RWBY: Choices of Light and Dark
Chapter I: Roanos - Before I Broke
A/N: So I've been procrastinating putting up the prequel story but now it's here. Don't really have an order of who will get focused on but I'll try to have the entire thing finished before the second arc starts, enjoy.
Mountain Village
The crisp mountain air was clean and fresh as a pair of young boys ran through a grassy plain and up a small hill. The boys were identical save for the slight difference in the shading of their hair colors and their eyes. One of the boys had dirty blonde colored hair while his twin's was darker and more brown than blonde.
"Come on Shadow!" the boy with dirty blonde hair called out.
"Roanos, you're running to fast!" Shadow yelled at his brother as he tried to catch up to him.
Roanos laughed and looked behind him where his brother was almost a yard and a half away from him. Reaching the top of the Hill Roanos looked down at the valley below and smiled. Shadow reached the same spot a few seconds later and stood next to his brother while breathing heavily.
"Look at it all." Roanos said as he stretched his arms out.
"There's a whole world out there beyond the valley." The young boy continued as he fell onto his back and looked up at the sky.
"Roanos, why do you want to explore the world so badly?" Shadow asked his brother before sitting down next to him.
"Valethornia has been cut off from the other countries of Remnants for untold generations. I want to see those places that are only mentioned in books; Vale, Haven, and Atlas. I want to learn about their culture and lifestyles. Wouldn't it be exciting to be the one to reconnect Valethornia with the rest of the world?" Roanos asked.
"Maybe, but you're just one person Roanos. How would you even go about connecting the countries? No one has Valethornia in centuries what makes you think you even could?" Shadow asked flooding Roanos with questions.
Roanos looked to his twin with a mischievous smirk.
"I'll join the most elite huntsman and huntresses group in the military. Once I get super famous and strong I'll make a naval unit and sail away." The child explained gesturing with his hands.
Shadow tilted his head slightly as he stared at Roanos. He could never understand where his younger brother got these ideas from but it was always a great source of amusement to hear these dreams. Although no one could ever tell from the way they acted that Roanos was the younger of the two, the twins themselves didn't care much.
"Roanos! Shadow!" the brothers heard a female voice call out to them.
Looking down the hill they saw a young girl running up to them. She was wearing a long dark orange-yellow sundress that complimented her long and curly orange-red hair. Her dark-red eyes shone with happiness as she ran to meet the brothers.
Roanos looked over at Shadow and saw his older brother was blushing deeply. Shadow had a crush on the girl that was obvious to everyone but her. Reaching the brothers the girl bent over and held her body at her knees as she caught her breath.
"I'm glad I caught you guys." She told the twins once she was finally able to breathe.
"You and your family are moving away from the village in a few hours aren't you?" Roanos asked as he sat up.
The girl nodded and sat down in between the brothers.
"Yea we are. My parents are just finishing up some things around the village but I wanted to find you both. I wanted to be able to say goodbye to you properly" She answered as the wind began blowing softly against them.
The three children sat in silence watching the clouds.
"Will you come back and visit us?" Shadow asked, breaking the silence, with a slight quiver in his voice.
"I don't know. My grandparents are staying in the village so it might be ok with my parents if I came back to stay with them." Their friend answered.
"I hope you do, the village will get a lot less quiet without you here." Shadow commented.
The girl laughed and shoved Shadow lightly.
"Don't say that. You guys have to keep up the noise and mischief. We're the Tres Banditos Tontas. Just because I'm gone doesn't mean our gang is over. I'll cause enough trouble for the three of us in eastern trade cities of Mariados so guys will have to do my share of troublemaking together while I'm away." She told the twins.
Roanos smiled and nodded at the girl while Shadow nodded in agreement with a slight frown.
The three friends sat on the hill as the birds flew overhead and the sounds of crickets began to fill the air. None of them knew what to do or say. They just wanted to stay together for as long as they could before being separated. Roanos stood up and looked at the other two before smiling broadly.
"You know, we never finished our competition. Right now the score is tied across the board with all of us at three wins." He said causing his brother and the girl to look at him with slightly confused stares.
"Remember the competition to see who would be leader of the gang. We did tree climbing, berry gather, and the bug hunt along with a bunch of other things." Roanos explained.
The realization dawned on the other two as they too began to smile. The girl stood up first with a challenging look in her eyes. Shadow had a wide smile plastered to his face as he looked Roanos in the eye.
"The final tie-breaker competition will be a race from here back to the village." Roanos announced.
"A race, we'll then you should declare me the winner already. I'm faster than the both of you." Shadow proclaimed as he puffed out his chest.
"Yea in a sprinting race but this is a distance run and we have obstacles to avoid. Pure speed doesn't beat endurance." The girl countered.
"So we can take any route we want and the first one to the village is the winner." Roanos told them as he got into his running stance.
The other two children nodded and also got ready.
"On your mark."
"Get set."
"Go!"
The three children all launched themselves as hard as they could as they began to run. Shadow quickly took the lead as he managed to keep his speed and balance down the hill. Roanos was right behind him with their friend bringing up the rear. The trio ran across the plains as they leveled out and began to laugh as they ran with the girl passing Roanos and taking second when they came to the forests that separated their village from the plains. Roanos jumped a fallen log and saw his twin off to the side sliding over a rock. The obstacles of the forest had indeed hampered Shadow's speed advantage as the girl pulled ahead.
Her dress got caught on a bush but she didn't slow down and continued to run, tearing the garment. Jumping a small puddle the girl landed and slid on a patch of muddy ground while Roanos and Shadow ran past her with joyous laughter. She didn't let the fall deter her and was on her feet in seconds chasing after the siblings.
Soon they came to the stream that bisected the forest. Although it was a stream it was still rather deep dropping about three feet near the middle. Roanos reached the log bridge that connected the two sides before Shadow and carefully began to make his way across with his brother behind him.
When their friend caught up they saw that she neglected the bridge in favor of the more dangerous boulder path. Very few children ever skipped along the topside of the boulders for fear of falling into the river but she brazenly leapt from one rock to another and made it to the other side before Roanos had finished crossing the log.
Running ahead of the brother the girl weaved between trees. She could hear their laughter behind her as they swore to bypass her and win the race. She didn't let them distract her however and broke through the trees towards the clearing where their village sat. Stopping briefly to catch her breath the girl swore loudly when Roanos and Shadow both leapt from the trees to her left and began sprinting towards the village.
She had lost her lead but continued to run with all her might. Roanos and Shadow ran almost neck and neck but seemed to be getting closer to her as she ran. She noticed then how heavily the twins were breathing. Her short reprieve had given her body a chance to replenish a lot of the lost oxygen it had spent during her sprint and rock hopping.
The brothers on the other hand were gasping as they tried to breathe in enough air to just keep their pace. The girl smiled as she pulled up next to her friends. Roanos and Shadow still had smiles on their faces as the trio ran. The village was only a few meters away as the girl pulled ahead. Now instead of laughing she heard the twins cheering for her. They were encouraging her to keep going and not to look back. They told her that she'd always have friends with them and at that moment she realized the cheering wasn't for the race but for her going ahead in life away from the village.
Tears sprung to her eyes as she ran and when she crossed the entrance of the village she didn't stop running. Saying goodbye would be too painful. She didn't want to leave her friends behind but she knew she would have to. Taking a glance back as she ran the girl saw that Roanos and Shadow had both entered the village and were waving at her with tears running down their faces as well.
They knew that this was goodbye and they were broken up about it just as much as she was. She waved to them as she ran smiling and crying as both sadness and joy swam around within her. I'll definitely come back and visit you both again someday. This isn't the end of our friendship. She thought as she began to sprint to her house.
Roanos and Shadow watched their friend run. They were sad to see her go but knew that they would see her again whenever she came to visit. Looking to one another the twins smiled before turning towards their home and running. They were tired, sweaty, and dirty. As they approached the medium sized house a small grey furred dog ran up to meet them.
"Fenrir!" Shadow called out, catching the small dog as it leapt at him. Fenrir licked Shadow's face as he was lifted up. Roanos pet the dog and received licked fingers as a result. The boys entered their house and called out their return to their mother. The woman in question poked her head out from the kitchen and told her sons to wash up as she was cooking dinner.
The boy's mother had a plump figure and happy demeanor. Her shoulder-length hair was dark brown and she had dark hazel eyes. These two traits had been mostly inherited by Roanos while his twin had received a mixture of their father's blonde hair and mother's dark brown as well as their father's dark green eyes.
The siblings ran upstairs and into their room as they got their pajamas out and quickly undressed to bathe. Bringing Fenrir with them into the bathroom the children began to fill the tube with water, liquid soap, and body wash. Once it was sufficiently filled they got inside and began to clean themselves and their dog while also playing with the bubbles formed from the soapy water.
It wasn't until their mother called them out for dinner that the twins realized they had been in the tub for well over twenty minutes they drained the water and quickly dried themselves off before putting on their pajamas and running back downstairs to the kitchen.
Their father hadn't come back yet as his spot at the table was empty. Onyx Stormcloud worked in the mines which was the village's most prominent source of wealth. The village had been founded by a group of eleven families, five generations ago. They had started mining the mountain for resources and found that it was rich with a variety of metal veins. Selling the metal to various cities the families were able to get the village properly built and even registered under the protection of the kingdom.
The boy's usually only saw their father for a few hours each day, in the morning and when he returned at night. As they ate in silence the boys told their mother about their day and what they had done. She asked if they had seen their friend off and they told her they had.
She knew it was hard on her boys but their mother was a caring and understanding woman so she did her best to comfort them. When they had finished eating the boys went to the living room and began to watch television.
Neither of the boys knew exactly when they had fallen asleep but the sound of their mother crying out for them to wake up made them jump to their feet. Roanos looked around and saw his mother standing only a foot away. She was yelling at him and Shadow to run. He heard the sound of the villages alarms and a sense of dread washed over him.
Grimm had come and were now attacking the village. Grabbing his brother by the arm Roanos took Shadow and began to run with their mother. The woman took them out the back of the house and started running towards the shed where they had an underground shelter. They had barely taken three steps out the house when a pack of beowolves leapt from the top of their house and tackled their mother to the ground.
"Don't look! Run to the shed!" the woman cried out as the monsters began to tear at her body.
Roanos and Shadow were frozen as they saw one of the beowolves take their mother by the throat before ripping a large chunk of esophagus from the woman, killing her. As the blood splattered over the children, they were brought back to reality. Ducking a swipe from one of the creatures Shadow pulled Roanos with him and together the twins ran towards the only safety they knew. They didn't make it far as the beowolf pack quickly caught up to them and grabbed Shadow by the leg.
"Let go of my brother!" Roanos cried as he hit the beowolf with his fist. The creature let go but not because of Roanos. Fenrir had run out of the house after the boys and was currently biting the Beowulf's ankle in his small jaws. Growling deeply the beast lifted its free foot before stomping down on Fenrir and crushing the dog beneath its heel.
"FEEENNNNNRRRIIIIIRR!" Shadow and Roanos cried out in unison as their dog was killed.
They were so preoccupied with their dog's death that they failed to notice the beowolf raising its claws to strike them. Roanos felt his body pushed to the side and watched in horror as his twin was impaled through the chest.
"Shadow?" Roanos called out to his brother, who was still breathing.
"Shadow?" Roanos called out again as his brother vomited a torrent of blood.
The beowolf raised its claws to its face and opened its jaws to finished the child off. At that moment something inside Roanos snapped. He didn't know why he did what he did but crying out the child thrust his hand forwards to try and stop his brother from being eaten.
"SHADOW!" Roanos cried out in pain as tears flowed from his eyes. Suddenly the beowolf was bisected by a shadow, to be more precise by Roanos's shadow. The monster dropped Roanos's brother to the ground as it died and its companions all closed in on the child as he cried, eyes close and repeatedly screaming his brother's name.
Roanos's shadow grew until it became humanoid. It opened some semblance of a mouth and released a blood-curdling roar before attacking the Grimm. The Beowolves saw this threat and met it head-on. The shadow Roanos wasn't affected by their attacks as it grabbed limbs and ripped the beowolves apart. Extra arms grew from the projected creature as Roanos continued to cry out for his brother to come back.
His cries of pain only brought more Grimm to his location, attracted by the intense negativity he felt at the loss of his mother, brother, and pet. The more he felt though the more powerful his shadow projection grew. It tore through creeps, ursa, and beowolves like tissue paper. Roanos felt nothing but the despair of his own existence.
His shadow protected him as Grimm continued to attack. They were hell-bent on taking out the source of negativity but paid the price with their lives. It wasn't until more than a dozen score of Grimm had been decimated that the creatures finally backed off, weary of the shadow that protected Roanos.
Roanos cradled his brother's corpse in his arms only repeating the name of the person he had lost. The sun rose hours later and still Roanos didn't move. The child sat in the same spot for a full day alone save for the corpses of his family. On the following day after exhaustion had finally forced Roanos to sleep did he finally register everything that had happened.
Roanos stood up and looked at the remains of his house and family. Walking away he began to explore the village but saw only similar scenes of chaos everywhere he went. Rushing over to his friend's house Roanos finally saw something worth being hopeful for. The home was relatively intact showing little signs of having been attacked by Grimm which meant that no one had been around during the attack. She and her family had gotten out of the village in time.
Hearing a crunch from behind Roanos froze with fear. There was another crunch and slowly the child turned. Approaching him was a person dressed in white with a cowl covering their face. This person was not someone from the village but an adult he had never seen before. His mother had taught him never to talk to strangers but Roanos was alone now. The only security he knew came from adults. Breaking into a cry the boy ran up to the person before wrapping his arms around their legs.
"Hush child, you are safe now." Roanos heard a quiet male voice comfortingly speak to him.
"They're dead, they're all dead." Roanos stated between his tears.
"Yes, but not you. You survived and now I will take you to a place we're you can be safe." The man said extending his hand to the child.
"What is your name?" Roanos asked as he and the man walked from the wreckage of the village.
The man looked at Roanos from beneath his cowl before lowering it and showing his face to the child. He was handsome with dark hair and a pale complexion.
"My friends call me Magress but from this moment forward you will refer to me as Master. I am going to train you child and you will be given all that I know." Magress answered.
Roanos stared with wide-eyed wonder at Magress.
"Yes Master, I listen and obey." The child answered with a hopeful look in his eyes and a small smile on his face.
A/N: So there it is; the foundation for what Roanos would eventually become. You know the deal, review and let me know what you thought; kudos to anyone who can recognize the cameo character.