RWBY: Light Extinguished

Chapter 5

oxoxoxo

Caroline Leon stalked through the halls of the fortress she and her soldiers had been sent to. She still had no idea what Cinder saw in this place, but her contact the lioness had met here, he certainly seemd certain there was something to gain here. She and her men had arrived here two days ago after a day of flying to meet a fairly small unit of men, about fifty strong, under the command of a dark haired man with sapphire blue eyes named Derek. The fortress was a small outpost in one of the few clearings on this heavily forested island, and ever since she had arrived, morale had started to go up. It didn't take a genius to figure out why, after all, Derek was not only human, but had an air about him, an aura of darkness that sent an odd shiver up her spine, and that made it hard for people to even be in the same room as him, let alone take orders from him. Then there was how he enforced his rule. The man had hired a mercenary to back him up, a man that no one wanted to challenge seemingly out of sheer fear of him. Caroline, however, was no average soldier.

The lioness marched into Derek's personal chambers, the black haired man in deep conversation with his mercenary, a fellow in a black trenchcoat with a hood over his head, only his mouth visible beneath it, a mouth set in a cruel smile. Hanging from a red leather belt around his waist was a pair of hand axes and a scimitar, a large barrel emerging from the crossbar, and on his back was a light machine gun with a large bayonet attached to the front. Derek himself, meanwhile, was dressed in a fine, black suit and had nary a weapon in sight, but by the look on his face, he may as well have had a weapon trained on her already. "I hate to interrupt what I'm sure is a very important conversation, but we have a problem." Caroline said.

"Ah, Caroline, how are you my dear lady?" Derek asked, Caroline instantly seeing right through the mask of decency he put on.

"You don't get to use my first name until you earn it." The commander spat. "And this is a serious issue. Our men are starting to go missing."

"Correction," the mercenary said, his English accent showing. "Your men are going missing. We could give a Grimm Rat's arse what happens to them."

"Now now, Bartholomew, that's not very nice." Said Derek. "Though, he does have a point, these are your men, so you should know about what's happening to them. Why don't you tell me more miss Leon?"

Caroline spared a growl at Bartholomew before turning back to Derek. "Two patrols of men failed to report back to me this morning. I don't know what's happened to them, but they're MIA."

"And just what do you intend to do about that?" Derek smarmed.

"What do you mean?" Caroline replied. "You're in charge of this base, so these are your men too."

"Perhaps true," Derek responded. "But Cinder put you specifically in charge of the men, so they're your responsibility. Besides, with what's wandering this island, those men are as good as dead, so you may as well forget about them."

From behind her mask, Caroline's eyes narrowed. "What?" she hissed, taking a step towards him.

Bartholomew quickly stepped in to shield his employer. "Now just hold on a second there, girly."

The lioness snarled, looking the mercenary right in the eye before turning back to Derek. "What do you mean? Tell me or I'll force it out of you!"

To their credit, neither Derek, nor Bartholomew looked even the slightest bit worried when confronted by the enraged lioness. In fact, Derek had a wide smirk across his face. "I would tell you, miss Leon, but I do think it would be better for you to see for yourself. Why don't you take a few of the men out for a patrol tonight? I'll even let you choose the men you take, after all, I know you like those two snake girls."

Caroline seemed to calm down slightly after what he said, but her eyes still bored into his from behind her mask. "I'll take a few men out to look for the others this afternoon." Caroline said. "Whether I find them or not, if I see something I don't like out there, then you're going to tell me exactly what I saw, or I'm taking all my men and leaving you here."

"Very well." Derek said, his smile never leaving his face.

The commander gave one final snarl before she turned and began to walk away, her golden mane flowing behind her. Bartholomew, however, decided to give her a different note to leave on. "Oh, and Caroline," The aforementioned lion faunus turned to snap at the mercenary for using her first name, when she noticed that a slight red glow was coming from beneath his hood, and the room seemed to have considerably darkened. When he spoke again, his voice seemed much deeper and more sinister. "You don't frighten me. By the look in your eyes, however, it seems I have quite the effect on you."

Caroline slowly backed out of the room and shut the door behind her. Even with the barrier between them, she could still hear his sinister laughter.

oxoxoxo

Ruby swung her Crescent Rose in a downward slash at Sun, but the monkey faunus dodged and came back with a swing of his staff, smacking Ruby in the side and sending her sprawling. Sun leapt into the air and brought his staff down, but Ruby was gone in a gunshot, leaving rose petals behind. Another shot and the reaper's boots slammed into Sun and knocked him back as Ruby resumed her attack.

Meanwhile, Weiss and Francois watched from the seats of Professor Goodwitch's class. The nobleman turned to the heiress and gave a smirk. "She sure seems to have improved since you first met, has she not?"

"Perhaps." Weiss said, unwilling to admit that Ruby had gotten better. "She's still a child though."

"Are you ever going to get over that?"

"Maybe." Weiss replied icily. Francois noticed, however, that she was completely focused on her partner.

"You know, this would all be easier if you just admitted I was right about the two of you." Francois said.

Weiss looked at him quizzically. "Right about what?"

"Weiss Schnee admitting she was wrong about something?" said a voice. The two looked up to see it came from Julius Gold, the gold dressed swordsman taking a seat next to Francois. "Oh yes, that'll happen."

"Uh, do I know you?" Weiss asked.

"Julius Gold, heir to Gold Industries." Julius said. Weiss drew a blank. "Your father tried to set us up at one point."

"He tries that with a lot of guys." Weiss replied. "You'll have to do better than that."

"I was the only one who knew which end of a sword was the business end." Julius answered.

Francois looked between the two heirs before him, his eyes eventually settling on Weiss. "Just what kind of people did your father try to set you up with?"

"Pretty much anyone with an expensive last name." Weiss said. "And I'm sorry, but I'm still drawing a blank on you."

"If you were introduced to so many possible matches, then I'm not surprised." The Gold heir replied. "Perhaps I can make a better impression while we're here."

"Maybe." Weiss said, turning back to Ruby's fight. "We'll see." In the fight, Ruby had just evaded a flurry of shots from Sun's gun-chucks, the distance she created giving her just enough room to raise and fire her sniper, the round slamming into Sun and sending his aura plummeting, winning Ruby the match. A tiny smile graced Weiss' face as Ruby did her childish little victory dance. A smile that did not go unnoticed by Francois and Julius, the former rolling his eyes with a smile while the later looked between Weiss and the field in confusion.

"And Miss Rose takes this round." Said Goodwitch as Ruby offered Sun a hand to his feet. "That will be the last round for now, but after lunch I want all students to report back to my class, as I have a special announcement to make. Until then, you are all dismissed."

Students milled about the class, trying to find the other members of their teams for lunch, Ruby speeding over to Weiss and getting right in her face. "Weiss, did you see me out there, I did good, right?" she said, one word blurring into the next.

"Uh, yeah, of course Ruby." Weiss said, leaning back slightly.

Ruby and Weiss continued to talk, Ruby listing off her feats in the fight while Weiss confirmed that they were, indeed, awesome, Julius and Francois watching from the sidelines with expressions of confusion and amusement respectively on their faces. Another student, an exchange student from Vacuo, leaned on the wall of the class, an expression of boredom on her face. She was a student easily lost in the crowds, her clothing casual and baggy, perfect for avoiding the eyes of most, a grey t-shirt, a black skirt reaching just above her knees and a pair of black sandals. Her looks were also nothing special, shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes flitting between bored and suspicious looking. She wasn't sure why she was watching these idiots, but since she had been waiting for the rest of her team since the beginning of the day, there wasn't much else she could do. Then again, that might also be her fault, having snuck out of their dorm early in the morning. Speaking of her team members though... "I was wondering when you guys would find me." She said, turning to the boy who was approaching her.

He was fairly tall and dressed in a blue leather jacket with armour plates sewn over his vitals and a pair of black jeans and boots. He stuck out more, as his long blue hair varied in colour, darker on the crown of his head, but getting lighter as his hair grew, his eyes a similar shade of dark blue. Slung over his back was his weapon, a long, blue sniper rifle. "And just where did you go this morning, Diana?" he asked.

The girl, now identified as Diana, shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I just needed some space. Where are the other two stooges, oh fearless leader?"

The blue haired sniper sighed in resignation. "Obsidian decided to go for a late night hunt in the Emerald Forest last night, so he's currently having a talk with Beacon's headmaster, and Noctus left to go visit his sister. He asked me to meet him there during lunch. Figured I might as well bring you along."

Diana shrugged. "Lead the way, Indigo, I have nothing better to do."

Indigo muttered something under his breath. "Is there a reason you're always so bitchy?" he said as he led the way to the airship docks.

"Simple, I respect those I feel deserve it. Thus far, you're a wise ass, Obsidian is a thug with a death wish, and Noctus is the only one of this team I can come close to respecting." Diana explained.

"Well, could you tone it down, or at the very least pretend to like us until the end of the festival? There will be team combat, and we'll need all our team members focused."

"In combat, I'll be there, but outside, don't expect too much." Said Diana. "Now come on, we're going to miss the airship to town."

Indigo shook his head. "I suppose that's the best I'm going to get, isn't it?"

"Probably." Diana confirmed.

The rest of the journey continued in silence, Indigo following the directions Noctus had given them to where they were supposed to meet him. The directions led to a small inn just outside downtown Vale. The sign on the door read "A Rest for the Weary." It was a small building constructed of the same grey brick as most of Vale seemed to be built from, nothing special or out of the ordinary. "This looks like the place." Said Indigo.

"Shouldn't you make sure?" Diana asked.

Indigo gave her a look. "What? Should I just have a look through the walls and make sure we're not walking into a dozen armed robbers in broad daylight?"

"Yeah, something like that. You do have the semblance for that, after all."

Indigo shook his head before focusing on the wall of the inn, small pinpricks of blue light appearing in his eyes. To another he might look crazy, but Diana knew he was using his semblance of phase vision to have a look through the walls. "Okay, it's safe, can we go in now?"Diana didn't even say anything, the skinny girl simply pushing through the doors. Indigo muttered "Why me?" under his breath before following her inside.

The inn's lobby was nothing special, a small room with tan and orange painted walls and a beige tiled floor. Half a dozen small wooden tables were spread across the lobby, and at the back of the room was a bar, a black haired woman with brown eyes standing behind the bar, washing a glass. Diana was leaning on the wall by the door, obviously ready to leave as soon as possible. She gestured with her head to a table on the other side of the room, a table occupied by a pair of faunus. One was a little girl, couldn't have been older than nine years old, short with a head of messy black hair with a pair of wolf ears protruding from the top of her head. Her green eyes sparkled as she stared across the table at her brother.

Her brother was the other faunus at the table, much taller with his black hair cropped short and his wolf ears clearly visible, his green eyes a more dull shade, but still with a certain shine to them as they looked down into the inquisitive orbs of his sister. He was dressed in a black tank top that showed off the impressive build that only hunter training from a young age could offer and a pair of blue jeans and black combat boots, a black battleaxe strapped to his back, a trigger visible along the handle of the weapon.

Diana gestured to the wolves again. "You go break up the family reunion, I'll just wait here."

For once, as he went to go collect his partner Noctus, Indigo agreed with Diana. After all, Noctus was here with his sister, and Diana would just end up scaring her or making her sad. With that in mind and the second most unsociable person he'd ever met left by the door, Indigo approached the table. "I hope you two aren't eating too much here, I mean the two of you eat like wolves."

The older wolf rolled his eyes, the younger one on the other hand leapt out of her chair excitedly and ran up to Indigo, hugging the sniper around his legs. "Indigo! What are you doing here?"

Indigo tousled the young wolf's hair as he replied. "You seem to forget, Nyx, your brother's on my team. Or, did he tell you that? I know he can be secretive sometimes, at some point you should get him to tell you about-"

"Indigo, stop corrupting my sister!" Noctus said, though the smile on his face betrayed the fact that he wasn't really angry. The two partners exchanged a handshake and fist bump before the conversation resumed. "I expect you guys want me back at Beacon?"

Indigo nodded. "They're calling for all the teams to meet up with that Goodwitch woman after lunch."

"Then we should probably head up pretty soon." Noctus said. "She's not exactly forgiving of tardiness."

Indigo smirked at his partner. "She can punish me anytime."

"Dude, she's at least twice your age."

"Your point?"

"Why would you want her to punish you?" Noctus and Indigo looked down to see it was Nyx who had spoken. "Why do you want to be in trouble?"

The whole inn seemed very quiet as the wolf and the sniper realized just what they had said in front of a nine year old girl. Indigo was the first to recover. "Well, you see Nyx, when a boy sees a girl he thinks is really pretty-"

"Indigo, what did I say about corrupting my sister?!" Noctus snapped, hitting his partner upside the head. Nyx laughed at their antics, her brother's friends were so weird, but she still liked them. "Anyway," Noctus continued "I'll go pay our bill for lunch and then we'll head back to Beacon."

The sniper nodded and turned to look at Nyx. "You be good while your brother and I are out, alright? Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"What wouldn't you do?" Nyx asked, somehow both joking and completely serious.

Indigo raised a brow before looking at his partner. "And I'm the one corrupting her?"

Noctus rolled his eyes and took his sister by the hand, leading them to the bar, only one customer was there speaking to the bartender, a boy in a black greatcoat and a matching tricorne hat, a few strands of black hair poking out from beneath it. Once there, the bartender signalled to the boy that she had other customers and approached them with a smile. "Had a nice lunch, mister Lupin?" she asked, her voice slightly rough and spoken in an English accent.

"Yes, thank you miss Ebonwood." Noctus replied, digging for his wallet.

"Please, just call me Mary." The black haired bartender replied. "You and your sister have been some of the best patrons I've ever had."

"Are you sure you can handle her?" Noctus said, looking concernedly at Nyx.

"Are you kidding?" Mary replied, looking down into Nyx's smiling face. "She's been so helpful around the inn, I just have to keep her away from the drunks at night."

"So you can watch her while I'm in class?" Noctus asked.

"Noctus, having had kids of my own, I think I'm more qualified to take care of the tyke than a hunter student with more bullets than time." Mary said.

"She's got a point," said the boy at the bar, his accent sounding shockingly like Mary's. "After all, she somehow managed to raise me pretty well."

Noctus looked at the boy somewhat quizzically. "And you are?"

The boy held out a hand. "Thatch Edwards, her son."

Noctus took Thatch's hand and gave it a firm shake. "You're her son? But your name-"

"I gave Thatch his father's last name, he just looks so much like him." Mary explained. "And he's right, if I could handle him, then little Nyx is nothing."

"What she said." Said Thatch. "Now, if those weapons are anything to go by, I'd guess the two of you are hunter students?" He said, gesturing to Indigo and Noctus.

Indigo nodded. "You're a Beacon student?"

"Did the cutlasses give me away?" The renegade said, patting one of his two swords. "We'd best be going, Goodwitch is not forgiving about being late, and my leader is even less so."

Indigo and Noctus nodded, the wolf planting a quick kiss on his sister's forehead and saying "Be good, don't do anything Indigo would do."

When Nyx confirmed she understood, the three boys got up and started walking towards the door, Diana getting up to join them. "Who's your plus one?" She asked.

"A Beacon student." Indigo replied. "Don't pay too much mind to Diana, she doesn't like people."

"I have a teammate who doesn't like talking to people too much." Said Thatch "She warmed up to me eventually."

"Not like that, Diana just doesn't like people." Said Noctus. "She's perfectly happy to tell you exactly how much she doesn't like you though."

oxoxoxo

It didn't take long for both teams to arrive back at Beacon and make their way back to Goodwitch's class. Thatch had left to find his own team soon upon arrival, and when Indigo and his teammates reached Goodwitch's class, the first person to greet them was a boy with short cropped black hair and heterochromatic eyes, the left being orange and the right silver. He wore a black tank top and a pair of red and black camouflage pants (Indigo had always made fun of him for them, saying he'd only blend in with the background if it were on fire) and a red leather jacket over the top. A pair of swords, one long and the other short, were sheathed at his belt. "And just where were you three?" He asked as Indigo Noctus and Diana arrived.

"Hello to you too, Obsidian." The sniper replied"Diana and I headed into town to collect Noctus." Obsidian was the last member of his team, Team INGO, and he was quite possibly the simplest member, having been trained as a hunter for just one simple reason: to kill Grimm. Unfortunately, that sometimes got him into trouble, as in the case of the previous night, where Obsidian had snuck off to go Grimm hunting and been caught by a professor while leaving campus.

"Have you learned your lesson about midnight hunts?" Noctus asked.

Obsidian shrugged. "Eh, I suppose. The other students in this combat class should do for now. It's not quite the same as hunting real Grimm, but it'll have to do."

"I think that's the best we're getting out of him." Said Indigo. "Come on, we should find a seat before all the good ones are taken."

Meanwhile, Thatch met up with the rest of his team, as well as Ben Aparte, whose role as acting field leader would continue today, as Maria still had one last day before her cast was removed. "And just where were you?" Ben asked, accusingly as the Renegade arrived.

"Relax, fearless leader. I just went to my mum's inn for lunch, met up with one of the exchange student teams while I was out." Thatch explained.

"Did you learn anything about them?" Maria asked.

"Unfortunately no, they weren't too eager to talk about their fighting strategies. I did see that they have one sniper and one axe man." The swordsman said.

"Well, at least we know two things to watch out for." Francois said.

"And just how much do they know about us?" Ben said.

"I didn't say anything, all though they may have caught a glimpse of the ladies." Thatch said, gesturing to his blades.

"But you didn't tell them anything?" Maria asked.

"Not a word."

Ben looked like he was about to say something else, when they were interrupted by professor Goodwitch. "Greetings, students of all kingdoms." She began. "You have traveled a long way to take part in the Vytal Festival, and with the tournament at the end of the year, I'm sure you're all very excited. That said, today, we're going to change things a little in this class. A few miles north of the school is an abandoned settlement, and since that land was granted to Beacon, we've used it for one purpose: practicing team combat. Today, all of you will be introduced to this settlement and some of you will be given the chance to participate in a team battle against a team from another kingdom."

Murmurs of excitement rose among the students. Team combat, and against other schools' teams no less. "The airship is leaving as soon as we're aboard," Goodwitch continued. "It's time to test your team combat skills."

oxoxoxo

Well, there go the last of my exams, so I can get back to writing again, and in the next chapter we get our first team on team combat. Any guesses as to who the first combatants will be?

Anyway, more credit is due in this chapter. Derek and Team INGO (Indigo) both belong to author Madninja324, who, once again, you should check out if you have the chance. I mean, the guy has made SEVEN different RWBY stories (Though don't worry, I'm not going to use all of them, even I'm not crazy enough to try and fit upwards of seven stories worth of characters into one story).

Also, there will be more of Caroline in the next chapter, don't worry about her. Although, considering what's about to happen, maybe you should worry for her.

As always, please leave a review and let me know what you think. After all, this story won't get better without reviews. Also, I only have a few right now, so anything helps...