For the 2nd time in his life, Jaune Arc couldn't believe how lucky he was. When the headmaster launched him from the cliff, his life flashed before his own eyes. In his mind, he silently thanked Oum for allowing him to at least get into Beacon and meet nice people such as Yang and Ruby. Jaune was utterly sure that he would end up dead once he hit the ground.
But, by some miracle, he was suddenly pinned to a nearby tree by a javelin. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
It didn't take long for his savior to show herself to retrieve her weapon and save him from the height. And his luck didn't end there. It was because of his savior that he finally learned about the basics of Aura and Semblances. Sure, he was still inexperienced with using aura and still had no idea what his own semblance was, but hey! Baby steps.
Anyway, since unlocking his aura, Pyrrha and he have continued to travel north to find the infrastructure the headmaster was talking about. Both students kept to themselves for a while until the silent air turned awkward. It didn't take a while until Pyrrha decided to break the silence.
"So Jaune," She started before looking over to the boy. "Since we're partners now, maybe you could tell me something about yourself."
The boy-in-question looked nervous at her suggestion. "M-Me? W-Well, there really isn't much to know..."
Sensing his discomfort and fearing the worst, Pyrrha immediately followed. "O-Oh, if it makes you uncomfortable then you really don't have-"
"Oh! No! No! It's not like that! It's just I, uh, wasn't sure where to start, is all..." Jaune quickly said. Not wanting to spoil the mood, he followed up with something regarding his family. "I, uh, have seven sisters."
This shocked Pyrrha enough to stop walking and turn to face the boy with her eyes widened. "You have SEVEN sisters?!"
"Yup"
"And you're-"
"I'm neither the oldest nor the youngest. My oldest sister actually has a wife who works in IT for some big-name company. Wayne Tech, I believe."
"...Wow…" The amazonian was silent as she was far too impressed by the capabilities of his mother. The sheer willpower of the woman to have birthed more than 3 kids, let alone 8.
"Yeah, my mom and dad were pretty...active to say the least. You'd be impressed by how patient they are." Jaune said aloud.
Their conversation would be cut short upon their arrival at the entrance of a dark cave by a cliffside.
The outside of the entrance had drawings carved into the walls, depicting people fighting against what appeared to be a scorpion. However, the two students paid no heed to the carving, with Jaune even saying,
"You think this is it?"
At the edge of the Emerald Forest, Headmaster Ozpin and Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch watched through their scrolls the performance of the initiates.
Just by the start of the initiation, they already saw different pairs of students fight amongst one another, get lost through the dense forest, and even some who attempted to get rid of their own partner. It was sufficient to say that it would be an exhausting year for both of them, especially the headmistress.
"With Miss Nora Valkyrie and Mr. Lie Ren partnered up, that makes them the last pair for the initiates. Poor boy, I can't possibly imagine those two getting along," Glynda said aloud to the Headmaster, who was more intrigued with his scroll. "Still, he's probably better off than Miss. Nikos. I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune-fellow is not ready for this level of combat."
Still not getting the attention of the headmaster, she continued. "At their current pace, they should be getting to the temple in just a few minutes. Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year?"
The silence from the headmaster was starting to scare the headmistress. "Professor Ozpin?"
"...I lost track of her…"
His sudden bluntness and out-of-context speech caught her off guard until sudden dread started to build as she decoded what he just said.
"I'm sorry Headmaster, but can you repeat that? I must've misheard what-"
"I can't find Miss. Rose on any of the cameras and her scroll signal had just gone offline."
Still in disbelief, Glynda quickly skimmed the different camera feeds, only to find none of them with Miss. Rose. "T-That's impossible...we just saw her pair up with Miss. Schnee. How could she…"
Ozpin paid no mind to the headmistress. Honestly, he wasn't really concerned about the safety of the girl as he knew what she was capable of. He was more impressed that she had figured out the system they had set-up for the students.
His interest only grew more as he thought about the team assignments. It would seem they already had themselves a candidate.
After partnering up, the secret ex-vigilante and the heiress began to trek their way through the forest with the latter leading the way. However, it didn't take much time for the former to realize that they were not only heading in the wrong direction, but were, in fact, in a loop.
"Uh, Weiss? I'm pretty sure that we already passed by this tree. Do you actually know where we should go?" Ruby asked, stopping the duo from going any further.
Weiss' face heated up at the question, but she persists. "O-Of course I know where to go, dunce! But if you're so keen on thinking we're lost, why don't you lead the way?"
The youngest of the two smirked at the words. Weiss barely knew enough about her and the few things she does know only see her in a negative light. This was the perfect opportunity to show off her own skills and knowledge.
With that, Ruby took a quick glance to the time of her scroll then looked towards the direction of the sun. With her left hand, she pointed her finger towards the sun then promptly pointed her other finger in the opposite direction.
Weiss was utterly confused on what the girl was doing, but kept to herself as she was curious on what her partner was trying to achieve.
Satisfied with what she saw, Ruby swiftly walked the opposite way she was facing as she gestured to a confused heiress to follow in suit.
"Mind telling me what you were trying to achieve with that little stunt?" Weiss asked, still unsure what was accomplished.
"Headmaster Ozpin told us to travel north and find the hidden ruins within the forest. What I did was determine what direction we should head by using the sun as a guide."
The white-haired girl simply raised an eyebrow at the young girl. "Impressive, but where exactly did you learn to do that?"
Ruby plainly smiled as a response and continued to move forward, leaving the young heiress's question unanswered.
Weiss sighed at the lack of a response, but she digressed. They may be partners at the moment, but neither of the two knew each other well enough to reveal their personal lives. At least, that's what she thought.
As if she was reading the heiress' mind, Ruby replied. "Don't worry, Princess. We'll all start bonding when the teams are formed."
If the response wasn't the thing that bothered Weiss' core, it was surely the nickname that was used. While it wasn't a rare nickname for the snow-white girl, it was the way Ruby said it. Whenever someone calls her that, it was normally used condescendingly or in a way to patronize her.
But now, it was used in a friendly, but teasing manner that was almost foreign to her. Familiar, in fact. Normally, Weiss would feel disgust or anger at someone for calling her such. Yet, here she was, with a small smile forming on her lips. Perhaps Beacon really would be a fresh start for her.
It wasn't long for a loud screech to halt the two huntresses-in-training. Without a second thought, the pair took out their weapons and faced their opponent.
Elsewhere, the newly paired team of Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna patiently waited for any newcomers to arrive and claim a relic. The Yellow & Black pair already grabbed their relic, which was a Knight Chess piece, and were simply waiting for other initiates, specifically the blonde's sister.
"So," Blake started while the pair leaned on a nearby pillar. "Are you and Ruby-"
"Neither of us are adopted if that's what you're wondering."
Shame washed over Blake at the response. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
Yang simply smiled as she looked over at her partner. "It's fine, not a lot of people actually believe that Me and Rubes are even related. It always comes as a shock to them to find out."
"I see. So, how are you and Ruby related? If you don't mind me asking."
"Well, Ruby and I share the same dad, making us only half-sisters, but that doesn't stop me from treating her differently. My mom, dad's first wife, left us when I was at a young age. Eventually, dad got together with someone else on his old team and made Ruby. We were all really happy for a time until Ruby's mom died a couple years later."
"I'm...I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories."
"It's fine, I've already moved on from that and…I think Ruby did too."
Her wording and pause caught Blake's attention. "You sound unsure."
Yang looked towards the ground before fiddling with her blonde mane. "Well...after Ruby's mom died, Dad...wasn't in a good state. It was because of that that our Uncle Bruce soon gained custody over us and we had to move to Atlas. Ruby was still too young to even understand what happened to Mom and Dad. Sure, Dad eventually got better, but ever since Uncle Bruce went missing a couple months ago, Ruby's been distant."
"Wait. You're uncle wouldn't happen to be-"
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud scream from within the forest. Not long after, a couple of explosions were heard nearby and trees were seen scuffling. Both initiates readied their weapons for any oncoming enemies and prepared for the worst from out of the trees.
However, they were surprised to see a familiar Red & White pair run out from the trees and stop by the front of the temple to catch their breath.
"You think…*heave*...we lost it?" Weiss asked her partner who was also out of breath.
"I…*cough*...doubt it" was all Ruby was able to get out before gathering as much air as possible.
"Was that your sister running out from-"
Before the blonde could even rush to her half-sister and Blake could finish her sentence, the nearby trees began shuffling once more before an Ursa Major came out and dropped dead, revealing a familiar orange haired girl from the cafeteria riding its back.
"Awww, it's broken!" Nora Valkyrie whined as she stood on the dead Ursa's head to look over it.
"Nora," Lie Ren, the current 'leash' of the hyperactive ginger, caught up before then trying to catch his breath. "Please...Don't ever do that again."
His pleas would be left unanswered as Nora quickly ran to the temple and grabbed a Rook chess piece and started spouting "I'm queen of the castle!".
Ren only sighed as he ran over to Nora to try to calm her down.
"Was...that girl riding an Ursa?"
And to finally top it all off, here came Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, running out of the forest with a Deathstalker closing in behind them. The grimm briefly picked up the Arc boy and threw him towards the group while Pyrrha dodged and weaved from its pincers and tail.
"Did...she just ran all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?"
Yang couldn't take it anymore. There were too many random things happening at the same time and she hadn't even been able to process the first incident. With flaming anger, the brawler's eyes briefly turned red as she flared her semblance.
"I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for just 2 seconds!?"
Sorry for the long wait. I have re-edited almost the entire story (Omakes included) by fixing some errors, rewrote some scenes, and even adding more scenes to enhance aspects of the story. Volume 1 of the story is almost about to wrap up so I hope ya'll enjoy this in the mean time. I would like to thank you all for the support, please leave a review or a comment on the story, and I hope you enjoy.
I do not own any of the characters. All characters and names used are owned by either Rooster Teeth and Detective Comics (DC).