RWBY (Special Edition) – Chapter 2 the Dark Slayer

Basic information:

Name: Vergil "Anthony" Redgrave

Age: late 30's at the start of volume 1

Theme song: Bury the light

Personality: Unlike his younger brother, Vergil is calm, collected and introverted. He prefers spending his time alone, mostly training or reading poetry. He may appear as cold-hearted; he lacks empathy and cares little about feelings of others, he has immense lust for power and won't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way to achieve his goals. Despite this, Vergil is an honorable warrior that sticks to his own code of honor and believes.

Appearance: Vergil and Dante are identical twins; they have the same white hair and blue eyes. They are of the same height, with similar lean and muscular physique. However that's where their similarities end. Vergil always carries an aura of power and control around himself. His hair is slick back with one or two short bangs falling to his forehead. His eyes are cold and piercing, a far cry from Dante's playful one full of mischief. He usually wears a blue coat, black sleeveless vest and an ascot around his neck, dark grey pants with brown combat boots and brown fingerless gloves.

Weapons: Unlike his brother, who acquired a large arsenal of weapons, Vergil ever truly relied only on one weapon, the sword that was given to him by his father, the legendary katana, Yamato. It wasn't just an ordinary sword, unknown to Dante both their swords given to them by Sparda were magical in nature. They've been created and intertwined with the soul of their owners, making them the physical manifestation of their souls. Vergil also has a distaste for guns, so when he needs a range option, he uses his Summon Swords, short blue blades made out of aura that shreds its opponents.

Semblance and Aura: The color of Vergil's aura is blue. Much like his brother, he has a great deal of control of his aura, but unlike Dante who was never interested in those abilities, Vergil studied and practice with them and achieved a level of control of his aura that Dante would be able to match only much later in his life. Vergil's semblance is called the Dark Slayer and it gives him a limited control over time and space. With it he can teleport to any place in his sight, slow down his perception of time, allowing him to react much faster, unleash powerful judgment cuts that cut his targets apart without the need to get close and he can even open portals to anywhere in Remnant.

Story:

Vergil and his younger brother Dante were born as the sons of Sparda Redgrave and his wife Eva. During their childhood Vergil was always seen as the mature of the two. He liked reading and learning and often spent time in his father's library. He always tried to stay out of trouble and help out around the house. But then there was Dante, he would often drag Vergil into trouble, always trying to rile up his brother, interrupting his reading to train with him, something more akin to beating each other up with wooden swords.

Both of their parents were trained hunters but while Eva was no slouch it was Sparda that became known as the legendary huntsman. His strength was unparalleled, his skill unmatched, his power legendary. Sparda soon became known throughout all of Remnant, when he single handedly held of a grimm invasion at mountain Glenn saving thousands of people. That day there was no Grimm that could stop him, the prince of Vale was like an unstoppable force of nature, his sword cutting through grimm like a hot knife through butter, at first his style was elegant like a noble in a fencing match but every grimm he killed was replaced by two more, but that didn't stop him for even a second. Style and grace were replaced by raw strength and fury, the giant great sword Sparda wielded transformed into a scythe, the red gemstone in it set the blade ablaze. Each slash cut down ten beowulfs, every thrust killed a deathstalker, and every shot from his guns found its mark. That continued until everyone from mountain Glenn was evacuated. That day Sparda became a legend, but it was also the day that the evil lurking in the shadows took notice of him.

From a young Vergil always looked up to his father, more so than other boys his age. He wanted to be just like him, strong, confident and most of all powerful. Powerful enough to protect anything he wanted. At the age of eight Sparda gave Vergil and Dante their swords and promised to train them and unlock their auras after he return from a mission. A mission he would never come back from.

A few months after that, grimm invaded their hometown killing anyone, but mainly focusing on a house that laid at the outskirts of the town, their home. At that time Vergil wasn't home, he was sitting at a playground, his sword, a little too big for an eight year old boy, at his side. He wasn't foolish to try and fight the grimm, he was just a boy who didn't even have his aura unlocked. He tried to run back to his home but there were too many grimm in the way so he ended up running the opposite way soon ending up at a graveyard. He hid and waited for his mother to come and save him. But that didn't happened. Soon the grimm found him and he was cornered, with no way out he drew his sword, to try and fight his way out, but that didn't work at all. He was soon defeated and ended up impaled to one of the gravestones with his own swords. He the son of Sparda, grandson of the King of Vale defeated by a dozen lowly beowulfs how pathetic. At the same time he saw his house in the distance burning down. His mother didn't save him, she's chosen to protect Dante and left him to die.

No, he refused to die like this. With a newfound strength Vergil reached for the handle of Yamato and withdrew the blade from his own chest. At first the pain was agonizing, but slowly and surely it faded away. All the grimm in the area stopped and looked at Vergil. They could now sense his aura, the energy being more powerful than anything they have ever faced. They could see the blue light swirling around his body and sword. In a flash Vergil was on them. Just like before Vergil stood no chance against the beowulfs, now the beowulfs stood no chance against Vergil. With his aura unlocked he sliced and diced through the pack of grimm. Claws and legs were cut-off, bodice were bisected, heads were severed until Vergil stood alone among dead pack of beowulfs slowly disappearing into dust.

That day Vergil learned important lesson, never relay on others. From his point of view his family abandoned him, first his father and now his mother most likely run away with Dante leaving him behind as a distraction. At least that's what he thought, when in reality Eva died trying to find him.

After that he decided that he was strong on his own, and he would become stronger, he would even surpass his father, then there would be nothing that could stand in his way.

Unlike Dante, who was adopted by Nell Goldstein, giving him a second family, Vergil never had that luxury. At first he lived on the streets of Redgrave City. He quickly learned how to steal and pickpocket. He tried to keep a low profile but after a year people started to notice a white haired boy who lived on the streets and stole from people, so he decided to leave the city and find somewhere where people wouldn't be looking for him. The moment he left the city's walls he noticed that every grimm in the forest was hell-bent on killing him. Despite this he managed to reach a small village, the name wasn't important, what was important was that no one knew him and no one would be suspicious of him and once they would he suspicious he would just leave for another city or village. But his peaceful life of a thief would soon be over.

As I turns out Vergil had severely underestimated the ferocity of the grimm and how far they were willing to go just to kill him. At that time Vergil was staying in a small coastal village at the east of Vale, when suddenly and out of nowhere a giant leviathan rose from the sea and headed towards the city. With the leviathan came panic and with the panic came even more grimm. Vergil felt powerless as he could do nothing but watch as the entire village was burn to the ground by the leviathan's fire breath and the smaller grimm killing everyone they came across all the while looking, searching for him. He had to run, but it didn't felt right, he was the son of Sparda, he wasn't some animal for the to hunt. If he was as powerful as his father he wouldn't have to run, he could have killed them all and not run away like a coward. He needed more power.

A few years later Vergil found himself in a city of Mistral. He was tired of running from town to town all the while there were his wanted posters in every other city in Vale. While Mistral was a beautiful city it also had its dark side and that was perfect for Vergil. He soon became acquainted with a woman, probably ten years older than him, who was an uprising criminal going by the name of Lil' Miss Malachite.

In Mistral Vergil soon learned one very important detail, there was a large bounty on his head. No one knew why or from whom, but it was enough money for someone to build a small town with. Soon enough every criminal in the city wanted his head, every criminal except Lil' miss Malachite. She offered the young teenager an alliance of sort, she and her little gang would protect Vergil and in return he would help them take out the rivaling gangs, killing his would be assassins in the process.

With no better choice Vergil accepted, and in a couple of years the whole Mistralian underground was under the thumb of Lil' miss Malachite, while he himself gained quite the reputation that would make any bounty hunter think twice about facing him. During his stay in Mistral Vergil came upon a dojo that taught Iaijutsu, a combative quick-draw sword technique that peaked his interest and he soon mastered it.

Despite his now peaceful live, nothing could change the fact that every time he left the city there was a pack grimm or two waiting for him. At this point they were nothing more than a nuisance, but they still annoyed him none the less and the fact someone wanted him dead so much they were willing to pay millions of lien just to kill him wasn't a coincidence. Thinking about it, Vergil came to a conclusion that it was his father's or maybe even his grandfather's enemies that wanted him dead. So with that thought in mind Vergil left Mistral to learn more about his family legacy unaware that a man was following him.

His journey soon led him to the town of Fortuna, that was built by the survivals of mount Glenn and they dedicated it to their savior, Sparda. Not only that they trained their own warriors in a religious-military organization called Order of the Sword, which worshiped Sparda as their god.

During his stay in Fortuna he learned quite a bit about his father and the Vale royal bloodline in general, but nothing that would answer his questions, just some connection to another religion that also worshiped two humans, Ozma and Salem as gods. But there was no way to tell what was real and what was made up fairy tales.

What he found however was something he was not looking for. A woman, faunus, with luscious golden hair and red reptilian eyes. She carried herself with a level of confidence that was seen only in few. It wasn't supposed to be anything serious; Vergil had little time to play family. But one thing led to another and Vergil found himself caring a little baby in his arms, his name was Nero, Nero Angelo after his mother. First time after many years Vergil felt happy, truly happy, but then harsh and cold reality set in. He had the highest bounty in the history of Remnant on his head, not to mention the possibility of another leviathan emerging from the shore and laying waste to the city. How could he possibly raise a son like this?

That's when a man by the name of Arkham approached him. He had an ugly scar on the left side of his face and a mismatched eyes one being red the other blue. At first Vergil wanted nothing to do with him and warned Arkham to leave him alone in the library. But Arkham was persistent if nothing else. He told Vergil exactly what he was looking for. He told him the story of the maidens and the relics they guarded, he told him about the Salem and her control of the grimm and about his grandfather the legendary hero Ozma.

With the newfound information Vergil decided on a plan. If he ever wished to be free he would have to kill Salem, but to do that he needed more power, something that would give him the age against the ancient witch, something like the relic of destruction.

He contacted several people in Mistral, mercenaries that he could trust and together with Arkham set out to find the summer maiden that would open the vault where the relic was located, but before that Vergil made a stop in Vale to do something he has been putting of for some time, confront his younger brother.

The reunion with Dante went as well as he expected, the years at Beacon Academy made Dante soft, his brother was unable to see the bigger picture, what were a few lost lives compared to killing the queen of grimm, the one behind everything, the one that killed their mother and father, the one that was hunting them down for a sport. The one that was after his own son, but his new family something Vergil kept to himself.

Despite all of that Dante still refused to side with him, what's worse he decided to stand against him, to stop him from making a "mistake". So the two brothers fought, if it could have been called a fight. Dante was stronger than most of his opponents, but Vergil was seeking power all life, training searching for a ways to get stronger, unlike Dante who was commutable with the power he had.

But Vergil refused to kill his brother, despite the fact that they were now enemies, some small part of him told him they were still family, and besides it would be fun to face him again, a fight here and now makes a life more interesting. So with that thought he departed for Vacuo to find the summer maiden.

Tracking her wasn't easy, but after that the hard part was over. Nevan was more than willing to help them obtain the Sword of Destruction. As it turned out she was also tired of constantly watching after her back, afraid that Salem's forces were after her, so when Vergil offered her a chance to strike back she took it without a second thought.

So together Vergil and his team attacked Shade Academy unaware the betrayal Arkham was planning.

After the battle:

Vergil laid next to a pool of black liquid unconscious, once healthy skin turned ghostly white with dark purple lines and if he was to open his eyes one could see his eyes had turn red. He lost the battle for the relic and with it the hope of killing Salem, the hope of living a normal life and raising Nero. It would be better for Nero to grow up without anyone finding out he was his son.

As Vergil laid there motionless, a ghostly figure appeared out of the Sword of Destruction, a spirit akin to a genie watched the young warrior, it hummed in contemplation as it was thinking about the next course of action. Unfortunately the young man failed to prove himself worthy of the sword, then again, he was much more worthy than the man before him. The genie turned his head to a place where the dead body of Arkham was laying a bullet hole in his forehead. After his defeat by the twins, the fool tried to crawl away back to the vault's opening only to receive a bullet to the head for his trouble, by his own daughter none the less. That was truly amusing to the personification of destruction.

At this point he heart a low groan coming from Vergil, and the genie once again considered it's option, he didn't feel like giving him the sword for free, but letting him die didn't feel right either, that man has some much potential.

Slowly a plan came into the spirit's head, he would have to break a few rules given to him by the gods, but from his point of view rules are meant to be broken, like everything else. With a new idean in mind he took a sword and slashed the empty air before him creating a portal not unlike Vergil used and thrown the poor Dark Slayer through it. Giving the queen one more pawn could be fun, or more correctly giving her one dark knight.

Vergil awoken to a dark purple sky, similar one he and his brother fought under, but this one felt different. He looked around and noticed a large castle a few meters before him. With a bit of effort he rose to his feet, but before he could take another step the giant doors of the castle opened and out of them came out a woman. She had snow white hair, pale white skin with black veins, red eyes, wearing a black dress.

Vergil tightened his hold on the Yamato, he didn't have to think hard to realize who was the woman standing before him. So there he was standing face to face with Salem. Alone, barely alive and no relic in hand. Despite this Vergil unseat his sword, ready to exact his revenge anyway. It should be fun fighting the queen of darkness, if his grandfather could do this, he should be able to do this too. And even if he failed he would die doing what he wanted, a more desirable outcome than watching his back for the rest of his life.

Salem however had different plans for him.