Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.
I ducked under a massive paw and jumped backwards, once again cursing the fact that my semblance was pretty much unusable for combat. It was too imprecise which meant none of those cool teleporting attacks you see in cartoons.
Of course, that was why I had Molnair to begin with. I activated the blade as I landed, the eighteen inch blade shifting into position for battle. The Ursa roared at me and bowed it's head, preparing to charge. I jumped left, my Aura pushing my higher and farther than my body would have allowed, firing bullets from the two machine guns built into Molnair. Like most bullets in Remnant, these things used a Burn Dust powder charge which made them far more powerful than the bullets back on Earth. They had to be to take out Grimm. As far as I was concerned, the Grimm violated multiple laws of biology and the laws of thermodynamics, if not all of physics. They were big, tough, armored, and apparently they needed neither food nor rest, which meant they didn't get tired. They also were fairly resistant to pain, which was a colossal nuisance. It meant they could keep fighting long after the point where their bodies were effectively dead, which really didn't help. Mortally wounding the things wasn't enough if you wanted to survive. You had to put them down and make sure they stayed there.
My bullets struck home, causing the creature to roar at me before charging. I hadn't really hurt it yet, just made it mad. Time to fix that.
I waited for the last second before vaulting into the air, my Aura once again pushing me to heights that would make Olympic athletes jealous. The Ursa rumbled on past beneath me before slamming into a tree. The impact left it dazed, giving me a chance to strike. I flipped once in mid-air, bringing my weapon into proper position. I landed on the thing's back, burying the blade in the creature's neck. I opened fire with both machine guns, tearing the creature apart. Its neck disintegrated into shreds of flesh and the creature collapsed, dead.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Not the cleanest kill, but it would do. Suddenly I tensed. There was something behind me. I spun to find another Ursa charging at me. Oh, this was going to hurt. Closing my eyes, I braced myself for the impact.
It never came. Instead there was a loud sizzling sound and the sound of a large, fast moving object hitting the ground. I opened my eyes to see the Ursa lying at my feet, dead. I looked it over and found a pair of what looked like over sized needles. They were made of metal with little glass tubes that had shattered on impact. I noticed a faint yellow residue on one of the shards. Electric Dust. Someone had just rescued me, but I couldn't see them.
"Who's there?" I asked.
Rachel shimmered into view, directly in front of me. Or rather, the girl looked like Rachel. She certainly wasn't acting like Rachel though. With no wasted effort she calmly walked over to the Ursa and pulled out the needles. She carefully removed the shattered dust chambers, then placed one of them into each of the metal contraptions she had covering her forearms. I heard a whir of machinery and several clicking sounds which probably indicated that the darts had been reloaded. She did all of this without saying a single word.
"Hi." I said, somewhat thrown by the uncharacteristic behavior. "I take it this means we're partners."
"Yes." She wasted no words, simply turned to look in the direction of the temple. She pointed. "That way." She started walking.
"Uh, yeah." I followed her. This was not the Rachel I knew. Something was different. "Uh, Rachel, don't take this the wrong way, but are you feeling alright? You're not acting like yourself."
"The me you know is for fun. This me is for work."
Oookay, split personality much? Well, at least she was effective. There were worse people to be teamed up with. This might not be so bad.
"So, I take it your Semblance is invisibility?"
"Yes. Yours?"
"Teleportation."
"Useful."
"It can be. It's not precise enough to use in battle, although I'm hoping with some practice I can change that."
"How long?"
"How long do I think I need to practice?"
"No, how long have you known about it?"
"I figured it out shortly after my Aura was unlocked, so about three years."
"After you came to this world."
"That's right."
She didn't respond, just continued to press forwards. As I followed I felt my mind drifting back to when my Aura was unlocked.
The weird greenish glow that covered my body quite frankly creeped me out. Don't judge me! How would you react if you suddenly started glowing? Anyways, unlocking my Aura was one of the first things Ruby did when I came to. Apparently I was unconscious for nearly twenty hours and had only just woken up. She said they needed to get me to a safe place, but that they didn't have anything I could wear. It was too cold for me to go with just what I had on me, so they'd come to the decision that my Aura would have to be activated in the hopes that it would keep me alive long enough to get to some place called Vale.
For the record, getting my Aura unlocked did not feel particularly pleasant. I'm not sure if that's because I'm not from Remnant or if that's normal, but everything I've found indicates that the former is probably the case. I'm sure someone would have mentioned feeling like the world's biggest jolt of static electricity was going through them if it was normal. However, once it was activated, several things happened. The cold seemed to retreat, at least a little bit, the residual exhaustion I still had from yesterday vanished, and my stomach growled. I'm pretty sure that last one was coincidence.
"Hungry?" Ruby asked with a smile on her face.
"Like you would not believe." I muttered. I hadn't had anything to eat since I left home yesterday, and I was starving.
"Well there's some food out by the fire. Help yourself."
"Thank you." I said. I pushed my way out of the tent with Ruby following behind me. I noticed Weiss giving me a very dirty look which I did not understand, but whatever. My stomach demanded food, and I wasn't about to tell it no. I quickly located a plate by the fire. I didn't recognize some of the food, but I was too hungry to care. Not paying much attention to manners I wolfed down the food.
"Alright Team Ruby!" Ruby announced. "We're cutting our mission here short. The local Grimm population has already been reduced to acceptable levels and we have a civilian to take care of. Our new mission is to get Kevin back to Vale. Once we get there we will try to figure out more about him. Let's get going."
"You know, she's really grown up since Beacon." Yang said.
"The team's named after her?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh, no, Team Ruby, R-W-B-Y." Yang replied.
"That doesn't spell ruby."
"No, it's our initials, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and of course Yang."
"Oh. Team RWBY."
"Yep."
"So who came up with the name?"
"Professor Ozpin at Beacon." Blake said. "He's responsible for all team names."
"What's Beacon?"
The women looked at me oddly. "It's the most prestigious school for Hunters in the world." Weiss answered.
"Oh." I was even more confused than ever. "How did the four of you end up on a team?"
"We ran into each other during initiation." Yang said. "Then we-"
I was dragged out of my reminiscing by a tree branch to the face. I shook myself, irritated that I'd allowed myself to get that distracted in such a dangerous place.
"Pay attention." Rachel muttered, still doing the quiet and scary shtick. I looked at her again. Somehow the almost comically bright outfit she was wearing seemed far more intimidating on this Rachel. The other Rachel was like a bright red ball of energy. This Rachel was focused. This Rachel was deadly. This Rachel was a bloody killer.
I shuddered at the thought, wondering where this split personality had come from, and, perhaps more importantly, which was the real Rachel? Fun loving, energetic, and quirky Rachel? Or this cold blooded killer? I wasn't sure. Great. I was partnered with someone who I was no longer certain I even knew.
"So, why did you decide to team with me?" I ventured the question.
"You interest the other me." she said.
"Uh, thank you?"
"Don't thank me. I don't care."
"But you saved me from that Ursa."
"I didn't do it for you."
"You care that much about- about the other you?" I stuttered, forcing out the strange phrase.
"I exist to protect her and keep her happy."
"Okay then." I thought for a moment. "Does she know you exist?"
"I do not know," she turned to look at me, her light blue eyes completely devoid of emotion, "and I do not care."
I took the hint and shut up. We kept walking towards the temple.
A/N: And Rachel goes in a completely different direction. This was an interesting chapter to write, particularly because of the reversed dynamics between Kevin and Rachel. I also had a good bit of fun with Rachel's weapon, and it went through several redesigns before I finally settled on the final version.