Her falling was cut short as Jaune appeared from nowhere and slammed into her, taking both of them into a tree.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake stated, pointing out the obvious.
"I-"
The loud roar of an Ursa and multiple trees falling over drew the attention of the three of us not in trees. The Ursa emerged swinging and growling before falling dead, with a girl riding on its back. "Yeeha!" She yelled, grinning as she rolled from the corpse. "Aw, it's broken."
"I think I'm going to like this girl." I began.
"Nora," a new voice puffed out, climbing over the arm of the Ursa, "please, don't ever do that again." She was already gone and eyeing a rook on its pedestal.
"Oooooh", she said grabbing it and singing to herself, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle".
"NORA!"
"Coming, Ren," Nora tipped her head and the rook she placed dropped into her waiting hand.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"
"Yes Blake, yes she did, and it looked so fun". I ran off to find one before the cry of a Death Stalker caught my attention. I skidded to a halt as the person it was chasing ran past 'wait, was that- Oh my God, that's Pyrrha Nikos'. The Death Stalker took advantage of my surprise and switched targets slamming a pincer into my side and using its momentum to fling me away like a rag doll. I heard Ruby's scythe go off as I struggled to stand up, clutching undoubtedly several broken ribs, watching her shots ricochet off the Stalkers armoured head plate. My ears were left ringing meaning I couldn't hear but I saw Yang yelling and Ruby running from a Nevermore that was launching feathers at her. These missed Ruby, however one managed to snag her cape pulling her back as she struggled to free herself, while pinned the Stalkers stinger launched forward for the kill and, before any had a chance to react, I sprinted to Ruby and jumped with Mercy and Vengeance swinging hooking the tail and bringing it off course, instead slamming into the ground creating a shockwave which knocked aside a handful of the Nevermore's feathers. This freed Ruby and allowed her to safely re-join the others. "Everyone," I took charge, "grab a relic and move, now!" the Death Stalker and I faced off as I circled it while it kept its sights on me.
"What about you? We can't leave you here".
"You have to trust me Ruby", I winked at her, "I know what I'm doing".
"But-"
"Just go, I'll be right behind you". Even as I was saying this I dodged a jab from the Stalkers stinger and its pincers. They hurriedly grabbed their pieces and ran off with the Nevermore following them.
"Righto big guy, how do you want to play this?" I rhetorically asked knowing full well that answer I would get would most likely be a claw or maybe tail. The stinger came down again, definitely tail, I rolled out of the way, "You're gonna have to try a lot harder to kill-". I was yet again sent backwards, 'right, he has other body parts as well', it clicked it pincers together, looking as smug as a giant scorpion can, which is not very as it turns out. I coughed up blood as the damage done was more than I could heal, "You have no idea just how fucked you are, do you!?" I yelled at it, "Hit me again, I dare you!" I managed to growl out through gritted teeth, noticing the ripped right sleeve of my jacket, 'At least if I die, the nightmares will finally stop' it charged towards me, stinger raised, while I stood my ground, 'No!', at the last possible second I rolled forward and sliced a leg off, one of eight but better than none. The Death Stalker staggered as it was forced to adjust onto walking on seven legs, sensing my moment I jumped off its lowered head and clung to its tail while using Mercy and Vengeance to slice the skin attacked to the stinger, tearing through Grimm flesh and muscle. It swung its tail in an attempt to dislodge my vice grip but succeeded in giving me extra force in ripping off the stinger which I proceeded immediately to throw at its head, piercing the faceplate, and ramming it home with a powerful haymaker sending the stinger clear through the Death Stalkers body, putting an end to its long life.
Breathing heavily I questioned myself, 'Was I really willing to face death so openly? Better question, why move out of harm's way?' I shook my head in a vain attempt to dislodge the ever increasing negative thoughts. Gunfire resounded through the forest and I ran in the direction it was coming from, confronted with the headless body of a Nevermore falling into a chasm. "That was awesome!" I yelled across to the others.
The return journey to Beacon was fairly quiet as teammates got to know each other, lacking one of these I sat alone as the full force of what I had done hit me, 'I just solo killed a Death Stalker, me, a Faunus screw-up who can't even face his own social and psychological problems'.
Upon returning to Beacon we gathered in a large room as teams were announced, I'll spare you the boring details, however Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren were all picked for the same team and it came as a shock to everyone, mostly himself, as Jaune was announced the leader of Team JNPR. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang were announced as Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose. All the teams were selected and announced while my name was called out last, "Fang Nightshade", Ozpin said, "you will be an unofficially official member of Team RWBY, do them proud." I nodded my acknowledgement as I followed the group up to our room.
"Hmm", Blake began, "there are only four beds".
"I got dibs on the floor in the corner", I dashed over and used my suitcase as a pillow, "G'night". I dozed off into another peaceful sleep.