"Welp, that's definitely a Nevermore." Yang thought as she eyed the avian grimm. Though it was far from peak condition. Even from here, the huntress in training could see that it was damaged. One of the bird's legs were missing while its underside was covered with burn marks. That ginger chick seemed to have done some serious damage and pissed it off.

With a screech, the Nevermore flapped its wings and a volley of black feathers shot towards the students.

"Dodge!" Someone said and everyone leaped for the sides.

The projectiles pierced the ground and thankfully nobody else and the giant bird took another dive through the air to find a different position from which it could hit all of the dreaded humans with its feathers.

"Great it's intelligent." Said Adam while Weiss was pulling herself up from the place where her temporary partner had thrown the heiress when the attack came. Said, partner had taken the brunt of the damage with several feathers leaving shallow scrapes around her body.

"Yang!" Exclaimed Weiss as she hurried to the blond brawler's side.

"I'm fine." Yang tried to calm the heiress down though Adam could easily tell that she at best could tank two more hits like that until the blond would run out of aura.

"More importantly how are you guys doing?" That was addressed for the two boy and girl pairs from which one had evaded the assault by blasting away with the help of a rocket launcher or just quick reflexes and the other that had acted similarly to Yang as in one of the members had done the utmost to protect the other. Pyrrha Nikos was kneeling on top of Jaune Arc surrounded by feathers that the spartan had been able to deflect with her shield.

"You know I'm liking Mis Nicos even more with every passing second." Commented Adam after witnessing the after-effects of something that could only be described as a masterful example of skill.

"I know right. She's awesome!" Fangirled Weiss.

"You do know that she's still the person that confessed of comparing you to a corpse fly and by all visible evidence has stolen your ideal partner."

"Of course, and for that, I hold her in contempt but it doesn't change the fact that she is a role module of what a perfect huntress is." The heiress explained starry-eyed.

To that, Adam had only one come back. "I extremely pity them if they become unfortunate enough to be put in one team with you."

"Ha!" She thought. "Why?"

"Because even though I will have a small victory dance when you'll be eventually thrown out of Beacon I really don't want the reason for it to be attempted sexual assault against a teammate."

Weiss became red as a tomato and tried to say something which had proven to be extremely hard much to Adam's delight.

"We'll live." Answered Pyrrha as she stood up and gave Jaune a hand.

"We're okay!" Chirped Nora before looking up and shouting in terror. "Oh, Gods it's coming back!"

Everyone looked up and saw the Nevermore approaching.

"Run for the trees!" Advised Ren and began to shot small green bullets towards the grimm while retreating.

Everyone did the same except for Weiss and Jaune who instantly ran towards the woods. Though the blond amateur tried to shield Pyrrha or as Adam called it attempted to be in the way.

The beast couldn't unload another wave of feathers because of the counter-attacks and was forced to fly higher in the air to avoid being hit.

The huntsmen and huntresses hid in the foliage and took a deep breath.

"That…..was close." Said Yang between breaths.

"Yeah!" Agreed Jaune who leaned against a tree. "Did we lose it?"

"No!" Answered Ren ruining a chance for hope. "It will try to finish us."

"How can you be so sure?" Asked Weiss.

Someone scoffed in her head which she ignored.

"A more experienced grimm would have already fled with those types of injuries. This is a youngling which means that it won't stop until we're dead." He finished completely killing the mood.

"So, do we fight it?" Asked Yang.

"Can you launch yourself in the air and move well enough to not get taken advantage of by the grimm?" Objectively asked the ninja.

The brawler clicked her tongue. "Even if I was at 100% I'd doubt I could've pulled it off. How about you Pyr?" The question was sent towards the Spartan who had been silent.

"Sadly airier combat isn't my forte as well." She answered breaking everyone's hopes jet again.

Nora sighed and put Magnhild over her shoulder. "I guess I'm the only one who can give birdy there a piece of her mind."

That however wasn't positively received by her partner. "Nora you can't." The black-haired boy protested.

"Ha, why's that?" The huntress asked displeased.

"Because it's a giant grimm. And your planning to basically fight it alone. I don't have to be a genius to tell you how low of a chance it has to succeed."

"Then what are we supposed to do? Hide?" She asked angrily. "Cause that doesn't sound like something a huntsmen would do."

"We're not huntsmen Nora. Not yet!"

"And we'll never become huntsmen if we'll run away from every grimm that is a bit scary. Come on Ren, I asked you to imitate a sloth, not a chicken."

Meanwhile, Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha were watching the argument and honestly didn't know how to interfere.

"Should we….do something?" Asked Yang.

"It would be the right thing to do." Answered Pyrrha but even she sounded unsure.

"I don't know." Said Weiss. "This seems oddly…..domestic."

The other two girls just nodded and continued to say nothing.

"I got it!" Exclaimed Jaune getting everyone's attention.

"What?" Questioned Yang before she was interrupted.

"Excuse me." Said Nora looking quite agitated. "Were kind of in the middle of something."

"We don't have to fight that bird." Said the Arc with a dumb grin on his face.

"Not you too!" Screamed Nora.

"What do you mean Jaune?" Asked Pyrrha while Yang and Ren were holding Nora from attacking the blond. "She gets sometimes like that." Explained the ginger's best friend.

"I mean that we don't have to waste our time fighting the Nevermore, but instead we should prioritize to get those artifacts." The boy explained.

"So we should just let that thing fly around and attack the other students?" Questioned Yang disapprovingly while holding the captive's head so it wouldn't bite her.

"I mean, do we have a way to beat the nevermore?" Jaune asked.

"No." Said everyone except Nora who had her teeth launched in Yang's gauntlet.

"Is our main objective to kill the nevermore?"

Everyone minus Nora shook her head.

He confidently smiled. "Last question. Do we know some experienced huntsmen who we could inform about the grimm before it gets a chance to hurt anyone if we return quickly?"

The question managed to please everyone except for two people from one who was capable of coherent speech.

"You want us to rely on others to kill a grimm?" Yang asked showing her disapproval. "Sorry, there bud but that isn't the type of huntress I'm striving to become."

The Arc groaned while facepalming. "Common Yang it isn't always about fighting the grimm. Say for instance you need to bring medicine to a village full of sick people. Would you stop to fight each and every grimm you come across despite the fact that with every hour more and more civilians would die?"

That left the blond brawler silent. She really didn't have an answer to that.

"I understand how frustrating it may be to not be able to do something, but if we waste all of our time here than none of us will get those relics or be capable to even learn to be huntsmen. So how about it?" Jaune stretched his hand forward. "Let's run away from this one grimm so later we could slay hundreds more and save lives."

"Let's." Said Weiss as she placed her palm atop the boys.

Next was Pyrrha who did the same but made sure not to be pressing her palm on the heiresses for obvious reasons. She offered her partner a sweet smile.

"I can argue with that logic." Commented Ren and joined with his own hand.

Yang was dumbstruck which her captive used to break free.

"I didn't quite understand what you were rambling about, but when in doubt say 'yes.'" Cheered Nora after which she pressed her hand with unneeded force.

That left the other blond who rolled her eyes and joined the circle. "Alright, alright don't make me the villain we have Princess for that."

"Hey!" Exclaimed Weiss which made several people chuckle.

"Despite being someone who really enjoys some quality Schneebuse I'm feeling that this wholesomeness is driving me sick, can you brats go and get those McGuffins before I gag." Whined the faunus.

Weiss just rolled her eyes.

"But guys we still haven't found those artifacts." Said the brawler once everyone had retracted their limbs.

To this Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha just pointed towards the other end of the clearing were inside of a shattered stone dome atop of small podiums stod a lot of somethings that were too far to be clearly seen.

"Oh," Yang said. "You already found those."

"Yeah we were heading for them but then you all sorta fell from the sky," Jaune said between the lingering silence.

Adam fake coughed.

Weiss got the memo. "So let's figure a plan to avoid the Nevermore and then let's going then."

The others nodded and faced their most reliable source of ideas. Which was Jaune.

The Arc stuttered and looked around. "What?"

"Well, you seem like the 'ideas guy'." His fellow blond said to what the others nodded in agreement.

"Well." He whimpered and then sighed, and lowered his head in defeat. "I'll think of something."

The Nevermore eyed where it's prey was hiding. It hated them. Of course, that wasn't anything new. The grimm had been birthed with the instinct to despise and kill all of the differently shining beings. But now it felt different. The small, white one who shined like a bloodied star had escaped and the beast was hurt. How severely? It couldn't comprehend the concept of injury jet but it made the Nevermore's hatred so very personal. So it felt a sadistic glee when they returned to the clearing.

It knew that the little colorful beings would eventually leave the woods. Despite being quite young the creature understood that humans couldn't hide forever and would eventually step into visibility. And now they were out. The Nevermore flew through the air towards the ever so growing dots and was prepared to cover them with its razor-sharp feathers when something hit the grimm's face. It was small and due to that the avian creature would've most likely ignored it if the object wouldn't have been so close of hitting it in the eye. Another one sailed through the air and also almost hit its sensory organ. Only it was closer to actually do it this time.

Feeling threatened the flying creature turned around and flew higher up to escape the attacker's range. On the forest ground, Pyrrha Nikos smiled with her aura enhanced vision having transformed Milo in its rifle form.

"It's fleeing." The spartan said to what everyone cheered.

"Good job Pyrrha!" Her partner said. "Okey everyone, keep an eye out for trouble and let us move out."

With that said everyone headed towards the ruins.

In the end, Jaune's plan was pretty straight forward. Pyrrha who was the closest thing they had to a sniper would keep the grimm at a distance by trying to take out its eyes. And if the Nevermore will try to dive bomb them than Yang, Nora and Ren would respond by covering it with explosions and bullets forcing the creature to jet again abort the assault. Maybe it wasn't the best plan but it was far from the worst considering the variables that were presented. But at the same time, their enemy was quite the tenacious one.

"Feathers!" Shouted Ren as it seemed that the Nevermore had decided to attack despite the distance.

Just as planned three people went to intercept them while the others hid behind them. The defenders were Pyrrha who was a no brainer, Yang who had borrowed Jaune's shield after a small arm wrestle it was confirmed that the blond male was a sissy in the strength department, and surprisingly Lie Ren who had a special trick of how to deflect the projectiles.

Due to the high altitude of the attack, the Nevermore's feathers scattered quite far from each other as a result the Beacon students didn't have to receive as much of them as before. The red-head deflected them with ease just like before, the temporary shielder just sloppily thanked which did the job while the pink-eyed boy did something no one expected. Pink aura surged around his hands as he extended them towards the feathers and the air in front of him seemed to solidify. Four of the projectiles hit it and though each strike made pink ripples go through the anomaly like it was about to dissolve at any second n the end all of them were still deflected.

Adam whistled. An external aura shield. Not bad! That was considered to be a quite complicated art to master than a regular aura slice though by the Mistralians tensed face it seemed that calling it a mastery would be overly generous. Still, it wasn't bad since the Schnee presumed it was a semblance and most likely the other toddlers thought the same. The faunus wanted to roll his eyes. Of course, none of them knew about it. It was shocking to see how many professional huntsmen hadn't learned more than the basic aura manipulation techniques. And they wondered how he could've killed so many of them.

Oblivious to the ramblings of the specter the gang continued to move and finally reached the ruins. Within on top of the podiums, there were chess pieces, surprisingly. They were a mixture of gold and black ones. Some of the podiums were already empty and written on them was a friendly reminder from the headmaster that each pair was allowed to take only one artifact or else suffer being thrown out of Beacon. All of them, except Weiss, thought that it was kind of harsh but maybe the academy really wasn't interested in anyone who couldn't behave even on the first day.

Up in the sky, the Nevermore made another frightening screech and everyone saw it as a signal to pick up the paste. Each pair took a chess piece. Yang and Weiss ended up with a golden knight piece, because of the blonds OMG horsies and gold which made the heiress and the ex-terrorist cringe so badly that the later thought the girl's face would tear from the muscle strain while the other pairs took two different colors of tower even though Nora chose the black only because she wanted to become Pyrrha's and Jaune's evil arch-nemesis or something like that and Ren was too polite and/or slow to stop her.

After that, they didn't linger and instead ran for the woods. However, the Nevermore wasn't having it as the beast shot down from the sky to attack them.

"It's coming!" Said Pyrrha and the three main shooters began to unload ammunition upon the grimm.

Grenades erupted into explosions while red dust and regular bullets pierced dead flesh. Yet even with its body literally being torn to shreds, the Nevermore didn't retreat but instead adamantly closed the distance between it and the prey. All thoughts of self-preservation had been thrown out the window.

At one point the Beacon students came to the conclusion that even explosions won't stop it. Unfortunately, it was the moment when the distance between them and the avian grimm was a few meters, at best. Instinctively everyone leaped for the sides. Ren and Pyrrha were the first ones. They were the fastest and with the quickest reflexes to boot. Then came Nora and Yang who were both kinds of lousy in the speed department but had good enough instincts to know when to dodge. Jaune was the last one to make it out but it was most likely due to the weird feeling the blond experienced like he was being pulled by his armor and weapons towards his partner.

That however left Weiss who was tired, had spent and undesirable amount of aura during previous attacks, and despite having the physical constitution that would prefer speed, in overall physical prowess she was only slightly above Jaune due to her semblance and fighting being built on over-dependence on dust and Myrtenaster. In short, she wasn't fast enough to avoid that Nevermore and was pretty screwed.

Adam came to a similar conclusion after realizing that the Schnee was about to cleaved in two from the torso by one of the beasts giant razor-sharp wings.

"Shit!" Maybe those weren't his best last words but they encapsulated his feelings in the most perfect mater.

Weiss meanwhile felt that the world had almost slowed down to a crawl. The attack was coming much slower but her body was still slower than it.

"This is really how it will all end, ha?" She thought bitterly.

All of her life had been spent for the singular goal of becoming a huntress, freeing herself from the man who married into the Schnee family and make her grandfather proud by restoring the SDC to what it was supposed to become.

And jet, Weiss had allowed all of those huntsmen to die for her when Adam attacked, she became Jacques puppet again by telling all of those lies to the media only so that she could save her own skin and after which the heiress had made an enemy of almost everyone at Beacon. Even when fighting the grimm she had to rely on the assistance of other people.

"I really am pathetic." Was the last thought of Weiss Schnee as she closed both eyes and awaited death's cruel embrace. Only it never came.

From the edge of the forest, a red blur dashed out leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake and crashed into the heiress seconds before the Nevermore had the chance to finish her off. The surprised creature rammed the ground pretty painfully leaving a trail of destruction like crashed bullhead and by the look of it seemed to be dead while the red and white something went past the group of young huntsmen and inelegantly cashed against the dirt revealing the forms of one Weiss Schnee that looked extremely confused and Ruby Rose that flared her arms attempting to keep balance before falling on her knees and going "ouch".

"What just happened?" Thought Weiss.

"We didn't die?" Asked Adam who had been prepared to go out in the most uncomfortable way possible.

"Are you okay?" Asked Ruby gaining their attention.

The Schnee and by default, the dead man gazed at the girl and slowly added two and two together.

"You saved us?" Asked the heiress with a frozen expression without even realizing the severe mistake she made when talking about herself.

"Ah…..Yes!" The girl with black and red hair said unsure how it will turn out. "But eh I knew that you could handle it yourself…..but….but…..". Before the reaper could come up with an excuse something unexpected happened. Weiss pulled her into a hug.

They were like that for a few seconds during which the terrified Ruby in her captors embrace tried to remember the finer details of that one time uncle Qrow told a story about how he escaped a bandit's stranglehold.

"Thank you!" Weiss finally said which left her 'savior' quite confused. The heiress let go of the smaller girl who saw that the Schnee had slightly damp eyes.

"You're welcome?" Ruby said quite confused before someone called her name and the youngest huntress saw her sister, Jaune, and ehm…..other people who she was happy to see again.

"Yang!" The reaper in red chirped in a relieved tone. "I'm so glad that you are okay!"

"I should be the one saying that." The blond roared ferociously and grabbed her unsuccessfully escaping sister in an actual chokehold while giving her a nuggie. "Who said you were allowed to sprint past a charging Nevermore?"

"But Yaaang!" Whined Ruby whose upper head started to feel like a campfire. "I had to," gasp, "save your partner."

That seemed to work cause the blond released her slightly blue sister and faced the other offender.

"And you!" She pointed at the Schnee who was looking at the sisterly exchange with a mix of sadness and envy. Weiss was startled and expected the worst.

The blond lowered her head. "I'm sorry!"

The red and white huntresses felt shocked.

"But you didn't do anything?" The heiress said.

"I abandoned my partner." Yang continued. "I was supposed to have you back but I cared more about my ass and left for that damn bird. So I'm sorry."

Weiss cringed. She really didn't know how to respond to these types of situations so the heiress would appreciate if the universe would stop to give her stuff like this on a damn platter.

"Apology accepted. Plus you saved me before so I'll let this one slide." The Schnee said with an awkward smirk. Why having the moral high ground felt so weird.

The young lady felt the faunus attempting to say something and she really didn't have the patience or time for it.

"Yeah, yeah I'm a bad person who doesn't deserve anything good, happy?" Weiss snapped at the faunus.

"See was that so hard? You're finally being honest." The man mockingly joked.

The heiress rolled her eyes. Gods damn it she fell for it!

Meanwhile, the other students except for Ren had switched their attention from the giant grimm's body to the newcomer or newcomers as Blake appeared from the threes a bit short of breath but overall feeling fine. She quickly scanned the pack for her partner and made a tired sigh once the other girl was spotted.

"That's Ruby's partner." Weiss thought as the black-haired girl was approaching.

"What was her name again? Blair, Bless, Bland."

"Blake." Another voice said while being full of contempt.

"Aaa yes, Blake. She doesn't seem to like me very much…." Weiss stopped thinking about the stranger as her attention slipped to the back of her skull.

"Now that I recall I should deserve to hear an explanation for your previous break down after this Blake person appeared." She inquired.

Adam wanted to click his tongue and only refrained from doing so because it would make the Schnee even more suspicious of him.

"She just reminded me of someone I lost that is all." He half lied. The best lies were based on the truth.

The heiress raised an eyebrow. "And that triggered your mental episode?" Was the next question.

"Most likely." Was the answer.

Weiss shrugged and sorta gave up. "You won't tell me anything more will you?"

"That would require trust. Something that you weren't willing to give me when you were in that Nevermore's grasp." He finished sorta satisfied that it was possible to play the Schnee along.

She huffed. That terrorist was really going to be the death of her.

"Oh and we found this in the woods." Said Ruby and handed Weiss Myrtenaster.

The Schnee's expression softened as she took her somewhat dirty but completely functional weapon.

"For a minute I thought I lost you there." She tenderly thought while swiped over some of the dirt off the cold weapon with her thumb.

The reaper in red and saw this exchange and was stunned. The downright terrifying girl had shown somewhat of a gentle attachment for her weapon which was something that could give anyone bonus points in her friend meter.

Ruby shook her head and groaned. Why couldn't people be plain good or evil just like in her "X-Ray and Wave" comics?

Suddenly Ren's shout brought everyone's attention. "It's still alive!"

Everyone immediately turned towards the avian creature. Its body was in complete shambles with feathers and skin ripped off in many places giving everyone a clear sight of flesh, muscle, and even bone. Nevertheless, the Nevermore slowly got up and made another ear-piercing screech. The Beacon students replied kindly to this by shooting out a few dozen projectiles. They hit the grimm's body causing quite some damage but it didn't stop the beast from taking flight. The creature only flew a few tens of meters into the air before spreading its gigantic wings against the young huntsmen.

The Nevermore knew that it was going to die. Too much strength had left the massive creatures form and what was left in no way would suffice to keep it alive. So with one last scream against those, it was born to kill the grimm released a final wave of arrows that without any doubt will impale those huntsmen who had caused the Nevermores demise.

It took everyone a second to realize that they were too close to escape the barrage. Well except for Ruby but the younger huntress would never abandon her sister despite said sister's wishes.

But the matter of fact stayed the same. They had been to unobservant and cooky and hadn't taken in the fact that the avian grimm didn't start to dissipate as a sign that it was still very much alive. A veteran huntsman would just write off as being inexperienced. Well, inexperienced or not it didn't do much to change the fact that none of the eight students could see themselves walking this out in one piece.

Weiss couldn't believe herself. She had read so many books about the grimm and yet she didn't bother to check if the really dangerous one that almost killed her for about three times was truly dead. Winter would've given her an earful. The feathers were sailing through the air and just like before when the Nevermore had almost rammed into her the world had slowed its self to a crawl.

"But are you going to act like before?" The voice was mature, strong, demanding. Brothers, Weiss wished to have such a voice.

But yes, what is she going to do? Take it?

"No!" Commanded the voice. "You won't."

That's right. She won't.

The image in front of her changed to back at the battleship where Adam was about to kill that specialist with the gun. Weiss had tried to forget, but the matter of fact was that the only reason she had reached so far was that she didn't hesitate to launch her weapon in his back for her own freedom. And damn her to hell if Weiss will just give up after coming face to face with one of the most dangerous people on Remnant and crawled out as the victor.

With Myrtenaster in a tight grip, she pointed it towards the projectiles and poured her remaining aura in one last glyph. A giant circle with the Schnee family crest appeared in front of the student's and tanked all of the feathers before shattering in bluish-white particles. It happened only for a few seconds but it was enough time to do what was needed.

"Yang!" Exclaimed Ruby who rushed at her sister.

The blond quickly understood what her younger sibling had in store and with a short burst of her semblance with the trademark red eyes and burning hair she threw the small girl in the air. Ruby fired Crescent Rose a few times to gain momentum and once close to the surprised beast she decapitated it with one great slash.

The black body fell and began to disintegrate and by the time the grimm's corpse should've hit the ground it was already gone. After which everyone had a grateful sigh. The hardest part really was over.

Weiss looked at the conclusion with a satisfied smirk before feeling as all strength left her legs. She started to fall but was caught by an armored gauntlet and saw the cocky smirk of her partner.

"Not bad Weiss!" The heiress heard and passed out with a smile of her own.

"Phew!" That was a toughy.

Anyhow. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. While writing it I found a lot of things I really need to improve as a writer that isn't my horrendous grammar.

First would be writing how a big number of people interact in a scene. Eight was hard enough. If someone knows how to do it and will tell me I will name my firstborn in your name good person.

Second would be challenge. I decided that I'll try to make the grimm a bit more dangerous than in the show. Because what's the point of reading fanfiction if it doesn't try to be different. The problem, however, is that I need to do it without nerfing the cast. Something I'm afraid I have already done with the Nevermore. And though I could just write it off as them being inexperienced, for now, further in the story this shit won't fly.

So if someone has some writer's advice about it I'd be more than grateful to hear it.

Okay, that would be enough for my whining. Now with the next part.

Omake - I plan to have them in the future, but I'm a bit spontaneous with those. It doesn't mean that I don't have any ideas. I have enough of them for a whole nother story.

Why didn't I end the chapter with the end of the initiation?

For an important reason. As you might have guessed I plan to stick with the canon teams, but I'm not sure about who will be the leader of team RWBY. I wanted to stick canon wise with Ruby as the leader, but now reading through I've realized that she hasn't shown as many leade-ish qualities as in the show. So I kind of couldn't decide.

So how about this I've added a poll at my profile where you all can vote until the 16th of August.

You can also write in a review of why that person would have been chosen as a leader from Ozpin's perspective. It would help. Plus I'm a sucker for long reviews.

So enjoy. Review. Inform me if I've made a writing error and most importantly stay healthy!

Soul Out!