Yo, first things first this is merely a one-shot that I wanted to write and I probably won't be continuing it (At the very least I won't be anytime soon) so if anyone wants to use this idea for their own longer fic then go ahead.
I had an idea for this one-shot for a couple of months and simply had to do this at some point and it just so happened that I had some free time around now where I could write like five hundred to a thousand words every few days so I decided to do it.
I hope that you will enjoy it!
Here it is!
The first time she awakened her cursed power of the forgotten gods that dwelt in her eyes wasn't a moment Ruby Rose would ever likely forget.
It wasn't a nice night, her mother had disappeared on a mission not too long ago and she was still grieving over that, and if it wasn't for her older sister taking her outside to look for the clues of their other mother, they supposedly had, it wouldn't have been memorable either. Yet because of that single decision of her sister, that night became something that changed her life forever.
The cold night air kept her awake in the toy cart that Yang was dragging along as said sister tried to move gracefully to not inconvenience her too much.
At first she was gladly walking on her feet on Yang's side without being too worried about getting too tired but after they have crossed an unbelievably long distance of almost five hundred meters even her own optimism gave out. Thankfully, her smart older sister came prepared and she didn't have to wait long before being carried in a small yet comfortable cart while on their way to their destination.
The leaves on the trees rustled slightly as wind blew over them.
The soft footsteps of Yang were being accompanied only by the noise of the cart moving on the ground. Neither of them chose to hold a conversation on their way, either because of their focus or their tiredness, and no animals were making any sounds either.
A slight shiver ran down Ruby's spine as she remembered how once their uncle Qrow had recounted finding himself in a similar situation during one of his missions as a huntsman.
"Y-Yang, are you sure that it's safe? I don't hear any animals around us, what if it's because they were eaten by a grimm?" Ruby said, her voice quivering a little.
"Of course it's safe, Ruby." Yang rolled her eyes as she said that with the confidence of an older child who knew what they were talking about. "We are still on Patch, sis. There's no way that dad and uncle Qrow would let any grimm reside on our island. Besides, grimm don't eat other animals, one of my teachers said so."
They moved a couple more steps in silence as she tried to calm herself after hearing her older sister's explanation. Sadly, that didn't work.
"B-But uncle Qrow said that when a forest is quiet it means that there has to be grimm in it." Ruby said shakily. "He even told us stories about it!"
"You actually believed him, sis?" Yang turned around towards her and raised one of her eyebrows. "Please, uncle Qrow was only telling us those stories to scare us a little. Do you truly believe that an entire forest would be silent if grimm were in it?"
"I-" Ruby wanted to protest further but the knowing look on Yang's face stopped her from doing so.
"Look, sis. I know you are scared, it's dark and we are away from home, but the worst thing that we can find in here is a dog of one of our neighbors going for a run here." Yang reassured her sister once more before turning aside and continuing their walk.
Silence once again enveloped both of them, giving Ruby a chance to think a little about this journey of theirs.
Yang had said that they were looking for the clues of their other mother's whereabouts and she wasn't sure what to think about that. On one hand finding another mother would mean that they once again would become a full family with both parents, while on the other hand no mother would ever be as good as hers was and she didn't know if she was going to like the replacement.
It would probably mean that their father wouldn't be so busy anymore so with that they would at least get one good parent back.
A loud snapping sound suddenly echoed from one of their sides before being followed by a more silent yet still menacing grumble. Yang stopped in place in response to that and Ruby was pretty sure she could see her sister starting to quiver a little.
"W-What was that?" Ruby asked.
"N-Nothing important." Yang said quickly. "It's probably some random dog or cat stepping on a branch. Just hide in the cart and make sure to not look at it and it will go away, okay sis?"
Unfortunately, it was already too late to follow her sister's request as she had already noticed the soulless red eyes staring at them from the side as the black creature with mask of white began to slowly creep in on them.
It was a grimm, a monster so terrifying that every time they were told about them they were also told to run away and hide or scream for help the moment they saw them.
A creature that only experienced huntsmen like their parents could be confident in defeating without any issues.
A beast that was right now running towards them.
"Yang!" Ruby screamed in panic as she saw the black monster starting to rush at her older sister.
"D-Don't w-worry, R-Rubes." Yang said as she hastily moved her arms into a guard that resembled one that their father often used when practicing. "W-We are the daughters of the season huntsmen, there's no way that some Beowolf is going to take us down."
Ruby quickly nodded her head in a quick surge of confidence. Of course, Yang had already begun receiving training from their father, she knew what to do and that grimm was going to be sorry for trying to harm the-.
That confidence was short-lived as Yang flew through the air after the grimm collided with her and threw her at the closest tree with enough force to break a bone or two.
"Y-Yang?" Ruby cried, tears quickly filling her eyes.
The grimm turned towards her. Ruby didn't know whether it was because of the negative feelings that were going through her or because she was simply closer but she knew one thing, she was going to die here.
A hurricane of feelings flew through Ruby's mind as the grimm was approaching. It wasn't supposed to end like that, they were supposed to go on a journey, find their other mother and bring her back to restore the family. They weren't supposed to end up dying to a single passing grimm that just so happened to be on their island and leave their father alone.
A single strong feeling came to the front of her thoughts as her eyes sparkled a little bit in the color of silver.
She wasn't going to let that happen.
With a scream that could have been described as something between a shout of rage and a cry for help, the world turned silver from the overbearing light of her eyes.
...
Around a decade later...
...
The shop 'From Dust Till Dawn' was one of the very few locations in Vale that Ruby frequented often. It wasn't a large store or a place where many people gathered but it had something that very few of the more popular locations had.
The old and discarded weapon magazines.
Every fifteen year old girl had some hobbies and Ruby was no exception. She loved looking through weapon magazines, and watching weapons in different huntsmen stores, and seeing weapons in action during the festivals, and anything related to weapons at all to be honest.
Okay, maybe her hobbies were a bit unusual compared to other girls her age but she was the one who's chosen by destiny to be special so it didn't matter!
It wasn't like she needed to look at those weapons for anything either. Her High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe, Eternal Silver Crescent Infinity Rose (E.S.C.I.R. for short) was beyond perfect on its own.
In fact the only reason she bothered looking at those other weapons was to confirm her already reassured knowledge that her weapon was the best.
All the complaints she had gotten from Yang about the name of her Eternal Silver Crescent Infinity Rose being too long and 'Edgy across the years' were completely unfounded!
Anyway, she was currently standing somewhere in the border of the store while looking through some of the older weapon magazines, there were some newer ones at the shelves of course but they didn't look that cool from the outsiders perspective as the older ones so she tended to ignore them. Her ears were covered by cheap headphones, which she often discarded, playing some modern Mistralian music which she didn't understand but that sounded cool so she was completely unaware of anything that was happening behind her.
Well, it wasn't like anything bad could possibly happen to her. Not only was she an awesome huntress in training but she also had the godly power trapped in her eyes at her disposal, if anyone was stupid enough to harm her, they would find out that the gods' chosen wasn't one to be trifled with.
With a catchy, and totally cool, Mistralian tune coming out of her mouth, she slowly flipped the page of the magazine she was looking through.
If she was actually listening to something else than her music or paid attention to the reflections in the window she might have noticed that a group of suspicious looking grunts was hastily packing the Dust from the dispensers in the store. Sadly she never was one to pay close attention to her surroundings, especially when she was busy looking through weapon magazines or looking cool.
A couple of comfortable seconds passed as Ruby happily looked through the weapon magazine when suddenly she felt someone poking at her from behind.
Immediately she stiffened a little. Was she perhaps standing in someone's way or bothering them? She definitely didn't look suspicious while reading those magazines, didn't she!?
She moved slowly as she turned around to not offend the person trying to grab her attention by accident.
After she turned around she instantly noted a very peculiar look the older man in front of her had. The monotony of the man's black suit was broken only by the red tie and glasses, and as she looked further she also noticed that this particular look was copied by at least five different people in the store.
Almost as if they were a gang.
"Are you robbing me?" Ruby asked as she lowered her headphones to hear the answer, she didn't even bother to hide her disbelief at the man's stupid action.
"Well..." The thug moved the gun in his arms a little to bring attention to it. "Yeah."
Ruby blinked in genuine confusion as she looked at the thug.
Then after a second she blinked again before finally coming to a realization with a loud gasp after noticing a person at the entrance of the store that appeared to be leading all those thugs.
"I see! I thought you were just some dumb robbers attacking this place for Dust but it looks like I wasn't giving you enough credit." Ruby started with a somewhat dramatic tone while ignoring the befuddled expression on her robber's face before pointing at the supposed leader of the group in accusation. "You are here to eliminate me!"
"W-What?"
"Of course! You must have already known that I possess the divine silver power in my eyes and would become the one to end all your evil schemes in the future so you decided to eliminate before my journey to greatness could begin! You probably studied all the places that I tend to visit and prepared this whole group to take me on! Well, prepare to see your plans fail you evildoer because with the silver light that is flowing in my eyes already awakened I am already invincible!"
"What?"
"Get ready to have your plan foiled, evildoers!" Ruby shouted, grabbing the attention of the entire store, before deploying her Eternal Silver Crescent Infinity Rose with an exaggerated spin and knocking her fringe back a little to look even cooler. "Because this reaper here is ready for a fight."
"Wha-" Before the thug could ask the question, she had already slammed him through the window.
...
Outside the store...
...
After she landed on the ground and took out the first of the grunts out of the fight by doing so, the real battle began.
All the elite thugs of the group that was tasked with taking care of her rushed out of the building with their weapons ready, only confirming her theory of them being here for her. If they were here only for some dust then they would have run away the moment they noticed her Silver Eyes and the power that resided within them.
Seeing all those grunts ready to fight an excited smirk appeared on her face and with a simple activation of her other unique power she charged at the group of thugs.
She flew and dodged between the grunts with grace and beauty that couldn't be rivaled.
She was like an unmatched huntress facing off against an army of predators.
She was like a grim reaper fighting against destiny and fate themselves.
She was-.
"How does she swing this giant scythe around as if it was made out of damned cardboard!?"
"My legs!"
"Why does she keep murmuring to herself!?"
In summary, she was kicking ass.
"Were you guys really defeated by some stupid eighth-grader?" An orange haired man that stood out from the rest of the grunts said in exasperation while pointing at her with his cane before sighing. "I have to say I expected a bit more after spending so much on you idiots."
All the goons flinched a little at the man's shout before slowly trying to get back on their feet. It was obvious that this orange haired man was their boss and likely the person tasked with eliminating her.
"Give up, evildoers! Your plan to eliminate me has been foiled! You should have known that you were going to lose the moment you heard that I was going to be your opponent!" Ruby demanded as she stabbed her Eternal Silver Crescent Infinity Rose into the ground with a slightly exaggerated movement and wind her red cloak fluttered a little on the wind.
She had to look so awesome.
"W-Wha-?" The boss of the goons stuttered in disbelief at the knowledge.
All of the goons looked even more confused than their leader, they likely weren't told the real purpose of their mission.
She almost felt pity for them. The big baddie who sent them at her must be really big on secrecy and mystery if they hadn't shared the fact that they were going to face someone as incredible as her to their own minions.
"Let me guess, you thought that I wouldn't notice your secret plan to eliminate me?" Ruby said with a knowing smile on her face before gracefully turning around with enough flair to stun the entire alley while not giving the baddies the chance to answer her. "Well, you thought wrong!"
Her shout echoed through the street as she quickly struck an awe-inspiring pose with her back towards the baddies.
No answer met her pose nor the shout. It was clear that the goons were too beat up to do anything and the orange haired boss already knew that he was way too outmatched by her and her divine silver power.
"I have to commend you for your efforts though. Despite clearly knowing about your true intentions, I wasn't aware of all the intricacies of your plan before one of you didn't try to 'mug' me. Unfortunately for you that one mistake was more than enough for me to learn of your real plan to kill me! After all, nobody would have been stupid enough to consider robbing a person like me!"
"Ugh-" A groan resounded from behind her as if to answer her unmasking of the plan but it was quickly interrupted by a sound that she could only describe as a really aggressive shove.
Her sister, dad, and uncle Qrow would have probably scolded her for turning her back on potential enemies but they didn't understand that what she was doing wasn't about safety or carefulness but about sending a message to her foes and looking cool while doing it.
"You are probably wondering why you were sent by the mastermind behind you guys to deal with a person like me right now." Ruby said with a confident smirk. "Am I right?"
"Not rea-" One of the grunts was about to answer but they were stopped by another shove from their boss.
"Yes! We are dying to know about what makes you so incredibly special, oh red reaper with the eyes of silver!" The boss said with a dramatic flair before whispering something unintelligible to his followers.
After a moment of more whispering a bunch of shouts of confirmation resounded from the grunts as they appeared to be suddenly very eager to learn about her.
"Well, you see the source of my divine and incomprehensible power comes from the silver light of the gods that hides in my eyes. While I know some of you might think that it's something similar to, or even simply, a semblance but the truth is slightly different..."
So captivated was she by recounting and describing her godly power to the random thugs that she didn't hear the shifting of moving bodies from behind her.
Although she probably wouldn't have bothered to check what it was even if she were to hear that as it would require her to stop her explanation and turn around, and that would break her out of the cool pose she was in.
A couple of long minutes passed like that as she continued her story and changed between a couple of cool looking poses along the way.
"...and that is why despite your great attempt I have to take you to the prison for the audacity to try to do that, you vile evildoer!" Ruby shouted with a confident flair before swinging her Eternal Silver Crescent Infinity Rose in a wide arc and turning around to face the undoubtedly apologetic evildoers.
Yet, despite her confidence in there being a bunch of evildoers standing behind her, the moment she turned around she saw a rather angry looking blond woman with a riding crop in her hand staring at her with a scowl on her face.
"Ah! You must be one of the lieutenants of the evil mastermind behind all the baddies I've just defeated!"
...
Some time later...
...
The interrogation room they were using was a cold and dark place.
There weren't any windows and the only light in the room came from a single wide lamp at the ceiling and there weren't even any snacks or cookies for Ruby to take her mind off of things.
The angry and annoyed look her interrogator, Glynda Goodwitch, had on her face didn't help at all either.
"As I keep saying, that group of evildoers tried to assassinate me early in my journey under the pretext of robbing the store I was in before I could awaken the full capabilities of my divine power, without knowing that they were already too late! Why is it so hard to believe?!" Ruby whined desperately after explaining exactly what had happened in that alley for the third time this evening.
"I assure you, they were most definitely not trying to 'assassinate' you back there." Glynda answered with a frown while massaging her head.
For some unknown reason, Glynda Goodwitch refused to believe her when she recounted the story of what had happened.
It was almost like the older huntress was trying to keep the truth a secret.
Maybe she really was a lieutenant of the evil mastermind?!
"You are thinking of something unbelievably dumb right now, aren't you?" Glynda asked with a tired tone.
"N-No." Ruby denied while refusing to keep eye contact.
Glynda sighed.
"If it were up to me, you would have been let go with a slap on your wrist and a solid talking to by your parents." Glynda grumbled a little. "Unfortunately, my superior wanted to talk with you and I'm not in a position to decline him."
Before the older huntress could let anyone in however, Ruby suddenly stood up from her chair, pointed her finger towards her and shouted.
"Aha! I knew you were one of the evil mastermind's lieutenants!"
The look Glynda Goodwitch gave her immediately made her wince a little. The blond woman was clearly not amused by her revealing that knowledge so openly, she really shouldn't have exposed her knowledge of the older huntress occupation.
Especially since she was still technically trapped in a small room with said huntress.
"Ozpin, please take her away from me." Glynda massaged her head slowly to relieve herself of some pain for some reason. "I don't think I will be able to last much longer near this girl."
At the mention of Ozpin's name Ruby had to wince once more. There were very few huntsmen and huntresses in training that didn't know the name of the headmaster of the most famous huntsmen academy on Remnant.
"You don't have to be so crude about this girl, Glynda." The voice of a famous headmaster spread through the interrogation room as its doors slowly opened to reveal a gray haired man with a plate of cookies in his hand. "I don't believe she deserves such treatment after trying to help stop a crime."
Ruby frantically nodded at the older man's words.
After finally seeing Ozpin enter the room there was no more doubt in her mind about the identity of the blond haired huntress that was Glynda Goodwitch and she really didn't want to leave a bad first impression on one of her future teachers.
"Ozpin, no!" Glynda shouted as she stood from her chair to make some space for her superior. "You don't get to use your 'it's just an impressionable youth and also our future' excuse this time! She is responsible for more than a thousand of lien of property damage, endangering innocent people, has no witnesses to help her and her story makes so little sense it would have been better if she just lied to us!"
With every word from Glynda, Ruby winced more and more.
Okay, she might have stuck to her interpretation of the events a bit too much during this evening but it wasn't her fault! With everything that happened, her explanation was the only thing that made sense!
"Now, now, Glynda." Ozpin waved his hand a little in a slightly dismissing motion. "I'm sure that little Miss Ruby Rose had a very good reason to believe that everything that happened was an attack directed at her but that's not what's most important right now."
Ozpin slowly turned his head a little to stare directly into Ruby's eyes before turning completely serious.
"Now, Miss Rose, I'm certain that you already suspect why I decided to talk to you personally, don't you?" Ozpin said with a slight smile that gave nothing away.
The moment she heard that, Ruby froze.
No, she had no idea what she had done to warrant the attention of someone as influential as Ozpin.
Sure, the way she stopped the robbery might have been impressive in the eyes of ordinary people but it wasn't anything to write home about for anyone versed in the matters of huntsmen and huntresses.
She just simply couldn't think of a single reason as to why she might have been considered special by the headmaster of Beacon.
Unless...
"Hehehehe..." Ruby began to chuckle quietly to herself as she finally realized what made her catch the attention of someone like Ozpin. How could she have forgotten about her unique power that made her special compared to everyone else?
It didn't matter that she had tried to keep that power a secret, a person as knowledgeable as the headmaster of Beacon would know about it.
"Miss Rose, is everything alright?" Ozpin asked with concern.
Hearing Ozpin sound concerned for her, Ruby stopped chuckling and smiled widely before looking straight into the eyes of the older man with the most serious expression she could manage.
"Of course I know why you decided to talk with me, mister." Ruby said and upon seeing Ozpin raise one of his eyebrows continued. "It's because of the power of the forgotten gods of the past that dwells in my eyes, isn't it?"
Silence engulfed the room as both Ozpin and Glynda opened their eyes as wide as they could in shock.
It looked like they didn't expect her to actually guess why she was here. Maybe that question was some form of test?
"Y-You know?" Ozpin asked with a stutter.
"Obviously, what sort of huntress would I be if I wasn't aware of my own destiny?" Ruby said while leaning back and covering her face with one of her hands to make sure that she looked awesome.
Ozpin and Glynda gulped as one before turning towards each other and nodding slightly to communicate something between them.
"Tell me, Miss Rose, how would you feel about joining my academy?"
Ruby could only smile at the words of one of the most famous huntsmen in the world.
...
At the Bullhead to Beacon...
...
Her first term at Beacon was about to begin and Yang couldn't help but be excited.
Why shouldn't she? After spending way too many years in Signal back on Patch non-stop hearing about how the real training to become an awesome huntress of her dreams would only begin at Beacon, anyone wouldn't be able to wait to enter it.
There wasn't anything that could have brought that excitement down.
"...and then the world will finally be able to see the unimaginable power that hides within my eyes."
That was apart from one single detail about her start at Beacon.
For some unknown reason Ruby, her two years younger sister, was also entering Beacon with her. The worst part about it was that she didn't even know how her sister had managed to do that.
When she had asked her the previous day how did that happen, the only answer she got was that the headmaster of Beacon himself somehow noticed the 'Silver Power' that dwelt in her sister's eyes, whatever that meant.
It wasn't like she didn't enjoy spending time with her little sister or that she found her annoying but Ruby could be quite eccentric and she simply wasn't sure if her sister would be able to survive the next four years at Beacon with the way she was.
"For the power of my divine silver eyes shall be your doom!" Ruby, after realizing that Yang was likely ignoring her based on the lack of answers from her, started posing and practicing speeches for the next encounter she would have with a villain.
Yang cringed a little at her younger sister's antics.
"You're right that doesn't sound correct." Ruby mumbled. "Doom doesn't feel like the right word when my silver powers obviously come from the forgotten gods."
A sigh escaped Yang as she thought of the next four years she was going to have to live through. She only hoped that she and Ruby weren't going to be bullied because of that.
...
After arriving at Beacon...
...
Weiss was enthusiastic about being able to finally attend the Beacon Academy. If she wasn't a Schnee and wasn't expected to behave in a dignified manner then she might have even said that she was excited about it.
Who could really blame her though?
Beacon was one of, if not simply, the best huntsmen academy in the entire Remnant. Sure, Atlas Academy back in Atlas was also considered to be very good with the general Ironwood being its headmaster but not even it could compare to the school under the jurisdiction of a huntsman as famous as Ozpin.
It also was further away from her family making it way easier for her to make a name for herself rather than being simply the second daughter of Jacques Schnee.
Maybe here people would finally start referring to her as Weiss rather than Miss Schnee.
She was already on the grounds of the academy and although she hadn't passed the initiation yet with her skill and talent the place in Beacon and her own team to lead were practically guaranteed.
Currently she was in the process of moving her suitcases with Dust to the academy building because leaving them out in the open was a little bit too dangerous for her liking.
While she wasn't quite sure where exactly she was going to put them as the amount of Dust she had with her was too big to leave inside the famous rocket locker of the school, she wasn't worried about it that much.
A prestigious school like Beacon had to have a place where students of richer families could leave their spare resources without the worry that they would be stolen, right?
Either way, she knew she wasn't going to leave the dust outside.
With a quick reassuring nod to herself and a pleased smile on her face, Weiss took a step forward on her path to the great future.
"Thump." A single step towards that future was all that she took as right after she did that, she heard something collide with her many suitcases filled with explosive and possibly very dangerous Dust.
She could have almost died back there.
"What do you think you are doing!?" Weiss screeched in surprise as she turned around to look at the idiot who almost ended their lives.
As she turned around, Weiss already prepared an entire speech on how the thing that person just did was so stupid that they could have died, she was going to deliver it with equal amounts of anger and firmness to make sure that that person would learn and never did the same dumb mistake again.
"Wha-" Yet despite all those plans, the only thing that Weiss was able to say upon turning around was a sound of confusion as she saw the person who knocked down the suitcases of Dust.
Right before her was a girl who couldn't be older than fourteen with the way she looked and dressed, standing with one of her legs a little bit higher than the other on a small pile of three suitcases and with one of her arms on the knee of the higher leg and the other making a wide arc to reveal the red cloak she had in all its glory.
Why was that girl wearing a cloak?
"Aha! I-I knew that would catch your attention, fellow fated one!" The cloaked girl said with a little stutter making Weiss's confusion grow even more. "While your power might not be as incredible as the silver power of forgotten gods in my eyes, I can still feel a power of remarkably strong bloodline in your destiny."
As Weiss half listened to what the cloaked girl was saying while trying to slowly comprehend what was even happening, a single question entered her mind.
Since when did Beacon start accepting eighth-graders?
"This meeting of ours had to be destiny itself telling us to join paths!" The cloaked girl said with unnecessary flair. "I'm certain that during the initiation we will make the perfect teammates and with the guidance of the headmaster Ozpin himself we will become the greatest team to have ever graced the lands of this-"
"Okay, stop!" Weiss shouted as she picked up a single vial of Dust from the mess that were her suitcases. "I have no idea what sort of fantasy world do you think you are living in but what you did just now was both incredibly irresponsible and dangerous!"
Seeing that she got the attention of the younger girl, Weiss swung the vial in her hand a little bit to make it more apparent what was in those suitcases to the delusional girl.
"I have no clue what sort of power you use in that imaginary realm of yours but here on Remnant we use Dust!" Weiss shook the vial aggressively. "You might not be aware of this but this thing is both combustible and dangerous, that's why we use it in our weapons. What you just did by smashing into those suitcases of mine was throwing more than a quarter of a ton of volatile material around us!"
With every single one of her words and shaking of the vial the hooded girl appeared to cringe a little. Good, it meant that she felt remorse and that she would remember this conversation in the future.
"I k-know." The girl said slowly as she wrinkled a little in between each syllable. "C-Can y-you please sto-"
"Do you have any idea what would happen if even one of those suitcases ended up combusting?!" Weiss didn't give the younger girl a chance to say anything as she continued to talk and wave the vial. "With so many of them so close to each other we wouldn't even have the time to-"
She didn't have the time to finish her scolding as the cloaked girl suddenly sneezed for no reason before everything was overtaken by a huge explosion.
...
A short while later...
...
Jaune couldn't believe that he actually managed to get into Beacon.
Sure, he might have spent quite a lot of money for those fake transcripts but even with the knowledge that they were supposedly made by the best foragers in the outskirts of Vale, he didn't quite believe that no one at Beacon wouldn't realize that they were false.
Now, if only he could fake his way through the next day's initiation and the guilt he was feeling for taking away a place in such a prestigious school from someone who probably deserved it more than he did.
Well, at least he wasn't being entirely right now so maybe he shouldn't feel so bad about himself.
Currently he was walking towards the place a large explosion happened at with the intention to help anyone who might have been caught up in it. There weren't many people in that direction so if someone got hurt because of that thing then there was a highly likely possibility that nobody would be there to help them and maybe take them to the infirmary and he, as a very ambitious huntsman to be, simply couldn't leave a person in danger without any help.
There was also that small fear in the back of his mind that this strange explosion might have been some weird part of the initiation that would test all of their reactions to unannounced danger.
Almost anything was possible in a school with as big of a budget as Beacon had.
Thankfully it didn't seem to be the case however because just as he was about to reach the place of explosion he noticed two girls, one of white hair and the other of black, slowly walking away from there. They looked to be around his age so if this was really a test then these two would have already probably failed.
Jaune shook his head a little.
Just because it wasn't some weird test didn't mean that he shouldn't check if anyone was hurt, a true Arc like him couldn't leave innocents in danger!
He slowly looked around to see if there was anyone in need of help but he couldn't find anyone standing or sitting nearby.
There was however a single person who was laying down in the exact place that the explosion had likely happened. It was a young girl that wore a dark red cloak on her head, though her eyes were half closed and the cloak was covering her most of her face she still appeared to be smiling a little.
Jaune looked a little in daze at the strangely calm girl before suddenly jumping up a little after remembering that the hooded girl must have been in the very center of the explosion. She was probably gravely injured from that, if not already dead, and the smile she had on her face was only there because the explosion was too sudden for her to change that expression.
Almost instantly panic overtook Jaune as he hesitantly walked up to the laying girl.
What was he even supposed to do with a dead girl like that?!
"Uhm..." Jaune started with hesitation as he leaned forward. There was no way that girl was alive after getting hit by all the lessons on emergency situations like these taught him that he was required to ask if she was alive. "Is everything alright, Miss?"
"You are blocking the view." The girl answered, making Jaune jump.
"Ah! You're alive!" Jaune said in surprise with a very manly and only slightly shocked voice. Anyone who claimed that he screamed like a little scared schoolgirl was definitely lying.
The girl smirked in satisfaction.
"A little explosion like that is nowhere near enough to take a person like me down." The hooded girl said with pride in her voice. "Even if the amount of Dust that exploded was three times as high, it still wouldn't have been enough to compare to my divine power. The only reason why I'm laying down right now is to admire the sight of stars in the sky."
Jaune's eyes widened in surprise, if he were to be hit with an explosion even four times as small as that one he would have ended up dead. Was that the difference between ordinary people like him and the huntsmen?
If it was then he really shouldn't have lied to get into this academy, he would probably end up dead in the next few months, if not weeks!
He took a moment to blink after the contents of the girl's words reached his ears and were processed by his brain.
No, it wasn't the huntsmen that were so incredible, they would have been injured by that explosion as well, it was that girl who was special. No ordinary person would have taken an explosion like that and began admiring the stars the very next moment, no matter how powerful they were.
"So cool..." Jaune whispered to himself.
If he wasn't so in awe at the nearly impossible power of the hooded girl then he would have noticed that it was the middle of the day and there was no way for anyone to be viewing stars and that the girl probably only said that to sound cool.
"I see that you are a kindred spirit on the path of ascendance as well!" The hooded girl said in excitement before shooting her arm upwards. "My name's Ruby Rose, the one who's blessed with the power of forgotten gods in her eyes! I hope our destinies will intertwine with each other going forwards."
Jaune had to blink a couple times in silence to process what the hooded girl, Ruby, said. It was the first time he heard a greeting like that.
Was it how all the huntsmen in training greeted each other? He never heard his father say anything like that but then again he had never had to introduce himself to him and the rest of his family.
"W-Well, it's nice to meet you." Jaune shook Ruby's hand. "My name's Jaune Arc and I also hope we will be friends."
Ruby clicked her tongue before shaking her head a little in disapproval in response.
"What a terrible greeting." Ruby said with disappointment. "There's nothing about it that makes you special, if I didn't hear muttering earlier then I would have thought that you are some ordinary guy. Come on, I know you can do better."
Jaune flinched a little when he heard that. Could it be that Ruby had already seen through him and realized that he was a fraud from the way he introduced himself?
He knew he should have put more effort in learning about huntsmen culture before trying to lie his way into Beacon.
"I-I mean..." Jaune stalled for time a little to think of a greeting that wouldn't be too dissimilar to Ruby's. "M-My name's Jaune Arc, the only male heir to an ancient Arc family that's been famous for their huntsmen since times long gone."
Ruby instantly brightened up upon hearing that he was willing to greet her like that.
"Now, that's way better." The hooded girl said. "I knew you could do it!"
As he looked at the satisfied smile on Ruby's face, Jaune didn't know why but he felt as if he made some really embarrassing mistake that would stick with him for the rest of his life.
...
Some time later at the Beacon's auditorium...
...
Yang shifted from side to side as she waited for the introduction speech from Ozpin to begin and from what she had seen it appeared that she wasn't the only one that was getting impatient.
The auditorium was already packed with students as all those who came here with the ordinary transport Bullheads didn't waste any time before getting here and all those who were rich enough to use private means of getting to Beacon had probably arrived way earlier. The only thing that appeared to be missing was paradoxically the headmaster himself as the stage in the middle of the room was still being taken up by the headmistress of Beacon, Glynda Goodwitch who was somehow managing to look both irritated and worried at the same time.
Yang could hear a couple of whispers beside her from people wondering what was taking the headmaster so long and she couldn't help but wonder as well.
It was already a couple of good minutes past the time the welcoming speech was supposed to happen and most, if not all, students were already here. The only explanation she could think about for such a huge delay was because the staff at Beacon was adamant on literally every student being present for the speech and two or three of them were missing.
Although with how many people were going to attend Beacon, or at least try the initiation, even she was doubtful of her idea.
It did remind her however that she hadn't seen Ruby since they separated right after the landing. It had to mean that she simply wasn't in the auditorium and was probably wandering somewhere outside since there was no way anyone would have missed her in a closed place like that.
Ruby Rose was many things but subtle and easy to miss she was not.
Yang sighed a little as she thought about her younger sister. She really hoped that Ruby wasn't embarrassing herself or acting like some edgy eighth-grader again, though with her knowing how Ruby often was she didn't expect those hopes to come true in any way.
"Aha!" A loud shout came from the entrance of the auditorium. "We have finally found the auditorium where the speech of the venerable Ozpin will take place! I knew we were going in the right direction my companion!"
Yang hid her face in her hands and groaned, she didn't need to turn around to know exactly who was the person that shouted that.
"Y-Yes, we've found it." A male voice answered her sister and thankfully, unlike Ruby, they had enough tact to know that normal people weren't supposed to announce their late entrance to an important meeting with a shout.
A deep breath was heard by Yang from behind and she immediately moved to stop Ruby from embarrassing herself and the kind person who brought her here any more than she had already done.
"The name's Ru-" Ruby started to announce herself with her usual flair before Yang cut her off by covering her face with her arms.
"Hey sis!" Yang shouted loud enough to take everyone's attention away from anything that Ruby might do in the following conversation. "You're a bit late but the welcoming speech hasn't started yet so it's not too bad. Please don't make too much noise, okay? I'm sure that Ozpin's speech is about to begin."
Ruby's eyes told her that she wanted to protest but after a rather angry and pleading glare she gave in with a slight sigh and decided to stay quiet.
Yang heard muttering behind her and at first became afraid that it was about them but thankfully it sounded like the headmaster finally decided to take the stage and begin his speech.
She huffed a little in relief before turning around to look at the stage, hopefully the speech wouldn't be too long.
"First of all, I would like to apologize for the slight delay on my part but we had a really important guest to take care of at Beacon." Ozpin's words echoed through the building, his voice sounding both strong and kind at the same time. It wasn't hard to see why that man was chosen to be the headmaster of the most prestigious huntsmen academy in the world. "Now that everything's taken care of, let me properly welcome you to Beacon. Don't worry, I will try to keep this brief."
Any mutterings and whispers that were previously filling the room silenced at once. Everyone looked at the famous huntsman on the stage with expectations in their eyes and nobody dared to utter a word.
"You have all traveled here in search of many things." Ozpin slowly walked from one side of the stage to the other. "Some of you came here looking for knowledge, others for experience, yet another group of you probably came here for more personal reasons like hopes for redemption or believing that it was your destiny."
Yang blinked a couple times after she saw Ozpin's eyes glance at her and Ruby's direction at the mention of destiny.
D-Did Ruby mention her so-called 'Silver Power' back when she was being interrogated by the headmaster of Beacon?!
The blond brawler's face instantly turned red from embarrassment. Her sister had already ruined her reputation with one of the most important people on Remnant and it was all because she wasn't strict enough with getting those eighth-grader thoughts out of her head.
"Yet when I look upon you all I see is wasted potential without purpose or direction." Ozpin's voice turned a bit more stern at that part. "You think that you will find the things you are looking for in here but your time here will show you that they will be able to carry you only so far."
The murmurs returned from everyone else after those words left the headmaster but they were quickly overshadowed by the last statement of the speech.
"This school is merely the first step on your journeys, please keep that in mind." Ozpin said before going off the stage.
Whispers and conversations suddenly erupted in the room as everyone started to release the tension gathered from the Ozpin's welcome speech by talking. In the end it quickly meshed together, turning into something that could barely be understood.
"Well, that certainly was a speech." A male voice said from behind Yang, startling her a little. "What do you think he meant by 'hopes for redemption'? You don't think that some dangerous person decided to join Beacon this year, do you?"
Yang quickly turned around to see a blond boy her age still looking at the stage with something resembling awkwardness in his eyes. A quick trip down the memory lane told her that it was the person who escorted Ruby into the auditorium.
"Nah, they wouldn't allow criminals in Beacon. The security is too good here to do that." Yang dismissed the idea of her fellow blond with a wave of her hand. "My name's Yang. What about yours, late boy?"
"Jaune Arc." The boy said before suddenly shaking a little as if he just remembered something. "I-I mean, my name's Jaune Arc, the sole heir to the ancient Arc family of huntsmen and a person destined to become a perfect hero."
Yang blinked once.
Then she blinked again.
Finally after a few seconds of silence she slowly turned her head towards Ruby to see her acting unnaturally giddy and excitedly and a single thought instantly went through her mind.
Her younger sister had corrupted someone.
...
In the evening...
...
Ruby's first impression of Beacon was a conflicted one.
On one hand she certainly liked the fact that headmaster Ozpin as well as the rest of the staff appeared to be treating her with respect and valued her highly. Sure they might not have done anything openly yet but she wasn't stupid and could easily deduce that the only reason they've been waiting for so long to do the welcoming speech was because she was a bit late to the auditorium.
That was all well and good, and she couldn't say that she wasn't excited at the thought of attending here after seeing just how large the area belonging to Beacon was with Jaune earlier but there were a couple of things she wasn't necessarily thrilled about.
One of those things were other students at Beacon.
Of course there were a couple of good ones here and there, her sister, Weiss, and Jaune for example, but a vast majority of them were both unimpressive and completely forgettable.
She could count all the special looking people on her hands for forgotten gods' sake!
It just didn't make any sense! She could understand how there weren't many interesting people back in Signal since it was a relatively ordinary prep school for huntsmen academies but Beacon should have been brimming with destined people like her!
Where were the secret magicians capable of using secret magical arts from the times long gone?!
Where were the last survivors of their clans or traitors of evil organizations that came here to strive for a better life?!
Where was the secret evil organization that worked under the diabolical mastermind outside the ordinary people's eyes?!
Sure, not everything would be revealed as soon as she entered the building, or before the initiation, but there should be something! As it was right now all those people around her looked like some extras she would forget about in a week or two.
An epiphany suddenly struck Ruby as she went over her thoughts once again.
Extras. That's right, not everybody could be as incredible as she was because if everybody was someone special then being special wouldn't be anything special at all. All these people around her were here only to make her more incredible!
"That makes so much sense." Ruby whispered to herself as she realized her importance.
"You've just thought of something incredibly rude or stupid, haven't you?" Her sister suddenly asked from behind her with a slightly disappointed tone in her voice.
"I did not!" Ruby protested while turning around to look at Yang.
Yang sighed.
"Look Ruby, do you know why I left you alone and went with my friends right after the Bullhead to Beacon landed?" Yang asked calmly while raising one of her eyebrows.
"Is it because you are a bit embarrassed about being a sister to such an incredible and blessed by heavens person as I am?" Ruby asked, taking pride in her silver power of forgotten gods. "Don't worry, I understand, not everyone can have the power of ancient gods sealed in their eyes."
Yang looked at her with a look for some reason resembling that of pity.
"I did that because I wanted you to make friends, Ruby." Yang said, stressing her name for some reason. "You never had any at Patch and from what I gathered you haven't made any here either."
Ruby had to roll her eyes at her sister's baseless concerns. It wasn't like she came here to look for friends in the first place, this was the beginning of her journey after all, besides she's pretty sure that in that last day she had made more friends than Yang did.
"I didn't have any friends back at Patch because not a single one of those common people could comprehend the greatness hidden in my destiny." Ruby said. "As for having friends at Beacon, I have already made two of them, Weiss and Jaune, so your argument is invalid."
"Yes, because a girl that you caused to, and I quote here, 'explode' and a shy boy from some backwater village that you corrupted count as, making friends." Yang rolled her eyes.
"You are just jealous that I made more awesome friends than you did." Ruby retorted back.
"I'm not!" Yang tried to protest but Ruby could clearly hear the jealousy in her voice. "I-..., Look, all I'm saying is that I believe that you should make some more friends while here, okay?"
Ruby looked at her older sister while raising one of her eyebrows with a doubtful look.
"How about trying to befriend her?" Yang pointed at a black haired girl immersed in her book. "She looks approachable. I'm sure that both you and her could use a new friend."
Ruby turned towards the black haired girl before lightly sighing. Her sister was really grasping at straws here, that fake attempt at encouraging her to have more friends wasn't going to hide the fact that Yang was probably doing all of that to get help with making a friend for herself.
Well, it wasn't like she was against helping her older sister get some friends but Yang could have just asked.
It couldn't have been that difficult, could it?
"Alright, let's go make some friends then." Ruby rolled her eyes slightly before making her way to the quiet girl.
Yang's expression immediately brightened, for sure from the fact that she was about to receive help with getting new friends.
"That's great!" Yang said happily before becoming a little bit worried. "Just please make sure to keep your more eccentric traits in check, okay? We wouldn't want to scare any potential friends with your story of cursed yet somehow divine power that's in your eyes."
A small considerate smile appeared on Ruby as she saw her sister's worried expression. What would that worrywart of her older sister do if it wasn't for her? She didn't know but for sure she wouldn't have been even half as awesome if it wasn't for her.
The path to the quiet girl wasn't long as every student was required to sleep in a single, albeit quite large, room so after a few short moments of pushing past the small crowds they'd easily reached the girl.
"Hello there!" Yang said first, proving to Ruby once again that it was her who wanted to make more friends for herself rather than doing it for her younger sister.
The black haired girl looked up slightly as if to ask what was going on.
"Hello." The girl said somewhat quietly while looking at Yang and her. "Is there anything you need?"
"Yup! We saw you sitting here, reading a book, and decided to come and say hello." Yang said, popping the 'p' in the 'Yup!', before gesturing to Ruby with both of her hands. "You look like someone who could use a friend and it just so happens that my sister here could use one as well!"
The black haired girl looked over to Ruby and raised one of her eyebrows in a questioning manner.
Ruby groaned silently. It was no wonder that her sister wanted her help with getting new friends if that was how all of her attempts looked, it was not only incredibly awkward but also slightly inconsiderate.
What if the girl was reading the book specifically to avoid any conversations?
"It's nice to meet you?" The girl asked more than stated while looking at Ruby.
Yang kept glancing at them in between their conversation with a somewhat hopeful look on her face.
Ruby sighed. Well, she had already decided to help her sister so it was apparently up to her to somehow save that train wreck of a conversation. She seriously wasn't getting enough credit for all the things she was doing to support her sister nowadays.
She looked at the quiet girl more thoroughly to find something she could talk with the black haired girl about, maybe the book she was reading, before suddenly seeing something in that girl which changed her perception of her almost instantly.
Ruby gasped loudly from that revelation.
She couldn't believe she didn't notice that earlier when they were still walking towards that girl.
The Mistralian clothing the girl was wearing, the bow on her head that was clearly shaped specifically to look like cute cat ears, and that attitude of quietly reading a book in the corner of the room despite it being the last day before the initiation, that girl wasn't going to be some extra in her life like all those random people she had seen earlier, she was going to be someone important, someone like her!
"You are thinking of something stupid again, aren't you?" Yang said with something resembling fear deep in her voice.
"Hush, Yang!" Ruby swung her arm slightly to interrupt her sister before she could do anything. "Thanks to you I found someone destined for greatness and I can't allow anyone to intrude on my conversation with her!"
"Wha-?" "Oh, dear gods no!" The quiet girl asked in confusion while Yang groaned into her hands.
"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed loudly, not caring whether some extras were woken up by her or not. "I see the history behind you, that experienced look in your eyes, that lack of trust in others, that reclusive temperament of yours, and that secret you hide behind your ribbon!"
The black haired girl shook in surprise at the mention of her ribbon, it looked like she had been correct with guessing that the girl made the ribbon look like cat ears in order to look cool, before starting to frantically glance from one side to another to see if anyone else noticed something.
"I am so sorry for her." Yang mumbled quietly to the girl for some reason.
Whispers and groans spread around them as they had made quite a commotion and probably woke up a couple of unimportant people.
"You have lived a hard life, haven't you?" Ruby asked the quiet girl before leaning forward a little. "Your dark past must have been terrible for you to end up like that and you probably have already faced countless difficulties..."
The quiet girl looked ready to reach for her weapon and either attack or flee but Ruby didn't care as she continued to tell the supposed tale of her new friend out loud while lost in her own little world.
If Ruby carried on like that for any longer than the girl would have probably already fled from Beacon but thankfully just as the black haired girl was about to stand up and leave she came to a stop and turned towards the girl with the most serious expression she could muster.
"...but worry not for I don't care for your past. You came here to get away from it and I will accept that so just know that if the world's about to come down on us you can count on me to take care of it. People who are loved by heaven yet hated by the world like we are, need to stick together after all." Ruby said seriously.
"I-I..." The girl stuttered while lost at word as tears of happiness slowly filled her eyes.
The entire auditorium turned silent as everyone who woke up during her speech was too amazed to say anything, and the girl she was talking to put her book away and leaned on her with tears in her eyes, even Yang wasn't saying anything to break that moment.
Suddenly noise came back to the room as whispers and shouts entered Ruby's ears, everyone roared in excitement and awe of her awesomeness.
"Will you shut up already!"
"We are trying to sleep here, you idiots!"
"Go to sleep!"
Ruby laughed a little embarrassingly at the shouts from the crowd.
At the very least the part about the noise was true, okay?
...
The next day...
...
"...keep in mind that there are still real grimm in there so if you don't take it seriously there's a high possibility of you getting hurt."
All the huntsmen in training stood at the edge of a giant cliff with their hopes high and nerves even higher as headmaster and headmistress of Beacon explained all the rules for the initiation but Blake was barely listening to anything as her mind was constantly replaying the events of the previous day in her mind.
She still couldn't believe how that young eccentric girl, her name was Ruby if she remembered correctly, had managed to so accurately look through her and her past, especially since she had seen earlier how that young girl acted upon meeting the Schnee heiress right after arriving at Beacon.
It just didn't make sense for a person so detached from reality to know so much about her!
At first she thought that the girl had to have some information gathering semblance to get those information but it was quickly proven false when she saw the young girl moving at unreasonable speeds while being made of rose petals.
Blake simply couldn't comprehend how she was so quickly seen through by someone.
Was her disguise and the way she was covering her Faunus parts not good enough?
Suddenly a memory of one of Ruby's little speeches hit Blake out of nowhere, that 'silver and divine power' about which the younger girl kept on talking about, stood out about it the most.
A part of her didn't want to believe that and chuck it up as some eighth-grader fantasy or just a random crazy delusion but all the evidence she had pointed for that to be true.
After all, the girl did manage to enter Beacon a couple of years early which, as far as she knew, had never happened before.
Blake swallowed some of her saliva to get rid of her nervousness and after quickly organizing her rampaging thoughts she glanced at Ruby who was standing on a platform next to her.
That girl truly is special. Blake thought to herself before being taken out of her mind when the platform she was standing on suddenly launched her high into the air in the direction of the forest.
A soft sigh escaped Blake as she soared through the air.
The initiation had started and she didn't even remember what her objective was, let alone for what she would be grader. She could only hope that her future partner at Beacon had listened to Ozpin's explanation more than she did.
At the very least she should try to partner up with either Ruby or her sister, they did say that they didn't mind her past that much, didn't they?
...
Somewhere in the forest...
...
Weiss couldn't help but to feel some small amount of pride as she gracefully landed on the solid ground after being thrown from that large cliff.
Of course, she was aware that she shouldn't really be proud of that as it was absolutely nothing special and it was something that any huntsman in training should be able to do but the feeling was still there.
A quick review of the area around her told her that the forest was lush and green, and that she had never trained in an environment like that back in Atlas. Her home kingdom might have been beautiful and full of majestic mountains but in the end it was all covered in snow.
She sighed as she thought of her home, she chose Beacon as her school specifically to get away from it and her father yet she still came back to with her thoughts.
It truly was difficult to break free.
Thankfully she didn't have to spend a long time thinking about her miserable family life as growling from behind the trees informed her that a pack of grimm was coming towards her.
With a simple practiced movement she brought her weapon, Myrtanester, up to from a very basic guard and waited for the grimm to come to her.
Her fighting style might not have been flashy or particularly entertaining to watch but it was tried and tested by the best huntsmen and huntresses of Atlas by whom she was taught her entire life. Sure she might not be able to get many fans of her huntress career by fighting like that but she would for sure win every fight or challenge she was going to face and survive anything the world threw at her.
It was how the real huntsmen fought, after all.
The grimm that at first were approaching her slowly started to gradually speed up when they noticed that she wasn't moving and soon began to run wildly without any caution or thought.
A smirk appeared on Weiss's face. It was all going according to the plan, now the only thing she had to do was to wait until they got in her range and stab them with her weapon before they could touch her, by doing so she would not only efficiently defeat them but also not waste any dust or Aura.
It really was the perfect way to fight.
Weiss twitched a little as she saw the black monsters before her. The grimm came close enough for her to strike but she still waited, they weren't attacking her yet. She wouldn't attack until those grimm launched themselves at her first.
The grimm growled menacingly and, as they came close enough to attack, jumped at her with their claws raised.
Weiss tensed her muscles and got ready to strike as she saw the beasts jump from the ground but, before she could attack and punish her foes' mistake, all of a sudden a speedy and familiar red blur came from behind her while wildly spinning its scythe, obliterating all the grimm before her.
"HaHa! Another foul beast of darkness fell in face of the Silver-Eyed reaper!" An unfortunately very familiar voice called out from the place the red blur landed as the rose petals dispersed from around it to reveal a certain very annoying hooded girl. "This test truly is too easy for a person with the power of forgotten gods in their eyes like I am!"
Weiss gritted her teeth in anger and her face turned so red that it looked remarkably similar to the cloaked girl's hood.
"What are you doing, you imbecile!?" Weiss shouted at the girl.
The cloaked girl, for all of her delusions, at the very least had the decency to twitch a little after being called out like that.
"I'm taking part in Beacon's initiation?" THe cloaked girl said as she turned around with a bashful smile on her face. "Isn't killing grimm the thing that we are supposed to be doing right now?"
Weiss somehow turned even more red at the girl's words. Did that delusional eighth-grader seriously not see what the hell was wrong with that ridiculous stunt she had just pulled?!
"Are you seriously calling that bizarre spinning maneuver of yours 'killing grimm'?!" Weiss asked.
"Yeah! What else could it be?" The girl tilted her head to the side a little in confusion. "I saw you standing there in front of all of those grimm while doing nothing and decided to help you out. You are welcome, future partner!"
"Future partne-?" Weiss blinked a couple of times in befuddlement before finally realizing what the cloaked girl was talking about. "Oh dear gods, why couldn't it be literally anybody else?"
"Heh, don't worry partner, I will make sure that you shine won't be overtaken by my own." The cloaked girl obviously had no idea why Weiss was so distressed at the prospect of being partnered with her. "The name's Ruby by the way! I'm the champion chosen by the forgotten gods to inherit their divine silver power!"
"W-Why!?" Weiss wept into her hands.
"Because I'm just so amazing!" Ruby smiled. "Now let's go, partner! I have a great idea on how to find those sacred artifacts Ozpin wanted us to find!"
Ruby didn't give Weiss a chance to protest before grabbing her by the shoulders and dragging her along for her undoubtedly crazy idea.
...
In another part of the forest...
...
Yang was having a blast at the moment.
There wasn't any need for her to worry about collateral damage and she could happily take out all of her pent up anger and embarrassment on some conveniently placed grimm in the forest.
To top it all off, there wasn't any need for her to worry about her sister's weird stunts at the moment. After all, even Ruby wouldn't be crazy enough to pull of something stupid during the Beacon initiation only to look cool.
A sad sigh escaped Yang as she pummeled a giant Ursa grimm through about five different trees.
Who was she kidding? Of course Ruby was about to do something incredibly silly and embarrassing, the only thing she could hope for was that nobody would associate that weird stunt with them after the initiation ended.
The Ursa she was pummeling with her fists finally gave in and turned into formless darkness every grimm turned into upon dying. It looked like even her stress relief grimm was tired of her embarrassment.
A rustle of leaves echoed around her and Yang immediately took a fighting stance in hopes for another fight. Hopefully that grimm would put up more of a challenge than the previous Ursa.
Unluckily for her however the rustling of the leaves wasn't caused by any grimm but instead it was the sound of another huntsman in training who traveled through the canopies of trees and as she was just about to realize her future partner at Beacon.
With a soft thump a black haired girl with a bow on her head landed directly in front of her.
"You aren't grimm." Yang tried to not sound disappointed but she didn't manage.
"No, I'm not." The girl, Blake if she remembered correctly, said with a deadpan voice. "Although it looks like we are going to be partners from now on, I think. Your name's Yang, right?"
Yang sighed.
Why did her partner have to be the person who Ruby had embarrassed earlier?
"Yeah, I am." Yang said while slowly shaking her head. "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday with my sister."
Blake blinked a couple of times while looking at Yang before shaking her head in denial.
"It's alright, I'm not mad." Blake said with a smile while raising one of her hands for a handshake. "I understand that your sister has some incredible powers in her so don't worry about that. How could I be mad at someone with the power of gods in her?"
Yang looked at Blake's hand then she looked at her partner's face and noted how earnest she looked and came to a single conclusion from that.
Her younger sister had somehow managed to corrupt another one.
...
Some time later, high in the sky...
...
Weiss hated her partner.
No, the word 'hate' didn't accurately describe the feelings she had for that delusional, immature, idiot of a girl that she was forced to partner with. The better word for it would be 'despised'.
At first she didn't really have that strong feelings about her and just thought of her as a mild annoyance, as the way she tried to educate her about Dust clearly showed, but after being forced to take part in that idiotic plan of hers it quickly changed into pure loathing.
She didn't feel like she was unreasonable for feeling that way, in fact she believed any sane person would feel similar distaste to the cloaked girl if they were forced to be in her shoes right now.
After all, how could a perfectly sane and reasonable person not despise a person who practically forced them to fly on a damned Nevermore!?
"You have to hold it tighter, Weiss!" Ruby screamed as she watched the forest under them while hanging on the giant bird's neck. "If you don't do that it's going to look like you've been kidnapped by it!"
"I'm pretty sure I was kidnapped by something else, you dolt!" Weiss screamed on top of her lungs while barely holding onto the grimm bird's talons.
How could anyone think that catching a Nevermore to fly on it was a good idea was already beyond Weiss's ability to reason but how could one think that it would be an even better idea to hang on the bird's neck was breaking through all the conventions and knowledge she had about the race prior to that.
How would anyone even see the forest below if they were too busy with holding onto the bird they were flying on to do anything else?
"How are you even hanging on it?!" Weiss screamed upwards at her partner.
"Heh, it's simple, Weiss." Ruby said before somehow stopping holding the bird's neck and starting posing and the creature's back. "It's because a divine powered reaper like me simply knows how to pull off all the stunt that would normally be impossible for ordinary people!"
Weiss had to blink a couple of times as she observed her partner doing some weird poses she thought were cool while on top of a Nevermore that was flying at the speed way faster than anything humans were used to.
She had died in the Nevermore's talons, hadn't she?
The thing she was seeing right now had to be some weird post death vision her mind conjured after not accepting her dying in such a stupid way. It had to be it or if not then it was some weird fever dream she was having after someone poisoned her back in Atlas.
Yeah, it had to be something like that!
It just didn't make sense for a person like Ruby to actually exist.
She was going to pinch herself, not feel any pain, and then be kindly woken up by one of her servants, or maybe even her older sister.
Sadly, the gripping pain and lowering of her Aura she was feeling proved the idea to be false and what she was seeing was actually somehow happening. She swore that the moment this initiation ended and she became the leader she was going to order that girl's sister to keep an eye on her.
"Weiss!" Ruby shouted excitedly. "I see the temple! We have to jump off right now!"
Weiss sighed in exasperation.
"And how do you suppose we are going to do that?" Weiss raised one of her eyebrows. "If you didn't notice, I am currently being held by the talons of the biggest grimm I have ever seen and you somehow are stuck to this thing's back!"
"Uhm..." Ruby scratched her cheek as she obviously also didn't know what to do.
"How about you use that 'divine silver power' of yours?" Weiss asked sarcastically while rolling her eyes.
"Hey, that's actually a good idea!" Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "Thanks, Weiss!"
"Wha-?" Weiss was about to ask in confusion but was stopped by a sudden bright flash of silver light from above that appeared to instantly turn the grim holding her into fragile stone.
As the flying grimm crumbled and they began to fall, Weiss didn't know if the scream that left her lungs was one of fear, surprise, or maybe anger. All she knew was that she really needed to do some mind readjustments after the initiation ended.
After all, the eighth-grader she was for some reason partnered with was somehow correct.
The world truly didn't make any sense.
...
After the initiation...
...
Ruby couldn't stop the grin that was on her face.
She passed, it wasn't really a question, but it wasn't the thing that enthralled her the most.
No, that thing was her teammates! Not only did she manage to team up with one of the more interesting people in the year, Weiss, but also her sister that was a part of her team partnered with another incredible person, Blake.
It was a pity that she didn't have Jaune on her team but she was still proud of the boy as he managed to find an almost equally amazing team with a four time Vytal festival champion on it!
She was a bit concerned about all the death flags Pyrrha was showing though but she was sure that she and Jaune would manage to stop that easily!
The crowd behind them whispered as they saw them standing at the podium awaiting for Ozpin to declare the name and leader of their team.
Of course it was going to be her who was going to be the leader, she was the one with silver power in her eyes in the end, but the fake suspense was really enjoyable, especially since the team around her was clearly looking at her with admiration in their eyes.
She truly was incredible like that.
"...Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladona, Yang Xiao-Long, after finding white chess pieces you formed team RWBY led by the young Silver-Eyed Warrior herself, Ruby Rose!"
Ruby preened at the title she received from Ozpin, 'Silver-Eyed Warrior', it sounded so cool!
Maybe she should stop introducing herself as the silver powered reaper and start calling herself that?
With a quick nod she decided that it was a good idea, from now on she should be always referred to as the 'divine Silver-Eyed Warrior of the forgotten gods, Ruby Rose', the world was going to love her.
After Beacon's headmaster offered them handshakes, which they obviously graciously accepted, the crowd behind them exploded in cheers as people began clapping, fainting, and praising her and her team.
"Get on with it!"
"Go back to Signal you stupid eighth-grader!"
"There are still more than dozens teams left! Hurry up!"
At the very least the part about 'exploding' was true, okay?
The end!
It was the first time I tried to write a one-shot and a comedic one at that so I hope it wasn't too bad. I have never really tried to write anything truly comedic before so I hope that you at least wheezed or chuckled once or twice while reading it.
I had a couple more ideas for this fic if I chose to make it way longer or turn it into a multiple chapters fic (For example making Ruby wear an eye patch with her sign during the dance way into the story and making Cinder think that Ruby lost one of her eyes because "No one would be so fashion blind to wear something like that to a dance while having healthy eyes") but for time reasons I decided against them.
As I said on the top if anyone wants to use any ideas from this fic or actually continue it for some reason then go ahead.
My usual stories will return in a month or two ( my exam retakes are quickly arriving as of now) so don't worry about them.
See ya!