A/N: A quick note. The factual inaccuracy that no one noticed last chapter about Ruby living in Vale proper rather than Patch has been rectified. For purposes of this fic, Patch is easily accessible from the rest of Vale, just because otherwise a few things—like Glynda being present for the fight in Chapter 1 of the show—are harder to justify otherwise.

Chapter Two: Forest Shade

"Rise and shine, Ruby!"

Ruby's eyes opened and instinctively sought their mirrored pair. For a moment, their absence sparked a panic like none she could ever remember.

Roserosewhereisrose

And then she blinked and remembered. Rose was gone.

She swallowed and fought back tears. "Yang," she whispered thickly, "have you got a mirror?"

Yang's violet eyes blinked down at her in alarm. "Oh, man, Ruby, are you okay?"

"Mirror!"

Yang startled at the hoarse demand and reached into her bag, producing a handheld mirror. "Uh, here." She handed it to her sister. "Are you all right?"

In lieu of an answer, Ruby spun the mirror and stared into it and there were those silver eyes she knew so well.

Ruby had been taught that identical twins usually had distinguishing features; though they appeared identical to the untrained eye, those who knew them could tell them apart, even if they wore the same clothes.

Ruby, however, was not an identical twin, and she and Rose shared perfectly identical physical features, barring those they had gained over their lives. Ruby's red-tipped locks of hair, for instance, were not mirrored—Rose had never had the time to get them—and Rose had several more scars than her sister.

But their eyes were the same, and always had been. If Ruby lied to herself just enough…

She ran her hand along the mirror and sighed. "I'm okay now," she muttered, handing the mirror back to her sister. "Thanks, Yang."

"Uh, no problem," Yang said, blinking at her. "But… what was that? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

Ruby sighed and lay back against her sleeping bag. "Sure," she said wearily. "That's as good an explanation as any."

I miss you already, Rose.

Launch pads, Ruby thought incredulously as she surveyed the cliff's edge. "You're kidding, right?" she asked no one in particular. "I mean, yes, please, but you've got to be kidding."

Yang looked at her sidelong. "What?" she asked cockily. "Too hot for you, little sis?"

"Are you kidding?" Ruby asked, a breathless laugh escaping her. "It's like my birthday, only for everybody!"

"Uh," a blond, nervous-looking young man sidled up to her shiftily. "Hi," he muttered sheepishly. "I'm Jaune Arc."

"Ruby Rose," she replied with a nod and a smile in his direction. "This is my sister Yang."

Yang gave him a grin.

"Nice to, uh, meet you," he said, somehow looking intimidated already. "Erm… you seem to know what's going on?"

Ruby clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, I hope I'm right!"

"What do you think they're going to do?" Jaune's voice was slightly shaky.

Ruby pointed out across the cliff. "I think they're going to use these launch pads to throw us off the cliff," she said happily, "and then we'll do… something… in the forest down there. Ooh, I can't wait! Crescent Rose is great in the air!"

"Feel bad for anyone who doesn't have a high-recoil setting on their firearms," Yang interjected, coming up beside and surveying the area. "I mean, you can get the same effect with Aura bursts in a pinch, but those are expensive."

Ruby nodded. "Oh, and can you imagine trying to do this without a firearm of some kind?" she asked with a giggle. "I mean, it's definitely possible, but you'd need to use your melee option to deflect your velocity on the canopy and simultaneously use Aura to dampen your existing momentum. That'd take huge reserves!"

Yang cocked an eyebrow at her. "Is that a challenge?" she asked slyly.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I'd rather my sister not break her wrists trying to angle a fall on a branch with her hands, even if Ember Cecilia is on them," she replied. "Please don't."

"Uh," Jaune mumbled from behind them. Ruby heard him peripherally, but he didn't seem to be talking to them anymore. "I'll just, uh, go over here… Oh my goodness…"

"Well, why don't you?" Yang suggested, as if she hadn't heard the odd boy behind them. "Crescent Rose is perfect for this! The curved blade will let you swing a little, if you angle it right, even without using Aura!"

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and studied it, considering. "…Maybe," she conceded. "It might be worth a try, and I don't have that much ammo on me right now. It might be good to save it."

"Right!" Yang said, after the barest pause. "Totally! It'll let you save a few rounds of the, what, twenty 32-round magazines you carry on you at all times? Which isn't much at all! That's only 600 shots!"

Ruby nodded decisively. "Right," she said. "That settles it. Never waste ammo, Yang," she advised wisely, turning toward the launch plates and walking back from the cliff towards them. "You never know when you might need it."

There was a pause, and Ruby was about to turn back to see if her sister was okay before Yang sighed heavily and came to a halt on a plate beside hers. Ruby heard her mumble something that sounded like, "And they say I'm crazy," but didn't question it. Yang was weird sometimes.

"I wonder if they're going to assign us to teams for this," Ruby mused aloud. "Or maybe this has something to do with the team assignments?"

"An excellent, and topical, question, Miss Rose," said a familiar voice behind her.

She turned and grinned. "Headmaster Ozpin," she greeted, "Professor Goodwitch." Then she smiled sheepishly. "Uh, and it's Ruby, please. Rose is… someone else."

Ozpin smiled. "Very well, then, Miss Ruby. Now," he projected his voice to the gaggle of Beacon admits at large. "If each of you could stand on one of the pads, one student to each pad, please?"

The students shuffled into position.

"For years, each of you has trained to become warriors," Ozpin said, addressing the group, "and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He nodded to Professor Goodwitch.

"I'm sure many of you have been hearing rumors about team assignments. Allow us to lay those rumors to rest. Each of you will be assigned a team today."

Ruby was unsurprised. Everything Huntsmen did was in teams. It only made sense to set something of the sort up immediately.

"This team will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon," Ozpin continued.

Now Ruby grimaced. That seems… rushed.

"So it is in your best interests to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin advised. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ruby stared at him, open-mouthed. "You're kidding, right?" she asked blankly—and, thankfully, quietly enough that Professor Goodwitch only sent her a small glare.

"After you've partnered up," Ozpin carried on, ignoring her completely, "make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way."

Grimm, Ruby mentally noted. There's going to be Grimm. At least that's familiar.

"Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path," Ozpin instructed flatly, "or you will die."

Definitely Grimm.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene," Ozpin continued, as though he hadn't just told a group of seventeen-year-olds that they might be minutes away from death. Which, of course, he hadn't—Ruby was fifteen. "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Ruby raised a hand. Down the line, so did Jaune. "Yeah, um, sir?" the boy began.

"Good!" Ozpin said, his eyes twinkling with the slightest hint of amusement. "Now, take your positions."

Ruby nodded, lowered her hand, and took a stance—her knees bent, her feet pointed at a 60-degree angle, one hand already reaching for the sheathed Crescent Rose.

She'd wanted to ask how the partnerships would be paired into traditional four-man teams, but she expected it would become clear in time.

"Uh, sir?" Jaune continued, clearly either determined or suicidal. "I've got, um, a question."

Ruby tuned him out, opting instead to close her eyes and feel the wind on her face. A westward wind, she decided, opening her eyes again as the first trainee, far to her left, was launched. I'll have to angle slightly eastward if I want to stay with the group, given how light I am. On the other hand, if I stay to the outskirts, I might be able to find a good partner without being spotted…

Then she looked over as Blake was launched. She followed the dark-haired girl with her slowly widening eyes. "Right," she said. "Force. Momentum." She turned to Yang. "Windspeed isn't going to be a big deal, is it?" she asked conversationally.

Yang shrugged. "It's two-dimensional, without the wind," she said, as another initiate was launched. "Three with it. Should still be a factor."

Ruby frowned. "Wait, but won't we…?"

"Sorry, Sis," Yang interrupted with a wink as she slipped on a pair of sunglasses. "Gotta go!"

And she was gone.

Ruby tensed, and as she heard the creak of the spring, she leapt with it. Her feet left the ground, and in a blink she was flying.

Out came Crescent Rose, slicing through the air like an arrow. She whirled it about herself, trying to use the air about her as a sort of rotating cushion in lieu of bullets. It wasn't especially effective, but she wasn't expecting it to be. That was what her Semblance and the canopy were for.

Speaking of the canopy, it was getting very close very quickly. She angled Crescent Rose just so, and it caught along a branch, swinging her upward in a gut-pulling arc, leaving a deep gash in the wood.

She was still falling, however, just slightly slower. She let herself drop a few feet more, until she was just moments from hitting the earth, and activated her Semblance.

In a flash of whirling rose petals, she was higher up and falling slower. She brought Crescent Rose up in a great swing and dug a deep trough in the earth below her to dampen her momentum before arcing again, this time sinking the scythe into the earth before her as her feet met the ground.

She came down kneeling on one knee, her right hand gripping the haft of her weapon while the left landed beside her to steady her. She took a moment like that to survey her surroundings before rising and yanking Crescent Rose out of the ground.

She sighed. "Good landing," she told her weapon. "Now comes the hard part. Yang?" The call was halfhearted—Ruby seriously doubted Yang would be anywhere near her by now. Her sister tended to go for very long landings, extending her fall a great distance. If she'd thought about Ruby wanting her as a partner, Yang might have held back, but… it just wasn't a stressful situation for the blonde. Ruby knew that.

Yang could get along with everyone, and though she knew Ruby was less social, it didn't always register. Ruby doubted she'd thought to look after her sister. Or she might just want Ruby to grow out of her "shell."

Ruby sighed and began to move, quickly but quietly, through the forest. As she went, she tried to turn her thoughts to more positive matters. After all, if there were Grimm in these woods, attracting them was a Grade-A Bad Idea.

The trouble was, there was little in her life right now to be happy about. She was in Beacon Academy, sure, but it was impossible to separate that fact in her mind from what she had sacrificed for the opportunity.

There was a growl behind her and Ruby cursed her luck. I shouldn't have been thinking about Rose! Not here!

She whirled, Crescent Rose at the ready, and slashed through the Beowolf unfortunate enough to be first. There were two more behind it.

Now she smiled slightly with a snort. "Three Beowolves? Where's the rest of you?"

Then five Ursai followed them warily out of the trees, and Ruby's smile widened. "That," she said, "is more like it. This is for my sister, you soulless freaks."

She spun, Crescent Rose whirling into the Beowolf on the left. It leapt back out of the way, and the blade passed through the air it had vacated and then into the chest of its slower compatriot.

Ruby pulled it through the rest of its arc, leaving a massive gash in the already-dissolving Beowolf. She rotated the haft of Crescent Rose in her hand with a flick of her wrist so that the blade was pointing straight up, before firing a round into one of the Ursai.

She let the recoil push her backward into a tree, lading with one foot on the ground and one on the bark. She used the shock of the impact to swing Crescent Rose upward until it sank into the tree behind her like a hook.

Then she leapt upward, pulling on the haft of her scythe as she went so that it rotated in the tree like a lever until it eventually cut its way out of the gash she had dug just as her feet touched the branch she was landing on.

She continued to raise Crescent Rose along its arc, firing once as an Ursa was unfortunate enough to be into her sightline, before leaping off of the tree, spinning laterally with her scythe in her hand so that it became a crimson corkscrew, obliterating two of the remaining Ursai and the last Beowolf in one strike.

She landed, turned, and sank her blade into the last Ursa's masked skull as it charged her. After a moment, when it began to dissolve, she withdrew the weapon and retracted it into its folded storage form.

Her smile faded slightly. "That was fun, she allowed herself, before turning, and meeting her partner.

The girl was about her height, and a long ponytail, off-center and to her right streamed a pure white down her back. A scar was etched into her face, just below her left eye, marring otherwise flawless pale skin. A white battle-dress, only peripherally similar to Ruby's own, clothed her, with a red lining visible at the collar and a light lace hem at the bottom, webbed to look like snowflakes.

All of this Ruby noticed only peripherally. The girl's eyes caught her attention and held them. They were exactly the pale blue color of a glacier, with all the symbolic connotations. They looked cold, unyielding, and somehow old.

Ruby smiled. "So you're my partner?" she asked.

The girl frowned slightly, then nodded. "I suppose so," she allowed. "You seem able to handle yourself."

Ruby wished suddenly that Grimm didn't dissolve so that she could survey the corpses of her victims. She settled for wryly saying, "Gee, thanks for the glowing endorsement."

The girl rolled her eyes. "It was only six Grimm," she said flatly. "Don't flatter yourself."

Ruby cocked an eyebrow. "It was eight," she corrected. "I should know, I killed them. Look, can we not argue ten seconds into meeting each other?" She held out her hand with a renewed smile. "I'm Ruby Rose," she said. "Please call me Ruby—Rose is someone else. What's your name?"

The girl seemed surprised that she had to ask, but she shook Ruby's hand anyway. "Weiss Schnee," she said flatly.

Ruby nodded, smile never faltering. She knew the Schnee name, of course—everyone and their grandmother did—but here Weiss was just another Huntress-in-training, and if she wanted to be treated otherwise she would have to earn it.

Besides, Rose had mentioned Weiss Schnee once or twice. "Smarter than most people three times her age," Ruby's sister had said, "but she hates her job. She'd never admit it, but I can tell."

Weiss had been unhappy at the head of the Schnee dynasty on Rose's Remnant. Ruby decided not to treat her as if she was there.

"Nice to meet you," she said, unable to fully hide her mirth at Weiss' shock at her limited reaction. "Let's go; we can get to know each other while we walk."

Weiss sniffed, then nodded. "Agreed."

They began to walk at a leisurely pace—not quite slow, but well below a jog. "So," Ruby said, "Why did you want to become a Huntress, Weiss?"

Weiss shrugged noncommittally. "To do justice to the Schnee name, I suppose."

Ruby cocked a brow at her. "I won't ask," she promised. Weiss glared at her and she held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry!" she said. "If you want to elaborate I'll listen, but you looked like you didn't!"

Weiss sighed and looked away. "What about you?" she asked instead of answering.

Ruby smiled and shrugged, her hands falling back to her sides. "A few reasons," she said. "I mean, a big part of it is that it's fun, right?"

Weiss turned her head to watch her closely. "You… enjoy cutting monsters up into tiny little pieces?" she asked warily.

Ruby sighed. "I enjoy combat," she clarified. "I think most of us do, even if we don't like to admit it. I enjoy the thrill, the challenge, and the tactical sense it involves. The Grimm are the only targets that I don't have to hold back against that actually fight back, unless I want to spend a lot of Lien on some Atlesian military tech."

Weiss frowned thoughtfully. "I suppose there is a certain… excitement, to the whole affair," she admitted.

Ruby grinned at her. "Stop making it sound so bad, Weiss!" she chided playfully. "You're in the only profession in the world where wanting to fight is an unqualified positive!"

Weiss smiled slightly. "I suppose so. You said there were other reasons, though?"

Ruby's face fell slightly. "Well," she hedged, then sighed. "I've lost people to the Grimm," she said honestly—her mother, for instance. "And someone… very important to me has lost a lot more. I want to, I don't know, find closure on what she went through. For both of us."

Weiss watched her, something like sympathy in her eyes. She seemed unaccustomed to it. "Did she…?" she asked hesitantly.

Ruby shook her head with a sad smile. "She's not dead, no." Not yet. "Just… her life is hard, and it's their fault. So I want to try to make it right, the only way I can."

"That's…" Weis seemed to struggle for a moment. "…Noble of you. I suppose."

Ruby shrugged halfheartedly. "Not really," she said honestly. "A 'noble' Huntress would be doing this for the sake of all the people of Remnant, fighting for the cause of our species' survival and growth." She chuckled wryly. "I'm just fighting to take as many of the soulless scum down as I can."

Weiss nodded with a light chuckle. "I suppose I can understand that," she agreed.

Ruby looked over at her. "So where did you learn to fight?" she asked, changing the subject. "I studied at Signal Academy, and was admitted here early."

Weiss looked over at her, intrigued. "I thought you looked young," she said. "How old are you?"

Ruby blushed slightly. "You should never ask a lady her age," she said coyly, swaying on her hips and looking up at Weiss with affected shyness. The white-haired girl spluttered, flushing slightly.

"I—I didn't mean—" she stuttered.

Ruby interrupted her with a laugh. "I'm kidding," she said, nudging Weiss' shoulder gently with a hand. "I'm fifteen. I'm told I act older than most my age. To be honest," she lowered her voice clandestinely, "I think the rest of them are being immature, but what do I know?"

Weiss huffed a slight giggle. "I would certainly never have guessed that you were fifteen," she admitted.

Ruby smiled slightly. "Then I won't hold back our team," she said, by way of an answer. Then she turned about, surveying the area. "We don't really know where this ruin is," she said. "I can get up into the canopy to scout?"

Weiss nodded. "That might be a good idea. Don't fall," she added, seemingly as an afterthought.

Ruby chuckled. "Aww, you care!" without waiting for a reply, she made a Semblance-assisted leap upward onto a low hanging bough and began to shimmy carefully up the trunk, catching herself on one branch at a time.

She emerged from the leaves a few moments later. Holding tightly to the higher branches, she craned her neck, trying to get a view of the whole forest.

There. A large clearing, with some sort of structure just barely visible over the treetops.

Ruby let go, and used another Semblance blink to get to the ground without falling conventionally.

"I told you not to fall," Weiss said, amused.

Ruby grinned at her. "It's that way," she said, pointing in the direction she's seen the place. "North-Northwest. About a mile more." She turned to Weiss. "You should set the pace," she said. "I don't care how fast we get there, and my Semblance basically makes me move fast, so I should definitely not be blazing the trail."

Weiss nodded. "I understand," she said. "I'd rather get there sooner than later, I think. Let's pick up the pace."

They did. They traveled now at a light jog—not a difficult pace to keep, but also fast enough to cover a mile in ten or so minutes.

"So," Ruby continued their conversation as they moved. "You grew up in Atlas, I guess?"

Weiss nodded. "And you? Vale?"

Ruby nodded with a chuckle. "Born and raised," she said proudly. "I grew up on Patch with my sister, Yang."

Wais looked over at her, curiously. "You have a sister?" she asked. "Younger or older?"

Ruby smiled happily. "Older," she said. "Two years older—she's starting Beacon with us." She snorted. "Just look for the girl who's on fire. It's probably her, unless someone's very unlucky."

Weiss frowned at her. "On… fire?"

Ruby snorted. "It's her semblance. She basically goes berserk. The fire's… probably a side effect."

"I see," Weiss seemed somewhat put off by the idea of a girl in her class being prone to combustion. Ruby understood.

"What about you?" Ruby asked curiously. "Any siblings?"

"An older sister," Weiss said, a smile crossing her face. "Her name is Winter. She's a Special Operative in Atlas' military."

Ruby blinked. "A commando?"

Weiss giggled. "She doesn't like the term," she said. "If you ever meet her, it's 'operative.'"

"But she's a commando," Ruby said, reading Weiss' unspoken meaning.

"She is," Weiss agreed. "Although sometimes I think that involves being a Huntress more than anything else."

Ruby shrugged. "We're not at war with anyone else right now," she said. "Who else would she fight besides the Grimm?"

Weiss grimaced. "The White Fang," she grumbled, "and other such groups. But I suppose that's the Schnee talking. Most people would likely say the Grimm are the greater threat."

Ruby shrugged sympathetically. "If the White Fang drives humanity extinct, it'll be by accident," she said. "The Grimm, not so much. But, on the other hand, the Grimm have always been there, and probably always will be. And, in fairness, it's not my company the Fang keeps messing with."

Weiss sighed. "It's not mine, either," she allowed. "It's my father's." She grimaced, then. "I'd… rather not talk about this, if it's all the same to you."

"Of course," Ruby said, casting about for a change of subject. "Apart from being a commando, what's Winter like?"

Weiss smiled. "She's…magnificent," she said softly. "Beautiful, skilled, intelligent, and caring, but also stern. She's always composed, even when things go wrong… it's always comforting, when she's around, because you know no matter what goes wrong, she'll know what to do."

Ruby smiled slightly. "Yang tries to be like that, sometimes," she allowed. "I don't think she realizes that winging it just works better for her."

Weiss giggled. "I don't think Winter has ever 'winged' anything in her life," she said.

"It doesn't sound like it," Ruby agreed. "She sounds like an amazing sister… almost like a mother."

Weiss' face fell slightly. Ruby understood, and gave her an out.

"My mother died when I was young," she said. "Yang tried to step up, but she's still more a big sister. Dad's great, but… I dunno. I'm happy with my family how it is, I guess."

"So am I," Weiss said at length, taking the escape Ruby had presented at face value. "Winter is… very important to me."

Ruby nodded. "I can understand that."

Then the forest opened before them, and the structure Ruby had seen came into view. It was a circle of stones surrounding what looked like the remains of a floor. Several small plinths formed a ring around the inside of the circle.

All of this was secondary, In Ruby's mind, to who she saw already in the circle. "Yang!" she exclaimed, waving. "Hi!"

Yang turned from her partner and grinned at her. "Hey, Ruby. You found a partner, then?"

Ruby nodded and waved at Yang's partner. "Hi, Blake!"

Blake smiled at her. "Ruby. Glad you could make it."

Ruby beamed at her and then turned to Weiss. "Weiss," she said, "this is my sister, Yang Xiao Long, and her partner, Blake Belladonna. Blake, Yang, this is my partner, Weiss Schnee. Say hi, everybody!"

Weiss nodded to them. "Hello," she said, calmly.

Yang blinked at her. "Wait, Schnee?" she asked blankly. "As in…?"

"As in the Schnee Dust Company," Blake said, and the smile had fallen from her face. "I thought I recognized you."

Weiss' chin rose haughtily. "Yes," she said. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the SDC, at your service."

Ruby stepped between them. "All right, calm down," she said. "Weiss is here as a Huntress, not as the daughter of a businessman. Let's try and treat her that way, okay?"

Yang grinned. "Of course," she said. "I wouldn't know how to treat a princess anyway."

Weiss grimaced and Ruby gave her sister a look. "Yang," she said firmly. "I'm going to be rooming with Weiss for four years. Can you not?"

Yang did have the decency to look chagrined. "Uh, sure. Sorry, Weiss."

"It's quite all right," Weiss said stoically, seeming to shake herself back into alertness. "I merely…"

There was a crash as something knocked down a tree on the edge of the glade. Ruby whirled, and drew Crescent Rose when she saw the Ursa. She was about to charge when the Grimm seemed to explode from behind before keeling over and allowing its jockey to tumble to the ground.

"Aww," said the girl sadly. "It's broken…"

She nudged it with her foot and shuddered slightly as her partner emerged from behind her. "Ewww," she said.

"Nora," said the young man, panting slightly. "Please… never do that again?"

The girl, Nora, was orange-haired and wore a pink and white battledress. Her partner was a black-haired young man in an intricate green top and white pants, with a pink highlight in his hair that looked somehow crystalline.

Nora was already studying one of the plinths, and Ruby took the opportunity to observe the… relics… resting on them. They were chess pieces, in gold and black. Yang was holding a golden knight, and Nora was studying a rook of the same color.

"Oooh," Nora said as she examined it, before taking it quickly and doing some sort of dance with it. "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle," she sang—quite well, actually.

"Nora!" her partner called, exasperated.

Noraa froze, looked slightly embarrassed, and saluted with a giggle. "Coming, Ren!" and she was gone again.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked blankly.

Yang shook her head. "I…"

"Was she faster than me?" Ruby interjected quickly.

Yang blinked. "I…"

There was another crash as a young blond man crashed into a tree.

"Did that guy just fall from the sky?" Blake asked.

Yang shook her head wordlessly as several trees fell on the edge of the clearing and a girl emerged, chased by…

"Deathstalker!" Ruby shouted, Crescent Rose already unfolding. "Ready up, everyone!"

Everyone moved. Weiss drew her rapier and spun its cartridge—Ruby suddenly wanted to hit herself for not asking the girl about her weapon. Yang activated Ember Cecilia. Blake drew Gambol Shroud and took a battle stance with its sheath in her left hand.

"Did that girl just get chased here by a Deathstalker?" Blake asked sardonically.

"Yes, Blake," Ruby said. "Yes, she did."

Deathstalkers are armored, she thought, mind working frantically. Crescent Rose won't penetrate unless I put a lot of momentum into it. Even then, there are probably better alternatives.

"Ruby," Yang ordered, "get that girl out with your Semblance. I'll keep it off of you."

Ruby nodded and was gone. In a blink she was running from the Grimm beside the girl.

"Hold on!" she shouted to her.

The girl blinked at her before closing her arms around her. For two paces they ran awkwardly like that as Ruby focused her Aura, and then in a flash they were back among the group, falling over on top of each other.

There was a bang as Yang blocked a single strike from the beast before fleeing back to them. "Right," she gasped. "That's gonna be the only blocking I do for a while. Aura's in the yellow."

Ruby nodded. "Anybody have a way to disable that thing?" she asked.

Weiss' eyes widened. "I might," she said. "Can you draw a shot from its stinger?"

"No point," Blake countered. "These," she gestured to the chess pieces, "are the relics. Everyone grab one and let's just run."

Ruby nodded and took a golden knight. "Hurry," she said. Turning to the tree the blond boy had fallen into, she saw that he had climbed down and made his way over to them. "You her partner?" she asked, gesturing to the girl she'd pulled from the Deathstalker, who was now taking a golden rook

"Yeah," he said, watching the approaching Grimm nervously. "It's getting close…"

"Yes," Ruby agreed, turning to Weiss. "Yes, it is. Everyone, run!"

A/N: That's a wrap. Like I said, expect updates in bursts. I think one more chapter is likely this time around, since I want to get this next fight written, but it's hard to tell.

Still, how long has it been? A week? Not bad for me. Here's hoping I can keep it going for a fair while.

Quick note about the fight scenes. The little one about halfway through the chapter is a good indicator of how I usually write them. It's how I write my Naruto fights, too, since I don't buy the whole DBZ-standing there throwing nukes at each other-thing the anime has going now. If it doesn't feel like RWBY, I'd like to know so I can modify it before the big fights start happening later on.

Once again, reviews are appreciated but not demanded.