Chapter 2

Joanna Arc sighed as she pulled her brown, wide brimmed cowboy hat lower over her face in a futile attempt to fall asleep as the airship made its way slowly towards Beacon. In the past few weeks since she had, left, her hometown, she had been sleeping less and less and now, she was finally almost at Beacon, the only problem was, she had been forced too hitch a ride with incoming students and was stuck on the airship with them for hours.

And oh god, the noise, noise, noise noise! Each one of the young teens on the airship seemed to be giving the space with loud screams, laughter, and the sound of running feet. Joanna just hoped that they would make it to Beacon before she started sewing lips together. Or just shooting people, that would work to. Possibly even better… She blanched as she realized her gloved left hand was stroking the handle of the the ebony revolver.

Hastily placing both hands in her pockets she tried once again to fall asleep only to be thwarted by the sounds of a rather voice fight between a stocky young man with a mace and a red head who looked very familiar for some reason.

Joanna sighed again.

Scene break

Joanna was at her wits end. A Dust explosion? Really? Have these children really been trained so little as to bring large, unsecured containers filled with pure dust into a crowded area?

A small girl, who looked far too young to be at Beacon had been left in the dust after the explosion, she also seemed like she was about to burst into tears.

Joanna sighed as she realized she would have to go comfort the girl, mentally slapped herself as she realized that she was sighing a lot recently, walked over, extended her hand, and asked, with sun shining brightly behind her, casting her hair in gold and her face in shadow,

"Need any help?"

Scene Break

Joanna wandered after the girl she had learned was named Ruby Rose. Ruby chattered animatedly, punctuated by Joanna occasions hum or grunt of agreement until Ruby brought out her weapon with a flourish and blinked in shock at the abrupt feeling of a repeater pressed against her forehead.

"So… I got this, and Im guessing thats yours?…" She trailed off awkwardly as Joanna swore and placed the long gun back into her duster.

Joanna ran a tired hand over her face as she replied.

"Yes, It is. For future reference, please, please don't whip out weapons around me, Im a very jumpy person and that pulling out large bladed sniper rifle larger then most average sized people doesn't help much."

Ruby's eyes started to tear up as she realized that she might have just frightened off her only friend.

"Oh crap, no don't do that…". Joanna impulsively hugged Ruby gently. Ruby hugged her back and started bawling for all that she was worth as the stress of the past few days came roaring back.

And as Joanna gently patted Ruby on the back, Ruby vented in one long, extended burst.

"IbeatathielikemymomanddadtrainedmefandthenGoodwitchwasmadatmebutthenIgotinvitedtoBeaconandYangwasniceaboutatfirstthensheditchedmethenItrippedoversomecrabbygirlsluggagethenIsneezedandeverthingexplodedandthenagirlwhodefendedmeditchedmeandthenIscaredyoubypullingoutCrescentRoseandthenyoupointedyourgunatmeandIthoughtIhadlostmyfirstfriend."

Joana just kept gently rubbing Ruby's back as she finally stopped talking and as Ruby took several deep, hiccuping breaths Joanna spoke in gentle (and dare I say it loving tones?).

"Ruby, take a breath. You had a rough few days from what it sounds like, but now your hear, the foremost hunter academy on the face of Remanent a whole two years early. So what if you've met a few nasty or rude people? I feel better for having met you Ruby, and don't even worry about pulling out your scythe without telling me, it just startled me okay?"

Ruby nodded with a quite sniffle that Joanna took as a sign to keep talking.

"I am overjoyed that Im your friend, and if you want you can sit with me during the assembly okay?"

Ruby nodded, but then looked around curiously,

" Do you know where we are?"

Joanna looked around before pasting a determined look over her inner frustration.

"Nope. But Im sure we will be fine."

Scene Break

As Joanna and Ruby walked into the auditorium a tall teen, with long blond waved at Ruby.

"Hey, Ruby! I saved you a spot!"

Ruby just looked at her and shook her head before following Joanna to stand in a corner. However their solitude was not to last when the blond from earlier came charging in with a plastic smile directed at Joanna.

"Hey Ruby, I thought I was going to save you a spot over by me, but I see you met a new friend, you mind introducing me?"

Ruby looked at her sister in disapproval before turning to look at Joanna who shrugged as if to say, 'up to you'. Ruby nodded and turned back to her sister.

"This is Joanna, she helped me after I exploded."

Yang sighed internally, why did she apparently have to be near her sister all. the. Time? She was growing up, heck! She was admitted to Beacon two years early and she couldn't handle thirty minutes on her own?

"Wow little sis, a melt down on your first day?"

Ruby winced before scowling at her sister.

"No! Well, kinda. But I actually exploded with some fire, some ice, I think there was some lightening…. And then this really crabby girl yelled at me and another girl insulted her then left, but the I met Joanna," Ruby shot a smile at Joanna that had Yang seething internally before she continued. "Then I had my meltdown and Joanna sat with me until I fell better after you, abandoned me." Ruby glared and pointed a finger at Yang who looked chagrined.

Joanna, not wanting there to be an argument swiftly interposed herself between the two sisters.

"Now, I just ran across her and decided that I had to help, and then when she scared the crap out of me by pulling out her weapon without warning I sort of snapped at her." Ruby winced a little at the reminder of her earlier mistake as Joanna patted her on the shoulder. "She started crying and when I did my best to comfort her she vented. No biggie."

Just then Glynda Goodwitch called for attention as Ozpin took the stage, however, even as Ozpin talked, Yang was resolved to make sure that this, this Bi*&$! Who thought she could get that friendly with Ruby was taught the error of her ways…

Authors Note

Ahh, the tension, she is a rising. As always please rate and review.

Oh and just in case.

I and the other writers on the page we share are full time students and workers. We write fan fiction as a hobby because we find relaxing and it gives something to talk about. We apologize if the lengths of the chapters we post is too short for your tastes but we try to update on a once every week or two basis, that means that we just don't have enough time to make large chapters and stick to our update schedule.