Later than I wanted but I hope it proves to be enjoyable! You'll start to see a few more deviations from the normal flow here, I hope they're something y'all will be interested in seeing played out! :D
Everything was not, in fact, fine. It was the opposite of fine! Unfine! Was that a word? Ruby didn't care, even if the girl holding onto the claw beside her probably did. Right, they were both dangling from the claws of a Nevermore at the moment, meters above the canopy of the Emerald Forest. Honestly? That part was pretty darn cool. Riding a Grimm? Who could say they'd done that? One Ruby Rose, that's who!
No, what was irritating her right now was the person beside her: one white-haired Weiss Sneak. After all the berating she'd received a day ago and in the morning, Ruby had wanted to be partnered with anybody but Weiss, save perhaps Cardin, but just her luck she had run straight into the heiress as soon as she'd gotten to the ground. Weiss had tried to walk off, too! Only to find Jaune stuck to a tree by a javelin, awkwardly waving. Ruby just wished she could have found him before running into Weiss, but unfortunately rules were rules and she was the Atlesian's partner.
Even after Weiss had accepted that they were partners, she'd been quick to berate and just be mean, running ahead and then getting angry at her for just trying to help! Despite everything, she did still want to be friends with her partner, she just wasn't sure it would be possible at this point. Heck, she'd settle for being amicable acquaintances at this point! And, of course, now they were dangling from a Nevermore desperately as it flew high in the sky.
"Ruby!" The redhead in question looked over at her despondent partner, who didn't seem to be having any fun riding the Nevermore. "I told you this was a terrible idea!"
"We're fine!" Ruby shouted back, maybe slightly too loud? It was hard to tell with the air rushing around them like this. This was fun, even if Weiss didn't get it. "Stop worrying!"
"I am so beyond worrying!"
"In a good way?"
"In a bad way!" So much for Ruby's hopes that Weiss was finally mellowing out. Weird that riding on a giant Grimm as a shortcut to the destination in the northern part of the forest wouldn't mellow her out. Or was it weird that Ruby didn't mind? She didn't care, this was something cool. Yang hadn't ridden on Grimm before! "In a very bad way!"
"Well, why don't we just jump?" Ruby suggested as she took a look down below and saw the ruins of an old structure. Was it like a big stone gazebo or something? Not even waiting for the Atlesian's response, Ruby let go of the claw, beginning her descent. She could hear Weiss saying something behind her, but couldn't make out what.
Oh.
Gosh, this was kind of high up.
Higher up than she'd thought. She should really start using her semblance to change her descent or something, but a sudden shiver of nerves at the height had her a little distracted.
Spotting a mass of blonde hair below her, Ruby called out to her sister, hoping that Yang could catch her. "Heads up!"
Ruby would refuse to admit that she might've been flailing a bit as she neared the ground, but as it would happen, that didn't really matter, as a blur slammed into her side and sent her into the branches of a tree. After a few seconds of regaining her bearings, Ruby was surprised to see Jaune in a branch nearby, also looking rather dazed as he dangled upside-down.
"H-Hey, Ruby." The blonde chuckled awkwardly, giving her a slow wave.
"Are you okay?" She asked after a moment, noticing he wasn't really getting himself up. He gave what she presumed as the closest he could manage to a shrug, though it was a little funny while he was upside-down. Blurring into petals as she hopped up to his branch, she looked down at him with a teasing smile. "Need any help?"
"Well, if you insist." The blonde chuckled sheepishly.
"I do!" Ruby chirped, reaching down for him to take her hand, before hefting him up. "Now we should get down, where's your partner?"
"Oh, I'm sure she'll be around soon." Jaune gave a nervous laugh, one that became increasingly alarmed as Ruby brought him along with her as she jumped off the tree. Landing with wide eyes, he stared at Ruby with alarm, which she thought was kind of silly. It wasn't a big deal! They had Aura, a little twelve foot fall wouldn't do any harm. "We, uh, we got kind of separated."
Ruby was about to ask why, when the sound of an Ursa's roar cut her off. Readying Crescent Rose as she looked in the direction of the beast, she was awestruck to see a redheaded girl with a wide grin on her face riding atop the Grimm, which collapsed soon after it entered the clearing, beginning to dissolve as the girl hopped off. "Awww, it's broken!"
Before either Ruby or Jaune could comment on the spectacle, another initiate emerged, this one a slender boy wearing traditionally Central Animan clothing, a pair of pistols with sickle-like downward bayonets in his hands. "Nora," he addressed the excitable girl. "Please don't do that ever again."
"Okay, Ren!" The now named Nora agreed, before disappearing in a blur that was almost as fast as Ruby on a good day, rushing towards the ruined structure that seemed to house the relics they were after.
Turning her attention towards Yang, Ruby approached the blonde with Jaune in tow, giving a cheerful wave to her big sister. "Yang!"
"Ruby!" Before she could be stopped, Yang had already scooped Ruby up in one of her signature backbreaking hugs. After a painful few moments that felt like an eternity, she returned the shorter girl to the ground with a warm smile. "So, Jaune's your partner, eh? Am I going to have to give him a talk?"
"What? No!" Ruby shrieked, face red at the implication. It wasn't the first time that Yang had teased her about her friendship with the older boy, but it never seemed to stop being embarrassing. Ruby didn't feel that way about him, he was just her best friend! Stupid Yang always pushing her buttons like that. "You don't have to give any sort of talks, Yang! Besides… We aren't partners, he just sort of… bumped into me in midair."
"Wait, then who are you two partnered with?" Yang asked, brow furrowing as she looked between the two of them.
"Well, I was um… helped out with my landing strategy by Pyrrha, but we got separated by-" As if on queue, the sound of gunfire interrupted the conversation as the aforementioned Pyrrha rushed through the woods into the clearing, a massive Deathstalker on her heels. "Yeah. That. Did you know those things can throw people really far with their tails?"
"Jaune!" The tall redhead called out, ducking beneath the Grimm's pincers before taking an impressive leap over a downed tree that seemed to stall the Deathstalker for a moment. Arriving in front of the gathering of people in front of the ruined structure (seriously, what was it? Ruby was still betting on a gazebo.), Pyrrha wiped some sweat from her head before giving them a smile, one far more genuine than she had given in the locker. "I'm glad you're okay! I was dreadfully worried when you were sent into the air."
"Wait, so, if she's his partner." Yang looked back to Ruby, who had gotten distracted by something in the air. "Who's your partner?"
"Um, well…" Ruby chuckled sheepishly, not taking her eyes off the heavens, more particularly, who was still stuck up there. Tugging on her sister's sleeve, she tried to bid her sister look upwards as well. "Yang…"
"How could you leave me?" Yang looked up at her sister's beckoning just in time to hear the panicked screams of one Weiss Schnee as she dangled from the claw of a massive Nevermore, and the terrible realization of who exactly her sister was partnered with clicked.
"I said to jump!" Ruby shouted back, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world - which it totally was, as far as she was concerned.
"She's going to fall." Blake, who looked to be Yang's partner, stated, not really showing much in the way of concern.
"She'll be fine!" Ruby dismissed, waving a hand at the idea. "She should be fine, she had a landing strategy before, this is the same!"
"She's falling." The Animan boy, Ren, if Ruby remembered correctly, noted. Sure enough, Weiss was falling, arms flailing wildly. Gosh, this wasn't going at all as Ruby had expected, Weiss had cool glyphs she could place in the air and she wasn't using any of them!
Ruby made to go catch Weiss, but before she had the chance, Pyrrha had launched herself into the air with an impressive jump that surely had to be enhanced by her Aura, managing to gently grab the falling Atlesian in the middle of her descent, landing as though it didn't phase her at all. An errant thought passed through Ruby's mind, but she was quick to quash any ideas of what it would be like to be in Pyrrha's arms in favor of the fact that her partner was okay.
Rushing forward in a blur of rose petals, Ruby came to a stop in front of her partner and the taller redhead, blurting out a haphazard "thank you!"
"Oh, no, it's fine!" Pyrrha was quick to insist, placing Weiss back down on the ground. "We're all here to help each other, right? I'm sure you'd have done the same."
"Regardless of whether any of us would do the same, Pyrrha, thank you." Weiss said, before her gaze turned towards Ruby, eyes narrowing in frustration. "What were you thinking? You could've gotten us killed with a stunt like that!"
"I-I didn't think it was a bad idea!" Ruby tried to defend herself, though it was hard to when her partner was so angry at her, and she couldn't even say it wasn't her fault. She should've checked to make sure Weiss was okay before jumping, she was just in a hurry and hadn't been thinking. "We both had landing strategies, right? Why didn't you use your glyphs?"
"I, well, that's…" Weiss seemed at a loss of words for a moment, but it didn't last anywhere near long enough to halt the torrent of frustration. "Whether I have means to land safely doesn't matter. What could have possessed you to think riding a Grimm was a good idea?"
"It just seemed like the best way to find the relics at the time! You were the one who got all angry when I was trying to climb a tree for a vantage point!"
"Well, climbing trees is childish! There had to be some better way to find the relics that didn't involve riding on a Grimm!"
"Perhaps this discussion could wait for another time?" Pyrrha asked, interrupting the bickering partners. "There are more pressing things at the moment than this."
Weiss turned to Pyrrha, as though she was about to ask what might've been more important, before the Atlesian turned wide-eyed at the sight of what was "more pressing" in the current situation. Namely, the Deathstalker had gotten free from the downed tree, and was now making its way towards the three of them.
While her partner may have seemed a bit stunned, and Pyrrha was definitely in a cautious stance, all Ruby saw was a chance to prove to Weiss that she really was here because she deserved it. She heard Yang calling after her as she charged towards the Deathstalker, not quite tapping into her semblance proper, but she was definitely going faster than a normal person. Other people were speaking, too, but her attention was locked onto the Grimm, and she brought Crescent Rose down on the center of the large scorpion, ready for it to pass through like butter.
And then it didn't.
Crescent Rose, her ever trusted baby, bounced right off the Deathstalker's carapace, leaving the Grimm none the worse for wear.
She, uh, hadn't really seen that coming.
"D-don't worry! Totally fine!" She called out towards Yang and the others, desperately trying to save face. All she had wanted to do was prove that she deserved to be here and instead she'd fallen for a rookie mistake! How could she have forgotten all the times that Uncle Qrow would talk about how tough the bone could be on Deathstalkers? It was probably only twice, but he'd brought it up more than once so it should have stuck!
Firing a sturdy shot from Crescent Rose into the Deathstalker's unfortunately armored face, Ruby tapped into her semblance just as the recoil started to pull her back, relying on it a little closer than she'd prefer for a fight. With a bit of distance between her and the monster scorpion, she slung Crescent Rose back beneath her cloak and started running back towards the others.
Then the darn Nevermore decided to get in on the affair, and Ruby found herself trying to dodge a volley of massive feathers that were sturdier than steel. She managed to avoid them, for the most part, but just as she neared the end of the feathery plight, one finally managed to get her. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious, just a feather through her cloak. More superficial harm than actual danger.
Oh, wait. There was still a rather angry actual danger making its way towards her at a quick speed. Pulling desperately at her cloak she tried to tear it free from the ground where it had been impaled, before the Deathstalker could get close enough to show her exactly how deadly the golden tail was.
As much as she never wanted to damage her cloak, in a situation like this she was just frustrated at how sturdy it seemed to be, refusing to tear and let her free. No matter what, it just didn't seem to break, and soon enough the shadow of the Deathstalker was looming over her, and the girl looked up to see the golden stinger raised high, poised to strike.
This was… This was really bad. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus as much of her Aura directly in front of her, so that she could try to at least stop the stinger, but she knew that she was in dire straits. Taking a deep breath, she waited for the attack to come, only for nothing to strike her, and a sudden sensation of cold.
"You are so childish!" Ruby opened her eyes to find a wall of ice between her and the Deathstalker, the Grimm's tail trapped within, thrashing about as it tried to escape. Looking to her side, she saw Weiss, rapier in hand, connected to the ice until she pulled it back. "And dim-witted and hyperactive and don't even get me started on your fighting style!"
Yang and Pyrrha arrived just after Weiss, Jaune following behind with his shield raised awkwardly. His stance was… well, Ruby might not have wanted to use a sword and shield but she knew the basics from her time at Signal, and that wasn't it. While Pyrrha and Yang helped free her from the Nevermore's feather, Weiss offered Ruby a hand to help her up. "I… I know I can be a bit… difficult, but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. I'll be nicer, but you need to stop trying to… show off."
"I'm not trying to show off," Ruby replied quietly, gratefully taking her partner's hand and standing up. "I just… I want you to know that I can do this."
"Well… you're fine." Weiss insisted, letting go of Ruby's hand and beginning to walk back towards the ruined structure. Ruby gave a small smile, even if the Atlesian wasn't going to see it, it was nice to know that she was willing to give her a chance as a partner.
Before she could follow Weiss, Ruby was swept into a familiar backbreaking embrace, letting out a quiet grunt of pain as her sister hugged her tightly. After a couple seconds, Yang put Ruby down, giving her a relieved smile. "I was so worried!"
"Sorry Yang!"
At the cawing of the Nevermore once more, all four of them remaining shared a nervous look. "As wonderful as this reunion is, I'm afraid now might not be the best time to linger." Pyrrha noted, an apologetic smile on her face. "I don't know how long Weiss' ice is going to hold this Deathstalker off."
"Right!" Ruby agreed, looking at the trapped Grimm and then the Nevermore in the distance up above. "We're supposed to get the relic thingies and return to the cliffs. We don't have to fight these Grimm."
"Run and live?" Jaune chuckled nervously, his shield still held awkwardly between him and the struggling Grimm. "That's an idea I can get behind!"
The four rushed back to the ancient rotunda, Jaune and Ruby moving past the group that had gathered and towards the pedestals holding the relics. As Jaune grabbed the white knight chess piece, Ruby gave him a smile as she took the white rook. "Always wanted to be a knight, right?" She teased, holding back a chuckle as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
"Ah, well, yeah." He grumbled, his inability to deny what she'd said only giving a little more satisfaction. Back when they were younger, he used to talk about wanting to be a knight a lot, just like she always wanted to be a hero. "Whatever. Come on."
As they rejoined the others, relics safely tucked away, the Nevermore overhead let out another loud cry, and the ice holding the Deathstalker began to crack. The boy who looked to be from Mistral, Ren, was the first to speak. "Time we left!"
"Right!" Ruby agreed, giving the others a wave. "Let's go!"
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Things were not going super great in the opinion of one Jaune Arc. Sure, it could be worse, he could be getting thrown through the air again by that… spooky scorpion monster. But after they'd almost made it to where they were supposed to go at the cliffs, that darn Nevermore landed on the ruined temple that stood just before the cliffside.
The eight of them were hiding behind pillars near the bridge leading to the temple, hoping the Nevermore might pass, when that scary scorpion monster showed up again, barrelling through the forest and topping a few smaller trees as it approached. "Oh gosh, uh… run!"
"Nora! Distract it!" That was Ren, if Jaune remembered correctly. At least, he was pretty sure that was what he'd heard the short redhead call him.
"On it, Ren!" The diminutively sized girl exclaimed cheerfully, charging forward and weaving herself around the flurry of deadly feathers the giant bird launched. As the volley tapered off, she grinned and fired several grenades into the air, one impacting the Nevermore's beak with a brilliant pink explosion. The Deathstalker had almost made its way to her without her noticing, when Blake and Ren dashed at it, their shared attack slowing it down enough that Nora was able to get out of the way with the help of Weiss and her semblance.
"Come on!" Ruby's exclamation caught Jaune off guard, his best friend had only had such a commanding tone one other time in his memory, and that was the time when there was a small Grimm attack at Patch when his family was still new to the area. Thankfully no one had been badly hurt, and there were no deaths, but Ruby had taken everyone's safety seriously and guided Jaune and his younger siblings towards one of the shelters. "We need to get to cover in the tower!"
Everyone seemed to agree with her order, and the eight of them began making their way across the tower, Ruby in the lead with Weiss and Nora, Ren moving a bit faster as he tried to get caught up, while Blake and Yang were hanging back a little with Pyrrha near Jaune, the blonde girl firing off a few of her weapon's micro-rockets to slow the Deathstalker as it tried to follow them across the bridge.
And then the darn Nevermore crashed into the bridge.
Jaune was thrown onto his back as he landed on the bridge, dazed for a moment before standing up and looking around. Pyrrha was beside him, getting up as well. Huh, woah, she managed to get her shield back in her hand without picking it up? That was weird. Must be her semblance, telekinesis or something? His dad had kept a lot from him, he was growing painfully aware of that as the day went on, but having a best friend who loved to use their semblance like Ruby did meant that there was no way he didn't have a rudimentary idea of how they worked.
Across the chasm at the other side of the broken bridge, Jaune saw Ruby, Weiss, Ren and Nora, all getting up as well, but he couldn't tell if they were saying anything. Closer by, Blake was at the edge of where the bridge had broken on their end, and it looked like she was holding some sort of black rope down? Maybe it wasn't a rope, but thinner, like some special strong ribbon or something? Jaune wasn't sure, and he didn't understand why it was going down the chasm until he heard the tell tale sound of Yang's voice, as the blonde girl pulled herself up from the abyss below, a relieved smile on her face. "Thanks, Blake." She said, offering the brunette a friendly pat on the back. "That could've been bad."
"Are you okay, Yang?" Jaune asked, trying to get a good assessment of the situation, tightening the grip he had on his shield as his eyes darted towards the large scorpion, which had been dazed a little when a bit of debris struck the creature square in the center of the white mask on its face, a small but noticeable crack formed in the blow's wake.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, Vomit Boy." The blonde girl said with a playful smirk, raising her arms back into her stance before charging ahead of the others and giving a few explosive strikes on the Grimm's head, to little effect aside from enraging it. Ducking under a swipe from the monster's pincers, she hopped back a few feet with a paggered breath. "Woah! This Deathstalker is really tough!"
"We can still take it down!" Jaune insisted, though he wasn't sure where he got that sort of confidence from. Heck, he had only just learned the name of the Grimm, he had no idea what sort of traits it might have to watch out for, but he knew they had to succeed, or they'd get hurt. As Blake and Pyrrha charged forward, taking turns in trading blows with the Deathstalker before it could get a good swipe in at the other, the blonde tried to figure out a good way that they could stop the Grimm quickly.
As Blake fell back again to let Pyrrha take a leaping strike, which the Deathstalker barely dodged by swerving its tail, Jaune noticed something. The golden stringer on the tail wasn't anywhere near as secure as it had been when Pyrrha and he had first encountered the Grimm, something he'd gotten a very unfortunately good look at when it threw him. "Pyrrha! Keep working on the tail! Try to loosen the stinger!" He shouted, before his attention shifted towards the brunette. "Blake! I have an idea, can you get back here?"
The brunette raised a brow at his request, but didn't deny it, running towards him while Pyrrha continued her onslaught against the massive Grimm. "What did you need me to do?"
"Your ribbon! Do you think you could get Yang into the air above the Deathstalker?" He asked, Blake nodding a silent confirmation. "Right, when Pyrrha gets that stinger down, I need you to do that. Yang, target the stinger, if it gets stuck in the crack on its mask, that could make an easy way to take it out and bypass the armor."
"Hey, that's actually not a bad plan, vomit boy!" Yang complimented, though it didn't feel like much of a compliment when she was calling him that. Stupid motion sickness. "Right, I'm up for it if you are, Blake."
Soon enough, they had a chance to put the plan into motion. Pyrrha landed in front of the other three, before throwing her shield towards the injured tail, severing the stinger, which planted itself firmly in the damaged mask. "Now!" Jaune shouted, Blake and Yang already at work launching the blonde girl upwards.
As Yang reached the peak of Blake's swing, her hair ignited in the familiar flames of her semblance. He had only witnessed it once before, during the incident where she broke Cardin's arm when he was bullying Ruby, but the sight of her hair lighting on fire stuck with him. Especially since he had thrown water at her when he mistakenly thought she was on fire.
When Yang hit the Deathstalker's severed stinger, there was an audible crack as the already damaged mask shattered, and the Grimm collapsed. Looking up at the three still standing on what's left of the bridge, Yang gave a cheeky grin. "Good thinking, VB!"
He was never going to live that name down, was he?
Oh my gosh this was awesome!
Okay, it was also bad, but Ruby thought it was pretty cool, too. Sure, they'd been separated from the others, and she was worried about her sister and Jaune and Pyrrha and Blake, but getting to fight a huge Nevermore like this? It was kind of cool.
As soon as the bridge was shattered, Ruby was quick to try regrouping the four of them in that part of the ruins, so they could take the fight to the Nevermore before it decided to take the fight to their friends across the bridge. Gosh, she hoped it was okay to call them friends. Jaune was her friend, at least, and Yang was her sister, but Pyrrha and Blake were still pretty new to her, and she didn't want to presume OH GOSH THE TOWER WAS SHAKING AGAIN RIGHT SHE NEEDED TO FOCUS!
"Ruby!" She heard Weiss calling up to her from down below where her partner, Nora and Ren were waiting for her to draw the Grimm's attention. They'd probably noticed she hadn't properly when the Nevermore passed the tower again and caused it to quake. "We can't keep waiting like this!"
"I know!" She shouted back, before finishing her ascent to the top of the tower so that she could take aim at the Nevermore. She'd had an idea of what they could do, and luckily, everyone seemed willing to listen to her.
Right, step one, aim for the eyes. Specifically the right eye. If she could blind the Grimm in one side, it would force it to play into their hands by making it favor its left. Taking a deep breath, Ruby raised Crescent Rose slowly, waiting for the Nevermore to make its next pass. As she felt the tower begin to shake, she fired a single shot, which exploded into the Nevermore's eye, causing the avian Grimm to halt its pass and pull back.
"Right." She said to herself, before tapping into her semblance to rush down the interior stairway. "Okay! Weiss, Ren, you're up!"
The two gave her silent nods, before dashing out down one of the still standing bridges, one that headed even closer to the cliffs. Ren began shooting the Grimm in its blind side, drawing it closer and close to the cliffs. As soon as he came to a stop, Weiss launched a fireball from the other side, causing the Nevermore to incorrectly mend its course, and instead careen wildly downwards.
"Nora, we're up!" Ruby exclaimed, the other redhead giving an energetic nod, a wide grin on her face. Dashing out onto the bridge, Ruby and Nora leapt onto the Nevermore as it passed. This right here? This was absolutely awesome. Riding a massive ancient Grimm? That was something surely only a really amazing Huntress could even suggest, let alone pull off!
Now atop the massive Nevermore, Ruby and Nora got to work continuing her plan. Nora's hammer came down on the Grimm's wing, causing it to lose control and slam into the cliffside. Not exactly in the plan but Ruby could work with this. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose to her Scythe configuration, hooking it below the Nevermore's neck; when she tried to pull on her own, the Grimm's hide proved too sturdy, but that didn't mean they were out of options. "Nora, bring your weapon down on its spine on the count of three! One, two, three!"
Just as Nora's attack pushed the Nevermore downwards, Ruby put all her strength into pulling up Crescent Rose, firing her baby as the resistance got to be too much. Arms straining, she gritted her teeth, and finally the Nevermore gave out, and Crescent Rose cleaved through the monster's neck. Okay, that was done, it was really cool but there were more pressing things at hand. As if noticing her panic, Nora grabbed Ruby's hand as the Grimm began its descent, grinning all the while, before firing a grenade from her hammer and sending them sailing through the air.
To Ruby's surprise, Nora was actually quite skilled at aiming with this method of travel, and the two of them landed on the bridge beside their partners.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Ruby screamed gleefully, bringing Nora in for a hug that the shorter girl was happy to reciprocate, with a strength that matched Yang's.
"Awesome?" Weiss didn't seem to agree, no surprise. Still a bit of a stick in the mud. "That was reckless beyond a reasonable doubt! I can't believe you talked me into that, we could have all been killed!"
"But we weren't." Ren added, his voice soft, but with an underlying pride. Weiss' expression sank at the apparent betrayal of the one other "rational" person. "Now, we should get up these cliffs and return the relics, yes?"
They were all gathered in the auditorium now, with the upperclassman seated above them watching as Professor Ozpin assigned teams. That was kind of a horrifying thought: what if they'd watched the whole initiation or something? Ruby didn't want to think of that, instinctively ducking into her hood slightly.
Professor Ozpin had just finished announcing Cardin Winchester's team, and Ruby could already tell it was going to be an entire group of people to avoid like the plague. Cardin was bad enough, but unlike his sister, Sky was also a huge pushover and already had been cowing to the larger boy back in Patch. She didn't know Dove Bronzewing or Russel Thrush, but she could tell they were also deferring to Cardin already.
As Cardin's team departed the stage, the screen that listed the newly formed team's name switched to an image of a white rook, and Ruby realized it was her team's turn to assemble. Weiss had a smug look on her face as they approached the stage, as though she was already certain that she would be assigned leader. She couldn't exactly blame the Atlesian, that was Ruby's assumption as well, though she thought Ren could also be a good leader. He had a solid head on his shoulders, and he seemed good at guiding Nora in battle.
They had gotten to know each other a little better on the trip back to the auditorium, all of them had, really, but Ren seemed to have deduced the method of team selection already, and was quick to introduce himself and Nora properly to Ruby and Weiss. They were both from Mistral, and had been watching each other's back for a long time. Nora was a heavy hitter with a grenade launcher war hammer named Magnhild, who had a semblance that could absorb electrical energy to increase her strength. It reminded Ruby of Yang's semblance a little, so she could already see how powerful it could be. Ren had a pair of submachine guns with sickle like bayonets collectively known as StormFlower, and his semblance was more of a utility semblance, that allowed him to mask his emotions, as well as the emotions of those he touched, providing a solid camouflage from the Grimm.
They both seemed really cool, and Nora had the same opinion about riding Grimm that Ruby did: it was awesome! So as far as she was concerned, even if she hadn't ended up on a team with Yang and Jaune, she was pretty happy, and it wasn't like she'd stop hanging out with her sister or best friend just because they weren't on the same team.
Stepping onto stage, their team lined up, Ruby with Weiss on her right, and Nora on her left, and Ren finishing off the order standing beside Nora. "Ruby Rose," Professor Ozpin started, Ruby standing somewhat rigidly at a faux-attention at the mention of her name, "Nora Valkyrie, Weiss Schnee, Lie Ren. Together, you retrieved the white rook pieces." All of them were standing still now, and Weiss continued to have that smug grin on her face as the Headmaster continued. "From this day forward, you will work together as Team Roseland."
As the audience began to clap, Nora gave Ren a cheerful hug, which he didn't really reciprocate, but the expression on his face told Ruby that he really didn't mind it. Roseland… that probably meant that Ren was leader. Weiss would be disappointed, but Ruby was satisfied.
"Led by…" Weiss didn't seem to have put two and two together, hanging on eagerly as the Headmaster let a brief pause in, seemingly getting a little entertainment from her misconception. All the while, Ruby was trying to figure out how the letters could arrange to be "Roseland." RRSN, maybe? But that'd work better as "Rosen" than "Roseland." Weird. "Ruby Rose!"
"What?!" Weiss seemed to say what Ruby was thinking, the silver-eyed girl looking up at Professor Ozpin with shock.
"Congratulations, Miss Rose."
"Oh, um, thank you, sir." Ruby bumbled out, leading her newly assigned team off stage as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. She was leader? How? Why? She was two years behind the rest of them, what reason was she assigned leader?
Seemingly noticing her wavering confidence, Ren put a hand on her shoulder to give a reassuring squeeze. "It seems your quick thinking on the battlefield has proven yourself to the Headmaster." He said with a kind smile. "Well done."
"Oh, I-I guess." She bumbled, trying to ignore the way her partner was glaring lasers at her. "We should take a seat."
"Righto, captain!" Nora exclaimed with a cheerful salute, which did nothing to help reduce Weiss' frustration.
As they took a seat, the last team to be assigned a name made its way to the stage, Ruby watching curiously, even as she now hid beneath her hood to avoid any potential curious stares from her fellow classmates.
"Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Pyrrha Nikos, Yang Xiao Long." Professor Ozpin began, the four standing a line on stage, Yang with a big grin on her face, Pyrrha her usual artificial small smile, Blake an active disinterest and Jaune a nervous grimace. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will be known as Team Juneberry." Oh, well, it didn't take a genius to figure out who was going to be leading this time, though Jaune didn't seem to have comprehended it just yet, even as Yang made to give him a congratulatory slap on the back. "Led by… Jaune Arc."
Jaune seemed dazed by the announcement, something that wasn't helped as Yang and Pyrrha both made attempts to congratulate him that sent him barrelling towards the ground, much to the entertainment of the audience, but Ruby didn't laugh at her friend's bad luck. No, she cheered, because despite her growing suspicions, she was proud of Jaune. If he'd gotten leader, that meant he'd done a great job leading them earlier, and she was happy for him to achieve such a feat.
As Jaune and his team made their way down from the stage, Professor Ozpin looked at the audience with an oddly passive expression. "It looks as though things are shaping up to be an… interesting year. Well done initiates in passing this year's initiation! We are sending each of you your dorm numbers now, you will need your scrolls in order to unlock the door to your rooms. Classes begin at nine in the morning, so I suggest you take the rest of the evening to relax. Dinner will be held in the dining hall, feel free to stop by before going to your rooms."
Dinner was nice, even if Weiss had been refusing to talk to her more than curt one word responses. Ren and Nora seemed happy to have her as a leader, at least, and the four of them were situated in their dorm now, just across from Team JNBY. Ren and Nora didn't have much, so they'd already unpacked, but Weiss had a ton of stuff to make up the difference, and had barely even started getting unpacked, instead just glaring daggers at her from her bed in the left corner of the room.
"Where do you think you're going?" Weiss snapped as Ruby approached the door to the hall. The redhead frowned, not really happy with the way Weiss was acting, but she didn't want to make a fuss, so she tried to ignore it.
"Just over to Team Juneberry's dorm. I want to say goodnight to my sister." Not entirely false, but it wasn't the entire reason she was going over there. Still, it was all the Weiss needed, more than that, really, seeing as Weiss wasn't the team's leader. "I won't take too long."
"Have fun!" Nora exclaimed, giving an enthusiastic wave that Ruby was happy to return, while Weiss just continued to look as though someone had stolen the last strawberry from the fridge.
Approaching Team JNBY's door, Ruby gave it a nervous knock as she looked around the hall to make sure no one was out of their dorms as well. The door opened, and Jaune greeted her. "Oh, hey, Ruby!" He offered a warm smile, which she happily mirrored. "Here to say goodnight to Yang?"
"Yeah," she nodded, before glancing around again and taking a step inside. "Hi Team Juneberry! Can I borrow your leader for a minute?"
"Borrow our leader?" Blake asked, not looking up from the book that had seemingly grabbed her full attention.
"Finally going for a confession, Ruby?" Yang teased, earning a tired groan from the younger girl.
"Ugh, Yaaaaang! It's nothing like that!" Ruby pouted, which only got a laugh out of her older sister. "I just wanted to talk leader stuff with Jaune really quick!"
"Well, I don't think any of us mind, as long as you don't, Jaune." Pyrrha offered, giving Ruby a gentle smile. Thank gosh for Pyrrha being the voice of reason, just another reason she was so cool!
"Yeah, I don't mind." Jaune agreed, stepping outside the dorm with Ruby. "So, what's up?"
"Not here, I don't want anyone listening in." Ruby insisted, grabbing Jaune's hand and dragging pulling leading him to one of the stairwells currently unoccupied. As she walked, she tried to figure out how to say what she wanted to, before realizing thinking about it so much made it seem like a confession now that Yang had teased her about it. Darn it Yang, sending her brain weird places! This was important!
"Ruby?" Jaune asked nervously, making her all the more aware that she'd been overthinking this. Gosh, because of Yang he probably thought she was going to confess or something darn it!
"Jaune!" He went rigid at the severity of her tone, which she realized might've been a bit much, toning it down from there. "I… You… You cheated, didn't you?"
"Huh?" He squeaked out, eyes wide.
"I… I don't want to think badly of you, a-and I'm sure you had a good reason, but…" Ruby frowned, eyes darting towards the floor. It felt awful calling him out like this, especially when she still felt so proud of him for becoming his team's leader. "The way you held Crocea Mors and your shield… it was bad. Like… really bad."
"I… that doesn't mean I…" Jaune tried to counter what she'd said, but as his shoulder sank and he shook his head, she realized he'd given up trying to deny it. "Yeah. I… I did. If you want to tell the headmaster or something, I get it."
"What?" Ruby squawked, aghast at the idea. "No, Jaune! I… I want to help!"
"Help?" He gaped, eyes wide. "You… You don't think I can do this by myself?"
"Jaune…" She understood the want to do everything on his own, it was the same desire she had a lot of the time, but she couldn't let him do that like she had. "I didn't learn how to use Crescent Rose on my own, I needed help from my uncle, and there's no shame in that. I… I don't want to make you owe me anything, but I want to help. You're my best friend Jaune, and I just want to make sure you succeed."
"Ruby…" Jaune hesitated, so she pulled out her most devastating weapon, one that most surely would've been banned by the Vytal treaty if it had known of them. Her eyes, wide and pleading, looking straight at him. "I… okay. But what can we do?"
"I… I'm not really sure." Ruby admitted, before giving him a reassuring smile. "For now, I'll just try helping to make sure you get in shape. That's the most important thing you can do, we'll figure it out from there."
"Yeah… Okay." He nodded slowly, returning her smile with a nervous one of his own. "Thanks, Ruby. F-For not telling."
"Of course!" She insisted, bringing him in for a tight hug. "You're my best friend, you're stuck here now, buster."
"If you insist." He chuckled, smiling a little brighter.
Things would work out, she was sure of that.