Death Comes to Beacon

by The Powder Keg

Death has come to Beacon. Except he isn't the one that reaps you. He's an ancient creature of darkness, older than death or the Grimm. And when something as old and powerful gets bored, things are sure to take a turn. Let's see how Beacon fairs against him, shall we? Not for faint of heart, meant for those with a darker sense of humor.

4. Chapter 4

I haven't really got anything to say except, sorry for the wait, and enjoy the chapter.

"Guys, that thing's circling back. What are we gonna do?" Asked Jaune, sounding relatively panicked. I don't know why though. He must have seen what I could do and he's supposed to be a Hunter someday. He needed to get a hold of himself.

"Look, our objective is right in front of us. There's no sense in dilly-dallying." Weiss said, looking like one of the most calm of the group.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting this thing." Ruby said.

"Rub and live. That is an idea i can get behind." Jaune said. Of course it was. I was starting to doubt the mettle of this guy in battle. I mean, he had yet to even touch his weapon, yet alone show any inkling of wanting to attack or defend himself.

Everyone else grabbed one of the artifacts on the pedestals, and turned to the opening in the forest. "Let's go." Ruby said. She took off and everyone followed her. It didn't take long running through the clearing before we happened upon more ruins, these looking older. As we continued over a small incline, we were forced to stop moving immediately as there was a chasm in front of us with only a stone bridge. A bridge being overseen by the massive Nevermore. Everyone took cover against pillars and walls where they could still see the creature. "Well that's great!" Said Yang."

"Well are we gonna move or not?" I asked impatiently and roughly. I got a few looks in my direction but I glared back at them. Soon they all nodded in acceptance. The green and pink one ran out of cover first. "Nora, distract it!" She obliged, pulling out a large grenade launcher with pink highlights. Just as the Nevermore swooped down she fired with rounds that looked like they packed a serious punch. I'd have to examine that later to find out what kind of ammunition it was.

The large bird flew off as we advanced onto the bridge, Pyrrha firing multiple rounds at it in an attempt to keep it at bay. Unfortunately for us, it ignored her and circled back again, crashing through our bridge with us still on it. I made it across fine along with Weiss, Yang, Ruby, Nora, and by sheer luck, Jaune. Left on the other side was Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake, holding off a very sudden onslaught of Beowolves, which were pushing them closer to the edge.

"We've got to get over there. They need our help. But uh.. I can't make that jump. Out of the corner of my eye, Nora flashed a wicked grin matching one of my own, before knocking Jaune backwards with her grenade launcher, that transformed into a hammer. With a yell of what I can only assume amusement, she catapulted Jaune over by smashing the bridge into a see-saw, and using the report of the firing mechanism to get herself over.

She flew through the air, hitting multiple Beowolves away in an effective AOE attack. One rushed forwards through the shock-wave and swiped at her, pushing her backwards and punting Blake of the edge. Well she was gone, but I kept that thought to myself. "Got any ranged weapons?" Ruby asked from behind me. I pulled my leather jacket to the side some, exposing a row of five throwing-knives, each tipped with a different dust.

Pulling out one with a white tipping, I leveled out my shot to hit the Nevermore. Leading and predicting the trajectory took some thinking on my part, but in the end I launched my knife at the speed of a bullet, waiting for the impact. About two seconds later the side of the Bird-Grimm erupted into a horrendous gale that threw it off course. A black speck was also catapulted from its form and landed on a stone spire. Blake?

She jumped and landed next to us. "It's tougher than it looks." I heard many metal parts moving to my right and saw Yang activating a pair of golden gauntlets. "Then let's hit it with everything we've got!" I was starting to wonder where the 'There's no point in fighting this thing' plan went. I didn't mind though. This was more fun.

After yang had spoken, a slew of dust, high caliber rounds, and explosive shells were ejected at the bird flying in our direction. True to the nature of the Nevermore's steel like feathers, it flew through the onslaught like it was nothing, crashing into our part of the ruins. We were forced to climb our way up falling rubble and onto stable ground.

We all landed on an upper section of an aqueduct, except for Yang, who landed far right to us and Blake, to the left. "None of this is working." Weiss said. "Oh really?" I said sarcastically. Ruby stayed silent, looking around at who was here. Blake was in a position to the left and Yang on a spire shooting explosive rounds repeatedly that were doing about as much as licking a brick wall.

"I have a plan. Cover me!" Ruby yelled before vaulting off somewhere. With Yang distracting the Nevermore, I had nothing else to do but take in what was happening to the others on the bridge. With the help of Jaune and Nora, they were starting to pus back the pack and cut towards the Alpha. Two lesser wolves came attacking towards the group but Pyrrha and Jaune in a surprisingly similar move used their shields and pushed each attacker to the side. Ren rushed forwards firing his guns.

Dodging the first swipe, Ren began a flurry of cuts up and down the Alpha's form. Ignoring the pain, the Alpha smashed Ren to its left, careening him into a stone wall. He had some success in his attack though, as the Alpha took a step forward but limped on its right leg heavily. "Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled, alerting her to the weakness. "Done!"

Pyrrha whipped her shield into the knee-joint and collapsed the Beowolf down onto paws and knees. "Nora, nail it!" Nora nodded, getting an airborne vault off of Pyrrha's shield and coming down hard with an explosive impact that catapulted her and everyone else off the bridge, leaving the dismembered Alpha and his pack to fall down the chasm.

A stray cry from the Nevermore brought me back to attention and it seemed Yang had finally landed a meaningful hit and angered it past circling. It charged her, breaking through her tower of stone and catching the blonde it its mouth. Surprisingly though, she held the beak open and fired more explosive shots directly into the insides of the bird.

It must have hurt because even after Yang jumped off, it continued in its flight path directly into the side of the cliff, making the entire stone structure beneath my feet shake precariously. It did however land on its feet, so props to that. Still angered, the bird beat its wings to take back off as Weiss charged forwards, gliding on miniature Repelling Glyphs.

I saw the glow of her dust chamber from my position, blue. She intended to freeze the creature in place. Apparently without my notice, Ruby had gone around and set up her plan. Weiss jumped, her rapier in hand as the came down on the stone fact below the Nevermore's tail feathers. I watched the ice grow and the dust in her chamber deplete, and I knew the ice wouldn't make it.

Simply because I didn't want my options dying out this soon, I decided to help. I jumped from my perch with untamed speed as I impacted the ice ledge which had stopped growing just a few feet short of the tail feathers. I gripped them, using a portion of my power to summon a replica of Attraction Glyphs. They were not Glyphs though, they were my own. With much more jagged and broken patterns and being a natural dark purple, I made my Sigils. Yet another of my Catalysts.

With a decent portion of my power pumping strength into my arms and durability into my body, I withstood the beating of the Nevermore's humongous wings as it struggled to take off. Weiss looked at me and I gave her a 'hurry up' nod. She did the same before launching herself back to the start with another white Glyph.

Seeing everything in place, I watched Yang and Blake connect some sort of ribbon between two stone spires and Ruby jump into it, scythe first. I had expected the ribbon to break with little force, but it just kept constricting, gaining an enormous amount of potential energy, enhanced by Weiss using an Attraction Glyph, this time black with strength, and pulling Ruby even further down. The stone spires groaned in protest of their new weight, but held.

Now I love it when a plan comes together, especially when it's my plan. But I couldn't just let this obvious team form in front of me without a little bit of a rocky start. So when I heard Weiss say with overconfidence that she could make the shot, I reached outwards with my mind and grabbed her glyph, altering it by mere degrees and Joules in power and direction. Everything would still happen, just not as planned.

The Glyph turned red as Ruby bled her semblance into it, shooting forwards like a bullet, rose petals coming off of her form the hole way. While she was obviously meant to hit the neck of the creature with her scythe blade and slow her approach with the weight of the bird, she instead hit the skull-plate of the bird, only just hooking her blade between it and the skin.

Unfortunately for her, the leverage proved to much as I tugged on the creature inconspicuously, vaulting them both into the side of the cliff painfully. I heard a decent snap com from Ruby's leg and a pained yelp, but she ignored it. More than that though, she surprised me. After a row of Attraction Glyphs appeared on the cliff face and pulled her to it, she began to run.

I could not see her face but I knew something was broken, and yet she ran up the cliff, using her semblance to tug along the immense weight of the bird which I had almost forgotten to let go of. Bullets fired out of her gun at a high interval. Obviously she was using everything at her disposal to make this happen. She earned the slightest bit of my respect, which is more than I can say for 99% of Remnant's population.

She was slowing though, and as she reached the top of the cliff and prepared to fire the gun one last time, two things spelled her undoing. One, her gun ran out of ammo thanks to her extensive use, and two, she landed on her bad leg and it buckled. I could see the bones shift as her aura finally ran out of strength to hold it together. Still holding on the Nevermore, she struggled to finish the job she started and decapitate the thing.

Knowing I couldn't make it up in time to finish the job myself, without moving fast enough to break the sound barrier, which would cause questions. I instead slipped a knife out of my jacket the blade steel looking purple at the tip as I launched the knife upwards. In one second, the knife made contact with the back end of her scythe, right at the barrel. To everyone who didn't know what happened, it simply looked like Ruby had switched to a much more powerfully recoiling round to finish it.

To me, my Gravity Dust tipped knife exploded on impact, pushing the razor-sharp blade though the neck of the Nevermore, decapitating it. The massive body of the Grimm-Bird began to fall downwards, so large it looked as if in slow-motion. Quickly I jumped out of the way to avoid being the landing strip for a carcass large enough too be mistook for a complex of posed right.

I landed near the other three who had been the ones to initiate the plan. Everyone looked very happy and relieved, though Yang looked somewhat angry. "I thought you said you could make the shot." Yang accused. Weiss looked at her. "I-I can, at least, I should have been able to. Maybe it was the wind."

"The wind?" Yang asked, only getting angrier. Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder. "We are in a high turbulence zone, and thing was starting to freak out." Black said to her. For a moment, Yang looked like she was about to yell at her for siding with Weiss, but took a breath and calmed down. "You're right. Sorry Weiss."

"Apology accepted. It's not like the shot was up to my standards either." The two of them were silent after that. After making sure everyone that got separated got over the bridge, the group of them started climbing up the cliff on the remaining aqua-duct that still touched the cliff-side. I was already halfway up and taking my sweet time with the rest of the climb.

I didn't really care about the others on the other side of the chasm, and I knew that the three I left could get them over just fine. The breeze up here was nice, and I wanted to enjoy it a little longer before getting back to Beacon. With my slow pace everyone had managed to catch up with me nearing the top.

I was the first over the ledge, using my fingers to jolt me up just high enough to get my footing. Laying on the ground in front of me was Ruby, trying and failing to lift her legging and see the severity of the injury. I say failing because the area was apparently sensitive enough that just touching it hurt. Running on it while carrying a Nevermore couldn't have helped the break.

"Hey Blondie, your sister's up here with a broken something." I said over the edge. With a yelp of concern, Yang vaulted from the rocks she was on, about ten feet down, and landed a little closer than me to Ruby, immediately trying to figure out where it was broken. "It's my leg Yang. I'm pretty sure it's broken. Her eyes flashed red for a second, remembering how Weiss made the shot. "I'm sorry. This is my fault."

Hearing the sincerity in Weiss' voice shit down any anger. Blake stooped next to Yang to see the break. With a little help holding down Ruby, she got the legging up to knee level. It wasn't pretty. Her femur was intact, but her shine bone was pressing on her skin, only staying inside because of her auras efforts. it was snapped in two.

Blake pressed on the area softly, seemingly looking for something. More yells of pain came out of Ruby before Blake took back her hand. "It's a cleaner break, no shards. She'll heal." That was surprising, considering how hard she hit the cliff. Maybe I underestimated her aura. It was also a blessing because If I had hurt her too bad she wouldn't have been able to stay.

"Then one of you want to put her on your back. I'm pretty sure we're getting graded on the time. "Yang spoke back with more than a hint of anger. "Yeah I'll get on that. Let me just..." Her body started to glow as it focused towards her hands. "Yang, no."

Blake stopped her. "Aura healing without a splint or setting the bone can be dangerous. And we have no sedatives. Do you want to put Ruby through that?" Yang's eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do. "No. And we're pretty close to Beacon. Can you wait until we get there sis'." Yang asked. "Yeah. I'll live."

A strange cracking noise drew their attention as Weiss used the last reserves of her Ice Dust to make a fist-sized chunk of ice. "Hold this against it until we get there. It will take the swelling down some." Ruby said her thanks, taking the ice n one hand and holding onto Yang with the other. With that settled we set out for Beacon, in relatively clear view thanks to our proximity.

---

"Led by... Ruby Rose." This followed by cheering filled my ears faintly as I leaned against the balcony. After doing my best to make sure I had no teams, I also had no place in there. I was alright with that. After Ruby was admitted to the medical bay, ceremonies were put on hold until they stabilized her leg. She had actually gotten to the Crutch stage relatively fast.

'Good for her' I thought sarcastically. With her trying to lead such clashing personalities, I gave that Team two weeks, tops, before they were at each other's throats. The thought of the for of them fighting in a room and Ruby dominating the space with her scythe made me chuckle. They had a moment of silence for the three who died. Kind of lucky for me as they would have become my team by default.

"Mr..." A voice behind me stopped, allowing me to finish the sentence for them. "Darren." I said." I could almost feel the head shake. "Last name." I hand't thought of a last name yet. Today had been eventful. Luckily I was staring down at a street and saw a good-looking car parked. "Bentley. Darren Bentley." I heard a few taps on glass as that was apparently noted. I turned around, seeing it was Ozpin. His many souls glittering under a green guise. His own perhaps.

"About your team, or rather, placement. You must know that there were a few unfortunate deaths. Jacob Roan, Rick Carthus, and Reyna Wild. They did not make it out of the forest." I made a face of mock sadness. "I'm perfectly fine working without a team." I told him. "I'm afraid I'm not. You see, when we founded the schools, a promise was made that a Hunter would never fight alone. In order to keep this, I must put on paper that you have been linked to another Team."

"What are the requirements for that?" I asked him, seeing how closely I would be tied to the Team. "It is your choice whether or not you share a dormitory with them. Whenever you are to go on a mission, you will be accompanied by this Team. In Team Training exercises, you will have to participate either on the outside or in place of one of the four other members."

"Do I get to chose which Team?" I asked, faking politeness. He affirmed me of my choice and I thought hard about which would be more interesting. Team CRDL was basically a group of jerks and I didn't care for it. I'd prefer to break them from the outside. Team JNPR had two important names to it, being Pyrrha and Jaune. That might be fun to break those two, but it would draw suspicion if I was close enough to do damage. I needed an alibi. "I'll officially merge with Team RWBY, but nothing closer." I told him.

"I am thankful for you cooperation. I'll inform them of your choice." He said. I shook my head. "Oh no. If I'm gonna have to compromise and join a team, which I went through initiation with a blindfold on just to avoid, your gonna have to give me a few freedoms." I told him with an edge to my voice. If he noticed it, he didn't care.

"Name your terms, and I'll decide if I accept them or not." He said, a slightly dangerous calm to his voice. It might have scared anyone else, but I had faced down greater threats smiling.

"No curfew. I want free-roam throughout the school at all hours of the night." I told him. "Everywhere that isn't inside other dorms or teacher's quarters. I'll agree to that."

"I'm not bunking with Team RWBY. I'll either be sleeping outside on one of the rooftops or camping out in the Emerald Forest." He cocked his head to the side a bit at that. "Whatever risks you want to take, go ahead and do so. Anything else?"

"Full access to Beacon's forges and armory." His eyes narrowed slightly at that. "The forges come with being a student, but you will have access to practice weaponry withing the training rooms and nothing more." His own edge was added into his voice, and something about it told me I didn't want to push my luck. Not yet anyway.

"Alright. I suppose I've pushed my luck far enough already. Are we in agreement?" I held out a hand in human custom to seal a deal. "You have pushed you luck too far, but I am a reasonable man. Your prowess shown in Initiation will be valuable to mankind and faunus alike. We are in agreement." We shook hands and at the brief contact of his aura and my power, I was able to read only one thing. Mistakes.

I didn't understand what that meant, and his aura was so closely guarded that I doubt I could get much more out without him noticing. "I will go inform Team RWBY-D of the new arrangements." He turned his back to me and walked back inside. Usually in a position like this, it would be incredibly easy for me to kill a man, but something told me once again that it wouldn't be that easy. It was almost as if I didn't have the hold on him that I thought I did. The notion disturbed me.

Wanting to clear my head and perhaps consult the force of Death in and of itself, I hopped onto the roof of the Dormitory building, landing a few feet from the edge and taking a meditative position. It didn't take long before the light of the shattered moon faded from behind my eyelids and I became once again connected to the forces I diverged myself from. Immediately the souls of the living and dead came into my mind, and I searched.

It didn't take me long to find the 'soul' of Ozpin due to my close proximity, but it was still harder than it should of been. When I 'looked' at him, it was wrong. Death has a certain look to it. When a soul dies, a replica mark is created, surrounded by a kind of miasma in the place that they died, and transferred to the afterlife after my force claimed them. The same goes for life, having a certain light to it.

When I looked at Ozpin however, it was wrong. The miasma of death was all over him and yet, through the fog, the same amount of brightness shone through. He was blurred in the unnatural contrast and I wan unable to fully focus on him. He was dead and alive at the same time.

I fear nothing, having nothing that can kill me. I can face down Grimm that could end cities with a smile, and play poker with some of Remnant's worst murderers. I could traipse through the very heart of uncharted areas like a walk in the park, and climb mountains surrounded by Nevermore without breaking a sweat. But the notion that there was a man that I did not have a hold on, that possibly couldn't die, that... Frightened isn't the right word, but it made my hair stand on edge and gave you the same sense that would make you look over your shoulder repeatedly. It was simply unnatural.

"Little help!" A shrill voice asked me. I disconnected from the forces of death and opened my eyes. A smoke had gathered around my body and dissipated in the wind upon my awakening. "Who's there?" I called out, not seeing anyone. "It's Ruby, now can you help me before I fall!?" My eyes locked onto a hand gripping the ledge of the building I was on.

Taking my time, knowing I could grab the hand instantly if I so pleased, I strolled over to the hand. Sure enough, dangling over the edge with a large cast on her leg, was Ruby Rose. A pained look was on her face as she tried to pull herself up. Sighing, I grabbed her wrist and tugged, nearly vaulting her above me. "Woah!"

I set her down on my other side away from the edge. She sat down, injured leg outstretched. "Thanks." I chuckled. "You should really wait until you're recovered before you go building hopping." She chuckled to. "Yeah, but I had a good reason."

"Now what could be important enough to climb on the roof with a broken leg?" She looked down for a moment before answering. "I saw what you did during Initiation." I froze for a moment, thinking she had found me out and knew I pulled the bird out of her path. "I saw how fast you were, and I know I'm nowhere near that level."

"Oh. Well what are you going to do with this new information?" I asked her. She kind of chuckled at me, but it sounded nervous, not comical. "Well, first I'm going to get this cast off, which doctors said should only be a week thanks to my aura. Then I'm going to get faster. Get better."

"How do you plan to do that?" I asked. Mostly because even though I knew her semblance was speed, it would still be nearly impossible for her to reach the speeds I had. "Well, that's the thing. You see, I'm the fastest person in Beacon, second to you."

I knew where this was going, and it had probability to be both incredibly amusing and time-wasting. But, I did have four years to accomplish anything I wanted to. "I need to get faster, so I was wondering if you would train me." I almost laughed. The reason for that was that I had never even thought about how I would go about training someone, and that I was probably about to pull the biggest scam, on this young girl. "We start the day you get your cast off, doctor's 'ok' or not."

"Wait, what? Yo'll train me?!" She almost squealed in excitement. "That's a yes Ruby. and, if you'd like, I'll give you your first lesson on that trick you saw when I was fighting the Nevermore." She smiled, sitting forwards more. "Sure!"

"Alright. So you saw multiple copies of me as I was slashing away at the feathers, correct?" She nodded. "What you see there is something called the After-Image effect, a sort of byproduct of something switching places in rapid fashion. When used correctly, it can confuse opponents." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Like a door stopper with the springy thing!"

I inwardly groaned at how childish she was being. Then again she was two years younger than anyone else here. "Yes Ruby, like on of those."

"Show me." She said. It wouldn't be a lot of stress on my part, so I stood up and started focusing my power into speed. "You won't be able to do this for a while, at least not full bodily, but I may as well explain how. You must first assume a base position." I stood straight with my arms slightly raised on either side.

"They you begin the motions, starting slow..." As I said this I began the instance of side-hopping at a high rate, accentuating the fact that I stopped in the same position each time. As I went faster I continued to speak, my voice beginning to warp. "And you work yourself faster until..." My body began blurring at the edges, the flashes of black signifying my transition to each position lessening to the human eye, while at the same time each of my After-Images became clearer.

"The illusion is complete." I finished, my voice warbling as if there was two, both mouths speaking the same. "That is so cool!" Ruby said, pumping her arms in the air. "Now we can take this a step further. Do you know how?" She shook her head, waiting. "We evolve the illusion."

As I said this, my After-Images became three, then four, increasing until there were six of me standing side by side. At this point, I was focusing a very substantial amount of my power into speed, and this lesson needed to end within the next few minutes. "Something you need to know, is that you can see through these illusions. I am stopping at one of these bodies, slightly longer than the other. Tell me which one." To make it easier, I dumbed down my forms to four, and waited.

She looked incredibly closely at each one of my After-Images for a solid minute. In this time, I could see her eye movement become more and more rapid, trying to keep up. Finally she gave me an answer. "The second one." I stopped moving in the position of the fourth, and walked over to her. "Wrong."

Sorry about the longer wait, but the chapter is a much longer one than I'm used to in order to make up for it. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Remember to leave a review or PM if you have any comments or ideas as to where things can go. You never know if I'll use it.