Hello everybody! I am The Burning Ruler and I am back with another chapter of RWBY: A Demon's Life. I just CANNOT STOP WRITNG recently. I guess you can just consider this compensation for not updating for a while. I am still trying to decide who will be the love interest in my upcoming SAO story, so remember to leave your choice about that. Also, before I forget, check out "Blood of Grimm" by Valkerix. It's a great story and is really well written. Now, to the reviews!

Writen: First off, I know Neo is mute in the actual show, but I said at the beginning that this story may not follow the actual story in the show. Second, I also know that, but there is something coming up in a later chapter. That's all I will say about that. Thirdly, that will be answered early in this chapter. Lastly, I KNOW! I GET THE POINT! NO MAN COULD BE THAT ATTRACTIVE! However, I just did this because I thought that it would be a good way to bring in something later. I never write anything this big without a purpose. I just ask that you are patient with me. Like I said, this is my first story. I have no previous writing experience. I realize that Shade is the ultimate lady-killer, but there is a reason. Trust me.

Now that that's out of the way, I don't own RWBY, and let's get this chapter started.

Chapter 17: Past Trauma Revealed

As Winter and Weiss walked through the halls with Shade rolling alongside them, until Weiss asked Winter a question.

"Hey Winter?" asked Weiss.

"Yes Weiss?" asked Winter back.

"I just want to know. Why did you keep your relationship with Shade a secret from me. I can understand why you didn't tell father, but why couldn't you tell me?" asked Weiss.

"Well, think about it from my standpoint. On the one hand, you are my sister, and I can share almost anything with you. However, you were also adamant about your hatred of the faunus back then. Your reaction to finding out that your sister was dating a faunus would've been…?" said Winter, waiting for Weiss to finish the sentence for her.

"To tell father immediately. That would cause him to start a manhunt that wouldn't stop until Shade was dead. I get it now." Sadi Weiss.

"Exactly. Now can you see why I didn't tell you?" asked Winter.

"Of course. It makes perfect sense." Said Weiss.

"I agree. It was probably for the best that she kept it a secret." Said Shade.

Weiss and Winter soon arrived at the dorm building. This forced Shade to meet with his worst enemy st the time. Stairs.

"Need some help buddy?" asked a voice from behind.

Shade turned around to see Sun behind him.

"Yeah Sun. That would be a big help. In fact, could you bring Sarah and Mercury with you to our team dorm for a minute? It's important." Said Shade, serious.

"No need. We're already here." Said Mercury from behind Sun.

"That makes it easy. Alright, let's go." Said Shade.

'Should I also tell team CFVY about it, or should I just tell Velvet? I mean I know the others, but do I trust them enough? I really should tell them as well, just out of courtesy.' thought Shade, pulling out his scroll and sending Velvet a message telling her to bring her team to his dorm for something important.

He got a text back saying that they would be there soon just as he and his friends arrived at the room. Team JNPR was also there. Shade knew that now it couldn't be avoided, so he opted to tell them as well.

'Well, I guess were just waiting for Team CFVY. Anything you want to know about while we wait for them Winter?" asked Shade.

"First things first. I want to see the ring." Said Winter.

"Of course you do. Just a sec." said Shade, opening his backpack in the corner of the room. After looking through it for a few seconds, he pulled out the ring. He walked over to Winter and handed it to her. It was a beautifully crafted ring with the band made of gold. There was a sapphire set into it. Overall, it was perfectly crafted.

"Well, I guess you do deserve some credit. I'm sorry for doubting you." Said Winter, apologetically.

"It's alright. As long as we're being honest, I wouldn't have believed me either." Said Shade.

"That's good to know." Said Winter. "Just one more thing. Why are you in a wheelchair?" asked Winter.

"It's a bit of a long story, but I'll shorten it up for you. Basically what happened was I had left beacon for…reasons…and I found a main White Fang base. I had charged headlong into it, in hopes of taking it down and capturing a higher-up in order to interrogate him and get some information out of him, but I got arrogant. I got taken down when I got careless, and was taken down by a leader. The leader really did a number on my knees and the doctor decided that it was a good idea to stay off my legs for a couple days. Just to give them some time to rest." Explained Shade, giving the short version and intentionally not including why he left.

"Reasons? What does that mean?" Asked Winter, confused.

"I just left for reasons. Reasons that I don't feel like disclosing at this time." Said Shade.

"Ok then." Said Winter, suspicious.

"We're here." Said Velvet, knocking on the door to Team RWBY's dorm.

Shade went over and opened the door, letting Team CFVY in. When they got in, they sat down, and Shade got a very serious look on his face.

"What's up Shade? You look, different. Much more serious than before." Sadi Sun.

"That's because I am serious right now. Just to make sure you all know the story, my family was killed when I was seven. After three years of searching, I found the man responsible for their deaths. We had fought against, but just before he killed me, an unknown force entered my body and gave me the strength to kill the man and get my revenge. The force left a small part of itself behind, and now it can take over my body and control it independently." Explained Shade, making sure everyone understood before continuing.

"So, what did you call us for? I get the feeling that that wasn't what was so important." Said Coco.

"Alright. Well, I told Weiss about this before. You all may notice, that you've never seen my right eye, right?" asked Shade.

"Yeah, you're right. We never have." Said Ruby, just now realizing.

"There is a reason for that. You see, when the force left a part of him behind, it wasn't just personal, it was a physical change too." Said Shade closing his eyes and sweeping the hair out of his right eye.

"So, you're hiding a scar?" asked Jaune, confused.

"That's a pretty strange reason for hiding. Weiss has a scar too, and scars are typically attractive." Said Nora.

"Strange huh? That's what you think? You see, the scar wasn't what I was hiding." Sadi Shade.

"Then what were you hiding?" asked Yang, confused.

"I was hiding," Shade paused for dramatic effect, "…this." Said Shade, opening his eyes.

All the girls in the room gasped, and all the guys just froze in place. All had a look of shock plastered on their face at Shade's inverted eye.

"Pretty much the reaction that I expected. When the force left, I had no recollection of anything that had happened. The only reason that I know that it had happened was his independence and control, and this eye. It was all that I needed though." Sadi Shade, covering his eye again.

When everyone got out of their state of shock, there were many different reactions. The most common being fear. However, there were also looks of admiration and awe coming from Yang, Blake, Velvet, Fox, Pyrrha, and Sun. This confused Shade a great deal.

"I understand the fear, and to that I say you don't need to be afraid of me. I am still a friend. But I don't really get the admiration. Care to explain?" asked Shade.

"Oh that's easy to explain. We admire that you have been able to stay so calm knowing that this, force as you called it, is essentially living inside you." Explained Velvet. Everyone except Sun agreed.

"What about you Sun?" asked Shade.

"Being completely honest, I just think that you look even more intimidating with the scary eye, and I am in awe that you can be more intimidating." Explained Sun.

"Alright. Fair enough. But really, thanks for being so cool about this whole situation guys." Said Shade, smiling.

"It's fine. It's like you said, we're all friends here. Nothing to worry about." Said Ruby with a smile.

Everyone quickly agreed with her, and they checked the time.

"Holy crap! It's already midnight?!" yelled Shade.

"It is?!" yelled Pyrrha.

"We need to get some rest. Day after tomorrow is the Battle of Bands, and we need to be rested." Declared Sun.

"Yeah, so let's get some rest. I assume that we will be preforming the songs that we practiced yesterday?" asked Shade.

"Of course! Come by our dorm tomorrow so we can fine tune it a bit. Will you be out of your wheelchair by then?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, I should be good tomorrow. Can't keep me down that long." Said Shade, climbing out of his wheelchair, and into his bed.

Everyone had left and all of Team RWBY got into their respective beds. Weiss laid down and was about to go to sleep, but looked to her right and saw Shade, sound asleep in his bed right next to her.

'He's already asleep?' Weiss asked herself.

Shade was indeed fast asleep mere seconds after getting into bed.

'I wonder if the coma wore him out. No, that doesn't make any sense does it? No, of course not. That can't be it. But, if not that…then what?' Weiss thought to herself.

She looked over once again, and saw that Shade wasn't sleeping as soundly as it seemed. Every once in a while he would make an odd grunt-like sound, followed by what sounded like a muffled scream which was barely audible. He then started repeating words in Latin. The words that came up the most often were neco, perdere, and finem. Weiss didn't think much of it until Shade said a name in his sleep. Normally she would expect this to be her name, but it wasn't.

"Britanny…" was all Shade said.

'Who's Britanny?' thought Weiss.

She had no idea what the words nor the name meant, but she would find out tomorrow. Shade started thrashing around in his sleep slightly, and this scared Weiss. She quickly, and on instinct, woke Shade up.

Shade gasped as he awoke from his nightmare. He was sweating like crazy. He looked to his side and saw Weiss next to him, worried out of her mind.

"Are you Ok Shade?" asked Weiss in as quiet of a voice as she could, but Shade could still hear the worry in it.

"Yeah. I'm ok. Just a bad dream. I should be Ok now." Said Shade. However before he laid back down to go to sleep again Weiss asked him another question.

"Wait, before you go to sleep again, I need to ask something." Said Weiss.

"Alright. What's up?" asked Shade.

"Just a few things. Who's Brittany?" asked Weiss.

"Brittany…" said Shade, clearly remembering his deceased ex-girlfriend.

"I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to upset you! You just said it in your sleep, and I was just curious!" said Weiss hastily.

"No, no don't worry about it. It's just, Brittany was my first girlfriend when I moved to Mistral. She was a beautiful girl, sweet as could be." Explained Shade, almost tearing up.

"Are you sure you're Ok? You're almost crying." Asked Weiss.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Is that all you wanted to know?" asked Shade.

"Not quite. When you referred to Brittany, you referred to her in the past tense. Why is that?" asked Weiss.

"Mostly because she isn't my girlfriend anymore, but…" Shade trailed off.

"But what? What Shade?" asked Weiss, in her most comforting tone.

"But, it's also because…b-because she's…she's…" Shade couldn't hold back the tears anymore. They began trailing down his face. Weiss wrapped him in a tight hug, and Shade was quick to return it. They stayed like that until Shade had calmed down a bit, then he continued.

"I refer to her in the past tense because…she's…dead. She cut herself to death." Shade whispered the last part.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry Shade. I didn't know." Said Weiss, before Shade put a finger over her mouth.

"I know Weiss, there was no way you could've known. It's not your fault." Said Shade.

Weiss then thought that she heard Shade mumble something, but she wasn't sure.

"What was that?" asked Weiss.

"What was what?" asked Shade back.

"Nothing. Nevermind. There is just one more thing I would like to know." Said Shade.

"Alright. Ask away." Said Shade.

"What do neco, perdere, and finem mean?" asked Weiss.

"So, I said them again huh?" Shade asked himself.

"What do you mean again?" asked Weiss confused.

"I mean that back when I was still dating Blake, I had said those words in my sleep as well. There Latin, but I don't particularly want to explain them now as they will probably raise more questions than answers. Is that Ok?" asked Shade.

"Of course it's Ok. I can wait." Said Weiss.

"Alright, now I really do need to get to sleep. Goodnight Weiss." Said Shade, giving Weiss a goodnight kiss.

"Goodnight Shade." said Weiss, returning the kiss.

They both laid down right next to each other and feel asleep in each other's arms.

The next day, Shade and Weiss woke up at the same time.

"Morning honey!" said Weiss, as she woke up to Shade's face.

"Morning sweetie!" replied Shade as he smiled back at her.

Weiss got out of bed, and was about to help Shade into his wheelchair until She saw that Shade was standing upright. She then realized that he didn't need the chair anymore.

They both got up and showered. When Shade had finished, Yang was up, waiting for him to finish.

"Finally!" said Yang, running in.

"She sure seems to be in a hurry." Shade then got a message on his scroll from Mercury.

"Hey Shade. I hope you don't mind, but I invited Yang to be the first to listen to our new songs as we practiced them, but we only have three and we need four to participate. If you have any ideas, we're all ears because we don't have any." Said the message.

"Who's that from?" asked Weiss.

"Mercury. Apparently he invited Yang to be the first to hear our new songs. Explains why she was in such a rush." Said Shade.

"Makes sense, but she does know that they can't start until you get there right?" asked Weiss.

"Honestly, I think that she just wants to see Mercury again." Said Shade.

"Makes sense. Do you mind if I tang along?" asked Weiss.

"Of course not. Come on. I'm heading there now." Said Shade walking out the door and holding it for Weiss.

They both left for Sun's room, where everything was already set up for the to play.

"Oh, so you brought Weiss along. Well, the more the merrier I guess." Said Sun.

"Got that right." Said Shade.

Yang then bolted into the room, excited.

"Play!" yelled Yang, overly excited.

"Yang calm down! We just got set up!" said Mercury.

"Fine." Said Yang, sitting down next to Weiss.

"We're dating rock stars!" whispered Yang.

"Yeah. I guess we are!" whispered Weiss back.

"So, we ready?" asked Shade.

"Yeah, but do you have an idea for a fourth song." Asked Mercury.

"Yeah. We don't have another song we wrote ourselves, so we'll have to do a cover, so we should probably start with that one and give it a bit of extra practice." Said Shade.

"Good idea. What song are you thinking?" asked Sun.

"I'm thinking Monster by Skillet. I think the lyrics fit me well." Said Shade.

"Based off what i heard last night, I have to agree. So we've got a cover, a song to help others, a song about being controlled, and a song that compares life to a game, at least in ways. Sounds like a healthy mix to me." Said Sarah.

"Sounds good to me too." Said Sun.

"So we're all good." Said Shade.

"Yep. Ready to start, but do you think that they will understand the meaning behind that last one?" Asked Mercury picking up his drum sticks.

"Everyone knows about the attack made on the White Fang base. If they don't know it was us, they'll just think that it was based on that. More importantly, why does it matter?" asked Shade.

"Point taken." Said Mercury.

They got set up and began to play their songs trying to get as much practice as possible.

(AN-I will now be switching to Ruby and Blake. Shade and everybody else will be excluded to preserve the songs mystery. I also thought I should let you all know didn't actually write any songs. I'm not anywhere near creative enough and I'm also too busy with college to sit down and spend two hours staring at one line on a piece of paper.)

Ruby yawned as she woke up. She looked around the room and saw that she and Blake were the only ones there.

"Guess they all must have gone with Shade to watch the practice. Anyways, maybe me and Blake can talk. We don't really do that anymore. Ever since Shade got here, everything has been so crazy. But at least it's never been boring." Ruby said, talking to herself.

Blake woke up at this moment and stretched.

"Hey Blake." Said Ruby, jumping off her bed.

"Hey Ruby. What's up?" asked Blake.

"Not much, I just thought that maybe we could head into town. It's been a while since we got to hang out. Just the two of us, so I thought we could head out to town." Said Ruby.

"That sounds like a good idea to me, but where are Shade and the others?" asked Blake.

"They already left to go practice. I assume that Shade brought them with him." Said Ruby.

"Seems like something he would do. So are you ready to go?" Said Blake.

"Yeah. Let's go." Said Ruby excitedly.

Blake and Ruby passed by Sun's room and heard music coming from it. They couldn't make out any of the words, but they could tell that they were practicing hard.

"They must be really serious about this." Said Blake.

"Sounds like it. They seem to really want to win." Said Ruby agreeing with Blake.

"So, where do you want to go Blake?" asked Ruby.

"I don't know. Why don't we just wander around until we find a store that looks interesting?" asked Blake.

"Works for me." Said Ruby.

Ruby and Blake walked for about 10 minutes until Blake got a message from Weiss.

"Hey Blake. Just found out something from my sister, and I need your help." Was what the message said.

"Alright what do you need?" asked Blake.

"I found out that Shade's birthday is tomorrow. I want to get him something special, but I don't want to leave." Said Weiss.

"Alright. Just let me know what you want me to get." Replied Blake.

"That's the problem. I have no idea what to get him, but I think that you'll be able to get something for him. I know that he'll like whatever it is. I'll pay you back for it, but I just can't get out right now. I know you'll pick something great. I see you later." Said Weiss.

"So, now I need to find something for Shade. It's his birthday tomorrow, and Weiss doesn't know what to get him. You got any ideas?" asked Blake.

"I do." Said a voice from behind them.

"Oh. Hello Neo!" said Blake.

"So, you're out looking for a gift for my bro huh?" asked Neo.

"More accurately, Weiss doesn't know what to get him, so she asked me to find something, but yeah pretty much." Said Blake.

"Well, I found something that I wanted to get him, but I can't afford it by myself. I'm sure that If we pooled our money together we could get it." Said Neo.

"Works for me. Lead the way Neo." Said Blake.

"It's right in here." Said Neo after going into a store that sold weapon modifiers.

She led them to an advanced looking weapon mod set. There was everything that you would expect and even more. It even had a coating in it that would allow a person to transfer their aura onto their weapon so that it would deal more damage when they were hit with it.

"That would work." Said Blake.

"Hey! You! Faunus! What do you think you're doing in here?!" yelled a customer.

"I'm minding my own business with my friends, which I would suggest you do as well if you had any." Said Blake in an even tone.

"What was that?" yelled the man.

"You heard me." Replied Blake.

"Why don't you come over here and say that to my face you little bitch!" yelled the man.

Blake was about to, but Ruby stopped her.

"Just ignore him. He's not worth the effort." Said Ruby.

"She's right. Don't even grace him with an answer." Said Neo.

Blake then turned away from the man and helped the other girls buy the weapon mod set.

Blake messaged Weiss saying that she had found something and asked if she was ok with sharing the gift with her, Neo and Ruby. Weiss messaged back immediately with an of course. When the girls got back from town, they hid their gift in yang's closet. They knew that Shade wouldn't dare even check there for it because if he did, Yang would murder him.

It was still a few hours before Shade, Yang and Weiss got back to the dorm.

"So? What'd you think?" asked Shade.

"I think you've got this win in the bag already." Said Yang.

"I know you do." Said Weiss, falling onto her bed.

"Yeah, we should probably turn in early. Make sure we have enough energy for tomorrow. It's going to be a long day." Said Shade, flopping down on his bed.

Everyone else agreed with Shade and went to bed early. They were all excited for the battle of bands, for more reason than one.

Whew! There's one more down. Never would've imagined that this story would go on this long, but I am glad that it has. I have had more fun writing this than anything else I have ever done. But as of right now, this chapter is done, and I will see all of you (hopefully) in the next one. Goodbye.