"Professor, are you sure this is for the best?" Glynda questioned staring out the windows of the office, the ticking of the clock above quietly counting the moments
"I feel that we may be misunderstanding his intentions. He infiltrated Shade, yet made no effort to kill anyone. Unfortunately the vaults have no cameras, but it appears that there were no attempts at forced entry." he said stroking his chin for a few moments "Perhaps we can show him the values of humanity. That may prove to him that we are a better choice then Salem." he reasoned, it was rather sound too, he had taken an interest in Ruby Rose and shown that he has a form of compassion towards her too. In his life time he had been betreyed by many would be allies, but then again so had Salem, Sephiroth seemed to be one such individual that he could sway with enough effort, and could prove to be beyond helpful.
"Is there anything me and the staff can do to help with... rehabilitating him?" Glynda asked that caused Ozpin to turn to her
"If you can get to know him, see if he'll open up to you." Ozpin offered earning a nod from the woman, soon after the two went back to staring out the windows.
(o)
Another few days had passed, and Ruby had begun to eat with him, much to her sisters' dismay, and his pleasure. She do most of the talking, and he would listen for the most part. The longer he could keep her around him the more annoying it would be for Yang so it was well worth the headache.
Ruby had talked on and on about her teammates and how much she wanted to help them grow and how helpful he has been for helping her with that. He had been training her quite a bit, with each day he had begun to use more and more of his power in the flow of their battles, she seemed to drowning in the river he had created but remained determined, so he would continue to flood her world with pain. Yang on the other hand was his main target, she was moody and easily angered, two traits that he loved she could barely keep her cool while they fought on the rare occasion and he was waiting to see what kind of damage he would need to inflict to cause the right amount of suffering to keep her pushing to become a trudge, if he was going to be here for so long than he wanted to ensure that every time she saw him it would fill her with dread.
"Ruby, I know you don't wanna stop but we got class to get to." Yang commented walking over to the two of them earning a groan from Ruby as she stood and began to make her way away from them leaving Yang and Sephiroth alone
"I really don't like you getting all buddy buddy with my little sister. I see any funny business. And I will do everything in my power to end you." She warned earning a smile from the man as he stood
"I'm counting on it." he answered earning a growl from the woman as he vanished through the doors near his table. It was mainly chosen to allow for an easy exit. Which Ruby appreciated much to his annoyance.
(o)
That day had progressed to the point of combat again, this time Pyrrha Nikos was his opponent. The two entered the arena and prepared, Sephiroth holding Masamune in his left hand, again, he was wearing his uniform. Pyrrha on the other hand was fully dressed and prepared for combat
"I've watched your matches." she said readying herself quite a bit "I'm actually quite excited." she added as he prepared to fight raising his blade next to his head and holding it with both hands
Running forward she ducked under his first attack and stabbed at his gut only to be dodged as he leapt into the air, rolling back Pyrrha fired a few shots at him as he fell back down blocking one he suffered the next without so much as a grunt, it was like the bullet didn't even hit, landing light as ever he waited, throwing her spear he tilted his head but the blade still stuck him lightly cutting into his cheek.
With a hum he raised his hand to the wound and wiped it clean with his normal smile on his face
"You're far stronger than your peers." he commented his eyes dancing over her a bit "Perhaps you could take my full strength." he pondered sarcastically as Pyrrha readied herself for his counterattack, slowly taking a step towards her, her eyes narrowed he was moving extremely slowly. Drawing closer she subtly called her weapon towards her as it zoomed past him it split into three separate parts with the grinding of metal. Her eyes widened in surprise as the shattered form of Milo as it clattered to her feet
"Then again, most humans are fragile." he added his slow walk continuing unabated, taking a small step back she thought for a few moments before rushing towards him shield raised, swinging at the charge the object split in two, Pyrrha dodging out of the way and landing a solid punch on his jaw, only to receive a powerful strike to her gut sending her slamming into the wall and nearly draining her aura entirely
"WOAH!" Rubys' voice came from the stands among her voice there were many whispers of shock and awe, Pyrrha was at 16 percent of her aura, therefor the battle would continue
"He did that on purpose!" Yang commented to Ruby her jaw hanging open, Ruby was just bouncing excitedly "I know! He must be a genius to calculate all that! I can barely do something like that, let alone that accurately."
Rising to her feet Pyrrha let out a groan and stumbled a bit shaking the ringing from her head and looked up at her foe she found that from this position he was far more intimidating. The smile on his face was cold and only held malice and a hint of disgust. Raising his blade he swung causing her aura to shatter but left her completely unscathed apart from a rather deep single cut along her brestplate, the only damage on her armor. Turning around he walked away. No one seemed to notice the hole in his coat where the bullet passed through but it wasn't like he was injured, he could heal such an insignificant wound at his leisure.
He had beat Pyrrha. Everyone was stunned, and he just took his seat once more. Ignoring all the stares as though it was something he was used to and waited for class to end.
(o)
Exiting the building he began to make his way towards a probable location of the vault. Over the past month he had been scouring the whole school for the vault, the fact was that it wasn't going to be found on the surface. Much like the other vault he had uncovered it was protected by the student body, and hidden in plain sight. Mostlikely under Ozpins' office to some degree, he doesn't seem like the most trusting of people. Entering the CCT he looked around at the cameras and made his way towards the door next to the elevators pushing it open he found himself in a room with a flight of stairs. Looking to his right he saw a sign that had 1/120 written on it... but the room had no cameras.
(o)
Reaching the top floor he stepped out, and looked around, it seemed like a storage room, just below Ozpins' office. Walking into it he found quite a few boxes of old school uniforms, and bloodied weaponry from long ago. Searching through the room he found that it was empty of anything he was searching for. He proceeded down ten floors, and searched the next storage room. And the next, and the next, and the next, and so on and so forth, until he reached the ground floor once more. Making his way out of the building he let out a hum, and tried to figure out how he would get his hands on the complete plans for this school, to ascertain how to reach the vault. Sure he could just rip the whole school apart until he found it but then the humans' would protect the others more, and summoning meteor here wouldn't help find a way to open the vaults. If he couldn't force them open then meteor wouldn't be able to either.
Walking out of the building he found that he wouldn't find anything at Beacon, perhaps Vale would have some more information for him. Making his way towards the airdocks he began to float up into the air before rocketing off towards the city, landing on the sidewalk he began to make his way towards City Hall but stopped when a quiet explosion earned his attention, making his way towards the sound he floated up on top of the buildings and looking out over the city a large column of smoke immediately earning his attention. With a smile he grew interested by what that could be.
(o)
Landing on a streetlamp he stared down at the battle before him, Blake and another Faunas were battling against many of the White Fang, as well as a man dressed in a white coat and black bowler hat, slowly his eyes drifted over all the combatants. Blake and the other boy, both were having mostly an easy time with battling the grunts but the man was giving them more trouble as he stumbled around blocking and countering the attacks thrown his way, dropping down Sephiroth walked over to a nearby loading crate and yanked open the door breaking the lock in the process
With a hum he grabbed one of the red crystals from a nearby broken crate. Raising it to his ear he closed his eyes and listened, the screams of the dead echoing in his mind pulling it away he recognized it as similar but not the same as Materia, yet it seemed to allow the lifestream to flow through it unlike Materia. Pocketing the substance he began to walk towards the battle, two grunts tried to attack him but with a snap of his fingers they were launched away from him as corpses, as he came to a stop Blake landed next to him and he placed his hand on her shoulder
"You've already made a large enough mess as is." he commented looking over the combatants as he released her "But I have learned much from following your mess. I thank you for giving me reason." he said turning away and walked off raising his hand above his head as a crate was dropped from above causing it to stop midair before hitting him, turning around he smiled at the ginger haired man who's eyes widened at the sight of a floating shipping container that suddenly came flying towards him quickly diving out of the way, the container went flying through the warehouse causing half of it to collapse and explode significantly larger than the one before
"And what about your mess?" Blake questioned covering her ears along with everyone else on the dock save for Sephiroth who was unfazed by the noise
Ignoring her he began to walk into the flames covering the dock and vanished into the slowly collapsing building as the battle continued outside.
Entering the building he slowly looked around at the crates, walking up to the nearest one he yanked the door open shattering the lock, looking inside he opened one of the crates and found a green crystal, holding this one to his ear he listened, the screams of the dead began to echo once more. Moving on to the next shipping container he found a blue crystal and listened more screams of the dead.
This planet turned their dead into weapons, was what he had learned an excellent show of determination, but the planet suffered from their actions, they too are interrupting the cycle of the world, and will pay dearly for such a thing. Turning he began to make his way out of the building and away from the docks, his mind filled with wondering, on how he should deal with these beasts.
(o)
Another few days had passed, Ruby had grown in skill and power since the events at the docks
Locking blades, Sephiroth casually knocked her weapon away, recovering quickly and slashed up at him, he leaned out of the way and rested the Masamune on his shoulder and used its pommel to deflect her next strike as he casually stepped around to her side and kicked her away, falling to the ground she rolled to her feet and began to dash around trying to throw him off; left, right, left, right, above, dashing around behind him she feigned a strike to his left but quickly spun around to the right then spun back to the left only for her weapon to collide with his earning a growl from the girl, she couldn't find a way to make him screw up. Leaping away she barely avoided his blade as she landed she felt her weapon leave her hands a few seconds later she felt her hands begin to throb with pain
"Again." he said walking back to the center as Ruby grabbed her weapon, and readied to attack again, for one reason or another he had grown more insistent that she train harder. He had also offer for Yang to come along but she refused quite adamantly, and with many colorful words.
Grabbing her weapon she turned and prepared to attack, his eyes were following her every move. As soon as she recognized that he was watching her, he rushed in and knocked the weapon from her hands again, spinning around he jabbed the blunt end of the Masamune into her gut sending her sprawled, rolling a few times she groaned and held her gut, with a sigh Sephiroth turned and began to walk out of the arena his blade vanishing as he walked, Ruby just watched frustration etched into her mind, she couldn't keep up or come close, sure she could barely hold her own, that's better than all her classmates, except for Pyrrha, who as of yet had dealt very little damage to him.
"Hey! Wait!" Ruby called chasing after him, reaching the door he stopped and turned to her, exhausted and sweating quite a bit Ruby caught up with him, looking at her expectantly as she caught her breath "When do you wanna... train next?" she asked through a few gasps for air
"Tomorrow, if your body is willing." he answered resting a hand on her shoulder lightly, it was a small gesture but one she seemed to beam at, exiting the room he left the girl alone, dropping to the ground she let out a sigh and began to nurse her sore muscles, they had been training so frequently and he didn't seem to suffer at all from it. It was as though his body was built for battle. Walking out after him she looked around and found that he was gone without a trace, just like every other time. With a sigh she began toward their dorm, about half way there she remembered that Yang told her to meet up with them in the library. Quickly changing direction she began towards her new destination.
(o)
Upon reaching the library she followed the loudest voices, upon reaching said disruptions she found her team as well as Sun and one of his friends.
"Hey guys." Ruby greeted as she dropped down in her seat next to Weiss who looked her over a bit
"Ruby... you smell."
"Yeah, sorry, I just got back from training with Sephiroth. I gotta say he is real good." she said quickly running a hand through her hair noting that it was drenched in sweat
"Are you sure you should be training with him? He seems... unhinged." Yang commented placing down one of her cards earning a hum from Weiss
"You just don't like him." Ruby waved off
"No, I'm basing that off the fact that Blake watched him blow up a warehouse then walk into the fire he started as though it was nothing. No sane person would do that."
Ruby opened her mouth to argue but found that she had no valid reason "Fair enough, but he is really strong, besides he came to Beacon, right? So he want's to make the world a better place, no matter if he joined for money or power, he is still helping humanity." Ruby reasoned earning a hum of acknowledgment from Yang, she couldn't really dispute that.
"Fine, fine, I get it. But I still don't like him." she said resting her head on the table for a few moments before sitting up again
(o)
Blake had found that Sephiroth had been watching her, sometimes from a distance, she'd see him watching her, other times she would catch him far closer. It was frightening, he didn't emit a smell and his eyes were unnatural, whenever their eyes met she caught a glimpse into his soul, and it was cold.
Staring at the latest news reports she began to write down all the locations that had been robbed of dust. There seemed to almost be no correlation between the locations, just that the first ones hit were dust stores, then imported dust, and finally produced dust supplies. With a groan she rested her eyes for a few moments in her hand sitting back up she found that the monitor was turned off
"You're distracting Yang and Ruby from training with your search. Stop." Sephiroths' voice came from behind her quickly turning around and looked up at him in shock, she hadn't heard him move close to her, quickly standing she whipped around and stared him down
"Leave me-"
"You are causing them weakness, something which I do not like. They make my days bearable with their struggling, if they must carry you then they can not suffer for me." he explained turning and walking away leaving the girl horrified and confused
(o)
Ruby sighed as she stared at the sheet of Grimm traits and features to tell age, she wanted to be training right now, but school work has priority right now, Blake seemed to grow worse as of late too, she had been canceling her training sessions with Sephiroth to try and convince her to get some rest. But today she finally decided to ask him for help
"I mean, she is strong, don't get me wrong. But she needs to learn when to take it slower... you know what I mean?" she asked as he ran his finger across his blade before lowering it, and looked over to her with a smile
"I do. But what would you have me do about it? She is your teammate, should she not listen to you?" he questioned as the weapon vanished from his hand and into nothingness
"Well... yeah... but this isn't something I can just order her to stop doing." she said dropping down and began to play with her fingers "can I?" she questioned earning a hum from the man
"Perhaps, it depends on the people you're talking of, Yang would listen to you begrudgingly. Weiss wants to prove to you that she is a good teammate. Blake falls in neither category." he spoke calmly running a hand over his jaw his eyes watching over her for any movements towards annoyance "You could use your strength to force her to listen." he offered walking around to her side "You may not know it but you have grown stronger."
"Still not as strong as you." she commented with a frown "Besides. I'm not gonna use force to get her to listen, I'm sure if I ask a few more questions I could get her to listen." she waved off earning a hum from the man as a plan began to form in his mind
(o)
Combat class began, it was a Friday so no one was really willing to volunteer, so they were going to do randomly selected matches. Sephiroth stared at Glynda as she informed them of today's pairings but he spoke up before she could finish
"I have a request." he said rising to his feet, earning a hum from Glynda "I believe it would be for the best to have teams fight among themselves. You never know who your enemies will be. So wouldn't it be good for teams to understand their allies and enemies?" he reasoned earned another hum from the woman
"I'm sure you have an idea as to who you wish to see fight?" she asked causing Sephiroths' smile to widen ever so slightly "I wish for Ruby to fight Blake." he said earning a glare from the both of them "If not then I wish to fight both RWBY and JNPR." he added earning a shocked look from both teams and a skeptical from the professor
"While, you abilities are admirable even to the third and forth year students, I wouldn't go as far to say you could take on all eight of them." she said as Ruby and Blakes' icons appeared over the arena "Miss Rose, Miss Belladonna, please retrieve your weapons." the two girls rose to their feet and walked to the locker room quickly dressing themselves they began to make their way towards the arena but Ruby froze in her tracks at the sight of Sephiroth standing before them, Blake walked right past him and he smiled at her
"What are you doing here? Did you watch us change?!" she questioned quickly covering herself
"I merely wanted to remind you. Do not hold back. I will know." he said as he walked past her quickly turning to shout at him again she found that he was gone without a trace
"You really are weird, you know that?" Blake asked turning back to the woman who was staring at her with a cocked eyebrow and a concerned look "What?" Ruby questioned her own brow scrunching in confusion
"You were talking to yourself." Blake answered as she trudged out into the arena, with a shake of her head Ruby followed after her, he was there though... maybe she needed sleep.
(o)
Blake barely stood a chance. Ruby easily avoided her first strike which was meant to keep her at a distance, grabbed the ribbon Gambol Shroud quickly wrapped around her arm the blade landing in her palm cutting her a bit but not enough to cause a drop in her aura, as she pulled Blake was surprised that Ruby was so strong, stumbling forward Ruby used that shift to her advantage and moved forward while freeing her hand from the ribbon, rushing forward she lowered her weapon and thrust the butt of the weapon into Blakes gut causing her to stumble a bit, spinning it around both in her hand and mid-air the blade rested itself on Blakes' neck and she fired yanking both herself and the weapon backward, catching the weapon closer to the Blake while thrusting her foot forward knocking her feet from under her causing the woman to slam into the ground
"Ow..." Blake muttered as she relaxed a bit, the sensation of being off her feet brought about a bit of relaxation
"Sephiroth wanted this to go this way." Rubys' voice came from above her quietly "He wants you to know that you need to relax for a bit." she said in a calm tone looking over to him as he watched the two with a blank expression on his face before looking back at her teammate "I understand how you feel, trust me, I do. I've been doing my own research into this, you can relax for a bit okay. If that wont convince you I'll just have to beat it into you like he suggested, and I don't wanna do that." Ruby said leaping back a few feet giving Blake room to rise, after a few moments she found her footing and yanked her weapon back to her hands and prepared to continue
"I'm the only one with any right to push themselves for this." she said causing Ruby to roll her eyes and lower her stance, crossing the distance Blake began to attack but Ruby did something that confused everyone, she causally leaned out of the way of the first a small smile growing on her face as she rested the large scythe on her shoulder causally blocking and parrying her attacks, once Blake leapt away she gasped and dropped to her knees gasping for air, Ruby quickly lost concentration on mimicking Sephiroths' movements and seemed a little winded too
"It is clear that Ruby Rose has won this encounter." Sephiroths' voice came from the bleachers earning a glare from Blake as he took a few steps forward "It would be pointless to prolong it." he added as the bell began to ring without missing a beat he walked out of the room, happy with the outcome.
(o)
Closing his eyes he focused on the planet and still felt nothing but the four signatures, making his way along the stone path his mind focused fully on trying to figure out how to enter the vaults.
"HEY!" Rubys' voice came from behind him as she came running from the class, quickly moving around in front of him "What was that!? I was trying to be careful about that- wait, how'd you do that teleporting thing?" she questioned as he stared at her blankly
"I have no idea what you're talking about." he said turning to walk away from her but found that she quickly moved in his way again
"Look, I get that you want to keep training with me-"
"This has nothing to do with her. I have my reasons for seeing you and your sister grow." he said pushing her out of his way and continuing away, that earned a look of confusion from Ruby, Yang never once trained with them, why was he invested in her?
(o)
the night of the dance Sephiroth spent his time within the CCT, looking around within he eventually made his way into Ozpins' office, the ticking of the clock above being the only note of the passage of time, walking over to the desk he placed his hand on it causing a screen to appear, with a hum he looked over the content, it was unlocked which was strange considering the mans' paranoia. Flipping through a few documents he eventually found a pattern through them just as an alert popped up, closing the device and walking over to the window he shattered it floated out and reformed it behind him leaving the room looking untouched no matter how hard someone looked, dropping in altitude a bit he flew over to the ballroom and landed causally walking inside ensuring that many people saw him within, as the clock struck midnight.
A/N So I should probably be a bit more specific about this; these first few chapters are meant to be summarizes, Sephiroth is a very reserved person, he would spend his days doing school work and maintaining his physicality, these first few chapters are meant to show the differences that he would cause in volumes 1-2. Obviously he will be more involved in Volumes like 3, 5, 7, and 8, which is what those will be centering around, Volumes like 4 and 6 will be around 1 or 2, while 3 and 5 would be around 4 or 5, this isn't meant to be super long but it is meant to be fraught with suffering, 'cause I am a sadist to a degree.