Obligatory Disclaimer: Rooster Teeth owns RWBY. Is this really necessary isn't it the implication that if it is published on this site the author does not own the source material
Noir was topping up on hard light dust in Vale to get ready to go back to school. She was waiting in the back by the magazines for the attendant to package her order when four men in suits carrying guns and machetes along with a man in a white suit entered. The man ordered his men to seize as much of the dust as possible. Eventually, she was found one of the goons pointed his gun at her and told her to freeze. Noir slowly raised her hands and turned around, keeping her face neutral. Once she was facing the man, she flexed her fingertips, and a grey-blue barrier blasted out in front of her hurling the guy through the storefront window. She dissipated the field, allowing the aura to rush back into her. The young girl clicked her bracer to life, and a light teal energy field burst out of it along with the barrel of a small-caliber gun, the shield could cover most of her body. Facing the next closet thug, she fired a few shots at him before sending another of her barriers to slam him into the wall knocking him out. At this point, the ringleader had noticed her and waved for the other two men to get her. Keeping the shield between her and them, she held her position.
"I can sit here all night, boys," she taunted.
That did the trick as the gunman opened fire while the one with the machete charged her. As he was changing direction to get around her Stalwart Aegis, another grayish-blue barrier appeared which he slammed into dazing himself. Noir executed a charge of her own, shield checking the grunt to the dirt then continuing to bowl him over making sure to step on his crotch. At his cry, the remaining grunt and ringleader flinched. Deploying her firearm again from the center of her shield she blasted away at the two downing the last grunt but the white-clad thief deftly evaded her shots.
"Look, Miss Black, I really don't have time for you right now so if you would be so kind as to get out of the way I won't have to end you."
"On the contrary thief, it looks like I'm the one who is winning your guys are all down, and I have barely taken a hit. I think you should just surrender and save us both the trouble
Noir released another spray of rounds at the thief as she began to charge in his direction. However, he spun past her shield and delivered a blow to the back of her head with his cane.
Or he would have, had a foot square greyish shield intercepted the attack. Noir pivoted and brought her shield to slam into the thief knocking him into another of her conjured barriers.
Muttering to himself the man brought his cane back up hesitated then pointed it at one of the windows displays the end cap popped a crosshair was stenciled on it. A rocket screamed out of the cane and detonated the display. Noir was able to surround herself with her barriers, but she still felt a hit to her aura. Part of the storefront collapsed, but through the smoke, Noir saw the thief run off and begin scaling a nearby fire escape. After checking with the cashier, Noir created a long thin barrier and stepped up onto the end pivoting her conjuration she sent herself up and onto the roof, raising her shield again as she touched down. However, the man in white was already hopping aboard a Bullhead that had risen from behind the building.
He chuckled to himself upon seeing her, "My, aren't you a persistent one but this is the end of the line, Miss Black," he reached into his coat and pulled out a raw red dust crystal and tossed it to the roof before firing again at it.
Noir braced behind her barriers, but as the explosion rocked the building, she didn't feel the drain on her aura she expected looking up a bright purple glyph spun in the air between the barriers and the fireball. Looking to her right, she saw the source of the glyph a woman with platinum blonde hair and a very professional looking blouse and slacks combo glared at the bullhead.
The man in white disappeared into the forward section of the bullhead a few seconds later a woman stepped into the open bay, she stayed towards the back of the cargo bay, so her face was concealed in shadow, but orange flames were visible leaking from her right eye. The mysterious woman attacked the huntress tongues of orange fire lanced from her hand only to be met with the violet glyphs cast by the huntress.
Noir decided to take some of the pressure of the huntress and create barriers her own and intercepted the flames before they reached the glyphs. The huntress turned to Noir her mouth open slightly as if about to speak when the bullhead's engines roared, and it began to turn away. The huntress snapped her attention back to the criminals and conjured a massive ice spike and hurled it at the airship the fire girl waved a hand and shattered the spike pieces flying in all directions. A flick of the huntresses riding crop caused the shattered pieces to curve around the bullhead and strike the other side. Most of the shards broke even further on the armored exterior of the craft, though a small number though found purchase puncturing the airframe. However, the damage was light, and after shuddering for a fraction of a second, the airship escaped.
"So your an actual huntress that was pretty impressive. My sister would ask for your autograph."
The elder blonde cast a frigid glare at the younger girl.
—
Noir wasn't exactly sure what she was in trouble for, sure the bad guy got away, but she kept most of the dust from being stolen and kept the shop owner alive. Shouldn't she be getting a reward?
A swift crack snapped her back to reality the blonde had cracked her switch on the table, "You haven't even heard a word I said."
Noir shrugged, "I don't get why I'm being lectured, didn't I help stop a robbery why is that being treated as a bad thing?"
"The issue is that you are fifteen years old. You are not qualified to dispense justice like that."
"I wasn't just dispensing justice I was defending myself the guys tried to rob me too. If I have the skills why am I not allowed to use them when threatened?"
"Look, none of this is really the point. If it were up to me I would send you home with a pat on the head," Noir perked up a little, "And a slap on the wrist. But there is someone else who would like to speak with you."
At that moment, the door behind the blonde opened to reveal Beacon's headmaster carrying a plate of cookies and a mug of milk.
"Noir Nightshade you …" he leaned in, "have silver eyes."
"And yours are brown, so what." Noir was not interested in talking about her eyes of all things right now.
"So where did you learn to do this." Ozpin gestured to the security footage of her confrontation playing on a tablet.
"Siren Academy."
"I wasn't aware Siren had such specialized curriculum."
"It doesn't really. It's no Signal. I mostly take boxing classes at school the rest I had to work out on my own."
"So you got this good all by yourself?"
Noir shrugged, "I mean I had my mom to help me, and my sister and I built our combat styles around each other, so we practice all the time. But there wasn't like a teacher that took any special interest in me."
"So what is a girl like you planning to do with her skills?" Ozpin had a bit of a twinkle in his eye.
"Well in two more years I'm going to follow my sister into Beacon, then I want to be a huntress."
"So you want to fight monsters?"
"Grimm, criminals, you know the bad guys I want to help people by getting rid of them. Being a huntress just seems like the best way to start righting wrongs."
"Noir, do you know who I am?" Ozpin had a strange smile on his face the blonde behind him looked like she ate something very sour.
"Sure, you're Professor Ozpin Beacon's Headmaster."
"Hello."
"Hi," Noir was sure that was a pretty pathetic response, but she ran with it.
"So you want to come to my school?"
"I really do." Noir decided to add a bit more to the line, "More than anything."
The look the blonde gave Ozpin when he turned to her would have killed a lesser man. Ozpin turned back to Noir, "Well, okay then."
"Wait that's it no tests no interviews just a welcome to the school." Noir was freaking out a little. "I didn't mean like right now I've still got a lot to learn."
"Does this mean you will say no?" Ozpin almost looked disappointed. "If it makes you feel any better, we can count the robbery as your entrance exam and this as your interview."
"But I'll be two years behind everyone else in their non-combat coursework, what if I can't catch up. What if I fail all of my classes." Noir's mind was running at a mile a minute; what-if scenarios were bouncing off each other as she tried to hold herself together.
"Miss Nightshade," Ozpin reached across the table to grab her arm, when Noir flinched away he retracted, "Miss Nightshade you have held near-perfect grades at Siren Academy for the past three years you will adapt to Beacon's curriculum even if it takes a semester or two for you to do so you won't fail completely. However, if it truly is too much of a worry for you, I can instead reserve you a spot for when you feel ready."
"You're sure I'd be fine, Professor?" Noir's resolve was wavering in the face of the headmaster's confidence.
"I'm sure, Miss Nightshade."
One last issue still nagged at Noir's conscience, "One last thing Professor how am I supposed to pay for Beacon my mother could only afford to send my sister with a scholarship and those deadlines have passed I don't think my family can afford to send me to Beacon."
"Since you are a personal invite of mine I will pay all of your schooling costs. Does that assuage your last doubts, Miss Nightshade?"
Noir could no longer find any more reasons to protest, "That about covers everything Professor so, I'll do it. I'll come to Beacon this year."
—
"This is so amazing I can't believe my little sis is coming to Beacon with me!" A tiny girl dressed in a white combat skirt with white hair clung to Noir while also bouncing up and down.
"Blanche how many times do I have to say it you can't call me your 'little' sister I'm like a foot taller than you." Noir tried to sound annoyed, but her sister's antics never failed to put a smile on her face.
Blanche gave a little huff and pulled herself off the taller girl before a glint crept into her eye, "Fine then, I can't believe my baby sister is coming to Beacon with me. I mean everyone is going to think you're awesome. You did something super cool I bet you're the youngest ever to make it into the school."
"Blanche you know I don't care much about standing out I really wanted to go to Beacon on my own time, but Professor Ozpin's offer was too good to pass up. Regardless I am still two years behind everyone else they're all going to expect some prodigy, and I'm not really."
"But Noir you totally stopped a bunch of adults from stealing a bunch of dust nobody else has done that."
"But it doesn't mean they couldn't they all have had two more years of training they all probably could beat me."
"You always beat me sis, and I've been training as long as they have."
"Blanche I always beat you because I have like three times the aura you do, and I know all your moves."
The girl's attention was dragged from each other when the news report changed to an image of the blonde woman Noir met the night before. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon! My name is Glynda Goodwitch."
"So that's her name," Noir murmured.
"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."
Blanche rushed to the window, "Hey Noir, do you think you can see Signal from here I always wondered what it looked like." Without waiting for an answer, the excited girl continued, "What about Siren or home maybe we can spot those?"
"Sis, our home is Beacon now." Noir's voice has a bit of a playful edge to it as she smiled at her sister.
17 Years Earlier
Raven Branwen wasn't scared of anything, especially not an intangible concept like commitment. Or at least that's what she would tell anyone who accused her of such. She just didn't want to get married; she only said yes because Tai had gotten her drunk. She wasn't supposed to get involved with her teammates at Beacon; she was just supposed to learn to kill huntsmen and then go back to the tribe. Raven had already neglected that responsibility long enough. However, Raven had no easy way back to the tribe; the only bond she had was her father, and she had felt that bond fade almost a year ago. Unfortunately, this meant Raven had to take the long way back. It would take months to find the tribe once she got to Anima.
Raven took a pre-dawn ferry to Vale. She spent the morning attempting to get passage as part of the security compliment on a ship heading to Anima regardless of how she pushed she couldn't find someone both going to the right part of Anima and willing to hire her without registering her huntsman card. If she used her ID, all it would take Taiyang was a trip to Ozpin to see what ship she took, same with traveling as a private passenger she had no doubts that Ozpin would be able to get into the manifests as well.
Finally, after two weeks she heard of a captain who routinely took unregistered huntsmen with him. The little cargo barge moored at the end of the pier did little to inspire confidence, but it had taken her so long to find an option that fit her needs she pressed ahead, "Your captain where is he I'd like to speak to him."
The nearest hand turned to her, "And what does a girl like you need a man like the cap'n f'r?"
"I need him to take me to Anima. I'll only talk specifics with him." The leer on the sailor's face was starting to annoy Raven, all it would take was one cut to open a space on the crew for her. However, murdering the man's crew was probably not the best way to earn his trust.
"You can pay I assume Cap'n do n' work for free."
Raven rested a hand on the hilt of her sword, "I got this, I'm willing to work, the rest I'll talk to your captain about."
"Fine, I'll see if the cap'n will see you," the deckhand wandered on board the ship.
Raven waited several minutes before the same deckhand came back down the plank and took her on board and then below deck stopping outside a door toward the rear of the ship. "He'll see you now."
Raven walked through the door and was greeted by the pungent smell of cigarette smoke the captain was a wiry man with a sun-beaten face and a violent glint in his eye, "So Miss,
"Raven,"
"Miss Raven, my man tells me you're lookin' to get to Anima, and are willing to sell your sword. You got a Huntsman card?"
Raven decided to start off in an explorative direction, "Word on the street is you'll take people without them."
"I do on occasion, but it certainly makes payment easier. Won't pay you as well either, card comes with a certain quality guarantee."
"And if I have a card but didn't want you to log it officially?"
"I may be able to find a few more lien for you, but the fact that you don't want your presence on my ship logged carries an inherent risk."
"So what can you pay me?"
"I have about four hundred lien I can spare for someone like you."
"You can do better that's not even an eighth of what a huntsman would cost you can do at least a thousand."
"Look, girl, you're the one who doesn't want to be treated as a huntress here. Take your card to any other ship, and they'll pay you the going rate. I hold all the cards here nobody else will take you without the card you don't want to use for whatever reason it will be four hundred, or you get off my ship."
Raven knew she had been beaten; she had no bargaining power. "Fine, I'll take the four hundred. When do you leave?"
The captain pulled out his scroll. After a few seconds of flipping through apps, "Tomorrow morning with the tide, be back here at dawn."
"If it makes no difference to you I figured I'd just bunk on the ship that way nobody gets left behind."
"Suit yourself girl go find a bunk."
AN: And so it begins.
This is, in fact, my first published fanfic I welcome whatever criticism you will give me.
While I also welcome your questions let me answer one somewhat obvious one. What is Siren Academy?
Siren as a concept stems from several other ideas for fanfics that I have had. It is what I use for an alternate primary combat school in Vale proper for when I need to keep an OC isolated from regular cast members prior to Beacon. It is fairly amorphous in nature, but in this instance, it is essentially a cheaper version of Signal, Siren has a larger number of students since it is in the center of Vale, however, due to this it gives a more generalized combat education with less focus on individual styles. This means its students, unless highly motivated, are generally of a lower quality than Signal's. Due to this fewer students from Siren make it into Beacon than Signal even though Siren is the larger school. Many Siren students do make it into other academies though.