PATCH FOREST: 5 MONTHS BEFORE BEACON ORIENTATION:
Ruby Rose turned from her mother's grave and wandered into the woods. As she began to approach a clearing, she vanished in a flurry of petals and reappeared in the branches of a tree. A glance through her rifle's scope showed a dozen Beowolves in the clearing ahead. She drew Crescent Rose up to her eye, took aim, and fired. The shot immediately struck one of the Beowolves in the face, shattering its skull. She killed two more before the pack could react and reach her. Before she could kill a fourth, she burst into a flurry of roses as another attempted a slash at her. She reappeared above the creature, bringing Crescent Rose's blade down in a whirlwind, bisecting her opponent.
As she came back down to earth, she felt a trio of claws rake against her aura, and quickly kicked against the enemies to get away. She weaved through the enemies, using her semblance and natural speed to weave through the enemies, cutting through five more enemies.
She turned back to find herself facing against the three remaining Beowolves. She quickly glanced at her aura meter on her arm. She'd avoided most of the enemy's attacks, but she'd taken 11 more hits and used enough of her semblance that her aura was now orange.
"Let's try it."
She quickly swapped to gravity dust and fired Crescent rose behind her, sending her flying towards the wolves like a whirlwind. She managed to cleave her way through two enemies but was distracted when the last had the intelligence to leap over her. She yelped as she suddenly impacted with a tree trunk and fell on her back in a daze. As the remaining Beowolf approached her fallen form, it was startled when Ruby suddenly shoved Crescent Rose's barrel into its jaw and fired.
Ruby groaned and rubbed her forehead as a chuckling figure dropped down from another tree. Qrow Branwen took a sip from his flask as his niece stumbled to her feet. "Gravity dust is useful, but I'd recommend practicing in more open spaces until you can brake and change directions. You almost dropped into the red with that stunt."
"Uncle Qrow!" The girl cheered at the sight of her mentor.
The man embraced her fondly then pulled her back, turning serious. "Pretty sure this is a Level 4 Hunting Zone kid. You need to be at least a Primary School Fourth Year or have four of your classmates with you."
Ruby grew sheepish. "I thought it was a Level Three Zone."
Qrow held up his scroll. It tracked them and showed that their current location was a Level Four Zone.
"It was Level Three yesterday."
Qrow shook his head, "So Level Three. You're not a Third Year yet. You need at least one classmate."
"Level Two is too easy!" Ruby whined. "I barely break a sweat out there. Even Level Three's getting boring."
"Well, why don't you get a party together? Work on being part of a team?"
Ruby hanged her head sadly, "No one in my class will work with me. They say I take this too seriously."
Qrow sighed sympathetically. He could see that. He'd tried teaching for a time but had gotten sick of the growing apathy among the student body. Peacetime was making them soft. He dreaded what would happen to this current generation if this current crisis continued.
"Well, they'll have to take things more seriously in Beacon, or they won't get very far."
"So, I have to wait two years before anyone will work with me?" The anxious girl groaned.
SDC WEAPONS TESTING SITE: 4 MONTHS BEFORE BEACON ORIENTATION
Weiss Schnee tried hard not to glare at her father.
"I don't understand why you insist on attending the huntsmen academies at all, Weiss. The profession of huntsmen will soon be rendered obsolete by the Schnee Dust Companies weapons division."
"General Ironwood disagrees," Weiss responded with her head bowed. "He insists that huntsmen will always be necessary. And as long as there have been Huntsmen, the Schnee's have been a part of their ranks. Even before we made our fortune, we were huntsmen."
Jacques glared at her logic, but she hadn't technically said anything wrong.
"Then you won't mind demonstrating the power of a huntress for us?" He gestured towards the suit of armor in the chamber ahead of her.
"That armor is possessed by a Giest Grimm. They are the litmus test for our advanced weapons division. Only our spider droids have been successful in defeating them."
He turned to her with a smirk. "If you can destroy it before it can kill you, I will consider your point proven and allow you to attend the academy of your choice."
Weiss clenched her fists. She'd already received acceptance letters from all four Huntsmen academies.
But she couldn't risk upsetting her father.
Weiss backflipped away as the Gigas swung, then lunged, striking the armor and landing behind the creature. The creature brought it's sword around again, but Weiss leaped over it and landed three more blows. The armor swung again, and she blocked the brunt with Myrtenaster, though the sword struck her shoulder and rove her back. She dodged as it brought it's sword down in an overhead swing and prepared another rush, but the enemy caught her off guard when it got the blade around in another swing, striking her right side.
Weiss summoned a White Glyph at her feet and shot forward, creating five more white glyphs, landing six blows on her enemy. Her seventh blow halted when she leaped over another swing, but an armored fist to her face ended her assault. Her aura flickered, and blood fell down the right side of her face. She quickly checked her aura. It had barely entered the red.
Weiss shook herself and switched to fire dust. When the Giest swung for her again, she channeled the dust into a black glyph, and the recoil drove the enemy back further. A quick switch to ice dust allowed her to freeze the ground beneath the Gigas, halting its feet. Despite its immobility, the Giest swung again, and she leaped onto its sword, before switching to lightning dust and struck the armor's wrist, the force and shock making it drop its blade, which shattered when it met the ground.
Weiss summoned a white Glyph beneath the Geist's feet and launched it into the air. She then held it in place with Black glyphs and threw herself into it with one more White Glyph, shattering it.
Weiss looked up to the observation chamber where her father scowled down. She curtsied and exited.
FOREVER FALL: 6 MONTHS BEFORE BEACON ORIENTATION
Blake stared down at the objects she held. In her right hand was a black bow. In her left was a Grimm mask.
"Blake. It's time." She quickly stuffed the bow in her pocket and turned towards the voice.
She nodded at Adam. "Okay."
She put on the mask and followed.
The infiltration of the train was easy, though as the two entered, they found themselves surrounded by about three dozen AK130s.
INTRUDER: IDENTIFY YOURSELF
Adam smirked and fired Wilt from Blush into the droid that spoke, then rushed forward and seized the blade, cutting down the stunned droid. Blake created a shadow-clone to distract the pair of blade-armed droids that had tried to sneak up behind her and landed behind them, shooting one in the back. She cut through the second that had attacked her, then ran forward and cut down a droid that was coming at Adam from behind. Another opened fire on Adam, and he quickly deflected the blows while Blake rushed it. She deflected all but three shots and decapitated the droid.
She bisected another and cut the legs out from under another, plunging her blade into its chrome. She then drew both her sword and sheath to deflect a blade-wielding droid, before she swept its legs and dropped both her blade's into its torso. She flinched as a flurry of eight bullets struck her in the back, and she drove away. She rounded on five more droids. She charged through the hail, taking four more hits before she cut her way through two more of them with her dual wields. The remaining three drew their blades, and she switched to her Kusarigama mode, deflecting attacks with her sheath and creating distance. She wrapped one in her Kusarigama and pulled it into a decapitation. She then switched back to her sword mode and cut the remaining two down with ease.
"Well done." Adam smiled fondly at her, having dispatched the rest of the droids with ease.
Blake could practically feel the pride that she knew was showing behind that mask. She shoved down the guilt that came with that feeling.
The two moved to the next car, which was full of dust.
"Perfect. Move on to the next car and prepare to disconnect this one. I'll set the charges."
Blake panicked. "What about the crew?"
Adam shrugged, "What about them?"
Blake considered answering but stopped when a form dropped down behind Adam.
The Spider droid fired on the duo. Adam quickly deflected the blows while Blake charged it.
"Blake, wait!"
Blake landed one hit before she was struck by the droids head and driven to the ground, her aura flickering. Adam kept it from crushing her with two swift blows to its legs, knocking it back slightly. He turned to retrieve Blake, taking an impact on the back as he scooped her up and ran.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded quickly as the machine combined its guns into a massive cannon and fired on the pair. They dove out of the way and then ran through the hole the beam made to get out in the open, Adam firing two shots behind them. The Spider Droid was right on top of them.
"I'll buy time!"
Blake avoided a flurry of bullets as she got in front of the enemy, and then evaded another attack with her semblance, striking from above with Gambol Shroud's kusarigama form.
As she came down, she hooked her sheath blade into the droids head and unloaded several shots into the droid at point-blank range before the droid shook her off, knocking out her aura.
"Ready!" Adam called, and Blake retreated.
The droid fired another beam, and Adam deflected it with Wilt.
Once the beam dissipated, Adam chuckled and rushed, disintegrating the droid with a single swing.
Adam turned around as the foe fell. "Blake?"
"Freeze!
Suddenly, a dozen Atlas soldiers emerged from behind the crates, accompanied by what looked like an Atlas Specialist.
"Blake?!" Adam looked around frantically for his partner.
"Where's his partner?" the Specialist asked.
"She jumped off the train, sir! I think she may have been the one who tipped us off!"
"BLAKE!"
"I said freeze!"
Blake watched the train speed off into the distance as she tied the bow to conceal her ears and removed her White Fang uniform for the new outfit underneath.
"Goodbye."
DOWNTOWN VALE: THE NIGHT BEFORE BEACON ORIENTATION
Yang strutted into the club with a shake of her hips. She did her best to look like she belonged. This ba was a little more extreme and adult than her usual scene, but not by much. She spotted her target at the bar, ending and argument with a red-haired man wearing a bowler hat, who walked away with a dozen of Junior's men, leaving Junior sulking at the bar.
"That should make this easier," Yang muttered.
Yang walked up to the bar, right next to Junior, turning on her girliest charms. "Strawberry sunrise, no ice. Oh! And one of those little umbrellas!"
Junior looked down at her, taking in her figure.
"Aren't you a little young to be in this club, blondie."
Yang tilted her head, innocently. "Aren't you a little old to have a name like Junior?"
Junior smirked lecherously and began playing with a lock of Yang's long blonde hair. "So you know who I am. You got a name, sweetheart?"
Yang fought a shudder as the man toyed with her hair and moved in closer. "Yes, Junior, I've got several. But instead of sweetheart, you can just call me sir."
Yang grabbed Junior by the balls and squeezed.
"People say you know everything." She growled at him, dropping the cutesy teenager facade and holding up her scroll. "Tell me where I can find her, and I'll let you go."
"I've never seen her before, I swear!" Junior squeaked out in pain.
"Excuse me?!" Yang clenched harder.
"I only know what goes on in Vale! If I don't know her, it's because you're looking in the wrong kingdom!"
Yang looked to the side as Junior's three remaining goons approached, halting when Junior held up a hand.
"Looks like we have an audience. Must be kind of embarrassing for you." Yang held on a little longer, to see if she could get any last bits of information.
Junior glared at her and spoke as fiercely as he could under the circumstances. "Listen, blondie. If you want to make it out of this club alive, I suggest you let me go. Now!"
Yang relented and released him. He quickly stumbled away, and Yang found herself surrounded by his men. They had no intention of letting her leave.
Yang turned the charm back on and bounced after him with her arms behind her back, trying to accentuate her cleavage. "Oh, Junior, I was just playing with you! Come on, let's kiss and make up!"
"Huh?" Junior regarded the innocent look in her eyes, and then shrugged, deciding to risk it. "Okay."
He leaned in for a kiss, and instead found his face meeting Yang's fist.
As Junior flew, Yang turned to the approaching thugs. Yang performed a somersault kick on the nearest man, then uppercutted another. The third man managed to hit her, and she delivered several quick hooks to him, breaking his aura.
She used the recoil of Ember Celica to drive her elbow into one of the men rising behind her but took another hit from the third man, who she quickly knocked out with a fist to the face.
She flinched as a flurry of blows struck against her aura and turned back to see the DJ firing on her. She shielded her arms and rushed, pushing through the hail, and leaped up to his booth. She seized the man and smashed his face into his turntable, then struck two blows to his stomach, before hurling him out of the booth, to the feet of two girls in white and red.
"Melanie, who is this girl?"
"I don't know Militia, but we should teach her a lesson."
Yang leaped from the booth and fired on the two sisters on the way down. The girls backflipped away and then rushed her from opposite sides as she kept firing. Her attention was on Melanie until Militia's claws struck her back. She tried to retaliate, only to feel a bladed heel hit her. She used Ember Celica's recoil to launch herself back and create distance between herself and the sisters. Two sisters followed, and Yang fired a quick blow to Melanie, and a swift kick to her abdomen, driving her away. She backed up as she took three more hits from Militia, and struck an uppercut into her stomach, followed by two quick right hooks, and then tossed the girl through a glass pillar, breaking her aura.
She didn't have time for celebration as Melanie leaped forward to avenge her sister. Yang blocked the flurry of kicks, wincing as three got through until she spotted an opening and dove through it. She elbowed Melanie in the stomach, seizing her hand to pull her off balance, and brought her boot down in a swift blow, knocking her to the ground, knocking her unconscious.
Yang looked for another opponent, only to find a mighty bat knock her breath out. Junior seized her by the hair and dragged her to her knees.
"You're gonna pay for this." He brought the bat into her face, tearing out a handful of her hair.
Yang crawled to her feet and glared at the man admiring the golden locks in his fist. Her eyes burned red, her hair glowed, and an explosion went off behind her. She rushed the man with a flurry of blows before finally shattering his aura and her own with a mighty right, which sent him out into the street.
Yang breathed deeply as her opponent lay beaten and prepared to leave until the street erupted in sirens and cop lights.
"Don't move! You're under arrest!"
Yang groaned when she realized the command was for her, not Junior.
"Dad's gonna kill me." She moaned as she unhooked Ember Celica and knelt on the ground, placing her hands behind her head.
SIGNAL ACADEMY: 4 MONTHS BEFORE BEACON ORIENTATION
Blake glanced at the blonde boy next to her. Blake's annoyance wasn't so much the way he was shaking his legs in anticipation. It made sense for most test-takers.
But what did this guy have to worry about?
Nobody seemed to recognize the blonde boy (he'd probably been apprenticed with a professional huntsman rather than attend any of the primary combat academies). Still, he'd been one of the standouts. He'd walked in full of bravado, which most assumed was unearned, until he easily passed the essential fitness portion of the exams, placing in the top three of every category, while wearing his combat uniform, which consisted of a breastplate and shoulder pauldrons. He made Blake feel a little out of shape.
He'd then breezed through the written exams. He hadn't finished the test early because he was cocky or arrogant. Blake observed that he had the confidence of someone who knew the answers. He'd even had time to double-check his work.
All he had left was the combat exam. Even if he lost, he'd have to be abysmal not to be accepted into an academy. But as soon as he entered the waiting area, the confident, grinning dork vanished, and this shaking wreck took his place.
"Back again, eh?" Jaune paled as he recognized that voice. He looked to the exam proctors and immediately recognized the tall militant man in the middle from four years ago.
Things had been going very similarly to today. Jaune had easily aced the physical exam and the written exam, and he'd hoped that that would be enough to make up for his clumsy self-taught fighting style.
He'd only lasted 15 seconds before the proctor called the match to a close. Jaune had begged the man for another chance. He swore to work hard in Signal, to learn how to fight. He'd asked the man if HE could unlock his aura. But the proctor had shouted him down.
"What are you thinking of coming in here without any aura or training?! A clumsy kid like you will just get himself killed! Get out of here and stop wasting time on this pipe dream of yours!"
That same man now regarded Jaune with recognition but didn't say anything.
"Alright," Said another proctor, "Mr. Arc and Mr. Ren, don't worry about winning; just show us what you can do."
Jaune regarded his opponent, a boy about his age, with long black hair. The boy met Jaune's look, and the two nodded politely to one another.
"You may begin when you're ready."
The two prepared, but Ren raised a brow as Jaune approached. "Are you forgetting something?"
"Nope."
Jaune swung for his opponent, who deftly deflected with the blades of his guns, but was surprised when the swing powered through and struck his shoulder. Ren backed away with a soft nod of appreciation. Even without aura, his opponent had plenty of power. Ren circled his opponent, who tried to keep his shield between himself and Ren. Ren suddenly dropped and swept Jaune's legs. Jaune quickly tossed his sword away to not fall on it himself and rolled to his feet. Ren promptly placed himself between Jaune and his sword; his guns aimed for him. Jaune feinted slightly to the left, and Ren's left gun fired inches past his left leg while the right remained stationary. Jaune feinted to the right, and the right gun fired while the left remained. Jaune glanced over at the proctors, half expecting them to call the fight. Without aura, one bullet would be enough to kill him.
The match hadn't ended, so Jaune went for it. He crouched as low as he could, raised his shield to cover his face, and rushed his opponent, who quickly leaped over him. Jaune retrieved Crocea Mors and turned, swinging and catching Ren in the chest. Ren recovered before Jaune could swing again and delivered a brutal kick to the side of Jaune's head, cutting him just above the eye.
"Stop."
Jaune felt his heartbreak at the command. He looked at the proctors, fighting the tears that began to fill them. The militant was on his feet and approaching. It was over.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time." Jaune quickly bowed and ran out of the room; keeping is head low so no one would see him cry.
"Hey! Get back here!"
Jaune kept running. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to be yelled at again. He didn't need to hear that he'd wasted 12 years of his life. He already knew that.
"So, you can't try again next year?" Saphron Cotta-Arc tried desperately to find a solution for her distraught little brother.
"This was my last chance. It's over." Jaune said into his scroll.
"Maybe not." Another voice came over the scroll.
"Is that Terra?"
"Hey, Jaune." Terra's voice came through more clearly. "I might have a way to get you in."
He sat up straighter. "What is it?"
"This is dangerous and illegal, Jaune. Are you sure you want this?"
Jaune didn't hesitate. "Tell me."
Jaune's acceptance letter from Beacon came a month later. It should've been the happiest moment of his life.
He barely glanced at it before heading back out to train.
I know, right? A rewrite of a rewrite while the first rewrite's still being written? That's like, two rewrites. But something I learned in school is that great stories aren't written, they're rewritten, and when you have ideas, you can't help but want to put them down. And I'm still going to finish 20-20. Just think of this as the extended-unlimited-budget edition of RWBY 20-20. (This means I won't be skipping through preexisting scenes, though I will try to put my own spin on the writing). As long as I'm having fun, right?
Also, I'm not going to be doing any AN's explaining my thought process. Unless I'm asked to do so, so feel free to ask questions in reviews. Also, let me know what you thought of the fights. I'd love some tips and advice on how to improve my writing in those areas.