Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.
Chapter 3: Where Jaune finds a Landing Strategy (by being speared to a tree)
Ozpin scanned the students standing in front of him. Many of them are the most skilled students that have been trained at an early aged. Some of them are the true elites that will be at the forefront against the darkness known as Grimm.
And a few, a select foolish few are those who are neither but still have the courage to do what is right despite their own lacking. All of them are students that he would be proud to have at Beacon, if they manage to survive and finish initiation. There is no difference between the skill, unskilled and elites on a battlefield. Death is equal to all and as such he would judge them all equal right now.
This was his first lesson to them all.
Live.
If they cannot survive now, then they have just wasted their time. That is the reason why he chose to allow those with…suspicious backgrounds into his beloved school. Of course, those who have the intention to harm are not allowed him but everyone else? The greedy, foolish or otherwise, he would accept them all.
Take Jaune Arc standing nearest to him, child of the famed and long time since degraded Arc Family. Unskilled, he had failed to make it into Signal and from all reports, had not even unlocked his Aura. Yet he managed to forge transcripts and made his way here, to his possible death.
The Headmaster hoped that someone would pity him and save his life during the landing strategy.
If anything, his heart was at least in the right place unlike so many others as the years passed.
"For years you have trained into become warriors. Today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest" he said.
He got their attention immediately. He had made this speech each and every year and he knew better than most of what students would pay attention to first. You needed to make it sound like a competition. Even if it's the truth, telling them that it is likely some or most of them will die will do nothing but make them underestimate their challenge.
The pride of teenagers that think they can take on the world would lead them to their deaths. It was just better to make them more aware that there is more to this than it seems if it allows them to be more alert and less likely to face impossible odd head-on.
"Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams. Well allow us to out an end in your confusion. Each of you will be given team-mates. Today" he continued to say.
The slight movements and twitches some of the potential students had was all he needed to know that they were nervous. Team were a major part of Beacon's teaching. He knew that even the simplest of them knew that the right team could mean being exceptional or being a failure in the end.
Of course, he made sure to make some minor adjustments to ensure that those not at all compatible would be less likely to meet each other. Cardin Winchester was a known Faunas-hater and it wouldn't do to have him anywhere near one let alone but on the same team as one.
"These team-mates will be with for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone whom you can work well with."
There were some that were naturally suited to each other. The young Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie would most likely have a partnership that goes beyond whatever 'official' partner they could have otherwise. Of course Ozpin knew that they could work just as well with other people but it took years to build up the trust they have between them.
It is a similar case with Ruby Rose and her sister, Yang Xiao-Long though in this case, he felt that either of them would work well enough even without each other. It was just better to have those who would all work well with each other no matter the partner to end up near each other.
After that…it was a matter of luck and intention.
"That being said, the first person you make eye-contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years" the gasp he heard from a select few greatly amused him. It was always nice to see some so naïve that this would be permanent no matter their protest.
It was common to see teams and even partnerships get shuffled around within the first semester. Anything else than complete trust would lead to hesitation in a team and that would lead to people dead.
Why would he want to trap people in a team they don't want? It was only a matter of bringing the issue to him. Those who had the courage to simply ask were reward. Those who don't are left behind.
"See! I told you-" Nora cheered.
He ignored her and went on saying, "After you partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die."
That was the first warning he gave them. If they could not even follow that, then perhaps it would be good for them to perish in the forest. The world had no need for those with Aura and yet would hesitate even for their own lives.
He turned to Glynda and nodded. She activated the monitoring devices shattered all around the forest. It was a good mission for the students to learn how to navigate through a Grimm-filled forest for a non-combat task. There were many missions that went beyond just killing Grimm.
Many Hunters also took up professions to fix, build and create as well. A Hunter that knew how to fix a damaged communication tower in the middle of Grimmland was better than a Hunter that didn't.
"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics."
This was their second warning. The fact that none of the instructors would help them should clue a few in that this was no simple training exercise. They were expected to go through dangerous tasks that may kill them as ordinary tasks over the years as students of Beacon.
"Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item as well as your standing and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" he asked. It looked like most of them understood what he said.
Good.
"Yeah umm sir?" Jaune Arc raised his hand nervously looking unsure on what he had to do. Ozpin wasn't surprised considering his record.
"Good!" he promptly ignored the young Arc. There were times when you needed to do something even without instructions and explanations on what to do.
"Now take your positions" he commanded. The whole line of potential students took their stances, adjusting their bodies so that they would be better air-borne. Air-combat became a thing when it was found that Nevermores were especially more dangerous in the skies than on the ground.
Namely, since humanity started training Hunters.
"Er sir. I have umm a question" Jaune tried speaking again but Ozpin continued to ignore him. The first set of potential students was shot off into the sky. He hoped for the best and that they would survive.
"So this landing...strategy thing, what is it? Are you dropping us off or something?" the confusion would've been a lot funnier if it didn't mean that this young boy would most likely die in the forest without help.
"No. You will be falling" he decided to at least give a partial answer. Even some level of preparedness than none and the young child needed a lot more than that to survive.
"Wow…I see. So, like did you hand out parachutes for us?"
"No. You will be using your own landing strategy" he indulged.
"Uhh huh that" It was a real shame that he wasn't the brightest of people. Perhaps in time he would become better but they might never know at this rate.
"So what exactly is a landing strategy-"
Jaune Arc was flung into the air while screaming. He sipped his coffee before looking at Glynda. Without a word, she opened up several screens to see the landing strategies of many of their potential students.
"Two of the batch from Signal died from poor landings. Another three were injured from the fall but managed to survive. None of the elites were harmed in landing and almost all of those who used forged transcripts to get in also died" she emotionlessly informed.
As expected, many of the unprepared ones with too much hope and too little skill immediately died from the impact or were injured enough that fighting against Grimm would be difficult at best. They would die there, alone and frightened and at the same time draw away other Grimm from the rest, consequentially aiding them.
He sighed, even if there was one student that could survive initiation when they were no way were skilled enough for it, he would let a dozen more die each time. Training Hunters was a difficult task and it wasn't just being strong or skilled enough to fight Grimm.
"Which ones survived?" he asked.
"Jaune Arc surprisingly enough…Pyrrha Nikos seemed to have taken a liking to him and managed to save him by pinning him to a tree. The only other is a student by the name of Cinder Fall whose…approaching where Mr Arc is quite quickly."
"Interesting…" he took another sip. There may be some hope for him after all. Gathering comrades to aid you was a skill that Hunters also needed to have for leadership after all.
-o-
"Well that was tamer than I thought."
After landing gracefully while projecting two hooked swords via her semblance and a bit of dust manipulation, Cinder looked a short look where she was and calculated in her head of the approximate position of everyone else. As expected Ozpin had separated the students flights into places where they would 'best' find each other for teams.
"Hmph! To think that he would dare try to place me with the weak fools" she muttered under her breath.
Of course, the headmaster had no methods on stopping her on rushing to where Jaune was to partner with him. Just as much this initiation was part skill and part luck on who you would partner up with, it was also part determination to seek and find your ideal partner before anyone else.
"No one told me that you couldn't use everything to make sure I would get the perfect partner."
If she couldn't get Jaune Arc, she might as well give up now. Being unable to success even in this simplest task right now would mean that any success later on would be beyond her reach.
And that was unacceptable.
She started sprinting to where she saw Jaune was while avoiding the other students by sensing their head signatures. Even incomplete, the power of the Fall Maiden was quite useful. Eventually she found the blonde pinned by the head of his hoodie to the tree and couldn't help but to chuckle at the sight.
"My my, aren't you in a…particular situation" she smiled at him.
"Please help me. I can't get down" he begged.
Seeing no reason not to especially when they were going to be partners, she using some of the dust she stored, she easily burst the place where the spear stuck to the tree allowing Jaune to fall to the ground. The weapon clanged on the ground uselessly while Jaune scrambled to get up and look more proper in front of her.
Ignoring the sputter he seemed to have when she moved closer to him, well her dress was a bit revealing of her figure, she examined the weapon and noted its quality in craftsmanship. It was rare for a weapon to have a triple-form and be used so expertly.
Picking up the weapon, she noticed that this belonged to one Pyrrha Nikos in fact. So she wanted to partner with Jaune?
Interesting.
"So…are we partners now?" the blonde asked her.
"Of course. We did make eye-contact before anyone else right?" she looked pleased though there were now many more plans running through her head on making sure this boy in front of her didn't discover any of her plans.
First step, make sure it looks like she was helping him.
"My name is Cinder Fall. Nice to meet you partner" she introduced herself politely.
"Right. Yeah. Hi! My name is Jaune Arc, nice to meet you partner" he grinned nervously. It was obviously he was smitten by her beauty. Having another Emerald was always a good thing in her boots.
Of course, him being quickly smitten by her meant that she was in the age that he would attractive, not that she was ever not attractive.
It was then that a red-haired girl burst in sight with a look of confusion and dare she say; anger? How amusing for one so young to think she could challenge her. Cinder smirked slightly at her.
-o-
Pyrrha gaped at the black-haired woman in holding her weapon. It was too soon. Too soon for anyone else to reach Jaune before her, a fact she made sure to check. Despite this, the reality was that somehow, someone managed to find where Jaune Arc was and partnered up with her already.
"Wa-how?" she sputtered out.
The woman, as her attitude made it impossible for her to identify her as a girl stepped over making sure to swing her hips in the view of Jaune hewashers before handing her Milo…which by the looks of things was pinned to Jaune mere seconds ago. Feeling weak all of a sudden, Pyrrha felt like the last hope she had for a normal friendship disappear like that.
The chances on being on the same team as Jaune was low but the chances of being partnered with him was almost certain when they had started. No one paid attention to the blonde, she made sure to check. Not to mention she landed near enough to him for her to aim and fire her weapon to save him.
And yet, she failed to get to him in time.
She failed.
"Hello, my name is Cinder Fall. Jaune's partner" the woman named Cinder seemed to have said.
As if noticing her for the first time (and boy did that sting), Jaune waved at her and said, "Hey Pyrrha! Thanks for the save earlier. If you didn't pin me to the tree I might have died!"
Of course that bright smile and innocent look made it all up in her mind. Of course he wouldn't pay that much attention to her, she was a normal girl to him and that meant not being in his centre of attention all the time.
"No problem" she tried to smile to it was a bit strained. Strange, smiling used to be so natural for her…until it wasn't.
Pyrrha stared at Cinder, her face turning into a glare.
Cinder stared at Pyrrha, her face letting out a smirk.
Jaune looked at the pair of Huntresses confused and did what he could to make sure no fighting broke out. He knew those looks well enough by his sisters.
"So…what's the deal with this partner thing? I know we're split into teams of four but what's the deal with the partner thing?" he asked.
Snapping out of whatever held her mind, Pyrrha silently thanked Jaune for not letting her try to attack this Cinder. Even from yesterday, she had a strange feeling from her. That this Cinder person did not fit in with everyone else. No one talked to her, not even some of the boys despite her looks.
This feeling only got worse the moment she found her with Jaune first. The fact that she somehow managed to pinpoint and find Jaune was suspicious enough but the way she presented herself now that she was partnered with Jaune only irritated her. And as much as she didn't like to admit it, she had to thank this woman for the feeling she was having.
It was jealously. Something that she had rarely experienced after her fame started building up. It was the feeling to want to get better to surpass the person that they envied. And in this case she knew that Pyrrha Nikos was jealously that Cinder Fall was now closer to Jaune than her.
"While teams are split into four students, the teams are further split into partners of two. By doing this teams can split up more effectively in missions though they are all still lead by a single leader per team" explained Cinder.
"Correct. There are two 'selections' for a team. The first is via partnership as you and…Cinder have done and the second is possibly via the collection of relics in some fashion" added Pyrrha.
"I see…so this means Cinder is on my team but you might not be?" Jaune looked confused.
"Yes, that is correct Jaune" the raven-haired woman gazed her hand over the blonde's cheek and Pyrrha had the urge to hurt her right now. It wasn't like she had a crush on Jaune or something. She wasn't that shallow.
Love in first sight might happen in stories but they are much rarer in reality.
It still didn't stop her from moving in between the two to stop such advances.
"Anyway. Despite how I'm lacking a partner, we should head north to where the temple ruin is according to the Headmaster. That way, we might meet someone who doesn't have a partner for me to pair up with-"
"Weeeeiss! Where did you go?"
A short young girl with a red cloak on stumbled to where they were. Everyone stared at her.
"I see you've found your partner Pyrrha" a much too seductive voice whispered next to her ear. She promptly moved to attack out of instincts and fear but ended up missing and hitting Jaune in the end.
"Ow!"
-o-
Weiss was a meanie. No, she went beyond the realm of a normal meanie and became a super meanie. She left her! The moment they made eye-contact she just turned around and left her behind. It was rude! Mean! Weren't they supposed to be partners the moment their eyes made contact?
"Weeeeiss! Where did you go?" she called out.
Perhaps it was a good thing Weiss left her. That meant that she had another chance to get a partner right? But what if there wasn't? Oh stick-fiddles, was she going to fail initiation if she didn't have a partner?
Better to have she had than to have none. Still, Weiss might have already met someone else-
Wait were there people talking nearby? Perhaps Weiss was there! Immediately Ruby ran through the brushes and found herself being stared down by three tall people. Tall as in all of them were pretty tall. Like Jaune.
"I see you've found your partner Pyrrha" the woman in an awesomely coloured red dress said. For some reason, Ruby had a feeling that she was amused.
Looking at the woman in armour, the young Huntress did what she did best. Inspect the glorious piece of machinery that was in her hands. Although it clearly wasn't as awesome as her Crescent Rose, it was still a beautiful piece of machinery.
Then she swiped her weapon at the other woman who dodged…and accidentally hit Jaune.
"Ow!" Jaune whined as his hand slapped her cheek to stop the bleeding…wait bleeding?
"Jaune!" the armoured woman shouted in worry before inspecting Jaune for injuries…which she caused.
The other woman in red clicked her tongue before moving over to Jaune as well. When did Jaune get this popular? This looked like a scene when Yang fell down and many guys went out of their ways to try and help her.
"Umm…guys? Jaune? Girls?" she called out.
The woman in red seemed to have noticed her first before poking the armoured woman saying, "Please talk to your new partner Pyrrha. I'll take of Jaune for now."
Said armoured woman, Pyrrha turned to glare at the other woman, "Why don't you do that? I'm more worried because Jaune doesn't have his Aura unlocked. I could've killed him!"
"Wait, aura what now?"
Both women looked at Jaune before both started to explain at the same time.
"Aura is the power that-" "It is the inner energy-"
They went back to glaring at each other again. Well, Pyrrha, her new partner did anyway. Seeing that Weiss wasn't here, she might as well join with these people. At least Jaune was here. He was a funny guy and her first friend at Beacon.
"Hello? I'm here? Please don't ignore me?" she started jumping because jumping might get their attention. How else was she going to sort out what was going on?
"Ruby?!" for someone who had gotten into Beacon, Jaune had a pretty bad attention span…or a bad memory…or was a bit slow. She wasn't sure which but she wasn't going to mention it. Saying things like that was just rude.
"Hey Jaune" she said tiredly.
"Hey" he replied before looking to Pyrrha, "Huh. So you're going to be Pyrrha's partner."
"Pretty much" she nodded, "I found Weiss first but she disappeared on me so…"
"You mean the Schnee Heir? I heard rumours of how she treats others and most of them aren't good. I believe she's one of the targets of the White Fang as well" the woman in red commented, "Good thing you ended up partner with Pyrrha here. You must have gotten involved with…unsavoury things if you ended up with the other girl."
"Weiss is involved with the White Fang? I don't think Weiss is that kind of person even if she's a bit mean Cinder" Jaune's face scrounged up in confusion.
The woman in red, Cinder, seemed be fine with that answer and didn't say anything else. Ruby agreed with Jaune that Weiss wasn't the kind of bad person to be involved with a terrorist group like the White Fang even as someone of their ire but she disagreed that Weiss was only a bit mean.
"Jaune please close your eyes. I'm going to awaken your Aura" said Pyrrha suddenly.
The blonde looked surprised before agreeing, "Eh. Okay. This isn't going to hurt right? And what is this Aura?"
Oh! That was something she could answer easily.
"Aura is the power that all Hunters have. It lets us be stronger, faster and more durable among other effects" Ruby answered.
"Yes and without it, you are much at risk in this forest Jaune. I don't know why you haven't unlocked it yet but better now than never" sighed Pyrrha before she touched his shoulder.
Red Aura spilled from Pyrrha's body as it surrounded Jaune's body. She could see her Aura move into his body to beckon his Aura out.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."
The moment she finished those words, white Aura started spilling out from Jaune's body before disappearing back inside it. Now…it would take training for him to draw out the full effects of Aura again but its passive effects would stay with him for the rest of his life.
"You have quite a bit of Aura" Cinder mused with interest. Ruby agreed with that settlement. According to her dad, she showed off only a fraction of the amount of light Jaune's awaken did.
"Anyway, now that Jaune is more or less safe-" said Ruby. She saw that the cut on his cheek was already healing rapidly. "We should introduce ourselves…well at least to me. It looks like you know each other and I only know Jaune."
Cinder's eyes flickered to the only male for a moment, "My…knowing so many women-"
Ruby for some reason had an urge to huff her chest out.
"Should I be concern on what you might be doing to me later?" she asked teasingly. Ruby had no idea what she just meant and from the looks of things and it looked like Jaune didn't as well.
How come Pyrrha was red?
"Well little one. I'm called Cinder Fall and I am the current partner of Jaune here."
"Nice to meet you!" Ruby nodded excitedly. Was this a new friend?
A moment later Pyrrha coughed before approaching her reaching out with a hand, "Hello. My name is Pyrrha Nikos. From the sounds of things, neither of us got the partners we wanted. Still, may we be good partners."
Ruby smiled back at her.
"Nice to meet you Pyrrha. I'm Ruby Rose and your new partner. Let's kick ass! Oh and protect Jaune. He doesn't seem that strong."
"Hey!" a voice protested.
Pyrrha only chuckled to that while Cinder cracked a smile.
Things seemed to be looking up for her. She might not have Yang or Weiss as her partner but she was with people that seemed nice if a bit strange. Now all they had to do was get through initiation.
A/M: Well things suddenly went from humour to serious business...yeah this is completely my fault. Like I said at the end of the first chapter, I am not used to writing humour. In fact, years of writing 'serious' fanfics conditioned me to automatically turn everything I write more serious and somewhat dark in some portions.
Take Ozpin, I somehow turned him from being a well-meaning Headmaster to someone who would accept those who have not the skills to pass initiation to boost numbers while knowing most of them will die. The lighter part of RWBY gives no reason of this as everything is a happy comedy adventure series. The darker side says that people actually died in initiation because they really do need the numbers to combat the Grimm so standards are...lax a bit.
On a side note, I took some liberties with Weiss. She isn't exactly my favorite character. If things went as normal, she would've met Jaune, Cinder and Pyrrha before trying to immediately partner up with Pyrrha. Then Ruby appears being Weiss partner. Pyrrha's impression of Weiss will decrease even more while she is left partnerless.
Yeah, didn't like that scenario so I changed it so Weiss didn't meet co but Ruby did being abandoned by her (which actually did happen. Weiss was a bitch until the end of Vol 1) meaning Pyrrha was willing to partner up with someone who didn't manage to get who she wanted as a partner as well.
If enough people complain, I'll change the tag from 'Humour' to 'Adventure' or something. Seriously, there may be one or two scenes I find funny but things really do get serious out of nowhere and I can't figure out how to change it to seem humourous at all.