Players And Pieces.

Severa and Bernadetta were continuing on their way to find the relics they needed to complete the initiation. But as they did, they just saw some of their fellow students fly through the air, each heading in the same direction. Both girls looked at each other in confusion. But they ultimately decided that it was probably the way they needed to go. At the Abandoned Temple, Blake is still staring skyward.

"Blake, did you hear that? What should we do?" Yang asked as Blake was pointing for Yang to look up.

Ruby was falling right towards them, finally getting Yang's attention "Heads uuuuuuuup!".

Just as she's about to hit the ground panicking, Jaune comes flying through the air and crashes into Ruby, knocking her off course and sending them both into a tree to the left of where Blake and Yang are standing.

Ruby is dazed by the rough landing "Oohhhh... What was that?".

"Eh-hem!" Ruby looks up to see Jaune hanging upside-down in a tree branch above her "Hey, Ruby...".

Back on the ground, Blake looked at the tree "Did your sister just fall from the sky?".

"I..." Yang began but Before she can continue, they heard another scream.

"ICOMMING!" It was Lyre who came flying through the air before crashing in to the same tree Ruby and Jaune was, She stuck her head out of the leaves as she tried to make a joke "Ow, help! A cat is stuck in a tree!".

"Did that girl also come flying through the sky?" Blake asked.

"I..." Yang began but was again interrupted.

Several crashing noises are heard in the forest ahead of them, and an Ursa comes out, claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground, depositing its rider.

"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" It was Nora who rolls off of the creature's back, then gets up and groans, saddened "Awwww... It's broken"

She dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass as Ren comes up behind her, panting and leaning on the monster "Nora! Please... Don't ever do that again".

He looks up again and notices by the pink dotted outline of where his partner should be, showing that Nora has run off again, and looks around frantically.

Nora was in the Temple, staring at a chess piece "Oooohh..." She grabs it and starts dancing and sings with the chess piece "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!".

"Nora!" Ren shouts.

Nora stops dancing with the piece on her head, then salutes, dropping the relic into her hand "Coming, Ren!".

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"I..." Yang began before Lucina suddenly crashes in front of them.

"Owww..." She groans as she pushed herself up "Note to self: Never follow Lyre's lead. Oh, hello Yang".

"Hi" Yang waves.

"There you guys are" Everyone looked up and saw Severa and Bernadetta "How did all of you find this place before us?".

"Well, it wasn't that difficult to find" Yang said before she noticed Bernadetta "Oh, hello little bunny".

"Ah! Don't eat me!" Bernadetta yelled as she hides behind a confused Severa.

"Is she still scared of me?" Yang mumbled before she sighed "Bernie, I am not going to eat you. It was just a joke".

"Really?" Bernadetta asked.

Severa face palmed "How on Renmant could you not know it was a joke? I mean Seriously?".

Now Bernadetta looked very embarrassed "Sorry!".

Yang smiled and was about to say something, but she is interrupted once more as a screech is heard from their right, and Pyrrha comes onto the scene as the Death Stalker uproots entire trees in its chase after her. Pyrrha narrowly dodges its giant claws and keeps on running.

"Jaune!" She called out.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune called back as Ruby stands up, looking at the monster below before she starts running off of the branch and landing in a roll, leaving Jaune to whine after her "Ruby!".

"No worries, I'll help you" Lyre said as she began to pull Jaune free.

As Ruby stands up Yang smiled at her "Ruby!".

Ruby got excited "Yang!"

As they raise their arms as if to give each other a hug, Nora comes between the two and knocking them off-balance in surprise "Nora!".

The Death Stalker continues to follow Pyrrha as she runs. Blake once again decided to point out the obvious "Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?".

Yang was getting angrier by the second until she growls and erupts in a small burst of fire, eyes flashing red "I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!".

The tick-tock of a clock counts down the two seconds of Yang cooling down, Ren running over to a ditzy Nora, Bernadetta hiding behind Severa to avoid the now angry blonde, Lucina brushing herself of, and Blake and Ruby looking up.

"Umm... Yang?" Ruby tugs on her sister's sleeve and points up, causing Yang to lower her head in defeat. Up above, Weiss is revealed to be hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to a gigantic Nevermore.

Weiss called down to Ruby "How could you leave me?!".

Ruby shouted back "I said jump!".

"She's gonna fall" Blake said.

"She'll be fine" Ruby assured.

"She's falling" Ren said bluntly.

Lyre managed to pull Jaune free and noticed Weiss falling. Quickly realizing someone else was in need of saving, Lyre leaps of the tree and caught Weiss in mid air, much to the white haired girl's surprise.

"Nice of you to drop in" Lyre said until she remembered they were still high up "Uh oh... Hold on!".

Weiss holds on to Lyre as they both fall. Lyre lands perfectly on her feet, still holding Weiss in her arms... some kind of vibration shot through Lyre's body as she looked to be in pain.

"Are you... ok?" Lyre asked.

"Umm, I'm fine... but what about you?" Weiss asked as she noticed Lyre's pained look.

"Oh I'm fine... I think I dislocated both my ankles when we landed, but other than that, I'm fine" Lyre said as she puts Weiss down.

"Right" Weiss said as she checked herself, and Jaune fell out of he tree.

The Death Stalker is still hunting Pyrrha, but she manages to land on her side at the feet of the heroes after being thrown by it.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang said sarcastically.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby said as she let out a battle cry and rushes towards the Grimm.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang called out.

"Is she daft!? One does not just one v one a Death Stalker!" Severa said in disbelief.

Ruby, still screaming, fires Crescent Rose and charges at the oncoming Death Stalker. When the two meet, the Grimm swipes Ruby away and she is knocked back.

Ruby gets up slowly "D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!".

Ruby turns back to the monster and shoots it in the skull, running away from it and sheathing her scythe as the Death Stalker now goes after her.

Yang began running towards her sister "Ruby!".

Lucina joins Yang, wanting to help one of the first friends she made since coming to Beacon. Ruby rushes towards them, but the Nevermore caws above them, flapping its wings and releasing lines of sharpened feathers with points that catch on Ruby's cape and prevent Yang from reaching her.

"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang shouts.

Ruby struggles with the cloak "I'm trying!".

Lucina cuts some of the feathers away "Ruby! Just take of the cape!"

"No! I can't!" Ruby yelled, as her cape was very important to her. The Death Stalker approaches, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby and heading down on the helpless girl.

Yang reaches out in vain "Ruby!".

Lucina mentally cursed as she realized she wasn't going to reach Ruby in time. But then a white blur races past her and reaches the stinger just as it's about to pierce her. The flash was revealed to be Weiss, who created an ice wall to block the Death Stalker's stinger.

"Wow... She's pretty good for a rich girl" Severa commented.

Lyre smiled "Not bad. Not bad as all".

"She is so much better than me... but then again, everyone is" Bernadetta said in her self loathing tone.

Lucina sighs in relief "Thank goodness".

Yang rushes up to Ruby and gives her a hug (which Ruby grunts at upon receiving "So happy you're okay!".

The two stare at each other for a moment, then look up at the Nevermore still flying overhead and roaring. And in the distance, the Great Beast that was responsible for sending Lyre and Lucina flying, stormed out from the trees, roaring at the group.

"Guys? That thing's circling back!" Jaune said as he points to the Nevermore.

"And the Beast chased us all the way here. Guess he is really upset of the horn pull" Lyre said.

"What are we gonna do?" Jaune asked.

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us" Weiss said as she motions to the heroes stare at the relics.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs" Ruby said, earning a nod of approval from Weiss "There's no point in fighting these things".

"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune said with a smile.

"Yeah, me too" Bernadetta agreed with a smile of her own.

"Alright, let's grab a piece and leave" Lucina declared.

Ruby goes over and grabs a gold knight and Jaune takes hold of a gold rook, smiling at each other. Both Lucina and Severa grabs a black Queen piece. The Death Stalker continues to fight its bonds, until the Great Beast walked up to it, and then lifted it's clawed paw and shattered the ice, freeing it's fellow grimm. The heroes needed to move before the Grimm catches up to them.


The group is heading out of the forest and into another abandoned series of structures as the Nevermore follows them from the air. They spread out when it passes above, concealing themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and caws.

Yang looked annoyed "Well, that's great!".

Jaune looks behind at the Death Stalker bursting onto the scene, with the Great Beast stomping next to it "Ah, man, run!".

The groups emerges from their hiding spots, causing the Nevermore to rise up into the air. Everyone is forced to spread out to avoid being pinned. The Beast noticed Lucina, Lyre, Severa and Bernadetta running towards some of the old structures. It shared a look with the Death Stalker, before each of the giant grimms split up to attack separate groups.

"Ah! The Beast if coming towards us!" Bernadetta yelled in fear.

"Geez! That thing is persistent!" Lyre said in annoyance.

Lucina thinks for a moment "Then we stay and fight".

"What!? What happened to running!?" Bernadetta asked in shock.

"Look, it's clear that the Beast will not stop hunting us until we're dead. Our only chance of making it back is to take it out" Lucina explained.

"Sounds good to me. Never liked running away" Severa said in full support of the new plan.

Lyre put a hand on Bernadetta's shoulder "Well, looked at it this way. If we kill such a high level Grimm, maybe we'll earn some extra points".

"I don't need extra points!" Bernadetta yelled.

"Sorry Bernadetta. But that thing isn't giving us much choice. Now get ready!" Lucina said as the Beast reached them.

They were forced to split up as the Beast's massive jaws nearly got them. It roars as it tries to chase after the girls. Said girls had no idea how to bring it down. Great Beasts were very high level grimms, something even fully trained huntsmen would have trouble with. What could a small group girls with very limited experience do? Bernadetta certainly had no idea, as she had been singled out by the Beast as she tried avoid it by going in to more cramped spaces. But the Beast was hot on her heals, forcing itself to squeeze through the smaller space and snapping it's jaws at her. Bernadetta was screaming in fear... until Lyre suddenly showed up and sliced the Beast's left eye with her claws. This caused the beast to break out of the cramped spot as it bellows out in pain and rubbed it's eye.

"Come on!" Lyre shouts as she grabs Bernadetta and runs for higher grounds.

Furious at the girls who dared to harm it, The Beast leaps through the air and lands right in front of them, knocking them of balance due to the shock wave caused by it's landing. It snarls as it's about to devour them, only for Severa to ram it in the side of the face with all her might. The impact was enough to distract it, allowing Bernadetta and Lyre to recover. The Beast roars but before it could attack, Lucina lands on it's back and struck it several time with her sword, which had little effect on it's strong body armor, even when she used her semblance to enhance her strikes. Bernadetta finally decides to fight and began firing several ice arrows at the Beast, which shatters against it's body, while Lyre tries to scratch open it's softer under belly with her claws, but it's hide was to tough and the girls were forced to regroup.

"This isn't working! Our weapons aren't even scratching that thing!" Severa said in frustration.

"I knew this was a high level grimm, but this is just ridiculous" Lucina said.

"We're all going to die!" Bernadetta yelled out in dispair.

"Don't give up Bernie, we'll figure something out" Lyre said, but she was loosing confidence.

Lucina thought for several seconds until she looked at the edge of the cliff "I got an idea! But I need you all to follow my instructions, can I ask that of you?".

"Well I got no better ideas, so fine" Severa said simply.

"Lead the way boss!" Lyre said with a salute.

"O-Ok" Bernadetta said.

With a plan in mind the girls re-engaged the Beast. They began using hit an run tactics on it. Lucina would slash it's legs with her sword before jumping back to allow Severa to slam her shield on it's jaw, before she jumps back, allowing Lyre to jump on it's face and scratch it several times before leaping away just as Bernadetta used fire dust to shoot a flaming arrow in to it's face. This tactic was making the grimm more and more frustrated as it chased them closer and closer to the cliff side. This was the moment Lucina was waiting for as she got as close to the cliff as she could.

"Hey! Over here! Come and get me!" She yelled towards the massive grimm.

The Beast roars as it leaps towards her. But when it laded on the ground, the sheer impact from the landing caused the cliff side to become unstable and began to crumble. The Beast began to slide down the slope with Lucina running across it's back. The Beast tried to stop itself as it snaps it's jaws at Lucina, trying to kill her even as it's body began to go over the edge. The cliff crumbled more and more, and Lucina leaps towards safety... only making it because Severa grabbed her hand. The Beast roars loudly as it falls of the cliff, disappearing from view.

Severa pulls Lucina to safety before smiling at her "Not bad, Luci. Not bad at all".

"Yeah, that was hard core!" Lyre said happily.

"I-I'm glad you made it" Bernadetta said shyly, still recovering from the taxing battle against a nearly unstoppable foe.

Lucina smiled at them "It was a team effort. I never would've made it if not for you".

The girls shared a smile with each other. Safe to say they had certainly succeeded.

Back at Beacon, the teams were being formed on stage.

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" Ozpin announced.

The audience gives one more wave of ovation, while four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ozpin declared.

Jaune looked surprised "Huh? L-Led by...?".

"Congratulations, young man" Ozpin said.

A grinning Pyrrha offers a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her "fine leader" is knocked over and falls to his butt in front of the laughing audience.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!" Ozpin said

Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister "I'm so proud of you!".

"And Finally: Lucina Lowell, Severa Tiamo, Lyre Laguz, Bernadetta von Varley. You four retrieved the Black Queen pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team LSBL. Led by... Lucina Lowell" Ozpin said.

Lucina got wide eyes in surprise as Lyre hugs her "I am the leader's partner!".

"You better not mess this up for us, brave leader" Severa said small smile.

"Oh thank goodness. I would not make a good leader" Bernadetta said.

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year" Ozpin said.


While the celebrations were going on, The Great Beast was laying on the bottom of the cliff. It was not moving while insect grims were crawling over it... but a few moments later... It's red eye opened up.

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Pronouche the team name however you want.

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Tell me what you think.