Chapter 1 - The Beginning Pt. 1
2 Years Before the Arrival of Team RWBY...
A soft sigh escaped from a young lady, around the age of sixteen, her fair complexion and long eyelashes. She crossed her legs as she sat on a rock, with a seemingly simple sword resting against the rock. Her long, straight and blonde hair reached down to her waist and her silver eyes carefully observed the scene in front of her. Her pink lips slowly formed into a smile as she stared at the young man in front of her who just finished fighting a Grimm, a Beowulf. "Rai, is it safe to walk out yet?" the young woman asked as she got off the rock and picked up the Kiriha Zukuri that was resting against the rock, safely sliding it back into its sheath which was located on her right hip.
Raiden, a young man, around the same age as the young woman, sighed deeply as he slid his buster sword back into the clear sheath that was placed on his back. "You could have helped too, Charlotte," he stated as he ran his fingers through his gray hair with a frustrated face. He looked over at the girl name Charlotte, his own silver eyes piercing back at her. His complexion, unlike Charlotte, was pale.
"I took care of the last pack of beowolves last time, so I do believe that it was your turn," Charlotte said as she smiled, wiping away the dirt that got on her skirt from sitting on the rock. "Let's get going, brother." she stated with a soft smile as she began to walk away. Rai let out a sigh, following his older sister in suit.
They walked through the forest, the trees were reaching high - it seemed as if it could touch the sky. The bright and blue sky that the two entered the forest with had turned dark and the sun became the moon. The two kept quiet in the walk, their faces both held a very serious face. The clanking of the swords as it gently hit the respective spots (on the back or on the hip) was the only sound that echoed through the forest.
"It's too quiet…." Rai whispered to himself, Charlotte only nodded back. The two carefully reached for their weapon, cautiously – not drawing their weapons. Their senses were in high alert. A soft growl, began to echo in the forest.
"It's an Ursa… no a pack of them…" Charlotte whispered softly as she drew the blade from its sheath. Following his older sister's action, Rai drew his sword as well, which was attached to a clear sheath on his back. Charlotte slowly got into her stance, she stood tall and held her blade in front of her, both hands holding onto the blade. Rai lowered his back slightly, balancing the weight of the sword between both of his hands, so that the sword was placed more towards his left side.
The growling grew louder and louder as the seconds began to quickly pass by, "Rai, insert the dust crystals into your sword." Charlotte whispered softly, not losing her composure. Listening to his sister's order he pulled a red crystal out from a pouch that resided on his right hip, inserting the sword into the ground as he pressed the small button that opened the hilt of the sword and he quickly pushed the crystal into the opened compartment. The compartment closed itself as soon as the crystal was inserted. The blade of the sword slowly turned red and fire began to emit from the blade. The growling noise began to slowly fade away, and a few moments after, a loud scream rang throughout the forest.
"The village!" Rai cried out as he began to hear groups and groups of screams begin to ring throughout the forest, seeming to come from a village nearby. "Should we—" before Rai could finish his sentence, he watched as his sister disappeared into the forest, heading to the village. "… You child…" Rai stated softly, a small smile forming as he began to run in pursuit of his younger sister, pausing for a moment as he turned his head and spotted a crow flying off the branch. 'A crow...? They're usually near the south side of the forest... why is one in the west?' Rai thought to himself, but then he realized that his older sister was already leagues ahead of him in terms of distance to the village. He quickly ran in pursuit of the other, the thought of the crow resting on his mind.
At the Village...
Charlotte panted softly, although she was young, the distance she had travel from where she previously was in the forest to where she was now, would've taken a normal person at least two hours if they were traveling by car. Charlotte looked at the village, her eyes growing weary at the sight, her fellow villagers had been hurt badly by the Ursa, some even killed. She slowly drew the blade from its sheath and held it firmly. A scream rang once again, this time it was coming from a cabin that was only a few yards away from her. She began to run towards the house, circling around to find the door. Upon finding the door, in one swift motion with her blade the door shattered in half. As she entered the cabin, an Ursa began to crawl towards a terrified girl, around the age of five years old. In the corner of Charlotte's eyes, she spotted the parents of the young girl, laying in a pool of blood. "Fucking Grimm... you think you can do whatever you want in this world?!" Charlotte exclaimed as her gray eyes pierced at the Grimm, the Ursa turning around in response to noticing Charlotte's presence.
"It's not enough to kill off my previous village... and now this one...?" Charlotte glared at the Ursa, holding her blade firmly with her one hand. "I hate Grimm... so much..." she whispered softly. Closing her eyes, Charlotte began injecting her aura into her blade — the Ursa beginning to charge at her. 'Aura transfer complete...'
"Charlotte! Look out!" the young girl exclaimed as she watched with a horrid expression, the Ursa standing up and prepared to hit Charlotte as it raised its arm. The young girl closed her eyes quickly, trying to avoid seeing the scne, but then heard a loud clash.
The young girl eyes grew wide at the sight, Charlotte blocked the Ursa's attack with her sword. The sword was glowing and beaming with radiance, Charlotte eyes seemingly calm. "You're pathetic..." Charlotte whispered softly as she moved her hand that was free, her left hand, in front of the Ursa. "Telekinesis." Charlotte stated as she moved her hand to the right and the Ursa unwillingly moved to the right - breaking through the wall in the cabin. Charlotte watched as the Ursa tried to move and escape her semblance. She watched as the young girl ran to the parents who rested on the ground. "I'm sorry, that I was too late." Charlotte whispered softly as she gave the girl a faint smile, and proceeded to walk outside of the cabin. "I'll make this quick," Charlotte stated as she moved her left hand down, releasing the Ursa and enabling it to move freely once again. Charlotte walked towards the Ursa, which was beginning to charge at her once more. With one swift strike, the Ursa collapsed to the ground and faded away. Charlotte held her blade firmly, with only one Ursa gone, it was guaranteed that the rest of the pack will be alarmed, surround her, and attack her. Charlotte laughed bitterly, knowing that even she couldn't handle the rest of the pack of Ursas, not to mention the Ursa Major that will also inevitably show up. 'I guess this is the end of the road for me...' Charlotte thought to herself as she held her sword up once again firmly. One by one, Ursas began circling around her.
As they began to stare down at her, in the corner of her eye she saw the little girl - shaking her parents, trying to wake them up. "That little girl, reminds me of myself," Charlotte stated as she smiled faintly, "Okay, come at me Grimm. I'll kill as much of you as I can."
The Grimm, without hesitation charged at her, one by one. Charlotte raised her left hand up, picking up one Grimm and throwing it so it would hit other Grimms in the circle. She charged at the Grimm that was still standing, swinging her blade. After each stroke, the sword radiance slowly began to fade. 'The aura is fading...' Charlotte thought to herself, before raising her blade one more time and delivering the final blow to the Grimm in front of her.
Charlotte turned around to fight the other Ursas that were finally getting back up and charging at her once again. Lifting up her left hand once again, she pulled an Ursa towards her (using her telekinesis), charging back at it as she sliced it in half. 'One... two... three... four... Four Ursas left...' Charlotte shook her head slowly, knowing that all the other villagers were either too frightened to come out of their safe rooms or were all dead. She was the only one willing to defend the rest of the village.
Charlotte laughed bitterly, "So, this is how I'll die? That's fine by me," Charlotte stated as she charged at the remaining Ursas. She pressed a button on the side of her sword, letting it split in half and creating two separate Kiriha Zukuri. She charged through the crowd, swinging at the limbs of the Ursa as she carefully crouched down to avoid any attempted blows from the enemy. Once she exited the crowd, once more she lifted her left hand - this time aiming her semblance at the semi-wounded pack and pulled them closer to her; allowing her to repeat the process and swinging the two blades at the other leg. This got rid of the speed of the Ursas, preventing them to charge at her.
After finishing this process, Charlotte threw the sword in her left hand at the front right Ursa, hitting it directly in the chest. She began to charge once again, throwing the other sword into the closest Ursa to her, and using her semblance once again to pull the swords out of the Ursas chest and back into her hands. Finally, she pierced the chest of the last two remaining Ursas before pulling the sword out and combining the swords back into the original. The Ursas collapsed on the ground, soon fading away.
Charlotte panted softly, all of her energy was gone. She was mentally tired from using her semblance for a prolonged period of time and physically tired from running to the village and fighting five Ursas without rest. Growl... Charlotte heard the soft growling of something bigger, the Ursa Major. She slowly looked up, and low and behold, the Ursa Major was standing right in front of her. She held her blade once again, but not as firm as she did before. Panting softly, Charlotte tried to raise her blade. She held the blade with both of her hands, attempting to make the sword steady, but the Ursa Major swung at her. The force of the hit from the Ursa Major was so powerful that it threw her a few hundred feet, resulting in Charlotte hitting a tree. Charlotte attempted to stand up, but her body had given out. From the impact of the tree, it was so rough that she coughed out blood. Her eyes slowly began to close, hey eyelids were heavy and she began to laugh bitterly. "That stupid little brother... how is he going to live without me...?" she whispered softly.
"CHARLOTTE!"
"I'm hearing things now... why is life so cruel?" Charlotte questioned as she tried to keep her eyes open. The faint image of her brother exiting the forest was the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes.
Rai finally arrived at the village. He scanned the area and in the corner of his eyes he spotted his sister resting against a tree, severely injured and an Ursa Major charging at her. "CHARLOTTE!" Rai yelled as he began to charge towards the Ursa Major. Holding the large buster sword, which was still red and fire being emitted from it. He swung his sword at the Ursa's back. A crescent wave of fire, hitting it and capturing it's attention, he quickly waved his hand in front of the Ursa then avoided a blow from it. He ran towards to his sister, picking her up. "As I thought, you put all your aura in your sword." Rai looked over at the Ursa Major which was continuously swinging at nothing. 'Good... it seems like my semblance, the power to create illusions... is working.' Rai thought to himself as he closed his eyes, carefully transferring some of his aura to his sister to help her recover her own.
He slowly got up, glaring at the Ursa as he walked slowly towards it. "You hurt my sister, I'll make sure I torture you, understand?" Rai stated, a slow smirk forming on his face. He swung his blade once, a crescent wave of fire emitting from the blade, hitting the Ursa in the back.
It was then that the Ursa Major snapped out of its hallucination. It spotted Rai and began charging at him. Rai stood still, waiting for the Ursa to attempt to hit him. He swung his blade another ten times, each time a crescent wave hitting the Ursa repeatedly and dazing it. Rai reached for an ice crystal in his pouch and opened the compartment in the sword once again - inserting the crystal. The sword then changed from red to blue, he swung his sword once more, this time at the feet of the Ursa, freezing it's feet in place. Rai walked over to it slowly, hitting the Ursa Major with his sword repeatedly, each part that was hit created a deep cut into the Grimm. The residue from the small ice shards in the cuts erupted into huge shards. The Ursa Major became impaled by the large ice shards. It attempted to let out a loud roar, but Rai's eyes darken, slicing the Ursa Major in half. "Boring..." he whispered softly as he slid the blade back into the sheath on his back. The Ursa Major slowly fading away.
Rai looked up, watching as Atlas ships began to arrive. "It seems that Atlas has responded to the distress signal that one of the villagers sent..." Charlotte spoke softly as she walked over to Rai, leaning against him to support herself.
"Sorry I'm late sis," Rai stated as he helped support his sister by grabbing her arm and wrapping it around his neck, his other arm around her waist as he supported her. Rai walked to the airship as it landed, his sister following him as she followed in suit. The villagers slowly came out of their homes, running out towards the ships. Soldiers and nurses came out, treating the wounded adults and novice huntsmen that tried to fight off the pack of Ursas. "It seemed like there were at least eight Ursas, including the Ursa Major." Rai stated.
"Yeah, at least the huntsmen and adults did something..." Charlotte stated as she motioned Rai to set her down on a log bench.
"It's fine, but why is an Atlas ship here? When we're just outside the town borders of Vale?"
"It's because we received the distress signal as we were flying to Vale for official business." a man stated. He was tall in stature, he looked like more of a general then anything. His hair was gray and black, the sides of his hair was gray and the top of his hair was black. "I saw the two of you fighting the Ursas on your own, it was a very intriguing match. I've never seen people your age fight Ursas like that. How old are the both of you?"
"Sixteen, my sister and I are twins," Rai responded as he looked over at the man.
"Interesting, my name is Ironwood, I'm the head of Atlas Academy and I would like to formally invite you to-"
"I'm sorry, but my brother and I, we're not interested in Atlas Academy. Our sites are at Beacon Academy."
"We haven't met the prerequisites but we're trying to apply for it next semester."
"I see, it would be a shame not to have you at Atlas Academy. You're village is in very poor shape, how do you intend to live here? Where are your parents?"
"Our parents have passed away," Charlotte stated as she looked over at the man named Ironwood. "They were killed by Grimm on a mission, given by Atlas."
"I see, that's unfortunate. My troops will tend to your village and protect them in case Grimm come for a while. If you two want too, you can come with me. I'll take you to meet the Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I can recommend you two to him." Ironwood stated as he gestured the two to the airship.
"I humbly-"
"We'll take the offer," Rai replied, cutting his sister off from her sentence.
"Rai! You can't do that!"
"Yes I can, you've been severely injured. We both need as much training as possible if we want to protect everyone. If we don't get the proper training, how do you expect us to become huntsmen? Even if we reapply to Beacon Academy, we won't get accepted. We haven't met the prerequisites," Rai stated as he glared over at his sister.
"Well then, if it's settled. Please board the airship, we will get going to Beacon. I'll have my medics treat you," Ironwood said as he glanced at Charlotte's wound.
Rai helped his sister up and once again supported her as they made their way to board the airship. He looked over at his sister, letting out a soft sigh. He sat down on a bench on the airship with his sister, looking over to her as he felt her aura slowly grow back.