I can't help continue writing this stuff, it's been a lot of fun. First time writing any kind of combat in forever, so I'm not sure how great it'll come across. I'd love feedback!

Ruby opened her eyes, groaning lightly as she did, the first slivers of light peering in through the window of Team RWBY's dorm. Fumbling around for her scroll, somewhere under her pillow, she clicked the side key to clear the alarm, a miserable sigh escaping her lips as she dropped from her hanging bunk, landing on the floor with a quiet thud. Looking around her room, a hint of a smile grazed her tired face. She might not like waking up early on a Saturday, but she really didn't want to wake up her team when she was getting up for the first leadership class.

It was admittedly odd that Professor Goodwitch waited six weeks before starting them, but Ruby was sure there was a good reason for that. Going as quick as she could, she readied herself for the day, standing in front of the bathroom mirror not ten minutes later with a confident grin, hands resting on her hips, before breaking out into muffled laughter. Gosh she looked silly acting like that! Shaking her head, Ruby fixed the clasps on her cloak, before slipping out of the dorm and into the hallway, where she was met with a familiar face. "Hey Jaune!"

"Huh?" The blonde blurted out, jumping slightly at the sound of her voice. Giving Jaune a cheeky grin, Ruby bounced on her heels, head cocking slightly to the side. "Oh! Good morning, Ruby. You seem chipper this morning."

"I'm always chipper in the morning!" Ruby insisted, sticking her tongue out to her friend playfully. "Come on, Jaune! We need to go to the lockers and get out weapons!"

Jaune didn't respond, just giving a reluctant groan and rubbing his eyes. Ruby supposed she couldn't disagree with that, it was pretty early, and even if she was good at waking up in the mornings, she didn't mind it as much as some people. It was fun, being awake before the others, sometimes. Less Weiss around to bother her about studying, that way!

The duo walked at a rather lackadaisical pace, finding themselves nearly the last ones to arrive where the 8 leaders of first year teams were waiting, with only one person still absent. "'Scuse me!" The rather arrogant sound of Cardin Winchester's voice filled the room as he entered, pushing in between Ruby and Jaune rather rudely as he made his way to the front. Ruby found her face scrunching up into a scowl for a moment, though the rather dejected, resigned expression from her friend worried her.

"Come on, he's just a big lug." Ruby tried to reassure Jaune, a halfhearted smile met only with a sad frown. "Goodwitch should be here soon to tell us what we're doing, so cheer up!"

"That'sProfessorGoodwitch, Miss Rose." The stern tone of Glynda Goodwitch retorted, Ruby going rigid and feeling her cheeks warm in embarrassment as she heard some of their classmates chuckle at her. "Now, class, grab your weapons and come to Dock A1. We have a big day ahead of us."

The students filed out quickly, Ruby cradling Crescent Rose as she walked beside Jaune, who she saw fiddling with his weapon, Crocea Mors, as it dangled from his hip. She stuck beside her friend, not confident that she could really speak to the other students who made up the team leaders of her year, especially after dealing with Goodwitch calling her out in front of the whole group.

With Professor Goodwitch leading them, it was surprisingly quick getting from the lockers to the bullhead docks, though to be honest, Ruby figured it was mostly because everyone was afraid of her. Nothing quite so motivating as a glare from the most notorious teacher at the academy. Crowding into the sole bullhead that Goodwitch requisitioned for the day's lesson, Ruby clung tighter to her precious weapon, afraid that one of her classmates might try messing with it like some of the students at Signal had, plastering a severe look that was met with a nervous gaze from Jaune.

"Sorry." She whispered, leaning a little closer so he could hear. "I just don't want people messing with Crescent. She's all tuned up for today and I want her to be perfect."

"It'll be fine, Ruby!" Jaune insisted, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'm here, so everyone is going to focus on targeting me instead. You'll be outstanding."

Given the shocked look he gave when Ruby puffed out her cheeks at him, Jaune likely was expecting something more affirming after that statement. "What? No! That's unacceptable. We're going to work together today and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"What?! But Ruby, I'm like, the worst in the class! I'll totally bring your grade down!" Jaune said, Ruby's eyes narrowing in disdain at the assertion. Before she could retort again, he raised his hands in a surrendering position. "Hey, hey! It's your choice, not mine. I can't stop you if you really want to."

"Good!" Ruby nodded, poking Jaune on the nose. "You don't get to keep sabotaging yourself, or you're never going to get your scores up! We're going to be great leaders, Jaune, but we have to do our best!"

"If you say so," Jaune grumbled, his words slipping under his breath where Ruby couldn't hear him any longer. She pouted again, not so sure that he was quite done with this whole self deprecating thing, but she hoped he would be, they were about to do something important! First the bullhead had to actually land, though, and with her spot in the small aircraft, she couldn't even tell where they were going.

Several minutes passed, and the bullhead began its descent, Ruby noting they couldn't have gone too far from Beacon, and was greeted with the somewhat familiar woods of the Emerald Forest as she stepped out, Jaune following her onto the dirt. As the students gathered outside of the transport, Professor Goodwitch addressed them: "Today's exercise will be held here, within the Emerald Forest." Pacing in front of the group, she paused before Jaune and Ruby. "Your goal today is to track down and stop a horde of Grimm spotted heading towards Vale. While the guard could undoubtedly handle them, it's best if we keep things nice and easy for them."

Drifting away from the duo, she stopped again when she reached Cardin, the arrogant grin on his face fading under her withering glare, a muffled giggle escaping Ruby as she watched. "You are all leaders of your Teams at Beacon, and that means you must learn to be a leader, but before you do that, you must make sure you are strong enough to take care of your team. You will earn points depending on the types of Grimm you've slain, so do not be afraid of diversifying your targets."

Looking over the group once more before dismissing them to begin the assignment, she simply advised: "do not lose sight of the purpose of this exercise."

As everyone got ready to move, Cardin pushed his way through, pushing Jaune to the ground as he bumped his shoulder against Ruby. She did her best to ignore his gloating about being sure to score the highest, instead reaching down to help Jaune up. Noticing the defeated frown on her friend's face, Ruby took a deep breath. "It'll be fine, Jaune. We can do great. Just ignore him." She wanted to believe that, but she couldn't help but admit the taller boy had been getting to her with his constant bullying. It didn't help that he was targeting Jaune just as much, if not more!

"Right," Jaune gave a weary smile, which Ruby hoped meant he was up for this, as she unholstered Crescent Rose, the scythe expanding to its full size in her hand. Giving him a reassuring smile, Ruby took her first steps into the forest, being sure not to out pace her friend.

"Is this really it?" Ruby wondered aloud, spinning Crescent Rose before letting come to rest on her shoulder. "It's only been a few beowolves so far, nothing serious. I was expecting something more, hmm, imposing! Anything on your end, Jaune?"

"Oh! I'm just - uh - doing fine!" Jaune responded between grunts, Ruby turning to see her friend in the middle of fighting an Ursa, his shield awkwardly raised, nowhere near the right position to block the strike that proceeded to send him stumbling backwards. "Just - give me a moment!"

Ruby hesitated, not wanting to interfere with her friend's attempt, but regretted it immediately at the great sound of a crunch as a massive mace crashed into the back of the Ursa, the beast immediately beginning to dissolve into the air. "Huh, what's this? A pile of trash just lying around in the forest?" He didn't bother to hide as he stepped on Jaune's back, eliciting a groan from the prone teen.

"Hey!" Ruby shouted, her silver eyes narrowing into a glare as she looked at Cardin, her grip on Crescent Rose tightening as she remembered him her first year at Signal, all too gleeful to "accidentally" break her prototype. She should have known it was him the first day she was at Beacon, but he looked a different than he had back then. "What's your problem?"

"My problem? My problem is wastes of space like you and that idiot. I don't even know why you came to this academy with how pathetic you two are." Cardin declared, smirking as he pushed Ruby aside to continue on his way. "Just know your place and stay out of my way!"

Ruby growled, fuming silently as she helped Jaune up, anger giving way to concern as she saw his pained expression. "Hey, he didn't hurt you too bad, did he?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper, worried that she had enabled this to happen by not helping sooner. "He's a big jerk, don't worry about him. We'll still do better than that lug!"

"What even is a lug?" Jaune groaned, stumbling up as she tugged his hand. "You've said it twice today and I don't know what it is."

"Oh, um. It's a word." Ruby shrunk a little at Jaune's deadpan stare. "Look! I don't know either, I just heard Weiss use it to refer to Cardin! I thought you'd know."

"You thoughtIwould know? She calls me a bumpkin at least twice a week"

"She calls me a bumpkin at least twice aday!" Ruby pouted, before a growing laugh escaped her lips, and she began to giggle loudly, grinning at her friend. "Come on, we can still win this. Cardin's a dumb jerk he won't have any idea what he's doing."

"Yeah, I hope so." Jaune certainly didn't sound convinced, which was a little disappointing, but Ruby was determined to not give up, especially after how they'd been treated. "It's just, what if he's right, Ruby? What if I'm not cut out for this? Maybe I should've-"

"Nope! Don't think like that! We're way better than Cardin and we're going to win!" Ruby insisted, puffing out her cheeks as she stood in front of Jaune as he made sure he had his weapon ready. "We'll do great!"

"Heh, sure…" A beeping from his pocket cut Jaune off, and Ruby raised an eyebrow curiously. Pulling out his scroll, a look of concern painted her friend's face. "Um, Ruby. We've got a problem. My scroll is listing a second horde of Grimm heading towards the city."

"What? But, the assignment was-"

"Forget about the assignment, Ruby! This is more important than that!" Jaune insisted, a fierce expression erasing whatever concern he had as he tightened his grip on Crocea Mors and started off in the direction of the oncoming Grimm. Staring at her friend, Ruby contemplated for a moment, before running off after him. There was no way she was going to leave him vulnerable again, not after earlier.

It didn't take long to arrive where the approaching swarm was marked, a large unkindness of Nevermores filling the sky above the duo. "There's so many…" Ruby mumbled, before shaking her head. Now wasn't the time. She shuddered at the loud cries of the avian monsters, remembering how close a call she'd had with a feather during the initiation. "Jaune, I'm not sure what to do! There's a lot and I don't know if I can take them all down with Crescent's shots."

"Well," Jaune's face tensed as he looked up towards the Nevermores flying overhead, hand tightening around the grip on his shield. Ruby looked back at him, hoping her friend had some sort of idea. Suddenly, Ruby was able to catch a flash of pride in his eyes. "Ruby! Remember what Pyrrha does with Nora during team battles? With her shield?"

"Wait, you don't mean, oh my gosh Jaune that's genius!" Ruby exclaimed, twisting into a blur of petals as Jaune braced himself on the ground, his shield held up facing the sky. "One Huntress ready to jump!" Ruby announced, grinning as her friend pushed up as best as he could, firing a gravity round as he reached the peak of his push, launching herself into the air as she held Crescent Rose out to big her assault.

As she neared the first Nevermore, Ruby pulled the trigger of her sniper-scythe again, the recoil of the gravity dust sending her into a spiral as she cut through the first bird's neck, landing on it's dissolving body as she redirected herself. Firing off another round, Ruby exploded forward into the swarm, Crescent Rose like a blender as she spun, shot after shot, accelerating and continuing her deadly cyclone as she tore into the Grimm.

As she began her descent, Ruby looked into Jaune's eyes, her friend doing his best to follow her so he could slow her landing. The duo ended up in a pile as she collided with him, gleeful giggling escaping her lips as she looked up at the mass of disappearing Grimm, their essence breaking up before they could even hit the ground.

Scrambling up, Ruby and Jaune froze up a little as they recognized Professor Goodwitch approaching, hoping that she hadn't seen only the last few seconds of what had just happened. "H-Hello, Professor!" Jaune squawked out, giving a sheepish smile. "There was another swarm of Grimm and-"

"You thought you would intercept it. I am able to make judgments on the situation, Mister Arc." Professor Goodwitch informed them, adjusting her glasses. "Well done, you two, on remembering the objective of the mission."

With that, the professor took her leave, Ruby and Jaune gawking at the fact they'd managed to receive a compliment from Beacon's most notoriously cold Huntress. "Hey, Jaune?" The most she could get out of him was a nervous grunt. "Good job out there. There's no way I could've taken care of them on my own."

Jaune returned the nervous smile Ruby was giving him, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "Thanks, Ruby. Let's get back to the bullhead. No one is going to believe we were actually complimented by Goodwitch."

"ProfessorGoodwitch." Ruby reaffirmed with a wink, sending an elbow into her friend's side. "Lead the way."