Rey had no qualms whatsoever about getting up early, even in the dreadful hours of the morning. In fact, he even made it his personal habit to do so. The fact that he hadn't sleep all too well the previous night hadn't helped. He was still very much unused to his new sleeping arrangements. Often accustomed to terrible sleeping conditions due to his training before he joined the Hunter Peacekeeping Bureau, Rey found the luxury provided by the Beacon dormitories quite bothersome.

Rubbing the last traces of sleep from his eyes, Rey stealthily crawled out of his bed and went through his morning routine, making sure not to disturb his still-sleeping comrades, most especially Alice and Nena. Those two girls were dangerous when their sleep got interrupted.

Memories of a cranky Nena particularly made him cringe in fear mostly because of the fact that she'd beat the offending individual senseless with the flat of her huge sword. Luckily for him, he wasn't normally on the receiving end. That honor was reserved especially for Vincent. Seriously, the man had no subtlety at all.

After swiftly and silently donning his combat gear which consisted of black combat boots, a pair of black pants, a white undershirt, his favourite black long coat that reached up to his shins in length, his team's trademark black cloak that was fastened together with a raven shaped pin and his katana, Rey exited the room and headed to the nearest courtyard, using his Scroll as a map, to perform his morning kata.

Unlike most, Rey was a simple person, a "patron of the classics" if he'd say so himself. His weapon offered no alternative transformations whatsoever. Other than it being absurdly sharp and being infused with Dust to improve its durability, it was nothing more than a simple black katana.

And that's just how he liked it.

In a different room down the hall from Team RAVN's room, a familiar dark haired girl stirred.

Slowly rousing from her sleep, she surveyed her surroundings with her enhanced vision that allowed her to see as clear as she would during day despite the fact that the sun hasn't risen yet. Seeing that the rest of her teammates were still asleep, she had tried to go back to sleep but alas, sleep would not come. Poor Blake resigned herself to her fate and sleepily crawled out of bed and towards the showers, groaning ever so slightly as she did so.

A quick shower had done just the trick to cure her of her remaining sleepiness and seeing as how going back to sleep was no longer an option, Blake decided it would be a good idea to pass the time left till dawn with a good book out in the courtyard.

Why in the courtyard you say? Well, with Yang's snoring, I'd rather ask why she wouldn't escape to the courtyard. How exactly her teammates slept so peacefully despite Yang's loud snores was a complete and total mystery to her.

After getting dressed in her usual attire and replacing the ever-so-important bow that hid her feline ears, she left the room silently with her book in hand and made her way to the nearby courtyard that she often frequented when she wanted to read her books in peace. She, however, had not expected the courtyard to already be occupied, especially not at this hour. Quickly masking her presence and moving to hide in the shadows, she observed the other occupant of the dormitory courtyard.

From what she could gather, the mysterious person was male if his form was anything to go by. He was wearing a black long coat and was holding a black katana with a reverse grip in his right hand. Apparently he was going through a kata. Blake, of course, knew because she was a katana wielder herself and was familiar with the various forms of kata that involved the use of a katana.

Observing him further, she took note of several of his traits. He was tall, possibly as tall as or taller than Yang, and he had a lean physique. He sported shoulder-length silver hair that was combed into spikes at the back of his head with messy bangs parted to one side in the front.

However, of all his features that particularly struck her, it was his eyes had particularly caught her attention. They were sharp and focused and carried a stern look to them; the eyes of an experienced warrior. Another detail about the mysterious young man's eyes that intrigued her was the color of his eyes. They were red, blood red. If one were to consider all those features, they truly did make him look intimidating.

After having observed his physical features, she moved on to observe his kata.

He held his katana in a reverse grip. A most unusual preference of style is she'd say so herself. His movements were swift and fluid, flowing seamlessly from one form to another, his blade making a distinct humming sound as it sliced though the air around it. It was obvious that he was a master. As she observed further, she noticed that his kata was a tad bit unusual. Instead of simply being purely sword-oriented, she noticed that there were some hand-to-hand forms mixed in as well.

'Odd…' she thought to herself, curious about the mysterious teen's decision to mix in unarmed combat forms with his sword-based techniques. 'Personal preference, I guess.'

Only a few minutes had passed since Blake started watching him when he suddenly spoke up, calling out to no one in particular.

"You're not making a very good impression by spying on me from the shadows, you know." The silver-haired teen shot a smirk in the direction from where she hid in the shadows while performing a downwards diagonal slice from the right.

Blake's eyes widened with surprise for a moment at the fact that he had sensed her.

"And you're pretty good at sensing my presence." Blake had stepped out from her hiding spot seeing as it was useless to continue hiding when he'd already detected her.

"To be honest, you were pretty sloppy. I've known you were there from the start." He shot back with an amused smile as he stopped his kata and relaxed into a more natural stance and replaced his katana in its sheathe attached to his belt at the rear of his waist.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your morning routine." Blake promptly apologized for her interruption and put on an apologetic smile.

"Ah. No, it's completely fine." He quickly raised his hands up in his defence and waved off her apology. "It was getting boring anyway."

"I'm new here by the way. I'm Rey Arclite. You can call me Rey." The silver-haired teen added, extending his hand towards Blake and putting on a warm, charming smile.

"I'm Blake." She replied, shaking his hand. "I'm on my first year here."

"Is that so? Well, I'm a first year too. I guess this makes you my first and only friend here then." Rey chuckled, scratching the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly. "Well, other than my companions in coming here that is."

"Companions?" Blake asked, looking curious.

"Ah. They're my teammates. We came here to Beacon together. We just arrived last night and since the four of us were the only ones without teams, Professor Ozpin decided to place us in a single team. We're called Team RAVN and I'm the leader." Rey answered, smiling.

"I see." Blake replied, nodding. "Uh… Do you mind if I hang around for a bit and observe your kata?"

Rey simply nodded in affirmation and proceeded to return to his kata while Blake made herself comfortable resting against a tree that stood close to the center of the courtyard and pulled out her book and began reading, glancing at Rey from time to time. They had continued in silence like that until the sun had started poking up over the horizon, casting its warm rays over the grass which was still slightly damp from the previous night's rain. At that point, they had decided head back to their respective rooms.

As they stood in the hallway in front of their respective rooms, about to enter, Rey suddenly called out to Blake.

"Oh, Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"I know about your little Faunus secret. It's... really kind of hard not to notice your bow twitching on its own from time to time, after all." Rey grinned sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck. "But don't worry. Your secret's safe with me."

And with that, Rey disappeared into his room. Blake just couldn't help but stand there and stare at the door to Rey's room while blushing, embarrassed and slightly dumbstruck that he had found out so easily.

It took several moments before Blake had broken from her utterly dumbstruck stupor and finally entered her room. Even after she'd been gone for an hour her teammates were still asleep, although they should be waking soon enough. Realizing she still had a few minutes left of "me time", she sat down on her bed and began thinking about what had just transpired.

Meanwhile, in Team RAVN's room…

Rey had just returned after his morning kata and meeting with Blake to find the rest of his comrades already up and preparing for the day. Alice was already dressed and combing her hair, Vincent was all done with his morning routine and simply laying down on his bed, and Nena had just gotten out of the shower, with only a towel wrapped around her small frame.

The fact that Nena was so scantily clad didn't bother any of the team members. Nope, not even bothered one bit and neither did it bother her. Because she was, for all intents and purposes, their comrade and friend, nothing more.

Well, except for Vincent though but he was a pervert. He'd pretty much take the chance to ogle at any naked or barely clothed woman when the opportunity presented itself. The results of which were often very painful for him, most especially if it was certain Nena Evans that happened to catch his eye.

Vincent, however, had turned a blind eye to Nena's current state. Surely there was something wrong with the guy for him to break such a common habit of his, right?

Vincent eyed Rey intently, trying to decipher the reason for the latter's odd smile.

"Did something happen, Rey?" Vincent asked, now very curious about the reason behind their leader's smile.

"Rey, why do you have a funny look on your face?" Alice asked innocently, realizing that Rey was acting strange so early in the morning.

"Oh, nothing. Just made a new friend." Rey chuckled, sounding quite amused. "I just happened to run into a cat earlier."

"Huh?" The three answered in unison, now very confused with their leader's answer.

Later that same morning, the four members of Team RAVN arrived at the cafeteria to grab a spot of breakfast. It was only typical that Rey would run into Blake again, but this time, both of them were with their respective teams.

"Hey, Blake." Rey waved at the dark haired girl as he and his team approached the table which Blake and her team were sitting at.

"Hi, Rey." Blake almost reluctantly waved back. Knowing that she wasn't the social kind of person, she was sure her teammates would shower her with questions later and that worried her a bit.

"Ooh, who's the friend, Rey? Your new girlfriend maybe?" Vincent shot Rey a smirk. "You ladykiller."

Alice's eyes suddenly widened in horror as she started panicking, flailing her arms around wildly. "G-G-Girlfriend?!"

"Tch. Damn it, Vincent." Rey responded, not even sounding remotely angry and instead just mildly annoyed, then proceeded to smack him in the back of the head. Nena also did the same.

Rey then turned to Alice and placed a hand on top of her head as she continued to panic, instantly causing her to stop flailing about and look up at him with the look of a kicked puppy. "Listen, just calm down. She's not my girlfriend, just a new friend I made this morning." He then shot her his winning smile causing her to finally relax and calm down.

Blake, who was watching the whole exchange, couldn't help but chuckle. The rest of Team RWBY, however, wasn't so successful at hiding their amusement at what they had just witnessed and had broken into a round of laughter.

After fully recovering, Yang had decided to speak up.

"So, mind if you introduce us to your friend, Blake?" Yang raised her eyebrows in anticipation to hear their introductions.

Rey, not waiting for Blake to speak up, motioned to introduce himself and his team.

"I'm Rey Arclite. And this is Alice Richards, Vincent Marco, and Nena Evans." He pointed at himself and at each member as he introduced them, each member smiling a warm smile when they were introduced. "We're Team RAVN and I'm the team leader."

Ruby was very pleased to get to know another team leader like herself, she immediately piped up at the mention of Rey's position as team leader, hoping that she would have yet another fellow team leader she can share her troubles with when it came to leading her team.

"My name's Ruby Rose and this is my sister Yang, and my friends Weiss and Blake. Although I'm pretty sure you already know Blake. Together, we're Team RWBY." Ruby promptly introduced themselves with each of her team members giving a small wave of acknowledgement as their names were called.

"Wanna come with us to the Vytal Festival later? I hear there's going to be a tournament!" Yang inserted, adding special emphasis at her mention of a tournament. "It's a bit sudden but hey, we're all friends now! I suggest we hang out!"

"Yang, you realize that not everyone is interested in fighting as much as you are, right?" Weiss pointed out in her usually sarcastic and condescending tone.

"On the contrary, we're quite the fighters ourselves." Rey said, immediately correcting Weiss. A challenging grin was plastered on Rey's face as he looked at his teammates expectantly; because for all his laidback and easygoing tendencies, Rey is, at heart, a battle maniac.

"So whaddya say guys?"

"Well, if that means that we don't have to attend classes, then I'm in!" Vincent cheered in celebration, instantly earning him a high-five from Ruby.

"Slackers." mouthed Nena silently in her ever-present monotone while rolling her eyes.

"Well, if you're going, then so are we." Alice said with a smile. "We're a team after all, and teammates should stick together."

"Well, it's settled then!" piped an excited Yang, the anticipation clear in her voice. Naturally a fellow battle maniac such as herself would be excited. The same can be said for Ruby. It's times like these when we can truly say that they are, indeed, sisters.

"You'll be coming too, right Blake?" Rey had turned his attention to the only member of Team RWBY who hadn't spoken throughout the whole exchange.

It was just then that Blake had broken out of her stupor. "Yeah, sure." she answered with a content smile. She was, at the very least, glad to meet someone else who accepted her for what she was and didn't treat her like some sort of vermin.

Not a few minutes had passed as their collective chatter continued when their hunger was brought to attention by a particularly loud and synchronized rumble of their stomachs which, naturally, led them to just stand there and stare at each other with sheepish and slightly embarrassed grins on their faces.

"Right. Save the plans for later. Food first." Vincent pointed out bluntly while turning slightly red, making everyone else chuckle.

And so the two teams sat together at a single table, chatting amiably while swiftly wolfing down their breakfast. Ruby, switching into her typical "weapon freak" mode, made it a point to ask each of the members of Team RAVN about their weapons. Her reactions though, quite interestingly, were quite varied. Of course, she had made it a point to give her final critique based on actual live combat application of their respective weapons.

'A tournament, huh.' Rey thought to himself, slowly and absentmindedly stuffing his food into his mouth, while Ruby droned on endlessly in background about how awesome her Crescent Rose was. The thought of it made him smirk.

'This should be interesting.'

They had arrived at the city of Vale an hour later after they had finished their breakfast, "they" being both Team RAVN and Team RWBY.

As they walked through the streets of Vale, they couldn't help but look around in wonder and appreciate the festive nature of the atmosphere brought by the Vytal Festival surrounding the city. I mean, who wouldn't want to enjoy themselves when the opportunity presented itself? Various forms of merry-making were taking place in the streets all throughout the city ranging from parades to dancing and even drunken brawls despite being only around ten in the morning.

Ah, but of course, to each his own. And by that I mean that each and every member of their group went their separate ways in the meantime before the registration for the tournament started.

Ruby immediately made for the weapon parts stores, taking full advantage of the ongoing Vytal Festival Sale and buying as much maintenance materials as she could get her hands on. Weiss, just as quickly, rushed to the nearest clothing store to inspect the newest combat skirts in stock. Blake, being the bookworm that she is, headed to the nearest bookshop and bought as many books as possible, also taking advantage of the ongoing sale while Yang just simply dived into the closest drunken brawl and proceeded to beat the crap out of every other participant just for the heck of it.

On Team RAVN's end, Rey had settled for simple sightseeing, wandering the streets with Alice while Vincent ran off chasing skirts with Nena in tow, if only to make sure he doesn't do something completely stupid and to smack him in the back of the head when needed.

After an hour had passed of doing their own thing, they all gathered at their previously agreed meeting spot in front of the arena where the Vytal Festival Tournament was to be held. Once they had all gathered, they each registered for their preferred category which, unsurprisingly, was the single combat category in which you'd fight one-on-on in the classic elimination style tournament setup with a battle royale styled preliminary elimination round. The preliminary elimination round, of which, allowed only the remaining two competitors from each assigned group to proceed on to main tournament proper.

And so they gathered in the arena's competitor waiting area, eagerly anticipating the announcement of the elimination round's groupings along with the other competitors since there were four possible groups which they may or may not be assigned to. Among the people present, one in particular had struck Blake though.

It was Sun.

Sun Wukong, the monkey-esque Faunus that Blake had met just a several days prior whom had easily discovered about her secret of being a Faunus, not as quickly as Rey had discovered it though and that thought still bothered her a bit. Maybe she should try a different approach at hiding her cat ears, she mused to herself.

Seeing that she had noticed his presence, it was all but unlikely for him not to notice hers. Striding over to where she sat along with her other teammates, he greeted her with a bright grin.

"Hi!"

"Hey."

"So you finally decided to enter the tourney, huh?" Sun folded his arms across his chest and nodded. "Well, good luck. I hope we get to fight each other."

With that, he walked back to his seat and returned to sitting in silent meditation. He was nothing like the rowdy and mischievous boy she'd met just a few days ago. It was clear that he was serious about this tournament.

Well, if he was willing to be serious about this tournament, then so was she. Despite being initially against joining the tournament, she'd agreed to join earlier that same morning so there was really no point in backing out now. Besides, after what she had witnessed during her little "espionage mission", she was curious about Rey's fighting style.

Minutes later, the distributions for the elimination round were announced. To say that any of them was surprised would've been incorrect. They were already prepared for any and every possible line-up anyway.

Apparently, Rey and Yang were in Group A; Weiss and Alice in Group B; Vincent, Ruby, and Sun in Group C; while Nena and Blake were in Group D. Of course, the members of both teams had already resolved to completely crushing the other competitors save for the members of the opposite team. They wanted to make this a Beacon-only tournament.

Just then, Ruby had remembered something that slipped here mind entirely. Penny wasn't around. Little did she know that Penny, most unfortunately, was still in her little time-out box for being a bad girl and blowing up three gunships back during the Vale Docks Heist. Deciding that Penny probably had her own reasons for her absence, Ruby waved off that train of thought entirely.

A final public announcement then rang out throughout the waiting area, signalling for the contestants of Group A to assemble at the arena for the first elimination round to commence and for the remaining contestants to head towards the stands to watch. Rey and Yang nodded to one another before walking out into the dusty grounds of the arena, which was apparently built to mimic the Colosseum in Rome. Not that they even knew what the Colosseum was. After all, they are in a totally different universe.

It was unsurprising, to say the least, for the remaining members of both teams who weren't participating in the current round of the elimination to find Team JNPR sitting right next to where they decided to settle down amongst the crowd in the stands. Why a certain Nora Valkyrie was not participating in the tournament was a mystery to them.

Well, it was a mystery until Lie Ren had explained that Magnhild, Nora's weapon, was undergoing repairs because the bubbly bruiser had decided to it would be a good idea to bash a random Ursa in the head over and over again until the poor Ursa was ground into a fine paste and until her weapon had gotten severely damaged.

Pyhrra's reason to why she didn't participate was because she was curious and only wanted to observe. Besides, there was always next year's festival.

As for Jaune? Well, we all know his reasons for not participating.

Alas, none of those helped to lift the confusion that developed between them thanks to the fact Team RAVN had no idea what any of them were talking about. Naturally, all that was remedied by a few quick introductions and short explanations, courtesy of our ever-practical Blake. Once those small formalities had been taken care of, as if almost on cue, the bell rang, signalling the start of the first round for the preliminaries.

In an instant, chaos had immediately spread out all across the arena. Explosions going off left and right, battle cries and howls of pain filling the air every few seconds, and people getting thrown about in every direction, no matter where you looked. Truly it was magnificent sight to see.

Acting upon what they had initially agreed on, Rey and Yang teamed up and proceeded to wipe the floor with the rest of the contestants. The audience cheered wildly at the duo as they swept across the battlefield, knocking out all in their path.

As Yang vaulted over Rey's back to kick a man in the face, another man wielding a mace had charged towards Rey, attempting to catch him off guard. Yang called out to Rey and attempted to intercept with Ember Celica's long range blasts only to continuously miss as the man proficiently dodged her shots.

"Rey! Look ou-"

Even before Yang could finish her statement, Rey had already dashed towards the man in a blur, drawing his sword, Shadow Fang, from its sheathe behind his waist which was normally hidden because of his black cloak that concealed his body.

The sword hummed as it sliced through the air, darting towards the man's neck; a killing blow. But before the blade made contact with the man's neck, it stopped. It was a feint, causing the man to try and bring up his mace to guard against the weapon. However, instead of following through with the slash, Rey had stopped at the last moment and vaulted over the man.

As he soared through the air right above the man, Rey twisted himself to face downward, his free left hand now crackling with black lightning was raised in the air. Time seemed to slow down as a dangerous look flashed in his eyes and a smirk spread across his lips and within the space of a second, it was all over.

Rey swiftly brought his hand down upon the man's back in a palm strike, discharging the lightning in a great flash before he could even realize that Rey had vaulted over him. The impact drove the man into the ground, the soil beneath him caving in ever so slightly. After delivering the blow, Rey simply landed gracefully on both feet less than a meter away from where the man had landed and smiled.

Back in the stands, the other members of Team RAVN merely smiled while both Team JNPR and the remaining members of Team RWBY could only say one thing.

"Wow."

Author's Note:

Wow. That was my longest one yet. Somehow I'm mildly pleased with my writing in this chapter. I dunno. It just felt right.

Oh and if you're wondering about that black lightning that Rey used, it's his Semblance. And if you wondering if it's a valid one or not, well it most likely is. Yang can emit fire as her Semblance so I don't see why lightning isn't possible.

If you're wondering, I'll be taking a more natural and "organic" route with this. Slowly explaining things over time and expounding more and whatnot.

Please review by the way. It would really mean a lot to me.

Oh and I'll just be posting a global disclaimer denying my ownership of RWBY on my profile since it's bother to keep placing it on every chapter. Yeah, I'm lazy that way.