(A/N) Sorry, everyone. It took me the same number of months to come out with an update as it took Rooster Teeth seasons to come up with an explanation for Cinder's semblance.
Lol jk no shade intended. Tbf I know a lot of people are just as confused with Jaune's semblance in this story (even though I really do have an explanation bro please believe me bro just trust me bro).
But in all seriousness, I blame the delay in part to the volume 8 trailer. As counterintuitive as it sounds, it made me want to write about RWBY less. It made me ask myself, "Why do I like this series again?"
Before anyone comes at me about that though, I want to acknowledge that RWBY is objectively a better-written series now than it was in its "golden days" as I like to call it. More than that, any flaws are more a result of it trying to cover its ugly lumps from chapters 1 and 2. I'm in no position to say that I could've done any better (let's be honest some parts of this story are kinda rough lmao).
That said, I just straight-up never liked it for its story. Like many people, what drew me in was the unapologetically over-the-top visuals, designs, and action sequences. Monty (may he rest in peace) and Shane brought a certain flair to it that Rooster Teeth just haven't been able to reproduce without them.
I thought I liked the story. I thought, "Wow! There are some super interesting and well-developed characters! They're neat!" But no, in reality, it was just me having read way too many good Coeur Al'Aran stories to the point where the lines between canon and fanon began to blur.
It is with great distress that I admit to myself that I, too, am unable to capture the magic that made me love RWBY in the first place.
Now, what I just said doesn't mean a whole lot since I got over myself and eventually got to writing it anyway, but I just wanted to put this out there (and maybe hear your thoughts on the matter).
Now as for the actual story (haha.)
Beacon next chapter! Yay! I'll go ahead and straight up say that I won't be going over the initiation of other characters, but I'll for sure come back to it at later points as it becomes important (some sooner than others).
As for Ren and Jaune being partners... yeah that went over about as well with some of y'all as I thought it would lol. In my defense, I know that Jaune and Ren don't have an obvious dynamic. That said, he's supposed to be Jaune's "male friend" in a series with a predominantly female cast, yet he falls to the background very easily. I'll be damned if I'm not able to make "bros" out of them sooner or later.
Don't worry about other characters btw. Your "main cast" will still get plenty of screen time.
Also, I'm kinda surprised no-one mentioned any sightings of a "certain individual" last chapter. Or maybe it was just way too obvious? Idk. It's obvious-er now
Aaaanway that was a little too long-winded. Please enjoy!
XX
"This is pointless," grumbled the blue-haired man. It was clear that it was taking great effort for him to keep his eyes planted on the scroll held in his hands.
Professor Theodore tried and failed to hide his amused smile. He was obviously enjoying his companion's frustration.
"Is it really?" asked the headmaster exaggeratedly. "It's a real shame, then. If someone didn't destroy the supply shipment from Atlas, then we'd have state-of-the-art security and surveillance systems set up on campus."
"Is that so?" muttered the headmaster's annoyed aide. His eyebrow twitched. "I doubt this 'someone' did it on purpose. You should stop holding it over his head."
Theodore sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, it cannot be so. Until James can send us replacements, this little old school of mine will need a guard dog to look after it."
The fake expression of agony morphed into a teasing smile. "So you better get back to it, Mister Guard Dog."
"Piss off."
Despite the fighting words, the blue-haired man did, in fact, "get back to it".
"…"
"…"
"You really need to find a new way to initiate these kids, you know. Isn't it a waste of fuel to have all of our bullheads make trips through the desert whenever some kid passes out from heatstroke? I don't think a single pair has run into an actual grimm yet."
"Stop trying to get out of this."
"I'm not trying to–"
The blue-haired man paused mid-argument and pressed a button on the side of his scroll. "Get Bullhead C to quadrant thirteen for pickup, please. We've got a few more kiddies looking a little worse for wear."
"On our way," the voice on the other end of the comm replied.
"Yeah, thanks."
He pressed the button again and the line was cut.
"How menial. I bet an automated program could do that just fine," offered Theodore.
"Shut up. Just please shut up. I'll–"
The scroll rang, letting its handler know that there was a line opened by one of the bullhead pilots.
The two men looked at each other. Since control of their air traffic was left to a single device, the pilots wouldn't initiate contact outside of an emergency.
The headmaster took hold of the scroll.
"We hear you."
"Headmaster, you've got a ziraph about to pass through the side of quadrant eight. She's a big one– five, six stories maybe."
"Shit…" cursed the blue-haired man under his breath. What was something like that doing that close to the academy?
The headmaster of Shade Academy was stone-faced. "If our cameras haven't picked it up, then it isn't anywhere near the drop zones yet. What's its projected path?"
"It's heading northeast. By the looks of it, the ziraph might clip through quadrant seven before we're in the clear."
"Are there any students in quadrant seven?" Theodore asked the blue-haired professor, who had been keeping an eye on the initiates' positions.
"…"
"Well?"
"I mean, last I checked…"
X
"Are we even going in the right direction?" asked Jaune uncertainly. He looked left and right, but there wasn't a single identifiable landmark within his field of view. It was just sand, sand, and more sand.
Lie Ren nodded.
"Yes. The bullheads came from this way."
A sigh.
"Alright then."
There wasn't much else Jaune could do other than trust his new partner to lead the way. Since he was indisposed on the flight out to wherever it was that they were dropped off, he didn't really pay attention to the route taken by the pilot.
He was thankful for the other boy's presence. Were he on his own, he would have probably taken off in the wrong direction.
"…"
"…"
They continued their trek wordlessly, and the blonde couldn't help but feel as though he should fill the silence somehow. They hadn't run into any dangers, and they were keeping a good pace, so what better way was there to kill the boredom than to get to know each other a little better?
…Or something like that.
"So, uh…"
Ren's head tilted his way, anticipating another question of some sort.
"I…" trailed off the Arc boy. He started talking without actually thinking of something to say. "Never mind."
His companion in green smiled faintly. "You're not at all what I thought you'd be like," he admitted.
"Hm? What do you mean?" asked Jaune.
"You're a lot more imposing on TV."
Jaune blushed, not knowing whether to feel embarrassed or offended. "I– uhm, sorry about that, I suppose."
Ren shook his head. "No, don't be. It's a pleasant surprise."
"Is it?"
Jaune couldn't understand why. He was being all but told that he wasn't living up to whatever image he had painted of himself.
"Of course. You're very… normal. In a good way."
"In a 'good way'?" Jaune repeated.
"Of course," Lie Ren's lips thinned, his expression resembling a smile– maybe even a teasing one. "After all, I'd be in a tough position if I needed to deal with my partner's 'bigger than life' attitude for four straight years. 'Normal' sounds much better, wouldn't you say?"
"Ah, well, when you put it that way…"
RUMBLE
"Hm?"
The pair found themselves needing to steady their feet as the sand beneath them shifted.
Jaune's brows scrunched. "What was that?"
RUMBLE
They braced themselves once more, only this time they needed to lean off of each other for support. The shaking was more intense.
Ren let go with a sigh.
"Whatever it is, it's getting closer. We should–"
RUMBLE
This time, they really were dropped onto their rears. Not too far out, a large figure was visible, albeit distorted by the heat.
…A very large figure.
"Is that a grimm?" Jaune asked uncertainly. Fighting people was one thing, but his encounters with grimm were few and far in between.
"Probably," agreed the long-haired boy. "Grab my arm. I'll use my semblance to keep us hidden."
"You can do that?" asked Jaune, visibly skeptical.
Ren was of the school of thought that actions were more meaningful than words. He grabbed the tournament fighter's shoulder and watched as color literally left his body.
Jaune opened his mouth to say something, then his body nearly went slack. Instead, he shared, "I feel…"
"Nothing?"
"Calm. I was going to say calm."
"My semblance is called Tranquility," Ren explained. "it masks negative emotions, so grimm shouldn't be able to find us. It's like a ghillie suit."
"A… what?"
"Think of it as grimm camouflage."
"Oh. Okay."
Feeling safe for the most part, the pair returned to a comfortable pace.
"Hey, Ren?"
The huntsman-hopeful acknowledged his new comrade with a tilt of the head.
"Is it just me, or is that thing not really getting any farther away?
Ren about-faced and squinted, trying to make out any of the silhouette's details.
"…Let's go."
"What?"
He let go of the blonde's shoulder, and the effects of his semblance left them.
"Let's go! We have to go now!"
By the urgency in his voice, Jaune deduced that now probably wasn't the best time to start asking questions. If the first emotion that his new partner broadcasted openly was panic, then it was likely wasn't without reason.
They ran with Ren at the lead, though their pace was slowed by the unsteady ground.
Barely moments later, any traces of the black-haired boy's unease disappeared without a trace– almost unnaturally so. Jaune felt like he had a suitable opportunity to start asking about what it was that they were running from.
"What is that thing!?"
Ren grimaced. Between pants, he answered, "It's…"
X
Theodore wore a grave expression. His fingers were wrapped around the scroll in his hands so tightly that the handle casing began to creak.
"What kind of terrible luck is this? What are the odds of something like a ziraph popping up here of all places? We cleared the perimeter of any serious threats before bringing the students in for initiation, didn't we? Damn it. A pair of academy hopefuls isn't going to be able to take one of those things down on their own."
"Think they'll stay alive long enough for backup to get there?" asked the blue-haired man over his shoulder.
Theodore's nervousness slipped away for a moment to make way for a blank stare.
"…It's you. You're the backup."
"What? Oh."
"Why are you still here!?" yelled the headmaster. "Call back a bullhead and get out there!"
X
The rumbling stopped. Jaune chanced a look over his shoulder and found a motionless, three-headed skyscraper looking their way from a kilometer or so behind them.
"I think it sees us."
The quiet one clenched his teeth.
"We don't have much time, then. We need to pick up the pace."
Before Jaune could ask for a clarification, the rumbling started again. The time between tremors decreased drastically.
Looking back once more, Jaune noticed that the giant was a little closer than it was before.
"We're not going to outrun it," remarked the blonde. "We need to fight."
Ren took a moment before coming up with a reply.
"I'm sure it's not something you need to worry about back in Vale, but…anyone from around these parts knows that you don't fight ziraphs."
"You're from Vacuo, then?"
"Well-travelled!" came the clipped response. "Still not the time! It'll be on us any–"
Feeling a change in wind pressure, Jaune grabbed his partner and jumped to the side. Not an instant later, a giant object came crashing on top of where they previously stood and sent them hurtling away along with the sand it had displaced.
Rubbing the debris from his eyes, Jaune caught a clearer sight of their assailant.
"Hey, Ren? I think I agree with you. I don't want to fight that thing anymore."
The 'ziraph', as Ren called it, looked like a horrendous parody of a giraffe. It was tall enough to dwarf most buildings, along with three heads covered by a spiky carapace.
As one, all three heads turned and leered at them.
One of its limbs –no, a tongue– came down on them ballistically. Jaune stepped forward and took the blow with crossed arms. He was forced back a few paces, but the nature of his aura and semblance prevented any sort of injury.
What he was not counting on, however, was the tongue to wrap itself around his body in an attempt to drag him back into one of its mouths.
"Shit!"
His arms were held tightly to his sides, so he wasn't in a good position to force his way out. He would thankfully not be vored by the three-headed giraffe monster, however, as a flurry of bullets hitting the bottom of the tongue disturbed it enough for him to slip through its grasp.
"Thanks for the save," the Arc breathed out. He was a little rattled, but he ignored the feeling and drew Luminosité Éternelle from its sheath.
Ren lowered his bladed twin pistols and nodded wordlessly.
"Say… you're the expert on these things, right? Got any suggestions that can help us stay alive?"
"I'm not…" Ren sighed. "Never mind. The best we can do is avoid its–"
"Head!"
The duo was forced to scatter in order to avoid an oversized and much-too-lethal skull bash.
Jaune saw an opening and reacted on instinct. Luminosité Éternelle switched into its polearm form while his semblance wrapped itself around his body.
Ren, wide-eyed, shouted out once he realized what his partner was about to do, "You can't! It's neck plates are too strong!"
The warning came too late, and the blade came down with a swing.
To Ren's surprise, it cut into the neck.
To Jaune's surprise, it didn't sever the head.
"ROAAAAR!"
The grimm recoiled in pain while the two student-hopefuls recoiled from the assault on their eardrums. That said, they recovered commendably and booked it while the creature was distracted.
"I'm going to use my semblance to hide us again," Ren announced.
Jaune's first instinct was to question if that would really do anything. Grimm were supposed to be attracted by negative emotions, but this one managed to track them down just fine.
This wasn't the time to be asking questions.
"Got it."
The pair ran awkwardly with their arms locked at the elbow. For a moment, it seemed as though they had managed to get away safely; it wasn't chasing them anymore, rather, it was just standing in a daze. Was it a fluke that it had followed them the first time?
No. No, it wasn't.
The creature's two uninjured heads jerked violently, their tongues shooting out at the two with the intent to maul. It was all that they could do to throw themselves away from each other to avoid the hit.
Ren coughed up whatever dust and sand that made its way into his windpipe. He didn't yell, but he was visibly angry.
Jaune, the sturdier of the two, ran up to him and dragged him up to his feet.
"Are you alright?"
"…Sorry. My semblance is useless here."
Admitting as much seemed to rattle the boy for reasons that Jaune didn't have the time nor the intention to question.
"Don't worry about it." Jaune locked gazes with the stilled ziraph. "We need to figure something out if we don't want to die though. I dunno 'bout you, but I can't afford to let things end for me here. I've got people counting on me."
Once more, Ren smiled thinly. "Yes. Someone I know would be quite angry if I didn't even make it through initiation."
It all escalated so quickly. This was just supposed to be some sort of entrance exam, right? One moment they were worried about their grade dropping if they took too long to get back to the academy, and the next they were wondering if they'd live to see tomorrow. It was comical in a very morbid kind of way.
"Can it stay alive without all three of its heads?" asked the blonde.
Ren shook his head. "I don't know. Like I said, I know about ziraphs, but I'm no expert."
Jaune sighed. "We'll have to hope it can't then. I think I'll be able to cut off the injured one if I'm able to reach it."
"We'll need to force the ziraph to use it then. It's favouring its tongues right now."
Driving the point home. They were forced to dance around a series of sudden and violent tongue lashes.
Displaying agility and nimbleness that Jaune couldn't hope to match, Ren emptied one of his clips into an offending tongue mid-roll. While the other two organs retracted instantly, the damaged one was slow to move.
"Jaune!"
"I got it!"
Not trusting his feet on the unsteady surface beneath them, Jaune launched himself on top of the tongue with an empowered leap. Ren thought that he would try to cut it off, but Luminosité Éternelle instead found itself pinning the tissue to the ground. The sand didn't offer much perch, but the weapon was buried down to the last few inches of its pole.
Still, it wouldn't hold for long. Jaune ran up the tongue and let the Arc family semblance envelop him.
"Weapon!" he yelled down to his partner.
Immediately, a pistol was thrown up to him. The grimm's other two heads tried to intercept the volley, but they were forced away by the gunfire of its twin.
Jaune had no clue how to use Ren's weapon properly, but he did know how to use the pointy end. As hard as it may be on the outside, the inside of its gaping maw looked awfully squishy.
The Arc clenched his core, ready to deliver the critical blow.
"One down– what!?"
The monster bit its own tongue off, leaving Jaune to fall without anything solid beneath his feet. The injured head was now too injured to do anything, but the same couldn't be said about the other two heads. They didn't bother with the tongues, instead intending to tear him apart with their teeth.
"Jaune!"
Ren tried shooting at them, but the heads just brushed off the attack. The ziraph was going in for the kill.
And it almost got away with it, too.
"I gotcha, kid!"
Jaune's descent was accelerated by a weight crashing into him from above, making the two heads whiff their shot and bite into thin air.
He expected a hard impact with the ground to take the wind out of him, but instead, he was caught.
"Thanks for the save," he breathed out.
"No problem."
Hm? That wasn't Ren's voice. He cocked his head back and spotted his partner looking at him with visible relief some ways away.
So that meant…
He looked up to whoever it was that was holding him in their arms.
"You! The professor?"
The blue-haired man smirked. "Sorry 'bout this. We didn't mean for this big guy to come after you guys like that. Honest! Although, I've got to say you gave the big bastard a good rattling. Good job, kiddoes."
He looked up to the clearly injured giraffe-shaped grimm and laughed.
Jaune's eyebrow twitched and a twinge of pink crossed his cheeks. "Could you put me down, please?"
"Eh?"
The blue-haired man looked down at the kid he was still holding in a bridal carry and started to laugh again. "Sorry, Sorry! Would it be less emasculating for you if I were a pretty girl?"
No, it probably wouldn't be.
Ren interrupted them with a yell, "Here it comes!"
The two remaining tongues descended upon the unprepared teacher-student pair.
Jaune was dropped unceremoniously onto the sand. The man took out his weapon and sliced off both tongues faster than either boy could blink.
He made a show of rolling his shoulders. "Man, it's good to get some exercise after being cooped up in that damn office all week. Hah… Oh well.
The professor pointed up the bullhead, which neither Jaune nor Ren had noticed until now. It dropped a ladder over their heads
"The ziraph can't do jack to a flying bullhead without a tongue. We're cleared to ride back to Shade without any further interruptions."
"Wait! What about the other initiates– and the exam!" Jaune countered.
The blue-haired man gave him his best "are you an idiot?" face.
"Is not-dying not enough for you, kid?"
Despite his words, the man looked at the cautious-yet-angry ziraph contemplatively.
"Tell ya what. I was gonna leave this thing be, but if you two're willing to give me backup, then it should go down without a hassle. I'll even give you full marks on initiation. How's that sound?"
Jaune looked to Ren, who nodded. Once more, they drew their weapons.
"Deal!"
The man's grin became vulpine.
"The thing's dangerous, but it's more manageable the less heads it has. Let's start by finishing off the half-dead one."
Jaune gulped. There went his hopes that the thing would die if it lost a single head.
"Gloomy! Shoot the other two!"
Ren pointed to himself, causing the man to roll his eyes. "Yes, you. Get them angry."
He didn't need to be asked again. The ziraph's crowns were pelleted by a rain of bullets.
"Muscle-brain, you've got the Arc semblance, don't you? How comfortable are you with the idea of parrying a five-tonne stomper?"
Jaune almost pouted at the nickname, but then processed what was being asked.
"What?"
He unfortunately learned why he'd be needing to do so fairly quickly. While the ziraph's heads were kept busy by the relatively ineffective yet bothersome assault, it needed to rely on other methods to kill them. The method chosen was apparently to rush forward and trample them with its feet.
Ren and Jaune went bug-eyed.
"That's all you, kid!" shouted the professor uselessly.
Jaune clenched his teeth and tried to channel as much of his semblance as he could. He stepped in front of the other two combatants and took on both of the creature's hooves with crossed arms.
Despite the predicament, the professor whistled. "That super Arc whatever-it-is is the real deal. Keep shooting Gloomy!"
The man got down in a three-point stance. His weapon –an odd-looking spear– was held under-arm.
The professor had an open target, but it was too far away. Guns didn't do much, either. What was he–
He pounced. One moment he was on the ground, the next he was in the air behind the ziraph's newly-severed head.
His grin turned predatory as the humongous monster shrieked in agony.
"One more for the trip back!"
As he fell, the man threw his spear right through the skull of one of the two remaining heads. The force behind the throw was enough to force the lifeless protrusion forward and pin it into the ground at the students' feet.
Neither could keep their jaws up. It couldn't have taken the man more than a second to take out both.
The professor landed on his second mark and removed his spear from it with a theatrical twirl. The final head, enraged past the point of reason, came down on him with every intention of eating him whole.
He didn't look worried.
"Last one's yours, kids!"
They didn't have much time to react, but the pair managed anyway. Ren threw one of his pistols at the grimm's maw, momentarily surprising Jaune when it came back like a boomerang.
It was stunned for an instant. The blonde lifted his weapon once more –now as a sword– and jabbed it into the monster's exposed eye.
X
Headmaster Theodore ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. Across from his desk stood the blue-haired professor and his "little helpers" a few paces behind him.
"Tell me again why you fought the ziraph instead of coming straight back like I had asked?"
In an attempt to be helpful, Jaune explained, "The professor told us that we would get passing grades even though we were brought back early if we helped him kill the grimm."
"And now it can't go after the other initiates," added Ren.
Theodore looked at the other man pointedly for a moment.
"…"
"…"
"Dumbass!" He yelled, the headmaster leaning over his desk and grabbing the other professor by his ponytail. "What kind of bullshit excuses did you give these kids!? You just wanted to start a fight!"
"You're just jealous cuz you didn't get to fight it yourself!" was the man's counterargument as he tried to pry off Shade Academy's leader's hands off of his mane. "Besides, I was getting antsy!"
"Uh, so we weren't going to get dropped from the academy program?" Jaune trailed off, unsure if he was willing to interrupt the man who tore up a giant grimm in seconds and the shit brick house that was manhandling him.
The muscular man dropped the ponytail with a grunt. "No, due to extenuating circumstances, we would have passed you anyway. There was no need for you to slay it."
"Wouldn't it be dangerous if it were left alone?" Ren asked.
"No. The idiot over here was just supposed to sever its tongues. After that, we were going to send a bullhead over to carpet bomb its general location. I'm sorry that he's such a battle maniac."
"You're worse than I am!"
"Shut up already!"
Jaune and Ren sweatdropped. They were arguing again.
The headmaster coughed. "Never mind that. We called you here because I wanted to apologize."
The two students looked at each other. Neither was really expecting an apology.
"Something like a ziraph was never supposed to show up here. We thought that your landing zones had been cleared of anything larger than a fully-grown deathstalker before your arrival, but this one somehow slipped past our notice."
The blue-haired man didn't say anything to the contrary despite knowing that it wasn't entirely true. Unmotivated as he was, he wouldn't miss something as obvious as a ziraph. It had quite literally come out of nowhere.
Jaune scratched the back of his head and laughed weakly. "I mean, no one died, so…"
Startling him, the headmaster laughed along with him, although much more boisterously. " I suppose that's true. Regardless, please accept our apology. Moreover, congratulations on your acceptance to Beacon Academy."
They were both handed personal ID cards– warm to the touch, they were probably just printed.
Jaune smiled.
That's right. He'd made it.
"The bullheads will be taking the initiates back home later tomorrow. For tonight, we'll lend you our dorm rooms. An attendant will show you the way."
The headmaster waved to the two rag-tag-looking individuals standing near the doorway, smiling as they waved back.
Almost in sync, Jaune and Ren bowed.
"Thanks for everything!"
"Thank you."
They paused, noticing they'd reacted similarly, and chuckled softly. They followed the attendants out of the room.
As he crossed the doorframe, Jaune paused and turned around. He asked the professor who had originally stepped in to save them, "I'm sorry… we never caught your name. What should we call you?"
The blue-haired man huffed. "Don't call me anything."
Headmaster Theodore slapped his knee. "That's right! He's just a guard dog!"
Once more, the pair wrestled over the desk. Judging by the lack of reaction from either of the attendants, it must have been a relatively regular occurrence.
That was their cue to leave, then.
Ah. Maybe there was one more thing that he should say.
"Hey, Ren."
"Hm?"
"Let's get along, these next few years," he finished with a bright smile. He outstretched his hand for the other boy to grab.
Ren took a moment to reciprocate, but when he did, he did so with a gentle smile of his own.
"I don't think that will be a problem."