SLAP!
Aaron, fully enveloped within his catatonic shock, felt a mighty slap come speeding across his face. He didn't feel the pain but it was enough to break his stupor and return him to reality. Crouching in front of him was a redhead dressed in green who looked to be about the same age as him.
"Hey you, you finally awake?" She asked with concern.
Aaron's eyes bulged at her words because, right now, if he still had any reservations of being isekai'd off somewhere, the opening quote of Skyrim would push him over that edge. Now though, he was fully aware of his surroundings, aware of the sound of a fire burning in the distance, aware of the rustling trees and bushes and, oh yeah, aware of the two versus one Ursa fight going on behind the girl.
"They're taking care of that. It looks like we're partners then." The girl said, following Aaron's eyes to what he can assume to be her future teammates and wait, WHAT? "We need to ge-"
AAWWWWOOOOOOOO!
"Get out of here before more beowolfs come." She seemed to take a breath afterwards, muttering something Aaron could only guess was some form of curse before turning back to him, "Can you walk?"
"Y-yeah, yeah. A-and you don't need to tell me twice." Aaron shakingly responded as he pulled himself up to his feet with the girl's help. The feeling of blood trickling along his skin as he rose let him know he still had some feeling.
It took a moment for Aaron to stay standing without his legs buckling underneath him but was standing on his feet quite quickly compared to his previous experiences of roughhousing. The girl before him kept at the ready to catch him if need be but ended up being unneeded when he got upright.
"Good." The green girl said before turning towards the gold and blue pair. "Claude, Aqua, he's up!"
The call came at just the right time as the pair of future hunters-in-training ended up landing their final shots at nearly the same time. The blue haired girl stabbed her spear into the head of the grimm from its back, turning the head into a block of grimm ice while the guy in gold shot it with a double pistol headshot à la a certain 501st clone captain, shattering the ice and the head. The pair, Claude and Aqua from what the girl by him said, quickly made their way back to the two of them, giving each other nods of understanding and Aaron general looks curious assurance.
The group started making their way north after that, going as fast as Aaron could. The girl, Claude and Aqua formed a defensive triangle around Aaron as he was the one who was injured and the one who set the pace of the group.
"So what's your name? I'm Aqua." The blue girl, Aqua, asked.
"A-Aaron." Aaron slowly responded, still slightly shaken up by the last fifteen minutes of chasing and evading.
"I'm Claude. Aqua's my partner." The golden boy, Claude, introduced.
"Yep. That's me, and you've already met Veronica." Aqua added as said girl turned and nodded towards Aaron but remained focused on the surrounding forest.
"So Aaron, I gotta ask, what happened back there?" Claude casually wondered.
"I was chased by multiple beowolfs and the ursa?" Aaron responded, himself questioning if he was hallucinating things now or if he really was chased by a pack of grimm and lived to tell the tale.
Claude seemed to catch onto his hesitation, "You don't seem too sure about that."
"It happened faster than I could comprehend." Aaron reasoned.
"Weapon?"
"Don-gone."
Claude narrowed his eyes in suspicion but let it go when another howl came from the group's right.
"This way." Veronica directed with a look to where the sound came from. No one disagreed with her as the group changed their course away from any more grimm.
And so, the ragtag group of four continued their trek through the forest. All unaware that because of one specific person, they were being tirelessly tracked by a wary Ozpin and an irate Goodwitch.
"This boy doesn't appear in any of our records." Goodwitch commented after looking through all of Beacon's applicants for anyone matching Aaron's appearance, "How he got past the grimm initially, I don't know and now that trio has apparently taken him in as a fellow student."
"He is an anomaly." Ozpin admitted, "So long as he doesn't endanger the actual students, we'll see what happens and deal with him afterwards."
Ozpin's words tripped up his fellow professor for a moment.
"Ozpin, are you sure about this?" Glynda questioned skeptically. "We don't know anything about him or where he came from. We don't even know how he got so deep into the forest." She continued in protest.
"No." The headmaster acquiesced, "But that doesn't mean we should stop training the best huntsmen we can."
…
...
...
"...Ozpin..."
Silence befell the two after that, the implication of the rest of the headmaster's words weighing down on the combat professor. Herself unable to even come up with a response after what he just said. The two stood with the sounds of battle before them, waiting to see just what outcome would befall their mysterious new initiate.
Back with the four, their trek has brought them face to face with one of the many nondescript hills that dotted the Emerald Forest. This one in particular had what appeared to be a small path cutting right through the middle of it. Large enough for the four of them to make it through without any of the forest's grimm being able to follow.
"Hmm," Claude hummed, "This should keep us heading towards the temple." He said while comparing their direction to that of the sun.
"Good, staying away from any grimm would be best until Aaron's ready to fight." Veronica stated before she headed into the pass. Claude followed in second and behind him was Aaron and Aqua took up the rear.
"So Aaron, where you from?" Aqua ever so innocently asked.
"Uh, Vale. The main city." Aaron responded over his shoulder while also trying to come up with something reasonable now that he was too far gone into hidden lore of the show at this point. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CRDL were the only ones in volume 1, so the three that surrounded him now were new and wild cards to the knowledge that he has.
"Neat, all of us all from Vale then." Aqua gleefully said while Aaron was internally cursing that he now had to keep things within Vale consistent and struggling with creating a narrative for himself that will follow the show's lore and actual reality, pleading that he won't accidentally say something contradictory at some point.
As for now, the boy from earth's worries could be put to the side as the quartet made their way through the pass. It wasn't too long, under a minute of travel before they reached the other side. Fanning out slightly as they exited so everyone could have a view, the four found themselves on top of a small cliff. As they could see just above the treeline, the temple's top came into view. The stone structure stood about half a kilometer ahead of them with the forest in their path.
"Oh! There it is!" Aqua cheered.
"Alright, we're almost there." Claude added.
"Let's get going then." Veronica said.
Their course set, the three Remnantians started their trek again. Aaron on the other hand took a moment more at the edge for a brief reflection. Now that he wasn't being chased by Grimm or having a breakdown due to his situation, he took in this fictional world in full. Looking out into the valley, he knew what was to come and the constant sound of battle forced him to start mentally preparing for another fight and likely in these situations, the main characters.
"To think this is actually real…" Aaron trailed off as he peered across the canopy, "What am I even doing here?... Why am I even here?"
Aaron stood there in silence, pondering his purpose on Remnant. Normally things like this are given to the recently dead or by a bored god in fiction, but Aaron, he was just picked up in a white flash and placed right into the middle of the Emerald Forest. He wasn't someone special, he knew he was no one special, anyone else could have been taken and yet here he was, pushed head first into the special circumstance that is an isekai with nothing else to his name.
"I've been here less than an hour and I've somehow got myself caught up in the extended lore already…" Aaron reflected, a strained chuckle following suit. "The Nevermore and Deathstalker fight should be soon then."
...
...
…
"I am definitely not ready for that."
"Hey Aaron, you coming?" Came the sound of Aqua's voice.
Aaron turned and saw the blue haired girl standing against a nearby tree with her polearm extended again. The other two members of their group were further along a newly discovered trail, going down into the covered valley.
"Yeah, I'm coming." Aaron said distantly.
Although he didn't catch it, as he took one last look at the forest, Aqua's smile faltered slightly. He would never know it himself but his retrospective ramblings would expose some information that would be better off left unsaid to those of Remnant. The two thereafter quickly caught up with the green and gold duo for the final leg of the hike. For the most part, it was an uneventful trip that only had a single beowolf come close enough to be picked off. It wasn't until the group reached the treeline did things start to get crazy.
As the four approached, the sight of two girls' backs came into view. One of the girls had blazing golden locks and stood next to a raven haired girl with a bow on her head. Even from behind and at a distance away, Aaron could instantly recognize both Blake Belladonna and Yang Xaio-Long. Just before the quartet was to make their presence known, Blake pointed up to something which drew Yang's and everyone else's attention skywards.
"Is that?!" Aqua asked with wide eyed disbelief.
Coming down in a free fall was a girl of red and black, screaming as she barreled towards the ground. Aaron once again recognized her as Ruby Rose and from what he remembered…
Veronica was quick on the ball already, ready to rush in with the other two following right behind her, "We've got to sa-huh?". To her and the other's surprise, Aaron, with his arm out in front of her, stopped her advance.
"Aaron what are you doing?!" Claude demanded.
A defeated sigh proceeded his response, "Just watch."
The three disbelieving Remnants did so reluctantly as they were too far away to do anything now. Much to their surprise however a blonde boy came flying in screaming from off to the side, colliding with the girl mid air. Aaron let out another sigh, this time in relief from an uncertain breath he was holding in. He was glad that Jaune Arc was, like everyone else, following the plot as he remembered so far.
The two airborne students ended up being flung into the trees while the six grounded observer's gazes followed. The sound of the crash left Aqua to flinch the most while Claude was barely phased.
"Ooh that's gotta hurt." Aqua commented, practically feeling the impact.
Veronica, instead of following the action all the way through to impact, turned towards Aaron in shock and disbelief, quietly muttering, "How?..."
"Come on, we're burning daylight." Claude interrupted, entering into a jog towards the temple followed by Aqua then Aaron then Veronica.
The first two in the line showed more emotion, Claude with slight urgency while Aqua showed concern. Aaron and Veronica on the other hand each followed in silent contemplation. Aaron thinking for the future and future events while Veronica wondered if what Aaron actually said before wasn't just concussed ramblings but an unthinkable truth.
But before anyone could do anything else, an Ursa popped through the treeline a ways away, falling down dead as an explosion pelted it's back and a sequel came from behind. Riding and tumbling off the dying grimm was a girl of pink with orange hair and a man in dark green with black hair and a magenta highlight popped up from behind. Aaron recognized these two as well as Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren.
"Aww, It's broken." Nora pouted.
"Nora, please, don't even do that again." Ren panted, obviously tired from chasing after Nora and her ride.
Much to the boy's surprise, Nora disappeared faster than he could see. The Orangette somehow ended up in the temple admiring a golden rook piece.
"Ohhh," Nora awed before picking up the chess piece, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle-"
"Nora!" Ren called out to his friend.
"Coming Ren." Said girl jovially responded.
"Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?" Blake asked in shock.
"Seems like it." Claude said, gaining Blake and Yang's attention as he and Aqua came into a conversational distance with Aaron and Veronica not far behind.
Before anyone else could speak, the sound of destruction drew everyone towards the trees where Jaune came from. To everyone's surprise and horror, all except Aaron, Pyrrha Nikos came running, being quickly chased by a deathstalker with its pincers clacking right behind her.
After a moment of reorganizing and general name shouting introductions, Blake, Nora, Yang, Ruby, Aqua, Claude, Veronica and Aaron all stood watching the chase as Pyrrha dodged on her way to the ever enlarging group.
"Did she just run all the way here with a death stalker on her tail?" Blake asked again.
Aaron began subtly shuffling away from the group as he saw Yang begin to shake with rage, knowing what was to come next.
Said girl then burst into flames, hair momentarily defying gravity, "GRRRRR. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! COULD EVERYONE CHILL OUT FOR 2 SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?!"
Now that he was out of the blast zone, Aaron sighed and began to whisper count while craning his neck skyward, "Three, two, one."
"Um Yang…" Ruby said, looking to the sky as her sister let out a sigh of defeat.
"How could you leave me!?" Everyone who wasn't looking already, turned skywards to see Weiss Schnee hanging on to the talon of a soaring Nevermore.
"Weiss!" Aqua shouted in wide eyed recognition.
"I said jump." Ruby defended herself in defeat.
"She's gonna fall." Blake noted.
"She'll be fine." Ruby reassured.
"She's falling." Ren, who recently arrived to the group, observed.
"We really should do something." Claude said while glancing at Aaron.
Aaron's eyes then moved to where Jaune had landed causing Claude's to follow as well. Jumping out of the trees, Jaune caught Weiss and attempted the first of many pickup lines in the process but forgot one tensie, weinse, but ever so crucial, little, tiny detail… Gravity's existence. And so they fell, Jaune landing first giving Weiss a nice cushion for herself.
"My hero." Deadpanned the corporate heiress.
"My back." Jaune responded in pain.
As all of this was going on, Pyrrha took a hit from the death stalker, flinging her right into the middle of the group of Remnants and Aaron.
"Great the gang's all here, now we could die together." Yang deadpanned with some dark humor thrown in.
"Not if I can help it." Ruby declared before rushing to meet the deathstalker.
"Ruby wait!" Yang shouted at her sister who at this point was long gone.
"What is she doing?!" Aqua shouted in shock as Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose, accelerating with the recoil of her shots.
"Is she mad?" Claude asked in a more collected shock.
As if to answer his question, the deathstalker batted the young Rose away as soon as she got into range. She was slow to get up, saying words of reassurance that shook with every breath she took. Turning back towards her enemy, the deathstalker could feel the fear, sending it into a frenzied chase.
"RUBY!" Yang yelled as she ran in to the rescue.
As if things couldn't get any worse, the nevermore that Weiss had been riding had come back around with a new prey scrambling in its sight.
"We have to help them." Aqua said, readying her shotgun.
"Not with that nevermore still in the air." Veronica countered as she pointed up to the flying grimm. "With their feathers we can't get anywhere close to help."
The grimm in that moment ever so graciously demonstrated what Veronica was talking about by releasing a torrent of razor sharp feathers towards Ruby. One of the feathers managed to pierce her cloak and pin her to the ground and then blocked Yang's advance with a fence of feathers. Most of the group at the temple were now extremely worried for the young girl that was now trapped. All of them except for two.
"How's she gonna get out of there?" Nora fearfully asked.
"I don't know." Ren responded, calmer than his partner but his voice still held some apprehension to it.
"And in for the save…" Aaron started in a whisper. Looking off to his side, he saw Weiss with Myrtenaster in hand, ready to lunge.
She was gone in an instant, the remnants of one of her glyphs fading away from where she stood. The heiress practically apperating right in front of a crouching Ruby with an ice wall quickly forming in defense, trapping the deathstalker's stinger in the ice.
"Whoa." Jaune said as he joined the group, rubbing the soreness from his fall away.
"Hmm."
"Wow."
"That was-"
"YESSS!" Aqua loudly cheered.
Everyone's attention was drawn to the blue haired girl in surprise, even Aaron was drawn to her enthusiastic cheer. The girl in her own right seemed oblivious to all the stares she was getting as she herself was fully enraptured with seeing the Schnee Dust heiress save Ruby.
"Uhh, Aqua?" Claude hesitantly asked.
"Yeah?" Aqua replied, returning her attention to the group, "Uhh, what's with all the stares?"
"You... Know her?" Blake asked now, slightly defensive in tone.
"Heh, somewhat." Aqua answered, her response now laced with hints of bashfulness. (This ain't a romance, so no.)
"Okay... A story for another time then." Claude slowly said, understanding that tone of apprehension as the silence that rolled in quickly became awkward.
"Guys." Jaune alerted the others as Ruby, Weiss and Yang returned to the group, "That thing's circling back. What are we gonna do?"
True to his word, the nevermore was holding above them steady. Circling and waiting like a vulture upon a carcass as the twelve teens gathered around the temple, just asking to be picked off one by one in the eyes of the grimm.
Weiss took on the roll to get everyone back on track once everyone's attention returned to each other, "Look, there's no sense in dilly dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."
"She's right," Ruby affirmed, "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." The ice flower duo shared a look of acceptance and understanding as the young girl spoke.
"Run and live. That is an idea I can get behind." Jaune said, Aaron silently agreeing with that statement.
AAWWWWOOOOOOOO!
The sound of more beowolfs approaching quickly got everyone's attention. The sound coming from where Veronica, Aaron, Claude and Aqua came from. The grimm horde that the quartet thought they lost was now making their way around the pass, towards the twelve.
"Not good." Veronica said to herself before turning to everyone else, "Alright. Each pair, grab a relic and head for the cliffs. We don't want to be around here when this place gets overrun."
There was little disagreement from the group as what she said was true. Everyone quickly made their way into the stone structure to grab their relics. Ruby picked up the white knight, Jaune retrieved the white rook, Yang and Nora already had their picks, leaving only the last two pairs without.
"Chess pieces?" Claude questioned, "That's… not what I expected."
"I like 'em. Hey, this one looks neat." Aqua said as she picked up one of the two white pawns.
"Why would Ozpin have us retrieve chess pieces?" Veronica asked as she and Aaron walked inside.
"You never really know with him. Though one thing for certain though..." Aaron absent mindedly responded as he took in the tall stone architecture. Then his eyes turned down to the other white pawn, "Is he grouped those with the same piece together."
As Aaron seemed to be in a world of his own, Veronica once again took note of his odd behaviour. If this would actually come to pass, she'd have to ask her future teammates if they noticed his oddness as well. Mind made up, Veronica moved to Aaron's side and picked up the piece in front of them.
"Now that we've got this we need to get to the cliffs." Veronica said which brought Aaron back to reality again.
As the group regrouped, Ren took note of the deathstalker freeing itself from the ice, ready to attack, "Time we left."
"Right, let's go." Ruby said, running off in the lead with the others close behind.
While Yang and Blake stayed back for a moment more, Aaron knew that he was about to run head first into the first major fight of the series. Looking to his right where Ruby stopped to direct and rally everyone, Aaron steeled himself with the thought that this was where this new adventure truly begins.
"Red like roses part two... I can't believe this is happening."
A/N: Chapter 3 is here and already Aaron isn't paying enough attention to himself and his surroundings. Here we finally meet with the main cast and things so far are going quite similar to Canon as not too much has visibly been altered yet. If you could tell, I plan on expanding the canon slightly in ways that hopefully still fit in the regular canon, i.e Aqua knowing Weiss. Look back to chapter 2 and see if you saw the beginnings of that connection. Not much more to say other than fav, follow and review if you wish so see you all next time.