(Author's Note: This story will never been completed, but will parallel the entire series. I plan to work on this story, hopefully, as long as RWBY is produced. This means that there will be long intervals where the story will not continue due to the time between volumes. This story contains original characters of my own creation, but I will put in glimpses of actual RWBY characters. To help the story flow as close to the real show as possible. Major events will happen in this story just as they happened in the show, however, the bulk of the story will be about these new characters. I own nothing but my own characters, RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and the team at Rooster Teeth.)
The sky above the prestigious school of Beacon was clear and bright. It was the first full day for the new students at Beacon, and they were all on their way to initiation.
"Kniv, what do you think will happen to us out there?" It was the first thing that Fen had said to him since they had woken up.
"I'm not sure sis. My guess is that they will want to see how well we can fight." Kniv replied to his sister, tilting his head down slightly to make eye-contact with her, giving her a slight smile to calm her down.
Luckily for him, it worked and she seemed to release the tension that held her shoulders close to her neck. She calmly ran her fingers up and down Fatum, the heavy tungsten head bounced off of her leg armor, thankfully not drawing enough force for the white dust inside to do its work.
"What about teams? Aren't you worried that we won't be on the same team?" Fen was starting to stress again. She never did stop worrying about something until it was over.
"Fen," Kniv said as he lovingly placed an arm around her shoulders,"I'm sure that we'll be able to get on the same team. Rumors say that teams consist of four students each. Please sis, don't worry yourself so much. Things will happen as they may, and we need to accept that and make the best of the outcome."
'Kniv can be so wise when he want to be,' Fen thought to herself. "Alright Kniv," she said with a smile, "I guess you make a good point." She took a long look at her brother; saw how he never hid his ears that marked him as a Faunus, even though they were the cause of most of his pain as a child.
She thought back to the day that her parents brought him home from the orphanarium. She had seen Faunus before, but never really got to know any and was therefore curious. She never made fun of him for his lack of birth parents, nor his heritage as a Faunus. She instead, opted to scratch his wolf-like ears and ask him questions.
Kniv was never cross, or even became annoyed when she asked her questions. He enjoyed having somebody to talk to who wasn't discriminatory towards him. He had grown up in an orphanarium where the other children had called him a dog, and treated him as such. He never got to talk to anybody, being the only Faunus in the orphanarium, and often opted to stay in his room. Alone, he tinkered with electronics and dreamt of a better life.
Then he met the Qing's. They had been going around Vale trying to find a Faunus orphan. They were one of the several families in Vale that were very well respected, although not entirely rich. They were Faunus sympathizers who wanted to show that not all Faunus were bad or lesser beings than humans. They had found the orphanarium that housed the tormented Faunus and promptly adopted him without a second thought.
When Kniv saw that he had a new family and a new home, he was shy at first. He didn't know what to expect, and thought that he was being adopted to be some sort of servant. Those thoughts quickly faded as he walked into the Qing's three-story house. Kniv was immediately wrapped in a bear hug by Fen, his new sister. While Kniv was only one year older, he felt as though they were the same age, and rightfully so. Fen was so smart that she rivaled him in intellect, and one of their favorite pastimes was playing chess.
All of this ran through Fen's mind as they stood at the exit of the weapons locker room. Kniv brought Fen into a warm, reassuring hug. "It'll all work out in the end," Kniv told her, "you'll see." He looked down at his sister and saw her light brown hair curled around her shoulder. He saw her wearing her blue-green armored corset, full length arm armor that shielded her upper arms only, similar armor was on her legs, and Fatum clasped to her waist. Fatum is a flail that contains concussive amounts of white dust in the head, and a carbon fiber body and chains that made separation of the heavy, spiked tungsten head nearly impossible. She had also modified the hilt to house a shotgun that had an external clip and strap that she slipped over her wrist to ensure the flail did not slip from her grasp. The clasp was attached to a belt that was covered in several pouches that were used to store extra ammo clips for the shotgun and any extra survival gear she wanted.
In turn, Fen looked up at her older, adopted brother. She saw the metal vambraces that housed electronic screens, his full length leg armor, combat boots, teal short sleeve shirt, and straps along his chest, arms, and legs to hold all 20 of his Paidiá, iridium throwing knives that he modified himself. He could even attach them together and detach them to form just about any shape he wanted to. They also held Nano chips in their hilts that responded to similar chips inside his vambraces. The screens simply allowed him to alter what he programmed them to do. They were always set to return to him in proper position to re-throw if he missed his target. Each knife had a hilt of three inches and a blade of four. He was also wearing a belt similar to hers that held his own survival equipment, and sunglasses resting on top of his dark brown hair that he kept around his forehead.
They started their walk out to the cliffs overlooking the Emerald Forest. Once they got there, they stood on their platforms, waiting to be launched into the air to showcase their landing strategy. After Ms. Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin finished their little spiel about the assignment of teams, they prepared for launch. Fen looked at Kniv with a look of momentary panic.
"Just don't make eye contact with anybody until you hear my voice." He smiled at her as he spoke and saw her smile back. She gave him a nob of understanding and looked out above the forest. Kniv lowered his favorite fast-jacket sunglasses over his eyes and a look of determination spread across his face. He was happy they chose platforms that were close together, it meant that they would land close together.
Flying through the air not what Kniv would describe as fun. In fact, he would rather do anything else. He down-right hated flying across the sky.
'If I was meant to fly, I would have been born half bird instead of half wolf' Kniv though as he began casually grabbed five of his Paidiá and connected them so that they roughly resembled a sickle.
'Ah,' he thought to himself, 'this will work perfectly.' He planned to dig it into the side of a tree trunk, or grab a thick branch with it so that his momentum would slowly fade.
As luck would have it, he was able to opt for choice number two, the safer of the option. When he landed on the ground, he quickly detached them and put them back in place on the straps that held them. He quickly slowed his breathing and listened for his sister when she landed. He knew full well that her landing would make a fair amount of noise crashing through the forest canopy. She would use her semblance in her landing so she arrived on the ground as if dropped off by a cloud…
Fen felt exhilarated by the feeling of flight. She had a large smile on her face that she quickly removed when a small bug hit her square in the face.
'Well,' she thought, 'that was unpleasant.' She quickly wiped it off and slowed her breathing to control her heart rate, knowing full well that she needed to slow her heart rate to be able to use her semblance. Her adrenaline was her first obstacle to overcome, yet she quickly achieved getting her heart rate down. Breathing deep, she used her semblance flawlessly. She used her telekinesis to pick up a small, flat rock from the forest far below her. Using her willpower, she rode the rock down to the seemingly endless sea of green below her.
Getting closer to the ground, she mentally told the rock to move up, against her downward force. This caused her speed to decrease drastically, to the point where she touched the ground making only a small indent where the rock landed. She looked above her and saw the hole in the canopy above; leaves were still falling around her. She quickly tilted her head down and scanned the area.
Seeing no one around, she yelled "Kniv!" out into the forest. She started walking slowly toward the area she believed her brother landed…
After hearing the snapping of branched off the right, Kniv quickly turned and started off in that direction. His thoughts were proven correct as he heard his sister call his name in the direction he was heading.
'With a little luck,' he thought, 'we'll meet each other halfway.' Once again, he found himself to be correct. They met each other in a small clearing between where they landed.
"I'm so happy that we found each other!" Fen said full of joy. She ran over to her brother to give him a hug.
Kniv simply smiled and said, "Me too. I'm glad I don't have to trust your protection with somebody else." Although she was 16 and a bit young to be at Beacon, Kniv was still protective of her.
"Hey, I'm 16 and can defend myself just as well as you can." She replied with a humph. Kniv just smiled and rolled his eyes. Embracing her, he quickly noticed that the forest had grown silent around them. Kniv's keen ears were able to pick up a faint sound that he did not like, not one bit.
He quickly broke the embrace and dragged Fen over to the tree line. "Hey!" Fen said, "What are you doing?" Just then, she saw that dreaded two headed snake rise up from the grass. The creature of Grimm had been attracted there by all the noise the two siblings had made.
"A King Taijitu." Fen breathed, thankful for her brother's acute hearing. She instinctively reached for Fatum, unclasped it, and held it, ready to strike. Her mind whirled as she began to think of strategy, both offensive and defensive.
"Kniv, get up that tree and get ready. I'm going to stun it when it attacks, and when I do, I want you to throw a couple of your Paidiá at its eyes." Fen quickly explained her plan to her brother. "If we blind it, we have a better chance of killing this beast unscathed." Kniv understood. He also knew that his sister could do far more than just her part in the plan; in fact, she probably wanted to finish it off herself.
He knew that there was only a 1% chance that his knives would even penetrate its scales. The trick was hitting the darker scales on each end, those were the weaker ones. The middle where the two bodies joined was impenetrable to his attacks. The most his knives would do if he missed the weak scales, was embed themselves in the surrounding scales and just make the two-headed snake angrier.
"You got it." Kniv replied, not wasting time in arguing with a solid idea. He quickly jumped up the nearest tree. "Use your semblance so that the Grimm focuses on me." Fen instructed him. He did as he was told and slowed his heart rate. Suddenly, it seemed as though he just disappeared. Fen knew better; she saw the ripple of light that betrayed his position in the tree. His stealth was unnerving at the best of times.
The King Taijitu was only momentarily confused by the move, and focused on the seemingly defenseless girl that would soon rest in its stomach. The black head lurched at her so fast that its movements were a blur. None the less, Fen dove to the side, doing a roll to bring her to her feet. The snake plowed its head into the ground and was momentarily stunned by the impact.
This was the moment Fen took to swing the heavy tungsten head of the flail down onto the snakes head. The force of the blow alone would have been enough to knock it into a state of confusion, but the added power of the white dust that escaped the head put it down for the count, its eyes now laying outside of its skull.
The reverberation through the body of the beast was enough to stun the white head before it could attack. In the blink of an eye, two knives protruded from the its eyes and it gave a blood-curdling hiss. Kniv, however, could not prevent the flow of adrenaline into his heart, and quickly became visible again as his heart rate rose.
Not that it really mattered now; the creature of Grimm had to rely on its hearing to be able to find its opponents. It stood there, still and unmoving, trying to pick up any amount of noise that its prey made. Its forked tongue tasted the air. All of a sudden, a knife whisked through the air, embedding itself into the hard armored scales of its body.
'Shoot, just low.' Kniv thought to himself. 'Just a few inches higher and...' He threw another of his Paidiá and watched as it slashed straight through the giant snake. It had found the weak scales on each side and embedded itself into the ground on the opposite side of its body.
The snake fell to the ground, having had a knife slice through its lungs. It lay there, trying to breathe as the brother and sister, it's former prey, stood above it.
"May I?" Fen asked her brother as she readily lifted her flail. "The honor is all yours." Kniv replied with a smile. With his blessing that both knew wasn't necessary; she swung her flail down onto the snake's remaining head, hard. There was a powerful blast as the whole head caved in, the dust adding to the energy. Kniv took a few minutes to gather his Paidiá.
"We should keep moving." Kniv said, patting his little sister on the back. "This is precisely why I never make you angry," he said with a laugh. Fen couldn't help but crack a smile. "So wise of you," she said with a small laugh.
