Author's Note: Team DRGN is in the same year as team RWBY. This story will start out in the beginning of Episode 5 of RWBY, The First Step Pt. 2 (The episode where they're thrown into the Emerald Forest to determine their teams)
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Diana wasn't really sure what to expect for how they were going to determine teams, but she definitely didn't expect being launched into the Emerald Forest with no idea of how to land safely without braking every bone in her body. "Use your own landing strategy" Ozpin said. Yeah, all Diana had was two revolvers and a knife, and her disguise semblance (allows her to disguise herself or other people as anyone or anything) wan't going to be very helpful. She was kind of hoping that she could at least get a parachute or something, but nope. All she got were words of disappointment. She could use her aura as a shield and just crash down into the forest, but she doubted her aura was strong enough for that. 'Come on Diana, think! What to do, what to-' Before she could even finish her thought process, the panel under her sprung open, and she went flying into the forest. 'OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP' was all that cycled through Diana's head as she plummeted down into the forest. Unable to think of a good plan of landing, she resorted to her aura shield plan. She concentrated as hard as she could, channeling her aura into a shield that hopefully wouldn't shatter and end up with her splat on the ground. A light, golden colored barrier started to form around her as she concentrated, and before she knew it, she crashed into the forest. -
Surprisingly, the aura shield idea wasn't too bad. She wasn't hurt too badly, just a few minor scratches and one wound on her left arm, but she was exhausted. She used more aura than ever making that shield, and all she wanted to do was take a nap. Unfortunately, she'd probably end up being eaten by an Ursa or something if she slept in the middle of the forest. She decided to rest there for a few minutes before advancing towards this so called temple. She took a look at her surroundings, trying to see if anyone was near, but all she could see were the maze of trees surrounding her, and but she did hear a lot of random noises. There were some people screaming as they plummeted into the forest, occasional sound of the wind rustling the trees and bushes, and she could've sworn she saw a spear fly by, and then heard a male voice off in the distance yell "Thank you!" and another female voice shout back "Sorry!"
Finally rested up, Diana advanced through the forest, going North just like Ozpin told them to. She was cautious as she did so, making sure no grimm were in sight and made sure she didn't scare away any potential partners. As she trudged through the forest, she gripped on one of her revolvers (called Viper Shots) with her left hand and her knife (named Venom Slicer) with her right, just in case a grimm sneaked up on her. She finally found a clearing in the Emerald Forest, and she saw a much taller male standing there, looking quite confused. He had short, silver white hair and light skin. He wore a light grey coat and black pants with dirt spots here and there. On his back was a massive silver sword. It looked quite simple, but Diana was certain it could transform into a gun or something, as most Hunter weapons did. She was about to go talk to him, but then she heard a growling noise behind her. 'Aw crap.'
The girl smirked, and replied "Yep, haven't done any grimm killing for a while." She turned herself towards Roland before introducing herself. "I'm Diana Draken, a snake faunus. I can see your tail, so you're obviously a wolf faunus."
"Aye, I take it that your faunus trait is your tongue? I saw you hissing at those beasts before I joined the fight."
"Correct, I also have small fangs. Useful for scaring away humans who annoy me simply because I'm a faunus."
"Heh, I feel like a lot of faunuses would like to have something like that. Something to keep people from harassing them and such. My name's Roland Kelus. I suppose that we're partners now, right?"
"Yeah, we better start heading to the temple now before we get into any more trouble. I'm Diana Draken."
"Right, so we're heading North now... uh, which direction's North?"
Diana giggled a little, before answering him, "C'mon, this way." and she strolled back into the Emerald Forest with Roland following her. They chatted about random things as they walked down through the forest, such as their weapons and what they expected to do in Beacon. Their conversation was interrupted when they heard someone... whooping? They looked up, and saw a Nevermore fighting... other Nevermores? "What the heck's going on up there?" Roland asked, stunned by the aerial battle. "And who's up there?"
"And... is someone on one of the Nevermores... shooting rockets?"
-
"THIS IS AMAZING!" A short haired, brunette bear faunus shouted as she launched another rocket at the attacking grimm. Her rocket struck the wing of a Nevermore, and it went crashing down into the forest. The brunette wore a black vest, with several grenades strapped to it. She had a red shirt under her vest, and wore brown cargo shorts. She looked like a generic tomboyish teenager; minus the grenades and rocket launcher.
"Gwen, you are having way too much fun..." Her cloaked partner, Nicolai, sighed, sitting on the neck of the Nevermore they were riding on. Their bird veered right to avoid a barrage of feathers being shot at them by their enemies. Nicolai started shouting at their Nevermore in a strange language that Gwen has never heard anyone else use, only Nicolai when he summoned their ride, and the grimm accelerated in speed, nearly making Gwen lose her balance. They shot through the clouds faster than ever, and Gwen fired on last rocket at the enemies now far behind them. She must have been extremely lucky, because her rocket blew up on two Nevermores really close to each other, and they both went falling down into the Emerald Forest.
"Hey Nico, you can talk to grimm, right?" Gwen asked, now that their enemies were far behind them.
"Yeah, that's how I'm talking to this Nevermore we're riding."
"Then how come you didn't try talking to the Nevermore we fought?"
"Well, wild grimm are quite difficult to communicate with. Their first action when they see someone is normally kill them so I don't have time to talk to them. These Nevermores attacked us before I could even say a word, so we had no choice to fight them. Grimm I summon obey me right away since I made them."
"Eh, I guess so. Would've been cool to see you like command a whole army of Nevermores or something."
Nicolai chuckled a little before replying, "I'd be lying if I told you I hadn't tried to make an army of grimm. Summoning too many makes me extremely tired, and cooperating with just two wild grimm is difficult for me."
"Hey, mind if I ask you another question?"
"Well, we're going to be here for a while. Minus as well talk about something."
"What's up with your clothes? You don't show a single part of your skin anywhere!" Gwen was right, Nicolai's outfit covered his entire body, literally. His hooded black cloak covered a majority of his body, he had gloves, pants, and basically wore plain black everything. He looked somewhat like a Sith from Star Wars. He had a grimm mask on, which represented the face of a Nevermore. It was somewhat fitting that he wore the mask of a grimm bird, since his semblance included grimm communication, and he was a bird faunus. An eagle faunus, to be exact. He had the eyes of an eagle, giving him keener eye sight than almost anyone, besides another faunus with similar traits.
"I'll tell you about it with the rest of our team, whoever they are, because I don't feel like telling the story twice. I'm certain that our new team mates will ask me the same question."
"Fine, whatever." Gwen sighed, her bear ears drooping. Her rocket launcher, which she named "Boom-Boom", converted into a grenade launcher, and she hung it over her shoulder. The two of them observed the forest below them, trying to find the temple with the relics.
"Found it!" Nicolai called out, pointing at some small ruins. It was difficult for Gwen to see, but Nicolai could easily see it thanks to his eagle eyes. He could even see the relics, which were several pairs of chess pieces. He shouted at the Nevermore again, and it dove straight towards the ruins at full speed.
The Nevermore glided over the ruins, and Gwen noticed Nicolai grabbing her wrist. "Uh, what are you doing."
"We have to jump down. I see two people down there, and I don't want to risk them shooting down Deathwing. That's what I named the Nevermore by the way."
"But how's jumping down any better? Either way we're falling straight to the ground."
"Well, then I have one less dead grimm. Now don't look down and don't scream too loud." And Nicolai jumped off Deathwing, pulling Gwen with her. Gwen shut her eyes and screamed as loud as Nicolai told her not to, unsure of what his plan was. Nicolai simply closed his eyes, and some sort of darkness cloud started forming under them. The cloud reached onto the ground, and instead of Gwen and Nicolai going Splat! on the ground, the cloud cushioned them surprisingly well, leaving them both unharmed. Gwen opened her eyes, and realized that Nicolai created the cloud to soften their fall. The cloud was a soft as a really, really comfortable bed, so comfortable that Gwen nearly just fell asleep right there. The cloud dissolved seconds after they landed, and both of them regained their balance. Gwen looked up and noticed the two people Nicolai talked about were staring at them in awe. One of them was a blonde girl about the same height as her. She wore two gauntlets and wore a golden shirt with her emblem on it. The other one was a black haired girl wearing a black bow on her head, holding some sort of katana. Nicolai noticed the two of them, and studied both of their appearances. Gwen wasn't sure why, but she felt like Nicolai flinched at the sight of the black haired girl.
"That was quite an entrance you two made there." The blonde commented, still staring at them.
Gwen laughed a little and replied "Yeah, it's not often I jump off of Nevermores and land in pillows made of darkness. But it was pretty fun, right Nicolai?"
He was silent for a few seconds, as if dozing off, before responding, "Uh, right. Lets... just take the relic and go." Nicolai rushed over to the chess pieces and quickly grabbed a random piece (which happened to be a black queen). He was already heading back into the forest before Gwen stopped him.
"Hey, we didn't even introduce ourselves yet! I'm Gwen Helen, a bear faunus." She introduced to the two females. "Sorry about my partner, he's pretty anti-social, but a really cool guys once you get to know him!"
"Heh, it's okay." The blonde replied. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and this is Blake Belladonna." She pointed to the black haired girl, and Blake simply waved a little at them.
"Nicolai... Nexon." Was all that Nicolai said before disappearing into the forest.
"Hey! Nico, wait!" Gwen shouted after him. She was about to chase him, until she heard another girl voice screaming from above "HEADS UP!"
Everyone looked to the sky, and saw Ruby falling from the sky. Another person went flying in the sky, this Jaune, and he crashed into the Ruby, making both of them end up in a tree. Then, there was a crashing noise in the forest, and an Ursa came crashing through the trees. They heard someone yell "YEE-HAW!" from behind the Ursa, and Nicolai saw that there was a girl riding on it. Well, torturing it would probably fit better, but still, she was riding on the Ursa. She was followed by a guy in Asian clothing, Lie Ren. A pick explosion hit the Ursa in the back of the head, and it went limp onto the ground. "Aw, it's broken." Nora cried.
"Nora, please, don't ever do that again." Ren sighed as he jumped over the Ursa's body.
There was more crashing noises in the forest, and Gwen saw Nicolai running back towards them followed by a redhead girl... followed by a Deathstalker. 'My god, what the heck's going on?' Gwen thought to herself.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Yang suddenly screamed out. "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"
"One..." Gwen counted.
"WHY WON'T IT DIE?!" a male voice yelled from the forest. A Boarbatusk came running through the forest, towards the group of hunters and huntresses with Roland riding on it. The wolf faunus was constantly stabbing it with his massive silver sword, but seemed to be unable to kill. Diana came out of the forest, chasing the Boarbatusk and her partner. She pointed her revolver at the grimm and fired three bullets at it. Each bullet struck the beast, and Roland finally managed to finish it off with his blade.
"Nope, apparently we can't calm down for more than two seconds." Gwen sighed. She looked over to the Deathstalker that was chasing her partner and the redhead. Nicolai was constricting the giant scorpion with several ropes made from his strange darkness powers, but he seemed to have difficulty containing it. The girl was shooting at it with her gun, though she seemed to be doing little damage to it. Nicolai was also shouting at it in the strange language he used to talk to Deathwing, but the Deathstalker seemed to not be paying any attention to him.
"Um... Yang?" The youngest girl of the group pointed up, and everyone looked up to see a white haired girl hanging onto a Deathstalker.
"How could you leave me?!" Weiss shouted, struggling to maintain her grip on the Deathstalker.
"I said jump!" Ruby replied.
"She's gonna fall." Blake said.
"She'll be fine!" Ruby assured them.
"She's falling." Ren sighed.
Jaune saw Weiss falling, and tried to jump from the tree and save her and... sort of succeeded. Well, at least he caught her. Thought they didn't really have a way down. Luckily, Nicolai seemed to have noticed them as he and Pyrrha were running away from the grimm. He summoned another darkness cloud like the one that cushioned his and Gwen's fall under the two people falling from the sky, thought Weiss still ended up landing on Jaune. A couple seconds after their landing, the Deathstalker sent Pyrrha and Nicolai flying towards the group of hunters and huntresses.
"Great, the gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang exclaimed.
"I can't feel my body... I'm not sure I still have a body..." Nicolai moaned.
"Oh, cheer up Nico, you'll be fine!"
"Please stop calling me that..."
"Hey guys... those grimm are coming to kill us..." Diana pointed at the approaching Deathstalker and Nevermore.
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby charged at the Deathstalker, boosting herself with her weapon... only to scratch it a little and end up running away from it.
"Well, she tried." Roland sighed, watching Ruby run back towards them. Yang rushed forward to help her sister, but the Nevermore fired its feathers at Ruby. Her cape got stuck in one of the feathers, and she was unable to move. The barrage of feathers blocked Yang's path towards her sister, and Yang was unable to reach Ruby. The grimm scorpion came up behind Ruby as she struggled to free herself, and was ready to strike her with its tail. It almost did to, if it wasn't for Weiss. Weiss created a huge block of ice, and froze the Deathstalker's tail in it. Nicolai took this opportunity to try and communicate with it again. He rushed forward to it, and once again talked to it in his strange language. Everyone stared at him, confused by whatever he was saying. The Deathstalker seemed to have calmed down a little, surprising everyone, even Nicolai... before Nicolai got too close and was struck by its huge claws. Nicolai went flying back towards the group, even more injured. "Ugh... I give up..."
"Come on dude, hang in there." Roland picked up Nicolai's body and flung him over his shoulder. "So... anyone got a plan on what to do?"
"Look, our objective is to get an artifact and make it back to the cliffs." Ruby said to them. "There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby, Jaune, and Diana walked over to the relics and they each picked one up. Ruby picked up a gold horse, Jaune got the gold rook, and Diana chose the black queen.
"It's time we left." Ren said to the others.
"Right, lets go." Ruby commanded them. Ruby ran back to the cliffs, with everyone following her. As they ran through the ruins, Diana paused, and looked at the forest behind them, sensing a presence. Well, lots of presences, actually.
"Beowolves!" She shouted to the rest of them. "And lots of them!" A large pack of Beowolves crept out from the shadows of the trees, slowly advancing towards them. A REALLY big pack, like at least five times the amount of them (which is 60), there were even some Ursas among them. All the beasts varied in sizes, but they were all still deadly. "You guys go on ahead, I'll hold them back!" Diana got in her fighting stance, holding both of her revolvers.
"You alone? No way I'm doing that." Roland unsheathed Silver Reaver and changed it into rifle mode and stood next to her.
"Roland... you can put me down, I'm good." Roland placed Nicolai back on his feet, and several red patterns on Nicolai's cloak started to glow. "It's time I released a few friends." Blobs of darkness formed near Nicolai's feet, and they shaped into themselves into several grimm creatures. In total, Nicolai summoned an Ursa, two Beowolves, a Deathstalker, and a King Taijitu. The others stared at Nicolai in shock, except for Nora and Gwen, who had amazed expressions on their faces.
"You can summon grimm?!" Blake asked, staring at his creations. "Why didn't you use them earlier?"
"I was trying to talk to the Deathstalker earlier, and it takes time to summon them. The whole time I was on Roland's shoulders I was concentrating."
"I guess I'm staying here too then." Gwen's Boom-Boom converted into a rocket launcher, and she pointed it at the incoming Beowolves. "I'd be a pretty crappy partner, leaving my partner to have all the fun."
Diana turned to the rest and said to them "You guys keep going. Trust me, us four can handle this."
Ruby hesitated, but then nodded at her and continued running. The others followed her onto the bridge. "Well" Diana faced her comrades as the pack of Beowolves and Ursas advanced towards them. "You guys ready for some fun?"
Gwen was way ahead of her. She rapid fire several rockets at the grimm, blowing up several of the monsters, and Nicolai commanded his grimm in the strange language he used. The grimm on their side roared into the air, as if shouting a battle cry, before charging at their enemies. Roland joined them, riding on the Ursa, firing at the group of grimm with his rifle. Diana hopped onto the King Taijitu as it charged at the incoming grimm. Nicolai stayed back and launched bombs made of shadows at the enemies. Nicolai's grimm lunged at the wild Beowolves, slashing and biting them as they clashed.
Roland hopped off the Ursa and changed his weapon to sword mode as he sliced and smashed through the hordes of monsters. Diana fired at them with her dual pistols as she rode on the giant snake. Each shot hit her mark, and a Beowolf fell at almost all of her gun shots.
Gwen fired a large variety of rockets at one of the larger Ursas. Each explosion had a different effect: one would burst into flames, another blinded the grimm with light, and another froze several monsters with ice. Though they had fewer grimm than the other team, Nicolai's grimm were more powerful. Not a single one of them went down as they fought against the enemy grimm, easily dodging and blocking most of their attacks. The Deathstalker Pyyrha and Nicolai fought earlier appeared, but it ignored the four of them and chased down the larger group of hunters.
Nicolai continued casting his spells from afar, still injured from his earlier grimm encounter. Now all of his clothing had red patterns glowing brightly on them: his gloves, pants, shoes, even his mask. The Beowolves and Ursas they fought stood no chance against them. Roland's whole body was now glowing bright silver as he sliced his was through the monsters. Several of them would bite and slash his body, but they couldn't harm him a single bit. His attacks were much stronger than they were at the start of the battle, and he was actually smiling throughout the battle. Diana got out her Venom Slicer and started slashing and stabbing any enemy that encountered her, while firing one of her Viper Shots with her left hand at the enemies. She wasn't sure how, but she was easily able to differentiate between the wild grimm and Nicolai's grimm. Nicolai's grimm gave off a friendly aura of sort, she just somehow knew that they weren't her enemies. Roland and Gwen could feel it too, they knew who were the enemies and who were their allies, despite their similar appearances.
Diana stabbed her knife into the skull of the last Ursa, and the battle was over. The friendly grimm let out one last roar before all melting and fading back into the darkness. Nicolai fell onto the ground, exhausted by all the aura he just used. The others rushed over to him to make sure he was okay. "Oi! You okay there?" Roland asked as he knelt down next to Nicolai.
"Yeah... just tired..." Nicolai gasped out, and his eyes slowly closed, before he fell asleep.
"Roland, take Nicolai again, he really needs some rest." Diana instructed Roland. He nodded and picked Nicolai's body up and flung him over his shoulder once more.
"Looks like the others are done with their monsters too." Gwen pointed over at the eight other hunters and huntresses, where they saw a dead Deathstalker and a decapitated Nevermore.
"Damn, did Ruby do that?" Roland asked, staring at the Nevermore's headless body on the cliff. Ruby stood next to it, holding her massive scythe.
-
"Diana Draken, Gwen Helen, Roland Kelus, and Nicolai Nexon," Professor Ozpin called out their names as they walked onto the stage. "The four of you have retrieved the black queens. From this day forward, you'll work together as DRGN, led by Diana Draken." Diana's eyes widened in disbelief. She definitely didn't expect to be put as the leader of their team. She never really thought herself as the leader of anything, but her new team mates seemed to have thought otherwise. Roland grinned and patted her on the back, Gwen gave her a thumbs up a long with a huge smile, and Nicolai simply nodded at her, his expression hidden behind his mask.
Later that day, the members of team DRGN were in their dorm, cleaning up the room and unpacking all their stuff. As Nicolai was hanging up a clock, Gwen approached him and asked, "What was going on in the Emerald Forest?"
Nicolai raised an eyebrow at her before asking, "What do you mean by that?"
"When we met Yang and Blake, you were trying to get away from them almost the instant you saw them. Are you afraid of them or something?"
"I... well, I suppose you could say I fear Blake a little. Why, is a story I'll tell you another time." Before Gwen could protest, Nicolai added, "You guys finish up, I need to talk to professor Ozpin about something." and he exited their dorm.
"What's up with him?" Roland asked as he lifted a desk over Diana.
"No idea, but he seems to really hate Blake." Diana noted. "Whenever he sees her, I see him flinch or become startled a little."
-
Professor Ozpin was in his office doing paperwork, when he heard a knock on his door. "Enter." he called out, and Nicolai entered his office. "Oh, Mr. Nexon, what can I do for you?"
"Are you aware of who Blake Belladonna really is?" Nicolai asked him.
"Why, of course I am. An ex-White Fang member, a cat faunus, and very good at keeping secrets."
"Than why did you let her into Beacon? Do you really trust her?"
"Nicolai, I know a liar when I see or hear one. Blake Belladonna is truthful and sincere. She may act secretive around others, but I can assure you, she is no harm. I've made more mistakes in my life than anyone else has, but I'm certain allowing Blake Belladonna into Beacon is not one of my mistakes."
"...You may have made the more mistakes than Blake, but Blake has made the worst mistake."
"Oh? And what's that?"
"Betraying her closest friend." and Nicolai turned around to exit Ozpin's office.
"Mr. Nexon, don't act too cold to Blake." Ozpin called out as Nicolai walked towards the door. "Besides, she isn't the only one keeping secrets." Nicolai paused right next to the door and slowly turned back around. "Both of us know your real name isn't Nicolai, nor is Nexon your last name. We also both know the true extent of your semblance. You want Blake to be truthful, yet you can't tell the truth yourself."
"Professor, are you threatening me?"
"I'm warning you. If Blake reveals her true past, than I expect you reveal the truth to her. I believe that she'll be more than happy to know you're still alive."
"...Whatever you say, Ozpin." and "Nicolai" exited the room without another word.