A/N: Chapter 43 of REKT. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or teams of RWBY, they belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. What I do own are the characters and teams of my OCs: REKT, GTSY, KACE and DAZE.

Special thanks to the reviewers and to the readers who Fav/Alert this story, I really appreciate it.


Chapter 43: Lessons Learned (II)

On the way back...

"Hmmmm?"

"What's wrong?" I paused, coming to a stop as well and turned to look at my companion. The moment I saw her aura stop from within my mind's eye, I knew something was up. "You sense something?" She had removed her earmuffs, allowing her ears to spring up from their confines. They twitched for a few minutes before she turned to me.

"It's strange, I feel like I had picked up on something but..." She frowned, falling silent before speaking up again. "I don't know how to explain it. It's just...something I've never sensed before."

"Is it a friendly feeling or a hostile feeling?" Kairos opened her mouth to answer when something else reached her ears, the cries of other students. We looked at each other in surprise, never thought that there would be students wondering around the area. Even after the tournament matches the ground fair was still available until the later hours.

"Kyaaaa!"

"Watch out!"

"Where did it come from? From the forest?"

"Run away! It'll kill us all!"

"One way to find out!" Taking the lead, I followed my faunus partner before coming up on the scene. There was debris everywhere: broken tables, shattered chairs, shredded pieces of trees and a lot of leaves strewn across the ground.

"What the hell happened around here? A typhoon?" I questioned, analyzing the space carefully. "So much wreckage..."

"Look out!" Someone called out to us with hysteria, a boy who had taken shelter behind an overturned table. "It's coming towards you!"

"Huh? What kind of creature is that? A beowolf? What's up with its coloring?" Kairos frowned, her eyes honing in on the white-furred creature that was indeed, zooming towards us. Looking down she frowned, realizing that she didn't have Lancelot on her person. "Fuck, left my weapon back in the room! Who could have predicted this?!"

"Tch!" I tackled her out of the way at the last moment, watching as the aura of the creature took form within my head. It came to a stop, digging its claws into the ground as it turned its head towards us. It began to growl loudly with displeasure, focusing its eyes on me.

It's time to kill! It's one of HERS!

"Argh!" I knelt down, a hand quickly grasping at my right shoulder. I could hear my heart beating wildly within my chest as the urge to kill rose from the depths. It was a feeling I hadn't felt before and to be honest...it was exhilarating. Pushing off with my feet digging into the ground, I slammed into the wolf and threw it back a good feet or two.

Go on. Rip it from head to toe. Stomp its innards into the earth!

"Go...away...uggghhh..." I groaned, trying to stifle the voice from within while holding my ground against my opponent who decided to return the favor; it threw its shoulder into my chest before attempting to lop my head off with its claws. Lifting up both arms I blocked the attack and shoved the massive claws to the side; hearing it embed into the ground. Jumping back to put distance between us, I could feel my chest heaving for breath. "You're...bothering...me!"

Don't hold back, O Great One. Any and all wolves...must obey you.

"Reina!" Kairos yelled, covering her eyes from the amount of dust that flew up when I released a huge amount of energy and flew back at the wolf. Other students that were around to witness the battle quickly scrambled for cover or fled the scene. "Shit...what is this?"

"Don't fight!" I called back, standing my ground with both arms locked together with with beowolf's. "You have a match up! I won't let you use your energy on something like this!"


Outside under the pavilion...

"Excellent form!" Winter commented from where she stood behind Weiss. The younger Schnee, with Myternaster in hand, formed a mid-size summoning glyph on the floor. "Now think to your fallen foes. The ones who pushed you past who you were and become who you are now. Think of them, and watch as they come to your side."

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Weiss growled, watching the four swords in the middle of the glyph spun around and around at a fast pace. Seeing the glyph slowly reduce in size, she stopped her foot in frustration. "I can't! For fuck's sake!"

"Stop doubting!" Winter smacked her sister upside the head with an open-palm hand, her voice stern.

"I'm trying!"

"If this is what you call trying, then you have no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding as a huntress. Why don't you just move back home? I'm sure Father will give you a nice job as a receptionist." The amount of sass that was in Winter's voice irked Weiss who couldn't help but wince under her sister's gaze.

"Tch...I don't need his charity." The younger of the two grumbled, folding her hands over her chest and looked away like she was pouting.

"But you do need his money, don't you?" There was a smirk on Winter's face when Weiss looked startled and the older Schnee leaned back with a look of absolute happiness. Heh, I knew it. Weiss is so cute.

"What?! H-How did you hear about that?!"

"Lucky guess."

"Lucky guess, my ass. You probably probed through everything, knowing how resourceful Atlas tends to be."

"Hmm. Not true. I may have been in a similar situation when I joined the military. So, what exactly did you do this time?"

"Well...that's the thing. I'm not really sure." Weiss explained as Winter walked around her, trying to recall what she did. "I wanted to pay for lunch yesterday but my card got declined."

"How embarrassing."

"I know!" Weiss whirled around, throwing her arms into the air. She saw her sister shook her head, making a 'tsk tsk' noise with her tongue. "Well, it was! And I'm furious! Why would he cut me off like that?"

"Perhaps so you can stop avoiding him and call home." Winter suggested. She watched as Weiss attempted to do another summoning before walking up, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Emotions can grant you strength, but you must never let them overpower you."

"I know..." Weiss whispered, letting the glyph disappear and turned to Winter.

"It sounds to me like you have two choices in front of you. You can either call him, beg for his money back and explain once more why you want to study at Beacon over Atlas. Or...you could continue to explore Remnant. Discovering more about the world and honestly...more about yourself."

"...what if I make the wrong choice?" asked Weiss, looking at Winter for guidance.

"Whatever choice you made, bare in mind the responsibilities that follow after. What matters now are the choices you have yet to choose from, choices that will no doubt make you move forward. Not backwards." Winter smiled as she held Weiss out at arms length before pulling her into a hug. "I have to leave soon."

"It was really good to see you, Winter. I mean it." Weiss spoke once they had hugged, a genuine smile on her face. "Wish you could've stayed longer."

"Until next time, sister." Winter smiled warmly before looking around. "Now where did that beowolf run off to? It should've come back by now..."

"That's strange indeed..." Weiss mused as she walked alongside her sister back to the school, her brows furrowed in thought. "Where could it have gone? This area is huge...it could be anywhere."

"AURA PALM!"

"What the-?"

"That voice!" Sprinting forward Weiss turned the corner and immediately raised her arms as a huge gale of wind blew past, bringing with it a large amount of dust. Lowering her arms after a few minutes, she could see that there was a huge battle going about. Locked in arms the beowolf snapped its jaw mere inches from my face.

"Tch..." I clicked my tongue with annoyance, brushing a strand of hair out of my face. "Still standing even after taking that hit...talk about hitting a tank..."

What a weird scent you have...what is it exactly? The beowolf questioned, finally allowing its voice to be heard as it tried to overthrow me just by strength alone. Are you a beowolf? Or are you a human? Are you a friend or are you an enemy?

"What is it...with Grimms asking me that question?" I answered, brows furrowed with confusion. Breaking apart, we regarded each other wearily. "Every time...and you or any other Beowolves aren't giving me a proper answer." I jabbed a thumb to my chest, directly over my heart. "Especially this one inside of me...wants to be as cryptic as possible."

Then that means, you're still underdeveloped. And thus, you are, no doubt, susceptible to fall into the hands of others. And so, it should be better to kill you before that happens! Tilting its head back, the beowolf released a howl much like its dark-furred brethren, long and loud.

What is it doing? I frowned before getting a punch from a wolf I didn't see coming. Skidding across the ground I quickly regained my bearings and realized that more wolves had appeared, similar to the one I just fought. "Oh? So you called a couple of buddies did you?"

You're strong, I'll give you that. Therefore I'm not taking any precautions.

"Then bring it on. " No sooner had I said that, all the wolves rushed me. Well...crap.

You'll be wise not to speak of such haste. It'll lead to your downfall. The beowolf laughed, going for my head but I rolled underneath the extended arm. Twisting around on my back I slammed the bottom of my right foot against the creature's chest, throwing him over before hopping back up onto my own two feet. It chuckled with glee, rising back up and shook the dust from its pelt.

"Winter!" Weiss yelped as one of the ice beowolves crashed into the ground in front of them, its tongue lolling out of his open mouth. "Did you lose control of your Semblance?"

"It's not me, there's something about that aura that's drawing out the beowolves on their own!" The older Schnee growled as more of the ice wolves rose to the challenge. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed who the wolves were targeting. I was in the midst of the crowd, snarling and punching anything that wondered in too close. Who the hell is she? Fighting against Grimm with just her bare hands...

"Kairos! What's going on?!" Weiss asked as the faunus in question ran up to them.

"You tell me! Reina and I were just minding our own business when one of those things came right at us! So she just up and tackled it on her own! Before you know it, more of them appeared out of nowhere!" She then focused on Winter, taking in her appearance and said, "They belong to you don't they?"

"And what was the deducted reasoning for you to make such a claim?"

"Ice beowolves. No one I know utilizes ice Dust except for Weiss and I've never seen her summon anything like that. So assuming it's a Schnee, the only one here could be you."

"Is it because of my appearance? Do I look remotely like Weiss?"

"Winter! Restrain them! This is no time for an argument!" cried Weiss, witnessing two wolves pounce on my turned back; one dug its fangs into my arm the other sunk into my side. Yelling out with pain I was suddenly submerged among a pile of furry bodies that jumped at the chance to pin me down. "Hurry up!"

"Okay then." Winter snapped her fingers sharply and the beowolves disappeared in a flurry of white. I laid on the ground on my back, my mouth open gasping for air. Sensing people approaching, I noticed the Aura signatures of both Weiss and Kairos but I didn't recognize the one next to Weiss.

"You all right?" Kairos asked, kneeling down to help me sit up. She noticed the bite on my arm and frowned. "Didn't get roughed up too hard..."

"To force so many of my specially created beowolves out into the open just like that..." The two of us looked up to see Winter glancing at us with a stern expression. "Who are you?"

"I could be asking the same thing, your Aura is almost the same as Weiss'." I replied, tilting my head to the side. "Her sister perhaps?"

"...am I that obvious?" Winter questioned her younger sister. Getting a look from Weiss she merely shrugged her shoulders, turning her back to us. "Well, luckily there doesn't seem to be any...serious casualties."

"Right, 'serious' casualties." Kairos mumbled, fighting back the itch to roll her eyes. Winter merely smirked and walked off, leaving the rest of us to ourselves without another word.


That night...

"I sincerely apologize for my sister's creations, didn't know it stuck around for that long." Weiss said as she patched me up, wrapping the bandages around my right arm where a wolf bit me. I sent Kairos back so she could rest up for her and Timber's double battle tomorrow before following Weiss to an unoccupied bench in a fairly empty courtyard. "I guess I should be glad that you aren't fighting in any of the matches but still...I still feel bad about everything."

"Don't feel bad...ouch!" I winced when she accidentally tightened the bandages a bit tight. The bite to my side was also patched up so there was some restriction to my upper body movement. "At least I was the one who engaged in combat and not her."

"Did you and Kairos not watch the double match today?" Weiss questioned as she put away the medical kit she went to pick up from the nurse's office.

"No...I wasn't feeling well so we ended up taking a walk around the place." I explained to her before adding, "I'm okay now so don't worry. Apparently they have screens everywhere so we ended up seeing who won."

"Yeah, Ruby sent me a text saying how upset Velvet was since she and Fox were sitting next to them. Blake didn't look too happy either." The heiress folded her arms over her lap but curled her fingers into fists. "I don't know about you but I have this eerie feeling like something bad is about to happen."

"Like premonition of sorts?"

"Yeah...like foreshadowing. I think that's why it'd be best if Yang and I give it our all in our match tomorrow. We don't know what to expect." Weiss nodded her head in agreement. "And we've seen some really tough competition so far."

"That's just the thrill of battle right? Doesn't it make your heart hammer excitedly within your chest when pitted against someone who could be greater? It drives you to become a better fighter and gives a lot of experience. But I'm going to agree and say that our guards need to be up."

"A little paranoid aren't you?"

"Just preparing for the worse." We looked at one another and shared a laugh before a large noise hummed above us; sounded like an airship's engine. I tilted my head up and asked, "Oh? Is that her airship?"

"Yup, that's hers." Weiss smiled, waving an arm goodbye as the vehicle flew off into the night. "That's most definitely hers."

Bzzzzt~ Bzzzzt~ Bzzzzt~

"Hmmm?" Rummaging around her skirt pocket, she fished out her Scroll and her gaze softened when she recognized the caller ID. Glancing up after Winter's airship, she took a deep breath and smiled.

"You...aren't going to answer that?" I asked, watching her shut off her Scroll. Based on the moment of hesitation I only inferred that she really didn't want to answer it, but when she glanced at Winter's ship she smiled like she was reassured of something. "Wasn't it important?"

"It'll be alright, I have more important things to worry about now." She told me, putting the device away. Placing a hand on my shoulder she began to walk back to the dormitory. "C'mon. We have a long day tomorrow."