an overhead view of the Emerald Forest as the camera pans down into the misty underbrush, where Yang Xiao Long is walking and looking around.

Yang: (calling out) Helloooooooo? (not seeing a shadow quickly pass by) Is anyone out there? Helloooo? (stops and raises her arms) I'm getting bored here! (hears a rustling in the bushes behind her and turns) Is someone there? (the rustling continues as Yang comes over and peaks inside) Ruby, is that you?

A low, inhuman growl is heard, and Yang's head rises up as she stares at the creature.

Yang: Nope!

Yang quickly rolls to the side as an Ursa charges out of the green. She gets up and activates her Ember Celica, staring at the monster before another Ursa runs out behind her. She leaps over it, and its companion runs at her again, only to get knocked back by a fiery punch. The other Ursa and Yang charge at each other, and Yang manages to get under it and deliver several punches and a kick to send the creature back.

Yang: You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you? (the Ursai merely growl at her) You could just say "no".

One of the Ursai stands on its legs and swipes at her twice, Yang barely dodging the attacks.

Yang: (laughing) Geeeez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba...

Before she can complete her insult, a single strand of her golden hair falls in front of her face and lands on the forest floor.

Yang: You... (closes her violet eyes, then opens them to reveal red, making the Ursai look at each other confusedly before Yang screams) You monster!!!

An inferno surrounds Yang for a moment, and she rockets forward, unleashing a devastating combo of flaming hits and blows on the offending Ursa, making it fly through several burning trees. The other monster runs over, but stops short at Yang's gaze while a tree falls to the ground behind her.

Yang: What! You want some, too?!

The Ursa rears up and prepares to strike... right when a whirling noise is heard and the monster makes a befuddled noise, falling down a second later to reveal Blake Belladonna with her Gambol Shroud in the beast's back.

Yang pants in exhaustion while Blake recalls the weapon back to her hand, sheathing it on her back and smiling to the side (or the audience, if she broke the fourth wall). Yang, now purple-eyed again, speaks to her new partner over the smoking remains of the monster.

Yang: I could've taken him.

The scene suddenly changes to Weiss Schnee's predicament from the end of "The First Step Pt.2", deflecting the swipe from a Beowolf with her Myrtenaster and getting pushed back into the middle of the beastly circle. She holds out her sword as she goes through her dueling motions and practices.

Weiss: (in her head) Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward — not that forward! — slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and... (brings her rapier up, the revolver spinning) Now!

Weiss dashes forward with her loaded weapon at the Beowolf in front of her, just when Ruby suddenly appears between the three in a blur of rose petals and a swipe of her Crescent Rose scythe, landing a hit on the monster.

Ruby: Gotcha!

Weiss widens her eyes and screams as she quickly has to stop, swinging the sword in a random direction and creating a line of fire that sets a nearby tree ablaze, followed quickly by the rest of the forest around the clearing.

Ruby, distracted by Weiss' mess-up, is barely defended when the same Beowolf scratches at her weapon, knocking the younger girl into the heiress.

Ruby: Hey, watch it!

Weiss: Excuse me! You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!

Ruby: You'll have to try a lot harder than that...

The duo wield their arms as the pack of Beowolves whine and growl around them. Ruby reloads her scythe just as a flaming tree falls near them.

Weiss: (grabbing Ruby's arm) We have to go!

She leads Ruby out of the blaze as it engulfs the grass and sets the Grimm to running back the way they came or suffering in the fire.

Ruby and Weiss stop a safe ways from the smoke and flames. Weiss leans over and pants as Ruby looks behind her.

Ruby: What was that?! That should've been easy!

Weiss: Well perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!

Ruby: (scoffs) What's that supposed to mean?

Weiss: I'm just surprised someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!

Ruby: Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight. I'm just fine on my own!

Weiss: Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon. Bravo!

Weiss begins to walk off on her partner yet again. Ruby, with an agitated shriek, unfolds Crescent Rose, slices a tree down to the stump, refolds it back, and follows her partner as the tree crashes behind her. Neither notice the large dark feather floating onto the fallen trunk behind them.

Meanwhile across the Forest, Pyrrha Nikos, armed with Miló and Akoúo̱, and Jaune Arc are making their way through the bushes. Jaune hears a noise far away and turns his head.

Jaune: Did you hear that?

Pyrrha: Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy.

They keep moving forward, Jaune still staring in the sound's direction as Pyrrha raises a branch to pass by and accidentally releases it right at Jaune's face, flooring him instantly.

Pyrrha: (looking back behind her) Jaune! I'm sorry!

Jaune: (laughs, lowering his hand from his cheek to reveal a gash from the wooden recoil) It's okay. Just a scratch! (gets back up when Pyrrha approaches him)

Pyrrha: Why didn't you activate your Aura?

Jaune: Huh?

Pyrrha: Your Aura.

Jaune: Gesundheit.

Pyrrha: Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?

Jaune: (waves the question off, avoiding eye contact) Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what Aura is?

Pyrrha smiles at him and gets ready to explain as the scene changes to Lie Ren's trek through the forest's tall grass.

Pyrrha (off-screen): Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?

Jaune (off-screen): Uh... yeah.

Ren stops and narrows his eyes, looking around him while a huge black Grimm serpent rises up from the grass behind him and quickly surrounds him with its large, hissing body. Ren adopts a fighting stance as the snake coils together in front of him and attacks with its long fangs.

Pyrrha: (back on screen, walking around Jaune) With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals.

Jaune: What about monsters?

Pyrrha: No. (switching back to Ren as he leaps out of the way, the snake's mouth hitting the ground and instantly coming up again to hit a jumping Ren back with its snout) The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity. (Ren lands in a crouch when the serpent encircles him again, and he unleashes his StormFlower before jumping up and firing at the creature) They are the darkness, and we are the light.

Jaune (off-screen): (as Ren kicks the snake's snout and slashes at its head) Right, that's why we fight them!

Pyrrha (off-screen): It's not about why; it's about knowing. (the snake flows around Ren and tries to bite him again, but he flips over it and drives his weapons into its head, pausing a moment without sensing the serpent's white head behind him) Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both.

Ren turns and looks up at the white head as it launches itself at him, dodging it and landing just in time to see the head slither towards him. As it gets closer, he runs at it and leaps onto the black head, sliding over its body and blasting the other head.

Pyrrha (off-screen): By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting. (Ren is unprepared for the white half to hit him with its head, knocking him off as he drops his weapons, and leaving him to merely raise his arms and distantly cry "No!" to the mouth of the black head)

Jaune: (opens his eyes with the revelation) It's like a force field!

Pyrrha: Yes, if you want to look at it that way.

Ren is now holding the front fangs of the colossal snake in his hands, glowing a faint, pulsating pink as he grips the teeth and yanks them from the monster's mouth, causing it to flail away. It attempts to bite him again, but Ren spins to the side and stabs a fang into its eye, rotating his arm to deliver a final blow that drives the makeshift weapon into its skull, which ripples, expands, and blows apart in a dark mess as its headless body falls over its fellow creature. Wasting no time, Ren runs right at the white head.

Pyrrha: (walking up to Jaune and touching the side of his head) Now, close your eyes and concentrate.

Jaune: (complying) Uhh... Okay.

Pyrrha smiles and closes her own eyes, opening them as her skin glows and her irises shrink before shutting them again. The two stand there, now with Pyrrha glowing a faint red and Jaune a bright white.

Pyrrha: (mentally speaking) For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. (placing a hand on his chest) I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee. (Pyrrha stops glowing red and hunches over in tiredness)

Jaune: (still glowing, concerned) Pyrrha?

Pyrrha: (getting back up) It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. (grins as she watches the scratch close up and vanish) You have a lot of it.

Jaune: (smiling and looking at his hands as the glow stops) Wow...

At the same time, Ren stands atop of the body of his enemy, sliding the weapons into his sleeves and brushing them off before a strange, animal-like noise is heard above him twice. He looks up and meets the upside-down eyes of Nora Valkyrie.

Ren: (chuckles) I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like.

In response, Nora gives her friend a "Boop!" on the nose, causing him to smile.

(Timeskip)

N was walking through the forest heading to the tempol, admiring his surroundings along the way.

N: Wow. It's sure is beautiful out here. Minus the grimm, that is.

As he says that, he see's the temple in the distance. He runs over to it as Yang and Blake step out into the clearing.

Yang: Think this is it?

In response, Blake gives Yang an incredulous look and heads down the hill, her partner following. They walk across the floor and observe the items on pedestals, now shown to be familiar shapes.

Blake: (looking at a black king, confused) Chess pieces?

Yang: Some of them are missing. Looks like we weren't the first ones here.

Blake: Well, I guess we should pick one.

N: (Running up to the girls) Yang! Blake!

Yang: Oh hi, N!

(Elsewhere)

Jaune and Pyrrha are standing at the mouth of a dark cave, where drawings are seen to the side involving armed men against giant beasts.

Jaune: Think this is it?

The scene cuts to their walk inside the cave, Jaune holding a short, burning torch to light their way.

Pyrrha: I'm not sure this is it.

Jaune: (sighs) Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for, like, five more feet?

Suddenly and completely unexpectedly, Jaune trips on the ground, and the torch flies into a small puddle, extinguishing the flame so the two are cast in darkness with only their eyes visible.

Pyrrha: (as Jaune gets up and grumbles) Do you... feel that?

Jaune: Soul-crushing regret?

Pyrrha: No, it's... warm.

Back at the temple, Yang approaches one of the relics.

Yang: Hmmmm... (studies the golden knight, then picks it up and shows it to Blake) How about a cute little pony?

Blake: (smirking) Sure. (they walk towards each other to the center of the temple floor)

Yang: That wasn't too hard!

Blake: Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find. (they share a smile)

Jaune and Pyrrha continue onward through the cave until they see a large glowing point of gold right in front of them, illuminating Jaune's excited features.

Jaune: That's the relic! (he slowly reaches out to grab it, but it moves away from his swipe) Hey! Bad... relic! (he tries to get it again, then jumps forward and hangs onto it as the object raises him above the ground) Gotcha!

Pyrrha: (worried) Jaune...?

Jaune's catch lowers itself so he is dangling right in front of the now-glowing red lines and eyes of a Death Stalker.

Jaune's scream is heard all the way from the temple, where Yang turns towards the direction of its source.

Yang: Some girl's in trouble! Blake, N, did you hear that?

N: I definitely heard that!

Blake doesn't answer, staring at something in the sky.

At the cave entrance, Pyrrha rushes out right before the monster crashes through the hole, roaring and waving its grass-encrusted claws as Jaune hangs from the stinger, calling from help and continuing to scream.

Jaune: (sobbing) Help! Whoa-ah-ah-ah-ah! Why?! Pyrrha! He-e-e-elp! Pyrrha, this is not the relic! It's not! (continues to cry and get shaken around) Do something!

Pyrrha: (wielding Miló in front of the creature) Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let- (before she can finish, the Grimm hurls its tail back and launches a still-screaming Jaune across the forest as she watches in dismay) ... go. (she turns back to the scorpion as it continues to snap its claws at her, and she smiles embarrassedly before turning and rushing away in a burst of green leaves)

Blake is still staring at something above them, but Yang is focused on the forest.

Yang: Blake, did you hear that? (turns to her partner) What should we do?

Finally, the faint-but-growing-louder scream of "Heads uuuuuuuup!" is heard when Ruby falls from the sky and presumably crash lands to the ground, when the scene cuts to black.