I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. Otherwise Jaune would have fallen for Pyrrha in Volume One.
Chapter 12: Playing the Part Part II
"Dammit…" I fought against my own body as I tried to stand up, but I wasn't going anywhere after that fall. After several failed attempts, I groaned and settled for just sitting against the cliff wall.
Everything hurt as I moved. My clothes were ripped and torn in several places, revealing bloody scrapes and bruises that littered the right side of my body. My left wasn't looking so good either, large gashes in my arm revealed the blue highlights that lie underneath. I had landed on that side in hopes that it would absorb the impact better, which it did, but now I could barely raise that arm at all.
As I struggled to calm my breathing and ignore any more pain, I began to recall the events that led up to my current state.
After being launched off of the crumbling bridge I began my fall into the abyss. The cold wind whipped at my face mercilessly as I tried to orient myself and come up with a way to not become a human pancake, or worse.
My bag was preventing me from getting into a more "life saving position", so it had to go. I quickly slipped out of the strap and let the bag make its own way down before reaching into my pocket and pulling out my last vial of Dust. Fumbling around for a minute, I reached for my knife- having lost my gun after being hit by the Death Stalker, it was my only chance.
I released the spent capsule and slammed in the new one, letting the former fall behind me in the wind. Locking it in place, I squinted to my left towards the face of the cliff, the rocky surface only a few meters away.
Angling my right arm directly opposite of it, I released a good portion of energy from my knife and propelled myself closer to the wall, reaching my left hand out to the rocky surface.
My first attempt failed as I lost control, bouncing off the side I had spun around for a few moments before I was able to regain my sense of balance enough to try again.
On the second attempt I managed to hit my mark as I shot into the wall, slamming my open hand into the side.
"Argh-!"
The sound of metal grinding through rock filled the open air. I was slowing down at least, but I could feel the pain shooting up my arm as I did so. I gritted my teeth, I still didn't understand why I could feel pain from a fake limb, and I saw the pseudo skin tear away almost immediately. Soon after that, the pain stopped as if it was never there to begin with.
Regaining my composure I pointed my other hand down and began pumping out more flames from the blade to slow my descent further.
Then my hand gave way. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream before I slammed into the ground.
I looked up from my place in the hard sand, seeing nothing but fog above me.
'That's how I wound up like this then...'
With a groan I tried to rub the pain from my left shoulder, popping my neck to relieve stress.
I finally took the chance to get a good look at my surroundings, honestly there wasn't much to see.
Various pieces of rocks and fragments of the collapsed tower littered the bed of the ravine. Nearby I could see my bag poking out from atop a pile of rubble. There was no sign of my handgun, but by now it was probably shattered to bits. I did, however, catch sight of my knife that had skated away from me after the fall. It was a bit of a ways away from where I sat, but looked to be in one piece. I leaned back with a sigh of relief, grateful that it had survived the fall.
"Thank Dust for that…" I said aloud before letting pure exhaustion lull me to sleep.
It didn't last long as I felt a strong burning sensation erupt from my left side.
"AARRGH-!" I screamed through my teeth feeling as though I was being burned alive.
Through partially closed eyes I watched steam emit from the damaged biometal, skin slowly reattaching over the exposed areas. A minute seemed like an eternity as I was slowly being repaired.
I was breathing heavily when it finally ended, small beads of sweat forming on my face. A faint streak of blue light flashed up my arm, probably signaling the end of the torture.
Slowly I moved my left arm to my face and examined it.
"Good as new…" I said weakly.
"GRRRrrrrr-"
I snapped my attention across from where I sat against the cliffside where a pile of tower debris began to shift. My breath caught in my throat as I watched a still-alive Death Stalker peek out from beneath its tomb directly at me.
"You've got to be KIDDING me!" I screamed, earning a clacking of its pincers in response.
The beast struggled through the rubble, inching its way closer to finish me off. I began to contemplate my option, coming up with none that didn't wind up with me being Grimm food.
Strangely, however, the Death Stalker came to a halt a fair distance away. Noticing this, I looked beyond it and realized that its tail had been crushed beneath a fallen pillar, effectively chaining it in place. The monster didn't seem to comprehend this as it continued to tug against its trapped limb, clawing at the ground in an attempt to free itself.
I horrifically watched as the tail cracked and tore, letting the Grimm make its way just a little closer each time. The gruesome sound was almost enough to make me vomit.
Then I saw my knife again. The weapon was about halfway between us and was my only hope at this point. I wasn't sure if there was any Dust left, and even less sure if I had the strength to fight, but I didn't worry about that now. Making my decision, I too began to claw and crawl my way towards my enemy.
Soon I made it to my knife, picking it up and forcing myself onto my knee. The Death Stalker was yards away and had yet to give up as its prey had gotten closer. I had no plan, having regained my weapon left me with little more than a toothpick against this thing. What did I have left to do?
…
'I guess I could go down swinging...' I thought with a smile. What was there left to lose having already lost my memories?
I stared down the enemy, taking note of its nearly severed tail.
"All right you overgrown arachnid…" I said, forcing myself to my feet and clutching my abdomen all the while.
"Come and get me!"
The sickening sound of the beast's tail finally giving out could be heard as it lunged towards me. The two of us let out our own battle cry's as I watched a large claw swing down to crush me, I held out my blade and closed my eyes.
*Clang*
The blow never came, but instead a loud sound filled the air. Slowly opening my eyes I gawked at the new figure standing before me.
"W-Wha-" I stammered.
The boy swung his free right arm, striking the equally surprised Grimm in the face and forcing it back. Shield out and standing between me and the Death Stalker, my savior looked over his shoulder in my direction, looking me over for as if he were sizing me up. Nodding, he turned back towards the beast before speaking.
"The fact that you have survived this long speaks volumes of either your skill, or your luck."
I would have objected, but I had no real argument there. I did take note of his tail flicking around in front of me though.
"Stay your feet. I'll take it from here…" He finished before dashing towards his target.
The Grimm let out a screech, taking a swipe at the boy with its claw. The teen easily jumped over the approaching swing and landed on its back, taking a few swings at exposed flesh before leaping off to the side. Reorienting itself, the Death Stalker charged at its opponent while clicking its pincers in fury.
This time the faunus reached out his left arm, shield attached, and aimed it at the creature's face. The Grimm recoiled in pain as one of the pointed rods launched into its eye. A long chain extended from the javelin to the barrel of the shield it came from.
Almost immediately the chain began to retract rapidly, pulling the boy along for the ride with a grin on his face. At the last second he drove the point of his sword into another eye, twisting it around and causing the Death Stalker to flail and shriek in pain. Thrashing about, the faunus boy had no choice but to hold on as the Grimm smashed into bits of the collapsed tower.
A random claw swipe managed to destroy a portion of the large column, nearly dropping it on the two of them. Finally, the Grimm managed to dislodge the boy from its face and sent him flying towards me. Slamming into the ground, the boys rolled back onto his feet, his hood falling off to reveal his pointed ears. His breathing was heavy, but he was nowhere near as exhausted as I was. Still, he wouldn't last against this thing for long.
I looked around instinctively trying to formulate some sort of strategy. My mind kicked into overdrive as I took in the whole area at once, almost instantaneously. There was a lot of rubble scattered around, and my bag which lay forgotten, nothing that would be of any help.
'Unless…'
I looked up, the damaged column stood tall in the background of the advancing Grimm.
"GOTCHA!"
Taken off guard, the faunus whirled around at my outburst.
"What is it?!" He questioned, half-annoyed, to which I pointed up.
"The column! We need to bring it down!"
"Are you daft?! We'll be crushed!"
"Just do it!"
The boy turned and glared from the column to the approaching Death Stalker with hesitation before aiming the javelin launcher up at the unstable pillar.
"You might want to move now."
I nodded and slowly made my way off to the side. looking over my shoulder I watched the warrior launch his javelin across the battlefield, imbedding it in the hard stone. Grabbing the extended chain with both hands, the boy began to pull.
"GRRRRRR-RAHHHHH!"
The faunus yanked hard on the chain, freeing the top half of the column and sending it falling towards the ground. Quickly retracting the javelin, the teen turned and leapt away just as the pillar of stone smashed into the ground, crushing the Death Stalker for good.
After watching in awe for a moment, I let out a breath of relief and fell to my knees, not taking my eyes off of the remains of the Grimm until it started to smoke and fade away. I re-sheathed my knife, having held onto it tightly up until this point. We had won.
'No… HE had won…'
I didn't actually manage to do anything against the creature myself, if it wasn't for him I would have been crushed from the start.
'Some partner I am...'
I blinked as a hand waved in front of my face, my partner trying to get my attention.
"Are you alive in there?"
"Yeah I'm fine." I attempted to stand up, but I was tapped of adrenaline and collapsed back to my knees instantly.
"Here, give me your arm." My partner moved to my right side and gingerly helped me to my feet, I leaned on his shoulder for support as we started walking, stopping only for him to sling my bag over his shoulder. Where we were going, I wasn't sure, but as long as we got out of this hole I didn't care.
"So are you going to tell me?"
"Huh?" I looked up questionably.
"Your name, red-hair. What are you called?"
"Oh! I guess we didn't really get the chance to introduce ourselves. My name's Hiro Colton."
"Romulus. Romulus Lycanus."
"Thanks for coming to get me."
"I had little choice. We all need a partner in order to attend Beacon. Just be glad there was a way down that did not involve falling like a rock."
'Good to know.'
"So where is this path?"
The only response was an outstretched finger, which I followed with my eyes. My stomach dropped at the sight of the stone steps that led up the side of the cliff.
"Oh Dust…"
=||-{([O])}-||=
It was nearly sundown by the time we made it back to the launch pads. I was still unable to walk very well on my own, but I tried anyways so Romulus didn't have to carry me the whole way back. I heard Yang's voice first as we approached the launch pads before finally seeing everyone come into view. They were all grouped together for the most part, Ren was standing next to Nora who was bouncing back and forth on her feet, still energetic. Nearby, Pyrrha stood with a hand on Jaune's shoulder as he sat on a rock. He didn't look too good.
"What do you mean we can't go look for him?!"
Ruby, Weiss, and Blake stood behind a shouting Yang who was currently giving the headmaster a piece of her mind. Professor Ozpin didn't seem at all affected by the blonde brawler's anger, to his side was Professor Goodwitch who wasn't amused in the least.
"If you're not going to do anything at least let someone else-!"
"Miss Xiao-Long, keep your temper under control!" Goodwitch chided, "Losing our heads over this matter will not solve anything. We understand your concern for Mr. Colton's well-being and a search for all unaccounted students is scheduled to take place at the end of the initiation-"
"He could be in trouble RIGHT NOW and you want to WAIT?!"
I smiled and shook my head as I made my way closer to the group. As I did, heads began to turn in my direction followed by smiles and looks of relief. I held my my hand up to keep them silent while I made my way towards Yang who was still focused on Goodwitch. I could see Professor Ozpin's eyes flash over at me as a sly grin appeared on his face.
"What if a pack of Grimm finds him first?! He won't stand a chance after that fall!"
"I'm glad to hear that you have so much faith in me Yang." I said with a chuckle.
Yang spun around with wide eyes as if seen a ghost, which wasn't too far from the truth given what she had been saying.
"Hiro!"
"In the flesh." I said with a grin.
"How did you survive the fall?" questioned Blake.
"Quick thinking... and a whole lot of luck." I gestured to Romulus, "And if it wasn't for him I would have been creamed."
"And who is this?" Weiss asked.
"This is Romulus, my new partner."
I looked at Romulus and watched as his nose started to twitch. He proceeded to look at each of the students individually, seeming to stop at Blake a second time before finishing.
"Uh… What was that about?" asked Yang. Weiss did not look amused at his actions.
"Did you just… smell us?"
"Yeah, I did. All the students here smell so different from each other, I find it interesting."
"You find other peoples smells interesting?"
Romulus nodded at the glyph user, his tail wagging slightly while everyone else shared looks of discomfort.
=||-{([O])}-||=
That evening, all of the newly formed teams were announced on the auditorium stage. Cardin Winchester was announced leader of team CRDL, Jaune would be leading team JNPR, and Ruby would be leading team RWBY.
However, I did not get to see the creation of the teams. Romulus and I were immediately pulled aside when we re-entered the school and taken to a classroom to wait. The only person that we saw while the ceremony was going on was Dr. Night who had stopped by to check on our conditions after the initiation. Needless to say, I was going to be spending the evening in Beacon's medical department. She did take some time to bandage me up properly with dust-infused wrappings that were meant to speed up the healing process, which I was grateful for.
Once Dr. Night left, Romulus and had to wait for someone to come get us. I wasn't sure why we were not taking part in the team announcements, but it couldn't be anything good. Romulus had slumped into a seat where students would normally be and fell asleep, head in his arms. It was funny, I could see his tail and ears twitching every now and then, which put me somewhat at ease. I sat in an open seat as well, glad to finally be able to rest.
I looked myself over, I was definitely going to need some new clothes after this. Lest I be wearing tattered pants and a black shirt the whole time. The remains of my red jacket lay on the floor with my equally beaten bag, luckily nothing I had in the bag was damageable. I reached inside and pulled out my only other set of clothes, which were practically the same thing I was wearing. I would've changed then, but since they were all I had, I would rather shower first.
While I sat contemplating this, Romulus suddenly snapped his head up towards the door. Moments later,Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch stepped in, followed by Dr. Night. I stood up along with Romulus as they approached where we had been sitting.
"Congratulations you two. You have successfully completed the initiation." began Ozpin "However, there are some minor… complications that have arisen."
Oh good. More complications with my enrollment? Fan-freaking-tastic.
"Complications?" asked Romulus.
"Yes. As you are no doubt aware, you two are the only ones that have not been assigned to a team. Sadly, there is an explanation for this."
The headmaster gestured to his fellow professor who nodded and opened her tablet and presented a pair of photographs to us. A pair of students, both male and both around our age. I studied their faces, nothing seemed to hint at why he was showing us these. I turned to look at Romulus and was shocked to see a look of petrified expression on his face.
"You don't mean... "
Ozpin merely nodded in response. Romulus turned his head downwards, trying to hide his face, but his stiff tail and flattened ears told me everything I needed to know.
These boys were dead.
Professor Goodwitch closed the tablet and spoke, "This pair stumbled upon a nest of Arachna while on their way to the temple. Unfortunately the number of Grimm overwhelmed them and they were unable to escape."
"What of their bodies?" Romulus questioned. "Were their bodies recovered?"
"Yes…" Dr. Night spoke up. "The boys were retrieved by a senior team and brought to me for recovery, but there was nothing I could do. Their aura wasn't enough and they had lost too much blood by the time they were returned. I'm sorry"
There was a somber look on the Doctor's face as she spoke, I could tell she was holding back tears.
"Their families have been contacted and informed, the bodies are to be sent back home." Ozpin continued. "That being said, the two of you are the only remaining students that have no team. Unfortunately, it is a requirement that all teams consist of four members."
It wasn't hard to put the numbers together in my head, I forced myself to remain calm..
"Wait. Does that mean?"
"Yes Mr. Colton. As it stands, the two of you will be unable to attend Beacon"
Silence… it was so thick I could have cut it with my knife.
"So… There's nothing we can do?"
"I'm afraid without enough team members you-"
"This is bullshit!" Romulus barked. "I didn't come all this way just to be sent home because we don't have a large enough pack!"
"Mr. Lycanus, calm down!" Goodwitch commanded.
"If you think I'm just going to roll over and let you kick me out to the curb, you've got another thing coming!"
The Faunus and the Huntress glared at each other, eyes locked as if in combat with neither backing down. I figured that it would be best if I didn't get in the middle and risk injury via staredown, and instead I turned towards the headmaster.
"Is there any way we can just get some new students for our team?"
Professor Ozpin pondered this for a moment, "We are not scheduled any new students any time soon, however if you can seek out willing applicants to attend, then I don't see how we can't work something out." The two of us shared a smile. "Until then you may live in one of the spare rooms we have available. You have until the end of Friday to assemble a team, this will be your only chance."
I nodded, "Thank you, Professor."
Ozpin turned and began to leave the room followed shortly by Professor Goodwitch who seemed hesitant to break eye contact with Romulus. I turned to look at my partner who had a grin on his face from the victory, his tail shifting with signs of happiness. I held back a chuckle and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Looks like we have our work cut out for us."
Romulus nodded, "Yeah. So what now?"
=||-{([O])}-||=
Dr. Night led us back to the medical department to give us both one more checkup before we could go to our new room. The Dust bandages had done their job at mending a good number of the scrapes and cuts across my body, leaving mainly just internal wounds to worry about. Luckily there wasn't anything too severe to keep me isolated to the medical bed, so the Doctor simply redressed the wounds and gave me some medicine to help dull the pain while I healed.
Our room was located next to team RWBY's dorm, Dr. Night helped us find our way there before heading off for the evening as well. The room was decently sized, being made for a full team, it left us with plenty of space. I took no time in dropping my bag and collapsing face first onto the closest bed to the door, letting out a deep sigh.
"How are your injuries?"
I rolled over carefully onto my back, "Could've been worse, I have you to thank for even making it out of there. So thanks."
"Any time. Just don't make a habit out of it." Romulus had a small grin on his face, revealing a sharp canine.
I smiled. "You got it." Romulus sat on the bed opposite the window from where I was and began to peel off his armor.
"You should probably go shower, you smell like garbage."
"Heheh, yeah that's probably a good idea." I said as I groaned to my feet.
I grabbed my set of sleepwear from my bag and made my way to the door.
"I'll be back in a bit then."
I made my way past team JNPR's room to the showers around the corner. I made sure to grab a spare towel from one of the racks and turned on the water, letting it heat up while I undressed.
I discarded my clothes in a pile and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water rush across my body.
It felt refreshing after a long day to finally have a chance to relax, but tomorrow wasn't going to be simple. We only had five days to come up with a full team or I would lose the only lead I had to my lost memories.
"Dammit!" I grunted.
Things just couldn't be easy for me, could they?
"Hiro? Is that you?"
I brought my head up, surprised, I didn't notice anyone else had walked in. I spoke through the closed curtains of my shower.
"Jaune?"
"Yeah, it's me."
I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was just as worried as I was, though probably for different reasons. I rubbed shampoo on my head as I came up with something to say.
"So… I heard you're a team leader now. Must be pretty excited huh?"
"Heh… Yeah, excited…" Jaune replied halfheartedly, I raised an eyebrow.
"You don't sound too excited."
"I'm not."
"You'll be a great leader Jaune."
"How do you know that?"
I stopped. I wasn't sure why I was so confident in Jaune's abilities to be a leader. Sure he did great when we fought against the Death Stalker, but having only known him for two days didn't give me much to go on. There was something else swirling in my mind, telling me to trust in this feeling.
"You'll just have to trust me I guess." I said, chuckling. "So what classes do you have tomorrow?"
"Wha-? Classes?"
"Yes…" I deadpanned, "You guys start classes tomorrow, right?"
"O-Oh! Yeah, classes! Of course! We have a few throughout the day tomorrow, but I kinda forgot which ones they were… Some leader right?"
"Not everyone is born a leader, Jaune." I ran my hands through my hair, rinsing the suds out.
"People like us have to learn their way up."
"I guess you're right…"
I smiled and reached out to shut off the water.
"So, what's up with your team? I didn't see you guys at the ceremony earlier."
I froze for a moment, hand hovering over the faucet handle, before shaking my head and turning it off.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you about it tomorrow." I said as I grabbed my towel to dry off.
"Heheh, I'll hold you to that. Have a good night."
Gathering my belongings I began my walk back to my room.
"Goodnight, Jaune"
=||-{([O])}-||=
Weiss: "This chapter is two days late! What do you have to say for yourself!"
A/N: U-Uh... I was busy! I spent all of my free time yesterday working on a separate project!
Weiss: "That doesn't excuse this! It should have been finished DAYS ago!"
A/N: Waaah! I am but a humble man! Forgive me!
It's as Weiss says, I should have had this out sooner, but I either got caught up working on a video me and some friends made or sleeping half the time. That being said, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out, but I'll get it done as soon as I can.
Flamewing98: Finally the Roman-esque warrior makes his 'official' debut! I hope this makes up for all of the teasing the previous chapters had. Yeah, the story will start to take it's own path about here, but that doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the main plot at all. Just a little detour. ;)
Chris7221: Thank you for your review! Yeah, this being my first fic, I didn't really expect much out of it, but the more people started to read it the more I wanted to try and keep it going. The amnesia was something I saw sparingly in fanfictions and the idea intrigued me so It was a start. The mechanical bit came later when I realized that an average guy would stand almost no chance fighting Grimm or other students(Jaune being an exception, but he has a lot of aura...). Yes, one wrong chapter can completely botch up the story, so I'm doing my best to at least have some beta-reading happen before I upload anything. Finaly, the initiation was indeed a bit rushed, but it was a bit hard for me to add anything detailed to something most readers have SEEN at this point. I could ramble about this for a while but I don't want to make a big deal over it. I hope I can keep this going well enough that you continue to enjoy it! ^^
Phew! Now that that's done I can finally start work on the next part! Hopefully I can get it done within a week, but we'll see how it goes.
Stay Gold everyone!
