Sorry for the long delay Gentlemen, Ladies and those in between. I've been stuck doing work recently, but expect the updates to come more frequently now.
I've been playing VTMB recently, and it got me thinking about some future stories I have in the works (Some will be AUs, others will be crossovers). Unlike this fic, it wouldn't be a straight up crossover of the worlds. Instead, I'd probably integrate the creatures and the mechanics of VTM (And by extension, World of Darkness) while using only the characters found in RWBY, along with a few OCs sprinkled here and there. Perhaps it could be set during Beacon, and I could have one of team RWBY (Or JNPR) become a vampire and have to survive in the underworld with a bunch of other vampires (Imagine Torchwick as a vampire, he'd probably be a Toreador since he's a gentlemen thief and is all about showing off. Ozpin could be a Ventrue, and Cinder would probably be Tremere. Yang would probably be a Gangrel or Brujah. Nora would be a Malkavian for the shits and giggles)
Anyway, enough with that shit. On with the story!
Hell. Ancient Terran works described hell as a massive underworld where the souls of the damned were tortured for eternity. Others described it as a great void where the souls of those unfaithful to the ancient gods of old humanity were ripped from the light of their creators. Future scholars stated that the warp was hell itself. Some ancient scholars posited that there was no hell to begin with.
Selena could attest that hell was very, very real. It was not a place, though. It was a corporeal creature. It had a name. It had a face. It had a personality that made you wish for the sweet release of death or, In the case of the afterlife, a second death. It wore a cocky smile as it tormented you for eternity, or at least what felt like eternity. It beckoned you to scream obscenities towards it as it laughed off every single one.
It's name was Yang, and it was the face of evil. Selena wondered, briefly, if this creature was actually a chaos daemon in the guise of a young woman. Such thoughts invited the immediate termination of such an abomination.
Sadly, or perhaps luckily for Yang, she was not a chaos daemon. She was a demon, mind you, but in a more… metaphorical sense. That still didn't keep Selena from running different ways of killing her through her head. At least one of those ideas involved getting Yang into an accident involving the Grimm. Plausible deniability, and all that.
That plan wouldn't work, of course, because all of the Grimm in this forest were weak. She had fought these same creatures on the train, and although individual Grimm went down easily, she had to fight against a horde of them. Here, though, the Grimm only came in packs of three or four. It was quite obvious that the staff at Beacon had culled some of the beast's numbers in order to make things a little bit easier, and to prevent any deaths.
Selena could not begrudge the staff for taking such an action in the name of keeping their students safe as they learned to become the defenders of this world. She could begrudge them for fucking up her brilliant plan, though.
Yang, ever the thorn in her side, asked a question that even the most astute of imperial scholars could not fathom to comprehend. The kind of which would bring a great bounty of knowledge to the world... nay, to the universe if answered.
"Do you have any chewing gum? I forgot to bring any."
"No." Selena responded. "And I don't even know what that is."
"Eh, I can go without." The conversation paused for a few seconds as they walked, then Yang decided to speak her mind once more. "So, what's with the get up?"
"The… get up? Is this some kind of lowly slang I'm too verbose to understand?"
"Eh, sure, whatever. I was talking about your gear. It looks… out of place, I guess."
"The woman with a boob window and booty shorts is calling my attire strange."
"Touche."
"What?"
"It means 'good point'. I swear, sometimes I genuinely wonder if you came from the same planet as me."
"You know nothing, girl." Selena sighed. "And as for my attire, it is the standard uniform of my order."
"Order… like, a religious order? Wow, I already thought you were one of those religious nutjobs, but that confirms it." Yang smirked. "This is gonna be fun."
"I am not a religious nutjob, heretic. Best you remember that, before I behead you in the name of the God Emperor of Mankind!"
"God Emperor of Mankind? What about Faunuskind?"
"They are pathetic insults to the glory of the human form! They will be purged along with every other abhuman! I will gladly cut them down myself in his name!"
"Racist, too." Her smirk only got wider. "Well, you believe what you want to believe. Freedom of religion, and all that."
"There can be no freedom of religion, only service to the God Emperor!"
"...Sure. Anyway, are we there yet?"
"Do not change the subject so easily!" Selena huffed, then paused at the question. "And no, we are not there yet." She stopped for a second. "...And I don't know where there actually is."
"I thought the beneficence of the God Emperor would guide us there?"
"Do not mock him!" Selena had to actively resist the urge to slice this heretic's head off. "And he does not work that way."
"I know, I know. God works in mysterious ways, and all that stuff."
Selena chose not to respond to the girl. While every fibre of her being itched at the chance to put her down like the heretic she was, another part, the more rational part, told her that doing so would end with the entire staff of Beacon beating her into a bloody pulp. Pragmatism, as much as she hated to admit it, won out in the end.
Selena's thought's drifted to the current problem at hand. They were lost. Utterly lost. She blamed Yang for constantly screwing with her, causing her to lose her focus. They had to get back on track, and fast. How she was actually going to do that remained in question.
"So then, any ideas?" Yang decided to break the short silence.
"...No." Selena pinched the bridge of her nose. All her years spent training did not prepare her for this. Yang looked around, and something caught her eye. Selena was too busy thinking up a myriad of insults to shout at Yang, not paying any attention to the thing that Yang was looking at.
"Say, Selena…"
"What, you vile piece of..." Selena looked to Yang with rage, then looked towards the place of interest. "...What is that?" Atop the trees sat a strange, black and white creature. She instantly recognised it as a Grimm, one with wings, and instinctively made to grab her bolter. Yang stood still, and slowly but surely a small grin appeared on her face. Selena turned her attention to the girl, only for the sister's face to turn from one of caution to one of abject horror.
"Yang, no..."
"Yang, yes!"
"...Kill me."
Her life sucked, and she could pinpoint the reason why. Weiss Schnee was stuck with that miserable pile of complaints known as Blake, and her life couldn't be any worse. Blake spouted off complaint after complaint about the SDC, like Weiss had any say in how the company was run. She hated her father, but she doubted that even he knew what was going on in every dust mine in the world. He was a ruthless businessman, but he wasn't that heartless.
Finding the relics was surprisingly easy, in spite of the headache she had gained from Blake's constant yapping. Oh, and the fact that she'd have to bear it for the next four years. If there were any gods out there, they were being incredibly cruel to her right now. At the very least, her companion had no more complaints for the moment.
They arrived at a clearing, and at the far end they found the relics within an abandoned stone ruin. They were chess pieces, all lined up on individual pedestals. Some pieces were identical to each other, and Weiss realised that each set of pieces corresponds to a different team. The problem, of course, was that they still had to wait for two other people to show up.
Pyrrha would be a good choice, for one. She tried to convince her to team up together while they were talking at the lockers earlier in the day. Their conversation was immediately derailed by that blonde haired idiot, and if he was the first person to set eyes on Pyrrha out here then she was going to cry.
Luck, sadly, was not on her side today.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH" Someone, a girl perhaps, screamed in the distance. Part of Weiss wanted to head out and help the girl, but another part told her that the teachers were on constant watch for a reason. They'd step in if things went south.
"Huh, what's that?" Blake spoke, and Weiss was about to respond before she looked to where the other girl was staring. In the sky she saw a winged Grimm approaching them at rapid speed. Immediately, her hand fell to Myrtenaster at her side, but then she stopped as she saw the two passengers grabbing on for dear life to the tail of the creature. Suddenly, one of the figures fell off, and Weiss heard her shout.
"YAAAAAAAANNNG, YOU MORON!" The woman tumbled towards the ground with momentum, and the other girl jumped from the Grimm as it flew away. Weiss turned her attention to another person flying through this sky, this time it was the blonde haired fool who decided to interrupt her back at Beacon. His arms flailed as he flew through the sky, his destination clear. Weiss looked on in horror as the woman, who she now recognised as the girl who bumped into her before initiation, crashed right into the man, sending him flying on the same course as her.
And that course just so happened to involve landing on Weiss. The heiress had barely any time to react before the two came crashing down into her. She let out a yelp as the pair slammed her into the floor. The pile of bodies slid across the ground, slamming right into the stone wall.
Weiss groaned in pain as the combined weight of the two morons on top of her crushed her. She struggled to breathe, but she watched as Blake ran over to check on the soon-to-be-corpse of Weiss if these idiots didn't get off of her soon.
"Ugh, my head." Selena opened her eyes, and then stood up, brushing the dust off her armour. "...How did I survive that?" She looked down to Weiss and Jaune. "Oh… sorry." Selena pushed Jaune off of the heiress, and the boy groaned in pain. She held out her hand for Weiss to grab on to.
She was not having it. "You… You…" A unending rage built up within her. Her hands, now curled up into fists, shook violently. "You imbecile! You could of killed me you-" As Weiss made to stand up, she heard something horrifying.
The very distinctive sound of a bone snapping.
Weiss sat silently for a second, then she fainted.
Against all odds, her second encounter with Weiss was somehow worse than the last. She tried to apologise, and then the women went on another tirade against her. Then she fainted. Now, Selena was standing over the limp body of the very person she was trying to get good with.
She wanted to suck up to the nobility, sue her.
Yang was to blame for this. Granted, Selena went along with the whole 'grab on to a winged Grimm and fly around until you see something' idea, but what other choice did she have? Walk around the forest for a few hours until Ozpin comes by and politely tells her to leave? Yeah, that was definitely going to help with finding her sisters.
Sighing, she looked towards Blake next to her. "So… I'll grab the legs and you grab the arms."
"Can't we just leave her here?"
"What? No! You can't just leave your partner behind!" Selena paused. "Unless said partner is named Yang."
"I'm glad you care for me." The partner in question sauntered up to the duo. Yang looked completely unharmed from the long drop down, and at this point Selena wasn't surprised. "Well, may as well grab a relic." She walked over to the pedestals, and then she made for one of the chess pieces. "How about a cute pony?"
Selena groaned. "Why hath you forsaken me, Emperor?"
"What if you were always destined to be with me?"
Selena groaned again. The logical, rational part of her mind told her that this girl was just bullshitting her and that she should call her out for it. The other side, the more zealous side, genuinely wondered if this was truly her destiny. The former thoughts invited heresy, but the latter thoughts were born from the words of a heretic. Granted, the girl did not know of the glory of the God Emperor, but ignorance did not mean innocence.
She turned to Blake. Of all the people here, she was possibly the most sane. "So… team?"
The girl looked to Yang, then back to the battle sister. "Only if you get vomit boy to carry Weiss instead."
"WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP CALLING ME THAT!?" Vomit boy said, still lying on the floor. Everyone turned to stare at him. He coughed into his hand. "J-Just asking. Heh." He rubbed the back of his head. He then stood up, picking up his sword and shield as he got up off the ground. "I swear I was supposed to tell you guys something… eh, nevermind."
Selena turned to face Yang, and the girl threw her one of the pieces. Selena caught it in her hand, and then pocketed it. Blake picked up the two remaining pieces of the set, then walked back over with Yang to the still unconscious Weiss.
"Alright, let's move out-"
A commotion from the treeline cut Selena off. Everyone turned to see just what was disturbing them. They all saw the trees fall down as a massive, hulking Grimm found it's way into the clearing. Explosions rocked it's back as it ran frantically away from it's pursuer, before succumbing to the constant harassment. It fell with a meaty thud to the floor.
A girl, one with short ginger hair, slid off the head of the massive beast. She looked to the downed creature, then frowned. "Aw, It's broken…"
A boy, one with black hair, vaulted over the arm of the beast. "Nora… please…" He said between bated breathes. "Never do that again."
The girl ignored him as she turned around and saw everyone standing at the ruins. Her eyes lit up as she saw the relics. In the blink of an eye, she rushed over to the pedestals, and then she grabbed one of the relics before placing it on top of her head. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
"What a weirdo…" Selena spoke her mind.
"Yeah… you know, the more I think about, the more I realise that having Yang on our team isn't so bad." Blake interjected, once more proving that she was their sanest member.
"Well, that's debatable."
The ginger haired weirdo, ever the bastion of sanity, noticed the still unconscious Weiss on the floor. She grabbed a stick and darted right over to the poor girl, before poking her with said stick. Weiss' fists closed as the girl poked her. At least some parts of her body were still functioning. "Whew, I thought she was dead for a minute."
"God, I wish." Blake said, the disdain for the heiress still apparent.
Selena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, that's it. We're moving out. Now!"
Selena walked over to the girl. "Okay… what's your name?"
"Nora!"
"Okay, Nora, can you kindly stop poking my future teammate before I poke you with my sword?"
"Nora, do as she says" The boy who was her companion said behind the two of them.
"Okay, Renny!"
The boy groaned. "I apologise for that." Selena only had to see his demeanour for a few seconds to realise he was going to be one of the more sane ones within this academy.
"Apology accepted." Selena grabbed Weiss' legs, and Jaune did his part by grabbing her arms. "Now then, let's go-"
In the distance, another disturbance was heard. Selena wasted no time grabbing her combi-bolter as she turned to face the newcomer. From the treeline, another creature of the Grimm appeared. This time, it appeared to be some kind of scorpion. It was chasing someone, and as they approached Selena quickly recognised her as Pyrrha.
"Jaune!" The red head shouted.
"Pyrrha!" Vomit boy responded.
Jaune and the sister both dropped Weiss, the heiress landing with a thud. Selena grabbed her bolter. She clenched the weapon in her hand as she felt the rage building within her. She had enough of this bullshit. "ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" The massive creature approached, and Selena aimed her combi-bolter. She was going to use something she was hoping to save up. "TASTE PLASMA, XENOS SCUM!" The plasma weapon attached to her bolter charged with a blue glow. Her finger hovered over the trigger as she lined up her shot. Pyrrha caught on to what was happening and jumped out of the way as she pulled the trigger.
A massive plasma ball flew out of her gun and straight towards the encroaching creature. The ball made contact, and instantly the creature roared out in pain as it's carapace dissipated and it's skin melted. The creature was not dead, but it was heavily wounded. Selena immediately switched back over to the bolter rounds, before firing the entire magazine off into the creature's body. It roared in pain as shot after shot met their mark. The creatures stinger fell off as one of the bullets hit the tail, sending bits of viscera exploding across the battlefield. It's legs exploded as the shells made their mark, and the creature slowed to a halt. It let out one last cry before a bullet went straight through it's head.
The battle was over in a matter of moments. The creature lay dead.
"...holy shit." Yang said in utter bewilderment. Everyone looked on in shock at the sister of battle, the proud warrior standing with pride over her defeated foe as it disappeared. "W-What the hell kind of weapon is that!?"
Selena looked at her remaining ammunition. "...One that doesn't have much ammo left." She was down to 1/3rd power on her plasma weapon now, and she had to be much more conservative when it came to using it. "I think it's about time we make our leave."
She made her way over to Weiss, who still remained out of it. Selena wondered if this would affect the young girl's entry into Beacon, but she abandoned such thoughts as she remembered that this was technically her fault for crashing into the girl in the first place.
Jaune and Selena picked up Weiss, and everyone looked to the sky as they saw a massive Grimm fly over head. The sooner they were out of here, the better. As they made their move, nobody noticed the floating skull with the red eye watching them.
"...By the Brother Gods." Glynda murmered as she saw the aftermath of the short duel between Selena and the deathstalker. She knew the girl had to be skilled and well equipped if she was able to survive the onslaught of Grimm at the train, but seeing her take on the deathstalker with such ease disturbed her. It made her wonder what kind of monster Ozpin brought into the school, and if she'd remain on their side for long.
"I told you she was skilled. She'll make a fine addition to our academy." Ozpin tried to reassure her.
"She's good at killing Grimm, but is she really huntsman material?"
Ozpin raised his eyebrow at her suggestion. He then lowered his head and sighed. "Huntsman are more than just killing machines, I know. I'm sure she will grow into the role in due time."
"If her current interactions with the other students are anything to go by, I doubt that. Still, she appears to have a good rapport with Miss Belladonna and Mr Ren."
"Indeed, although I'm not so sure how long the former friendship will last once she realises what's underneath the bow."
"...What?"
"Let's just say that I was lying when I said our conversation in the police station was completely pleasant. She showed some rather… unpleasent attitudes to the faunus, referring to them as abhumans and freaks. I'd recommend you keep an eye on her."
"I knew it. Ozpin, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking long term, Miss Goodwitch. I told you about our… friend in the crashed ship."
"And I'm not entirely convinced there's a connection."
"Of course there's a connection. If there wasn't, why would he be watching her?"
"How? Unless…"
Ozpin pointed her towards something strange on one of the cameras in the forest. As Glynda looked closer at the screen, she saw something floating along, watching the group of huntsman-in-training with a cautious eye. It was a floating skull, and she could see the strange, mechanical red glowing eye attached to it. "Trust me, Glynda, this will all pay off in due time."
She pinced the bridge of her nose. "...If you say so."
Torchwick was pissed. He rarely ever used such crude language to describe the situations he found himself in, since he had to maintain the act of being a gentlemen thief and all. Still, he was fucking pissed.
First, he was pissed at Cinder for leaving him out to dry during that last dust heist. He had his ass handed to him by a child of all things, and the only thing he could do was run. The mooks he hired from Junior are probably rotting in some jail deep in the Vale PD, and that was going to sour his relationship with the mob. Cinder was nowhere to be seen, of course. She said she was too busy dealing with a problem outside of town, and wouldn't be available for a while.
He only had one option to save his hide, and he contacted his partner in crime, Neopolitan, as soon as he could. When the girl arrived in her pyjamas of all things, he came to a rather horrifying realisation that he just woke her up. No amount of ice cream was going to save him from her wrath.
Second, Cinder had him completely in the dark on what her plans were. No orders had come in for today, and the 'help' that Cinder had hired were mostly doing nothing except resting or playing cards. Well, most of them were, anyway.
As he walked through the warehouse that was their temporary abode, he noticed some of the White Fang lounging around, bored out of their minds. He never thought he'd sympathise with those animals, but when compared to the other two groups that Cinder brought in to the game, they were much more understandable. Not respectable by any stretch of the word, but understandable.
He saw a group of the newcomers to Cinder's little army at the far corner. They were soldiers, that much Roman had gleaned, both from their gear and their organisation. They were clean and professional, and Roman couldn't help but respect that. He wasn't sure what army they were from, and he doubted Atlas had anything to do with them. They wore khaki fatigues and green armour for one thing, which was pretty different from the standard gear the Atlesians marched around in.
Their leader, a man known as Master Sargent Jacob Moriah, told him very little about the group, other than the fact that there was far, far more of them and that they were known as the Damned 53rd. It was a weird name, and it further proved that they weren't linked to any of the nations. Perhaps they were a well armed, well organised mercenary group who were hired by Cinder to do her dirty work. If so, Roman kinda hoped that they were getting paid well for this bullshit.
The other group was… well, he didn't know what way to put it other than horrifying. Cultists was the first word that came to mind when Cinder introduced them to the other people here. They were a ragtag bunch, but they came in far superior numbers to both the White Fang and the Damned 53rd. There mere appearance should have been enough to tell Roman to get the fuck outta dodge, but he already tried and failed to do so before they even showed up. They were bad news, and the fact that every other group, especially the soldiers, avoided them like the plague was proof of that.
One of the soldiers informed him that they were cultists to some war god, and that they were violent lunatics that should be kept on a short leash. Occasionally, there would be a news story or two about horrific killings in the city, and the brutality involved in them. Roman had a pretty good idea of who did it.
Torchwick fumbled around for a moment in his pockets as he searched for a cigar. He found his prize, but it to his mouth, then lit it.
He wondered where everything went wrong.
And that's all, folks. Again, apologies for this chapter taking awhile. IRL shit is a bitch.
We get to see the teams form during this chapter, and we also get something much more interesting. The forces of chaos are here, of course, but who are the Damned 53rd? And why are they tolerating the cultists when they should be killing them? And just what involvement do the newcomers have with Salami- I mean, Salem? And why is my window broken? Who are you? What are you doing In my house? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT
I should probably mention that the fight between Ruby and Torchwick still happens, but events play out far differently in the end. There's no Cinder or Glynda, for one thing. Ruby also doesn't get accepted into Beacon early because Selena takes her place, although I already made that obvious in Chapter 2. Don't worry, we'll see our little Rubaby eventually.
I should probably talk about the scorpion fight as well. Yeah… it was pretty short. This was basically showing off the fact that Selena has some very powerful weapons at her disposal (Plasma is pretty fucking powerful, last I checked). She can easily down the creature, as it was barelling right towards her and was alone. It did cost her a good chunk of her ammunition, and her having very limited supplies is going to be a part of the fic.
Oh, and I saw a comment calling this fic gay.
Is it gay? Well…
What the fuck did you just fucking say about my fic, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
And if I don't write again, then good afternoon, good evening and goodnight!