AN: The conclusion to the Initiation Arc!

I got back from RTX yesterday and the RWBY panel was amazing! The trailer for volume 4 was fantastic! I'm looking forward to what happens in the future.

But that's still a ways off. For now, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I only own my OCs, nothing else.

Initiation Ends

Ozpin POV

"Glynda gather the other teachers and get to the ruins." Ozpin said in a commanding voice.

Glynda left in a hurry as Ozpin looked back to his screen that showed Ruby and the others facing off against the Taurus.

"Oum help them." He whispered.

0-0-0-0-0-0

The Taurus roared at the group of teens before him and threw Verdax on the ground, inciting a small moan from the broken boy.

The teens stare at the body; shocked at the state their friend is in. Jaune is the first to snap to reality.

"He needs cover." He commanded. "Spread out and keep that Grimm distracted. Ruby, use your speed to get Verdax once he's alone."

The others, who'd heard Jaune, nodded before splitting up. Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren went left while Weiss, Blake, and Yang went right, both groups firing their respective weapons. While the weapons didn't damage the Grimm, they did get its attention.

"Now Ruby!" Jaune shouts.

Ruby dashes forwards, using her semblance to boost her speed. She slings Verdax's intact arm over her shoulders before running back, slightly slowed by the added weight. Retuning to the ruins, Ruby lays Verdax on his back, earning a grunt.

"Okay," Jaune said. "Now we wait for the teachers to come get us."

"I don't think we'll get that far." Ruby replied.

True to her words, the Taurus grabbed a large boulder and threw it at Weiss, Blake and Yang. The three dogged but the Grimm uses the advantage to rush at Yang before punching her into a tree. It then turned to the others and charged them. The forest roared with gunshots as the teens tried to keep the Grimm busy while avoiding getting hit at the same time. Ruby left Verdax with Jaune while she provided cover for the others with Crescent Rose.

'What now?' Jaune thought panicked as Verdax began to stir.

Verdax POV

His vision slowly returned as Verdax tried to sit up. He was met with a mix of numbness and pain that burned through his body. He'd heard noises, but they were muffled, almost like he was underwater. He shifted his weight to his right hand, only to fall back to the ground. He coughed, feeling a warm liquid pass over his lips.

'What's... happening...' Verdax thought.

With a final push, he straightens himself into a sitting position. Dizziness overtakes him as his vision switches between darkness and light. He faintly feels someone grab his shoulder, but he barely hears him or her as his blood roars in his ears.

"Where am I?" He asks groggily.

A cry of pain brings him out of his confusion. He looks to the source and is shocked by what he sees. The Taurus, still sporting the wounds he inflicted, was holding a battered and bloody Pyrrha by her right leg. The towering Grimm throws her into Weiss, knocking both to the ground. Verdax looks to see the others in a similar situation.

Yang is under a broken tree, Blake is trying to move the tree and Nora is unconscious with Ren trying to move her Weiss stands up and moves beside Ruby who is firing rounds into the Taurus. Verdax watches as the two wound-covered girls fight against the monstrosity before them.

"I need to help them." Verdax said, trying to rise.

"No Verdax!" A voice shouted to his right. He looked to see it was Jaune. "You are in no condition to fight!"

"I have to try! They'll die otherwise!"

Verdax reached for Omega with his right hand, only for nothing to happen. Looking down, he saw that his arm was severed just above the elbow. He absentmindedly waved his hand where his arm used to be, not fully registering that it's gone. Steeling himself, he grabs Omega and uses it to help stand up, ignoring Jaune's protests.

Verdax dashes forwards, despite the pain in his body. Before the Grimm could grab Weiss, Verdax slashed across its wrist, drawing black blood and making it recoil. He plants Omega's blade in the ground before him, slightly leaning on it for balance.

"You will not touch her!" He roars, earning a blush from the girl behind him.

The Taurus roars before charging. Verdax and Weiss leap to different sides to doge as the Grimm rammed into pillars behind them, knocking them down on to of it.

'I can't fight it like this.' Verdax thinks. 'My Aura is almost gone and I can't use Omega one-handed for long.'

Verdax looks to the others scattered across the clearing. Blake managed to get Yang from under the tree, Ren pulled Nora by Jaune, Shadow recovers slightly and is now lying by Jaune and the others, and Ruby and Weiss have come up behind him. Ruby shots him a concerned look, which he meets with a weak smile before turning back to the Taurus.

'Power.' He thinks. 'I need more power.'

Verdax focuses on drawing forth more energy, surrounding himself in a dim black and red glow. The Taurus climbs out of the rubble and stares Verdax down before charging forwards.

"How many times have I told you King?" A familiar voice suddenly says as Verdax's eyes widen in recognition. "You can't die on me yet."

The Taurus runs past as Verdax, Ruby and Weiss once again doge out of the way.

"I won't win this fight for you, but I will give you what you need to do so." The voice says.

'Who are you?' Verdax asks it.

All he heard was a chuckle. "Spoilers."

Suddenly Verdax felt immense pain from the stump that was his right arm. He looked to see that black blood was pouring from the wound, bubbling as if it was boiling. He cried out as the blood began to form a solid structure, slowly growing in length. Soon it formed a joint before extending and creating what appeared to be a hand. When the blood dried, it looked like his arm reformed, but the skin was black as night. Pain shot through once again when claws formed on the fingertips and bone-like armor grew on the front of his forearm and back of his hand. Two red markings formed in a parallel line along the armor, slightly glowing. At the same time, his wounds started to heal faster and his Aura refilled.

Before he could processes this, the Taurus charged again, swinging its fist to punch him. However instead of dogging, Verdax acted on instinct and caught its fist with his newly regenerated hand. The resulting shockwave created a crater beneath the two and knocked Weiss and Ruby back.

"I know I wanted a workout," Verdax said as his mask reformed. "But I think it's time to wrap this up and head home."

He pulled the Grimm forwards, knocking it off balance and severed its arm with Omega. The Taurus roared in pain as the severed limb began to dissipate into dark smoke. Verdax gathered his Aura in his right hand, surrounding it in a black and red torrent of energy, before lashing out with it; sending a short but powerful barrage of blasts at the Taurus. Once it was on the other end of the clearing, Verdax fired a precise beam of Aura from his clawed fingertips, shooting through the Grimm's leg and forcing it to its knee.

"Time to die bastard." Verdax stated calmly before taking Omega in both hands.

The others watched in amazement as Verdax lifted his massive scythe over his head and began to spin it around like a baton. As it built up speed, Verdax channeled Aura into the blade and his body. By the time the Taurus stood shakily on its feet, Verdax was already in the center of a black and red twister of energy. With a monstrous roar, He bright down Omega with both hands as he released the energy making it form a crescent wave as it moved. The wave traveled to its target, digging into the ground and distorting the air as it did so, until it collided with the Taurus. The towering monster was bisected from shoulder to hip as it cried out in pain. Both halves dispersed before the corpse hit the ground.

The clearing was silent as the inhabitants took in what happened. As Verdax's mask dispersed the voice said one more thing.

"That was the last of my help. You're on your own. Now let the wolf drink your blood."

Verdax put away his scythes and walked to Shadow, ignoring the stares of the others. Kneeling before the Direwolf, he dug his claws into his left hand, allowing blood to flow from the wound. He offered the hand to Shadow, who began drinking it up. A moment later, the Direwolf was surrounded in a red glow before his wounds closed, he grew to the size of a car, and a bone-like ridge appeared on his back. Shadow then shrunk down back to his small size, the other changes still there, and walked up to Verdax, who pet him affectionately.

"I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!" Nora shouted.

They were interrupted by the sound of engines as a bullhead landed in the clearing. Three people dismounted the vehicle; the first was Glynda, the second was a heavyset man with grey hair and a blunderbuss axe, and the third was a pale man with green hair and glasses holding a thermos.

"As do we Mr. Ashen." She said while glaring at Verdax.

The other teachers moved to help Ruby and the others while Glynda stepped forwards to talk to Verdax.

"Professor Ozpin wants you to fill out a report of what just happened here, along with an extensive description about what you know about Grimm." She commanded.

"What for?" Verdax asked.

"We've never seen a Grimm like that and whatever you did to that Direwolf made it stronger. Not to mention your arm. We don't like unknowns."

Verdax was silent. "Alright, but on the condition that Shadow stays with me."

Glynda studied him for a few moments. "Fine, but he is confined to your dorm unless Professor Ozpin or myself tell you otherwise. Understood?"

Verdax nodded. As Glynda left he looked down to study his new Grimm-like arm. Sighing, he walks to check on the others, Shadow following behind him.

0-0-0-0-0-0

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin announced.

By the time Verdax was cleared by the infirmary, much to his annoyance, they were already down to announcing the last teams in the auditorium. Shadow had to stay in Ozpin's office under Glynda's watch until Verdax could collect him.

"The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth, you will work together as team JNPR, lead by Jaune Arc."

Verdax joined in the applause that followed. He may not know Jaune all that well, but he seemed like a good kid. Verdax also joined the laughter when Pyrrha accidentally punched him to the floor.

"Next," Ozpin continued. "Blake Belledonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From now on you shall work together as team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."

Verdax was impressed. Not only did she get moved up two years, but now Ruby was a team leader as well. He was slightly unnerved by the jealousy Weiss was emitting.

'I'll have to deal with that probably.' Verdax thinks.

"And finally," Ozpin speaks yet again. "Verdax Ashen."

As Verdax got on stage the people in the crowd began to whisper. Whatever unease people had around him was doubled thanks to his Grimm arm. He'd rolled up his sleeve on his trench coat, allowing it to be on display due to how uncomfortable it was when covered.

"You retrieved the Black Queen piece." Ozpin said. "However, all the other teams have been formed, leaving you the odd man out. Normally, something like this would lead to expulsion-"

"You can't!" Ruby cried, interrupting Ozpin.

"Ruby's right!" Yang shouted. "He saved our lives!"

"We do owe him a lot." Ren spoke up.

"I believe he's proven himself." Pyrrha said.

"He was AWESOME!" Nora shouted excitedly.

Verdax smirked at how they were ready to defend him. Ozpin held up a hand, silencing the outbursts.

"I said 'normally' this situation, however is not normal." He calmly informed them. "He will stay at Beacon, but he can't be on a team by himself, as that defeats the purpose of teams in the first place. So instead, Mr. Ashen will join the team of his choice."

Verdax looked around the room at the teams available to him. Since Ruby's outburst, their unease had gone down, but it was there. He looked around until he met Ruby's eyes and was caught off guard by what he saw. Hope. For the first time since he left the Grimmlings, someone didn't want to push him away, in fact, she hoped he would stay. He saw similar expressions on Blake and Yang, Weiss too, though reluctantly.

His mind made up, Verdax turned to Ozpin. "I want to join team RWBY, sir." He said with a prideful tone as he heard happy cheers behind him.

Ozpin smiled. "Then as of today you will work with them as team RWBY-V."

With a nod Verdax went to join his new team with a smile on his face.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Downtown Vale, Warehouse

Roman Torchwick was standing at a table in front of a map of Vale. He slammed a phone on the table, frustrated. Sighing, he lights a new cigarette as he puts it in his mouth.

A White Fang soldier brings in a few crates. Roman hands him a stack of Lien.

"Open it." He orders.

Inside the crates are a large variety of Dust crystals. Roman takes time examining them before sighing.

"We're gonna need more men." He says before turning to the soldier.

"Tell Shiro to send some of his freaks."

AN: How's that for foreshadowing?

As of right now there are going to be nine Grimmlings, Verdax and Shiro included. So I have a total of five Grimmlings already planned out, but I need four more. By next chapter I should have a character creation sheet for those of you that want to contribute to this.

Please comment and leave a review!