Chapter 1: The Shining Beacon Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Rooster Teeth's "RWBY" series nor Nickelodeon's "The Legend of Korra" series, all characters and scenes belong to their respective owners.

Korra POV:

A blonde bombshell that vaguely reminds me of someone I wish I could allow myself to forget and a cute girl in a red skirt are talking in front of me as I am meditating a couple meters behind them, listening in to my surroundings. An Earthbending teacher said it was best to wait and listen after all, and in what circumstance would this advice apply better? It helped me find out when Raven would leave the Bandit Tribe to raid a nearby town, so that advice practically gave me the ability to escape from her tribe. Apparently they are sisters? They don't look alike, but I don't intend to point that out.

Then a blonde woman came up as a hologram, replacing the transmission of the news that was being broadcasted a second ago, and I opened my eyes to see the woman.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

The hologram dissipates and multiple students go to the window to see the view of Signal, their former school, including a boy wearing a black hood that I didn't notice earlier. One blond boy with airsickness gets caught up in the excitement, goes to the window, promptly gets even more sick, and vomits onto the floor before moving on.

"Oh, Yang, gross, you have puke on your shoe!" the girl in the Red dress exclaims after some small-talk about the school.

I immediately move over to the two, say, "Let me take care of that." and freeze the water in the puke, and then move the puke from the blond girl's shoe onto the floor.

The blond girl sighs in relief and says, "Thank you, my name is Yang, and this is my sister, Ruby!"

I respond, "Hi, my name is Korra."

The boy in the black hood immediately walks over and asks, "I am sorry, did you just say your name is Korra?"

I respond, "It depends on who is asking."

He responds, "It is me, Pi Lee, you remember, Wan Orphanage? I thought I would never see you again!" as he takes off his hood revealing his white hair and white cat ears on his head.

I immediately hug him and exclaim, "Pi! I am so glad to see that you are still okay! What have you been doing all these years?"

Pi responds, "It is a long story, and not the kind you talk about in public. What about you?"

I respond, rubbing the back of my neck, "Yeaah, it is a long story on my side, and not the kind you talk about in public either. Let's definitely reconnect after we arrive at Beacon."

Yang mutters, "Well, that is a history." and Ruby then says, "My name is Ruby, what kind of weapon do you two use? Is your weapon related to those cables you have on you, Korra?"

I respond with a nervous chuckle, saying, "I am pretty ridiculously skilled with my semblance, although it can be pretty needy. I can control the cables on my armor to grab at people and things, stab and swing with them, and pull myself from building to building or from tree to tree with a branch of skill of my semblance I call Metalbending. I also carry this pouch of water that I open with Metalbending, and then use the water within for a variety of purposes, such as to create ice as projectiles and steam to obscure my presence. Finally, I can use firebending to create daggers made of fire."

Pi responds, "Wow, you got a hell of a lot better with your elemental manipulation in 7 years. Anyways, Ruby, I have a collapsible grenade launcher, a collapsible sniper rifle, and a simple burn dust sword. I built the first two myself, and got the last one built with some decent materials by a decent Swordsmith."

Ruby excitedly responds with as she pulls out her scythe, "I have Crescent Rose, which is a customizable high impact sniper scythe." Pi chips in as people start glaring at Ruby and him, pulling his hood up, "Maybe you shouldn't take that out on a bullhead, that attracts a lot of attention."

Ruby mutters, "Sorry."

Yang pipes in, "And I have Ember Celica, which are dual ranged shot gauntlets. I am wearing them right now, in their collapsed form. Anyways, Korra, I would hate to fight you if you could control my weapons."

I respond, "That is pretty unlikely, I can enhance metal that I control to be tougher than most metal with my bending alone as well as my aura, but since Metalbending is a branch skill of Earthbending, the metal needs to have trace amounts of earth in it, simply making it slightly lower quality metal than what you are using."

Ruby excitedly asks, "Firebending, Earthbending, Waterbending, don't tell me, can you control Air as well? Just how powerful is your Elemental Manipulation semblance?"

Pi says, "I wouldn't call it a semblance,"

I cut him off saying, "It is pretty powerful, but it relies on quite a few things in a variety of facets. I am not able to Airbend, not yet, at least. First of all, bending requires a fairly significant drive, and if I lose that drive, my bending would be significantly weakened. I can't waterbend during a lunar eclipse, and I can't firebend during a solar eclipse. I also need a source to waterbend or earthbend, although I can negate that to some extent by drawing water from the air or carrying metal and water around with me like I am doing. I can also generate lightning and guide that lightning, but if I get into too much emotional turmoil, the lightning will just explode in my face. Finally, my bending would be weak in the hands of anybody else without practice, as there are sets of motion that allows me to do my stronger and stranger abilities. Additionally, I have developed a sense with my Earthbending that allows me to "see" anything that touches the earth, through the earth when I physically touch the ground, with the drawback that my feet are much more sensitive than the average person's. I can also tell when a person lies from their heart rate and breathing using Seismic sense, although it can be fooled if a person can lie while controlling their heart rate and breath, which although is as uncommon as it sounds, is still common enough to prove to be problematic, and I have to watch for the signs of somebody lying. Also, if somebody truly believes what they are saying, it wouldn't register as a lie, and I can heal minor wounds with my Waterbending."

Yang, Ruby, and even Pi look at me in awe, before I say, "Anyways, what are your semblances? Also, don't go around telling people about my semblance."

Pi answers first, saying, "My semblance is invisibility, and it even muffled the noise I create, although I am guessing you would probably be able to sense me with that seismic sense of yours. It helped me out of a lot of bad situations."

Yang glances over at Pi's hood before giving a nod of acceptance as Ruby says, "My semblance is speed and allows me to move extremely fast as I burst into a cloud of rose petals, leaving a trail of petals behind me."

Yang says, "My semblance allows me to increase my strength with each hit that I take, perhaps allowing me to turn the tide in a battle against you, Korra. It also makes my eyes turn red and sets my hair go on fire, although it is more difficult for fire to burn me."

I say, while picking up and carrying Pi with one arm and Pi says, "Hey!", "Anyways, since we are about to land, I am going to catch up with Pi, see you later, then."

Pi asks as I am walking to the front of the Bullhead, "Can you put me down, now?"

I answer, "I won't."

Pi replies, "Why not?"

I answer, "Your semblance is invisibility, and I refuse to lose track of you before catching up with you. I will let go of you once we set foot on some earth."

Pi says "Alright," and stays silent.

We get off the airship shortly, I walk a short distance off the ramp, and then onto the grass before opening the boots of my armor open with metalbending, taking my shoes and socks off, let go of Pi as soon as my feet touch the ground, and then strap my shoes and socks to my back with the same metal used to make the soles of the boots of my armor.

He says, "You weren't kidding about metalbending, how did you develop the ability to do that?"

I answer, "I developed the ability to sense the trace amounts of earth in the metal, and then found enough metal to meaningfully bend." as I open up an underground chamber in the earth, walk into it, wave at and wait for him to follow me, and then close it up.

I then light a fire in my palm and say, "Anyways, now would be a good time to start. I will exchange parts of my story in exchange for equal parts of your story, deal?"

Pi then says, "Deal."

I then say, "I got kidnapped by a woman named Raven Branwen, who set the orphanage on fire in the first place, and the leader of a bandit tribe that has destroyed a number of villages. I eventually escaped, but I was tested and trained to my limits for 6 years before I escaped. For reference, I was 10 years old when I was kidnapped, and you were my same age. I went through hellish, life-threatening training, and developed most of my ability there."

Pi responds with, "I was in the White Fang, and you should know that was the only organization that would support me in that area, for 3 years. I eventually got out of that organization, but I did support them through repairing and maintaining their weapons, like I did for the orphanage's appliances, out of necessity. I worked at a few appliances stores, working the night shifts. Eventually, I helped a drunken Hunter and beat a couple White Fang grunts that decided to attack me at that time, and that Hunter requested that I go to Signal Academy. I didn't take my chances with him, and ran from the scene, but he found me, bringing along with the headmaster of Signal, and offered me the same option after having me explain my situation, I accepted, became a ward of Signal Academy under the provision that I helped maintain equipment and appliances, and a student as well, and had my record cleared. Now, I am here at Beacon, hoping to become a Huntsman."

I responded with, "I did some rather unsavory things in that Bandit Tribe, and had some things happen that I would prefer not to mention. After I escaped, I went to a relatively near town and asked where the nearest Huntsman Academies were, and was told about Beacon Academy and Mistral Academy. After hearing that Beacon Academy was in Vale, I decided I had to go to Beacon. Apparently, my exploits were being watched from afar after a certain point, because after a certain point at which I stopped criminals, waited for the police, and took statements, I was arrested for catching fish without a fishing license and selling food without a license, at which point I met Headmaster Ozpin. Apparently he had his eyes on me for a while, as he had recordings of my abilities, so I explained parts of my situation and the gist of my abilities, I was allowed into Beacon, given financial support, and was promised to have my record erased if I became a Huntress, which I am here to do as well."

Pi responds with, "Alright then, so you are in a worse situation than me. I will help you with studying to ensure you become a Huntress, and in return, you help me out where you can."

I respond with, "I was already planning to do that, but thanks for the offer. I might just have to take you up on it. Anyways, let's see what happened with that dust explosion."

Pi responded with, "The what?" to which I respond with, "There was a small dust explosion nearby, nobody actually got injured, but we should just check it out to see what happened so we aren't out of the loop." as I open up the entrance. We walk out of it, and I close it up, startling a few students that were near us that got distracted by the dust explosion. We walk around the crowd to where Ruby is talking to a blond hair boy with very little combat experience, if any.

I ask, "Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?" as I walked over.

He exclaims, "I was just explaining to Ruby how common motion sickness is!"

Pi exclaims, "Right, is anybody going to tell me about the dust explosion that apparently just happened?"

Ruby blushes and Jaune explains, "Ruby caused a dust explosion by sneezing into a dust cloud created by a girl with white hair in a white dress."

Pi responds, "That sounds like a Schnee, it would be hilarious if one of those pretentious pricks actually went to a combat school and caused a dust explosion on their first day."

Ruby shyly adds, "Her name was Weiss Schnee..."

I ask, "What is wrong with the Schnee family?" to which Pi responds, "The Schnee Dust Company has been discriminating against faunus for years, using them for cheap labor and even been using orphaned Faunus children in Atlas as child labor in the dust mines! However, given that Weiss isn't her father, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, given that she doesn't act racist or like a pretentious bitch."

Ruby yells out, "Swear Jar!"

At which point everybody, including me, just look at Ruby, and she says "Sorry, habit."

Everyone other than Ruby just shrug and I just ask Jaune, "Alright, Jaune, out with it. What kind of combat experience have you had?"

Jaune exclaims, "Why do you say that, I am a great fighter!" to which I say, "Jaune. I can sense your heartbeat and breathing to tell when you are lying, and even you didn't believe that."

Jaune just looks at me in disbelief until Pi said, "Korra already said that a while ago, and I am inclined to believe her given that she sensed a dust explosion that I didn't even hear."

Ruby adds, "Yeah, I believe that as well."

I add in, "Anyways, don't go around telling people about the ability I have."

Jaune changes the subject by saying, "So, what weapons do you guys have?"

To which Ruby immediately responds by bringing out Crescent Rose and saying, "I have this! Crescent Rose is a Customizable High-Impact Sniper Scythe."

Korra responds right after with, "I can make two daggers out of fire." as she does so.

Pi finishes with, "I want to keep my weapons secret, but I have a burn dust infused sword as well as two different ranged weapons." as he takes out his Burn Dust katana.

Jaune then says, backing off significantly, "Anyways, we should get to initiation, do you guys happen to know where that is?"

I say, "I don't know per-say, but I can sense a lot of people in that building with my seismic sense."

Jaune them says, "Alright, let's go there." as he makes his way to the building.

I then say to Ruby and Pi, "I don't know about Jaune, he seems nice enough, but he doesn't seem to actually be ready to be here."

Ruby responds, "It isn't like they let completely unqualified people into Beacon, maybe Jaune is really skilled but lacks confidence. I got into Beacon 2 years early, but I know I am skilled in a fight despite my lack of people skills, and I am pretty good with machinery."

Pi adds in, "Maybe he has some kind of semblance or power like you do, Korra."

Ruby asks, "Wait, power? Also, what was that you were saying about not calling Korra's semblance a semblance"

I say, "Alright, Ruby, I might as well explain this to you, but you have to keep this a secret. Not a 'I am going to tell Yang the moment Korra and Pi turn their backs' secret, a secret, secret. Got it?"

Ruby says, "Okay?"

Pi answers, "Korra's semblance doesn't use aura, and she had it before she had her aura unlocked."

Ruby questioningly asks, "What?"

Pi continues, "Anyways Korra, I am guessing the reason why you were kidnapped by that Bandit Tribe is that that secret got out to them, and they thought you could be a great asset."

Ruby exclaimed "What?!"

Korra answers, "You got it in one."

Ruby yelled, "WHAT?!"

Pi asks, "Anyways Ruby, do you think you understand just how big a secret like this is, now?"

Ruby answered, "My lips are sealed, but you are going to give me more details later."

Korra replied, "I am fine with that."

Ruby then asked, "Anyways, are you two like boyfriend/girlfriend or?"

Pi deadpanned, "The last time we saw each other was when we were ten years old."

Korra added, "I admit, we knew each other for most of our lives, but no, we are not romantically involved."

Ruby then said, slightly embarrassed, "Anyways, we have arrived." and opened the door.

Yang saw them, and said, "I saved a place for you guys, Ruby, Korra, and Pi!"

Yang POV:

There was this strange girl and boy named Korra and Pi at Beacon, and they seem to have quite the history. They had apprently become friends with my sister, so I am going to keep an eye on them. Seriously though, living in an orphanage? Not seeing each other for 7 years, and both saying "It is a long story that you don't talk about in public?" I need to keep an eye on these people, I just hope my sister doesn't become partners with somebody like that. Anyways, I decided to save them a spot near me so I can keep an eye on them.

"I saved a place for you guys, Ruby, Korra, and Pi!"

Anyways, as you can probably tell, in this story, Yang is a rough and tough girl with a calculative interior under the exterior of a bubbly blond, although she still cares for her sister as much as you would expect, so this isn't a complete 180 on her personality, just a tonal shift. I will do the same sort of tonal shift with Weiss when I get around to writing about her, but I don't think I will do this with anyone else, excluding Nora and Ren if the situation calls for it and team CRDL to make them more skilled. I will introduce two more original characters tied into Korra's backstory and put them on Korra's team with Pi, and this makes a bit of sense since the introduction of a character like Korra practically saved Wan Orphanage for a couple of years, so living there could have saved them, or I could simply have them come across Korra and get healed by her as part of their backstory. I also don't intend to switch 'RWBY' teams up, so I am intentionally keeping team RWBY as team RWBY, team JNPR as team JNPR, and team CRDL as team CRDL.