Sunday, 6th April 79AGW.

Beacon Cliff, Beacon.

1:39 PM.

“How do we get back up?” Teak said hesitantly, staring straight up.

Lima considered the problem for exactly two seconds before he nodded. He stepped towards the short Faunus and grabbed him around the legs, lifting him into a fireman’s carry over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Teak squawked, “What are you going to-oh my god.”

Lima walked up the side of the cliff, humming his ringtone. Teak remained frozen as the ground got further and further away with each passing second.

“Save time, and tell me, listen!” Lima cried, “I’m falling, I’m falling, I’m falling!”

“Stoooop.” Teak moaned, “I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.”

“You know, I’m ready for this!” Lima continued unabated, “I’m falling, I’m falling, I’m falling!”

Eventually, they reached the top of the cliff, and Lima stepped back onto the normal horizontal plane. He planted Teak's feet back on the ground and stood back up again. The Faunus was looking distinctly pale.

Lima looked around for a moment before frowning.

“There's nobody here,” Lima stated, confused. “Are we the first ones back?”

“That would be impossible, Mr. Morta,” Glynda said dryly, as she appeared from the pathway back to Beacon. “Given that you spent several hours hunting Grimm before you bothered to complete the objective.”

“Huh,” Lima said sheepishly, “Guess I kind of lost track of time in there, time passes quickly when you’re having fun and all that jazz.”

“Yes, well, at least Mr. Fawn here eventually got you back on track,” Glynd sighed, “Come along then, the grading phase is currently underway, and I’d like to get back to that sometime soon.”

Teak squeaked at his name, mumbling an apology that nobody could understand.

“You heard Ms. Greatwitch, stop being such a time waster Teak!” Lima said cheerfully, following the woman as she headed back towards the academy. “Don’t you know we have a schedule to keep?”

“Goodwitch,” Glynda said dryly.

“Sorry about that,” Lima said happily. “So, are you going to give us top marks for clearing out the forest? Teak definitely did most of the legwork; that’s why it took so long because he’s so short.”

“Lima.” Teak groaned embarrassedly. “You can’t just ask.”

“It will be taken into consideration,” Glynda said simply.

“Excuse me, Miss?” Teak asked curiously, “Was the fire a part of the test? And should we have attempted to put it out before leaving?”

“It wasn’t a part of the test; another student caused it,” Glynda said, bemused, glancing over at him. “We have already sent several people to handle the situation, so put it out of your mind.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Teak said happily. “Despite all the Grimm, there were a lot of animals as well; it would have been a shame if they all lost their homes so needlessly.”

“Empathy is a good trait,” Glynda said seriously, “You would do well to keep it in check in the future, however.”

Lima tilted his head at the comment, wondering what she meant.

“If I had to choose between saving a person or saving the forest, I would save the person every time,” Teak admitted quietly, “But when the stakes aren’t that high, I wouldn’t let something be destroyed if I didn’t have to.”

Glynda glanced down at the short boy and smiled.

“You have the mentality of a Huntsman,” Glynda said pleasantly. “Should you hone your physical skills, you will go far, Mr. Fawn.”

“U-um, thank you, miss.” Teak said embarrassedly.

Lima grinned at him.

“Praise me too!” Lima cried, “Tell me I’m a good boy!”

Glynda gave a startled laugh.

“Your combat skills are impressive, Mr. Morta,” Glynda said, amused, “You have a clear case of tunnel vision when it comes to Grimm; You would do well to listen to your partner when in the field.”

“Not quite a ‘good boy,’” Lima laughed, “But its solid advice. Teak, you better keep me in line; Teachers orders.”

“I’ll try,” Teak promised.

Sunday, 6th April 79AGW.

Ballroom, Beacon.

2:10 PM.

Glynda had ditched them once they had arrived back at the academy, so they dropped their equipment off at the locker room and hit the showers. Then they headed back to the Ballroom where the rest of their stuff was.

“So we have; almost another three hours until they kick us out of Beacon for being the greatest hunting duo the world has ever seen,” Lima said cheerfully, “What do you want to do until then?”

“Miss Goodwitch said that we should head back here,” Teak said hesitantly, “We probably shouldn’t leave until then; everyone else is here after all.”

Well, he was right; the room was once again filled with students, although there were less of them, then there had been this morning. Most everybody was standing in pairs, although there were a bunch of larger groups around.

“Hey, look who it is.” Teak said happily.

Lima turned around to see where he was looking and grinned. Pyrrha and Jaune both spotted them a moment afterward, so they headed over two where the two were standing next to a larger group.

“Hello, Lima, Teak,” Pyrrha said, smiling, as they came to stand beside them.

“Pawpaw and J-man the dynamic pair,” Lima said lyrically. “Seen J-man falling through the air, what a tragic affair, but luckily Pawpaw was there, she answered his prayer, with a well-thrown spear only missed by a hair.”

“Please stop.” Pyrrha laughed, “Teak help.”

“I’ve been dealing with him all day; it's your turn, please.” Teak pleaded.

“Did everybody see that?” Jaune groaned.

“I saw it!” A girl with bright orange hair said, grinning. “I almost joined in.”

“Nora,” A boy with long black hair said calmly, “I don’t think a hammer would have worked the same.”

“Ren!” Nora cried happily, “It would have worked better.”

“Debateable,” Jaune said weakly as his fears were confirmed.

Lima grinned at the byplay; they seemed like a fun pair.

“I’m Lima, that’s Birch,” Lima introduced, pointing at Teak.

“Nora!” Nora said happily.

“I am Ren; it is nice to meet you both,” Ren said calmly.

Teak looked at Pyrrha sadly, and the girl came to his defense.

“His name is Teak, not Birch,” Pyrrha interjected, “Lima just likes giving people strange nicknames.”

Lima humphed at the dissemination of his greatest secret; he would have vengeance. Pyrrha took a step back at his squinty look.

“Alright, I think it’s that time, Nora,” Lima said seriously. “Time for the game.”

“Absolutely,” Nora said immediately, having no idea what the game was. “We should explain the rules of the game to everyone who doesn’t know about the game.”

“You have no idea what the game is either,” Ren said plainly.

Nora gave him a superior look, the one which you would give someone who didn’t know about the game.

“The rules are simple,” Lima said solemnly. “We go around in a circle and expose the most embarrassing secrets we know of everyone around us.”

Jaune immediately crossed his arms in the air.

“Objection!” Jaune said urgently, “I want no part of the game!”

“Jaune got airsick on the ride over and vomited all over a girl's shoes,” Lima said, grinning.

Jaune deflated like a popped balloon; the game had taken its first victim.

“That was you!” Nora giggled, “We heard about that last night.”

Ren simply nodded, smiling slightly.

“Those were my shoes!” A girl with blonde hair said from nearby.

The blonde girl joined their little gathering confidently, and three other girls followed her. The short red-cloaked one whose name he didn’t know yet, Weiss and another girl who had black hair and yellow eyes.

“A first-hand account, damning evidence to be sure.” Lima said solemnly, “You heard the rules miss eavesdropper, who’s next?”

“Ruby accidentally exploded, Weiss.” Yang threw the shorter girl under the bus immediately.

Weiss huffed at the reminder.

“Yang!” Ruby cried piteously. “How can my sister be so cruel?!”

“That was this morning.” Pyrrha said, amused, “Most of us witnessed that happening in fact.”

Ruby sagged the floor in embarrassment, clinging to her sister's leg.

“That was when J-man chances with Weiss exploded as well.” Lima grinned.

“Dude!” Jaune said, pained, joining Ruby on the floor in defeat.

“I can vouch for that happening,” Weiss said imperiously.

“Nora once got her tongue stuck to the handle of her hammer after an accident with Ice Dust,” Ren said evenly, poker face firmly intact.

“Ren!” Nora cried red-face, sinking to her knees. “You said you’d never tell anyone!”

“A critical hit by Ren,” Teak said, giggling.

“Noooooo!” Nora moaned piteously on the floor.

Two more people joined the group, the blonde girl with the black scales on her temple as well as yellow eyes and a shorter, silver-haired girl with green eyes, a much darker shade then his own.

“Welcome to the game,” Yang said cheerfully, “Claire, right? I remember you from Signal.”

The shorter silver-haired girl smiled brightly.

“That’s me!” Claire said brightly, “I remember you too, Yang, right?”

“Yep,” Yang said easily, “Who’s your friend?”

The blonde girl with the scales grinned at her.

“Lux,” Lux said confidently, “What are the rules to, the game?”

There was a quick round of introductions, and he discovered the unnamed black-haired girl to be called Blake. They went over the rules again quickly, of which there were basically none.

“We’ve had some eliminations early in the game,” Lima commented, “Me, Pyrrha, Blake, Weiss, Ren, Teak, Yang, Claire, Lux, remain in this tense stand-off who will be the next to fall?”

“Yang once beat up a boy back at Signal because he didn’t want to go out with her,” Claire said immediately. “He didn’t like her hair.”

Yang clutched at her chest in horror.

“How do you know that!?” Yang cried, sinking to her knees.

Claire just laughed.

“Lima told me last night that he has an entire folder dedicated to rule34 of famous Faunus on his scroll.” Teak said hesitantly.

Lima sank to his knees, shocked, and Teak giggled at the overplayed reaction.

“I told you that in confidence!” Lima cried, “Do our years of friendship mean nothing to you?”

“We only met yesterday,” Teak explained to the rest of them.

Blake was giving him the squinty eye for some reason. Lux, the only Faunus present other then Teak, was just laughing her ass off at his destruction. The stand-off with those who were left continued for a minute, as none of them knew each other well enough.

“Lima, our generous host, will be moving the game onto its final round,” Lima said cheerfully from the floor. “Each of you, in alphabetical order, will take a turn revealing something embarrassing about yourselves to the group; if you try to skimp out with something lame, you will face the wrath of the defeated.”

Yang started up a chant of Blake's name as she was the first on the sacrificial altar. The rest joined in a moment later.

“Uh,” Blake said quietly, “I like to read the ‘Ninja’s of love’ books.”

“Those books are adult only!” Ruby cried accusingly.

“They are good, though,” Blake mumbled as she sat down, red-faced but relatively unscathed.

“Claire, you’re up next,” Lima prompted, “What's you’re most embarrassing secret!”

“I’m not telling you that one, but,” Claire said faintly red, “I was so nervous on my first day at Signal that I called a teacher Dad.”

“Oh my god, I remember dad telling me about that!” Yang said, amazed, “Taiyang Xiao Long is our dad!”

Claire looked even more embarrassed as she sunk down to join them on the floor. Lima snickered, and Teak nudged him with his foot.

“Oh! Lux is next.” Lima said quickly.

“At the Vale Airship Terminal, I was sitting in one of the café’s,” Lux said slowly, cheeks faintly red. “A man at the counter turned around and asked ‘Does anyone want a coffee, I’ve got $5 left on the card!’”

“You didn’t,” Lima said, staring up at her in horror; something very similar had happened to him once with ice cream in the park.

Her cheeks darkened at the comment, and the others murmured, confused.

“I stood up and said I’d have one,” Lux said embarrassedly, covering her face with her hand. “It turned out he was talking to his family at the table behind mine…”

“Ugh,” Lima scrunched his face up, completely overwhelmed by the cringe.

He’d buried that dark ice cream day deep in his subconscious, who would have thought that it would resurface so readily.

“Oh god,” Pyrrha laughed.

Nora was giggling, and Blake looked pretty amused as well. Lux laughed at her own embarrassment and sat down.

“Pyrrha, you’re up,” Lima said, still trying to shake it off.

“Back at Argus, I was pretty well known,” Pyrrha said cagily, “and a man came up to me and asked me to sign something for him. I asked him who to make it out to…but it was the sign-off sheet for a package.”

Lima snickered at her, and she narrowed her eyes at him as she sat down, cheeks red.

“You thought he was asking for an autograph,” Weiss laughed, “I did the same thing once, but it was to one of the handymen working on a renovation I didn’t know about at the time.”

“Ren!” Nora cackled, “Its time for revenge!”

Ren glanced around for a moment before sighing.

“I honestly can’t think of anything-” Ren said thoughtfully.

“I walked in on you once!” Nora cackled. “But I left before you noticed me!”

“What does that mean?” Ren asked, horrified. “Walked in on me doing what.”

Lima started laughing his ass off, and Ren glanced at him worriedly.

“Polishing your weapon?” Lima snickered, “Squeezing your hog?”

“Swinging your hammer!” Nora descended into giggles.

“No.” Ren managed, completely red-faced, but he also sat down.

Lima started laughing all over again, setting off a few of the others.

“That’s pretty funny.” Lima said after he recovered, “Alright, only two of our heroes remain, will any survive the gauntlet?”

Teak swallowed and spoke up.

“When I was a kid, I spent the first week at school being lumped in with all the girls,” Teak said embarrassedly, “I didn’t realize it at the time, I wasn’t very self-aware back then, but the teacher thought I was a girl until my mom talked to her.”

There was some light laughter and general amusement at the story.

“Cause of the whole androgynous thing you have going on?” Yang asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Teak said, ducking his head. “I got picked on a bit when I was younger for it.”

“Lima’s Life Lesson: Kids are all shits, every single one of them. I would know because I was the shittiest one.” Lima grinned at him. “They also don’t know a damn thing about anything, so don’t take it to heart.”

“Your lesson changes every time.” Teak argued, but he was smiling as he sat down.

“Weiss, center stage; most embarrassing moment,” Lima said breezily.

Weiss hummed for a long moment before glancing at Ren.

“I can’t think of anything, either,” Weiss admitted.

Apparently, Ruby had something saved up for just this occasion.

“Weiss set the forest on fire during the exam,” Ruby jammed the knife into her back ruthlessly.

Weiss spluttered for a moment, unable to counter her.

“That was you?” Lima said incredulously, “I had to walk through that crap, my eyes are still stinging! If I get the black lung, I’m going to sue you frosty.”

Weiss was red-faced now; they had managed to crack her icy exterior.

“You distracted me!” Weiss cried embarrassedly.

“Nuh-uh!” Ruby countered adroitly.

“Ugh!” Weiss humphed and sat down.

Everyone lay defeated, their secrets laid bare.

“Well, we've exhausted that,” Yang said, grinning, “There's still a couple of hours until we are on the chopping block; what do we do now?”

“Truth or dare?” Ruby suggested.

“Never have I ever?” Lux countered.

“Base jumping?” Lima offered, thinking of the landing zone cliff. Sunday, 6th April 79AGW.

Amphitheatre, Beacon.

6:07 PM.

“In saying that, we have deliberated on your character, your actions, and your skill,” Ozpin said calmly, “Those of you who are standing here now are those who passed, the others are already on their way back to Vale.”

Ozpin searched the crowd for a moment before locating whoever he was looking for.

“Those that failed will have an opportunity to re-apply in a year, so you may meet those whom you have befriended once more.” Ozpin added thoughtfully, “Now, let us move onto the team formations.”

The monitors hanging above the room flickered from the Beacon insignia to black silhouettes of four people, before fading into color.

“Please join me on the stage,” Ozpin said easily.

The four boys headed up onto the stage and stood before the man at parade rest.

“Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark,” Ozpin pronounced at length, “The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces; from this day forward, you will work together as team ‘Cardinal’ led by Cardin Winchester.”

The rest of the students clapped as team Cardinal left the stage looking pleased. The monitors changed, and the next four assembled on stage in front of the Headmaster.

“Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie,” Ozpin said evenly, “The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces; from this day forward, you will work together as team ‘Juniper’ led by Jaune Arc.”

Nora grabbed Ren in her excitement, but the quiet boy didn’t even look phased. Jaune looked shocked at his sudden captaincy, and Pyrrha clapped him on the shoulder in support. Team Juniper stepped down off the stage as the monitors changed again, and this time Lima saw his own face up there.

He made his way up onto the stage and stopped in front of Ozpin. The man regarded the four of them with a searching gaze for a long moment before he spoke.

“Claire Diamond, Teak Fawn, Lux Fulbright, Lima Morta,” Ozpin said steadily, “The four of you retrieved the Black King and Queen pieces; from this day forward, you will work together as team ‘Malachite’ led by Teak Fawn.”

The crowd clapped.

“Teak, what color is Malachite?” Lima wondered as they stepped off the stage.

“Green,” Teak said nervously.

“Awesome.” Lima declared, “Claire has the right idea with the green eyes, are we going to have to buy you and Lux some contacts?”

“I’m not wearing contacts; my eyes are fantastic,” Lux said confidently. “Why’d you get to be the captain, Teak? Want to fight for it?”

“Are we even allowed to change the captain?” Claire asked curiously.

Teak looked even more nervous.

“Um,” Teak squeaked, “I didn’t ask-I know I’m not-”

“Balderdash.” Lima said loudly, “Teak is our captain, fall in line, you weaklings, or have your ass kicked by yours truly.”

“Did you just call me a weakling?” Lux laughed, “As soon as we get out of here, we are going to find somewhere to establish exactly who is the strongest on this team, and trust me, Lima; it’s not going to be you.”

“Um,” Teak tried, “I don’t even really want to-”

“Birch, please. Did you just call me out?” Lima said incredulously. “I am so down to fight, but if I win, you better give our esteemed captain the respect he deserves.”

“Fine.” Lux said immediately, “But when I win, you’re going to do exactly what I say from now on.”

Lima grinned at the Faunus; she must be pretty good to be this confident in herself.

“Do I have to fight as well?” Claire asked curiously.

“Yes,” Lima and Lux said at the exact same time.

“Teak has to fight too,” Lux added.

“Fine by me, but that doesn’t change the bet we just made.” Lima insisted, “Whether the other two win or lose, the bet is between you and me.”

“Deal.” Lux grinned.

“Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long,” Ozpin said evenly, “The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces; From this day forward, you will work together as team ‘Ruby,’ led by Ruby Rose.”