"From Nothing"

They travelled across the world, searching ancient ruins and accepting missions from town to town, their team faced every challenge so far until finally being caught in the middle of a Grimm ambush; on their way home no less. The forests of Vale had always been dangerous even for the populace living there, four Huntresses whom originated from elsewhere found that it was far deadlier than originally anticipated.

Human blood already stained the grass at the feet with three of the four Huntresses' bodies motionless, eyes devoid of life, and at the mercy at whatever dark creature found them. The last surviving member of the team, its leader, held onto her arm with deep gashes from fangs rendering it numb with pain. Her aura had dissipated and given up on her long-ago half way through the fight, but the beasts kept coming, their numbers growing as if spawning from the shadows themselves. The rest of her figure didn't fare any better with clothes ranging from a once bright and white shirt torn apart, leaving her torso mostly exposed while her dark blue skirt being in tatters as it clung on to its wearer by mere threads. None of that mattered though for scratches, cuts, and bruises, covered the young Huntress's body, each wound burning with pain and seeping blood. She was alone again. The feeling haunting her with every breath. "So, this is where it all ends?" The girl panted, trying to catch whatever breath she could, "I can barely move, everyone's dead, and I'm surrounded." Said the exhausted voice of a girl, barely clinging onto her bow that had shifted into a staff long ago when the fight was even. Now the blonde girl was backed against a tree, her light, soft, skin split open in wounds across her body while a trail of blood seeking a route to the ground and forming a small puddle of red with one drop after another. There were three Beowolves that eyed the surviving Huntress up and crept closer with threatening growls and their claws digging into the earth, eager to sink into human flesh and blood. The young Huntress thought of her next move, keeping an eye on the circling Grimm waiting for an opening. In one final burst of energy, the girl charged for the Grimm on her left, kicking up dirt under her boot with the strong kick. She smashed her staff against its jaw while the other two went for a bite. The first set of teeth was swiftly dodged, the Beowolf speeding right past her, but the second one snagged the girl. It's teeth bit into her right leg, crushing bone that sent a numbing shock of pain up her spin, forcing her to drop her greatest weapon and cry out. She looked up, hoping to see the last view of the blue sky that snuck through openings in the treetops; instead, there was a raised claw, a scene that would be her last.

"The Beowolf swipes its claws down and kill you." Said another girl, Tyra Rainso, serving as the 'Game Master' for their imaginative adventure.

In reality, they were sat in the corner of Shade Academy's library. There was a noticeably wide space dividing them between any other student, a result of them being a little too loud for anyone to tolerate, but quiet enough that it wouldn't get them kicked out by library staff; much to other students' disappointment. The small team of four were sat around a wooden table with a window full of dying sunlight giving whatever light it had left to the students in its path.

"Nice going Maron, you got everyone killed. I knew we shouldn't have trusted that shady guy's information."

"I wanted to wait for a good transport and not rush off into the forest, Tenne! If anything, you got us killed for refusing to wait." Maron exclaimed, her blonde hair falling from the safety behind her shoulder to dangle toward the ground as she slammed her fists on the table with narrowed, deep blue eyes directed at the tanned girl's lime-green ones which were ready to bite back at their team leader. Across from the blonde girl, 'Tenne' sat leaning back into her chair wearing her usual tan shorts, a sleeveless leather jacket, and a green shirt underneath with its color faded to the point of being non-existent. The opposing girl wasn't in the mood to accept the accusation either. "Back me up here Sinna!" Maron pleaded the quiet girl who was busy with her scroll as 'she' had died some time ago. Sinna herself kept her clothes simple: loose shorts and a sleeveless tank top, as for her response to her team leader's request, the black-haired girl remained silent, only giving Maron a quick glance of her red eyes that couldn't care less about offering a word help.

Silence followed the plea, leaving the atmosphere around the girls' tense. The number of students in the library had died down significantly though that wasn't too uncommon. However, what made the four girls' eyes widen open was the realization that their free time was coming to a close. Shade was a little more laid back than the other kingdoms' academies, however that didn't mean it allowed its students to do as they pleased, what was their saving grace- baring their already poor reputation- was that their last professor of the day didn't seem to care much whether his students were absent or late. Of course, it irritated him if a student arrived half way through class, but he would still continue on with his lesson. He wasn't the only one either, plenty of Shade's instructors were only there for quick and easy lien to be made or they simply needed something to get by when the number of jobs available were entering a period of 'drought' as the official Huntsmen and Huntresses called it.

As for the official 'teachers', they were few and far between. Anyone that wanted to teach the next generations of Huntsmen and Huntresses sought other places, the instructors at Vacuo couldn't blame them either. Atlas had higher pay and security, Vale had its climate and renown, and Mistral… well it was just Mistral, but those deciding to live there might have 'other' motives in mind, which leaves Vacuo with the scraps. The poor desert kingdom had already lost just about everything to the other three kingdoms at one point or another with the only thing valuable to offer left was to have the most skilled Huntsmen around. Sadly, Vacuo couldn't even keep that from getting stolen too.

"Shouldn't we…" Started the timid Tyra who was the first to break the silence, "Get going? This time not too late?" She finished with a nervous smile. She was a little overly cautious- too much so for her own good- which other students found a bit uncharacteristic of anyone from Vacuo. Anyone from the nomadic folk out in the desert could tell outsiders that it took a strong nerve to survive the wastelands, even more if one wished to 'thrive' in it.

Even Tyra's outfit was more uniform than every other student at the academy. In place of rugged, more casual clothes, the dark-brunette wore black boots and stockings, same colored with skirt with the exception of a stripe of red making a ring around the clothes' hem, and finally a white-collar t-shirt than complimented her creamy skin and bright orange eyes that stood out from the rest. To others, it was a wonder how she got roped in with the rest of the group of poorly performing trainees. Unintentionally or not, the other three ignored their teammate's suggestion, the two girls at her side still having their wordless argument while Sinna was lost in her scroll again. It was like this most days, they got yelled at by their teachers, written off as problematic students, were generally in the shadow of other, more prestigious teams, but they were fun days.

Their little moment together wouldn't last as once they saw the time, an internal alarm (along with a panicked, internal scream) had them prepare for their class upcoming class, the last one of the week too. The clock was relentlessly ticking away whatever time it had left as students hurried to finish off the day.

It wasn't long before the four to-be-huntresses made it to their class, though that didn't mean they weren't late. It might have been just by a minute or two but now they were one of, if not the, last ones to barge into the class hoping to beat the clock.

The moment they entered, the girls were met with a few distasteful looks and sighs from the other students that knew their reputation well. Both Maron and Sinna didn't seem to mind, though the latter didn't seem to care much about the strangers around in the first place. Tenne was grumbling some threats to herself as to avoid having the older Huntsman at the front of the room and Tyra kept profusely apologizing once again and again, those who took notice of her felt bad for her being stuck with the rest of-

"Team Amethyst." Acknowledged their professor, a fair-skinned man, appearing young- compared to the expected age of most other professors which wasn't uncommon for Shade- with well kept, dark brown hair. His attire wasn't much different from what one would expect from a professional Huntsman, simple casual wear that had been a little worn from age and fights, but for him it consisted of his dark leather coat which currently hung off his chair, a grey-blue t-shirt which had looked to have faded a little in color, and grey pants that seem to be brand new for the Huntsman as the last pair was already worn out. "Well at least you lot didn't miss half the class this time." He began, stopping his lecture to look at the new arrivals to the classroom.

"And good afternoon to you too, Steele! We lost track of time." Spouted Maron with a confident look on her face.

"Right, just take your seat." He said with an unconvinced sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh. It was always a long day for the instructors when Team Amethyst arrived, be it barging into class half after it started, starting unauthorized fights- Maron and Tenne being the primary culprits- which usually ended in a loss, or the plenty of times they had broken or destroyed something that was property of the school or someone else. Nevertheless, Team MTST was allowed to stay on school grounds and enrolled much to the dismay of every other student and a handful of professors. "Anyways, let's continue from last time." Said Steele as he moved on to resume his lesson, hopefully this time there wouldn't be any interruptions.

- (-) -

"...And thus, concludes today's lecture. Now for eager to leave, you'll be happy to know that your free to go." Steele concluded, pulling his coat from his chair's backrest and putting it on, "Except you, Team Amethyst, you stay." The man added, sounding a little displeased which caused a few students leaving to either let out a quiet chuckle or whisper their insults- as a professor was still present and within earshot- about the aforementioned team. The professor remained quiet as he rolled up his coat's sleeves and couldn't help but overhear the conversations and unpleasant labels for the team coming from the other students. To be fair it wasn't too far from the truth, since their formation Team MTST had been the academy's poorest performing team; and it was widely known too. Their only saving grace were certain skills each excelled at, be it grades or combat prowess, and occasional spark of brilliance they've shown during combat demonstrations however, as Steele had personally seen that even that too had started to dwindle and falter which pained the professional Huntsman to no end.

After taking a deep breath, Steele found him sat back in his chair and turning to meet the anxious faces of the team he ordered to stay. Tyra kept her eyes to the floor and was tense, Sinna seemed indifferent but Steele could see that the girl's eyes betrayed her, Tenne was at least still confident, standing tall and ready to accept whatever came next, and Maron looked past the professor trying to avoid his serious and displeased look

"Listen, girls," Steele began, elbows on his desk and fingers interlaced between one another, "I'd say that 'I'm afraid to say that you're starting to run the risk of getting kicked out', but I think you four already knew that. Your grades are starting to fall, your combat performance has barely increased, even a few of our fresh faces that have just enrolled or transferred are showing more promise that you, and finally I hear that some of you have been skipping more and more classes and that's not to mention the ones you're frequently late too. Just how did you all manage to get into this school in the first place?" His words cut deep as he rested his forehead on his hands.

"Recommendation."

"Fighting."

"Family ties."

"Grades?" Maron, Tenne, Sinna, and Tyra said in unison respectively. Tyra being the only one with a 'normal' answer.

"At least you're honest." Steele said, looking back up at the four with hands resting on the desk between them, "A lot of lien and strings went into fixing your mistakes and keeping you here. Fortunately for you, a donator was willing to go above and beyond to pay for the damages each time, but you shouldn't go expecting someone else to wrap up your problems if you graduate."

"If?" Maron asked, now looking directly at the older Huntsman with her hands slammed on the desk which to her suddenly felt like hitting stone for that brief moment. Steele didn't flinch as Maron's aggravated face was a foot away with a frown that seemed as if she was offended by the word.

"Yes. 'If'." The man repeated, "As it stands, assuming you continue this routine, you will be asked to resign your enrollment, in other words 'kicked out'. I know other teachers would have went on to try encourage you to do better so I'm not going to do that. The only way you can improve is if you do it yourself. However," Steele began, finger in the air with the word, "I will present an offer that will very well determine your futures." He paused, looking to each of the girls whom waited with worry for the unknown. He pointed toward the door with a stern look on his face, "The first option: I will personally make sure each of your academic records will be erased, you'll be starting with a clean slate, but you may never enroll or set foot back in this academy." He offered as the girls looked at each other, waiting to see what comes next. They waited and waited until a few minutes passed.

"Are you going to tell us the other option?" Sinna inquired.

"That's a good question Miss Kytao, but you will have to choose to either leave now or stay and listen."

"That doesn't seem fair, shouldn't we know what's the other option?" Tyra raised a question with her gentle voice, raising a brow and with arms crossed.

"If this were any other assignment, yes." Steele decided, finally deciding to get up from his chair to stand before the four misfits, "But you are all training to be Huntresses, meaning there will be challenges, information, and enemies, you can't hope to prepare for or in some cases anticipate." The professor left the girls to think about the offer, waiting to see if any dared to walk through the door he had shown them. Whether through fear of disappointing the others of the team, confidence in their abilities, or perhaps just dumb curiosity, all but one remained still. Maron was the only one to take a step toward the door with clenched fists at either side of her, but she was stopped by the questioning voice of Steele, "Are you sure you want to walk out that door? When the rest of your team is willing to stay even without a leader?" This stopped Maron in her tracks. The others didn't know what her train of thought was, perhaps as the team's leader she felt responsible for the mess they made, but either way she was the only one looking at the merciful door that could very well lead to a better life.

"I never could perform well in a team anyways. Besides, I'd be better of learning in the field like you always said professor." Maron replied, looking back with a strong expression on her face that was nothing more than a façade to the professor.

"Well you aren't leaving." Stated Tyra for a change, grabbing the blonde's wrist with a tight grip.

"A-And we outvote you anyways, majority rules." Mentioned Tenne, who's eyes were off to the side to hide her stutter.

"You're right, we don't work well together, we have little success, and personally I don't know if we could even call each other friends, but either way we're all stuck together." Sinna was the last one to say something in a monotone voice as heads turned to face her.

"You know you could at least lie about some of our accomplishments." Noted Maron with a straight-faced expression.

"Would it matter?" She retorted.

"Fair point."

"Well then," Steele interrupted the team's little moment with faint, but hopeful, smirk, "I suppose everyone's decided then?" He asked with a set of nods as a reply. He almost chuckled at how easy it was to convince the blonde leader to stay, he knows she was one of the few who was more than willing to fail her way to success at becoming a Huntress, but with all the negative results without a single point of dramatic improvement, her moral sank lower than the sun over the horizon. Perhaps it was only as simple as giving her the little pull to get her going with determination again. The professor stood from his chair and placed his hands behind his back, looking at each of the faces before him that were full of determination, "Good, then let's get started."

A.N.: Thought I might dabble in something else so here. Make of it what you will and thanks for stopping by.

As always, enjoy!

~Firetoast312