The morning had came, the bright shining sun hit the half-faunus on his face, making his eyes clinch from the bright light.

Jaune's eyes slowly opened as he slowly sat up and checked his scroll for the time. 5:30 AM, it was a perfect time to get up of the day, he got up and headed for the double doors leading out. But before he could make it to them he heard a loud snore coming beside him-

"Huh, wha- Hey! No sneaking off!" muttered a groggy man who looked slightly overweight and had greying hair and a mustache.

"Um, sir. It's 5:30 AM, doesn't initiation start at 6:15?" Jaune asked, but the older man looked only puzzled.

"Nonsense my boy! It's only- 5:30 IN THE MORNING!" the man shouted, the last part was hurting Jaune's sensitive hearing.

The older man and his now awake green-haired companion both realized the trouble they had just caused; the students now rioting in the ball room.

The hybrid decided that the best course of action was to leave and get his things.

Locker room:

Jaune eventually found his way to the locker rooms, to take a shower. Afterwards, he dressed in his usual clothes. But before he put his shearling coat on, he looked at himself in the mirror. He opened his mouth to reveal his fang like canines, sharp and ready to bite. Every know and then he would just look at them, reminding himself that he was part of a nearly extinct Faunus species. His sisters and father would always say that he was special, that he was a bridge between two worlds. But he honestly didn't feel all that great about it, he never wanted to be that bridge. All he ever wanted as a kid was to be normal, to fit into either race...

To belonge.

But he knew it was impossible. Most of the humans and Faunus in his town hated him, viewed him as something that shouldn't have been made, and being part wolf-faunus didn't make it any better. For during the inevetable war between Faunus and humans, some species were considered to dangerous, and thus were forced to either go into hiding or face execution from terrified humans or become their prisoners. The wolf Faunus was one of those species. For most Faunus, the war was remembered as a time of subjugation, a time filled with evil humans and their racism. But for him, it was a time of war and extinction. The wolf Faunus species where hunted to near extinction by humans calling them the 'Wolf' hunts.

But now wasn't the time to think on those days, so he tied on his ponytail and put on his coat, heading to the locker-room.

An hour later

He eventually made his way to a cliff that overlooked the Emerald Forest. There was about 40 of them, standing atop the spring platforms they were instructed to stand on.

Ozpin cleared his throat as he addressed the new recrutis. "For years, you have all trained to be warriors. Today, those abilities will be tested here, in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch stepped forward. "Now I know you have been hearing rumors about team assinments, so allow me to put an end your confusion. You will be given teammates... today."

Jaune heard Ruby mummble to herself in panic.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin continued.

Ruby let out a groan once more.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"...What?!" she cried out and from the way Ruby looked, it was like her world fell apart.

The hybrid felt sympathy for his young companion, so he reached over and put a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder. It got her attention and he gave a small reassuring nod. And just like that, her scared look morphed to one of confidence before she nodded to him back and he took his bionic hand away.

"After you partner up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but 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. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately Any questions?" No one said anything, "Good! Now, take your positions."

Jaune bent his knees slightly to prepare himself. He looked over to Yang gave her little sister a wink, she even noticed Jaune and gave him a wink of the flirting kind as she slipped on a pair of shades, rocketing off into the distance. He then turned to Ruby and nodded his head before getting launched as well.

Jaune felt the air through his face, but he was calm throughout the fall, he needed to think fast. He saw a tree with long thick branches, and made his way towards it. He saw a branch from the tree and allowed his fingernails to grow into sharp claws and grabbed the branch. But unfortunatley, the branch broke and the young hybrid wasn't able to hold on. But it did slow down his decent enough, and taking it to his advantage he used his momentum to the ground and was able to roll at the last second, safely landing.

He popped his shoulder and looked around the lush green forest, he couldn't help but notice that even though this place held such dark creatures known as Grimm could still be beautiful and mysterious at the same time. It reminded him of...

Home.

But before he even had the chance to take a single step his heard a gunshot round far from the distance. People where already getting started, and so should he.

He wondered the forest for a time, gun in his bionic hand. He wasn't stupid, he knew that Grimm where stalking him through the forest and him smelling their bloodlust didn't help things either. They where waiting for him to let his guard down, for their perfect moment.

Then suddenly the beowolves seemed to lose their patients and came out of the bushes in front of him, one of them was bigger and covered in bone armour. It was clear to Jaune that the bigger one was the alpha of the pack.

He rolled out of the way of the first beowulf's swipe and using his powerful gun to shoot it in the back of the head, the armor piercing round going through the creatures skull and effectively killing it. Jaune quickly grabbed his mothers retractable blade from his coat with his bionic hand and unfolded its blade, watching as the other Grimm hesitate to attack him.

But the second beowulf racked up the courage and tried to pounce on the young hybrid, but Jaune rolled out the way once more and swung his blade at the legs, effictively chopping its legs off. The dark wolf tried to skurry away in absolute fear, but didn't get far when Jaune stabbed the creature in the skull, killing it imidiately.

The third and fourth tried to attack at the same time, but ended up missing their target. Suddenly the third was shot through its head, a hole coming out of its right eye. And before the fourth did anything, it was met with a swift swing to its head, decapitating it.

Jaune turned his head towards the alpha, it snarled at him in growing anger as it stared at the blonde. Crimson red hatefilled eyes meeting sympathetic electric blue.

"You should stop now, there's no point in doing this anymore." Jaune suggested with suprising gentleness. There was no taunting in those words, only a hint of slight regret and pity, like he was ashamed of kiling them.

The alpha didn't want to hear it. The alpha was filled with blind hatred and was infuriated on how his pack was easily defeated. It pounced at Jaune with great speed and rage trying to swipe at the hybrid. The hit landed, sending Jaune to a nearby tree and crashing into it and dropping his sword.

But to the alpha's anger the blonde slowly got up, bleeding from the claw mark on his left shoulder. He didn't even look slightly fazed about his injury or that he was thrown to a tree. The alpha decided to pounce at the hybrid, planning to rip his packs killer's throat out.

The blonde lifted his arm up, knowing that he couldn't dodge the attack. And the alpha bit on the blondes arm...

his metal arm.

The alpha gnawed at the the metalic limb in an attempt to destroy it with its strong jaws, but nothing happened. And with a cold look in Jaunes face he managed to grab its upper jaw with his free hand and grabbed it lower jaw with stabbed the creature under it's chin, and with no effort Jaune forcibly ripped it lower jaw open. The creatures lifeless body fell on the ground with a thud that shook the ground beneath him.

Jaune looked at the dissolving corpse of the Grimm he had slain and with a sigh he retracted his sword, hoping that there wouldn't be anymore suprises. The temple was located to the North, it would be his destination- all he needed to do was get a relic and leave.

"Fancy meeting you here blondie," Said a familiar voice that came from behind. He recognized the teasing tone and stopped.

He looked over his shoulder, staring at the fiery blonde haired girl that he had met the previous night in an awkward silence. He remembered how she may or may not have tried to flirt with him the previous night.

She was, to him... trouble. From what he observed yesterday, she had shown to be a major tease for the males all around, and she had the looks to back it up. She had a rather... eye-catching body, beautiful lilac eyes, golden-blonde hair, and the practiced alluring looks she gave the other boys. But he could tell she was a rather protective of her sister Ruby, and wanted her to make friends and have connections with people other than her. It was understandable, he realized. His sisters where protective of him as well.

Meanwhile Yang watched in slight confusion as her fellow blonde wrestled with his thoughts in front of her. She witnessed his little encounter and was actually impressed, he was literaly swung at a tree and got up ready to fight some more. So there was no doubt she would approach him. Yet now she felt like she was getting the cold shoulder, and she didn't like being ignored. So she took the initiative and hopped in front of him.

"Hey, did you hear me Jauney boy?"

This got the young mans attention as he arched his eyebrow slightly at the nickname, but decided to ignore it as it wasn't important right now. "Sorry, I was just thinking of something, Ma'am?"

"Call me Yang please."

"Okay, Yang," Jaune continued, but he could see that ever so slight dissapointment in her eyes, maybe she was planing on seeing Ruby? If that was the was the case then he wasn't going to hold her up from it. "Look...uh.. I can tell that your probably looking for your sister. So think we should both nbe on our seperate ways. We can pretend we didn't see each other on continue on our way."

"No way," Yang flatly replied. Which earned an arched eyebrow from Jaune.

"Why not?"

"You're baisically just telling me to abandon you and move on? That's no fun- besides if we met that we were still partners, don't you think?" Yang said, giving off a small wink.

To Jaune, this girl had some sound logic. Even though he gave her a fairly reasonable deal that he presented her with, she would have a chance to find her sister. Yet she rejected it.

He sighed, admitting defeat. If this girl wanted to be his partner now, he would not stop her. Their eyes met, and the eccentric blonde before him was now destined to be his partner.

"Alright...We should start heading out this way." He said, pointing northwest where he was heading himself.

Yang and her new 'partner' truged through the forest in complete silence, hoping that they where headingbtonthe right direction. During that time she found her fellow blonde quite... interesting; he was quiet, a little gloomy, and dare she say a little bit introverted. Just this morning she saw him eating breakfast by himself, listening to whatever music was on his scroll. Giving her the impression that he usually to be by himself, having an emotionally drained by the look of his eyes. But it wasn't to say he was ugly by any means, and she was impressed by his figure and electric blue eyes. And she could tell that he was a rather nice guy, evident when she witnessed him calm Ruby down the other night. Which unknowingly to him, had scored him some serious points in her book.

'I might just keep my eye on him.'

But she couldn't help but notice the wound on her new partners shoulder, why wasn't he using his aura to heal it.

"Hey, Jaune. Are you okay?" She asked, pointing to his shoulder wound.

"Yea I'm fine, Yang, it's just a scratch." Jaune said, looking at his bleeding shoulder.

The blonde brawler gave Jaune an unconvinced look.

"Dude, why aren't using your Aura …please tell me you know what Aura is!"

"Of course I know what Aura is... It's just that I never got it unlocked." This caused Yang to be uterly suprised. She managed to find her words as she placed both of her hands on Jaune's face.

"Jaune…do you trust me?"

Jaune thought about it for a moment, before he answered. "I don't see that I have any other choice. But yes, I trust you."

Yang grinned, causing Jaune to smile lightly at the energetic grinn. However, the grin escaped Yang's notice due to her concentration in unlocking his Aura. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to raise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound death, I release by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

There was amoment of silence, but Yang felt her golden aura shine through her entire, and her light started to involve her partner for a second before he started to glow white before it took Yang over. It felt warm, comforting and comforting at first for some reason, but that didn't last very long as a sense of lonliness, sadness, anger and a feeling of isolation from the world around her that she had never felt before.

When the Aura passed, Yang felt a surge of Aura from Jaune, and started to catch her breath as she saw his once bleeding claw wound started to close immediatly and leave a white scar.

Jaune stiffined as he felt a surge of energy he never knew existed. He felt warmth and comfort. To him, it felt like a small piece of him was freed from a cage. It was impossible to explain, but he could feel it.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed that Yang looked at him expectedly.

"So, how do you feel?" She asked, a bit tiredly.

"I feel... good," he answered. "thanks."

And it was the truth, he had the feeling that something was protecting him.

"Well glad I could help." Yang remarked. "But we should probably leave so we can get those relics."

Jaune nodded in agreement, and he motioned her to follow him.

A few minutes later, the two blondes stepped out of the forest and into a clearing. Located there was a circular stone temple. It was broken and decrepit but inside, they could see several black and gold objects, and a familiar black haired girl wearing a bow. "Hey I think that's Blake." Yang said with excitment as she ran her way to the temple, leaving Jaune to follow. As he walked, he couldn't help but notice that each pedestal inside held a relic. "Chess pieces? I thought it would be something, I don't know showy." Yang asked bow wearing girl.

Jaune looked at the chess pieces with slight confusion. More of Ozpin's cryptic symbolism maybe? "Well Ozpin did launch us off a cliff, so I don't really wanna know what goes through his head."

Blake nodded in agreement. "Point taken. Any preference?" But as she nodded her bow started to twitch slightly. She was a Faunus, there was no fooling Jaune. If it wasn't for her bow constantly twitching, her feline like smell that filled his noise, and her aura. It would've been a dead give away. But the real question was, why was she hiding her heritage? Sure Jaune didn't really care if people found out his hybrid nature, to him it was all the same. But he could understand why she might've done this, Faunus we're still not the most popular people in Remnant, especially hybrids. Well, whatever the case he at least found a new partner, one that he needed to keep an eye on.

He shook his head and picked up the nearest relic, a white knight, and gave it to the girls, "I guess we're done here."

Yang and Blake caught it, "That was pretty easy."

Blake on the other hand sighed and rubbed her forehead, "I think you might've jinxed us." The three then heard a familiar voice shouting, "Heads up!"

They all looked up to see that it was non-other than Ruby falling from the sky. Jaune held out his arm to his partner without hesitation, "Yang!" She looked at him and grabbed his arm. She spun him around before throwing him towards her falling sister. He caught her and soon started to fall with her. Yang rushed under them and quickly got in position. She caught them but the force behind them cracked the ground around her, but she was relativily unharmed. After a few seconds, she looked down at the people in his arms, "You two okay?" They nodded, and she put them down.

"Riding in on an Ursa? Now that's cool, lil sis." Yang added with a wink and a grin.

"Heh, well, y'know. I'm a pretty cool girl!" Ruby added with a shrug.

"How could you..." Weiss gasped as she jogged up to the group. "...just LEAVE ME OVER THERE LIKE THAT!"

"Oh... uh..." Ruby shrugged in response. "Sorry?"

Another explosion erupted from the treelines to the right of the group. As everyone turned their heads to look at the source of the explosion, they found a orange haired girl sprinting out of the forest, a rather bulky looking grenade launcher in tow. From behind her, the redhead Pyrrha also emerged from the brush, a panicked look on her face as she attempted to catch up with the ginger.

"Chase me, chase me!" The ginger cheered as she continued running.

Everyone thought she was crazy for a moment before suddenly, a massive Deathstalker pushed its way out of the forest, uprooting a number of trees as it surged forward. It's pincers clacked together as it focused in on the small redhead human in front of it, nipping at her heels as she desperately tried to outrun the beast.

The ginger was the first to arrive at the temple, her eyes lighting up as her speed increased.

"REEEEN!" She shouted as she rushed towards her target.

"No-" Ren was interrupted when he was tackled to the ground. "...ra..." He coughed as the girl named Nora squeezed him into a death hug.

Everyone watched as the pair got to their feet before an unearthly screech echoed from the skies. Looking up, everyone took in the sight of a gigantic Nevermore soaring from the direction that Ruby and Weiss had come from.

"Oh that's just swell." Jaune stated bluntly.

With a yelp, Pyrrha landed in front of the group, causing them all to stare down at her as she dusted herself off and scrambled to her feet.

"Great!" Yang exclaimed sarcastically. "The gang's all here! Now we can die together!"

Ruby cocked her scythe before flashing a grin. "Not if I can help it!" She boasted before she let out a shout and sped off towards the now approaching Deathstalker.

"Ruby, wait!"

Ruby either didn't hear her sister or didn't listen, choosing instead to launch herself forward using the momentum of her sniper rifle. She leapt into the air and met the Deathstalker head on, slashing at it with her scythe. The attack was easily blocked by the creatures massive pincer, which then smacked her back in the direction she came from with little effort.

Ruby flopped onto her back with a grunt before she slowly picked herself up off the ground. "Do-don't worry! Totally fine!" A hiss rang out from behind her, causing her to turn back to the Grimm that was now inches away from her. "Totally fine..." Ruby mumbled to herself as she fired off a quick shot into the Grimms face, using the kickback to propel herself away from the beast and give her a running start. She quickly folded her weapon as the Deathstalker returned to chasing her down, hoping that the sheathed weapon would be less cumbersome.

Yang couldn't watch any longer, choosing to run towards her sister instead. "Ruby!"

Ruby attempted to close the distance between herself and Yang, but a screech rang out from above them as the Nevermore closed in on the red reaper. With a flap of its wings, a storm of gigantic sharp feathers rained down upon Ruby, one of them pinning her cape to the ground while another batch formed a wall in front of Yang. "Ruby, get out of there!"

Ruby uselessly tugged at her cape, trying to get it loose. "I'm trying!" She shouted back before another screech interrupted her. She watched in horror as the Deathstalker approached her, raising its gigantic stinger above her head before it paused for a moment, as if to taunt the small girl before it killed her.

Yang reached out helplessly from in between the feathers as she watched her sister struggle. "RUBY!"

Another screeching sound rang out as a white blur surged through the field of feathers, reaching Ruby just as the Deathstalker brought its stinger down on the girl. With a loud and a flash of blue and white, the Deathstalker's tail was frozen to the ground. As the creature attempted to pull its stinger out, everyone traced the sound to Jaune who's blaster pistol was steaming from the powerful blast. and he sighed in relief.

As the two regrouped at the temple, Yang rushed up to Ruby and embraced her in another hug. "I'm so happy you're okay!" The blondes smile turned into a glare for a moment, her eyes turning red as it did. "Don't EVER do something that stupid again or I'm telling dad!"

Jaune sighed. He took a quick look around to see if any Grimm were around. With none visible, Jaune decided it would be wise to be extra cautious. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his sense of smell once more. The familiar sudden rush of information flooded Jaune's brain as he categorized each scent. Jaune noticed that a stench that was familiar to bones and decay was closing in on their location. "We should go, that things circling back."

Weiss glanced at the temple before she looked back up at the Nevermore. She bit her lip for a moment before speaking up. "Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."

"She's right." Ruby agreed. "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." The reaper gave the heiress a small nod before finishing. "There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live..." Jaune placed a hand on his chin. "That's an idea I can get behind."

Jaune quickly turned and snatched up a white knight looking statue before shoving it in his coat pocket. Ruby joined him, picking up a smaller golden castle before smiling at him.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Nora rushed forward and grabbed a similiar looking golden castle. "I want this one!" She said as she took it and ran to join the others.

A screech rang out from the field as the Deathstalker began to pick at the ice encasing its stinger with its massive pincers, cracking the ice little by little with every strike.

"I think it's time we left!" Ren shouted as he and Jaune ran up the hill.

"Right." Ruby nodded before rushing up past them, positioning herself on a rock.

Blake noticed that her partner had stopped, the blonde staring up the hill with a goofy smile on her face. "What's wrong?"

Yang let out a sigh as she watched Ruby wave at everyone before she leapt off of the rock she was stationed on. "Nothing..."

Blake gave the blonde a small, knowing smile before the two of them ran to catch up with the rest of the group.

It wasn't long before the group found themselves running into a set of ruins built into the side of a cliff, a bridge extending over the abyss below. As the group rushed towards the bridge, they failed to notice the shadow of the Nevermore as it swooped over them and cut them off. Without hesitation they began crossing the stone bridge, Jaune was the only one to catch sight of the Nevermore as it rammed into the structure haphazardly, knocking the group of teenagers in all different directions.

Jaune landed on a hard stone floor, quickly scrambling to his feet as he heard the sounds of gunfire. Looking across the chasm that had been created by the destruction of their bridge, he took in the sight of Ruby, Weiss, Nora, Pyrrha and Blake all fighting the Deathstalker which had cornered them on the edge of the cliff.

A loud screech rang out as Jaune ducked down out of instinct, the giant Nevermore's talons scraping is back as it flew by. While his Aura protected him from the attack, the force of the blow knocked him back onto the ground, forcing him to get up once again. As he stood back up, he watched as Yang and Ren began unloading every single bullet they had into the giant Nevermore that was now circling the ruins. The creature dove down and threw out another storm of razor sharp feathers from its wings as it passed by, forcing the group even further apart. Jaune found himself rolling to his side before hopping to his feet, the sounds of Yang's shotgun gauntlets roaring in his left ear.

"This isn't getting us anywhere! Anyone got any ideas?!" She shouted as she unleashed another barrage at the winged monstrosity.

Jaune continued to gaze at the bird, his thoughts drifting back to when he read about them back at his home town. "We rip it's throat out."

Yang stopped her barrage to admire her fellow blonde. "Oooh, that's hardcore. I like that in a man." She added in a playful growl before turning her attention back to the bird. "But that things in the air. I don't think we can get to its throat so easily, dude."

"Well... There's always one way..." He stated as he stared at the blonde brawler. "You could always try throwing me."

Yang turned her attention back to him, staring blankly for a moment before she burst into laughter. "PFFFHAHAHA! Oh my GOD! You're a psycho! I'm all for flashy and risky stuff, but there's no way in hell I'm throwing you at that thing!"

"I agree. That plan is one that's best saved as a last resort." Ren added as he unleashed another storm of bullets aimed at the Nevermore. "Perhaps instead of going to the bird, we bring the bird to us?"

"How exactly are we gonna do that, string bean?" Yang asked as she cocked her gauntlets and fired off two more shots of her own.

Jaune hummed quietly as he glanced around the surrounding area. It wasn't until he looked over at Ruby's side of the ruins that he saw Blake get knocked off the bridge accidentally by Nora. He felt a bit of panic well up inside of him before he saw Blake's weapon fly up and embed itself in one of the pillars scattered around the ruins, a long black ribbon tied to the end of it. He continued watching as Blake emerged from the abyss below, swinging on the ribbon as if it were some kind of grappling hook. The agile teen landed down on their side of the battlefield, allowing Jaune to flag her down by waving his arms. With a , he turned to his two companions. "I have an idea."

The Nevermore circled the arena once again, watching carefully as its Deathstalker companion was tossed into the abyss below by the combined teamwork of the second group of humans. The bird let out a screech as it flapped its wings, showering the group with a storm of feathers in an attempt to enact revenge for its fallen companion. The bird began changing directions before a beam of light shined in its eyes. With a frustrated squawk, the bird paused its moment in mid air and frantically flapped its wings to keep itself flying. Its red eyes locked on to the source of the light shining in its eye, a human reflecting sunlight off of his sword.

The Nevermore let out a screech dove down towards them again, this time locking on to the human that had so foolishly chosen to stand out in the open. The bird readied its talons as it came in closer, ready to shred the person to ribbons. A flash of light caught the Nevermore's eye as it felt a blade enter its torso, the blade itself being connected to a black ribbon.

Yang let out a battle cry as she grabbed the ribbon from Blake's hand and leapt off of the ruins, her weight pulling the Nevermore down with her. Of course, she wasn't near heavy enough to bring it to the ground, but she was heavy enough to alter its flight path. Everyone watched as the Nevermore slammed into the stone tower face first, the bird falling onto the bridge from the concussive force of its impact. With no hesitation, Jaune rushed to the creature as it began to quickly lift itself off the ground. Without a second thought, the blonde plunged his claws and his sword into the birds neck. With a screech it reeled backwards and attempted to shake him off, but the teen quickly did the first thing that came to his mind. He sunk his teeth into the flesh of the Nevermore, the rancid taste of Grimm flesh flooding his mouth.

Jaune continued to tighten his grip on all fronts, and plunged his sword deeper into the Nevermore as it continued to violently thrash around. The Grimm crashed into the stone tower again, sending the entire structure tumbling into the abyss below. Ren and Blake continued to fire off shots into the bird while Yang began rushing to its legs, where she would deliver a powerful blow and snap one in half. The nevermore cried out as its wings began to flap, the bird attempting to take flight one final time. Jaune knew that if it did, he would most likely go with it and end up falling into the abyss below. With one final movement, he tightened his muscles and pulled himself from the bird with all his might. A sickening rip rang out as he brought massive chunks of the Nevermore's flesh with him, the birds shadowy blood spraying everywhere before it evaporated into nothing.

Jaune slammed into the stone of the ruins with a thud before he quickly got back on his feet, just in time to watch the giant Nevermore let out one last cry that was drowned in its own blood, the bird collapsing onto the bridge before its body began to rapidly decompose. The rest of the teens quickly regrouped on Jaune's position, with Blake and Ren making sure that he was able to stand properly. Yang meanwhile, looked at the body of the decomposing monstrosity, noting that its throat had been ripped out in a way that suggested it was torn out with tooth and claw, rather than the sword that the boy had.

"Holy shit dude..." Yang blurted out as her jaw hung open. "You actually ripped its throat out. That's... wow..."

"Yeah... I think I got a little carried away." Jaune sighed in between his ragged breathes.

"I think that's an understatement." Blake added as the rest of the other group found a way across the gap.

"Hey guys! That was SO COOL! I can't believe you ripped that things throat out!" Ruby gushed as she tackled Jaune, hugging the blonde tightly. It took only a second for her to realize what she was doing before she pushed him away and blushed fiercly.

"Yeah... it was great and all but... where do we go now?" said Nora as she began looking around.

"Uuh..." Yang groaned as she looked up the cliff and pointed to the top. Everyone, aside from Jaune, followed her finger and collectively groaned at the notion that they had to climb up the cliff.

"Great let's get started..." Jaune sighed as he began slowly trudging towards the face of the cliff.

It would take them a half hour to fully climb the entire cliff, the group getting an airlift back to Beacon when they reached the top.

Everyone was exhausted, but some of them where also filled with excitment as they walked onto the stage. Ruby in particular was giddy about who would be on her team, despite the fact that she had reservations about it at first. But all the people she met today were awesome! Even Weiss! With a huge grin on her face, Ruby stood in front of Ozpin alongside Weiss, Pyrrha and Nora. The Headmaster gave them a smile before he turned to the large screens that were placed above them, the groups individual pictures showing up on each one.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you successfully retrieved the White Rook piece. And from this day forward, you will be known as team RSNN." Ozpin nodded his head towards Ruby before he continued speaking. "Lead by, Ruby Rose."

As Ozpin finished, the crowd erupted into a mixture of clapping, cheering and laughing. All four members of the newly founded team RSNN stared at the headmaster, their jaws hanging open. The headmaster simply smiled and nodded at the four, signaling that they were to leave the stage.

"WHAT?! NO!" Nora shouted as her hands covered her mouth. "I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WITH REN!"

Pyrrha and Ruby exchanged a nervous glance as they grabbed Nora by the shoulders, pulling the ginger off the stage as the next group passed them, consisting of Jaune, Ren, Yang and Blake. As the two met for a brief moment, Nora began to frantically struggle and cry. "REEEEN! DON'T LEAVE ME!" Nora cried as she watched her partner walk by. He offered a sympathetic look before mouthing the words "I'm sorry" at her, causing her to burst into more tears.

Ruby and Pyrrha reinforced their grip on the ginger, with Ruby wrapping her arms around the girls waist while Pyrrha helped in dragging their teammate down the steps. Weiss waited for them at the bottom, tapping her foot impatiently as they finally managed to calm their fourth teammate down.

"Team... RAISIN?!" Weiss shouted as she hid her face behind both of her hands. "This has got to be a joke! And it's not a good one!"

"Well..." Ruby trailed off as she tried her best to smile optimistically. "Maybe it's like... raisin'... hell?"

Weiss looked up from her hands, an icy glare meeting Ruby's eyes. "Ruby Rose, I don't care how optimistic you think you are, but you cannot make this sound any better. Our team has got to have the WORST name in the HISTORY of Beacon Academy!"

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna. You four successfully retrieved the White Knight piece." Team RSNN glanced up onto the stage, watching as Ozpin announced the final team for the evening. "From this day forward, you will be known as team JLYB. Led by Jaune Arc!"

The entire hall broke out into a sea of laughter, the four teens on stage each sporting pink on their face as their team name was announced. All four members of team RSNN turned to each other and silently agreed that even though their name was pretty awful, at least they weren't the ones stuck on team "Jellybean."