Volume 4, here we come! I'm hoping that I can give a good story out of this part of Rwby, considering that not much happens in Volume 4 on Yang's side, which is where Diego is going to be staying.

I decided that Diego's explanations of his past will mostly be shown as flashbacks. Any text like this is to be seen as Yang and/or Diego speaking over the top of the flashback.

Please enjoy!

Taiyang had expected a visit, but not from a vigilante; even if he did save his daughters. The sight of Diego Kapila at the door was the last thing he had expected.

"What are you doing here?" he asked the rogue, not unkindly. Diego looked to Taiyang with a sad sigh.

"I think you know the answer to that," he said, but he wasn't trying to be rude. Taiyang nodded and opened the door wider to let him in. Diego walked in without another word, noting the quiet state of the place.

"I'm guessing Ruby already left?" Diego asked.

Taiyang nodded. "She left not too long ago. Did you happen to see her?"

"No, but I figured that would be the case when she woke," Diego replied. He started looking around and Taiyang managed a small chuckle.

"Yang's upstairs in her own room," he stated. Diego looked to the man and smiled a bit. He started to take the stairs but was stopped once more when Taiyang called to him.

"I never got to say it then, so I'll say it now," he said, "Thank you... for saving my daughters."

Diego smiled again. "No problem man. It's what I do. Besides, it's what friends do."

Diego continued upstairs without any further interruptions. When he found Yang's room, he knocked softly on the door.

"Yang," he called, "It's me... Diego."

There was a pause, then she answered.

"Come in."

Diego opened the door and saw her lying in bed, her hair done up in a ponytail. She seemed to be terribly scarred emotionally and he knew why, but she seemed to improve when she saw him, even managing to give a genuine smile. He came closer and sat on the edge of the bed next to her.

"How are you feeling?" Diego asked with some concern. Yang looked to her arm and then back to him.+

"Still pretty bad after all that," she answered, "But I feel a little better, now that you're here."

Diego chuckled. "I didn't realize you missed me that much Blondie," he joked, then more seriously, "As happy as you are to see me, I'm guessing you're also wondering why I'm here, aren't you?"

Yang nodded, so he continued.

"I already said that I wasn't leaving you again, and that includes now." Yang's smile seemed to grow a little wider, but it turned to confusion as he continued. "I'm also here to explain some things to you. Questions that deserve answers. Like my association with those who attacked Beacon."

Yang looked to him. "What are you saying?"

Diego sighed. "Yang Xiao Long, it's time that you learned the truth about me. It's time that you heard my story..."

Yang was a bit surprised to hear him say this. Originally, she had decided that she didn't care what his past had been like. However, if he was going to tell her the story, she wasn't going to interrupt him either. He needed to say this and get it off his chest. She looked to him intently, letting him know that she was listening. Diego sighed and started his story...

**Flashback**

"Run for it, boy!" a guard shouted to the fifteen-year-old boy before him as a pack of Beowolves descended upon the small caravan he was protecting. They had been traveling between two villages delivering supplies and Diego happened to be a stowaway. He had sneaked into the caravan for a bit of fun and adventure, only just now being spotted by some guards. The Beowolves had attacked shortly after and the guards now were fighting to protect the boy as much as they wanted him to leave. As the Grimm got closer and more variety of them appeared, the boy, cowering in fear, picked up a weapon from one of the fallen warriors and clung to it as the swarm approached. His heart was pounding in his chest as he desperately tried to calm himself down. He knew that the Grimm could sense fear, and the fear he felt only made him a bigger target.

Suddenly, a new figure appeared from out of the nearby treeline, someone that made the boy tremble in fear even more. It was like a woman, but cruel and evil-looking. Her eyes were a dark and evil red, her skin as pale as death, and her expression dark and terrible to behold. The boy was now all alone, the rest of those in the caravan having been killed off. He gripped his gun tighter and pointed it at the nearest Grimm, his hands shaking terribly. He tried to hold his firing arm steady with his other hand, but it still wobbled a bit. A Beowolf seemed to sense this weakness and charged at him, intent on killing the boy. The boy screamed and closed his eyes as he pulled the trigger, firing wildly into the horde of Grimm before him, not realizing that he had managed to kill a few of them, save for the one still charging him.

"STOP!"

The boy opened his eyes slowly upon hearing the voice, and looked up. The Beowolf had stopped inches away from his face, but it no longer seemed willing to kill him. It stepped aside as the dark lady stepped closer, and the boy realized that it was her who had spoken. She looked to him again and he saw an expression that he had not expected in her eyes: admiration.

"Why didn't she kill you?"

"I'm not entirely sure even now. Perhaps it was because I was alone. Perhaps she found my willingness to try and fight back amusing. Or maybe she felt the tiniest amount of pity for me. Whatever her reasons, out of all those she had slain that day, only one was spared..."

The boy trembled a little more, but he was also confused. Why did she tell them to stop? And why'd they listen to her? Is she their master?

The dark lady looked to him and asked, "What is your name, boy?"

"D-d-d- Diego! Diego Kapila," he answered, still trembling. She smiled at him, but he felt that it wasn't pleasant.

"You're a special boy Diego," she said, "I feel that you have quite a part to play in this." She turned around and started to walk away, calling behind her, "Come. Follow me. And leave the weapon behind."

Diego stood there in shock, almost too surprised to react. He started conflicting with himself on what to do.

"Looking back on it now, I should've ran, tried to fight, or called for help. But I didn't."

"What'd you do then?"

"I did the only thing I could do at the time..."

Slowly, still trembling, Diego followed the dark lady past the hordes of Grimm around him. He dropped his weapon as he followed her, unsure of what this would bring him...

*time skip*

"Why have you brought me here?" Diego asked her. They were standing inside a dark fortress of some kind, curtsy of the dark lady herself. She looked darkly at him and he went silent.

"That is none of you concern for the moment," she stated bluntly. She then stepped closer to him and raised a hand to his face, forcing him to stare her in the eyes. Diego flinched, but wisely didn't try to fight back. He knew how futile that'd be in this place. After a moment, the lady spoke.

"You're a hybrid. The son of a Faunus and a human, yes?"

Diego nodded, still too afraid to speak.

"You may yet be of use," she muttered, and then released him. He looked to her in confusion.

"Wh-what are you going t-t-to do?" he asked. The lady smiled.

"For now, I'm sending you home. Your parents must be worried sick for you, and we wouldn't want them to go off on a fruitless search, would we?"

"N-no Ma'am!" Diego said, a little too loudly perhaps. The lady looked to him, then raised her hand.

"I'm sending you home now," she explained. A portal suddenly appeared behind the boy and he gasped in surprise and slight awe. The lady, clearly not wanting to waste more time, started to push him through the portal.

"Wait!" the boy shouted. The lady rolled her eyes and looked at him.

"What?!" she demanded. Diego gave her a quizzical look.

"Why did you spare me?"

The lady seemed to be pondering this herself, then eventually replied, "Because you're a special boy."

"Okay..." Diego said, not necessarily satisfied, but at least glad to have an answer. "Goodbye, Ma'am."

He stepped through the portal, but as it started to close, he though he could just barely hear her say something back to him.

"...Salem..."

Diego was silent for a moment, then shrugged it off as he looked out before him. He was standing just outside the gates of his village, and nobody had noticed him appear out of nowhere. Thankful to still be alive, he rushed on home towards his family's house...

*time skip*

Diego looked around him slowly as he sat in a special blind he had set up in the forest. It was a little area of solitude for him, where he could sit and watch nature from safety. He never used it to hunt, only to observe. He wasn't much of a hunter, and was even considered to be the weakling of the village. Not to say he was completely useless in a fight. He was more infamously known to be a slippery character, always managing to find a way to escape... sometimes when escape was considered impossible. Now, he watched from the blind as a deer quietly chewed on some leaves from a plant, unaware of his presence. So peaceful, so calm...

"You shouldn't let your guard down so easily," a female voice said behind him. Diego yelped and jumped in his blind, scaring away the deer. When he turned around, he saw the face of the dark lady from before... Salem, was it? Somehow, she had gotten into the blind without him noticing. He would've been scared, if the deer hadn't ran off.

"What was that for?" he demanded, "You scared it off!"

The Queen Grimm smiled, a little darkly. "I only wanted to talk to you. I was starting to think you had been killed the other day."

"Well, I'm not!" Diego shouted at her, "And next time, give me a heads up before you sneak up on me! On that note, why are you here?!"

Salem sighed and stepped out of the blind, Diego following her example. Outside the blind, Diego looked her in the eyes, but then faltered and settled with looking just below them. Salem chuckled at this, as no one had ever looked her in the eyes for long without feeling some fear of her.

"I was wondering if you'd like it if someone helped you to overcome your fears," she said bluntly. This wasn't untrue, but it wasn't the full story either. She decided to keep that to herself. Diego raised an eyebrow at her.

"And you can do that how?" he asked.

Salem managed a chuckle. "I am the definition of fear, being the Queen of the Grimm. I have my ways."

"Yeah, I don't know..." Diego started, but Salem wasn't one to take no for an answer. However, she was patient if need be as well.

"You don't have to decide right away," she suggested. "I'll give you some time to think it over. That's more than generous, isn't it?"

"I guess so," Diego said with a shrug.

Salem nodded, then without another word she disappeared in a sickly portal. As soon as she was gone, Diego started debating with himself.

"One the one hand, she was essentially an evil queen and not to be trusted. On the other hand, she had managed to point out a rather painful detail about myself then: my fears. I was scared of just about anything or anyone that looked even a little threatening. I'd say I was just about as close as you could get to being paranoid without actually being paranoid. Salem had offered to take that all away and it intrigued me. But I still wasn't sure if I could trust her. *sigh* Eventually, I came to a decision that changed my life forever..."

Diego pulled out a notebook he kept in his pocket and wrote something on the paper. He then pulled out a knife from his pocket and used it to stick the paper to a nearby tree. He then started off for home. This is what the note said:

"I'll give you one benefit of a doubt. Meet me here tomorrow and help me conquer my fears."

Sorry, but this is a multi-chapter flasback! Apologies to those that expected better.

Review and all that, and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Edit: I'm putting out an offer for those with their own RWBY OC's. You can submit an OC (or multiple OC's) as people Diego runs into in his past. It can be before or during the Great War period, but not near the events of the Vol #1 series (The only exception is if it's a member of the White Fang). Send the OC as a PM to my account with the subject labeled "RWBY OC Offer" complete with a name, age, a description of their appearance, whether they're human or Faunus (and if Faunus, what kind), and what their weapon/fighting style is.

Who knows? Maybe yours will make it in Diego's Past.

Adios!