Long ago, before Dust and before Grimm, Humans and Faunus fought each other in mad, lustful grabs for power. In time, the Humans created the Sixteen, a full armory of weapons that could only be wielded by the purest of individuals. The magic that forged them, an old woman with purple hair and gave no name other than Silver, caused them to also be able to mutate themselves to constantly be ahead of anything anyone else could create.
Due to the fact that these weapons rejected – violently – anyone over a certain age, the Humans kidnapped sixteen babies and trained them from birth to wield the weapons. Swords, scythes, even gauntlets counted themselves among the ranks of the Sixteen. Thus, the children learned how to use these weapons better than they even knew how to speak.
Eventually, on their fifteenth year, they were deployed against the Faunus. However, due to the purity in their hearts and weapons, they were unable to attack. They cried out to the heavens, begging for mercy or release, and the heavens answered.
Two beings descended amongst the battlefield, halting it immediately. Silver and a man with silver hair landed amongst the children, and Silver spoke words that were never heard. The man, meanwhile, spoke to the opposing armies and negotiated peace. Then, all looked on as Silver turned the Sixteen children into Sixteen Dragons, giving each a power and a responsibility to the continuation of seasons.
Spring began with Rogue, who swept the winter storms away with her speed. Next came Triton, who lived in the water and raised its temperature. Then came Lotus, who began the growing process for plants; followed by Rose, the spring dragon who woke up hibernating animals.
The summer dragons began with Freyja, who watered the ground with storms. Xing heated up the days, and Xiang heated them up further. Sol finished summer off by making the days the longest of all.
Autumn dragons had their work cut out, beginning the slow process of cooling the world down. Belle started off by switching the length of days and nights. Osthato pushed plants to grow their best before harvest, and immediately after Nike brought about the Autumn leaves. Rayan finally cooled the temperatures to their pre-winter levels, after all three of the previous had been slowly doing that as well.
Winter dragons were the least favored, for no one enjoyed the cold season, but it did have one plus side. Togira came first, finishing Raven's job of cooling the world. Then Joan came and sent animals to hibernation. Eissen came second to last, freezing the world just in time for Reaper to do his job of wiping out the population of Grimm.
The Grimm spawned as a punishment to Humanity and Faunus for fighting. In order to unify the old enemies, and also drive them to better themselves, the Grimm came every year, usually beginning nearly immediately after the Cleansing, and attacked Civilization until Reaper wiped them from the face of the world once a year. It was for this reason that he was called the Hunter.
They were the dragons that made up the Sixteen. The problem was, how were they supposed to preform their duties, guard the Weapons, and defend against attacks from those who would exploit them? Simple; the only one who knew of their existence was the silver haired man.
()()()()()()()()
"Ah, yes, Peter. And Bartholomew, a pleasant surprise it is to see you. What can I do for you gentleman today?"
Behind the counter of a bookstore stood a man in green clothing, half-moon glasses, and silver hair. Against the wall behind him was a cane. He looked upon them pleasantly, for they were his most common customers.
"It's good to see you too, Oz. It's been a long while. Say, do you happen to have any books on the Sixteen this time around?"
Ozpin smiled. "Bart, you know that the Sixteen don't exist, yes? It's an old wives' tale to keep children from misbehaving. Besides, since when has there been an actual Grimm attack?"
"Ah, Ozpin. This reminds me of a time in my youth, when I saw Rogue–"
The door slammed open, revealing a particularly angry blond woman. She, like most present, had glasses on, but they did not hide the steely glare she set upon the man behind the counter.
"Atlas is sending troops to Menagerie."
Ozpin turned sharply toward her. "What?"
"Atlas is sending troops to Menagerie. Humans and Faunus are once again fighting. And why? Because the Grimm didn't come back."
"And what am I supposed to do about that? If the legends are to be believed–"
"Cut the crap, Ozpin, we know you're the Silver Haired Man."
Ozpin sobered. "Fine. You want the truth, I'll tell you the truth.
"When Silver passed her judgement on the world, cursing them with yearly Grimm raids, she promised that once a suitable amount of time had passed, the curse would lift. Knowing that this would leave Hunter with nothing to do for the rest of eternity, she gave him one final job: he would be able to rally all other dragons together should the need arise. In order for this to happen however, she entrusted the man with silver hair, me, with the location of his hidden nest. No other dragon's nest was revealed, for their locations were two valuable, and the combat ability of Hunter was the greatest, thus mitigating the risk, in her eyes. However, she set one further parameter: Dragons, Humans, and Faunus would have to work together as one to stop the threat."
"What does that mean?" asked Glynda.
"It means I can do nothing about this coming Human-Faunus war without sixteen humans and Faunus who also share a trait with one of the dragons, and who are capable of combat."
"What traits would these people share?" asked the doctor in the room.
"Each of the dragons has a power, fairly similar to a Semblance. That is the only thing I can think of."
"So, we find, say, a speedster, and we have Rogue's partner, correct?" asked Port.
"Precisely."
"Will the age limit still apply to the weapons?"
Ozpin looked at each of them in turn. "I don't know. If any are above the age, we'll have to warn them."
"Final question, how do we find them, and how do we transport them to wherever Hunter is?"
"Perhaps General Ironwood would be willing to help? He has a large enough ship, access to Vale, Mantle, Mistral, Menagerie, and Vacuo citizen records, and he was transferred to Valentines under his own recommendation due to the increased tensions between Atlas and Menagerie."
"Good idea, Glynda," called the doctor.
Ruby laughed as she ran after her older sister. The whole family was out in the forests of Patch playing hide and seek. The eight-year-old crimsonette was "it", and had already caught and tagged Summer and Tai-Yang, and was now after her older sister.
Finally catching her, to a disgruntled "Hey!", she returned to the task at hand: finding the final two members of her family, who were legendary at hiding.
"Momma Birdy? Uncle Qrow? If you guys are birds, that's cheating!"
Her call got the response she was hoping for: an indignant Raven wondering aloud how she got the name "Mamma Birdy". Pinpointing the raven-haired woman's location, Ruby ran directly towards her, prompting her and Qrow to forsake their shared hiding place and take off towards the house.
"Did you have to do that Raven?"
"What brother, afraid you'll get outrun by a little girl?"
"Little girl, no. My niece with a speed semblance, yes."
"No special powers aloud, remember?"
"Squirt's still the fastest thing on two legs."
"You forgot one thing about cheating, Qrow." At his confused grunt, she continued, "I may need my wings to be faster than her, but not you!" she shouted as she tripped him, earning a shout of "Traitor!"
Ruby simply paused to tap a fallen Qrow on the head, saying "Tag!" before turning and racing after Raven once again. Raven was within sight of the house when she felt the last thing she wanted to feel: Ruby Rose's hand on her side. Looking down at the beaming child, she sighed, before slowing her pace and scooping the speedster up and glaring at her slightly.
"Whatever happened to letting me win to get more cookies?"
"Wellllll~ Mommy said if I got everyone I'd also get extra cookies, so I wanted to win and get cookies, so I got you."
Raven sighed. "Well, I can't argue with that."
Raven carried the youngest into the house where all but Qrow were busy preparing dinner.
"The Squirt won again. Honestly I think you all are cheating, somehow," Raven called into the house as she set Ruby down.
Summer poked her head out of the kitchen. "Us? Cheat? Never!" She smiled and went back to the stove to stir the boiling pot of noodles, Ruby meanwhile joined Yang at the table.
"If anyone needs to be accused of cheating it's you," said Qrow as he walked down the stairs.
"Hey, she still got me, alright? Don't get your feathers in a bunch."
"Yeah, yeah. Hey Summer, what's for dinner?"
"Spaghetti. Tai just put toast on in the oven. Why, thinking of staying the night? The guest room is made up."
This statement caused the eight and ten-year-olds in the room to begin loudly claiming he must stay the night.
Raven took that moment to give a kiss on the cheek of both Summer and Tai-Yang, who quirked an eyebrow at her. "What?" she asked, smirking.
"Nothing. Just, didn't expect you to be so happy that you lost."
"Losing isn't really all that bad when you enjoy yourself and love those around you. Besides, I seem to recall Summer having to scold you for language when you were found. That might be the only reason she was even found."
Tai-Yang simply rolled his eyes.
The family all sat around the table to eat, and friendly conversation soon abounded. The atmosphere was pleasant and untroubled until the sound of a small fleet of bullheads shook the house. Summer and Raven grabbed their respective charges, while Tai grabbed his shotgun and Qrow procured his rifle from nowhere. They had heard about the unrest between Atlas and Menagerie, and knew it was better to be prepared.
Tai opened the door on the first knock, and both men present were surprised to see General Ironwood and a silver haired man standing behind him.
"May we come in? I hope we didn't interrupt anything."
Setting their firearms down Tai-Yang assured them that they could come in and that they were just about to pack up dinner. The women of the house came back down from where they'd hidden upstairs and joined the four men in the living room, keeping their children with them.
"I'm sorry to come so suddenly and completely unannounced, but this is a bit urgent. You've heard of the unrest between Atlas and Menagerie, correct?" at their signs of affirmative, he continued. "Well, then I can skip right to it. Atlas is deploying soldiers against Menagerie, and we need your help to stop them."
"Our help?" asked Qrow. "Why do you need our help?"
This is when the man with silver hair spoke up. "Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Sixteen?"
A/N: So. After years, I'm finally, finally, getting this redone. As usual, Dragons of Remnant will remain uploaded for nostalgia purposes. But this... this is the true Dragon!RWBY story, now. Also, Inheritance/RWBY crossover... torally getting rewritten. I realized that I was so taking the easy way out. So I stopped. In any case, I hope you all enjoy.