[PATCH NOTES 1.01: Adjusted Authors Notes. General edits and corrections. Adjusted descriptions of a few plot points.]

AN: Short chapter. Would have just been the end of the last one, but that one ended up a bit longer despite not having the Rose V Roman fight. Figured 7k words for the first chapter was already enough, this plus the fight would have put it at about 12k or so, kinda daunting for a introduction.

Volume 1 Chapter 2: Up in the Air

Rose was certainly having an eventful day.

Glynda had taken her home late the night before, or early that morning, and spent a few minutes talking Rose's father while she packed up her things. Rose hadn't quite thought through what leaving to Beacon the next day would entail, because it ended up involving rushing around grabbing everything in her room she thought she might need, almost forgetting her tool kit for cleaning her scythe, and in general absolutely destroying her room.

And just when she thought she could get a breather, and maybe take just a little nap, Professor Goodwitch dragged her back out the door, suitcase in tow.

Several sleepless hours, one bullhead ride, two taxis, and ten panicked minutes trying to find the MASSIVE FRICKING AIRSHIP THE SIZE OF A SMALL MOUNTAIN later. She was finally on her way to Beacon.

And she was absolutely miserable.

The airship was absolutely beautiful. Sleek curves, massive windows and delightfully soft chairs in rows pointed to the windows to provide everyone with a nice view. Unfortunately those chairs were occupied by hundreds of rowdy, smelly, noisy, annoying wannabe Hunters that seemed to be competing to see who could make the most noise.

Rose could feel her headache building already.

Why couldn't they all have just taken short Bullhead trips to Beacon? Sure the chairs sucked and would probably give them all scoliosis, but Rose would take anything over having to sit in close proximity to these morons.

But alas, she was forced to endure a crowded noisy airship on her way to a school filled with people she knew she wasn't going to get along with. After all, she never got along with anyone at Signal Academy, and this wasn't too different, right?

At least those morons are stuck in Signal for two more years. Would hate to get put on a team with any of those incompetents.

Rose could only sigh in resigned frustration. She looked down at the city of Vale through the massive floor to ceiling windows. The warm afternoon sun did wonders for the city, it could almost make her forget that just a few hours ago a criminal from that same city had almost killed her.

All because she had been weak.

She leaned her head against the window and glared down at the city. Glynda had saved her last night. If it wasn't for the grouchy woman, Rose would be a burnt corpse on top of a building. She wouldn't have become a Hunter in training, she would never get the chance to become the strong confident Hunter she dreamed of being since childhood. All she would have amounted to was a fucking worthless corpse to be buried and forgotten.

She took a deep quivering breath and slowly let it out.

It's okay. Now I'm on my way to Beacon. It's all up to me now to become a Hunter.

The thought managed to cheer her up slightly. The strongest Hunters came from Beacon, and to her, getting strong enough to stand on her own was the most important thing in the world.

Finally calm and relaxed, she could at last sit back, unwind, listen to some tunes, and enjoy the trip to Beacon.

"Oh I can't believe my wittle sister gets to go to Beacon with me!" a squeal came from right next to Rose's ear, almost making her jump out of her boots. Her sisters' arms wrapped tightly around her chest and lifted her in the air. Her vision blurred when her sister began shaking her crazily almost using her as a bludgeon to hit someone sitting nearby. Luckily he dived underneath the path of her swinging legs.

"Gah! Y-Yang! Need air!"

Yang Xiao Long, her elder sister by 3 years, chuckled and dropped her back on her feet before spinning Rose around to face her.

Rose stared at the blurry form of her sister for a long moment before rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning to you too Yang."

A few eye rubs and head shake later she could make out the familiar shape of her sister. Yang was wearing her usual outfit, that is too say basically the opposite of what Rose chose to wear. Pretty much everything about her was the exact opposite of Rose actually. While Rose had pitch black hair with red tips like her their mother Raven, wore mostly black and red, and covered just about every inch of her skin other than her face with protective layers, Yang went with a slightly different approach.

To start with she inherited their fathers' great height maker her easily tower over her tiny sister, as well as Tai's bright yellow hair that she kept in a massive untamable mane that took up just an ungodly amount of space. Just, way, way too much space. She also got her lilac colored eyes from their father, while Rose got her silver ones from what they could only assume were some really recessive genes or something. Her clothing was also just about the exact opposite of Roses. She had a orange scarf tided loosely around her neck, a earth colored jacket that wouldn't never be able to zip up all the way over a yellow undershirt, with a matching brown belt over her black short shorts.

Although both sisters did wear black combat boots, that was mostly because their Uncle Qrow had taken them shopping for shoes and he refused to buy any clothing that he described as, "ugly flamboyant bullshit".

He shared Roses love for the color black.

Yang couldn't resist squeezing her little sister into another tight hug, this time however with far less shaking. "Sorry sis, I'm just so excited! We finally get to go to Beacon! We've been waiting for this moment our entire lives!"

Rose couldn't help but smile up at her sister. Their personalities couldn't be more different but it was hard not to just feel good around Yang. She just put out a warm energy that got people in the mood to be happy.

Yang released Rose and took a step back.

"You are excited right? You have been working way harder than me for this. Especially since you had to start at Signal later."

Rose simmered at the reminder. Their father had initially forbidden, or as he put it forgotten, to allow her to attend the Combat Academy at the age of eight, the first year you are able too. It took her two more years to convince her father to let her go. If it wasn't for Uncle Qrow tutoring her in her spare time she would have been lucky to get into beacon at nineteen, let alone sixteen.

Yang looked down at her fuming sister. She couldn't help but be worried about Rose. She loved her to death, but for the life of her she just didn't quite understand why she always failed to find the positive side in things.

Rose finally managed to drag her head out of the mire of unpleasant thoughts and shrugged her shoulders a bit. She leaned back with her hands on her waist causing a few pops to come from her back.

"I don't know. I'm getting in three entire years early. And sure, I know I am good enough to go. But that doesn't stop my brain from going crazy about it."

The blonde girl reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly before responding.

"Still scared?"

Rose sighed and nodded.

"Same as usual I guess."

And it was. The ever present, all-encompassing terror that ate at her insides day in and day out for as long as she could remember was no different today. Now she was just a bit nervous on top of that which probably did nothing to help. She didn't know why she felt that way all the time, but for her it was just normal. It wasn't actually until she was already 5 years old when she had asked their father how he dealt with it that she learned everyone doesn't live their live in a constant state of life or death panic inducing terror.

But she didn't want to be weak, so eventually she simply learned to live with it.

Although no matter how calm or relaxed Rose would look, it never quite assuaged Yangs worries. She was a very protective older sister after all.

But back to the important bits.

"So, nervous then?" Yang asked slowly.

Rose stuck out her tongue. "Duh doofus. You know me, I'm terrible with people on good days. Let alone when they are all 3 years older than me and have had far more time to train."

Yang chuckled and ruffled her sisters hair. Rose squawked indignantly and swatted at her sisters hands before trying to reorganize her thoroughly messed hair. Being awake for two days in a row combined with the static from the dry air in the airship combined to make her hair float up from her head like some sort of mad scientist.

"They might have had more time but they probably didn't use more time than you. You spend way too much time training. You would be better with people if you actually went out and exposed yourself to new people more."

Rose ran that sentence through her head a few dozen times in rapid succession before blushing furiously and punching her sister on the arm with enough force to make her wince and rub at the spot.

"Unlike you Yang, I am above "exposing" myself to strangers. You're lucky dad is friends with the constable or you would have been in a lot more trouble."

The blonde maned beauty could only laugh jovially and smack Rose upside her head.

"Hey now let's not say that quite so loud will yah? Unlike you I plan on making plenty of new friends and I don't want to start off on the wrong foot."

That got a genuine chuckle out of Rose much to Yangs enjoyment. Her sister didn't laugh enough so every time she did it made her day.

"But seriously Yang, this isn't like Signal. Most of the other students there are a bunch of idiots. This is Beacon, where the best of the best Hunters come from! I skipped 3 years to get in, and I.. I just don't want people to think I'm special or something. I don't want them to think anything about me! You know how well I handle extra attention and all that..."

Rose leaned against her sister, forehead resting against her chest. They stood silently like that for a minute just being close to one another.

"Don't worry about it Rose. They might look at you and just see a kid, but you are hands down the best at killing Grimm that I have ever seen besides uncle Qrow. Once they see you in action you will have people lining up to be on your team."

She smiled and tilted the red cloaked girls face up so they were looking eye to eye.

"Besides, you are special, you're my sister after all, and I am quite incredible."

Humble too.

Rose laughed happily and pulled Yang into a tight hug. It was a very sweet sisterly moment, and anyone who saw it would surely feel their hearts warm at the sight of the sweet pure love they shared for each other.

And it was immediately ruined by the sound of vomit splattering on the floor.

Welcome to the bottom of the second chapter now that it has received a bit of editing. This one overall didnt have as many additions as the first chapter. The first went from about 5k words to 7k or so, while this one went from about 1800 to 2500. Still a significant jump ratio wise, but not as major when it comes to actually having to write it. Not much to say on this one other than I wish I could have expanded on the airship "scene" to introduce like... a dozen other characters. It is a nice location, and I would have much preferred side characters being introduced in an extended airship scene instead of the Locker area in the show. I might go back and do a complete rewrite of this chapter at some point if i get the motivation to give it a go. As usual, below are my original authors notes and thoughts when writing, and in [] will be updated thoughts.

AN: And their we go. Technically this is an expansion on the last part of the originals first episode, but I couldn't think of a good way to jump to this locations from Klara talking to Oz, so i just split it off. And since I split this section off, chapter 3 will be when you actually get to see the wrest of the cast.

PS: Poor vomit boy, Rose will never let him live it down.

[Luckily he has three years to make friends instead of like 7 months.]

PPS: I am waiting for the moment where I accidentally call Rose "Ruby" in a chapter. I know one is going to squeak by me eventually, assuming one hasn't already.

[I'm at chapter 11 now, managed to find all the accidental name slips before putting out the chapters so far.]

PPPS: The fear thing is not technically important, but it does tie into the lore i have invented for my story.

[I kinda lied. It's important to Rose's character arc, but not to the overall world plot type thing.]

PPPPS: I have adjusted the design of several characters. Basically Raven looks the same just has red tipped hair, and Summer Rose looks completely different other than the white cloak and Silver Eyes

[So far I'm leaning towards Summer having green hair. Feels more... Summery... hahaha.]