Racing through the ruins, the eight teens struggled to lose the two massive grimm, which despite their best efforts remained hot on their trail. In pairs they dove behind the pillars, surveying the nevermore soaring above them and landing on a pillar next to the cliff, it's screech echoing through the Emerald Forest.
Ruby gave Jaune a silent fist bump as they hid together, glad to be reunited with their best friends. Weiss hid with Pyrrha, with the heiress admiring the champion who was figuring out what to do next. Ren found his hair ruffled by Yang and looked incredibly annoyed that now of all times the blond was joking around. Blake pulled Nora to safety and became incredibly fearful as she saw the crazy eyes of the hammer wielder scheming.
Under the bow her ears twitched, right before the treeline exploded, and the deathstalker charged out.
"Can you distract it?" Blake asked, eyeing the grenade launcher on Nora's back and pointing at the giant Nevermore.
"Got it" Nora's face turned into an evil smirk.
They both leapt out of their hiding places, dodging the dagger like giant feathers that the grimm bird threw. Nora rolled under one and pulled out Magnhild, firing pink heart grenades at the flying monster.
The deathstalker raced up behind her but found it's face sliced up by Ruby and Blake, landing on opposite sides of the creature.
Weiss landed beside her partner and grabbed her arm, pulling Nora along with her glyphs.
"By no means does this make us friends."
Nora smirked "I knew you cared."
The teens made it to the bridge, and the deathstalker paused, unsure if the bridge would support its weight.
They were not out of the woods however, as the nevermore attacked the bridge from the side, crashing into the ancient structure and shattering it with ease, the various huntsmen and huntresses in training sent flying from the impact.
Shakily getting to her feet, Ruby saw she landed beside Yang, and further down the line was Jaune with his shield out, providing cover to Blake and Nora, firing at the Nevermore whenever it swooped down and got too close.
Across the chasm she saw the boy with black hair (Ren?), Weiss and…Pyrrha fighting against the deathstalker, pinned against the broken end of the bridge. Ren leapt around up close, firing, and slashing at the creature's face, while Weiss and Pyrrha provided covering fire from the edge of the bridge. Ren was caught by one of the creature's claws and was knocked to the edge of the cliff with the rest.
Ruby's heart skipped as she saw Pyrrha's heel pushed back to the edge of the broken bridge, and for the first time saw fear on Yang's face as well, as Ren rolled to narrowly avoid its pinchers.
"We need to get over there!" Ruby yelled to Yang, who nodded in agreement.
Ruby leapt, and grabbed Yang's hand, and the blond threw her across the pit, holding the reapers hand as they flew. Midflight Ruby transformed into a swarm of petals, carrying them both through the air, transforming back right above the deathstalker.
Yang fired her shotgun gauntlets at the creature's face, pushing it back further, while Ruby dashed in with her scythe, cutting up the creatures face up close. As Yang landed, she collided with Weiss, knocking the heiress off the edge into the pit.
Rather than curse the braindead brawler like she wanted to, Weiss created a series of glyph platforms, climbing up them to the higher tower where Jaune was thrown up by Nora (who used her own grenades to send herself flying) and Blake ran up the pillars themselves, landing with far more grace than either of her companions.
"None of this is working." Weiss cursed as she saw the nevermore continue to circle them.
She saw Jaune thinking (he can do that?) and once his eyes lit up, she knew they were done for.
"I have a plan. Can you get it pinned down right there?" He pointed to the base of the cliff. Weiss groaned, but since it was the only plan they had.
"Fine, but don't get us killed." Weiss replied as she dashed forward with myrtenaster.
"We need to move!" Ruby cried as the remaining chunk of the bridge became more and more unsteady, crumbling under their feet. Ren, Pyrrha, Yang and herself rushed forwards to meet the deathstalker, it's ten beady eyes glaring down at them.
Its pinchers lunged at them, but were met by Ren, who tossed stormflower back in his sleeves and creating a massive shield of aura to stop both claws, purple energy crackling as it strained against the grimm's might. Pyrrha leapt over him, tossing Miló into the creature's face.
In a rage it launched its stinger forward, but was stopped by Yang, somehow catching the massive stinger with her hands, and was barely able to hold it in place long enough for Ruby to race onto it, holding on tight as the stinger pulled itself from Yang's grip. Ruby became a swarm of petals once again, materializing only briefly to slash at the stinger with her scythe. She tore through the ligament until it was barely more than a thread, before the tail caught her, knocking her back down to the bridge where she was caught by Yang. With that the aura shield broke, and Ren collapsed to his knees from the strain.
"PYRRHA!" Ruby yelled, and the redhead responded, tossing the shield to slice through the ligament, the stinger falling onto the head of the deathstalker, piercing it. Akoúo̱ came right back to her.
"YANG NAIL IT!"
"HEADS UP!" Yang called out, as Pyrrha created a platform with her shield. The champion launched her into the air, and Yang came down hard, crashing ember celica into the stinger, ripping through its head. The deathstalker collapsed as they were all tossed into the air and the bridge fell into the chasm below.
Ruby landed in a roll, ending up flat on her back, ribs still hurting from getting hit by that tail. Pyrrha landed in a superhero pose, using her semblance to pull her weapons back into her hand as she landed. Yang landed in a similar manner but was knocked onto her face by the near limp body of Ren, his aura severely depleted by trying to hold back nearly twenty tons of grimm. Pyrrha helped Ruby to her feet, and Ren and Yang just laid on their backs watching the battle above, as they recovered from the hit.
Nora fired grenade after grenade at the nevermore as it soared towards the pillar she stood atop. It approached rapidly, mouth open preparing to swallow her, but Nora transformed Magnhild into it's hammer form.
"Eat this, you emo featherhead!" Nora roared
The bird grimm was swatted aside by a mighty blow from the hammer and the creature squawked in pain as it crashed into the cliff side. It slid down the rocky structure, and landed on the top of the temple, letting out a monstrously loud, bone chilling cry as it tried to take to the sky.
It didn't make it far however as Weiss launched herself to the roof with a glyph, stabbing myrtenaster into the ground, sending a wall of ice up that caught the tail of the grimm in an icy prison. She back flipped away and used a repulsion glyph to rocket herself back to a temple on the other side.
Blake swung from pillar to pillar using gambol shroud, with Jaune hanging around her neck. She let Jaune land on one pillar, as she pounced to one about twenty-five metres away, hanging off the side. Jaune shimmied down to her level, as Blake threw Gambol Shroud across the gap, where Jaune caught it, holding on tight as he embedded Crocera Mors deep into the rock to hold it steady.
Nora landed on the bridge between the teens and the grimm, using her hammer to send herself flying into the ribbon, stretching it to right beside Weiss, the heiress creating a black glyph to hold Nora in place.
"CAN I SAY ONE MORE TIME THAT I THINK THIS IS A TERRIBLE PLAN?" Weiss yelled to Jaune who was sweating to hold the ribbon in place.
"JUST DO IT!" He yelled back.
"LET ER RIP ICE QUEEN!" Nora hollered, and Weiss rolled her eyes, the black glyph becoming yellow as it charged Nora with lightning dust and sent her flying through the air.
Weiss created another glyph directly above the grimm, and Nora directly collided with it, bouncing off like a pinball and went crashing into the Nevermore. Her hammer made a direct connection with the creature's skull and went plummeting to the bridge.
Long before the creature made impact with the bridge its head became mush from the impact and the structure collapsed, sending the grimm and Nora into the abyss.
With a heave, Jaune swung Blake around on the ribbon, tossing her after Nora, who was hanging onto a stray rock on the cliff face. Blake caught her, using her semblance to send them back to the remaining part of the bridge. Nora turned to face Jaune and Weiss, a giant smile on her face and giving the pair a thumbs up, as the other teens watched them in awe.
"Wow!" Ruby exclaimed quietly.
From monster slaying to awkward social interaction, Ruby now stood in the auditorium of Beacon, fidgeting nervously as she watched team after team be named and given a leader, with those who she suspected would be on her team beside her, and Jaune's directly ahead of them, both at the back of the line due to being the last to collect their relics from the forest temple.
Jaune was currently locked in what seemed to be nonsensical conversation with Nora, who thought it would be a good idea to transfer out of huntress training and become demolition technicians instead. Thankfully, Jaune was in his element, having to listen to several of Ruby's cookie crazed rants about ridiculous weapon designs before. Well Ruby didn't think they were ridiculous, they just needed a bit of workshopping from cookie sober Ruby.
Weiss and Blake stood in front, neither speaking to each other, and frankly neither seemed to want to. Blake was leaning back, hands behind her head, while Weiss stood as straight up as possible, hands behind her back. Ruby giggled as try as Weiss might, she was still just an inch above the shortest person on their team, Nora, even with her ridiculous heels.
Not that Ruby could talk, feeling like a child beside the freakish basketball players that were supposed to be her teammates. Granted none were even over six feet but damn it Ruby was two years younger and was due for a growth spurt any day now.
Yang leaned on Ren's shoulder and was chattering as well, with the boy doing little talking of his own, occasionally chiming in with a word or two. Pyrrha merely looked among the crowd. Ruby had tried to figure out how so start a conversation with her after they discussed their slaying of the Deathstalker on the ride over in the bullhead, but beyond that Ruby couldn't think of any conversation points. Regardless there would be plenty of time for that later.
She could breathe easier at least. Once Pyrrha was selected as their leader they could get off the stage and Ruby could get to bed. She wouldn't have to do anymore of this getting to know you nonsense and could let Crescent Rose do the talking for her.
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin called out, snapping Ruby back to reality. She looked to the screen to see the faces of the four frankly not very friendly looking boys appearing on the screen. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop piece. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
The biggest and meanest looking of the group cheered, and Ruby assumed that was Cardin. Once CRDL had left the stage, Jaunes group was called up.
"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee. The four of you retrieved the White Queen piece. From now on you four will be team ANBS (Anubis), lead by Jaune Arc."
Weiss looked furious, Blake's jaw dropped, and Nora nearby broke his back with a powerful pat, nearly knocking Jaune over. Jaune just looked perplexed in a daze, not even blinking until he turned around to look at Ruby, who beamed back at him with pride. Slowly the shocked expression became one of triumph and ANBS shuffled off the stage, with Weiss looking ready to offer some choice words to Professor Ozpin but quickly decided against it.
Goodwitch gave them a nod and Ruby, Ren, Yang and Pyrrha took it as their cue to walk up to the stage, facing Ozpin.
"Yang Xiuying, Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose, Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the Black Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RRYN (Rain). Led by... Ruby Rose!
Now it was Ruby's turn to be shocked, although her team had a different reaction. Pyrrha squeezed her shoulder in encouragement, a wide smile across her face, Ren's face remained unchanged, but he did offer a sincere nod of approval and Yang simply looked her up and down, not angrily, but with a cold expression that made Ruby far more fearful as that kind of look simply did not belong on the Blond's face.
She could hear Jaunes cheer in the crowd and felt warm again once she looked up at Pyrrha's proud expression. Ruby was glad she didn't resent Ruby being made leader, but instead seemed to celebrate it. Feeling far more confident Ruby strolled off the stage with her team, and she didn't even trip on the way back down. Things were definitely looking up for her.
"Oh boy our rooms are right next to each other! Now we can have slumber parties!" Nora cheered as RRYN and ANBS both found their rooms next to each other, after finding and collecting uniforms and other necessary equipment, and almost every single member of both teams wanted to collapse from exhaustion.
"No, no, now is sleep time" Jaune ordered, opening the door, and letting the three ladies of his team in first, with sleep deprived Weiss looking almost impressed with the gesture. Ruby nodded to her team, and they all filed in as well, with Ruby at the end of the pack. However, she stopped before entering, letting Pyrrha know she'd be a second.
"Jaune?"
"Yeah Ruby?" Jaune asked, eyes drifting heavily.
"Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed too?"
Jaune seemed to awake a little at that, smiling as he looked at Ruby.
"Sometimes I forget you are still kind of a kid."
"Shut up, you're only seventeen. You're barely older than I am!"
Jaune shrugged as he walked over to her, and slid down on the wall, and Ruby joined right beside him.
"Yeah, I kind of am. We are both expected to lead these teams of total badasses that are stronger, cooler, and more experienced than either of us." He stopped "Well stronger than me anyway."
Ruby giggled as he continued "But Ozpin picked us for a reason. He's done this for ages, I doubt he'd choose us unless he thought we were right for the job. Plus, we can't fail now."
Ruby frowned "What do you mean?"
"Well, we're leaders now. We aren't allowed to fail. We've got our teams to look out for and we have to put them first."
Ruby thought about this as Jaune stood up, offering her a hand up as well.
"I know your mom would be proud Ruby."
Ruby's cheeks warmed at this, and wrapped her arms around Jaunes waist, squeezing her best friend in a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her shoulder to return the gesture.
"Thanks, Jaune."
"No worries, Ruby."
They both said their goodnights and retreated to their respective rooms. Ruby looked inside hers and found one bed left, right next to the door beside Pyrrha's, who seemed to have saved it for her. Beside her was Yang and right by the window was Ren's. Ruby knew that they were good friends before this, and since neither seemed to have a ton in regard to personal belongings, both had already unpacked and were seated on their beds waiting. Pyrrha seemed to have quite a lot but was in the process of placing her duffle bags in her closet.
"I suppose we should save a total unpack until tomorrow?" Ruby asked.
The rest of RRYN nodded.
"And we should just get into our PJ's and go to bed."
The rest of RRYN nodded again.
"Okay, Ren since you are the only boy, um would you mind, um changing in the bathroom? Since I probably want to change everything, and I'm, and maybe Yang and Pyrrha aren't, really comfortable with… Like you seem like a perfect gentleman but…"
Ren appeared to be just as uncomfortable with that prospect as Ruby was and turned bright red, and Yang rolled her eyes at both of their reactions.
"Yeah Ren, if little miss prissy over here is uncomfortable with the presence of a penis in this room, despite the fact we will be sharing a dorm for three years, you should go change in the bathroom." Ruby was about to retort, but she saw Yang's smile and realize she did it to get a rise out of Ren, not her.
And it defiantly worked, as Ren turned redder still at Yang's comment, taking a moment to clear his throat before responding.
"Yes, I was actually going to suggest the same thing. I suspect that with time we will have to become more relaxed around each other as we go on missions and have less personal time with training, but I do not want to push everyone's comfort level before that. Um, just inform me when it is safe to come out. " Ren mumbled, grabbing a green decorated robe, shirt, and silky pants, before disappearing into the dorm bathroom. From inside the washroom, they heard Ren yell. "AND NOT A MOMENT SOONER YANG!"
With that the girls grabbed their pajamas, and changed, Pyrrha and Ruby turning their back to each other as they did so. However, Ruby's curiosity got the better of her, and she peaked a quick look behind her. She blushed furiously as she turned back around quickly, her insecurities flaring at the sight she just witnessed.
While neither Yang nor Pyrrha's combat outfits were particularly covering, it was entirely another thing to see them in only their underwear. Both had long, powerful legs, slender bodies that were well toned with muscle, and well…um…ample chests and rear ends. Ruby, and her much more modest and petite frame was just hoping to become covered up as quickly as possible, pulling her black tang top and rose pajama pants over her bra and underwear, pulling herself quickly under the covers, once she had checked once again that the coast was clear for her to look.
Yang was in a pair of very short shorts and a flowy orange crop tang top, and surprisingly Pyrrha was in a very modest pair of long sleeved, beige button up pajama top and pants. Her hair was down, and while it wasn't quite as lush and thick as Yang's beautiful mane, it was a close second. In all fairness Ruby also did see her pjs the night before. Both stretched as they crawled into their respective beds.
"Ren you can come out now!" Pyrrha called, and Ren opened the door slowly, checking to ensure that it was indeed safe, came out in ironically, the most beautiful set of pajamas out of the bunch. His robe was dark green, with lotus on the shoulder, and was wearing dark coloured flowing pants that ended just at ankle level. He had a light green shirt that reminded Ruby of something out of a martial arts movie, with a red sash around his waist.
His hair was down, and it was gorgeous, the straight raven hair flowing beautifully past his shoulders, definitely rivaled the two girls in its beauty. He hung the robe on the bed, and Ruby could see that the undershirt in fact had no sleeves, displaying Ren's slender, but well muscled arms, showing the boy was just as ripped as either Yang or Pyrrha, perhaps even more so.
Damn, Ruby pouted, why does everyone on this team have incredible long hair and muscles except me?
"Goodnight, Ruby" Pyrrha said, setting the alarm for the team for 6 am the next day, making Ruby dread the early morning wake up. She stopped and looked at Ruby "Your pajamas are really cute!"
Ruby felt like she could float for a second. Being complemented on her looks by Pyrrha of all people was definitely a big confidence booster. Ruby smiled warmly.
"Awe, thanks Pyrrha. Sleep tight and don't let the bed-beowolves bite."
Pyrrha giggled as Ruby pulled the string to the light near her bed, allowing the rest of her team to drift off to a well-earned slumber.