Alright, if you've never read one of my stories before, please read the authors note at the end of the chapter.
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
David's eyes shot open and he quickly got up off the floor. Without even needing to see it, he could tell the room was filling with smoke, a large fire spreading near him. He got up, tried to run over to the door, but winced in pain, a piece of metal had embedded itself in the back of his left knee. He ignored the pain and limped over to the metal door, pulling on it, but it was jammed. David coughed as the smoke spread throughout the room and banged on the door.
"Hello! Is anyone out there!" He yelled as loud as he could, banging on the door again. No response came. "Damn it." David cursed to himself, and took out his energy sword, activating it. He stuck it into the door frame and cut around the diameter of the door until he reached the starting point. He deactivated his sword and with his other arm, pushed with his telekinesis and the door flew off the wall, a bright light shining in his eyes.
David shook his head to remove the disorientation and walked through the door, now exposed to sunlight as he looked at the wreckage around him. The airship that had been used to move him and the rest of his team from Vale to Vacuo was a wreck, scattered pieces of the ship around the now cleared area of a dense forest, multiple trees having been chopped down or simply crushed by debris. David took a deep breath of fresh air and skidded down the chunk of the airship, landing on the ground with a thud, his left leg in pain. He reached for his walkie-talkie and held it to his mouth.
"Indiana, come in." He spoke, but after several second s was only met with static. "Indiana, did you catch up to Samantha? Is she alive?" David asked, more worry in his voice, but was met again with static. "Indiana, come in!" Static. David sighed and attached the walkie-talkie to his belt. "Shit." He gazed up to the sky to see the trail of smoke caused by the airship's crash. His thoughts were immediately interrupted by a sudden realisation. "Anna!" He sprinted as fast as he could to the largest piece of debris and climbed to the top, looking around the area for his teammate. "Anna! Anna!" David yelled, hoping for a response of any kind. He stopped when he saw her surrounded by debris on the outskirts of the wreckage. She wasn't moving.
David leapt off the debris and ran towards Anna, telekinetically moving pieces of debris out of the way and fell to his knees when he reached her. A large amount of blood was leaking from a gash on her forehead, staining her hair and the ground beneath her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her onto his lap, he shook her slightly, hoping for her to wake up. "Come on, Anna. Not now. Come on." He pleaded, holding her tightly as he shook her a little more. "Wake up!" David yelled, desperate not to lose her, but she remained still. He held her tightly as he waited for anything to happen. "No... please, no..." He hugged her tightly, unable to let her go.
THE XIAO LONG CHRONICLES
VOLUME 3 - EVERYBODY LIES
CHAPTER ONE
DAY 1
David slowly opened his eyes, looking out of the window of the airship as he yawned loudly, stretching in his bed. He glanced at the clock next to the bed, which read 9:14, which then turned to 9:15. On a regular day at Beacon Academy, most students would be all dressed, has breakfast and likely be at lessons for this time, but this wasn't the case. You see, David wasn't at Beacon, not any more, at least, since he and his team had all been sent on a mission to Vacuo with an undetermined completion date, with orders to investigate and eliminate sighing of Grimm Hybrids spotted in Vacuo.
This hadn't been their first run-in with Grimm Hybrids, one had been created with the soul purpose to fight David and steal his AI, Epsilon, which had been a success on the Grimm's hand. However, after a daring assault on a white fang base, they defeated the Grimm Hybrid, Crane, and retrieved Epsilon. Now, they were all on an airship bound for Vacuo after leaving Beacon several days ago.
David got out of his bed, stretched and walked over to the window, leaning in the window frame, looking down at the vast, dense forest beneath them. They were a few miles from the point of no return, roughly half way between Vale and Vacuo, no safety of the kingdoms, or any safety at all, for miles upon miles in any direction. David leant away from the window and grabbed a towel, taking a quickly shower, and changed into his combat outfit. A black, long sleeves fleece shirt with pitch black combat trousers, a bright yellow trim along the length of each leg, a set of black combat boots and golden polarized goggles. He walked over to the nearby table, grabbing and sheathing a pair of daggers, put on his dust-infused black fingerless gloves, attached his walkie-talkie to his belt on the left side and attached his energy sword to his belt on his right side.
"Do you ever realise how much black you wear?" Anna asked David, catching his attention as she leant on the door frame. She was wearing her combat outfit, a black skin tight full body suit, skin-tight brown trousers with a black belt, a brown leather jacket which cut off just above her waist, and a selection of necklaces around her neck. Attached to her back was a 'X' shaped sheath with two katanas inside, both ready to be drawn.
"You're hardly one to talk, your entire body, save your head, is covered in black. Even your hair is black." David pointed out to her, which she responded by rolling her eyes, walking over to him. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be getting breakfast, or something?"
"What? Am I not allowed to see my boyfriend this early in the morning?" Anna teasingly asked, wrapping her arms around David's back, leaning slightly on his chest. "Besides, I'm getting real sick of being in the air all the time."
"Its only been a week or so." David reminded her.
"Yeah, it doesn't sound like much when you say it, but a week is much longer when it's actually been a week." She said annoyingly, letting go of David and walking away a little in annoyance. David sighed and walked up to her.
"Come on, let's just get some breakfast, Indiana and Samantha are probably already there." David suggested and they both left his room, hands interlocked.
Indiana leant back on the cafeteria chair, reading his scroll as he ate his cereal, wearing his combat outfit. A black fleece jacket with a missing right sleeve, revealing his metal replacement limb, along with a pair of dark blue cargo trousers and long, dark blue boots and a navy blue fingerless glove on his right hand. Leaning against the table was his weapon, which after many modifications, became an assault-rifle-grenade-launcher-knife combination, called the 'Knifle' by his younger, 13 year old, teammate who sat opposite him.
Samantha carefully stacked another waffle from one stack onto another stack, her tongue sticking out a little from the corner of her mouth, then proceeded to stack another. She, like the rest of her team, was in her combat outfit. A pink vest with a short sleeves white leather jacket, her emblem printed on her back, with a short pink skirt and white leggings with white trainers and a pair of orange fingerless gloves. On both of her forearms were a pair of white gauntlets, each with four retractable blades inside each gauntlet. Leaning on the table was her high-powered white and pink sniper rifle. Indiana glanced up at Samantha, and raised an eyebrow.
"Samantha, what... are you doing?" He asked her slowly as Samantha stacked another waffle.
"Well, I love waffles, but the stacks are never high enough. So, I ordered my breakfast and David's breakfast in order to stack them on top of each other, satisfy my hunger." She explained to him.
"You told David this, right?" He asked.
"Oh, umm, yeah... yeah, he said he wouldn't be hungry..." Samantha said slowly.
"Did I now?" David asked as he and Anna entered the airships cafeteria, greatly shocking Samantha, causing Indiana to chuckle as he continued reading his scroll. "And for your information, Samantha, I'm not actually that hungry-"
"See, no harm done!" Samantha interjected.
"-but I'll just take one." David finished with a small smirk, sitting down at the table next to Indiana, Anna sitting opposite him with an apple.
"No! Stay away from my waffles!" The young huntress yelled, moving her arms defensively to guard them. Anna glanced at David, who nodded to her, and she reached behind Samantha and grabbed one of her waffles, tossing it to David, who caught it in the air with his telekinesis.
"Thanks Anna." He thanked her, and she winked with a small smirk. Samantha's eyes widened.
"Nooooo! My waffle!" She cried, slamming her head on the table as tears threatened to escape from her eyes. Indiana looked away from his scroll and at Samantha.
"Samantha, it was one waffle, you can share one." He told her.
"But... waffle..." She muttered sadly.
"Oh, grow up, you act like such a child sometimes." Indiana muttered, looking back at his scroll.
"I'm 13." Samantha deadpanned, deciding to eat the remaining waffles. David leaned over to Indiana's scroll.
"What's happened?" David asked.
"Well, according to this, Beacon was recently attacked." Indiana told the team.
"What? By who? White Fang?" Anna asked.
"No, it says they were attacked by robots, controlled by a bigger, more sophisticated robot." Indiana stated, catching the teams full attention. "Yeah, the robots attacked the cafeteria, but the students at Beacon managed to destroy them without any casualties. It says they were led by a new student called 'Epsilon Xiao Long', he destroyed the main robot, stopping all the other ones."
"Huh, I guess Epsilon is dealing with the problem." David noted, taking a bite of the waffle. "Any news from Vacuo about the Hybrids?"
"One second..." Indiana tapped a few buttons on is scroll. "Uhh... no, everything seems fine in Vacuo. I guess their government is covering it up to prevent panic."
"Seems reasonable." Anna noted, taking a bite of her fruit. "So what's Vacuo like?"
"No idea. I've never been. You?" David asked Indiana, who shook his head. "Samantha?" She shook her head, mouth filled with waffles. "I guess dad's been before, but as far as I know, it's a desert."
"Great, we get to spend our foreseeable future as hunters in a frickin' desert." Indiana complained.
"Oh, come in, it's not that bad. It'll be fun, to see new places." Samantha tried to cheer him up.
"We were barely in Beacon for half a year, and we're forced to leave. Besides, a forest is definitely better than a desert." He complained again. "It's Ironwoods fault, we saved Beacon from a Queen Nevermore, and this is how we're rewarded."
"You know why we're here." David said to him. "Grimm Hybrids are a new threat, nobody knows about them besides us. They're a threat that most hunters cannot deal with, and will only cause the people to panic. More panic will lead to more Grimm. If we can't deal with them, nobody can."
"Did you practice that speech, or on the spot?" Anna asked, amused.
"Oh, I rehearsed in front of the mirror every night." He joked.
"I guess." Indiana sighed. "Maybe Vacuo isn't that ba-"
The wall of the cafeteria smashed open, metal shrapnel flying across the room as a figure leapt in and slammed a large broadsword at us, smashing the table and knocking us all across the room. David quickly rolled back to his feet to see the attacker.
"Crane." David glared coldly, the Grimm Hybrid growling at him with a devilish grin. In its right hand was it's broadsword, a shield in its left arm, the Hybrids body embedded with metal shards to protect its body and it's red and white eyes holding a hard stare.
"You left me for dead, now it's time for payback!" Crane yelled, slashing his broadsword at David, who back flipped out of the way. David activated his energy sword, running at Crane and attacking, distracting the Grimm so Anna, Indiana and Samantha could gather their weapons. David slashed at Crane's chest, scratching the metal but leaving Crane undamaged. Crane swung his sword at David, who ducked under the sword, and Crane slammed his shield into David's chest, sending to the ground with a thump.
"David!" Anna yelled, angrily turning to Crane and unsheathed her katanas, yelling as she ran at him and sliced at his chest, slipping them through the cracks and breaking the skin, black blood staining Anna's katanas as Crane clutched his chest. Indiana cocked his rifle and fired at Crane, who lifted his shield to block the bullets. Indiana threw his assault rifle as Crane, who stopped it with his shield, the knife end of the weapon burying in the shield.
Crane threw the shield onto the ground, Indiana's gun falling out of the shield. Indiana lunged at the Hybrid, swinging his metal limb at it, but Crane caught his fist with its own fist, yelling a growl as Crane threw Indiana across the room. Samantha loaded her sniper rifle and aimed at Crane's forehead. The Grimm turned to her and raise his broadsword, and Samantha fired, the bullet piercing Crane's skull and passed through and destroyed his left eye, a large hole in its head.
Crane roared in pain and charged at Samantha, who fired a couple more shots into Crane's left leg and chest, until Crane grabbed her by the neck and threw her as hard as he could into the side of the airship, she broke through the wall and was sent flying through the sky.
"Samantha!" Indiana yelled, arm outstretched. He turned and glared at Crane, running into the Grimm and tackling it to the ground. Indiana got off the Grimm and desperately turned to David.
"Go! Get Samantha!" David ordered him, lunging at Crane with his sword. Indiana grabbed his weapon and a parachute and jumped out of the hole in the wall. Crane waved his arm to the side, slamming David into the wall and he fell to the ground again. He summoned a dust-pistol and shot several bullets at Crane, burning into his chest, distracting it as Anna sliced Crane's back. The Grimm roared in pain, turning around and slamming his broadsword down onto Anna, who stopped the blade with her two katanas. She pushed her arms up, forcing the broadsword away and kicked Crane in the chest, causing him to fall down a set of stair and into another room. Anna turned and ran over to David, helping him up.
"Are you alright?!" Anna yelled over the sound of the air rushing through the room.
"I'm good!" David assured her. "Where's Crane?!" Anna turned to the stairs and they both ran to them, Crane was missing. "Why would he leave?" At that moment, the lights went off and the ship went silent.
"Oh no." Anna said quietly.
"What?" He asked. Anna turned to David
"Crane's disabled the ship." Anna told him, and the airship started to nosedive to the ground. David and Anna quickly ran and grabbed onto the door frame to keep them on the ground. They looked at each other as many objects in the cafeteria started to slide towards the front end of the room as the airship continued descending. The door slammed shut, forcing both of them to let go. David reached and grabbed onto the table, and reached for Anna, but missed.
"Anna!" David yelled as Anna continued falling downwards and through another door, which slammed shut behind her. David looked out the hole in the wall to see that the ship was mere seconds from impact. He braced himself.
CRASH!
David's eyes shot open and he quickly got up off the floor. Without even needing to see it, he could tell the room was filling with smoke, a large fire spreading near him. He got up, tried to run over to the door, but winced in pain, a piece of metal had embedded itself in the back of his left knee. He ignored the pain and limped over to the metal door, pulling on it, but it was jammed. David coughed as the smoke spread throughout the room and banged on the door.
"Hello! Is anyone out there!" He yelled as loud as he could, banging on the door again. No response came. "Damn it." David cursed to himself, and took out his energy sword, activating it. He stuck it into the door frame and cut around the diameter of the door until he reached the starting point. He deactivated his sword and with his other arm, pushed with his telekinesis and the door flew off the wall, a bright light shining in his eyes.
David shook his head to remove the disorientation and walked through the door, now exposed to sunlight as he looked at the wreckage around him. The airship that had been used to move him and the rest of his team from Vale to Vacuo was a wreck, scattered pieces of the ship around the now cleared area of a dense forest, multiple trees having been chopped down or simply crushed by debris. David took a deep breath of fresh air and skidded down the chunk of the airship, landing on the ground with a thud, his left leg in pain. He reached for his walkie-talkie and held it to his mouth.
"Indiana, come in." He spoke, but after several second s was only met with static. "Indiana, did you catch up to Samantha? Is she alive?" David asked, more worry in his voice, but was met again with static. "Indiana, come in!" Static. David sighed and attached the walkie-talkie to his belt. "Shit." He gazed up to the sky to see the trail of smoke caused by the airship's crash. His thoughts were immediately interrupted by a sudden realisation. "Anna!" He sprinted as fast as he could to the largest piece of debris and climbed to the top, looking around the area for his teammate. "Anna! Anna!" David yelled, hoping for a response of any kind. He stopped when he saw her surrounded by debris on the outskirts of the wreckage. She wasn't moving.
David leapt off the debris and ran towards Anna, telekinetically moving pieces of debris out of the way and fell to his knees when he reached her. A large amount of blood was leaking from a gash on her forehead, staining her hair and the ground beneath her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her onto his lap, he shook her slightly, hoping for her to wake up. "Come on, Anna. Not now. Come on." He pleaded, holding her tightly as he shook her a little more. "Wake up!" David yelled, desperate not to lose her, but she remained still. He held her tightly as he waited for anything to happen. "No... please, no..." He hugged her tightly, unable to let her go.
Anna's eyes shot open as she gasped loudly, talking in a large breath of air. David looked down at her with a huge grin, hugging her tightly.
"Anna! I thought I'd lost you." He thanked as she hugged him back.
"Gonna take more than a crashed airship to stop us, right?" She asked.
"Right." He agreed, letting her go as she leant back, kneeling opposite him. "Are you alright?"
"No, my heads really hurting." Anna admitted, rubbing her forehead, recoiling after feeling the blood.
"Your aura must have drained, wait here." David instructed her as he limped over to a piece of the crashed airship and opened the door. He walked in and scanned the room for a first-aid kit, quickly finding one attached to the wall in the corner of the room. He grabbed it and exited the room, sitting down opposite Anna and opening the kit. "I'm gonna have to clean your head wound, might have to bandage it if it's really severe."
"Okay." Anna acknowledged, using her hand to push her hair out of the way of her forehead. David opened up a towelette and wiped the blood from Anna's head, she remained still despite stinging a little. He disposed of the towelette and looked at the wound.
"It's not too bad, some gauze will be good enough." David told her, and she nodded. He took out some of the gauze and attached it to her forehead wound, adding some adhesive tape to keep it attached to her head. "That aught to do."
"Thanks." Anna thanked, giving David a quick kiss. "I noticed you were limping, what's the matter?"
"Oh, bit of metal stuck in my leg. It's too dangerous to remove now, could be worse than we think. Right now, we need to find Indiana and Samantha, see where they are and if they managed to land safely." David explained to her.
"Right, best we regroup. This area's not safe anyway, could be Grimm nearby." She agreed, she got up first and offered a hand, helping me to my feet. "They fell before we crashed, so we need to head east." We walked towards the back of the debris when a thought occurred. "Have you seen Crane?"
"No... crash would have killed it, best case scenario anyway." David told her.
"And worst case?" She asked.
"Crane survived." He stated. "I'd rather not find out, so let's get ahead, just in case." The two continued waling east, unaware of the banging on the door of a section of the airship.
David and Anna continued waling through the dense, seemingly empty forest, following the direction the sun was giving them. Luckily, they hadn't encountered any Grimm, but neither of them let their guard down. As Anna continued onward, she looked back to see David moving behind at a slower pace. "You okay?"
"I just... need a second." David told her, attempting to ignore the pain every time he put pressure on his left leg. He walked over to a rock and slumped down onto it, taking a deep sigh of relief. Anna looked around the forest, eyes narrowed. "You feel it too?"
"Yes. I can't help but feel we're being watched..." Anna responded, looking through the dense forest. David sighed and looked down at his left leg, the piece of metal sticking out. It hurt him just to think about it. David pushed himself back to his feet, walking towards Anna.
"Alright, I'm good. Let's keep movi-" Crane jumped out of the dense forest and slammed his shield into David's back, sending him flying across the forest. Anna's first instinct was to turn invisible, using whatever aura she had to activate her semblance. She crept around a group of trees to get behind Crane, unsheathed her left katana in her left hand, and lunged. Crane sensed the movement and spun around, slashing his clawed hand downward, digging into Anna's left arm, tearing open the black sleeve covering her arm and leaving a deep gash. Anna screamed in pain as she fell to the floor, her invisibility deactivating as she closed her right hand over the wound to try and stop blood from escaping. She turned and looked as Crane approached her, dragging is broadsword, she tried to crawl away, but the pain in her arm was too unbearable. Crane stood next to the defenceless huntress and raised his broadsword, and swung it down.
Just before the sword hit Anna, David held his arm out, telekinetically stopping the broadsword in it's tracks. Crane growled and threw his shield at David, who raised and activated his energy sword, slicing the shield in half when it reached him. As David got to his feet, Crane grabbed him by the shoulders and head-butted David, knocking to the floor, the hybrid grabbing his deactivated energy sword, crushing it in his hand with ease. Crane put his right foot on David's chest, pinning him to the floor as he swung his broadsword at David's head. David reached down and pulled out the piece of metal from his left leg, stabbing it into Crane's right leg, causing the hybrid to miss the swing and collapse to his knees. Crane yelled in anger and closed his fist around David's neck.
"Pathetic Inhumans, both of you. And I was hoping for a challenge." Crane taunted, tightening his grip as David pulled on Crane's arm to try and get free. "You're a fool. No man can kill me. Die now."
"You're a fool." Anna said to the Crane, causing the Grimm Hybrid to turn around to her. She swung her right katana at its head, decapitating the Hybrid as it's lifeless body fell to the ground. "I am no man." Anna fell to the ground, exhausted. David pushed the Hybrid away from himself and Anna as he moved over to her.
"Crazy day, huh?" David jokingly asked.
"Definitely." Anna agreed, laughing a little, stopping when the pain in her arm returned.
"Oh fuck, this doesn't look good." David stated, looking at the deep gash in Anna's left arm. He took out the rest of the gauze and wrapped it around her forearm, stopping the bleeding. He added the bandages over the top to keep the gauze attached. "Hopefully your aura will fix this in a couple of days."
"Hopefully. At least that chunk of metal is out of your leg now." Anna noted.
"But my sword..." David picked up the now unusable energy sword, too broken to reactivate. He pocketed it. "It's too dangerous to leave here. It'll have to be disposed of properly." Anna nodded. "We still need to find Indiana and Samantha. Can you walk?"
"I might need help." Anna told him truthfully. David helped her to her feet, she wrapped an arm around the back of his neck to support herself.
"Hey." David said, catching Anna's attention. He leant over and gave her a kiss, which she returned. "We're going to be alright, this is just a minor setback, and a victory. Without Crane, there hybrids will be leaderless, should be a breeze."
"Yeah, but it's a long way to Vacuo." Anna reminded.
"Well, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." David said, and they continued walking east to find the rest of their team.
END OF CHAPTER ONE
Too late, my time has come,
Send shivers down my spine, Body's aching all the time,
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go,
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.
Right, just in case you're confused, please be aware this story is NOT the first one in it's universe. If you haven't read any of my other stories, you must read "A Special Semblance" before reading this, reading "Life on Remnant" will help, but isn't necessary.
Reading "Almost One of a Kind" isn't necessary now, but at around half-way through this story, I'd recommend reading at least the last 3 or 4 chapters, just so events add up in this story.
Please, don't think negatively of this story if there are things you don't understand. It is crucial to read the previous stories before reading this one.
You've been warned.
Hey, everyone, it's finally here, the next chapter in my elaborate and over-the-top story! So, with Volume 2 in a mess with either being completed, or on hiatus (depending on what happens in RWBY Volume 4), I decided now was the time for this story for one major reason: It doesn't effect future events.
You see, this story is both a sequel, and a prequel. A Sequel to "A Special Semblance", but a prequel to "Almost One of a Kind". This story is basically the middle man, it bridges the gap between the two. During Volume 2, there were hints and name-drops to David and his team, and other OC's who knew him, and, you know, David did turn up at the end of the story... Anyway, this is what happens between David and the rest of Team DARK leaving for Vacuo, and David fighting during the Battle of Beacon.
These are the changes from Volume 1 & 2 to Volume 3...
1) This story is almost entirely OC driven, I plan to have one canon character turn up later, but everyone else will be OC's. Don't expect Team RWBY or Team JNPR, they're hanging out with Epsilon before the tournament happens.
2) This story is Rated M. At this time, several themes will come up in the latter half of this story that haven't really been explored before in Volume's 1 and 2. I won't say what they are, but there's a reason why this story is M rated.
3) Again, unlike the previous stories, this fanfiction is 100% planned, I've created the storyline, every major OC, everything for this story has been set in motion months ago. I know exactly which direction this fanfiction will go, and personally, it's better than anything I've written beforehand. So far, I plan to have 13-14 chapters, but might change due to the ending of RWBY Volume 3.
4) This entire story is in the third person, David is still the protagonist, but this story doesn't focus entirely on him. Also, I learnt a lesson from the last few chapters of Volume 2, when Epsilon was barely in it, that being in the first person can be pain when they aren't there.
Now that the chapter is finished, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review, and thank you for reading the first chapter of "Everybody Lies"