RWBY 1. Purple trailer

_**Hey, fanatics! I promised you guys I'd be releasing**____**this soon, and I will. But first, I thought that it'd be good to give you a taste of the characters I'll be using. The actual story will be released saturday, and until then I'll be giving you guys a "trailer" once a day. Short chapters in which I showcase one OC at a time. I decided to do this last minute, so I hope you enjoy.**_

"Purple trailer"

A lone figure walked into the training arena. He wasn't all that tall, but he wasn't short either. He had purple hair, yellow eyes, and a green t shirt with gray jeans. He appeared bulky under his shirt, which were a few sizes too big. Once he stopped, the exercise began.

A small army of androids appeared, all armed to the teeth. The boy seemed anxious, but not hesitant. He took a deep breath, and charged at them. They fired a volley of bullets at him, all hitting their mark. The boy made no attempt to dodge the attack and remained largely unaffected, not even slowing down. A blade attached to a metal coil shot of of his sleeve faster than the eye could catch and chopped the nearest robots in half with a long swipe.

Another coil shot out of his other sleeve, but this time it was some kind of mechanical grabber. It latched onto an android's head and tore it off. He kept attacking for a few moments before he decided that he had enough debris to work with. He lifted his hand and concentrated. Suddenly, a large tornado appeared and picked up all the wreckage the boy had produced. The broken bits of robot were then launched at the remaining androids at high speeds, destroying them.

A buzzer sounded, signaling that the training exercise was complete.

"Well done, Mr. Anemone." Prof. Goodwitch said from the stands, "You should be able to qualify for the tournament just fine. Up next is Mr. Machina."


	2. Brown trailer

_**Hey, Guys! It's time for the next installment of "Into the Glyph"! Enjoy!**_

"Brown trailer"

The grinning teen stepped onto the training arena. He'd seen it coming, just as he saw everything. Well, not _everything_, just a lot of things. Anyway, the droids were all geared up and ready. He saw the shots being fired, and quickly dodged them before they even left their chambers. He had to pay extra attention to moving his tail, it was always the last thing on his mind when he was doing this sort of thing and he didn't want to get it damaged. He was very proud of his tail, even if it came with a lot of hate from the humans, and needed special pants. His thoughts snapped back to the situation at hand when a bullet narrowly missed his face.

He decided he'd had enough fun, and needed his weapons. He reached to his sides and pulled out two pistols. All shots he fired resulted in headshots, quickly disabling the robots. One managed to sneak behind him and almost skewered him, but he turned just in time and blocked the attack with the knives attached to the top of his guns.

He pressed a button on the sides of his pistols. The barrels flipped upward, and the knives slid down to the hilt. Keeping his finger in the trigger guard, he spun his weapons at blurring speeds and hacked the android to pieces. Looking around, he saw that he'd downed the last one, and his grin grew. A buzzer sounded, signaling that he was done.

"Well done, Mr. Machina. That's all the time we have, have a nice day. And remember to study."


	3. Gray trailer

_**So, the trailers are going to get progressively longer, as shown here. And the first real chapter will be uploaded **_**_tomorrow! Yeay! Anyway, as always, enjoy!_**

"Gray trailer"

Five trucks traveled down a deserted road single file, each one carrying crates of stolen dust. The men that had stolen them were wearing black business suites with creepy pedo-stuches. It was dark, but the frontmost driver could make out a figure standing in the road. He would've just run him over, but that would attract attention that they didn't want, so he slammed on the brakes. The driver opened his door and got out. This close, he could now see that it was a kid, maybe fifteen years old. He had shaggy brown hair with gray wolf ears poking out, gray eyes, and some kind of weird chain mail over his torso.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Asked a goon from inside.

"Nothin', just some mutt. I'll take care of it. Hey, kid! Didn't your mama ever tell you not to be out this late?"The driver yelled. The teen smirked.

"Didn't your mama ever tell you that stealing is wrong? You guys weren't exactly hard to track: Five creepy looking trucks driving single file, driven by even creepier looking thugs." The driver's eyes widened behind his shades.

"You little punk!" He pulled out a red sword and charged at the boy.

The teen's smirk grew to a grin, and a mechanical whirring was heard from his arms. A pair of brass knuckles wrapped around his fists as he reared. The goon went flying back, making a dent in his truck. The others were alerted by the noise and came out with their weapons drawn.

"Get him!" One thug yelled. The boy rolled his eyes.

"Really? 'Get him'? Well, I guess you weren't hired for your originality."

Jetfire came out of his elbows and he flew over to them. He went threw them like bowling pins, then landed to finish off the rest. When he was done he looked around, scanning the area for any more. Down the road, he saw one trying to flee. He raised a hand, and a blade attached to a long chain launched out of a hidden compartment in his vambrace, wrapping around the henchman.

"Get over here!" The boy shouted, giving homage to his weapon's namesake.

The goon was tossed at him and he punched him in the face, using the jets attached to his weapon to fuel the blow.

Now satisfied that his work was done, he called the police and left. He'd gotten his thrill for the day, however momentary.

_**Oh, and, btw, there's still one more trailer left. It'll be released today or tomorrow...or BOTH! OOOh, mysterious! Later fanatics!**_


	4. Blue trailer, part 1

**Part 1, you ask? Yes, Fanatics, part 1! Part 2 will be released right before Chapter 1! So, tell me what you think with...oh, I don't know, ****_a review_****?! Anyway, enjoy!**

"Blue trailer, Part 1"

On a distant hill, a shadowy figure looked through the scope of a silenced sniper rifle and found his targets. The shadow that the hood of his jacket cast over his face was unnaturally dark, obscuring his features completely. Down below were several White Fang goons transporting a large crate. The hooded teen didn't know what was in the crate he just knew that it was probably bad.

This was the difference between the boy's brother and himself: One like to get in his enemy's face, up close and personal, while the other liked to take his time and line up the perfect shot. One thing they shared, though, was the rush. The adrenaline pumping through them as they beat the living shit out of their enemies. This used to be done in video games, until..._IT_ happened.

The teen shook that line of thought away and refocused. He could get maybe two or three shots off before his location was discovered, he'd have to use them well. Deciding to take out the one's with the biggest guns first, he lined up and fired.

*_Pit_*...*_Pit_*

Two metallic clicking noises were all that were heard as he took them down one at a time. It always surprised people how quiet his gun was. In a world where the weapons are loud and flashy, his weapons were designed _not_ to be seen or heard. The criminals below, however, were starting to notice.

*_Pit_*

"He's over there!" Said one of them.

A sound that might of been a small chuckle came from under the boy's hood as he disassembled his gun into it's two original shapes: A black Katana, and a silenced pistol. The teen leaped down and rushed at them with his sword. The first thug went down easy enough, but the second saw it coming and blocked. Another chuckle came for the boy's hood as his blade suddenly crackled with electricity. It went through his foe's sword and into his body, making him writhe with pain as he fell.

Only one left, and his new opponent stared into the endless blackness that was the face of his enemy. In the end, the henchman dropped his gun and ran. The teen's chuckling evolved into laughter as he watched the coward run, then he turned to open the crate. However, a foot burst out of the box, causing a large hole. From out of this hole steapped a very large fanus with rhino horns in a White Fang uniform and with a very big sword.

"We knew that one of you would try to stop us! Show me your face, so that I may know who I kill this day!" The man roared.

**_Hope you liked it! See ya tomorrow!_**


	5. Blue trailer, part 2

**_And here it is! The last trailer before the first chapter! Hope you enjoy!_**

"Blue trailer, Part 2"

The teen's head quirked, as if in thought. Then, slowly, he lifted his hood off of his head.

"Take a good look, tough guy, 'cause _this_ is the face of your defeat!" The boy said with forced bravado.

He had light brown hair with black cat ears, turquoise eyes, and a manic grin.

He always thought it best that people thought him over-confidant, as opposed to the gut-wrenching fear he usually felt when fighting up close. But _this_ was definatly the rush he'd been looking for! The teen charged at the larger man as fast as he could, struck, and...promptly bounced right off of his hulking opponent. The man laughed and raised his sword high.

"You think _THAT_ would injure _ME_?!" He said cruelly.

The teen needed time to think. Obviously, this guy either had some kind of invisible armor on, or his aura was unlocked and this was his semblance. The thought that his aura protected him entered and exited his mind. If it was aura, he'd of still taken some kind of damage. Also, he decided that armor was out of the question as well: This guy liked flashy, not subtle, he wouldn't want his armor to be invisible. So, semblance it was. How to get passed it? The boy's smile became genuine as he came up with a plan. He wanted to fight with super powers? Fine!

"It's story time, bitch!" He laughed and raised his hand dramatically, he was as much a showman as he was a huntsman.

A cloud of darkness shot out of his sleeve and into his opponent's face. The larger man yelped and tried to swat it away. The teen laughed as this man, like so many others, mistook his semblance for some kind of black gas. As his foe tried to get away from this blinding cloud, the boy sheathed his sword and snuck behind him. Blue designs appeared in the teen's gloves as he pressed his hands against the rhino fanus' back. The man suddenly screamed as several volts were pumped through him. After a few minutes of this, he finally fell unconscious. Or had a heart attack, the boy didn't know. He called the police and left, wondering if his brother had gotten as good a fight as he did. After all, this _was_ a hobby they shared, even if they didn't like to share bad guys.

**_Now, on with the actual story!_**


	6. I go to Remnant

Ch. 1: I go to Remnant

_**Darce:**_

"I AM SO DONE!" I shout as I throw my headphones off.

"What is it?" my brother, Gray, asked. My shouting had apparently jostled him from his gaming.

"I was listening to the new RWBY soundtrack and Renora is so canon!"

"Oh." Gray sighed, immediately disinterested. Despite sharing my love of anime, he's never liked RWBY and could go on forever about how awful it is, so he couldn't care less what I was talking about. Remembering this, I sighed and put my headphones back on. I clicked out of the youtube video I'd been watching ('Boop' by Jeff Williams), and saw a notification that I'd received an e-mail. When I checked it, I saw one at the top of my inbox that gave me pause. The sender ID was blank, it only had a subject: "_**You'll want to open this**_".

Curiosity overcame me and I clicked, finding a picture and an audio file inside. The picture was of a circle full of odd symbols, like the glyphs used in the show, only it looked...different. I couldn't quite place what was wrong with it, but something told me there was a difference. I decided to focus on that later and clicked on the audio file. The sound of light static filled my ears, after a second or two it was replaced by an electronically disguised voice,

"**You'll Thank Me Later…**"

My confusion was quickly replaced by fear when the glyph suddenly glowed brightly and...grabbed me?! I was being pulled into my laptop!

"G-" I tried calling out to my brother but I was too late. I was gone.

_**Gray:**_

What. The. FUCK?! Darce was...he was just...GONE! I saw it happen out of the corner of my eye! My older brother was yanked INTO HIS LAPTOP! I quickly threw my controller to the side and rushed to where he was. He was here literally FIVE SECONDS AGO! Now all there was was an empty chair and a glowing laptop. I paused...Glowing? I looked at Darce's oversized laptop, the screen was completely blank, but it was a lot brighter than it should be. Text suddenly appeared;

_**Hello, Gray. Don't worry, your brother is exactly where he wants to be. But you now have to make a choice: **_

_**1: Close this laptop and report Darce missing. You will never see him again. End of story.**_

_**2: Press your hand to the screen. You will fall unconscious and wake up next to your brother in an unfamiliar place. You will never see home again, or the rest of your family and friends. Your life will be in mortal danger for the rest of your existence.**_

_**What'll it be?**_

"Easy." I say, and immediately pressed my hand against the screen. My vision, as expected, went dark.

_**Darce:**_

I woke up, I have no idea how long I was out. I sat up and rubbed my head, I had a really bad headache. Looking around, I saw that I was on a sidewalk and next to me was Gray. I nudged him awake and we both got up. I didn't recognize the street names or buildings, but the whole place had a kind of italian feel to it. I noticed it was night and looked for the moon. I found it, and was paralysed with awe. A large chunk of it was broken off and then further fractured into smaller bits, just like in… oh,...oh, PLEASE YES! I immediately grabbed Gray's shoulder and shook him, shouting,

"HOLYCRAPGRAYTHEMOONLOOKATTHEMOOOON!" He looked at me like I had gone crazy, then saw what I was talking about.

"What the hell?!" He said.

"EXACTLY!DOYOUKNOWWHATTHISMEANS?!" Gray then grabbed both of my shoulders, looked me right in the eyes, and slapped me right across my face.

"Darce, get ahold of yourself!" I immediately raised my hands to defend myself and squirmed out of his grasp. Wait a minute…

"Gray…?" I said slowly. I could see he had realized it too.

"Darce...We're glowing…"

"Holy crap, you're taller too!"

"And you're skinnier!"

"And...Gray…"

"What?"

"You're a Fanus!"

"I'm a WHAT!?"

"You have dog ears!"

"WHAT!?" his hand flew to the top of his head and found that he did indeed have dog ears.

"Holy crap, you've got cat ears!"

"What!?" We were both appropriately freaking the hell out. I used to be a whole head taller than him, and while I was never really fat, I had been pushing 'chubby' for awhile. Now he was almost eye level with me and I had a flat stomach. Whatever had happened to us had taken away our most hated physical attributes and given us something extra. _but why are we both fanus, and different species of fanus at that?_ I asked myself. After a little while of basically screaming at each other and rolling on the ground, we calmed down and started thinking.

"Darce?"

"What?"

"Where are we?" I paused.

"Remnant." I said with complete confidence.

"What?"

"It's like an alternate earth."

"Okay, so why are we…?" he waved his hands to indicate the glow, which was slowly fading.

"The glow is a sign that our aura has been unlocked. Aura can be used to-" We started walking and I spent the next few minutes telling him the basics of this world; Aura, Fanus, Dust, etc. After a while, he asked me the all-important question.

"Alright then, _when_ are we?"

"Well, from the look of the buildings and the time of day I would have to guess-" A loud crash interrupted me. Down the street, a teenaged girl had just thrown a grown man through a window of a dust shop, leaving four men staring after him. I noticed one in particular: Roman Torchwick

"...Episode one..." I finished, then I ran towards them, "Quick, find something to fight with!"

"Why?" Gray asked, chasing after me.

"Because I'd rather not fight a bunch of armed thugs and **Roman Torchwick** with my bare hands!"

"Who's-"

"The guy in white coat and bowler cap! Long story short: he's bad news."

"Then why aren't we running _away_ from him?!"

"Because I'll be damned if he's getting away unscathed again!" I found a crowbar on the ground and picked it up. "Come on! Hurry up!"

_**Gray:**_

Great...Just...Great! Now Darce wants to play hero in his favorite show, and was probably going to get us both killed! And I _totally _felt safe with the girl wielding an over-sized _scythe! _ He said something earlier about Fanus having enhanced vision and, looking around, I could believe it. My hearing was better too, but I think that was the extra ears. Anyway, I looked for something to fight with like Darce said and found a chain with a hook at the end. I picked it up and felt an odd chill crawl up my arms.

At first I thought that the metal was just cold, but then I realized that the chill wasn't physical. It felt like it was...giving me something. Then it hit me: I suddenly knew exactly how to wield this chain like I'd be studying it for years.

_What the hell?_

"HEY, ASSHOLE!" My idiot brother shouted right before hitting a thug in the back of the head. The man let out an 'UMF!' before going down. Following Darce's example, I threw my chain around another goon's gun and yanked it out of his hands. The girl with the scythe seemed momentarily dazed by our arrival, but quickly snapped out of it and took down the remaining two thugs at blinding speeds. The guy in the bowler cap, Roman something, just sighed when the last guy went down and muttered something to himself. His attention then went to us.

"Well, kids," He said, "I think we all can agree its been an eventful evening. And, as much as I'd _love_ to stick around," He pointed his cane at us, "I'm afraid _this_" the bottom popped out, "is where we part ways." A loud whining noise filled my ears as Darce pushed me out of the way of what looked like some kind of firework. The girl in red used the gun attached to her scythe to propel herself up and out of harm's way. We quickly got up and looked around, but he was nowhere to be-

"Up there!" The scythe girl cried out and pointed to a ladder on the side of the building. Not really thinking, I grabbed some large bits of broken glass to throw at him while the others charged towards the building. I felt the chill again and suddenly knew how to use them. _It's all in the wrist_, the glass seemed to tell me. I started throwing, amazed that I was actually getting anywhere near the bowler cap guy. I heard him curse as glass shards started hitting the wall just inches from him. _How the hell am I doing this?_ I asked myself as I picked the chain back up and followed the others. I threw the chain up, caught the edge of the roof, and yanked myself up, surprising myself that that actually worked. _The gravity must be weaker here._ I concluded.

"Persistent..." I heard bowler cap guy growl to himself. Suddenly some kind of aircraft rose up from under the building and he climbed on.

"End of the line, kids!" he shouted and raised up a red crystal with a grin. He then tossed it at us. I suddenly remembered what Darce said about dust and I quickly dove for cover. I heard that whining noise again and then an explosion. I looked up to see that some woman in a weird cape had appeared and protected us with a large circle thing. She then attacked the ship with purple things, which almost made it crash. Bowler cap guy ran into the cockpit and was replaced by a woman in a red dress. The woman in the cape made a storm of ice shards above them. The woman in the red dress retaliated by throwing a fireball. Okay, you know what, I'm renaming them Nice Lady and Mean Lady. Nice Lady blocked with another circle thing, but the fireball somehow made the ground around her explode. She dodged out of the way and turned the shrapnel into a drill and launched it at the ship. Mean Lady tried to destroy it with more fireballs, but Nice Lady just reformed it. However, it had been knock off target and ricocheted off the roof of the ship. Nice Lady turned it into three smaller ones, but Mean Lady did something that turn it into ashes. The scythe girl, seeing that Nice Lady was momentarily out of tricks, turned her scythe into a gun and fired several shots. All of which were blocked by Mean Lady, who then made the ground underneath all of us explode. Nice Lady pushed us all to safety with some kind of telekinesis. By the time we all got up, they were gone. The scythe girl looked to Nice lady.

"You're a huntress," Nice lady just looked at her, and a look of total admiration overcame the scythe girl's face as she squealed, "Can I have your autograph?!"

"No." She said flatly, "But you _can_ come with me for questioning, along with your fanus friends here."

"Oh, I don't know these guys." Scythe girl said. Darce stepped forward.

"My brother and I saw her fighting and decided to help."

"No," I said, "_You_ decided to help and I came along to stop those thugs from killing you!"

"In any case," _Not So_ Nice Lady continued, " I suggest you put your weapons away and come with me." Darce and I put our makeshift weapons on the ground and followed her. I saw that Darce's crowbar had markings on it. _Does that say 'Freeman'?_

"Gray, hurry up!" Darce shouted and I ran to catch up with them.

_**Hope you guys liked the first chapter! Remember to follow, fav, and review!**_

_**Oh, and Darce is pronounced D-ARE-SS.**_

_**Later Fanatics!**_


	7. I get interrogated

_**I am back once again to bestow upon you all with another chapter, enjoy!**_

Ch. 2: I get interrogated

_**Darce:**_

MUST. REMAIN. CALM… I was minutes away from meeting Headmaster Ozpin. I had FOUGHT alongside RUBY ROSE! GLYNDA GOODWITCH had SAVED MY LIFE! I had gotten shot at by ROMAN TORCHWICK and CINDER FALL!

MUST...REMAIN...calm…

I sit in a chair just outside Ozpin's interrogation room, working desperately to control my breathing. Gray sat next to me, perfectly calm. He has no idea who these people are, or their importance. For just a moment, I envy him. Just a moment. Then my excitement drowned it out.

"Hey, Darce," Gray started.

"What?"

"Why'd you rush into the fight if you knew we'd get in trouble?"

"That, dear brother," I replied with a smirk, "is an excellent question. Care to guess?" My snarkiness was a defence mechanism I'd adopted long ago. Gray gave me an annoyed look.

"Not really, n-" He was interrupted by the door slamming open and Ruby rushing out.

"I'M GOING TO BEACON!" She squealed with delight. Goodwitch stepped out and motioned with her whip for us to come in.

"You two, in here." When Gray looked hesitant she added a forceful, "NOW."

We walked in to see Ozpin sitting on a chair, sipping in some coffee, with two plates of cookies in front of two chairs. Gray and I took our seats and grabbed a cookie off of our respective plates.

"So," Ozpin began, "Mind telling me your names and why you took it upon yourselves to help Ms. Rose?"

"My name is Darce Forge and this is my brother, Gray." I started. "We saw a girl in trouble, we helped." I gave him a shrug.

"Alright then, tell me why can't we seem to find you on any records or data banks at all?"

"Probably because we're from a different dimension, called 'Earth'." Goodwitch gave me a look that told me she thought I was either crazy or lying. Ozpin stayed straight faced.

"I see. And how is it you found yourselves in our humble kingdom?" All three of us just stared at him for a while.

"You...believe him?!" Goodwitch asked, just as shocked as us. I hadn't honestly expected him to take me seriously. And never thought he'd do so immediately!

"I found video surveillance showing these two seemingly appear out of nowhere, wander aimlessly for a few minutes, then stumble upon the , why don't you tell use the whole story?"

I did. Over the course of maybe ten minutes, I told Ozpin everything. Of course, I left out the bit about them being a web series in our world. Gray mostly just sat there, patiently nibbling on cookies. When I was done, Ozpin nodded.

"I see… so you have no identification, no way to get food, and no shelter." I froze. I'd forgotten about all those things. What if he doesn't let us into-

"How would you like to attend my school?" Ozpin asked. Glynda gave him a cautious look.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Very." He reassured, "So, what'll it be?"

"What is it you teach?" Gray asked, speaking up for the first time. Ozpin gave him an amused look.

"We run a school to train huntsmen and huntresses."

"What are we hunting?" It was Ozpin's turn to look confused.

"Creatures of Grimm."

"Creatures of what? Are we hunting depressed squirrels or something?"

"Gray," I said, and put a hand on his shoulder, "It's a warm meal and a roof over our heads, it's not like we have much of an option." He thought for a bit.

"I guess you're right, but I don't have to like it."

"Excellent. School starts in two months. In the mean time, I'll get you fake IDs, scrolls, and I'll help you with forging your own weapons." Gray's ears perked up (literally) when he heard that last bit.

_**Gray:**_

For two months, we worked on our weapons and studied to catch up with the other potential first years. I learned what Grimm were, and how absolutely absurd the weapons here are. When I first was working on mine I was going for just a big gun, but I scrapped that idea when I learned the full scope of what I could do. I found out that the "chill" I'd been getting was my "Semblance". Basically a superpower, which allowed me to instinctively know how to use something by touching it. I was told that semblances were based off of your personality in some way, which made sense; I'd always been good with my hands and very proud of my natural talent to figure out how things tick. But, with this new ability, I could suddenly play the guitar, hack a computer...even forge a weapon.

I based the final design of my weapon after Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. It was a pair of vambraces that could launch a blade attached to a chain, the chain could then be moved by my aura, or just go out a little bit to make something like a hidden blade from Assassin's Creed. The vambraces could also deploy brass knuckles for close combat. The top could pop out to reveal three holes in the back near my elbow. there was a large hole in the middle with two smaller holes on either side, each containing dust powered jets that could either provide a continuous stream for mobility or a quick burst to propel my fist through whatever was in front of it.

When Darce saw it, he asked if I'd been secretly watching RWBY, to which I answered no. When I asked why, he said that one of the main characters (that we'd be meeting soon) had a very similar weapon, Ember Celica. I mostly designed Scorpion as a close range weapon because I noticed that not only had my upper body strength been greatly enhanced, but it was getting better every day. Since the Headmaster required us to go to the gym in order to better our bodies, I've found every workout increasingly easier, forcing me to add more and more weight. It got so ridiculous that, during the last week, he made me exempt from upper body exercises.

Darce had gotten a bit stronger too, but the most noticeable change was his speed. While I was adding weights, he was going faster and longer on the treadmill. Most of the time he had this manic smile on his face, and when he was on the treadmill the grin doubled in size. It only ever disappeared if you mentioned semblances. He still hadn't figured his out, and was really bummed out about it. It was sad, really, because when he was running or working on his weapon, he'd never looked so alive. I liked seeing him like that (though I'd never tell him that. He still doesn't know I came here by choice, he thinks I was sucked in with him). When he would get an idea of what his semblance could be, I'd help him out, and when it would fail, I was there for him. Mostly just to smack the back of his head and tell him to get over it, but that's just my way of expressing love.

On the day before the new students would arrive, Darce told me how initiation would work. I wanted Darce as a partner, so we had to hatch a plan as to be the first ones we made eye contact with each other. When we finally came up with one, we called it a day and went to bed.

That night I woke up to a noise. When I opened my eyes, I saw strange lights coming from the other side of the room. I looked over to see that they were coming from just above Darce. It was a floating circle showing our mom in the kitchen making lunch. She looked happy, doing the singing and dancing thing she would do when cooking or cleaning. There was no sound, but I could guess what song she was singing, "Man in the Mirror". Darce entered the kitchen and said something, and mom said something back. Darce shrugged and walked to the door, and looked like he was calling out for someone.

A dream version of me, one without wolf ears (turns out they were wolf ears, not dog) walked in and looked annoyed at him. He said something and dream-me slugged him on the shoulder. He just laughed, and the circle disappeared. _was that his semblance?_ I asked myself. I was too tired to put much energy into figuring out anything, so I went back to sleep.

_**Darce:**_

I woke up the next day feeling well rested, so I decided to run a few laps around the school. The new first years would arrive around noon, I had plenty of time. Careful not to wake Gray, I slipped into my armor and walked out. My armor was fairly simple, a hoodie made from Jack of Plate (a medieval technique of sewing small squares of metal into fabric for both comfort and protection), jeans with shin guards underneath, sneakers, and, most importantly, gloves with lightning dust woven in. Gray had made his similar, but he went for the japanese equivalent of Jack of Plate (Dragon scale: basically dimond shaped bits of metal overlapping each other. You know, like scales), just a shirt instead of a hoodie, and no gloves. He prefered his Ember Celica knock off, Scorpion, to any glove, and was very proud of it.

I used the time outside to both stretch my legs and clear the sleep from my head. It was a lovely day today, especially with my enhanced fanus senses. The sun had painted the early morning sky wonderful shades of pink, purple, and orange as I jogged around the campus. When I finished it was around 11:00-11:30, I went back to my temporary dorm to see Gray awake and playing with a rubiks cube. He looked up at the sound of the door opening, and waved to acknowledge my presence before returning to his puzzle.

"Hey bro, what'cha been up to?" I asked.

"Walked around a bit, got bored, came back here, played with my rubiks cube. You?"

"Jogged. The other first years will be here soon, want to greet them?" Gray gave a bored sigh

"Sure."

As we approached the air docks, airships appeared in the horizon. After a few minutes, they arrived and docked, allowing the passengers to leave. The first person I saw was Jaune, rushing to puke into a trash can. After him, a few people I didn't recognize unboarded and then out came Ruby and her sister. I waved and caught their attention, causing Ruby to smile. Yang nudged and asked her something, Ruby's face went red and she shouted back at her, loud enough for Gray and I to hear.

"Yang! They are NOT my 'boy toys'!"

"That's racist!" Gray yelled back playfully. Yang just laughed and dragged her sister towards us.

"So, you two saw my little sister, Ruby, in trouble and decided to be gentle man? How nobel."

"Little sister?" Gray asked, confused.

"They're probably like us, half-siblings." I elaborated, pretending not to already know. It wasn't a complete lie, Gray and I were half-brothers.

"Wow, Good eye! But if you're half-brothers, how is one a wolf and the other a cat?" Ruby asked.

"I dunno, it just happened." Gray said with a shrug.

"Oh, my friends are here! Gotta go, sis, see ya laterloveyoubye!" Yang said quickly and left.

"Yang! Wait!" The force for her leaving knocked Ruby off balance, sending her backwards...and straight into Weiss Schnee's luggage.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" the heiress yelled.

"Oh, sorry!" Ruby quickly said.

"'Sorry'? Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?"

"Uhhh…"

"Hey, she said she was sorry!" Gray yelled. Being the little guy back on earth hadn't improved his outlook on bullies.

"Mind your own business!" She shot back, waving a jar of dust at him. _Oh, shit_, I saw what would come next. Gray scrunched up his face…and sneezed directly onto the white haired heiress.

"AAACHHOOOOO!" BOOM! An explosion shot out of Gray's nose, covering the heiress in soot. _Now all that's left is…_

"You stupid brute! You've covered me in ash, you mutt! What are you going to do about it?!" Gray got a weird, cruel grin on his face, the kind that said he was a very certain kind of pissed off right now.

"Well, I could _clean_ you off, _princess_." He gave his lips a long lick, so there would be no doubt of what he meant by "clean", and a look that said he wasn't bluffing. Weiss looked absolutely disgusted.

"It's 'heiress', actually." said a voice. _There she is..._

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world…"

"Finally, some recognition!" Weiss said, giving the rest of us a smug look, even as Gray was snickering at her name.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." We all suppressed giggles as Weiss became flustered. She then yanked the dust jar from Blake's hand and stormed off. I noted that Ruby didn't yell apologies at Weiss, and that Blake actually stuck around. The story was already changing.

"Hi," I said, sticking out a hand towards Blake, "I'm Darce. This is my brother, Gray, and my friend Ruby." Blake left me hanging, so I dropped my hand.

"Blake. Nice to meet you." I quickly searched my mind for an ice breaker, and found one I thought might work.

"So, I'm running out of books to read. Any recommendations?" She gave me a small smile.

"I've started reading 'The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'. So far it's good, if a bit slow. Anyway, I have to go. I'll see you around." With that, she turned and walked away.

"She seems nice." Ruby piped up.

"Real smooth there, bro, with the whole 'geek in need' thing. Such pro, much wow." Gray said the last bit like Shibe Doge. Asshole. I saw Jaune looking at us from a small distance, and decided to motion him over. Gray gave me a look that said '_you wanna hang out with __**vomit boy**__?!_'

"Hey, I'm Jaune." We all introduced ourselves. Ruby chuckled.

"Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

_**Later**_

"Whoa! Is that a scythe?!"

"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle."

"A-wha?"

"It's also a gun." I had to stop myself from completely fan-boying out at both the sight of Crescent Rose and the unofficial catchphrase.

"Oh...That's cool!" Even Gray seemed interested and slightly terrified of the giant scythe.

"So, what do you guys got?" Gray raised his hands and activated his vambraces. The top and bottom popped out, and brass knuckles covered his fists.

"I call it 'Scorpion'!"

"Ooooh! My sister has something just like that! What do they do?"

"Watch this!" He aimed his elbows downward and activated the jets, sending him a few feet in the air. He jetted back down and used the momentum to slam his fist into the stone path underneath him. The result was a large creator. Ruby looked over to me.

"What about you?!" she asked excitedly. I pulled out my Katana and pistol.

"The sword's name is Nihil, the gun is Aut. Aut is silenced, and the lightning dust in my gloves can magnetize it, turning it into a tiny railgun. Nihil can also be powered by my gloves, making it hotter. A heated blade can cut through things easier. They can fuse together to form Gemino; which is basically a sniper rifle version of Aut. My gloves themselves have retractable claws."

"Your weapons seem awfully centered around those gloves." Ruby observed.

"Most weapons are centered around the hands, why not add something extra?"

"Cool. And you, Jaune?"

"Uh...well...I've got this." He pulled out his sword and shield.

"Ooh, what do they do?"

Jaune then made a fool of himself by fumbling and dropping his sword and shield. After a good laugh, Jaune looked around and asked,

"So, where are we going?"

"I don't know, I was following you guys!" Ruby replied.

"Me too." Gray said.

"We're lost, aren't we?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeap." Jaune said, deflated.

"Well, let's start walking, then."

_**That's all for now, I hope you liked it. What do you think of our weapons? What do you think Darce's semblance is? Stay tuned for the thrilling next chapter! Later Fanatics!**_


	8. I piss of Ice Sneeze

_**I is in ur compooter, givn' u 'nother chapter. Has all the joys.**_

Chapter 3: I piss off Ice Sneeze

_**Gray:**_

When we finally arrived at the Main Hall, we marveled at all the people we saw. There were dozens! Which was a lot, as we might as well have been alone in these last two months.

"Ruby!" We heard from the crowd. It was Ruby's sister, Yang, "Over here! I saved you a spot!"

"Oh! Hey, I gotta go! I'll see you guys after the ceremony!" Ruby quickly said, then ran off to her sister.

"Well, we'd better find our own spot." Darce said, motioning to Jaune and me. After talking with Jaune, I'd found that he was actually a nice guy, if a bit clumsy. He didn't look like much of a fighter, though. I don't think he'd be much good under fire. We walked around a bit before settling in on a spot. We made small talk for a bit, waiting for the ceremony to start.

"You!" came a voice from behind us. I turned around to see that mean girl from before.

"Oh, hello," I said with exaggerated niceness, "Aren't you that 'Ice Sneeze' girl we bumped into earlier?"

"It's Weiss Schnee! You're the only one sneezing, Dog Breath! We could've gotten blown off the cliff! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

"Woof." I responded. She pulled out a small booklet and held it in front of my face. "What's that?"

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries-" I'm sure there was more after that, but she'd exhausted my attention span and I stopped caring. When she saw that I was blankly staring at her she sighed.

"You _can_ read, right?" Her tone implied she wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't.

"Oh, THAT'S IT, BITCH!" Darce wrapped an arm around my middle and held me back. He then grabbed the booklet and said,

"Ms. Sneeze, I truly wanted to read this, but it would appear my dog ate it." He said in a mocking posh accent, handing the booklet to me and I, taking the hint, tore it to shreds. "So until you're ready to apologize to my little brother here, I suggest you kindly _piss off_." She looked taken aback.

"Apologize?! You expect a Schnee to apologize to that-that-" She gestured to me, still tearing away at the booklet with gusto, "That _brute_?!"

"In all honesty? Not at all." Darce shrugged and turned away from her. "Good day to you, Ms. Sneeze." It was obvious from her expression that she'd expected this conversation to happen very differently. She humphed and walked away.

"She seems nice." Jaune said sarcastically, and Darce gave him a confused look, then an approving nod. Weird. The speakers then crackled to life and we noticed Ozpin on the stage.

"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

"Well," I said, my tone dripping with sarcasm, "_That_ wasn't depressing at all." Ozpin stepped off stage and Prof. Goodwitch took the mic.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins; be ready. You are dismissed."

_**Darce, in the Ballroom:**_

So, Jaune doesn't have a crush on Weiss. Good for him. I waved at Yang and Ruby as I went to my sleeping bag. Yang said something to Ruby and she hit her with a pellow. Before I reached my sleeping bag I heard the striking of a match. I looked over to see Blake reading a book by candlelight.

"Hey," I said, walking over to her, "any idea where I could get some candles? I wanna finish this book." I pulled out the book I'd been reading, "The Dust of Failure". A purely Remnant based book, from what I could tell. Blake looked at my choice of literature approvingly.

"I've got a spare." She said, handing me and unlit candle.

"HELLLOOOO!" said the sing-song voice of Yang as she dragged Ruby behind her, "I believe you three may know each other?"

"Hey, guys." Ruby said awkwardly.

"Hello Ruby." Blake greeted.

"Hi ya." I said pleasantly.

"I'm here too." Gray's voice came from behind me.

"And I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister!"

"Well, I'm gonna bounce. Thanks for the candle, Blake. Later." I said and walked away. Gray followed.

"I like your bow! It goes great with your pajamas!" I heard Yang say.

"I agree, it's adorable." I said over my shoulder, causing Blake to give me a strange look.

"Dude, drop whatever crush you have on her. Humans don't go for fanus, remember?" I grinned, but didn't say anything. After that, I went to bed, excited about what tomorrow would bring.

_**The next day, in the lockerroom:**_

"So, you excited?" I asked Gray.

"You know I hate this show." He said, but his wide grin betrayed him. He was finally going to field test Scorpion. Nora and Ren walked by and caught Gray's attention.

"Who's she?" He gestured to Nora.

"No one you should be worried about, unless you get on her bad side."

"Oh, one of those 'Cute Killer' types?"

"Pretty much." I looked over to see Ruby caressing Crescent Rose.

"Well remember, Ruby, you aren't the only one going through initiation." Yang said, worriedly, "If you're going to grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together." Deciding not to interfere I turned back to Gray.

"So, you remember the plan?"

"Yea, when Ozpin launches us into the air, I use my jets to grab you and take us directly to the ruins before any Grimm show up. Then I...is something wrong with her face?" He pointed to Weiss, who had a look of pure evil on her face as she had a monologue in her head.

"She's fine." I assured him.

"Hi, I'm Jaune Arc. Nice to meet'cha." for a moment I thought he was talking to Weiss, but then he turned to Pyrrha.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune."

"So, hot stuff, I've been hearing rumors about teams. I was thinking you and I would make a good one, what do you say?"

"That sounds lovely." She said, giving him a smile. Gray nudged me with his elbow.

"Really?" He asked, nodding towards Jaune and Pyrrha.

"Really." I replied. He sighed.

"Well, at least I've got some fuel to get me past all this romance bull." He said happily, pulling out a plate of cookies from his locker (courtesy of the headmaster). He picked one up and was about to chow down when the platter was suddenly knocked out of his hands.

"Whoops, looks like the dirty animal doesn't get his treat! Ha Ha!" came Cardin's voice from next to us. Gray looked at the broken cookies as if they were the dead bodies of everyone he ever cared about, then directed his gaze at Cardin.

"That was a dozen cookies…" His voice was barely a whisper. I had learned long ago that he had four levels of anger; annoyed, angry, sadistic, and "You messed with my cookies now enjoy your last hours". I slowly backed away as Cardin laughed at his expression. He walked out of the room through an automatic door that opened at the middle. Gray quickly picked up the metal plate the cookies had been on and took aim. Just as the doors were closing, he threw the plate with all of his strength. It just barely made it through, but it did, and hit Cardin square in the back of his thick skull. There was a loud cry of surprise and pain, then a _THUD_ as what I assume was Cardin's unconscious form hit the ground, _**hard**_. The speakers crackled and a voice came through.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

We smiled at each other and walked over to Cardin's unconscious body. Gray placed a cookie next to him.

"What was that?" I asked when we walked away.

"_That_," He gestured to the unconscious bully, "Was act of revenge one of twelve."

_**Gray, Beacon Cliff:**_

*click, click*

WOOSH!

I was airborne. I had mentally prepared for it while Ozpin was talking, but it still took me by surprise. Once I'd reorientated myself, I activated my jets and looked around me. I spotted Darce, and flew over to him. He was flailing around, and looked about ready to barf. I was about to grab him, but then I thought '_Where's the fun in that?_'

"Need a hand?" He looked like a cat trying to escape a bath.

"HELP ME!"

"Say please!" I teased.

"GRAY!"

"Fine, jeez. Calm down!" I flew closer and he latched on for dear life. My Jets then decided to alert me that fuel was running low. "I'll get us as close to the ruins as I can!" I quickly flew low to the ground and waited for my fuel to reach 10%. More than enough for combat, and close enough to the ruins.

"So, you mean to tell me that in the month you had to plan this, you didn't think about your acute fear of heights?" I asked. He gave me an embarrassed look.

"Shut up..._partner_."

"_GRRRRR_!" came several growls from behind us. We turned to find a whole pack of Beowolves. I felt proud that I could recognize them, but that was quickly replaced by excitement. I was finally going to test my babies out! Darce gave me a grin.

"You ready?"

"Oh, yea!" I propelled myself to the nearest Grimm and punched it in the face. It gave a small whine, then a growl. I'd only pissed it of. "Shit!" I cried as I dodged a clawed swipe. I blocked its second attempt, and fired the main cannon of my other hand into its torso. It flew back and knocked into another Beowolf. Getting an idea, I jetted over to a different Beowolf and grabbed its tail before it could react. I swung it around, hitting several Grimm in the process.

"**I WILL BEAT A MOTHERFUCKER,**" I shouted, "**WITH ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKER!**" Darce chuckled. He'd dispatched his share of Grimm with his sniper rifle, Gemino, while I'd been up close and personal. It reminded me of our different fighting styles in video games back on earth. I was always the Orc warrior, using two handed weapons and heavy armor. He was the Khajiit mage/archer, with his one handed weapons, bow and arrow, magic, and light armor. I was the sledge hammer, he was the knife. I smiled at the memory, even as I dodged another swipe from a Grimm. I smiled even wider when I realized he now _was_ a Khajiit. He'd always had a thing for cats.

_**Darce:**_

I switched from Gemino to Nihil and quickly slashed through a Beowolf that was dumb enough to charge at me. Then I changed to Aut and blasted three others out of existence. All the while I felt my grin get bigger and bigger. Then I felt it drop; this was too easy. I wasn't complaining, the grimm seemed to be fighting with the same skill level as in the show: it was me who was too strong. And that made no sense, I'd only been training for _two_ _months_. Everyone _on_ the show had been training for years and I was on the same level as them. _How?_

This distracted me from the battle so much that one Grimm nearly took off my head. I ducked, quickly drew out my sword, and sliced it in half Darth Maul style. I looked around to find that it was the last of them. I sheathed and holstered my weapons, and walked over to my little brother.

"Hey, Gray, do you think that was too easy?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Do you _really _think this was a trap?"

"No, I'm just saying that we've only been training for two months, and yet we're on the same skill level as the rest of them, who've been training for several years."

"Hmm…" He thought about this, "You're right. Do you think the portal gave us that, too?"

"_So_, its turned us into fanus, enhanced most of our physical attributes tremendously, _and_ gave us these skills?", I asked, "Who ever sent us here wanted us to be huntsmen, and messed with our bodies _a lot_ to make sure we didn't die. At least not too fast. That explains most of it, except for the whole fanus thing we got going on." He nodded, and we followed the path to the ruins while we thought in silence. Suddenly we heard a _Whoosh!_ and saw smoke rise from maybe a mile away. Gray looked to me.

"What happened?"

"Weiss and Ruby are fighting a pack of Grimm." He flinched.

"Ruby got partnered with _her_?"

"Don't worry, Weiss becomes a lot nicer later on because of it."

"Then why did you help me out when she picked on me." I found it weird that he would call it 'getting picked on' when actually she was being more than a little racist.

"Because that's no excuse for insulting my little brother. The ruins are just over there, let's move."

_**A half hour later:**_

"'Just over here' he said. 'It won't be _that_ _long_' he said," Gray growled mockingly. We still had yet to find the ruins. Suddenly, a giant Nevermore flew over-head.

"WE'RE FINE! STOP WORRYING!" I heard Ruby yell over the wind. I turned to Gray.

"Follow that Nevermore!" We quickly ran after it, and it lead us right to the ruins. We saw Yang and Blake standing around. Yang had yet to notice the Nevermore above her.

"Blake, did you hear that? What should we do?" She was referring to Jaune's scream earlier, which Gray hadn't heard. Blake pointed up. We all looked to see a falling Ruby.

"HEADS UUUP!" Her scream was mixed with Jaune's as he collided with her mid-air.

"What the hell was that?!" Gray yelled.

This was about to get interesting.

_**Mysterious cliff hanger is not really that mysterious if you've watched RWBY, which I recommend you do before reading this. Probably something I should put in the **_**_summary, but whatever._**

**_seriously, though, I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave a review telling me if I did something wrong. Or good. Or you have a question. Or you just want to say "Hi". While you're at it, follow and fav. It'd really make my day. I always make a weird squealing noise when I see someone follow or fav, and my brother always looks at me like I'm choking._**

**_To answer a few questions before they're asked: Yes, Gray is based off of my IRL brother. Darce is based off of me. Those aren't our real names, that's private information that I'm not just going to hand out to the internet._**


	9. I go to battle

_**Curious as to where the first two guys from the trailers went? Stick around.**_

**_Enjoy!_**

Ch. 4: I go to battle

_**Darce:**_

"Where the hell did he come from?!" Gray asked, surprised by Jaune's sudden appearance. Explosions stopped me from answering as an Ursa came out of the tree line. A pink puff of energy appeared out of its back and it fell over, dead.

"Nora?! Really?!" Gray yelled. Nora came over to the chess pieces behind us and started singing.

"NORA!" Ren yelled. She giggled.

"Coming Ren!" Gray looked over to me.

"Are they…?"

"No, they're not 'together-together'."

"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she sees her little sister.

"Yang!" they both hold out their arms for a hug when-

"Nora!" -Nora ruined the moment, jumping in the middle of them and knocking them both off balance. Suddenly Pyrrha came rushing at us with the Deathstalker. Blake was about to say something when Yang exploded, figuratively and literally.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING _CRAZY_ HAPPENS AGAIN?!" A moment of silence granted her wish before Ruby tugged on Yang's arm.

"Umm...Yang…" she pointed up to Weiss, who was still dangling off the Nevermore's talon.

"How could you leave me?" She cried.

"Gee, I wonder." I heard Gray murmur to himself, having also calmed down.

"I said 'jump'!"

"She's gonna fall." Blake commented.

"She'll be fine." Ruby said dismissively.

"She's falling." Ren noted. And falling she was. Half way down, Jaune jumped out of the tree he'd just freed himself from and caught her.

"Hold on!" He said, instead of the cheesy pickup line he'd used in the show. Then he called out to his partner, "Pyrrha!"

She ran towards him and caught them both as they came within arms reach of her.

"I've got you!" She carried them both bridal style to the rest of us and collapsed onto the ground.

"Great, the gang's all here. Now we can die together!" Yang said sarcastically.

"Not if I can help it!" She gave a battle cry as she charged at the Deathstalker. Gray reached out a hand to stop her, but I held him back.

"Let this happen." I said to him. He gave me a look, but nodded anyway.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang cried out. Too late, Ruby was already going too fast to stop, even if she wanted to. She struck the Deathstalker...and pretty much bounced right off of it. She quickly picked herself off the ground and turned to us.

"D-do-don't worry! Totally fine!" She said unconvincingly. She slowly turned back to the Grimm and gave a half-hearted shot to its face. That just pissed it off more. She turned and ran, sheathing her scythe. Yang ran towards her sister to help.

"Ruby!" Suddenly the Nevermore let out a caw and launched a volley of feathers at the small girl, pinning her cloak to the ground and stopping Yang in her tracks. Gray tried to pull out of my hands, but I continued to hold him back. _Just a little more..._

"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang yelled from behind the feathers.

"I'm trying!" She replied, yanking at her hood. The Deathstalker poised its tail for a killing blow, and Ruby stared at it in horror.

"Ruby!" Yang called out again. A white blur rushed past all of us, and then there was a sound of ice forming.

"You are _so_ childish." Came Weiss' voice. That was all of the conversation we could hear. Gray gave a sigh of relief.

"Was all of that _really_ necessary?" he asked.

"Entirely." I replied.

_**Gray:**_

"Guys," Jaune pointed to the sky, "That thing's circling back. What're we gonna do?"

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss said, and gestured to the relics.

"She's right, our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

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

"I'm game." I said.

"Then let's grab them and get gone!" Darce said. I went over to the closest one and grabbed it. A cracking noise came from the Deathstalker.

"Time we left!" Ren called out.

"Right, let's go!" Ruby said, and we all ran towards the Cliffs.

_**later:**_

The Nevermore caught up to us as we were going through another set of ruins. We all hid behind pillars as it settled on top of some kind of tower and screeched at us.

"The Deathstalker will be here any moment now, we'll focus on that. Avoid the Nevermore, got it?" Darce whispered to me.

"Weren't we supposed to get the relics _before_ any of this happened!"

"Are you complaining?" I grinned at him.

"Not really, no."

"Good." He said as the Deathstalker came bursting out of the trees.

"Aw, man! Run!" Jaune yelled. I was about to charge it, but Darce held me back again.

"Not yet." I nodded. Darce knew more about what would happen next, but this was starting to get annoying. We ran past Pyrrha on a bridge.

"Go, go!" She yelled. When we got to just before the middle of the bridge, the Nevermore crashed into the beams supporting the old bridge.

"NOW!" Darce cried out. I turned and charged at the Deathstalker (FINALLY!), dodging its pincers and punching it in the face. Blake was next to me, slashing at it. I looked back to see that Pyrrha and Ren were firing away. Darce had his sniper rifle in full railgun mode, firing silenced shots at the Grimm. It deflected these with its armored pincers, but it still looked like it hurt. A loud explosion came from behind us, and suddenly Nora was above me, striking the Deathstalker with a giant hammer. I was pushed back by the force of her hit and I landed next to Darce.

"A giant hammer? Really? How cliche is that?!" He just smiled at me and continued firing. Nora propelled herself off of the Grimm and knock into Blake, sending her off of the edge.

"She'll be fine, keep fighting!" Darce said. Suddenly the bridge started to collapse.

"We gotta move!" Jaune cried out. We all rushed forward to get to safety, but the Deathstalker was in our way. It tried to attack Pyrrha, but she blocked it with her shield and slashed it with her sword. It saw an opening and tried again, but Jaune was there with his own shield. Ren charged at it, firing his guns. The Grimm tried to hit him with its stinger, but Ren climbed onto it and shot at the tendons holding it to the tail. Nora was firing her grenade launcher (Really!?) at it and it blocked with its claws. When it moved its pincers out of the way, Pyrrha threw her spear into one of its eyes. It cried out and it shook its tail, flinging Ren into a wall.

"Ren!" Nora cried out. I charged at the creature next, getting past its defences and grabbing the spear. I stabbed it deeper, gave it a twist, and pulled it out. Dodging out of the way of another attack, I ran back to Pyrra and gave her back her weapon.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune said pointing at its stinger, which was now hanging loosely. She saw what he meant.

"Done." she threw her shield like Captain America and severed the stinger, causing it to fall onto the creature's head and stab into it.

"Nora, nail it!" Jaune cried.

"Heads up!" Nora jumped into Pyrrha's raised shield and propelled herself several dozen feet into the air. She fell fast and brought her hammer down hard onto the stinger, driving it right through its head. Unfortunately, this also caused the bridge to fling us right over the monster and crashing into the ground behind it. The bridge having been destroyed, the Grimm's body went down with it. After that, we watched the others take down the Nevermore and headed back to Beacon.

_**Darce, back at Beacon:**_

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nicos, Nora Valkyrie. You four retrieved the white rook pieces, from this day forward you shall work together as: Team JNPR. Lead by: Jaune Arc." There was an applause as they got off the stage.

"Murphy Machina, Aries Anemone, Darce and Gray Forge." Gray and I walked onto the stage with two guys we'd never met before, "You four retrieved the black rook pieces, from this day forward you shall work together as: Team AMGD (Armageddon). Lead by: Murphy Machina." The two guys turn to us, one looked tired and shy, the other looked excited. The excited one put out his hand.

"I'm Murphy! We'll be working together for four years, so just call me Murph!" He had dark brown hair and eyes, his shirt was a muted red and his wide grin was a little unsettling. We shook his hand and he gestured to his partner, "This is Aries! He's not much of a talker, but he's a good guy. Good in a fight, to!" Aries nodded his head at us, avoiding our eyes. He was very pale, had short purple hair, yellow eyes, and a loose fitting green t-shirt with matching baggy pants. He looked like a big flower. Then I noticed something rather obvious; Murphy had a tail. A fox tail.

"So you're a faunus, too?" I asked gesturing to Gray's and my own ears. His smile grew.

"Yea, but Aries here isn't."

"I'm human, but I'm not like those bullies who think that faunus are lesser." I could just barely hear him, his voice was so quiet. Murphy's grin grew.

"Aries seems to trust you guys. He's a very good judge of character!" Murphy said. Just then, the ceremony ended and we were all sent to our dorms.

"Come on, the dorms are this way!" he gestured us towards him.

"How do you know?" Gray asked. Murphy just grinned.

"It's my semblance!"

"What?"

"I can see the immediate fate of those around me."

"You can see the future?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that but, basically, yes. All the first years around us are fated to congregate in that building over there." He pointed to one of the buildings nearby.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" I said and started walking. Gray quickly caught up to me and whispered into my ear.

"So, what's their story, and how much of the plot did I change when I grabbed the black rook and got us teamed up with them? And, most importantly, can they be trusted?"

"I have no idea." I said bluntly. He looked confused.

"I thought you were obsessed with this show!"

"I am, they're not in it. I've never even heard of them." Gray furrowed his eyebrows.

"So they're an unknown variable. That doesn't make me very comfortable." I almost tried to reassure him by saying that Beacon wouldn't admit an untrustworthy person into their school, but then I remembered Cardin and his crew. Also, Jaune was able to sneak into the school, as well as Cinder and her lackeys, why not others? The more I thought about it, the more unnerved I became. For all I knew, these two could be with the White Fang. Murphy _said_ that Aries was human, but that could be easily faked. I sighed, I was overthinking this; There was no indication that these two were anything other than what they seemed. Until there was evidence otherwise, I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

"We'll trust them...for now. But be on guard." I told him. He nodded silently and we arrived at the dorms. Murphy unlocked the doors and burst through.

"Dorm, sweet dorm! Don't bother unpacking, we'll do that tomorrow! For now, let's just get ready for bed!" Murphy said excitedly. We did so, and as we were settling into our beds I saw Murphy and Aries put away their weapons. Murphy had two pistols with knives retracted into the sides of the grips. Aries' weapon was weird, though. He reached out his hand and what looked like living rope came out of his sleeve and coiled itself into a tight ring on top of his dresser.

Tomorrow would certainly be interesting.

_**That's all for now, hope you liked it! What do you think of Aries and Murph? What about Murphy's semblance? Don't forget to follow and fav, and I'll see you next week!**_


	10. I get my semblance

_**So, I recently received**____**a review, and let me just say: It's is exactly what I've been waiting for.**_

_**I post stories on this site to grow as an author (my dream job) and that is difficult when no one is saying if what I'm doing is good or not! I've gotten a few reviews before, but none of them went into detail like this one.**_

**_He/she told me what I've been doing wrong, and that tells me what not to do in the future, so I hope the rest of you can follow his/her lead when next leaving me a review!_**

**_Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy my newest installment!_**

Ch. 5: I get my semblance

_**Gray:**_

An alarm clock buzzed next to me, waking me up with a groan. Today was the first day of school. I got up, nudged Darce awake (He could sleep through a war), grabbed my uniform, and headed off to the bathroom to get dressed. I tried the knob, but it was locked so I knocked. A soft mumbling came from inside.

"It's Aries, he says 'occupied'." Murphy said from his bed. How the hell had he heard _that? I _was standing right in front of the door and I didn't even hear him!

"Mornin', bro." Darce greeted sleepily, waving at me. I waved back and set my clothes down onto the counter.

"Good morning, how was your sleep?"

"Good. Yours?"

"Good. So, Murphy," I said, addressing our new team leader, "What're we doing today?"

"Well, first things first: Unpacking and decorating."

"Gray and I have already unpacked," Darce said. "All we have are clothes, and Gray's rubik's cube." Aries choose that moment to leave the bathroom. I hurried in and quickly changed. Upon walking out, I noticed that the other half of team AMGD was halfway unpacked already.

"You guys pack light." I noted.

"Not much to pack." Aries said, just loud enough to make out.

"He's right, we didn't have much to begin with." Murphy said, his usual grin dropping slightly. then I realized something, Murphy and Aries seemed very comfortable around each other for two guy who'd only met yesterday. Unless they didn't.

"How long have you two known each other?" I asked. Murphy aimed a sad grin at me.

"For as long as either of us care to remember. We grew up in the same orphanage." There was an awkward silence.

"Oh." Darce and I said dumbly. Murphy laughed at our expressions.

"Why so glum? It's not like we remember much about our parents anyway."

"Well, we kinda went through the same thing." Darce said. I was confused until it came to me, and a renewed sadness washed through me.

"Our parents aren't dead, just...lost." I explained.

"Oh. Well, no need to dwell on that now; class begins in," He looked at the cloak, and froze, "FIVE MINUTES! Run!" We all immediately jumped off of our beds and did as we were told. Down the hall, teams RWBY and JNPR were also rushing out of their dorms.

"We're going to be late!" I heard Jaune say from behind us.

"Not helping, Jaune!" I shouted.

"Sorry!" He shouted back.

When we finally arrived at our first class, we stopped for breath.

"Hey, Murph." I said.

"What?"

"What are our classes? I never got a schedule."

"Oh, yea. I forgot. Here." He handed us our class schedules, "Most of our classes are together. First off is Grimm Studies with Professor Port." Darce groaned at this.

"What?" I asked.

"I've heard of Port. He's got a reputation as a rather...long winded speaker." As Darce spoke, small ripples of shadow seeped from the sleeves and collar of his hoodie.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at it. Darce looked down and saw it.

"I don't know! Get away from it!" He pushed me away from him and backed away like he expected to explode. The ripples drifted a small distance from him and took the form of an overweight elderly man with a monopoly man mustache. "That's...professor Port!" Darce exclaimed, then a wide grin spread across his face "Wait a minute… There's another professor I've heard of, professor Oobleck. He's tall, skinny, and has green hair and glasses, with a habit of moving and speaking very fast." _why is he talking about some other guy when someone just appeared out of-_, my thought was interrupted when more ripples appeared and formed into a guy matching Darce's description.

"I DID IT! MY SEMBLANCE!" Darce fistpumped the air and jumped around. I went over to the two men and tried to touch them. My hand went right through them.

"You can create illusions with your voice?"

"No, dearest brother of mine! I can tell STORIES!" Then I understood. Semblances were tied with personality, and there was nothing in this world that Darce loved more than reading or telling a story. Everything from anime and books to creepypasta and Fanfiction (he even tried his hand at writing some, thus confirming that he had no life or friends). His semblance allowed him to make people see what he wanted them to see. And like a story, these illusions couldn't do much in terms of physical damage, but they could sure act like it. I actually felt pretty stupid for not seeing it before.

"So, they're not real?" Murphy asked.

"Nope!" Darce looked even happier than he'd been these last two months. Which was pretty damn happy.

"Does it really require your voice?" I asked.

"No idea, let's see." He held out his hand and concentrated. Suddenly another Darce appeared in front of him. "Sweet!" Darce exclaimed and he high fived his clone. His hand passed through the illusion, but he didn't seem to care. The bell rung, breaking his concentration. The clone disappeared, and we went into the classroom to take our seats.

_**Darce:**_

I was going to have a lot of fun with my new semblance. My mind was teeming with ideas of the uses it had, but I would first have to learn its limits. Not now, but definitely sometime soon. My thoughts, however, were interrupted by professor Port clearing his throat.

"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night. Yes; the creatures of the night have many names, but I merely refer to them as _prey_! Ha-ha!" There was momentary silence as the older man waited for praise. Gray nudged me.

"You weren't kidding. Is this guy for real?" He asked, and I nodded. In the seat in front of us, Ruby was battling sleep.

"And you shall to," Our instructor continued, "upon graduating this prestigious academy." Gray and I stopped listening. I'd already heard this speech on the show back on earth, and Gray...well, he didn't have a particularly long attention span.

"So, illusions, huh? That's pretty cool." Gray said. I smiled.

"I know, right? I'm mostly just happy I finally discovered my semblance."

"Why are they called 'semblances' anyway?"

"Two months, and _now_ you ask?"

"Hey, I've been focused on more important things." He said defensively.

"Like playing with your Rubix-cube? Anyway, they're called that because they reflect, or have a _semblance_ to, your personality in some way."

"Really? I mean, I know about the whole personality thing, but that's it?"

"I'm pretty sure, yea."

"Ayyy-YEA!" Shouted a student on the opposite side of the room, raising his fist. After everyone just stared at him, he sat down embarrassed.

"Who the hell is he?"

"Someone who pays too much attention to professor Port." I said.

"How does one pay 'too much attention' in school?"

"Have you been listening at all to him?"

"No, why?"

"Just listen for a bit." And we did.

"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man-"

"Nope, nevermind. Can't do it." Gray said, he was already slid back in his chair and blinking rapidly so as not to close his eyes and sleep.

"When he clears his throat, that's our cue to listen, okay?"

"Alright, when will that be?"

"Any second now." A few moments passed, and we heard it.

"Ah-ha-hem!...In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high. Celebrated as...a hero!" He gave a bow, as if expecting us to applaud him. Though, he didn't look too disappointed when we didn't.

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Weiss angrily raised her hand.

"I do, sir!"

"Yes, because the Schnees have _never_ done _anything_ unhonorable!" Gray sneared.

"Quiet, Dog breath!" She shouted at him and turned back to the professor.

"Well then, let's find out! step forward, and face your opponent!" He gestured to a cage to his side. A growl came from it, and glowing red eyes could be seen from within. Weiss quickly ran off to get changed into her combat attire.

"What's eating her?" Gray asked.

"She believes she should've been the team leader instead of Ruby."

"Of course she does! Thats how the rich and snooty always think." Gray snarled out. I could tell that he didn't have anything against rich people, just Weiss. He has always had a severe dislike of people like her, who believed the world owed them everything, and whose family got their riches off of forced labor.

When Weiss returned, she went to the front of the class and brought her rapire forward. The growling from inside became louder, as if the Grimm inside could feel the coming battle.

"Go, Weiss!" Yang cheered.

"Fight well!" Blake added, waving a little flag.

"Yea, represent team RWBY!" Ruby yelled. Weiss glared at her.

"Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

"Oh, um…sorry."

"Where'd Blake get a team flag? I want a flag!" Gray asked and demanded.

"I think there's a student store or something." I replied.

"Alright! Let the match...Begin!" Professor Port shouted, using his axe to open the lock on the door of the cage. The door fell open, revealing a Boarbutusk that immediately charged at Weiss. She quickly spun and used her sword to redirect it. The Grimm ran a small distance before stopping and turning around to face her.

(_**A/N: For the sake of space, I'll ignore the professor's comments.**_)

"Hang in there Weiss!" Ruby cheered. Weiss charged at the Boarbutusk, but it hooked its tusk around her blade.

"Come on, Weiss! Show it who's boss!" Ruby continued. Weiss struggled with the beast for a bit before the Grimm yanked the sword out of her hands and it flew to the other side of the room. Weiss lost her balance and fell to the ground, looking up just fast enough to dodge out of the way of the monster's charge. She ran and grabbed her rapire from the ground.

"Weiss, go for its underbelly! there's no armor underneath-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss interrupted.

"She's your team leader! That's what she's supposed to do!" Gray cried out angrily. She huffed and turned back just in time to see the beast spinning at her. She hurriedly made two glyphs; one to block the creature, and another to launch her at its exposed underbelly and skewer it. The Grimm gave a shriek, and was silent. Weiss crouched next to it for a moment, panting from exhaustion.

"Bravo, bravo. It appears we are indeed in the presents of a true huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant! Class dismissed!" Surprisingly, the class was still for a moment, no one rushed to the door. But the moment passed and the room was hastily emptied.

_**Gray:**_

When lunch came around I ran to the front of the line. When I had my food, I looked for a table to sit at. I saw Darce sitting with teams RWBY and JNPR and thought '_meh, why not?_'. I took a seat next to Darce and said my hellos.

"So, Ruby and Jaune are team leaders now, huh? Who would've thought that when we were taking that walk, just two days ago, that I was walking beside, not one, but two future leaders! congrats, you guys!"

"Thanks! To be completely honest, I'm not sure what Ozpin was thinking when he made me leader, but I'll try and make the best of it!" said Jaune.

"Me too!" Ruby agreed. Yang hugged her sister, Blake was reading a book and not really paying attention, while Weiss seemed to be picking at her food, like she was mulling something over. Team JNPR were all high-fiving.

"Hey, guys, I hear we're going to have Combat Training together tomorrow." said Darce.

"Sounds fun! Can't wait to fight some of the other students!" Yang said excitedly.

"Who do you think would win in a fight, you or Gray? You two have similar fighting styles and weapons." He asked. As if the answer wasn't-

"Well, yea, but I think I pack a little more punch than him. No offence, but you're pretty scrawny." I gave an exaggerated gasp. Nobody calls me scrawny!

"Them's fightin' words. I could totally take you!" Now Yang looked offended.

"Oh, yea?"

"Yea!"

"Fine then! Tomorrow will be war!"

"Bring it!"

"On that note," Darce said, changing the subject, "I also hear that Prof. Goodwitch will be teaching that class." I nearly spat out my apple juice.

"Aw, hell! She's a teacher? I thought she was, like, Ozpin's assistant or something!"

"I think she's both." Darce clarified.

"Hmm. Anyway, Blake; Who do _you_ think would win in a fight, you or Darce? You two _also_ have a lot in common when it comes to fighting, don't you?" This caught Blake's attention long enough to pull her out of her book and respond.

"I don't know, I didn't see Darce fight enough to get a feel for his strength level." Darce looked slightly embarrassed at this.

"I prefer fighting at a distance to weaken defences. When I draw out Nihil, I go full out." Blake crooked an eyebrow at this.

"I'd like to see this." She said coolly.

"Friendly spar?"

"Sure." Blake shrugged and went back to her book.

Today was just full of tomorrows.

_**Hope you liked it! Don't forget to follow and fav. And, as always, REVIEW! Seriously, I cannot stress it enough.**_

_**See you next week!**_


	11. I fight and stuff

Ch. 6: I fight well

_**Gray:**_

Today was the day. I was going to show Yang and Cardin that Gray Forge was no one to fuck with. Earlier that day, I'd asked Darce if I could borrow some of his spare blue dust. He shrugged and handed it over. Afterword, I covertly watched Cardin open his locker (rocket propelled. I love this school!). Memorizing his combination, I waited for him to leave, and when he was gone, I opened his locker and placed the vial of blue dust on the bottom. I then attached two wires to it and placed the other ends on the door. Before I closed it, I placed a cookie on top of the vial. Act of revenge two of twelve: complete. Now to focus on the upcoming fight.

I changed from my uniform to my combat gear: a dragon scale shirt with comfortable jeans and metal shin guards, with Scorpion of course. I had decided on dragon scale because it was the strongest armor I could think of that didn't compromise mobility. Unlike my brother, who mostly focused on speed, I tried to be strong _and_ fast. I found that most people take one look at me and think '_that guy's way too skinny to be a threat, plus he's too far away.'_ That's usually the part where I punch them in the face. When they finally figured out I am more than a threat, they would focus primarily on me, and Darce would always capitalize on this with a well placed blow from Nihil.

I walked out onto the arena. Darce wouldn't be here to back me up if I made a mistake, but that was fine. He had told me the 'do's-and-don'ts' of fighting Yang over breakfast. Well,...mostly _don'ts_. _don't_ damage her hair, _don't_ let her semblance build up, etc. When I was in position, Yang walked out.

"My money's on the human." I heard Cardin say to one of his teammates. They laughed, of course they laughed. I'd only be a fanus for a few months, and I was already sick of people like _them_.

"You ready?" Yang asked.

"Yep, and do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Don't hold back, I want to know how strong I am." She smiled at this.

"Sure thing."

"Begin!" Prof. Goodwitch announced.

We both charged at each other. I blocked a right hook and sent her a jet-propelled uppercut in retaliation. This only made her stumble backwards a bit. She shook it off immediately and let loose a barrage of punches. I tried to dodge and block them, but a few got through. My arua took most of the damage, but it still hurt. I noticed my pain tolerance was a lot higher than what it was back on earth. She finished her assault with a blow to my torso, sending me back a small distance. I shrugged it off and smiled. Time to show her my Scorpion's tails.

I thrust my hands forward and launched the blades hidden inside my vambraces. They flew at her, but she dodged just in time. I used my aura to control the chains attached to the blades, bending them to point Yang's way. She wasn't quick enough this time and they wrapped around one of her legs. I yanked her off balance and she fell. She tried to get back up, but I dragged her across the floor and hitting her against walls and pillars before she could.

"I told you I'd mop the floor with you!" I taunted. She flashed me a glare and flipped onto her hands, quickly spinning around and coiling the chains around her legs. I didn't know what she hoped to accomplish with this until the chains grew taut and _I_ was the one being thrown about.

"And _I_ told _you_ that I pack more of a PUNCH!" She had wrapped the rest of the chain around herself and I was in range of her free foot, which she sent right into my jaw. She stopped spinning and I released her from my chains. We both quickly distanced ourselves from each other and took fighting poses.

"Hey! That was a kick, not a punch!" I complained.

"Whatever." She said dismissively. We charged again and we both hit the other in the face. We simultaneously fell onto the floor, exhausted. A buzzer sounded.

"Tie match." Called Prof. Goodwitch.

"Aww! You've gotta be kidding!" I yelled.

"Both of your auras went into the red at the same time. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that neither of you are fit for battle." We got up from the floor and smiled at each other.

"Hey, nice match!" Yang complimented me.

"Not so bad yourself." We got off the arena and went to our seats.

"Are there any volunteers for the next match? We have time for one more." Darce and Blake raised their hands, "Mr. Forge, Ms. Belladonna. You're up, then."

_**Darce:**_

Blake and I walked onto the arena. Blake's face was as blank as a mask, displaying no emotions. My hand rested on Nihil's handel, and I gripped it uneasily. This would be my first real fight. The Beowolves were too easy to count and I'd stayed in the background when fighting the Deathstalker.

There would be no hiding on an arena this small and flat, especially against an ex-thief like Blake. I briefly wondered if my enhanced reflexes would be enough to catch her ballistic chain-scythe, but scrapped that idea. It was too risky, I needed a more solid approach if I was going to win. I wouldn't be able to concentrate enough while inside combat to use my semblance, so that was another advantage taken away. She seemed to be studying me as much as I was her. We took fighting stances and waited. I'd just have to wing it.

"Begin!" our instructor shouted. Neither of us moved, waiting for the other to make the first attack. After a moment of stillness, we slowly drew our weapons. In a blur of movement, Blake flew at me and slashed at me with her large sword. I parried and we struggled for a moment trying to overpower the other. I pulled my trump card and electrified my blade, shocking her by extension. She let out a yelp and dropped her sword. Seeing that she was unarmed, I jumped backwards to give her some room to recover her weapon. She quickly took the opportunity and retrieved her sword. Our eyes locked and we began to walk in a slow circle.

"So, being a fanus, you must face a lot of discrimination. Yet you seem to not mind." Blake apparently wanted to make small talk.

"Nothing I can't handle." I assured her.

"It would be so easy to hide it, why don't you?"

"Hiding what I am would imply that I'm ashamed of it. Sure, I could wear a hat or something, but that would be like wearing a blindfold because some people don't like blue eyes." She almost looked angry at this.

"That's not really true-"

"Isn't it? So what if I have cat ears? I love these things! Take one look at them! They're adorable!" Now she looked slightly amused. "Whop, careful Blake, I saw your bow twitch." I said just quietly enough for her to hear. Her eyes widened a bit and she went pale.

"Get on with the fight already!" Cardin yelled.

"Silence in the peanut gallery, asshole!" I yelled back. When I turned my attention back to Blake, she'd already covered most of the distance between us. She was already too close to block with Nihil, but a plan came to me. I quickly dropped my sword and clapped my hands around the sides of her katana, ready to electrify it again. Seeing what I was about to do, she released her sword, slid onto the ground, grabbed my sword, continued to slide between my legs, came back up behind me, and held my own sword against my throat. I dropped Blake's weapon and raised my hands above my head. My plan had failed miserably.

"I forf-" I began.

"Who sent you?" Blake harshly whispered into my ear.

"What? No one!"

"Then how did you know?"

"I began to suspect when you were reading that night in the ballroom with that bow on and I thought I saw it move. My suspicions were just confirmed by your actions." She pressed the blade harder into my skin. I noted that she was, indeed, using the cutting edge.

"If I find out you're lying-"

"I'm not!" There was a moment of silence before she let go of Nihil. I let out a sigh of relief as she walked away.

"He forfeits." She told professor Goodwitch. She looked over at me for confirmation. I nodded.

"The winner is Blake Belladonna. This was quite a match, not much aura was lost at all." Our teacher commented. I walked back to my seat between Gray and Aries.

"Well, that was...boring. You guys barely even hit each other! At least I tied!"

"That's only because she held back, bro." I informed him.

"What!? She did not!"

"You think a huntress who's been training her whole life and is powered by her opponents kinetic energy would be knocked out by a five minute scuffle? She didn't even use the shotgun function of her gauntlets."

"Her aura went into the red!"

"Yes, because she was discreetly putting her aura down as you were flinging her around with your chains." He was dumbfounded.

"Why would she do that?!"

"Because she heard Cardin's comment and didn't want him getting the satisfaction of being right, but neither did she want to hand you the win." Aries mumbled out. Hearing Aries speak is weird, his voice sounds so quiet that you shouldn't be able to hear it, but somehow, no matter what other noises are blaring around you, you can always _just_ manage to hear him.

Gray was pissed now.

"How _dare_ she! I told her to not hold back!"

"Would you rather give Cardin another thing to laugh about?"

"I would rather have learned the limits of my strength! Besides, I not too worried about Cardin laughing for too long." a sly smile played across his face before he remembered that he was angry. _What was that?_ I decided to not press him.

_**Gray:**_

"Class dismissed." Prof. Goodwitch announced. We left to go to our dorms. As we passed the locker room, we heard a loud scream come from within.

"Someone in trouble!" Darce yelled, but I held him back. A lovely change, as he was usually holding _me_ back.

"It's Cardin." He immediately relaxed.

"Oh...Wait, how do you know?"

"He may or may not be dealing with electrical burns right now." understanding came into his eyes, and a smile to his face.

"I see."

Murphy and Aries had already gone ahead, so we walked and talked about nothing in particular. That is, until a thought occurred to me.

"Hey, Darce?

"What?"

"Where have I heard the name 'Glynda Goodwitch' before?" His smile grew.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd catch on. I'll give you a hint: We're not in Kansas anymore." My palm immediately hit my forehead.

"The good witch of the north! She was really named after that?"

"Technically, yes. 'The Wizard of Oz' doesn't exist in Remnant. Our teacher is based off of her. And Ruby is based off of little red riding hood. Yang is goldilocks, Weiss is Snow White, and Blake is Beauty and the Beast. Everyone here is based off of something!"

"And what does that make you? 'Puss in Sneakers'?"

"Ha-ha. Very funny."

"Wait, then who the hell is Jaune?

"Jaune Arc, Joan of arc." I face palmed again. _No wonder he screamed like a girl._ Then another thought struck me.

"And what about Murphy?" He hesitated for a bit.

"If I had to guess, Murphy's law."

"'Anything that can go wrong, will'? Great, _that_ just _fills_ me with confidence!"

"Well, we'll just have to talk to him, won't we?"

"And say what? 'Hey, we think your name means that you have a hidden agenda, mind telling us what it is?'!"

"Calm down, we'll think of something. In the mean time, I've got a favor to ask you." He changed the subject rather forcefully.

"What?"

"I've got no idea how my semblance works or its limitations. Mind helping me out?"

"Sure. Where and when?"

"A balcony I know is a good spot to train, and now if possible." I shrugged.

"Fine by me." He gestured me to follow him, and we left.


	12. I get a rematch

**_Hey, guys. New chapter. Enjoy._**

**_WARNING: mostly character development meant_********_to answer questions that no one has asked but are important anyway._**

Ch. 7: I get a rematch

_**Gray:**_

Darce brought me to the balcony he mentioned. It seemed like a good spot to train, open enough to move and a great view of the school.

"So," Darce began, "before we begin-" the door we just came through suddenly slammed open.

"GRAY! I have a problem with you!" Came Weiss' voice. I turned to see her seething with anger. Most of which was aimed toward me.

"What now, Ice Queen?"

"I found dog excrement on my bed!"

"Wasn't me." I said simply.

"Oh, don't give me that! You useless, intolerable, self-centered-" And that's when I stopped paying attention. I blankly stared at her, half lidded, waiting for her to finish, when I noticed something: She was slowly flickering in and out. Eventually, she ceased to be.

"What the hell...?" I said, confused. I looked around, then over to Darce to see him smiling, "...Really?"

"She was an illusion, yes."

"Why did "_she_" disappear?"

"I don't know. Maybe it only lasts for so long." We stood in silence for a moment, thinking to ourselves.

"No," I said finally , "The other illusions lasted longer. I think she disappeared because I stopped paying attention."

"What do you mean?"

"If your semblance is based off of stories, what power does a story have over you if you're not listening?" He nodded at this.

"Makes sense. What if you actually believe it's real?"

"Well, I know already, so you can't test that on me."

"Let's try it out before making assumptions. I'll make another Weiss, and you tell her she's not real."

"Alright."

Ripples of shadow poured out of Darce's sleeve and another Weiss appeared where the previous one had just stood, "You're not real." And, before I even finished the sentence, "she" was gone again.

"Why didn't I see any weird shadow thing the first time?"

"Because I made her before we got up here. Now, let's get an unsuspecting _volunteer_." We looked over the balcony and spotted a crowd of students passing through. More shadowy ripples came from his sleeve and formed into a large, tentacled grimm.

"Hey, Darce. I get that you're into that, but let's keep this PG. Okay?"

"You take the fun out of everything." Darce said in what I hoped was sarcasm. The grimm roared at the students, and they screamed. It reached out and grabbed one. The student struggled, and I saw Darce furrow his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I can feel their fear fueling my 'story'."

"Well, that's not creepy at all."

"No, I'm serious. I think that my illusions are powered by the emotions they inspire."

"The best stories are the ones that can make the recipient feel anything at the drop of a hat."

"Well, this was educational. Thanks bro." he stood up and dispelled the monster.

"No problem, just one more question."

"Shoot."

"When you make an illusion, it's made from shadows from under your hood. Why?"

"I've asked myself the same question, and I think I know. The shadows come from my under my clothes because it's the nearest source of darkness. As for the darkness itself, isn't it what inspires stories the most?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"When we were kids, we were terrified of the dark, right?"

"Right."

"Why?"

"Because we thought there were monsters hiding behind the shadows, probably why it's got such a bad rap."

"Though we never saw any monsters, or heard them."

"But we thought we did." I countered.

"And why was that?" He asked, then it hit me.

"Because we invented the monsters. The darkness fueled our imaginations."

"Bingo!"

"So you're not evil!"

"What?" Now he was confused.

"Well, you know all of those animes and books and video games where someone gets the power over darkness and it corrupts them? I thought this would be like that." I shrugged and Darce rolled his eyes. We turned and walked back off of the balcony.

_**Darce:**_

So, my stories are fueled by emotion. If I inspire enough, they can even physically affect things and people. I decided to try something out. Casually passing team CRDL's dorm room (conveniently close to the balcony I was exiting), I discreetly placed an illusion at the foot of the door. If my theory was correct, I could make "Trap" illusions. If the door opened, a monster would hopefully jump out and scream at who ever opened it.

I waited around for a little bit, then Cardin came walking through with that annoying swagger that I had grown to hate (He just got out of the medical ward for electrical burns on his hands, how the hell was he swaggering?!). Hiding myself in the shadows, I watched as Cardin opened his door and...entered without incident.

Damn.

So, no traps...what else? Well, I haven't tested out the vocal version of my semblance. I stalked through the halls and decided to pick a surprise volunteer (Read: victim) at random. A first year seemed to be wandering aimlessly, so I walked next to him and whispered.

"_Your greatest fear is right behind me._" He looked confused, then screamed as something appeared at my back. He quickly ran away, and I looked to see that my shadow had turned into a giant spider. I hurriedly dispelled it, spiders creep the hell out of me too.

Yes, today was educational indeed. I now knew that I can't lay traps, and that I can "personalize" my stories. Also, using my voice to cast illusions requires almost no concentration on my part, whereas using my mind to project them needed a lot. I smiled to myself as I walked back to my dorm.

As I entered I noticed that Gray hadn't gotten back yet. I thought he was heading straight here?

"You guys seen Gray?" I asked the others.

"Yea, he said he was going over to team RWBY's dorm to talk with Yang." Murphy said. Oh, shit; He was going to ask for a rematch! I quickly rushed over there to stop my brother from getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter. When I got there, I found Gray glaring at Yang angrily. Yang sighed at something he had said.

"Fine, you wanna fight, we'll fight. Let's go over to the gym." She said.

"Gray, what are you doing?! She's going to beat the living hell out of you!"

"Gee, glad to know you've got my back, _bro_." Gray said, his voice as angry as his glare. I sighed and walked with them to the gym, already knowing that I could never talk him out of a fight.

_**Gray:**_

When Darce was done making it abundantly clear who he thought was going to win, I put on my combat gear and enter the sparring arena again. I pointed at Yang accusingly.

"No holding back this time!"

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Oh, let your man-pride go."

"NO!" I shouted and charged her.

She was apparently prepared for this, as she easily knocked me to the side with a shotgun blast from her gauntlets. I quickly got up and tried to charge again, but was met with the same results. I lifted myself up again but decided to think through my next attack. I shot my Tails at her, but she was again prepared for this. Before they could wrap around her, she grabbed them just below the blades. I tried to pull her in but she was rooted to the spot. Then I was struck with a bolt of inspiration! Instead of pulling the chains, I gave them more slack. With the extra chains I used my aura to wrap them around her torso. She gave a small yelp as they tightened around her ribcage and lifted her up.

"Get over here!" I cried, paying homage to the famous Mortal Kombat character.

I threw her towards me, releasing her mid-throw. She was disoriented enough that she was flailing her arms instead of blocking the obvious follow-up attack I was going to send her way. When she reached me I delivered a jet propelled punch to her gut. She let out a groan as the wind was knocked out of her. I looked to the screen to see if I was winning yet. WHAT?! It said that Yang's aura was just barely in the yellow, what the hell! Unfortunately, I had become too distracted, and Yang got me square in the face and added pain to injury with another shotgun blast. After that things went blurry. We fought for maybe an hour before I went down. I think Darce rushed me to the medical ward at some point, because that's where I woke up with a killer headache. And stomachache, and pretty much an everything-ache. Darce was in a chair next to my bed, and I decided to ask him what the hell happened.

"You fought until your aura went into the red."

"She beat me?!"

"Yea. Close match, though."

"Really?"

"No. But she _is_ in the next room with some injuries as well. She says that that was the most fulfilling fight she's had in years and wants to know if you'll agree to be her sparring partner."

"That was the most fun I've had since I got here, hell yea! I didn't break anything, did I?"

"You're both fine, just bruises."

"I was shot in the face! With a shotgun powered by nature's wrath! how in the blood soaked hell am I fine?!"

"Aura is a wonderful thing, little bro."

"Really?"

"Yeap. Now get some rest, we've got school tomorrow."

"How much will I miss today?"

"None, you're sparring match ended a little over a half hour ago."

"Oh, I though I'd been out longer then that."

"Nope."

"Damn."

"The first day of school was yesterday, Gray, calm down." I sighed and laid my head back onto the pillow.

"Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight." He replied getting up and leaving. When I was alone, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

_**Darce:**_

When I left the medical ward, I decided it was time I finish some business of my own. I walked to team RWBY's dorm door and knocked. Ruby answered.

"Hmm? Oh, hey Darce."

"Hey, Ruby, is Blake here?"

"You're not going to ask her for a rematch too, are you?"

"No, but I do have a few things that we need to talk about."

"Okay. Hey, Blake, it's for you." Ruby opened to door wider and Blake appeared.

"Hey, what is it?"

"I just wanted to know why you held my own sword to my throat and threatened to end my life." Her eyes widened and she looked away.

"We should talk...elsewhere." She gave a sheepish look to her teammates. "I'll be right back."

"You threatened to kill him?" Weiss asked.

"Bye." Blake avoided the question and quickly left, grabbing my arm and dragging me away. We walked for a while in silence before Blake suddenly stopped.

"Here is good." She said.

"So, care to explain to me why you thought someone sent me? It's not like being a fanus is a crime, especially here in Beacon." I asked, pretending not to already know.

"I used to work with some...unsavory people. I left them and now I'm trying to make amends by being a huntress."

"You don't strike me as the kind of person to willingly associate with 'unsavory people'. Besides, it couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"Have you ever heard of the White Fang?" She asked. I remained silent for a moment before pretending to just now understand.

"Oh….Yes, I have. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I should be the one apologizing for threatening your life."

"It's cool. So, what kind of fanus are you." I asked to change the subject. In response, she looked around to make sure no one was watching, before removing her bow to reveal a pair of ears.

"Cat, like you." I gave her a wide grin.

"Cool, I knew you'd look better without the bow." She gave me an embarrassed look.

"I'd better get back to my team."

"Alright, I'll see you later. Oh, and Blake?"

"Hmm?"

"Come talk to me if you ever need to let your bow down, alright?" She gave me a small smile.

"I will, thank you."

"No problem." We parted and went to our separate dorms. Once there, I fist pumped: I'd gotten Blake's trust. No idea exactly how, but I did.

"Hey, Darce?" Murphy asked me.

"Hmm?"

"When Gray gets out of the medical ward tomorrow, I was thinking that we should do a team building exercise."

"Like what?"

"Well, originally it was going to be a sparring match, but since Gray's a little too banged up for that I was thinking maybe we could just hang out and get to know each other. It's been two days and you guys haven't been around much."

"Sounds great, tomorrow after school then. For now, I'm beat. Goodnight."

"'Night."

And with that, I crashed on my bed and went to sleep.

_**Next chapter will also contain a bit of development for the other half of team AMGD. Don't forget to follow, fav, and review!**_


	13. I talk with the team

_**Hey, Fanatics. Now, you all have probably heard by now that Monty Oum died two weeks ago. I didn't mention it in my previous two chapters because everyone else was already doing that, so I didn't think I needed to. But the truth is that he meant a lot to everyone in the RWBY or Red Vs. Blue fandoms. He will be missed dearly by thousands of people. May he rest in peace.**_

Ch. 8: I talk with the team

_**Darce:**_

The next morning, I got up early to go get my brother from the medical ward. When I got there, I found Gray already awake and waiting.

"Took you long enough."

"Good morning to you too, little bro. Why didn't you just check yourself out?"

"You can do that?"

"Yea."

"Damn. Oh well, let's just go." We left and immediately started heading to Grimm Studies. On our way, I told him about Murphy's "team building exercise". He didn't seem too eager about it.

"What are we going to say? It's not like we can just tell them the truth."

"Good point, but we can't avoid it either. We'll just have to play it by ear."

_That night, team AMGD's dorm:_

"So, who wants to start us off?" Murphy asked.

"I will. How did you and Aries first meet?" I replied.

He gave us his trademark smile and wagged his tail.

"I'd been in the orphanage for a few months when Aries arrived. Most of us thought he was mute. Until one day, I was gettn' wailed on by some bullies, he walks up and just starts whacking them with a big stick. When they ran away, he helps me up and tells me that the only reason he was alive was because a fanus huntsman had saved him from a pack of Grimm. His parents weren't so lucky. I never knew my parents, but I was told that they were killed by Grimm, too. Aries is a lot stronger than he looks, so he'd help me out whenever the other kids would attack me. We've been stuck together ever since. That answer your question?"

"Yea." I said meekly, I hadn't expected such a straightforward answer.

"Now it's my turn. You said something about your parents being lost?"

"We haven't seen them in months. We woke up one day and they were gone." Gray explained. "My turn: How exactly does your semblance work?"

"I can see fated events. In combat, I'm nearly untouchable and I never miss because I can see where they'll be before they get there. This has two drawbacks: The closer the person is to me emotionally, the less I see. Take Aries for example, if he wanted to kill me, I wouldn't see it coming. He's like a brother to me. The second drawback, that I've only recently discovered, is that you have to be from Remnant for it to work." He gave us meaningful glances. "I can't see your fates. They're outside of this world and therefore leave a gap where you stand. I can feel your..._extra_-ness, I guess."

"So you know?" Gray asked.

He nodded.

"How long have you been here?"

"Three months."

"So your parents are back where you came from?"

"Yes."

"I see."

"So, Aries, what's your semblance?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I can control wind."

"Is that how it seems that no matter how quiet you are, we can always hear you?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

"So, you're really going to ignore the fact that we're from another dimension?"

"Yeap!" Murphy said happily, "If you want to share, you're free to. Otherwise, it's none of our business. It's like I said, Aries is a great judge of character!"

"Alright, then. So, Murphy, we haven't seen much of your weapon, what is it?" Murphy's grin widened. He pulled out two pistols with knife blades on the top. He pressed a button on the side and the blades flipped to the hilt while the barrels of the guns went upwards. The final result had the both guns straightened out with long knives pointing opposite of the barrels.

"It's called 'Libra'. When they're like this, I can hold it in the middle while they spin really fast. I use the recoil of the gun part to spin it faster."

"Cool, what about you, Aries?" In response, he held out his hand. Suddenly, what looked like a mechanical grabber attached to a metal rope flashed out of his sleeve and grabbed a book from of one of our shelfs, then shot back into his shirt, leaving the book in his hand.

"it's name is Gleipnir. In it's normal state, it's about three feet long-"

"But it can stretch up to a hundred meters!" Murphy finished. "It has a grabber thingy on one end and a dagger on the other. Usually, Aries keeps it under his shirt like armor. He could take a direct hit, point blank, from an anti-tank rifle and shrug it off if he's got Gleipnir under there!"

"Have you tested this theory out?" I asked.

"Nope! Don't need to! Aries also has two times the normal amount of aura! So what isn't protected by his weapon is protected by his aura!"

"How the hell does he control it?"

"Just like how Gray controls his 'Tails'. With aura."

"So, any more questions?" Murphy asked.

"No, you?"

"Nope. Well, I guess it's time to hit the hay. 'Night guys." He got up and went to his bed. The rest of us quickly followed suit.

_**Gray, weeks later:**_

I watched with a pained expression as Jaune got his ass handed to him by Cardin. When Jaune was finally down for the count, I looked at their auras. Cardin didn't have a scratch on him.

Damn.

"Students," Goodwitch began, "As you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match." She then went on to tell Jaune for the billionth time to check his scroll every so often so he wouldn't get his ass so pummeled. Then something about a festival, I wasn't really paying attention.

I'd gotten no sleep yesterday, I was up all night studying for a test in Prof. Peach's botany class. It turned out to be worth it, I aced it no problem. Back on earth, I was kind of a freak about plants. Unfortunately, Remnant plants were completely different, only a few species were even similar to earth plants.

Just another reminder that I was a long way from home.

It was moments like these that I find myself missing the smallest things from earth. The TV shows and video games were one of the first, followed closely by my missing of my friends and family. Oh, and you would not believe what it's like to have a good song stuck in your head and not be able to listen to it because it doesn't exist. Especially if you can't remember a few of the lines. It was hell for a while, but you get used to it.

It helped to have a group of interesting friends and crazy plots to destroy life as we know it in the near future to distract you. A bell signaled the end of class, pulling me out of my thoughts.

_**lunch, cafeteria:**_

"So, there we were, in the middle of the night." Nora said ominously.

"It was day." Ren corrected.

"We were surrounded by Ursi." Nora ignored him.

"They were Beowolves."

"_Dozens of them!_"

"Two of them."

"But they were no match, and Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of lien selling Ursa-skin rugs!" She crossed her arms proudly. Ren sighed.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." He elaborated. We all looked at Jaune, he'd been picking at his food since he sat down. It was kind of depressing.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yea. Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little..._not_ okay." Ruby replied.

"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look." He gave us a painfully obvious fake smile and forced laugh. He even added a weak thumbs up.

Suddenly, we heard the genuine, and cruel, laughter of Cardin a small distance from us. He and his team were bullying a fanus only a table away from us. The sad look on her face was the last straw for me.

"That asshole." I growled to myself. Darce and I shared a glance and he nodded. We both got up and walked over to him.

"Hey, Cardin," Darce began.

"Wha-" His snarky remark was cut of as I picked him up and threw him across the room. He landed with a satisfying crash.

"_Please_ leave her alone." He finished with a wide grin on his face.

"And if I see you harassing anymore fanus, I'll break your fucking legs!" I added, cracking my knuckles for effect. Darce found this a lot more hilarious than I'd meant it to be. The entire lunchroom was silent, no one moved or spoke. They were all shocked that someone _actually_ stood up to him. Everyone except the rest of his team. Darce and I shot them challenging glares.

"Three versus two. It seems unfair, don't you think Gray?" Darce's grin and tone turned mocking.

"Yea, I might have to tie both arms behind my back to even the odds." I calmly replied. We stared them down for a few moments longer before they broke and ran away.

When we got back to our seats, everyone was smiling. Pyrrha gave me a shoulder punch that was way too strong.

"Good job, you guys." She congratulated us.

"It was time someone took him down a peg." Blake commented.

"He's been a jerk to everyone since day one." Jaune agreed. Murphy and Aries gave us approving gestures, but they were mostly focused on their studies.

"No one reports it when he picks on fanus, it must be hard." Yang added.

"Only when we're around people like Cardin. Weiss can get like that, too, but she's really improved these last few weeks." Darce said. Weiss gave us a bitter look before going back to doing her nails.

"Bro, she legitimately thought we were spies from the White Fang for like two weeks, just because we were fanus that liked to hang around people that are forced to hang around her."

"We're not _forced_ to hang-" Ruby started.

"If there were no teams, would you still want to be friends with her?" I asked. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, then the bell rang.

"WellTimeForHistory, Let'sGo!" Ruby quickly said and ran off.

"Saved by the bell." Ren commented.

_**Darce, History:**_

We were all watching Dr. Oobleck zip across his classroom with varying levels of success. From the scene in the lunchroom, and our instructor's lecture, I knew we'd reached the "Jaunedice" episode. Cardin was absent due to injury. Wait, OH SHIT! If Cardin isn't here, then he won't pick on Jaune and wake him up, meaning that he a Cardin won't be assigned the extra reading and Pyrrha won't try and help Jaune. If that doesn't happen, then Jaune won't reveal-

My thoughts were interrupted when Cardin walked through the door and took a seat behind Jaune, who was still sleeping.

"Ah, mister Winchester. I see that you've decided to join us! Excelent! We were just talking about the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Fanus war." He continued with his lecture, and I was happy to see the scene play out like it was supposed to. Cardin woke Jaune up, Oobleck took the opportunity to chose him for a question. He, of course, got it wrong, so Oobleck chose Cardin next.

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." He said with a sneer.

"So, you're saying that fanus are smarter than humans?" I asked mockingly.

"No-"

"That's what I heard." Gray agreed.

"That's not-"

"Wow, Cardin, I didn't know you held fauns in such high-esteem." Jaune joined in.

"Enough," Oobleck interrupted, "Darce, no doubt _you_ have the answer."

"Of course. The reason General Lagune's men lost was because he tried to ambush the fanus at night, apparently no one ever told him that most fanus have near perfect sight in the dark due to our night vision and enhanced senses."

"Correct!" Our teacher exclaimed.

"Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." Blake aimed a glance at an angry Cardin, who immediately clenched his fists and stood up.

"Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." Oobleck said firmly, then zoomed up to Jaune, who'd been laughing, "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." Jaune replied with a groan.

"Now! Moving on!" Our instructor continued and zoomed back to his board. A grin formed on my lips.

Everything was in place.

**_Hope you liked that. Don't forget to follow, fav, and review. See you next week!_**


	14. Something wrong

Ch. 9: Something wrong

_**Darce:**_

The next few weeks went as planned. Jaune was blackmailed by Cardin for a while, then we took a field trip to Forever Falls and Cardin was attacked by an Ursa Major. Jaune saved him so Cardin stopped picking on him. During those weeks, we'd had gotten closer to teams RWBY and JNPR, and our own teammates, of course. Today, Gray and I decided to accompany team RWBY on a trip into the city. We were finally at 'The Stray' episode, and I was looking forward to meeting Sun. When we got to the docks, everything was as it was in the episode. Well, except for my brother and me.

"Remind me again why we're spending our friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang asked.

"Ug, they smell like fish!" Ruby complained.

"Mmm, I know. Isn't it wonderful?" I said, inhaling deeply through my nose. I'd gotten used to my new-found love of fish, after all the months I've been part-cat.

"I've heard that students from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative from Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom." Weiss said with way too much enthusiasm.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." Blake translated.

"You can't prove that!" Weiss defended.

"Wow." Ruby said, looking toward a dust shop with police tape all over it. We all walked over there out of curiosity. "What happened here?" She asked a detective holding a notepad.

"Robbery. Second dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." He walked away to talk with his partner.

"That's terrible." Yang said sadly.

"They left all the money again." Commented one of the detectives, recapturing our attention.

"It just doesn't make a lick of sense!" Said the other. "Who needs that much dust?"

"I don't know. An army?"

"You thinkn' the White Fang?"

"Yea, I'm thinkn' we don't get paid enough!"

"Hmm, the White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates." Weiss said disgustedly.

"What's your problem?" Blake said testily.

"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane!"

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided fanus."

"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"

"Then they're _very_ misguided! Either way, it doesn't explain why they'd rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."

"Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy we ran into a few months ago, maybe it was him." Ruby offered.

"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those fanus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

"And Schnees are so much better." Gray muttered.

"What?!" Weiss shouted.

I covered his mouth and answered for him.

"He said 'I agree, they're a real bother'." She narrowed her eyes, but let it drop. This was about the time Sun should be running off of one of the ships, with voices shouting for someone to stop him. But nothing came. No monkey fanus, no shouts.

"Hey, shouldn't the students be arriving right about now?" I asked.

"Yea, lets go." Yang said.

Gray saw my confused expression, and started to look worried. Something was wrong, we could feel it. Then it hit me, _we'd replaced them!_ In exchange for a place in the story, we had to take someone else's! I searched my knowledge of the show to see what consequences this would bring to find...very few.

Team SSSN was largely absent during most of both Vol. 1 and 2, and when they were there they were mostly comic relief. The only one to actually play a role was Sun, and since I knew what he'd do I could replace him. I just hoped I could pull it off. Weiss wouldn't have a date to the dance next semester, but I think she'll manage.

Wait, if I'm taking Sun's place, would Gray take Neptune's? I laughed to myself at the thought of Weiss asking him to the dance. Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

Firstly, Weiss and Blake had to get into a fight. In the show, Weiss kept insulting Sun which caused her and Blake to restart their argument that would last into the night. A plan quickly formed in my head.

_**Gray:**_

_This'll be fun._ I thought to myself. Darce had whispered his plan to me when no one was looking, and said it was important.

"Hey, guys! I think I saw a student sneak off that way!" I shouted, pointing an illusion Darce had made running away. I noticed he had a monkey's tail. He kind of looked like a street rat.

"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss cried, sprinting towards the fake student. We followed closely, unsure why she was so intent on this one student. We turned a corner and Weiss bumped into something. We all halted to help her up.

"He got away!" Weiss griped.

"Uhhh...Weiss." Yang pointed to the person Weiss bumped into. She looked to see a creepily smiling ginger girl. Weiss flinched and quickly got up.

"Salutations!" The girl greeted.

"Um, hello." Ruby said back.

"Are you...okay?" Yang asked concerned by the fact that she had yet to get up.

"I'm wonderful, thank you for asking!"

"...Do you want to...get up?" Yang asked cautiously. The ginger girl seemed to think for a moment.

"Yes." She said cheerily, then flipped onto her hands like a martial artist. We all quickly took a wide step back. "My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby." Ruby greeted again. We all took turns introducing ourselves, except for Yang.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head-" Blake hit her in the side. "Oh, I'm Yang!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You already said that." Weiss noted. Penny again thought for a moment.

"So I did!" She said, still so cheery. It was really starting to get creepy.

"Well, sorry for running into you." Weiss apologized and we all started to leave.

"Take care, friend!" Ruby said as a way of goodbye, and we left.

"She was...weird…" Yang commented.

"Yea, I know." I agreed.

"Now where did that fanus go?"

"What did you call me?" Penny asked, suddenly in front of us. We all jumped back.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't think you heard me!" Yang apologized.

"No, not you…" She walked over to Ruby, "_You._"

"Me? I-um...I don't know…umm"

"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?"

"Umm.." Ruby looked over to us, and we made all manner of 'No' motions, "Y-yea, sure! Why not!" She finally said. We fell over in exasperation. Penny laughed and raised her arms in victory

"Sensational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

"So," Yang tried to defuse the tension, "What are you doing in Vale?"

"I'm here to fight in the tournament!"

"Wait, _you're_ fighting in the tournament?" Weiss interjected.

"I'm combat ready!" Penny said with a salute.

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

"Says the girl wearing a dress." Blake muttered.

"It's a combat skirt!" Weiss defended. Ruby zoomed next to her.

"Yea!" They highfived.

"Wait, if you're here for the tournament, does that mean that you know that monkey tailed rapskallion?"

"The who?" Penny asked, understandably confused. Weiss held up a poorly drawn picture depicting a scowling monkey fanus.

"The filthy looking fanus that passed by here!"

"Why do you keep saying that?" Blake asked angrily.

"Hmm?" Weiss looked over to her.

"Stop calling him a rapskallion, stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person! You haven't even met him!"

"People with nothing to hide don't go sneaking around! He's clearly done something!"

"Why, because he's a fanus? Maybe he didn't want people like _you_ spying on him!"

"He's probably an outlaw. Give him time, I'm sure he'll join up with those other fanus in the White Fang."

Weiss and Blake continued to fight, and Darce had to hold me back to stop me from cold cocking her in her spoiled little face.

"Uhh, I think we should probably go." Yang suggested.

"Good idea." Darce said, still straining to hold me still. If I truly wanted to, I could easily break free. I decided, however, to play it safe.

"Where are we going?" Penny asked, reminding us that she was still there.

_**Darce, later that night:**_

I was doing a lap around Beacon, stopping to take a break at the statue in the school's entrance. I'd been there for two minutes when Blake came charging out, running as if for dear life.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down. What's wrong?" I asked. She stopped in front of me.

"I just...I...I need to get away."

"I know a hotel that doesn't ask questions. How much lien do you have?"

"Wha-...um, none. I left it in my dorm."

"Alright, then. I'll take you there and get you a room. That okay?"

"Yea, that's fine."

"Well then, let's go."

We grabbed an airship into town and quickly made our way to a hotel I'd found just in case. As I promised, they didn't ask any questions and took the cash up front. I payed for two nights, the whole weekend.

"Why two?" She asked when we were safely in the room.

"That's all I could afford if you want food." I answered honestly.

"Oh."

"So, wanna tell me why you're avoiding your team?"

"I.. let it slip that I was in the White Fang. Weiss…"

"I understand. Do you need to stay longer?"

"No, two days should do."

_**Sunday:**_

The two days were up. Nothing interesting happened, and Blake was silent for most of it. We were walking down some random street, talking about the recent string of robberies.

"I still don't think the White Fang is behind it, they've never needed that much dust before."

"Well, the only way to prove that they didn't do it is to go to a place where they would be if they did do it and not find them there!" I said, stealing Sun's line.

"I have no idea where that would be."

"I heard about a huge shipment of dust coming in from Atlas."

"How huge?"

"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

_**Gray, back at Beacon:**_

Darce texted me late friday night telling me he had some things to do and wouldn't be back until sunday night. Then he sent me an obviously coded message to explain.

"You know that guy we were suppose to meet? He's a real CHARACTER, he must've forgot all about it. He NEVER SHOWED UP. He's not exactly a ROLE model, that empty skull of his NEEDS FILLED. Anyway, I'm in town now. Nihil and Aut needed cleaning, so I'M WORKING ON IT."

I facepalmed at Darce's awful excuse for a code. If you only looked at the capitalized words, it said:

"CHARACTER NEVER SHOWED UP. ROLE NEEDS FILLED. I'M WORKING ON IT."

I had sent him a text back to tell him that I understood:

"Well, WORK is piling up here, so get back QUICKLY. I'M going to get BORED real fast AND HUNGRY."

Now, I was walking through the streets helping Ruby and Yang look for Blake. Turns out she was not only a fanus, but a former member of the White Fang. The second they told me, I knew that, wherever Darce was, it was within a five foot radius of her. I told them that he was in town when they asked where he was.

It was at this moment that I wondered what he was doing. Who cares if the story progresses the same as in the not-anime? So what if we don't know what'll happen next? That's life! Darce, from the moment we got here, had made it his mission to "Protect the story". But why? I filed these questions away for when we found them. Focusing back at the problem at hand, I returned to shouting.

"Blake!" "Blake!" "Blake, where are you?!" We all called out. Ruby turned on Weiss, who had yet to utter a peep.

"Weiss, you're not helping!"

"You know who might be able to help? The police." We all gave her looks that told her _exactly_ what we thought of that idea. "It was just a suggestion."

"Yea, a bad one." Ruby said angrily.

"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions."

"I think when you hear it you all will realize _I_ was right."

"Oh, would you just **shut up**!" I snapped, "She's been your teammate for months now! Has she ever once done anything to deserve this kind of suspicion?!"

"She defended a group of homicidally insane scum!"

"Because, as we now know, she was once a member!"

"And why are _you_ defending _her_?!"

"Because she's my friend!"

"Or you're working with her!"

"Oh my god, not **this** again! I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of _any_ fanus organization! That includes the White Fang!"

"Not yet-"

"THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!"

Metallic whirring was heard from my arms as brass knuckles wrapped around my fists. I was fully prepared to knock her out right here, right now.

"Guys!" Yang got between us, and pushed us away from each other, "Chill!"

"Actually, the weather is quite warm!" Said a cheery voice from behind us. We all jumped and Ruby let out a small scream.

"Penny, where did you come from?!"

"Hey guys," Penny said, ignoring the question, "What are you up to?"

"We're looking for our friend Blake."Yang responded.

"Oooh, you mean the fanus girl!" we were silent for a moment.

"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby asked suspiciously.

"Uh, the cat ears." She said as if it were obvious.

"What cat ears? She wears a...bow." We all realized how simple her disguise was, and another moment of silence passed.

"She does like tuna a lot." Ruby meekly commented.

At that moment, my scroll buzzed. I pulled it out to see a text from Darce.

"If you stick with Penny, I'll see you tonight. Later."

Great. Just...great.

_**Don't forget to follow, fav, and review. Seriously, the review box thingy is right below this.**_


	15. I die for a little bit

Ch. 10: I die for a little bit

_**Darce:**_

It was late. Blake was staking out the docking port the dust shipment was supposed to take place in, while I'd left for a bit to grab food. Upon my return, I saw Blake lying prone on the ground, staring boredly at the inactive port.

"I come bearing apples!" I said with a grin to lighten the mood. She looked back at me with a suspicious look.

"You didn't steal that, did you?"

"No, why? Should I have?" I asked, confused.

"No, I was just joking. Fanus stereotypes and all that."

"Oh, okay." I murmured.

We fell into a momentary silence, when suddenly a bullhead flew over us and hovered by a clear spot to drop goons off. Blake gasped when she saw the White Fang markings on their backs.

"Is that them?" I asked, already knowing.

"Yes...it's _them_." She looked sad.

"You knew, deep down, didn't you?" I said, sympatheticly.

"Yes."

"Hey, what's the hold up?!" Came a loud voice from inside the aircraft, "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try and pick up the pace!?" A man emerged from the vehicle.

"And _that's_ Roman Torchwick. Ruby, Gray, and I met him a few months ago." I said to her.

"Yea, I remember Ruby telling me about that." Blake got up and drew her sword.

"Where are you going?"

"Going to get answers: the White Fang would never work with a human, _especially_ one like that!"

She hopped down and stealthily hid behind a crate.

_**Gray:**_

I'd been walking with Penny and Ruby all day, and still we couldn't find Blake _or_ Darce. If it weren't for Penny being so..._Penny_, it would've been fine. But **no** _of course_ I had to follow the crazy one!

It was getting dark, I think we were about to go home when suddenly we heard a really loud boom come from somewhere behind us. We turned and saw a large plume of smoke in the distance.

"Oh, no." Ruby and I said, already knowing the cause of the explosion.

We immediately rushed to help.

_What mess is he making me rush into this time?_ I asked myself. Of course, I would come in guns blazing no matter what it was. And I knew he'd do the same, probably more, if our positions were reversed. I just hoped it was that Torchwick guy: the quicker we took him out, the faster I could live in peace.

_**Darce:**_

I watched Blake dodge Roman's explosive rounds and decided _now_ would be a good time to help. Taking aim with Gemino, I shot his douchey hat off of his head.

"HEY, ASSHAT!" I cried out and jumped, he turned to look at me just as my feet connected with his face, "REMEMBER ME?!"

"Not _you_ again!" He growled and quickly got up, "Look what you did to my hat! That cost a lot, kid!"

"Like you bought it." I said accusingly.

"Regardless." He muttered as White Fang henchmen jumped out of aircrafts and surrounded me, "You're not the brightest bit of trash in the litter, are you, kid?"

"Bright?" I asked, dark clouds lazily drifting out of the sleeves and collar of my jacket, "No, I've never been called 'bright'."

The goons charged at me with guns and swords. I defeated the first few with basic hand-to-hand combat, augmented by my shadows and blue dust infused gloves. Then I drew out Nihil and quickly cut them down. Roman dodged a thug as he flew passed him, screaming, and shot at me with his cane. I grabbed a goon from off the ground and threw him at the explosive. When it worked, Blake jumped in front of me.

"He's mine!" Blake shouted to me and rushed at Roman.

They traded blows, and I was reminded of how it went down in the show. I waited for Blake to be knocked away, and I rushed in with a plan. I used my illusions to make it look like there were three copies of me, each equipped with two swords. Despite having to dodge or block them all, he managed still be winning. When she found an opening, Blake charged in with a sneak attack and hit him back several meters. When he got up, he fired at a large shipping crate above us. _Shit, I forgot about that!_ I tried to jump out of the way, but I tripped and fell. I shut my eyes and waited, but nothing happened.

"Hey...bro...You should really...pick your battles better!" Said a strained voice above me.

I opened my eyes to see Gray holding the crate up with a lot of effort. He shot me a wide grin and threw the crate at Roman.

_**Gray:**_

I'd arrived just in time. I was able to get there faster due to the jets on my weapons, and it saved my brother's life.

"Not _you __**too**_!" Torchwick said, obviously frustrated at our arrival. He pointed his cane at us, "Now the only one left is-"

"Hey!" Ruby said from a nearby roof, and twirled her scythe menacingly.

"And there she is." He said, exasperated. Penny walked up to Ruby and started to say something. While Ruby was distracted, Torchwick took aim and fired at her. I tried to help, but yet _again_, Darce held me back.

"Just watch." He said with a grin.

I heard an overly evil laugh come from Torchwick, and I turned back to see a _very_ angry Penny. Something came out of her back, unfolded, and turned into like _**50 swords**_ _just hovering behind her!_

"Holy shit!" I yelled and took cover.

The next few minutes, for me, was an absolute trip. I saw her thrash everything they threw at her, using a _giant lazer_ when not using her floating swords. She annihilated four or five 'bullheads' in as many seconds and an uncountable amount of White Fang members. When she was done, a lone bullhead flew away, presumably carrying Roman Torchwick. Suddenly, it turned around a fired a single shot.

"THAT'S FOR MY HAT, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Came a loud voice.

I was confused until I turned back to Darce to ask him what he meant. Then I saw it. Darce was looking at a bloody hole in the middle of his chest. He had a confused look on his face as if he couldn't quite comprehend what had happened. Then he collapsed.

"DARCE!" I quickly picked him up, "WE NEED HE-"

"Hey, hey, no need to scream." Said a voice behind me. I turned to see a man cloaked in shadow, yet he seemed to glow at the same time. He had a deep, gravelly voice that seemed to come from everywhere.

"W-who are you?" I said, the shock still clenching my throat.

"What, little old me? Not important. What's important is the fact that he's been here all of three months, and he already went and got himself killed. That isn't any fun."

"What-" I was interrupted when he lifted a hand and a black energy shot out of him and into Darce.

"A lil' somethin' from me to him. Oh, but that wouldn't be too fair, would it?" The man said, and a beam went to me, only white. Suddenly I felt like I could take on armies, I felt amazing! Darce coughed and stirred. Something came out of his chest, a bullet. I picked it up and stuffed it into my pocket. I turn back to the man, but he was gone.

"Did we win?" Darce asked weakly. I quickly put him down.

"Yea, bro. Torchwick got away, though."

"That's fine. Why are you crying?" I quickly wiped my face.

"I got a lot of dirt in my eyes."

"Oh. Well, let's go talk to the others." He seemed too tired to question me further.

We walked over to Ruby, Blake, and Penny. All the while my thoughts were going at a million miles per second. Who was that? Why did he help us? _How_ did he help us? I decided to tell Darce about it later. When we got to the others, I saw Ruby talk into her scroll.

"She's calling the police." Blake said, Then she saw the blood, "Darce, are you okay?!" She immediately rushed over to him.

"I'm fine, just a scratch." Darce said, and showed her that there was no wound, not even a scar.

"He was shot with this." I said, holding up the bullet. Blake took and examined it.

"It's an aura-piercing round! That can't be right."

"Why not?"

"Because it would take-" She seemed to realize something and her eyes widened, "A lot of dust!"

"Don't bullets already use dust?"

"This is different, look." She ushered us closer and pointed at the engravings surrounding it, "They're tricky to make, and require a lot of dust. It's usually not worth the trouble or resources, but they can pierce right through aura and prevent aura from healing the wound. They're _very_ illegal. So how did _you_ survive a shot to the chest?"

"I don't know. I remember getting shot, falling unconscious, then waking up right as rain. If a bit sore, especially my spine for some reason."

"Well I'm glad friend Darce is alright!" Penny said happily. I was now creeped out _and_ terrified of her, so I kept my distance.

_**Darce:**_

Yang and Weiss arrived a few minutes after the police. We were sitting on boxes, waiting patiently.

"About time you guys showed up." Gray muttered. Well, mostly patient. Ruby quickly got up.

"Look, Weiss, it's not what you think she explained the whole thing you see she doesn't actually wear a bow she has kitty ears and they're actually kinda cute-" Weiss resolutely ignored her and kept walking. She walk up to Blake and held her gaze.

"Weiss," Blake started, "I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with them-"

"Stop." Weiss interrupted, "Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you?" Silence.

"Twelve hours. That means that I've had twelve hours to think about this. And, in that twelve hours, I've decided: I don't care."

"You don't care?"

"You said that you're not one of them anymore, right?"

"No, I haven't been since I-" Weiss held up a hand to silence her.

"I don't want to hear it. I just want to know that the next time something _this_ big comes up, you'll come to your teammates. And not…" She shot me a glare, and I gave her a shit-eating smirk in return, "Someone else."

"Of course." Blake said.

"Aww, you wound me." I said with mock offence. Ruby, however, was smiling like a mad girl.

"Yea! Team RWBY is back together" We all huddled in, as if to hug. Weiss glared at me again.

"I still don't entirely trust you!" She said, pointing at me.

"That's fine, princess. Just know that if you hurt one of my friends like that again, _**I will make y**__**ou beg for death**_." I dropped my smile and used my semblance to turn my eyes solid black and add a demonic duel tone to my voice. Then I returned back to normal and smiled again, "K?"

Everyone except Gray had taken a large step back, completely freaked out by the rapid (if faked) mood changes. Weiss nodded slowly, and Gray chuckled.

"Oh, come on, guys! Take a joke!" I laughed. Everyone seemed to relax a bit and laughed with me.

"Hey, where's Penny?" Ruby asked. We looked around, but she was gone.


End file.

RWBY, Adventure, Friendship