Just to clarify, when I said "rapid update mode activated". I was referring to the fact that I had updated twice in one day. Anyways, now for some responses:

LightJakRises: Thank you very much for your compliment. And thank you for being the first to add a few tips alongside your review. They will be taken into consideration.

JustAFerret: Wow, I don't have a sufficient response for that. I don't know what to say that would be fitting. So instead, I'll just pathetically say: thank you. Then, just leave it at that.

Disclaimer: I just don't. I don't own this pseudo-anime or its characters. That's just how it is.


Falling Stars

Ozpin stood on the Beacon cliff face alongside Glynda Goodwitch with only the light of the moon and the glow of their scrolls to illuminate their surroundings. They stood stoically, like shadows, meticulously judging the movements of the ten subjects within the darkened Emerald Forest.

All of the future students were still in the air, gliding gracefully (for the most part) until gravity began to make its presence known to the ten beings roughly defying it. As the ground steadily approached, nine of the ten finalized their personalized landing strategies and prepared to execute them.

Adonis and Sangui disappeared into the foliage of two rather large trees on the opposite sides of the forest. None of them were seen drawing a weapon by either Ozpin or Goodwitch but after a few seconds they both leaped from the tree unto the ground with no signs of harm or worry. They each had rather empty expressions on their faces, as if they hadn't just been flying through the air. It was only until they took a full breath of the fresh night air, that the two actually started moving. They transformed into blurs, one dark, one pale.

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The fox faunus, Amber kept herself aloft using her weapon, an uninspired combination of a waldo and a rapid-fire mortar launcher that sacrificed power for firing speed. Each shot fired from her weapon kept her moving through the air until she found an ideal tree to make her landing on. She unleashed a barrage of shots from the end of her weapon, pointing towards the tree's general direction, slowing her approach even further. Once the tree was only a few feet away, Amber lodged her blade in a branch, ending her flight from the cliffs. She took several deep breaths of relief, trying to restrain her wild breath as the young woman became very tempted to hyperventilate.

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As the tree line approached Marron threateningly, the young woman steeled herself for the incoming impact and drew a small, but thick shield about as wide as her shoulders. She brought it up in front of her face and gripped her left arm with her free hand, prepping for a rough impact. Marron smashed through the first tree, as if it was made of balsa. The second tree met with Marron's assault with slight resistance, but shattered nonetheless. After five trees were completely torn through by Marron, she had slowed enough to end her fall. Another tree was approaching quickly, so Marron activated the secondary function of her shield, and the weapon expanded and shifted into a rather dense dual-bladed axe. The masculine woman closed her eyes and concentrated her aura to certain areas of her body, causing her arms and legs to give off red sparks. She forced her weapons into the sixth's trees trunk and surprisingly – for the instructors, at least – completely halted her descent. All of this was done with one hand.

Marron paused to admire her handiwork for a moment, before lowering herself on a branch close to the ground. But then, a long harpoon lodged itself into the tree, just a few inches away from the girl's head and within moments she wasn't alone on the branch.

"Damn Marron, are you just showing off or are you just that badass," Waxyn asked, with a cocky tone, never used around anyone but her.

"What do you mean, Waxyn?" Marron asked calmly, with a fittingly deep voice.

"I mean, that landing was nearly perfect and you did it with just your left hand! You're not even left handed." Waxyn smiled at her, clearly impressed.

In response, the girl did something that was slightly less fitting: she blushed, but only slightly. "Thank you Waxyn, but I had to use my semblance to make that landing, or otherwise I might have torn my arm off…"

"Just accept the compliment girl, and let's continue," Waxyn interjected. "Now, who's ready to be the first pair to make it to the temple first?"

"I will be as ready as I need to."

"That works."

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As Teel fell, she envisioned the many ways she could land smoothly. 'There are just so many options,' she thought avidly. She continued to methodically think out her landing strategy until the tree line was only a few feet away. Reacting with insane reflexes, Teel drew the strange gourd from her belt. The object emitted a strange glowing energy that elongated like a whip. Using the device she caught hold of a branch and swung past the first tree. She continued to swing through the treetops, until she felt her arm ache and thus she found a clearing free of trees and slowly lowered herself down by extending the whip-like energy beam. Once her feet were firmly planted on the ground, she withdrew the energy. 'Well, looks like I took the least interesting one. That's what I get for taking too long,' she thought regretfully before continuing through the forest on foot.

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Maverick Casco had a very different landing strategy, at least in comparison to everyone else. It was casual and appeared to be very easy. He did not seem to be bothered by the approaching tree line and rush of the wind. The young man easily halted his fall by engaging the thrusters in his boots, allowing him to slowly land. "That was easy," he remarked, with absolute honesty, and without apprehension.

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Phlox flew through the air, a stream of smoke trailing behind her as she went. Her dress and eyes were a yellowish-bright green as she brought the ivy-adorned tube to her mouth and inhaled the smoke it produced. As she breathed in more smoke, an intense feeling of euphoria came over her, as well as an incredible feeling of power. The more she inhaled, the stronger the feelings of elation and strength became. Her mind became dulled to the tree line, slowly approaching to rip her to shreds. She was unafraid of it. With her mind numbed, she concentrated her aura and the power she felt in her veins, forming glyphs in her hands as she did so. Suddenly, the wind picked up around Phlox, and only Phlox. It formed around her like a cyclone, keeping her aloft until she landed gracefully on the ground.

Meanwhile, Lupine moved through the air with the same finesse and confidence he demonstrated on the ground. The gauntlets on his arms had expanded, extending from his arms. A wicked pair of claws formed over his fingers, and a fairly large contraption formed on his arms. On one side was a long single-sided blade, the other was a small – but still quite powerful – multi-barreled machine gun. Using the impact created by firing each barrel simultaneously, Lupine kept himself moving through the air, intent on remaining aloft until he found Phlox.

"There you are, darling," Lupine noted aloud, but still quietly, not wanting the young girl to run away. He began to direct himself towards the platinum-haired beauty, moving very precisely so he would not give his position away. The young man followed Phlox to a large, sturdy tree giving him the opportunity to make his landing. Once he was close enough, he dug the blade into the tree trunk but not deep enough to impair his movements as he slid down the trunk in a spiral-shaped fashion, moving swiftly down the length of the tree until he hit the ground and landed firmly on his feet; surprising Isolde and causing their eyes to meet.

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Meanwhile… up at Beacon Academy's student dorms…

Lie Ren lay on his bed alongside several books and his scroll. The young man was almost literally shoulder-deep in homework and books to study. It was likely he would have to pull an overnighter.

He took a drink from a mug of coffee on his nightstand. The warm beverage rejuvenated him and reinvigorated his studious effort. He looked over an incredibly old history tome, dissected its contents and summarized sections in his notes.

The young man took a break from his arduous studies to give a very long yawn. He paused to look around the dorm room he normally shared with three others. But for some reason the usually lively room was absolutely barren.

'That's odd,' Ren thought to himself, 'dinner was about three hours ago. Where is everyone?'

Suddenly, at that moment, Ren received the answer to his questions.

"Ren! Ren! Ren!" Nora called, just as sprightly as always, even though it was late into the night. In fact, it was technically morning already. The pink-haired girl had burst through the door and bolted over to her childhood friend. "Ren, you've gotta come to Team RWBY's room with me!"

Ren put his face in his hands, trying to resist Nora's contagious smile. "I'm sorry Nora, but I've got to study." The young man had already begun to lie back down on his bed to resume studies. "You should too, and by the way, where's Jaune and Pyrrha?"

Nora ran up to him and started to drag him off of his bed. "They're in the other room already! Come on, can't you come for at least, three-to-five minutes?" She stopped trying to pull him off the bed and instead, gave Ren a pleading smile.

Ren groaned and pulled himself out of bed, conceding to the pink-haired girl's demands. "Alright, I'll come and see."

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Nora grabbed a hold of Ren's arm and dragged him across the hallway and into Team RWBY's room. Within, he came across an interesting sight of a room filled with students. Some were still dressed in their school uniforms, others were in their sleepwear. Besides his own teammates, he only recognized the members of Team RWBY and Velvet from Team CFVY. They all seemed to be gathered around some students scroll, rapt with avid interest with something on screen.

"Nora, why do I need to be…?" Ren began, slightly confused about why he needed to be here. But then, his thoughts were interrupted by his teammates and friends.

"Good to see you Ren!" Jaune called.

"Hey Ren!" Pyrrha said, giving him a slight wave.

"Hi Ren!" Ruby and Yang cried simultaneously.

"Shut it guys, I'm trying to study!" Weiss commanded irately. The white-haired heiress was laying on her bed, practically shoulder-deep in homework and books to study. Upon seeing this, Ren felt a twinge of empathy but did not act upon it.

"Alright, Weiss we'll quiet down," Ruby conceded, only to see another exciting thing on the scroll and began to gush with excitement. "Did you guys see that?! It's soooooooooooooo cool!"

"I know, right?" Yang said with just as much enthusiasm as her little sister.

Ren began to walk back towards his room to continue his studies, not even curious in the event occurring on the small screen. But before he could make his escape, Nora caught him again.

"Come on Ren, I just want to show you one thing." Nora ran up to Ren and dragged him with surprising strength towards the screen. The other people backed up slightly to give the new viewer a little breathing space.

The first thing obvious to Ren was that they were currently using a pirated channel. The second thing that was clear to Ren was that they were looping a recording of a young man with gold-amber hair sliding down a tree in the exact same way Ren himself did during his initiation. The only difference was that it was at night.

Choosing to ignore the second thing (he honestly couldn't care less), Ren turned towards his class and teammates, shaking his head. "Is there a reason why you guys are using a pirated channel?" he asked calmly, not actually caring about why and instead found himself far more interested in leaving as quickly as possible.

"Oh Ren, don't worry," Ruby said nonchalantly. "I've become very good at this 'hacking' thing. There's no way anyone's going to catch us. And even if they do, I'm not even using my scroll. I'm using a spare one they keep in a few random storage rooms."

"That's not what I asked…" Ren really wanted to leave now, and tried to move away from the group of teens.

"Apparently, we're receiving several new students by tomorrow," Pyrrha said, finally responding to Ren's question.

"Yeah, they're going through initiation right now," Jaune added.

With this news, Ren actually became somewhat interested.

That is, until Weiss cut in to the conversation. "Guys please, let me study!" She stood up out of her bed with her hands on her hips, eyes flashing very angrily. "What are you even doing anyway? You should all be studying! We have a huge test in Oobleck's at the end of the week as well as debatable mountains of homework due around the same day. Why aren't any of you even worried?!"

"Maybe because we've already finished it; have you considered that Weiss?" Yang asked teasingly, gauging the white-haired girl's reaction.

"W-w-w-what? H-how? When? I-I-I don't even…" Weiss stared at the large group of teens in her room with uncomprehending bewilderment and horror. Her left eye started to twitch sporadically and she continued to sputter strangely.

Before the young woman could explode, Ren decided that there really wasn't a reason to stay here and walked up to Weiss and asked her if she wanted to study in Team JNPR's room.

"Would I?" Weiss said excitedly, finally finding clarity amongst the chaos stirring in her mind. She leapt off of her bed and gathered up all of her papers and study materials and happily strolled across the hallway, stumbling slightly as she did so. Ren groggily followed her, suddenly desperate for another cup of coffee.

"Ren, please don't go!" Nora cried, absolutely heartbroken. "Ren, please stay. We have cake!" The pink-haired girl roamed around the room as Ren watched with a very amused look on his face. Eventually, she found the plate the cake used to rest on and screamed. "Ah! Where did the cake go?!" She looked around a bit more until she saw Ren disappear with Weiss in her own room. She frowned and hung her head, groaning quietly to herself, but only for a few moments.

Within a couple seconds after Ren left, Yang shouted, "Hey Nora, the last guy's about to land. You know, the guy who almost wet himself!"

Instantaneously, the hyperactive girl shot up and smiled as if nothing had happened. All of her energy and positivity returned with the speed and volume of a thunderclap. "Really, that super weird guy? Oooooo, this will be exciting! Pause it! Pause it! Wait for me!"

Then he made his landing and everyone shockingly stared at the screen.

"Wow, that looked like it hurt," Yang commented with an extreme wince.

"Ouch," Blake said quietly, the excitement of the event had even managed to steal the cat faunus from her books.

"I'm sure he's fine, guys," Ruby said awkwardly, with slight pauses in between words. She wore an expression that looked like it tried to be both a wince and a reassuring smile but ended up looking as if they had crashed into each other, resulting in what looked like a broken jaw.

"Yeah, Ruby," Jaune whispered, remembering a few harrowing memories, empathizing with the young man on screen. "I'm sure he's fine…"

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'Where am I?' He could see only darkness around him.

'How did I get here?' He could feel the softness of leaves landing on his face.

'What is happening?' He couldn't smell anything, but a rich, salty intoxicating smell.

'When is it? When did I get here?' He couldn't hear anything either, only slight ringing sounds.

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Mallow opened his eyes, and stared at a starry sky that shimmered in the distance. He was apparently on his back, the young man wasn't sure. He didn't have sensation anywhere in his body. He tried to move but nothing happened. 'Am I dead? Am I paralyzed? No, that fall should've killed me. But somehow, I think I'm alive. Unless I'm in limbo, but how could I be in limbo? What's happening?'

A shadowy figure started to approach Mallow from a distance. He couldn't hear it approach. Yet the brush parted before it, in a manner bound to create a loud sound. As the shadow-cloaked being approached Mallow, its size became apparent. Whatever it was, it was huge; clearly, at least, a foot or a foot-and-a-half taller than him.

He all of his willpower, Mallow commanded himself to move. He ordered himself to move and to run to safety. But all he managed was a very slight head movement. His gaze shifted downwards towards his own body, only to be met with an extremely gruesome sight.

Luckily, Mallow's vision had faded somewhat or the sight before him would have been far more ugly than it already was. The young man thought he saw: a body splattered with blood and bits of cold white showing through the blood. His chest featured several strange white objects. His right arm appeared to have a rather sharp point jutting out of it. It took him a few moments to realize that these white objects were his own bones, but by then the figure stood completely over him, blocking out the moonlight.

Absolutely overwhelmed, Mallow fainted and drowned in a cold limbo, with only one memory to grace his subconscious: piercing, purple eyes.


I'm so bad... :(. Sorry for taking a while to update. I just had other obligations. Anyways, I'm happy that some of you enjoy my story. I'll try to make as good as I possibly can. But I'll need your help. So, if you want. You can leave suggestions in your reviews. Or questions, if you have any.

Personally, I prefer questions, they help me get ideas out faster. But do what you wish.

Also, sorry for another pointless cliffhanger.

Have a nice life!