Blake became surprised as she walked into her dorm room after her "test" with Onix. Not only was Onix in her dorm, but there were two other strangers as well and all three of them were sitting in chairs positioned along the wall on the far side of the room. After looking around a little more, Blake realized that both Weiss and Yang were laying on their beds, beat up and bruised, but at least they seemed to be resting peacefully. She couldn't hide her wince at the apparently harsh treatment they had received.

"So another one joins us," a black-haired man said in a deep voice. "Now we're just waiting for the final piece and the meeting can begin."

Blake's mind was suddenly full of questions, but she couldn't find the energy in herself to voice any of them, instead she slowly made her way to her own bed, sat down on it, and then waited in silence for the last person, who she could only assume was her team leader, to show up.

Blake felt a sense of unease in the pit of her stomach. She was confident that the others in the room weren't going to hurt her, anymore than Onix already had at least, but she couldn't shake the unease. It just felt wrong to her with the silence that was in the room, despite how many people were in the room. Most people passively generated noise, even her. No matter how hard you try, you could only turn the page of a book so quietly, or move so much before your clothes started rustling. Yet, somehow, the others in the room with her didn't. They sat so still, and their breaths were so calm that not even Blake's heightened hearing could pick up any sound. It was because of this that, when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, she eagerly focused on the sound, desperate for any distraction from the dominant silence in her own room. Silence that she didn't dare to break.

Perhaps because she was so desperate for a distraction, Blake didn't even notice until the last moment that the footsteps were headed toward their room. So despite hearing them coming, she was still shocked when the door rapidly opened, stopping just short of slamming into the wall, and in walked her team leader. Ruby entered the room with a resigned sigh, her normal outfit replaced with a black leather armor, that had dark red accents in the form of gloves, boots, a couple of fashion accents, and her belt. As the door closed behind the young scythe-wielder, the black-haired man, and the girl that could only be described as multicolored everything, both stood up and approached the two unconscious teammates to wake them. Weiss woke after a gentle shake, while Yang, unfortunately, had to receive a combat umbrella to the gut before she rejoined the world of the conscious.

"What was that for!?" Yang shouted after having quickly jumped out of her bed.

Weiss, who had been staring at the man who woke her in shock, started and looked around the room rapidly. Her icy-blue eyes eventually settled on Ruby. "Ruby?" She asked softly. Unable to voice any of the many questions she had running through her mind.

Silver eyes stared at blue eyes and Ruby responded. "King, Ice Cream, Onix, please introduce yourselves."

Despite the fact that everyone was spread out, the black-haired man stepped forward. "My name is King. To those in the know, I am considered the foremost sword master in all of Remnant."

After King's introduction, the umbrella wielding girl began to furiously type on her scroll, before handing it to Yang. The blond looked at the shorter girl in confusion for a moment before realizing she was supposed to read it. "My name is Neo, or Ice Cream to my friends. I'm Ruby's favorite ... sweet. Don't let her trick you into thinking it's cookies." After she finished reading, she looked in shock from the scroll to Ruby a couple of times until Neo took the scroll away from her.

Finally the white-haired fox faunus stepped forward, despite the fact that she was actually facing a wall and almost walked into it in the process. "My name is Onix thorn," her smooth voice carried across the room despite her position. "Ruby's ally."

Ruby snapped, which gathered the attention of everyone present in the room. "Alright. For a basic explanation," the red-tipped brunette began in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "I became aware of a potential threat, and called upon some old friends to test you three and rate your combat abilities." Looking around, RWBY's team leader saw grimaces form on her teammates faces. "You weren't supposed to win. If any of you had won, I'd be very concerned about why you're strong enough to win." She earned three confused looks in that moment. "I'll explain that some other day. For today," and she turned to Onix, King, and Neo who had grouped together. "Report."

Once again, King stepped forward first. Separating himself from the group in the center of the room. "Weiss Schnee. Competent fighter, if predictable and easily manipulated if the opponent knows how to do so. Her biggest strengths are her confidence and ability to plan ahead. Her greatest weaknesses, aside from questionable footwear, are her speed, and the fact that she has issues interrupting her own plans to take advantages of new openings. Current combat threat level: four." After finishing his report, King stepped back into the group and Neo stepped out, holding her scroll out to Blake this time.

After taking the scroll, Blake began reading the report out loud. "Yang Xiao-Long. Decent at hand-to-hand combat. Though if it weren't for her deceptively absurd strength and ridiculous endurance, you could call her mediocre at best. Her strengths are easily her actual physical strength, and the fact that she can take some of the worst beatings you've ever seen and keep fighting. Her semblance helps with this, but isn't the main cause. Weaknesses are the fact that she only knows how to attack non-stop, and despite knowing some form of martial arts, she only employs the bare-minimum of it, always defaulting to punching the face or torso with only her brute strength to guide her fists. If you find a way to interrupt her attacks, or knock her off balance, she takes a long time to recover. Combat threat level: three." Blake sent Yang a short, apologetic, look as she finished reading the report.

Neo and Onix traded places while Yang let out a disbelieving noise at her combat threat level. "Blake Belladonna," the crimson eyed faunus began. "A creative fighter with a tricky semblance. Her ingenuity is a strong asset to her in combat. She did show signs of reliance on her semblance for most of her tactics, and without it is only a lack-luster fighter at best. This is due to the fact that she has seemingly trained mostly for swift strikes, while confidently relying on her semblance to get into position. As a result her actual movements are slow in comparison to what you'd expect. Her main weaknesses are her physical strength and speed, while her main strengths are her creativity and adaptability in combat. Combat threat level: five."

Yang huffed in irritation and looked at her younger sister. "What's your combat threat level?"

It was simply meant as a small way of venting her frustration at being measured as the weakest on her team. Nothing was really supposed to come of it, the blond didn't even expect any of them to answer. All of her irritation immediately died mere moments after voicing the rhetorical question though as three voices simultaneously spoke up confidently. "Mortal."

Another, impressively loud, snap from Ruby made seven heads turn towards her. "Now that we've assessed your weaknesses. How do the three of you plan on getting better?"

Blake raised her hand hesitantly, and upon getting recognition from her team leader spoke softly. "Before that, can I ask why we had no warning of this test?"

"If I had told you, you'd have known your life wasn't at risk, and if you knew that your life wasn't at risk, you might not have given it your all and more. The accuracy of the assessment greatly depends on measuring how you respond when you feel at risk and are in an unexpected situation." The team leader's voice was impassive as she responded, betraying no emotions whatsoever. "So, now that you all know your assessments, what do you plan on doing about it?"

"Training," Yang said immediately. Her lilac eyes filled with determination as she turned to point at Neo, who merely raised an eyebrow in response. "And I won't stop until I can beat your face in."

A disappointed sigh escaped Weiss' lips as she looked away from Yang and focused on King. "As much as I hate to agree with her, I'd like to believe there's a reason as to which one of you was chosen to test each of us. So, at the risk of imposing, I'd request some time to train with you, at least until you deem me properly fit for combat."

A grin slowly spread on King's face. "Indeed there is a reason, in fact, I was chosen because I originally used to use a fighting style very similar to yours, but upon finding that I enjoyed the balance of a standard short sword better than a rapier, I switched. I will accept your request for training, but be warned, you will know pain and exhaustion. You will live with both, and when all is said and done, they will have no hold on you even in your most hopeless of moments."

Blake turned to face Onix, but before she even had the chance to open her mouth, the crimson-eyed Faunus spoke, "I'll be on the rooftops on your off days, find me there if you wish to start training with me."

Onix then turned, walked to the door, and left the room. King and Neo weren't far behind her, and soon team RWBY found themselves alone in their dorm room. Ruby, ignoring the questioning glances of her teammates, walked over to Weiss and began to inspect the heiress' injuries.

"Umm, Ruby?" Weiss asked questioningly.

"I'm just making sure none of your injuries are too severe. I might trust them to not kill any of you, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't push you a little too far. Despite the need to test you, I also can't have you too injured to participate in combat class," Ruby responded as she poked at one of Weiss' bruises that hadn't fully healed yet, despite her slowly recovering aura working to heal the wound.

"And I appreciate the gesture. However, that's not what I wanted to ask," the heiress stated, her blue eyes fixed on her team leader. Ruby didn't bother vocalizing a response, instead choosing to wave her hand in an invitation to continue speaking. "Who are they? And how do you know them?"

The silver-eyed team leader of RWBY poked at Weiss' stomach, specifically where Weiss had received the punch that knocked her unconscious. "The simple version of it," she began with a light humm upon realizing that Weiss was fine and gently pushing the other girl away from her. "Would be that they're all people who had been kidnapped by the same people who kidnapped me, and we were all raised and trained together for the majority of our lives. If you want to know more, you'll need to get to know them better."

The youngest member of team RWBY then moved over to Blake and began to inspect her remaining injuries as well. "Blake, why didn't you try to run from Onix during your test?"

"It didn't cross my mind," the amber-eyed girl responded curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"In most combat situations, especially involving the grimm, simply giving up won't fix the situation. Your life would have still been at risk," Ruby said as she pressed a hand against Blake's side to see if the older girl winced. "If you take her up on her offer of training, I want you to take at least one session to try and run away from her. See if you can."

Amber eyes blinked with surprise, and then looked at the ground. "Okay, thanks."

"It's not a rebuke, Blake. It's a statement, and a suggestion. I wanted to know if there was something you noticed that kept you from running," Ruby said while stepping back from Blake and moving on to her sister. "Turns out there wasn't."

Ruby stood there in front of Yang for a few moments, before she spoke. "Neo knocked you out via umbrella to the head, didn't she?" Her silver eyes were locked on a still ugly bruise on the side of Yang's head, as she asked that question.

"She did, what about it?" Yang asked, both confused and annoyed. Her confusion only growing as Ruby grabbed her arm and started walking toward the door.

"We're going to the nurse, it's possible you have a concussion, and might suffer from Post-concussion syndrome. It shouldn't be too problematic, as your aura will manage it as your aura recovers, but it could explain why your bruises aren't healing that well, if your aura is too busy healing your brain." With those words said, the door closed behind the two sisters, and the remaining two members of team RWBY plopped down on their beds, unable to find the energy to worry for their potentially wounded teammate.

A/N

So, I feel bad that it's been so long, and to be honest, I'm not even entirely sure this chapter has a good enough increase in quality to be worth all of the time I spent practicing short stories during the time I was gone. As an important note, I also very much forgot exactly how relaxing, and overall good for my mental and emotional health, writing is for me. Especially a story like this where it's a story that plays before me in my mind, and all I have to worry about is doing my best to describe what's happening in a way that does it justice. Spoiler Alert, I don't do it justice, but I'm working on getting better. Hope everyone had an amazing New Year! - Shaded 122