RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth

Hello, sorry it took so long I don't have an excuse as I'm simply a procrastinator king with nearly everything. I will say that this was used for a Halloween school project as well so I had to fix a few things that were more school-friendly. The project was to make a 600-word story about a photo, I chose a spooky specter and as I began writing I thought I could knock out two things at once, make a Halloween special and finish up a project. It's obviously late but better late than never I say.

-OtherwiseR00K

Sparrow sprinted through the thick woods of the deeper parts of the Emerald Forest, a frown on his face as his feet pounded the wet ground. Sparrow had recently been made aware of a rather startling incident that had occurred a few hours ago and he wasn't gonna take it lying down.

Sparrow had been in the midst of drinking a nice steamy glass of hot cocoa when team STRQ showed up at his office frantic and panicking as they reported a team going missing. Sparrow had stood from his desk, his cocoa already forgotten as he grabbed Melancholy before following the team to the student dorms. The sight that greeted the STRQ and Sparrow made his blood turn to ice.

Team RAGE's dorm room was wrecked and blood stains had splotched the room. The beds were overturned and looked as if something had slashed them, claw marks were apparent on the floor and walls. The most eye-catching detail, to Sparrow at least, was the black vein-like markings on the broken window.

Sparrow made sure to tell STRQ to alert the Headmaster, they had protested saying they could help but Sparrow shut that down with a rather harsh decline. STRQ seemed surprised by the outburst but he didn't have time to apologize and just reiterated they need to get the Headmaster before he leaped out the window and ran towards the cliff face overlooking the Emerald Forest.

He made it to the cliffs in only a few minutes and made to scan the edge for the same vein-like markings, he went down the edge of the cliff looking for the veins, and eventually, he found them along with torn clothing and a pair of broken glasses. Taking no more evidence he leaped off the cliff and into the forest, landing in a crouch and making the earth around him leap up.

So that was how he found himself sprinting through the woods in the direction those veins had pointed. Sparrow recognized those marks, he knew Oz would as well when he saw them. He needed to get to RAGE quickly or they would all be killed, he knew it was already too late for at least one of them but he could still save the others.

Sparrow bounded out of the treeline and into a small clearing and his blood went even colder. Four tall trees seemed to line the small clearing, four tall trees held the bodies of team RAGE strung up by tendrils and two of the bodies drew no breath as they were torn in half.

The team leader Reverie Heartgrave's intestine hung from the torso with no bottom to contain them, crimson lined the tree as it flowed down and onto the blackened grass. Her legs were nowhere to be seen and Sparrow hoped it was painless, though he knew it wasn't.

Sparrow looked at the other body. Gretchen Rainart's front was cut from her jaw to her stomach, Sparrow could see the mandible split in half as blood spewed from his mouth like a waterfall. Another dead student and he knew it would be a matter of time till IT came back to kill the other two.

Sparrow couldn't take the other two students down without putting them in more danger from this thing so he decided to leave them for the time being and wait for the Grimm that did this. He wouldn't have to wait very long.

A chime filled Sparrow's ears, a chime he recognized. Sparrow turned towards the woods which seemed to darken as if the very light was being taken away. Soon a silhouette revealed itself and Sparrow saw it. The shadow with piercing red eyes that glowed with a cruelty and malice most Grimm don't have. This was no normal Grimm, this was an Echo.

Echoes were very rare and Sparrow was thankful for that. These things could infiltrate most places and take people away, they are usually found hanging from a tree with their bodies mutilated. The Echoes are also different in that unlike most of the other Grimm they feed off fear and terror, so as to feed off it as much as possible they began torturing the victim.

Sparrow doesn't feel this often but these things earned his hatred. Unlike the Grimm that are mostly just mindless and do the things they do because that's all they can do, creatures of Darkness made for that purpose and mindless of it. This thing however knows exactly what it's doing and enjoys every bit.

It wasn't inappropriate to call this thing a monster. Sparrow glared at the Echo as it slowly hovered closer, it was attempting to make him scared, that was the reason for the chime or echo as this thing was named after. The chime the Echo produced was akin to a piece of music that made your spine tingle only it intensified and eventually made you freeze.

Sparrow wasn't affected that much because of his history with these things, he'd killed several already, and only the first two's chimes ever had an effect but soon after he had grown an immunity to it. Sparrow brought up his cane and pointed it at the Echo, the Echo stopped advancing towards him and just stared. It was probably seeing how the chime didn't work.

Sparrow kept himself ready, these things were always adapting and capable of different things. One had been capable of replicating an Apathy another one had been capable of invisibility and had gotten a good hit off with its claws, so who knew what this one could do?

"Come on," Sparrow whispered, "Ignore them and come for the true threat." As if obeying his request the shadow's mouth split open into a twisted smile as it lunged at the Professor. Sparrow intercepted its claws with Melancholy, it pushed its face closer to Sparrow's as it snapped its jaw at him. Sparrow huffed and pushed back with enough force to send it back into the air.

The Echo landed on a tree before jumping to another and another and another, gaining speed. Sparrow was able to keep track of it even at the speed it was going, thankfully it wasn't using the trees the last two members of RAGE were suspended from.

It continued its mad hop until it was just a black blur that could barely be registered by the normal eye. It bounced off one last tree right at Sparrow, whose back was turned towards the Echo.

Sparrow spun on his heel and unleashed the red strings from his fingertips straight at the Echo. The first pierced the shadow's chest, the second wrapped around its throat, and the other three pierced through its claw pointing at Sparrow.

The Echo's chime got far more erratic in Sparrow's ears a sign it was in pain. Good, this thing deserved that pain. Sparrow tugged his hand violently back and brought the Echo towards him, he cut the strings off, placed a hand on his cane's handle, and twisted.

Melancholy to the normal eye was a walking cane made with a lavish owner in mind. The truth was it was a Huntsman weapon, a very nice one but one that was far behind the times. Nowadays the weapons of choice were melee weapons that could shift into a gun or another melee weapon.

Mechashift weapons were a very new thing for Huntsman barely being two decades old but the amount of technically awesome weapons that came from it was revolutionary Team STRQ's Qrow Branwen's weapon Harbinger was an apt example, a large straight sword with a segmented blade capable of turning into a scythe, with a double barrel shotgun built into the handle. Of course, a lot of people prefer the older weapons just with modern amenities.

Raven Branwen and Summer Rose were two apt examples of this ideal, Rosebud was a khopesh sword with a dust lining in the blade, nothing really special but it got the job done. Omen is an Odachi based with several interchangeable dust blades stored in the large sheath.

Sparrow's weapon was of a more obscure type of weapon. A cane. Melancholy is a blunt force weapon meant to combat Grimm and Humans alike, the cane is reinforced by his Aura and made from a tree found deep in Forever Fall, the bark being on par with Atlassian steel.

What a lot of people don't know about Melancholy is that it has a rather mean bite, one that is stored within the shaft of the cane. Sparrow pulled the handle up from the shaft of Melancholy and pulled with it a long spike made from the garnet embedded in the handle. The garnet was far longer than most people knew and it was sharpened to a very deadly point.

Sparrow held Melancholy at his side as he thrust forward towards the Echo with Agony in hand. Agony was a blade bathed in suffering, be it Sparrow's or another, the blade is drenched in a force that had left the world when the Brother Gods left. The energy had aged like wine as it had gotten more potent over the years.

This also caused pulses of suffering for other living creatures when it was let free, Sparrow didn't use it often only to make sure something felt the agony it gave to others and more. It was also rather nice at making it very difficult for a certain Witch to regenerate quickly.

The blade pierced through the Echo's chest the black blood that would've coated the blade evaporating as if the blade were scalding hot and a scream erupted from the Grimms mouth. Sparrow could feel his body shake under the scream that left the Echoes maw, Sparrow could also hear the whimpering of the two remaining members of team RAGE.

The Echo's eyes followed the whimper and its pained smile somehow took an even more sadistic edge. Sparrow's eyes widened and he attempted to push Agony deeper into the Grimm's chest but unfortunately, he couldn't stop the black tendrils around the only male of the team to constrict around his throat.

Evan Ablurn choked as the tendril got tighter and tighter until his face turned blue and the tendril turned violently to the left, snapping the young man's neck. Amethyst Alburn screamed in horror at the sound of her brother's neck snapping.

Sparrow heard the noise and noted the smile of satisfaction the Echo had. Sparrow's already freezing blood went to arctic frost as his face turned to that devoid of anything. Empty. Sparrow twisted Agony deeper into the Echo the Grimm finally beginning to truly scream in agony again.

The red eyes of an evil creature close to death met the blank stare of the black nothing of Sparrow's Onyx Aviators as it began flaking at the legs. The Grimm's ashes floated to the ground, the only thing left being the Echo's head and shoulders. Sparrow went to quicken its death and lifted his foot. Before curb-stomping the head and forcing the corpse to completely dust. Sparrow flicked Agony to the side ridding the dust that had flaked the spike and brought it back into Melancholy with a click and twist.

Sparrow disregarded the dead Echo and moved towards the last member of RAGE, the poor girl was shaking on the ground, the bindings having dissipated with the Grimm. Sparrow crouched down to her level and saw as she flinched at his approach, usually, he'd say something comforting to the girl. There was nothing he could say, Evan Alburn didn't die in battle or sacrifice himself he was killed by a creature whose sole purpose was to destroy.

Sparrow mentally cursed himself for not getting there sooner.

/-/

Ozpin walked through the hall towards the Infirmary. When he heard about what had happened to team RAGE, his blood had boiled but when he heard who had saved them his blood cooled and a pit formed in his stomach. He had no idea how Sparrow would react to this and he would admit a small piece of him was worried he'd be blamed by the Deputy.

Ozpin reached the door to the infirmary and knocked. He waited a moment and heard a muffled 'come in' he opened the door and saw Mrs. Waterworks sitting in a swivel chair looking over her terminal. Mrs. Waterworks was an elderly bull Faunus, her ebony horns straight back framing her cobalt blue hair. She wore a thick leather medical robe that reached her feet and a large blue sash around her waist.

Ozpin took the chance to look at the beds of the infirmary and saw Ms. Auburn laying on the farthest bed next to the wall, with the very Deputy he was thinking about sitting next to her, "How is Ms. Auburn?" he finally asked.

Mrs. Waterworks looks over at Amythyst, "Devastated, honestly, I'm surprised the poor girl hasn't woken up screaming yet. An event like that, her brother being killed in front of her eyes like that, she'll be traumatized and will need a therapist." She sighed and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes, "Honestly, Ozpin I don't think she'll continue trying to be a huntress, and if she does she'll throw her life away by cutting off everything around her and becoming like those older and more jaded Huntsman in the Frontier."

"And how is he?"

"Quiet."

That one word told Ozpin all he needed to know, "I know you're watching Ms. Auburn, but I'm gonna need you to step out for a moment."

Mrs. Waterworks looked back at Sparrow and nodded, "I'll make sure Tsune doesn't come in." with that Gabie left the room to the remaining three occupants.

Ozpin turned towards Sparrow and the unconscious student, he gazed at the straps holding Ms. Auburn down. A precaution in case she woke up screaming to keep her from hurting herself or others, some Semblance would flare when a person was in a traumatic state and it was best to keep them down.

Ozpin stepped next to Sparrow and watched his hands they were emanating a serene silver glow, a far cry from the usual red, "Sparrow," Ozpin began softly, "you shouldn't be doing that in here, especially when Gabi was in the room."

Sparrow glanced at him but otherwise ignored him, causing Ozpin to sigh. Ozpin wouldn't make him stop as he wasn't hurting Ms. Auburn, quite the opposite, it was simply the fact that what he was using wasn't what he used publicly as his Semblance.

"She wouldn't stop crying," Ozpin looked at Sparrow who had finally spoken, "I tried to help the normal ways and after Gabie gave her the sedative she began crying in her sleep, slightly convulsing from a nightmare."

Sparrow looked at Ozpin, "I couldn't let her suffer like that Oz, not like that."

Ozpin gazed at Ms. Auburn's face, a slight smile adorned a face flushed from hours of crying and screaming, "What are you showing her?"

"Every happy memory she had with her brother, it's the absolute least I could do. I won't let her be marred with vengeance against the Grimm like so many others." Ozpin stared into space as several events played through his mind.

A young woman screamed in rage as she slashed through a horde until she was caught by an Ursa Major's claws and mauled by the other Ursa.

A bitter old man shot at a Beowolf with a sawed-off before being shoulder checked by a Berginal into a tree and ceased moving forever.

Ozpin felt his age sag him down a little as the mask of the composed and kind Headmaster slipped slightly showing a glimpse of the ancient wizard marred in tragedy and death. He slowly slipped the metaphorical mask back on and looked at Sparrow again, "I will ask you to stop doing that when I leave, Gabie can't know and we can't let the current Fall Maiden sense your magic."

Ozpin walked out of the room and could only hope Sparrow listened to him.

A random thought came to me as I was editing the story and I don't know if I should be thinking these dangerous thoughts, a RWBY reaction story just showing these to the characters and just how the original Ozpin and Glynda would react to Sparrow and his obviously magic nature. Speaking of his magic, that's actually how he can turn into a sparrow but I will flesh out what he can do in the confines of these one-shots.

Another thing I'd like to say I don't write drafts for these as when I started this I planned on making the first written words the story so I write the first draft as the last.

-OtherwsieR00K