Act 1: Prologue
Chapter 1: A Song for Someone
Part 1: A Chance Meeting
Snow fell, spiraling down to the ground, and piling on top of itself, just to crunch underneath his feet. The sounds of the rest of the city, the horns of cars and people talking on their phones, weren't gone, but muffled by distance. The big cargo containers formed a maze of sorts, waiting on the morning light to be loaded upon a ship and carried away to a new place.
"Probably a better place." The cloaked figure mused to himself quietly as he walked, the cold and snow and cargo containers of no consequence to him because he wasn't there for them, he was there for his target, and nothing mattered but getting paid, at least right then. A conscience of sorts protested weakly inside his head, saying that he shouldn't be there, at least not to kill somebody, but it was pushed aside.
The figure walked along the concrete docks, slipping smoothly like a shadow in between shipping containers, loading equipment, and whatever else laid in his path as he moved towards the warehouse where his target was said to be, pulled his cloak ever tighter around his shoulders to fend off the creeping cold, and popped his neck and knuckles. There was the main door, the massive one the cargo containers on the pier must have been moved through, and the side door, the one the figure walked through. The door slid open and he stepped inside, passively wondering why it was unlocked in the first place.
His boot's soles clacked along the concrete floor as he walked into the massive, empty building.
Something was off. This place was barren, no sign of anybody. He slowed his pace but kept walking, slowly. He was just about in the center of the warehouse when he just barely caught a noise, a sound in the darkness, someone talking into a radio, saying in a deep, modulated voice,
"Target sighted. Eliminating with extreme prejudice." Then the air around him was filled with bullets as he brought his weapon to bear, the sword seeming to materialize from the folds of his cloak, and darted forwards, towards the other men that had crept out of the darkness.
The swarm of bullets flew around him like angry wasps, the ones that did manage to hit him sending sparks flying as they pinged off of his armor. However, like the snow, they didn't affect him, as he had a new target. The ones who had duped him, set a trap for him, and were now trying to kill him.
Fury and fire and lead flew through the air as he slashed his blade across the first man's chest and was on to the next. He was a trained killer, and these men were too, but they were grunts, not accustomed to fighting opponents like him, and fell beneath his wrath easily. However, within the shadows of the warehouse one of the so-called grunts hefted a heavy weapon, a rocket launcher, and pulled the trigger.
The rocket screamed out of the hollow tube of metal and the figure jumped, trying to put distance between himself and the weapon. It worked, but not as well as he had hoped. He was sent flying by the close impact and bits and pieces of shrapnel ripped through his armor and into his body, tearing things that weren't supposed to be torn.
He pulled himself up and half-ran half-limped towards the door as the men tried to find out where he was, the small fires spread by the dust-rocket's eruption covering his escape.
Outside, in the snow again, the figure, the one who had been duped out of his contract, moved through the darkness yet again, until he made to the city of Vale's edge, the one where it met the pier, and after stumbling into an alleyway, collapsed against a dumpster, right in between it and a small pile of trash bags.
Bleeding, weak, and half-dead the figure lost consciousness, hoping it wouldn't be the last time his eyes closed.
"In further news, the police are currently investigating what is thought to be the scene of a firefight between two terrorist organizations in a warehouse along the pier. A statement has yet to be made by the VPD, however, so the information we have at the moment is limited. All we know is that there were twelve fatalities, all of them on one side, and all of them caused by a blade of some sort. Speculation suggests tha-"
"Hello, Remnant-to-Ruby. You there little sis?"
"Wha- oh. Sorry Yang, what is it?"
"You were looking a little spacey. What's up?"
"Oh, nothing, just watching the news."
Yang quirked an eyebrow. "What part of the news? Is it the anchorman? Cuz' I don't wanna hurt him, but I will if I have to."
"Ugh, no Yang, you always do this!" A now-flustered Ruby proclaimed as she pulled her hood up and wrapped her cloak around herself, looking for all the world like she was trying to become a part of it, while her sister tossed her head back and let out a laugh of amusement.
While this went on, Blake tried to focus on her book, Nora told a story with Ren's input, Pyrrha listened to said story, Neptune flirted with Weiss, and Sun tried to give Jaune tips on girls.
In other words, It was just a normal Saturday morning breakfast at Beacon.
The clock ticked by, and finally, students began trickling out of the room to get to whatever they had planned for the day, whether it be studying or trying to leave a full body imprint upon their bed.
Team RWBY left the table right around the same time JNPR did, and then was off towards Beacon's airship docks, ready to head into town, as the first weekend of every month was team shopping day. It had been voted upon because they all wanted to spend some quality time with one another and because they all really did need to get things from the city.
However, because Yang thought that libraries were old and dusty, and Ruby couldn't stand 'Prissy clothes-store ladies' that worked at the places Weiss generally went shopping at, they normally split up, got all their shopping done, then met up at a coffee shop or the like afterwords.
So that was what they did when the airship landed. Blake turned in the direction of the library, Yang towards the mall, Weiss towards the (excessively) expensive clothing stores she frequented, and Ruby towards her favorite weapons part shop.
It was all the way on the other side of town, and not exactly in the best condition, but it was the only place she could get her personal favorite and semi-legal extra-strength incendiary rounds, so she figured the walk was worth it.
The concrete grew progressively more worn and the buildings more decrepit as she neared the store, but that was just one of the factors that made the walk to the store unappealing; all the graffiti was the main thing that bothered Ruby, the profane content it displayed proudly flaunted in closed alleyways, or in some cases, even on the sides of buildings that faced the street.
The reward was within sight now, and after closing in on the entrance, Ruby walked in and savored her arrival. She picked through the shelves, taking as many of the overpowered incendiary rounds as she could carry and afford, and walking to the counter. The store owner, a not unkind but very gruff man who simply called himself Dusty, rang her up and sent her on her merry way.
On the way out of the store, Ruby couldn't have been more content. She had a bunch of new, high-quality ammo for her baby, Crescent Rose, and was on her way to lunch with her teammates.
But something was off, not right; It was as if there was something about to happen, not bad, per say, but something big, and she was sure of that because of the sudden tension in the air. It was so thick it was practically tangible, like it clung to her and weighed her down as she walked. Ruby felt like there was something at the edge of her senses, right there, but not, all at the same time.
So she did something she hadn't tried to do since they had gone over the lesson in combat class with Professor Goodwitch: channeled aura to her ears.
She focused the flow of energy in her mind's eye, saw it moving to her ears, swirling there and gathering, and then she heard. Paper wrappers rolling on the sidewalk, people talking to themselves, keys jangling inside the ignition ports inside cars, and then what had been bothering her, the noise at the edge of her senses: It was breathing.
Weak, shaky, and slow, it sounded like someone who was barely alive. Ruby let go of her hold on her aura, and turned towards the source of the noise, an alleyway just ahead of her. She walked in between the two buildings cautiously, the gloom surrounding the gap seeming to consume her. About halfway down the alleyway, in-between a rusty green dumpster and a trash bag, lay a cloak wrapped figure, shaking feebly with every breath.
Ruby bent down and asked him if he was okay, but he didn't reply. Upon further inspection, she realized he was unconscious. Ruby did the first thing she could think of, which was pull out her scroll and dial 911.
"This is 911, what is your emergency?" The operator answered, quickly and to the point so as to not waste time. Ruby opened her mouth and was just about to reply when a hand grabbed her wrist with surprising strength, and she swiveled her head around to look at the figure on the ground, the only thing actually visible of his features piercing, ocean blue eyes that shone through the mask that hid his face.
He spoke in a voice authoritative but weak, adamant yet frail, as though he was trying to order her to do something but was too scared to, and said, "No."
Then he fell back against the wall, his consciousness again gone.
It wasn't hard to figure what he was saying no to, but why didn't he want her to call for help? Was he a criminal? If so, shouldn't she call the police instead of an ambulance? What if-
"Hello, are you there? What do you need?"
The 911 operator. Ruby had to make her decision, and fast. Quickly, in her head she thought of what she should do. She ran through everything that came to mind, reasons to and not to listen to this mysterious person, and made her decision.
The door to RWBY's dorm clicked open, and Yang poked her head in, asking irritatedly,
"Ruby, what are you doing here? We waited almost an hour for you and you wouldn't answer your scroll! Do you know how worried I was!?"
Yang was, however, taken aback by the scene before her. Her sister, looking like a deer in headlights, like she was hoping Yang and the rest of her team wouldn't be home for at least a couple more hours. A person, someone she didn't know, wrapped in a cloak and wearing a mask, laying in Blake's bed.
Yang was about to say something when Weiss thundered into the room, looking ready to raise all sorts of hell.
"Ruby! What is going on? Who is this person and why is he in our dorm?"
Blake followed right after, eyes wide, and waited for an answer alongside Weiss and Yang.
"I can explain! He was hurt and stuff and I called 911 but he said not to and I hung up and got him into a taxi and-" Weiss slammed her hand over her partner's mouth, and said, "Explain calmly."
Ruby did.
She told about finding him in the alleyway, managing to convince the taxi driver that he was sleeping and not unconscious, moving him to the dorm past all the hallway traffic, and every little detail that led up to when they walked in the door.
Blake shook her head, "So you listened when he said not to call the emergency number? That means he's probably a criminal! Why else would he not want you to call the hospital?"
A mischievous glint lit up Yang's eyes, and she walked over to the figure and began ruffling through the cloak he wore.
"Yang what are you doing?!" Ruby questioned, panicking at her sister's actions.
"Looking...for...this!" She held up a scroll triumphantly, and said, "We can figure out what he's really like with this!"
The rest of her team caught on quickly, and though Ruby half-heartedly protested it, they were all standing around the boisterous blonde, eagerly awaiting answers to their many questions.
Yang pressed the button in the middle of the scroll, but nothing happened. Another press yielded the same result.
"Oh come on!" Yang exclaimed, pressing the button over and over again quickly, as though it would actually do something.
"Yang, hold on. I've seen this before." Weiss reached over and pulled the scroll from the blonde's hands, then walked over to their 'guest'. She grabbed his hand and placed one of his fingers onto the button, and a few moments later a chime sounded out and the scroll slid apart.
Ruby looked confused, asking, "What...?"
Weiss sent a smirk her team's way, and proudly proclaimed, "I.D. Lock. My father and a lot of his friends had them to keep people from seeing stuff they weren't supposed to."
Yang quickly took back the scroll and began sliding through things.
"Let's check what websites this guy browses." Yang said, moving to open the window.
"Why?" Weiss asked Yang, looking at her curiously.
Yang sighed like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and then said, "Weiss. You can always tell what somebody's like through their search history."
Yang opened the scroll's web browser and found it empty. She clicked on the history and opened the first thing she saw, waiting for it to load.
Finally, it did.
It was a bounty website, like one that hunters would use when they took on Grimm for money. But it wasn't a normal one.
The bounties were people, and it seemed like this person, whomever he was, had turned in a lot of them.
"Ruby. Who did you pick up off the street."
"I-I didn't know, I swear,-"
"He's a murderer."
Yang looked at her sister, then began walking towards the bed, Ember Celica already unfolding on her wrists, ready to make sure that this killer, the one that had infiltrated their midst, wouldn't be able to hurt anybody when he woke up.
If he did when she was done.
She raised her fist, ready to slam it down onto him, when he moved.
The cloaked figure's eyes flickered open as he hear the words, "He's a murderer." and practically saw the contempt and hatred for himself oozing from them.
He didn't move. He was bandaged, it seemed like he'd been taken in by somebody but wh-
Memories rushed back, leaping into their little niches and piecing together the gaps in his awareness. The red-headed girl, finding him. She must've picked him up and taken him to her home, wherever it was, and was just now finding out who he really was, what he did.
Someone was approaching him now, he could see it out of the corner of his eyes.
Yellow hair. Woman. Young. Armed. Ready to attack. All these things registered on his mind, but fell beneath the sickeningly familiar sight of something else: a red dot tracing it's way up her body, stopping upon her left breast, right above her heart.
He sprung into action.
The blanket that had laid upon him moments ago was thrown unceremoniously off, catapulted into the air as he tackled the girl out of the way, bracing for the sound of shattering glass that was sure to come.
However, it didn't.
Thoughts ran through his mind quickly as he prepared to react to his current situation. The glass hadn't shattered because the shooter hadn't fired, meaning he'd moved too fast. This left him in quite the predicament however, as the way he'd landed wasn't exactly the friendliest of greetings. He had both of her wrists pinned to the ground, and was straddling her waist, keeping her from getting up.
He gasped out an "I'm so sorry, but stay out of the window's view!", leaping off of Yang and into the cover of the wall. The blonde, predictably, instead of listening, began rising with a "You're gonna be sorry!"
He noticed the others in the room drawing their weapons. This was bad. Unknown enemy outside, and surrounded inside. He was about to say something along the lines of 'There's a sniper' when the blonde stood up and the red dot was suddenly on her again, with no intention of letting her go this time.
He did what he had done before, and this time when he tackled her out of harm's way, he heard the glass fracture as the sniper round smashed through it. He was scrambling up shortly after, managing to just barely pass the other girls in the room and get out the door.
He was running down the corridor outside right away, dodging past people that were poking their heads out at the sound of the gunshot. Judicium's men were closing in, he was sure, and most likely with no small amount of drones alongside them. He put his hand inside his cloak and seemed to draw his sword straight from the black folds, ready for combat. At the end of the long hallway he hit an elevator and a staircase, vaulting over the staircase's rail to the landing below almost five times before hitting the ground floor, and then was running through a lobby, headed outside.
Wherever he was, he had to take this fight somewhere else before somebody innocent was hurt.
He was through the glass front doors and had almost made it a foot before a drone's bladed hand was flying at him, ready to eviscerate. His blade was up sooner, however, and the drone's hand went flying. He didn't stop there, slamming his blade through the drone's midnight-painted hull, and causing the red lights of it's eyes to fade.
After pulling his blade out and prepping to run, he saw Judicium's attack force in front of him, AK-12 model drones with gatling-hands out, and soldiers with full midnight body armor with guns pointed at him. At least two-dozen, if not three, enemies, all with weapons pointed at him.
One of them moved forwards out of the rest, staying well out of the cloaked boy's reach, and, still pointing his rifle, said, "It's over, Eric. We've won."
The black-clad soldier's finger pulled the trigger.
So, to everyone who favorited or followed this story, I'm so, so sorry I let it die. However, I'll do my best to bring it back, better than before. I made some major plot changes overall, and figured the best way to implement them would be a rewrite. I have a new story organizing structure, too. Acts will represent story arcs, chapters the pieces of those, and parts the pieces of chapters.
Chapter, Arc, and/or story titles will often be song titles, songs that I think fit the overall theme of the Act, Chapter, or part. This chapter's song is "A Song for Someone" by U2, as it's about new beginnings.
I'll update as best I can, as my schedule got pretty busy once the school year started up, but I should get out an update every two weeks at a minimum.
For those who are just joining the story for the first time, welcome, and I hope you enjoyed the beginning!
Sincerely, Sea Scorpion