Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team A(J)CS, Sun, and Neptune stared at Anino Merlot in absolute astonishment. He gazed up at them, seeming somewhat wary, then he took a deep breath.
"Yes." He nodded, looking at Adam. "I... Anino." Blake's eye's were wide.
"A Feral, talking? How is this possible?"
"And you said he was probably dead!" Weiss looked over at Blake. "How can he be alive, after six years?!" Anino quickly moved back as Weiss raised her voice, his eyes narrowing.
"You're scaring him!" Sun scolded, his eyes narrowing slightly, and Weiss blinked. Sun looked over at Anino, smiling kindly. "Hey, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you. We need your help, remember?" Anino blinked, then he frowned.
"... I... Help..." He forced the words out, looking frustrated with himself. "You... Save..."
"... If you help us find your father and your sister, we will do whatever we can to help you and these people." Jaune nodded, frowning down at the man. "Okay?"
"Mm." Anino nodded, then he slammed his fist onto his chest. "Ani."
"Sun." Sun pointed at himself. "Remember? Sun." Ani nodded, and Sun looked back at everyone else. One by one, they slowly gestured to themselves and said their names, Anino looking at each of them as they did so.
"Ani." He gestured to himself again once they were done, then he gestured to his head. "Friend - Sun -, he know. I... I no full turn Feral." All eyes widened, and Sun slowly nodded in agreement.
"Yeah." He agreed, frowning slightly. "Blake's right, Ferals can't speak. Even Jenna, when she briefly turned, didn't talk. And Ani, he isn't acting completely like an animal. There's humanity, there... But how?"
"Napa, I - same prick." Ani pointed to his arm. "Same prick. No full turn."
"What is he saying?" Yang raised an eyebrow. Adam gazed at Ani for a moment, then he blinked behind his ribbon.
"Same prick... When Merlot tried to turn Jenna - or Napa, apparently-" Ani nodded. "A small bit of the serum entered her bloodstream - not the whole syringe-full of formula. I think he's trying to tell us that Merlot didn't refill the syringe before trying to turn him." Adam looked at Ani for confirmation, and he nodded in reply. "Both you and your sister aren't full-Feral. But while she's more human than animal, you weren't as lucky."
"Most wolf." Ani nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Smell prey - cow, cat, monkey, others-" He gestured to the caged Feral Faunus, his hand shaking. "But human part, it knows. You people - good people, friends -, not prey. And sister, she... Danger." The wild-man looked up at the students again. "I... Want help. We save sister from Father... Please?"
"What does he want with her?" Jaune asked, and Ani shrugged. "Well, that's a lot of help." Ani looked down, frowning.
"I... Sorry. Father not know I still here. Been... Hiding."
"... All alone, for six years?" Sun asked, frowning slightly. Ani looked up at him. "Did anyone talk to you ever, even once?" Ani blinked, then he looked down again.
"I try... To find other..." He gestured to the other Feral Faunus. "They... They all animal, now. And even if not... I no right." Ani looked up at Sun, his eyes tearing up. "All this, my fault... I deserve. They, no."
"Jenna - Napa - said that it was Anino who captured the Faunus and brought them to Merlot." Adam noted coldly, and Ani looked down, ashamed. "... How old were you, when he started making you do it?" Ani blinked, then looked up at Adam, frowning.
"I... I fifteen, first hunt." He admitted, looking down. "Ten years... Seem longer." Everyone blinked, then Ruby frowned slightly, looking down.
"Fifteen?" She asked, and everyone briefly looked at her before looking back at Ani. Slowly, Sun got down on one knee again, frowning.
"... Ani?" He asked, and the man looked up at him. "I know you feel guilty... But now, you have the chance to make up for it. If you help us find your dad and your sister, we can cure these people and send them home. Okay?"
"O... Okay." Ani nodded, his eyes narrowing. He looked back at all of the cages, his body tensing, then he took a deep breath and seemed to force himself to stand up straight. Sun stood up too, and it appeared that Ani was at chin-height with him. "I... I help you. Find Napa, stop Father, free people."
"Alright." Adam nodded, his eyes still narrowed. "Where to?" Ani looked at him, then dropped back into his animalistic position, turned, and bounded off. Everyone exchanged glances before following, the sound of a wolflike howl ringing out in the forest.
/\
In a laboratory at the center of an island, a young woman sat on a lab-table, wincing as a syringe in her arm drew dark, crimson blood from her body.
"Ah..." Jenna winced as her father removed the syringe. "Is... Is that enough?"
"It should be." Doctor Merlot looked up at her, setting the syringe aside and placing a bandage-pad on her arm, wrapping it in gauze. "Is your aura recovering from the... Encounter... You had last night?" Jenna blinked, then looked down.
"Yeah... It should be fine in an hour or two.."
"Good." Merlot nodded, then he raised an eyebrow. "Hm."
"What?"
"... Are you more comfortable in your hospital garb, or would you like something more practical?" Merlot asked, and Jenna looked down at herself before looking back at him. "... Your room is as you left it." Jenna blinked, then looked down. "And..." Jenna blinked as Merlot held out a large silver rectangle. "I took the liberty of having a Nevermore retrieve this from where it was being held at the time of your extraction from Beacon."
"You..." Jenna blinked again, then she took the weapon. "Thank you."
"There will be some who will try to stop us." Merlot told her, and she looked at him. "I trust that you're prepared to take necessary measures?" Jenna blinked, then sighed and nodded.
"Yes, Father... I am."
/\
Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team A(J)CS, Sun, and Neptune followed Anino Merlot as he moved along a path. Every once in a while, the wild-man would look back and gesture for them to keep following, then he'd look forward again and keep moving.
"He certainly is eager." Yang noted, giving a small smile. Then, she smirked and rolled her eyes as she looked over at Sun. "I can see why you bonded."
"Ani's awesome." Sun defended himself and his new friend, crossing his arms. "I mean... Who else do you know who communicates by throwing rocks at Adam?" Adam obviously responded by looking over at Sun, his expression filled with annoyance as he gave a low growl. "Oh, lighten up! It really is funny!"
"Ani definitely thinks so." Neptune noted, hearing the older man snicker as he kept moving. "... You've gotta wonder what it must be like in his head. I mean, he's obviously still got some human in there, but-"
"We have to keep in mind that a lot of him still is wolf." Blake crossed her arms, nodding. "Not to mention that he's unarmed... We can't really depend on him if we come across any Grimm."
"Right." Adam agreed, his eyes narrowing behind his ribbon as he looked forward at Ani. "He's unarmed, and what was human was a scientist - not a fighter. Jenna said that defeating just a few Grimm the night Merlot changed him took it all out of him, and that was when he still had a clear head... We should consider him a civilian - an REALLY inexperienced civilian - and one of us needs to be with him at all times."
"Alright." Jaune nodded, then they exited the forest and arrived at what looked like the edge of an abandoned city. "Whoa..."
"I'm thinking that there's a reason why Merlot chose to settle here." Weiss' eyes narrowed slightly. "An abandoned settlement on a small island would probably be the perfect place for a lab that isn't supposed to be found."
"And the perfect place to keep an eye on all of his experimental Grimm." Ruby glared, hearing the sounds of growls and howls in the distance. "The city's probably full of them."
"... One way to find out." Pyrrha spoke, readying her weapons. Everyone else nodded in agreement and readied their weapons, then they all slowly entered the city.
It all went to Hell almost immediately.
They were surrounded by mutated Grimm and strange androids, and they were separated. Jaune found himself alone with Anino in a back alleyway, and the blonde boy looked back at the wild-man with wide eyes as they were corner by three Beowolves and an Ursa.
"Stay back!" He pleaded, and Anino blinked. "I'll protect you j-just don't worry!" Jaune turned back to the Grimm, took a deep breath, then got into a defensive stance.
The first Beowolf charged, and Jaune blocked a swing with his shield before slashing at its chest. He landed the strike, but it wasn't deep enough to be lethal. The beast growled and moved its head closed, and Jaune yelped before stabbing his blade up through the jaw and into the brain, killing the Grimm. The second and third charged, and Jaune managed to duck a swing from one before stabbing it in the chest. He tried to pull his sword out, but it got stuck in the dissolving Grimm, and the third Beowolf swept a paw at him and knocked him into a wall. Luckily, Jaune had managed to hold onto his sword, and as the Grimm lunged, Jaune panicked and stabbed up, killing the monster. Jaune threw the dissolving Grimm off of himself and looked up at the mutated Ursa, his eyes wide and his breathing ragged.
'Okay, Jaune. You can do this. You can do this... In three, two, one. G-!'
"RAH!" Anino leapt onto the back of the Ursa, growling as he tore one of its spikes out with his bare hands and brought it down on the creature's left eye, piercing it and effectively killing the monster. Jaune took a step back, his eyes wide, as the Grimm fell and Anino looked up, his eyes narrowed.
"Whoa..." Jaune stared at him, shocked. "Cool."
"I not helpless." Anino spoke gruffly, giving a curt nod as he left the dissolving monster's back. The others caught up, and their eyes widened as they saw the scene.
"He killed that thing with his bare hands?" Adam asked, and Jaune looked back, still shaking slightly as he nodded. "... Okay, then. Nix what I said about him being inexperienced and needed protected - he's evidently fine."
"Damn straight." Anino smirked, and everyone looked back at him. "... Certain phrase, no effort in."
"... Definitely Jenna's brother." Yang crossed her arms, grinning. "I like him." Blake lightly rolled her eyes.
"Of course you do."
After some more traveling and fighting, the group finally arrived at a large pipe. In one area, the glowing-green substance was leaking and dripping onto the ground. Anino sniffed it, then he growled lowly as his hair bristled.
"Is that the substance that mutates the Grimm?" Ren asked, his eyes narrowing. Anino looked back at him, nodding.
"Serum." He replied coldly, then he looked back at the substance. "Follow. Lab there." Anino pointed to the pipe, his eyes narrowing. "Napa there." Adam nodded, then he looked at Anino.
"... Are you sure that you don't know why he brought her here?" Adam asked, and Anino nodded. "So... Is this where you leave us, or-?"
"No." Anino shook his head, glaring. "He... Hurt... Napa... Once... I... Won't... Let... It... Happen... Again..." Everyone blinked as Anino focused on structuring complete sentences, looking extremely strained and frustrated. "I... Promised... When... She... Was... Born... I... Would... Always... Protect... Her... I... Have... To... Help... Her..." Anino looked eyes, his eyes twitching lightly as he bared fanged teeth. "Even... Wolves... Understand... Family..."
/\
Jenna stood in a long hallway, gazing at a door. The marker on it read Anino, and she sighed, placing a hand on it, before turning and walking a little bit longer, arriving at a door with a marker reading Napa. Slowly, she reached up and turned the knob, opening the door and peering inside.
...
"This is your home now, sweetheart. You can make it look however you want."
"I can?"
"Of course you can, as long as you leave some space for your books. We must be practical, yes?"
"Yes, Daddy."
...
Jenna gave a small smile, stepping inside. A bed made of stainless steel sat in the corner, covered in blue blankets and pillows, with drawings and diagrams of various forms of wildlife pinned to the wall behind it. A nightstand next to it had a reading lamp and all of the novels she loved to read as a child. Another corner had a dresser with a mirror on it, the other corner housing the door that led to her small closet. The last corner had her old desk in it, and a computer and a scroll laid amongst textbooks and papers, along with a half-finished diagram of a dragonfly.
"... Hmm." Jenna looked around, crossing her arms. She expected dust, but it actually looked like the room had been maintained for the six years that she had been gone to be exactly as she left it. Her eyes drifted down, her smile not faltering for a second.
'Does this mean that he's really changed?' She wondered to herself. Shaking out of her thoughts, she walked over to the closet and opened it, looking inside. She came in there for a reason, after all.
Jenna stood in front of her dresser, gazing at her reflection. She wore khaki pants, black sneakers, a purple t-shirt, and a long, white lab-coat. A black strap across her body held her collapsed weapon to her back. Her hair was in its usual ponytail, and as she looked up and into the mirror, her ears flopped before perking up.
"Just one thing missing." She announced quietly, and she opened one of the dresser drawers, drawing a small, silver and blue hair-pin made in the shape of a dragonfly. She placed it amongst her frizzy brown tresses on the left side of her head, and she gazed at herself for a moment longer. "... He's trying to change the world for the better. I have to help."
She believed this, she really did. But, for a moment, her reflection flashed before her eyes, showing a beautiful middle-aged woman dressed in white and blue armor. She had wavy brown hair that moved in a light wind that Jenna couldn't feel, the clip that now resided in Jenna's hair clearly visible in her own, and she opened a pair of reddish-brown eyes, gazing down at Jenna forlornly as a pair of wolf-ears on her head flicked back.
"Napa..." She whispered, and Jenna blinked. The vision was gone, and it was her own reflection in the mirror. Jenna stared for a moment, then sighed, shaking her head as she turned away, the coat she was wearing swishing with her movements.
"... I'm sorry, Mother." She announced softly, closing her eyes. "But for the greater good... I must help Father finish what he has started." Jenna opened and narrowed her eyes, and she departed from the room.
Well... What do you think of that?
I'm doing my best to keep a lot of the video-game involved in this, but I'm also trying to give this tale its own, unique story. Plus, I'm also trying to stay true to the spirit of the old version of "A Change in Fate".
In the old version, Anino preserves the bones of Grimm and uses them for weapons. I wasn't paying attention to the Grimm WOR when I wrote that bit, so I failed to recall tat there was no known way to do that. I could have said tat Merlot found a way, but instead I decided to simply reference the idea by Anino killing a Grimm with its own spike before it could dissolve.
I only own my OCs. Please read, review, check out my other stories, etc. Thanks! :)