Chapter 1
The boy was bleeding from a dozen wounds, shards of glittering glass dusted his clothes, turning his blood into some miraculous liquid that shimmered in the moonlight.
"Give me... the phone. That call is for me..." Stumbling forward, the boy swiped his hand to try and grab the blonde Huntress' weapon, the riding crop. But so injured and bleeding, the boy missed and fell to his knees, panting. "The phone, lady. Give it."
Neither Ruby or Glynda knew what was happening, it was all so surreal. The trail of blood leading from the edge of the roof to the boy showed that he had climbed the ladder up here... but why? And what was a 'phone'?
"Are you alright?" Ruby asked and, after confirming that the threats had truly gone, ran towards the fallen boy. "You're bleeding so much! Can you help me?" She called to the Huntress who had saved her from the robber's final attack. "He really needs to get to a hospital!"
Ruby tried to lift the boy up by his shoulders, but let go when he started flailing.
~Tururururu~ The boy stuck his tongue out, making a strange ringing with his mouth, arms patting himself all over as if he was looking for something.
"See? That's. My. Call." He stood once more, one foot at a time, shaky and injured. "Give it." He said to the sky. The shadow of something dangerous flickered around the boy, a hulking, huge monster with arms so red that they seemed to be perpetually bleeding..."I'm Doppio and... The Boss wants to talk to me..." Then he fell on his face, unconscious.
The first thing Ozpin noticed about the man were his eyes. Silver with a strange triangular highlight to the side of the iris.
"Hello, young man. My name is Ozpin. How are you doing?" The events of the night aside, Glynda had mentioned that something strange was going on with this particular boy, what, with his silver eyes and all, and Ozpin had decided to investigate. "I'm sorry you had to get caught up in the crossfire like that."
"I'm fine." The boy's voice was gruff, deep, too deep for someone as young as he. "My name is Vinegar Doppio." It was a half lie. Doppio may have been the name of the persona that usually controlled this body, but the one in charge right now was a completely different man, someone far older and more dangerous, speaking through the body of the innocent seventeen year old.
"Alright, Vinegar-"
"Call me Doppio."
Ozpin nodded his head in understanding. "Doppio, then. Do you remember what happened last night? My associate, Glynda, informed me that you were acting quite strangely. Can you tell me why?"
'Doppio' made a face and brushed his messy hair to one side of his head. "I needed to take a call," he said sarcastically.
"If you needed a Scroll, son. All you had to do was ask." Ozpin took his own out of his pocket and handed it to the boy. "Go on. If you need to call someone, here you are."
Once again, Doppio sneered. "This isn't a phone, old man. What is this thing?" He inspected it, flipping it over in his hands. "Is this a trick?"
"No trick." Ozpin said. "You haven't seen one before?" It was doubtful. Scrolls were nearly ubiquitous in this day and age. "They are rather useful devices called Scrolls. With them you can watch video, make calls, among other things."
"No... I've never seen one before." Doppio passed the Scroll back to the silver haired Headmaster. "Tell me where I am, old man."
"You're in the Kingdom of Vale. More specifically, you're in the city of Vale. Glynda took you to a hospital shortly after you were found. Where did you expect to be?" That was the question, and despite the banality of the conversation, and the growing sense that he was wasting his time, Ozpin waited for Doppio to answer.
"Italy... I was in Italy."
"I've never heard of it."
"Never heard of Italy?" Doppio whispered, sounding scared and overjoyed at the same time. "Are you sure?"
"Positive. I don't mean to brag, but I am rather well educated about these sorts of things. I am certain that I would have heard about this 'Italy' if it existed."
"Every one has heard of Italy, old man. It's the most famous country in the world." Doppio went silent. "Do these mean anything to you? Vatican, Leonardo Da Vinci, Venezia, Stands?" The last one was said in such a whispered, quiet voice that Ozpin had to strain himself to understand.
"Never. I haven't heard a single one of the words you mentioned. Why?" Now boredom had become intrigue. Ozpin was curious.
"Impossible. To think that I've escaped from that death loop only to end up in another Hell..." Doppio muttered to himself. "Giorno Giovanna... you bastard."
"What are you talking about? Death loop? Giorno? Who is that?"
But Doppio shook his head. "It's nothing." Doppio said quietly. "Old man. You've done me a great service. Thank you."
Were those tears? Ozpin couldn't quite tell.
"Anyone would have done the same." Ozpin stated lamely. "And it was my associate, Glynda Goodwitch you should be thanking. She's the one who brought you to the hospital."
Doppio shook his head vigorously. "She's your underling, isn't she?"
"I wouldn't called her an underling-"
"Whatever. Thing is I owe you, old man. You saved me from a rather shitty situation. Name your wish."
"Wish?"
"Yes. Wish. Name what you want and if it is my power, I will do it." Doppio was completely serious, a hundred times more mature than his looks suggested. It was his inner mafioso talking, the desire for mutual respect and to pay back debts. His word was ironclad.
Ozpin thought for a moment what a bedridden teenager could do for him. "Alright then," he decided. "Miss Goodwitch said earlier that she saw a the shadow of a strange figure appear around you. What did she mean by that?"
Doppio grunted. "Is that all you want? I thought you didn't know what a Stand is?" Nevertheless, Doppio did as he was bid and summoned his Stand, King Crimson. "Can you see this?" He asked.
"Amazing..." Out of nowhere, a huge figure had appeared, tall and red and crisscrossed with silver lines. On it's forehead was a second face, one that looked just as angry as the main head. "Is that... man that appeared next to you your Stand? I had no idea such a thing existed."
"How can you see it then?" Doppio asked. "Only Stand Users can see Stands. If you aren't a Stand user, then how?"
Ozpin merely shrugged. "I don't know."
The stately, ever angry King Crimson grabbed for Doppio a small glass of water on his bedside table. It was almost comical to watch this hulking, muscle bound monster act as servant for the young man.
"I assume you use your Stand for combat as well?" Ozpin reached out and touched the red figure in front of him. It felt cool, almost reptilian in how its skin was so slick and hard.
"Yes." That one touch told Doppio much. The people of Remnant could not only see, but they could touch Stands without being Stand users themselves. "King Crimson is quite strong."
"You've named it?"
Doppio scoffed. "Of course I did. King Crimson is my faithful servant."
"What can it do?" That was what Ozpin was most curious about.
"What do you expect it to do?" Doppio commanded his Stand to throw out several punches, shadow boxing even though the Stand did not cast a shadow. "It can hit things. It's fast. That's it." A lie, but Doppio didn't want anyone to know the secret of King Crimson.
"Hmm..." Ozpin muttered to himself. The boy didn't seem like a liar, and Ozpin was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. "What will you do next?"
"What do you mean, old man?"
"The doctors say that you are free to leave whenever. Your injuries were not very severe. Do you have a home? Anywhere to go to? You spoke of a place that doesn't exist. Italy. What will you do?"
"I don't know." There came a forlorn, profoundly sad expression on Doppio's handsome, freckle covered face. "You might have guessed at what I'm trying to say. That I'm not from around here and that I have no way of getting back to my... home. But I'll figure something out."
Ozpin looked as if he wanted to say something, but the man closed his mouth. "I could help you, you know. I teach at a school that trains girls and boys to be Hunters. How about you join? You look to be around seventeen, I could give you a place there, if you want."
"Not interested." Doppio gave a grin and realized that this was just another test of fate. This would be his second chance to create his empire. An announcement came on over the hospital's speakers signalling that visiting hours were over. "That's your cue to leave."
When Ozpin left the room, Diavolo sighed in relief. It was incredibly annoying to maintain control and keep Doppio's youthful facade up at the same time.
He let the transformation take its full course and in the hospital room was a grown man of thirty three instead of a youth of seventeen. Diavolo shrugged the hospital linens off and stood to his feet. Thankfully his clothes had been placed on a table next to him, freshly washed and laundered. He looked in the mirror, touching himself all over, remembering the millions of wounds that he had accrued over his time in Giorno Giovanna's death loop. Oh if only he had won the fight for the Arrow, everything would be so different.
But now, here he was, once all powerful mafia kingpin, now banished to a strange world where he had no choice but to play along and grovel, as if he was some dependent child. God, Diavolo shook his head and ran his fingers through his long, pink hair. It truly was a desperate situation for Diavolo. Considering how ignorant he was of the world of Remnant, it would be nearly impossible for him to find a way back to Italy, especially if he was to work alone. Sure, he was happy to be free from that cycle of infinite death, but it still rankled him to no end that he had been subject to such terror.
After a while of ranting and trashing the room around him, Diavolo decided that there was a silver lining to his arrival at Remnant.
In this new world, no one knew of him. They had only seen Vinegar Doppio, the handsome, ditzy youth. Of course it was Diavolo that had been speaking to Ozpin earlier, but that had been a necessity, it had been with Doppio's body so there wasn't a huge risk of his double nature being revealed. The Headmaster was obviously an intelligent man, and had Diavolo allowed Doppio to stay in control... well, Doppio had never been one for diplomacy. The boy would probably have screwed things up in some way or another.
"King Crimson." Diavolo summoned his Stand and stared at it for a good while. "We are in a dangerous new world, aren't we?" He asked, knowing fully that there would be no response save an animalistic growl and the grinding of teeth. "A world where no one knows of my past, but one where we have no future..." It depressed him greatly that Passione was gone, out of his reach forever. The fruit of fourteen years of hard labor, meticulous planning and oversight, taken down by those bastard children Bruno Bucciarati and Giorno Giovanna.
God! Thinking about it made Diavolo tug at his own hair, growling in frustration and anger. He had been the Emperor! The man with the unbeatable Stand, the Boss who controlled the entirety of Passione from the shadows, expanding his wealth and influence farther than any mafioso could have ever dreamed of... He could have ruled the world! He was the master of fate, the only one who could ever completely control destiny! How? How? How? How? How could he had lost?
It was too painful to recall the countless deaths and rebirths, the knives and gunshots, the times spent eaten alive by various animals, drowning in foul, stagnant sewers and- Diavolo wrenched his mind from the death loop and wept.
He had nothing now. His empire was dust and the only thing to do was to build it again. Yes, Diavolo clenched his fist and ground his teeth and reignited the passion in his heart, wiping his tears. He would go to Beacon Academy and become the master of his fate all over again. That was his dream, to be the Emperor.
Doppio settled into the armchair, a stolen doughnut crammed into his mouth as he perused the book in his lap.
A History of Remnant, read the title.
"Huh." Doppio stared into the ceiling, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was past midnight now but Doppio wanted to at least get through another chapter of his book before going to sleep. The Boss had called again, suggesting that Doppio research the land that they were in, and as always, Doppio obeyed. This time he had broken into Tukson's Book Trade, using King Crimson's powers to enter undetected while the owner had been closing up shop. The poor man hadn't suspected a thing.
Blinking, Doppio turned back to his book and continued reading about the strange monsters that roamed the world of Remnant called 'Grimm'. The illustrations in the book showed fantastical creatures in shades of black and white and accents of red that looked incredibly similar to animals that Doppio had known back on Earth. The Grimm even had similar names! It was a coincidence that no one else would have overlooked, but Doppio considered it to be just that, a coincidence, and nothing more.
His reading had been fairly comprehensive that night. First going over what exactly a 'Hunter' was and what their general role in society and abilities were. The 'Aura' and 'Semblance' that the Hunters used to fight the Grimm seemed to be a rudimentary form of Stand power and Doppio supposed that was the reason that the Boss had mentioned that on Remnant, non Stand users could see and interact with Stands.
"These people are so weird," Doppio moaned. Especially strange had been the chapter on the 'Faunus'. Apparently there existed an entire separate species of sentient beings on Remnant, only difference from humans was that they had physical traits from specific types of animals. It was strange, but Doppio had enjoyed that picture of the girl with rabbit ears... it was cute.
But despite how much he wanted to read, to learn so that he could better help the Boss, Doppio knew that it was best for him to go to sleep. He stood and slid the thick history book back onto the shelf and settled into the small armchair in which he had been reading in. It was old and comfortable and the store was warm. Doppio fell asleep quickly.
And once Doppio was asleep, Diavolo came out to play.
The transformation took around ten seconds, first the hair lengthening and turning to Diavolo's characteristic shade of pink his eyes turning silver and erupting with black fragments, muscles growing, body growing taller- Diavolo quickly stripped himself of Doppio's purple sweater so that it wouldn't rip. Underneath was a slim, muscular body covered in a mesh wire shirt that seemed to be designed after a spider's web.
The Emperor was back.
Standing from the warm seat, Diavolo quickly made his way for the door and activated King Crimson, skipping over the section of time in which he would have opened the door to walk through. To an observer it would have appeared as if he simply teleported outside, the door had never been unlocked, no alarm had been triggered. The result of his walking was there, but the cause was gone, as if it had been erased from ever occurring...
'Thank you, my dear...' Diavolo thought to himself, praising his alternate personality for being so studious. With the information about this new world safely stored in Doppio's memory, Diavolo had access to it whenever he so desired. Now all that was left to do was ingrain himself in the criminal underworld... And what better way to do that than to find criminals?
It was perfect. With his experience as a mafia kingpin back in Italy, Diavolo knew how to wage and win a turf war. He, after all, had defeated and assimilated all those other gangs, turning a once fragmented criminal underground into a cohesive and lucrative enterprise. And, like before, Diavolo had his Stand. Remnant would pose no threat to the Emperor... right?
The more he thought, the more Diavolo realized that not all was well. Even with the power of King Crimson he simply did not have the human resources needed to create a replica to Passione. One of the main reasons that Diavolo had been able to create such a powerful gang so quickly had been because of the success of Passione's narcotics division. Massimo Volpe and his Stand, Manic Depression, had been able to turn ordinary salt into the most addictive, powerful drug on the market. Without such a clear and easy source of income, creating a new gang would be difficult.
And the arrow... Diavolo had found the six arrows in his youth while on an archaeological expedition. Five of them he had sold to that old hag, the money used as capital to start Passione, but Diavolo had kept one, the beetle headed Stand Arrow. That one had become Passione's initiation test, making sure that no weak willed members could join and bringing a constant supply of Stand users into the gang. That was the true secret behind Passione. Despite all the secrecy and infighting and constant revolts, the power of having an army of Stand users had been the reason why Diavolo was so easily able to defeat rival gangs and enforce his rule. There were only about a thousand members of Passione at any given time, but what would it matter when the members were had powers that the mundane couldn't compete with?
No, Diavolo was missing three key ingredients to start a gang. He had no money, no soldiers, and no product. It would be best to take over an existing gang...
His rambling thoughts and mindless wandering had led Diavolo to a seedy part of town, one with flashing neon lights advertising strip clubs and titty bars and where pungent smoke wafted through windows and vents. It was dirty here, weeds growing through the sidewalk, through the cobblestones, choking the earth, bottles everywhere, some broken, some whole, some still half full of alcohol. It was disgusting and low and dangerous and Diavolo knew that this was the right place to be
Two men were crossing the street, greedy grins on their faces. From what Doppio had read earlier, Diavolo knew these two to be Faunus. The first had the ears of a sad basset hound, the second the striped tail of a tiger. They had identical masks on, made of some white bone like material that seemed to glow orange in the presence of the old streetlights. Gang members? Diavolo ventured a guess, and judging by the weapons in their hands, a length of chain and a hammer respectively, the two Faunus were trying to protect their turf.
"Did either of you... see my face?" Diavolo asked in a whisper, to his side a cloud of smoke had erupted, the silhouette of a man seen blurrily. "Tell the truth."
"Yeah, and you look like a faggot," said the Faunus with the tiger tail. "Your hair naturally that shit color?"
"Yes." Diavolo stalked forward, a menacing expression on his face. "Tell me, who do you work for?"
"Step back, guy." The Faunus with the droopy ears raised his weapon as if to strike. "We're part of White Fang, and we own these streets, you humans ain't welcome here." The word human was laced with derision and anger.
Diavolo wasn't concerned at all about the two Faunus, he would kill them soon enough for having seen his face, but he needed information first. "King Crimson!" Diavolo's hair flew unnaturally to cover his face, the insides of his bangs showed a strange, distorted world where the two Faunus that had threatened Diavolo, they were moving, attacking with their hammer and chain. Diavolo saw a flash of his own death at the hands of the two brutes and activated his Stand. "Time has been erased!"
Then he stood behind the two men, King Crimson's fist through the one with the tiger's tail and the other kicked to the ground by Diavolo himself.
"What, what the fuck just happened?"
Diavolo dismissed his Stand and let the poor tiger Faunus fall to the ground, wheezing for air that would not come. His lungs, had been obliterated by King Crimson's punch. With his foot, Diavolo casually kicked the dog eared Faunus in the throat.
"Nameless, faceless creatures such as you don't even deserve an explanation." Diavolo said plainly as the Faunus squirmed beneath him. "You subhuman filth, you don't even qualify as ants!" Diavolo kicked again, this time hitting the man in the forehead, cutting him deeply with the hard leather head of the shoe.
"What, what, what..." The remaining Faunus turned his head and saw the lifeless, bloodless face of his comrade. He looked so pale in death. What had happened? He had tried to hit the man, and then- the man made a sound of despair. He didn't even remember swinging his hammer. He had begun to but everything after that simply wasn't there. As if it had never happened, as if he had gone from point A to point C without even traveling. What?
Diavolo grabbed the thug by the collar and pulled him to the curb, distaste clearly on his face. "Don't even try and figure it out. You're too stupid. Tell me what White Fang is." With a cruel hand, Diavolo ripped the mask from the dog Faunus' face. "Oh, stop crying. You're an adult."
"W-who are you?" The Faunus stammered. His hands were warm with blood, with his friend's blood.
"Don't be so fucking cliched!" Diavolo picked the man up, tugging him again by the collar, and slammed him to the ground. "What's your name?"
"C-cannae," the Faunus ground out. "Man, what the fuck did you just do?" He was panicking, too scared and confused to know what was going on. A hand slapped him twice on the same cheek, hard. "Fuck, man!"
"Listen you little shit. Cannae, you're totally fucked right now. You know that?" Diavolo shouted into the man's face and realized that there were other people on the streets now, none of them really paying attention, but all of them going about their business. If any of them were to catch glimpse of his face, he'd kill them as well...
But the people in this part of town, they were used to the violence. They barely paid Diavolo any attention.
"What is White Fang?" Diavolo whispered to his victim and pulled him behind an automobile for a modicum of privacy. "Tell me, Cannae. Your death is going to be painful as shit, so don't ask for mercy or anything like that."
"White Fang? I'm a member of White Fang."
"I know!" Diavolo wanted to scream, but he knew it would attract more attention. Instead he whispered harshly and pulled on Cannae's eyelid. "You piece of shit, if the next words out of your mouth aren't related to what White Fang is, I'm going to pull off your eyelids."
"What? Please, please, you can't-"
But Diavolo did.
The Faunus clutched at his eye as blood erupted from the space above the newly exposed eye. There was red everywhere, so red, so much blood that it covered and soaked into his eyes.
He tried letting out a scream but found that a fist had been shoved inside his mouth, all the way to the back of his throat, gagging him.
"Listen, you little shit. You're going to die. You understand?"
Cannae nodded, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.
"Good. Just calm the fuck down and tell me what White Fang is." Diavolo slowly removed his hand from the Faunus' mouth. Even alligators and sharks couldn't bite when something was blocking their throat like that.
The two sat in silence for a minute or so and the thug realized that the terrifying man before him had silver eyes flecked with black. This wasn't an ordinary person he was dealing with, this man with the outrageous pink hair, with the strange mesh shirt- this man was the devil himself.
"White Fang is an organization of Faunus..." the terrified man whispered, his throat still aching from the earlier kick. "It used to be peaceful and everything, but that didn't get anything done. Humans, you guys never stopped with the discrimination. What were we supposed to do? When you can't feed your kids cause no one will hire you just because you're a-"
"Who's the leader?"
"I don't know-" a strike to the forehead made Cannae rethink his answer. "Roman! It's Roman Torchwick, but he's not the head! He's just my boss!"
Diavolo grabbed the Faunus by the droopy dog ear that marked him as other, as different, and slammed his face into the concrete curb. "That's enough." Diavolo stood and nudged the man with his shoe. "Now bite down."
"What?" It came out all slurred and wet because all Cannae could taste was his own blood and the piece of cheek that he had accidentally bitten off.
"Bite down on the curb."
The dog man was too scared to do anything other than obey. "Like th-"
Diavolo picked up his foot and stomped on the back of the man's head, forcing his teeth and mouth into the rough concrete, breaking teeth and gum and skull. The pop of the man's jaw being dislocated, the crunch of his digging into the mealy flesh of the mouth. There was so much blood. So many teeth flying everywhere.
Some one on the street screamed. There was cursing as people came to investigate the sounds of murder and found the bodies of the victims, one made a doughnut the other with his head obliterated. But no police were called. At least, not until morning. The people here, they didn't trust the law like that...
With the power of King Crimson, Diavolo escaped into an alleyway without anyone else actually having seen him.
"White Fang, huh?" From his vantage point in the shadows, Diavolo watched as the blood from the corpses began to pool. As the crimson stain began to spread, Diavolo plotted his rise to power.
AN: I'm completely rewriting what I have so far of this story to better reflect on what I originally intended when writing this fic. Sorry for the hassle.
The only thing that's changed so from the first post of chapter one and this post is that Doppio/Diavolo will not be attending Beacon