In a dark dream, Ash runs around a dark empty space yelling out someone's name. 'Rhode! Rhode, where are you?!' He keeps running in the darkness, hoping to find some clue as to where he could find her. Suddenly, a ray of light strikes down through the darkness, landing on the fallen body of a girl with bright purple hair in a white dress. Ash turns to the girl and when he sees her, turns towards her and runs faster. 'Rhode!' When he reaches her, he puts a hand on the girl's shoulder and when she turns to face him, she stares back with soulless black eyes and pale white skin. Ash quickly steps away and reaches for his hidden pocket knife. "Who are you? What did you do to Rhode!?" He screams. The girl looks at him with a black expression and pounces on top of him and wraps her hands around Ash's neck. Ash grabs her arms and tries to pry her off him. As he struggles against her, her face contorts into a mask of pure rage and she picks him up slams him back to the ground violently, screaming at him. 'WHY!? WHY COULDN'T YOU PROTECT ME!? I TRUSTED YOU?' Her screams get louder and louder and Ash loses all his energy and his arms drop to the ground. He slowly lets out one last breath and white light overtakes his vision when he hears a new voice yell at him. 'Hey! Hey! Ash, wake up! WAKE UP!'

Ash suddenly wakes up in his sleeping bag, gasping for air. He is drenched in sweat and his breathing is quick and ragged. He closes his eyes and tries to shakes of the cobwebs of sleep and feels a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Are you OK?" Ash turns his head and sees Rain with her hand on his shoulder and a worried expression on her face. Ash takes a deep breath and exhales, letting all of the stress from the dream leave his body. "Yeah, I'm OK." Rain's hand doesn't leave his shoulder making Ash take it and push it back to her. "It's fine. Really, don't worry about it." She nods her head and moves away as Ash stretches his hands over his head and looks around and finds everyone in the auditorium packing up their things. He lowers his arms and turns back to Rain, jerking his head at the other students. "What happening? Where is everyone?" Rain points her thumb behind her. "Everyone was told to prepare for initiation. You actually slept right through breakfast so I think they're going to the waiting room to get their weapons ready. I heard some talk among the other students. Apparently, we're all going to be part of a team with four people at most. The school is going to finalize teams during initiation so there are some who are planning to pair up with their friends."

Ash takes what she said into account and looks around the students. 'I have to work with other people? Great, just great." He turns back to Rain as she stands up and Ash is able to get a good look at her combat clothes. She wore a white short sleeved shirt and brown camo shorts that went down to her knees. She wore two black belts, one diagonally against her chest and the other around her shorts, both with golden buckles. She had scratched-up black combat boots and short white ankle socks. Her gauntlets on her wrists were teal in color and had small black details on the top of her hands. "I should go. You have to prepare for initiation and try to see if there is any food leftover." She tries to walk away when Ash stands up and grabs her shoulder, holding her in place. "Wait, I have to ask, why are you help me? Judging from how you acted last night, you seemed suspicious of me. What made you change your opinion of me?"

Rain turns back to Ash, but she doesn't see him anymore. In his place, a seven-year-old boy with brown hair similar to hers and light blue eyes looks up at her. She shakes her head and the image quickly vanishes and the young boy becomes Ash again. Tears well up in her eyes, but she quickly brushes them off. "I thought about what you said last night, about how that necklace you wear being behind the reason your here. You actually remind me of someone I used to know. He was also fueled by a promise he made, but he took it too far and I ended up having to fight him. I'm hoping that you don't end up like him. I can't stand the thought of fighting another one of my comrades." She brushes his hand off and walks away without saying another word. Ash looks at her retreating figure with a raised eyebrow. "Rain Aqdrios," he whispers. "You're hiding something, something important. We may be comrades, but I'm going to find out."

Ash gets changed into his old clothes and goes into the waiting room, where the walls are lined with containers for the students to store their weapon. As he walks through the room, the other students stop their conversations and turn to eye him, some with questioning looks, and others with smug grins. Ash waves them off and goes to the back of the room. 'I must have been screaming in my sleep.' He retrieves Scattered Fragment from the locker and spins it overhead with a flourish and straps it to his left arm. He closes the locker and it surprised when he finds Onyx is leaning against the locker next to him. "So that's your weapon? I got to say that's some fine craftsmanship. How much did it cost?" Ash puts his arm behind him, keeping it as far away from Onyx as he can, and glares at the other boy. "It's not for sale if that's what you're asking. No one takes this sword from me, understand."

Onyx gets up from the wall and steps back from Ash when he senses pure killing intent coming off the boy. "Whoa OK sorry. I was just asking." He slowly backs away and when he turns around completely, Ash drops his gaze and walks away in the opposite direction. He turns the corner and sees Yang talking with Ruby, who was holding Crescent Rose. "You're not the only one going through initiation Ruby. If you want to grow up, you have to meet new people and work together." The younger girl groaned and put her scythe back in its container. "Ugh, you sound like Dad. Okay first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? Secondly, I don't need other people to grow up. I drink milk!" Ash sneaks up behind Ruby and surprises both girls when he talks. "You know little rose, we have to form teams at this school." Ruby starts to look nervous and her eyes dart back and forth from Ash to Yang. "I-uh-well what if I teamed up with one of you?" Yang nervously strokes her hair. "You know Ruby, maybe you should be on someone else's team." Ruby steps towards Yang and points a finger at her with her other hand at her hip. "My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you don't want to be teammates with me?" Ash steps back in the conversation, "Ruby I actually agree with Yang," Both girls look at him with surprised expressions, especially Ruby, "If you want to be a good huntress, you have to be able to work other people. I can understand where you're coming from, but you have to accept that you can't reach your goals all by yourself." Yang nods at Ash's statement. "Yeah sis, they can help you, you know, break out of your shell." Ruby looks at her sister with an annoyed expression. "I don't have to break out of my shell! That's-"

"Ridiculous!" Someone interrupts. The trio stop talking as Jaune walks in between them, holding a map and scratching his head. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday. I would have remembered having to count that high." The three look at him with raised eyebrows. 'Did he really forget where he put his things?' Ash thinks to himself before raising his hand, "Hey Jaune!" When he turns to him, Ash points to the right of the group. "If it helps, 636 is over there!" Jaune looks over and walks in the direction Ash pointed out. "Really? Thanks, Ash, I owe you one!" When he runs off, Ash looks past him and his eyes widen. "No way." He sees a girl with red hair held in a ponytail, dressed as a Greek Spartan with a red and gold spear and shield strapped to her back. Weiss stops her conversation to glare at Ash, making the other girl turn around in confusion, only for her to smile at who she sees. "Ash? Is that you?" The boy walks up to her and they share a short hug, surprising all of the other girls. "It's good to see you again Pyrrha. It's been a while." She hugs him tighter, happy to see her old friend again. "Yeah, it sure is Ash."

"Excuse me?! What are you doing?!" The two break their hug and look at Weiss, who's fuming with anger. "Do you have any idea who this person is! She-!" Ash interrupts her with a cold stare, making her suddenly afraid. "She is Pyrrha Nikos, top of her class at Sanctum, four-time winner of the Mistral region tournament, mascot of Pumpkin Pete's marshmallow flakes and most importantly, my childhood friend. Tell me something I don't know, Ice queen." Weiss is too stunned and afraid to react to her new nickname. Ash suddenly drops his stare and takes a deep breath before turning away from the girls, "I'm sorry, I'm not having the best morning." He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks at Pyrrha with a small smile. "Sorry Pyr, I'll talk to you later OK." He puts his hands in his pockets and walks off, leaving Jaune to step in, not having heard anything, and try to coax Weiss and Pyrrha to join his team. As Ash walks away, the girl he ran into the other day watches him leave from behind a locker. Curiosity fills her eyes again as an announcement blares over the speakers. [All first-year students, please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation] She puts a hand on the weapon at her side, taking in its weight and walks off to the cliff.

Ash steps on a large gray tile with the Beacon symbol at the edge of the cliff. He stands in a line in between Ruby and Yang and he looks down the line to and sees Onyx and Rain not too far from him. Ozpin sips his coffee as he looks at the initiates. "For years you have trained to become warriors, and today, your skill will be evaluated in the Emerald forest." Glynda walks next to him, holding the same tablet Ash saw when they first met. "Now I'm sure many of you have heard of the assignment of 'Teams.' Well then allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today. These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon so it is in your best interest you be paired up with someone with whom you can work well with." "That being said," Ozpin speaks up. "The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"Whaaat!" Ash looks at Ruby and she looks like her entire world shattered right before her eyes. Ash turns around looks down the line of students and sees some of them doing handshakes with their friends and others looking at the other students, eyes filled with worry. Ozpin loudly coughs getting everyone's attention talking, getting everyone's attention. "After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will be met with opposition along the way so don't hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Jaune laughs nervously and Ash smiles wickedly and clenches his sword arm in anticipation. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Ozpin asks.

Jaune weakly raises his hand but Ozpin doesn't see it. "Good, now take your positions." Everyone except for Jaune draws and cocks their weapons. Ash crouches down putting his right hand on the tile and smiles with excitement. "Oh, I can tell this is going to be awesome." One by one, the tiles everyone is standing on launch the students into the air like a springboard. Jaune doesn't see this and asks his question. "So about this, landing strategy thing, what is it? Are you dropping us off or something?" As Ozpin entertains his question, Ash sees Onyx shaking wildly, his fear of height kicking in before being launched into the air screaming with Rain trailing behind him. Yang looks at the four still on the cliff and puts on a pair of aviators before flying of cheering. Ash gives Ruby a two-finger salute and his tile activates, sending him flying after the other students.