AN: Hello all! Welcome to my first attempt at a RWBY fanfiction. This is a long time in the making and I hope you guys like it. As a general rule going forward, I will be covering the story of the series from Volume 1 onward. If I don't directly address something, just assume it happened the same way it did in canon.
Warning - This story is not for kids. Specific cautions will be placed in front of relevant chapters, but this story will earn it's M rating.
RWBY and it's characters all belong to Rooster Teeth. OC belongs to me.
Cover art was provided by the lovely Cladmented.
With that said, I hope you enjoy!
PS - apparently, Matte Skye from the ship in Volume 4 is non-binary, so I have taken that into account for this chapter.
Ocean between Mistral and Vale.
The Constance was a reliable and well-made ocean liner. She made regular runs between Vale, Mistral, and Menagerie, carrying cargo and passengers wherever they needed to go. For almost ten years, she had done her job beautifully. Captain Persimmon was proud of his vessel and it was because of him that she's been running as long as she had.
The captain gave a pleased sigh as he kept hold of the ship's wheel. So far, this voyage from Mistral to Vale had been a calm and pleasant one. He turned back to the person at his side.
"How we doing, Matte?"
The caramel-skinned First Mate looked from the display screen they were staring at and smiled.
"Everything is green across the board, Captain. Engines are fully functioning and all our passengers are having a good time. Things are smooth sailing." Off to their side, the new navigator Grullo nodded in agreement. This was his first voyage aboard the Constance, but he had a very promising and extensive resume. Captain Persimmon was sure that it wouldn't take long for Grullo to fit right in.
"Great to hear," Persimmon said. "I'm gonna go chat with the passengers for a bit. Anything happens, just call me back up. Matte, you have the wheel."
"Aye aye, sir," Matte Skye said as they took his place at the helm. He nodded to them and made his way down to the main deck.
Leaning against the ship railing, he took a moment to just smile and look out over the passengers he and his crew were responsible for. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some adults were taking the opportunity to sunbathe while others were merely talking and enjoying some of the fruity drinks provided on the voyage. He dodged to the side as a group of children tore down the deck, followed by a livid looking mother. Persimmon chuckled and glanced at the ocean. He had sailed all over the world and seen its many wonders, from the golden dunes of Vacuo to the high mountains of Vale, but nothing could quite match the beauty of the open sea.
Wait…
Persimmon stared out at the sea again. There was a dot on the horizon, and he strained his eyes to make out what it was.
Correction, it was a rapidly growing dot that was heading right for them.
Persimmon felt his heart drop into his stomach and a chill crawled up his spine. There was only one reason that another vessel would be heading straight toward them at breakneck speeds. He spun and dashed for the ramp leading up to the bridge. He needed to get to the controls and bring the ship's guns to bear. These passengers were his responsibility and he'd be damned if he let a pack of pirates harm a single hair on their heads.
"Matte!" he shouted as he took the stairs two at a time. "Get the guns ready! More power to the engines! We've got some very unfriendly comp-"
The sight of the bridge brought him to a stop and made the words die in his throat. He saw Matte lying on the deck, a trickle of blood coming from their temple. He saw Grullo standing over them and giving Persimmon a look of smug satisfaction. He saw the dark pistol that Grullo was pointing at his heart. Persimmon's hands balled into fists and he grit his teeth.
"You little shit…" he snarled.
"Now, now," Grullo said, wagging a finger in admonishment, "don't you be getting any ideas 'Captain'. Somebody might get hurt."
"What do you want, Grullo?" Persimmon spat.
"For this business to go as smoothly as possible," he answered. "Grab the bitch," he said, indicating Matte.
"Their name is Matte," Persimmon said as he bent down to pick them up.
"I don't care," said Grullo before prodding Persimmon in the back with his pistol. "Now move. Let's go make sure everyone stays nice and calm."
Squaring his shoulders, Persimmon made his way down the steps to the ship's main deck, half carrying and half dragging Matte. He jumped in surprise when Grullo fired two rounds into the air, making the passengers scream in fright and back away from them.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen!" Grullo called out as he escorted his two hostages down to the main deck. At the side of the ship, his men were pulling themselves onto the deck with grappling hooks and then pointing their guns at the passengers, bunching them up at the stern. "We will be your mid-voyage entertainment! We specialize in brutal violence against those who do not do what we fucking tell them to do exactly when we fucking tell them to do it!" To punctuate his statement, he fired a further two bullets in the air, making the crowd panic and crouch low. The other pirates strode slowly through the hostages, enforcing compliance with a well-placed kick or shove. "You're probably thinking we're here to rob the ship, and you're actually wrong," Grullo continued. "We are here for all of you. We're certain that you all have family somewhere would be most grateful for your safe return. All you need to do to get out of this alive is everything we tell you to do. If you don't," he shrugged theatrically, "we'll shoot you dead and toss you to the sharks."
Persimmon gently set Matte down on the deck and glared at Grullo.
"If you think for one second that I'm just going to let you take-"
SMACK
One of the pirates cracked Persimmon in the side of the head with the butt of his rifle, knocking him flat to the ground. When his eye cleared, he found himself looking down the barrel of Grullo's pistol.
"Go ahead, old man," he said with a smile. "Make my day." He turned to the other pirates. "Some of you should head below deck. There might be some stragglers. And somebody bring me Satisfaction." A few men nodded and threw open the hatch leading down and descended into the cabin deck.
Persimmon felt his heart sink.
The pirates moved through the hallways of the passenger deck, slamming doors open one by one. Most of the cabins were empty, but they did come across a few stragglers. Every time they found a cabin with passengers in it, one of the pirates would 'escort' them to the top deck so they could be held with all the others. Eventually, there remained only two pirates of the initial group. As they turned a corner, they caught sight of a single figure leaning heavily against the wall.
The young woman was dressed in clothes that had clearly seen their fair share of travel. She had worn black boots, faded jeans with torn knees, and a ripped maroon hoodie pulled over a black long sleeved shirt. The pirates took a worrying glance at the bandolier of shotgun shells that hung across her torso. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail except for two bangs that hung on either side of her face. She had mocha-colored skin and classic features, pretty but not quite knock-down gorgeous. Her looks were somewhat marred by a long, curving scar that extended from the right corner of her mouth to just beneath her ear. Her blood-red eyes eyed them up and down as she lifted a travel flask to her lips and took a long sip.
"Heeeeyyyy guys…" she drawled, giving them a dopey smile. "What's up with the fireworks on deck? Are we having a party or some shit? Cause I am ready!" She laughed and took another sip from her flask. The pirates looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"Must be a kid on school break," one said.
"At least she won't be any trouble," the other one muttered as he made his way toward her. "Alright, sweetheart, we're gonna go back up to the deck now. I'm gonna need you to come with me, okay?"
"Sure thing, big guy," she said, pushing herself off of the wall to latch onto him. "Just one thing."
"What's that?" he asked, rolling his eyes. The girl giggled.
"Watch your head."
Faster than a darting snake, her hand shot out to wrap around the back of his neck and pulled. The man was already off balance after having her throw herself at him, so he was unable to resist her force. He slammed face-first into the steel wall and dropped to the floor. The remaining pirate stared down at his unconscious partner before looking up at the assailant. The girl scowled at him, taking on a suddenly intimidating posture. All traces of the giggling drunk were gone. Everything about the girl standing in front of him screamed 'Predator'.
Almost faster than he could keep track of, she bounded forward. The girl leaped into the air and grabbed a pipe that was running across the ceiling. The pirate managed to get one shot off before she swung forward, but the bullet didn't touch her. Her leg snapped out and slammed into his face. He dropped to the floor, groaning as the world swam before him. When his sight cleared, he saw the girl standing over him, glaring down at him with her deep red eyes.
Glug-glug-glug-glug
The girl blinked in surprise and looked down at the flask in her hand. A hole had been punched clean through and whatever drink was in there was dripping out onto the floor. With a snarl, she tossed the ruined flask over her shoulder before grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up off the ground. His feet kicked uselessly in the air, desperate to reacquaint themselves with the deck.
"You spilled my drink, asshole," she growled.
"Put him down!"
The pirate and the girl looked to the side to see more pirates coming down the hallway, rifles and pistols trained on her.
The girl smiled.
Persimmon, the passengers, and all of the pirates jumped in surprise when they heard a gunshot from below decks. The captain's heart sank as the other pirates chuckled amongst themselves, finding humor in the fact that one of his passengers had been killed.
They would pay for this, he swore. They would all pay for this.
Then there were more gunshots, followed by screams of fright. Screams that sounded like they came from the throats of grown men. Some of those screams were long and drawn out, but others were suddenly silenced. The pirates on the deck went quiet, all of them looking nervously at the closed door leading below deck.
The sounds stopped. For a few long moments, the pirates just looked back and forth between each other before looking at Grullo. The man scowled at his men.
"You!" he snapped, pointing at one pirate. "Check below deck. Find out what's going on."
The man shivered, but readied his gun in preparation. He slowly crept toward the door and reached out with a trembling hand for the handle. He twisted and pulled the door open.
BOOM!
The unlucky pirate was sent flying away from the door and over the side of the ship before anyone could blink.
Out of the now-vacated doorway, Persimmon saw a teenage girl stride out as if she owned the world. She held a strange shotgun in her hand, looking like the weapon had been completely straightened out and had the bronze handle of a cutlass placed on the end. From the grip upward, the weapon was wrapped in dark wood with a black barrel protruding at the front.
The girl eyed the pirates with distaste and twirled the shotgun in her hand, simultaneously pulling on the cutlass guard. It swung out like a lever, expelling a spent cartridge with a metallic cocking sound. The shell clacked against the deck before it came to a stop, hints of smoke still rising from within. She rested the gun against her shoulder and just stood there, locking eyes with Grullo.
"Who's next?" she asked.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Grullo demanded. "You really think that you can just come up here and-"
BANG!
Grullo reeled back, holding his head and crying in pain. Persimmon looked back at the girl to see she was holding a large pistol in her hand, aimed right at Grullo. He hadn't even seen her move. The traitor in question lowered his hands to show a bleeding wound on his forehead and death in his eyes. The man must have used his Aura to protect himself. The bullet just ricocheted off of his head instead of drilling through it.
"Hmm," the girl said, holstering the pistol across the back of her hips. "Guess we're not doing things the easy way." She flicked her shotgun out to the side. With a sharp SHING, a crescent shaped blade snapped out from beneath the barrel of the gun. The blade of black metal dropped from the underside of the gun before swooping up to point to the sky. Both sides of the blade gleamed razor sharp.
"Shoot her!" Grullo shouted.
By the time his men processed the order, the girl was already on them.
The first man was kicked overboard while one of his fellows leapt forward with a hand axe. The girl's sword sliced through the shaft of the axe before she cracked the pommel against his temple, sending him to the ground.
The other pirates opened fire, but she continued her charge. Any bullets that she couldn't dodge were deflected with her sword. She broke through their lines, cutting left and right with her sword and kicking or punching whenever she had to.
Within moments, all the other pirates were lying on the deck or struggling in the sea. The girl stood before Grullo, holding her sword pointed at him.
"You have one chance to give up," she said in a dark voice. "I suggest you consider it."
In response, Grullo just smirked and grabbed the device on his back. It was a steel rod that one of the pirates had brought for him a few minutes ago. With a click and the sound of whirring gears, the rod telescoped outward to form a quarterstaff. With a second click, one of the ends snapped apart to form three sharp spikes arranged in a circle around the pole. He leveled his now-transformed trident at her.
"Let's dance," he said.
BANG!
The head of the trident launched forward right at the girl's face. With a gasp of surprise, she snapped backward, leaning back as far as she could. The trident head missed her by an inch. The girl fell as her center of gravity tipped off balance, but Grullo was already charging. The trident head was being reeled back in toward his weapon, courtesy of a cable it had been attached to. It connected with the rest of his weapon with a snap and he stabbed it down at the girl's chest. She rolled to the side, letting the weapon imbed itself in the deck, and lashed out with her foot, kicking Grullo in the face and knocking him off balance. As he tried to regain his feet, she jackknifed upward and swung her sword at him, but the staff of the trident blocked her strike.
"Satisfaction has never let me down," Grullo said with a cocky smile.
The girl just grit her teeth and disengaged from the standoff, moving her sword into a defensive stance. When he came at her, he came swinging. His strikes were wide and fast, but he clearly wasn't trained. Unfortunately, that same speed made it difficult for her to counterattack. Whatever direction her strikes came from, his trident was always there to block.
"This is starting to annoy me," she grumbled before swinging at him again. In mid-strike, however, she twisted the blade around, hooking onto the shaft of his trident before pulling, trying to get him off balance again. Grullo surprised her, however, and moved with the motion. His forehead connected with her face with a loud SMACK. She let out a choked cry of pain before lifting her blade to block his overhead strike. Grullo grinned at her as he pressed down on her guard, his weapon weighing down on the inside of the curve. Her left hand was supporting the blade, but the added weight made her palm slide on the edge. She winced as blood dripped from her opened palm.
"Guess your Aura's all gone, girlie," Grullo said with a smile. "Should have known better than to-"
The girl kicked Grullo in the groin and the rest of his boast was lost in a high-pitched whine. He hobbled away to try and give himself enough distance to recover. The girl simply stood there and glared at him. She lifted her injured hand and opened her fingers, her palm pointing to the sky.
Before the eyes of everyone on the ship, blood rose from her wound to twist and flow in the air. Grullo himself could only stare in awe as the blood coalesced together to form a simple single-edged sword. The hilt was small and only barely longer than her closed fist while the blade was as thin as a razor. There was a soft glow as the wound on the girl's palm was healed before she plucked the blood sword out of the air and went into another stance.
"It will take more than that to break my Aura," she said. Grullo could just stare openmouthed at her new weapon.
"That's not right…" he muttered, shaking his head. The girl smirked. Without another word, she lunged.
Grullo's defenses crumbled before her new offensive. While using her curved sword to hook onto his trident and keep it still, the girl used her new blood sword to attack Grullo with impunity. His Aura flashed as it tried to defend him from the damage, but he was visibly tiring.
With a strong slash across Grullo's chest, his Aura broke. He didn't even have a chance to move before the girl spun the blood sword in her hand to a reverse grip and attacked, stabbing the point of the blade into his thigh before quickly withdrawing it. Grullo screamed in pain as he stumbled back, leaning heavily on his trident to keep his balance. He fell against the railing of the boat and pointed his trident at the girl. Like before, the head of the weapon shot out at his opponent. The girl sidestepped, allowing the blades to pass harmlessly by her and stab themselves into the wall of the ship. Before Grullo could pull the weapon back she severed the cable using an overhead strike with both blades. Grullo was left holding only a staff and a small length of cable. She advanced on him slowly, flicking her weapons out to the side, and he tried to hobble away from her.
"Wait!" he cried. "Wait a second! We could make a deal. I'll give you-"
Persimmon suddenly punched Grullo right in the face. The man dropped to the deck without another sound.
"Nobody tries to take my ship," he spat before giving Grullo a kick in the ribs just to make sure. He sighed and turned to look at his frightened passengers. "We're good," he said. Turning around, he looked at the young woman who had saved him as she sheathed her shotgun-sword across her back and tossed the blood sword overboard. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine, she said dismissively. You should worry more about the pirates." Persimmon sighed and nodded.
"We've got an empty store room in the cargo hold this trip," he said. "We'll tie them up and keep them there till we hit port. Could you give us some help with that."
"Sure," she said with a shrug. She took a metal canteen off of her belt and unscrewed the cap before taking a large gulp. Based on the expression of distaste she made as she was doing it, Persimmon guessed she wasn't drinking water. "I'm just gonna find a drink somewhere before we start hauling them below deck." She turned on her heel and walked away.
"Wait," Persimmon said. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. "What's your name, miss?" She blinked at him for an instant, as if she was surprised to hear that question. She turned away and started walking again.
"My name is Sanguine," he heard her say.
