Reviews
Aztec 13: I haven't really thought of that, but that's an interesting idea on how to include the Skull Crawlers. As for Whitley, I'm thinking of him showing up a few chapters later.
miguelfreiria2001: Thanks for the suggestion.
GG Vegito: I don't have much plans for Bagan, he's not exactly a favorite of mine. But if you have suggestions, I'm open to them.
Kaiju Avenger: Glad you liked the opening.
I shall do my best to work to meet your expectations.
Keep on reading.
Godzilla is the King of all the Kaiju, Kong is the Clan Leader of the Gorilla/Simian Kaiju. Here's the hierarchy.
King (Godzilla) Queen (Mothra), Clan Leaders (Kong, Rodan, Anguirus, Barb) Warriors Healers/Doctors Gathers, Females with no roles, and children younger than 17 years.
And yes, I am using the MonsterVerse variants in this story.
Question Dude: Read the chapter again. There is one Kaiju that used Koba's line to Blue Eyes. Here's a hint. He appeared in 1972, 1973 and 2004.
Rexzilla: The "feral Faunus" is just a term the RWBY characters use until they hear the word "Kaiju."
And yes, the Kaiju look more animalistic while Faunus are more human like. Detailed descriptions in this chapter.
Writing Warrior: A cruel one indeed.
Really? You didn't think of that? I thought that was your intention when you suggested it.
DJ Rodriguez: That is one way to describe Nora.
No problem. I honestly realize I should have done that with my other stories, but oh well. Hindsight's 20-20.
Story Artist: Thank you for checking out that story. It is indeed a shame that it hasn't been updated. I'm still hoping.
Expect some similarities with that story. Especially with Book One.
Mind blowing indeed.
That sounds like a good idea.
Gojira Defender: Yeah, they'll be introduced soon, or hinted in this chapter.
And to answer your question, no spoilers but I'm sure you have a good idea which option it will be.
Romantic Lover: Ha! That made my day.
Kaiju Avenger: Thank you.
Deathwing (Chapter 2): I do have plans for most of them. No spoilers.
Hulk (Chapter One): You would be right for the most part.
Chapter Two: I understand your point of Adam Taurus, but I really intend to flesh him out in this story. That last suggestion, now that, that sounds like a good idea.
Effle: I can understand that, but these are more than just Faunus.
LORD DESTRYUK: You are correct. Here's a hint for Koba, he's a kaiju that is a fan favorite since 1972.
Alexstraza 4EVER: Yeah.
Now, on with the story.
Chapter 3: A Kaiju Encounter and Discovery
The first night just meant for them finding a place to camp and set up their tents. The next day, would be considered their first day at Western Dragon and they will search for Dust and anything that is undiscovered by science.
Day One
"I can't believe we haven't found anything!" Ruby exclaimed in a whiny tone.
"To be fair, Pipsqueak," Qrow Branwen spoke up next to the campfire with the red cloaked reaper's team and Specialist Winter Schnee. "You shouldn't really expect anything to pop up on the first day of the mission."
"Yeah. . . I guess so," Ruby said, still feeling dejected. The bet had made her excited for finding something. With her expectations underwhelmed, she was lamented over today's empty results. She didn't feel like this was an excuse to not feel disappointed.
She wasn't the only one to feel this way. None of them have found anything new. Even the high energy Nora would have found something at this point. But she didn't. They didn't even find deposits of Dust. Nothing but trees for miles the further they went into the forest.
The only thing that was remotely exciting was that a small fight broke out between Qrow and Winter. Ruby and Yang rooted for their uncle to beat the Ice Queen while Weiss rooted for her sister to beat the 'drunken sailor.' Trees were sliced in half by their swords or bark and chunks were blasted off by Qrow's sword-shotgun-scythe weapon, Harbinger.
Blake and the others were a bit concerned when they watched from the sidelines. They didn't see the start of the fight but were concerned it was going to draw the attention of Grimm, but it didn't. There was the concern they were going to injure each other.
The Cat Faunus though noticed something else that she was sure that none of the others had noticed. They were smiling ever so slightly. They were enjoying it. Qrow and Winter were enjoying themselves in the fight. In fact, it looked more like a dance than an actual fight.
Blake had rose an eyebrow during the fight until it ended in a draw. At least that's Weiss kept saying. Ruby and Yang had said that Qrow was winning the fight. Ren, Pyrrha and Blake didn't say anything, but they saw that Qrow didn't seem to be going all out in the fight. That was impressive since Qrow seemed drunk during the whole thing.
Come to think of it though, Blake thought to herself while reading her book. He seems to be drunk all the time. He may have a flask that's not too big, but he's drinking enough to get drunk most of the day.
And based on Ruby and Yang's expressions, that was a normal thing. A bit concerning, maybe, but the man never tried anything inappropriate to any of them other than make some remarks to Winter.
She also saw Winter and Weiss frowning whenever Qrow was drinking. And it wasn't much of a mystery to why. Even in the White Fang, Blake heard about Willow Schnee being reduced to a drunken housewife when Jacques Gele married her and took over the company. Recently, the members of RWBY had met Willow when they went with Weiss to the Kingdom of Atlas. Needless to say, the rumors had toned down how much of a drunk Willow had become. And with growing up with parents that loved each other very much, it was sad seeing how it was for Weiss and her siblings.
She did grow curious of the interactions between Winter and Qrow more. She remembered what Yang had told her about her family a few years back in their first year. They were on the same team, and she looked them up in Beacon's records once out of curiosity. Team STRQ was one of the best of Beacon in their generation, it explained why Yang called Summer Rose "Super Mom: Baker of the Best Cookies in the World and Slayer of Giant Monsters." Not much was said about Qrow and Raven Branwen other than that they were from Mistral. Other than that, Yang had said that her birth mother Raven left when Yang was born and Summer Rose went on a mission and never came back. Her and Ruby's father had broken down from those two events. Perhaps Qrow's drinking was a coping mechanism for the grief. That he's probably seen a lot as a veteran Huntsman. Not really healthy, but she couldn't do anything about it when she was a complete stranger to him.
Perhaps that's what Winter is doing, she thought to herself. Or maybe not and I'm just reading too much into this.
. . . Still. . . Entertaining to watch though. Reminds me of one of my favorite romance novels.
"Well, it was only the first day," Pyrrha said, trying to remain optimistic. "Perhaps tomorrow will wield better results."
". . . Yeah, I guess so," Ruby muttered.
Day 2
"We still haven't found anything!"
Again, their efforts were for naught, even for splitting in pairs. The weather wasn't helping either. It had been raining heavy this day. The only thing they have found, some of them claimed, were just a few Grimm too young to prove to be a challenge for any of them.
And still no Dust! Not a single Dust shard or deposit. It was honestly very, very strange for the students and their supervisors to believe it. What was going on? Why was the land so empty? Perhaps a past group of explorers already taken everything? No, they would have heard about that and wouldn't be here.
Ruby was disheartened over the results like the day before. She had really wanted to find something. Not for the bet or fame, but just to have fun. Heck, she would even take to fighting a new species of Grimm, just for the challenge. But alas, there was nothing!
Qrow was drinking from his whiskey flask and he looked at everyone else in the group and gauged their reactions. Being a Huntsman for years, he could read most people's expression and get a feeling of what they were thinking.
Weiss was angered by this lack of progress. There was nothing here! Nothing but trees! How can she uplift her reputation at this point with trees being the only things on this blasted continent? None of this was worth spending a bunch of Lien.
Blake wasn't showing any disappointment for the empty results, but she was starting to feel more frustrated. Unaware to Qrow, she had different thoughts. Blake would have preferred to be back in Vale, preparing for the White Fang and Roman Torchwick's next attack (Despite that it's been well over two years since the Breach of Vale) and. . . she had considered that it was time for her to reach out to her parents. But now here she was, on a continent and not finding anything new or unknown, not even Dust.
Yang started to think it was a mistake to make that bet now. She merely wanted to lift Weiss' spirits (And she wasn't really sure how that worked.) and now there seemed to be nothing here.
And Team JNPR was no better. Jaune was confused on how this land was barren of anything new. His hopes of winning the bet was lowering now. He thought it would be a way to win a date with Weiss. (If only he could see that she was not interested and see that Pyrrha has a crush on him.) But the emptiness of Western Dragon was lowering his chances.
Pyrrha was also disheartened. The bet had sounded fun to bond with her friends and her crush Jaune.
Ren was not showing much emotion over these results. He seemed to have been prepared for this. Probably came from having a partner that was very hyperactive. Speaking of which. . .
"I know right? This is so BORING!" That summed up Nora's thoughts over the past two days.
Winter was even showing some frustration over not having any results. Qrow felt his pocket with a considering expression.
"How is it that we haven't found anything in this blasted place?!" Weiss demanded.
Yang shrugged. "Maybe we haven't looked in the right places?"
"The right places?" Weiss repeated in a snapping tone. "This whole continent is fog, dirt and trees! Where else are we suppose to look?!"
". . . Under the rocks?" Ruby shrugged meekly.
Weiss responded with letting out a indignant shriek. "Weiss, compose yourself!" Winter scolded in a way only older siblings would. Normal older siblings would, Qrow mentally corrected. His sister wouldn't scold him like that.
"Well," Qrow began. "I have found something more further up the mountains to the north."
Everyone turned their heads to him. "What?! Why didn't you say anything?!"
Qrow reached into his pocket and held up a handful of large red berries. They were very bright red and at least the size of a man's thumb. "I don't think they're poisonous, smell too sweet for that." Qrow shrugged as everyone began to crowd him.
"Ooh! Shiny!" Nora cooed.
"You sure they're not poisonous?" Winter asked with narrowed her eyes as Jaune rose a hand to take one, only to pause at the elder Schnee's question. Everyone else was about to ask to have one before they realized that Winter had a point. They didn't know if the berries were poisonous or not.
"Only one way to find out," Qrow remarked before flicking one in the air and catching it in his mouth.
"No, wait! You buffoon!" Winter said, eyes widening in worry.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby and Yang shouted.
Qrow began to sway just a bit before his dull crimson eyes rolled and then he fell back on the ground with a groan.
"""Qrow!""" shouted Ruby, Yang and Winter as they shot to their feet and ran to the collapsed Huntsman.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Jaune said frantically, holding his head between his hands in fear.
"What the Hell?!" Nora exclaimed in unison with Blake and Weiss. Ren stared with wide eyes while using his Semblance to keep his composure.
"Oh my goodness!" Pyrrha shouted, shooting to her feet and covering her mouth with her hands and she stared with wide eyes.
Winter crouched next to Qrow. She leaned forward to inspect him. His face wasn't swelling, skin looked the same. He wasn't foaming at the mouth. She took his arm to feel for a pulse.
"Is he. . . ?" Ruby asked, trailing off with tears forming in her silver eyes.
Just then, Qrow's lips opened up in a smile and revealing that the berry was held in between his teeth. His eyes opened up with nothing but mischief and amusement. Winter stared before she realized that he was just playing them.
"You jerk!" she hissed angrily, hitting him on the chest. This caused the berry to fly out of his mouth and he caught it in hand.
"Aw, you do care, Ice Queen," Qrow grinned.
Yang and Ruby stared before the former's eyes turned fiery crimson. "You big jerk!" Yang exclaimed, punching Qrow as well.
"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby shouted before hitting her uncle on the arm with her fists, which were small despite that she wields a mechanical scythe-sniper weapon. She wasn't a weight lifter like Yang. "That was so mean!"
"You mean, he was just pranking us?" Jaune asked for clarification.
"Yep," Qrow replied, popping on the P. He holds the berries in hand. "Had some earlier when I found them this morning. The only negative side effect was that it made me fall asleep for about four hours."
They all stared at him before accepting that something new was discovered now. But berries as some sort of natural sedative drug?
"Okay, that aside," Ren spoke up. "What I don't understand is how this continent is seemingly void of Dust. There should have been something here."
"Well, the mission's not over yet," Yang replied. "We still got plenty of time tomorrow to find something. I'm sure if we search far enough, we'll at least grab some Dust for the mission" Her words seem to uplift the group's mood "Heck, we still might find something cooler than sedative drug berries for our bet!"
Suddenly a strange, high pitch sound was heard from the darkness. Each of the students stood up, staring at the direction of the call, while Pyrrha, Blake, Qrow and Winter kept a hand over their weapons. Yang however, blinked and remarked, ". . . Well speak of the devil."
"What was that?" Ruby asked nervously.
"I don't know. . . " Jaune answered uncertainly.
"Whatever it is, we should be prepared for it," Pyrrha proclaimed and each of them entered a fighting stand, holding their weapons at the ready. Qrow however felt that the noise sounded faintly familiar.
Whatever it was, it was coming to their direction at high speeds and it sounded like it was coming in numbers. As if trampling of hundreds of feet. The same sound from earlier was heard, this time from more than one creature.
Qrow, once again, thought it sounded familiar while Ruby was one of the few getting anxious. "Guys, it's getting closer."
"Don't worry, Rubes. We can take it," Yang said confidently, Ember Celica in shotgun-gauntlet form.
The trampling kept up, the thud of heavy feet on the earth coming closer and getting louder. The bodies of the unknown assailants, for the lack of a better term, could be heard brushing against the leaves and twigs of bushes. With the high pitched call being heard over and over again, out of sync and with different pitches, it was clearly more than one. But then as they got closer, they started to slow down.
Ruby picked up on that. "Are they. . . slowing down?"
"Focus, Ruby!" Weiss snapped at her leader. "They're still coming towards us!"
Ruby quickly concurred and kept up her defense position. Qrow however channeled his Aura to his ears, increasing his hearing to match that of a Faunus. He heard the sound of. . . hooves? He furrowed his brows as the sounds softened, which meant that they were slowing down as Ruby said. But why? He narrowed his eyes at the darkness and could see some shapes out in the darkness, the campfire and the moonlight helping the visibility slightly. The figures exited the forest, towards the students and were revealed to be-
"Elk?"
.
.
.
Exactly what Ruby said. A whole herd of elk. It was made up of cows, some with calves, and bulls with impressive racks. Seeing that it wasn't Grimm, the students lowered their guard and sighed in relief. Most of the herd came to a stop, standing around them while others lied down.
Yang stared before commenting, "That's a lot of elk."
Qrow and Winter looked around though. What was causing the elk to run in their direction?
"I didn't think that elk would be here," Jaune said in awe, looking at the animals around him.
"Elk aren't that widespread," Winter acknowledged. "But they would live in forests like this one."
"That's cool," Ruby remarked. She didn't know much about wild animals. She usually gave attention to animals with cute appearances, like her and Yang's pet corgi Zwei. Then one of the calves approached her cautiously, sniffing her. Ruby looked at the animal with wide eyes and it paused. It stared at her, more accurately, her silver eyes before approaching her more closely and then did something that took her and everyone else by surprise.
It began to lick Ruby's face. And soon, other calves were crowding her, some licking her face as well.
"H-he-hey! Stop that!" Ruby tried to protest but ended up laughing.
Everyone else just looked at the spectacle in utter stupor.
"Uncle Qrow. . . why is an elk licking my baby sister's face?" Yang asked.
Qrow shook his head, shrugging and not taking his eyes from the scene. "I have no idea~." he drawled.
". . . That's a new one," Blake remarked.
"Perhaps these elk have not seen a human before?" Pyrrha hummed in thought.
"If that were the case, they would be crowding around us all," Winter pointed out. "Instead they are crowding Ms. Rose."
As if hearing that, and deciding to correct that, the elk began to crowd the other humans and Faunus as well. Some were just observing them, smelling or licking them. "You were saying?" Qrow remarked to Winter, patting one calf on the head.
"If these things think they can lay their slobbery tongues on me, they have another thing coming," Weiss declared in aggravation. She did not want her clothes getting wet from the elk's saliva.
"Oh lighten up, Weiss," said Yang with a giggle. "This kinda tickles."
"Yeah, they're just being friendly." Ruby concurred. I wonder if these guys make good pets, she thought while petting one elk on the snout. When the animal turned its head to the left, she saw a long mark on its upper shoulder. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows, unable to make what of it and leaned closer to look at it.
"Hey, guys, come look at this." Ruby called to the others. They looked to her before walking over to her spot. She pointed to the mark.
"A scar?" Jaune asked upon seeing it. It was long, narrow and pale. From the looks of it, recently healed.
"Ooh, that's nasty," Yang winced.
"Hold on, why is this important?" Weiss spoke up. "Don't this animals fight with their antlers? So shouldn't scars be normal."
"They do," Blake nodded her head. "Bull elk fight for territory and mates. Maybe this cow was injured from a duel."
"I don't think so," Qrow shook his head instantly. Everyone looked to him in confusion. "Elk charge to fight with their antlers, so this would have been a protrusion."
"He's right," Pyrrha stated. "This is long and narrow, it was caused by something flat and sharp. Like a blade."
Winter studied the scar more closely herself and nodded. "This seems to be have made by something thrown at the elk."
Pyrrha nodded. "I would say a spear is the culprit. And that it missed its target, but still left a mark."
"A spear?" Weiss repeated in surprise.
"Wait," Jaune held up a hand and looked to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, how do you know that-?"
"I received such marks in my early days of training," the redhead clarified. "Though, they didn't look like this."
"Hold on," Yang held up a hand. "Does that mean. . . that there's people here?"
"That's preposterous!" Weiss declared. "There can't be any form of a populace here. We've covered so much of the area in the past two days and we haven't seen any of people!"
"Maybe they've covered their tracks." Blake shrugged and suggested.
"Even so, we should have found more clues." Weiss rebuked.
"Here's some more," Ren as he carefully reached to something that tangled on one of the bull's antlers. It looked like rope tied to two large rocks. They seemed to be primitive in nature, but it wasn't hard to figure out what they were.
"Bolas?" Ruby questioned as she got a better look at them.
"Well, I don't about any of you," Qrow said as he inspected a bite mark on the elk he had drugged with the Sleeping Berries. "But this bitemark looks about the same size of a human bite."
Winter walked by his side and inspected it. ". . . It is. . . " she said after a moment. She shares a look with Qrow.
"We're not alone."
The implication that people were living on Western Dragon, the Land of Darkness, was astonishing. Truly shocking. Nothing like this has ever been discovered. No one has ever ventured far into the continent because it was barren and void of any life other than the Creatures of Grimm. Have these people lived with the Grimm this entire time? Were they the reason the Grimm have dwindled in number? How is it that they have lived on this continent in secret for so long?
Winter and Qrow though shared a look remembering what their superiors have shown them before taking the mission.
"So. . . who wins the bet?"
That question threw everyone for a loop and they all looked to the resident blonde brawler in confusion.
"What?" Jaune asked after a moment.
"We just found something new, right?" Yang clarified.
"Everyone knows about elk, you brute." Weiss said. "The berries are the only things undiscovered."
Yang shook her head. "No, I mean whoever's been hunting these elk." she explained her thoughts over this. "We just found evidence of a person or people here!"
Pyrrha furrowed her brow in thought. "Yang, I don't think this is solid evide-"
"I'd say I win," Yang declared with hands on her hips.
Jaune's jaw dropped. "W-What?! No way!" he shook his head at Yang. "WE got this!" He gestured to his teammates.
"I guessed right that there were people here!" Yang defended.
"Pyrrha figured out where the scars came from." Jaune said, gesturing to Pyrrha who blushed a little. "We won this."
"Oh yeah?" grinned Yang with a raised eyebrow. "Say that again. I deer you!"
.
.
.
Everyone looked at Yang strangely for her terrible pun while she kept up her grin. Blake and Weiss were clearly disapproving the joke, Ren and Pyrrha rose an eyebrow while Jaune stared with wide eyes. Nora snorted a little. Of all the terrible puns Yang is known to make, that was a little funny.
Winter looked to Qrow and Ruby with a raised eyebrow while the uncle-niece duo covered their faces in embarrassment and groaned in annoyance.
"Really, Yang?" Ruby asked. Honestly, she was surprised a pun/joke wasn't made earlier.
Yang sighed when no one found her joke funny. "I try." And apparently the elk didn't like the joke funny at all, evident by them now walking away from her.
One elk kept nuzzling Ruby as if asking for something. "I don't got any treats," Ruby said to the calf who let out a whine in response. It stared at her, seeming to be pleading to her before it walked away with the rest.
"Bye!" Nora called after the elk, waving a hand. One of them looked to her for a moment before walking away.
As the elk left, Ruby turned to her sister. "Yang, I think the bet's still on." she addressed. "I know you like winning, but that wasn't well thought out." She chuckled nervously.
Yang deflated a moment later. She sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I guess you're right." she admitted. "I was a bit hasty."
"A bit?" Jaune repeated.
"Don't worry, I'm sure everything is going to be better tomorrow." Ruby said optimistically. "We can still achieve our objective."
Qrow chuckled as he moved to sit back down. He paused as he noticed that the elk that ate his berries was gone. He didn't think anything of it at first before he caught the glimpse of something. It looked like a skull in the dark shadows. A long, narrow, lizard like skull staring at him. He thought it was a Grimm, but it lacked the red eyes that Grimm are known for. Just black eye sockets. When he gave his full attention to its direction, it vanished.
Day Three
Their progressive did not get any better.
Jaune found a squirrel that bit his finger while heading south of their camp.
Nora found a different species of berries with Ren, who firmly told her not to eat them. If the red berries are natural sedative drugs, who knows what the others are.
Other than that, they were no closer to finding anything new and undiscovered to science. Yet they didn't give up. They wanted to complete the mission to find Dust in success, not failure and they wanted to win the bet that Yang started.
But, unaware to them, they will find something. It wasn't going to be Dust or a new species of Grimm either. They would come across something. A single discovery. One that would change the very face of Remnant, revoking the way of life they knew and throwing everything into chaos. . .
Ruby and Weiss searched through the forest further west. They didn't really know what to look for at this point, Dust or not.
Ruby had turned up rocks and stones to look under them while Weiss refused to do that, on account of getting her clothes dirty. Ruby searched the bushes while Weiss refused to do the same, wanting to avoid scratching herself. Ruby was even climbing the tall trees while Weiss. . .
"Do you see anything?" Remained on the ground. In short, she wasn't being helpful at the moment.
"No! Just trees!" Ruby called back, using the telescope and crosshairs of Crescent Rose to look around. "And more tree," she looked to the right. "And more." She looked to the left. "Maybe a mountain-?"
"This is pointless!" Weiss said in frustration.
Ruby quickly sped down to the ground with her Semblance and appeared before her partner with a concerned expression. "What's pointless?"
"Everything!" Weiss snapped. "This mission! This continent! THAT STUPID GAMBLE YOUR SISTER MADE!"
Normally, Weiss' voice would sound angelic in singing, but now it was making birds fly away in fright. Ruby took a moment to watch the avians fly away before looking back to Weiss.
"Weiss, don't think like that." she said in an uplifting tone. "We still have time before leaving. We're going to find something, I know it."
"Well isn't that reassuring." Weiss huffed sarcastically.
"Weiss!" Ruby frowned.
Weiss was silent before sighing. "What are we going to find, Ruby?" she asked. "There's obviously no Dust here for miles and there's definitely nothing for us to discover. This is just a barren forest! I question why the Grimm would even leave! Or why there's life here in the first place."
Ruby was silent for a moment. "Well, we still have to find something! We can't give up!"
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Even after three years, you're just naïve to the end, aren't you?"
The Schnee's demeanor bothered Ruby. Before she could try to say more, the heiress turned away from her. But then Ruby grabbed her shoulder before she could walk away.
"Weiss, people are counting on us." She said softly. "Blake, Yang, my uncle, your sister, Jaune and the others want us to succeed, and we want to them to succeed. I want them to." she stated. "Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch even want us to achieve something in this mission. . . And I think your dad is expecting you do good here too."
Weiss didn't move nor did she turn back to Ruby. After a moment, the silver eyed Huntress sighed at the silence. "I'm going to keep searching," she said as she turned away. "I'll come back when I find something."
Still not getting a response, she sighed before speedily climbed up another tree. She would do so again and again until she found something.
Weiss's angered expression became slightly pained when Ruby mentioned her father and thought of one response she kept to herself. You don't even know half of what he expects of me.
"Geeze, you think that we'd find something by now," Yang said to Blake as they headed on a trail up along a mountain. Blake was silent for the most part since the day began. Yang wasn't expecting an answer, but she thought the bookworm would at least say something.
"We're not going to find anything," Blake shook her head suddenly as Yang looked into a bush. Yang blinked before looking back to see her partner looking frustrated. "There's no Dust here and the only things we found are animals and plants. This mission has been a waste of our time."
"Hey, don't go all 'Blakey' on me," Yang said. "We'll find something. We still have a lot of ground to cover and time before we meet back at the beach."
Blake rose an eyebrow. "And you think we'll find something in that time?"
"Yes!" Yang tried to look confident before dropping slightly. "Maybe. . . Probably?. . . I dunno."
Blake sighed in response before looking up at her again. "You want to know the worst part of this?" Yang raised an eyebrow. "We're lost."
". . . Wait, what?" Yang looked around and. . . Blake was right. The trees now had moss on their bark and the fog was thicker than before. Wherever they were now, they were deeper in the forest and they had no idea where to go. ". . . Crap."
"This is the place," Qrow said to Winter as they stood in a field of berry bushes. Winter looked around at the bushes before looking to Qrow. "And you just decided to eat them without knowing what they'll do?"
"I might have been a bit more drunk at the time," Qrow shrugged. "Will say that it gave me the best sleep I had in months."
Winter almost rolled her eyes when he said that he was drunk before he remarked about his sleep. She had a sympathetic expression as he looked away. She moved to say something before Qrow noticed something in the trees. She followed his gaze and saw something perched on the tree limbs.
A bird, yet at the same time not a bird.
It lacked feathers whatsoever, instead had leathery skin with yellow markings and a mouthful of sharp teeth. What was most noticeable was the upper jaw that stretched out a couple of feet and was flat like a blade with barbs on the edges.
"That is one ugly ass bird," Qrow said bluntly. Winter slightly nodded in agreement.
Ruby let out a disheartened sigh and moved to climb down the (Probably) hundredth tree she had climbed. But then she saw something in the far distance. She squinted her eyes before pulling out Crescent Rose and looking through the telescope again. The object, objects were solid and emitting different colors in the faint sunlight.
Dust crystals, Ruby realized as her silver eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. She found something. She finally found something!
"WEISS!" She called down to her partner before jumping off the tree top and landed in a superhero pose. She then used her Semblance to run through the forest, zigzagging around trees.
"WEISS! WEISS I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!" Ruby called out as she ran before she saw Weiss in front of her. She skidded to a halt as the heiress turned around to her in surprise and confusion. "Ruby? Were you just calling for-?"
"WEISS!WEISS!IJUSTFOUNDTHEMOSTAWESOMETHINGINTHEHISTORYOFAWESOMETHINGS!" Ruby declared in her hyperactive way.
"What?" Weiss said in confusion. "Slow down. I can't understand you when you speak-!"
"THERE'SNOTIME!WEHAVETOGOTHERENOWANDITHINKIFOUNDDUST!"
"Ruby, I can't understand you-GAAAAAHHHH!" And then Ruby grabbed her hand and then sped off in a blur of rose pedals. Wherever they're going, Weiss wouldn't know but she decided to hold on for dear life to her partner.
Ren suddenly perked up. "Did you hear something, Nora?" he asked, turning around to his partner.
"Hmm?" Nora said in confusion, holding a lizard the size of a beagle in her hands. It was chubby with a round head, bumpy spines on its back like an alligator with short limbs. And sleeping.
Ren stared at the large reptile that was sleeping in his partner's arms like a baby before jumping back in fright with a yelp. Where had Nora found that?!
Because of this, neither of them noticed the red and white blur with rose pedals and screaming racing through the trees in the background.
Jaune and Pyrrha sat on a large boulder while eating lunch. Unaware to them, they were sitting on a large buffalo that was walking through the field without them noticing.
"The others probably have more luck," Jaune said to the redhead tournament champion.
"Perhaps," Pyrrha shrugged, more enjoying the time with her partner and crush.
"RUBY! SLOW DOWN!" Weiss shouted as everything raced by in a blur to her vision. "PLEASE!"
"WE'RE ALMOST THERE, WEISS!" Ruby said as she kept running. "JUST HANG ON!"
The running kept on for a few minutes longer and Weiss felt close to vomiting. Never again will she have Ruby do this again to her. But then suddenly the red capped reaper came to a halt. Whether it was intentional or not on Ruby's part, Weiss's momentum continued and she went flying past Ruby before hitting the ground and skidding face-first before laying still on the ground.
Honestly, if this was a cartoon or anime show, this scene would have been funny, but Ruby gasped in worry that her partner may be hurt. "Weiss, I'm sorry!" she called out as she moved forward to her partner who slowly lifted her head. "I thought I was holding you when I stopped but then I just saw you fly past me and then you were skidding on the ground and-"
"You. . ." Weiss began looking down to her dirtied clothes. "You. . . " She felt some mud on her face and in her snow white hair. "You. . . have just. . . ruined my PERFECTLY CLEAN CLOTHES!" To say that Weiss was upset would be an understatement.
"Oh my gosh, Weiss," Ruby exclaimed, looking very, very apologetic. "I'm really, really, really sorry."
"Well, you should be, gods damn it!" Weiss snapped.
Gasping, Ruby took a step back in fright and shock. She had never heard the second born Schnee sibling curse in the time she had known her. Not even when she would yell at her. She'd just use the word 'dunce' or 'dolt.' Clearly, Ruby had crossed a line. Getting Weiss's clothes dirty.
Audibly gulping, Ruby tried to speak cautiously to her pissed off partner. ". . . Weiss, I didn't for that to happen. I promise but this is really important. I think I found Dust Crystals!"
Weiss's expression became neutral. ". . . You found. . . Dust?"
Ruby nodded her head frantically.
Weiss frowned. "If this is a prank, I swear to the brother Gods-" she began, brushing some strands of her hair.
Ruby shook her head. "No, no, no, really! It's true! I found it!" she said frantically.
Weiss's expression became angry again. "Then where is it?!"
"EEP!" recoiling in fright, Ruby pointed a shaky finger behind Weiss. The Schnee heiress turned around, and her angry expression melted into awe, shock and wonder.
They were Dust Crystals alright, but not what they knew and were used to, the size of your palm. These crystals were the size of skyscrapers! The biggest Dust shards they have ever seen! Dust Spires. That's what they were. Something long thought to be myths. Until now.
Weiss slowly approached and touched one of the Spires with her palm and quickly pulled away, looking at her hand with wide blue eyes.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked in concern.
"It's. . . warm." Weiss replied. "Like the energy of a Dust tenfold. And I felt its energy just by touching it."
Ruby approached another Dust Spire and touched it with her hand cautiously. It felt warm. Very warm and she suddenly felt like she just ate a whole platter of cookies! She looked to Weiss, both of them forming amazed expressions.
They found their main objective. Dust.
"We. . . did it." Ruby slowly said.
"Yeah, we did." Weiss concurred.
Ruby shook with excitement before jumping high into the air, very close to hitting her head on a tree limb. "WE DID IT!"
After three days of searching, they found Dust! Ruby could see it! Her friends congratulating her, the headmaster approving her achievement, her uncle and sister giving a bone-crushing hug of sisterly/uncle love, her father being proud of her, Winter calling her the opposite of 'underwhelming!' Weiss being proud for having being the leader and finally calling Ruby her BFF!
"Ruby, I think we just won the bet too!" Weiss exclaimed.
"We won the-?" Ruby paused and gasped before cheering, "We totally did!" Forget what was said earlier. NOW Ruby couldn't have been happier today. With the discovery of Dust Spires going from myth and legend to true and fact, Team RWBY would surely win the bet made by their resident blonde brawler!
"Ruby, we finished our mission to find Dust!" Weiss declared happily.
"YEAH!" Ruby cheered, jumping high and close to the mentioned tree limb.
"We won the bet for our team!" Weiss went on.
"YEAH!" Ruby jumped, even closer to the tree limb.
"And I can take over my family's company from my father!" Weiss said.
"YEA-Wait, what?" Ruby's record scratched to a halt and she hit her head on the tree limb with a BONK and a pained. "Ow!" before falling back to the earth and landing on the dirt with a "Oof!" Chibi Stars and Beowolves danced in her vision before she shook her head and looked up at Weiss in confusion.
Weiss looked to her with a gleeful and sinister expression. "Just picture it, Ruby." she continued. "With these Dust Spires, I can use them to buy the SDC itself on my own! Father would have to follow my rules now. And I, Weiss Kara Schnee, have discovered the greatest form Dust on the face of Remnant!" Thunderclouds formed behind her. "I can finally correct our family's crimes! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Weiss began to laugh like a maniac as she schemed plans to buy her family company while Ruby just stared up at her in pure confusion. . . Okay. . . That's weird, she thought to herself. So, Weiss wants to buy the SDC? Wait, but isn't she the heiress already? Why would she want to become the CEO now? She's probably just excited now. Very excited. Give her some time to-wait a minute!
Time. She pulled out her Scroll and checked the time. "Uh, hey, Weiss?" she called for her partner's attention.
The heiress in question was still laughing maniacally and scheming sinisterly.
"Weiss?" Ruby tried again.
She was still laughing like maniac. Should we question her sanity?
Ruby now felt frustrated, she cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted, "WEISS!"
The heiress gasped, snapping out of her maniacal laughing and looked to her partner with a sheepish expression. ". . . Yes?"
"What time do we have to meet with the others? Ruby asked.
Weiss straightened. "Oh, four in the afternoon. Duh."
Ruby's silver eyes widened. "Oh no. . . " she muttered.
Weiss rose an eyebrow. "What?" she shrugged.
Ruby showed her Scroll to the white haired Huntress-in training.
3:45 pm.
Weiss's eyes widened.
Son of a-!
Kiko and his friend Tiamat went fishing with Zilla. The river was a few miles from the Village and already, they have caught two large fish. He held up his fishing spear, ready to catch a third when Tiamat poked him in the ribs and it made him loose his focus.
He hissed at the Serpentine Kaiju female who laughed in amusement, coiling up a little, and ducking under Kiko's playful fists.
"Don't worry, Kiko," Zilla said, laughing himself. "I'll catch the fish." He then jumped into the river.
Kiki sighed in response. He enjoyed his friends' company but he wanted to catch the fish by himself to prove himself to his father since he failed during the last hunt. Maybe he could test his luck with the Skeer Buffalo when they migrate through the valley.
Zilla caught two more fish with his own hands. Kiko decided that it was time to head back to the Village.
"That bear wouldn't catch me, Kiko," Tiamat joked to the Albino Gorilla Kaiju as they walked up a path. "I'm quick as water!"
"Shut up, Tiamat," Kiko playfully shoved the female Serpentine Kaiju with a laugh.
Zilla laughed among them before he heard something up ahead. Something he rarely heard among Kaiju. Verbal conversation.
"Why do you want to win your dumb bet?!"
"Because I want a cool new outfit!"
Zilla furrowed his brow and grumbled to the other two Kaiju, "Do you hear that?" Both Tiamat and Kiko stopped their playful banter and looked to him in confusion. Zilla sniffed the air and caught the scent of somethings he didn't recognize and things that he didn't. Some feline scent with a fish scent followed by cedar, coco nut and lilacs. He cautiously moved forward.
What he did not know was that he was detecting the scent of Blake Belladonna (A Cat Faunus who loves fish, especially tuna.) and Yang Xiao Long (Or more accurately, her shampoo and conditioner. With her mane of hair, its a lot.) who were arguing about finding something new and cool and winning the bet and Yang revealed why she wants to win the bet.
". . . A new outfit?" Blake asked with a blank expression.
Yang nodded, a little bashful. "Yeah, one of the winning conditions is that the losers make a wish come true for the winners, remember?" she recalled. "Since you, Weiss and Ruby got new looks, I want Team JNPR to buy me a new suit I saw during the weekend in Vale."
"A new suit. . ." Blake repeated.
"Yeah," Yang nodded. "It was in my colors too. I tried it on, and it fits my figure nicely," she ran a hand down her waist for emphasis. "But the price was a bit much, so I thought that this bet could work. . ."
"Yang Xiao Long. . . You are by far the vainest person I have met," Blake suddenly deadpanned to her partner.
"Hey!" Yang exclaimed in a offended tone.
"Do you really think this is worth it?!" Blake suddenly snapped. "There's no Dust here and hardly anything of value to report! This mission is a failure. We could be doing something better with our time than hiking through this stupid continent!"
"What?" Yang asked. This mission was for their grades for the final schoolyear. Sure, she didn't care about these kind of things when she was younger, but they needed them to graduate as professional Huntresses.
"The White Fang could be acting on their plans right now while we're lost in this forest!" Blake ranted.
Yang then remembered that Blake was like this during their first year. Before and during the Vytal Festival, after finding out that Blake was a Faunus in disguise and a former member of the White Fang, Team RWBY had found out that the Faunus Civil Rights-turned terrorists organization had become partners with the master thief and crime lord Roman Torchwick and were behind the numerous robberies of Dust. The next weeks, Blake was rather obsessed to finding answers of why her fellow Faunus were working for/with a human criminal, one that often threw racial slurs at them at that. She hardly slept at all, didn't seem to focus on anything but finding information on the White Fang and her grades were suffering because of it.
"Blake, remember what I told you," Yang said softly yet sternly. "You need to slow down on this. And it's been almost four years since the Fang and Torchwick have done anything."
Blake paused and knew what Yang meant. During her obsession with the Fang and Torchwick, Yang took her to a room with a private talk and told her from experience that an obsession for answers can nearly get you killed if you don't take care of yourself or try to do it alone. The Cat Faunus realized that she was almost getting back to her obsessed self and Yang was right, it had been years since the Breach of Vale. Torchwick had escaped custody and gone off radar since.
"You're right," Blake sighed. She then brought her mind to another thing. "Hey, how's your search?"
Yang seemed surprised by the change of subject but composed herself. The private talk mentioned earlier was that Yang had revealed that once finding out about Raven Branwen (Her birth mother) after Summer Rose's death and that she left when Yang was born, the six year old blonde girl was obsessed with finding her and wanting to know why she was abandoned with her father. When she found a clue, a house Raven and her father used to live in before Taiyang Xiao Long married Summer and had Ruby, Yang put her young toddler sister in a wagon when Taiyang left and headed out on her own. She had walked for hours before finding the house, a place where she thought she could find answers or even her mother.
What she found instead was that it was abandoned, and home to three Beowulf Grimm. They should have died, could have died because of her recklessness, but as luck would have it, Yang said, their uncle Qrow showed up just in time.
Yang sighed. "During the Vytal Festival," she replied, "After I accidentally injured Mercury, Uncle Qrow came by our dorm and spoke to me." That was indeed an accident. During the final rounds, Mercury Black, a student from Haven Academy overestimated the strength of his injured legs and ended up being heavily injured in the fight against Yang. Not much was known other than that Mercury's legs were heavily injured in the past, did not heal right and Yang had opened up the wounds.
"She told me something I wasn't sure about during the Breach." Yang went on. When Team RWBY tried to stop the train from breaching Vale, Yang had faced Roman's henchwoman, or rather partner in crime, Neopolitan, in a fight and lost terribly. She blacked out for a moment but when she came to, the criminal was gone and, "I thought I saw my mother on the train."
"What?" Blake's eyes widened. "How did she get there?"
"I asked that," Yang replied. "Apparently, her Semblance is that she can open portals to people she cares about." she chuckled bitterly at that. "Qrow told me that that moment was real. That Raven did show up and save me. But that wasn't all. After the Breach, she went and met up with Qrow during one of his last missions. Gave him a message."
"What did she say?" Blake asked.
"That she did save me," Yang frowned. "And it was going to be a one time thing. 'Don't expect that kindness again.' And she left without another word."
". . . What?" Blake stared. She had seen the bad and worse of humanity, Jacques Schnee was a prime example, but she never heard someone say that about their child.
"Yeah, real Mom of the Year material," Yang muttered. "Qrow then said that he would finally help me look for her. He also told me that she and he grew up as bandits, so she has a different view of the world, but I didn't focus on that, just answers to why she left us. So after the Vytal Festival and during the next break, we left for Mistral and traveled until we found her camp. What was left of it."
"You mean. . ." Blake trailed off. Yang nodded with a sigh. "Maybe some Huntsman finally caught her bandit tribe and delivered justice for all their crimes, or a rival tribe found them they went out in a blaze of glory or their luck ran out with the Grimm. Qrow doubts its the second one though. He may be a great Huntsman, maybe one of the best Beacon made in his generation, but he knew that Raven was the stronger fighter. But then we found this."
Yang pulled out her Scroll and showed Blake a photo. A photo of a red handprint on a wooden wall. "Maybe the symbol of the Huntsman or rival gang that killed her and her tribe," Yang shrugged. "But we haven't found anything related to it since."
". . . I'm sorry," was all Blake could say. Maybe a woman who was a criminal and abandoned their child didn't deserve sympathy but Yang had been wanting some closure for years since she was six. Plus, Blake had some understanding. Her mentor, partner and boyfriend was a member of the White Fang and one of the first to use violence over peace. One of the first to kill. Despite what has happened between them, she would feel some grief for him if he would die.
"We didn't tell my father," Yang said. "At least far as I know. Maybe Qrow told him in private. Who knows. But. . . I want to believe she's not dead. We didn't find a body, but that could mean a Grimm found her first. Still, I want to believe that she's just hiding because I still want some closure." she admitted. "Once we graduate, I will keep on searching, maybe ask around and-"
Then she trailed off as she and Blake came face to face with the most shocking thing they'd expect. People.
At first, the Bumblebee duo wanted to say that they were Faunus, they had animalistic traits, but they only had one. Extra ears, tails, scales, feathers, fins, horns, fangs or claws. These people had more than that.
The first male in front of them had dark reptilian scales that covered his body, reptilian feet a long scaly tail behind him, sharp claws and sickle shaped dorsal fins on his back. The second male had albino white fur and large muscles with ape like feet, two long scars running down across his chest. The female had blue and dark violet scales with large long fins in her dark blue hair, sharp claws and her legs were replaced by a long serpentine tail with razor sharp scales.
They all had minimum clothes, probably made out of animal skin. The male Gorilla Faunus, or Ape man had a small spear like weapon in hand along with a handful of fish.
Both Yang and Blake stared at the feral Faunus in shock and surprise. "Um, hi." Yang tried to wave in a friendly way, but the three feral Faunus recoiled with weary expressions before the Ape Man hissed at them in a threatening manner.
"Hey, it's okay," Yang said softly. "We're not going to hurt you."
Unaware to her, Yang's words were affecting Blake but not in a good way. They were triggering some PTSD she had gained from fighting in the White Fang. When she and Adam Taurus went looking for a pair of deserters. Traitors to the Faunus, Adam had called them. Blake hesitated and tried to reassure them and their child that they will not be harmed, but Adam killed them both and took the child to the White Fang. The Ape Man's hissing was only adding fuel to the fire, so to speak.
Acting on instinct, Blake had pulled out her weapon and converted it into pistol mode. Yang noticed her partner's movements. "Blake? Blake? Blake, wait!"
The Serpentine woman noticed Blake's behavior and moved forward in a concern expression. Yang reached to her partner as the Serpentine woman slither forward. "Blake, don't-!"
BANG!
Blake pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Suddenly the boulder Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting on lurched and threw them off, revealing to be a large buffalo. The knight-Amazon duo stared in shock before Pyrrha shook herself. "Jaune, come on! Our friends need help!" she said, pulling Jaune to his feet and they ran to the direction the gunshot had sounded.
BANG!
Both Ren and Nora looked to the sound of the gunshot and looked to each other silently before running off. They're friends needed help.
.
.
.
"Nora, put that lizard down!"
"BUT RENNY!"
"Leave it."
"But-!"
"No buts. Leave it."
". . . Okay, bye, Doug! Take care!"
Both Qrow and Winter were walking up a hill and saw a large black field in front of them. They both narrowed their eyes at the sight, but before they could ask one another what it was or move forward-
BANG!
Winter and Qrow's eyes widened before looking back down the mountain. They looked at each other before running back down. The black field will have to wait. Their wards could be in trouble.
BANG!
Both Ruby and Weiss looked up. Ruby gasped. "Did you hear that?" she asked Weiss. They were both trying to plan how to pinpoint the Dust Spires' location, regroup with their friends and tell them about the Dust when the gunshot rang through the air.
"Hard not to," Weiss retorted before furrowing her brow. "Who fired their weapon?"
Ruby shrugged in response. "I don't know for sure but we need to find them! They might need help!" She then grabbed Weiss's hand.
"What are you-?" her blue eyes widened. "Wait! DON'T USE YOUR SEMBLANCE!"
Too late. Ruby sped off with Weiss who quickly hung on for dear life, mentally praying to not die or worse, get her clothes further ruined and screaming her head off.
BANG!
Unaware to the humans and Faunus, the gunshot was heard by the Kaiju Village whose residents were all just starting to wake up peacefully before the loud banging noise was heard.
Godzilla sat up with wide eyes. He knew that only certain set of tools could make that noise. Guns. And only two groups were capable of making and using guns. Which meant that they were here, here on the continent.
Mothra rose up next to him with wide silver eyes. She had heard the noise and knew what that meant.
The King and Queen ran out of their home and found Kaiju in confusion and fright from the loud noise. Godzilla let out a commanding roar to them. But then Kong and a couple of females, Jira and Manda informed him that their children, Zilla, Tiamat and Kiko respectively were not in the village.
It was then that Godzilla could hear the faint call for help from Zilla, coming from the direction of the sound.
"Kong, Rodan, Anguirus, Cesar!" he called out to the mentioned Clan Leaders. "Gather warriors for a search party. Hurry!"
Zilla was his student, his honorary nephew same as Kiko and Tiamat was his honorary niece.
No matter what, Godzilla will find them.
"Blake, what did you do?!" Yang exclaimed in shock.
Snapped out of her daze, Blake looked on in horror as the Serpentine woman laid on the ground. The bullet had grazed her shoulder but she was now spasming in pain on the forest floor. The Lizard man and the Ape man stared before the former began let out screech-howls. He must be calling for help.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Blake said frantically and took a step forward. "Let me help!"
The Albino Gorilla man did not accept her help, evident by him holding up a fishing spear up at her threateningly and snarling.
"Yang!"
Turning around, the brawler and Cat Faunus saw Ruby and Weiss, the former having used her Semblance and the latter on her knees.
"Don't. . . ever do. . . that again," Weiss said between pants.
"She didn't mean to do it!" Yang said frantically in Blake's defense. The reaper-fencer duo looked at her in confusion as Team JNPR, Qrow and Winter ran to their location further down the trail.
"Wow! Who are they?!" Nora exclaimed upon seeing the Faunus behind Yang and Blake.
The Lizard and Ape both recoiled in fear. The danger had just become more worse for them. The Lizard began to screech more urgently.
It wasn't a moment later that something, a lot of somethings answered his screeches. Looking up the hill to their left, the Huntsmen and Huntresses-in training and their peers saw a large number of 'Faunus' run down the hill to them. Just as they came to a stop, an older Serpentine Faunus, similar to the one Blake had shot but with sea green scales and two yellow horns on her head woman landed close to them, snarling and hissing while holding a spear before she backed up towards the wounded Serpentine woman. An older Gorilla Faunus with fur covering most of his body approached the younger Albino Gorilla and grabbed his shoulders with a concerned expression before hugging the younger. It was here that Blake noticed how they resembled one another.
Yang noticed something else. Most of them were armed with spears. Well. . . I guess we found the people hunting the elk. . .
Suddenly a pair of Faunus climbed a top of a set of boulders and stood above the group, a tall male Reptilian Faunus with yellow eyes, dark scales covering his muscular body, a long segmented tail, claws, shark like gills and a row of dorsal fins on his back that were shaped like shards of glass and flickering blue and a Moth Faunus with multicolored wings and silver eyes with dark blond hair with a dark clothed bra cover her torso and a matching skirt around her waist. Her upper body seemed to be covered in white, orange, blue and red tribal markings. The students were curious about her, especially Ruby when she noticed that the Moth Faunus had silver eyes just like her, but their attention was brought to the tall Reptilian Faunus. He seemed to exude an authoritative aura, as if he had a strong will and resolve.
Something tells me, he's the chief or something, Qrow thought to himself, being reminded of his sister and the Branwen Tribe.
Both him and the Moth Faunus, as she began making bird like chirps to the others around her and the older Gorilla Faunus did the same. But the Reptilian Faunus kept glaring down at them while his dorsal fins kept flashing.
"Everyone," Mothra chirped to the warriors around them. "Everyone, calm down. Don't do anything unless Godzilla and I say so."
"You heard the Queen," Kong hooted. "Stand down."
"You got it, Kong," Rodan and Anguirus replied. Gigan said nothing but swung his tail slightly as a signal to his warriors, his red visor on the humans.
Manda began shrieking in distress and worry. "They shot Tiamat!" she cried. "They shot my daughter!"
Godzilla took his eyes off the humans briefly to look at Manda. "Manda, wait. Don't do anything rash."
His command seemed to calm down the Serpentine Kaiju down some. With that dealt with, Godzilla look back down to glare at humans, his intimidation display still active.
Ruby stared at the exchange she saw. These strange Faunus seemed to communicate through animal noises. Was it possible to negotiate with them? Could they understand her?
"Um. . . we come in peace?" Ruby asked more than stated. All eyes turned to her. "I-I mean, ahem. We don't mean any harm!"
Qrow then spoke in Solitan, the native language of Atlas and Mantle and repeated what she had said but with less stuttering. When that didn't seem to work, he spoke in three other languages. Valean, Animan, Fauni Speak, even Vacuon.
But he got no reaction from the feral Faunus. He shrugged to the others while Winter gave him an impressed look.
Ruby's eyes scanned the group before them again. There was a seven foot one tall, muscular Faunus with brown fur and limbs that seemed to resemble a sloth's but he had a small trunk for a nose and two large curved tusks, a short red scaled Reptilian Faunus with a yellow horn and large bat ears. A fiery redhead Faunus with two curved crests on his head with red scales and large elbow spikes standing with another Reptilian Faunus with brown scales, a shell with white spikes and tail with a nasal horn and held a large club in hands. And a blue scaled Faunus with silver spikes running down his chest, three robotic limbs covered in rust and dirt with a large scythe blade for a right hand and a red visor. Was it her imagination or did that Faunus have metal teeth?
Then Ruby got another idea as she looked up to the leaders. She stepped forward slowly, breaking away from the group.
"Ruby, Ruby," Qrow whispered to her.
"Sis, don't!" Yang protested.
"Put your weapons down, guys." Ruby said, not looking away from the leaders.
"Y-You can't be serious!" Jaune stuttered.
Qrow looked thoughtful before nodding in acceptance before he folded Harbinger and put it behind his back. Winter sheathed her saber without another word. With some reluctance and hesitation, the others followed suit. Ruby was the last to put away her weapon. She then held her arms up with a nervous smile.
The Moth Faunus stared, blinking once and tilting her head while the Reptilian Faunus remained impassive for a long moment.
Then he leaned back, inhaling deeply before his mouth opened and roared down at them.
SSKKKRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNKKKgh!
.
.
.
"H-Holy shit," Yang muttered in fear, an emotion she rarely expressed at all.
Weiss and Blake stepped back, the latter's cat fur on her hidden ears standing on end.
Jaune and Pyrrha gulped nervously. That roar was unlike anything they had ever heard.
Even Ren and Winter lost their composure, eyes widening in fear as was Qrow. And that was saying something for Qrow. He had seen Grimm that could exist in nightmares and this Faunus' roar was filling him with fear he hadn't felt in years.
And Nora?
"That. . . was. . . Awesome!" Well, that's how she always reacts.
Ren turned to stare at her and she became bashful. "And scary, too." she added, hoping no ill would be thrown at her later.
But that wasn't the end of it. The Reptilian Faunus inhaled again, but roared something else. A word. A simple command really, but he spoke in a powerful, authoritative voice.
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
They all recoiled. This Faunus could understand them this whole time? Well what was the point of having me speak different languages? Qrow thought.
But then the leader scowled before he jumped up high into the air. When he landed on the ground before them, the very earth cracked while a shockwave was released that knocked everyone off their feet. The leader inhaled again and roared loud enough to blow the wind at their faces.
SSKKKRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNKKKgh!
Blake's bow became undone, revealing her black cat ears and the same happened to Ren, Weiss and Winter's hair braid and bun.
"Okay, never mind!" Nora said in amore fear filled voice. Something that was very rare to happen. "Very scary. Very very scary."
"O-Okay, we're going!" Ruby stuttered. "No funny business, promise!"
Her words seemed to do little for the Faunus.
"GOOOOOO!" cried out another Faunus, the one with a red visor and robotic limbs. He spoke in a raspy voice and a slight elated tone, as if he was proud to tell the humans and Faunus what to do.
Blake and Ruby suddenly slipped, the Cat Faunus because she stepped off the edge of the path and almost slid down the hill while the latter tripped on her own cape. Blake's bag fell from her shoulders while Ruby felt her weapon fall from her belt.
She gasped and tried to reach for her beloved weapon but both Yang and Qrow pulled her to her feet, much to her heart break. "Ruby, come on!" Yang said desperately.
"We have to go!" Qrow added.
"But, guys, wait! Crescent Rose!" Ruby protested.
"Go! Go! GO!" Qrow said as they ran.
"CRESCENT ROSE!" Ruby wailed as she was carried. Away from the growling Faunus. Away from the weapon she worked so hard to make. "NOOOOOOOO!"
Cesar knelt down and picked up the bag that belonged to the Cat Faunus who hid her ears under a bow. Kong then picked up the red and black weapon that fell from the girl that acted like the leader of the group despite appearing to be younger. He held it out to Godzilla who picked up the weapon and bag.
Admittedly, he was surprised to see the humans alive and everything, but he had to show no fear to them. He was even caught off guard when the girl with silver eyes told the others to put their weapons away. Godzilla debated what to do, but then he ultimately decided that they had been on their land long enough and told them to leave.
But that left more questions that needed answers.
"Rodan, Gigan." he called out. The two Kaiju came to his side. He pointed after the humans. "Follow." he ordered simply.
Rodan nodded and his elbow spikes spread out into wings. Gigan called to his lieutenant, Megalon, a beetle Kaiju. Megalon and Rodan spread their wings out and flew up into the air while small rockets activated on Gigan's robotic feet and his fins spread out for stabilization before they flew after the humans.
Baragon and Behemoth moved forward to join them, but Godzilla held the two warriors back. The two looked at him in confusion but obeyed him wordlessly.
Now we're getting somewhere, aren't we? The humans/Faunus and Kaiju have finally met. And not really in a good way, am I right?
Now here are some points I'll make in case you guys didn't catch them.
Qrow x Winter is still one of my favorite RWBY fan ships so I decided to give off hints of something.
I kept the elk scene from the Planet of the Apes crossover because I thought that was a good scene to include for this. The elk crowded Ruby because of her silver eyes are connected to Mothra in this story.
The red berries Qrow has found are Sooma berries from the 1962 King Kong vs Godzilla film.
Also anyone notice the Skull Crawler hint I written?
That lizard that Nora had is the Hollow Earth Titan known as Doug. He will appear again.
And Jaune and Pyrrha discovered a Skeer Buffalo.
Raven Branwen, killed off offscreen? (Or is it offpage?) *Que Raven fans rioting.* Hold your horses! Check this! (Red hand print at the camp!) "LE GASP!"
Yep, a hint of Skar King already. Since there's a theory of Skar King leaving a hand print on Skull Island in the 2017 film. The theory is that after Kong's parents are killed, during the Titan War, Skar King had surfaced on Skull Island and left his mark on the mountain wall, a mark of his territory before Godzilla sealed him in the Hollow Earth. That's theory anyway, but it sounds plausible, right?
But that means that Raven is probably suffering, since we MonsterVerse fans know what Skar King does to females in his army.
.
.
.
YYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAaahh, kinda regret that idea. Oh well, should be interesting to write.
And Tiamat is here!
And she was shot.
Man, she can't catch a break, am I right? At least she's not dead or dying.
After hearing some fan videos, I think Keith David or better yet, Peter Cullen would work for MonsterVerse Godzilla. Right?
Andy Serkis or Christopher Judge would work for Kong.
If you have other ideas, I'm all ears.
Now, I'd say that in case things don't work out, this and a few other stories are being cross posted on Archive of Our Own.
Until then.
Peace.