Initiation
Remnantian Year 875
As the morning light began to rise, and with it the dawn of the day of initiation for many students, Ozpin found himself in a dimly lit room, sitting in a chair next to a tube container of sorts. No sunlight could enter the room, cut off from the world as it was. To Ozpin, in that moment, all there was was the machine he was next to.
“Once again, I find myself sending children to their final rest. How much blood can these hands hold?” Ozpin mused sorrowfully to the emptiness that permeated the space around him, “I do what I can to improve upon the state of the world. I advocate for peace, equality, and safety. Yet, every year things are the same. Children killed by the creatures of darkness. All I can do is hope to be able to repent one day, before the gods, before those I have sent to their deaths. I hope that the good I have done outweighs my many mistakes.”
“I apologize Amber,” Ozpin put a hand on the container, wiping away the fog to reveal a woman’s face that was heavily burnt inside, hair barely remaining and two scars different from the burns on her forehead, “I pray that you survive and live the life you deserve. Sadly, I am concerned. This is her work, no doubt. Not by her hand, perhaps a follower. It doesn’t matter, as I will strive to see you recover, even if there are those who would wish otherwise,” Ozpin vowed and then looked at his watch, “It seems I am needed now for the initiation. Ah, I still recall your initiation, even before inheriting your power, you always burnt brightly. And also burnt half the forest down as well. Anyways, I once again must leave. See you later, Amber.”
As Ozpin made his way towards the elevator, he was greeted by Glynda arriving inside of the boxed transportation.
“Sir, how many times must I tell you that wallowing in your own grief is not a way to start the day?” Glynda sighed in a resigned tone and Ozpin just straightened himself up, walking into the elevator, and pushed one of the buttons with his cane and leaned back against the back of the box.
“I am alright Glynda. Everyone had their ways of dealing with their issues. Please, allow me my own,” Ozpin spoke in a tone that indicated that they had talked about this often.
“Your poor trauma responses aside,” Glynda rolled her eyes in tiredness, “Qrow decided he’d show up today to watch his nieces’ initiation.”
“Ah, I believe he mentioned as such yesterday,” Ozpin recalled and Glynda just sighed.
“So long as he behaves himself. I do not wish to clean up another mess of his, especially after the marshmallow incident,” Glynda shuddered and Ozpin grimaced at the mention of that event.
“Indeed. I believe he is in my office if so. I’ll speak with him as you retrieve our would be students. And, please, affirm to them that stepping out is not shameful. Their lives are more important than any glory as a huntsman,” Ozpin asked of her and his fellow professor nodded in agreement as she grabbed her whip off of her belt as the elevator arrived on the first floor of the academy, and Glynda Goodwitch left off in the direction of the student’s common area for the morning. Ozpin could sadly already imagine some being too stubborn to leave on their own and instead doing so in caskets.
“Ren! Ren! What do you think initiation will be, huh huh huh?” Nora ran around the dining hall with her food trays in hand as Ren sighed and sat down at a seat near to where Ruby had been eating her breakfast with her sister. Nora took this as a cue to jump over two tables and land right in front of Ren, breaking the table on impact.
“Nora, if you calm down before breakfast is over, I will make some pancakes for you tomorrow before class,” Ren bartered and Nora immediately snapped into a seat, sitting rigidly as she tried to hide the drool that threatened to leak from her mouth at the mention of pancakes.
“Huh. If only that worked on my youngest sister,” Jaune joked as he sighed in internal relief that Nora had just missed landing on his tray of food.
“Oh oh oh! Ren knows everything about me, and me, him. We’re inseparable!” Nora happily boasted and Ren gave a small nod of agreement. Jaune just gave a smile at this.
“Sounds like you’re really close. You think you’ll be on the same team?” Jaune questioned and Nora rapidly nodded her head in response.
“Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah! We’re inseparable. Think I could bribe Ozpin into putting us together?” Nora excitedly answered and Yang couldn’t help but chuckle nearby at her antics.
“Seems some people are ready, while others seem nervous. How about you sis? You fired up?!” Yang pounded her fists together with a grin as Ruby was poking at her strawberry waffles distractedly.
“Huh? Oh yeah, sure,” Ruby answered distantly and Yang frowned but kept quiet. She knew Ruby could get a little distant right before something important to her. She could try to bring her back like Qrow and her dad did, by bringing up their moms, but Yang felt that it wasn’t her place to do so. She knew she could not replace them. So Yang just let them eat in relative silence, Ruby’s ears pressing against her head in an attempt to block out any excess noise.
Soon all the would-be students stood atop a cliff overlooking a forest that seemed to be ever expanding, spreading across the horizon, the unending green mirroring the clear skies above with the yellow sun adorning across endless blue. Ruby found it ironic that despite the natural beauty before them, that so many of these students, still not even adults, would meet their ends here. A slight silver lining, she supposed, would be that they would die in a place of natural beauty, rather than atop the decaying walls defending humanity from the grimm that barely kept the creatures of darkness at bay.
“For years, you have trained to become warriors. Or perhaps you wish to make your name known here at Beacon, thinking you don’t need to train. Money, glory, power. All potential motivators…” Ozpin began, walking up and down the short line near the center where he stood, his voice being projected through the speakers throughout the area, and so everyone could hear the sharp stop from his words, “If those are your goal, leave now. I make no guarantee of anyone’s survival today. There is no shame in admitting defeat when you can still live.”
“He seems… off?” Yang muttered to herself that Ruby’s ears perked up to hear, grateful that she was placed near the center so she didn’t need to hear any noise from the loudspeakers. Ruby felt herself growing suspicious from this. Why was he so off that Yang seemed to note it twice within the last day? Maybe she was wrong, perhaps the headmaster just was more empathetic than she had thought, mourning everyone equally?
“Now, if you are sure to stay and become hunters and huntresses, I’m sure you have heard rumors about team assignments, partners, and initiation itself. Well let me put an end to those rumors. You will be assigned partners and teams, today,” Ozpin seemed to pause for a moment to let this sink in, “This has been kept secret from you to keep you from making any definitive plans. The first person you make eye contact with is who you will be partnered with.”
This set off many students into talking and objections, the loudest of which being Weiss, who questioned the simplicity of this method. Ruby however just seemed to blink, wondering if she’d even be able to make eye contact with anyone… or what about anyone with owl faunus traits? Either way, she thinks she couldn’t even meet Yang’s eyes until she started at Signal, even then it took her two years there to do so. And she lived with her since she was born.
“Or to those of you who struggle with eye contact, you may just look at the person’s face in general,” Ozpin added and Ruby let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“Your objective today is retrieving relics from some ruins located in the forest to the north. From there, you will reach a rendezvous point at a cliff near those ruins. Any questions?” Ozpin asked as he clicked the button to start sending students. Ruby has to hold back a giggle as Jaune begins to ask how they were supposed to get in the forest. Oh to be so innocent and not know that all headmasters of huntsmen academies are secretly sadists.
This is the thought that she thinks as she is sent flying into the air, happily soaring through the sky just as Yang and Uncle Qrow would.
“I wonder if that’s Yang’s landing strat… nope her gauntlets are being fired,” Ruby quickly was disproven of her thought process as her sister flew overhead with shells from her gauntlets falling beneath her.
Ruby just let herself fall freely, getting closer to the ground… and she saw Jaune flailing through the air. Time to be a huntress.
Ruby felt her semblance energize her being as she felt the world around her slow, falling into rose petals as she shot through the sky towards Jaune, intent on saving him from any real damage. Luckily for her, she was able to catch people in her semblance and let them become a part of her matter shifting at breakneck speeds. Soon the two find themselves on solid ground, Ruby smiling brightly as Jaune looks slightly queasy.
“Ruby, I thought you said you had a speed semblance, not… that,” Jaune coughed, trying to catch his breath from the sudden speed.
“It is… kinda? I can keep it to just regular speed when I need to stay solid, but when I really need to move fast, I can kinda just let my molecules shoot off and kinda become just… whoosh.” Ruby tries to explain and Jaune just blinks before giving a deadpan expression.
“That’s really busted,” Jaune comments dryly and Ruby just laughs in response, punching his shoulder lightly and smiles.
“Welcome to the team then, with Miss busted and Mister noob, and soon to be others too,” Ruby gave a warm smile and Jaune nodded, happy to be partners with someone he was already familiar with. He faintly hoped everyone had the same luck with partners as he did.
______
Pyrrha felt exhausted by her partner and it had not even been two minutes. Of course she had gotten paired with a Schnee. Of course her luck had to be so bad.
“No! Cut it out Pyrrha! No negativity about potential sponsors, remember?” Pyrrha scolded herself silently as Weiss Schnee seemed to be ignorant of her partner’s mental state and was beaming with joy.
“I believe that the north is this way. So we will find the ruins there. Come on, partner,” Weiss spoke with a smile and Pyrrha couldn’t help but hope that she would be a good partner to her as they progressed, no matter her thoughts on the matter. She couldn’t go against what her father said. No friends, only battle partners and teammates.
Suddenly screams ripped through the air as Pyrrha could feel the presence of the grimm already. Pyrrha’s focus narrowed to her close area and saw some rustling in the bushes, and Weiss seemed to notice it as well.
“Ready, partner?” Weiss asked with a twinkle of excitement in her eyes and Pyrrha nodded as she brandished her weapon, ready to fight. She did not want to comment on the foolhardy excitement for this that Weiss seemed to have. For now, the objective was to survive.
A pure black beowulf jumped out from the tree lines and ran towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha just smirked and waited until the beast went to lunge at her and Pyrrha clicked a button and her weapon, Milo, shifted itself from a javelin into a xiphos, and she plunged the blade right through the head of the grimm, causing it to fall to the ground in a cloud of black ashes. Without a word, Pyrrha then reshifted her weapon into its rifle form and spun around on her heels. Weiss seemed to be defending herself from another beowulf alone well enough, but her partner did not notice as a bone covered beowulf snuck behind the white haired girl. Pyrrha quickly shot at the beast, shattering one of its claws off as Weiss killed the other beowulf.
“Huh?” Weiss spun around and her eyes widened before glyphs appeared beneath her feet, as well as Pyrrha’s, and both were shot into the treetops as the other beowulf composed itself.
“Why is there an alpha grimm here? This is initiation!” Weiss scowled out, and while Pyrrha felt Weiss should’ve been more worried than upset, she understood how the girl felt. From what she knew, combat schools rarely let students face actual grimm, and the huntsmen academies didn’t have students fight alphas until their second year at the earliest. This was abnormal.
“We need to find others. It will be safer to fight an alpha with the aid of others. We shouldn’t leave it here for other students though, in case they are less prepared or willing to leave a fight with it,” Pyrrha brought up and Weiss nodded, the excitement in her eyes having faded to a now more determined look.
“Right, then we should lead it…” Weiss began to suggest but Pyrrha shook her head.
“If it figures out that we are trying to lead it to its death, it’ll flee for easier targets. Alphas are older and smarter than your average grimm,” Pyrrha pointed out and Weiss sighed, but nodded in agreement. The girl went to speak up again, but the trees they stood on began to shake. Weiss glanced down and scowled.
“Ok so it seems our friend is only focused on us. We make our way through the trees then and hope it follows. It’s the best thing we have,” Weiss nodded further into the woods and Pyrrha let out a small hum of agreement.
“Agreed. If you need any rest for your semblance, I can distract it for a few minutes with my rifle form,” Pyrrha added and Weiss smiled.
“Seems like a plan, partner,” Weiss proceeded to form another glyph under both of them and both were shot further into the woods and the rustling of trees below suggested the alpha beowulf was not far behind.
______
“Ugh! Where are all the grimm?” Ruby complained as her ears pressed up against her head and tail drooped behind her.
“Uh, let’s not jinx ourselves. Don’t want to get swarmed by beowulves,” Jaune groans as he cuts away a vine on their path with his sword and Ruby shrugs.
“I’ve killed hordes of beowulves before. They always come when I visit my Ma’s grave. They’re easy enough to kill though,” Ruby comments as they continue through the woods, and Jaune chokes on the air as he breathes.
“Ruby uh, that doesn’t sound like a good thing,” Jaune points out hesitantly and Ruby shrugs again.
“Eh. I’ve faced more dangerous grimm. A geist once possessed my weapon, a chill possessed a teacher at Signal… Yang’s pissed off a goliath before, that was not a fun afternoon,” Ruby chuckled awkwardly and Jaune let out a louder groan.
“Great. And all that’s happened in my life has been my parents being overbearing and overprotective. My oldest sister is the only one who helped me with getting here,” Jaune sighed, “And you sound already very experienced.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. If there’s anything I remember my Ma teaching me, it’s that we keep improving and learning until we die. I’m sure you’ll be really strong soon enough,” Ruby encouraged as they trudged their way into a colosseum-like ruin, where at the center lay chess pieces. Ruby excitedly grabs Jaune and dashes to the center with her semblance.
“Imma guess those are the relics,” Jaune muttered out and looked at the podiums the pieces were on, “And it seems like none have been taken yet. Some students definitely landed closer to here than we did. Why have no relics been taken?”
“Smells like…” Ruby sniffs the air and pulls out Crescent Rose, quickly shifting it into its longsword mode, “Blood and grimm. And… fire.”
“Oh jeez.” Jaune unsheathed his sword and tapped the sheath on the floor to transform it into a shield, “What kind of grimm live around these parts?”
“Beowulves, nevermores, ursai, king taijitus, maybe a goliath or geist, Uncle Qrow once mentioned he fought a death stalker at his initiation,” Ruby provided and Jaune gulped.
“Well, let’s hope it’s not… that…” Jaune nervously laughed as a loud shout was heard and suddenly laughter echoed around them. Ruby blinked and looked on in disbelief as Nora rode into the colosseum on the back of an ursai, which turned to ashes as she got to the center.
“Whoo hoo! Let’s do that again,” Nora cheered happily and Ren came running up behind her, out of breath from chasing Nora.
“Nora, never do that again,” Ren worriedly asked but Nora just shrugged as she darted towards the chess pieces and grabbed a rook.
“I’m queen of the castle, I’m queen of the castle,” Nora sang out happily before finally noticing Ruby and Jaune, who both stared in disbelief, “Oh hey Ruby. Didn’t see you there. You think I could find a nevermore to ride next?”
“Heh,” Jaune coughed to cover his chuckle at the unintentional innuendo, “Wouldn’t recommend that.”
“Awww, that’s what Ren always says too,” Nora pouts slightly but then continues to bounce around, clearly energized.
“I still smell grimm. And… two alpha scents,” Ruby’s eyes widened in shock and Ren stared in surprise but held his calm.
“Shit,” Ren cursed lightly and took the chess piece from Nora and stuffed it into his pocket, “How do we deal with that? Also smell?”
“My faunus traits are kinda more amplified. I blame my Mama and Uncle Qrow,” Ruby grumbled out as Pyrrha and Weiss landed on the crumbling colosseum’s upper floors and looked down at the gathered group.
“ALPHA BEOWULF!” Pyrrha called out loudly and Ruby froze as she looked at where the two girls came from and saw the bone covered beast that had blood on its fangs and claws. Ruby quickly took a deep breath before shouting out orders.
“Bratty girl, redhead, pelt it with attacks from where you are. If you have a way to immobilize the target, use that. Ren, Nora, draw its attention and get it nearer the center. Jaune, you’re with me,” Ruby called out and despite Weiss’s protests at her name, the group began to move and fight.
Shots fired quickly from the rifle Pyrrha held as Weiss shot ice dust from her rapier at the beast, trying to trap it. The beowulf just snarled and tore through the ice. Ren took the opportunity to shoot it up close with his weapons, and this drew its ire, but it did not see Nora before she hit it hard with her hammer, sending it flying towards the center of the arena.
“Ready Jaune?” Ruby asked with a grin as the grimm fell towards them. Jaune gulped in fear but nodded all the same as Ruby launched both of them into the air with her semblance, Jaune in one hand, Crescent Rose in the other, as Jaune brandished his own weapon. The duo met the grimm in the sky, and as it could not move to properly defend itself, Ruby and Jaune seemed to dance through the beast with their weapons, despite Jaune’s inexperience, Ruby’s semblance keeping them afloat. Soon the beast fell to the ground with a thud and Ruby placed down Jaune next to her and slammed her sword through the beast’s neck, ending its existence, leaving only ash and bones.
“That was… cool,” Jaune breathed out heavily and Ruby just laughed happily.
“Whoo! We’re awesome! Team RJ… any good names with that?” Ruby asked awkwardly, cutting off the excitement and Jaune shrugged, not sure either.
“You took care of that alpha quite easily,” Pyrrha commented as she and Weiss landed in the center of the colosseum, “And that movement and fluidity, it’s like you’ve already experienced years of combat.”
“Ehhh… I’m not that special,” Ruby waved off, “Besides if anything, I’ve got less experience since I got moved up basically three years. I was gonna start my fourth year at Signal before Professor Ozpin offered for me to come here.”
“So, the farm girl was the one to fight Torchwick?” Weiss raised an eyebrow in slight surprise at being given this information. Pyrrha just gave a small hum of recognition.
“Ruby, didn’t you say you smelt two alpha scents?” Jaune spoke up and Ruby froze and gave a small nod. The quartet brandished their weapons as they quickly scanned the area, only seeing Ren and Nora for the moment.
“Fire… Yang!” Ruby sniffed the air again and dashed out of the ruins, faster than Jaune could keep up with.
“Should probably grab a relic while we’re here,” Jaune mumbled out, grabbing a knight piece, before running off after Ruby. Weiss and Pyrrha just watched him go and Weiss let out a small breath and began to cough.
“Damn it,” Weiss breathed out, gritting her teeth, “I’m out of aura. I’m a liability if we fight another alpha grimm.”
“Take my shield for now then, it can take a few blows,” Pyrrha offered and gave over her shield, leaving her with just her weapon in hand, “I… wouldn’t feel right to leave those two to fight alone.”
“Hey! Forget about us?” Nora pouted as the duo turned and saw the tank of a girl supporting her partner as they walked over.
“I’m out of aura too. Fought a king taijitu as soon as I landed. Had to use a lot of aura then and to get here without being found by grimm. Nora’s still got a good amount left. Just… don’t let her touch your lightning dust.”
“One time, Ren! One time!” Nora complained loudly and Weiss couldn’t help but to let out a giggle at their dynamic. As she watched, Pyrrha felt even lighter than before. Maybe she didn’t have to worry so much about Weiss being her partner?
“I’ll go help them then,” Pyrrha nodded and quickly snatched up another knight piece and handed it to Weiss, “Keep a hold of that for now.”
Without another word, Pyrrha rushed off after the other co-ed pair and Weiss just flopped on her back as Nora cheered Pyrrha on.
_____
“You know! Did not think we’d be running through a burning forest away from an alpha nevermore during initiation!” Blake screamed out, half in terror, half in anger, at her partner in Yang, who just flashed a sheepish smile at the girl swinging through the trees below, as the fire raced behind them, as easily as a a…
“Is it insensitive to say like a monkey to a faunus who is a cat?” Yang wondered to herself about her partner, not even realizing that her partner’s bow was meant to hide her faunus trait. At least Yang didn’t need to hide anything on her normal form.
“Ruins dead ahead!” Yang called out instead of lingering on her thoughts as she quickly tilted left to dodge a short barrage of feather spears shooting at the two of them, “And bird right above now!”
“Shit,” Blake muttered to herself as she quickly hopped down from the trees and began running across the ground, and Yang let herself fall and join her new partner. The two quickly ran and ducked behind a ruin that seemed like an old house. The nevermore just cried louder as it lost sight of its prey and began to hover above them, waiting to swoop down to eat them.
“Great. Now we’re stuck between an alpha nevermore and a forest fire that you started,” Blake stressed and began to hyperventilate and Yang just tapped her fingers against the ground impatiently.
“Hey, I just added fire dust recently to my weapons. How was I to know that it’d explode if two shots hit?” Yang shot back, taking a breath to collect herself, “Sorry. We’re both a bit on edge. Let’s just take a moment to rest. My aura is under half, so better safe around that thing.”
“Mine’s still nearly full. No worries there,” Blake assured, managing to calm herself without asking for help from Yang and Blake made a planning face, “Ok, so we’re at the ruins already. If we can find where the relics are located, we can lure it there…”
“And potentially make my sister fight it instead? Nah, fuck that,” Yang refused and stood up, eyes changing from their normal purple color, to a deep, fiery red, “I can deal with this thing.”
“Yang!” Blake reached out for her partner, but the blonde had already shot off out of the ruined house and made her way to the sky as she began to pelt the grimm with blast from her shotgun gauntlets. Blake just swore under her breath and looked around to find a way to help.
“Damn partners, always making problems for me,” Blake complained to herself as she banged her weapon on the ground, changing it from a sword and pistol combo to a sniper rifle with a detachable knife, “I should be able to get at least a gravity shot off on that thing to force it to land.”
Blake carefully brought herself up from the ground and aimed her scope to the skies, where Yang screamed with her hair on fair. Blake just grit her teeth angrily.
“She is way too similar to Adam,” Blake snarled to herself as she lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. The shot flew easily through the air and struck the bird beast in its beak just as it went to snap at Yang. The gravity dust quickly caused the beast to plummet to the ground and the ground shook from its weight. Yang smiled widely as her hair lit up with fire and she slammed down into the grimm’s head, snapping its head from its body with a single punch and causing a crater where she and the ashes and bones of the beast were.
“Yang! That was so cool!” Ruby called out and Yang looked up from the ground to see her sister, Jaune and Pyrrha all standing around the crater with differing looks of excitement, confusion and relief.
“That alpha wasn’t even as hard as that goliath from last year,” Yang boasted and Blake rolled her eyes as Ruby snickered.
“Yang, it took Uncle Qrow crippling it a lot for you to kill that. But I was ready to fight with you against that, but you did it with just you and your partner!” Ruby cheered and Blake let a small smile form from the words of the younger girl. She could definitely see how those two were related.
“We should probably hurry and retrieve the relics before we find another alpha grimm around. We are very lucky to have two defeated. Let us hope there are no more on our return,” Pyrrha spoke and Blake jumped down the crater and reached down for Yang, seeing the bloodlust finally retreat from the blonde.
“Come on, partner. Time to get up,” Blake smiled down at Yang, who just grinned as she reached up and grabbed the hand back, lifting herself up.
_____
“Six students at the colosseum defeated an alpha beowulf, while Miss Belladonna and Miss Xiao Long defeated an alpha nevermore alone. How did our staff miss those two alphas and the alpha deathstalker who killed over twelve students before Mister Winchester managed to kill it?” Professor Goodwitch wondered as she stared at the tablet that displayed the camera feeds that were littered throughout the forest.
“Hmm… only enough for five teams were able to retrieve relics. And three alpha grimm… Glynda, I pray that I am wrong for what I fear this will bring.” Ozpin seemed stoic, but Glynda Goodwitch had not been his right hand for so long without realizing his tells. And with how he was tapping his cane rapidly, Ozpin was extremely worried and on edge about this day’s events.
“Could it be an attempt from Salem on Miss Rose?” Glynda suggested and Ozpin frowned.
“That was my first thought as well. But I believe it could also tie back to Amber and the maidens. As soon as the team announcements are finished, I’m calling a meeting.” Ozpin announced to the woman at his side, who nodded in response.
“How many of the inner circle?” Glynda asked, pulling out her scroll and immediately going to the contacts.
“All of them. And be sure to let Raven know that this is important and not something she can run away from. Brothers know she already runs from her other responsibilities,” Ozpin frowned and Glynda nodded as the gloomy atmosphere spread across both of them as Glynda began to make calls on her scroll, “As well, Glynda, we should also make sure that Qrow actually informs Tai this time.”
“I heard that,” Qrow snarked as he landed and transformed from his bird form, looking very tired on his feet, “I know that if I dare keep Tai out of this, especially with the girls dealing with two alpha grimm, he’ll mount my head above the tv.”
“Should’ve known you were the overprotective uncle type,” Glynda joked back and Qrow snorted.
“Oh, nah that’s Tai with Rubes. He’s way more overprotective of both his daughter and niece,” Qrow retorted and Glynda could only roll her eyes as she began to call who she was supposed to.
“Hello, yes Raven. Meeting tonight at the tower, and it involves your daughter,” Glynda began to speak on the phone and Qrow groaned as he slumped against a tree and began to take a swig from his flask. Ozpin didn’t even react to the two of them and just stared out over the forest.
“What are you planning this time, Salem? A maiden damaged, students dead, and multiple alpha grimm in one small locale. What is your current scheme?” Ozpin wondered to himself, a grim look over his features as the sun began to be covered by the clouds and the world below grew darker.