Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY. Belongs to RoosterTeeth and the late Monty Oum.

Among the many possible futures Orion Zafir had seen, being launched into the air was not one of them. Having thanked both his parents for his goggles and whatever deity for not bugs entering his mouth, he soared above an unending landscape of trees. Orion kept his eyes open for the twelve other students who joined him. Like him, they had traveled from across their little called Remnant to Beacon Academy for one thing only: become Huntsmen to fight monsters and uphold the peace (alright those were two–technically, three–things, but the point still stands).

What no one said about Beacon Academy was it would throw its potential candidates off a cliff and into some trees to find "relics."

Orion flipped a switch along the long silver barrel of his rifle, letting it whirl as he pulled the trigger. A cyan burst of hard-light Dust energy not only cut through a rather sharp branch but also propelled him further along the tree tops and kept him from encroaching on strange territory. While doing so, his eyes went from brown like his hair to the green color of his aura, and by extension, his Semblance. Each Semblance was unique to an individual, and Orion's was particularly unique in how he watched his fellow candidates to see potential futures for the briefest of seconds.

Said futures were like lines. Those lines lead to several doors. The question was, where did each door lead to?

Orion's eyes followed a line taken by a blonde who whooped loudly like her shotgun gauntlets–

–the bear-like Ursa appeared from a bush, swinging their wild claws at her–

Orion turned away, thinking the blonde would cause too many problems for him. He was grateful for when she literally shot off into the forest. He looked to a teen on another line leading further ahead. From what Orion could tell, there was a clearing ahead, and the teen seemed calm and collected to work with–

–two snake-like King Taijitu slithered around, followed by a red-headed girl with a manic grin and a large hammer–

Orion turned away in a microsecond. He remembered the girl's eccentric behavior when he first met her on the ride to Beacon. There was no way he would deal with that.

It meant doors one and two were no good. Maybe door number three would–

"LOOK OUT!"

The rest became a green and brown blur as Orion and the red thing that hit him fell into the forest like a comet. Snapping branches and twigs almost hid any "oofs," "ows," and "ouchs." Almost, as Orion opened his eyes and saw a large tree trunk growing closer with every second.

Orion fumbled for his rifle and fired. The red thing falling with him, also fired with its own rifle. The recoil of both pushed the two from each other, and Orion and his fellow student split away. After that, Orion barely had time to throw himself forward onto the ground, rolling atop of it.

"Ugh…" Orion groaned nasally, his back rising from the dirt and glass. He groaned some more and wiped the dirt on his padded green jacket and black pants. "Mom and dad are going to have a field day with this."

That had been the least of Orion's concerns when the red thing returned, literally stopping short of his face. "OHMYGOSHI'MSOSORRY!"

Barely catching that, Orion lifted the goggles on his forehead. The red thing was a teenaged girl in a black dress and red cloak, armed with a red rifle over her shoulder. The first and most important thing he saw was the pair of eyes staring back in concern and worry–

–tears running down, her silver eyes glowed bright to unleash a power upon the large black dragon–

Orion blinked his eyes and cursed himself. He forgot to turn off his Semblance, and he would have if he didn't remember the rapidly speaking girl in front of him. "Uh, sorry, but I didn't catch that," Orion said after a second.

The girl stopped. She looked a few years younger than the typical age requirement. She acted it like it too, given how she sheepishly scratched her dark hair. "I, uh, said I was sorry… you know, about crashing into you. I was trying to avoid this birdie when I, well, didn't see where I was going, and–"

"I get it, I get it," Orion said, almost pleading for the girl to stop. He stood up to shake any remaining grass off his shoes. "Um… I guess you're my partner, huh?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," the girl said awkwardly and stretched out her free hand. "I-I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose."

"Orion Zaphir," he said and held his rifle closer when he found those silver eyes on his weapon. It would be one of those conversations, wouldn't it?

"Oh, sorry! Again. It's just, well, your rifle. Is that a Scorpio Atlan-issued rifle?" Orion blinked and nodded. "The Dust it uses, was it some kind of ice Dust? You know, from when we were crashing?"

"Hard-light Dust, mostly, but I keep a couple extra rounds of ice Dust to make sure it doesn't overheat," Orion said with a tiny sliver of surprise and joy. It wasn't everyday someone talked about his rifle. Maybe this Ruby Rose was something after all… aside from being a tiny human battering ram.

Said battering ram gave an "oh," followed by, "So uh, do you know where we have to go?

"North… I think?"

North turned out to have been the right direction, after all. Leaving Orion's Semblance active was also a great help to avoid any Grimm. Without them or anything else coming along Orion and his new teammate's path, the two were more than welcome to conversion. What began as awkward small talk became more familiar, thanks to the two having a shared interest.

"So, you like weapons?" Orion had asked.

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a weapons geek," Ruby said and patted her weapon. "Knowing what works really helped to make my baby, Crescent Rose."

Orion eyed the compact rectangle on Ruby's back. "Well," he said, shouldering his rifle. "I guess it might give old Saiph some competition. You said it uses fire and gravity Dust, right?"

"Yep! Good for when I need to use my baby like so!"

At that, Orion stepped back. His eyes widened when what had been a compacted rectangle shifted and extended itself. An unadulterated joy rose with every quick quick and whirl of gears as the rifle became into a long metal shaft with an arching blade at the top.

"A sniper-scythe? Dust, I've only seen one in a weapons magazine! And you made that? That's soooo cool!"

Orion blinked again, realizing the words he let out. Ruby stared back at him with her eyes showing the same realization and surprise, albeit for possibly different reasons. "Oh, um," Orion cleared his throat to bring back his "stoicism." "I mean… it looks nice."

Fortunately, a rustling turned Orion and Ruby's eyes elsewhere before the former could be embarrassed. Unfortunately, the source of the distraction was an Ursa emerging from a nearby bush. Orion, the Ursa's closest target, frantically fired at its bony masked face–

FLASH!

–and he barely saw the Ursa cringe in pain from the bright light. Another burst of hard-light Dust wasn't as powerful, but it at least gave Orion another couple meters from the giant black bear shaking its blindness away.

Speeding back with him, Ruby said, "I thought you said there wouldn't be any Grimm around here!"

"There weren't! At least, I–I thought so," Orion said, equally confused how his Semblance had not seen the Ursa.

Said Ursa's roar brought Orion's attention to its large and charging body. Fiddling with his rifle set it off and shot him up into a tree, where he landed on its high-hanging branch. Ruby zoomed underneath the tree in a burst of red petals. "I think I have an idea! Can you keep it distracted?" she said.

"Uh, gimme a sec!" Orion fired his rifle and caught the Ursa.

Ruby sped off again, no doubt using her own Semblance. Orion's high-vantage point gave him a better look of Ruby's blurred form passing by the Ursa. A flash struck off the large Grimm, and Ruby's form returned to her normal state, including her scythe. Orion, having fiddled with his rifle, fired rounds of fire Dust to keep the Ursa from striking back, if just for a little while. In that little while, Ruby's scythe struck off the Ursa in one flash after the next with the same success as Orion's rifle.

Orion realized the "little while" passed upon hearing the Ursa's growl. "Ruby, get back!" he shouted and hastily switched his rifle's Dust rounds back to hard-light Dust. The beam hit the Ursa in its bony mask again, returning its growling and fanged face towards him. "... Oh, Dust!"

Having caught its attention, Orion leaped from his little hiding spot for another tree nearby. His arms wrung around the branch he barely caught and hung from, and his legs dangled under the Ursa's long and clawed arms. "Orion, uh, hold on!" shouted Ruby.

"Uh, I'm doing that!" Orion said and tried to push himself up onto the new branch.

No sooner did Orion see the Ursa's claw inch towards him, something struck and nailed it to the tree trunk. Orion looked down to that something, a long javelin. Its shape, as well as its red and golden color, was oddly familiar. Then came a girl's voice.

"Run!"

Orion scrambled to his feet atop the branch to do so. After jumping off the branch, he propelled himself away from the Ursa using his rifle. His back briefly skidded onto the ground, and he stood on his legs just as quickly with a roll. "Are you alright?" asked Ruby, who appeared beside him. Orion nodded. "Any idea on who–?"

Ruby's answer came in the form of a girl landing in front of the duo. Orion recognized her in an instant, having seen her red-gold outfit and shield a dozen times on TV. The emerald eyes and the long red pony-tail confirmed it. "Are you two alright?" asked Pyrrha Nikos, champion of Mistral's Regional Tournament for four years in a row.

"We're fine," said Ruby. "We still have that Ursa to worry about."

"It's alright. My partner is already on it."

Snapped out of his shock, Orion noticed a shadowy figure zip across the branches above. Orion to catch a black bow atop the figure's head, as well as the long and equally black ribbon thrown towards the Ursa. The sharp blade on the end caught its other claw. Its owner placed the line of her long ribbon over a branch she jumped off from. "Strike its back!" she said, pulling with all she had to trap the Ursa's other arm. "Its weak spot is in between the plates!"

"On it! Come on, Orion!" Ruby said.

Orion followed Ruby hastily, keeping his movements in tandem with hers. A few steps later, he aimed his rifle alongside Ruby's sniper-scythe. Two Dust shots–one being a hard-light beam and the other a fiery round–struck the tiny black portions in between the Ursa's bony plates. Then, the Ursa gave one last roar, its body convulsing from the shots before at last dissolving away into nothingness.

"Whew, that was something, huh?" Ruby said with an awkward smile, and Orion nodded with a tiny sigh. "I think I know that girl over there. My sister and I talked to her, last night… Well, we tried to."

Orion followed Ruby's gaze to the unknown girl in black. A tug on her ribbon returned the rest of the weapon–some sort of gunblade?–into her hands in time to notice the duo. "You're the crater-face girl from last night," she said stoically.

As much as Orion wanted to hear the story behind that, he let Ruby take over and wave. "Uh, yeah. Thanks for helping us out," she said with a wave. "So uh, I guess we're teammates, huh?

"Yep, looks like it. Who is your friend?"

"Uh hi, I'm Orion," Orion said while eying this girl. Out of her black and white outfit, as well as her soft skin and raven hair, those yellow eyes stood out the most as did the black bow–

–The bow fell from her head, revealing a pair of cat ears atop her head. Tears fall from her eyes before she spares one last glance at Beacon Academy and runs off into the night–

–The same yellow eyes, and the slit pupil, narrowed back at Orion. "Is there a problem?" the girl asked, almost defensively.

Orion took in a sharp breath of surprise. "No! I… I just thought you looked… well, um…" he said, fumbling over his words.

"Blake, please be nice," came from the side.

Orion was more than happy enough to turn Pyrrha. He caught the famed amazon of Mistral leaping to retrieve her spear lodged in the tree and–

–she knelt on the ground, gasping from the burning arrow in her chest–

"–Are you alright?" Orion heard and found himself staring into emerald eyes again.

Orion cursed himself for spacing out on Pyrrha Nikos, of all people. "Uh, it's nothing! I just didn't get enough sleep last night." Orion rubbed his eyes to hide the fact he deactivated his Semblance. He then cleared his throat and walked on over. "You… you're Pyrrha Nikos, right? I've seen all of your tournaments in the vids."

Pyrrha's friendly smile wavered. "Uh yes, I am. Nice to meet you," she said.

Orion cursed himself again for making things awkward. "Oh um, sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"We should get going," said the girl named Blake. "While I was in the trees, I think I saw the ruins up ahead. We should go before we see any more Grimm."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Orion quickly said and remained behind to let Pyrrha take lead, followed by Blake. When they were out of earshot, he whispered to himself. "Stupid, stupid! Gotta mess up right in front of Nikos, Orion!"

"Uh," Ruby said from beside Orion, "you're talking to yourself."

"I know I am, shush!"

After his excitement with an Ursa, Orion welcomed the dull moments that followed. He and his team arrived at the ruins, picked the chess piece supposed to be a "relic", and were soon brought back to Beacon's academy grounds. He didn't exactly like being led into some dark room and left in the shadows while watching other initiates step up onto the stage where Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch assigned team names and leaders. When his group had been brought onto the stage, Orion didn't need who would lead.

However, he had two important questions in mind: How did they get "bronze" from PBRZ? And how and why did he end up last in the team's name?

"... with Pyrrha Nikos as team captain," the white-haired headmaster announced, leading to a round of applause from the audience.

Orion didn't hear what Headmaster Ozpin told Pyrrha because of the noise. Seeing her shift a little gave a clue. Orion didn't butt in or say anything to not make things awkward again. Being a champion of Mistral and now team leader at Beacon probably brought more than enough pressure than he could have imagined.

Orion had no qualms with Ruby, who walked with him off the stage. "So," Orion said, "how are you holding up?"

"I think I'm okay," Ruby said. "Coming here to Beacon, forming a team. It's surprising to say… I hope I still have normal knees after this."

"'Normal knees?'" Orion asked.

Professor Goodwitch's stern voice came through the microphone, catching Orion and everyone else's attention. "You may now depart for the locker. Be sure to gather your things and proceed to the dormitory. You may find your assigned room number on the display there."

"Come on, let's find out what number we got!" Ruby said and turned for the area of interest.

Orion didn't follow Ruby or Blake. He spared a glance on his new team leader, who was the last to come down the stage. Taking a step meant catching any glares from onlookers, so Orion first waited for the other students to clear away. "Hey uh, Pyrrha," he said when he had the chance and got her attention. "Look, I just want to say sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to… well, you know, make things weird."

The hesitation in Pyrrha's emerald eyes faded. "It's alright. No offense, but you're not the most intense fan I have met," she said, and Orion offered a smile and a shrug to ease any tension, if it had been there at all. "Come on. Our teammates are waiting."

"I'll be there in a sec. I just have to send a message," Orion said, holding out his scroll. When Pyrrha was out of earshot, Orion typed away and sent his message just as quickly to make sure his parents received it.

He did take half a minute longer than he usually would have, when he spotted Headmaster Opzin and Professor Goodwitch still on the stage. Orion couldn't hear what they were saying to each other. Maybe it was about scheduling classes, and he was happy to leave his train of thought there when the two adults left.

Yet, Orion shifted his head. Was… was Ozpin looking at him?

Orion put the thought and his scroll away. He had more important things to worry about, mostly talking to Pyrrha without trying to geek out. Not to mention, dealing with the silent and stoic Blake. At least, he could hold a conversation with Ruby. It wouldn't be the worst thing to worry about at Beacon, and Orion guessed would figure it out.

Orion breathed in and out, realizing the gravitas of his situation. Now, he was more than certain that coming to Beacon Academy had been the right thing. His Semblance proved it to some extent. It let him see alternate paths, some that could be and others which could have been. Maybe his arrival had changed something. If not, he could still change the things had seen.

He hoped to, at least.

"Hey, Orion? Are you coming?" Ruby called from ahead.

"Hmm! Yeah, wait for me!"

AN: Welp, this was just a RWBY AU that has my OC involved in the RWBY storyline (yes, yes, yes, roll your eyes). Unlike the typical beats you may expect, this was not planned to some story where my OC gets all the girls or whatnot, nor was this planned to follow RWBY's storyline beat-by-beat (it is an AU after all). Despite having notes, I don't know if I can find myself writing this AU as a full-on fanfiction. Still, it was a little curiosity I wanted to try out here, and maybe someone else can take this over. Until then, take care.

Raika out.