Disclaimer: I do not and will not own the rights to RWBY or Roosterteeth's other series/sub-series, that honor goes to those who work for the organization and Monty Oum for giving birth to his' marvelous brainchild, RWBY.
"Before all of this, back when I was still but a boy, I lived a fairly unlucky, yet uneventful, life. One filled with sporadic bursts of change from forces outside of my control, all of which have brought me to this point. I've survived this long because I've had to make my own luck. Perhaps, I can go a little further…" –G.V.H.
In the Emerald Forest, various individuals moved about with varying amounts of purpose as they each tried to fulfill their own goals and motivations. Some went about trying to locate their main objective, the ruins, where they would find their artifact/item and hold onto it until the end of the test. Others went about trying to seek out other participants, particular those whom they wished to partner up with. Though only so many would be successful in that task, since others who attempted to do so would either end up being paired up with neutrally associated persons while the rest would be paired with whom they would consider unfavorable individuals. Though, in the course of all things, each person was met with their own particular hardship or trial in this oh-so-ominous forest. Some were utterly lost, others bickered with their partners and the rest were forced to face off with the main force of opposition in this initiation, the Grimm.
And amongst the last, unfavorable, category of results for someone to end up in, one Weiss Schnee found herself in a particularly bad situation. Though considering she was surrounded on all sides by the dark forces of the Grimm, the situation could not be considered anything but terrible. Luckily for her, she had two things going for her: One, she was and is a highly skilled combatant, trained for years in a highly-disciplined swords(wo)manship regime under the careful tutelage of the best teachers the Weiss family could afford, along with careful guidance from the family itself at times as well.
And two? Well, she had the deadliest and most effective military force capable of any one person, short of armored units or an officer able to call in an artillery strike or other heavier versions of ordnance, covering her back. But, considering the capabilities of said reinforcer, he may as well have been a one man army. Still, as an infantryman alone, he was still the most deadly and feared type of enforcer known in military history.
Quite simply, he was a Sniper, an on-the-field tactician who could end any life on the battlefield with but a single pull of a trigger in the most effective way possible. And, in this moment, hovering on the wings of angels, this lone man looked through the crosshairs of his' rifle, looking down past the foliage of the forest and towards something on the ground below. Right now, there was nothing between him and his' target, and as he took but a single moment to inspect his' target, he aimed right for the universal weak-point of any macroscopic organism-the head. With his' sights locked and his' aim true, his' finger twitched slightly more than normal as he pulled the trigger of his' large caliber rifle. In that instance, the linings all throughout the weapon were illuminated with a slight, red glow before fading away just as quickly as it appeared. Then, the combustive flames of gunpowder and fire-based dust bellowed from the end of the weapon's barrel, launching a .50 caliber, armor-piercing round at super-sonic speeds from the magazine of the weapon, down the gun's rifling and out of the barrel of the weapon, concurrent with the hellish flames of the combustive chemical reaction. The round itself spiraled in air, causing it to travel with an uncanny precision present in all modern-age weapons. This continued for what felt like ages, but was quite literally only an instance, until the round itself dug through the plated armor surrounding the innards of the Beowolf's head and burying itself into said bits.
Almost instantly, the beast stopped moving as its body tried to process and reconfigure itself before realizing that many of its vital functions were failing due to the shattering of its main, biological hub, the brain. Thus, the beast's body stilled for but a moment before unceremoniously collapsing onto the ground below, its carcass beginning to sizzle away in smoky, black wisps, confirming that it was, in fact, quite dead.
Not even taking a further glance at the creature once his' first shot was fired, the marksman then swiftly swerved the weapon to the left, once again aiming at another of the creatures surrounding the young maiden and firing another shot into another one of the creatures and repeating the process.
On the ground of the forest however, the girl in question was shaken from her inner-musings and jolted forward slightly at the abrupt sound of gunfire as it pierced the tense silence present in the clearing before she looked up to the source of the noise. Looking at her unexpected savior, she could only look on as he fired shot after shot at their common foe before her eyes squinted as she tried to make out any details to help her identify said airborne individual. Soon enough, she caught sight of several distinct characteristics and came to a sudden realization as to who this person was.
"You?! What are you doing here?!" Weiss said, angry over having been interrupted by yet another person who she found particularly irking.
Firing a shot at a rather particularly large Beowolf, he continued his' task ceaselessly as he calmly and simply responded back to her query. "Helping."
'Aim, lock, fire.' (Boom) '… Oooh, I missed a bit on that one, it's still twitching. Let's fix that.' (Boom) 'Ah, there we go.' He thought to himself off-handedly, trying to keep as much focus on the task at hand as he possibly could, lest the person he was trying to protect risk getting hurt as she continued to try to garner his' attention away from his' current task.
"I don't need your help! I was doing just fine on my own, thank you very much!" She said angrily, turning a bit off to the side and crossing her arms over one another, giving a small harrumph at the end of the sentence for emphasis.
(Boom) "Really?" (Boom) "Because it looked like you were just standing there." (Boom) "Paying more attention to your form, rather than fighting." Gabriel rounded off, still taking potshots at the crowd of creatures around them, or more specifically: her. (Boom) 'Just how many of these things are there?'
"Hey! I'll have you know that footwork is the foundation to any reputable style of fighting! And any sensible person would know to respect the fundamentals!" She paused, finally glancing at him once again, though this time with a much harsher gaze, one that seemed to try to burn its way right through his' skull. "But it's not like you would know anything about respect." She said in a harsh, cold tone.
Shaken from his' calm state, he took a moment to recover from the icy tone she used and continued his' task before responding. "Well, then maybe you should do something worth respecting. Like treating others with the respect you expect in turn." (Boom) "Then maybe we can get somewhere!" (Boom. Click, Click, Click) "I'm out. Think you can watch my back for a sec while I find another magazine, Ice Queen?" He said in a curt manner as he dropped the empty magazine from his' gun before reaching a hand under his' cloak to retrieve another magazine.
Flinching a bit from her spot as the empty ammo casing fell from his' position to within feet of her own, she looked back up at him angrily, actually quite miffed by the nickname he had given her. Still, she had a reputation and a legacy to uphold and she wouldn't let this delinquent of all people set her off balance, emotionally speaking. Once again drawing her rapier and straightening herself out, she got into the proper stance associated with her disciplined training before casting a peripheral glance up towards him. "Hmph, I'm a Schnee. This type of opposition is nothing compared to the skill and grace my training has allowed me."
At the last remark, he silently and slowly started to float down until he too was on the ground, standing beside and slightly behind Weiss while the wings on his' back dissipated as he made landfall. Despite this change of vantage, his' hand still calmly ruffled under his' cloak as he still searched for a proper magazine for his' gun. Taking his' focus away from the enemies around them, he turned to glance back at her with a cool, neutral look. "So, need help finding the ruins, then?" He said, just as he found the spare magazine he was looking for and bringing it out of his' cloak and slamming it into the underside of his' gun.
"Oh please! As if I'd need your help to—"
"Gabriel!" A voice yelled out, breaking the young heiress' train of thought, causing her to flinch slightly at the abrupt noise.
Looking back slightly over her shoulder, Weiss saw a crimson blur as it cut across the edge of the clearing, taking in its' silhouetted features and characteristics, she soon came to realize that it was none other than the red-cloaked form of her partner, Ruby.
Skidding to a stop as she closed in, creating a fairly significant trail of dust behind her in the process, Ruby then closed the remaining space between her new-ish friend by leaping the last few feet with a small hop before latching onto his' arm playfully.
"There you are! I was looking for you, or Yang or Jaune, but I couldn't find any of you! But it's alright now, I guess." She shrugged a bit unsurely but still kept her somewhat cheery disposition. "Oh! And you won't believe who I ended up partnering with! It was that one Weiss girl, you know, the one we met right out of the airship and almost blew up? Yeah, but she's still kinda mean and a bit cranky, I think." Ruby said, pouting a bit as she remembered the unpleasant demeanor her partner always seemed to carry herself with, at least whenever she was around, anyway.
"I am NOT Cranky!" Weiss said heatedly, fully turning to face the duo which had been standing behind her.
"Eep!" Ruby said, releasing Gabriel's arm only to swerve around him and take cover behind his' back. Peeking out from behind his' back, Ruby looked back at Weiss nervously. "See? She's still kinda mad at me and I don't even know why!" She complained, glancing at Gabriel for a moment before turning her sights back to Weiss.
"Well, maybe it's because you aren't taking this test as seriously as you should be. And instead of talking with boys, maybe we should be trying to find the place we're supposed to go!" Weiss said sharply, bringing her arms up alongside her until they rested on her hips, giving both Ruby a look of chiding while giving brief, heated glares to Gabriel.
"Hey, I am too taking this test seriously!" Ruby said, standing out from the cover of Gabriel's back a bit more but not completely. "Maybe if you tried being a little nicer, maybe you'd have a lot more friends to talk to!" Ruby said defensively, not liking the idea that people thought of her as being incapable just because they thought she was a child or simply too young to be considered a 'mature' human being.
Aghast by Ruby's proclamation, Weiss visibly recoiled in shock from the unexpected retort. Then, just as suddenly, anger beginning to well in her very being, her features hardened as she gave a response of her own. "Hey, I can too make friends! In fact, everybody I've known has come to look up to me! All because I was the best! I've earned all their respect, so maybe if you stopped acting like such a child, maybe people could come to respect you too!" Weiss said indignantly, straightening up slightly as she finished the statement, her eyes sharpening drastically as well.
Gasping in shock from taking offense at the statement, Ruby moved up from behind Gabriel's back, ready to make a retort of her own until an arm crossed her path. Looking up the length of it, she saw that it was Gabriel who blocked her, and at the moment he looked at Ruby from behind the veil of darkness cast by his' hood before he shook his' head at her, as if silently telling her to back down now before her partnership with Weiss became too strained to repair. Seeing this, she hesitantly backed down from further reproaching the person that was supposed to be her partner and instead chose to cross her arms in front of her and pouting.
Seeing that Ruby had heeded his' unspoken request for the moment, Gabriel turned his' attention back to Weiss, giving her a patient look; though neither girl could see it at the moment, unfortunately. "Look. I know you two may not see eye-to-eye-"
"That's an understatement." Weiss interrupted, blowing a stray bit of hair out of her face irritably as she finished.
"—But we need to put our personal differences aside." He continued, casting a quick glance to Ruby, making sure she got the point, before just as quickly turning back to Weiss. "Like it or not. You're both partners and right now we're in the middle of a test, probably the most decisive one of our lives. But for the moment, we have much more immediate issues we should be dealing with." He said, waving an arm about, indicating the clearing around them.
Seeing the gesture, both girls turned to look all around them and stiffened slightly. Almost seeming like they had just now realized the true extent of the danger they were in. Oddly enough, the creatures weren't particularly looking at either of the girls at the moment, but rather seemed to be focused on the white-cloaked individual in their midst. Seeing him out in the open, every creature's fur seemed to bristle and stand on end, their teeth gnashing together and creating the audible sound of clacking while their claws dug into the earth. Their eyes were filled with a malicious red glow neither of the Huntresses had ever seen or heard of before. The beast's sole attention seemed focused only on the man in white, almost as if the man himself was exuding some unknown aura or force that was compelling the creatures to act this way towards him. Though, for the moment, and for some unknown reason, the beasts hesitated in their attack, almost waiting for some clandestine or unknown signal to begin their attack on the group of warriors.
Slightly shaken by the sight, both girls turned back to Gabriel, their faces portraying a mix of seriousness, nervousness and uncertainty. Once their attention was back on him, he continued. "When we find the ruins and pick up whatever it is we have to find and pass this test, once we're all safe and sound, then you can work out whatever problems you have then. But, for right now, we need to make sure that we can all live to tell about this and I don't think these things will just let us mosey on out of here." And with that, he put away his' rifle and instead pulled out his' ever interesting scythe, The Crescent Eclipse, from his' back and extended the weapon, causing it to protract with an audible series of nearly simultaneous clacks as the entire thing snapped into place. "Now, I don't know about the two of you, but I'd rather not waste any more time here than I have to. Which is why I'm going to have to cheat a bit." As he said this he pulled out the Pocket-watch, gripping it securely in his' left hand while he handled the scythe with his' right.
"Now, could you please count to one?" He asked, raising a veiled eyebrow in question while his' finger was held right on the button to activate the device.
"Uh, one?" "One." Both Ruby and Weiss said simultaneously, both of them curiously waiting for whatever it was that he was going to do.
"Done. Come on, let's go." He said, nodding his' head towards the north while he tucked away the watch and rested the scythe across his' shoulders behind his' head before starting to walk in said aforementioned direction.
"Wait, what? What do you mean you're done? We still have to—" Though whatever else Weiss was going to say stopped cold on her lips as she finally looked around them to the threat bounding them there.
Around them, the ashy wisps of what were once Grimm now floated and drifted about, some left in indeterminate amounts of remains which slowly evaporated away due to their own unique physiology while others were disintegrated entirely, being nothing more than black dust carried along the wind. If one listened closely, you could still hear the dying cries of the beasts as they echoed on, forever lost in the indefinite realms of time and space.
Turning back to look back at both girls, Ruby doing much the same thing Weiss was doing and just staring in utter shock at the aftermath of whatever happened around them, Gabriel called back to them. "You ladies coming or did you just wanna catch the scenic route?" He said, grinning lightly in amusement.
Without a word, both girls turned and walked to catch up to him as he waited on them. Though just as Weiss met up with him, standing on his' right while Ruby took his' left side, she couldn't help but ask the obvious.
"Just… What did you do back there? I didn't even see you move." Weiss asked in confusion, getting a rapidly nodding head from Ruby as she too wished to know the specifics, if any, on what had just happened. Though Ruby did have a fair idea of what he used in order to accomplish this feat, though she didn't know he could use it to this degree.
As he stood there, looking down at Weiss slightly from his' fair height, he seemed to scrutinize her for a couple of tense moments, almost measuring the weight of his' answer as he mulled around exactly what he wanted to tell and how he wanted to tell it. Then, after a few moments of pondering and looking at both girls, he came to a conclusion at last and gave them an answer.
"Magic." He said in a deadpan tone , waving his' hands in front of him melodramatically for emphasis. On the inside, he was laughing his' ass off. However, the only tell that one could see that would provide any indication of this state of thought would be the small grin which quickly found itself on his' face, along with the small bit of mirth that his' eyes now held.
For a couple moments, Weiss just stood there, eye twitching and mouth agape as her mind tried to comprehend the sheer inanity of the answer. However, after getting over the initial surprise the response left her in, Weiss' face and demeanor changed dramatically, fixing itself with an angry sneer as she quickly marched the few remaining feet between her and Gabriel and jabbed a finger in his' chest angrily while she looked him in the eye as best she could.
"I don't know who you think you are. But if you think I'll let you get away with such drivel for an answer, you have another thing coming!" She said heatedly, her sneering face showing she was anything but amused.
Still looking down at her as she criticized his' answer, he gave her a blank look before reaching a hand up and quickly holding onto the wrist of the hand whose finger had been repeatedly jabbing itself at his' chest. Once he had her hand, and her attention, he spoke up. "…So, do you really want to know?"
"Yes!" Weiss said in an impatient tone, eager to hear more about what exactly he was capable of doing.
Looking at Ruby through his' peripheral vision, her standing on idly as she watched both Weiss and him curiously, he then gazed blankly back at Weiss. "Are you familiar with the idea of, 'Time Manipulation'?" He asked, tilting his' head slightly as he asked the question.
"No, I'm afraid I'm not quite familiar with the concept, but I'm guessing it has something to do with controlling time in some sort of way or fashion?" Weiss responded, freeing her arm from his' hold as she looked back at him neutrally, genuinely curious as to the nature of this topic.
"You would be right." He confirmed, before turning around slightly, gesturing his' head towards the forest. "I'll tell you more about it on our trip to the objective. This way, please." He said, deciding to end the statement politely as to appeal to Weiss' sense of conduct, trying to at least ease his' way back into her favor and make the trip easier on all of them. At least it'd be a start, anyway.
Standing back slightly more at ease from her once-tense stature to a more casual one, shifting her weight on one leg while she rested a hand on her hip, she responded in kind. "Alright. Let's get going then." And with that, she walked forward, nearly passing him on her way to the edge of the clearing before he caught up to her, walking in stride with her as they both made their way North.
"Wait for me!" Ruby said, jogging behind the two and waving a hand up to get their attention. Though, given that she had a specialty in speed, she would have no trouble in catching up to them otherwise.
Once she had reached the end of the clearing, Weiss turned around to wait for her comrades to reach her and took a moment to look between the two people she had come across already during the test, her gaze finally settling on Gabriel. 'If I play my cards right, I'll have another smart and powerful person on my side. Then, my conquest of Beacon will be one step closer! But, for now, sating a bit of my own curiosity wouldn't hurt.' And with that, she quickly followed the other two as they entered into the forest, marking the beginning of their collaborative future as students-to-be at Beacon Academy.
Unbeknownst to the trio, a large, black feather floated down along a tree, right behind where they had just entered the forest, indicating that something very experienced and very, very dangerous was nearby. And today, its sights were set on the three of them.
A/N: Hey lads and ladies, glad to be back. Sorry for the wait, it's been awhile and many have probably figured that I left the story behind. Well, that just isn't the case; I plan to see this story through to the end, no matter how long it takes. Though, I'm sure it may be a while until it's done, years even.
Now, as to the reasoning for the fairly large delay… well, there are several explanations as to why. First, I kinda got stuck in replaying the Mass effect series from scratch, so that took a bit of my time, though I finished the series for the last time, so no worries there. Second, I had to help some family move around. No biggie, but it just took a while to settle them in and I still have to help them move into their new home, so there may be another fairly sized break again. Finally, I had to deal with studying for my finals for my extra summer courses at college, so I'll be busy for a little bit longer.
Still, glad to be doing this and I only hope for the best. Love you guys/gals. This is The Brutal Legend, logging out.