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Ozpin looked over the assembled students in the crowd before him. So many new faces. So many new stories. He already had a feeling he knew who the true greats would be among the rabble. Miss Nikos's reputation spoke for itself, while Miss Valkyrie and Mr Ren had both performed well above standard in their combat test. It was the four unknown quantities that frightened him though. Even now they stood out. Blake Belladonna. Her trail died almost eleven years ago, but the records he had discovered in the police report made it clear who she was. As did the target brief book the police had recovered from the wreckage of the Hartsgrove Facility. She held herself low over the crossbeam, high above in the roof. To be honest, only her aura read and her eyes gave her away. She blended almost perfectly into the darkness, something about her destabilising her outline and rendering easy observation impossible.
Yang Xiao-long. Easily the only unarmed huntress he would rate for long term survival. Her file had been heavily corrupted during the Hartsgrove Massacre, leaving little beyond cursory knowledge of her semblance and her long term attachment to another subject in the facility. Her choice of wear alarmed Ozpin, but if the Tatoos that criss crossed her, as they did Miss Schnee, were what Ozpin believed them to be, he could see its necessity. Her lack of a tongue both confused and intrigued Ozpin; during the entrance medical inspection, none of the team had allowed any invasive investigation, but the doctors on site had determined that there was no sign that a tongue was ever present at all. There was no damaged tissue, and no damage to any other area of her mouth or throat. Ozpn suspected that it would be difficult to get answers out of her, so he had asked the investigators to slow down, and let him get them settled first.
Weiss Schnee. Even Ozpin hadn't realised there was a third, middle Schnee child. According to the file, she had been resident in the Hartsgrove Facility for almost as long as the Patch orphans. While her target list was significantly less impressive than Belladonna's, she was easily one of the most interesting of the group to Ozpin. Although, to be fair, she barely seemed a part of any group. More machine than woman, and perpetually shadowing Ruby like an overprotective puppy. The files had given some indication as to the source of Weiss and Ruby's 'special relationship' (although the supervisors had seemed more interested in the value for exploitation than investigation, and thus had failed to give the origins), but had entirely underestimated how deep it seemed to go. The other strange thing was that Ozpin couldn't gain any form of aura read on her at all. He suspected it was a property built into her armour, but that in itself was a reason for inquiry. At present, Schnee was standing along the beam from Belladonna, somehow gripping onto the rear of the beam with her armoured feet. Her ice blue loincloth, decorated with the eternally re-occuring eye sigil, hung below her, while she was leaned in, hanging by the shoulder of the fourth and final member of the group.
Ruby Rose was crouched on the beam, her long cloak flowing over her, her hood obscuring her face entirely. Her aura was... strange. It seemed to be concentrated in some areas of her body, while the others had... something else. It felt like aura, but when Ozpin tried to gaze upon it, his stomach attempted to rebel against him, and he had to rapidly cast his mind elsewhere. Her records had been entirely destroyed during the massacre at Hartsgrove, leaving only her name and date of birth. He didn't even know what she looked like; all attempts by medical professionals to look under the cloak in any way had resulted in either them being hurled across the room by one of her team-mates, or rendered unconcious so fast they couldn't even recall the snippets they had seen. A riddle for the ages indeed.
Ozpin cleared his throat. Time to begin.
'Welcome, students of Beacon Academy....'
####
'...To initiation!'
Ozpins words echoed off the cliffs, down to the immense green sea below. Looking across the row of initiates, standing across the cliffs on their launch pads, he almost sighed. Some were watching and listening attentively, like Mr Ren and Miss Nikos. Others looked bored, like Miss Schnee, Miss Belladonna, and Mr Winchester. Some looked terrified. Well, one actually. Mr Arc was already making Ozpin regret allowing him to come to Beacon. Some of the others were guarded, such as Miss Rose and Miss Xiao-Long. Some were Miss Valkyrie, who was bouncing up and down, making 'sloth noises', which Mr Ren was carefully ignoring.
The first set of jump plates fired, sending the initial four students up into the air. Seeing them, Mr Arc started shaking.
'So, sir, um, how are we landing? Exactly?'
Another row of students were launched up into the air, this one containing Miss Xiao-Long. Ozpin had attempted to mostly split up the existing groups. He had shied short of dividing Miss Rose and Miss Schnee, but he had separated the other two members of their little group into different sets, more to see what would happen than anything else.
'You will be using your own landing strategy'
Another row fired, this one containing Miss Valkyrie and Miss Nikos. Mr Arc looked positively terrified now. He had evidently realised that the nextgroup would contain him. Looking desperately around, he saw Mr Ren, who simply shrugged nonchalantly at him. Then their pads went off. Mr Ren flew up with impressive grace, even for a huntress. Mr Arc flew with rather less, shrieking desperately.
Turning, Ozpin saw Miss Rose and Miss Schnee break apart, returning to their launch pads. Mr Winchester was shooting Miss Schnee a dirty look, but carefully turned away whenever either of them looked in his direction. Then their launchers went off, and Ozpin was temporarily alone.
####
Fifty five minutes later, and joined by Glynda, and the initiation had already left them both suprised and Ozpin at least a little frustrated. Miss Rose and Miss Schnee had never landed, instead managing to glide, using Miss Rose's cloak as some form of wing, to the far end of the forest, arriving at the relic site with time to spare and little to no injury (There had been an encounter with a young nevermore, but suffice to say the two huntresses had had by far the better of that exchange). They had been rapidly joined by Miss Xiao-Long and Miss Belladonna, who had managed to partner up as well. To be fair, Miss Xiao-Long had been made partnerless, after her first partner, a foolish, smitten boy, had decided to try and impress her. By taking on a deathstalker. One on one. With a whip. The boy had ended up skewered in seconds. While Miss Xiao-Long had subsequently crushed and incinerated the beast, it had been too late for the foolish boy. Miss Xiao Long had his body, slung over her shoulder like one would a duffle bag.
Not only had the group managed to regroup, going against his intentions, they had then taken the same pieces, making them an official team. Provided they survived, that is. The pain of the deceased boy and... whatever Miss Xiao-Long felt had drawn a veritable army of Grimm from the undergrowth; a surging black tide that had overwhelmed almost half a dozen other trainees already. The last few had made a desperate rush to the temple. It appeared that Miss Nikos had chosen Mr Arc as her partner, much to Glynda's suprise, although Ozpin had suspected that he fit the profile for her interest. Miss Valkyrie and Mr Ren had also regrouped, with Mr Ren managing to efficiently fight off a King Taijitu.
And now the last sixteen students had made it to the ruins. The good news was, for the students, that at least now there was relative safety in numbers, and everyone seemed far more confident around the newly official team RWBY, in stark contrast to their attitude outside of combat, which seemed to fall somewhere between disregard and outright fear. The good news for Ozpin, meanwhile, was that it would be far less difficult to gauge the abilities of the students now/
####
Pyrrha landed heavily, as the Ursa charged towards her, only to watch it be intercepted by a tidal wave of fire, hurling it into the abyss below. Looking behind to find the source of the fire, Pyrrha saw Yang coming up, hands outstretched, wreathed in flames. Her tattoos seemed to glow, and her eyes blazed buring red behind her mask. She roared into the sky, before charging past Pyrrha, and charging shoulder first into the next grimm to set foot onto the suddenly fragile stone bridge; a particuarly unlucky beowulf, in this case, as it was turned into a missile, plowing into the horde behind it. Using its path of destruction as a distraction, Yang powered into the throng, fire blazing around her, until a whole area of the battlefield was an inferno. Pyrrha felt a tapping on her shoulder.
'I would warn you against staring. Yang is very, very protective of her relationships, and doesn't believe in reasonable circumstances.'
Pyrrha turned around, to see the shadow underneath a red hood before her.
'Ruby...'
Ruby's right hand emerged from her cloak. In it was clutched a pair of small, metallic discs.
'My friends and I can hold this bridge, and stop them from getting into the ruins. I need you to get everyone else up the cliffs. Plant these close to the top.'
Pyrrha was about to argue, when a beowulf came charging at them. Pyrrha barely had time to raise her shield, as the Beowulf's claw descened. It never made contact. Lowering her shield hesitantly, Pyrrha saw a familiar red cloak and hood. Her right arm was held out to her side, bare besides a high-tech looking bracer, a hooksword clenched in her grasp. The decapitated beowulf was dissolving to her side. The two discs were in front of her.
'Take the discs and go. Now.'
Pyrrha nodded. Grasping the two discs, she ran back along the bridge. Weiss was... well, Pyrrha was glad that her ability to analyse people hadn't deteriorated. Although, the scary thing wasn't Weiss's style. It was her approach. Her sword was wreathed in crackling lightning, and she held it grasped firmly in her left hand. The chain was wrapped around her wrist, and she was using it to incredible effect, performing attacks that shouldn't have been feasible for a six foot girl wielding a five foot long sword. Pyrrha could sense bursts of magnetic force from Weiss's palm, drawing the sword back into her grip after one of her more unlikely attacks. The sword seemed to carve through grimm flesh and armour with no effort at all. Blake was sitting on one of the higher levels, a long black rifle in hand. The boxes made sense all of a sudden. The teams weapons weren't combinations. They relied upon dedicated melee and ranged weaponry, rather than the ability to exchange between range and combat.
Reaching the back, she screamed at the milling crowd of uncertain trainees to start climbing.
####
At the end of initiation, everyone was talking about the newly minted team RWBY.
Either about Yang's one woman path of destruction, right through the Grimm horde, crushing and burning so far that Blake had been forced to seemingly teleport to retrieve her before extraction. Or about when Weiss was fighting monstrous catlike grimm underneath the bridge at the front of the ruins, carving through them with her storm wreathed sword. Even as her hair hung into the abyss. Or when Blake had used one of her shadow clones, enhanced with fire dust and aided by a full magazine of high explosive rifle rounds, to utterly obliterate a Nevermore, preventing it from attacking the retreating students. Or, when Team JNPR reached the top of the cliffs, all four members of team RWBY had simply ascended, as if yanked by some cosmic thread.
In all honesty Pyrrha felt a bit jealous. They hadn't noticed JNPR holding the line against the cat-grimm when they had first bypassed the defensive line, protecting the climbers until Weiss could get into position to stop the attack. The hadn't noticed Cardin Winchester crushing an Ursa that was about to descend upon Jaune. And of course, they hadn't seen the electromagnetic trickery that allowed the discs to evacuate the ascendant team.
However, as the final team was announced, Pyrrha just felt confused. RWBY hadn't taken any solace from victory. They hadn't been happy. They just took it in step, and moved on. It bothe depressed and frightened Pyrrha in equal measure.
####
Ozpin sat in his office. He knew what he had to do. He had promised his friend that he would. Picking up the scroll, he dialled the number.
'This is Qrow, leave a message'
'Qrow. They are at Beacon. Come, now.'