Foreword from the Author: This is a Semi-AU Fan fic, so some events may diverge from Canon, especially regarding the lore. Take it as such. Even so, parts of the story will operate within the RWBY timeline.
I was only 18 when I started my first world war. My life had been one of confusion, always spiraling towards the inevitable bloodshed that was carved into my DNA. I was never able to find out why I did start that war, why I purposely started the conflict that would end life. Yet, in order to understand the paradoxical, the illogical, and the dumb reason for why I killed everyone, I feel its best to know where humanity stemmed from.
Once, long ago, life blossomed anew in a column of fire, burning the world it once inhabited. Through the ashes of an old world a new one sprung forth, hatching from its cocoon and growing into its final state. It was a state of perfection, where pain would never again bubble out of the pores of the monsters it once knew. Yet, nothing can be truly created or destroyed. In the newly perfected state of the world, all the sins of the old world grew hotter and hotter and hotter.
It was on that day, when the pain boiled over, that we call the Night of the Grimm.
We, who had been perfected, had seen the witness of man's evils condense and form in an explosion.
He, the explosion of a ashen cloud of mushroom, who sent poisoned air and burned us alive.
They, who arose from the ashes. They, who were once man but never more.
Humanity learned of its mistake that day. In our selfish attempts to achieve perfection, we had destroyed a once perfect world and created the ultimate monsters. The Grimm.
They hunted and hunted and hunted, until what was left of Humanity began to slowly die off, withering away like a rotten apple. They tired of the rotten world they created, flying into the void in metal birds of flight, leaving the rest of us to wither away in the cold.
All our pain, our suppressed desires to kill, had finally been given a bodily form.
I, who had been born a millennia after the Night of the Grimm.
I, who had never known humanity.
I, who would know it more than most.
I, who would end it.
My story, in order to begin, must first be given context of the years before.
You see, in the days before Beacon, these monsters still fed off the corpses of man. Humanity had been confined to simple hunting villages, never lasting more than a month before returning to the dark from whence it came. Of these establishments, seven had managed to survive for more than 600 years on there own.
These great villages, known as the Great Cities, were the only ones who had managed to save the knowledge of the Dead World and the People Who Left Long Since, the world long since decayed. They were called Greed, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, and Pride.
They created a circle, whose size has always been debated. What is known, however, is that this circle created by the Great Cities was enough for thousands of villages to occupy. One of these small villages was named Cardinal. That was were my parents lived.
This circle, a safe zone where Humanity could once again grow, was named 'Beacon.'
But not as you know it.
It was a Beacon of hope, our light in the literal dark.
Cardinal was located near the center, was the knowledge nexus of the world. All knowledge of everything New or Dead had been held there, and was the prize of Humanity.
Yet, Humanity began to forget its sin.
In these cities, men began to prove its evil once again. Even after cleansing itself and isolating what possibly made them human to begin with, they began to grow dark. The tragedies that you know all too well began to occur yet again. Rape, murder, violence, hatred, all blossoming in its beauty. Its beauty, like a rose.
But a rose has thorns.
The Grimm reacted, growing into a frenzy of power and murderous intent. They, in the Second Night of the Grimm, had flooded into our cities and ravaged our people. We, who held them off for years on end, fell back to Cardinal. In our attempts to write off our evil as Grimm, we forgot that we weren't perfect.
A similar thing could be said about the Grimm themselves...
There, in the heart of Cardinal, the Hunters were created.
Along with the Faunus.
Using the knowledge of the Dead World, we synthesized yet another perfect breed of man. While we had removed our sins all those years ago, we now removed the cage of our bodies. We created the perfect vessel of power, a body which on the surface looked no different.
It was on the Seventh night of the Second Night of the Grimm that it can be said Humanity died. Why? All the men and women who had survived in this New world up until now had died, leaving only the city of Cardinal.
My parents were ones of the days of the New World.
In the flaming rubble of Wrath, they ran with my in their arms all the way to Cardinal, where they hid me in a collapsed building. I was no more than a newborn at that time, and was doomed to die. Still, they placed me within that rubble with tear filled eyes and ran off to fight the losing battle until their deaths.
We fought back. Humanity.
In our last dying breaths, we pushed the Grimm back beyond the corpses of the Great Seven Cities and rebuilt our defenses. Then, we died. I cannot tell you of the last human that died, or if he knew he was the last one. In a see of Hunters, no line could be drawn between us and them. Yet, just as it is factual that the sun burns bright, we died.
The Hunters continued, rebuilding the corpse of the New world into the World of Beacon. The world without pain or suffering, but without humanity or love. I, a Hunter, was found from that rubble by a Hunter known as Raven Branwen, my mother. She, who had just had a child of her own, had taken me under her wing. That child of hers was named Vigilance Black, my older brother.
Many had called her mother, but in truth she just ran an orphanage.
This is the story of my childhood.
I set down my book to look up at my Mother, who sighed with a tired face. She was beautiful, and unbelievably young, but that didn't stop the stress of raising two children from draining every ounce of energy she had. Her soft red eyes focused on me, her black hair flowing down from her head across her red silken dress. In our years of living within this cabin in the Dark Forest, it was amazing that she could stay so perfect.
"Mommy, what are we having for dinner?" I asked, walking up to her. She smiled at my youth, being no more than eight at the time. Her hand softly stroked through my gray hair, which contrasted her lineage so drastically. Nevertheless, she took my up in her arms and placed me on her lap, kissing me on my forehead.
"Stew again, little cub." Her voice said almost melodically. I smiled, leaning my head against her chest and closing my eyes softly.
"Where is Vigilance, Mommy?" I asked, my eyes growing heavy with slumber. Her lips stretched to a modest smile, her hand falling to my head and petting me.
"He's practicing his Semblance."
"What is a Semblance, Mommy?" I asked, causing her to chuckle slightly. Her weight went back in the old rocking chair, gently pushing us back and forth as her hand brushed the odd mask of her belt.
"That is for you to find out, little cub."
"But Mommy, you tell me all that stuff about the Dead World, why can't you tell me about this?" I asked, pointing to the old worn book on her couch. Her eyes gently closed, her breathing steadying.
"No one can say, little cub. The world is a big place, and one day you'll have to step out into it. I fear for the day when that will happen."
A scream interrupted her speech. From the backyard, my brother howled in pain. My mother instantly forgot the sleep that wore heavy on her eyelids as she placed on her mask and drew her katana, running outside. I followed quickly in pursuit, unaware of what was going on.
A Monster, black with bones of white, held my brother within the grips of his jaw. Vigilance screamed in pain as the monster bit into his stomach, petals of blood falling from the bleached white teeth of the Grimm. It had no mammal based form, no animal it was derived from.
"Mirror, stay back!" Mother shouted, leaping into action. Her blade blurred as it carved into the monster, shedding petals of crimson as the Grimm's organs leaked out of its rotten fur. It howled in pain, thrusting its claw against Raven's sword and causing a spark of light. The monster reeled back, swallowing my brother whole.
I screamed, knowing he was gone. Death wasn't a concept I understood until that moment.
Raven screamed at the death of her child, her blade glowing into a flame as she leaped around the monster, carving off entire sections of bone and blood. The creature howled in annoyance, swatting but a simple paw and cutting into her stomach, sending her to the floor.
And she died.
I screamed in agony, burying my head in my hands from the gory sight in front of me. It was in that moment that I snapped, losing all the innocence that my mother had worked so hard to kindle. My cream grew into a howl as my eyes glowed red in anger, my hair dying black and my fingers clicking. Bone shattered through my knuckles, forming claws and forcing me to fall into insanity.
I never could remember what happened in that moment.
Yet, when I awoke, I was alone. My hair was back to a gray and my family was gone. At the age of eight I was left to fend for myself.
I knew what I was. A monster. A Grimm