Zestrum

The sound of chains being moved about by the struggling muscles of the bound prisoner echoed through the throne room of the capital of Jarot, a grim reminder as to the fate of the hapless prisoner who was being dragged across the carpet that lead up to the throne. Green scales chipped off the prisoner's leg as it burned across the floor as he futilely attempted to escape the cuffs that kept him at the mercy of the guards. He was a humanoid with green scales and a snout with two sharp, venomous fangs. His eyes were green with slit pupils, and he was dressed in royal attire. This prisoner was the former king of Jarot, capital of the planet Zestrum. Up until recently, this king, named Dopoka, was leading his people with ambiguous intention, though it always lead to painful and terrible results. Corpses lined the streets and fires burned around them. And up until recently, he was unaware of a coup happening right under his nose.

Finally, Dopoka's journey grinded to a halt as he was thrown in front of the silver throne, on which sat a different king. He resembled a humanoid iguana, with green skin that felt like leather, and spikes running down his spine, poking through his purple robes. He had a grin upon his snout which, while bearing the flat and sharp hybrid befitting an iguana, still looked menacing. "So, Dopoka," the new king began, "how does it feel to kneel before the one person you fear the most?"

The former leader rose up and stared at the new king with saddened eyes, fearing for his life at this dire moment. "Please, Noar-" he began, before being interrupted by a sharp hiss.

"Dahkat Noar," Noar corrected, anger present in his conviction as he leaned forward in his seat, "For too long you've sat comfortable, a dictator to your own people. To your own blood! I'm tired of it. It's time to change the world."

"Like you're any better!" Dopoka shouted, vengeful in his violent struggles to free himself from his bonds. "I know you, Noar, you sick fuck. I know what you get up to behind closed doors. I know that you're only going to make things worse!"

Noar sighed and leaned back onto the throne, cracking the bones in his neck as the breath left his body. "If that's how you feel, I guess I can't persuade you otherwise...Rahjat?" he said, forcing Dopoka to turn his head. Stepping out of the shadows was another Alik'Onir, another snake hybrid. This one had brown scales and cold, dead eyes that seemed to stretch into infinity. His expression was dull, as though the events in front of him didn't even matter. Instead of a snout, a more human-like pair of lips bore sharp teeth. Behind him were six chrome androids, all resembling him in build and head shape, though with eyes that glowed different colors and a crest on their heads.

"General Rahjat...you traitorous whore, wait until I get my hands on you!" Dopoka shouted, jumping towards the leader of the military in vain as he landed face down on the floor.

"Something tells me you won't get the chance," Noar calmly said, as Rahjat dragged him back towards the throne. "Rahjat...end his misery."

As the sound of pulsing energy blades fired behind him, Dopoka began yelling and screaming at Noar, who couldn't even pay it any mind as he watched the slash of the plasma slice through his neck. Dopoka's head landed right in front of the throne, green blood splattering across the ground, which Noar picked up and held up high in celebration. Rather than fire, there would be a grand stadium. Though the end result was the same: that arena would host only bloodshed.

Remnant, Three Months Later…

It was a normal Saturday morning at Beacon Academy, or at least as normal as it was to a young Ruby Rose. As she cracked her eyes open and looked out to the dorm's window, she felt a faint smile on her face as she looked at the rays of sunshine cascading into the room. With a yawn and a quick stretch of her muscles, it was only then that she realized that everyone else was still asleep, mostly due to the lack of noise that her sister, Yang, would usually create upon waking up. Looking at her blonde sister, who was sound asleep and snoring, her gaze slowly moved downwards to look at the Faunus below her. Dressed in the black yukata she usually wore to bed, Blake's bow twitched on her head as she hugged a black book closer to her and stayed within peaceful sleep. Ruby smiled warmly as she looked at the bed that served as the bottom bunk, peeking over at Weiss as she also lay dreaming. She was covered up by every blanket on her bed, and her white hair was messily splayed out all over the pillow, but no one would dare say that she was anything but beautiful.

Creeping down from her bed to the floor below, the only person stirring from the sound of her bare feet hitting the ground being Blake, Ruby snuck over to the team's shared dresser and carefully opened it. Taking her underwear out of the drawer, she carefully walked to the closet and pulled out her Huntress outfit, taking the red hood with her. With even more careful steps into the bathroom, she breathed in as she closed the door and walked to the tub. With several turns of the hot water handle, the shower rained down like a storm in the tub, as Ruby stripped off her clothes and stepped inside. With a few adjustments of the cold water, the young Huntress closed her eyes and simply relaxed under the rain, as thoughts ran past her mind about the rest of the day.

"So, what's the plan for today?" the studious Blake Belladonna asked as she and her team walked the hallowed halls of Beacon academy. It was around 12:00 AM at this point, and all four members of Team RWBY were energized and ready for whatever came their way.

Their hyperactive leader was practically shaking with energy as she walked. She had planned out an action packed day for her friends, and even the mere thought of the activities she had planned left her even more excited. "Well...I had the whole day planned out! You're gonna love it, first we're going to-"

"Um, Ruby?" Weiss asked, interrupting her leader. Her voice was confused and unfocused, which made Ruby turn her head to meet Weiss's gaze upon whatever it was she found. And indeed, it was something to be confused about. It was a green gem, no taller than Ruby's knee and no wider than a glass cup. The gem was spiky and uncut, and seemed to glow with an unnatural energy. "What is that?"

"Maybe it's some weird new Dust," Yang suggested, which only made Weiss shake her head.

"Can't be, the SDC would have told me about something like this," Weiss denied, only to mutter "Unless Father doesn't trust me enough to know it."

"Whatever it is, we can't just touch it," Blake said, taking a step away from the gem, "We don't know what it does."

"Doesn't Dust need to be activated?" Ruby asked, walking closer to the new gem. Leaning down, she gently gripped it as she said "Besides, someone needs to figure out what this is. Maybe Professor Peach can-"

Within an instant, a green glow enveloped the crystal and within seconds, Ruby disappeared into the green glow. Before anyone could react, the light of the glow bounced from glow to glow, making them and their weapons vanish from sight as the crystal finally ceased glowing. The crystal then shook around before shattering into pieces across the ground.

"Alright, so I ordered the pizzas you wanted, what now?" Jaune asked, exiting his dorm to meet the girls. When all he saw was a shattered crystal scattered across the ground, his confused gaze looked around, not knowing what had happened to them. "...Ruby? Weiss? Guys?"

The next thing the girls of Team RWBY knew, they were surrounded by white. A whole white perimeter was around them, with both white light and white walls that created a barrier around them, leaving no corner exposed as the bright light enveloped them. "Wha-...what happened?" Ruby asked, as she rose back to her feet, stepping on the white floor.

"Where are we?" Weiss asked, placing a hand on the wall to support herself as stood. Right when her delicate fingers touched the white wall, however, static seemed to glitch the wall out of existence, replacing it with its true face. The room was still clean, but it was a much more lived-in shade of brown, coupled with shades of black and more than a hint of red. Two machines were installed on either side, both sharing the appearance of a chrome coffee maker with a sophisticated keypad on either side. There were also double doors leading out of the room, made of wood and what seemed like another, glowing material.

"Whoa," Yang surmised, "t-this is weird."

"That's an understatement," Blake added, standing on unsteady feet as she looked around, "Do we know where we are?"

Right when their young leader shook her head, another voice came through as the door opened. The voice carried a British accent, and when RWBY turned to see who said what they did, they were shocked to see an inhuman creature, resembling a humanoid, brown iguana. "No. No you do not." were the words the creatures spoke, as he gripped the door trim with his leathery hands.

"Holy shit!" Yang blurted out, shocked at what she saw. Ruby and Weiss silently backed up, too stunned to formulate a response.

"W-What are you?" Blake asked, reaching back to grab Gambol Shroud with her left hand. To her sudden shock, her blade was not there.

The creature chuckled at their reactions and explained "Right, you don't know, then. I am an Alik'Onir. A race of hybrids, formed from man and reptile. You are currently in the Bloodworks in Jarot, on the planet Zestrum. I'm-"

Stopping him was a sudden, very hyperactive fifteen-year old girl jumping into his vision in a sea of rose petals. "D-Did you say P-Planet? As in, we're not on Remnant? As in, you're an alien?!"

Right when Noar nodded, he immediately knew he had made a mistake. Not in the shocked faces of the other three, but rather the damn-near literal bouncing off walls Ruby engaged in. "A real life alien, that's so cool! Do you have laser guns, I hope you do. Are they combined with anything, because a laser sword with a laser gun attached would be so cool! I-" she said, speaking as fast as she ran as she hopped around excitedly. Placing an iguana-skin finger on her lips, Noar stopped the train of thought calmly.

"Yes, yes, indeed," he says as he pulls his hand back, "But you should allow me to introduce myself. I am Noar, the Dahkat, or "King", of Jarot." As he bowed in respect, the girls reluctantly followed suit, though Ruby stayed on her feet, excited to see this new creature.

"It's g-good to meet you," Weiss said, still carrying an unbelieving tone in her voice. "I'm Weiss Schnee."

With a wave of his hand, Noar said "Not necessary, dear." Right there, a small Quad Drone with what appeared to be a camera emerged from the other door, with another Alik'Onir behind it: General Rahjat. The Drone rushed up and seemed to scan each one, a blue light shimmering over them. With a beep of approval, the Drone rushed back to Rahjat and chirped quietly.

"Um, okay," Blake said after a short pause, "Well, this was...interesting. But we don't want to overstay our welcome."

"Yeah," Ruby said, "We came here by accident and we don't want to be a bother. There was this crystal thing, and-"

"It was no accident," Noar quickly said.

"I beg your pardon?" Weiss asked, "What do you mean, it wasn't an accident?"

"Well, you see...I brought you here myself," Noar explained, "And now you're stuck here until you indulge my demands."

With fire in her now red eyes, Yang walked up to the hybrid king and said "So you kidnapped us, and you expect to get away with it?! I'll-"

"Calm yourself, Ms. Xiao Long," Noar said, quickly checking the name from the drone's side, "You'll give yourself a hernia. Allow us to explain."

With a quick switch of a remote hidden on a purple gauntlet previously connected to his robes, a window opened up in the room, revealing a grand coliseum. It looked much like the Vytal Festival's ring, as it was circular and looked very technological. The actual planet of Zestrum was revealed to RWBY at that point: a vast, orange desert surrounded a futuristic city, with cars that flew through the air. "See, the past Dahkat, Dopoka was...the greater of two evils, let me say," Noar said, "He took Credits out of the police force to fund our space center, which isn't a bad thing. But what that caused was crime skyrocketing. It's a bad sign when you wake up, go out to get a bloody newspaper, and you see people being raped and murdered close by. Fuckin' nightmare."

The very imagery of these reptilian humans suffering these crimes churned Ruby's stomach as Noar continued, "So, we decided to host a bit of catharsis. On certain nights, you go down to the pub, and watch two of us beat the shit out of each other. Except "that would have cost too much". So, me and Rahjat lopped his head off. So, as Dahkat, I finally did what I wanted."

"So," Weiss summed up, "You imprisoned us, took our weapons, and now you want us to kill people? You're sick!"

"That's...not particularly true," Noar said, closing the window back up, "You can go anywhere you like, even out to the pub if you need a beer, so you're not imprisoned. Your weapons were taken to make necessary adjustments. In your case, according to the drone, your ammo doesn't work outside of your home planet's atmosphere, so we're making new bullets and such. And this is most important: no one has to die. People can, and it's always great fun to see heads roll, but mercy is perfectly allowed."

"You still brought us here against our will!" Yang shouted.

"You're still making us fight in some arena," Blake added, "I doubt you'll let us, you know, choose not to fight."

Sighing, Noar paused before saying, "Hence why I'm the lesser of the two evils."

"But why?" Ruby asked, stunned at what had transpired, "Why be evil to start off with? Why not be good and make sure no one has to die?"

Whipping his head back towards Ruby, who took a step back from the sudden glare, Noar said "...Because life isn't fair like that, Ms. Rose. I'm doing the best I can. But bloodshed is in Jarot's mind right now. They want to see carnage after being exposed to pain for so long. Some of us were born in blood, and it's all we see. I didn't even want my old arena to have lethality. But when anger and pain drives you from birth, you hate the norm. I just hope you won't hate us for this…"

At that, Team RWBY calmed down, though their emotions still flared up at every word. "So," Weiss said, crossing her arms, "What now?"

"All sixteen contestants for this month of combat will be played on the monitor behind you, where the window was," said the engimatic Rahjat, finally speaking. Keeping the accent, his voice was cold and desolate, and deadpan in delivery. "After that, you can keep the monitor for intergalactic communication with Remnant."

Nodding, Weiss simply said "Alright…" and watched as they left, but not before said monitor appeared behind them. As it clicked on, it became clear that it was going to be a long month. And as the static snow tuned into the coverage of the event, the cheers of a thousand fans crying out in defiance only served to drive the point home: They're going to fight. Whether they like it or not.

(A/N: So, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! This story is written on my whims, meaning there is no long term plan for the conclusion or any plot points. While I am making it up as I go, I hope to do enough writing to make it fit in so it doesn't fall under any sort of beginner's trap or the like. Now then:

Note 1: The Green Lantern elements come into play next chapter. I wanted to focus on RWBY first because I have more experience writing for those characters.

Note 2: There will be romance, but between who, I'm not sure. It will be a RWBY ship, but that's only because the Green Lantern characters I want aren't the most compatible together.)