Why hello again, glad to see that you all stuck around for the next chapter. So just going to answer some questions before we dive in. ZXAdvent:- Yes, things will certainly be chaotic with not one, but two new players in the game. And whilst Cinder may try something with the Reaper, don't expect it to go according to plan. After all, Reaper has no allegiance. OutlastTheDark:- The Overwatch characters were born on Remnant and will have a semblance. Reaper's, if you hadn't guessed already, is teleportation or as I like to call it, Shadow-Walking. Still thinking about our friend from the last chapter though so if any suggestions, feel free to comment. Now, on with the show!

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Chapter 3- The Vow

One week before the Tournament….

"Combat Droid's online!" a computerised female voice announced as four skeletal like robots entered the sparring arena. Ruby loaded Crescent Rose with a fresh magazine which resounded with a satisfying click. She turned to face the rest of her team to see if they were as ready as she was. Weiss had already assumed a combat stance with Myrtenaster pointed at the row of robots, Blake was standing with her knees bent slightly in preparation for a lunge whilst her sister, Yang, was in a boxer stance as she pointed Ember Cilica at the robots. Ruby turned to face their adversaries, analysing them for any possible weaknesses.

Each Droid was equipped with a separate weapon to fully replicate a team within the Vytal Tournament. The first one was equipped with a crude scimitar and a spiked shield that also functioned as a hand cannon. The second was wielding an energy staff that judging from the scope attached to the centre, also functioned as a sniper. The third was armed with a pair of Rondels that seemed to function as pistols whilst the last was wielding a large hammer that seemed to function as a Gatling gun. Ruby then looked to the stands where Team JNPR were watching, a control panel that decided the difficulty of the fight in front of them.

"YOU GUYS READY?" Jaune shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. Team RWBY simply nodded in response, causing Jaune to press a few buttons on the control panel.

"Difficulty level set to- Medium!" the voice from earlier announced as the four Droids entered a combat stance. "Match beginning in...5...4...3...2..."

"See you all on the other side." Yang said, a mischievous grin on her face as she set her eyes on the Droid with the hammer.

"...One...Begin!"

The sparring arena was filled to the brim with action almost immediately. Hand-Cannon and Stabby, as Ruby had decided to call them, charged forward whilst Hammer-Bro and Snipes stayed at the rear, firing from afar.

Ruby fired round after round from Crescent Rose at Hand-Cannon, who easily blocked the shots with his...or its to be more precise...shield. When the Droid began to get too close for comfort, Ruby changed Crescent Rose into its Scythe form and swung at the Droids feet, Hand-Cannon barely side stepping the swipe before it delivered an overhead strike which Ruby was quick to block. Hand-Cannon then swung forward with its shield, batting Ruby back with a large amount of force. It then pointed the shield at Ruby, the barrel of the hidden cannon whirling to life as a large amount of energy was being powered into it.

Ruby was quick to use her semblance to dodge the incoming projectile, though she could feel the heat coming off the projectile as it zoomed past her. The weapon still trained on her, the Droid prepared to fire yet another projectile at Ruby. Before the weapon could fully charge however, Ruby used her semblance to dash into the Droid, shoulder barging it as she flew past causing the Droid to stumble and fire the shot into the roof, a large amount of dust and debris falling from the centre of impact. Ruby took the time for the Droid to recover to take a glance at the rest of her team.

Weiss was fighting toe to toe with Stabby, both combatants matching each other on speed and precision. Yang had already closed the gap between her and Hammer-Bro, using her speed to her advantage as she pummelled the slower droid. Blake meanwhile, was forced to fight from afar using her semblance and Gambol Shroud to do battle with Snipes, who was firing with lethal accuracy at Blake.

"Yang! Blake!" Ruby shouted, causing the blonde brawler and faunus to turn towards Ruby. "Switch!" Ruby ordered, the two huntresses nodding in acknowledgement.

Yang sprinted towards Snipes, who now had its sights trained on her, firing round after round at Yang who merely sidestepped each and every one. Blake then turned her attention towards Hammer-Bro, rushing forward whilst dodging the spray of bullets coming out of the Gatling Gun.

Ruby then turned around, only to get a shield to the face as Hand-Cannon had fully recovered, sending her spiralling into Weiss, knocking the two huntresses over.

"Watch where you're going!" Weiss scolded, brushing dust off her jacket as she pointed Myrtenaster at Stabby, who was now flanked by Hand-Cannon.

"Sorry!" Ruby hastily replied as she brought Crescent Rose up to defend herself from any possible attack. "Okay, new plan of attack! You take Hand-Cannon while I go for Stabby!" Ruby said, pointing Crescent Rose at Stabby who was now slowly edging towards the two huntresses.

"Right...wait, what?" Weiss asked, clearly unaware of Ruby's pet names for the Droids.

"Just hit the one with the shield..." Ruby sighed as Weiss nodded in realisation.

Ruby then sprung towards Stabby, using her semblance to seemingly create a tornado of rose petals and metal, forcing Stabby to step back as it fired shots from its weapons pistol forms, each round seemingly being sucked into the vortex. Weiss summoned a ring of glyphs around Hand-Cannon, who merely looked around in confusion at their sudden appearance. Weiss then dashed forward in a flurry of ice and steel, resounding off the glyphs as she dashed into Hand-Cannon multiple times. The Droid stumbled at each blow as sparks of electricity danced along it's form, indicating its shields were critical. Weiss placed a final ice glyph under Hand-Cannon's feet, the glyph triggering almost immediately as what was left of its broken body was entombed in ice. Weiss smiled at her handiwork as she turned to face Ruby.

Ruby had successfully managed to herd Stabby into the edge of the arena wall, having managed to keep the tornado up for a considerable amount of time. With nowhere else to go, Stabby was sucked into the vortex as sparks and Droid parts soon became part of the tornado. After a considerable amount of time, Ruby turned to a standstill, Stabby's body parts flying towards the wall where they shattered into even smaller fragments.

"Now that...was...awesome..." Ruby managed to say between breaths as she nearly stumbled forward in exhaustion. Weiss immediately caught her as Ruby came close to passing out, slumping over Weiss and nearly knocking her over.

"Promise me you won't do that again." Weiss demanded as she shoved Ruby off her, who nearly collapsed yet again.

"Sorry..." Ruby nervously chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Hey! A little help over here would be nice!" Yang shouted as she continued to do battled with Snipes. Ruby and Weiss rushed towards their team-mates as the two huntresses continued to battle.

Whilst the switch had benefited Blake greatly, who was nearly finished with Hammer-Bro, the change had been less then beneficial for Yang who was struggling to keep up with the far faster Snipes. So far, Snipes had managed to parry or dodge most of Yang's strikes, even getting a few of its own on her. As Yang swung at Snipes, the Droid not only dodged the blow, but also managed to lock its staff behind her back and between her right arm, effectively trapping her. It then delivered a head-but to the blonde brawler, releasing its lock at the same time, causing her to stumble and fall over.

She immediately recovered, her eyes glowing red with rage as she charged the Droid. Snipes immediately swung its Staff in an upwards arc, dragging Yangs fists to the floor before it followed through with an uppercut with the Staff, sending Yang flying into Blake as she prepared to deliver a finishing blow onto Hammer-Bro. Snipes then shifted the weapon into its Sniper form as it took aim at the downed Yang. Almost immediately, a round fired into the weapon, causing the shot to hit the floor instead. Snipes turned to see Ruby holding Crescent Rose, smoke pouring out the barrel as Weiss stood by her side, Myrtenaster at the ready.

"Over here you bag of rust!" Ruby shouted, taunting the Droid as she spoke.

Snipes would not be deterred however, and shifted the weapon from its Sniper form into its Staff form, ready to finish Yang off. Yang jumped at the opportunity and charged forward with equal vigour as Blake resumed her battle with Hammer-Bro, who was now fighting with renewed energy.

"Help Yang, I've got Blake's back!" Ruby ordered as she took aim at the hammer wielding Droid, to which Weiss happily obliged, dashing forward to do battle with Snipes.

Ruby took aim at Hammer-Bro and fired a shot at the Droids leg, crippling it immediately. With a quick swing, Blake was quick to decapitate the Droid, its head bouncing along the floor as sparks pulsed out of its neck. Blake and Ruby then turned their attention to Yang and Weiss, to see how their fight was progressing.

Yang and Snipes were interlocked with one another, both hands grasped on the Staff as neither one made an attempt to move in fear of losing their footing, resorting to using their upper body strength instead. Weiss placed a fire glyph behind Snipes, which Yang was quick to spot. She dragged the Staff to the right, causing Snipes to twist awkwardly in the direction of the tug, readjusting its footing to accommodate for the unnatural turn. Yang used this as her chance and then forced the Staff upwards, the butt of the weapon hitting Snipes in the chin and causing it to lose both its grip on the Staff and its footing as it stumbled into Weiss' fire glyph. Upon stepping on the glyph, it detonated in a torrent of flame, causing Snipes to fly back towards Yang, who swung the Staff like a bat, causing the Droid to spin uncontrollably towards Ruby, who with a single swipe, severed the Droid in two, finally defeating it.

"Round over, Team RWBY wins!" the disembodied voice announced, causing Team JNPR to applaud their friends, who simply cheered in response to their victory.

"Nice work, a little rusty, but I'm sure you'll be better by the Tournament." Pyrrha said, nodding her head as she spoke.

"It would have been better with MORE EXPLOSIONS!" Nora shouted, flailing her arms wildly as Ren simply sighed and shook his head.

"You think you can do better?" Yang asked, a smirk appearing on her face.

"YES!" Nora shouted before even Jaune could respond.

"All right then, here's how it's going to go down." Yang said as she crossed her arms. "Whoever beats the Droids in the faster time, wins. The losing team then has to do the winning teams Homework for a week, deal?"

Team JNPR discussed amongst one another for a few seconds before Jaune stepped forward, coughing into his hand before speaking.

"All right, you have a deal!" Jaune announced, his confident composure a stark contrast to how he was actually feeling, which was absolutely terrified.

"Great, how long did we take?" Ruby asked, tilting her head slightly as she spoke.

"Lets see..." Pyrrha responded as she swiped some commands on the control panel before them. "...five minutes and seven seconds." Pyrrha finally announced, a confident grin on her face.

"Okay then, let's do this!" Ruby shouted, jumping in the air slightly.

After a few minutes of switching, arming themselves and cleaning the arena floor, Team JNPR were ready. Yang pressed a few commands on the control panel as she let the system decide the rest.

"Combat Droids, online!" the robotic voice repeated, as four new Droids entered the arena. The Droids were armed with a new set of armaments; one with a pair of Pata that doubled as a wrist mounted Shotgun, another with a Warglaive that seemed to double as a Bow, another with a Cutlass that doubled as a Sub-Machine Gun and the last with a Spear that doubled as a Flintlock Rifle.

"Difficulty level set to-Medium!" the voice announced as both teams readied themselves for battle. "Match beginning in...5...4...3..."

Jaune and Pyrrha readied themselves as they raised their shields in defence. Nora swung Magnhild wildly as a mischievous grin spread across her face whilst Ren simply stood still, blocking out all other distractions around him.

"...2...1...Begin!"

Team JNPR charged at the Droids, who charged forward as well, raising their weapons in defence. Team JNPR swung their weapons at the Droids, who jumped back in unison and...just stood still. Team JNPR looked in confusion at the Droids, who merely stood still, not making a move to either attack or defend. Yang looked in confusion at the control panel, the device not responding to her commands.

"What the..." Yang quietly said, attempting to reset the control panel, but to no avail.

Almost immediately, a loud buzzing noise emanated from one of the many loudspeakers throughout the school.

"Attention, will all students please make their way to the Great Hall immediately!" Glynda Goodwitch's voice announced over the loudspeakers before turning silent.

"That's weird, wonder what it's about?" Ruby asked, raising an eyebrow as she and the rest of her team along side JNPR made their way to the Great Hall.

"Dunno, maybe it's about the Tournament? You know, reminding us of the rules and what not." Yang suggested, shrugging her shoulders as she spoke.

"Maybe, or maybe it's to do with those murders." Blake countered, turning to face Yang as she spoke. "Reminding us to stay safe."

Yang merely grunted in response as both teams entered the Great Hall. Nearly every single student was present in the Hall; first years, second years, third years, even those from the other Huntsman Academies were present. All students mumbled amongst one another as they awaited for whatever the announcement was. All eyes turned towards the main stadium as the sound of footsteps echoed across the room. Ozpin made his way towards the front of the stage, walking stick in hand, as he approached the microphone that had been placed there earlier. Even from the back of the room, RWBY and JNPR could tell there was a hidden sadness in his face. The student deaths had certainly hit him hard, especially considering that they were his charge to protect.

"Students, thank you all for coming on such short notice." Ozpin announced, pushing his glasses up back onto the bridge of his nose. "As I am sure all of you are aware, the Vytal Festival is just on the horizon and with it, the Tournament." Ozpin paused for a second to let the news settle in as multiple students began cheering. "However, a very serious threat has made it's presence known. I'm sure you have all heard the stories of this 'Vale Reaper' and the chaos he has sown."

"Guess Blake was right, it was about the murderer." Ruby whispered before Weiss sent a glare at her, telling her to be quiet as Ozpin continued his speech.

"It is for this reason, that with great regret, that the ruling council have decided to postpone the Tournament, until this mad-man has been caught!"

The uproar was immediate. The assembled students were wrought with confusion, disappointment and most prominently, anger. Many booed and jeered as Ozpin made his way back to his office, with other students simply leaving the Hall as they grumbled to themselves.

"Wow...that was...unexpected." Yang managed to say, having come over the initial shock of the announcement.

"I can't believe this! The Tournament cancelled?! Why this hasn't happened since...forever!" Weiss shrieked, waving her arms around erratically.

"I guess it's for our safety more than anything." Pyrrha theorised, having come over the initial shock faster than the rest of her friends.

Ruby nodded in agreement as she turned to see what Blake's opinion on it all was, only to see that the faunus hadn't even moved, her face furrowed in concern.

"Blake? You okay?" Ruby asked as she walked up to her team-mate, waving her hands in front of her face, seemingly snapping Blake out of whatever trance she was in.

"I'm sorry, I was just...thinking." Blake replied, blinking rapidly as she brought herself back to reality.

"Is something wrong?" Jaune asked, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.

"It's just...this all seems suspicious. Like a coincidence." Blake replied as she walked with her friends back to their respective dorms.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, having come over her rage from earlier.

"I think the White Fang might be involved with the murders." Blake announced, confusing everyone present.

"That's a big jump from one individual to an entire organisation." Ren replied, the others nodding in agreement.

"We never thought the White Fang would work for a racist like Torchwick, but we were wrong about that as well." Blake retorted, causing everyone to consider the unusual partnership. "Besides, it isn't unnatural for a skilled lone operative to carry out missions meant for a large squad."

"That...does make sense I suppose..." Ren replied, having failed to account for lone wolf operatives.

"Whoever it is, I'm going to find out just who it is." Blake said, turning to enter Team RWBY's dorm, only for Yang to grab her arm.

"Hey, you're not doing this on your own. We got your back!" Yang stated, a grin appearing on her face as Ruby and Weiss nodded in agreement.

"You can count on us too!" Jaune also said, giving a thumbs up as Pyrrha and Ren nodded.

"We'll break his legs!" Nora shouted as she jumped around wildly. Blake smiled and nodded in acknowledgement of her friends volunteering.

"Regardless of who it is, we should look into his victims first. Get an idea of what his pattern is." Ren stated, choosing the more logical action.

"Agreed, we'll start tomorrow before first lessons." Blake said, receiving a large amount of approving nods.

With the decision out of the way, Team RWBY and JNPR entered their respective dorms as they planned for their investigation tomorrow.

"Whoever it is," Yang said as she cracked her knuckles before continuing. "I bet they didn't count on us!"

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Down-town Vale…

Reaper waited in the shadows as he watched the hunter team bicker amongst themselves over the Vytal Tournament cancellation.

'Everything is going according to plan…' Reaper thought to himself, the sadistic grin on his face hidden by his mask. He continued to watch as the team planned amongst themselves, hiding from the busy streets of Vale in an abandoned Warehouse as they seemed to formulate a plan on catching him.

'What fools they must be, if they think they can stand against me.' Reaper thought, his hand reaching for one of his trademark shotgun's attached to his waist. It was similar in design to his old weapon, Hellfire's Wrath, yet the weapon was faster, stronger and cruder than before. Now known as Death's Vice, his new weapon's were his signature weapon. Unfortunately, the weapons were loud enough for everyone outside to hear. But it made little difference, he would just have to get his hands dirtier than usual this time.

The Tournament was cancelled, that much was clear, and would not continue until he was caught. The murders would continue and soon that fool Ozpin would enact a curfew, in order to keep the students 'safe'. Then, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. He cracked his knuckles as he rose from his hiding place, readying himself for the coming massacre.

"Your legacy will soon be dead Ozpin! All that you have dedicated your life to will be destroyed! This I vow!" Reaper whispered as he braced himself for a jump.

"But until then, time to reap!" Reaper finally said, as he jumped down from his hiding place, black mist erupting around him as he glided to the centre of the group…

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Hope you liked that chapter. But why does the Reaper hate Ozpin so much? You'll find out soon. And when I say soon, I mean Blizzard soon. If you liked the chapter, feel free to leave a review and constructive criticism is always welcome. Any question? Either leave in a review or PM me.

Raging Archon out.