Up in the blue sky, Ruby and Weiss are seen hanging on to something very feathery, very smoky and very fast, as evidenced by the loud wind and the two being blown sideways.

"Ruby! I told you this was a terrible idea!" Yelled Weiss.

"We're fine! Stop worrying!"

"I am so far beyond worrying!"

"In a good way?"

"In a bad way! In a very bad way!"

"Well, why don't we just jump?" Ruby insisted.

"What are you? Insane?!"

She is met with silence; Ruby has already disappeared.

"Oh, you insufferable little red-!"
______________________________________________

Down on the ground in the abandoned temple, Blake is seen staring at something above them, but Yang is focused on the forest.

"You guys heard that, right?" says Yang as she turns to them, "What should we do?"

"We don't exactly know where the sound came from, but maybe–"

"Shhh…" Simon is cut off by Toby who seems to be hearing something.

Finally, the faint-but-growing-louder scream of "Heads uuuuuuuup!" is heard as they slowly look up only to see Ruby falling from the sky and presumably crash landing to the ground.

"RUBY!?" Toby exclaims in shock.

"Oh my gosh! Don't worry, I got ya!" calls out Simon as he rushes towards where she was going to land in an attempt to catch her and right before she lands, Jaune comes flying through the air and crashes into Ruby, knocking her off course and sending them both into a tree.

"Jaune?" said Simon.

Ruby who's on the branch is dazed by the rough landing as evidenced by the cutesy Beowolves and stars circling her head.

"Oohhhh... What was that?" Ruby said as the dizziness passes when she shakes her head.

"Eh-hem," Ruby looks up to see Jaune hanging upside-down in a tree branch above her, "Hey, Ruby…"

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asks Yang.

"I…"

Before Yang can continue, several crashing noises are heard in the forest ahead of them, and an Ursa comes out, claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground, depositing its rider.

"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" Rolling off the creature's back is Nora who then gets up and groans, saddened, "Awwww... It's broken."

She then dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass as Ren comes up behind with Daruna and Nilak catching up a second later.

Ren is seen panting and leaning on the monster, "Nora! Please... Don't ever do that again."

He looks up again and notices by the pink dotted outline of where his partner should be that Nora has run off again, and looks around frantically.

Nora is now seen In the temple, staring at a golden took relic.

"Oooohh…" just as she suddenly grabs it, an animation of stars and her hammer symbol playing in the pink background as she dances and sings with the chess piece, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"Nora!"

Nora stops dancing with the rook on her head, then salutes, dropping the relic into her hand.

"Coming, Ren!" She says, skipping off to her friend past Nilak and Daruna.

"At least our help isn't needed," said Nilak.

"Nilak!" Toby called out.

"Toby!"

Daruna then sees his friend, "Blake!"

"Daruna!"

"Okay," says Simon, turning to Yang, "Did you see that girl riding in on an Ursa?"

"I…"

She is interrupted once more as a screech is heard from their right, and Pyrrha comes onto the scene as the scorpion creature uproots entire trees in its chase after her. Pyrrha narrowly dodges its giant claws and keeps on running.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha calls out.

"Pyrrha!"

Ruby stands up, looking at the monster below, "Whoa!"

She starts running off of the branch and landing in a roll.

"Ruby!" Jaune whines.

"Ruby!" said Yang, approaching her.

"Yang!" beams Ruby as she raises her arms as if to give her sister a hug.

"Nora!" Said Ginger haired girl comes between the two and knocking them off-balance in surprise.

Simon looks around before his eyes land on Ren, "Ren!"

"What?"

“Uhhh… Nothing. I thought we all were doing the thing where we call each other by our names and… never mind.”

The scorpion Grimm continues to follow Pyrrha as she runs.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" asks Blake.

Yang, who gets angrier, growls and erupts in a small burst of fire, eyes flashing red, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?!"

The tick-tock of a clock counts down the two seconds of Yang cooling down, Ren running over to a ditzy Nora, and Blake and Ruby looking up along with Daruna, Nilak, Simon and Toby.

"Umm... Yang?" Ruby tugs on her sister's sleeve and points.

Up above, Weiss is revealed to be hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to the same Nevermore that Toby and Simon encountered.

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss calls down to Ruby.

"I said 'jump'!"

"Hey, I know that bird," recalls Simon, "I was wondering where it flew off to."

"She's gonna fall," said Blake.

"She'll be fine."

It was Ren that spoke up, "She's falling."

Jaune is finally out of the tree, panting until he looks up and grins at the sight of Weiss falling through the air, giving him the opportunity to jump off the branch with arms outstretched and catch her in a slowed-down moment.

He then smiles at Weiss, "Just... dropping in?"

Weiss is speechless... and Jaune realizes why when they both look down.

"Oh, God."

They hang on to each other wide-eyed as their moment of suspension ends, their weapons flying behind them.

Daruna rushes forward while channeling his semblance into his steps, enhancing his jump as he manages to catch Weiss in the air bridal style as he lands perfectly. Jaune on the other hand does a faceplant into the dirt, limbs splayed out right next to him.

"Not a quite graceful landing you had there for an Ice queen, is it, Weissy?" quips Daruna.

"Very funny," said Weiss with a pout, "Now can you put me down?"

The Faunus complies as the Death Stalker is still hunting Pyrrha, but she manages to land on her side at the feet of the heroes.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" said Yang facetiously.

"Not if I can help it!" With a battlecry, she rushes towards the Grimm.

"Ruby, wait!" said Yang worriedly.

Ruby, still screaming, fires Crescent Rose and charges at the oncoming Death Stalker. When the two meet, the Grimm swipes Ruby away and she is knocked back.

She then gets up slowly, "-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!"

Ruby turns back to the monster and shoots it in the skull, running away from it and sheathing her scythe as the Death Stalker now goes after her.

Yang runs forward, "Ruby!"

Ruby rushes towards Yang, but the Nevermore caws above them, flapping its wings and releasing lines of sharpened feathers with points that catch on Ruby's cape and prevent Yang from reaching her.

"Ruby, get out of there!"

Ruby tugs on her cape, finding little success, "I'm trying!"

The Death Stalker approaches, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby and heading down on the helpless girl.

"Ruby!" Yang reaches out in vain.

By instinct, a blur dashes past Yang and spins in front of Ruby while activating Crimson Talons' arm blades which he then uses to parry the stinger to the side as it embeds itself to the ground and not long after that happened, a beam of frost encases it in ice while another beam does the same to its front legs.

Ruby opens her eyes to the sight of the stinger encased in ice and lowers her arms from their futile position over her head as she stares at her savior as he deactivates his weapons.

"You are so childish!"

Turning to the source of the voice, she sees Weiss lowering Myrtenaster as she approaches her.

"Weiss…?"

"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style," berates Weiss.

"You're done?" deadpans Nilak, lowering her arm.

Weiss ignores that as she continues, "And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this," Ruby explains.

"You're fine," says Weiss as she walks away.

Ruby breathes a sigh of relief, then closes her eyes and clasps her hands as she gratefully whispers, "Normal knees…"

"Hey."

Ruby looks up to see Toby offering her his hand which she takes as he pulls her up.

"Don't feel too bad. Just be more careful when you fight, you're too cute to die and I'm not letting that happen on my watch. Other than that, just be you."

"R-Right. Thanks," says Ruby with a blush evident on her face as she smiles at him which he returns.

Yang rushes up to Ruby and gives her a hug which her sister grunts at upon receiving.

"So happy you're okay!" The two stare at each other for a moment, then look up at the Nevermore still flying overhead and roaring.

"Guys? That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?" Jaune asks worriedly.

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us," Weiss says as they all look at the relics.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs," Ruby says as she nods to Weiss who nods back, "There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!" said Jaune.

"She's right but I don't think it's gonna be that easy," said Nilak as she picks up a black knight identical to the one her brother picked, "Grimm are still out in the forest not to mention the Nevermore flying above us so it's either do or die."

Ruby goes over and grabs a gold knight identical to the one Yang picked out and Jaune takes hold of a gold rook similar to Nora and Ren's piece, smiling at each other. The Death Stalker continues to fight its bonds, cracking the ice a little in the process.

"Time we left!" Ren exclaimed.

"Right, Let's go!" Ruby goes forward with everyone following except for a smiling Yang and Blake as the latter approaches her partner.

"What is it?" Blake asks Yang who stares proudly at Ruby as she leaps on a boulder and motions the group onward.

"Nothing…" she moves on as Blake smiles in realization and leaves as well.

And just then, Daruna halts in his tracks as he hears a series of guttural growls far from behind.

"Guys, we have company," he speaks up.

"What kind?" Toby asks.

"Venators. A whole pack of them at our six."

"Oh right, I didn't think this would be Venator season already," said Simon in thought, "They travel in a pack of about three dozens in order to hunt a group of bigger prey."

"Yeah, thanks for the unnecessary info, Simonpedia," quips the wolf faunus with dryness laced in his tone.

"What's wrong?" asks Yang as both she and Blake approach them.

"We're about to be joined by Venators," explains Nilak, "But the four of us are gonna buy you guys some time.

"We are?" said Simon before remembering the people here, "I mean Of course we are."

"Are you sure?" asked Blake with worry, "There could be a lot of them."

"We'll be fine," said Daruna, "We'll catch up with you guys later after we're done."

"Now go!" said Toby, "We'll handle this!"

The two nod before moving past them to join the others.

"So what's the plan?" asks Daruna.

Toby turned to look at three of them, "We're gonna hold the fort. Nothing gets past us that easily. Daruna, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You the sniper. You watch our six for any Grimm that gets the jump on us, and shoot anything that gets past us."

"Yeah, let's make some noise," The Faunus nods before jumping to a branch before readying his bow as they finally hear the guttural growls fast approaching.

"Meanwhile, Nilak, you take the right flank. Simon, you take the left."

"Got it."

They bring out all of their weapons as they see a whole pack of five dozen raptor like Grimm appear from the treeline.

“Cue the music,” says Nilak as she turns on her headphones.

It is upon seeing three humans that they dash forward while the three teens charge towards the Grimm.
______________________________________________

The rest of the group are now seen heading out of the forest and into another abandoned series of structures as the Nevermore follows them from the air. They spread out when it passes above, concealing themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and caws.

"Well, that's great," said Yang, annoyed.

Jaune looks behind at the Death Stalker bursting onto the scene, "Ah, man, run!"

The group emerges from their hiding spots, causing the Nevermore to rise up into the air.

"Nora, distract it!" said Ren.

Nora obliges, running out from her block and jumping through the feather projectiles before reaching behind her and launching several heart-topped shells from her grenade launcher, bursting into pink electricity when they hit the Nevermore and causing it to retreat. She is unaware of the Death Stalker rushing up behind her until Blake and Ren perform a cross-slash with their Gambol Shroud and StormFlower against its shell. Weiss lands next to Nora so she can create a jumping platform beneath them and leap to safety while Blake and Ren are now being chased.

"Go, go!" Pyrrha stops running beside Jaune and gets out Miló, firing red shots alongside Ren's green blasts for a second until it reaches them and tries to swipe, prompting the group to run again.

The eight race over the ancient stone bridge, not noticing the Nevermore closing in on them until it uses its giant wings to shatter the path right in the middle, forcing Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Jaune closer to the central collection of columns and leaving Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha on the other side with the Death Stalker. Ruby fires at the retreating Nevermore while Blake is beaten back by the scorpion.

Jaune comes to the edge of the break in the bridge, "Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!"

Nora runs up beside him, "Let's do this!"

"Yeah, but, uh... I can't make that jump," said Jaune while looking down at the misty abyss.

Nora smiles diabolically at him, laughing as she knocks him back, turns her weapon to its full-length hammer form, and jumps to the edge of the bridge.

Jaune then realizes what she's about to do, "Oh, wait!"

Too late, she slams the hammer into the bridge and throws Jaune to the other side, yelling:

"No, no, no!"

Nora places one foot on the hammer and fires it off the collapsing section of bridge, launching her to slam its face right in the center of the Death Stalker's skull. She fires it just as the stinger comes down to get her, and blasts back again to avoid its reach, accidentally knocking into Blake and making her fall from the edge. Blake sees the Nevermore above her and launches her whip so the gun's blade sinks into the edge of the bridge, circling around and leaping onto the aerial Grimm's back. She dashes all over its body, slashing the entire time, before jumping off and landing on the ruined platform at the top of the columns next to Ruby, then going over to Yang and Weiss.

"It's tougher than it looks!" said Blake.

Yang readies her Ember Celica, "Then let's hit it with everything we got!"
______________________________________________

Meanwhile,

Back in the woods, a Venator is seen being bisected by a hardlight blade belonging to Toby who cuts through the Grimm with calculated precision and ease. As he ducks from a bite from a Venator, he quickly cleaves it in half, not expecting Nilak flipping over him as she nails each blaster shots, taking out some of the Grimm. She grabs a lunging Venator by the neck with both her hands as her irises turn blue, channeling her semblance to freeze the Grimm solid before swinging it around, knocking away some of the velociraptors before releasing the frozen Grimm that was soaring before being shattered in pieces by Spine Mist courtesy of the Ghost who cuts his way through the hoarde before driving his weapon through a Venator into the ground. As Simon sees more Venators attacking, he ghosts through some of them as he grabs hold of two raptors by their spines and pulls them out of their bodies along with their skulls. Some of the Grimm that went past them would have advanced further had they not been shot by fire dust arrows, resulting in an explosion that sends the Grimm back as Daruna leaps from branch to branch while firing arrows at any raptor attempting a sneak attack on his teammates or getting past them.

Seeing more of the Grimm keep appearing, Toby knew in mind they needed a new tactic.

"Guys, New plan!" Toby barks out after impaling two venators through their throats, "Nilak, ice the ground and slow them down! Simon, cover us with your minigun! Daruna, any semblance you have that can disorient them, use it!"

"On it!" Nilak complies as she activates Blizzard once more, projecting a chilling wave of frost across the forest floor. Ice spread rapidly, causing the Venators to skid and stumble, momentarily halting their advance as some crash into trees.

Simon takes advantage of the pause, transforming Spine Mist into it's minigun mode and then sending a barrage of bullets into the Grimm horde tearing through them as well as the trees. The forest echoes with the thunderous gunfire.

Daruna plays his part as well, Using Howl, he manipulates sounds around them to create an eerie cacophony of growls and roars, confusing the Venators further. Some turned on their own, their eyes filled with confusion.

As the Grimm regain their footing, Toby surges forward as his brown irises switch to a glowing red, activating Red Sprite once more, his trademark electricity crackling to life. He unleashes bolts of energy, striking some of them down relentlessly.

Hilts slide from Frostbite into Nilak's hands as ice katana blades slide out of them. With her weapons, she engages the raptors in close combat. Her movements are fluid and calculated, as she dances through the frozen battlefield, dispatching Grimm with each precise strike.

Simon changes his weapon to it's chainsaw form, carving a path through the Grimm while the Wolf Faunus fires sonic-charged arrows into the fray. The arrows emit deafening shockwaves on impact, disorienting and injuring the Grimm.
______________________________________________

Back at the broken bridge where Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang are still battling the Nevermore, down below, the Death Stalker is still battling Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha.

"We gotta move!" Jaune says as that all rush towards it.

The Death Stalker aims a claw at Pyrrha, but she deflects it with her Akoúo shield and slashes it with her blade. The scorpion recoils and swipes at her with its other claw, but Jaune is there to deflect it with his shield, knocking it back so Pyrrha can leap over and attack its face. Ren runs up firing and gets on the stinger when it tries to hit him, shooting at the base between it and the tail while Nora fires more grenades at the attacking claws. Pyrrha hurls her javelin straight into one of the monster's ten eyes, making it throw Ren to the side.

"Ren!" Nora yells out.

Ren hits the side of a stone block hard and falls to the ground, not getting back up. Jaune, though, manages to stand and notice the stinger is hanging limply.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune calls out.

"Done!" She raises the shield and hurls it like a discus, slicing the stinger off and causing it to fall into the Death Stalker's head as Pyrrha retrieves her rebounding shield.

"Nora, nail it!" said Jaune.

"Heads up!" Nora jumps on Akoúo, Pyrrha leaps as Nora aims her blast down to give herself a maximum lift, and she smiles the entire way up before twirling down until her hammer slams its head into the stinger, driving the point through the Death Stalker's head and crushing the bridge beneath it.

Jaune and Pyrrha bound over the monster to the land behind it, and Nora fires up and away behind them as the monster falls to its doom. Jaune hits the ground on his back, Nora lands on her bottom, Pyrrha manages a crouched pose, and Ren simply walks over to them, panting and groaning until he just collapses. The other three get up and watch as the Nevermore is peppered with firepower.
______________________________________________

Back in the forest, the pack of Venators, despite their numbers, were gradually whittled down, unable to withstand the onslaught of three humans and one faunus.

"Is that all of them?" asks Nilak as she slices a raptor in half, not noticing the last Grimm already pouncing on her from behind. Suddenly it's struck down by Daruna who drives Snarl through the Grimm into the ground.

"Yup, that's all of them," confirms Daruna with a smirk.

As the four if them regroup, Toby wipes sweat from his brow and gives a nod of approval to his team. "Well done, everyone. We bought them the time they needed. Now, let's regroup with the others."

And with that, they continue in the same direction the others went earlier.
______________________________________________

Yang is still burning through her ammo on the beast, landing a blow at its face and causing it to head right towards her, but she leaps for its open maw and forces the beak wide as she attacks.

She screams while firing a round with each syllable, "I! Hope! You're! HUNG-! ...-GRY!"

She then looks behind her and jumps back from its mouth onto a ruin, causing the creature to crash into the cliffs.

Despite Yang's attempts, the Nevermore recovers quickly, and Yang smiles as she spots Ruby and Blake on the broken columns with Weiss rushing to the battle. Yang passes her while the Nevermore starts to fly back up, but Weiss hops over to the ruin it's lifting off of and freezes the tip of its feathery tail to the ground, leaving it stuck in the same spot despite its flapping. Weiss back-flips into a snowflake-circle jump and lands on the other side, running to the group.

Blake fires the pistol portion of Gambol Shroud over to Yang, and the two tighten it between the columns so Ruby can jump on the center with Crescent Rose and bend it back into Weiss' black sigil, right next to the caster.

"Of course you would come up with this idea," said the Schnee.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asks.

"Hmm! Can I!" says a confident Weiss.

A second passes.

"Can't?"

"Of course I can!"

Ruby looks forward and pumps Crescent Rose as Weiss turns the circle from black to red and releases Ruby at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracks, rose petals flying from her ascent. With each new shot, she gets closer and closer to the trapped Grimm until her scythe catches the Nevermore's neck in its blade and causes them both to fall to the cliff wall. Weiss raises her sword and creates a series of white circles up the wall, which Ruby dashes through by firing the entire way up.

It's then that Toby, Nilak, Simon and Daruna arrive just in time to witness the spectacle as Yang, Blake, and an exhausted Weiss watch her climb up with the bird in her grasp until, both warrior and monster crying out, Ruby reaches the top of the cliff, circles up, fires one last shot, and rends the Nevermore's head from its shoulders in a shower of petals.

She lands beside the severed head as the body of the giant Nevermore falls lifeless to the ruins and crevice below while the girls and, farther away, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren watch in amazement.

"Wow…"

Ruby, her cape and petals flowing with the wind, looks down to her friends as they peer up.

"Well... That was a thing!" said Yang.

"She's got style. I'll give her that." compliments Daruna.

Ruby continues to smile down at her friends and she looks at Toby as he gives her a smile. Then the faint sounds of an audience clapping are heard, growing louder and louder as a familiar voice is heard.
______________________________________________

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark," the screen of the auditorium shows each of their profiles as the boys are lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continues, "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL (Cardinal), led by... Cardin Winchester!"

The audience gives one more wave of ovation, while four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper)."

Amid the clapping, Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug.

"Led by... Jaune Arc!"

"Huh? L-Led by...?" Jaune says, shocked.

"Congratulations, young man" Ozpin tells Jaune.

A grinning Pyrrha offers a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her 'fine leader' is knocked over and falls to his butt in front of the laughing audience.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long," he motions over the four as they stand before him, "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY (Ruby). Led by... Ruby Rose!"

Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister.

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang said.

"And finally: Toby Tungsten, Nilak Tungsten, Simon Argentine and Daruna Acero," he motions over the four as they stand before him, "The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team TNSD (Tungsten). Led by… Toby Tungsten!"

Once again, the crowd applauds as Nilak lightly punches Toby in the arm.

"Group hug, everyone!" Simon yells as he envelopes both twins in a beefy hug, earning him exclamations while Daruna had evaded it at the last second before properly joining in.

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year," said Ozpin amid the last round of cheers.

The camera pans over the auditorium's structure until it escapes into the open sky and shows the scattering crescent moon amid the day's clouds...
______________________________________________

... before going into the night and seeing the moon through a window, providing a view to the outside for a shadowy room filled with shelves and a desk in the back, where Roman Torchwick is getting a call on his phone. The muffled conversation ends, and Roman angrily slams the phone down, sighing. He holds a cigar to his mouth and puts his symbolized lighter to the end, just as a man in a gray mask and black hood comes with a trolley. Roman holds out a collection of Lien, which he places on the table and the man takes.

"Open it."

The masked man does so with a crowbar, revealing a large amount of Dust crystals of varying colors - orange, blue, white, red, green, cyan, gold, yellow, and more. Roman picks up a blue gem in his hand and looks at the loot.

"We're gonna need more men…"

The view zooms in on the map above the desk, showing Vale and various districts and areas of crossed-out locations, all leading into a specially-circled place - Beacon.