A/N: Thanks 7Artemis7 for another review, besides those and the follows/favorites. I'm in the dark on whether people are enjoying this little tale or not. Good to see you are. Also thanks again to the people who have followed and favorited, I hope the fic continues to be entertaining!

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Thirteen months ago

Richter stepped out of the double doors that marked the theater's exit, Ruby close behind. They were busy laughing and talking about the things they had seen in the latest John Woodland movie. Pearce and Trista had other plans for the night, and Ruby didn't want to see the movie alone, so Richter had volunteered to go with her. It was a decent movie, he had actually laughed a lot more than he thought he would with it.

"But seriously." Ruby continued, "I would love a shotgun with a silencer on it! Then I could go all ninja and stuff." She stopped to look at him. "Do you think I'd make a good ninja?"

"You would make a great ninja." Richter agreed, Ruby beamed at the praise and he gave her a mischievous smirk, "Mostly because grimm wouldn't be able to see you with your height. They'd be looking over you ninety percent of the time."

He felt her punch his left shoulder playfully, a pout on her lips, "You aren't much taller than me!" She complained.

"True." Richter said, rubbing his chin, "Maybe that's why I'm so good at catching grimm unawares." He turned towards his petite friend. "Hey, did you see John Woodland's hair? What was that?"

Ruby chuckled, "I know, it was so stupid looking!"

"It looked like he replaced his hair with a bowl of ramen noodles." He said, Ruby had a real good laugh with that one and he continued, "I half-expected some random person to just start sprinkling spices on top of his head." Richter couldn't keep a straight face anymore and he joined Ruby in a round of laughter.

The two continued to discuss the movie as they began their walk back to Signal. They grabbed a bite to eat along the way, getting some strawberry milkshakes for dessert. By the time they had left the restaurant, it was approaching midnight. Richter looked at the night sky, the star-filled canvas looking serene. Days like these were what living was all about. Which he wouldn't be if Ruby's dad ever found out she was out so late. Taiyang could never know.

"Richter…" Ruby suddenly said, her tone was quieter, unsure, and it pulled Richter from his thoughts instantly. "We'll…we'll always be friends right?" She asked, her gaze on the straw of her milkshake as she fiddled with it.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I don't see why not." He answered her. "What brought this on?"

She switched her gaze to the path they were walking on. "It's just that….after Signal and Beacon, we'll be full-fledged hunters going off on our own missions. We'll be separated by thousands of miles." Her gaze switched to her feet, "I don't want that to cause us to drift apart."

Richter gave her a gentle smile, "Ruby, there's always the CCT if we want to contact each other, plus even as full-fledged hunters we can still do missions together."

"But not every mission!" Ruby argued, "And most missions are going to put us in rural areas where there is no CCT tower."

He placed a calming hand on her shoulder, "We still have three more years at Signal then four more at Beacon. We've got seven years of quality time to spend together. Not to mention you'll be making new friends along the way."

Ruby rolled her eyes, "Yeah right…"

"You will." Richter reaffirmed, taking his hand off her shoulder. "You're a great person Ruby, once they see the real you, you'll be swimming in friends!" He grinned at her, "Why I bet you'll barely have time to see me and I'll spend my days all alone in my room, tears trickling down my cheeks as I watch old Spruce Willis movies." He joked.

Ruby giggled in response, "Okay, okay I get it."

Richter's smile transitioned from joking to genuine. "You were my first friend in Patch, Ruby. No amount of time or distance is going to change that alright? I plan on us being friends for a very long time."

"Me too." She agreed, smirking mischievously, "Because somebody needs to save you from those old Spruce Willis movies."

"My hero."

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Present day

Ruby loomed at the lip of the crater Richter was lying in, keeping a close eye on her old friend. There were numerous small tears in his grey cloak and a nasty bruise under his left eye. He was also moving gingerly, no doubt from the major hits he had taken so far. Several bangs of his dark hair were down, reaching just below his eyebrows, it gave him a more messy appearance. One that she wouldn't necessarily disagree with, under normal circumstances.

But these were far beyond normal circumstances.

"Having some trouble with your new friends?" She asked him, her tone neutral.

Richter inhaled a breath through clenched teeth. "They're not my friends."

"Could have fooled me." She replied. "Is this the kind of group you want to be with?"

He gave a small laugh in response. "Us monsters have to stick together." He joked.

Ruby was not amused, her silver eyes narrowed, "When are you going to stop lying to yourself?"

"What?"

Swiftly, Ruby jumped down into the crater to land at Richter's right side, shifting Crescent Rose back into carry-form and placing it in it's holster on her back. She knelt down, grabbed Richter by his shirt collar with both hands and pulled him up to a sitting position.

She scowled deeply at her old friend. "You almost fooled me!" She exclaimed, "You almost had me believe that you really had become a monster!" She shook him once, "But your eyes don't lie Richter, they aren't a monster's eyes!"

Richter glared right back at her, "That doesn't change the fact that I can't be who you want me to be anymore!"

"Liar!" She shouted at him, slamming him into the ground before pulling him back. "You said we would be friends for a very long time remember!? You can't go back on your word!" Ruby could feel angry tears forming in her eyes, but she stubbornly blinked them away, she would not cry, not in front of him. She noticed that Richter was no longer glaring, instead he was regarding her with a neutral expression.

The sound of a pair of footsteps landing at the crater's lip to her right filled Ruby's ears. She glanced over to see Yang and Weiss standing there. Weiss looked like she had been through some rough times, her clothes were dirty and ripped in several places and she was leaning slightly on Myrtenaster. However, her face said she was still ready for battle and Ruby didn't doubt her.

"Uh guys?" Yang said, pointing a thumb behind her. "That thing is coming back this way."

"It's Darion Shiver." Weiss informed them, turning to face the threat. "He transformed just like Richter did."

Ruby turned back to Richter, "I'll finish with you later." She said pointedly, releasing his shirt from her grip and standing up. "After we take care of this guy." With one quick leap, she joined Yang and Weiss at the lip of the crater, Weiss on her left and her sister on her right.

Just over a hundred meters from her position was their enemy, Darion Shiver. To Ruby, he looked like a gargoyle more than a man with the wings and ebony-colored scales on his body. The eyes, though similar to Richter's when he had transformed held no sadness or regret, only rage and hatred. Darion suddenly flapped his wings and flew towards her and her team, staying low to the ground. Ruby's eyes narrowed, his jade eyes were scary, but how well could they see?

"Freezer Burn!" Ruby called out, using a recoil shot to leap away. Gripping her weapon in a reverse grip with both hands, Weiss stabbed it into the ground, creating an ice puddle. Meanwhile, Yang leapt above the ice puddle and descended, slamming her fist into it and sending a thick mist through the entire battlefield.

Ruby and her team darted all around Darion, gauging how well he could see in the mist. Judging by his rapid twisting and turning as he heard their footsteps, not very well. Good, now she had to strike before he thought to fly above the mist. Planting her feet, the red-cloaked girl dashed forward with a burst of speed, she swung Crescent Rose horizontally from right to left, catching Darion right on the jaw with the slash just as he was about to fly away.

The slash knocked Darion off his feet, sending him backwards with his body parallel to the ground. Yang ran up behind him and delivered a powerful uppercut with her right hand, hitting the transformed psychopath right between his shoulder blades and knocking him high into the air. A full second after Yang's attack, Weiss crashed down on Darion from above him, the tip of her rapier hitting him right in the center of his sternum. They both slammed back down on the ground hard, with Darion taking all of the impact with his spine. The heiress quickly leapt away once they had landed, leaving the psychopath lying in a supine position. Ruby smirked at the situation, good, they had blindsided him, now they just had to finish it.

Dashing towards his head, Ruby attempted to bury her scythe into Darion's forehead, but the psychopath kickflipped himself up at the last possible moment. She had no time to react as he braced himself on the ground with his left hand and brought one of his boots around to slam into the left side of her head.

Ruby's vision doubled as she was knocked off her feet, sliding on the ground on her right flank. The red-cloaked girl failed to remember ever getting kicked that hard in her head, ever. She watched in a daze as Yang blitzed Darion's right flank, hammering at him with a flurry of shell-infused punches. Darion blocked them all with his right wing and sent her sister flying with a powerful buffet of wind from said wing.

Weiss appeared in mid-air, above and behind the psychopath's back. The heiress gestured with her right hand and two glyphs appeared in front of her, each firing a dozen fist-sized aura blasts. As they flew towards him, Darion raised his sword, pointing the tip at the blasts and firing twice. Two explosions appeared in the space between Weiss and him, quickly followed by multiple smaller explosions as the psychopath's shots set off a chain reaction on the heiress' blasts. Darion fired a third time and Ruby watched helplessly as it exploded right on top of her partner, who fell from the sky with a thin trail of smoke emitting from her body.

Darion then turned back towards Ruby, grinning like a madman. Ruby went to stand, but her equilibrium was still messed up, managing only a sitting position. She held her head with her right hand, if only the blasted floor would stop moving!

The winged psychopath flew towards Ruby, sword poised to strike when a black blur landed on his back. Darion ate a faceful of dirt as he slid across the ground, sliding right past the red-cloaked girl. The blur then leapt from the psychopath's back, landing on her left side. Ruby was not surprised to see that it was Richter. He was currently on his knees, taking a breather from his recent exertion.

"You saved me." She stated.

She saw his lips and eyes twitch for a moment, temporarily breaking his poker face. "Don't read too much into it." He replied quickly, "We're going to need all of us to beat him."

Ruby turned around so that she was facing where Darion had crashed, Richter now on her right side, a knowing smirk on her face. More and more the Richter of old was showing himself, if she kept pestering him, she might be able to get her old friend back completely.

"Whatever you say." She said to him, planting her scythe into the ground and taking aim at the recovering Darion with her sniper rifle. Richter shifted Dyrnwyn to pistol-form and followed suit. Standing back-to-back with her.

Ruby almost felt like they were back in Signal again.

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Blake stumbled back a step as she took another hit to the jaw. The faunus huntress was still reeling from the fact that she had not beaten Gena earlier. Now she was completely on the defensive, only able to react to the skilled scientist's attacks.

Blake doubled over as she was kicked hard in the abdomen, sliding backwards a few meters and falling to her knees. The faunus huntress growled in frustration, she was better than this, Adam had saw to it. Gena closed the distance between them and brought her right boot up. Blake created a shadow clone to take the boot to the chin just in time, leaping slightly behind her clone and to the right. She raced towards the skilled scientist, who threw the chakram in her left hand. The faunus huntress' eyes narrowed, there was no way to completely dodge it. She was too close, but being cautious hadn't been working so far.

Blake leaned to her left as much as she could, a line of fire erupted on her right cheek as the chakram sliced into her there. Now in melee range, the faunus huntress tried an overhead strike with the sheathe in her left hand, which was hastily blocked by the chakram in Gena's right hand. Swiftly shifting Gambol Shroud to pistol-form, Blake performed a fierce uppercut right into her opponent's abdomen. As soon as the barrel made contact with Gena's stomach, Blake pulled the trigger several times, each shot sending the skilled scientist further and further into the air until she was almost touching the ceiling.

Not missing a beat, Blake shifted Gambol Shroud to sickle form, wrapping the ribbon around Gena's waist several times. Pulling hard on the ribbon, Blake brought her opponent down at a rapid descent, dropping the skilled scientist's chin right onto her waiting right knee. The blow was so strong it sent Gena tumbling backwards, the ribbon of Blake's weapon unraveling from her waist as she fell to the ground. Gena tumbled across the floor for a meter or two before managing to get to a crouching position, where she spat out a bloody tooth and glared daggers at Blake.

"Okay, now I'm mad." The skilled scientist declared.

Gena threw both her chakrams this time. Seeing an opening between the circular weapons, Blake dodged in-between them. The sound of electricity crackling drew the faunus huntress' attention and she was wondering where it came from for a moment before her whole body seized up as she was electrocuted. A scream of agony escaped from Blake's lips as the electricity emitted from the chakrams' gun barrels stopped. The circular weapons recoil shot themselves back into her opponent's hands, who was smiling with glee.

"How about a little shock therapy to spice things up!" Gena announced, tossing her weapons at Blake again. This time, the faunus huntress saw the tether of electricity that was traveling between the two chakrams. Whatever her next move was, she had to make sure she didn't get stuck between the two circular weapons again, she couldn't take too many more electrocutions.

The two chakrams used recoil shots to boost themselves towards Blake again. This time, she was ready for them though, creating a shadow clone to take the hit. The electric tether fizzled out as it made contact with her clone and Blake shifted her weapon into sickle-form, firing it at Gena. However, before the sickle could reach her opponent, the two chakrams repositioned themselves, this time between the ribbon that connected to her sickle. Electricity began to crackle on the circular weapons and Blake saw what Gena was intending to do.

Releasing her grip on the ribbon, the faunus huntress barely spared herself from another electrocution as the chakrams zapped it. Blake tried to create some distance by leaping backwards, but the chakrams began increasing their distance from each other, lengthening the electric tether between them. The circular weapons then began spinning rapidly, creating a rotating electric tether that was moving towards her at a quick pace. The faunus huntress bit her lip, the electric tether was too long to try and run around, there was nowhere to go, but through it.

Bending her knees, Blake concentrated on the tether in front of her, examining the speed of it's advance and rotation in less than a second. Choosing the right moment, she straightened her legs and leapt through the rotating electric tether, the electricity almost licking the bottoms of her boots. Her small victory was short-lived, as Gena came flying in with a devastating kick right to her forehead. Blake found herself sailing back the way she had come and then the electricity coursed through her body again, earning another scream of pain. This time the faunus huntress collapsed unceremoniously to the floor, landing in a prone position. She was dimly aware of her aura shield being completely gone now, if she took another electrocution unprotected, she was done for.

The chakrams recoil shot themselves back to Gena once more, who was laughing loudly as she caught them, "You should have seen the way your body was twitching!" The skilled scientist said. "That was hilarious!" Blake's only response was a groan of pain. Gena sneered at her, "So is that it? No more tricks up your sleeve?"

Blake racked her mind for a solution, she was going to lose at this rate. However she was at the limits of her tactics, maybe if Ruby was here she would have some kind of idea in how to deal with Gena, but she was not. Maybe she really was going to lose to a mad scientist in a sewer with a room that was dimly lit by one Dust lamp.

Wait, one dust lamp? Hope suddenly surged through Blake as an idea came to her, yes it might just work.

Rising to her knees, Blake fixed her opponent with a glare, "Just one." She said, replying to Gena's earlier taunting question. She threw the sheathe in her left hand at the ceiling, targeting the room's only Dust lamp, and shattered it. Instantly bathing the room in complete darkness. Well it would have been darkness for a human.

But she was a faunus, seeing in the dark was easy for her.

Gena snorted, "I don't see how killing the light is going to help. You'll be just as blind as I am." Blake smirked when she heard those words, she could turn this around.

Moving swiftly and stealthily, Blake retrieved her weapons, all the while Gena kept stumbling around, confused. Positioning herself so that she was behind the skilled scientist, Blake slashed her back with Gambol Shroud in sword-form. Gena immediately retaliated, swinging behind her with the chakram in her right hand, but Blake was already gone.

The faunus huntress waited for a few more moments, watching Gena look frantically around, trying desperately to find her. She then dashed forward and delivered a sidekick right to the back of the scientist's skull, causing Gena to stumble forward a bit. To her credit, the skilled scientist recovered quickly, leaping up and performing a half-flip so she was upside-down, firing shots from her chakrams at where she had been hit, but Blake was no longer there.

As soon as Gena landed back on her feet, Blake moved forward again. The faunus huntress kicked the back of the skilled scientist's left knee with her left boot, forcing her into a crouching position. Blake then slammed her right knee in-between her opponent's shoulder blades, causing her to arch back and expose her throat, which the faunus struck with the pommel of her sheathe, right in the adam's apple. Gena dropped the chakram in her left hand as she brought it up to hold her throat.

With her opponent's left flank exposed, Blake struck it with a diagonal slash from her sword. Gena's aura was still active and it protected her from being cut, it did not protect her from the force of the attack however. The skilled scientist was sent sailing through the air, landing hard on her right side. Gena was a little slow to get up, still nursing her sore throat.

"How!? How are you doing this!?" Gena howled, looking around frantically. Blake gripped Gambol Shroud tightly in her hands, it was time to finish it.

Blake came in at Gena's left, intentionally making enough noise for the scientist to hear. As the faunus huntress came within melee range, she created a clone a split-second before her opponent came forward with the chakram in her right hand, splitting the clone in two. However, this was not an ordinary clone. Blake saw Gena's eyes widen in panic as the two halves of the clone suddenly burst into flame, half a second later an explosion rocked the room as the fire clone detonated.

The faunus huntress watched stoically as Gena fell from the air, landing hard on her back. She calmly walked up to the downed scientist, undoing her bow and exposing her cat ears. With the lingering flames from the fire clone, Gena was able to see the ears and she sneered at Blake.

"A damned faunus….should have known…" The scientist managed to say before Blake kicked the side of her head, knocking her unconscious. The faunus huntress sheathed her weapons, looking for something to tie Gena up with.

This time she really had won.

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Ruby fired her sniper rifle multiple times, hearing the sound of Richter firing his pistol as well. The two were riddling Darion with enough firepower to maim a deathstalker, but Darion was taking it like a champ. While the red-cloaked girl would love to take the psychopath down and add another feat to her team's record, she was beginning to see that defeating Darion was going to be difficult.

Her opponent suddenly aimed the tip of his sword at the pair and fired a jade sphere-shaped aura blast at them. The blast was easily taller than Richter and her and it was steamrolling towards them at a fast pace. Undeterred, Ruby fired another round from her sniper rifle while Richter shot a torso-sized blast of black-white aura. The bullets and blasts all collided then detonated, at first Ruby thought it was a stalemate and was about to keep firing when she caught sight of a dozen or so basketball-sized clusters of aura dropping in from in front and above her.

Abandoning her position, Ruby sprinted to her left, hearing explosions behind her as the clusters made contact with something and detonated. Sparing a quick glance behind her, the red-cloaked girl saw Richter doing the same, but running the opposite direction as her.

The sound of Darion grunting in pain captured Ruby's attention and she looked back towards him to see Yang on his back. Her sister was gripping Darion's left wing, at the part where it attached to his left shoulder blade. She was landing some brutal hits on the back of the psychopath's head whenever she got stable footing. Darion was trying to buck her off like a wild horse, but Yang held firm, blasting him in the back of the head periodically with some big punches.

Finally having enough, Darion flapped his wings and sprung into the air. Yang held on for dear life and the transformed psychopath twisted himself so that his back was facing the ground. Ruby watched the color drain from her sister's face as she saw what was about to happen.

"Oh no….!" Yang exclaimed as Darion flapped his wings and rocketed back towards the ground, slamming Ruby's poor sister deep into the dirt and forming a small crater. The winged psychopath bounced back to his feet while Yang remained still, lying supine in the crater and groaning in pain.

However, Darion was dazed, shaking his head repeatedly to try and work some cobwebs out. Seeing this, Ruby dashed forward, rose petals in her wake as she approached her enemy from behind. She leapt up and landed several looping slashes on Darion's back, causing him to stumble forward a few steps. He tried to answer back with a sudden twist to face his attacker and a horizontal slash aimed at her tiny waist. Without missing a step, Ruby tucked her legs above Darion's swing, landed on the flat of his blade, used her weight to pin it to the ground and delivered a powerful horizontal swing to Darion's face. She actually pierced through his tainted aura shield, making a cut across his left cheek.

The transformed psychopath roared in pain and rage as Ruby back-flipped away, switching Crescent Rose to gun-form and firing three shots. Darion blocked them all with his sword and took two long strides forward, closing the distance between himself and the red-cloaked girl and delivering a vicious kick to her gut with his right foot. Pain exploded in Ruby's abdomen as she felt fingers wrap around her throat. A moment later she was slammed spine-first into the ground, Ruby couldn't even cry out in pain because of the hand gripped around her throat.

"Ruby Rose." Darion suddenly spoke, eyeing her curiously, "So you're the one that Richter has a hard-on for."

She gave him a silver-eyed glare in response, freeing her throat a little with her left hand. "Are you the one who changed him?"

Her answer was a smile full of teeth, a smile she wanted to rip off. "So what if I am?" He taunted.

Before she could answer, Darion lifted his sword with his right hand and fired a shot right at a charging Richter, who managed to deflect the shot with the flat of his blade, but it knocked him away regardless. Using the recoil from that shot, Darion slashed behind him, knocking away a surprised Weiss. The heiress barely able to get Myrtenaster into a position to take the brunt of the attack.

While he was fighting off her friends, Ruby was able to free herself from his grip. She quickly got to her feet and delivered an upwards vertical swing to Darion's chest. The red-cloaked girl followed it up with a spinning sidekick to the psychopath's sternum, knocking him back a step. Ruby then tried to bring her scythe down on top of his head, but Darion was able to bring up his sword to block it. The blade making contact near the top part of the scythe's handle. The resulting clash created a shockwave, blasting away small pieces of debris. Ruby grit her teeth in annoyance, this guy was really tough.

Using a recoil shot, Ruby backflipped away, landing to the right of a kneeling Richter a fair distance from the transformed psychopath. She cast a quick glance at her old friend, who had his sword embedded in the ground and was using that to keep his balance. The fact he was still fighting after taking a hit that created a crater the size of a bus was amazing. Yang and Weiss touched down to the right of her, weapons prepped for another round.

Darion stood to his full height, his inhuman eyes bloodshot as he breathed heavily, but not from exhaustion. If looks could kill, they would all be in the morgue now. Darion's angry gaze locked onto one person. The one wearing a grey cloak to Ruby's left.

"I hope you're fucking happy Richter!" He bellowed, "You've ruined everything!"

Richter showed no signs of intimidation, "You were the one who was going to kill the one person in Vale who had the information we needed." Came his reply, "Kind of puts a wrench in the plans don't you think?"

Darion gave Richter a look of disgust. "Look at you, acting all high and mighty now that you're back with all your little friends. But you and I both know it won't last." The psychopath fired a bullet into the ground, shooting up some debris. "Newsflash Richter! We're no longer human!" He held up his left hand, balling it into a fist. "We have achieved superior forms and you act like it's a curse! You don't have the balls to embrace this new power!" He spat at the ground. "If you would just fucking let go of all your little bonds and friendships you could be right there with me in godhood!" Ruby found herself frowning at Darion's last remark, this guy was a real jerk.

Richter gave a small laugh, "So I can threaten and murder people who had nothing to do with what happened to me? No thanks."

"Their lives are meaningless." Darion stated and Ruby felt her frown deepen. "They do nothing but sit around and wait for others to protect them. They contribute nothing in the god damned grand cycle of life!"

"No one's life is meaningless!" Ruby suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the conversation. She had heard enough from this crazy guy. "Those people have every right to exist! You don't get to decide whether they deserve to live or not."

Darion responded with an unsettling crazed smile, "Not yet."

Ruby remained firm, "Not ever." She stated, punctuating it by stabbing her scythe into the ground. "I'm stopping you right here, Darion Shiver."

There was a moment of silence, as if Remnant itself was holding it's breath in anticipation for the coming battle. Finally, it was broken as Darion planted his feet, preparing to charge. Ruby's team got into fighting stances and Richter pulled himself to his feet. Before anyone could make a move though, the sound of a scroll beeping could be heard. It was emanating from Richter and surprisingly, Darion.

Confused, Richter pulled out his scroll with his left hand, tapping the screen with his thumb. He stared at the information on the screen for a moment before paling.

"Shit…!" He cursed. Across the battlefield, Darion was having the opposite reaction.

"YES!" The psychopath cheered, looking at his own scroll.

Wanting to know what the big deal was, Ruby looked over Richter's shoulder, reading three words that sent a cold shiver of dread through her spine.

"Sirensong password acquired." The screen on Richter's scroll stated.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: I estimate this fic is going to be about 14 chapters give or take. Come February the updates will be less frequent as I'll have less free time, but I do still plan to finish this.

Thank you for reading!