Author's Note:

The follow up to Who am I but a Monster. And, yes, you will have to read that first to understand the beginning.

Anyways, not much to say here, enjoy and I hope you'll join me for the ride.

Leave a review and the usual, tell me what you liked and what you didn't like, yada, yada, yada. Enjoy.

- Lor

Chapter 1: Can a Ghost Be Hurt?

It was a regular day in the dorm room of team RWBY, that was, until they were called to the headmaster's office. Only a few days have passed between the encounter in the forest with the unknown figure. The team was called in and promptly took the seats that were set in Professor Ozpin's office.

There were a bundle of papers on top of Professor Ozpin's desk with a steaming cup of coffee on it. The office was relatively neat, except for papers strewn on the tops of filing cabinets. Professor Ozpin looked up from his desk filled with papers, "Good morning team RWBY."

"Good morning Professor," Ruby greeted.

"So, what's up? Another mission?" Yang asked casually.

"Yang, you're speaking to our headmaster," Weiss scolded.

"She is right," Blake stated.

"It's fine," He said pausing to take a sip of coffee. "You're probably wondering why I called you here," Professor Ozpin said, taking another sip of his coffee. "Yang, do you recall the boy in the forest of Forever Fall?"

Yang clenched her hands and was about to slam it onto the chair. "Of course! He saves us then turns against us. He toyed with my emotions and tricked me."

"I want the four of you to bring him in, you failed to do so before and I can understand. But, now we have a better idea of what you're up against." Professor Ozpin said taking out his scroll. "You've already seen that he can create illusions from his own will."

"Is that his semblance?" Ruby asked.

"That's only part of it, he also seems to be able to create his own dimension of some kind, and as Yang has already experienced it causes people to see things that are not real. He can turn rocks into horses, trees into a storm of crows and create imitations of people," Professor Ozpin stated. "That's all that we could find, you four are tasked with bringing him in, harmed or unharmed. But he must be alive."

"Oh, I'll bring him in," Yang said, clenching her teeth.

"We'll do our best sir," Ruby said.

The four left to go to the forest of Forever Fall, to pursue this mysterious individual. They were floating above the forest as the driver nodded to team RWBY's leader, Ruby Rose.

"You guys know the plan right?" Ruby asked.

"We split off in two, and keep in contact with our scrolls, if we see him we buzz," Yang stated.

"Good, and Yang, thanks for not getting angry," Ruby replied.

"I'm saving it for when I meet the jerk," Yang answered while clenching her fist.

The hatch opened, Ruby and Weiss leapt off first, Yang and Blake were the last to get off. I'm coming for you. Yang thought as the two dropped.

Yet another quiet day, I walked through the forest like every other day. I sighed as I walked through the forest. I heard crows coming from north of the forest, the train was in that direction but at this time of day the train would have already passed. I then heard rustling in the forest as if there were people there. Great, just my luck, I thought as I decided to run away from the sound. If they didn't come here then they couldn't find me.

I heard the noise pick up from behind me, "Wait!" I heard a feminine voice say.

I didn't wait; instead I created a pocket dimension and transformed a tree into a storm of crows. "Ah!" I heard the same voice cry, followed by another gust of wind.

Two of them? Great, I continued to run forward away from the two and escape them. I didn't want to face them at all; they'd only see me for the monster I am. I heard the gust of wind race by and shielded my eyes. There was a white haired female. She was in a white dress, I vaguely remembered her. "Tch, what do you want?"

"We've got orders to bring you in," The White haired female said.

"Does it look like I want to be brought in?" I hypothetically asked, clenching my hands into fists.

"Hmph, fine, we'll do this the hard way," She said with a smirk.

I felt her dash towards me with a rapier pointed towards me. I dodged to the right creating a storm of crows from the trees to go and maul her. She simply slashed them apart and they returned back to being wood. "It'll take more than mere illusions to stop me."

"Hmph," I said reaching out for the chain and sword. They formed from the blue flames on both of my hands.

The white haired girl prepared herself. She waited for me to attack, I smiled under my hood. I whipped my chain at her and caught her rapier in it, I then jerked her towards me and she lost balance, falling to the ground. Her rapier fell to the ground with a twang. "What will you do without your weapon?" I taunted.

She scrambled towards her weapon and I made my way over. Before she could reach for her weapon I'd set my blade under her throat. I bent down and picked up her rapier, tossing it off to the side. I kicked her in the stomach and she fell. She seemed to be unconscious, I was about to make my way over her to check if she was alright when I felt a kick from behind me.

"Leave her alone!" I heard a person cry out.

I was tumbling forward; I used the momentum to push me back up. Doing so the momentum shook me around but I regained my footing. I turned around to see a girl in a black blouse and dress with red trimming. I heard several more rustling coming from both sides, I saw a blonde girl appear from the air, she was wearing a gauntlet that was positioned right in front of my face. I leaned back and she fell, going into a roll. There was also a black haired girl that appeared beside her.

"You're going to pay!" The blonde said.

"I'm sorry, but, who are you?" I asked.

"You hurt me three days ago, in this very forest!" She yelled, her temper rising.

"Tch," I said to myself. "Why won't you people just leave me alone."

I saw the white haired girl coming around; I noticed this and caused a pocket dimension to occur behind us. The girls noticed this, "Guys, watch out."

"Screw this!" The blonde yelled jumping straight for me.

I cloaked myself in a secondary dimension, causing me to become invisible in this one. I decided to leave an imitation there. The blonde's fist hit the illusion and it disappeared in a mist of vapour. "Where is he, nobody knows! But only that you should leave him alone, you should know!" I said running away.

I dissolved the pocket dimension and ran, the four noticed me and began to pursue. At this I became angry. Why do they insist on following me? I told to myself as I ran. Can't they see I don't want to be near them? "Why are you running!" I heard one of them say. "It's not like you have anything to hide!"

I felt myself choke, I fought back tears. I didn't know at all why I still cried when people say things like that. "Leave me alone!" I cried out continuing to run.

They gave way to a high speed chase; I saw a blur rush past me from my right side and stopped in front of me. It was the girl that kicked me before; she had a scythe at the ready. I couldn't stop and would've collided with her, wait, why would I? I'm a ghost right? I then heard large growls from deep within the forest. Trees came crashing down and an Ursa was holding out its right paw to swipe at the girl. No! I thought as I dashed in front of her and grabbed hold of her. I held on to her as I turned around. I felt the Ursa swipe at me and a pain flared. I pushed the girl away and she stumbled, I turned around. I created my sword in my right hand and stabbed it into its belly. I then sliced upwards killing the beast, I panted, exhausted from the fight and run. Gotta run, I thought before I heard more rustling from the forest.

I felt a blow to my head.

Ruby saw what happened from the ground, the boy had taken the blow that was meant for her and protected her. Yang went over to pick up her sister before jumping to hit the boy in the back of the head. "Yang! Why'd you hit him, he saved me," Ruby said.

"Oh right, like he saved me before," Yang replied.

The White haired girl joined them shortly afterwards. "Good, you two have caught him."

"Well, I didn't do that, Yang did, but only after he saved me," Ruby stated.

"That doesn't matter, we've got what we've came for," Yang said picking up the body of the unconscious boy.

"She's right, we'll let the headmaster take care of him," Weiss stated.

Ruby sighed, "Let's call for extraction then." Why'd he save me? She thought while going back on mission.

They did so, this required a strong signal so that they could reach the channel back at Beacon. This seemed to alert several creatures of Grimm nearby. "You girls have to prepare for the Grimm coming your way, the signal that you sent will affect them and alert them to your presence." Professor Ozpin instructed.

"Right," Ruby answered.

"Good luck, we'll see you in an hour," The Headmaster said signing off.

There were several growls coming from the forest, following by a loud menacing screech. "You guys think that that's a Nevermore?" Ruby asked.

Yang hoisted the limp body of the boy, "Nope, but I don't want to sit here and find out."

"Right, we should get moving," Blake stated.

Ruby nodded and the four began to move to their extraction point, situated several miles ahead of them. They arrived in a short time, that was when they heard trees tumbling and another screech occur. A group of Ursa came crashing through the forest, "Yang, get him out of here."

"No way, I'm not leaving you guys," Yang protested.

"This is an order from your leader!" Ruby ordered firing at an approaching Ursa. "Go!"

She began to run from the forest, she didn't like to do this as one, she wanted to fight, and two, she was afraid of losing her sister. The image during her visit to the forest a few days ago still stained her mind. She felt the boy stir on her shoulder shortly afterwards. She prepared for his struggle.

I felt myself come around an hour later, I realised that I was being carried by the blonde. "Let me go!" I ordered.

"Nope, you're coming with us like it or not," Yang said.

A loud screech came from the forest.

My face paled, well, as much of a pale as a ghost could. "Let me go! I have to help them!"

"Right, help them," Yang said rolling her eyes. "It's just a Nevermore, we've fought those before."

"That's not a Nevermore!" I said pushing myself off of her shoulder.

I ran, I ran in the direction of where the screeches were coming from. I hoped that I wasn't too late.

Ruby's eyes were wide open in fear, the beast that advanced towards her was no regular creature of Grimm. The creature was on all fours, with scaly skin. It's heads had horns on its top and had a long snout. Each of them struck fear to her mind. Her comrades were on the ground, unconscious, but alive.

Its arms and claws screamed death; there was a compressed set of leathery wings on each of its arms. Its narrow reptilian eyes focussed on her, its long claws were like razor sharp swords, glistening in the light of the sun. Its body was slender and had spikes on its back, its powerful hind legs were extended. Those too, were deadly weapons, it also lad a long tail with spikes at its end.

The last feature of the creature was its black scales and a white scaly underside. It had red piercing eyes that would intimidate even the bravest hunter. Simply put, it was a dragon Grimm. They were a rare breed and lived solitary lives, but they were ready at any moment to lunge at any prey or huntress in training, in this case.

Ruby checked here pockets for ammo, only to find that she had no more ammo left. The Dragon Grimm had a smoke coming from its mouth, prepared to cook the girl alive. She braced herself for the inevitable end that would come.

But it never did.

She opened her eyes and saw the boy that Yang was supposed to contain in front of her, he had a chain around the dragon's neck. The dragon already prepared a blast of fire, it was stronger than the boy and was about to blast them both. "Watch out!" The boy cried out, letting go of the chain and diving for the girl to get her out of the way.

I got off of the girl, I felt something burning on me, my cloak. Damn cloak, I thought as I took it off. I hope they'll run when they finally see what I am after all of this. I turned back to the dragon; I held my sword in my right hand, pointed towards the dragon at an angle. Ready to guard it's next strike.

It swung its claw at me and I blocked it, being pushed back slightly. I leapt forward and grabbed onto its arm, it lifted me up and brought me to its mouth, its jaw open revealing rows of spiked teeth. It shook me off and I was already falling, waiting for me to come in. I was too late and I didn't have anything to grip onto to escape.

I felt myself being carried off, the girl in black and red grabbed me as I was falling and saved me from my demise. Heh, could a ghost really be killed like that?

"You okay?" She asked, getting off of me.

"Yeah," I answered. The dragon screeched again, "Ready to kill this thing?" I asked.

"Ready," She answered.

It began to spew smoke from it's nozzle, this signalled that it was about to spew fire at the both of us. I whipped my chain around it's neck, running to the side and yanking it along with me. It opened it's jaw and I saw the erupting flame rise from it's throat. "Now!" I yelled.

She leapt and with her scythe decapitating the beast.

The dragon fell to the ground limply, it's head severed from the rest of its body in a clean slice.

I was merely anticipating the pain and suffering that would come, what I got thought was something that threw me completely off. "Why'd you help us?" The girl in black and red asked.

"Just because I fought you guys doesn't mean I hate you," I said sighing. "I just want to be left alone."

The girl in black and white came around by the time we'd slain the dragon. Now she was walking towards me, still dazed from the hit but conscious enough to understand the conversation.

"But why?" The girl in black and white asked.

"Cause I hate people," I stated.

"But, why?" The girl in black and red asked.

I sighed yet again. I was curious at the same time; they still couldn't see what I was? Why? "Something happened to me a while back," I said.

"What do you mean? It's not like someone hurt you, right?" The same girl asked.

More like people, I thought to myself, beginning to tear as I remembered the cursed names that people shouted at me. Demon, monster, freak, each thought of it brought back memories of pain and suffering.

"Sorry, if I brought up something," The girl in black and red apologized. "We're here for you, we understand," She continued taking a step forward closer to me.

"You don't understand!" I yelled through tears. "Nobody will understand the pain that I've been through!" I felt something touch my shoulder, and looked to find the girl with black hair look at me sympathetically. I looked into her eyes and saw the eyes of someone that received pain just like I have. The other's looked at me and began to grow sympathetic, even the blonde that I've broken in the past. Maybe, they don't know, I began to think thoughts of joy. Could this be a new life?

"We're here for you," The girl in red and black attempted to assure me.

I felt this assuring aura from everybody, it made me stream tears of joy. "Really?" I asked.

"We are," The black haired girl said.

For some reason I found it reassuring coming from that girl. I saw a large airship on top of us landing down. The four of them got on but I remained on the ground, unsure whether to take the leap. The blonde stopped and turned around, "Come on, you coming, or do I have to drag you on?" She asked, holding out her hand.

Should I take it? They don't even know what I am, but, this feeling. They, they can see me for what I am, not what I look like. It'll be a new life and a new meaning.

I took her hand.