A/N: Alrighty! When this chapter comes up the poll will be up for another day or two. Currently, we have
3 for Velvet, 2 on poll, one in review.
3 for Blake, 2 on poll, one in review.
3 for Ruby, 2 in review, one on poll.
2 for Yang, 2 in review.
So yeah, three-way tie as of this moment between the top three, if the tie isn't broken I'll take the one that got to three first, which is Velvet.
It's been pointed out that the chapters seemed a bit rushed, sorry about that. I believe many of you can agree that the first season was kinda monotone in plot development since Monty was building the world as much as he was. It's for that reason that I believe the World Of Remnant episodes were added in season 2. In fact, I may do something like that soon just to get worldbuilding out of the way, but I'll think about it.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or Destiny.
That night Team RWBY retreated to their dorm, well. The four girls were on their beds, and each had taken what Shade had said to heart. Ruby had drawn her curtains shut, but the faint scratching of a pencil to paper showed that she was doing her homework. Yang was doing the same, her textbook on her lap as she dangled her legs over the side of the bed. Weiss took what the resident Iron Lord said much harder, because she realized how immature she was being and currently berating herself. Occasionally, Ruby would call down to her partner for help and the Schnee wouldn't hesitate to assist, vowing to herself to become a better person. Blake was reading, but a slight vibration of her scroll caught her attention.
Kurogane: Belladonna, you're by far the most collected and hardest to read of team RWBY, but everyone can tell that you have secrets. I too, had secrets, and they nearly tore my fireteam apart. I'm advising you, not as an instructor, but as someone with a shared experience, if it's a huge secret that can define how view you, that you should share it with your team. Trust is give and take, so in order to be trusted you must show that you trust your team, even with your secrets. Goodnight, and just think about it.
Blake stared for a long time at that message, she knew what he was talking about, but didn't know what to do about it.
"Something the matter Blake?" Weiss says, looking at her teammate with concern. Blake shakes her head, closing her scroll.
"Not really." The female ravenette says. "Shade just gave me something to think about." Weiss nods in acceptance. "Goodnight Weiss."
"Night Blake." The pale girl returns, before shutting off the lights. "Ruby, you should get some sleep."
"I'll be fine." The reaper says, flipping the page of her textbook. "I need to get this done." Weiss sighs, before walking up to the leader and gently closing the textbook. "Weiss! I need to do better!"
"Ruby, you need sleep." The Schnee says, her eye twitching slightly.
"I've heard what the others say! I need to do better! I need to prove that I belong here!" Ruby says, trying to open the textbook again.
"You don't need to prove anything." The pale girl says, her expression softening. "Not to them, not to yourself. Ruby, you've earned your spot here, and I know I've been difficult but I know for a fact that if anyone deserves to be here it's you. Ozpin knows it, Goodwitch knows it, and most importantly, your team knows it." Ruby looks to the rest of the team, and the other two nod, Yang with a large grin and Blake with a small smile. "However, you need some sleep. I'll help you finish the homework in the morning." Ruby nods. "Good night everyone."
"Night!" Yang says, before rolling up into her blanket as team RWBY hunkers down for the night.
Meanwhile,
Shade was looking through some files on his scroll when a message from Ozpin appears.
Ozpin: Mister Kurogane, I've received some information regarding the Iron Lords when we updated the roster showing you alive. The Information inside concerns you, so I'm forwarding it to your scroll. I think you'll want to see what is sent.
Shade raises an eyebrow before opening the attachment to the message. A video file loads up, and a purple-haired woman appears on the screen.
"Testing 1-2 1-2." She says. "This is Luna Starlight of the Iron Lords, if you're receiving this Ozpin, well, I'm guessing that I'm dead, and there's only one Iron Lord registered alive now." Shade stares at his mentor in shock, before steeling himself. "The Iron Lords are dead, and now it's time for a new generation. Celestia and Kuroka agree with me that a newer generation needs to be created. For far too long the Iron Lords have been a rather select group only working with each other. In hopes for starting a new generation, Celestia, Kuroka, and I have taken on apprentices, for the first time. Mine is a bright kid named Shade, and honestly the kid is pretty amazing in combat. The way he uses a glaive is truly astonishing, and his skill with a rifle isn't bad either. Celestia chose his childhood friend Vivian Aquarius, an intelligent girl who can read a situation so well that it's honestly scary. Kuroka chose the two's friend Shiro Frost, a bull Faunus whose skill with a bladed shield is unrivaled. These three are the start of a new generation of Iron Lords, should they survive." Luna takes a breath, fiddling with her pistol. "Ozpin, if you're receiving this message then the sole survivor is a scout, and I'm hoping it's Shade. If it is, then send this to him. If it isn't, send it to Ironwood." The screen then cuts, before Luna appears again, much closer to the camera, her blue eyes shining in the light. "Shade, well. I'm glad you survived. I'm sorry I won't be there for when you become a true Iron Lord." In a rare display of emotion, Luna gives a watery smile. "You often asked why I chose you, when Shiro and Vivian were so exceptional in all areas while you could barely pass the written exams in school. Well, I looked right over you when I was looking through candidates at your school because of that reason. What changed my mind was when I met you. We literally ran into each other when I was on my way to my hotel. I saw a scrawny kid at first, but then I saw something amazing, you apologized to me before running off and helping an old Faunus woman cross the road. You then turned right around and threw a rock at some teens spouting racist slurs at the woman. I originally thought that you were just a kid who liked to pick fights when the teens all rushed you, but something told me to stay and watch. What I thought was a scrawny kid who liked to pick fights turned out to be a highly tactical fighter who wiped the floor with a group of eighteen year old teens. A feat few twelve year olds could do. A few days later we were off to training." Luna paused to wipe some tears from her eyes, Shade does the same. "Shade, I saw myself in you. Someone who went the extra mile and turned right back around to knock some sense into people. Over the course of the year I learned more about you. You had the entire world out to get you, yet you still succeeded." A faint voice offscreen catches Luna's attention. "Well, I'm pressed for time now. I just want to say….. I'm glad I met ya kid. You were like the little brother I never had. See ya on the flipside." The screen blinks to black. Shade stares at it for a while, trying to control his emotions. A notification pops up, another message from Ozpin. Inside was a simple picture of Shade and Luna. The elder Scout was resting her arms on Shade's head, arms crossed. The apprentice had a bright grin on his face while Luna was in mid laugh.
"Thanks for bringing her back Oz." Shade says, making a mental note to get that picture framed. The Iron Lord shuts off the lights, turning in for a good night's rest.
The following week was fairly dull. Port's classes were about common Grimm, tactics against those Grimm, and various tales from his youth. Oobleck was, well, Oobleck. Goodwitch was going through tournament rules and combat theory.
It was during this time period when Shade met the bane of his existence, as Yang liked to say, Cardin Winchester. The boy was a grade A bully, especially towards Jaune. He had heard that Cardin also seemed to like to pick on Faunus as well, but Shade hadn't been eating in the cafeteria.
Now, Shade was currently in Goodwitch's combat class, and the professor had dropped a proverbial bomb.
"Today we will hold spars." She says, and the class erupts into conversation. "The pairs will be chosen through the system." Looking to her scroll, two faces show up on the screen behind her. "Our first contestants are….Cardin Winchester and Shade Kurogane." Winchester smirks over at Shade.
"I'll destroy you scrawny." Cardin says smugly. Shade rolls his eyes as he makes his way to the stage. Winchester rests his mace across his shoulders while Shade draws his knife and pistol, having been forbidden to use his Iron Lord blade.
"Contestants ready?" Goodwitch asks, both nod. "Begin!" Winchester charges forwards, his mace raised above his head ready to smash downwards. Shade snorts.
"Typical." The Iron Lord mutters, quickly rolling to the right and kicking low, taking out the bully's legs. Cardin crashes face-first into the ground while Shade axe-kicks the back of his head. While that move didn't take out much in regards to Winchester's decent amount of aura, Shade had established the psychological advantage of landing the first hit. Spinning around his shoulders, the Scout pushes himself onto his feet, just as Cardin swings his mace towards his gut. Not being able to block in time, Shade forces his aura into his side just as the mace hits, launching the Iron Lord towards the edge of the stage. Landing with his knife stabbed into the ground for extra balance, Shade winces when he glances up at his aura meter. "One-third gone, I'm getting sloppy." The Iron Lord had underestimated his opponent, one of the first things Luna had taught him not to do. Shade stands, his face morphing to a level glare. Blue lightning whips around Shade, quickly catching Lie Ren and Nora Valkryie's eyes. "I underestimated you Winchester, allow me to rectify that mistake." The Iron Lord holsters his pistol as the lightning wraps around his knife. The class stares in awe at the power the ravenette was showing, but Goodwitch notices a steady drain on his aura. The professor narrows her eyes as Shade runs toward this opponent, sliding under a swing from the mace while slashing the Winchester across the chest with his lightning blade. Following through with the strike, Shade spins, nailing the mace-user in the back and launching him out of bounds.
"Stop!" Goodwitch says, as the lightning disappears. "Cardin Winchester is out of bounds, therefore Shade Kurogane is the winner. This was an example of an arena-style duel, and even if Cardin had stayed inside the boundries, both would have been eliminated for their low aura. The class glances up to find both Cardin and Shade's aura in the red. Glynda clicks her tongue in annoyance as the class bell rings, she'll have to talk to Ozpin about getting a longer class. "Class dismissed." The blonde's green eyes follow Shade as he leaves the room. "A semblance that trades aura for raw power, interesting." Sure, a semblance is theoretically 'fueled' off of one's aura, but a semblance doesn't drain aura that fast. "This will have to warrant further observations."
A few minutes later.
Teams RWBY and JNPR had found their table on the cafeteria and were talking about the battle earlier today.
"That was so cool!" Ruby gushed, much to the amusement of those around her. "I've never seen a semblance like that! What do you think it was?"
"I didn't use any electricity or lightning dust from the air I can say that." Nora says, much to the confusion to her friends besides Ren. The girl shrugs. "It's similar to mine, but isn't the same based off that."
"We all saw his aura before he used it and after." Weiss says. Blake nods.
"Yeah, Cardin didn't hit him, his semblance drained his aura." The female ravenette says.
"And turned it into raw power." Ren finishes, and the rest of the table's eyes widen.
"That's a big drawback, right?" Jaune askes. Pyrrha nods, glad to see Jaune learning about the semblances even though he hasn't found one. "For such an offensive power, I guess it's logical that it has to drain equal amounts of the defensive power as a trade."
"When did you get so smart Jaune?" Yang teases, and the boy blushes.
"He's probably always been that smart, you were just gauging him based off his combat abilities." Shades voice says from behind the group. The Iron Lord takes a seat next to the blonde brawler. "Jaune may not look like it, but he has been accepted here, even if his combat abilities seem to argue against it, Jaune makes up for it in quick thinking and tactical planning. I have a feeling that with some proper training he'll be a force to be reckoned with." Ruby nods, a bright grin on her face while Juane blushes, but instead from embarrassment like his friends believe, his face flushed from shame, the blonde smiles, but his redhead partner notices it doesn't reach his eyes.
"I hope so." The blond says. Shade nods while Jaune gives a true grin. "Hey, maybe then I could give Cardin the beatdown you gave him." The table laughs.
"OW! That hurts!" An accented female voice shouts. The group's eyes turn to where the resident bully was tugging quiet harshly on a rabbit Faunus's ears.
"See? I told you they were real." Cardin says, laughing along with the rest of his team. "What a freak."
"Despicable." Blake says, glaring at the Winchester.
"Atrocious." Weiss and Pyrrha say. The scraping of Shade's chair fills the now silent room as eyes turn towards him.
"If you don't like bullying, it's up to you to stop it." He says, making his way to Cardin. The rest for CRDL besides the leader back up slowly from the approaching Iron Lord. Cardin, however, was too focused on terrorizing the Faunus to notices the hand grip the wrist tugging on the rabbit ear until it was too late. Cardin found his wrist in a tight grip. "Hey Winchester, I didn't just see you picking on this nice lady, did I?" Cardin made an attempt to talk back, but one look at Shade made him wisely shut up. "Good, now get out of my sight." CRDL scrambles to get out of the room. Shade turns to the Faunus. "You all right?" The girl nods. "Good, if he bugs you again just find me." He then looks around. "Where is the rest of your team?"
"They're still getting food." She says. Shade nods.
"Well why don't you come sit with us?" He says, gesturing to his table. "I'm sure you and your team will be welcome." The girl thinks for a second, before grabbing her tray and following him. "I'm Shade, Shade Kurogane."
"Velvet Scarlantina." The girl says. Shade nods as he takes his seat next to Yang. Velvet sitting across from him next to Ren.
"Everyone, this is Velvet Scarlantina." Shade says to the table. A chorus of greetings follows, and the table soon gets back to their usual shenanigans, Velvet fitting right in. Weiss suddenly stops eating and looks to the resident Iron Lord.
"Shade, why did you eat lunch in here? This is the first time I've ever seen you in the cafeteria." The heiress asks. Shade shrugs.
"I wanted a change of pace." He replies, popping a carrot in his mouth. Weiss nods and continues eating while Yang and Nora try to throw food into each other's mouths. Velvet looks on in amusement, when the rest of the girl's team shows up.
"Hey Velvet." A girl that seems to scream fashionista says, flicking her sunglasses down slightly to stare at her teammate. "Took you this long to decide to ditch us?" Velvet grins.
"Well yeah, honestly wish I found these guys earlier." The Faunus snarks back, the other grin smirks and takes a seat next to Velvet. A dark-skinned male with white eyes takes a seat next to Shade while an extremely tall male fills up the rest of the table. "Everyone, this is my team, CFVY (Coffee.)"
"I bet you're always on a caffeine rush then." Shade snarks, and Yang gives him a nice bruise on his shoulder for stealing something she was going to say. "I'm Shade Kurogane."
"Coco Adel, leader of CFVY. The one next to you is Fox Alistair and the one on the end is Yatsuhashi Daichi." The fashionista says. Shade nods.
"I'm Ruby, leader of team RWBY!" Ruby chirps happily from her seat. Coco gives a light chuckle." The rest of my team is Weiss Schnee,"
"How do you do?" The heiress asks.
"Blake Belladonna." Ruby says while Blake nods. "And my sister, Yang Xiao-long!" Jaune steps up next.
"I'm Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR." The blond says. "My team is Pyrrha Nikos."
"Hello again!" The redhead says.
"Nora Valkryie." The leader continues, while Nora crackles with minor insanity. "And Lie Ren." The last member nods. CFVY nods before Velvet thinks for a second.
"Shade, where's your team?" The Faunus asks. Shade shrugs.
"I don't have one. I'm here because of... a special circumstance." He says. CFVY looks confused. "Does any of you recognize this triple arrow insignia?" Pointing to the symbol on his shoulder, Coco identifies it instantly.
"The symbol of the Scouts, one of the three types of Iron Lords." Yatsuhasi says. Shade nods.
"Now, all the Iron Lords went into the Dead Zone. All died, except me. I have my license, just need to get it renewed." The ravenette says, grinning at Coco. "Now, I gotta go, one last step before I can renew my license."
"What's that?" Weiss asks.
"I gotta find an Iron Forge and make my own blade." The Iron Lord says, "That's the last test. It's time for me to become a real Iron Lord."
A/N that's a wrap! This is the longest chapter I've ever written, ever.
So to clear up confusion, Shade never made it past Apprentice before the Iron lords fell. He wasn't able to take the last test.
The steps to becoming an Iron Lord are as follows:
Be selected by an active duty Iron Lord and be approved by that Iron Lord's Vanguard (Kuroko, Celestia, and Luna.)
Technical training. This is where the apprentices learn basic theory.
Practical training: This is where the apprentices master their choice of weapon, and put the theory to practice.
Fireteam training. This is where the apprentices are placed into fireteams to develop teamwork. Like how Shade, Vivian, and Shiro were together. Apprentice fireteams are generally based off of the mentors being from the same fireteam.
Combat role training: Generally occurs at the same time as step 4, the Scout mentor will teach their apprentice the things a Scout does and etc.
Individual combat test (Your decently hard Destiny campaign mission): The apprentice will be tasked to do a difficult solo mission to prove their worth.
Fireteam combat test (your Nightfall Strike without all the weird stuff, just the really hard enemies.): The apprentice will work with their fireteam to prove their teamwork.
Mentor/Apprentice fireteam test (your raid.): Generally the hardest test, the apprentices learn to take orders from higher command, their mentors, while showing situational awareness to complete a seemingly impossible task.
The forging of the Iron Blade: After completing the Mentor/Apprentice fireteam, the apprentices will either have to retake all the tests or be allowed to move on. They then enter an Iron Forge, where they have to forge their own Iron Lord weapon themselves. Forging their own weapon is more of a rite of passage, but proves that they are worthy of being an Iron Lord.
So there we go! Sorry for that huge chunk, but I wanted to explain the steps to becoming an Iron Lord because Shade will have to bypass a few steps because of an absence of Iron Lords.
I'm signing off now, so as always, see y'all soon. The poll will be taken down on Thursday, and in correlation to that I'll stop counting reviews suggesting a Pairing as well.
Bye!