Ruby shook with excitement as she stood at the cliffs of Beacon. This was finally her moment to prove herself. Today she would either make it as a huntress in training at one of the most prestigious academies in existence, or she would be sent home. Ruby tilted her head at the thought that there was a possibility of her dying today was well, and then shook her head as Yang was here with her, and together the two of them could take on any grimm in existence. They were just that awesome. She took a quick look at her scroll to check the time and seeing that she still had a couple of minutes before the scheduled time she looked around.

It appeared as though all of the students went through the additional trouble of arriving early so she was able to look at pretty much all of the other first years. There was the vomit boy from the bullhead yesterday. He had introduced himself as Jaune Arc when he met Ruby later that day, though she hadn't particularly enjoyed the conversation. Then again she didn't enjoy most conversations. There was also Weiss Schnee, whose luggage Ruby had accidentally fallen on top of. That was an event she'd rather not repeat. Not only did Weiss get really mad but Ruby's head still hurt from the impact, and her nose still burned from her explosive sneeze.

Ruby's inspection of her fellow first-years was cut off by a coughing fit on her part. She raised a part of her red cloak to cover her mouth so that she wouldn't accidentally cough in anyone's general direction. Though the cloak didn't help the fact that the fit left her breathless and with a sore throat. It also didn't stop people from noticing the coughing and giving her looks that ranged from 'why is she here if she's sick' to 'I feel so sorry for that girl'. Ignoring Yang's concerned glance Ruby stood up straight and looked forward. Doing her best to ignore the other students around her and wait for instructions from the teachers. She didn't have to wait long as Ozpin chose to speak shortly thereafter.

"Students," Ozpin said to gain everyone's attention. "You have probably wondered about how the teams will be set up at Beacon. Let us clear that up for you. You will each be assigned to a team. Today"

That comment caught Ruby's attention. She didn't particularly like having to be a part of a team, as she wasn't a people person, but she saw the benefit of working with a team. However she couldn't spend too much time thinking about this as the headmaster continued.

"You will each be launched into the forest, and the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner. After that you will make your way to a set of ruins within the forest where you will collect one of the relics and then return here to complete initiation."

A small grimace found it's way onto Ruby's face as she realized how random the partner assignment process would be. It was bad enough that she wasn't guaranteed that it'd be Yang, but worse is that there's a possibility that it could be Weiss, who already didn't like her, or Cardin, who Ruby wanted to hurt. She had seen him bullying some other students earlier this morning. However she quickly stopped those thoughts in their tracks as there was no way for her to control the outcome other than hope and pray she ran into Yang first.

It was at that moment that the first of the students was launched into the air by a metal pad that he was standing on. The loud clank the pad made as it launched him helped Ruby calm herself and regain her focus. She took a quick glance down to ensure she was standing at the center of her launch pad before grabbing Crescent Rose and preparing for her own launch. A clicking was heard underneath her. Ruby looked down for a moment and before she knew it, she was flying through the air at high speeds. Her plan was fairly simple, hook a tree branch with Crescent Rose to slow her descent before landing gracefully on her feet. The execution would be a little more tricky as if she missed the branch she was going for she wouldn't get a second chance.

As she started falling towards the forest beneath her she stared dead ahead, keeping her eyes focused on the patch of trees she'd be falling towards, looking for the branch she'd use to stop her descent. For a couple of moments she grew worried as she couldn't find one until, mere moments before she would have missed the branch, she spotted one that would work and with a precise swing of her scythe she hooked the branch. Her scythe was sharp enough to cut through the branch. However the branch was thick enough to break a large portion of her momentum in the process, so when she did hit the ground it was relatively soft. Especially compared to how it would have gone should she have missed the branch. Ruby smiled at her successful landing before breaking into another fit of coughs. This coughing fit being so intense that it brought her to her knees until it was over.

"Perfect timing to get sick there Ruby," She muttered to herself angrily. It was then that she heard the sound of something approaching and got ready to fight. Facing the sound she got in a defensive posture with Crescent Rose aimed and ready to fire in its semi-automatic gun form. However it proved to be an unnecessary precaution as she heard a voice call out.

"Hello?"

"Over here," Ruby responded hesitantly. She had recognized the voice and while she wasn't happy with who it was, there was worse people it could have been. Her suspicions were proved correct when the white-haired heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss Schnee, walked out of the bush and towards Ruby.

"I heard you coughing. Are you okay?" The heiress asked.

"I'm fine, it's just a cough," Ruby answered.

"Alright, well I guess we're partners now," Weiss stated with mild disappointment lacing her voice. She then turned and pointed in front of Ruby. "I'm pretty sure the ruins are in that direction."

"Well, that is the direction we were launched in… so yeah. I think so too."

"Great, do you need to rest first or should we go right now? That was a heck of a cough"

"Look, Weiss," Ruby began with irritation heavy in her voice. "I get sick. More often than most people you know. However Ozpin said I have the skills to be here and I want to prove that I can do this despite having relatively fragile health and being younger than everyone here."

"Sorry, I didn't think I was being pushy or overconcerned."

"You weren't. It's just people have been babying me my entire life because of my health. I'd rather that not continue in Beacon. I know it may be hard to ignore, but if you and I are going to be partners I'm going to need you to be more concerned about helping me grow as a huntress than you are about my health. Can you do that?"

"Deal," Weiss said professionally. "I'll make sure that you're the perfect huntress when you graduate Beacon, ignoring health issues of course."

Ruby smiled lightly at that. "I get the feeling that you would have done that anyway," she commented as she started walking.

"I would have. I'm Weiss Schnee, nothing less than perfection is accepted from me."

"Then I'm glad I'm Ruby Rose, perfection means little in my family."

"We're going to have some issues then," Weiss responded with a sigh.

"Only if you want to have issues. I'm fine with forgetting about it."

Ruby was standing next to Weiss in the Beacon auditorium. They had completed the initiation and were currently waiting through a presentation that formed all of the new teams. Ruby had to admit that she felt the 'relics' in the ruins were a little lack luster. They were overglorified chess pieces. Not only that but the partners that collected the same chess piece were put on the same team. So that meant that Yang, her partner Blake, Weiss, and Ruby would all end up on the same team. Though the fact that they had grabbed the same chess piece was more accidental than anything. Still Ruby was glad that she was on a team with her sister. That would mean that there was at least one person on her team who would treat her normally, possibly two if Weiss kept her promise about ignoring her health issues, but Ruby doubted she would. Health issues are a hard thing for most people to ignore, even if asked to.

When one of the teachers motioned for the four of them to go onto the stage Ruby missed it and would have been left behind if it wasn't for Weiss grabbing her arm and dragging her the first few steps. It wasn't the nicest way to go about helping Ruby, but at the same time the two of them had been having conflicts of personality all day. Weiss being practically raised to be a perfect leader and noble, and Ruby being relatively awkward and not having any idea about being noble in any way. Of course Weiss was trying to be patient with the red-caped girl, but she had her limits and Ruby seemed to know how to push her to those limits. The two could only hope that their relationship would improve over time.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long," Ozpin said to the audience, though his voice came from the speakers behind them. "The four of you collected the White Knight pieces and will form team RWBY." He paused as the audience clapped for the four of them. "With Ruby Rose as the leader."

At that moment everything stopped for Ruby. She had been named the leader of a team. This was something that she was brutally unprepared for. Why couldn't Weiss be the leader? At least Weiss knew how to lead people and present her opinion to a group of people who may not agree. Was it because Ruby had been giving orders to Yang during that one fight that the four of them worked together for?

Ruby was so stuck in her thoughts that not even the act of Yang giving her a hug was able to bring her back to reality. Though when she did finally recover, she looked over her team to see their reactions. Yang was quite obviously excited, Blake seemed to be neutral towards the decision, and Weiss was giving her a shocked, yet somehow judging look. Ruby realized that she was not looking forward to any confrontation she would end up having with the Schnee, but there was probably no way to avoid it either. So it was with heavy footsteps that she walked out of the auditorium with her team and headed to their dorm. Upon getting to their room she quickly claimed a bed went to work making sure she had all of the stuff she'd need for classes tomorrow. She might not be the best of students, but she was going to try and change her habits while at Beacon.

"Hey Ruby," Yang said from across the room.

"Yes Yang," was the quiet response from Ruby.

"Why is Weiss pacing around in the hallway?"

"How would I know Yang?" the scythe wielder responded in annoyance. "I met her like five minutes before you did, last time I checked it does not take five minutes to learn all about someone."

"Well… She's your partner. Why not go see what's up? I mean if she can't trust me and Blake she needs to be able to trust you."

Ruby looked at Yang questioningly for a couple of seconds before putting her stuff down and walking into the hallway. It only took a matter of seconds for her to locate Weiss and walk over to her.

"Hey Weiss," she began before a coughing fit overtook her. "What's wrong?"

"You're team leader!" Weiss exclaimed in frustration. "That's what's wrong."

"Yeah. And?"

"You know nothing about leadership. I've been trained for leadership my entire life, and yet you get the leadership position."

"I'm not happy about it either, but I can't change it," Ruby said quietly.

That comment stopped Weiss in her tracks. "You didn't want to be leader?"

"Why would I want to be a leader Weiss? I have enough things to deal with just trying to be the best huntress I can. I don't know how to be a leader."

"Exactly my point! You can't lead. How am I expected to follow a team leader who is vastly under qualified?"

"I don't know Weiss, but I'm going to need help. I need someone to help me become both a leader and the best huntress I can be, and I was hoping that, since you already stated that you'd help me become the perfect huntress, you'd be willing to help me lead?"

"I can try, but leading will be more on you that me. I'll try and support you the best I can though."

"That's more than what I'm getting right now."

"It's not going to be much. I don't think I'll be able to get around my issues with your leadership capability for a while."

Ruby had a short coughing fit before responding, "I know I'm not all that special, but I'm going to do the best I can for our team."

"That's a good start," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "Just keep that mindset and you may prove me wrong."

"Not trying to prove you wrong but I guess that would be a good thing in this situation," Ruby mumbled thoughtfully. "Wanna go back in our dorm? You still have to claim a bed. We're going to unpack and organize tomorrow."

"Alright."

With that the two went back into their dorm and started preparing for the following day. As team RWBY prepared for sleep each of the team members had their own thoughts. Ruby thought of her desire to prove herself to her teachers and team members, Yang was silently praying that Ruby wouldn't be sent home due to being sick too much, Blake was thinking about how each member of her team was so different, and Weiss was thinking about how she could have helped the team if she had been team leader.

AN

Hey guys. Here's chapter two. One of you said that you hope I'm not an author that makes a chapter and then disappears for two years, well unless I've been asleep for much longer than I realize then it hasn't been two years yet. Side note there were no Deathstalkers or Nevermores in this initiation. As the summary states this story there's gonna be less intense combat but they're gonna have different trials to make up for that. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. If you feel like anythings wrong or off please let me know and I'll look it over. Though please understand that this is an AU and they have had slightly different lives than cannon. Nyway please leave a review. Your constructive criticism and thoughts on the chapter will help me progress as a writer. Also I'm kinda happy that I was able to make this chapter longer. Though not quite as long as I want my chapters to be. This chapter sits at around 2.4k words without the AN. If I keep up this pace I'll be making 10k word chapters by the times this fic is done... probably won't be though.

Have a good one guys.