RWBY: Rise of the Shadow

by MalMaelstrom

Picking up after the conclusion of Volume 2. The Kingdom of Vale is now faced with the daunting reality that their home is not quite the safe haven it was once thought to be, and even as the Army moves in, something darker and far more sinister than anything anyone has ever faced is coming. Rated Mature for strong language, violence and some gore, and some sexual content.

8. The Tournament

Chapter 7: The Tournament

A deafening roar of cheer erupted across the stands of Amity Colosseum, the bright blue sky and surrounding clouds echoing with the cheers of thousands of students gathered in the stands. Several days had passed since the mysterious appearance and disappearance of Diabolus, and now, a week later, it was anything but foremost in anyone's mind. The Vytal Festival had kicked off with a bang, and the corresponding tournament was now in full swing in the massive floating stadium that now overlooked the city of Vale. The students of Beacon Academy were joined by the many students of Shade, Haven, and Atlas Academy as well, human and faunus alike, and the first round of the legendary Tournament was under way: the Round of Teams. And at that moment, such a match was going full throttle.

Team RWBY of Beacon was facing off against Team ABRN of Haven, and it was a matchup that many students of Beacon were eager to watch and spectate. Team RWBY had practically become minor celebrities in the last several weeks, as the Team that had caught Roman Torchwick. So it was no wonder many, many Beacon students were eager to see how this fight would turn out. Team JNPR especially were eager to watch their comrades emerge triumphant, and as they watched the fight become more and more intense, it was quite a nail-biter.

Separate from the crowd, Noir Harceleur was watching the fight with keen interest from a spot underneath the stands that placed him on the same level as the arena floor, underneath everyone else in the crowd. It was the only spot that afforded Noir any respite from the cacophony of clashing noises in the stands above, which for his hypersensitive ears was agonizing, and he never particularly liked crowds to begin with. Ironic considering that his style of combat involved getting up close and personal more often than not, though admittedly in combat it was something else entirely.

As Noir watched on from his secluded spot, he had eyes only for one member of Team RWBY: Yang. The buxom blonde was in her element, both figuratively and literally, facing off against Team ABRN's dark-skinned fire wielder in the lava field half of the arena. Noir could not help but admire Yang's sheer tenacity on the battlefield, her ferocity, and her sheer enjoyment of the thrill. Yang lived for the adrenaline of the battlefield, and as Noir watched her in her element, he was deeply intrigued by her enjoyment of the thrill, and how this particular trait of hers contrasted with Noir's complete lack of emotion in combat.

Noir could see the fire in Yang's eyes as she clashed with her opponents, the enjoyment, and the satisfaction she got from experience the rush of adrenaline from fighting in such an intense battle, and it intrigued Noir, for it seemed to make Yang, if it were possible, even more beautiful in his eyes. Noir watched intently as Yang fought in close quarters with ABRN's leader, Arslan Altan, in an intense hand-to-hand fight that seemed to intensify more and more with every moment, and as their fists collided, a shockwave burst from between them, knocking both of them back several feet. Noir couldn't help but feel rather impressed at Yang's endurance, and as he watched her charge Arslan, he noticed an increase in her speed, due to the hits she had taken. Noir winced as Arslan used a trip wire to knock Yang off balance and then viciously kick her into the ice section of the arena, following up with a another kick that knocked Yang flat on her back.

"Come on, Yang, get up..." Noir muttered under his breath but then, right as Yang was about to be taken out for good by Nadir Shiko, an Ice Dust round froze him in place, and Noir smiled. Ruby had Yang's back, and Weiss had hers as she took out Bolin Hori from behind seconds before he attacked Ruby. Noir watched on as Team ABRN seemed to gain the upperhand, with Nadir being thawed out and Reese Cloris knocking Blake on her back. However, things turned in Team RWBY's favor when Blake, using her speed, semblance, and weapon in a lethal combo, knocked Reese right out of the arena, a hit that depleted her Aura to below the level needed to continue.

Yang meanwhile was pursuing Arslan across the ice, firing rounds from Ember Celica to propel herself forward, and as Weiss froze Bolin and Nadir in a giant fist of ice, Arslan had to go out of her way to thaw them, shattering the ice fist with ease. Noir then watched as Weiss created a slide of ice, Yang propelling herself forward on it as Blake used Gambol Shroud to sling her partner at the remaining members of Team ABRN, with Yang delivering a devastating punch that knocked all three of them out simultaneously, securing the victory for Team RWBY.

"Yeah!" Noir grinned and cheered softly to himself, impressed at Yang's sheer strength. As Professor Port announced Team RWBY as the victors, Noir slipped out of the Stadium and headed for the fairgrounds, taking flight and gliding down from the Colosseum. As he landed he stretched a bit, his wings folding to his back and blending with his trench coat as he walked over to a nearby vendor and waited. He knew they'd be down soon enough, as he could have heard Blake's stomach growling from miles away, and the fairgrounds had the biggest selection of food vendors he'd ever seen. He had already enjoyed a particularly good fruit salad from a vendor not far from where he was standing. Sure enough, a few moments later Noir spotted Team RWBY walking across the fairgrounds, and he smiled to himself as Ruby jumped up and cheered loudly.

"We DID IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis anyone else starving...?" Ruby ended her cheer of triumph with a tired groan of hunger, hunched over with her stomach growling. Noir chuckled to himself at Ruby's adorable moment, and started walking over to the group, and it wasn't long before Yang spotted him.

"Noir! Hey!" The blonde waved excitedly, and Noir smiled, moving over to them a bit quicker and nearly losing his balance as Yang attacked him with a huge hug. He smiled a bit as he returned the hug, regaining his balance as Yang released him with a wide smile.

"Hi, Yang," Noir said, smiling in a way no one ever had, a legitimate smile. "I saw your fight with Team ABRN, good work out there!"

"Heh, thanks!" Yang grinned and winked at him. "Did you expect anything less?"

"I suppose not." Noir smiled at her before turning to the rest of the team. "Ruby, Blake, Ice Queen, nice work out there." Ruby smiled and Blake grinned a bit while Weiss frowned at the use of her infamous nickname, and, looking from Noir to Yang, who, as Weiss noticed, were holding hands, raised an eyebrow

"I'm supposing you two are dating now?" she asked almost sarcastically. Noir, in response to this just raised an eyebrow as though saying 'What the hell do you think?'. But it was Yang who spoke what he was thinking.

"Well, duh! How'd you not figure that out by now?" Weiss's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Ruby and Blake both took a slight step back.

"I...I was...I was being sarcastic!" Weiss sputtered, completely taken aback by Yang's blunt confession. "And how?! You two only went on one date, and it wasn't even a proper date, which he stormed away from, and it's not to mention you two are total opposites and have barely spoken to each other since-" Weiss was cut off as Blake smacked her hand to her mouth and smiled at them.

"We're happy for you two," the cat girl said, smiling from one to the other. Noir smiled a bit and nodded to Blake, thankful that Yang's partner, at least, was okay with it, and then looked to Ruby, who still looked mildly shell-shocked. Ruby was looking from Noir to Yang and back repeatedly, as though trying to process the fact that Noir and Yang were, in fact, dating, and the longer she went without speaking, the more worried Noir started to become.

"Um...Ruby...?" Noir was getting uneasy now as Ruby simply stared at them, and finally, Ruby shook herself and then smiled up at Noir and her big sister.

"Just, um...be nice to her, and um...make her happy!" Ruby managed to say, and Noir smiled down at her, nodding in full understanding of what she was asking of him. Ruby then smiled and gave Noir a hug, eliciting a legitimate smile from Noir, who hugged her back.

"So...I believe I caught something earlier about getting food?" Noir smiled, looking at Ruby, who's stomach instantly growled audibly. Yang laughed and grinned.

"Come on, I know just the place!" Yang began to lead the group towards a vendor not far from where they were standing, with Noir next to her and the rest of Team RWBY following close behind. They didn't get very far before a familiar voice spoke behind them.

"Hey! I think it'll be hard to eat without this!" All five of them turned around to see Emerald Sustrai holding Ruby's wallet. Ruby, going wide-eyed, started checking all her pockets rapidly as the green-haired girl chuckled. "Good to see you, Ruby!"

Ruby smiled happily at Emerald and skipped over to her. "Hey Emerald! It must have fallen out of my pocket...ugh, girl pockets are the worst!"

"What's up, Em?" Yang smiled as she waved to her. Noir, however, in contrast to the four girls, did not greet Emerald, and didn't even smile, going poker-faced the second he saw who it was. Emerald, on the other hand, upon realizing Noir was standing there, thanked her lucky stars that her blush wouldn't show, because seeing Noir there caused her face to heat up in embarrassment. She couldn't help it. Ever since watching Noir fight Pyrrha she had become fixated with the dark brooding bat, and for all her smarts and wit, she had no idea how to approach him. Thankful that her blush wouldn't show, she continued to smile widely at everyone.

"I just left the stadium after watching your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!" Emerald praised with rather convincing enthusiasm, and while it convinced Ruby enough for her to shyly protest whilst trailing off, Noir could tell by her tone that Emerald wasn't being very truthful. He thought intensely to himself, his flat expression never even flinching as multiple possibilities came to mind, and it wasn't until Yang nudged him a bit that he came back to reality.

"Babe? You okay?" Yang asked quietly, looking rather concerned for him, and Noir couldn't help but feel that he was being rather rude despite his circumstances, and he nodded before managing to force a small smile, looking at Emerald and speaking up.

"I saw your team's fight as well, Emerald. You four were quite something." Noir paused only for a moment, his red eyes staring right into Emerald's. Emerald could see the suspicion in Noir's piercing gaze, and was thankful when Weiss spoke next.

"You know, I feel like we never see your teammates."

Yang nodded in agreement. "Why don't we grab some celebratory lunch together?"

"Oh! That's...very nice of you, but my teammates are very introverted..." she then added in a whisper as Mercury, not far away, sniffed at a boot and winced, "...very socially awkward."

"Ooooooh, yeah, I could see that." Yang nodded in understanding. Noir looked at Yang with a curious expression. How could she possibly not see the obviousness of Emerald's fake small talk?

"So it looks like I'll be advancing to the doubles round, who'd you guys pick?" Emerald inquired.

At that moment, Noir's scroll buzzed loudly, and he took it out, looking at who was calling with a furrowed brow before nodding and replacing the scroll on his belt. "I need to get going. I have a fight to prep for." Noir turned to Yang and smiled as he spoke softly to her. "You'll see me later, I promise." With that Noir took a few steps away from the group, spreading his wings and taking flight towards the Academy.

"Wait...I thought Noir didn't have a team!" Weiss protested. "How's he going to enter the tournament?!"

No one had an answer for her, and as they continued discussing the Tournament, Emerald was in deep thought.

He doesn't have a team...? That's news. With that in mind, I wonder how he intends to enter the tournament, let alone compete in it, by himself?

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A few hours later, Team RWBY sat in the stands of Amity Colosseum, cheering with the rest of the crowd as Team JNPR walked off the field in victory, proud expressions on their faces. JNPR's fight had been intense, with Team BRNZ (bronze) proving rather formidable opponents. In the end, JNPR had won, thanks largely to Nora, whose hammer blow took out the entire team at once.

Now as they walked off the field, Noir, in a locker room preparing for his fight, stood up from his meditation, changing into an outfit very different from his usual garb. He cast his heavy overcoat aside and over his sleeveless shirt donned a vest of scale armor, lightweight for maximized speed and meant to flex with Noir's body. Noir then produced a pair of forearm guards and donned them, swinging his arms around to test their light weight. His final armor pieces were shin guards, which he fit over his pants and locked them in place. Noir performed a brief acrobatic stunt in mid air to test the overall light weight of his armor, and, satisfied with it, donned a sleeveless trench coat over his armor, his wings still free to move at will, and then sheathed Schwarze Klinge at his side. He then looked around to three second-year students who sat in the locker room as well, separated from him.

"Alright, so here's the deal." All three of them looked at Noir as he spoke. "I was supposed to enter this tournament alone, but with the way the rules are set up, that wasn't possible. For that reason I chose you three as stand-in teammates. However, I do not want the three of you to get directly involved. This is my fight and mine alone, and when the fight begins, I want two of you to step out of the arena, and the third of you to remain hidden until the fight ends. Whomever it is who stays hidden is up to the three of you. If I am victorious, and I am confident I will be, that individual will advance to the doubles round with me. Any objections?" The three second years all looked at one another and then back at Noir, shaking their heads, and Noir nodded. "You all will be fine out there. Just leave the Team we're facing to me."

At that moment the PA system in Amity echoed with Peter Port's voice. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for our next match!" From inside the locker room, Noir and his stand-ins could hear the deafening roar of cheers and Noir took a deep breath to steady himself, walking towards the hall leading to the Amity arena with the first years in tow as Port and Bartholomew Oobleck continued to commentate.

"Yes! And for this match-up, we have two teams from Beacon facing off in a Battle Royale for who shall represent the Kingdom of Vale in the Finals!" Oobleck explained excitedly, "And now, entering the field are four of my personal favorite students, Topaz Kogamo, Royal Gené Bivera, Rowena Oro, and Fonce Bluer, also known as, Team TRRF!"

"Yes indeed!" declared Port, "These first years have certainly proven their metal many times over. But they are facing off against one of the deadliest tacticians Beacon has to offer, second year Noir Harceleur and his Team!" At this, Team RWBY stared as Noir walked out into the arena, the three second years in behind him, a look of determined calm on his face. As they all looked at one another in baffled shock, the two teams stood facing one another across the center platform.

Topaz, fully recovered from his injuries, stood in front of his team, grinning at Noir with interest. He had known Noir throughout his time thus far at Beacon, yet he had never seen him in action. Fonce, also recovered, stood a few paces behind him, his expression as calm as Noir's, though even he was grinning a bit in interest. On Topaz's right stood Royal, her rainbow hair glimmering a little in the afternoon sun, and her eyes a light shade of pink. Her hands were on her hips and she couldn't help but grin at Noir as she stood across from him. Noir was like her older brother, and to stand across from him on the field of battle felt almost ironic considering how close they were.

On the other side of Topaz was Rowena Oro, the only member of Team TRRF who didn't really know Noir all that well. She was noticeably taller than average at 6'1'', with dark, chocolate-colored skin that contrasted with her long blonde hair that fell a little below her waist. She had dark brown eyes, and she wore a black open blazer over a gold-trimmed black strapless tube top. Her lower body was garbed in black capri shorts, with high socks that covered her knees reach up from her knee-high combat boots. On her back was a gold claymore that was as nearly as long as she was tall, with a blade that by itself was over five feet long. Like the others, she wore a grin, this one of confidence.

Noir stood across from Team TRRF with his stand-ins behind him, and as the crowd cheered Noir spoke to Topaz. "Topaz." Topaz looked up at Noir and raised an eyebrow. "These second years are not apart of this. Two of them will step out and third will hide. Leave them out of this and let this fight be mine."

"Why would you want to do this alone, Noir?" Topaz questioned, "Do you not think that you're a little outnumbered? And might need some help?"

"I was supposed to enter alone, Topaz, however the Tournament rules don't allow that. Besides. Numbers may assist in battle. But they don't win it." Noir replied and Topaz had to admit he had a point. After a moment he nodded and grinned.

"Alright, Noir, you got a deal. Me and my team won't touch any of them. But don't expect us to hold back on you!" Topaz grinned and drew Flare and Glare, taking his stance. Fonce pulled out Frozen Silver in its sword form and took a stance of his own. Royal took a kickboxing stance as she spun a large, key-shaped knife around her right hand, gripping the handle bowie-knife style as she waited for the match to begin. Rowena drew her claymore, Rapunzel Vanity, and held it one handed off to the side.

"I wouldn't expect anything less." Noir replied as he finally cracked a smile, drawing Schwarze Klinge and holding it out to his side parallel to the ground in his signature stance. The combatants stared each other down, Team TRRF tensed and ready for the fight to begin, Noir as calm as ever, relaxed and ready. For several moments no one moved, and the crowd seemed to grow eerily still in anticipation as they waited for the fight to start. As they waited the stage selectors rolled, adding an even larger sense of anticipation to the fight soon to begin. The first roller stopped on the Mountain stage, while the second stopped on the forest stage, and the terrains rose from within the Colosseum, and Noir couldn't help but smirk to himself. Advantage, him. In both regards.

"Three...two...one...BEGIN!"

As Port's bombastic voice declared for the match to begin, two of the second-year stand-ins instantly dashed for the arena edge, the third taking cover in the forest area. Noir remained where he was, and as soon as the fight began, Royal, not hesitating for even a moment, charged, aiming a punch at Noir's face. Noir, grinning, side stepped the blow and spun in a 360, taking Royal's feet out from under her, and without missing a beat, leaned back to avoid a devastating downward swing from Rowena's claymore, backflipping in the air as Topaz fired several rounds at him, the shots bouncing off Schwarze Klinge's blade as Noir landed lightly on his feet, flipping the blade up behind him and blocking a strike from Fonce. Without missing a beat, Noir took Fonce's feet out from under him with another 360 spin, front flipping out of the spin as Rowena's blade slashed across where he was standing just a moment before, using his fingertips on his free left hand to push himself off it, bringing Schwarze Klinge up to meet one Topaz's blades in mid air, spinning the weapon by its handle around his hand and knocking it aside whilst blocking the second blade in the same motion. Landing back on his feet, Noir was met with a flurry of fist-and-knife blows from Royal, and Noir, not even flinching blocked Royal's fist with his left forearm guard whilst parrying her knife blade with Schwarze Klinge.

All of this happened in the span of a few seconds and already the crowd was roaring in excitement at the intense four-onto-one battle playing out before them. Team RWBY stared wide-eyed at the scene before them, stunned by Noir's skill and agility. Without even tensing up slightly, he was taking all of Team TRRF on at the same time, and more than holding his own as all four of them attacked at once. Yang especially was impressed, as while she'd seen him take on Pyrrha Nikos to a draw, she'd never seen him take 4 skilled fighters all at once, and still hold his own.

As Noir parried Royal's blows, Rowena's blade split into several dozen segments connected by a long chain and lashed it out at Noir, creating a deadly bladed whip. Noir, his reflexes kicking in, rolled back, somersaulting on the ground to avoid the long deadly lash, and then straightening back up to immediately block a strong blow from Fonce, who began to rain several heavy-hitting blows at surprising speeds. Noir, blocking the blows, spotting an opening and without hesitating, parried another blow and ducked under it, spinning rapidly and bringing his left fist up for a left uppercut that clipped Fonce on the chin, putting him flat on his back. Without losing momentum Noir brought his left arm back to block a blow from Topaz, flipping Schwarze Klinge around in his right hand slamming the pommel into Topaz's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him rolling. Rowena and Royal both attacked at once, Rowena's blade back in sword mode as she swung it hard at Noir, while Royal flipped her key-knife, Amber Transparent, around to reveal a revolver, pulling back the hammer to fire. Noir, spotting an opening, reacted smoothly, sidestepping Rowena's blow and landing the pommel of Schwarze Klinge right across Royal's face, sending her rolling and depleting her aura into the red as she slammed into a rock formation on the mountain segment. The crowd was a roar of cheers and groans as Royal sat up, unable to keep from grinning at the fact that despite being outnumbered, Noir had just turned 4-onto-1 into 3-onto-1.

Rowena, seeing her partner go down, renewed her efforts to attack Noir, swinging Rapunzel Vanity harder and faster than before. Noir, maintaining his distance from her, avoided getting close to her blade as he held off Topaz, who came back at him swinging his bladed tonfa at blinding speed. Noir spun Schwarze Klinge around his right hand to black the first series of blows, switching the weapon to his left hand and using his right to grab Flare and yank it out of Topaz's grip, smacking him on both sides of his face with the handle and pushing him back, switching the weapon back to his right hand and parrying Fonce as he came back at him with another hard swing. Rowena, aggravated now, converted Rapunzel Vanity back into a bladed whip and lashed it out at Noir. This was exactly what Noir had been waiting for, and not wasting a second, kicked Fonce away from him, forward somersaulting under the whip and flipping Schwarze Klinge up, snagging it between two of the segments and yanking it hard, causing Rowena to lose possession of her weapon.

Noir then dashed at lighting speed at Rowena, flipping her weapon away and then delivering several hard blows into Rowena's torso with his left fist and Schwarze Klinge's pommel, finishing off the combo by jumping up and slamming both his feet into her stomach, sending the tall girl flying out of the arena and narrowing it down to 2-on-1. Noir used the momentum of his kick and spread his wings, taking flight towards the mountain, landing on the summit and standing straight, resuming his signature stance. Topaz and Fonce looked at one another, unsure of how to proceed with two of their teammates out of the equation.

Meanwhile Amity Colosseum was going wild with enthusiasm, cheering wildly as the fight unfolded before them, and Topaz let out a quick huff as he looked at Noir on the top of the mountain, and Fonce nodded to him as they began leaping from rock formation to rock formation, ready to take Noir on his home field advantage. Noir, waiting on the summit, flourished his weapon as Topaz reached him first, swinging his tonfa rapidly and at the same time firing multiple shots at Noir as he closed in. Noir, reacting at lightning speed blocked the shots with his arm guards whilst blocking the blades with his own. As he blocked Topaz's attack, Fonce's strike finally hit home, sending Schwarze Klinge flying towards the ground. Noir, disarmed, produced three bat-shaped shurikens from Schwarze Klinge's sheath and flung them at both attackers as he took flight once again, flying high in the air and then falcon diving to the ground. Topaz and Fonce pursued him rapidly, reaching the ground in seconds as Noir somersaulted to the ground. Unable to reach his weapon in time, Noir then flicked his right foot and his shin guard buzzed as a magnetic panel activated, Schwarze Klinge flying to Noir and attaching to his shin guard with the blade facing forward. Topaz and Fonce stared for a moment as Noir balanced himself on his left foot, his right brandishing his weapon, before they rushed at him once again for the attack. Topaz began to pull stops, using his semblance to afford him small bursts of speed as he circled Noir, who, against all odds, was still holding them off.

Fonce, converting Frozen Silver into its rifle mode, unintentionally left himself open as he waited for an opening to strike at Noir while he was preoccupied with Topaz. Noir then deactivated his Magnetic shin guard, regaining Schwarze Klinge in his right hand. On the crossguard, a gun barrel extended, and Noir fired rapidly at Fonce, each round being a bat-shaped shuriken, these enhanced with burn dust. Fonce managed to dodge the shurikens, but as he regained his stance he was greeted with a hard hit from Schwarze Klinge's pommel, knocking him out of the arena. The fight didn't last for much longer. Against Noir by himself, even with his speed semblance, Topaz was no match for Noir's agility and endurance, nor his lightning fast reflexes and unique sword style that seemed to have no rhythm or pattern. Finally after several long minutes of trying to breach Noir's defense, Topaz missed a parry. Noir then knocked both Tonfa from Topaz's hands and then head butted Topaz in the chest, putting him on the ground and putting his aura in the red, winning Noir the match. The crowd sat stunned for a few moments before erupting into thunderous cheering.

"And thus the match goes tooooooo NOIR HARCELEUR!" Port exclaimed into the mic as Team TRRF picked themselves up from the ground, all of them going up to Noir and grinning in mutual respect.

"That was something else, Noir," Topaz said, leaning on Fonce for support as he grinned at his friend. "You deserve this victory. Well done." The rest of Team TRRF nodded in agreement as they walked off the field, and Noir couldn't help but smile as he also walked out of the arena, his stand-ins having disappeared as soon as Noir had secured the victory, though this was no worry, for he'd find them later.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Noir walked out of the locker several minutes later, now back in his default outfit as he walked towards the stands to catch Team SSSN's fight with Team NDGO from Shade Academy, stretching and sighing in relief as he would finally get a chance to rest up. Though he didn't show it, the fight with Team TRRF had taken quite a lot out of him, as he had never broken pace for most of the fight, and to keep up the kind of fast-paced fighting he did consistently and without breaking pace was exhausting to say the least.

Noir didn't have much time to think on much else, for at that moment, Team RWBY spotted him walking up to the stands, and Yang, not even hesitating for a minute, instantly got up from her seat and rushed over to Noir, throwing her arms around his neck and then, in front of everyone present, planting a big kiss right on Noir's lips. Noir's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Yang kissed him, his entire face turning red as his mind tried to process what was happening. Ruby, having gone quite wide eyed herself, turned slowly around, trying to block the image of Yang kissing Noir out of her mind. After a long moment, Yang parted the kiss and smiled widely up at Noir as he slowly smiled back, his arms slowly wrapping around her waist.

"Noir, that was amazing back there! Holy Dust, I had no idea you were that good!" Yang exclaimed, beyond impressed by Noir's abilities on the battlefield as she smiled up at him, "Seriously, you should show me a thing or two!" Noir smiled back and was about to speak when another voice cut across him.

"Hey, you're Noir right?" Noir and Team RWBY turned to see a short, dark skinned boy wearing black clothing with black hair that was streaked in red, a pair of vivid green eyes looking out from under his brow. Behind him was Emerald Sustrai, who was smiling a bit awkwardly as though she didn't necessarily wanna be there.

"Yes...may I ask who you are?" Noir asked, his smile slowly fading.

"Name's Remmy," replied Remnant, walking up to Noir as the latter parted his embrace with Yang, looking down at this unfamiliar individual. "I was watchin' your fight earlier in the stands, that was a hell of a match. I'm surprised you're not graduated early after a fight like that!"

"Well, I'm flattered you think so, though I've found skills on the battlefield hardly indicate when someone is ready to move on in life." Noir replied, and Yang rolled her eyes. Typical Noir, receiving praise and giving philosophy in return.

"So Remmy, are you on Emerald's team?" Ruby chimed in, rather curious to see this new individual, who turned towards her with a charming smile.

"Yeah, I am. I'll be joining her on the battlefield durin' the doubles round." Remnant grinned at each of them and then set his eyes on Ruby, almost instantly stricken by her, how different she looked and sounded in comparison to the others there, her difference in bearing, and her difference in posture. Ruby was clearly younger than the others there, by two years easily. And Remnant, for some reason or other, simply couldn't stop himself from asking, "I don't think I caught your name, there, Red."

"Oh! I'm Ruby!" She replied cheerfully. "This is Weiss, Blake, and that's my sister Yang!"

"Sister, eh?" Remnant looked at Yang and grinned. "Different mom I'm guessing?"

"Remmy, that's really rude-" Emerald started but was cut off as Remnant whirled around and almost comically shut her down.

"No, shuttup! I don't need you!" Ruby couldn't help but giggle at how suddenly Remnant had reacted, his teenaged persona having been replaced by a more childlike persona that seemed to be almost charmingly funny.

"Well...we should really be getting back to-" Emerald started again but was once again cut off.

"I already KNOW THIS!" And with that Remnant turned back around to look at Ruby with a confident grin. "Seriously, this chick right here?" He pointed at Emerald with his thumb. "Put us in a room, we get in an argument, like, 'hey fuck you!' and 'hey, fuck you too!', it's ridiculous! Noooooo frickin' respect on her end!" Ruby was almost laughing out loud now at Remnant's spastic and yet comical monologue, and what made it all the more hilarious was Emerald's reaction. She looked ready to deck Remnant upside his head right then and there.

"Well, it's nice to meet you!" Ruby said cheerfully, "me and my Team are gonna go catch the next fight, alright? You can join us if you want!"

"Nah, I'd love to, but me and No Respect here have gotta meet up with the team, we got shiz to discuss. I'll see ya around though!" Remnant grinned as he waved, walking off towards the ship docks with Emerald while Noir, holding Yang's hand, walked with Team RWBY to the stands to catch Team SSSN's fight. As soon as they were out of earshot, Remnant went from his childish charm to his serious persona. "So did you find out which of that team will be in the doubles round?"

"Yeah...the heiress and the bimbo." Emerald replied, though still aggravated by Remnant's go at her from earlier.

"The chick in white and the blonde, huh? This oughta be interesting. What do you know about that Noir guy?" Remnant gave Emerald a side glare as he asked this.

"Only that he's secretive, sensitive, stealthy, and liable to snap at any given second." Emerald replied.

"Nice alliteration. Have you been able to get anything out of him aside from what we already know?" Remnant asked.

"Not really. You already know about his Nightstalker alias, and there's not much to tell aside from what we've seen. He's very isolated." Emerald said as she thought over what she knew.

"Not so isolated now, though, is he." Remnant looked back over his shoulder towards where Noir and Team RWBY had been. "I have a bad feeling about him but I'm not sure how bad. We'll have to wait and see." He then turned back to Emerald. "Get back to Cinder and Mercury, and start preparing for the doubles round. I have other work to do."

Emerald nodded and boarded a ship that went back down towards Beacon as Remnant stood on the dock, thinking things over as he replayed Noir's fight in his mind. He's strong. Even I know that holding off four fighters at once isn't easy. He's skilled, and yet that fighting style...it was like he improvised it all from the getgo. If my feeling is right...he may be one of the strongest in our opposition.

With that final thought Remnant walked back towards the stands to watch the fight between Team SSSN and Team NDGO. Already, with only the first round of the Tournament under way, things were shaping up to be very interesting, very interesting indeed.

The only question was, how interesting would things be by the time the tournament was over?