This is my first story, so please bear with me. It has been sometime, since I have taken a creative writing course.

This story was inspired:

By the manga Berserk, the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the visual novel Muv-Luv and the movies the Lady Shogun and Her Men and Starship Troopers. I'm not really that big of a fan of RWBY. I haven't really cared for it since season 4. Watched a few episodes of season 5 and soon dropped it.

The Fickle Hand of Fate

Prologue

Blood dripped from his neck down his back. His eyes stared ahead blankly, senses muted and dull, disregarding the aching pain in his neck, and the bone chilling bite of the night's wind as it prickled his exposed skin. Distantly, he was aware that he was sitting on a stone bench on the snow-covered grounds of Argus Memorial Park, holding a piece of wood in one hand and a knife in the other. The reason why he had come here so late at night eluded him.

It was his birthday today. His seventeenth to be precise.

Or was it his fortieth?

He didn't know which of the two was the correct one. The hospital he had been born in stated on his birth certificate that he had been born seventeen years ago. He appeared to be seventeen. His family and friends sure believed it to. Hell, random people took one look at him and treated him like a young man.

But the dreams and the sword told him otherwise.

The dreams spoke of another life, a life of pain and suffering, of betrayal and vengeance. Of fighting monsters that didn't exist, that weren't Grimm. Of friends he had lost that he had never meet. Of a life on a world that wasn't Remnant, a world where the moon was whole instead of shattered into dozens of floating pieces.

He had spent his whole life dealing with the dreams… the sword on the other hand was new.

A month before graduating from Sanctum Academy, he along with thirty of the academies top fourth year students had been selected to assist in a culling operation in the woodlands to the southeast of the city. The operation had by all counts been a fairly successful affair, sure with serious losses on their end and countless wounded. But the Grimm population in that area had been reduced to an acceptable level and should remain that way until the end of the year at least.

During the fighting his team had stopped to rest inside a deserted village whose name none knew. They had taken shelter in the first building that didn't look as if the roof would cave-in on top of them, the moment they stepped foot inside. Turns out the place had once been a blacksmiths workshop. As they searched for a comfortable spot to sit and rest that was where he found the giant heap of raw iron of a sword that had plagued his dreams.

A part of him, a very big part of him wanted to call the whole thing a coincidence and move on. A month later, he still didn't know what had possessed him to drag the sword back with him.

"Hey, Guts you alright?" He looked towards the voice. It was his friend the aspiring, huntsman Jaune Arc. His friend was a tall young man of seventeen winters, with fair skin, blond hair and dark-blue eyes. His build was quite toned, having strong muscles in his arms, shoulders, and upper chest. He wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. A white diamond-shaped chest plate cut off above his lower abdomen and placed over his shoulders were a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Below, he wore blue jeans with a white patch placed on the left knee, belt and black sneakers.

His friend was overly confidante and far too social, without a shred of doubt or hesitation he walked up to him and invaded his personal space by sitting on the same bench as him, "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night and freezing cold. "

He ignored his friend and focused on finishing his task once more.

"Huh, what's that you're making? Oh, a sword? Eehh!? I though you didn't like swords? Did you change your mind? Wait! Does that mean what Pyrrha said a month ago, about you bringing back a huge sword that you found was true?"

Slowly the branch that he had in his hands gained formed, "Pyrrha has a big mouth." The wood was soft and the carving knife was sharp, it was one of the tasks he did when he wanted to relax for a bit.

"She does not!" Jaune insisted coming to his girlfriend's defense. "It's just that she's a girl you know… girls like to talk about stuff that's all… That doesn't make Pyrrha a gossipmonger. She gossips far less than my mother does and don't even get me started on my sisters… I still don't know which of them told everyone at Sanctum. I used to wet my bed until I was ten. "

He raised an eyebrow wondering if Jaune realized he had inadvertently called his girlfriend a gossiper.

Probably not.

"I think it was Saphron, she always did take the teasing too far… but it might have been either Violet or Jade to. Maybe the both of them working together. Or-"

"Since you brought her up, did Saphron deliver the baby, okay?"

Jaune nodded with a bright smile and the bubbliest expression on his face Guts had ever seen on a person. "She did. Thank the gods. Both her and Terra gave birth at the same time… but I guess you already knew that since you were the one who knocked them up on the same day. "

Ten months ago, Saphron Cotta-Arc and Terra Cotta-Arc had asked-while begged him really. To impregnate them both. They had received draft papers in the mail the day before telling them to report to the nearest drafting center within four weeks. With the mounting losses Mistrial's miliary was suffering to ever increasing Grimm attacks the miliary was desperate for new recruits to replenish the ranks. Conscription of the male populace, above 15 and under 50 years of age, had long ago been exhausted and had left the kingdoms with a severe lack of males. However, that didn't mean that the kingdoms were just going to give up and let the Grimm win, far from it. Instead, they amended the conscription laws to include women above 17 and under 40 years of age.

Well, what they really meant was single women, since women with children were excluded from being drafted.

At least until their children came of age.

Which was why Saphron and Terra despite being married to each other and not overly interested in men in general. Showed up at his parent's front door one day on their hands and knees asking him to father their children. It had been an awkward morning to say the least, two married women one of whom was his friend's sister imploring him to have unprotected sex with her and her wife so they could avoid the draft.

In front of his parents no less.

He would have called the whole affair surreal, if it hadn't been so common. With the situation with the Grimm growing more and more dire as time went on, the military needed more and more bodies to fill the void left by those killed in action.

And very few people were signing up to take part in what had affectively become a thirty years war of attrition with the Queen of the Grimm.

A war that they were losing.

"I did."

Jaune's face changed from ecstatically happy to extremely anxious in an eyeblink,"…Hey, man thanks again for that. If you hadn't… um done what you did. My sister and Terra might be dead right now, you know how bad things are with Salem launching new offensives trying to end all life on Remnant and what not," he paused to take a deep breath. "I know you're leaving for Atlas soon to get married to some noblewoman who paid you to marry her, but do you think you could knock up four more of my sisters before you go!? I would really appreciate it!"

Guts blinked unsure of what his friend had just asked of him. "What? He had spoken so fast his words had come out all mangled together which made what he said incomprehensible. "Who do you want me to knock out? Is this about that girl from Sanctum who took your rejection poorly and stole your clothes and wallet while you were in the shower?"

"No, it isn't." It wasn't Jaune who answered. "I took care of that."

Both boys turned to find a girl the same age as them with fair skin, waist-length red hair tied in a ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet. Wearing light-green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her green eyes. She was tall and quite muscular compared to most other girls.

"Pyrrha," offered Guts in way of greeting. "You understood that garbled mess that came out of your boyfriend's mouth?"

"David," she returned using his real name instead of his nickname with the added interest of a warm smile." I did. What Jaune wants to convey is that four of his sisters: Violet, Jade, Olivia and Cerise. Had received draft letters yesterday morning. His family is hoping you might do for them. What you did for Saphron and Terra."

Guts looked to Jaune and asked, "Is that true? "His friend sheepishly nodded. A pregnant pause followed which caused the blonde to fidget as he waited for the answer. Jaune was asking a lot from him, it might not have seemed like it, but a man could charge a small fortune's worth of lien for such a service. The current market value for a woman looking to get impregnated to avoid conscription ran at twenty-thousand lien. Multiply that time's six and that meant the Arc family owed him 120 thousand liens.

It was fortunate for them that there two families were so close and had such personal history with each other. The Arc's had been the ones who had sponsored and housed his family the Talis' in Argus seven years ago after their home city of Sliver Port had been decimated by the Grimm. Refugees were rare and uncommon, and ever since the Grimm began cutting off trade between the four Kingdoms or even settlements located in the same kingdom, they were typically bad news as well. To put it simply they were a burden that took up scarce resources that were desperately needed by the host's settlements population. They lowered local moral as well with their harrowing tales of endless Grimm besieging their former homes until they triumphed.

Which is why most cities didn't take them in unless a city resident was willing to sponsor them in their own house and committed to taking full responsibility for them. Until they could establish themselves financially.

Few did. Which was why Guts agreed to the request, "I'll do it."

Jaune's face lit up like a Mistralian fireworks festival."Eeehhh! Really! Thanks Guts! Woah, I was so nervous there for a second man. I think I was about to vomit if you had just kept staring at me with that blank look on your face for a few more seconds… Oh gods. What a relief. I should call my mom and let her know you'll be coming over. When do you leave for Atlas?"

"…Tomorrow. "

"Oh, jeez. That's not a lot of time… and we wanted to throw you a surprise going away party to. Oof! I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Forget you heard that. " Jaune stood up from the bench, "I'm going to go call my mom. Be right back."

Pyrrha and Guts watched him go further into the park.

For a moment neither said anything until Pyrrha asked, "Are you really going to go through with it? Marrying that Atlesian noblewoman. I heard she's twice your age plus six."

There was only one person she could have heard that from. "Both you and your boyfriend are habitual gossipers."

Pyrrha chuckled at that, but didn't deny it, "There's not much else to do. I'm afraid. Television is awful. The internet flickers in and out due to the power outages. It's winter so its freezing outside. Studying and training gets boring after a while, so you're not really left with much else to occupy your time with. "

She had a point there, but Guts didn't tell her that.

"So, are you?"

"Five million lien is hard to pass up in this economy. " Guts said then asked a question of his own he had been meaning to ask ever since he first heard the rumors. "Is it true you two are planning to make the trip to Haven Academy to enroll?"

"Who's the gossipmonger now. But yes, we are."

Guts ignored the jab, "You know how dangers it is to travel." For every ten merchant caravans that leaves Argus by land four are never heard from again. Travel by air was no better, Nevermores and other aerial Grimm patrolled the skies at every hour of every day in search of prey. And shipping by sea was the worst of them all. "Why risk your lives journeying to Haven, when you can finish your training at Sanctum?"

Besides the prestige at having attended one of the four original Huntsmen Academy founded by the last King of Vale after the Great War, there really wasn't much of a difference.

Between Haven and Sanctum Academy.

Pyrrha strolled towards him and took up Jaune's vacated spot on the bench. "We want to see the world... or at least the parts we can see. Jaune wanted to go to Beacon, "Guts scowled at that absurd idea. "But I talked him out of it. Traveling to Haven is dangerous, but possible." While journeying to Beacon would have been suicidal. "The distance between Argus and Haven is only eight days travel by armored truck. We should make it. "

The odds where in their favor. They had a sixty percent chance of making it alive. Good odds indeed.

Better than the fifty-fifty odds Guts had of reaching Atlas. "I guess that means this is goodbye then." They were going south and him north.

A sullen smile graced the redheads beautiful face," Yes, it is. "It was unlikely any of them would ever see each other again. Even if they all survived their journeys. "You were a dear friend to me David, I will always regard our time spent together fondly." Her voiced chocked up for a second overcome with emotions. "H-Have a safe trip and a wonderful life."

It was improbable he would have neither of those, but that would have been too bleak a thing to say, "When you have that dolt's kid. If it's a boy name him after me, would you?"

Pyrrha's eyes widen, and her cheeks went bright red, "…I-I will! Yes. I promise. I will. "

Guts smiled then looked up as a ray of light struck his face, it was twilight, night had ended, and the day was beginning. This would be his last day in Argus, and he started it off by watching the sun rise over the horizon with his two closest friends.

If it wasn't clear enough Guts real name in this story is David Talis, same as my username. The first name David comes from David Martinez from the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, my favorite show of this year. The last name Talis comes from Jayce Talis from the anime Arcane my favorite show of last year.

PLEASE READ THIS NOTE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE.

A few warnings before you decide to continue reading this story: This is rated M for explicit language, violence, torture, physical and emotional abuse, sexual abuse, sexual content, possible triggers, controversial topics, drug use and adult situations.

It's a dark Remnant. And I love the themes from Berserk and other mature fictions.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Anyone wishing to give information that you think might be useful to the story go right ahead.

Feedback is also welcomed.