Chapter 4
How Did Team RWBY Come To Be?
Before I tell you how Ruby managed to get off that foul beast in the sky, and of all the wonderful people she met along the way, let us wind the clock back to a shorter story. It took place just last night in Forever Fall Forest.
In a clearing in the forest was a big bonfire. It covered that whole place with a warm light and reminded them of home. There were twenty people who surrounded the fire and there was much singing between them:
One fine day, the Nevermore came,
He flew down looking for a dinner and a plate
when he spotted in the forest Ol' Johann, "Hey!"
said the Nevermore one fine day.
"Just passing by, but it caught my eye,
that big full belly so round and wide,
does it ache?" said the Nevermore, "so does mine,
I'm a friend just passing by!"
The song went on about how the Nevermore tried to eat this Johann character but got him stuck in its throat because Johann was so fat. The Nevermore tried to spit him back out, but found that it couldn't. And then it choked to death. "That," they said laughing, "is how the Great and Powerful Nevermore will be brought down!"
The people who surrounded the bonfire were Soon-to-be Initiates. They also had history together as classmates of a previous school. They were the Signal Dragons. That is, they were Class Dragon of Signal Academy. These were their names: Yang, Yasmine, Yelena, Yuno, Ymir, Yoneko, Ysabeau, Yvette, Yuliana, Yvonne, Yumi, Yuki, Yosef, Yee, Yoshi, Yuri, Yaeger, Yoshua, Yves, and of course Johann. We could never forget Johann. This was Class Dragon.
It was weeks before Initiation when they all made plans to find each other in the forest. It was an incredible success. Here they all were now, all twenty of them, laughing and making merry around the bonfire. And laugh they did, with not a care for the sounds they were making.
One, they were in no danger of Grimm. So numerous and so strong were they (especially Yang) that anything that even dared snap a twig near them would be immediately annihilated. Two, they had already found their chess pieces. Each of the Signal Dragons had stuffed in their pockets a chess piece. This was thanks to Yasmine and her incredible Divination Semblance. It was she who lead the Signal Dragons to the temple. It was she who made the journey quick and easy. All of them thanked her and showered her with praises for it.
And Yasmine was always the life of the party. She was always the one who laughed the hardest. So it was a very strange moment for everyone there when she wasn't. She stopped laughing. Her face was darkened by an unreadable expression. It was a small change but it was enough to kill the entire atmosphere. Very soon, the whole bonfire became quiet and everyone turned to Yasmine.
"What is it?" It was Yang who asked the question. As I have said, Yasmine had a Divination Semblance. She was always the one to warn them of anything happening. So would she also be the one to guide them out of sticky situations.
"Something big's coming," Yasmine muttered, "but like, really big."
"What, like a Grimm-moose?" asked Yang. Grimm-moose were strong and their bodies were tough. They could grow to reach twelve feet, but whispers floated about of Grimm-moose that stood over eighteen. But none of them were worried about Grimm-moose. Remember, there were twenty trained fighters sitting around that bonfire. Yang herself could wrestle one on her own.
"No." That was all Yasmine said.
They all waited but heard no more words. They turned to look at each other. The whole atmosphere was spoiled now. There was tons of work to be done if they wanted to get back to a minute ago when they were laughing and singing about nonsense.
But just as they were ready to break into a story or play some kind of prank, anything to lighten the mood, Yasmine stood up to draw her weapon.
"We need to go! Something really really big's coming!"
"What do you mean? Like, how big?" It was Johann this time who asked.
"Get out now! Get out! Get out!"
Yasmine's yelling was their only warning. Out burst from the trees a truly massive thing. A Grimm-raven, and a massive one at that. It stood at thirty feet. And its wings! Oh Lord, its wings! That beast could have only been one thing and one thing only. It was the Legendary Nevermore.
I will not describe to you here the fight that ensued. None of Class Dragon could describe to you the fight either. And "fight" was a strong term. It lasted one minute, and in that minute, all was chaos and screaming until the Nevermore left.
In the end, Yang was the only one left standing. She was hardy like that. The other nineteen were on the ground, mortally wounded. None dead obviously, but their wounds were so severe that they would very likely die without medical attention. Yang watched miserably as all of Class Dragon pulled out their Scrolls and took pictures. Each one would send it to their mothers and fathers and ask them the dreaded question. "Do I stop?" "Do I hit the panic button and fail Initiation?"
The answer was always yes. They all had good parents.
Yang looked up and counted twenty drones descending from the leaves. They assumed their positions: one drone for every person there including Yang. Those who pressed the drones' panic buttons found themselves carried, in an impressive display of strength on the drones' part, up, up, and away—all the way back to Red Tower. Except Johann. He lingered for a bit to tell Yang, before she could press her panic button, "You really don't have to fail Initiation with us. You're way stronger than us anyway. How about partnering up with your kid sister?"
With that said, he hit the panic button. The drone took Johann's fat body away, stumbling a bit, leaving Yang alone at the bonfire. For five minutes, Yang did nothing but stare at the drone still hovering beside her.
These were her classmates. She was going to win or fail Initiation with them. The Signal Dragons were inseparable. But Ruby. Ruby was her younger sister. Yang had a duty to take care of her which she had so far neglected. And Ruby truly was an impressive girl, so impressive that she was admitted two years early to Beacon. But that left her without a class. And if Yang went on with Initiation, she too would be left without a class.
Yang thought back to memories she made years ago. Ruby and Yang, at home, huddled up in a blanket on the living room couch, watching a movie about Beacon. "We're both gonna be huntresses!" Ruby and Yang declared, both still very young, "and we're gonna kill the Nevermore together!"
Yang sat down and the drone whirred away. It was a hard decision and Yang did not like it one bit. She curled her body up beside the bonfire and slept alone. "Whatever," thought Yang, drifting away into an uncomfortable sleep. Her dreams were dreary that night.
The morning after, Yang woke up very much like Ruby did, if you still recall from last chapter. Hovering over her face was a drone. Hanging off it was a paper bag. And written on that was "For Yang Xiao Long". In it was food, the same food Ruby had, and water.
"Good morning."
"Who said that!" Yang shot up and nearly swung in the direction of the voice. A figure stood beside the bonfire. A girl. Her eyes were large and yellow. She wore black to match her black hair, and on her black hair, a black bow. The girl had a very depressing atmosphere around her. Or was it mysterious? Or was it sinister? In any case, she looked like the complete opposite of Yang.
"Good... morning," Yang lowered her fists.
"My name is Blake."
"Okay. My name is Yang. Do you wanna partner up? Here," Yang dropped to the floor, "how about we sit down and eat together? Tell me about yourself. I wanna hear all about my future partner."
They both ate. Yang had her food on her lap and ate with her back straight. Blake had her food in front of her and hunched over to eat. It was as if their personalities had switched places in the way they ate. While Yang was left wondering what that could mean, Blake told Yang about her time in the forest.
"I spent most of my time in Initiation following people and listening in on conversations. My plan was to look for someone with a Divination Semblance and partner up with whoever it was. So far, I have found nobody with that semblance."
"Creepy," thought Yang in her head, "who goes to Initiation to stalk people?"
"But you," Blake looked up, "have a chess piece."
"I do," Yang pulled hers out. A chess piece, courtesy of Yasmine's Divination Semblance, "and yeah, I do know where the temple is. It's actually near us right now. I'll take you there after we're done eating."
They continued eating their meals. Yang told the story with her class and the Nevermore but stopped short when they had both finished eating. They both got up and Blake, who was feeling very pleased about the whole situation, followed Yang as she retraced her steps back to the temple. "It's not that far," said Yang, and it was true. The walk through the forest took just five minutes until they stopped at a clearing. A real clearing. Trees did not cover this area so there was a beam of sunlight that shined down from the open sky and pointed to a temple in the center.
The temple itself had a stone floor engraved with swirling patterns. Upon it, stone columns stood tall with ridges and markings. And upon those, a smooth dome of stone. In the center of those columns in the temple was a statue of a man seated on a throne. The man held a cane in one hand. Headmaster Ozpin's cane. On the other hand, it was empty.
"Isn't it weird how there's been no Grimm so far?" Blake wondered aloud.
"Watch me," said Yang, ignoring Blake's last remark. She strutted into the temple with a hand on her hip and stopped in front of the stone statue. She struck a pose like she was on a runway. The Signal Dragons, when they were each taking a chess piece, amused themselves by taking turns doing silly things like that in front of the statue.
"You have taken your Relic," boomed a deep voice from under the statue.
"Oh," Yang took her hand off her hip and stepped away from the statue, feeling a bit sheepish. "Okay then. Blake! Apparently you have to do it yourself."
Blake walked over to stand in the same spot Yang stood on but did not strike a pose. She did not feel comfortable at all in front of that statue. She felt very small in front of it. Blake tried to open her eyes, and only then noticed how the man's eyes were hollowed out. She closes them back shut. As lifeless as that man was, it still felt like someone was watching her. Judging her.
"Blake Belladonna," boomed the same voice. It extended its arm forward and presented to Blake a golden knight in the once-empty hand. That knight absolutely was not there before.
"Hey I got a gold knight too! Isn't that weird?"
Blake felt there were more pressing questions at hand here. What was in that statue? How did that statue work? How did that statue know her name? How did that statue move? Was that statue really made of stone? Where did that chess piece come from? But she waved them all off and took the knight. There. It did not matter how the statue moved; she had finally completed Initiation.
"You know," muttered Yang just beside her, "I really wanted to get two chess pieces, the other one for my sister, but... ah, it sucks that you can't do it twice in a row."
Blake felt her heart stir. She always sympathized with family problems and other such matters like it. "Could," Blake began to say, but she rephrased the question. "Do you have a picture of your sister? On your Scroll, I mean."
"Yep. Why? You want me to try holding it up?" Yang stepped onto the space in front of the man as she fiddled with her Scroll. Blake watched as Yang flicked through various group pictures of Class Dragon, eventually stopping at a solo picture of a little girl in a red hood. It was a picture of Ruby holding up the "Letter of Invitation to Beacon Academy" that Summer took. Yang turned her Scroll around and raised it in front of the man's hollowed out eyes.
Yang gave it a few seconds, then a few seconds more, before she let her arm fall back to her side. "Yeah, I don't think this works."
"You are a kind sister," the statue whispered, gravelly in texture.
"Sorry?"
"Ruby Rose," said the statue at last in the expected deep, booming voice. It extended its stone arm forward and presented to Yang another golden knight. She took it, fondling it for a moment and marveling at how smooth it was, then ran to Blake who was now outside the temple. Yang jumped up and down as she did.
"I got two! I got two! Blake, I got two!" "Look," Blake pointed up, killing Yang's joy.
Yang and Blake were both outside the temple now and were both looking up. Leaves did not obscure their vision of the sky. There was, after all, a beam of light shining down at the temple. So when Yang looked up, she had a clear view of the sky. There, Yang saw the same thing Blake saw. That foul beast. Flying in an overly aggressive manner, flailing around like a bucking bull, like a complete lunatic, was the Legendary Nevermore.
"Yeah, that's the one I was talking about," Yang said. "That thing attacked my class just last night. It was so big. The movies really don't show it."
"Someone's on it."
Yang looked up, then rubbed her eyes and squinted past the sunlight. Blake had much better eyes than Yang, so it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the brightness. At another look, Yang realized that Blake was right. Someone was indeed on that Nevermore, hanging from it by the neck. Whoever it was, they had on a bright red hood that fluttered in the wind. "Ruby?"
Now we are back to the present with Ruby. She is just as we left her and in the exact same position. Wrapped tightly around the Nevermore's neck was Ruby's scythe and both her legs. The Nevermore in question thrashed around wildly, rolling, swerving, starting and stopping, anything it could to knock Ruby off. It was unsuccessful.
"Why! Why'd I even do this! That drone was still sitting there! I should've just hit the panic button! Now everyone's gonna see me die!" she wailed out. If you recall from last chapter, Ruby realized her fear of heights when she first looked down after landing in Forever Fall Forest. That fear was being put to the test now. She was a mile up from ground level and the only things around to accompany her were clouds.
Ruby suddenly felt hot. Up until that point, the air was very cold, what with it being so high up. But there came a sudden change in temperature that washed over her, so sudden that Ruby cracked an eye open (and the wind punished her for it, drying her eye up immediately) and looked around her. It was fire. On the Nevermore was fire.
"It's crashing!" A silly thought to have of course, but it was understandable. The fire brought to the forefront of her mind images of crashing planes and blown off wings.
Ruby turned her head away from the Nevermore to look at the blue skies around her. It was then that she noticed the sky was not all blue. There were little black dots in the air moving frantically. They looked to be flying things chasing the Nevermore, or at least doing their best to keep up with it.
As Ruby strained her eyes further, she saw that they were the silhouettes of people. Soon-to-be Initiates with Flight Semblances. They darted around the air with their weapons at the ready, unleashing their full firepower at the Nevermore. Those that had rifles fired ammo that either ricocheted harmlessly off the feathers or exploded. They were laced with Fire Dust or Lightning Dust, or whatever else was in them, such that Ruby was always startled at every moment. Those that had explosives, some variation of rocket launchers or grenade launchers, were more successful. The Nevermore shuddered or sometimes shook at their blasts and impact, but it was all the same unharmed. Those that had melee weapons charged at the Nevermore. They were the most useless. If the Nevermore could keep up with Ruby in the trees, not a single one of them could hope to keep up with the Nevermore in the air.
Before you call these people hotheaded, know this: they had all been waiting for this moment their whole lives. Gifted with flight, it was only natural to dream of a legendary battle in the sky against the Nevermore to kill it. This was that battle. Shells and explosives rained down, blow after blow, in a combined effort to bring the beast down. But it was all for nothing. The dream was impossible. The Nevermore could not be killed.
As this was all happening, Ruby cowered and squeaked like a frightened mouse. Those nearby explosions made the ride a very unpleasant one. It was unbearably hot, her ears were ringing, and the odor of the smoke was horrible. This was no gunpowder smoke either. This was Dust smoke. So not only was Ruby hacking and coughing, there were also tears leaking out her eyes. She was not actually crying (Dust smoke was an eye irritant) but Ruby felt like she was. It was so humiliating.
"Can't you all see meee?! Why're you shooting like I'm not heeere?!" Poor Ruby.
The Nevermore turned but did not swerve, and was suddenly charging at the fliers. It was amazing. Words could not even begin to explain how terrifying the image was, but I will try:
The Nevermore turned, but it did not swerve. At one moment, it was flying through the air in one direction. Following closely behind it were fliers. But the very next moment, it was already charging at the fliers. It did not make sense. The fliers were behind it. The Nevermore was flying full speed in one direction, and in an instant, was flying full speed in the exact opposite direction. There was no deceleration and acceleration at all. The Nevermore might as well have teleported.
As you can expect, the move caught everyone off guard. They each turned to dive away but none were spared. The Nevermore spread its wings. So titanic were those wings, so great and terrible, it collided with every single flier there. It smashed their heads hard, loosening their holds of their flight, sending them all careening back down into Forever Fall Forest.
Ruby watched all of this happen. Ruby watched as their silhouettes shrunk smaller and smaller until they all disappeared into the leaves below. She had been saved by the reckless firing squad, but now she was back to the initial problem.
The Nevermore, remembering the Gray-eye that was still on its neck, began thrashing around again. Ruby continued shrieking. "Wait come baaack!"
And as all that happened up above, down below, another girl was making her plan of attack. She was standing in the middle of the path of destruction that the Nevermore had left behind. Free from the trees that covered the sky, she looked straight up at the Nevermore with a fierce countenance.
She was Weiss Schnee. She looked like a walking snowflake, so clean and pristine was her white dress, and she carried a rapier by her side. Weiss herself was very important but she was not from Vale. She came from Atlas. And though she came from a completely different kingdom, she had still heard all the stories about the Legendary Nevermore: the great and terrifying beast that lay dormant in Forever Fall Forest. Its feathers were like steel, and wings like an impassable wall.
With both hands, Weiss winded her rapier up then struck it deep down into the soil. She shifted her focus underground and used her Ice Semblance.
Forever Fall Forest itself trembled, and every nearby Soon-to-be felt it. The especially uncoordinated were thrown off their feet. Others still had to lean on tree trunks or on their weapons. And the trees did not sway. They jiggled. Branches tapped against each other and leaves rustled and swished.
"What's happening?" "Calm down! Calm down!" "Something's happening!" "Go!" "We have to get out now!" There was much clamor. All those sitting around watching Ruby ride the Nevermore could watch no longer. They had to run.
Large cracks formed in a jagged manner through the soil. The ground wobbled, forcing separations to grow larger and larger. The ground split further and further. The trees rattled louder and louder. And then the ground ballooned out. The hole on the ground stretched tall and wide to make way for something coming up below. Clinks and smashing, like that of shattering glass, reverberated through the hole.
Ice emerged, looking very much like unhewn pillars or like a jagged iceberg. It thrust suddenly up, sending dust and stone tumbling away. It then surged further up, blasting all the way through the air, goring the Nevermore through the stomach. The other end shot out through its back. The Nevermore writhed and floundered, but after a minute, fell limp and did not move again. There it still lay to this day, impaled in the ice, given no chance to resurrect in the soil.
Or at least, that was what Weiss Schnee imagined would happen. But the Nevermore's feathers really were like steel. The ice did not pierce anything. It slid off, knocking the Nevermore aside and redirecting its flight path, but altogether leaving it unharmed. Not so for poor Ruby up there. It was like the worst turbulence she had ever felt on a plane magnified a hundredfold.
Back down at the foot of the huge ice pillar, Weiss finally considered Ruby. The first time Weiss saw her, she wrote her off as one of those people with Flight Semblances who tried and failed to shoot the beast down. "She will fly off," Weiss thought, and gave no more thought as to her well-being. But as Weiss saw Ruby's little body flailing about in a panic, she realized that Ruby did not have a Flight Semblance at all.
"How did she even get up there?" Weiss wondered. It made for a funny sight actually. Ah, but she shouldn't think of such thoughts. Weiss shook her head and looked back up. "I will help that girl off the Nevermore before I make it back to Red Tower. It is the noble thing to do."
But how? Weiss eyed the enormous ice pillar jutting out from the ground. She thought about how feasible it would be to ride it up to reach the Nevermore. She could certainly ride the ice. She had complete control over how she moved on ice. It was one of the abilities that came with the Ice Semblance. But then what? How would she reach the girl? How would she help her off? She had control on ice but she did not have that same control in the air.
"I could provide a surface for her to land on." But look at how furiously that Nevermore flew! It was unreasonable to believe the girl would have a safe landing. "I could make an ice ramp that could kill her fall. From there, she can jump and slide down herself." But it was presumptuous to expect the girl would jump down at all. She needed help off the Nevermore in the first place. "I could restrain the Nevermore with ice." Impossible. With its huge wings, the Nevermore was strong enough to destroy trees. "I could give the Nevermore a surface to perch on to." Unlikely. The Nevermore is much too aggressive for that.
As Weiss thought deeply about some kind of a plan, she heard behind her the faint sounds of footsteps. She turned and raised her rapier to prepare herself for a battle. She did not need to. Grimmbeasts were not likely to do much at all with the Nevermore awake. That beast caused too much collateral damage.
Instead, two girls emerged from the trees. One was blonde with golden gauntlets on her fists, dressed in quite an embarrassing outfit. The other had black hair with a black bow in a black outfit, looking very nervous. The first one was Yang and the second one was Blake.
Blake was very uncertain about this whole situation. Uncertain under the Nevermore and especially uncertain around Weiss. But all the same, she was dragged forward by the wrist with Yang marching forward. Yang was insistent on the decision to get Ruby. Even as the ground wobbled, even as every other Soon-to-be was running away, Yang plowed right on through with Blake behind her. The closer the two got, the more Blake questioned whether family was so important after all.
"That's my sister!" Yang called out before Weiss could think of anything to say. "Up there! On the Nevermore, that's my sister. I'm gonna save her. Can you help us do that?"
"Your sister? Then of course. I would only be happy to assist." Weiss looked at Blake who seemed to cower behind Yang. "Is she also part of the rescue mission?"
"Yes I am," said Blake, insulted at being singled out like this. That was, of course, until she remembered they were asking her to fight the Nevermore. "Or, uh, no actually."
But Yang interrupted her, still very hurried. "Yeah. Anyway, can you get us up there or not?"
"Of course I can," Weiss walked closer to the ice pillar. "My semblance gives me, as well as anybody else I happen to be holding, the power to travel through ice quickly. I can take you up the pillar right up until," Weiss pointed her rapier up at the peak of the ice pillar, "there. But! I will need help. I cannot reach the Nevermore myself. Even if I made another ice pillar to the Nevermore, there is no guarantee it wouldn't simply fly away. So! Do either of you have the ability to control yourselves in the air?"
"I do," said Blake, and damn that annoying mouth of hers. "Or, uh,"
"Are you sure you can?" asked Weiss, raising a brow. Weiss certainly did not mean any of it, but Blake felt a condescending tone emanate from her. This frustrated Blake. For what reason? Blake was just as capable a fighter as Weiss was.
"Yes." Blake pulled out a blade of black metal with a black ribbon-like cloth hanging from it. By aesthetics alone, Blake also seemed to be the exact opposite of Weiss. "This here works as a grappling hook. It hooks to anything. And this," Blake held up the cloth, "is tougher than rope. It's longer than it looks, too."
Yang stepped closer to the ice pillar and looked up. The Nevermore, in all its twisting and turning, had gone round and round over the forest in a seemingly random path. But now it seemed to be making a beeline for the ice pillar. Did it want to crash into the ice pillar? Was that how it was gonna throw Ruby off? Yang was more panicked than ever now, and looked to Blake. "So how confident are you that you can throw that thing at a moving target?"
"Wait, I didn't—" Blake again realized that she had slipped up. Why did she keep agreeing to fight the Nevermore?
"Answers!" Yang shouted out angrily.
"Yes, I've been doing it all my life." It was unfair. Blake had signed her own death warrant through intimidation alone.
"How many people can you carry?"
"I can carry another person with me. I'm not so sure about two." Blake could see where this was going now.
"Okay, come here. You," Yang looked to Weiss, "are going to send us up to that ice thing. Once we get up top, Blake," Yang looked to Blake, "is gonna hook both of us to the Nevermore. Once we're up there, I'm gonna make the Nevermore fly slower. Blake is gonna carry Ruby down. You," Yang looked to Weiss, "are gonna make an ice thing for all of us to slide down when you think the Nevermore is going slow enough."
"How do you plan to stall the Nevermore?" asked Weiss.
"I'll figure it out. Take us up! Now! It's gonna crash my sister into the ice!"
"Okay. It's a good a plan as any. Hold my hand." Weiss offered to them both of her hands. Yang took Weiss' hand quickly with a firm grip. As for Blake, it was complicated. Were this any other time, Blake would have simply pocketed the chess piece and ran away. But she could not. The role she played in Yang's plan was too vital. Yang would remember her all throughout Beacon if Blake followed through with that plan. So it was with great dread that Blake held Weiss' hand.
"You know," Weiss hummed, looking at Yang, "You should really cover some more skin."
"Yeah, okay."
All Blake could hear was a whooshing noise as the wind rushed past her. The wind was like hell on their eyes so they had to nearly squeeze them shut. And off those three went, skating up the ice pillar at an incredible pace! But as fast as they were going, the ice pillar was still tall. Sky-scraping, in fact. It took them a full minute to travel up enough to reach the peak. In that minute, the Nevermore was already crashing into the ice pillar neck-first.
In that situation, Ruby could have probably unhooked her scythe from the Nevermore, dashed to the ice pillar, then slid down the ice. But that was a bit too advanced for young Ruby to think about. She instead tried to scoot around the Nevermore's neck to the other side so she could avoid the blow. She unfortunately did not move in time. The Nevermore crashed its neck into the ice and completely toppled the whole pillar over. It was Ruby's back that took the full brunt of the hit. All her Aura disappeared instantaneously.
Now Ruby was actually crying. That really hurt. Her scythe was still hooked. Her legs were still wrapped. But in that moment, Ruby felt like she was already falling. She passed out from pain, but she did not fall off. So determined was Ruby to stay on that Nevermore, so strong was her will, that even as she fell unconscious, Ruby still held on tight.
As for the toppling ice pillar, it did not fall fast enough. Weiss, Blake, and Yang had already reached the peak and were about to take off flying. "Now, Blake!" Yang yelled out. Weiss stopped at the peak to skate back down the pillar before it fell completely. That left Blake and Yang soaring through the air with Yang gripping Blake's arm.
Blake had the blade ready. She winded her throwing arm back, her powerful eyes trained on the Nevermore as it speedily broke away from them, and hurled the blade at it.
The blade sailed through the air in an arc and its rope trailed just behind. It had initially appeared to Yang that Blake overshot but she had not. The blade went in front of the Nevermore but lodged itself in its eye. Securely. The Nevermore screeched and flew even faster, unwittingly pulling the rope taut and propelling Blake and Yang close. They were hooked to the Nevermore now. The faster it flew, the faster they went. The slower it flew, the slower they went. If it turned one way, they turned the same way. If it turned the other way, so too did they. It did not matter where in the sky it went and how, Blake and Yang remained stuck close.
The Nevermore saw them and misattributed the strange phenomenon to a Flight Semblance. And a lightning-fast one at that. "But speed doesn't matter," thought the Nevermore. It did the same thing it did last time: it turned without swerving. One moment it was flying full speed in one direction; the next moment it was flying full speed the other direction, spreading its wings wide.
But that was a mistake. If Blake and Yang had a Flight Semblance, they would have indeed slammed hard into its wings like those others. But they did not have Flight Semblances. They were hooked to its eye, and that was exactly where the two were headed right now. Blake flipped over the Nevermore's head and almost fell off, but her hands were nimble enough to catch Ruby's red hood as it flapped in the air. She gripped it tight and pulled herself up.
"Your name is Ruby, right?" asked Blake, who was panting hard from the excitement and the stress of having to grip the rope for so long.
Ruby did not respond.
"Ruby, wake up! Your sister Yang's here!"
"Yang?" Ruby faintly called out. It was an extraordinarily cute voice.
"Yes. Yang. Your sister. Now wake up!"
That was Blake's perspective of the situation. Yang's perspective was a more exciting one.
Yang let go of Blake and caught herself on the edge of the Nevermore's skull-mask. On Yang's hands were explosive gauntlets, and she was about to let them loose. She cocked her right fist back and swung it between the beast's eyes. Boom! The gauntlet exploded in a fiery cloud of smoke that was left blowing in the air, rattling the beast's head hard, but the mask remained intact. Again, she winded back and swung with the same effect. Repeatedly, swing after swing, explosion after explosion, the Nevermore flew unbothered. No impact could harm it. Yang was realizing the exact same lesson Ruby realized when she first swung her scythe at the Nevermore, that some Grimm were simply unkillable.
To remind you of the plan, Yang's role was to slow the Nevermore down. She was not doing a good job of that so far. The Nevermore continued to thrash and fly around at the speed it usually did. How indeed was Yang going to slow that beast down?
"Break the wings," whispered a deep voice. It was rough and coarse.
Yang turned her head left and right but saw nobody. The voice was masculine and did not resemble Ruby nor Blake's voice at all. Was that in her head?
"Break the wings," the voice continued, "It is Grimm, but it is still a raven. Break the wings."
Yang had no idea where this voice was coming from. She shrugged it off as the voice of her ancestors calling from Heaven. The advice seemed sound anyway, so she was going to follow it. With one hand on the mask, she tested her grip on the feathers. It was large, so it was easy to grip. It was hard, so it was tough enough to hold her up. A good handhold. A good foothold. She let go of the mask to fully commit to the feathers. They remained sturdy. Yang continued to climb past the head and made her way to the wing.
It was an uneventful journey to the wing. Yang did not tire out. Her feet did not lose hold. Her fists did not lose grip. She was strong and she climbed the beast easily. If the Nevermore made any sudden movements, Yang was not bothered. She was strong enough to hold on. Two minutes passed until Yang was finally at her destination on the wing. She was crouched down. With both hands, she gripped the edge of the wing. With both feet, she planted them firmly under her.
"How do I break this thing," thought Yang, looking down at the wing. "It's so big."
But Yang did not need to rack her head for too long. The whole situation was familiar to her. At that moment, Yang pictured in her head how she might break a long stick. She would pull at the edges with both hands but press at its center with her knee. The hand-knee-hand technique was universal. Any stick would eventually break in such a position.
So Yang tried to do just that. She extended her arms outwards to grip points of the wing that were further away from each other. She slid both of her feet forward until they too were on the edge of the wing. It was a hand-foot-foot-hand technique now, and the edge of the wing (which Yang guessed had bone in it) acted as the stick. From another perspective, it also resembled a starting deadlift position. This, Yang was familiar to.
So Yang pulled her hands up and drove her feet down. And Yang was strong. Immeasurably so. When Yang forced the wing to break, the Nevermore noticed and was in alarm. It batted its wings as hard as it could, but Yang forced it immobile. The Nevermore batted its wings even harder, but Yang forced it immobile with even greater force. The Nevermore rolled, almost knocking Blake off, but Yang did not move from her place. She was going to break the wing under her whether the beast liked it or not.
With greater and greater strength, Yang pushed harder and harder with her feet and pulled harder and harder with her hands, driving with her back, until it was all too much. Yang was too strong. The Nevermore's feathers were hard like steel, as I have said. Nothing could pierce it. Nothing could get past it. But steel could bend, and so could those feathers.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Bones in the wing broke in three places.
The Nevermore screeched the loudest screech it had ever let out in its entire life, but for once, it did not fly faster. How could it? Its wing was broken. It settled on gliding down. It was smart enough to know it was weak. It needed to return to Forever Fall Forest immediately for rest. The trees will take care of it.
But just as it began to slow down, a second ice pillar surged up from the ground where Weiss stood. It pointed at an oblique angle and thrust itself under the gliding Nevermore.
Blake had already jumped off the Nevermore with Ruby clinging to her back. The ice, because it was pointed at an oblique angle, could act as a slide. Blake and Ruby used it as such, sliding back down into Forever Fall Forest followed closely behind by Yang.
"WOO-HOO!" Yang yelled out with both her arms raised behind her. The whole thing reminded her of the slides at swimming pools, especially with how slippery the ice was.
At the foot of that newly formed ice pillar was Weiss. She looked up at Yang and Blake, who were right now sliding down the pillar, with newfound respect. They put on an incredible display on that Nevermore. At Yang's incredible strength, to be able to break the Nevermore's wings like that, Weiss was stunned. And the way Blake so accurately pierced the Nevermore in the eye, even as it had its back turned, even as the Nevermore was flying away, even as Blake was suspended in the air, was an even greater feat. That was the greatest display of finesse Weiss had ever seen in person.
"You two were amazing," Weiss smiled a bright smile as they all slid down to the foot of the ramp. "And what a good throw you have! Blake, was it?"
As she let Ruby go to stand on her own, Blake too began to look at Weiss with newfound respect. She did not expect her, a faunus (though Weiss did not know that), to ever receive a compliment from her, a Schnee. And yet here she was. Blake had to say something back. It was only right.
"Thank you. And your ice pillars..." Blake struggled to say, "You have the most striking semblance I've ever seen. Your ice was fantastic."
"Good words! I will remember them."
"Oh, and," Blake pulled her golden knight out from her pocket, "By the way, did you get your chess piece? I think I still remember where the temple was. I can bring you back to it if you need a way."
"No need to worry." Weiss pulled out her own. The same golden knight. "I found the temple yesterday. I was lucky where I landed. I was just making my way back to Red Tower when I saw the Nevermore. But I appreciate the offer."
Across from them, Yang surprised Ruby with the chess piece. It was the extra one Yang received from the temple, the golden knight. "You got me a chess piece? Oh my gosh! Thank you so much Yang!" They were both very giddy and squealed a lot in their conversation. They deserved it, too. Those two sisters had just completed Initiation together, even when they had no plans to.
"But what about your class?" Ruby suddenly asked, concerned for what she knew to be Yang's closest friends.
"Oh it's fine. I'm the only Signal Dragon who passed Initiation," said Yang, sullen, "But," and her giddy smile returned, "there's absolutely no way I'd quit Initiation now! Did you see me up there?"
"Uh, no actually. What happened? I think I was out of it the whole time."
"Hold on, before that, hey," Yang turned to look at Blake and Weiss. "Come here and sit down. I want us all to introduce ourselves. And you," Yang looked at Weiss, "I never even got your name."
Weiss and Blake sat down with them. "Yes, it is about time we had all introduced ourselves. Hi. I'm Weiss. Weiss Schnee."
Yang looked at her curiously, "Weiss Schnee? I thought you were all CEOs and lawyers. And why are you in Vale?"
There, in the wreckage the Nevermore left behind when it chased Ruby, among the pillars of ice that Weiss and Yang and Blake rode on to bring that same Nevermore down, Team RWBY sat around and exchanged stories. That was how Team RWBY came to be. I hope this answers your question.
"But who was the voice that whispered to Yang?" Re-read the chapter. It's really obvious. And you can't cheat by just reading the reviews by the way! Nobody reviews this story anyway!
It should be clear by now by the way: Chapters 1 and 2 are not at all the stories I meant to write. Chapters 3 and 4 were the plan to begin with. Remember: The story is not about romance or heart-melting cuteness. It's about magic and fantastic monsters. I had to get that "Ruby and Jaune are friends" scene out of the way as quickly as possible so RWBY and JNPR were connected. Also, notice how Chapters 1 and 2 have 2000+ words but Chapters 3 and 4 have 7000+ words. That means I'm interested in what I'm writing. If you don't like long chapters, I am sorry.
And did you like the song at the beginning of the chapter? Did you cringe? It might've been dumb, but I've always loved the idea of writing stupid songs in stories. I won't do it often though. "Attercop! Attercop!" Do you get that reference? What a fantastic scene.
Oh, Johann. Truly, you are the main character of this book.
Also, as you may notice, Weiss does not have her Glyph Semblance. She has an Ice Semblance. Though the Ice Semblance seems very powerful, the Glyph Semblance to me was too much. Can't she fly with it? Don't her Glyphs also give her the ability to shield herself from any attack (S1 Boarbatusk)? And it boosts her teammates (S2 Mecha Fight to Blake)? It can also let her dash forward? So Ruby's semblance is redundant. It can also act as a floor grenade (White Trailer) so I guess Nora isn't special now. It can also grapple enemies from long-range (White Trailer), making Yang's strength unnecessary. That does not seem fair at all. What is her role in the team exactly? In comparison, an imprecise Ice Semblance is still powerful, but a lot more limited in how it can be used. Now everybody is streamlined:
Ruby is fast and can fight an endless number of large-sized things, but she is weak against small things. She is also good in large open spaces. Yang is strong and can overpower anything, but she is weak against too many things. She is also good in closed and confined spaces. Weiss is not good at combat, but she has total control over the environment. She is also good in large open spaces. Blake is weak in direct combat, but can get past any obstacle (environmental obstacles by acrobatics and people and Grimm by sneaking). She is also good in closed and confined places. That, in my head, is how the team dynamic should play out. Weiss is still overpowered, but it's the best I can do.
Also, isn't it believable that there'd be movies made about huntsmen and huntresses? Aren't there war movies made all the time? Weren't dime novels super popular back when America was still expanding? And there's nothing cooler than legends about Grimm! If a legendary Grimm like the Nevermore really did exist, you'd expect thousands of movies to be made about it, wouldn't you? Also, yes, the Nevermore can't be killed. That was just something I put there to make the world scarier. Remember this, because I will do this a lot.
Next Update: 6/25/2022 (Probably)