Chapter 7: A Inquisitor's Intro To Remnant, Part II

AN: This one's gonna be pretty long. That's all I gotta say.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

"I hope you realize that your actions today will not be taken lightly, children! You put yourselves and others in grave danger." the blonde woman lectured them.

Hadrian stared at her, unmoved. "I am not a child, woman." he stated, his frustration mounting every moment he was stuck next to the irritating element that the Force somehow willed him to keep following.

"They started it!" the red haired girl shouted.

"Are we allowed an attorney, or are you just going to lecture us the entire night?" Hadrian asked.

The blonde woman clearly didn't appreciate his remarks, if the small tightening of her hands on her riding crop was any indication.

"If it were up to me, you'd both be sent home with a pat on the back… and a slap on the wrist" the blond woman stated, bringing her riding crop on the table. At this, the girl made some small noise and leaned back. Hadrian could only scoff. The blonde woman was putting up a brave face, but no one could lie to the Force. And the Force was telling Hadrian that she feared him, whether it was for all the people he had killed tonight or the power he unleashed, however, was something he still did not know.

"But...there is someone here who would like to meet you."

As she walked away, a grey haired man in glasses came into the room, holding cookies and some kind of beverage in a cup.

"Ruby Rose. You...have silver eyes." the man stated.

Totally not creepy at all, no sir. Just a very old man making a questionable comment towards a minor, after all.

The man turned to him next. "And you. Who are you?"

Hadrian chuckled. "Nox."

The man frowned. "That's...not a name."

"It's mine. Either accept it, or don't. It makes no difference to me."

"Hmm." the man said, looking over the Sith Lord with a critical eye. He turned to Ruby.

"So! Where did you learn to do this?" the man asked, showing off a video of the girl flipping and spinning around with her scythe.

"S-Signal Academy." Ruby replied

Hadrian tuned himself out of the conversation. Out of curiosity, he tried to probe into the old man's mind. The moment he tried it, though, Hadrian felt as if he'd hit a brick wall at high speed. He cringed in pain. What the hell were the old man's mental shields made of?! Was he a Jedi?!

Hadrian calmed himself down. If the old man was a Jedi, then he would have, at the very least, separated him from the girl. Jedi always had the predictable habit of wanting to save innocents, after all.

Frustrated, Hadrian whimsically decided to probe into Ruby's mind. However, whereas the previous probe he did into the old man felt like he had been hit by a brick wall, this one felt like it had dipped into the surface of the sun. Blinding pain struck Hadrian for just a few moments, but those few moments felt like they had lasted for minutes.

Hadrian fell down the chair, coughing. A small bit of acrid smoke rose from his body.

What the hell?! The girl's mental shields were able to harm me that much?!

"Are you alright?" the blonde woman asked, concerned. "I'm fine." Hadrian growled in response.

No wonder the Force had sent him to the girl. She was a mystery, and Hadrian liked mysteries.

Now if only said mystery could be less grating on his nerves. The sound of her huffing down the cookies in front of her were enough to make any man vomit.

"Thash muh unkul!" Ruby stated to the headmaster. Wonderful. She even talked with her mouth full.

Ruby balked, before swallowing the cookies down and wiping her lips. "Sorry, that's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal! I was complete garbage before he took me in, and now I'm all like- Hoowaaah, Witchaaaa!"

Hadrian massaged his temples. He knew teenagers could be ridiculous (he had experienced those years himself), but this was pushing it. What made the embarrassing display in front of him worse was the girl's voice, unwelcomingly drilling itself into his head.

Don't say anything. She's not worth the bother.

"So I've noticed." the old man stated, dryly. He set the beverage down, which Hadrian could now identify as coffee

Was it coffee or caf on this planet? I could never keep all the terms straight, even in my own galaxy. Maybe the third time's the charm."

"And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?" the old man asked.

Totally not creepy at all.

"Well, I want to be a Huntress." Ruby replied.

"You want to slay monsters?" the old man asked.

"Yeah!"

The girl paused. "I only have two more years of training left at Signal, and then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought 'Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!' I mean, the police are alright, but Huntsman and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting an-"

"Shut the fuck up." Hadrian growled, unable to keep himself silent any longer. "God, that was embarrassing to listen to."

Ruby glared at him. "Excuse me?"

" 'I want to help people!' Hadrian repeated back, in a parody of the girl's voice. "Where do you even get that from? I've heard it a thousand times before, and it's never true. Is there a handbook you got it out of? Am I missing out? Actually, on second thought, I'm not missing out. I'll be just fine not making those inane speeches."

Ruby's glare increased in intensity. The old man, trying to bring attention back to him, cleared his throat.

"Do you know who I am?" the old man asked.

"You're a disgusting old man who's fond of keeping children in a dungeon. Fair bit of warning, though, try imprisoning me, and I'll ensure your demise."

"What is wrong with you?!" Ruby shouted at him, mortified at what he had just said.

Hadrian merely chuckled. "If you think I'm bad, then you should meet my other personality."

Ruby turned to the old man. "You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster of Beacon. Please ignore the jerk next to me, I don't know him, I only met him today. He's not associated with me at all."

Ozpin chuckled. "It's alright, Miss Rose. I've heard worse." He cleared his throat. "Miss Rose, do you want to come to my school?"

"More than anything." Ruby replied.

Ozpin smiled. "And you?" he asked, turning to the masked Sith.

Hadrian merely laughed. "You want me to help defend weaklings from monsters?"

"Yes." Ozpin stated. Hadrian stopped laughing.

"You're serious." Hadrian remarked. In a crossroad like this, there was only one way to ensure that he made the correct decision.

"I need to use the bathroom." Hadrian stated.

A minute later, Hadrian had ensured his privacy in a bathroom stall.

Forced to meditate in a bathroom stall. Great. What other ways will the mighty Darth Nox be humbled this week?

Drawing upon the Force, Hadrian's body started to emit a red mist. Hadrian closed his eyes.

He saw a large castle in front of him. It felt both old and familiar.

He hated it.

The girl next to him just wouldn't shut up, either. That made it even worse.

"It's also a gun!"

"And I care about this because?"

The scene changed. Night had fallen.

"You're actually pretty cute with her, you know?" another girl, close to the one he had been talking with earlier.

"I am not cute, I am deadly!" he replied, indignantly. He was a Sith, dammit! He had to have some scrap of pride!

He heard a snicker in the other girl's room. A silver haired man walked out. "I don't know, I think she raises a pretty good point. You two are adorable."

The scene changed again, the clouds moving rapidly to show the progress of time.

"What's wrong?"

"You made me forget about it."

"Forget about what?"

She refused to speak to him. He sighed. ", just tell me what's wrong."

"My friends…."

"Your team?"

"No, not them. My old friends…. The gang back from _."

"What about them?"

"They're not my friends. They never were."

"What do you mean?"

She told him, then. About how her old friends had never truly cared for her. How they humored what she gave, and how her father had told her that he had seen her friends throwing her letters in the trash when he wasn't looking.

She started crying, and a foreign feeling began to worm its way into his chest.

"I try….I really do try, to be good at talking and being social. I'm nice, aren't I? But… there was something wrong with me, that made them not want to be around me….am I not funny enough? Interesting enough? Cool enough? What's wrong with me? My best friends…."

She shook her head and turned away from him.

"I'm such an idiot."

He snapped, grabbing her hood and pulling the girl towards him. Wrenching her around, he felt his arms encircle the girl.

"You're many things. Loud, irritating, obscenely naive, to name a few. Stupid isn't one of them."

The girl shifted her head to the side, trying to hide his face from him. "What's wrong with me… that I never had any friends? Am I not cute enough? Funny? Nice? I don't…"

"Shut up."

"Huh?!"

"Shut up. There's nothing wrong with you _. You're….one of the best people I've ever met, and I will not allow anyone to slander you, not even yourself."

The scene changed again. He stood in front of the school. He was ready. This was what he had been working towards the entire time he was in this cursed academy. Everyone else may have gone native, but he knew where his destiny lay, and it wasn't here.

However, as he turned to leave, the girl appeared. With a smile on her face, she asked what he was doing. Unable to properly respond (for a reason he couldn't fathom.), he allowed himself to be dragged back a few feet. Gathering his wits about him once more, he took his arm away from the girl, ignoring the hurt expression on her face.

"I have to go now, _. I don't belong here."

"W-what are you talking about? Of course you belong here! What do you mean?"

"I have to go. I was never supposed to stay here. It was always my plan to leave."

", you're not making any sense!" There was a small note of hysteria in her voice, leaving him feeling uncharacteristically guilty. "Why? Why are you leaving? What's making you go?"

"I have to leave, _"

"That's not an answer!"

Foolish girl! Why wouldn't she just leave him alone! "It's my answer. Take it or leave it. Either way, you won't stop me."

They started yelling at each other, both of them refusing to see each other's reasoning.

"Shut up! Shut up already! You can't throw this away! What am I to you, just trash?!" the girl shouted, tears running down her face.

"You're nothing!" he roared. The only thing he ever cared about was power. Not the girl, not his friends, nothing. Power was the only thing that mattered in the galaxy, it was a lesson he learned early in his life.

"That's a lie!"

"It's not! Who do you think you are, trying to argue that?! You, who is enslaved by the ideals of a dead woman?!"

"It's a lie, because it can't be true!" the girl sniffled.

"Because I lov-"

His heart stopped.

The scene changed one last time. He stood in front of the castle, taking in the beauty of the forest in front of him. He heard the soft crunch of the girl's boots on the ground.

"I was wondering where you went off to." the girl said, a smile present on her lips.

"Break enough bones, everyone tends to steer clear of you. That's why I'm the only one standing on top of this hill."

The girl giggled. "So that's why you always picked Team CRDL!"

He smiled. "Among other reasons."

The two didn't speak to each other for a few minutes. It was he who broke the silence.

"When we last spoke, before _ tried to kill you… you told me something. It was what led me to come back and forsake my own plan."

The girl hummed. "What was it?"

"When we last spoke…. You said you loved me. Was that true?"

The girl stumbled. She stuttered and blushed and did many nonsensical things. However, almost half a minute later, she gave him the answer he dreaded.

"Yes. I love you."

"Why?" he asked, a small tremor in his voice.

"I just do." she tapped her fingers together. "My dad said that we can't help choosing who we love. It's just something that...happens."

"You're making a mistake." he told her.

"No, I'm not. I've made a few mistakes before, but this isn't one of them."

In a last ditch effort, he took off his mask and turned to her. She gasped at the sight of his mangled face.

"How could you love this?!" he shouted at her. This was it, the last part of his plan to keep her away from him. If that failed as well, then he didn't know what he'd do.

He turned away from her, staring at the forest again. He felt the palm of her hand touch his face, turning him around again.

"So that's what your owner did to you." she remarked. He felt shame pooling in his stomach.

"Hideous, isn't it?"

"Nope." she said, heavily punctuating the 'p'.

"What."

"Nope."

"But-"

"Nope!"

"For god's sake! Why isn't this bothering you?! My face is literally cursed by magic! The same magic that killed your mother!"

The girl shook her head. "It doesn't bother me, because I love you."

He felt afraid. This was so new to him, so alien. How could he possibly deal with this?

"But…. if you don't feel the same way…." the girl started to turn away from him. In a flash of movement, he caught the girl's arm.

"And what if I did?"

"You...you do? But...why?"

Because in the end, despite his best efforts, he couldn't help falling for her, too. "I just do." he replied, throwing back her own reason.

She giggled. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No, just your father."

The two of them laughed. She stood there for a few moments. Spurred in the heat of the moment, he found his head lowering to meet hers.

Hadrian gasped, coughing and kneeling on the floor. He stayed there for a few moments, trying to regain his bearings.

I hate doing that.

Shaking his head, Hadrian tried his best to remember what it was that he'd seen. That was the worst part of mediation. You spent all that time looking into the future, only for the Force to immediately start wiping away your memory of what you'd seen! Racking his head for answers, Hadrian remembered that the Force showed two things.

One, that the rest of the Empire's Fury would be joining him at Beacon.

Two, whatever he was planning to do when he got to Beacon Academy, the red haired girl was involved.

His mind made up, Hadrian returned to the room.

"That was quick." Ozpin said, seeing Hadrian sit down once again.

"I accept, on one condition. That you reserve three spots in your academy for me."

"Why is that?" Ozpin asked.

"Because my friends will be coming soon, and something tells me you will appreciate their help."

Ozpin gazed at him for a few seconds, before shrugging. "Alright. And in return, do you promise to remain on your best behavior while you are here in Vale?"

"Taking all the fun out of my life already? You truly are a professor." Hadrian replied, a bit irritated.

"That wasn't a yes."

"Fine, fine. I solemnly swear that I will only be up to good while I'm in Vale. Nothing else."

The man stared at him for a few more moments. "Forgive me, but I didn't quite catch your name. I can't really put you down to enter Beacon if you can't give me your name."

Hadrian sighed. "Hadrian Kallig, old man. Best remember that. I'm not in the habit of repeating myself."

The old man sighed. "In that case, you both are free to go. Enjoy the weekend before Beacon starts."

P.O.V Switch - Ozpin

Glynda turned to Ozpin as soon as the children had left. "Why did you invite him to Beacon, Ozpin? He's insane! You saw him! He relished in those men's deaths!"

Ozpin sighed. "I know, Glynda. It's one of the reasons why I invited him to Beacon in the first place. If we keep a close eye on him in Beacon, perhaps we can reform him. He is still a child, after all."

Glynda paced around the room, concerned. "And how do we know he isn't one of her agents?"

Ozpin shook his head. "If he was, I very much doubt he would have saved Miss Rose's life twice, Glynda."

Glynda sighed. "What's the other reason?".

"Just one. Do you remember when he interrupted Miss Rose's speech? What did he say, what stuck out?" Ozpin asked.

"God? I'll admit, it is rather unusual. We tend to use the Brother's first title as our term of frustration, not their last." Glynda replied.

"All of these things paint Mister Kallig as a rather interesting character. I can't help but wonder what he and his team will achieve if they all end up in Beacon." Ozpin stated.

One thing was for certain. This year was going to be interesting.

P.O.V Switch - Ruby

As Ruby Rose started calling her sister's number on her Scroll, she heard the scrape of a chair behind her. Turning around, she saw none other than the jerk from earlier.

Ok, maybe he wasn't a jerk jerk, considering that he'd saved her life from Roman Torchwick, but still! He was bossy and mean. He seemed to enjoy pushing her buttons, and gosh darnit, she just wanted to smack him around with Crescent Rose!

Yang finally picked up after the fourth ring. "Hey, Ruby! What's up!" Yang asked.

"Um, Yang? I need a pickup. I'm in the police station." Oh crud, that sounded like she was in trouble! "I'm not in trouble! But…" Oh man, she was hoping to have at least a few days before she revealed how short on cash she was. "I may have already used up my allowance. I can't call a cab."

"Lemme guess, cookies?" Yang replied back, her tone full of her trademarked elder sibling disappointment. After pausing for a moment, Yang started yelling into the receiver. "Wait, police?! What happened? Are you hurt? Did somebody get hurt?! Is everything alright?!"

"Your sister sounds as irritating as you. I did not think that was even possible." Jerky McJerkface said, sitting right behind her.

Oh, frick this guy! Honestly!

"Shut up!" Ruby shouted at him.

Jerkface chuckled in amusement. "I will if you do it first. Sadly, that seems to be an impossibility."

Ruby whined, wanting to get as far away from Jerkface as soon as possible. "Yang, please pick me up soon! This jerk behind me is driving me crazy!"

She hung up the phone, looking for something to preoccupy her. Spotting a magazine, Ruby quickly pulled it out and began reading.

She could hear Jerkface scoff, before saying "Power.". Sneaking a peak behind her, Ruby saw Jerkface leaning forward in his chair, occupied by some kind of occult leather-bound journal.

"What's that?" she couldn't help but ask. It looked really cool!

"A journal, sealed with a password. My own creation. No one else can open it but me. That's all you need to know."

Let it be said that Ruby was never particularly good at respecting one's boundaries when she got too curious.

"What's in there?" she asked.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about, unless you want to see a visual description on how certain artifacts can turn you inside out, according to folklore." Jerkface replied back.

"Oh." Ruby returned back to her magazine. It only took a minute before she turned back at Jerkface.

"Uhm. Thanks...for saving my life." she said, quietly.

"You're welcome. Now leave me be."

After what felt like forever, the doors burst open, and both Yang and a man in a red suit came into the building.

"Ruby! I'm here!" Yang exclaimed.

Ruby jumped up and dashed to her sister in a flash of petals. "Thank Oum! I don't know how long I was gonna last in here!"

Ruby turned to see Jerkface standing up from his chair, before walking up to the man in the red suit.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was rather busy tonight." the red suited man said, looking at Jerkface.

"Don't worry about it." Jerkface replied.

The man looked bewildered, before looking left and right.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for my best friend, Hadrian Kallig. Have you seen him? About yay high, pale skinned, used to get pissed off if you were even a minute late."

"Fuck you, Sam!" Jerkface exclaimed. The red suited man merely smirked and pointed at Jerkface. "There he is!"

Jerkface laughed, honest to Brothers laughed, before coming in and hugging the man in red. The two began to walk out of the building alongside her and Yang.

P.O.V Switch - Hadrian Kallig

"So, who else have you found?" Hadrian asked.

"Well, Agetol is here, too. And since three of us are here already, there's a very good chance Ike may be on this planet as well. Hell, he might even be in Vale, considering how I met Agetol." Samael replied.

"How did you meet Agetol?"

"He just rolled down the street in a stolen vehicle. Said that he spotted me on the camera system and decided to steal an eight seater."

Hadrian snickered. "Bet he had a grand time explaining why he decided to steal an eight seater, of all things."

"Well, he did say that he had a passenger with him. A girl that he needed to keep an eye on."

"Oh, so Agetol already has a lady friend? Well, I can't blame him. He might have been going into withdrawal." Hadrian joked.

"Don't even start, Mister. 'I can't date anyone because I always read my date's mind before the first course'." Samael replied.

"Fuck off."

The blonde girl turned to Samael. "So, where are we headed now?" she asked.

Samael rubbed his eyes. "Now? It's late. I'm tired. I'm certain all of us are tired. You said that you and your sister have yet to procure a hotel room, yes?"

"Um, yeah?" the blonde woman replied.

"In that case, we will all spend the night at the place I'm staying. My room can fit Agetol and Hadrian. I can procure another room for you, your sister, and Miss Belladonna. Does that sound good?" Samael asked.

"Yeah, that sounds great! We'll manage!" the blonde woman exclaimed.

"Keep an eye on Blake, please. She tends to be very...flighty." Agetol stated, briefly turning to the blonde woman to address her.

"I do not!" Blake exclaimed.

"Yes you do." Agetol replied, sounding more annoyed than anything else.

As the group reached their destination at the Empire Hotel, Agetol, Samael, and Hadrian received another shock.

"What took you guys so long?" Ike Hunter asked them, clad in a brown leather jacket and leaning on the wall in front of the hotel.

Next Chapter; Hunter's Intro To Remnant, Part II