Hello everyone. If you have no idea who I am, I started off with Pokémon fanfiction and decided try something in the RWBY fandom. If you followed me from my previous work, thanks for giving this a shot.

First off, bit thanks to maggie_bmblb over on Twitter, who did this story's cover art. She does commissions, so if you like what you see, consider giving her some patronage.

I don't intend to spoil much about this story, save that my goal is to accomplish two things: first, to make Cardin a more interesting and dynamic character more involved in the story. Second, to have his presence change the outcome – after all, it wouldn't be that interesting if everything panned out the same, now would it?

Also, I had a very interesting night tonight (this being the night the story was first posted, rather nostalgic coming back to this nine months later). I work 2nd shift as a quality technician. Halfway through the shift, the fire alarm goes off. We assume it's just a drill until the power goes out. No fire, but the circuit breaker blew out, and a pipe burst. In any case, all I had on was a t-shirt – my jacket was in my locker on an upper story. So, I'm outside in 10 degree F weather, freezing my arms off while the fire trucks roll in. Luckily for me, a fellow technician had two layers on and gave me one of them. We got to go home about half an hour afterwards, once they verified it was safe to enter the building and get our stuff. Went drinking afterwards to celebrate someone's retirement. Moral of the story, I guess, is to keep a spare long-sleeve shirt on hands for such emergencies.

With all that said, I hope you enjoy the story, and I would appreciate any feedback you can give.

Chapter 1: Initiation

The scroll in Cardin's hand felt heavy as a brick. On its hard-light Dust display, a radar swept itself in a circle, and with each pass of the glowing line, three green dots lit up on the blue grid-marked background, scattered to his right. Off to the left, he heard gunshots and the screams of dying Grimm.

Bushes rustled in front of him. His heart froze in his chest, and he looked away, to the right.

"Is anyone in there?" he asked. His hand hovered over the hilt of his mace. Its ten black flanges converged around an empty Dust vial.

In response came a low, rumbling growl. A Beowolf sauntered into the clearing. Red eyes glowed behind its ivory mask, and its pitch-black hide swallowed up the light. It gnashed its teeth and rushed at him.

Cardin chuckled at himself. Holding his scroll in his left hand, he unlimbered his mace. He let the Beowolf close in, sidestepped past its long, groping arms, and slammed his mace into its chest. It rolled back and slammed against a tree. The bony protrusions in its back jammed into the trunk. Cardin walked over to it, swinging his mace in his hand, as the Grimm struggled to free itself. It howled, but Cardin cut the cry short with a blow to the head. Its skull crunched beneath the head of his mace. Black smoke hissed from the creature as it vanished.

Cardin returned to the center of the clearing. A wall of trees stood on all sides of him. Each gust of wind hinted at more Grimm rushing to the Beowolf's call. He glanced down at his scroll. Two dots had paired up and were moving further into the Emerald Forest, while the third had moved closer to him.

The screams and gunshots to the left faded away in his ears. With a scowl at his scroll, he set it on the ground. Stomp once, blame the Beowolf for breaking his scroll, and claim he got turned around by all the trees, that's all it would take to make his own decision for once. Maybe he'd find Nikos, or Schnee, or the quiet dark-haired chick.

Or maybe he'd find the blonde, screaming idiot, or that tiny chick moaning into her hood. How she was seventeen and barely came up past his waist, he had no idea. Or, he thought, swallowing reflexively, Yang Xiao Long.

Leaves rustled overhead. He glanced up and caught a black blur darting from branch to branch. Yellow eyes flashed in the sunlight as a pale face glanced back at him. A cry rose up in his throat, his arm itched to leap up and wave.

Smothering the impulse, Cardin picked up his scroll and turned away. He heard the Huntress vanish into the woods, and once again, he was all alone. Telling himself that it was for the best, that it wasn't worth the risk, he went towards the dot.

"Hey, Cardin! What took you?"

Standing on a branch just ahead of him, Russel waved with a dagger in his hand. His green hair drooped to one side, and his green hoodie was torn on one sleeve. He dropped, stuck the blade into the tree, and swung himself in front of Cardin.

"I take it Sky and Dove are heading to the Temple?"

"Yep. Sky thought he saw it on the way down, a circle of gray pillars east of those mountains."

Cardin glanced around the forest. "Good. We better move. I took out a Beowolf, but not before it called for help."

Russell went pale and shot nervous glances at the surrounding brush. "They're not too big, right?"

"You'll be fine. Let's go."

Russell darted off, and Cardin went after him. The smaller student wove in between the branches and thorns while Cardin slammed through them. Vines snagged at his feet, and leaves slipped out from under him. Within a mile, sweat ran down his shoulders and his breath burned in his throat.

"Damn it, school tracks don't have this much shit in them," Cardin puffed. Russell turned back. His sleeves were torn to shreds, and his hood had disappeared, but he had not a scratch on him.

Russell chuckled. "Tell me about it. My Aura's taking a beating from all these branches."

Cardin rapped his breastplate with his gauntlets. "Maybe I should go first, clear the way for you. That way, you won't be stripped nude by the time we get to the temple."

Russell looked down at his hoodie and swore under his breath. "Yeah, that sounds good. Let me know if you run into an Ursa, okay?"

Holding his mace in front of his head, Cardin marched forward, trampling brush and snapping branches in his wake. Springier branches swiped at him, but his armor took the brunt and his Aura covered the rest. By the time they made it to the temple, Cardin's armor was plastered with wet leaves and bits of twigs.

Dove had his sword drawn and was wiping bits of bark off the blade, while Sky stretched with his halberd over his head. They each had a knapsack over one shoulder. When Sky saw him, he waved and called out a greeting. Dove glanced up, sheathed his sword, and ran a hand through his sandy-colored hair.

Sixteen stone pillars were arranged in a circle within the temple. On each was a chess piece, pairs of bishops, rooks, knights, and queens in both colors.

"We're the first ones here, huh?" Russell asked. "The rest must be lost, idiots."

"They're probably looking for partners," Dove said. He held up his scroll. "We got to skip a step."

Sky walked up to the black pieces. "So, you're sure the Relics don't matter? Like, what if we got different missions or teachers, or something?"

Cardin walked over to the far side of the temple. Side by side were two slender bishops. He pocketed one and tossed the other to Sky.

"All that matters is we have a matching set," Cardin said. "Now let's move. That gunfire will lure the Grimm further west, so if we head east then south, we'll have a clear path." He took out his scroll and turned off the radar. A map of the Emerald Forest popped up, colored to mark tree density, altitude, and water. Three spots along the southern cliffs were highlighted.

"We'll take the old stair here," Cardin said, holding up the scroll so his team could see. His finger moved to a splash of blue further north. "At this pond, we can take a short break."

His teammates nodded. Dove took point, while Cardin held the rear as they cleared a path to the pond. Halfway through their trek, a high-pitched scream made them turn.

"Sounds like a damsel in distress," Russell said with a smirk.

"You think the Professors will step in?" Sky asked. "You know, if we're really in danger?"

Cardin scanned the treetops. He couldn't see any cameras, but his shoulder blades itched from the sensation of being watched.

"Beacon's reputation would be ruined if they let students die during initiation," Cardin said. "Not to mention, they'd have fewer Hunters to work with. Just don't expect them to fight the Grimm for you."

Sky's knuckles tightened on his halberd. "Right," he muttered, "I can handle this."

Dove swiped at a tangled thicket. A glittering blue pool lined with tiny pebbles appeared. Fallen, rotting logs lined the shore, torn up by countless claws.

"You got the water filter?" Cardin asked, nodding to Dove.

Dove reached into his knapsack and took out a long, thin bottle. He screwed off the top, revealing a tube of powdered carbon infused with Fire Dust, and approached the pond.

A shadow stirred towards the center. Russell saw it, ran forward, and yanked Dove back by his backplate.

"Feilong!" Sky shouted, darting back and pointing his halberd at the pond. The water frothed, and a long black shape shot up. A bony plate, marked with sinuous red lines, covered the top half of its head. Fins flared out around its neck. Its underbelly had bone plates smooth and lustrous as polished marble, and its hide was knit of minuscule black scales.

The Feilong's two legs dug into the pebbled shore, and it hauled itself out of the water. The Feilong's wings stretched out, furls of thin red membrane stretched by slender lengths of black bone. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of jagged white teeth. Its roar shook the trees.

Dove tripped, dropping the bottle and dragging Russell down with him. He brought up his sword and aimed the hilt's hidden barrel at its face. Bullets glanced off the glowing bone on its head.

Sky's halberd darted at an eye. The Grimm blinked and reared its head back. "The wings!" Sky said. "Aim for the wings Dove!"

Dove fired two more shots at the right wing. The Feilong screamed as the bullets tore holes through the membrane.

"What now Cardin?" Russell asked.

Cardin put away his mace. "We move. That thing's going to bring more Grimm on top of us. Follow me!"

Branches whipped at his face and vines tangled his feet as he barreled through the undergrowth. His teammates sprinted right behind him. Russell panted and swore under his breath as he caught up with Cardin. Behind them, trees snapped as the Feilong smashed its way through their path. The Grimm's frustrated growls and high-pitched whines receded as they ran further south.

The trees thinned out, and Cardin skidded to a halt a few paces from a ravine. Water gurgled fifty feet down. Bright red and brown lines of sandstone ran parallel along the far wall, twenty feet away. More trees grew on the other side, thick oaks with gnarled branches, and a boulder loomed over the far edge.

"Sky, the rope!"

"On it!" Sky dug into his knapsack and yanked out a bundle of thin black cord. He spilled some Dust vials, packets of field rations, a portable scroll charger, and the black bishop. Russell scooped everything up and shoved them into his hoodie's pockets. Meanwhile, Sky tied one end of the cord at the grip of his halberd and wrapped the other around a tree. With his left arm forward, Sky hefted the halberd, lunged, and threw. The halberd fell far short of the other side. The cord went taut as the halberd swung ten feet from the ravine's bottom.

"Quit messing around, Sky," Dove said. "It's getting closer."

"The rope's weighing it down!" Sky said as he hauled up his halberd with shaking hands. "I can't get a good throw."

Cardin held out a hand, and Sky put the halberd in it. A shiver ran up Cardin's arm as he activated his Semblance. The spear felt light as a feather in his hand. With a heave, the halberd raced through the air and buried itself in the ground on the other side. Sky yanked it, and the halberd pulled away.

"Aim for a tree!" Russell said. "That big one right there!"

"I'm working on it," Cardin growled as he raised the spear again. A quick glance at his scroll showed his Aura at the three-quarters mark. It dipped a little lower when he threw it. This time, the spear buried itself in an oak two trees over from where he had been aiming.

Russell gave the rope a tug and nodded. "Hold it for me, will you?"

Sky wrapped his arms around the tree and held the rope tight while Russell clambered across. When Russell was halfway to the other side, a red vial tumbled out of his hoodie. Blue and gray vials followed after. Russell swore and grabbed at them with one hand, but they slipped past his fingers. His clumsy grabs for them tore the pocket off his hoodie. The battery and food rations hit the river with a muted splash as Russell groaned into his arm.

Russell held the other side while Dove, then Sky crossed. The roars and crashes grew louder, and they could see the tree-line shift as the Feilong approached. Cardin's heart raced as he took the rope. The tree behind him groaned under his weight, and his teammates strained to hold up him and his armor. Sweat slickened his hands, and a couple times, he dangled by his legs while he rubbed his palms on his shirt.

A crash echoed across the ravine as the Feilong broke through the trees, flapping hard to clear the ravine. Dove shot another volley, perforating its left wing. The Grimm roared and strained upwards, but it failed to rise. Fixing its yellow eyes on Cardin, it followed the rope back to the tree on its side of the ravine. It hissed as it braced its two legs against the tree and pushed. The tree groaned as its roots snapped, and with the rustle of leaves, it tumbled forward. Cardin clung to the rope as he was slammed against the far wall. His aura flared as the tree scratched at his back.

Glancing back, Cardin saw the Feilong bracing itself to jump. His eyes widened. He looked up at the top of the ravine and shouted, "Pull me up! Hurry!"

Cardin activated his Semblance. His armor felt lighter as the tingling sensation coursed through his arms, and he raced up the rope. Six pairs of hands appeared over the edge, scrambling to pull him up. The Feilong lunged, teeth snapping as it glided towards him.

His fingers dug into the ledge. Gripping down with Aura-protected hands, Cardin heaved and tumbled over the side. The Feilong slammed into the ridge just below his feet. With a roar, it tumbled down into the ravine. Wings caught in the walls, it glared up at them and thrashed its serpentine body.

"We better run!" Sky said. "More Grimm will be here any second!"

Cardin glanced at the boulder, which had tipped further forward. "We should take care of the Feilong first. It'll keep calling Grimm, and it might find a way out." He braced himself against it and pushed, but the rock refused to budge. With his Semblance activated, Cardin pushed harder, and the stone worked loose. As it tumbled over, the ground gave way beneath Cardin's feet. He yelped as he slid forward. He threw one hand up, and another caught it.

Russell smiled down at him as he hauled him back up. "I know you're heavy enough to crush that bastard, but I think the boulder's got that covered."

A thunderous boom split the air. Gouts of flame and flashes of snow drifted up from the ravine. Looking down, Cardin saw the Grimm vanish in a smoking crater.

Russell ruffled up his hair. "Damn it, there goes the Dust! Stupid hoodie!" He tore at the tattered sleeves, yanking off each one and throwing them into the ravine.

"Uh, guys?" Sky said. "That explosion's going to bring a lot of Grimm here, so could we hurry?"

Dove opened up his hilt and refilled the chamber with bullets from his knapsack. He offered Cardin a bottle of Fire Dust, but he refused it.

"Shouldn't be more than half a mile to the stairway," Cardin said. "We better save the dust for another time."

Dove scowled at Russell. "You just had to spill all that Dust, didn't you?"

Russell pushed his shoulder. "Buzz off, I was just trying to get us across faster. Not my fault my pockets got torn to shreds back there."

"Guys, stop yelling!" Sky said, moving in between them. "You'll get us surrounded by Grimm!"

"Sky's right." Cardin started south and said over his shoulder, "We can worry about the Dust later."

A roar rumbled through the forest, from the east. Sky shuddered, Dove groaned, and Russell swore into his torn hoodie.

"Russell, you got point," Cardin said. "Shout if you run into anything."

Russell sprinted off into the forest. Dove hacked a path after him, and Cardin held up the rear. Howls echoed around them, pressing closer with each step. From behind them, a Beowolf loped down their path, drooling as it gnashed its teeth. Dove pointed his sword behind him and fired a few shots. One caught the Grimm in the leg, and it tumbled forward. Two more replaced it. Cardin stopped, drew his mace, and caught both across the head with a single swipe.

Out from between the leaves, the cliff loomed over them. Sky cheered in relief, and the team sprinted through the last of the brush. They skidded to a halt once they hit the clearing at the cliff's base.

"Ursa Major!" Sky shouted with a string of expletives.

A hulking, bear-like behemoth with razor-sharp claws and towering spikes on its back stood between them and the stair. Boulders and fallen trees littered the landscape around it.

"Dove, aim for its eyes! Russell, move in and hamstring it!"

Dove emptied his clip at the Ursa. It reared up on its hind legs and shielded its face with one paw. The other swiped out in front of it. Russell leapt over the attack, ducked beneath the Ursa's legs, and brought out both of his knives. Each one bit deep into the Ursa's hind legs as he passed. The Grimm bellowed and fell backwards. Russell rolled as it crushed a boulder where he had been.

"Sky, pole-vault!"

Sky swallowed and sprinted forward, raising his halberd over his head. He brought the point down on the Ursa's right paw and pushed himself into the air. As he rose over his weapon, Sky pulled the trigger in its shaft. A high-caliber round slammed out of the end of his halberd, smashing the paw to pulp. Sky flew over the Ursa's back, landed on his feet, and tripped over a fallen tree.

Dove and Cardin ran past while the Grimm thrashed about. Motes of black dust wafted from the stump where its right paw had been. The Ursa glared at Cardin, and on three legs, it lumbered forward. The trees shifted ahead of its path, and Cardin stumbled when one branch caught him behind his knees. The Grimm leapt, and its good paw reached for him. Dove slashed at it and hauled Cardin onto his feet.

"Aren't you going to kill it?" Dove asked as they ran to the stair.

"Our mission is to secure the relic. Killing Grimm would be a waste of our time."

Dove shrugged. "As long as it gets us in, I'm fine with that."

The stairs had been carved into the cliff-face, winding back and forth over itself. The steps were two feet wide, with no railing between them and a long fall onto the Ursa. Cracks split some steps, and others were slick with lichen. Beowolves and Ursa gathered at the bottom of the cliff, but none tried the stairs.

After two hours of climbing, they made it to the top. Beacon loomed in the distance, crowned by the early afternoon sun. Its ebony towers gleamed, and at its peak, the glowing green lights of the CCT beckoned like will-o-wisps.

A tall, thin man with large glasses, a mop of green hair, and a giant brown coat waited for them. "Gentlemen!" he shouted as Cardin and his teammates sat on the ground. His words came out in a high-pitched torrent, as if someone ran a recording of him at double speed. "I've been watching your progress from up here since you ran into that Feilong!" He waved a pair of binoculars and took a long swig from his thermos. "A most remarkable specimen, truly, but not as remarkable as your triumph over it. Luring it to disadvantageous terrain, disabling its means of flight, and finishing it off with a concentrated dose of dust. Flashy, but genius!"

He cleared his throat and zipped over to the cliff's edge. He peered down at the seething mass of Grimm howling up at them. "Having said that, it's considered poor form to leave a Grimm alive. They learn from their past mistakes and grow more dangerous the older they get. While I applaud your focus on your mission, I must ask that you remember that in the future. Now, let's fix that, shall we?"

A handle telescoped out of his thermos. Flame spouted from the end where he had drank. The man swung the extended thermos overhead and swept it down at the Grimm. A large fireball shot out from it and slammed into the Grimm. The Ursa Major shrieked as its body burned to black motes.

"Now, gentlemen, I presume that you have the relics?"

Cardin took his black bishop out of his pocket and held it up. Sky went rummaging through his knapsack.

"Oh shit," he said. "I know I had it in here!"

Russell tapped Sky on the shoulder. From the folds of his tattered hoodie, he dug out the missing black bishop. A frayed thread was looped around the top.

"The only thing that didn't fall out of my pockets. Good thing it got tangled up in there, right?"

Dove stomped up to Russell, his face flushed. "Are you serious? You dropped our food, our battery, all our dust, and you nearly dropped the relic?"

"Hey, don't blame me!" Russell shouted back. "Sky's the one that let it fall out of his pack. You're lucky I noticed it."

His stomach sank as he watched the other bishop. Perhaps they would have had to go back down the cliffs and retrieve it, or maybe the professor would have let it slide, but the idea that two of his teammates might have failed right then and there filled him with a heavy melancholy.

Cardin put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Knock it off. We can talk about this later."

The two of them looked at the professor. He studied them for a moment, took out his scroll, and typed in some notes.

"Right!" The professor grinned and adjusted his glasses. "I guess you could say that you passed your initiation by a thread."

Russell snorted, and Dove rolled his eyes. The professor waited for a more pronounced reaction, grimaced, and straightened his jacket.

"Now, gentlemen, I am Doctor Oobleck. Please try to remember that Doctor part, I didn't go to grad school for fun." He collapsed his thermos and took a long swallow. "Now, if you would follow me, you will be formally assigned into your teams at the school's auditorium. After that, lunch shall be served in the cafeteria, and you shall have the rest of the evening to do as you wish. Do any of you have questions?"

Sky raised his hand. "What do you have in that thermos?"

"Vacuan black. Nothing beats it. Do you have any pertinent questions?"

Cardin glanced at his teammates and shook his head.

"Excellent. Now, if you gentlemen would follow me, we are already twenty-six minutes behind schedule. I hope you can show more haste than you demonstrated in your climb up the cliffs. Let's go!"

Cardin and his teammates were gasping for air by the time they arrived at Beacon. His stomach grumbled, and leaves dropped from his armor as they dried off. Doctor Oobleck ushered them to a back room of the auditorium. The other teams had already arrived and sat in clumps of four.

Cardin and his teammates sat next to the door, in the last available space. Their weapons hit the floor with a clatter. Conversations buzzed around them, drowning out individual words. He caught a glimpse of long, golden hair and frowned. Next to her sat a black-haired girl with familiar yellow eyes.

Glancing at the groups next to him, Cardin leaned forward and asked Russell, "How's your mom doing?"

Russell shrugged. "The docs say she's going into remission, but they want her in for another round next week to be sure." He looked Cardin in the eyes and said, "Your dad has it all covered."

Cardin nodded and made a mental note to find out the hospital.

"Oh, and he says we're not supposed to read for you."

Cardin grunted sourly and turned to Sky. "What about you? Did your sister get in?"

Sky grinned. "A full scholarship too. They said they were really impressed with the letters of recommendation she had." He paled, glanced at Russell, and asked, "What do you think would've happened if we lost the relic?"

Dove elbowed him hard in the ribs. As Sky hissed and rubbed his side, Cardin schooled his face to stony calm. Just another four years, he told himself, as he watched every move they made, marked each flicker of their eyes, and weighed every word they said.

"I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal," Russell said. "Not like they'll kick us out because we dropped a chess piece."

The door opened a crack, bumping into Cardin's shoulder. A short, portly man with thick gray eyebrows and a bushy mustache looked down at them.

"Make your way to the stage, gentlemen. It's time to begin."

Cardin rose first and followed him out the door. His teammates filed in behind. The stage was polished stone. Black walls striated with copper lines rose fifty feet to a domed ceiling. In a hard-light display overhead, Cardin's face, and that of his teammates, stared down at him.

A sparse crowd filled the seats. Towards the back, Cardin caught sight of Dove's parents, and Russell's father had a front-row seat. Off to the side, in the shadow of the balcony seats, one of his father's servants held up a scroll. He gave Cardin a curt wave and shielded the scroll's camera from the stage lights.

As Ozpin announced his Team Cardinal and declared Cardin the leader, he looked on his teammates, the audience, and his father's stand-in with a smile he didn't feel.