Chapter 2
"RUUUUNNNN!" Jaune shouted as he sprinted off in a random direction, Dante kept up with him easily.
"Do you even know where we are going?" Dante asked
"Nope. Just hoping to get lucky." Jaune said, as if he didn't have a care in the world. Dante shook his head and laughed.
"You're an idiot." He teased, Jaune did a rude gesture to Dante.
"Yeah? Back at y- ARGH!" Jaune was interrupted mid-sentence when he fell over a girl who was laying on the floor, she wore a red cape.
"Ouch! Hey! What was that for?" She said, she sprang up trying to look indignant but looking adorable instead.
"Sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going." Jaune apologised. The girl huffed and pouted, then smiled.
"Well. If you apologise I guess it's all good. I'm Ruby. You are?" The girl (now known as Ruby) asked.
"Oh, I'm Jaune, this is Dante." Jaune introduced, Dante waved.
"Nice to meet you Ruby." Dante said.
"Jaune, huh." She muttered, Dante thought he saw a tiny bit of awe in her eyes, it reminded him of a love-struck school girl. He chuckled,
"Wow. This guy works fast." He thought. A huge crash brought him back to his senses. Ruby was holding a huge scythe.
"Sooo, I got this thing." She said awkwardly, Dante and Jaune both looked at each other bewildered.
"Cool." Jaune said.
"It's also a high impact sniper rifle." She continued.
"Um. Wha?" Jaune said. Ruby rolled her eyes.
"It's also a gun." She said. Jaune nodded his head.
"What's your weapon, Jaune?" Dante asked. Jaune looked embarrassed as he lifted out his sword and shield, explaining they were simple hand me downs.
"They're not hand me downs." Ruby said.
"They're not?" Jaune said
"Yeah, they're more like… Family heirlooms." She said, Jaune cheered up after hearing that.
"So Dante, what's your weapon?" Ruby asked.
"Oh my weapon? Well it's a k-," Dante was interrupted by the sound of an intercom.
"The welcoming ceremony for new students will begin in 2 minutes, please make your way to the auditorium." The trio looked at each other for a spilt second
"THE WELCOMING CEREMONY! RUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!"
Dante and Jaune made it in the nick of time. They slipped in just as the doors were closing.
"Hey, where's Ruby?" Jaune asked, looking around.
"Dunno, she'll be fine though. She is crazy fast." Dante replied. It was true, Ruby had disappeared the moment they started running.
"Yeah, probably. Hey let's get to the front. I want to get a good view." Jaune said he began squeezing through the other pupils, he started following Jaune. When Dante found Jaune he was attempting to flirt with a white haired girl, Ruby was in a blonde haired girls arms.
"Um, what did I miss?" Dante said, the three girls looked at him. Ruby jumped down from the blonde's arms,
"Hi again Dante. This is my sister Yang."
"Hello there, hot stuff." Yang purred. Dante gulped, Yang was checking him out like a predator judging its next meal.
"Um, hi." He said. He turned his attention to Jaune, who was still trying to flirt with the white haired girl.
"I'm a natural blonde you know." He said, Dante smiled. Jaune was without a doubt a lady killer. The girl shook her head in annoyance, maybe Jaune wasn't THAT great of a Lady Killer. Dante put his hand on Jaune's shoulder.
"Hey Jaune look. Someone guy coming up on the stage." While Jaune was distracted Dante looked back at the girl, only to find she wasn't there anymore. She had retreated behind a couple of people while he was talking to Jaune.
"Ahem, I'll keep this brief. All of you here aspire to become hunters and huntresses, but I look among you and all I see is wasted energy. You have travelled here in search of knowledge, but your time at this school will prove knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He walked away and Glynda Goodwitch proceeded to explain what would happen tonight, and that the Initiation would commence tomorrow.
Dante yawned, he was sitting next to Jaune in the mess hall, and the sleeping bags of other Initiates littered the floor around them. Jaune was staring in his bag looking extremely worried.
"What's up Jaune? You look worried." Dante asked, Jaune looked up.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing." He said
"Really? It doesn't look like nothing."
"Oh all right, I'll tell you. Please don't tell anyone."
"Sure, what's wrong?"
"Well. My mum only packed my onesie pyjamas." Dante blinked. A moment later he fell apart laughing, tears streaming down his face.
"Ha ha! Wow, that's awkward. Don't worry, I've got some spare bottoms, if you want them." Jaune vigorously nodded. Dante reached into his bag and brought a pair of sleeping shorts. Jaune grabbed them, thanked Dante for his kindness and hurriedly got changed. Dante grabbed his toothbrush and paste, he followed the signs that directed new students to the bathrooms. He turned round a corner and bumped into someone, the stuff they were carrying fell onto the floor.
"Oh, sorry about that." Dante said, he bent down and started to pick up the person's belongings. After he had picked everything up he straightened and looked at who he'd bumped into. It was the white haired girl from the Welcoming ceremony.
"Oh, hello again." He said smiling, the girl rolled her eyes.
"Can I have my stuff back?" She demanded.
"Hmm? Oh sure, sorry about that." Dante said smiling sheepishly, he'd forgotten to give her back her stuff. The girl grabbed her stuff and began hurriedly walking away.
"Geez, what's her problem?" Dante thought. He walked into the bathroom.
"Honestly, how can you forget your locker number and combination overnight?" Dante joked, Jaune punched him.
"Shut up." Jaune said, Dante laughed again.
"Well, you put your stuff in the locker next to mine, and thankfully I remembered where MY locker is." Dante teased, they came up to two lockers by the wall. Once they had opened them they gathered their gear. Jaune was putting on his armour when he realised that Dante didn't have any.
"Hey, don't you have armour?" Jaune asked, Dante looked up.
"Hmm? No, too much of it slows me down, I have some in my trousers and under my kimono though." He replied. Dante wore a white sleeveless kimono with blue trims and his symbol (A white angel wing) was on the left side. He wore light armour underneath it. He also wore black fingerless gloves, an ammunition belt with frthree extra cartridges, armoured trousers, trainers and a light blue scarf with glowing runes on. He and Jaune walked towards the exit when they spotted the white haired girl talking to a girl in Amazonian armour. Jaune immediately sidled up to the white haired girl
"Why hello there, snow angel." He said, the girl jumped with shock.
"So Pyrrha, have you decided whose team you'd like to be on?" She said, completely ignoring Jaune.
"I'm not quite sure, I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may." Pyrrha answered, Dante noted that she was staring at Jaune the entire time. Jaune seemed to just realise Pyrrha was there, he started flirting with her immediately. Dante chuckled while observing the whole conversation, almost falling apart when Jaune only realised who Pyrrha was after the other girl told him she was on the front of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal box. He had to roll out the way when the other girl had Pyrrha nail him to the wall with her spear directly behind him. Suddenly Ruby and her sister Yang appeared.
"Um, why is Jaune slumped on the floor over there?" Ruby asked.
"Long story." Dante replied shrugging.
Dante thought the school was cool when he got there, he thought it was awesome when he got launched off a cliff with the other initiates.
"Wooo!" He shouted as he flew through the air, as the ground came hurtling towards him he closed his eyes and extended his arm. A light blue glyph appeared on the palm of his hand and a platform of ice appeared. He landed neatly, tucking into a roll before getting to his feet.
"Um, which ways north? That way? This way? Ah screw it, I'll go this way." He thought, he set off in a random direction. After a while he started to hear growls and the unmistakeable sound of metal clashing against bone. Another Hunter/Huntress was nearby and had encountered Grimm, presumably a lot of them. He ran towards the sound.
Weiss was had been having a rubbish day. First she was trying to convince Pyrrha to join her team when that insufferable blonde goofball (Jaune) had attempted to flirt with her, then she learned of the team rules (the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for 4 years!), she had been forced to team up with Ruby and now she had been ambushed by a pack of beowolves while Ruby was nowhere to be seen. Another one threw itself at her, forcing her to block and jump back to gain ground.
"Damn it." She thought, there were too many, even for her! Too many beowolves, every time she took down one another one took its place. She took a step back, and felt her heel slip, panic overtook her as she struggled to keep her balance. She had a sneaking suspicion that if she fell down now she'd never get up again. She finally regained her balance, but doing so cost her precious moments. A Beowolf saw a chance and leapt at the recovering Weiss, she couldn't do anything as it closed in on her, fangs and claws gleaming.
"I'm sorry father." She thought, accepting her fate. When she opened her eyes again the Beowolf was dead on the floor, with a bullet hole through its head.
"W-what?" She thought, suddenly more beowolves fell dead, and a shadow jumped from the treetops and landed few meters away, landing right in front of her.
"You ok?" The figure asked, without turning around. Weiss noticed he held a slim blue sniper rifle in his right hand. He flipped it up into the air and it turned to a katana.
"Y-yes." Suddenly the figure disappeared and a huge gust of snow suddenly appeared. It grew and grew until it became a vicious tornado of sharp icicles that pierced the bodies of the Beowolves like scissors cutting paper. The Beowolves seemed to realise that living to fight another day was probably the best course of action, they retreated with howls of outrage, until they were heard no more. The figure materialised in front of her (again) and the tornado of ice ceased, whoever this person was Weiss wanted them on her team. The figure turned and both teenagers gasped.
"You!" Weiss said while pointing at the boy. He waved sheepishly.
"Heh, heh. Me." He extended his hand in greeting. Suddenly a gust of rose petals appeared, signalling the return of Ruby,
"Um, did I miss anything?" Ruby said, Weiss glared at her. Dante suddenly wondered how Jaune was doing.
Jaune was having a pretty bad day, first he tried to flirt with the girl who complimented him, then he made a complete fool of himself in front of a celebrity and she had nailed him to the wall with her spear, and now he was nailed to a tree by same said spear! He cursed the gods.
"It's definitely this way!" Weiss said marching to the left, then changed her mind and went the opposite direction. Dante and Ruby were sitting on a log looking bored.
"She has no idea, does she?" Dante asked,
"Nope!" Ruby replied. The duo got up and followed Weiss as she disappeared into the forest. They appeared in a large clearing a few minutes later.
"Ah ha! This must be it! I am a genius!" Weiss exclaimed and marched forward, only to find herself pulled back into Dante.
"What are you doing, you dolt?!" She demanded outraged, his only response was to point downwards. Weiss looked down and gasped. They were standing at the edge of a huge chasm, she peered down into it and saw two massive eggs.
"Wha?" Ruby asked, Weiss had to admit. She was thinking the exact same question.
"A Nevermore nest," Dante whispered, "We'd better leave before the mother comes back." The two girls nodded and they started tiptoeing away. They heard a blood curdling screech.
"Aw, crap. Run!" Dante shouted, the three teenagers bolted back into the forest.
How was Jaune's day, you ask? To be honest, it was getting better. He had been nailed to a tree because Pyrrha personally wanted him to be on HER team. She had unlocked his 'aura' and now he had found the relic cave! He marched inside the cave, despite Pyrrha's protests. He stepped in a puddle, which he thought was weird. After all, the other parts of the cave were bone dry. He dropped his torch, which sucked because now he couldn't see. Then he saw it, a glowing 'thing' that hovered a few feet away. He was about to reach out for it when an echoing screech vibrated inside the cave. He and Pyrrha and to shut their eyes and cover their ears for a few seconds. When he removed his palms from his ears and opened his eyes he was surprised to see six glowing red ones staring back at him. He and the eyes blinked, then he screamed.
Dante heard the girly screech and immediately snapped to attention.
"Some girl is trouble!" Ruby exclaimed, they heard a far off screech.
"Damn, it's still following us. Quick, we need to go." Dante said, they kept running. A few minutes later they came to the top of a hill and saw a destroyed temple at the bottom.
"The Relic Temple!" Ruby said, the three teenagers rushed to the bottom of the hill. Ruby saw a familiar face near the temple.
"Yang!"
"Ruby!" Then everything went nuts. In the span of 10 seconds Jaune flew into a tree, Pyrrha was knocked into the group by a Deathstalker and a ginger girl rode in on an Ursa!
"Great! The Gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang exclaimed sarcastically.
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby said, she used Crescent Rose to propel herself towards the Deathstalker. Dante saw a speck in the distance that seemed to be growing larger and larger. His eyes widened
"Weiss, go help Ruby. Now!" He said, she looked at him like he'd grown a second head.
"What? Why? Give me one good reason I should help her."
"Hmm, oh I don't know maybe because you're her partner and just maybe because the damn Nevermore's back!" She regarded him for a second then waved her hand, she shot off like a rocket towards Ruby. The Nevermore was now nearly on top of Ruby, it sent out a flurry of feathers that snagged her cape, holding her in place.
"Ruby!" Yang exclaimed, the Deathstalker raised its stinger and poised to strike a hole in Ruby.
"Come on, come on, come on." Dante thought, he shut his eyes. He heard a crack, then opened his eyes. The stinger was stuck in a wall of ice, Weiss was standing next to Ruby talking to her about something. They ran back to the group.
"Uh guys, that things circling back." Jaune said, pointing at the distant Nevermore.
"Look, there's no need to hang around, our objective is right in front of us." Weiss said
"Yeah, our mission is to grab the relics and go. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby said.
"Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." Jaune said. Ruby and Jaune grabbed separate artefacts. Dante looked around but couldn't find any other relics. Suddenly the Deathstalker screeched in triumph as the ice started to crack. Dante decided to worry about missing relics later, he ran after the others.
They were almost safe when the Nevermore and Deathstalker decided to show up. They were running across the bridge, completely safe from the Deathstalker when the Nevermore decided to destroy the bridge. Most of the gang was thrown forward, while Blake, Pyrrha and Ren were thrown back. Dante was in the middle, directly over the breaking point so he was thrown directly up. Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora and Jaune could only watch helplessly as Dante tumbled through the air…And straight down into the chasm.
"Dante!" Ruby and Jaune shouted, but he didn't reply. Jaune went with Nora to help Pyrrha and Ren, while Blake hitched a ride on the Nevermore and landed next to Yang.
"Okay, not so cool." Dante thought as he shot straight down into the chasm. He had to act fast or he'd be Dante spaghetti on the Chasm floor. He heard hungry screeches from below. He didn't even want to know what kind of Grimm was stranded down there. He looked around and saw a cave entrance rushing up towards him. Thinking fast he grabbed an Aero dust crystal that he had in his belt, and threw it downwards. He concentrated a sliver of aura into the crystal, just enough to activate it. A large gust of wind stopped his fall and a few seconds later he was hovering in mid-air.
He concentrated his aura and willed the wind to take him near to the cave. He grabbed onto the ledge just as the Aero crystal exploded. The force of the wind flipped him and he ended up sprawled on the cave floor breathing heavily.
"Well, that was terrifying." Dante thought, he got up and starting walking into the pitch black of the cave.
Jaune felt empty, he blocked the pincer with his shield but he was too busy thinking to notice.
"Typical, I made a really cool friend, then he dies, just freaking typical." He felt angry. Stupid Grimm, stupid life, he felt full of rage, he felt like he could murder all the Grimm in the world. Then he noticed it, Ren had weakened the stinger, he looked at Pyrrha and Nora and formulated a plan.
"Pyrrha!" He said, she knew what he was thinking.
"Done." She said and threw her shield, cutting off the stinger completely. It fell on the Grimm's head and while it was distracted by pain, he would put the rest of his plan into action,
"Nora, nail it." He said, Nora looked at Pyrrha, who nodded.
"Heads up." She jumped onto Pyrrha's shield then jumped, utilizing a grenade to propel herself even higher. She landed on the Deathstalker, the force of the impact shattered the rest of the bridge and the large death scorpion fell to its doom. Jaune looked over to Ruby's team, to see how they were faring. He was greeted with the sight of a headless Nevermore falling down the cliff. The two large Grimm were defeated.
"Man, this sucks." Dante thought holding a small Light crystal in front of him. He had been walking for a pretty long time, and had encountered several mole Grimm and even swore he saw a King Tajitu slithering down the tunnel connected to the one he was currently walking down. He was about to give up and accept he may never see sunlight again, when he saw just that. Sunlight. Glorious, Holy sunlight. He excitedly ran towards it and found himself on the crest of a strange hill, he saw a temple to the not so far left. He started walking towards it, he felt like it was the right thing to do. He entered and found himself in a large room, illuminated by green lights, he saw an altar in the middle. He unconsciously started walking towards it, before he realised what was happening he was on top of the altar, reaching for a broken amulet piece that was hovering in the middle.
"Wait! Stop!" He cried, trying to regain control of his hand, but it kept extending and grasped the amulet piece….Nothing happened.
"Oh, well that's anticlimactic." Dante thought. He regained control of his body, he turned and left the temple. Oblivious of the Suit of Armour with white eyes that was following his every move.
"Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the gold rook pieces, and shall henceforth be known as Team JNPR. Led by…Jaune Arc." Jaune looked surprised as Professor Ozpin looked at him, "Good work young man." The team was led off to the side of the stage as Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang came up onto it.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladona, Yang Xiao Long and Dante." Everyone went silent, Ruby looked close to crying.
"Um, P-professor Ozpin? Dante is d-dead." Ruby said quietly, Professor Ozpin went on as if he didn't hear her.
"The five of you retrieved the golden knight pieces and shall henceforth be known as Team RWBYD. Led by….Ruby Rose!" Ruby was about to retort when Ozpin clapped his hands loudly.
"Dismissed." The four members of Team RWBYD were led off the stage and taken to their new dorm, directly across from JNPR. Ruby flopped on the bed and started crying, Yang's hair burst into flames.
"How dare he! Dante is dead, I saw him fall into the chasm with my own eyes!" The four girls went silent and flopped onto their beds.
"Phew, that took a while." Dante thought as he walked towards the entrance of Beacon. It had taken him a couple of hours to find his way back from the strange temple. He was about to step inside the school building when he heard a sipping sound, he looked around and saw Professor Ozpin sipping a mug of coffee looking at him mischievously.
"Took you long enough, Dante." He said with a hint of amusement.
"I'm sorry Headmaster. I was…side-tracked." Dante decided for some reason not to tell Ozpin about the strange amulet piece he found in the temple. Ozpin nodded and got up, he beckoned Dante to follow him.
"It's not me you should be apologising to, Dante. Your team is worried sick about you."
"Team?" Dante asked, they came up to a door with the engravings 'Team RWBYD' on the door. Ozpin knocked on the door.
"Come in." Came a muffled voice from inside, Dante thought it sounded familiar. Ozpin opened the door and Dante came face to face with Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. Their faces were priceless, as their mouths were slowly opening wider and wider while their eyes got bigger and bigger.
"I'll leave you to get acquainted." Ozpin said mischievously. He pushed Dante inside the room and closed the door.
"Um, hi again!" Dante said.
"Dante!" Ruby squeaked. She and Yang rushed forward and glomped him, while Weiss and Blake shed tears of relief.
"Can you keep it down please?!" Jaune exclaimed as he opened the door. He momentarily paused as he took in the strange sight of a pile of bodies on the floor and Weiss and Blake crying.
"Um…Wha?" He asked.
"Dante." Blake answered. Jaune regarded her for a second then walked out. Moments later Team JNPR was also in the room. Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren joined Blake and Weiss in shedding tears of relief while Nora joined in the doggy pile.
"OW! Hey, guys! I'm glad to see you too, but. Ouch! But you're crushing me."
"You're alive!" Ruby squealed.
"Not for much longer." Dante thought, then felt something firm on his backside.
"All RIGHT! WHO'S TOUCHING MY ASS?!" He exclaimed. Everyone paused and looked at Yang.
"Yang?!" Ruby muttered quietly but full of venom.
"What? He's got a nice ass! Let me enjoy it!" Yang exclaimed then realised she'd said the wrong sentence, "Um, I mean. It's good to see you?" She said hopefully, trying to cover up her mistake.
Everyone burst into laughter and the three excitable girls finally got off Dante. He looked around and saw all his friends, he smiled.
"I think I'm gonna like it here." He thought.
Wow, this chapter completely shattered my longest chapter record. This chapter was around 4,000 words and took about 2 hours to write (I can write VERY quickly). Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. See ya next time readers!