So, just so everyone's aware, over 8 chapters of this fic have been written well before the release of Volume 4. That being said, there might be inconsistencies in world building - especially when it comes to Atlas as majority of this fic occurs within that country.

In any case, here is chapter 2. Enjoy if you can - if you can't, I apologize.

That evening, on a dropship en-route to Atlas...

Even after several hours of letting it sink in, Kyouko still couldn't get over what Mami told her: That Homura Akemi was the infamous Angel of Death.

Known to be the sole survivor of a team that successfully defended a village from an attacking Goliath, it was said that the Angel of Death inexplicably gained the ability to materialize angel wings on her back which was one of the reasons she gained the name. The other reason for the name was what she did after. She continued doing her job as a huntress but every mission she took were kill missions. Search and Destroy, Extermination, Assassination - every single mission she completed nigh perfectly and all on her own. Even with missions where she was forced to work with other huntsmen and huntresses, they always talked about how ruthless she was. The cold, calculated precision of every kill was down right terrifying - like a machine whose sole purpose was to destroy. Simply put, she never spoke, never flinched, and never ever missed.

That was Homura Akemi? Homura Akemi, the stoic bookworm who only only spoke to make a quip and was almost never in the mood to fight - she was the Angel of Death? It had to be a joke. Some sort of prank. Everything about Kyouko's excruciatingly long two days of working with the archer did nothing to change those less than idea first impressions. It just couldn't be.

But then Kyouko thought back to the Direwolves Homura dispatched. They weren't that far away from where Kyouko was standing and if Homura was standing right next to her when she made the shot then there'd be nothing to talk about. But no, Homura had to be well over a mile away. Even people with sniper rifles had trouble shooting targets that far away. Homura had been using a bow - a bow - and managed to hit a moving target from that distance. Yes, dust-based arrows were the likely reason for the increase in effective range but that was the extent of dust's ability to enhance an archer's shooting. That accuracy couldn't be faked. Homura was the real deal.

Which is why she was complaining so much about visibility, Kyouko realized. If she could see it, she could kill it. The blizzard just kept her from seeing...

She sighed. Alright, I'm convinced. Homura Akemi is the Angel of Death...

My only question now is... why is she here with us...?

Many years ago, on the cliffs behind Beacon Academy...

"This sea of green you see below is the Emerald Forest - a vast expanse of untamed nature. It is here we will determine whether you are qualified to attend this school. It is here you will show us what you are capable of. Should you survive, you will be welcomed back as students of this school."

A man in dark green, holding a coffee mug in one hand and a cane in the other, stood with his back to a sheer drop. In front of him was a colorful group of individuals, all teenagers and young adults armed with various kinds of weapons. The man was Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon, and those before him were his prospective students. He was explaining the particular details of the initiation to them. It was simple, really. Find a relic deep inside the forest and bring it back.

"Now, as for the formation of teams, traditionally, students will form teams of four. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, three of our prospective students were not able to arrive today. As a result, our total number is not perfectly divisible by four. Two teams will have to make do with three and two members respectively. Any questions?"

There was one hand raised from a girl with long black hair in twin braids and glasses, wearing what seemed to be a school uniform. "Um... uh... How will we know which teams we'll be assigned to?"

"Hmm, I suppose I didn't explain that," Ozpin muttered. "The platforms you are standing on are launch pads that will fling you into the forest at high speed. Once you land, the first person you make direct eye contact with will be your partner for the rest of your stay here. Once all the partners have paired up, I shall group them together to form their teams based on their chemistry and ability shown out in the field. Due to our odd numbering, the sorry soul who failed to find a partner will have to survive on their own until they find a pair who wishes to help them."

There was another raised hand, still from the same girl. "I... uh... about the launch pads... how are we going to land?"

An odd smile appeared on Ozpin's face. "That is an excellent question. You must figure it out. No landing strategy will be provided for you."

"Uh... oh... okay..."

"Of there are no more questions, then we shall begin. I wish you all the best of luck." Ozpin turn towards the forest and watched the students launch one by one. "Oh right. By the way..." After remembering something, he turned back towards the students. "The forest is filled with creatures of Grimm. Please try not to die."

The girl asking questions went wide eyed. "Wha-" She was launched into the air before she even finished one word. Ozpin watched the girl flail around trying to pull something out of a circular device on her arm, in hilarious contrast to the others who were far more graceful and coordinated in executing their landing strategies. "I hope she survives. This school year will be a tad less interesting otherwise." With a chuckle, he took a sip of her coffee.

Present day, Atlas shuttle bay...

"Mami!"

Mami sighed. Almost immediately after she disembarked, already she was being called on by her students. She tried to recall the voice in an attempt guess who it was before she made eye contact. The voice was female, yet boyish, and spoke somewhat nasally. Could it be... Miss Miki? Sure enough, when Mami looked in the direction of the voice, she saw a head of blue bobbing up and down the crowd. With wasn't long before Sayaka Miki elbowed her way into her vision.

Mami smiled. "Good evening, Miss Miki. I take it you're doing well?"

Sayaka smiled back. "Evening, Mami. Yeah I'm good. How was your mission?" She looked around. "Hey, uh, didn't you say your mission was with two other huntresses?"

"The mission went alright. There were minor complications but it was relatively uneventful. As for my team..." Mami looked towards the dropship.

Homura was currently walking out, her heavy coat folded neatly over her arm while her other held the book she was reading. Kyouko was right behind her, walking at a relaxed pace with her coat over her shoulder and her hands in her pockets. She looked to be eating something.

"I'd say they're doing fine," was what Mami concluded after a moment of watching them. "Now Miss Miki, let me ask you a question. You just got back from a stressful mission and this is supposed to be your day off. What are you doing in a military hangar of all places?"

Sayaka smiled sadly, scratching her cheek. "Eh. Just waiting for my team," she answered.

"Mr Kamijou and Miss Shizuki?"

Sayaka nodded. "They went on a mission up further north from you guys. With the blizzard and reports of Direwolves, you can guess that I'm worried."

Mami frowned. "I see..."

"No no, you don't need to be sad for me. I'm sure they'll be fine. You're probably tired from your mission. I won't bother you anymore."

"Ah, wait..." Mami's frown deepened as she watched Sayaka run off, disappearing into the crowd.

Catching Mami unaware, Kyouko put a hand on her shoulder. "Ey, cheer up Mami. Miki's a tough cookie. There's nothing to worry about."

With a raised eyebrow, Mami gave Kyouko a sideways look. "I'm sorry, you know her?"

Kyouko grinned. "Yeah. She's an exchange student who went to Vacuo, right? You know how hunters-in-training have missions where they follow a hunter around? I was the Huntress they followed."

"I do recall her speaking of someone like you - something about a mission with a rude but resourceful huntress from Shade."

Kyouko smirked. "Oh, she told you about me? I'm touched! Brings a tear to my eyes!"

"Please, Kyouko. Control yourself." Mami glanced around. "Where's Miss Akemi?"

"Homura?" Kyouko shrugged. "I don't know, heading home? She said something about a warm bed, a warm bath, and a warm meal, not necessarily in that order."

"Hmm. She had the right idea. I could use a little warmth after that mission."

Kyouko leaned in close. "How 'bout I give you a little bit of warmth? If you know what I - OW" She jumped back, holding her chin. "Hey, what gives!?"

Mami giggled, lowering her first. "As... tempting... as that offer is, I must decline," she said. "I'm tired and would like a good night's rest." She began to move to leave but turned back and smiled. "By the way, next time you try that, you should at least ask me out to dinner first."

Kyouko stared at her for a moment before laughing. "I like your style lady! I might just take you up on that offer."

Mami shook her head slowly, her smile still on her face. "Good night Kyouko" With that, she walked away.

Many years ago, above the Emerald Forest...

Homura Akemi was vaguely aware of her altitude as well as where she was relative to the other students. Of course, with her tumbling through the air, all of those details were caught in a maelstrom of other sensations that didn't really matter. She tried to tune all of it out while she tried to work her Tempest Hourglass.

She wouldn't exactly call her weapon as a weapon strictly speaking. The way she'd describe it would be a shield-bag, if that made any sense. The way it worked didn't necessarily make sense, not even to Homura, as its functions involved breaking, or at the very least bendingsome of the laws of physics. It was large metal disk the size of a dinner plate strapped to her arm. With the combined power of her semblance and two chambers within the disk filled with a special mixture of dust powder, she was able to make minor distortions in space and time. These included increasing or decreasing her speed using time dilation and storing large objects that couldn't possibly fit in her shield compartments.

The first thing she did was slow her descent by half. She was under the impression that it would buy her some time to dig through her stuff. Due to the nature of her time dilation, she'd still receive the effects of a full speed impact should she make contact with the ground or any similar obstacle. Similarly, while she may have been moving slower in comparison to the rest of the world, to her, she was still moving at full speed and it did not actually buy her any time at all. Oh well…

Landing strategy... landing strategy... Think of a landing strategy. Come on, Homura. THINK.

She was keenly aware of everything she had stored into Tempest Hourglass: thirty two dust bombs, sixteen flash grenades, a semi-automatic pistol and pump-action shotgun with unspecified amounts of ammo, half a gallon's worth of bottled water, a day's worth of rations, a folding umbrella, a raincoat, a change of clothes, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, and a reinforced golf club in case she wanted to hit something really hard. As it was, the only item she had that seemed plausible was the umbrella, and even then it still seemed like a bad idea.

Might as well try...

She pulled out the umbrella and opened it, aware that, if it really worked, the umbrella may very well be pulled out of her hands if she wasn't holding on tight enough and may also violently pull her arms off even if she was. Either way she was liking her idea less and less.

...

After a pause, she confirmed that her umbrella plan did not work and now she needed a new umbrella as her current one now had several broken hinges. Not that she'd survive long enough to buy one, though. The moment she collided with the ground, her aura shield would shatter and she'd break every bone in her body. If that didn't kill her then a bunch of Grimm devour her would soon after.

No use wasting energy, she thought in despair. She deactivated her time dilation and resolved herself to death.

"Gotcha!"

Much to Homura's surprise, she wasn't a blood splat and corpse on the ground yet. Instead, she found herself in the arms of a girl in a frilly pink outfit. Even more surprising, they were making a slow and shallow glide to the ground - the girl in pink had angel wings.

"W-wings?"

The girl in pink giggled. "I'm Madoka Kaname. The wings are part of my semblance."

Homura could only stare in awe. "H-Homura," she managed. "Homura Akemi."

Madoka smiled. "Nice to meet you, Homura."

Once they reached the ground, Madoka dismissed her wings and slowly lowered Homura to her feet. Homura's legs were shaking but she didn't fall.

"I'm sorry I didn't say this first but thanks."

"No problem. You look like you needed help. Besides, what are partners for?"

Homura blinked. "P-partners?" Ozpin's words echoed in her mind. The first person you make direct eye contact with will be your partner for the rest of your stay here. "Huh. I guess we are..." she thought in disbelief.

Madoka unfolded the bow strapped to her belt and slung it over her shoulder. With a determined smile, she started walking, gesturing for Homura to follow. "Come on. Let's go find that relic!"

End of chapter...

If you are, in any way, familiar with Madoka Magica, you'll know that Madoka Kaname is not around anymore at present. That said, there'll be plenty of flashbacks in this story. Keep in mind that not all of them will be about Moemura and her daily life with Madoka before she inevitably bites the bullet, so to speak.

In any case, that was my attempt at explaining how Homura's time shield worked in this universe.

Due to the limitations of aura, semblance, and dust, I couldn't exactly do it the way the anime does. That is to say, Tempest Hourglass is no longer a literal hour glass that controls time and the shield is no longer a mechanism that merely tips the hourglass to its side to stop time. The differences of puella magi powers that can overcome entropy to dust and semblance which are slightly less prone to breaking the laws of physics prevent that mechanic from working.

However, the rules of RWBY's universe are not yet fully realized as of this writing so I was able to find some loopholes. While past timeline Homura can only move at double speed at maximum, present timeline Homura could probably reach something close to full time stop speed. The full extent of her time powers will be explored in later chapters.

As a fun little worldbuilding tid-bit, I've also explained what would happen if students in the major combat schools don't have a number of students divisible by four. It'd also explain why most of the characters in this story have teams with less than four members, like Sayaka, Hitomi, and Kyousuke. Also, Sayaka's team is SShK, pronouncedshock(alternatives were KaSH, SaKS and SKaM, none of which sounded appropriate) and Madoka's team is MaHo, pronounced mahou (think mahou shoujou).

Anyway, that was the second chapter. Expect more soon as I've finished a number of chapters already. Leave a review if you have questions, suggestions, or violent reactions. Any feedback would be appreciated. Until next chapter!