Ruby awoke on the ballroom's floor, squished between Yang and the wall. The floor felt cold to her feet as she got up, and she nearly tripped over the many students sprawled across the ground. To her right she could see Blake, her face tucked in a thick novel. The rising sun lit up her cat ears, making them shine like Crescent Rose after cleaning day.
A soft sigh drew her attention to her feet, where the sleeping form of Pyrrha Nikos lay. She was peacefully dreaming away, her hands forming a temporary pillow. Her armor was missing, replaced by a simple set of red and gold pajamas. Her circlet was still fixed around her head however, as if it was glued to her.
Teardrops hit the floor, narrowly missing Pyrrha's hair. Her knee's shaking; it took everything Ruby had just to make it to the hallway. Once there she collapsed, the wall being the only thing holding her up. Her nose felt like she had a cold.
The only time she had ever seen Pyrrha without her circlet, had been then. The tower, Cinder, the dragon, that whole stupid night. She kept on seeing her final moments, looking at her, Cinder attacking, everything. If she thought too long she started to remember Penny, Yang and Mercury, Yang's arm…
She pressed herself into a ball, the wall digging into her back.
It's not real anymore. Not real. It's over, I can, I will stop it.
She breathed in, coughing at the frigid early morning air.
Bathroom.
She got up, still using the wall for balance. After a few minutes she was there, and her feet finally remained steady. She entered and turned on the tap, splashing her face with icy water.
She looked at her face, her gleaming eyes starting back at her. The intensity of her gaze startled her, and she found herself struggling to keep her eyes from sliding elsewhere.
She thought back, ignoring the guilt and pain, to Cinder's attack. What had happened on top of that tower? All she remembered was everything going white, a horrible headache, and Cinder attacking her.
Then she woke up at home, completely unharmed, in the past. Her team had followed her, in similar condition. Weiss didn't mention it, but she was missing her scar, and Yang obviously still had her arm.
She backed away from the mirror. She hadn't had a chance to really look at herself yet, had she? She knew of a few scars she had, collected over her fifteen years of training. Did she still have them?
Only one way to find out.
She rolled up the hem of her shirt, studying her stomach and back. When she was eight she hit a tree too fast and with too little aura, causing a branch to cut a gouge just to the right of her belly button.
She saw nothing. She examined her arms, her legs, everything. Nothing. Her skin was unmarred, clean of every cut, scrape and bruise she had ever had.
Shaking, she looked up at the mirror, at her eyes.
Missing some scars made sense; she never got a chance to make them here. But all of them?
She thought back to this morning, and yesterday. She hadn't looked, but did they have any scars? Anything of the world they left behind beyond memories?
She shook her head, spraying water drops on the bathroom tiles. Now's not the time to panic.
She closed her eyes, and collected herself. The intercom screeched on.
"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation?"
"What? No it can't be that late!" She yelled, staring at the speaker. She wasn't even out of her pajamas yet!
With a flurry of rose petals, and more than a few bodies knocked over, Ruby rushed out to get dressed. She never noticed the cracks she left in the floor as she ran.
As Ruby investigated/panicked in the girl's washroom, another crimson clad female strapped on her armor and prepared her weapon. Pyrrha couldn't stop imagining what the initiation would be. Perhaps they would fight the teachers, test their skills. Or maybe it would be more objective oriented, defending a town or acquiring an object. Either way, it promised a true challenge of her skills, something sorely missing in the past few months.
"That's ridiculous, there's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would have remembered having to count that high!" Someone said behind her. Turning around, she saw a scraggly blond man stalking through the lockers, apparently searching for his locker.
"Excuse me," He turned around, "I think I know where your locker is."
His face broke out into a silly grin, "Really? Oh thank you thank you thank you! I've been looking for it all morning and…" he stopped, a blush sneaking on to his cheeks.
"I mean… Thanks sweet cheeks…ugh, never mind. Thanks. Really." He sighed, and then put out his hand.
"Jaune Arc."
She grasped his hand, perhaps a little too vigorously judging from his wince. His skin was smooth, a rarity among huntsmen.
"Pyrrha Nikos." She waited for the gasps, the sudden realization of who she was.
"Cool name, so… where are you from?" His face was curious, no sign of recognition.
She grinned, "Mistral." She let go of his hand, "Your lockers over there, if you want to get your weapon."
He slapped his forehead, "Right! Thanks!" He ran over and tried to open his lock.
"4985 or 4958?" He mumbled, punching in both. A few minutes, and another dozen variations later, the locker slid open. She walked over, trying to peek at his weapon.
It was a sword, similar in size to her own. But that was where the resemblance ended. The swords blade was chipped across the edge, and cracks were clearly visible down its length. When he pulled out the sheath, it turned into a much newer looking shield. The emblem on the front looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn't place it.
He saw her looking and quickly put the weapons away.
"They suck, I know. Stupid hand me downs." He said, shame clouding his features.
She grabbed his shoulder, "It's a fine weapon. From your family, I take it?"
He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes, "Yeah. My grandfather used it to fight in the war."
"Well, there you go. Its battle tested. No better weapon for a huntsman."
The intercom screeched, and Pyrrha felt the speakers struggle. (No wonder, considering how much metal must be in there.)
"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?"
"Guess that's our cue." Jaune sheathed his weapon and started walking.
"Yeah." She stared at his back, and sighed, "Back into the spotlight."
Blake woke up shortly after Ruby did. Although Ruby did admirably well at keeping quiet, Blake had always been a natural at picking out noises. Comes with being a cat faunus, she supposed.
She was surprised at how... easily she seemed to be adjusting to the lack of the bow. After her first panic attack in Patch, she felt fine.
Gently, she got to her feet.
She hadn't actually had to face the discrimination yet, or the judging. She knew now that her friends — the few that didn't know about the future — could be trusted, but everyone else?
The mess of bodies around her began to stir, including a blond haired brawler. Yang stretched out her arms, a huge yawn tumbling out of her. She turned and looked at Blake through lidded eyes.
"Hey Blake…" She croaked, "Could you grab me that water?" She pointed over to a nearby table, where a bottle sat. Blake walked over and grabbed it, while pulling Yang to her feet. She handed her the bottle, realising that Yang was suddenly staring at her. She was close enough to feel her breath on her cheeks. Yang was very, very warm, wasn't she?
"Yang…? You okay?" She whispered.
Yang shook her head and stepped back, "It's nothing. I'm just more tired than I thought."
Yang kicked Weiss, "Hey, Snowflake. It's morning."
Weiss rose from the floor, her hair resembling a rat's nest. Slowly her eyes focused on Yang.
"Oh, it's you." She blinked, "You kicked me!"
Yang shrugged, "It got you up, didn't it?"
Weiss glared at Yang until she huffed, "I can't believe you sometimes." She stood up, "If you'll excuse me, I have to go get changed." She stormed away, muttering about stupid friends and stupid sleep schedules.
"We should probably get ready too," Blake said, lifting her travel bag and rummaging through her clothes. Sudden increase in casual outfits or not, she had one option for combat. She heard Yang doing the same behind her.
The sun spilled above the horizon, turning everything around her into a golden colour. Blake quickly dressed herself in her combat outfit, rechecking every element of her weapons and equipment.
"So this is it." Yang said as she marched up behind her, "This is our… second first day? What are we calling it?"
"Our second chance."
Yang grabbed her arm, causing her to jump like a scared cat.
"Alright, second chance to not be late for this! Let's go!" she said, pulling Blake along with her.
The hallways of Beacon were packed with first year students readying themselves for their initiation. No one knew what exactly to expect, so they were preparing themselves for anything and everything.
With the exception of one Weiss Schnee, who knew exactly what was about to happen, and was perfectly prepared for it.
Perhaps it was cheating to use time travel to gain an advantage against her fellow students, but there was certainly no rule specifically against it.
Besides, it wasn't like she was packing some instant win weapon, just dust better suited to fighting the Nevermore that had surprised them previously. Speaking of which, she heard the instructions over the intercom, and started to make her way to the cliffs.
Once she got out of the building, Ruby appeared out of nowhere and attached herself to her arm.
"Weiss! AmIlatedidImissthecliffarewenotgoingtobeateam—" Weiss pushed her away, closing her mouth with her free hand.
"Ruby, stop talking. Your fine, it hasn't even started yet."
Ruby happily sighed, her frame relaxing. Weiss realized that Ruby was still glued to her, and tried to shake her off.
Suddenly she fell off, her grin disappearing, "Oh! By the way, why is your scar missing?'
Weiss touched her eye, "I didn't get it this time around, why?"
"Are you missing anymore?" She said, pulling up Weiss's sleeves, "Like one's that you shouldn't be missing?"
She slapped Ruby's hands, pushing her sleeves back down. "Stop that!" she said, before rolling them back up. ("Stop smiling like that Ruby!")
Much to her surprise, she was missing several marks she had received from her training. Her mouth opened slightly.
"What in the world?"
Ruby closed her mouth with her hand, "I think it has something to do with what happened. Maybe some super aura healing?" She started pulling on her skirt.
"Now let's go! We're going to be late!" She rushed off, ripping a patch of Weiss's clothing off with her.
Mystery forgotten, Weiss ran after her, yelling the entire time.
Meanwhile, in Ozpin's office. Taiyang was having a crash course in conspiracy theories—well, more like facts—that would stretch the belief of even the most die hard theorists. But it was all true.
Ozpin had been explaining the bare essentials, which still took a better part of a day. Eventually he had to stop him.
"Look, this is all really interesting, but I want to know what this has to do with my daughter, now." He asked.
Ozpin stared at him, "I would love to explain to you why Miss Rose was so crucial, but the risk of it getting to our enemies is far too great."
Taiyang scoffed, rising from his chair. "Too great? Ozpin, Qrow's been checking every inch of this room for bugs! He had me sanitize my clothes before I even got here!"
Ozpin sighed, and drank some of his coffee before answering.
"Perhaps, but the foe we face is no ordinary man." He tapped out a code on his scroll, and the face of a vaguely familiar women appeared in the hologram. Although it was difficult to tell colours apart with the blue holograms, she appeared to be quite pale. Dark lines, heavily resembling cracks, stretched from her eyes to under her hair, which appeared to be in an odd bun.
"Who's this?"
Ozpin took a long breath, before setting down his mug.
"Her name is Salem. She is, or was, human, until an attempt to control the Grimm resulted in her… becoming one, in a way." He closed his eyes.
"Under my orders."
The room went silent, except for Qrow's continued search for bugs.
Taiyang finally managed to speak, "An attempt to control the Grimm, she's a Grimm…what happened?"
"He screwed up." Qrow said, stepping in front of Ozpin, "He wanted to 'save' us, and neither of them actually thought about what they were doing."
Taiyang looked at Ozpin, expecting to see him angry or at least trying to explain himself, but he only sighed and looked down.
"It's true. It was an attempt to prevent the Grimm attacks forever, but instead it simply gave them a leader. One who knows how our organization works, and has unimaginable power." He said.
"Then," Taiyang said, "Why even talk about it? I assume you mean she can see us?"
Qrow answered, "We don't know for sure, but being paranoid never hurt." He took a swig from his flask, "Same reason I always fight you when we meet up, or why I always make sure to see Ruby's semblance. Can't fake that."
Taiyang took a deep breath, trying to understand everything he heard.
"So where do I fit in?"
Ozpin smiled, looking like a cat who just got his mouse.
"I'm going to need someone to replace Qrow in his current role. Someone who I can trust and I know is capable. You fit the criteria."
Taiyang crossed his arms, "Why does he need a replacement?"
"He's needed to guard both Ruby and the injured maiden." He said, shutting down the light-show and throwing a binder at Qrow.
Taiyang harrumphed, "Without Ruby figuring out somethings wrong?"
"Trust me; she'll be way too distracted by other issues to question that." Qrow said.
Taiyang glared at him, "What are you planning?"
He smirked, "Let's just say Ozzie decided to improve his curriculum."