This story will contain a great deal of references underlining commentary about mental illness. As it stands, please be aware that if topics such as depression, suicide, and social disorders bother you in any way, do not read this story.

I'd also like to commit this story to those who live with mental illness, particularly depression, and hope that you can find a trickle of light in the occasions of humour and happiness depicted in this story as part of its mission to highlight how certain characters have learned to live with their difficulties, and how others have learned to understand or help.

Besides that, this story will be a romance between my OC and Yang Xiao Long. It will also be a general fantasy story revolving around Team ALBN (OC) and an alternative plot to protect Remnant against Salem.

Disclaimer: Some characters, such as Mercury and Emerald, have been omitted for the time being until they have a relevant play in the new plot. Characters such as Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan have been re-imagined in their roles to better suit it.

Chapter 1

The Vytal Tournament; this was all Yang Xiao Long and her teammates could think about. They had trained for weeks to prepare for the tournament and qualify to compete.

"You meet that team from Mistral with the monkey Faunus? Those boys were awesome eye-candy," Yang said, and then added, "Especially that monkey Faunus. What'd you say his name was, Blake?" as she prodded her teammate who couldn't hold back a blush.

"Sun Wukon, okay? I swear nothing happened," the raven-haired girl insisted. Blake had tried to live down when her teammates had found her and Sun leaning over the sofa. She claimed he'd tripped and fell on her, but Yang made a point to note that Blake would have more than likely been able to evade him in that scenario.

"Would you two stop arguing over this?! We have better things to worry about," Weiss declared, but Yang gave her a smug glare.

"That's a dangerous position to take when you talk in your sleep, Weiss," the blonde said and laughed as she mimicked what everyone else assumed was Weiss, "Oh Neptune, you're so brave!"

Weiss stood there like a statue and was about to retaliate when the loudspeakers came on. "Attention students, would all competitors please report to the staging auditorium, the rest may take your seats at the stadium," came Professor Port's voice.

It didn't take long for Team RWBY to reach the yard where the shuttles were taking spectators and participants up to the stadium. It was on one shuttle that they found Team JNPR and Team CFVY. Ruby noticed Velvet and Coco staring at a young man standing next to the railing of the airship. He was looking out into the city.

His armor was a long brown cloak reaching down to his ankles and wrapping around his body, with overlapping armor on his torso, arms and legs of what appeared to be tiny scales made of bone. Yang was about to ask why everyone was staring at him, as by now most of the people around were, until she saw through the sun glare the very reason.

On his head were a pair of very large horns of a light-brown colour. As he turned slightly to glance at the looming eyes on him, for just a moment the girls thought they saw a pair of amber coloured, glowing reptilian eyes.

"I'm drawing a blank with that one, Velve," Coco said as the man turned back to the view.

"That's Laghairt Sol. Don't ask what kind of Faunus he is, nobody really knows," Blake explained. Many of the onlookers turned to her, hoping to learn more.

A few of the girls in the crowd began to ask softly about details that Blake thought were irrelevant.

As the questions continued to roll in, Blake snapped out, "I don't know anything much about him guys! He's frequented Menagerie and he's a mercenary."

The small crowd dispersed and to the girls' shock, they saw Ruby approach the Faunus. "Hey," she called to him as she leaned against the railing.

At first, his stare and expression didn't change, but after a few moments his eyes fell on her, but his expression was still neutral, "Yes?"

Ruby smiled and pointed to her friends, all of whom shook their heads or just stood there like a deer in headlights.

"My friend Blake said she recognized you. We were wondering if you might want to hang out with us before the event. We're always excited to meet new people," Ruby explained and hope began to bloom in her mind as she saw him smirk. He glanced over to her friends in the small foyer.

When his eyes met with Blake, she looked away and then he returned his attention to Ruby, "I'm afraid my team and I keep to ourselves. I wish you luck in the tournament," he replied, and then Ruby heard footsteps behind her.

She turned to see a girl with long auburn hair and wearing a turquoise dress which stopped at the knee. The corset was a dark moss-green colour and so were her knee-high boots and bracers. A hawk of the same colour as her hair was perched on her arm, its wings, belly and crown were brown.

Ruby could see that the girl's hair curled at the ends and she had two polished long daggers on her waist.

"Is this little thing bothering you, Laghairt?" she said as her hawk stared at Ruby and cried.

"No, Artemis. She was just meeting and greeting," Laghairt replied. Behind him came the pink and brown haired Neopolitaine and his last teammate who was an elk Faunus whose extremely long brown hair and large antlers drew the attention of many around. She didn't seem to mind however, as she had a blank and seemingly sedated look to her as Neo brought her over.

Ruby became uncomfortable as Banshee seems to slowly look at her, "Well, I'll see you in the arena. Be sure to stop by some time," she said as she waved and left.

When Ruby returned to her team's side, everyone from the three teams of friends gave her mixed looks, Blake in particular looked as if she was scared to hear what happened.

"So? He a stud or a jackass?" Coco asked when nobody spoke.

Ruby shrugged, "He didn't want to talk much. I do know those other three are his teammates though. Artemis and uh…" she stopped as she realized she'd never caught their names.

"Neopolitaine is the heterochromatic girl with pink hair and the elk Faunus is called Banshee Mirage. She's the one I'm concerned about," Blake said.

"Well, there's an opening ceremony in an hour. We can meet people later, we should get to our assigned area," Weiss said and everyone nodded as the ship came to dock at the stadium ring.

Blake walked behind her team when she felt a hand on her arm. She quickly looked to see nothing there, but glanced over to see Banshee standing a few yards away staring at her. Her eyes wide and her expression blank.

Blake could hear a loud ringing in her ears and then felt wetness under her nose. She looked at her hand that she used to wipe it to realize that it was a trickle of blood. Meanwhile Banshee continued to stare at her until Blake closed her eyes and it stopped. When she opened them again the girl was gone.

She heard Yang call her and rushed over to catch up to her team, trying desperately to ward off the headache and dizziness surging through her.

The first few matches of the Vytal Tournament were fast and merciless, with several of the best Huntsmen teams in Remnant's academies setting the stage for the primaries. This included Team CFVY, who shot through their first match of the tournament by a four-strike aura drain.

Team JNPR was also a popular team with Pyrrha taking the spotlight. Even with Jaune directing his team flawlessly through the first match, it was Pyrrha who eyes were on. She along with Coco and Yang from their respective teams were fan favourites.

There was however a rising star as Team ALBN, led by Artemis Morrigan, took their place in a match against a team from Atlas.

Weiss was rooting for her home team, but she still took a great deal of interest in Team ALBN, and so did the Yang and Ruby; so logically they turned to Blake.

"So, what exactly do you know about them besides that they are mercenaries? If that's the case how are they participating in this tournament?" Weiss asked her

Blake simply shrugged, "Seriously guys, I have no clue. Their leader Artemis Morrigan is a third-year student at Haven Academy and is from a nomadic tribe in Anima. Neopolitan is from Vale and Laghairt is a sell sword whose had his dealings with the White Fang. I have no idea where Banshee comes from, I just know she's dangerous," she replied.

Pyrrha was hard at work on her scroll pulling up the tournament profile on Team ALBN, "It says they are representing Haven. Apparently, Banshee Mirage is a redacted profile. Everything on her record is blocked. So is Laghairt Sol's profile."

"Fight's starting!" they heard Nora shout in the row behind them. One half of the arena turned into a forest, the other half into a glacier. One of the Atlas fighters smirked as his body began to fade into flakes of snow and disperse along the ground of the glacier zone.

Artemis and Laghairt rushed the other three while Neo took Banshee by the hand and led her toward the middle of the arena where she prompted her to sit. When Banshee sat with her legs crossed, Neo simply paced around her, deflecting the occasional gunfire with her umbrella.

Curious eyes seemed confused at this move, but many relented as they saw Artemis and Laghairt dispatch one of their opponents.

Moments later, the student who'd disappeared reappeared behind Laghairt, but was grabbed by the neck by the horned faunus. In shock, he accidently fired a shot clean at Artemis and the monitor showed it took a chunk out of her aura.

When Laghairt tried to retaliate, the boy disappeared again. He opted to engage one of the two girls attacking Artemis. It wasn't long before those two were out of the fight, one of them had been harassed by Artemis' hawk and ran straight into a geyser.

Laghairt and Artemis were struck with a gust of snow and then Laghairt swiftly blocked a shot to his shoulder with his armored glove. "He's a pesky one," the faunus said.

Artemis took her daggers; Terra Arbre and linked them together into their bow form. She focused, following what seemed to be a guiding hand, and fired an arrow.

It travelled over several hills of snow until it exploded in midair and a rag-dolling Atlesian appeared out of the gust of snow and was sent into the boundary.

"Knockout! Team ALBN wins!" Professor Port's voice boomed across the stadium.

"That was awesome!" Nora cried out.

"How did she see him?" Velvet asked from a few seats down.

"Meh," Yang replied and then noogied her sister.

Ruby whined, "Why?!"

After a few additional matches, the Doubles Round began. Team CFVY's Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina took the stage as Team JNPR's Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc walked in opposite from them.

Coco grinned and tilted her shades down, "You're mine, cute-stuff," she said as she gave Jaune a wink.

Jaune was taken aback by that comment, and then the buzzer rang and Coco opened her briefcase and let off a folly of bullets his way. He managed to block them with his shield and retreated behind a cluster of rocks. He watched as Velvet engaged Pyrrha with an array of weapons, some of which he recognized. Members of the audience, including Team RWBY who some of the weapons belonged to, stared in awe. This was the first time Velvet had ever revealed her semblance and her weapon outside of her team and her teachers.

Jaune was unfortunately distracted enough to not notice Coco come up behind him, but he did when she patted him in the shoulder.

"Hey, hot stuff," she said to him and he turned around, and then she gave him a hard (but not too hard) kick to the nads.

"Why?!" he said as he dropped to his knees and his aura dropped as fast as he did.

"Couldn't decide if you look better on your knees," she said before bunny-punching him in the face and knocking him out cold, "And you kind of do."

She proceeded to take her vaping pen out and smoke. That was when she received a shield in the face which smacked her with a firm thud. It was the crack which made the whole arena go silent as Pyrrha pulled her shield back to her.

Coco stared at her with an unamused look as she exhaled the vapor she'd inhaled from her pen and her eyes seemed to stare daggers into Pyrrha's soul.

Pyrrha knew this because one of the lenses of Coco's shades was gone, broken off by her attack.

"Okay," was all Coco said in a tone which Pyrrha could hear was suppressed anger.

The next thing she knew she had a surge of bullets flying at her, "Oh crap!" she exclaimed as she ducked behind rocks which Coco slowly pulverized with her minigun. When Coco stopped, Pyrrha wasted no time engaging her in melee, but regretted it when the girl ducked from her parry and struck her behind the knee with her handbag.

Pyrrha managed to steady herself and returned a swipe to Coco's front, and began striking quick swings and parries at her. After only a few strikes Coco couldn't keep up and Pyrrha barraged her aura with strike after strike until Coco was red-barred.

As the match was called, Pyrrha reached over and helped Coco up.

"Damn it, Pyres. That's the second pair you broke. If you win the tournament, you're taking me to that new designer store in the city to celebrate," and they walked off not noticing Jaune's soft pleas for help. Velvet limped over and slumped next to him. She still had a kink in her armor where Pyrrha had given her a good whack.

"You're balls okay?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

A few hours later, Team RWBY took its turn in the 2v2 against Team SSSN, which in less than a minute Sun took Weiss out of the fight with help from Neptune. To say the least, a bit of clever psychological warfare on Sun's part was involved getting Neptune to engage Weiss head on, which prompted her to lose her sense. Fortunately, Neptune was there to catch her as she tripped on her own glyph and then shock her with his trident.

Blake quickly dealt with him with a quick disarm and then several strikes to the face. Nobody was sure if it was the physical trauma that took him out, or the fact he passed out from just the thought she might have bruised his face. This left her and Sun to fight.

"Hey," Sun said with a wink and gave her a peace sign.

Blake grunted and then whipped Gambol Shroud's cord at him, pulling him toward her so she could kick him. He summoned his clones to distract her while he summersaulted to a small ruin overlooking a pond.

He saw Blake jump after him after dispatching his clones and then dodged attack after attack. It seemed Blake wouldn't hit him until she stopped entirely, which surprised Sun and he looked over, only to regret dropping his guard as she yanked him by the collar and kissed him. Completely taken over by shock, he wasn't prepared for her swift motion as her leg pushed his from under him and he was sent tumbling into the water below. Blake laughed as she heard him hit the water.

"Blake! Help!" she heard Sun call. She leaned over the edge of the stone wall to see Sun struggling to keep his head above water.

"Monkeys don't swim so well! Don't suppose I can have a hand?"

Blake threw Gambol Shroud at him and then swiftly yanked him up, but to his horror let him keep going up and up until he hit the barrier.

"Ow…" and he fell into a bush below.

"Team RWBY wins! What an excellent show, ladies!" Oobleck praised.

Blake gave Sun her hand to help him up, "Strange how Neptune's the one afraid of water and yet you're the one who can't swim."

"I got other skills," and then he kissed her.

All over the stadium the cat-calls ran wild, but the best was saved for the loudest, "It would seem we have some young love in the air, doctor," Port commented.

"Indeed! Nothing like a sporty spar to get those pent-up hormones raging!" Oobleck said, and then added, "Unfortunately the arena needs to be prepared for the next team. Clear the field!"

A chorus of boos rang through the crowd as students expressed their displeasure at losing the bonus show.

Team ALBN's Laghairt Sol and Neopolitan took to the ring against Team ABRN's Arslan and Reese.

The fight was short as Laghairt threw several fireballs at Arslan, forcing her into the defensive, before he exchanged punches with her and finally managed a shot to the abdomen which staggered her. In moments her aura was depleted by several swift bursts of fire.

Neo took her time fighting Reese, enjoying dodging and rolling around the girl's board maneuvers. Finally, Reese made the mistake of throwing her board at Neo, which Neo caught and vanished with.

"What the..?" and then Reese realized what had happened. Neo had taunted her into foolishly giving up her weapon and that was when Laghairt came in and knocked her against the barrier.

The teams were given the next day to recuperate for the last stretch of the tournament as the Singles rounds came.

Pyrrha sparred against the leader of a Shade Academy team and Coco sparred against the notorious ringer Penny. Yang fought Nebula and Laghairt fought a third-year student from Haven Academy. Another ice-based weapon. Laghairt was not amused by his luck.

The Singles Semi-Finale was a rush of Yang throwing Coco almost through the barrier, and Laghairt was finally forced to reveal his sword for the first time to fight Pyrrha. People began talking as the activation of Laghairt's long sword, Sapphire, made his eyes turn deep blue. He exchanged powerful attacks against Pyrrha, trying not to hurt her badly but break her defenses. It was at this time he realized how she was redirecting his attacks, and he backed off.

It took him a moment to redirect his power and form a very sharp electrical arc, which sent a surge through Pyrrha and her aura depleted as her semblance was forcefully activated by the resulting pulse of electromagnetic energy, which Laghairt purposefully kept at a low level to prevent not only exposing her to deadly radiation, but also from shutting down every electric system in the stadium, including the very barrier designed to protect the spectators.

Laghairt looked up at the dark sky as he felt his aura start to drain at his exerting attack. Luckily, he'd barely made a dent, but he nodded his head to her in respect as he left. She'd made him exert himself, and that was fun enough for him.

The crowds cheered the next morning as the Singles Finale was called. Yang was pitted against Laghairt in the showdown for the Vytal Champion title. Ruby hugged her sister and Blake gave her a high-five before the blond waltzed on to the stage opposite of Laghairt, who waved quickly over to his teammates.

"Hey," Yang called over, reaching out her hand to him, "Let's have a clean one for the crowd. Let's give them a show to remember."

Laghairt seemed taken aback and reluctant to approach. He gave her a nervous grin. "I hope we can, Miss Long."

"Awe, now where's the tough, mysterious guy we saw on the ship?" she said giving him a coy smile. Laghairt seems to get even more anxious. It took a moment for Yang to guess why and she had her fun with it. He was handsome enough. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and played with it while they waited the last few moments for the stage to lift.

"Begin!" came the call. The two jumped away from each other and Yang was the first one to throw shots. Laghairt swiftly moved to evade them and came in close to melee. Yang threw her punches at him, forcing him to use Sapphire and before long the two were in a stalemate of fiery onslaughts.

The match went on for almost ten minutes before Yang grew frustrated enough to throw the full force of her semblance at him. In an astonishing and crowd-silencing move, Laghairt took the entire hit with his hand, deftly standing like a statue. His arm didn't even give way as their hands connected.

The stadium was silent as the world saw Yang Xiao Long's Dragon Wrath which she'd made notorious throughout the tournament, get blocked almost effortlessly by Laghairt. The problem was it hadn't been effortless and it was not Laghairt who'd done it. As both of them fell to their knees in exhaustion, Port and Oobleck starred at one another. The crowds began to mutter amongst themselves.

Had the Vytal Tournament seen its first draw? Laghairt turned his head to see what he'd suspected; Banshee was standing from her seat. She'd used her semblance to block Yang's strike against her friend, it was only because of Artemis covering the girl's mouth that she hadn't screamed, which would have caused even more problems.

Before Port could make the call, Laghairt stood and made it himself.

"I'm afraid one of my teammates interfered in the match. I must therefore forfeit and leave Yang Xiao Long as the winner," he stated and then reached a hand over to help her up, "But I do hope you'll honor me with a future spar. I cannot lie that this fight has left me humbled," he said to her. She grabbed his hand and yanked him down, then he could hear her strained giggle as he grunted.

"Ladies and gentlemen. It would appear Mr. Sol has surrendered the match to Ms. Xiao Long, making her this year's Vytal Champion. Congratulations to all our teams and a special congratulation to Yang Xiao Long of Beacon Academy," came Port's voice.

The stadium was an uproar of cheers as Laghairt helped Yang stand. In a humble house in Patch, Taiyang Long tried to hide back his tears of joy as his daughter stood there, while exhausted, a triumphant winner of the tournament. He had to sock one of his friends when they handed him a tissue.

What nobody did see was the raven swoop above and rest on a railing, staring intently at Yang and Laghairt. It sat there for several moments before taking flight again.

The Beacon Academy dorm house lobby was a zoo of cheers for Yang, who held up her trophy for several journalists and photographers before joining her friends, including those from team JNPR and CFVY. Coco was a tad bit sour about not being able to claim her bet from Pyrrha, but was more than happy enough to see Yang holding the trophy in Beacon's name. This was actually a custom, as the champion didn't in fact get to keep the ceremonial trophy itself; that stayed with the school. However, Yang received a unique medallion which was marked for that year's event.

Her and a few others asked why this year's medallion had a green gemstone in it, but nobody had a straight answer for that. It'd simply been at the request of the academy staff. It was a dragon-eye shaped stone, meaning it was shaped as a three-dimensional equilateral triangle.

"Hot-stuff's still got his nuts in a bunch," Coco said gesturing to Jaune, who even after two days still had to wear loose pants.

A few of the girls laughed at Jaune's expense, but he knew that he deserved it. To train so hard only to be taken out by Coco in such a manner was rather funny.

"I treated it, not to worry!" Pyrrha insisted with a smile.

Jaune let his head smack the table with a loud thud as every eye in the room turned to him and Pyrrha. Several, such as Weiss and Sun, just about spat out their drinks or otherwise choked on them momentarily at what Pyrrha had just implied.

Coco let her shades fall to the tip of her nose and took a shot from her vape pen, "Smooth.."

"I bet it was!" Scarlet said and then fell into a fit of snickering as his face went red and he started tearing up. Sun gave him a firm smack behind the head. Weiss crossed her arms as Yang and various others were laughing.

"The maturity in this room is astounding," Weiss commented.

"I don't understand…" Pyrrha finally said, "I lubricated it to help it heal," which in turn resulted in half the room going absolutely insane with laughter.

"I just can't! Oh, Monty I really can't!" Fox said between fits of laughter. Coco sat at the small bar, took her shades off and tried desperately to vape as she slumped down, out of breath from laughing and yet unable to stop.

Ren facepalmed as he said, "Pyrrha, you really have to think these things out before you say them."

Pyrrha fell into a gloom of confusion as everyone tried to regain control. Blake and Ren were sitting in the back of the room with Weiss, who'd given up even trying to seek any level of maturity from their friends. All the laughter stopped when they heard the foyer doors open and Team ALBN walked in.

Yang walked over to greet them as Laghairt stepped forward ahead of his team leader.

"I wanted to congratulate you formally for your victory, Miss Long," said a soft-spoken Laghairt.

Artemis smirked, "What he means to say is he has finally learned to swallow his ego."

"I hate you, Arta," he said as he shut his eyes. ALBN's leader smiled behind him and nudged her hawk to jump on to his head, grasping both his horns like a bull-wrangler. He tried to shake the pest off when he noticed Yang and a few others laughing.

"Would you like to party with us? Least we can do for the second best," Yang said with a coy smirk. Laghairt gently pushed a curious Velvet away from him as she tried to take a picture of his sword and the hawk on his head, "I'd be honoured, but no photography," he stated. He swiped the hawk off his head and then took a seat beside Coco to try a hit of Vaccuo Hot Cider, "And no questions about my horns," he added as he sensed a presence behind him.

"Damn!" came the small voice of Ruby.

Author's Note

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave comments or questions if you wish and I'll be sure to read them at my earliest convenience. I know questions about Team ALBN's semblances, weapons, and background will be asked, so please be patient as the first few chapters take seed, as they will set these details up.