WOOOOOW, has it been a while since I updated this or what? I was sidetracked by many things, mind you! Anyway, I'd like to dedicate this chapter and the rest of this story to Monty Oum. Even if I'm a bit late (Several months late), I need to have it known that I'll miss him. No, not just me, the WORLD will miss him. He was a great man who did great things, and he taught me lessons that I will never forget.

R.I.P. Monty Oum. May you be in a better place.

And pokemonallstarfan, I'm sorry I forgot to respond to you later, but I will now.

Yes, and I will take suggestions for who should be with who. Nothing is really set in stone for me yet.

It should be obvious at this point, but he's teaming up with some folks.

Crescent Rose is usually described as extremely light, hence why Ruby can wield it so easily. She isn't the strongest person out there.

And I'll stick to mainly the same thing. I'll still throw in some twists, though.

Thank you! I hope you stick around for longer!

Chapter 4

The Emerald Forest

By this point, rather interesting teams had been formed. Allow me to explain.

The man with green-bladed guns, Lie Ren, had formed a team with his friend, Nora Valkyrie.

Pyrrha Nikos had partnered with Jaune Arc. After removing him from the tree, that is.

Weiss had Ruby, but we all knew that, now didn't we?

Yang had found the black-haired girl, Blake Belladonna, and together they acted as their own team.

And finally, there were the teams whose power absolutely terrified those they crossed paths with.

Link Valion and Sebastian Steele had formed their own team of two swordsmen.

And lastly, Lana and Volga made up the mismatch team that didn't really make sense, but no one said anything because they wanted to keep their limbs.

Back to said teams, they were still on the hunt for their relics. However, Yang and Blake were getting close.

"Okay, so, what's up with you and books? You really seem to like them."

"I could say the same with you and boys. But to be more specific, Link."

"Oh, don't you dare try to hide it, you think he's hot, too."

"It's not that," Blake started, blushing. "I just sense something familiar about him, that's all."

"Familiar like what?" Yang continued after ducking under a branch in her way.

"I don't know, not yet anyway. But once I figure it out, I'll tell you," finished Blake.

"That seems fair. Oh, look, monsters! I really needed to punch something right now, so this is perfect!"

Yang wasted no time in hunting down her new prey, Blake dashing alongside her as she began her assault.

The first thing Yang did was sucker-punch an Ursa Minor in the spine so hard that an audible 'crack' was easily heard, the beast falling without so much as another sound.

"Oh yeah! Who's next, bring it on!"

Suddenly, an additional 8 Ursai swarmed them.

"Oh. Well then. Blake, wanna chip in?"

"I'm on it!"

Blake sprinted past Yang and readied her weapon, throwing the oddly-shaped tool, essentially a kusarigama, at their foes. Luckily, there was a ribbon of considerable strength attached to the handle, and she used it to pull it back after slaying one and wounding another. The wounded one was struck in the face, so it pawed at its eyes in pain, only to open them to see Yang with a fully wound-up punch. Said punch was also powered-up even further by her gauntlets, sending the Ursa crashing through a tree. Or five. Yang was exceptionally strong, especially considering her size.

Blake was taking a different approach. She mainly waited for the monsters to attack, using her amazing speed and skill to her advantage. One tried to claw at her, though she ducked it and somersaulted behind, changing her weapon from a kusarigama into a katana, scoring a solid hit to the monster's neck, silencing it. She back-flipped another beast's reckless assault, dashing in and leaving a terrible wound on its chest that greatly hindered it. She had gone right past it though and didn't know it still lived, and as such didn't notice that it made a move to strike her.

Only to have a hole blown straight through its skull.

Blake turned right after she heard the blast, and instantly thought it was a gunshot. A very powerful gunshot... Regardless of its origin, it had possibly just saved her life, so she was going to let it slide, as was Yang. Besides, they had a few more Ursai to deal with.

OOO

"Link-san? Why did you fire?"

Link lowered his rifle, releasing the spent shell from the chamber.

"I saw an Ursa about to score a lucky hit on one of the girls in our class. I don't know about you, but I would prefer that no one gets hurt today."

Sebastian nodded and faced back towards the path they had taken. Link was leading, as he claimed that he had a rather strong feeling about the placement of the relics. "Should we continue on our path now, if you deem that they are safe?"

Link dismantled his rifle, replacing it in his case. "Yes. They appear to doing fine without any further intervention."

Link turned back towards the path, Sebastian following closely after, sword in hand in case. Something that Sebastian noted about his partner is that despite having gotten into roughly 6 matches against the creatures of Grimm, he never drew his blade on them, only ever using his rifle or gauntlets. This led Sebastian to two possible answers. Either he wasn't very proficient with the weapon, or he just chose to save it for bigger threats. Regardless of the reason, it didn't really matter to Sebastian. So long as Link proved to be a skilled fighter in his own rite, then he was fine with his arrangement.

Continuing down their path, they noticed ruins. Link hid a smirk as he remembered how Sebastian had doubted his instincts.

"Alright. Let's grab our relic and head back to Ozpin."

OOO

Meanwhile, Lana and Volga were having a rather heated argument.

"I told you, follow one of the paths! That'll likely take us to the ruins!"

"And I told you, if we stay off of the paths, we'll fight more monsters! Do you seriously just wanna avoid as many fights as you can?"

Lana puffed out her cheeks. "No. I fought the Deathstalker with you, didn't I?"

Volga growled, releasing smoke from his nostrils. "And then you complained how its blood got on your clothes, so you wanted to lay off of fights until you got the chance to change into something not covered in beast blood. You went through one fight, and I went through like 18."

Lana's cheeks deflated a small amount, though they remained puffed in defiance.

"Shut up Volga. Here, think about it; In this forest, the best fight you've had was a single Deathstalker. Nothing else has given you the slightest challenge. The sooner we get the relic, the sooner we can hunt deadlier beasts. So can we hurry up and get the relic?"

Smoke stopped erupting from the Dragon Warrior's nose, and he crossed his arms.

"I hate it when people like you are right."

Lana placed her hands on her hips and smirked. "But when we are, you can't argue anymore without looking stupid."

Volga merely sighed and turned heel, making his way down the path.

"But if I see anything, I'm killing it!"

Lana ran after the huge man, slowing to a brisk walk next to him.

"And I'll throw another meteorite at it."

OOO

Cutting through yet another beast of Grimm, Pyrrha looked around to see if there were anymore threats in the immediate area, only to find Jaune being stalked by an otherwise unseen Beowolf. Acting quickly, she sped past him and rent it in two. However, another that was hiding away in the bushes lept at Jaune and clawed at him, though Jaune managed to dodge quickly enough to receive nothing more than a mere scratch on his face. He reached for his sword, though he found it pointless as the beast accidentally jumped towards Pyrrha in its failed attempt to kill him, where she impaled it and killed it.

"Are you hurt, Jaune?"

Jaune returned his blade to its scabbard, and reached up to his face. The scratch was only a little deep, though it had begun to bleed.

"Ow. Not really, but I do have a little cut."

Pyrrha smiled. "Then it would be easy enough to heal it with your Aura."

"My what now?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened in surprise as she approached Jaune. "Do you truly not know what Aura is?"

"No, not really. Is it some kind of medicine? I don't really like medicine."

"Jaune, Aura is our life force, the energy possessed by all living beings."

"Then, do monsters have it too?" asked Jaune.

"No," replied Pyrrha. "They are the darkness, and they only seek to snuff out the light that dwells within us. Here, allow me to awaken your Aura."

"Will it hurt?"

"No. All I would be doing is releasing the natural power that lies within you," continued Pyrrha, bringing her hand to his forehead. "All I need to do is use some of my own to kick-start its awakening..."

A subtle scarlet glow made itself known around Pyrrha, shortly before a white glow enveloped Jaune, Pyrrha's Aura fading out.

"Amazing... *Huff* Despite having just awakened your Aura, it is already quite substantial in its potency. Even the scratch on your face has begun to heal."

Jaune reached up to his face, and as Pyrrha had said, the scratch he had received earlier had all but vanished, and even then it was still fading.

"Well, Aura must be some tough stuff to do stuff like that."

Pyrrha stifled a giggle. "The power of one's Aura can see no true limits. It can never find its peak, no matter how well it is honed."

"Wow, so it really is strong..."

Pyrrha blinked a few times to focus herself. "Anyway, we had better continue our search for the relic that the Headmaster was referring to."

"Oh, right," stuttered Jaune. "I'd almost completely forgotten about that. Oh, look, I see a cave, maybe it could be in there?"

Pyrrha turned to see the cave in question, and nodded. "It would have been smart to hide it in such a place. It would really test the skills of those looking for it if it were in such a remote location."

"Cool! Then let's get going! I wanna get out of these woods before anything else bad happens..."

And with that, the duo made their way to the cave. Naturally, it was too dark inside to see, but there was something Jaune could see.

"Hey, Pyrrha, I can see a big glowy thing! It must be the relic we're looking for! Now let's grab it and lea- Hng! Wow, this is a bit heavier than it looks. It won't budge!"

Jaune was attempting to move a large glowing object shaped like a curved teardrop, but it proved to be significantly harder to move than it looked.

Until it began moving by itself, that is.

"Uh, Jaune? I don't believe that's the relic."

"Yeah..." said Jaune, who at this point was being held several feet in the air by the 'relic'.

Pyrrha drew her sword and shield, getting ready for a fight. "Jaune, let go! We have to leave!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Jaune quickly let go and began running after Pyrrha, who was racing towards the exit, the object following after them. After escaping to the outside, they turned to see what exactly was pursuing them.

A Deathstalker.

The massive scorpion creature began its assault on the two, attempting to impale Jaune with it stinger. Jaune closed his eyes and let his instincts take over, which led him to catch the stinger and come out unharmed.

"Hey, sweet!"

"Jaune, don't let go! You're safer without the monster trying to poison you!"

"OkaAAAAAYYYYY!" said Jaune, right before the Deathstalker whipped its tail, sending him flying into the distance. Now, Pyrrha was an excellent fighter, but she didn't know anyone who could stand to a Deathstalker alone. As such, she decided to flee, the creature giving chase.

OOO

Ruby and Weiss were getting nowhere. They had been looking for what felt like hours, but they couldn't find a single clue as to the location of the temple containing the relics they were searching for.

"Well, this is hopeless so far," lamented Weiss, who was currently fiddling with the many Dust chambers of her rapier.

"I know. It's like, can't they at least have told us the general direction that we could have taken? It's been nothing but monsters for us. Speaking of which..."

Ruby finished her sentence and unleashed Crescent Rose, holding the scythe in a combat position. Weiss took the hint and readied her rapier, searching around for what Ruby had noticed.

Only to find that Ruby herself was missing. Great. However, she did find out what it was that was hunting them, and it was a rather large group of Beowolves, maybe eight or nine. Weiss spun the Dust chambers on her rapier and held it forward, placing her foot in front, only to scoot it back a little to a better stance. The chambers stopped rotating, having landed on fire. Weiss lunged forward at the largest of the group...

Only to see Ruby attack it instead, forcing her to change the direction of her attack, the flames igniting a tree in the distance. Because of this, a small forest fire was started.

"R-Ruby, we have to go, now!"

Ruby turned to Weiss' voice and nodded before killing the creature and letting Crescent Rose go dormant, running alongside Weiss.

"Why did you start the fire?" asked Ruby, who was taking potshots at the unsuspecting Grimm they had just left behind with her gun.

"Because it was either that the trees were burnt, or you were. Why did you jump in front of my attack like that?!"

"I was going for the strongest one. I'm not too weak to take on a few monsters, ya know!"

"Oh, yes, you're just the strongest little runt who has ever snuck her way into Beacon."

"Ru- Listen here, just because I'm younger that you doesn't mean you can look down on me! And being a runt is better than be an up-tight snob who's always bossing others around," retorted Ruby, crossing her arms.

"Why you little-"

"Is there a problem here?"

Before they could continue their argument, Ruby and Weiss were cut off by a rather tall blonde man dressed in green.

A man better known as Link Valion, Sebastian following closely after.

"Link?"

"I heard you two arguing from at least a few hundred meters away. Bickering of that caliber most have come from a heated debate."

"Well," started Weiss, "I was just pointing out how a little girl like Ruby shouldn't have made it in to Beacon. Don't you agree, Link?"

"I'm going to stick by the fact that her age doesn't hinder her combat ability. It does, however, hinder your ability to respect her."

"Haha, Weiss. I knew he would be on my si-"

"But that doesn't mean you are without fault, Miss Rose," said Link, cutting Ruby off.

Ruby let loose an internal scream. He was getting a little mad.

"You need to understand that fighting isn't just everyone goes off on their own accord to kill their own target, not when you have a team. You two need to work together."

"But Link, she- AGH!"

Ruby threw quite the temper tantrum, shearing through a tree with one simple swing from Crescent Rose, the object freely falling towards Sebastian. He merely looked at the tree and shook his head before winding back and smashing it with his skull, remaining perfectly unharmed.

"See? This is why you need to work together. If you don't act as one, you will do things that can anger each other. This could lead to one of you getting hurt, or even innocents. Do you want that?"

Both girls replied with a quiet 'no,' not wanting him to hear that they were wrong.

"Good. I expect to see you shape up, and especially not to have this problem with the other students. Do I make myself clear?" asked the swordsman, his pupils contracting threateningly. Well, his visible one at least.

"Yes," said both Ruby and Weiss simultaneously.

Nodding, Link continued on his way, Sebastian staying close behind.

"Wait," started Ruby, "Why are you heading that way? Weren't the relics deeper in the woods?"

"Oh, yes. Sebastian and I already have ours, that's all."

"WHAT?! Weiss, we better hurry! I don't wanna be last!"

"That makes two of us!"

Ruby and Weiss sped away, covering ground quickly in the direction Link and Sebastian had come from.

"Should we tell them we turned this way to meet them, Link-san?"

"No, let them figure it out. They won't grow if everything in life is handed to them."

And with that, Link and Sebastian made their way out of the Emerald Forest, relic in tow. But little did they notice a massive black feather land on the shattered trunk of the tree that Ruby had fell.

OOO

Weiss still has no idea how she let Ruby talk her into this. What do I mean, exactly? I mean that they were currently hanging on to the back of a massive raven known only as a Nevermore.

And it was flying reeeaaally high.

"HOW DID I LET YOU TALK ME INTO THIS?!" screamed Weiss in terror as she hung from the back of the Nevermore.

"I STILL DON'T KNOW," replied Ruby who was gleefully clinging to one of the beast's legs, "BUT THE VIEW FROM HERE IS AMAZING! I THINK I CAN SEE WHERE LINK AND SEBASTIAN GOT THEIR RELIC!"

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THIS THING IS JUST GOING TO LAND THERE FOR US?! YOU'RE INSANE!"

"NO, BUT WE COULD JUMP! THAT COULD GET US THERE!" Ruby screamed back.

Weiss literally could not believe what she had just heard. "OKAY, NOW I KNOW YOU'VE COMPLETELY LOST IT, RUBY! RUBY?!"

She looked on in horror as she saw that Ruby had lept off, and was currently free-falling to the earth. Weiss knew that she had to be crazy, and as such clung even more to the Nevermore, which was clearly beginning to get more annoyed by its unwanted passenger.

OOO

As Jaune flew through the sky, which took an absurd amount of time, he thought about Aura and what Pyrrha had told him.

"So, I can like heal myself now! That's pretty cool... Oh, she said that it can never stop getting stronger, too! But because of that, monsters want to kill me... I guess that's a fair trade-off... Maybe?"

Jaune sighed as he looked around, noticing that he was still pretty far from the ground. He knew that when he landed, Aura or not, it was going to hurt really bad if he couldn't find a way to land safely. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard faint yelling, but he noticed that it was getting louder, and therefore closer. He looked around to see a familiar red-cloaked girl falling out of the sky, right before she plowed into him and changing his course so that he was going straight to the ground.

"Hi, Jaune!" greeted Ruby gleefully.

"Oh, h-hey Ruby," stuttered Jaune, who was still a little shaken by Ruby's collision. "Where'd you come from?"

"Just a Nevermore Weiss and I were catching a ride on. What about you?"

"I got thrown by a Deathstalker," replied Jaune awkwardly. "Now I don't mean to be that guy again, but how are we landing?"

Ruby blinked and looked down, finally noticing the rapidly approaching ground. "Oh. I don't know. The recoil on Crescent Rose is only really enough to slow me down, but your added weight says no to that possibility, so..." Ruby trailed off, letting what she had said sink in. Jaune looked down again, realizing that they were about to hit the ground, and let loose an extremely feminine scream right as something flashed by and caught them. Jaune continued screaming for a while before Ruby finally calmed him down.

"What just happened?!" Yelled Jaune, who was still terrified.

"Someone caught us, and it looks like it was..." Ruby trailed off again to examine her savior. Whoever it was caught them in such a way that she could only see his back, and strapped to it was a sword, shield, and a very familiar gun, which to Ruby meant...

"LINK!" Screamed Ruby in excitement, right as the green-clad warrior switched them around so he could see their faces and talk.

"This better be the only time I have to do this today. You're both light, but this can get tedious."

"How did you find us?" asked Ruby. "More importantly, how did you reach us in time?"

"Questions for later," Link said quickly before leaping off of the branch from another tree, slowly turning back around to where he had caught the two. "But for now, introductions. What's your name?" Link asked as he turned to Jaune, who had been staring at Link in shock for a while.

"Uh, me? I-I'm... uh..." stuttered Jaune.

"Nice to meet you, Uh," said Link with a smirk.

"Hey, I'll have you know I have a perfectly fine name that isn't Uh, it's Jaune, Jaune Arc!" stated Jaune in annoyance.

"I don't know, I'd say that I prefer Uh."

Jaune gave Link a dirty look and he couldn't help but laugh. "Kidding, kidding! Nice to meet you, Jaune. I'm Link. Link Valion."

Jaune gave Link a solid look over before speaking. "Are you an upperclassman?"

Link could help but laugh before telling him no, but he was in fact a first year.

"Are you sure? First years are 17, or 15 in Ruby's case, but you look like you're 19."

Link sighed. "So I've been told. Well, Ruby, Jaune, I believe this is where you would have otherwise died. You want off?"

Jaune quickly let go while Ruby clung on for a moment longer, getting a solid hug on Link's neck.

"Thank you," whispered Ruby.

Link quickly hugged her back and told her anytime, but began looking around when he heard screaming.

"Was there someone else I didn't catch?"

"No," said Ruby. "It's just Weiss."

Link finally pinpointed Weiss' location and sighed.

"I told you guys, I don't want this to be a regular occurrence. Make sure you let everyone know that they can't free fall anymore if I have to do something about it every time," said Link jokingly before running off to catch Weiss.

Jaune looked to Weiss, who was still screaming in terror as she fell, and then to Link.

"Maybe you won't have to do it every time," Jaune whispered to himself before running off in the direction Link had, faster than the green-clad warrior had. While he ran, he sprinted right past Link, who turned to him and smiled, slowing to a stop. He was about to turn back and leave, but Ruby suddenly was standing next to him.

"When did you...?"

"I'm really fast."

"That explains more things than you think," commented Link. Both Ruby and Link heard heavy breathing and turned to see Sebastian burst out of the bushes, followed by Pyrrha Nikos.

"Ah, Sebastian. And Miss Nikos. What brings you here?"

"Link-san, *Huff* why did you run off like *Huff* that?"

"I thought I heard a girl scream, but it turned out to be Jaune. What about you?"

"It would appear," said Sebastian as he stood up straight and caught his breathe, "that Pyrrha-san has come into battle with a Deathstalker and cannot best it alone."

"Well, we'll have to get on that soon. But first, Weiss."

Link looked to where Weiss had fallen... And it was on top of Jaune.

Ruby quickly ran over and helped Weiss up while asking her if she was hurt, to which she replied she was fine. Pyrrha smiled and helped Jaune up, asking him if he was fine.

"At least she's light," was all he said before falling into Pyrrha.

As if enough people weren't there already, both Blake and Yang ran through, stopping when they saw everyone.

"Oh, hey Ruby," said Yang. "Are you okay? I heard you scream."

"No, Yang, that was Jaune. Also, hi Blake!"

Ruby waved vigorously at Blake, who gave a warmhearted wave in return, yet remained quite. She also smiled and waved at Link, who in return smiled and nodded to her.

Everyone suddenly heard yelling, followed by a large explosion.

"If the voice was any indication, then that's Volga," said Ruby.

This was followed by said Dragon Knight walking down the path followed by Lana, who was skipping along happily.

"Hey you! How are you?" asked Ruby to the blue-haired girl.

"I'm fine! My name is Lana, by the way."

Volga scoffed and walked over to Link, where the two physically butt heads.

"How many kills, Green, huh?" laughed the Dragon Knight.

"More than you, Red, I can tell you that much!" replied the swordsman.

"Nora, I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure that's not what a sloth sounds like," said a new voice from the forest.

"Are you suuure, Ren?"

"Quite."

From the forest came Nora and Ren, both of whom were surprised to see everyone standing there.

"Look, Ren, things we don't have to kill!"

"Nora, that can't seriously be the first thing you have to say to them!" said an astonished Ren.

"I don't know about you, but I honestly like how this girl thinks," stated Volga.

Link sighed and looked around. This was significantly more people than what he was used to dealing with. He was honestly happy when the Deathstalker Sebastian spoke of burst through the trees.

"Oh, thank the Goddesses, I needed to focus on something other than people."

And with that, everyone readied their weapons and prepared for battle, even more so when the Nevermore swooped in to join the fray.

Yeah... Sorry. I put this off for WAAAY too long. But, I was slowly chipping away at this. But still to this day, Monty's passing saddens me greatly. But I don't want to leave on a sad note, so happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Chuck Norris once ordered a Big Mac at a Burger King, then received one.

OniHelix out!