A/N: The initiation! This might be good. A little heads up, Natalie's initiation will be different from everyone else's. That, and there will, once again, be a dark moment near the end. At least I think it's dark. Don't judge me. I do not own RWBY. If I did, Pyrrha would've lived! And my real name is not Natalie Palmer.
If the first day of school was bad, the second day should be a comeback. That wasn't the case for Natalie. After she was dressed and had breakfast, the girl went to Ozpin's office for details of her initiation, since it will be different from everyone else. Of course, she kept her mask on and hood up to hide her identity from others, even the teachers. The details she got for her initiation were ones she least expected to hear.
"Babysitting?! You're going to make me babysit!?" she demanded with her voice changer.
"That's one way to sum it up," Ozpin calmly said.
"What other ways do you call having me watch over the in-trainings pass the initiation?! This is getting even more ridiculous by the second!"
"I know you'd rather be in Vale rather than doing this. But think of it this way; what if the White Fang has hostages and your job was to help the hostages escape?"
Thinking about it that way, Natalie saw Ozpin's point and cooled down. "Fine. This better be one-time-only." With that, she made her way to Beacon Cliff for the initiation.
"Ozpin... She's getting worse by the day," Glynda said.
"I know. I hope this works. If not, we may lose her for good," he agreed.
It was time for the initiation. All the students lined up on the edge, each on a platform. Ozpin and Glynda stood before them, giving information of their initiation. Natalie blocked out every word, especially since she knew how their initiation would go.
'Babysitting... Babysitting, Ozpin?!' she mentally seethed. 'I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure I get kicked out early so I don't have to deal with one semester of this.'
She suddenly felt herself in the air, wind going through her hair. Natalie realized she was catapulted, but she didn't panic. Being with Ozpin for five years, she knew he would do something crazy for the initiation. That and she was suspicious of the platform.
"Birdie no!" she heard a familiar voice cried out.
Ignoring the voice and changing her sword to bow mode, she took out an arrow and took aim at a tree branch. She fired, revealing the arrow to be her grappling arrow. As soon as she felt the arrow hit the branch, she retracted the wire back in her prosthetic arm, hasting her descent and allowing her to swing to another tree branch, think enough to support her weight. She looked up and watched as the other studies flew over her head.
"Babysitting though..." She faced Beacon Cliff. "BABYSITTING?!" Knowing how hopeless it was to complain now, Natalie took out her scroll and accessed to the cameras in Emerald Forest, therefore beginning her 'babysitting' work. Once she took out her scroll, she saw she had a message from Ozpin.
"If that's what you're going to keep calling it," it read.
Natalie was trembling in anger as she read that and mentally promised that he would be next on her kill list, after she kills her first and more important target. Getting out of the message box, she started her initiation.
Less than an hour within the initiation, Natalie saw everyone was with a partner, which was a good sign. The bad sign? Weiss and Ruby paired up and were doing nothing but arguing. How is that bad for her? She was near their argument without them knowing.
"Okay that's it." She took out what seemed like a ball from her pouch and cut her hand with her sword. She dripped some blood on the ball and carefully stuck an arrow through it, stuffing the arrowhead in. She took aim at where the bickering duo are and shot her arrow.
With the said duo...
"I'm not bossy! Don't say things like that!" Weiss shouted at Ruby.
"Stop treating me like a kid!" she shouted back.
"Stop acting like a kid!"
"Well, stop acting like you're perfect!"
Just when Weiss was about to say something back, something flew past between them, ending the conversation with a splat.
"Was that an arrow?" the heiress asked.
"Looked like it," the hooded huntress replied.
"Was there something attached to it?"
"Also what it looked like."
"Did it come from-?"
"I don't know anyone else."
Both girls looked where the arrow came from and saw no one near them. They then looked where the arrow hit and were disgusted to see what seemed like a large amount of blood dripping down a big, thick tree near them, leaving a message.
"Dear bozos, if you continue to argue like that, you'll only be attracting attention. Grimm attention that is. So unless if you want to either fail the initiation or die, suck it up and get along. Also, forest temple's that way," the message read, pointing the direction of their destination.
"What in the world?! Is that guy a sadist or something?! That looks like he killed someone and wrote a message in the victim's own blood! What's wrong with him?!" Weiss questioned.
Ruby noticed the dripping blood revealing more message. "Wait, there's more."
The continuing message read, "P.S. If either of you are thinking that this looks like I killed someone and wrote a message in the victim's own blood and called me a sadist, you obviously have no sense of humor."
Weiss fumed at the last message, took her rapier and set it to Ice Dust. She then stabbed the tree and froze it. "When I see him, he is definitely going to wish I never met him!"
"He has a sick sense of humor," Ruby stated.
"Ahh. Peace and quiet at last," Natalie sighed in content. She sat on a thick tree branch and leaned against the trunk, trying to enjoy the weather. In fact, for the first time in five years, she was felt so relaxed, she took a nap. One which was ruined minutes later.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Natalie was in so much shock, not only did she get a nasty wake-up call, she also fell off a tree, much to her embarrassment. "Ouch... That hurts..." She got up and dusted herself. "Not how I imagine my first nap in years." She felt her mask missing from her face and found it right next to her. After she put it back on, Natalie turned to the source of the scream. "Okay, let me take my guess... A pair of idiots went into the Death Stalker Cave and the most stupid of the two thought its stinger was the relic and grabbed hold and came face-to-face with said Death Stalker. And for the sound of the voice, I'm going to guess it to be a girl or a gay man." She felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket and took it out.
"You got most of it right," read Ozpin's message.
Natalie looked around and saw a camera. She took aim and shot an arrow at it, destroying the camera. After that, she made her way to the temple when her faunus ears caught something.
'Flaps? Not from two wings...' she thought. She took out a spyglass from her pouch and pointed it to the direction of the sound. Besides the Nevermore, who she saw have Ruby and Weiss on its back for whatever reason, she saw a small group of Griffons heading for the forest temple.
"I hate my life," she declared. Putting away her spyglass, she ran to the oncoming group of Griffons.
As soon as she arrived at the temple, she saw that the other students weren't there and some relics, which were oversized chess pieces, were missing. She looked at the direction of the cliff they were suppose to get to after obtaining a piece and, looking through her spyglass, saw the group of eight holding their own against the Death Stalker and Nevermore.
"If they're true Huntsmen, they finish this without help from professionals," she muttered.
Once again putting away her spyglass, she faced the group of Griffons and unsheathed her sword, changing it into its bow form. She took an arrow with a yellow arrowhead, aimed, and fired at the center of the group. The arrow hit and shocked the middle Griffon. All other Griffons around it were also shocked, literally. The Grimm the arrow shot looked down and lead its kind down to Natalie.
"Come get me." She took out another arrow and fired.
Switching over to Ruby and the others, they managed to defeat the Death Stalker and the Nevermore. When they regrouped, they heard the faint sound of an explosion. Looking to the source, they saw a huge dust cloud formed where the temple was.
"Someone's in trouble!" Jaune said in concern.
"What should we do?" Yang asked.
"Whoever is over there should be able to handle the Grimm themselves," Weiss said.
"Are those Griffons?" Ren asked. They all looked and saw that there was a horde of Griffons at the temple.
"Let's go help them!" Ruby said. Everyone looked at her questionably. "That's what we should do! I wanted to be a hero like in the books Yang read to me back when I was little. I don't think I'll live with myself knowing someone died because we ignored them."
They all thought over what she said and knew she was right. That said, they took off to the forest temple.
Back to said temple, Natalie skidded back from the force of the explosion from her Explosive Arrow. As soon as she regained her posture, she looked up in time to see a Griffon come in an attempt to gobble her up. Natalie took an arrow and shot it at the inside of its mouth, freezing it and gave the Grimm an unnecessary chill as it recoiled away from her.
Natalie then sensed another Griffon coming and turned in time to see it opened its mouth to swallow her. She used her bow to prevent the Grimm from closing its mouth and fired an arrow within it. The arrow was revealed to be explosive, as the enemy soon exploded and Natalie was once again sent skidding back.
She noticed the remaining Griffon getting back in the air and shot the arrows in random spots. Only thing was that she didn't even aim at the sky as she did so. Sensing a Griffon coming to eat her, Natalie jumped over it and changed her bow to sword mode. She stopped just below the center of the remaining horde and jabbed her weapon onto the ground.
"Hey! You want me?! Then come on! I'm right here!" she challenged. The Griffons accepted and flew down to her. Natalie flicked a switch on her sword, one that activated the arrows she used to shoot at random. They all generated electricity and released it onto Natalie and her weapon, only for the remaining Grimms to be the unintentional targets. While some of the Griffons were busy being shocked, the last of them continued to charge right at Natalie.
She took her sword out of the ground and flicked a different switch on it, one that caused the blade to lit up in flames. Pulling out a small vile of powdered Wind Dust, she crushed the vile over her sword, causing it to create a fire tornado. The Griffons were caught in the tornado and were burned to ashes. Natalie then flicked the switch for the lightning arrows and turned them off. The Grimms caught in the electricity fell to the ground and slowly disintegrated.
"I expected more of a challenge than this. Guess I got my hopes up for nothing," she muttered.
She saw something on the ground ways away from her. Something important to her. Just as she took a step forward, a Griffon appeared and snatched the item from the ground and swallowed it whole. Natalie stared in shock at the event that had just occurred before her. By this time, Ruby and the others arrived at the scene... Watching as the Griffon gobbled Natalie whole.
"Did that just happen?!" Jaune asked.
"That guy's been swallowed!" Nora stated the obvious.
"Let's save him!" Ruby shouted.
Just when they were about to charge in to the Grimm, it had an odd expression on its face, as though it was in pain. They then saw the stomach bulging, as though something inside of it was moving. The next thing they knew, its stomach was cut open and Natalie jumped out of it. She then leapt back to the Grimm and cut its head off.
Everyone was more shocked at what had occurred. Usually, no one could cut themselves out of a Grimm. Especially not a Huntsman-in-training their age.
Ruby ran to Natalie's side. "Are you okay?!" The moment she placed a hand on her shoulder, Natalie shook it away.
"I'm fine," she told her. Due to her voice changer, she sounded like a guy.
Ruby noticed Natalie holding onto her right side. "You're hurt!"
"I said I'm fine!" Natalie turned away from her and the rest of the group. "You just go and finish this stupid initiation!" Without hearing another word, Natalie took off.
Ruby and the gang all stood in shock as they watched Natalie leave.
One person assumed she, or he to them, wasn't taking the initiation seriously, despite what happened. "Who does he think he is?!" Weiss asked, in an infuriated tone.
"He's cool!" Nora said.
"Well, he did just cut open a Griffin's stomach," Ren followed.
"Yeah but... I wonder why he feels... So alone," Ruby said.
Yang patted her sister's head. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about Ruby. So how about we finish this initiation?"
With that, they all ran back to the cliffs.
Once she was at a safe distance away from them, she looked down at her left hand, revealing a small doll in her hand, the size of her palm. The doll was like a miniature version of herself, minus the cloak and mask. One look at it and her mind was replaced with a memory.
*FLASHBACK*
"Happy birthday, big sister!" Nadia congratulated. In her hands was a doll, exactly the one in the Present Natalie's hands.
"You didn't have to get me anything," Past Natalie told her.
"I want to, though. You always took care of me when our parents couldn't. I want to return the favor."
Past Natalie smiled happily at the reason and accepted the gift. "I'll think of this as my good luck charm."
"That's what it was suppose to be! And it's travel size so you don't have to worry about it taking up space when you go on missions as a Huntress!"
The older of the two sister giggled. "Well, I guess I'll just have to keep this somewhere else for that time to come."
*END OF FLASHBACK*
A tear dropped on the doll's head. Natalie noticed and wiped her eyes. She then placed the doll back in her pouch.
"You got the right measurements for the pouch, sis. But not the pockets," she muttered. "I'm lucky I can still fit some stuff in it."
Later that day, at night time, everyone was back in the amphitheater. Ozpin was putting the students in teams of four, based of the relic they obtained, announced the team name, and who the leader of that team was.
Since she didn't obtain a relic herself, Natalie didn't have to be there. Or so she thought.
'Why the hell am I here?' she mentally questioned. 'I don't have a partner, I didn't get a relic, my initiation was completely different from everyone else. So why, Ozpin, am I here?'
"Lastly, we have one more student with us. Nathan Palmer, please step forward," Ozpin called.
Natalie knew he meant her, since that was the name of her brother and the name she wished to be known as in public. She walked to the center of the stage.
"Each year, we have four students put into a team. This year, we have one student who will be a team of his own. Nathan Palmer, you have defeated so many Griffons during your initiation. You are the first student to be a team of your own. You may go on missions solo or with a team in the same year as you or younger, whether by choice or requested."
Everyone applauded for Natalie. Some congratulating her for the huge success. Others were a bit suspicious of the accomplishment.
"One more thing. Those who challenge and defeat you, if they are the same year as you, they will become the new one-man team, and you will be expelled. If they are older than you, they will be the one-man team of their year." At those additional words, some people in the audience had devious smirks on their faces.
"Is that so?" Natalie asked. Many were taken aback by her fake, deep voice. "Then how about they all come up and take that title now? Or are they all a bunch of cowards who failed their city?!" Natalie took out her sword in bow form and fired an explosive arrow at the ceiling. The arrow exploded and luckily, the ceiling didn't get destroyed. However, there was a sigil on it. That sigil was a skull with crossbones behind it, the symbol for death.
"Do you all see that sigil?! That sigil represents me! And I represent death itself! If I see anyone acting cocky in this school in any way, they will NOT live to see the next minute of their life! Do I make myself clear?!" She saw the students nod their heads frantically. Satisfied with the answer, she walked out of the amphitheater.
As soon as she left, everyone was in a panic.
"D-Did you see what just happened?! He threatened the entire school!" Weiss shouted. "What was Ozpin thinking?!"
As if to answer her question, Ozpin was calling out to everyone. "Everyone! Please quiet down now!" The students slowly came to a silence. "As bad as it may seem, I assure you, Nathan means no harm. If you had seen things from his point of view, you'd understand why. This academy may be a place for you to become great Hunters and Huntresses, but it is also a place where people like Nathan come to... Find themselves. Where people like him need help, assistance in learning how to trust and believe in others again. As Huntsmen, we are to eliminate the Grimm and help those in need. What better to help said people than get them around trusting people?" With that speech, Ozpin took his leave.
"You may follow your seniors to the student's dormitory. You will find your belongings, school uniforms and supplies in your room. Classes will start tomorrow," Glynda said. She then left the room. Many students were talking among themselves, mainly about Natalie.
With Ozpin and Glynda, the latter caught up to the former.
"Ozpin! We cannot be silent about this!" she said. "Natalie went too far on this one! She-!"
"Needs time, Glynda," Ozpin interrupted. "Yes, I agree that she went too far with what she did. Yes, I know what she did should result in her expulsion. I am very much aware of this. However, you know that there isn't much we could do. Besides, if we expel her, we would be helping her. She never wanted to be here, Glynda. And I want her to open up to people, to be the little girl her brother described her as."
Glynda looked down in deep though with what he said and found herself agreeing with him. "I suppose you're right."
In Natalie's room, she had been training non-stop, relieving herself of the stress and upcoming stress in going to school with so many people she knew she would never trust. Especially since she smelled something familiar about one of them. Being a wolf faunus, she had an extremely sensitive sense of smell.
'I smell you on them,' she thought. 'Prepare yourself, Adam Taurus. For once I find out who has your scent, your head will be my trophy!' She hit a dummy so hard, the head was knocked off its body and hit a wall. The second it made contact, the head split in half.
"I will destroy you."