Chapter 10: Chapter 1
It was the big day. Silver eyes locked onto silver eyes, and with a nod at the other, both Black and Orange walked into the building. The things that would go on to happen in the next 3 years at Signal Academy, no one could possibly have predicted.
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"When I call out your name, raise your hand and let me know if you're here." A balding, middle-aged man said, squinting at a list of names on his clipboard. "Aero, Lux."
"Here!"
"Noon, Hestia."
"Present!"
The list continued on for several more names, all of which blurred together and were thoroughly ignored by anyone whose name wasn't called. No one bothered to notice that the names weren't even called out in a particular order.
"Lavender, Amethyst."
"Actually, people call me Levi." Said girl with purple hair pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, the lenses glinting as they caught the light for a moment. "I don't answer to any other name."
"Thorn, Ruben." The teacher continued calling names from his list in an order only he could understand.
"Hah!" A red-haired 12 year old pointed at the girl sitting next to him. "Teach just totally ignored you." The girl in the desk next to him just gave him a knowing smile as she once again pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. The light that glinted off her lenses was quickly cut off by a shadow covering Ruben's face.
"Do I need to give you detention on the first day of school, Mr. Thorn?" A voice with a steely undertone rang out. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Ruben slowly creaked his head towards the sound. At the sight of their teacher glaring down like a demon, the red-haired boy quickly bowed his head.
"No, sir. I'm sorry." He meekly said.
If Ruben had kept his head up, he might've seen something which would've sent him into a rage.
'All according to plan.' Levi smirked.
Somewhat satisfied, but still casting a small glare in the boy's direction, the middle-aged teacher kept going down his list. "Rose, Ruby."
…..
Heads turned and looked around the room. There was only one thought on their minds.
The balding man took his eyes off of the clipboard. "Rose, Ruby." He said again, with an emphasis.
…..
One by one, all the heads in the room had all turned to look at two particular people that were sitting near the back of the room with their heads flat on their desks. "Mmm, cookies…" One of the two mumbled, drool flowing freely.
As the center of authority in the room passed them by, each of the students found themselves in a cold sweat, his footsteps thudding loudly in their ears, all the way until he was right next to the two sleeping beauties. At that moment, a particularly loud snore burst out from the black-haired caped wonder.
Everything was silent, the only sound disrupting the peace being the sound of a very large, very angry vein popping out from the teacher's forehead.
"ROSE! RUBY!" The man shouted as he slammed his hands down on a nearby empty desk.
""EEEP!!"" The two shot their heads up faster than a gunshot.
"Here!" Ruby frantically said.
The balding man snapped his head to the fox faunus that was now sitting with his back almost painfully rigid. "XIAO-LONG! KIT!"
"Here, sir!"
"GOOD!!" The man yelled back in a decidedly not good manner. His fiery temper didn't burn out at all as he made his way back to the front of the room. "And now that we all know you're here, let's get started. This class will be your homeroom for the rest of the year, and if you're lucky, you'll get to have the same class with me next year as well."
A drop of sweat slid down their foreheads as the students all thought the same thing. 'We'll be lucky if we don't have you next year.' Unknown to them at the time, every class that had had Mr. Sands as their teacher always had that exact same thought on the first day of the school year. He wasn't known as the Sand Demon for nothing.
And for that same reason, no one had ever dared to say that thought to his face.
"In any case," Mr. Sands boomed. "Welcome to Signal Academy!" He finished with a glare to his new pupils for the year, causing more than half of the class to flinch. Without a doubt, it was the most unwelcoming welcome that anyone had ever received… or it would be if Mr. Sands hadn't been the welcoming instructor for every new batch of students for the past 30 years.
Clearly someone had made a mistake somewhere and just figured it would be better to never address the reason why they'd made the angriest teacher in the school also be the person to greet each batch of new students. That "someone" was Naval Rivers, who through a series of legal technicalities and lack of anyone more "qualified", had been made Principal straight out of High School alongside many of his peers who were made to become teachers in the very same Academy he now presided over.
….In defense of the people who made that decision, the only other candidate had been Mr. Sands. Of course, they immediately regretted having done so when said newly-appointed Principal's first act had been to put the "Sand Demon" in charge of welcoming each new batch of students.
'I don't like our new teacher. He's loud.' Kit mentally complained to his sister as he covered his faunus ears. 'Signal's a lot different from our old school.'
'Cheer up, Kit. It's not like he's gonna be the teacher for all our classes.' Ruby sent back. 'Uncle Qrow's gonna be teaching one of'em. Yang said so!' She smiled. 'Plus, Mr. Sands can't be angry all the time.'
They both turned back to the front where their teacher was still talking.
"...other classes that you'll be taking throughout your years at Signal Academy include Weapon Smithing and Mechanics, Dust Engineering, and Integrated Combat." The Sand Demon spat out, as every word only made his face redden even more.
Kit turned back to his sister with a raised eyebrow.
Ruby practically deflated. 'Ok, maybe he can be mad all the time.' She sighed as she sent that last thought back to her brother. Things had been tougher for them since Yang had started Signal two years ago. Their big sis hadn't been around at their school anymore to stop anyone from picking on them. Still, they'd gotten through it together. And even if Yang couldn't stop the bullies during school, she more than made up for it with a beatdown after school was over.
Since they were almost kidnapped 5 years ago, they'd obviously stuck together like glue.
Her sister, Yang, got weirder and started putting in dirty moves into her boxing style. Their older sister used to be fine whenever she and Kit would go places without her (even if it was never anywhere far). Now, Yang was always hovering over them like a hawk, glaring at anyone that even got anywhere near close to them.
….It was hard making new friends when your big sis cracked her knuckles if someone they didn't know got close. Aqua and Ash were the only ones that she'd let near the three of them, since they were already friends.
Yang even made the three of them hold hands anytime they stepped out of the house! Ruby was already 12, holding hands with your big sis in public was embarrassing!
….Now that Ruby thought of it, maybe it was a good thing that Yang started Signal while they'd stayed behind for a couple years, if it meant that she and Kit wouldn't have to deal with her weirdness during school. Even if the bullies had started picking on them afterwards, it was still better than Yang's embarrassing mothering.
Their older sister wasn't the only one to change. Ruby knew that she, herself, had turned into a little bit of a gun nut (only a little bit!), but it wasn't something that she could help. Every time she saw a weapon or a gun, she'd get that feeling like that day in the alley. A rush in her veins, goosebumps down her spine, as she shot the bad guys that were trying to take them all away. Uncle Qrow had shown up soon after she'd saved them all, and had taken the villains to jail where they would never hurt anyone again. Since then, she'd always made sure to brush up on all the latest weapons and guns.
As for her twin brother, Kit….
Ruby's eyes slid back over to her orange-haired younger brother. He was the one that changed the most out of the three of them. He was her partner-in-crime! The other half of the amazing duo that still made people in their old school tremble when they heard their nickname, "The Twin Cookie Monsters"! He was… he was…
He was different now. Colder. He didn't laugh or smile as much as he used to, and it hurt. Sometimes, she almost felt like she didn't know who her twin was anymore. The two of them had always been together, had always known everything about each other. They even had twin powers for Oum's sake!
A hand waving past her eyes made her snap out of it. "Ruby," Her brother sighed. "You were staring at me. Again. Did you want to talk about it?"
Heat rushed to her cheeks as she got caught. "N-no, I d-dunno what you're talking about." Before her could say something weird like "you're still staring", Ruby quickly turned her head back to face Mr. Sands. She definitely wasn't blushing either!
She heard her brother giggling beside her. "And that's why you're not older than me. I told you two minutes doesn't count." He whispered.
Faster than a gunshot, Ruby whipped her head back towards her brother, gasping, with her hand over her mouth. HOW DARE HE?! Two minutes did count! She is the older one! Before she said anything though, she caught sight of her (little!) brother's teasing smile and turned her head back to the front of the class. "I'm not going to play these childish games with you, little brother. I'm an amazing, mature, older sister."
She could practically hear his jaw drop as she managed to win another battle. Being an older sibling rocked!
….Of course as soon as she saw that their teacher was looking somewhere else, she still turned her head and quickly stuck her tongue out at her twin.
It made him giggle so hard that they were almost caught by "The Sand Demon", Mr. Sands! With a satisfied smile on her face, Ruby thought to herself that she was glad that even though Kit had changed a lot, he still sometimes acted like he used to.
There was one thing that stuck with her in the back of her head though. Were Kit's eyes purple just now?
...Nah, she was definitely just seeing things. Kit was her twin, especially when it came down to their silver eyes.
Having finished with her internal dilemma, Ruby then did the scariest thing that every student in the school has gone through at one point: Mr. Sands' angry explanations of the "wonderful and amazing classes that Signal Academy provides!"
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Prep Schools catered to those wanting to become Police Officers, Politicians, Scientists, Doctors or Hunters. Although it was never directly stated, these 5 careers were widely considered the most important careers throughout the Kingdom of Vale. Although it could be argued that becoming a wealthy CEO of your own company, having a career in Education, or even joining the Military were all equally important as the 5, they weren't given as much importance in this region of the world.
Becoming a wealthy CEO of a company such as the SDC was great, but considering the fact that there would only ever be less than 1 percent that would become successful enough to warrant extensive amounts of education for places such as Signal or Beacon to provide, it would never be worth the cost. Furthermore, that "1 percent" didn't mean the one percent of students that graduated in the city… it referred to the entire population of people in the Kingdom. In some industries such as the Dust Industry, it might as well have been less than 0.1 percent of the population of the whole world.
For those interested in the great and fulfilling career of Education… well, there's a reason why everyone starts off by advertising it as "great and fulfilling". Even in the fictional world of "Earth", where there are no Grimm, billions of people, and each successive generation only includes more students (due to rising global population levels) that -due to increases in the level of technology- keep needing higher and higher levels of quality instruction…. The reality was that Education was always the first place that governments would look to cut funding from. Yep, that's right. This industry was mainly for people with big ideals (read: people with their heads stuck in the clouds) and were willing to sacrifice luxurious lives for the sake of their lofty goals (read: people who're willing to go hungry 2-3 nights a week, because their combined income from teaching and their 3 other jobs were barely enough to pay rent). Yep, the less said about this tragedy, the better.
As far as the military goes, they mainly recruited from Adults and Hunters. There was no need whatsoever for special classes for teenagers.
*Fun fact: That's also how places like Beacon Academy got excellent quality Instructors. They just recruited retired Huntsmen and Huntresses. Those that survived to an old enough age no doubt had knowledge to pass down to the next generation.*
In any case, for anyone not pursuing a career in the Big 5, public High Schools were also made available.
Given less funding, a lower threshold given for the qualifications needed for instructors, and a general lower-importance in all matters, these types of schools couldn't be even more different from Signal Academy in every possible way.
To start off, general High Schools were placed in shabby buildings or small compounds in easily accessible locations in defensible cities across the Kingdom, which anyone could get to by driving a car.
On the other hand, Prep Schools like Signal Academy were literal fortresses, designed to withstand onslaughts of Grimm, and were strategically placed equidistant between several cities. Special transport was provided everyday for students, and usually consisted of armored bullheads with accompanying squadrons for protection. This wasn't overkill, this was proper protection for the kids that would grow up to become the most powerful people in the Kingdom. In the case of Signal Academy, all of the above were true, with the additional fact that as an added security measure, it was also placed on an island off the coast of Vale.
High Schools in general required certain qualifications from its teachers which ranged from a High School Degree (at minimum) to a Bachelor's Degree. Anyone with better qualifications more often than not would choose to never teach at a High School.
Prep Schools were host to professionals and those that were at the top of their fields. Distinguished individuals such as renowned scientists Dr. Merlot and Doctor Arthur Watts, retired Huntsman and current General of the Atlas Military James Ironwood as well as retired Huntsman and current Beacon Headmaster Ozpin have all taught at Prep Schools at one point or another. In the case of Signal Academy and many of its sister schools…. unfortunately this was no longer true.
Due to the Color Revolution and the Faunus War which occurred 7 years after, many Hunters died in service to their corresponding Kingdoms. Even retired Huntsmen and Huntresses were called up to retake their old profession and join in the onslaught. Police Officers were drafted, Scientists were assassinated, Doctors as they were often killed by angry members of all armies for their refusal to discriminate in tending to the wounded, and many politicians were lynched once the slaughter was over.
And so as soon as whatever was left of the next generation came of age, they were all immediately snapped up and put into position regardless of the fact that they had little to no experience. There was no helping it as more often than not there were literally no others to choose from. So these new instructors had to do their best with wracking their brains for any lingering memories of their teachers (the true professionals), and many scrambled to find their old Prep School notebooks for any scrap of knowledge that was remaining from the previous generation.
Coincidentally, this was also how Naval Rivers became Signal Academy's Principal, and his peers were made into teachers. Although Mr. Sands was still a true professional as he was a rare survivor of the bloodbath from the previous generation and the only remaining person truly qualified for the post of Instructor… it was a given that his teaching skills weren't the best of his generation.
In short though, Signal Academy was huge, well-equipped, and the teachers were at the top of their fields.
With four giant walls that surrounded a huge courtyard, at times the fortress felt more like a small castle rather than a school. The courtyard was filled with trees and nature, concrete paths winding through the incredible scenery, small ponds filled with fish, and a river -through a marvel of engineering- was pumped up from an underground lake and flowed back downwards after meandering its way through the calming lunch area.
It was a great place to eat as long as it wasn't raining.
At one of the tables in this place sat Ruby, who was busy scarfing down a pile of peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches. She had a blissful smile on her face. No one was around, so she could eat as many sandwiches as she wa--
Urk!
One of the sandwiches got caught in her throat! Ruby kept pounding her chest, having seen people do that on tv whenever they were choking, desperately hoping that it would go down. It was no use though. With a thud, Ruby fell off her chair and onto the ground. Black spots were already taking over her vision. 'No! It can't end like this!!' She weakly raised her hand up, grasping at nothing but the cold, cold air… until suddenly she felt someone grab her hand and pull her up into a sitting position. Refreshing coolness swam down her throat -'water's never tasted better!- and the black spots in her vision slowly disappeared.
In its place was a familiar face with blue hair and green eyes.
"A-Aqua!" Ruby sputtered. "What're you doing here? Y-you didn't see what happened just now, right?" She laughed nervously.
"Uh…"
"Yeah… I guess you did, huh?" Ruby's head drooped in embarrassment.
Windchime-like giggles burst out from Aqua. "Don't be embarrassed, Ruby. It happens to everyone." She said as she stood up and put the glass of water back onto the table. "I bet next time you'll be the one to help me out!" The blue-haired, 13 year old girl said with a cheery smile as she stretched out a hand towards her smaller friend.
Ruby took it, and Aqua immediately yanked her up.
Once the black-haired 12 year old was standing, she brushed off any last pieces of dirt from her skirt, before she looked over at her friend. It'd been a year since they last saw each other, and Aqua had definitely changed. Before, she was just as tall (or just as short) as Ruby. Now though, the blue-haired girl was more…. mature. She was a full head taller than the silver-eyed girl, the black-with-white-highlights blouse and skirt that made up the Signal Academy uniform hugging the green-eyed girl's newly developing curves.
….Ruby was not jealous. She didn't notice how her friend's blouse was tighter around her chest area. She didn't feel her spirits drop like an anchor when she compared her friend's body to herself. She had been staring straight into her friend's eyes the entire time. And if her voice was a lot more chipper than was even possible for most people, it definitely wasn't because she was forcing it.
Nope. Not at all.
"So, Aqua!" She (happily!) said. Ruby definitely wasn't choking right now, she was just… going for a dramatic pause! It definitely wasn't because she didn't have anything to say. A breeze fluttered, her eye catching sight of a leaf that had been sent flying right between the two. "So...why don't we make like a tree, and leave?"
"But weren't you still eating your lunch?" The pile of sandwiches still left on the table just sat there, silently judging her and also proving Aqua's point.
"....Yeah."
Aqua practically erupted into giggles again. "Ruby, you know you don't have to have something to say, just because it's been awhile since we saw each other. We've been friends for like, ever! It's not gonna change just because you don't really know what to talk about."
Ruby almost literally brightened up, her smile this time going practically full-on sunshine. "Yeah!" Thankfully, though, she was also saved from making any more tries at conversation by a squawk of indignation from behind them.
"Sis! I can't believe you already started eating without me!"
"Did not!" The words flew out of Ruby's mouth before she even turned around.
"Did too!! There were eighteen sandwiches and now there's only twelve!"
"N-No! You probably just didn't count right, Kit!"
While the twin siblings kept arguing back and forth, Aqua, who had been forgotten by the two of them, stood staring at the both of them with eyes open in disbelief, her jaw dropped wide open. "Kit?" She said, slowly. "Is that you?" She didn't think it was possible. 'Kit can't talk! How can it be him?' But any doubt she had was quickly swept away as the orange-haired fox faunus with purple eyes turned to face her.
"Aqua!" Kit signed. "Hey!" He opened his arms for a hug.
"Don't just "Hey" me! Kit, I HEARD you. You can talk?! When have you been able to talk? Am I going crazy? Have-you-been-lying-to-me-the-whole-time-by-pretending-that-you-couldn't-say-anything?!" Questions poured out from Aqua's lips, each one going faster and faster.
"Aqua!" Kit's voice rang out. Aqua's eyes only grew wider even as she was silenced. "Come on, let me say something." He said with a smile at the way she was acting. "So, to answer your questions: Yes I can talk, I've been able to talk for about half a year now, you're not going crazy, and no I haven't been lying to you." He finished.
It was kind of funny to him to see her mouth open and close like a fish.
"Wha-wha-whaaaaaaat?!!" She suddenly pointed at him. "Oh my Oum, you really can talk now! How? What happened?"
"It's my semblance. When I found out what it was, I started using it to help me talk."
Aqua furrowed her brows in confusion.
Kit's right hand lit up with his silver aura. Like anyone with their aura unlocked, when his aura was active it swam over his body like a thin curtain of free-flowing water. Unlike everyone else though, all of his aura suddenly gathered into the palm of his hand before it slowly rose upwards. In less than a second, it was already standing a foot tall from his palm upwards. The difference between before and after was plain to see, as the aura looked like it was wrapped and coiled around each other like a tightly-bound electric guitar string.
She watched as Kit used his other hand and flicked it. A twang rang out, and Aqua realized that she was looking at something she'd only seen in sci-fi movies before.
A hard-light construct.
Somehow, the 13 year old girl managed to tear her eyes away from the thing floating in mid-air, and redirected her gaze into his silver eyes. The fact that she had even more questions was pretty obvious.
"Do you remember the reason why I couldn't talk in the first place?" Kit asked, tilting his head up and revealing the scars that ran up his throat.
Aqua winced. "Yeah, I remember."
"Dad told me a long time ago that my vocal cords were cut. So when they started teaching us about vocal cords last year in Life Science at Patch Primary, I was finally able to do something like this," Kit gestured towards the floating piece of aura which was now fading away. "I thought it'd be cool to do the same thing in my throat so I could talk." His purple eyes beamed at her. "Pretty cool, huh?"
The 13-year-old girl who had taken care of her group of friends for as long as she knew them, was silent.
Kit's smile started to slip, and he slowly backed away. He knew Aqua. She was like a mountain, always there and always reliable. But when she got quiet for too long… that was a sign that she was about to erupt.
That's when she turned to him again with a sweet smile that sent shivers down his spine. "Kiiiiiit. Why don't you tell me more about how you basically operated on yourself just because you 'thought it'd be cool'!!!"
[The following event was so traumatic that Kit could never quite remember what exactly happened after. Regardless, he somehow knew that he came out of it completely and totally scarred for life, and had promised to never do something so "stupid" and "reckless" again without doing lots of research and telling her about it. The "her" in question apparently meant either Aqua herself, Ruby or Yang.]
Before he knew it, Kit found himself sitting at the table scarfing down the rest of the sandwiches in a race against Ruby while Aqua sat next to the two of them and just stared. Nothing happened a few minutes ago. Absolutely nothing, except for that new promise he'd made Aqua.
"So let me get this straight," Aqua suddenly said, making the other two pause their frantic race to devour all the food on the table. "Your semblance lets you make hard-light constructs?" Seeing the confusion on the faces of the twins, she continued. "You know. It's like a hologram, but you can touch it."
The look on the twins' faces cleared up.
Kit shook his head, his silver eyes seeming to glint in the sunlight. "No." He signed with one hand, a sandwich held in the other. "It's more like Aura Manipulation. It's a lot easier for me to do things with my aura than anyone else can. But making anything solid takes a LOT of aura. I can't make much."
"So does that mean you can do other things with it? Also, why'd you go back to signing when you can talk now?"
Kit grimaced. It was a question that everyone who'd found out he could talk now had asked, and it'd gotten a little annoying. Even his family had asked why he kept up with VSL after he'd fixed what they thought was a "problem". They just didn't understand that VSL is his first language, not Commonspeak.
"I've only been using Commonspeak for, like, less than 6 months. It still feels weird talking with your lips. Plus, I don't think I did those vocal cords right. My throat kinda hurts every time I talk that way.The silver-eyed faunus paused. "As far as what I can do, well, so far it's just stuff like this and Forced Speed."
Aqua had a quizzical look on her face. "Is that the same as Ruby's semblance?"
The orange-haired twin shook his head. "Not really. It's kinda like, uh, well like, um…" Kit's face scrunched up as he tried to think of a way to explain it. He turned his head to his twin. "Sis? Got any ideas?"
Ruby tilted her head in thought (and also to secretly take another bite of her sandwich). "Well," she started. "It's kinda like how a sprinter and a long-distance runner are different. Kit's a little faster in short distances, but he mostly goes in straight lines and can't run for long." Discreetly taking another bite and finishing her sandwich (which Aqua completely noticed), she paused. Later on, she would always say it was for dramatic effect, and would completely deny Aqua's claims that it was because she had been secretly finishing her last sandwich. "My semblance lets me run for as long as I have aura. I'm not as fast as him to start, but I've still got a lot of speed, plus I only get faster the longer I run. I don't even have trouble with turns, unlike Kit."
Said twin stuck his tongue out at her in response, to which she quickly (and as maturely as possible) stuck her tongue out at him too.
"So yeah," Kit finished up for her. "That's kinda the big difference. I just send aura into my brain and muscles to force my body to go faster. It's fine, as long as there's enough aura to also protect and heal them from the damage. It's why I can't use it for very long, unlike Ruby who's just naturally fast and doesn't take damage from going at those speeds." He signed.
It was silent for a few moments as Aqua tried to process everything that happened, while Kit tried to process the fact that the sandwich he still had in his hand was THE LAST SANDWICH. He gave a stink-eye to his sister, who only gave an "oh so innocent" smile back.
"So basically, If we were to to explain it like it was about strength," Aqua started. "Then that would make Ruby the gorilla-"
"Hey!"
"-and that would make Kit the mom that manages to lift up a car to save her kid-"
"I know you can't read VSL fast, so I'm going to slowly spell it out for you. Y-O-U S-U-C-K."
"-does that sound about right?" The blue-haired girl asked her friends.
The twins looked at each other before they turned back to her.
"Those examples suck-" Kit began.
"-and we're talking about speed, and not strength-" Ruby continued.
"-but yeah, that sounds about right." Kit finished up. "I've been trying to find a way to do a strength boost too, but so far I've got nothing. Can't figure it out at all."
A bell tolled off in the near distance, signalling the end of the 1st and 2nd years' lunch break, while also signalling the start of the 3rd and 4th years'. Ruby and Aqua immediately stood up from the table and started heading back inside, before noticing that Kit wasn't following. "Aren't you coming, bro?" The black-haired twin called out.
"Nah, but I'll be right behind you guys. Knowing you, Ruby, you'll probably steal my sandwich if I walk back with you."
The two of them turned around and continued walking back inside, with Ruby having given no indication as to whether or not she'd heard him (but she had).
The orange-haired twin watched them disappear, his silver eyes glinting mysteriously. At this point there was only Kit Xiao-Long, the forest, and his sandwich.
… Or at least there was, until someone reached out and snagged his sandwich right from his hands.
Silver eyes met purple ones as Kit Xiao-Long stood face-to-face with...himself.
"So," Purple-eyed Kit Xiao-Long asked as he gobbled up the sandwich, staring at a silver-eyed Kit who was standing in front of him. "When are you finally gonna tell Ruby about us?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
WildlyLaughing
WildlyLaughing Chapter Updates will slow down from this point. I'll probably update 1-2 times a month, since I've got no more stored up after this.
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