Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by RoosterTeeth, while I wish I could work on it with them, something would probably go horribly wrong if I did. I do own my OC Red Rose though.

Well, to any new readers: Welcome and to any of my regular readers: Welcome Back, it's been a while since I last posted a chapter on any of my fics, but I'm back and hopefully here to stay for a good while.

Anyway, for those of you that don't know me: Hello. my name is Darth Annihilator but please, call me Darth.
I just recently got into the RWBY series and have just finished binge watching all the episodes so far and, well, I FREAKING LOVED IT!

It left me with a number of ideas for a fanfic and this is my first attempt (so please be nice).
Anyway, I've rambled on enough now so I'll shut up and let you read this chapter.


Prologue: The Meeting of Two Roses

We begin our tale on a dark and stormy night as a tall man clad in a black, hooded cloak walked into a local inn.
Ducking his head to avoid hitting it on the doorway as he walked through it, he approached the bar.

"I'd like to rent a room for the night, do you have any spare?" he asked the bartender when he reached the bar.

"Certainly sir, under what name would you like to rent a room and what type would you like?" replied the bartender, producing a scroll and cycling through some notes, likely a spreadsheet of what rooms were available.

"Rose and whatever's cheapest" answered the man, who shall be dubbed 'Rose' for now "I'm fine with anything so long as I have a bed that I can sleep on."

"Rose… Rose… hang on sir, it seems you already have a room reserved… Ah, here we are: Room 11, courtesy of a woman that wanted to see you" the bartender said before pouring a glass of clear liquid and handing it to him "she also ordered this for you, half a pint of lemonade with two shots of vodka."

Rose looked at the drink before sighing "Just to make sure that you've got the right Rose, can you tell me what this woman looked like?"

"Black hair, creepy mask and I think she had red eyes, it wasn't easy to tell with the mask… Anyway, she said she was an old friend" was his response which caused Rose to pick up the drink and take a swig.

"Yeah, friend's one way of putting it" Rose muttered loudly enough for the bartender to hear and walked off, up the stairs near the bar and into a door marked with the number 11 which he hesitated in front of for a moment before sighing and pushing open the door. Inside was a woman sat at a table, she had long, shaggy black hair, red eyes and was wearing red and black armour, a black skirt and knee length black boots. Leaning against the wall near her was a sword sheathed in a large, rectangular scabbard with a wheel that had different colours at the top and on the table in front of her was a mask resembling the face of a Nevermore Grimm. She smirked when he entered the room.

"Red, it has been some time" she said, smirk never leaving her face as he walked across the room and sat down, lowering his hood to reveal a pale skinned face with a scar that appeared to resemble tear mark running from just above his right eye down to his lower jaw. His eyes were blood red and – if one looked closely enough – appeared sad; he had red hair that darkened the further it got from his roots until it was completely black at the tips, a couple of locks fell down in front of his left eye.

"Raven" the now named 'Red' replied before narrowing his eyes at her "why are you here?"

"Can't a lady check in on old friends now and then?" she asked lightly, smirk growing wider.

"She can but you don't just "check in" on people, least of all me" Red answered as his left hand drifted below the table to grasp something under his cloak "and I think we both know that you're no lady."

"Ooh, you are in a mood today. What's wrong? Your searching turn up yet another dead end?" Raven snarked back, scowling at him for the lady comment.

"Enough, you wouldn't just come here to goad me, what do you want?" Red said, closing his eyes and taking another swig of his drink. Raven dropped her smirk for a more serious look.

"Fine, I'm here to tell you what I told Qrow: Ozpin will fail and Beacon's going to fall, but what I didn't tell him is that your nieces will likely be caught in the middle of it all" her words caused Red's eyes to shoot open and he pinned her with a serious look.

"How do you know this?" he asked.

"Dark forces are beginning to move and they're preparing for something big, I've seen it; Beacon will need you if it is to have any hope of weathering the oncoming storm" Raven replied, looking him in the eye to show him how serious she was about the matter.

"Well, you've become quite the poet but why are you telling me this?" Red responded, his eyes daring her to lie to him "as I recall, you care for nothing but your little tribe of thieves and killers; you didn't even care enough for your own daughter to stick around and raise her, so – if this is all true – why tell me?"

"Because the ramifications of what's to come will affect my family too" Raven snapped, giving Red a glare that would cause even the bravest of Grimm to turn and flee "and don't ever presume to lecture me about my parenting again, not after you walked out on your own flesh and blood to go chasing after ghosts and false hopes! Does your niece even know who you are?"

"Are you implying that I would leave my remaining family without protection? When Qrow isn't around, I protect them from any and all threats. And to answer your question: yes, she does know me" Red retorted, fixing Raven with his own death glare.

"But as family?" Red's silence said it all "Hm, thought not."

"Was that all you came here for or was there something else" Red asked as Raven stood up, fastened her sword to her waist and picked up her mask, she turned to look at him.

"There is one more thing, I heard in the grape vine that your niece regularly visits a certain Dust shop" she answered, placing the mask under her arm "it's going to be robbed in around about three days time."

"Are you threatening my niece, Raven Branwen?" Red replied, his voice lowering dangerously as the sound of a barrel rotating was heard, followed by a click "I'd advise choosing your next words wisely."

"Hmph, as if I'd threaten the daughter of my sister in all but blood" Raven scoffed, rolling her eyes at Red, though her spare hand moved towards her sword.

"I seem to recall you loudly proclaiming your hatred and disdain for her when you left"

"A lot of things are said in anger, some of them aren't true."

"Uh-huh, even if I believed that I'm still brought back to a question I seem to be asking a lot this even: Why are you telling me this? You gain nothing from letting me know this information" Raven walked past Red, opened a red and black portal before looking at him out of the corner of her eye and smirking.

"Why Red, can't a girl just want to protect her niece?" she asked before entering the portal and closing it behind her, leaving Red alone in the room with his thoughts.

'If I want to protect her, then I'll have to head to this shop and make sure this robbery doesn't harm any innocents… but that would mean calling off my search early. Wait, WHAT AM I THINKING?! Sis would make my hide into a new jacket if she caught me even considering abandoning her daughter to danger in favour of looking for her, plus it's been a while since I saw the little jewel' he thought before he nodded, downed the remainder of his drink and strode out of the inn like a man on a mission (throwing the bartender a handful of Lien on the way out) 'Watch out Vale because Red Rose is back in town!'

Scene Change – From Dust Till Dawn, three days later

A bunch of henchmen dressed in black suits were in the process of robbing the Dust shop named From Dust Till Dawn when one of them saw an individual dressed in a hooded red cloak, scowling and drawing his sword (a red curved blade) he advanced on them.

"Alright, get your hands where I can see them!" he said as he advanced on them but the individual appeared to be ignoring him "Hey! You got a deathwish or something? I said hands in the air!"

He turned the individual around to reveal a girl around the age of 15, she had extremely pale skin, silver eyes and back hair that slowly lightened until it was a dark red colour at the tips, she was wearing a black blouse with a black waist cincher with red lacing and a skirt with red trimmings, she was also revealed to be wearing a pair of red headphones with a rose emblem on both of the earpieces. The henchman pointed at his ear to signal her to take the headphones off, she did so and revealed that she was listening to a rather loud rock song.

"I said hands in the air, NOW!" the henchman barked causing the girl to narrow her eyes at him.

"Are you… robbing me?" she asked.

"YES!" snapped the henchman back prompting an "oh" and a smirk from the girl before she hit him and sent him flying through the air; unfortunately for the henchman, while he was in mid-air, a person wearing a black cloak leaped through the air and kicked him into a nearby bookcase, causing it to collapse on him.

"Hey, mind if I cut in?" the person said, the hood of the cloak having fallen off during the manoeuvre, revealing him to be Red.

"Not at all" replied the girl, smiling at him before they both looked at the bookcase Red had kicked the henchman into, causing Red to look apologetically at the shopkeeper.

"Whoops, sorry about that. I'll pay for a new one" he said before they both heard a smashing noise and saw that the girl had thrown a henchman (and herself) through the shop window, Red winced when he saw it "Ouch, that looks painful… and expensive."

The girl straightened up as a rather large black and red scythe unfolded, which she held on her shoulder before twirling it a couple of times and stabbing its blade into the ground as a rather catchy rock song played in the background until she turned her headphones off with a clicking sound.

"Aw, I liked the music" said Red as he stood next to a man wearing a long white coat with red lining and a black bowler hat, the man had green eyes, long orange hair which was swept across his right eye and he was smoking a cigar. The man sighed and swung the handle of his cane up into Red's face, knocking Red backwards.

"Okayyy, you five: get him. The rest of you, get her!" he barked as five henchmen drew their red blades and circled Red and the rest climbed out of the window after the girl.

"Ow, jeez, what was that for?" complained Red before he noticed his predicament "well now, this is a bit awkward. You boys should really put those away before you hurt yourselves."

The henchmen looked at each other before one of them charged, Red flipped over him and elbowed a second henchman in the face before kicking a third in the stomach and knocking him away.

"Really guys, one at a time? This isn't a rubbish action movie, you know" Red taunted before the fourth and fifth henchmen charged him at once but he merely grabbed one and threw him into the other "So you ARE capable of learning."

The henchmen all looked at each other again before they all charged Red at once but Red merely backflipped over them at the last second, causing them all to crash into each other. He then kicked the first henchman into a nearby wall, threw the second into the third, causing them to fall down in a heap, followed by Red kicking the feet out from under the fourth and punching his head down into the floor. Red then punched the fifth in the stomach and threw him into the wall by the back of his neck.
The second and third henchmen had gotten up by this point and charged Red again, blades drawn but Red just dodged the first strike and backhanded the second henchman into a wall before he grabbed the scabbard of the second henchman's sword and used it to beat down the third henchman, ending it with an upwards strike to the henchman's jaw that sent him into the air and crashing down painfully.

Red turned to see the girl climbing up a nearby ladder to a rooftop after the white coated man and sighed.

"I'd better get up there before Ruby gets herself killed" he muttered before starting off after her.

PoV Change, Third Person – Ruby Rose,

Well, it wouldn't be wrong to say that today had been an odd day for Ruby Rose. First she had almost been robbed in one of her favourite Dust shops, then she stopped the robbery alongside a familiar looking man and finally she'd been witness to a frankly awesome fight between a Huntress and some random person as the guy in the white coat tried to escape in a Bullhead. The person had managed to distract the Huntress long enough for the Bullhead to pull away but Ruby wasn't going to let them escape so easily, she shifted Crescent Rose into its Sniper Rifle form before firing round after round at the Bullhead.

"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Ruby shouted to the Huntress, getting a look from the Huntress in question.

"Not for long" the Huntress replied as a loud THUNK sound was heard, they both turned to see what appeared to be a jagged orange portal appear in front of the Bullhead, they watched as the man who'd helped her stop the robbery leaped out of the portal and landed on the Bullhead, grabbing the sword that was sticking out of the Bullhead's plating, he proceeded to run along it towards the tail, making slicing motions with the sword until he reached the tail and jumped off, landing on the roof and sheathing the sword on his back as the Bullhead fell apart and exploded behind him.
The cool display was then ruined by a shout from the Huntress.

"RED, YOU IDIOT! THAT WAS OUR SUPPORT! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CATCH THEM NOW?!" the Huntress yelled at the newly identified Red as Ruby looked back and saw that another Bullhead was quickly retreating in all the commotion caused by the explosion.

"WELL IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT ALL OF THESE FLIPPING BULLHEADS ALL LOOK THE SAME NOW IS IT?! JUST HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL THE DIFFERECE BETWEEN AN ATLESIAN MILITARY BULLHEAD AND ONE STOLEN BY THE WHITE FANG IF THEY'RE ALL THE SAME EXACT SHADE OF GREY WITH NO DISTINCT MARKINGS?!" Red shouted back, waving his arms around to emphasise his point "Seriously, you could at least paint some numbers on them or something to distinguish them from each other. I mean, whose idea was it to have them all coloured steel grey? Henry Ford?!"

As the Huntress (whose name she learned was Glynda by listening to the argument with half an ear) and Red continued to bicker, Ruby realised just why the man was familiar: he was friend of her uncle, Qrow that he'd brought round to visit her from time to time and he was even allowed to look after her sister, Yang, and herself when neither Qrow nor her father was around to do so.

Now, Ruby wasn't as close to Red as she was to Qrow and she certainly wasn't close enough to call him "uncle" but she was close enough to feel comfortable tackling him and shouting his name in joy when she hadn't seen him for a while, which is exactly what she did.

"RED!" Ruby cried excitedly as she barrelled into him, Red turned when he heard the shout only to have the wind knocked out of him as he was hit by the red and black missile "OH MY GOSH! IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU! Did you miss me?"

"I did until you started doing that" Red deadpanned but he had a small smile on his face showing he was joking, he then ruffled her hair "good to see you, little jewel."

"As touching as this moment is, I think we should report what happened here to the police" interrupted Glynda which gained her identical "Are-You-Serious" looks from both Red and Ruby which caused her to recoil at how similar the two were acting.

"Wow, you really know how to ruin a moment, don't you?" they said in unison before the trio proceeded to the local police station where Red and Ruby found themselves in a stereotypical investigation room with Glynda pacing behind them.

"I hope you two realise that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly. You put yourselves and others at risk and don't even get me started on that Bullhead Red destroyed!" Glynda ranted as she paced, eventually walking around to the front to face the two of them. Now that Ruby wasn't in combat, she took in more time to observe Glynda; Glynda was a blonde woman with green eyes with a pair of ovular glasses, she was also wearing a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist, a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings, black boots with brown heels and a black cape with purple lining. The cut of the cape was stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back.

"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home with a pat on the back and a slap on the wrist" Glynda continued, slamming her riding crop down on the table to emphasise her point getting an "eek" from Ruby and a "tripe" from Red as both recoiled away from the crop.

"I swear you enjoy hitting things with that whip too much" complained Red, getting a supressed laugh from Ruby and a glare from Glynda; ignoring this, he continued "Why do you have one in the first place? You don't even have a horse!"

"Silence Red!" snapped Glynda, glaring at him even more as Ruby tried her best not to laugh at Red's antics. Glynda took a deep breath to calm herself and then continued "But there is someone who wants to talk to you… BOTH of you."

A man then entered the room carrying a plate of cookies and a mug of what appeared to be coffee. He had brown eyes and silver hair as well as a pair of dark glasses perched on his nose, he wore a dark green suit with a light green shirt underneath.

"Ruby Rose… you have silver eyes" he said leaning in close before noticing Red next to her "And if it isn't Red, still causing trouble I see."

"Hey, I don't go looking for trouble! It finds me and then complains that it bit off more than it could chew" Red responded, shaking his head dramatically, much to the man's amusement.

"Indeed, so Ruby, where did you learn to do this?" the man asked, tilting his head towards Glynda's scroll which was playing footage of Ruby's fight at From Dust Till Dawn.

"S-Signal Academy" she answered nervously.

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" he pressed.

"Well, one teacher in particular" Ruby replied, getting a nod from the man.

"I see…" the man said, sliding the cookies along the table to Ruby which she then began to eat (Red tried to steal some but had his hand slapped away each time), the man watched them for a moment before taking a drink from his mug and speaking again "It's just I've only ever seen one scythe user of that skill before, a dusty old crow."

These words prompted Ruby to try to say something but it came out garbled due to the volume of cookies in her mouth, realising this, she swallowed and apologised

"Sorry, that's my uncle Qrow. He's a teacher at Signal, I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing and now I'm all like Howaaah, Watcha…." she started doing a series of karate moves before she hit Red in the face and knocked him (and his chair) over "Whoops, sorry Red."

"Why are people always going for the face today?" he complained, the man smirked at Red slightly before turning his attention back to Ruby.

"So I've noticed" the man muttered before placing his hands on the table "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

"Well, I want to be a Huntress" Ruby answered.

"You want to slay monsters?" he pressed.

"Yeah, I only have two more years of training left at Signal, then I'm going to apply to Beacon…" Ruby said before launching into a tangent about her reasons for wanting to becoming a Huntress and how her sister was going to Beacon this year. She stopped when she realised that she was subject of a weird look from Glynda and a raised eyebrow from the man.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked and Ruby nodded.

"You're Professor Ozpin, you're the headmaster at Beacon" she answered causing his mouth to twitch upwards in a smile.

"Hello" Ozpin said, a hint of humour lacing his tone.

"Nice to meet you" Ruby replied.

"You want to come to my school?" he asked, though it sounded almost like a statement, Ruby nodded.

"More than anything" she answered as Ozpin let out a "Hm" and turned to Red who had picked himself up off the floor and was now reclining in his chair with his hands behind his head, eyes closed and feet on the table.

"And what would you say, Red?" Red opened an eye when Ozpin said his name.

"If what I saw tonight is any indication of her regular combat ability, then Ruby will just be held back if she remains at Signal" he answered before closing his eye again and missing the confused look Ruby sent Ozpin, who looked amused when he caught it.

"Despite how Red may act, he is known as a Huntsman of considerable skill and – more importantly in this case – his harsh criticisms of people's combat prowess and abilities, so if he openly admits that he's impress by yours – like he did just now – you can take it as high praise indeed" Ozpin explained to Ruby as a look of realisation slowly came on her face before she started pestering Red about why he hadn't told her he was a Huntsman, much to Ozpin's amusement.
He looked at Glynda and she let out a noise of disapproval before he turned and smiled at Ruby.

"Well Ms Rose" he began, after taking a drink from his mug "I'd recommend that you head home and start packing, term starts shortly and you wouldn't want to be unprepared for attending Beacon, would you?

After Ruby had finished thanking Ozpin, she dashed off home leaving Ozpin, Glynda and Red alone together. As soon as she was gone, Red immediately stopped reclining and sat up straight with as serious look in his eye.

"Just what was that all about Ozpin?" he asked the man, suspicious of the headmaster's motives.

"Just helping a girl achieve her dreams, you said yourself that Signal would only hold her back. It's time for her to take the next step towards achieving them" Ozpin answered lightly before his eyes hardened and his voice became serious "but let's talk about you Red, you've been carrying out that search of yours for over a decade with only rare visits, although they have become more common in the past 5 years. What brought you back now?"

"Oh, you know, the big birds were making too much noise for my liking so I decided to take a break, that and I received word that my niece was potentially in danger so I returned to see if someone needed to lose a couple of limbs" Red answered with a slightly psychotic smile at the end.

"Well, now that you're here, the way I see it is that you have two options available to you" Ozpin began, ignoring the concerning look on Red's face and the words he just said "First, you could continue your search that hasn't turned anything noteworthy up in almost a decade, or you could put it on hold and join me at Beacon and watch over Ruby and Yang."

"And why would I do that? They'll be at Beacon, one of the safest locations on the whole of Remnant, what could they possibly need protecting from in there?" Red asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You know as well as I do that dark forces are on the move and they will not hesitate to use children to strike at the heart of places we thought of as safe, the only way you'll be able to ensure Ruby's safety is to watch over her at Beacon as Qrow will not be able to any more… plus it will give you an opportunity to actually fulfil the promise you made to Summer years ago" Ozpin answered, taking a drink from his mug after he said the last bit and watched as a dark but guilty look came over Red's face.

"Just what are you implying Ozpin? Ruby knows me perfectly well as you could see today, besides how would you even explain my presence at Beacon? The last I checked, I was still banned from teaching by the Council because I accidentally put Fire Dust in Oobleck's coffee" Red replied, sending Ozpin a warning look which the man proceeded to ignore.

"She knows you as a friend and not an uncle, Summer wanted her to know you as an actual family member, not an old friend of Qrow's!" snapped Ozpin, sending Red a glare of his own "But if you wish to be stubborn about it, that's your business. Anyway, if you chose to accept my offer, the Council has given me permission to give you a position as both a T. A. and a sort of bridge between the students and the staff… a counsellor of sorts, if you will."

"Great, so I'm supposed to help out students with their issues? Forgive me if I think you've finally gone crazy Ozpin, but I don't think that's a good idea" Red muttered, rolling his eyes but Ozpin heard him.

"On the contrary, it would give you more freedom to deal with issues like discrimination against the Faunus. As it stands now, it's difficult to prove that discriminatory behaviour has taken place, especially when certain families start throwing their weight around" Ozpin looked at Red over the rim of his mug which hid his smirk "It'll be a healthy reminder to all that Beacon does not tolerate discrimination of any kind."

"Are you sure you're not just using me to try and scare them into behaving?" Red deadpanned causing Ozpin's smirk to grow.

"The thought had crossed my mind, yes. So what'll your answer be, come to Beacon and watch your nieces or continue with this search of yours?" at this, Ozpin noticed that Red look conflicted so he stood up, walked around the table and placed a comforting hand on Red's shoulder "Look, I know that you feel responsible for failing to bring Summer back to her family but going on like this isn't helping anyone, you're just wasting time that you could be using to give your memories of Summer to Ruby, allowing her to get to know her mother in a way. If you must punish yourself for your perceived failure, then do so but don't punish Ruby as well, besides Summer wouldn't want to see you like this."

"You think so?" Red asked, a single tear falling from his eye and following his scar down his face.

"I know so and you do too" Ozpin answered gently "Our time is limited and what little we have is precious, don't squander yours by letting a chance like this slip through your fingers."

Red sighed before standing and facing Ozpin, a look of determination in his eyes.

"Do me a favour Ozpin and never go into politics" he said as he walked around Ozpin and headed for the door.

"So I'll be taking that as a yes then?" Ozpin asked rhetorically but he got an answer in the form of a nod anyway, Ozpin's brow furrowed before he spoke again "A word of warning Red, you can't run from the past forever and I won't help you. Questions will be asked about why there are two Roses at Beacon, particularly by those who were close to Summer."

"I know and you're right" Red threw over his shoulder, not stopping even to look at Ozpin "It's time I stopped running and started being the brother Summer believed me to be."

He reached the door and opened it but Ozpin had one last thing to say to him:

"A word of advice before you go, Red: Don't forget that Summer didn't have only one daughter."


Right, well that's what I've written so far, feel free to let me know what you think: what's good, what's bad and what could be improved.

As a general rule: any and all feedback on my fics is welcome, provided it is phrased in a polite and comprehensible manner, flames that are unhelpful will be ignored.
If you're going to give me constructive criticism, I'd prefer that you provide examples of what was bad/needed improving and how to improve it for future reference, but that's just a personal preference.

Anyway, please let me know what you think of my OC Red, at some point I'll post a full bio for him under the OCs list on my profile if anyone wants more details on him, and as I said earlier: any and all feedback is welcome be it a Review, Favourite, Follow or PM. I'd like to get as much feedback as possible on this fic as possible, particularly this chapter before I even consider continuing it as it is a new fic and all.

Well, I think I've run out of things to say, so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it so far.

Until Next Time

Darth Annihilator - out.