Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I claim to, own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced in this story, all rights go to their respective owners. The only thing I lay claim to are my OCs which come in later.

The eight of them are settling into their combined rooms.

"So… what do you guys want to do?" Yang asks, unable to live in the tense silence for much longer.

Rosa sighs. "We should probably lay out ground rules, get to know each other," she suggests.

"Oh! We could each talk about our weapons and semblances and say any rules that we want implemented in the dorm!" Nora exclaims.

"That sounds like a swell idea, Nora," Pyrrha exhales.

"I'll go first. My weapon is called Myrtenaster, it's a multi-action Dust Rapier. My semblance is the standard Schnee Glyphs. As for rules, I'll wait and see what you all ask for."

"Okaay. Well, I've got my Ember Celica. They're Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets. My semblance allows me to use the damage I've taken to increase the damage I can dish out. Don't really have any rules, except that if you touch my hair, I'll probably blow up at you." Yang finishes by sweeping her hair over the front of her chest, clutching it protectively.

"Fair enough. I have dual bladed collapsible pistols named Stormflower. My semblance is to mask emotions. I have no particular rules to speak of," Ren explains. Nora nods beside him.

"I've got a grenade launcher hammer named Magnhild! My semblance is to absorb electricity and redirect it however I want!" Nora says, bouncing on her bed.

"Please don't break the bed, Nora," Rosa asks. "Anyways. I have twin swords named are Azul and Blanco. They each have long ranged Dust firing capabilities. My semblance is limited telekinesis. Anything in about a three-metre radius. I've got two rules that I'd like us to go by. One, we're allowed to keep secrets, but the moment that secret starts to impact another squad mate, we're not allowed to keep it a secret anymore. Two, no matter what our pasts hold, the slate has been wiped clean. It's an even playfield. Girl or boy, seventeen or fifteen, human or faunus, rich or poor. Doesn't matter. Even playing field."

"A sensible set of rules," Blake notes, as the others all nod their heads. "Anyways, my weapon is a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe named Gambol Shroud. It has mecha-shift functions that allow it to shift between katana, pistol, and chain scythe. My semblance is the ability to create shadow clones. I don't have any rules I want to implement."

Pyrrha speaks up next. "My semblance is Polarity. Meaning I can control magnetism of metals. My weapons are Miló and Akoúo̱. Miló can transform between a short sword, spear, and rifle forms. Akoúo̱ is my shield. I don't have any rules I wish to implement either."

Jaune sighs. "I guess that leaves me then? Well, I have my sword, and my shield can also transform into a sheath. They're called Crocea Mors. Um, I haven't found my semblance yet."

"You haven't found your semblance?" Weiss questions.

"Don't give him flack for that! It takes some people a long time to find their semblances!" Yang chides.

"Yeah, but at seventeen, entering Beacon? That's unheard of!"

"Weiss, its unheard of for a group of first years to form a squad. It isn't like we're doing things the normal way to begin with," Rosa points out. "And don't be hard on him. My younger brother has been trying to find his semblance for the last five years. It takes everyone a different length of time to find their semblance."

"Rosa's got a point. And for some people, they can barely notice their semblance. My uncle's semblance is bad luck. He can't weaponize it or turn it off and on. He chooses not to let it affect his life, so I didn't even know he had a semblance until I unlocked my own, and I asked him. Considering I lived in the same house as him for twelve years by that point." Yang pauses to let her point sink in. "Jaune might have a semblance that he just hasn't noticed yet."

"I still think it is odd that he doesn't have a semblance yet," Weiss huffs.

"I get it, I'm behind. The weak link of the group," Jaune moans. Rosa sighs.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Huh?"

"Just look at us. There's Pyrrha, a world renowned fighter and celebrity. Can we label her as a prodigy and ahead of the group? Yes. There's Weiss, the heiress to a wealthy company and who has most likely had private tutors for the majority of her life. Can we label her as a prodigy and ahead of the group? Yes. There's me, a nomadic fifteen-year-old who's been brought to a hunter's academy two years early. Can I be labelled as a prodigy and ahead of the group? Heck yes. But we're also behind in other areas. I, and I'm willing to bet the same for Pyrrha and Weiss, have never been given the opportunity to fight alongside another person. For me, my only partner to fight alongside was my brother, and he's nowhere near my level so I have to cover him a lot more than I'd likely have to do with this squad. It's a learning curve of how to work in groups. There's so much that I don't know. Yes, I'm ahead in some areas, but I'm behind in others. Even when we were fighting the Nevermore, I charged in like a long wolf. But you? You formulated a plan and worked seamlessly with people you barely knew. In that area, you are the prodigy. Not me," Rosa nearly lectures.

"She's right." Blake locks eyes with Rosa as she speaks. "We all have areas that we're good at, and others that we aren't. That's why we're put in teams. To cover each other's weaknesses and help each other develop strengths. The larger the group, the more potential developments, but the higher the chance the group will break down. Hence why it isn't typical for squads to be formed in any year. We may be a collection of highly trained individuals, but that means nothing if we can't work together."

"Thanks. That, that means a lot to me." Jaune smiles.

Catching sight of the time on the clock, Rosa suggests they all head to bed, because the next day would be their first day of classes, and no one needs to be tired for that.

When morning comes, Rosa is unsurprised to find herself the first one awake.

Blake is the next to wake up, followed by Pyrrha and Jaune. Yang wakes up after them and immediately shuts herself in the bathroom to wash her massive pile of hair. Ren wakes up, and manages to bribe Nora awake with pancakes. Lastly, Weiss is woken by Rosa (who isn't entirely impressed by having to wake anyone up).

It takes an hour of stumbling around, finding books and writing materials amidst suitcases, and continuing to take turns in the bathroom to get dressed and ready, before they are ready to head off to breakfast.

They don't spend much time in the cafeteria, moving quickly onwards to their first class of the day. Grimm Studies… taught by Professor Port.

For Rosa, it is the only class she looked forward to, apart from combat class. It is this class that she knows so intimately after the merciless grilling and training by her Abuela. But surely there is still more to learn?

But, she is let down when she realises twenty minutes into the lesson that all Port is doing is recounting his own hunting stories of killing a Beowulf as a young man.

At that, Rosa pulls out a clean sheet of paper and begins making notes while staying faintly aware of what Port is talking about. A new training schedule, not just for herself, but for her team and Squad. How could she push them to be as strong as they can be? How does one go about doing that to begin with? She writes out anything and everything she can think of, fully intending to go through these notes later and make more sense of them. But her thoughts are interrupted by Weiss's exclamation.

"I do sir!"

Rosa looks up and watches as Weiss gets into her combat gear, her own thoughts slamming the big red button of 'SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT!'. Her thoughts are proven correct when Port unleashes a Boarbatusk into the room from one of three crates.

'This shouldn't be happening!' Rosa thought to herself, grabbing a dagger from her boot and clutching it in her hand, ready to jump into the fray the moment it looked like her teammate was in real danger. 'We're not meant to be exposed to combat situations outside of combat class and training missions. And Port wasn't even talking about Boarbatusks! What is he playing at?'

Her heart leaps into her throat as Weiss loses her rapier, and Port just mocks her, releasing two more boarbatusks from the other two crates that, like the first, are barrelling towards an unarmed, stunned Weiss.

Rosa doesn't even give herself time to think. She leaps up and over the desks, rolling on landing and picking up Weiss' rapier in one hand and tightening her grip on her own dagger in the other.

A slash of the rapier as Rosa forces her aura into the dust capsules trigger a small wall of earth to erupt in front of her and Weiss. The Boarbatusks near ricochet off the earthen wall and Rosa leaps over and throws her dagger into the underbelly of the one on the left, while driving the rapier into the centre Grimm.

Turning on her heel, ripping the rapier out of the now dead Grimm, Rosa plunges in into the last remaining Grimm.

Behind her goggles, Rosa can't help but shut her eyes and try to find a sense of calm. Tries to put a lid on the pot of boiling water that is about to erupt. She knows she won't be able to do that for long, so, as the rest of the squad rushed down to Weiss' side, Rosa walks over as calmly as possible.

"I think this belongs to you," she says meekly, holding out the rapier. Weiss stares at it, almost unseeing.

"I… thank you," she manages to croak out.

Rosa tries to give what she hopes is a comforting smile. "That's what teammates are for, isn't it? Helping each other?"

"Yeah…" Weiss mumbles, not standing up from where she'd fallen during her short fight with the Grimm.

Rosa stands up and turns to glare at Port through her goggles.

"Could you guys take Weiss outside and make sure she's okay? I, I don't want to scare her any more than she already is," Rosa asks her squad. She waits until she hears the doors close behind them before she lets her rage run.

"Are you wilfully negligent or just incompetent? Because I don't know which is better. My team and squad mate nearly got killed because of you. It was so freaking obvious that she was struggling with just one boarbatusk, and she didn't even have her weapon with her, yet you decide that 'oh, of course, the best thing to do is release two more Grimm'. If I hadn't been here, if I hadn't been able to use dust and her rapier with some degree of proficiency, she would be dead. On the first day of term no less." She takes a shuddering breath in before continuing on her verbal rampage.

"You have a duty of care, which you completely neglected and disregarded. Not to mention that you completely threw out the window the regulation of the only time we'd be fighting with weapons during class time would be in combat class. This is class time. You are meant to be teaching us about the anatomy of Grimm and how to best combat them. Instead, you told an exaggerated tale of your youth, then pitted a student against a Grimm that did not feature even once in your tale, then proceeded to nearly cause the death of said student by releasing more Grimm when the student was already down. I do not expect every single person in this class to survive, not when there's combat class and training missions. Being a hunter is dangerous, so I don't expect people to not die. But what I do expect is for the teachers, who have a duty of care towards their students, to not put their students in such recklessly dangerous situations.

"Let's also not forget just how much visibility this would have if she had died here. She isn't just another student. She's the heiress to a company worth millions if not billions of Lien. She's extremely visible. So, imagine the world's horror if it got out that a young huntress-to-be was so carelessly allowed to die, on day one at Beacon? If the staff were so blasé about the death of such a high-profile student, what does that say about the lower profile students? How far would you let it go with the rest of us students? It would cause chaos. Anger, hurt, outrage. It'd be a negative culmination of energies that'd attract every Grimm in a fifty-mile radius.

"You failed in your duty of care. I am not going to risk my team, or my squad, being put into a position where they are meant to be cared for, and they aren't. Within a single hour, you've shown me that you are egoistical, self-centred, incapable of reading dangerous situations, and incompetent. I will not stand for that. Frankly, I'd rather teach my squad Grimm Anatomy myself. At least I won't almost get them killed."

Rosa turns on her heel and begins walking to the door. Pausing with one hand on the door handle. "I suggest the rest of you team leaders think about how safe your team is in this class. I'd be happy to teach you all Grimm Anatomy as well, if you wanted."

With that, she opens the door and walks out. In front of her is the rest of her squad.

"Did you mean all that?" Weiss asks.

"Abuela always told me that all life is precious, and it must be protected. I don't suffer fools who let unnecessary death happen. Port is a fool. I'll teach you all Grimm anatomy myself. Lesson one, always aim for a Boarbatusk's belly. They never grow armour there, not even the older ones," Rosa tells her.

"Really?"

Rosa lets out a short laugh. "I can't tell which part of that you're wanting confirmation on, but both are true."

"Thank you. I… I was so stupid," Weiss mutters, leaving Rosa shaking her head.

"No, you were being impulsive. I'm not going to act like I know why you were acting like that, but I think we both have a pretty good idea why. Just, don't do that again. Please?" she pleads softly.

"I'll try."

"That's the best anyone can ask for."

They don't go to their next class, instead opting to sit in their dorm room and calm down properly. Rosa started putting together notes on what things she'd teach her squad about Grimm Anatomy. Making more detailed notes about training schedules and the like. Weiss still couldn't believe she'd almost died.

It'd been a surreal experience. Seeing three boarbatusk barrelling towards her, knowing without even knowing, that she couldn't get out of the way or defend herself. Frozen to the spot. She really would have died if Rosa hadn't acted so swiftly.

For the others though, they had been just as frozen as Weiss had been. Powerless to stop what had looked like impending death for the Atlesian girl.

"I… I need to tell you guys something," Jaune speaks up, drawing attention to him.

He sighs before continuing on. "I didn't actually earn my place here. I lied, got my hands on some fake transcripts, and managed to cheat my way in. I'm sorry."

"You what?" Weiss splutters.

Rosa dropped her pencil in shock.

Pyrrha was gazing blankly at him, not comprehending what she'd just been told. The others were no better.

"I know. I cheated and I lied. You probably hate me for being even more of a weak link. I just… after initiation, I thought I was fine. We all got through that and I didn't feel entirely useless, even if it was my fault the grimm scorpion thing was chasing us. But then, today… I realised that I'm so out of my depth. I want to be a hunter, it's been my dream for so long, but I've never been able to chase it before now. My parents couldn't afford to send me to combat school, and they couldn't afford lessons either. So, I cheated my way into the system, stole the family heirloom, and ran away to come here. You guys probably think that I'm pathetic," he elaborates.

Rosa stands up, walks over to him, and sits down. "I'm glad you told us. Just means we're going to have to spend more time whipping you into shape."

"Huh?"

"Jaune, you're part of this squad. You survived initiation. You came up with a way to take down a Death Stalker, and an Alpha at that, without any training or knowledge about the Grimm? That's massive potential. The next step is taking that potential and actually making something out of it. Which brings me to a point I was going to talk to everyone about soon anyways," Rosa smiles.

"Which is?" Blake prods.

"Training. Just because we've made it this far doesn't mean we can stop training now. We need to keep pushing further to become the best that we can be. Semblances can be furthered and found. Weaponry can be developed. We aren't at our peak, not yet, and not by a long way. So, we need to keep training. Maybe we should start after classes? Although I think that you should sit out today after what happened, Weiss," Rosa explains.

"No, I want to train. I can't afford to hesitate or freeze up like that," Weiss interrupts.

"I think we're all in the same boat. We all froze up too," Blake admits.

"Rosa didn't," Weiss points out. Everyone turns to look at Rosa at that.

"How is it that the youngest of us is the most… battle ready?" Blake ponders.

Rosa sighs. "I began training at a very young age. But that means nothing. I guess you could say that today was your awakening that, no matter how hard you trained in the past, you still weren't ready. My awakening happened long ago."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" Ren asks, voicing what everyone in the room wanted to know.

"I was nine. No semblance, no proper weapon of my own, just a pair of spare blades and a belief that I was invincible. I thought I was ready to fight Grimm. I tried to convince my Abuela of that one day. She told me I wasn't ready. That I was too young, too unprepared, too immature. I didn't want to listen. So, that night, I woke up, stole some spare blades, and headed out into the forest. My saving graces were that I got lost and turned around, not getting too far from where I started; that Abuela's semblance woke her up that something bad was going to happen to me; and that my semblance activated for the first time when it did. I had gone into that forest intending to find a Grimm, just one, and kill it, just to prove I could. Instead, I got found by an entire pack." Rosa sighs again. One hand moves to trace the outline of her goggles, but she quickly drops it.

"My semblance activated, forcing away the Grimm that came within a metre of me. It was very draining, and I didn't know how long I could keep it up or even how. Regardless, I was frozen. I couldn't move my feet to run away, and my hands had dropped the blades I'd stolen. Then, Abuela came to my rescue, right as my semblance failed. She saved my life. After that, I swore it would never happen again. Never again would I let myself fail so miserably. I worked myself to the bone and back. Pushing my semblance until I could use it with barely a thought. I devoured knowledge; any I could find. I begged Abuela to let me train longer and longer. To the point where I became a danger to myself. It took eight months for me to run myself down to a point that I collapsed. I… I nearly died again, that was how bad a state I was in.

"There is a difference between wanting to become stronger and pushing yourself past what is physically possible to attain some aspect of strength. I learnt that the hard way. Not all wisdom is attained with age, mine was attained with experience. I never did dismiss Abuela's words after that. She knew and tried to stop me both times, I didn't listen, and nearly killed myself both times. I know to heed her warnings and teachings now. She has wisdom that comes from age and experience. All I ever wanted was to be as good as her, but she wanted me to be better, to learn from her mistakes. I want the same from all of you. Learn from my mistakes. Please?"

No one spoke for a few long minutes.

"I'll try," Weiss says. "I want to be stronger, but I can't do that if I die from pushing myself too far. So I'm going to try."

The others nodded in agreement.

After a few minutes, Yang starts laughing.

"What's so funny, you oaf?" Weiss demands.

"It's just, we've all known each other for three days max, and we're already learning tragic backstories. How crazy is that?"

Nora snorts before joining Yang in laughing. Rosa joins in soon after, followed by Pyrrha.

The new knowledge still weighs on their minds but laughing with each other is a welcome relief and distraction.

A/N: Welcome back to The Grimm Reaper! Guess who's procrastinating working on their assignments again? Me! On the bright side, after I finish them I have no more uni work for the semester. Whoo! More time for writing! Anyways, I noticed someone said it would be interesting to see Rosa butt heads with Goodwitch again (I won't say whether or not this will happen though because I'm just a tad mean and that would be spoiling), but we got to see Rosa butt heads with Port. You can probably tell I'm not a fan of Port. As someone who is learning how to become a teacher, I can tell you he's a pretty bad one. So of course Rosa is going to butt heads with him.

This'll be the last update on where my writing progress is going (don't won't to bore anyone reading these ANs) but I've now finished up to chapter 25, and the rest is same as what I outlined last chapter (assignments suck and take up writing time).

Also, as always, if you need someone to talk to, don't hesitate to reach out. I am happy to lend an ear and will try to reply when I have time. And reviews make me really happy, so feel free to tell me your thoughts on the chapter, because I'd love to hear them! Otherwise, I'll see you next week with the next chapter!

- RebeccaMagic9