Hello everybody! I am The Burning Ruler and I am back once again with another Chapter of RWBY: A Demon's Life. I have decided that I most want to pair my OC with Lisbeth or Silica in my upcoming SAO story, however if I get enough votes for Asuna, I will pick her. Now, I have a review!
LordWinter13: Thank you very much. Good to know that you enjoy it! I also hope that it contributes to a growing popularity, but that's pretty much a given I guess.
Now that that's out of the way, I don't own RWBY, and let's start the chapter.
Chapter 16: Family and The Past.
The entirety of team RWBY could only stare at Shade in shock of what they had just heard. Earlier, Shade had told them that his sister had died back when his parents were killed, but he had just said that the girl who almost killed him was his sister.
"Ok, Question!" said Ruby.
"I already know what you're going to ask. How is my sister still alive, right? To which I can only reply, I have no idea. I had thought she was dead, but as it turns out, she wasn't. It also seems that she was the one who organized the attack on my parents, and is responsible for their death, and I want the story." Explained Shade.
"The best way to get that would be to get it from her, but I am afraid she has retired for the night. You should wait until tomorrow." Explained Ozpin.
"Alright. I guess I should get some sleep." Said Shade rolling his wheelchair over to his bed, climbing out of it and into his bed.
"Wait, before you go to sleep, why are you in a wheelchair?" asked Weiss.
"Oh right. It's just a precaution." Said Shade.
"Precaution for what?" asked Blake.
"The doctor suggested that I try to stay off my feet for a few days to give my legs some time to recover as they took the most damage. Goodnight." Explained Shade, going to sleep.
"Alright then. Good night." Said Yang, getting into her bed.
Everyone then thanked Ozpin for bringing Shade straight there when he woke up, and got into bed and fell asleep.
Before Weiss fell asleep, she looked over to Shade, and smiled.
'Thank god he's Ok. I thought that he may not make it, but it seems I don't need to worry about that anymore.' Weiss thought before going to sleep.
The next day, they all woke up and got ready, Shade getting a little help from Weiss with putting his clothes on due to him being incapacitated for a few days. They decided that they should get breakfast before going to pay a visit to Shade's sister.
"Let's go then." Said Shade, leading the group.
They almost entered the cafeteria when Yang stopped them.
"Hey, let's prank the others. Shade, you stay out here until we wave you in Ok?" said Yang.
"Got it." Said Shade, waiting.
"Let's go." Said Ruby, dropping the smile.
When they walked in, everyone else was worried because they didn't see Shade in the infirmary when they went, but Shade wasn't there. Team RWBY pretended to be worried, but quickly gave it up when they thought that the others had enough. They waved Shade in, and Velvet ran over and almost tackled him out of the wheelchair. Luckily, Fox caught him in time.
"Thanks man." Said Shade after being straightened out. Fox simply nodded.
Shade rolled up to the table and the second he got there, he was bombarded with the same questions that he was asked the night before, and answered them the same way.
"Ok, so she's your sister, and yet she tried to kill you?" asked Jaune, dumbfounded.
"Yeah, that's basically the long and short of it." Answered Shade.
"Ok then, that's unexpected to say the least." Said Mercury.
"Yeah. By the way Shade, while you were out, a couple things happened. First, Weiss got message from her father that someone was coming to see her, but he wouldn't tell her who, but the person should be showing up later today. We also wrote up a few more beats for the band, but we didn't have you, so we want some help writing the lyrics. Could you come by the dorm after your meeting with family?" asked Sarah.
"Yeah sure. I'm sure that we could come up with something good." Said Shade.
"Ok. Well we should get going then. We're all done, and I want to see this girl." Said Yang.
"Right. Just to be clear, NO harm is to come to her, alright?" asked Shade, making them promise.
They all agreed, and then he and his friends left to meet his sister.
They got to Ozpin's office soon and asked to see her. Ozpin led them to the room they were keeping her in. He opened the door, and Shade saw his sister, completely fine, with no marks at all. He entered first, followed quickly by his friends.
"Hello Shade. Good to see you, I guess." Said his sister.
"Come on Neo, we are still brother and sister after all." Said Shade.
"Yeah so? What's your point?" asked Neo.
"So there's no need for you to mouth off. But I guess that's been your main talent since birth." Said Shade.
"Ha Ha Ha, very funny." Said Neo, sarcastically.
"There's the sarcasm. Now I want to know a few things." Said Shade.
"Fine. What do you want to know?" asked Neo.
"A couple things. First, how did you get into the White Fang? You are a human after all." Said Shade.
"I only entered at the beginning to help you. I wanted you to have equality. But after you left, they wanted me to help track you down, and kill you. I agreed because I was mad that you would give up so easily." Explained Neo.
"I see. Now-" Shade was interrupted.
"Wait a sec…You're Weiss Schnee aren't you?" asked Neo.
"Yes I am. Why?' asked Weiss.
"Your family is the cause of the Faunus being mistreated! Why the hell are you here you bitch?!" yelled Neo.
Weiss got mad at that remark and took out her sword. She almost stabbed Neo with it, until her sword was knocked out of her hands and landed on the other side of the room. Weiss looked at what had disarmed her, to see Shade with one of his swords drawn.
"I said, NO harm is to come to her." Said Shade, glaring at Weiss.
"Fine. I'll overlook it this time." Said Weiss.
"Now Neo, if you must know, me and Weiss are dating. You're probably confused about that, but Weiss and her family are actually not terrible people. They are actually nice, you just need to give them a chance." Said Shade.
"Fine then. I guess I could give them a chance. I won't like it, but I will." Said Neo, reluctantly.
"Good. Now my last question, why? Why did you hire that bandit to kill our family?" asked Shade.
"I was mad. You know how I had a crush on that guy that lived next to us right?" asked Neo.
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with it?" asked Shade, confused.
"Well you see. One night I had invited him over, but mom and dad didn't approve of him. They got mad when I said I wanted to be with him and that nothing was going to stop me from being with him. When I said that, dad got madder and forced him out of the house. A few days later, he was found dead in his room. It was only until later I found out that d was the one who killed him. I also found out that it was mom's idea. That is why I did it." Said Neo.
"What? Oh my god. Well, I don't feel bad for them anymore. But I do want to know something else, where is that sword of yours? All I can see is that umbrella." Said Shade.
Neo got up and grabbed her umbrella. His friends almost stopped her, but Shade told them to wait. Neo then pulled the sword out of the umbrella, before putting it back again.
"Ok. That clears it up. You can let her go now." Said Shade.
"What?" asked his friends.
"Wha…" was all his sister said.
"I said you can let her go now. I know all I want to know, so I don't see a need to keep her here any longer." Said Shade.
"Actually, I have another idea. I would like to invite Neo to stay here, at beacon academy." Said Ozpin.
Neo's eyes brightened up at that. She was just as confused as Shade was when he was invited, and even asked the same question. Ozpin simply smiled and said that since she had brought Shade to the brink of death, she was clearly qualified to enroll at beacon.
Ozpin then handed her a scroll and added her as an extra member of team JNPR. Neo gladly accepted and asked where that room was.
"We can take you there!" said Ruby, much like how she had said it to Shade when he first showed up.
"Alright then. Let's go!" said Neo, getting up and following Shade and Team RWBY.
"So I need to ask. How is it that Shade is a faunus and you aren't Neo?" asked Blake.
"Well our dad was a wolf faunus while our mom was a human." Said Neo.
"Ah. That makes sense." Said Blake.
They had met up with the members of Team CRDL minus Cardin who wasn't there yet. When Russel saw Neo, he began to flirt with her, but Neo shot him down instantly.
"Aw man. Why?" asked Russel.
"I know why. But I won't say unless you are ok with them knowing. I found it out when he was flirting with you, or at least, I think I did." Said Shade.
"Well then, you can tell him." Said Neo.
"OK then. I guess it is better to get it out there early. So Russel…it's because…how to put it…I guess…she doesn't exactly…go that way." Said Shade, putting it as delicately as possible.
"In other words, I'm a lesbian." Said Neo, putting it bluntly.
"Well then, this is embarrassing." Said Russel.
"Let's just forget it happened. Nice to meet you Russel, my name is Neo, and I'm Shade's sister." Said Neo, holding her hand out for a handshake.
"Nice to meet you Neo." Said Russel, shaking her hand.
The group then started to go towards team JNPR's room, and when they got there, they knocked. Pyrrha came to the door.
"Hello. Wait a minute, is that your sister Shade?" asked Pyrrha.
"Yes, and now she is also your new teammate. These guys can explain it, but I need to get going. Have a good time!" called Shade as he left for Sun's room.
Shade arrived at Sun's room and knocked on the door. Sun let Shade in and Shade noticed that all his fellow band members ready to start playing.
"Alright. So you're ready to start?" asked Shade.
"Yeah. Are you ready?" asked Mercury.
"Yeah. Whenever you're ready, go ahead." Said Shade, sitting down.
Sun, Sarah and Mercury begin playing the beats they made, and Shade started thinking of lyrics to write for each. As they were playing, Shade got ideas for a few different subjects to base a song off.
"Good job guys. I think I got something for them." Said Shade, taking out a few pieces of paper and he began writing lyrics on them. As he wrote he looked more focused on it then he had ever been before. When he finished he showed his bandmates, and they were happy with the lyrics.
"These look pretty good. You wanna try them out?" asked Shade.
"Yeah. Let's try this out." Said Sun.
"OK, whenever you're ready." Said Shade.
The band began playing the first song and Shade began singing the lyrics he wrote. As they went on, they tweaked the song slightly so that it still sounded great, but fit the lyrics better. After a few playthroughs of the songs, they finished them perfectly.
"Good job guys. I think these songs are pretty good. You think we could play them sometime?" asked Shade.
"I don't know, but I definitely want to." said Sun.
"I can help with that." Said a voice as it entered the room.
"Oh Ozpin. How are you?" asked Shade.
"I am good. I happened to overhear that you were writing a couple of new songs, and were looking for a good time to play them." Said Ozpin.
"Yes we were. Do you have an idea?' asked Shade.
"Yes. I heard some of the students talking about a battle of bands going on in town in a few days. You should be out of the wheelchair by then, which means that you could probably participate." Said Ozpin.
"You guys in?" asked Shade. His bandmates instantly agreed.
"Alright then. We'll need to go into town and register." Said Shade, about to leave the room.
"No, that won't be necessary. I can enter you from here. No need to exert yourself for no reason." Said Ozpin.
"Thank you Ozpin." Said Shade.
"No need for thanks. Just get better soon." Said Ozpin.
Shade said goodbye to Sun and his other bandmates to go see if Neo had settled in yet. When he arrived in the room he knocked.
"Oh hey Shade. Why are you here? Didn't you get Weiss' message?" Asked Pyrrha.
"Weiss sent me a message?" he asked taking out his scroll. Sure enough there was a message from Weiss. He opened it and it said to come out to the courtyard and that she was waiting with someone who wanted to meet him as well.
"Yeah I should get going, but how is Neo?" asked Shade.
"Oh she is actually quite kind. Even though she did try to kill you." Said Pyrrha jokingly.
"Come on! I thought we were past that!" shouted Neo from inside.
"Come on, it was just a joke." Said Pyrrha.
"Fine." Said Neo, pouting.
"Alright. By the way, in a couple days me and my band are going to perform in a battle of the bands in town. Hope you'll show up." Said Shade before walking off.
"Definitely. We'll let everyone else know as well." Said Pyrrha, closing the door as Shade walked away.
Shade then began his walk towards the courtyard. It was quite a ways away from where he was, and an even harder one considering he was in a wheelchair.
With Weiss in the courtyard before meeting her visitor.
'I wonder who it could be?' Weiss asked herself.
She had thought it could be her father, but that didn't make much sense considering he was there not long ago, and that he had sent the message. Maybe it was her mom, but then she would have just sent a message herself. She then thought it was a friend form her childhood, but realized that was unlikely considering she didn't have many. She was at a loss as to who it could be, until the person walked into the courtyard. She was taller than Weiss, but had the same hair color. She looked a few years older than Weiss, but other than that, they looked really similar.
"Ah, hello Weiss." Said the girl.
"Winter!" yelled Weiss before running up to her and hugging her.
Winter quickly returned the hug. "Hello little sis. It has been a long time hasn't it?" asked Winter.
"Yeah! So why are you here?" asked Weiss happily.
"A couple of reasons. First I wanted to see you. I also wanted to meet your teammates, and lastly, I heard from father that you now have a boyfriend, and I wanted to meet him." Said Winter.
"Of course that's why you came." Said Weiss, rolling her eyes.
"Well it's only natural. I heard that you were very happy to be with him, and that he had sacrificed morals or something to keep you safe, even though you weren't together at the point." Said Winter.
"Father really told you everything, didn't he?" asked Weiss.
"Well, I had asked him for everything." Explained Winter.
"I guess that makes sense. So do you want to meet him alone, or with the rest of my team? He is on it after all." Said Weiss.
"I would prefer to meet him here personally." Said Winter.
"Alright. He's with his band right now, so we may be waiting for a little while." Said Weiss, sending him a message.
"He's in a band?" asked Winter.
"Yeah. He's also a faunus." Said Weiss.
"Oh. So you're in a relationship with a faunus?" Said Winter.
"Yeah, but he is so nice. I really love him." Replied Weiss.
"I see. What kind of faunus is he?" asked Winter, genuinely curious.
"He's a wolf faunus." Said Weiss, confused as to why she was asking all these questions.
"I see." Said Winter, thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Weiss.
"Just trying to picture him. What color is his hair?" asked Winter.
"Black. It's pretty long for a boy's hair, and his bangs cover one of his eyes, and I am just going to say that there is a reason for it, so don't question it." Said Weiss.
"I see. What color are his eyes?" asked Winter, trying to get a clear picture of him in her head.
"Red. They almost look like they are on fire. I can't even tell you how many times I've gotten lost in them." Said Weiss, thinking about Shade.
"I see. I almost forgot something! What's his name?" asked Winter.
"Well, he goes by Shade." said Weiss.
"Shade huh? That's a strange name." said Winter.
"It's not actually his name. He just goes by it. He doesn't like being called by his real name, so we just call him by his nickname." Said Weiss.
"I see. Do you know why?" asked Winter.
"Well, he told me that it was because he didn't want us to treat him differently because he was in a band before coming here." Said Weiss.
"Oh. So he didn't want any special treatment when he came here." Said Winter.
"Yeah. He is a really good singer." Said Weiss.
"Really? How good?" asked Winter.
"Hang on. We had a singing contest not that long ago, and I managed to get the audio of his song, but I couldn't get him in it." Said Weiss.
Weiss searched through her scroll and found his performance. She clicked on it and pressed play. Winter leaned in to hear it better. The song started playing. Winter was listening intently. When the song ended, Winter pulled away.
"See? I told you." Said Weiss.
"I do have to agree. He singing voice is quite exquisite. I will say, if he looks as good as his voice sounds, I can see why you fell for him." Said Winter.
"He looks better than his voice sounds." Said Weiss.
"Oh really. You may have some competition Weiss." Said Winter, smiling.
"No, you can't have him!" said Weiss angrily.
"That's not what I meant. I meant that someone else probably likes him." Said Winter.
"Well about that. Someone else does like him. A bunny faunus by the name of Velvet." Said Weiss.
"Oh really? Another faunus likes him. Did he know about Velvet when he started dating you?" asked Winter.
"Yes he did." Said Weiss. This shocked Winter.
"He knew that another one of his species liked him, but he chose you first? Regardless of our name?" asked Winter, baffled.
"Yeah. I was almost as shocked as you are when he said that he liked me too." Said Weiss.
"Anyways, he should be getting here soon right?" asked Winter.
"Yeah. Any minute now. He is in a wheelchair so it might be a little while." Said Weiss.
"May I ask why he is in a wheelchair?" asked Winter.
"I'm sure he'll explain it when he gets here." Said Weiss.
"Does it have something to do with the morals thing?" asked Winter.
"You could say that." Said Weiss.
With Shade
"God those stairs would've been a nightmare without your help. Thanks Yang." Said Shade waving to Yang.
"No problem." Said Yang.
"Well if you need my help with anything let me know. And I do mean ANYTHING!" said Shade.
"Yeah I know. If I need someone killed, I'll come to you first." Said Yang.
"Well I would. I've done it before." Said Shade, rolling himself towards that courtyard. When he got there he saw Weiss. He was going over to see who she was with, but when he saw her, he immediately hid behind a tree.
"What is she doing here?!" shade asked himself, whispering. "Oh, this is bad."
"Hmm." Winter said.
"What?" asked Weiss.
"Oh, nothing. I just thought I heard something." Said Winter.
"Oh ok." Said Weiss, before turning to talk to Winter again.
Shade sighed lightly, not wanting to alert them to his presence. He peeked around the tree he was behind. They weren't looking over towards him. Maybe he could sneak out. However, the second he moved his wheelchair, he snapped a twig. He froze. Still behind the tree, he stayed perfectly still, even holding his breath. He heard whispering, but couldn't make out what they were saying. The he heard Weiss say "Maybe he didn't get my message. He could still be with the rest of my team. Maybe we should go there."
"Alright. I was hoping to see him with just you, but let's go." Said Winter.
Shade breathed a sigh of relief. He looked out from behind his hiding place and sighed. They were gone. He leaned back in his chair. He tuned his chair around and found himself looking directly into the eyes of his girlfriend.
"AH!" yelled Shade, almost falling out of his chair, but steadying himself quickly.
"Hello Shade!" said Weiss, kissing him.
"You…scared...me…half…to…death." said Shade, taking a breath between words.
"Anyways. I found out who was coming to see me. It was my sister Winter." Said Weiss, moving to the side and revealing the girl behind her. Shade immediately tensed up, but Weiss didn't notice.
"Nice to meet you, Winter." Said Shade, trying not to let his nervousness be seen.
"Well, Weiss, I have good news and bad news." Said Winter.
"What do you mean?" asked Weiss.
"The good news is that I don't want to take him from you." Said Winter.
"Ok. What's the bad news?" asked Weiss.
"That bad news is that I have to do this." Said Winter, walking up to Shade and slapping him across the face, hard.
"Ok. I deserved that. But did you have to do that in front of her?!" said Shade.
"You lied to me! What else was I supposed to do?!" asked Winter.
"You lied to me too! You never told me your real name now did you Tiffany?" asked Shade.
Weiss was beyond confused. For many reasons. Why did Shade call her sister Tiffany? Why did her sister slap Shade? How do they know each other?
"You lied first!" said Winter.
"No I didn't! You lied about your name! You lied first!" replied Shade.
Winter looked down at Shade's hand. This seemed to spark new anger in her.
"You took it off too?!" yelled Winter.
"That wasn't the deal! I just had to keep it WITH me! Not ON me!" said Shade.
"Why did you take it off?!" asked Winter.
"Think about this for a second! What if I had met another girl afterwards? What would she think if I was wearing it?" said Shade.
"Still! You could've explained it to a girl!" Yelled Winter.
"You don't think I tried that?! I did! MANY TIMES! IT NEVER WORKED!" Shade yelled back, managing to keep the monster under control.
Weiss was just looking back and forth between them as they argued, unable to find a point to interject.
"I made a promise! I never broke a promise before the day I took it off! It was hard to do that, but I had to! I was being exiled from society about it! I still have it with me. I never got rid of it." Said Shade, beginning to calm down.
"What?" asked Winter, calming down as well.
"I still have it. It's in my backpack back in the dorm. I can go get it if you want." Said Shade, eager to get out of this awkward situation as quickly as possible.
"No. Not yet at least. We should probably explain this to Weiss first." Said Winter, gesturing to her sister.
"Ah. Right. Good idea." Said Shade, turning himself to Weiss.
Weiss realized that they were waiting for questions.
"I only have a few. How do you two know each other? Why did you call my sister Tiffany? Why did you slap him unprovoked?" asked Weiss.
"Alright. Well you see…we actually met before this." Said Shade. Winter agreed.
"You did?" asked Weiss.
"Yeah. See I grew up in Atlas. That was where we met." Said Shade.
"We met on the day that father and I went to the police station to investigate that murder. Shade's family was the family. Shade was there and while father was speaking to the officers, I met Shade. When he introduced himself, I noticed that he was a faunus. I didn't want him to know that I was a Schnee, so I introduced myself as Tiffany Smith." Said Winter.
"Ok. That answers two questions, but why did you slap Shade?" asked Weiss.
"Well, you know how I was gone every day after that for a few hours? I said that I was meeting friends?" asked Winter.
"Yeah, I remember that somewhat." Said Weiss.
"Well, I was actually meeting up with my boyfriend." Said Winter.
"You had a boyfriend? Who was it? What was his name? What did he look like?" Weiss blurted out questions.
"Um…does she really not notice this yet?" asked Winter.
"Just give it a little." Said Shade, beginning to count down from five.
When he finished, Weiss had a realization. "Wait a second. Your boyfriend was Shade?!" Asked Weiss, beyond surprised.
"There we go. Yeah. We were together." Said Shade.
"Until he abandoned me!" yelled Winter.
"We've been over this! I had no choice! They would've come for you if I stayed!" said Shade.
"I told you that I would come with you." Said Winter.
"I also told you that if you came, not only would your family be worried out of their minds, but it would be even more likely that your life would be put in danger." said Shade.
"I said that I didn't care about that. I said that I wanted to be with you forever." Said Winter.
"I said that you would be with me. I said I would always carry you in my heart, didn't I? I said I would never forget you, right?" asked Shade.
"Well yeah, you said that, but that didn't save me from years of loneliness." Said Winter.
"You could've just gotten another boyfriend." Said Shade, but Winter seemed offended.
"What? No I couldn't! I couldn't get over you that easily!" said Winter.
"Excuse me, but we seem to have gotten off topic." Interrupted Weiss.
"Oh right. Well basically, we had been together for a year or so, but I had to leave so that if the man who killed my parents came back for me, Winter wouldn't be put in danger. It took a lot of convincing, promising and…other…things, but she eventually let me leave. She also gave me a ring. That ring was meant to symbolize our promise. The promise that we would meet again when the man was captured or killed. She told me to keep it with me at all times, no matter where I was. I kept it with me, every day, it was on my ring finger. It was there until girls started thinking that I was married, even though I wasn't even a teenager yet. That caused me to be an outcast. It became so bad that I couldn't even be seen in public. After I had taken care of business, I went to where me and Winter had always met before, and waited. I realized that no one had heard about it yet. I stayed at that place for almost a week, but Winter never showed up. I assumed that she hadn't heard about it yet, so I went to where she said her house was. I looked all over for it, but when I got to where she said it was, all I had seen were the smoking remains of a house. You can imagine what my first thoughts were. I left Atlas and went to Mistral. When I got there, I took off the ring. I was about to throw it off the boat I was on, but I couldn't. It was my only memory of her, so I just put it in my backpack. It's still there to this day." Said Shade, finishing his side of the story.
"As for me, I heard about it two weeks after the man was killed, I guess by Shade. The second I found out about it, I went to where we would meet. I went there every day for a month, but he never showed up. I thought that he had betrayed me, so when I saw him here, it reminded me of all the rage I held for him, so I slapped him." Explained Winter.
Weiss was just shocked at the story. She now understood why Shade had his from her sister, why her sister had slapped him, why he had called her Tiffany and everything.
"Wow. That's quite a lot to take in." said Weiss.
"I suppose so. By the way Shade, I'm sorry I slapped you. I was just mad." Said Winter, apologetically.
"It's fine, but damn you hit hard!" said Shade, jokingly.
"Still as much of a jokester as ever I see." Said Winter, rolling her eyes.
"You expected anything less?" asked Shade.
"Well played Shade, or should I just call you James?" asked Winter.
"Shade is fine." Said Shade.
"Alright then Shade, but your hair does look different. Why do you cover that eye? You never did that before." Asked Winter.
"Well, I'm planning on telling the team that, so why don't we take care of that now?" asked Shade, looking at Weiss.
"Are you sure? I mean, do you trust them enough?" asked Weiss.
"I trust them more than I trust myself at times." Said Shade.
"Alright then. Let's go." Said Weiss leading the way.
"Yeah come on T-Winter." Said Shade, catching himself.
"You can call me Tiffany if you want to…Wolfy." Said Winter, calling Shade by his nickname.
Weiss got worried, knowing that Shade hated it when Yang called him that. Shade simply laughed.
"That's why I didn't want Yang to call me Wolfy. It's her nickname for me, not Yang's." said Shade.
"Oh, I see." Said Weiss, understanding.
Well there we go. One more chapter down, who knows how many more to go. Remember to leave a review of what you thought, as well as your choice for the love interest in my upcoming SAO story. But for now, I hope I will see you in the next chapter everybody. Goodbye, for now!
