Chapter Text
Days passed since the first day of school, students are ready to learn and train to grow into the next generations huntsmen and huntresses. Today’s exercise is a team building training simulation which, depending on certain situations for teams, is be easy or difficult for some teams. It dooms her team, the four of them can’t follow each other, interactions with Ruby is a main reason for the pair never agreeing on anything. If Weiss tried to talking with the smaller girl; she couldn’t bear being in one room with her. Glynda explained the instructions everyone only became more and more enthusiastic to show off their semblances to the class. This was Weiss’ time, show people she was on a different level than all the students combined. First is a sparring match with a Grimm captured for exercises like this.
“Who wants to go first?” Hands shot up in the air,
“Nora, step up to the plate.”
The red-head cheered turning to a boy telling him to wish her luck. Maybe they’re friends? Anyway, the girl stood at the plate, a cage opened, a boarbatusk sprinted out. Nora fired cannon rounds exploding on impact. Although not enough to stop the Grimm from missing Nora. In one quick action the gun transformed into a hammer. Skidding across the ground, the beast charges at Nora again, but cut off by a hammer strike. Now resembling a pancake before turning into a puff of black smoke.
“Impressive Nora Valkyrie, didn’t use your semblance.” Complimented Glynda.
“Thanks Miss GoodWItch! I love using my hammer, my semblance is cool too, Ren over there, his semblance makes him to be a ninja, almost!”
“Nora.” Said a stern voice.
“Yes Ren?”
“Stop holding up the class,” Nora chuckles nervously
“Sorry! Carry on!”
Glynda watched the hyperactive girl prance back to her seat with a sigh, she turns to everybody else.
“Weiss,”
Weiss stood straight striding to her spot, drawing out Myrtenaster from its sheath; head up, shoulders back, right foot forward. The same Grimm appeared out of another cage and charged. In one strike, Weiss severed the small creature in two; thanks to her glyph offering her a brief boost in speed. The students sat in wonderment at her immediate reflexes and semblance.
“Wow! That was awesome, isn’t she Weiss Schnee?”
“Yeah, the daughter of Jacques Schnee and Willow Schnee, and the heiress of the Schnee dust company.”
“No wonder, she’s probably been training since birth,”
“Why didn’t she go to atlas instead?”
Doing nothing else Weiss slides Myrtenaster back and races to her seat. Ruby sat there in awe from the display of technique. But caught the expression, irritation.
“Hey Yang, is Weiss okay?”
Yang notices Weiss on the other side of benches.
“I don’t know, she always look like that?”
“Blake Belladonna?” announces the older woman, Blake nods and walks over, the most prominent feature, a black bow on her head. Reaching for her weapons; Gamble Shroud, she waited for the cage to drop.
Why does she wear that bow?
It didn’t take long to circle around to the other students, some semblances stronger than others. The last phase for the day is a team building exercise.
“Each team has 13 minutes to save a town or civilians from a Grimm attack, The Grimm you’ll be facing will be random. Don’t expect certain Grimm. Gather the citizens to the safe point where the other huntsmen and huntresses are. I will grade you as a team, cooperation is key, and your leaders will be graded individually. If you get below fifty points, then you fail.” she explained, “The first team is team JNPR.” Glynda turns to the four
“Let’s do our best guys!” Nora cheers.
Pyrrha smiles “Yes, let’s do it” How was he going to lead? Was he going to fail and let his team down? Pyrrha turns to Jaune, “Jaune, let’s do our best.”
His voice wavered “Th-Thanks Pyrrha.. I’ll do my best.” the four got into their positions weapons in hand and ready.
“Good luck, and try not to fail,” The arena now replaced by a burning town, even though it wasn’t it felt real.
“What should we do first?”
“Should we look for survivors?”
“That sounds like the best option, there could be people in these burning houses. But we don’t have time, we only have 13 minutes.”
Jaune stared back and forth between them not knowing what’s going on or what they’re talking about. Until they turned to him.
“Your call team leader!” Nora beams.
Jaune shakes his worries away for a second, “Right! Let’s split up into two groups and look for survivors. If you find any Grimm take them out.”
Pyrrha and June went one way while Ren and Nora went the other. Running through the destroyed streets creep Grimm came around the corner. Jaune screamed, Pyrrha ran in, stabbing one in the heart as it turned to smoke. And cutting the second one’s head off as it tried to sneak attack her.
“Jaune! We have to go” Pyrrha spoke bringing him back for a minute.
“Right!” Seeing as she rushed in without hesitation while he stood back in fear, really made him think, why did he come to Beacon Academy in the first place? A wailing boy trapped under iron pillars interrupted his thoughts. “What should we do?”
“I’ll handle it,” As they approach to the wailing boy, Pyrrha gave him a reassuring smile. “Everything will be okay, Just sit still for a minute.”
Closing her eyes, Pyrrha’s hands light up in a black aura as the iron slowly float upwards, spreading out far enough for him.
“Get the boy Jaune.” He nods and picks up the boy consoling him as much as he could.
With Nora and Ren creeper Grimm close, Although they had a way out, Ren kneels down; masking themselves from the Grimm, undetected, the two could slip away.
“Whew! Nice save Ren!”
Ren nods, “Let’s keep moving and look for survivors,”
“Right!” Outside of the simulation everyone sat and watched, some talking with their teams about strategies. Weiss notices her other team members, if she wanted to pass she had to talk to them. She walked over to the three girls.
“We should think of ways to pass this, it might be different when we go up.” Weiss says while crossing her arms, while Yang gave her a grin, “Sure, Ice Queen! I don’t mind talking, I can take most of the hits for you.”
The black-haired girl stares at Yang for a moment, “I don’t think that would be the best Idea.”
“At least someone has a brain, anyway, let’s talk about our semblances.” she spat rudely earning a look from the taller blond, “Well that was uncalled for,” Yang grumbles
“Anyway, My semblance is hereditary, my glyphs can support my team. They can repel people, a shield, speed up movements, and depending on the dust I use, it can be useful for offense.” she explains showing the three a small glyph for reference while Ruby listened, fascinated by Weiss’ semblance and how versatile it was.
Weiss turned to Ruby, “what about you?” a slight attitude in her voice
“Well, my semblance isn’t anything special! Mine is speed, basically I can go fast! Although the side effect is that I turn into rose petals.”
“Rose petals?” Inquired Weiss
“Yeah, it’s weird!” giving her a lopsided grin, then she turned to Yang, “What about you? Yang?”
“Well, Mine is just a power boost, The more hits I take in a fight the stronger I get. But I only use it when I’m angry.” Weiss raised an eyebrow at this, “Why use it when you’re angry? Isn’t that really damaging to your aura?”
“Not really, I can store the energy I get from the hits into my aura to strengthen it. But even that won’t help it. I use it when I’m angry because I can win the fight much faster in that amount of time.” explained Yang
“But what if you run out of aura? You can’t use your semblance then.”
“Then I just rely on my training.” grinned Yang pounding her fists together, “Okay, so we can’t rely on your semblance all the time. Blake?”
“Shadow, I can create clones of myself they take the hits for me. I don’t have a limit on my semblance.” she explained, Weiss thinks for a moment, factoring in everyone’s semblances.
Thinking of a strategy that could fit everyone, “Ruby and Blake would be perfect for hit and run they can hit fast and get out, while Yang can be the tank and take most of the hits. But will need to support her if she gets into a tough situation. While I can support you all,”
“Sounds efficient, I don’t mind being the one to hit and run.” Blake replies
“Me too!” cheered Ruby
“Just don’t get in my way,” Weiss says causing Ruby to whip around to her, “What’s that supposed to mean!?”
“What do you think? mess anything up, and after we pass just go back to not talking to me ever again.”
Now growing more and more annoyed with the tone she had with her sister Yang spoke, “What’s your problem with my sister?”
“Because she’s a dunce that can’t do anything right.” Weiss sneers
Before the two could get into a fight Glynda shot the two girls a look, “girls, do you need to go outside?”
“No, Sorry Miss GoodWitch,” they say in unison.
Inside of the simulation, the team has regrouped and gotten as many survivors they could to the safe zone but Grimm were swarming, gaining control over the town area.
“Jaune what do we do!” His eyes darted around to his teammates not paying attention to himself as a Grimm rose behind him but killed off by Nora’s bullet.
“Jaune! snap out of it what do we do!” The desperate calls for his name caused him to snap, he didn’t know what to do! A loud horn went off as the training for JNPR ended.
“Team JNPR, you passed with 70 points, decent but nothing spectacular. Jaune: you struggle under peer pressure, being a huntsman means you’ll be in tough situations if you can’t work those out, it’ll get you killed one day. Pyrrha: great work using her semblance to move debris, but you almost crushed an elderly woman. Nora: overall nice performance, but stop treating everything like a game, Ren: clever to mask your teammates from the Grimm, overall you’re a team with lots of promise but with a lot of work to do.” Giving each member criticism or praise, Pyrrha looks at Jaune who had his head down, it worried her.
“Next group is Team RWBY” The four girls stood up and got to their places, taking out their weapons Crescent Rose, Gamble Shroud, Ember Celica, and Myrtenaster. As soon as the simulation started there was a slight problem, they separate the girls in what appears to be the emerald forest.
“As huntresses, you’ll find yourself when you’re separated from the rest of your teammates. So, for your first task, you must navigate your way through the forest and find the rest of your team. Your second task is to save civilians captive in a Grimm’s den. Good luck.”
Okay, got to look for Yang, got to look for Yang, Ruby ran through the woods if she could find her sister finding Weiss and Blake would be easy. Is what she thought until an Ursa emerged from the bushes stopping the red girl in her tracks. Only this time she prepared herself, charging in for the first attack, but shutting her down by smacking her away. Hitting the tree hard becoming disoriented as the Grimm prey on Ruby, it’s shut down by a certain girl in a black bow. Blake stood there as the Grimm fell and turned to smoke she stared at Ruby.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, Thanks for the save Blake.” Ruby dusts herself off as she stood up her eyes falling on the monotone girl; the pair barely spoke a word since the first day. Only during the first night about the book she was reading.
Make a good first impression, “Blake, I’ve been wondering if we’ve never talked before. Tell me about yourself.”
“Later, we’re in the middle of an assignment.”
She smiles, “Right! Let’s go find the others!” As the pair ran, Ruby kept looking at Blake.
Maybe ask her another question? “So, where are you from?” That question almost made Blake stop, should she tell her where she grew up? Keep her from knowing the truth, everything will be okay, calm down.
“A village,” Blake answered hesitantly.
Ruby smiled, “Oh cool, I come from an island called a patch, me and Yang grew up there with my mom and dad.” comfortable silence with a hint of awkwardness in the air.
“So what about your family?” Again this made Blake freeze, “Mom and Dad,” She replies.
“Any siblings?” Red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, Her eyes softened at the split image in her mind. She sighed.
“He.. left us a long time ago.” the look on her face screamed pain with a hint of sadness which made Ruby regret asking, “Oh, I’m sorry, I should—”
“It’s okay, let’s keep going.” Blake replied quickly, it was no one’s fault but her own.
Brother and sister, always together, forever!
Yang and Weiss had paired up and strolled through the woods in silence, since the snow-haired girl didn’t get along with her sister, it was a given they wouldn’t get along.
“What’s your deal with my sister? It’s not like she did anything to you.” Weiss says nothing, “Hey, you there, Hello?”
She kept the silence praying that Yang would stop talking to her.
“So what? Just because you're apart from the biggest manufacturers of dust in remnant means you're better than everyone?”
Her jaw tightened, “I’m not talking about this with you Yang, just focus on the assignment,” Weiss spoke through her teeth.
“All I want to do is talk, if you just talk to us we would understand—” Weiss stopped dead in her tracks then whipped around to Yang.
“No, you wouldn’t, stop talking like you know anything about me or my history. Just be quiet and concentrate on the task at hand!” Snapped Weiss, Without another sound Weiss resumed her walk, going even faster to get away from Yang. Yang watched her go for a moment, remembering something but brushed that thought away. The two continued to walk in silence, On the other side of the field Blake and Ruby kept moving. Until they saw the other two come out of the bushes.
“Weiss, Yang, we found you two!”
“My baby sister is okay! Who am I kidding, I knew you’d be alright?” smiled Yang while hugging her.
Blake looks at Weiss, “Did you see any signs of the cave anywhere?”
“We saw it on the hill back east, if we keep going west we’ll get there.” The timer kept going it was now 10 minutes left on the clock and their score is not looking so great. As the four kept going west it didn’t take long to reach their destination. Housing ten Grimm and three civilians in the corner.
“Let’s help them!” Weiss slapped her palm over Ruby’s mouth.
“Shut up, if you charge in you’ll be next on the menu,”
“We should get the survivors first.” points out Blake
“If we do that, we need to be quiet, and if anyone wakes up the Grimm Yang and I will take care of the Grimm while Blake and Weiss take the civilians to safety.”
As the girls come out from their hiding spot being as quiet as they could. Sneaking past the sleeping beasts, grabbing the survivors all they needed to do was take them to safety and they pass. Is what would have happened if the small child didn’t scream out when one of the Grimm growled in their slumber. This created a sticky situation for Team RWBY, separating the four girls ruby dealing with a few. While Weiss, Blake, and Yang are protecting the survivors.
Ruby and Weiss bump into each other, again. “Watch where you’re going you, idiot!”
“You were the one who bumped into me first!”
Yang snapped an Ursa’s neck as she saw this, “Uh, guys, this isn’t the time to be fighting right now!”
“You’re such a child, why can’t you just stay out of my way for once!”
“Can you two focus for one minute!” Blake chides
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, A horn went off signaling the end of the training exercise returning the girls back to the arena hall.
“Well, that was an interesting display of "teamwork” you all gained 10 points.” this shocked the whole team, “WHAT!?!?!?”
“Yes, no one cooperated with each other and the fighting was a huge negative to your score. These academies promote you all to work as a team, you aren’t always going to be solo. As huntsmen in training you need to learn how to work as one and succeed as a unit.”
Class ended and Weiss didn’t speak another word to the three, Ruby tried to make peace with her but Weiss ignored her. Day ended and night arrived the dorm room is silent each girl in their respective corner doing their own thing. Reading books or playing video games, everyone could feel the tension in the room. Most of that feeling came from the white-haired maiden below Ruby.
“Hey! It’s only a minor setback! How about we do something tomorrow? Girl time!” Silence
“Eh, I guess not.”
Flipping a page in her textbook she glances at Yang, “Sorry, I rather not talk to a bunch of failures.”
“Awe, Weiss, don’t be a stick in the mud. If we can just—” closing her book with a loud slam, “No! Just stop okay, just stop trying to bring us together as "friends” We’ll never be friends! So just give up!” Blake peers up from her book tiring of Weiss’ outbursts.
“What’s your problem? You know part of our failure today is because of your high and mighty attitude,”
Cocking her eyebrow she gives the amber-eyed girl a glare, “And? Does that matter in the grand scheme of us failing the assignment in class? If you just followed the plan, maybe we would have passed!”
Blake returned that glare, “We followed the plan, the girl screamed and threw a wrench in the plan. It was your fight with Ruby that cost us.” she hissed.
Ruby gets up and stands between them. “Okay guys settle down, let’s talk this out!”
“And you! Watch where you’re going next time!” Weiss spat at Ruby.
“It was an accident! How many times do I have to tell you that!”
This is getting out of hand, “OKAY! Let’s all settle down and get some sleep maybe that’ll calm us down.” diffusing the argument, Weiss fell silent for a moment and scoffed, walking to her bed and getting in it without saying another word, Blake did the same.
“Night Ruby, let’s hope tomorrow is better right?”
She sighed, “I hope so.”