"H-How?" That was all Aaron could say. The realization of his situation crashing down upon him. "How can I be in RWBY?"
As more gunshots sounded around him, Aaron stayed where he was in shock, trying to process this new truth, Remnant exists and his appearance on it.
"I-It's just a web show, how can I be in it?" He desperately asked no one but the trees. "How could I have been Isekaied into a-"
Realization hit him like a truck. Everything that he could know now fell into place. The truth has been revealed to Aaron and he now must accept the truth.
"I-I've been Isekaied." Aaron said, his voice suddenly hoarse as his situation unfolded before him. "I'm right at the beginning of volume one. I'm in the middle of the show itself."
The sound of fighting drew near as those who landed behind Aaron quickly made their way towards him. Aaron knew deep down that there wouldn't be much time before others arrived but still he remained where he was, slumped down on his knees as he tried to process everything. The wind blew stronger as the cries of the Grimm that now surrounded Aaron screeched out in death. The Dust ammunition giving the darkness their final goodbye before fading into nothing. The Aura surrounding the future Huntsmen-in-training taking the fatal blows from their attackers. And here Aaron was, standing in the middle of it all, an entire world that was originally the idea of one man, now a part of reality.
"Why?" Aaron uttered, "Why am I in the middle of an Isekai?"
The sound of fighting and death in the distance was all the response he got. Once again confirming that he wasn't on Earth anymore. He was stuck on Remnant with no idea what to do.
"Wait, an Isekai." Aaron said with even more realization, this time with hope. His mind running at a mile a minute as he went over his situation again. "I'm in an Isekai, a new world, an event in which someone from Earth gets transported to a different world. Generally a fanfiction trope."
…
…
...
And then he began to chuckle. "Fanfiction, I'm in a fanfiction." Aaron stated as his chuckles transformed into laughter. "A full blown fanfic." The laughter grew louder. "I'm in a fanfiction, written by an author who knows where! Just someone to use as your protagonist huh?" The laughter now turned into full on hysterics as the surrounding wildlife quickly vacated the area. "And you! You're reading this aren't you? Taking my sudden situation for your own entertainment and enjoyment?! HUH!" Aaron now shouted to the heavens. "You want entertainment, I'll give you entertainment! You'll see! You'll all see, I'll bring Remnant into a new age! Just, you, wat-!"
GGGRRAAAHHHHH!
That shut Aaron up quickly as he hastily spun around onto one knee towards the noise and all of his megalomaniac ambitions left him as fast as his face paled. Right in front of him stood a giant Ursa, roaring upon its hind legs, clearly drawn to Aaron's grief filled ramblings. And if that wasn't bad enough, he could hear a number of wolf howls in the distance, quickly approaching.
"Right, grimm." Aaron squeaked out in wide eyed fear as the enormous black bear stood over his kneeling form. A creature that could end his life with one swing of its paw.
As his rage turned to terror, the Ursa sniffed and roared once again, clearly liking Aaron's already scared emotions. With another mighty roar, the beast reared its massive paw back and swung. Aaron just had barely enough time to drop to his stomach before a devastating slash could release him from this nightmare. Not wasting this chance given to him by some higher being, Aaron scrambled to the side, fumbling over his feet slightly before gaining his footing and booking it out of there. Unfortunately for him, the Ursa had other plans and after a brief respite of questioning where it's prey should be, quickly began chasing after him.
Aaron, all things considered in this short amount of time already, was doing quite well for himself. Granted he was stumbling every few steps and nearly running into every other tree he passed, but he kept on dodging and weaving through the trees even as looked back towards the Ursa which carelessly hurled itself into them, continuing to gain on him.
"No, no, no, WHOA! No..." Thought Aaron as he pushed himself to his limits. "Please God, Brothers, Oum or anyone else, I don't want to die!"
Overlooking the Emerald Forest, Beacon's headmaster Ozpin, stood, admiring the view of nature before him, and the small explosions coming sporadically from the depth of the foliage. Up here, he could see anything that would indicate a large threat and send in any necessary huntsmen should he feel the threat too large for his prospective students.
Approaching him from her rounds of checking in on everything was Glynda Goodwitch. Taking on most of the mundane duties of the headmaster, she was one of Ozpin's most trusted allies in his life.
"Our last pair has been formed sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren." Glynda stated, bringing up their live feed, "Poor boy, I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos."
That got a slight reaction out of Ozpin. Himself wondering if he was the one paired up with the invincible girl.
"I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat." Goodwitch said with indignation, "I guess we'll find out soon enough. At their current pace they should reach the temple within just a few minutes. Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year." She said, moving away from the topic of inaccurate applications. "Professor Ozpin?"
The professor only hummed as he had his eyes on another pair. An Atlesian, Dust heiress and a young, hyperactive prodigy. An interesting combination to say the least. He would want to keep an eye on how those two would work together in the future.
"The wonderful game of che-." Ozpin started before being interrupted by a flashing alarm on both his and Goodwitch's scrolls.
Glynda instantly started rapid typing on the screen, trying to find the problem that would set off their security system. Ozpin began doing the same while checking on if this was a localized alert or a warning for all of Beacon.
"This isn't good." Goodwitch stated as she began to get an idea of what was going on.
"How bad?" Ozpin inquired, now following along exclusively on the forest.
"Mass grimm movement, on the eastern edge of the forest moving towards the students. Dozens of Beowolfs and a number of Ursa." She said with wide eyed shock.
"Are there any students currently nearby?" Ozpin questioned.
"Not yet, the horde seems to be a few minutes from- wait they just turned." Goodwitch communicated, "They're now moving north towards a group of three."
"Veronica Vertile, Claude Goldenrod and Aqua Revarius, yes. Currently fending off at least a half dozen beowolfs." Ozpin noted as he turned to the three's video feed, his thoughts lying with the cause for the sudden grimm movement. "Keep the nearby huntsmen on standby but let's wait and see how they'll handle this."
"HA! Is that all you got, you oversized pup!" Claude taunted as he dug one of his long bladed knives into the back calf of one of his beowolfs.
Claude Goldenrod is a man who wears black pants with a darkened gold shirt. Black, reinforced combat boots each had a sheath for hunting knives along with braces on either arm. His black hair, accentuated by his golden eyes, was currently unruly but had the look of semi regular maintenance to it.
"Fight now, taunt later!" Veronica called out as she slashed at her own grimm before rolling away.
Veronica Vertile is a taller woman who wore a forest green outfit consisting of dark tights and a bright, arable athletic shirt. Her emerald eyes contrasted her long, orangey red hair which shone in the light of her sword's reflection. With a number of bruises and a couple of scars dotting her pale skin without rhyme or reason, she had the appearance of previous fighting experience. Experience that showed in each of her strikes.
"Eat Dust you S.O.B.'s!" Aqua shouted as she pumped her beowolf full of fire Dust.
Aqua Revarius. She isn't what you'd expect upon first meeting her. With shoulder length sky blue hair and a pair of deep blue eyes that had an air of authority matched by few when she wanted to, Aqua was a child at heart and more carefree than people would expect of her. Her outfit matched her hair in colour, a long sleeve shirt with accents of a deeper blue and pants of the same deeper blue as her eyes.
"Why do I even bother." Veronica muttered to herself with a sigh as she leapt out of the way of a beowolf's closing maw. With the flick of a switch, her sword split down the middle, transforming it into its rifle configuration and shot right into the grimm's open mouth, killing it as black smoke rose from the now dead corpse.
"Oh nothing gets your blood pumping quite like an early morning fight." Claude commented as shifted the knife in his hand into a pistol and shot his beowolf right in the behind. "Though, I could use something a little more challenging."
As the fight went on, Aqua somehow found time to ask a question, "So where are you two from?" Her quad-barrel shotgun folded out into a long polearm in the process, stabbing the neck of another beowolf.
"We really don't have time for this!" Veronica near shouted as she parried a strike with her rifle.
"Atlas? No, you don't have that cold air to you." Guessed Aqua as she finished the last Beowolf in her area. "Or are you local. Vale perhaps? How 'bout you?" She got a slight reaction, enough to confirm her second suspicion before turning to Claude.
"Vale's western outreaches." Claude responded, throwing a knife right into a beowolf eye, finishing off his numbers. "Nice and isolated, good game when the grimm are away. Where you from?"
"Vale proper." Aqua answered, "Dad works for Revarius Manufacturing. That's how I made this." She shrugged, returning her polearm to shotgun form as she approached Claude. They came together so they could see Veronica give a final strike to her last beowolf.
Panting in exertion, Veronica rejoined the pair that she found with a scowl on her face. She was not at all pleased by their laxness to the situation in the slightest. Claude seemed more jovial in terms of his abilities and Aqua just seemed happy to have had a fight.
"What was that about?!" Veronica asked the both of them, forcefully sheathing her sword in disgruntlement.
"What, our killing methods or our conversation?" Claude jokingly returned.
"The conversation. Don't you two know how serious this whole thing is?" Veronica deadpanned in response.
Aqua was the one to speak up next, "Hey we survived , didn't we? I say that's an overall win and I got to field test this baby." She said with her shotgun in hand.
"Ughhhh. Did either of you realize how many times we could have died during that fight at least?" Veronica questioned while massaging her temples.
"In the thrill of it all, I don't care so long as I live." Claude replied.
"Fifteen or sixteen between the three of us, I think." Aqua answered, "Oh I'm Aqua, forgot about that.
"Claude Goldenrod."
"Brothers give me strength. Veronica Vertile."
"Perfect, so… Where do we go now?" Aqua asked.
"Ozpin said we need to get to the temple at the northern end of the forest." Veronica replied.
"And that would beeee?" Aqua drawed out.
"Deep breaths Veronica, deep breaths. To the-"
"Forward with the sun to our right." Claude said, much to Veronica's relief now knowing that there was some form of sensible intelligence between the two. "Just gotta keep walking and hope we find a path at some point."
"Alright then!" Aqua cheered, "Let's find that temple."
And so, the trio started walking. Claude and Aqua with the sole purpose of finding their relic and Veronica still needing to find a partner. The gold and blue pair conversed in most of the small talk of the trek while their odd woman out kept her eyes open for any dangers and occasionally adding her own two cents into the conversation in front of her. As they continued forward with the rising sun to their right, they group made their way through a particularly dense area of trees with hills and valleys lining the landscape. There were so many trees that the trio couldn't help but miss the twin pair of glowing red eyes following their every step.
Breaking a branch hanging in his way, Aaron pushed harder and harder, the Ursa on his tail unrelenting in its chase. With each step, it became harder to breath, his body not used to this much exertion in such a short period of time. His muscles ached and his bones felt like jelly but he kept running, unwilling to even think about stopping with the big black bear bearing down on him. Even without the giant Ursa, the sound of a number of Beowolfs continued to follow him, cutting off any possible escape off to the sides as they kept up with his speed.
"Got to keep running, got to keep running, got to keep running." Repeated Aaron in thought, again and again. "Why did I have to be the one to be sent to Remnant of all places? And how could that even be posib-WHOA!"
All of a sudden a beowolf leapt from the treeline right over Aaron who had barely enough time to duck as the sharp claws caught a few hairs on his way to the ground. The sudden drop left Aaron somewhat disoriented leading to one of the most costly mistakes he could possibly make. The chasing Ursa took full advantage of the boy's stupor, striking his leg with what was luckily a grazing strike.
"GGGAAAAAHHHH!" Aaron hissed in absolute pain, pushing himself through the strong stinging sensation to roll to the side, avoiding another slash.
The ursa continued it's pursuit of wild slashes as Aaron, for reasons completely beyond him in his panicked state, was actually dodging each strike. Himself rolling back and forth wildly while trying to retreat as much he could. The ursa's swipes only grew in intensity and frequency as it itself was becoming as enraged as a grimm could, only growing in ferocity as its prey kept avoiding it.
Aaron was the exact opposite. He knew his time was up and that this would be where he would die. Being exhausted beyond belief and the adrenaline that was pushing him forward receding, his movements slowing as his imminent doom bore down from above him. This was his last stand.
As fate would have it, Aaron found himself pushed up against a tree after another one of the many slashes he tried to avoid. Now he looked into the eyes of the Ursa, fear of his death at the forefront of his mind. It's said that upon the precipice of death, one's life flashes before his eyes. Aaron had nothing of the like. Only him and his thoughts remained as the rest of the world seemed to fade into the inky darkness of an abyss.
"So…" Aaron began with his head against the tree, looking up to the Ursa as it began to raise its paw for a final slash, "This is where I die, eh? Heh… Teleported to Remnant and die within the first ten minutes. Absolutely laughable…" The Ursa began to sweep downwards. "Maybe this is all a dream after all. All a nightmare and I'm about to wake up… Heh… Or… maybe not. Well God, I'm ready." Aaron's eyes closed, his fate accepted in earnest.
The piercing red eyes of the beast that the people of Remnant swear to defeat was the last thing Aaron saw, a beast of nightmares with claws ready to take his life. Resigned to his fate, he took one last breath, ready for whatever afterlife would come and...
BANG!
A shot rang out not far from him. Aaron heard the sound of a bullet fly but felt nothing. Aaron didn't care why that shot came as his death was still assured. A yell soon followed and the sound of battle reached his ears. Was he already dead at this point and didn't feel anything? Was he now bleeding out, again not feeling anything? Or was he now hallucinating a rescue in his final moments, a last hurrah before his downfall. Regardless of what was happening, Aaron knew that his death was imminent.
"Heh… left to die in a fictional world…" Arron let out in his catatonic, near death state, detached from his state of life, "To think… I could've changed the timeline… And I didn't even get a chance..." Aaron felt a slight shaking sensation on his shoulder, "Oh… Is it time?... Couldn't even give the show a final goodbye… Heh… Goodbye R.W.B.Y... Wish I could've done mo-"
SLAP!
It has been a few minutes of walking at this point as Veronica, Claude and Aqua try to make their way towards the temple. Walking in a single file line, the trio hear the constant sound of battle around them and… the sound of a fire burning?
Claude was the first to take notice and turned to his left, "Hey, do you guys hear that?"
The two girls followed suit, following his gaze just as a large amount of smoke started peaking over the trees.
"How do you think that happened?" Aqua asked.
"Probably someone misusing some Dust." Claude dismissed. "I wouldn't put it past some of the people we saw yesterday."
"Yeesh. Hopefully they're alright then." Aqua commented.
"Yeah."
"... So, we keep going?" Aqua questioned as an awkward silence befell their part of the forest.
"I'd prefer to make it back before nightfall." Claude said, the seemingly short blip in emotion well past.
"I second that, Veronica?" Aqua curiously asked the silent third member of the group. "Veronica, you okay?"
Said girl was still looking out towards the fire but had a gaze that wasn't focused on it or anything else. It took a snap in front of her face from Claude to get Veronica back to reality. "Hey, everything good up there?"
"Huh, yeah, I'm fine." The de facto leader answered, "We should get going no-"
"GGGAAAAAHHHH!"
The sounds of someone in excruciating pain pierced the trio's ears. The yell was so sudden and loud enough that the three of them all flinched and Aqua covered her ears instinctively. When the scream died down, Veronica had her sword drawn in an instant.
"That sounded way too close for comfort, come on." She ordered before darting into the trees toward the sound.
Claude and Aqua, as a result, were left in momentary confusion at their green member's sudden departure. Looking to each other to find some semblance of an answer and finding none, the pair began sprinting as well, hastily trying to catch up with their would be leader.
Veronica ran fast. Each step light yet forceful, pushing herself as fast as she could. The sound of grimm became clearer the further she ran. With the flick of a switch, her blade opened up while she expertly and instinctually loaded a magazine of rounds into the blade's hilt itself. Turning as she ran, Veronica spotted a beowolf heading in the same direction as her, likely looking for the same thing as her. She couldn't get a clean shot what with all the trees in the way and needing to keep an eye nowhere she's going.
Fortunately for her, the sound of a quad barrel shotgun put an end to the racing Grimm as Aqua quickly caught up with Veronica. Receiving a cheeky smile from the talkative blue, the pair followed closely by a swinging Claude who now had a pair of grappling hooks attached to his pistols.
The sprinting trio soon found the light at the end of the tunnel, a clearing quickly approaching and the appearance of a grimm seemingly stalking something or someone. Veronica could quickly tell this would end up being a rescue mission now as whoever the now identifiable Ursa had cornered was on their last legs.
Once the three reached the edge of the clearing, they could see a boy, likely another intiant, pushed against a tree in the centre muttering something or other in delirium. Veronica took action and shot the Ursa in the back with a mighty bang.
"Claude, Aqua, keep that Ursa busy, I'll try and get him out of there." Veronica ordered, eyes still on the grimm
"Right!" Claude affirmed as he started running in a wide arc, peppering the Ursa with bullets.
"Let's see if you can handle this!" Aqua cheered as her shotgun shifted back into a polearm form. A small compartment opened up as she placed an ice dust crystal inside causing the blade to cover itself in ice before she charged into battle.
As the pair of fun loving fighters engaged and distracted the Ursa, Veronica quickly made her way to where the boy was seated. "Hey! Are you okay?" She questioned as she approached only to hear him continue to mutter in delirium.
"Heh… left to die in a fictional world…" The boy uttered.
"What?" Veronica said in confusion. He must have been more hurt than originally thought.
"To think… I could've changed the timeline… And I didn't even get a chance..." He continued to Veronica's growing confusion.
"Hey, snap out of it, we need to get out of here." She calmly said, crouching down and shaking the boy's shoulder to try and get him to respond while the chaos of battle continued behind her.
"Oh… Is it time?... Couldn't even give the show a final goodbye… Heh… Goodbye R.W.B.Y... Wish I could've done mo-" That's it, Veronica thought before slapping the boy across the face. She didn't really want to do it, what with all the crazy stuff this guy was spewing, but they needed to get out of here before more grimm showed up.
He seemed to become more responsive after that which was a good thing. "Hey you, you finally awake?" She asked. For reasons unknown, the boy went wide eyed before quickly looking around at his surroundings before laying eyes with the now dying Ursa. "They're taking care of that. It looks like we're partners then. We need to ge-"
AAWWWWOOOOOOOO!
"Get out of here before more beowolfs come." Veronica deadpanned before cursing under her breath. "Can you walk?"
"Y-yeah, yeah. A-and you don't need to tell me twice." The boy shakingly responded as he began to stand up. He was a bit shaky but clearly stabilizing himself. There was some blood on his leg but it just seemed superficial to Veronica.
"Good." She said before turning to the other pair. "Claude, Aqua, he's up!" And so, with a little help on the boy's part, the quartet made their retreat.
A/N: Here is chapter 2. We are introduced to three new characters, the remaining main character OC's of the story. Don't worry, I have a plan for their integration into the wider story going forward in a way that should be reasonable, what with the butterfly effect and what not. Mostly that will come with Aaron and the others interactions like what we saw here. This is only the beginning and remember, knowledge will be the key to it all.
Once again, I'm not good with characters and character descriptions are even worse. I'm someone who doesn't care for my appearance to much and I'm forcing myself to write outfits. Take imaginative liberties if you wish, god knows I need to. Other than that, see you all next update, when ever that may be.