Dead By Roselight

Chapter 12: A New Team

Back with Yang's new group, the blonde had just finished reading Ruby's notes about people turning into the killers, when she heard someone whistle at her. She looked up from the book and saw Victoria waving her hand towards herself, telling Yang to walk up to her. After putting Ruby's diary into one of her pockets, the brawler got up and went to her new ally.

"So, did you get at least some kind of an idea about this world?" the blue-haired woman asked. "I know a lot of the stuff in that book might seem unbelievable, but I can swear it's all true."

"Trust me. After everything I've gone through, I'm ready to believe almost anything," Yang answered. "The only thing I'm worried about is if I can find Ruby anywhere in this messed up world."

"That's good to hear. Those with the right motivation are the most likely ones to survive," Victoria said with a small smile. "However, I think it's about time I introduced you to our crew."

The blonde girl nodded and followed her new friend to the campfire, where the rest of the group was waiting. They all stopped talking among themselves upon seeing Victoria bring the newest addition to their group to them.

"Alright, let's start with these two," the blue-haired woman said as she walked up to two male members of the group that were sitting next to each other on a tree log.

The older one of them seemed to be in his early 20's and was wearing what looked like your typical office worker's clothes, which consisted of black pants, a white shirt with buttons and black shoes. He had short black hair and was wearing glasses. The younger boy looked like he was at most 15 years old, and had an aura of a shy and nervous person around him. He had spiky purple hair that reached his shoulders, and had a light green bandana tied around his head. He was also wearing dirty, blue overalls, along with a white T-shirt and red sneakers with white soles.

"The older one is Howard and the little guy's Phillips," Victoria explained. "These two are pretty much our most important guys in the group, as they are both talented with machinery. We usually have them go fix the generators, as they can do it incredibly fast."

"I think you might be overestimating our skills a bit, Vicky," Howard said with a small smile. "You do remember that Ruby was even faster than both us combined, right?"

"Well, I'd say that Ruby is a bit of a special case, so it's not exactly fair to compare anyone to her," the blue-haired woman explained with a small grin. "After all, she was able to do all sorts of crazy things that none of us had the guts to even think of."

"I suppose that's true," the black-haired man said.

"Anyways, this here is Yang," Victoria said, introducing their group's new member. "She's Ruby's older sister."

"Hey," Yang greeted the two boys with a small wave of her hand.

"We used to hear a lot about you from Ruby, Ms. Xiao Long," Howard explained. "I look forward to working with you."

"S-Same here," Phillips added.

The blonde girl was then led to the brown-haired woman that had told her about what had happened to Blake. Said brunette was sitting by the campfire while staring at Yang.

"This person is Sheila," Victoria introduced the woman. "She is one of the toughest people in our whole group. I have actually seen her strike a Killer so hard that it was dazed for a moment."

"The bastard got in the way. I wouldn't want to do it again, though," Sheila explained. "Nice to see you, Yang. Hope we get along together just fine."

"I hope the same," Yang said in response.

The next person the brawler was introduced to was a young man, who was at best in his early 20's. He had a messy mop of dark brown hair and a slightly darker skin tone. The clothes he was wearing consisted of a white shirt, a dark green vest and brown pants. He wasn't wearing any shoes and what clothes he did have were dirty and torn up. However, the most noticeable feature on him was his two donkey ears that were sitting on top of his head, telling everyone that he was a faunus. He was also holding a flute in his hands.

"This boy here is Eloy," Victoria introduced the donkey faunus. "He might not be the... sharpest tool in the shed, but he is still a good guy to have on your side. He's often doing his best to cheer us up either by playing his flute for us or by telling us jokes."

"Hi Yang! I'm Eloy!" said man introduced himself happily with a big smile on his face. "Do you wanna hear a joke!?"

"Uhh... Sure," Yang answered. "I could use something to cheer me up."

"What did the pirate lord bring to a battle?" Eloy asked. Upon not getting an answer from the blonde, he said, "An ARRRRmada!"

"...Yeah, his jokes are not exactly of the highest quality, but-" Victoria began to explain, but stopped herself upon seeing that Yang was actually snickering. "...Never mind. I guess you two have a similar taste in humor."

Next up was a girl that seemed to be about 19 years old. She had short pink hair and red eyes. Her only clothing seemed to be a white dress that was covered in dirt, coloring it brown. However, the most noticeable feature she had were two small and white cat ears that were on top of her head. The girl also seemed to be rather nervous, as she was looking around and her body was also shaking a bit.

"This girl here is Lucy," Victoria said. "She may not look like much, but she is actually pretty tough."

"...She certainly doesn't seem that way," Yang said. "Anyways, hello Lucy. I'm Yang."

"H-Hi," the cat faunus nervously greeted in response.

The last person in the group was an old man with gray hair and a beard. He was dressed in an old military uniform from Vale's armed forces and he even had a couple of medals on him. He also had a look in his eyes that told you that he had been through hell before, but also a strange gleam as well. Almost like he wasn't all that scared about the situation he was currently in. In fact, it was almost like he was excited about what was going on around him.

"And last, but certainly not least, is Bill," Vicky introduced the aged soldier. "As you can see, he's the oldest one in our group, but don't let that fool you. He's actually quite the badass, so you shouldn't underestimate him."

"I'll do my best to remember that," Yang replied. "Hello sir. I'm Yang."

"So I've heard," Bill said. "If you're anywhere near as good as your sister, I'm sure you'll be a great help to us."

With the whole group having been introduced, Yang sat down near the campfire, joining her new team's company. For a moment, everyone remained silent, as the blonde stared at the fire, thinking about her missing sister and everything that had happened.

"So..." Howard began, breaking the silence and getting Yang's attention. "Can I ask you something, Ms. Xiao Long?"

"Just Yang is fine with me," the brawler said in response. "Also, if you have a question for me, you can go right ahead and ask me."

"I'm a bit curious how you got here. Mind telling us how that happened?" the black-haired man asked. "We have all shared with each other our own stories on how we got here, so I was wondering if you could do the same? No pressure, of course."

The silence returned over the group, as everyone waited for Yang to answer. The blonde looked down in thought, thinking back to how she and her friends ended up in this horrible world, along with why they had been there when it all happened.

"I... I got taken here while I was looking for Ruby," Yang began to explain, breaking the silence again. "John, who had been part of your group not too long ago, had been found near a forest in Atlas. He told us how he had met Ruby and gave us a message from her, before killing himself. With no other leads on finding my sister, we went to search the forest where John had come out before being found, hoping that we could find at least some sort of a clue to my sister's location. We searched all day, but couldn't find anything. With nighttime upon us, we decided to go and rest, only to wake up in this world."

"I see. I hope you don't mind me making a small assumption, but I'm guessing that you were dealing with some rather heavy emotions when you were brought here, correct?" Howard added. "It seems to be a somewhat common thing with all of us, almost like The Entity is targeting people like that."

"Yeah, I heard that Ruby came up with that type of a theory," the brawler said. "By the way, how did you get taken in here? What made you a target for that thing?"

"I used to work at a weapon deigning company not too long ago. I wasn't exactly any sort of a big shot there, just a small part of a bigger team to help out with projects. My last job had been to work on a new tank for the Atlesian military. Nothing too impressive, of course. My task was just to make sure that I got the right materials for the other people working in the same sector I was at," the black-haired man explained. "Unfortunately, things didn't really go my way."

"What happened?" Yang asked, wondering what could have happened.

"My company, in all of it's infinite wisdom, decided to send out an unit without proper testing first. This turned out to be a big mistake, as the tank didn't just malfunction, it straight up exploded, killing several people," Howard answered. "When the wreckage was inspected, it was discovered that the fault had been in my sector's work. However, even when the blame was on the actual designers and the higher-ups who sent the unit without testing, the blame was placed on me. They claimed I was at fault for getting faulty materials, despite the fact I had been doing exactly as I had been told."

"What!?" the brawler yelled out in shock and anger. "How could they do that to you!?"

"Well, the higher-ups obviously would never let the blame fall on them. And as for why the people in my sector got away with it, the sector's leader was actually the company's owner's own son. Had the blame been on anyone else other than me, that guy would have been punished as well. However, since his daddy decided to protect his boy, I was made the scapegoat," the black-haired man explained. "With the blame of a mistake that killed several people on me, I could forget about working at a weapon designing company ever again. Hell, I couldn't even get work at a fast food restaurant. I had just used the last of my money to get as much booze in my system as possible, before I passed out at an abandoned junkyard. When I woke up, I was here."

Yang could only stare at Howard with wide eyes. To think that someone could get all the blame dumped on them for the mistakes of others and end up losing everything they had, it was no wonder why he had ended up in this world. The blonde couldn't help but think about Weiss a little, especially the company she was supposed to inherit. Could it be possible that the company Howard had worked for was part of the SDC? Both Weiss and Blake had told Yang about the darker side of the Dust company and how there were a lot of horrible things happening behind the scenes. If Weiss had been leading her family's company, could Howard have kept his job and not end up here? Guess no one would ever truly know.

"By the way, Yang, you said that you were sent to look for Ruby, right?" Victoria asked. "Were you given any sort of special equipment that we could use?"

"Not really, I'm afraid," the brawler answered. "All we were given were some basic stuff for going into a forest, like a map and a compass, but those are pretty much useless here. Other than that we were given the transmitter we were supposed to use upon finding Ruby."

"A transmitter?" Howard asked to which Yang gave a nod. "Can I see it? We might be able to use it for something."

The blonde took the device from her pocket and gave it to the former weapon designer, who began to inspect it a bit closer. He turned it around and looked at it with curiosity in his eyes as he analyzed every part of it. However, his curiosity soon turned into confusion while looking at the object.

"This is strange. Why was this given to you?" Howard asked.

"What do you mean? I was supposed to activate it upon finding Ruby, so that a rescue party could be sent to our location," Yang answered. "Isn't that what a transmitter is used for?"

"Normally that would be the case, but this doesn't seem like that type of a transmitter at all," the black-haired man explained. "While this is a transmitter of sorts, this isn't what you would use in a rescue operation. This is more like some sort of an exploration tool. Instead of sending a signal for this to be located, this is something that would send information to the other end of the transmission."

"W-Wait a moment. What are you saying?" the brawler asked with wide eyes. "Are you saying that I was given the wrong kind of equipment?"

"Not sure. I mean, it would seem strange to me that someone would give you this accidentally. These aren't exactly easy to come by," Howard answered. "Now, I might be a bit paranoid here, but what if someone gave this to you for a different purpose?"

"What kind of a purpose would that be?"

"To send information on this world back to whoever wants it in our world. This device is actually already doing it."

Yang was going to ask another question, but a sudden sound stopped her. It was something everyone in the group heard and it sent chills down their spines. It was the sound a bell being ringed very loudly close to the group.

The next thing Yang saw was a monster of a man appearing out of thin air right behind Howard.

Author's notes: And I'm back to this story, people! Sorry for the long wait. I've been a bit distracted from this story by a lot of other stuff, such as other stories I've been working on, school and other things in life.

I also had a bit of a problem with making up Yang's new group, as I wasn't certain how many people I would need. In the end, I decided to end it at the eight people that have been introduced so far. If need arises, I might come up with more characters to help along the story. Besides, they're mostly meat for the machine, right?

Now, I think it's time to play a game here. It's called CAN YOU GUESS THE REFERENCE? The rules are simple. I want you to try and guess what all the non-RWBY characters are references from. I'll say straight away that Victoria, Sheila and Graham are not references to anything. They're just random characters I came up with. However, here are hints for the others:

Howard and Phillips: While their appearances are not based on anything, their names are. They are both named after a famous horror author.

Lucy: Based on a rather well-known anime character. There's only a slight change to her appearance. I'm sure most of you will get this one.

Eloy: Name, appearance and personality are based on a character created by a rather famous group on the internet in one of their series. I often reference this group's other works in my stories. Particularly their most known one. I really hope someone gets this.

Bill: ...Okay, I'm just going to admit it. This is Bill from Left For Dead and Dead By Daylight. I just couldn't resist putting him in the story. And can you blame me? He's cool. I know I'm going back on what I said before about using the survivors in this story, but I don't regret it. Bill is cool and deserves to be here.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Dead by Daylight belongs to Behaviour Interactive.