Trailer Ch. 2: E
I'm sorry that I haven't been writing very much, it's just some stuff going on with friends, a club that I'm in… and I'm really lazy and had writers block
UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH I know: 'uh, Rotting, you just started writing you lazy ass, how can you have writers block already.'
Well because I do…sooooo…#dealwitit!
I don't own RWBY, just the awesome (lame) OC characters and amazing (horrible) side story to come later.
"When critics sit in judgment it is hard to tell where justice leaves off and vengeance begins."
Chuck Jones
3rd POV
Fire.
That's all that was seen, aside from dead Humans, Faunus and the W.F. grunts that scouted around the area of the town, looking for any survivors of the attack on Manateir village.
However, there was a 'witness' of sorts. On a tree, on top of a hill overlooking the burning village stood a woman.
She was standing on a large tree branch...upside-down?
She was 5'11, looked to be seventeen, and had two large, purple-furred bat ears on her head, along with purple hair that hung just above her waist, what matched the length of the hair was a black scarf that covered her face up to the top of her nose. She had solid bluish-white eyes, signifying that she was blind. She had a soft, innocent look to her, which could fool almost anyone of her actual intents.
She wore a black, silk long sleeved shirt, with small purple shoulder guards and purple wrist guards that had buttons on the insides of them, along with purple dust steel that covered her stomach and chest; on the back of said shirt, was the symbol of a vertical, purple sheathed katana, with two kunai crossing into an 'X' behind the handle of the blade. She had black, lightly armored padded pants, with several pouches along the waistline of them, the armored parts, being her shins and thighs, were covered in a dark purple, light Dust steel coating. She wore purple, open-toed combat boots that covered the unarmored, lower area of her pants.
Resting horizontally on the area just above her waist, were two sheathed wakizashis, forming into an X-shape across her back. Both of the sheaths were black in color, however, both of the blade handles had different hilt wraps. The one pointing left was a dark blue, while the other grip pointing right was a sky-blue.
This mysterious woman is known as Echo Silentheart.
As she stared into the fires of the burning village, she flipped herself right-side up into a kneeling position. A single tear slipped from her left eye as she 'saw' the wrath of the Fang. She 'saw' what was going on with her heightened sense of hearing. She 'saw' the burning town, with the remains of dead people, Human and Faunus alike, and all it did was send her into a quiet rage.
She jumped out of the tree and started to slide down the hill, straight into the burning village.
'Why did they have to do this, these people never did anything to the Faunus or the White Fang, they even live with Faunus peacefully. All they did was say no to a supply trade, and that was three days ago' she thought to herself as she jumped off the hill and landed gracefully onto a three-story dentoutekina-ie*.
'Well if they wish to pray upon those who can't protect themselves, then I'll be the one who shows then the repercussions of their actions.'
She 'saw' two W.F. grunts standing around, complaining about the heat of the village. She walked down the side of the building silently thanks to her semblance, Gravity Control, which lets her focus her Aura to her feet so she can walk on almost any surface.
When she got close enough, she jumped off the wall and landed on the grunt on the right, knocking him unconscious. She then proceeded to draw her left wakizashi: Hokkyoku Tamashī *, and place it near the neck of the other grunt.
The blade gave off a chilly feeling, the reason for that being that at the bottom of the pommel was a slot where ice Dust crystals were stored into the grip of the sword, and projected through the blade. The same goes for her other blade: Kaminari Seishin *, with the difference being that it's filled with lightning Dust crystals.
"I'm only going to say this once: tell me who is responsible for the murder of these people, or your head will roll."
She looked serious to the point that she really wanted him to tell her a lie, to over exaggerate the point, she folded her ears onto her head.
"A-Adam i-i-i-it's Adam T-Taurus! He's at town square! There, now please let me go!"
She pushed the blade closer to his neck to show that she wasn't joking around. She then proceeded to slam the pommel of said sword on top of his head, quickly knocking him out.
'You better be right' Echo thought to him as she started running for the blazing town square.
1st POV: Adam Taurus
'It's pathetic, really. They didn't even fight back.'
This village held many of our kind and those retched Humans.
Two weeks back my ex-partner, Blake Belladonna, betrayed the White Fang because she thought my methods were 'inhumane' and 'unjust'. Then to top it off, one of our assassins go missing because she finally 'found out' why we got rid of her parents. Afterwards we went to the village elder for a 'trade agreement' that if he gave the runaway up, the village would not be harmed. He stupidly declined, and to top it off he said that the village would not fight back in anyway. To show how they 'didn't have a part in this and 'how all they wanted was a simple village that could coexist'.
Look where that got him and his village.
He reminded me of Blake's 'open mindedness' about humans, about how she knows that they can all be swayed for 'coexistence'.
Well maybe that's why you always wear that bow on top of your cat ears, isn't it.
It's because all of those Humans monsters just 'love' us.
They think we're 'equals', they think we're 'normal'.
Open your damn eyes, Humans have treated us like scum: worthless, stupid, pointless, nothings; therefore we will give them what they gave to us ten-fold.
"Now if only you showed up so I can tie up loose ends."
Where are you, Echo?
1st POV: Echo Silentheart
I blocked an incoming attack in the form of a machete coming behind me with Tamashī, while sending a lightning shockwave from seishin to deal with someone in front of me.
I then slashed out with Tamashī to the grunt I blocked, followed by Seishin for the finishing blow.
The grunt flew back into a burning wall of a house, slightly spasming while his chest was covered in ice.
I sheathed both of my blades, and started walking into the center of the town.
It was literally a giant, circular, empty space in the middle of town with some giant water fountain in the center. There were shops surrounding the area: restaurants, clothiers, and blacksmiths for the lucky kids who make it into the academy just a few miles away from our village in the city of vale. I remember I would meditate on the bricks of the fountain, help out the shop owners move their supplies in, and play with the kids when they asked me. This place used to be teaming with life and movement…and not set on fire filled with dead people.
My bat ears twitched in annoyance with that last thought.
"I really need to stop being so morbid all the time…it's really going to get to me one day." I said to myself out loud.
"I still can't believe that you talk to yourself when your alone, well technically; you've always been alone" a painfully familiar voice said behind me.
I jumped onto the wall of a house, just barely dodging a shot from Adam's shotgun: Blush. He then sheathed his sword, Wilt, back into the barrel of the gun that then formed into a sheath with a trigger and an ammo clip near the guard of the blade.
"I will still never understand why you made a 'gun' the sheath for a katana instead of just making a folding frame shotgun/katana. It would make things simpler."
He grinned and said "well, I guess you'll have plenty of time to think about it while you're burning in hell."
He pointed the end of Blush at me, so the hilt of Wilt was in my direction. I knew what was coming.
Combat music (optional): Muramasa: The Demon Blade OST - Powerful Looking
He pulled the trigger and Wilt shot towards me, just as I had suspected.
I drew Tamashī in my left hand, Seishin in my right, and swung both out in front of me to block the flying sword.
He then rushed forward to grab the sword out of midair. I ran in the same direction to try to stop him from taking back his main weapon, but he retaliated by firing Blush at me. I had to stop to block the bullets before I took any major damage.
Unfortunately, he took that as his chance to grab his blade, and to clash blades with me.
I held my swords together in an X-shape, while he kept pushing his blade forward.
'Damn, I forgot how strong he was, I may have speed, but if I get to close to him and he hits me directly, I'm screwed!'
He pointed his gun at me as I tried to hold back Wilt, but luck smiled on me for the moment.
The sheath/gun clicked empty.
I took this chance to jump back from the clashed blades to gain some distance from Adam. I then sheathed Tamashī, and refilled my empty hand with a cluster of kunai that were in one of my pouches along my waist.
I threw them, but he blocked them while reloading Blush; they all landed near his feet.
I jumped on to the rooftops, sheathed Seishin, and kept throwing kunai at him, but he kept shooting them or blocking them.
He was making a horrible mistake though.
"This is wasting my time, come down and fight already!" he yelled at me.
I smirked underneath my scarf.
He was getting pissed. 'Good, he doesn't know what's at his feet.'
"Fine, I will!"
I draw Tan and Sein, jump off of the roof that I'm on, and swing downward.
However, I miscalculated where the blade would land…which was directly into the ground; but I got them out…while I got kicked in the chin by Adam.
I rolled back, still dazed by the attack, while Adam took this as his chance to land some Shots off from Blush, which he did without hesitation.
I tried to block the bullets, but a few made contact with my stomach armor, which wasn't enough to hold off 12-gauge buckshot from twenty feet away.
After I heard the familiar 'click' of Blush being empty, I hoped back onto the roofs.
"Aren't you going throw more of your worthless knives at me?" he said with an evil grin as he reloaded Blush.
I sheathed my blades and held my stomach with my left hand as I coughed up a bit of blood.
"No, actually I was just about to leave" I said with a hint of pain in my normally smooth and calm voice.
"Oh…and how do you know that I'm not going to follow you?"
I attempted to chuckle, but it came out as me coughing up a little more blood.
"You will find your answer at your feet."
As he looked down I raised my free hand in the air and placed my index finger on the button.
He looked back up at me with anger very well shown on his half-masked face.
"I'm going to miss that ugly mask of yours...if I find Blake I'll tell her you became even more of a murderer than you already are."
What he should have remembered, is that whatever money I received for assassinations, I put into my weapons.
During my time as an initiate in the White Fang, I began to study how a simple electronic pulse can set off an explosive of any kind (I still can't believe they had braille books on that…and romance novels for some reason), no matter their size or quantity, so I came up with a little idea to not only mold my kunai so that they have a small signal receiver in the pommel leading to the ring, but also so that small amounts of Dust of different elements can be stored in the blades. I also rigged them to have a minimum distance of ten feet away from me before they blew up if I ever pressed one of the buttons on my wrist guards; that way I would be able to carry more around with me, instead of just dumping them all off in one place.
Twelve years of training with weapons can really pay off when you use your spare time well.
"Consider this your last warning, Echo: when I find you again, I'm going to-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're going to kill me nice and slow, and it's going to last for days on end; blah, blah, blah, will you give it a rest."
Click…
As I jumped off the roof, the recurring sound of explosions rang out in my ears.
I landed on another house that wasn't burning and was near the exit of the city.
'I couldn't hear or 'see' anyone in the town except for W.F grunts and Adam.'
I coughed up more blood and 'looked' towards the forest.
'I have nothing left here, everyone I know is dead or my enemy, the most I can do is get the hell away from here and to vale so I can tell everyone what happened here.'
Before I left I knelt onto the ground.
'Mother, Father, please tell me I'm making the right choice.'
I left after a few moments of silence, I left my home…leaving only a few tears on the roof, to be soaked up by the undying fire of Manateir village.
End of song
1st POV: Adam Taurus
"GODDAMN IT!"
I fist on the table I was near as one of the W.F. doctors looked me over.
It was official: Echo Silentheart dies before Blake Belladonna does.
If it weren't for my Aura I'd probably be worse off.
Because of those damn kunai she works so hard on other than her swords: I have a collapsed lung, four cracked ribs, three broken ribs, a broken right arm and left leg, and ringing ears from the leader of the White Fang himself.
'Just you wait bitch, I will find you, and I will kill you slower than I will Blake.'
I swear I just heard someone say 'don't be so dramatic'.
1st POV: Echo Silentheart
'Stay awake.'
I kept telling myself that as I hopped from tree branch to tree branch.
Over and over again those two words kept repeating in my mind.
'I'm almost there, hell I can hear the night movement of the city.'
However, my 'sight' started to black out instead of seeing the usual white and blue silhouettes of my echolocation enhanced 'vision'.
'No, no, no, no, no, you're almost there, just a little more.'
I slipped on the branch that I was supposed to land on.
I started plummeting to the ground.
'So this is it, this is the end. Not on the battlefield, not in a torture room, not in front of a W.F. firing squad; but by passing out from blood loss on the cold, unyielding surface of the ground...'
A small smile graced underneath my scarf.
'Heh…I can cope with that…'
Before I closed my eyes, the last thing I 'saw', was a man with a hooded cape and a large scythe.
'Or maybe not…kind of ironic that I'm about to be saved by the grim reaper.'
I then blacked out.
…
1st POV: Echo Silentheart
Slowly opened my eyes to 'see' that I'm on a bed, in a patient gown; my face not covered by my scarf.
"Good, you're awake" a voice to my right says.
I quickly pulled the pillow that I was resting on over my face and turn to face him.
He wore a long-sleeved, button-up, business shirt underneath what seemed to be a coat of sorts. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck with a silver cross in the center of it, along with a pair of glasses which sat on the bridge of his nose. He sat in an armchair with a relaxed, non-threatening nature. A cane rested on the left arm of the chair while a mug was present in his right hand, filled with coffee from what I could smell.
He took a sip from his mug.
"Do not worry, Echo, I mean you no harm" he assured with a calm voice.
"I really wish I could believe you but…wait…"
Before he could answer, I remembered the man who caught me in the forest outside of the walls.
"Where's the guy who saved me, who are you, where's my gear…AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!" I said in a freaked out tone of voice.
He calmly took another sip from his mug.
"The man who saved you is named Qrow; he is a huntsman that I've known almost my entire life. Your gear is in a safe in the patient's personal belongings. My name is Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of beacon academy. As for how I know your name, let's just say that Qrow knows how to gather information fairly well, and we help the ones who leave them to become respectable members of society…especially ones who wish to become Huntsmen and Huntresses" he said that last part with more emphasis, leading me to believe that this was leading somewhere.
"I'm guessing that there's a catch to this, isn't there?"
He chuckled and took another sip from his mug before speaking again.
"It's not so much as a catch as it is an offer, I'm giving you a choice, not straining you out for your help."
I thought for a moment.
"Alright, I'm listening."
He gave me a small smile and gave me the deal "If you agree to it, you will be accepted into beacon, you will be given proper teachings as a Huntress, and your past will be cleared from your name. Does this sound reasonable?"
I thought about it for a moment.
'Okay Echo, let's see where you are in life: everyone you know is dead or hunting you; your parents are dead; you killed for the first time when you were five years old for...various reasons; you killed more people after that; you left the White Fang after you learned that your parents were killed by execution for disobeying orders, those orders being burning down the very village that you used to live in; you find the village is destroyed, filled with W.F. grunts that are looking to kill you, and to top it off Adam nearly succeeds in killing you. Now here is the headmaster of Beacon academy giving you the chance of a lifetime...welp…I know where I'm going.'
"Okay, Ozpin, you've got a deal" I say as I reach out my hand I'm not using on my improv face-mask.
He smiles at me again and shakes my hand.
"Wonderful, now before we go recollect your gear…"
He hands me a face mask.
"I thought you'd want this as a momentary cover up for your scars… I don't believe the one you have right now is very comfortable…even if it is a pillow."
For the first time in a long time…I gave an honest-to-god laugh.
Over 3,000 words for this chapter.
I'm actually really proud of this, I hope you like it.
Well then, I'm out my fellow zombies, BRAAAAAAAINS.
Also:
A dentoutekina-ie is a traditional Japanese house.
Kaminari Seishin means 'lightning spirit'.
Hokkyoku Tamashī means 'arctic soul'.