I had originally planned to have this out by Christmas Day, but...life. So merry late Christmas and Happy New Year.
Chapter 24: The Results of our Actions
"As of yet, we haven't found either of them. A few of my guys have semblances that help with tracking or seeing through disguises so we're sending them out, but Neopolitan's been giving us headaches for over three years now."
"She disappeared about six months ago, but I thought she skipped town."
"I see, thank you, Sergeant Bonds. That information may be helpful, thank you." Ozpin tapped on his keyboard terminating the call.
"There you have it." the general slapped his and on the desk. Given the desk's design, Ruby was almost certain it would have shattered. Headmaster Ozpin looked like he was thinking the same as he shot the general a glare.
The general only quietly mouthed an apology.
"William Beorthwulf has betrayed us- no I don't think he was ever on our side." The general grimaced. "He has intimate knowledge of Beacon's facilities and potentially possesses an in-depth psychological profile of key personnel." He said looking at Ms. Goodwitch.
For the first time since meeting the woman had the young huntress seen her look so unsure. That by itself seemed so…unreal.
Not that she was any different. She felt nauseous. William was so kind, he looked to help so everyone else. While she wasn't the most socially adept person out there, she could at least tell when if a person was a good guy or not after spending some time with them.
So, why would he help a criminal?
What was he thinking?
There had to be more to it than that, right? No one who spent so much time helping others could be bad, right?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was just going in circles. Blake spent the most time with him and was the one most help by him. Maybe she noticed something.
The red hooded huntress-in-training would have to ask her and the rest of her team when she got back to their dorm.
"I still can't believe he would do this." She let out a quiet squeak without even realizing it. All eyes moved to her.
Damn it.
"I-I just can't see why William would do this."
Ozpin shook his head, "Miss Rose, I am of a similar mind, but both the general and myself fought against William and a woman we can confirm to be Neopolitan."
"Thanks in part to the information provided by miss Xiao Long." He said gesturing to her sister as he pulled up a blurred image of a small woman.
Her sister's expression was one of confusion, like the rest of her team. "Yeah, that's her. But I didn't know she could talk. She never made a sound when we fought on the train."
"hmmm."
This time her partner stepped forward, "Professor Ozpin, do you know why William went with Neopolitan?"
"William was isolated for over a decade, so I doubt he had any prior contact. So how, or even when, would he get into contact with her?"
That was true. William spent most of his waking time with at least one of the people in this room…
"The two times he was out overnight." Ms. Goodwitch answered. "The first time when he stayed out overnight when he said he was stranded due to rain. The second time was when he left for the Forever Fall Forest."
"But how could she convince him to betray us in such a short amount of time?" It just didn't make any sense.
The general butted in before anyone could answer. "It doesn't matter." His voice burst, "What does matter is the fact he has betrayed us. He is working with the enemy and poses a threat to us all." As much as she didn't want to admit it, he wasn't wrong. William may have lacked proper training, but he was smart, adaptive, and even untrained, it still took them everything they had to hold out against him. He was strong enough to spar with her entire team. And in both situations, he hadn't gone all out.
If he really was an enemy…she didn't want to think about it.
"We have soldiers, local law enforcement, several huntsmen teams, and even some upper-year students who know what William looks like searching through Vale."
Ozpin still looked displeased, "James while I agreed to allow you to search for William, I am still uncomfortable with launching Vale's largest manhunt."
She could almost hear his fist clench, sounding more like servos than flesh and blood, "I would not have to launch a manhunt if you had arrested him and his accomplice from the start. I told you he was dangerous."
"And I told you all we had at the time was circumstantial at best. Vale does have laws and if we arrested them without any concrete evidence, not only would they be let go, but it would also tip our enemies off."
"Or do I not need to remind you that Neopolitan was merely the tip of the iceberg. We needed to find who she was working for or at least her affiliates." He shot back.
This was so awkward; it was like when dad and uncle Qrow fought, and Yang and she just wanted to walk away but couldn't because they were trapped on the couch too afraid to move.
"Uh-hm." Beacon's deputy headmistress coughed into her hand. "Gentlemen, need I remind you that team RWBY is still here."
The two looked nervously at them before looking at each other. As they backed away, they agreed with her. "Yes of course."
"What about his scroll, can't you track it?" Blake asked.
The general let out a disappointed sigh, "He ditched his scroll the moment they entered in the bullhead docks."
"Team RWBY, I would like all of you, minus miss Xiao Long", her sister let out a defeated sigh, "to go to William's last known location and see if you can gather any information."
"However, please note that I will request you return to Beacon before the tournament resumes."
"Why is that Professor Ozpin?"
The elderly grey-haired man let out a tired sigh, "As you may have already guessed, we expect something to interfere with the Vytal Festival, potentially harming the city of Vale."
She had already guessed as much. Between Blake's mission to Little Menagerie, all the White Fang activity, Torchwick stockpiling Dust that never showed up again, and a few things she got from William and uncle Qrow, how could she not see something was up. The fact she of all people could mean it was bad.
But what could she do?
/-/
Waiting for team RWBY to leave, Glynda produced a small book from her pocket and placed it on top of the desk for the three huntsmen to read.
"The Complete History of Menagerie?" Qrow asked. "Look, I know he's a faunus and all, but how does this help?"
She merely flipped to the page where something was used as a bookmark.
It was a picture.
Faded and slightly torn as it was, Qrow knew the subjects of the photo better than anyone. He should be, he was the one who took that photo.
It was of 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.
"Why did he have this!" He barked. It was clear it was taking most of his effort to not just start shouting.
The blonde woman only flipped over the photo to show the writing on the back. On the back, in horrible handwriting was only 'To William, a reminder of your future family'.
Qrow shook his head again and again.
"Is-is it possibly a forgery?" James asked after a long pause.
The greying haired man only shook his head again, "No, Summer was almost famous for her bad handwriting. There's no doubt it's hers'."
The mood in the room grew unbearably silent. None of them knew what to make of this. How had he met Summer? When?
…and what did Summer mean by 'future family'?
/-/
In an undisclosed warehouse on the other side of Vale was a makeshift bedroom featuring a king-sized bed. Normally Neopolitan hated how lumpy and uncomfortable it was, but now she honestly did not mind.
In fact, she would say this is the place she wanted to be the most.
Her's and Will's clothes were scattered across the room. They only stayed on for how long it took them taken them off when the door closed.
She made sure, no one interfere with them.
The air was heavy with the smell of lust. The last few hours had made the room so humid she could lay atop her conquest naked and not feel cold in the slightest. Not that she would ever let go of him.
Never again.
She had never admitted it until now, but she loved Will. She truly did.
They had told each other it before, but after fighting together as they did. Something just clicked. After they had made it back to the safe house, she looked up to him, his big beautiful bluish-purple eyes shining like the night sky, she told him she loved him and then dragged that lovable tall guy into the most intense kiss of either of their lives.
She giggled at how out of character she was acting.
Looking down, she saw that her favorite faunus was sleeping deeply. She took a special sense of pride in the fact she could make him wear that goofy grin even while sleeping.
In studying his features, she found how his wolf ears twitched as she stroked them and the side of his face adorable. Or the fact he instinctually hugged her as she shifted atop him. like he was trying to keep her from falling off. Whether awake or asleep, he was her toy and hers' alone.
Looking at the clock that now laid on the floor, it was around three in the morning. She had gotten Will out of Beacon around six last night.
Time sure flies when you are having fun. She mentally chuckled as she cuddled up to the wolf faunus in an attempt to go back to bed.
She would probably wake-up around ten. She could get him to Heater around eleven-thirty.
For a moment she felt like something wasn't right but couldn't figure it out.
Well, it didn't matter. After he recovered and he got fed, she could take him to Heather. Will would definitely be happy to see her again.
/-/
Sitting on his chair, leaning against the wall so that only two legs touched the floor was a red-haired bull faunus with a perpetual scowl on his face.
Several members of the White Fang were gathered around waiting for further instructions. He had already lost a few members to the Grimm they were forced to collect for Fall's plan.
The leader of the Vale branch shifted his gaze to the witch's only lacky in the room, "Is she coming?"
The young silver-haired man merely shrugged, "She tells me as much as she tells you."
"Why does she even keep you around?"
Mercury shrugged, "If the only other person you had working for you was a borderline stalker, wouldn't you want someone who wasn't trying to sneak into your bed at night?" he snarked back.
A few of the grunts looked at each other. A few nodding in agreement while others seemed to be imagining something else.
"Fair point."
The newest recruit seemed only to be agitated by the conversation. "Human." He growled, "what about the Were-Grimm?" his bronze wolf ears were twitching with anger.
The teen merely looked at him for a brief moment, apparently only now realizing he was the only human in the room. To his credit, it didn't seem to faze him all that much, or at all. "First, the name's Mercury. Second, probably dick deep in a pint-sized assassin." He shot back. Quickly adding, "You can go look if you want. Voyeurism isn't my thing."
The recruit in question only growled as a few of the grunts chuckled. "Why you-"
"Might want to put your dog on a leash there Adam."
"I'm a wolf faunus you jackass."
Before he could retort, Mercury's scroll buzzed. As he took it out, his eyes shifted and he sighed, "Well, that was fun. If you need me, I've got work to do."
"Sit doggy, sit." He smirked having to get one last word in.
The recruit made the lung at him but was stopped by the shoulder by his lieutenant.
/-/
Sitting on her favorite couch was an impossibly tall woman known as Heather Ophiuchus relaxed cuddling up with her favorite fox in her arms.
This always comforted her before she needed to take action. It reminded her of better days.
She was garbed in a toga-like dress that started pure white, almost blending in with her naturally pale complexion, and progressing to the last inch of hot pink at the bottom. She wore matching high heels with a woven pattern that extended up her long porcelain legs stopping just short of her knees. Around her waist was a brown leather sash that matched her eyes baring a golden emblem of an Ouroboros with the head resembling a human woman's with flowing hair. Strapped to it was a kopis on her left hip. Her left arm wore a small bronze shield with four spherical Dust crystals embedded in its center in a cardinal formation.
Looking down, she noticed how Patricia cuddled up to her so readily. It had always been that way. Even if she did not invoke her aura snakes, she could passively emit a calming presence. Though she would be remiss to mention that the bite of her aura projected serpents would instantly bring a person into the most relaxed state they could ever be in- save for being dead.
It was this calming effect that allowed her to be so successful at hypnosis. Since she could just have her snakes bite someone to lull them into a serene, almost trance-like state, it allowed her to skip all the rapport and coaxing that hypnotist normally had to do.
Of course, like regular hypnosis, her semblance could be resisted if a person was aware of it or had a strong enough will.
That was the reason she couldn't force that bitch Cinder into being her pet. That woman didn't deserve to be one of her children, at best she deserved to be their dog. Granted that Emerald girl would probably enjoy that scenario.
A light chuckle escaped her lip stopping Patricia from falling asleep in her arms. Before her cuddly fox could ask, "Sorry, you were just so cute, I giggled a little."
Seemingly accepting it, she closed her eyes and cuddled up against her even more.
Stroking her hair and ears, Heather smiled. All she needed to do was complete Salem's quests and she could protect all of the children from the Grimm. She would raise them to worship Salem who would keep her end of their deal and keep them safe and secure.
She will create a world where children never have to suffer again.
A crashing sound roused both of them and after sharing equally confused looks, the two made their way to see what it was.
/-/
"Come on, just three or four more." The Beowulf begged. "I used up a lot of Grimm the day before yesterday."
Emerald was standing between the creature and a caged Ursa, "No, you've already eaten four, anymore and it will impact Cinder's plan."
She looked to the pint-sized woman for help but did not find any. "Neo, call off your pet."
Rather than doing so, the pink-haired woman seemed like she was contemplating something else. That smile on her face made her not want to ask.
If cinder hadn't told her not to do anything to him, she would have already put two shots in his head. And a stake in the heart for Neo.
And a rail spike right up Mercury's ass.
Suddenly the tall woman, Heather, her pet, and the silver jackass himself all walked in. "About time. you got here."
The young man only shrugged. "What so important you had to text me?"
William looked at Neo and the two seemed to have a wordless conversation. then the Were-Grimm grinned, "Emerald wanted to know if you wanted to be part of a foursome." The midget stated. She honestly couldn't believe that not only that she could talk, but that her voice seemed so normal.
The team's kicker smirked before stroking his chin. "Sure, why not." He said in such a casual manner.
Emerald just smacked him. "Help me keep him from eating more Grimm." She pointed to Will only to realize he had moved.
Upon hearing the sound of bending metal, she turned to see the cage forced open and an admittedly scared Ursa had its entire top half concealed by the toothy maw of an enlarged Beowulf head. Slowly the lower jaw was moving the help push the creature further into his mouth.
Her partner just muttered, 'cool' and took a picture of it. Eliciting a growl from Emerald.
"Well, what do we have here?" the white-haired woman asked entering the room. Her little fox bitch trailing behind her with the punk equivalent of Mercury nowhere to be seen. And behind her was…Cinder.
Oh crap.
"C-Cinder, I was-was just feeding William." She tried to cover up her actions as intentional. To his credit, William did not correct her and just simply finished eating. It would have been comical to see such a massive Grimm slurped up like spaghetti if it wasn't for the fact, he could do the same to her and was literally within six feet of him.
As they approached William took them both in. especially Heather, he seemed a little shocked by her above-average frame. Or it could have been her beauty.
She would never go for anyone other than Cinder, but even Emerald could admit Heather was both a lot to take in and was overall easy on the eyes.
"Hello William how does this day treat you?" the pale amazon asked as saccharine words flowed from her mouth. Her expression shifted if only for a moment before reverting to normal when William replied, "Pretty good; all things considered."
"Well, that is good to hear." She turned to her, "Emerald, dear, can you please go get Adam. I think we can start our meeting now."
The green-haired woman felt nothing but indignation at the woman thinking she could tell her what to do." To her horror, Cinder told her to go get the animals.
/-/
Moving from the room they kept the Grimm in, a space that was previously used for storage was converted into an impromptu meeting room. There were two folding tables brought together with five seats brought to it. One for Cinder, Heather, Adam, Neo, and William.
Neo and William took one side of the table with the other three on the opposite table. She stealthily took his hand under the table. She knew if she didn't help him here, she would regret it.
Adam's lieutenant and a recruit with wolf ears were behind him. Emerald and Mercury behind Cinder, and behind Heather was a green-hooded fox faunus, a dark-skinned woman dressed like a belly dancer covered in green feathers with dark blue hair and a young man with a purple mullet.
"So, you're the legendary Were-Grimm." Adam began the meeting seeming somewhat surprised by William's appearance.
"I am." He responded as though there was nothing of significance. "And you must be Adam Taurus, I've heard a lot about you."
"All good I hoped."
William seemed uncertain of how to answer. "If by good, you mean you are hated by huntsmen. Then yes, all good."
The terrorist only chuckled, "that is good."
"How is Blake doing?"
The Were-Grimm visibly froze looking for an out under Adam's abnormally intense glare. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he spoke. "You can be happy that no other man will be with her." He replied with a forced chuckle.
Oddly enough, this seemed to actually please him.
Heather cleared her throat, "Now that pleasantries are out of the way, we have more pressing matters to deal with."
Her eyes focused on William. They gave off a kind smile but still held a cold underlying presence. "While
I am glad to have you here. There is the matter of what is it that you desire."
The dark-haired faunus looked at her, his shortened ear twitched, "What I want? WHAT I WANT?" his voice shot up several octaves, "What I want is…" He calmed himself, "what I want is to get my loved ones away from all of this. I don't care if the rest of Remnant burns."
Those present didn't seem to doubt this. His eyes had a smoldering anger and determination. Adam, despite his recruit, seemed to node slightly in approval. Given that he and Neo had already made a move against Beacon both in attacking both headmasters and killing some of Ironwood's men, there weren't a lot of options for him.
The only exception was Cinder who shared a look with Heather. The taller woman flashed her a knowing smile. The pyromancer's eyes flared figuratively before losing their heat. She seemed to begrudgingly accept whatever silent explanation or reason she presented.
William seemed to pick-up on this despite not reacting to it. Maybe he could discern something about them she could. Neo really didn't know but could at least tell he had something planned.
It would be best if he could avoid the fighting.
"And if we can ensure the safety of those you care about, are you willing to aid us?" the tall woman asked.
Studying her for a moment, he nodded, "yes. I'll help."
"However," he continued, "I would like assurance that teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, and Ms. Goodwitch are unharmed."
The two women shared another look.
After a few seconds, Cinder spoke up, "I will be needing him on my end, so I'd like to bring him along with me."
"What do you think Adam?"
"I have no objections. If anything, his presence will sow more fear and confusion."
"Well, that's fine by me, but I would like to ask about him." he pointed to the wolf eared recruit. "I don't know why, but he's been directing a lot of anger towards me."
For the first time, the recruit spoke up. "Can't you already tell what it is?"
William only chuckled, "Unfortunately not. I can only sense emotions."
"-Granted, certain emotions can be tied to memories, you seem to actively be trying to keep me from reading your emotions." He quickly added.
The grunt stepped forward and removed his mask, revealing a pair of purplish-blue eyes.
-at the same time in Ozpin's office-
Ozpin noticed his scroll was ringing, with the police commissioner on the caller ID no less. He tapped the screen.
"Hello Commissioner, what can I do for you this evening?"
"Yeah, Ozpin I'm afraid I have some news for you." He said in a ruffled, but solemn tone.
"What is the matter?" Ozpin asked in his usual cool demeanor.
"First, I want you to know that besides myself only three other people know this; detective Holms, the lab technician who performed the test, and the police chief O'Brian."
"I understand, but what is this about?" He asked.
"It is with regards to that Were-Grimm you have at your school, we got something off of the DNA test we ran when we took him into custody."
He knew Vale PD was having budget problems before William showed up, but he didn't think it would take this long. "I wasn't aware William had a criminal record."
"Well, he doesn't at least not directly. However, most of his family does; his mother was caught stealing from a grocery store in Feign Village, though was never convicted for some reason, his father was convicted of excessive force almost twenty years ago, but that's not the surprising part."
"Then what is?"
"When he was in the station that night, he told the police chief he was an only child, but that was a lie." He sneered.
"Commissioner, with all due respect, I examined William's background myself, he does not have any siblings."
"DNA doesn't lie Ozpin. And it's not just that, his brother is none other than Jacob Callisto, a.k.a. the 'Moon Hound'!"
Ozpin's eyes opened as fast and as wide as they could. "What?!" Ozpin let out with a shocked tone few had ever heard him utter.
"You heard me, that pet project of yours is the half-brother of a violent psychotic member of the White Fang!" He roared.
/-/
As the grunt removed his mask all doubt of his claim were dismissed the second they saw his face. He looked to be around the same age as William, maybe a year or two older. The family resemblance was undeniable, he looked like an older bronze haired version of William without the scar over the eye or cut wolf ear. They even had the same purplish-blue eyes.
"Who are you?" William finally asked.
"Jacob Callisto. I decided to use my mother's maiden name." he smiled.
"Aside from appearance what proof do you have that you are my brother?" William asked with the red draining from his eyes.
"You and I are the sons of Phillip Beorthwulf a.k.a. Fenris Mingan." William's eyes widened as big as dinner plates. "About twelve years ago our father and your mother were a team of huntsmen who were set to protect so dumb humans who tried to get too…friendly with some creatures of Grimm and ended up needing saving. The two saved them, but according to the official report Fenris died, but that's not the truth, the truth is he faked his death."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" William roared at the top of his lungs forcing those there to cover their ears. "THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT MY DAD JUST ABANDONED US LIKE THAT!" He roared again, showing a greater bloodlust in his bright crimson eyes than what most would expect. William began to transform.
There was no way his father would do that. His mother loved that man and she always told him what a good person he was. There was no way he would abandon them.
Those present had already grabbed their weapons and were ready to defend themselves.
Neo place her hand on his claw. He looked at her and she shook her head. Her eyes told him not to. The mismatched irises always had a soothing effect on him.
"Sorry." He apologized. "My parents are a touchy subject for me." The Were-Grimm elaborated as he returned to his normal form.
For what it was worth, the bright-haired older version of Will seemed to understand. "I haven't lied to you."
"I know."
"But perhaps you are just as much a victim of his actions as I am. We can discuss this later."
"I would appreciate it." from what Neo knew, the last couple of days had been a regular emotional rollercoaster. She could only imagine what would happen if someone stacked 'finding out you have a long-lost brother' on to the list.
Everyone, other than Adam, seemed to be surprised by the development. Heather looked especially intrigued by this.
"Do you also possess a consumption-based semblance?"
Unexpecting the question, he looked to Adam for what to do. His boss just nodded. Perhaps he wanted to know the answer as well.
"Um, no. My semblance is your common speed boost."
Why was he looking so timid about this? Neo couldn't help herself from mentally asking.
"Oh," William added, "I don't know why, but that reminds me, for some reason. Heather was it?" the woman nodded. "Can I see you after this…alone."
Normally, Neo would have been a little apprehensive about leaving Will alone with another woman, but this was Heather. Heather. She could trust her.
Yet that still left the question of what he wanted to talk with her about.
Cinder gave the taller woman another look. As a response, she merely gave her a coy smile.
This only elicited an eye roll from the red dress witch.
"We can talk after we discuss your role."
/-/
The meeting continued for a few minutes longer as they discussed the plan, what everyone's roles were, and coordinated their positions and locations for when it was time.
In exchange for not harming the selected people, William would be attacking VTV. Primarily when Lisa Lavender would be giving the evacuation notice for people to head to the shelters. From there, he would cause chaos in the streets and lure Grimm into key locations to cause as much chaos as possible.
Afterward everyone except Heather and William filed out. Leaving the two alone.
Heather herself was almost glad for it. Adam and his lot were easy enough to deal with and Neo was already under her hypnosis.
If it wasn't for Salem considering it a power move, so would Cinder and her cronies. However, her mistress had expressly forbade it.
Cinder was such an arrogant prick that she believed herself above all others. It didn't take a doctorate in psychology to know she was doing this to cover-up some deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and feelings of helplessness.
That pyromantic bitch questioned her at every single solitary moment. She wanted even a moment of weakness or mistake to try and subvert her command. It honestly felt like he had an annoying little sister who wanted to tattle on her to their mother the second she got a chance.
This was also the reason she couldn't tell her that William's hypnosis had somehow been faulty.
When she met with him earlier, she used a key phrase she had programmed into his subconscious. If things had gone the way they should have, he would have replied with 'It's a lovely day'.
William had already demonstrated a fair bit of resistance, but that shouldn't have been enough to negate that mental command. There was something else going on.
Was it only that one command that did not take effect? Or did he remember everything?
No, his body language said he did not know her. She was a seven-foot two woman with long white hair with pink tips. She stood out. There was no way in Remnant he would have looked at her that way if he remembered her.
Since he was being so compliant, perhaps it was just a simple error with that one command.
"So, William, what did you want to talk about?"
The Were-Grimm smiled from his seat across from her. Before she realized it, a loud bang echoed the room and intense pain shot through her abdomen.
He shot her.
The only reason she could think calmly and realize this is that she already had her aura up. while there was no permanent damage, like with a bulletproof vest, there was still the impact that caught her off guard and had her slightly bent over.
Before she could reach for her sword, he flipped the folding table causing her to stumble backward into her chair. He then fired three shots through it.
All three hitting her in the chest. His grouping was tight enough to feel her ribs creak as the air was forced out of her lung.
As jet black claw burst through the table, she managed to grab her blade and cut both the table and his arm in half.
Not even seeming phased by the removal of his limb a fanged maw came straight for her face. She managed to deflect it with an upward shield bash despite the force of his charge pushing her backward only for a regrown left claw to go straight for her throat.
She tried to use her shield to knock him loose, but her shield was firmly locked in his jaw. His fangs already pricing the metal and were poised to remove a chunk of it should he fully bite down.
Before she could use her sword, he restarted the charge in earnest. This time increasing his size exponentially and with it the force of his charge.
Before he had only been six feet tall. Now he was over eight feet and growing. Both in height as well as musculature.
His lumbering form forced her off her feet as he charged forward, literally stomping her former chair into pieces. Before raising her by her throat and slamming her headfirst into the concrete floor.
Her brain rattled as he grew two more arms to hold her down as his unused right arm pointed a 9mm handgun close to her head and continued to fire.
He was determined to kill her. Both arms were pinned down preventing her from breaking loose. In addition to the repeated firing at point-blank range against her skill- each shot causing excruciating pain- with each shot she diverted more and more aura from her throat to prevent herself from dying due to the gunshots.
However, this just made his grip on her throat tighten even more. It was as if he was giving her the choice to die due to strangulation or a bullet to the head.
The irony of the whole situation was that she was the one who had ordered the room outfitted with sound isolating foam. Meaning that despite the repeated gunfire, no one would be any wiser as to what was going on here.
As she felt her neck creak and pop, ready to snap as her face started to turn blue from lack of oxygen, the white-haired former huntress summoned all the strength she could to her core before kicking both legs upward to knock him off of her.
It was only for a moment, but while he was off-balance, he accidentally loosened all three of his grips enough for her to slip out from under him.
This didn't deter him as he turned around and charged at her. She sheathed her kopis into her shield before drawing it in a single fluid motion, the blade now a pale blue. An icy trail followed the path of her blade before erupting into a jagged icy wall that locked the Were-Grimm in place.
Or it should have before his head shifted to that of some type of reptilian Grimm and started emitting an extreme amount of heat.
Within an instant, he had loosened her ice prison enough to shatter it with pure brute strength. She tried using the trigger in the grip of her shield the shift the Dust chamber to another element, however, William's bite from earlier had destroyed the shifting mechanism. Leaving her with an ineffective chamber of ice Dust he could easily melt through.
Rather than continue to fight a losing battle she decided to make a run for the door while projecting her aura snakes to stall him. much to her surprise, her instincts forced her to abandon the plan and duck and roll to the side.
As she did, she felt something whistle past her and make a wet and gooey splat against the door. Looking up, it was like someone covered the entire door with black tar with bits of bone peeking out.
From his mouth, the creature fired several more, large globules of the viscous Grimm substance. Each forcing Heather to dodge and roll. She might be able to block one with her shield, but she neither knew what that substance would do to her nor wanted to find out.
Tripping over a piece of pipe, she used her ice Dust infused sword to create a wall thick enough to shield herself from the sludge-like substance.
Rather than maintain a safe distance, he charged at her.
As she jumped back, her former shelter was shattered like glass. His momentum wasn't even slowed in the slightest. If she didn't do anything, he'd trample her. The image of her crushed flesh flashed before her eyes.
Then it hit her.
Rather than dodge, she chose to take a stance. Prepared to tank the hit with her shield.
And tank it she did. It was like being hit by a sixteen-wheeler. Her feet dragged against the concrete, grinding and cracking under his impact and the force he was direct towards her. All four of his claws were crashing down on her shield. The metal creaked as sparks flew like fireworks.
She was worried that the Dust capsules would rupture. That might help her.
Sadly, all the shield did was bend as he continued to force her against the wall. Had he read her emotions and avoided the capsules?
Each swipe of his claws was like trying to dam a river with her piece of twisted metal that was becoming less like a shield with each passing strike. Any strike she couldn't block and even the ones she did were chipping away at her aura bit by bit.
Every heavy swipe felt like he was witling away at her. Not just her aura, her legs and arms felt like they would give out at any minute. He was like a savage beast that never relented.
A dark thought crept into her mind. Did he have the stamina of a Grimm?
No, she couldn't let herself think about those things.
She just needed to hold on a little longer. Waiting for that one opening and when she saw it, jammed her sword into the creature's abdomen which she knew as his real body's chest.
Even though his red irises she could tell he hadn't expected this. The exterior sizzled and steamed due to his superheated skin, but she could feel his insides freezing. His transformations were only placing a layer of skin or scales over his real body, underneath it all, he was like anyone else. And the fact he couldn't use aura in this state made him even more susceptible to these kinds of tactics.
As the Dust infused into her blade ran out, his scales cooled, only admitting residual heat, not producing more heat.
He just stood there.
She pulled the blade from his chest with a crunching sound as the shift in force caused him to fall backward.
An even louder crunching sound was emitted as he hit the floor. The Grimm suit started to evaporate into a large plume of ash.
She knew William could heal, but that only applied to physical damage, it shouldn't apply to flash frozen organs. Even if the frozen organs broke, the connecting ends of veins and arteries were frozen as well. There was no way he'd be getting up any time soon.
She would have to clean this up before Cinder had a chance to find out. She would need to change the plan, minimizing William's role so that he could be missed.
She gritted her teeth and tossed what remained of her shield as she let several profanities slip. He was supposed to be her child, her obedient child. He would have been such a monumental asset, instead of just raw material for their experiments.
She let off a heated sigh. Salem would be furious that things had not gone as planned. She might very well lose her ability to become a maiden.
She readied her scroll to call Patricia for cleanup when she suddenly felt a flash and then shattering of aura. Before she could even process this, she felt her head hit the metal pillar that was behind her.
Looking down with wabbly vision she saw her scroll on the floor. Looking further down, there was a large white thing extending from the body.
But what was strange was that it was turning red. A crimson fluid flowing down it to the body as it dripped onto the floor.
What was that liquid? Her mind pondered before the pain finally reached her. The spike had pierced her abdomen, bypassing the ribcage, and entered into her chest cavity.
She attempted to scream, but there was nothing but a gurgle as more of the red fluid gushed from her mouth.
Ah, that's what it was, blood.
/-/
It took several more minutes for his internal organs to thaw. So long as his brain and heart still functioned, the rest of his body didn't matter too much.
He was truly grateful she didn't strike higher and that he had extended the length of his legs to stabilize the form. Otherwise, she might have hit him in the chest and would have had a higher chance of freezing his vital organs.
Now that their boss was dead, he could get Neo out of here and call Ironwood- well Ozpin- and tip them off.
He knew he wouldn't be able to go back, but if it meant the others were safe, he could live with that.
The hardest part would be convincing Neo to abandon Roman Torchwick. He knew it wasn't a great plan.
She might even hate him for it. The fact he stole the gun she kept under her pillow probably didn't help. However, so long as everyone was safe, it would be enough.
Standing over the body of the woman formerly known as Heather. She was the first person he killed. The first person he chose to kill. Everything before that was someone else, his Grimm side or Neo.
He felt so sick seeing her empty eyes looking at him.
The young faunus took a moment to close her eyes. It was the least he could do.
He soon regretted taking the time to do that. "Heather, how are things going? I brought Tea and cookies…" a fox faunus with ears and a tail entered the room.
Shit.
/-/
Patricia Spinel had just one goal in life; to help her surrogate mother, Heather, complete her goals. To do this, she had even killed her own brother.
She was amazed when he saw that Heather had turned the incomprehensible monster known as the Were-Grimm into her child. She had been nervous, but it was Heather.
She could do anything.
Yet, laying in a pool of blood with said monster standing over her, was the woman she swore to devote her life to. The only family she had ever truly known. The mother she loved was…dead.
"HEATHER!" The woman screamed at the top of her lungs. The door was still open as the cookies and tea fell to the ground.
She kept screaming as she rushed to her mother's aid. "HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEATHER! HEAT-"
In her grief and desire to help her mother, she had completely ignored the Were-Grimm. Even if it went for her throat.
/-/
"Okay, okay." He ventilated while failing to keep his breathing steady. "I can still make this wor-"
An alarm started blaring so loud William used all four arms to cover all of his ears. However, despite this, he could still hear the thumping of boots running towards him and the clattering of guns and swords.
Double shit.
/-/
Franklin Nattier never envisioned his life going this way. All he wanted to do was to be a dentist. That was it. well, and help his mom move into a bigger apartment.
When the school denied him financial aid for 'lack of academic merit', a.k.a. being a faunus, he took it as a setback.
When he tried to get a loan for a car so he could get to his job at a sandwich shop across town but was only able to do so through a predatory lender for a fucking 40% interest, he took it as one of life's challenges. You need to spend money to make money. Or something like that.
He took it on the cheek and considered it an investment.
When a woman complained to his manager about his beaver tail as unsanitary because he caught her trying to steal the napkin dispenser…well he was pretty pissed about that.
However, the final straw was when his mother was dying of cancer and he couldn't afford to treat her. When her physician didn't even try to hide how he felt about faunus and suggested taking her to the vet to have her put down. He snapped.
He spent the last two years in prison for assault and wasn't even able to attend his mother's funeral.
It was when he was at his lowest that he met the White Fang.
He believed he would be making a difference. That he could make sure what happened to him never happened to anyone else ever again.
Instead of that, he was dying in a pool of his own blood trying to keep his intestines from spilling out after having his abdomen slashed open by a blood-drenched monster.
Now the humans from Cinder's and the other woman's factions, along with the rest of the White Fang here were in the middle of a chaotic brawl.
Perhaps adding salt to the wound was that the monster was having what seemed to be a lover's quarrel with the little pink-haired girl who kicked Perry's ass last week for eating her ice cream from the freezer.
"Will, what in Remnant are you doing?" she yelled flipping off of the beast's back before delivering a devastating heel dropkick right on top of Deery's head causing her to fold like a house of cards.
He honestly didn't even know she could talk.
Grabbing the base lieutenant's chainsaw, his face morphed into that of a large lizard, and started breathing fire directly into the tall man's face. His aura protected him to some degree, but the heat caused the mask to melt on his face eliciting several screams of pain.
Tossing him back into some oncoming troops he replied, "The best way to end this is to take them all out. If we can hand over the White Fang. And since I killed the boss of the whole thing, we might be able to negotiate for Roman's release." His voice cracked as he spun around to take out a grunt who had tried for the Neo woman.
There was a brief pause as the room seemed stunned by his statement. Several of them blinking in confusion.
It was the short girl who finally spoke, "Will, did you- do you believe Heather was the boss here?"
Probably very confused by the turn of events, the Were-Grimm merely asked in response, "Isn't she? I mean the way she acted, you'd think she had Cinder and everyone else working for her."
The woman wearing the red dress' eye seemed to twitch before a bow of black glass materialized out of nowhere and she let loose a volley of similarly constructed arrows the exploded upon impact. Anger was plastered all over her face.
The first shot was shallow, but still managed to rip the Grimm off of him revealing a section of his opened rib cage.
However, it closed just as quickly.
Continuing his assault, he used their numbers against them. As close as Cinder came to hitting him on several occasions, the pseudo-Grimm's form kept shifting to avoid the arrows when it was certain they would have hit him.
By whatever twisted god created Grimm he managed to even split his Beowulf head down the middle to avoid an arrow and it just fused back together.
And when he didn't do that, he dove into groups of White Fang members using them as shields and ammo to fire back at them.
One poor tiger tailed bastard was pulled in front of an arrow and thrown at the woman like an impromptu grenade. The act had forced her to retreat where she swore he would regret that.
Both of them ignoring Neo's plea to stop all of this, clearly not believing his plan would work. Though he felt he heard a pained sense of concern for the monster in her voice.
Maybe this was why his mom had told him not to date humans.
This time Adam joined the fray. In one fell swoop, he had horizontally bisected the creature just below the ribcage only for an ominous black sludge to erupt from both severed ends and drag the pieces together before melting back together.
He tried to turn around to strike the bull faunus, but a shotgun blast to the face stunned him long enough for the White Fang's leader to let off a savage string of attacks slicing his body in a flurry of red, sometimes clean through, only for it to heal just as quickly as the flesh was cut just like before.
For what it was worth, the others provided supporting fire either by bullets or arrows. For however much good they did. Like with the slashes, the wounds from projectiles healed in an instant.
Even Cinder's exploding arrows were only a temporary inconvenience and none of them could release a full barrage as they risked hitting Adam.
With each swing of Adam's sword, the monster retaliated. Each strike getting more precise and at some point, he began pushing Adam back further and further. An uppercut from the creature resulted in a thunderous cracking sound from Adam's ribs.
As a counter Adam kicked him in the face as he was knocked off the ground. Followed by a shotgun blast to the nuts to prevent his pursuit.
"And you wonder why Blake left." The beast taunted. "Well, that and the small penis."
The beast bore down upon him as Adam charged with a feral snarl preparing to draw his sword and cut him down again. Yet this did not go as planned. The creature had moved faster than before and had gotten too close for Adam to strike him with his sword.
The raised claw promised pain until. until he… stopped? He looked around confused seeming like Adam had disappeared.
Even Adam himself seemed confused by what had happened.
Suddenly an icy blue bite mark-like pattern appeared on the Were-Grimm's throat. In the next moment, the new recruit barreled towards the creature at an impossible speed decapitating it in an instant with a matching large frost Dust infused Dagger.
As the severed head reached the arch of its elevation, its arm grabbed the recruit by the arm before flailing him against the ground like a child slinging around a ragdoll before tossing him towards Cinder's forces.
Mercury managed to dodge, but Emerald wasn't so lucky as the force of the impact had her crashing through a nearby crate.
Bursting from the frozen stump was a fresh new head, oozing a tar black substance with a braided bone plate covering most of its face. Its red orbs promising carnage and burning with hatred.
"Will stop already." The short woman yelled but was knocked out of the way by Cinder. Seeing this enraged the monster who let lose a roar like thunder as it charged the pyromancer, plowing through glass like crystals that had materialized from her glowing sleeves, claws clashing against two blades that manifested like the now gone bow.
Another bite mark pattern appeared on his left arm and like before the wolf faunus zipped at intense speeds as his dagger cleaved the arm clean, just below the shoulder, strangely where the bite mark had been previously.
The Were-Grimm unphased as Cinder took the opportunity to stab him in where the kidneys might have been. Instead, he plucked the arm, still in the air, and used it as an impromptu club to swat them both.
Cinder managed to jump back enough to only be sent skidding a short distance while the wolf faunus was sent flying into a nearby Mercury who had attempted to aid them.
His fellow White Fang members kept unleashing volley after volley of bullets that he effortlessly shrugged off as he rampaged through them. None of them were more than cannon fodder at this point.
One with a sword tried to get in close only for him to grab the charging grunt by his head and left leg before lifting him up and delivering a devastating drop onto his knee with such force everyone heard the man's spine snap.
Some had their arms or legs broken. Some were impaled on his claws. Others he simply ripped their heads off with his teeth. It seemed aura or not, the second he got his teeth into someone, that body part was lost.
He could scarcely imagine the horrors Beacon was planning if they were keeping such a monster around. Had this been the instrument to the rumored genocide Atlas was planning?
The beaver faunus had always believed them just paranoid ramblings, but if Atlas and Vale were keeping such monsters, it might not have been so cray.
Recovering, the dark-skinned woman's red eyes burned like that of the Grimm beast himself. She transformed her firearms into sickles and charged only to be blocked by a parasol.
"Neo?!" the woman exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to stop this from getting out of hand."
If she wasn't so angered right now, she might have listened, but even Frank knew the green-haired woman had it bad for the dark-haired woman. "He's going to ruin Cinder's plans. He's no longer of any use to us." She punctuated her statement with a downward slash.
As she said that, a polished white boot connected with her chin in an upward high kick before her aura was forced to focus on a single point as the boots twin connected with her chest in a midair spin kick.
The two stood off trading blows, Neo only trying to bleed off Emerald's aggression so she could talk to her and keep her off of Will before they were both shoved out of the way by a black bone-clad chaw bigger than their heads.
Neither knew why until a wave of red energy came rushing past them, bisecting the Grimm and this time disintegrating much of what was between the two halves. Including much of his left arm and the entirety of his abdomen.
This was his fabled Semblance. Frank had never seen it himself, but other members who had said it was so powerful that unless someone had huge aura reserves or focused their aura on the line of the swing of his blade, they wouldn't be able to stop it. despite its charge time and requiring him to take damage,
Maybe Adam didn't notice or didn't care, but Jacob had attempted to attack him from behind only to get caught in Adam's attack. Like his brother, Jacob was bisected in half. The slash had entered his left shoulder and exited his right him. the force of Adam's attack had been so intense that his aura could not endure the strike.
He was dead. That was all there was to it.
His body landed not too far from his brother's. Though it appeared that the younger one had survived the strike.
At least he thought so. He had long known his time had come. Frank just wanted to see how it ended before he did, but it seemed he couldn't hold out any longer.
/-/
Those who could still stand cautiously inched towards the Were-Grimm. All except Neo who rushed to his side, tears welling in her eyes.
"Sorry, my plan fell apart Neo." He morbidly chuckled. The short woman merely shook her head. "No, I should have been more careful. I should have done more. I should have-"
She was cut off by a finger to the lips. "Neo, I love you. I will never blame you and you should never blame yourself." His words were caring but had a cold realism to them.
"Wi-Will, come-come on. You can recover from this, right? R-Right?" she stuttered a little, hoping for her plea to be true.
He only gave her a warm caring smile that was like dumping a bucket of cold water on her. This was it.
"Hey Emerald, Mercury, I have a present for Neo in my desk drawer back at Beacon, do you think you can give it to her, it's in a little black box." He asked in a faint voice that seemed to reach the entire room somehow.
Emerald and Mercury gave each other a look and then to Cinder, not sure if they should answer.
"I'll make sure they do." Cinder stated in her usual calm manner.
"Thank you." William softly smiled.
Neo started to tear up. "Will…"
"Neo, I want you to make me a promise. No matter what happens, I want you to get this Torchwick guy out and stay alive."
Neo tried to get past the lump forming in her throat. "What… Will… I…"
By this point, the lower half of his ribcage was beginning to disappear.
"Cinder, I want you to make me a promise too. Make sure Neo gets out of this alive, otherwise I'll come back for you and when I do, you'll regret it." William spoke with a weakened voice that did not diminish the venomous glare that made even Cinder take a step back, but she did not respond.
"William, please…don't leave me." Neo cried as the dam finally burst and her tears began to flow with no signs of slowing down or stopping.
"Hey Neo." William weakly smiled. "You still have to do one more thing for me." He started recalling their bet from before.
Neo looked him in the eye not sure where he was going with this feeling the anxiety as the remainder of his arms and chest were rapidly disappearing. The less of his body that remained it seemed the faster it disappeared.
"I'd like to ask for one more kiss before I go- if you don't mind." he grinned looking at her with the same love in his eyes he had always done.
"Sure Will." She spoke softly and lowered her head kissing him goodbye.
It wasn't a kiss of passion or sadness. No. This was a kiss of something different. Neither person knew why, but it felt like they were a couple kissing each other goodbye in the morning as they went their separate ways for the day knowing they would see each other again when the day was done.
Neo didn't want to stop, she kept kissing him. she wasn't sure as to why, but somewhere in her mind, she prayed that maybe, just maybe, by the grace of some divinity, this kiss would keep him alive. Keep him with HER.
Sadly, this was not the case. Neo felt William's kiss disappear from hers. She didn't want to see him fade, but she had to.
As she opened her eyes William's face below the eyes was already gone, but that didn't matter. The first and only thing she noticed was his eyes. They didn't convey any kind of hatred, fear, or sorrow as one would expect. All Neo could see in William's eyes was a mix of love and something he tried to convey with his eyes, something she couldn't explain. It almost seemed like his eyes were saying 'Thank you'.
In the next instance, William was gone as the last vestige of him disintegrated into the air.
/-/
"Where am I?" William wondered aloud seeing he was floating in an unfamiliar void as opposed to the usual one he had grown accustomed to.
"Oh, that's right I died." He said flatly. "Wait, does this mean… THIS is the afterlife?"
"Great ANOTHER floating void, even the place with fire sounds more interesting than this, I mean I can barely stay awake during the usual void, and at least that one had someone to talk to." He lamented.
After was felt like several minutes, or maybe hours, the first rule of never-ending voids is that time doesn't flow like it normally does, William began to accept this may be the end of the line. However, in an instant out of nowhere a white light appeared before him and sucked William into it.
Blinking, trying to adjust his eyes to the light William looked around his surroundings unsure of what had just happened.
Once his vision returned, he realized he was in the middle of a small, but a comfy kitchen with wooden walls.
"Will! Remnant to Will!" A female voice called out from behind him.
Turning his head, he saw Neo sitting at a table behind him wearing a Neapolitan themed nightgown. She seemed older, by at least a few years than the last time he'd seen her, though the most notable thing about her was that she was clearly very pregnant.
"Will, pay attention to the food!" she called out to him.
William turned his head forward to see that the food, presumably a pancake (or possibly a lump of dried tar based on appearance) in the frying pan he was holding was starting to smoke. Acting without thinking William flung the frying pan tossing the abomination into a nearby trashcan.
"Will are you sure you're okay?" Neo asked with visible concern. "I mean if you're too tired to cook I don't mind making breakfast."
"I'm fine Neo, just kind of hard to focus on cooking when I've got a wife who somehow manages to glow radiantly while pregnant and the thought of our little girl running around soon, I guess my head's elsewhere." The wolf Faunus shrugged.
Wait, I'm married! To Neo! And we're going to have a child! William mentally shouted watching the events unfold from his own perspective, but not able to move or speak on his own. It was as if he was watching his own life through his eyes like they sometimes did TV shows to show the point of view of a character.
"Nice try, but sweet talk doesn't cover-up those bags under your eyes. Let me guess; basic Search-and-Destroy mission, you got overzealous in eating Grimm, and then either got hooked on the flavor of one particular Grimm and start hunting it to extinction, again, got invited to celebrate, got drunk, and went on a drunken Grimm-genocide, again, or got an idea for your book and spent all night writing…again." Neo stated flatly.
I'm an author?
"Neo you know I can handle my alcohol."
"Will you get fall-down-drunk after half a beer." She shot back with a deadpan expression. "Remember the Christmas party when you tried a half cup of eggnog and ended up getting stuck in Weiss' chimney pretending to be Santa."
Holy crap, I'm still a lightweight! William mentally blurted out.
"Oh yeah." He said with a pleasant reminiscent smile, "Well, it's a good thing I wasn't drinking." William said trying to save face.
"Then what were you doing because I know you came home around two in the morning and slept on the couch."
"How would you know that?" William asked.
"You know us pregnant ladies, we have to pee every twenty minutes," Neo said rubbing her inflated belly.
"Well, I think you'll like this," William said dashing into the adjacent living room. Looking around his home gave off the feeling of a comfy log cabin; wooden floors, stone stacked fireplace and an assortment of cozy-looking furniture seemed to give it such warmth. Folding out the couch William found the presents he had hidden under the folding bed so Neo wouldn't find it. Judging by the condition of the three overly large red bags one might think that they had been dragged through a war zone.
Checking to see that the contents were unharmed William quickly ran back into the kitchen.
Handing the bags to Neo she took an item from one of the bags and let out an "Awwwwww" as she looked at the pink little onesie with a monkey eating ice cream on it.
"Oh, Will I love it. Did you get ALL these yourself?" She asked seeing as there had to be a few dozen adorable sets of clothes for everything from seasonal wear, to everyday wear, and oodles of small, adorable socks that, for reasons William couldn't figure out, Neo acted all gooey over. Neo herself estimated that there were enough outfits to last their child from birth to at least age three, maybe even four.
Neo's head shot up from looking at the bag to looking at William. "This must have cost an arm and a leg."
"Normally you might be right, but one of the people I saved in the search and destroy job after the wall was breached was so thankful and since he owned a baby store, he was nice enough to let me raid the clearance bin."
"But I thought Huntsmen weren't allowed to take anything outside of the pay for the mission?"
"normally yes… but what the mission committee doesn't know, won't hurt them." He winked.
"Heh, I'm starting to rub off on you." The triple-colored woman smirked.
"Yeah, I guess you are." He rubbed the back of his head, "Hey, since pancakes are a bust how about I just take you out to breakfast?"
"Oh, I know let's go to that pizza place down the road, I can get avocados, mushrooms, saltwater taffy, and chocolate chips on my pizza. Oh, and with barbeque sauce. No, wait steak sauce. No, wait, barbeque, AND steak sauce."
"Cravings again?" The wolf Faunus smirked with a slight cringe at the concoction even he wouldn't eat.
"Yeah, and they just keep getting weirder."
"Well, when one parent can eat almost anything and the other eats ice cream to the point, they're more ice cream than human weird cravings are to be expected."
"Speaking of which we need to get more ice cream. We're running low." Neo said looking like a little kid begging their parents for a new toy.
"Really?" William asked in utter disbelief. Walking over to the fridge and opening the freezer door to show it almost completely filled to the point of bursting with pints of ice cream of every conceivable flavor, save for a couple of other items.
"Well, if we finish off the peas, throw out the ice trays, and you finish your frozen pizzas we can have enough room for a good three or four pints," Neo stated cutely as she began licking her lips.
"The sad thing is I can't tell if this is the pregnancy talking or regular Neo talking," William stated closing the freezer.
"Probably both." Neo shrugged. "Oh, and don't forget your niece is coming over this weekend."
I have a niece?
"That sister of yours is really lucky, not many people could say their partner committed a hostile takeover of the Schnee Dust Company, bought up and diverted resource into genealogical research to find a little girl with silver eyes, just so they could have a kid."
"That's Weiss for you, she'll go through an army of Grimm after rewriting and passing Faunus labor laws just to see Ruby smile, but blush and then faint when Ruby proposed. Though I have to say they gave that little girl the most stress-inducing traits possible from both of them. Between Ruby's recklessness and Weiss' icy personality, Tiffany can wear you out."
"But that's what makes her so cute."
"You're just saying that because you're her favorite aunt and you both love pink." William smiled.
"Yeah…" She began cheerfully, but then lowered her gaze.
"Neo is everything okay." He asked stooping down next to her.
"I still can't believe it's real, I keep thinking this is all a wonderful dream and any moment now I'm going to wake up and be back working for Cinder."
"Neo, this is real, what we have is real." He comforted taking both of her small hands in his own.
"I know; it's just sometimes I think I don't deserve it… that I don't deserve you. You risked your life for me, you fought the entire White Fang, Cinder, and the rest of us just to take me with you." She said as her eyes began to water. "Even after that you tracked me down, got everyone to accept me, and then gave me a life I thought I'd never get a chance to live. Will, I truly believe you are my savior." She began to tear up.
"Heh, it's funny I keep thinking about how you saved me. You were the one who gave me a reason to move forward instead of just working running away from my problems, you helped me accept who I am, what I am, and in three months you will give me the greatest gift possible. It's me who should be thanking you Neo. You gave me a reason to live." He closed in for a kiss.
As though on cue William, the one watching from within his own body, was ripped out of this world in the same way he appeared in it. In the next instant, his world was rapidly fading to black, but he felt no fear, but just the opposite, he didn't know why, but he felt that what he saw was a vision of things to come.
"Everything is going to be okay." He smiled disappearing into the abyss.
/-/
"Uh, what happened?" William let out in a groggy, and given the pounding in his head, probably concussed voice. He hadn't opened his eyes but could tell he was lying on his stomach on something that was pricking him in multiple places. "What was I doing-" he began before his fight with Cinder and her forces began to flood back into his mind. "Oh crap, I can't believe they blasted me in half." He brooded over feeling the still-fresh pain in his chest and neck. That was until he felt a sharp chill all over his body. Standing up he quickly realized why he was cold.
"WHY THE HELL AM I NAKED?!"
Looking around William made another discovery he was surrounded by thick woods and at least two or three feet of snow all around except for the small patch of forest floor that was unnaturally free of snow he was standing in the middle of.
"Where the hell am I?" William grumbled before transforming into his Beowulf form to keep himself from freezing. A decision he would soon regret. The instant William's transformation had finished he felt an overwhelming volley of negative emotions; fear, anger, distrust, and paranoid hatred in both volume and frequency that he had never imagined was even possible. William fell to his knees in face of the massive onslaught of negativity; even if his Grimm-form enhanced his sensitivity to negative emotions this was something else entirely in both volume and magnitude.
After several minutes curled up in a ball, William managed to adjust to the maelstrom plaguing him. Standing up William listened to his surroundings, he could faintly hear something. A sound that he couldn't identify due to being so far away. Not seeing any other choice, he began moving towards what he believed was some vague sound of what could, he hoped to, be civilization.
Staggering and stumbling every couple of steps. Despite his healing ability and natural strength, the damage from his battle with Cinder took its toll in spades.
Not surprisingly he eventually crossed paths with a Beowulf and tried to consume it to regain his strength. What should have been a simple one-second slaughter turned into a two-hour-long battle. William knew he was hurt, but that didn't even begin to explain his weakness. If one was to compare William's current fighting ability to that of which was the norm for him then one would expect the same kind of difference in strength from that of an infant and a professional wrestler. It only took a few steps for his legs to tire and for the most part, all he could even do was simply to dodge by the narrowest of margins. The Beowulf in question was nothing special, seeming to William to be a few years old if even that. Yet his punches, which could normally topple full-grown Alphas seemed to be less effective if he was hitting him with a squeaky hammer. If not for a tree branch from a dying tree falling and momentarily stunning as the beast swung at him William would have most likely lost a portion of his throat. Seeing the opportunity William mustered the last of his strength and bit through the Grimm's neck as hard as he could, decapitating the beast in the process.
Having just delivered the final blow William fell to the ground exhausted. After a few moments, William felt enough strength return to chew and swallow the Grimm still in his mouth. Even if it was still a small portion of Grimm, it was better than nothing for someone in William's state. Feeling a tiny surge of strength return after he swallowed, he managed to sit up, crawl over to the Beowulf corpse, and slowly continued to eat his kill. Thankfully his saliva still did its job, and the deceased Beowulf didn't disintegrate.
William was forced to eat slowly; he didn't even have the strength to eat in his normal gusto. Looking back this might have been the first time since he became a Were-Grimm that he had ever taken the time to eat his food so slowly.
After finishing off the remains William leaned against an adjacent tree to digest his food. "Well, that took long enough." He quietly lamented to himself looking up at the sky seeing that the last vestiges of sunlight, what little there was through the dense grey clouds, were beginning to fade.
"Looks like I am camping tonight. I don't see any rock formations I can use for shelter, so I guess I'm sleeping in a tree tonight."
For William, this was nothing new, during the earlier years of his stay in the Valley of Grimm he was often forced to sleep in trees, usually due to the circling pack of Beowulves that had chased him up them.
As time progressed and he became stronger this naturally decreased, with the exceptions being when he went out exploring or scavenging for supplies and ended up not being able to make it back to his cave before nightfall.
Even in top condition William still didn't like the idea of being attacked by Beowulves while he was sleeping. The thought concerned him more given the sorry state he was currently in. With some effort, William climbed into the nearest tree that looked like it could support him and tried to get comfortable. He knew he still had a long way to go.
William spent most of the night mulling over his conversation and fight with Cinder, mentally berating himself for his fatal mistake. When his mind finished mentally chastising himself, he soon found himself trying to stop his paranoia of what Cinder's plan may have entailed, or to be more precise, what it meant for his friends and family.
William knew they were all skilled Huntsmen, but against that kind of power, even they would be in for a substantial uphill fight and that wasn't even the half of it. Granted Cinder was a force to be reckoned with in her own right, however, there was just something that seemed…off. He couldn't figure it out, but there was something more to Cinder than just that power of hers, something that made even William sweat. His thoughts would spend untold time running that night through his mind, and, for brief periods, his vision of his and Neo's future selves, until the bindings of sleep finally shackled him.
The next day was more of the same as he continued to cross paths with more Grimm. William was thankful that the encounters were in small numbers and consisted of immature Grimm. If he was attacked by a large pack of Beowulves, or Oum forbid an Alpha, it may have been the end of the line.
He still had trouble fighting, but nowhere near the same difficulty as the previous day, and with each victory, he was granted a small semblance of his former strength back. On the second day, he had managed to come across a large granite rock which he ate and then used his semblance to produce a crude sword. He didn't have the strength to carry any kind of armor, so it would have to do.
His journey continued from there, only stopping to uses his semblance to eat whatever was nearby, trees, rocks, etc., and to take up shelter in a nearby tree as the sun began to set. He was truly thankful it did not rain, the last thing he needed was to spend the whole night gagging on the smell of his own wet fur.
He continued his journey completely in his Beowulf form. William had never really cared about wearing clothing so much after gaining his powers, or at least as much as most people would think. Truth be told William was of the thought that, if not for the enhanced bombardment of negative emotions, his Grimm fur was more practical than regular clothing. It could repair itself, fit his body perfectly, adjust itself to allow him to cool off on hot days or keep warm during cold nights, and could even produce razor-sharp bone spikes for protection.
Let's see a pair of pants do that. He sometimes thought when his mind drifted to the topic. Not to mention the fact it perfectly concealed and protected his manhood, a feature that paid off more times than William liked to think about. His only complaint was not being able to stand the smell of wet fur.
On the third day after hours of walking William finally came to a large sign next to the side of the road leading to a large facility a few miles further down. Coming to closer William read the sign aloud "Schnee Dust Company, Atlas Headquarters 20 miles."
Wow, how many people saw that coming? Seriously, I actually want to know. Though I think it is about time that I explain William's character base as well as his brother's. You see I gave them each the first name of the Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm (I prefer William) and Jacob, also I gave the name of the brothers Grimm's father, Philip, to William and Jacob's dad as well. Naturally, I had to make a reference to the Big Bad Wolf who appears in a number of their stories, however, the Brothers Grimm aren't the only ones with stories about wolves.
For William and his brother, I wanted to do something special, something along the lines of the Norse Myth of Skoll and Hati, the two sons of Fenrir. Hati chases the moon and Skoll chases the sun, both trying to eat their prey (where I got the idea for William's semblance). However, there is one other thing I think I should address; William and Jacob are designed to be a Yin-Yang (night and day) kind of set. William's last name means "bright wolf" and his mother's name is Dawn (sun), he likes spicy food (the sun is hot), but typically dresses in dark clothing. While Jacob's last name means is one of the ice moons of Jupiter. Naturally, this is a cold reference and thus he dresses in more vibrant colors. It should also be noted that in Greek mythology Callisto was the name of one of Zeus' lover and the daughter of Lycaon (the original werewolf). So yeah, I just had to do it. If you think I'm done there,
For those wondering, I based Heather on the Greek myth of Lamia. That was the reason for the snakes and the whole 'my child' thing. Furthermore, Heather is a purple-pink-flowered Eurasian heath that grows abundantly on moorland and heathland while Ophiuchus is Greek for snake bearer.
It is somewhat with a heavy heart that I say two things. The first is that this is the final chapter and the second is that I do not know if I will actually make a part two.
Strangely enough, I had originally planned years ago to have William end up in Atlas. The fact the story is there now is just coincidence.
When I first watched RBY, the characters, the colors, and especially the fight scenes got my blood pumping. Now, however, I just don't feel that way. Try as I might, it feels more like a chore to watch the new episodes as opposed to the early seasons where I looked forward to them.
If you still like RWBY, that's fine. Enjoy what you like. But for me, the magic has faded.
I originally wrote this fanfic to get better at writing. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would get 50,000+ views. I am eternally grateful for that guys. I mean it.
So, if it's not too much, can you leave a review on what you think of the fic as a whole. What you liked, didn't like, and so on.