Chapter 3: Providence

Rarely did Ruby feel as ecstatic as she did when gliding through the air with Crescent Rose in hand. Like most children, a young Ruby had been captivated by the charm of a bird's flight. She yearned to one day be able to replicate the grace and finesse with which those wings moved weightlessly through the air. Unlike most children however, Ruby had been able to achieve her fantasy… at least somewhat. The combination of her semblance along with her weapon's projectiles enabled her to have some surprisingly good maneuvering and momentum control off the ground. Though it had taken a lot of practice and plenty of hard encounters with rough surfaces, she eventually managed to improve her technique to the point that jumping from great heights and advancing horizontally while dodging obstacles was no big issue. The one aspect of the whole process Ruby had yet to fully master however was…

"OH CRAP!"

*THUD*

…the landing.

Thankfully, the foliage of the old trees ahead of her had partially cushioned the blow. Clumsily, Ruby smacked herself against branches of various shapes and sizes before unceremoniously dropping on her back; an experience that elicited in her a depressing amount of nostalgia. Luckily, her body had come out unscathed, even if her pride had been slightly wounded. After standing back up and brushing leaves off her clothes and hair, Ruby roughly clapped both sides of her face. Almost as if to address some invisible spectator that might have been chuckling at her expense, she exclaimed:

"My story has just begun!"

To punctuate her remark, Ruby twirled dramatically and pointed behind her, only to realize that someone had been standing there the whole time. That 'someone', as it turned out, was the very same girl in white clothes that Ruby had met just moments before on the ship. In other words, it was the very same girl Ruby had completely creeped out just moments before on the ship. Ruby froze, Weiss froze and, for just a second, it seemed like time itself had stopped entirely out of sympathy. Finally, Weiss turned around, uttering a single word before walking away.

"No."

Instantly, Weiss disappeared into the bushes. Ruby, who was still appalled for several reasons, finally snapped out of it as she came to understand the gravity of the situation. Thus, she promptly gave chase, "Hey, wait! Aren't we supposed to be… Wait!"

Weiss was moving at a pace that was not quite running but it certainly wasn't walking either. Behind her, Ruby was more or less trying to match the same speed: she remembered all too well what had happened the last time she had tried to catch up with someone in a reckless manner. "Please, wait up!"

Weiss was all too content ignoring Ruby's attempts to call out to her. In an act of slight desperation, Ruby allowed herself to use her semblance just so she could close the distance between them. Grabbing Weiss' shoulder, she repeated, once again: "Please, I just want to talk!"

The white haired girl remained silent. Then, she let out a long sigh and turned around.

"I don't-"

Before she could finish her sentence however, Weiss suddenly pushed Ruby out of the way.

During the seconds that it took for Ruby to land, she felt confusion due to the sudden act of aggression, and then excitement when she saw a black claw entering her field of vision from behind and swiping just above her head. Rolling on the ground, Ruby turned and saw it. A creature coated in dense black, with traits only vaguely resembling a monstrous reconstruction of an animal and shattered pieces of bone encrusted into its skin; a grimm. The girl's extensive research into the creatures allowed her to quickly identify the species in front of her: its canine features and maw could have only been those of a Beowulf.

Strangely, the one in front of them appeared to be operating on its own. Ruby had made sure to memorize that Beowulf usually moved in packs, which was what allowed them to hunt and thrive despite their relative weakness compared to other kinds of Grimm. Regardless, what mattered most to her at that point was that she was presented with the perfect opportunity to make a good impression on her friend. Placing a hand on the ground while reaching the other toward the handle of Crescent Rose, Ruby purposefully remained kneeled down to lure the creature into attacking an apparently weakened pray. The strategy worked: in a flash, the Grimm was pouncing toward the girl with its mouth wide open. Ruby simply waited and, right before the Beowulf could reach her…

"What are you doing?!" Weiss' rapier pierced cleanly through the side of the creature's skull, forcing its whole body to come to a halt. Ruby couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the elegant weapon she had been drooling over in action. She excitedly looked at Weiss, but was met by a couple of eyes colder than the most inhabitable frozen deserts of Solitas. The white haired girl spoke in a very, very indignant tone: "Do you WANT to be mauled? Move aside!"

Ruby was taken aback as her whole body was suddenly lifted and flung backwards by some mysterious force. This time however, the girl was able to swing her scythe downwards in order to keep her balance and avoid falling down. Filled with nerves and with a bit of regret pressuring her chest, Ruby hurriedly checked if Weiss had been hurt while trying to save her. Instead, Ruby witnessed a white glimmer dancing gracefully around the beast while slashing through its limbs with extreme precision. Although she knew that semblances could come in many forms, although she had prepared herself to see new and interesting fighting styles, the scene transpiring before her exceeded all of Ruby's expectations.

As far as she was able to tell, Weiss could manifest white and black runes that apparently granted her complete control of her acceleration and movement by acting as platforms and enhancing her combat capabilities. To see someone position themselves with absolute freedom, picking and choosing angles of attack while taking complete advantage of both vertical and horizontal space was almost like magic to Ruby. She had spent so long thinking about the theory of fighting Grimm and how to maneuver herself with her weapon, and yet nothing she had ever come up with came close to what Weiss was effortlessly pulling off. In a matter of seconds, the wounded Grimm collapsed on the floor. Weiss stood confidently before it; the creature had not even graced her. With one final, decisive stroke of her blade aimed at the center of the Grimm's mask, she put an end to the battle. The Beowulf evaporated.

"That was AWESOME!" Ruby almost tripped over herself as she ran up to Weiss, "How can you even do that? You were like, jumping in the air?! That's amazing! Is it your sembla-"

Sadly, Ruby's sentence was cut short by a now familiar set of eyes filled with consternation and anger.

Weiss opened her mouth, her brow and lips contorted in a very noticeable way, but, surprisingly, she ultimately decided against talking. She sheathed her sword, turned around and began to walk away. But before she could take more than a couple of steps, she felt a hand grasping her shoulder once again.

"Hey, wait!"

It was the final straw.

"STOP!"

Weiss shoved Ruby's hand away and turned to face her, the girl's pale cheeks red with anger. However, when she saw the concern in Ruby's eyes, she rapidly covered her face with her hands and took a deep breath. When Weiss lifted her head, there was no trace of rage left in her face. In the calmest voice she could muster, she addressed a more than slightly anxious Ruby:

"I believe our encounter aboard the ship was hardly a proper introduction, so I'm going to rectify that now. My name is Weiss Schnee. I am the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, a position which, as I'm sure you can imagine, entails a large amount of pressure and responsibility. As such I need to make sure that I associate myself with people of certain levels of… competence. I have nothing against you personally, but I think we are fundamentally incompatible. In addition, I can't accept the duty of protecting someone who's going to be so careless in the battlefield. Therefore, I suggest you go back and look for someone else to-"

"Wait, hold up a sec."

All of a sudden, Ruby jumped into the air. Weiss barely had the time to see the girl move or hear her weapon being deployed before she could turn to see what was happening. Her gaze landed on a Grimm almost identical to the one she had just defeated, but something about it was off. When Weiss directed her stare downwards, she noticed the head of the creature lying separate from its body and just a couple of meters away from her. She couldn't believe it. The harsh training regimes she had been subjected to her whole childhood had been based on the assumption that no weapon she could wield would take down a Grimm through sheer force; it had all been for the sake of slowly wearing down the stamina of a powerful beast. Yet, with that oversized scythe and that ridiculous speed, Ruby had cleaved right through the creature's neck without breaking a sweat.

Indeed, Ruby didn't seem to consider her action as anything worth flaunting over. She landed on her feet and approached Weiss while withdrawing her weapon, all in a nonchalant manner. She had no intention of showing off; that much was obvious even to Weiss herself. The act of slicing down a Grimm just came naturally to her.

"I'm sorry. Please, continue what you were saying."

Weiss couldn't help but be… incredibly amazed. She was genuinely impressed and even if for the shortest of moments, she actually thought that Ruby had been pretty cool. However, there was absolutely no way she could ever exteriorize those kinds of childish, ungraceful emotions. So, while still maintaining a forced composure and yet with a very noticeable shift in her eyes and voice, Weiss continued, "Well, it seems I was mistaken. I was just about to mention how it would be disadvantageous for us to team up, but now it appears like I owe you a favor, so for the time being we may continue to collaborate in this mission."

Ruby raised an eyebrow, "I don't think you owe me anything, right? I mean, you saved me from that other Grimm and then I helped you out with this one, so, if anything, we should be even."

Weiss' lips twitched. For the silly, impulsive girl to suddenly be so perceptive and logical was truly irritating. Regardless, she refused to take her word back. "That was different. I'm a Schnee, so I'm expected to be able to defend myself and protect the weak. In other words, me saving you doesn't require any compensation, but you helping me does. Do you understand?"

Ruby chuckled a bit, which made Weiss confused.

"Why do you talk like that anyways? It sounds stilted and awkward."

Weiss became visibly flustered, to which Ruby immediately became just as flustered.

"What?!"

"Uh, err… I'm sorry?

"Ugh, you're just such an irritating girl!"

"Eek!"

From that point onwards, the two spoke more naturally and, surprisingly, they cooperated quite well as they took down Grimm and advanced through the forest.

xx

By utilizing the impulse of her gauntlet's dust shots, Yang was able to sway through the air and land straight on her feet without much difficulty. In the process however, she had lost sight of her sister, something which made her feel quite uneasy. After all, Yang had intended to team up with her family, which in her mind would have been more comfortable and would have also allowed her to take on her responsibilities as an elder sibling. However, to her dismay, there had been no conceivable way for her to catch up to an overzealous Ruby. Right after being launched into the air, her little sister had deployed her weapon and activated her semblance, thus becoming an erratic blur that was neigh impossible to keep track off, let alone chase down. Although she had tried her best, Yang could still tell that she had ended up in a place a long ways away from Ruby. There was no time to waste.

Yang began running at full speed in the general direction she saw Ruby going towards. Despite the fact that she knew she was probably still too far away to be heard, part of her still felt compelled to call out to her sister.

"Ruby! Ruby! You better not cross eyes with anyone else before me! We are meant to be the sibling dream team!"

Yang then snickered a bit at herself. She understood it was no time for jokes, she also thought the joke itself had not even been funny, and yet, she couldn't help but crack a smile.

Out of the blue, a limb the size of a large tree trunk swung toward Yang's neck, missing its target only by the smallest of margins. The blonde, who had leaped out of the way just in the nick of time, turned to face her aggressor. It was bad news.

Contrary to her sister, Yang had never been particularly keen on learning about Grimm. But, when a person lived with Ruby, there really was no choice but to learn a least a little bit about Grimm; whether the person wanted it or not. For Yang, actually paying attention to her sister's endless ramblings before nighttime or at the lunch table was an act of sisterly love. As opposed to outright appreciation, it was more of empathetic tolerance. One of the very few tales that stood out to Yang was that of the Grimm whose stamina and power had made it almost a boogeyman in the world of Huntsmen. It was one of those rare instances in which a Grimm was considered unadvisable to try to take down alone, which was huntsman code for "RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN IF YOU SEE THE THING".

And right there, in front of her, was the thing. A "Death Stalker", a scorpion-like creature with thick armor covering its entire body, including its two massive pincers and tail. Without an outstanding amount of offensive power, or a partner that could force it to reveal its weak points, it was the kind of Grimm that was best avoided by anyone except for only the most elite of huntsmen.

Staring into a challenge that was not meant for her to overcome, Yang sensed no fear growing inside her. On the contrary, a fierce defiance took grip of her heart and extended to her muscles and all the way toward her limbs, forcing fists out of her hands and a wide grin out of her mouth. The young girl refused a life in which she was going to be forced to back down, and she adored the rush of plunging herself into danger. Thus, she did.

Yang successfully dodged the creature's hulking limbs while closing the distance to it. A small fragment of hope began developing in Yang's mind as she thought that maybe, just maybe, she would have actually been capable of dealing with the situation alone. There was no need to burden anyone: she was strong. Winding up, she threw a wild haymaker to the creature's head, utilizing the full potential of both her body and her gauntlets to push herself as hard as she could. Unfortunately, the creature had not even been faced by the blow. Yang was all too late to realize the disadvantageous position she had put herself in, and before she could process the shock of her punch having no effect at all, she was swiped away with immense strength, flying backwards and hitting a tree.

The forest fell silent. Death Stalkers tended to be unusually quiet despite their appearance and size, so even as this one approached its pray, it did so in a manner that allowed only the faint crackling of its exoskeleton to be heard. Extending its stinger toward the fallen Yang, the Grimm prepared itself to feast. But the creature's movements were stopped by an unusual glow. Instinctively, the Death Stalker tried to bring its tail back, but it did so far too late: its extremity had been blown apart by a vibrant glimmer.

Slowly getting back up, Yang's figure was totally unrecognizable from before. Her hair had been lit ablaze, her radiant eyes exuded strength and a surge of energy spiraled around her whole body. Clenching her fist, Yang summoned a prodigious amount of aura before propelling herself off the ground with marvelous strength and shooting herself into the creature's head once more. When her attack connected, it produced a sound akin to that of thunder, followed by a beam of light almost as blinding to Yang herself.

In the aftermath of the prodigious display of sheer power, the Death Stalker's armor had been cracked, and the leaves of many of the nearby trees had been blown away or simply disintegrated. Yang felt immense satisfaction as the physical exertion caught up with her body. She had been left exhausted, but she was victorious.

Suddenly, the creature's arms began moving again. The second she noticed it, panic crept up Yang's stomach. She couldn't believe that it could still move, there was no way it could; she had hit it with all that she had. Yang had no strength to even lift up her arms, escape was a non-factor. Frantically, she began to ineffectively head butt the creature's exposed body as its limbs closed in on her. But, right before she was caught, Yang felt a tight rope latching around her waist and pulling her up in the air.

Yang abruptly found herself upside down, dangling from the branches of a tree. Turning her head downwards (or perhaps upwards), she saw as the Death Stalker stopped moving. The blow she had dealt to it had been enough. Rising (or lowering) her gaze, Yang couldn't see much except a couple of black boots. She decided it was only polite to express her gratitude:

"Hey, thanks! You really came in clutch back there… whoever you are. Would you mind turning me around so I can say thanks to your face and not your shoes?"

The figure remained quiet for long enough to allow Yang to reflect on her actions for a short moment. Then, finally, it spoke, "Where's the fun in trying to throw your life away?"

The statement was sharp. It surprised Yang just how much it affected her. Regardless, she tried to play it off: "I was not really trying to get hurt. As I'm sure you were able to see, my semblance-"

"I've seen semblances like yours before."

For the first time in a long, long while, Yang had been brought to silence by someone else. The other person continued, "If you develop a habit of engaging in suicidal situations because you think you can rely on your own strength alone, then in the battlefield you'll be nothing but a reckless brat."

Yang laughed, having completely resigned herself to a scolding that she agreed she deserved: "We only met a couple of seconds ago and you already sound like my dad. I can tell teaming up with you is going to be dreadful. What's your name, pretty boots? I'm Yang."

"Likewise. Also, my name is not pretty boots. I'm Blake."