Two Minutes Silence

by catsvrsdogscatswin

When Yang falls, its quiet. Calm. She did what she had to do. When Ruby and Blake fall, it's a jolt, a cold shock of horror that they didn't quite make it. When Weiss falls, it's almost with relief. Living or dead, she'll see them again. When Jaune falls, he thinks of his team, of one more letter knocked off of Team JNPR. When they wake up, they're at Beacon. Fix-it fic after V8.

3. Grimm Harvest

"That is blasphemously unhealthy." Weiss said, watching Ruby practically pour the entire pitcher of syrup over her meager stack of pancakes, which were already piled high with sliced strawberries. "My teeth are rotting just looking at you."

Apparently, the operation to stash their weapons in their lockers and then come back had gone off without a hitch, and now Ruby was back with the rest of them, tucking into an ostensibly healthy breakfast in order to fuel her for the day of fighting ahead. Weiss tried to ignore how naked she felt without the comforting weight of Myrtenaster at her side. There was no reason for anyone to attack between now and initiation, and if worst came to worst, she still had some vials of Dust in her ammunition pouch, not to mention how they'd had quite the food fight with improvised weapons in the cafeteria before.

Weiss bit down on the edge of the grin that was trying to form, doing her best to maintain her proper 17-year-old frosty persona.

"I'm super-fast, which means I need a lot of energy to fuel me." Ruby said with the ease of a well-trodden excuse, and stabbed a fork down into the gooey mush. "You know, like a hummingbird."

Weiss actually felt a little ill contemplating eating something sodden with so much sugar, but Ruby gobbled it down easily, apparently well-practiced in the art of eating syrup-soaked pancakes. She even managed to balance a fair number of the strawberries with it.

"I'm going to be sick." Weiss announced loudly as she watched Ruby continue shoveling down that mush. "I cannot believe I sat at a table with you…people."

"Oi, mouth off my sister, Ice Queen." Yang jibed back, though she was devouring scrambled eggs at a steady rate and not paying any real attention –not like she would if Weiss was actually picking on Ruby.

Blake was nose-deep in a book, eating breakfast around it forkful by forkful, but her unbound ears were pricked, indicating that she was paying attention –probably more attention to the cafeteria around them than the actual conversation at the table, but Weiss was fine with that. Blake was an excellent sentry.

Jaune was currently eating his breakfast with the single-minded, dead-eyed, dogged perseverance of a man on death row, but then, Weiss could understand that. He had more reason for nerves right now than anyone except Ruby –and even then, Ruby was used to people trying to kill her. Weiss couldn't imagine anyone but Ozpin being used to the idea of someone he loved not recognizing him when he met them again.

She crunched mechanically on her salad, trying to ignore the flutter of nerves in her own stomach. If she messed up with this…well, Weiss wasn't quite sure what would happen, but she knew that a mistake would be unforgiveable. Jaune was counting on her, and the gods only knew how bad of an actor he was by himself. Pyrrha could probably read him like the morning newspaper, and, well, Weiss wasn't quite sure how she would react, because Jaune was such an endearingly clumsy oaf, but there would certainly be a shadow of uncertainty and suspicion cast over their first meeting. They couldn't afford that, not if they wanted Team JNPR to be as it had been.

Granted, Weiss knew it was impossible to have them, at least, as they had been, because Jaune was no longer the same person he'd been when he came to Beacon. Neither was she, but at least Team RWBY had the advantage of them all coming back to the same point, whereas Jaune was isolated.

Despite their vastly different breakfasts, they all finished roughly at the same time, and there was a moment of silence as they all looked at each other.

"Don't drop your Auras, try to stick as close to the original initiation run as possible, a-and, um, don't do anything we shouldn't be able to do unless someone's about to die." Ruby said, straightening her shoulders and looking as commanding as she could in her smaller, younger body. "That's mostly for me and Weiss, though, since technically Jaune can use his Semblance because no one knows that he didn't have one before."

"Still can't believe Ozpin didn't check up on whether or not I had Aura." Jaune sighed, before raking his fingers through his hair. "Okay, let's do this."

Ruby gave him an encouraging look, and Yang flashed Jaune a thumbs-up as Blake looked with sympathy over the edge of her book. Weiss sighed as she got to her feet.

"Try not to tail me too closely, since we don't want to make it look like we're actually working together." she said.

---

Jaune's heart was pounding against the wall of his chest with tangible force, and his hands were shaky, sweating profusely, as he walked into the Beacon locker rooms. Was it funny or was it pathetic that this was practically the same exact thing that had happened the first go around, when his heart was in his mouth and he believed with every second that one of the actual Hunter trainees would turn around and somehow penetrate his fraud with a glance? He remembered the stress, the tension as he frantically searched for his locker and where he put Crocea Mors, the prickling that ran like fire over every single nerve as he sweated and fretted under his hoodie.

At least he had his weapon this time around, so that the only thing that could go wrong was him making a bad impression.

Like social anxiety isn't a worse threat than any Grimm. Jaune thought morosely, running a hand through his hair again. He wondered if it would be telling to chop it back to his earlier haircut, or if Neopolitan wouldn't be paying that close attention to them. He hadn't gotten any Dust installed on his shield for the same reason –sure, it was what he was used to fighting with now, but Neopolitan had also gotten a facefull of his tactics in Atlas, and he didn't want to toss such a blatant reminder in her path.

"So…Pyrrha, have you given any thought as to whose team you'll be on? I'm sure everyone would be eager to partner up with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself." Weiss's voice came, and Jaune inhaled and exhaled several times in very quick succession, shaking his shoulders back and shifting from foot to foot as he tried to brace himself.

Pyrrha hummed uncertainly as he came around the corner, one hand wrapped around her opposite elbow as she looked at Weiss, whose back was to him.

"I'm not quite sure." Pyrrha said politely, looking down at Weiss with that subtle furrow that Jaune knew so well, the facial tic that told him she was trying to think of a way to get out of this conversation in the most graceful manner possible. "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Hey there, Ice Queen." Jaune said, his throat tight and trying desperately to ignore Pyrrha as he walked up to them. He plastered a weak, hopefully-flirtatious smile on his face, looking solely at Weiss as she turned around and locked an icy glare on his face. It was easier if he just looked at Weiss, tried to pretend that no one else was there, that there was no one and nothing else to deal with, just fake-flirting with a friend of his. "Did I mention that you've gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw you?"

"Given as you only met me yesterday, that's hardly an accomplishment." Weiss scoffed, tossing her hair. If he hadn't been talking to her ten minutes ago, Jaune would never have believed that she'd come back in time with the rest of them. "And I'm trying to have a conversation."

He knew she was tricking him into it. He knew that Weiss had noticed that he was very obviously not looking at Pyrrha, and decided to fix it before such an action started looking stiff and unnatural. But Jaune couldn't help himself, couldn't help the instinctive flick of his eyes sideways as he followed Weiss's gesture.

His throat seized up.

Pyrrha smiled politely, tilting her head as her green eyes sparkled at him. She looked flawless, human, like nothing had ever dared scratch her –like she wasn't covered in dirt and dust from the Vault– as she looked at him with innocent expectation –her keen eyes following the gout of fire rocketing up from the basement, the sudden heroic bracing of her shoulder and the shuttering of all hope and future in her eyes as she turned to him with sorrow– and smiled, blank and polite but still inviting, hoping for a friend despite being betrayed so often in the past –a kiss rushed and fast, warm and desperate, and he could swear it tasted like bullet casings as screams and ash drifted on the wind–

–being shoved into the locker, screaming, begging, feeling like half of himself was torn away as she went to fight on her own and he was sent soaring through the air, away from Beacon as his heart dropped through his feet–

–seeing Qrow carrying Ruby down from the ruined tower, his best friend limp and alone in her uncle's arms, the first shuddering horror of realization overtaking him–

–hearing Ruby's desperate, sobbing apologies as soon as she woke up, not realizing he had already been told, that he already knew Pyrrha was never coming back–

"Wow." Jaune managed, his eyes burning. "You're, um -pretty, um…"

He trailed off as he watched the smile fade from Pyrrha's eyes, even as her mouth remained stretched up in that plastic expression.

"How dare you?!" Weiss shrieked, coming to his rescue –ironically by stamping on his foot, which Jaune was obscurely grateful for despite the lance of pain. Since he didn't have his Aura up, he could pretend that there was a different reason for his eyes to be watering. "That's Pyrrha Nikos, you, you womanizing dolt!"

"Pyrrha who?" Jaune managed, massaging his foot and directing Aura down into the injury as his eyes prickled and he took deep, gasping breaths, slowly getting himself back under control. Damn, but why did Weiss have to do that in heels…wedge heels, admittedly, but heels all the same.

Still, he was ridiculously grateful. Bending over like this made it a lot harder for Pyrrha to see his expression, and again, he had a reason to cry that would actually make sense. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, d-do you have a boyfriend or something!? I didn't mean to cut in!"

Pyrrha choked out an incredulous laugh, covering her mouth with one hand.

"N-no." she said, grinning despite herself. "I'm, ah, not taken right now."

"And she certainly won't be taken by you." Weiss said, pinching his ear as Jaune yelped. Okay, maybe he wasn't the best actor, and maybe he had been about to break down, but he was mostly in control now, and she was laying this whole "defense-of-Pyrrha-by-berating-Jaune" on pretty thick! Was this revenge for actually flirting with her back when they were at Beacon? He'd apologized for that tons of times! "Really, do you think you have the slightest chance of attracting the attention of the four-time Mistral Region Tournament champion?"

"Champion of what?" Jaune asked, still somewhat distracted as he reached up to try and tug his ear away from Weiss's pinchy fingers. Seriously, she was digging in with her fingernails! That was excessive force, even if he did have Aura! "Is she famous or something?"

"Or something." Pyrrha said, stepping in quickly to help him. Weiss let go of his ear at the first touch of Pyrrha's hands, and Jaune rubbed it, pouting at her sulkily. He couldn't help but tense, however, as Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder, looking at Weiss. Hopefully she didn't feel it through his armor. "Really, I don't mind a compliment here and there, Miss Schnee, and it seems like Jaune here didn't mean any harm by it. Right?"

"Right!" Jaune said, lowering his hand and glaring at Weiss too as she did her best to maintain a frosty expression. "And, uh, sorry if I came on too strong, Pyrrha. I-is it okay to call you Pyrrha, or would that still be creepy?"

"Pyrrha's just fine." the redhead said, and he felt all the tension drain out of him as she looked up with her normal, non-performative chipper smile.

"Ugh. How on earth does a trainee Huntsman not know who Pyrrha Nikos is?" Weiss asked as she threw up her hands, giving him his opportunity to drop their formulated excuse, and Jaune laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh, well, I'm pretty much self-trained, and we didn't get a lot of news out where I lived." he said, and glanced over to Pyrrha. "So you're some kind of prodigy or something?"

"Or something." Pyrrha said again, her smile growing broader. "So Jaune, is there anyone that you would like to be on a team with?"

You. A thousand times over, you.

I want to be your partner again. I want Team JNPR again.

I want our team back. I want you back.

I don't want to be the leader of Team JNR anymore.

"A-anyone who's not Weiss." Jaune managed, cutting his eyes over to the heiress. She huffed and stamped her foot, providing all the theatrics she could to distract Pyrrha as he took a few seconds to breathe deeply and wipe the corner of his eyes on his sleeve. He caught the barest flicker of sympathy behind Weiss's haughty façade, and he knew that she would be reassuring him if she wasn't in the middle of an act.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?" Professor Goodwitch's voice chimed over the intercom. "Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"I'll look forward to seeing you in initiation." Pyrrha said, smiling at the both of them, but more genuinely at him, giving his shoulder a final pat before trotting off. Jaune held himself as Weiss continued to halfheartedly berate him, keeping an eye on the door, until Pyrrha was absolutely and completely out of hearing range.

"Whew." Jaune sighed, slumping almost totally as he bent over his own knees.

"Don't slump, you dolt." Weiss snapped, lightly kicking his shin. Thankfully, it was a lot lighter than before. "There are cameras in the locker rooms, remember, and we don't know what Watts can and cannot access. For that matter, I can't imagine Vale's security would be too terribly difficult for an ordinary hacker to bypass."

"When this is all over, I swear I'm going to collapse. Like, in the shower or something." Jaune groaned, raking his hair back again as he straightened up. "Nobody can spy on me in the shower. The shower is safe. The shower is kind. The shower understands me."

"Just as long as it's not the locker room shower, I can't disagree." Weiss said. "Still, that went better than I expected, you abysmal acting skills notwithstanding. Pyrrha seems to like you."

Jaune watched her face twist disdainfully as she said that, despite her warm tone, probably so that anyone trying to lip-read through the cameras wouldn't suspect anything was off. All this constant façade-maintenance was getting really old, really fast.

"Couldn't have done it without you, Weiss. You can beat me up like that anytime." he sighed, then paused, stricken with mild horror. "Uh, I swear I didn't mean that to sound as masochistic as it did."

"I know." Weiss said, patting his shoulder with a smirk. "Vomit Boy."

"Hey!"

---

Ruby's eyes were starting to get jumpy, she was looking around so much as she walked with others to the Beacon Cliff. In a very real sense, if Neo had come back and if she was looking for revenge, Ruby and the others were all currently going into a danger zone. Even without tiny criminals and their illusionary Semblances, she and the others were still all going into a forest full of Grimm, with enough negativity packed into them from the past few days to summon that giant Wyvern again.

Metaphorically!

She meant metaphorically!

Ruby's eyes darted around, half-expecting some kind of rumble in the distance as a Grimm dragon burst from the ground. With how her week had been going, it was honestly hard to think of something that hadn't gone horribly wrong the second she'd thought of it –and a fair number of things that went wrong even without her having thought of it.

Betrayed by trusted ally? Check.

Unjustly being labeled a wanted criminal? Check.

Family illegally arrested? Check.

Assumed-dead archenemy having come back with extra Grimm bits and pieces? Check.

Grimm invasion? Check.

Horrific mutant Grimm attacking her in the safety of a home? Check.

Realizing her long-lost mother was probably tortured beyond imagination before she died, if she died? Check.

Friend almost having her mind and identity being ripped away from her before she was nearly forced to kill herself? Check.

A kingdom's capital falling? Check.

Lots and lots of civilians dying? Check.

Friend actually dying? Check.

To be brutally honest –as honest as Uncle Qrow got when he was really drunk and equally cranky– Ruby was having a hard time thinking of something horrific that hadn't happened to her and her friends in the past few days. It'd been that bad of a week.

So yeah, thinking of giant Grimm dragons at this point almost seemed like an invitation for yet more trouble to come swarming down on her head, even if Ruby knew logistically that there was probably no way a Grimm dragon could or would sense them and come after them –and, well, even if it did, Ruby had her silver eyes, and she had a lot more practice and control than she'd had that first time she used them, on top of Beacon Tower.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin announced as he and Glynda took their places in front of the line of students and their launching pads. They were in the same order they'd been before, with Jaune at the end of the line and Ruby right next to him, with Yang on her other side. She glanced to Yang, who met her gaze and winked, quick and sly.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams." Glynda said, looking as welcoming as she ever did as she smiled at the assembled students. Wait, were they even students at this point? What happened if someone failed initiation? Ruby had never paid attention to that… "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates…today."

Ruby swallowed hard. She felt rather than saw Yang and Jaune tensing on either side of her, drawing themselves up and holding themselves ready for a fight. After being in so many combative situations with them, she'd gotten to recognize that stance out of the corner of her eye, realize that her friends were ready to fight on a level almost surpassing instinct. She didn't need to see them to know that they were ready, not anymore.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin said, gesturing slightly with his mug. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Team RWBY or Jaune, Team RWBY or Jaune, Team RWBY or Jaune… Ruby thought over and over again, tensing her jaw. She could live with accidentally being partnered up with Blake or Yang rather than Weiss, and at absolute last past Jaune (sorry bestie!), but she refused to be partnered with anyone else. Risk of Neo or not, she'd walk through the forest blindfolded by her hood if it came to that.

"See? I told you!" Nora's chipper voice came from further down the line. Ruby glanced aside to see her standing hipshot, one hand on her waist as she patted the other onto Ren's shoulder.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path…or you will die." Ozpin continued briskly. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

This was where Jaune had originally piped up, but he was quiet this time, rolling his feet to try and get into a good position on the launchpad.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

Down the line, everyone got ready to be launched, and Ruby instinctively crouched down, ready to activate her Semblance and move. Since they didn't have the time or the hardware to modify Jaune's shield, all they'd been able to do was filch from Weiss's Dust supplies to give him some emergency long-range options. Still, they needed to try and stick to the script, and Ruby wheezed meaningfully through her nose, not even daring to cough. Jaune was still shifting his feet, and Ruby huffed louder, still not coughing. He glanced at her, and she darted her eyes sideways a little, trying not to jerk her head with it.

"Oh, right." he muttered, then raised his voice as some of the more distant students were sent rocketing off into the forest. "Uh, sir? What happens if we don't have any, um, landing strategies?"

"Innovate." Ozpin said simply, before taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Adopt, adapt, and overcome."

Jaune wilted.

"I have a sword and shield." he announced, loud enough for Pyrrha to hear further down the line. Ruby tucked a grin away as she saw the redhead glance down towards him, looking startled, then slightly concerned, before she was launched. "No long-range capabilities. I mean I guess my Aura is strong and everything, but…"

"You'll figure it out, Vomit Boy." Yang said with a grin, before she whooshed off into the sky. Ruby gulped and braced herself, then felt the world surge upwards under her feet as she was sent flying into the air, leaving Jaune behind. Briefly, she was distracted by wondering about the tension and the springs and the Dust they must have used to toss the students, stuff she'd thought about the first day before dismissing in favor of excitement over the test, before Ruby lightly shook herself and refocused.

Weiss. Where was Weiss?

As the wind screamed past her and the forest opened up under her eyes, Ruby twisted herself slightly to the left, looking down the flying line of students. She spotted Yang and Ren and Nora immediately, but Weiss was white-on-white against the clouds and the pale blue sky, and it wasn't until she looked up farther that Ruby realized Weiss had been sent flying higher than most of the others –caprice, her slender build, or a wonky pad? She'd probably never know, but now Ruby was confronted with an additional problem –to get to Weiss, she'd have to cross the flight paths of several other students. She caught the tiniest speck of blue in the off-white of Weiss's face, and guessed that her partner was probably thinking the same thing. As Ruby watched, their upwards trajectory reached its peak, and they all began to streak down towards the forest –and Weiss plunged faster than most of the others.

Guess that answers that question. She's just super aerodynamic!

But now the green carpet of the forest was rushing up to meet them, and Ruby twisted onto her belly again, grabbing Crescent Rose and swinging her feet down as she fired rapidly towards the inoffensive treetops, slowing her fall with recoil. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept an eye on Weiss's white dot, easier to track now that they were getting towards the forest and she was silhouetted against a green background. Glyphs shimmered to place under Weiss's feet as she hopped down into the canopy, and Ruby marked the place in her mind as she dropped, slower now but still plummeting rapidly.

She marked a branch that extended along her trajectory and landed on it boots-first, rolling along the outstretched bough as it quivered and shook from her impact, folding and stowing Crescent mid-roll before coming to her feet and dashing along the length of the branch. When it got too thin to support her weight, she bunched her legs and jumped, zipping onto another branch and streaking along it as she ran towards where Weiss had landed.

As Ruby ran, she kept her senses open, listening for the crash and rustle of someone else falling through the canopy nearby, for the quiver and shaking of the branch underneath her feet as someone else ran along it behind her, keeping herself ready for a sudden burst of her Semblance. Some people might've thought it'd be easier for her to use it continuously, but –as Ruby now knew– dissolving herself on a molecular level to zoom along the way she did took a lot of Aura, and Ruby didn't have Jaune's reserves. If she wanted to keep herself in a fighting form for long enough to, well, fight, she needed to keep the use of her Semblance minimal, keep it to short bursts that usually didn't even last a minute. It'd take longer than a minute, presumably, to find Weiss.

And as scary and deadly as Neo was, Ruby was also pretty sure that she didn't have any long-range options in her weapon. It was a simple parasol, admittedly with a detachable sword inside, but that was all it was. If she wanted to kill Ruby, she'd have to get in close and personal, and dashing along the branches like this, Ruby could probably sense and outrun Neo the second she tried to come after her.

Solid plan! Ruby cheered to herself, before she started thinking about Weiss and how they were going to fake meeting each other as strangers. They had it a lot easier than Jaune –Weiss was really good at acting, probably the result of being brought up in that cavernous museum her dad called a home.

"Yang! Yaaaang!" Ruby called, keeping up her socially-awkward-searching-for-sister façade as she sped through the forest, looking from side to side. If she saw a brief glimpse of anyone who wasn't yellow or white, she quickly squinted her eyes almost shut and looked away, bolting before they could make full eye contact with her and thus cement their partnership. The first time, she'd thought that Ozpin's rules of who became your partner was stupid and arbitrary, but now she realized that if someone –someone like her right now– was sufficiently determined to find this exact person for their partner, there wasn't a lot that could be done to stop it. Calling out for someone as you ran towards where you thought they landed, closing your eyes around other people –even walking through the forest with your eyes shut, if you were gutsy enough!– pretty much guaranteed that as long as you could find your desired partner before anyone else did, you'd get them.

Back during her first initiation, Ruby had been too eager to follow the rules and please her teachers to do that, and even though she'd wanted Yang, she still hadn't been bold enough to try and cheat the system to get her. She'd been subconsciously open to the idea of getting anyone else if she saw them first, and she did see someone else first, solidifying her fate. If Ruby had actually been so petrified that she couldn't bear the idea of not being partners with her sister, Ruby would have found a way to hunt Yang down without making eye contact with anyone else. Team RWBY might have formed, but Ruby would have been partners with Yang instead of Weiss or Blake.

Hmm. Weiss and Blake as partners.

Ruby winced at the thought –not that they weren't great friends now, but if Blake "just escaped the White Fang" Belladonna had become partners with Weiss "ingrained Atlesian superiority" Schnee, that would have been a mess. Ruby gave it three weeks, maximum, before Weiss would have driven Blake to rip off her ribbon and tackle her, beating her about the head with Gambol Shroud or a Faunus rights textbook.

No, definitely the textbook. Blake liked to be ironic like that. She'd strangle Weiss with Gambol Shroud, or maybe her discarded disguise-ribbon.

Thoughts of her friends and the ways they might've murdered each other at first meeting aside, Ruby dipped her knees and bounced, launching herself onto another branch and running along.

"Yaaaang!" she called, flicking her head noticeably from side to side as she looked for another person. "Yaaaaaaaang!"

She spotted a flash of white, and paused for half a second to make sure it was actually Weiss before she "tripped" over her own feet, tumbling past the trunk of the tree by a hairsbreadth as she tucked and rolled, crashing down through the branches with a series of yelps that were not entirely feigned.

"Ah! Ooh! Ouch! Ack!"

With a rustle and a hiss of shredded leaves, Ruby dropped through the canopy and free-fell those last few meters towards the ground, and a quick twist of her hips and spin of her body had her feet towards the ground –upon which she crunched into a shrub and had to windmill her arms, wobbling for a few perilous seconds, before she regained her balance. A few torn-off leaves pattered down out of the branches, landing on her shoulders and hair.

Weiss stared at her from several meters away, one eyebrow slowly inching upwards.

"U-um, hey!" Ruby said, awkwardly saluting her with one hand without otherwise moving. "I-I'm Ruby and –oh crap, we're partners now!"

She pulled her hood over her face and turned around, whining into the red cloth.

"Noooo, I wanted Yang!"

"Childish and immature." Weiss said, though years of knowing her let Ruby tell that she was at least slightly amused by Ruby's…erm, noisy entrance. Hopefully Ruby would be able to keep pace with her acting –it was really good, and Ruby was…well, not. Hence the loud whining and the hiding of her face: if Ruby acted humiliated and klutzy, she'd secondhand-embarrass Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch into looking at other students.

Flawless plan!

"Uh, um, well, I'm Ruby Rose and I guess I'm your partner, then!" Ruby stammered, turning around again and peeking out from under her hood as she pulled it back. "Please go easy on me?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, and Ruby's shoulders straightened a little as she caught a hint of genuine displeasure beneath Weiss's grouchy veneer. Acting or not, Ruby knew her partner, and she trusted Weiss with her back like she trusted no one else. She knew when Weiss was actually displeased with something she'd done, no matter what face her partner put on. What was Weiss mad about? Ruby had-

Oop. She'd probably accepted being partners with Weiss way too easily.

"I mean, even if we're not what we want, the school!" she blurted, waving her hands. "Uh, I mean, the rules. The rules! We made eye contact, so…"

"So we're partners whether we like it or not." Weiss huffed, looking sideways and exhaling shortly. "Fine. Drag me down in any way whatsoever, and you will find that tacky cloak replaced with Fire Dust."

Ruby gulped, clutching the pins that held her beloved red cloak to her shoulders even though she knew Weiss was almost entirely faking that threat. Fake or not, it was scary to think of, and the more she reacted naturally, the easier things would be from here on out. She needed to be in the zone! She needed to channel so much painful awkwardness that Goodwitch herself would cringe away from the sight of her!

Still, Ruby's heart was three sizes lighter as she hopped on one foot out of the broken shrubbery and followed Weiss off into the forest, knowing that at least part of Team RWBY was secure. No matter what else happened, at least she'd still have her partner at her side. Now all they had to do was get to the ruins, get matching chess pieces with the rest of their team, and make it back to the cliffs in one piece, and then they'd be able to plot and plan all they wanted in the relative safety of their dorms.

She hoped everything was going this well for the others…

---

Having her arm again was weird.

Yang hated that it felt weird, but then again, of course it would. This would be the first time she'd actually had an arm below the elbow for what, years? Outside of dreams, anyways. Obviously it would be weird to feel through it again. She'd made her prosthetic a part of her, a natural extension of who she was, and having it taken away, even when she'd never wanted it to begin with, created a tiny sort of odd, empty place within her. Something was missing. Something wasn't right.

Still, Yang was also a licensed Huntress who didn't let weird feelings get in her way. Unlike Ruby, who'd stammer and fidget and slowly shut down, Yang solved problems like social awkwardness and embarrassment by bulldozing right through them, ignoring the awkward until it went away and forcing everyone to start having fun. Up until the Fall of Beacon, when she'd had some wisdom forcibly hammered into her head, there'd never been a problem that Yang couldn't solve with a sunny enough smile or a hard enough punch.

The Fall had changed everything. Yang had to mature fast, after that.

Just because she'd had her whole outlook on life forcibly adjusted –just because she learned that everything wouldn't be a grand adventure for her– didn't mean Yang gave up and rolled over, of course. She still punched and smiled as necessary, and damn to anyone who thought differently. She wore her heart on her sleeve and lived her life by her heart –just with an extra bit of caution and smarts thrown in to make sure she wouldn't be stepping into another problem she couldn't solve.

Like now, as the explosions from Ember Celica rolled across the forest like thunder while she dueled with a Beowolf pack, shattering skulls and pulverizing ribcages. Yang didn't like Beowolves, not anymore, not after she'd seen the Hound. The shape of the Bewolves' shoulders and snout reminded her way too much of that monster, of that sudden blindside attack and rush of adrenaline and how it spoke, crickling and crackling and unhinging its jaw to do so. She remembered how Ruby had told her that there was a person inside that thing, that there was a man whose skin was melting off his flesh under all that Grimm essence.

Yeah, Yang didn't care one way or another about Beowolves before, but she really didn't like them now, not when they reminded her of the most disturbing thing she'd ever seen. And how much freakier was it, that she'd seen that thing and then been confronted by the arch-queen bitch of all evil, Salem herself, less than a day later. Too many traumas packed too tightly together had an effect of both condensing and lengthening her time in Atlas –it felt like she'd been trapped under that storm-and-red-streaked sky for weeks, months, but it couldn't have been more than a few days. It was all so hard to tell, with the sky clouded over by Tempests and her frantically snatching an hour of sleep whenever she could get it.

Well, now the sky was bright and she was back in Beacon Forest, making as much noise as she could as she slaughtered Grimm and waited for her partner.

With one last shriek of tortured air and roar of ignited Dust, Yang uppercut the final Beowolf under the snout. It growled its last, mask shattering, and then dropped to the ground as it began to dissolve into black mist. Yang idly puffed a strand of air away from her face, surveying the carnage with the satisfaction of a job well-done, before she sauntered off with her practiced cocky swagger, heading in the general direction of the temple ruins.

Blake had told her to keep shooting, and Yang didn't have a problem with that, but she did have a limited amount of ammunition that she could safely carry. When she came across a slightly familiar-looking pair of Ursa, she took the time to tussle with them, shooting Ember Celica infrequently as she used her greater agility to roll out of the way of their swiping blows or dash around their charges. She knew her partner was close by when one of the Ursa suddenly pulled up onto its hind legs, a very familiar blade embedded in its throat as a Dust-infused black ribbon tightened and pulled at its neck.

Yang grinned and launched herself forward, sending a double-round right into the Ursa's exposed chest as it gurgled and collapsed. The ribbon twanged, and Blake yanked herself out of the forest, landing feet-first on the slowly-dissolving bulk for only a moment, before crouching and leaping off again, dislodging Gambol Shroud as she whirled it around into her hand and her trajectory carried her perfectly into the path of the second charging Ursa. Gambol Shroud's blade pierced right through its eye and into its brain, and Blake barely had to dodge the swipe of the dying Ursa's front paw before she planted both feet on its chest and shoved herself off, flipping once before landing beside her partner. Both slumped corpses continued dissolving as they looked at each other, barely breathing hard.

"A wild show-off appears." Yang said with a grin, holding out her hand. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, partner."

"Blake Belladonna." Blake said with an answering smirk, taking Yang's extended hand as she sheathed Gambol Shroud with the other. "I look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with you."

"Yeah." Yang let go, and she folded her arms behind her head and cracked her back luxuriantly as they headed off deeper into the forest, walking towards the ruins. "Hey, is it just me, or is this all going, like, suspiciously easy?"

Blake slapped the back of her head.

"Don't jinx it again." she warned. "Remember last time? You said, 'That was easy,' and everything immediately started to go wrong."

"Ooh, yeah." Yang winced. "Maybe…the universe didn't hear me this time?"

---

Jaune actually had time to stare and appreciate the forest this initiation, as he plunged through the air to a very uncertain demise. He only remembered mind-melting panic the first time he'd done this, the fear that he wouldn't be able to land, that he'd end up horribly injured and everyone else would find out he was a fraud –if he even survived. Humiliation or death, what a lovely choice to make.

So no, he hadn't really appreciated the view the first time around, and this time, he decided that there wasn't much to appreciate. The forest was a forest, green and verdant and rolling gently with the landscape, except for the bits scooped out by natural cliffs or ravines. It wasn't particularly ugly, but it wasn't particularly scenic, either. Just a nice old forest, filled with Grimm and other students.

Was it bad of him to be more worried about encountering the other students? If he didn't end up on Team JNPR, he didn't know what he would do.

Jaune had done his best to block out the memory of his first launch, because it was so embarrassing, but he was pretty sure he was yelping and/or screaming as he cartwheeled through the air, before Pyrrha's javelin had transfixed him. He really, really didn't want to do that again, but unless he seemed at least a little out of control, she wouldn't help him, right?

This was a horribly difficult thing to measure, and the fact that Crocea Mors' expanded shield only helped to slow his descent infinestably didn't help the way that Jaune's heart was climbing up into his throat.

"Innovate innovate innovate!" he yelped as he dropped through the air like a stone, Crocea Mors held over his head in the way that used to work in Atlas. "What the hell's that supposed to mean, Ozpin?! How do you innovate with a shield in the middle of a forest with no tools!?"

He'd done his best to pay attention when Pietro had explained all the things he'd done to upgrade, all the mechanisms involved, and obviously Jaune had cleaned and maintained Crocea Mors since the Dust effects were added, but he wasn't Ruby! He wasn't a weapons geek, he couldn't hammer together something with a wing and a prayer, and even if he was, he certainly couldn't do it when plummeting through the air at terminal velocity!

Worst came to worst, he could use the vial of Gravity Dust that Weiss had lent him to avoid burning Aura when he hit the ground, but since the whole entire point of this was to get Pyrrha to help him like she originally had, hitting the ground under his own steam would technically count as an abject failure. He needed her to pin him like a beetle on a card to a tree, and then he needed to wrench himself free and wait up in that tree for her to come get him –and hopefully, not fend off Neopolitan while he did it.

"INNOVATE!" he screamed, shaking the shield held above his head like that would make it do something. The most frustrating thing was, he could feel the air catch against Crocea Mors, feel it pulling against his arms as he dropped, but the shield just didn't have enough surface area to slow his descent in any meaningful way. Ruby and Weiss and the others had already dropped through the forest, and he was getting dangerously close to the treeline. In a few moments, he'd have to switch position and angle his shield so that the branches hit that first and not him-

Then, the miracle.

Something plucked at his throat, and Jaune yelped as he was suddenly yanked sideways, into a tree, the neckline of his hoodie digging in deep enough to make him gurgle as he clawed at his throat and hastily collapsed Crocea Mors, reaching up to grab whatever had impaled him and pull himself up.

His fingers wrapped around Miló, and Jaune's smile trembled a little as he looked up and caressed that cool metal. It was whole again, not the shattered and melted pieces he'd brought with him, not the lingering traces of metal that he'd forged into Crocea Mors. It was Miló, and it was Pyrrha's weapon again.

"I'm sorry!" he heard faintly in the distance.

"Thank you!" he called back as loudly as he could, trying not to let his voice shake, and gave the javelin a firm tug, pulling it out of his hoodie and dropping down onto the branch beneath him. It felt odd, wrong almost, to have Pyrrha's weapon in his hand, but with Crocea Mors still sheathed –he shook his elbow to expand the shield– this was the only way to hold onto both weapons at once and not trip over them if a fight started.

At least it was in javelin form. Jaune was never any good with long-range weaponry, and he probably would've fumbled with Miló a lot if it was in its rifle configuration. Here, he could hold the weapon properly as he crouched –mostly behind his shield– and scanned the forest, waiting for the first sign of trouble, be that Grimm or miniature assassins. He'd fought with Neopolitan before, in Atlas –he knew something of how she moved, how she fought, how she used other peoples' blows against them and favored misdirection before striking with lethal force. Jaune kept his Aura humming just beneath the surface in his mind, ready to bring it up full-force the second he even began to feel a blow. His Aura reserves were vast: if he could tank a full-blooded backhand from a freakin' mech, he could tank at least one blow from a petite criminal with an illusionary Semblance.

And hey, this wouldn't even be suspicious to Pyrrha or any of the others not Team RWBY, because they were in a forest full of Grimm! Being on high alert was normal.

Jaune missed being normal. The stress and tension of the past few days had been astronomical, but even then he hadn't had to keep up an act practically every second of every minute that he was out anywhere that might be witnessed. He could yell and freak out and scream and slash things, and it'd be a normal reaction to all the shit that had been heaped upon him and his friends in that blinding stretch of days and hours.

And sure, that Watts guy probably didn't have his eyes glued to every single camera in Vale and Beacon –and even if he did, he had to sleep, so he couldn't view all of the footage he had access to, especially when he worked in other kingdoms as well. But all it would take was one moment, one slip, and the bastard would be on them like Grimm on Atlas. In absence of knowledge, they had to be ultra-cautious: none of them knew how to hack, but they did know that Watts either had or would have access to Beacon's official systems. If they wanted to be safe, nothing that connected back to either of those two things could be trusted, not even for a second.

Jaune hadn't lied when he'd told Weiss that he was going to collapse in the shower after initiation was done, because it was the only place that he was reasonably certain there would be no eyes upon him, and no one to interrupt and witness his oddities. He was gonna bring a towel into that shower and scream into it, scream and rant and cry and do all the things that he couldn't afford to now, spraying the water full blast to muffle any sounds that might escape anyways.

He'd killed one of his friends. That was something that needed processing.

But not right now, because he was out in the open in a territory filled with Grimm. Jaune shook those thoughts away, packed all his negative emotions into a neat little box that he could open later on, when it was safe to do so. He focused all his attention on the now, honed himself into a bright needle of focus that had no room for negativity that might bring down Grimm, just absorbing environmental information and then acting as a Huntsman might.

Thinking could come later, when it was safe.

Memories could come later, when it was safe.

Emoting could come later, when it was safe.

Guilt could come later, when it was safe.

Right now he needed to focus on staying alive, and that meant focusing all his brain, all his processing power, on his ability to read his surroundings, then fight.

---

Pyrrha wondered if she had done the right thing as she jogged through the forest, keeping her head down and her shield at the ready, whether to bash in a Grimm's skull or hide her face from someone else before she got to her javelin and the person she transfixed. Obviously it was the right thing to save her fellow student from a potentially dangerous Aura drop –or an injury– but doing this pretty much guaranteed that they would be partners, and that didn't quite seem right.

That Jaune fellow seemed nice enough, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be partners with someone flirty. She knew she had no room to be picky –especially when he neither knew nor cared about her fame, practically a gift-wrapped pipe dream of hers– but it was an uncomfortable feeling, talking to someone and wondering if all they wanted from you was kisses or further intimacy. It was like being ogled, except without the overt creepiness that let you actually fend them off. She'd dealt with that from pushy fans often enough to recognize it, and she didn't think Jaune was like that…but she just didn't know. He could be putting on that affable exterior in an attempt to get her to lower her guard, for some reason.

He had backed down immediately at even the hint that she might be taken or not interested, though. Maybe he just had a thing for women with ponytails. He'd flirted with Weiss Schnee, too, and had apparently done so prior to their encounter in the locker rooms.

He said you were pretty. An unhelpful little voice reminded her, and Pyrrha coughed, her cheeks a bit pink. She'd been complimented before, of course –she was practically inundated with compliments all the time due to her career– but there was something about the stunned way he said it that made it seem so sincere, so genuine, like he was just completely bowled over by the sight of her and her beauty. That, she wasn't used to –she usually received the more excited, adulating kind of compliments, or people that treated her like she really was a statue on a pedestal, an idol in both senses of the word, something beautiful that had no mind of its own to complain or feel uncomfortable with how close these fans were pushing or the exact methods of their adoration.

Jaune didn't seem like he would do that. Pyrrha hoped her instincts were correct on this one.

She was pleased to see, when she slowed her pace and strolled out of the forest, that Jaune wasn't just hanging from her javelin –he'd wrenched it free and was now crouched on a branch, surveying the forest with smooth, practiced sweeps of his eyes. She prickled with discomfort, a little, at seeing that he held Miló with one hand, but he obviously hadn't attempted to shift it or use it at all, just holding it at the ready with his own weapon still embedded in the expanded shield that he had on his other arm.

He looked down immediately when he heard her coming, and Pyrrha felt her heart lift a little more at the sharp readiness in his eyes. Maybe he was a bit of a flirt, and maybe he seemed a little clumsy socially, but it was clear that Jaune had put in a lot of effort and training to become a Huntsman, out wherever he had lived. He was as good as anyone she had ever seen at Sanctum, and Pyrrha had graduated top of her class.

"Hello!" she waved, and Jaune chuckled a little, sheepishly, before tossing Miló down to her and then jumping off the branch, dropping down the dozen feet or so between him and the ground feetfirst. He unsheathed his own sword after he landed, still looking around a little out of the corner of his eye, still alert.

"Hi, um, Pyrrha." he said, meeting her gaze for a moment, before his eyes swept away, still apparently distracted by the environment. That was a bit odd: with two people, they should be able to deal with any Grimm –or packs of Grimm– that were in the Emerald Forest. When she gave a pointed little cough, though, he jumped, swiveling to look at her guiltily.

"I'm not helpless, you know." Pyrrha said, lifting her arms a little to showcase Miló and Akoúo̱, before giving him a reassuring smile. "Between the two of us, we should be able to handle any Grimm we encounter."

Something dark and tragic flickered in the back of Jaune's eyes, a look of grief that she recognized all too well from the news. Pyrrha wondered who he had lost to the Grimm, and if that hadn't been what pushed him to study so hard, so alone. If he didn't even know who she was –never mind what– he couldn't have gone to any of the combat schools, which meant that he had trained entirely by himself, and he'd said that he lived out somewhere remote, hadn't he? Perhaps it was out in the wilds, where losing neighbors, friends, and family was all too common.

"I guess you're right." Jaune said, moving to sheath his sword and collapse his shield around it. He seemed reluctant, but a moment later met her eyes again with an encouraging and friendly smile, his face open despite the grief she still saw behind his gaze. "So, we should head to that abandoned temple?"

Pyrrha smiled, and together they moved off through the forest. Jaune was quite the good navigator, something he attributed to his years of camping in Anima, and they had a pleasant talk about the differences between being taught tracking in a classroom, as she had, or in the wild and on the fly, as he had. He made her laugh with his absurd tale of losing a map on his way across Anima with some other Hunter trainees, and how he still wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to lose it.

"So you're some kind of hotshot Huntress trainee thingy?" Jaune asked as she held a branch aside, following placidly in her wake and then hastily ducking under the rebound of the released branch as she flinched.

"I…yes." Pyrrha said reluctantly. "I've won some tournaments back in Mistral –I'm from there– and people got…overenthusiastic in their praise about it. I mean, I'm good –I-I'm not going to be a deadweight as a partner, I promise you!– but I came to Beacon for a reason…well, I mostly came to just get away from all that."

Jaune hummed.

"That's cool." he said. "I, uh- I guess, if you're famous and all, and I do something that makes you uncomfortable, just…tell me, okay?"

Pyrrha blinked, looking over her shoulder. "Huh?"

"Well…" Jaune rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish. "I mean, obviously there was a lot of pressure on you, and I don't want to make you feel like, you know, you're pressured at any point again. You're my partner, so I'm supposed to help you, not drag you down."

"Aside from your landing strategy, you seem competent enough." Pyrrha said as they started off again, daring to give his shoulder a friendly nudge. To her delight, Jaune didn't seem bothered by it –accepting it like she was already his friend. "I can't imagine you'd hold me back in a fight."

"Being a team –being partners– is more than just how well you can fight together, though." Jaune said, surprising her with how earnest he suddenly sounded. "It's who you are as people. I- I'm going to trust you with everything, and I want to be someone you can trust everything to as well. The same goes for the whole rest of our team. It's not just people you can count on in a fight, its people you can count on, period. What good will me being a competent fighter do you if we just had an argument or something because I was being stupid, or I said something insensitive, and I don't show up to the fight at all?"

What idiot thought that being partners with someone as loyal and thoughtful as this was a bad idea, again? Pyrrha wondered with a transfixed grin. Jaune was so passionately dedicated to being a good partner, a good teammate, and he didn't even know who the rest of their team would be. He barely knew Pyrrha. Oh, if she wanted friends who would see her as who she was, wanted a team she could be comfortable with, she had definitely made a good choice.

"Well, I'll be sure to let you know if you do something that discomfits me." she said warmly, and Jaune gave her a shy little smile.

They both looked ahead as they stepped out of the scrub, seeing a cliff with a narrow cave entrance rising suddenly out of the forest. Pyrrha saw smudges against the wavy lines of the rock, darker discolorations against the cream and brown and tan, and stepped closer, curiously. She heard Jaune expand his shield and draw his sword again behind her, and the part of her that was not focused on the…drawings…nodded approval once again. While Pyrrha was busy inspecting these markings, she could be blindsided by a Grimm, perhaps to the point of not even being able to pull up her Aura: her partner was very clearly standing guard so that that wouldn't happen.

She touched the sandstone, looking at the scufflike markings of several stick figures, nearly a dozen, locked in combat against creatures that flew and one large, center one, which appeared to be a scorpion roughly three times the size of a person.

"Looks like a Deathstalker." she said aloud.

"Uh- the drawings, or actually?" Jaune asked without turning around, his shoulder going a bit stiff.

"Drawing." Pyrrha reported. "It looks like someone painted the record of a battle against a Deathstalker here, perhaps?"

"So…" Jaune seemed at a loss for a moment. "I mean, that's cool and all, but it's not the relics or the temple or anything, so should we just…go?"

Pyrrha hummed uncertainly, her mouth twisting.

"Professor Ozpin did say that we'd face opposition along the way." she thought aloud, scratching at the markings with the side of her nail through her glove, trying to discern how old they were and if they had been set here this year specifically in order to complicate initiation. The paint, or whatever it was, looked unpleasantly like dried and faded blood, but she felt that anyone who bled out here would probably have painted the Grimm that killed them and nothing else, as opposed to wasting time by filling in numerous other figures with weapons around it. "Do you think he would put the relics in a temple in a cave?"

"Well, he puts lots of things in caves." Jaune muttered under his breath for some reason, before he spoke again, louder. "I don't think he'd do that for initiation, though –this isn't meant as a, uh, a gatekeeping thing, this is meant to sort us into teams. We're supposed to find our partners and fix our teams and nothing else, since we've already been accepted as students, right? He knows we can fight, so there'd be no point in making this any harder for us."

Pyrrha nodded thoughtfully.

"You're right." she said, straightening up. "Let's just hope we won't have to come back here to find the relics, though."

"Oh yeah." Jaune said, looking with misgiving upon the small, dark entrance to the cave and seeming reluctant to turn his back on it as they headed back out through the forest. "So, Pyrrha, you…um, you have a nice shield."

Pyrrha couldn't help but snicker a little at his obvious fumbling for a topic, though this was certainly better than an oblique comment about her appearance that was obviously meant to lay the foundations for persistent future flirting.

"The notches give me a spot to brace Miló if I need to, and the circular shape makes it easier to throw and aim for ricocheting." she said proudly, and he hummed, with the appreciation of one shield-user to another. Lots of Hunters never used any kind of armor or defensive gear at all, instead deciding to rely on their Aura, but not Pyrrha. She could project her Aura, true, take crushing blows from Ursa and potentially even the Deathstalker depicted on that cliff drawing, but why directly tank a hit that could drop her Aura by 10% or more when it cost her nothing to fend off the same with a sturdy shield?

Jaune was apparently of the same stamp, with his chest plate, spaulders, and rerebraces, as well as his own shield.

"Oh, uh, I inherited this from my great-great-grandfather, actually." Jaune said when she asked, indicating his drawn sword and the shield resting on his arm. "Crocea Mors. No Dust or nothing, at least not yet –I'm probably gonna upgrade it in class."

They talked a bit about their weapons as they walked, how they'd adapted them into their fighting style and on her end, what it was like to make one. Jaune talked about what it was like to inherit the one that he had now, and how his family lineage of warriors and Huntsmen went all the way back to the Great War, and how it sometimes felt trying to measure up with that.

The more they talked, the more Pyrrha liked him. Earlier flirtation aside, Jaune seemed to be a sober, serious young Huntsman trainee, very dedicated to becoming a Huntsman that other people could depend on. He talked about how he hoped he would be a good teammate for whoever else joined them, adding that he would do his best to be a good leader for his teammates, if he was chosen for it. He said that being the leader meant that it was your job to get everyone into a position where they could do the most good for themselves and others, to put the team first and yourself second.

They were deep in a talk about cereal, of all things –apparently Jaune was a fan of the Pumpkin Pete stuff that she had once done a shoot for, and had a hoodie of it under his armor– when they stepped out of the forest again at the northern edge, and saw a gentle hill leading down to a round stone building, something that might have once been the foundations of a tower, except larger, with columns both engaged and otherwise in the crumbling, mossy wall. There was a pattern on the floor, something vaguely floral or astrological, with four quadrants, and small stone podiums ringed around the most sheltered portions of the circular floor.

Four other students were already there, and Pyrrha winced a little as she saw Weiss Schnee.

"Hey guys!" Jaune shouted as they descended down the hill, waving, and to Pyrrha's slight surprise, he seemed rather happy to see them, even Weiss, who had probably bruised him at the least no more than an hour ago.

"Jaune!" the girl in red squealed, and dashed towards them in a flicker of red…rose petals? Some kind of Semblance, definitely. "You made it!"

"Totally!" Jaune said, lowering his sword and shield and then belatedly glancing towards her. "Oh, uh, this is my partner, Pyrrha."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Ruby Rose!" the chipper red-hooded girl said, grabbing the hand of the arm Pyrrha was carrying Akoúo̱ on and pumping it rapidly. The three other girls –Weiss Schnee, a blonde, and a raven-haired girl with cat ears– sauntered over as well, Weiss giving Jaune a small glare, but thankfully not assaulting him again.

"Yang Xiao Long." the blonde said by way of introduction, clicking her tongue and winking at Pyrrha.

"Blake Belladonna." the Faunus said, lifting a few fingers from her folded arms, before glancing away again with hooded eyes.

"You guys stuck around waiting for me?" Jaune asked, squinting a little. "Or, wait, did you just get here?"

"Just got here!" Ruby chirped, letting go of Pyrrha's benumbed hand and facing him with a grin. "We've already got our relics though, so once you grab yours, we're gone."

"Do you…know each other?" Pyrrha inquired in confusion, looking from one pleased face to the other. Jaune had said he lived outside Vale, hadn't he? Ruby certainly had the Vale accent.

Both Jaune and Ruby jumped.

"Oh, uh, we met on the airship." Jaune explained, pointing to Ruby, who was looking at Pyrrha like a deer in headlights. "Yang is Ruby's sister, so we got to talking, and I met Weiss and Blake in the courtyard."

"Much to our horror." Blake said dryly, making Pyrrha frown at her. "I suppose it'll be more strategic for us to wait and leave together, though. Larger group, better defenses against Grimm, and all that."

"Uh-huh." Jaune said, apparently distracted again as his eyes kept flicking towards the forest, like he was searching for something. "Any other students come by yet?"

"Just you." Weiss sniffed, inspecting her nails. Pyrrha caught Ruby giving her an incredulous look, before their eyes accidentally met, and Ruby jerked her head towards Weiss several times, rolling her eyes in exasperation. Pyrrha smiled.

"Well, I suppose we should get our relic." she said pleasantly, and Jaune hummed, sounding reluctant, for some strange reason. Had he wanted to be on a team with one of these other pairs? Did he have a friend attending Beacon that he wanted to team up with?

The sudden mighty thud of a Dust explosion made them all jump, whirling around, and for once Pyrrha was a hair behind her peers as all five of the others instantly drew or extended their weapons, facing the source of the noise. Several more thumps rocked the air, accompanied by a feral growling, before two of the trees at the edge of the clearing were knocked aside and ripped clean out of the ground by a flailing…Ursa?

It roared and lashed the air with its huge paws, before there was another thud and an explosion of pink smoke against its back.

"YEEEHAAAAW!" a girl in pink, black, and white called as the Ursa collapsed and she rolled over and off its massive shoulders, which she had apparently been riding. Dusting herself off, she stood again, pouting as she turned to look at the collapsed Grimm. "Aw, its broken."

She scampered up to stand on the vast carcass, tilting her head this way and that and cooing as she looked down on it. A boy in green and white staggered out from behind the huge Ursa, though whether he had been clinging to the spikes along its spine or running after it was a mystery Pyrrha was very glad she wouldn't have to solve.

"Nora!" he gasped raggedly, bending over and resting one elbow on the Ursa's bone plating as he panted. "Please…don't ever do that again."

When he looked up to continue, though, Nora had already dashed off to the temple, bending over to look at the chess pieces on the various pedestals.

"Oooohh…" she hummed, looking at a golden rook, before snatching it up and placing it on her head, taking several jaunty poses. "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle~!"

"Nora!" her apparent partner called, and she wobbled sheepishly, before saluting and tilting her head so that the rook fell into her other hand.

"Coming, Ren!" she replied.

"Ooookay." Jaune said slowly. "Uh, I suppose we should get our relic, then."

He walked quickly over to the temple and seized another golden rook, before turning to Pyrrha and holding it up.

"This look good?"

"Oh, um, sure. Its fine." Pyrrha said, blinking and giving him a hesitant smile. After all, she wasn't particularly picky about which chess piece she got, as long as she had a good team later. She watched as Jaune came back, stowing it for his belt, and there seemed to be a moment of awkwardness as all eight of them milled about for a few seconds, not certain of what to say beyond 'Victory!' or 'Hi!'

"So," Ruby said, swinging her weapon back into a collapsed form, sheathing it, and then smacking her lips a few times, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Um, I suppose we should get going."

"Yeah." Jaune agreed quickly, sheathing his sword. The others all collapsed their weapons too, starting to move out. Pyrrha was impressed by all the alert eyes she saw. The newcomers, Ren and Nora, looked almost shabby by comparison. "No reason to stick around. I mean, most of the podiums are empty, right? Everyone's already gone."

"Hgnk." Ruby stopped mid-stride, looking like someone'd hit her with an Ice-loaded weapon. "Y-you think there's anyone left…? I mean, if they're taking this long to get here, won't they need help?"

"We cannot be responsible for everyone in the school." Weiss sniffed, but she looked uneasy. "If they're good enough to get into Beacon, surely they can survive a Grimm or two."

Jaune suddenly started coughing, and Pyrrha touched his shoulder in concern.

"Sorry." he wheezed, waving her off with a sheepish grin. "Bit of dust in my throat, I think."

"Erk." Weiss was looking at him, an odd expression on her face that was a bit like chagrin and a bit like disgust, and Pyrrha frowned slightly at the heiress, keeping her protective hand on Jaune's shoulder. "W-well, perhaps I spoke too soon. After all, there must be people who only got in on the skin of their teeth, and they'd struggle if swarmed by enough Grimm."

"You make a good point." the hitherto quiet Ren suddenly spoke up. "It costs us nothing to hang around and wait for the rest of the students to get here. Professor Ozpin wouldn't have put out more chess pieces than what we need, so we can just wait for the stragglers to pick up the last of them, then guide everyone in as a group."

"Mmm, yeah." Nora nodded at his side, stroking her chin in apparent wisdom. "Even the toughest Hunter can get taken out by a Grimm if its nasty and mean enough. Safety in numbers."

"Ozpin said, and I quote, we're being graded on our 'standing' as well as whatever relic we retrieve." Yang said, and expanded her yellow gauntlets again with two quick bats of her arms. "I vote we stick around. It's a lovely day to slay, after all."

Ruby and Blake, who seemed to be her partner, both laughed a little awkwardly, and Weiss Schnee rolled her eyes with another icy huff and toss of her ponytail.

"If we're sticking around, we shouldn't surround the temple with weapons out." Jaune said, drawing Pyrrha's attention again. "People might think we're trying to guard it against them. We should probably spread out and ring the area like scouts or lookouts." He looked towards Ruby, who gave him a determined nod.

"There's eight of us, so we can split up and take a direction with each pair of partners." she said. "Weiss and I can take the north. Between her glyphs and my speed, we'll be able to get anyone back to the top of the cliff in no time at all, even if they're injured."

"Yang and I can take the south." Blake said, pulling a katana with a suspicious handle and a trailing black Dust-infused ribbon out of the sheath on her back. "I'll be able to spot trouble before it comes, and she can pick it off at my direction."

"Right." Jaune looked towards the duo that had come up after all the rest of them. "Uh, you said you were Nora and Ren, right?"

They both nodded acknowledgment. Pyrrha watched as Jaune's blue eyes moved over them, noticing the mecha-shift grenade launcher on Nora's back and the more subtle, but telling bulge in Ren's green sleeves.

"The four of us can cover east-west." he said after a moment. "Pyrrha, you and Ren can take to the trees without really losing your edge in a fight, so me and Nora should stay on the ground while you stay up there as lookouts. If something happens –if someone needs help and whoever's on the ground in that direction can't handle it– one of the other three on the ground should come help. That way, we have someone's eye on the forest at all times, so if another person comes up while we're fighting, we'll know."

Ren gave a sharp, decisive nod, and without another word turned to jog off to the east. Nora followed him with a happy cry and a wave at them in farewell, leaving Pyrrha and Jaune, by default, to take the west.

Pyrrha's estimation of him rose even higher as they took their own place, with her jumping up to perch in a sturdy tree not much higher than the pillars of the ruined temple. Jaune immediately settled in with his back against another tree a few meters away, keeping his sword unsheathed, but leaving his shield collapsed on his arm and the tip of his sword lowered. It would do him no good to waste his stamina by standing on constant guard, not when she would automatically spot any trouble long before he did. With his back against the solid trunk, he could keep an eye on the forest and the temple equally, to see if any of the others needed help or if there was anyone or anything coming towards them.

Tucking her pleased smile away, Pyrrha raised Miló, shifting it to rifle form and cuddling the butt against her shoulder, scanning the forest in slow, methodical sweeps. Like the others, even though she did want to get initiation over and done with as fast as possible, the instinct of a Huntress was ingrained deep into her very bones –and Huntresses didn't leave other people to struggle alone in Grimm-filled territory. Cooperation was the only way that the people of Remnant had survived this long: and besides, it wasn't like they'd be penalized for dawdling or anything. It wasn't a race…and besides, even if it was, she was the so-called Invincible Girl, Mistral's Champion. People were willing to bend rules and look the other way for her, and as much as Pyrrha hated it, well, she could make nepotism serve a better purpose than it ordinarily would here.

A warm glow filled her chest as she thought of the fact that she would be encouraging the rules to bend around her friends, helping protect them, being there for them. Fierce, strong bonds were made from such shows of loyalty, though she knew that Jaune, at least, didn't need to be bought with bribery. He seemed like a friendly and approachable young man –like that girl Ruby, who didn't seem phased at all by Pyrrha's fame, just happy to meet the partner of her friend. Pyrrha would be glad to be friends with someone like Ruby, who seemed like a bubbly and happy girl completely untarnished by lies or deceit. The idea that Ruby would be able to hide the fact that she was cozening up to Pyrrha for her fame was laughable: she was as honest as a new blade, bright and shiny and without a speck of rust.

There. Movement.

Pyrrha's rifle froze, and she squinted thoughtfully for a few seconds as bushes whirled and shook and she caught the outline of at least one person clawing through the undergrowth ahead of it.

"Someone's coming." she called down. "Looks like something's after them –might be a Boarbatusk."

"Right!" Jaune called, stepping out from behind his tree and raising his sword and calling to the other person plunging through the forest. "Hey, you! Over here! The temple's over here!"

Crashing through the undergrowth sounded, and it took a bit of strength for Pyrrha to wrench her gaze away from the closing opponents and continue monitoring the forest. She needed to put her trust in Jaune and the other student(s) to take care of things, and keep an eye out for further trouble attracted by all their noises. Many a Hunter and Hunter trainee had fallen by being blindsided by one Grimm while they were busy dealing with another and their partner was too distracted to stay on lookout. Well, not this time.

She heard squeals, which at least proved her guess of Boarbatusk correct, and grunts, and a few clangs of Jaune's sword and the distinctive thwap and explosion of a Dust projectile, but focused on continuing to scan the forest as the noise eventually died down and she heard Jaune explain the ruins to whoever he'd assisted, and their responding thanks. It sounded like there were already two people in a partner-pair, so at least Pyrrha didn't have to come down and firmly dissuade them from trying to claim her partner.

"Clear!" Jaune called up to her after a few moments, and Pyrrha smiled behind the scope of her rifle.

She could definitely get used to this.

---

Blake sighed as she sheathed Gambol Shroud again and watched the other two first-years eye her feline ears before shuffling off to the temple with stiff backs. While she'd made her peace with her heritage ages ago, and how being a Faunus applied to being a Huntress, there were still ignorant, immature idiots that she'd have to deal with who didn't.

A morbid part of her that sounded suspiciously like Adam wondered how many students like this died in the Fall of Beacon, before she violently squashed that thought. Unfortunately, being racist did not automatically make one less skilled –it was just that those who were less skilled and desperate to grasp onto any superiority they could made racism their number-one fallback. People like Cardin and the rest of his team.

Honestly, screw those four morons. They're nothing but stereotypical bullies, right down to the testosterone and haircuts.

A younger Blake might've thought that Ozpin had been scraping the barrel to accept the applications of someone so blatantly racist, but Blake knew better now. Like it or not, the world was a dangerous place, and Ozpin needed every warm and willing body he could get his hands on to throw at the endless hordes of Grimm. Rejecting a Hunter applicant led to resentment, which led to morally loose Hunters, which led to enemies down the road –if he accepted such students, at least he could try to hammer out their flaws before they graduated.

That was Ozpin all over. Optimistic –but also pragmatic. He'd take anyone he could and try and make them better, because if he let them fall by the wayside, they'd be picked up by someone else, and the only "someone else" was Salem or criminals. Dust and gear were expensive, and you needed to find some way to pay the bills if you wanted to become a Hunter. If a school didn't accept you, you could turn to high-risk solo missions in order to train enough to pass the license exam –or you could turn to crime. Vigilantism, maybe, but you didn't exactly get paid for that, and Robyn and the White Fang really only managed because of all their contacts –and their raids on Schnee caravans.

So if Ozpin wanted to keep control over as much of the militant generation as possible, he had to accept everyone he could into the academies –even people like Jaune, who got in illegally. Blake had nothing against Jaune as such, but she knew firsthand the ins and outs of kingdom security and the likelihood of, well, Jaune in his first year of Beacon somehow being able to get his hands on viable forged transcripts, ones that would fool Beacon's screening process…it was slim to none. Leaning towards none. Practically nonexistent.

No, Ozpin had known that Jaune wasn't the candidate he pretended to be, and had accepted him anyways, just as he'd known that she was ex-White Fang and accepted her anyways. Under Ozpin's logic, probably, anyone that could fight was worth training, and even if Jaune turned out to be as abysmal as he had initially seemed, his family history and the fact that he had the guts to lie to Beacon proved that he had potential. Ergo, even if Jaune had signed his application in crayon, he probably would've been accepted anyways, just as long as he showed up and wasn't noticeably a pawn of Salem's.

Blake's eye twitched as she faded back into the forest. Given the fact that Cinder and her "team" had been parading around before the festival, perhaps not even then…

She knew as well as the others that this gesture –staying behind and guarding the ruins– was probably pointless. There had been no fatalities or accidents in their first initiation, but things had changed, and there was the chance that they might. Team RWBY (and Jaune) had a lot more negativity pooling inside them than the first time around, after all: they might attract more and stronger Grimm. The Nevermore and the Deathstalker that they had faced the first time around may not be present, because as Blake remembered, Jaune and Pyrrha had brought the Deathstalker and Ruby and Weiss had brought the Nevermore. This time, they knew exactly where to go and what to avoid (with the exception of Pyrrha), so both of those monstrous Grimm had been left behind.

Which meant that other students might be unlucky enough to draw their ire.

So Blake hadn't protested the decision to stay behind –and besides, it wasn't like they'd lose points for being the last in. If anything, the decision to stay and make sure that every student got in safe would probably win them numerous accolades from the teachers, since it was such exemplary Hunter behavior.

Her brain kept humming, even as she jumped through the trees, listening intently for any approaching students in need and waving Yang onto them if a Grimm was on their tail. How were they going to fix things? How could things be fixed? What, even, constituted fixing at this point? Blake didn't like to write off the world that they'd come from –a world where Nora and Ren and Oscar (and Emerald too, she supposed) were left alone on the other side of the portal in Vacuo, left listening in despair to a Winter Maiden that was no longer Penny. She didn't want to think of her parents, who'd heard her prompt Ruby on that fateful broadcast, didn't want to think of their horror and despair when they came rushing to join the fight and didn't fight her a part of it. They'd always been afraid of that when she'd been in the White Fang under Adam, of finding out she was lost long after she had actually died, and if they ever made it to Vacuo…their worst nightmare would be realized.

Gods, Qrow was still in Atlas. Did he know whether Ruby and Yang were alive or dead? Was he alive or dead?

Blake didn't want to think of the world they had lost, a world in which Penny had apparently died all over again, a world in which Beacon fell and Atlas crashed –but so long as there was a single soul in that world that they'd left behind, she knew that she had to go back, to fight. Blissful ignorance only served the powerful: there were people that needed them back in the world that they had left, and Blake would throw this candy-coated world away in a heartbeat if it meant saving them, even if she and the others had to return to the reality when they had lost so many of their loved ones.

The students coming in weren't exactly thick on the ground, but as an hour passed by, they started to dwindle even more. Blake was waiting long, long stretches of time before there was even so much as a crackle through the brush, and her ears stood straight up as she heard a long, high-pitched whistle. She'd heard that whistle once, when Jaune was showing off a trick he'd learned camping with his family in Mistral. It carried long distances and was distinctively not a bird call, making it ideal to search-and-rescue or long-distance communication in the wilderness.

"I'll check." Yang called up to her, and loped off. A prickle ran down Blake's spine as her partner left, and she resisted the urge to shift, to press herself back against the trunk of the tree she was perched in and hunker down for safety. Hunters worked in teams and as partners for a reason, and it put Blake on edge to be alone now, vulnerable. Without her partner, she couldn't call for help in a fight, couldn't split her attention, couldn't be as formidable as they were together.

She shoved the sensation off with some impatience, almost feeling the lingering cobwebs of Adam's control tearing free as she did. What was she, a child? She was Blake Belladonna, Faunus, Huntress, Beacon graduate, and daughter of Kali and Ghira. Being separated from her partner was a tactical vulnerability, but it wasn't like Blake wasn't exceptionally more deadly than any of the students in the school right now. Had they faced that fucking Hound? Had they balanced the lives of thousands of Atlas citizens in one hand while frantically fending off both Ironwood's mad schemes and the looming threat of Salem with the other?

Beowolves and Ursa and Borbatusks. Tch. She could annihilate those in her sleep, single-handedly, in seconds. It might take her a few minutes more to take down the giant Deathstalker on her own.

Blake faced this split-second hesitation before every fight –that fractional moment of Am I good enough? Was he right all along? before she forced past it and kept going. Every time it got easier, every victory that voice got quieter. She wasn't weak, she wasn't helpless on her own, she wasn't a burden. Others made her stronger, but she was strong enough on her own.

Yang came jogging back.

"All the chess pieces are gone." she said, and Blake hopped down out of the tree. "Jaune and Ruby think we should pack it in."

"I assume, as the farthest away from the cliff, we're going to wait until the others have clustered up before we go?" she asked as she cocked Gambol Shroud into pistol form, the blade folding back over her wrist, and Yang grinned.

"You got it, partner."

They settled together, Blake facing towards the forest and Yang glancing over her shoulder for the others to gather up. It wasn't more than a minute before Blake felt the change in the Yang –a minute shift in her breathing, a slight exhale, a stiffening of her muscles– and without the need for words, they started walking, Yang looking on all sides and Blake keeping an eye towards the rear as they followed in the wake of the other six. Blake felt a stirring of unease, knowing that this probably looked too professional for mere first-year students –but she wasn't about to sacrifice cover in the name of basic safety. If Salem somehow learned of who and what they were, they could work with that. They'd thwarted her plans once, they could do it again.

They couldn't come back from dying because they let down their guard and Neopolitan slid through it with a drawn blade.

Cautious but not slow, step by step, they worked their way towards the cliff face, until they were less than fifty feet from the others, who were moving in a solid clump, close enough that Blake's cat ears could hear the rustle of their clothes and the sound of their breath on the slight breeze.

An ear-splitting shriek pierced the air, and Blake looked up as Yang whirled, cocking her gauntlets. The giant Nevermore that they'd seen in their first initiation was barreling towards them over the treetops, wings spread wide. Blake didn't have time to care about whose negativity summoned it or why, or if it had only plunged down on them because they were all finally out in the open –she and the others had seconds to act.

She hurled Gambol Shroud upwards with a crack of gunfire, and the sickle spun through the air, trailing her ribbon, before winding securely around the Nevermore's claw. With a jerk and a tug, Blake was sent soaring up into the sky, just like the first time, when she'd done this in the ravine spanned by ruins –but this time, she knew how tough its hide was. As soon as the bulk of the beast came rushing up towards her, Blake dislodged her ribbon with a flick of her wrist and a twist of Aura, grabbing the claw as soon as she hit it and throwing Gambol Shroud back down, towards where Yang was already running, understanding her plan.

"Hit the wings!" she heard Ruby's voice, thin and far below, as Blake quickly twisted herself, winding her legs securely around the scaly toughness of the Nevermore's claw to dangle upside-down in the air, fingers wrapped around the black ribbon of her weapon. Within seconds, she felt the familiar firm tug that meant that Yang had caught the other end, and jerked with all her strength, sending her Aura flickering down the ribbon as the Gravity Dust woven through it shimmered, black on black. Far more elastic than a real ribbon ought to be, the material twanged and pulled, launching Yang up into the sky with her.

There was an impact nearby, an icy rush against her face and a brittle cracking sound as the whole creature lurched, and Blake briefly glanced aside to see a lump of ice spreading across the nearest wing. Weiss, then, was doing as Ruby said and targeting the Nevermore at its weakest point. If it was grounded, it lost much of its attacking power, as it also did if its razor-edged feathers were coated in ice. She smirked briefly, and then Yang was there, driving her free fist up into the chin of the bird with a roar as another dull explosion rocked Blake's support. Its head jerked back, and another ear-splitting cry tore the air as Blake winced, flattening her feline ears, as Yang dropped Gambol Shroud in seconds and wrapped her other hand around the hinge of its jaw to keep herself from falling.

"What's that? You like that?" Yang snarled to the Grimm. She pulled her free fist back. "Well I've got more to give ya!"

Dust explosions bellowed and shrieked as Yang hit that same point over and over again, the Nevermore lurching and dipping precariously as it tried to shake them off. Dust capsules were flying off of Yang's wrist, and Blake had to lean out of the way of a few as they trailed soundlessly back down to the ground, reeling Gambol Shroud back in. Blake gripped harder with her knees as the sky wheeled and danced around them, before racking the slide of her weapon and accompanying Yang's hits with short, static barrages of her own in between each punch, aimed at the same spot.

A huge boom made them both pause, clutching onto their respective grips, as pink smoke washed over them both from the Nevermore's other wing. It screamed again, definitely losing height, and Blake flicked her eyes out, taking a moment to orient as best she could and assess how close to the cliffs they were. It was harder than it might sound, given how erratically the bird was flying, as well as the fact that she was hanging upside-down from one of its legs.

"Drop!" she heard Ruby's yell, and unquestioningly, Blake opened her legs and started to fall, Yang a heartbeat behind her. "Weiss!"

As expected, Blake's feet hit a series of black Gravity glyphs as soon as she flipped rightside-up, slowing her descent considerably along with Yang as their plunge turned into something more of a slide –though they were still falling vertically.

"Pyrrha, hit the neck!" Jaune then yelled from the ground, and Blake heard the sharp whisk of something long and metallic being thrown with tremendous force through the air. The Nevermore, which had managed to labor several strokes without them, gave one last keening cry as Pyrrha's javelin tore through the spot on its throat where she and Yang had been hitting, going all the way through the brain and blasting out of the mask on its head. The bird dropped like a stone, and Blake barely had time to see the gold and red of Pyrrha's javelin pausing midair, haloed by a black glow, before it was inexplicably wheeling back towards the ground, probably guided by Pyrrha's Semblance.

Blake and Yang hit the ground as Weiss lowered Myrtenaster and Pyrrha caught her javelin.

The Nevermore hit the cliffs, already crumbing to black dust, and there was a moment of silence as they all caught their respective breaths.

"Well." Nora said brightly after a few seconds. "We sure showed that guy, huh?"

---

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin said into the echoing auditorium. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by…Cardin Winchester!"

The crowd applauded politely as those four left the stage, and Jaune swallowed nervously as he and the others walked up, following Glynda's gesture as their faces filled the screen above the stage.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR."

Nora giggled excitedly and grabbed Ren in a hug as the polite applause started up, and it fell against his ears like snow, soft and meaningless. His muscles felt like wax and his bones felt like air, and all he could think about was the affirmation humming in the air.

We're together.

We're together.

We're together.

"Led by…Jaune Arc!"

We're together, and we're staying that way, this time. I won't let you guys down again.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin said, and Jaune flashed a brief, blind smile, and wondered if this was what Pyrrha felt like all the time, hearing the crowd roar its approval in the background while his mind was occupied by a thousand other, far more important, things.

Pyrrha bumped his shoulder, and he stumbled rather than fell this time, distracted enough to be off guard but not weak enough to be floored by a friendly tap. He smiled at her, too, and her answering grin was nothing short of dazzling as they left the stage.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by…Ruby Rose!"

The crowd cheered as the final team was announced, and Jaune looked back, managing to catch Ruby's silver eyes through all the light and the sound and the swelling emotions. We did it, he nodded to her, and she nodded back, her eyes brimming with tears and emotions she didn't dare show. We did.

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an…interesting year." Ozpin finished, and Ruby and Jaune turned away with the exact same thought in their minds.

You have no idea.

---

"Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah, I get it, boss."

One would be forgiven for thinking that the shadow-shrouded room, lit only by moonlight peeking through a high window, would be a classroom or a librarian's room: there were certainly bookshelves enough, running like a forest all the way back to the door. There was a map of the City of Vale on a wall, and a desk, and a very irritable man tapping one finger where he was leaning his hand against it.

But the shelves were empty, completely, and the moonlight was peeking in through a warehouse window, and the map had certain…creative additions, done in red pen, that were not at all academic. 'Cops,' 'commercial district,' 'dumb cops,' and 'upper class' were notable –as was the fact that 'Beacon' was not only written strongly, but circled for emphasis.

Neo had always had a certain sense of humor.

Muffled and noticeably unhappy mutterings came in through the Scroll, before the other party evidently hung up, and Roman slammed the Scroll-faced down on the desk with a hefty sigh. He stood there for a few seconds, hands braced against the high table, before pulling out a cigar and flicking open his custom lighter. He snapped it shut again as the flame caught, puffing out a few smoke-laden breaths, before glancing over into an especially dark corner.

"You gonna lecture me about smoking now, too?" he asked, using two fingers to pull the cigar out of his mouth as he did.

Neopolitan grinned slightly from where she sat propped up on a stool, and said nothing. She never did.

The sound of a trolley interrupted their not-conversation, and Roman looked over to see one of the White Fang grunts –Terry or Jerry or something like that– wheeling in a sample of their latest shipment. Roman flicked out the payment Lien from his pocket, flipping it over once to show that it wasn't forged before dropping the fanned cards on the lid. Larry took them with a swipe of his hand, and Roman waved an indulgent hand at the crate.

"Open it."

Barry did so, cracking the lid open with a crowbar to show rows and rows of high-grade, refined Dust crystals shimmering in their custom-fitted casing. Roman idly picked up a Water crystal, inspecting it. Sure, it was refined and it'd work pretty well, but it was pale –more Ice than Water, which meant that they needed to hit higher-quality shipments. Cinder wouldn't be satisfied with good Dust, she wanted the best Dust –the purest and strongest, stuff that wasn't just refined but also naturally formed of exclusive elements.

He sighed.

"We're gonna need more men…"

He waved the Faunus off, letting him go back to whatever it was that he did around the base –probably get in a corner with all his friends and grumble about how unfair the world was, boo-hoo, why us, all the rest of it. Roman stuck his cigar back in his mouth, puffing on it thoughtfully as he put the crystal back and closed the crate, then leaned his hips back against the desk.

Neo clicked her tongue softly, her usual method of getting his attention in a relaxed situation, and he glanced over as she started to sign something, her mismatched eyes focused on the crate. Her expression was full of foreboding.

"This is making too much noise."

"Again, Neo, though I'm touched and flattered by your concern, I'm not an idiot punk running around on his first heist." Roman said with a sigh of exasperation, and tapped out some of his ash onto the ground. "I know what we're doing. We know what we're doing. We both know that this thing is either gonna blow up in our faces or give us 'rewards beyond our wildest dreams' like Cinder said –but in either case, it's something way too far out of our league for us to fight. Let's just ride the storm and hope we get something good out of it, yeah?"

"You're not looking for enough ways out of it."

"What, is this your way of saying I'm getting old? Don't tell me that tussle with Little Red got even you worried about my quote-unquote, recent slip-ups." Roman asked, grinning a little as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Up until a few days ago you were on my side in this."

"I'm always on your side." Neo signed, and if he didn't know any better, he'd say she looked worried as she glanced towards the crate again, like she thought something in it might bite her. "Just…you know that there's ways out of this, if we think hard enough. You can outsmart anyone if you think hard enough. You could outplan a god."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, kid." Roman said, but he was smiling as he did it.

Neo looked frustrated, like she didn't think he was taking this seriously –and like, he wasn't, but why bother? He and Neo were good, and together they were the best. So what if Cinder scared the stuffing out of him, so what if he knew a thousand times better than to actually cross her in a fight –that didn't mean that they couldn't find a way to shank her in a dark alley or something. Neo's weird bout of sudden paranoia didn't mean anything, especially when a sense of caution wasn't going to stop them going forward. They were caught up in the flood now, and he was going to damn well ride it until it dropped, with Neo by his side. It was the only thing he could do.

Her hands hesitated, before she gave a silent sigh and committed.

"Just be careful, okay? I don't want to lose you."

Roman snickered and puffed on his cigar. "Its cute that you think you can." he said, missing the way Neo's hands, having dropped into her lap, tightened on the handle of her weapon at those words.

---

For everyone who said that there's no way that Jaune would be able to fool Pyrrha by acting like he didn't know her: yes, absolutely, which is why Weiss stepped up to make acting irrelevant.

CAN'T BE WEIRD CRYING IF SOMEONE'S JUST BROKEN YOUR FOOT UNDER THEIR HEEL.

Also, the Tempests Yang mentioned are a new type of Grimm seen in the background of Volume 8 –they're jellyfish-like Grimm, kinda like the Seer, except with a flat top and big as an Atlas airship, since we see one wrapped around a Bullhead in the background at one point. They can create electric currents to summon/create storms, which is why there was all that freaky red clouds and mood lighting when Salem rolled up with her Grimm army –it wasn't just narrative ambiance she created by being evil, though you could definitely argue the fact that the Tempest Grimm are just an in-universe excuse to have it.

In addition to that, in case I don't get a chapter out between now and September, I am going to be SUPER busy this fall semester of college, so don't...don't expect any updates. I know my "update schedule" is something that's been largely spoken of only in whispered legends up until now, but this is like, a planned non-update block. There'll be a lot of stuff on my plate and I probably won't have the time to write, full stop, never mind scrub and edit things, so I feel like its worth the space to inform my readers why I've just dropped off the face of the earth. If I get anything posted, just be very thankful that I managed to breach the surface of homework hell.