Chapter 2: Initiation

Ruby woke up next to her sister, her back a bit sore from the ballroom floor. Glancing toward her scroll, she scowled.

"4:58. Lovely. No time for a nap… fuck today already." She drug herself from the confines of her sleeping bag, shivering slightly as her sister's warmth left her. She grabbed her bag and quickly packed before rushing to the washroom for a shower. Entering the room, she quickly realized that she wasn't the only one unfortunate enough to wake up at such an ungodly hour. Smiling softly to herself, she stuck to the opposite side of the washroom, quickly undressing and beginning her shower.

As she stepped under the scalding hot water, she sighed in content. "After yesterday, this is so heavily needed…" she thought to herself as a small groan escaped her throat. She quickly pushed past her desire to simply relish in the glories of hot water and quickly scrubbed herself down, taking extra care of her hair, which cascaded a bit past the middle of her back. She loved her hair. She loved the feeling she got from keeping it maintained and in perfect health, and has since she was young.

"Team initiation… who would I like to be on my team? Of course there's Yang. I don't think I could make it an entire year, let alone four, without her. Lets see… Oh! Maybe that black haired girl from yesterday! She seemed calm enough, maybe a bit reserved. Now… I know her in passing, Yang, and…" Her mind cut its inner discussion as a flicker of white found its way to her peripherals. Ruby's cheeks heated slightly at the robed sight of the alabaster time bomb. She smiled softly as Weiss gently combed her hair, deciding that if any time would be best to apologize, it'd be now.

"Good morning, Weiss." Ruby spoke with a soft confidence to the alabaster angel.

"Hello… Ruby was it?" Her reply shocked Ruby, expecting to just be ignored entirely.

Ruby smiled softly and leaned against the sink she was standing at. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened yesterday, especially the explosion. I feel like you may not believe me, but me falling over was due to my sister. She spun me as she rushed off with her friends from Signal that were chosen to come here as well. You have no right to accept or even consider this apology, but it's out there, and I am willing to start over for the sake of us potentially being a team or being on the same team, what do you say?" Ruby finished with an outstretched hand, a small smile tugging at her lips. Weiss stared at her hand, seemingly calculative before gripping it softly. "I accept your apology, though do try to refrain from doing such again." Weiss smirked. "That Dust… shit's expensive, and that's coming from the heir of a company that mines, refines, purifies, and distributes it."

Ruby laughed slightly, her hand brushing through her hair. "You have a sense of humor! Awesome! Now, Ive got to get back to my sister before she wakes. She'd destroy the place in worry from where I am. New place and all, you know?"

Weiss watched the red reaper leave the room before staring into the mirror in front of her, a deep sigh pulled from the depths of her body. "What an odd individual. She got me to be… comfortable enough to use a swear word, and ive known her for less than twenty-four hours. Just who is that girl?" She stared at her reflection a bit more, wondering how someone so new could have such an effect on her in such a short time, especially given the circumstances. Weiss gathered her things and finished preparing for the test that she knew would come soon.

"Your test is simple. Journey to the northernmost part of the forest, collect a relic from the temple, and guard it with your life on your travel to return to this cliffside. You will meet opposition, do not hesitate to slaughter all in your path, or you will die." Ozpin sipped his coffee, judging the reactions of the students in front of him. Yang looked excited, donning a pair of sunglasses and getting into a boxer's stance on top of her platform. Weiss merely stood still, arms crossed with her weight supported on her back leg. A boy named Jaune looked around nervously as he observed some of the students before him were launched from their platform.

Ruby pulled up her cape's hood and braced herself by crouching slightly and gripping Crescent Rose's compact form on her back, before being launched through the air at high speeds. A scream of joy pulled itself from her lungs as she soared through a low hanging cloud and passed over the deep green trees below. Her smile widened into a smirk as she began to descend. She pulled her scythe off her back, activated it, then shot in front of her, the high powered ammunition's recoil slowing her descent. She hooked onto a tree branch and swung around it in order to lose more momentum before releasing and landing on the ground. "I'd give that one a solid ten points." She said to herself with a small laugh before sprinting forward in search for her sister. The sounds of a battle drew her out of her mind as she turned towards it, hoping to find her sister. What she found, however, may have been much better off.

Weiss had been having a rather odd morning. First she woke up, got a nice warm shower, and then made up with the girl that wouldn't leave her mind. After that, she was flung (FLUNG!) off a cliff, and to make matters worse, she had landed near a Beowulf nest. She cursed loudly to herself as she cut down yet another beast, adding to her already impressive body count.

"Fucking hell, when does it end!?" she yelled to herself as a group of eight Beowulves came out of their nest, the alpha in the middle of his group of bretheren. With a howl, they charged forward, intent on tearing apart one of their natural enemies piece by piece. Weiss raised her rapier in a ready stance, intent on taking down as many as possible. She closed her eyes tight and waited for the moment to strike.

A gunshot broke her concentration. She opened her eyes to the group of Grimm in front of her staring down at their alpha… or what had been their alpha. What remained of it was a pile of black flesh that looked more like mincemeat than anything. Weiss turned and saw a blur of red in her vision before the howls and screams of the Grimm brought her attention back around. A red whirlwind stood in the middle of them, cleaving through their armor and hide like a hot knife through butter. Pieces of the beasts fell around her, blood splattered the ground, painting it a deep black, and as the last pitiful howl emerged from the Beowulves, the blur stopped, revealing a hooded Ruby who had a wide, sinister grin on her face.

"I hate Beowulves…" Weiss heard Ruby say to herself as she dropped her hood, smiling back at Weiss. "It seems my decision to apologize to you was not without its reward."

Weiss scowled slightly and sheathed her rapier in one swift motion. "Too true, but I could've handled it."

Ruby giggled and walked up to the white clad woman. "I'm sure you could have. Now let's go, the quicker we get done, the better."

Weiss nodded in agreement and took off behind the red reaper she now called teammate. "What was with that grin after she finished massacring that pack?"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Weiss thought to herself as the giant Nevermore circled overhead once more. Ruby and Weiss had both made it to the temple without a further issue aside from the stray Beowulf or Ursa that had stumbled into their path, but was quickly, and savagely depending on what the grim was, torn apart by the blades of the young huntresses in training. They rushed to the temple, Ruby speeding up and tackling a blond girl to the ground in a hug, laughing the entire time. Yang and her teammate Blake, the girl from yesterday I realized, had gotten here just before us and had chosen to take the Knight piece, as the relics were chess pieces. "How odd…" Weiss thought to herself, taking the other white knight for her and Ruby. As the two teams turned to leave, a girl with bright red hair dashed into the clearing they were in, a Deathstalker hot on her heels. An explosion erupted to their left, and an Ursa collapsed as a girl with orange hair and a rather large Warhammer jumped off it's back. A boy with long black hair that had a single pink stripe going through it collapsed, murmuring something to the hammer-wielding girl which caused her to calm down slightly, before dashing to the temple and grabbing a rook piece, singing "I'm queen of the castle" to herself. After that, a scream from above signaled Weiss to look up, highly confused as a blond boy fell from the sky. Weiss' mind snapped and she growled before screaming, "EVERYONE! CHILL THE FUCK OUT!"

Everyone, Grimm included, halted all movement as they stared wide-eyed at the white heiress. Weiss panted, then cleared her throat. "Thank you. You may resume as long as nothing ELSE happens that would fry by brain in FUCKING CONFUSION!" She marched toward Ruby and gripped her arm. "Let's go-"

Two Nevermore appeared from above, circling overhead, as the now grouped up initiates glanced between the giant birds and the white time bomb in their midst. Said time bomb mere looked at the birds with a blank expression before giggling slightly, letting it escalate into a full-blown maniacal laugh as she drew her rapier and pressed a button on the hilt. It shifted before their eyes into a simple silver pistol that resembled a Desert Eagle. She took aim at one of the Nevermore, still laughing maniacally, before pulling the trigger.

The rest of the group covered their ears and winced as the shot cracked through the air with the intensity of a lightning bolt. The round flew through the air and impacted the nevermore unlucky enough to be in its path of travel. Time slowed as the bird wailed in pain before exploding in a shower of black gore, the explosion sending a shockwave that rustled the leaves of nearby trees.

Weiss spun the pistol in her hand, blew some of the smoke and dust off the tip, then transformed it back into it's rapier form and sheathed it, beckoning for the others to follow. Everyone snapped to attention and followed close behind except Ruby, who's face had turned a deep red as she stared after the alabaster angel she called a teammate. "Im so fucking lucky… and wet…" She laughed before dashing after her teammates.

After coming back to the cliff, they stared at the two Grimm that had followed them: the Deathstalker who had retreated at the sight of one of its bretheren being turned into flying mush, and the remaining Nevermore. They each glanced at eachother, splitting into two groups of four. Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, and Lie Ren ran towards the Deathstalker as Blake, Yang, Weiss, and Ruby rushed closer to the cliff, the Nevermore close behind. Ruby and Blake shot at the bird, causing it to change course. Ruby smiled from ear to ear and reapplied her cape's hood. She deployed Crescent Rose, her scythe's blade gleaming in the afternoon light. Ruby snapped her fingers and concentrated on her weapon, and the blade shifted, retracting into its support system before being replaced by a serrated edge. Ruby giggled innocently and ran her finger over one of the serrations, laughing louder as it split her finger on contact. "Get it's attention, I have a plan!" Ruby yelled at her teammates. They nodded and shot bullets and dust at the bird above, getting it lower as it prepared a sweeping attack against the group of four. With one final shot from Yang's Ember Celica, the four regrouped together as the bird paralleled with the ground. Yang and Blake jumped to two support columns nearby as they held Blake's weapon across, the ribbon pulled taut. Ruby jumped back on the ribbon as Weiss made a black glyph that held her Ruby in place.

"You are insane, you know that, right Ruby?" Weiss said to her partner.

Ruby swapped her scythe's ammo magazine with one that made her giddy with excitement. "You damn well believe it, princess. You have less than 5 seconds to take the shot."

Weiss smiled at the nickname before concentrating, taking less than one second to swap her black attraction glyph with a white propulsion glyph. Ruby grinned, her eyes glowing a bright silver as she pulled the trigger, the purple round causing the effect of the slingshot and propulsion glyph to triple. Ruby activated her scythe, taking two more shots before spinning, her semblance turning her into a red tornado of death and the smell of roses. The red buzzsaw approached the bird as it opened its maw, a vain hope to eat her whole. Ruby laughed maniacally and spun faster.

The sound of ripping flesh, a dying screech, and a loud moan brought Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune's attention away from the now dead Deathstalker. Ruby had came to a stop near them and was using her scythe as a support as she trembled with clenched eyes, a blood red face, and a bitten lip. Behind her was a horizontally bisected Nevermore, a very, very confused Blake, Yang laughing her ass off, and an equally red Weiss as she stared at her partner recover. Nora stepped forward and scratched the back of her head, then spoke a question that was on the majority of those present's mind: "The FUCK was that?"

Here we go, second chapter in under 24 hours. 68 views and two followers in one night is rather impressive I must say. This story IS going somewhere, I promise, you just gotta let me have time to piece my thoughts together. Again, criticism is accepted in all forms, I need to improve. Imma go now, gotta get ready for work.

Peace friends.