A black haze was all the amnesiac girl dreamt of. She could hear nothing but random pieces of past conversation that filled her head. Sera couldn't make sense of any of it, she could only sit by, completely dumbfounded.

Before she knew it, a blaring siren made her sit bolt upright in her sleeping bag, awake and alert. After a brief moment of searching, she found Professor Goodwitch standing at the front of the room, her tablet in hand. Once she was satisfied that all the freshman students were up and awake, she gave a curt nod and tapped a button on her tablet. The speakers abruptly went silent, and Sera could once more hear herself think.

"All right," Goodwitch announced. "Hurry and pack your sleeping bags and other things, then we're going back to the locker room so you can prepare for the initiation ceremony."

Sera tiredly rolled up her sleeping bag and packed it into her duffel.

"Heck of a night, huh?" Cerulean yawned. "You ready for initiation?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sera interlaced her fingers and stretched her arms high above her head. Truth be told, she didn't get much sleep. She was up all night scouring the internet on her scroll to learn as much as she could about Remnant. She now knew the names of the four major huntsmen academies, various types of Grimm, the properties of Dust, and even about whatever was popular these days with people her age. She stayed up until her scroll's battery was nearly dead, then she had to go find somewhere to charge it.

"I think it'll be fun!" Cerulean grinned. "I've heard a little about it, but it should be a blast!"

"Groovy," Sera said with fake enthusiasm. "I'm just ready to get back into some real clothes," she looked down at the violet pajama pants and white T-shirt she wore.

"Wait," Cerulean's eyes widened, then she lifted her sleeve. "You didn't say you had a tattoo!"

"Huh?" Sera looked at her arm. "What the hell?!" she looked under her shirt and had to resist the urge to just take it off. By the Brothers, she had one. Fortunately, this tattoo was fairly small. It was a black symbol placed on the middle of her upper arm, on the outside of her bicep. It looked like: Ω.

What the hell?! She thought. Tattoos? What else don't I know about myself. Better question: HOW DID I NOT NOTICE IT WHEN I CHANGED CLOTHES?!

"Wait, you didn't know you had tattoos?" Cerulean raised an eyebrow.

Uh-oh, panicked.

Sera pointed at her and gave a quick grin. "I gotcha! Of course, I knew I had tattoos. What am I, stupid?" she chuckled nervously.

"Ah!" Cerulean lightly slapped herself in the forehead. "That was really convincing. You did get me."

"What can I say? I'm a natural actress," Sera rubbed the back of her neck.

"Or a good liar," Cerulean held her chin in her hand and brought her face closer to Sera. "I'll have to keep my eye on you."

The amnesiac leaned away from her and gave an awkward chuckle.

"Students," Glynda announced, drawing their attention. "If you would, we're leaving now." Then she turned and left the ballroom, and the other students followed her out.

"Hey! Looks like we should go, huh? Right, let's go," Sera hurried after them, and Cerulean blinked uncertainly before following.

In no time at all, Sera was keying in the passcode to her locker and pulling the door open. She eagerly pulled out the duffle bag with her new combat gear in it. Pulling out several different outfits wrapped in plastic, she finally chose one and headed into a changing room. A few minutes later, she came out dressed in her new duds and looked in the mirror.

Sera wore a violet half-button up cotton T-shirt (with the buttons undone) and the same white leather overcoat that she woke up in the forest with. She pushed the sleeves up, then pulled on a pair of black fingerless gloves. Her eyes lowered in the mirror to the new tactical-looking black pants and lace-up combat boots she wore. Like her other ones, the soles of her boots were violet. Her pants wouldn't fit over the boots, so she resorted to loosely tucking them in. It ended up looking better than she expected.

Finally, she slipped the leather sword belt and scabbard over her shoulder, then gave the sword a quick wave before sheathing it with ease.

Feels… natural, she thought to herself.

"Lookin' snazzy!" a familiar voice said, and she turned to see the blond girl, Yang, approaching her.

"Uh, thanks," Sera said, adjusting the leather strap on her shoulder. Yang was suited up as well, wearing a yellow tube top under a cropped, short-sleeved brown jacket. For below the hips, she wore tight black shorts with a brown sash around her waist, and high brown boots with an orange bandana wrapped around one leg.

"You excited? I hear it's going to be a hell of a—" Yang started.

"Yaaaaang!" another familiar, yet more high-pitched voice rang out. Then Ruby appeared at Yang's side, looking annoyed. "Why'd you leave me like that? Is it because I said I wanted to be on a team with you? That's mean."

"Oh, hey, Ruby," Yang said. "What? No, I wouldn't do that," she gave Sera a quick wink, indicating that that's totally what she did. Sera couldn't help but smirk.

"Uh-huh," Ruby crossed her arms. "Maybe I don't want you on my team anymore. What do you think about that?"

"I think that's a fantastic idea!" Yang said.

"Huh?"

"You could be on a team with Sera here! Remember how you kept talking about her-?"

"Yang, shut it!" Ruby shrieked. "It wasn't like that! I said she could be a good ally to have, and a potential team member!"

"Yeah, yeah," Yang chuckled, clearly enjoying getting a rise out of her younger sister.

"Hey!" Cerulean appeared at Sera's side, smiling at the trio of girls. "Replacing me already, are you?" She bumped her shoulder against the amnesiac's.

"Honestly? I don't know what's going on right now," Sera admitted.

"So you do have friends, huh?" Yang asked, then she turned to Cerulean. "I'm Yang, and this is my sister, Ruby."

"Hi," Ruby gave a small wave. Apparently, she really was terrified of meeting new people. Understandable.

"Cerulean," the blue-haired girl said. "I was on my way to tell you that Goodwitch is getting impatient," she said to Sera.

"Goodwitch," Yang rolled her eyes. "I can already tell she's going to be a pain in the butt."

Ruby rubbed her hand, silently remembering the time that the Professor nearly hit it with her riding crop in the interrogation room.

"Anyways," Sera said. "We should probably all get going, huh? Don't wanna make the dominatrix lady any more pissed than she probably already is."

"What's a dominatrix?" Ruby asked.

"Don't worry about it, Rubes," Yang suppressed a grin. "All you need to know is that it's a mean lady with a riding crop."

"Definitely," Cerulean hid her smile.

To their right, a blond boy wearing a hoodie was trailing after a girl wearing entirely white and with white hair. From what Sera could hear, he was trying to woo her. Evidently, he was unsuccessful.

The girl in white huffed as she stomped towards the front of the room, visibly trying to resist using the rapier in her hand.

Then another pair of students passed: a girl with short orange hair wearing pink skipping in circles around a stoic-looking boy with black hair. Polar opposites, from the looks of them.

"Huh," Sera blinked. "Talk about unique people."

"So!" Cerulean clasped her hands together. "You all were talking about teams when I showed up? You three wouldn't happen to want to be on a team, would you?"

"Actually, we—" Yang started.

"Students have ten seconds to join me at the front of the room," Goodwitch announced through the speakers in the locker room.

"I guess we should get going," Ruby said, straightening the wrinkles in her black skirt.

"See all of you on the battlefield?" Sera said, silently hoping to end this conversation already. It's not that she didn't like her new "friends," but she figured out that she could only take so much of this idle chit-chat.

"Definitely, but don't expect me to go easy on you," Yang gave her a fist bump, then she and Ruby headed towards the exit.

"Wouldn't count on it," Sera called after them. She shook her head with a sigh, already wishing this whole "initiation" business was over.

. . .

Less than an hour later, a large group of the students were standing near the edge of a cliff in the Emerald Forest. Apparently, only smaller groups would do their initiation one at a time, rather than all of the students together. It made sense why they wanted to start so early now—this was going to take all day.

Professor Ozpin himself would brief them on how it was going to work. He stood with his back to the cliff, facing the students as they each stood on a square metal plate in the grass. Sera wasn't sure what the metal plates were for—maybe just to make this seem more official, somehow.

"Now," Ozpin said, coffee mug in hand like usual. "At the north end of this forest are some ruins from an age long past. Your goal is to make it to those ruins and collect a relic. Once you've collected your relic, make your way back here, and I will mark that you passed this trial." He took a sip from his mug. "I assure you, there will be opposition to stop you from completing your task. This isn't practice, this isn't a drill—this is a very real combat scenario, and if you're not careful, you will die."

Wow, the amnesiac thought to herself. Just full of cheer, aren't you?

"I've heard there's some rumors regarding the forming of teams, and I'm here to put those rumors to rest," Ozpin said, his eyes scanning the students. That statement got their attention. Various students began to murmur excitedly, but after Glynda gave them a pointed look, they quieted down. Then Ozpin continued, "I'll make it perfectly clear: the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the remainder of your time at Beacon."

"Well," Cerulean said from the metal plate beside Sera. "This just got more interesting."

"Yeah," the amnesiac replied. "I wonder who will—wait, did he say we'll be 'landing?'"

"Any questions?" the headmaster asked.

"Uh, yeah, actually—" the blond boy from the locker room said.

"Good!" Ozpin announced. "Your assignment begins… now." Then the student at the far end of their lineup was launched into the air and over the cliff's edge.

"Hold on, what the hell?" Sera's eyes widened. This is what Ozpin meant?

Another student was launched. Then another.

"So, about this 'landing strategy,' are we getting like, flown in, or something?" the blond boy asked.

Yang and Ruby were launched.

"No, you will be falling," Ozpin replied.

"Oh," the boy responded. Then the person next to him was thrown off the cliff. "Can I at least get a parachute or someth—IIIIINNNGGGG!" the boy was launched, then it was Cerulean's turn.

Sera turned to look at the headmaster, exasperated. Cerulean flashed a smile before her plate catapulted her into the air.

"You have got to be kidding me," Sera said to Ozpin. The older man gave her an amused smile and a wink before she, too, was launched into the air and over the trees of the Emerald Forest.