It is something of a rule at Beacon for the new teacher to be the one to run most of the errands and such, veiled as a way to "build camaraderie" between the new and old teachers. In reality, the new teacher really couldn't say no to Ozpin due to being new, and the others took advantage of that. And, because of this, Geo was in the Emerald Forest at three in the morning, with a black bag slung over his shoulder.
Geo, naturally for this hour, was grumbling to himself. He'd been sleeping when Professor Port had shaken him awake and told Geo that Port was in charge of placing the relics at the temple this year, but he'd forgotten, so could Geo please do it for him? And of course, Geo had accepted. The bag contained two sets of chess pieces, sans the pawns. Geo thought he understood the symbolism behind it- Hunters and Huntresses, be they were good or evil, were never just pawns.
Geo could feel the distinctive tugging on his conscious that signaled a coming splinter. In the past seventeen years, Geo felt like he could accurately categorize the splinters into three distinct types. The first type was audio: Geo's vision would black out for a second and a memory of a conversation would implant itself into his memory. This kind was what his first splinter was like. The second type was conceptual: images and sounds would scream into his mind, he himself only managing to catch a few snippets as they entered, filling him in on a certain concept. This was what his second splinter was. The third kind was simply an image, with no context whatsoever. Geo hadn't had many of the third kind, but they always left him with more questions than answers. A particularly worrying image splinter happened a few days before Pyrrha's thirteenth birthday.
Geo had been out in Kaiteki proper, the house that he'd bought being on the outskirts. He was shopping for a birthday present for Pyrrha when his gaze fell on a display in the window of a jewelry store. It was a bronze diadem, inlaid with emeralds. It had one emerald in the front and two where the temples would be.
Another splinter came.
It was the same diadem as he was looking at, but it was covered in ashes.
Despite the unsettling feeling Geo got from the splinter, he just couldn't not buy it for Pyrrha, despite the feeling that he was making a terrible mistake.
Finally, after hours of searching, Geo had found the temple as the sun's first rays pierced the night. It was a crumbling ruin, a remnant of a long-passed civilization. The ruins stretched for about half a mile back across a canyon, with the temple only a few feet away from the cliff. What remained of the temple was a semicircular wall about fifteen feet high, with ten pedestals. Geo walked up to the pedestals and placed the chess pieces on each pedestal, with white on one side and black on the other.
After making sure that the pieces would stay where they were, Geo walked out of the temple. The chess pieces were fine and all, but he couldn't help feeling that something other than chess pieces would be better for the relics.
Another splinter came.
"The four of you recovered the two moon emblems. For the next four years, the four of you will work together as Team Green, lead by Geo Rightwater."
Now that was interesting. Geo was the leader of his team while in training. Unfortunately, he still had no idea who the people on his team- Green, however it was spelled- were, and the splinter had offered no information on them. Who were they? Were they friend or foe? Were they even alive anymore?
A crack from somewhere to Geo's left snapped him out of his thoughts. A distinct feeling of wrongness set Geo on edge. Of course, every Hunter and Huntress worth their salt knew what this feeling was: Grimm. Geo made to draw Verdant Penumbra, and cursed. In his sleep-addled haze, Geo had left Verdant Penumbra back at Beacon.
Any further self-depreciation was cut short when the Grimm Geo had sensed burst through the trees. It was giant, with a scorpion-like body and a luminous yellow stinger- a Deathstalker, the moss growing on its bone plates marking it as an older Grimm. Geo took one look at it, and made a decision.
"Nope," he said turning his back on the Deathstalker and walking into the forest. The Deathstalker's claw flashed out and pierced the tree Geo had walked behind. Surprisingly, there was a lack of sticky Hunter-based jelly on its claw, the emotions it had sensed completely gone.
"What's a landing strate-" the initiate's- Jaune, wasn't it?- question quickly devolved into a panicked scream as he was launched into the Emerald Forest.
"I still don't believe you should have accepted Arc's application," Glynda said to Ozpin. "No matter how much potential he has, the boy is going to die here."
Ozpin smiled mysteriously. "Don't worry, Glynda. I have ensured that Mr. Arc will find himself with a partner that I feel will allow him to thrive."
Geo missed the rest of their conversation, too engrossed in his work. There was something in the splinter from the previous night that bugged him.
No matches for 'Geo Rightwater' in Atlas database.
The voice from the splinter sounded like Ozpin. Geo had no idea if Ozpin worked at any other school before coming to Beacon, or if he had a brother that worked elsewhere.
No matches for 'Geo Rightwater' in Haven database.
Yes, Geo could ask them man himself, but he felt that he needed to figure this out on his own.
No matches for 'Geo Rightwater' in Shade database.
Geo growled angrily. What the hell was up with this?
One match for 'Geo Rightwater' in Beacon database.
Geo's eyes widened. Was there something in his past at (possibly) Beacon?
Name: Geo Rightwater
Aliases: None
Age: 45
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Species: Wolf Faunus
Occupation: Hunter/Beacon Professor
Family: Mother: unknown, father: unknown, siblings: unknown, children: Pyrrha Nikos, adopted daughter
Geo closed his eyes and sighed. The file went on further, detailing his weapon, Semblance, and various other personal facts. Of course he'd managed to stumble upon his own employee file. Feeling it was a lost cause to keep searching, Geo tuned his Scroll back into the network of hidden cameras that populated the Emerald Forest. Nothing, nothing, nothing, someone chopped down the tree that this camera was attached to, nothing, Lie Ren fighting a King Taijitu, nothing, and something that made Geo pause.
"C'mon, Pyrrha, I'm sure the temple's in here!" Jaune said. The duo were standing in front of the mouth of a cave.
"I… don't know," Pyrrha said. "I'm not getting a good feeling from that cave."
"Pyrrha, you're an amazing fighter. If anything goes wrong, I'm sure you can handle it," Jaune persuaded.
Pyrrha blushed. "Thank you, Jaune. But my father always told me to trust my instincts, and they're telling me to run."
Jaune made a dismissive noise. "Where's your sense of adventure?" He asked, already walking into the cave. Pyrrha chuckled to herself and ran after her partner, unaware of the camera focused on the mouth of the cave, or of the exasperated man looking through the camera.
"Pyrrha, that's not how you convince someone," Geo said. "Oz- Headmaster, do we have any cameras in that cave?"
"I'm afraid not," Ozpin replied. "The Deathstalker that lives there is old, and has made that cave its home for so long it knows the layout by heart and destroys any cameras we place."
Geo felt icy fear grip his heart as his blood ran cold. Of course the Deathstalker he hadn't killed would be in initiation, oh they were going to die, then he'd be alone and he'd have to explain to the Arc family what happened and he needed to help them but DUST DAMN IT the rules said he couldn't and-
A heavy hand fell on Geo's shoulder. "Relax, Geo," Ozpin said. "They will be fine. This is what they are training to fight."
Geo took a deep breath. "Right," he said. "But I can't help worrying, you know? My daughter is in a cave with a bumbling fool and an opponent of the level that she's only defeated with my help."
"Yes. But remember, she is not alone," Ozpin answered. "If she lures the Deathstalker to the temple she could gain the support of the other initiates."
"I know that. But even with that, I'm still worrying."
"A natural reaction. Your daughter is in danger, and your parental instincts want you get her out of danger. But like I said earlier, she is training to fight the Grimm."
A girl screamed in the distance.
"Runrunrunrunrunrun!" Jaune panicked, a very old and very angry Deathstalker on his and Pyrrha's tails. A yellow stinger shot into the space where Jaune was mere seconds earlier, a quick yank forwards with Pyrrha's Semblance being what saved him.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome!"
Despite the terrifying situation he was in, Jaune had not screamed (very loudly) and had (somewhat) clear thoughts.
'Alright, Jaune, think. We can't fight this thing on our own. Both me and Pyrrha need to get close to it to fight it well, but if we do that we'll die. At least, probably. My Aura force-field probably isn't strong enough to take a hit from that thing, and since Pyrrha hasn't tried to face it, hers probably isn't either. We need help.'
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled to his partner. "We need backup!"
Pyrrha nodded. "Follow me!"
Pyrrha jinked to her left, away from the Deathstalker. Jaune dove right, letting the Deathstalker barrel past him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and tore off in Pyrrha's direction. Jaune opened his mouth to ask where they were going, and his unasked question was answered when they ran into a clearing with what Jaune assumed were the ruins they were told to reach. Standing in the ruins were six other people, one of which was favoring her left leg. Seeing the people who were clearly far more skilled than he was, Jaune formally and eloquently asked for their assistance.
"HEEEEEEEEEEELP!" Or rather, he tried. It's kind of hard to say anything formally and eloquently when you have a giant evil death scorpion of death on your heels. Speaking of said giant evil death scorpion of death, the Deathstalker barreled through the trees with the sound of snapping matchsticks. Seeing this, two people reacted. The first, a girl wielding a grenade launcher, started to run over and opened fire on the Deathstalker. The second, a boy in green, placed both hands on the ground and closed his eyes. Jaune felt an odd feeling crawl up his legs to cover his entire body. Pyrrha, who still ran in front of him, flinched slightly, and her colors faded to gray. Jaune would've been very, very confused about this turn of events, had his emotions not been… dampened was probably the best word for it. Once Jaune and Pyrrha reached the boy in green- and did he have a pink streak in his hair?- he opened his eyes, and the odd feeling left. At the same time, Jaune's emotions rose back to their previous intensity and Pyrrha's colors came back.
"Thanks… for the… save," Jaune panted. The boy in green nodded.
"Jaune! You're okay!"
"Ack! Ruby! Get off me!" Jaune said as he tried to extricate himself from Ruby's enthusiastic hug.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha had made her was over to a girl in white, who was favoring her left leg.
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked her.
"I'm fine," the girl said.
"Weiss-" 'It was Weiss, right?' "-you're not fine," Pyrrha said, motioning to Weiss's leg. Her ankle was red and swollen.
Weiss huffed. "I'm going to attend Beacon, broken ankle or not."
Pyrrha was going to counter that statement, by a shout from afar stopped her.
"Are you gonna help, of am I gonna hafta take all the credit for killing this thing?!" The girl from before shouted.
"We're coming!" Jaune shouted back, running towards the girl. Pyrrha, of course, joined him, as did the boy in green, who was probably the girl's partner. Jaune drew his sword and deployed his shield, Pyrrha drew Miló and Akoúo, and the boy in green drew a pair of what looked to be submachine-guns attached to long, fang-like blades. The boy circled left and opened fire on the Deathstalker, while Pyrrha circled right and did the same. Jaune, in a desperate attempt to block the stinger headed for him, as he'd ran straight, dropped his sword and braced his shield with both arms. The yellow stinger flashed down and scraped off of Jaune's shield. Jaune was thrown to the ground, rather surprised that he hadn't gotten impaled. Unfortunately, he was still right in front of the Deathstalker, which still had two claws. Pyrrha impaled one of the claws, using her Semblance to hold herself in place. The other claw was crushed by the girl before, whose grenade launcher had turned into a hammer.
"Thanks!" Jaune said, scrambling backwards.
"You're welcome!" Pyrrha said, while the other girl yelled over "No Problemo!"
Something then occurred to Jaune. "Wait, where's-"
"Ren!" The girl in pink shouted. "Go for it!"
The boy in green- Jaune assumed his name was Ren- leaped up from behind the Deathstalker, slashing repeatedly at its stinger. The Deathstalker flexed its tail to throw Ren off, although thankfully it wasn't at an angle to pierce him. Jaune ran over to Ren to help him up.
"Ren, are you okay?" Jaune asked. Ren nodded.
"The Deathstalker isn't going to fall for that again," Ren said.
"Right, let me think," Jaune said. His eyes went from Pyrrha's shield, to the Deathstalker's stinger, to the girl in pink's hammer. His eyes widened.
"I have an idea!" He shouted. "Um, pink girl-"
"Nora."
"-Nora! How does your hammer work?"
Not breaking stride, Nora replied "Like a normal hammer! But if I pull the trigger, a grenade explodes and makes it hit harder!"
"How many grenades do you have left?"
"One!"
"Save it! Pyrrha, can your shield cut the stinger off?"
Pyrrha eyeballed the stinger, which barely hung on. "I'd need to use my Semblance, but I can."
Jaune nodded. "Cut off its stinger!"
Pyrrha's shield briefly flashed a dark red as she reared back. She paused to take aim, and whipped her shield forwards. The streak of golden metal easily sawed through the remaining tendons of the Deathstalker's stinger. Nora had caught on to the plan and was already in position to bring her hammer down on the stinger. With the strange war cry of "Boop!" she pulled the trigger just as her hammer impacted the stinger. With a bang and a blast of pink smoke, the stinger shot down through the Deathstalker's bone ridge and into its brain, killing it instantly.
Jaune sat down hard in relief. He'd survived his first encounter with a Grimm! Nora twirled her hammer, Pyrrha recalled her shield, and Ren just flopped face down.
"Give me a minute," he mumbled through the grass.
"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren," Ozpin said. "The four of you recovered the two white bishop pieces. For the next four years, you will work together as Team Juniper."
At this, the letters faded out from under the new teammates's portraits, leaving only the J in Jaune, the N in Nora, the P in Pyrrha , and the R in Ren to spell JNPR.
"Team JNPR will be led by Jaune Arc," Ozpin finished. The assembled students and teachers laughed when Nora hugged her team leader, causing him to nearly topple over. In the back, Geo applauded loudly for Pyrrha. He had to admit that although he wanted Pyrrha to become leader, Jaune was probably the better choice. For someone so inexperienced, he kept his cool rather well in the heat of battle, and his coordination with his team was admirable.
Perhaps having Pyrrha under Jaune's surprisingly competent guidance would help the sense of unease Geo had since coming to Beacon.
A/N: And finally, after a month and a half of waiting, the story progresses! I have absolutely no excuse for taking this long. I'm sorry.
Also, within a few days, I will be putting up the first chapter of what I call a supplementary fic, titled Recollections. It's a series of mostly unconnected one-shots that take place in the seventeen year timeskip at the end of last chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY- Rooster Teeth does