NOTE: I DO NOT OWN RWBY OR GUILD WARS
'Is this where my journey ends?' The Hero thought, feeling the burning, yet cold, magic wash over his form. His consciousness fading while his mind played a million memories in his head before departing from this world.
'I have to much to do, so many to save… I hope... in my stead, everyone will be strong. For each other.' His thoughts becoming more and more sluggish, slowly forming and disappearing. That is, until a certain memory came to the forefront of his psyche. He froze, seeing his former lover, Demmi Beetlestone. The memories refined down to those including her, seeing as she was the love of his life. Her smile, her personality, her everything clicked with his. It only seemed right in his head to remember her the most in his last moments of existence. He envisioned her, beckoning him to the other side, knowing full well this was a hallucination brought on by his current state.
That didn't matter, he went to her anyway. He took her hand and joined her in whatever afterlife she had been confined to. 'It's been so long since he felt your skin...' He thought, holding her close, silently vowing to never let go of her again as tears streamed down his face.
Not after what Caudecus did.
He'd lived with a great amount grief ever since that day. The day he saw her lying in her former home in a pool of her own blood, shot through the stomach by her own father, bleeding out. And he couldn't do a damn thing to save her. But none of that mattered to him anymore. They were finally reunited.
While being in the metaphorical/ metaphysical window between life and death, a slow breeze picked up. He could feel it, or rather, his soul-like form could. It increased in intensity, daring to tear him from the embrace of his lover.
With a final gust, it finally had.
'Liam!'
'Demmi!'
His vision clouded with white, her form disappearing from his sight.
The breeze continued it's assault on him, getting louder and more turbulent. The white was slowly ceasing from his vision, replaced by a skyline. A skyline he was currently racing. He looked down, seeing he was falling towards the ground below.
'By the six, err five now, where am I?!' The Hero, now named Liam asked himself as the sped towards the forest below at terminal velocity. His thoughts turned frantic, panicking slightly at the sight of the ground coming closer and closer, racking his mind for a possible way to survive his imminent death by plummeting head first into foreign soil.
Then, a thought struck him.
'The incantation I learned from Logan!'
With Renewed Focus, he brought his hands close to his chest and began reciting the old Krytan language, his body drawing radiant blue energy inward as he fell.
To his relief and surprise, this worked. He impacted the ground, denting the unfortunate soil beneath his greaves with a force not yet rivalled. His body, hunched over on one knee with one fist drove into the ground, raised and straightened.
"Thank the five that saved me, otherwise I'd be paste for the pickin'." Liam mused to himself, surveying the damage done to his surroundings and armor. The armor had seen better days, but was faring well, all things considered. Feeling a familiar weight on his hips, he reached down and brandished his signature weapons.
'How? How are these here? I swear I left them in the care of Agent Kito, back in Amnoon.' Liam reminisced his last conversation with the Order of Shadows representative. He was keen on believing Liam would die, thus he recommended he leave his weapons in his care to be possible keepsakes for those who cared about him.
Snapping back to reality, he examined his weapons. His axe and shield, the very tools that he conquered the Undead Elder Dragon and the Jungle Dragon. His axe, Expurgation, while having a minimalist design, held intricate engravings burnished onto the shaft contrasting the bronze complexion of the weapon. The only thing that stuck out was the symbol of his order connecting the head of the axe to the hilt. It was the symbol of the Guardians, selfless protectors of Tyria bound by the virtues of Justice, Resolve, and Virtue. The symbol emitted small azure flames that seemed to never end.
His other hand bore his shield, Hero's Ward. The shield was a golden wing shield, often used by the Seraph. This one, however, held extreme importance to him, as it was his mentor Logan's. He fought alongside him in the reclamation of Claw Island, as well as the campaign into Orr to defeat Zhaitan.
'Those truly were the glory days, huh Logan? Charging in valiantly to face all that opposed us.' Liam somberly thought, the memory of finding his mentor in those damned blighting pods, too weak to stand on his own came to the forefront of his mind.
Shaking himself from his small stupor, he ventured out of the crater.
'Can't get too caught up in the past, especially not now. I have to find out where I am, and how to return.' He thought as he trekked away from the site of his arrival.
He soon came upon old and dilapidated ruins, familiar to Arah's, except with the absence of barnacles, seaweed, and other ocean flora.
Liam entered and surveyed the interior, searching for potential clues to his location.
'Hmm, nothing discernable from the walls… or the ground. In fact, nothing in here looks remotely familiar to what I'd seen in Orr… Or Tyria, now that I think of it.' Liam thought, the idea he may be somewhere in the Mists wasn't far fetched. Realizing this encumbered him with dread and worry, a pit in his stomach forming from the sudden revelation. He may not be able to return, to see his guild or world again. It froze him with fear.
That is, until he heard the unmistakable sound of claws on stone. Whipping around to face his enemy, weapons equipped without a moment's notice, he stood ready to engage whatever stood in his path.
He looked the beast over, it's appearance akin to the bears he's had the misfortune of encountering during his travels throughout central Tyria. The differences between the bears from his home, and the bear he faced now, was the bear before him was covered in what he assumed was bones. White spikes protruded from its back, glowing red eyes locked onto his sky blue eyes.
'The last time I'd seen glowing red eyes like this, was with bloodstone.. crazed… creatures.' The comparison dawned on him. For if an enemy hadn't been in his way, he would have darted out, searching for that awful stone.
Said enemy had enough of the standoff, raising on it's hind legs and letting loose a roar to prove dominance. Liam readied his axe and shield, preparing for one Hell of a fight against the enormous beast.
It dropped onto all fours, charging him at full speeds, leading into a horizontal slash. Liam dodged back, gaining some distance between him and his attacker. The bear charged again, swiping left to right, trying to lacerate it's prey. Liam raised his shield to block it's strikes, a sphere of blue magic erupting forth from the shield, pushing his enemy away and out of the door they had both entered. With the bear dazed, he saw this as an opportunity to holster his weapons and charge up a mantra. His favorite mantra. His signature Mantra.
The Mantra of Flame.
"Ignite. Inflame. Burn." He chanted, the ethereal symbols moving over his head to signify that it was ready for use. From his hands burst a wave of blue flames that seared and startled the bear-like creature. It's fur caught fire, leading to it dropping and rolling onto it's back in an attempt to extinguish the flames, exposing it's stomach.
Taking his opening, he re equipped and mounted it, bringing his axe down onto the weak underside, where he presumed the heart of the beast to be. His axe cut deep, followed by a spectral copy of his axe replicating his same strike. The spectral axe cauterized the wound, leaving little blood to be shed.
Though he had the upper hand, his strike didn't prove fatal. The bear rolled to the side, crushing the Tyrian's legs underneath it.
"Damned beast, get off of me!" Liam shouted. His only response was for the beast to press further on top of him, it's heavy body advancing on his torso.
"I said. Get. OFF." He shouted, releasing the rest of his mantra. The large wave of flame rushed from his hands with enough force to push it off.
He wasted no time, recovering and advancing on the enemy, intent on ending this fight once and for all.
The bear recovered, albeit visibly wounded, but nonetheless furious with the creature that decided to wound it.
They both charged forward, bloodlust overly apparent in the bears crimson orbs.
Liam stopped and swung his axe forward, willing the spectral axe far beyond his reach, and behind his enemy. He pulled forward, throwing the bear off balance while crippling one of it's back legs. It clumsily staggered forward towards him, trying to get its footing back. This proved futile, as he moved to meet the creature and decapitated it.
The body, minus head, sprawled out onto the ground behind him before seemingly disintegrating.
'So, they don't leave bodies after they've been defeated. How peculiar.' Liam thought, remembering how the shadow spawns of God's Lost decayed in a similar fashion.
He made his way from the ruins, and trekked north by himself.
Or so he thought….
Far North, in Beacon Academy:
Ozpin had seen many things throughout his career as a professional Huntsman. He's seen a multitude of Grimm in varying forms, criminal masterminds orchestrate awful crimes from the shadows, and extreme potential and talent in his students.
This, this fit into none of those categories.
This was something that only his wildest dreams could conjure up.
His screen showed a man, clad in full body armor, fell from the sky above and landed in Beacon's back yard, without sustaining any injuries whatsoever.
He rewinded the footage over and over again, looking for some hidden landing strategy from the unknown character, but found none. He was in disbelief.
No matter how strong your aura was, or how experienced you were, you can't survive a fall like that unharmed.
Everything about this newcomer perplexed and intrigued the headmaster, from his attire to how he fought, he seemed completely alien to Remnant. Especially how he fought.
From what Ozpin watched, he used what he could only assume was his semblance in the fight against the Ursa. Or two Semblances, seeing as he had control over flames and these strange ethereal axes. Or were they one in the same?
Ozpin was so engrossed with the footage his cameras caught, he hadn't even noticed the elevator open wide, releasing eight teenagers who awkwardly filed out in front of their headmaster.
"Headmaster, you called?" Weiss half asked, half announced their arrival.
For the first time any of teams RWBY and JNPR saw, their headmaster had jumped in genuine surprise.
"Oh, hello. Sorry, I was inspecting some interesting footage." He greeted and apologized.
The eight pairs of curious eyes landed on him, beckoning him to elaborate.
"Something, or rather someone seems 'lost' in the Emerald Forest." This caught their attention. It was rare that anyone that wasn't already acquainted with the forest to have access to it.
In layman's terms, the only people who got lost were those who didn't belong there.
"And you want us tooo…?" Yang drew out her question, hoping the headmaster would finish it.
"Retrieve him. Bring him back here, for I'd like to have a word with him. If he gives any of you difficulties, or acts out in a hostile manner, you have full permission to attack." Ozpin stated, getting eerily serious.
"Now," Ozpin continued. "team JNPR will accompany you and act as a supporting squad. Make haste, children, you're burning daylight." Ozpin finished.
"Alright gang, let's go rescue someone!" Ruby cheered, fist rising high into the air.
"Yeah, let's go!" Yang added, moving in the direction of the elevators with the rest of her team following suit.
"We'll try to keep them from doing anything reckless, Headmaster." Jaune proclaimed, somewhat weary of what could come.
"COME ON JAUNE, THEY'RE GONNA BEAT US TO THE URSAS! WE CAN'T LET THEM STEAL OUR URSA PELTS!" Nora shouted, a fire in her eyes adorning her toothy grin.
Ozpin looked to her questioningly, before to Ren. His voice agreed with her, but his eyes pleaded for help.
Ozpin couldn't help but smirk at the interaction.
"Yes, wouldn't want team RWBY to have all the glory, now would we Mr. Arc?" Ozpin asked mockingly, slightly chuckling at the sight of Nora dragging Jaune and Ren to the elevators with Pyrrha not far behind. She was spouting nonsense of 'Riches and Ursa pelts', and of a scheme to sell the latter.
'What an energetic group.' Ozpin thought to himself.
His attention turned back to his screen, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
His cameras showed the mystery man, as he was currently surrounded by what looked like pages from a book. With every movement of his hands, waves of the fire like the ones he'd seen him use against the Ursa, sprang forth. They eviscerated the Grimm that surrounded him, leaving scorch marks on the stone and ground in his wake.
Just what was Ozpin, no, what was Remnant dealing with?
Aaaand there it is! Chapter two done! Woot woot! Two chapters in two-ish days! LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
~Skulls