A/N: In this story, Blake did not go to Beacon after fleeing from the White Fang. She holds a different role later on in the story. My OC replaces her on team RWBY. If you don't like that, you don't need to read. Also, to warn again, this story will hard darker themes than most later on. If you can't stomach darker things, or just don't like reading them, this may not be the story for you. Enjoy.
Everyone believes in something. Gods, ghosts, fate, luck, charms, voodoo, magic. Even the least superstitious person believes in something unimaginable. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're lying to both you, and themselves. Do not trust in those with falsified courage. Do not believe in people who cannot be truthful to themselves. For they are the ones most easily swayed away from you. And, trust me in this: your most dangerous enemies are those you believed to be allies.
"Oh, gross! It's on your shoes, Yang!" A commotion broke the girl out of her memories. Lazily scanning the sight before her with half-lidded orbs of blue, she saw a dark-haired girl with a blonde-haired beauty. From the way they acted, they had to be close. Sisters, perhaps? With a sigh, she stretched out her arms and glanced out the window of the vehicle. They seemed to be descending, which meant they were probably at their destination. Beacon Academy, one of the most prestigious Hunter Academies in all of Remnant. Dusting herself off out of habit, the girl followed the rest of her soon-to-be classmates.
Having stepped out and gone off to the side, away from the others, she took the time to check herself over. Her outfit, consisting of a dark, sleeveless jacket with a high collar and dark slacks, seemed to be perfectly in place. Her belt and weaponry was still fastened securely, twin guns holstered safely. Tucking her off-gray hair back behind her ears, she set off to wander around and scope out the area she'd be for the next few years. Hearing, and seeing, a small blast nearby, the girl shrugged to herself and walked over to the commotion. The dark-haired girl from earlier was on the ground, with a girl in white standing over her and shouting.
"Well, excuuuse me, princess!" The girl in red finally snapped out, rather fed up with being yelled at by someone she didn't even know. Before the white one could retort, their onlooker butted in.
"Heiress, actually, if sight serves me correctly. Weiss Schnee, right? Schnee Dust Company. Pretty shady, if you ask me. Some suspicious business partners, a few complaints about faunus labor...that sort of thing." The now named Weiss went from interest to fuming anger, stomping off with her luggage and away from the other two. Rolling her eyes, the girl in gray held her hand out to help the other up.
Accepting, the girl pulled herself up and dusted off her clothes. With a closer look, she was wearing a black and red color scheme. Some kind of combat dress it seemed, with a red, hooded cloak of some sort. "Thanks for that. My name's Ruby," the red girl said, a bright smile on her face. Beneath her collar, the other girl couldn't help but smile slightly as well.
"Byza. Seems like your first day at Beacon is going just splendidly, eh?" Ruby sighed and scratched the back of her head, making Byza laugh quietly. "Don't worry about Weiss. She's a bit stuck up from being a rich girl, but I bet she's not a bad person once you get to know her." Gesturing for them to walk together, she put her hands in her jacket pockets and started to move in the direction of Beacon's buildings, Ruby following alongside her.
Noticing something peculiar, the dark-haired girl spoke to her new acquaintance hesitantly. "So...no shoes?" And it was true, looking down at Byza's feet. Completely bare, with the girl walking on the balls of her feet as if it were totally normal. The gray-wearing girl stared down at her feet, shrugging.
"More comfortable to me. My aura prevents them from getting hurt or anything, so there's not really a problem. Also, it's pretty hard to walk like this in shoes, you know?" She flashed Ruby a quick smile, though all that was really visible was her eyes crinkling up.
"Uh, I guess," Ruby said, not looking appeased by the answer. "Will the teachers even let you do that? Shouldn't there some kind of rule about proper footwear?" Scratching the back of her head, the girl continued without waiting for an answer. "Actually, the thing about aura makes sense, so there probably isn't a rule like that..." Byza chuckled at the other girl, making Ruby flush slightly and look down. But she was quick to rebound, going to her normal quirks. Taking her weapon out from under her cloak, she let it flow into full scythe form and balanced it against her shoulder. "Sooo...I've got this. How about you?"
Raising her brow, Byza studied the giant scythe quietly for a few moments. Nodding to herself, she took her guns out of her holsters and flicked switches on the dual pistols with her thumb. The switches triggered the transformation mechanism, making the grips shift along with having twisted rods with sharp points pop out at both ends. Now, she held two small rods in her hands, her middle fingers in the trigger guards with the weapons in her palms. "Dual pistols that shift into a pair suntetsu. I can still shoot in this form, too, though it's a bit more of a hassle. They're also a lot thicker and more awkward than normal suntetsu, but I handle them pretty well."
Ruby's eyes were shining, and she got uncomfortably close to the other girl to examine the weapons in detail. "Wow...suntetsu? I don't even think I've heard of those, and I've heard of almost every kind of weapon! They're so cool!" Byza could swear the girl was about to drool, and it kind of freaked her out. Shifting her weapons back, she holstered the pistols and tried to direct the conversation away from her.
"Right, right. Your scythe is really impressive, though. From the looks of it...a high caliber sniper rifle, right? Such a dangerous, off-balance weapon...but you must have pretty good control over it, since you're here at Beacon." Ruby was taken off-guard from the sudden compliments, cheeks burning a bit as she stuttered under her breath. "Anyway...you have any idea where we're going? I don't think this is where we're supposed to be."
Ruby's sweating, confused expression was enough to make Byza groan.
When the pair finally made it to the meeting place with the rest of the students, Ruby excused herself to go be with her sister. Byza stayed in the back of the crowd of first-years, tuning everything out and resting her eyes. Before she even realized it, the whole thing was over, and she opened her eyes to the sight of students leaving the room. Quickly following after them, she let out a yawn that was hidden by her high collar and idly wondered what time it was. Following the others, Byza found herself in a large room. Already, others were putting down their belongings and setting out bed rolls for themselves. Suppressing another yawn, she set her things down and set up her sleeping area as well.
As soon as she finished, she found herself looking up at the bright, cheery face of a blonde-haired girl who seemed to be dragging Ruby along with her. "Hey! So, I heard you two were acquainted already, right? My name's Yang, I'm Ruby's older sister." Yang held her hand out, and Byza blinked a few times before slowly accepting the offered hand to shake it.
"Byza. Nice to meet you, and nice to see you again, Ruby." Ruby waved awkwardly from beside Yang, and the two got into some kind of discussion/argument that Byza tuned out. Some time during it, Weiss came from who knows where and started another argument. Butting in, yet again, the dual-pistol wielder said, "Hey, people are probably trying to sleep. In fact, I want to try and sleep. So let's shut up and go lay down." Without even waiting from a response, she flopped rather noisily onto the floor and got in her bed roll, turning to face away from the other three and closing her eyes.
She heard a few mumbles and grumbles and some shuffling, making her smirk slightly before she fell asleep.
Morning came much too quickly for many of the students, some groaning and struggling to get up. Others were already up, bright and ready for the day. Byza wasn't necessarily bright and ready, but she was awake and properly stretched out to begin her day. As the rest of the first years got up and went to the locker rooms to get their equipment, she followed the familiar heads of hair from last night. Ruby and Yang stuck together, chatting idly while they made their ways to the lockers.
Stifling a yawn, she listened to the chatter, but didn't find much amusement from it. It was just normal, early morning chat. How are you, feeling good, blah blah. Her locker was further away from theirs, so she broke off from behind them and went to go grab her stuff while they talked. She tuned out the world around her, just falling in to the normalcy of getting ready for the day. Over the speakers, she heard a semi-familiar voice.
"Will all first year students please report to Beacon Cliffs for initiation."
Now, most people were excited or nervous when that call went out. But Byza was far from normal. All she felt was the tiredness of having to wake up early after a day of draining conversation and lots of new faces. Again, she found herself following behind Ruby and Yang, though this time a blond boy was with the sisters, hanging his head. Seemed rather depressing, but who was she to talk anyway. Together, the first years gathered at the cliffs before Ozpin and Glynda, the headmaster idly sipping his coffee while the woman checked to make sure everyone was present.
"Welcome, students," Ozpin finally said. "Today will be your initiation into Beacon, to see if you're truly ready. And, most importantly, to determine your teams. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with down there will be your partner for the next four years." A few gasps and cries of surprise went around, but Glynda settled them down with a harsh look. "This is not a walk in the park. You will be in danger, and you will need to fight. Do not be afraid to cut down anything blocking your path, otherwise you will die. You will find your partner and find the temple, where your pair will find a relic to bring back here." With an emphasis on 'will,' Ozpin sipped his coffee again and let his assistant take over.
"You will be watched and have notes of your performance taken, however no instructors will step in to save you if you get in trouble. This is a test to see how you handle yourselves. From the very start, you will need to plan your landing strategy and formulate a plan to not only find your partner, but coordinate with them. Understood?"
The blonde boy from earlier spoke up, sounding confused. "Er, landing strategy?" With a sigh, Byza tuned out the entire conversation and just readied herself. As the boy spoke to the two adults, fellow classmates were being launched off of their platforms and into the forest. Pistols in hand, she got into position just in time for her platform to burst, launching her into the air at an alarming speed. Gritting her teeth, she spread her arms and legs and positioned herself to get as much drag as possible, slowing her down a bit so she could properly get her bearings and formulate her landing. Noting a large tree approaching her angle, she shifted her pistols into suntetsu form and braced herself. As she came to the tree, she angled her weapons and let them catch on the thick bark, slicing through and sticking in rather roughly. The action jerked her arms and shoulders, making her grunt in effort and pain, but it worked. Through repetition of this, she slowed her descent and landed quite nicely on the ground, a few aches the only thing wrong with her.
However, she knew she couldn't just sit and rest. She had to find a partner, and there were certainly Grimm in this forest that would surround her if she sat still. With this in mind, she took off running in the direction she thought she saw the temple. Weapons shifted back to gun form, she kept her eyes and ears peeled for Grimm, as well as her fellow first years. After a few minutes of running, she heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Altering her course to collide with the source of the noises, she found a familiar shock of long, blonde hair waving around.
Yang was fighting a couple Ursa, the brawler seemingly enraged by something or the other. Her strong, furious punches impressed Byza, watching from a short distance away. However, with one Ursa remaining, she decided to make her presence known to the blonde. Rushing from the brush, she took aim and fired both pistols at once, the shots cleanly breaking through the thick head plating of the Ursa and killing it, the falling body revealing her to Yang. The tall girl almost seemed to be pouting, and said, "I could have taken him."
"I'm sure you could have, Yang," Byza said with a roll of her eyes. "Come on partner, we have a relic to grab. No time for loafing around." Yang gave a cheeky salute to the other girl and took off with Byza, the duo running towards the temple. Within minutes, the partners found themselves in a clearing, a broken down shrine of sorts in front of them. Coming closer, they saw multiple chess pieces in a circle, with some missing from the selection.
"How about a cute horsey?" Yang called out, brazenly stepping up to grab a Knight piece without a care in the world. Byza shrugged in response, not really caring much.
And then, they had guests. From multiple directions, all at the same time.
A/N: So, this is my new story. This chapter was a bit short and rushed due to just being an introduction, as well as wanting to stop there for now. First of all, there will be more focuses than just my OC. Next chapter will have Ruby-focused POV as well as Jaune focus, until the group meets. Just like the show. For those confused about my OC's name, her full name is Byza Tium, which is a play of Byzantium, a shade of purple. Her name is pronounced Bee-'xia'(Like Xiao, without the 'o') Tee-oum, which will be a source of some comedic relief and nicknames later on.
Hope you enjoyed, or at least found it interesting.