DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN RWBY OR ANYTHING ASSOCIATED

CHAPTER IV: LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS PART II

"The gist of it anyway, let's move."

The two reluctant companions fell into silence and started along the forest. Jaune was focused on the task at hand, his azure gaze seeking the path the scroll's map had identified. Weiss, on the other hand, followed his directions, her jaw set in a thin line. The atmosphere between them had some layers of tensity, each reluctant but forced to press forward, having been left with no other option.

Jaune felt himself sigh, but luckily he managed to keep it internally, the last thing he wanted or needed right now was another outburst from his new Partner, oh how that fact irritated him. Why couldn't he have been paired up with Yang, or even Ruby? He knew the two of them and they weren't obstinate in the same way Weiss was.

"Groooah!"

Jaune leaped up and backward, narrowly avoiding the slash of long-bladed claws swiping in his chest. Weiss, who had been standing a little further back, had no need to move so hastily and had the time to draw out her weapon, Myrtenstar, which she readied for battle. She barely had time to react, because Jaune had already began to move. He zipped across the battlefield, ducking so he could avoid the incoming follow-up strike from the Grimm's other blade, he'd ducked just in time, and narrowly slipped beneath the natural weapon.

Truthfully, it was only a matter of time until this happened. The negative emotions rife amongst the two of them, it was a wonder that they hadn't been attacked by Grimm sooner. No doubt the argument and the consistent tension had drawn this one here. Jaune's reflexes kicked in and he brought up the blade of his sword and clang! The blade of Ascalon caught the arm of the Grimm, then Jaune twirled under it and dragged his sword along with him, using it to cleave the creature's arm off. A loud wail of agony erupted from the beast's maw, but Jaune wasn't done there. He kicked it sharply in the calf and the Grimm dropped to its knees.

A cold look fixed in the Knight's eyes, he clutched the handle of his weapon a little tighter and drove it down straight through the Grimm's face. His blade punctured the bone-like structure of its mask and embedded the entire blade through its head in one clean motion. Smoldering ash burned away into the wind from the blade, blowing out into the distance as slowly the rest of the Grimm's body followed, disintegrating into nothing.

"We'd better keep moving," Jaune said, "I've never seen a Grimm like this before and there's no telling if there's- Look out!"

Jaune kicked out of the ground, lunging across the clearing toward his new partner, blocking off the second Grimm, one identical in appearance to the first, from using its giant blade-like arms on Weiss.

"I can take care of myself!" She snapped, "Get out of my way!"

Jaune's eye flashed for a moment, but he chose to ignore her outburst and it was only the growl of the nearby Grimm that stopped him from moving back.

"By all means Princess, take it from here."

"Would you stop calling me that?"

Jaune sighed, he knew things here going to be complicated going through this forest with Weiss as his partner, but he hadn't anticipated it being this bad. Somehow he got the feeling that this was going to be a very long day.

—-

—-

"Thank you for the assistance! Have you possibly found a partner yet?"

The shorter of the two girls shook her head meekly, indicating that she hadn't found one yet and she was surprised to see a smile being thrown her way, she didn't have time to consider this before the older girl was asking her a question.

"That works perfectly, I don't have a partner either, would you like to be mine?"

"I would love to!" Ruby exclaimed, relieved that her search for a Partner had come to an end. She had been hoping to run into either Yang or Jaune, but there was a chance she could still be on either or both of their teams if they managed to find each other.

"That's grand!" Pyrrha exclaimed happily, "Shall we get going then?"

"We should, yes!" Ruby still felt a little bit nervous around the new person, but Pyrrha's relaxed attitude and the approachable vibe she was giving off was doing a lot to ease Ruby's worries about it. Together, the two of them shared a nod and then began their journey into the Emerald Forest.

Despite the calm between Pyrrha and Ruby, both girls had their weapons at the ready, neither wanting to be surprised by any unexpected and unwelcome guests on their journey. Pyrrha was surprised by Ruby, she was expecting a rabid fan-girl reaction similar to the one she'd gotten when she'd been approached by Weiss that morning and had been pleasantly surprised by Ruby's attitude and the way she was treating her like an equal rather than someone to be placed above her on some kind of pedestal.

She wondered if Jaune's words in the locker room had an effect on Ruby? Pyrrha didn't want to ruin their new partnership or make things awkward while they were searching for the relics, so she elected to go with the flow and refrained from mentioning her thoughts aloud.

—-

—-

"Our last pair has been formed, Headmaster. Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos."

"An interesting combination to be sure," Ozpin commented, moving the coffee mug away from his lips and he pushed the small sunglasses resting on his face further up the bridge of his nose, "A lot of the pairings this year are not what I expected."

"This year is sure to present some unique challenges, particularly in the case of Mr. Arc and Miss Schnee."

"I am inclined to agree, however, challenging does not automatically preconceive disaster. Though they are butting heads now, I am fully comfortable predicting that those two will become perhaps the strongest partnership among their year level."

"Oh?"

"It's just a feeling I have," Ozpin divulged, "And usually my feelings have a way of working themselves out. Until then, I hope they can at the very least tolerate each other's existence."

"You sound overly optimistic, Headmaster," Goodwitch told him bluntly.

"Perhaps," Ozpin conceded.

He raised the mug to his lips again, his expression unreadable to his companion as he peered out into the distance. Yes, he had high hopes for his students this year, this was the most interesting bunch they'd had in a while. Now, to see how these new pairs would form their teams. To coordinate a partnership was one thing but to find your place among new team-mates you'd never worked with before was another matter entirely.

—-

—-

Jaune's prediction about the rest of the journey being difficult didn't take long to fulfill itself. Within moments of Weiss defeating the Grimm that had nearly caught her off-guard, the two had made to continue the journey deeping into the forest and he'd already found a sharp glare fixated firmly on the back of his head. That was likely to attract more Grimm and - A loud cawing sound ripped through the forest and Jaune lifted his head to the source of the sound. A large creature was slicing through the air with powerful wings and though it was quite difficult to see from on the ground, Jaune could've sworn he saw a feral crimson glow emanating from the creature's eye.

"Nevermore," Weiss breathed from behind him.

Like other Grimm, it has a mask-like, white bony structure overlying the upper front of its head. It also has four glowing red eyes, two on each side of its head. The headpiece also includes a dorsal spine or fin, reminiscent of that on the heads of condors and some prehistoric pterosaurs.

Jaune could've sworn, he wanted to throw curse words into the wind. Their negative emotions hadn't just attracted the strange bladed creatures from earlier but had also caused the bigger threats to start coming out of the woodworks. Jaune was good, he hated tooting his own horn too much, but the fact was he was a respectable fighter. However, he highly doubted he was strong enough to take down a fully grown avian type on his own yet. Fully-trained Huntsman struggled with Nevermores!

"We need to move, you might not like me or whatever. I can't say I'm overly fond of you myself, but we have no chance against that thing. Our best bet is a strategic retreat for now."

"But-"

"There's no point in playing the hero, our objective in this forest isn't to bring down as many Grimm as possible, it's to collect the relics and return to the cliff we were dropped into this forest from. There's nothing wrong with playing it smart."

Weiss didn''t want to concede that he was right, but admittedly she had little choice. Fighting that thing wasn't an intelligent decision right now and Jaune was right, the two of them needed to collect the relics, not stupidly throw their lives away in a fight they were unlikely to win.

"What's the plan then?"

She was willing to compromise and actually work with him? Well, that was a strange thought. Funny how a situation like this did wonders for pulling people off their high horse for a little while. He highly doubted it would last beyond the Nevermore situation, but it proved it was possible for the two of them to at least attempt to work together going forward when the situation got this serious. Hardly ideal, he supposed, but it was better than nothing.

"It doesn't seem to have spotted us yet and we're going to use that to our advantage. With any luck we can get it to fly past us without noticing we're here. All we need to do is stop giving it a catalyst to detect us. We've got to focus on positive emotions. It's not much but it should be enough to give us the time to slip past it. Focus on a happy memory, it'll need to be nothing short of the happiest you've ever felt."

Jaune didn't say anything to Weiss after that, he focused on his memory, bringing it to the forefront of his mind and just like that, he fortified the memory with aura, using it to shield himself from the negative emotions swirling around in his mind. He looked over to Weiss and noticed the contorted expression. Was - was she struggling to form a memory to choose? Surely she had an abundance of grand memories from the high life she'd lived? Maybe the concept of what to do was a little lost on her.

Taking pity on her plight, "Need help? We don't have time, but I can teach you how to do it for next time so you don't have to rely on assistance."

"Fine," she begrudgingly agreed.

Jaune gently reached out and tapped two fingers on Weiss' forehead, for a moment his eyes shifted into a vibrant gold then they were back as Cerulean. "I didn't see anything," he informed her, "I just extended the feeling to you through my aura. It won't last nearly as long as the true effect, but it'll be enough for what we need it for."

"R-right."

"We'd better move."

"Wait!" Weiss hissed.

"What is it?"

"Wouldn't it be better if we stayed where we are until it passes? It can't detect us now according to your information but I doubt that thing is blind. If we move or make too much noise it could spot us and make the situation more difficult anyway."

Jaune conceded that she had a point and electing it was best to cease the noise as soon as possible, he lifted a finger to his lips and nodded, making absolutely no noise whilst doing so. His head traveled upward and thankfully, the Nevermore soared above them and past their heads in the opposite direction without any issue. The duo remained silent for a little while longer to be sure it was gone then Jaune stepped forward and tapped Weiss' forehead with his fingertips once more, same flash of the eyes and then his own aura disappeared once more.

Jaune then turned away and pushed through the brambles and hedges behind their hiding spot, and his eyes immediately popped wide open, they had arrived in a large clearing with an open field, towards the end of which was a broken down ruin equipped with several plinths around them, some of which were already empty.

"Chess Pieces?" Weiss queried.

"They must be the relics we're after, Ozpin striked me as a bit weird and this seems right up his alley."

Weiss shrugged, approaching the plinth and taking one of the pieces, a golden horse which she held up to the light, "This suit you?" She asked Jaune, using the calmest tone with him that she had since he'd unceremoniously landed on her at the beginning of the initiation.

Jaune shrugged, "I'm not sure it matters so much which one we take, let's just start making our way back to the cliff. I'm ready to be done with this and I'm sure you are too."

"Agreed."

"Heeeere's Nooooraaa!"

Jaune's attention snapped away from Weiss and he looked over at the incoming chaos. A girl with bright orange hair was sitting atop the shoulders of a giant Grimm, and Jaune's brow shot up and the boy dressed in Green trying in vain to catch up to the two of them.

"Did that girl just ride in here on an Ursa?" Weiss asked Jaune quietly.

"Looks like it," was the equally quiet response.

"Made it!" Another shout and Jaune and Weiss turned around to see Yang and Blake break through the thickets of forestry on the opposite side to the one which he and Weiss had entered the clearing from.

"Oh no! Everyone move!"

The outburst was very different to the one that had brought Blake and Yang with it. This one sounded like it had come from Ruby and it was coming from the only other entrance to the clearing that had not been used yet. What Jaune saw next, would've made him laugh had it not been for the seriousness of the situation. Ruby and Pyrrha broke through the darkness of the trees, charging out toward the rest of the group and in pursuit of them was a giant scorpion Grimm. It was covered in bone streaked with crimson and its giant stinger, a vicious looking body part that came with a bright golden sheen.

The next sound made Jaune's blood run cold.

The loud, bone-chilling caw from earlier.

The Nevermore had returned.

Jaune was clearly not the only one who noticed, because a moment later he heard Yang's voice from slightly behind him, "Great," she said sarcastically, "Now we can all die together."

To Jaune's surprise, Weiss cut Yang off, "It's like Arc said to me earlier. Our task is to retrieve the relics and get back to the cliff. So everyone who hasn't got a relic yet grab one and then let's make a break for it."

He hardly expected that she would take the recommendation he'd made to her earlier and formulate it into her own plans to get out of here. "Right, everyone, do you all have relics?"

"I'm queen of the castle!" Nora shouted.

"We have our piece," Pyrrha confirmed.

Jaune and Ren looked at each other, the two boys then nodded and then the group began their charge to the exit. "It's on the approach!" Ruby shouted, looking back at the Deathstalker, now hot on their heels.

"Ren, Pyrrha!" Jaune exclaimed in a commanding tone.

"We'll slow it down," Ren confirmed.

"Make sure you keep moving yourselves," Jaune warned them, but he didn't receive a response, Pyrrha and Ren had already thrown their bodies into position, firing rounds of dust from their weapons, trying to make any sort of dent in the Death Stalker's defenses. After a couple of shots had been fired off, the two of them retreated again, trying to keep up with the rest of the group.

"This is getting us nowhere."

"I hate to admit it, but you've got a point."

On one side of the battlefield Jaune stood with Weiss to his left and Pyrra and Ruby to his right while to his back Ren, Nora, Yang and Blake had taken positions to block the Death Stalker.

"You guys take that thing," Jaune told them, "The rest of us will take the bird."

"Are you sure about this?" Weiss asked him.

"Yeah," Jaune said sarcastically, "It'll be fun."

"We're gonna take this giant bird down!"

The exclamation caught Jaune off-guard but he knew immediately who was behind it. It was the reason he and Ruby had never been allowed to spar back in the old days. The sheer level of destruction the two could cause, unlike her sister, Jaune didn't quite think Ruby comprehended the word 'restraint'.

Pyrrha and Ruby charged forward, both aiming their firearms at the Nevermore and taking pot-shots at it, Jaune noted that the two of them were aiming for its wings and he siently agreed with their strategy. Taking that thing down and out of the air was going to be there - "That's it. I have an idea. Pyrrha, Ruby, keep shooting it!" Jaune took off at a sprint and extended his main sword, he threw the hand holding it forward and it quickly shifted into its vented form.

"Arc, what are you doing!?"

"Weiss," he commanded, ignoring her exclamation for the time being, "Gonna need a boost!"

Sighing to herself, she activated her semblance and Jaune quickly jumped onto the platform of blue light that had appeared, using it as a point of force to launch off. He soared upward and swung out Ascalon's whip form, then just like that he'd landed astride the Nevermore's back.

Noticing that their companion had landed on the creature's back, Pyrrha and Ruby momentarily ceased firing at it, but the loud screech from the beasts mouth and several expletives from Jaune, both girls lifted their weapons back up and resumed hitting the triggers as fast as they could between interchange of rounds.

Jaune quickly made his way up the creatures back and without hesitation, shoved the blade of his sword deep into the Nevermore's Neck. The blade punctured through the flesh, but it was only the smoldering of the Grimm's flesh drifting into the wind that alerted Jaune to the grievous mistake he'd made in his overconfidence.

"Oh no."

End Chapter

And there you have it. The two groups are starting their fights against the Deathstalker and The Nevermore. Jaune's ever strategic mind has once again been cursed by his bad luck. I wanted to change this a little bit because I didn't want them to be jumping all over the creatures like most fics tend to have them do. Despire their backgrounds they are still students and while I had Jaune bring down the Nevermore instead of Ruby this time, he's going to be leader so it makes more sense but I also wanted to use it as a plot device to show that a more experienced Jaune doesn't mean he's going to be fighting on par with say Qrow during initiation.

You may also ask why I elected to cut it off here and well, I'll have to ask you to wait until the next chapter to see why. My decision to end the chapter here will make more sense then, but I also feel like it fills the role of a part two nicely. Now I can move onto the next thing without too much issue.

Don't worry I have no intention of rushing ahead through the early stuff like the show did, but I at least wanted to get most of initiation out of the way quite quickly, because it is some of the most boring stuff to write once you've done it like more than twice in different ways. Hopefully you can bear with me on that one.

Well, until next time. I hope you'll review. Keep in mind, as always, flames will be ignored and any flames left by a guest reviewer will be deleted. See you all later!