Ace made his way through the festival grounds, with the girl he had just met, Nea happily skipping along in front of him. Since they've met, they have visited multiple stands within the festival grounds. Despite only knowing her for about an hour now, Ace couldn't help but feel happy, watching the black-haired girl skip along with such a happy smile on her face. However, while he was admiring her, he nearly bumped into her as the female had suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and began to stare to her left.

Ace: "Uh... What's wrong?" He asked, tilting his head before he followed her gaze. What she was staring at was an ice cream stand, but more particularly, she was staring at one of the Ice Cream flavors that was advertised known as Neapolitan. He looked back at her and slightly smirked before lending down and whispering into her ear. "So, you really, really like Ice Cream, huh?"

Nea released a slight yelp as she glanced back at him before she scratched the back of her head with a bit of a sheepish and embarrassed blush.

Ace: "Heh, cute." He chuckled before he patted her on her back and began to make his way towards the Ice Cream stand. Nea blinked in surprise but watched as he turned to look back at her. "Well standing around won't make the ice cream come to you." He winked at her. Nea was a bit taken by surprise but ultimately, smiled brightly and nodded before skipping after him.

Amity...

After returning to Amity, Teams RWBY, WOLF and M_LC hurriedly went to take their seats, however as they were, Akito had stopped moving upon hearing his scroll begin to ring. Noticing that he wasn't next to her anymore, Blake stopped and turned to face him, a curious look on her face.

Blake: "What's wrong, Akito?" The raven-haired wolf showed her his scroll.

Akito: "I'm getting a call. I'll join up with you soon, babe." Blake looked disappointed but understood as she nodded before pecking his cheek lightly.

Blake: "Don't be gone long, now." He smirked at her.

Akito: "No promises." The ravenette responded with a slight laugh before she went to join with the others. Akito watched her go before turning around and making his way out of the stadium. Once outside, he could hear Port and Oobleck announcing the two teams that would be battling, which were Team JNPR and Team BRNZ. Looking back at his scroll, he saw that it was a number he didn't recognize. Being cautious, he answered and held his scroll to his ear.

Akito: "Yo, Zara speaking." There was silence for a brief silence before a voice softly called out from the other side of the line.

???: "Big Brother..." His eyes widened slightly but he composed himself.

Akito: "Mio...?"

Mio: "Big Brother... We need to talk. Come to the location I sent you."

Akito: "What? Why should—" She cuts him off.

Mio: "Don't worry... I'll be alone, I promise..." Afterwards, she hung up.

Akito was suspicious of the request as he could think of this being an easy trap set up by Adam. But at the same time... he knew Mio too well and knew she hated lying. He was alone too as all four of his sisters had spread out to keep an eye on things here. He checked the location she sent on his scroll, and it wasn't far at all. He looked around before taking a deep breath.

Akito: "Fine... Let's see if you still keep true to your word, Mio..." He said as he leaped off the side of Amity, with the Gundam Exia appearing on his body. Now with Exia equipped, the wolf Faunus flew off towards the location.

>Chapter 22: Growing Nerves<

A small green glister flew across the sky as Akito dashed across the sky in his Exia armor. The GPS built into the systems began to indicate that he was just below the meeting point, sent by Mio. With a deep sigh, he began his descent; luckily, this area of town was quite scarce of people. His eyes were set on one coffee shop, since the waypoint was set directly to it. Once he landed, he exited Exia via the back, which had opened. After jumping out of the easily 7ft tall Gundam, the back panels closed back up before the entire Gundam itself became invisible, thanks to its Optical Camouflage function.

Once he turned towards the coffee shop, he took a deep breath before entering. The place was rather empty, with only a Coffee Barista, and around 3 customers all sat around, drinking coffee and looking at the only television in the room, which displayed the Vytal Festival Tournament. Akito instantly raised his left hand and caught a coin that was thrown at him with ease. His ears twitched as he heard a familiar voice from said direction.

Mio: "Your reflexes have gotten slightly slower. You let yourself get slightly rusty over the Summer, Big Brother." Akito felt his eye twitch slightly from that but faced her, the female wolf having two steaming hot cups of coffee on her table.

Akito: "Well sorry I was enjoying relaxing with my girlfriend." He said, throwing the coin back at her, to which she caught.

Mio: "You and Blake finally got together, huh? Congrats. Adam's officially going to go full Raging Bull at that news." She said, a small laugh coming from her while Akito rolled his eyes.

Akito: "Let him throw his temper tantrum. If Sienna's still the woman I knew her to be, she'd beat his ass before it got out of hand." Mio laughed out of amusement.

Mio: "You and him were both troublemakers for her when we were young." She sighed, feeling the nostalgia come back to her.

Akito: "Anyways, why'd you call me here?" She simply waved him over before pointing towards the second cup of coffee that was at the table.

Mio: "Sit down first. I got your favorite~." She winked at him. Crossing his arms with a small scoff, Akito rolled his eyes and went over to his sister before sitting in the chair across from her. He leaned back, taking up the mug as he looked at it carefully, then at his sister's face; she was casually taking a sip from her coffee mug. He sighed and gently blew at the surface of the coffee before taking a sip. She really did get his favorite made for him.

Akito: "Alright, I'm seated and drinkin'. So, mind getting to the point already?" Mio glanced at him before sighing. She rested her coffee mug on the table and turned her head to look at the Television displaying the Vytal Festival Tournament.

Mio: "I'll say this once... Take Blake, Setsuna and the season sisters and run away from Beacon, Big bro." He grew confused and suspicious.

Akito: "What are you talking about?"

Mio: "Just... heed my advice and run away big bro... I don't want..." She stopped herself, taking in a deep breath as she calmed herself. "I'd rather not see you, Blake or Setsuna getting hurt, especially since..."

Akito: "Especially since what?" The female stayed silent before she shook her head and stood up.

Mio: "I can't say much more. Just know that... the Vytal Festival is only the catalyst for the chaos that'll form." Akito was silent and mainly for one factor... He has been getting a bad feeling about the Vytal Festival ever since it began and especially with the likes of Emerald and Mercury around, he definitely had more than enough reason to be suspicious. So he couldn't deny that Mio's warning worried him.

Akito: "... Okay, say that I believe you, you've completely forgotten the kind of guy I am. Even if some form of 'chaos' is going to unfold at Beacon, I'll do whatever it takes to stop it because I know for a fact, I won't let anything happen to the people at Beacon, or my friends. I'll destroy whoever is trying to." He said, narrowing his eyes at her, Mio didn't respond and stood up as she began to walk outside.

Mio: "You'll lose horribly..." She said as she walked outside of the coffee shop. With a growl, Akito followed her but as he got outside, he watched as the Eclipse Gundam uncloaked from in front of Mio and its back panels began to open up to let her in. Before she climbed inside, she took one last look at her brother. "Please Big bro... Run away. This fight... you can't win. None of us can."

Before even giving him a chance to respond, she climbed into the Eclipse Gundam Armor. As its back panels closed to hide her figure, its thrusters activated as Mio took off into the sky. Akito remained silent and watched her fly away and disappear from sight from her activating the Eclipse's Mirage Colloid system before gritting his teeth and clenching his fists shut.

>>Time Skip<<

Akito (Exia): *sigh* "What a pain..."

After his talk with Mio, Akito had equipped Exia before he began to fly off back towards Beacon Academy. Every word his sister said to him lingered within his mind. But despite everything, he knew one thing; he needed to talk to Ozpin and get his opinion on all of this; on Emerald, Mercury, Cinder... the Vytal Festival and his sister's warning. He may even talk to Glynda or Ironwood as well to get their opinions. He sighed again before hearing a croaking noise. He looked to his right and saw what looked like a black Crow with red eyes flying alongside him. The avian looked back at him, seemingly in interest.

Akito (Exia): "You birds are smart when it comes to sensing danger. What do you think of the Vytal Festival Tournament? Can you sense anything that could be a danger to Beacon?" He asked the bird. The only answer he got was a croak before the avian began to speed up and fly past him, due to Akito not flying at maximum speed. He sighed. "Who am I kidding..."

After arriving near the courtyard of Beacon Academy, Akito landed on the ground and took a deep breath. He was about to deactivate Exia and have it disappear back into its Gundam Core, however a voice caught his attention.

Spring: "Big Bro!!" He looked towards his left and saw three of his four sisters, Spring, Summer and Autumn all dashing towards him, with Spring waving happily to him. No matter how much he sees them, the sight of them always brings peace to his mind. He smiled under the helmet of Exia and turned to them, crossing his arms.

Akito (Exia): "Yo, you girls discovered something?" He asked. However, the three all shook their heads in disappointment, which caused him to sigh. Were there truly no extra leads?

Winter: "Excuse me, but I've found out something.'' The four siblings glanced to their right as they saw the eldest sister, Winter approaching. Akito felt a bit of hope rise as he smiled behind Exia's helmet, but raised an eyebrow in confusion as he noticed that Winter wasn't alone.

Summer: "Wait, isn't that Akira?" She was right as Winter was practically dragging the scythe-wielding member of Team MYLC by the arm.

Akira: "S-Slow down for fuck sakes!" He complained, grunting as the goat Faunus tugged at his arm. Winter yelped and quickly let him go before she looked off with a sheepish laugh.

Winter: "Hehe... Sorry."

Akito (Exia): "So..." The blue-haired female looked to her older brother. "Care to not keep me hanging, Winter?" He asked, to which she giggled lightly before her expression hardened again.

Winter: "When you and the others were walking away after talking to Emerald, I was spying on them and ended up hearing something." She said, to which her other sisters all turned to face her now. "After Emerald caught up to Mercury, she was relaying to him about her interaction with you guys; by the way, she seemed to really hate you guys."

Autumn: "Big surprise there." She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Akito (Exia): "Continue on." The blue-haired sister nodded.

Winter: "Well after that, some new guy met up with them; a guy they called Jet. I couldn't get a good look on him, but he seemed like their friend or something."

Summer: "Did he now... Interesting..." With one hand on her hip, she used the other to stroke her cheek as Winter nodded.

Winter: "Yeah and he asked specifically about which of Team RWBY were going to be in the Double's Round, but the way he asked the question didn't sit well with me... 'You got what we wanted?'. Then Mercury followed up with 'At least we know who we're working with.' I know it could be misinterpreted as them wanting to know who they'd possibly be fighting in the Double's Round... However, considering you and Setsuna already had an encounter with Emerald and Mercury and then that small incident after Glynda's class, I feel like there's more to it than just wanting to know their opponents in the tournament..."

Akito fell silent, the cold robotic eyes of Exia staring at the ground as he was deep in thought on what to make of all this information. As he was, Spring turned to him.

Spring: "So... what does he have to do with this?" She pointed towards Akira with a curious tilt of the head. Winter gained a proud grin as she wrapped an arm around the blue-eyed male.

Winter: "Well, it turns out that Akira-Kun here can help us! I accidentally caught him confronting Emerald and from the sounds of things, the two of them have some history. And when he found me, he confirmed everything. Right?" She looked to her newly made friend who sighed as he removed her arm from around him.

Akira: "While I'm not sure how you can 'accidentally' eavesdrop on me, the rest of what she said was... roughly correct. If you knew my history with Em and her allies, you'd understand why I'm skeptical. But unfortunately, I don't feel obligated to come clean about everything just yet." He said with him crossing his arms and staring into the mechanical eyes of the Exia before him. "But if what Winter told me is true about your encounter with Em and Merc in that bookstore, then no doubt there's trouble lurking in the shadows. Cinder and Jet being here as well just further confirms that for me."

Akito silently stared at the male before him as he took the time to process the information.

Akira: "Unfortunately for me, I can't do much to stop them if they are up to something."

Summer: "Huh? Why is that?" She looked confused. It was there when the male pointed to his left wrist, where some kind of device was strapped to him, tightly.

Akira: "Despite me being a student of Atlas Academy's top team, the General's been keeping an eye on me. I'm not the most trustworthy in his eyes, so I have to wear this device that lets him know of my position and who I'm with every few minutes."

Autumn: "Tch... Paranoid much..." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. The blue-eyed male merely sighed.

Akira: "You aren't wrong... but, as much as I hate to admit it, he's smart to be wary of me. But anyways, that's not important. The most I can do is keep an eye on them, but I can't make any drastic movements, otherwise James will be on my tail."

Winter: "And that's where we come in." She said to which Akira nodded. The goat Faunus looked back to her brother. "So, what's the plan, big bro?" Akito, after listening to the two of them had decided and looked towards the group of five before him.

Akito (Exia): "My sisters and I have personal contact with Ozpin. So, first things first, we talk to him. Even if this information isn't good enough to confirm our suspicions, we still need to tell him." He then looked at Akira. "Winter seems to trust you, so can I trouble you to keep doing what you were doing?"

Akira: "Hmph. I prefer to work alone, especially since it's concerning them... But I'll consider it, though I should probably find my Teammates before Maya goes on a full-on manhunt to find me and scold me for 'running from them' again." he said with an exasperated sigh.

Akito (Exia): "She really sounds like another Ruby and Spring..." He sweat dropped, to which the green-haired sister looked at him.

Spring: "Hey!"

Akito (Exia): "Anyways, now that's over with, let's go."

With the four sisters nodding, they all disappeared and returned into Akito's mind as he turned to start walking towards Beacon Tower, with Akira now following behind him.

Akito (Exia): "And one more thing..."

Akra: "I saw nothing." He simply said.

However, before either of them could get very far they heard a commotion, followed by the sounds of a crowd and of swords clashing together. With green GN Particles ejecting from Exia's back, Akito took to the skies and saw a crowd of students, surrounding two adults who were locked into a heated battle. One of them was a woman who looked like an older Weiss while the other was a male with black hair and wielding a massive sword. If Akito wasn't stressed enough, this just about pushed him over the edge and now he was going to blow off some steam. With his teeth gritting behind his helmet, Akito began to fly straight towards the fight. With how fast they were going, no doubt they were full-fledged Huntsmen, and they were battling with more than three dozens of students watching.

Akira watched as the armored male flew towards the commotion, with him glancing towards the crowd and noticed a particular Atlesian Airship that was parked nearby. Having an idea on who had arrived, he face palmed.

Akira: "Welp, winter's coming early it looks like..." He sighed before jogging towards the commotion.

_____________________________________

Next Chapter: Brawl in the Family

Winter: "The Gundam Exia!? But where...!?"

Qrow: "Oh...? That kid again..."

Akito (Exia): *sigh* "You know, I've had a really bad day... With all of these bad feelings boiling up inside of me and my own Sister trying to convince me to run away... Now this... Fighting in the middle of the Beacon Courtyard and risking students' lives? Right now, I'm done trying to talk it out... How about this..." He pointed Alpha in GN Sword form and his GN Long Blade at both Qrow and Winter. "How about I beat you BOTH into the ground and end this! Whatcha say, guys!?" He yelled with growing anger and annoyance, Exia's eyes glowing brightly in response.