Enjoy everyone! It has been a long time, although things should be consistent from here on out.
Chapter 5: Players and Pieces
The enormous raven dove, swooped, rose, and dove again. Two girls clung tightly to its talons, battered by g-forces and blasts of wind.
"Ruby!" shouted Weiss over the deafening flap of its wings. "Why did I ever trust you? This was a horrible idea."
"But it's working!" she called back. "Look over there. I see my sister, and that grey thing must be the temple. We're almost there."
Weiss's knuckles were somehow whiter that normal. She squeezed her eyes shut, pretending she was just caught in a snowstorm instead of dangling hundreds of feet in the air from a Nevermore's claws.
"I'm not jumping, Ruby," she said. "No matter what you tell me. I'm waiting for it to land, and you should too." Weiss cracked an eye open but saw nothing. Trailing from the opposite talon was a trail of rose petals.
"Ruby Rose!" Weiss screeched, drawing out the name as she clung tighter to her own claw. As she did so, the Nevermore shifted, turning smoothly to circle over the students below. It let out an ear-piercing shriek that reflexively brought her hands up to cover her ears.
Realizing her mistake, she lunged for the claw, catching it precariously by one hand. Folding its wings, the Nevermore prepared to dive.
Pyrrha fled the cave, sweeping her spear from side to side in front of her to feel for the walls. Behind her, the Death Stalker followed with its two claws and tail folded to fit through the narrow passage. Jaune remained dangling from the giant scorpion's stinger.
While she was concerned for his safety, there was little she could do in the confined space but be trampled underfoot. Of course, the cave was a trap, the question had always been what kind. Only Jaune's insistence and enthusiasm had coaxed her into such a situation, and she regretted it. But regretting it didn't change anything. It was still up to her to deal with the consequences.
The cave seemed to stretch on forever, much longer than it had seemed on the way in, and Pyrrha feared she had taken a wrong turn. Jaune's cries and the sound of hard carapace scraping against rock kept her going. The light level grew slowly, and at last, the mouth of the cave came into view. She scrambled into the light, throwing herself onto the gravel and moss beside the cave. The entrance was too small for the Death Stalker to follow. She exhaled deeply and felt her heart beat once. Twice.
Then the Death Stalker exploded from the cliff face, shattering the puny crevice as it did. Jaune had managed to hold on the entire time, but not without cost. His eyes were glazed and his clothes clung to his sweaty limbs in shreds. Worse still were the tiny rivulets of blood running across his skin. The trip through the tunnel had bled his Aura dry.
Pyrrha's pressed herself against the cliff, unwilling to stand in the beast's way, but as soon as the dust settled she tore up the ground in pursuit of it. Engaging the Death Stalker alone was foolhardy, even for an experienced fighter like herself, but she had to save Jaune.
The scorpion Grimm's exoskeleton arched. It began to buck wildly, and Jaune's grip on it grew even more precarious. "Hold on, Jaune!" Pyrrha warned. She was prepared to catch him if necessary. The alternative could be disastrous, ending with her partner being flung to his death or falling into the murderous claws snapping below him.
But her hesitation had cost her. One final thrash of the Death Stalker's tail and Jaune was hurled airborne. His body, previously limp and groggy, flailed wildly as he flew. Pyrrha pulled up short as the creature turned its attention to her.
Outside the confines of the cave and without a boy dangling from its stinger, the Death Stalker was much more agile. Pyrrha ran in the direction Jaune had gone, heading into the trees as the Grimm swiftly moved to cut her off as if sensing her goal. Its claws slashed at the thick trunks in an attempt to hack its way through.
Blake and Yang whirled around as the serene valley around them erupted into a flurry of movement. The piercing screech of a Nevermore assailed their ears.
Yang caught a blur of movement in the field to her right. She turned, only to see, impossibly, Jaune flying through the air. His body turned over once before crashing to the ground, carving a furrow in the earth. Pausing briefly to throw her shield over her shoulder, Pyrrha sprinted into the forest before grabbing Jaune by his wrists, dragging him away from the trees towards them.
"Heads up!" called a familiar voice. The two girls stepped apart as a crimson blur materialized between them. Ruby jumped to her feet. "I made it!" she announced, out of breath. Blake looked at her with a confused expression.
"Ruby," Yang said in amazement. "Where'd you drop in from? And don't you have a partner?"
Ruby was excited, speaking in starts. "Nevermore. We rode on it all the way here. Weiss… Weiss wouldn't let go."
"Then where is she now?" Yang's question was answered by another screech from overhead.
"Ruby, I'm going to get you for this!" cried a voice, tinny compared to the screech.
"Come on, Weiss, jump!" Ruby yelled back.
The Nevermore tucked its wings and swooped low over the field, then it stalled in midair and fanned them out, unleashing a volley of needle-like feathers as long as javelins.
"It can shoot those things?" said Yang, as a feather whistled over her shoulder. "Everyone get down!"
With the creature so close to the ground, Weiss took the chance to get free. She released her grip right as the gigantic bird turned, causing her to spin awkwardly as she tumbled through the air. Even when she focused, the ground kept spinning, making it difficult to summon a glyph directly below her. It desperation Weiss poured her aura into the effort, placing sigil after sigil wherever her eyes could see. Too late she realized her aura might have been better saved for the fall.
Weiss hit the ground hard, not quite fast enough to badly injure her, but fast enough to bruise. A look around prompted her to groan. The grass was littered with shining blue rings. She had managed to place a glyph everywhere except the exact spot she fell on. Painfully, she got up and ran over to the others.
By now, Pyrrha had reached the temple, still dragging Jaune's limp but clearly conscious body. Upon reaching the stones Jaune shook his head a few times and got to his feet. The poor boy definitely looked the worse for wear, covered in mud with his clothes shredded and skin scraped. Fortunately, he seemed to be free of serious injuries, and his eyes remained focused and alert despite the fall he had taken.
The six students stood together on the edge of the stones. Their journey hadn't been long. Initiation had begun less than three hours before, but most of them looked like they'd been stuck in the wilderness for weeks.
"The relics are here," Yang explained to the others. "Blake and I already got ours. They're the chess pieces. Go grab yours and we can head back together. If we stay as a group we'll be less likely to be ambushed."
"What did you pick, Yang?" Ruby asked.
"Oh," said Yang, pulling the white knight out of her jacket pocket. It wasn't a decision she had considered seriously, since they probably wouldn't be allowed to keep the relics after handing them in. "I picked a knight."
"Really?" said Ruby, pouting. "I wanted the white knight. Now I have to take the evil one."
"Well, it's your lucky day, sis, because there's two of each color."
Ruby ran over to the pedestals and snatched the second knight before anyone could argue.
"Really?" complained Weiss as she came back. "Shouldn't we both be making this decision?"
"It's fine, Weiss," Blake said quietly. "Yang did the same thing. I don't think the relic you take matters for anything."
Jaune rubbed his muddied head. "I kind of wanted to be a white knight, too," said Jaune, a little irritated. "Pyrrha, mind if I take a rook instead?" She nodded so he went over and picked up the piece.
"Yeee-haww!" shouted a bubbly voice, coming from the trees.
Yang groaned. "Who is it now?"
A massive Ursa broke out of the dense scrub lining the forest, charging into the clearing. Two people clung to the spikes on its back. Yang recognized the ginger crown of one of the riders—it was Nora. Which meant that the other had to be the boy that was always with her. Ren, he was called.
Nora managed to pull out her hammer with one hand, using the other to remain steady on the Ursa. She gleefully swung the hammer, hitting the back of the beast's neck with a crack. Its legs buckled and collapsed. The beast's momentum carried it forward several feet on its stomach, where it slid to a halt just shy of the temple.
"Is it dead?" Yang asked warily, putting out her hand to tell Ruby and the others to stay back.
Just a moment after, the creature began to smoke, its body swiftly dissolving into the air. Ren and Nora slid off and walked towards them. Yang just stared at the smoke. Something was nagging her about it, but it wasn't a question to ask right now. She had to get herself and her friends out of the forest in one piece.
"Grab a chess piece and let's go!" Yang said, not wanting to explain herself again to the new arrivals. She turned back to the group. "Let's take the valley. It's more exposed but we can't get lost, and I think I saw a bridge that can get us back to the cliffs."
The two Ursa riders had gotten their piece. Ren shook his head in embarrassment as Nora stumbled back, precariously balancing a rook on her head.
"Yang," Pyrrha said, slowly and cautiously. "I know we are trying to hurry, but shouldn't we first deal with that?" She pointed across the field, where a patch of trees seemed to be shaking.
Before Yang could respond, the trees snapped, collapsing on each other like dominoes, leaving a gap in the otherwise perfect wall of wood. A Death Stalker emerged over the pile of fallen trunks and began to scuttle towards them.
"It…it broke through," said Pyrrha. "I'm sorry. It's my fault for leading it here."
"Let's get it!" cheered Ruby. She rushed headlong at the scorpion, expanding Crescent Rose behind her. Yang sighed. And Ruby said she was the reckless one. Out of preservation for her sister rather than any real strategy, she followed towards the Death Stalker, motioning for the others to follow.
Thirty yards away from the Grimm, Ruby planted the head of her scythe, vaulting off it like a pole and firing it for extra momentum. The launch put her directly between the Death Stalker's head and its tail, where she slashed downward. The blade refused to catch in the beast's heavily armored back, bouncing off instead. In panic she jumped off, ducking as a pincer snapped at her.
Seeing the Death Stalker turn on Ruby, Yang fired both her gauntlets at its face. The shotgun shells burst against it to little effect, and the scorpion pulled both of its armored claws in front of it to block any further attacks.
The Death Stalker seemed much bigger up close. Yang's instincts were to keep fighting until the beast was dead, but her sensible side told her to just evade it. "We have to get to the bridge!" she yelled. "It can't follow us there."
Yang broke into a run, heading to the far side of the valley. Ruby had managed to extricate herself, and the others were following, too. The Death Stalker seemed confused at having so many people around it, the way a shark is confused by a school of fish. Its tail lashed at Ren, who avoided it easily, then retaliated by shooting a few rounds into its exposed stinger. The tail recoiled, evidently a weak spot in the Grimm's defenses.
The valley sloped upward at its end, leading to a steep drop of at least a hundred feet. On the far side of the chasm was the cliff where they had begun, albeit at a slightly different spot. Spanning the gap was a rough yet meticulously crafted stone bridge, at least a hundred yards long and wide enough for a car to pass—but hopefully not wide enough for an enormous scorpion.
Another concern was that the Nevermore was still following them. While it hadn't tried to bite them or launched any more feathers, the way it circled overhead like a vulture was unnerving and Yang knew it would jump on them the instant it saw an opportunity. Unlike the Death Stalker, it wouldn't be deterred by the bridge.
While the bridge was well-maintained, the stone structures surrounding it were not. A row of destroyed houses sat along the edge of the cliff, with their foundations still standing. Yang dove behind one of them. "Get down!" she yelled to the others. They followed her lead and crouched behind the walls.
"That thing's not going to let us pass the bridge," said Jaune, pointing at the Nevermore. "It'll grab us one by one and eat us."
Yang snorted at the ridiculousness of that image. "Nah," she said. "We're between what's basically a rock and a hard place right now. If we go back we'll have to find a completely different way. There might not be one at all."
"Nora, can you distract it?" asked Ren. "Hold its attention so we can get to the bridge safely."
Nora raised an eyebrow. "Which one, the bird or the creepy crawly?"
"Both, if you can," he said. "You're the best person to do it."
The compliment seemed to energize Nora. She dashed out of hiding with her hammer, Magnhild, in its launcher form. The Nevermore beat her to the punch, launching another volley of feathers. Nora tucked and rolled, emerging unscathed. Her retaliation was swift, firing a bulky shell trailing pink smoke. It blew up on impact in a flash of pink hearts that caused the bird to falter. Ren jumped up from his hiding place, heading for the bridge. The others followed his lead.
"Go, go, go!" Pyrrha yelled, hefting Miló in its rifle form. "Nora, look out!"
The Death Stalker had caught up with them. It was only thirty yards from Nora and moving fast. Already it had picked its way through the ruins, despite the narrow gaps between the buildings. It shouldn't have surprised Pyrrha after how it had fared in the tiny cave.
No longer perched on the bridge, the Nevermore circled overhead as Nora aimed her launcher at it again, oblivious to the scorpion behind her. Ren yanked her away just in time. Blake had strung her shroud between two stone pillars, but the Death Stalker broke through with ease, snapping at Blake but only managing to snag a shadowy clone.
They had all made it to the bridge by now, with Ruby in the lead. Her cape had come untucked and was trailing behind her. The others followed her, with Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren bringing up the rear. Then everything went dark.
Shadows fell over the bridge as the Nevermore's massive wingspan blocked out the sun. Its body was outlined against the light like some dark, vengeful angel. With a whooshing sound that was now familiar to them, it fired another volley of feathers. Then it tucked its head and flew straight at the bridge.
Yang realized what it was trying to do. "Get out of the way!" she yelled to Ruby, who was struggling with her cape, which had been pinned to the stone by a feather. "Take it off, Ruby!"
Ruby shook her head stubbornly, continuing to yank on the feather. After several seconds of futility, she began to undo the clasps that held it to her shirt, but it was too late. With a direct collision, the Nevermore stove in the side of the bridge. The surrounding stones, unsupported, began to collapse.
A silent scream escaped her lips as the stone she was pinned to began to topple into the abyss. Despite the extreme circumstances she was facing, and the energy coursing through her, her semblance refused to go. It was finicky that way.
The stone fell, and Ruby was falling now. Falling and falling and falling and—
Why did everything feel...cold? Ruby groaned and sat up, pulling her cloak in front of her to inspect it. A long tear ran down the middle where the feather had caught it and eventually torn through. For a moment, she was too distraught to take in her surroundings.
"Ruby! Get up! Come on!" someone shouted.
Ruby looked up and saw Weiss standing on the edge of the broken bridge above her. The arm holding her sword, Myrtenaster, was rigid and straight, and a pale vein stood out on her face. A blue snowflake glyph hovered on the bottom of the bridge.
All around Ruby was ice. It spilled from the bottom of the bridge and snaked downward, forming a crude, lumpy hand that kept her from falling. Weiss had saved her. Remembering the amount of energy it took for her partner to maintain the glyph, she scrambled up to the bridge as quick as she could.
"Thanks, Weiss," she said, thoroughly embarrassed. "I really mean it. I should have just let it go."
Weiss nodded, but the look on her face was still reproachful. "If you hadn't run ahead of the group," she said, "I wouldn't have needed to save you. There's no need to be reckless."
Ruby couldn't help but defend herself a little. "Well, maybe if you hadn't told me over and over how terrible I am, I wouldn't have needed to show off."
"You, of all people, needing to show off?" Weiss said, rolling her eyes. "You're fine." She turned and ran toward Blake and Yang, who were waiting under a stone arch farther down the bridge.
Ruby was about to join her when she remembered the others. She looked back across the gap. Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren crouched on a narrow stub of the bridge sticking out over the canyon. The Death Stalker stood right up against the edge, preventing them from escaping back to the valley, but unwilling to chase them onto the unstable, narrow platform. The jump to the rest of the bridge was forty feet at least—not a jump any of them could make barring a semblance she didn't know about.
"Come with us, Ruby!" Yang yelled. "There's nothing we can do about Jaune and the others right now. We'll come back for them later."
Having their group split, trapped on opposite sides of a chasm, and facing different enemies made her nervous, but Ruby nodded and ran after her sister.
"What are we going to do?" asked Jaune in disbelief. Never before had he contemplated jumping off a cliff, but when the alternative was trying to sneak past a pincer larger than his entire body, it seemed good to consider his options.
"We wait," Ren said, voice calm and collected. "It hasn't moved onto the platform and it's not foolish enough to try. It'll get bored and move on eventually."
Pyrrha, on the other hand, seemed more concerned. "No luck there," she said. "It's easy to forget Grimm aren't animals. They don't get bored or hungry. If they don't eat for a few months they start to shrink, but that's not really relevent."
Ren was adamant. "I say we wait anyway. The others—they'll send help for us once they reach the cliffs. Even if they don't, we'll be rescued eventually."
Nora waved her hammer at the Death Stalker. The beast was nearly still, its only movement an occasional adjustment of its legs. "You mean just sit here all day? Come. On," she said, moping.
The supposedly patient Death Stalker seemed to be growing restless. It began to smack its claws against the edge of their sanctuary, each impact shaving off little slivers of stone. After a few strikes, the platform started to sag. Then it tipped toward the cliff.
"We gotta move!" said Jaune. He scrambled forward, vaguely aware of the others following him. "Take it down, now."
A claw swung straight at him. Jaune's mind told him to move, to jump or duck, but his legs would have nothing to do with it. They turned to jelly as the pincers closed in on his midsection. He closed his eyes and waited, only opening them at the sound of a harsh, metallic clang.
Pyrrha was crouching with her shield braced, standing over him. He realized guiltily that she had deflected the claw away from him.
"Take care of yourself, Jaune," she said, sounding more relieved than angry.
"Stay right there, Pyrrha," said Nora from somewhere behind him. "Don't move your shield."
Pyrrha looked back, confused. Her eyes widened as Nora leaped. She grunted from the heavy impact against her shield. Jaune and Ren looked up, stupefied, as Nora hurtled through the sky. Magnhild gave her enough leverage to spin several times in succession, before burying its face in the Death Stalker's… face.
Ren's lethargic demeanor was gone immediately. He drew Stormflower and fired it at a run, bullets ineffectually bouncing off the Death Stalker's armored plates. Nora had recovered by now, and the two of them switched places, with Ren running straight at it while she ran back toward Jaune and Pyrrha.
Ren's jump could not have been more different than Nora's. He jumped low, clearing the Grimm's head and catching the top of its tail. The set of razor-sharp blades on the base of each of his guns sunk into the tendon, right below the stinger.
It was here that Stormflower's bullets seemed to have a greater effect. The scorpion thrashed as Ren blasted its unarmored stinger. Meanwhile, Nora had switched back to her grenade launcher. She loaded three shells and fired them in quick succession. While they seemed to make an impact on the Grimm, they had the unfortunate side effect of damaging the platform further.
"Pyrrha, get the stinger!" Jaune yelled as he ran forward. "It's already weak."
"Done," was her reply.
Pyrrha backed up as far as she dared before reversing course and running straight at the Death Stalker with Miló leveled at it like a jousting lance. Still blinded from Nora's grenades, it didn't react as Pyrrha buried the spear tip in one of its eight red eyes. Then she vaulted over the spear, landing on the creature's back.
Ren still clung to the tail, the scorpion having given up on shaking him loose. Pyrrha aimed carefully, not wanting to hit him. The edge of Akoúo̱ wasn't sharp, but the sinews and muscles that held the stinger in place had already been weakened.
It was frustrating to have her target so close, but so far away. A solid frisbee throw would have sufficed to sever the stinger, but the angle was awkward. She had to throw straight up, keeping the edge perfectly steady, cutting as close as possible without hurting Ren. After a second or two of failing to work out the angles, Pyrrha gave up and flung the shield as straight as she could.
Her aim was true; the shield cleanly separated the two halves. Ren was unharmed, and she watched as the boy freed one arm, then the other. Enraged, the Death Stalker blundered onto the collapsing stub of the bridge. Pyrrha retrieved her spear and rolled behind it as it passed, putting her back on firm ground, where Ren and Nora were already waiting.
That left Jaune, alone facing the ornery scorpion.
"Oh, come on guys," he whined. "Really?"
Fortunately, the Grimm seemed too disoriented to pay him any attention. Jaune slid through the gap under its claw unscathed and ran to join the others.
How the tables had turned. Now it was the Death Stalker who stood on the platform while Nora whaled away at it with Magnhild. The last bits of foundation gave way, uprooting the platform as its great weight carried it over the edge.
"Waa-hoo!" Nora exclaimed, hugging Ren, who was too tired to resist. "We did it! We did it! We did it!"
Jaune looked over the edge warily, trying to make out the fallen monster in the fog below the cliff. "Is it dead?" he asked.
Pyrrha hesitated. "Probably not," she admitted. "They have exoskeletons, so the fall likely didn't hurt it. But it won't be bothering us again today."
"Maybe it won't," Jaune said, his eyes fixed on the sky, "But this fight isn't over yet."
Yang was climbing one of the overhanging stone arches when her sister arrived. She paused and looked down.
"Ruby," she said. "Cover me! I'm gonna hit it from up top."
Ruby crouched on one knee by the side of the bridge and leaned Crescent Rose against the ground. She snapped an electric cartridge into place, aware she would only get five shots out of it. Each one had to count.
Next to the main bridge, about thirty feet up, was a second bridge. It was full of holes, dilapidated even compared to the one they were on. It seemed a miracle that it was still standing. Blake and Weiss were already standing on it, using the height to get a better view of the Nevermore above them. Yang was on her way to join them.
As before, it was unclear whether the gigantic raven was losing interest or simply waiting for the right opportunity. It hadn't smashed the bridge again or thrown any more feathers at them. Maybe it knew they were expecting those tricks, and had something new up its sleeve. Wing. Whatever.
The optical sight on Ruby's scythe wasn't fancy, but it didn't need to be. At the end of the day, a sight was just that. No matter how good it was, it didn't take the shot for you. This shot shouldn't have been difficult. The Nevermore was huge and its body stood in stark contrast to the bright sky. Only a nagging itch that they were missing something distracted her.
"Where is it, Yang?" Ruby asked. After going so such great efforts to isolate and injure them, it seemed impossible that their foe had given up. Yet it had ceased its circling several minutes earlier and now it was lost in the fog below them. Ruby scanned the seething, swirling mist, looking for anything that stood out. A flash of feathers, a sudden dispersion of air as a wing flapped below it, even a suspicious-looking shadow. There was nothing.
Then, like a monstrous avian tornado, the Nevermore burst from the bottom of the bridge, gouging out chunks of stone and sending them flying. Ruby was unharmed, being at least thirty feet away, but the suddenness of it was still startling.
Blake was the quickest to react, jumping from her place on the upper bridge and grabbing the scruff of the Nevermore's neck, each hand taking up fistfuls of feathers. Lacking the ability to brush her off, the raven began to shake and gyrate through the air. Blak advanced up the back of its neck, slowly gaining ground before thrusting at its eye with her katana.
Half-blinded, the Nevermore rammed into the cliff wall, sending a shower of loose rock tumbling down over it. Ruby jumped up in alarm. Weiss, who had moments earlier made her way down to the main bridge, saw her opportunity.
Weiss began to run, swift as her heels allowed, toward the cliff. Then she stopped and slid while Myrtenaster, loaded with ice dust, laid down a frozen trail in her path. The momentum allowed for an easy jump that brought her level with the still-recovering Nevermore. Her rapier leapt out like a serpent, frost spreading from the tip and gathering around the legs and tail of the Grimm. For a moment she feared it wasn't enough, but the ice quickly thickened, encasing its entire lower body in a shimmering lattice.
"Get it, Ruby!" called out Yang, seeing what Weiss had done, but her sister wasn't listening.
Ruby wasn't sure what had happened. As soon as the Nevermore struck the cliff something clicked inside of her, and she was drawn to the cliff in a way that made the journey fuzzy and indistinct. The next thing she knew, she was reforming atop the ice, a hand's breadth away from the bird's beak. Her semblance must have gone off inadvertently. Crescent Rose knew what to do, and so did Ruby. Its gun barrel unfolded twice, forming the familiar shape of a scythe. One slash was all it took to separate the sleek, glossy head from its body. Black-grey smoke billowed from the stump in a macabre pyre.
Weiss waited for her partner to relax before she allowed her mind to unfocus, the glass melting as she did. Ruby hopped to a crude ledge set partway down the cliff. The fallen body of their foe drifted down slowly, graceful even in death, partially dissolving as it fell.
Yang gave a little whistle, looking over at Blake. "That was a thing," she said in disbelief. All around the valley, others were thinking the same thing.
Unending applause. Shouts, cheers, and whistles from students as they passed. Slaps on the back and congratulatory remarks. Ruby didn't know whether their initiation had truly been something extraordinary, or if this kind of reaction was par for the course.
No sooner had she and her friends made it back to the cliffs, they were ushered to a bathroom and given only twenty minutes to wash up before being sent up on stage in the auditorium with the other initiates. It was only now that she realized they had been the last students to finish, although by what it seemed so far doing so wasn't a stigma.
Taking the microphone at the center of the semicircular stage was a familiar face: Ozpin. He smiled at the cheering students, but whether the source of his pleasure was their behavior or the success of the initiation was unknown.
"Thank you, thank you," he said, signalling for the crowd to quiet themselves. "Our newest students appreciate, I'm sure, your compliments. They will have plenty of time to receive them later. But now is the time for me to announce the last set of teams."
On the screen behind Ozpin flashed four portrait-shaped rectangles, which a second later were filled in with the faces of four scowling boys, two with bleached hair.
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark," he said. "The four of you retrieved the two black bishops. Your teachers and I had a little chat and ultimately decided that you will be Team 'CRDL,' led by Cardin Winchester. Congratulations, young men, you have done very well."
Orange-haired Cardin walked over to shake the headmaster's hand, with the rest of his team a pace behind. They walked off the stage and took their place in the empty front row. After a few more moments of clapping Ozpin snapped his fingers, and the picture behind him changed again.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren," he said, gesturing to the screen, "Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. You four chose for yourselves the set of white rooks. We have decided to call you Team 'JNPR,' led by… Jaune Arc. Congratulations to all."
The look on Jaune's face reflected his surprise. He shook the headmaster's hand and could swear the man winked at him. Pyrrha gave him a broad smile as they took their seats next to Team CRDL. On their other side, Nora was still giggling about their new team while Ren nodded along.
"Now," said Ozpin, drawing everyone's attention back. "The final team."
Ruby's heart beat a little, although there were no surprises. Herself, Yang, Weiss, and Blake were the only ones left standing.
"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao-Long," Ozpin said, gesturing to final set of portraits behind him. "The four of you retrieved none other than the white knight pieces. You will be known as Team 'RWBY', led by Ruby Rose. Congratulations."
Weiss's eyes were blank. They flickered between Ruby and the man at the microphone, his words registering but not making sense. How had her partner, the youngest and least responsible, become the leader of their team? Was it only because Ruby had killed the Nevermore? Even though she had summoned the ice that made the killing blow possible?
"The matter of teams is sorted," said Ozpin, his tone indicating finality. "But the surprises of this year have just begun. Continued training, new experiences, and the Vytal Festival come Spring. I think we can all agree that this year will be one to remember."
Roman pored over the map one last time, using two fingers to insert a pushpin on a line between two streets.
"No, no, not there," he muttered, pulling it back out.
There was a harsh clack as a rolling cart struck the bump at the edge of the door. He rolled his eyes.
"What is it?" he asked the henchman that had just walked in. "Can't you see I'm a little busy here?"
The grunt didn't respond, only pointing at the suitcase on top of the cart. With the excitement of a kid opening birthday presents and the precision of an experienced thief, Roman clicked the latches open, revealing rows of dust crystals inside. He stroked his chin.
"Not bad, not bad," Roman said, "Oh wait, I'm forgetting something, aren't I?"
He pulled a small stack of assorted lien from his pocket and placed it on top of the cart, closing the suitcase and taking it for himself. "Pleasure doing business with you," he said.
Suitcase in hand, Roman turned back to the map, lighting a cigar as he did. He heard the bump of the cart exiting the room. Putting the lighter down, he picked up a red marker and drew a crude circle on the map, right at the edge of the water.
"We're going to need more men," he hissed.
Hope you guys enjoyed the long chapter. I struggled to strike a balance between thoroughness and repetition, between slow and fast paced. I don't love the pacing, by the way. 2nd half of this chapter is something I'll want to do another pass on someday, but for now I've got other priorities.
Don't forget to review!