Chapter 6: Initiation pt. 2 (The actual initiation)

Luke flew through the air above the emerald forest with a Dream card in his hand, he was thinking of how he would land, his newfound strength, speed, perception, and reflexes from being a Dragon Brother caused him not to worry too much about getting it wrong so as the ground came up he made sure to land by doing a hand stand and flipping backwards, tearing the Dream card and summoning a massive battle axe (he decided to use the lightsaber at a later time) he then proceeded to behead multiple Beowolves that had charged him. Apparently Luke landed in the middle of a pack, the Alpha beowolf didn't give him much of a challenge taking only two strikes to destroy while the others had only taken one. The battle-axe faded away as the fight ended.

Navarog turned his fall into a dive as he used a small amount of his draconic magic to manipulate the air currents around him. From an outside perspective, it looked like he was going to crash into a tree, but he nimbly turned his body and leapt off the tree as his feet made contact. Grabbing onto a branch from an adjacent tree, he swung himself around twice and landed on the forest floor with the grace of a panther. He heard a joyful yell as one of Kendra's new friends soared over his head with gauntlets similar to his matching her long blonde hair. Navarog chuckled to himself as she flew out of sight. That girl was his kind of crazy.

Kendra brought out her weapon in double-bladed sword mode and used it to hit the trunk of a tree, Kendra then cut it in half and rode on the falling part like it was a surfboard. As it crashed down on a pair of Ursa Grimm, she jumped off and cart wheeled onto the ground, stopping in a crouch as the Ursa's faded away into shadows. Kendra put her weapon away as a fairy with silver wings flew up to her.

"Hi Kendra" the fairy said

"Hello" Kendra replied slipping into the fairy language that she had mastered just over a year ago.

"Kendra, Prince Bracken sent me here to warn you. You must be on guard, the Grimm may be mindless but they can sense your power. They will stop at nothing to destroy you, your presence represents a great threat to them. We still haven't figured out why they are so active yet, but expect the worst."

"Thank you for the warning"

"My pleasure madam" the fairy said flying away, blissfully unaware that Ozpin and Glynda, although unable to decipher the fairy language, heard every word. They were speechless on the top of Beacon cliff, on a rather unsurprising note, Ozpin was the first to recover from the confusion.

"Well, I'm not sure what that was all about, but I think we need to have a chat with Ms. Sorenson later." He said

"Agreed" Glynda said as they focused on Seth who was about to land.

Seth had never been happier in his life, falling through the air he turned into a cloud of shadow and floated down while striking down any Grimm that came near him until he landed and returned to human form on the ground. He loved doing that trick, he discovered it during Christmas the year before and gave everyone a scare, before he revealed himself causing one of his more amusing memories to take shape. His reminiscence of the past was interrupted as several Grimm Beowolves surrounded him and bowed as a Grimm that looked like a bowling ball held aloft by tentacles floated over. A red mist swirled around inside of the ball as Salem's face materialized causing Seth to shiver as he remembered his nightmare in full force.

"Hello, Shadow Charmer, I've been dying to meet you ever since Graulas told me of how you defeated that revenant." She said

"You know Graulas?"

"I should hope so, he is the one who made me a witch after all. My name is Salem, and I guess that like you, I am a successful creation of his."

"Please lady, the nail from the revenant already gave me the powers of darkness, all Graulas did was make it official, he didn't 'create' me into anything, and he certainly wasn't able to keep me from killing him at Zzyzx."

"Call his work what you will, boy, you're lucky that I'm being so civil towards you after your betrayal."

"Betrayal?! I was never in allegiance with the demons of Zzyzx to begin with. I went to Graulas because Fablehaven needed a lead to stop the shadow plague, becoming a Shadow Charmer was never a part of the plan. He lied to me, betrayed me, and murdered one of my friends, and it was all my fault, if I truly understood what it was to be a demon, I would've known to never trust him, no matter what he did to help. I was younger and naïve, not anymore, if you're here to try and recruit me then forget it."

"I could give you so much power, you would be invincible, everyone would bow before you, you would command the Grimm as I do. Join me, help me take both Remnant and Earth and all will be forgiven." Salem replied causing Seth to laugh dryly

"It's too bad you didn't approach me when I was thirteen, I may have joined you. But no, I will never support someone as cruel and evil as you are. I may be a Shadow Charmer, but I don't have to be evil. Now get lost before I skewer your floating bowling ball!"

"We aren't finished with this discussion, boy, but I must take my leave." Salem said as her image inside the Seer Grimm faded. As the Seer Grimm floated away twenty beowolves charged him. He used his weapon in sub-machine gun mode to mow down several of them and sprinted straight into the rest with his weapon in dagger mode. Within a minute he had struck them all down and began running in the direction of the forest temple determined to finish initiation and make sure Kendra was safe.

For once Seth had Kendra upstaged, Ozpin and Glynda may have been confused by the interaction between Kendra and the fairy, but they were mortified over the conversation they had seen and heard between Seth and Salem.

"Well" Ozpin said with concern "At least we know they don't work with Salem."

"True, but we still need to speak to them" Glynda replied looking pale

"Of course, we all need to understand every aspect of this. But for now, let's see how the initiation finishes." Ozpin said as they returned their attention to the camera feeds.

Luke was jogging towards the temple ruins when he heard machinegun fire. He turned and headed to the source to see Navarog engaged against a wandering tribe of Boarbatusk Grimm. He had killed three of them, but nine more were attacking him. Luke used a Dream card to create a Gravity Hammer from the Halo franchise and leapt into battle helping Navarog destroy the rest of the Grimm. As the last Boarbatusk was destroyed, the Gravity Hammer disappeared and Luke and Navarog turned to face each other.

"Looks like were partners" Navarog said

"Right" Luke agreed as they jogged towards the temple.

Seth and Kendra reached the temple at the same time and were panting.

"You will not believe what happened!" They both said at the same time, they were about to continue talking when they heard rustling and saw that Yang and the girl with a bow in her hair had arrived. "Later" they said at the same time as they calmed down.

"Kendra!" Yang called out

"Hi Yang" Kendra said "This is my brother Seth, and I guess we're partners since he and I ran into each other."

"Cool" Yang replied "This is my partner, her name is Blake"

"Hi" Blake said

"Hey there" Seth said "I guess we should get our relics" They all agreed and went into the ruins to find out that the relics were chess pieces. Yang walked up to a White knight piece and called out to Blake"

"How about a cute little pony?"

"Ok" Blake replied. Seth grabbed a White Queen piece and showed it to Kendra

"Well, the Fairy Queen sent us here, seems about right we get this one" he said in a whisper

"Right" she replied pocketing the piece and walking over to meet the Yang and Blake in the middle of the ruins.

"Well, that was quick" Yang said

"Not like this place is hard to find" Seth said. Suddenly they heard a scream coming from the distance.

"There's a girl in trouble" Yang called out completely unaware that the 'girl' was Jaune. "What do you think that was?"

"Uh, Yang" Blake said pointing upwards as Ruby fell towards them yelling

"Head's up!" Ruby yelled before Jaune was thrown into her still screaming, both of them flew into a tree nearby.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, before Yang could respond, they heard the roar of an Ursa stumbling towards him as pink light could be seen and insane cheering could be heard. The Ursa fell to the ground, dead and Nora jumped off.

"Aww, I broke it" she said as Ren pulled himself up and started panting

"Nora, please, don't ever do that again" he said to apparently no one as Nora had already gotten a White Rook piece from the ruins

"I'm Queen of the Castle!" She began yelling over and over again

"Nora!" Ren called out cutting her off

"He he, coming Ren" she replied with the chess piece in hand

"Did those two just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked, before yang could respond they heard trees crashing down as Pyrrha, Luke, and Navarog were running from a Deathstalker Grimm. Each taking turns covering the others as they tried to get it off their tail. Ruby jumped down from the tree and met the others

"Yang, Kendra" she called

"Ruby" Yang replied

"Nora" Nora yelled as she jumped up in between both of them.

"Did those three seriously run all the way here with a Deathstalker on their tail?" Blake asked noting how Seth had grown pale the moment it came out of the woods.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Yang yelled "CAN EVERYONE CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?" Everyone shut up and took a breath for a minute before noticing the Nevermore circling above them with Weiss on its talon.

"Why did you leave me?!" She yelled at Ruby

"I said jump!" Ruby yelled back

"She's gonna fall" Blake said

"She'll be fine" Ruby said

"She's falling" Kendra said as Weiss fell from the Nevermore's talon and dropped towards the ground. Surprisingly, Jaune jumped off the tree and caught Weiss in his arms, before realizing that he was falling too. Weiss landed on top of Jaune's back.

"My hero" She said sarcastically as Luke, Pyrrha, and Navarog were still being chased by the Deathstalker. They were eventually hit by its claws and were sent flying over to the rest of the group of twelve.

"Well, the gang's all here, now we can die together." Yang announced

"Not if I can help it" Ruby replied, running towards the Deathstalker at full speed with Crescent Rose raised high. The Deathstalker flung Ruby back with little effort, causing her to accidentally let go of the weapon and fall to the ground. "I-I'm ok!" she yelled uncertainly, as the Deathstalker and Nevermore both moved on her, Ruby ran only to be pinned down as the Nevermore sprayed the area she was in with feathers, one of which impaled her cloak. The Nevermore was about to dive and attack when Navarog, Kendra, and Seth all used their projectile weapons to attack the Nevermore and cover Ruby. However, the Deathstalker was still advancing and was poised to stab Ruby with its stinger when a white blur sped forward and a crackling sound could be heard. Ruby was cowering with her eyes shut as she heard Weiss speak.

"You are so childish" as Ruby heard this, she opened her eyes to see Weiss in front of her. The heiress had used some dust in her rapier to create a wall of ice that trapped the Deathstalker's stinger in place above Ruby and kept the claws away from them as well.

"Weiss" Ruby said in awe

"and dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style." Weiss continued "And I suppose I can be, uh, difficult, but if we're going to do this, we need to do this together. So, if you quit trying to show off, I promise to be nicer."

"I'm not trying to show off, I just want to show you that I can do this."

"You're fine" Weiss stated before clearing all of the feathers away allowing Yang to reach Ruby and embrace her in a hug.

"I'm so happy you're ok" Yang said. They all noticed that the Deathstalker was trying to break free and the Nevermore continued to circle overhead.

"Hey guys" Seth said "that bird is still on us."

"Well, there's no point in dilly dallying" Weiss said "Our objective is right in front of us"

"She's right" Ruby agreed "Our mission isn't to fight these things, we just need to get these relics and get back to Beacon." As she said this, Jaune and Pyrrha got the other White Rook piece, Ruby and Weiss got the other White Knight piece, and Luke and Navarog got the other White Queen piece. "Ok" Ruby said as everyone got ready to leave "let's go" everyone ran as Ruby led the way. They had made it to the base of a cliff that led out of the forest when the Deathstalker, a small army of Beowolves, and the Nevermore caught up with them.

"Move it!" Jaune yelled

"Nora, distract the Deathstalker" Ren said

"Right" Nora replied using her weapon in its grenade launcher mode to fire at the oversized scorpion. Meanwhile Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Weiss began to climb a ruined tower to fight the Nevermore as best they could, after a minute of fighting the Nevermore had sent Nora flying to the base of the tower where Jaune was.

"We need to go and help them!" he said

"Got it" Nora replied

"One problem, I can't make that jump" he said pointing at the gap between the tower and the bridge that Ren, Pyrrha, and Blake were. Nora just grinned and changed her weapon into a hammer and used the grenades in it to propel them into the fight. As they landed, Blake got sent flying by the Deathstalker and used her weapon to boost herself onto the back of the diving Nevermore and viciously attacked it with her blade to no avail. As the giant bird neared the top of the tower where Yang, Weiss, and Ruby were, Blake jumped off and joined them.

"It's weapons are too strong" she said

"Then let's hit it with everything we got" Yang replied causing all of them to fire whatever they could at the bird. Meanwhile outside of the ruins altogether, Luke, Navarog, Kendra, and Seth fought the Beowolves ferociously. Navarog gunned them down by the dozens with his gauntlets, Kendra fought them with her double-bladed sword, Seth sprinted and fired on them with his sub-machine gun, and Luke fought them hand to hand for a few minutes, once a couple of alpha's charged him, he used a Dream card to summon Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Return of the Jedi, and used it to fight alongside Kendra as the four eventually wiped the Beowolves out. They turned to see that the Deathstalker had been blinded by Ren and Pyrrha, the former was thrown backwards, drained of his aura and barely conscious. Jaune looked at the stinger to see it dangling loosely.

"Pyrrha" he said

"On it" she replied, apparently having seen the weakness as well and tossed her shield at the stinger, severing it allowing gravity to penetrate it's armor using said stinger, but it was still alive and trying to kill them.

"Nora!" Jaune called, boosting the ginger on his shield allowing her to jump up and slam her hammer onto the stinger, killing the Deathstalker and simultaneously tore the bridge apart causing her, Jaune, and Pyrrha to be flung to where Ren was. Kendra and the others joined them as they looked up to see how Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were doing. Yang was at the top of the tower, alone firing shot after shot at the Nevermore from her shotgun gauntlets, as the Nevermore neared her, she jumped off the tower and into its beak, holding it up with just her left hand as she fired several shots down its throat.

"I. Hope. Your. Hun-.-gry!" she yelled, firing shots at each syllable before jumping out and landing on another bridge in the ruins.

"I think I'm in love" Navarog said, everyone looked at him in shock "What, if that isn't attractive, then I don't know what is!" With that, they all turned their attention back to the fight to see that as Yang landed, Weiss sped forward and used dust to bind the Nevermore to the base of the cliff in a brace of ice. She hurried back to the others as they had set up a slingshot-like contraption using the cord from Blake's weapon and two pillars in the ruins. Weiss readied a glyph as Ruby got on.

"Of course you would come up with this plan" Weiss said

"Can you make the shot?" Ruby asked

"Oh, please"

"So, can yo-"

"Of course I can!" she yelled releasing the glyph, sending Ruby flying toward the cliff. Ruby fired Crescent Rose over and over again to propel herself forward until she reached the base of the cliff, locking her weapon below the Nevermore's neck, she began sprinting upwards with help from more glyphs courtesy of Weiss. Once she had reached the top of the cliff, she fired another shot, pulling alongside the recoil to decapitate the Nevermore and leap onto the top of the cliff. Everyone looked in awe with Yang eventually breaking the silence.

"Well, that happened" she said

(Later at Beacon)

Everyone had gathered inside the auditorium after initiation had concluded to form the teams of students. Four boys were on the stage with Ozpin right then.

"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thresh, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, the four of you retrieved the Black Bishop pieces and from this day forward will be known as Team CRDL (Cardinal) led by Cardin Winchester" Ozpin said. Immediately afterwards, Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha came onto stage.

"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, the four of you retrieved the White Rook pieces and will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper) led by, Jaune Arc."

"Who me?" Jaune asked surprised

"Congratulations young man" Ozpin smiled as Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang took the stage.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long, you retrieved the White Knight pieces and will now be known as Team RWBY (Ruby) led by, Ruby Rose." Ozpin said causing Yang to cheer for her sister and Weiss to look like someone had hit her in the face. They left as Kendra, Seth, Luke, and Navarog took the stage.

"Luke Evergreen, Navarog, Kendra Sorenson, Seth Sorenson, you retrieved the White Queen pieces and from this day will be known as Team LNKS (Links) led by Luke Evergreen." Ozpin said as Team LNKS patted their leader on the back. "Looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year." Ozpin said

Well, a lot happened this chapter. You probably weren't expecting Salem to tempt Seth out in the open, honestly it made more sense to do it in a Grimm infested forest than in a different setting. Yes I'm pushing a relationship between Navarog and Yang (sorry Bumblebee fans, I never liked that ship anyway) I am calling this relationship Twin Dragons because Yang's full name translates to 'Little Sun Dragon' and Navarog is an actual Dragon, yes it's simple but the best pairings often are. I plan on other pairings between Team LNKS and other canon characters from RWBY. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, till the next chapter.