Withered Arc 1

Meet the students

Timeline - Field Trip

"Well, at least we know who's overcompensating." muttered Bonnie, looking at the Atlas fleet. The rabbit faunus had been blackmailed by Yang to go greet the students and he had exited just to see the fleet arrive. He didn't blame the other students for running, he would as well seeing the armada of General Ironwood.

However, he did feel a faint energy that made him pause. It felt like the same energy that transported him to Remnant in the first place! 'Could that mean others are trapped here too?' he thought as he kept an eye and ear out, wondering who could be stuck in this world with them. He noted two rather different groups and his artificial eyelids widened.

Standing out amongst the white and grey uniforms of Atlas was four girls, of different heights. The first girl stood at 4'11", vibrant pink hair resting on her head as she pouted at a joke, the enhanced sight picking up a fang. Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing large pink cat paws instead of hands, and her pink eyes sparkled with happiness.

Next to her was a coral pink haired girl, standing at 5'2", hips swaying as she took in the sights of Beacon. She had sparkling blue eyes although Bonnie was worried about the rope burns around her throat, as she was talking to a 5'5" tall girl with silky light purple hair, a large knife on her back as she listened to the smaller girl. The last member had calculating green eyes and long flowing coral brown hair. Her hands twitched like they were wanting to open something, but the glares she received made her pause. She stood at 5'3"

The other team that caught Bonnie's eyes was all bug faunuses. The first was a tall (5'4"), male, light blue haired Moth faunus that looked bored, a rather thick cloak-like object was wrapped around his neck. He wore light blue clothes that looked better to relax in than to fight in. Next to him was a 4'10" girl wearing vibrant yellow and black clothes, a boomerang and lance on her belt and back, narrowingly missing her bee wings. The girl was buzzing in excitement before being grabbed by a 5'11" tall person who wore an all black set of clothes and had a white bone mask, hiding any hints of a gender while wearing a twisted chitinous shell.

The final member was a bulky, 6'0" tall Rainbow Scarab Beetle faunus that wore full green armour, but judging by the bee and moth's words, it was a guy. The most notable feature was the horn like lance on his back. He, the masked bug and the coral brown girl paused as they felt the same energy, causing their teammates to pause. They looked around before the eyes met with Bonnie and he nodded.

The two teams went over, and Bonnie smiled "Welcome to Beacon. I'm Nathaniel Kiryu, but please call me Bonnie. May I know your names?" the group nodded and spoke.

"I'm Monika Dokari, leader of Team DOKI, officially called Team MGNL (Magnolia). These are Sayori Osiris, Yuri Klavius and Natsuki Ivy" spoke the coral brown girl, with the others nodding.

"I'm Kabbu Greyston, leader of Team SNKM (Snakemouth), officially called Team ZTEC (Aztec Gold). And these are Violet 'Vi' Hornet, Leif Frostborn and Varon Hollow," They nodded as well, then the group got quiet. "Now where are we?"

Bonnie nodded in understanding before saying "Welcome to Remnant, our new home"

Ruby ran quickly down the hallway, a bag on her back as she moved to the ballroom to understand the mission when she tripped over something. Getting up, Ruby noticed an oddly shaped USB stick laying on the floor, resulting in her picking it up and putting it in her scroll. She was wondering why it was taking so slow before she remembered and ran off.

As she arrived in the auditorium, the lights dimmed as Ozpin stepped forward, quieting the crowd of students as he explained the task at hand. Everyone is set to go off and do missions that depend on skill level and team structure, with Team RWBY picking the Search and Destroy mission and Ozpin bent the rules to let the first year team do the mission.

As the four girls got closer to the Bullhead bay, they saw three other teams waiting. Team CRDL, Team MGNL and Team ZTEC which Bonnie had mentioned. Cardin and Russel were looking at Sky's scroll, watching a show from what Ruby could tell by the looks of interest, while Monika was inspecting her weapon. Dove was talking to Vi and Leif about Dust and if it was as useful as the textbooks said it was, with the bee and moth giving arguments on sides, Yuri was watching and occasionally chipping in.

Finally, Sayori and Natsuki were inspecting Varon, who didn't show any emotion as they somehow ate. The only one who noticed them was Kabbu as he approached. The group blinked in surprise seeing the Rainbow beetle tower over all bar Yang. Then he spoke

"Ah, there you lot are. We were just waiting for you to arrive" Kabbu's voice was gentle and full of conviction. Ruby could put it as a more relaxed version of Toy Freddy's tone (British), while his white eyes sparkled with what looked like joy and happiness. Yang looked surprised while Weiss and Blake had never seen an insect based faunus before. Ruby though….

"Holy Moly, you are tall!" That comment made the large Beetle faunus laugh, not at all offended. "If you think I'm tall, you should see Leif. Anyway, my name is Kabbu Greyston" He bowed a bit, and his eyes gave a soft smile. Ruby giggled while Weiss and Blake relaxed and Yang sighed. "Who's the hunter we're following?" asked the sunny dragon, raising an eyebrow when Kabbu winced.

"Why, hello girls! Seeing that we're all here now, shall we begin the mission?" spoke out as Team RWBY turned and their eyes widened, seeing Doctor Ooblek standing before them.

Meanwhile, six ghostly figures were moving around a forest, trees overgrown the top. Their skin was burnt and coloured green and black and eyes were silvery moon pools. Leading them was a bear faunus, his build like Freddy but missing his lower right leg and part of his left ear. Following him was a fox faunus, looking like Foxy but missing his right forearm and his legs torn asunder, next to him was a short human phantom, whose clothes dulled in the light, a face mask covering his mouth.

The other two were girls, the first being a chicken faunus with her burnt appearance mimicking a watermelon. Her fingers were fused together and a burnt cupcake sat on her shoulder. Next to her was a thin human, wearing a burnt black and green outfit with yellow stripes around her hands. Sitting on her face was a mask with a massive crack from her left eye to her right cheek, its colours nearly black.

The final member was also a fox faunus, although their body flickered between male and female and more of their endoskeleton was showing and sickly green goo dripped from their mouths. Attached to it's neck was a second head that had a single glowing eye. The group never talked, floating before stopping at a tree as big and thick as a Sherman Tree (which are 52,508 cubic feet or 1,487 cubic metres).

Bound to the roots, the ghostly group saw a golden rabbit animatronic which looked to be grown into the tree itself. Phantom Freddy grinned before floating over to the oddity and leaned in, speaking in a haunted tone

"Afton… wake up… someone is harming your family…." nothing happened before a twitch and a spark happened. "Someone is going to force your wife into do-" the ghostly bear was cut off as the eyes snapped open, an explosion of fire launching back the phantoms as the rabbit stood up in the flames.

It then walked forwards, arms coated in flames as metal and fabric changed to human flesh. His feet stepped out first, followed by the rest of him as the forest burned around them. He was covered in scars and massive wounds as tattoos covered his forearms, his eyes were light purple and his hair was covered in golden green and purple hair, springing from it was apair of rabbit ears, although half of the left one was missing.

He cracked his neck and looked at the Phantoms "It is good to be awake, but let us get going." His tone had a slight British accent, although raspy from underuse. He turned to get his bearings before walking east then stopping to look at Phantom Freddy. "Also, Phantom Freddy?"

"Y-yes boss?" "Bring up my family in a harmful situation again and I'll kill you permanently"

Now we begin the Withered Arc, which covers the rest of Volume 2.

Yup, we've got Doki Doki Literature Club, Bug Fables the Everlasting Sapling and Hollow Knight (made by Team Salvato, DANGEN Entertainment and Team Cherry respectively) as main characters and Springtrap has finally joined…kinda

See you all on the flipside,