"So, what do you got?"

Jaune awkwardly pulled out his weapon and extended the arms, before fishing around his pockets for the string. He knew he had put it somewhere, but he wasn't sure which pocket he had put it in. He continued to fumble but realized that he had tied it in a loop around his neck. Jaune quickly pulled it off, unfurled his crossbow, and held it out to Ruby.

Ruby peered above and below the dated weapon, trying to see if there was some sort of hidden blade or some other feature. Failing to see any, Ruby asked, "Just... a crossbow? Does it turn into anything?"

Jaune sheepishly shook the crossbow. "It's a hand-me-down from my great-great-grandfather. Guy was a crack shot, but technology back then wasn't really the best. All it does is fold up and becomes easier to carry. There was something about it that made it special all the way back then but I'm not too sure what it is."

Ruby looked over Jaune's body to see if he had some cool way to load his crossbow but was disappointed when she saw the quiver on his back. "Well, does your quiver do anything cool? Change out arrow heads? Repair fletching? Ooh! Arm an explosive arrow?"

Once again Jaune was slightly embarrassed. "Nah, just holds regular arrows. No dust, no repair or explosions. Looks cool though, right? It's made out of real leather."

Jaune turned around so Ruby could get a better look but yelped when she started poking at various places. "W-wait! I didn't say you could poke it! What if I poked Crescent Rose?"

Ruby drew back and immediately looked apologetic, but Jaune raised his hand and placated her. "No-no. It's fine. Really. I'll let you have a closer look at it later. Wait-do you know where we're going?"

Ruby's wide eyes didn't fill him with hope.

"I was following you!"

Jaune sighed as he foggily stumbled towards the end of Beacon's locker room, still bleary eyed from a particularly unpleasant awakening. During the night somebody had kicked over his bag which caused most of his stuff inside to spill out. He was still frantically searching around nearby sleeping rolls when the intercom in the Great Hall crackled and announced that all first years must gather for initiation. It sounded ominous, like induction into some sort of cult, but Jaune knew that being late on the very first day would be extremely bad. He redoubled his search efforts but finished finding his stuff only five minutes before the deadline. He barely had time to throw on his hoodie, jeans, leather armor and little else before leaving the hall.

He wasn't particularly why he was standing in Vale's premier Huntsman academy, or, really, how. Sure, he knew how to service and operate Celeri Mors, but he wasn't exactly special. Everyone at the archery range he frequented reminded him of that regularly, making sure to laugh extra loudly whenever he missed a bullseye or forcing him to string and unstring every single bow in storage to 'build up some muscle'. Bunch of sadists. Still, even with forged records and amateur crossbow skills, his acceptance into Beacon was still a crapshoot. Still puzzling over his enrollment, Jaune stared at the walls as he searched for his locker. He didn't quite break out of his contemplation when he bumped into another student, instead mumbling "Sorry" and stepping to the side. As he was walking away, however, his ears did pick up someone saying, "See, that's why we must be partners together, or else we'd be stuck with dimwits like him."

Jaune did a full 180º turn on his heel and walked back to confront what appeared to be the white midget who insulted him last night. She paused mid-sentence in a conversation with another student, and turned to him and said, "Look, I'm not interested in partnering with the likes of you, so please can you leave us both alone?"

Jaune forced a smile onto his face and asked, "Don't you suppose the reason why you think you're so smart is because all your brains are more condensed in a smaller body and so that means there's more stupid tucked together?"

"Oh, and don't you suppose the reason why you're so tall" Weiss was quick to fire back," is because your body had nothing to do with all that spare energy and your brain wasn't using it?"

A beat passed as Jaune tried to puzzle out the insult, but he eventually gave up. Judging from how Weiss suddenly turned red, she, too, gave up. His gaze drifted to whoever the midget was talking to and was instantly met by soft green eyes. His mind whirled to analyze what little he had overheard and deduced this redhead was who Weiss had wanted to partner up with. Quickly, he laid out a plan in his head. Jaune put on his most charming smile and introduced himself. "Hi, Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and I'm hoping you'll come to love it soon enough. What's this about partnering, I hear?"

"Students are divided into teams of four, which is an international standard, and we're likely going to get our partners today. "The redhead was quick to explain. "I'm Pyrrha Nikos. Pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to put a name to the face." Jaune offered his hand forward and asked, "Well, then if you'd like, how about we partner up?"

Before Pyrrha could produce a response, Weiss was back in between them again. "Wait, wait, wait, do you have any idea who you're talking to?" At Jaune's unchanging expression, she continued to interrupt, "This is Pyrrha Nikos. "

Jaune let Pyrrha's full name sink into the atmosphere, before saying "Met her about five seconds ago."

"She graduated top of her class at Sanctum." Pyrrha looked to the side as the short girl began her tirade.

Jaune was quick to point out, "Do they publish those records?"

Weiss scoffed and said, "She's won the Mistral regional tournaments four years in a row; a new record."

"What about the nationals?" Jaune quietly trailed off, "Still, nice…?"

"She's…" The girl seemed almost hesitant to draw this card. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's marshmallow flakes box."

"My…" Jaune reached into his memory, wondering why exactly that sounded familiar. "Oh, my breakfast cereal?"

Weiss sighed when this was what sparked recognition, but utilized it, nonetheless. "Yes, yours and about a million other consumers. So, knowing all that, do you really think you're qualified to ask Pyrrha to be your partner?"

"Heh, no." Jaune felt comfortable enough to admit it, though Pyrrha sagged slightly. Weiss smiled triumphantly, though it faded when Jaune continued speaking. "Still, we're both students here, right? So Pyrrha and I are just as likely to become partners as you," Jaune smirked, "and I are."

Weiss scoffed and turned away. "Pyrrha, let's leave this fool to his delusions and prepare for Initiation. Obviously, he can't be reasoned with."

Pyrrha shot Jaune an apologetic smile as she followed Weiss to presumably the cliffs, and he made sure to mouth 'Team Jaune' to her as she left. For some reason, he couldn't stop smiling while standing alone. Beacon was finally starting to get interesting.

Speared to a tree, Jaune wondered which god he had offended. Initiation began so promisingly, with him being hurled from a cliff. But gravity is a cruel mistress, and Jaune found himself plummeting to the ground. He hadn't even finished his first prayer it was answered by a spear 'saving' him by nailing his hoodie to a tree. Though the breath was knocked from his lungs from impacting the tree, he still had enough presence of mind to attempt to slip out of his hoodie. Attempt, being the keyword. The spear had gone through his quiver, which annoyed him to no end. He'd have to repair it himself later, and it was very likely more than a few arrows had their spines obliterated by the spear. More time and money lost.

Jaune was feeling quite cross when he someone moving towards him. Or rather, something. Jaune nervously drew his crossbow, hoping that it was whoever threw the spear towards him. He cursed internally when he realized it was a Beowolf. Grimm. Standard operating procedure when confronted by a Grimm while hunting was to scale somewhere high and to wait for the Grimm to pass by. Killing one would only increase the risk to a hunter's life by potentially drawing more Grimm to the area. As a Huntsman, however, Jaune realized there might be a slightly different rulebook at play. He reached over his shoulder to grab an arrow from his quiver but grabbed an arrow that was cut in half by the spear. Slightly worried, Jaune reached back for another arrow. Yet again, he drew a broken arrow. Sensing his worry, the Beowolf started pawing at the base of the tree Jaune was hanging from. Jaune had no idea whether Grimm could climb or not, but he wasn't particularly willing to find out. He kept on reaching back for more arrows, but he kept drawing ones with broken shafts. Now fully panicking, Jaune started to throw broken splinters and hafts at the Beowolf, which did about as much damage as expected. Precisely none. Jaune had begun praying again when a shield of shining bronze flew out of the dense brush and embedded itself into the tree, decapitating the Beowolf in the process.

Jaune let out a sigh of relief when Pyrrha walked into his vision. Agilely, she jumped onto her shield, which was still embedded in the tree, and sprung onto other tree limbs, deftly scaling to Jaune's level. When they were face to face, Jaune approximated the most sheepish look he could manage and asked, "I don't suppose there's space on Team Pyrrha now, is there?"

Pyrrha casually wrenched her spear out of the tree, and Jaune's clothes. When he dropped to the branch she was standing on, she smiled and said, "Actually, I was wondering if there was still space on Team Jaune."

Jaune couldn't stop himself from smiling widely at Pyrrha, even moreso when she beamed right back.

The two walked northward, with Pyrrha standing in front to ward off any Grimm and Jaune behind to provide supporting fire. She had apologized profusely when Jaune inspected the two holes in his quiver and dumped the broken arrows, but the matter had been put behind them quickly. Already, they found themselves talking about other topics.

"So," Pyrrha asked, while cutting through the underbrush, "You don't have a landing strategy?"

Exasperated, Jaune wrung his hands, though Pyrrha obviously couldn't see the action. "I'm not sure what the headmaster thought would happen when he launched a bunch of teenagers off a cliff! What would've happened if you hadn't saved me? Huh?"

Pyrrha cut through a low-hanging vine, before looking back and saying, "I'm sure you would've been fine. Your Aura could've just taken the damage, right?"

"Aura?" Jaune's head sprung towards Pyrrha. "Yeah, um, I don't actually have that."

Pyrrha scanned the trees, wondering if any more Grimm would appear. "Hm? There's no shame in having a small Aura, Jaune. All you need to do is improve your skills to compensate and you'll be no different than any other Huntsman."

"About that… I don't have it unlocked at all." Jaune's voice petered off at the end, unsure if he was supposed to be embarrassed or not.

"What?" Pyrrha questioned, disbelieving her ears. "Well, why not? I can understand just not knowing about it, but why would you choose not to have it unlocked?"

"Well, it wasn't really a choice," Jaune muttered.

"What?" Pyrrha once again asked.

"Well," Jaune began to explain, "I never really needed to. Whenever I went on hunting trips my dad would stay nearby to fight off any Grimm, and he never let me so as much fire an arrow at one. When I was accepted into Beacon, he was off on a mission, so I never had the chance to ask him to unlock mine. "

"Oh…" Pyrrha trailed off, unsure of what to say. "I'm.. I'm sorry?"

"Nah, it's really nothing." Jaune laughed and rubbed his head, wondering how long he'd been bottling that in. "Hell, I'm lucky that he was even around for those hunting trips. I guess he didn't want me to get any ideas about becoming a Huntsman or something. Funny how that worked out."

Pyrrha stopped walking. She turned to face Jaune and held her hand out to him. "I'll unlock you're Aura for you. I'll stand by you. I'll be your shield."

"I don't use a sword, but I guess I'll be yours." Jaune took Pyrrha's hand, and unknowingly sent her heart aflutter.

Pyrrha repeated the oaths which marked the most important day in her life. They would mark Jaune's, too.

The makeshift torch crackling was the only sound in the darkness of the cave, asides from the occasional cough or stumble. A strange mood had suffused Jaune and Pyrrha once they had entered the cave, neither willing to break the silence lest they draw the attention of darker beings. Perhaps superstition was getting to the two, but both students felt an ever-increasing sense of dread as they moved further into the cave. Though Jaune was the one who suggested entering the cave in the first place, he regretted it the moment he took a single step inside.

"Er… Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, looking around nervously. "Why am I walking behind you, again?"

Pyrrha glanced back, before forging onwards. "Because of how we fight, Jaune. Because you're behind me, you can retreat faster and gain more distance. If you were in front of me and we ran into Grimm, you'd be stuck in between me and the Grimm. This way I can immediately engage while you move back."

"I'll be honest, walking like this makes me feel like I'll get picked off first, actually." Jaune explained, unable to shake the feeling that he was in some sort of horror movie.

"Then how about we switch places?" Pyrrha offered, wondering where Jaune's sudden reticence came from. "Watch your step here. There's a little drop."

As expected, Jaune immediately tripped and dropped his torch, though he managed to throw it clear of a puddle that caught his eye. While Jaune became intimately familiar with the rough rock floor, Pyrrha's attention was caught by what the dropped torch revealed. Her line of sight arced up from the flickering light, to end up on large chitinous plates. She involuntarily took a step back. She didn't know that Death Stalkers had glowing stingers. Pyrrha watched as Jaune bumbled back onto his feet and watched him freeze as well.

She was gone before Jaune had even turned around.

Run.

Run faster.

Run like your life is on the line.

Which it is.

Jaune crashed against rough rock outcroppings, stumbled over invisible sinkholes and nearly gored himself on stalagmites. Behind him, the giant-death-scorpion thingy crashed through everything to chase him. He was so focused on running that he didn't even consider shooting an arrow at the Grimm.

Jaune was essentially running in full darkness, only the light of his Aura saving him from crashing into any walls or falling into a hole. The light also allowed the Death Stalker to track him relatively easily, but when there was only one exit to a cave there was really only one way for him to go, right?

Nope. There wasn't only one way for him to go.

Jaune didn't know if his sense of direction was broken or something, but for the life of him, very literally, he could not find the exit. He might've taken the wrong turn somewhere in his mad dash for the exit, and now he was hopelessly lost. The Death Stalker had lost Jaune a while back, and now Jaune was just stumbling around in the dark looking for the exit.

Jaune turned to his right and his heart leapt to his throat. Light! The exit! Jaune started running straight to it when something struck him from the side.

He struck the floor and was about to scream when something roughly covered his mouth. Jaune was about to struggle when his eyes readjusted and realized it was Pyrrha who had tackled him and was muffling his mouth. He quirked his eyebrows to ask an unspoken question.

Pyrrha raised a finger to mouth to make the universal 'Shh' symbol and then drew back, warily looking around. Jaune sat back up and asked, "Okay, Pyrrha, why'd you tackle me?"

"Shh!" Pyrrha shushed, leaving Jaune feeling like a naughty kindergartner. "The Death Stalker seems to have been here for a very long time. "

Jaune felt obligated to ask, "Why?"

Pyrrha looked a little cross. "I was just getting to that. The Death Stalker has situated itself right near the entrance and has lowered its stinger so the light from outside disguises it. It's likely utilized this exact same trap many times."

"So, we're stuck here with it forever!?" Jaune's heart seized, and his hands flew up to cover his face.

"What?" Pyrrha tilted her head, wondering where exactly that had come from. "Don't be silly, Jaune. I've thought of a plan. I draw it away from the entrance, and you run through and get help."

Jaune nodded, but a thought struck him. "Wait... but, can you hold the Death Stalker off for that long? I don't know if I can find other people that quickly."

No. Definitely not.

Pyrrha smiled and said, "Of course Jaune. There's no need to worry, I swear. Just trust in me, Jaune."

Pyrrha's smile remained etched to her face as Jaune nodded at her.

The plan went off with a hitch.

Pyrrha stepped out well within view of the Grimm with Miló and Akoúo and yelled out a wordless challenge, while Jaune sneaked to the side. When the Death Stalker detached itself from the wall around the exit, Pyrrha started to draw it away. It didn't take long until Jaune was able to slip out the exit, though she was surprised how stealthy Jaune could be. When she was sure Jaune was gone, she let her mask fall. A part of her was scared. She knew she couldn't kill the Death Stalker and would likely become just another scar on its heavily pockmarked carapace. Pyrrha didn't want to die. The possibility itself terrified her to her core, and Pyrrha felt her warrior's mindset begin to slip. Doubts and insecurities plagued her. She wasn't Pyrrha Nikos, the Undefeated Champion. She was Pyrrha Nikos, soon to be dead. Yet- She was Pyrrha Nikos, and she would not die without giving it her all. Maybe one day someone could come and kill this Death Stalker after she weakened its armor and removed some of its mobility. Maybe one day that someone could be Jaune. But for that to happen, Pyrrha would give her body and soul.

Her sword sparked against the Death Stalker's armor as she ducked and slashed at exposed areas. Akoúo deflected a stab from the Grimm's stinger as it scuttled around trying to slash at her with its massive pincers. She scored a deep groove on its front facing armor but lost a chunk of aura when a swipe from a pincer knocked her away.

Pyrrha recalled her weapons to her hands with her Semblance and faced the Death Stalker again. Though she knew Grimm couldn't feel emotions, a small part of her thought it looked smug. She stood defiant as the Death Stalker raised its pincer for another swipe. Pyrrha steeled her resolve the Death Stalker swung, ready to block the ful-

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

The loud yell echoed throughout the cave and was punctuated by the twang of an arrow burying itself deep within the Death Stalker's armor. It screeched in anger and turned to face the new intruder, and Pyrrha saw it was-

Jaune. He had come back for her. A strange glowing sensation burned in her chest, one that Pyrrha couldn't fully name. Another sensation burned as well, though she could easily name it. Burning anger.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha's normally tightly controlled voice broke, emotion seeping through. "Why are you here! I told you to run!"

"Are you kidding me?" Jaune called out, quickly reloading and loosing another arrow. "I know you think I'm a bit dumb and all, but you think I'd abandon my partner? I'm not getting out of this without you!"

Pyrrha dashed forward and cut into the Death Stalker's tail, drawing another angry screech and incurring its full attention. She was glad Jaune was no longer in its line of fire, but that meant putting herself in danger. She deflected a brutal swing from the Death Stalker when she heard Jaune's voice call out, "Pyrrha! Keep its attention on you! I can get it from behind!" and several more arrows digging into the Grimm's carapace.

Pyrrha wondered what exactly Jaune was planning, but as she dodged under yet another brutal swing of the Death Stalker's pincers, she realized she wasn't exactly in much of a position to question the plan. Even if Jaune had completely disregarded her own.

Pyrrha poured more anger into her next swing than strictly necessary, scoring another deep furrow into the Grimm's armor. Jaune was emptying more and more arrows into the Grimm's backside and whenever he drew its attention Pyrrha made sure to pull it back by whatever means necessary.

Sort of requirement was fulfilled when Jaune fired one final arrow, because he yelled out "Pyrrha! I weakened its tail and ripped through most of the armor! If you're fast enough you can jump onto its back and cut off from there!"

Though there was little reassurance that this plan would work, Pyrrha held full faith that Jaune, at the very least, knew what he was doing. She leaped between both pincers, landed on the Death Stalker's back, flung Akoúo to the side to cut off one of the Death Stalker's legs and did her best to start hacking away at the Grimm's tail. Jaune was… firing upwards for some reason. Pyrrha slowed her strikes, wondering what exactly Jaune had in plan, but her questions were answered when a stalactite from the ceiling fell down and shattered on the Death Stalker's head.

"Um, Jaune?" Pyrrha felt obligated to point something out. "You do know that I'm standing on top of the Death Stalker, right?"

Jaune's small 'hrkk' didn't fill Pyrrha with confidence, but he quickly reassured her by explaining, "It's fine! I'm aiming for its head, anyways!"

That… didn't fully reassure Pyrrha but she returned to hacking away at the Grimm's tail. Several more strikes were rewarded by the sound of the armor cracking off, leaving soft Grimm flesh exposed. One last strike severed the tail, and Pyrrha was surprised by the multitude of arrows buried inside the stump. She guessed Jaune really did have a plan.

Pyrrha's thoughts were interrupted by a stalactite shattering perilously close to where she was standing, and she briefly flared her aura to block any shrapnel before turning to face Jaune. Her deadpan expression combined with a quirked eyebrow, made Jaune embarrassedly rub his head, before sudden movement from the Death Stalker sent Pyrrha flying towards Jaune.

He was clearly surprised from the way his eyes widened, but he automatically raised his arms to catch her. He stumbled several steps back from the impact, but quickly put Pyrrha back on her feet, much to her disappointment. They watched the Death Stalker spin while screeching in pain, its movement slightly impeded because of the severed leg. Jaune and Pyrrha were both captivated for a moment, but Pyrrha quickly snapped out of it and recalled her shield from where it had embedded into the stone. She turned to Jaune and said, "Let's run before it remembers we're here."

Jaune knew that Pyrrha was unhappy with him. Hell, he even knew why she was angry. So, he sought to apologize in the best way possible.

"I'm really sorry that I nearly hit you with some of the stalactites. I never used my environment in such a way before, and I was inexperienced. I'm sorry."

Pyrrha nearly tripped when she heard Jaune begin to apologise but felt her face heat up when she heard the rest of the apology. Stalactites? Stalactites?!

Though he had apologized, Jaune couldn't understand why Pyrrha refused to so as much acknowledge his existence for the rest of the run.

Jaune's breathing was ragged when they arrived at a clearing; Pyrrha didn't stop for even a second when they ran. He fell onto his knees and retched, which compounded his oxygen issues. Eventually he rolled onto his back and started making a keening groan.

Her anger slightly tempered, Pyrrha let a note of care slip into her voice as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Just-dying-a-little." Jaune answered between pants.

Pyrrha raised her hand to her eyes to create a visor and looked off in the distance. Jaune was finally catching his breath when Pyrrha noted, "I can see people gathering in one area. I think that might be where the relics are. Let's go."

Jaune's breath caught in his throat Pyrrha took off. He unsteadily pushed himself onto his feet and started stumbling after her. If anyone asked, he would fully deny crying on his way there.

There were another duo waiting at the strange acropolis-like temple. Jaune recognized Yang, Ruby's older sister, though he didn't know who the dark-haired girl was. Surrounded by all of these extremely well-dressed women, Jaune suddenly felt self-conscious of his ratty jeans and hoodie. Not exactly standard Huntsmen attire. If anything, his green camouflage outfit Jaune wore to hunting trips would fit in far more than his current one.

Jaune's fashion crisis aside, he saw that the relics were black and gold chess pieces. Strange. He had expected something more esoteric for objectives named relics.

He was just about to pick up one of the relics when he noticed Pyrrha and Yang pointing up at the sky. Confused, he looked up to where they were pointing.

There, falling out of the sky, was Ruby Rose. Why exactly she was falling out the sky Jaune did not know. What he did know was that she didn't look like she had a way to properly land. He walked up next to Pyrrha and overheard Yang say, "Somebody should catch her. "

Yang looked curiously at everyone present, before casually announcing, "Not it!"

Jaune felt obligated to mention that Ruby was her sister, so it should be her duty, but Pyrrha took aim with her javelin, ready to repeat what she had done with Jaune. Yang saw this and startled, calling out "Don't you dare hurt my baby sister! She'll be heartbroken if you rip her cape! Jaune, you do it!"

Jaune wanted to complain, but Ruby was getting dangerously close to the ground. Hurriedly, he ran towards where he judged Ruby was roughly falling. He had no idea how he was going to catch her without hurting both of them, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it-or right now oh my Gods she's right there she's right there!

Jaune didn't hear Pyrrha and Yang's cries of warning as his head cracked soundly against Ruby's. Darkness enveloped him.

Pain.

Everything is darkness.

Wait, how am I not dead?

Jaune unclenched his eyes and saw he had collapsed to the ground, and that Ruby was sprawled out on his chest, similarly groaning and clutching her head. He looked around, incredulous that his skull hadn't fractured. Hesitantly, Jaune raised his hands to his head and rubbed all over it, searching for any signs he was injured. When he found none, he started hysterically shouting, "I'm invincible! I'm immortal! HAHAHA"

Three distinct footsteps sounded behind him and Jaune heard a very angry voice command, "If you don't get Ruby off of you right now, I'll be testing those two statements."

Jaune chuckled nervously and gently pushed Ruby off of him, and then scrambled away. He was not going to test that temper.

As to put the maximum distance between himself and Ruby, Jaune quickly stood up and took a step closer to Pyrrha. Hopefully she'd protect him. He smiled the most disarming and charming smile he could manage and presented Ruby, saying, "One Ruby Rose, saved as requested. Please don't hurt me."

Yang exaggeratedly inspected Ruby, checking up and down her body, even going as far as sniffing one of her locks. Once satisfied, she shot Jaune a dazzling thumbs-up and pulled her still-dazed sister to her feet.

Everyone stood together for a few moments until Blake had a strange thought. She wondered why exactly was Ruby falling from the sky? The veiled faunus looked up and witnessed a white blob that could only be the Schnee heiress she had clashed with yesterday approaching the ground at high speeds, not dissimilar to how Ruby had been only a few moments earlier.

Blake looked around to see if anyone else had noticed Weiss falling and was preparing to catch her, but only she had detected the perilous situation unfolding. Blake sighed and asked herself, 'I could just let this happen, right? Not like I'm expected to save random people, like that dumb knight did, right? Hell, it's even a Schnee! She should be able to save herself!'

Blake watched the heiress fall further, faint screaming now audible to those on the ground. While the others looked around horizontally for the source of the sound, Blake sighed and unsheathed Gambol Shroud. 'Sometimes I hate how caring I am.'

Blake split Gambol Shroud into its two component parts and wrapped the katana's ribbon around the other half. She couldn't believe she was using this to save a Schnee. Blake threw the sickle at a tree for leverage and in complete defiance of the laws of physics she jumped upward and utilized her semblance to propel herself with enough force that she managed to launch herself vertically. A smirk came unbidden. That particular maneuver had taken the better part of a month to master. While it was first practiced so she could scale towers easily, it could easily be adapted for rescuing people.

Her surroundings bled into blurs and dashes. Her full focus was now on the falling Schnee. She was kicking and flailing all over, meaning catching her would be a difficult task. Blake used her semblance to micro-adjust her speed and posture. It wouldn't do to impale herself on the Schnee's rapier.

Blake smoothly made contact with the Schnee, first slowing their momentum then securing her. The shrill screaming had mostly stopped at this point, which Blake was thankful for. Her next move was particularly tricky, and any distractions would have disastrous consequences.

She flung both parts of Gambol Shroud in opposite directions, one embedding into a tree trunk while the other wrapped around a branch. Blake sighed and prepared to fall onto the tight rope she had just created. Once again, she micro-adjusted herself with clones. Having the heiress on her back would screw up her balance, if uncorrected.

Blake clutched the Schnee heiress closer to herself and carefully fell onto her makeshift tightrope, hooking her feet into it so she wouldn't fall even if she messed up. Thankfully, her calculations were correct, so Blake plus the heiress gently lowered to the ground. Once Blake stepped off the ribbon, it immediately recoiled upwards and continued swinging upwards and downwards until it slowly came to a still. Blake reached behind her and firmly placed the Schnee on the ground, who for once was scared silent.

Blake sniffed and walked away. Hopefully the others had seen what she just did. She'd let them stew in her awesomeness while she retrieved her weapon.

Jaune around the small group which had gathered, then did a doubletake because three new people had joined. A thin woman with a streak of pink through his otherwise black hair, a redhead who was clinging to the former, and Weiss Schnee herself. She looked quite frazzled, which was enough of a departure from her regal persona that Jaune had to make sure it was really her. "Erm, Weiss? When did you get here?"

The redhead took his question as if it was meant for her and replied, "Well, Rennie and I got here, like, ten minutes ago while cutie here," she gestured towards Weiss, "fell from the sky and got rescued by a ninja. Ooh, wait, if there's another ninja in this group does it mean you have to fight for shinobi dominance, Ren?"

The still unnamed girl looked at the woman standing next to her excitedly, which Jaune took to mean that her name was Ren. Or… his. Jaune immediately knew this was going to bring up awkward questions later. Ren, for his/her part, smiled and said, "Well, Nora, if she and I are such great ninjas then what's to say that we haven't already fought for shinobi dominance?"

This threw Nora for a loop, and Jaune grew even more concerned at the lack of any response from Weiss. At the very least, he expected some sort of scathing retort. Jaune waved a hand in front of her face and succeeded in snapping her out of whatever fugue state she was in. If what Nora said was true, then Jaune had to ask. "Weiss? Why were you falling from the sky with Ruby?"

The moment Jaune finished his question, the word 'Ruby' set Weiss off. Suddenly, her eyes filled with fire and Weiss went on a warpath directly towards Ruby. Ruby's cry of "Oh no, oh nonononono!" was ignored as Weiss prepared to tear her a new one. The target sniffled and looked around for anyone's help, but nobody met her eyes. Well, save for one. Jaune was unfortunate enough to have been watching Weiss's, ahem, back when Ruby made her cry for help, and Jaune couldn't pretend to have seen nothing.

Quickly, he inserted himself into the looming battleground and said, "Look, Weiss, I get that you're angry that Ruby left you alone, right? But you can't really blame her for her grip getting weak, right? She's two years younger than you, you can't expect her to be able to match you step for step. "

"I suppose you're right. " Weiss admitted, though she wasn't finished yet. "However, I'm still allowed some retribution."

Ruby whimpered and Jaune flashbacked to all the times he had-or, all the times his sisters had to bail him out, and Jaune felt resolute in defending Ruby. For bullied children everywhere! "Hell, if you're going to blame someone, blame Beacon! They're the ones that shot us off bloody cliffs! They didn't even give us a time limit or rules or whatever. Hell, we could probably wait until midnight to finish this test and Ozpin and Goodwitch would probably have to wait on those stupid cliffs for us!"

Jaune suddenly realized he had stumbled upon brilliance, a foolproof way of getting back at an establishment which had quite literally thrown him off a cliff. He looked around at everyone else, and they too were thunderstruck. "We… we could seriously make them wait until midnight. Holy crap. Guys… are you thinking the same thing I am?"

The spirit of youthful defiance and academic dishonesty had graced them all, and Jaune realized he had birthed a revolution.

The broken moon shined over Remnant, Luna's tears bathing the world with unearthly beauty. On Beacon's cliffs, however, two figures decidedly the opposite of beauty struggled to stay awake. Headmaster Ozpin and Headmistress Goodwitch were forced to wait on the cliffs all day while they waited for eight students to finish their initiation. Glynda Goodwitch had started to weep sometime around dusk, while Ozpin had run out of coffee hours ago. Both were rapidly approaching the end of their rope and were half considering throwing themselves off the cliffs just so they could finally rest. Their silence was suddenly broken by the sound of talking, and what marvelous talking it was. Almost as if there were eight people travelling together.

Ozpin stared at the cliff with anxiety, wondering if the eight students had finally finished initiation or his fragile mental state had finally snapped. But it was certain. The final eight students were climbing back up the cliffs, and he felt as if he could sing a hymn to the gods. Glynda Goodwitch sprinted to the cliff edge and used her semblance to drag every student onto solid ground. She was going to bed and would destroy any delay. Once all eight were safely deposited onto the ground, Headmistress Goodwitch huffed, sobbed, and walked back towards Beacon. Sometimes being an educator was pure hell.

Ozpin looked at the happily talking group with growing pain, his burned-out mind coming to the realization that they had purposefully waited this long. He tried to formulate a sentence but his coffee-deprived mouth refused to respond. His body twitched as he tried to retake control, but the hours had gone on too long and Ozpin's body had fallen asleep.

The group of eight teenagers laughed and bantered, rowdily ribbing each other and having fun. The several hours the group of eight spent together at the bottom of Beacon's cliff allowed them to get to know each other far beyond what normal social conventions would expect. As they passed by Ozpin, Jaune lagged behind and explained, "Sorry, sir, but unfortunately we just lost track of time. I hope you can understand." With an innocent smile, he walked off to rejoin the others.

Ozpin was left frozen on Beacon's cliffs, his mind floundering at any attempts to retake control. It was only until dawn when Ozpin finally managed to collapse, snoring away all of his worries. The late finish to Initiation placed an massive amount of stress on Beacon's staff, and so a frazzled Glynda Goodwitch introduced teams "RBWY", pronounced 'Rubby', and "JPRN", pronounced 'Jalapeño'. The last-minute teams were welcomed, and Jaune Arc got away with a single "Hell yeah."

AN:

Ok. This was supposed to be a story about what if Jaune Arc didn't use a sword and instead a weapon that enforced his cowardly behavior and made him run away? Well, I probably should've split this into smaller chapters, but I couldn't find a way to break it down. I worked on this for seven months. I shot out 3k words in the first month then grinded out another 3.5k words in six months. This is going to be a oneshot because I'm honestly just so burned out and pained by this that I cannot physically look at this. Please, thank you for reading this. It has been a mistake.