Disclaimer
I do not own Destiny or RWBY
They belong to their respective studios
I only own this story and any OCs in it
{~-~}
Young Wolf of Remnant
Chapter 5
Adjustment Period
{~-~}
Ender sat in the Hangar cleaning his hand cannon as he waited for the other members of the impromptu fireteam. He reassembled his gun and gave it a once-over to be sure it was in working order. As he began to pack up his cleaning kit, the Titan assigned to the team walked up carrying her helmet under her arm. The Titan looked to Ender and scowled, as if his presence alone was offensive. As his cleaning supplies were trans-matted to storage, he looked to the Titan and gave an annoyed expression in return. "Where's the Warlock?"
Ender stood and holstered his hand cannon, already put on edge by the rudeness that the Titan had shown him. "Probably grabbing ammo synthesizers from Banshee. He should be along shortly, so don't get your panties in a twist."
The Titan growled at his comment. The grip she had on her helmet tightened as she tried to keep herself calm. She let out a breath as the Hunter stared her down. They both took a step back away from the other and heard clapping from behind them. Standing at the stairway nearest the exit of the Hangar was Chet-4.
"See? You two are already beginning the path towards becoming friends."
The Titan turned toward him, a snarl on her lips. "What do you mean by that?"
The Exo gave the closest thing to a smile that his face could make as he walked toward the two. "What I mean is that you two both silently agreed to not cause a confrontation with each other. That is the first step to becoming comrades in arms. Understanding that fighting against each other is pointless."
Ender scoffed as he turned to walk towards his ship. "Yeah, or maybe we just didn't want Holiday getting after our asses about wrecking her hangar."
Chet sighed as his team members walked off. Shaking his head he went to join them at his ship, silently hoping for them to get along with each other at least for this mission.
{~-~}
Everyone winced as Jaune was knocked to the floor for the umpteenth time during his match. As he stood, he barely blocked the heavy blow from his opponent's mace with his shield sending him and his shield flying in different directions. Cardin shouldered his mace and sneered down at Jaune, who was pushing himself to a standing position once again. Jaune looked at his opponent. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against someone like Cardin, but he couldn't just give up. Stealing a glance into the stands, the blonde knight saw his team and Team RWBY all watching with worried expressions. He looked back to Cardin and felt determination well up inside himself.
Raising his sword, he charged forward with a roar and met the taller teen's mace with a low clang. Cardin pushed Jaune's sword back and leaned toward's him.
"This is where you lose," he said as Jaune's knees began to shake from exertion.
Narrowing his eyes at the arrogant comment the blonde knight leaned forward as best as he could. "Over my-"
His words were cut off due to a knee to the gut. He fell to the ground and curled inward to try and regain his breath. Looking up, Jaune saw Cardin raising his mace with a cruel smile, but before he could bring it down a voice broke the atmosphere of the match.
"That's enough," Professor Goodwitch strode towards them from the sidelines. She looked over Jaune with a touch of pity in her eyes. "As you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red zone. In a tournament-styled duel, this would signify that he is no longer fit for battle and the official may call the match."
The combat instructor looked at Jaune as he sat in the combat arena. "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?"
The blonde knight stared at his scroll as it showed that his aura was in the red while the rest of his team was still green. As he sat there, not even noticing Cardin mutter something, disappointment and shame began to well up inside of him. Jaune's thoughts eventually turned from direct self-loathing to imagining what his team was thinking about him at the moment. The only thing to draw him from his thoughts was his foot getting kicked. The blonde knight looked up to see who was in front of him and saw Garnet staring down at him.
The white-cloaked boy offered a hand to Jaune and helped him up, his expression a strange mixture of curiosity and understanding. "Care to talk?"
Jaune met the former Guardian's eyes as he tried to hide his emotions behind the confusion. "Uh... about what? There isn't much to talk about."
Garnet tilted his head at the blonde knight's words. He stepped close and poked him hard enough to push his shoulder slightly. "You don't have to be a genius to see that your lack of victories in the sparring arena has you down. Just wanted to know what you were thinking."
Actual confusion spread through Jaune's mind. Garnet had never gone out of his way to talk to others before. He always just watched everyone else, drew on his sketch pad, or performed maintenance his weapons. The only times Jaune had heard the former Guardian talk was when one of his sisters or someone else spoke first. "I-I'm fine if that's what you're wondering. A-are you?"
Garnet raised his eyebrow at Jaune's deflection. "I'm perfectly fine, and, as I said before, I can tell you aren't."
Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, well you and I don't just talk... like, at all. So, I'm just wondering what brought this on, is all."
The former Guardian sighed and slumped. "Yang is wanting me to talk to others more than I do already, and you seemed like you could use some help."
Jaune gave a small smile as he saw an opportunity. "Looks like you're whiii... yeah that sounded better in my head. Sorry."
Garnet directed a deadpan stare at the blonde knight before looking to the door. He looked back and sighed. "Look, you may be a bit down because of your losing streak, but just look at it this way. You have more opportunities to learn than anyone else. So don't give up just yet."
Jaune looked down in thought before nodding his head at what the former Guardian said. "Alright, thanks."
With that, the two huntsmen-in-training left the combat arena to catch up with their friends.
{~-~}
"All I'm saying is that your brother needs to learn some respect."
Yang sighed as Weiss finished her rant. She understood where the heiress was coming from with how Garnet acted. There were times he could seem self-righteous about his own skill when he was just pointing out other's room for growth. She just wished that the white-themed girl would shut up. "Look, Weiss, he isn't going to apologize for something that you are upset about. So you might as well just give up on trying to convince one of us to do it."
Weiss huffed as Yang's comment. "I won't just let something like this go. What he did was out of line and not his place to interfere. Thus he needs to apologize to me and his sister for his actions."
"Aww, Weiss, I knew you cared!" The red-cloaked girl tried to hug her partner only for the heiress to push her away by the face.
"Ruby, I may have let go of the fact that you're my leader, but that doesn't make us friends." Ruby slumped and pouted at Weiss's comment.
Yang rolled her eyes at the building relationship between the heiress and her sister. Coming up to the door of the cafeteria, the blonde brawler looked behind herself for the recent topic of conversation in her team, barely seeing a flash of white at the end of the hall. She opened the door and looked Weiss in the eye. "Weiss, I know you're upset at how he acted, but you just need to get to know him to see that he wasn't trying to hurt anyone. So give him a chance, alright?"
The white-themed heiress huffed once more before nodding and entering the cafeteria. RWBY had made their way through the food line and taken a seat with the present members of JNPR when Garnet and Jaune had made their way into the cafeteria. Taking their seats at the end of the table, the two late arrivals proceded to listen to a story that Nora was telling them with Ren correcting her on every sentence. Or Garnet was trying to pay attention to what was happening at the table, while also eating his food when his twin started poking his side to get his attention. The former Guardian looked over to her and raised an eyebrow in question.
Ruby glanced between him and Jaune before asking, "What'd you stay behind with Jaune for?"
Garnet glanced at Jaune and sighed. "He was discouraged about his win-loss ratio. I stayed behind to give him some words of advice. He should be doing better, probably just thinking."
"You've been getting involved with other people a lot more than usual. Are you okay?"
The former Guardian slumped in his seat at his twin's words. "Why? Why is everyone asking that?"
Ruby chuckled nervously as her brother continued to grumble about helping people too much, drawing the attention of the others present at the table. The red-themed girl looked at the confused or amused faces staring at her and her brother as he continued to grumble about having to help people with their personal problems. Without looking back, Ruby began to tap on her brother's shoulder in order to get his attention. After a few moments, Garnet looked at his twin when she got his attention. In his line of view, he saw the same looks that his sister had seen.
All of that prompted one question from the former Guardian. "What?"
Pyrrha looked around the table to see if anyone would answer before speaking up. "Are... are you okay, Garnet?"
Realization dawned upon his face as Garnet figured out why both RWBY and JNPR were staring at him. "Yes, I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about with me. So please stop asking me that repetitive question. It's getting annoying."
Nora leaned forward and said, "Are you sure? Cause you're sitting over there and making me look normal. And that's saying something!'
Garnet sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I don't like talking all that much, and I've been doing a lot of that lately. So, I'd prefer to not have to help people with their problems altogether."
Nearly everyone present at the table looked at each other, the exception being Yang, who slumped in disappointment, realizing that she should have expected as much from him. Knowing that she won't get anywhere with her brother's behavior, she just looked back up at him. "You know that you don't have to actually help people with their personal problems, right? I'm just happy that you're socializing with them."
The former Guardian scowled at the blonde brawler, annoyed at having what she said too seriously. "Great, I've been doing a lot of unnecessary talking over the last half of a month because the two of us don't know how to describe things to each other properly. That's just fantastic!"
At his comment, Weiss abruptly slapped Yang's arm as hard as she could. "So it was your fault all along, Xiao Long?!"
"Woah! Hey, you can't blame me for a simple misunderstanding!" Yang said, leaning away from the irate heiress and rubbing her slapped arm. "Although, I will admit that I should have realized that he would do stuff like that."
Weiss crossed her arms, glaring at the blonde brawler sitting next to her. She was about to continue on her rant but was interrupted by Garnet talking again. "I would've done it, even if she didn't want me to socialize."
"What?!" the heiress shrieked. Slamming her hands onto the table, the white-themed girl turned her intensifying glare towards the former Guardian. "You mean to say, that still would have dragged not only me but your sister as well, halfway across the academy campus?!"
Garnet rested his head on one of his hands and stared across the cafeteria with a blank expression on his face. "If not me, then the professors would have done it."
"Well, I don't think that they would've done quite, uh... like that," Ruby mumbled as her partner ground her teeth at an almost audible level while still glaring at the red-cloaked girl's brother. The same brother who continued to not even look the heiress in the eye as he stared across the cafeteria.
"What you did was completely uncalled for, and I demand you apologize right now!" The heiress glared at Garnet, waiting for a response from him. A second later he simply hummed offhandedly towards the heiress, causing both Yang and Ruby to direct their gaze to where he was looking.
The former Guardian brought his hand away from his face and rested next to his lunch tray. "Changing topic..."
Weiss's glare intensified as she began to stomp over towards the white-cloaked boy. "Do not just brush me off like that!"
"Team CRDL's been getting a bad reputation for themselves, haven't they?" Garnet asked, ignoring the heiress's words. Blake and team JNPR looked between themselves at the sudden change of topic, a few of them noticing that Yang and Ruby had started staring in the same direction as their brother. The difference between the three being the expressions on their faces.
"Well, yeah, I guess they have gone a gone overboard pulling practical jokes on people," Jaune said. Everyone gave the blonde knight a look like he grew a second head. "What?"
"Jaune, he's a bully." The blonde looked at Pyrrha after she had spoken up.
"Oh please, name one time they've 'bullied' anyone."
At that Nora jumped up, raising her hand. "OH, OH, OH! How about the time Cardin got you stuck in a doorway with your shield?"
Ren looked Jaune from the corner of his eyes. "Or the time he knocked a pile of books out of your hands in the middle of the hallway?"
"Or how about the time he shoved you in a rocket locker and sent you to the Emerald Forest?" Yang growled as she clenched a fist.
Jaune looked at everyone that was staring at him after he was given three instances. "I didn't land that far from the school." Jaune winced as even he could tell that he was just trying to convince himself that Cardin wasn't a bad person.
"ARE YOU ALL SERIOUSLY JUST GOING ALONG WITH THIS BRAT!?" Weiss screeched as everyone quickly went along with Garnet's brushing off of the heiress's argument. She turned to face the former Guardian once more and her frustration grew more at him still staring across the cafeteria. "AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT THAT IS-"
"If you keep yelling you'll just get yourself into trouble," Garnet said still not looking at Weiss. "And if you really want to know, then look over there."
Glancing in the direction that was indicated, the heiress felt her anger falter at what she saw. Team CRDL surrounding a rabbit Faunus, who just continued to shrink into herself. She looked to the others sitting at her table and saw expressions of disgust and anger on all except Garnet and Ren, who kept their faces stoic. The heiress looked back to what was taking place a couple tables away.
"Weiss," She looked towards Garnet who was finally looking at her. "I have a feeling that you came here for a sense of freedom from your family's influence."
Weiss flinched, nearly taking a step back from the younger boy speaking to her. "What makes you think that?"
Garnet took a deep breath and turned to face her directly. "I'll start by saying that I'm not the most intelligent person around. Most of my idea's for problem-solving involve lots of bullets, but I have figured out how to read others."
Weiss adopted a confused look at his words. "When we first met, you came off as a snobby brat who hasn't ever been in the world before, however, I can see that you're not half bad. deep down you don't want to hurt others. If you weren't, you wouldn't have lightened up on my sister about being the team leader. You're just upset."
The former Guardian turned his head and looked at the team of bullies harassing a fellow student. "So, if you really did come here to get away from the reputation of your family," He held out his hand gesturing to the scene across from them. "Now's your chance."
Weiss stood there, her expression of anger having receded along with said emotion, uncertainty replacing it. She looked back towards the former Guardian, who watched her from the corner of his eye, and tried to steel herself to confront them. The heiress took a step in their direction, only to abruptly turn and rush out of the cafeteria.
Once Weiss had disappeared from sight, the others looked back to Garnet. He looked to each of the others at the table and sighed. He stood, picking up his lunch tray, and promptly threw his butter knife, earning a shout of surprise from the bullies in the room. As he walked away from the table, one thought went through his head.
'I'm not cut out for this shit.
{~-~}
Silver eyes peered down a firing range as holographic targets materialized down range. Garnet shouldered his sniper rifle and gazed through his scope. Taking a steady breath he pulled the trigger, firing a projectile through the bullseye of a target. The former Guardian switched targets as they began to move around the firing range. Garnet pulled the trigger once, sighted a new target, and fired again.
'Three bullets in, six targets remaining,' the former Guardian thought as he sighted another one of the targets. His finger began to press the trigger of his rifle once more, to send a bullet do-
-inhuman shrieks filled what accounted for air inside the Nether World. Green fire surged from the god that charged toward him. His heart froze, his Arc Light faded, barely feeling the body slam-
The bark of his rifle broke him from his memories. Lowering his rifle, Garnet stared at the wall where his bullet had struck and then looked to his hand as it shook slightly from shock and fear. He clicked the secondary trigger on his rifle, making it collapse into its travel mode. He pulled his scroll from the socket on the wall next to him, stopping the target practice program. The former Guardian walked over to the benches next to the wall and sat down. He closed his eyes and began to reign his breathing in from the deeper than normal breaths.
In, out.
In, out.
In... out.
"I don't believe that there have been many students who've had reactions like you did while simply doing target practice."
Garnet looked up to the headmaster as he stood a few steps away from the entrance to the firing range. The older man stood there, his cane in front of him with both hands on top of it. The former Guardian gestured to the spot next to him and returned his gaze to the ground. Accepting his offer, Ozpin sat next to the white cloaked boy and kept his eyes on him.
"From what I've heard about you, you don't miss on a practice range very often. Is something on your mind?"
The former Guardian took a deep breath and looked to the headmaster. "Just remembering things from my past."
"I see," Ozpin said as he studied Garnet's expression, "While many would pry into your past to see what has you unfocused, I can tell that you won't be telling me anything else. Though I do have one question."
Garnet's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Shoot."
"Why do you keep pushing Ms. Schnee the way you do?"
Ozpin watched as the boy in front of him sighed again, an unusual habit that he showed when he was answering questions. "'Cause team RWBY just keeps dragging up memories, that ultimately just bring guilt with them. It took me a while to move on from them, but the pain never really left."
"Was it the death of your mother?"
Garnet tilted his head towards the professor showing only one of his eyes. "You could say it was family, yes"
Garnet stood and turned to the headmaster. "I know that you want to know what I'm hiding and that this was just an attempt to gain my trust. So, I'll just tell you this, if I ever do tell you my secrets, all of my secrets not just vague words, then hell is coming closer to Remnant."
Ozpin's gaze hardened at the words of the former Guardian. "If you know about a danger to Remnant than you should tell me. Myself and others are doing our part to protect the people." His gaze softened as he stood as well, "You don't have to shoulder that burden alone. There are others you can ask for help."
A malicious chuckle rang from the white-cloaked boy, causing Ozpin to pause at the sound. "I don't keep secrets because of some damned hero complex. I keep them because there are things that will tear this world apart. Forces beyond imagination, that are simply unaware of our existence."
Garnet stepped up to the headmaster, glaring up at him. "Don't for a second assume that you know how to handle my secrets better than me. I know enough about the universe to know when Remnant needs to be brought into the fold. So, trust me when I say that Remnant. Isn't. Ready."
With that, Garnet turned and left the room, Ozpin staring after him in concern. He knew that he had to be patient and work to gain the boy's trust, but the more he talked to the young Rose, the more he began to feel as if he wasn't staring at a child. No, he was positive about this feeling.
He left the firing range, opening his scroll and typing out a message to the one who might know the most about Garnet. When he sent the message, he began to wonder, 'What could cause a child to-' Ozpin's eyes widened slightly,'No.'
{~-~}
"Weiss!"
Ruby looked around Beacon's front courtyard, searching for her partner. Having not seen her since lunch, strangely skipping Dr. Oobleck's history class, the red-themed girl set out to find her. She was concerned for the heiress. Ruby understood that her twin was harsh at times when it came to how people acted, so she knew that he had said something that likely hurt her.
She stopped and looked around once more to see if she could spot her before calling out again. "Weiss!"
'Stupid white buildings making me think I see her,' Ruby thought as she tapped into her semblance to race off to another area to search. As she ran, Ruby thought back on how Weiss and Garnet had interacted. She couldn't understand how her brother and her partner couldn't be friends. Garnet was skilled and good at making weapons too, and Weiss, while standoffish at first, was really kind and smart in everything that Ruby herself wasn't.
'A partnership made in heaven!' Ruby giggled at the thought, not seeing the object in front of her until she ran right into the heiress. After tumbling into a wall, and untangling their limbs from each other, Weiss looked down at her partner with a scowl.
"Ruby!" the white themed heiress shouted at her, "What do you think you are doing!?"
Ruby winced as she rubbed the back of her head, "I, uh, was looking for you. S-sorry about running into you, Weiss."
Weiss let out a sigh as she stood up, straightening out her skirt as she stood. She looked at the red-cloaked girl, trying her best to not get upset at the recent collision, and asked, "Well, why were you looking for me? At Mach speed no less."
"I was worried about you," she said, as she looked everywhere but at her partner, "I know how Garnet can seem, so I figured that he said something that hurt you."
Weiss's eyes widened slightly at her statement, realization setting in on when she was chased down. She looked off to the side, remembering the conversation that she had with Garnet in the cafeteria. The heiress looked back to Ruby. "Can we talk about this somewhere else? It's not something I want everyone to know about."
Ruby nodded quickly to her partner's request. Relief and joy mixing together as the two walked toward a more secluded area together. She looked at Weiss's face and saw the troubled look on her face. As the silence between them stretched on as the two of them walked, Ruby wondered if Weiss was actually going to tell her what happened between her and Garnet. As she was about to ask again, Weiss spoke up.
"Why do you think your brother acts the way he does?"
The red-cloaked girl blinked at her, a confused expression taking up her face. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, why does he act like he knows everything? Why did you seem scared of him when he dragged us across the campus?"
Ruby looked at the heiress in understanding before shifting her gaze to a window that they were passing by. "He can be intense when we train together, and I'm not sure why he acts that way. He just has for as long as I can remember."
"That doesn't answer my question exactly," Weiss said, looking at Ruby who's gaze seemed to be lost. She narrowed her eyes as she focused on a detail the younger girl had said. "And being intense in training is not a good enough excuse for making your own family fear you."
"It's not is it," Ruby said as she shifted her eyes to look at her hands. "I... I think it was his way of trying to discourage me from this way of life."
"Why?" the white-themed heiress said as she walked to stand beside her partner, "Making you stay behind while he continues on is hardly fair."
Ruby smiled as she began to trace a small scar on her hand that she had gotten from training. "No, it's not, is it? I asked my uncle why he would do that once. He told me that it was him wanting to keep me safe. To not have to face the dangers of the world head-on while he does. 'To save me from death' is what my uncle said exactly."
"Oh." Weiss looked down when she heard that. Memories of her family flowing through her mind and comparing themselves to the information she had just gained.
"Yeah, Garnet's never really been one to just say how he feels. He tries to act all detached, but I can see that he really does care about me and Yang. Though I get jealous of how much they talk to each other. It seems like they are hiding things from me."
Weiss turned her gaze to Ruby. A sad, longing expression was spread across her features that made it seem as though she had been left behind on a journey rather than left of on conversations between family. A smile grew on the heiress's lips, an idea formed in her mind.
"Ruby," she said causing the girl in question to turn towards her, "Perhaps, we could work together to find out if they do have a secret. As an exercise in teamwork, of course."
Ruby's expression lit up like the sun itself as she quickly nodded head. "Yes, I'd love to do that, Weiss! Oh! We should have a secret signal to each other so that we know if one of us has figured it out yet or not!"
"No," Weiss deadpanned.
Ruby rubbed the back of her head at her partner's response, and slowly began to giggle to herself. The giggling turned into laughter that Weiss joined in shortly after it began. They stood there for some time, simply laughing with each other, before heading off to their dorm together. As they left, neither noticed Ozpin step out from around the corner, a small smile adorning his face as he watched them leave. He looked out the window Ruby had before turning to leave as well.
"An interesting year, indeed."
{~-~}
Hello, everybody! The first thing that I have to say is that I am terribly sorry for how long this took. I am slightly upset with myself for all the time I put off instead of doing this. I have no excuse for getting as distracted as I did. I did have things in life that caught up with me, but they did not take up all my time. I had plenty of free time and I wasted it. So once again I apologize.
Now, onto the story. A smaller reason for why it took so long was with the bits with Weiss. It's not that she is hard to write, you just have to make sure her thoughts and dialogue is neat and proper. So, having to switch between multiple mindsets (Logical for Ozpin, Jaded for Garnet, and Childish for Ruby), it was difficult for me to write Weiss. All of the non-lore or combat-related stuff as well, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT'S CRINGY! I have trouble writing those types of stories. I have a much easier time with combat than writing emotional stuff.
As for the plans for this story, please be patient. With all the lore that been revealed for Destiny lately, new and changed, it is giving me plenty of ideas for the story, but the Volume 1 part of RWBY is about character development. It wasn't until the end of Volume 1 that the plot began more than just character development. I'm trying to do the same thing with my OCs as well. You will see more Guardian action to come. I'm sure many of you guessed where the flashback sequences are set, so yes you will see Guardians fighting.
Anyway, I've said my peace. Please continue to follow my work and comment your thoughts. If you think there needs to be improvements or have an idea for the story please comment. Until next time, Ja Ne!
