(A/N) So you all are going to hate me… Well, not really. Maybe a little bit? OK, so this is more of a minor inconvenience at worst, just promise you won't lynch me, K? You guys remember how I said that I had most of the story already written? That's still true, but the plans I previously had for the story didn't necessarily plan out the way I hoped, and left too many plot holes that I kind of wanted to avoid. Beforehand, the plan was to skip ahead in time a volume and a half, and pretty much start Team RWBY and the others in their second semester at Beacon Academy, but I realized this was… stupid. The overall theme of each act is still going to line up the same, but how I plan to reach those outcomes will be much different, and I can assure you that they will be much better. I might upload what a major failure the original chapters were at some point in the future and let you guys pick out which versions of the story you like better, but once act 1 is finished, this story is going to take a much different turn than what I had planned previously, and is going to have an actual plot. Before my edits, the entire second act was literally just an exposition dump. It would have been the proverbial graveyard for this story if I didn't give it some upgrades and a major rewrite. Once again, I promise you'll like the edits of act 2 and 3 much better than their predecessors, but as far as act 1 goes, here's the latest installment in all of its originally pristine and unedited glory.
Enjoy you beautiful hunters!
Chapter 3
This was exactly the situation Grey had modified Animus and Albatross for. He usually followed the rule that the less he was armed, the better he was off depending on the situation, a basic less is more mentality, and the enhanced strength the bionic weapons gave him was made useless if they were too heavily equipped. He only armed his bracers with what he thought would be appropriate to the next battle, and the entry exam was no exception. Fortunately, he had planned for an impromptu catapult launch, and smirked with cocky vigor as the wind buffeted his hair, casually enjoying the breeze and the thrill of the free fall. As he flew through the atmosphere above the Emerald Forest, losing sight of his future classmates, he took stock of the canopy below him. Per Ozpin's suggestion, he made a landing strategy and calculated the fall. Just as he breached the leaves, he extended his right arm, and out of the metal, in place of the caestus that usually held its claim there, shot a three pronged claw with hooks on the end of each blade digging its way into the bark of a thick branch, allowing him to swing forward and land on another solid one. Using the momentum of his launch, he jumped off of the second branch and around the tree ahead of him. With that kind of angle, he wrapped his claw around the trunk, swung around, then the gravity dropped him heavily to the ground, the shredded bark smacking him during the descent.
OK, he thought to himself, taking stock of the situation and rubbing his scraped cheek, first thing I need to do is find a partner. That's the priority. He remembered from the orientation that this forest was filled with grimm and if he didn't move soon, he would become a beowulf's lunch, but he decided to take a risk and stop a moment to listen closely to his surroundings. He was trained to learn, to observe, and after years of building up the skill, a little focus went a long way to seeing everything, granting him the title of Omniscient at Signal Academy. When he paid attention, he noticed everything from the brush of the wind against the leaves to the pulse of the forest's energy underneath his feet. Clearing his mind of everything except his sole intent on finding his comrades, he set his sights on any auras close to him, and he found himself noticing more than one, finding at least three in the immediate area and a few more a further distance away from him. Just then, he heard a chunk of steel on bark, Jaune shouting "thank you" and Pyrrha's voice from a closer distance responding with an apology. Grey decided to leave them alone, a coy grin playing at his lips. Mentally, he patted himself on the back for being a good cousin, and honed in on the only other auras close to him, a friendly red one, Ruby, and a white one with something to prove that could only be Weiss. With any luck, he would be able to create a threesome.
Dude, he admonished himself at the vulgar language. Without a moment's hesitation, he dashed in their direction, knowing that they were his only hope since there was no one else close enough to partner with. The forest seemed too peaceful, though, for a test of survival. The trees, although healthy, were spaced apart at wide intervals, so much so that there were large patches of sky high above him uninhibited by the leaves. There were clear trails set throughout the woods instead of the forest being so thick and treacherous that taking five steps would end up in a traveler losing their way. Petals of all shades of pink and gold fell to the ground as opposed to the giant spider webs, discarded bones and marshy wetlands of a darkwood; that's where grimm would normally be. It was almost like the grimm were air dropped here by the international military. He was quickly brought out of his thoughts, fortunately, by the sight of something that at least made a little sense. In the middle of one of the larger clearings in the forest were Weiss and Ruby arguing with one another, surrounded by a group of beowolves that the pair seemed completely oblivious to as their argument drowned out the predatious intent. He didn't know what the argument was about, nor did he want to know. He needed to bring them back down to Remnant.
"Ladies, you're both beautiful," he chided them, being intentionally chauvinistic to get their attention, punching a beowulf into a tree before it could devour them, "Now if you could please focus long enough to not die, that'd be great. OK? OK." He left no room for argument as he fired a pair of missiles in between them to collide with another beowulf that had taken his arrival as an opening to pounce.
"Right," Ruby acknowledged, readying her scythe, "Kill things now, argue later." She was about to charge the leader of the pack, but a flaming tree fell in front of her path before she got the chance. Grey was so distracted at finding his friends and saving their lives that he didn't realize the trail of flame leading to a forest fire that was quickly spreading. Weiss took the reins then.
"We need to move!" she said, grabbing Ruby's hood and pulling her away, "If we get caught in the fire, we'll never make it out of the woods, let alone pass the opening exam, and it'll be all your fault!" Grey raised his eyebrow at her accusation but chose to ignore it, unlike Ruby who twisted out of her hold and reared on her.
"My fault?!" she shouted with an angry look that went against her innocent and cute personality, shooting a thumb over her shoulder, "You're the one who blew up that tree!"
"Oh for the sake of the godly invention of bacon," Grey said to himself, regretting skipping breakfast, "I need to save their bacon." With an irritated vein bulging against his forehead, more from the joke than his new babysitting job, he grabbed both of the girls by their collars and sprinted out of the clearing and into the brush, shielding them from the flame with his semblance. "I've been with you guys for a total of fifteen seconds and you're already pissing me off! Shut up and focus on the mission. You guys can rip off each other's eyebrows at the initiation ceremony later today, but we have to actually make it to the ceremony first!" Ruby was happy to comply, knowing better than to argue with someone like Grey and knowing that he was right, but Weiss was less convinced.
"What are you doing?!" Weiss shouted at him, digging her finely manicured nails into Grey's hand wrapped around her collar, "Let me go!" Grey had already let Ruby run on her own, so why not her?
"Not yet, Schnee!" He commanded, making her scoff.
"How dare you! Take that!" Grey caught it out of the corner of his eye when she draw her rapier, Myrtenaster, and tried to stab it in his back, but one thing she didn't account for was that Grey was a fist fighter, that even if his opponent had a weapon and he didn't, he still had the advantage, and the minute she tried to thrust her blade into his spine, he twisted his grip on her, flipped her hand over, disarmed her weapon and even went so far as to pin her against a tree with the metal against her throat. They stood there in silence for a moment. Weiss could see in his eyes that he didn't want to kill her, that this was an empty threat, but it was too hard to call him on it with edged metal threatening to slice her throat open. Grey, though, wasn't threatening her. He wasn't even bluffing. Instead, he just needed to get her into a position to where her guard was down for only a split second so he could slap her across her face. Weiss's eyes went wide in shock.
"Ow… Ow!" she complained, the bewilderment quickly being replaced by anger, "What was that for?!" Ruby jumped down from the tree to join the two, laughing under her breath but not quietly enough for the pair not to hear, and Grey crossed his arms at the heiress, glaring at her stiffly.
"Like I said, you can argue later," he explained, "I just need to make one thing clear to you. We're in a hostile environment filled with things trying to kill us, and if all you're going to do is blow things up and get mad at everyone else for not doing what you say, then you're just going to slow us down, and probably get us killed. The three of us are a team now, and that means we have to work together to complete the objective, and that means not arguing with your teammates in the middle of a battle. Pay attention, and try to survive. Got it, Your Majesty?" He emphasised the nickname with a heavily exaggerated bow, full of facetiousness. Weiss was put into a reluctant silence, knowing full well he was right, but not wanting to admit it because that would show him enough weakness that he would take over and he would become the leader. She couldn't allow that. How to respond, though?
"I…" Weiss started, unsure how to respond to someone standing up to her so fiendishly. Didn't he know who she was? He stared at her expectantly, waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry…" She figured that playing nice and stringing him along would do the trick. She wouldn't defer to him by admitting she was wrong, but making him think that she wanted to work together as a team was a surefire way to make him let his guard down long enough for her to take control of the team out from under him.
"Good," he spat, then started walking down the nearest trail, "Let's get going. If we meet up with another group, we'll be more likely to find the forest shrine." Weiss dropped to her knees. That situation was… intense. It made her heart pound in such a powerful way that terrified, not because Grey was an imposing figure, which he was, but because… she liked it. That kind of fear wasn't bad so much as it was exhilarating.
Jumping on the tree branch Weiss was on, Ruby smiled awkwardly at her and helped her to her feet. Weiss returned the smile, feigning kindness, knowing that she would give Ruby what was coming to her later down the line, but then Grey called back to them over his shoulder, "And Weiss, if you think about betraying us… Well, how about you don't, OK? Even I don't want to find out what would happen if you do."
Weiss screamed internally, her jaw dropping in absolute horror at that last line. The threat itself wasn't all that great, but the reason behind it made Weiss panic. How does he know?! There's no way he could tell what I was planning, could he?!
"Sorry about that, Ice Queen…" Ruby whimpered, still reeling from that exchange herself, "I've never seen him get like that…"
"It's…" Weiss said quietly, "It's OK." She watched Grey walk away from the two of them, unsure of the emotions that were running through her mind. Fear was somehow good? Deferring to someone instead of taking her rightful place as their superior? Weiss had been prepared to order around whatever teammate she acquired, but then Grey showed up and takes the lead away from her. He just treats her as if she were some kind of speck on the windshield of his car that he could just wipe off with a press of a button, that she was just another bratty girl instead of a Schnee heiress. This hatred he had for her made her angry. He needed to know his place, and she would do whatever it took to make that happen. Watching him walk away with an air of uncaring, unwavering confidence, she could feel herself being drawn towards him, feeling the most primal urge in her body to tackle him and just… do what? Kill him? No, that didn't seem right. It was like all she wanted was physical contact with him. What could that mean...? Either way, Weiss knew that the only way this would make sense would be to follow and try to figure him out, and perhaps to try to make him see her as an equal if nothing else. Twisting her legs to get rid of an uncomfortable warmth at her center as she watched him walk away, trying to sort these new feelings out, feelings that admittedly scared and confused her, she turned to Ruby to acknowledge something she said previously. "Ice Queen?"
Ruby just smiled and used her semblance to catch up to Grey, leaving a trail of rose petals behind her. Weiss rolled her eyes and jogged to catch up. They walked in silence for the majority of the path, avoiding making eye contact with one another, the sounds of the forest an agonizingly brutal ambience. Every sound, every crunch of leaves or snap of a twig, dug into their minds, creating more tension, making the repressed anger from earlier spike in their minds. The group desperately wanted to say something, to talk or to sing, just to bring an end to the madness, but no one was willing to break the silence for fear of sparking another argument. Grey kept his eyes on the path, occasionally glancing into the brush for any enemies, while Weiss made it a conscious effort to stay behind him, glaring her snowy crystalline eyes deep into his back. Her fingers danced along her rapier's hilt. She was itching for a fight after the rude way he had treated her when running from the beowolves, and as easy as it would have been to stab him in the back, she knew that a maneuver would be more trouble than it was worth. A criminal Schnee? Not a scandal she wanted to cause. Plus, his presence still benefitted her, even if only slightly. Getting rid of a useful tool before it expired went against all forms of common sense. For now, she just had to keep her eyes on him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Not that she thought he was going to attack her after he got his point across, but still, with such a demoralizing beginning to their partnership, she wanted to make sure she always had him in her sights in case he thought it would be funny to pull a prank on her… or something. Shaking her head, she tried not to think about it. Further still, she tried to avoid giving into that unfamiliar desire to touch him, to press her body against his with an unclear purpose, because she was unwilling to see precisely where that action would lead. She wanted to hold him. Why? What benefit would that bring her, and even then, she felt that giving into that urge would only spark even more foreign emotions that she just wasn't prepared to deal with. She just to focus on the test and try to figure this out later.
Ruby was actually avoiding Grey's eyes for a different reason. She was jealous. She knew she was jealous, and she wasn't happy about it either. She also knew that if she got a glimpse at Grey's face, that stupid, careless and utterly oblivious smile of his, she would lose it. He had a weird effect on her that made her lose certain inhibitions. If she caught his eye, she wasn't sure if she could deny her instincts, and would probably end up trying to make a move on him, or hopefully just return to her battle with Weiss out of some misguided sense of territorial defense. He was hers. Grey was her best friend and no one else's, so in her jealousy, Ruby wanted to send a message.
After months of being in his shadow, admiring him from afar like some kind of shy fangirl back at Signal, she learned how to read him like a book. She was confident that there was nothing in the world that he could hide from her, and that's why whenever he looked at Weiss, Ruby was filled with a jealous rage. Did he want her? Did he just want to give her a chance to prove herself? Why? Ruby thought that with how smug Weiss was, Grey wouldn't want to have anything to do with her, but when he looked at her, there was a trace of fascination in his eyes, scanning her up and down, and Ruby could only imagine what that look in his eyes spoke of. Still, why would he even bother giving her his attention in the first place? She was an elitist rich girl who looked down on every other person in the room as if she was their default superior, and Grey had expressed before how much disdain he had for those kinds of people. It made no sense for him to change that belief just because of a pretty face. He was too genuine to go back on his word. Right?
Come to think of it, why did Ruby even care? Grey was his own person and could do what he pleased with whomever he wanted to, and Ruby had accepted that before in the past when he didn't even know she existed, but as soon as Weiss appeared in their lives, that's when she started to become possessive over Grey? No, that wasn't right. It was because Grey didn't deserve someone like Weiss, who would only use him and abuse him, and Ruby was trying to protect him. Weiss didn't give off a good vibe, and Ruby wasn't going to let Grey anywhere near her.
Ruby saw Weiss as a rival, and that wasn't going to change any time soon.
"It's this way…" Weiss said, walking down one path in the fork in the road, "No, it's this way." This time, she turned around and walked down a different path. "No… Maybe it's… That's it. We passed it." Weiss crossed her arms and balanced one foot on her toes in a casually adorable stance and stared up at the sign pointing down the different routes, the letters on them having worn away from time. Ruby and Grey were sitting criss cross on the side of the road, snacking on some of the naturally grown foods they had found in the forest, only glancing up when Weiss made her decision on their location.
"Why won't you admit we're lost?" Ruby said exasperatedly.
"We're not lost, Ruby," Grey said with a comforting smile, his darker side subdued for the moment, "We're scouting the area. You can't be lost when you have no idea what you're looking for." Weiss scoffed without turning around and spoke to herself but still loudly enough for the other two to hear.
"Ugh, why would Ozpin send us on a blind goose chase? Does he even know what he's doing?." she groaned. Grey blinked at the venomous tone.
"Dang, girl…" he muttered.
"Maybe I can climb a tree and get a layout of the area?" Ruby offered hopefully, "Maybe we're close to the shrine or maybe some of the others are nearby?" Ruby's interjection was obviously a risk given her previous conflicts with Weiss, so Grey immediately jumped in.
"I feel like some of the other groups may have already gotten to the rendezvous point," Grey questioned, "So that might be a good idea. We probably got off the main path after the thing with the beowolves, but chances are the shrine is connected to one of those side paths overgrown with brush, or worst case scenario, it's not on any trail and is just in a random ruin that Ozpin is generously labeling a shrine. Give it a try, Ru." Grey grinned cheekily. "You're bound to find your sister's hair at least!" Ruby was slowly getting to her feet when Weiss turned on the pair again, snapping at her younger counterpart for what marked the thirteenth time in the past hour.
"It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place!" she screamed, "If you hadn't redirected my dust when I was fighting the grimm, I could've beaten them easily and stayed on the direct route. I could see it when we were executing our landing strategies and had a path all planned out but then you had to mess it up with your fumbling!"
"How is that my fault, Ice Queen?!" Ruby shot, pointing at Weiss accusatorily, "You haven't contributed anything to our group since we formed! The only thing you've actually done is set the forest on fire which was a stupid move using that kind of dust anyway! You're not free from blame, Princess!"
Grey decided to chew on one of the roots he had collected and watch as they got this crap out of their system. His thoughts when they first formed the team hadn't changed, but whether it be for better or worse, this fight needed to happen so they could get it out of their system, and trying to prevent this earlier was only belabouring the conflict. They were being so negative towards each other and that wasn't healthy for either of them, but at the same time, he knew that once they got all of this hatred they had for one another out of their hearts, it would hopefully leave enough space left open for a friendship to take over, or at least some kind of uneasy peace that could be nurtured over time. Sure, Weiss had been complying with Grey's wishes of working together, but she did so bitterly, and that wasn't good enough, and her bitterness had to be devoured for the sake of the team. Ruby, on the hand, needed to relax. If she was going to snap at Weiss every time Weiss said something negative, it would have the same effect as the heiress's bad attitude. The first step, though, was tiring both girls out. If they could release any and all negative feelings they had towards one another, maybe they could focus their energy on something productive like completing the test.
Or maybe it was that Grey was just tired of trying to keep them from killing each other. That worked too.
Grey wasn't about to break up their argument, but after about ten minutes of yelling, he was starting to get worried. Grimm were attracted to negative emotions and major conflict like this, and if this kept up, they were bound to attract every deadly beast in the immediate area. Grey thought about stopping them, but decided against it. It was more important for them to get along well as a team than anything, so he simply decided to leave them for a short time while he scouted the area for any upcoming ambushes. Standing up, he wiggled his fingers, measuring his aura. Then, Ruby exploded.
"Shut up, already! Shut up, shut up, shut up! You're not perfect, Weiss!" she screamed, throwing her arms violently, hopping in place as a means to deal with her climax of wrath. Weiss was unaffected by Ruby's anger, sadly. Instead, she knew this was her chance to win their fight, to destroy her, and all it would take was one deep cut into the younger girl's shell.
"Maybe not," she said coolly, "But I'm still leagues better than you." With that, she sauntered off down the path that she suddenly decided the group must follow. Grey was surprised. Mostly, he was surprised at the outburst from Ruby and the rage behind it coming from such a plushy personality, but more importantly, the underlying pain in the tone of the tantrum. He had come to expect Weiss to be a bully, but Ruby was legitimately hurt.
"You don't even know me…" she said to herself in almost a whisper, unaware that Grey was in earshot. She was close to tears. Grey hadn't known her long, at least not personally, and didn't know her life before he was involved in it nor her inner workings and what made her tick, but he knew what to do with her at that moment. The girl adored physical contact, craved it even. With a scowl, he wrapped one arm loosely around her shoulders and pulled her close, glaring daggers at Weiss's back in the most protective manner she had seen from him. Perhaps even deadly. Ruby was surprised at the sudden show of affection, looking up at him for a second, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and she leaned into him with pure acceptance, burying her head into the space under his chin for the briefest second before breaking apart and following her rival. "Thanks for that, Grey," she said smiling over her shoulder. He sighed heavily, then followed.
Grey decided to set the arbitration between the opposing forces aside for now. That clearly was a mistake a second ago, so now, he just needed to focus on survival. He decided to use his observation skills and his ability to sense auras to scout the area while Ruby enacted her previous idea of getting a bird's eye view of the surrounding area, clearly not wanting to be around Weiss, and jumping to the farthest height of the canopy she could. Grey decided to gain some height as well, using the gravity to better his aura sense of the surrounding area. For some reason, gravity played a strong role in the distance and clarity of how one could pick out an enemy's presence, so the mid level branches were the best spot for this while Ruby used her sniper to scout further ahead. Grey picked out the enemies, and Ruby found the path. As for Weiss, she was a kind of sacrificial pawn, but it was a form of silent communication between the three that told her teammates this. She knew that being out in the open was the worst spot to be for a recon mission, but with everyone working together in tandem like this, using their instincts and subconscious minds to act on their behalves, maybe they could work as a team?
Grey's eyes were closed when he sensed aura if he could help it. He couldn't really see anything with his eyes closed except for a vague silhouette of a person's natural energy field, but this also allowed him to feel vibrations in the air to avoid running into something like trees. Sadly, due to the gravity effect, he was caught off guard by a red shade jumping next to him and sinking the tree branch. As a natural reaction, he slashed out, extending his blade, but he was too slow as his arms were pinned behind him and a pair of soft, warm lips pressed against his, and if they were trying to stun him… that sure did the trick. His arms went completely slack and he tried to force his eyes open with some effort after having been closed for awhile, but the real issue was what he saw when he came to. Ruby was just pulling back from the kiss, her eyes fluttering open dreamily.
"Um… Ru?" he whimpered, just about to panic, "What was-" she silenced him again, this time with the hand not gripping Crescent Rose, and she pointed upwards, a rare serious look appearing on her face when she composed herself. Looking at her in confusion for a second, then taking a moment to glance at Weiss to make sure she was still in sight, an observation practice to make sure he could take his eyes off of her for just a second, he looked up to where she was pointing and almost wet himself. His mouth gaped in another whimper, a serious one, straining to keep from screaming an expletive at their misfortune.
"A Giant Nevermore," Ruby whispered, "We need to let Weiss know, and don't worry- I have a plan." She ungagged Grey when he nodded.
"Your scouting plan clearly worked out," he whispered back to her, referencing the discovery of the beast above them, "So I'll trust you on this one. I'm just pretty sure I'm going to hate whatever you come up with." Ruby shot him a psychotic smirk, he grinned at her, she winked at him, and then she jumped off the branch. Grey, feeling violated by the sheer adorableness of that look but surprisingly not the kiss a second ago- clearly she only did it to prevent him from killing her -followed suit.
Ohmygosh what did I just do?! Ruby thought to herself, feeling the blazing fire of embarrassment growing in her chest, Nononononononononono. I kissed him? During the exam?! There are probably cameras everywhere that are recording this so they can show it as a highlight reel at the graduation ceremony! I'm an idiot… No, it had to be done. He was going to kill me otherwise, so I needed to calm him down and that was the only way to do it, right? Everyone's going to understand that, right? Right? Oh God, Yang is going to flip when she finds out!
When they hit the ground, Grey and Ruby pulled Weiss into the bushes as secretively as they could. She followed the pair without question, but not after a brief and fierce struggle, ending with a bashful look of apology to Grey's new black eye, then settling into another silence as they waited for the grimm to pass. The only problem...
"Have you guys noticed that thing is circling us?" Weiss asked, looking up into the sky trepidatiously after a few minutes. Grey nodded, the dark look on his face coming back as his mental barrier started to loosen up again, but fortunately, Ruby took charge of the situation. She said she had a plan, right? Looks like she was ready.
"Trust me Weiss!" Neither the Schnee nor Grey had time to question what she meant by that when Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and lifted the other girl up by her collar, sticking the blade underneath it and then using her rifle as leverage to throw her into the sky. Ruby might have done that as a small form of revenge, but it worked. Grey gave the younger girl a dirty look, telling her that this would only make Weiss hate her more, but Ruby only responded by shooting him a half-apologetic grin, and shooting the ground beneath her feet a few times to get up to Weiss's altitude.
"This child…" Grey pondered, "Is an absolute genius. Either that, or she's going to get me killed." Shaking his head, smiling proudly and bemusedly, he chose to sprint along the forest floor with his shields giving him an extra boost, trying to keep up. He could've joined them up there with his semblance, but… no.
"How could you think this was a good idea?!" Weiss shouted at her as the Nevermore started flailing frantically. Ruby had picked just the right moment and angle to slingshot herself and Weiss to the nevermore so they could catch its talons and catch a ride, but with how small the forest can be when flying in the air, there was no telling how this plan could end up. Best case scenario, Ruby was just trying to prove a point.
"It's the best and only plan we've got!" Ruby responded, "So suck it up, buttercup!" Grey thought he could Ruby's plan. From that height, they could see miles in any direction, and even if the bird didn't take them directly to the shrine, jumping off an using an improvised landing strategy could land them directly in the center of it. Come to think of it, were either of them even aware of what the shrine looked like? Still, using a giant nevermore as a personal taxi service was without a doubt the mark of a truly criminal genius.
"Only you could come up with something this crazy!" Weiss shouted at her younger counterpart. Ruby ignored the girl because she could see Yang's bright blonde hair reflecting the noonday sunlight, remembering Grey's earlier joke, and decided to enact the second part of her master suicide- er… plan. Master plan.
"Fine then! Why don't we just jump?!" Ruby's had to scream over the noise to be heard, but her voice carried a slightly playful tone.
"Jump? Are you nuts?" she demanded an answer, but Ruby was already gone, "How could you leave me?!"
Ruby had already drawn Crescent Rose again to perform her landing strategy, and as she got closer to the ground, she could see Yang and the girl from the night before, Blake, waiting for her and trying to direct a proper path to the ground. It was pointless, though, as Grey had already used a shield to propel himself upwards. It wasn't easy, timing the jump and aiming it to intersect with Ruby's descent, but the yelp and her nails digging into his back were all worth it, making him smile as he used another shield to slow their fall. When he set her down, they heard the nevermore shriek from above. It was probably tired of having a pair of unwanted passengers hanging off its feet, but losing one made it gain the confidence to shake itself violently and try to throw Weiss off.
"I told her to jump," Ruby said somberly, but her eyes showed that she wasn't too upset to see her rival in this situation.
"She's going to fall," Yang decided.
"She'll be fine," Ruby affirmed.
"She's falling," Blake observed.
Grey rolled his eyes and decided to take a leisurely stroll. The girl may have been a total pain, he's least favorite type of person in fact, but he wasn't about to let her get hurt from a fall like that one. Weiss lost her grip, though, before Grey could find the right spot to catch her. Grey started jogging to get to her in time, but one thing he didn't count on was seeing Jaune, the lovestruck idiot, jumping out of the tree to try to save the rich girl, and yet, despite his best efforts and intentions, he missed her entirely. He just jumped right past her. Grey ignored him, though. Knowing Jaune, some kind of act of God would work out to save him, and while he was falling, Grey looked up, followed Weiss's trail, and held out his hands. A brief pause and a side pout of impatience later, Weiss landed into his arms with a thump, her arms wrapping around his neck tightly out of reflex, eyes tightly shut, but he still gave her the cheekiest of grins.
"Really? I have to save you again? I hope I can get paid for babysitting you," he teased. Weiss looked up at him with a blush growing on her cheeks, pink enough to almost completely cover the scar on her eye, and she found herself hearing a single word cross her mind. With the sun shining against him, surrounding him in a heavenly glow as she looked up at him in awe, this word was the only one that could describe him for her. It was something she had heard her brother Whitley use a few times when playing video games or watching anime, especially when talking about how one character felt about another.
"Senpai," she muttered under her breath. She finally understanding what in the actual hell was going on with her, the desire to be close to him finally making sense when he wrapped his arms around her. Were those bells she heard?
"What was that?" Grey asked, tilting his head to hear her better. She blushed even harder and panickedly jumped out of his arms, straightening out her skirt, grabbing Myrtenaster, then giving Grey a stern look and running off. "Fine, don't give me an answer," Grey grumbled. Seriously. What did she say? I couldn't hear anything with Pyrrha fighting that Deathstalker over there. Grey glanced over to where his cousin was fighting for her life, seeing her struggle against one of the more dangerous grimm known to exist, and figured he should probably go help her. After a moment's of debate, though, he thought, nah, she's fine, and joined Weiss and Ruby at the ruins.
Calling this a shrine was generous. It was little more than golden and black chess pieces sat upon evenly placed pedestals, yet without a second thought, Ruby and Weiss grabbed a pair of knights with a bright golden hue, finally behaving as partners for once. However, Grey bit his lip. Something was wrong. Each major chess piece had four versions, two white and two back, but that caused a major problem for him. Every single piece had already been taken, including the other knights. Not to mention, with a giant nevermore and a death stalker currently trying to kill them, he had a pretty clear time limit to try to find a solution to this problem, and began sifting around for another piece. Things were about to go nuts and he had to be ready when it did.
"Ruby!" he heard Yang shout in panic. He looked over his shoulder to see his friend charging the scorpion with her scythe drawn and ready to make impact. She charged with her Speed, fired off a round to boost herself forward even faster, and Grey cursed himself for moving his attention to something else for even a second because this was going to get her killed. Did he have to babysit her?! Grey's body took over and pushed him towards the scene, forgetting about finding a chess piece. She was more important, but even with his telekinetic wall boosting him, he was still too slow, being too tired from trying to keep up with the nevermore from before, so all he could do was watch in horror as the grimm smacked her aside with its claw. She stumbled onto her back. Grey pushed himself even faster since Crescent Rose fell out of her grasp. She was now an unarmed sitting duck, at the mercy of the grimm, but no one was close enough to do anything for her. The spiked tail was poised to strike. Grey tried to fire his last few missiles as a last resort, a distraction even, but the scorpion was already bringing his tail down.
His heart leapt in his throat. Time seemed to slow down as Grey, Yang, and everyone else looked on as Ruby was about to die, but with a flash of light, the suffocation subsided. When the light cleared, Grey smiled at what took its place. Weiss had jumped in and used her ice dust to freeze the deathstalker's tail in place before the demon could hit its mark. Only question now was how did she get there so fast?
"I realize I can be… difficult to get along with," Weiss admitted as Ruby opened her eyes to see her rival standing over her protectively, a magical glyph glowing underneath them, "But I promise to be less of an ice queen if you just try to stop showing off."
"I'm not trying to show off," Ruby explained, picking up her weapon, "I just want you to know I can do this."
"I already know you can do this," Weiss shot back with a snarky pout, "You may be young, but you made it into this school for a reason, after all."
Hm, Grey thought to himself, suddenly remembering their last fight from earlier, I guess letting them duke it out actually worked. Neat.
"So, just to summarize," Grey said with finality, stepping over to the pair with his hands in his pockets, "The entire gang is here, we've got a temporarily trapped scorpion, a nevermore with a grudge, and you guys are friends now. Honestly, that's not where I expected this day to go."
"WOULD EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN AND GIVE ME A SECOND TO THINK?!" Yang wailed over the local chaos, seemingly catching fire as her eyes turned crimson and her hair began to glow an even brighter blonde.
"And, apparently, Yang can go super saiyan," Grey added, arching his eyebrows in surprise and appreciation of the display, "Now it's a party!"
He grinned dementedly, his right eye twitching, and without taking his eyes off of his two comrades, slammed the back of his fist into the ice containing the scorpion's tail, shattering it to pieces. He then shouted to the entire group as he bobbed and weaved around the claws trying to grab him. "Everyone get out of here! I'll cover you as long as I can!" Ruby and Weiss looked as if they were about to argue, but he pushed them back with a wall before they had the chance, and smacked the scorpion's tail aside with a backhand as it was about to impale itself into his torso, now getting stuck in the ground.
The plate on his left gauntlet expanded itself from the bracer. Pyrrha glanced over her shoulder as she followed Jaune and Ruby, the one's who had taken the lead, away from the scene, to see if she needed to help Grey, but as the plate circled around to form a steel buckler while he extended his right handed blade to meet the beast's claws, she realized her weaker cousin wasn't so weak anymore. Still, she wasn't too confident he could handle this on his own.
As she sped away, Grey blocked and dodged every strike it managed to send at him, using his semblance occasionally as a third weapon to meet the tri-armed beast evenly. However, even though his sword was causing a few cracks in the beast's shell, he wasn't making any progress, and was quickly losing ground. While his buckler and semblance could deflect any attack, and the sword could easily find a chink in the armor given the right angle, this technique simply wasn't good enough, and fighting the deathstalker one on one left him at the biggest disadvantage. This beast had the perfect guard when facing you directly. The only way you could beat it was if you could flank it on either side and cut off its claws, or get behind it and sever its tail, but its arachnid legs gave it a great level of agility, and even its claws were dexterous enough to either slam into you or grab you if you tried to get around them.
Grey had an idea. While his shields weren't necessarily the best weapons, they didn't really have to be used for defence either, and he most often used them for movement anyway, so with this in mind, he sheathed his weapons, cupped his hands together, and blasted them outwards to stun the scorpion. It had to push against that shield for just a second, but that was all Grey needed. He put that one away and launched himself upwards, jumped over the deathstalker, and grabbed the very end of its tail with the motion, extending his blade one more time. If he couldn't go around, might as well go over.
"Now I've got you!" Grey cheered, readying himself to cut off the deathstalker's tail to even the playing field, but the minute he swung his sword, the deathstalker slapped its tail against the ground, slamming Grey into a pile of dust, "Know what? I'm running out of witty remarks at this point. This doesn't normally happen."
Grey picked himself up off the ground and chose to go with a contingency of sorts. It was something he doesn't normally use since it normally gives him whiplash and threatens to tear his arms in half every time he does it, but if there was a cliff nearby, and if this deathstalker was dangerous enough to kill his sense of amusement, Grey felt that it had earned a painful death. Grey was clearly outmatched, so he might as well have let gravity do the work. Grey extended his shield one more time and banged his armored fist against it, getting the scorpion's attention, and backing away slowly, waiting for him to charge. He taunted it with names, but for some reason, the thing wasn't running at him. That was weird. Grey was an easy target if he wasn't going to defend himself, so why in the name of Vacuo's sunbaked beaches was that thing running away? Grey frowned for a moment. Grimm… don't run. Ever. At least not from humans.
At least not from humans, Grey realized, then turned around him to see a pair of glowing red eyes staring at him from behind the darkness of the woods.
"What… what the hell is that?" Grey stammered, his adrenaline spiking so hard that his limbs became airy and weak, his heart racing so quickly it pounded in his skull and threw off his balance and vision, and he felt like he could see the darkness of the forest growing, surrounding him even. Suddenly, all he could see was the blackest void around him, but there was something else. In front of him, coming from the darkness was a long, serpentine arm with a hand large enough to crush him like a bug was reaching out to take him. "Whatever it is, I'm not going to stay here long enough to find out!"
With that, Grey launched himself backwards as far as he could away from the creature. He could feel the darkness around him dissipate like a formless blanket, breaking through it like it was nothing more than a tangled spider web, and watched with no small amount of trepidation as the arm and its dark glow retreated into the woods.
"Shit…" Grey cursed, only using that particular word for special occasions like this one. He shook his head violently, smacking his cheeks once to get his head back in the game, and turned to see if he could catch up to everyone else taking the exam, but before he could leave, he noticed something. A small black pawn piece had appeared in the middle of the shrine on a single pedestal that Grey wasn't sure had been there before. Biting his lip, he wasn't sure if he should take it. Given what just happened… "Ah, what's the worst that can happen?" He pocketed the ebony idol and sprinted for the farthest end of the forest where his comrades had run off to, trying to forget the nightmare that just occurred, and focusing on the test. Once he saved the others, they would finally be sworn in as huntsman in training, as students of Beacon Academy.
(A/N) The ending was difficult for me, even more so than deleting 3-5 pages worth of extraneous bollocks during editing. As I said in the first author's note, the major plotlines of each act have been heavily edited to the point of a rewrite, but the overarching themes remain the same. However, in the spirit of giving you guys a good story that didn't make you want to gouge your eyes out, I had to rewrite the last two pages of this chapter multiple times to give you something that not only worked for this one chapter, but also gave you a better idea of how significant the black pawn piece truly is, as well as giving you some foreshadowing as to what will go down with the plot later on. Question is, what's the gimmick? What does the giant hand and the darkness have to do with anything? Is it a grimm? Was it some kind of dream or vision? All I can really say is that I feel satisfied with this ending, especially compared to the last few. This one not only places much greater importance on that individual loner of a chess piece, but also doesn't reveal anything too major to the overall storyline that won't be revealed very soon. I promise you, the significance of the black pawn piece will come in the next chapter as chapter 4 of act 1, the finale of this act, but the real reveal doesn't come until much later, since chapter 4 is meant to set up the actiony side of the plot that I promised you guys.
Regardless, even if this ending isn't the best, it's better than what I had before. It took me forever to realize that the deathstalker wasn't really the important part as much as the pawn was. Every ending I tried to write had to do with Grey's duel with the grimm, and didn't really work. It was like half-baked filler and I wasn't going to subject you guys to that. Besides that, as far as the pawn piece was concerned, it was either an unimportant piece of junk that Grey didn't even know he picked up, was far too important and gave too much of a Deus ex Machina kind of feel to it, or wasn't even in this chapter to begin with. Granted, I realize I could have just (~INSERT SPOILER OF THE NEXT CHAPTER HERE~) but that wouldn't have worked either since the piece needed to be found during the exam, no exceptions. You'll find out what I mean later- and not in the next chapter -but for now, take a nap, drink some water, have a good dinner, and take some time to relax. You deserve to treat yourselves right, and you're also going to need it for the thrill ride I have in store for you later on.
Good night, beautiful hunters.
(Side note: There was some major crap going down with uploading this chapter, so if you guys see anything weird happening with this, like sentences or paragraphs repeating, or lines of computer code surrounding anything, let me know in a review or a PM. Apologies to anyone who got a notification that this updated and didn't see a chapter right away.)