Ruby
Snow fell quickly in the winter air, layering the streets of Vale in a white blanket. People dressed in warm winter coats left tracks in the snow, their breath hanging in the piercing cold winter air. Their hair was layered with snowflakes, mixing in with the various colours that adorned the few people that were still outside in the weather. Most of them were likely making their way home to their families to celebrate for the New Year.
Just like how Ruby was currently with hers, or at least what was left of it.
Although none of the people around her were actually her family (apart from Yang), they had been close enough friends to become family, and they celebrated every holiday, or special occasion together. Ruby thought back to the last Christmas that she had spent with Yang and their father, Taiyang. The three of them, along with Zwei, had spent the entirety of Christmas in their home with their father, staying inside by the fire where they were safe from the cold, harsh, winter air.
Ruby and Yang had always enjoyed Christmas, and their father had been good at making their house look as festive as it could. That particular Christmas, the inside of their house had more lights inside it than most of the clubs in Central Vale.
They had always spent Christmas with each other, except this year Ruby's uncle, Qrow, was missing. He had been called away to save a village that was a few miles away from Vale.
'But it's Christmas Uncle Qrow!' Ruby had pleaded. 'You have to stay with us!'
'Ruby, I need to go and save these people so that they can have Christmas too,' her uncle had replied to her. 'If I don't, then they won't get to see Christmas this year.'
As soon as he had said this, Ruby had felt bad about what she had said. She had nodded to him in understanding, and he had smiled in return before walking out of the door.
On Christmas morning, Ruby had been the first to wake up, leaping out of her bed to find her father and her sister. She ran for Yang's room first, jumping onto her sister, who was still fast asleep at the time, and shook her awake.
'Yang! Come on, wake up! It's Christmas Yang! Wake up!' she had yelled at her big sister.
Yang was less than pleased about being woken up so early, but quickly became just as enthusiastic from the pure joy that was coming from Ruby.
Together, the two had run into their father's room and woken him up. Taiyang had laughed at his girls as they jumped around him, and enveloped them in a Xiao Long special, the crushing bear-hug, a trait that Yang had also inherited.
Zwei had soon joined in, bouncing around on the bed and licking their faces whenever he could. Once the four had finished wrestling with each other, they made their way downstairs to the living room, where the fire was still blazing, and the tree was completely surrounded by presents, most of which were for Yang and Ruby.
They had never been as excited for the New Year, but they still always stayed up until after midnight to see the fireworks from the porch outside their house. Both Yang and Ruby had enjoyed the fireworks, especially the ones planned out so well that they created pictures in the sky.
Zwei barked at Ruby, who jumped out of her daze, brought back to the party. Her dog looked at her, mouth open and tongue hanging out. His small tail was wagging back and forth, almost in a hypnotising sort of way.
'Ruby, get away from the window and come join us!' Yang called to her from the couch, her face bright red and bottle of beer in her hand. She was sitting next to Pyrrha and Nora, both of the other girls indulging in a drink of their own. However, neither of them looked as drunk as Yang did. Her sister's face was bright red, and just from looking, Ruby could tell that Yang was having difficulty focusing on anything. However, Ruby decided to oblige to her sisters request, and moved away from the window, and towards the rest of the group.
Liam, team Liberty's leader, handed her a drink as she sat down beside him. Inside the glass, was a large quantity of milk. Ruby smiled at him, and graciously took it from him, taking a large gulp before setting it on the small coffee table in front of her.
Although it was almost the New Year, Ruby couldn't really feel the excitement in the group, mostly because of the really bad luck that had plagued the group recently. After everything bad that had happened, it had seemed to bring the few of them left a bit closer. However, the people that were gone were definitely easily noticeable, and everyone here tonight was a bit sad and depressed that they couldn't be here.
Some of them, like Yang and Nora were attempting to drown their sorrows in drinks, attempting to lift the spirit of the party, but no one was really feeling up to it. The rest of them sat in their own groups and talked amongst each other at a volume so that they could hear each other above the music, but not so loud that they would interrupt any of the other groups.
Ruby decided that she had had enough, and picked up her glass of milk, standing up and drawing everyone's attention to her.
'I know that recent times have been really bad,' she began, looking around at each of them. 'But that isn't really a good reason to try and lessen the mood right now.'
'When both teams Legion and Liberty started to train my team and team Juniper, things were kinda tense between everyone, because we didn't really know each other all that well. But we got past that, and we ended up becoming great friend with each other, am I right?'
Everyone nodded lightly, a few of them murmuring yes.
'Looking back on that now, I realise that we made it through some difficult times, and managed to get to a better place, and I'm hoping that we can do that again, here and now,' Ruby continued. 'I hope that we can pull through our losses together, and become stronger because of them. So I'd like to put a toast towards all of the people that we have lost.'
Ruby raised her milk up, and the rest of them copied her motion with their own drinks, repeating, 'To those who we've lost.'
Everyone brought their drinks back to their mouths, and took a few gulps. As Ruby sipped on her milk, she thought back to when the four groups had started to work together.
Three Years Ago
Ruby edged closer and closer to her sleeping sister, megaphone in hand. Blake cracked one eye open as she heard her leader approaching the pair of beds. The faunus groaned lightly before rolling out of bed and standing up, making her way to the bathroom to have a shower and change.
As Blake grabbed the handle to the door, the door opened for her, and Weiss stepped out of the bathroom. Her white hair was tied back, slightly wet still from her shower. She wore the uniform instead of her usual clothes, as today was the first day of the second semester.
People had doubted that the second semester would start on time due to the reconstruction of many of the buildings in the campus. Very few buildings had been left standing after the White Fang attack a month ago.
Ruby had been more worried if Weiss would be ready to come back to Beacon. Luckily she had woken a few days after her second surgery, even if it did scare the entire staff in the hospital. During the attack, Weiss had been fatally wounded, a member of the White Fang snapping her spine completely.
Doctor Free and Doctor Jones from the Beacon Hospital staff had proposed a dust infusion surgery using gravitational dust so that Weiss would not have to put any pressure on her back. Luckily the surgery had gone well, and Weiss had been back on her feet quickly.
Well, back on her feet wasn't really the right term to use.
After being released, there wasn't that much different to Weiss, other than the fact that her eyes were no longer an icy blue, and were now a dark purple, and instead of walking, she floated a few inches in the air due to her control over the gravitational dust in her bloodstream. However, Weiss preferred to attempt to make it look as if she were walking by moving her legs as she moved and stay as close the ground as she could.
Blake stood aside to let Weiss pass her, and the two swapped places, Blake going inside the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Shortly afterwards, Ruby could hear the sound of running water as Blake started up the shower.
Weiss made her way out of the bathroom and when she saw Ruby standing beside Yang with a megaphone in hand, she rolled her eyes into the back of her head and made her way towards her drawer to retrieve the books she needed for the day.
Extending her arm forwards, Weiss pulled the drawer outwards, and lifted the books out, placing them in her bag without having to touch anything. Ruby would definitely say that Weiss had taken a liking to her new abilities.
But enough of that. Ruby silently put a foot on the dresser that separated the two sets of bunk beds, and the other on the edge of Blake's bed. She peered over the edge of Yang's bed, greeted by her sister's face, and a loud snore.
The redhead lifted her megaphone to her mouth, waited a second before bellowing, 'WAKE UP YANG! IT'S TIME FOR BREAKFAST!'
Needless to say, her sister was woken almost instantly, and jumped at the sound, tumbling off the edge of her bed and landing on the floor with a loud THUMP.
'Ow!' Yang yelled from the floor. 'Ruby, why can't you just wake us up in a normal way for once?'
'Nope,' Ruby replied cheekily, placing the megaphone down on the dresser behind her.
Yang growled at her before getting to her feet and made her way over to the bathroom. It didn't occur to either Ruby or Weiss to warn her until it was too late.
Yang wouldn't have realised as the sound of running water had stopped. Blake always tended to have really short showers, she just didn't seem to like being in water very much. Because of the lack of sound, Yang thought it safe to enter the bathroom, taking hold of the door handle and opening the wooden door upon the sight of a wet Blake as she stepped out of the shower.
'Yang!' Blake yelled loudly, darting back into the shower, pulling the shower curtain shut behind her. Her teammate copied the act with the bathroom door, quickly closing it behind her.
'Sorry!' Yang shouted back through the closed door.
After the four girls had all showered and dressed, they made their way towards the cafeteria to eat before they had their first class of the second semester. The four of them were all eager to get back to their classes, Weiss more so than the rest. Because of the poor timing of the attack, students of Beacon, and those from the other various schools in the other kingdoms had needed to take some of their classes in spare conference rooms in the hotels that they were staying in.
But now, finally, they were going to be back in their own classrooms, where they could properly learn. To be honest, Ruby was more excited to get back to Professor Goodwitch's combat classes, especially with both Pyrrha and Weiss being new and improved.
As usual, the cafeteria was packed full of students, even though there had been quite a few deaths during the attack. Casualties had been minimum at around twenty deaths, but when Ruby thought about it, that could almost be thought of as close to a full five teams being wiped out.
The four girls made their way through the open doorway, looking around for their friends amidst the large amount of students that were scattered around the various tables. Ruby gazed across the faces of the students, passing over many faces that she didn't know until her eyes rested on the bright red of Pyrrha's long hair.
Pyrrha had become even friendlier to Ruby after the red themed girl had designed and fitted her new arm. The two had spent four days together in the workshop and testing arena trying to get Pyrrha's new limb to feel perfect for the Spartan.
Ruby had been sure to make the metal appendage a similar golden-bronze colour as the rest of Pyrrha's armour. She had also added a darker red amidst the gold, especially around the areas where the various metal pieces would interlock.
She had also added in a few extra little things to Pyrrha's arsenal alongside the new arm. Along the back of Pyrrha's hand, Ruby had fitted a small crossbow that would pop up and unfold itself when Pyrrha needed it, otherwise, it would fold up and move into her hand, creating the surface completely flush as if it wasn't even there.
The crossbow was designed to fire small bolts that were tipped with small amounts of red dust, not enough to do any serious damage, but it still had enough explosive force to knock someone over. Ruby had also ensured that the crossbow would arm itself, the bolts being placed inside Pyrrha's hand before battle and the crossbow would load them manually through the use of various mechanical genius that Ruby possessed.
Ruby had also added a small chamber near the wrist that could hold a single dust container or crystal. Although Pyrrha did not need to depend on it, the dust would spread through her arm and make its way into Milo, giving the weapon the ability to gain some effects from the dust. The different dust type would also decide the different effects.
Pyrrha had been simply astounded by the work that Ruby had put into the arm for her, and incredibly thankful as well.
As team RWBY got closer to team Juniper, Jaune looked up from his bacon and eggs and saw the four of them approaching. He looked towards the rest of his team and the four of them moved closer together.
The two teams had agreed during the first term that the first team to the cafeteria would save spaces for each other by taking up enough space for two people along the benches, and would move closer together to allow the other four to have space to sit.
Ruby and Yang took their seats on the other side of the table beside Jaune and Ren, whilst Blake and Weiss sat next to the two other girls.
'Hey Ruby!' Jaune said as the other leader sat down, instantly covering her plate with cookies and filling her glass with milk. 'Are you all ready to get back to class?'
'Yep! We can't wait!' Ruby said quickly before beginning her usual ritual of devouring all of the cookies before her.
'Velvet actually came over before and said that she hoped we were ready for a much more physical aspect to our training,' Pyrrha said, watching Ruby chew a cookie a few times before swallowing it whole. 'And that she had her fingers crossed for one of our teams. What do you think she meant by that?'
'No clue. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens,' Yang replied as she loaded her plate with food.
Not long after her statement, the speaker system turned on.
'All first years students must attend to the training arena in the next ten minutes,' Professor Goodwitch's voice stated, ringing throughout the entire academy. 'There is need to discuss the extra combat classes that are going to begin this term.'
'Extra combat classes?' Yang questioned. 'Why do we need more combat classes?'
'Maybe the course is more extensive in the second semester,' Weiss replied, looking directly at the brawler, two pairs of purple eyes meeting. 'We do still have the tournament to prepare for, maybe the new course is to prepare us for it.'
'It would seem logical to do that,' Ren stated, cutting a pancake in half whilst keeping an eye on Nora as she hungrily eyed his plate. 'We would need to develop our skills as a team as well as individually.'
'But why wouldn't they just message us through our scrolls and adjust our timetables?' Blake questioned as she looked at her device. 'I can't see any spots in my timetable that would show where our new classes would fit in.'
'Maybe they're impromptu?' Yang guessed.
'I highly doubt that Professor Ozpin would set our schedules like that,' Weiss replied, disproving Yang's theory.
'Well, why don't we just go and find out?' Ruby said, standing up from her seat whilst she drained the rest of her glass of milk.
'Good idea!' Jaune said, backing her up and standing from the bench, almost tripping when his leg didn't clear the seat.
Ren looked up to his standing leader, annoyed as his plate was still full of pancakes. However, a slurping sound brought his attention back to his plate, which was now empty. Ren looked up and across the table at his partner Nora, who had syrup around her mouth, and half a pancake sticking out of her mouth.
Nora quickly swallowed the final pancake before giving her partner a big smile, letting out a small giggle.
When the eight of them arrived at the training arena, they tried to make their way through the crowd to get to a better spot to see the stage. After a few failed attempts, the two teams decided to simply stand at the back of the groups and peer past the other first year students.
Ruby, Weiss and Nora were all too short to see past the other students, and so they had to rely on their friends to tell them what was happening. Well, Ruby and Weiss did at least, as Nora quickly jumped onto Ren's shoulders so that she could see the stage more easily.
'Want to see as well Ruby?' Weiss asked her leader.
Ruby was about to say that neither of them could when she realised that Weiss was floating a few feet in the air so that she could see over everyone's heads. Her right hand was held out towards Ruby, coated in a purple glow. The young girl gave a light nod before she was wrapped in the same glow, and was lifted into the air beside her friend.
'Thanks Weiss,' Ruby said, smiling at her partner before turning to the stage.
'Of course,' the heiress replied.
The group was waiting for a while longer before to the two heads of staff made their way to the stage. As usual, Professor Goodwitch led the pair, making her way towards the microphone in the centre of the stage whilst Professor Ozpin stood off to the side, coffee mug in one hand while he leaned heavily on the cane in his other.
'Good morning students,' the blond woman began, addressing the many teams as she pushed her glass further up her nose, glancing down at the scroll lying in the crook of her arm. 'I hope you are all well rested after the break and are all ready to return to your classes in this second semester.'
'The second semester is going to be relying more on training you all physically, especially with the upcoming Vytal Tournament. I know that most individuals are interested in competing in the Individuals Cup, and we are expecting all teams to participate in the Group Tournament, unless there is a valid reason to not compete.'
'However, it is not our job as teachers to be preparing you for the tournament, that is something that will be done amongst you students. We are here to prepare you for your time as future Huntsmen and Huntresses.'
'So, alongside your regular combat classes with myself, you will now have another course that will be taught to you by a handpicked team of third year students.'
At this all of the first years went mad, chattering amongst themselves. They were to work alongside older teams?
'I guess that's what Velvet meant when she spoke to Pyrrha earlier,' Weiss whispered to Ruby, keeping her eyes fixated on the older woman who was glaring at the students at the sudden outburst.
'Silence students!' she shouted into the microphone.
Her command worked like magic, everyone falling silent at once and turning to face her again. However, everyone still had that same look of excitement as they did a few seconds before.
'As I was saying, you will be working alongside a team of third year students who will help prepare you for the tournament. Team leaders will also have an extra lesson with each other. Third year leaders will be tutoring you leaders about teamwork in combat, and strategies that will be useful for you to learn.'
'Now, may you listen to Professor Ozpin as he calls out your teams and who you will be working with,' Professor Goodwitch concluded, taking a step back before turning to the side and taking a few steps to be further to the side of the microphone to allow students to better see Professor Ozpin.
'Good morning students,' he almost whispered into the microphone. 'Seeing as there are so many of you, this will not be brief, so I advise you to try and get comfortable.'
The students from Vacuo in the crowd took his advice quickly, all of them immediately sitting down. This quickly caused the rest of the students to follow suit, and soon the entire group of first year students were sitting comfortably on the floor. Apart from Weiss who was floating slightly higher than the rest of them.
Professor Ozpin started with students from Vacuo, calling out the team names so that they could make their way to the stage before calling out the name of the third year team, who would walk on stage once they were called.
'I wonder if any of us will join with Velvet?' Blake wondered, hoping that she would get to have some training with the other faunus. Although the cat faunus didn't mind working alongside humans, she would like to be able to learn from another faunus. Humans just didn't have the same kind of understanding of faunus abilities and how to use them in combat.
'She seemed to be hoping to get to train one of our teams,' Jaune said as he swapped his shoes, realising that he had put them on the wrong feet. Jaune had left and right written on the soles of his shoes so that he would know which one went on which foot. What confused Ruby was that he had swapped the one with left to his right foot, and the one with right to his left.
'Uhh, Jaune,' Ruby said, pointing to the writing on his shoes. 'They were already on the right feet.'
'Hehe,' Jaune laughed awkwardly. 'Uh, no, I put the words on the wrong shoes. So my left shoe says it's the right one, and the right one says it's the left one.'
'Oh,' Ruby replied. She could see a couple of her friends mentally facepalm, whilst her sister actually did facepalm. Herself, Pyrrha and Nora were the three that did not. Pyrrha seemed more amused as if she found it cute that he had written the wrong words than annoyed. Nora hadn't facepalmed as she was too busy playing with the pink strand of Ren's hair.
Blake reached into her bag and pulled out a small book, opening it to the part she was at and began to read. Once Nora had finished playing with Ren's hair, she shifted closer to Ruby and the two started to play pattycake with each other. The rest of the group simply waited patiently and watched the various teams make their way on stage to meet their third year team.
Eventually, Sun, Neptune and the other two members of their team were called up to the stage, and were introduced to an all fox faunus team, team ASLT, Assault. Shortly after, the new group of eight made their way to the stairs, climbing up to the stands that the students would sit in as they observed fights between students during Professor Goodwitch's classes.
Professor Ozpin then moved on to the students from Mistral. Unlike the students from Vacuo who would wear normal street clothes, these students were much more formal, wearing dark black shirts with uniform collars and depending on their gender, long pants or chequered skirts with long grey leggings that would reach just below their knees. They also all wore an armband around their left bicep. Most of the students also had sour looks on their faces.
After more time, and many students later, Ozpin began to start on the students from Atlas, much to the disappointment of the Beacon students. The atlas uniform was extremely bland, at least in Ruby's opinion. All of the students wore a light grey shirt. The boys wore a dark grey, sleeveless jacket ontop, whereas the girls wore a dress-like shirt that would reach to above their knees, also made of the same colour. Everybody wore short black ties that boys would wear under their jacket, and the girls would wear over it. Boys wore long pants that were almost white, whereas the girls wore a darker grey set of pants with black boots that reached their knees.
Ruby and Nora had stopped playing their game a while ago, and now when she looked to try and play the game again, she saw that Nora had fallen asleep on the floor, as had her sister. The both of them were snoring loudly, drawing some looks every now and then, but mostly they were ignored.
Jaune looked as if he wasn't far off either, his eyes drooping shut but quickly opening when Pyrrha would jab him softly in the side to keep him awake. At least Blake was still staying awake easily, as she was still focused on the book she was reading, her eyes hadn't left the pages yet.
Ren had crossed his legs and closed his eyes, and Ruby couldn't help but feel like maybe he was trying to meditate. Looking to her side, Ruby was expecting Weiss to still be staring at the stage, watching the assembly, but instead she was looking at Ren.
Weiss caught her gaze, and when their eyes met, she gave a small smile before holding a finger up to her mouth. She pointed to the meditating boy, mouthing to the young girl, 'Watch this.'
Holding out her hand, Weiss activated the flow of the dust in her bloodstream, and started to lift Ren into the air in the same fashion as she had lifted Ruby earlier. The boy opened his pink eyes due to the sudden feeling of weightlessness and when he saw that he was no longer sitting on the floor, he started to get really excited.
It was no secret to any of them that Ren had been trying to hover whilst meditating for a while now, as he would try to complete his task every night in Team Juniper's dorm room. Weiss quickly lessened the flow of energy in her hand, dropping Ren to the floor before he could realise that it was her. Thankfully, he was too excited to realise that Weiss had been lifting him with her own abilities, and so also didn't see both her and Ruby as they hid smiles behind their hands, having a silent laugh.
Maybe I'm starting to rub off on Weiss, Ruby thought to herself. She seems a lot more fun now.
Blake was also laughing at the event that had unfolded before her. Maybe she wasn't really 100% focused on her book, Ruby thought to herself as she tried to regain a straight face before Ren realised that they were laughing and realised that it had been them and not him.
Ruby looked at her sister sleeping on the floor, completely oblivious to the fun that they were having right beside her. Seeing her sister, a question popped into her mind.
'Weiss, can I ask you something?' Ruby asked her partner after the heiress had calmed down from their laughing fit.
'Of course,' Weiss said, a smirk still on her face from her antics.
Ruby froze and almost didn't ask the question. Almost.
'You have a sister back home don't you?'
Weiss froze instantly, her face losing that cute smirk that she had been wearing and replacing it with a much darker look of annoyance, possibly hatred?
'Yes, I do,' Weiss replied, no longer looking eager to talk to her leader. 'Why do you ask?'
'Um,' Ruby said, not sure if she really wanted to continue with her train of thought. She'd already started the conversation, but she wasn't sure which way she wanted it to end. Deciding to go with her original plan, Ruby asked her question. 'Why don't you ever talk about her?'
Weiss sat still and looked away from Ruby. Others may have thought that she was avoiding the topic, but Ruby knew her partner well enough to know that she was trying to come up with an answer to her question because it was complicated to explain.
Weiss sighed, then turned back towards the young girl, her eyes filled with a cacophony of emotions. Ruby could identify sadness and anger, but there was also joy and pride. All of the emotions, even the ones that Ruby didn't identify clashed together, almost making it hard to understand how Weiss could have all of these feelings for one person.
'My sister Winter, was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to me,' Weiss whispered to Ruby. Both of them were aware that Blake was still nearby, and the faunus had stiffened ever since the conversation had begun. After the way that Weiss had spoken, Blake closed her book and placed it in her bag before standing and making her way to the nearby bathroom.
Others would simply assume that she needed to use it, but the young girl and the heiress beside her knew that she was trying to give them some privacy. Once she was far enough away, Weiss continued to talk.
'When Winter came along, I was incredibly happy that I would finally have someone else around that I could be with that wasn't an adult, or one of those terrible rich kids that my father always invited home because their parents were possible business partners.'
'But as she grew up, she took to the same hobbies and talents that I did. She started singing just like I did, she played the piano just like I did, and she took to dancing just like I did. The only difference between me and her was that she was better than me at everything.'
Weiss went silent for a second as Professor Ozpin called up another team from atlas before continuing. 'I was both proud and angry at her. She had become so talented that I had to feel proud, but she had also made me seem like I was second rate. People started paying her more attention than me, especially my father.'
'I am angry at my sister because she made me seem like nothing after all of the work that I had done to become noticed in the world. But, that's also why I wanted to become a huntress, because I knew that this is one profession that she will never be able to follow.'
'I wanted to be better than her at something, and that's why I wanted to be the best I could be last semester, to prove that I was better,' Weiss said looking at her leader. Ruby now understood why Weiss was so set on being the best she could.
'I don't talk about her, because I don't want any of you to know that my sister, to whom I am six years older, is superior to me in so many ways,' Weiss finished, looking down at the floor.
'Weiss,' Ruby started, thinking of how to cheer her partner up. She had accidentally made her sad, now it was her job to make her happy again. 'Sure, Winter may be a better singer than you, she may be a better dancer than you, and she may play the piano better than you-'
'Really not helping Ruby,' Weiss interrupted.
'-but I don't think that she could ever be as influential as you,' Ruby finished. 'Weiss, you are part of the best team of huntresses in all of Beacon this year. Once we graduate, we are going to be so well known, that you'll be in a league of your own in comparison to her.'
Ruby paused, wondering if she should bring up what Blake had said to them after the invasion. She decided that it would help her case even better.
'You're going to be the person who brings around the equal rights for the faunus too Weiss.'
Weiss looked back up at her partner, surprised that she knew what Weiss had promised Blake during the invasion last month. 'How did you-'
'What matters is that I do know,' Ruby said, giving off a small smile for the heiress. 'It'll be such as big thing that you especially was the one who pulled it off. No offense to your sister, but the person who brings around equal rights for the faunus will be a lot more well know than a popular singer.'
'I guess so,' Weiss said, a smile coming back to her face again. 'Thanks for believing in me Ruby.'
'Meh, what are friends for?'
Jaune
After Blake had come back from her toilet break, Professor Ozpin started to call out names of teams from Beacon academy. The few students in the crowd that were still awake started to shake their friends out of their sleep. Nora was incredibly difficult to wake, at least until Ren mentioned that he would make her some pancakes if she woke up. After that, she woke immediately and didn't seem as tired at all.
'Team Legacy,' Professor Ozpin called out. At this, a group of boys made their way up to the stage with a walk that screamed out that they were spoilt, rich brats.
'Hey Weiss, isn't that the same as your walk?' Yang joked, while Weiss simply folded her arms.
'No, it is not,' the heiress snapped back. 'I do that walk much better than they do.'
Everyone laughed at Weiss' reply except for Yang, who was trying to process how the heiress was able to make a joke.
The group of four boys stopped beside Professor Ozpin as he called out the name of the group that they were to be working with. 'You four will be working alongside, Team Coffee.'
The eight friends couldn't help but moan at this, as Velvet alongside her three other teammates, Fox, Coco and Yatsuhashi walked on stage to meet the four boys. They also couldn't help but notice that Velvet looked a bit disappointed, which they were sure was because she wasn't going to be training one of their two teams.
'Well, there goes that plan,' Jaune said as he watched the group moved towards the stairs to the upstairs seating area. 'I wonder who we're going to be working with then?'
'Team Juniper,' Professor Ozpin called out, almost as if he heard Jaune's question, and moved to their team just so that they could get their answer more quickly.
'Wait, whaaa-?' Jaune tried to ask before his partner quickly stood up, pulling him with her. Within seconds, the four of them were all standing before Professor Ozpin. He looked up at them quickly before looking back down at his scroll. 'You will be working alongside, Team Liberty.'
'Team who?' Jaune asked the headmaster, as their mentors walked on stage. What surprised them the most was that the leader of Team Liberty looked a lot like a more muscular, and older version of Jaune. He wore dark blue armour that bore a golden lion across his chest. Across his back was a large battle axe, with a wicked looking blade on both sides. Across his chest he wore a cheap nametag sticker across the right side of his chest. It read, 'Hi! I'm Liam!'
Three teammates followed him. The first was a short dog faunus in a purple and gold attire, complete with a cape that hung from her right shoulder and made its way to her waist. A quiver of arrows was hidden under her cape, and stuck out over her left shoulder. A bow was slung across her body, the string caught in her chest, whilst the handle was sitting on top of the fabric of her cape. Her nametag read, 'Hi! I'm Bella!'
The next was a fox faunus with the name Tris. She hadbright orange hair that made its way down to her waist, and almost camouflaged her orange fox ears that poked out of the top of her head. She seemed to be wearing a mixture of regular clothes as well as armour. Her shoulders and ribs were protected by dark red metal, whilst the rest of her form was only covered by a regular orange shirt, a red skirt, and boots like Weiss' except the same red as her skirt and armour. Two swords hung on her hips. Jaune was no weapon expert like Ruby was, but they looked mechanical, and he could only wonder what the blades were able to do.
The last member of the team was a girl with a spear slung across her back that looked as if it was almost taller than her. She seemed to be wearing extremely little, wearing nothing but a light blue shirt that showed a bit too much midriff and cleavage, as well as a pair of navy blue short shorts. Jaune felt a bit uncomfortable trying to read her nametag as he could have been mistake for looking at something else, but eventually was able to make out the name, Yasmine. The only piece of clothing that seemed to do any covering was Yasmine's boots, as the dark blue set of footwear made their way a few inches above her knees.
'Hey there,' Liam said, holding out his hand for Jaune to shake. Jaune complied by placing his hand in the older students grasp, and regretting it immediately for the warriors grip was bone breaking. 'Let's hop out of the way so that we don't hold up this any more than we have to.'
Jaune nodded and looked at his team, silently motioning for them to follow team Liberty. They all nodded to him, and the group of eight made their way across the stage to the stairs. Once Professor Ozpin began speaking again and they had all sat down in a row of empty seats, Liam started to talk to them again.
'Alright, I'm gonna keep this kinda brief and we'll explain this in more detail tomorrow when we have our first lesson,' Liam said as he pulled his scroll out of his pocket and checking his timetable quickly. 'All that you really need to know right now is that I want all four of you to meet us in the main courtyard at six tomorrow morning.'
'Wait!' Jaune said, holding his hands up in a stopping motion. 'Six in the morning?!'
'Yes,' Liam blankly responded. 'Is there a problem with that?'
'Well, I was just wondering why you wanted to start so early?' Jaune asked. 'I mean, breakfast doesn't start until eight, and first classes only start at nine.'
'Then you'll have plenty of time to get ready for your other classes,' Liam responded. 'And if you think that's rough, you should see what our friends have in mind for their group of first years.'
'Although they didn't specify what they were doing, they said that we were being easy on you by only starting at five,' the fox faunus cut in, leading forwards to see past her team leader.
'Team RWBY,' Professor Ozpin called out for Team Juniper's sister team.
'OOOH!' Nora said excitedly, jumping up and down while pointing at Ruby and the rest of their friends. 'It's their turn! It's their turn!'
Liam looked over to the excited girl, then towards Jaune. 'Wait, do you know them?'
'They're our bestest friends!' Nora replied for her leader.
The four third year students gave off a few small laughs among themselves, mixed in with a few comments about how rough they were going to have this semester.
During their laugh, Ren calmly reached over and pulled the excited girl back to her seat, keeping a hand on her shoulder when she tried to jump back up again.
'Nora.'
'Yes Ren?' Nora replied, looking to her friend with an excited smile on her face.
'Calm down.'
Nora gave a small giggle before acknowledging him, giving a small nod along with a big smile and a thumbs up. Taking a second to be sure she wasn't going to jump around again, Ren took his hand off of Nora's shoulder and turned back to the stage to see Team RWBY make their way up to the stage.
Once the four girls were standing/floating before Professor Ozpin, he took a small amount of time to study them before continuing. 'The four of you will be paired alongside Team Legion.'
All of Team Juniper perked up when they heard that name. Although they didn't personally know them, they still knew the team. Two of the team members had been the ones to save Pyrrha last term during the invasion, and they had also been widely known around the students as the ones who took down the dragon-like grimm that had also attacked the school. Team Juniper also remembered them, because their leader had fought Weiss last semester during their allocated practice session, and had won the battle flawlessly.
And from the look on the heiress' face, she also remembered that fight as well.
Not long after their team name was announced, the four students walked onto the stage, and just like all of the other groups, led team RWBY towards the stairs leading to the stands. In no time at all, they had taken seats behind Juniper and Liberty. Team Legion's members began talking to each other and the members of Team Liberty.
'Hey Liam!' the team leader Lupis said, slapping Liam's back as he sat down behind the armoured warrior. 'Thank Oum that's over now, the waiting was killing us back there!'
'And how do you think we felt sitting out here?' Weiss snapped at the older boy. 'We had to wait just as long as you did!'
I guess she's still a bit mad that he beat her that day, Jaune thought to himself.
Lupis leant forwards slightly and looked at Weiss with a face that said, really? Weiss simply replied by folding her arms and looking the other way.
'Anyway,' Lupis said, changing his focus to Ruby once more. 'Seeing as you're team leader, I'm expecting you to get these other three to the roof of the southeast corner of the dormitories tonight at eight. I want to get this started as soon as we can so that all of you are prepared for the tournament in two months.'
'Wait, you're starting tonight?' Tris suddenly piped up, looking to Legion's leader.
'Yes, get it out of the way so that I don't have to explain it to them when they're super tired in the morning,' Lupis replied, locking eyes with the faunus with a cheeky grin on his face. 'You don't have a problem with that do you?'
Tris turned back around to face the stage with a sigh, 'No, not really.'
Jaune was extremely clueless as to the feelings and emotions of girls, but even he knew that she definitely had a problem with that. He could tell Lupis knew that as well, but he didn't seem to really take much notice of it.
'Anyways, there isn't really any need to bring your weapons with you, we aren't going to start any actual combat training until tomorrow.'
'But don't you want to assess us?' Yang asked.
'To-mo-rrow!' Garris spelt out for her, breaking his conversation with Bella. 'Patience in the pants there girl.'
Yang blushed viciously at his comment, leaning back to keep out of sight. Weiss tutted at the comment in disgust, whilst Blake smirked at her partners red face. Ruby on the other hand didn't understand the phrase, and stared in confusion at the blue haired brawler.
'Just meet us on the roof tonight and we'll explain everything there, ok?' Lupis told the girls.
'Ok,' Ruby nodded, still slightly confused towards Garris' comment to her sister.
'Liam, why aren't we starting tonight as well?' Jaune asked the older blonde.
'Because I already have plans for tonight,' Liam responded, looking down the line of his teammates to the dark haired girl, Yasmine, and gave her a sly wink.
'Pfft,' Tris pouted. 'At least you get to you through with your plans.'
'Hush you,' Lupis said, poking her in the side with his foot, causing her to jerk to the side. 'Looks like it's finally over.'
Jaune looked back to the stage and realised that he was correct. Professor Ozpin was no longer calling out names, and the arena floor was now devoid of any more students. The headmaster turned to face everyone in the stands above him to address them once more.
'Thank you for your patience, I hope that you all get along well, because there is no swapping teams now that you have all been assigned.'
'I also wish to draw your attention to a certain challenge that Beacon academy wants your groups to overcome during their time in this course. For the last forty years, we have looked to see if a third year team can train the first year students well enough, so that the younger team can gain the skills to defeat the older team in combat. There is a prize waiting if you are able to do so.'
At this, all of the first year students began to chat amongst themselves, excited at the challenge, and wondering what the prize could possibly be.
'However!' Professor Ozpin called out, quickly silencing the talking. 'So far in those last forty years, that has only occurred once, but, I would like to see that change this year. Thank you, please return to your studies.'
And with that the headmaster turned and left the stage, Professor Goodwitch close behind. Jaune turned to look at the rest of the group, opening his mouth to ask another question, but was interrupted by Liam.
'I'm pretty sure that the eight of you have some sort of class to get to, so you might want to get moving.'
The eight first year students simultaneously pulled out the scrolls as if they were a well-rehearsed dance crew, even going so far as to panic all at the same time when they realised that had one minute to get to Professor Port's class on the other side of the school.
'Ahh! We're gonna be late!' Jaune squealed, quickly ushering his teammates towards the exit. Ruby and her teammates mimicked the blond boy, but both groups were caught in a mad rush to the doors, which ended up taking a long time due to the amount of first year students there were in the stands.
'Oh man, I hope Professor Port is going to understand this!' Jaune prayed.
So, I realise that this is really late in comparison to the last chapter, but I was struggling with what to do in regards with this story. Technically this is the start of the second 'Volume/Arc' of the story. Each volume is going to be around 15 chapters long. I'm letting you know this, as I'm going to be keeping all of the chapters in this one 'story', so that nobody has to go looking for it if they want to read this.
The other reason that this took so long is that I have had a lot of troubles in my life recently, and I lost all motivation to write this for the last two months. Truth be told, I read a chapter from another story recently where the author had the same issue I did. They had lost the motivation to continue their story, but with what happened to Monty, they realised that they should continue with their creativity to remember him.
I don't want to get all soppy or anything, so I'm just going to let you know that, yes, that is the same reason that I have returned. Chapters will be weekly as they once were.
Thanks for waiting around for me guys :)