A/N

So just a quick note, I'm uploading this early because I'm going on holiday tomorrow and wont have any internet but the normal schedule will resume once I return.

Also, as usual, a big shout-out to Blacksparrow for being an amazing early reader and letting me know what works and whats needs changing. Without him/her this series would be an even bigger mess.


Chapter 4 - Initiation (Part 1)

Opal Drake

Opal awoke with a start and instinctively reached for her bow, forgetting that she had stored it in a locker the previous night; sighing she sat herself up and began to climb down from the bookcases she had slept on. Taking a quick look at the clock she saw that it was six. She had slept for nearly nine hours and in an hour, Glynda would be coming to wake everyone up and take them to wherever their initiation would take place. As she landed on the floor she noticed she was not the only person awake, in fact a large majority of people had already woken up and had already began their morning exercises. Both boys and girls were busy doing sit-ups and press-ups, some even helping others by holding their feet. Since there was no bar for Opal to do her pull-ups she had to settle for doing her normal twenty push-up and sit-ups, though she made a note to do them later.

After she had finished she made her way to the side of the room, grabbed her bag and started towards the bathroom to get changed. Though the line was a little longer than Opal would have liked, it didn't take too long before it was her turn, as most the girls here seemed to understood that make-up wasn't very important today and took very little time to get ready. Opal quickly changed and started to feel much better now that she was back in her shorts and t-shirt, the freeing feeling of air on her arms and legs made always made her feel more comfortable. Exiting the bathroom, she could see that almost everyone was now awake and either looking for their bags or waiting to for their turn to change. She climbed back up onto the perch and sat on the edge, observing the proceedings that went on below and spotting a smiling face waking towards her.

"Hey there cat girl," Garrick joked, smiling up at her. "Did you have a good night's sleep?"

"It wasn't bad, prefer the trees though," she replied honestly. "What about you?"

"Pretty good, better than the cave floors I'm used to," he responded with a smile.

"Nice try, I'm not as easy to fool as Raalm," Opal smiled back.

"Yeah, didn't think so, worth a shot though," he laughed. "So you nervous for the test? What do you think it will be?"

"Not really nervous," she replied honestly. Opal didn't even remember the last time she had felt nervous, she was always confident in her skills and was always able to get away if the danger was too great. "But I also have no idea what it could be, what do you think?"

"Well, since this is a combat school, I'm guessing there will be fighting involved; though whether it's against Grimm or each other, I have no idea," he said back, the smile still there but fading toward the end of his guess.

"Not keen on fighting people?" Opal asked, having noticed the slight change in his smile.

"Not keen on fighting friends," he quickly replied with a weak smile.

Opal understood where he was coming from, she would rather slay a hundred creatures of Grimm than point her bow at a friend. Not feeling the need to say more, Garrick gave a quick nod of his head and walked towards the line for the bathroom, leaving Opal alone to contemplate what she would do if she was ever put in that position. Fortunately, she did not have much time to dwell on those thoughts as a couple of minutes later a loud click was heard from the door and Glynda Goodwitch stepped into the room.

"Once you are ready, you can head into the cafeteria for your breakfast," she half shouted over the crowd of talking people. "We will be leaving in one hour. Once you are changed and fed, you will meet me outside this building with your weapons, if you are not there then you will fail."

She turned and left the building, followed by everyone who had already finished changing, not feeling remotely hungry Opal made her way to the locker room. Once there she quickly found the locker she had stored her weapons in, entering in her code and watching the door fly open to reveal her most prized possessions. Inside was a pure, white bow that she loved more than anything in the world, she had spent years fine tuning it, getting it to feel right and not be too heavy despite its design. Beside it sat Timί and Ѐleos, a pair of mirror daggers, the blades in the shape of dragon teeth, the handles in the forms of a dragons with their wings wrapped around themselves and there tails wrapping around the bottom of the blades. Éleos was slightly shorter than Timí but she loved them too; just not as much as Estía.

Pulling her quiver out she quickly checked that everything was working properly. She pulled one of the seemingly short arrows free, it extended as she pulled, turning from the size of a crossbow bolt into a full length arrow, and after a quick inspection she returned it to the quiver. Afterwards she pressed a button on the belt that caused the quiver itself to clamp down on the arrows and spin 180 degrees, revealing a second compartment filled with more arrow with a variety of coloured feathers.

Satisfied that everything was working as it should, she slipped the quiver into position, picked up Estía and slung it over her shoulder to rest beside its arrows; afterwards, she fastened the daggers to her hip, Timí to her left and Éleos to her right. She pressed the button on the quiver's belt once more and it turned back into its original position, showing black feathered arrows, and turned to walk out of the locker room, which was now full of people obviously too nervous to eat, gathering their weapons.

Opal exited the building and stood over by the other students, it seemed that everyone had now left the dormitory and was currently either retrieving their weapon, waiting in the courtyard or finishing eating. That was until a girl came stumbling out of the dormitory doors, saw everyone waiting and began to apologize profusely; but Opal was more stunned by the girl herself than her actions. She was small, smaller than Opal, who considered herself to be short, standing at only 5'8". Her hair was a pale blonde that seemed to shine in the sunlight, and her eyes a shade of pink that danced red as the sun hit them. She wore a t-shirt made of flowing, ocean blue fabric that reached down to her thighs with a white shawl covering in gold flecks draped over it. White jeans covered her legs and led into white boots with blue and gold laces. On her arms were full arm length gloves with a pattern of four different coloured crosses at the top, turning into snakes that coiled their way down and around her arm, until each snake coiled around a different finger. The overall effect was breathtaking, every part of her seemed to shine and if Opal wasn't such a skeptic, then this girl could probably have convinced her that angels really did exist.

As the girl pulled herself together and ran off towards the locker rooms, Opal managed to pull her attention away from her, though her heart was now definitely beating a little faster. Shaking her head, she pulled her mind away from the beautiful girl and concentrated on getting her focus back on the fight that lay ahead of her; though as she turned around she caught Garrick giving her a knowing smile and a sly wink. An hour passed and finally everyone was outside, after checking the dorm and the lockers room Glynda told them all to follow her and began to head deeper into the school grounds. They walked past a couple of connected buildings on the way to their destination, from what Opal could see, the building held classrooms and lecture halls. A large library stood alone on the right, some students sat on the stairs to the door dressed in their Beacon uniforms, Opal wasn't too keen on the red in the uniform, preferring green herself.

"Try not to get yourself killed firsties," one of the students shouted, causing his friends to snicker briefly before they all hurried away after a rather poisonous look from Glynda.

The rest of the walk went by without incident, they had left the building behind a while ago and now they were walking across Beacons fields, towards a cliff that overlooked a huge forest. At the edge of the cliff was a figure, still too far away but Opal already knew who it would be and sure enough she was right. Professor Ozpin stood facing away from them, carrying the same cup and cane he had been carrying during the opening assembly. Behind him was a series of metal panels attached to the floor, each one emblazoned with Vales symbol.

"Would each of you please take your place on one of the panels," said Glynda, walking to stand next to Ozpin.

As everyone found themselves a panel, Ozpin turned and began to speak to everyone.

"Before you is the Emerald Forest, one of the most dangerous places in all of Vale," he started, immediately grabbing the attention of every student there. "This forest is home to numerous types of Grimm, both big and small; and this is where your initiation will take place."

Opal looked out over the forest and breathed a sigh of relief, trees were where she felt at home, they were her playing field and nothing had yet bested her in them.

"Your mission is to reach the temple at the northern end of the forest, retrieve ONE of the relics there and bring it back to the top of this cliff," he continued. "Both how you performed in the forest and how long it takes for you to return will be taken into consideration and a grade will be given appropriately. It is also important to note that the first person you make eye contact with in the forest will be your partner for the duration of your time in this school, if both of you have already retrieved a relic, then you must take one of them back to the temple."

Murmurs of voices break out now at this newest revelation, many student looking at friends they thought would be their partners in shock.

Not paying the talking any mind, Ozpin continues. "The entirety of this test will be observed by us and we will know who your partners are the second you make them; so do not believe you can trade partners with someone else. I also should make it clear that while we are observing you, we shall not intervene. Should you be in danger, you are to fight your way out, or die trying." Ozpin finished, on a rather dark note.

Everyone now stared at Professor Ozpin in shock, as he stood there and simply sipped his coffee.

"In a few moments you will be dropped into the Emerald Forest, I advise that you get ready," Glynda added shortly, tapping some buttons on her scroll, Opal began to feel gears rotate beneath her feet and quickly adjusted her stance, immediately aware of what was going to happen.

A few seconds passed and Opal heard a surprised shout at the end of the row and prepped herself for her turn. As she waited she saw student after student flying through the air, launched unceremoniously from their own panel. Briefly before Opal's panel launched her into the air, she could swear the she heard Garrick shout something about how much he had always wanted to base jump; before she could laugh however, she was in the air, steel focused and already with Estía in her hands. Soaring through the air she took a moment to take in the scenery, wishing she could stay this high forever, before pressing the button on her quiver causing it to spin once more to her coloured arrows. As the pulled at an arrow with a see through feather and felt it extend before finally locking into a fully-fledged arrow and she pressed the button on her quiver once more returning it to its original position before readying her arrow and drawing back the bowstring, prepared to release at the right point.

She neared the trees and took aim, a large tree she was heading toward was her target and as soon as she was close enough she released the arrow, it flew perfectly striking the tree and with no way for the dust inside the arrow to go forward, it exploded out of the back. A large gust of air, powerful enough to blow the leaves off of a nearby tree erupted from the arrow and Opal flew into in, the power of the new air current slowing her enough to allow her to slip out the bottom of the air flow and for her to catch a branch, flip herself up while freeing a black feathered arrow from her quiver and pull it back along Estía. As she landed in a crouch on the branch, she looked around for any possible threats and after seeing none she lowered her bow and set off to look for the temple, never once touching the ground.

Evie Starr

Evie flew through the air and at first had no idea what she would do, but quickly calmed herself down and readied herself for what she had to do. Waiting for the right moment, she steadied her hands and pushed them together while holding her breath as she allowed the bright yellow dust to seep from her clothing, surrounding her in a light buzz of electricity; suddenly, she felt herself slow down as the electricity began to alter the gravity around her making it a lot lighter and slowing her descent. As she reached the ground, she allowed the electricity to subside and collapsed onto her knees, breathing heavily. It was far from pretty but it worked, she thought as she finally stood up and looked around at her surroundings. Trees stood in all directions, deep brown trunks leading into luscious green leaves; bushes and tall green grass grew from all parts of the ground and the air was filled with a scent that Evie couldn't quite place.

Dusting herself off, Evie pulled out a short sword made of a golden coloured metal that she had received two years ago and had decided at the time to name it Lieben. Looking at the sun in the small clearing above her, she determined which way was north and began to head deeper into the forest.

Evie walked for what felt like hours but she knew that it was only really a couple of minutes, this place had a habit of distorting a person's perception of time due to the trees constantly blocking out the sun and letting it reappear randomly. Evies mother had told her many stories about the Emerald Forest, of how it used to be an inhabited part of Vale and was used for festivals and plays, but was eventually overrun by Grimm and abandoned. Evie could see why they had used this place, despite what it did to your sense of time, it was really rather beautiful. The trees standing tall and proud, the cool air provided by the shade and the smell produced by the trees made everything come together perfectly; but perfection could only last so long before something came to destroy it, and that something was here. A black bear with burning red eyes and white armor covering its head and various other spots of it body stood on the other side of some trees in Evies path. This creature was known as an Ursa, one of the many types of Grimm; she looked around but saw that the forest to her side was dark from a lack of separation in the trees, if Evie went down that path then she could very easily become lost as she wouldn't be able to rely on the sun for directions. It seemed that she had no choice, she had to kill the Ursa to continue on her way.

Pulling out a handgun she had also received, though begrudgingly, at the same time as Lieben and had bitterly named Hassen, she took aim at her target and allowed some of the dust from her glove to seep into the guns grip and even further into the magazine, turning the bullets into a pale white colour and with one last breath, she pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck the Ursa's face and while it did nothing to the armor, it did succeed in covering its eyes in a layer of ice. Evies quickly seized her chance and ran towards the confused Ursa, Lieben at the ready. With one strong swing, Lieben cut cleanly, severing an arm from the beast and causing it to collapse to the ground in a roar of pain; Evie was ready and with one quick strike, she buried Lieben into the base of the Grimm's skull striking just below the armor. She pulled the blade from the creature with a sickening squelch as its lifeless body began to disappear in a haze of black smoke; but Evie had been careless, she had forgotten to check her surroundings before charging in and as such, had failed to notice the second Ursa that was now charging at her.

She braced for the impact, raising her sword in hope that she could at least get off a decent blow before it used her as a chew toy but it never came. Instead something whistled through the air and lodged itself in the beast's eye causing it roar and rear back in pain, eventually falling over; Shocked, Evie barely had time to register a second arrow that came flying from one of the trees and struck the bottom of the beast's jaw, piercing all the way though and causing the creature to go silent.

"That was a close one," said a girls' voice, coming from same direction as the arrows. "I heard a gunshot and thought I wouldn't make it."

"T-Thank y-you," Evie stuttered back to the disembodied voice.

In the direction the voice was coming from, a girl wearing brown and green dropped down from the trees holding a bow.

"No problem, wasn't going to let you get eaten," the girl replied, walking towards Evie, pausing for a moment before she continued her approach. "Guess we're partners now then."

"I-I guess s-so, I'm E-Evie S-Starr," Evie responds back. "T-Thanks again for s-saving my l-life" she added quickly.

"Opal Drake, and like I said, wasn't going to let you get eaten," the girl smiled back while collecting her arrows.

"D-D-D-Drake," Evie stammered heavily, recognizing the name. "Are y-you a part of the D-Drake family."

Evie knew the name because there was a wing at the hospital her mother worked at named after them for a very large donation, but she knew nothing of what the people were really like as everyone often behaved differently behind closed doors.

"You mean that racist, snobbish, ancient Atlas knight family that regard blood and titles to be more important than anything else?" Opal answered Evies thoughts, her voice soaked in venom, though Evie could tell the venom was not aimed at her. "Not anymore."

Understanding that family was obviously a bad subject, Evie stayed away from it as the two girls started to walk off into the forest, heading for the temple and the relic that awaited them.