Woot. New chapter. We are rapidly approaching Cinder's time at the preliminary hunting academies, so school shenanigans are sure to follow! Or I might skip over it since I'm not to sure what to write for that kind of a shit show.

Let me know if you have any preferences on how much of school life everyone is interested in seeing before we hit the time of cannon and plot starts occurring!

Also it's been a while since I did a disclaimer so here's that:

I do not own Destiny, RWBY, or any songs used in this story. All credit belongs Bungie, Roosterteeth, and the various artists of the songs I use. I do however own my OC's and any unique plot I develop for this story.

Now the reviews:

Everyone: It seems that the general consensus is that other characters are okay so long as they fit and get RWBY-fied I don't plan on adding to many just one or two, that will be reoccurring. I'll drop a hint for who I might include as recurring characters if I decide to do it. Sand and Sword. There's your hint. Others might appear as a sort of cameo sort of deal.

Midnight Ruins: Glad you're excited! And in case it wasn't obvious from the beginning she is completely different.

: Oh I like you. I like your snark.

MaskedRiderEnzo: Purrrrrfect ;D

Jose566: If I thought I could write a good ranger I would but alas I cannot!

Ecoolasice: Well here you go! Glad to see you enjoy the story so much!

Nitiam15: That's what I was going for. They would be what their normal characters were only they were born and raised on Remnant.

Chapter 9: A Day in the Life

~Cinder age: 11 Ruby age: 6 Mason age: Unknown, Estimated 32~

-Summer-

The bedroom was dark and messy. Mason slept sprawled out on his bed, the sheets crumpled to one side, in a pair of boxers and black t-shirt. His hair was an absolute mess with his face buried in a pillow.

Slowly the door to Mason's room opened revealing a short silhouette standing in the door. The figure moved into the dark room and closed the door behind it. Making its way to the bed, the figure climbed onto the bed before pushing Mason.

"Dad…" Cinder said as she nudged Mason. "Dad?"

"Mmmmpph." Mason groaned as he rolled over. "Cinder? What are you doing awake?"

Cinder sat quietly before speaking. "I had a bad dream."

Mason sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Mmm? What was it about?"

Cinder grabbed Mason in a tight hug and mumbled something into his shoulder.

"I didn't quite catch that." Mason said returning Cinders hug.

Lifting her head, Cinder spoke again. "The police and huntsmen came and took you away… you were on fire and crying. Uncle Tukson was there too but he… he was…" Cinder looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Shhhhh. It's okay." Mason hugged Cinder tighter. "Me and your uncle aren't going anywhere. It was just a dream."

Cinder began to sob into Mason's shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. They sat together for some time before Mason gently pulled her away. "Are you ok? Do you want me to not go on a mission tomorrow?"

Cinder shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I do. I just… I don't…" She began to sob again and gripped Masons shirt as he pulled her into another tight hug. "Please don't leave me."

"Now why would I do that." Mason said. "You're my daughter and I'm your father. I love you Cinder. I've told you before, I won't leave you because you burnt a few things. You could kill me and I'd still love you like a father should."

"All I do is destroy things though. Everything I touch just… just burns. I'm a monster." Cinder cried into Mason's shirt.

Mason squeezed her tightly. "If you're a monster then what does that make me? Just because your semblance is difficult to control, and you've had a few bad experiences with it doesn't make you a monster. You aren't a monster Cinder and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"But-"

"No buts." Mason said. "You are Cinder Fall, daughter of Mason Fall, master thief, future fall maiden, and the best damn S'more cook in the world."

Cinder giggled slightly. "Stop. Your embarrassing me."

"Oh am I?" Mason raised and eyebrow. "Then how about I do THIS instead!"

Cinder squealed as Mason began to tickle her. She tried to run but ultimately failed to escape Mason's attacking hands. The father daughter duo rolled around on Mason's bed in a tickle fight before eventually settling down.

The two sat together in the dark together for some time before Cinder raised her head. "Can I sleep with you tonight… I'm scared."

"Sure." Mason said quietly.

Mason laid Cinder down in his bed. He uncrumpled his sheets and pulled them over themselves. Soon after, both of them were fast asleep once more.

…

The next morning

…

"Dad?" Cinder said through a mouthful of waffles.

"Yeah?" Mason said as he washed dishes leftover from cooking dinner last night.

"You say you're a hunter, but you don't have a hunter's license." Cinder set her fork on her plate. "I mean I get that we're criminals but to be a hunter don't you need a huntsman ID?"

Mason paused scrubbing the dishes a thought for a moment. "Well Cinder, that's only if you want to be a huntsman or huntress. What I am and do is both similar and different. Or at least what I used to do."

"What do you mean?" Cinder took another bite of food.

"Well, I'm a Hunter. Not a Huntsmen. They are two different things that can easily get mixed up because of their similarities." Mason said.

"So what's a hunter then if it's different than a huntsman?"

Mason sat quietly, debating whether or not to tell Cinder about just what he was. In the end he chose an explanation that would fit into the workings of Remnant.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. Not that it would mean anything anymore." Mason sighed. "But first you need to know something. Once upon a time there was a group of people unknown to the world who were the protectors of humanity and fought against the hordes of Grimm and anything else that was set on ending humanities existence. They were a secret order, no one knew about aside from the Grimm and others of their order."

"So kind of like a warrior version of the Illuminati?" Cinder asked in between bites.

"You could say that yes." Mason said. "They were known as Guardians. People blessed with unimaginably powerful semblances and Aura. There were three types of Guardians. Titans, stalwart, honorable, and beyond all else, strong. Warlocks, masters of aura and scholarly geniuses. And finally, Hunters, masters of stealth and scouting."

Cinder's eyes widened, and Mason nodded.

"So you are one of those Guardians?" Cinder asked incredulously.

"Was." Mason said bitterly.

"Was what?"

"I was a Guardian." Mason shook his head. "Not anymore though."

"Why not? Being a Guardian sounds awesome." Cinder asked.

"Oh it was. The thrill we got fighting was like a drug." Mason laughed lightly. "But unfortunately, I had a falling out with the other Guardians."

Mason sighed. "I was never the most honest one of us. I cheated people out of their money. I played dirty during our training exercises. I lied about some of my accomplishments. I ruined my credibility as a person. Eventually six of us went on a mission to fight and kill an incredibly strong Grimm known as Crota."

Shuddering Mason continued. "Six of us went to fight that… Thing. Two of us came back, and only one was still remotely sane. We killed that monster but in the process, we discovered an even greater threat. I tried to warn the other Guardians, but no one believed me. No one thought to trust the liar, the cheater. Eventually it came to a point where I got into a fight with three other Guardians. They tried to kill me."

"It ended with me alive and surrounded by the corpses of my friends and brothers in arms. Shortly after I was exiled and my status as a Guardian was revoked, I was lucky to leave with my life. My only regret about leaving is that I didn't see the look on their faces when the threat I tried to warn them about showed up and nearly destroyed them."

The father and daughter sat quietly for a moment. Eventually Mason perked up and clapped his hands. "Alright. We got a bit off topic, but a Hunter is a Guardian who is a master of stealth, an expert tracker, and a scout for the higher ups. Our job is to keep tabs on all the Grimm and report anything that seems dangerous and, if we can, kill any dangerous threats. If I'm being completely honest we might as well be called huntsmen, but our pride will never let that happen."

"But how are you a hunter if you're not a Guardian anymore?" Cinder asked.

"You don't lose your title as a Hunter when you are no longer a Guardian. The only way you can get that title is if you become a Guardian. Well that or you become a Warlock or a Titan, but you get the idea." Mason shrugged.

Cinder nodded. "Do hunters have any special powers? Or are you just a secret society of Huntsmen?"

"Ah right. Forgot about that." Mason said. "Most Guardians can use three semblances. Some can only use one like me but we are few and far between. Depending on which class of Guardian, Titan, Warlock, or Hunter, you are determining what kind of semblances you have access to."

Mason held up three fingers. "Each semblance we can use corresponds to one of three elements. Sol, the flames of the sun, Void, the essence of nothing, and Arc, the electricity of the most violent of lightning. Only one semblance could be used at a time, but they could be switched at any time."

"So why can you only use one?" Cinder asked.

"Because." Mason said. "I'm what's known as a natural born. I can't use the other two semblances but in exchange the one I can use is immensely more powerful."

"Oh." Cinder said. "Then can I become a Guardian?"

"No." Mason shook his head. "You are born a guardian. You don't just choose to become one. There are other requirements but even if you completed them you wouldn't be allowed to join because of how close you are to me."

Both sat in an awkward silence for a moment.

"You're taking this surprisingly well." Mason said cautiously.

Cinder shrugged. "Eh. I've just accepted that you're weird and to just not question it anymore."

"That's oddly mature." Mason said.

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "Dad. I've seen you dance on top of a car doing 70 down the highway while wearing a paper-mache tiger mask. I hardly think me being 'mature' is the weirdest thing you or I have ever seen.

Mason raised a finger for a moment to say something but dropped it and shook his head. "Fair point."

…

After breakfast.

…

"Dad?" Cinder asked. "What are we doing out here to train? Don't you have a mission tonight? And why are you shirtless?"

Mason stood in front of Cinder with his arms crossed, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants. He wore no shirt, exposing the massive scar crossing his toned chest.

"After last night you were clearly not in a good state of mind to be left alone, so I called the mission off. I'm shirtless because it's nice out and starting today I'm teaching you how to dance." Mason said completely serious.

"Dance? What does that have to do with anything?" Cinder asked cocking her head slightly.

"Everything. Since I started training you, I've noticed that your movements are stiff and blunt." Mason stated. "If you were a brawler that would be perfectly fine, but you're not so in the long run that type of style is going to do you more harm than good."

"How would that hurt me?"

"It's all in your body type. You are not physically strong, so taking hits is going to hurt a lot more than it would others. Fighting how you have been is going to result in you hurting yourself more than your opponent." Mason said. "You, much to my displeasure, are more suited to fight like a Bladedancer with sharp, fluid movements that are so fast it's difficult to see where they come from."

"What's a Bladedancer and why don't you sound very happy about telling me about them?" Cinder asked.

Mason frowned. "I've told you how I am a Gunslinger correct?"

"Yeah, you said that it is one of the three divisions of Hunters. It means you are more suitable for mid-to-long ranged combat."

"Half of that is true. Yes. It's one of the three divisions of hunters, but it has no bearing on how suitable I am for different combat ranges. The thing about Hunters is that we all share similar powers, like I said this morning. Gunslingers can use fire like I've shown you. Nightstalkers are an odd bunch, much more so than the other hunters and are much more solitary. They are not particularly common and spend most of their time alone in the wilds. They use the powers of the void instead of fire."

"They're the other subdivision of hunters, right? Other than Gunslingers and Bladedancers?" Cinder asked.

"Bingo." Mason sighed before continuing. "Now Bladedancers, or more recently when I last heard anything, Arcstriders, use the powers of lightning or Arc as most call it back home. They are blindingly fast. They are brutal. And they are the most annoying, hyperactive, little pricks I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, most of them that is. The easiest way to describe the three divisions is like this. Gunslingers are unparalleled marksmen. Nightstalkers are completely unpredictable masters of stealth beyond that of normal Hunters. And Bladedancers are incredibly fast."

Cinder tilted her head to the side in confusion. "So why don't you like Bladedancers then?"

"Imagine trying to shoot something moving as fast as a lightning bolt. Then imagine as that same lightning bolt taunting you. Then imagine getting toyed with by that lightning bolt when taunting you is no longer amusing. That is what it is like to face a Bladedancer." Mason grumbled out in frustration.

"Then why not teach me how to fight like a Nightstalker if you don't like a Bladedancers?"

"Because, One: You are not weird enough to be a Nighstalker and Two: To become a Nightsalker would mean that I'd have to leave you alone in this forest until you were twenty before you could even consider reaching the level of natural stealth to become one. And I don't believe that either of us want that. So with your naturally thinner and more limber body, being a Bladedancer suits you best, even if you use fire instead of lightning. I'm actually curious if we can adapt your flames to act in a similar way to the Bladedancer's super."

Cinder shuddered at the idea of being stuck alone in the forest for nine years. That was not something she wanted to experience. Raising her head, she asked. "Super?"

"It's another word for semblance that Guardians use."

"Ah ok." Cinder nodded in understanding. "So what does dancing have to do with this?"

"It's in the name. BladeDancer. Rather than 'fight', Bladedancers 'dance' around their opponents with fast fluid motions. It just so happens that dancing quite literally how Bladedancers teach themselves to fight. It's also why no one has ever out danced a Bladedancer in the history of ever, but that's just an added bonus."

Cinder shrugged. "Ok. Then where do we start?"

"Every fight has some rhythm to it that you can follow. No matter how much people believe there isn't, that rhythm is what you need to follow. The fight becomes your music and you need to dance to survive."

"Once you can find that rhythm and start to move with it you become nye untouchable because you can predict shots before they are even made." Mason said and then went silent before continuing. "A Bladedancer is most vulnerable at the start of a fight because a rhythm has yet to be found. But once they have one they are a force to be reckoned with."

"To start your training, you need to learn to find the beat and rhythm of music. From there we'll move to the rhythm of world around you. Next will be the rhythm of hand to hand combat. Finally, will be the rhythm of a gun fight. Expert Bladedancers have this skill honed to such a point they can tell the rhythm of a fight as an opponent is raising their weapon." Mason crossed his arms across his chest and raised his chin. "Neir, you have my playlist ready?"

"Ready when you are." Neir materialized into the air.

"Ready Cinder? You are not to stop moving until I say so or the music stops. Got it?"

Cinder straightened up and nodded.

"Then without further adu. Neir? Hit it." Mason uncrossed his arms and the music began to play.

…

That night after dinner.

…

"Ugh…" Cinder grumbled as she walked through the front door. "I am so full."

Mason strode in past her and patted her head. "Just means you're going to sleep well tonight."

Mason made his way into his room and shut the door. Cinder sat down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. A moment later Mason came out of his room in a pair of shorts, white t-shirt, and a towel around his neck.

"I'm going to lay on the beach for a bit Cinder. You coming?" He said.

Looking up from the couch Cinder nodded. "Sure. Can we make smores?"

"I thought you said you were full?" Mason said throwing on a pair of sandals.

"I always have room for S'mores." Cinder said.

Mason laughed. "Alright go grab the stuff. I'll meet you outside."

A ten minutes later Mason and Cinder were sitting on a towel on the beach in front of a small fire pit, flames flickering in the light breeze coming off the ocean. The two sat with a bag of marshmallows, a box of gram crackers, and a few chocolate bars to one side as they slowly roasted two of the marshmallows over the fire. Mason's quickly caught fire and burnt to a crisp as he let of a curse.

"Dammit!" Mason growled. "Every damn time."

Cinder giggled at her father's misfortune.

"How do you do it Cinder." Mason shook his head. "I cannot for the life of me roast a marshmallow properly."

Cinder giggled again. "It's a secret."

Mason gasped. "You're keeping secrets from your dear ol' dad? Cinder I am deeply wounded."

Smiling cheekily, Cinder ignored her fathers feigned offence and took her perfectly roasted, golden brown sweet off the fire. Placing the marshmallow on a gram cracker with some chocolate she ate her S'more happily while Mason grumbled obscenities as he burnt another one.

After several more failed attempts Mason gave up on successfully roasting one of the white sweets and threw his stick into the fire, watching the sparks and smoke plume into the sky.

"It's pretty." Cinder eventually said, breaking Mason out of his trance.

"Hmmm? What is?"

"The sky." Cinder pointed her stick to the starry sky above them.

Mason nodded. "Sure is."

"Hey dad?" Cinder tossed her stick into the fire.

"Hmm?"

"Has anyone ever been to the moon?"

Mason shook his head. "No but people have certainly tried. Dust doesn't work outside the atmosphere so anything that went above it just fell back to the ground."

"Oh." Cinder mumbled.

"Why do you ask?"

"I thought it would be cool to visit the moon." Cinder said longingly.

Mason nodded and tucked that information aside for later. She didn't need to know that he could take her to the moon quite yet.

The two sat in a comfortable silence, Cinder leaning against Mason's shoulder while he wrapped his arm around her. Mason began to gently hum as Cinder snuggled in closer to her father. Mason swayed gently back and forth before he began to sing:

(AN, For those interested Play Fly me to the Moon By Frank Sinatra)

"Fly me to the moon." Mason sang lightly. "Let me play among the stars."

Cinder smiled at the song and joined in. "Let me see what spring is like, On a, Jupiter and Mars."

"In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby, kiss me" Mason poked Cinders forehead and she giggled.

"Fill my heart with song and let me sing for ever more." Cinder smiled wider.

"You are all I long for. All I worship and adore." Mason tapped a light rhythm on his leg "In other words, please be true. In other words, I love you."

Mason began to whistle out the solo as Cinder swayed along with the song. Mason soon ended the solo and they continued on.

"Fill my heart with song. Let me sing for ever more." They sang together. "You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words, in other words…"

Mason poked Cinders forehead again. "I" Mason poked her once more. "love" Mason pulled Cinder into a hug. "you."

Cinder laughed at Mason's antics but embraced his hug.

"You remembered all the words this time!" Mason said happily.

Cinder nodded. "I've been practicing!"

"Oh have you now?" Mason raised an eyebrow. "Any other songs you know?"

"No but I'm working on it!"

"Then don't sing any new songs in front of me until you can do it. I want it to be a surprise when I hear you sing again okay?"

"Okay" Cinder had a wide smile plastered on her face as she pulled away from Mason's hug.

"Come on." Mason stood up. "It's getting late and you have another busy day of training tomorrow."

Cinder groaned but stood up. "Fine."

Together they put out their little fire and began their walk back to the house for a long night's sleep.

AN

All right folks. There you have it. Pretty soon after the last chapter release if I do say so myself!

So as you can see, Mason has revealed what Guardians are to Cinder even if it is a highly edited version of their story. Mason is training Cinder to fight like a Bladedancer because of how her body is built. It might be more accurate to call her a Flamedancer however since she uses fire instead of lightning.

Also, just as a reminder. Any characters that I bring in from other franchises will be edited to fit the RWBYverse. Most will only be cameo appearances and only one or two will be recurring characters.

Don't forget to leave a review or PM me any questions!

Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far!

Have a good one everyone!

-Zeak-