A/N: Whelp, it's my first story for RWBY. Was inspired by Zatroopa's Rearranging the Board, which is an awesome fic that I would heartily recommend you read.
I do not own RWBY, which is probably a good thing. Since I cannot animate to save my life.
Most people when thinking back on their lives, would not think that how they positioned their arms would be a major changing point in their lives. Even the young man himself would not realize that how he was flailing his arms about would in fact change his life. Well, besides maybe keeping himself alive, that is. The main thought that was going through his mind was more, how he was going to land in one piece? Fortunately for him, his fall was abruptly halted by a large gold spear pinning him to a tree. The tree he was pinned to was nothing special, the only significance it had was it was a bit closer to the hill that they started on then where he could have ended up being pinned. As the young man struggled and failed to pull the spear out, his attempts were interrupted by rustling of plants. Bursting out of the bushes was a young girl wearing a bright red cape.
"Jaune!" The young girl exclaimed as he looked over and smiled.
"Ruby." While it was not Snow Angel, at least it was a friend, he thought. "I guess that makes us partners then."
"I guess so," she smiles back as she fiddles with her cloak.
"Could you please help me get down?" Jaune asked as he continued his pulling on the spear.
"Oh, I am so sorry." Ruby, mortified, jumped up onto a nearby branch and yanked it out. Jaune fell and landed with a grunt, though at least he was standing on solid ground. Ruby inspected the spear and started to 'oh' and 'ah' over it as it transformed into a rifle. Which she promptly aimed a nearby tree and pretended to fire. Jaune smiled at her joy, though he did wish his sword and shield could do more than just shrink.
"Great, not only are you the youngest child to sneak into beacon, but now you are a thief!" Both Jaune and Ruby jumped before staring at a young woman in a white dress with silver hair in a ponytail to her right side. Jaune started to relax as he realized that his secret had not been discovered yet.
"I didn't steal this, I'm just looking at it until the owner comes back for it." Ruby defended while glaring, "besides what is your problem?"
"She's right, Pyrrha threw it to help me out." Jaune interjected as he tries to keep his new partner and crush from fighting. Weiss looked down and sighed before glancing back at Ruby.
"If that is true, then I am sorry." Weiss then smiled as she looked at the spear. "I guess I can wait here and see if Pyrrha needs a partner." All three glanced around as a minute later, the owner of said spear, a young woman with a long red ponytail in gold armor, pushed through the bushes.
"Jaune, I'm glad to see you are alright." She smiled as Jaune scratched the back of head. Ruby jumped down while holding the spear tightly.
"Pyrrha, thanks for the help." Jaune responded back as Ruby walked over and held up the spear.
"Your weapon is so completely awesome. I especially liked how it has three forms. I hope you don't mind that I checked it out?" She rapidly fired off.
"That is fine, no harm has done, and I do not think we have met, I am Pyrrha, nice to meet you."
"Ruby." The two shook hands before Pyrrha took her weapon back. Weiss walked over and cleared her throat.
"Pyrrha, do you have a teammate, yet?" She questioned as Pyrrha shook her head. "Well, I would appreciate it if we could be, as both of them are partners." Pyrrha nodded as something momentarily flashed on her face that Jaune did not recognize before she smiled.
"That would be grand." Weiss grinned as she had to physically restrain herself from shouting to the world the great news for herself. She could just see it. First, they would be the most popular girls at the school, their team will be breaking all of the important records at school. She would show her father wrong and get him to change the company so that is well-loved as well as powerful. They would get the White Fang fiends to surrender and submit to justice after being taken down. It was going to be perfect. Oh, lastly, meet a handsome, intellectual, transfer student that would help out as well.
Jaune stared at Weiss, who looked as those she just found out today was Waffle Day. Pyrrha then turned to the other two. "Why don't we look for the relics together?"
"Really?" Ruby squeaked out as Jaune grinned.
"That's a great idea, thanks Pyrrha."
"That would be acceptable," Weiss grudgingly agreed to, turning to Ruby, she stuck her hand out. "We may not have started on the right foot, let's start over, Ruby." Ruby grinned before enthusiastically shaking her hand. After finishing, she turned to Jaune and spoke, "I'm still not sure what I think about you." He sighed as the group started to walk toward where they thought headmaster had told them the relics should be.
"Does anyone have an idea on what the relics are supposed to be?" Ruby questioned as she kept her gaze forward.
"It would have to be something we can carry, since we will have to return them. " Pyrrha explained.
"So when we get there Pyrrha, why don't I carry it?" Weiss suggested. "After all, you are the strongest fighter of our year." Jaune stared at the redhead in front of him. The fact that Weiss said this so assured meant those tournaments must have been difficult. This could be a great team, after all, the headmaster had said that teams would be formed today, and though it could be only two people, the way the headmaster said it, implied that the teams would be larger. Otherwise, why didn't he just say partner versus teammate?
So distracted by this thought, Jaune was unable to dodge the branch that whip-lashed back and caught him on the face.
"I am sorry." Pyrrha stared at his face before frowning as Jaune grinned sheepishly. "Why didn't you use your aura?"
"Gesundheit." Jaune responded as the other three just blinked and stared.
"Jaune, you do know what aura is right?" Pyrrha asked as Weiss questioned,
"Wait, you actually got into Beacon without having your aura, without even knowing anything about it?"
"Of course I know about it. Do you know what aura is?" He attempted to evade the question.
"Do you think I would ask you if I did?" She glared as he took a couple of steps back. Pyrrha walked over and put a hand on Weiss's shoulder.
"Aura is-"
"The power from our souls that gives us the strength to fight Grimm, not only does it make our attacks stronger, it creates a defensive shield that protects and heals us." Ruby interrupted with a stare at Weiss who raised an eyebrow at that. Ruby tapped her cheek before continuing, "Oh yeah, it also can be channeled through your semblance, mine is super speed."
"That is a good basic explanation of aura." Weiss hedged as Jaune nodded while Ruby sighed.
"Close your eyes," Pyrrha ordered as Jaune did so as she placed a hand on his cheek. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Finishing, she let go as she leaned over while breathing heavily.
"Thank you." Jaune smiled as the cut on his face vanished.
"Pyrrha, you know you could have let Ruby unlocked his aura and saved yours."
"Well, we are traveling together for now, and I will be fine in a few moments." She smiled as she stood straight. "Shall we?" The two pairs continued on towards the temple to find the relics. The journey was quiet as Jaune did not want to have anything else come up that would make him look even more stupid, Pyrrha was keeping her eyes out for Grimm, while Ruby felt self-conscious, especially with other incidents with Weiss, and lastly Weiss was dreaming away at how successful she and Pyrrha were going to be, proving herself to her family.
This quiet travel was interrupted as Pyrrha halted and raised a hand as the rest of the group quickly drew their weapons. The silence was broken by a howl erupting from the bushes in front as a couple of Beowolves jumped out. Ruby stepped in front of the group with Crescent Rose in scythe form.
"Hey, Ruby, why don't you use the sniper rifle mode for now? That way you don't run into an ambush in case more are hiding." Jaune suggested as she turned back to look at her teammate.
"I'll help as well." Pyrrha offered as she transformed Milo, from a spear into a rifle.
"Also, could you and Weiss watch our back just in case?" Ruby requested as she leveled her now sniper rifle as she joined in at unloading fire at the visible Beowolves. Weiss stepped into her proper stance as she remarked to Jaune.
"I guess you do have a decent thought in that head of yours, occasionally."
"See, brains and beauty, who could resist?" He beams at her as she shakes her head.
"Everyone." Anything else she would have said was interrupted as the two Beowolves are joined by eight more. The pack started to charge in, all at once. Activating the dust in her rapier, the white-haired girl launched a blast of fire at the nearest beowolf, connecting and causing it to yelp in pain. Jaune raised his sword and using his shield to block the incoming swing, slashed off the head of another Grimm. Turning, he blocked another strike before Weiss skewered the creature in the head. Turning to face the last remaining Beowolf, Jaune was able to overwhelm it with multiple slashes as it dropped dead.
"Jaune, Weiss, are you two okay?" Ruby asked she finished her targets as the battle ended, the others disposed of by either bullets, slashes, and in one case, pinned to a tree before being roundhouse-kicked to death.
"That was easy." Jaune spoke as he wiped off the blood on Crocea Mors.
"Of course, they were just Beowolves, only a complete novice would have problems with that." Weiss explained as she walked over to Pyrrha, who was retrieving her weapon. "Do you sense anything else out there?"
"No, we should be fine for now." Weiss smiled at the information as she glanced over to the 'dork brigade' as she mentally dubbed them.
"There's nothing else here, we should continue on."
The group continued on in the forest, as the only sound they heard was muffled sound of gunfire in the distance, but they were unable to find any other potential students. The silence the group fell into continued on until they reached a cave as Jaune walked up to it and exclaimed, "this could be the temple!"
"Hey, we might need a torch if there is no light in there." Ruby remarked as she rushed over to find a large of enough stick, with her partner following right behind. Weiss stared at the two before complaining to Pyrrha,
"They're acting like children."
"I think they are just being eager is all." The redhead responded as she turned back to her partner who sighed.
"Even a kind word for the troublemakers, you must have all the boys lining up to be with you." Weiss complimented as Pyrrha shrugged and looked away. "Sorry, you probably have to deal with too many sycophants to make that a good thing. I understand, it seems that the only boys who talk to me care about is my family name." Looking over at the entrance to the possible temple, her eyes are drawn to a picture next to it, showing multiple people dying to a giant scorpion. The rustling of bushes announced the return of the 'dork brigade,' carrying their hastily made torch.
"We've got the torch ready to go." Jaune beamed as Ruby nodded behind him.
"I think this isn't the temple. Look at the drawing there, I think this might be a Deathstalker's lair." Weiss explained as Ruby's eyes went wide.
"Would they expect us to fight one? The headmaster did say to destroy everything in our way."
"Ruby, isn't that Deathstalker in the picture really big?" Jaune wondered as he examined the drawing. "Perhaps we've gone too far." Weiss frowned as Jaune waved his hands in defense to ward off a glare.
"That might be true, what do you think, Pyrrha?" Weiss asked as she turned to see Pyrrha watching the sky. "What's wrong, is something up there?" Weiss's gaze followed suit as she grimaced.
"Everyone move." Pyrrha ordered as all four of them rushed back into the trees as their former positions become skewered with giant black feathers.
"That's a giant Grimm." Jaune commented as the airborne giant started to fly toward the group. While continuing to run into the forest, both Pyrrha and Ruby took aim and fired at it, the resulting attacks doing nothing more than plinking against its body.
"We could use the Nevermore to figure out where we need to go, and we will be close enough that we might be able to take it down." Ruby suggested as Jaune blanched.
"I'm not going to make the landing if we do that." Jaune responded as they scattered from the razor feathers stabbing into the ground. "Also, I'm not going to be able to hit it unless we can force it closer." Pyrrha glanced at the flying creature before turning back to the group,
"Weiss, Ruby and I could get onto the Nevermore and use it to find where the temple is, if you stay down here with Jaune you can make sure that if one of us falls you can help with your glyphs."
"I could do that." Weiss hedged as the Grimm flew back at the group. "Will you need a boost?"
"That would be helpful yes." Pyrrha took a few steps back as Ruby climbed a nearby tree. The flying Grimm started to dive-bomb the tree as Weiss created a black glyph under Pyrrha's feet. "Now." On Pyrrha's command, Weiss launched her into the air as Ruby jumped as well. The Grimm was a bit surprised as the two grabbed onto feathers on its back as Weiss and Jaune dived away. Upon ensuring that Ruby had grabbed on and would not fall, Pyrrha started to scan the area for the temple. Fortunately for the two, the Nevermore ignored Weiss and Jaune, who followed behind, barely keeping up. It seemed that its target was Ruby, though Pyrrha could not understand why it would target her compatriot.
"I think I see Yang, we need to jump." Ruby declared as Pyrrha looked up to see that Ruby had vacated her position on the Nevermore. Sighing, Pyrrha let go as she angled herself to grab Ruby as the girl was attempting to slow her fall. At least she was more successful than Jaune had been at aiming her rash fall. Upon reaching her, Pyrrha slipped an arm around her waist and started to aim them both towards a tree branch, using the recoil from her rifle to push them in the direction. It was not moving them much but they only need a slight course correction. "Good, you heard me." Ruby smirked as Pyrrha pointed at one of the taller trees they were going to pass on their fall.
"Ruby, I need you to use your scythe to latch onto that tree we are aiming for."
"Right." Ruby grinned and transformed Crescent Rose into its scythe mode. And once in reach, she hooked around the top branch as they flipped over and landed on their feet.
"Ruby!" At the voice Ruby turned around to hug her sister as she exclaimed,
"Yang!" Before the two could hug, a young woman with orange hair jumped in between the two and shouted,
"Nora!" causing the siblings to recoil in surprise. Ignoring the surprise she smiled at both of them before drifting off to stand next to a young man with black hair, accented with a pink strand.
"Great, the gang is all here, now we can die together." Yang commented with a thumbs-up as Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Actually, we just need the relics, right? We could just take them and head back to the cliff."
Blake commented.
"Run away and live another day, I can get behind that." Jaune replied before joining Weiss in using a tree to stay standing while breathing heavily. Pyrrha and Ruby walked over to the temple and picked up two of the relics, one rook and one knight, respectively.
"Let's go." The group of eight started to run back to the overlook where they had been launched this morning. Jaune found himself running in the middle of the pack as Pyrrha and Nora, surprisingly took the rear, scanning the sky for the giant Nevermore. It was following, but was unable to position itself to launch its deadly feathers with deadly precision at the group as they used the forest as cover. They continued this path successfully until they came across a giant stone building, the last major obstacle before the hill. They started across its pathway when the giant Grimm dived at the group as Ruby, Yang, and Weiss sprinted forward, while Blake transformed Gambit Shroud and whipped it out so that she could swing away to safety. The last four backpedaled and watched as the Nevermore separated the two groups by ramming through and destroying part of the path. Jaune glared at the Grimm, while the three next to him took aim with their weapons and attempted to kill it. While Nora's blast did show visible signs of at least annoying the beast, both of Pyrrha's and Ren's attempts seemed to do nothing more than poke it. Jaune was in an even worse spot as his sword could not transform. Fortunately, for him, Ruby seemed to have a plan as all he could do was watch and hope that it worked.
Upon decapitating the giant Grimm and standing heroically on a cliff's edge, Jaune smiled at his teammate, someday, that would be him. Fortunately for the group, the three stranded members of the group were able to use Weiss gravity glyphs to jump back across the ravine.
"Well, that was a thing," Yang commented with a grin as Weiss continued to huff from her lack of breath.
"That was excellently executed," Pyrrha commented as Weiss stood straight while attempting to preen.
"That was so awesome, Ren we so got to work on that so I can run up a cliff ledge," Nora exclaimed as her partner nodded.
"Perhaps Weiss may be able to help," he suggested as Nora turned and bombarded her with questions as she took a few steps back in surprise.
The group eventually made it to the top of cliff as Ruby rushed over, the earlier battles seemingly doing nothing to her enthusiasm. While feeling like he did not do enough, beside help with the beowolves, his partner had been impressive. "Ruby, you were the bee's knees there." It had been his youngest sister's favorite compliment so it had to be a winner now. Ruby eyes widened as she stared at him as she "whaaaa" before slowly looking at her sister, who was grinning with two thumbs up.
Whelp, no Deathstalker as someone notices the picture, so a much easier fight than in canon. Of course, now the teams are going to be different and the butterflies are going to be flapping their wings. Let me know what you think, especially the fight scenes. Thank you for reading.