Chapter 4: Fourth Move
"You know, we were pretty awesome."
"Was there ever any doubt?"
"Quiet you two!"
"...and Sky Lark," Ozpin called, at which the four walked onto the stage. "You retrieved both the red and blue king pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team CRDL, led by…" he paused. "Cardin Winchester."
"Good riddance to bad garbage," Weiss muttered under her breath as the hall filled with polite applause. Considering that no two pieces had been alike, other than type, she'd had no way of determining what other pair she and Ruby would be grouped with, a worrying prospect to be sure. However… she glanced around quickly. Only the eight of them were left of the fifty some students who had passed initiation. That meant there were three prospects, and each one she had issues with.
Of course, the idea of being on a team with either Jaune or Nora gave her waking nightmares, so…
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren-"
Oh thank Dust…
"-Pyrrah Nikos, Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin met each of their eyes for a moment before continuing. "The four of you retrieved the white and black rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team JNPR, led by…" It was tiny, but Weiss swore she could have seen the corner of the Headmaster's mouth twitch upwards. "Jaune Arc."
"I- me?"
Even over the applause, Jaune's absolute shock was audible. Pyrrah steadily guided him off the opposite side of the stage with the others, beaming at him all the while.
"Well, that should be interesting," Yang chuckled. Blake nodded her agreeance.
This is it!
"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long." This time Ozpin actually was smiling. "The four of you retrieved the white and black queen pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by…"
Weiss Schnee!
"Yang Xaio Long."
Silence.
Darn, there goes that dream... what?
The sound of clapping coming from team JNPR and a couple of other people was oddly hollow over the muttering that had filled the hall.
"Ah, sorry about that," Yang quietly apologized to her team, though she was giving the students around them a rather unimpressed look. "I'll explain a little later."
Checking the expressions of her other two teammates, she could see that Blake had at least some idea of what was going on. Yes, this was definitely something that needed to be covered right away.
"How disappointing."
Weiss suddenly shivered. The tone that the Headmaster was using had sent a chill down her spine.
"Team RWBY, please join your fellows with Professor Goodwitch," he said evenly. "I will be along shortly."
Doing her best not to run, Weiss led the group off the stage and out of the side door all the other teams had used. JNPR was waiting right outside.
"Um, what just happened?" Jaune asked tentatively.
"Later, let's just get where we need to be," said Yang, motioning for them to follow her. "I'd rather not tick off Goodwitch too."
Xx~~xX
"... So, you had to get a new team by going through initiation again, I'm sorry to hear things weren't working out."
Yang smiled in thanks. Really, Pyrrah had far too kind of a personality for one who could so easily knock you senseless.
"Yeah, but I'm not really complaining, this team is already way better than my old one," she said cheerily. "So just think of me as a rather over prepared first year."
"Very well, have a good night."
The rest of JNPR gave their good nights as well, at last leaving Blake to close the door behind them. She counted to ten before speaking.
"So are you going to give the real reason now?"
Weiss looked between them with raised eyebrows. "So that was a story. I'd figured something was going on. Let's hear it then."
"I didn't lie," Yang said quickly. "I just left out most of the truth."
"And that is?" Weiss prodded.
"That this team wasn't random."
Yang rather enjoyed seeing the surprised look on Weiss's face. Ruby, of course, was impassive, but Yang caught her eyebrows raising by a bit.
"You mean-"
"No matter what piece you'd taken you'd have ended up on my team regardless with me as the leader," Yang elaborated. "Actually, the only one who wasn't planned for this team from the moment your applications hit the Headmaster's desk was Blake. I picked her."
It was actually rather warming to see the girl with the black bow straighten perceptibly, clearly pleased at her statement.
"Is this the Headmaster's way of keeping me safe? They did talk extensively before I submitted my application."
It was probably a safe bet to say that those words hadn't exactly been meant to be spoken aloud, but Yang answered them anyway.
"If so then they're going about it the wrong way," she said. "We're going to be doing a lot more than any regular first year team, especially considering that I'm here."
"Good," said Ruby, clearly happy at the prospect of a good hunt.
"I still don't understand something," Weiss interjected. "I can understand being picked for a powerhouse team. Professor Ozpin must have been talking with my father if he had any idea of what I can do. But why you? Is it Ruby?"
"Probably," said Yang with a shrug. "You'd have to ask Ozpin."
"Are you sure he's not going to be upset that you've told us all this?" asked Blake.
"Oh yeah, he'll be fine with it. He knows how I am." Yang stifled a huge yawn. "Now, any more questions? I'm beat."
Xx~~xX
"Mmm, I don't think she told us everything."
"Really?" said Jaune in surprise. "She sounded like she was being honest."
"How does being honest have anything to do with telling the truth?" Nora countered. Jaune was a nice guy, but sometimes he could be a bit dim at times.
"Nora, remember what we said about expecting people to know exactly what you mean even if you just met them?"
That I should give people time to think about what I've said before continuing less than a few seconds later.
"Nope," she replied with a smile, falling onto the bed she'd claimed as hers. "It's no big deal."
Jaune looked between the two of them before shrugging.
"Well it doesn't really matter anyway," he continued. "Yang didn't have to say anything."
"You're right, Jaune. I'm glad she decided to share a little with us."
Pyrrah... you are just hopeless.
Xx~~xX
Blake was the first to wake of her team. Or at least she thought she was, considering the hour. A quick check at the other beds told her that Yang was absent. She wondered where her partner might have gotten off to when she caught a flicker of movement in the courtyard beyond the room's large window.
"There you are..."
Yang's unmistakable shock of golden hair was bouncing about as she went through a series of deliberate movements. Punches, kicks, and the occasional spin, the girl was clearly training.
Once again, Blake was reminded of her old partner Adam. He also rose early to practice his stances, flowing from one to the next. She'd once joined him and only found that she was more of an intrusion than anything, though Adam never said anything to indicate such a thing was true. She'd just felt it. And so her early morning hours were usually filled with a good book. Not that she was complaining.
Suddenly her scroll vibrated lightly, a small light blinking to indicate an unread message. Blake picked up the device from her bedside table and checked it, only to look back down at the grounds quickly.
Yang was waving at her.
Grinning, Blake moved to get dressed, strapping Gambol Shroud to her back when done and quickly leaving. Her forgotten scroll remained on the bedside table, message still displayed on the screen.
Yang: Hey, come train with me!
x~x
"There you are, what took you?" asked Yang as Blake finally made it outside.
"Maybe you know the school like the back of your hand, but I'll remind you I've barely been here a full day," Blake replied dryly as she stretched a little. A quick application of her Aura throughout her body had it warm and ready to move.
"True," Yang said with a nod. "I'm surprised to see you up though. I thought you'd be snoring all the way to class." She gave a small snort at the embarrassed flush that came over Blake's face.
"I do not snore!" She said indignantly.
"Haha, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You curl up in a ball when you sleep though. It's cute."
Red faced, Blake ended up just pulling her short sword, holding it ready. "I thought we were going to train."
"Sorry, don't think bad of me. I've been living with three guys for two years, you have no idea how great this is." Yang was giving her such a disarming smile it was hard to stay flustered. "Anyway you're right, but we aren't going to be using weapons."
"Why not?" True, Yang hadn't had her gauntlets extended, but her weapon was entirely based on her ability to fight with her body. Without Gambol Shroud, Blake wouldn't be able to train effectively.
"Because no decent Huntress relies entirely on her weapon," said Yang with a frown. "It's a weakness at best and a crutch at worst."
In a great display of swiftness, Yang dashed forwards at her, fist drawn back. Blake reflexively put up her weapon to guard, but the hit never happened. Instead Yang's forward hand reached out and jerked up to strike the bottom of the hilt, knocking the sword out of her grip and into the air. Blake barely had the time for her eyes to register astonishment when the bottom of Yang's foot impacted solidly with her chest, throwing her clean onto her back, leaving her to blink up at the clouds above.
...wow.
The hit hadn't caused her any damage. In fact she doubted even a speck of dirt from Yang's boot had touched her clothing. Even more reflexively than her guard being put up, her Aura had encompassed her the instant she'd recognized the incoming threat. Still...
Swish, swish.
"Wow this blade is a lot lighter than I expected it to be," Yang mused from above her, still giving a couple of experimental swings. "I guess I'm just too used to Ruby making heavy weapons."
"You disarmed me." Blake was going over Yang's attack in her head. A very deliberate feint and disarm.
"Well, you didn't seem like you wanted to fight without it. I took measures," she said with a smirk. "Don't try it again either, cuz I'll do the same thing and the kick won't be as nice."
"That an order?"
"So grouchy," Yang chuckled. She offered her hand, which Blake took before holstering her recovered weapon on her back. "So can we start now?"
"I'm not going to ever be fighting without my weapon, you know," she argued, still unwilling to fully give up on the matter.
"You don't know that, and that isn't the point." Yang crossed her arms. "Training without your weapon will help you understand times where using it isn't necessary. Also, a better trained body will improve you abilities all around. You'd learn this later today, but every team has mandatory times they must physically train in the school's gym. There will always be a personal trainer for each team during that time. Beacon may seem like a school on the outside, and don't get me wrong, it is," she added. "But it's way, way more than that. This is a place where people learn the foundational and even advanced skills behind doing a job that at its most basic level is protecting the people who live on this planet from becoming extinct."
It took Blake a long time to formulate a reply to Yang's impromptu speech.
"Don't you mean Humans?"
Really, the look Yang was giving her now was absolutely indescribable.
"You're not one of those Faunus haters, are you?" she asked. "Cuz I'll be blunt, that shit makes no sense to me."
It was probably silly that Blake felt such a sense of relief wash through her, but there it was.
"No, no, I guess I was just checking if you were," she admitted truthfully.
"Huh..." Yang paused for a few seconds before shrugging. "Well, whatever, let's get started. We've only got about an hour before breakfast starts. Show me what you've got."
Xx~~xX
Weiss smiled slightly as she finished her breakfast. It was a nice affair, filled with cereal and a bowl of fruit. The dining hall was packed with students of all years, most of the teams grouped up in some fashion or another. The first years were pretty easy to pick out by their energy. The upper years all looked like they'd have been happy with another week of no classes.
She turned her attention back to her own team. Blake was still eating while their third year leader had gone off to talk with some other year mates, likely her friends. Ruby on the other hand was somewhat nodding off in her seat.
"Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Weiss asked her.
Ruby slowly shook her head. "I was thinking about the things we might be doing as a team and didn't fall asleep until really late."
"You'll be fine once we start moving around," Weiss assured her. "Breakfast will help that."
"I know, rule… three," she said through a yawn.
Keeping one eye on the sleepy girl as she began to tuck into her meal, Weiss consulted the schedule she'd been sent on her scroll. The day was actually fairly simple, with only five scheduled periods per day. Three academic and two practical Hunter training. The remaining time of the day was for meals and personal training, including pure physical exercise in the school's gym facility. She certainly wasn't looking forwards to that, but she was the one who chose this at the end of the day.
"Ready for the day, Team RWBY?"
Weiss looked up to see Yang standing before them, smiling brightly. The school uniform honestly seemed so out of place on the girl.
"You're not going to give us some rousing 'start of the year' speech, are you?" Weiss asked apprehensively. She'd seen that pose before and nothing good ever came from it.
"Nah, I think you'll be fine without it," Yang chuckled.
"What about your classes though?" Blake asked. "They aren't going to make you take them again, are they?"
Weiss too had been wondering about this. Yang's position in a first year team didn't erase the fact that she'd still taken two years worth of classes previously.
"Of course not," Yang said quickly, looking askance. "The last thing I need is another year of Professor Port's grand adventures. At least the ones this year will have some direction to them."
(We all know she's just lying to herself)
"In any case, I'll be with you for the practical stuff because there are team exercises. Professor Ozpin said he'd work something out for me otherwise."
The school bell suddenly resounded over the campus, easily filling the dining hall.
"Well, that's it." Yang grabbed her bag and slung it over one shoulder easily. "I'll see you in the afternoon. Keep an eye on your partner," she added before walking off.
Shaking her head slightly, Weiss turned to Ruby only to sigh. The girl was asleep at the table, her fork of bacon only about halfway to her mouth.
"I seriously hope that Winter suffered this much with me…" she muttered, resigning herself to picking up after the girl.
Xx~~xX
"...should know? Miss Schnee, if you wouldn't mind?"
"Come on, Ruby, get up!"
Ruby started awake at the urgent whisper from Weiss, sitting up quickly to the sound of muffled laughter surrounding her. A second later told her that she was now in a classroom, as opposed to the breakfast table, where she must have fallen asleep. How embarrassing...
"Well, now that the young lady has decided to grace us with her consciousness, would you please answer my question?"
Ruby refocused herself on the big bellied man standing at the head of the class. 'Professor Port' was written in big letters on the board behind him.
"Could- could you repeat it, please?" she asked in a small voice, well aware of all the eyes on her. A number of them were smirking behind their hands. She'd really been hoping not to make a spectacle of herself on the first day and now look at what she'd done.
"I asked for you to give the class any weaknesses you know of that a Boarbatusk possesses," Port repeated.
"Um…"
Weaknesses? I just cut them in half…
"Pretend you're telling someone who just has a dagger," Weiss hissed behind her book. "A really bad one."
"Oh," Ruby said in comprehension. "I guess… they have about nine? Ten?"
"Ten?" Port repeated in surprise. However, he was certainly smiling under his thick mustache. "Please tell us."
"Two eyes, the mouth, four leg joints, the entire belly, base of the tail…" Ruby was counting on her fingers. "They also are very easy to kill alone by baiting them. You could just cut them anywhere but..." she broke off for a second. "You need a lot of force."
"Ho ho! Indeed!" Professor Port seemed delighted, far removed from how he'd been when she had just woken up. "Let's bring up a diagram shall we, and look at each point that Miss Rose gave us! You see..."
Ruby tuned the man out in favor of throwing Weiss a grateful smile, though it still came off mostly as apologetic.
"Just sleep better tonight, okay?" she whispered, glancing up at the girl for a moment before returning to her note taking. "I'm not carrying you to class again."
"I will!"
Xx~~xX
"Begin!"
Blake let out a sharp breath in preparation before bending her knees and springing up into the air, Gambol Shroud shifting into the bladed handgun mode. Within moments her targets came into view, spread out across the field-
Taking momentary aim, she began firing non stop until she heard the distinct sound of an empty magazine. A twist of her back guided her body into a single flip, allowing her to land gently on her feet a few seconds later.
"Nine out of ten. A solid performance, Miss Belladonna," came the voice of Professor Goodwitch from her right. "I'm pleased to see the improvement from your first trial."
"Thank you, Professor."
"Miss Schnee, if you would…"
Blake walked back to where her team was seated along the wall. They were in one of the training grounds doing preliminary trials as a way to gauge exactly what they needed to work on. This particular one had them jumping above a wall to shoot at a number of targets, depending on the type of projectile weapon they had. There were a handful that ended up not doing it at all due to a lack of any ranged weapons.
"Not bad, Blake," said Yang, giving her a high five as she reached the group. "I liked the flip."
"Flips are fun," she said with a shrug, turning to watch Weiss' performance. The number of targets had been increased to double what she'd been given, though as to why…
"Begin!"
Weiss leapt straight up, clearing the wall easily before sweeping her arm out in front of her. Four glyphs appeared, each dissolving into five projectiles apiece that arrowed into the targets on the ground, destroying them all.
What a cheater...
"Wow, Weiss is really strong."
Blake turned to see Jaune looking at the girl with wide eyes.
"Those glyphs of hers are extremely versatile," Ren agreed, having also taken the time to watch the girl. "It makes me wonder if there is anything that she cannot do."
"Ice cream," Nora said absently, too focused on what was in her lap to give them any more than passing attention. "I'll bet she can't make ice cream."
"Nora, that's just- why do you have a grenade in your lap!?"
"Modifying it for more boom."
"NORA!"
"Never a dull moment around here," came Weiss' dry voice, having already received her perfect marks. She just rolled her eyes and pulled out a pair of earbuds, eager to drown out the sound of Team JNPR with music. She took a seat not far enough away to make it seem like she wasn't a part of the group, but still clearly separate from the others, a move that had Blake frowning.
She had such mixed feelings about the Schnee heir. Weiss was cold. Indifferently so at that. Just a single day being around her showed it completely. Then there was the fact that she was the daughter of the man whose company had been taking advantage of the general lesser status of Faunus all over Remnant for decades. It wasn't like being in the White Fang had been something she'd taken lightly. All those protests when she had been barely bigger than the sign she was carrying…
A thud announced Ruby's arrival, her trial having finished as well. She'd dropped to the ground next to Weiss, looking rather dejected. Understandable, considering that firing her sniper in the air propelled the girl in the opposite direction. Blake doubted that she'd been able to hit more than a single target. Still, there was no way that Ruby could have expected to do as well as someone with a smaller projectile weapon, right? Perhaps it was this that was bothering her?
"Stop sulking, it's annoying."
At once, Blake's fluctuating mood shifted to ire. The nerve of the girl, it wasn't like Ruby could do anything about it.
"Sorry."
Weiss just gave her a flat look. "I can't even hear you and I know you apologized. Would you quit it?"
"Hey, she just-!" Blake cut off suddenly as Weiss extended her right hand to Ruby, something small held in her fingertips.
An earbud?
Ruby's confused expression was indescribable, now looking between the small white piece dropped in her hand and Weiss. No, rather it was that she was surprised at what was happening?
"I'm sacrificing surround sound for this…" Weiss griped, leaning back against the wall with her eyes closed. "And be careful you don't pull mine out."
"Ah, right."
Ruby slid closer to the girl, hesitating or a second before placing the piece in her ear and mimicking Weiss's position. It wasn't too long before she was tapping her finger in time to an unheard beat, smiling all the while.
"They're a good pair, don't you think?" Yang whispered to her, nodding at the two girls.
"I suppose…"
"Haha, I know what you mean," Yang said in understanding, chuckling as she returned her attention to the first years still running the course. Blake just shook her head. After all, it was only the first day. She at least owed it to herself to give everyone and everything a fair chance.
Even if they were privileged, rich girls.
Xx~~xX
It was to a bright morning that the students of Beacon Academy rose to on the second day of the term. One in particular was feeling extra good about the day. As to why… Yang smiled slightly as she scanned short message the Headmaster had just sent her.
"What's up?"
Blake was looking at her in curiosity, towel currently wrapped around her freshly showered form.
"Get dressed," Yang said to the group at large, getting Ruby and Weiss' attention. "We've got a mission."
XXXXXXXXX
Author's Note: So Yang… she's a badass, yeah, but how much? I've read a great deal of the amusing debate over Yang's abilities and general prowess and here's what I think:
It doesn't matter.
I'll end up working something out for it, I've been considering tweaking all of the semblances slightly anyway, just to get more in depth with them. I have decent ideas for them developing to new levels also.