The first thing Blake noticed was the pain in her shoulder. The second thing was a bright flash and a snap of a camera on a scroll. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. Before her stood the girl that almost saw her book, right before she covered it with blood. Yang was it? She assumed that Yang somehow knew the girl on her shoulder, and was taking a photo for future embarrassment. Or blackmail. Who knows.

"Hey, Yang right?"

"Yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out"

Blake frowned at the joke. It was mistimed, overused by many, and too damn early in the morning. "Could you help me, please?"

Yang smirked, "And why would I do that, you're looking awfully comfy right now"

Ruby was still lying on Blake's shoulder. Unmoving, perhaps unmovable.

"No, it's quite the opposite. My spine is contorted in a weird way and she isn't moving. Like at all. She's an immovable object with no unstoppable force. Please help, everything hurts"

Yang chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, don't worry. I can get someone to move her"

"You can't?!"

"No, she is literally an immovable object. We've tried. And unless you have a box of strawberries, there's no coaxing her awake"

Yang paused, "Fortunately, there is a solution. Wait here"

It wasn't like Blake had a choice.

When Yang returned, she had a plate of pancakes and a bottle of syrup. "I stole this just for you. Well, not actually you, but for now they're yours. Don't get used to it"

Just as Blake was about to question 'why?', Yang made a weird cawing sound.

"Yang, what are you doing-"

"Ah! A sloth call! Someone knows the secret calling!"

A very awake and surprisingly scary redhead almost knocked Yang off her feet.

"Who requires assistance. Is it you," she pointed to a girl near her, "or you," she points and Ren, who was struggling his way there from across the room, "or you? What?! You have pancakes?"

Blake turned to Yang, her face constrought with confusion. "What…"

"Ask her for help. You have the one currency she speaks: food. And you have the biggest bill available"

"Oh," Blake turned to face Nora, "can you move her. I got you pancakes"

"Okay!"

Nora grabbed the girl, hoisted her over her head, and threw.

The first thing Ruby noticed was that she was airborne. The second thing was that it was quickly not going to be true. She reached for her sword. Sure enough, it was still hooked at her waist. Ha Yang! That's plus one for sleeping with swords! Now to figure out how to land.

As the forest floor quickly approached her, Ruby realized that the sword wouldn't be much help. Especially when I'm falling at terminal velocity.

Why was she falling anyway? Wasn't she accepted to Beacon or something? No matter. She put her sword away, and pulled her pistol from her belt holster. She threw out the magazine inside it, cleared the chamber, and inserted a magazine filled with gravity dust rounds. In theory, it should slow or stop her fall. She had no practice, because this was likely to destroy her gun. A soul for a soul, she thought bitterly.

When she was around a thousand feet from the ground, she shot. The good news was the gun wasn't destroyed. The bad news was she might have slowed down her fall from turning her to a pile of goo to her spine will see the inside of her skull. A second shot was required. The good news was her landing was comfy. The bad news was the gun was destroyed. The round had pulled the barrel inward, stopping the slide from going forward and blocking off the gas escape. The chamber exploded shortly after. Ruby stuck her dead friend into her holster. Mourning over loss, while comforting, would not bring her back to safety in any short order.

She had no idea where she was. Green trees surrounded all sides. The sun was out on a cloudless sky. She had to find a way back, and fast. Sadly, navigation was not on her 3am learn how to do checklist on the Dust Net, so she was shit out of luck. She decided to walk toward her nearest landmark, cliffs off in the distance.

Blake was fuming.

"What do you mean she'll be fine?! She's your sister?"

"And she's survived situations worse than this"

"Worse than being sent to orbit? She literally touched the sky."

"She's pissed off Goodwitch like twice or something and isn't dead"

"So what? She's your sister, she is in sleep clothes, and if I guess correctly, unarmed in Grimm infested territory. We have to help her."

" Will everyone please make their way to Beacon's cliffs for initiation"

"And now she's missing initiation"

Yang stopped Blake.

"Listen. She sleeps armed, keeps ammo in her pockets, wears a belt with her sword and pistol, and can and has butchered hordes of Grimm in her sleep"

"Has?"

They continued walking and were nearing the cliffs.

"Yeah. She used to stay up all night to train. She probably still will. At one point, she fell asleep during one of her forms with her sword, and continued it. It was sleep walking, but sleep fighting. A pack of beowulves was unfortunate enough to come within a few feet. They died"

"Are you certain she's fine?"

"Yup. She went to town last week to get that new gravity dust capable barrel, so she even has a landing strategy down. In fact, she will probably just get swept up in initiation and join somebody's team"

"...fine… but I don't like it"

"This is literally my sister, and you're more worried about her than I am. Doesn't that just paint the cutest pictur-"

"Shut Up!"

Everyone was silent. During this last conversation, they had made it to the cliff, stood on platforms, and Ozpin was giving a speech. 'Was' being the keyword, considering Blake just interrupted him in about the most fate sealing way possible.

"Well, Ms. Belladonna, I believe you have volunteered for a demonstration to those who care"

And she was shot into the depths of the Emerald Forest.

Air rushed past Blake as she looked for a suitable LZ. There was a small clearing before her, with a single tree standing in between a sea of others. Perfect.

Now the practical part. She focuses, and at the moment before impact, creates a clone and moves upward. She never wondered why this was. All of her downward velocity was stopped, then reversed when she did this. It should have been enough force to tear her to shreds, but didn't. The mysteries of Aura never ceases to amaze.

She threw Gambol Shroud in scythe mode; holding onto its ribbon, she stuck it in the tree and swung upwards and into its branches.

Now the tricky part. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to do it, or anything of that sort. The ex-Fang member kind of missed the task description. Oh well. But, while flying, she noticed some kind of ruin in another clearing. It was too far for her to fly all the way there, but she could make the trot on foot easily enough.

Ruby made many interesting discoveries on this fun adventure. Firstly, sleepwear did not like marching through the woods or climbing through trees. She imagined they would like a Grimm battle less. Second, Grimm could be used to track people because they were drawn to negativity. The amount of Grimm heading to the cliffs likely indicated something scary or surprising happening at Beacon, considering how she watched a pack of Beowulves change their course directly beneath her. Lastly, and admittedly something that should be obvious, she couldn't keep her above ground approach in the canopy when she entered the clearing before her. The redhead drew her sword. The next bit wouldn't be as safe, but she doubted anything was large enough to pose any threat while she held her trusry blade.

The clearing held a ruined temple and a long patch of gravel that may have once been a landing strip during the Great Wars. The ruined temple before her looked very… ruined. In any video game, there probably would have been some remnant of a past civilization that would fight back. Like a Dwemer Centurion, or a Ruin Guard. She hoped there would be none of that as she entered the ruin. It was circular, the front steps were missing some stones, and the inside was decorated with pedestals. On each was a rather nice and new looking chess piece. Someone likely set these up here, perhaps as a game for Beacon students. If so, then only 16 people were winning this game. Their 80 person class might not like this much.

Ruby hoped the wait wouldn't be too long as she sat on the steps to the ruin. Likely, Beacon students would be coming this way, considering enough commotion was caused to reroute Grimm. It didn't change how dull the wait was.

She pulled out her gun. The slide was stuck because the chamber window was completely blown out. The magazine still held usable rounds, but she would probably need to sell them and a lot more to be able to afford a new gun and that damn gravity dust-capable barrel. There would be no 'forget' next time. The world could be ending, she could have just been put into a ranked match, or she could be asked out by someone cute, but any and all of that would be just shoved to the side and delayed until that barrel was hers.

The only thing that could not be delayed was if the microwave went off. No exceptions, the microwave is the priority.

Her sword also received the look over. No chips, scratches, bends or creases. Nada. It's two blades still each had enough of an edge to shave the hair off of her forearm and the back of her hand. Nobody would notice the missing hair, she wore sleeves and gloves regardless. Some people prefer to not have a razor sharp edge. In fairness, it is much more easy to chip and wear than if you had the same edge, say, an axe head might have. In combat, if two swords struck each other on the blade, the fracture in the sharper blade would leave a larger chip in it than what would be left in the dulled blade.

Ruby didn't really care. This sword, while precious, had a job to fulfill, and cutting through Grimm hide either took great strength or fine sharpness. Not that she was weak, but in a battle of attrition against larger Grimm, the faster and easier it dies the better. The one Goliath foolish enough to enter Patch died in one such fight with her, and a cement cast of its footprint is still in Town Hall. Ruby somehow doesn't know of the cast's existence, and neither does the town know who slew the beast.

Ruby sheathed her sword. No Grimm were coming, but no Beacon students either. Weird. Either way, staying near points of interest would help search parties find her.

Just then, she noticed someone walk out of the forest. Blake. Ruby waved at her. The Faunus noticed, and ran towards the temple.

"Ruby!"

"...uhhh.. Blake…?"

Blake tackled the younger girl.

"Ow… my magazine was in my rear pocket, and it's currently digging into my kidney. Could you like, move please?"

"Sorry"

Both girls looked at each other.

"What the fu- sorry, what happened?" Ruby began, "I woke up and I was a fu- frickin' bird. Why?!"

"Nora threw you."

"Why!?"

"Because you wouldn't move. And I didn't ask her to not send you on Apollo 18"

"The moon is very nice this time of year. All nice and crumbly"

"Anyway, I'm convinced that girl is basically hammer batman with a vagina"

"...what? Slowdown. Why?"

"You seem to be asking that a lot lately"

"Just answer the fucking question!"

Blake chuckled. "You know how batman is like 'light in the sky and I'll be there' and stuff?"

Ruby grunted in confirmation.

"Well she's got this weird sloth call thing your sister somehow knows. It's more like a bird than anything"

"Well what does it sound like?"

"I don't know, kinda like a caw caw, no… no. Hold on, maybe a… Caw Caw, no.. Too deep. Or like, ca caw, ca caw."

"That sounds like one of thos-"

The world ahead of them exploded in pink

"Sloth call! Who hath called the sloth queen?"

Hammer batman with a vagina faced the two other girls.

"Whaaaaaaat, you guys are partners already, Yang wasn't kidding. Yeesh"

Ruby faced Blake

"What is she talking about?"

"I-"

"What, she hasn't told you?" Nora interrupted, "She totally has the hots for you"

"No!"

"Nah you do"

"It's not like that. Promise"

Ruby felt just as left out and confused as when Weiss, Blake, and Goodwitch were going at it yesterday. Not like that you filthy minded denizen.

"Uhhh… what?"

"Nothing! It's nothing. Right Nora?"

Blake glared at Nora. To no avail.

"Yeah, I mean she reciprocates exactly nothing from all of those feelings you give her. Hell, even if I were gay, I could easily do better than yo-"

"Hem hem"

Ruby cleared her throat.

"What was that you said about partners?"

"Oh, right. Both of you made eye contact, I assume. So you're now partners. Each pair needs to grab an artifact," she motioned to the chess pieces, "If y'all haven't stared into each other's eyes yet, then Ruby is my partner. Sorry Blake, but your eyes suck, like they make you look like you have jaundice."

The sword wielders looked at each other, ignoring the last comment.

"You grab a piece, Ruby"

The White Knight rested in her palm.

Dun dun dunnnnnn. There you have it folks. Nora's hearing is greater than Blake's. As of now, I'm planning out what Pyrrha and Ren are going to be like. So far, I'm leaning towards Ren being a martial arts fanatic, if you've ever played Genshin Impact imagine Paimon's initial thoughts on Xingqui. Pyrrha is going to be... different. Remember how popular girls had 'pet' less-popular boys in middle school? Let's just say there will be some real life experience thrown in there.Onto my least favorite part: ships.First and foremost we have Dragonslayer. Big surprise. But it won't actually come till later bc Jaune has his head in his head, unlike many boys his age. This gives Yang some wiggle room before Jaune realizes that romance is something that can also involves him.And Ladybug. Probably the rarest one to find really good fics for. Which is exactly why I'm not going to enter that reputation, and this won't be a Ladybug fic. It will be teased, it will be encouraged, they may even be forced to go to Beacon's dance together. But will they get together? Nah. The whole thing is going to be friendly awkwardness, something I have experience in and will be damned if I don't write well.There will be more, it is highschool (not actually it's college [shut up, no one cares] fine) after all. But I'm not spoiling.I also got a huge project thrown onto my plate, so I'mma be busy once again. And I will be till March, but I will try to have two more updates between now and when I am no longer swamped.

Enough rambling, time for sleep.

-your friendly neighborhood authors note

P.S. the other fic is on hold and chapters won't start releasing probably until the new RWBY volume concludes. Or if the other material it's crossing over with finally gets of hiatus and the hype train gets going again. No more from me.

pps. Holy shit that was a 1000 word authors note. Shit.