Q&A:
FanficCrossoverMaster15: Some of his clothes change appearance, but all of them change in size to compensate for Shay's altered size.
To put it in better terms: since Shay has taken the form of Ruby, all clothes that fit him in his original form will temporarily shrink to fit his new form, BUT if, hypothetically, Ruby-Shay wore Ruby's clothing, then it would shrink further and not fit because the clothes do not fit him in his normal form. I hope this answers your question.
Reader: Agreed.
THETOUCH: I know what you're thinking... although I am slightly amused, the probability of such an event occurring is unlikely.
geoffrey hogue: Poor, poor Shay (cackles evilly).
Shadow of Deception: Thank you for that. Also, being awesome, that's what you're doing!
Author's Notes: I am actually surprised by the positive reviews that I have gotten. Thank you everyone.
So now, here's your next dose of RWBY: The Hunter.
I do not own RWBY or Assassin's Creed
Beacon Academy
1:00 PM
Day 10, Saturday (Month 11, Year 0)
Shay's eyes blinked open as he began to slowly wake up. His hand shot to his forehead as he groaned in pain, another memory transfer from Pluto tended to do that.
Another damn schematic, he thought in annoyance as he continued to look up at the ceiling before turning his head to look around the room.
Every so often, Pluto would transfer these weapon designs and modifications into his subconsciousness. These dreams would only stop until the weapon or modification to a weapon was finished. As much as it would be a blessing to just stop at a schematic so the dreams would stop, the design would gnaw at the back of his mind, growing into some mad obsession until the design was finally brought to life.
He turned his head and looked at the clock beside him, the red, blinking 1:00 PM sign that had woke him up with it's flashing lights as it made a moderate beeping sound every hour that had passed; yet by some coincidence, it woke him up just an hour into the afternoon. Shay growled and slammed his palm on top of the clock, immediately shutting it up.
His teammates had already left, leaving him behind as he had continued to sleep. Wait a minute, wasn't there supposed to be class? ...Oh right, it's Saturday, this was a break. Or, as described by Yang, 'one big off-period' since they could stay or leave the Academy temporarily before returning. So he was safe from the fact that he had overslept.
The Templar sat up on his bed and attempted to rub the dull, stinging drowsiness that circled his eyes before stretching his arms upwards and yawning quietly before dropping his arms onto his stomach. Something caught Shay's eye as he looked down at his arm. His skin was pale, rather than it being tanned like his usual complexion, but he decided to pay no mind to it.
With one swift action, he swung his legs out of bed and continued to move the rest of his body along with them until he stood up. Shay then began stretching the rest of his body, listening as each stiff bone popped back into place before walking over to the chest that sat at the foot of his bed. Shay looked out at the corner of his eye to see that a strand of black-red hair had fallen over slightly and obscured a small portion of his vision; he lazily brushed the small strand of hair away before kneeling down to open the chest, making a mental note to search for his red ribbon whenever he had the chance.
For some strange reason, he felt... lighter, not that it was a bad thing, but it was certainly peculiar.
Inside the chest was his normal Templar clothing: a folded white undershirt, a red buttoned outfit along with his black and red overcoat, which held several straps, one holding the familiar Templar insignia; a belt containing several pouches and a long white strip of fabric also bearing the Templar insignia that looped around his waist under the belt, his black and red gloves with his hidden blade bracers alongside them, as well as a pair of black trousers and black boots.
He unfolded the undershirt and placed it on the bed, then proceeded to replace the shirt that he was currently wearing with the one that had once sat on the mattress.
For a split second, the undershirt felt unusually large before it suddenly felt as though it fit normally. Shay frowned at the observation before shaking his head and continued to change into his trousers and boots, which also felt larger before it suddenly and spontaneously fit.
The Templar raised his hand to his chin in thought, realizing that his hand felt strange as well when it was resting under his chin. Rather than his hands usually feeling rough, they felt... soft, but slightly callous to some extent.
What is going on? he thought to himself. Shay frowned again before slowly putting on the red and black outfit as well as his gloves and hidden blades, his confusion grew as even the bracers that held his hidden blades shrank with him.
At this point, he would just blame Yang and be done with it if something almost as confusing as this were to occur, but it none of the Blonde girl's pranks were a perplexing as the issue that he was currently facing. He looked down at his wrists and flicked them back, watching as both blades sprang to life.
At least that works.
Shay sheathed his blades and looked back towards the bathroom door, walking over to it, he opened the door and flicked on the light switch, still slightly awed by the fact that the room was instantly filled with light that did not require fire of any sorts. He took a quick look at himself in the mirror before turning on the water on the sink. The Templar removed his gloves and set them aside before cupping his hands under the running water and began lightly splashing it on his face. Perhaps cold water could wake him up further and deal with this pr-
Wait a minute!
It took the man several seconds to realize the signs of what had happened before shutting off the water. He looked back up at the corner of his eye to see a faint outline of black hair with traces of red along the tips. Last time he checked, his hair was dark brown, not black, and it certainly did not contain any traces of red along it, the only person who had such an appearance was...
Shay began to recount the recent events that had just happened minutes ago: paler skin, feeling lighter, and now black and red hair. He slowly began to realize the situation that he was in, terror gnawed at the edges of his mind as he pieced together what had happened to him. Praying that he was wrong, he used all the willpower he had to slowly lift his head and take another look at the mirror again.
A pair of bright, silver eyes stared back at him; these eyes still bore an expression of innocence and curiosity, but also contained fear. His fear. Black hair traced with red hung loosely around his head while also obscuring a small, faint portion of his face, specifically the middle of his face, between his (her?) eyes.
"It wasn't a nightmare..." Shay said to himself as his hand flew to his neck, coughing lightly as he tried to adjust to his new voice.
The Templar then focused his attention to the rest of his form. What he was looking at was a shocked Ruby Rose bearing the outfit, his outfit, of the Templar Order. His (her?) face turned bright red as he realized an embarrassing little reminder within his mind: he had changed clothes in this form without even realizing it the first time, but now that he knew, it was rather humiliating.
His mind reeled wildly as he tried to process the amount of thoughts that were whirling about within his mind. Coming to a final realization, he couldn't decide whether to scream loudly in surprise, try to speak but receive only incomprehensible sputters as he tries to talk, or slam his head onto sink in embarrassment from his earlier actions.
With a sigh, and his mind finally slowing down to a calm, his decision on his reaction came down to one conclusion. And he acted on that decision.
-May the Father of Understanding guide us-
Teams RWBY and JNPR sat in various seats near their table as they continued to eat their lunch; Team JNPR was able to hold their own conversations with one another, while Team RWBY sat in silence as they ate their food at a slower pace. Despite the loud chattering between several students, the silence between the young redhead's team was rather obvious.
Jaune decided to break the silence.
"So... how are you guys?" he asked in a somewhat awkward tone.
"We're fine," the other team responded simultaneously.
"How is your morning so far?"
"Good," Blake responded, focusing more on her breakfast more than the book that sat beside her, much to the others' mild surprise.
"And... Shay? Is he still-"
"Yup," Ruby confirmed, her face flushed in embarrassment.
"How long?" Pyrrha asked.
"A couple of days, a week at most," Weiss answered as she continued to pick at her food with her fork.
"Oh, that's good... I guess."
"He's lucky, considering that I didn't bash his skull in during our fight. If anything, his new Semblance saving his skin is either the luckiest thing that happened to him since, or the unluckiest," Yang remarked as grinned lightly, despite the situation that their teammate was currently in.
"I do have to admit, that was surprising. What do you think, Nora?" Jaune asked as he turned to face the orange-haired girl sitting beside him.
"Pancakes... wait what? Oh yeah, that was awesome!" she exclaimed.
"So... how do we deal with this? Shay has to leave your dorms sometime, whether he's... well, like that or not," Ren pointed out to the four members of RWBY.
"True, but how do we tell everyone that 'Oh, this certainly isn't Ruby's twin sister, this is just a guy who now looks like Ruby and had just discovered his Semblance during a fight with Yang during their off time.'?" Weiss asked in a slightly patronizing tone as she cocked an eyebrow.
Now that they thought about it, they didn't know which sounded more crazy: Shay's Semblance turning him into Ruby or that a sane and reasonable individual such as him would deliberately fight against Yang out of his own free will.
"Good point, considering that Cardin still doesn't forgive him for that one incident at the ballroom, or during one of their earlier sparring matches, or during lunch at one point. Yeah... those two do not have a good record it comes to mutuality," Blake said, "At worst, Cardin will try to gang up on him when he's alone. At best, it'll just be teasing. Even then, Cardin has been avoiding Shay ever since that incident with Jaune and the Emerald Forest."
"Even if that actually happened, I bet Cardin wouldn't last a minute against Shay, even with-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a loud, shrill, feminine shriek resonated throughout the Academy, even reaching the cafeteria. Everyone there turned to face the source of the voice. The direction they faced suggested that it came from one place and one place only.
"Oh no," Weiss whispered as she buried her face into her hands.
"What is it?" Jaune asked.
"Shay woke up," Yang answered as she got up from her seat, the rest of their team followed after her as they continued to run towards the source of the scream. Within minutes, they reached the dorm of Team RWBY. Yang quickly fished out her Scroll out from a pouch on her belt and unlocked the door.
"This is not going to be good," Weiss and Ruby said as Yang nearly kicked down the door.
Without warning, the rest of Teams JNPR and RWBY barged into the dorm, nearly tumbling over one another as they frantically searched for the man-turned-Ruby-Rose.
"Where is she- I mean he- I mean- oh never mind!"
"What the hell is going on!" they heard a voice yell at them. At first, it sounded like Ruby, but this voice had more authority in it, as well as vulgarity.
Everyone turned to see what appeared to be Ruby, but wearing a smaller version of Shay's clothing. Despite this Ruby's silver eyes retaining a sort of innocent look to them, they also possessed a stern, possibly even cold look to them.
As soon as the words left "Ruby's" mouth, Yang immediately stormed towards him (her?) and backhanded him across the face.
"What was that for!" Shay (after some realization from the others) yelled at her, Yang was about to prepare for another smack, but stopped herself and sheepishly smiled at him in an apologetic way.
"Um... sorry about that, Shay, it's just that I don't like to hear Ruby curse," she then turned to face her little sister, "She's lucky that she only said a really bad word three times in her entire life," Yang scratched the back of her head nervously before shooting a look at Ruby.
"Yeah, I remembered that. Shay, just... don't say anything like that around her. Please?" Ruby said to her new doppelganger, who only crossed his (her? Seriously, this was confusing for both teams) arms and looked at the two of them before his hands fell to his sides.
"Alright, I won't," Shay said before his expression darkened and he grit his teeth in anger, still uncomfortable with his new voice.
"Was a slap really necessary?" Blake asked.
"I gave Ruby a choice long time ago, it was either that or a bar of soap in her mouth. And big guy over here is lucky that I slapped him," Yang turned to face Blake, pointing at the Templar with her thumb over her shoulder.
"I thought the soap would taste like strawberries!" Ruby whined, cringing at the near-traumatizing memory, "I can still taste the suds... it's terrible!"
"Well you thought wrong, missy."
"I was seven!"
"So?"
Big guy? How ironic given my circumstances... Shay thought bitterly, taking note that he was now Ruby's height.
"Wait a minute, why do you look like you're wearing your old outfit?" Jaune asked.
"Maybe it's because I am wearing my old outfit," Shay responded dryly while cocking an eyebrow up at the blonde-haired boy.
"No, I meant when you first... used your Semblance, your clothes turned into Ruby's combat clothes for some reason. Now they're back to normal, if only just a bit smaller."
"Maybe because when Shay's Semblance turned him into Ruby, I think it identified Shay's apparel as a combat outfit, so it only makes sense if Shay became Ruby, then it would have to compensate with clothing as well," Weiss hypothesized.
"But why does Shay's clothes not change form with him this time?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe it only works if it was already worn without changing," the Heiress continued before stopping herself, realizing what she was saying before giving a shocked look at the man.
Unfortunately, Yang and Ruby caught on as well, "You changed your clothes?"
Shay watched as Ruby blushed as red as the highlights on her hair, while Yang gave him a suspicious look.
"Of course, I had to," Shay answered, Yang's eyes glowed red as she finally closed in on him, now towering over the Ruby doppelganger.
"Guys, I think we should leave now," Jaune suggested to the rest of his team.
"No! We never leave a man behind!" Nora whispered to her teammates.
"Jaune has a point, we don't want to get involved when Yang's Semblance comes into play," Pyrrha agreed with her leader, earning a slight nod from the boy.
"Traitors! We'll save you Shaaaaaaaayyy...!" Nora yelled as she was dragged by the rest of her friends into their own dorm, leaving the man to his fate.
"How much did you see?" Yang asked, now inches from Shay, with her hair flaring outward and her eyes turning red. She then hoisted him up by the collar of his outfit and roughly pressed him against the wall.
"Do you think we should stop them?" Blake asked.
"Still don't want to get involved in this madness," Weiss answered as she scooted away from the scene.
"Where have I heard that one before?" the faunus wondered sarcastically.
"Quiet you!" the Heiress hissed.
"Nothing! I saw nothing, I didn't even notice until I was in the bathroom," he responded in panic, but that didn't seem to help him anymore, telling from Ruby's reaction as she blushed even further. Her face could not possibly get any more red than it already was. Yang glared at him with pure ferocity as her eyes narrowed at him further.
Blake's hand covered the lower portion of her face as she blushed furiously at the boy's inference, her eyes widening and her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks. Weiss, on the other hand, facepalmed at both Shay's comment and the Faunus' actions.
Shay's eyes widened in realization as he realized what he had said, "That's not what I meant! What I mean is that I was rinsing my face and I didn't know what had happened to me until I looked in the mirror again, nothing more than that!"
Both girls seemed to calm down as Shay was let go, landing on his feet with a soft thud.
"Alright... we'll let you go just this once. But if you try anything like that, I will murder you, Ruby disguise or not," Yang threatened with an accusing finger, to which Shay raised his arms in defeat.
"I'm not that indecent," Shay responded before walking back to his bed and sitting down on it, his chin resting on his fist as his arm leaned on his leg, as though he was thinking contemplatively.
What was only seconds felt more like hours as they looked at Shay once more in silence.
"You uh... you going to get lunch?" Ruby asked curiously, earning an irritated look from her doppelganger, "Oh."
"Correct, 'oh'. Look at me!" Shay yelled as he got up from his bed and turned to face the mirror, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing deeply, "I'm... I'm..."
"A girl?" Ruby raised an eyebrow suspiciously, as though she was about to be insulted.
"Adorable," he said with his eye twitching ever so often. Shay then turned to face Ruby, who was looking down with a small blush on her face.
I'm not supposed to look like this! I'm a Templar, dammit! Even more, a Grand Master and an Assassin Hunter! he mentally screamed within his mind, a scowl formed on his face as he continued to rant within his head.
"Okay, we get it. We'll get you something from the Cafeteria, but you're getting out of the dorm on Monday whether you fixed this Semblance problem or not, got it?" Yang demanded, crossing her arms and looking at the Templar with a concerned gaze.
"Of course," Shay's eye twitched slightly before he looked back at the mirror, "In the meantime, I'll just stay here until Monday, I guess."
"Sounds like a plan," Ruby responded with slight enthusiasm, but it then faltered as Shay fell back onto his bed and rubbed at his temples with the tips of his fingers in annoyance, "We'll see you in a bit."
"Right," Shay responded, watching as they began to leave the room, one by one.
He then closed his eyes and concentrated on his old form within his mind: him in his old body, the Templar now taller than Yang by several inches, brown hair,... the scar over his right eye. He opened his eyes... nothing, nothing changed.
The Templar closed his eyes and groaned in frustration as his own pained attempt to revert his form failed to produce any effects.
"Hey," Shay opened his eyes and to see Weiss sitting beside him on his bed, "You alright?"
"What do you think?" he responded bitterly, earning a small punch to the shoulder by the white-haired heiress.
"Shut up, I'm trying to help you," she huffed as leaned over to get a better look at him.
"Of course, continue, dear Miss Schnee," the Templar grinned lightly while rolling his eyes.
"Alright, I'm not going to say I know how you feel, mostly because I honestly don't. The point is, the nurse said that this would only be temporary. Besides, would this really stop you from getting to class?"
The Ruby doppelganger merely grunted incomprehensibly.
"What was that?" she gave him an amused smirk.
"No," he said, "It's just that this is... different."
"Of course this is different, this is your first time using your Semblance. This is probably going to happen again and again, and YOU are not going to give into this! You are Shay Cormac: my teammate, friend, and-"
"~You better finish that last sentence with something gooooooood!" Yang shouted at them from outside the room.
"Yang! Go away!" Weiss screamed at her.
"Hmph... spoil sports..." they only heard.
"Goddammit, Yang," Shay said before Weiss looked back at him again.
"The point is, you'll probably do worse things than this so just shut up and suck it up!" she shouted at him in frustration, earning a strange wide-eyed look from Shay before sitting up.
Weiss suddenly realized what she had said before looking downward, her face beginning to flush furiously.
"Okay, that was uncalled for. I'm sorry if-"
"Thank you."
She looked up at him in surprise.
"What?"
"Thank you, Weiss. You're right, I shouldn't be acting like this, I have been acting childish ever since this incident started. So thank you for helping me see reason," he said, but the Heiress gave him a sheepish smile.
"Honestly, this was supposed to come off as some sort of motivational pep talk... but I guess this'll have to do?" Weiss tried to say before she was pulled into a hug from Shay.
"Of course... Ice Queen," Shay smirked mischievously, earning a look of surprise and irritation from the Heiress.
"Sh-shut up!" she snapped at him, pulling away from the hug and pouting slightly at the mention of her nickname, causing the Templar to close his eyes and laugh for a bit before looking at her once more with a small grin.
Shay continued to smile, only in a more bemused fashion, "Well then... Monday, correct?"
"Of course, Monday," Weiss nodded and stood up, smoothed out any creases in her dress before turning away for the door, looked back at Shay one more time, and left, closing the door behind her.
The Templar fell back onto the bed, sinking further into the mattress.
He turned to the side and spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something red. Shay then reached out with his hand, picked it up, and inspected it. It was the ribbon that he was searching for. He then shrugged and set it back on his nghtstand.
"Monday then," he said to himself as he continued to stare at the ceiling, "How bad could it be?"
-Never compromise the Assassin Brotherhood-
Beacon Academy
12:06 PM
Day 12, Monday (Month 11, Year 0)
Agh, my head... I thought to myself as I began to open my eyes, then immediately shut them as I was greeted a bright light shining upon my eyes.
Instead, I curled my fingers, trying to get a feel of where I was. My hand grasped at soft cloth wrapped around me: a blanket. I silently hissed as pain shot up my arm. With both my eyes blurred and temporarily blinded by the light, I decided to use my other senses.
The air was... pure, clean. At first, I would guess that I was in an apothecary, but I knew that such a place this clean couldn't possibly exist.
Was I dead? It appeared so, the afterlife would be a possible explanation, but then again I didn't expect to end up wounded in Paradise, especially with... those beasts, those pitch-black demonic creatures...
I continued to listen to the beeping monotone noise beside me. Unknown of the source, I turned to look at it, opening one of my eyes and trying to adjust to the light. My eye narrowed in confusion at the source. It was some sort of device attached to a long rod that jutted from the floor, to which I then looked at the floor. The ground was smooth and shiny, reflecting the shine that seemed to be coming from the lights on the ceiling. I looked around to see the walls were also an immaculate white as well, with some lightly colored floral designs painted on them. Around the room were seats and a table with an array of drawers and cabinets sitting beside the table.
I looked back up at the device and spotted a long, jagged blue light that seemed to pulsate, giving off a quiet beep as it continued to pulsate.
"He's waking up," I heard, looking at the owner of the voice, I opened my other eye, which seemed to blur for a second before I blinked both eyes, trying to clear my vision.
I looked up to see a young girl with brown hair, sporting a beret atop her head, as well as a pair of bifocals with black lenses. She was dressed in a brown shirt which possessed a scarf around her neck, as well as what appeared to be a darker brown corset over her shirt.
"Look who's up, you're lucky you're alive, big guy. Velvet almost lost an ear trying to save your sorry hide," she smirked, lowering the bifocals, revealing chocolate brown eyes looking at him with concern.
"Where... where am I?" I asked, looking around.
"You're in the infirmary, getting patched up. Seriously, you would've been nothing but scars and stitches if we arrived any bit later. Speaking of which, despite how much of dashing looker you are, you're pretty dumb for going into the Emerald forest without having your Aura unlocked. What were you thinking?" the girl chastised.
Despite not knowing half of the words she said, I answered, "It's complicated."
"Alright then, Ozpin'll want to meet with you once he gets here," she turned and walked away, "The last time someone ended in a forest, it was one of the first-year students. That idiot was unfortunate enough to land in another forest. Had he ended up in Emerald or Forever Fall, we could've gotten him sooner. I think Shay was just lucky he survived without an Aura as well."
I looked at her in suspicion, "Shay?"
"Yeah, Patty. Or Shay Patrick Cormac, as most people call him. I think you guys would really hit it off, y'know? Get a beer or something," she shrugged as she continued to walk out the door.
My eyes widened in shock, "S-Shay?"
She stopped just as soon as she was about to pass through the door, she looked at me with concern, "Yeah, you know him?"
I moved my legs in an attempt to get out of bed, but a sharp sting passed up my legs.
"Whoa, easy there! I need you to relax, your legs are still healing as well," she looked over to the door.
"Hey Velv, I need you to run and tell Ozpin to bring Patty with him before he gets here. Got it?"
"On it," I heard a faint voice say from beyond the door, listening as he heard the sound of fast-moving steps leave the area.
"I need to see Shay, now..." I breathed out before the girl stuck something sharp into my shoulder. I winced as it pierced my skin.
"Take it easy, this should ease the pain. Here-" she took something from the table and handed it to me, "Besides that broken sword of yours, or your clothes in the basket, this was the only thing that seemed in the best of shape for you.
I looked down at it, then looked up at her. Feeling the effects of whatever she stuck me with take effect, "Thank you."
"No problem, if you need me, just shout," she nodded before walking out the door.
-Uphold the principles of our Order, and all that for which we stand-
Beacon Academy
9:10 AM
Day 12, Monday (Month 11, Year 0)
"Yang Xiao Long?" Professor Port called out, a paper held in front of his face as he was in the middle of a role call.
"Here," she said.
"Cardin Winchester?"
"...Here," the young man grunted in confirmation.
"Weiss Schnee?"
"Present."
Two days have passed with Shay having to stay inside the Dorm, keeping himself hidden from the rest of the school. The only others that were aware of the man's unfortunate predicament were the rest of Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch.
"Nora Valkyrie?"
"HERE!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Well, Nora's real ec-STATIC to be here. Am I right?" Yang remarked, earning a several groans and disappointed shaking of heads, obviously disapproving of the young blonde's attempt at humor.
"...I don't get it," Ruby said.
"Her Semblance," the blonde-haired girl deadpanned. She continued to watch as the gears continued to turn in the red-haired girl's mind before face-palming in irritation.
"Yang, why?"
"Because I said so!"
"Ahem-" Port cleared his throat loudly, earning his attention from the rest of the class, "-Moving on. Ruby Rose?"
"Here!"
"Russel Thrush?"
"Here."
"Shay Cormac?"
"Present," Shay said, causing some of the students around both him and Ruby to laugh, an embarrased blush emitting from the girl as this happened.
"Hmph, very funny, Miss Rose. Now, Shay Cormac?" Port continued to look down at his paper.
"Um, Professor? This isn't a joke, Shay finally discovered his Semblance... it's a shape-shifting Semblance," Ruby explained awkwardly, both she and the Templar sitting beside her shifted uncomfortably in their seats. The portly professor looked up from his paper and looked at the two from side to side with an eyebrow cocked upwards before taking off a pair of bifocals that he had suddenly been wearing and set them on his desk.
"Ah, alright then," he nodded before Blake heard him whisper to himself, "This saves me a trip from the Optician, I thought I was seeing double for a moment there... and that explains why I thought I saw Ruby wearing the male Beacon Uniform."
The Faunus looked at both Ruby and her doppelganger. There were several differences that shouldn't have been overlooked, even from a man as... scholarly eccentric as Port, yet for some reason, this case was proven wrong. First was the uniforms, Ruby was wearing her normal female Beacon Uniform, while Shay was wearing the male equivalent... it was still weird to see Ruby in a suit, despite the fact that it wasn't Ruby; secondly was that Shay had his (or Ruby's, this was confusing!) hair tied back with the same ribbon that he would usually wear, giving his Ruby equivalent a more professional appearance; thirdly was the expressions that they both bore, Ruby had that usually curiously innocent look of hers, while Shay's expression was more... sharper, focused or even mature was a better term to describe what could be going on in his mind.
All in all, despite both bearing the same appearance to an extent, there should've been some sort of peculiarity when they noticed Shay, but they paid no mind... weird.
"Speaking of which, this reminds me of a time where I myself had an encounter with a shape-shifting Huntsman... or Huntress... regardless! When I was but a lad, as young as all of you dear students were..."
Almost everyone in the room, on instinct, immediately tuned out the man's speech regarding himself. This was going to be another one of those days...
-Nothing is True, Everything is permitted-
10:50 AM
After having to spend another grueling hour in Port's class, there was then Oobleck, which harbored nearly the same reaction, though in a more haste manner. Then there was Professor Peach, who's class was immediately cancelled after news of an injury regarding a venomous spider bite, sending him to the nearest infirmary. That now left Professor Goodwitch and her class in the amphitheater. On the bright side, he didn't have to be in that uncomfortable excuse for a suit.
Shay entered the arena with the rest of the team, examining the rounded room before finding a seat and sitting beside his teammates. He turned to see that some of the students around him were giving him strange looks, yet they ceased as soon as the Templar turned to face them, watching as they immediately looked up and pretended to focus on something else as soon as they were in his line of sight. He scowled at them and shook his head before looking back at the center of the arena.
He then felt a hand press on his shoulder, he turned to see a concerned Weiss looking at him.
"Not worth it," she whispered to him.
"I know, I remember what you told me," the Templar smiled lightly, earning a nod of approval from the Heiress.
"You better, Shay. You're better than that," Weiss reminded sternly before facing forward towards the Professor.
The crowd continued to listen to Goodwitch's lecture, it's main subject being the Vytal Festival Tournaments, and specifically, the Doubles rounds.
"As stated on the Vytal Festival Tournament's rules, upon completion of the four-on-four rounds, two members from each team will be selected to take part in the Doubles rounds. Like it's name, the two selected members will then engage in combat against an opposing team's pair of candidates as well. Our lesson for today? Two members from two teams each will spar against one another, in order to get a more direct approach of what you will encounter in the Tournaments," she explained.
It took a while for the Templar to understand during the first few days when he was in Beacon, but he realize that these sparring matches were not just meant to be simple battles. Though they are meant to be practices, there is often a meaning behind each win and loss, depending on the situation that occurs within the match. On some occasions, the meaning behind each match, as well as the choosing of specific combatants, were fairly obvious; but there were times when the situation is subtle, almost unnoticeable.
Meanwhile, Shay heard snickering behind him, he looked up to see Cardin just a few feet away, talking with the rest of his team while pointing at the Templar with his thumb.
"Is something amusing, Mister Winchester?" Shay asked, glaring at the man, but he was unfazed by his new form's angered scowl.
"What? Naw, nothing's wrong... Shea," Cardin sneered mischievously.
It took almost a minute for the Templar to realize what Cardin had said, finally noticing the deliberate error that the brute of a boy implied. With a small tweaking of pronunciation, Cardin had called Shay Shea, the more... feminine equivalent of his first name.
You bastard, Shay grit his teeth and stood up from his seat while facing the bully what was just mere feet away.
"Would you like to say that to my face, Winchester?" Shay challenged, feeling his own personal pride wounded from Cardin's insult.
"Um... Shay?" he heard Ruby whisper to him.
"Yeah, in fact I will," Cardin began to rise from his seat and walk towards the Templar.
"Enough! Both of you!" they turned to see Goodwitch glaring at the two of them before closing her eyes, inhaling, and looking at them with a more commanding expression, "If you two cannot control each others' egos, then I think it would be better kept in detention."
The two continued to glare at one another before Cardin grinned and looked at the Professor, "Alright then, I think it would be better idea if he and I volunteered for the first match. Whaddaya say, buddy?"
Shay scowled at the man before looking at Goodwitch, who was giving the boy an unamused look. Suddenly, Shay saw something almost terrifying: an uncharacteristic glint in the Professor's eye, it almost looked like amusement, despite her current manner.
"Very well, Mister Winchester. The first match will be Shay Patrick Cormac against Cardin Winchester, while the two are paired with a randomly selected teammate from each team," she announced before looking down at her Scroll and began tapping her finger against the screen until a holographic display was held for everyone in the amphitheater to see.
On it were the pictures of Shay Cormac and Cardin Winchester, but beside both pictures were a series if pictures spinning in a roulette-esque fashion, as each quickly flashed through , they noticed that the pictures displayed the rest of the combatants team members.
After several seconds of spinning, they stopped simultaneously. With Cardin's teammate being Sky Lark, and Shay's partner being... Ruby Rose.
Randomly selected... riiiiiiiiiiight... Shay grumbled before looking at the girl on his right, who now held a determined smile on her face, Shay merely shook his head and grinned at the girl's optimism before standing up, exiting the arena, and heading off to the locker room.
After several minutes had passed, they emerged from the entrance, with Cardin's mace slung over his shoulder, Sky's halberd held menacingly in both hands, Ruby holding Cresent Rose in it's rifle form, and Shay holding his sword in one hand and his gun-dagger in the other.
Shay gave his sword a few test swings before nodding at Ruby, who nodded back at him and cocked her scythe-rifle, a shell exited the deadly contraption and fell, bouncing across the floor with loud, echoing pings.
Ruby stood alongside Shay while Cardin and Sky did the same.
"Go get 'em guys!" they heard Yang say to the Templar and their leader.
Seconds felt like hours as Cardin and Shay glared daggers at one another.
"In five, four, three, two, one... begin," Goodwitch said before the match began.
Ruby raised her gun and fired at Cardin while Sky charged towards the Templar, his halberd held forward and ready to strike. The girl's shots were easily blocked by the larger boy, but jumped and stumbled back as Ruby unfolded the gun into it's full form, fired a shot backwards to close the gap between the two, and swung the curved blade in Cardin's direction, who barely managed to dodge as he ducked under the deadly weapon.
Shay, on the other hand, continued to block the swings and stabs that the dark blue-haired boy had thrown towards him. With Ruby's smaller frame, he was easily able to dodge the attacks a little more easier. He grabbed the weapon by it's handle as Sky ran at him and attempted to stab at him once more. The Templar's hand slid across the handle of halberd, grasped it once more and sharply raised it upwards; his end of the handle connected with Sky's face before the boy was kicked backwards by a black boot, sending him to the ground.
Sky rolled out of the way as Shay slammed his blade into the ground in his attempt to cleave the boy in half. The Templar watched as the boy scrambled to his feet with his weapon clutched tightly between his fingers, Shay grinned malevolently as he walked towards the boy with his sword swinging in his hand menacingly.
Ruby quickly activated her Semblance and began zipping across several areas of the arena, easily dodging the young man's futile swings at the girl. With each movement from one place to another, Ruby fired one shot after another at Cardin. Some were somehow dodged or blocked by the boy, most likely out of sheer luck, while the rest impacted into various parts of his body, steadily draining his Aura at the same time. Though she didn't know it, Ruby was getting reckless, she used her Semblance one more time and stood on the opposite side of the amphitheater as Cardin was and fired another round, this time using her scythe to propel herself feet forwards against Cardin's chestplate in an attempt to knock him onto his back.
Instead, as Ruby flew towards the man, he grabbed onto one of her ankles and used her momentum to slam her against the floor.
"Oof!" Ruby grunted painfully, her scythe slipped out of her grasp and slid backwards, "No! Shay!"
Shay stumbled back slightly as Sky managed to land a hit against his torso, but retaliated as he parried another swing from Sky's axehead and pushed him away, sending him tumbling off a few feet back. He turned as he heard his name being called out. Shay looked down to see Cresent Rose absent of it's owner at his feet. He suddenly heard a sharp whoosh behind him and ducked, the head of a halberd missed his head by mere centimetres. The Templar hastily sheathed his sword and dagger, picked up the gun, turned around, and fired a round at Sky, who was holding his weapon above his head, trying to slam his medieval weapon onto his skull. The force of the sniper-scythe's bullet threw the boy backwards into the wall behind him.
Suddenly, as though on some sort of unknown instinct, Shay pressed a button on Cresent Rose, watching as it quickly unfurled into it's gigantic scythe form. He turned to see Cardin, with his mace held upwards, as though he was about to deliver a final blow. The Templar cocked Ruby's weapon and charged towards the man.
Cardin looked up in surprise to see a red and black figure followed by crimson rose petals slam Ruby's scythe into his abdomen, sending him sprawling as well. He quickly recovered and got to his feet, watching as the Ruby duplicate spun the scythe exactly how the real Ruby would before lodging it into the ground.
"W-was that-?" Jaune tried to say.
"Ruby's Semblance," Yang concluded, her eyes widened in shock from the scene that had unfolded.
The Templar looked down to see Ruby with a bewildered look on her face before resuming a calm expression. Shay let go of the scythe, with Ruby catching it in mid-fall as it was slowly unlodging from the ground. He watched as both Sky and Cardin got up from the ground from opposite ends of the amphitheater. Shay slowly inhaled and unsheathed his sword, standing back-to-back with Ruby as she cocked her scythe one more time before they slowly walked away from one another to face their opponents.
Cardin rushed towards Shay, while Sky went for Ruby. Cardin held the advantage over Shay with his mace and it's explosive hits when making contact with almost anything, but Shay, with his ability and shorter frame, was more susceptible to avoid these blows. On the other hand, Ruby held an almost complete advantage to Cardin's teammate in terms of it's ballistic capabilities and that fact that a scythe (at least in Remnant) was one of the most dangerous and formidable weapons there was in the four kingdoms.
Shay dodged another swing from Winchester's mace and struck back with his sword, only to miss as Cardin narrowly sidestepped out of the way. He unsheathed his dagger and managed to block a blow from Cardin's handle, the mace missing it's mark as the boy miscalculated his aim. Shay parried the attack by swinging the interlocked weapon to the side, leaving Cardin open for a counterattack. The Templar shifted his dagger into it's pistol form and placed the barrel of the gun at Cardin's chest.
"This is the part where you lose," Shay sneered evilly before pulling the trigger, watching as the boy's eyes went wide in terror. A loud bang sounded off from the gun, throwing Cardin back several feet before hitting the floor with a solid thud. Cardin groaned painfully as he tried to stand back up with the help of his mace, only to fall back over after losing his footing.
Shay turned to see Ruby finishing off Sky, the head of his halberd was stuck on the handle of Cresent Rose. Ruby struggled to push the boy away from her, but he stubbornly held on with a vice-like grip. This struggle seemed to go on until Ruby formed a plan within that brain of hers. She slowly and steadily tilted Cresent Rose's scythe blade until it was pulled closer towards her, while Sky continued to attempt to pull his weapon away from hers. She finally pulled the trigger, the Templar watched as the scythe rocketed forward and slammed the end of boy across the side of the face with his own halberd's handle. She then finished him off with a final shot the shoulder as he was attempted to balance himself.
"And this winners are Ruby Rose and Shay Cormac," Goodwitch concluded before turning to the rest of the audience, "Does anyone know why both Misters Winchester and Lark lost this match?"
At the mention of their name, Cardin and Sky finally stood up and walked off, their personal pride bruised nearly beyond repair as they walked off, their hands clutching at their wounds before their Aura began to take effect. Cardin shot a glare at Shay before walking off, knowing full well that he had been utterly defeated in this fight.
The Professor was only answered with silence before Weiss' hand shot up.
"Yes, Miss Schnee?"
"It's because they were arrogant. Cardin lost not just because of Ruby's skill with her own weapon or Shay's current situation regarding his form and... sudden ability, but also taking into the fact that Cardin was too blinded by his own ego that he forgot to take into account that they were fighting against an opponent based on speed and another on experience," she answered, watching as Ruby and Shay gave her almost identical smiles... it creeped her out a bit, but she was fine nonetheless.
"Not the way I would put it, but you are correct. Miss Rose put her Semblance to full use, giving her the ability to use speed to quickly maneuver the area, putting it to her advantage. As for Mister Cormac, he is more suited for more close-quarters combat, giving him an edge," she then gave the students a stern look.
"But don't expect all that I have explained to be an advantage should you fight against anyone of similar caliber. Remember, they are students just like the rest of you, they still learning and thus, will able to adapt to new situations," Goodwitch finished, watching as the four returned to their seats, having to sit through another hour of having to watch fights and listening to lectures.
Yang turned to see Shay, who was holding a look of what could only be described as somber and annoyance. She knew this look: it was Ruby's 'I-hate-Mondays' look; and coincidentally, it was Monday.
"Shay? What was that?" Jaune just had to ask as he sat beside him.
"What?" his expression lightened into that of confusion.
"That thing. It looked like Ruby's Semblance," he explained, earning an even more confused look.
"I don't understand," Shay said, cocking his head to the side.
"When Cardin was about to hit Ruby, you used her Semblance to... hit... him..." the answer slowly began to dawn on the two teams that surrounded the Templar.
"Shape-shifting isn't the only part of your Semblance!" Pyrrha said in realization, "It appears that you can use another person's Semblance if you take their form."
"But the only person I've shifted into is Ruby," he pointed to the girl, then gestured to himself in emphasis.
"Well, it does make sense: you turn into Ruby, therefore, you can use Ruby's Semblance."
"Huh, if that's the case, I wonder what it would be like to fight myself," Yang wondered, imagining her fighting herself in close-quarters combat, "But I think I would win."
"Which one?"
"I..." the blonde boxer tried to say before her face dropped into that of deep contemplation.
Suddenly, Nora gasped after some thought of his Semblance, "If you were disguised as me, you can use my Semblance to-"
"NO!" both teams shouted, knowing that if there were two Noras, that would bring the end of the Remnant as they knew it.
Ren turned to face her, "No offense, Nora, but we think one of you is enough."
The orange-haired girl looked at Ren with some thought before glaring at Shay with deep ferocity.
"He's right, there could only be one," she growled, causing everyone (in the entire, to those peoples' confusion) to move a foot away from the Valkyrie.
"Um... okay... let's just watch the rest of the fights," Shay stuttered before turning back to watch the next few fights before the red-haired leader interrupted.
"Hey, I just noticed something. Even though Shay looks and sounds like me, does anyone else notice that he still has a little bit of that accent he always has?" Ruby asked the rest of the group, who looked at her with a strange look before turning to Shay.
"What are you talking about?" Shay asked, before earning several surprised looks from the group.
"Yeah, he does. It's almost like you guys talking at the exact same time, only Ruby's voice is louder. Huh, I never noticed," Jaune said with an impressed nod.
"Yeah, good ears sis," Yang complimented.
"Speaking of ears, if Shay can turn into anyone, does that mean..." Blake asked, her eyes darting upwards, emphasizing the bow on her head.
Shay's eye started to twitch irritably, "Can you all stop talking about my Semblance for just one second. Do I need to be reminded of the situation that I'm currently in?" he hissed at them, his face turning red in embarrassment.
"Woah! Okay, sorry, sorry. We didn't know that it was still a touchy subject," Yang raised her arms before throwing him a playful smirk, "But you got to admit, you look adorable with that pouty face right now."
This response caused Shay to facepalm. Hard.
"Grr..." Shay growled before getting up and walking away.
"Where are you going?"
"If you need me, I'll be at our dorm," he muttered as he walked away.
-May the Father of Understanding guide us-
12:10 PM
Shay stood in front of the mirror, glaring fiercely at his reflection.
This was it. This had to work.
The Templar concentrated hard on one thought and one thought only: to revert himself back to his original form.
His mind continued to press down on that one singular objective, his face began to turn red after this thinking. Shay watched as a single vessel appeared on the doppelganger's face as proof of his frustration. Shay's nails began to dig into the sink as his face inched closer to the mirror, trying to invoke some reaction.
Then suddenly, as though a switch was flipped on, then off again. For almost a split second, he stared back at his old form, but it was for a split second; he saw that he had changed back into Ruby's form unintentionally and immediately after.
The 'at-least-I'm-making-progress' excuse for optimism wasn't enough as his rage began to grow to a boiling point.
His eye twitched as he stared at the rest of his reflection once more, and, like in accordance to his Semblance, his original combat clothes shifted into Ruby's combat skirt once again; this process for his clothes would be solved if he were to remove them. But he certainly did not want risk going through that process again, now that he was fully aware of the predicament he was currently in.
Shay sighed as his hand went to his face in irritation. That same smooth, feminine hand. He growled silently at the thought.
Why me of all people?! He fumed before hearing a knock at the door.
"WHAT IS IT?!" he yelled furiously as he stormed out of the bathroom and opened the door violently.
"Good afternoon, Shay," Professor Ozpin greeted, standing behind him was Velvet, the rabbit Faunus that he had helped with that incident with Cardin and the mess hall.
"Shay? Is that you? What happened?" Velvet asked as she poked her head through the door.
"Fight with Yang. Accident Semblance. Shape shifting. Wait a minute, how could you not tell it was me? Don't we have the same class at Oobleck's?" he only said before looking at the silver-haired man, "And how could you tell it was me?"
"Well, our going to your dorm is the current reason why I haven't been in class," Velvet answered, scratching the back of her head nervously.
Ozpin merely smiled at him, "Last time I checked, Ruby has never had a ponytail."
Shay's hand reached for the back of his head to find out that the ribbon was still tied behind his hair, even after the split-second change.
"Alright sir, what do you want?" he calmed down after his mental rant.
"Velvet told me to bring you, it involves someone we had just found in the Emerald forest," Ozpin explained before walking down the hallway, watching as Shay caught up with the two.
"Like me?" he asked quizzically.
"No, you were found far beyond either the Emerald or Forever Fall forests. This one was merely fortunate enough to land here, armed with only a sword and a pair of pistols that you had once used."
Flintlocks, Shay thought in surprise. This was surely someone from his world.
"Do you have any idea who this person is?"
"Like you, he hasn't appeared on any of our databases regarding ID. He hasn't introduced himself either, since he had just woken up," they continued to converse as they strolled down the empty hallways before coming to a halt, stopping in front of a room labeled in bold letters: Infirmary.
He walked through the door and entered a small office, behind the counter was a nurse who looked then up at him, "Oh, you're here for the new patient?"
"Aye," Shay answered, earning a strange look from the woman before nodding her head.
"He's in room number sixty-seven," she said, pressing a small red button. The Templar heard the sound of the door unlocking and sliding open. He passed through the door and continued down a long white corridor. Down this corridor were a vast number of rooms that spanned almost endlessly, each door leading to a room with a patient inside.
Shay started to randomly counted the labels on the doors: 10... 24... 29... 34... 39... 46... 55... 63... ah: 67.
"Hey Patty, like the new look," he heard a voice say to him as the door opened up.
"Hello Coco," Shay grumbled at the grinning young woman, "How'd you guess?"
Shay had recently met Coco and the rest of Team CFVY a week back. The first time he met her, he greeted her with his full name. Ever since then, she has been calling him 'Patty' ever since. Not that he didn't mind, but it would only be a matter of time before it would get on his nerves.
"Word travels fast for me. So how's the Semblance thing working for you?"
"Terrible. Can I come in?"
She pretended to think about it, "Eh, why not? He says he knows you, keeps requesting to see you ever since I said your name."
Shay furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Who could possibly want to meet with him?
Cautiously, Shay unsheathed his hidden blades and slowly stepped into the room.
The Templar expected to see an Assassin that had held a grudge, a soldier who had been caught up in this mess, or even a crew member of the Morrigan.
Instead, he was greeted by a sight that nearly shocked him. He stood there, staring at the man, stunned by who this person was.
Shay immediately sheathed his blades, knowing now that this was neither an unfortunate soldier, or an Assassin.
No... he recognized that face, despite the fact that it was now younger. Those cold eyes, that regal expression, even that stiff frown that he always wore. This had to be him.
The man gave him a confused glance before introducing himself, "Ahem... hello, I believe we haven't met. My name is-"
"Haytham Kenway," Shay answered, his eyes still widened to the size of dinnerplates, standing before the former Grandmaster of the Templar Order.
Disclaimer: Sorry for being so late, guys. Christmas is making me lazy at the moment. I'll update more as soon as I can.
This wasn't supposed to be released on Christmas, but it was so... Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and have a good night! (Or good morning! Wherever you guys are!)
Also, I apologize if this feels a bit rushed, but I hope that I made up for it with the ending of this chapter. (PS: Although some of you don't want more Assassin's Creed characters coming, I'll say it now. These two will be the ONLY people in the AC franchise to appear legitimately in this fic. Just as a heads up.)
PS: I apologize for insulting anyone who's name is spelled "Shea".
Stay beautiful ladies and gents, and I'll see you in the next chapter.