Hello everybody! I am The Burning Ruler and I am back with another chapter of RWBY: A Demon's Life! I have to say, it is great to be back but don't expect chapters to be as frequent as earlier because I will probably have less time to write as I am back home and my parents still think of me as a child so if I spend too much time on my computer they think they can take it away from me so I have to write this at night when they can't stop me. I have also started a poll on my profile and it will go on until the end of this story. Let your opinion be heard. No new reviews, I only own Shade and Lilian, and back to the story.

Chapter 23: A Demon's Truth

"Is now really the time to be asking about that?" asked Shade.

"Well…I guess not. Why don't we ask after we escape?" asked Velvet.

"I guess so." Said Kannon, unsure what they mean.

Shade, Velvet and Kannon began running through the hallways ducking behind walls to avoid patrols, trying to escape undetected, as the only one who knew they were out was dead. They could see the end of the hallway in front of them, but unfortunately a patrol saw them and set off an alarm. The hallway quickly filled with Blood Brothers. It was clear what they all were. There were Ursa Hybrids, Deathstalker hybrids, and even a handful of King Taijitu hybrids.

"Dammit. Looks like we need to fight, but we only have these steel bars. They have swords. They could easily slash through these." said Shade.

"Well, I have my weapon." Said Kannon, putting down his bar and closing his eyes. After his eyes closed, it seemed that a hole in reality opened and Kannon pulled out his chainsword.

"What the hell?" asked Shade.

"Semblance. You ready?" asked Kannon, turning his weapon into a Gatling gun.

"Yeah. Velvet, stay here. Kannon, keep me covered." Said Shade, activating his semblance and phasing into his shadow. As the black smoke thickened, Kannon began firing blindly into the smoke in the direction of the Blood Brothers. After the smoke cleared, Kannon looked to see Shade swinging the steel bars around wildly, almost always hitting someone, but was unaware of the danger behind him. Someone was about to attack Shade from behind with a knife, but neither Kannon nor Shade noticed him. However, Velvet did, and she ran in to protect her boyfriend.

"Ahh!" yelled Velvet, which caused Shade to turn around. He saw Velvet lying on the ground with a knife wound.

"NO!" yelled Shade, rushing to Velvet's side. Even though Shade seemed to have already lost his temper, he seemed to be losing it again. His teeth began to glow gold, and his claws became sharper and longer. However, Kannon also seemed to be undergoing a change, but rather than changing like Shade, his canine teeth began to grow longer, and a black forked tongue began to snake out of his mouth. His body began to become more snake-like as well. After undergoing this change, a blast came from the door that led out. Yang then ran in, flanked by the rest of team CFVY and the rest of team SPKR. The others weren't far behind.

When Neo saw her brother, she gasped. "What the hell happened?" Asked Neo.

"No time. It looksssss like Velvet isssss ssssseriously hurt! Get her out of here. We'll handle thessssse guysssss." Hissed Kannon.

"NO you c-" Shade cut off Yang.

"NOW!" roared Shade, menacingly.

"Got it." Said Coco, picking up Velvet and leading the rest of the group out of the base.

"You too huh?" asked Shade, figuring it out.

"Ssssseemsssss that way…brother…" said Kannon.

"Yeah. We may not be biological…" Shade trailed off.

"…but we are ssssstill…" Continued Kannon.

Shade and Kannon looked at the group of hybrids backing away. "BLOOD BROTHERS!" yelled Shade and Kannon.

However, on the security cameras, the leader was watching this scene unfold. "Dammit. Both of the originals are here. We need to evacuate." The leader then turned on the PA system. "All personnel. Evacuate the base. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill." Said the leader, and the Blood Brothers began to flee, but not before Kannon and Shade sunk their teeth into one each. When Kannon released the man, he had two large puncture wound on his neck, but when Shade pulled away, there was a distinct gold liquid left in the wound.

"What is that?" asked Shade, getting closer.

"I'd wager it isssss Deathssssstalker poissssson." Hissed Kannon.

"Deathstalker poison…" whispered Shade, reverting back to his normal self. Kannon turned back not long after.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Said Kannon.

"I can't. I was brought here for a reason that we weren't told. I'm sure there is something here I was destined to find, and I intend to find out what." Said Shade, scouring the tunnels for the leader's room.

"Don't take too long. We're going to head back to beacon. You better be back soon." Said Kannon.

"Got it." Said Shade, running through the halls. Not long after leaving, Shade found the leader's room. He began looking through the drawers and eventually found a file titled PA3729.

"Here we are." Said Shade, grabbing the files and turning to run out, but he saw two more files.

"PA3730 and PA3731. These ones are really close to mine." Said Shade. After a few seconds of thought he grabbed those files too, before running out.

He quickly abandoned the base and ran towards the airships. He got on the fastest one back to beacon. When it landed, he immediately ran to the infirmary. When he got there, he was greeted by Ozpin.

"I can assure you, she is fine." Said Ozpin. But that wasn't enough for Shade. He needed to see her. He pushed past Ozpin and walked down the hall, until he saw everyone in a room. As he walked through the door, he saw Velvet awake on a bed.

"Thank god. You're Ok." Said Shade.

"Yeah. By the way, would you mind telling us what the hell we saw there?" asked Kami, turning away from Velvet.

He looked at team RWBY and Velvet, as they were the only ones who knew about Shade being a Grim hybrid. "I would love to, really I would. I just can't right now. I don't know enough about it myself, and I want to wait until I know some more. I'm sorry, I'm just not ready yet." Said Shade, apologetically.

"Alright. What about you Kannon?" asked Yang.

Kannon eyed Yang suspiciously, but decided that she may be trustworthy. "Honestly, not entirely sure yet." Said Kannon.

'But, back at the base…' thought Shade, before realising that he probably didn't remember that because he didn't know of his Grim side.

"Alright then. Well, this is really similar to when we met Shade. Anyways, baby steps." Said Ruby.

"I need to know something Kannon. Why do you have such a hard time trusting others?" asked Shade.

Kannon seemed hesitant to answer the question, but eventually decided to answer. "Well, you see, I actually intended to attend beacon last year. I was in the entrance exam, but my "partner" angered a pack of beowolves, and then slashed me across the torso and ran. I was able to get away, but I lost an arm and almost lost my eye. I was sent to Atlas, and was given this." Said Kannon, holding up his right arm and peeling off what looked like half an inch of flesh, revealing a steel arm and showing it to everyone. He then pushed the skin back onto his arm and sighed.

"What about your semblance?" asked Velvet, curious as to how he seemingly pulled his weapon out of thin air.

"I can alter reality to a slight degree. I can create a small pocket dimension to store my weapon when I don't need it. I can also send my enemy away a short distance before blasting them away." Said Kannon.

"That seems pretty useful." Said Shade.

"It is. But I'm more curious about yours. You just exploded into black smoke, and then you showed up among those Blood Brothers swinging those bars around like a mad man. How did you do that?" asked Kannon.

"That was my semblance. When I activate it without my weapons I explode into smoke or leave a copy behind if I do have my weapons with me. What I did was merge with my shadow, and move among them to catch them off guard." Said Shade.

"Interesting. But what are your usual weapons?" asked Kannon as he hadn't seen them yet.

"Oh right. Shade! We found your backpack and your swords were with them." Said Pyrrha, handing Shade his stuff.

"Thanks Pyrrha." Said Shade, strapping his swords to his back, and throwing his backpack on.

"Alright. So dual wield swords huh? Explains why you picked up two bars instead of one." Said Kannon, connecting the dots.

"Yeah. So can you finally trust us? At least some of us?" asked Ruby.

"Some of you, yes. All of you, no." said Kannon.

"Well, it's a start at least." Said Sun.

"Yeah." Said Sarah.

"Anyways, I need some sleep right about now. I guess I'll talk to you guys tomorrow." Said Shade, walking away.

"Wait Shade!" yelled Velvet.

Shade stopped and walked back to Velvet. "What's up Velvet?" asked Shade, somewhat concerned.

Velvet just looked up at him and planted a kiss on his lips. "Good night." Said Velvet.

"Night." Said Shade turning back around and leaving the room.

"Wow. You really are in love with him aren't you?" Asked Blake.

"Yeah. I am." Said Velvet.

"Damn. If I had known that you loved him that much I wouldn't have started dating him in the first place." Said Blake.

"Really?" asked Yang, not believing her.

"Well…alright probably not." Said Blake.

"Yeah, I don't think I would've either." Said Weiss.

"He dated you two as well?" asked Kannon.

"Yeah. He can be a real lady-killer if he wants to be. Strange thing though, I don't think he notices when he is trying." Said Blake.

"Well done Shade." said Kannon.

"Anyways. We really should get some sleep." Said Kami.

"Yeah. Who knows what Shade is going to be up to tomorrow." Said Risa.

"Good idea. Night everybody." Said Velvet.

At that point everyone left the room and returned to their respective dorms. The next morning Shade woke up before the rest of his team, went to the cafeteria to get some food and then headed to the library so he could read the files, not telling anyone where he was. When he got there he took out the files. He opened his and found many documents.

"Looks like I have a lot of reading. Here we go." Said Shade. Upon opening the first folder he saw a picture of himself holding a board that read "PA3729".

"Must've done that to see what the patient looked like before studying them." Said Shade.

"PA3729. Test number one. The boy has recovered tremendously from the genetic modifications. He shows little to no physical changes other than an almost unnoticeable increase in muscle mass and a much more acute sense of smell. He is able to detect minor differences ion smells from a great distance. We sent him into the forest alone today for his first individual challenge in order to test to what degree his sense of smell had increased. He made his way back to the lab in a mere ten minutes. Being five kilometres away means he must have picked up on our scents very quickly and that he had been travelling at a constant speed of on kilometre every two minutes. This proves that he has accepted the Beowolf genetics and has the speed of a Beowolf. The boy is showing tremendous improvements in his fighting style with bare hands, able to defend himself against our best fighter. We will continue more tests tomorrow.

-Dr. R. Mars"

"Alright. This R. Mars guy must have been the doctor that made me into this hybrid. Which means that these notes may tell me what else they did to me in this lab… as well as any other genetics that I 'accepted' as he put it." Said Shade.

"PA3729. Test number two. The boy seems to have accepted the Deathstalker genetics as when one of our doctors went to pick him up for his first examination today, he was attacked and quickly thrown out of the room with bite marks on his neck and shoulders. There was a gold liquid left in his bite wounds as well as a gold glow coming from the room. Upon looking in it seemed that the boy's teeth were glowing gold. After testing the liquid in the wounds, it turned out to be Deathstalker poison. After this discovery, the boy exhibited tremendous strength, able to punch through a boulder, showing that he had also accepted the Ursa genetics, but he was only able to exhibit this power when he was pushed very close to his breaking point. We immediately began analysis on what caused this boy to accept all the introduced genetics, but could find no other differences between him and our previous patients. However, after our next test subject came in we found a similarity between him and the boy. They were both under the age of ten when we tested them. Deciding to test this new theory, we brought in a young boy that had recently turned ten. After introducing the same genetics we had given to PA3729, the boy quickly died. After this, we brought in a young girl that was the same age as the boys, and she accepted the chosen genetics quickly. Fascinated with our new discovery, we began to test the three children, trying to find any genetics similarities that would cause them to accept the genetics. After finding nothing we began to look for physical similarities, but found nothing. We began to hypothesize that in may solely be due to their age. We began to hypothesize why that might be, and quickly agreed in the conclusion that since they were still, young, they hadn't quite grown accustomed to their bodies yet. If these genetics were introduced early, the brain would just assume that these genetics simply weren't detected yet, whereas if they were introduced later in life, the brain would consider them a foreign body and attempt to destroy them, only resulting in the death of the patient. After making this discovery, we began to train the three children together, hoping to make them into a cohesive unit. They began working well together almost immediately. We will continue their training tomorrow.

-Dr. R. Mars."

"Strange. This is the last file in this folder. The only thing left is this cassette tape. Maybe I should check this out before continuing with these." Said Shade, putting the folders in his backpack and making sure that no one could get them out. Shade returned to his dorm room and took the cassette out. After opening the door, he saw all his teammates had woken up. He tried to hide the cassette in his pocket again, but failed miserably.

"Hey bro. What's on that tape?" asked Neo.

"Um…nothing?" said Shade.

His teammates just looked at him disapprovingly. Risa snatched the tape out of his hand and out in in the cassette player. She rewound it and almost pressed play until Shade stopped her.

"Wait!" yelled Shade.

"What's wrong Shade?" asked Risa.

"Just let me say something quickly before you press play." Said Shade.

"Alright. What is it?" asked Kami.

"Ok. I found this tape in that lab we were at. I think it may have something to do with a Blood Brother." Said Shade.

"Well then let's listen to it." Said Risa, pressing play. A voice began coming from the cassette player. Shade was silently hoping that his name wouldn't come up in it.

"Hello PA3729. If you are listening to this tape it means you have recovered the folder from the warehouse. I feel I should let you know who I am. My name is Reese Mars. I am the doctor that created you. The Blood Brothers and Sisters that you fought at the lab to get this folder only made up approximately 1/100 of my whole force. That's right. The ones you fought, there are 99 more of the exact same ones at my disposal, and we are making more as we speak. However, I think I should reward you for finding this tape. Therefore, I will tell you something that you may want to know. As I'm sure you know, you were the first successful subject. You were the first successfully created Grim hybrid. There were two more patients at the lab during the time you were there. They rebelled against us at the same time you did. They are both currently living in Vale, though one originally hails from Mistral, and they are now enrolled at beacon academy. One is a male and the other is a female. The female is the one from Mistral. Happy hunting PA3729, or should I say… Shade Hill. That's right. I know what name you are going by. Have fun!" called the voice before the tape stopped playing.

Shade froze in place, hoping and praying that his teammates hadn't heard that. Unfortunately, his prayers went unanswered.

Neo, Kami and Risa all turned to Shade, who was staring at the floor. They didn't know how to respond to what they had just heard. Their first thoughts were that the tape was lying, but those thoughts were quickly dismissed when Shade looked back up and nodded. This caused all his teammates to gasp.

"Well… now you know my secret. What are you going to do?" asked Shade.

"Well, first I am going to slap you for not telling your own sister." Said Neo, slapping Shade.

"Now, we are going to help you find the other two that that tape mentioned." Said Kami.

Shade was shocked that his teammates were so accepting. He was happy that they weren't afraid of him, because that would make it hard to work together, but now he had to find the two Blood Brothers.

"So, they are both here at beacon. One boy and one girl. They could literally be anyone." Said Neo.

"Actually no. We should find the ones that have traits of a Grim. Like me for example, I have wolf ears, like a Beowolf. So we should look for people with the traits of either a Beowolf, Ursa, Nevermore, Boarbatusk, Deathstalker, or King Taijitu. Those are the most common Grim.." said Shade.

"Ok, so Wolves, Bears, Birds, Boars, Scorpions and Snakes, right?" asked Risa.

"Yeah. We should split into two pairs. Neo, you're with me, Kami and Risa, you two are together. Let's go." Said Shade.

Shade and Neo left the room and went searching around the dorm building. Not long after starting their search, they ran into Kannon and Velvet.

"Hey Shade!" yelled Velvet.

Shade just smiled, walked over to Velvet and kissed her. "Hey sweetie." Said Shade, smiling.

"Hey Kannon." Said Neo.

Kannon just looked away.

"Kannon, don't worry. She's my sister. She's trustworthy." Said Shade.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. I'm Kannon. What's your name?" asked Kannon.

"My name is Neo." Said Neo.

"Alright. So what are you to up to?" asked Kannon.

"Well we found out that there are two Blood Brothers that are here at beacon and were looking for them. Any ideas as to who they might be?" asked Shade.

"No sorry. By the way, did you find that thing you were looking for?' asked Kannon.

"Oh yeah, and I found the files on the two Blood Brothers that arrived there after me. Wait, my picture was in my folder. Maybe the pictures of the other two will be in the other folders." Said Shade digging out the other two folders.

"Alright PA3730 is… Oh wow. Kannon. It's you. You're a Blood Brother." Said Neo, looking at Kannon's file.

Kannon simply shrugged.

Velvet picked up the other file, looked inside and gasped loudly, startling Shade.

"What is it Velvet?" asked Shade as he grabbed the folder from Velvet. He looked at the picture inside and almost passed out.

"Shade? Are you Ok? Who is it?' asked Neo.

"It's…I-It's…Sarah..." said Shade.

THE CLIFFHANGERS ARE REAL! I realize that this may make some of you angry due to the cliff hanger, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter at least. Let me know how I did and remember to leave any advice you have for this story, and I hope I will see you in the next chapter. But for now, I will see you next time in RWBY: A Demon's Life.