A Wolf, A Red Hood, and A Sneaky Smile

by jwrite

My own oc is trapped by his own power till he meets Ruby and her friends, the road ahead is a bumpy one and many haunting shadows of the past come to the light of day as the road these heroes-in-training walk is unknowingly guided by the hand of another. Also, there is going to be some lovey dovey with neo later on.

6. Chapter 6: The first step is always the

First I would like to apologize how I kind of abruptly ended the last chapter, at the advice of a good friend I will just continue on from there and not force you guys to re-read anything. I will try and avoid that in the future. Second HOLY CRAP over 900 views, thank you guys sooooo much and let's shoot for 1000. Also note, on one of the previous chapters I gave a chapter estimation, I'd like you to just forget about that, I thought it was going to go one way, but I kind of ended up adding more to the story then I can fit in the predicted chapters. Also, someone PM-ed me about the whole William and neo thing, just wait things will heat up later, I just need to set the stage first.

Oh, before I forget, last thing I promise, after I posted the last chapter the favorite's and watch's almost doubled, so I'm gonna roll with this and up the story length more compared to the earlier chapters. This actually suits my writing style more since I don't have to cut and snip stuff out as much.

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Chapter 6: The first step is always the hardest

"Well to celebrate, how about I cut your hair?" Yang asked putting a case on her bed.

"Sure."

"Ok, help me with this sheet?" Yang asks handing William the two ends of a white sheet.

The two spread the sheet on the floor of their room.

"Pull up a seat." she pointed to a chair at a nearby desk.

William complied taking the chair and placing it on the middle of the sheet and sitting down.

"So how do you want it?" Yang asked loosely tying a sheet around William's neck.

"Trim it down to about two inches all around." William replied.

"Ok."

Yang slowly begins streaking his hair between her fingers clipping it little-by-little slowly trimming it, taking special care not to touch his wolf ears. William and the girls chatted about various things; classes, what to expect, what each of the professors are like, who was the hardest teacher, who was the easiest, and so on. This went on for about fifteen minutes.

"Wow at this rate we can make another Zwei." Yang chuckled.

"Huh, I guess we might just be able to." William said marveling at the sheer volume of hair laying at his feet. He expected to have a lot of hair, after all his last hair cut was over a decade ago, but the amount was still surprising. William couldn't help but smirk at the thought of a sculpted hair version of Zwei as he looked at the dog in question sleeping soundly on one of the beds.

"And… we… are… done." Yang dragged out for dramatic effect as she snipped the final section of hair and snapping William out of his daydream. "Take a look for yourself." Yang said passing William a hand mirror.

William was really surprised; Yang had done a good job. The hair line was even and consistent. What surprised him the most was the fact there were no extrusive hairs around the base of his ears.

"Do you cut Blake's hair too?" William asked.

"No, well I haven't yet, but if she asks me I can" Yang winked at her partner "…why?" She asked turning back to William.

"I've gone to a few barbers in my life and they've still couldn't do a proper trim around my ears or worse yet some even nicked my ears." William said wiggling his wolf ears.

"Really?"

"Unfortunately, but I must really thank you, you did a great job."

"Not a problem, I've handled hairy-er jobs before." The buxom brawler asserted with her signature smile.

"Yang, enough with the puns, is this revenge for trying to kill you… because I said I was sorry?" William inquired sarcastically.

"What do you consider it pun-ishment?" Yan rebutted.

"Please stop." William and the rest of the team begged in unison.

"Well I'm going to go hit the showers and wash off some of these excess hairs." William said waving goodbye to the girls.

He dropped by his dorm room, stocked the shower caddy he forgot about earlier that morning, grabbed a towel and a change of clothes. This time I don't need the girls to tell me I smell those guys Ironwood picked were TOUGH and I worked up a sweat, he thought to himself. He walked into the shower section of the men's bathroom and noticed that no one was there. William didn't mind others taking showers at the same time as him in different stalls, but he still felt more comfortable showering alone.

Ah, this feels so good after bathing in a pond for ten years this is heaven William chuckled mentally adjusting the showers temperature to his ideal setting. So many things have happened, I'm going to become huntsmen, -in training, and I've got people who genuinely care about me. Not bad for a half Faunus Were-Grimm.

Just because the showed you kindness doesn't mean they care!

"Who said that?" William exclaimed in complete shock sticking his head out of the shower frantically looking around only to see no one there.

What the hell was that? William asked mentally thinking about the voice. He remembered he heard it before, but only now could he really hear it. The voice itself was clear and calm, almost emotionless, yet at the same time it felt evil with a dark undertone. The voice was definitely male, but not like the voice of anyone he had met so far.

Maybe I am just getting used to a new way of life and am being a little paranoid, William tried to reason, albeit not convincingly. I'm going to become a huntsman and I can finally put all those things from the past behind me, he reassured himself.

The remainder of his weekend was fairly uneventful. William got his school uniform and was assigned a rocket booster locker. The lunch lady was happy William now had his student ID, but was more interested in what he did to stay so skinny considering every time she had seen him he was carrying a small mountain of food. Monday he went to professor Goodwitch's office for an aptitude test to see if he needed to take any remedial classes. To William's dismay he did, though he was self-taught, discarded textbooks still weren't a substitute for a formal education. Albeit he still impressed Ms. Goodwitch, she was certain he would have to learn a massive amount of information, but his score showed an almost preeminent academic standing only falling short due to lack of specific information. She estimated that he would actually be fully caught up by the end of the year. They agreed to meet after her combat class until he was caught up.

Then came the fateful day, the first day of classes. William woke up, or rather he got out of bed. Despite his friend's reassurances he was so nervous about classes that he did not actually sleep much the night before. None the less a tired William took a shower, got dress, had breakfast with team RWBY and JNPR, and went to his first class in over a decade.

Much to his surprise, and great joy, it was nothing like the classes he had went to in Feign. The Faunus and human students didn't sit in segregated seating, the room was large and not falling apart, and, despite being a little fast, the teacher seemed to be quite knowledgeable and competent in his job. The thing William enjoyed the most was that it was a class about his favorite subject, history. When he was trapped in the valley, and even before that, William spent a lot of his free time reading discarded books, most of which were astonishingly historical text. William thought there was some kind of lesson or societal satire in that, but could never quite figure out what that was exactly. He was almost about to jump out of his seat with joy at how the teacher explained the facts about the Faunus Rights Revolution with a logical objectivity, while still showing some emotion towards the mistreatment of Faunus. William remembered all too well how his teacher in Feign was quick to sugarcoat or even omit the mistreatments of Faunus, but was ALL TOO QUICK to point out historical Faunus who were at fault in some way. He felt he could truly learn in this environment, free of prejudicial biases and fabrications. This was probably the only time in his life he could remember actually liking a history class. The only concerns William had were that he kept forgetting the wild green haired teacher's name and that the teacher may want to lay off on the coffee as he had downed at least five or six cups of coffee in a single lecture.

William's second period was not as enjoyable, he was a stout portly individual, appropriately named professor Port. He started talking about Beowulves and their unique physiology, but somehow managed to spin into a tangent about flower arrangement and a supposedly giant blue Deathstalker he saw as a child. William couldn't help but scratch his head at the bizarre twist and turns the professor's lecture took as it transitioned from one topic to the next. By the end of the lecture he was talking about how he and several other huntsmen had managed to take down a Goliath in the middle of a typhoon. William left that class with a large migraine and was unsure on what exactly he was supposed to take away from the lecture.

Next was lunch. He joined teams RWBY and JNPR at a table close to the windows where they asked him about his first day of classes so far. After explaining his confusion concerning professor Port's class most of the group assured William he didn't really need to worry too much about professor Port and a certain few suggested using his class for a little nap (Nora and Yang). They continued eating until all of the students received a text on their scrolls.

"Dear Students,

A group of rabid Ursa is currently rampaging through the Forever Falls attacking all those who enter, as it is only a small group of Ursa it has been decided that it would be good experience for all first year students and visiting students to hunt within their own teams. For those without a full team of four members please report to room 106 at 1pm and you will be assigned to a temporary team. Once all groups are formed we will meet at 2:30pm in front of the entrance to the Forever Falls.

~Professor Glynda Goodwitch"

"I guess we're Ursa hunting today." Yang announced.

"Do they usually do things like this?" William asked.

"Sometimes." Ruby replied.

"She said 'those without a full team of four', are there others without a full team?" William inquired.

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "There are actually a few. For our initiated class there were a total of five full teams as well as three teams of two who didn't get a matching relic. Two of those teams were put together, however the third team has had only two members. Additionally, some of the students from our initiation were… removed from Beacon for one reason or another…"

"Team PRPL." William stated bluntly.

"…Yes…them, and in addition one of the teams, team GPSM (gypsum), two of its members Stark Shadow and Monet Drake are unable to participate in any strenuous activity for the next month or so due to training injuries. About a week ago the team composed of the two teams of two, team JPIT (Jupiter), had one its members Patricia Spinel leave indefinitely due to family issues. This leaves two teams of two and a team of three, most likely you will be paired with the latter. Although there are also members of the visiting teams whose entire team have yet to arrive." Pyrrha elaborated.

"What can you tell me about my possible teammates, these JPIT guys?"

"Well…." Pyrrha stalled with the others looking like they were struggling to find some kind of description.

"They're freaky." Nora finally said.

"Freaky?"

"They don't SEEM like bad people, however something … just seems… off." Blake stated. "They typically keep to themselves. However, whenever I have interacted with them I just get this weird feeling and it's not just me more than a few people have said similar things. There have been rumors about them, none of them are pleasant."

"You didn't seem like the kind of person who'd believes rumors." William inquired directing his attention toward Blake.

"Officially Patricia was said to have left due to family reasons however, the rumors are that she was forced to leave. Patricia was a fox Faunus and the rest of her team are human. It isn't hard for some people to think she may have been bullied by her team into leaving. "

"What do you believe?" William asked.

"I'm not sure, they're not as vocal as Cardin or his team, but that doesn't mean they aren't racist."

"Well, that makes things easy, all I have to do is see for myself."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Weiss asked.

"I've been bullied before so I can get a good idea if the rumors are true, but more importantly I think I should give them a chance. I'm living proof things aren't always what they seem."

No one could disagree with William, however a few still gave him some words of caution while Yang and Nora offered to 'help' in the event they took things beyond name calling.

After lunch William reported the intended room, there he saw the three incomplete teams Pyrrha talked about as well as about eight other people from other the other schools. A few of them William remembered from his first encounter with Ruby and the others the gray haired guy he fought with and the two women from his team. William deduced that their fourth member still hadn't arrived yet. As much as William hated to go against what he said to Blake and the others, he still preferred to work with people he knew, at least a little. Unfortunately, this was not the case, while the visiting students could pick people from the other schools, students from Beacon were restricted to only other students from Beacon, most likely in the hopes of forming more permanent teams. It went as Pyrrha had predicted and William was paired with the remaining members of team JPIT.

The team's leader Jasper Chronic was a few inches taller than William. He had blonde hair and amber eyes with five horizontal scars going across is face from ear to ear and over his nose. His clothes were a red and orange t-shirt and a black and red vest with a diamond pattern, tanned pants, white socks, and brown dress shoes. He didn't seem to have any weapons, and when William asked all he would say is "he didn't need one".

The next member was a dark skinned girl with purple and green hair tied in a bun named Iris Ammolite. She had purplish blue eyes like William, freckles, and a warm smile. Her clothes were a multicolored tie-dyed tank top shirt with a spiraled shell insignia on the center of her chest, purple and green cargo pants, and white tennis shoes. She had an overly large amber Katar on her left arm. What interested William was that it followed up the inside of her arm to her elbow with a crease right down the middle. When William saw there was a quiver of arrows strung over her right shoulder and a small gladius on her left hip William concluded she was an archer who could switch from close to long range by opening her katar into a bow. When William was introduced to her team she walked up to him and greeted him with a hug and big smile.

The last member was a girl named Topaz Silica. She was a short pale girl with long straight pink hair down to her waist. The top half of her head was completely covered by a large straw sun hat. She wore a Champaign colored sundress and sandals with a floral pattern on the left side. Despite her cute appearance she was carrying nasty looking pure black claymore that seemed like she should be falling over due to the disproportion of size. William couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about her claymore made him nervous. She stood behind Jasper when William introduced himself.

After introduction the teams began to walk towards the entrance to the Forever Falls from the school. William tried to talk with his new teammates, however that proved a little difficult. Jasper and Topaz didn't seem to want to talk. While William wasn't sure as to why Jasper did not wish to talk, Topaz was an obvious case of shyness in the way she clung to Jasper and hid behind him whenever William looked at her. Iris on the other hand talked Williams's ear off the entire way to the forest. William couldn't help but make the comparison to a cross between Nora and professor Port; only to then cringe at the thought of those two being intimate.

William, thanks to his Grimm powers, could tell that they weren't "alright" in the typical sense, but he couldn't quite pin down what it was. It wasn't something that they were obsessively fixated on, yet it wasn't something they could easily forget either. All three were emitting the same kind of presence, this meant they were all feeling the same thing. William could understand if it was simply them feeling apprehensive to someone suddenly replacing a teammate, but there was no sadness or remorse in them. If anything it felt more along the lines of suppressed anger. Regardless William decided to give them the benefit of a doubt and just chalk it up to hostility towards the new guy replacing their teammate, but still kept a hand on his collapsible pocket chain knives, just in case.

William's and the other teams boarded a small airship that took them outside of the kingdom. After about a half hour flight they landed on a landing strip surrounded by several feet of concrete built several stories high. From there it was a quick ten-minute walk to the Forever Fall forest.

Despite being visited by Grimm the Forever Fall forest is still a tourist destination, so long as the ones taking the tour are willing to pay a huntsmen or two to guard them. Given the unique color of the trees and how scenic the valleys and hills waved into one another it isn't hard to see why people would visit it. However, it seems there will always be a few cocky individuals who think they can handle themselves should they be confronted with a creature of Grimm after seeing them in books or movies, only to wet their pants and die when they come face to face with the real thing. William theorized that this might be the cause of the group mission. With so many people coming to Vale for the Vytal Festival it wouldn't surprise him that more than a few people would want to see the sights. He also knew that this is a huge money maker for the kingdom and, like any kind of governing entity, they REALLY didn't want ANYTHING to harm the cash flow.

Once they arrived at the entrance to the forest the professors had the teams gather together.

"Listen up, as some of you may be aware there have been a few recent attacks in this area. We have confirmed there are at least five Ursa, however there may be more in the area. For many of you this will be one of your first real missions as huntsmen. Please treat it as such. Be aware that the scroll signal in this area is temporarily down due to the nearest relay being under maintenance therefore each of you will be given a flare gun, in the event you are outnumbered or injured do NOT hesitate to use it and other teams will converge on your location to assist you. Also note your flares will be green, while mine will be yellow. Once you see the yellow flare return to this point. If you are fighting when you see the flare disengage and retreat." Professor Goodwitch explained as two professors William did not recognize handed each member a flare gun. "This is an actual mission, not an excuse to look like a hero or try and garner credit or respect. While some of you may think that you can handle a few Grimm, I'd like to remind you that even the most experienced huntsmen can be taken down by a lone Beowulf if they are not careful. I cannot stress the importance of remaining in your assigned teams and working as a group. Additionally, we will be setting a stop time of 5:30pm. I feel I shouldn't have to remind you that it being Fall there is less daylight and it is not opportune for us to hunt at night."

Looking to see that everyone had a flare gun, professor Goodwitch then went over the basic safety of a flare gun. It was mainly just point it in the air and not at each other. While William felt this was a tad self-explanatory, but he could still imagine a few students firing flare guns at each other accidently or a few that would do it intentionally (team CRDL). Once she was done she gave everyone the signal to begin the mission.

Each team ran off in a different direction. Interestingly enough this was when Jasper began to speak up. He explained how he often walked through these woods and knew of an area Ursa might congregate. Without any better ideas the group began following Jasper running to the location. With all of his experience running to evade Grimm and Huntsmen William was by no means slow, yet it was all he could do to keep up with the other three. Despite their appearance all three of them were not only able to move very fast through the more rugged sections of the forest, but also they moved without making any sound. William was, to say the least, impressed by their skills, they may not have seemed it, but they were in fact all skilled huntsmen-in-training. Eventually they reached a wide hill with dark stone rocks stacked roughly three or four feet high across one side of the top of the hill. They stopped behind this wall. Jasper looked over the wall taking out and looking through a small pair of binoculars.

"Guess I was right." Jasper said handing the binoculars to William who was putting his scroll back in his pocket.

"It's 3:56 pm." He announced softly to the group taking the binoculars from Jasper. Looking through the binoculars saw three fairly large Ursa, roughly twenty yards away. "They don't seem to know we're here, we could have Iris snipe them from here while the rest of us can come in for a pincer attack." William whispered.

"That's a great plan, except for one thing." Jasper quietly replied.

"What's that?" William asked not taking his eyes off of the targets.

"You might live." Jasper said charging at William from behind only for William to deflect him by smashing the binocular across his face. As soon as the binoculars made contact with Jasper's face William felt a sharp pain near his left side. He turned to see a green arrow piercing into him just under his collar bone. Turning to see Iris reloading he grabbed the still stunned Jasper William and prepared to use him as a shield while rushing Iris. However, he couldn't respond fast enough as he saw Topaz's claymore coming down on his right arm severing it just below the elbow. To William it appeared as though everything was moving at an accelerated rate. Before he could even reach for his arm to stop the bleeding another two arrows courtesy of Iris pierced his chest and puncturing his left lung. The Arrows, their coated with some kind of poison, William thought weakly. Jasper after regaining his composure grabs William's left arm with both hands. Jasper's hands then turn a bright red causing red lines, like the cracks of a volcano, to form on Williams arm before it erupts in a wet crackling bang, destroying his arm from the shoulder down. Critically injured William fell to one knee glaring at his attackers with a mix of betrayal and hatred in his eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" William asked coughing up some blood.

"Why, because it's so much easier this way." Iris started looking down triumphantly at William. "You see we aren't what you would call fans of affirmative action. You think because you're a Faunus and passed some stupid test you deserve to be a Huntsmen, that's just pitiful. All you animals are good for are being in zoos and circuses. And this way is much easier than bullying that fox-bitch into leaving. You should have seen her cry, it was pathetic. She actually believed that humans can actually get along with Grimm spawn like you. Well you can't expect much from a dumb animal anyway, maybe if you're lucky one of the Ursa will choke to death on your body. That way you can at least say you did something useful as a Huntsmen. Either way we can get rid of you and blame it on the Grimm." She signaled to Topaz.

Aiming the point of her blade at William, Topaz twisted the handle causing it to glow an ominous black and crimson before two giant Grimm centipedes shot from it taking William over the wall and down the hill. The sound from the fall and the smell of blood drew the attention of the Ursa, they were watching, causing them to run towards the injured William at a breakneck pace. William was crying out in pain as the centipede Grimm ripped into him.

"So what do we do now?" Topaz asked in a soft polite voice.

"Well we can't stick around here, let's just say he ran off on his own and got killed." Jasper said.

"I wanna stick around and watch." Iris grinned.

"You are one sick bitch, you know that?" Jasper snapped walking down the hill with Topaz.

*RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!*

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Jasper asked stopping in his tracks.

He and the two others quickly ran back to the top of the hill looking down to seem an unusual looking Beowulf with one of the centipedes hanging out of its mouth like it was eating it as it unleashed a fury of slashes at the Ursa ripping the first two to pieces and working on the third.

"Where did that Beowulf come from?" Iris asked.

"Better question what happened to William?" pointed Topaz directing her team's attention to the base of the hill.

"Wow I guess he really was Grimm spawn, who knew?" Iris joked.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jasper yelled looking at Iris.

Iris and Topaz stood there frozen staring at Jasper, little did he realize it was what was behind him. Suddenly feeling a warm gust of air on the back of his neck Jasper turned his head to see the abnormal built Beowulf with its two bright blood red eyes standing right behind him. Before he could even make a full turn he felt a sharp pain in his face as he heard the crack of the Beowulf punching him in the face sending him flying to a tree at least ten yards away. Seeing their teammate sent flying Iris and Topaz hightailed it out of there as fast as they could towards Jasper with the Beowulf right on their heels.

Seeing his teammates followed by the Beowulf heading towards him at a speedy pace Jasper started running away from them as fast as he could. When they had first entered the forest the three of them were only running at about half their top speed, but despite them now running at full speed William was within biting range the whole time. After running for about twenty minutes straight Jasper and his team were beginning to slow down while the anomalous Beowulf behind them did not seem tired in the least. They knew it wouldn't be long before they were caught and they knew if they tried to stand their ground they would be struck down before they could even finish turning around. As if a form of divine intervention the group noticed a red flare shooting up into the sky. They knew this was their only chance, reaching deep they charged with one final push running as fast as their legs could carry them towards the meeting place.

Heading towards the clearing at the entrance of the forest they called out "HELP, HELP BEOWULF!" Alerting the two teachers who assisted Ms. Goodwitch and some of the students who had already returned to their predicament. Team JPIT split off into three different directions with the Grimm chasing after Jasper. Seeing this the two teachers and some of the students with long distance weapons started firing on the Beowulf in a fireworks display of Dust-based blast converging on the beast. The moment before the blasts connected team RWBY and Ms. Goodwitch had turned the corner from around a large rock directing the students towards the main meeting point. As they did they saw the all-to-familiar adherent Beowulf blasted with a torrent of attacks ending with a large boom.

"STOP, STOP, CEASE FIRE!" cried Ms. Goodwitch heading towards the dissolving Beowulf now lying in a fresh crater.

As Ms. Goodwitch and team RWBY headed towards the crater the rest of the group looked on in pure shock as the last vestige of the beast dissolved revealing a ragged and injured looking William. In addition to some scorch marks on his clothes he was missing his left sleeve and half of his right below the elbow. He was bleeding from a cut above his right eyebrow forcing him to keep his right eye closed to prevent blood from getting in it. Unable to move his legs William shakily held himself up with both arms covered in cuts and bruises.

"Th…They…." William tried to speak before his arms gave way and collapsed.

By then team RWBY and Ms. Goodwitch had gotten to him.

"William what happened?" A distressed Goodwitch asked.

"S..c..r..o…" William struggled to say.

"He attacked us, he's a monster!" shouted Iris.

"Yeah that guy's a monster!" Jasper added.

"Now hold on William wouldn't just attack without a reason!" Yang shouted back with her team agreeing with her.

"You KNEW he was a monster I can't believe that students and even a teacher would put the rest of the student body in such danger." The purple and green haired girl announced ready to take her soap box.

"Well then Ms. Ammolite would you care to explain this?" The blonde haired teacher said holding up a scroll and hitting play.

'Guess I was right.' Jasper's voice, though a little gargled, distinguishably sounded from a recording and team JPIT's eyes shot wide open. They only then realized that when he was messing with his scroll earlier that he was actually recording them.

"They don't seem to know we're here, we could have Iris snipe them from here while the rest of us can come in for a pincer attack."

"That's a great plan, except for one thing."

"What's that?"

*struggling fight sounds*

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why, because it's so much easier this way. You see we aren't what you would call fans of affirmative action. You think because you're a Faunus and passed some stupid test you deserve to be a Huntsmen, that's just pitiful. All you animals are good for are being in zoos and circuses. And this way is much easier than bullying that fox-bitch into leaving. You should have seen her cry, it was pathetic. She actually believed that humans can actually get along with Grimm spawn like you. Well you can't expect much from a dumb animal anyway, maybe if you're lucky one of the Ursa will choke to death on your body. That way you can at least say you did something useful as a Huntsmen. Either way we can get rid of you and blame it on the Grimm."

The recording ended with the sounds of William falling down the hill as he was being attacked by the Grimm centipedes. (The scroll most likely stopped recording due to hitting something on the fall)

Everyone was completely dumbfounded by what they had just heard. Many had heard the rumors about team JPIT bullying Patricia, but no one expected this level of bigotry and hatred, not to the point of harassment and even attempted murder.

"WHAT DO YOU FUCKERS WANT FROM US, EVERYDAY WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH THESE DISGUSTING ANIMALS AND EVERYDAY THEY ACT LIKE THEIR FUCKING PEOPLE, WELL THEIR NOT. SOMEONE NEEDS TO SEND A MESSAGE THAT THEY'RE ANIMALS AND THEY ALWAYS WILL BE ANIMALS!" Topaz screamed at the top of her lungs surprising even her own teammates as the church mouse began to spew course and slur one after another. "WE WERE JUST DOING OUR DUTY AS…" Topaz tried to continue before Blake slugged her.

Pulling her signature bow of "WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!" Blake screamed standing over Topaz and stunning not only her team, those already there, but also the teams who just arrived. She also earned an applause from the recently arrived Sun Wukong.

"No wonder you'd side with this monster, animals stick together." Jasper barked as he and Iris charged at Blake only to be stopped and then held up in the air by Glynda Goodwitch's telekinesis.

"I believe you have said enough." The blonde teacher said clearly holding back the urge to crush them like bugs.

"SHUT UP YOU STUPID ANIMAL LOVERS!" Topaz shrieked knocking Blake down and drawing her sword. As she raised her sword to strike the Faunus in front of her she suddenly felt an immense pain in her chest. When she looked down at her chest she saw a Beowulf's claw sticking out of her chest holding her detached heart. Turning her head, she saw a bleeding and injured William slouching behind her with only his right arm transformed. Before she could even scream William pulled his arm from her chest cavity causing blood to burst out of the now gaping hole in her chest as she and William collapsed onto the ground, he from his injuries and her as her last moments of life as she dropped her sword. Ironically, it fell from her grasp and severed her right arm in the same manner as it had done William's.

William could not hear a thing as the world around him was engulfed in darkness and he lost consciousness. Eventually William found himself floating in an empty black void; no light, a sense of weightlessness, and no sound, that is of course until someone called out to him.

"They can NOT be trusted today is proof of that." A familiar dark voice said from the void.

"If anything the fact Ms. Goodwitch and the others stood up for me and believed me over those guys says quite a different story." William smirked.

"Yes, it is true, in all of these years you have never meet humans like them before. However, how do you know that you are simply not a means to an end? Even their headmaster has asked for you to be studied so that they may uncover some of the truths about Grimm." The voice said again in its usual dark yet emotionless tone.

"Even if they are, what does it matter? I'm free from that valley. I can go anywhere, do anything now."

"I wouldn't be so sure; people saw your transformation. They will not understand and we both know when people don't understand something they fear it and when they fear something they hate it. It has been that way since the dawn of time."

William didn't know how to respond; yes, he trusted Ruby, her friends, and Ms. Goodwitch, but would that be enough. He wanted to believe SO badly that he could make it through with just that, and yet couldn't find comfort in that. If anything it made him feel worse because, to him, it seemed like he would be using them as a shield. He could always run away, but where would he go. He had no money, no history, and even if none of that mattered would he really be okay with that.

"Perhaps you need to give some more thought as to what it is you REALLY want to do and how you plan to do it." The voice sounded as thou it was disappearing.

"What do you mean?" William asked. He waited for a reply, but after what felt like fifteen minutes had passed it was clear that he was all alone with his thoughts again. Unlike before, however, it finally sunk in; that he may have ruined his only chance at a normal (at the very least normal for him) life. He must have known they were running towards the clearing, he should have known it was going to end badly if he showed up there in his Beowulf form, yet he let his anger and his Grimm take control, clouding his judgement. For the first time William felt frozen, unsure of what to do, where to go, could he really depend on Ruby and the others or would that end up becoming a burden to them? William mulled these and other questions over and over as his body recovered from the day's events. He didn't know where he was or even if he was still alive. This was nothing particularly new to William, in fact this happened several times; he had fought an adversary that pushed him to his limit and when he was sure that he had killed it or managed to escape it his body would enter into what he believed to be a comma-like state allowing him to recover more quickly. Often times he would use this time to rest and recharge his mind. However, all he could do was float in that abyss grating at his own mind about the possible outcomes of his future and what options still lay in front of him. What William should have been asking is why the mysterious voice, he only started hearing when he arrived at Beacon, no longer bothered him and why he conversed with it as though it was normal.

William suddenly woke up in one of the nurse's office's beds. Looking around he noticed that his arms were bandaged and he was in one of those light green/blue patient outfits.

"How are you feeling?" A familiar voice asked.

Turning his head William saw Ms. Goodwitch sitting in a chair next to his bed.

"What time is it?"

"A little past one in the morning. Are you hungry?"

"No-AHH" William said trying to sit up only to let out a small cry of pain forcing him to lay back down.

"Don't try and move too much you were in surgery for almost six hours."

"Surgery? Why was I in surgery?"

"When we brought you here we had our doctors gave you an x-ray and they found a number of…intrusive objects embedded in your body?"

"Like what?"

"Let's see…" She said lifting up a clipboard sitting on the table next to her. "Thirty two broken blade fragments of various sizes and shapes, sixteen arrow heads, three of which were confirmed to belong to Iris Ammolite, five spikes of different lengths and varying compositions, a piece of a bear trap was embedded in your left femur, fourteen blow darts, five spear heads, six wolf's teeth, part of chainsaw chain, two wooden stakes, about two pounds of shrapnel, and roughly three and a half pounds of bullets of varying calibers, five of which were pure silver for some reason."

"Yikes, I knew I'd taken a few more hits then I probably should have, but… wow… that is a lot of stuff."

"That's an understatement. William…why didn't you tell us about this about any of this, we would have been more than happy to remove those thing from your body."

"Well truth be told I didn't really know most of that was stuck in me. Sometimes I lose control of my power and black out…like what happened today. I don't even remember how I got to the entrance to the forest. Plus, I've had to fight just to stay alive I can't even count how many times I've been injured. But enough about that, what happened with those team JPIT guys?" William asked trying to change the subject fearing he may have said too much.

"Well, Jasper Chronic and Iris Ammolite both have been arrested and are awaiting attempted murder charges as well as a few others."

"What about Topaz?"

"You mean you don't remember?" She asked eliciting a confused expression from the young Faunus. "William you killed her to stop her from striking down miss Belladonna."

"I did?"

"Yes… are you seriously telling me you don't remember?"

"No, the last thing I remember clearly is those three attacking me. After that I kind of remember getting really angry and I remember a little bit of the chase and before I was blasted, but aside from that… not much. This type of thing has happened to me before and when it did I find out I had lost control of myself and usually end up waking up next to a dead body…or two." He added lowering his head in remorse.

"I see, well I think you will like this news." Ms. Goodwitch said trying to cheer him up. "Ms. Belladonna, before you saved her, struck Ms. Silica for making a number of racial remarks and even intentionally removed her bow."

"REALLY?" William asked almost jumping up, but stopping midway to avoid a repeat of earlier.

"Yes, while you were out she even announced she wouldn't be hiding her Faunus heritage ever again."

"Wow, goooood fffooor heeerrrrr." Yawned William.

"I'll let you get some more rest. Oh, and given all that has happened to you, professor Ozpin has said that if you need some time to yourself you can be excused from class this week." She said standing to leave.

"Ms. Goodwitch." William called stopping her at the door. "What about that Patricia girl they bullied into leaving?"

"In light of recent events Ozpin has made a formal and personal apology to Ms. Spinel, additionally she has been told she can return to Beacon when and if she feels up to it."

"Will she?"

"I don't know, miss. Spinel was always very reserved, so I didn't get to know her personally, however in terms of academics and combat ability she was quite brilliant. I'd hate to see such talent go to waste."

"I'm sure she'll come back when she's ready."

"I hope so. Well goodnight William, I'll come see you tomorrow morning."

"Goodnight Ms. Goodwitch and for what it's worth I had a pretty good first day. I just hope that the next couple of ones aren't so… extraneous."

"hehe, goodnight William."

"Goodnight Ms. Goodwitch."

-Later-

"p..please William stop…" Ruby begged on all fours covered with several cuts and bruises looking up at a familiar heterochromatic Beowulf. They were in the courtyard of Beacon at night. Neither needed help seeing as most of the yard and Beacon itself was on fire, littered with the corpses and body parts of its former students and faculty.

He stood there not moving as Ruby waited for a response, wishing that William had not taken a bite out of Crescent Rose's main connection joint causing it to break in two disabling both weapon functions. She had to discard it to allow her to retreat, only to end up cornered by her assailant.

Ruby tried to beg again "Please William we're friends aren't w-" only to feel the full force of Williams claw smashing into her left arm; she felt her arm break from the impact and then felt the piercing and tearing of his claws shredding her flesh to the bone. "AAAUUUUHHHHHHH" The Reaper cried as she flew several feet swiped aside by William only to land against something that broke her fall. Ruby looked in horror at the mangled remains of her left arm. She began to panic trying to stand up trying to use the object that had broken her fall as a means of support only to fall back to the ground toward the object. Trying to get up again Ruby froze in horror, the object that had broken her fall was her own sister.

"Yang… YANG!" Ruby cried shaking her sister to wake her up only to stop when the blonde brawler's head shook back revealing her lifeless glassy eyes looking back at her sister with a small amount of blood coming from the edge of her mouth. "YANG PLEASE WAKE UP!" The red reaper cried desperate to try and 'wake-up' her sister unable to control her tears. "PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!" She cried only to go silent as she felt the presence of her attacker behind her.

Turning her head with tears in her eyes "William why?" she begged still sitting on the ground cuddling her sister's body. The Beowulf raised his claw to deliver the final blow. Ruby closed her eyes expecting this to be the end only to hear the familiar sound of an ice dust blast.

"Ruby, you dunce get out of the way." A familiar voice cried out. Ruby opened her eyes to see a wounded Weiss using myrtenaster in her right hand to keep herself standing and William encased in ice desperately trying to break free. Her signature white dress was stained red in a numerous places. Initially hesitant to leave her sister, Ruby got up and moved towards Weiss. As she neared her she slowed noticing that Weiss' left arm was missing, she had tied her arm with some kind of cloth to stop the bleeding. "Ruby we have to get out of here, that won't hold him long."

"We can't leave we have to find Blake."

"Blake is dead, he killed her," Weiss said trying to hold back her own tears, knowing Ruby's would have burst forth a moment later.

*ROOOOAAAAARRRR!* The beast cried as breaking free of his icy restraints.

"Ruby get out of here I'm out of dust, but I can still hold him off-"Weiss was interrupted as a spike of the bone-like material common to Grimm jetted from the ground running her through. Coughing up a small amount of blood Weiss turns her head looking at Ruby. Before either could say anything the two were struck by William, sending Ruby and Weiss flying as the spike that pierced Weiss is broken at the base.

Ruby and Weiss land next to each other, the piece of spike still piercing Weiss' chest. "R..uby for w…hat its wor..th I think you were a good leader." The girl with the alabaster hair muttered looking at her partner with a small smile.

Ruby put her hand on the side of Weiss' face as a tear rolled down the side of her face. "Weiss I'm happy I got to know you."

As to signal the final scene the abnormal Beowulf charged at them running on all fours leaping up into the air to strike them down with a finishing blow.

"William, wake up. Wake up William." A gentle voice echoed.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" William screamed as he shot up in his bed. Huffing, trying to regain composure of his breathing, his eyes frantically looking every conceivable direction, feeling his heart desperately trying to break itself free of his chest, and feeling the cold sweat that literally drenched his bed as though someone had splashed a bucket of water on him.

"William calm down, everything is ok." She comforted him by hugging him tightly.

After thrashing around for a few minutes William eventually calmed down, realizing what he had saw was nothing more than a bad dream. However, he wouldn't release Ms. Goodwitch from their embrace for several more minutes until he fully calmed down.

By the time he was ready to let go of her William feared what may happen to him if he revealed the exact nature of his dream. However, she did eventually ask about what had distressed him so much. He told her that what happened with team JPIT had dredged up a few bad memories and feelings from his past. He reasoned he technically didn't lie to her, what he remembered of his conversation with team JPIT did remind him of more than a few bad moments in Feign Village, he just exempted a few details.

"Ms. Goodwitch, I think I'm going to have to take you up on your offer of not going to class today." William stated still obviously shaken.

"That's ok, take as much time as you need." Ms. Goodwitch gently smiled.

At that exact moment team RWBY rushed in each of the girls carry some kind of package.

"How are you doing William?" Their leader asked.

"Better." William replied, not fooling anyone. They could all see his eyes were red and puffy and there were still a few streaks from fallen tears visible.

"Are you sure, because you look like you've been crying?" Yang blatantly pointed out.

"It was just a bad dream, nothing more." William said waving it off. "So what brings you guys here, shouldn't you be going to class soon?"

"Nah, after everything that happened yesterday with team JPIT all students have been given the day off." The blonde brawler replied. "As it turns out those guys didn't just hate Faunus, they REALLY hated Faunus. They found boxes of anti-Faunus literature in their dorm room. Apparently they were distributing it in their spare time on the down low… and now there is this whole BIG investigation. I knew those guys were off, but I didn't think they'd be racist murders."

"I heard what you did to Topaz, are you okay with that?" William asked turning to Blake. "I notice you're not wearing a bow today." He pointed out.

The Faunus girl uncharacteristically smiled "At first I thought everyone would treat me differently, but they really haven't. Granted I get a few question about WHY I disguised myself to begin with, but that's okay. Now…now I feel like I can finally be myself, no more hiding, no more pretending I'm something I'm not. I can just be Blake."

"That's really great Blake, I'm happy for you." William smiled.

"Oh that reminds me we got you stuff." The red reaper announced in a cute manner.

William gently smiled "You guys shouldn't have."

"Well, if you don't want it I saved the receipt." Weiss added.

"I'm kidding Weiss, I could never turn down something from you guys." He reassured her. "So what did you get me?"

"You sound just like Ruby, you know that right?" said the heiress handing him a fairly big grey box in an even bigger gray bag.

William opened the box to find his combat uniform completely fixed, he couldn't even tell it had been damaged in the first place.

"I'll have you know I had a tailor who specializes in huntsmen-quality combat gear fix and reinforce your uniform's protective abilities. He used a special lightweight microfiber mesh capable of taking a hit from an Ursa without even feeling it. Additionally, we got you an undershirt with a similar fabrication. All express ordered, I might note" William lifted his hoodie to find a black t-shirt with the words 'BIG BAD' in yellow with red trim.

"I picked out the design." Yang publicized point her thumb at herself.

"Thank you so very much I don't know how to thank you."

"It's nothing, especially when we have the Schnee Dust Company picking up the tab."

William raised an eyebrow "The Schnee Dust Company?"

"Yeah, did you know Weiss here is a Schnee." The blonde brawler explained.

"Actually I didn't, in fact I don't think I've heard any of your last names, except for Yang."

"Oh Well I'm Ruby Rose, Blake is Blake Belladonna, and as you just heard Weiss is Weiss Schnee-." Ruby introduced.

"Also known as Ice Queen" added Yang.

"Hey." Weiss called looking at Yang. This however did not reach William.

"I'm sorry I think I may have misheard you, Ruby what was your last name again?" He asked with a more discerning serious expression.

"Rose, Why?" Ruby innocently replied.

"No reason, I just misheard is all." William brushed off.

Ruby couldn't tell why but she had the strangest feeling William was hiding something(s), but she couldn't figure out what.

"So what else did you guys get me?" William asked changing the subject and snapping Ruby back to reality.

The remaining gifts were just what one would expect for someone who had been hospitalized; Ruby got him cookies, not surprisingly roughly half of them were gone, but he thanked her nonetheless, Yang had taking the liberty of bringing him some fresh clothes for him to change into, and Blake brought him a book about the complete history of Menagerie. She had seen how much he loved history, especially the parts involving the Faunus Rights Revolution, so she thought he might like it.

"So what are your plans today?" Yang asked out of the blue.

William put his hand on his chin like he was stroking an imaginary beard, "well, I guess first I'm going to get dressed, then breakfast, and I guess I'll alternate between sleeping and reading my book."

"You sound like Blake." Yang commented earning a gentle smack to the back of the head from her partner.

Just then the door to the nurse's office opened and in walked professor Ozpin, general Ironwood, and an individual William did not recognize, but by looking at his uniform it was safe to say he was a police officer.

"Hello William, how are feeling today?" Ozpin asked in his usual monotone manner.

"Well better than I was earlier, so I would say pretty good. How are you today?" William politely replied.

"Fine, thank you for asking. William this is detective Holms; he is here to get your side of the story as to what happened yesterday with team JPIT."

"Ok, but can I get breakfast first I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday?" William ask listening to his stomach growling so loudly it actually had a minor echo.

"I don't see why not." The detective said. "I could actually use something to eat myself, we tried talking to those two; Jasper and Iris, boy those two can really take it out of a guy."

"Preaching to the choir." William commented. "Well since that is decided, can everyone leave I need to get dressed. Oh, by the way what happened to the stuff in my pockets I had been wearing yesterday?"

"Your scroll is still in evidence because it has the audio file of the event, as for the rest your pocket content it is in that vanilla envelope on the table next to you." Ms. Goodwitch answered pointing to the envelope to his left.

"Ok, thank you I wrote down my schedule and locker combination and I didn't want to lose that."

"You really should commit them to memory very soon." Ms. Goodwitch advised.

"I know, I will. And who collected my stuff anyway?"

"One of our nurses, nurse Plum I believe, why?"

"Just wanted know who to thank for getting my belongings or to contact if anything is missing, you know things like that."

"O..kay, well we'll be right outside if you need us."

With that everyone exited the room and William got out of bed. Standing up his legs were a little wobbly, probably from staying in bed too long. He made his way over to the table and spread the content of the envelope onto the table. His collapsible pocket chain knives seemed ok, but looked like they could use a little cleaning, the scrap of paper with his locker combination and schedule on it was also intact. Then he turned to his real concern, the real reason he asked about his stuff and who collected it. "How could I not have realized it?" He asked himself holding up the object. It was an old and weathered photo; the colors had dimmed over the years, but it could still be made out two parents holding a blonde haired toddler next to a red and black haired infant, the father was a muscular man with short blonde hair and the mother was a black haired woman in a white cloak.

"Summer, how am I ever going to be able to tell them… that I'm the one that took you away from them?" William quietly asked himself letting a tear fall down the side of his cheek.

---

Wow, lot going on there. If you think that is all for the twist and turns I have in store, well then you better sit down, because it has only just begun. Having said that I kind of have to be a dick here and say it will probably be a while before I can post the next chapter (school, job, another job, job after college, family stuff, etc). So till then enjoy life.