So, "What is this?" I hear you ask. This is basically me taking the characters (and in a broad sense, the setting) of RWBY and mixing in themes and ideas of various series like Supernatural, Dresden Files, and the oWoD. This is my first ever attempt at an AU, and I decided to make it urban fantasy because I really like that genre. I hope you all enjoy.


The Unseen World

Chapter 1: Sewer Delving

There was an eeriness to a sleeping city, a quiet tension that came from traversing a usually lively place that now was as still as a corpse. A low buzzing sound came from the flickering street lights that provided the majority of the light in these ghostly pre-morning hours. Perhaps the main streets would have been more crowded, even in this early hour, but the side roads and twisting alleyways were devoid of life save for, one Ruby Rose and the ignorant man she trailed behind.

A half-shadow cast from Ruby's body as dark clouds neatly obscured a portion of the pale moon in the sky, a silver orb that waned as the dawn inched closer and closer. Each step she took was as quiet and soft as that of a mouse, measured and calculated as she navigated through the cracked and broken concrete of the dirty streets. Her breathing came shallow and a light sheen of sweat glistened slightly on her forehead

How long had she been following this man? Not counting the amount of research it took to finally pinpoint and narrow her suspicions all down to this one person, it was at least an hour now. Maybe two? Whatever the case may be, it was time spent on maintaining a carefully measured distance: Far enough away to avoid attracting attention to herself, but close enough to keep him within eyesight.

A gut feeling, a warning from her intuition, along with the sudden stiffening of the person in front of her was the only warning she got. Spinning on her heels, she ducked behind a wall, feeling, more than seeing, the man turn around. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap." She thought, panicking slightly as her heart began to slowly hammer away at her breastplate.

She had to maintain the element of surprise, at least for now, it was one of the few advantages she had over him, along with the simple fact that his kind tended to underestimate simple humans. While she was confident that she could take the man in a straight fight, she didn't want things to escalate to that point. If she could help it, that is.

It hadn't been the first time Ruby had hunted down and killed a vampire, after all, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She had learned a long time ago that quick, brutal ambushes were vastly preferable to drawn-out slugfests. The faint scar that she had hidden on her person was proof of that.

Straining her senses to keep tabs on her target from behind her cover of concrete, a consuming silence permeated the air for a few seconds that felt more like an eternity. Eventually, footsteps began again, leading away from her. The dark-haired girl, however, held onto a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she waited another handful of seconds.

Cautiously, and with a vice-like grip on the gun she had drawn, Ruby peeked around the corner, noting with relief that her target had indeed begun to walk again, having turned away from her. Yes! She cheered minutely, a small grin on her face. "Nice one! Ha ha, I'm the greatest!"

Slipping out from her cover, Ruby began the hunt again, the pumping adrenaline in her veins combatting the creeping exhaustion she'd been feeling lately. I gotta work on my sleep schedule… Increasing her pace slightly, Ruby took another look at the creature roughly 60 feet from her.

Her latest target looked to be in his rough mid-20s, but with vampires, you could never tell, he could be well over 80 for all she knew. He kept a steady walk as he casually made his way down the streets of nighttime Vale, hands tucked in khaki pants. He wore an unremarkable dark blue shirt that covered a body that, while deceptively simple, Ruby knew was stronger than most. A white scarf that she knew was only for appearances was wrapped snugly around his neck uselessly, possibly to hide what he really was. Because things like him didn't feel the cold.

Her prey turned the corner, ducking down a dark alleyway off the main road. Ruby increased her pace, transiting from a steady walk to a light jog. Her heels rolled with every step, making sure that she didn't alert her target while also not losing sight of her target. A win-win in her book.

This was always the hardest part of the hunt: The stalking. It would have been easy to ambush him, stab him in the heart with a wooden stake or slash his neck with a silver dagger, but she needed information first. She needed to know where he slept in the daytime, and what, if any, contacts he had. There was a good chance that this vampire was operating alone, hiding from the public and snatching victims under the cover of night, but if there was even the slightest chance that he wasn't working alone, Ruby needed to know.

Hence the stalking, the research, the waiting.

It was almost daybreak now, last she checked it was 5:30 in the morning. Even if they didn't burn in the day like in the movies, they were nocturnal creatures, hunting at night and sleeping during the day. This one had been up all night, he had to be heading back to his shelter for some shut-eye.

She turned the corner, slowly, her face peeking around the brick building in an abandon, just in time to catch sight of a manhole drain sliding shut.

Ruby felt her eye twitch slightly as she glared at the manhole, her already frayed nerves brought on from exhaustion and anxiety not helping her temper in the slightest.

"Of course," She said to no one in particular, "Why wouldn't it be a sewer?" Grumbling, she approached the manhole twisting her nose up cutely as silver eyes shone with disgust. "What else would it be? It's not like they can just live in caves or houses like normal people!"

For a few moments, Ruby Rose stared at the drain cover. "Ugh, let's just get this over with." There was nothing much she could do other than resign herself to a journey in the sewer.

She lifted the drain lid open, revealing a gaping hole of darkness. A waft of hot air had her stomach feeling queasy and she gulped in apprehension. A second of hesitation later she grabbed the ladder built into the hole and climbed down, closing the lid above her and sealing herself in the abyss.

Climbing down into a sewer in total darkness was not what Ruby imagined herself doing when she woke up today. A horrible stench assaulted her senses stronger than what it was outside and she fought the urge to vomit many times as she climbed down. When her foot hit concrete instead of another rung, she carefully tested it before she hopped off the ladder onto the floor.

A moment later, Ruby grabbed a tiny flashlight from her fanny pack and lit up her surroundings.

She was on one of the concrete elevations overseeing the main sewage pipe, she could see dirty water flowing down a foot below her, trash, dead animals, and waste apparent. To her right and left the sewer continued, eerie silent halls with only the rushing sound of water breaking the quiet.

Ruby frowned as she calmed her nerves. The stench was only one reason she didn't want to go into a sewer. Sewers were often pitch-black, something that wouldn't bother creatures that could see in the dark, like vampires, but would certainly hinder her.

She swept her light around her, lighting up every part of the sewer. She found nothing in the dark concrete cave, nothing but empty gnawing darkness, concrete, and dirty water.

Satisfied that she wasn't about to be ambushed, Ruby let herself calm a bit as she realized another important problem: She had no idea where her target was now.

There was, unfortunately, little she could do about that except keep moving forward.

Pistol held in one hand and flashlight in the other, she walked through the sewer, trying her best to ignore both the horrible smell and the creeping feeling of unease. Ruby tried to steady her hands and keep calm, trying to quiet the twitch that seemed to have infiltrated her hands. A morbid part of her found it hilarious how quickly she had gone from quite arrogant and confident in her skills to slightly (Ok very) terrified.

"Am I scared of the dark…?" The young woman asked rhetorically, the sound of her own voice helping abate her anxiousness. "No, no I'm waaay too old for that…" She waved the flashlight around, lighting up small portions of the old sewage system. She was slowly getting a sinking suspicion that the vampire she was hunting was more than aware of her presence.

A creaking sound behind her, a small sound made infinitely louder in the isolated pipe system, alerted her and she spun around, pointing both the gun and flashlight back the way she had come.

There was nothing, nothing except the sound of rushing water.

Footsteps sounded behind her.

She spun around, settling in a half-crouch, flashlight pointed in front of her and gun resting on top of it, her fingers ready on the trigger.

Nothing. She was alone, alone in the dark smelly sewer.

The hairs on her neck stood up, and she felt the sensation of being watched.

She backed herself up against a wall, slowly moving the flashlight back and forth. She couldn't see anything, the raised concrete floors of the sewer offered no hiding places unless he was willing to submerge himself in sewer water. That didn't help the feeling of being watched.

She frowned, if her target was indeed observing her, as she suspected he was, then where was he…unless.

Her eyes widened, and she looked up.

There, seated upon one of the many twisted pipes and hanging chains, was the blue-shirted man, his face twisted into a feral grin. Fangs sprouted from his mouth, and his sclera, the part of the eye normally colored white, was blood red.

The vampire had been aware of her from the very beginning, she realized. It had lured her here in hopes of catching her off guard and alone to go all out. Every nerve screamed at her, and every lesson flashed through her head.

There was a second in which nothing happened, human and monster staring at each other. There was no sound except the rusty creaking of pipes and the movement of water.

Then, as if by some unspoken cue, the vampire tensed, and shot down from the pipe, rocketing down towards her like some sort of meteor.

In the brief second between the vampire launching himself and him reaching her, Ruby had aimed her pistol and pulled the trigger three times.

The gun roared with a calamitous bang for each trigger pull, the muzzle lighting up in brief bursts of fire that lit the surroundings. A meaty thud echoed three times, confirming that each silver bullet had found its mark. Shimmers of blue fire wisped out from the descending vampire as the mystical metal worked its magic on the creature.

An inhumane snarl came from the vampire as he fell upon her, mouth opened to reveal his razor-sharp fangs. Ruby moved a second too late, backing away enough to avoid taking the full hit, but the fangs that felt more like knives nicked her in the arm as she pulled it back.

Her Aura dented the blow, and no real damage was done, but that didn't stop it from hurting. Before she had time to react, the vampire lurched forward again, his hand curled into a fist, his arm moving faster than any normal human ever could.

The fist connected with her face, a meteoric-like blow that sent her reeling. For a moment her vision blurred before she reoriented herself, shuffling back to dodge a second punch. In a fluid motion, she dropped the gun and unsheathed a gleaming silver dagger, bringing the blade up just in time to block another attack.

For a few seconds, the two of them strained against each other, the vampire's fist pushing against the flat of the dagger, attempting to overwhelm Ruby's defense with pure force. Ruby felt herself give ground a bit, a foot stepping slightly back.

Grimacing, Ruby took a risk and swiveled the blade, twisting it so that the bladed end was suddenly facing the vampire's fist.

At the same time she did so, the sudden lack of resistance allowed the vampire's fist to continue its original trajectory, and the fist smashed into her face even as it was sliced up by the silver dagger.

Ruby fell backward, just barely avoiding falling off the platform and into the sewage below. A scream echoed out from the darkness, a blood-curdling howl of vengeance and agony. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a gout of blue fire blaze, lighting up the darkness of the sewer system.

Finding her bearings again, Ruby assumed a defensive position, and shined the flashlight on the vampire, revealing the damage she had done.

His arm, the right one, the one he'd been using to attack her, was brutally damaged. The arm was cut down the middle and the flesh was nearly sliced in two. Starting from in between his fingers and continuing up to his elbow, the entirety of his forearm was split in two. The flesh dangled uselessly in the air as threads of the innermost meat and veins clung desperately to one another, almost as if trying to pull the arm back together.

Blood dripped out of it, almost certainly not his, hitting the pavement with a repetitive dripping sound. It was almost surreal, how little blood was spilled. A wound of that nature should have resulted in a proverbial flood of blood, yet only a tiny bit crept out of his injury.

Another reminder that this man was not human, but a monster, a predator, an inhuman creature.

As if to assert her claim of inhumanity, blood veins, and tendrils of dark, gooey flesh sprouted from the insides of his split arm, wrapping around the two halves of his arm before snapping them back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Choking down a feeling of disgust at the display, Ruby dashed forward, dagger in one hand and flashlight and another. She swung wildly with her first blow, an obvious attack that the vampire easily dodged, leaving him vulnerable to the flashlight that she had swung at the same time.

The plastic torch cracked him on the side of the head, dealing no damage but stunning him a bit, just long enough for her dagger to come flying down and slash a large gash on his face. A stream of blue fire followed the wound, the flames engulfing his face as a piercing scream echoed throughout the sewers.

Engulfed in both flames and rage, the vampire roughly grabbed Ruby and hurled her through the air. The red-caped girl slammed into a wall, the blow knocking the breath out of her. Pain rocketed through her limbs as she fell onto the floor, limbs sprawled. Once again, her Aura was the only thing stopping any real damage from being dealt to her, but the pain alone was almost enough to paralyze her.

Lifting herself up, Ruby gripped the knife close to her chest as she stared intently at the vampire. They were separated by the flowing sewer water, the vampire's throw having thrown her across the platform and onto the other one.

Pound for pound, the vampire looked in worse condition than her. Now that she had a better look at it, she found that the vampire's arm, rather than being truly healed from her earlier cut, was actually being held together by a combination of veins and outgrowing flesh. Tendrils of flesh had slithered out from the arm and had wrapped around it, keeping the arm still in one piece even though it was still very damaged. The cut on his face was similarly damaged, a large gash that slid from the side of his head down to his mouth.

Rage and pain were etched on his face, from the looks of things he hadn't ever encountered silver before.

Silver weapons were one of the few things that a vampire couldn't heal from. A wound inflicted by silver would eventually heal, but only at the pace of a normal person. In the case of his arm, the vampire would probably never recover from that.

"As if…" Ruby thought with an internal wince, as she straightened out her posture. "He's gonna be dead if I got anything to say about it."

It was the vampire who eventually made the first move, charging and leaping across the water, fangs bared and a snarl writhing on his face. Ruby smiled and prepared to take another risk.

As the vampire fell towards her, his hands outstretched and grasping for her neck, Ruby dived forwards, into the vampire, her blade outstretched and aimed at his neck. The two forces collided at the same time, the vampire grabbing her throat as her dagger pierced his own.

The effect was obvious immediately, even as the vampire's hand tried to close around her throat, either to choke her or simply crush it, Ruby tightened her grip and pushed the dagger in further. A scream echoed out again, although she wasn't sure whose it was. Her vision darkened as the vampire maintained his grip on her throat, even as she continued pushing her dagger into his throat. With a grunt of effort, Ruby pushed the dagger in even deeper, and this time a spiral of twisting fire burst out of the vampire's flesh, the stream of azure flames leaking out of the creature as his hand suddenly went limp.

Two bodies fell to the floor, one melted into ash while another began hacking and coughing. In Between coughing fits, Ruby greedily sucked in breaths of air, massaging her throat as she did so. A few seconds later, she got, wobbling a bit as she did so.

Massaging her forehead, Ruby stretched a bit as the adrenaline began to wear down.

"Ah…" She panted, lightly. "I… I would be dead so many times over if it wasn't for Aura…" She chuckled to herself as she made a running leap back over the water again. Luckily, her Aura hadn't broken during the fight, so physically she was fine.

Mentally, however, she was exhausted and beaten down.

Searching the pavement for her dropped gun, Ruby stifled a yawn as she finally retrieved the inconspicuous handgun. Taking a moment to yawn and stretch, Ruby considered her situation.

"Well…" She started to herself, "On the plus side, the vampire's dead." She leaned up against a wall, as she mumbled to herself, "But now I have no idea where his lair is, plus I'm still stuck in this dirty sewer!" She groaned a bit as she stretched more, leaning into the wall behind her heavily.

That's when the wall cracked against her, and a second later it crumbled. Ruby fell backward with a sharp 'eep!', hitting her head on a smooth slanted floor, and slid down further, rubble falling all around her. The flashlight fell from her hand, bouncing rays of light adding to the chaotic scene she found herself in.

She slammed into something hard, and she fell straight down, falling until she landed in some sort of cloth.

"Ow….ow ow ow…whyyyy?…." Ruby whined piteously as she rose from where she had landed, rubbing her head in the process.

The second thing she noticed was that she had landed in what seemed to be a pile of dirty clothes, which would have been disgusting if she hadn't been frolicking in the sewers just a second ago.

The third thing she noticed was where she was. She was in a…room was the best she could describe it. It was circular, a rough, large circular room. There was a lit candle set up on a table, giving dim light to her surroundings. A rough, homemade, bed was situated not far from her, along with a desk and a chair, and a few books. Some sort of blanket was rolled up near the bed. There were other, miscellaneous things strewn around: Knick-knacks, paper, and a broken Rubix cube.

The first thing she noticed when she got up was the bodies.

There were 3 of them, sprawled out in the middle of the room. They were dried-up, bloodless husks. Eyes were split in half, ripped from their sockets, bloody bits of teeth littered the floor, and chests were ripped apart, exposing rib cages and punctured hearts. Limbs were either torn off or twisted in unnatural ways. Various bite wounds, gaping holes in flesh, not simple puncture marks, were everywhere.

The bodies were small, small heads, small bodies. Children. The clothing on the bodies was torn too, around the chest and waist. Scratch marks and bruises dotted the bodies, limbs were twisted unnaturally.

Ruby lurched forward as the bile in her throat nearly overwhelmed her, falling to her knees as she forced down the vomit that threatened to overtake her.

A few moments later, when she trusted herself enough to walk, she got up and walked over to the bodies. Her movements were stiff and unnatural, her limbs shaking in barely constrained rage.

A quick, emotionless search revealed nothing about the victims. No identifying marks, no IDs, no tags on the clothing, no Scrolls, nothing. Just lumps of flesh and bone, young souls that would never see the rest of their lives.

Straightening her back, she tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths to settle her nerves.

It didn't help, the rage and frustration that had slowly built up since she had begun this stupid hunt exploded out of her in a frenzy. A scream escaped her as she slammed her fist into a wall, the pain doing little to abate her anger. Suddenly she wished the vampire was alive if only so she could have the satisfaction of killing him again.

A moment later she felt herself calm a bit. Her anger didn't disappear, rather settling into the pit of her stomach as an icy determination. That was the only way to remain sane when dealing with situations like this.

"Remember this." She mentally told herself, staring at the bodies of the children, "Remember why you fight." It was a simple mantra, but one that had seen her through scenes such as this.

After successfully burning the memory of their bodies into her mind, she picked up her fallen possessions and prepared to move on.

As she began to search for a door, or way out, something caught her attention. A subtle shift near the bed. Quickly turning her gaze to the bed, she saw movement near the foot of the bed. Something, or someone, was wrapped up in a blanket near the bed.

Moving slowly with her knife ready, Ruby approached the bed carefully.

Crouching down near the rolled-up old blanket, Ruby poked it with her finger. A quiet groaning noise came out of it. A second later she unwrapped the blanket and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Laying near her on the floor was a girl, about as old as her, maybe a bit older. She had snow-white hair and wore a white dress that may have once been pristine and gorgeous but was now covered with dirt and grime. She wore jewelry too, earrings and a necklace, all of which screamed 'Rich girl'.

The thing that caught Ruby's attention the most, however, was the set of teeth-sized holes on her neck, holes that were rapidly closing. A second later the girl's eyes opened, revealing icy blue eyes.

She opened her mouth to breathe, and Ruby caught the sight of small fangs.

"Oh…that's not good…" Ruby breathed, and then the white of the girl's eyes turned red, and the vampire lunged at her.


Well, here's the first chapter. I've never written a full-scale AU like this before so I really don't know if this whole thing will be a hit or miss. Anyway I'm having fun writing it and all I can really do is hope other people like it as well. I have a few chapters written in advance, so for now this will be updated weekly until I run out of prepared chapters, at which point it'll be updated whenever it can cause my work ethic is bleh.

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I appreciate any sort of feedback. A big thanks to PhonyMangaka for being my beta reader on this.