Prelude to War-Team BEAT

A Chapter by Miles W.

The events that lead the members of Team BEAT to the coming War of Seasons.

The Firstborns of the Previous Generation

Some You Recognize

Others Have Stories

Hidden in Time

Now Brought to Light

Case of Bovia Brown

Bovia Brown was born to a common family on the island of Menagerie. Both her parents were cow Faunus, her mother having a tail and her father sporting a pair of horns, of which Bovia inherited the latter. Her parents say that a few months after her birth, the construction of the fifth CCTS Tower had begun with the Belladonna’s leading the way. They always told Bovia that she was going to be the first child in a new era of the acceptance of Faunus in the world of Remnant. Bovia didn’t care all that much, she was just content with growing up on the island with her family and friends. As she grew up, she always seemed amazed by the exploits and adventures of Huntsmen and Huntresses as relayed to her by stories told by some of her neighbors and family members. On some occasions, she actually got to see some of those heroes in action. The one memory that always stuck out in her mind was not the worst Grimm attack that Menagerie had ever seen, but it was the one that struck close to Bovia and her family. When she was around the age of seven years old, her house was one of the first in the way of a horde of Beowolves coming from the desert. She and her family were running for their lives from the monsters. Bovia was being carried by her father at the time, and as a result, she was able to look back over his shoulder and see the heroics of the Belladonna family and the other Huntsmen and Huntresses that were stationed in Menagerie who faced the monsters with no fear whatsoever. This inspired Bovia to start training at the newly opened combat school on Menagerie when she came of age. She never was the most powerful student at the academy. She constantly struggled with learning how to properly use weapons. She also hadn’t even managed to unlock her semblance yet. But under the guidance of Ilia Amitola, she managed to learn proper combat technique. Ilia even helped Bovia discover her primary weapon, a Kusarigama. It was an interesting weapon choice to say the least, but Bovia made it work. The sickle could also transform into a pistol as most weapons in Remnant do, the hilt held different dust crystals, and the weight at the end of the chain could be used as a bludgeoning weapon or as a tool for sending out waves of dust energy at enemies. However, Bovia’s semblance was not discovered as easily as her weapon of choice was.

During one of her missions at combat school, Bovia was accidentally stranded in the desert along with a few of her classmates. It was originally meant to be a simple exercise where the students would fly an airship out over the wasteland deserts of Menagerie to get a basic understanding of how to properly fly an airship in case of an emergency. But without warning, a giant Nevermore swooped out of the sky and crashed the airship into the ground. The airship was too far away from the developed area of Menagerie for the students to try and walk back, and during the crash, they got turned around and disoriented. Along with that, the fact that they had to fight a Nevermore to make sure they weren’t eaten after just barely surviving the crash wasn’t bad enough. As the day went on, the heat started getting to the students. They didn’t have any water, so it seemed like their only hope was that the rescue teams would find them before time ran out. But Bovia wasn’t willing to wait that long. Completely by accident, Bovia, in a bit of a daze, cupped her hands as if they were filled with water so that she could have a drink. It almost sent her into shock when cold water actually reached her lips and helped with her dry throat. Immediately, she replicated the process and shared whatever water she seemed to create out of thin air for her classmates. However, as she continued to do this, the more water she created, after some time her arms started to dry up. Fortunately, the rescue team managed to find them before it became a more concerning issue.

After returning to Menagerie, Bovia began to experiment with her newfound Semblance even further. She figured out that she was able to create water out of her personal aura. And once her aura was gone, she was using the moisture and water within her own body to create the water. She also discovered that in situations where her body is wet from rain or baths, she actually regenerates aura. This led her to think of several different tactics that she could use in battle and in the field with this ability. And she decided that she would hone those skills at Beacon Academy, where the prestigious Blake Belladonna had gone to school. While there were talks of possibly opening up a fifth Huntsman Academy to accompany the combat school on Menagerie, Bovia had heard reports that Ghira Belladonna was against the idea due to the fact that Menagerie was already running out of space unless they decided to try and terraform the desert beyond the city. Alongside that, Bovia wanted to see the rest of the world with her own eyes. That lead her to meet some people who would change her life forever.

Case of Ember Grover/Xiao Long

Ember was born almost two years after Nathan and Yang got married. Her mother told her that they initially thought she was going to be born nine months after they got married, but that turned out to be a false alarm. Ember grew up in a very good home on the island of Patch. She was able to enjoy the company of both her parents as she grew up, and two of the greatest heroes in Remnant to teach her how to fight. She always knew that she was going to be a Huntress one day. While she didn’t always believe in her own skills, she kept moving forward to try and be the best that she could be. As she grew up, she got to see the best of both her parents and the love they had for one another. It annoyed her a bit at times, but as she grew older, she learned how important and beautiful a love like the one they had truly was. By the time she was almost eight, she had discovered her semblance, and that’s when her training began in earnest. She was amazed by both her parents weapons, so she crafted a pair of tonfas that could fire projectiles like her mother’s gauntlets as well as be good bludgeoning weapons like her fathers. She decided to attend Signal Academy Combat School alongside her cousin Arri. They both were top of their class and received honors before heading to Beacon Academy. While many suggested that she possibly go to a different academy to see the world and broaden her horizons, Ember argued that she already has broadened her horizons by going to visit her parents old friends all over the globe. Plus, she wanted to go to the school where her parents first met and discover the history behind it all.

Case of Arri Grover

Arri never knew her real parents. All that the matron would tell her was that she was left on the steps of the orphanage with tree leaves wrapped around her basket. She grew up in the orphanage making friends with all the kids there. She was extremely popular due to the fact that she could make plants grow and make them do what she wanted them to such as dance or swing. Along with that, she always had the brightest smile out of anybody there. Despite the fact that she never got adopted for such a long time, she always smiled. Whenever a child was upset when they didn’t get adopted, Arri was there to help comfort them with a great big smile. Things changed once she turned eight however. One day, the matron brought in a baby that had been left on the steps of the orphanage. Something about that baby seemed to grab Arri’s attention. Almost a day later, Ruby Rose and Natalie Grover came in to visit, as they were looking to adopt a child. Arri plead the case for Natalie to adopt the baby as well. Natalie and Ruby agreed, and Arri began her new life with her new family.

Arri’s life was a wonderful growing up with her new family. She spent a lot of time with her cousin Ember, as well as her growing younger sister. Her mothers taught her everything she needed to know about combat, as well as how to properly control her semblance. And while either one or both of them were away on a mission, she would work with Verum, a retired Huntsman. He wasn’t the best Huntsman in the world, but he did tell her stories of his time helping fight the Order of the Four Seasons at the Battle of Vytal while her mothers defeated the evil Zenoma Mortem. It turned out that Verum was far better at telling stories then fighting, for during a mission back during the Vacuo Uprising, Verum almost lost his life, but ended up only losing his legs. While he did receive artificial limbs, he decided that he was content with staying on Patch and helping protect the local populace while training the next generation. This turned out to be crucial because Arri would accidentally almost destroy her teachers robotic legs from time to time with her semblance. This caused Arri to fear ever using her semblance for a time, but her parents helped her to overcome this fear to the point where she was willing to use it. Despite still holding some reservations about her abilities, Arri enrolled at Beacon Academy along with her cousin Ember. The two of them knew beforehand how the selection of teammates worked, so they came up with a very clever plan.

Case of Terra Violetta

Terra’s story is not one of grandeur or glory, but rather, a tale of harsh and cruel reality. Born in the vast wastelands of Vacuo, Terra never got a chance to truly know her parents. Despite the steps being taken to help Vacuo recover from the events of the Uprising, there still was much work to be done, as well as the fact as several people and tribes still lived in poverty within Vacuo. One of those families was the Violetta’s, who had a daughter and decided to trade her to a group of bandits for water and supplies. Terra didn’t have anything other than her name and the bandits who raised her as her family, if one could even call it that. As time went on, Terra grew up to be quite the warrior. She was very skilled in combat, and the fact that she taught herself how to use her Semblance was truly unique. It happened during one of the nights with the bandits. She was only around ten years old when a drunk member of the bandits grabbed her, drove her out into the middle of the wilderness and tried to have his way with her. In most of the civilized world of Remnant, most children would be terrified and not know how to respond to such a horrible act. But Terra, she had lived so long in a place of pain and despair, so she did what she was taught to. She killed him right then and there. The problem was, she didn’t know how to operate the car that the bandit used, so she decided to walk in no particular direction and didn’t stop. During this time, she taught herself what she thought at the time was her adapting to the elements, but in reality, was her Semblance. She took rocks and pieces of the earth and used it to form a protective shell around her body, keeping her cool in the sun and then take the heat absorbed from those rocks and use them to keep herself warm during the cold desert nights. After almost five days of wandering the wilderness Terra came across a small Schnee Dust Company relief camp out in the wastelands of Vacuo. There she managed to get the help she needed in order to keep herself alive. When asked who her family was, she told the people in the camp she was her only family.

Terra spent almost a week in the relief camp before stowing away on an airship heading to Mistral. From there, she spent the next seven years working as a mercenary in Mistral. Not really knowing what she was doing, she took on odd jobs as an alias that never met with her clients and lied about her age to avoid the wrath of the Mistral Huntsman Committee and other authorities. This went on for a few years. However, Terra started getting in trouble with different groups within the underworld of Mistral, most specifically, the Branwen tribe. Terra heard a rumor along the grape vine that Raven Branwen herself was aiming to have Terra killed for stealing from one of their outposts and killing a couple of their members in the process. Because of this, Terra decided to go somewhere where she was certain Raven would never follow her. Terra spent a large portion of her stolen money to pay a hacker to forge her documents to get into Beacon Academy. To avoid raising any other suspicions regarding money, Terra actually managed to steal back the money she paid the hacker in order to pay her tuition fee to Beacon for four years. To ensure that the hacker wouldn’t expose her if he ever found out that she stole the money she paid him with, once her enrollment at Beacon went through, she killed the hacker and then smuggled her way to Vale where she began her time at Beacon. She initially intended to just stay out of everybody’s way until the heat from Raven cooled down, but what happened afterwards changed everything in her life.

Case of Team BEAT

Forming

Professor Ozpin watched as the new students stepped up to the launch platforms and prepared for his opening statements before initiation began. He looked over the group of students. As he looked at Arri, he saw something in her eyes. Something that he had only seen once before in his life. But he put that aside and took his spot next to Beanie.
“For years, you have trained to become warriors, but today, your skills will be tested in the Emerald Forest. You will be paired into teams today. The first people you make eye contact with here in this forest will be your partners for the remainder of your time here at Beacon. After you have found your partner, you will make your way to the northern temple. There you will find different relics……

Ember rolled her eyes as Ozpin continued to explain the rules to her. She had already read up on what exactly was going to happen during initiation. She and her family made it a tradition to watch the initiation tapes of students enrolling at Beacon almost every year. It was always fun for Yang and Nathan to always joke about how the “kids today don’t know what it was like when they were kids” and “so-and-so from our class did this-and-that better”. But it did help Ember gain a solid understanding of how the system worked, and she and Arri had come up with a pretty solid plan to get themselves partnered together. As soon as Ozpin finally finished saying his piece, the students all started being launched into the air towards the forest. They even had made improvements to try and make sure that students couldn’t see where other students had landed, by placing them all in black boxes, not allowing them out until it was their turn to launch. But Ember wasn’t worried. She knew Arri was going ahead of her, so when her box opened up and she was launched into the sky, she immediately scanned the area and saw the giant group of vines shooting up from the ground. Knowing that it was Arri’s handiwork, she aimed in that general direction. Looking back, she saw Beanie laughing and Ozpin pinching his forehead in annoyance at how the two of them managed to beat the system. Ember turned herself around in midair and stuck out her tongue mockingly at Ozpin.

            Bovia was pretty nervous as she got closer to the tree line.  Despite having practiced her landing strategy before, she wasn’t exactly too keen on the idea of falling from a crazy height after everything she had been through years ago.  But taking a deep breath, she grabbed her weapon, and launched the chain forward and wrapped it around a strong branch.  After the chain looped around the branch a few times, Bovia held on tight and let her body swing with the chain as it wrapped up around the tree.  After a few seconds of spinning, she finally slowed down and lowered herself to the ground.  Deciding not to waste time looking for a partner, she rushed towards the general direction of the temple.  As she was making her way through the forest, she saw a small pack of Grimm lurking in the woods.  On the one hand, she thought to herself, she could keep moving forward and get to the temple first, or she could wait and see if anybody would try to take on the Grimm themselves and if they would be a worthy partner for her.  Bovia decided to go with the latter option.  She hid herself in the trees for a few minutes, waiting for somebody to take out the Grimm.  But to her surprise, nobody showed up.  This lasted around ten minutes before Bovia decided that she was bored and decided to launch herself at the opposing Grimm.  But in that instant, another warrior leapt into the fray.  This warrior was covered head to toe in some kind of rock armor.  Bovia had to alter her course in order to not accidentally run into the stranger, but that wasn’t super difficult.  It seemed that the stranger hadn’t seen Bovia and kept pushing towards the Grimm in front of her.  Bovia landed and pulled out her weapon.  With the sickle in her right hand and the chain in her left, she swung the spiked weight on the end around and slammed it right through one of the Grimm’s skulls.  These were clearly simple beowolves, and as a result, the two of them made quick work of the creatures.  As they put their weapons away, they turned to look at each other.  But instead of seeing the eyes of the person that she had just fought beside, Bovia only saw a figure covered in rocks from head to toe.
            Bovia looked over the armor of her comrade and asked, “How do you see out of that thing?”
            “I don’t” the stranger responded.  “I just simply listen to the earth around me.”

            “Well, I still need a teammate for this event.”  Bovia said cracking her knuckles.  “And you seem good in a fight.  What say we team up?”
            “No” the stranger turned and started walking away as she said this.  Bovia, clearly confused, chased after her.
            “Why not?”
            “I am not here to be a member of some stupid team.  I’m here to just hide for four years and then I’ll be on my way.”

            “Hide?  What from?”
            “None of your business.  Now if you’ll excuse me.”  But as the stranger continued forward, a drone came down from the sky and a projection of Professor Ozpin displayed before them.
            “Unfortunately for you, all other students at this point in time have already found their partners for this test.  And as a result, by default, you two shall be teammates for the next four years.”

The stranger simply shrugged her shoulders at this information and walked right through the projection of Professor Ozpin.
            “I work alone old man.”
            “Young lady, if you are going to attend my school, you will abide by its rules.  Unless you would rather be expelled.  And trust me, my standing with the World Council will guarantee that not only will you not be allowed enrollment into any of the other academies, but also that your record will be discovered by the authorities.”  The stranger stopped dead in her tracks when Ozpin said this.  Her whole body shook in surprise and fear.  For a split second, it looked like she was going to try and smash the drone out of anger, but she decided against that and simply let her armor of rocks fall harmlessly to the ground.  Turning and facing Bovia, their eyes met.  After a moment passed, the stranger walked over and extended her hand to Bovia.
            “Name’s Terra.  Can’t promise these next four years won’t be completely painless.”  Bovia was hesitant to take the hand, but decided to return the gesture.
            “I’m used to pain” she said.  Terra rolled her eyes not believing a word she said, and turned towards their goal that lay deeper in the forest.

“Are you for real?” Arri said as she tried to speak amidst her laughter.
            “Yeah.  It was hilarious” Ember said walking beside Arri.  “Ozpin just looked so disappointed while Beanie was laughing his butt off the whole time.”
            “That is too perfect!  I hope your parents managed to record it so we can watch it later!”
            “Oh you better believe it!”

The two of them continued on talking like this. There were surprisingly few Grimm packed together in the forest like normal. It almost seemed unnatural. But the two of them weren’t complaining. After some walking, they reached the northern temple. A few other teams were already there and had grabbed the different relics scattered across the temple. Arri and Ember made their way down and started to examine the different relics. This year they were replicas of the weapons used by the freshmen of the Battle of Vytal against the Order. That included the weapons of Team NEMN, Team JCTB, Team AQUA, and so on.

“Well at least it’s better than last years relics” Ember said rolling her eyes.
            “What did Ozpin use last year again?”
            “If I remember right, it was notebooks with different words written in invisible ink on them.  And then Oz used those words to pair up teams.  It was really kind of weak.”
            “At least they’re trying this time”  Arri said as she went to pick up one of the relics.  “Which one should we grab?”
            “How about my dad’s weapon?  Makes sense.”
            “That’s fine with me.  I’m just mad that my mom’s weapon didn't make it on here.”
            “There are quite a few weapons that are already gone.  It’s entirely likely given your mom’s history of killing Mortem that her weapon was the first to go.”
            “So how does it work this year?  The teammates that were on Team NEMN will be paired according to their weapons and original pairings then?”
            “It makes the most logical sense.  If we take my dad’s weapon, we will get paired up with whoever took Evan’s weapon.  And whoever took your mom’s weapon will be paired up with Miles’ weapon.  And so on and so forth down the line.”
            “Has Evan’s weapon been taken yet?”

“Doesn’t look like it.  Should we stick around and see who does?  Maybe then we could see who we’re probably going to end up working with for the next four years!”  Suddenly, not seconds after Ember said that, Bovia and Terra leapt out from the forest and landed right outside the temple.  Terra surveyed the two other girls standing there at the temple and then started examining the relics.  Bovia made a beeline for the two girls and was grinning from ear to ear.
            “Are you the daughters of the legendary Grover siblings?” she asked with what looked like a twinkle in her eye.
            “Are we really that famous?” Ember asked scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.  “I know that Arri’s mom is famous for killing the big bad of the battle of Vytal but my mom and dad are really that famous?”
            “Well of course!  Your father was the one who killed the terrorist Adam Taurus and your moms fought and lived through both battles of Beacon and the Battle of Vytal!”
            “Ember, you know that our parents are super famous” Arri said looking at Ember with a confused look.  “Why would you think otherwise?”  Ember sighed and leaned against one of the pillars of the temple.
            “I want people to remember me for who I am.  Not just being the child of famous fighters.  And heck, my name itself isn’t really anything original.”
            “It isn’t?”
            “No.  I was named after my dad’s mentor.  For crying out loud, my middle name is my mom’s mother.”
            “Why did they name you after a famous bandit of Mistral?”
            “Well apparently before I was born, Raven and my mom hashed things out and actually fought beside one another during a few missions.  Heck, apparently the Branwen tribe now acts as a mercenary group with ties to the kingdom of Mistral.  But at the same time, I wish I had more of an identity of my own.  Honestly I’m kind of envious of my brother.  All they did was give him my dad’s mom’s middle name.  At least he has a name that he can call his own.”
            “Are you three done yammering?”  Terra said as she grabbed one of the relics.  “I just want to get this over with.”  Ember and Arri couldn’t spot which relic that Terra had grabbed due to the fact that they were talking with Bovia.  Terra turned to leave and Bovia followed.
            “Oh, my name is Bovia by the way.  Hope we can be friends during our time here at Beacon!”  She waved to Arri and Ember and they returned the gesture.  With neither of them entirely sure what happened, they started surveying the area.
            “Which relic did she take?” Ember asked looking over the pedestals.”
            “Well we took your dad’s weapons, my mom’s weapon was gone for sure, and I’m pretty sure Miles’ swords were gone before we got here.  Wait, Evan’s weapon is gone!”  Ember walked over to where Arri was and saw that she was right.  Evan’s weapon was gone.  They both looked at the empty pedestal, then at each other, then they looked at the pedestal again and started laughing.
            “Oh man, those two are going to be some characters for sure!”  Arri said as she tried to keep herself standing despite how hard she was laughing.
            “And I thought my parents were exaggerating about how crazy my teammates were going to be during my time here at this school!”  They both continued to laugh and started making their way back to where the initiation started to complete their mission.  But then as they were making their way through the forest, they heard a loud crashing sound off in the distance.  They ran forward through the foliage and found a giant Beringel towering over Bovia and Terra in the middle of a clearing in the forest.  It pounded its chest and launched a flurry of punches towards Bovia and Terra.  Terra managed to hold her own against the creature by dodging and summoning rocks to deflect the strikes, but the attacks caused Bovia to fly backwards towards the tree line despite her best defensive efforts.  She quickly composed herself, took the sickle part of her weapon, and threw it towards a strong branch.  The sickle latched on and Bovia spun around it until she slowed down enough where she could land on the branch and regain her composure.  Not wasting a second, Ember and Arri drew their weapons and threw themselves headfirst into the fray.  Ember launched a few projectiles to try and stun the Beringel, while Arri went for a direct attack on the creatures chest.  The projectiles worked in stunning the Beringel, but the attack from Arri did very little to hurt the monster.  The Beringel roared and connected a powerful hit on Arri, sending her flying into a nearby boulder.  While Arri’s aura took most of the damage, it was clear that it shook her up pretty bad.  Ember became enraged after seeing this.  She rushed forward and transformed her weapon from ranged mode, akin to her mothers weapons, to close combat mode.  The chambers that held her ammo on her arms extended forward and became batons very much akin to her father’s weapons.  Ember rushed forward and was about to launch a flurry of strikes against the Beringel, when suddenly Terra leapt up out of nowhere and started attacking the creature in the exact spot that Ember was aiming for.  At this point it was too late for Ember to alter her course, so she ended up colliding with Terra causing both of them to land on the ground hard.  The Beringel took this opportunity, picked up the both of them and threw them towards the same boulder that Arri was still recovering around.  Arri acted quickly and summoned two pillars of vines that helped break their fall.  When the two of them hit their specific pillars, the vines bent in a way that absorbed the impact in order to make sure that the two of them didn’t suffer major damage.  Ember got up and grabbed Terra’s shirt collar.
            “What is your problem?!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.  “In what kind of combat scenario on the face of Remnant do you jump in front of another attacking Huntress?  Are you trying to get us killed?!”
            “Get off my back kid” Terra said slapping away Embers hand.  “Just because you were born into a great family that could teach you fighting from the word go doesn’t mean you should get in the way of somebody who can clearly fight better than you!”
            “What was that?”  Ember and Terra were on the cusp of fighting one another.  Arri wanted to interject, but she was stuck with cold feet trying to figure out what she could do or say to solve this issue.  In that time, the Beringel was running towards the three of them, seemingly intent on killing them where they stood.  But then, Bovia jumped down from her tree, fired a powerful stream of water at the Beringel that knocked it back.  While the monster tried to regain its balance, Bovia turned to the other three.
            “Terra!” she yelled pointing her finger directly in Terra’s face.  “I barely know you, but from what I’ve gathered, you prefer to run solo.  But when you are working with a group, you need to recognize that you aren’t the only person on the battlefield.  And Ember!  Keep your cool!  Focus on the job at hand and save the arguments for after this is over!  Now listen to me.  Arri, how strong are your vines?”  Arri was still frozen in shock, trying to get her mind to catch up.  “Arri!  Vines!  How strong?!”  Shaking her head and getting her bearings, Arri finally responded.
            “They are as strong as I need them to be.”
            “Okay.  Here’s the plan.”

The Beringel regained its footing and immediately turned back towards the team and rushed forward on all fours. But the moment that it placed its front paws on the ground, Arri and Terra rushed forward and used their semblances to trap them to the ground. Arri’s vines wrapped around the left paw like a vice while Terra’s rocks crushed the right paw to oblivion. The Beringel roared in pain, giving Ember the opportunity to rush forward towards the creatures legs. She fired three shots at each leg and then capped it off by phasing through the body of the Beringel and hitting the back of the creatures legs. The monster keeled over in pain, then Bovia took her weapon, spun around the spiked weight of her weapon, and smashed it down on the head of the Beringel. Within the spiked weight was a cartridge of fire Dust crystals, which resulted in the fiery explosion of the creatures head when the weight connected. Not long after that, the creature completely faded away into nothingness. The four of them stood up and put their weapons away.
“Well then,” Bovia said cleaning off the dirt from her outfit. “Shall we?”

The audience applauded as Professor Ozpin announced the members of Team IVRY to the entire class.  Then he pulled up his scroll and swiped the pictures of Nathan and Evan’s weapons onto the screen.
            “Bovia Brown, Ember Grover, Arri Grover, and Terra Violletta.”  As he said this, the four girls got up on the stage.  “The four of you retrieved the weapons of the teammates Nathan Grover and Evan Hahn.  From this day forward you shall be known as Team BEAT.  Lead by, Bovia Brown.  The audience applauded as Bovia tried to wrap her head around the fact that she had been appointed team leader.  Ember managed to sneak up to Professor Ozpin and whisper in his ear,
            “You totally didn’t give me or Arri the job because of what happened in the forest didn’t you?”
            “The part where you broke my rules and stuck your tongue out at me or the part where Bovia managed to bring you all together to fight as a team?  Yes.”
            “To which part?”
            “Yes.”  Ozpin then motioned for Ember to get off the stage and he continued to read off the lists of teams that had been formed.  Ember smiled and joined her teammates in the audience.

Case of Team BEAT
Bonding

Over the next four years, Team BEAT would be remembered as one of the strangest yet most powerful teams to spend time at Beacon Academy. During their first year, there was no Vytal Festival, so there was no opportunity for their names to be recognized in the four kingdoms outside of Ember and Arri. During that time, it was especially difficult because Terra was more interested in her own agenda. She didn’t object to Bovia’s appointment as leader, but she was more interested in her own personal goals in dealing with her own past actions and ties with criminal organizations. This lead to some issues during their first year. While nothing was ever reported to the local authorities, the other three members of Team BEAT had to track down Terra and stop her from committing mass murder in an incident involving several criminal organizations lead by the notorious Neapolitan and her criminal empire. But her teammates found her and managed to stop her before she did something that would have landed her in prison. After the event, Terra opened up to her teammates about her past and her own trauma. While Bovia was able to relate since she did understand trauma due to her experience in the desert in Menagerie, she did talk to Terra at length about how they truly are different and should try to better understand each other. These revelations were new experiences for Arri and Ember, who had only heard stories about the harsh nature of the world outside their own homes, but never met a person their own age who had to live through such horrors.

During their second year, the Vytal Festival was in full effect. Many people watching were not surprised when Team BEAT coasted through the first round. What did surprise them was that in place of the famous names of the Grover cousins, were the two other teammates that no one had heard of. Terra had hesitations due to the fact that she did have a history with different criminal organizations, and her participating in the tournament for more than just the first round would expose her to much more trouble. But Bovia insisted that Terra be given a chance to show that she has changed, as well as to show the criminal organizations watching just how strong she really was. While Bovia was more than willing to give the second slot of the doubles round to one of the Grover cousins, they both said that Bovia should join Terra in this battle and make a name for herself as well. Also, while she didn’t tell Ember, Arri was still nervous about her semblance. She was fine using it in situations that revolved around fighting Grimm, but she was still scared she might hurt somebody if she used it in a battle against another human. As a result, Bovia and Terra were matched up against a pair of students from Shade Academy. While that battle was hard fought, it was ultimately Team BEAT that ended up victorious. With that victory, Terra told Bovia that she wanted her to go to the final eight as thanks for helping her during the past year. Bovia wanted Terra to go, but Terra refused to budge, so Bovia represented Team BEAT in the final eight. Bovia won her first match, but lost in a fight against one of the Nikos children in the next round. After that, she was able to fight in the third place match and managed to win the fight to earn herself a spot on the podium alongside the finalists. While there were still rumblings around the fact that the two Grover cousins didn’t take part in the tournament beyond of the round of four, it was hard to ignore the abilities of Bovia and Terra, which got many different groups talking.

The third year at Beacon was mostly uneventful due to the fact that nothing was truly shifting in the world at the time. There wasn’t any grand enemy to defeat, no hordes of Grimm just outside the walls of Vale, nothing that would make the national news. However, this was a critical point in time for the Grover cousins. Within this period of time, Arri had grown even more powerful in her abilities with her Semblance. She had started to begin using her abilities more as a means to fight actual opponents. Her fears were starting to loosen over the course of time, and despite some moments where it seemed like she had gone too far, it wasn’t actually anything troublesome. Just some bruises here and there, and more often than not, Arri’s opponent’s aura’s managed to take the majority of the damage. However, there was a moment where Arri was facing off against one of her classmates and accidentally used an attack that ended up crushing the students left arm. Arri went into shock and was in a catatonic state, not responding to anyone. The student in question did end up okay, they were able to take her to Professor Curtiss in time to deal with the injury. However, this made Arri incredibly afraid and unwilling to speak to anyone. She ran out into the Forest of Forever Fall and sealed herself away in a giant case of vines. Several teachers and students attempted to break through the vines but none were successful. While everybody was trying to break through the vines however, Terra took matters into her own hands and managed to create a tunnel that lead to right beneath where Arri was hiding.

When Terra entered the small prison that Arri had made for herself, she expected Arri to create another shell around herself to keep Terra from speaking to her. But instead, Arri just sat there, not flinching, nor saying a word. Terra took this chance to sit down next to her teammate. She reminisced over everything they had been through together over the last few years. Between the four of them fighting together in the Vytal festival and giving both her and Bovia a chance to show the world what they were made of, as well as being able to stop Terra from continuing down the path that she was on during her early years at Beacon and how greatful she was for that moment. Arri still didn’t respond to anything that Terra was saying. Terra decided to give Arri a big hug, and thanked her for being her friend. Terra went on to explain that she would more than likely be in a far worse place than when she entered Beacon if not for them. She also said that despite everything that has happened, things move forward, and you just have to accept it. Arri didn’t budge for a little while longer, but then lowered the vines surrounding her and Terra and made her way back to the school. After some time, she opened up to her team about her own feelings. The idea that she was afraid that she would hurt the people she cared most about with her Semblance. But her teammates promised her that they would never let anything like that ever happen to any of them. Terra even made a joke about how it would be fine if such an attack was directed towards their enemies, to which Ember and Bovia laughed, but Arri, still a bit hesitant about the whole situation, simply chuckled. For the remainder of the year however, Arri’s confidence grew and she became more aware of how to properly use her Semblance. She even took new steps forward in implementing vines and other pieces of foliage to her weapon in case she was ever in a situation where she needed something like that in battle.

As for Ember, her critical point wasn’t a result of her own actions, but the lack of the appearance of her father. While she was at Beacon, she expected to not have much contact with her family back on Patch outside of a few phone calls here and there. However, she started to notice that even when she did visit home, her father was not there. Her mother said that it was for a good reason, but Ember still felt sad by her father’s absence. This lead into Team BEAT’s fourth year at Beacon as well as the second and final Vytal Festival of their academic careers. During this time, Team BEAT cruised past the first four once again. And this time, Bovia and Terra insisted that the Grover cousins be the ones to fight in the round of two. In doing so, they showed the world that even though they bared the same last name as two of the greatest heroes of Remnant, they were their own unique beings. Arri showcased that while she knew that her Semblance carried some dangers, she was willing to learn how to control it and how to properly use it in battle. Alongside that, while she did use a similar weapon to her mother, Arri didn’t carry the same level of fear as her mother once did. She didn’t hide, she didn’t try to keep hidden who she was. She made it very clear that she was here to make a name for herself. And Ember showcased the fact that she can take elements of the past in terms of combat techniques, and bring them into a new light. She used movements that were akin to her father with the weapons and power of her mother to create a new flow of combat. The two of them easily cruised past the doubles round. Both of them wanted to continue on to the round of eight, and both Bovia and Terra had opposing thoughts. So they played rock paper scissors for it. Ember won two out of three, and continued to the round of eight. She continued to impress the world with her dedicated power and ferocity in the ring. No one stood a chance against her in that tournament as she cruised her way to the title. But as she stood on the top of the podium triumphant, she looked into the crowd. She smiled when she saw her family, but it fell when she realized that her father was not among them.

The First Four Have Made Their Mark

Time Has Given Them Challenges

And They Raised Up to Face

Each and Every One of Them.

But Deeper Within the Cracks,

Something Darker is Growing,

To A Point Where it Breaks.

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