Chapter 5: Death 101: An Intro to Thanatonautics

Stumbling out of the club, I make my way over to a nearby alley before sagging against a wall. "Fuck." I curse. "Damn Junior, fucking… alcoholic bastard." Oh, yeah, Junior drinks while he works. And apparently, it was one of those things where if he was drinking, you were expected to drink.

With a groan, I turn around, bracing my forearms against the wall as I lean forwards, trying to focus my Light. Immediately, the world starts to stabilize as the alcohol flushes from my system. "Just a few more minutes…" I sigh, standing up… and feeling a sharp blade prick the back of my neck. I freeze immediately. "What the fu-"

Before I can even finish the sentence, I feel a sharp blow against the back of my head, shattering my shields. My vision swims briefly, but I cling to the Light like a lifeline and manage to remain conscious. Opening my eyes, I see a masked woman looming over me, wearing… actually, I can't really place it. Some sort of red and black evening wear? I can't see her expression through the mask, but I can feel the fury radiating from her.

"Who are you? Are you a Maiden?" She says, her voice low and menacing.

As the pain in my head recedes, I roll my eyes. "It's customary," I begin, "to give your own name before asking for another's."

After a few moments of silence, I quirk an eyebrow. "Fine, fine. My name is Izanagi Urs. And no, I'm not a woman."

The tip of her sword taps against my chest. "Don't play dumb." She snarls. "I saw what you were capable of when you were fighting my dau- fighting that girl." Interesting tidbit. I can't say I was expecting the 'concerned parent' act, but…

"I see." I say neutrally. "So, you must be Raven Branwen. From the way Yang described you, I didn't think you'd care for the family you abandoned."

She stiffens, before pushing her sword more firmly into my chest. A dark stain begins to spread where the tip of her sword cuts me. "Choose your next words carefully." She spits. "Or they may be your last."

I can't stop myself from snorting. "If I had a glimmer every time I heard that… do your worst." Closing my eyes, I brace myself for what's to come. Sword to the chest – couldn't tell you how many times I've felt this one. Usually, it isn't a human-

I can't help but flinch as I feel cold steel split my sternum, before sinking into death's cold embrace.

"URS!" I hear somebody shout. "Wake up!"

Blinking steadily, I sit upright, looking around. Immediately, I notice the… smokey… quality to my surroundings, the world around me appearing vague and indistinct. "Great." I muse. "Another vision."

A pair of pale eyes blink, staring at me. A girl wielding an elegant rapier leans over me, her white dress splattered with blood. "What?" She snaps. "I don't have time for your insane ramblings, Urs. Get up, the White Fang are rallying!"

Sitting upright, I look around. A scene of utter devastation greets me. I'm in the middle of a ruined courtyard, once-mighty pillars fallen and cracked. A broken statue lies in pieces in the center, shattered beyond a semblance of recognition. In the distance, the skyline of a foreign city smolders with a red glow, smoke and ash billowing up from the vast flames consuming the buildings.

Beside me, I can see several teenagers fighting, against a group of… animal people? Dressed in some white and black uniform, with a bone-white mask covering their eyes, dozens of humans with various animalistic features swarm about while firing indiscriminately. In the distance, ever so quietly, I hear a single question. "Do you believe in destiny?" I snarl slightly at the words, familiar anger blooming in my chest.

Before I can further react, I feel a familiar tugging on my Light. Turning to the white-clad girl, I sigh and give her a small salute. "Looks like my ride is here," I say. "See you later."

Her brow furrows, but it's too late. With a gasp I find myself on my feet, staring at a bloodstained alleyway, my Ghost waiting patiently in the center. Of my attacker, there is no sign.

I slap my forehead, before turning towards Ghost. "Great. This just got complicated."

"…" Ghost bobs up and down, staring at me. "Shut up. I'm not angry, it's just been a long day." I growl. "That bitch wouldn't have stood a fucking chance if I was sober."

"…" Despite not having a face, I can feel the skepticism in his gaze. "I'm fine. Just going to head back to the ship and find somewhere to… destress."

"…" Ghost shivers.

Omake: Stress Relief

"Sir!"

With a ponderous sigh, I turn from the ever-growing stack of paperwork towards the woman standing in the doorway to my office. "Come in." I say neutrally, voice betraying none of my exhaustion. If she's coming to me personally this late at night, there can only be bad news.

Marching forwards, she stops six feet away from the desk, as always. "General Ironwood! Specialist Schee reports as ordered!" She barks, snapping a salute, which I mirror.

"Go ahead Winter, no need to stand on ceremony." I say, waving a hand. She instantly relaxes, though nothing I've tried has ever convinced her to go below parade rest in my presence.

"Yes sir." She says, taking the seat I offer. "I've come with a special report – a large series of explosions in the mountain ranges on the western coast.

"More mining accidents?" I moan, slumping slightly.

"N-no, sir." She says, with an uncharacteristic stutter.

I perk up instantly, mind awhirl with possibilities. "Grimm?" I ask.

"No, sir. Early reports indicate a large horde of Grimm was crushed by an incidental landslide several miles away, but there were no other signs of Grimm activity in the region according to last week's survey."

"Then… what could it be?"

"Unknown, sir. Also, I have the council on the line. They're asking for your input on possible names for the new lake on the western coast. The current draft proposes naming it after the mountain that formerly occupied the area."

Turning around, I unlock the door to the liquor cabinet behind me, fingers flying through the well-practiced motions. "Come again?" I say, mouth suddenly feeling painfully dry. What on Remnant could possibly…?

"Sir!" The captain salutes sharply, before assuming parade rest. The rest of the bridge crew rises as well, offering a mixture of salutes and murmured greetings.

"At ease." I wave a hand towards them as I slump into my chair. After a brief shower, I'd exchanged my bloodstained civilian disguise for the robes of a Warlock, luxuriating in the softness of the Light-infused fibers. "I'm here for your report."

"Understood, sir." The captain says, straightening up. "The fleet has assumed position, all non-combat craft plus escorts have concealed themselves in the debris field. Our warships are waiting at the heliopause; when the Fallen drop out of FTL we'll hit them hard and warp away. Rinse and repeat to buy time for the recon team to clean out the Ketches one by one."

"An excellent plan, captain." I say. "What of the Cryptarchy? Have we made any headway?"

"No sir." He says crisply. "They are currently waiting for you to establish a connection to the Cross-Continental Transit. In the meantime, they are creating a program to automatically intercept and flag important data once we have their communication protocols."

"…Good job." I say. "If you need me, I'll be in my quarters. I will return to Vale tomorrow, and I should have the link established in the next forty-eight hours."

"Understood sir." The captain snaps back into a salute, which I return before slinking back across the bridge. Stumbling into my quarters, I lie down on the narrow bed. Not to sleep – most Risen have no need to – but instead to rest and organize my thoughts.

"It's been a long time since I had a death-dream." I muse aloud. I never was a thanatonaut – visions and dreams are by nature a fickle thing, and rarely worth the time and effort spent puzzling them out. But, dying is as much a part of being a Guardian as living, so it's impossible to avoid them entirely.

Still, the entire vision gives me goosebumps. Not the contents of the dream – I've seen worse, too many times to count. But… I know what happens to people who let visions of the future consume their lives, either to bring them to pass or ensure they never do. I've watched hundreds of Guardians march to their extremely avoidable deaths, simply because they were convinced it was the 'only way' to the future they desired.

The words of my predecessor come to mind, unbidden.

"Speaker?" I can hear myself ask. "A question."

"Ask, Guardian." The Speaker says, looking up from his instrument, a delicate thing of glass and bronze.

"The visions," I say. "How do you deal with them?"

The Speaker sits back, looking towards me thoughtfully. "That is a question that thousands of Guardians before you have sought to answer." He says gently.

I shake my head. "I don't care about them," I say. "What do you do?"

The Speaker looks at me for a moment, before laughing quietly. "I try to forget." He says. Seeing my shocked expression, he tilts his head to the side, laughing louder. "I didn't say it was a good idea." He chuckled. "But… it's the safest way. Letting visions and portents cloud your judgement is a sure path to disaster." He says, his tone turning serious. "Better men than you and I have been led to ruin by them."

Opening my eyes, I stare at the blank ceiling of my cabin as the memories fade away. "I'm sorry," I whisper to myself. "I don't know if I can ignore this." Turning to the side, I close my eyes, listening to the soft hum of the ship's engines while I make my plans for tomorrow.

A/N: I know, it's a really fucking short chapter, especially with the author's note taking up half of it. Sorry, but I don't have much time to write during the week, and I decided I needed to explain some stuff sooner rather than later. Expect the next update by Friday, which will probably be equally short, if not shorter. The price you pay for rapid updates, I guess.

I feel like this is a good point to explain my interpretation of the Light and how it will relate to Aura/semblances. For the sake of the story, I've essentially decided that Light and Aura are the same thing with different names (I will use both when referring to Guardians/Hunters respectively but consider them interchangeable). Both provide a passive barrier that protects from physical harm and are used to fuel various 'magical' abilities. From what I've gathered from the Destiny wiki, a small amount of Light exists in pretty much every living being, which matches up with what Aura is described as in RWBY- a dormant power inherent in all things, which has to be kindled/unlocked to be useful. Of course, there are a few key differences between how Guardians are made and how Aura is unlocked.

The first is that a Hunter's Aura is intrinsic to them, dependent pretty much solely on their bodies. Meaning it can't be cut off from them like how Gary cut off the Guardians in Destiny 2. A Guardian's Light is borrowed from the Traveler, which is why they lose their powers when that connection is severed. Yay for Aura, I guess.

The second is capacity. In RWBY, Hunters are seen taking vast amounts of punishment before their Aura breaks (dependent on the individual), whereas Guardians can only absorb a relative handful of bullets or a couple swipes of a sword. However, Aura seems to take several hours to fully replenish, whereas a Guardian's shields recharge in less than a minute. Imagine Hunters as having that heroic raid perk I forgot the name of that multiplies shields but cuts down the recharge to a trickle. All other things being equal it would seem like Hunters have the advantage 1v1, but having unlimited stamina and being able to come back to life without consequence tips the scales towards the Guardians.

The third is flexibility. In RWBY, every person has a semblance- just one, and as far as I can tell it's whatever fits a character's personality. I've seen some argue it's random, but… seriously? If it is, which it isn't because the writers didn't fucking pull them out of a hat, it would be the biggest coincidence in the universe that everybody in Remnant has a semblance that perfectly matches their 2-dimensional character trait. A Guardian… well, as far as I can tell their only limits are their focus, imagination, and the Light's own internal rules. For the sake of gameplay, the ways the player can use the Light in the games is restricted, but a story doesn't have those limitations. According to the lore, it seems that most Guardians choose to stick to a narrow set of skills they feel suits them best- imagine spending all your time practicing one thing until it's perfect, as opposed to practicing a dozen until you're 'good enough'. The protagonist here and in the games takes a more balanced approach – jack of all trades but master of none. Instead of a single gimmicky ability, they can chain together dozens of different techniques to obliterate their enemies.

Speaking of abilities/supers, Izanagi has all the powers you'd expect to see from the player character, though I'll probably use their iterations from the first game more – wasn't a big fan of the second. For instance, it'll be Ward of Dawn as opposed to the dinky fucking shield, and Arc Blade instead of Arc Staff. This is the player character several years after the events of the two games though, so expect a few new abilities as well from time to time. Small stuff though, mostly things that wouldn't have been in the games, like being able to summon fire as a Sunsinger. I mean, if you can manifest fusion explosives out of your soul, why not some ordinary fire? Expect a few Darkness-based abilities too, though since a Guardian doesn't have a connection to the Dark as they do the Light, they'll be largely passive/sensory. More will be explained later in the story. Also, Urs can switch classes pretty much at will. Why? I didn't want to limit him to a single class's ability, and I can't explain it away as 'having 3 character slots' in-universe.

That's it.