Beacon Academy - Team RWBY's Dorm Room
The air in Team RWBY's dorm room was thick with the scent of travel-worn leather, standard-issue fabric softener, and the bittersweet tang of an impending departure. Cardboard boxes, half-taped down and scrawled with messy black Sharpie, sat like small fortresses between the bunk beds, signaling the official end of the semester.
Ruby was practically vibrating. Her silver eyes were alight with a frantic, joyful energy as she jammed a bundle of folded combat skirts into her luggage with the force of a hydraulic press.
"Oh, I can't wait!" Ruby rambled, her voice hitting a high pitch that made the dust motes in the air seem to dance faster. "The very second we touch down on the docks, I'm running straight to the cabin! I'm going to bake a million chocolate chip cookies, and then Zwei is going to do that little spinny thing he does when he's excited, and then we can finally go tracking in the woods behind the house without worrying about Goodwitch's curfew, and-"
"Whoa there, little sister," Yang interrupted, tossing a rolled-up pair of yellow socks with perfect, casual accuracy straight into Ruby's open bag. She chuckled, leaning her hip against the wooden frame of the bunk bed and crossing her arms. "Save some of that oxygen for when our boots are actually on Patch soil. You're gonna short-circuit your scroll before we even clear the Vale air docks."
Ruby caught the socks, her enthusiasm deflating for a grand total of two seconds before a sheepish, open-mouthed grin broke across her face. "Sorry! I just... I really, really miss home."
Yang's expression softened, a warm, protective smile tugging at her lips before she looked across the room.
Blake was sitting quietly on her bottom bunk, her fingers lightly tracing the spine of a book she wasn't actually reading. Her feline ears, tucked neatly beneath her heavy black bow, twitched slightly at the sudden drop in conversation.
"Hey, Blake," Yang called out, tilting her head. "What about you? What's the game plan once you get back to Menagerie? Total beach relaxation, or are you gonna immediately get dragged into whatever fancy chieftain stuff your dad's up to?"
The temperature in the room seemed to plummet instantly. Weiss paused mid-motion, her fingers freezing over a meticulously folded white blouse. Her sharp blue eyes shifted toward the Faunus girl, sensing the sudden shift in gravity.
Blake didn't look up right away. When she finally did, her golden eyes were shadowed, carrying a heavy, exhausting weight that made her look far older than any first-year academy student should.
"I'm... actually not going back to Menagerie," Blake said. Her voice was flat, but it lacked its usual steady composure.
"What?" Ruby blinked, her hands hovering uselessly over her suitcase. "But... it's the semester break, Blake. Everyone goes home."
Yang's brow furrowed, a sudden, tight knot of concern forming in her chest. "Yeah, why not, Blake? Did something happen with the transport schedules?"
Blake swallowed hard. She placed the book down on the mattress, her hands curling tightly into the fabric of her trousers to hide the slight tremor in her fingers. She looked at her teammates-her friends, her partners, the closest thing to a family she had left-and the elegant facade she usually wore so well began to fracture.
"Well..." Blake started, and to everyone's quiet shock, her voice cracked, raw and fragile. "You know how... how I chose to stay behind with the White Fang? When my father stepped down as the High Leader?"
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all nodded slowly, the collective memory of Blake's past hanging like an unspoken understanding between them.
"I haven't spoken to my parents since that day," Blake confessed, her grip tightening on the edge of her trunk until her knuckles turned white. A rare, heartbreaking vulnerability broke through her usual stoic armor. "Not a single word. Even after I finally realized what the Fang had become... even after I left them, I couldn't bring myself to face my mother and father. I... I'm just terrified that when I look them in the eyes again, they'll hate me for what I did. For the choices I made."
Before Blake could spiral any deeper into the dark cavern of her own guilt, the space on the mattress shifted.
Yang was there first. She didn't hesitate, dropping onto the bed and resting a hand firmly but gently against Blake's trembling shoulder. "Hey. Look at me."
Blake hesitated, then met her gaze.
"Blake, tell me," Yang said, her tone steady and unshakeable. "Are your parents good people?"
Blake blinked, caught off guard. "...Yes. The best."
"Do they love you?"
"Of course they do, but-"
"Then there's your answer." Yang squeezed her shoulder, a small, incredibly soft smile breaking through her tough exterior. "Good parents don't stop loving their kids because they make mistakes. Trust me on this one. If they're anything like you say they are, they haven't spent the last few years being angry. They've probably spent every single day hoping you'd just come home."
Ruby nodded so hard her red hood nearly became a blur.
"Exactly!" Ruby burst out, dropping her packing entirely and dropping to her knees right in front of Blake, her silver eyes fiercely earnest and bright. "Blake, you're amazing! Look at everything you've done here! You've helped so many people, you're brave, you're kind, and you're super smart! If they could see the person you are right now, they'd be so proud of you they wouldn't even care about the rest!"
For a moment, Blake looked genuinely speechless, her throat tightening as she looked between the sisters.
Then, Weiss spoke up.
"If I can look past your involvement with the White Fang," Weiss said softly, crossing her arms but offering a remarkably gentle expression, "then the people who actually raised you and love you most certainly can."
Coming from the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, those words carried a staggering weight that none of them missed.
Blake let out a wet, breathless laugh, quickly wiping the corner of her eye with the back of her hand before a stray tear could fall. "Thank you. Truly. You guys are... incredible. But... that still doesn't solve my other problem."
Ruby tilted her head, her ahoge twitching. "What other problem?"
"I don't have anywhere to go for the next few months," Blake said, a bit sheepishly.
Ruby froze. Then, her silver eyes widened to the absolute size of dinner plates as a massive, world-altering, brilliantly chaotic idea sparked in her brain.
"How about you stay with us in Patch!" Ruby cheered, clapping her hands together.
Blake's cat ears immediately shot straight upward beneath her bow. "What?!"
Ruby nodded enthusiastically, her words beginning to tumble out at a hundred miles an hour. "Yeah! It'll be great! We have plenty of room, and the couch is super comfy, and-"
"Ruby!" Blake sputtered, her face flushing slightly. "No! I couldn't possibly impose on your family like that! I'd be a complete burden-"
"Oh, please, it's totally fine," Yang cut in with a booming laugh, waving off the protest with a lazy flick of her wrist. "Our dad loves surprises. Seriously, the more the merrier. He'll probably just cry, bake a giant roast, and try to teach you how to fish. Plus, it gives me a training partner who won't complain about getting their hair messed up."
Ruby was already practically vibrating again, the heavy sadness of the room completely vaporized by her sheer, unadulterated enthusiasm.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! If Blake is coming, maybe we can ask the others if they want to stay with us in Patch as well!" Ruby gasped, her hands flying to her cheeks. "Think about it! Team JNPR, Onyx, Hemera! We can have a massive, giant, infinite summer sleepover!"
"WHAT?!" Weiss shrieked, her voice cracking in pure, flabbergasted shock as she dropped her perfectly folded blouse onto the floor.
"Ruby, wait a second-! Have you completely lost your mind?! You cannot just invite half of Beacon Academy to your house without asking your father first!"
"Actually, I think it's just our entire friend group," Yang helpfully added, smirking.
"YANG, YOU ARE NOT HELPING!"
"Ruby, think about this for five seconds," Blake pleaded, trying to inject some logic into the storm.
"I am thinking about it!" Ruby insisted.
"No, you're imagining a giant, chaotic sleepover!"
"Which is basically the same thing!"
"It is absolutely, fundamentally not the same thing!" Weiss yelled, her hands in the air.
Ruby completely ignored both of them. A massive, unstoppable grin spread across her face. The decision had been made in the cortex of her chaotic mind, and there was no turning back.
"I'M GOING TO ASK THEM RIGHT NOW!"
"RUBY, DON'T YOU DARE-!"
"RUBY, WAIT!"
But it was already far too late. A violent explosion of red rose petals burst through the center of the dorm room as Ruby activated her Semblance. She shot out into the hallway like a crimson bullet, leaving the door slamming shut in her wake with a loud THUD!
---
Down the hall, the quiet, disciplined atmosphere of Team JNPR's dorm room was instantly obliterated.
BANG!
The door flew inward, bouncing off the wall with a deafening crash as a cyclone of swirling red rose petals engulfed the entryway. From the center of the storm, Ruby materialized, her arms thrown wide and her eyes sparkling.
"Hey, guys! Do you want to come and stay at Patch this winter?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Jaune, who had been carefully polishing Crocea Mors on his bed, jumped so violently that the sword slipped, nearly taking off his own toe. Pyrrha gasped, clutching her chest in shock, while Ren calmly paused in the middle of brewing a fresh pot of herbal tea. Nora, however, was excited, throwing her hands in the air.
"YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES YES!" Nora screamed, her eyes shining with manic glee. "WE ARE PACKING OUR BAGS!"
---
Five minutes later, the population density of Team RWBY's dorm had skyrocketed.
The small space was packed to maximum capacity (like it occasionally was). Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were scattered across the floor and the lower bunks. Standing near the window, leaning against the sill with his usual calm, effortless cool, was Onyx. His dark, sharp presence was accompanied by a familiar tiny five-year-old girl sitting happily on his shoulders.
Hemera was practically bouncing on Onyx's shoulders, her small silver eyes gleaming with sheer excitement.
Nora was practically vibrating with excitement, already zipping around the room as if she'd begun packing in her head.
"I'm bringing Magnhild, extra pancakes, and at least three emergency pancake mixes!" Nora declared with absolute confidence. "This is gonna be the best break ever!"
Ren smiled faintly, shaking his head at Nora's boundless energy before turning to Ruby.
"Thank you for inviting us," Ren said with a small, appreciative bow of his head. "Patch sounds peaceful. I think... it will be nice to spend some time somewhere quiet with all of you."
"Can we go, Papa? Pretty please?" Hemera pleaded, tugging gently on a lock of Onyx's raven hair. She leaned forward, her tiny voice bubbling over. "I want to meet Grandpa Tai! He sounds so nice!"
Onyx reached up, his hand gently patting Hemera's knee to steady her. A soft, incredibly rare smirk played on his lips as he looked around the crowded room.
"Well," Onyx said, his deep, smooth voice easily cutting through the chatter. "I've always wanted to meet him. He's Qrow's old teammate, after all. And since I don't have any more Beacon administrative work until next term..." He gave a small, approving nod. "Sure. Why not?"
Hemera squealed in delight, hugging the top of his head.
"Besides," Onyx continued, his amethyst eyes flashing with a sudden, mischievous glint, "I want to know if he has any embarrassing stories about a younger, stupider Qrow. It is my right to gather blackmail to use against him. And..." He paused, his gaze shifting directly to Ruby, his tone softening into something much warmer. "...I'd like to properly meet my girlfriend's father."
The entire room went dead silent.
Ruby instantly froze. Her silver eyes shrunk to tiny pinpricks, and her entire face began to flush a violent, glowing shade of crimson that rivaled her own cloak. She looked like a machine that had just encountered a critical system error.
Onyx's brow furrowed slightly as he watched her. The silence stretched for three agonizing seconds before he spoke. "Ruby? What's wrong?"
"Wrong?!" Ruby squeaked, her voice cracking so high it was barely audible to human ears. "Nothing's wrong! Everything is totally, completely, super-duper fine! Why would anything be wrong?!"
Onyx didn't say a word. He simply crossed his arms, raising a single eyebrow, and leveled her with his signature, absolute deadpan expression. It was the exact look he used when a student tried to explain why their combat training homework was late.
Ruby's shoulders slumped. She let out a long, agonizing sigh, burying her face in her hands.
"Fine..." she groaned, her voice muffled by her fingers. "You see... I kinda... sorta... forgot to tell Dad that we're dating."
The revelation hit the room like a physical blow.
Weiss's jaw dropped. Blake's cat ears twitched violently. Jaune blinked, processing the words, while Pyrrha let out a soft, surprised "Oh..."
"Wait, what?!" Jaune stammered. "You didn't tell him? But you guys have been together for months!"
"I talked about him!" Ruby defended frantically, waving her hands in front of her face as if she could erase the embarrassment. "I did! I told Dad all about Onyx! I told him how he's a cool and kind friend, and how he's a great combat instructor, and how much Hemera loves him-which is a lot! I just... I didn't mention the... the dating part!"
For a second, the room remained quiet as everyone processed the sheer, impending disaster of Taiyang Xiao Long finding out his youngest daughter was dating the school's youngest, most formidable Grimm-summoning professor.
Then, the silence was shattered.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
Yang burst out laughing like an absolute maniac. She fell backward onto her bunk, clutching her stomach as she roared with laughter, tears practically forming in her eyes.
"HAHAHAHA!" Yang wheezed, sitting up and pointing a mocking finger at her red-faced sister. "Oh, man! You better hope Uncle Qrow already told Dad in one of his pass-bys, or else you are going to give Dad a literal heart attack the second we walk through the door! HAHAHA!"
"Yang, stop it! It's not funny!" Ruby whined, her face burning hotter.
"It is extremely funny!" Yang cackled, wiping a tear from her eye. "I can see it now! 'Hey, Dad, I brought my friends home! Oh, also, I forgot to tell you that Professor Edgelord here is my boyfriend!' AHAHAHAHA!"
"He is not Professor Edgelord!" Ruby protested, though she looked like she wanted to melt into the floorboards.
Onyx simply sighed, shaking his head at the sisters' antics, though a small, amused twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed his stoic exterior.
"We should probably secure permission from our families first," Jaune suggested, trying to steer the conversation back to safety. He pulled out his scroll, tapping the screen. "I'll call my mom."
A few minutes later, Jaune was holding his scroll a safe distance away from his ear. A frantic, high-pitched voice was practically vibrating the speakers.
"-And Jaune, honey, are you sure it's safe?! Patch is so close to the wilds, and what if there's a Grimm attack? You already ran away to Beacon with the family sword without permission, and I've been worried sick every single day-!"
"Mom, Mom, please, I'm fine!" Jaune pleaded, his face turning red as Nora giggled in the background. "It's just a school break! We'll be with Team RWBY and a professor! I promise I'll be safe!"
Beside him, Pyrrha stepped out into the hallway to call her mother, her polite, gentle voice a stark contrast to the frantic shouting coming from Jaune's scroll.
Meanwhile, Weiss sat quietly on her bed, her arms crossed as she stared down at her lap. Her expression had turned bitter, a familiar coldness settling over her.
"I suppose I'm the only one not participating," Weiss said softly, her voice dripping with quiet resignation. "My father would never agree to this. He expects me to return to Atlas immediately for the winter gala. He... doesn't care about 'frivolous' school trips."
Before anyone could offer her a comforting word, Weiss's scroll suddenly buzzed in her hand. The screen flashed with an icy, familiar name.
Jacques Schnee.
Weiss stiffened, her posture instantly becoming rigid and perfect. She took a slow, steadying breath and answered the call. "Father. I was just about to-"
"Weiss," Jacques's cold, demanding voice cut through the speaker, sharp enough to slice through glass. "The transport vessel from Atlas has been dispatched. I expect you to be on it by tomorrow morning. There are matters of the family lineage and your public image that require your presence. Do not make me repeat myself."
Onyx gently lifted Hemera from his shoulders and set her down on the floor. The little girl looked up at him curiously before quietly taking a few small steps back, sensing from the sudden change in his expression that he was about to handle something important.
Weiss's throat tightened. "But Father, I-"
Before she could finish, a shadow fell over her.
Onyx had stepped forward. Without a word, he gently reached down, offering his hand. Weiss looked up, startled by his sudden presence, and slowly handed her scroll over to him.
Onyx brought the device to his ear. His demeanor shifted instantly. The casual, relaxed boyfriend and father vanished, replaced by the imposing, unshakeable aura of Beacon's youngest and most feared professor.
"Good morning, Mr. Schnee," Onyx said, his voice smooth, low, and laced with a quiet authority that commanded attention. "I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but this is Professor Onyx Thorn speaking."
On the other end of the line, there was a sharp, sudden pause.
Jacques Schnee was a man of business and calculation. He knew exactly who Onyx Thorn was. Onyx's reputation preceded him across all of Remnant-the youngest Huntsman ever granted a professorship at Beacon, the warrior who had effortlessly bested the legendary Pyrrha Nikos in a combat spar, and, according to countless White Fang survivors, the infamous Ghost who had hunted the organization ever since it abandoned peaceful protest in favor of violent extremism nearly five years ago.
As head of the Schnee Dust Company, Jacques had personally reviewed countless reports detailing White Fang attacks on SDC mines, Dust shipments, cargo convoys, and transport routes. Then, roughly a year and a half after the White Fang embraced terrorism, those reports began to change.
Entire White Fang strike teams would disappear before ever reaching their targets. Ambush sites were found littered with shattered weapons, wrecked vehicles, scorched campsites, splintered trees, collapsed barricades, and White Fang operatives left broken in horrifying ways. Some had lost arms or legs to impossibly clean blade wounds. Others bore the unmistakable signs of having been savagely mauled by Grimm. Many were discovered unconscious; some had simply been knocked out, while others suffered shattered bones or deep lacerations that should have been fatal, yet somehow weren't. Medical examinations repeatedly reached the same baffling conclusion: despite their catastrophic injuries, something had temporarily sealed their wounds just enough to keep them alive until they were found.
The surviving operatives all told variations of the same impossible story. A young figure clad in black, wearing a black Beowolf mask, his amethyst eyes glowing through the darkness, and darkness itself taking the form of solid weapons at his command, had descended upon them with Grimm fighting at his side as obedient companions rather than mindless monsters. He would shroud entire battlefields in absolute darkness that even Faunus nightvision could not penetrate. Witnesses swore he could sink into the shadow beneath his feet and emerge from another elsewhere on the battlefield, as though the darkness itself rejected the distance between the two. They spoke of Dragon skulls that breathed lances of blistering dark energy. The aftermath was unmistakable. Convoys would be found with perfectly melted tunnels piercing their armored hulls. Cave walls, cliffs, and buildings bore circular shafts that disappeared through solid stone. Roads and forests were carved apart by diagonal scars that continued far beyond the battlefield, while other beams had punched straight into the earth, leaving smoldering pits that vanished into darkness. Entire rows of trees had been burned clean through. Sometimes investigators found only blackened limbs, and beyond them, nothing but the scorched path the beam had carved through whatever stood behind them. Other times... there was simply nothing at all. The White Fang eventually gave those skulls a name-the Dragon Blasters.
Yet, over the years, Jacques noticed another unsettling pattern buried within those reports. The destruction became less indiscriminate. The melted tunnels through mountainsides became holes no larger than a doorway. Scorched clearings became scorch marks. Eventually, some battlefields bore little more than charred surfaces or haunting blast shadows where victims had stood, as though the wielder had learned to restrain a weapon that once erased everything in its path.
The rumors might have remained little more than battlefield folklore if not for the reports from Atlas. During one operation against the White Fang, an Atlesian soldier swore he had witnessed a black-cloaked warrior standing calmly beside a Grimm whose eyes and markings glowed a vivid amethyst instead of crimson. Rather than attacking him, the creature had behaved like a disciplined partner awaiting orders before disappearing into the darkness alongside its master. The account had been dismissed by many as the testimony of a shaken soldier.
Then Onyx Thorn publicly revealed an ability no one else in Remnant, save for the Queen of the Grimm, was known to possess: the power to summon and command actual Grimm. Alongside it came demonstrations of the very abilities long associated with the Ghost. Weapons forged from living darkness, battlefields swallowed by absolute darkness, and the uncanny ability to vanish into his own shadow only for him to reappear somewhere else. Every newly revealed power matched details buried within years of SDC incident reports and survivor testimonies with unsettling precision.
For Jacques, every report, every witness account, every battlefield photograph, and every impossible detail suddenly aligned. There was only one person the Ghost could have been. He was not a man Jacques could easily bully or dismiss.
"Professor Thorn," Jacques's voice returned, notably tighter, his cold anger masked by a thin veil of polite corporate professionalism. "I was not aware Weiss was in the company of her instructors. To what do I owe this... interruption?"
"I am calling to inform you of a change in your daughter's schedule," Onyx stated smoothly, his expression entirely neutral. "Unfortunately, Weiss and her team are required to remain in Vale for mandatory extra-curricular training. They will not be returning home for the winter break."
On the other side of the room, Weiss's blue eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Jacques let out a sharp, skeptical breath. "Extra-curricular training? During the winter break? My daughter is a Schnee, Professor. Her academic standing is immaculate. For what possible reason would she require remedial work?"
Onyx didn't blink. He needed a plausible excuse on the fly, and he needed a sacrifice.
"Her academic standing is indeed perfect, Mr. Schnee," Onyx lied flawlessly, his voice steady as a rock. "However, her teammate, Yang Xiao Long, recently did something incredibly foolish during combat drills. Due to the cooperative nature of the team system, the entire unit must remain behind to assist in her disciplinary correction."
"HEY!" Yang's jaw dropped. She opened her mouth to shout, outraged by the baseless accusation. "I didn't do-!"
Before the roar of protest could leave her throat, Ruby's hand slapped directly over her sister's mouth, muffling the rest of Yang's angry, panicked hums into a series of muffled squeaks. Ruby held her down with a desperate, pleading look.
On the scroll, Jacques let out a sharp, irritated breath. "Typical. Very well, Professor. If it is a matter of academic discipline and university standing, I expect Weiss to fulfill her duties. Do not let her lineage excuse her from the work."
"Naturally. Have a good day, Mr. Schnee."
Onyx tapped the screen, ending the call, and handed the scroll back to a completely stunned Weiss. He turned to the room, a ghost of a smirk playing on his lips.
"There. Now we can all go."
For a second, the room was dead silent. Then, it absolutely erupted.
"WAY TO GO, ONYX!" Nora shrieked, jumping up and down so hard the floorboards groaned.
"I can't believe it..." Weiss whispered, staring down at her scroll in absolute, flabbergasted awe. Her blue eyes were wide, a massive weight visibly lifting from her shoulders. "You actually lied to my father. Straight to his face. And he believed you!"
"I didn't lie," Onyx said smoothly, walking back over to Hemera, who was giggling uncontrollably at Yang's muffled, flailing rage. "Yang does something foolish almost every day. I simply picked a day in advance."
Yang finally bit Ruby's hand, forcing her sister to let go with a squeak.
"I am going to throw a snowball directly at your face the second we get to Patch, Thorn!" Yang yelled, though she was grinning through her mock anger.
"You're welcome to try, Xiao Long," Onyx countered, his amethyst eyes glowing with quiet amusement. "But for now, finish packing. We have an airship to catch."