Vile. Obscenities. Monsters. Unworthy. Pests...
Team RWBY had been sent out by Prof. Goodwitch on a small training mission against lesser Grimm in the lower Emerald Forest area. The forest lay littered with the marks of battle, however. The trees had perfect cuts that, if one looked at them with microscope, would find them like glass. Smooth, straight and transparent, revealing the guts of the trees themselves. Among the trees and shrubs, corpses of Grimm dissolved, embers and black ichor floating into the sky in pillars of billowing smoke.
"What even did this?" Weiss murmured, running her hands over the smooth top of the tree's stump. The white-haired Heiress regarded the precision cuts like she was staring at her own handiwork, both awed and afraid of what she saw. Beside her, Blake, the team's Faunus member, looked around at the burn marks left on the soil, noticing the same glossy, glass-like forms where whatever weapon it was had struck. Both the girls had their weapons, the Rapier Myrtenaster and the dual swords and pistol combo, Gambol Shroud, at the ready.
Vile Obscenities.
"I don't know." Ruby Rose, the team's leader(and namesake) murmured back, looking around and grinning, "But I can't wait to find the person who's got this weapon!" She then exclaimed rather happily. Whoever made the weapon clearly found away to work their way around some sort of field manipulation that allowed nigh-impeccable precision cutting through any material. She had her scythe-sniper, Crescent Rose, up.
Yang, the team's blonde brawler, chuckled, "Never change, sis," following her little sister, Ember Celica extended. She, too, felt uneasy, but didn't dare show it. She was supposed to be one of the team's pillars of support, after all. The close-in, blonde badass that she knew she was and her teammates knew well enough she was. Nothin' was gonna scare her.
Ruby showed them to stop for a moment and be quiet. They listened in... And the sound of a blade cutting through air came to them. It sounded ethereal, strange, vile. Like a howling soul, demanding release. It sounded so evil that it sent chills up the girls' spine. Ahead, emerald light flared from the trees. They approached quietly, crouching behind a series of shrubs and looking.
Monsters. UNWORTHY PESTS.
An almost eight-foot-tall metallic creature, a skeleton clad in what one would assume was armor made of gold and silver, cut through a horde of Grimm with a gigantic cleaver-looking weapon. It vibrated incessantly, cutting a greenish-yellow line through the air as it slashed into the Grimm, cutting them in half and crying a baleful cry that, from up close, sounded like the Grim Reaper's Scythe. Its ribcage was made of gold, it had wide shoulder pads and a strange 'hat', if you could even call that golden item on top of the metallic skull a 'hat'. It also wielded a massive, ornate, emerald-shining shield, to which two Grimm Creeps had clamped their jaws.
Unworthy of LIFE. Unworthy of EXISTENCE!
The Grimm flew from the shield, as if pushed by an invisible force into the trees. Their bodies snapped in twain due to the force of impact and they started to dissipate. It slashed at a Creep coming in from behind and turned fully to face it, revealing its full, skeletal face made of metal. Two empty, shimmering emerald eyes glared down at the Grimm as it took whatever 'life' the eldritch creature had with disregard.
Why am I here...?
An entire horde of Grimm lay dead at the hand and blade of the armored machine in the shape of a human skeleton that lay before them. Superficial bite marks seemed to vanish from what looked like spindly legs, the color silver replacing them. It straightened up, shield now digging into the ground and the ornate, emerald and black blade now lowered to its side as it scanned around with its empty, soulless eyes.
Where are you, My Lord...? What have I, your loyal servant, done to disappoint thee?
It stopped, locking eyes with four horrified humans. Its shining eyes stared at them from deep within two empty metal sockets. Spindly, claw-like fingers wrapped tightly around its weapons as the four girls realized that it had seen them. It stared at them and they at it for a long second. The four stood up, readying their own weapons just in case. It felt itself for a moment, wondering why four Humans walked this world. It saw something dancing around the girls, then. Then. It hesitated.
What...?
Then it surged forth, raising its bladed weapon at the one clad in red first. The girl raised her own weapon and seemed to pool her entire energy into it as the Construct's weapon went to cleave her in twain. As the blade made impact with the defended weapon, it seemed to deflect back. The red girl staggered, a faint scarlet field shimmering around her, then vanishing.
"Ruby!" Yelled the blonde human. She thrust her fists forward in a rapid attack. Several dozen detonations echoed before the Construct could turn itself and face them. The other attacks began to deflect off of its shields, but it felt strikes against its exposed Necrodermis spine. It powered its shield and the blonde-Yang, went flying into a wall, staggering her. The Machine swiveled about and swiped upward, damn near vivisecting Blake as the blade made contact with the focused Aura.
The Faunus girl stared with eyes wide and full of fear at the Machine, then said "That thing's weapon... It's..."
"We'll find out once it's dead, Blake!" Weiss called out, sallying forth with the use of her Glyphs. Dust Icicles struck the machine's exposed side, forcing it to turn in for the defense while Weiss went around and flanked, thrusting Myrtenaster forth into its midsection. The Machine staggered, crystals of ice forming on its body and around its exposed spine.
Why do I hesitate?
It answered by slamming Weiss in the face with the shield and slashing her across the chest with the bladed weapon, sending her flying back into Ruby's arms and damn near shattering both their Auras. Ruby looked at Weiss, then asked "You alright!?"
Weiss shook her head, eyes wide with fear as she turned to look upon the machine that now fought Blake and Yang in a two-on-one. "It's gonna kill us..." Weiss stated absentmindedly, standing up, "Ruby, we have to run! This thing isn't like the Grimm we faced, it's... It's like it's regenerating! And its weapon, it has some sort of field! It almost broke my Aura! And it almost broke yours! Both in one swipe each!"
"Weiss! If we run now, heavens know how many more this thing's gonna kill!" Yang shot back as she pushed herself forward, pummeling the machine with her fists and Ember Celicals kinetic blasts. She jumped back, dodging another swipe, then fell to her knees and grabbed her side. She gritted her teeth, eyes glowing red as she said "Plus this bastard ain't getting away after humiliating us like this."
"Blake, talk some sense into your partner! This thing nearly killed me and Ruby!" Weiss shot back.
"Weiss, please!" Ruby answered, "Yang's right! If even to just keep the others safe, we gotta blast it apart here! Yang, keep it busy! Weiss, with me! Ice Flower!"
"You sure?" Her partner asked. Ruby smirked, then gave a nod.
They are but vile, living beings, seeking the tranquility of death... Why do I hesitate?
It parried another strike from the girl in Black. The blonde's fists then hammered into its back once more. A concerted attack between the two. It turned to counter the blonde, ramming the pommel of her blade into her gut and kicking her away, once again, hesitating to use its blade. Ruby had seen it hesitate to kill them several times. The blade it wielded was powerful enough to gut any person, Aura or no Aura, alive. It clearly went through Grimm like a hot knife through butter and damn near severed their Auras, almost like it was trying to reap their souls. But it didn't. Something hesitated in there...
No normal human had a chance against this thing. Ruby looked to Weiss, then nodded. The girl scoped the machine in, watching as it focused on Blake and Yang. She scoped in its legs first. She squeezed the trigger and the ice Dust round struck between the feet, pinning them in a thick layer of ice that it struggled with. Following up, she put a round into its shoulder, unknowingly hitting a joint and disabling its shield arm. It still managed to defend itself with the sword, however. Ruby put another round in its midsection, freezing its torso in place... Then, she fired a round into its other arm, pinning the sword down and halting its attacks.
... My Soul...? I have no Soul. I am My Lord's and My Lord's alone. His will was my order...
She nodded to Weiss, who switched her Ice Glyphs with an electric Glyph. Ruby squeezed and the energy surged forward, through the body of the machine and into every single place where a circuit may've been. Its ribcage-shaped chest plate shimmered, bursting with emerald energy. The monster's bindings shattered under the strike and its two weapons clattered to the floor. It staggered forth, gripping its head.
My Lord... Have you forsaken me on this world, to finally die? By these children's hand, no less? I have failed you, then...
... So be it...
And, with that, it collapsed, first falling onto its knees and staring at Ruby. She stared back, watching as its eyes flickered, first a deep emerald, then a stark white. It fell, 'dead', for lack of a better term, after. Its body lay sprawled ahead of the panting, tired and sweaty girls. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, falling onto her rear and staring at the collapsed machine, while Weiss's Aura broke finally, due to the stress. Yang and Blake stumbled over, joining the two and sitting down beside them.
"What the hell... Was that thing?" Yang demanded, breathing heavily.
"I don't know..." Ruby whispered, hearing something faint. Its body was broken, several shards of Dust Ice stuck between the spines and servomotors of its shoulders and body. Yang's gauntlets had somehow managed to make the tiniest of dents in its armor, too, but its shield and blade remained untouched, as if the strange energies surrounding them had somehow kept them alive. She shook her head, "We gotta take it home..."
"What?!" All four girls screamed into Ruby's ears.
"ow..." She winced, then whistled before the girls started protesting and said "Listen! I know you think we should just kill it, but... I mean... It got the Grimm hounding this part of the forest. Could it be that it saw us as enemies? We had weapons after all!"
"Uh... Ruby? I don't know how to put this, but," Yang started, then pointed a finger at the machine and yelled "That thing had a weapon made out of ACTUAL DEATH! Did you not see it cut Weiss hard enough to bring her Aura down?! Did you not see it almost kick my ass!?"
"Yang, I get it, okay? At least, I wanna study the weapon! But something tells me that I won't be able to unless biggie over here is with us! I'll just take it to that little shed I have behind the dorms and I can work on it there! Plus, it's clearly dead!" She explained, then stood up and walked up to the machine. She kicked it in the 'ribs', then motioned to it and yelled "See!?"
The WBY of team RWBY looked to one-another. Yang sighed, then chuckled, while Blake shook her head and Weiss planted a palm on her face. Yang stood to her feet, then said "Alright, sis. I'll help you drag this thing back to the Bullhead... But I'm not explaining to the pilot why we have a giant robot skeleton with us. That's on ya, sis... Also... I feel like if Ozpin finds out about it, we'll be..." She snickered, "Boned."
A collective groan from the girls echoed. Yang laughed boisterously, then said "Alright, kids... Let's drag this thing back to Beacon... And hope to the good lord that miss Goodwitch ain't waiting for us when we get back..." Deep in Yang's mind rested a fear that this thing still lived. And if it did, she'd kill it all-over again if it tried to hurt Ruby. The girl had a knack for fixing the weird... And if she thought she'd find any good in this tin can, Yang would probably need to have a talk with her. It was just a machine.
... Why do I work...? Have I not suffered enough? Abandoned by my Lord, to rot on some untamable rock.
Why does my Necrodermis insist on keeping me in this perpetual state of torment?
Am I meant to repent for some failure I did not realize I had made?
Damn the C'Tan...
I would've happily lived my short life if I were to be spared from this... This... Nightmare.
I felt something as I fought. Something I thought lost.
That I thought and hoped I'd hate...
Yet...
My oculars activated, or 'opened', lest I find a better word to use for that. Around me, a structure of rugged steel, like a cage with no windows or space between the bars. Beside me, a table full of ancient, archaic tools. Below me, a strange throne, made of a brittle, thin alloy of some sort. The place was large, dark. Wrappers of sweets that these life-forms consumed lay on the floor and in a container of some kind by the table with the tools. Time, to me, had not even passed. I knew not what day, or time it was on this forsaken world.
I gazed down at myself. Sat, sprawled across this strange throne, my hands rested on armrests designed for a much smaller human and my weapons, my Hyperphase Sword and my Dispersion Shield lay off to the side. I tried moving, but my arm and leg joints were stiff. Seemed the Necrodermis was still attempting repairs. Unable to even lift myself on my own two feet, I had been reduced to something of a statue. My neck joints, however, still worked. As I gazed down, I saw the faint marks of an attempted repair with one of these primitive tools. The scorch marks marred my body, my livery. Some of the attempts had been slightly successful, if even to make me like a broken doll that an 'owner' would try to repair just as a keepsake.
The door ahead swung open. Gradient red hair and a pair of silver eyes were the first details I noticed. The young woman that I had fought strolled in, humming a song and cradling the same sweets in her arms and chuckling happily as she set them onto the messy work table. She looked to me, then spoke in a sharp, welcoming voice, "Hey, buddy!" as she approached. She picked up my left hand. I wanted to clench it, to thrust it at her neck. No... No, I did not. For some reason, I did not.
She moved my hand around, then tried to lift it and said "Hmm... Right shoulder joint's still a bit stiff, but hey, nothing a little oil and elbow grease can't fix!"
I turned my head and she yelped, jumping back as her hand went for another crude tool. A 'Gun' with construction items in its 'magazine'. I looked upon my arm again, at my joint, then looked back to her. She set aside the makeshift weapon reluctantly... I tried to voice myself. To speak, but my vocal modulator, whatever I needed it for, seemed to be nonfunctional.
I barely managed the word "Repair?" in the form of a question.
From the girl's fear, a smile grew. She raised high her fists and cheered "YEAAAAH!" before yelping and chuckling awkwardly, "I mean... Yup! I fixed you up as best as I could, but... You're one heck of an intricate piece of tech, pal!"
She...
This Human? She Repaired me?
But...
"Why...?" I voiced again, my modulator glitching. How did I understand this creature's language?
... It mattered not.
She wore her smile so proudly, so happily, despite facing a monster, a machine of war built out of the ancient mistakes of my people, then said rather self-assuredly, "Well... When I and my team met you, we saw you take down a horde of Grimm that was kinda our target. It was heading for a small village near by the area you fought it... So... I figured you can't be all bad, right?"
Those warm, bright silver eyes. That pair of eyes peered into my mechanical ones like, a full life, a warm soul. Did I, indeed, still have my own? Was that why I hesitated? Was that why I had not killed this whelp and her fellows before they managed to concoct a plan to disable me? What had happened to me in my unwanted travel to this damnable world?
... Why did I feel a sense of hope...? Why did I...?
She chuckled awkwardly, "Aaanyway... I came to check up on ya. It's been one heck of a week of me trying to fix you to... I dunno, ask you about your weapons!"
My weapons, yes. They still lay there, in that same room. She continued, "It's kinda late, though. My sis and the others don't know I've been fixing ya, though... They think I've just been trying to figure out how your stuff works. Y'know, you scared the heck out of us. Almost cleaved clean through our Auras. That's another reason I think you ain't all bad... You hesitated. At least I think you did."
"Ruby!" A voice called out in whisper from the outside. The blonde, I soon realized. She had a warm voice herself "C'mon! It's getting dark! Any progress on the kit?"
"U-Uh! Yeah! It's slow, but it's getting there!" She shielded me with her dirty scarlet cape.
The blonde rolled her eyes, then chuckled, "Alright, alright, you gun nut. C'mon, we gotta get to bed before Goodwitch comes 'round for the evening roll call..." And she eyed me. Two lilac eyes, like those of Cadians, stared at me, when 'Ruby' had lowered her cape. For some reason, I lay there, unmoving. I did not feel like spoiling the girl's little 'lie'. If she would manage to fix me in any meaningful way, perhaps, I would let her be... Her friends? I knew not. Not yet.
"Right." Ruby nodded, smiling. The blonde turned to leave and Ruby, instead, turned to me, "It's gonna be alright. I'll fix ya right up and then you can go home... Just... You have to promise me you won't hurt anyone else."
... This girl was making demands of me?
... Why did I feel like agreeing?
I simply nodded to her, so she'd leave me. She smiled, bowed, then stepped out, slamming the door shut behind her and leaving all but one piece of sweets inside. I hoped she knew I did not have any way of even considering the ingestion of these materials. Still, something was missing from me. Why had this girl been so kind? After I nearly killed all of them? I am a Necron. I am a Lychguard of the Sauntekh Dynasty.
I am a Lychguard... What happened to me?