It was Sunday, a day of relaxation, that could easily be seen around the grounds of Beacon. Everyone was outside, playing sports with friends, or as team JNPR described it, 'Don't lose sight of Nora' time. Ruby, Weiss and Blake were all sitting under a large tree, doing what they did best, eat cookies, Clean Myrtenaster, and of course, read. Yang had taken her bike into town early, before any of the other girls were even awake. She had left a note on the door, telling the trio to meet at the same place in the library at three o'clock this afternoon. The girls were all teeming with energy and excitement,

Well, some of the girls.

"Gah," Ruby squealed excitedly, swallowing a mouthful of cookies, "What do you think is gonna happen next Weiss? Maybe they'll blow more stuff up! Oh I hope they do that…"

"Well," Weiss retorted, still acting as though she wasn't enjoying the stories, "I'm hoping that there's a little more class this time around, their language so far has been abysmal!"

"I'm just hoping it's as good as what we've already read." Blake piped up, not taking her eyes from the pages of her book.

"Agreed," Ruby and Weiss nodded simultaneously, causing them to stare awkwardly at each other.

"Jinx!" Ruby exclaimed loudly, making both Weiss and Blake sigh, Weiss then sheathing her weapon before raising her hands to her temples.

"Not this again!"

The three girls assembled in the library at two fifty-five, taking the same seats as before and waiting for the Blonde-haired narrator to arrive.

Three hours later, the trio was still waiting, lounging around in their chairs, playing on their scrolls, bored out of their minds.

"Sixty-Eight!" Ruby shrieked, jumping from her chair, "New record! Who knew dodging pipes would be so hard?"

"What are you playing?" Weiss huffed, sitting up in her chair, "All you've done for the last three hours is tap your screen? How could it be that hard?"

"Just trust me," Ruby chuckled, "It's not easy. You get angry really easily so you wouldn't like it anyway."

"Blake?" Weiss asked, turning to face the Faunus, "Can you tell me what Ruby is playing?"

"Nah," Ruby said dismissively, "Blake doesn't like it either. I tried to show her it once and she went crazy because there's a bird in it."

Blake shot Ruby an evil stare, like she was about to rip out her throat.

"Why did you have to bring that up?" She whispered, shaking her head angrily and turning back to her book.

Loud squeaky footsteps coming towards them drew the girl's attention away from each other. There was Yang, still dressed in her riding gear, small backpack slung over her shoulder, swaggering towards them.

"Hi there Yang!" Weiss smiled sarcastically, her tone dropping quickly, "Don't worry! You're only three hours, twenty-two minutes and sixteen seconds late! What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Sorry about that," Yang chirped, "I thought I would be early because all the guys were super helpful in the workshop this morning. But the traffic on the way back here was terrible!"

"Yang, you're not the kind of person who obeys enough road rules to get stuck in traffic," Ruby remarked. Yang simply smiled at Ruby and began taking off her riding jacket.

"Who said I did?"

Yang threw her riding gear into a heap on the carpet under the table, picking up her backpack and unzipping it. She pulled out an almost comically large bag of cookies and tossed them to Ruby, followed by a small box that smelled of tea and a bottle of brown, bubbly liquid. She tossed the tea to Blake and the drink to Weiss.

"What is this?" Weiss asked, examining the bottle, "You know I only drink water."

"Jeez!" Yang rolled her eyes, "Lighten up Weiss. Twist the cap to refreshment and open happiness."

Weiss gingerly opened the bottle and took a sip, before quickly guzzling the rest of it and throwing the bottle to the ground.

"Well that was, interesting," Weiss panted, eyes wide, "I need to get some more of that sometime."

Yang smirked and then slid off into a dark hallway, emerging with a new, thick, blue-spined book. Thumping it down on the table, Yang flipped open the book to the first page, trailing her pointer finger down the text.

"Beacon Academy institute records, Volume Five," She read, before flipping to where the text began. "Alright chumps," She smirked, "Let's do this…"

"Teeeam RWBY!"

The two teams woke with a start, the sound of things crashing and breaking everywhere, the entire school was shaking violently.

"What the fuck is going on?" Michael roared over the loud rumbling as the rest of his team scrambled around the dark room, trying to secure as much as they could.

"I think it's an earthquake Michael!" Gavin screamed back, shielding his face as the windows nearby shattered. Michael glared at him with an irritated expression on his face.

"Oh, You don't fucking say," He yelled, flinging his arms in the air.

"Guys!" Ray yelled, holding a large, rolled up laminated sheet above his head, "Quick! We can hide behind my Freddie Mercury poster!"

Lindsay was sitting on her bed, clutching her suitcase, trying not to let it fall and break open. Suddenly, the shaking stopped, and the thunderously loud shaking stopped, only to be replaced by deafening silence. The four looked at each other; silence only broken by the sound of glass shards falling from the shattered window pane onto the carpet.

Their door swung open and team Gents ran into their room, distressed look on their faces.

"Holy fuck!" Geoff exclaimed, looking around the room, "Well that was fuckin' thing."

"What happened?" Jack asked, putting his arm around Caiti to comfort her.

"That was an earthquake," said a rather distinctive voice from the door, "finally." The two teams turned to the doorway to see a man with a beard, oddly thick eyebrows, glasses, and for some reason a party hat atop his thick black hair smiling gleefully.

"The name's Gus," he smiled, waving politely and leaning against the door frame, "But you guys can, no wait, will call me Mr Sorola. I'm a professor here." The friends couldn't look away, Gus' almost creepy stare hypnotizing them, when all of a sudden, headmaster Burns' voice came booming over the Public Address system.

"All students report to the dining hall in five minutes," He spoke loudly and surprisingly calmly, "I repeat, five minutes." The broadcast cut off with a short sharp squeak, making the group grab their ears. When they looked up, Mr. Sorola had vanished, leaving nothing but a small pile of confetti in their doorway.

"He was weird," Ray said, breaking the silence, "I bet he's Puerto Rican." Everyone burst into roaring laughter, congratulating Ray on his joke. "But seriously, let me grab Yolo and Swag and we'll head down to the dining hall."

"Yolo and Swag?" Caiti asked, looking a little shaken, "I thought your swords were called the Blaze rods?"

Yang stopped reading for a second, trying and failing to contain her laughter.

"What's happening Yang?" Ruby asked, watching her sister laugh hysterically.

"Did you not hear it?" Yang laughed, breathing heavily, "The girl in the earthquake was apparently a little shaken!" Yang fell to the floor, holding her sides, her entire team rolling their eyes. After a short while she stopped laughing and got up, much to the delight of her friends.

"Sorry," she apologised, clearing her throat and adjusting her shirt, "You gotta admit, that was funny." Meeting nothing but blank expressions, she swallowed heavily and continued reading.

"Yeah," Ray replied, "But I still named them individually. Swag is left and Yolo is right, 'cause you know, Yolo is never wrong!" Ray laughed to himself, everyone else taking a few seconds to decipher his joke. Thinking it was a good idea, everyone dispersed to get their own weapons. Michael grabbed his sword and walked towards Lindsay, picking up her Crescent Celica's from the floor as he walked past them, sitting down next to her on her bed.

"You okay Lindsay?" he asked, putting her brass knuckles down on the bed between them.

"Y-Yeah," Lindsay stuttered, rocking back and forth slowly, still clutching her suitcase, "J-Just not a big f-fan of earthquakes, that's all." Michael reached around Lindsay's shoulder and gave her a tight hug, feeling the tension quickly draining out of her.

"I got your knuckle-thingies for you," Michael offered as Lindsay loosened her grip on her suitcase and placed it on the end of her bed, "The paint looks really cool. I like flames and shit." Lindsay laughed and picked up her weapons, examining them.

"Thank you Michael," she smiled, looking into his eyes, "I needed that hug."

"Nahh," Michael said, brushing it off, "It's all good. You' my team-mate!" Lindsay brought Michael into another tight hug, before standing up and putting on her Crescent Celica's. Michael sat in a happy daze on the edge of Lindsay's bed, watching her walk out of the room with Ray and Gavin.

"Well that was cool," Michael nodded to himself, before quickly picking up his sword, which he had dropped at his feet, and chasing his friends down the hall, slamming the door behind him.

Team Lads, Jack and Caiti were walking towards the dining hall, talking happily amongst each other, before Geoff's voice called out from behind them at the end of the hall.

"Guys!" Geoff yelled, the group turning to face his as he breathlessly ran towards them, "Have you guys seen Ryan?"

The group talked amongst themselves, "Nope," being the most prevalent answer.

"I fuckin' swear to god," Geoff complained, rubbing his forehead with his hand, "That guy is like a fuckin'dog. You take your eyes off his for a second and he's fuckin' gone dude."

Team Lads and most of Team Gents reached the hall, taking a seat against the back wall, waiting for Headmaster Burns to arrive. Almost on cue, he stepped out onto the stage and into the spotlight, walking quickly to a pedestal in the middle. He lightly tapped the microphone attached to the pedestal, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"Good evening students," He addressed the crowd, "I'm sure you are all wondering why we are here. At four-twenty this morning, an earthquake hit not just Beacon Academy and Vale, but the entire of Vytal."

"He said four-twenty," Ray whispered, "Ju- Bl-"

"Little is known about the cause of the earthquake," Headmaster Burns continued, "But I have heard rumours circulating that it may have been caused by an attack on and subsequent destruction of Pimponia Tower that occurred late yesterday."

"What tower?" Gavin asked quietly, slightly confused.

"Pimponia Tower." Caiti replied, everyone in the group turning to listen to her, "It was forged by the first settlers on the continent of Vytal some four hundred and twenty years ago."

"Ju- bl-," Ray exclaimed quietly again, catching an annoyed look from Geoff.

"The tower was created from five blocks," Caiti explained, "four large cubes of gold, all stacked atop each other on a base of black stone. A rare and extremely dense rock called Obsidian was dug up from near a cooled magma lake during a mining operation by the settlers. They spent many days carving the perfect square from it, before finally erecting the tower outside their single stone cabin on the coast. The railway tracks ran close by it, offering all who rode past from the then small town of Vale an amazing view. While everything else may have changed, the tower has never moved, not one inch, and thanks to an ancient ceremony performed by the original settlers, the tower is believed to be enchanted, protecting everyone in Vytal from harm."

Gavin's eyes widened. He shook the quiver on his shoulder, he could still hear the small black cube bouncing around inside.

"Could that be the base?" Gavin asked himself, beginning to freak out.

"Whoever destroyed the tower today must've been immensely powerful," Lindsay cut in, "After Vale expanded and surrounded it, huge defences were built around it to keep it safe, if that tower fell into the wrong hands we'd be toast, even the base alone has enough power to drive a man insane. Also," she added, turning to Caiti, "How would they destroy it? Obsidian alone is nearly indestructible, and even if they did use explosives, it would've just launched all the pieces into space."

"Or into an Ursa's lunch," Gavin interrupted while staring at the floor, thinking about the cube and not paying attention whatsoever.

"What was that Gavin?" Geoff asked, snapping Gavin out of his trance.

"Wha- What?" Gavin asked, eyes darting around the group.

"What did you say?" Jack asked, backing up Geoff.

"Oh!" Gavin exclaimed, quickly thinking of an answer, "Pfft,don't worry about it, it was just, uhh, me, being normal stupid Gavin, you know, right?"

Geoff laughed and went back to having a normal conversation with the rest of the group, only to be distracted by Gavin pointing to the door of the hall. Swaggering into the hall, with dirtied clothes and a bloodied crown, was Ryan.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Geoff screamed at Ryan, grabbing his shirt collar with two hands and holding him against a wall.

"Oh," Ryan responded calmly, "Just, you know, around."

Geoff released Ryan and began walking back to the dorms, shaking his head and muttering profanities loudly.

"Ryan?" Jack asked, "By the way, why is your crown all covered in blood and shit?"

Ryan chuckled heartily before responding with a smirk, "Don't worry, it was nothing, just a little, animal control."

Everyone sighed in unison, knowing that the cryptic answer would be all they got from Ryan. Turning, the group began following Geoff, who had only just disappeared from view down another corridor. Everyone talked amongst themselves, hurriedly trying to catch up with Geoff, everyone except Gavin and Ryan.

Gavin was in a complete daze, focussing on nothing but the quiver in his hands, shaking it lightly and listening intently for the sound the cube made inside it.

"Whatcha' doin' Gavin?" Ryan asked with a devilish smile plastered across his face, abruptly pulling Gavin out of his trance.

"Wha-, Oh, uuh, nothing," Gavin lied, frantically trying to think of something to say, "I was just, umm, counting my arrows, with, with sound! Yes, yes that's what I'm doing."

"Oh Gavin," Ryan chuckled, standing up from the wall and taking a step towards Gavin, putting his hand on his shoulder and staring straight into his eyes, "We wouldn't be lyin' to Ryan now would we? Just remember Gavin," Ryan smiled, his silky smooth voice soothing and scaring Gavin at the same time, "bad things happen to liars, and we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you, now would we?" Ryan reached for his bloody crown with his other hand and touched a blood stain with his fingertip; he then slowly lowered his hand down, and lightly tapped Gavin on the nose, leaving a red spot. Ryan then shot Gavin a look of unrivalled contempt, lowering his head and snarling silently.

"Would we Gavin?" He asked sternly, almost demanding an answer.

"N- No," Gavin whimpered, obviously intimidated and scared.

"Excellent!" Ryan exclaimed, patting Gavin on the back and tousling his hair, "Now run along you, and be careful with that quiver of yours, we don't want you to lose anything out of it now would we?"

Gavin brushed past Ryan and took off down the hall, slinging his quiver over his shoulder as he ran. Ryan let out a small titter, folding his arms and staring at Gavin's green quiver, narrowing his eyes and smiling evilly.

"Oh Gavin," He said to himself, shaking his head, "You have no idea what you're about to cause."

Authors Note:

Guess who's back! Well, at least, for this week!

Hello once again audience, I hope you enjoyed reading Chapter 8, I had a lot of free time this week and I feel like it worked out well. I want to begin trying to upload on Fridays again, and I would have liked to extend this chapter, but I feel that it's better off like this.

Such mystery, so many plots, much creepy, such wow.

I really did enjoy writing this chapter this week, as this is the kind of stuff I enjoy writing. Feel free to let me know your thoughts by posting a review, it is much appreciated!

So, once again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, there's finally a story! Woo!

But seriously, I hope to see you all again soon, make sure to get all info and updates on the story by following or even favouriting down below. If you'd like of course.

Up to you.

Welp, that about does it for now. Thanks again!

LastJourneyHome.