Well, first, I'd like to point that I have not abandoned Gate of false liberty, neither Above this killing ocean.
As for the other stories? It's complicated.
Sometimes I get blocked when writing, it's frustrating when you can't find a route for what you are writing. That is why I tried to find a way to vent some ideas and also helping myself to find that inspiration while writing other stories.
Would you believe me if I tell you I finished this in just a week? Sure, I took a few days to translate it. But I think this is the fastest I've written near 10K words. However, it was not spontaneous, I had already been imagining a scenario like this, RWBY gets into 40k. Now, while it's been made quite a lot, I think very few crossovers really take the reality of the Grimm dark of 41th millennia. Very few stories really feel like they are in 40k, like that masterpiece: Remnants of Remnant. I almost cried when reading it.
I have some kind of hate/love sentiment for RWBY, it could have been great, but now… it's a disaster. That is why I'm not following some details of the canon.
That is why I'm going to take a Grimmdark route here. Also I want to practice about scary stories.
Well, enough of this monologue, I will see you at the end of this.
Warhammer 40k and RWBY belong to their respective owners.
[X]
The forests are always full of dangers. Either by some beast or poisonous animal, or the veil of the night stealing the favor of the eyes. Fear of some bandit or some hole where you might fall. After all, darkness encompasses the absolute fear of man. The fear of not knowing what lies within the blackness is what drove men to use light to illuminate their way. That way they could find some way to swallow the fear and endure it, if only a little longer.
It was moonless nights like this what made travelers through the woods hesitate, unless of course necessity pressed. The whispering forest that hid dangers mankind had learned to fear.
Grimm.
Whether condensed darkness, or demons out of the underworld. The Grimm had haunted mankind since long forgotten times. Predators without reason, driven only by hatred for mankind, and a hunger for man's own fears, for pain was their food, and rage their mana.
And so, refusing to accept their fate, devoured for no reason. Humans had still managed to overcome the despair of the Grimm. They were not many, barely a tenth of the population. People driven either by honor, spite or naivety had defied the hostile nature and pointed their weapons against the darkness.
Hunters, they called them. Men and women drawn by adventure and revenge. At other times by duty and will. It had been they, blessed in their own souls, who gave battle to the darkness.
And it was those same hunters, even if they were not yet mature. who now challenged the darkness.
"Why do we have to do this?" Growled Cardin Winchester, member of the CRDL team. Anger was a regular thing with him, ever present, but at the same time keeping its shackles on him. The reason for his displeasure, it wasn't walking in the woods, he wasn't a coward, always looking to prove himself he accepted the tasks his masters assigned to him. It was not the first time he had walked on a moonless night in the Vale woods.
No, the reason he hated this task was none other than having to share it. His hunger for competition was healthy, but as long as he was sure he could win, or at least be on equal terms.
Even worse was having to tolerate the presence of an animal.
Team CVFY had also been assigned to this mission. To investigate a small town that had stopped communicating a week ago. And their despicable member, a Faunus of course, had also arrived with them. Part of Cardin wished the darkness would swallow the scum, or leave these Faunus lovers here trapped and lost in the woods.
He shook his head and cleared his mind, grudge was not good in a mission. The Grimm could strike at any moment.
"Dove, how much longer?" He asked his most trusted companion. Dove Bronzewing, the most serious in the team and the one he could task with watching his back.
Dove looked at the Scroll in his hand, and after a few seconds, he spoke. "About fifteen minutes until we reach the town of Ashen."
"We haven't run into any Grimm. It looks like we've had some luck." Russel Thrush affirmed, twirling the daggers in his hands, Cardin didn't know if it was in anticipation or from the suspense of waiting for the beasts' attack. Perhaps it was a bit of both.
"Or maybe they're lurking, waiting for the moment to strike." Sky Lark added, his hand kept moving, as if like Russell he wanted to grip his weapon, perhaps to feel safer.
"Enough talk. And you guys better watch your rear if you don't want us all to end up dead."
"You don't have to tell us, you idiot." Coco Adel, the leader of that team, spat at him. Cardin had to admit that she had done a good job keeping that animal at bay, perhaps to avoid confrontation and not risk the mission. But now that scum, Velvet, was on the far side of her team.
He had to admit that Russell might have a point. In two hours of travel, after getting off the Bullhead, they had only encountered one Beringel. Cardin crushed it, scoring first blood for himself. But there was nothing else, it was as if the creatures of the Grimm had vanished from the face of Remnant.
"We're arriving." His musings were interrupted by Dove, who put away the Scroll.
The pungent smell of smoke and ash filled his nostrils. A fire, but the smell gave him more information. Burning plastic, the ashes of used Dust, but also the smell of burning flesh.
Something was wrong, and he could already conclude that the fate of the Ashen people had not been a pleasant one.
"B-Boss!" Sky Lark had shouted, a cry of terror and unease. Sky wasn't the bravest of the group, but it would take something really serious to make him scream like that.
Cardin turned, Executor in hand. The lamp he had been carrying illuminated the spot to where Sky lay, there he was, sprawled on the ground trembling barely holding back the desire to throw back his entrails. What could make such an impression on a Hunter in training? He moved his hand holding the lamp, a victim of morbid curiosity.
And when he illuminated the source of the terror, he almost dropped the lamp.
"What the hell..." Was all he could say, his throat had tied up his tongue unable to utter another word at all. There was no way to express himself at this moment for what was before him.
There, on the side of the road, lay a corpse. It was not the first time Cardin had seen one, but it was the state of the corpse that had partially paralyzed him with terror.
It was the corpse of a woman, a Faunus with the features of a hare, completely naked. She had been impaled, her body left standing held upright by an iron rod that ran through her mouth and the crimson of her blood still escaping from between her legs. Her legs had been eaten to the bone, but the bites were not those of a Grimm, nor of any predator. Cardin contemplated with disgust how those bites seemed to have been human, and also at the strange mark that had been engraved in the flesh of her belly. A sort of wheel with eight spikes of varying sizes.
"Oh, gods!" Coco Adel cried next, the reason was synonymous. There on the other side they came upon the same scene, but this time that of a man impaled upside down. The same torture marks, as well as the same eight-pointed wheel etched into his skin.
"Now we know what happened to this village." Yatsuhashi moved his hand as he prayed for the repose of these people.
"But this... This is not the Grimm's doing." Velvet finally spoke, but Cardin conceded that reasoning. This was not the work of the Grimm, they didn't do this kind of scene. They simply killed and devoured. That could only leave some group of sick maniacs as the culprits in this.
"What do we do now, boss?" Dove asked, his hands kept holding his Scroll, but a dry tremor ran through his hand almost betraying his task.
"We should go back!" Sky Lark suggested in clear terror, his brain screaming at him to get out of there, to escape as far away as he could.
"We can't leave them here!" Claimed Fox, the last CVFY member.
"Fox is right, we must give their bodies dignified treatment. Then go investigate."
"Are you crazy!?" Indignation forced Sky to demand the CVFY leader. "Look! Whatever did this when we're so close to the village screams that everyone there is dead!"
"There might be survivors." Yatsuhashi voiced, ever the big-hearted giant that he is. "We can't just abandon them."
"Boss, say something!" Sky only had left to turn to his leader, given the opposition to anything Coco Adel and his group did, to think Cardin would have a different idea.
"Going back would be the safest thing to do." Cardin said, supporting his subordinate's idea. "I doubt those White Fang savages would do things like this, much less to a Faunus village."
"Running from Grimm again, Winchester?"
Those words struck deep into his ego, he couldn't forget that humiliation in front of that weakling. The shame of losing to a bastard who had forged his papers to get into Beacon, he had worked for years to enter the Academy! The worst, cowarding in front of an Ursa, he had faced Ursas since Signal. Why would he have run from an Ursa? Had it been from surprise or perhaps the only response his brain had given him to react? Had some invisible force obliged him like a bad writer? He didn't know, yet, after that he had returned to the woods to hunt as many Ursas as he could, hoping to decimate them until his hatred was satiated.
"Watch your words, Adel." He demanded indignantly. "We're not dealing with Grimm here. Whatever did this, it could be over there. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather keep my organs intact. CRNL, with me. We're going back to camp."
His team followed. Dove pushed Fox away with a shove as they passed on their way back. "The village is just ahead since you're so eager to die." He said with disdain. Yasuhashi raised his hand to try to grab him, but Adel stopped him by pointing out that it wasn't worth it.
"You're a coward, Winchester!" Was all she said before she turned around and they walked towards the village.
Cardin didn't look back, he swallowed his pride. Because something told him that, if they went to that village, they would be dead.
[X]
When they reached the village, all they found was desolation and death.
Coco Adel had witnessed numerous acts of cruelty, whether it was from different elements, such as racism to the Faunus or the rejection of social movements such as the White Fang that had sparked into a war against radicalism born of discord and hatred. Acts of murder and torture were things that in her work as a hunter were not uncommon.
But this.
This was simply the purest cruelty.
Not only had the bodies been dismembered and brutalized. The corpses had been desecrated in the most heinous ways. In the center of the village, a pillar made from the mutilated dead had been erected. Not even the youngest had been spared, a mother, whose legs had been cut off, lay cold, her hands only inches from a bloody lump encircled in cloth. Velvet could not help but try to seek shelter near Yatsuhashi, sinking her tear-stained face into her companion's chest. Illuminated by the streetlights, the bodies of villagers hung in dozens of places swaying in the wind, each and every one had fierce lacerations that gave evidence of horrible tortures before being executed. But among the most disturbing was a mass of bodies surrounded by human skins that had been weaved together.
"This... This is... This is... This is..." there was no word that could describe what Coco Adel was feeling right now.
Winchester was right, this was not something the Grimm would do. Much less the White Fang. For they would never attack their own people. Her mind tried to suggest bandits, but bandits don't leave goods or supplies in places they attack. And confirmation to that gave a warehouse full of intact Dust crates.
"We must go back. There's nothing left here..." Yatsuhashi was still holding her companion who was still sobbing in his lap.
Coco mourned for the dead, and cursed Winchester for being right. They had been sent for an emergency, this village was two kilometers from the city of Vale, and was one of the closest to the walls that protected the city. These villages functioned as reference points for the future expansion of an ever-growing city. In a matter of a year more buildings would be constructed and a new district would be born. But what was truly worrying now for Coco, however, was how close this slaughter had been given that the farthest village was over eighty kilometers away.
"You're right." Finally, she agreed. "We'll be back tomorrow. We need to warn Ozpin about this. Fox, send a message to CRNL and tell them to wait for us."
However, Fox's reply never came, he didn't talk much, but would make note when he nodded to some order. Fox had been only a few feet away from her, but now, there was no one left there.
"Fox." She called back. "Where did you go? Damn, this isn't funny!"
Coco pulled out her Scroll and activated the tracker to find her partner's other Scroll. She was extremely astonished and at the same time distressed when she realized that Fox's Scroll was two streets ahead.
"Let's go get him." Coco ordered, she brought her hand to her waist, to the box attached to the back of her hips. She activated the mechanism and let it take shape, within seconds a Gatling gun was in her hands, she hammered the weapon and heavy .50 rounds slid down the belt to feed the eight barrels.
Yatsuhashi wielded his huge sword, despite being as big as an adult he could wield it with one hand. They walked through the bloodied streets, Velvet behind, her weapon awaiting command to activate. she thought about using Coco's to give extra fire, or perhaps Yang's gauntlets in case the enemy got too close.
Fox's Scroll was already close, only a few meters away. Coco tightened her grip on her weapon, her palms were sweating, she prayed it was just another one of Fox's pranks. Indeed, why would Fox dare to start playing in a place like this?
Where they expected to find from their friend, something very different stood.
The first thing they noticed was his size, large, taller than Yatsuhashi himself. The second thing was its color, a deep dark blue of what they could figure as armor that surrounded its entire body. They watched in horror as its armor was covered in dark and terrible sigils, a skull with bat wings adorned the back, and bloody human skins engraved with runes and hellish details covered the shoulder pads. Bones made details on its armor, as well as unknown symbols that forced them to look away.
That thing... that monster, was the one holding Fox's Scroll.
And in its other hand, covered in blood, was a sword, a sword that in its hands was just a dagger. This one dripped a fresh crimson, and Coco thought the worst.
"You!" She exclaimed with apprehension, her voice in a low menacing tone. "Identify yourself... Who are you and why do you have Fox's Scroll?" Gianduja was ready, ten meters away from him, she only had to press the trigger and she would fill this being with lead.
The man in armor barely paid attention to her, he watched the Scroll, as if trying to understand how it worked.
"I asked you a question!" Coco blurted out again, as if insulted at being ignored.
The armored man then brought his attention to her. The glowing green eyes of his helmet seemed to bore into her like daggers. He looked at her like a hunter assesses his prey. All this only caused Coco to raise her Gatling more.
"Identify yourself! Now!"
He moved to the side, his heavy footsteps could be felt all the way to where she stood.
It was then that she realized what had been behind that monster, hidden behind its massive size.
There was Fox's flayed body. There, his skin ripped off and flesh bared. His face depicted a grimace of pain, an excruciating agony that had only been silenced when a blade had slit his throat leaving him to slowly choke on his own blood.
A laugh, evil mockery escaped from that monster's helmet.
And it was at that moment that anger fully invaded Coco.
A barrage of projectiles showered the area, with fury she pressed the trigger, with rage she released each shot. The .50 rounds filled the place, buildings shuddered in the storm, walls were ripped and crumbled.
But the monster was not dead.
The .50 projectiles simply bounced off or were deflected by the thick armor. This was impossible, for Coco knew that her enormous firepower could tear a horde of Grimm to shreds, even a hunter's aura would be broken by such an enormous amount of bullets fired in a short period of time.
No, the monster had not only withstood the punishment, he had moved.
In a single heartbeat, the giant had appeared in front of her. How was this possible? How had something so large and heavy crossed ten meters in an instant?
The blade in his hand flipped downward, and with the flick of a whip, it shot toward her chest.
Coco couldn't block that attack. Too busy she had been carrying Gianduja with both hands. Too slow to move in such a short period of time.
But that didn't mean she was dead.
Aura, that which would prove if a person had attained the ability to become a hunter, a fighter capable of surviving situations that others simply could not.
The monomolecular edged blade struck her aura, and the resistance was immediately noticeable. Instead of being stabbed, she was pushed back. She had not been unharmed, but felt a rib crack, an attempt to palliate the lethal damage. Her aura began to work at once, slowly bones began to repair, yet the process would not be quick.
Yatsuhashi was the next to move, like a battering ram he lunged at the vicious being. His sword, Fulcrum, clutched in his hands. He raised the blade above his head and dropped it with a powerful blow that shattered the pavement.
Surprised, Yatsuhashi looked incredulously at the shattered ground as he realized that the monster had dodged his attack and moved away driven by the same shock. He looked for his enemy, but what he found was a staccato of fire striking his aura. At first he thought it was just bullets, but as it impacted he realized it was not. Each projectile felt as if it was trying to pass through her aura, and when it couldn't, they exploded in violence with the equivalent power of a grenade.
Coco returned fire, but only succeeded in causing the opponent to hide and reappear elsewhere. Again a barrage of mass-reactive projectiles showered Yatsuhashi, and again his aura took over to protect him. But he felt that, with each round, his aura was breaking more and more.
Yatsuhashi knew he shouldn't stay there. He felt his Aura on the verge of breaking. He was sure that another barrage could end up killing him.
Velvet had been on the lookout, her body and mind on full alert, holding her weapon behind her. She was impatient, and filled with anger. Her friend's death had filled her with the need for revenge. But Coco had warned her not to use Anesidora, not yet.
"Coco..." she called, her emotions slowly leading her to despair as she felt helpless.
Her leader did not dare to answer; she could not divert her attention. For she felt that, if she did, that monster would come out of the shadows to attack them.
"Wait a little longer!" It was Yatsuhashi who answered, the ever gentle giant could not ignore his companion's pleas for moral help. "We'll get through this... I promise."
It was then that the armored being attacked.
It had moved like a shadow, as if it had listened to its target and taken advantage of the slightest deviation in focus to strike. The blade in its hand was black, blacker than night itself. It was as if it stole the very light that surrounded it in a crackling aura.
To Yatsuhashi, someone who could even react to the attack of well-trained Hunters, watching that monster move was not like trying to track a bullet. It was like a blurred shadow in the environment, like the fog of the swamps. That horrible being moved as if a supernatural force was pushing it to do so.
But, even so, it was enough to be able to intercept it with Fulcrum. And so he did, he swung his sword straight at his enemy's sternum, he would kill it, for there was no other option for something like that to exist.
But Fulcrum connected with something.
And the blade of his sword was cut by the mono molecular edge of the knife wrapped in a disruption field. There was hardly any resistance, the metal cut at the subatomic level left all durability aside.
Yatsuhashi barely felt the next blow that came a fraction of a second later.
Suddenly he was spinning around, the world rolling around him, and feeling lighter.
His brain was slow to register the sharp pain in his neck.
By the time he realized what had happened, before his eyes he saw his body falling like a puppet of severed strings.
And the last gasps of his neurons had time to register the cries of pain and bitterness from very familiar voices.
"DAMN YOU!" It was Velvet who lunged at the monster. The dust of hard light illuminated her hands as a huge hammer was created. However, it was erratic, her anger and hatred had taken possession of her. And it only increased when she saw her target move slightly backwards to let the mass that was going towards his helm, pass.
It had been a grave mistake, with one hand like steel he gripped the handle of the hammer, and it was with the other fist that he pressed the trigger to unleash a rain of hypersonic mass reactive projectiles, emptying the entire remaining magazine, eleven bolter rounds straight to his belly.
A huntsman's aura is his greatest weapon, and his greatest defense. For with it alone he might be able to take on the Grimm beasts that stalk humanity. Resilient and capable of bestowing the abilities that only a hunter could demonstrate.
But neither was it invulnerable.
There was a reason an experienced huntsman would try to avoid taking as many hits as necessary.
The Aura was their greatest strength, but with enough damage, it could fall.
Especially when facing off against mass reactive, hypersonic high-explosive, Adamantium-tipped bolter rounds fired at point-blank range.
The first ten projectiles had smashed into her Aura, containing its power and damage.
But it had been the last one that had split what was left of her Aura. Adamantium's tip had been the last to deliver the coup de grace on the Aura field.
But it had been the high explosive that had hit Velvet in the belly. A belly that was no longer protected by any Aura. The belly of an ordinary human being.
"Velvet!" It had been Coco who had screamed in horror.
For her friend's belly was gone. Now there was only mangled flesh.
Coco changed the barrel of her gun with the fastest speed she had ever achieved in her life. Red Dust rounds hammered in the chamber as she took aim at the wretch who had earned all her fury.
Maybe it was instinct, maybe a premonition. But when he saw her reloading, he went back to melting into the shadows.
First Yatsuhashi, now her dearest friend Velvet.
Coco unleashed destruction. Thanks to her Semblance, the red Dust had been boosted to its full potential. The .50 shells seemed to have transformed into 50mm rounds as they destroyed everything in front of her.
At some other time she would have maintained fire discipline when firing such an amount of power. But at this moment, all idea of self-control was out of her mind. The simple desire to destroy everything was what she had replaced it with. The need to reduce all the buildings in front of her to nothing but dust.
And it was her biggest mistake to stick to her impulse without thinking about it that forced her to squander it all in a desire for retribution.
And that was what sealed her fate.
The energy dagger penetrated her Aura as if it did not exist. Sinking into her chest and piercing her heart. Gianduja fell to the ground.
She didn't die instantly, no, her adrenaline-boosted body allowed her to stay conscious a little longer.
But her body could no longer respond.
The giant leaned his body back, allowing her to see, as if he wanted to, the other arm that had been shattered and rendered useless. An expense in exchange for surviving such destruction.
But that meant that the desire to finish her off had become ever present.
"Useless..."
The monster had spoken, and that was what terrified Coco more than anything.
"Such futile has been your effort. Pathetic... your resistance has been insufficient, just as this world will be. Chaos has come, and in the name of Konrad and Chaos, your souls will be harvested."
The Night Master of the Eighth Legion watched as death gradually embraced this woman. He delighted in seeing her face full of lamentation and regret. As well as defeat and the knowledge that her loved ones would be next.
A few seconds later she was inert, dead, impaled with his sword. He threw the corpse away like a useless lump and let his blade revel in the blood of a virgin.
He turned to locate the remaining one, he knew she must still be alive. But where she should have fallen there was nothing. She had escaped.
Heavy footsteps that purposely let themselves be heard told him of the presence of one of the members of the warband under his command.
"The abhuman has escaped, Kellenor..." he said as if waiting for his leader's decision.
"Let her run. If she survives then she can deliver our message."
"That we have come for them."
"Ave Dominus Nox."
[X]
Grief washed over her, and sorrow enveloped her. She had lost her entire team, she being the sole survivor. A bile grew in her throat as she realized she was thankful she had survived, her fear of death getting in the way of her sense of guilt. Something that disgusted her and filled her with shame.
She ran, ran with all her might, her Aura was reknitting her wounds, bit by bit. But that had given her enough to escape.
It had been minutes since she had passed that bizarre and horrifying mark, the line that had marked the village of death.
She ran as far as her legs would carry her, exhaustion was close to her, but she knew that, if she stopped, He would most likely catch up with her.
It wasn't until she saw a light in the distance, a light that was fast approaching. All her concentration was focused on reaching that light, believing it to be where she would be safe.
[-]
Carmin Winchester wondered to himself how he had agreed to go back.
Logic told him that they should return to Beacon, report to a professional hunter and leave this mission to him or her. He had every right to do so, no teacher, not even Glynda Goodwitch herself could demand him, even if they had abandoned CVFY, they had the benefit of team independence, CVFY had decided to enter the village ignoring his warnings.
After all, the corpses at the entrance to the village had made it clear that they were not to enter.
But, even so, he had to admit that he could never shake the thought that CVFY would have died. Maybe he should have accompanied them, maybe he should have been more insistent. It was those thoughts that were compelling him to return to the village.
But the figure of Velvet running in terror, with a huge wound in her belly, told him he hated that he had been right. It was until she was in front of him that she collapsed, her body beaten down by exhaustion causing her to fall face first to the ground.
"Damn it... Dove!"
His friend and companion reacted instantly. He quickly approached Velvet to inspect her wounds. "Her belly is a mess." He stated. "Trauma caused by explosive. Her Aura is working overtime, but if we don't get her to a hospital fast she's going to die."
"Sky, any sign of the others from CVFY?"
"Nothing so far, Chief. According to the signals from their Scrolls they're still in the village."
"Then we can only give them up for dead." Carmin confirmed to himself. "There's nothing we can do here anymore. Can this hare talk?"
"I just gave her a sedative, let's hope it works." It was Dove who answered as he discarded an used vial.
"Ok, we're getting the hell out of this damn place. Dove, call the Bullhead, and you two, carry her. And stay sharp, something could have followed her here."
Sky and Russell did as they were instructed. They both carried her by anchoring her arms to their shoulders and both holding her by her legs. The sound of the Bullhead's familiar engines could be heard in the distance, as well as the lights descending on them illuminating them. Carmin signaled, and the Bullhead lowered and opened its cargo hatches, everyone got in quickly, Carmin was the last.
"Let's get out of here Lam." Carmin said to the pilot.
"There were no more with you?" She questioned him.
"There were, not anymore. MIA in the village."
"Do you want me to take a walk over there?"
"No. If something there managed to take out a team of apprentice hunters then we better not stick our noses in and tempt death, let's get the hell out of here."
The pilot heeded him and raised the Bullhead, the engines picking up power as they accelerated them back to Vale, and Beacon.
Carmin could only wonder what they had found there. Despite his experiences with his fellow students, he knew CVFY, and there was no way a single one of them would abandon their team, unless of course everyone else was dead. The terror in Velvet's eyes told him that she had witnessed something that simply should not exist.
Velvet's hysterical screams only reaffirmed his theory. She had awakened, and the first thing she had done was fill the Bullhead with her screams. She writhed around trying to escape Russell and Sky's grip. Such was her hustle and bustle that Cardin himself had to intervene to keep her wound from opening further.
"Coco! Yatsu! Fox!" She shouted the names of those who were once her friends. She wailed, demanded them back, to rescue them. "He killed them! That man! That monster!" She couldn't make out what she was really saying, it seemed as if she had lost her sanity. "His armor... he was covered in human skin and bones... and now... he'll do the same to Coco and the others... he'll do to them... Aaaahhhh!" She tried again to escape, to try to get back to that place, for she knew the fate that awaited her precious friends.
"Hold still, dammit!" Cardin slapped her across the face, that finally made her keep quiet. When she regained her senses, the pain in her cheek made her realize where she was.
"Cardin..." she said, her hand resting on her face, as if the burning in her cheek was her only anchor holding her from finally descending into madness.
"You finally react. I don't want to ask what happened down there, from your expression it's pretty obvious. So here's what we're going to do, we're going to go back to Beacon, you're going to get your stomach patched up and we're going to go with Ozpin and report everything we find, got it?"
She was silent for a few seconds, until she finally nodded and lay back down. The adrenaline was starting to leave her, and pain was returning. Dove administered another sedative.
She let the sedative work until it made her sleep, she didn't want to remember any more, she didn't want to know any more of what had happened tonight.
But the nightmares would haunt her for the rest of her life.
[X]
Many places in Remnant are unknown to mankind. Lethal megafauna had made it impossible to achieve exploration and occupation of human groups on the planet. Once kingdoms swallowed by nature were here and there, almost all forever lost and forgotten.
The Grimlands was one of the places least known to mankind. No one would ever dare to set foot there. Lethal beasts and Grim species of the most dangerous kind roamed this place. The brave few who made it to the edges could only stay alive for a few moments before they were devoured by monsters never before documented.
But it was here that Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, was planning the end of humanity. Her hordes of darkness advancing across the world by her will. Hundreds of years of planning, keeping humanity always on the brink. She had witnessed kingdoms rise and fall, sometimes by her hand, sometimes by the imperfection of humans themselves.
In truth, had anyone seen the queen of the Grimm a short time ago, they would have found a woman of tenebrous beauty, wrathful and megalomaniacal.
But that would have been before.
For what Hazel saw now was only a shadow of what she once was.
A chain was pulled and Salem was forced to the ground. A heavy ceramite boot came down sharply on her head, black-colored blood trickled from her wounds. Once dressed in rich attire, she now wore only rags that barely covered her shame.
"Now that I see how limited your pets are the doubt catches up with me. I might have better results with a bunch of cultists and mutant slaves."
The Warsmith contemplated the mark on Salem's neck, the mark that had bound her soul to Chaos itself. A soul already sold to the gods who would come for it whenever the Warsmith himself wished.
Salem looked up, her eyes revealing spite and hatred.
"Oh? Looks like there's still some rebellion left in you. I wish you could apply that to handling these hounds better. Vacuo is still standing. Beaten, but still standing. When my Iron Warriors could take care of that. I didn't want to have to bring more attention to myself on this miserable planet, but your disappointment makes things more difficult."
The Warsmith raised his hand, the mark on Salem's neck glistened and bled. Terror paralyzed her. She was immortal, she could never die, but that did not mean her soul was immune. For she had witnessed what the immaterium could hold. And that her soul would fall into that hell filled her with a fear she had long since forgotten.
She no longer wanted to die.
Because every time she died, her soul would be sent to that dimension, to be raped by the daemons that inhabit that dimensional hell.
The only thing anchoring her back to the real world was that mark. And if the Warsmith wanted it, he would simply erase that anchor.
And she would spend eternity suffering the tortures of the chaos gods.
"It's... Those damned hunters... those walls."
"Excuses..." The Warsmith spat, applied a little more weight on his armored boot and felt the bone begin to crack, Salem panicked and began to plead him.
The Warsmith looked at her with disappointment and shook his head back and forth. He raised his plasma pistol, Salem screamed for mercy.
But he did not fire, he had been called.
"Lord Gravalax..." It was Hazel who asked for his attention with deep respect.
"Perhaps... a different approach might yield better results..."
The Warpsmith gestured to him, ordering to continue.
"Just now, our agent, Cinder, is making advances on Vale. The Vytal festival is coming up, and I've devised a plan to bring Vale down in one fell swoop."
"Tell me more about this plan, Hazel."
"My lord." Hazel bowed in obedience. "The Vytal festival is broadcast throughout the kingdoms. If we can cause a breach in their security, we can disable their defenses so that with a Grimm invasion we can wipe out Vale and leave it ripe for the taking. This will cause fear to spread to the other kingdoms, which will greatly increase the strength of the Grimm. Then you will be able to see not only Vale fall, but Vacuo as well."
Gravalax thought for a moment, his great company had remained hidden, the Iron Warriors were among the few Chaos Astartes legions that could maintain some cohesion. He could not say the same for the warbands that had followed him. He knew that it would not be long before the Night Lords would be discovered, as well as Fulgrim's servants and Mortarion's agents.
But he wanted to weaken the kingdoms of this pathetic world as much as possible before launching his attack.
And he was running out of time.
Especially given the fact that the Imperium would not be long in coming to this world.
The Masters of the Night had seen it, and while he shouldn't trust those maniacs, he knew their prophecies had powerful value. This world was, after all, valuable, being at a strategic point, for it was part of the very few routes that led to the Imperium Nihilus through the Cicatrix. A world that the Imperium would not be allowed to take.
"Hmm... I understand." He removed his boot from Salem's head, she still remained on the ground. "But, still, I think a punishment should be appropriate, even if it is to a lesser extent." Sadism was audible in his voice, Salem could only pledge, begging for her master's mercy. "Tyrian... she will be yours for tonight. But first thing in the morning she will be sent to prepare for this new plan of Hazel's."
The half-scorpion Faunus smiled a devilish grin. His face, scarred by the mark of Slaanesh, let it be seen how he longed for this. His eyes, long ago turned into sockets with a black void, devoured the figure of the once proud queen of the Grimmlands. "It will be my pleasure..." This whispered in a chant that seemed to seduce the air itself. "I've been waiting for this... even if it will only be for a short time, Salem."
She let out a sound of disgust as the chain held by Gravalax was passed to her once subordinate. She knew what was coming, Tyrian was a sadist, even before these usurpers arrived. The Faunus reveled in making others suffer, his specialty was in that. And now, when she was at her weakest, he would have his fun paying her back tenfold for everything she had done to him. The thought of subduing his mistress filled him with a cruelty and ecstasy that he barely had the strength to contain. His methodical discomposure told him that he must make the most of everything he could.
Salem would have been more than happy to kill him. Defeating Gravalax was impossible, a champion imbued with the power of chaos was something she simply could not compete with. She still remembered how she had fallen to his spell, too proud to bother taking the necessary precautions.
Tyrian, on the other hand, would be a much easier target, his madness was at the same time his weakness.
But those damned chains, forged in the fire of the very one who changes the ways. They subjected her to anyone who wore them, even if no one held them, she had been reduced to little more than a wretched human, her magic cut off, her only strength residing in the Grimm's control.
Tyrian walked out of the briefing room, Salem behind him crawling on the floor.
"Doctor Watts, I hope you can accomplish what you have promised." Gravalax sat down on the throne.
A being, once human, now almost entirely a machine, was now Doctor Watts. The mechadendrites surrounding his body meandered with a mind of their own. The gears in his chest spun as he twisted as the metal itself mutated.
"It will be done. The wits will be ready, but I will need more sacrifices." The hoarse, hollow voice of what was once Dr. Watts seemed to crackle with static.
"Golok is helping you." It was more of a wake-up call than a statement. Justifying himself for something like that when he had a Warpsmith at his side made him understand that Watts wasn't doing enough.
"I understand, Lord Gravalax. But attracting demons takes time, especially when the veil of reality is not as thin as the Master of Possession thought."
Gravalax considered that fact, in truth, the veil was not so easy to tear in this world. Oh, how easy it would have been to simply unleash hordes of daemons to consume the planet, but it was taking longer than anticipated.
"Carry on then. And don't forget that patience is something I can't spare."
What had once been Arthur Watts thanked with a bow and left the chamber in a hurry.
Gravalax Sorem was then left alone, contemplating the events before him. This world would soon be his, and even Abbadon himself, would walk upon it.
[X]
The ceremony had been solemn and full of honors. Many students had attended, as well as grief-stricken family members weeping and wailing around three coffins.
Glynda Goodwitch didn't know which was worse. Saying goodbye to a son/daughter, or saying goodbye to a casket without a body to bury.
Death would be no stranger to the Hunters. Being one herself, she had seen death far more than she would have liked. There were always Hunters fallen in combat, even if they died at any of the four academies in the realms, their reputations could not be diminished. The profession to which each student was devoting himself was one of extremely high risk of death. Everyone knew it, and accepted it.
But none of that made it any less painful.
She watched as all the acquaintances of the three deceased students passed one by one to offer their condolences, some spoke for a moment, others left ornaments and objects on the coffins. It took more than an hour, but they all passed.
Glynda noticed with curiosity how Cardin Winchester and his group of vandals also passed by to deliver bouquets of flowers to the coffins. Funerals were not something that all Beacon students were required to attend as a matter of obligation, in fact, it was preferable that it be done in a small group. She would have understood if it was the RWBY or JNPR teams, who had already passed before CRDL. But seeing them here, knowing all the friction they had with the other students, she found it extremely intriguing. What had really happened in Ashen Village? She had read the report, if one could call the statements made by Velvet, the last survivor of the now defunct CVFY team, a report. And it had filled her with a terror that even to this day would not leave her head. What exactly was it that had so brutally murdered her students and the people of Ashen Town? It was definitely not Grimm. Of that Ozpin was certain.
Glynda feared it was something worse. Something like 'Her'.
[-]
Ozpin contemplated the inside of the cup, the contents of which had been cooling for several minutes. And at no time had he even tasted a sip. Tragedy had struck Beacon, he had lost three students and one was seriously injured and with clear emotional trauma. He would have sanctioned the teacher who had authorized them to respond to that call for help. But the rules of the academy shielded that teacher, it would be up to the latter to submit his resignation, Professor Port was considering it.
He sighed, he knew it was not Port's fault, he could not blame anyone but the evil ones who had attacked that small village and had done that to its inhabitants. The news had spread like wildfire, the media was questioning, why hadn't they sent professional hunters? But they were not only blaming the academy, but also the officials who had made the request. The Vale council argued that it was an emergency situation, and that they would not have found professional hunters in time.
Politics will always be a headache, Ozpin decided to put the politicians aside.
Instead, he focused on the report his student, Velvet, had made. Of course, calling it a report was too much, since it had been Carmin who had written what she had said at the Bullhead, plus what they had found at the entrance to the village. Those images were brutal, even in his long life he had never seen a display of brutality like this. The Grimm was not capable of that, and the only thing that could do something similar, would be Salem herself. But those symbols were not something he had ever seen on her, not in all the millennia since his precious friend had become a monster. The press had treated them as members of some cult. But he knew that wasn't the case.
Therefore, it left him with only one explanation.
Ozpin could still remember so many millennia ago. The path of mankind through the stars, the wonders of the golden men, and the rise of technology that might as well have seemed like magic itself. How the human confederation had advanced, as close to a utopia as mankind had ever come.
And at the same time, how the pride of mankind had taken its toll in an extremely grave way. The old night was still etched in his mind, the rebellion of the men of iron reminded him of the warnings of another like him, another perpetual. Too lost in his ideals and the one he had come to despise after what he had done to Vytal.
Vytal had survived, the culture of this world, forged around the first psychics born into an ever increasing evolution of the human race. And at the same time, a growing corruption spreading inexorably over its inhabitants. Ozpin had decided to settle here, tired of millennia of war, to rest and let the years pass before him.
It was thanks to the technology of past eras, and the arcane knowledge of the most skilled psychics, as well as the help of ancient races. That they had managed to create a way to curb the corruption of the use of what was being coined as magic. The inhabitants of Vytal were all able to use it thanks to the Great Filter. And soon a society flourished among the ruins of a humanity broken by war against soulless machines.
But nothing is perfect. And soon, darkness would return from the lakes of filth that now covered the continent where Salem now dwells.
The Grimm rose, out of that soup of darkness and corruption. Semi incorporeal monsters, a residue of the seepage of pure power from the Warp itself. At first it was not difficult to keep them at bay, it was a small price to pay in exchange for an idyllic, and beautiful world. Ruled by two brothers, the two most powerful Psykers in all of Vytal. It was said that they could destroy entire continents with ease.
A paradise that was destroyed by another like him. A tyrant who sought to destroy all that they had built and rebuild upon it, an authoritarian Empire that knew no freedom.
The war had been costly. Millions dead on both sides, the people of Vytal fought to protect their world and their culture, facing the super warriors of the one who called himself Emperor.
Even the intervention of that demigod was not enough to stop the wrath of the Brother Kings united. He still remembered the titanic confrontation when that giant of more than five meters exchanged his blows with their attacks. His armor was indestructible, and the eye that adorned it seemed to sink into his soul. That epic battle, however, did not reach its end, for it was the Emperor himself who intervened.
The scene had remained engraved in his mind. A being of golden light, a force of nature of power he would never understand.
How did the Brothers expect to face something like that?
The Emperor was implacable, with his own hands he subdued them. His power made the whole world tremble. It was the older brother who somehow managed to break free from his invisible bonds, seeking to fight back. But it was in vain only to end up being crashed on the only satellite of Vytal, with a single blow the Emperor had thrown the Elder Brother, and with a slash of his flaming sword obliterated the Lesser from reality. Like a meteorite the last King of Vytal fell upon the planet. Dying, defeated. It was not difficult for the Emperor to strip Vytal of its last ruler.
That was the end of the Two Brothers, and the end of Vytal. For what happened next was something he would never ever forgive that dictator for.
In the eyes of the Emperor, the inhabitants of Vytal were nothing but mutants. And mutants did not fit into the Empire of humanity. Billions of innocents were systematically exterminated. Some were executed in lines stretching for miles. Others had been gathered in groups to be reduced to dust by the orbital fire of their ships. No one escaped.
Ozpin recalled with bitterness how the desperation of his precious friend and comrade-in-arms forced her to throw herself into the lakes of darkness. Perhaps she thought that there she would find a way to defeat the Emperor, perhaps she wanted to end her own life. Having been given immortality artificially, and knowing that she would now have to live under such a cruel regime. Perhaps it had been too much for her.
He still regretted not having been able to avoid her fate.
In the end all that remained was a remnant of a paradise that had ceased to exist along with a handful of children he had managed to save. And the Emperor had left a few settlers to repopulate the world. Settlers who, with time, and Ozpin's influence, had gradually separated from the Emperor's authoritarian regime.
But at the same time these were dark times.
The Great Crusade was replaced by the great betrayal. Brother against brother. And Ozpin did not waste this. It was easy to dethrone the governor assigned to them. The Civil War passed, and the now Remnant world was trying to get back on track, away from an Empire that was also trying to recover.
And time passed. Life went on. The bloody past buried under millennia that people had decided to forget. The inhabitants of Vytal no longer existed, but his legacy remained in those few he had saved and in their descendants who repopulated the world. They could never use magic again, at least not unconsciously. The Great Filter was damaged, but not destroyed. The Aura was reborn in the place of magic, and the semblances were the ones to protect humanity from the Grimm and their new mistress who would never be the same again.
Ozpin looked at a bluish Dust crystal on his desk. And bitterness clung to him again. The souls of the dead reborn in the earth itself. Pure concentrated magic. The Dust was nothing more than the remnant of the dead that took hundreds of years to form.
If the Empire had returned, then this time, he would fight to defend the Remnant that remained.
[X]
This week had turned into days of constant grief. The usually talkative and spontaneous member of her team, Nora Valkyrie had remained quiet the entire time. She couldn't blame her, after what had happened. She regretted not finding a way to return to her banter and witticisms. But she felt that, given the circumstances, it was still too soon to try.
Her leader was worse, not only had depression taken over his being, but also fear. He had constantly doubted his worth, even with her support and training, she had not been able to pull him out of the emotional hole he was in.
"Do you want me to marinate it for you?" Ren, the only functional member of the team, asked her. She looked back down at the cut of meat, then back up at the vegetables she had yet to cut.
"Thank you." She said, and handed him the knife.
A barbecue, it was the best thing she could think of. At first she would have done it alone, she didn't doubt her ability to cook, but little experience she had to cook for a number larger than two, and worse was that she had also invited Ruby and her crew.
After the Beacon affair the school had given the first and second graders two weeks off. And since many had decided to spend these days with their families, Ruby Rose herself had thought a few days on Patch Island as guests in her home was a good idea. There wouldn't be much of a problem; it was a spacious house, with enough rooms for all eight of them.
"Would this coal be enough?" The voice of Tai Yang, Ruby and Yang's father set down two sacks of charcoal on the floor.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Xiao-Long! Yes, that will do." Phyrra replied. "Ren, can you light it?"
It didn't take the young man long to get the charcoal red-hot. And soon, the air was filled with the distinctive smell of roasting meat.
She just hoped it would at least do the trick.
[-]
It seemed that the atmosphere had improved a bit.
It was already late afternoon, and the sunset could look beautiful from here. She carried two glasses of light liquor, one for the leader of her team.
Jaune Arc, that inexperienced young man, a coward and relatively weak.
But he was also attentive, patient and kind-hearted. He was the first one who had seen her for what she was and nothing more, no champion or stupid cereal. Jaune had seen her as a girl, and that, even as a little, was a lot for her. She felt her feelings slowly developing. But it was something she refused to reveal.
Jaune was chatting with Ruby, she noticed how their talk seemed so casual, so close. If she compared it to their talks, these were almost as casual, yet there was something. It was as if Jaune still felt insecure about having faked his way into Beacon. Phyrra couldn't help but feel some distance between her and her team leader, and something akin to jealousy was beginning to form in her heart.
She bounded and bottled it up. She couldn't, she didn't want to deal with these feelings right now. It was too much.
"Ah, Phyrra!" Ruby called out to her excitedly, though maybe it didn't sound with the same intensity it had before the incident, but it was coming back, or so she wanted to believe.
"Oh, I... I think you did really good in those burgers." Jaune told her trying to seek conversation. Phyrra thought it was a somewhat cute reaction.
"Thank you," she replied. "It's a family recipe. What were you talking about?"
"Oh, just that time Cardin was chased by a swarm of Lancers."
Phyrra laughed lightly at the memory of that incident. It also made her realize that it had somehow helped Cardin himself to change. Yes, he was still a lout, but he had stopped annoying everyone and had shown considerable progress in combat. Phyrra wondered if it had been because of that time the entire CRDL team had lost miserably to her.
"Do you know if they're okay?" Asked Phyrra.
"I don't. We know they partially saw what happened to CVFY too..."
Ruby held her stomach in nausea. Belatedly she had realized to understand what conversation she was getting herself into. Even though Beacon and the Vale council had tried to keep the tragedy under wraps to avoid panic. The press had managed to show pictures. And some newscasts had dared to go so far as to show the state inside the village, abusing the morbidity when they showed the corpses of the previous CVFY team members.
They could no longer ignore it, by mistake or if they wanted to. It was something that had permeated their hearts. Ruby still had nightmares, having inadvertently seen the images, her curiosity costing her a trauma that would take time to heal. Phyrra, from that day on, always carried her weapons with her, or at least within reach. Jaune had fared better, no one had shown him anything, and he had dodged the filters. But still the fear was real.
"Let's hope they catch the culprits soon." Phyrra said, trying to deflect the subject.
Ruby nodded, looked at her team, her friends and family.
She didn't want anything bad to happen to them.
[X]
Well, as you can see, I'm taking a few different details out of RWBY, mainly because I feel these don't make any sense and are too vague.
I would NEVER dare to say I fixed it.
Here, Ozpin didn't marry Salem neither feel anything for her. They just were good friends who respected each other. As you can see I tried to merge Remnant into 40k and give it a lore inside the settling. And putting Semblances, Aura, Dust and Maidens ALL into a single bag. It's Magic, all of it is magic born from the Warp. Like Dust being just "Oil" made of long ago dead psykers (something that has happened in 40k lore). They just don't understand its origin.
Also, about power scaling and versus, i know i may see some people angry for that display. But as many know, RWBY isn't well known for its consistency and has a lot of issues in animation and weird power calculation. Also, they are facing a warband captain with thousands of years of experience and weapons that can certainly kill a huntsman without that much problem.
I hope I can upload these three stories soon, I already have 3000 words for Gate of false liberty. And the anime is making me try to work harder.
Well, see you soon. Please give a review.