Ruby hit the ground, hard, her aura flickered as she groaned and arched her back on the ring. "Ohhh man, okay I think that's enough for me" 

"So soon? Come on, I barely touched you" Riz smirked as he offered a hand that she took in order to raise herself of the ground. "Your hand-to-hand is really sloppy"

"I'm just not that much of a brawler, not like my sister" she shrugged, her bones slightly cracking when she stretched her torso. "Preeetty sure I'm feeling this one tomorrow. Ouchies"

The upperclassmen shook his head with a chuckle "gotta step it up if you're fighting on the tournament. This is barely but the begining."

"Please no more."

"Ey Rizzer, let the girl be!" Treynor said as he got himself up from his seat and made his way to the ring.

"He's no pushover isn't he?" Jaune asked talking about the flying boy, a scared look on his face.

"He's...special. Riz didn't really go to a combat school." Irina responded

"No? Then how does he manage that well?" Pyrrha asked, genuine curiosity.

"Yeah, he couldn't have learned those moved from movies" Yang added.

"No, his style makes me remember some of the techniques from Mistral" Ren said. "But that stance...i'm really sure I've never seen anything like that."

"His mother...adoptive mother used to be a Special operative from Atlas" Kairi explained. "He said that when she adopted him she dropped the military to raise him, she taught him how to fight and how to use a weapon to properly defend himself and in exchange he promised her to join a normal school where he studied engineering." Her face frowning a little.

"Wow, so that's how he knows a lot about the flying stuff..." Yang hummed.

"But what happened that made him suddenly drop his academics and join Beacon?" Weiss asked, looking at their upperclassmen Irina was quick to respond.

"He said that when he built his first jetpack, the first one that didn't blew up upon ignition" everyone chuckled. "He soared to the skyes, reaching a three hundred meter altitude."

"Whoa! That's so cool. I don't think I can't ever do that even with all the grenades of my hammer!" Nora looked at Riz, amazed.

"Yeah...he said that reaching the sky was his first dream, one that he had accomplished at the age of fifteen. Once he got up there he said that it felt so good, so peaceful...he said that it felt like a...duty to show everyone what was it like to be up there, to show the warm and safety from the sun and the freedom and liberty of the wind." Stars in the eyes of Kairi, a blush on her cheeks, everyone giggled in a girly manner. She realized this and composed herself with a cough. "He decided that the best way to make that real was being a huntsman...and boy, his mother wasn't fond of the idea."

"She wasn't?" Pyrrha raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "How so?"

"Riz's childhood was kind of...complicated" Irina frowned deeply  "according to him he was alone for a long time before her mother-"

"He had it rough...had to learn how to defend himself in anyway that he could at that time. Let's leave it at that, Rina." the leader of the team KRTR said with a severe look that the small blonde girl noticed as she recoiled back in her seat instantly.

"Yeah...sorry" she said looking down in shame.

Everyone else looked at each other, curiosity and concern in their faces. Ruby got up to the place that they were and sat in between Kairi and Yang.

"How was it?" The brawler asked, lifting a brow at her sister.

"He wiped the floor with me, his footwork was so fast that I could barely keep up"

"That's his style alright" Kiri nodded "overwhelm and conquer. His style uses a combination of a lot of takedown techniques and chokeholds, one second you're standing and the other you're kissing the floor."

"He had a name for it, didn't he? What was it?" Irina placed a finger on her lip.

"However Treynor's different, he's stronger than Riz and he already knows his moves, how he attacks and knows how to counter him." The purple-haired leader said. "That led Trey to actually win the few lasts sparring matches against Riz."

The two boys looked at each other, both keeping their distance with their arms up. Treynor opting to use a more laid back and relaxed style opposite to his teammate who stood his ground more in a low stance, with his left hand over his head and the right one close to the chest. They were both walking around each other clockwise, slowly getting closer, neither of them feeling the need to try and deliver the first blow.

Treynor closed up on him with a jab that Riz stopped it with ease by grabbing his opponent's wrist at the right second. Everyone else looked at this and suddenly got more excited due to the quick movement.

The flying ace planted a foot behind the brawler but this one responded with a knee to the guts of Riz, he endured the attack without loosing pressure on Treynor's wrist. Using his free right hand he delivered a quick hook to the side, connecting partially due to Treynor's efforts to block. Riz did not relent as he went for another blow right to the face, Trey parried the attack, this time with success and proceeded to counterreact by grabbing Riz's throat, a wild move.

"Trey knows how Riz will act, he knows how to put him against the ropes." Kairi explained, as everyone else seemed to be absorbed by the display.

Rizzer reacted fast at this and locked the arm that Treynor was using to choke his throat with his own arm, driving him into a armlock as his neck loosened up and the air went back into his lungs.

Treynor tried to act but Rizzer saw it coming and lifted his foot, placing it infront of his opponents legs he exerted pressure and flipped Treynor into the floor with little effort.

"However this doesn't mean that Riz is left defenseless"

"Yeah...if you know your opponent knows how you will act you have no way of knowing what they'll pull of until they do..." Yang said with a nod. "Treynor's about strengh, Rizzer fights smart using Treynor's weight to his advantage."

Rizzer backed away and let his rival stand up again, they looked at each other's eyes for a second...a sly grin on Riz's mouth.

"You seem to be more motivated than last time"

"Maybe..." That was the only thing that the flying boy answered as he lowered a bit his stance, a short sigh. "Let's go." He said, throwing the first punch that was evaded by Treynor.

The brawler swung his way only for his attack to be dodged, one, two and three. Riz would react fast at the blows and get out of the way by moving backwards and to the sides. Trey tsk'd and shortened the distance between them with a dash and a strong jab aimed at the face, Rizzer smirked, he was expecting this as he used his forearm to divert the attack and guided Treynor's arm to the side, a small gust of wind passing by due to his rival's missing blow. Treynor's entire right side was exposed by his mistake, Riz delivered a powerful kick to the side, that shook his partner. Treynor reacted and covered himself with his guard but it was already late as he didn't manage to see a second kick, this time hitting the knee and debilitating his stance making him grunt.

Knowing that his rival's footwork was ruined Rizzer used the momentum to swing a third time with his leg in a roundhouse kick that sent Treynor flying away, to the outskirts of the arena.

"Rizzer may struggle with open areas as his style is more focused on close quarters but he quickly adapts to it with no problem." Kairi finished.

"Oh! That's right. According to Riz his style is called Atlesian Close-Quarters-Combat. He said the style was invented by Atlas during the old war using lots of upclose techniques from Mistral and some from Vacuo, it's a mashup he said." Irina clapped her hands, remembering.

"Yeah, makes sense." Ren nodded, excitement on his voice. "Now I know why that triple kick seemed so familiar, it's one my techniques too. I'm impressed, a fighting style that is comprised by moves of many other styles."

"What Ren? Are you in love?" Nora giggled making his partner roll his eyes.

Riz stretched his arm and caressed his neck still feeling sore from that choke. He approached Treynor and offered a hand that he took and yanked, surprising Riz and pulling him towards Treynor's first which he blocked out the way in time using his forearm again and delivered a sucker punch right into his right eye socket then another one for good measure, leaving his teammate and rival on the ground. "Fucker" he hissed. "I almost fell for that one again"

"Ugh, Imma feel this one tomorrow" his teammate said, rubbing the right side of his face in the ground trying to ease the pain. "Why did you have to punch me in the face?! I was gonna ask Rina to the dance you know?"

"Heheh, pretty sure she'll say yes, no matter how banged up you are. With this one we are tied, seven to seven."

"Still can't believe you beated me so quick." Trey said, getting up from the floor.

"A bad beginning draws a bad end." Riz quipped, inmediately frowning a little bit at the memory of when he heard those words the first time.

"Your mother told you that?" The brawler looked at him, raising an eyebrow at his partner's expression. "Riz?"

Waking up from his trance, he looked at Treynor and shook his head. "No, that was...before that, Think nothing of it."

"I...see" they both separated. "Gonna hit the showers, coming?"

Riz looked at their friends for a moment and how they were talking and laughing, Kiri and Rina integrating very well with their underclassmen. He smiled. "Go ahead, Be right behind you in a moment."

"Sure, have fun" the other one said as he cracked his neck and saluted everyone with his hand on the way out.

...

He scrolled around the dark website on his computer, reading about the incident from almost nine years ago, listening to witnesses reports, a frown on his face. He lifted the cup of coffee that also served as a paperweight for his school notes that he had gone through moments ago.

He wondered why all of this was really well hidden, yet of course it happened nine years almost ten since that.

His mind going back to those days, that place, those feelings of hopelessness and solitude burned deep into his heart.
Among all of that he found a ray of hope...a mute girl with brown hair and brown eyes that talked to him using charades as her only way to communicate.

The thought of that girl never abandoned his mind, even after all these years he still yearned to find her once more. He tapped into his scroll writing a message and he quickly pressed the "send" button before regretting his decision.

I got your number, you know who I am.
I am okay if you were wondering and I want to meet you.
Let me know the time and place.

He sighed and dropped his scroll into the table.

"Still looking into this huh?" He was surprised and turned his head to see his girlfriend at his side with a tired expression on her face.

"Ka-Kairi...I-I uh...yeah." he said, defeated.

"I thought you said that you were done with this, that you wouldn't push yourself deeper into it." She said looking at the old report. "This is the reason you and your mother are so distanced in the first place."

Rizzer groaned. "it's not like I can just push this all away, Kiri"

"Why not? It happened years ago, you gotta lay it down, what happened happened. It was bad I get that but you can't do anything about it now. Ugh! You do this all the time I swear"

His face twisting into a more serious look. "What the hell do you mean? it's my past, it's who I used to be and I deserve to know I really was" both of the raising their voices, filling the empty space of the hangar.

"Always looking for something to do behind everyone else's backs, always going out on your own, not telling everyone, disobeying orders with the risk of jeopardizing missions" she said ranted, getting closer and poking a finger on his chest everytime she made a point.

"What does that even have to do with this?!" Riz threw his arms in the air, backing away from her. "This doesn't even have to do with you! Is it really so selfish of me to want to know who the hell I am?!"

"You know who you are! I told you this already you are Rizzer Azure and you're a huntsman in training."

"Riz I have there are two people approaching the-"

"Not now Vis!" Both of them said at unison glaring at the computer screen who inmediately shut up.

"You're a good person" Kairi continued  "Someone that was forced to do bad things, you are not defined by that."

They both failed to notice the soft knock on the open doors as Yang and Weiss peeked their heads "Hello? Anyone ho-"

"RIZZER IS NOT EVEN MY TRUE NAME!" he slammed his fist against the table, Kairi jumped in her place a bit with a whimper. "I don't even know my own name! Where do I come from who were my own FUCKING PARENTS! The ONLY thing that I remember from those days is a fucking cage and killing other fucking kids with my fucking BARE HANDS!" He said, furious. His eyes watering. "I-I just want to know...is it really so bad?"

"And this person you just texted? Is they a part of this? A part of your past? Will talking to them make you feel better? How can you know that? How can you trust in this person knowing from the place that they came from"

"So you're saying that she's a piece of shit because she came crawling out of the same hole as me?! Is that what you're implying?" this time he felt offended, he fighted the tears back. "What the hell does that makes me then?!"

"Someone that survived! Despite all the fucked up stuff you were forced you to do you endured it and now you're here! " She stomped her foot on the ground. "Look EVEN if this girl really is from that place HOW in the fuck can you trust whatever she has to say, will she even know who you were? Will she tell you your name!? Huh?! WILL SHE?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" He screamed, his voice echoed through the hangar and placed fear on Kairi's heart making her take a step back. He noticed this and took a shaky breath. "I don't know...but I-I have to try either way..." .

"Yeah..." She muttered, seemingly scared and disturbed. "Fine. Do it, I don't care." Her tone growing more upset but not as loud as before, offended if anything "go with that girl, talk to her, do whatever you want and when you're done with that we'll be waiting for you. Treynor, Irina and I...your real family, the only one that cares about the person you are right now after all that has happened." She turned back and head for the exit.

"Where are you going?" He asked, regretting his decision of shouting at her.

"To Vale, with my parents. I can't stand being near you when you're like this. I'll be back on monday, maybe then you'll finally get your head out of ass" she opened the door, letting the other two shocked girls enter the place, not looking either at them or at him back.

"I'm sor-" the sound of her slamming the door shut cut him dry. He dropped to his seat and exhaled a sharp sigh. "Fuck..."

"Uhh..." Riz's head perked at his underclassmen looking rather shocked. Yang was the first to ask. "May I ask what the fuck?"

"Yang!" She said, elbowing the side of the blonde and earning a brief chuckle from the boy.

"It's just...team issues"

"We don't really want to press but you mentioned something about...murdering" the word seemed to bear a weight on the heiress of the Schnee family. "Is there something we should be concerned with?"

Riz gave it some thought for a moment and glanced at them both. "What are you doing here?" He asked, not even bothering to answer, the girls from team RWBY looked at each other with preocuppied faces.

"We w-were just uh..." Weiss had trouble to speak, still nervous from the previous interaction.

"We need to buy some stuff for the dance on sunday, decorations and such, also some CD's with music." Yang picked up where her partner left.

Riz tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. "CD's? That thing is prehistorical, what the hell? I can download some tracks for you if you want"

"Ye-heah" Yang laughed. "I thought about the same but Weiss insisted that we should 'play' by the rules." She winked an eye at her pun, making Weiss groan.

"Ugh, you're such a dunce also I remind you that piracy is illegal and punished by law. If you really like a song or a movie or even a game you should buy it, not download it from who know where...besides those sites are usually full of viruses and other really, really disgusting advertisements."

"Well not everyone gets to spend daddy Schnee's money to buy whatever they want" Riz smirked, making the white-haired girl a little uncomfortable. "But you're right with the virus and porn ads thing" 

"Please refrain to say that word again" Weiss pleaded, making the other two crack a laugh.

"What word? Porn? Heh sorry princess, not exactly a sunshines and rainbows kind of place"

"She's just a spoiled brat, Riz, ignore her."

"Hey!" Weiss tapped the floor with her foot. "In any case! You seem to be having issues of your own so it might be best to-"

"No, no." The upperclassmen said as he got up from his chair. "I'll go with you. I have to buy some dust crystals myself for Windbreaker since the last ones died out and it might help me clear my head after..." he grabbed his scroll and noticed that the girl with pink and brown hair had received the message but not read it, maybe this would take time, days or weeks, he pocketed his scroll and looked at them "after what you just saw."

"Oh, great then! We can talk on the way. I haven't met a lot people from Atlas since I got here" Weiss cupped her hands with a small smile, making Riz chuckle.

"Be aware, It's been years since I left Atlas so you might know much more than me." He said as he grabbed a black jacket with red outlines around the sleeves.

Yang shrugged "just know that your job here is being the mule for our own purposes." She said with a smirk.

"Meh, I can take it. Done it before." He said with confidence. "Bring it"

...

Rizzer was regretting his choice of words with the two girls of team RWBY as he was carrying every single bag that they bought, he groaned everytime they stopped on a store because it would only mean that they'd come out with at least two bags that seemed to be filled with bricks, seriously how much did they filled these bags?
He got what he wanted though, three fire crystal and three electrical ones along with several vials and clips for his weapon of different kinds of dust, all thanks to young Schnee's credit card, the ride was worth and he didn't spend a single lien.

They kept on walking and even though Riz could barely feel his fingers he did not complain, the girls stopped in front of an ice cream shop.

"Hey, Riz" Yang turned around to see him "What flavor of Weiss cream do you like?"

"Go to hell Yang" Weiss mouthed

His mind traced back for a moment before he had his answer.

"Orange and chocolate, the one has bits of chocolate"

Both girls look at each other with weird looks on their faces.

"What?" The young student said.

"Nothing, weirdo" Yang looked at her teammate "you Weiss?"

"Mint" this time Yang and Riz weared unimpressed looks. "What? Mint is delicious!"

"Yeah, sure. Figures a Schnee would say that." Yang had trouble to stiffle her laughs at Rizzer's comment.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Weiss turned at his upperclassmen with an offended look on her face.

"Nothing, nothing" He rolled his eyes.

"Okay, look for some seats and wait for me, b.r.b" and with that Yang lost herself among the line of people waiting to buy ice cream.

Weiss gestured the boy to follow him and he obliged, both seating on a table with four chairs, she sat on the opposite side of him, facing the flying boy.

"So" she cupped her hands. "About us making you carry all of our stuff."

"My way of repaying you for the dust, think nothing of it." Riz moaned lightly as he carefully set the bags at his side. His aura quickly easing the pain on his fingers as now he barely felt any.

"How chivalrous of you"

"Always happy to help a damsel in distress" Riz said earning a roll of eyes from the heiress.

"Yeah, sure." A small pause "but seriously you should-"

"It's okay, Weiss, really. My mother spend a lifetime teaching me to be a gentleman, if she got wind that I didn't manage with a few pair of shopping bags she'd probably held it until the day she's gone."

"Your mother, huh? Well I do think mothers are a...pillar for our education" Weiss said with certain reluctance. Rizz raised an eyebrow as he placed his forearm on the table, leaning a little on it.

"Rough childhood, huh?"

"You don't even know the half of it" the heiress muttered loud enough for his ears to hear.

"Feel you there, at least the ones you have are real"

She send a concerned glance towards him, one that he avoided by adverting his eyes at the people who walked by.

"Is there...something you wish to talk about?" She asked, softly almost as if talking with a child.

"Well if there's one thing you and I have in common besides being from the same place is that we did had some pretty fucked up childhood. My mother would talk all day about how much of a piece of sh-...douche your father was."

"She knew my father? Do you mind me asking who your mother is?"

It took a while for him to answer back, he popped his lips. "You know of Eril Ventarr?" Weiss eyes widened.

"Eril Ventarr? The Eril Ventarr who took out a dozen Nevermores on her own after the squadron of airships sent out to battle was destroyed? Disobeying the orders of his commander to save the people who were under attack by grimm on Mantle? The one that after years of serving in the military airforce went on a covert operation regarding some illegal fighting club?"

Riz was not really surprised by the fact she knew all of these things, actually he was quite amused by the amount of positive energy coming from her when she talked about the heroic deeds of his mother.

"Yeah, that's the one and only" he said with a nod.

"No wonder you did so good against the mech and your fight style, and your weapon too!" She said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Your mother is a hero on Atlas. My sister always said that she was an inspiration and that she wanted to be just like her, that's one of the reasons she enlisted on the military in the first place!" That spark in her eyes, her smile.

"Your sister...Winter Schnee if I recall. Yeah I think I saw her"

"Wow, I didn't knew we were so close to each other. To think you met my sister."

"I'll hold you right there" he held up his hand signaling Weiss to stop talking. "I never actually met your sister, only saw her once, it was a long time and I don't think I could recognize her now, it's been years since that."

"When did you left Atlas?"

"Six years ago..." He had a bit of trouble to continue. "Actually it was your very sister who convinced my mother to leave."

"She sent you two away?" Her voice growing seemingly upset "No, no. She would never do that, my sister-"

"Had orders..." He said and she shut up, her face looking more sad. "A difference between us and the hunstman of Atlas is their militaristic culture."

"I uh..." She wanted to say something and the only word that came to her mind was "Why?"

Rizzer struggled a little bit with the answer and whether if he should tell her the truth or not, a sigh escaped his lips.

"Might as well tell you everything from the beginning" he began, Yang approached them, silently the look on hee face giving away that she had been listening to the conversation and had her full attention too, she handed the Ice cream to the Ice Queen and to Rizzer.

"Thank you, Yang" he grabbed the sweet frozen treat as he pursed his lips. "Remember that covert operation my mother undertook?"

"Not really, I was very young at the moment but my sister told me a lot of things about it...it was also around the time when my father stared being crappier with everyone, never knew why"

"I think this might clear somethings. The operation was...real. She had stayed incognito in a joint called the Little Monsters Pit."

"That was the thing with the caged faunuses kids that were on the news right?" Yang asked earning a nod from Riz as he licked his treat.

"You know something about it?"

"Only what they showed in the news, my dad turned off the T.V. soon after and sent me to bed, said that a kid should never watch a thing like that, let alone live through it." The blonde explained.

"Well...that's the thing." Rizzer sighed as he stared at the orange part of his ice cream. "I was one of those kids."

Weiss and Yang looked at each other, then at Riz and back at each other again, sharing shocked looks.

"You...participated in that?" Weiss asked.

"For as long as I can remember I was living on an orphanage of Mantle, didn't knew my parents, and I honestly I don't remember my full name, only my surname, Azure. That's the only thing I recall. One day someone came along and adopted me along with several other kids, mostly faunus...there were not many human kids in that place but they were taken in along with me..."

"This...doesn't have a nice turn of events does it?" Yang interrupted only to earn a solemn nod from the boy. "Shit" she whispered.

"They separated us, girls on one side and boys on the other. The girls were used as...private entertainment." Weiss eyes remained open, her mouth agape in shock, Yang seemed to be more...unsurprised by what she was hearing. "While us boys where sent into cages, where they would barely feed us, make us go hungry so that our auras would be either very low or depleted entirely...then they dropped two of them into a small ring and gave us a knife to each one...forcing them into the other for food" there was a deep pregnant silence, everyone staring into a different direction. Riz couldn't see their faces but he guessed their reaction were the same as the ones of his team when he told them, sadness, fury, shock, disgust.

"What...was there even a point in that?" Yang asked, trying to steer her eyes into her treat. Comprehending what he had meant back in beacon about murdering.

"Not really, asides from sick entertainment and the fact that the fuckers ran bets on us children...most of the times both survived, but the loser wouldn't get to eat for almost a week so it was a death sentence either way."

"Just...go straight to the point, please...I don't want to hear more details about it." Weiss was biting on her ice cream rather anxiously as if trying to brain freeze herself.

"Right. Eventually they were caught, by Eril Ventarr who after everything that happened decided to adopt me, that's how I ended up with the first decent person of my life. When everythin' blew a lot of people from the high society of Atlas was arrested because they were either involved in the business or were just spectators."

"I think I remember that..." Weiss said. "I remember my father being acussed with some really demeaning charges...oh god" she put two and two together. "Don't tell me-"

"No" Riz shook his head. "As far as I'm concerned he was not involved, not at all..." Weiss sighed, relieved that his father was not that big of a monster than she thought. "Atlas went over the imvestigation time and time again, my mother got obsessed with Jacques Schnee over a hunch and began to throw wrongful accusation his way...he proved to be innocent time and time again until he eventually got tired of it"

"What did he do?" Yang asked, looking how the ice cream on Riz's hand began to melt, slowly.

"He ruined her career, dragged her to the mud, both publicly on the media and through his connections within the council of Atlas. The general Ironwood is a good person as far as I understand...but he wasn't the general ahead of the military at that time, someone else was and I don't really remember their name...thing is she got dishounorably discharged in the end, and ended up loosing her credibility as well."

"That's...horrible" the white-haired girl said. "I knew my father did bad things but..."

"I don't held anything against your father...not in a personal way at least. He was innocent, he didn't do anything wrong...well at least until the very end."

"Don't bother trying to justify him, Riz. What he did to your mother was awful" Yang clenched her fist in anger.

"In...all honesty I think this was what my mother needed, it served as a wake up call for her. Winter Schnee one day came along saying that she deeply regretted everything that happened regarding the issue with your father and she made the best offer my mother ever took...she gave her two tickets to Vale, two tickets on a first class ship far away from hell. My mother accepted it and we began a new life, away from the military, away from all the insanity...you might think Jacques Schnee did something horrible and you're possibly right but...for me, your father and your sister kind of saved me and my mother from going crazy too" he stopped talking, everyone stopped talking and decided to concentrate their focus on the melting ice cream, Riz cleaning his hand with a paper towel.

"I'm...glad everything turned out okay in the end..." Weiss said, looking at him rather hesitant, waiting for a curse from him or just a disgusted look...instead she was met with a calm smile from someone who was relieved to be in Vale.

"Me too, I love being here...your sister is a great person." Riz grinned.

"That she is" Weiss nodded, with a small smile of satisfaction

The silence came back. Yang felt awkward at the situation.
"Ugh, okay. Enough of this, let's go we aren't done shopping yet." She said cleaning her hands with a paper towel too and gesturing the other two to get up.

"But I haven't finished my ice cream!" Weiss complained, still half through her dessert.

"You eat it on the way, c'mon" the blonde answered, making the grey-haired boy laugh, his ice cream nowhere to be seen as he grabbed the bags once again. "Wow you sure do eat quickly."

"I enjoyed it either way, thank you kindly Firecracker." He winked at Yang, earning a blush and a faint smug grin from the girl.

Both girls had stood up and were on their way, taking the lead. Rizzer walking behind them as he put on an earpiece. "Vis?"

"How can I be of service, Riz?"

"Remind me to call my mom later, I wanna know how she's doing"

"I will set up an alarm for tomorrow afternoon"

"Great, that's great. Thank you"

"You're welcome, Riz." The machine said and he removed the earpiece, shoving it back into his pocket he picked up the pace as he catched back with the two girls from team RWBY.

...

A loud 'POOF' sound filled the space along with a cloud of black smoke, the sound of coughing as the smoke reached his lungs.

"Guh! God damnit!" He got away from the table, dropping his screwdriver onto the floor, his right eye changing back from green to blue as he deactivated his semblamce.

"Should I raise the fire alarm?" The machine asked only for the second year student to panic.

"Wha!? No! Nonono. Absolutely not, there's not even a fire, see?" He gestured at his jetpack with a crooked smile, the quantity of smoke coming out of the dust compartment from inside Windbreaker couldn't be normal, as if on cue a something inside the device created a spark that ignited his gear alight "OH SHIT!"

He panicked real this time and ran for the left far corner of the hangar, pulling out a fire extinguisher he made his way back and squeezed theh handle on the deep red tube making a 'fwoosh' the fire was put out and he dropped the extinguisher at the ground and got on his knees with a deep sigh.

"Riz?" The A.I. asked

"No" he replied

"But-"

"It was hilarious I know" he smiled briefly. "Har-har" he said with a sarcastic tone.

"Glad that you agree then" Vis responded. "I will make the necessary assesments so that this may not happen again, please allow yourself to rest."

"Can't rest, still thinking about Kairi...about the other girl, about what I said to Yang and Weiss..." He shook his head. "Too much on my mind right now, don't want to deal with it."

"You don't wish to talk about it either?"

He glanced at his monitor for a brief period then his eyes went back at the smoking disaster on the table. "No, I don't wanna. Pull out Windbreaker's schematics, we have a long night ahead of ourselves."

"Understood." The voice said, the screen flickering on and displaying blueprints of Riz's gear.  

He continued his task with diligence, hours passed and he did not pay his mind to nothing else, the darkness had fallen as the moonshines filled the place through the windows and the semi-opened door. Using a pair of gloves he carefully set the crystal once again, knowing that there was no chance for it to blow up this time. ,"Okay..." He said, closing the dust compartment. "Let's see then..." Crossing his finger he grabbed the control panel he usually latched into his wrist that was now sitting on the table. He pressed a button and Windbreaker came to life with a mechanical whir. A smile creeping on his face.

"Hah! HAHAHAH! YEAH BABY!" he pumped his fist in the air and jumping repeatedly on his two feet around until he met face to face with a certain red who looked surprised.

"Hi Riz!" She said with a smile, Rizzer jumped back as he was unaware of how Ruby had gotten so close to him without even realizing.

"Shhii- Ruby you're gonna give me a heart attack." He said, grasping his chest with one hand, gasping loudly. The redhead giggled.

"Sorry, I did meant to surprise you tho." She looked past him and toward the aparatus sitting on the table. "From all the yelling I assume you finished repairing your jets."

"Yyyep!" He said with a proud smile as he got closer to the table. "Wanna see?"

"Actually..." Her face reddened as she tapped her foot against the floor. "There's another thing I'd like to see, if you don't mind." She looked at him with a puppy face, making him chuckle.

"Just hang here a sec." He said, going to the back of the Atlas airship, a little bit of shuffling was heard until he came out again, his rifle in hand. "Catch!" He yelled from affar as he tossed his weapon to her.

She jumped in her spot and intercepted the tool, grabbing it with expertise. "Wow it's so much cool up close!" She said, running her fingers around every part of it, every intricacy, every little engraving when there was one. She removed the magazine an inspectioned the chamber, amazed by the craftsmanship "you built it didn't you?"

"Better believe it, she was one of my best creations." He nodded with a grin as he stood back, arranging some things on his workbench, cleaning up the rest.

Ruby was amazed, she aimed with the weapon and realized how difficult it was to actually aim with iron sights, even if the ones he had were clean and small she still preferred her scopes any day. She fired two bullets at the training dummy, one hitting the head but the other missing narrowly, hitting the metal wall. Riz didn't even coment, a smile plastered in his face as if it was music to his eyes. "How do you change it's form?" She asked, trying to figure out the mechanism.

"Fold the stock then-"

"Got it!" She said with excitement as she was already swinging the short spear around, twirling it around her fingers she came across something. "What does the trigger do?"

"Elemental reaction with whatever kind of dust is on the bullet, ejects the bullet on use. I think there was rock dust last time I checked so please don't." He said, making Ruby pout.

"Alright." She fiddled a little more before discovering another hidden feature, the spear extended itself, reaching the ground around a meter and two thirds it had grew significantly larger. "Wooow..." She found something else, something in the exact middle of the spear.

Rizzer turned his heard when he heard a 'clack' and looked at Ruby staring in disbelief, her mouth agape, with his weapon splitted in half.

"I-I..." Oh man she was already tearing up "I didn't m-mean it I swear!"

He ran up to her and embraced the girl with one arm. "hey, hey. It's okay"

"B-but I-" She sniffed, helding the two pieces in her hand "I-I didn't-"

"Shhh, calm down Ruby. It's a feature, see?" He grabbed the pair of sticks and slided both thumbs across each end were they used to connect, he slided some kind of mechanism almost impossible to perceive with normal eyes. The sharp blade of the bayonet that formed the tip of the spear extended itself across the stick, creating a one-bladed short sword.

"O-oh..." She said, rubbing her eyes, hiding inside the arms of the older student. "W-what about the other one?" She asked, looking at the other naked stick.
He did the same thing but this time some kind of sliders opened up near the end. He unsheated the knife sitting on his thigh and attached it to the stick with ease and securing it so it wouldn't move.

"You see? This way I can fight multiple scenarios."

"So...so cool." She answered, grabbing hold of both blades. Too absorbed by this she failed to notice how closely Riz was observing her, her face and her reactions, he pointed something that he just now noticed.

"You have silver eyes..." He said, with a strange tone.

"Uh?" She looked at him, their eyes meeting. Her cheeks flushing. "Y-yeah..."

He looked down and his index finger reached for his left eye, pressing it carefully he removed a contact lens. Her eyes widened at his silver left eye.

"Whoa! You have silver eyes as well!"

He chuckled and shook his head. "Only the left one, I have something called heterochromia, a thing that makes two irises a different color. Kind of rare actually, not many have them."

"That's so cool!" She beamed, grabbing hold of his arm. "Why the contacts though?"

"I don't know, always grew with them, my mom said that it was important and that I had to conceal it, never told me why though. Oh well." He said pressing the contact against his eye again and looking at her once more. "You happy now?"

She nodded happily, putting his weapon back together and unfolding it into his rifle form. "Thank you, I did the same with the other of your team but I never thought yours would snap in half just like Irina's"

He chuckled at the thought of Ruby snapping Rina's bow in half only to discover that the two pieces form two short blades similar to him. His eyes caught a weird internal growl, he looked at Ruby with surprise and shock. "Was that...?"

"My stomach?" The young girl giggled, her cheeks crimson red. "I guess I'm a little hungry."

"I see" he said with a chuckle. "It's kind of late isn't it? Let's head for the cafeteria and grab some dinner."

"Great idea!" Ruby said, clapping her hands. "We can talk about all sorts of weapons on the way back, have you watched mine already? I designed myself Y'know?"

"Really?" He looked at her in disbelief. "You're really something else, huh? Maybe I'd let you in on a secret or two when I designed my own weapon." A smirk across his face.

"Please teach me how to build a jetpack like yours! I swear I'm ready."

"Next year, I promise. Otherwise Ozpin would never let me hear the end of it"

"Oh man!" She pouted, making the upperclassmen snort a laugh in a carefree manner.