Author's Note: Hey guys, here I am with chapter two of Spectre B2F. I plan to release parts every Friday just so I can keep on top of things easily. If you enjoy the series, feel free to check my profile now and again, as I may set up polls referring to the story-line to come. Any feedback is appreciated as it helps me to make a better story that the readers want. My followers have been great at this, (I have plans to cover all of your points by the way, so don't worry!) so shout out to them and thanks again fellas! I'm also looking for a cover artist, so any if your interested feel free to private message me. Now allow me to sit back and shut up as you read to your heart's content. Enjoy!

Chapter II: The Morning that Followed

'People are just friends you haven't met yet.'

I woke to the reassuring darkness of the ballroom. My breathing was heavy, my body frigid, and my head throbbing. I had seen the monster again, the 'Arch-Grimm' which has stalked my dreams time and time again. Only this time it was that little bit worse. The dream itself was different though, more like a jump-scare compared with my previous visions. The pain was even more excruciating than the last time too. It was short but incredibly sharp, and I could still feel it even after waking up.

Fortunately, it didn't take too long for the pain to die down. I didn't know what the time was, but I was certain that I couldn't get back into meditating after that. Changing out of my sweat-soaked night clothes, I gathered my equipment and decided to take a jog around the campus. Thanks to whatever restful meditation I did get though, I had enough rest to take on the day ahead of me, and what an important one it was. Today was initiation, where our skills would be tested, and our teams were made. The future of us all would be determined this day.

After completing my circuit of the academy, the shattered moon sunk behind the horizon, and the sun started to paint its fierce orange light across the sky. I Void-Jumped to the roof of the dormitories just in time to witness the whole thing. In my past life, I rarely had time for such things, but this was one thing my sister and I enjoyed doing whilst we had the chance. She would be here with me now if she could - it's a shame that's no longer an option…

Lost in my own thoughts, I realised that I'd been there for quite some time, and people were starting to stir from their sleep. My mind then turned to the thought of breakfast, which I'd better sort out, seeing as I couldn't eat normal food through my helmet. My stomach didn't argue about the idea either.

After making my way to the dinner hall, and speaking very nicely to one of the kitchen staff, I managed to buy one of their portable blenders from the school, along with a large packet of bendy straws. I prowled the four long tables, each one with stacks of various foods upon its highly polished surface. I grabbed what I liked and crammed it into the blender as I went. When I was satisfied, I grabbed a seat, placing my duffle bag at my feet, and switched the blender on, watching the magic happen. Once finished, my new concoction looked like the least appetising thing the world of Remnant had ever seen. It even had some bits of god-knows-what in there too. I gingerly placed a blue bendy straw into the faded brown vomit that was my breakfast. I sent a silent prayer to whatever being created this world, and slurped away. All in all, the taste wasn't unbearable. In fact, putting the mixture's appearance aside, it didn't make a half bad breakfast shake. I wouldn't give anyone else the recipe though…

By this point the other students had started to enter the hall, their stomachs grumbling wildly and their mouths watering at the shear stockpile of food laid before them. I watched as complete strangers mobilized into groups and ate side by side, exchanging greetings and discussing the day ahead of them. I noticed Yang and Ruby wandering aimlessly for a place to sit, but just as I was going to signal them over:

"Good morning Spectre."

I turned to find the Weiss was standing to my left, a plate of food in her hand. She was dressed in the same attire that she wore at the White Castle, the pale blue bolero jacket over her dress. "Good morning Miss Schnee," I replied placing my breakfast flask on the table.

Weiss indicated to the seat on the bench beside me. "Do you mind if I join you?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course not," I replied humbly.

Giving me a small smile, she sat down and made conversation. "I have a few things I would like to discuss, if that's fine with you of course."

"Anything at all, heiress," I responded, giving her my full attention.

"Firstly, I'd like to apologise for my dreadful behaviour last night. Luckily, you were the very the voice of calm regarding the whole situation, and I thank you for that."

"Apology accepted, and you're welcome," I said happily.

"And about the whole titles thing," she continued inclining her head to one side, "I'd appreciate it if you call me by my name from now on. We are in a school now after all…"

"Sure thing, your highness," I mocked.

Her face turned to thunder, and it looked like the plate of food she had would soon end up in my face.

"Sorry, I was only joking Weiss," I said quickly.

Thankfully the wrath of the ice queen had dwindled down to rest. "Oh, I see," she said uneasily. We said nothing for a few more moments, so I took another slurp of my 'Spectre's Delight'.

Before I could apologise further for my tomfoolery, Weiss's attention turned to my meal. "And, what is… that?" she asked with a puzzled look about her.

"This is my breakfast, just… blended together."

She blinked, but never took her eyes off of the mixture, her mouth open in disgust. "…Why?" she questioned.

"I can't eat most solid food with my helmet on, so I have to… make compromises."

"Why don't you just take your helmet off?"

"Yeah… I sort of took an oath, so I can't…" I took the time to think to myself. "Well done Spec!" I thought, "You've only gone and made the one and only Weiss Schnee lose her appetite!" Well at least it didn't get any worse. "So how are you feeling, about today I mean?" I urged, trying to change the subject.

Weiss managed to break the hypnotic effect of my slop, and looked at me. "Oh, um, I was actually hoping to ask you about that," she said, "I was hoping you would consider being on a team with me. An outstanding fighter such as yourself and an intelligent girl such as myself could make a formidable combination."

I'll be honest, I considered pretending to take offence at that comment, but after her reaction to my joke earlier, I decided it wasn't a good idea. Instead I replied honestly. "I appreciate the offer, Weiss, but I prefer to let fate determine the people I work with in the future. That said, if I were to be partnered with you today, I certainly wouldn't complain."

For a moment, she seemed to be processing my response, trying to understand my reasoning behind my words. Then she smiled. "I see. That is a very open way to think of things; I would expect no less." I was confused as to whether she was speaking truthfully, or just covering up a lie. It was hard to tell, or at least for me it was… "Well, would you look at the time," Weiss said, suddenly standing, "We had better get to the locker rooms and prepare for the initiation trails." She left her still half-filled plate on the table and turned to me. "Would you care to join me?" she asked.

"Uh, sure," I replied, deciding that it'd be better than going alone. I grasped the strap of my bag and rose from the bench, only to realise that I too had not finished my rather gruesome breakfast.

As I picked up the flask, Weiss looked at me in suspense. "Surely you're not going to…"

I took one last slurp of slop, only stopping when a miscellaneous chunk got stuck in the straw. Swivelling my head around, I sought out a bin and proceeded to pour the remainder of my 'Delight' into it. The sounds were best not described. Nor was the smell… Returning my gaze to Weiss, I realised that she had grimaced through the whole thing, holding her nose to keep the smell away.

"Sorry."

She held her hand up. "No, just… Come on…"

We walked into the locker room, where plenty of other people had already gathered to make ready for the challenge ahead. The room itself, like the dinner hall, was very long, with lines of lockers fixed to the walls and partitioning the room into three rough corridors. Ever since we left the dinning hall, Weiss had grown quiet, focused, just like when she was about to sing on stage. Either that or the slop incident had made things too awkward. Again, I couldn't really tell...

Eventually, we reached the rest of our group; there were thirteen in all, with Weiss and I included. We were the first to take to the field and set the benchmark for the students to follow in later rounds.

Weiss stopped at the edge of the group. "Well," she said, "I will use this locker here." She opened the locker in front of her. The numbers '184' were stamped on the front. It seemed that unlike me, she had already picked out a locker, as her weapon was already inside, ready for use. It was a masterfully crafted rapier, the metalwork holding a light grey colour to it. She sheathed the elegant weapon at her hip and returned to talk to me. "Now that I have all that I need, I wish to talk to some of the other students. If you'll excuse me."

"Sure thing," I nodded. While she started to mingle with the others, I claimed the locker to the left of hers, number '183'. I then opened my duffle bag, put on my finger-less gauntlets, and checked the convergence gems on the back of them. They started to glow a faint green colour, showing they were active. The same glow started to emit from deep within my bag, showing that the recovery gems fitted to the pommels of my weapons had responded. I delved underneath my alternative clothing to reach for them. "The Grey Knight is not needed this day," I thought to myself in quiet amusement. After clearing the way for my swords, I stepped back and held my hand outward. One of the swords, Grimm's Doom, lifted into the air and floated slowly toward me. Once it was within arms reach, I grasped the Doom's sheath, just above the hilt, and started to inspect it.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" My head spun to the voice that addressed me. It was Ruby. Before I could so much as utter a word, she continued. "You were like, 'sword, come to me!' and the sword was like, 'sure, I'll just float over to you' and… That was so freaking awesome!"

I hesitated. "Uh, thanks…" I said awkwardly.

Then I saw Yang approach; she was giggling to herself. "You've just been 'Rubied'," she said punching my arm, "But I'll admit, that was pretty cool."

"The other one does that too. Watch." I raised my other hand and Fall shot from the bag like a bullet from a gun, landing nicely into my hand.

Ruby squealed in excitement, dancing from one foot to the other. "You have two? That's so cool! What else do they do?"

"Maybe you'll see later on," I replied, locking the sheaths to my back, "So what do you use?"

Her face lit up even more. "Oh, I'll be right back." Before I knew it she had sped off down the locker room, leaving nothing but rose petals in her wake.

"Super speed?" I asked Yang, putting my bag in my locker.

She was still watching Ruby flash down the room. "Yep," she replied, without looking away. A few moments passed, before she turned to speak again. "Yeah… she's kinda a dork when it comes to weapons."

"You two don't look very alike for sisters," I pointed out.

"Oh, were actually half-sisters – we have different moms. What about you? What are your parents like?" That question I couldn't answer. I have no memory of them, nor do I even recall ever knowing any parents.

Before I could answer though, Ruby returned, bringing a swirling cloud of red petals with her. "I got this thing," she said pulling out a hunk of red metal shaped like a rectangle with corners cut off and rounded. The shape then folded out into a huge twin-bladed scythe. I thought it was a miracle that she kept control of such a large weapon. There were few that could.

"Wow."

"It's also a high impact sniper rifle," she added helpfully.

"Nice," I said, genuinely impressed.

Her heart must have melted in response. "You like it? That's just so…" She finished that sentence with an excited high pitched squeal.

Before things got too heated, Yang pulled her away. "Sorry about Ruby," she said happily, "It looks like she's taken a liking to you already!"

"Yeah, you don't say."

She giggled again. "Well, I'll talk to you later Spectre!"

"See ya," I replied with a short wave. We then returned to our preparations, of which most of us were ready. I closed my locker and punched in a six digit passcode for future use. I then moved to the bench closest to me and sat down to load Doom and Fall with both .50 calibre dust and explosive rounds. The twenty round dust clips were loaded into a magazine housing just below the hand guards. The explosive rounds however, were around the size of a muscle builder's thumb, so they had to be loaded into a tube parallel to the barrel, similar to a pump action shotgun. My swords held ten of these each. That made sixty shots, so potentially sixty kills at range. Initially, my blades felt significantly heavier, but as I carried them, and used them, they would feel lighter.

Once I had finished, another pair of students caught my attention. There was a girl with brown hair and pink attire chattering away to a boy. He had long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and his clothes were green. It must have been like talking to a brick wall.

"Nora," he said to the girl, a pair of pistols in his hands. They both had downwards pointing bayonets at the end of their barrels.

"Yes Renn?" she replied.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

"That's why it's perfect! Nobody will suspect were working together!" I didn't catch the earlier parts of the conversation, but it must have been interesting to say the least. Who knows just how those two ended up together?

"Could make a good story one day…" I thought.

After giving my swords a few swings and calibrating their laser sights, I sheathed them and tested their weight on my back. Satisfied, I turned to make my way down the room, but collided with a familiar breastplate wearing student. Cardin. He looked down at me with a smug expression on his face.

"Hey Spectre. Have a nice sleep last night?" He must have been referring to my meditation and the fact that I left the ballroom early in the morning.

"You could say that," I replied bluntly, folding my arms.

The grunted at that. "I didn't know you were so popular! Weiss Schnee huh? She's not an easy bird to catch, but you seem to be already in there. I heard about that little fight last night too, half the school probably knows by now."

"It's complicated. And let half the school think what they like – chances are it isn't true."

Cardin started to laugh in response. "Say, the more I talk to you, the more I like you Spec!" He then swivelled me on the spot and pointed out a group of rough looking kids. They were like a trio of vultures the way they looked at us, expecting something to happen.

"You see those guys?" Cardin asked, "I want those guys on my team, because they and I are on the same wavelength. But I like you, I really do. So I'd like to offer you a place to be on my team. Oh don't worry about those guys, I'll just pick one and boot them out, enough said. So what do you say?"

The words going through my head were somewhere between, 'Na, you're alright mate' and 'F off', but I settled with the polite option: "We'll see how things turn out, shall we?"

"If you're sure Spectre," he shrugged, "You know, I'm actually kinda disappointed. I was really looking forward to working with you. We would've made a great team."

"Oh, I'm sure we would," I said sarcastically.

"Anyways, no hard feelings Specie-boy! I'll see you around." As he moved confidently to his group, only one word came to mind.

"Prick," I muttered under my breath.

My thoughts were cut off quickly however, as the intercom blurted out a new message. "Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliffs for initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliffs, immediately."

"Time to shine," I thought to myself as I strode off into the light of the outside.