Hello all you Boils and Ghouls! And Happy Holidays to you all! Before I get on with the chapter, I cannot express how upset I am at how I've kept you all waiting so long for an update... I will do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again, but I cannot guarantee that it won't because life happens.

Anyway, I sincerely apologize to all of you for how long it took and wish to make it up to you in some way. That aside, I'm actually in need of someone to help bounce ideas around; mostly someone to help me start off these chapters because when it comes to starting these chapters off I'm like a Regigigas...

I'm STUPID slow.

So please feel free to PM me if you wish to help, but know that I may not get back to you immediately. With that out of the way, let's start off with the Disclaimer.

Disclaimer: RWBY and Kamen Rider are the intellectual properties of their respective owners; please support the official releases. I only own any OC's mentioned in the story.

)-Legend-(

"Yo!" - Speaking

'Is he an idiot?' - Thinking

"Dearest love," - Reading

"Kaishin no Ippatsu!" - Specials

)-Beacon Headmaster's Office-(

)-An Hour Earlier-(

)-Third Person PoV-(

Several weeks had passed since that day; the day not only his own world, but the ideals of others had been turned upside down. Headmaster Ozpin would never forget that day.

If he were to be honest with himself, he would never let himself live it down if he ever did grow senile enough to forget it. With that said, though, the headmaster was idly wafting through some papers and files when he happened upon Qrow's report on the progress of Dichro's training. When he had first offered up the position, Ozpin had no idea that the young man would take it so seriously as to give his own tutor idea for how to train him up. Dichro's lack of willingness to socialize with his friends and peers worried the two of them; communication is such a vital skill in the line of a hunter and should never be dismissed so easily, especially when one has a soulbond. Then there was that defect of his aura which only further worried both adults for his safety, but, even with such a handicap, it seemed that he was well on his way to meeting up with his new classmates in terms of speed and agility. With that in mind, the headmaster decided to read through the file to see what it said.

"Hey, Oz," it started off, looking more like a letter than it did a report, but then again Ozpin knew he was more of a tell it to the face man than he was a letterman, "Not sure how one of these is supposed to look..." Yup, he guessed it; Qrow had no idea what he was doing. "... but here goes. When I first saw him in action, the twerp was really clunky and had next to no co-ordination with his weapons. He even had no ammo for his weapons' alt. mode which made him stand out even as a novice... But then all that changed when he suggested those weights. After the first few days, he was able to move around in them like he wasn't even wearing them at all which shocked the hell out of me considering those weights are each around two hundred pounds; and he's wearing one on each of his limbs and one as a vest. Then he suggested Jaune do the same thing to help him out, which I have to be honest it has barely done anything for him except learn how to get his ass handed to him. Anyway, I told him we would have to up his exercises and combat training in order to work on his reflexes, and that's when he really started to pick it up. Over the next few weeks, the kid has been getting faster and faster, and even Jaune's finally starting to catch up at the time of writing this. So yeah, if you wanna know what the kid's capable of I suggest you have him show you instead."

This actually got Ozpin's interest as he studied the letter more. "Interesting," he spoke to no one in particular, "If what Qrow says here is true... Then we really do have a chance at ending this war before it begins. I'll need to confirm it for myself, however..." With that, he pulled himself upright as he grabbed his cane before walking out of the room and into the elevator with but one goal in mind.

To see Dichro fight in his faunus form for real.

)-Present Time-(

)-Beacon Amphitheater-(

'Now to see if Qrow's words hold merit to them,' Ozpin thought to himself as he looks to the stage from his position near middle of the stands. Upon the stage, Pyrrha and Dichro ready themselves for the fight to come just before Goodwitch calls for them to begin the spar.

The command heard, both students charged at each other; one with his fists cocked and the other with her weapon pulled back for an upward swing. As they reached each other, the Ant Faunus threw his right fist towards his opponent, being careful not to use any of his full strength, while the champion tilted herself out of the way of the punch before she swung her sword with all her might in an upward diagonal slash. With her attack connecting, the dichromatic young man was sent spiraling backwards though managed to grip the stage floor with one hand. Pyrrha gave no license as she charged once more with a horizontal slash, but despite her speed she began to internally curse her own stature as her smaller opponent nimbly rolled under the attack and landed a swift left kick into the outside of her right knee and caused her to fall to a kneeling position. With his opponent compromised, Dichro shot back up on to his feet before charging to her right side with his left fist cocked back for a punch. Before he could reach his target, however, the Invincible Girl's instincts kicked in as she swiped her sword at where he was going to be. Without a second thought, Dichro grabbed at the attacking object by the blade, and instantly regretted doing so as searing pain shot through the palm of his hand. Pushing the pain to the side momentarily, he pushed the blade away and landed his left fist into the back of her head; the force from the blow sent her rolling forward as she lost grip of her weapon.

As she careened out of reach, the dichromatic young man released his death grip on Akoúo and allowed the blade to drop to the stage floor before gripping his wrist in pain and seeing the blood-caked slit across the palm of his glove. 'Crapbaskets,' he mentally cursed himself as Yang's concern flooded his being, 'That was SO dumb!' Before he could do or think anything more, Pyrrha's shield crashed into his forehead; sending him flying backwards and crashing onto his back near the edge of the arena.

Up in the stands, their audience was watching in a mixture of awe and jealousy as this supposed newcomer was easily matching blows with a champion of Mistral without so much as a twig for a weapon. Their friends, on the other hand, were growing concerned; none moreso than Yang and her sisters.

Yang, in particular, could feel her bondmate's frustration at himself and fear about being noticed. During their private time, the golden couple had found that Dichro's Semblance had an excessively short range even when he was in his Kamen Rider form; unless he was looking directly at someone, he could only negate the Semblances of those just a foot outside his arm's reach. Eventually, she was able to teach him how to turn his Semblance off but they found out it activates all on its own. She wondered at first if that was the cause of his distress, but pushed it aside for the moment as her partner noted his actions. "Something's going on with him," Blake started, "His actions feel like he's trying to keep himself in check for some reason."

"It's almost like he's holding back against her," Weiss added in as she turned to the duo, "Any idea why?"

"He is an Ant Faunus and he has been doing some extra training with that Qrow character Ruby told us about..." the Cat Faunus replied, "But I wasn't entirely concerned about that..." Ren took note of her tone and asked her if she had realized it too. Nora was oddly the most silent of the group but her expression said it all; the poor girl was scared stiff - scared for the boy fighting her teammate. Yang started to grow even more concerned. Looking out onto the stage, she saw splats of blood on the floor of the stage where his hand had been as he got himself back up and prepared for another attack. She was almost ready to stop the fight then and there when she started to feel her bondmate's confidence rise up; to her, it was a sign that he wasn't going to give up - not by a long shot. She sighed sadly before speaking her own mind, "I don't care what it is, but he's going to owe us some answers when he's done." Her 'sisters' couldn't agree more as they both nodded in worry.

On the stage, Pyrrha had started to use her Semblance to call back the shield as it was falling down before she suddenly felt a painful pressure in her abdominal area. She didn't have long to contemplate what it was, however, as she was sent flying towards the other end of the arena while her shield clattered against the floor. Propping herself on one arm with the other resting on her solar plexus, she managed to recover enough to see her opponent standing where she had been, his left hand outstretched as if he had just thrown a punch being retracted as he reassumed his fighting pose; hopping from one foot to the other. The class was now in an uproar at the sight they had witnessed, some even calling what they witnessed the sign of his Semblance. Some way, somehow, the Ant Faunus was able to move fast enough to blur out his image in the blink of an eye. The action caught both professors' and Teams RWBY and JNPR's attentions as they watched in shock. Watching as a smirk grew on her opponent's face, Pyrrha once more tried to recall her shield, but felt her Semblance being blocked just like when she had sparred against him before; she didn't need to see his eyes to tell that they were both red - the telltale giveaway that his Semblance was active. 'My Semblance won't work with his in play like this,' she quickly thought to herself as she got back up to her feet, 'Which means I have to do this the old fashioned way.'

Pyrrha soon brought her hands up in a defensive stance before she quickly changed into a full-on sprint towards her opponent, but was caught off guard by him suddenly speeding at her and catching her gut in a right-fisted uppercut. Despite the pain she was in, she quickly grabbed his wrist and flung his lighter body in an attempt to throw him out of the way. Sadly, for her, Dichro had managed to grab ahold of one of her wrists and used it as an anchor to pull his legs into his body and land both feet into her chest; causing both of them to let go of one another, Dichro to backflip away and Pyrrha to be sent flying towards her sword. Gripping the hilt in her dominant hand, she front-flipped onto her feet and converted her weapon into its rifle mode as she brought the sight up to her face. Instead of seeing the usual crosshairs, however, she saw splotches of crimson on the lens. This shocked her to a completely frozen state until her smaller opponent once more suddenly appeared in front of her and landed a swift right sidekick into her left knee; once more causing her to stumble into a kneeling position which only lasted for a few moments as Dichro threw a left hook into her face. As she was sent rolling to the side, the Ant Faunus suddenly collapsed onto his right knee gripping his left leg in pain with both hands. 'Damnit...' he cursed once more as he tried to massage his now cramping leg, 'I'm over-doing it... I need to finish this quick!' With his goal in mind, Dichro stood up, ignoring the pain, and reassumed his stance once more.

His actions, once again, brought worry to his bondmate but Yang's feelings were now shared as both teams as well as most of the audience saw the now crimson-stained pants leg where his hand was.

"Oh my god, is he okay!?" "Someone stop the match!" "Get that kid a doctor or something!"

The cries continued on until Dichro called out to the class, "Enough! I'm fine enough to finish this match!" With his exclamation, the dichromatic young man soon ran towards Pyrrha with every intention of ending the spar to which she responded with gunfire as she opened fire with Akoúo. Each bullet that came near him was avoided with barely any time to react as he got closer and closer to Pyrrha.

"What does that idiot think he's doing?!" the heiress cried out in shock and horror, "Get him off the stage before he gets hurt!"

"Look at their aura levels," Ren pointed out. Sure enough, Dichro was winning the Aura race at a 5 to 1 ratio with his own losing a meager 5%. "He has so much aura left that the damage he sustained should have healed up by now. Something concerning is going on with Dichro. If I had to guess, that's the reason he's getting hurt."

"That doesn't make me feel any better!" Weiss and Ruby both shouted out at the poor boy, but were interrupted from saying anything more, even as they stared at each other in shock, by Jaune as he spoke up.

"Believe me, guys... Dichro's a hard-headed person... He's not one to give up or run from a fight. The reason I'm not panicking like the rest of you is because... Well... He's done this before when we trained... I've just gotten used to it."

"Used... to... it...?" Yang growled out as she clenched her hands into fists. The sound scared the poor blond boy as he held up his hands defensively and tried to explain that he may have accidentally hurt Dichro once or twice and tried desperately to apologize to the boy but kept getting the response "No pain, no gain," each time he did. She didn't want to, but the blonde brawler had to accept his response as she continued to watch the fight with gritted teeth and worry coursing through her heart and mind as she thought, 'Please... Make it through this so you can promise all of us you won't do this again.'

Down below, Pyrrha continued to unload her ammunition against her opponent, even as several bullets grazed his arms, before deciding he was getting to close and tried to change her weapon into its javelin form; this would not happen, however, as Dichro had finally managed to close the gap as soon as she stopped firing - even as his legs threatened to buckle in on themselves - and brought his right fist into her gut in a swift and powerful jab that knocked the wind out of her lungs. Once it landed, Dichro proceeded to land numerous jabs and punches - though nowhere near as powerful as his first - in an attempt to push her further towards the edge of the stage. As Pyrrha was a single step away from the edge, the Ant Faunus quickly allowed his right leg to crumple in on itself and brought his left leg across in a sweeping motion aimed at his opponent's ankles. Even in her weakened state, the Invincible Girl noticed the sign of a sneak attack from below, and responded accordingly by jumping up and backwards in a backflip. However, once her body was turned a full one-hundred and eighty degrees on its axis was when she realized her mistake; she was leaping off of the stage and into a surprised Glynda Goodwitch.

As the younger woman's body collided with the older woman's, both women fell to the floor with a loud thunk.

A sound that was shared with a particular Ant Faunus clenching his legs and desperately clawing at and massaging them trying to get the muscles to calm down as the pain finally became too much for him to bear. Groaning and growling in pain, Dichro couldn't help but let a tear or two escape through tight-shut eyes as he lay there in agony and demeaned himself internally; ignoring the cries of shock and disbelief from the audience in the stands.

'You idiot! What's everyone going to say about you now?!' he reprimanded himself as he struggled to stop the pain in his legs before something in his immediate field of vision caught his eye, 'And HOW THA HELL IS MY HAT STILL ON MY HEAD!?'

No sooner than he finished that thought did another one come to mind as concern filled him. "Hrgh-Hey, Pyrrha!" he called out to his opponent, "Grrr... Y-You okay down there?" As the student and teacher recovered from their impromptu meet and greet, it was Goodwitch who replied with, "WE are fine, Mr. Spectrum... Though I am far more concerned about your own wellbeing." As they both got up, they saw the crumpled mess the boy had become and grew even more anxious at the sight. Goodwitch had managed to pull out her scroll and asked for medical professionals to come to the amphitheater as both Teams RWBY and JNPR; aside from Jaune, Ren and Blake, along with Quartz ran down from their seats onto the stage. The group of six had managed to reach the dichromatic young man and circled him with Yang falling to her knees and pulling him onto her lap asking what he was thinking doing something so reckless as the rest of the students began to file out of the amphitheater. His only reply was, "Heh... I wasn't really thinking at all... Sorry for making you worry like that..."

"Worry?!" the blonde brawler cried out in surprise, "You nearly scared us to death when we saw that blood! Why didn't you say something?!"

The boy sat there, grimacing in pain as he did so, for a little while before finally saying what came to his mind. "I didn't want any of you to think I was worthless on my own." His reply shocked the group even as the missing trio finally came onto the stage. Jaune was, oddly enough, the first one to speak as he knelt down next to his training buddy and said, "Worthless? C'mon, Dichro, that's my area; you're a lot better at this kinda stuff than I am."

"Besides," Pyrrha spoke next with a soft smile and said, "I haven't been able to meet anyone who could pose a challenge like you just did... You've single-handedly disproven my deserving of the title 'champion'. With someone like you still around, I can't quite call myself the strongest fighter anymore - not when I now know there's proof even I can improve right before me." The Ant Faunus could only chuckle lightly as he looked up at her, his red and blue eyes finally returning to normal, and said, "Thanks... But I've still got a ways to go myself... Plus... I've been so used to being my family's pillar back home..."

"And so you bear that weight upon your shoulders, even amongst your fellow students..." a familiar voice called out to him. The teams both looked at who it was to find the headmaster of Beacon standing there with a saddened expression on his face. Noticing the looks of unease on his students' faces, Ozpin held up a hand and spoke up, "Please understand that I, in no way, intended for this to happen. Also please know that I am neither disappointed nor disgusted with Mr. Spectrum's actions... I just wish there was a way to help him alleviate his symptoms." As he said this, most thought he meant the gaming virus Ruby had which made them grow nervous, but Blake and Ren both nodded at each other as Blake asked the professor what he meant by symptoms. His reply shocked the group as he spoke about Dichro's aura having the defect of being incapable of healing or undoing any damage that was non-lethal. At hearing this, Yang subconsciously pulled Dichro closer to her body and held him as safely as she could before asking the young man, "Why... would you hide THAT from us?"

"Like I said..." the dichromatic young man whispered as he looked away, "I didn't want you to think I was worthless..."

Nora stood up abruptly with an unusually stern look on her face as she spoke, "When you get seen by those doctors, ALL of us are going to have a LONG talk with you about trust!" With that, she stormed off the stage and out of the amphitheater just in time to help the medical personnel enter the room. As they reached him, Dichro began to feel anxiety increasing before Yang held him bridal style and told the professionals that she would be going with him to help keep him calm. They accepted the answer and helped her bring him to the infirmary.

)-That Night-(

)-Dichro's Dorm-(

Dichro had been given muscle relaxers as well as bandages for his hand and arms during his visit to the infirmary. Upon assessment of his injuries, the doctors concluded that he had given himself muscular dystrophy by overexerting his legs to move as fast as he did. This bit of news shocked all but Jaune who absently stated that he was able to boost his speed the same way but not to the extreme that Dichro could. That got everyone wondering just what kind of training he was doing; namely Yang and Blake in particular. When asked during the visit, Dichro had refused to answer them then and there; he had told them he would only tell them when he felt he was ready. Begrudgingly, they accepted his answer.

Eventually, the Ant Faunus was allowed to leave the infirmary under the condition that he do nothing more exerting than walking for the next twenty four hours, to which he eagerly agreed. By the time he had left, however, it was already night time and that meant he missed several other classes that needed to be made up. Ren had agreed to help him catch up, but was stopped when Yang told him that she and Quartz lived in the same dorm room which would make it easier on both of them in the long run; she had also mentioned that she had business to deal with alone with him which got a nod out of the Mistral boy before they finally returned to the dorm room. As they started to get ready for bed, the blonde brawler had at first tried to scold him for the way he fought; only to be told that she would have done the same thing if she could.

"Yeah, but me doing it and you doing it are two different things," she retorted, "I can handle that kind of pain and even use it to make myself stronger on the spot whereas you -"

"I can use it to make myself stronger in the long run instead." he interrupted her with a downturned expression as he pulled his crimson and blue plaid pajama pants up. Yang sighed before she spoke again as she pulled her top on over her head, "That's not the point, squirt... I know I can handle that kind of pain, but -"

"But you don't know if I can?" Dichro hazard a guess, which turned out right as she nodded her head, "Even I don't know that, and we'll never know unless I try." She couldn't help herself as her worry started to flood the bond even when she tried to sound brave as she told him she didn't want him to try - especially not like he did. She could feel his emotional pain from the bond as she immediately regretted her wording.

"That's not what I meant, Dichro..." she said as she laid her body on her bed, "I just... Don't want you getting hurt, okay?"

"I don't want you getting hurt, either," Dichro said as he too laid down on his own bed, "But things happen and we have to... Prepare for the worst and hope for the best." Yang couldn't help but nod at his words before telling him good night as she covered herself up with her bondmate doing the same. As they both started to let sleep take them, the sound of a building being torn down suddenly played in the room from the top of a dresser, irritating both of them as they shouted, "GO TO SLEEP, QUARTZ!" With that, they heard a quiet "Oops!" before all they knew was silence and finally sleep.

Inside Dichro's body, however, was a different story. Even as he slept, his body was beginning to change as a mass of virus cells began to form within him. It pulsed a light violet color a few times before finally coming to rest and awaiting the perfect time to awaken...

The time to form the Bugster Union was fast approaching, and it would not wait much longer.

)-xXx-(

There we go! The next chapter in the Paradox of Remnant story is now done! So as always, leave any questions you may have in the reviews and I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Until next time...

See you next game!