Lazily floating through the sky the airship carrying the latest group of students on their way to Beacon makes its final descent.
Among those eager young huntsmen and huntresses, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long look out the large bay windows overlooking the campus.
"So this is Beacon." The eldest sister says with a smirk on her face.
"Yup. We're almost there." Ruby replies with only a slight tinge of nervousness in her voice. "Gotta keep an eye out for Ozpin though."
"Yeah yeah yeah." Yang says with an exasperated sigh. "Mom gave both of us the talking to about not taking everything Oz says at face value."
"Yang, I told you I met him right. When he offered me the spot to come to Beacon."
"Yeah? What about it?" Yang glances over to her sister.
"The first thing he said to me, 'You have silver eyes'" Ruby's gaze hardens as she stares out at Beacon's central tower.
Yang's usual carefree smile turns into a scowl. "Bastard" She curses as she also glares at the tower. She then lowers her voice so that only Ruby should be able to hear her. "Well it doesn't really change much, we both keep our 'special powers' under wraps for now. And no going to the teachers with any of it."
"Until we get our teams right? We can tell them?" Ruby says equally low.
Yang smiles her expression warming, "Yeah sis of course. Our teams are like our new families. Like mom says, right?"
Ruby chuckles. "Of course, though I kinda would want to be on a team with you."
"Hey." Yang nudges her sister so the pair are facing each other, her hands on the smaller girl's shoulders. "Whether we are on the same team or not, I will always have your back no matter what." She says looking deep into her sister's shining silver eyes.
Ruby smiles back at her older and protective sister. "And I will always have yours."
"Wouldn't want it any other way sis!" Yang replied with a smile and a hug.
To most, this would have been a completely innocent sisterly moment. But one ebony-haired girl was able to eavesdrop on the sister's conversation even as she appeared nose deep in a book. Her hearing is well above what a normal human was capable of.
Blake Belladonna had fled to Vale to get away from her past and to try and do good she applied to Beacon to become a huntress. The secret Faunus kept her cat ears bound in a bow to hide her heritage, even during her interview when she applied to enroll at Beacon.
The way the headmaster looked at her, that small smile, almost as if he knew her secret but he never said anything and never brought up that her enrollment form said she was human.
The sister's conversation brought both relief and dread to the girl. Relief that she is not the only one with a bad feeling about the headmaster. And dread for that very same reason.
As the airship throttles down its engine and the bay door opens to allow the prospective students to disembark, the black-haired girl sighs and goes back to her book, waiting for the rush of students to thin out before she gets up from her seat.
As the students make their departure from the airship Yang and Ruby also hold back a bit, letting the over-eager and overly excited students out first. Along with one particular blonde fellow who was looking very green around the gills.
The sisters stride confidently out onto the tarmac until a streak of red catches Yang's attention.
"No way," Yang mutters in disbelief before shouting and waving a hand. "Pyrrha!"
The tall red-headed amazon turns, hearing her name be called, "Hello Yang." She says with a smile.
The blond stalks to the other girl with a look of mock anger on her face. "Don't you 'Hello Yang' me. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Haven?" She says before giving the tournament champion a friendly punch to the shoulder. "That's for not telling me you were going to be here. Worst best friend ever." She says in an overly dramatic fashion, complete with a mock sulk and crossing her arms.
Pyrrha giggles at her friend's reaction. "I wanted to surprise you?" She offers weakly, earning a hearty laugh from the blonde.
"Well consider me surprised alright!" She says pulling the taller girl into a hug. "It is so good to see you! We have to catch up! Ruby?"
The shorter girl lets out a small laugh and smiles. "Go. I can catch up with you later."
"Thanks, sis! You're the best!" Yang says as she drags the other girl off. "Come on Pyr, it has been too long."
Others in the crowd watched this whole exchange with complete and utter disbelief. Pyrrha Nikos, the 4 time Mistral Regional Tournament minor league division champion, known as the invincible girl, the amazon that was guaranteed the top spot at any school getting embraced and dragged around by some no-name blonde.
Ruby sighs to herself as she idly makes her way through the thinning crowd. To other people, Pyrrha is this warrior goddess, put up on a pedestal and completely untouchable. But when she and Yang first met the champion all the sisters thought of her was how lonely she looked.
Yang first saw Pyrrha like many others did during her first tournament. The hard battle the 13-year-old girl had fought to claim the title inspired Yang to up her own training even more. Something Raven encouraged and supported wholeheartedly. Then she wanted to take on the MRT as well.
The thing was after Pyrrha's first win the tournament changed their entrance rules. They could not bar Pyrrha without sparking outrage, but they could help keep out those that may disrupt the usual contenders.
The tournament was always divided into 3 distinct leagues. The junior league was where aspiring young huntsmen and huntresses could compete. This was the league for those still in school, though was less popular than the Vytal tournament and was held in the opposite part of the year as the Vytal tournament.
The Grand League was a tournament only held every 2 years and was very selective about who would be allowed to compete. Things like age, prior tournament battles, and successful hunts all factor into a person's candidacy. Usually, no more than 24 contestants would be invited to the Grand League.
The minor league tournament was supposed to be only for those that have already graduated but there were no formal restrictions on who could compete. This meant a sprawling field with each contestant having a dozen matches or more if there were a lot of contenders. After Pyrrha's unprecedented win they changed the rules to exclude those under 15 and those that were not fully licensed hunters would need to be sponsored by a veteran hunter. Most veteran hunters would be hesitant to sponsor a young and inexperienced contestant because it would look bad for their reputation.
This was no problem for Yang whose uncle Qrow was able to sponsor her. Qrow cared little about reputation for himself and even less about the tournament. But after talking to from his sister, he agreed to sponsor Yang.
And so at 15-year-old Yang was able to tear her way through the tournament all the way through to the semi-finals where she was able to face off against the two-time defending champion.
Pyrrha herself would consider this one of her most difficult fights up to that point. Yang's sheer tenacity, aggressiveness, and skill were able to keep up with the amazonian gladiator. Yet through it all, Yang kept this infuriating smile on her face. Not the same kind of condescending or patronizing smirk some of her opponents had before their inevitable defeat. To Pyrrha, it looked like the blonde was actually having fun fighting her.
The warrior was baffled by this through the whole fight, but that did not stop her from maintaining her undefeated record. Yang took third place in that tournament but many of the contents said that Yang should have gotten second considering the great showing she put on as opposed to the more lackluster opponent Pyrrha faced in the finals.
What really shocked Pyrrha was that after the fight Yang did not behave like her other opponents. She didn't scowl or get angry or curse or say the match was rigged. In the locker rooms, Yang still seemed her usual happy self, for the most part.
Flashback
"Why?"
"Hmm?" Yang turns from her assigned locker at the question meeting the gaze of the girl that knocked her out of the tournament.
"Why are you smiling? Why aren't you angry at losing?" Pyrrha asks once again.
"Am I disappointed that I lost, well yeah. But this tournament was never about that. At least not to me." Yang explains, earning a questioning gaze from the champion. "It was all about testing myself and seeing how far I have come and how far I still need to go." She lets out a light laugh. "I still got a lot of training to do before I could stand a chance against my mom or pops. I just wanted to see what it is like to fight a bunch of different people."
Pyrrha is baffled by this. All she has ever been focused on is winning and being the best. Victory no matter what, and anything less is not acceptable. That is how hard her trainers and her parents pushed her. To be the perfect warrior.
"Hey?" Yang's voice breaks Pyyrah out of her confused line of thought. "Know any good places to grab a bite to eat around here? My treat." She says with a cocky and flirty grin.
"Ummm there is this noodle place about a block from the arena." The red-head offers demurely. That restaurant was her own favorite place to eat during the tournament. Her own little escape from her family for just a few hours.
Yang smiles and pumps her fist in the air. "Alright, tonight we feast!"
Flashback end
Ruby smiles remembering her own meeting with Pyrrha at that restaurant with Yang and Raven. The whole night the sisters laughed and conversed with each other, pulling Pyrrha into their debates. And aside from Ruby's fascination with the champion's weapons, they did not really talk about her own training or technique. Raven watched over her two girls with a mix of pride and mirth tinted by a bit of melancholy as the pair seemed set to be to Pyrrha what Summer was to her.
Ruby was knocked out of her daydreaming, quite literally, when a luggage trolly overloaded with suitcases, briefcases, and duffle bags slams into her knocking her down and scattering the bags across the asphalt pavement.
As she looks up from the pavement Ruby sees a gaunt, pale man in a very nice suit fussing over all the bags before he spots her.
"Oh dear, oh my, are you unharmed miss?" The man stutters out as she tries to pick up the bags and offer Ruby a hand up at the same time.
"Um, yeah. I think. Though maybe you should …." Ruby replies about to say he should pay more attention before a shrill voice cuts through the air.
"JOFFREY!" The voice is filled with a certain combination of ice-cold anger and obvious annoyance, the owner stalking towards the butler and Ruby.
Snow white hair, pale skin, a petite frame, and piercing blue eyes with one bisected by a small scar running from her brow to just below the eye. Ruby could not take her eyes off this girl who was approaching with a measures amount of grace and wrath. To Ruby, this girl is simply stunning.
"Miss Schnee! I am so sorry. I will get this cleaned up right away. I…" The butler fumbles before Weiss lifts a single finger silencing the man.
Here eyes do not soften but she does not raise her voice as she speaks. "Joffery. I gave you a simple instruction. To take my luggage to the designated storage room." Though she was not yelling like her initial exclamation the sheer amount of annoyance is palpable in the air. It also seems to be getting colder as she continues. "I even explicitly told you to handle it with care. That there are valuable items, not to mention the dust canisters that need to be handled with the utmost care."
At this point, Joffery is sweating bullets as he tries to avoid looking directly at Weiss only for his eyes to spot a dust cylinder that fell out of a case that popped open in the crash. And he was not the only one to notice this.
Ruby also spots the canister but unlike Joffery who is simply afraid for his job, Ruby notices the breached and improper seal as well as the slight sparking of an imminent dust reaction. A reaction that if it goes off it would trigger a chain reaction with all the other dust canisters. Thinking quickly Ruby activates her semblance, boosting over to the canister, picking it up, and spinning around to get enough thrust to launch it into the air.
"What in blizzards?" Weiss exclaims as she is pelted by rose petals but is not able to say more as the canister detonates in the air. Not harming anyone but causing a very loud and sizable bang.
Ruby lets out the breath she was holding before turning and coming face to face with the glaring blue eyes of Weiss Schnee demanding answers.
"Ummm. The seal was breached at it was about to go off?" Ruby offers as an attempt to placate the heiress.
"Hmph." Weiss simply grunts at the explanation before turning to the cowering butler. "Joffery. How is it that this child actually knows more about safely handling dust than you do?"
Ruby scowls at being called a child. "Hey! I am not some kid." She begins to protest but is silenced when Wiess turns around and offers her a stack of lien.
"Here. This should be enough to make you forget about this incident." Weiss says in a flat businesslike tone. "I am incredibly sorry for any distress that the negligent actions of my employee. Get yourself some sweets or a new toy with this money to make up for it."
While Ruby was initially stunned by Weiss' first appearance the more they converse the faster her opinion of the white-haired girl starts to sink. She is just seconds away from slapping the money out of the rich girl's hand when a new voice interrupts them.
"What the hell is going on here?" The voice breaks through everything else and Ruby turns her head to see Coco approaching quickly from the school.
"Oh, hey Coco!" Ruby beams at the older girl who gives her a nod.
"Sup little red." Coco says earning a slightly sour look from Ruby at the nickname. "Now I am going to repeat myself, something I really don't like doing. What the hell is going on?" The last question said with a commanding presence demanding an answer from the shorter girls, and the butler on his knees.
"Ehem." Weiss clears her throat causing Coco to turn her attention to her. "There was just a small incident involving my butler and this young girl. A vial of fire dust had been improperly handled and accidentally detonated. No one was injured so I see no reason…"
Coco puts up her hand as she looks over her sunglasses at the heiress. "You had dust stored in with your luggage?" Coco asked earning a nod from Weiss. "Dust is supposed to be kept separate from any other cargo and has to be properly labeled." Coco's eyes scan the scattered bags and boxes. None of them have any marking besides the prominent Schnee family logo. "Something that you obviously neglected to do."
Weiss looked indigent as she tried to speak up but was cut off by the taller girl.
"These are the rules for all students. And professor Peach would have my ass if I let any freshman break the dust restrictions in the dorms, I do not want to get on her bad side." Coco continues, her face a very severe and determined scowl. "You are not in Atlas anymore Schnee. You will not get any special treatment here. And no amount of daddy's money can buy you a huntress license. Now pack your shit up and separate AND label any dust. We got to get a move on before you two miss the orientation speech."
Before Weiss can say a word Coco spins on her heels and starts walking away.
"See you at orientation!" Ruby offers a wave and a slightly smug little grin as Weiss fumes before turning to berate her butler again.