Hello everyone! This is the first chapter of 'Hollow Fragment'. I am continuing Dragon441's story, and the first 3 chapters will be the ones he wrote. After that, it will be my writing, following the general plot he laid out. This is the sequel to 'Tragic Assumptions', which can be found on Dragon441's profile.
As for these first few chapters, small changes will be made from the original for grammatical reasons, as well as anything I think needs changing, but it will all be fairly minor. Enjoy!
[Edit] They're not dead, don't abandon me!
It has come to my attention in various private messages and such that the first several chapters turn off a lot of readers because of the whole Weiss, Blake, and Yang are dead thing (among other issues, which also aren't the case as it turns out). I've been advised to tell you (despite spoilers) that they're alive.
I wouldn't have agreed to this, but if you stick with it, you find out in only a few chapters anyways. The same shipping will continue from 'Tragic Assumptions'. Sorry again for spoiling that, but I've gotten some complaints that with them dead, the story isn't interesting. I'd much rather spoil 1 part that comes up very early, rather than have nobody read far enough to even see it.
(Chapter 1)
Hunter Raines grumbled to himself. He had been walking through the forest for hours now, and it seemed like he was on a streak of not finding anything. Half way through his thoughts, Hunter tripped over a large tree root and hit his knee on a rock.
"Damnit." He grit his teeth and stood back up, at this point he was searching since he had nothing else to do, rather than in hopes of actually finding anything. Slowly reaching the point at which he would give up the hunt, his thoughts turned towards home. 'Heh, home. Like you could call it a home.' Hunter laughed as he thought of his pitiful little shack that he and his mother lived in. It barely had enough room for one person to live there, never mind two.
But regardless of the size of his house, he knew that he had it better than most people. Ever since the great war on grimm five years ago, white fang had risen up and become extremely daring. Since then, there are daily killings, robbing's, kidnappings, and what ever else those sick maniacs could think of. It got to the point where there are fewer humans left than they ever could have imagined.
All the kingdoms had fallen, the White Fang didn't take power though, they just left the cities in ruin. Making no effort to rebuild or rally their people, the organization simply had its soldiers walk through the streets and take what they want. They did whatever they wanted unopposed, like Remnants largest street game in a globally sized neighborhood. Everyone was too scared to fight them, only a few humans were left, and if they were found in any major city, they didn't last long.
That was the entire reason that he was out here. There was a rumor that had been going round for years about a legendary warrior. Someone who could topple armies, the same person that led the war against grimm, had lived in this forest. So now here he was, in a stupid, cold, wet...
"Gah!" He yelled as he tripped again, muttering as he stood up. "Stupid forest." Suddenly, Hunter could hear a rustling noise behind him. He whirled around and waved his gun at the moving bush that was only a few feet away. A flash of black shot past his vision as he investigated closer. 'Was that, a beowolf?'
Since the war, sightings of any grimm were extremely rare, but Hunter also knew that even still, a few species could be found out in the middle of nowhere. 'Kind of like where I am right now.' After brief consideration, he decided that it would be best to try and avoid the beasts, after all he wasn't the best of fighters.
Hunter turned and ran in the opposite direction of the rustling bush, only to find that the sounds were following him. No matter how far he ran, it always seemed to be right behind him. Before long, he came across a house. It looked quite rotted , but even still felt quaint, homey even.
Frantic to avoid the group of beowolfs chasing him, Hunter ran directly into the house and closed the door. He took a few minutes to regain his breath before lifting from his slumped position. As he turned around, he had almost wish he hadn't. Behind him was a hidden figure with a blade pressed against his throat.
"Who are you and what do you want? You have about ten seconds to explain, then I kill you and toss you back out there." He was surprised to find that his attacker was female, but he did not have any plans on dying today.
"HunterRainesI'mlookingforsomeone!" The girl sighed and removed the blade before throwing him into the other room by his shirt.
"Say that again but slower."
"My name is Hunter Raines, and I'm in the forest because I'm looking for someone." She looked at him oddly.
"I'm the only one that lives in this forest."
"Then are you the one that I am looking for?" She threw her hands into the air.
"That depends, who are you looking for? I suggest that you answer wisely." He looked around nervously.
"Uhhh, Ruby Ro-?" Before the words could even finish leaving his mouth, the girl had grabbed him by the throat and had a knife pointed into his side.
"Not again!" he whimpered.
"Where do you know that name?" she hissed in his ear. By this point, Hunter was losing his mind in fear. He had been here for less than two minutes, and he had already been threatened with his life twice. Who knows how crazy this girl was. Seeing that he was hesitating, the girl began to dig the tip of the blade into his skin, causing him to yelp in pain.
"OK OK! It's from the legend of the grimm war. They say that she is one of the best recorded fighters ever." She sighed and dropped him, appearing to accept his answer as truth.
"You shouldn't believe all the legends you hear, some of them are no more than just that." At that moment, there was the sound of running feet in the back of the house. Moments later, a huge beowolf came toppling into the room, teeth arranged neatly as weapons of death. Hunter gasped in surprise and backed up into the wall. The girl however, didn't react at all. "Good job on bringing him in."
"Why are you petting that beowolf?!" She sighed exasperated, and turned towards him.
"This isn't a beowolf moron, this is Scruff." That's it, she was officially psycho. Hunter tried to get up nonchalantly, but the girl pointed what he assumed to be a fire arm at him. She pulled off her hood to reveal a mess of red and black hair. "Well, you wanted me, so what do you want?"
Hunter nearly fell back farther into the ground in surprise.
"Wait, wait, you're Ruby Rose?" She growled in annoyance.
"No, I asked you how you knew that name so forcefully because I'm her number one fan; what are you looking for, ID? Now what the hell do you want?" He sighed in defeat and reorganized his thoughts.
'Well, what do I have to lose now? Other than maybe my life...' Hunter stood up again. "My original plan was to ask if you could help Vale with White Fang so that people can live normally again. But I don't know how well that's going to work..."
"Good so you get it, now get out." Ruby turned away and went to walk away, but he reached up and grabbed her shoulder.
"Wait, what I was going to say was that just asking won't work, but maybe I can convince you." Ruby's eyes flashed in rage and she grabbed his hand before twisting it harshly.
"Don't you ever touch me." He yelped in pain and fell to his knees. After what seemed like an eternity she let him go. "Now get out, before I gouge your eyes out." She went to walk away again, but Hunter called out to her.
"Please, just hear me out. Please. There's someone I need to protect, and I need your help."
"I said no-"
"Please, just a few minutes." Ruby sighed, his stubbornness was annoyingly similar to that of Yang's.
"Fine, you have five minutes, convince me before it's over and I will help." He let out a breath of relief.
"Thank you, thank you. Well what I want to do is have you help us take down White F-"
"No." He gaped.
"But what about all the people who are suffering and dying?" Ruby shrugged.
"Not my problem, I live just fine."
"What about honor, what about protecting people?" Her eyes became lost in a moment of anguish, but returned to their red state quickly. Hunter could swear they were almost silver for a moment, but was gone as quickly as it came.
"My honor died along with the rest of me years ago. And I've learned since then that the real world isn't like a fairy tale." His interest piqued, but he had to convince her, so it could wait.
"That's why people like me, people like you, are supposed to fight to protect those who can't protect themselves." She cringed at the statement that was so similar to one that she had once said herself. In a last ditch effort, she closed her heart once again and hardened her eyes.
"I said no." He smiled inwardly, he had her.
"You also said I have five minutes." She grit her teeth, his arguing reminded her of Blake. Which was breaking down her defenses. "Listen, I don't know what happened to you all those years ago. I don't know what seems to have broken your spirit, but I still have reasons to fight. I want to protect the ones I love. I took a pretty big risk coming here, and I'm not going to let it go to waste because you want to sit around in this shack until the day you die."
Ruby sat silently. That last spiel was similar to one that Weiss had once given her on their travels, and the thought of Weiss completely broke her last wall.
"Get out." He was taken a back, she was still going to say no?
"What?"
"I said get out, if we're going, I need to change. And I swear to god if you try to peek, I'll rip your throat out and put it back in backwards." He squeaked and rushed out the door. But he was also relieved that she had agreed. Hunter sighed and slid down the outside wall of the building.
'Well done Hunter, could have gone better, but could have gone a hell of a lot worse.'
Inside Ruby grumbled to herself.
"Some times I swear I'm too damn nice. How did I manage to be convinced by that idiot?" Moments later she emerged from the small house carrying a small bag and wearing a red and black combat skirt, followed by a completely black cape. Ruby also had a large mass of red and black steel attached to her hip. Hunter had no idea what it was, but assumed it was a weapon. Seeing that he wasn't moving yet, Ruby sighed and punched him in the stomach.
"OW!" She began walking with Scruff at her heels.
"Hurry up before I change my mind at kill you anyways." He scowled as he jogged to catch up to her.
"Are you going to be like this the whole way?"
"Are you going to piss me off the whole way?" He sighed again and admitted his defeat. It was going to be a long trip, likely filled with a lot of pain.
Well there you go, Dragon441 everybody! Hopefully I'll be posting my chapters shortly after these preexisting ones are up!
