Quoth the Apricot 1 - (RWBY AU, OC!I)
Disclaimer: I think it's important to say that... this is a Heavy AU. As in, a lot of stuff is very not canon to RWBY. The story itself is set years before any of Team RWBY is involved in Beacon. You may find some details either omitted or outright concealed by some POVs since the MC is working with uncharted territory and most of his knowledge is faulty. Also, he has an 'enemy' at Beacon.
Remnant sucks.
Some may think that being reincarnated in a new world you are familiar with can be exciting, but no one think of the chances of having a rather precarious existance from your new childhood. I am not an orphan, but, to some extent, I wished I was. Not because of my parents - my new mom and dad were reliable people, but they were extremely unlucky.
Vale had a cap on how many people could live in its many cities.
Most of the people that tried to find a stable home had to check some of those frontier towns that were constantly at risk of being attacked by the Grimm. Luckily for me, it never got to the point that monsters threatened my life. But I would say that curfews were far more common than in many safe settlements.
This didn't stop me from setting up a plan in life: become a Huntsman, come back here, and turn this place in a safe haven.
It was a matter of gratitude as both my parents did much and got much in return for their hardwork. It felt fair for me to become a protector and make things even. I wasn't even sure how far in RWBY I was as Vale still existed, I heard that Ozpin was the headmaster but... nothing that would suggest the White Fang had gone violent.
Alas, an introduction is needed. My name is Percy Byzz, and I graduated from Patch together with my childhood friend, Ciel Azul.
My preferred weapon is a katana because it is cheap and well-calibrated with my electric semblance, and I am-
"Not listening!" A certain feminine voice spoke up as a soft slap hit my upper back.
I jumped up then sighing as I turned at the source of my many troubles. And also many chuckles at times.
"Ciel, no need to be a brute," I whined, causing the purple-haired girl to huff as she fixed her blue cape- yes, she was a cape-wearer much to my deep amusement and immense chagrin. "So, what were you saying about Beacon?"
We were in the airship taking us to the school, and the girl, always the encyclopedic nuthead for anything involving huntsmen, was giving me another grueling explanation of Beacon. Its headmasters, its teachers, and everything important... for the last hundred of years. It was very exhaustive and exhausting, but I knew the pouting girl was hardly angry at me for zoning out considering how easily she tended to lose herself on the topic.
"I was saying that we were here, dumbass," The girl whined, gritting her teeth furiously. "At least pay attention to that!"
I chuckled, really enjoying the part where I can be a lazy guy without appearing too mature about it. "Sure, sure. Do you want me to lead the way?"
I ended up being leading the nervous girl around. Despite her short temper, Ciel was extremely shy around new places and people, so I was the one sticking around and keeping her company. The fact that our group of friends was relatively small since we hardly had kids our age back home further made any social skill relatively basic in that regard.
Hence why we were entering Beacon as two clueless chums - at least, appearance-wise. I remembered a fair bit of Beacon's main rooms and I knew the schedule of today and tomorrow, so I didn't feel particularly uneasy as we strolled around. We saw a lot of people befriending each other, but we hardly made any new acquaintances as we stuck to each other.
I saw no one of familiar, which was concerning considering that I expected to see anyone from Team CFVY at least. But no, these were all faces I was unfamiliar with. The hologram had shown Glynda Goodwitch, so I know we were within less than a decade from the formation of Team RWBY.
This day passed quickly as we all went to sleep in the large room prepared for the newcomers for a 'big sleepover', for the next day we had our Initiation Test involving Emerald Forest. Despite our first real experience involving the Grimm, Ciel and I managed to successfully get through after we found our respective partners.
For me, it was Thomas Daffy. Blonde guy with blue eyes, his weapon was a multi-tasking handcannon that could be used to deploy 'regular' anti-tank bullets or employ grenades of all sorts. (Ref: Mustadio Bunansa from FF Tactics)
[spoiler][/spoiler]
In Ciel's case, we had a 'spicy one' in the form of the sinful looking dark-skinned beauty that was Rea Celeste. The blue-haired one-eyed girl was our age but she definitely looked to be a bit older due to her more developed curve. Plus, her mysterious eyepatch made her jovial expressions somewhat more crafted than they appeared to be. (Ref: Fem!Kaeya from Genshin Impact)
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The Initiation Test was not as intense as it was in the show. No one stirred the most dangerous monsters in the Emerald Forest awake, so we had to face some low-tiers threat through the duration of the test. We all made it out alive and barely injured, and soon the teams were assembled.
Our Team was thus Team Apricot (PRCT) and, while I thought things would pretty much settle in with what I remembered from the show, this is where things took an unusual turn as Ozpin was not done giving an explanation of how school will be handled starting tomorrow.
"As of a change for this year due to the sudden increase of the teaching staff, it was decided that each member of the staff shall claim a team as their own students for the duration of their time here at Beacon Academy. Your 'homeroom teacher' shall be the one greeting you in the morning to provide you with instructions and the schedule for the first two weeks at Beacon."
That was... not part of what I remembered. I thought that it was a weird development, but maybe it was a small experiment that didn't take off or something like that. I just keep it in mind as PRCT got to their new room and we shifted the beds to be 'fitting' of our own spaces.
Tomorrow was indeed going to be an interesting day and... I sure as hell wasn't ready for it as my knowledge lulled me in a false sense of security.
Pulling an all-nighter was nothing new for someone like Raven Branwen.
Pulling an all-nighter for work-related reasons was not.
After all, Raven had not planned to work after ditching the role of Huntress. She had planned to just retire, enjoy the kids, yell at Taiyang for being 'unfaithful' by impregnating Summer too, and then... well, do 'nothing'.
It should have been an easy descent into the duty of taking over the Branwen Tribe back in Mistral, and avoid getting pulled into plots because Ozpin loved to play chess with people's lives.
Raven wanted to have none of that. She had been feeling extremely worried of that behavior ever since she became a mother, thinking that her team would have just seen that, if they all wanted to settle, they had to give up on Ozpin. Summer should have been the first one to do so, but the woman was so stubborn with her heroism and stupid dream of helping others. Her and her stupid silver eyes...
So, with no signs of Qrow stopping going into secret missions with Summer, it became clear what had to be done. And while Raven wasn't utterly sold in leaving her only daughter behind, she knew she could trust those people to at least do proper parenting.
Yet, things took a strange turn of events. A day before she would leave unnoticed and leave no traces behind, Raven was called urgently by Summer. Had her plan been discovered? No. The truth was something else tied to a small pink device she was familiar with that showed that Summer was-
"I-I am pregnant."
The news should have been joyous. After all, the girl had been hogging Yang so much that it was clear she was moments away from just getting her own baby to mother. But the issue with that news was who the father was.
"...I am not surprised."
Raven was angry. Very angry. But also very understanding of two things: 1) Summer had tried to get with Taiyang before Raven allowed him to court her and 2) Raven had been particularly hostile to spend time with her husband after giving birth to Yang.
It was less about not caring for Taiyang and more about hormones and Ozpin making her nuts to waste time with the blond idiot. Those factors, plus the fact that it was clear her marriage with Taiyang was really getting close to dying (by her own hands at that), meant that this sort of 'betrayal' was predictable. And yet, Raven was annoyed.
Why did that have to come up now?!
It felt done on purpose, but she couldn't see Ozpin planning so deeply about it. Hell, she doubted Ozpin had planned to give Summer to Taiyang when Qrow had been the headmaster's loyal pet for a while and he had been looking up to spend quality time with the white-caped huntress.
Raven just knew how much Qrow had been investing to make something happen, but she also knew how Summer didn't look at Qrow that way. And... that wasn't the end of it all.
"I was... I was thinking about your words. About stopping going into missions and... I want to do it. I want to quit."
Raven was... she was happy. The only reason she hadn't grinned back then was due to the heavy nature of this declaration. Seeing Summer crying was equally horrible, but Raven was just giddy since that meant she had 'won'.
Ozpin could do nothing but just bow his head at Summer's decision as things truly settled for the best for one Raven Branwen. Ditching her plan to leave, it was time to suffer parenthood (and couple therapy due to Taiyang's cheating) together with Summer.
Qrow was heartbroken but 'understanding'. His tab at the local bar in Patch grew thrice in the ensuing month than the previous year.
All was nice and well... until Raven realized she was bored. Parenthood was tough, but Summer seemed happy to take care of that stuff most of the time, while Raven was assigned to go at the grocery shop, buy stuff in large boxes and then... well, do nothing.
Of course, boredom played an heavy bit on Raven's decision to get back to work. First, by trying to be a teacher at Signal- but the place was just too unfamiliar to her. She expected it to be fun and easy as Taiyang tended to make it seem each day when he came back from work but... it wasn't enough.
She needed more- without becoming a huntress under Ozpin.
And that's when Summer, distracted as she was playing with both Ruby and Yang, gave her an idea.
"What if you were to ask Ozpin to be a teacher at Beacon?"
That was... an odd idea. It meant working for Ozpin but without being sent to missions. All she had to do was to teach kids, keep them from trouble, and... get paid. That also meant having the chance to see if the newcoming huntsmen were worthy of the title or not ever since they left Beacon!
That is not a bad idea.
The issue was getting through with Ozpin. The old man tried to inquire how far she wanted to be involved in Beacon, and Raven had to stress she was there just to teach.
Ultimately the old man bowed at her request, and her first year at Beacon started. And the bastard introduced a new rule since there were other former students that joined the teaching staff that year.
Raven was thus in charge of a team of young students. Team PRCT was indeed... plain. The footage Ozpin sent to her scroll was nothing that warranted her interest as she saw some average performance that really promised a tedious first year of being a teacher but... her gaze stopped at the team leader.
Percy Byzz looked as average as the rest, lazy and easygoing - he reminded her of Taiyang. But, as she looked more into his actions, she realized that the boy was holding back. The more she looked into it, the more Raven realized that the entire team was holding back.
With a tired smirk appearing on her face, the woman knew that maybe, just maybe...
This was going to be a funnier task than she had expected.
AN
First change in the timeline: Raven didn't leave because her departure plan was preceded by Summer getting pregnant with Taiyang (which prompted a pissed Raven sicced at the handsome man). But, as the first chapter suggests, other 'former students' have joined Beacon as teachers and... I will just say that I have read a few fancomics in the past suggesting a couple of parents studied at Beacon around the time of Team STRQ.