I do not own RWBY. All rights go towards Rooster teeth
Daughter of the Gods
Chapter Five: Initiation
Waking up was slightly unpleasant from the loud girl in pink singing about it being morning and talking a mile a minute to her green garbed friend.
'yikes I'd hate to be that guy.' I thought as I packed up my bed roll. It was early in the morning, and since I technically never really needed to sleep as often as the faunus or humans, I never had to worry about being 'groggy' or 'sleep deprived.' Getting out of my pajamas and into the shower I performed my daily hygiene, rinsing and soaping my hair and body making sure I was clean. I learned the hard way one time that even though bacteria doesn't affect me, I can still be a carrier for diseases.
Getting out of the shower I heard the pink girl, nora, talking to her green friend, ren, while he was busy with his morning routine. Still, they seemed to be friends, and friends are a blessing.
Brushing my teeth I saw Yang stepping out of the shower.
"Yang they're going to call us soon for initiation. You'd better hurry and brush your hair. If you want me to I can do it." Yang nodded and I grabbed the brush before using a little bit of my speed to help things a long since Yang was very particular about her locks. I was one of the few people even allowed to touch them.
Getting that done I pulled on my cloak and brushed my teeth. When all that was completed I went to my locker and grabbed crescent rose, which had been in the locker since I arrived at Beacon. Deep in thought, I realized that had never even seen a beacon initiation. Yang picked up on my mood and put a hand on my shoulder
"What's up?"
"It just feels weird you know? I built this school with my friends and I've never seen an initiation." I whispered as I gave a small smile. Yang hugged me.
"I'm sure they're very proud of you right now." It was only a whisper in my ear, but it spoke volumes.
"I hope so." Came my quiet reply. Yang hugged me tighter before releasing me
The Announcement came through for all students to attend the cliffs overlooking the emerald forest.
"Looks like it's time." I said. Yang nodded.
"C'mon. lets get going. Don't wanna be late for initiation." Yang's usual cheer was enough to bring a smile to my face. She smiled herself before putting an arm on my shoulder. Walking towards the exit, there was a slam against one of the lockers. Looking around, I saw the familiar looking blonde haired man pinned to the locker by a gold and red spear.
"Sorry!" Pyhhra said as she pulled the spear away from the locker…without even touching it. Some form of telekinetic semblance?
When the mistrali champion left, Yang helped the man up.
"You okay Jaune?" Well at least I had a first name now.
"Yeah, thanks Yang."
"Anytime. Oh! This is my sister Ruby!" Yang said. I held out my hand.
"Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you. I believe Yang said your name was Jaune?" The man in question grabbed my hand for a shake.
"Yup. Jaune Arc-" Anything else he said after that was lost in the white noise that seemed to envelop my ears at the mention of his name.
Arc. A family name almost as old as remnant itself. Good family with amazing morals. But I knew the arc family for a different reason.
"Move up! We have to take that fort!" the voice of lieutenant Danielle Arc echoed through my head.
"We're being over run we need to fall back! Commander Rose You have to leave!" An explosion just as she was finished shouting a few yards away. looking down there was a foot long piece of shrapnel entering in her back and exiting her stomach. I held her as she bled to death.
"Ruby"
"Ruby"
"Ruby!" Yang said as she pointed Jaune towards the cliffs. He took the hint and left, sending me a glance as he walked out the door.
"You okay there, Rube's?" Yang's sisterly voice came out. Soft and steady, a stable rock in a churning ocean.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm okay." I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. "Just a flashback."
Yang's eyes softened, my time in the great war haunted me the most as it was the most recent thing in m memory. Many things I had come to terms with over the centuries, but the great war was a scar that refused to heal properly. It would bleed the worst at night.
We don't wanna be late." I said, pushing away the memories and walking to the exit towards the cliffs. I could feel Yang's concerned eyes on me the entire time.
Getting to the cliff, I noticed there were only two empty squares on the ground, all the others being occupied, I took my place on the farthest one and Yang stepped onto the second one from the end, between me and Jaune. Ozpin started his overdramatic speech.
"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the emerald forest." He said. Glynda picked up immediately.
"I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Allow us to put an end to your confusion."
God these two were so dramatic.
"Each of you will be assigned to teams. Today." God it was worse than a soap opera. Ozpin picked up again where Glynda stopped. I rolled my eyes and Ozpin looked at me through his dark glasses.
"Theses teams will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest for you to be pared with someone you can work well with." He stared at me as he continued, a small, barely noticeable smirk on his lips. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
Son of a bitch.
"After you've partnered up, head to the northern edge of the forest. It is teeming with Grimm, so do not hesitate to destroy anything in your way or you will die." I smirked at that. "You will be monitored and graded by instructors, however no assistance will be offered. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path with several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. Your performance will be graded appropriately." Ozpin concluded. I narrowed my eyes at him. I hoped it was just a coincidence and that there was another temple he was talking about in the forest, not the one I was suspecting we were being sent to.
Jaune asked question about landing strategies, making me suspicious of his qualifications as a hunter because all huntsman and huntresses know what a landing strategy is. He kept asking questions until he was flung off the cliff, like everyone else had been, and Ozpin sipped his coffee like it was everyday occurrence to see children flying through the sky.
Weirder things have happened honestly.
Yang was flung next, but not before she put her aviators down. My turn came up, but before I launched I left Ozpin and Glynda with a parting comment.
"You're both sadists." And then I was flying though the air. Firing my rifle to get a little extra distance I almost hit a bird before I landed gracefully by using more ammo to slow myself down, tucking and rolling and jumping into a running position. Flying through the forest at a blistering speed I thought about how I needed to find either Yang or Blake. I didn't have to worry because as long as Ozpin held up his end of the agreement, Blake would be on my team no matter what. In my thoughts, I almost ran into a girl in a frilly dress.
Skidding to a halt, I slumped when I realized it was Weiss. She had the same reaction, except she decided to walk the other way, ignoring Ozpins rules.
"Hey! Get your white ass back here!" using my semblance, I ran to her and appeared in her face.
"Don't do that ever again. We looked each other in the eyes so now we have to be partners. If you don't like it, tough shit." I told her. She stomped her foot and walked the complete opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. Grabbing my arm and dragging me with her, she growled at me.
"By no means does this make us friends."
"I couldn't care less. We're partners now, all we need to do is work together." I reminded her.
"Don't slow me down." She stomped off again.
Using my speed, I materialized in front of her yet again.
"Don't worry your highness, I'm not slow. And by the end of this year, you'll be glad to have me as your partner." I told her confidently. Hearing a slight rustling, I ran off. It was irresponsible, but I wanted to see how she performed in a combat situation. She struck me as completely formally trained with now field experience, so I decided to observe her.
Several beowolves broke through into the clearing and surrounded her. what followed honestly blew my mind.
She was preparing her combat stance, focusing all her attention on it, not even bothering to pay attention to the grimm sneaking up behind her.
Gods damnit.
Deciding that the biggest one was the priority, since he was likely the ack leader, I deployed crescent rose into her full form and charged at the leader. Unfortunately Weiss had the same idea as me, and using her glyphs made her fast so she was about to hit me with burn dust.
I prepared for the worst when she diverted it to a nearby tree, destroying it instantly.
"Watch it you dolt! I could've killed you!" If only she knew.
"You'll find I'm pretty hard to kill, Princess." I winked at her. she sputtered at my audacity, but a tree fell right next to us. Using the fire, Weiss and I ran away from the beowolves to regroup ourselves.
Stopping for a break far away from the forest fire, I finally exploded.
"What in the actual ass was that shit back there! That should've gone so much easier, and it would've if you hadn't decided your combat stance was more important than your life!" I shouted at her. How could one girl who's probably spent more money on tutors than I have in centuries no so little about grimm and combat. Weiss was aghast at my crude language but I didn't give a shit.
"If you had been more careful back ther-" I cut her off before she could even continue that line of thought.
"No! This isn't some tutoring lesson Weiss! This is real! No simulation where you can't get killed, No trainers to put a stop to it if things go to far! This is real Weiss and you could die out here!" I ranted. She needed to understand that this was reality, and no matter how much money she had the grimm and the forces of darkness don't care. Weiss deflated at the valid points of my argument.
"What do you suggest I do then?" now we were getting somewhere.
"Hone your instincts. Trust your body and muscle memory. Stop overthinking everything. I watched you in the forest back there. You were entirely focused on the grimm in front of you that you didn't even notice the two grimm sneaking up behind you." Her eyes widened.
"I had no idea…" She admitted quietly.
"We're partners now. I'll help you if you'll let me, but we have to work together to get out of here alive first." I reminded her.
"Okay. Well then we should be heading north." Weiss said, walking south. I zipped over, grabbed her by the shoulders, and turned her around.
"Right, I was just confused for a second and would have corrected myself once I got my bearings." Gods her pride was iimpossible.
"Mmhm."
Walking for almost a half hour it seemed we were getting nothing done. Hearing a squawking above us I got an idea. Grabbing Weiss suddenly, I dematerialized with her into white and red rose petals, launching straight up into the air and landing on the Nevermore's back.
Weiss threw up at the sudden use of my more advanced part of my semblance. I still didn't know what to call it though.
"Never do that again you dolt! Where even are we!" Her face paled even more than normal as the nevermore screeched, providing her with the answer. She looked like she wanted to vomit again.
"That answer your question?" I flashed a cheeky smile at Weiss as I gripped the enormous feathers and looked around us. Sure enough there was only one temple down below, and I really wanted to smash Ozpins coffee mug and make him eat the shards. Weiss' screaming broke me out of my darker thoughts.
"You're insane!" She was holding onto the feathers so tight I was sure she was going to rip them out.
"Maybe!" I shrugged my shoulders. "This is our stop!" I gave her a mock salute as I jumped from the body of the giant Nevermore. Using Crescent Rose, I slowed my descent and used my semblance to materialize by the temple. Looking around I saw that there were large chess pieces on the crumbling pedestals. Noise from the forest caught my attention before I could look at the ancient stone structure.
"Rubes!" Yang shouted as she walked through the tree line, Blake in tow. "Look who I found!" She shouted enthusiastically. Blake looked very uncomfortable around Yang's more…louder tendencies. I waved Yang over, and she trotted to me with a look in her eyes.
"You hoped I would find Blake didn't you?" A smirk.
"Actually, I had hoped to find you. Blake was going to be on my team no matter what because I made a deal with Ozpin." I explained. Yang gaped like a fish.
"Well since Blakes my partner who'd you wind up with?" Blake got our attention.
"Is that who I think it is up there?" God for someone who wanted to hide her faunuas ears she sure flaunted her other traits.
"Yup, that's Weiss." I said, not taking my eyes off the heiress.
"She's gonna fall." Blake said, though the lack of care was amusing.
"Nah she'll be fine." I was confident in that.
"She's falling."
Shit.
Dematerializing into a burst of rose petals I quickly grabbed her from midair and on my way back down grabbed Jaune as he came from…somewhere.
Getting them back onto the ground, I took a minute to re orient myself, as dealing with more than one person always made me dizzy. Jaune collapsed on the ground after throwing up again, thankfully he hadn't done it in midair. Leaning against the pedestal, I grabbed one of the chess pieces and smirked. So this was Ozpins plan to make sure Blake and I ended up on the same team.
Picking up the matching white knight pieces I called Yang over.
"This is your piece and the way You and Blake are with Weiss and I." I said as I handed the piece to her. Looking at the piece and then at the stone around us I was quickly absorbed into the pictography around me.
"What's it say?" I heard Yang ask.
"You tell me. I taught you how to read and write ancient Remnant languages." I watched as she began remembering my leassons and speaking out what the pictures said.
"A group of people worshiped here? Some kind of…flower?" that was all she needed to say before the pieces clicked together. She looked at me with wide eyes.
"These people worshipped me as a savior goddess for a brief period of time. And I allowed it because I thought I gave them hope, which repelled the grimm." I explained. Running my hand down another section that depicted something darker. Yang began translating.
"A woman came to the aid of the villagers, and they prayed to her to continue helping them."
"It was coincidental, Random, when I would appear in the village. I was always traveling back then but this village was beautiful, peaceful." I said. The translation continued as I looked away in shame.
"The woman disappeared for a few months after punishing a man who was beating his wife, and the grimm returned, attacking and killing several people."
"I was aiding a far-off village that was suffering from famine. The man was punished according to the general laws of remnant at the time."
"In the villager's desperation they…they began making sacrifices. To bring her back, they sacrificed a few women at first, and when that didn't work…the villagers sacrificed a child...children." she whispered
"I was just returning from the famished village when I found the entire village in the church they had built to me, not my idea but I allowed it to continue because they were happy. Hearing them praying, I walked in to humor them, and I saw…I saw the young boy I was fond of, laying dead on the alter. The 'Priest' was holding his heart in his hands and burning Rose incense." I whispered. The child had been such a sweet boy, caring to a fault, and I knew. I knew these villagers had tricked him.
"And the woman, seeing what the villagers had done in her name, punished the village, killed everyone." Yang finished quietly.
Someone must have changed that, because it happened very differently.
"I wish I had just killed them them. I wish I could say that my anger didn't blind me but it did. I butchered the priest first." Yang stared at me with wide eyes.
"I still used the relic at the time, and I slaughtered them, destroying everything and burning the village to the ground. I left one child alive. he was the only one left who hadnt been sacrificed." I said as I rubbed my hand over the stone writers mark.
"Why would he write something different?" I asked. The boy had been old enough to remember what had happened. Why would he change the story?
"We'll never know Rube's. C'mon, we should be getting back to the others."
The others. Oh right!
Turning my attention back to the group of people that were standing a few yards away. thankfully it didn't seem they'd heard anything. Especially Blake.
Maybe her bow blocked some of her hearing?
Walking over to the group, I heard several more noises from the forest, close by and farther away. An Ursa crashed through the forest, and I brought the scope of my scythe to my eye and sighted in the head of the large creature, watching in confusion as it collapsed and disappeared. Pink hair appeared, looking around extatically at her green garbed companion. Nora and Ren, if I remembered.
Nora started singing about being queen of the castle, picking up the white rook piece. Ren called her over and she went to him like a puppy.
A loud screeching came from deep in the forest. Jaune was here so where was the screeching coming from?
Pyhhra came crashing from the sky, landing in a heap.
"Great, the gangs all here! Now we can die together!" Yang said cheerily. Oh gods, sometimes her morbid sense of humor came out of nowhere. It was usually pretty funny. Still is in this case.
I helped Pyhhra to her feet and directed her to the pedestals, because Jaune had yet to grab a relic. She grabbed the white rook piece, the same as Nora and Ren. They'd all make a great team together, Ren would probably be the best choice for team leader. Calm, rational, especially in the way he handled Nora.
I was broken out of my musings when a grimm species I thought I had destroyed burst through the tree line.
A deathstalker.
Holy shit! I hadn't seen one in centuries, and judging by the look of this one, it had been around for just as long.
I would be fascinated with this one's survival, but now wasn't the time. It was rather unfortunate that I had to kill it. Another unfortunate problem was that I couldn't use any of my magic, so I had to do this the old fashioned way.
Okay so this is more of an announcement than anything. This story has been rather rough on me. RWBY is definitely harder to write, for me personally, than the 100 story I wrote. That being said, chapters will be every two to three days from Chapter six onwards. I thank you for your understanding and continued viewing of this story.