Pre-emptive author's note

Hello my dear readers, how's it going? I would just like to mention beforehand that this story will be a hell of a different read than my others. I'm talking darker tones, gore, explicit content in general. For those of you that have read my previous stories, this may not be for you. For those of you that haven't, and you decide to check out my other stories, just know that they are way more light hearted in comparison. This is also my first multi-chapter, so wish me luck.

See you at the end of this chapter.

Your author, Zakku

Duality

Chapter 1: From clumsy beginnings

Where the hell was I?

Forcing my eyes open, I found myself staring up at several shades of blurry green mixed together. Disoriented, I stared up at the weird mish-mash of colour for a small while. Huh, looks like leaves. Did I fall asleep outside? Seems like it, since I'm just now registering the feeling of grass on the back of my head. Slowly, I tried to lift my head up...

OW OW- ok keeping my head still sounds better right now.

There was a blistering pain running through my head, it was like there was a knocker attached and a very persistent salesman had just shown up. I am also just now registering that I can't feel anything below my head. Ok, panic level just went from about a 5 to a 7 right there. With a grunt of slight desperation, I attempted to heft my arm up in front of my face. I could feel it twitching for a while – thank god – before it finally obeyed my command.

A pale skinned hand came into my currently limited field of view, and I tried clenching my newly reacquired limb. It obeyed much faster this time, and I could feel my head start to clear simultaneously, which basically meant the salesman became much more polite with his knocking.

Go away Mr. Salesman, I don't want whatever you're selling.

Now that I was in control of my limbs, I used both of my arms, still slightly numb, to help push me up into a better position. Not entirely sitting up, but making my field of view slightly larger. Blurry brown joined blurry green. Ok, from these clues I can ascertain that I am somewhere with trees. Sherlock would be proud.

Straining my eyes at everything wasn't helping my head, and I could feel the salesman become my frustrated with each knock. Actually that analogy was becoming a bit stale, but my head is too jumbled to think of anything else, so that's all I got. Anyway, why was everything so blurry? It's almost like I needed...

My eyes widened. Glasses! Where were my glasses? With no small amount of effort, I pushed myself off and flipped so that I was facing the grass, which was the only thing I could see clearly at the moment other than my own nose and hands. Frantically, I ran my hands along the immediate area outside of my limited vision, and for a short while all I could feel was the soft wet grass until I felt something hard. Hard and plastic. Letting loose a breath of relief, I dragged the item across the grass.

Once the black plastic frames of my glasses were in clear view, I pushed off the ground with the one hand keeping me up and flipped back into the much more comfortable position of lying on my back. With a slightly shaking hand, I held the unfolded glasses to my face and clumsily put them on.

Although there was grass staining the lenses, I could now clearly tell that my hypothesis on the green above me belonging to leaves was correct. Now that my small quest for my magical seeing device was over, I had expended what little energy I seemed to have at the moment. The gentle sway of the healthily green leaves was calming, and the small amount of light piercing through warmed my face. It was beautiful. I could feel my eyes slowly shutting, all my previous worries seemingly fading away from my mind.

My eyes shut fully, and darkness took me.

A howl in the distance.

My eyes snapped open for the second time that day, and the sight of vibrant green greeted me once more, but this time there was no light illuminating both me and the leaves. Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I looked around hastily, the realization that I was somewhere I don't know, at night, in the dark getting through to my hazy mind. The trunks of the trees around me were massive, and they cast a shadow over the clearing I was in. Ok, I don't know how, but this just went from beautiful to horrifying in an instant.

Another howl.

My head snapped to the direction I heard the chilling noise come from. Was it just me, or was that getting closer? Keeping my unblinking, wide, and admittedly panicked looking, eyes in the same direction, I hastily pushed my self to my feet, stumbling a bit more then I would've liked to. For what seemed like an eternity, I stared into the pitch blackness behind the bushes at the edge of the clearing, wondering if I really had heard the sound getting closer, before freezing up.

Crunch crunch crunch

Ok, getting the fuck out of here now.

Spinning around, I bolted forward on shaky legs, and as I reached the edge of the clearing, I heard the crunching of grass behind me become more frantic. Bursting through the bushes gave way to large brown trunks, that astounded me by their size and thickness, even while running. I attempted to swerve around the trees whilst still maintaining my panicked speed. Which caused the lack of lighting, my lack of balance, and just plain old bad luck to culminated in me tripping over an exposed root five trees in, making me fall and gash my right cheek.

"Ah fuck!" I hissed in pain, feeling blood leaking from my new wound. "Fucking shit fuck!" The stress of the situation was finally getting to me, and I expressed that quite vocally as I cupped my now injured cheek with one hand.

Crunch crunch crunch crunch

The sound of crunching grass, even faster then before, caused my eyes to widen and me to forget about my cheek and remember that I was indeed running from something at the moment. Stumbling to my feet, panic and anxiety freshly ignited, I sprinted forward again, this time being as mindful as I could be about what was around my feet at that moment. Not looking back for even a moment I continued my mad dash through this – or what I assumed was a - forest, blood still leaking from my cheek, until I spotted some bushes up ahead. Not slowing down whatsoever, I burst through the bushes, feeling my face become more scratched up as I did so.

The impact of the bush caused me to fall forward again, though this time I rolled across the ground. Unlike the last time I fell, I hastily pushed myself back onto my feet. The adrenaline pumping through my system made the scratches on my face feel numb, and as I took in my surroundings in a panic the first thing I saw was a building. A big building. What was a building doing in the middle of a-?

Crunch crunch crunch snap!

Ok, not the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. I sprinted forward at full speed, colliding hard with a set of steady double doors - definitely going to feel that tomorrow – before pushing through with haste. Once inside, my head swerved from left to right, looking around the small entrance area for something, anything to block the door. When I found nothing in the immediate vicinity, I let out a curse "Fuck!" And half ran- half jogged forward, tripping on the small step leading out of the foyer type area. Just after the entrance, was a corridor that led down into some other room that I was too panicked to make any details out of, and as I jogged down the corridor my eyes came upon a down on the side, the triangle on it bringing relief and joy to my heart.

A bathroom!

I instantly sped towards my new safe haven, tore the door open and pretty much jumped inside, slamming the door shut behind me and turning the lock.

And then everything was silent.

Well, except for my heavy breathing.

But you get the idea.

I rested my back against the brown door , slowly sliding down it as breath after breath came from my chapped lips. I rested the back of my head against the door, the mind inside so exhausted as well that I couldn't even consider what had just happened to me in detail. Through my newly re-acquired haze, I was able to get one thought out before my mind shut down again.

'Man, fuck today.'

And darkness welcomed me for the third time that day.

When my eyes opened, the first thing I realized was that everything except for my head hurt. My back was stiff from the position of me leaning against the door, my shoulder felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to it – okay maybe not a baseball bat. Something hard though; like a decretive candle stick or something. My face felt like needles had been poking it, and my legs felt on fire.

Groaning, I used my good arm, the left one, to push myself up, and for the first time I took in where I was.

It was a bathroom, shockingly. One of those small private ones that you find on the ground floor of a big house, or something like that anyway, with simple white tiles and everything. The toilet was on the opposite wall on my right in all its porcelain white glory, and on the wall opposite it – the one to my left – was a white sink with an average sized mirror above it. Simple, but effective.

After my overly analytical analyses of a bathroom, my legs decided to wobble a bit, which caused me to stumble towards the toilet. I threw myself down onto the seat – which was down – and leaned forward, one hand on my knee and the other cradling my head. I looked down at my bright red shoes, and my black bottoms, stained by grass. I grimaced, that was going to be a pain to get out. My hand moved from my head to my cheek, causing me to flinch backward and sit up straighter. What the hell...?

My mind finally caught up with what had happened, what had been happening, which caused me to stand up and rush towards the mirror, taking in my disheveled appearance. Long brown curly hair covered my head, and as usual it dropped down over my forehead and slightly over my glasses, though not enough to be a nuisance. Speaking of my glasses, the grass stains on their lenses were becoming annoying, so I took them off and cleaned them with my red shirt, before putting them back on, feeling satisfied in my clearer vision.

Now that my lenses were clean, I could clearly see my dull brown eyes. Said eyes trailed one of the many marks on my face, the worst one, right above where my beard started on my cheek. Running a hand through the brown hair on my face to make sure there was no grass stuck in it, I held my cheek up to the mirror to examine it closely. There was dry blood around and slightly below the area, I had better clean that, before it gets infected. That would just be icing on the shit-cake.

I looked down and turned the tap on the sink. Nothing. Furrowing my brow I turned it again, harder this time. Still Nothing. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I used both hands to pull as hard as I could, putting my foot up on the sink for a better grip. I pulled hard for about 10 seconds, before I heard something pop and I flew backwards from the momentum, landing back on the toilet and hitting my head against the wall behind it. Hissing in pain, I held the back of my head, however I felt something cold and metal touch it.

Bringing my hand up to my face, I saw the head of a tap in my hand. The head of the tap I was just pulling on. I was then pulled from my hand by the sound of rumbling pipes, causing me to look towards the sink, and the exposed tap without a head. It rumbled again, harder this time, and my eyes widened.

"Uh oh."

Before I knew it, a jet of water spurted forth, arcing in the air before heading directly for me. I tried to dodge by moving to the side, but given the speed of the stream and the limited space I was confined to, there wasn't much I could do.

It hit me straight in the face.

Gasping in surprise and rage, I scrambled towards the door, running into it when I didn't remember it was locked. Cursing, I unlocked the door, still being pelted by water, and exited the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Shaking slightly, I wiped my glasses on my shirt, again. I wake up in the middle of nowhere with a blinding headache, almost get eaten by some animal, somehow get away, only to hide in a bathroom and get soaked by a water pipe. Yep, totally fine with that, nothing stressful about that at all.

The hallway I had come out into was wide, wide enough to accommodate many people. I looked across the wall on the other end, seeing multiple bulletin boards and posters clumped together directly across from me. Curiosity peaked, and frustration fading slightly, I trudged over and examined the posters strewn across them. Most of them were the generic motivational posters, like the ones with the cat hanging of the tree with the caption 'hang in there' and other borderline cringe quotes. Some did make me laugh though, allowing me to forget about my anger for the time being.

I was ready to turn away and continue my examination of this dorm, yes it was a dorm; why? Well from the fact that the entrance way that I came through was way too big for a normal house, the fact that the bathroom was labeled as... Oh shit I don't even remember, whatever, and the shit on this bulletin board seems like the type of quotes I saw back in school all the time. I was pretty damn sure this was some kind of dorm, although I could be wrong, I mean I did wake up in the middle of a forest for no reason, my decision making skills might not be the best right now, or in general.

Anyway, I was about to turn away from the group of boards – otherwise known as a band of boards – when I saw something that stood out from the rest. On the edge of the middle board was a small piece of paper that looked like it had been ripped in half, It looked like paper from a notepad of some sort. I leaned in closer, trying to see what it said.

'Rob

Stop eating my fucking yoghurt or I will castrate you

Tiffany'

I blinked, staring at the piece of paper in shock. After a while, I couldn't hold back any more, it started as chuckles, then evolved into full blown laughter. "G-geez Tif," I said as I calmed down, "bit of an over-reaction don'cha think?" I wiped a tear from my eye, my mood thoroughly brightened as I turned around to continue my search. When I turned back around to face the door of the bathroom, I immediately took note that it was, in fact, labeled as male. I don't know why, but this brought a little bit of relief. I looked down the way I came, seeing the double doors that I had wrecked my shoulder on when I entered, causing me to place a hand on said injured shoulder.

Looking down the other way, I found myself not able to see much, as the corridor opened up a little bit further on. When I reached the end, I found myself in what seemed to be a kitchen/foyer area. The closer half to me was the foyer, which had some tables, chairs and a long couch that sat facing a tv that was hung on a wall immediately to my right, a little table in-between them. And may I just say that tv was a decent size, and I wasn't some craftsman that could tell how many inches one was at a glance, but it was at least over 40 inches.

The other half of the room was the kitchen, it had a long sidebar from the end of the room, which went all the way along to the other end. Along this sidebar was: A microwave sat on top, a cooker built in, a dishwasher, multiples draws and cupboards, a kettle that my inner Englishman was happy to see, a toaster, two sinks right next to each other for some reason, just some regular sides with nothing on them, and a fridge at the end.

I don't know why I took in everything in such detail, it wasn't like I was going to be staying here for an extended period of time or anything, but it kept me calm. Like when you're waiting for the doctor and you count the ceiling tiles, or how many pens are in a pot on a desk, or how many people are coming in and leaving and you just want to get in there and get it over with-

I shivered, shaking my head to rid myself of the thoughts, now was not the time. Current problems now, lingering problems later.

I took a few steps into the foyer, stepping behind the couch and sitting on the edge of the back, towards the kitchen. I let out a breath, then took another look around. I was a nice place, clean looking. Which didn't make sense, because I was starting to think this place was abandoned. I mean, I hadn't been silent the entire time I'd been here; my frazzled entrance, the admittedly louder then needed laughter. If someone was here, they should've come down to check on what was going on. The door was unlocked as well, and if I lived in a forest which possibly had wolves and bears in it, you sure as hell bet I'm going to keep that door locked at all times, especially if no one was in. So it was either this dorm was run entirely by deaf people, or this place was abandoned.

And this kitchen supported the first theory more than the second, surprisingly.

Everything was neat and tidy, no dust, no grime, no nothing. I even walked up and ran my finger atop the counter, holding it up to my face afterwards; nothing. I opened up draws, either empty or cutlery in place and clean. I opened up cupboards, either empty or everything in place, barely anything weird to be seen, which was weird in itself. I looked around again, this time I saw something as I was looking at the appliances on top of the counter.

The outlets had only two holes, and the plugs were shaped to match.

My face paled.

I lived in England, all the plugs there had three prongs instead of two. Everywhere in the UK, hell most places in Europe had three prongs. Ok, ok calm down, this doesn't mean I'm in a different country or anything, it could just be a new house design, more American than European. My breathing, which had started to speed up, slowed down again. Yeah, yeah, I just need to find somewhere to tell me where I was. I was worrying over some silly plugs, I needed to stop overreacting about things.

I let out a slightly strained chuckle and shook my head, causing me to spot something out of the corner of my eyes. Turning away from the kitchen – or kitchenette? - I looked towards the hallway I had come from, exiting the foyer area. Just past it, was a staircase, and just past that was another door. The sign above the door said 'Emergency exit', so I'm guessing that it either lead outside, or to some sort of secret bunker. I wasn't ready to take that risk though.

My eyes turned to the stairs, and I took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Time to continue my reluctant, tense and not all that fun adventure. I started up the stairs, climbing the first set before turning and climbing the second. Once I had reached the top, two things were apparent to me: there was another wide hallway, and there were two doors on either wall, with one at the end. This hallway, in comparison to the one downstairs, was surprisingly plain. No posters, not bulletin boards, which was surprising given that this was probably where people's rooms were located.

I let out another breath, this was where I would really get answers. Downstairs was generic, something you would see anywhere. If I was going to find anything to tell me where I was, it was in these rooms. I walked over to the closest grey door, grabbing the handle. Taking a deep breath, I pushed forward.

…

Locked.

Ok, that's alright, four more doors.

I walked to the next one. Locked. Two more. Next one. Locked. Ok, getting annoying. Second to last one... Fucking locked. I was starting to get pretty frustrated as I walked up to the last door, grabbing the handle and pushing way harder than I should've, causing the door to fly open and me to fall forward face first onto the floor. My face met brown carpet, and I let out a muffled growl. Fuck my life. Pushing myself up, I let my eyes roam around the room that I now found myself in, rubbing my nose and grumbling.

The walls were a pale colour, and I was already acquainted with the brown carpeted floor. I turned to my left and saw a small single bed in the corner, which I could see had a wooden frame. The cover was a plain brown, and it was neatly made. There was also a small wooden shelf above it, which had multiple books of varying titles that I wasn't interested enough in to bother reading. Turning to my right I found a small tv sat on a stand, with a beanbag chair a few feet in front of it.

I took another step into the room, my eyes once again shifting to another corner. In this one was something much more interesting, and once I layed eyes on it, a small smile broke out onto my face. In the top right hand corner. next to a window not that far away, was a small computer set up, with a swivel chair and everything. The desk was a light brown, and had a draw and a cupboard on one leg, and a bigger cupboard on the other, it also had the usual small space for a keyboard. It was somewhat surprising, given how conservative the room had been, but hell if I was complaining.

I cleared the small space between me and the computer in two small strides, just now realizing how small this room really was. It was basically a damn box. Sitting down in the chair, I pushed forward, looking up into the black monitor. I bent down under the desk and took a look at what I was working with. A black box met me. I grit my teeth, looking for the power button, also checking to see if everything was plugged in. It was, good. I found the power button located on the back of the computer. Weird, but I wasn't a computer expert, so I just held it down and prayed.

'Please work, please work, please work!'

I took my finger off the button, and was rewarded with the button lighting up and the sound of a fan coming on. I pumped my fist, giving a small "Yes!" However, as I lifted my head back up my excitement got the better of me.

SMACK "Shit!"

Sitting back up properly, I contemplated why my head had taken so much abuse lately as I rubbed the back of it for what felt like the tenth time that day. The monitor turning distracted me, however, and my good mood came back in full force. I pulled the keyboard out of its small compartment and set it on the desk, hitting the space-bar. The black lit screen changed colour, bringing me to a plain blue background. Again, whoever owned this room was definitely more on the conservative side. There was only one account on the computer, and this belonged to a ' .'

'Not Rob or Tiffany?' I thought with some amusement, also taking note that this account didn't have a profile picture, and was just a grey outline of a human head. Taking the mouse positioned next to the keyboard into my hand, and quickly dragged it back and forth across the mouse-pad to make the cursor appear. Dragging the cursor over to the account icon, I mumbled "C'mon, no password," before clicking.

And being brought straight to the desktop.

Another fist pump "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" It really wasn't, but in situations like these, you had to take the small victories or you'd go insane. I now took to examining the desktop. Wait, I didn't know any of these icons. No google chrome on the task-bar, no internet explorer, nor word. The fuck was this? Was I in china or something, and these were the Chinese versions of their applications? I pushed down the frustration I was feeling, at least the background was nice. It was of some castle or something, with a large clock-tower in the middle. For some reason it looked familiar to me, but I shook off the feeling, probably wouldn't help even if I knew.

I looked all over, trying to see if I could discern what each program did just through the picture alone. Starting in the corner was the start button, moving along the task-bar was some sort of globe, that must've been the internet browser, next was some sort of black box which I couldn't tell the function of, next was...

Oh helllloooooo...

Along the task-bar was something that looked like a notebook, from which I could tell that it was a writing software. What was more interesting to me, however, was the fact that It had a lighter shade box around it than the rest of the icons. I hurriedly brought the cursor over to the icon and clicked it, this caused something similar to a word document to appear on my screen. It was seriously like for like, just with a different logo and colour.

I could tell from the bar at the side that the document was at its end, so for the sake of not confusing myself with whatever I was about to read, I brought it to the top and blinked a few times, and started to read.

'January 15th 2014

I am professor Vert Baker of Beacon academy, and I have been chosen to guide and look after four teams specially chosen to stay in this new prototype dorm located in the emerald forest.

The purpose of this experiment is to test a new defensive mechanism designed to keep to keep the Grimm out, as any good defence is designed to do. This new design was made by the atlus military with extensive help from Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon. From what I have been informed, the basic gist of this new device is that it draws the innate Aura found in trees, plants, grass and even animals somewhat, to generate a shield around the dorm and the immediate vicinity. This shield is special in this case, however, because the only thing that cannot pass through it are Grimm. Ozpin himself explained to me that dew to Aura being the natural opposite of the Grimm, which I already knew, It also creates a cloaking device that blocks out Grimm from detecting negative emotions.

When the headmaster explained to me the innate theory behind the device, he then told me that he needed a way to test it. I knew that he had wanted me to help, otherwise he would've called more than just me to his office. I was hesitant at first, expressing the risk not only to myself, but to my students also. Headmaster Ozpin, as he usually does, put my fears to rest almost instantly. Telling me the greatest minds in atlus had extensively researched and painstakingly constructed, de-constructed and re-constructed the device that would sit under the dorm, and there would be safety precaution after safety precaution to make sure that not one of the students would come to harm.

He said it with such authority, such certainty, that it put my heart at ease, and I agreed then on the spot. After he had thanked me, he gestured to a scientist that been in the room throughout our discussion, telling me that if I had any more questions to ask, that this man would answer them, before dismissing me.

Once me and this man had ridden the elevator down, I decided to ask a small question about food and power, and how they would be assigned to the dorm. Big mistake, because when he started talking, he didn't stop. He went on and on, some of what he spouted useful, but most inane technobabble that I had no idea of. I found out that the aura supplied to the dorm would also power all the daily appliances as well as the shield, but other than that I can't remember anything he said.

I was about ready to kill the man before the bell signalling next classes saved my – and his- life, and I was able to politely excuse myself.

I have just moved in today, and the students have already settled down in their rooms. I am keeping this log not just for the scientists sake, but for my own as well. I mean, if this works it would be revolutionary, a way to expand beyond our walls, to not fear the Grimm out in the badlands. This could be the next big step for humanity.

Let's hope it is.

-Professor Vert Baker; Log 1'

I leaned back in my chair, eyes wide and hands clenched around the arm rests. My face was undoubtedly pale and my breathing was speeding up by the second. Beacon? Ozpin? Grimm!? I knew those words, of course I knew those words. They were words I had read many times, and heard spoken many times also. But there's no way I'm... No, I couldn't be...

Was I in RWBY?

My breathing kept speeding up, and I could feel my chest start to hurt, along with a tightness around my nose. Tears appeared in my eyes, before my sadness and shock turned to anger and frustration.

"Fuck," I let out under my breath, before it escalated into a shout, "FUCK!" I let out, standing from my chair and swinging my leg into the desk at full force. Turns out its stronger then my leg though, because it just ended up with a perfectly fine table, and me hoping around on one leg screaming obscenities. What did happen however, was the cupboard was jolted open, and I above my creaming, I heard something that sounded like glass fall out and land on the carpeted floor.

Turning my angry eyes to whatever would dare interrupt my cursing, I found a glass bottle laying on the ground, with what seemed to be liquid in it. It looked almost full, and the label on it was facing me.

'Atlus grape wine'

Without a second thought, I bent down, grabbed the bottle and uncorked it, knocking it back straight into my mouth. It was lukewarm, which made me gag at first, but eventually it went down easy and I started to enjoy the burn at the back of my throat. Taking another swig, I half stumbled back towards the bed in the other corner of the room, sitting down on the edge and taking yet another swig.

Eventually, the lack of food in my stomach and my general tiredness helped the alcohol kick in, and I leant back onto the bed after taking yet another swig. Bottle still in hand, I held the other up to my forehead, moving it down to cover my eyes.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Frankie?" I mumbled, before I lost consciousness.

*Warning, long authors note ahead, skip if you want*

What's up, my dear readers? I think thats going to be my thing now, or not who knows.

Anyway, I wanted to write something like this eventually, and I have so many ideas about where this story could go, I just had to get this first chapter out. Chapter two is going to be awesome, let me tell you. That's where things are really going to get interesting.

I kinda wanted to make this authors note like some sort of retrospective about the chapters, what was fun to write, what I struggled with, all that stuff. Mostly so I can look back later and see my progress, cause I'm all about improvement, but also for anybody who would want to read this.

So I had writer's block on this chapter for the longest time, and I debated about when to end it, but I wanted to have a hook, something the reader will want to find out more about, because I couldn't just write a boring chapter and then say 'oh but chapter two is gonna be way more interesting, just wait' y'know? And I think I somewhat succeeded, however if you disagree, and want to express this in a constructive way, feel free. I'm all ears to criticism.

I also wanted to ask you guys' opinion on the main character, I tried to get his personality across without outwardly stating a lot of things, and I wanted to know, what do you think he's like. If he's too bland to tell, then express that as well, and I'll definitely try to improve later down the line. I enjoy reading reviews more than anything, because that's how we all improve as writers, as anything really.

Anyway, have a great day, and look forward to the next chapter!

Your author, Zakku.