Chapter 4: The Emerald Forest

"That insufferable little...! Ugh!" Weiss Schnee mutters angrily, her heels stomping noticeable holes into the dirt she is walking over.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going!?" Ruby Rose yells out at the heiress.

With another angry huff, and some grinding of teeth, Weiss speeds up her pace, eager to get away from Ruby. Another yell comes from behind her, but Weiss opts to ignore it.

With her sense of direction, the heiress almost manages to lose Ruby and starts marching north towards the temple ruins, not paying attention to her surroundings. It only takes a few dozen seconds for a large shadow to block the sun shining behind her, and engulfing her form. Weiss stops in her tracks, a hand hovering over the hilt of her weapon.

"I am in a terrible mood right now..." Weiss glowers. With practiced ease, she unsheathes her rapier with her left hand, turning around and pointing Myrtenaster at the Ursa, now that she can see it.

"You will have to do." Readying her stance, Weiss turns her fist up, bringing the hilt of her rapier closer to her face, and dropping down to lower her center of gravity. The Ursa responds in kind, bringing up a claw, ready to slash at her.

"Here I come." She announces arrogantly. Right as Weiss pushes off with her feet, a loud roar vibrates the air behind her. Another Ursa jumps at her, which she notices that she can't defend from.

Another one!? Weiss thinks, shocked. She can't do anything. Already in motion, she can't stop herself from rushing forward. Her feet are already off the ground, and the Ursa is getting ever so closer.

I'm done for... Weiss is almost about to give up, loosening her grip and closing her eyes.

Suddenly, rose petals flicker in front of her, and a gust of wind almost flings her back, but Weiss persists in her charge of the Ursa. Reinvigorated, she pulses her Aura for a small burst of speed before punching holes into the Ursa in front of her. With a blur of precision, Weiss ends the encounter with a final stab to the Grimm's head, shattering the bone-like mask and impaling the Ursa between the eyes.

Ruby, finally identified, slashes at the Ursa behind Weiss with Crescent Rose, bisecting it clean in half. The Grimm dies with a pitiful roar as the upper half of its body travels through the air unopposed by its lower half. It slams into the ground with a squelch. The corpses of the Ursai immediately begin to decompose, the soft flesh melting into a fine black mist. Their skeletons, however, remain intact, though are ignored by the two girls.

"You..." Weiss begins.

Ruby interjects. "Yes. Me."

...

"...You don't have to like me." Ruby says, after a prolonged silence.

"I-" Weiss starts again.

Ruby continues on without interruption. "But we'll have to work together to survive the Initiation. And after this, we're gonna be partners for life! Believe it!" Ruby makes a peace sigh with her fingers, giggling with a cheeky grin.

Weiss flusters at Ruby's outburst.

A pack of Ursai begin emerging from nowhere, seemingly coming into existence from the shadows of the trees. Their light growls cause Weiss and Ruby to ready their weapons again as the pack surround them.

"Ah... even more..." Ruby mutters, her happy tone fading, spinning Crescent Rose around like a staff before adjusting her stance and moving closer to Weiss.

"Hmph...If we're going to be partners..." Weiss says, finally getting a word in. Her lips tilt into a tiny smirk.

"Try to keep up."

Ruby gives a genuine smile. The girls huddle closer to cover their backs, weapons at the ready. The group of Ursai growl at them in response. Weiss spins the chamber of Myrtenaster while Ruby racks the bolt of Crescent Rose.

"That's my line."

With a loud, pitiful yawn, I stretch my arms out and scratch the back of my neck. Guess the Aura exhaustion is kicking in. Taking another look at my Scroll, I open the Aura monitoring app and check my Aura. Currently, it's hovering around the high 80's. The slow regeneration has me antsy, and I pocket my Scroll before playing with my fingers and taking a deep breath.

Pyrrha and I continue trekking due north through the Emerald Forest. Luckily, we are walking on a dirt path, the maze of the forest a long way behind us. The sharp thud of Pyrrha's heels contrast with the dull stomping of my boots.

I spend this time of momentary peace thinking.

Let's plot this out. I begin. Closing my eyes, I draw out a plan. Significant events... The dance... the Breach... the Fall. Let's start with the dance.

Okay... I'll have to find a way to stop Cinder from reaching the CCT... or just prevent the virus from deploying. Wait... no I can't. If Cinder gets suspicious, she'll pull back from the plan and I'll be left in the dark... meaning we'll be back at square one, and my knowledge will be useless. I sigh.

Maybe I'll just brush up my programming. Take a few classes in programming and self-study as well. Develop an antivirus... or even create a virus of my own... I think about that later.

Back in my old life, I was planning on majoring in computer programming and hardware engineering before well... you know. I died.

I rub my chin. My knowledge from Earth might not even apply, if Remnant's programming languages are different. Well... still gotta try.

My eyes widen and I stop, kicking up a small cloud of dirt. A small alert sound plays in my head, and a metaphorical red exclamation point appears over my head.

"What was that noise?"

"Huh?" Pyrrha stops as well and turns to me, her hand on the hilt of Miló.

"Did you hear that?" I lower my voice to a whisper, straining my ears.

"What are you talking about?" Pyrrha matches my voice level.

The only sounds I can hear are Pyrrha's and my breathing, and the whistling of the wind through the tree branches.

A twig snaps.

"There!" I hiss through my teeth. Pyrrha, on full alert, unsheathes Miló and unclips Akoúo from her back.

"I hear it." Pyrrha assures me that I'm not going crazy.

She looks at me. "You have a weapon, do you not?"

Staring at my hands, small crystals slowly begin forming in the air, a blue glow lighting my hands. My Aura almost begins to feel suffocating. I take a deep, albeit shaky, breath.

"I do... but I don't know if I can..." I trail off with a gulp. Pyrrha understands immediately, shuffling a bit closer, almost afraid of disturbing the silence.

"Stay close to me, then. Don't do anything reckless. I'll protect you." Pyrrha states confidently, bringing up her shield and raising her sword close to her center. While her words were to reassure me, I just feel even more afraid.

Space Boy – Dave Rodgers

I take another shaky breath as adrenaline begins pumping through my veins. My movements become jittery as my eyes dart from left to right, looking for any movement. My sword explodes in front of me, forcing me to squint, and I grab the hilt with two hands, nervously pointing it away from me.

Looking next to me, Pyrrha must've changed her mind, because with a quick motion, her xiphos transforms into what looks to be an M1 Garand. With her shield on her back, Pyrrha possibly plans to pick off the enemy before fighting up close. Smart move.

Rapidly shaking my head, I begin noticing how quiet it became, with the rustling of the trees and the shuffling of footsteps suddenly stopping. My arms tremble in anticipation.

A loud roar breaks the silence and my face twists into a wince as I take a sharp breath. I almost drop my sword to the ground, fumbling with the unfamiliar weight. With a flushed face, I look to Pyrrha to see her reaction.

Wait what? Why do I care what she thinks?

Surveying the situation, I commit the scene to memory. My eyes widen, seeing the number of Grimm approaching us. With a quick flyover, I count around... twenty of them. They seem to be Beowolves, based on their hunched statures and masks. They don't immediately attack us, however. They are mostly curious, but seem to mostly be attracted to me. My sweating bullets doesn't help my cause. They snarl at Pyrrha and me.

I am brought out from my thoughts as Pyrrha suddenly starts attacking the massive group of Beowolves, the familiar bark of her Garand almost shattering my eardrums, if not for Aura dampening my hearing. The muzzle flashes bright, and white smoke spills out from the open chamber after each gunshot. Each bullet hits their mark, straight between the Beowolves' red gleaming eyes, cracking masks open and killing the unlucky ones instantly. The group of Grimm roar again in response, quickly turning hostile and rushing towards the two of us.

After eight quick shots, Pyrrha's rifle runs dry, the unmistakable 'ping' announcing her brief vulnerability, the en-bloc ejecting out of the chamber and dropping to the forest ground. In the blink of an eye, she reloads, jamming a clip into the open chamber with her thumb before quickly pulling away as the bolt closes shut.

The Beowolves are rapidly approaching, but Pyrrha gives them no quarter, bringing the rifle close to her cheek, aiming and firing at them again in quick succession, the barrel of Miló glowing red hot from the dispersal of heat. These shots, however, hit the Beowolves in non-critical locations, wounding them, though this angers them more than immobilizes them. With a final 'ping' of an empty gun, Pyrrha flips her rifle, transforming it to a spear form. With her display of prowess, I hold my blade out in a stiff stance as the Beowolves approach close enough that her rifle would do no good.

Taking a few moments for the spear to extend, Pyrrha holds it with two hands, intent on using it to thrust and stab, rather than slash. Instinctually, I twirl my sword with a little flourish before dropping it back down towards the threat, my left foot pointed forward and my stance a little more confident than before.

Pyrrha descends upon the Grimm like a god of death, killing Beowolves in a flurry of motion. For one particular Beowolf, she impales it in the chest area, eliciting a pained howl, before skewering another one behind it and twirling around, letting inertia pluck them off the spearhead and flinging the two Grimm towards the crowd, knocking them down like bowling pins.

I stare in utter shock as Pyrrha destroys the Grimm in only a few minutes, the corpses piling up and melting to the ground in a fine mist, leaving behind only skeletons. My jaw hits the floor as I examine Pyrrha's expression. She doesn't even look winded. My sword drops to the ground with a thud when I let go, not even disappearing away as it should. It eventually leaves reality with a crackle when my brain finally starts working again.

Pyrrha closes her eyes and lets out a small breath before sheathing her blade and putting away her shield.

...

"Can you teach me how to do that?" I blurt out suddenly.

Pyrrha looks at me funny before a small smile graces her lips. "Of course. Well, that is, if we get put into the same team."

My expression turns to one of horror.

Same... team...? Oh no.

I get punched out of my thoughts as another loud roar rings in my ears. Spinning on my heels, a Beowolf has snuck up behind me, though it's a few meters away, far enough that I can defend myself. But it looks... different... somehow.

"Noctis! Look out! That's an Alpha!" Pyrrha starts running over to me, but more Beowolves jump her, forcing her to defend herself. She is cut off from getting to me.

I begin sweating bricks. "A-An Alpha Beowolf, huh?" My lips twitch upward and I chuckle with no force behind it. The Beowolf growls, approaching closer on all four limbs. I gulp.

"N-Nice... doggy." I say, backing away slowly.

This must have been the wrong thing to say, as the Alpha Beowolf lets out an ear-piercing roar, and charges straight at me. My eyes bug out of their sockets.

That's fast!

Dodging out of the way with a roll, I clumsily stand back up before summoning my sword. After only a few times of doing so, I feel that I've already gotten the hang of it.

Looking up, the Alpha Beowolf snarls at me, its glowing red eyes piercing into my bright blue eyes. I blink before shifting my feet forward. The Alpha gets on all fours and charges again, which I reciprocate, running towards the Grimm. It takes only a few moments for me to reach it. The Beowolf slashes at me with its claws, which I sidestep, smacking the arm of the Grimm with my blade to keep it away.

Seeing an opportunity, I grab hold of the boney extrusions poking out of the Grimm, and mount it from behind. Jumping up, I plant my feet on the back of the Alpha, and steady myself by tightening my hold. The Alpha Beowolf gets visibly irritated, growling and jumping like a madman to try and shake me off. Gripping tighter, I summon my sword and quickly shove it into the spine of the Grimm, intent on paralyzing it.

I must've missed, as the Alpha only howls louder and redoubles on its efforts of getting me off of itself. I slowly lose my grip as sweat drips in the palm of my hands, and I get thrown off the Grimm with extreme force. A sharp pain erupts in my backside, as I pummel into a tree, knocking the wind out of me. Peeling off of it, I fall to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Noctis!" Pyrrha yells out in vain, only to be beset by even more Grimm than before.

My sword materializes in my hand, and I stab it into the ground for leverage. Standing up with difficulty, I stare down the Alpha Beowolf.

With no plan in particular, I stare it down.

The Alpha Beowolf starts rushing at me without pause. I flick my wrist, my sword jumping into my hand, and I throw it as hard as I can, causing my feet to jump off the floor, leaving me in the air for a few moments. Calling on my Aura, the freezing pain floods my senses again, and my vision goes dark for a nanosecond as I teleport.

The Beowolf cries out in pain, my sword embedded in its face, the tip of the sword poking out of the back of its head. Pausing for a fraction of a second, I kick backwards, tightening my hold on my weapon, the soft squelching of metal on flesh burned into my brain. A wet gurgling leaves the Alpha's maw as it dies a slow painful death.

END

I drop to my knees and hands, dry heaving, before my half-digested breakfast spills out onto the forest green. A few rounds of vomiting later, Pyrrha rushes to my side. I wipe my mouth with the crook of my elbow.

"The..." I clear my throat, rubbing at my bruised ribs. "The Grimm..."

"The rest ran away after you killed the Alpha." She smiles at me reassuringly, rubbing my back in comfort. "You did a great job."

I stare at the decomposing corpse of the Alpha, sighing deeply before shakily standing up.

"For your first fight... I think you performed admirably."

I look down. "Thanks... that means a lot."

It really did.

"Hmm..." Ozpin hums for the nth time, looking at his Scroll with thought. His scarf flutters in the air as the wind slowly picks up.

Ozpin exhales a bit from his nose. "Ah. As you see, he has done adequately. For a civilian, he fought quite well." Ozpin smiles softly, glancing knowingly at Goodwitch.

Goodwitch sighs, not denying his statement. She looks at Ozpin, gripping the rim of her glasses between her thumb and forefinger. "What do you propose we do?"

"For now?" Ozpin stops for a moment, contemplating. "Nothing. We shall wait. There's no use worrying about him just yet. Until something new manifests... we will continue on course."

"And that means...?" Glynda fishes for an answer.

"Noctis will be accepted into Beacon. He has performed quite well thus far, judging from Miss Nikos's reaction." Ozpin thumbs his chin. "Requisition supplies for him." He orders. "Uniform, books, stationery. He will need it."

"Of course, sir." Glynda internally sighs at the extra workload, compounded with paperwork regarding student admission. With a small bow, she makes to leave.

Glynda walks away down the sloping decline, leaving the headmaster alone atop Beacon Cliff. He hums methodically, swiping through his Scroll, once again stopping at the camera pointing towards Pyrrha and Noctis. They seem to be having a conversation.

"Noctis Fleuret..." Ozpin softly speaks to himself.

"You are quite an enigma."

"Uwahhhh! Blaaake, I had that!" Yang complains loudly. Twisting her wrists, Ember Celica transforms back into a harmless-looking pair of bracelets. Throwing her hands in the air, Yang places them behind her head before pacing around aimlessly around a dead, decomposing, Ursa, one that a certain Blake killed just moments before.

"Please be quiet." The faunus girl sheathes Gambol Shroud behind her back with purpose before reseating her bow atop her head, a little twitch betraying her true nature. She walks past Yang while rubbing her wrists.

"Have you seen Noctis anywhere?" Blake suddenly asks.

Yang raises an eyebrow, bringing a hand up to play with her bright yellow hair. "No, I haven't. At least, I don't think I did. I was busy fighting those Grimm."

Blake hums in acknowledgement.

"Why are you hung up about him anyway?" Yang asks.

"I'm not." Blake counters defensively. She realizes her mistake and corrects her tone with a small clearing of the throat. "It's because he was acting... odd this morning."

"Oh." Yang pauses for effect. "I guess I didn't notice." She replies truthfully.

"Yes..." Blake nods slowly. "He had this wistful look in his eyes. And it only showed up when he was looking at you and your sister."

Yang scratches her head. "That's... weird. What would make him act like that?"

"I'm not sure. And I plan to find out." Blake abruptly stops speaking, hinting to Yang that the conversation is at an end. The two girls stand a couple of meters away from each other, each unsure of what to do. Yang suddenly grins.

"Sooo... wanna be partners?"

Blake spends a few moments staring, before subtly rolling her eyes, a small smile on her lips. "Fine. Let's go."

Blake quietly walks away, leaving Yang all alone in the forest clearing. Yang pumps her arms in the air, accidentally letting a round loose from her gauntlets. She freezes in place as a small, juvenile Nevermore falls dead onto the dirt floor, a large hole punched through its tiny body.

"...Whoops."

"Weiss! Wait up!"

The white-haired girl grumbles in annoyance. "Didn't I tell you to 'try to keep up'!?" Weiss raises two fingers on each of her hands and flexes them twice, quoting herself.

Ruby rubs her neck furiously. "I know... I was just busy... with something."

Weiss blinks twice. "...I do not know whether or not I should be curious or afraid."

"Really, Weiss! It was nothing. Don't worry about it." Ruby insists.

"...You are not helping."

Ruby suddenly begins pushing Weiss forward, eliciting a small yelp. Weiss's heels dig into the ground and leave tracks, kicking up loose dirt. "Okay, let's just keep moving!"

"Ruby...! What are you- Get your hands off me this instant!" Weiss raises her voice.

"Nope! We're going on an adventure~!" Ruby says in a sing-song manner, skipping along as Weiss kicks up more dirt.

Weiss sighs and crosses her arms, pouting as she is pushed along like a shopping cart.

This is going to be a long day.

Weiss examines her nails as Ruby hums a little tune to herself, pushing Weiss forward with no end in sight. Following the dirt path, Ruby meets a fork in the road. Weiss is still busy checking for any imperfections on her hands, and thus does not notice. Rubbing her chin and squinting her eyes, Ruby chooses at random, pushing Weiss left of the fork.

A few minutes later, Ruby comes face to face with a giant rock wall, blocking her path. A large hole is punched out of the wall, pitch black on the inside. Some markings are apparent on the edge of the entrance.

"Woah... what is this?" Ruby stops pushing Weiss forward, and the heiress almost falls backwards, due to Ruby suddenly letting go of her shoulders.

Weiss regains her balance, quickly observing her surroundings before lightly smacking Ruby across the back of her head. "It's a cave, you dimwit."

"...Let's go inside!" Ruby raises her finger skyward and lifts a leg to begin running, but not before Weiss grabs her by the cape. Ruby's legs jump forward, and she falls down onto her butt. Ruby lets out a prolonged cry of pain before rubbing her sore bottom, tears forming on the edge of her eyes.

"Hey, what was that for!?" Ruby glares at Weiss, pouting.

Weiss sighs and shakes her head, slowly raising a finger to point at the markings beside the entrance. Ruby jumps up to take a closer look. It's a cave painting of a Grimm, a Deathstalker to be more exact, attacking what seems to be primitive humans.

"Only an utter imbecile would not notice this." Weiss comments.

"Achoo!"

"Oi, are you alright? Catch a cold?" I ask, a little bit worried.

Pyrrha shakes her head, sniffling a bit before rubbing her nostrils. "It's fine, Noctis. Somebody must be speaking about me."

A bead of sweat forms on my forehead. ...People have this superstition on Remnant, too? How unusual.

"Oh yeahhh... I totally saw that." Ruby remarks. She crosses her arms and closes her eyes, and slowly opens one to see Weiss's reaction. The heiress's deadpan expression burrows into Ruby's, and she facepalms, a light slap echoing into the cave entrance.

"Let's leave. There's no point in staying here." Weiss commands.

"Muh? Aren't we gonna fight it?" Ruby innocently asks.

Weiss's eyes bug out of their sockets, and she flails her arms around in protest. "What the-!? Fight it!? Are you insane, Ruby!? We are not fighting a Deathstalker."

"Whaaat? Why not?" Ruby's child-like attitude makes its appearance.

"Do I have to spell it out for you!? It's D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S!" Weiss waggles her finger for every letter.

Ruby raises her own fingers to count the letters Weiss spelled out. After counting 8 of them, Ruby hesitates on raising her 9th finger, stopping to scratch her head. "Wait, how many letters was that again?"

Weiss grinds her teeth and a low growl rumbles her throat. "Stop derailing the conversation. We are leaving, and you will not complain."

Ruby complains. "But-"

"NO BUTS! We are leaving, and that. Is. Final!" Weiss pokes Ruby in the ribs for emphasis, her voice raising louder and echoing further into the cave. A slight rumble staggers the two girls.

With a gulp, Ruby slowly points behind Weiss, a giant shadow covering the girls. A low hissing and clacking of teeth sends shivers down their spines. Weiss slowly turns around, a look of horror on her face, and her eyes wide like saucers. The Deathstalker on the cave painting greets the girls, poising its stinger to attack.

"Behind you..." Ruby whispers her warning, a little too late.

"...Oh gods." Weiss slowly begins reaching for her rapier.

The Deathstalker shrieks in response.

With perfect timing, Ruby activates her super speed Semblance, a cloud of red petals forming, whisking Weiss away right when the Deathstalker attacks. The stinger blurs into action, piercing the ground where Weiss was standing, kicking up mounds of dirt, raining small particles that would have hit Ruby if she was not currently fleeing for her life.

"This is the second time I've saved you!" Ruby ever so helpfully points out while dodging trees, her spindly legs blurring into an unrecognizable smear. Her breathing slightly labored, Ruby runs as fast as she normally can, without using her Semblance.

"My hero. Is this what you wanted?" Weiss grumbles sarcastically, wrapping her arms around Ruby's neck to keep her balance.

The Deathstalker approaches unopposed, trees exploding as the Grimm indiscriminately run them over, not even slowing down. The eight legs of the scorpion rattle as each step brings it closer to Ruby, who lets out a loud 'eep' before increasing her pace.

"On second thought, never mind!" Ruby yells, dodging unfortunately placed tree branches, jumping over exposed roots, and starts making her way to the temple ruins. Calling on her Semblance one more time, Weiss clutches tighter as Ruby blurs into a screw of rose petals, almost uprooting trees she passes. The Deathstalker continues moving in her general direction.

Ruby only has one thought on her mind.

I hope Yang's doing okay...

A/N: Sorry again for the shorter chapter... but I'm just writing and writing and the chapters keep getting longer and longer. So instead of having one giant chapter, I'll be splitting the Initiation arc into three chapters now.

So yeah, my SI got into his first fight, and some events have been changed. Butterfly effect, amirite?