Chapter 3: Upon A Burning Star

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long. You four will be known as Team RWBY… led by Ruby Rose. Congratulations you four." Ozpin finished listing off the list of new teams, lightly applauding with all others that attended the ceremony. Ruby was ecstatic. "I get to lead my own team! Yes!" She thought to herself with a smile as Yang gripped her in a tight hug. Blake gave her a small smile and a nod of support. Weiss, however, simply stared ahead blankly. Ruby walked up to her, curious.

"You okay there Weiss?" she said, waving a hand in front of her teammate's face. Weiss blinked animatedly before shaking her head, a pristine smile that didn't quite reach her eyes forming on her face. "Yes, congratulations. Sorry for spacing out, I'm okay." She said the last part seemingly to herself before slowly walking back to their new dorm room, spaced out once more.

"What's up with her?" Yang asked, placing her hand on Ruby's shoulder. Blake walked up to Ruby's other side quietly. "She's been this way since the Emerald Forest. Maybe she saw something?" Blake's reasoning made the two sisters quietly think to themselves, but Yang threw her arm over Ruby and Blake's shoulders. "Ah well, when she's ready to come around, she will! Now let's go to bed. I'm tired." She yawned as the others gave her an odd look. "Yang," Blake said "It's only Four in the afternoon. How could you possibly be tired?"

"Semblance and aura usage, my teammate. Semblance and aura." Yang mumbled back, eyes slowly losing the battle with gravity. Ruby picked her up with ease and smiled. "Let's go Blake." She called back to the ravenette teammate behind her.

Weiss woke up early the next morning, eyes dull as the heat from her bed attempted to lull her back to sleep. Giving a yawn and a small stretch, she smiled as blood pumped through her now more limber arms as she sat up… only to see a smirking Ruby holding a silver object to her lips.

The squeal of the whistle made the alabaster heiress flail and scream, falling off her bed in a jumbled pile with her blanket. Blake screamed and gripped her head and Yang merely lifted her arm over the side, flipping her sister an almighty grumpy middle finger.

Ruby's laughter filled the room as she took in their reactions. "Good morning team!" She said through recovery breaths. "Come on guys, up and at em! We got shit to do!" She clapped twice as her three very groggy teammates rose from their current positions. As their feet touched the floor, Ruby dashed into their closet, rose petals dusting the floor as their bags were quickly placed on their beds.

"Alright team, we gotta unpack-" her sentence was stalled as one of Blake's bags fell off the bed, busting open on the floor and causing the ravenette to turn a bright scarlet. "-and clean! I'll grab everyone's other bags, you three get dressed!" Ruby sped off as two salutes and one middle finger (Guess right and have a cookie) were sent her way.

"I call shower first," Called Yang as she dashed towards the bathroom. The other two merely sighed and began the unpacking process as Weiss' eyes regained a lively look.

Ruby returned to the dorm with their bags to a half-asleep Blake, a smirking sister, and a very disgruntled heiress. "The fuck happened while I was gone?" she smirked as she set the rest of their bags down. "Was my wake-up too much for you?"

Three pillows pegged her in the face in rapid succession, causing her to laugh. Weiss got off her bed and grabbed the whistle that fell out of Ruby's pocket, rushing to the bathroom despite her leader's desperate cries. The door slammed, and the next noise to break the silence was the flush of the toilet and the metallic clanging of the whistle against the porcelain before it fell silent again. Weiss reemerged with a snarl. "If you ever, and I mean EVER wake me up like that again, that whistle isn't gonna be the only thing floating downstream, got it?" She gripped Ruby's shoulders as she glowered into the quicksilver depths of her leader. Ruby gulped, a very faint tinge coming to her cheeks as she smiled. "You got it, snow angel." She laughed as Weiss sputtered then turned sharply and marched toward her bed. Looking around, Ruby realized decoration of the room had been complete. Even the beds had been pushed into empty spaces to make room. Smirking, she said, "Who here would object to ditching the beds for bunk beds to save room?"

Weiss was the only person to raise her hand, scowling at the silent democratic vote. "Fine… but this better not be a haphazard job done with rope and books as suspension." She glanced at Ruby who had only smirked wider. "What do you have in mind?"

Ruby giggled innocently before pulling a comically large bag out of the closet.

"No fucking way…" Blake mused out loud to herself as Ruby opened the window and pushed the blinds out of the way. "There's no physical way!" Ruby laughed harder and drug out a second bag, getting a raised eyebrow from Weiss, and a humorous twinkle from Yang's eyes.

"Mind helping me Yang?" Ruby asked innocently, lifting one of the beds off the floor. Yang simply smiled wider as she lifted the other half of the bed and tossed it out the window, hearing a crash and a "MY LEG!" from below. Three more beds were tossed before Ruby moved her bags to the corner of the room. "No. I refuse to believe that you have full-scale bunk beds in those bags. I won't evert believe such things. It's a trick, right Weiss?" the now desperate Blake asked her monochrome teammate, hoping against hope that physics and logic returned to the room. Weiss shrugged. "It wouldn't be the oddest thing ive ever seen…" She mumbled, focusing back on the sisters who were now opening the bags.

Indeed, they were full size bunk beds, each with a rich brown wood frame, comfortable double size mattresses, and red satin sheets. Weiss and Blake both blinked at their teammates, one with minor interest, the other with owlish bewilderment. Blake walked slowly towards the right hand bottom bunk as the red and yellow sisters claimed both top bunks. She poked the frame, redrawing her hand quickly as if the beds would bite her. After staring a bit more, blake sat underneath Yang, a dazed look crossing her amber eyes as the bow atop her head twitched. "Alright… fuck it. Probably will be the most tame thing I see today." Blake laid back on her bed as Weiss laid underneath the now giggling Rose sister.

"I've been waiting to use these for ages. Getting them here was an absolute bitch though…" Ruby mumbled from her position. "Weiss looked up, confused. "How and when did you get these here? You went to sleep not long after your sister yesterday afternoon." Ruby laughed and poked her head over the edge of the bed, staring into Weiss' glacier blue eyes. "Come closer."

Weiss, even more confused, scooted closer.

"A little closer now…"

A wary scooch forward.

"Almost there…"

Weiss placed her ear by her teammate's upside down face, a small look of worry in her eyes.

"A better question would be… how I got my whistle back."

Weiss had only time to take an owlish blink before a metallic screech filled her head, causing her to fall backwards with a yelp of pain. Ruby, howling with laughter, fell to the floor in a rolling mess of giggles and tears, matching her sister on her bunk.

Suddenly, she shot to her feet, deathly seriousness in her eyes. "Weiss… what time is it?"

Weiss glared at her with hatred and glanced at her open scroll. "8:55, why?"

Ruby smirked and calmly walked toward the door. "Well, we may or may not have but a measly 5 minutes to get to class." She cracked open the door before disappearing, her afterimage made entirely of rose petals falling to the floor. As the last one fell, Weiss, Blake, and Yang shot after their leader with worry, not wanting to be late on their first day.

"Well, I believe ive had enough of life. Ruby magically has bags of common household furniture AND somehow got her god-forsaken whistle back, Professor Port collects Grimm in cages and lets them loose in class, Professor Oobleck has speed to rival Ruby's-" a distant scream of "Doctor Oobleck" could be heard. "-just off of caffeine alone, and Professor Goodwitch seems to enjoy watching students tear each other apart until they barely have any aura left to defend themselves. Yep, Ruby's beds are the most tame thing so far." Blake said aloud, mentally rerunning through today's events.

Yang laughed and patted her shoulder. "What more did you expect? The best have their own quirks in order to distract themselves from their own pasts, and Ruby got off to bisecting a Grimm at high speeds. Nothing is as it seems, Blakey." Ruby blushed and giggled at the memory. "Things will only get weirder Blake, promise me. Expect anything and nothing at the same time. Yang could have a cartel business in Atlas. I could have my very own black market network for technology. Weiss could be an android, You never know with kids these days. Hell, for all we know, you could be a faunus with a suppressed animalistic side that outweighs your human side." Ruby laughed and jumped into bed. "Well, ive got homework, Yang has sleep, Weiss is the reason im doing homework-," she halted and smirked at the jolt the mattress gave as Weiss hit it from below. "-and you have a book to read with a LOT to think about. Have fun."

Blake blinked owlishly at her leader, wondering if what she had said had been her imagination or not. "Fuck this noise… now I want milk. Damn you Ruby for bringing up my secrets unknowingly!" She left the room as Ruby sneezed, smirking to herself. "And people say the insane aren't intelligent,"

Several days had passed, and Weiss' nerves had been grated down to the bare minimum. "How in the absolute almighty thunder-cunting fuck nuggets did she become leader over me? ME?" Weiss stared at Ruby, her rage growing as Ruby did more and more things that defied what Professor Port was saying the embodiment of a leader should be.

"Who here believes they hold these qualities?"

Weiss' hand shot up so fast Ruby thought she heard a slight shockwave from it. "I do sir!"

"Ah, Ms. Schnee, how nice. Prepare yourself and join me down here to prove yourself." The robust teacher laughed to himself boisterously as the cage beside him rattled, grunts raging out from within.

Three minutes later, Weiss had returned with her combat attire and Myrtenaster, her dust rapier. She joined Professor Port in front of the class, nose high in the air as she passed her leader. "Now then, this will be your first test. Keep the fight on the ground floor. If it escalates higher, you lose ten points. If another student is injured, you lose twenty. If the fight goes on for more than five minutes, you lose fifty. This is a one hundred point test, so keep that in mind. This is especially stressed to those who know they will need this by the end. This is only one of many practical tests to come, so be ready. Now, Ms. Schnee, are you ready?"

The nod from the white heiress signaled the professor to cut the lock on the cage with an axe that seemed to double as a Blunderbuss. The grunts inside the cage ceased, and there was a moment of bated breath. The door to the cage burst open, and a large Boarbatusk stod in its doorway, hatred gleaning through it's sanguine eyes. Weiss hopped to attention as it charged at her. She leapt through the air, off the creature's back and behind it, striking the armor on its spine to no effect. The angry boar only seemed to grow more furious at being hit, and tuned quickly after coming to a stop. It sprinted again, hoping to impale the white blight in front of it with it's razor sharp spears it wielded for tusks. Weiss lodged her rapier in between the tusks, blocking the attack and ignoring the minor cheering coming from her team. She backflipped as the boar Grimm ripped her blade from her hand, sending it across the room and into the wall. Weiss scowled but beckoned with her hands to the beast.

"Weiss! Retrieve your weapon and aim for it's underside! There's no armor!"

Weiss glared white hot daggers at her leader who had a look of concern across her features. "Fuck off and let me handle it! You don't deserve the position you have been given!" She yelled back and returned her attention to the boar who had begun spinning in place, preparing to speed toward the white heiress. Ruby recoiled from the venom used by the heiress. The words themselves didn't hurt, but the sting from the heiress caused Ruby to put up her hood and don her headphones before walking out of the class, her feet dragging the ground.

Weiss grabbed the Boarbatusk by its tusks with her aura covered hands, the sting of impact still passing through her spiritual shield. She groaned and pulled apart, the small beast making a confused grunt, then a scream of agony as one of it's white spears was ripped from its jaw. The beast flailed, knocking Weiss back as she held tight to the weapon. She sprinted forward, using her glyphs as propulsion, and speared the suffering creature in the stomach, the tusk piercing through it's spinal armor as if it were paper. Weiss gasped and stood, receiving a boisterous laugh and applause from her robust teacher. She smiled and glanced in the direction of her team, her face becoming neutral as she noticed the missing Reaper. "good riddance."

Ruby trudged down the hall, her only solace being the cape she hugged to her body and the music she lost herself in.

Like a kite my mind is soaring high.

Through the sky every day and night.

And way up high I can still see just fine,

Don't worry everything will be alright.

I know it's scary, but everything will be alright.

Ruby smiled slightly as one of her favorite songs graced her ears with a pounding vengeance. Her mind roamed itself and had found itself some old suppressed memories to dredge up, causing the redhead to have to sit down in risk of falling.

"You are the reason she left!"

"Worthless little leech…"

"Get me another bottle, bitch, and I may not use you as target practice today."

She wept silently, holding her knees to her chest. "That same venom he used when I was young. Why is it resurfacing now?" Ruby nearly missed the footsteps that halted beside her, nearly missed the subtle shift of the metal bench she had found out by the fountain in front of Beacon as someone joined her.

"I used to come out here myself in my own times of strife. Fond memories on this exact bench." Ozpin sipped his coffee and glanced at the distraught girl beside him.

"Was Weiss right? Do I deserve my place as team leader, or even my position here at this school?

Ruby shuddered at how hollow her question sounded, the sound dragging more memories from the deep recesses of her mind. An unnoticed wave of tears spuilled from the quicksilver wells that were her eyes. "My life has been played by ear since I left the man I once called… called father. Suddenly, I get here and I feel as useless as I did with him. Nothing changed but the faces. Now tell me… do I deserve to be here, Ozpin?"

The headmaster of beacon merely sipped his coffee once more, looking at the red reaper beside him. "Miss Rose, I have made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet, but I do not believe my decision to accept you here as team leader to be one of them. You know better than most others here that life isn't kind. You know this, yet you push forward with your goal of saving people. Your desire is to help people have better lives than yourself, am I correct?" A subtle nod was his only answer. "Then continue your path here. I assure you it will aid you until you feel it is time for you to take the next step, whatever it may be." He stood with cane and cup in hand. "You have been given a daunting task, Ruby. Being a leader is more than a title in bathe, but a badge you wear constantly. If you can't find a reason to push forward, what reason do you give others to follow you?"

Ruby remained in place as her headmaster walked away slowly, allowing her headphones to lull her back into her mind, but finding only solace… and the faintest touch of white.

Weiss had been in a shitty mood all day, what with waking up to a whistle, the rushed decorum of their room, the headache induced by her partner's antics, the migraine developed by her teammate's reappearing whistle, the fury that clawed at her mind at her leader's antics in class, the pain she felt in her heart after realizing her blade sharp words used against her partner, the worry pulled up aftercoming back to her dorm completely empty, the guilt as Yang only shook her head in disappointment and Blake's glance of bitterness at her, and now the sorrow of trying to find her partner.

She dwelled on her mood before coming upon the very teacher whose class made her snap at Ruby.

"Professor Port!"

He turned and smiled. "Ah, Miss Schnee! A pleasant surprise!

She gave her teacher a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I enjoyed your lesson today."

Peter Port quirked a large, silver eyebrow as his moustache twitched slightly. "You seemed more intent on putting your leader down than completing my task."

Weiss' false smile fell quickly, replaced with a somber expression. "I was angry at the time over something stupid. I should have held my tongue, but failed to do so, and now she's missing. I feel awful for saying such things and I can't find her to apologise."

Peter put his hand on Weiss' shoulder, walking her to a bench before sitting. "I'm glad you have taken responsibility for your actions, but let me clear up any remaining feelings you may still harbor. Your prowess on the battlefield is only matched by your poor social attitude. I see before me a girl who has spent her entire life getting everything she had ever wanted. You believe that simple demands will change the minds of those in power. You may not think this now, but I wish to be sure. I have known Ozpin for a long many years, and the man has never once led me astray in a decision. I trust his judgement, as you should. Hone your skills. Perfect every technique… and be not the best leader, but the best person. I hope these words resonate within you and give you more to think about. I bid you good night, Miss Schnee, and my good luck to you and young Miss Rose."

Weiss sat still as Professor Port walked off. She started thinking to herself all the things that had happened that day and debated with herself if those simple actions yielded her any permissible reason to stand behind her words. Finding none, she sank lower in her seat, thinking of how to apologise to her leader. Her scroll went off with a quiet 'ding' and she took that as her queue to head back to her dorm, hoping for the best of luck.

Upon returning to the dorm, it was well into the night, so she wasn't at all surprised at the lack of light as well as the sound of balanced breathing, along with Yang's snoring from her side of the room. Closing the door, she stood still and took in the noises of her familiar teammates. Smiling softly, she looked up to the bed above her own, curious about the makeshift blind that was pinned to the ceiling. She peeked behind the bed sheet and giggled softly at the sight before her. Ruby's long hair strewn about behind her as she drooled slightly on a paper she had rested her head on, causing it to stick to her face. Her glasses sat crooked on her face and a once-full cup of coffee now lay empty on its side beside Ruby's head. Weiss took in the sight, feeling her heart beat a little faster. She tapped Ruby's shoulder and smiled wider when Ruby woke up groggily, mumbling 'cookies' under her breath. She glanced up, noticing who stood beside her, and jumped, pulling the paper off her face with a blush. "Weiss! Im sorry, I was trying to finish homework and I fell asleep-" Her rant was quieted by Weiss' slender finger pressing itself to her lips.

"How do you take your coffee?"

Ruby looked at her, confused. "Cream and five sugars. Why?"

Weiss rolled her eyes at the quirky redhead, smiling. "I'll be back in a moment."

She returned a few minutes later with a steaming cup of life in her hand, the smell of caffeine and sugar arousing the reaper's mind to focus. "Thank you, Weiss, but why…?" her question lingered, but was ignored by the alabaster princess in font of her.

"Ruby, I believe you have what it takes to be a good leader… but just know this: I will be the best damn teammate you will ever have. That you can count on."

Ruby stared, shocked at what the short haired beauty had just said, before smirking. "I hold you to that princess. Thanks again for the coffee, fuck knows id need it to complete this shit.

Weiss laughed at her partner's language, running a hand through her rather short silken strands. "No problem. Good luck with studying." Weiss smiled ghen sunk back to the floor, popping up once again and pointing to a problem on Ruby's paper, smirking. "That's wrong, by the way."

Ruby smirked back and grabbed her pencil. "So it is. Now you go get ready for bed, princess. You need your beauty sleep."

Weiss snorted, but complied nonetheless. Opening the bathroom door, she turned back to Ruby. "Hey Ruby… I always wanted bunk beds as a kid."

Ruby gave a genuine smile to Weiss, receiving one in turn, then returned to her studies after the soft click of the bathroom door sounded, leaving her to her notes… and thoughts of white.

Well, here we are again. A bit of background and character development. I haven't forgotten Team JNPR, just give me time. I have graduation tomorrow, so there may not be another chapter later today, but I will look to a time and opportunity to make another. Read and review, all criticism is welcome.

Peace and good morning/afternoon/evening/night.