A/N: Thank you to Challos for editing this chapter. Smoothed it out considerably.

Isra, along with every other prospect in the ballroom, shot up, woken from their slumber by the school bell. He absently rubbed at a spot on his right side, the spot he'd been dreaming about. At least that's not a problem anymore. While they were composing themselves, the intercom switched on and relayed them their instructions for the morning, concluding with the news that initiation would take place at the nearby cliffs.

Appraising the crowd of similarly-dishevelled prospects, Isra chose to forgo breakfast in favour of properly readying himself and finding the locker rooms, which had, according to the intercom, already been assigned. Checking his Scroll for the locker he'd been assigned, he left, now using the map loaded on the scroll to guide him. Not getting caught out again like last night.

He arrived in the locker room with little distraction, the map of the campus proving invaluable in his efforts to navigate it. As he walked in, a blip echoed from his scroll, a noise soon reciprocated from somewhere in the rows of lockers. Some way to find your locker. Couldn't they just use numbers? His scroll blipped again, and the room echoed the noise in response. Well, let's get hunting, then.

He wandered the rows for a while, searching for the locker that was making noise in reply to his scroll. As he was about to start waving his scroll indiscriminately over locks in a final attempt to brute-force the location, he was startled by the locker's noise coming from right next to him. Found you at last. Why in Vytal's name did they think that was a good idea? Easier to read numbers than it is to guess sounds.

He placed his bag on a nearby bench and began to unpack his things, starting with the armour pieces he wasn't already wearing. Once he had the pieces laid out on the bench, he removed the rags and lubricants, placing them in the locker.

"This is some pretty nice kit. Old, sure, but you've got to respect the classics, right?"

Isra's head whipped around, revealing the voice to have come from a student – if the uniform was any indication – looking over one of the pauldrons Isra had left on the bench. Isra scowled at the intruder, taking back the pauldron he held.

"Do Beacon students normally have better?"

The student picked up another armour piece before answering the question. "You think I'm a Beacon student? No. Prospect, just like you." He placed the piece back on the bench and extended a hand to Isra. "Vardan Marist. A pleasure."

Isra inspected the boy carefully, surprised that his initial appraisal was wrong. "Isra Feher. Your gear looks a lot like the Beacon uniform."

Vardan chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's actually what I was going for. You know, in case wearing the uniform is required all the time. May as well be comfortable."

"You think the regular uniform wouldn't be?"

"Isra, have you seen the way the actual students walk around? That's not comfort, that's rigidity."

"Trust me, man, that's probably heaven compared to some things I've worn."

"Uh-huh. So, where'd you come from?"

"School-wise?" A nod from Vardan confirmed the intent of the question. "That's a long story, actually."

Vardan looked around the room, then at his scroll, before taking a seat. "We've got ten minutes until initiation begins. Hit me with it."

Isra turned around, returning to his things to hide the frown. Damn. Hoped I could get out of that. "Alright, it's not a long story. I haven't been to a combat school. Never have."

"Never have? How'd you get in here then?"

"Luck, mainly. Ozpin thought I was good enough for Beacon without the pre-requisites."

"You think he was wrong?"

Isra raised an eyebrow. "No… why do you ask?"

"Easy way to get a read on somebody. Besides, if you didn't think you could get through initiation, you probably wouldn't be here."

Isra nodded slowly, strapping on his armour as he turned to face Vardan again. "Uh-huh. You make a habit of 'reading' people?"

"Just those I've met." Vardan's scroll buzzed and a girl's face appeared on it. "Speaking of, we should probably get going. You or me, doesn't really matter."

"Not getting away that easy, Vardi!"

Vardan paled as the shout echoed through the locker room. "Oh no." He looked Isra in the eyes. "Run. Run as fast as you can."

"Why?"

Vardan nervously glanced towards the entrance. "She's probably a little too much for you to handle."

"Who?"

"ME!" A girl yelled from the start of the row, sprinting down and leaping at Vardan. Vardan quickly glanced at her and leapt up on top of one of the nearby lockers, leaving the girl to catch herself in a roll further down the row.

"Going to have to be more subtle than that, Rox. By the way, Isra, meet Roxane Mallor. She's a little eccentric."

Roxane walked back to them, dusting herself off as Vardan slid down off the locker he'd retreated to. "You know me, Vardi. Subtlety's never been my strong suit. And don't call me 'eccentric'. I prefer 'unusual'." She nodded at Isra. "Who's your new friend?"

"Isra Feher, Miss Mallor. At your service." Isra mockingly bowed as he spoke.

"Vardi, what have you told this guy about me?"

"Nothing, Rox. Just that you're eccentric. Not a word about your family so far."

Roxane looked at Vardan sceptically as he responded. "Right… Word of advice, Isra, don't say 'at your service' to anyone in my family. They'll take you at face value."

"Really?"

Roxane shrugged, turning her attention fully to Isra. "Yep. That's the sort of thing that happens when your family's Mistral aristocracy for the past nine generations. My parents never went in for that stuff – part of the reason why they moved to Vale – but I've got a slew of relatives who come to visit every once in a while that really miss having servants."

"As somebody who made that mistake once, let me just confirm Rox's claim. You do not want to imply to any Mallor that's not Rox or her parents that you are beneath them. They won't let you forget it."

"Vardi, don't say anything more. I'm sure Isra understood what I was saying perfectly well without you backing me up. Right?"

Isra looked between the two, uncertain of how to respond, before settling on siding with Vardan. "You made your point pretty clear, but I think Vardan really cemented just how important it was. Even if he was a little vague."

Roxane cocked an eyebrow. "Not often that happens, Vardi. People are pretty happy to take my side in our discussions. You've found somebody rare here." She placed one hand on Isra's shoulder, locking eyes with him as she continued.

"But maybe, perhaps, he might see there's more merit in my side than he thought." Her eyes glowed a dark purple as her grip on his shoulder tightened and a faint whispering made itself known in Isra's head.

Hold on… Is she… Alright, let's put an end to this before it starts. There is nothing here that I want to share. Isra reached out and took Roxane's other hand, focusing on the slight tingling that surrounded her. Come on, now, your Semblance can't be that hard to dupe if you're trying to run it on me. He felt the tingling grow more intense as his Aura merged itself with hers, growing to a crescendo before falling to a stop as he mirrored her Semblance.

His eyes glowed a slightly bluer shade of purple as he put her Semblance to use counteracting her. "I'm sure you're a very convincing person when you need to be, Roxane. But for now I'll settle for you getting out of my head." He grinned as he saw the shocked expression on Roxane's face and slowly lifted her hand off his shoulder.

"That's… Vardi, tell me I'm not imagining things."

Vardan, who'd contented himself with watching the display, smiled at Isra's response before confirming Roxane's observation. "Yep, that just happened. You've met somebody who can say 'no' to you, Rox. Told you charisma was essential."

"Shut it. If I want to hear how great you are with people, I'll ask. Bigger things to deal with for now."

"Like how this is the fifth guy you've tried that on who's denied you? I've been telling you ever since we got here that this'd happen. People here are going to be dedicated. Sure, there's going to be a few with doubts, but not nearly enough to make it worthwhile. My advice? Become a better speaker or stick with Grimm."

Isra raised an eyebrow at Vardan's remark. "'Stick with Grimm'? Does her Semblance work better with them or something?"

"Little more than that." Roxane glanced down at the floor as she collected herself, returning her gaze to Isra when she'd recovered. "But that's not important right now. What is important is how you just did that. Start talking."

Isra returned Roxane's glare with amusement, glancing at Vardan with a raised eyebrow. "She's serious, isn't she?"

"Pretty serious, yeah. Unless you think you can pull that off again, I'd get talking."

Isra looked at Roxane, handles of weapons just barely protruding from beneath her coat. Hell, humour them. It's only fair. "So you want to know what I did. It's simple, really, no more difficult than your Semblance. I can imitate the Semblance of anyone I touch. Is it perfect? Not unless I'm still touching them. The moment I break contact, it gets weaker over the next four hours, then it dies. As an example, one Semblance I cloned was 'Impulse'. It let you create points of incredible force on things. The master copy – the guy who had this Semblance naturally – could cave in a wall with a finger. He'd just tap the wall and the wall would just begin to crack and splinter – even with concrete walls – until it exploded, always away from him. I grabbed it once, for a quick bit of fun, and I didn't have nearly the same results. Best I could do was splinter wood. Nowhere near the potential of this guy."

Vardan raised an eyebrow, glancing down at his hands for a moment before looking back up at Isra. "Sounds like a cool Semblance."

"Cool, but hampered. If it was one-to-one replication, then it'd be cool. This is just a useful one."

Roxane cut back in on the discussion. "You still haven't explained how you knew what I was doing."

"Glowing eyes, noises in my head and a physical bridge – that's your hand on my shoulder, by the way – tends to paint a picture that says 'I'm going to try and mess with your head'. You're not the first person who's tried something like that on me."

"But it was working on you?"

"There were whispers telling me 'obey', I felt a compelling need to go along with you, I just happen to be less-than-receptive to that kind of persuasion. So yes, it did work for a bit."

Roxane looked down at her hand, watching as her palm took on a purple glow. "Well, it's not supposed to be just whispers; you're supposed to feel a little pain if you disagree." She shook the glow from her hand and looked up at Isra, eyes wide with anticipation. "Want to try it again?"

Isra nervously smiled back at the girl and shook his head. "I'd really rather not." Like hell am I letting her back in there. She wasn't expecting resistance the first time. Now she's prepared for it. "Besides, Vardan said something about your Semblance working better with Grimm. Care to elaborate on that?"

Roxane frowned, disappointed that she wouldn't get to test herself again. "Yeah, my Semblance works better on Grimm. Gives me almost-unlimited control over them, as long as I can get within touching distance."

"Not all Grimm, though. Rox learned that pretty fast."

Roxane shut her eyes and took a deep breath, her voice wavering slightly. "Vardi, I'm going to ask you to shut up. That is not something I'd like to revisit."

Vardan nodded, leaning back against a locker. "Yep. Sorry, Rox. Isra, if you want to know about it, come find me after initiation."

Roxane sighed, her voice steadying. "I'd rather you didn't tell him, but there's not a lot I can do to convince you otherwise, is there?"

Vardan shrugged, a tired tone entering his voice. "If you were a little more adventurous, then maybe you could convince me. But as it stands, no, there isn't. Besides, it's an interesting story."

"It was a nightmare. Nothing more, nothing less. And don't give me the 'adventurous' crap again. I'm plenty adventurous, just not where it seems to matter to you."

Isra stepped back, finishing his preparations as the two continued to bicker. Once he'd comfortably assessed the fit of the remaining pieces, he finally intervened in their argument. "Hey, you two. Could you both take a minute to realise you've got an audience here and shut up? Don't get me wrong, your disagreement makes for amazing background noise, but I'd love to be able to hear any notifications about where and when initiation is taking place."

The two paused in their speech to look at Isra in silence before Roxane replied. "You don't have to stick around here either. In the interests of me and Vardi continuing to argue, I'm going to ask you to leave if our 'disagreement' annoys you that much."

"He's got a point, Rox. We've burned…" Vardan trailed off as he checked his scroll. "We've burned six minutes here talking. Initiation's at the cliffs, which is a bit of a walk, and we've got four minutes to get there. I say we put this on hold for later and make tracks. Work for you?"

Roxane glanced at Isra, then back at Vardan before nodding. "Yep. Let's go."

Isra walked slower than his companions, letting them take the lead and affording him the opportunity to get a full visual inspection of their gear. Know thy enemy, even if they aren't your enemy. Never fails. He started with Roxane, inspecting her clothes for any additions or alterations that might seem unusual.

Let's see… long coat, unbuttoned. I saw her weapons back in the locker room, with the holsters on the inside of that coat, so it's not going to be buttoned up. Rest of her clothing seems a little loose. Not ill-fitting, but billowy. Like she wants to look a little bigger than she is. Probably not looking to fight people, at any rate. Too easy to get a good grip on loose pants and blouses and the like.

The haircut's about the only thing that shows she's put any thought into fighting people, now that I look at it. Nice and short – no grip possibility there. Now for Vardan. I don't care what he says about Beacon's uniform being uncomfortable, trying to clone it's only going to be troublesome.

He switched his view to the brown-clad boy, debating his choice of attire as he looked. Red hair. Long red hair. He smirked as he worked his way down. Longer than Roxane's, funnily enough. Wonder if that comes up between them. As for his gear, that looks like it belongs in an office. Tie, waistcoat, dress shirt, jacket, slacks – are the Marists some kind of business tycoons or something?

"Hey, Isra! You having trouble keeping up or something?"

Isra snapped out of his assessment at the question. "Huh, what? Oh, no. Just… lost in my thoughts. How much further to the cliffs?"

"Just over this rise. Put a bit of speed on, though. We're down to two minutes and I don't think they take kindly to latecomers."

"It's a miracle they let you in then, Rox."

Isra rolled his eyes. Didn't take them long to get back to sniping at each other.

"Not now, Vardi. You want to start taking cheap shots like that, you can start once initiation's started. Let's just make sure Isra doesn't go wandering off first."

Vardan shrugged, nodding at Isra's armour. "I'm sure he can handle himself."

Roxane glanced sceptically at Vardan. "The last person you thought could 'handle themselves' wound up with Dust-based injuries across his torso and right arm. Forgive me if I don't trust your opinion on these things."

Isra shook his head as he walked between the two, leaving them to their bickering as he joined the small crowd before them. His respite from conversation proved short-lived, however, as a voice came from behind him.

"You look… different."

Isra turned his head in the direction of the voice, revealing it to have come from a girl about his height with dark hair that almost seemed to glow. "Same can be said for you."

The girl smiled bemusedly. "I'll take that as a compliment. So, Knight-in-not-so-shining-armour, what brings you to Beacon?"

Isra chuckled at the name his new conversational partner had invented for him. "It's Isra. And why I'm at Beacon is… not exactly a story I'm willing to share. I'm sure you understand."

The girl leaned back on her heels, eyebrow raised. "Secret, huh? Fair enough. We've all got our skeletons and other unpleasantries. Eira Sable. Pleasure to meet you, Isra. Pardon me if I don't shake hands."

"Isra Feher, if we're going for surnames. And I don't blame you for that. What brings you to Beacon?"

"Love to tell you, Izzie, but it seems like Professor Ozpin's about to start. Wouldn't want to talk over him."

Isra shot Eira an annoyed look before turning to face the front of the crowd where, true to Eira's claim, Ozpin stood, ready to speak.

"For years, you have trained to fight. Whether in a tournament capacity, with aims of joining the military or to become a Huntsman proper, Beacon will not discriminate. Neither will our test. Over the years, you have doubtless accumulated skill enough to be considered for this esteemed school, and that skill will be proven below, in the Emerald Forest."

The professor motioned to the vast expanse of green behind him. "Now, many of you will have heard about how initiation works from the students here. More of you will be aware of the teams that we organise students into. The organisation of such teams will take place in the forest." He paused, allowing the prospects a moment of respite to organise themselves and try to pick out their teams in advance.

"You think he'll let us pick our own, Izzie?"

"It's just Isra, Eira. And I think there's more to this than he's told us."

"Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks that."

A woman standing next to Professor Ozpin, who Isra quickly recognised as Professor Goodwitch, began to speak. Man, how much does she do around here? She handled entry, she's handling initiation… Is Ozpin just a figurehead or something?

"Do not believe that teams will be left entirely to your discretion, as that is not the case. Your teams will be assigned based on a set of criteria that you will be graded on. However, you will have the opportunity to select your partner down in the forest." Another ripple of happiness spread through the group as she said that.

"More to come again?"

"Yep."

Eira and Isra exchanged a curt smile as Professor Goodwitch continued. "Your partner will be the first person you interact with in the forest. Be it through trading blows, escaping Grimm, or simply chance, you will be stuck with that person for the next four years. I would suggest you prepare yourself to be partnered with anyone here."

Ozpin sipped from his mug as sounds of disappointment and more plans were made by the gathered prospects. "After you've found a partner, make your way to the northern edge of the forest. You will find a temple there containing several relics. You and your partner are to select a relic and then return to the cliff top. Your choice of relic, as well as your conduct within the forest, will be taken into consideration for your grading." Sounds of disappointment soon turned to worry.

"A final warning: Grimm will be present in the forest. They will have no hesitation in fighting you. They will have even less in killing you. It is expected that you will defend yourselves to the best of your ability."

Surveying the crowd, he finished with a simple question. "Does anyone have any questions regarding this exercise?" He smiled, noticing the lack of response. "Good." He gestured to the stone platforms behind him. "Assume your positions."

Isra looked around as everyone shifted themselves in preparation for the beginning. Looking to his right, he saw Vardan grinning. "How is this fun to you?"

"You've got to admit there's a rush to being flung over a forest, Isra."

"For you, maybe. Look at me. There's not going to be much flying with me." To reinforce his point, he waved a hand over the full plate armour he was clad in.

"Hah. Yeah, I can see that being a problem." A pair of knives appeared in Vardan's hands. "Tell you what, if I see you come down, I'll make sure you're still breathing."

"What, you'll partner with me?"

"Rox could do with the socialising. Besides, she's not exactly helpless down there, if the Grimm thing was true."

"Right. She can get inside their heads or something, yeah?"

"Dominate them. If she wants one to dance, she can make it dance. That kind of thing. Good luck."

Isra raised an eyebrow at the addendum to Vardan's explanation, only for the ground to suddenly vanish from beneath him as he was catapulted into the air. Should've prepared for that.