Running. Heavy breathing. Running. Stampeding upon the ground. Running. Time ticking away. Running.
The nevermore passed by overhead as the group of Beacon applicants entered the home stretch. With what looked to be old stone walls on either side of their path, right in front of them stood the cliff they so desperately were trying to reach. The problem though was that the nevermore seemed to have taken the old, chasmic ruins that laid just before the cliff as its new hunting grounds.
Taking on a defensive position behind the stone pillars of the old walls, the twelve teens hid while the winged grimm perched upon the tower. An ear piercing screech rang throughout the valley, a challenge to anyone who would dare show themselves.
Right when the odds looked like they couldn't be more stacked against them, the deathstalker from before now crashed onto the scene, cutting off any ideas of escape.
"Aw man, RUN!" Jaune called out.
Everyone followed and made a break for the ruins. The nevermore began to rain feathers down from the sky but luckily none hit. Nora took on distracting the nevermore by pelting it with numerous explosive grenades while most everyone else ran forward. With the nevermore now realizing that it couldn't stay any longer, it took its leave giving Nora the victory. That victory was short lived though as the deathstalker quickly approached from behind.
Coming in for the save, Blake and Ren halted the giant scorpion's advance. Weiss took this opportunity and got the Norse fighter out of there while her two saviors made a hasty retreat.
"Jesus! This is way more intense than I remember!" Aaron said to himself as he and everyone else ran across the stone bridge. "Wait, where is t-OH MY GOD!"
Off to his left, Aaron came face to face with the diving nevermore, the grimm coming right for them. He didn't get any time to react before it crashed headfirst into the bridge, flinging people off in every direction. Everyone thankfully landed either back on the bridge that now stood destroyed in the middle and separated, or luckily flung right over the deathstalker and back into the valley like Aaron and his group was.
Claude was the first to reorient himself from the fall as he turned to face the deathstalker's behind, pistols drawn. Veronica and Aqua were quick to follow, each with their ranged weapons at the ready. Aaron was the only one without a weapon and naturally took a step back in fear.
But before anyone could attack however, there was once again a mighty howl with many more following. Each of the four slowly turned around to see a giant grimm horde barreling down the ruined parade route towards them.
"This isn't good." Claude grimly commented as he eyed the pack.
"That's a lot of grimm. That's a lot of grimm. That is definitely a lot of grimm." Aqua repeated as the horde only kept growing in size.
Veronica took a step forward with her sword raised and eyes locked on the horde, "Aaron, you're gonna need to watch our backs. Claude, Aqua, we buy the others as much time as possible."
"Right."
"Okay." Aqua said with a big breath in and out. She raised her shotgun and continued with confidence, "Let's do this!"
Aaron could only blankly stare at these three who were risking their lives, ready to charge into the biggest horde of grimm they will see until the breach. They stood resolute before the charging army of darkness. Standing not as mere kids or students, but true huntsmen and huntresses who will fight to the very end. By god, if that isn't inspirational, he doesn't know what is. Aaron knew he messed with the timeline in ways he didn't know already, the grimm horde would attest to that, so what's a little more messing about in the grand scheme of things anyway. He'd make sure these three would make it through this fight by any means necessary.
With a conviction to see this through, Aaron joined just behind the three, ready for the fight of his life. "You all saved me already, it's about time I return the favor. Whatever happens in there, I'll see it."
Though hidden away from him, a soft smile appeared on Veronica's face while the other two grew grins of fierce anticipation. The four stood together, ready to take on the darkness and whatever else will be thrown their way.
"Good." Veronica said, the grimm getting ever closer "Wait until they're in range then give them hell."
(For context, this is the point where the Red Like Roses instruments kick in, in the actual show)
The sound of reloading filled the air as the three fighters made their last adjustments. With the future team RWBY about to face the Nevermore, team JNPR fighting the Deathstalker and now Aaron's group taking on a horde of Beowolfs, the time is now to become the hunters of the future.
"FIRE!" Veronica yelled as she, Claude and Aqua let out a torrent of lead and Dust.
The sound of battle returned in earnest as grimm fell by the trigger pull. The grimm so numerous that one didn't even need to aim to kill something. But the creatures of darkness were persistent, with every beowolf killed, another takes its place in the horde. The explosive power the three were producing created a wall of destruction, slowing the grimm advance.
At this point the horde wasn't but fifty meters away and Veronica was slightly on edge. A crucial decision made , she stopped firing and shifted her gun back to its sword form.
"COVER ME!" She yelled before charging into the fray.
To say the others were surprised would be an understatement. Their de facto leader running straight into the middle of a grimm horde, it was madness. The two remaining shooters stopped firing for a second and Aaron was absolutely floored, each stopped to see if their eyes deceived them. They did not.
"Dammit!" Claude cursed and began firing even more rounds. Aqua followed suit and loaded some Fire Dust shells into the barrels of her shotgun with a worried look on her face.
As covering fire rained and burned away the grimm, Veronica Vertile began to make quick work of the unlucky grimm that dared to defy her blade. First contact was a gruesome endeavor to Aaron as he saw her run in and slice into one of the beowolf's arms followed fluidly by a deep cut into its neck. Before the beast's carcass even hit the ground, she was onto the next closest grimm. With the skills of a seasoned veteran, she fought the horde. She was fast. She was efficient. She was killing everything that crossed her path in an instant.
Claude kept firing into the crowd that was starting to encompass Veronica. The one downside to his dual pistols in combat like this was that he was constantly reloading. He'd gotten it down to a science to be sure and was able to get a new clip ready, transferred and locked in under two and a half seconds. This was what he was doing constantly, firing one and reloading the other. Effectively, he was only firing one pistol constantly which, while impressive to someone like Aaron, wasn't enough.
The grimm continued to advance and were slowly making their way around the small circle Veronica had carved out for herself. The sides being pelted and destroyed by Claude and Aqua.
"Aqua, you take the left, I'll take the right." Claude said before walking forward and off to the side.
"NOT YOU TOO! ARGH!" Aqua cried out after him followed by a defeated sigh as she and Aaron were left between the horde and the deathstalker. "Hey Aaron?"
"Y-yeah."
"Keep watching out for us."
"Sure- wait WHAT?!"
Before Aaron could even comprehend what she said, Aqua was already running off into her designated section of grimm. For the blue haired teen, she decided on having a bit of electric fun. Shotgun shifted to polearm as she ran while getting a lightning Dust crystal ready. Weapon fully extended and grimm fast approaching, Aqua placed the crystal into its slot causing her blade to spark and glow with arcing yellow electricity.
With a forward thrust, Aqua stabbed the closest beowolf which howled in despair for not just the wound but for the electricity that was now arcing around it. As the excruciating howls continued, the bolt of lightning found its next target, hopping to the next nearest beowolf, then next one, then the next one. Soon thirty beowolfs were dead and the howls of anguish were all that remained of the charred and slightly twitching, evaporating corpses. Even though she had utterly obliterated a sizable chunk of the horde, more still came and Aqua, along with the others, charged to meet.
All except for Aaron. He mostly stood in shock at what he had just witnessed. Aqua had just annihilated the grimm's entire left flank, Veronica was fighting off the centre of the horde with ease and Claude was fighting in close quarters combat by expertly shifting between his pistol and knife form of his weapons. Each of them were cleaning house with the seemingly never ending wave of grimm which brought one question to the boy's mind. WHERE THE HELL IN THE SHOW WERE THEY!? Teams RWBY and JNPR are considered some of the best first years of Beacon and yet these three are matching them easily.
Were he not in an active war zone, Aaron would have put more thought into the question. For now though, he still had to make sure that within this rampage of hunters and grimm, nothing snuck up on the trio.
It wasn't something pressing as, once again, they were fighting back hard. After Aqua's massive electrical attack, she began making her way towards Veronica. For the girl in green, she was fending off the now circle of grimm with ruthless efficiency. Her blade swept through the chest of a beowolf, sliced through the paw of another and decapitated a third, all in a single motion. It was like a well practiced dance to her. Step forward, swing, step back, deflect, each move well thought out yet instinctual. She had fought the grimm before and would not let them win. Not again.
A blast of high pressure wind launched a number of beowolfs away just off of Veronica's left and before she could react, Aqua was blasting even more of the grimm horde away. As soon as their eyes connected, the pair rushed together, back to back against the to fight the pack of grimm. The pair began unloading everything they had. Aqua with her shotgun firing incendiary fire Dust shells and Veronica with her sword split open, shooting away in earnest.
As the duo distracted most of the grimm, Claude took this blessed opportunity and let loose on the grimm wolf pack. A long knife in each hand, the golden boy charged at a grimm with its back towards him. A slash to the leg took the beowolf off balance and another strike to the neck finished it off. Right as he was about to turn around, another beowolf managed to crash into him. This sent Claude back and into the grimm crowd. Luckily for him, his grip on his knives held as he took out two more beowolfs before he tumbled into a clearing. A clearing that just so happened to have Aqua and Veronica at its centre.
"Claude! Are you okay?!" Aqua asked in concern, releasing another round of explosive fire towards the horde in the process.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Claude responded as he slowly rose to his feet. He held his head which throbbed slightly as he pushed himself up. Knives turning to pistols as he rose. "Aura took a hit though."
"Good to hear." Veronica commented, firing at any grimm that got too close, "We still have a lot of grimm left."
The three in the circle each had each other's back as they continued to fire against the ever growing mound of decaying corpses. The scales were now starting to tip as the grimm advance was being slowly pushed back.
"Claude, Aqua, I've got an idea to end this." Veronica, while firing still, called.
"What's the plan?" Claude quickly questioned as he finished reloading and resumed firing.
"Aqua, you got another one of those electric attacks ready?" Veronica asked, shouting over the constant gunfire.
"Electric, ice, fire, I've got you covered." Said girl replied.
"Even better. Claude, how conductive are your knives?"
"Very. Again, what's the plan here?"
"Good. On my count, you're gonna need to toss one of knives high in the air. Aqua, you'll need to get that electric attack ready and throw your spear into the knife."
"We're going to need something to activate the Dust." Aqua countered but could start to see the plan.
"An Aura powered round should do it." Veronica theorized.
"We'll be defenseless to that and the grimm." Pointed out Claude.
"I've got that covered." Veronica stated.
The other two were hesitant but nodded in acceptance nonetheless. With the plan now set, the trio had to find the right moment to strike. This would be a devastating attack and the three knew it, both to the grimm and themselves if they're not careful. If by coincidence, behind them a massive roar cut through the valley from the Nevermore team RWBY was dealing with. This was their moment.
"NOW!"
As planned, Claude shifted one of his pistols into its knife form and tossed it into the air. The blade spun in the sky giving Aqua her target. With another lightning Dust crystal added she hurled her spear skyward as hard as she could. A metallic ring came from the two colliding weapons as Veronica turned to the sky with her open rifle raised.
A single Aura reinforced bullet blasted out of the barrel of the gun and through the middle of the sword. The crack loud and the bang massive, the bullet impacted the hilt of Aqua's spear. The force of the impact traveled up the pole, up until it reached the Dust. With the instantaneous Aura keeping the three weapons from disintegrating, the crystal triggered with power. An arc of pure white electricity jumped from the tip of the polearm's blade into the pistol turned knife. Once the electricity reached the spinning knife, it created a massive electric explosion that engulfed the three and all the grimm around them.
On the outside of it all, Aaron could only watch in wide eyed horror as the three disappeared in a ball of pure energy. The sphere lingered for what felt like an eternity. One second, two seconds. Nothing. Three seconds, four seconds. The wind blew softly as the sound of battle raged behind him. Five seconds, six seconds. The ball was now shrinking. Seven seconds, eight seconds. The grimm were now gone. Nine seconds, ten. On the ground, Veronica, Claude and Aqua laid. Horror turned to relieved shock as he began to see them rise.
"Ow. Okay that hurt." Claude winced as he cracked his back back.
"D-Did we do it?" Aqua cautiously asked, slowly sitting up in the process.
"I-I think so." Veronica said in relief as there was no more grimm coming from the forest. In shock she muttered, "I can't believe that actually worked."
"What was that?"
"Nothi-"
GRAWWWWWW-AHWOO!
The trio quickly turned around to come face to face with an Alpha beowolf that somehow snuck up on them. The three quickly reacted by pulling their weapons out but the grimm seemed to be frozen in place. Suddenly, a pointed stick burst through the grimm's chest, scaring the three into firing sporadically at the grimm.
A moment later and the grimm fell to the ground dead. Behind the decaying corpse stood an absolutely horrified Aaron with the random, sharpened branch in hand. The four just stared at each other, unsure of how to process everything all while Ruby ran up the side of the cliff behind Aaron and decapitated the nevermore her and her team was fighting. Aaron then fell to his knees and the others quickly came to his aid.
The other members of their large group stared at the feat that Ruby had just accomplished.
All that was uttered was a single "Wow." from Jaune at the sight.
"HEY!" The members of team JNPR heard from behind them.
A ways away, the four of them turned to see Aqua quickly running towards them with Veronica and Claude helping along an unresponsive and once again catatonic Aaron.
"Oh my- What happened?!" Pyrrha asked, quickly running towards them with everyone else, sans team RWBY.
"Saved our lives." Claude bluntly responded as the two groups met. "Stopped an alpha beowolf from tearing into us."
"Oooh! Did he break its legs!" Nora questioned with a maniacal grin as the rest of her companions had looks of surprise.
"Stabbed it through the chest actually." Aqua corrected her with a stabbing motion.
"What happened to him then?" Ren inquired at the sight of the three's unconscious saviour.
"I think he went into shock." Veronica theorized. It was a reasonable assumption to make with what she heard Aaron say, on top of fighting off an alpha. "Everything just now caught up with him."
"So… How are we gonna get him up there?" Jaune asked to which no one had an answer.
Luckily for the seven, once they regrouped with the members of team RWBY, they were able to all get up to the top of the cliff. It took some time to find an actual way up but soon they did. Aaron awoke some time afterwards, during the trip back to Beacon and was bombarded with questions he deflected with the excuse of shaken tiredness.
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, the Earth native was able to avoid Ozpin throughout the entire trip while the rest of the twelve man group led the way into a large auditorium. It just so happened that this was where the teams were to be officially made.
Aaron was standing in the back with the rest of RWBY, JNPR and the other three people he was with. They insisted on Aaron coming along after it was apparent he was fully lucid and they wouldn't take his protests to being a part of the ceremony as an answer. He was still completely unaware of some of the others, mostly Veronica's curiosity to see what would happen.
It was now here that Aaron got his first real look at the ancient wizard as he gave a short speech before moving on with creating the teams for the year. Like he expected, there were actually a few more teams than those who were seen in the show with Aqua, Claude and Veronica being just a few of the people not mentioned at all. Soon it got to the point portrayed in the show.
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark." Ozpin said as the mentioned boys stepped onto the stage. "The four of you have retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team CRDL (Cardinal), lead by Cardin Winchester."
Aaron took another mental tally that things seemed to be going as they should. Next in line should be team JNPR and looking to his side he could see the four of them being ushered forward.
As soon as the clapping for team CRDL died down, Ozpin continued, "Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will be working together as team JNPR (Juniper), lead by… Jaune Arc."
That's two Aaron thought as next should be team RWBY. As he kept watching, Veronica glanced over to him as she, Claude and Aqua were having an… Existential discussion. With Aaron focused on the proceedings, he could share the laugh with the rest of the audience as Jaune was given his leading role and a playful punch from Pyrrha.
"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as…"
For a presentation that was copy and pasted for everyone and knowing what was to come, Aaron muttered along with Ozpin's next words.
"Team RWBY (Ruby)."
And that's three for three Aaron thought with a smile. Maybe he can still change things for the better with his knowledge.
"Led by Ruby Rose."
"I'm so proud of you!" Yang cheered loud enough to make it over the clapping of the crowd.
Aaron's smile grew more as he now knew with certainty that his knowledge would be up to date to do most ever he pleases. Turning to leave, Aaron now had everything he needed to start making cha-
"Lastly." Ozpin abruptly cut into Aaron's internal monologue. "Veronica Vertile, Aqua Revarius, Claude Goldenrod and Aaron."
Aaron stopped in his tracks when Ozpin said his name. Slowly turning back around he came face to face with an Ozpin that, along with nearly everyone else in the auditorium once they all saw where the headmaster was looking, was staring directly at him. Walking up to the stage, Veronica looked backed to him as well and caught his eye. Her face was masked with a look of commanding thoughtfulness, an expression that Aaron could discern the meaning of, saying that he needed to come on stage with them for reasons she was trying to figure out. A forward nod of her head was all it took for Aaron to be persuaded to join the rest of this group on stage.
Aaron was hesitant about what was going on, he was nervous as to what this means for him, but most of all, he was curious. Curious as to why, in all his apparent years of wisdom, Ozpin was having him come up to the stage in ways that would mean he was now part of a team. Curious as to why, step after step, he himself raised himself onto the stage. Curious as to what Ozpin's new endgame with him actually is. He shouldn't be here and now Ozpin has felt him important enough to keep around. All in all, Aaron was too caught up in his thoughts that he nearly missed the looks he was being given, by those in the audience, those next to him, and lastly the look Ozpin gave him.
The headmaster gave a curious glance toward this mysterious boy but nonetheless continued, "You four have retrieved the white pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... team VAGR (Vanguard), lead by Veronica Vertile."
Aaron remained silently surprised, mostly due to the fact that yes, he was now on a Beacon team and yes, the plot was coming to him and yes, he had just been handed the necessary resources to change the course of Remnant's history to however he saw fit. All he had to do now was avoid Ozpin's and anyone else's suspicion.
Ozpin for himself was keeping, and would keep, a close eye on this mysterious boy who had somehow shown up in the middle of initiation without anything to his name. "Looks like things are shaping up to be an… Interesting year."
The following ceremonies after that were a rather forgetful set of affairs all things considered. There were a few speeches from the teachers and some older students, a brief overview of school grounds and expectations for the coming year. After that, the teams were assigned and dismissed to their new dorms. With Aaron and the rest of the newly formed team VAGR, they found themselves coincidentally right down the hall from the RWBY/JNPR rooms.
Opening the door revealed what Aaron expected from his memory. Four beds were set against the outer wall with a window directly across from where the four stood now. As the four entered Aaron got a view of more of the details that either weren't shown or glanced over in the show. Against the hallway wall and opposite of each bed was a modest sized desk with some bare essentials scattered about. To the left, there was a good sized bathroom, enough for four people and to the right there was a small kitchenette. Likely where JNPR got their local pancakes from, courtesy of Ren of course.
All in all, it was a decent room in Aaron's opinion and already much more lively than what the shows were able to show. With everything that Beacon provided and what Veronica, Claude and Aqua brought, there was no wonder as to how RWBY initially had troubles with their room.
"Hey Aaron." The slightly shaking voice of Claude asked.
Aaron turned away from his self guided tour to see the rest of his new team standing by the door, each of them had their own apprehensive looks of indecisive fear.
"Yeah?... What's wrong?" Aaron nervously asked as he could tell something was definitely wrong.
"Please don't accuse us or anything, this, we've all seen something wrong, and we just, I don't know how, you, It's impossible, but, everything, fictional, I don't know…" Aqua said, nervously trying to ease everyone, including herself into the coming conclusion. Aaron began getting nervous, unsure where this was going
"What?..." Aaron softly asked, taking a step back out of instinct. Their tone was too remorseful and body language full of guilt with on the sleeve feelings of betrayal for anything good to come from it.
"What we're all trying to say is…" Veronica started, taking the lead before a deep breath of self reassurance. "We're in some fictional show, RWBY, aren't we?"
CLIFF HANGER! Oh man the secret is out and all of Vanguard knows. For any of those wondering, this is the catalyst to the main story which is why this reveal is so early on. So now Aaron has to navigate this delicate situation and decide how to proceed.
Hopefully I left enough clues for this to be somewhat expected but not to obvious as to ruin the reveal in its entirety. As we come closer to the end of this introductory arc, I hope I've been making a compelling story that is enjoyable to read. Like I said in the first chapter, characters are not my forte so with the end of this chapter and the next, I hope I can do good with them. Hopefully each of them has discernable personalities that are engaging to you. You wouldn't be this far otherwise.
For the initiation, how did you guys like that? The fight came with the music which hopefully worked for you guy. Lastly, the main question Aaron, and I assume you have about the rest of VAGR will be answered next chapter as the fallout of this revelation is realized.
Fav, follow, and review as I want to see how you guys are liking this. With that said, until next time.