Hello once again everyone, Happy Valentine's Day, and welcome to chapter 2 of RWBY: A Demon's Life. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Oh and before I forget, there will be a couple of extra characters appearing in this chapter that normally wouldn't, but there is a reason for it that will appear in a chapter much later than this one, just know that they do have a purpose! They appear pretty late in this chapter too as well so, be warned. Also this chapter turned out to be a little longer than expected, because as I was writing it, I got more ideas that kept popping up in my head that I thought just fit too well to not add in, so that's why. I'm sorry. Anyway I only own my OC, RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum (RIP Monty) and let's get started.
Chapter 2: The School Bullies
"Hey guys!" said Ruby after seeing team JNPR sitting at their usual table.
"Hey guys! Ruby and Weiss are here!" yelled Jaune sitting with Nora on his right. Ren was sitting next to Nora and Pyrrha was sitting next to Ren, while staring at Jaune.
"Guys! I'm here too…" said Yang, feigning being hurt.
"Sorry Yang didn't see you there." said Jaune, noticing Yang entering the cafeteria.
Just then Blake and Shade entered the cafeteria.
"Oh you're here! Hey Shade! Let us introduce you to our friends! There right over there!" said Ruby pointing to Team JNPR. "First with the blonde hair is Jaune Arc. He is the leader of Team JNPR. To his right we have Nora Valkyrie! She's very hyper and a great fighter even though she is a bit hyper. Next to Nora is Lie Ren, but just call him Ren. He's pretty quiet but he is always calm and composed. Finally, next to Ren we have-"Ruby started until Shade interrupted.
"OH MY GOD! Pyrrha is that you!?" questioned Shade looking at Pyrrha.
"Shade! It is so good to see you again after so long!" said Pyrrha, with a look of absolute shock on her face.
Shade and Pyrrha ran up to each other and embraced each other in a tight hug.
"I see that your hair is just as amazing as before." Said Pyrrha.
"You expected anything else?" asked Shade.
"No I suppose not." Admitted Pyrrha.
"Um…What?" asked team RWBY as well as Jaune, Nora and Ren.
"Oh right. Everyone is probably confused at how we know each other from before now. Well I'm sure that you know how Pyrrha won the Mistral Regional Tournament 4 years in a row, right?" asked Shade. "Well, I was runner-up 4 years in a row. I was good, and came close a couple times, but I could never beat Pyrrha."
"WHAT?!" yelled Weiss. "Why didn't you tell us that you were in the Mistral Regional Tournament, much less that you were runner-up 4 years in a row?!"
"I didn't think it was important. I mean, why would it be?" asked Shade.
"Because then we would know that you are even better than we expected so we could accurately gauge your abilities." said Weiss.
"Alright. Fair point, but now you know. So how have you been all these years Pyrrha?" asked Shade.
"I've been good, but I'm more confused about you. How did my old lover make it here?" asked Pyrrha, making Shade blush and facepalm.
"YOU GYUS ARE EXES TOO?!" yelled Yang, Ruby, and Nora.
"Yes, Pyrrha and I used to date, but we broke up a while ago. Can me and Pyrrha finally catch up now?!" asked Shade, clearly starting to lose his patience.
Pyrrha, already knowing what could happen soon quickly said "Actually, how about we catch up in private?"
"Alright, sure. And Yang, before you even start, no nothing else is going to happen." said Shade, already knowing what Yang was about to say.
"Fine, I won't say anything." Said Yang, upset that Shade predicted what she was about to say.
"Alright. Let's go Shade." Said Pyrrha, leading him out of the cafeteria.
After Pyrrha lead Shade out of the cafeteria, she quickly hugged him.
"Woah, Pyrrha! It's okay! What's up?" asked Shade, taken aback, but still hugging her back.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm just happy to see you again." Said Pyrrha.
"I'm happy to see you again too Pyrrha." Said Shade. "But I get the feeling that you have a couple of questions for me. Am I right?" asked Shade.
"Only three. First, why didn't you tell them that if you hadn't been refraining from using your semblance you would've beat me? Back in the tournament?" asked Pyrrha.
"If I had done that, they would start asking me what my semblance was, and you know how much I love surprising people with it, right?" said Shade.
"Point made. Ok, question two. How did you get here? I mean I thought that you were going to keep taking up mercenary work." Said Pyrrha.
"Basically what had happened was I was on an extermination job and just as I had taken out my last Ursa, Ruby came out of a bush and started making conversation with me. After talking for a little while, a Beowolf charged at Ruby, and I pulled her behind me to protect her. I woke up a week later in the infirmary, and after a brief chat with Ozpin, he invited me to join the school, and made me an extra team member of team RWBY." Explained Shade, recounting the recent events.
"Ok. Finally, have you gotten any better at controlling…HIM?" asked Pyrrha, with a grim look on her face.
Shade looked down at that question. "No. If anything it has only gotten worse. MUCH worse. It used to only be sadness that set him off, but now, any negative emotion sets him off, but the worst one is anger. I need you to promise me a couple of things, right here, right now." Said Shade, dead serious.
"Of course. What?" asked Pyrrha.
"I need you to promise me that you won't tell my team. They don't know yet, but I will tell them eventually, just only when I'm ready. Also, I need you to promise me that if you see me start to lose my temper, and he might take control, promise me you will get my team as well as your team away as quickly as you can. I will get control back as soon as I can, but I don't want to hurt anybody that doesn't deserve it." Requested Shade.
"Of course Shade. I most likely would have done that even of you hadn't asked." Said Pyrrha.
"Thank you Pyrrha. You're such a good friend." Said Shade.
"You're welcome Shade." Replied Pyrrha.
"Anyway, we should probably get back to our teams." Said Shade.
"Oh yeah, let's go." Said Pyrrha.
After getting back to the cafeteria and Shade got some food. Ruby realized that she hadn't asked Shade anything about his weapons yet when she saw them on his back.
"SHADE! I've been meaning to ask you! What are the names of your weapons and what do they do?" asked Ruby.
Pulling out both of his longswords, he answered. "The one in my right hand is called 'Demon's Bane' and the one in my left is called 'Gleaming Evil', and apart from killing things, I can convert them each into a machine pistol, as well as form them together into a 12-gauge shotgun that can shoot through titanium." He said showing everybody.
"Wow! They are so cool! Even their names sound awesome! Did you make them both yourself?" asked Ruby.
"Not both, just Demon's Bane." Said Shade, sheathing both swords.
"So where did you get Gleaming Evil?" questioned Weiss.
"It was my dad's. Before he…b-before he was…k-killed." Explained Shade, with a forlorn look on his face and he looked to be close to tears.
"Oh my god…I-I'm so sorry Shade. I-I didn't know." Said Weiss sincerely.
"It's ok. There was no way you could've known. It's not your fault. Besides, I got my revenge many years ago." Said Shade, with everyone knowing what he meant by that.
"Oh my god." Said everyone.
"Ok, I understand why most of you said that, but why you Pyrrha? You already knew about that?" asked Shade, but Pyrrha was looking away.
Shade looked past her to see a tall, muscular boy with orange hair, a shorter boy with a Mohawk, another short boy with dark yellow hair, and a taller boy with dark blue hair picking on a small Faunus girl with bunny ears. They were pulling on them, almost making her cry, and the laughing as she started to whine. Everyone looked over to where Shade and Pyrrha were looking.
"Who are they and why are they doing that?" asked Shade.
"They are Team CRDL, Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark and they do that every time they see her." Explained Blake
"AND EVERYONE JUST LETS IT HAPPEN?! WHY HASN"T ANYONE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?!" yelled Shade getting angry.
"Well, no one really wants to stick their nose into other people's business, but mostly, no one knows what to do. None of us have ever been bullied before." Said Jaune.
"Oh! WE'LL BREAK CARDIN'S LEGS!" exclaimed Nora.
"I'm in, where do I sign up?" asked Shade, dead serious.
"Shade, please don't encourage her." Asked Ren.
"See, I told you there were real." Shade heard one of them say.
"What a freak!" he heard another one say.
After hearing this, something inside of Shade just seemed to snap.
Yang looked like she was about to say something, but she was interrupted with a deep growling noise coming from Shade.
Everyone turned to Shade, and saw him looking at the boys with a look of pure unrivaled rage. When Pyrrha saw this she told everyone on the team to follow her as she left the cafeteria. When team RWBY wouldn't leave, Pyrrha convinced the rest of team JNPR to drag them out, with Jaune pulling Ruby, Pyrrha pulling Weiss, Ren pulling Blake, and Nora pulling Yang.
After this Shade slammed his hands on the table and got up and stomped over to the boys. When he got there, he pushed the muscular boy far away from the Faunus girl.
"How about you pick on someone your own size?!" yelled Shade after pushing Cardin back about 3 feet and getting right in his face.
"How about you get out of my way and mind your own business before I knock you out cold!?" yelled Cardin back. His teammates lined up behind him, while everyone including teams JNPR and RWBY, who were outside the cafeteria and looking in after Pyrrha let them look inside as long as they didn't go inside, turned to look at this scene, as Shade was the first person to stand up to Cardin.
At this point, Shade was getting really angry. He was almost 3 seconds away from ripping this guy's head off, but he knew he couldn't do that.
"Ok, I'm going to give you two options. Either you can leave right now, and I will do the same and we can forget this encounter ever happened, or you can try to get past me back to her, and I can pound your pathetic ass into the ground right here, right now! The choice is yours." said Shade, his voice getting louder as his sentence went on.
"What could a pathetic, useless faunus like you do to me?" laughed Cardin. "It's not like you're any good, you probably didn't even go to combat school, and your parents were probably too pathetic to teach you anything of value." This caused all the mouths of all members of teams JNPR and RWBY to drop, and it seemed to them that Shade was sent into a more feral state. "So let's see how good you really are!" yelled Cardin, throwing a punch at Shade.
After the comment about Shade's parents, Shade was sent into a fit of unrivaled rage. He clasped his hands over his eyes, and started screaming in a voice that sounded almost demonic. He then started laughing, sounding even more demonic, and as he laughed it gave everyone in the room chills, including team CRDL. This caused Cardin to stop mid punch. After he finished laughing, he simply smiled and tore his hands away from his eyes and brushed the hair out of his right eye. When he looked back up at Cardin, Cardin's heart skipped a beat. Shade wore a demented smile on his face, he started to chuckle, but that didn't worry Cardin at all. What worried him, was Shade's eyes. They had changed. Instead of being red, they looked like to empty black pits, as if his pupil had taken up his entire eye. Cardin jumped back and, after getting his bearings back, reared his right hand back to punch Shade again. When he swung forward, Shade caught his arm by the wrist and crushed it in his hand. Shade then grabbed Cardin by his ankles and slammed him onto a table, causing him to go through it. This seemed to calm Shade down enough to regain his senses, though his eyes were still black. He looked back at the rest of team CRDL, who looked utterly petrified.
"I extend the same offer to you." Said Shade, his voice still sounding demonic. "Either you can pick up your sorry excuse of a leader and get out of my sight, or meet the same fate. Once again, the choice is yours." He said crossing his arms.
"Umm, w-we'll take option A, please." Said Russel, who was shaking like a leaf. The rest of team CRDL agreed. After they had picked up Cardin, Shade grabbed Russel by the shoulder.
"Two things, first, smart choice. Second, when your leader wakes up tell him, if I EVER catch him bullying another Faunus, the consequences will be MUCH worse. The same goes for all of you. Do I make myself clear" He asked, gesturing to all of them. They all nodded in understanding. "Good. Now get out of my sight, you make me sick." The bullies were gone in matter of three seconds.
After they had left, Shade reverted back to normal and brushed his hair to cover his right eye again. 'Oh god. Why did he have to take control in front of everyone in the whole damn school?' thought Shade as he shook his head.
He turned around and saw everyone had looked away. He then walked towards the faunus girl that Cardin and his gang were picking on.
"Hey there. Are you OK?" asked Shade, looking at the girl.
"U-um, y-yes, I'm ok." Said the girl, looking very shy and even a little scared of Shade.
"It's Ok, I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Shade. What's yours?" asked Shade.
"M-My names Velvet Scarlatina." Replied Velvet, looking less scared but still a little shy.
"That's a very pretty name. Just so you know, I don't think those guys will bother you anymore, but if they do, just let me know and I'll take care of it." Said Shade, flashing her a smile.
"Thank you, Shade." Replied Velvet.
"I guess I should get back to my friends and you probably want to get back to yours, so I guess I'll see you later?" Shade asked.
"Um, well, I actually don't have any friends, so do you mind if I hang out with you and your friends?" asked Velvet, hopefully.
"Of course. We'd love to have you sit with us." Replied Shade, even though he didn't want her to witness what he was about to go through, he just couldn't turn her down.
"Thank you Shade!" yelled Velvet, wrapping him in a tight hug.
"Ok, let's go." Said Shade.
As he and Velvet walked back over to his friends, he was silently hoping that all of them had gone temporarily blind and deaf.
"Um, hey guys?" Shade said, unsure if how to start a conversation that didn't involve what had just happened. "Velvet's going to sit with us today, if that's ok?"
All of his friends just nodded looking at each other.
As Shade and Velvet sat down, Shade next to Yang, and Velvet next to Pyrrha, Blake blurted out "Ok no one else is asking so I'm going to. I don't know how to say this so I'll just be blunt about it. What…the…actual…HELL…HAPPENED!?" she yelled.
"I knew this was going to happen, I was just hoping it wouldn't be so soon." Said Shade.
"Stop trying to dodge the question. Just answer it!" yelled Weiss.
"Alright. If you want the whole story I've got to go back quite a while. First let me take you back 10 years, to the day my family died."
Flashback time
"D-Dad?" said Shade. "W-What H-Happened" cried Shade, barely able to get a sentence out.
"Shade? Shade, you need to leave, run, and never look back. Keep yourself safe." Said Shade's father, as the life faded from his eyes.
"Dad? DAD!? DAD NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! DAD!" yelled Shade but to no avail. His father was gone. Shade's sadness was quickly replaced with anger. "I swear right now. I will track down the monster who did this to you all, and I WILL end his miserable existence." With that vow he looked on his back and saw his sword, Demon's Bane, attached to his back. He then looked to the left of his father's body, and saw his father's sword, Gleaming Evil, as well as it's sheathe. He picked both up and attached the sheathe to his back. He looked over to the right of his father's body, to see his mother and sister, both murdered. Sheathing the sword, he left the house behind.
3 Years Later
'How long have I been running now? It has been at least 3 Years. I still haven't found the one who killed my family, but I'm not going to give up until he lies dead at my feet.' Thought Shade.
Shade got up from his sitting position, checked the swords on his back and started walking. Before long he found what looked like a ruined temple. Deciding to check it out, he walked into it. After entering it, a chill went down his spine.
After walking in the temple for about 30 minutes he saw a man sitting alone in a room. He instantly recognized the man as the one who had killed his father.
"YOU! YOU MONSTER!" yelled Shade as he charged the man unsheathing both his swords. The man turned, recognized the boy and took out his sword. Shade swung both swords at the man. Due to Shade's weaker figure, the man easily blocked his attack and slashed at Shade's chest. After 2 hours the fight seemed as if it was starting to come to an end, as Shade could barely stand.
As the man who killed his father swung his sword down to end Shade's life as well, Shade seemed to be locked in time.
"What happened? Where am I?" asked Shade, unsure.
"YOU ARE IN MY DOMAIN" Shade heard a demonic voice say.
"And you are?" asked Shade.
"MY NAME IS NOT IMPORTANT. WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, AND I CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE THAT. NOW KEEP IN MIND, YOU CAN REFUSE, BUT IF YOU DO, THE VERY SAME MAN WHO KILLED YOUR FATHER WILL KILL YOU AS WELL. SO, DO YOU WANT MY HELP?" Said the voice.
Shade took no time to think about his answer the only thing on his mind was revenge. "Yes. I do."
"VERY WELL." Said the voice. Shade then heard an almost deafening roar.
When the roar stopped, he found himself back in the chamber, only, the man had been disarmed and his sword was laying on the ground far away from him.
Shade wasted no time. He ran straight for the man and sunk his dad's sword into the man's heart. He then leaned down ad said right into the man's ear. "That was for my family, you sick son of a bitch." The man then fell to the ground, dead.
Flashback ended
"And that's the story. That voice that gave me the power to avenge my family, also left a small part of himself behind. Now, whenever I feel any of those emotions that I felt the night my family was taken from me, he takes control of my body. Whether I want him to or not." Said Shade, ending his story.
The whole table just sat there trying to absorb all of this information. They looked as if their whole world had been turned upside down.
Ruby was the first to speak up. "Ok." Was all she said.
"What? Did you just say ok?" asked Shade, astonished.
"Yep. I did. Now I know that it wasn't you that did that. It was this alter ego of yours." Said Ruby.
All the others at the table subsequently agreed with Ruby.
Shade was left speechless. He almost started to tear up out of joy but settled for just standing up, walking to Ruby, and wrapping her in a tight hug. Everyone one else quickly joined in the massive group hug.
After remaining like that for a few seconds, they all released from the hug. "Thank you all. You guys are the best friends I could ever ask for." Said Shade, happily.
After remaining in the cafeteria talking for another couple hours. Shade heard an all too familiar voice behind him, and recognized it as an old friend of his from Mistral.
"I should've known it was you after I saw those bullies carrying their leader to the infirmary." Said the voice.
"No way…NO…WAY!" yelled Shade, turning around.
As he turned around the first thing he noticed was a boy with hair the same color as Jaune's, and even close to the same style. The next thing he saw was the boy's tail, which looked like that of a monkey. The shirt he wore was open down the middle.
"Sun. Is that really you?" asked Shade.
"Good to see you still remember me." Said Sun.
"Of course I do. How could I forget about you? You are pretty memorable." Said Shade.
"I guess that's true. I mean, it must be impossible to forget me?" asked Sun, not expecting an answer, and sure enough, none came.
"Um Shade?" asked Ruby.
"Yeah Ruby?" asked Shade back.
"Who's he?" Asked Ruby, pointing to Sun.
"Oh very sorry. This is quite possibly one of my oldest friends. I met him day I arrived in Mistral. His name is Sun and as I'm sure you can tell, he's a monkey Faunus." Explained Shade, introducing his old friend.
"Nice to meet all of you." Said Sun.
All the others introduced themselves, but Shade noticed a couple of things. After Pyrrha introduced herself, she looked directly at Jaune. In fact, she had done that a lot lately. Also, When Ruby Introduced herself she seemed to be stuttering more than usual, and even now she seems to be avoiding looking at him.
'Hmm…I wonder.' Thought Shade.
"Hey Pyrrha? Can I talk to you alone for a second?" asked Shade.
"Um…sure? Why not?" replied Pyrrha.
After the two of them left the cafeteria, Shade just came right out and said it.
"You like Jaune don't you?" asked Shade.
"WH-How did you know that?" asked Pyrrha, dumbfounded.
"You've been staring at him almost the whole time I've seen you. I'm shocked he hasn't noticed yet. He must be really dense." Said Shade.
"Ok. You caught me. I do. I like Jaune." Said Pyrrha.
"Thought so. Alright that's all I wanted to ask." Said Shade.
After Shade and Pyrrha had finished their little talk Shade re-entered the cafeteria and asked to talk to Ruby in private for a minute. When Ruby walked out of the cafeteria, Shade asked her a similar question to what he had asked Pyrrha.
"Do you like Sun?" asked Shade.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? Nooooooooo, of course not." Said Ruby, doing a horrible job of hiding it.
Shade just decided to play along. "Oh. That's a bummer, cause when I saw Sun talking to you, I got the feeling that he may like you." Said Shade, and it was true, it was very subtle, because Sun was good at hiding it, but he couldn't fool Shade. It really seemed that he liked Ruby.
"WHAT!? REALLY!? YOU THINK SO!?" asked Ruby excitedly.
Shade just kept her thinking that he believed her when she said she hadn't liked Sun. "Yeah. He's gonna be so sad when he finds out that you don't like him. But, I do have to tell him. He'll be so heartbroken."
"Shade wait! You win, OK! I do like him!" said Ruby.
"I know. But don't worry. I won't tell him. I'll let you tell him." Said Shade.
"Thank you Shade." Replied Ruby, gratefully.
Ruby and Shade then returned to their table in the cafeteria, and saw one extra person.
"Hey Shade! About time you got back! Meet my friend, Mercury!" said Sun.
Shade looked over and saw an average height boy with silver hair dressed in almost all black and what a girl might call a handsome face.
"Hey there. I'm Mercury. Nice to meet you Shade. These guys have told me a lot about you. Sounds like you've had a rough life." Said Mercury, sympathetically.
"You could say that. It's nice to meet you too Mercury." Replied Shade, shaking Mercury's hand.
The group of 12 friends talked until sunset, when they decided they should head back to their dorms and get some shut-eye, seeing as they had class tomorrow.
When team RWBY got back to the dorm, Shade saw an extra bed. It was put in the corner, very close to Weiss' bed. There was a note on it. All the girls took notice of this. Shade walked over to the note and read it aloud.
"Dear Shade,
It was only after thinking for a little while that I realized that you wouldn't have a bed to sleep in while you stayed here. Therefore I added a bed in to team RWBY's dorm room. This was the only place big enough to fit a bed. I hope the location doesn't cause any problems.
Sincerely, Ozpin"
"Alright, looks like I don't need to take the floor anymore." Said Shade.
Then, the RBY of team RWBY hopped up onto their beds and quickly fell asleep.
Shade the got into his bed, took off his shirt, slid under the covers and was about to go to sleep when Weiss called his name.
"Yes Weiss?" asked Shade.
"Are you ok with this placement of your bed?" asked Weiss.
"Of course. Why?" asked Shade.
"Well, the way the beds are placed, we're practically…sleeping together." Said Weiss, a blush very clear on her face.
"Yeah, but we aren't." said Shade.
"Yeah but-"Weiss didn't finish her sentence in time. Shade had already fallen asleep.
Weiss then just sighed in annoyance, changed into her sleep wear, climbed into her bed and fell asleep, able to feel Shade's warm breath on the back of her neck as he snored lightly.
"Oh, god. This is going to be a long semester isn't it?" Was the last thing Weiss thought before going to sleep.
Hope you enjoyed the second chapter of RWBY: A Demon's Life. Remember to leave a review of what I did well, if anything, as well as what I could improve on, because let's face it, I'm clearly not a professional as well as any questions you may have regarding the story. Any help you are willing to offer is much appreciated and I hope I will see you in the next chapter of RWBY: A Demon's Life. I will try to update this every Sunday as long as I can sneak in sometime between college work to write.
