Chapter Text
Adam darted from behind one line of trees to the next, still no other students, which meant he was going this alone until he found his partner. It, unfortunately, didn’t mean he was alone. Three Beowolves stood directly in his path. They hadn’t noticed him yet, so sneaking around them was still an option. Adam placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, three wouldn’t be a challenge if they spotted him, but more might be lurking.
Before Adam could make a move to go around them, he found himself flat on his back. His ears ringing and an unshakeable feeling of warmth around him, He opened his unobscured eye, checking his surroundings. The Beowolves were lying dead in the clearing, their bodies quickly disappearing, the more pressing issue now was that the trees surrounding them were on fire, quickly spreading to more trees, it was threatening to turn into a forest fire.
Someone had used explosives, and they were still somewhere Adam couldn’t see. Assuming they were another student, they were reckless, using incendiary weaponry this close to so much vegetation. Adam reached for his sword, moving quickly to avoid breathing in too much smoke, going around the budding fire as much as he could.
The fire brought him back, briefly, to other times he had been surrounded by fire. All of the times his partner had burned a human outpost or encampment to the ground. It was, logically, a waste of dust to use her semblance to start the fires, but it made a statement, it made people fear her. It made Adam fear her at points. He couldn’t waste time thinking about this, about her, right now. They were through with each other, even if part of him felt like she’d be with him forever.
Adam fell to his back again as he ran, colliding with a crouched figure and falling over them. He grunted, climbing to his feet. Who on earth would be cro-
Adam froze, what he had tripped over wasn’t a person, it just wore the shape of one. It was an ice sculpture, taking the form of a crouching girl. He studied the figure, though he didn’t need to in order to identify it. It was clear to him exactly who the sculpture reflected. It was her.
The fire was excusable, something he could dismiss, even if the source of the fire disappeared. A visage of ice, however, and a visage of ice that looked exactly like his former partner, that was less excusable. Adam climbed to his feet, knees trembling, he drew his sword and held it in front of him, ready, waiting.
A streak of black shot across the treetops above him as a black ribbon descended, moving like a whip. It caught the hilt of Adams' sword and wrapped around it. A sharp tug of the ribbon forced the sword out of Adam’s grip and up into the trees. Adam glared into the high tree branches, obscured by shade and smoke, but one sight made itself abundantly clear. A pair of glowing amber eyes glaring back at him.
“No,” Adam whispered. “No, no, no, no.” He still held his sheath, his shotgun, Blush. He aimed it towards the eyes in as fast succession as he could manage. In a sudden flicker, the eyes disappeared, not returning as he stared at where they were. Any hope that she had closed her eyes, or been hit by Blush, was probably foolish. Adam knew what it meant when she disappeared.
Adam didn’t waste the energy to turn, pointing Blush behind him and firing blindly from his back. His breath catching in his throat, heart pounding in his ears, he hoped to hear a cry of pain, or the sound of something hitting the ground, all that greeted him was the sound of bullets hitting wood.
“Close.” A voice came from his left, almost directly in his ear. It was feminine but low, and to Adam it was unmistakable. “But wrong.”
His eyes widened as he turned, stepping back to get distance and a clean shot. This wouldn’t be possible, as the second he turned, he found the same ribbon wrapping around the barrel of Blush, and pulling it out of his grasp, knocking Adam to his knees. The girl, his former partner, approached him, her left hand sliding along his neck, up the side of his face, and to his eye patch.
“This, my love,” she began, “hampers your peripheral vision. Though I guess there’s a lot you’re willing to do to please humans now.”
“Blake…” Adam muttered. “I…”
He looked up at his former partner, she was not at all the image that she was when he last saw her. She was unmistakably the same person, the same permanent half-smirk that could turn into a scowl within a moment's notice. The same pale Amber eyes that reflected nearly nothing, like the lights behind them had gone out long ago. The same weapon and tactics that had brought so many lives to an end.
Her apparel though, that’s what was different. Gone was the Grimm mask that she wore on jobs, as well as the black leather full body armor, boots, and gloves, and the long dark purple coat that reached her knees. Replacing them were small heeled boots, black and purple leggings, small white shorts, a black vest with coattails, a white crop-undershirt, and black ribbons to cover her scarred arms, including a full sleeve on her left. The biggest outlier, the strangest thing, was the bow. A small black bow sat atop her head, covering and obscuring her faunus trait, her ears, making her pass for human. Blake would kill a subordinate for hiding themself this way, something was wrong.
“Your… ears. The bow?” Adam found himself asking.
“Well, concessions have to be made when one sneaks her way into Beacon Academy.” she answered.
“You… are… n-no.” Adam felt his heart drop, this whole thing, his new life, was crashing down around him.
“Oh yes. You thought you’d get rid of me that easily? Thought you could just throw me away like that? You should know better than anyone that I can be extremely persistent.”
“Why are you doing this?” Adam climbed to his feet, readying his fists. “Leave me alone!”
Adam swung a punch at Blake, leading with his right hand and stepping into it. Blake barely flinched, ducking under the punch and throwing her own shoulder against Adam’s side in a fluid motion. She tucked her right leg behind Adam’s left, applying as much downward force as she could while she swept his leg.
Adam fell back to the ground hard, groaning as Blake stood over him, tears beginning to well in his eyes.
“You’re a foot taller than me and double my weight, you should be more than a match for me in a physical fight, but you’re not. You’re pathetic and I’m stronger than you in every way.” Blake said, the smirk not leaving her face.
“Blake… I don’t want to hurt yo-”
“You already did!”
“Blake… I’m sorry… I didn’t have a choice.”
“Well, now you do. You can come home with me, fix your mistake or…” She pressed the blade of her weapon to his throat. “You can die.”
“It doesn’t matter how many of them you kill.” Adam started. “It won’t bring him back, and you know it wouldn’t make him proud.”
“Pretty big talk from someone who broke their promise to him.” Blake glowered, Adam lowered his eyes. “And he wouldn’t be proud of you for being a human’s lapdog…”
“I’m not a lapdog, I just don’t hate all of them!”
“They all deserve to be hated, Adam!”
“Blake… please just… let go… of what they did, of me. You have to let go, or it will destroy you.”
“No. I’m not letting go. Not of my cause, and not of you. Never.” Blake went to grab Adam by the horn, pulling him close, making him look her in the eye.
“No matter where you go, no matter what you do, you will never escape me, Adam Taurus.”
A blade shot through Blake’s chest, the sword was red, like his, not just from the blood. Adam looked up at Blake’s chest, only to find it entirely black, the figure was larger now. Claws on its hands and feet. It wasn’t Blake, it was Grimm… an Ursa. Adam backed away from it as it fell. It was dead at his feet, turning to dust, revealing the figure who took it down, the girl he spoke with last night, Raven, sliding her sword back into her sheath.
“Adam.” She said, Adam tried to reply but his throat wouldn’t cooperate. The forest came around clearer to him, there was no fire, no ice, no Blake.
“Adam?” Raven repeated. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Y-yeah…” He trailed.
“Looks like it got the jump on you, disarmed you, yeah?”
“Yeah, it… it did.” Adam grimaced, he thought he was done having flashbacks, but maybe that was a little too optimistic.
“Well, glad I was here.” Raven offered her hand to Adam, who paused for a moment before taking it, getting back on his feet.
“Me too…”
“I guess this makes us partners.”
“Partners? Uh… yeah. Yeah, I guess we’re partners now.”
“Come on, grab your weapons, I think I have a lead on where the relics are.”
“Yeah…” Adam took one last look at the dissolving corpse, shuddering as a breath left his lips. “Yeah, okay…”
---
Winter was knocked back, deflecting a Beowolf's attack with her blade. She grimaced, flicking a trigger on the grip of her sword, launching the parrying sword from the inside of the first blade into her right hand.
“ Sloppy.” She thought. “ Against this many opponents, I should have begun with the parrying sword out. Whitley would kill me for that. It’s a minor error, one I won’t make again. ”
Winter prepped herself, remembering her stance and taking aim at the Beowolf's closest to her with her dominant sword. She took a fleeting glance at Qrow, who had just decapitated a Beowolf's with his weapon in scythe mode. Winter was focusing on Qrow more than she wanted to admit, it was at least his third kill in the early fight, perhaps fourth, and she had yet to kill one. She grimaced, if another student were her partner, she could shake it off. She couldn’t, however, afford to let the fifteen-year-old with a detrimental semblance show her up, not on her first outing at Beacon.
Her brother’s teachings came into her head, she should be focusing on her weapon skill. Her semblance was strong enough as is, and Whitley frequently cautioned her not to rely on it, in the event she was in a desperate situation. She had to improve with her weapons, she knew that and she would.
Just not today.
Winter stabbed her sword into the soft earth of the Emerald Forest as a white glyph appeared a few feet in front of her. White light poured from it as an armored knight began to materialize in front of her, sword in hand. Without a word between the two, the summoned knight charged forward, swinging its blade and cleaving two Grimm in half. Winter smirked, directing it towards two more.
Qrow took a moment to stop his assault as his scythe cut through a Beowolf's. He glanced towards Winter’s summon, pausing for just a second. Qrow took more notice of Winter, kneeling, her focus locked on her knight, which left her nearly defenseless and entirely in the open.
“Winter!” Qrow called, she didn’t respond.
“Winter!” He yelled louder, still ignored.
“Fucking… great!” He glanced at the two Beowolf's to his left, they would have to wait. He slung Harbinger in front of him, charging at a full sprint towards Winter. His semblance wasn’t speed, but he could still move when he was sprinting. He hoped he’d be fast enough.
Qrow jumped, readying his weapon, before he was jerked hard to side, smashing into a tree, a dark figure pinning him to the ground. Qrow glanced up at the Beowolf's, it had been waiting, of course it had, of course. He cursed himself for not expecting it as he blocked the Grimm’s snapping jaws with Harbinger.
Winter raised an eyebrow as Qrow got pinned off to her left, continuing to silently direct her summon. She could help him, but she was curious if this would teach him a lesson, or at least show him his place. She sighed, helping him was probably the right thing to do, so she would, however reluctantly.
Before she could, she felt a sharp force at her back, as her aura flickered around her. She slid and rolled a few feet along the forest floor, glancing back at what just hit her. A Beowolf, the Beowolf that Qrow had been trying to intercept, stood proud where she had been, snarling and snapping in her direction. Winter groaned, she had, perhaps, been too eager to show off, and she failed to check her surroundings. Sloppy, nearly unforgivably so, at least for a Schnee. Winter reached out for her summon, directing it towards the Beowolf that had attacked her.
Winter’s attention was pulled when the Beowolf on top of Qrow was cleaved in half. Qrow was on his feet in seconds, Harbinger in his hands.
“Thanks for the help, Princess.” Qrow scoffed.
“You handled yourself, I was otherwise occupied.” Winter replied, her eyes not leaving the Beowolf.
“Yeah. I see that. Don’t worry.”
“I won’t.”
“This one’s mine.” The two said in unison. Qrow charging towards the Beowolf. Winter shot a glance at her summoned knight, the distance was too great. She’d have to do it herself if she wanted to beat Qrow to it. Winter grimaced, gripping her dominant sword in her left hand and spinning the dust chamber of the weapon. She was a Schnee, she was trained by the absolute best, she could hit this shot. She smirked as fire dust exploded out from the hilt of her sword, aimed center mass of the Beowolf, just high enough to not hit Qrow in the crossfire.
Qrow heard the shot and felt the heat at his back, he knew what was coming, but he also knew Harbinger had reach. If she wanted a competition, she could have one. He extended his weapon as far as his arms would allow. Slinging the blade around the neck of the Grimm and dragging it down as he fell to the ground, tugging hard and ripping through the shadowy form. It fell dead, and he was able to shoot a glance back at Winter, who was red in the face at this point.
The smell of fire filled Qrow’s nostrils as he took a breath in. Something was burning, trees, bushes. His eyes shot to his left, Winter’s shot still had to go somewhere, if Qrow took the Beowolf down himself. Qrow grimaced, yeah, yeah that would happen. He shoulda figured.
“You lit-” Winter started to yell, cut off by the howl of the pack of Grimm, watching the fire spread and backing away.
“Yeah, yeah, yell at me later. We need to move.” Qrow spat, pointing at a path the fire wouldn’t reach before they did. Winter grimaced but moved in stride with him.
---
“What were you thinking? That should have been simple!” Winter began as she and Qrow entered a clearing of presumed relative safety.
“What was I thinking? What were you thinking? Did using fire not seem like an extremely bad idea?” Qrow shot back,
“Everything would have been fine if you weren’t so desperate to appease your own ego by taking down a target that I clearly had under control.”
“You call getting knocked on your ass under control?”
“It snuck up on me, I had the situation handled.”
“It snuck up on you because you didn’t listen to me! I tried to warn you!”
“Ah yes.” Winter rolled her eyes. “And what a clear warning it was!”
“You know, you may have been trained by the elite of the elite, but you clearly have a lot to learn about teamwork.”
“I have a lot to learn? You’re clearly out of your league. Child.”
“Gah!” Qrow groaned, cleaving a tree in half with Harbinger, Winter proceeded to roll her eyes.
“Yes, very impressive. As long as the only enemies we encounter along the way are trees, we should be fine.”
“Just… keep moving.”
---
“So, what’s your story anyway?” Roman said, working on knocking tree branches out of his way with his cane.
“My story?” Cinder asked, her hands wrapped firmly around her bow, as she led the pair.
“You know, why a huntress? Why Beacon? Where are you from?”
“Mistral.” She mumbled. “I’m from a small village in Mistral.”
“But why a Huntress?”
“Isn’t that what every child grows up hoping to be?”
“Sure, but a lot of people put that dream away by now. Yet here you are. Why?”
“Why are you so interested in this in particular?” Cinder sighed.
“I’m a curious guy.” Roman shrugged. “And if we’re going to be partners for the rest of our time here, I’d like to get to know you.”
“I suppose…” she trailed. “Well, when I unlocked my aura and semblance, it kind of seemed a waste not to use it for good. Isn’t that… why you’re here?”
“Me? I mean, what can I say?”
A pause that hung over the pair for a moment, Cinder turned and raised an eyebrow at him.
“I… What can you say?” She asked.
“Heh. I grew up on the streets. You kinda had two options: this or crime. Crime sounded… less than appealing and a friend of mine was already going here so… I went with it.”
“I’m sorry… that must have been tough.”
“I’m an orphan, Grimm attack when I was very young. What can you do, right?”
“Oh…” Cinder paused. “I… I’m an orphan too.”
“Well, at least we have something in common.” Roman sighed. “Wish it was something better.”
“I think we both do… Um, anyway. That’s your weapon, right?” Cinder indicated to the gain. “What’s it called?”
“Melodic Cudgel. It’s a cane, gun, grappling hook, uh… thing. I had some help making it.”
“Your friend?”
“Mhm. What about yours?”
“I’ve been calling it Midnight. It’s a bow and swords, but it can have other forms if I want it to. I guess it’s technically whatever I want it to be.”
“You made it out of sand? Right? In that little pouch?”
“Yes, that’s my semblance. I can superheat things.”
“Well, guess I won’t need to get a microwave for the dorm.”
“We’ll see.” Cinder rolled her eyes and smiled slightly. “What about you?”
“Me?”
“Your semblance?”
“Oh.” Roman paused. “That. I don’t have a semblance really. If I do, I don’t know what it is at least.”
“Really? I hate to say I’m surprised, but… well, I’m impressed that you got in here without a semblance.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m impressed too. I guess. Just uh… never activated it.”
“Have you activated your aura?”
“Yes, that I have done.” Roman smiled. “Just… never got around to the semblance. How did you activate yours?”
“That… feels like a story for another time. We should really keep moving.”
“Yeah. Of course!”
“Since you’re good enough that you got in without a semblance, I guess maybe I should be leaning on you for combat then, huh?” Cinder smirked.
“Ha. Well, I guess we’ll see!” Roman laughed, his smirk turning to a nervous smile as Cinder advanced ahead of him. “Well… this is going well…”
---
Mercury Black entered the clearing, he had yet to find a partner or Grimm, and he wasn’t entirely sure which he was more nervous to run into. Much as he knew he had to branch out beyond Emerald, partnering with her would be so much easier. A rustling shook him from his thoughts. Behind him, low to the ground, slithering.
“King Taijitu.” Mercury thought, clicking his boots against the ground, activating Talaria, taking a glance behind him in time to see the serpent slither into the clearing. He smirked, ready.
“No.” A whispered shout came, familiar, Emerald.
“Em?” He whispered back.
“Mhm.” He saw the green-haired girl step into the clearing, her hands raised, focused. She was planning something, using her semblance on the Grimm.
“What are you doing?”
“What I do best.”
“Which is?”
“There.” Emerald indicated to a tree. “Sharp.”
“I…” Mercury’s eyes traced the tree, he saw what she wanted. “Got it.”
Mercury kicked once, firing a burst of hard light from his right boot, and a second from his left. They impacted the tree hard, chopping the top half of it clean off, but in a defined point. The Grimm heard the tree clatter to the ground, recoiling slightly before Emerald was able to make it focus on her illusion again.
“There we go, tasty huntsman-in-training. Go get ‘em.” She whispered, focusing her illusion to mask the pointed fallen tree. The black half of the snake reared up, jamming itself violently into the makeshift spear, causing Emerald to smirk as the white half of the Grimm screeched in pain.
“Mine.” Mercury grumbled, starting to charge before Emerald grabbed him.
“No, I ca-” She started, Mercury bolted from her grip, charging towards where the other half of the tree had fallen. He pulled a sharp branch loose as he kicked the rest of it, forcing it to point upwards, before launching it at the other half of the King Taijitu, slamming into its neck. It hissed, rearing back to strike.
“Yeah! That’s right! Come at me!” Mercury taunted, twirling the branch in his hand. The Grimm went for it, charging and snapping as Mercury sprung to the left, extending the branch and kicking it with force and a boost from the dust in his boots. He smirked as he rolled to a landing, hearing the branch violently explode through the head of the Grimm.
For a moment, he forgot. He forgot that his semblance was forcefully stolen from him, he forgot that his father was an assassin who had raised him to be the same, he forgot that he had killed his own father, and never knew his mother, that he was a “pity project” from Ruby and Salem. For a moment, he got to be the hero, and for that, he was able to smile.
“I had a plan you know?” Emerald came over to him, helping him brush himself off.
“Yeah, well, I did too.” He grumbled.
“It’s not a competition, Merc. We’re supposed to be a team, we’re partners.”
“Yeah? Well, then we should be equal.”
“We are equal.”
“I don’t need you to do everything for me just because you have a semblance.”
“Mercury, I’ve never thought that...”
“I can handle myself!” Mercury raised his voice.
“Who are you trying to convince…?” Emerald remained calm, Mercury lowered his head, sighing gently.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m being ridiculous. You did really well.”
“So did you. You should be proud.”
“Yeah.” Mercury trailed. “Let’s go.”
Mercury led as the pair continued through the clearing and back into the forest, Emerald grimaced slightly. She thought her plan was clever, she thought the more they could avoid combat, the better. But Mercury, as always, wanted to prove himself, even if that wasn’t the easiest option. She wondered, for a moment, if there was ever a time he hadn’t been trying to prove himself, or if a time would ever come where he wouldn’t be.
Regardless, they were partners, and when push came to shove, she wouldn’t trade him for anyone else.