Pride Before the Fall

"I-... I can't. I'm sorry I can't keep going."

Raishun sobbed while heavy rain pattered to the ground around him. His eyes were desperate, and his breathing was shallow and labored. The world around him was fuzzy, devoid of emotion and color. Desperately, his hand clawed at the ground in front of him in a vain effort to drag himself forward. "I wanted to stay with you all... just a little longer."

Large hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders, lifting him off the ground and slamming him into a wooden block. He heard it snap shut, the metal click of a lock being activated followed quickly after. If things weren't hopeless then, the sight of the sharp metal blade mere meters above his head made things impossible. He was in a guillotine.

The Legion felt any will to live leave his body, as he went limp in his restraints. With hollow eyes, he looked out over the crowd of onlookers.

There were some familiar faces. The raven-haired boy known as Eric peered at him from under his hood with cold eyes. His sharp features combined with his pale complexion caused the Legion to mistake him as a specter of death at first glance.

Ruby and Yang both lay on the floor unmoving. It seemed that even in death, the two sisters were together. Weiss and Blake both stared into space with shell-shocked expressions. Judging by the dark shadows under their eyes, neither one had slept in days.

Most notably, were Alisa and Laura. The stuck-up girl was sobbing quietly, her flowing white hair obscuring her violet eyes. Beside her, the pink-haired sniper did his best to comfort her wailing leader. Yet even she seemed depressed, as any traces of her usual peppiness were long gone.

"Raishun... Don't go!" Alisa cried, her verdant eyes brimming with tears. Her voice was manic, her mind racing as she tried to come up with a plan. "You don't have to go through with this! You can still atone for what you did! I can save you! Just give me a little-"

"Alisa, there's no need to fight any longer." Raishun smiled sadly, doing his best to hold back his own tears. "This is my retribution. It's inescapable, and I accept that."

Alisa finally broke, breaking into quiet sobs as she held her shorter leader close to her body.

"Oh and Laura... I'm sorry." The golden-eyed boy said solemnly. "I should've been more honest with you from the beginning. If things were different, I could have seen us being allies."

With his last words spoken, the figure behind him cut the rope holding the blade aloft. Raishun closed his eyes, the blade fell, and he felt pain as it slammed into the base of his neck. The last thing he heard was the dull thudding sound it made, as it hit his spine.

...Or at least it would've been, had any of it been real.

The group of huntsmen in training found themselves cooped up in the library. While the rain pattering against the windows may have been soothing, the air inside the building buzzed with excitement. Their first semester finals over, they were each relishing their new, if only temporary, freedom in their own ways.

The guillotine in question was actually two heavy stacks of textbooks lined up parallel to one another. The executioner was Gil, Laura's chestnut-haired cousin who always seemed willing to fulfill whatever wish the white-haired girl had.

Currently the expression on his face was nothing short of pure joy as he repeatedly dropped an ancient heavy tome over the Legion's neck.

His cousin Laura on the other hand, was sobbing uncontrollably into Alisa's chest, though not because her teammate was being bludgeoned to death with a textbook.

"How... how in all of Remnant did he nearly surpass me in exam scores.... just ten points and I would have..." Laura muttered to herself incoherently.

Posted behind her for all to see, was the scores for all students in Beacon, separated by year. Listed in the top ten were the following students.

1. Pyrrha Nikos - 100%

2. Weiss Schnee - 99%

3. Blake Belladonna - 97%

4. Laura Izuna - 96%

5. Raishun Alenko - 91%

6. Damien Roe - 91%

7. Lie Ren - 90%

8. Ruby Rose - 87%

9. Marissa Winters - 85%

10. Alisa Speeddraw - 85%

"There there Laura. It's all just a bad dream." Alisa whispered in a soothing voice. Her hand slowly stroking the back of the shorter girl's hair. "You'll wake up, and Raishun will be at the bottom of the leader board, 'kay?"

"Okay." Laura sniffled, her head laid flush against the taller girl's stomach. "I didn't know he'd be smart."

"Just cause I act stupid doesn't mean I'm actually an idiot! OW!" Raishun winced as the book Gil was beating him with missed its mark on his neck and slammed into the back of his head. "Gil cut that out! What if you actually turn me into a dumbass"

"That's the point."

"Oh go to hell Gil-"

"ATTENTION. WOULD RAISHUN ALENKO PLEASE REPORT TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE."

The blaring announcement brought the madness to the halt. The blue-haired Legion quickly tried to duck away from his taller teammate but was still stuck in the head one last time. Raishun glared daggers at the tall boy, who merely shrugged his shoulders innocently.

"I'll get you for that." He called with a smirk, as he ran towards the headmaster's office. Somehow, he felt that his world was about to change.