-(2nd Semester)-

"Uuuuuugh! I don't wanna get up!" I complained as I lay on my bed, trying to summon enough will power to get up and get ready for the first day of being back to school.

"Dude, you're gonna have to get up at some point..." Gabe responded irritably.

"I know, but it's so cold outside!" I argued.

"I know, and classes start in half an hour!"

I sighed.

I despise the cold, especially being a cold blooded Faunus, I have to stay warm, otherwise I'll freeze to death. Literally.

"Fine!" I said, and got up to get ready.

It was only 60 outside, but to me, it felt more like 30.

I shivered all the way to Prof. Ports' class, keeping my trench coat close to preserve as much heat as possible, but it didn't help a lot.

We were one of the last students to get there, and when I sat down, Yang said,"What's wrong? Oh, wait, you're COLD blooded."

I slowly turned and glared at her while Gabe started to laugh hysterically.

I turned to him and elbowed him, but he continued to laugh.

I turned to Yang again and shook my head,"No...Just...no."

The Classes went on as usual, then we went to lunch.

By now, the seats had been established and we went to sit in our spots.

I didn't get any lunch, considering I didn't NEED to.

Ruby noticed this and commented on it,"What's wrong?"

"Hm?What?" I said, confused.

"Why aren't you eating? It's been three days since I last saw you eat." She responded.

"Oh! That...umm...Well...as you may know, I'm a Komodo dragon, right? So I don't really eat too often, usually a week, that and my semblance means I can survive a much longer time without food or water much longer than a normal person would. Does that answer your question?" I explained.

"Pretty much." She said, and didn't dwell on the toptic anymore.

Lunch ended and we went on the day as normal, a bit...too normal.

Anyway, once classes were over and we were free to do anything, team RWBY invited us, along with team JNPR, to a pizza dinner with them in downtown Vale.

It was getting colder outside, and the only reason I agreed to go is because I didn't want to be alone in our dorm doing nothing, while everyone else was having fun.

It took us nearly 20 minutes to reach our destination. I was shivering and chattering the whole time and Weiss kept telling me to stop. I only sighed and kept chattering and shivering.

We finally got there after what felt like an hour. I opened the door to go inside, but I was stopped by the warmth if the interior which washed over me and ended my discomfort.

"Ahhhh...The warmth..." I said as I stepped inside.

"I think I'll be staying here for the night." I joked.

We each ordered our pizzas and sat at one big table. I ordered a bacon pizza. Even though I didn't really need to eat, I couldn't resist the taste of a large, bacon covered pizza.

Besides, this was one of those rare times that I got to spend any time at all with the few people that I trust, I didn't want it to pass by so I enjoyed it as much as I could.

We took all the time in the world to finish our meal, and even longer to sit and talk.

At last, Jaune insisted that it was getting dark and we start to head back.

We all then got up and went outside, still talking and laughing.

I still felt the cold, but not as much as before.

On our way back, just as we were about to exit downtown Vale, a man with a brown leather jacket and a silver suit case ran past us.

There were several policemen after him but he managed to evade them.

I turned to everyone and said,"I got this."

I chased after the man, but it was no use. He seemed to be incapable of tiring. Then, I had an idea.

I turned to the left and ran through an alley between two large brick buildings to cut him off as soon as he came by.

He turned around the corner, still running and I jumped at him, knocking us both down.

When I got a close look at him, his eyes were completely white as if they were rolled back, except they weren't.

I've seen this before, but it's something that I don't want to think about. I knew what to do though, to know if I was right.

I held him up and I knocked him unconscious. The policemen finally arrived at the scene and woke him up again, and, as I suspected, his eyes were back to normal.

"Huh? What's going on?" Said the man, clearly panicked and confused.

"You're going to jail, that's what." A policeman said.

"For what?" the man asked.

"Don't act dumb! You know what you did." The policeman said again.

I interrupted,"No...he really doesn't know. It's not his fault."

The policeman turned to me with a suspicious look."You wouldn't understand." I told him.

"You're right! I don't. Which is why we're taking him to jail." He replied.

I looked at the man with a sorry expression, wishing I could help.

I then saw the suitcase the man was carrying, which were being held by another policeman. I walked over and asked about the contents of the case.

He replied with,"Dust, and lots of it at that."

I rejoined with the group, which had followed the commotion but didn't really see much of what happened.

We talked about it on the way back to Beacon and I told them about the man with white eyes when we got back.

"What do you think he was?" Gabe asked when we got back.

There was a long pause as I thought about my answer.

"It's not him..." I finally said.

"It's my brother, Alpha Varsigma."

*****

"You have a brother!?" Gabe exclaimed.

"Yeah, and now, I think he's going around making people steal things for him. Plus, this wasn't the only one. Thefts have happening more often than usual, especially in the past 2 months."

"Mm, true..."

"But I don't know why he'd need any dust, or if it is him. But then, no one else could've been responsible for what I saw today."

We sat there for a second, presumably thinking about what we're going to do.

"What should we do?" Gabe asked.

"I'm thinking...that we find out who or what is causing this." I replied.

"Aaaand...how are we supposed to do that?" He asked.

"Good question...I'll figure something out tomorrow. I gotta get some sleep."

I got up and went to my bed."Alright, 'night then." He said.

"Good night." I said, and went to sleep.

*The next day*

I woke up, feeling the cold, gentle breeze coming in through the window. Why can't we just keep this closed... I thought to myself. I shuddered as I closed the window.

It was really nice outside, other than the fact that it was freezing, at least for me. The sun was up, there was a cool breeze and not a cloud in the sky. I really wished that there weren't classes today so I could just spend the day outside, doing...stuff...

But, there are classes, and I need to get there soon. I quickly walked to the first class of the day, which was Grimm 101 with Prof. Port. Gabe, somehow, got there before me and he was sitting where I would usually sit. I bet the feeling he did that just to piss me off.

Anyways, I sat down in his seat, which was cold from the air outside. I looked over and noticed that all the members of team RWBY looked particularly eager to get out of class and go do something crazy or something.

Couldn't really blame them though, some classes, I have to admit, are extremely boring. Take this class for example; we hardly do anything fun, Prof. Port tells us stories the whole period and it's in the morning. I can't pay attention to anything during the morning, I hear it, I forget it and usually remember it later.

Anyway, today was the same thing, we went through all our classes as normal, at least, until we went to the cafeteria for lunch."You guys seem pretty excited about something today, what's up?" Gabe asked them.

"Well, we're planning on doing...something...today." Ruby responded.

"Something...like what?" I asked.

"The White Fang are up to something, we're trying to find out what they're up to." Blake answered.

"Oh...okay then, how?" Gabe asked.

"We're going to split up and go around Vale just...finding out what we can." Weiss answered.

"Oh, okay. We're going somewhere after classes are over." Gabe said.

"where are you going?" Yang asked.

"We're going to look for my brother. We think he was the one responsible for the robberies of those dust shops." I said.

Blake and Weiss both raised a finger, but before they could say anything, Ruby yelled,"You have a brother?!"

"And you're surprised by this, how?" I sarcastically asked.

"Well, you never told us." replied Weiss.

"But still..." I started but didn't continue.

We went back to class after lunch, you know, as usual. Nothing interesting ever seems to happen in most of my classes. Oh well...

After classes were over, we hurriedly went back to our dorms."Alright, you know what to do right?" I asked Gabe as I got everything ready.

"Yeah, I'm going to walk around Vale and look for anything suspicious." Gabe responded.

"Good, I'm going to look for anyone else that this may have happened to." I said.

"Right. So we're all ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's go!"

We rushed out of our dorm, as I closed the door, team RWBY walked outside looking fresh.

"Well, good luck!" I tell them and go our separate ways.

*****

Me and Gabe wandered around for a while before actually going forth with the plan. We split up, Gabe goes on to patrol the streets, and I go on to find any information I can on Alpha's whereabouts.

I went to look for that guy that got caught the other night. Hopefully, he remembers something about where he got involved in this.

I walk around for a while until I found a friend of his who told me where he lives. Apparently, he was released, which is a good thing, I mean, it wasn't his fault.

He lived on an apartment building near the edge of downtown Vale. It took about 10 minutes of walking to get there. I found the building in which he lived in and went inside.

I walked up some stairs up to the second floor. I found his door and I knocked on it. It took a moment for him to open the door, he looked rather surprised to see me."Hey! Aren't you that kid that I ran into the other night?" He asked.

"Uhh...yeah, I am." I responded.

"Okay, well, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"Well, I just wanted to ask you about what happened." I said.

"Okay, what about it?" He asked.

"I was wondering where you were before...you know, all this." I replied.

He thought for a moment, but finally answered,"Well, I was in the forest of Forever Fall."

"What were you doing there?" I questioned further.

"I was taking core samples from the trees with some of my colleagues to find out whether the trees were getting healthier or not. Right, so...I wandered some distance away from the group to take samples from the older trees deeper into the forest, when I stumbled upon a strange...perfectly rectangular shaped stone." He described. This was getting interesting.

"Was there anything on or around it?" I asked him.

"Yeah...there was, very faintly, an A?" He replied.

"A what?" I asked, unsure of what he said.

"An A, like the letter A." He answered.

"Ohhhh! That's what you meant, okay..."

"Yeah, then after a few seconds, this guy came out of the shadows and I don't remember anything between then and being arrested." He stated.

There was now no doubting it. It had to be him, who else would have an A for a symbol?

"Thanks for your help." I said to him.

"Alright, see you around." He waved.

"Alright, you too."

And with that, I exited the building and walked along the side walk towards the general direction of Forever Fall. I pulled out my scroll and contacted Gabe.

"What's up?" He answered.

"I think I know where to go." I said.

"Meet me near Forever Fall."

"Ok, I'm on my way." He said. I hung up and ran through Vale. It took me the next 15 minutes to get through downtown Vale, while trying to avoid traffic and not run into anyone.

Gabe was waiting for me at the edge of the forest."What took so long?" He asked.

"There was a lot traffic." I sarcastically said.

"So you drove here?" He asked.

"No! Idiot, I ran here." I yelled at him.

"Alright, alright, I was just kidding." He said.

"Okay, so...I know what we're looking for. It's a stone with and A on it. It's somewhere within Forever Fall." I told him.

"Okay, should we start looking?" He asked.

"Yeah, do you want to look for it down here or from the air?" I asked.

"From the air." he said, jumped up, pulling out Gamma as he did, and began shooting at a downward angle to propel himself above the forest. It was getting dark, the forest will be far more dangerous than during the day. I unsheathed The Destroyer and gripped the hilt tightly, ready to respond at the first sign of danger.

I walked through the forest with caution, aware that Grimm are more active and hostile during the night.

A noise suddenly made me jump. I looked around for anything that may pose a threat. I felt my scroll vibrate in my pocket, I let out my breath that I didn't realize I was holding. I answered the scroll, it was Gabe.

"Dude, you freaking scared me!" I said.

"Okay, well I think I found it." He said.

"Okay, mind letting me know where you are?" I said. I heard a series of explosions to my left.

"There." he said.

"Thanks." I said, then put my scroll away. I ran through the forest as fast as I could towards the explosions.

Gabe was waiting for me when I got there,"This it?" he asked, pointing at the stone on the ground. There was no doubting it, this was Alphas' symbol. It was an A with a faint, but still somewhat visible, S in the middle behind the A.

"Yup, this is it." I said. I took a closer look at it to see if there was anything else interesting in or around it.

"This looks...very suspicious." said Gabe.

"Well, it's not everyday you-" a mechanical sounding noise came from behind us. There was someone, or something there, and whatever it is, it was expecting us.