Within the burning city of Vale, the sky turned nearly completely black from smog as a horde of grim rushed through the rubble. The exhausted teams RWBY and JNPR were on their last leg but defiantly standing up against the onslaught.

"Okay team... we can still do this... you four take on the... I think 200 on the left, and we'll take on the other side. Got it?" Ruby pants outs the command with as much gusto as her bruised and fatigued body could handle.

"Yeah... got it..." Weiss groans out as she forces her body to stand up, propping herself up using her rapier as a cane. "And you guys?" Ruby asks as she looks back at team RWBY's comrades-in-arms.

"We have no choice in the matter... do we?" Jaune mutters as he aims his shield forward.

"As long as there are things to hammer, hammerin's what we'll do." Nora declares as she takes a horse-riding stance with her hammer.

"Indeed," affirms a similar but much more professional voice next to her, showing Nora Alter standing next to her, holding a yellow version of her hammer.

With the affirmation of her comrades, Ruby then lets loose a vigorous speech as she stood in front of everyone else.

"Everyone else in Beacon... has fallen... we are the only ones left standing between the rest of the civilians and the horde of Grimm. We either win... or we WIN! That's our only chance here!"

With that, she turns around and stared almost-certain death in the eyes. Despite her rousing speech, her hands couldn't help but tremble both from the strain of extensive combat, but also fear. So much was riding on her shoulders here and she doesn't know if she could handle it. However, welcome relief came when her sister's hand reassuringly patted her back.

"We'll get through with this. No sweat."

She takes a deep breath once more and stares at the maws of thousands of malevolent monsters with the same defiance everyone else did as well as she makes a grasping motion on her face. Black and red energy forms in her hand before forming a half-mask on her face. "Cookies, come."

Her cape begins to billow in the wind as her shadow stretches into the shape of a raven before diving back into her shadow and forming a solid mass. The solid mass compresses until it resembles the vague shape of a giant bird below Ruby. White carapace quickly dots across the bird's back, forming boney armor which looks far more blunted than its contemporaries but is more in number. A pair of silvery eyes then open and with a loud caw, declares its position on the battlefield.

Cookies the Nevermore has entered the battle.

Ruby smiles at seeing her beloved liberated Grimm and pets its back before returning her sight to the enemies up at the front.

Soon, like a cowboy stand-off, both sides froze waiting for something to break the silence.

With the rolling of a tumbleZwei, she roars out, "CHARGE!" which seemingly activates both sides as nine Beacon students and their Crow mascot all rush headfirst against an overwhelming wave of darkness.

Battle was in full swing as both sides rushed with everything they got. Ruby swung and shot using Crescent Rose, Weiss created glyph after glyph to provide support as well as perform AoE damage, Yang went and brawled as she does, throwing her dust-empowered punches right at the Grimm blowing them either away or into smithereens, and Blake pulling what can only be described as blade mode.

Team JNPR wasn't caught slacking either as Jaune and Pyrrha used a two-man phalanx to obliterate enemies in front and beside them, while Ren used not only his weapons but also his knowledge of aura control to pop Grimms left, right, and center. However, unlike everyone, due to how meager his aura was, he could only manage to perform it to kill a king Taijitu and a couple of Ursas before being forced to rely on his guns lest he risks losing his aura to the next hit. Yet out of all of them, the two Nora's probably had the most efficacy. Due to having once shared the same brain, both knew how the other thought to some extent and so fought in a scarily in-sync fashion which was further bolstered by the fact that both of their abilities complement each other. With Nora's Lightning-based strength amplification and Nora Alter's Lightning control, both began to mow down swathes of enemies. Though these enemies were merely Beowolves, the very fact that nearly half a dozen fell to each swing of either Manghild was a testament to the power the lightning twins possessed.

Yet even with all that, they were still humans. Human bodies still needed rest no matter how amplified they are. And after slaying a good hundred or so, the 9 teens fell to the ground, exhaustion showing its worst face yet. Even still... the Grimm approach.

"How... have we not killed them all yet..." muttered a tired Nora as she laid on her back.

"Ruby... I... I can't go on..." Yang groans out, her leg stuck under a rock. "Use Cookies, take everyone else, and go."

"Yang, I can't! We're sisters remember! I can't lose you too!"

"Sorry... Ruby... take care of dad for me yeah?"

Ruby defies her sister's wish and desperately pulls on the rock to remove it in futility.

Nora Alter, who was lying beside the person she was cloned from, then makes a motion to push her glasses up only... there were no glasses. Oh well.

She then says, "I hate to be the bearer of misfortune but I don't think even Cookies can escape as he needs recharge to do so."

With a defeated voice, Jaune muttered, "So that's that huh... this is where we fall..."

However, a new voice joins in, saying, "I... wouldn't say so juuust yet...

Even in their exhausted state, they all collectively looked behind them to see a familiar orange hat in the distance, amidst the flames.

"Sorry it took me so long guys... but I'm back," the figure apologizes still covered in smoke.

With a gasp, everyone collectively cheered his name. "Boboiboy!"

One of the hostile Nevermore got impatient and shot through the smoke much to everyone's horror, the impact kicking away the dust and smoke clouding him only to reveal Boboiboy having caught the sharp feather using only his hand.

"You call that firepower?"

He then raises his other hand and the fire seems to coalesce into his watch before suddenly changing the lightning symbol on the device into one more resembling fire. Suddenly a powerful explosion rocks the nearby ground as a fiery tornado erupts from where Boboiboy was standing before another explosion occurs, clearing the smog-covered sky.

Boboiboy emerges from the flaming pillar as if pushing back a curtain before standing resolute, now wearing a red armless vest, and his red hat pushed to reveal the piece of white in his hair. His eyes weren't the usual brown, but a terrifyingly angry red that rivals even Yang's on a bad day.

He then sets the feather on fire before kicking it back to the Nevermore, burning the poor monster alive with a sideward bicycle kick.

He walks past everyone while saying, "You guys go on ahead. You've all done enough."

Jaune pleads out, "There's too many of them," which only prompts Boboiboy to smirk in reply. "We'll see about that. Boboiboy... triple... split!"

Once again, a golden glyph alights above him, which he backflips into, creating two other clones of himself, each embodying an element. Those being Earth and Wind.

"We'll handle this. Now go." The fire-based Boboiboy says as Wind and Earth Boboiboy each raise a hand to use their elements to transport the groups to the backline.

With another smirk, Fire Boboiboy slams his fists together before saying, "Earth, Wind. What do you say we finish this in one strike?"

Both then smile in agreement before taking battle stances.

With a deep breath, Fire Boboiboy then raises his hand before shouting, "Fiery Breath!"

Shortly after, Wind then shouts, "Rapid Cyclone!" which is immediately followed up by Earth shouting, "Sand Storm!"

The fire gets swirled into the cyclone, turning it into a spinning vortex of fire which then picks up and superheats the sand into microscopic shards of glass. The hellish swirling mass begins to pick up Grimm left and right, scorching them to death within the flaming winds while rending them with the rapid bullets of sharpened glass.

All three Boboiboy then shout, "COMBINED SPECIAL MOVE! SONG OF EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE!"

Everyone else looked in awe at this as the trio fused back into one and the remaining Boboiboy, smiling while rubbing his nose, said, "That's awesome right?"

Ruby's face of awe soon turns into horror as she tries to warn Boboiboy but...

*K-SHANK*

Boboiboy gasped as a shadowy hand pierces his chest, boring a hole through where his heart was.

Boboiboy looked behind himself in horror only to see a pair of blue-tinted glasses coldly staring at him from behind.

"Boboiboy..." the figure mutters to him as he falls to his knees. He then sees his friends desperately try to help only for all nine of them to get shot by a green projectile and turn into a pile of food. He tries his absolute best to reactivate his watch, yet it was as if time around himself slowed to a crawl. Suddenly, a pink blur slammed into the demented cornucopia formed from his friends from Beacon turned into mush by an explosive force as a hooded shadowy figure stands up from the carnage and looks Boboiboy in the eyes.

Both the sniper of the food and the hooded figure also muttered his name. "Boboiboy..." This is quickly joined in by yet another person, a mysterious figure wearing a beanie who seemingly blurred into existence.

His body weakened and his eyes slowly were overcome with the darkness he sought to fight. All the while, voices familiar yet uncertain repeated to him. His body gave out to the point where even his hearing gave out, yet he could still hear their voices.

"Boboiboy... Boboiboy... Boboiboy..."

"Boboiboy... Boboiboy... Boboiboy..."

"Boboiboy... Boboiboy... Boboiboy..."

He then gasps awake only to see the four girls around him, looking at him with varying levels of concern.

"Hey Boboiboy, you alright?" Blake responds first, being the physically closest at the time.

Trying to play it off as nothing, Boboiboy adopts a calm, relaxed tone, saying, "Of course, why wouldn't I be? It's just a nightmare. No biggie." However, everyone else looked unconvinced by this.

This time it was Yang who speaks up. "Boi... I've slept near Ruby since I was a child. I know for certain that wasn't just 'some nightmare'."

"Really, I'm fine."

Ruby presses him on once she manages to enter the room with their boardgame, explaining that, "Boboiboy, no one begins speaking in whatever ancient unknown language you just spoke in just now from 'just a dream.'"

"Eh? What Ancient unknown language?" asked the now confused Boboiboy. What was that supposed to mean? Could it be like that time when his friend, Ochobot, so long ago also did the same? But as far as he's concerned... he did not have some sort of space dad. His father also being a red-armored individual of great renown just seemed too silly for the orange-clad boy.

Then it clicked for him... they meant Malaysian... "Adakah saya bercakap seperti ini semasa tidur?"

(A. N. Apologies Malaysian viewers, I only used Google translate here)

Hearing this, Ruby panics somewhat, pointing at Boboiboy while shouting, "See! You're doing it again!"

After getting his confirmation, the youngest member laughs before clearing it up to him again.

"Ruby, remember where I'm from? It's just my language, Malay."

Seeing this Weiss begins to grow interested. "An alien language you say?"

"Well, I guess from your perspective it is. Why?" Asked a confused Boboiboy.

"Teach it to me," was her succinct reply, however, before she could continue to push things into a distracting tangent, Blake questions once more. "You sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." The boy waves off her concerns. "It's just a nightmare, probably my brain just being silly and blowing my memories up out of proportions. I'm fine, really I am."

"Well... if that's the case... good night then, Boboiboy." Yang says with an unreadable tone to her voice.

"Yeah," the boy yawned out before muttering a "good night" before going to sleep once again.

All four collectively frowned at this. Boboiboy was so casual when talking about his trauma, downplaying how badly he screamed in Malay for nearly 15 minutes with a begging tone while tears streamed down his unconscious face. His attempts to placate everyone, to a bunch of trauma-ridden teens, only made it worse. Nonetheless... they can't do anything about this as while they can certainly empathize, none of them were equipped to be therapists. 

While the four went silent, three figures passed the open doorway, a black-haired woman with amber eyes, a mint-haired woman with red eyes, and a silver-haired man with grey eyes all wearing black school uniforms, denoting their status as cultural exchange students. As they passed through, the black-haired woman stopped by their doorway and stared especially at the boy who slept with his orange hat on. Her eyes narrowed in what seemed to be derision, before walking off.

After making sure Boboiboy was asleep once again, Ruby locks the door, before asking, "Yang, are you really sure we should keep this a secret from him? It just... doesn't feel right..."

Yang nods, explaining, "Believe me, Rubes, I know the feeling... it's just that he's... well..."

"Do you not trust him?" Asks Ruby, now confused and unsure what to think.

"That's not it Ruby... it's more..."

Weiss, detecting Yang's difficulty in speaking and wishing to avoid a possible conflict, decides to step in. "What she's saying is that, while we all trust him, he has loyalties to the professor... and... we'd rather not have I'm choose  between us and him should he be forced to."

Yang quickly nods to this. "Y-yeah! What she said..."

Ruby seems to want to rebut this... but... couldn't find fault in that reasoning so she accepted the reasoning. With that, all four girls go to their beds. "Operation: Candlewax is a..." She then yawns before finishing her sentence. "About to happen tomorrow..."

-The Next Day-

Boboiboy awakens super early in the morning and looks at his team. He sees that they were still asleep so he stood up and walked out to do his early morning routines which involve him pre-mixing the cocoa, making sure there were still enough of the various ingredients for him to sell cocoa that day, and buying some more if he doesn't. With the funds he's gathered through the months, he managed to augment the amount of cocoa he sells per day, allowing more students to buy.

And so his day truly begins when the first of the students and teachers came in for breakfast.

The lines flood in as people from many walks of life, line up to get food and, quite often a cup of hot cocoa from him. It was just the daily grind for him for the most part aside from three notable things.

The sudden influx of students wearing the uniforms of the other schools, a mysterious trio from Shade Academy led by a lady who seems to have gone to school a tad bit later in life, and... the lack of his team's attendance?

First things first, the sudden rush. It was quite normal to see the new foray of students as the Vytal festival was currently undergoing. This was something Boboiboy almost underestimated as shown by how today's reserves just barely got through.

The second was the mysterious trio. While Boboiboy was not someone who'd usually judge someone, these three had something... off about them... first of all was how watchful the two in the back looked. It was even to the point where the green-haired girl caught him staring from across the canteen. While it was normal to see people with a rough attitude, see CRDL as an example, the two who were following their leader had the same cautious stare an enemy of Boboiboy once had, a veteran bounty hunter named Adada.

And third... his team wasn't here. Yeah sure, the girls have a nasty tendency to sleep in when he doesn't wake them up... but even still, they would usually come out with team JNPR beside them, and yet... there is team JNPR... but no RWBY. Eh, they might have their reasons. He may have lived in the same dorm with them for the last half month... but even he admits he still does not know how the heart of a woman works. Incomprehensible beings they are to a simple boy from the stars like him.

His musings were cut off when the topic of interest number two was suddenly in front of his store, waiting in line for his drink. The first to meet him was their presumed leader, a fair-skinned woman with wavy, medium-length black hair hung on her left shoulder who had amber eyes and a calm, yet focused gaze like that of a predator observing her prey.  

"Oh! Uh... good morning miss... uh..." he splutters out after just having been woken up from his daydream-like state. 

"It's... Ash... Ash Loch..." She says as if tasting how the name felt in her mouth. Strange...

"So what can I do for you this morning miss Loch?" He asks the woman only for the silver-haired boy behind her to peek from the back, telling the boy, "We'll just have our morning drink if you don't mind," with a somewhat forced politeness.

"What size?"

"I'll have... one special hot chocolate... small," Ash tells Boboiboy as she points at the menu board behind him. She then turns to her friends and smiles as if waiting for their orders. The silver-haired boy then raises his hand and asks, "Can I have a large one? Not the special one," to which Boboiboy nodded in response. Lastly, the third member with the green hair, and the quietest of the trio, then meekly raised her hand. "I'd... want a small special a-as well." Ash then places her lien on the counter.

As she says this, the makeshift barista begins to feel weird like something's wrong with his vision. He then notices his watch act funny... huh... it suddenly changes to Water, changing his appearance to look bluer in color, even shifting his apron's design somewhat and suddenly the lien was gone weirdly enough. Huh... he must've been seeing things. "Uh... brah? Your money?"

She looks genuinely shaken by this as if she forgot. "Oh, of course. Where are my manners." She takes out the amount before putting it on the table. She then gives the green-haired girl an indescribable look to which she looks away, as if unable to stand her teammate's gaze.

With a slightly concerned nod, the blue-clad boy nods to all three requests before sliding to the other side of the counter and quickly making the drink with masterful precision. As he did so, he swears he could hear bickering between the trio but chose not to butt in. While in Water form, he was at his most calm to the point of laziness actually. But any thoughts of laziness were trumped by his drive to not let Tok Aba down even in this different new world. After making the drinks he presents these to the trio who takes these with a smile before walking off. With that, Boboiboy's day continues.

However, to someone else, that day had only begun. After ordering, the trio took to their seat with the silver-haired boy looking nonplussed, in contrast to the face of the other two beside him. The green-haired girl looked concerned towards Ash Loch. "C-Cin-" Ash Loch glared at the girl who immediately realizes her mistake before quickly amending her mistake. "Ash... what's wrong, m-ma'am?"

While the woman's face rapidly calmed down from having her cover nearly blown by her inexperienced teammate, her face did not seem to retain its past calm. Instead, it had a look barely suppressing the disdain.

"I'm so sorry Ash... I really thought I could psyche him using my semblance. Then he changed colors and somehow he dispelled my semblance without really dispelling it. Trying to put him in the illusion again felt like trying to cast an illusion on another person...."

The silver-haired boy merely scoffs at his green-haired teammate's worries before saying, "Yeah well, not everyone's gifted with the best ever semblance am I right?"

This strikes a nerve with the green-haired girl who stands up, saying, "Says the boy who doesn't even have a semblance!"

With a nonchalant attitute, he merely pulls out the middle finger, replying with a snarky, "And I never needed one... unlike you.."

Before their... discussion could get too heated, Ash raises a hand up, silencing both.

"Fret not... Emerald. You didn't fail me... however he..." She discreetly looks at the boy younger and shorter than anyone on school running a food based business inside the cafeteria.

Fire begins to spark within her palm as she clenches both fists .

"How dare he obtain something which I earned so easily... when I will get what's rightfully mine, I will defeat him... I will show him who is the only person worthy to control the elements..."

Her blazing rage suddenly gets buried deep within as a sudden calm replaces her indignant expression.

"For now... we bide our time..."

----- to be continued...-----

A. N. It's been two years since I last touched this project, but due to the few who asked me to continue, I decided to do so. Apologies to those past viewers, but I'm back now. However, another thing I wish to mention is that, from now on, I'll be going at my own pace and I am going to take my time and write these slower because last time I tried to do a weekly thing, I ended up doing way worse than a week instead. While I would want to be able to publish every week, I sadly am just not as good as many other writers.