AN: Hey, everyone. I sincerely hope everyone is safe right now during these uncertain times. Thankfully, the virus hasn't reared its ugly head at my house yet, so my family is safely quarantined, but I know not everyone can be so lucky. Make sure to stay home if you can and practice social distancing if you absolutely have to leave. Stay safe.

Now, I want to address something that gets requested of me whenever I bring up pairings. I get asked fairly frequently to not include them because they "take away from the main plot". I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you there. There's more to a story than just going from one plot event to another. Character development is also a very important aspect to telling a story, and relationships between characters is a part of that development. While it's still debatable exactly how good I am at developing characters, I am hoping that writing this will give me the practice I need. And let's be real here, if all there was to a story was just the plot-important moments and nothing else, than I may as well just upload a plot summary and not bother working so hard writing this.

So yes, romantic relationships will be included in this story if I feel they are necessary for the story I feel like telling, and there will be chapters that are devoted purely to the characters.

On another note, I would really like to find someone that could draw a cover image for this story, in particular what Aqua looks like in Volume 1. If anyone knows of any artists I could see about commissioning, I'd appreciate it.

Anyway, on with the chapter!

Edit: I edited Blake and Weiss's big fight later in this chapter.

Chapter 14

Yang made a huge mistake. She protected herself from eye contact thanks to her sunglasses, but Ruby was still fair game for any random shmuck to steal away from her! She couldn't allow this! She had to make a plan. She didn't have much time to do it, either, if the quickly-approaching ground was any indication.

Okay, so she had to first land safely, avoid eye contact with anyone that wasn't Ruby, and hope that her sister wasn't taken by the time she found her. Shouldn't be too hard.

She unfolded the gauntlets on her wrists, expanding her Ember Celicas to their full form and aimed straight down, firing off a shot to use the recoil to slow her fall.

Or at least, she planned to, before she felt something slam into her and a pair of arms wrap around her protectively.

"GOTCHA!" the familiar voice of her sister yelled.

Oh, yeah. She forgot Ruby can shoot herself forward in any direction as long as she can see the target. She probably saw her when they were both flying through the air, and launched herself at Yang. The blonde smiled. Now they were guaranteed to be partners.

They just needed to land. Ruby let go, and Yang went with her original plan of using the recoil from her weapons to slow her fall. Ruby, however, just fell. While Yang had to carefully manage her momentum, making sure to slow herself down enough, her little sister just had to land. For some reason, ever since she got that Keyblade, falling never seemed to bother her. So unlike Yang, Ruby didn't need a landing strategy.

Not like Yang was jealous or anything. Nope. Not at all.

Once the sisters had landed, Yang took her sunglasses off and looked Ruby right in those big adorable silver eyes of hers. They took a second to make sure it counted, and then threw themselves into a hug.

"And we're partners," Yang said smugly. "Told ya. It's you and me."

"Except I did all the work," Ruby said with a smirk. That cheeky little…

"Yeah, yeah," Yang said. "C'mon. Let's go find that temple."

"Alright," Ruby said, turning around and walking away. She took two steps before she turned back around to look sheepishly at her sister. "Uh, which way is north again?" Yang just shook her head.

"What would you do without me?" She asked playfully.

"Probably wander around the forest aimlessly." The girls laughed, but then they sensed a very familiar feeling. They instantly sprung into their usual formation, back to back, while black forms appeared all around them. To most other applicants, the only black forms they would have to worry about would be the Grimm. But with Ruby and her Keyblade, they had something else entirely to worry about.

The Heartless.

Within seconds, the sisters were surrounded by Shadows.

They couldn't at least make this a challenge? She cocked her gauntlets while Ruby summoned Crescent Rose.

"You ready for this, sis?" Yang asked.

"Yup. Remember…"

"Keep your light burning strong!" they said in unison, and sprang into action.

"What are those things?" Glynda asked, as the teachers were using various displays to observe the aspiring students' performance in their initiation. "I've never seen Grimm like that before."

"They're not Grimm," Aqua informed the deputy headmistress. "They're called Heartless."

"What are those?"

"They're creatures born of the darkness in people's hearts. They're attracted to that darkness and seek to attack people and steal their hearts."

"What?!" Glynda asked, her eyes widening. She looked at the headmaster, who was looking at the screen intently. "Ozpin, we can't allow the initiation to continue with an enemy we know nothing about in play!"

"It's fine," Aqua said, waving off the blonde professor. "My girls can handle it."

"The point remains—"

"The initiation will proceed as planned," Ozpin said, still watching the sisters through the screen. "In fact, they've already handled those creatures."

"What?" Glynda asked, surprised.

"They've been training to fight those monsters their whole lives. I don't think there's anybody in that forest more qualified to fight them than those two," Aqua said proudly.

"And what if another student is attacked by these creatures?"

"That won't happen. They won't bother with anyone else if there's a Keyblade nearby. There's nothing to worry about. They can handle themselves. It's a good thing that Ruby partnered up with Yang. This way, she doesn't have to worry about protecting someone else." Plus, Aqua found it amusing that her daughters had bent the rules to make sure they partnered up.

"And another thing," Glynda said, "I don't approve of those two disregarding the rules of partnership and stacking the odds in their favor."

"Hey, it's not like they're the only ones that did it that way," Aqua said, pointing to the screen that showed the blonde boy dangling from a tree with a spear impaled through his hood (HA!) as the red-haired girl approached him. "That girl literally snagged him out of the air."

"Ah, yes, Miss Nikos," Ozpin said. "It appears she's taken a liking to Mister Arc."

"With his transcripts and her tournament record, they may prove a formidable duo, their bending of the rules notwithstanding," Glynda said.

Yeah, Aqua seriously doubted that. With how sloppy his fall was, he was clearly unprepared to land safely, so this Nikos girl likely just pinned him to the tree to save his life, and retrieving her weapon required her to partner up with him.

And no, she wasn't just biased against him because he puked on her. Not entirely, anyway. Maybe he'd surprise her.

"So, any other interesting pairs?" The blue-haired Master asked.

"Yes, it seems Miss Schnee is about to meet up with someone that would meet your criteria for 'interesting'", the headmaster said with a sly grin.

Blake's bow twitched in response to the sound of fighting nearby. Well, her bow didn't twitch so much as the cat ears hidden underneath it did. Another student had engaged the Grimm, it sounded like. While she really would prefer to fly solo (a certain someone had completely soured the concept of "partnership" for her), if her staying at Beacon required her to partner up with someone, then despite her misgivings, it was likely in her best interest to see who this beleaguered student was and partner up with them. She followed the sounds of combat and came across a field, with a single student surrounded by Beowolves. She reached over her shoulder to grab her weapon, Gambol Shroud, when she got a look at the student that she was about to assist.

Oh, come on, Blake thought. Of all people for her to run into first, it had to be Weiss Schnee? Bake relaxed her grip on her weapon and moved to turn around. She could find someone else to partner with. Maybe that girl from the night before? The fellow bookworm? Or maybe her sister? The Schnee could probably handle herself. Blake was sure the rich girl had the best tutors money could buy and—

Why was she just standing there? Why wasn't she attacking? Hold on, was she adjusting her stance in the middle of a fight?

This girl was going to get herself killed.

Blake made to step in and help her, but she hesitated again. This was Weiss Schnee. Her family was at the center of Faunus oppression. During her White Fang days, nothing got people riled up like mentioning that family's name. Why should Blake help the heiress to such a family? If it weren't for her family's influence, maybe some real progress could be made towards Faunus equality. If it weren't for her family, the White Fang might not have turned violent, and it would still be the proud organization her father founded. If it weren't for her family's lax safety standards for Faunus workers, maybe Ilia's parents would still be alive. And if it weren't for them, then maybe Ad—

No. Don't mention his name.

Blake's line of thought reminded her of the obvious. While the White Fang loved to think it was the case, none of that was directly the heiress's fault. It was her family. There was no guarantee that she felt the same way as them. If she was going to give herself a fresh start from the White Fang, then she needed to stop thinking like them. She needed to start giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Besides, leaving the Schnee to the Grimm is what he would have done. After everything he did to her, everything he took from her, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of making the same decision as him. She wasn't him. It's why she left in the first place.

With renewed determination, she drew her weapon and folded it back into pistol form. The heiress had finally decided to attack, and had coated her rapier in Burn Dust, thrusting it at a Beowolf right in front of her. She was able to kill it, but didn't see another Grimm attacking her right side. Blake fired her pistol at that one, hitting it in the head and killing it. The heiress jumped in surprise at the gunshot, not expecting another student to be helping her, which stupidly left her wide open to another Beowolf behind her. Blake threw her weapon in the direction of the heiress, wrapping the ribbon around her waist, and yanking her away from the Grimm. The white-haired girl gave an indignant squawk as she landed rather inelegantly on her backside, glaring up at Blake.

"Ugh, it's you," she said in disgust. Yup, Blake was regretting this already.

"We can talk later," she said simply in response. "Right now, we fight." She gave a quick tug on her weapon's ribbon, returning it to her hand and extending it to katana mode. She grabbed the sheathe with her left hand that doubled as a cleaver, and took her usual combat stance. The Schnee stood up, dusted herself off, and raised her rapier. The two girls charged at the Grimm, and after a few short minutes, the Beowolves were all taken care of. Blake sheathed her weapon and turned to look at her new partner, who really didn't look happy.

"What, have you come to bad-mouth my family again?" The heiress asked, hands on her hips.

Well, so much for benefit of the doubt. Screw it.

"Are you always this bitchy when someone helps you, or am I special?"

"Excuse me?!" the Schnee screeched. "After the things you said about my family, I think I'm entirely justified! Besides, I didn't need nor ask for your help!"

"I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true," Blake countered. "And I wouldn't have helped if I didn't think you needed it. You're welcome, by the way." And with that, she walked off.

"Where do you think you're going?!" the girl shouted.

"To find the temple. We have to pass initiation, don't you remember, partner? Now, do you wanna stop screeching before every Grimm in the forest comes after us?" The Schnee huffed and stomped after her.

So much regret.

"I wonder about your definition of 'interesting'," Aqua told the headmaster. "This looks more 'problematic' than 'interesting'. What's their problem?"

"I assume you're familiar with Miss Schnee?" Ozpin asked.

"I know my girls got into at least two separate arguments with her. Other than that, I'm familiar with her family."

"And their reputation?"

"I've heard things. Qrow's had some very unflattering things to say about Jacques. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Miss Schnee's new partner is named Blake Belladonna."

"Okay?" Aqua said uncertainly. Ozpin had said that name as if she was supposed to recognize it.

"While she has not confirmed it, we strongly suspect that her father is Ghira Belladonna," Glynda explained.

"And that is?"

"Ghira was the founder and original leader of the White Fang," Ozpin said matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Aqua said. And then it dawned on her. "Oooooooh. So we have the daughter of the man widely considered to be at the heart of the anti-Faunus movement partnered up with the daughter of the man that founded a pro-Faunus extremist group. Any particular reason you don't seem very concerned about this?"

"All we know is that she's likely Ghira's daughter. However, he is not responsible for the White Fang's turn to violence. He stepped down five years ago precisely because Sienna Khan's more violent approach was gaining popularity and he wanted nothing to do with the organization he helped to create. She is now the one holding the reins. As for where the young Miss Belladonna stands on the issue, I think the fact that she chose to help Miss Schnee rather than leave her to her fate speaks volumes of her character."

"Even still, we will be keeping an eye on her," Glynda said. "The fact that she appeared at Beacon disguising herself as a human could be a sign of more sinister intentions."

"Or she could be avoiding discrimination," Aqua said, coming to the young Faunus's defense.

"Only time will tell, I suppose," Ozpin said, taking a sip from his mug.

"Thorn!" Ruby yelled, impaling a Beowolf with rose stems. It staggered, allowing Yang to blast it with her gauntlet, causing the monster to disappear into ash. She stepped inside the guard of an Ursa as it raised its claws, punching it in the knee with a shotgun blast. It fell onto the injured knee, and Yang followed it up with a fiery uppercut to the beast's chin. Ruby sped past her with her Semblance, her Keyblade transformed into scythe mode, and sliced the Ursa clean in two. The sisters quickly stood next to each other, staring down the remaining Ursa and two Beowolves. The beasts growled, and then a familiar pool of darkness appeared in front of the girls. From out of the pool climbed four Neoshadows. Yang cursed under her breath. This was about to get complicated.

And then the Heartless and Grimm completely ignored the sisters and turned on each other. Two of the Neoshadows jumped onto the Ursa and started wrestling with it, and the remaining Neoshadows each took a Beowolf.

Okay, this wasn't what she meant by "complicated", but she'd take it.

"Ruby, let's go!" she shouted.

"What?!" Ruby asked. "We can take them!"

"But why bother fighting them when we can just let them fight each other? Let's not waste time."

"Ugh, fine!" Ruby groaned, dismissing her Keyblade, and leaving with her sister.

"It appears the last pair has been formed, sir," Glynda said, observing the ginger girl and her supposedly not-boyfriend from the night of orientation. "Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren," she reported. "That poor boy. I can't possibly imagine those two getting along."

"You'd be surprised," Aqua said with a small laugh. "I actually had the opportunity to meet those two. They'll try to deny it, but I have never seen two people more in love." Well, besides herself and Qrow, of course.

"Well in that case, he's definitely doing better than Miss Nikos." Aqua looked at the screen to see that the pair was still wandering the forest after they had to stop to unlock his Aura.

"What's that boy's name?" Aqua asked.

"That would be Jaune Arc," Ozpin informed her.

"You guys noticed that he just unlocked his Aura, right?" she asked the other two professors.

"Yes, we did," Glynda said. "His transcripts were flawless, but there seems to be a major discrepancy."

"Yeah, I'll say." Ozpin said nothing and continued watching the displays. "There's no way that he went to a combat school without his Aura unlocked."

"He's clearly not ready for this level of combat," Glynda agreed. "What do you want to do about this, Ozpin?"

"Nothing for now," Ozpin answered, still looking at the screen. "We will wait and see. He just might surprise us."

Blake leaned up against a tree with her arms crossed in front of her, an annoyed scowl on her face as she watched the Schnee heiress- her new partner- stomp back and forth.

"It's this way," she said, walking past Blake for what felt like the fifth time. "No, wait, I mean it's this way!" she said, walking in the other direction. "It's definitely this way!" Blake raised an incredibly skeptical eyebrow the Schnee's way, and the heiress finally stopped pacing and stood in front of her. "Okay, we passed it!"

"You know I won't think less of you if you just admit that you don't know where you're going, right?" Blake asked. Well, any less of her than she already did.

"I know exactly where we're going!" Schnee said, and Blake raised another eyebrow at her. "We're going to…the forest temple!" she announced uncertainly. Blake rolled her eyes. "Oh please, it's not like you know where we're going either."

"North is that way," she said, pointing in the direction indicated.

"Wh—? How?" The heiress stammered.

"It's still morning, so if the sun is on the right, you're going north."

"Well, why didn't you tell me that sooner?!" Weiss yelled.

"I figured since you're clearly so much better than me, you wouldn't need my help. You sure don't seem to want it." Plus, she couldn't help but find the sight of the heiress struggling and failing more than a little satisfying.

"What is your problem with me?"

"Where do you want me to start?"

"What is THAT supposed to mean?!"

"Listen, Weiss," she practically spat. "I don't know what you expected when you came to Beacon, but you're clearly not ready."

"How dare—"

"You don't have servants to wait on you hand and foot."

"That's not—"

"You're fighting real monsters with real stakes. If you mess up, you die and no one will praise you for trying."

"The nerve—"

"And if you get lost, you can't just make a Faunus sniff it out for you!"

"YOU DON"T KNOW ME!" Weiss yelled. "Just stop talking! You know nothing about me!"

"Oh, I don't, huh?!" Blake yelled back, matching Weiss's volume. "All I've seen from you is a spoiled little rich girl who can't do anything for herself! Newsflash, Princess: YOU'RE NOT PERFECT!"

"I KNOW I'M NOT!" Weiss roared, taking Blake aback. "Trust me, I'm very aware that I'm not perfect," she said more quietly, her fingers unconsciously tracing the scar over her eye. Blake's own eyes widened. "I had to face more hardship and adversity than you know to get here. I was never even 'good enough', let alone 'perfect'. So don't you dare accuse me of not taking this seriously, because being here means everything to me!" Blake's eyes narrowed again.

"Oh, yes, please tell me all about the hardships you had to endure from your mansion," she said derisively. She was a Schnee. Not only that, she was their heiress. She was set to inherit the company and fortune of the single richest family in all of Remnant, and she had the audacity to claim that she had in any way suffered?! She was sure Daddy had spared no expense for his little angel, giving her the best tutors and trainers his blood money could buy, and yet the girl's combat skills were still lacking. That told Blake more than words ever could about how seriously the heiress was taking becoming a Huntress.

The now red-faced heiress was about to say something in response when they heard a loud screech from above them. The two girls looked up and saw an absolutely massive Nevermore flying overhead. They must have given off so much negativity from their argument that it drew this thing towards them!

"Run!" Blake yelled as the Nevermore swooped down. The girls started to sprint away from the monster, but they were too slow, and the white-haired girl was scooped up in its talon. "Weiss!" Blake called out to her partner.

"Help!" Weiss yelled. Blake threw her weapon in sickle mode at the large black bird, snagging it in the back. The creature flew up, taking the two girls into the air with it, Weiss helpless in its claw, and Blake trailing behind it from her weapon's ribbon.

Ruby and Yang finally came out in a clearing, and were immediately greeted with the sight of a large stone circle with wrecked pieces of stonework scattered around. Arranged in a semicircle in the center of the clearing was several stone pillars, each one with either a black or gold miniature statue on top.

"I think we found the place," Yang said as the sisters approached the pillars. They took a closer look at the objects on top of them, and quickly recognized what they were supposed to be.

"Are these chess pieces?" Ruby asked. Sure enough, she recognized some of the pieces from the chess set back home. Dad had tried to get them into it, but the sisters had always found it too boring. She could see knights, rooks, bishops and pawns, clearly there were two of each piece in both colors, just like a real chess set. But, there were some empty podiums. "You think these are the relics?"

"Must be," Yang said. "I can't think of any other reasons for these things to be in the middle of the forest. But, look, some of them are missing. Guess we weren't the first ones here."

"Aw, man," Ruby said, slumping her shoulders in disappointment.

"But I wonder why we have to grab chess pieces."

"Don't know. Which one should we take?" Ruby asked, and Yang walked up to a golden Knight piece, her hands on her hips as she scrutinized it. Finally, she picked it up and held it for Ruby to see.

"How about a cute little pony?" She said playfully.

"Yeah, that works," Ruby said with a smile.

"So, I guess we just head back to the cliff and we're officially students at Beacon," Yang said triumphantly.

"You know, this was really easy," Ruby observed.

"Please don't say that," Yang scolded her. "You say that and then some crazy shit's gonna happen." Just then, they heard a high-pitched scream off in the distance and Yang threw her arms up in frustration. "See? Because you had to comment on how easy this was, now some girl's in trouble."

"Well, how was I supposed to know—" The sisters heard another noise directly above them, and looked up to see what it was. Much to their astonishment, it was a very familiar white-clad girl falling from the freaking sky.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Yang said.

"Okay, that one totally wasn't me."

A few minutes earlier…

"Weiss, are you okay?!" Blake asked while still dangling by the ribbon from a giant Nevermore.

"What do you think?!" The heiress screamed back from her position in between the claws of the massive bird. The way the Grimm was holding her had pinned her arms to her sides, so she couldn't free herself from its grip. "Help!"

"I'm trying!" Blake yelled back, climbing up her ribbon to try to get on the creature's back. "Just hold on!"

"Like I can do anything else!"

Where had Blake gone wrong? She came to Beacon in the hopes of atoning for her mistakes in the White Fang, and now she was partnered up with the Schnee heiress of all people. The same Schnee heiress that she was now trying to rescue from the clutches of a giant Nevermore by climbing on top of it several hundred feet in the air.

Was it too late to go back to the White Fang? She was sure she could come up with some excuse to make them forgive her.

Yeah, right.

She finished climbing up her ribbon and finally was on the creature's back, holding on to the weapon embedded in the beast's flesh and grabbing her cleaver off her back. She raised it up and slashed at the creature, but it didn't seem to bother it at all. All she really needed to do was force it to let go of Weiss, and then they could just employ their landing strategies again, but if the Nevermore wasn't budging when she slashed at it, then she would need to try a different approach. She gave her ribbon some slack, and kept the blade embedded in the creature's back. She used it to swing down to the bird's leg, where it was still holding her partner captive. She lifted her cleaver with her left hand again.

"You have a landing strategy, right?!" She asked.

"Oh, don't you dare—"

Weiss's protests were cut short when Blake slashed at the Nevermore's leg, finally succeeding in getting it to release the Schnee heiress from it's clutches. The girl, in response, simply fell back down to earth, screaming the whole way.

"Weiss, don't worry, I'll catch you!" Ruby shouted up to the girl from below her. She had no idea what happened to the white-clad girl that resulted in her falling from the sky, but she did know that even with Aura, she might not survive a fall from that height. So she focused her attention and prepared to rocket herself towards the girl, when something slammed into the falling heiress in mid-air, sending her flying sideways into a nearby treeline.

"Huh?" Ruby exclaimed as the girl she was just trying to save seemed to completely disappear.

"What the hell was that?" Yang asked.

"I don't know," Ruby said uncertainly, but a rumbling nearby caused the sisters to snap to the side, just in time to see an Ursa crash through the forest. They raised their weapons, but the beast simply groaned and fell forward, revealing the ginger-haired chatterbox whooping and hollering on its back. As it collapsed, she rolled forward, landing in front of it.

"Aw, I broke it," she said in disappointment. Hold on, the Grimm were the things that Huntsmen and Huntresses have sworn an oath to destroy, and this girl was disappointed that she had killed one?

She was certainly…different.

The girl examined the dead Ursa while a black-haired boy in green stepped out from behind the creature, leaning on its body to catch his breath.

"Nora," he said between gasps. "Please…Don't ever do that again." Sadly for him, she didn't hear him as she had already sped past the girls and walked up to one of the stone pillars, looking at a golden Rook like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, before she picked it up, balanced it on her head, and started singing.

"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!" Ruby and Yang could only watch her in silence.

What was this girl?

"NORA!" the black-haired boy yelled in a stern tone.

"Coming, Ren!" she called back playfully.

Ow, what hit me? Weiss thought as she tried to shake the daze from her head. How dare that partner of hers do that to her? Letting her fall like that! The Headmaster would hear about this! She would get her partner changed if it was the last thing she did! Looking around, she saw she was in a tree for some reason. She tried to get up, but found that she couldn't move for some reason. Looking down, she saw a pair of arms wrapped protectively around her stomach, pinning her back against the chest of the person the arms belonged to. Looking behind her, she was met a sickeningly familiar shock of blond hair.

"Phew, good thing I caught you. Are you okay?" Jaune asked. His back was up against the tree they were sitting in, and as Weiss had observed earlier, his arms were wrapped around her stomach, holding her against him. And the worst part? She was sitting in his lap.

IN. HIS. LAP!

"Fine," she grumbled. "Let me go, now."

"Are you sure?"

What the hell kind of question was that? Of course she was sure she wanted him to let her go!

"Of course I'm sure. Let go," she said more forcefully this time, trying to wiggle out of his grip. Frustratingly, the bastard just seemed to tighten his grip in response!

"Are you really okay?"

What did this boy think was going to happen? That she would be so filled with gratitude to him for saving her that she'd just take her dress off and let him take her right then and there? Luckily, Winter had shown her just what to do in this kind of situation.

"I said, LET GO, you degenerate!" she yelled, sending her elbow flying backwards into his stomach, forcing him to loosen his grip around her stomach. She pushed off of him, and sent her foot backwards into his groin, causing his mouth to emit a high-pitched whimper. He grabbed the injured area, and limply fell out of the tree, Weiss jumping down far more gracefully. She saw a group of people nearby, and she walked towards them, leaving the blond boy behind on the ground.

Ruby turned around at the sound of stomping heels and saw Weiss approaching the group of students.

"Ugh, of course it's you people," Weiss complained, walking up to the stone pillars and grabbing the second golden Knight. "I am so ready for this initiation to be over."

"Weiss, where's your partner?" Ruby asked. In response, Weiss simply pointed up at the giant Nevermore still circling the clearing. "Oh."

"What the hell happened to you two?" Yang asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Ruby walked to the center of the clearing, looked straight up at where Weiss's partner supposedly was, and cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Jump!" she yelled. "I'll catch you!" It turned out that Weiss's partner didn't have much of a choice on the matter, as the Nevermore violently bucked and threw her off its back. Just like she attempted to do with Weiss, Ruby narrowed her vision, and locked on to the falling girl. Using her Semblance, she rocketed towards her, wrapped her arms around her, and then with another burst of her Semblance, the two of them were back on the ground. Ruby placed the girl down on the ground next, to her and she was finally able to see that it was Blake, who looked dazed. "Oh, hey Blake!" she said cheerfully. "You're Weiss's partner?"

"Uh, yeah?" Blake said uncertainly, still trying to get her bearings. "Ruby? What just happened?"

"Oh, that was my Semblance. I have super speed."

"Right," Blake said, walking towards Weiss. "Are you okay?" she asked her partner.

"Yes, no thanks to you," she snapped back.

"Oh, whatever," Blake groaned. Another rumbling sound caught the group's attention, and Ruby saw the red-headed girl Jaune and Weiss were talking to earlier sprint out of the forest with her weapons drawn. And right behind her…

Was probably the biggest Deathstalker Ruby had ever seen in her young life.

The scorpion-like Grimm was clearly old, and by old, she meant old, if the armor almost completely covering its body was any indication.

"Pyrrha!" she heard Jaune call out from behind her.

"Jaune!" the girl called back, raising her shield to block a strike from the giant Grimm's claw. The force of the impact sent her flying backwards, however, and she landed on her stomach next to Ruby. Yang sent her sister a glare.

"You just had to comment on how easy this was, didn't you?" Yang asked angrily.

"Come on, I got this," Ruby said confidently, summoning her Keyblade. She used her Semblance to propel herself towards the giant scorpion, weapon raised to strike.

Before she could reach it, however, a pool of darkness opened up underneath the monster's feet, and a pitch-black, gargantuan arm reached out, grabbed the Deathstalker, and pulled in into the darkness. Ruby stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the pool in fear as she heard a sickening crunch sound. And then, after a few seconds of silence, the hand reached back out, and pulled the rest of the body out with it.

It could only be described as a giant, its formerly pitch-black body now covered in bright purple veins. It had short, stubby legs, and very long, muscular arms that almost reached the ground despite the monster standing upright. Black tendrils sprouted from atop its head in some mockery of hair, and wrapped around its lower face, almost like a scarf. A gaping, heart-shaped hole was prominently displayed in the center of its chest, and its piercing yellow eyes were looking right at the young Keybearer.

"What?!" she exclaimed. This was a Heartless that Mom had only ever told her about. It was the strongest Heartless that she knew of, one that she had expressly been told to run from if she ever saw one.

It was a Darkside.

AN: I know I said last chapter that I wanted to do all of initiation in one chapter, but I felt this was a fantastic cliffhanger ending, and I got impatient and wanted to upload.

Now some people were anticipating that I was going to change up the teams, but I decided from the minute I started writing this that it would still be Teams RWBY and JNPR. However, it also made sense with the abilities that I gave Ruby that she'd be able to guarantee that she partners with Yang, especially since them partnering up was also Yang's plan. Thus that left Weiss and Blake as partners, which, while still being Team RWBY, completely changes the team dynamic. Time will tell how this affects their time at Beacon...

Since the Beacon Initiation is technically the start of Ruby's journey, I figured this was the perfect place to have her fight a Darkside, since it parallels the beginning of Sora's journey in the first game, when a Darkside showed up during the destruction of the Destiny Islands. I just thought it would be a nice touch to have the Darkside completely replace the fight with the Deathstalker and Nevermore. More Heartless will show up, too, by the way, so look forward to this fight.

Just in case it wasn't quite clear, the reason why the Darkside has purple veins along its body is because it absorbed the Deathstalker. This was meant to establish that not only do the Grimm and Heartless instinctively fight each other, the Heartless can absorb them to become stronger. Mostly to help raise the threat level of the Heartless a little bit.

So next time will be the future Teams RWBY and JNPR against powered-up Heartless.

As always, thank you guys so much for reading, and I'll see you next time!