One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It was morning and Fenrir was not doing well. His nerves were so bad that he barely ate and was practically shaking. The only thing that kept him calm was the thought that soon he could be on the battlefield. He nervously tensed his hands around Fang and Claw his twin lever action shotguns, both of which had bayonets. He had handcrafted his weapons with loving care and attention to detail, they were his pride and joy. Feeling the rough texture of their grips calmed him down instantly. He decided to get some food in him before his nerves came back.

As he ate he noticed a face coming his way. He made to raise his hand to wave and was about to call her name when he say her sit at a table away down with some other people. He put his hand down and stared at his food. "How could I possibly think that she would even remember me," Fenrir thought to himself.

"Will all first years please report to the cliff side for initiation," a voice announced over the PA system.

"At least I can get finally this over with." Fenrir got up and started to move towards the exit when he heard someone call his name.

"Fenrir! Hey it's me Aria, remember, from yesterday?"

Fenrir turned and almost let his disbelief reach his face, "Hey Aria, how ….how's it going? You ready for the initiation?"

"You know it" she reached behind her back and brought out a weapon that almost made Fenrir drop his jaw in surprise. She was holding a double bladed war axe that stood almost as tall as herself.

"If you like that wait till you see this," she said as she sent some aura into the weapon causing it to turn from an axe into an assault rifle. Aria smiled at the look on Fenrir's face. "I call her Bastion."

"Whoa. Just whoa," that was all the dumbstruck Fenrir managed to get before he got swept up in a crowd of people rushing to make it to the cliffs in time.

"Fenrir, good luck out there," Aria called after him. She saw him give her a thumbs up and then was part of the sea of people.

Aria smiled all the way to the cliff she liked Fenrir and hoped that they would end up on the same team this year. She was also smiling because she knew that know she got to fight Grimm. She might have seemed like the kind of girl that would complain for hours if she so much as chipped a nail but in reality she was an adrenaline junky, relishing in the thrill of comabt. As she arrived Professor Goodwitch was informing all the students to take their places on one of the metal pads.

"I can't wait," she thought gleefully, "Let's see what everyone back home has to say when they see how well I did in the initiation." She became even giddier when she heard Professor Ozpin start explaining about the landing strategies. "Did he say we're going to be falling? That's AWESOME!" she thought when she realized that she was already launching skyward.

"Yippee," she cried as she brought out Bastion. Aria let herself get to the height of her ark then proceeded to unleash a hail of gun fire into the air causing her decent to speed up exponentially. Giving her dear Bastion a mighty swing as she closed in on the trees below her she managed to stick it into the side of an older tree stopping her herself from going any further. Swinging up to stand on the handle of her weapon she used this as a lookout point to observe the other students. She saw one girl was using glyphs to safely make her way to the ground, while another used her weapons gun form to slow her forward momentum and give her the chance to hook onto a tree after changing her weapon into a scythe.

"Interesting," she purred, "looks like there are some good pickings in terms of partners. She brought her attention back to her surroundings as she saw a very familiar looking faunus with an eye patch falling near her little lookout point. Aria watched intently trying to see exactly where he was going to land. She saw him land safely and decided to start making her way in his direction. Jumping down to the forest floor she folded Bastion into its carrying mode and started running. It was then that she heard a roar that was followed by the retorts of gun fire and howling. It was coming from where Fenrir had landed. She broke into a full sprint praying that she made it in time.

When Aria reached Fenrir the gun fire had stopped but not because the Grimm where dead, he had been smashed against through about five trees and lay bleeding against a large stump. Surrounded by a large pack of Beowolfs, it looked like it was the end for him. Thankfully Aria had gotten there before the Grimm decided to deal the death blow. Looking at the injured faunas caused her to snap. Her aura flared as she pulled out Bastion and switched it to its axe form.

Aria was so angry that she activated her Semblance not caring for how much it drained her aura. She swung Bastion with all her might sending out a devastating shockwave that cut most of the Beowolfs in half, those that had survived had only done so by jumping into the air at the last second. Instantly felling the effects of releasing so much aura she decided to switch to her assault rifle and shot the rest of the Grimm before they hit the ground. Making taking a second to see that there were no more targets in here general vicinity she ran over to Fenrir who was still slumped against the tree stump.

"Are you okay?" she asked noticing the worry that slipped into her voice. She had already seen so much death at the hands of those beasts, she wasn't sure she could handle anymore. Already seeing flash backs to that time, the house bathed in blood, those terrible gapping jaws, the scent of rot and death.

"Uhnnn." Aria was brought back to the real world by that small noise. She looked up and noticed that Fenrir was regaining consciousness. The relief she felt was almost overwhelming. As Fenrir opened his eyes she remembered what Professor Ozpin had said before they started.

"Your partner will be the first person you make eye contact with when you reach the forest."

She stood up, dusted herself off, and reached her hand out to the now awake boy standing before her. "I guess we're partners now," she smiled as she spoke. Aria looked at Fenrir who appeared to be processing what was happening. What happened next shacked the young huntress-in-training, Fenrir knocked her hand away and lunged with his claws out.