First actual attempt at a Fancfic, please only constructive criticism, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum
It all started with a simple Grimm hunt in an overran town on the Atlesian border. It was supposed to be a easy sweep and clear mission, but it turned out to be a much more definitive moment for Casey Blaze, and Drake Silver. One that changed them forever…
They were on a bullhead class airship coming from Atlas Academy and heading to their drop point. Casey Blaze was a woman wearing a white overcoat, black leggings, a black crop top tank top who was also equipped with a Dark Red Greatsword, a Desert Eagle, and a spear tipped chain.
Next to her was Drake Silver, a fairly tall man standing at 6'4 with his black hooded robes and facemask. He had a Black Crossbow, 8 inch trench knife, several throwing knives, and to top it off, he was a Cougar Faunus with larger canines and claws were most would have nails.
The other members of their team were in a separate bullhead going to the opposite side of the town, since in the aftermath of a White Fang attack, the Grimm had moved in and basically made a new nest.
Casey, being the team leader, knew all the specific details before the mission and relayed them to the team before they got to the town. When they did get there, it looked as if the apocalypse had happened, and the Grimm had rooted themselves and multiplied so fast that this sweep and clear looked five times harder than it should have been in the first place.
Casey and Drake dropped in and began their assault on the Grimm. "How many do you think are in here?!" Casey loudly asked herself.
"I have no clue… but my opinion? Make an estimate and expect more." Drake replied.
He had almost no problem with ammo because of his crossbow allowing him to retrieve his ammo as necessary, so Casey and Drake continued fighting Grimm varying from Creeps to Beowolves and even Ursai of all things.
Numerous amounts of these these had breached another border town in Atlas and General Ironwood thought it would be a good idea to send a student team to solve the problem.
"Where the fuck do these things keep coming from?!" Casey said, cleaving a Beowulf in half with her great sword. Drake, her partner wasn't too far away doing the same, but remains quiet while doing so.
One of her other teammates, Julian, called to them over their own comm-line, "Casey where are you? We have a problem!" He sounded very worried. Casey let out a sigh and responded. "What is it now, more Grimm?
"No I lost contact with Juliana!" Juliana was Julian's twin sister. Casey shot a creep in the face with RedHawk (Her Deagle) before responding. "Well, where did you last see her?"
"I have no clue, one minute she was right here beside me, the next she's gone!"
"Damn it... Alright you look for her, Drake and I will come and follow after we finish up here." Casey returned with concern for her teammates, being clearly evident in her voice. "Drake let's finish this up and find Juliana!"
"Alright give me a minute" He answered back with a monotonous voice. "We don't have a minute, hurry your ass up!"
Drake then fired his crossbow and killed the last Beowulf in the area and walks over to Casey. "Alright, where is she?" He asked her. "How am I supposed to know if Julian didn't?"
"Well then let's get started. I'll look for Julian and make sure he isn't in too much trouble." Drake walked away, disappearing into the shadows using his semblance. "And you're just going to leave me here alone with no help?"
Drake's voice came in over the comm. "You'll be fine…"
"Oh you'll be fine…" Casey mocked.
Casey walked to where she and Drake left Juliana and Julian in the town square.
"Hey! Juliana where you at!?" She called out, but all she got was an empty breeze. "Where could they be?" Casey continued to walk around the town reaching the market.
"This is getting really creepy and I don't like it…" Casey then hailed Drake on the comms, "Drake did you find them?" And he responded quickly. "No, I haven't. There's almost no trace of them… Hold on, I found Julian's mace… I don't like this. Keep your guard up"
Casey knew if Drake said it was bad she should trust him, his gut instinct never failed the team before. "Alright, make sure you stay safe."
"Roger…" Drake replied.
Not too long after Casey gets another com hail from Drake. "Casey…. I found them." His usually calm voice was replaced with a shaky breath. "Drake where are you?" Casey was very worried never sounded like that. "You don't want to see this…" She now knew something was wrong now. He had never tried hiding anything from her.
"Drake tell me where you are! Right! Now!"
Drake didn't answer, but moments later she got directions on her scroll. "Alright then…" Casey followed the directions and eventually saw Drake sitting cross legged in front of an alleyway. Casey was unable to see his face, but she knew him far too well to know that this was really bad.
"Where are they?" She knew the worst had happened, but she needed to see it for herself. Drake didn't speak, he only points behind him and remained sitting where he was.
Casey walked down the alleyway and it suddenly got much colder and the sounds of the breeze disappeared. She walked farther and turned the corner and saw Julian and Juliana, but they were frozen solid like a statue. There was ice all over the place and they had the expressions of pure terror and agony solidified onto their faces.
Casey was standing there, staring at what were her teammates and friends, now just lifeless frozen statues of ice. She fell to her knees, covering her mouth with tears flowing from her eyes. "Oh mein Gott…" Her voice barely above a whisper and muffled by her hand. Casey remained there for several minutes crying for her lost teammates.
After a while she felt a hand on her shoulder and turns to see Drake standing over her with his mask off. "Come on, stand up. We need to go, I've already called medevac..." she stood up with shaky legs but made her way to extraction.
After a fifteen minute walk, they both got to their bullhead and waited for it to take them back to Atlas. Before they took off, Casey saw the medevac ship fly over them to retrieve Julian and Juliana. "This is my fault…"
"This is not your fault. Do not ever tell yourself that this is your fault." Drake couldn't stand seeing her beat herself up.
"But it is my fault! If I hadn't been so dismissive of the situation and actually hurried to get to them then I could have saved them!" She was now having a breakdown in her seat.
"You don't know that." Drake was getting tired of hearing Casey blame herself for something out of her hands. "I was the person who found them like that, and do you think I don't feel bad about it?"
"I know you're trying to help me, but I was their leader and now, they, like the people in that town, are dead..." Her voice was cracking and she was sniffling.
Drake let out a defeated sigh and remained quiet. Casey fell asleep not too long after as it was getting late and they had been fighting all day and the stress from it exhausted her.
When they got back to Atlas Academy Drake picked up Casey's sleeping form and took her to their dorm for some rest in the bed instead of the cold bullhead and decided to sleep as well before reporting to Ironwood on their mission, that and he didn't want to hear his headmaster try to consolidate him and Casey for the loss of half their team.
After a while, Ironwood called them to his office for a debrief and Drake went to wake up Casey. "Hey, get up we have to go see Ironwood."
"Fuck off let me sleep…" Casey said back, obviously not caring much about needing to go talk to the headmaster.
"Oh I don't think so" Drake had a sinister plot to get her out of bed but decided to see if she'll get up before doing it. "Drake I don't want to get up, let me sleep." That was all the confirmation that Drake needed before he pulled the mattress out from Casey.
"WHAT THE FUCK DRAKE!?" She yelled at the Assassin. "Well if you got up I wouldn't have done that."
"Why do I have to get up exactly?!." Casey was still a bit confused, but that comes with just waking up. Drake simply let out a long sigh before telling her, "We have to go talk to Ironwood. It's important!"
"Oh, right…" She now looked visibly depressed. "Are you going to be alright?" Drake was still worried about Casey's well-being.
"Yes, Drake I'll be fine…. It'll take some time but I will be fine" Casey was putting on her overcoat as it had slipped off in her sleep.
Drake nodded at her and waited at the door. After about a minute Casey found all her stuff and was following Drake out and closed it. "So what do you suppose we tell him, it's not like we can go there and tell him what he already knows."
"I say we only tell him what he really wants to hear and say the mission was a success" Drake didn't necessarily bear I'll will to the headmaster and general but enjoyed poking fun at his position in the military.
"One of these days I'm going to laugh at your shitty joke and never forgive myself..."
"But the day that happens I'll have a recording of it." Drake's voice had returned to its usual monotone persona.
"Oh shut up before I break your jaw…" Casey threatened him, and Drake knew she was serious.
They both eventually made it to Ironwood's office not too long after their talk. He was sitting at his desk going over military and school reports alike.
"Ah Ms. Blaze, Mr. Silver, please take a seat"
Casey and Drake do as told and sit down in the strangely comfortable military issue chairs. "So I am aware of what happened during you last mission, and I will say that you have my condolences for the loss of your teammates."
"I knew he was going to say that..." Drake had his own little victory in his mind before turning his attention back to Ironwood.
"Now back to the actual important parts, regarding your deceased friends..." Ironwood looked over the mission specific written by the medevac team.
"...The report says that they were found and I quote, 'Frozen like a statue'. Would you care to elaborate further on that?" Ironwood was confused as to what they meant because of the lazy report writing from med team.
Drake went to speak but Casey beat him to it. "They were frozen and encased in ice when we found them..."
Ironwood thought to himself for a moment before speaking again. "Do you know who, or what did this to them?"
"No sir, we got there far too late to determine whether or not there was one or multiple people or even if it was a person who did it." Casey shivered slightly when she pictured that sight all over again and had to resist the tears stinging at her eyes.
"Hmmm, this is a troublesome matter but I'll make sure that if the culprit can be found he will be. But now on to others matters… It has come to my attention that you are going to transfer to Beacon Academy in Vale for your second year, and possibly the rest of your time as a student."
Drake decided to speak up. "Yes we are transferring as exchange students to Beacon Academy."
"May I ask why you wish to go there?" Ironwood looked at the two a bit curiously, but Casey answered before Drake got the chance. "I've always wanted to see more of the world and I feel that Beacon is my best chance at doing so…"
Ironwood seemed to understand her reasons but if he had any objections he didn't voice them. "Mr. Silver, what's your reason?"
"Well I feel that it's the best way to put my skills to the test and improved myself, but until the events that happened recently, I never really settled on going, but now that I have... I just need to get away from all of this."
"Well I have no problem with you two going but are you sure you want to go without your whole team?"
"Yes sir." Casey and Drake said this at the same time. "Well alright then, you can both transfer when the year is over but you will remain here until then."
She still felt bad that she couldn't let her whole team go with her to Vale but she can't let their deaths hold her back from successfully doing what she wants to do. She will continue to mourn their deaths for a while but she will eventually move on.
"Alright that's fair…" Drake agreed with his decision, but didn't really care for the time that they got to go. "I wish I could go sooner, but I guess if I have to I can stand the cold a little longer." Casey joked.
"Casey, shut up..." Drake said to her condescendingly. "Come on you know you wanna go as badly as I do."
"Yes I do but knowing you, you're going to be complaining about it the whole time until we get there." Drake knew that Casey was going to do exactly that.
"Well I hope you both have a pleasant rest of the day, and once again I am sorry for your loss." Ironwood bumped in.
"Hmm… well then, if there's nothing else we need to discuss, I guess we'll leave." And with that, Casey began to walk back to their dorm with Drake following close behind.
Well there it is leave a comment if you liked it and if you have any questions or if there were things that didn't make sense tell me and I'll explain it in more detail.