Age 2

I think it is fair to say that a wrench has been thrown in my plans for life.

A fairly large, annoying, and terrifying wrench.

Now you might be thinking, I'm just a 2 year old? How can I possibly even have plans for my life, or even be able to think logically for myself?

It starts to fall along the line of a really complicated process of reincarnation, that after a couple years of philosophy pandering has only sought to confuse me even more. So I'll give you the SparkNotes version.

I lived a life in Earth, happy and all, all the flowers and sunshine you'll think of a normal life. Still, I'd use the term 'normal' lightly, as there are plenty of smaller stories scattered within, but for all intents and purposes, imagine my life as some backstory you'd find in a 'c' rated Bollywood movie.

Long story short, I died, not one of my happiest points. I kind of wish I was able to say that I went out in some blaze and glory, I wish I could say that I died saving the lives of hundreds of people, yet my death was a lot tamer. It started out kind of how you'd expect, I was in college and got sick. And because I had so little money and didn't want to spend it on a doctor I ignored it until it actually became too much to handle and I had to have my parents take me to the doctor. Fast forward a day, and the doctor said, it is probably, keyword probably, the flu, prescribed me some medication and sent me back on my merry way. Took it for a while, a while being a week or two, things didn't get better, I passed out one day, ended up in a hospital and died two days later.

That... that was not a fun time.

You might say that I shouldn't be afraid of death since it is an inevitability. Well, plenty of things are an inevitability, the death of loved ones, growing old, and going to the doctor, yet I'm still afraid of them nonetheless. I suppose I could say that I wouldn't have been afraid of death if I have lived a full life, but I didn't, which is where my main fear stems from. How much of my life did I miss?

Eh, enough semantics for one night. I still need to figure out who sits on the Iron Throne.

But, in the end, death was... it was awakening. Not in the way of I'm enlightened and know everything, but in the way that a lot of the things I thought as important previously now aren't. Nothing says that overdue library books are rather unimportant like dying.

Anyways, here's where things go from sad to interesting. I got reincarnated. It was even hard for me to believe at first, and it was only after my first year in my new life was I only able to confirm it.

That first year… was interesting. I guess as a child my brain wasn't nearly developed enough to process my late teen mind, so for that first year it was a mixture of losing time, being barely able to see, feel, or really do anything with my senses, and incoherent movements trying to figure out where the hell I am in a world full of darkness and confusion.

It was... fun. For the first 5 minutes. After that it was absolute hell.

But, after that first year was I able to gain enough control in order to see the world around me and to finally realize, as I stated, that I'd been reincarnated. That was quite the experience.

And here's where things go from interesting to 'what the fuck'. Imagine if you were just reincarnated. You would think something along the lines of being given a second chance. A chance in order to fix the things you did wrong, or even help the people who you left behind in your previous life, but things weren't that simple, as I got reincarnated in Remnant. As in the Remnant from RWBY.

As much as I'd like to say there was a 'Holy fuck' moment where I realized I was in RWBY, that wasn't the case. Right off the bat, I could tell something was off. Why wasn't there any mention of anything I recognized? Why did the city in which I lived feel so different? Why the hell were there people walking around with animal features?

Yet at the same time, while there wasn't a moment of realization that I was in RWBY, there was a moment of realization that I was in fact in the world of RWBY. I was in a harsh and underdeveloped world, where people are as dangerous as the monsters that prowl through the forests. I was in a world where it was a necessity to train kids from a young age to combat the threats that plagued this world, full well knowing they probably wouldn't live to see their retirement parties. I was in a world that was tipping on the edge of annihilation, teetering desperately away in an attempt to prolong what they don't want to face.

And this world became my reality.

...

Life was not happy for a while.

For a bit I finally succumbed to the lack of mental processing, it had taken its toll on my brain, I couldn't physically deal with it anymore. There are now just a lot of black spots in my memory, and even now just at the thought of that time period, I still shiver slightly.

And looking back, I now realize it was at that moment did I finally realize life wasn't going to be as simple as I wish it could've been.

And it was at that very moment did things finally click. I was a regular human being in a world full of monsters, gods, and demons posing as men and women. I was a regular human that is in no way special compared to the exorbitant amount of humans that already exist in this world. And I was going to survive, and one way or another, I was going to win, and despite all the things against me, Salem would bleed.


Age 3

So, what is it, a year later?

You start to lose track.

As time passes and I start to regain more and more of my functions, things start to click in more. I started to gain back more focus on my vision, the blur of sounds started to mesh together into something more coherent, and the fuzziness in my feeling focused more and more as said fuzziness turned into pinpricks.

The first thing I noticed... everyone spoke English. Thank god.

The second thing... I wasn't in a normal home. I was in an orphanage. Living either in denial by my parents, or living in the wake of dead ones. I don't exactly have many ways to figure out what happened to them, and I doubt I'm going to any time soon, as far as I'm aware, to every person to works at the orphanage I was one of those kids that was found alone, and with no one to care for them, and no documentation of relatives, I was just sent to the orphanage. I was the kind of kid who'd grow up, leave the orphanage, most likely to join the military, and never be seen again. I wasn't special in any sort of way.

The only thing I was left, was my body, my determination and a name, Caerus Ferrum.

I mean, yeah sure, the name was kinda geeky. Either my parents were Julius Caesar and Calpurnia, or my parents were obsessed with Latin as a language. Or maybe my name holds some secret meaning, I've yet to realize.

Well, I'm a kid again, so I can dream of these fantasies.

That isn't the first thing I've been able to figure out. Another one is that I'm currently in Atlas. Which is cool and all, I kinda would've preferred it to be Vale, so I could befriend the main cast, but as long as it isn't some town which implodes 2 years into my birth, I'm fine with that.

The orphanage isn't anything special, it's called Guardian Orphanage, with the idea that the people working there are going to be the guardians for the children until they grow up and the orphanage kicks them out. Like I said, nothing special. It's located a little westwards from downtown Atlas, and it's basically the orphanage that anyone goes to because of the fact that it is right there.

And naturally with this being Atlas, and the home to the Schnee Dust Company and plenty of other, powerful yet questionable companies, Faunus happiness is at an all time low.

And on the note of a faunus… apparently, I'm one.

You might think that's really cool, but let me ask you a question.

If you were to be reincarnated as a Black Person, after being not one, or some other minority, you wouldn't think it was that special. Well, if you came from a world that didn't have them, you might have thought it was special for a short period until you realized it literally changes nothing.

Doesn't change discrimination though, I suppose working at an orphanage, with a lot of kids who think they are cool gives you severe anger issues, so many of the people who work here would rather ignore me.

To be fair, however, I don't really care about most of that stuff, considering that I'm in actuality something like a 19-year-old in the body of a 3-year-old, so I don't exactly need the approval of some random woman in an orphanage.

Although I suppose with strings of bad luck, something was bound to go my way eventually. While I could have gotten something like a bunny, or a bird. Something that while is cool, could be cooler (No offense Velvet). I got a wolf, or dog, or mutt, or whatever you wanna call it, which is objectively cooler (Sorry again Velvet).

No, I don't get sharp teeth, razor claws, and a long fluffy tail. The one physical difference I do get it wolf ears. And it does help, with two sets of ears you can hear things with surprising clarity. Something I use to my advantage as a young child, because the conversations of a bored woman who volunteers at an orphanage are infinitely times more entertaining than watching a 2-year-old barf for the umpteenth time.

Yet at the same time it's another thing in my life I have to worry about, something shoved upon my shoulders to burden for my next, and hopefully long lived, life.

Part of me wishes that I had just stayed dead.


Age 5

Now me being a nerd immediately wanted to search the differences between Remnant and the Earth I know.

It wasn't as easy as you might think, but eventually I found a way. In what the kids call the 'Mess Room' of the orphanage is a lone computer, which technically can be used by any kid. Notice how I said 'technically', because the people who work at the orphanage will only let you use it if, and only if, you ask them 30 minutes in advance, have someone watching over your shoulder, know how to work the computer in the first place, have permission from the head council in Atlas, have God come down and whisper in their ears to let you use it, and have the planets align while both the summer and winter solstice is going on.

Or you could just walk up to it and turn it on. Remember kids, it's always easier to get forgiveness than permission. Except if you're doing drugs... drugs and vegemite.

But back to the point of differences.

The main problem is that once you spend enough time in a separate world, the facts from the previous world start to meld together with the new ones you are learning.

History is obviously different, although it does follow along with the lines of there used to be a super continent which split up into the Remnant I know, although one very interesting note is that a lot of prehistoric civilizations have almost no documentation on them.

Technology is both inferior and more advanced than Earth. Through the use of dust mechanization of Remnant has increased tenfold, allowing for the creation of bullheads, mechanized soldiers, and the grand towering buildings you see in Atlas, with some fancy moving parts.

However scientifically they are far behind. There is practically no venture into space, they do share the heliocentric idea, and they do know the approximate size of the visible universe, but when you get into the nitty gritty, they still have a lot to learn. When they think of science, they don't think of hypothetical particles that may interact in a certain way to explain an unknown situation, they think of something that will eventually help us. So a lot of more in depth sciences have been pardoned for continued survival.

See where I'm going? It seems as if Remnant has a much more down to earth idea in terms of science, a lot along the lines of, if we can figure something out, how can it benefit us? If it doesn't benefit us, research something else.

What's the point in this then? I'm really not that sure. I've read the fanfics, generally, when someone is sent into a fictional world they gain some guidance, be it some godlike being, or just a simple note card saying, "Good luck, you're gonna die!" I was expecting they could at least say something like, "You have knowledge of things no one knows about, make yourself useful and spread it." But no, nothing.

I've already established that my end goal is to somehow stop Salem, yet my path to it is a lot more tortuous than I would have initially thought, even from just a simple planning phase.

I mean, I could become a scientist, or some technician, or even some sort of general, things that would always keep me relatively out of harm's way, things where I can still help with my knowledge.

Yet at the same time, it just feels off, like if I'm going to help, I might as well be on the front lines. I doubt I'm going to save as many people sitting behind some desk hundreds of miles away from the action.

One way or another, this choice may or may not put the lives of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people right in my hands.

What the actual fuck life?


Age 7

Kids are evil, kids are mischievous, kids won't sit down, if you tell a kid to stop, he'll do the exact opposite. Kids are literally the devil incarnate.

It's something I've quickly learned. However, this, THIS, takes the cake.

It started out innocent enough, being camped up in an orphanage all day makes your muscles itch, so when some kids suggested the idea of sneaking out during the night to go to a nearby forest, I was all ears, well wolf ears.

Except, now that I'm here I realize it was only an excuse to do something against the rules because now all the kids are doing is acting like they just broke the law and now they are fugitives. Gossiping about their criminal name, and how they are going to eliminate their enemies and get back at that one kid at the orphanage whom they don't like.

Maybe not to that extent, but you get my point.

I thought once we got out we'd do something actually exciting, hell even if we just played tag I'd be a lot more excited. I just wanted to get out to actually do something.

And considering the fact I doubt this will change anytime soon, due to the fact that kids are stubborn gits, I was heavily debating heading back the orphanage. Yet some trivial interest in hoping that something will change leaves me standing here as the kids gather in groups doing their own thing, and partially the notion of me being terrified to head back to the orphanage on my own. But for the sake of my ego I'm going to stick with the notion of waiting for something interesting to happen.

But whatever excuse you use for me not heading back eventually I found myself lying against some large oak-ish tree, finding the needle like bark a lot more comfortable than the stone like dirt.

Because mother of hell this is starting to get...

The fuck?

I could've sworn that it was just me hallucinating, but I just saw something move out in the distance. Although it was hard to make out, even with my faunus enhanced eyesight it was still just a blur.

Although it was probably nothing, my paranoid side jumps to the worst conclusion and tells myself that it was a Grimm.

And suddenly, just like that, the forest didn't seem nearly as inviting. It almost feels like the woods just got a lot darker, with the trees looming overhead ready to capture and stray child, and like every bush is just a hiding place for a potentially dangerous monster.

So naturally, I quickly got up and went to Slate, the so-called leader of the group.

He's an interesting kid, 14 years old, pitch black hair, blue eyes, tall and strong, yet one of the nicer kids you'll find at the orphanage, part of the reason why so many kids look up to him. There's even been a rumor that he has been training to become a huntsman, or at the very least part of the Atlas military.

It was probably redundant to head over to him, as I was most likely infinitely more competent in staying alive, but considering the fact that I'm here right now, and that giving this over to him gives me plausible deniability, I started pacing over to him.

"Hey," I said tapping him on his shoulder, as he was chatting with some younger girls who seemed to giggle at everything he said like he is some sort of comedic god.

He turns around, and I can see the girls glare at me unhappy with me ruining their makeout session, but nonetheless, he smiles a bit saying, "What's up?"

"I think I saw something," I mutter while my eyes dart from him to the bush where I supposedly saw movement.

"Something?" he interrogates playfully with a tinge of sarcasm.

I pause for a second, almost to add some dramatic suspense, and then ever so quietly I whisper "Grimm."

And just like that, just like someone turning off a light switch, the area around me seems to dip down tens of degrees, the wide and open field turning from a safe haven to a death pit, as kids several feet away start looking around fearfully at the mention of the boogeyman of Remnant, if it weren't for the real danger I might have laughed slightly.

He glances at the area I was looking at beforehand, seemingly caught on why I was so on edge.

Nothing moves causing him to look down at me and ask, "You sure you saw something? His voice quivering, telling me the notion that he just hopes it's nothing, and not that he actually doesn't believe me.

"I wouldn't be telling you if I didn't believe myself," I say, steadfast in my assumption. While I actually wasn't, I had been here long enough and felt that the longer we stayed it, the more dangerous it was starting to become.

He glances at the hill again, this time walking towards it, a small group of kids following far behind him, walking as silently as possible as if death is breathing down their very shoulder.

Step by everlasting eternal step he creeps closer to the edge of the clearing until he reaches the edge.

And then it happens.

Before anyone of us can even scream, a beowolf jumps out of the bush, heading right for Slate. Unlike what I would have thought, there is no loud rustle of the bushes, no unearthly roar, in fact as the beowolf was mid-air, and as I watch Slate in horror, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

And yet, just like that, all hell breaks loose, the previously quiet field suddenly being pierced by screams, causing all the other Grimm hiding to break from their hiding and attack any nearby kid, turning the woods into a bloodbath in just an instant.

I, however, am left standing in fear as the beowolf ravages Slate, his screams punctuating the air making my muscles tense up the point it hurts. Unable to do anything as his body gets more distorted with each brutal attack from the beowolf.

I don't know what I did, maybe I made too much noise, maybe I made some sudden movement, maybe the beowolf was just tired of mauling Slate, but the beowolf turned up from his prey and looked right at me. That's when I truly realized how screwed I was, blood glistened off of its maw, as it growled an unholy growl that shakes the very earth around me, all punctuated by the dying chokes of Slate, as he suffocates on his own blood.

And then the Beowolf lunges.

Generally when this happens people say that time slows down, and everything becomes crystal clear in one last moment of clarity before they die.

But it didn't. I didn't have my life flash before my eyes, I didn't have some epiphany, I could only stare down at the beowolf as it closes the gap towards me.

And as a last-ditch effort to stay alive, I raised my right hand, hoping some invisible force would guard me against the beowolf. And in that second everything came out. All the terror from my childhood, all the stress from being reborn, all the pain from losing everything I had.

It all came out in a scream, not one of anger, or of fear, but just one of catharsis. One that summed up everything I have experienced. A scream against life, against all I had experienced. A scream protesting against death.

And it's that moment did something finally click inside me, something finally revealed, something I didn't know I was missing. As it's then, did light blue electricity dance off of my fingers. And it's then, did time slow down, not for my impending death but for the subtle beauty of the electricity.

It formed a bridge between my fingers, the air around it crackling and popping as it slowly ramped up, forming larger and more violent jumps, seeming to illuminate the entire forest around me, and then some. And then, like a weapon guided by a god, the lightning bolt left my fingers and struck the beowolf right in the head.

With a sound all too similar to thunder, it crashed into the beowolf, the loud bang echoing into the air around us, with the strength to send a shockwave heading in all directions.

Immediately the awful smell of flesh burning filled the air, and with a gentle crackle, the Grimm tumbled through the air, now dead, and on top of me. All while I fell backward, the weight of the beowolf pushing me over, recounting what just happened with mix fear and awe.

Not believing the Grimm was completely dead I started crawling away, as it lied unmoving.

And with that, like I was pulled out of some pool of water, the world returned to focus, the subtle drum of my heart was replaced by the agonized screams of the kids as they were killed beside me, yet through that all I could hear the sound of a bullhead approaching from the distance, safety.

Yet my eyes were drawn to a single thing, Slate, his mangled body covered in blood. His screams of pain have long since died down, the only sign of his life remaining being the almost non-existent rise and fall of his chest.

Up, and down, up and down.

I wanted to go up to him and say it was going to be safe, that he was going to survive, yet I was rooted in my position, scared at what I just witnessed, scared that…

And everything went black as something struck me on my neck.


Eh.

Stupid plot bunnies and their incessant pestering.

I think you've figured out at this point what this is, and honestly, this just happened. I wanted to write this, so I pulled out my computer and started writing, and this came out.

Now I'm 90% sure someone will accuse me of copying 'Reiteration', and while that is partially true if you go down to the very basics. Yes I am using the same idea of a reborn character, yes he goes to an orphanage, and yes he awakens his semblance against the Grimm. But, I'll be honest, one it is a good way of getting things across, and two it really isn't that unique when you come to it. I still can't completely say that this is not inspired by 'Reiteration', however, as the story goes on I'll try to have the plot diverge more and more.

The faunus decision… first off, I just thought it would be cool, haven't seen an SI-OC with the person becoming a faunus, so why not I might try it. Second, after thinking about it I thought it might make a good addition, further apply a sense of loneliness to the character. And, meh, I wanted to experiment. And for what species I chose, it took a bit, I wanted something that seemed interesting to read, first I went with a lizard, but honestly it just feels off having the main character with something like that. So I ended up doing wolf because FUCK IT and I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT DAD! I'M A REAL BOY!

Also, this is an SI-OC, while the characters do have some aspects from me, most of it is a character I created solely for the purpose of this story.

Anyways, follow, favorite, review, all the spiel, but mostly review, I'm always up for some tips on how to improve my writing.

Until Next Time

EDIT: I just changed some wording to make it a bit more interesting, and fixed some little grammatical issues.