallen to someone—sometimes Ozpin, sometimes Glynda, sometimes some random person at the bar—to get them home. Qrow's smile disappeared, because thinking about STRQ made him think about the present where both Summer and Raven being dead, and he didn't want to think about that.

"Good thing there's alcohol," he murmured, and tossed back the shot. It felt good going down, warm and welcoming. He had nine more glasses lined up. The bartender at the Crow Bar knew Qrow was a regular, and also knew to leave him alone.

Someone else didn't. "Hi there." Qrow looked around into the face of a relatively attractive woman. She was shorter than him—most women were—but there was something about her. Qrow made a living out of reading body language, either from bandits or from Grimm, and he knew her profession. Sometimes that would be fine, but tonight, Qrow wanted to be alone. "I'm Rosie," the girl ventured, seeing his scowl.

Shaking his head, Qrow growled. "Not interested."

The girl—prostitute, Qrow corrected, as she got closer—didn't seem to take a hint. "Are you sure?" She bent over a little, letting her impressive superstructure balloon over what was laughingly called a top. "You look sad, mister. For two hundred lien, I can make that go away for a little while."

"I said," Qrow snapped, "not interested. Find some other poor, miserable bastard." It was a little harsh, he told himself, but he was increasingly in a bad mood, and the name Rosie reminded him of Summer—and he did not need to be reminded of her.

"Fine. Go fuck yourself then," the girl said, flipping him the finger and walking off.

"I see you're making friends everywhere you go." Qrow turned at the new voice, and now he was staring at Winter. She was still dressed in her Atlassian uniform. Qrow blinked, abruptly reminded that Winter Schnee was a very good looking woman. Of course, the utter contempt in the ice-blue eyes and the disdainful frown did take away from that beauty some.

Qrow gave her a grunt, and went back to shot number two. "What're you doing here, Ice Queen? This doesn't strike me as your type of place."

"It's not," Winter agreed. One hand rested on the hilt of her saber. "I was passing by outside, and. . . " She faltered a moment, the icy mask slipping just a little. "No one should drink alone, Mr. Branwen."

"It's Qrow. And why do you think—" Qrow stopped himself, remembering. It was no great secret that Willow Schnee was an alcoholic. He stared at the shot and set it down. Qrow knew he was one as well; he just didn't care. He hadn't cared in a long time. "You planning on joining me, or did Oz or Iron-butt send you to pick me up?"

"Neither. I was quite literally passing by." She nodded at the lineup of shots. "I would say that you should leave, but it's quite clear that you have no intention of doing so. So I suppose I will stay for awhile, and make sure that, when you drink yourself into oblivion, that you are not robbed or murdered in the street by some random White Fang or Torchwick Gang criminal, and that you successfully return to Beacon Academy." She sat down on the bar stool next to him, and raised a finger towards the bartender. "A beer, please. Atlassian lager." The bartender nodded and poured her a glass.

"Surprised you drink at all." Qrow remarked.

"One beer is not going to make me drunk, Mr. Branwen." Winter replied as she sipped at it. "What are you polluting yourself with?"

Qrow tossed back the second shot, then ran his fingers over the others. "Half Vale bourbon, the other half Mistrali scotch. Maybe I'll do the Remnant tour today."

"I see." She raised the beer glass again. "What or who are we drinking to tonight?"

"We have to drink to something?" Qrow asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You are." Winter replied.

". . . To be honest, I'd rather not drink anymore to what I was drinking to." Qrow raised the third shot. He didn't want to think about STRQ anymore. He didn't want to think at all. Winter was making that easier, oddly enough. He wondered if that was on purpose on her part. Before he could make a remark, he heard the bar tender say something about "A lot of green stuff."

He and Winter looked where he was looking, the TV above the counter on the wall and saw footage of a large bundle of algae, seaweed and other green stuff floating into Vale harbor. The bar tender was right. That was a lot of green stuff. However, that wasn't what surprised them. It was what or rather who was standing on the green stuff.

Faunus. A lot of them. And none of them appeared to be species people would recognize.

Qrow and Winter's eyes widen at the sight before sharing a look and then they ran out of the bar. The two skidded to a stop on the sidewalk, glancing back at the TV before looking ahead and then began running as fast as they could.

"Crap, crap, crap," Qrow said to himself as he ran with Winter who mentally shared the sentiment with the veteran Huntsman.

A team of Haven Huntsmen, SSSN were exiting a bakery with a box of sweets when they came to a stop to see what was in front of them on the streets.

"What the heck?" Sun muttered in shock at seeing the most bizzarre Faunus he had ever seen in his life. They had more scales, feathers, fur and other animal appendages compared to most Faunus Sun knows and seen. And that wasn't all. Some of them were riding on horse while others rode on giant lizard like creatures with alligator like skin and spiky tails, others rode on giant tigers with deer like antlers and glowing eyes. Two Faunus, a male Reptilian with dorsal fins running down his back and a Moth woman rode on what looked to be a dragon. An actual dragon with two legs, a round head with curved horns and a spiky tail. And they were all covered in what looked like war paint of different colors and armed with spears and bows and arrows.

One Faunus stopped and looked to him. She was six and a half feet tall and she seemed to be a mix between a bird and reptile, most of her body was covered in green feathers and scales with a long feathered tail, sharp claws and bird like feet with large wings on her back, long ruby red hair, amber eyes and light brown skin. She honestly looked a lot like Pyrrha Nikos.

"Um, hi?" Sun waved a hand nervously. His partner, Neptune Vasilas followed suit, but with in a more flirtatious way. "Hey."

The bird-reptile Faunus narrowed her eyes at them both and snarled before charging at them.

Sun, Neptune, Scarlet and Sage cried out in surprise and fright at that, with the Monkey Faunus' tail shooting straight up in a cartoonish manner, fur standing on end, and they all ran back into the bakery and closed the door just before the Faunus could charge after them. She glared at them before walking away.

Sun and his team panted before he looked to Neptune. "I told you not every woman was going to like your flirting." he said in a scolding tone. Then another Faunus appeared in the window behind them. This one was a male Reptilian Faunus of some kind. He had scales with the texture of a Gila Monster and coloring of light green. He had a cat like face and sharp claws with pointed ears and orange hair with a row of horns in the middle of his head. He growled at them from the other side of the door, making Team SSSN jump back in fear before laughing at them in a mocking manner.

Godzilla and Mothra both rolled their eyes at Quetzalcoatl and Gabera chasing a group of young men into a building but at least they could do any harm to the young Faunus and humans. Once the female and male Kaiju rejoined their ranks, the King and Queen looked forward to the empty streets.

So far nothing had happened when the Kaiju arrived in the city. Most of the Kaiju, including those from the Rogue Tribe had overrun the streets while some had climbed to the top of building roofs to look for any danger coming up ahead or in the sky. Godzilla and Mothra looked at the city and its buildings. There was something familiar about this city to the King and Queen but they couldn't put their finger on it. Perhaps it was a city they had been to once in the past and it had changed greatly in the past eighty-three years.

"Godzilla, Mothra," called Anguirus who had black and white war paint on his torso and face. "Why are we going to where Rodan, Gigan and Megalon found the humans and Faunus?" he asked. "The city leaders seem to gather in that large building." he points to a large building.

"Maybe so," Godzilla replied. "But it is important that we speak to the humans at the castle because they are Hunters of Grimm."

"Oh," Anguirus said in surprise and understanding dawned on him. The Hunters of Grimm would be an immediate threat to the Kaiju in their job to hunt down threats to civilian humans and Faunus, they'd attack the Kaiju Kingdom if they didn't understand that the Kaiju wanted peace and be left alone from the humans and Faunus.

"Excuse me," said a voice. Godzilla and Mothra looked ahead and saw a human woman with purple hair and matching eyes standing before them with a man accompanying her with a camera on his shoulder and she held a microphone. "I'm Lisa Lavender of the Vale News Network. Can I ask some questions?"

Godzilla blinked before rolling his eyes. "Make it quick. We must speak with your Hunters."

"Okay, are you all members of the White Fang?" Lisa asked.

Godzilla tilted his head. He looked to Mothra. "Do you know any. . . 'White Fang' tribes?" he asked, getting a shake of his Queen's head.

Godzilla turned to the leader of the Rogue Tribe. She stood close to seven feet tall with black hair, red eyes, four arms, two were human and the other were insect like arms and legs, a thick exoskeleton covered most of her upper body. This was Jinshin-Mushi, also known as MUTO Prime. Normally, Godzilla would NOT be traveling with her and the Rogue Tribe, nor would his tribe, but he had decided that all the Kaiju must make a declaration before the humans and Faunus. "What of you, Jinshin? Do you know any White Fang tribes?"

"No, I do not." Jinshin-Mushi replied. Godzilla looked to the other tribal leader, he was a Turtle Kaiju with a dark green shell and carapace, elbow spikes and sharp tusks sticking out of his jaw. Gamera. He silently rose an eyebrow at him and Gamera shook his head that no, he did not know of any White Fang tribes.

Looking back to the human woman, Godzilla shook his head. "We do not know of any tribe called the White Fang." With that, he kept on walking and ignored what else the woman was asking.

"You found this thing back in the Land of the Western Dragon?" Emerald asked.

"Yep," Nora said with a grin. "Of course, when we heard Blake's gunshot Ren told me to leave him and I did. But I guess Doug followed us to Ice Queen's ship."

The three teams didn't know what to make of it. What should they do with the lizard like creature that Nora had affectionately called Doug. Report to Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch? But then what?

Before anyone could form an answer, Nora turns to Ren. "So, can we keep him?"

"Nora," Ren sighed.

"Please, I already trained him." Nora pleaded. "Look." she turns to Doug.

"Sit." The lizard-like creature sits down. "Shake." Nora holds a hand for the lizard to shake.

"Uh huh, speak." Nora nodded her head with a smug smile.

"Hi there." Doug greeted, lifting a paw up as if waving and his lips curled up in a smile.

Everyone, even Nora stared at Doug in surprise and shock. ". . . Did that lizard just say 'hi there?'" Cinder asked slowly.

"Oh yes." Doug replied, turning his head to Cinder who recoils in response. "The name given to me is Doug. I have just met you all today but I have decided that I love you." Doug stated, he walks up and rubs his head on Cinder's leg before doing the same gesture to the others. First to Mercury and then Emerald before going over to Akane. "And for that, I will be your companion for life."

"This. . . shouldn't be possible," Akane said with wide eyes watching Doug's movements. "Lizards don't talk."

"Oh but my kind do," Doug said, rubbing his head on Nora who giggled and petted him on the head. "We speak Kaiju but since you are all human and Faunus, I shall speak the same language as all of you." Then he paused and looked out the window. "Squirrel!" he exclaimed. Everyone looked out the window, to the tree outside and saw a squirrel on a tree branch.

Doug stares at the squirrel before it walks out of view. He goes back to rubbing his head on the legs of Team RWBY. "I will remember each of your scents for the rest of my life. And when I am fully grown, I will carry you on my back into battle and not leave your sides until I die."

". . . Okay, we got a talking lizard on our hands," Jaune said slowly, chuckling nervously.

Just then a loud roar was heard faintly before any of the others could say anything.

SSKKKRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNKKgh!

Doug gasped as he looked out the window. "It's the King."

"The King?" Mercury repeated, glancing at Emerald in confusion. As for Teams RWBY and JNPR stiffen and went rigid, for they recognized that roar. The Reptilian Faunus from the Land of the Western Dragon.

Cinder noticed their reaction and asked in concern, "Ruby? Guys? What's wrong?"

"The feral Faunus," Blake said, cat ears flattening in fear. "They-They followed us here."

"Well, it seems that keeping the existence of feral Faunus a secret until further notice was futile," Ozpin remarked as he and Glynda looked out the office window in the Beacon CCT/clock tower. "Since they have revealed themselves."

"You don't think they came here for violent retribution?" Glynda asked in concern. "They're all armed with weapons."

"I do not know for sure," Ozpin said honestly. "But I do know that Qrow was wrong about one thing."

Glynda looks to her superior with a raised eyebrow.

"That," Ozpin points to the army of feral Faunus out in the courtyard. "Is a lot more than eighty."

Glynda didn't know if she wanted to pull on her hair in frustration or slap Ozpin. Why was he making a joke in a time like this?

Just then Ozpin's personal Scroll began to ring. He pulls it out of his pocket and answers it. "Yes?"

"Ozpin, are you seeing this?" asked the caller. It was the Headmaster of Atlas Academy and the leader of the Atlassian Military. General James Ironwood, an old friend and trusted ally of the two Beacon staff members. For a long time, Ironwood had managed his Kingdom into a peaceful state, through the show of his military's might. No terrorist threat would dare lay their hands on Atlas, knowing of their power. Though Atlas was the most technological advanced of all the Kingdoms, its military government could be considered. . . its least advanced aspect. In his hubris, General Ironwood believed that peace could also be achieved in the other Kingdoms if his armies were there to 'supervise it' as he said, more or less. Though his method was effective in Atlas, those outside of Atlas saw his method as him taking away their freedom.

Nonetheless, Ironwood was a good man, whose intentions were in the right place, Ozpin and Glynda knew that very well. However, the problem was that those that didn't know him would not know that.

"The army of primitive Faunus?" Ozpin replied. "It's hard to miss. They're all in my school's courtyard. I got to admit, I didn't think I'd see primitive weapons outside of history museums. Why? Do you have the same kind of visitors?"

"No, I do not." was Ironwood's response. "Don't worry. My forces will arrive for backup. ETA four hours."

"I believe that will not be needed, James." Ozpin replied.

"What? Ozpin, are you intending to have your students fight that army alone?" Ironwood asked in disbelief.

"With the fact that the Faunus themselves haven't attacked anyone, I don't believe that fighting is needed." Ozpin replied. "Plus, none of them have Grimm masks, so maybe they're not allied with the White Fang."

"Oz, you don't know that for certain!" Ironwood protested.

"Maybe so, but we won't know until we speak, face to face." Ozpin replied coolly. "I'll call you back, James."

"Oz, wait-!" Ozpin hung up his Scroll. As he put it back in his pocket, Glynda looked at him nervously. Ozpin took a moment to stare down out the window at the feral Faunus before looking to his deputy.

". . . Do you know what you're doing, Michael?" Glynda asked him in a cautious tone. Ozpin was silent before replying with a question of his own. "Would you believe me if I said 'yes?'"

His unsure tone said otherwise. Just then a stream of blueish white fire blasted through the air in front of their window. The two teachers looked up at the beam in surprise before it vanished as quickly as it appeared. They looked down where it came from and saw it came from the feral Faunus army. Probably the one that was riding a dragon looking creature. ". . . Not at the moment, no," Glynda replied with wide green eyes from seeing the blue fire.

"Unfortunately, neither would I," Ozpin admitted. This got Glynda's confidence to sink.

Five minutes later, all of Beacon's students along with those from the other academies gathered in the audothorium and Ozpin and Glynda stood at the massive gates that leads out to the courtyard, where they knew the army of Faunus was waiting for them.

Ozpin looked to the students with a stoic expression while Glynda looked uncertain. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CNEM (Cinnamon. Cinder, Akane, Emerald and Mercury) were the students standing near the front. Both Yang and Nora had an expression that bluntly said, "We told you so." While the rest of their friends had worried expressions.

Ozpin sighed before holding up his Scroll and pressing on an app that controlled the front gates before him. Slowly, the massive gates opened up, revealing the massive army of feral Faunus armed with primitive weapons.

Ruby's eyes widened upon seeing the Faunus from Western Dragon, some riding on lizards the size of semitrucks that looked like Doug. Among them were large tigers with antlers on their heads and glowing eyes as well as wolves with warthog like tusks. Her eyes recognized who she believed to be the leaders, the Reptilian and the Moth Faunus. The male had whiteish blue warpaint on his chest and arms as well as his face in the style of flames. The Moth wore armor that looked like an insect's endoskeleton with orangish yellow warpaint. Both of them were on what looked to be a black dragon that was big as Winter's personal airship with a round head, two round horns, two legs, folded wings and a spiky tail.

Weiss glanced to the statues in the middle of the courtyard. The statues were of a Huntsman and Huntress standing over a Beowulf. Right now, she sees three Faunus perched on the statues. Two of them were perched like birds, one a woman with fiery red hair and large wings, the second a male she recognized from earlier but he had two crests on his head and leathery wings and warpaint consisted of colors that made up lava. Red, yellow, orange and black. The third was a male that hung from the Huntress' sword holding arm upside down like a bat. Actually, Weiss came to realize that he was indeed a Bat Faunus. He had pale ebony skin with a spiky tail, large pointed ears, four visible fangs and when his wings stretched out, Weiss saw what looked to be a mane of black hair that covered his upper torso.

Blake and Yangrecognized the Snake women and swallowed nervously. The Cat Faunus' eyes were also drawn to a warrior with a spiky shell and tail. Wait, is that my bag? she thought as she realized the Faunus was holding her bag, the one she dropped back in Western Dragon. Yang recognized the two Ape Faunus and saw how their warpaints were reflections of each other. The younger one had black on his albino fur, while the older one had white on his black fur.

The two parties stared at one another before Ruby took a deep breath. She then began to walk forward, towards the feral Faunus.

"Ruby, what are you doing?" Cinder asked upon noticing the younger Huntress in-training breaking away from the crowd and towards the Faunus.

"Ruby?" Yang called out questionably and unsure what her little sister was thinking.

"Ruby! Get back here!" Weiss demanded. "Now!"

Ruby continued walking before she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Ms. Rose, I believe it would be best if you return to your team," Ozpin said to Ruby when she turned her head to look at him. Ruby wanted to protest but Glynda pulled her aside with her Telekinetic Semblance and planted her next to her sister and teammates.

With that done, the two professors walked towards the Faunus, the couple on the dragon dismounted and walked to meet the two humans in the middle.

The Atlassian Bullhead landed not far off from the two groups on a landing pad. As soon as the ramp lowered, Qrow and Winter raced down and saw the army of Faunus and the Huntsmen and Huntresses in-training on different ends of the courtyard. Ozpin saw the veteran Huntsman and Atlas Specialist and simply gestured his hand over to the students. Qrow nodded in understanding and silently told Winter to follow him over to where Team RWBY stood. Winter nodded and followed him over to where their respective family members were at.

The two Faunus stood before Ozpin and Glynda, the Reptilian Faunus bore a very serious expression. Ozpin studied the Reptilian with a curious and cautious expression. He looked vaguely familiar, and in his experience that didn't always mean well.

"Greetings," Ozpin said after a moment. "I'm Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy and this is my deputy Glynda Goodwitch." He gestures to the Combat Instructor. "How can we help you?"

The Reptilian Faunus blinked at him once before opening his mouth. "I am Godzilla, King of the Kaiju." he said. He gestures to the Moth Faunus next to him. "This is my Queen, Mothra."

Mothra bows her head. "Greetings. . . Professor." she stated.

It was then both Ozpin and Glynda noticed Mothra's eyes. They were silver. Like their student, Ruby. The two teachers stared before Ozpin shook his head. "I'm sorry, you said Kaiju?" he asked.

"Yes, we are not Faunus," Godzilla replied and then his face began to change from a human/Faunus to a more reptilian face without hair as did the rest of his body transform to a more reptilian form. "We. . . are Kaiju."

Ozpin's eyes widened in surprise while the crowd of students made noises of surprise. Qrow, Winter and Teams RWBY and JNPR were even surprised. They did not know the Faunus could do THAT.

Mothra held up her arms and another pair of arms split off from her arms. Now she had six limbs like an insect.

The male Faunus-Kaiju with the spiky shell, grew a reptilian snout with a curved nasal horn and a frill of spikes on his head. The male Pterosaur Kaiju all grew more Pterosaur heads, the Bat Kaiju also gained a similar transformation as did all the male Kaiju. The males now looked like animal humanoids

". . . Well, you don't see that every day," Ozpin remarked dryly.

"And we are not like the Grimm," Godzilla declared in a voice loud enough for all the students to hear. "We do not kill humans or Faunus without reason."

"I see," Glynda murmured in thought. "Then why did you come here?"

"We do not want a war with any human and Faunus, kingdom or colony," Mothra replied. "Please remember that."

"And take to heart that we are willing to fight," Godzilla added. "If we must." He turns to Anguirus and gestures his head to the humans. Anguirus dismounts from his horse and walks up to Ozpin and Glynda. The Ankylosaur holds up Blake's bag to them.

"I believe this belongs to that Faunus over there," Anguirus said, pointing to Blake standing in the crowd. Blake's cat ears stiffened in surprise while her teammates and friends looked to her in surprise.

"And this," Godzilla reaches behind him to his dorsal fins and pulls out a folded contraption with the colors of black and red. "Belongs to the girl with silver eyes."

Ruby suddenly gasped as she saw what was in his hand. "CRESCENT ROSE!" she happily exclaimed. Needless to say, seeing her beloved weapon again since she accidentally dropped it at the Land of the Western Dragon made Ruby's heart soar.

She used her Semblance to speed over to Godzilla and her teachers, grabbed the object from the Kaiju's hand who blinked in surprise. Turning away, Ruby transformed her weapon into its scyth form, which made all the Kaiju behind Godzilla and Mothra tense, thinking she would attack them.

Ruby did not, in fact, attack them. Instead she began to hug her weapon tightly and rock it back and forth like it was a baby. "Oh, my dearest baby! I missed you so much!" she exclaimed as if talking to a loved one to the scythe. "I missed you, I missed you, I missed you!"

The entire situation with the Kaiju, a very serious one had been turned upside down by Ruby's childlike behavior.

Weiss, Blake, Winter and Teams JNPR and CNEM stared at her oddly while Yang and Qrow let out nervous chuckles. The former ran her hands through her mane of hair while the latter scratched at his beard.

Glynda closed her eyes and tried to calm herself from scolding and berating Ruby for acting this way before an army during an negotiation. Ozpin rose an eyebrow in wonderment and bewilderment.

Ruby stopped and gasped. She turned around to face Godzilla. "Thank you so much for-!" She attempted to show her gratitude to the Reptilian Kaiju before seeing that he, Mothra and the Kaiju behind them were looking at her oddly. ". . . Huh?"

Godzilla gave her a perplexed and tense look for how she was acting. He seemed upset that his declaration and negotiation was interrupted by her behavior. Mothra looked to her weapon with a weary expression, worried the Huntress would attack since she had her weapon out. The other Kaiju were also tense and wary as well. Ruby turned to the humans and Faunus behind her giving her similar expression towards her behavior.

She turns back to Godzilla and Mothra with an anxious and apologetic expression. "Um, uh. . . Thanks." She chuckles nervously. "Eh-heh-heh."

". . . Right," Godzilla said after a moment, clearing his throat. Ruby noticed his gills shuddering at the action. "We, the Kaiju have our territories," he points to the Kaiju behind him before pointing to Beacon Academy. "You humans and Faunus have your territories."

"As long as we all stay in each other's territories," Mothra added. "There will be peace. No conflict. No blood."

"On a different matter," Godzilla said, walking forward and points a clawed finger toward Blake. "She injured one of our own young Kaiju, Tiamat."

Ozpin and Glynda's eyes widened as did Teams RWBY and JNPR. Qrow, Winter and CNEM looked surprised. They apparently, did not know that. Yang grimaced. She and Blake had more or less left that detail out in fear of how their peers would react and shame for the event.

"For a gesture of good will between us," Godzilla went on, turning to Ozpin and Glynda, "she will come with us as a prisoner."

The crowd of students gasped in shock and surprise while Ozpin and Glynda stiffened. Gasping in shock, Ruby stared with wide eyes, glancing between Blake and the Kaiju.

Blake's eyes widened before. . . she took a deep breath and began to walk to Godzilla.

"Blake!" Yang and Weiss said, reaching out to stop her.

"Kid, wait!" Qrow said.

"Ms. Belladonna, go back to the academy," Ozpin said sternly. He turns to Godzilla. "Godzilla-I mean, Your Majesty, please reconsider this."

"Professor, it's okay," Blake said, walking up until she stood before the Kaiju. "I'll go, and pay for my crime." she said to Godzilla.

"But-Blake-You-!" Ruby tried to protest before looking at Godzilla. "Then I'll go too!"

"So will I!" declared both Yang and Weiss as they walked forward.

"Yang! Ruby!" Qrow reached out to them as he walked forward.

"Weiss, get back here this instant!" Winter demanded. Teams JNPR and CNEM as well as the other students around them also began to voice their protests, whether to Team RWBY or to the Kaiju King. They may not hang out with Blake and her team or know them very well, but that did not mean they were going to be okay with them being taken away as prisoners by an army of Kaiju.

Godzilla rose his head up, a low humming noise heard as his dorsal spines began to glow a faint neon blue. He opened his mouth and blue fire shot out of his mouth and blasted high into the air. This silenced everyone's protest and they all looked on in fear.

Cinder and Ruby were two of the few that couldn't help but look at the beam of blue fire in awe and wonder.

Godzilla ceased fire and looked to the young Huntresses in-training that stood before him. ". . . The blonde, I can understand why she would come," he said after a moment, glancing between Blake and Yang. He looks at Ruby and Weiss. "But you two have nothing to do with the Faunus."

The reaper-fencer duo stared up at the Kaiju King before replying.

"They're our teammates," Weiss replied dutifully.

"And I'm the team leader," Ruby added. "Blake's actions are my responsibilty, so if she's going to be punished, then so will I."

"Ruby, no!" Qrow shouted as he walked forward. "I'm not letting you do this!"

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby turned her head to look at her uncle sternly. "Trust me. Please."

That struck a chord to Qrow, a distant memory of Ruby's mother. He stares at Ruby with eyes before closing them and stepping back.

Winter stared at Weiss. Weiss's gaze softened slightly and she silently repeated Ruby's message to her sister. Both sisters stared at one another before the elder stepped back with a weak nod. The two then looked back at Godzilla.

Godzilla stared before turning to look to Mothra. The Moth Kaiju looked to the four Huntresses in-training with an observing expression, her antennea glowing faintly before she silently nods to Godzilla. The Saurian Kaiju looks back to Ruby.

". . . Then perhaps you are not as childish as you act," he rumbled to her before nodding his head. "Very well." He turns his head.

"Rodan, Kong, Anguirus," he called out and the mentioned Kaiju either walked up to him or flew down to him. "Watch over each one respectively, the leader will ride with Mothra and I."

The three Kaiju nod their heads to him before turning to Weiss, Blake and Yang.

Rodan lowers one wing to Weiss. "Get on my back," he chittered and said, his voice soft and stern as he switched from Kaiju to the human language. "I'll carry you. Don't try anything funny."

Weiss breathed deeply before complying. Just like a horse, she thinks to reassure herself. . . . A horse with wings.

Anguirus noticed Blake's nervous expression and transformed back to his more human-like appearance. He attaches his club to his belt and holds out a hand with her bag and gestures for the Cat Faunus to follow. Blake grabbed the bag and walked after the Ankylosaur Kaiju.

Kong held a hand to Yang. Yang gave one last glance to Ruby and to her uncle before following the Gorilla Kaiju.

Ruby also looked back to Beacon Academy, to her friends, uncle and teachers.

"Ms. Rose, if you're changing your mind now," Ozpin said softly to her. "Then I will do whatever it takes to keep them away from you."

Ruby shook her head. "No, I'm going through with this decision. You said that our duty is to uphold the peace. This is in the name of peace."

"Ms. Rose," Ozpin protested as Ruby began walking away. "Ruby!"

That was a big gesture that Ozpin was against this. He had rarely called Ruby by her first name, but she didn't look back now. She pulled herself onto the dragon's back along with Mothra. She notices a Saurian Kaiju with a robotic arm and legs and scythe blade glaring at her with a red visor. Ruby leaned back in fear. She recognized the Kaiju and was intimidated by his glare at her.

Mothra seemed to notice her discomfort. "Gigan, leave the child be." she said.

Gigan scoffed before moving away.

"We have nothing more to say," Godzilla said to Ozpin. "The Hunters of Grimm will return after next summer. I give my word that they will not be harmed by my Tribe."

"See that they are not," Glynda said with a glare. She casts one concerned glance to the students before glaring at Godzilla and then walking away.

Ozpin turns around to walk away as well. But then Godzilla spoke to him, his brow furrowing. ". . . Have we met before?" he asked.

Ozpin paused in mid step. ". . . No, we haven't." He replied. "I guess I just have one of those faces." With that said, he continued to walk away.

Godzilla hummed, narrowing his eyes before walking away and the Kaiju followed suit. They walked to the cliffside overlooking the ocean and one Kaiju female stepped forward. She stood six foot nine with clothing made out of leaves, with a row of green leaf-like dorsal plates down her spine and four vine-like roots on her waist with green hair and yellow eyes. She raised her hand up and suddenly a large bridge made out of seaweed, algae and other green stuff formed before the Kaiju.

Ruby looked around at the plant bridge, awe-struck.

Jaune and his team wanted to protest as did Cinder and her team but Glynda ushered them into the school.

Qrow and Winter stared out at the retreating form of the Kaiju. Qrow sighed heavily, running his hands through his graying hair. "Oh man, their father is going to shatter my skull."

"With my father, it's best to hope he doesn't do anything," Winter replied. "Otherwise he'd blame the Headmaster before turning his anger on me." She then holds her head in her hands. "Mother and Whitley on the other hand. . ."

Needless to say, both of them were not looking forward to the reactions of Ruby and Yang's father or Weiss' other family. And that's not even mentioning Blake's parents.

Chapter Text

One of the first thoughts Godzilla and Mothra had as they left the humans and Faunus' claimed territories was a prayer for peace. Was it to the Brother gods? No. Just someone else.

The declaration for peace had been made to the Human and Faunus Grimm Hunters at their castle. And as far as Godzilla could tell, the two leaders had understood everything he had meant. No misinterpretation whatsoever. Then again, it could be a facade so they could send a force to attack the Kingdom of Kaiju. But the Grimm Hunters also could have attacked the Kaiju while he was speaking, but they didn't.

Mothra was concerned about the Kaiju that almost attacked the humans and Faunus, especially the Rogue Tribe. As soon as the girl with silver eyes unfolded her weapon before the Kaiju, she could sense that Jinshin Mushi, MUTO Prime wanted to attack the girl while she was acting like a young girl reuniting with a lost doll. 

Was MUTO Prime thinking to act out of defense upon seeing the girl's weapon brought out or was she just wanting to do it for her enjoyment? It's hard to say sometimes with that Kaiju most of the time.

And Godzilla, Mothra knew, was also angered at the girl for interrupting his speech. He brought her weapon back to her out of his good will, to show they weren't like the Grimm, mindless and violent. But then she went and acted childishly with her weapon. But at the very least, she realized her behavior was wrong. But her behavior most likely reminded Godzilla one of the things he disliked about the humans and Faunus: their love for weapons. Guns and blades in particular. It always seemed that Human and Faunus' culture and societies revolved around their weapons and need to defend themselves from Grimm followed with desires to have stylish and advanced weapons. Although, Mothra knew that the Hunters of Grimm were the most associated with weapons, she and Godzilla should have realized that the girl would be a weapon lover.

While she was willing to fight should the situation call for it, Mothra detested weapons and violence. The Kaiju only used their spears and arrows for hunting and any fighting between Kaiju was quickly resolved. Most violence solves nothing but causes more problems, in her view.

As the Kaiju walked on the bridge of plants, further and further away from the human and Faunus' territories, Kong glanced to his son who kept looking over to the girl with eyes of silver, sulking and with a disgusted expression. Kong hooted for Kiko's attention and signed in concern, What's wrong?

Kiko sighed before signing in response. That girl, the one with silver eyes, treated her weapon like a loved one. I don't understand, Father.

Kong could see how unsettled his son was, he himself was bothered by how the young girl cradled the killing tool or how she spoke to it. Some can't be understood, Kiko, Kong told him. And I understand those who love weapons the least.

Kiko looked at him in surprise before slumping. Hopefully, there will be a day when weapons are not needed, Kong added before he moved ahead.

Kiko looked back at his father before his eyes landed on the blonde girl that was riding Kong's horse behind the older Gorilla Kaiju. The girl was looking back at the human kingdom before her lilac eyes landed on his own. Kiko curled his lips downward. "Don't think I didn't forget what you and your friend did to mine."

Yang saw the young Gorilla Kaiju sneer at her and turned away. Normally, she wouldn't look away from someone that wasn't acting friendly with her, and would often challenge them, but with these Kaiju, who knows how they'd react if she gave them an defensive expression.

Waiting is a very testing process, even in this day and age.

People wait for something in life. Something they want so much. Or something they know is going to happen.

But there is no sane person in the world that would attest to enjoy a moment of waiting. No one liked waiting, plain and simple. Waiting got in the way of what they wanted, it tested their patience and irritated them. And besides, not everyone got what they wanted when they waited for so long. Those who couldn't wait and hated the idea of doing it, would be called impatient and high-strung while those who did wait were considered wise and patient. One who waits doesn't do it just to do it, and doesn't like waiting as well. People who could wait were just tolerant enough to do it.

But if there was anyone who could wait no matter how long they had to, there was this young woman sitting on a chair within an abandoned, broken down warehouse. Waiting alongside her were her two siblings, a sister and brother, with a Bull Faunus and a Chameleon Faunus.

The woman was clothed in a short, bright yellow dress under a dark yellow jacket with flames designed on the back of her shoulders and high heel boots that reached up to her thighs. A bright yellow belt was wrapped around her waist with a spiky belt buckle. She had dark brown hair with brown eyes. What stood out the most of this woman was the large leathery wings that were folded behind her back that dragged on the floor behind her seat. Her name was Ichi Do'Ratta.

Her sister, Ni, was a few years younger than her. Ni's outfit was similar to Ichi's in color but she wasn't wearing a dress under her jacket, just a yellow top with lightning bolts on her shirt and dark tight jeans. Her wings were slightly smaller than Ichi's wings.

And there was their younger brother, Sans. Also known as Kevin. Kevin wore dark black pants with a dark brown leather jacket with yellow stripes on the arms. Unlike his sisters, he didn't have wings but a pair of curved horns on his head.

The Faunus were members of the White Fang. The Bull with red hair, black horns on his head, dressed in a black trench coat with a red red wilting rose over white floral patterns on his back over a red shirt and  black pants with a Grimm mask covering his eyes was Adam Taurus. He was pacing back and forth, a hand on the hilt of his sword. 

The Chameleon Faunus, Ilia Amitola, had dark brown hair with matching skin, dressed in a black tight jumper suit with a zipper in the middle of her front with short sleeves and leggings with black Combat boots. Her Grimm mask was hanging from her belt that had a pair of horns similar to that of a chameleon. Unlike most Reptilian Faunus, Ilia's scales could be mistaken for freckles on her skin. While they were all waiting, Ilia was inspecting her weapon, a whip sword called Lightning Lash.

And what were they all waiting for? Their two allies Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan. 

Yes, as Team RWBY discovered three years ago. The infamous master thief and his mute ally were working together with the White Fang. They robbed Dust stores and other sources along with managing to steal prototype Atlassian Paladins before the Grimm attack known as The Breach, where they had cleared out a subway tunnel in Mountain Glenn, filled a train with explosives that allowed hordes of Grimm to enter the tunnel and then breached a massive hole in the middle of Downtown Vale. This led to the Grimm entering the city.

Of course, this plan didn't go without a hitch. Team RWBY was in Mountain Glenn at the time and had found the White Fang's underground base and were on the train when it crashed into Vale. With their efforts, combined with Teams JNPR, CFVY, Haven students, three of Beacon's professors and the Atlas Military, the Grimm attack was stopped before it could do major damage.

This led to Roman Torchwick being captured by Haven students and taken into custody of the Atlassian military. . . For about six months before he managed to escape and then go into hiding.

For two years, people were on edge, thinking that the master thief will cause another Grimm attack like the Breach, but another year passed when people began to calm down.

Team RWBY never did find out what was Roman's real goal with his alliance with the White Fang, and what they also never found out was that both the master thief and the terrorist organization were controlled by a third party.

That third party was the Do'Ratta siblings. More specifically, the oldest one, Ichi.

Ichi and her siblings seemed to come out of nowhere  and managed to get both the Vale branch of the White Fang and Roman Torchwick under her thumb, promising them lifelong goals and desires, with the resources to back them up. Neither Roman nor Adam knew who the siblings really were or what their goals were, but that didn't matter as long as they got what they wanted from working under Ichi.

Now, back to the present, Ichi had called a meeting to discuss their next action and plans and now they were waiting for the master thief and his little assassin.

That was well over an hour ago; neither Roman nor Neopolitan have arrived. Even if he was a classy criminal, Roman wasn't known to be fashionably late. In fact, he was usually the one everyone came to for meetings like this one. And that wouldn't happen without him knowing.

"Your petty criminal is wasting my time," Adam said to Ichi bluntly. Unlike her, he wasn't patient.

"Patience, Mr. Taurus," Ichi replied. "He will be here."

"If he doesn't arrive soon, Ilia and I won't stay any longer," Adam claimed.

"You know, you gotta admit," Kevin spoke to Ni. "Torchwick's not one to be late to these meetings."

Kevin was right, Ni mentally acknowledged. And that's a rare occurrence. 

Before anything could be said, Roman Torchwick and his partner Neopolitan suddenly ran into the room. Roman had bright orange hair with long bangs covering his right eye. He wore dark pants and shoes with a white suit jacket, a gray scarf, black gloves with buckled sleeves. The most memorable thing was his black bowler hat with a feather that was tucked into the hat's red band. In his hand was his weapon of choice, a cane called Melodic Cudgel. 

Neapolitan or otherwise known as 'Neo' had pink and brown hair with white streaks with matching (Or mismatched, really) eyes. She wore a white jacket with brown pants, black gloves with black and white high heeled boots and several necklaces around her neck. The short woman held her weapon, a pink parasol with white designs called Hush.

Ichi half expected Roman to say something dramatic or something, but he didn't. Thinking nothing of it, the winged Faunus spoke to the master thief. "I thought I made it clear that we do not like waiting for your arrival, Roman."

But then Ichi saw how both Roman and Neo were painting heavily as if they had been running as fast as they could to get here.

Adam also noticed how the two were exhausted and let his curiosity get the better of him. "You're both out of breath."

". . . No. . . shit!" Roman said between panting, wiping sweat off his head.

Adam frowned in a glare at the master thief while Kevin laughed. "What, did you forget about this meeting? I mean, to be fair, it is like three years since our last meeting and-"

"Shut it," Roman snapped now catching his breath. "Neo and I have a good reason to being late and it's bat shit crazy!"

"Oh?" Ichi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do tell then, Roman."

"What? You didn't watch the news?" Roman asked her in disbelief. At Ichi's shake of her head, Roman sighed before looking around. "Is that old projector still here and does it still work?"

"Uh, after three years, surprisingly, yeah." Ilia answered.

"Good, that'll do." Roman said and tossed his Scroll to the Chameleon Faunus. "Hook it up to my Scroll and put on the news."

Ilia rose an eyebrow and looked to Ichi who waved her hand dismissively at her to go right ahead.

Ilia did as she was told and the Vale News Network was projected onto a wall with the headline 'Breaking News.'

"Everyone, prepare to lose your shit." Roman said to everyone in a serious tone.

"Good afternoon, people of Vale," Lisa Lavender spoke on the news. "This is Lisa Lavender of VNN. At the moment, our top story of the day is still being covered of the recent event that took place merely an hour ago, but citizens are panicking and demanding answers of what was been called 'Kaiju' entering our city and taking a handful of Beacon Academy students."

Panic and confusion gripped the people of Vale. Chaos flooded down the city's streets. The Kingdom was wrought with disorder. No one, human or Faunus, felt at ease with the event they just witnessed. The citizens were crowding the streets and especially Main Street, and close to rioting. They all marched to the capital building, hoping for answers to what was going to be done, especially for the four Huntresses that were taken by the army of 'Kaiju.' The only response they got from the Council was an order to calm themselves down to not attract Grimm to their city and return to their homes.

This did little to calm the people down and the Council decided to call in popular figures-- the Huntsmen and Huntresses-- to come to the capital to calm down the crowds. Unfortunately, not very many of them were in the city itself and others were too far. So the Council ended up turning to a somewhat last resort. The Huntsmen and Huntress students of Beacon and those who were visiting for the Vytal Festival. They contacted the Headmaster, received his reluctant permission and the Headmaster sent several students down to the distraught city center.

Among those students were Teams JNPR, CYNEM, SSSN, CFVY with Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee. Unfortunately, they were having difficulties with the citizens.

"Please! If everyone could just calm down-!" Cinder tried to speak to the citizens but was drowned out by the noise of the people's rioting and screaming.

"What the Hell were those-those things?!"

"The Council will explain," Akane tried to answer. "So if you all could just wait for a moment-!"

"They took four children, is that what they're going to do?!" interrupted another citizen. "Oh Gods, they're going to take our children!"

"Now, hold on, they didn't take anyone!" Emerald said. "Look, they chose to go! They went willingly! Now please, calm down. We don't want to attract Grimm to the city."

"Grimm is coming to the city?! The Grimm are coming to the city!!"

"No, they're not!" Mercury said. "Now, everyone, everyone! You're all going batshit crazy!"

"All of you, calm down!" Winter said sternly and Pyrrha exclaimed. "There is nothing to fear!"

"I-If everyone could just take a breath and go back to your homes--!" Jaune tried to speak but was interrupted.

"We can't ignore this!" declared the citizens.

"Those freaks entered our city like it was nothing!"

"And they took four children!"

"Where's a real Huntsman when you need one?!"

"We're real Huntsmen and Huntresses!" Nora responded hotly to that particular comment. "So everyone shut your yapping, or I'll break your legs!"

"Nora, please!" pleaded Ren. Having Nora break someone's legs was the last thing they all needed. . . Actually, no, scratch that. No one needed that at all.

Despite their efforts, the crowds of riled and frightened people weren't calming down at all. They kept on marching forward to the capitol building. They came in the hundreds to the building's front gate. The only thing that was between them and the building itself were the Atlassian soldiers standing guard, reigning them in and blocking them from the entrance. However, the many people pushed back, their demands for answers and reassuring of their safety was too strong to be ignored. Only one person stood behind the soldiers--their own leader, General James Ironwood.

The man was in his typical military uniform that was made up of a white overcoat over a grey undercoat, a red necktie and a black sweater. He had a single white glove on his right hand with matching white pants and dark silver military boots with grey metal plates strapped to them. His hair was black tinged with grey and silver streaks on the side of his head and his eyes were dark blue. Above his right eyebrow was a small strip of metal, serving purpose that only himself and a select few knew of. 

He stood behind a podium at the bottom of the building's large front stairs. He was a few feet from his soldiers and the panicked citizens behind them.

"Please, if you could all listen to the Beacon's Huntsmen and Huntresses and calm down!" General Ironwood announced to the people with an earpiece microphone, amplifying the volume of his voice so that he may be heard. "The Council will soon explain what had occurred and what is to happened hereafter."

"We were invaded less than an hour ago!" a distraught woman exclaimed.

"I understand that, but--" Ironwood was interrupted.

"You don't know shit!" yelled someone crudely.

"Where was Atlas when this happened?!" demanded another.

"W-What?" Ironwood was caught off guard by that question.

"They marched on our streets, where were you?!"

"We didn't ask you to come here anyway!"

"Get the Hell out of our city, you gung-ho slackers!"

"I. . . That's not. . . We're not like that--!" James was at a loss for words, before he was interrupted once again.

"Get out of Vale!"

"You'll let us die and do nothing!"

"That's not going to happen!" shouted Cinder. She may not like the Kingdom of Atlas from her personal experience but she didn't like hearing the harsh words thrown to the General. However, the jeering of the citizens drowned her out and left her unheard, even by her teammates and friends.

Qrow and Ozpin walked out from the capitol building behind Ironwood with Professor Goodwitch. The former held out his hands and he shouted, "EVERYBODY, CHILL!"

The citizens suddenly stopped their heckling and all eyes were on the three, even the students, the soldiers and the General himself.

". . . That usually doesn't work," Qrow muttered to himself as he lowered his arms. Guess being a teacher came in handy for handling crowds.

"Thank you, Mr. Branwen," Ozpin said, his voice being broadcasted from an earpiece microphone. "Now then, I'm sure you all had questions, we shall start with the first one. Those Kaiju as they called themselves had come from the Western Dragon continent."

"How did they get here?! How did they find us?!" shouted one of the citizens.

". . . Because we discovered them first," Ozpin replied, silencing the crowd in shock, even Ironwood. "I had my students encounter them on the Western Dragon continent and it's clear that they followed them here to this city. And as their leader had said, one of our own had injured them. It was an error of judgement on my part, so I take full responsibility."

"No, Professor. . . " Jaune muttered under his breath, feeling guilty over what Ozpin was doing for his team and RWBY. They were the ones that discovered the Kaiju-Faunus and the Headmaster had no true part in deliberately leading them to the city. He shouldn't be taking the blame for their actions.

'YOU KNEW?!" screamed someone among the crowds. And their jeers came back in full force, now directed at Beacon's Headmaster.

"This is your fault!"

"They know where we live!"

"Yeah! What if they come back?!"

"If even a single one of them returns with hostile intent," Ozpin replied calmly and stoically. "They will regret it.

The crowds slowly silenced themselves at his words. Surprised at his claim, since no one knew Ozpin from being direct for a potential conflict. When the jeering fully stopped, Ozpin continued.

"Now, I'm sure you're worried about the four Huntresses in-training," he said. "The four of them made their choice to go willingly to endure whatever punishment for their crime in the name of peace. The leaders of the Kaiju have said that they do not wish for conflict between humans or Faunus and that the Huntress team will be returned to us in a year's time, unharmed. We may not know these Kaiju, but I believe that they are people of their word. Team RWBY will be returned to us, unharmed and alive."

"Now, I know why you are all scared. . . I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared myself," Ozpin continued. "But, as a community, the people of this Kingdom, all of us, must be bound by trust and faith. Only if we work together, we will surpass any threat that dares to turn its head towards us."

". . . So what do we do now?" shouted a woman, after a moment of silence from Ozpin's words.

""""YEAH!"""" shouted several citizens in unison and agreement. Ozpin took a moment to think of what to say, then replied.

"Now. . . we move on," he stated, surprisingly. "Or rather. . . we wait. We will wait and see what will happen in the future. If they do not return to our Kingdom or any other Kingdom after returning Team RWBY, then that is the end of it. If they do return. . . then I pray it is for the best of intentions."

Everyone stared at him. Many were unsure what to think before he resumed speaking. "Now, if everyone could go back home, that would be most appreciated by myself and everyone else."

Not waiting for anyone, Ozpin was the first to leave the scene with Qrow and General Ironwood. They walked up the stairs, towards the capitol building. The citizens watched them go up, then looked at each other for some kind of answer as Glynda and Winter began to urge them to comply to Ozpin's request.

The Huntsmen and Huntresses in training looked at one another before walking away from the capitol building.

Roughly two hours later

Beacon Headmaster Office

"Hell of a good speech, Oz," Qrow said bluntly to the Beacon Headmaster when they were alone. "Did you make it up on the fly or did you write it down first?"

"When exactly were you going to tell me that this was what you found at the Land of Darkness?" General Ironwood asked.

"When it was appropriate, James," Ozpin replied. "It's hardly been 36 hours since Qrow, Specialist Schnee and the students returned from their mission. I thought it best to tell you in the next twelve hours."

"Besides, we'd thought that your Specialist would've reported to you," Qrow pointed out.

Just as he said that, Winter and Glynda walked into the room. The former gave a salute to her General while the latter walked forward.

"We just had a conversation with Mr. Arc," Professor Goodwitch said to the circle. "He was told by Ms. Rose and her team partner that they had found Dust Spires  at the Western Dragon continent."

Ozpin and Ironwood looked to Qrow and Winter, both of which held up their hands (Qrow) or shrugged their shoulders (Winter). "First time I'm hearing about it," Qrow said.

"It must have been when we were separated." Winter theorized.

"I see, so the mission was both a success and a failure," Ozpin mused to himself.

"I suppose so," Qrow shrugged, taking a swig from his flask.

"Qrow, how did your brother in-law handle the news?" Ozpin suddenly asked.

Both Winter and Qrow shared a nervous look with one another. "Well. . ."

Winter stood outside the Rose-Xiao Long household when he heard the faint voice of Taiyang Xiao Long shouting inside, "QROW VICTOR BRANWEN!" and CRASH!

She looked up as Qrow flew through the roof of the two-story house while screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" and he flew up more than eight stories into the air.

Winter grimaced in sympathy as Qrow landed on the roof of the red car parked outside the garage with a CRASH!

". . . Ow."

". . . Let's just say 'Thank the gods and curse them for Aura at the same time' and leave it at that," Qrow eventually said to Ozpin.

The two teachers and General stare at him blankly before Ozpin simply said, "I see."

Winter cleared her throat. "What are we going to do about the Dust Spires?" she asked, moving the conversation along.

"Nothing," Ozpin replied before the General could answer.

"Oz, if what the students say is true, the Spires could power our Kingdoms for months or even full years!" Ironwood said.

"But the Kaiju will see that as trespassing on their land," Ozpin replied as he moved to sit down at his desk. "Their King has empathized that we, humans or Faunus, will not be welcome."

"W-Well, sure there's that," the General admitted. "But perhaps we could negotiate something!"

Glynda shook her head. "It would be risky to assume they're willing to compromise shortly after their statement today."

"But--!" Ironwood tried to argue again.

"James, I assure you, it is fine," Ozpin interrupted him. "The Kingdom of Vale has more than enough supplies of Dust for power and so do the other Kingdoms, even the SDC has their own mines."

"Jacq's not going to like this secret when he learns about it," Ironwood pointed out, referring to the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company.

"He steals enough Dust from everyone else's land," Qrow scoffed. 

Ironwood didn't want to say it, but Qrow was right on that. "Then what of Team RWBY?" he asked Ozpin and Glynda.

"We have to have faith that they will be alright," Ozpin replied. He looks to Qrow. "And perhaps check on them in say a couple of days."

Qrow nodded, understanding what his leader was saying.

Ozpin nodded back. "Now we must reach out to the parents of the other members of RWBY." he said to Ironwood, Winter and Glynda respectively. "James, contact Mr. Schnee. And Specialist Schnee, you may reach out to your mother and younger brother. Glynda, reach out to Mr. and Mrs. Belladonna in Menagerie. Remember to stress out that their children willingly chose to leave with the Kaiju."

"Yes, Headmaster/Understood, Oz." the three people said with nods of their heads and they moved to leave via the elevator.

Ozpin looked at Qrow. "Anything else about the mission you'd like to add?"

"Now that I think about it, yeah," Qrow replied. "Winter and I stumbled upon what looked like a battlefield. And I'm not talking about some battle between the Kaiju. I'm talking that outsiders fought in a battle there on that continent and lost."

Ozpin hummed, folding his hands in front of him. "Well, I do believe I know what you're talking about, Qrow."

Qrow stared at him. "And? What is it?"

"The field in which the final battle of the Great War was fought."

Roman turned off the projector and looked at his villainous associates. "Well?" he asked. Neo gestured to him with an open hand and a raised eyebrow for emphasis.

During the whole news report, they were exposed to the Kaiju. They were basically told everything from the reporter; they listened to her about how the Kaiju entered the city, how they rode on large lizards, tigers or in some cases, dragons,  armed with spears or bows and arrows, how they marched all the way to Beacon Academy and, most importantly, they spoke a declaration of wanting peace and took four students from the school. Lisa Lavendar even brought up bridges made of plants seemingly coming out of nowhere, the apparent reason for how the Kaiju entered and left the city. However, she nor anyone knew how those bridges came about. The most recent part of the news was the citizens marching to the capitol building in panic, and the Beacon Headmaster Ozpin making a speech to calm them down.

After the news report was over, no one said a thing. Ni and Kevin had the most conspicuous reactions along with Ilia, their eyes widened in shock with their jaws dropped, though Ni's was closed into a thin line. Adam's mouth was dropped open from shock as well, though not as wide as Kevin or Ilia's. No one could see his eyes though due to his Grimm mask. Ichi, currently was the most stoic of them in this matter, only had her eyes closed and seemed to contemplate what she had seen.

But then anger formed on Adam's masked face. The Bull Faunus was apparently angry with the situation with the Kaiju. His anger was apparent from his visible teeth gritting and a large vein pulsing on the temple of his head.

"That. . . Kaiju. . ." He sounded like his voice was laced with fire. Adam Taurus was known for his fury and the others were getting a taste of it.

"They think they can order the Faunus to stay?! THEY THINK THEY CAN TALK TO US LIKE WE'RE SERVANTS?! LIKE DOGS?!" He screamed in blood-curdling rage. In an instant, he drew his crimson sword and swung it through a wooden crate, slicing it cleanly in two while splintering it into pieces at the same time. Roman, Neo, Ilia, Ni and Kevin gawked at him as the livid Bull Faunus growled like a feral animal.

"Quiet, Adam," Now everyone turned to Ichi, who spoke. Her eyes were open now, staring at the six of them with indifference. Her uncaring expression seemed to anger Adam more.

"Those FREAKS think they are equal to my people!" Adam bellowed. "No, superior to us! They--!"

"He was merely giving a warning," Ichi stated, interrupting the Faunus. "There was nothing in his words denouncing the Faunus or humans."

"H-He?" Kevin questioned.

"Their King; it was clear that it's a male," Ichi explained. Then she deadpans, "Are you really that damn blind, little brother?"

Kevin blinked then looked away in embarrassment. 

"So, what else do you have to say, Ichi?" Roman asked his employer. "I mean, it's fucking crazy, right?"

"I have nothing to say," she replied, to the shock of everyone, "other than I must contact someone about this matter."

"Who?" Ilia asked.

"No one of your concern," Ichi refuted bluntly. "This meeting is adjourned, you may all leave."

"But what about our plans--?" Kevin attempted to ask.

"I said, leave!" Ichi ordered, a spark of electricity seemed to ignite in her glaring eyes. With no other options given, everyone had to comply. Even Adam, who was still wrought with anger, obeyed the woman's commands. They hesitantly parted from Ichi, the only one staying within the warehouse.

Ni and Kevin looked at each other with concern. Both of them thought that if their older sister was going to contact someone, then it was exceedingly serious. Because there was only one person Ichi could contact.

Adam and Ilia would go to rejoin their subordinates within the White Fang that was camped within the Forest of Forever Fall. Along the journey back, Ilia couldn't help but feel worried and concern for her former ally Blake Belladonna. Meanwhile, Adam wore an expression of anger. He still had a low opinion of those Kaiju, having interpreted that Kaiju's words as a command to the Faunus; a command that sounded like what a master would say to a slave.

"Damned freaks. . . Damned freaks," he muttered venomously under his breath.

Roman and Neo went their own way as well. Roman glanced back at Ichi one last time; she was still seemingly emotionless. He scowled and turned back, facing forward. He saw Neo looking at him curiously, silently asking what was wrong.

"Well, you know, for some reason," the master thief commented. "I thought that'd get Ichi to finally lose her cool. Figures, I shouldn't be surprise."

Neo gave him a small smile and spoke to him in sign language. Hey, we'll get her some other time, she said, getting Roman's attention. That goldie bitch ought to break one day.

At that, Roman gave a hearty laugh. "Hah! She sure will, Neo! She sure will!" and the duo left in good spirits compared to the others.

With no one else but herself, Ichi finally took off her mask of apathy. She sighed and sat back down into her chair. She brought a hand to her mouth, sweat was starting to precipitate around her face, and her eyes were wide with a glint of terror.

Ichi found herself stunned for one of the first times in her life. She had never seen those Kaiju before, but she had heard stories about them, especially about the King, the one with blue fire.

After checking to make sure she was alone in the building, Ichi reached to a pouch hidden under her jacket and pulled out a small skull, one that looked like that of a small dragon. The bone clean with red markings drawn all over it with an intricate symbol that resembled an eye on top of the skull.

She held it within her cupped hands and brought it closer to her face. Ichi whispered into it, uttering a chant of forbidden and unpronounceable syllables before placing it on the floor in front of her.

Suddenly, the skull appeared to vibrate. Short wisps of black smoke started to fume from the sockets and the nasal cavities. The smoke became thicker and thicker, spreading wider and wider. before she'd forget and before the process was complete, Ichi kneeled down before the fuming skull. The smoke fumed upwards, thick and ghastly. Then within the smoke, a figure was forming. The smoke eventually calmed down, and was soon fuming at the base of a dark and gold figure.

"Ichi. . . What a pleasant surprise to hear from you after all these years," spoke the figure, a male from the sounds of it, sounding illustrious and twisted at the same time.

Ichi said nothing, waiting for permission from the figure. "Speak, child. How goes your crusade?"

"My Lord," answered Ichi. "My plans have gone perfectly as of now. . . but there are some complications that have arisen."

"Oh? What kind are these complications?"

"It is better seen than heard," Ichi replied, bowing her head lower. "I open my mind and my thoughts to you, my Lord."

". . . As you wish," the figure said after a moment and Ichi felt a slight pang in her head as the figure started to read her mind.

". . . I see. .  So an old friend decided to reveal himself to the rest of the world. A new hand is in the game."

"Yes, my Lord," Ichi confirmed.

"I must admit, I was beginning to think that he and his Queen died all those years ago. But that was just wishful thinking on my part. Oh well, this just makes it more. . . fun."

"Fun, my Lord?" Ichi repeated, looking up slightly.

"Yes. Fun. Especially since he has attempted to make peace with the humans and Faunus. Find out what Beacon knows about their students' voyage to Godzilla's land. After that, improvise how you see fit."

Ichi bowed her head. "As you wish, my Lord."