Chapter 13

After a while of walking through the streets, enduring the odd looks going their way (more-so at the doll), the three finally made it back to the school's apartments. The first stop was Iosefka's place. The idea being after a brief stop at Iosefka's to unload her groceries, the Doll would then be taken to Ella's own for the day.

"Alright, I'll take care of the rest." She said after placing one last grocery bag on the counter. "You should go and take her to your quarters, I'll be heading back to the clinic as soon as I'm done here."

She nodded. "Alright then. You know, today was… rather interesting to say the least." She said as she shrugged.

"Same here," the doctor said as she smiled. "Well, you'd best get going. Good day to you Ella."

She nodded once more to say goodbye, then she turned to the Doll. "Let's get going." She held the doll's porcelain hand and lead her out the door. They did not have to go far to reach her place; it was merely three doors down.

Upon a command via her Scroll, the door opened to let them in. Compared to the Head Nurse's, the Good Hunter's place was not that different in design, layout and furniture, but the atmosphere was rotundly different. Iosefka's apartment was subtly but exquisitely decorated, whereas Ella's home was spartan in its austerity.

Only after the door was securely closed behind her did Ella address the Doll:

"Okay, we are going to wait until my Headmaster gets here. He wants to have a talk with you and I'm certain he will be bringing company over. Will you be okay with this?"

"Of course, Good Hunter," the Doll replied with a nod.

"Fine then. Please take a seat. I'll just prepare a small meal for myself while we wait." She went over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She knew the Doll could not eat nor drink, which to her was a saving grace for her wallet. After making a small meal which consisted of salad, crackers and a cup of water, she sat at the table and ate in silence. To someone else the Doll's absolute motionlessness would have been disturbing to say the least but to Ella it was perfectly mundane, except for the enigma of the Doll being there in the first place.

Twenty minutes later, she was putting the dishes on the sink when someone knocked on the door. "That must be him," Ella said.

She opened it to reveal Ozpin himself, along with Glynda and Eileen.

"May we come in?" He asked.

"Of course." She stepped aside and let them through. When Ozpin reached the room, he raised his eyebrows in slight surprise at the sight of the unexpected tallness of the woman sitting on one of the chairs in the living area as the Doll looked back. The description of her was quite accurate enough coming from both hunters, and her eyes seemed rather calm.

"You must be the Doll, I take it."

She nodded her head in greeting. "Yes, and you must be the Headmaster." The accent sounded rather strange to him, but he simply let it slide. What got him quietly intrigued more was the elasticity of her features to allow her to physically speak.

"That is correct." He walked to the couch to sit down, but before he did that he looked to Ella for confirmation. "I assume you informed her about me?"

She shook her head. "Not much, I simply told her the Headmaster was coming over to have a talk with her."

"I see, then I must be quite obvious." He commented a bit sarcastically.

Meanwhile, the two staff members were in different states of reaction. Glynda felt unnerved when she looked at the Doll, because never in her lifetime had she ever seen a doll that would walk and talk. This thing was completely alien to her, and she could only guess what this thing could be capable of.

Eileen on the other hand, was rather curious seeing her old acquaintance again. In fact, she said almost nonchalantly, "I never thought you would be here in the real world, Doll."

The doll turned her attention to the familiar voice, and looking straight into the eyes of the former Crow Hunter. "Ah, it is good to see you again, Good Hunter."

"Wait a minute, I thought Good Hunter was a given title." Ella said, a bit surprised that she would call Eileen the Good Hunter as well.

"It sort of is," explained Eileen, "but it's more of a gesture of polite respect to the hunters. Come to think of it, she might as well call every hunter in this school as the Good Hunter."

"Oh, I see… I guess it kinda makes sense." She muttered to herself, although in a sullen tone.

Ozpin observed the exchange almost clinically, not unlike a sage observing the behavior of a newly discovered species on its natural habitat. "I can see the three of you are still well acquainted with each other. Now I do have some questions I would like to ask of you, if you do not mind," he said as he sat down on the couch.

"I do not mind at all, Headmaster." She responded with her characteristic and slightly unsettling politeness.

"Good, now when and how is it that you came to be here?"

"I came to be in this world nearly three months ago by Flora… right around the same time when Ella returned home."

"I see, and this… Flora, is a Great One I take it?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Hmmm," he hummed in thought as he took a sip of his coffee. Meanwhile someone else asked a question.

"I would like to know how you are alive," Eileen pondered. "You were made within the dream, so it should not be possible for a doll to be alive in the real world, should it?"

"You would be right to assume so, but I was made manifest by Flora's power and will. And with that power given to me is what keeps me alive. Although I may still die."

"I… see." That answer had been so obvious from the start.

"Which means that you are quite fragile given that your body is made of porcelain," he assumed as he was about to take another sip of his coffee.

"Not so much as just crack, but I do bleed like anyone else," she corrected which halted him from taking another sip.

"I'm sorry, come again?" Ozpin's eyebrows were raised as he looked her studiously yet was somewhat disturbed by her response.

"I bleed like any mortal."

He looked to Eileen. "Did you know of this?" To his surprise even Eileen was somewhat shocked of this new information.

"Were you also able to bleed in the Hunter's Dream?" She asked.

The Plain Doll nodded, "Yes."

"Well this is new." The Night Huntress folded her arms as she leaned back. Then she looked to Ella to see if she knew about this. "Did you know about this Ella?"

"Actually, yes." She answered a bit nervously. Now everyone's eyes were on her for an explanation. The two professors looked to her for information while Eileen looked at her as if she had done something wrong.

"And how do you know this?"

"Um," she hesitated. "Well, I was getting angry over being killed five times by Maria that I… accidentally lashed out at the doll, cutting her at the front which spilled out pale white blood." She spoke with shame when she remembered that event.

Eileen was quietly observing the young lady's reaction and behavior when being next to the doll, and she noticed within her tone that she had some sort of bond with the Doll. The Night Huntress did not show it, however, as she was more caught up in the discovery of Pale blood.

"Pale. white. blood? Pale blood?" Eileen looked to the doll, and the doll nodded silently to answer her question. "Can we see this blood of yours?"

"Eileen, you must be joking! Dolls do not bleed," Glynda argued in disbelief. "And I very much doubt she would want to be bleeding in the real world!"

"Normally you would be right, Glynda, but to what we're already told this doll is not normal. And as morbid as the request sounds, I too am curious as to see what her blood looks like," Ozpin said.

"Not you too, Ozpin!" Glynda gasped in disbelief and disgust.

"Ella, would you kindly…," Eileen gestured as she asked, ignoring Glynda's protest.

"Alright." She sighed uncomfortably as she got up from her seat and went to the kitchen. She grabbed the kitchen knife and went back to her seat next to the doll. She pulled up the glass table, and she then gently grabbed the doll's wrist and looked to her, silently asking for her permission to proceed (which Eileen obviously caught her doing). The doll nodded to let her do what she had to, and Ella took off the glove and guided the porcelain hand over the glass table. With a quick slice she cut the doll's palm, and true to her word, pale white blood dripped out from her palm and onto the glass table, showing the proof to everyone in the room.

Their expressions varied; Eileen was surprised to see that the doll actually bled, while at the same time she was intrigued of the blood's color. Ozpin looked at the blood studiously, it was not everyday that one would see someone's blood color being so different than everyone else's, but more than that, he was having a hard time trying to wrap his head around the fact that her porcelain skin could also be her flesh. Glynda was thinking the same as Ozpin, however, she felt repulsed seeing it. It was not natural for this doll or thing to be able to have blood in the first place.

Suddenly, the pale blood had begun to evaporate rapidly, and her bleeding also stopped as the cut disappeared like it never happened. This had left Ella to be confused, because the first and last time she wounded the doll it never healed, only to be healed back to normal when she returned to the Dream. Now her wounds could heal at a rapid rate which somewhat disturbed her.

"Well this is rather odd," Ozpin observed. "Blood that would simply vanish into thin air after leaving the body, is it some sort of security measure?"

She nodded. "Yes, it is simply to prevent anyone from gaining possession over it."

"So, a natural asset denial… smart." Eileen inquired.

"Is the pale blood really that dangerous to anyone who tries to drink it?" Glynda asked.

"It is indeed, to which my blood has been altered upon arrival."

"Hmm, I see," he muttered before a certain subject pertaining to blood had come to mind. "And speaking of blood," Ozpin spoke up to garner her attention, "Ella and Eileen explained to me that you can manipulate these so called 'blood echoes' to enhance a Hunter's strength and abilities, can you still do that?"

She shook her head. "I can no longer do so. Flora took that knowledge away from me, knowing there was no use for it."

"She does have a point," said Ella. "There are no beastly plagues running rampant, and the Grimm surely do not bear any blood echoes."

"That is a good point," Ozpin acknowledged, "so what abilities do you have?"

"Well, I can do this…," she raised her porcelain hand up and snapped her fingers, while Ozpin had gotten more intrigued at how dexterous her limbs were, even though the question remained of both flesh and porcelain. All of a sudden something leaned against the kitchen counter with a thud, drawing everyone else's attention to a familiar object the two Hunter's knew right away.

It was a coffin, but it was not just any coffin. It was the coffin from the Hunter's Dream which could store practically anything and as much as you wanted. So to simply put it, it was a magic coffin.

Ella turned to the Doll, a twinkle in her eyes. "Are all my things in there, Doll?"

"Yes," she smiled softly as she nodded.

She graciously got up and went around the living room to the leaning coffin, to which she opened it to reveal nothing but pitch black darkness inside. What she did next startled the three of them when she literally climbed casually into the darkness, and within a couple seconds later she jumped right out of the coffin… with her casual clothes completely swapped and wearing a completely different yet all too familiar outfit.

"Is that my uniform," Eileen asked a bit dubiously as she looked upon Ella's choice of attire; the Crow Hunter attire.

"Well what do you think Eileen, does your uniform look good on me?" She asked as she crossed her arms in that signature pose Eileen usually did. Eileen, however, was a bit unamused.

"We'll talk about this later," she answered deadpan.

She huffed, then she jumped backwards right back into the coffin and out again with the Hunter's attire, complete with the bandana mask and the torn tricorn hat.

"Ah, I never thought I'd be able wear this again… well except for this tricorn hat of course." She muttered the last part, though muffled, as she took the hat off and examined it.

"Ella, you do realize that any clothing you picked from Yharnam is deemed flammable," Eileen reminded her deadpan.

She looked back her with a dirty look as she lowered the mask and then crossed her arms. "I understand that, but I am not going to wear those things you people call clothes! Why do you think I chose the outfits I currently have in my closet in the first place?"

"You can't stick to the old world forever you know. You've got to show your feminine side sometimes." One would think to call out on her hypocrisy on matters of clothing, but she had often shown her casual attire to be like anyone else in Vale. The reason she remade the Crow Hunter attire was because of wanting to continue her profession, though more reformed as Ella observed over the months they'd spent working together.

"Wearing my Huntress attire was enough for me to show my skin, and I can live without any further exposure thank you!" She scoffed as she turned her head away.

"Ahem…," Ozpin interrupted the little banter between the two as both eyes now looked to him. "I do believe we do have important matters to continue with?"

"Sorry," they both said simultaneously as Ella went back to her seat.

"Now then," he turned back to the doll, "what else can you do, Doll?"

She shook her head. "I am not sure what else I can do, I've only known how to do that so far."

"So you're telling me that you've been given powers from a god, yet you do not know what they are or how to use them yet?" He theorized.

"I had merely woken up after waiting months for her to find me."

"Hmmmm," he pondered, simply not buying what she said but he did not voice it.

"To me that should give some concern," Glynda inquired, "who knows what she might actually be capable of doing."

"Glynda, she's harmless," Ella scoffed her claim. "All she has ever done in the Dream is serve the Hunters, and tended to both Gehrman and the gravestones."

"We understand that, but Glynda is right in a way," Ozpin added. "She doesn't know what else she can do just yet, and this should warrant some observation from time to time. And I would like for you to report to me on what she has done, when she has done it, understood?"

"I understand professor," she sighed.

"Good," he nodded.

"Now I believe the next question should be about your duration," said Glynda, "how long will you be staying here?"

"I will be staying alongside the Good Hunter until Flora deems that my services are no longer needed," she answered.

"Well that sounded a bit cryptic, though I'm not surprised," Eileen said as she sighed.

"Extended stays aside," Ozpin quipped, "I think the next thing we need to do is figure out what to do with her, any thoughts?" Though he referred to Ella to make an answer, Glynda, on the other hand, had a different idea.

"My thoughts are to keep her in one place," she suggested.

"You mean as in locking her up?" Ella asked defensively.

"She is an anomaly, Miss Fall, something that defies the laws of nature and explanation. If the people in this school were to grow suspicious and find out she's a living breathing doll with no soul but... magic to help her function, there would be chaos, and we don't want her to end up in the wrong hands as well."

"Such as the students perhaps?" Eileen asked.

"Or worse."

"You may have a good point and all, but the decision should be entirely up to you, Ms. Fall," Ozpin said as he turned to her. "She only serves you after all."

Ella pondered on the thought for a moment until she turned to her companion. "Well, I think I can just keep her here like a house maid," she answered, "what do you think, Doll? Will it be okay if you stayed here?"

"Of course, Good Hunter." She answered kindly. Ella smiled back for the answer, but her expression had still caught the eyes of Eileen's observation.

"Are you sure she will simply stay in the apartment," Glynda asked studiously.

"She's a doll, Glynda," Ella corrected, "I highly doubt she will go stir crazy by being cooped up in here."

"That's not what I meant." She argued.

"I believe we've asked enough questions for now," Ozpin concluded as he got up off the couch, then looked to Glynda. "I think it's time we leave to prepare for the team forming ceremony, don't you think Glynda?"

"Of course," she sighed as she reluctantly agreed. Then she got up and followed the Headmaster out the door while Eileen strangely stayed behind.

"Aren't you going with them?" Ella asked curiously.

"I will, I just need a word with you for a moment." She explained.

When the door shut closed it was just the three of them. Thus she began to speak her mind. "So, how close are you with the Doll?"

"E-excuse me?"

"There's no need to hide it from me. It was easy to tell as I watched how you acted around her, and how you looked at her. But all I want to know is how close you've gotten with her."

Ella blushed a bit with a little embarrassment after hearing that.

"I, too had a bond with the Doll, but I learned to let it go and move-on a long time ago." Eileen explained to convince her to speak.

She sighed. "Look, I understand where you're coming from. The doll has helped me much throughout my journey, and you could say I've formed a close bond with her. But I'm telling you this now; I am not emotionally attached to her in any way."

Eileen had somewhat of a feeling that there was more to it than that, but she decided not to push the subject and accepted her word for now. "I guess that is good to know." She stood up from the seat. "I should be going then, until next time," and walked to the door, but she then stopped and glanced back at Ella. "Oh, and Ella?"

"Yes?"

"The ceremony will be starting at 7:30PM sharp, don't be late."

"I promise I'll be there," she assured.

"Good, see you then." She soon left the apartment after that. Now, though, with Ella having all this free time before the ceremony, she was left with one question in mind.

"What should I do in the meantime?" She asked herself, going deep in thought as to what to do. She remembered that she left her Scroll inside the coffin and went to it, reaching her hand into the darkness. She thought of the Scroll, and she pulled it out. The Scroll's diamond shape, however, suddenly started flashing, telling her she had a pending message. She opened up the Scroll and went to email, and to her surprise it was from Ozpin with a link to a video. She hummed in curiosity as her eyebrow was raised, and when she tapped the link it brought her to having multiple videos of mornings initiation.

"Oh~," she awed as she watched how it all played out. At least she would be more informed and not be bored for the time being before the ceremony.

—Hours later, at 7:30PM—-—

Dusk had come, and true to her word, Ella reached the amphitheater ten minutes early before the ceremony started. The amphitheater was getting filled up quite fast when she got there, and now it was almost filled to the brim with students. The second, third and fourth year students sat near the base and upper levels respectively, while whatever was left of the first years, who had decided to stay and successfully passed initiation, sat at the base level below the second years. Sadly, there were not that many first year students as she observed.

She was sitting amongst the staff members on the upper level. She had her signature uniform on again, but this time her dress coat was an emerald green to represent Beacon. She currently sat next to Eileen to her left, and to her right sat a portly looking professor. The lights soon dimmed as the clock struck seven thirty, with several lights now focused on the stage as the Headmaster walked up to the mic and began his speech.

"Yesterday, many hopefuls stood in this very stadium, but those many who came here left with doubt on their minds, knowing that they were not yet ready. Yet, there are those who did take those first steps into attending this school, and I am proud to say these first years, who stayed and persevered through the fire of today's trial, now stand among us. But it was not their strength, their training, or their Semblance which helped them survive, no. It was teamwork alone which saved their lives and each other's, and it is by being a team that it will help you grow into becoming more than what you are, and for a bond with your fellow teammates that I'm sure will continue to grow for the next four years to come. So tonight, let us welcome our new first year teams!"

The crowd cheered and applauded at his speech, and they then watched as the first four students walked up to the stage and stood at attention. As he called their names, the holographic screens floating at the back of the stage showed their names for all to see. As he announced the forming of their team name, the screen showed the first letter of their names, whether from their first or last name, moving to the center of the screen as the rest of their names faded to form their team name in four letter words.

Two teams later

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Skye Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as… Team CRDL (Cardinal). Lead by… Cardin Winchester." The crowd of students applaud the new team before they left the stage to be replaced by the next group, soon standing at attention.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie."

Flashback

This was worrying for Jaune. Unfortunately nothing, not even bullets and Dust grenades could break through the ancient Deathstalker's seriously tough shell. For now its glowing stinger was still buried in the front end of the bridge while three members of the future team continued to pour more fire at the scorpion Grimm, but that all ended when the Deathstalker finally yanked its stinger out of the bridge, but the stinger's removal broke the front end of the bridge, making it start to tilt backwards towards the chasm, and Jaune knew why. He and his team were standing at the edge of the broken bridge, and their combined weight was what was making it tilt backwards. He did not have time to debate as his mind went into overdrive. All of the fear and doubt were washed away from his mind, and in an instant he made his first order to his future team.

"We gotta move!" He yelled hastily. The team did not stop to think twice as they followed his orders, all of them now running toward the opposite end of the bridge to bring it successfully back to the mainland, and into the pincers of the Deathstalker. Pyrrha ducked and slid under a pincer strike, her shield being raised above her head to block the blow before she spun around and slashed the scorpion with her transformed spear to stagger it, but the ancient scorpion quickly retaliated by bringing its other pincer to strike her down, but that, too was blocked by Jaune's timely intervention with his shield raised up, letting his partner jump over him and strike the other pincer away.

Ren came up next while he poured covering fire with his bladed submachine pistols. The Deathstalker struck at the nuisance with its glowing stinger, only to strike at the stonework when Ren moved out of the way at the last second and grabbed onto its stinger before being lifted into the air, then he swung around and landed behind the tail as he went to work, firing his submachine pistol into the flesh behind the stinger to try and remove it, all while holding on for dear life with just one hand on the stinger.

Pyrrha and Jaune meanwhile kept striking the pincers away from them while Nora came running in from the back, transforming her warhammer into a grenade launcher as she kneeled down and fired two pink grenades at the giant scorpion, but the ancient Grimm saw them coming and it bashed away the two aggressors with its pincers before quickly using them to blocked the explosive projectiles, leaving a pink cloud of Dust and an undamaged shell. Jaune and Pyrrha both skidded back a ways before the blonde swordsman lost his footing and fell on his back, but the red haired gladiatrice still stood after taking a hit and retaliated by throwing her spear at it, a single shot from the spear propelling it to fly faster. The ancient Grimm tried to grab it with its pincer, but it was too fast too late as the spear narrowly passed the closing pincer and was successfully embedded in one of the monster's eyes, making it scream in pain.

In its angered state it whipped its tail around even harder, and Ren finally lost his grip on the stringer and was flown back.

"REN!" Nora shouted in worry as the magenta streak haired boy crashed into a pillar with his back and fell to earth, his breath knocked right out him. Jaune was getting back up, and as he looked up he saw that the glowing stinger was hanging rather loosely from being nearly severed from Ren's submachine bullets. Then an idea came to him as he then turned to Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha!" He said.

"Done!" As if already knowing what he was thinking she threw her shield at the Grimm's stinger and completely severed it from its tail as the stinger landed on its head. The shield sailed towards the pillar behind it, bouncing into the air before she pulled the shield back to her by using her Semblance.

"Nora, nail it!" He ordered next.

"Heads up!" She announced, her grenade launcher already transformed back into the warhammer as she jumped into the air. Pyrrha then went under her with her shield raised above her head, and when the ginger haired war maiden landed her hammer on the shield while at the same time sitting on the shaft of her weapon, the red head pushed her into the air with all her might, followed by the aid of a grenade blast as Nora went skyrocketing while she still sat on her hammer like a witch on a broomstick.

She smiled and giggled as if she was having the time of her life before gravity began to pull her back down. While falling, she adjusted her position to be falling sideways while holding the hammer above her. She grinned as she made a salute before pulling the trigger, making the hammer fire a concussive blast which sent her spinning with such speeds along with her hammer towards the Grimm. With perfect timing and strength she slammed her hammer down on the stinger, burying it deep within the monster's endoskeletal skull, but the powerful strike destroyed the bridge, catapulting both Jaune (screaming out of fear) and Pyrrha into the air towards the mainland while the redhead pulled her spear out of its eye with her Semblance while she was flying over it. Nora for her part still kept grinning as she used her hammer to launch herself to safety by firing another blast through its skull which sent her flying, and in its death throes the ancient Grimm cried in deathly pain as it fell down the dark chasm along with the destroyed bridge.

The three students landed in various ways: Jaune… crashed landed on his back against the ancient stonework, Nora landed on her behind, and Pyrrha landed perfectly as she knelt down on one knee. Ren had already gotten up, and even though he was in pain and exhausted from the fight, he still managed to reach his team before his gave out and fell next to the redhead. Thus the battle ended in their victory.

The three of them stood up and turned to watch the four girls battle the giant Nevermore, but they will always remember that this was a battle they will never forget.

Flashback end

"The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as… Team JNPR (Juniper). Lead by… Jaune Arc!"

"Huh?" The blonde haired boy was equal parts shocked and worried in being designated as the leader of his team while the crowd applaud. Even Ella was somewhat stunned, though not surprised, by the announcement. "L-Lead by…?"

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin congratulated nonchalantly.

Pyrrha went to give him a light playful punch to his shoulder to congratulate her partner, but she ended up knocking him to the ground which made some people (including Ella as she giggled) laugh at the comic spectacle.

From the video Ella had watched, her view on these four students varied:

Nora was the powerhouse of the team, but Ella could only describe the ginger haired girl as both a loose cannon and questionably sane, thus her partner Ren would always be there to keep her head leveled. How the boy was able to endure her antics she would never know. Where Nora would be the energetic and wild one, Ren would be described as the calm and collected one. His martial arts along with the use of his acrobatics make him very agile among the group. He did not show his Semblance in battle, though neither did Nora, and this made her wonder as to why. Plus he tends to be more quiet and less talkative which thus far tended to be his personality.

Next was Pyrrha, the four time regional tournament champion of Mistral; a new record from what she read. She had an excellent set of skills when it came to combat, and from the other videos she saw of the tournaments (thanks to Iosefka's help), she was described as professionally-capable, friendly, righteous yet relaxed. Her training and experience made her out to be the picture perfect candidate to be one of the best Huntress's out there. Ella still had yet to understand her Semblance, that perhaps it could have been her means of winning. As for Jaune, on the other hand… well let's just say he somewhat lacked training to her observation, and he tended to be more of a goofball than anything else. Still, she could not deny his natural talent for leadership, and plus he did show some skill with his sword and shield against the ancient Grimm when desperation came into play. It made her wonder though; just how did he get in? She would be keeping an eye on him for the time being.

After Pyrrha lifted him up, the newly formed team JNPR went off the stage to be replaced by four girls. Two of them she already knew as Weiss and Ruby, but as for the other two… The blonde haired girl she had already seen before, but this girl looked more calm than the others. She had long black hair with a black ribbon tied into a bow on top of her head, making her look as if she had cat ears. she wore a black buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath that was a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt and white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg. She also wore black low-heeled boots and full stockings with a color transition of black to purple at her ankles. On her left arm was a detached sleeve with a silver cuff around her bicep, and black ribbons were wrapped around both forearms. A small, loose scarf was wrapped around her neck.

What their names were, of course she was about to find out.

"And finally, Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. And Yang Xiao Long.

Flashback

Blake had been accidentally pushed off the bridge by Nora's explosive entrance. As she fell she looked up to see the giant bird flying by above the destroyed bridge. With determination written on her face, and with her training and experience kicking in she turned her body around, and with a grunt she threw her pistol turned kusarigama (with the speed boost of a single round fired) as it spiraled towards another bridge. With its blade successfully sinking into the old stonework she held onto the black ribbon as she swung underneath the bridge, only to tug it off almost at the last second to have her flying. The Nevermore was flying by, and after her kusarigama turned katana returned to her hand she gave herself a midair boost, giving her the speed needed as she flew towards the Nevermore's head. She flipped and slashed at the Nevermore's skull covered head with her katana and bladed sheath multiple times before landing behind its head, then continued on slashing as she ran down its back before jumping off at the end.

She soon landed on one knee on top of one of the broken walls of the tower, where an observant Ruby had seen the whole thing happen, then she jumped off again.

"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake said when she landed right next to her partner Yang. The heiress, Weiss, soon joined after as they all gathered together in one spot on the tower.

"Then let's hit it with everything we've got!" Yang declared as her bracelets turned into shotgun gauntlets. They got ready when the Nevermore began to turn around and head straight for them. They soon fired everything they had; Ruby firing her high caliber rounds from her sniper scythe, Blake firing round after round from her pistol, Yang punching the air to trigger the firing mechanism as the fire dust rounds (which were more like fireballs) flew straight toward the bird, and Weiss used her Dust chambered rapier as a focus and used it to elegantly cast ice missiles.

No matter how much fire power they threw at it, the Nevermore was simply shrugging them off like they were nothing as it soon crashed straight through the lower level of the tower underneath them. Knowing that the idea had failed they ran towards the edge of the broken platform, only to jump up onto individual falling chunks of stonework and so on as they used their acrobatics, gear, Aura, and Semblance to reach back onto the lower level the Nevermore crashed through. By the time they made it onto the now more ruined tower, they were separated into two teams once again.

"None of this is working!" Weiss frowned at the current situation while standing by her partner Ruby. The fifteen year old scythe wielder looked at the environment around her, trying to figure out a way to kill the bird when she noticed something. Blake landed near Yang on the connecting column arch separate from Ruby's bridge with the aid of her Kusarigama and black ribbon. Then she looked to see Yang being on a tall ruined column, firing away at the flying Nevermore. Then a thought, no a plan, began to quickly form inside her mind along with the use of Weiss' glyphs. It was a plan that would seem so unorthodox, that if used just right she might pull it off.

"I have a plan!" Ruby told her partner which garnered her attention. "Cover me!" Weiss nodded, and they quickly separated to get to work.

Yang meanwhile was having somewhat of a hard time hitting the moving target that is the Nevermore, with some rounds missing her intended target. She fired one more out of frustration and successfully hit the Nevermore on the side of its face, which pissed it off to make it come around to try and swallow her whole in one swoop. Yang smirked, having a reckless and crazy idea as it flew in closer. Jumped at the last second towards its opened beak, and like what Ella did she halted herself halfway, keeping its beak wide open for an attack.

"I! Hope! You're! Hung-ry!" She yelled as she fired round after round of fire Dust down its throat. The giant death bird squawked in pain, but it was also getting dizzy and disoriented that it lost control of its wings, making it hopelessly fly straight for the cliff wall. Yang looked behind her and took the time available to her to jump off, landing on the bridge on one knee before the Nevermore crashed into the wall, but reoriented itself as it landed onto the ancient stone rooftop. It groggily lifted its head up, but it was now more angry as it spread its wings out and cawed furiously at its annoying prey, preparing to fly again.

Yang was about to run when she looked up ahead to see the three girls at the other end, standing where two columns of the same height were when Weiss went sprinting/speed skating with her Semblance activated beneath her foot to give her speed. Yang smirked knowing her little sister was up to something and sprinted toward the other end as the two crossed past each other; Yang going to help however she could while Weiss speed skated toward the Nevermore to stop it from flying away.

The giant black bird was about to fly, and Weiss jumped at the very edge of the bridge, twirling once before aiming straight for its tail feather. The Nevermore flapped into the air when Weiss trapped its tail by stabbing into the old brickwork and summoning spikes of ice to encase the end of its tail. The giant bird was caught by surprise when it could not leave as Weiss jumped and backflipped back onto the bridge and skated back toward the three girls to make ready.

Meanwhile Blake was standing on a column at one end and threw her kusarigama towards Yang at the other end, firing once to give it more speed until the blonde girl caught it mid air before grabbing onto the column and sinking the blade into the stonework, with Blake merely holding onto the end of the ribbon. With the ribbon tied from one end to other it made out to be more like a makeshift slingshot. Ruby launched herself into the air by firing a concussive round to help her fly, then turned around mid air as she flew backwards and landed on the black ribbon. The ribbon was being pulled back downwards by the force and weight, and Weiss was already there as she summoned a white glyph which soon turned black to catch the scythe wielder until she was ready to fire.

"Of course you would come up with this idea." Weiss stated.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked as she stayed ready.

"Hmph. Can I?" Weiss boasted.

That left Ruby a bit confused as she looked back at her partner. "...Can–?"

"Of course I can!" She interrupted out of annoyance as she soon turned off the black glyph and released the little reaper.

Ruby went soaring towards the Nevermore, firing more rounds behind her to gain more speed until her scythe's blade was held around the giant bird's neck and her feet had planted against the cliff wall soon after. Weiss summoned a line of glyphs that went all the way to the top of the cliff, and Ruby ran up dragging the Nevermore with her as she ascended up the cliff while firing concussive rounds again and again to keep the weight of the bird from slowing her down. She went on yelling, building up until they reached the top and she finally decapitated the bird with one shot pull, with the severed landing next to her while the little girl landed under her sniper scythe. Ruby removed her weapon from the dirt and got up from her landing, and casually turned to walk up to the edge, the headless monster now descending down the cliff as the three girls looked up. They saw Ruby's red hooded cloak flapping to the wind as it gave off rose petals, making her look more… beautifully heroic.

"Well. That was a thing." Yang commented on their victory.

Flashback end

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as… Team RWBY (Ruby). Lead by… Ruby Rose."

Weiss blinked in surprise as she looked at the fifteen year old girl next to her. She was shocked and quietly frustrated that she did not get chosen to be leader, and as for Ruby, she stood surprised and speechless.

"I'm so proud of you!" Her half sister Yang said as she ran up to her and hugged her. Ruby smiled at the affection as the crowd cheered on.

Ella smiled and applauded her too. The little girl had an endearing quality to her. Her borderline ridiculous cuteness concealed an equally astonishing skill for combat, traits that she believed would help her blossom into a very capable leader. And she was proven correct when Ozpin sent the videos of the initiation to her via Scroll. She had to say the plan the girl made was quite unorthodox at best but it indeed did work in their favor. The level of skill each of them had was efficient to her observation, and they could make it through the four years as an effective team, but their mindset and personality may be more of a different story for the four of them to get around. Still, fate would determine whether Ruby and her team will live up to those expectations or fade into obscurity.

"Looks like it's shaping up to be an… interesting year," Ozpin commented. The Headmaster simply had no idea what fate lay ahead for all of Beacon.

And Vale.

Nighttime

A portable phone was being slammed onto a desk, as a growling sigh from a bowler hat wearing criminal soon came after. One of his henchmen's Dust heists had failed, and he was growing more frustrated that his quota was not being met as planned. He already had failed his heist, all thanks to a little scythe wielding brat with a red hood. He had been chewed out by his rescuer/employer soon after for his failure, and he did not want to be on her bad side again, knowing what she was capable of doing. He simply had to come up with a better plan soon, otherwise not even his wits would save him from a fiery grave. He lit a fresh cigar held by his mouth, and went back into contemplating.

Soon he heard a door opened behind him, and in came a White Fang grunt pushing a cart filled with cases. He turned around and paid him the lien as promised. If there was one thing these animals were good at, it was loyalty and reliability. Sure these Faunus radicals had done their fair share robbing Dust trains, and although they weren't exactly smart enough to pull off heists as elaborate as his, but they did have the resources and firepower needed to get the job done. How his employer managed to convince their leader to join in as part of her so called 'plan'... he could only make one guess.

"Open it," he ordered in nonchalance. The White Fang grunt did as ordered and used a crowbar to pry open the case, and it revealed to house different, perfectly cut Dust crystals. He pulled an Ice Dust crystal out and inspected it while the grunt backed away to give him space. As he inspected it, he had an idea come to his mind. An idea that involved a Schnee Dust freighter coming at some point, and one more thing needed to pull it off. "We're gonna need more men."

He then turned to the grunt, with his cigar now held between his two fingers. "Go and tell your boss to bring more of his minions here as soon as possible, and tell him it's for a bigger shipment of Dust."

"You mean… right now?" He asked nervously.

"Yes right now! Now go!" He said in frustration as he pointed toward the door.

"Y-yes sir!" He frantically ran towards the door to make the call, and once it was shut the criminal turned back to the map being shown by the illumination of the shattered moon. He took a long drag of his cigar, but suddenly the air felt a little cold for some reason, and the hair on the back of his neck had begun to stand up, as if he were being watched. Of course, he simply ignored it, thinking it was just the tension getting to him until he heard footsteps, and it sounded almost familiar. It could only mean two things: one would be one of his employer's minions which he highly doubt it would be, or it could be some other associate coming to annoy him.

He blew out the smoke from his lungs, sighing in annoyance of the newcomer as he slowly turned around. "Look, can't you see that I'm…" As soon he looked in the direction of the newcomer he instantly froze, his face turned somewhat pale and his blood ran cold.

"Do you have what I asked for, Roman?" The stranger asked calmly yet with cold malice, his voice being rustic with a foreign accent no one had ever heard of.

"R-right, right… of course!" Roman answered with hidden fear as he went over to the desk, all the while the stranger silently watched him, like a predator eyeing its prey. He opened the drawer, and took out the package, all wrapped in cloth and tied together by string. Then he walked on over to him rather cautiously as a gauntlet, its palm turned upright, awaited its gift. "Here it is…" He set the package onto his palm, and the gauntleted fingers closed in around it casually, like a spider would to its trapped prey. Then the other gauntlet pulled out the lien from his pocket as payment for the successful transaction.

"You make good on your promise. I suppose this concludes our business then," said the mystery man a bit slowly.

"Yes, uh pleasure doing business with you." Roman replied as professionally as he possibly could, but the fear still lingered.

The man chuckled darkly. "I do hope we can do business again someday." He turned around and walked into the shadows, and the only thing Roman saw was a cloud of black, crimson streaked smoke before he vanished completely out of existence.

Roman let out a breath he did not realize he was holding in. He then shakily dragged on his cigar to try and calm his nerves, though it was taking its sweet time to do so. He had not known the man much. He had dealt his fair share of dangerous customers and employers during his earlier times as a master thief, but meeting that man was a different story.

He never spoke his name, and neither did he ever reveal his face to him. Of course Roman did not want to bother with remembering names, but to never know more about him was preferable. He had always given off this aura of fear more potent than his current employer. He even made a point to never cross him, and he could still remember vividly the night when Roman had first failed in their deal that the man removed the head of one of his associates in cold blood without effort, and without a care. He warned him that if he ever failed a deal again he would hunt him down and end his life, and Roman believed he could actually do it.

They say he had made a deal with the devil, but he soon had a feeling he made a deal with someone much worse.

A/N: Finally, it's all done! Sorry this took so long for you guys to see, but I had a lot of things on my mind, and plus I was distracted with life. There was a lot of re-editing, replacing and adding to this chapter that I accidentally reached over 12,000 words, so I had to cut down a large chunk of it and transfer it to chapter 14.

Now, onto the details. Let's talk about the Plain Doll, the next addition to Ella's household. We all know her as the key character to helping your hunter grow into a powerful one, and we know she is an inhabitant of the dream. Her personality is both kind and hauntingly serene in which I hope I've captured well enough. Now some of you may be telling me that having the doll around would be pointless since there are no beastly plagues going about, but I will tell you this now; I plan to give her a role in this story, and for the doll to have more powers and knowledge that will aid the Good Hunter in the chapters ahead. For now though, things are going to be… somewhat friendly until volume 2. The one thing I had a hard time wrapping my head around is her body, as in bleeding and such. I know she's a doll made of porcelain, but when you attack her it sounds like you're tearing at flesh (and porcelain?), which makes her all the more otherworldly and unexplainable. It kinda makes you want to understand but can't since it's just game logic, but in fanfiction it can be a nightmare to figure out. So expect her to be seen from time to time.

Next is the flashbacks. After writing out the forming of teams, CruxMDQ suggested I put in flashbacks and Ella's input on teams RWBY and JNPR. I thought about it for a while, and after being convinced by a friend of mine from work I finally decided to put it in, but that's where it started to build up the word count, soon I had to cut off a chunk because I did not feel ready to do so. So I hope I gave the details on the flashbacks enough justice. As for why I did not go into the details about team JNPR… well… I figured you guys would already know since you all have seen the show.

Now last but not least, my distraction. It wasn't just life I was distracted with, though video games may or may not have something to do with it; I was writing side projects, or to be more specific, stories. Whenever I felt stuck or need to cool off on my current story, I would be writing another different fic based on my favorites. That's right folks, I'm writing more stories, and to tell you the honest truth, this story, Bloodborne Twin, is not the first story I've written. My first story to have reached six chapters, and I'm planning to add more, was a crossover story between Destiny and Overwatch. I was inspired to write that crossover by a fanfiction author named Metal4k who is currently writing his story call The Darkest Knight, and I would recommend you check it out. Now as for the other crossover stories… well I can't just reveal every other one now can I.

Shoutout goes to CruxMDQ for his beta reading and suggestions, and I implore you readers to check out his story Starwatch which I'm helping him with. Also, shoutout goes to my friend from work, Lonnie, for giving me advice on my chapters.

This is Kyro2009, signing off.