Volume 1, Chapter 2: Players and Pieces in the Emerald Forest

Yang Xiao-Long was walking through the forest looking around at the trees and bushes while calling out to anybody that might be within earshot.

"Helloooooooo? Is anyone out there? Helloooo?" She paused to toss her hands up in the air. "I'm getting bored here!"

Her attention was drawn to some bushes behind her when she heard something rustling from within. "Is someone there?" she asked in the direction of the noisy plants. She walked over and peaked inside them with, "Ruby, is that you?"

Yang's head looking up at the creature that rose from the plants confirmed that, no, it wasn't Ruby.

Rather, it was a very pissed-off Ursa, a Grimm in the form of a bear.

"Nope!" Yang said as she rolled to the side and out of the path of the beast's charge out of the bushes. Getting back to her feet, she activated Ember Celica—a pair of forearm-mounted shotguns that doubled as bracelets—just in time for another Ursa ran out behind her. Yang leaped over it, and then sent the first one flying with a fiery punch when it charged at her again. The second one joined its comrade a few seconds later.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood with a scythe, would you?" Yang asked the two bears, who merely growled at their enemy.

"You could just say 'no'."

One of the Ursa took the chance to stand on its hind legs and swipe at the blonde brawler twice with its very strong paws. Unfortunately for the creature, Yang barely dodged the hits, though it did nothing to break her joking mood.

"Geeeez, neither of you could hit the broad side of a ba…" Yang's laughter trailed off when she saw something float down past her face and to the ground.

Something gold…

The same gold as her hair.

Which now had a lock floating down to the forest floor.

Oh.

Oh!

Oh!

Nobody.

NOBODY.

Touches.

Yang Xiao-Long's.

God.

Damned.

HAIR .

"You… You monster!" Yang screamed as her lilac eyes turned red, and an intense inferno surrounded her. The two Ursai could only look at each other with confusion before the pissed-off blonde rocketed forward. When she reached the Grimm, she unleashed the Holy Grail of whoop-ass on the being of darkness in mere seconds.

The offending bear was met with a devastating barrage of flaming hits and blows which caused it to go through several trees in the midst of burning thanks to Yang's rage. The other Ursa charged at the brawler when its partner went flying, but it stopped short of her glare.

"What?! You want some too?!"

The Grimm responded with an unintelligible noise and a jerky swipe forward with its paw as it fell down, revealing Blake Belladonna behind it with her weapon, Gambol Shroud, planted in its back.

Ruby met the ninja-like girl after blowing herself and Weiss up in the courtyard and met her again with Yang in the ballroom the night before initiation.

Speaking of the blonde, Yang had been panting while Blake pulled Gambol Shroud out from the Ursa, which was starting to dissolve into smoke, and sheathed it on her back before focusing on Yang.

"I could've taken him," a nowlilaceyed Yang said to her new partner.

Weiss Schnee deflected the swipe from a Beowolf but was pushed back into the center of the circle of beasts from the force. Regaining her footing, she got into the stance taught to her from years of training.

'Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, left foot forward—not that forward!—slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and… NOW'

Weiss spun the cylinder of her rapier and dashed to the Beowolf in front of her but was taken by surprise when a red-and-black blur of rose petals rushed in between the heiress and Grimm, swiping at and hitting the latter with her scythe.

"Gotcha!" Ruby shouted.

Weiss let out a scream as she did what she could to quickly stop her charge and avoid hitting the huntressintraining and swung her rapier in a random direction. This sent a line of fire from the Dust she'd loaded that hit a nearby tree, setting it ablaze. The fire continued on and spread to the other trees around the clearing. This gained the attention of Ruby, who paused mid-fight to see the small forest fire Weiss accidentally created. Unfortunately, this created a small opening that allowed the Beowolf she hit to hit her weapon, sending her colliding with Weiss.

"Hey, watch it!" the red-themed Huntress-in-training shouted.

"Excuse me! You attacked out of turn! I could've killed you!" her unwilling partner countered back.

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that…"

The duo's argument was interrupted by the whines and growls of the Beowolves surrounding them. Ruby reloaded Crescent Rose and got into a combat position alongside Weiss. Their preparation to attack the Grimm was stopped when a tree, consumed by the flames of Weiss's failed charge, fell to the forest floor near them. Taking advantage of the tree distracting the Beowolves, Weiss grabbed Ruby's arm.

"We have to go!" She shouted as she dragged her partner out of the blaze which was now beginning to engulf the grass.

Their prey running away, some of the Beowolves attempted to give chase only to catch fire and burn while the others ran into the forest in search of safety from the smoke and fire.

Speaking of safety, Weiss and Ruby had managed to run far enough that they could pause without worrying about the forest fire. The former leaned over while panting while the latter looked over her shoulder back to the way they came, where smoke was rising over the trees.

"What was that?! That should've been easy!" Ruby yelled in disbelief.

"Well, perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes," Weiss said, now standing upright, "I would not have set the forest on fire."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby asked with a scoff.

"I'm just surprised someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!"

"Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight. I'm just fine on my own!"

"Well, congratulations on being the strongest childto sneak your way into Beacon. Bravo!"

Weiss began walking again leaving Ruby behind for the second time that day. Ruby let out an agitated shriek as she unfolded Crescent Rose and used it to slice a nearby tree to the stump. Most of her aggravation let out, she refolded her scythe and began to follow her partner as the forest giant fell to the ground.

Neither of the Huntresses-in-training noticed the large, black feather that floated down from the sky to land on the trunk of the fallen tree.

While things were heating up with Weiss and Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune were making their way through the brushes across the forest. Jaune turned his head towards a series of noises followed by an animalistic roar of pain.

"Did you hear any of that?" he asked his partner.

"Gunfire. Automatic to be specific. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy," she answered as they kept moving forward.

Pyrrha moved a branch to the side to get past it, but Jaune, still staring into the direction of the gunfire, didn't see it and was instantly knocked to the ground when it whipped back into his face.

"Jaune! I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said when she heard him fall and turned her head to look over her shoulder to see him holding his cheek.

Her partner simply laughed and lowered his hand, showing her the gash the branch had left on his cheek.

"It's okay. Just a scratch!" Jaune said as he got back to his feet while Pyrrha approached him. She took notice of his gash remaining after a few moments.

"Why didn't you activate your Aura?" she asked.

"Huh?" came Jaune's confused reply.

"Your Aura."

"Gesundheit."

Clearly Jaune had no idea what she was talking about.

"Jaune, do you… know what Aura is?" Pyrrha asked after some hesitation.

"Psch! Of course, I do. Do you know what Aura is?" Jaune asked after waving her question off, though he avoided eye contact while speaking.

Pyrrha simply smiled as she began to tell Jaune what she could about Aura, the manifestation of one's very soul as defense.

While Pyrrha and Jaune were conversing, Lie Ren was walking through the forest's tall grass. At one point he stopped and began to look around himself with narrowed eyes. The cause for his alert state slowly rose above the grass behind him: a huge, black, Grimm serpent that quickly surrounded him with its large, hissing body. Ren responded by getting into a fighting stance just as the snake—now coiled in front of him—lunged at him with its fangs. Ren leaped out of the way causing it to hit the ground and then hit him mid-air with its snout.

Ren landed in a crouch as the serpent encircled him yet again. This time he drew StormFlower from his sleeves and jumped through the hole the creature made in order to start shooting it. On his descent the snake tried to bite again, only to receive a kick and a slash to the face knocking it to the ground. It got back up in an attempt at the same attack, but Ren managed to flip over it and drive the blades on his pistols into its head.

He paused for a moment, unaware that the second head of the creature—white instead of black with the same red markings—rise up behind him.

Ren turned and noticed it just as it lunged at him, barely dodging its wide open mouth. He landed and, seeing that it had begun to slither towards him, waited. When it got within range, he ran at it and leaped onto the black head before sliding over its body and shooting the other head

Unfortunately, Ren wasn't prepared for the white half to hit him through the bullets he was sending towards it, knocking him off its back and causing him to drop his guns to the forest floor, one sticking into the ground via its blade. The snake once again lunged at its now-defenseless prey who could only let out a "No!" as he raised his arms…

And held the Grimm's fangs in his hands, his Aura pulsing a faint pink as he tightened his grip on the snake's elongated teeth before yanking them as hard as he could, breaking them out of its mouth. The creature flailed away for a bit for attempting another bite only to receive one of its stolen fangs right into its eye. Ren followed up with a twist of his arm into a final blow which sends the fang through its skull, blowing it up and killing the black head.

Wasting no time, he ran at the white head to finish it off…

(A few minutes later)

Ren slipped his retrieved pistols back into his sleeves while standing over the now-fully dead snake. His dusting off his sleeves was stopped when a noise similar to a bird call rang from the trees. Looking behind him, his best friend Nora Valkyrie leaned down to him from a branch.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like," he said with a small chuckle.

"… Boop!" Nora replied with a poke to his nose causing him to smile.

Back at the cliffs, Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch watched the initiates on their scrolls. Ozpin watched Ruby and Weiss pacing through the forest when Goodwitch walked up from behind him with her own tablet.

"The last pair has been formed sir," she said, tapping the screen to show Ren and Nora together (not together-together). "Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy… I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos," she said as she switched the screen to show Jaune and Pyrrha.

Ozpin only let out a "Mmmm" in response, never looking up from his tablet.

Goodwitch continued speaking. "I don't care what his transcripts say; that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat." She deactivated her tablet, turned around, and began to walk away. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. At their current pace, they should reach the temple within a few minutes." She paused and turned back to Ozpin, still eyeing his screen. "Speaking of which, what did you use for the relics this year?"

Ozpin didn't say anything.

"Headmaster Ozpin?"

Ozpin continued to remain silent, focus almost entirely on his tablet. The screen showed Ruby Rose sitting in the grass, picking stray leaves as her "partner" Weiss Schnee paced in random directions around her. He watched for a minute before switching to another screen, showing someone else walking through the forest.

"It's definitely this way. I mean… this way! It's definitely this way." She stopped her pacing in front of Ruby. "Alright, it's official: We passed it."

Ruby stood up from the ground. "Weiss, why can't you just admit that you have no idea where we're going?"

"Because I know exactly where we're going! We're going… to… the forest temple!"

Ruby only responded with a sigh of frustration that Weiss didn't miss.

"Oh, stop it! You don't know where we're going, either!"

"Well, at least I'm not pretending like I know everything.

"What it that supposed to mean?!"

"It means you're a big, stupid jerk and I hate you!"

Weiss sighed to herself and turned and started walking in another direction. "Just keep moving!"

"'Oh, just keep moving! Hurry up! Waaah! Watch where you're going!'" she said in a fake imitation of Weiss before switching to her own voice. "Why are you so bossy?"

"I'm not bossy! Don't say things like that!" Weiss said after she turned around.

"Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Stop acting like a kid!"

"Well, stop acting like you're perfect!"

"I'm. Not. Perfect! Not yet, at least… but I'm still leagues better than you," Weiss said as she continued to walk away, leaving Ruby to stand by herself dejectedly.

"You don't even know me…"

Yang and Blake had been walking through the forest for some time after they'd partnered up. Eventually they stepped out into a clearing in the forest where the temple that Ozpin had mentioned was located. Inside the decrepit remains of the temple were pedestals, on top of which were several black and gold objects.

"Think this is it?" the blonde brawler asked.

Her partner simply gave her a skeptical look before walking down the hill they were on towards the temple, with Yang following a moment later.

They walked across the grass before reaching the stone floor where they got a closer look at the pedestals—more specifically, the objects resting on some of them.

"Chess pieces?" Blake asked, looking at a black king piece in confusion.

Yang was nearby, inspecting the pedestals on the other side of the round area. "Some of them are missing. Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

After a moment, Blake spoke up again. "Well, I guess we should pick one."

"Hmmmm…" Yang walked over to one of the remaining relics—a golden knight—studied it, picked it up, and showed it to Blake. "How about a cute, little pony?"

"Sure," Blake answered with a smirk. The two girls walked to the center of the temple floor.

"That wasn't too hard!

"Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find," Blake said as she and Yang shared a smile.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

The moment was ruined when a high-pitched, very girly scream passed over the forest and the temple, causing Yang to turn towards the direction it came from.

"Some girl's in trouble! Blake, did you hear that?" Yang asked before looking at her partner who was staring at something in the sky, not answering. "What should we do?"

Blake's bow twitched—er, from the wind, of course—as she pointed up, motioning for Yang to look towards the air.

"Heads uuuuuuuup!" Ruby screamed as she fell from the sky above the yellow and black pair of students before being sent to the side by a blurring object crashing into her.

Jaune and Pyrrha stood at the entrance of a dark cave, ignoring the old drawings to the side depicting people fighting giant beasts with ancient weapons.

"Think this is it?" the blond asked his partner.

Inside, Jaune held a small, burning torch as he led the two of them through the cave, darkness swallowing whatever area the small light the torch gave off couldn't reveal. They were blind for the most part as a result.

"I'm not sure this is it," his spartan-themed partner said answering his question from earlier.

Jaune let out a sigh and looked back to her. "Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you humor me for, like, five more feet?"

Unfortunately, Jaune tripped over a rock neither of the two teens saw, sending the torch into a small puddle. The extinguishment of their only source of light left them shrouded in the darkness, their eyes the only things visible.

"Do you… feel that?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune stood up while grumbling.

"Soul-crushing regret?"

"No, it's… warm," she said as the two of them blindly continued on deeper into the cave.

A few minutes of bumping into one another, stumbling over rocks, and face-planting into rocky walls later, the two partners followed a faint golden glow to its shiny point.

"That's the relic!" Jaune said in excitement, his features illuminated as he got closer. When he reached out to grab it, however, it pulled back some. With a, "Hey! Bad… relic!", he reached out again. It moved again. Frustrated, Jaune jumped forward and hung from the object, which raised him from the ground.

"Gotcha!"

"Um, Jaune…" Pyrrha said out of worry. Her worry was justified when Jaune's catch lowered itself, dangling the boy in front of what owned the glowing point.

Jaune screamed when the "what" revealed itself as the glowing red lines and eyes of a Death Stalker.

Back outside, Pyrrha ran out from the cave with the scorpion Grimm bursting through the rocks narrowing the entrance mere moments later, Jaune still dangling from its golden stinger and sobbing.

"Help! Whoa-ah-ah-ah-ah! Why?! Pyrrha! Help! Pyrrha, this is not the relic! It's not! Do something!"

Pyrrha had pulled out Miló when she first started running. "Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let—" She was cut off when the scorpion reared back its tail, and watched as it launched a still-screaming Jaune across the trees. "…go." She looked back to the Death Stalker that now focused on her.

She gave an embarrassed smile with her hand behind her head before turning and running after Jaune.

Speaking of the blond, Jaune sailed through the air for a minute before colliding with a falling Ruby Rose, sending them both against a tree.

"Ruby! I told you this was a bad idea!" Weiss Schnee shouted over the loud wind, hanging on to a giant mass of black feathers for dear life.

"We're fine! Stop worrying!" her red-and-black-haired partner replied with the same volume while also holding on to the feathers.

"I am so far beyond worrying!"

"… In a good way?!"

"In a bad way! In a very bad way!"

"Well, why don't we just jump ?!"

"What are you? Insane ?!"

Weiss was only answered with the roar of the rushing wind; Ruby had jumped off and was currently sailing towards the ground hundreds of feet below.

"Oh, you insufferable, little red…" Weiss growled to herself.

As Ruby headed for the ground in a panic, Jaune collided with her and sent them both into a tree near Blake and Yang. Ruby was sitting up on a branch with Chibi Beowolves and stars circling her head.

"Oohhhh… What was that?" She shook her head (sending the Beowolves and stars flying away), pulling herself from her daze and back to reality where she heard an "Ah-hem" from close by.

She looked up to see Jaune hanging upside-down from the branch above her.

"Hey, Ruby…" he said in embarrassment.

Down below, Yang and Blake both watched the scene play out.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, looking at the tree.

"I…" Yang said before she was cut off.

Before she could continue, several crashing noises from the forest were heard heading for them. An Ursa came through the trees with claws swinging around before being hit in the back with a pink blast of energy and falling forward, depositing its rider.

"Yeeee-haaaaw!" Nora shouted as she rolled off from the bear Grimm's back before getting up and looking back at it with a saddened groan. "Awwww… It's broken," she said before dashing onto its neck and observed the carcass as Ren came up from behind her.

He leaned on the dead Grimm and panted. "Nora! Please… Don't ever do that again." He looked up at his partner only to see a pink dotted outline where she once stood. He frantically looked around before noticing her less looking and more ogling the Temple's chess pieces—a golden rook to be exact.

"Oooohh…" She suddenly grabbed it and the background switched to a pink one covered in stars and her hammer symbol as she started to dance and sing with the rook. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"Nora!" Ren called out.

"Coming, Ren!" She said after she stopped dancing, saluted, and shook the relic from her head. It landed in her left hand, and she skipped off back to Ren.

"Did she just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked again.

Just like before, Yang's answer was interrupted by crashing from another part of the forest. This time, it was Pyrrha Nikos running through the foliage with the Death Stalker closing in on her. She narrowly dodged when it swiped at her with its gigantic pincers and continued running.

"Jaune!" she shouted when she saw her partner.

"Pyrrha!" he called back at her.

Ruby stood up on the branch and looked at the Grimm below. "Whoa!" she said as she ran off the branch and landed on the ground in a roll.

"Ruby!" Jaune whined, upset at her leaving him stuck in the tree.

"Ruby!" Yang called out to her sister as she stood up.

"Yang!" Ruby said in excitement. The two siblings ran at each other with raised arms for a hug but were knocked off-balance by Nora popping up between them.

"Nora!" she yelled.

Blake, watching as Pyrrha continued to barely outrun the giant scorpion, spoke up for the third time. "Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?"

Yang, who'd been growing angrier and angrier as time went on, finally snapped. She growled as her hair burst into flames and her eyes flashed red. "I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"

The tick-tock of an imaginary clock counted down the two seconds of Yang cooling off, Ren running over to a ditzy Nora, and Blake and Ruby looking up into the sky.

Ruby tugged on her older sister's sleeve and pointed to what she saw. "Umm… Yang?"

What Ruby and a now-slumped over Yang saw was Weiss hanging from a talon the size of her entire body; a talon connected to a gigantic Nevermore.

"How could you leave me?!" she called down to Ruby.

"I said, 'Jump'!" Ruby called back.

"She's gonna fall," Blake pointed out.

"She'll be fine," Ruby assured her.

"She's falling," Ren said, confirming what Blake said.

By now Jaune had managed to get unstuck from his position in the tree and was now standing on the same branch Ruby had been on only a short time ago. He looked up and grinned when he saw Weiss falling towards the ground. He ran across the branch and jumped off with his arms outstretched, catching Weiss in what seemed like a slow-motion moment.

He smiled at her. "Just… dropping in?"

Weiss remained silent but looked down. Jaune gave a small look of confusion before looking down as well… down to the ground they were still high above.

Jaune could only mutter, "Oh, God," before he and Weiss tightened their hold on one another as they resumed their plummet to the ground. When they landed, Jaune faceplanted with his limbs splayed out. Weiss landed in a seated position on him.

"My hero," she mocked as she checked her nails, making sure none were damaged or broken.

"My back…" Jaune groaned.

Behind them, the Death Stalker continued to chase Pyrrha around the clearing. It swiped at her once again, but this time she used its claw as a launch pad to launch herself to the others at the temple, landing on her side.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang said sarcastically.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby let out a battle cry as she ran off into a charge at the Death Stalker.

Ignoring Yang telling her to wait, Ruby fired Crescent Rose and used the recoil to boost her speed towards the oncoming Grimm. When they met, its swipe connected with Ruby knocking her back to the ground.

She slowly got back up while assuring the others. "D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!"

Ruby turned back to the scorpion and shot in in the skull with her sniper rifle. When she noticed that her bullets weren't penetrating its thick carapace, she sheathed Crescent Rose before running away from it, the Death Stalker now giving chase.

"Ruby!" Yang called out before running to her sister. Ruby ran towards her as well, but the Nevermore cawed above them before flapping its wings and sending lines of its sharpened feathers towards both of them.

Ruby managed to outrun and dodge all except one which caught her cape, stopping her dead in her tracks. Yang continued running until the feathers locked Ruby and continued heading towards the brawler, where she did what she could to slow herself down to the point she slid on her behind and reached the feathers between her and her sister.

"Ruby, get out of there!" she said in a panic.

Ruby was struggling with her cloak, trying to get it unstuck from the Nevermore's projectile. "I'm trying!"

Unfortunately, the Death Stalker hadn't stopped its approach. Ruby could only look on in horror as the scorpion stood in front of her, claws clicking, as it raised its golden stinger above her.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted while reaching out between two of the feathers in a vain attempt to help her little sister.

Ruby could only close her eyes and cover herself with her arms in terror as the Death Stalker thrust its stinger at its target, an attack her Aura wouldn't be able protect her from.

Her eyes opened when the scorpion started roaring in pain following a gunshot. The Death Stalker was attempting to claw at its face in pain, one of its eyes shot through with smoke exiting the sizzling bullet hole. Interestingly, the smoke was gray, not black like Grimm usually leave when wounded or dead.

Weiss, who'd ran past Yang when she'd reached through the feathers, was preparing to freeze the stinger of the scorpion just moments before it'd been shot in an attempt to save her partner. She kept up with the freeing until the Death Stalker's singer (and some of its tail) were encased in ice. It was in too much pain at the moment, however, to make any purposeful attempts to break out of its icy prison other than pull its tail during its thrashing.

"Weiss…?" she asked softly.

"You are so childish! And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit… difficult… but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be… nicer," Weiss said as she walked over to Ruby and helped her get her cape unstuck.

"I'm not trying to show off; I want you to know I can do this," Ruby argued.

"You're fine," Weiss said before walking away.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief before closing her eyes and clasping her hands. "Normal knees…" she whispered before standing up and letting out a "Whoa!" when she saw the Death Stalker. Its bullet wound was still smoking somewhat, but it must've got over the pain enough that it was now trying to break out of the ice keeping it from making another attempt on its prey's life.

She was so focused on her near-death experience she didn't notice Yang rushing up to her until she pulled her into a tight hug.

"So happy you're okay!" Yang said, ignoring her sister's attempts to escape her strong grip. The moment was ruined, however, when Jaune spoke up.

"Wait, who shot it? I don't think it was any of us, was it?"

Everybody confirmed that none of them had been the one that shot the Death Stalker, much less in the eye. More so, none of them had ammo that would cause the damage that occurred to it.

Their questioning was interrupted by a scuffle on the nearby hill. Everybody who looked saw some sort of armored figure fighting with a Beowolf. It lasted only a few seconds before the Beowolf was punched one last time in the face, breaking its mask and killing it. The figure turned and faced the students before waving to them. One look to the side and they noticed they were waving to Ruby. They all turned back and noticed a second Beowolf charging at the figure from behind. Before anybody could warn them, however, the figure acted.

In what felt like slow motion, they turned around clockwise, reaching out with their left hand while simultaneously drawing a handgun from their hip with their right. Spinning 180 degrees, they seized the Beowolf by its throat and continued spinning, using its momentum to launch both of them from the hill to the same level as the students. It landed on top of the Beowolf in a roll (smacking it in the face with its armored mask/helmet combo, dazing it) and continued until it was off the Grimm with its back pressed onto the grass.

Rolling to the side and onto its stomach, the figure quickly brought up their pistol and shot the Grimm one, two times in the head, the bullet holes releasing the same gray smoke as the Death Stalker. Standing up with its gun in both hands and trained on the Beowolf, it waited a moment to see if the Grimm would get back up. When nothing happened, the figure holstered its handgun before pulling what everyone presumed was its primary weapon—some sort of bullpup assault rifle—and reloading it before holding it in a resting position. Finally, they walked over to the rest of the students.

"Sorry about my late entry; had to deal with a couple of Beowolves or else I would've helped with your cloak," they said. Their voice had a mechanical tone, like they were speaking through a radio. Likely a result of their mask.

"That was that you that shot it?" Ruby asked.

The person nodded. "Yup, it was me. We can go through proper introductions when we get back to Beacon where it's safe. Until then, name's Simon."

"Guys?" Jaune got everyone's attention. "I hate to interrupt, but that thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?"

"Look there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us," Weiss stated matter-of-factly. Everyone looked at the relics.

"She's right," Ruby agreed. "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live—that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune said in agreement.

"Well, whatever we're doing, let's do it fast. Scorponok over there's starting to break out of that icy anchor of his, and I ain't liking the look he's giving me with his good eyes at all." Simon said, pointing to the Grimm still struggling on the ground.

Sure enough, crack were starting to form on the surface of Weiss's ice formation, and it was starting to wiggle its stinger even harder.

Ruby and Jaune both ran into the temple to grab their relics. Ruby grabbed a golden knight identical to Blake and Yang's while Jaune grabbed a golden rook identical to Ren and Nora's. They smiled at each other as they compared which ones they grabbed.

"Time we left!" Ren called to them

"Right." Ruby said as she and Jaune left the temple and she waved to the others. "Let's go!"

"Wait, Simon, what about your relic?" Yang asked, turning to the armored and masked student. She noticed his mask's eyes glowing a deep red.

"Long story that'll be explained later," he answered before moving up with everyone else to leave the area.

All nine students headed out of the forest and into another series of abandoned structures with the Nevermore still continuing its chase in the air. All of them scattered when it passed over them, taking cover behind some of the stone blocks around the path they were going, as the Grimm of the sky perched on a high column and let out a loud caw.

"Well, that's great!" Yang said in annoyance. She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked to see Simon looking back the way they came.

"It's about to jump to 'excellent', look," he said, pointing to the forest where the now-free Death Stalker burst through the trees with a roar.

"Ah, crap, run!" Jaune shouted.

Everyone came out from their hiding spots to get away from the scorpion, but this caught the attention of the perched Nevermore, which rose back into the air to resume its chase.

Nora ran out from behind her block when Ren called for her to distract it and jumped through the feather projectiles that it launched. She then pulled out her grenade launcher from behind her back and launched several grenades shells topped with hearts at it. The Nevermore must not have liked the pink electricity the grenades released when they hit their target because it flew off out of range after a few explosions.

She was so focused on shooting the Nevermore that she didn't realize that the Death Stalker had caught up to them and was currently rushing up behind her. Fortunately, Ren and Blake used their blades and performed a cross-slash against the beast's shell. Weiss landed next to the hammer-wielding girl in order to create a jumping platform beneath the two of them. They leaped to safety as the scorpion turned its sights to its attackers and gave chase.

The others had continued running towards a stone bridge connecting the ground to another part of the stone structure. Pyrrha stopped running beside Jaune and pulled out Miló in its rifle form and started shooting the scorpion alongside Ren and Simon for a second before it closed in and swiped at them, fortunately missing and causing them to turn and run back to the others. They caught up quickly and continued to run across the ancient stone bridge.

Everyone was so focused on escaping the scorpion that none of them noticed the giant Nevermore heading straight for them. Simon noticed it out of the corner of his eye and shouted a warning to everyone else. They all moved out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by the bird's giant wings as it crashed through the stone structure with ease. Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, Jaune, and Simon were forced closer to the collection of ancient stone columns the two groups were heading towards originally, and Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha were left on the other side with the Death Stalker.

Ruby started taking potshots at the Nevermore as Blake was beaten back by the scorpion.

Jaune ran over to the destroyed edge of the bridge and looked over to the three being attacked. "Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!"

Nora ran up beside him in excitement. "Let's do this!"

Jaune looked down over the edge into the misty abyss. "Yeah, but, uh… I can't make that jump," he said in fear.

"I got ya!"

Jaune's asking of "Wha—?" switched to a scream when Simon grabbed the plate of armor covering his back while running and dragged him to the edge of the bridge. At the end, Simon leaped over the impressive gap with Jaune in one hand, his bullpup shooting at the scorpion to distract it in the other.

Nora turned her grenade launcher into its full-length two-handed hammer form and jumped to the edge of the bridge herself. She planted one foot on the hammer's head and fired it, launching her off the bridge to slam the heavy blunt weapon right into the center of the Death Stalker's face. She fired it again when the creature sent its stinger to get her and once more to avoid its reach.

Unfortunately, Nora's grenade blasts caused her to accidentally knock Blake off the edge. The ninja-themed student launched her whip and sent her gun's blade into the edge of the bridge. She used it to circle around and leap onto the back of the Nevermore which had been flying above her.

Blake dashed across the aerial Grimm's back, slashing the entire time, and jumped off. She landed on the ruined platform at the top of the columns next to Ruby, and then ran over to Yang and Weiss.

"It's tougher than it looks!" she warned the others.

Yang readied her Ember Celica. "Then let's hit it with everything we got!"

The four of them let loose a barrage of gunfire at the Nevermore, but it simply dodged the shots or took them without any signs of injury until it crashed through the platforms and columns. The four girls leaped from one section of falling stone to another until they reached the higher bridge on top, just below the cliffs.

"None of this is working!" Weiss yelled.

Ruby watched as Blake whipped over to another section of the area while Yang fired round after flaming round at the Grimm. "I have a plan! Cover me!" she yelled and blasted away as Weiss raised her rapier and headed into the fray.

Below the four girls, Jaune, Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and Simon were still battling the Death Stalker.

"We gotta move!" Jaune yelled. Everyone rushed towards it.

Pyrrha deflected a claw attack with Akoúo, her shield, and followed up with a slash of her blade. The scorpion recoiled back and attempted another swipe, this time with its other claw, but it was deflected by Jaune. Pyrrha, taking advantage of the Grimm being knocked back, leaped over and begin repeatedly attacking the creature's face. Ren ran up firing and jumped onto the stinger when the scorpion tried to hit him. He started shooting at the stinger's base connecting it to the tail while his partner fired more grenades at the creature's claws, assisted by Simon's bursts of his rifle.

At one point, Pyrrha hurled her javelin straight into one of the monster's remaining eyes, causing it to throw Ren away to the side in pain. Ren hit the side of a stone block hard and fell to the ground without getting back up.

"Ren!" Nora shouted in worry.

Jaune stood up and instantly noticed the scorpion's stinger was now hanging limply from the tail. "Pyrrha!" he called out.

"Done!" she called back. Pyrrha raised her shield and hurled it like a disc towards the Grimm, slicing off the stinger and sending falling into the Death Stalker's head, dazing it. Pyrrha retrieved her rebounding shield.

"Hammergirl, do your thing!" Simon called to Nora.

"Heads up!" she jumped onto Akoúo and Pyrrha leaped as high as she could while Nora aimed her blast down to maximize her lift. Smiling all the way up, she twirled down and brought her hammer down onto the scorpion's stinger, slamming it deeper into the monster's head and crushing the bridge underneath it.

Jaune and Pyrrha bound over the monster to the land behind it, and Nora fired up and away behind them as Simon used the Grimm as a launch pad as he jumped over its tail and to the ground. The Death Stalker fell down the chasm, killing it for sure. Jaune hit the ground on his back, Nora landed on her bottom, and Pyrrha managed to land in a three-point crouch. Ren simply walked over to them, panting and groaning, and collapsed while Simon did a badass combat roll before stopping in a crouch and standing up.

"I. Hate. Scorpions," he simply said before looking over his shoulder at where the scorpion once fell.

His attention, along with that of the three still standing next to him, was moved to the still-flying Nevermore; where a certain blonde brawler was busy holding the bird's beak open.

"I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUNG—GRY!" she shouted and emphasized each syllable with a shotgun shell down the Nevermore's gaping throat. She looked behind herself and jumped from the creature's mouth and onto a ruin, sending the bird to crash into the cliffs.

Sadly, Yang's barrage had little effect on the avian Grimm, and it recovered pretty quickly. Yang smiled when she spotted Ruby and Blake on the broken columns with Weiss rushing to the Nevermore. Yang passed Weiss as the Nevermore started to take to the skies once again, but it was stopped by Weiss who hopped over to the ruin it was lifting off of and froze the feathery tip of its tail to the ground, keeping it grounded. She backflipped onto one of her glyphs, jumped, and landed on the other side running back to the group.

Blake fired the pistol portion of her Gambol Shroud over to Yang who stuck the blade into the column she was hanging onto. The two of them tightened the whip between their columns, allowing Ruby to jump on the center and pull it back into one of Weiss's black sigils, the caster right next to it.

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

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked, her eyes focused on the Nevermore trying to free itself.

"Hmm! Can I!"

"…Can't?" Ruby spared a questioning glance to her partner.

"Of course I can!"

With that, Ruby looked forwards to her target and cocked Crescent Rose just as Weiss turned the sigil from black to red. Ruby was released so fast that the ground behind her cracked, and she was followed by a trail of her signature rose petals. She began to fire her sniper rifle, the recoil boosting her even further towards the trapped bird until her scythe's blade caught the creature's neck and made them both fall to the cliff's wall.

Weiss raised her rapier and created a series of white glyphs leading up the cliff wall for her partner to use, who did so with more shots of Crescent Rose.

Yang, Blake, and a now-exhausted Weiss watched as Ruby climbed the cliff with the bird in the grasp of her weapon. Both of them crying out, the Huntress-in-training and the Nevermore reached the top of the cliff where Ruby circled up, fired one last shot, and cleanly decapitated the giant bird in a shower of rose petals.

She landed next to the severed head as the giant body of the Nevermore fell to the ruins and crevice below. The girls, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and Simon—especially—watched in amazement

"Wow…" was all Jaune could say.

"Man… never saw shit like this back in the 'Guard," Simon said next to him.

"The what?" Jaune asked as he turned to him.

Ruby looked down at her friends, her cape flowing in the wind, as they peered up at her.

"Well… That was a thing!" Yang said with a grin.

The auditorium was filled with the sounds of clapping as Ozpin stood on stage with four boys lined up. Their profiles were projected on a screen above.

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by… Cardin Winchester!" Ozpin spoke.

The audience gave one more wave of ovation as the newly-formed team walked off the stage and four more took their place, their own profiles filling the screen.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR."

The audience clapped as Nora laughed and tightly hugged Ren.

"Led by… Jaune Arc!"

"Huh? L-Led by…?" the blond student mumbled in confusion and surprise.

"Congratulations, young man," the headmaster said with a tint of amusement.

A grinning Pyrrha gave Jaune a friendly shoulder bump but switched to a look of surprise when he was knocked onto his butt in full view of the laughing audience. Ozpin continued speaking as the final group walked up into position.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao-Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY! Led by… Ruby Rose!"

Weiss looked to her right in surprise, where a shocked Ruby was being hugged by her sister.

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang said, oblivious to Ruby trying to escape her sister's grip.

"Now then, we do have one more. Mr. Rossi, if you will," Ozpin said as he turned to face the student in question.

Everyone watched as a now-helmetless Simon walked up onto the stage with his bullpup on his back. He walked up to Ozpin as the girls joined the new Team JNPR off to the side and stood at attention with his arms folded behind his back.

"Simon Rossi. We were unable to have a special relic ready for you, and the unfortunate loss of participants led to an odd number of students, you included. Normally, this would result in having to wait until the next school year to try again, but your skills in combat are exceptional."

At that moment, the blank screen changed to that of one that was watching the students during their initiation. This one showed a path through the calm forest lined with bushes. It took a few moments before a fully-armored Simon landed on the ground from the sky. He had his gun drawn and quickly turned and aimed around the immediate area. When he was certain the area was clear, he removed the hand that was holding the underside of his rifle and looked at something on his wrist for a moment before turning and heading into the direction of the temple.

The video skipped ahead to Simon walking down the trail before stopping and lowering his weapon a bit. His left hand went from his gun to his chest where it unsheathed a combat knife. He twirled the blade, so he was holding it in a reverse grip, before quickly spinning and slamming the weapon into the neck of a small Beowolf that was attempting a sneak attack from behind him. He pushed it to the ground with the knife and shot a few more Beowolves that were following the first one before finishing it off with a headshot.

Teams RWBY and JNPR quickly noticed the gray smoke emerging from the bullet holes, just like the Death Stalker did.

The rest of the video showed Simon on his way to the temple like everyone else, only pausing briefly to deal with the occasional Grimm, sometimes in packs. The most notable one was where Simon's bullpup ran out of ammo when a few packs of Beowolves and three Ursai ganged up on him. He was forced to drop his rifle and switch to a combination of his pistol and knife to clear them out.

It was in the midst of killing the last Ursa when Simon looked up to see Jaune flying through the air screaming. He started running in the direction Jaune was—grabbing his rifle without stopping along the way—and stopped when he came across the eight students outside the temple, Ruby charging at the giant scorpion. When her cape got caught, he motioned to head in to help when something caught his attention behind him.

Turning around, he found two Beowolves that had followed him. Approaching him quickly, Simon turned and fired at the Death Stalker, nailing it in the eye before engaging the lesser Grimm.

From there, the screen showed Simon's brief scuffle with the Beowolves and the fight between the students and two larger beasts. It ended after the Nevermore's head removal, and the auditorium cheered at seeing its death.

After everyone calmed down, Ozpin continued. "Because of these amazing displays, you will be the fifth member of a team of your choice as long as they agree to work with you."

"We'll work with him!"

"Ruby!"

Simon and Ozpin turned to see Ruby with her hand raised being told off by Weiss. The two noticed they were being watched and turned their attention to their viewers.

"Er, I mean… if the others agree, then we'd like to have him on our team…" Ruby said sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head.

Simon looked to Ozpin and then back to RWBY. "Alright. Ruby seems for it, and Weiss is against it. What about you two?" he asked Blake and Yang.

They both agreed with Ruby (Blake more neutral, but still willing), and Ozpin announced Team RWBYS as this year's five-person first-year team. As the audience began to leave the auditorium, Ozpin pulled RWBYS aside and told them to meet him in his office as soon as possible for details regarding their new setup.

They agreed, and after talking a bit with JNPR they followed the directions Ozpin gave to reach the elevator to his office.

That night, Roman Torchwick—self-proclaimed "criminal mastermind"—was hovering over a desk, dealing with a call on his scroll in an abandoned warehouse. After their conversation ended, he slammed the device onto the desk and sighed. Pulling out a cigar, he held it to his mouth and lit it with his symbolized lighter. The squeaking wheels of a trolley made him look to his side when he was finished.

A man in a gray mask and black hood approached with the trolley in question and stopped it next to Roman, who pulled out a stack of Lien cards and set them on the desk for the man to take.

"Open it," Roman said after the man took the money.

The man open up the top box on the trolley, revealing the large amount of Dust crystals of various colors within. Roman picked up a blue gem and looked over it.

"We're gonna need more men…" he said to himself before looking over at a map above the desk.

The map was of Vale and its districts and areas with crossed-out locations, all of which lead to one place specially-marked with a circle:

Beacon Academy.

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, I've been having some real life things keeping me from writing and uploading quickly. I'll do what I can to update faster.