RWBY 1. Chapter 1: Forsaken

Seconds quickly stride to minutes, minutes ache their way to hours, hours stingily pace to days, days painfully move to months, months agonizingly stretch into years. The mental and physical scars of living in the dead-drop middle of nowhere in the Emerald Forest and left for dead by my own teammates during Beacon Academy initiation has worn on me to the brink of insanity.

Living in a beautiful and vivid forest but in a void of human life, this complete and terrifyingly immense isolation and solitary is tearing me apart inside my head. The thought of being so close to help and living in Beacon's backyard yet unable to scale a massive cliff is the worst kind of psychological torture possible. Relying only on my skills as a huntsman, a natural spring inside the cave I take refuge in, Grimm flesh, and my weapon named Iglamin, which was a single-handed long sword that had a pommel which upon being pressed like a button uncollapsed a hidden medium range semi automatic marksman rifle with the trigger and laid along the bottom half of the sharpened metal of the sword vertically. With all these necessities I have survived in this forest for who knows how long. I do not even know how old I am anymore and on few occasions especially during the winter months, almost forgetting my name. I swear that writing in this book with the 6 pencils and the book itself I found lying around in the forest will be the only thing keeping me from turning into a schizophrenic psycho and just going absolutely berserk towards the point of jumping into the canyon near the cave I take shelter in.

This all started when I was transferred from Signal Academy in my second year at the school, Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy had stopped by on his annual runs during the later part of the second semester at Signal to see how many students were going to apply to his program after they graduated from their current school and see if Signal was teaching their students properly. In the middle of his tour he stumbled upon me and instantly gained interest. He asked me what I was going to do when I graduated Signal, I told him I'd probably apply to a more advanced academy. This remark rendered a great deal of enthusiasm and significance in his eyes which was clearly visible.

He then insisted I be moved up to Beacon because my excellence in combat and how effortlessly I mastered new teachings in both battle and academic fields. At the time I was absolutely flabbergasted by this offer, I just couldn't believe that he would move me up 4 complete years. It took me awhile, but I eventually concluded with a "yes sir." I guess whoever finds this book after I die (If I do die and if someone even finds this book anyway.) will want a detailed description of what happens to me next that led to where I am now, so I shall write in grand detail. Also person who finds this, if I die, PLEASE bring this book to Professor Ozpin. (Make sure he gets it, I want those bastards Ozpin called "teammates" to be brought to justice.)

I went home that night rejoicing, but home would be an understatement. I had no legitimate home, I lived in an abandoned shack just outside of Vale alone. I can't really say I knew my parents. I lit a candle in the living room and filled out the paperwork Ozpin gave me by myself the old-fashioned way by using a pen with an inkwell. At least this would be the last time I would call this shack home, Beacon would be my home from now on and I would be making money off Grimm pelts along with other things thanks to that school. The morning air vessel ride to Beacon was strange and lonely, all the friends I made at Signal were gone and I hade no one to speak to the entire ride, the others on board were looking at me as if I were an alien life form which I could partially understand since I was 4 years younger than everyone else. The only things I had on that airship were the view and my own thoughts.

Upon arrival, we docked parallel to the landing pad and opened the door leading to the extendable bridge that granted us access to the school. After getting off the bridge, I simply stopped to admire the architecture of the cathedral-style academy for a few seconds and followed where everyone else was going. The people led me to a grand auditorium that had no seats, you simply stood in place. Professor Ozpin spoke over a mic to all of us new first year students about how we had come to Beacon to hone our craft and acquire new skills but he then stated that he looked among us and in his own words said "All I see is wasted energy in search of purpose, direction." This sparked everyone's curiosity and in some cases distrust in him. Why would the headmaster of the most advanced academy for huntsmen and huntresses in all of Vale insult his own first year students minutes after arriving?

I pondered the thought for a bit of time, but I snapped to attention when Professor Goodwitch instructed that we were to gather in the ballroom for the night and that our initiation would begin tomorrow. Again, I followed the rest of the other people through the many courtyards as Goodwitch assigned us equipment lockers and afterwards directed us to the ball room where we would sleep for the night. As I lay there on the floor attempting to sleep, I overheard people talking about how we would be assigned teammates tomorrow during initiation. I didn't mind teammates and I could get accustomed to them but then again you always have to assume rumors are false than assuming they're true.

The next morning I was awoken by someone stepping on my left arm which sent me into an uncontrollable mentality of panic as if I were being attacked, this was caused by the minor case of PTSD I had developed from the beta-testing of survivals and sieges Signal Academy conducted while I was there that tested to see if it was a good program for later years. This was designed for students advanced in combat beyond their years and tested how long and well we would survive in certain scenarios such as surviving in the deep wilderness outside of Vale for weeks on end, defending the academy from a Grimm invasion which actually involved real, live Beowolves, Ursi, and on rare occasions a freaking Deathstalker! Other practices included a mock fortress raid with the aim being a team of us invading and capturing a makeshift fortress with multiple floors while the other team of students defended the fort. We all had to sign medical waivers before we took part in any of these events, but this beta-testing turned out to be a nightmare for the students involved since many of us developed PTSD which led to the program being discontinued. Some people's cases were so bad that they could no longer pursue their education to be a huntsman/huntress. I was fortunate though, I will admit that going through that medical exam while hearing about those freak episodes people were getting did make me quite nervous.

But with all that behind me now, the memories of being thrown to the ground by my enemy's blows and my blood being splattered on the ground by the claws of Beowolves still dominated my mind as I shot up from the floor and got behind the person who had stepped on my arm in a choke-hold and seeing delusions of this person being a Ursa and holding up Iglamin in my left hand to slice one of this person's major throat arteries on the back of their neck which in reality was my fist coming within inches of hitting them in the upper spine. I let them go as my mind cleared of these machinations to which I could finally see this was actually a person and not a creature of Grimm. If you could describe in words the most disturbed, questionable, and paralyzed faces the Human or Faunus face could generate, that would be his face. Absolutely speechless and obviously wondered about my mental state, I put my head down without saying a word since no breath I could mutter could make him fathom about why I had acted in such a frenzy and about how I had no control of my actions after what I had done.

Bystanders were moving back a couple of steps in concern as I walked by with my head still down in embarrassment and I could feel my face getting hot. The walk outside the ballroom to the equipment locker room wasn't the most comfortable either since word about the incident spread quickly among other students. As much as the fury inside me constructed, I had to keep telling myself that acting out again would only attract more unwanted attention. I walked over to my locker and entered my code: 159357, which made a perfect left-to-right "X" in the holographic number panel. The locker opened and I grabbed my long sword and headed outside to Beacon Cliff as instructed over the intercom.

Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch were already there waiting for us and gave us a set of instructions towards our initiation, saying our objective was to retrieve a relic from an abandoned temple at the northern end of the forest and that you would be literally thrown into the forest by launch pads along with landing on the forest floor using your "own landing strategy" plus that the people you first made eye contact with after landing would be your partner at Beacon for the next four years. Ozpin then said "Now, take your positions." I took my position that of which my ancestors would have done before a fight but they weren't born on Vytal. Anyways, my position was my right leg back and left leg forward with Iglamin in my left hand for this with my left arm forward with my long sword pointed diagonally to the right at a 45 degree angle and finally right arm behind to my side but my arm slightly behind my side.

I waited patiently as the people to my left were being tossed into the air, soon it was my time and with a quick draw of breath I launched into the heavens with my long sword held high and waited for the right time to unleash my landing strategy and breathed out the carbon that now filled my lungs half way down. As I approached the forest floor, I jammed the blade of Iglamin into the branch of a tree which sent me in a horizontal spin to left, but the blade also managed to skewer a stump of a tree which slowed my descent significantly but knocked my sword out of my hands and flew me in another spin and made me hit the ground palms of my hands first and the force of me hitting the ground in that manner threw me tumbling sideways which fortunately broke my fall. The injuries of that dramatic fall weren't horrible, just a few scratches on my back and the palms of my hands, I looked for my long sword as soon as I got up and it turned out it was still in perfect condition surprisingly and was only few feet from where I landed.

I saw others in the distance beginning the search for other students as I picked up my long sword, this wasn't terribly difficult since you could still see the students who were to our right when we stood on the launch pads exploding out of the sky using the trees as decelerateors. I wasted no time and immediately climbed a tree to take to celestial navigation to find which direction I was in, my understanding of the concept was a bit abstract and it was hard to see the last stars in the sky since the Sun was blocking the view of almost all the stars in the sky as it was almost full fledged daytime but I managed to find the very dim Polaris after several minutes and began some rough calculations towards discovering my place in the world. The process was taking longer than usual since the constellation of Ursa Major which a creature of Grimm on this planet was named after, was barely visible making it that much harder to calculate the constellation's distance from the horizon, this meant my calculations of where I was would be more inaccurate and might even say I'm on another continent or I might not even be looking at the right stars. I was lucky to even get results, they were pointing that I was in the southern end of Menagerie which I wasn't exactly sure was right, but indicated I was facing west. With that, I turned 90 degrees to the right, jumped from the top of the tree landing on the ground with a forward roll, hoped my calculations were at least somewhat correct, and began my walk in the forest.

I walked for a few minutes looking around me for other students but turned up fruitless. After about 15 minutes I became slightly concerned, had everyone gone the wrong way? If so, how far? The questions piled in my mind one after the other which didn't brighten my mood very well. I then decided to stop to look around me and listen to distant sounds to see if I had simply passed the others on accident. This wasn't the situation that unfolded, I was alone in the middle of the Emerald Forest with no sign of human life for miles and possibly creatures of Grimm stalking my presence. It was against my stealthy nature to call out into the forest for someone to hear and that was a death sentence in this forest anyway since it was crawling with the Grimm.

The best thing to do in that event was just to keep moving towards the temple and retrieve an artifact, but during my trek I ran into another student in black-clad armor looking off into the distance perhaps looking for students as well. I attempted to get their attention with a "Hey uh.. ar-" I didn't get to finish that sentence when they spun around faster than most of the people I've seen with speed semblances. But what was vastly different about this person was that their skin was fur, and shortly after this realization I felt a dreadfully painful sensation in my chest as I let out a scream of agony and I was forced to drop Iglamin in the sheer pain, this "person" was actually a Beowolf that had clawed my chest open, I staggered and stumbled to the ground while seeing transparent pictures of memories of Beowolves and Ursi clawing my flesh open in the past. Some of them were straight, others especially towards the front of my vision were slanted. With my right arm covering the 3 large cuts I now had in my chest that had already spilled pools of blood on the ground I was forced to watch these nightmares float in my eyes that weren't really there. The pools of crimson were a dark contrast compared to my white robe-like armor. All my arm did was just get drenched in my blood as the Beowolf looked at me smiling at me with its demonic red teeth as its jaw was opening and you could see the taste buds on its tongue salivating. I didn't panic or make an attempt to grab Iglamin, if this was the way I was going to die, then so be it. I shall face death the honorable way, without fear. I gave the Beowolf a smile in return as a sign of apathy of my death, practically letting it know that I was not going to fret when they made the killing blow.

I sat there waiting for the walking wolf to finally come to its senses that I was waiting patiently for it to give me death but suddenly a single "ping" was heard and the wolf gave an expression on their face somewhat along the lines of being shot, a silent torment on its face could be described from thousands of different perspectives. A few seconds passed before the beast fell to the ground with a quiet thud and a hooded figure dropped from a nearby tree behind the now dead Beowolf and walked over to me as he was putting his black sniper rifle with spikes on the barrel in the sheath on his back, with that thankfully, the illusions in my sight faded. His attire was strange, he wore chain mail armor that was gilded on the edges and had a hood on his head instead of a helmet. The top of his hood was notched in the front so you couldn't see his eyes but you could see the rest of his face. He then proceeded to wrap patches he grabbed out of a med kit strapped to the side of his left leg diagonally on the cuts on my chest and around my back as well for support without saying a word. He then turned around and walked away, I spoke and said thank you, but he merely stopped without turning around and said emotionless:

"You're welcome, but you probably remember me as the guy you tried to strangle earlier this morning." A feeling of embarrassment and guilt flowed through my veins with how little empathy he put into that statement. I couldn't remember what color his eyes were when I looked at his face earlier.

"I...I'm sorry, it was just that my PTSD kicked in when you stepped on my arm." I remarked with my tone being disconcerted. He turned around after I spoke.

"Well, you have a deep voice for a 13 year-old, but there is a multitude of questions I have for you. You have PTSD at your age? Why are you even here at Beacon?" And why are you at this school if you have a mental disorder, especially in a stress inducing environment?"

"Well 1,do you know about the beta-testing of survivals and sieges Signal discontinued this year? Well I was a participant in that and along with almost all the other students involved I developed PTSD, just not severe enough to interfere with my training to be a huntsman, It's only triggered when I am wounded or receive trauma. 2, I know I'm only 13, but Ozpin visited Signal and moved me up to here since he saw that I mastered even the most advanced teachings that school could offer." I hoped that answered all of his questions since I could see he was processing all that in his head for a few seconds. He afterwards looked at the bandages on my chest that were stained black and crimson. He then pulled down his hood so I could finally see his eyes, they were teal and had concern written all over them.

"Look, I'll be your teammate, you seem like a chill guy and besides you'll need some help with those cuts. Just let me do the fighting, you're obviously done for today." This lifted a huge weight off my shoulders, I had his forgiveness and a ticket away from impending death.

"Thank you, the least I can do is provide cover fire, my sword has a hidden gun inside of it so I can help in combat in a way and again thank you, words can't express."

"Don't mention it."

"By the way, what's your name?" I asked.

"Soturi, you?"

"I'm Tegn, I recognize the meaning of your name from somewhere I just can't place it."

"The strange thing is that I recognize yours as well. Just like you though, I don't recall the meaning." This was indeed very odd, we both recognized each other's names but couldn't remember their meanings.

"But never mind this, we can discuss this later, right now our objective is to find that temple, grab a relic and make it back up the cliff." He said. I silently agreed in my mind and then explained my findings with him about where we were supposed to go based on the celestial navigation I conducted earlier to prove to him which direction was north. It took him some convincing and even me having to show him how to do Celestial Navigation to get through his skull that I was confident about where north was and how I found out. After these shenanigans we headed north. Several minutes passed before we reached the abandoned temple, we walked down the one of the many hills surrounding this temple. The pedestals had dust crystals that varied in color and were engraved "Beacon Initiation" on the sides. Every single crystal was still there, meaning we had been the first to get here.

"Dibs on green." I quickly said. He simply smiled at that and grabbed a red one.

"We still need 2 more peeps." Soturi said with a slight tad of annoyance.

"Well I guess we'll just wait here for whoever isn't severing an Ursa's head right now." I remarked. Soturi let out a small chuckle. We waited for about 10 minutes before a girl came flying out of the bushes with a large pack of Beowolves on her tail. I pressed the pommel on Iglamin which un-collapsed the hidden rifle inside my long sword, I tuned up the scope right afterwards and aimed for the heads of these literally soulless beasts. I fired one shot after the other, each one landing inside of another wolf's skull making them drop dead. I furiously shot at the wolves from my experience not 30 minutes ago, as I was in the middle of shooting I yelled "Neuroscience, bitches!" Soturi while firing his sniper rifle and yelling over our gunfire said with a grin on his face trying not to laugh.

"You're a funny person, you know that?"

Soon the girl being chased by the wolves dived behind us while we were still shooting and took up the arms of her weapon with us. The last wolf standing got a little to close for comfort in the waning seconds of the shooting and lunged one of its claws at me. With the cuts already on my chest it hurt a ton, but I jumped backwards avoiding the slash and jammed my long sword at a horizontal position forward into the beast's heart. The howl it cried out in pain hurt my ear drums a bit but as the Grimm was looking at the wound, Soturi finished it off with a shot of his sniper to the head execution style. I took Iglamin and shoved it into the wolf's head and looked at Soturi with a grin on my face.

"Can't be too sure."

"My god, your killing me."

The girl behind us looked at us both with a look of concern in her black-colored eyes and spoke her mind.

"You two didn't happen to run into another girl with a musket katana have you?"

"Was she with you?" I asked.

"Yes, let's just say running into massive hoards of Beowolves are an excellent way to get separated."

"Where were you two when you were ambushed?" Soturi questioned.

"Back there, in the woods." She said this while pointing to the bushes she came out of.

"Then we must hurry, she could be in a last stand for all we know." I remarked with a sense of battle hype in my voice. No one talked and they automatically rushed into the wilderness. As I followed them, I noticed rapid movement in my peripheral vision. I turned and saw the girl we were looking for fighting a horde of Ursi. I signaled Soturi and the girl whose name I did not know towards the scene to help this girl she mentioned. I snuck up on one of the Ursi and with some grueling pain in my chest, jumped up and jammed Iglamin into the spinal cords of the bear-like creature which sent it into a paralyzed state and then tumbled to the ground. This distracted the rest of the monsters, giving the girl being attacked a perfect opportunity, she shot at the torsos of the Grimm, while Soturi from behind a tree sniped them in their heads. This spectacle lasted less than 10 seconds, afterwards the two girls spoke to each other, the musket-katana wielding girl talked first.

"Glad you made it one piece, Malae." Malae's eyes were so black, you couldn't tell where the colored part of her eyes ended and her pupils began. The black robes she wore were similar to mine, she had a metal pauldron on her right shoulder that was etched with a language I did not understand. It simply read: ອັນ ທີ່ ທ່ານ ບໍ່ ເຄີຍ ໄດ້ ເຫັນ

"Same for you, Saudara." Saudara wore a warrior's outfit, dark-silver armor covered her whole body except her head. She had a coat of arms painted on her back of a tiger wielding a sword for the design.

"Alright, so all we need to do is grab a relic and get the hell out of this forest." I said to all of them.

"He's got a point." Soturi added to the subject.

"OK, just make sure you don't get mauled again you blood bath." Malae said as she pointed to the blood soaked bandages on my chest.

"Oh shut up!" I said with a sarcastic but playful tone.

"What's your name there, Bloody Mary?" Malae persisted.

"It ain't Bloody Mary, but it is indeed Tegn."

"So who's marksman of them all?" Malae said turning her attention towards Soturi.

"Thank you, and my name is Soturi." The chain-mail clad sniper remarked.

"Let's move, our grade depends on our time." I addressed the 3 warriors. We ran back to the temple to see that no-one had still found it from only 2 dust crystals missing, the ones Soturi and I took. Malae and Saudara both grabbed orange crystals.

"So that about does it, I guess it's time to head back." Soturi announced. We all silently agreed and then charged for the massive wall that was Beacon Cliff. The sprint towards the cliff gave me one of the best feelings I've ever had in my entire life. That was short-lived, we ran through the lush forest and were halted by a King Taijitu that was patrolling its den. The gunfire of our weapons did moderate damage to the giant double-bodied snake, but the others gave up hope. I was in the midst of hacking the snake's skin with my long sword when I heard something no huntsman or huntress ever wants to hear.

"Oh screw him, he'll be fine just leave him behind, run!" The voice I heard was Soturi's, he convinced the other 2 to leave me for dead. I looked at them with disbelief as they fled into the dense foliage which the snake took advantage of. The monstrosity hit me with the side of its head like a battering ram. The force of the impact sent me to the ground, but with Iglamin still in my hand, I shot the double snake in all 4 of its eyes. The bullets pierced the brain obviously since both bodies of the snake fell to the ground with pound thuds. The only problem was that the force of the snake hitting me with its head widened the cuts on my chest, I could tell this without having to take the bandages off. I knew I wouldn't last another fight, I would have to find a place to hide and hope that other students found me. But the inner fire inside myself grew out of control and I shouted into the forest hoping my "teammates" would hear.

"Ja, det er veldig hyggelig å vite at jeg har lagkamerater jeg kan stole på, håper jeg dør dere jævla feiginger!" With my fury channeled outward, I walked over to a cave that seemed somewhat decent for a rest. I sat in the entrance of the cave for hours, without seeing a single soul or hearing a single sound. Soon dusk fell, and I knew everyone would have been long gone. I laid down deeper in the cave and used Iglamin for a pillow. I felt my eyes closing, I did not make an attempt to stop them, within minutes, I was asleep. I woke up to broad daylight and walked outside the darkness with Iglamin in my hand. I set my sights on the cliff and wondered how in my existence would I ever be able to climb that cliff. My heart sank at the thought of living here in this forest all because of the selfish acts of others. I immediately checked for a water source if this was going to be my fate. There was one inside the cave I slept in, clean too. Then I pondered on what would I eat, Grimm flesh would be my best bet, maybe some fruits growing on the trees.

Oh god, I just wrote what happened who knows how long ago like a story. Is this really what has become of me? Writing my life like a book someone reads? I must truly be going mad. But then again, this is one of the few things keeping me sane. I just hope someone finds me.


	2. Chapter 2: From agony to relief

So here I am, an under aged Beacon attendee stranded in the middle of the Emerald Forest all because his teammates left him for dead during initiation. I swear on my ancestor's honor that if I ever see them again, I'll kill them. I can never let this be a mere bygone. Fast-forward what seems like many an age, I sit here in this dark and dull cave behind a large rock writing in this book with pencils and the book itself I found lying around in the forest for no reason other than that I am slowly losing my mind from the isolation. I would assume that it has been at least a year since my teammates ran from that King Taijitu. I sometimes wonder what our team name would have been. But sadly, I was deprived of the chance to see for myself how the teams were named. I wonder if we named the team ourselves or something of the sort.

Oh well, that's all forever behind me now. I just wish I could relay back to home. The one home we once had. Too bad that's all just a repressed memory now. Anyways, I began plans for when the next batch of first year students light up the sky. I'll head towards the abandoned temple and wait for the students to arrive and give the a brief explanation of what happened to me. I am anxiously waiting for them to come. Sometimes I look out the entrance of my cave in the morning and just sit there for hours on end hoping I would hear gunfire. As dusk fell, I began a decent dinner for tonight, I went outside and roasted some Beowolf flesh over a fire I had lit using a piece of flint I found inside the cave and the metal blade of my long-sword. The aroma of the meat as it slowly cooked over the flames intensified the hunger I already had, I was tempted to just tear the flesh apart and begin feasting right then and there.

Patience withstanding, I endured the slight pain in my stomach and waited for a proper timing. Within an hour the meat was fully cooked and I took the nearly wine colored flesh away from the orange flame. I ate while looking up at the stars, Would I allow that kind of knowledge to be lost all because of 3 people? No, I have to wait for the new students. There it was again! I am truly going insane. I just need the sound of another voice than that of my own! Just the harmonic of something other than Grimm, birds, or myself! J...just calm down... Help is coming. Dear god please wake me.

I slept uneasily that night, the nightmares, the god damn nightmares. I'm seeing things in my dreams. Almost completely transparent figures in my dreams of me dying over and over. Me chasing Soturi and the others! Then everything would turn to a deep shade of crimson! I awoke, but to find the world asleep, just like always. The amber sun would slowly rise from the morning mist and cast a hue of gold into the fog. I sat up and out of boredom began engraving ancient carvings on the blade of my long-sword in the way my long dead ancestors would have on rocks. I used the piece of flint to etch the markings clearly. By the time I finished the last carving, the sun was almost 3/4 of the way to the top of the sky. I examined my carvings and congratulated myself on how perfect the symbols were created. I looked at them some more, but something shattered the silence of the forest: loud explosions, tree branches snapping, and distant thuds. It was them. The new students had arrived. Words couldn't express the feeling of my arteries overflowing with joy and gratitude. I picked up Iglamin and I rushed out of the cave frantically searching for the students.

I ran around the forest forgetting about going to the temple from the intensity of the moment. I was several minutes in the hunt for people, when a billowing smoke rose from the trees near where I was. I sprinted over to the scene only to find tens of teen-aged Ursi bodies smoldered from the ongoing inferno. What caused the forest to catch on fire? I examined the corpses, they had been burned with dust. The red tinges on the ground weren't blood, it was dust residue. Who the hell uses fire dust in a forest? That is the stupidest thing I have ever imagined. Shortly after this realization I heard yelling from the top of the hill I had named Typhoon Hill from the way it resembled a spiral. The yelling was going back and forth between two voices. I jogged up to the hill since I was nearly out of breath but as I was jogging up the hill, I heard a scream of fury followed a tree collapsing. I didn't care if my lungs were on fire, I double-timed it up that hill to see what the commotion was. Whoever was here was gone, but the giant black feather on the ground alarmed me. A Nevermore had been here.

Not seconds later I heard the cry of a Nevermore as I looked up to the heavens. I had killed Deathstalkers single-handedly, but I had never encountered a Nevermore, the deadliest of the Grimm. The last time I checked the kill ratio between Nevermores and humans/Faunuses, it was 57 to 1. For every Nevermore our species and the Faunus killed meant 57 of us dying. I saw 2 people hanging onto the talons of this Nevermore. One of them was wearing black and red clothes, the other white and blue. I had never been more concerned for someone else's life in my entire being. I nearly collapsed from exhaustion, but I forced my body to keep following this Nevermore through the woods. My chase was abruptly halted when the person wearing black and red fell from the Nevermore. I don't know why but I felt a sudden sharp decrease in my spirit. I watched them fall from the sky with my jaw dropped to the ground. I heard a scream followed by another and then a crash. I knew they would be certainly dead. I had to go over there and give them last rites. I wasn't religious, I just felt like that was the right thing to, to give a person who died alone a proper remembrance. I walked over to the site with my head down. The feeling you get after you watch someone die right in front of your own eyes is earth shattering.

I plodded on, but I heard a bunch of voices and movement out of the corner of my eye. A Deathstalker was chasing someone, she had to jump to avoid one claw, and somersault forward to avoid the other one. I froze watching this. Attempting to help her, I instantly fell to the ground with exhaustion so great that my vision began to blur. I crawled for a few seconds before my arms and legs gave out, the muscles had been stressed too much too fast. I rolled onto my back which required all the strength I had left. My ears rang and my peripherals began to darken, slowly creeping through the rest of my sight until I saw no more.

I woke up with a blinding light in my eyes. I rolled to my side to block the sun's rays. I stood up, grabbed Iglamin off the ground and looked behind me. The forest temple was right there! Oh the dread that overflowed my bloodstream! All the pieces were gone! I will admit that I just wanted to shove the blade of my long-sword into my head to end this agony. But the echoes of a Deathstalker in pain caught me completely off-guard. They might still be here, but where was the body of the person who fell from the Nevermore? I scanned the forest for a few seconds before deciding that I had to reach those students of be left here to die. I spoke my native tongue before leaving the hiding corpse: Du servert vennene dine godt, hvil i fred.

I hurried to the top of another hill I had named Bunker Hill as I strengthened my knowledge of the forest. I looked over the edge and I saw people fighting. I pressed the pommel of Iglamin to tune up the gun and see through the scope to get a better visual. 8 people were sandwiched between a Deathstalker and a Nevermore on the monument I called Beacon Forest Bridge. That was a death-defying situation to be in, one I'd never intervene with. I watched the battle unfold but with a shock. The black and red clothed person didn't die. She was there fighting the Nevermore along with a tall, skimpy dressed blonde girl, a sleeveless black-haired girl, and the white and blue colored dress girl who was also holding onto the Nevermore's talons earlier. The first bridge and the monument's centerpiece had collapsed into the canyon as the battle unfolded. As I looked at the red and black clothed girl, I had one of the strongest episodes of Déjà Vu I've ever had in my life. I knew her from somewhere. But when she turned her scythe into a sniper, it all came back to me, it was as if time suddenly began moving in slow-motion.

Ruby Rose, she was in her third year at Signal while I was in my second. Lover of cookies, high-pitched voice, and quite a quirky personality. I was absolutely awe-struck. Someone I knew from Signal was here now. But is she here for the same reason I am? She would still have 2 more years of training before she could apply to Beacon. I pondered the question while watching the climax of the battle where the Deathstalker had its own stinger cut off its tail and jammed into its own brain and Ruby with the help of the girl in the white and blue dress, was launched by the cable of the black-haired girl's weapon. Ruby caught the Nevermore by the neck with her scythe, some glyphs appeared on the cliff and then she went flying up Beacon Cliff. At the top, she decapitated it and this was accompanied by a flurry of rose petals due to her semblance if I was correct. That was one of the most memorable things I have ever seen.

I raced down the green hills to the monument but they were all gone. I looked at the cliff and saw the other people climbing the cliff with the help of the indents the Nevermore made being dragged up like that. I knew they wouldn't hear me, I gave a salute and turned around to head back to my cave. A broken monument was all that stood between me and telling Ozpin I wasn't dead. I would have to build a bridge. I chopped down trees until the last light of the sun died. I scraped the bark off the wood and then fastened the wood together with a bunch of vines in knots through the long hours of the night. I had not realized it was dawn when I marveled upon the completed bridge. It was poorly constructed, but it would do. The bridge was only 2 planks wide but very long to make carrying it easy. I grabbed my long-sword and dragged the bridge to the monument.

Once I arrived at the giant gap, I pushed the bridge on one end and had one arm over the edge to support the bridge so it didn't fall into the abyss while I was pushing it in place. A minute passed when the bridge finally fixed the gap. Now came the hard part, how will I cross the bridge since it's poorly constructed? I made a suicidal decision, I would run across it swiftly. I mentally prepared myself then charged across the creaking boards. Towards the end of the bridge I heard a thundering crack behind me. I dived and fortunately made it to the stone bridge, but mine had collapsed. There was no turning back, I had to make it up this cliff.

The indents from the Nevermore were perfect for climbing as assumed from seeing those others climb with ease. I put my hands through each cut rock after the other for seemingly hours, I had to keep telling myself not to let go or look down. As I neared the top, I felt waves of strength rush through my muscles and just climbed faster than I had in my life. I pulled myself up at the top and then collapsed on my back from the immense stress my body had just gone through in the past day. I laid there on the top of the cliff with my legs over the edge holding the age-old bandages that were still wrapped on my chest. I finally got up after a few moments and headed inside to look for Ozpin and explain everything to him.

I looked through the halls for the man but all I got was a bunch of people in uniforms staring at me and the dried blood on the cloth on my chest. "Just like my first day here" I thought to myself. As I walked into a hallway that was nearly deserted, I accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry!" A high-pitched voiced girl spoke. I looked at who I had exactly run into, It was her! Ruby.

"Ruby? I... It's been so long." I said with a small bit of joy. I hadn't spoken in so long that I forgot how deep my voice was.

"Wait are you-"

"Tegn, you were in your third year at Signal while I was in my second." I said to make clarification simple.

"What are you doing here at Beacon?" She asked concerned.

"Remember how I was moved up here however long it was ago? Well I was in initiation with my team and when we met a King Taijitu, they ran and left me for dead. I have no idea how long it's been since that happened, I'm not even sure if they made it out alive. I literally just now got up that cliff with your help of making indents in the rocks with that Nevermore, nice work by the way." Ruby smiled but then looked at my chest.

"Uh...what's that?" She asked pointing to my bandages.

"Oh, that was from a Beowolf. But do you know where Ozpin is?"

"Ozpin, he's probably over here, come on." I followed Ruby through some more hallways rejoicing at the fact I had finally talked to another human being in who knows how long until we reached Ozpin's office where he was writing a letter.

"Ozpin, someone is here that would like to see you." Ruby said.

"And who is this?" Ozpin wondered. I walked through the doorway to not let mysteries overcome him.

"Ozpin, I am Tegn. I was here befor-" He interrupted me while I spoke.

"I am surprised that you are alive Tegn after a year, but there is no need for an explanation, they all confessed when we questioned them about why they only had 3 members. Soturi said that you yelled at them when they ran in a language that he understood."

"Just one thing professor, here." I reached into my pocket at held out the bright green dust crystal that was engraved "Beacon Initiation" on the side.

"You kept that this entire time?" Ozpin was clearly in shock.

"Yes, I just held onto it so that if one day I lived to tell you I wasn't dead, I would have turned in proof that I completed initiation." The professor put down the coffee mug he was drinking from and looked at me right in the eyes.

"In all my years teaching here, I have never seen someone so determined towards something they wanted to complete. For the duration I would have given you an F, but for your determination I will give your grade for initiation an A."

"Thank you sir."

"Since slots for teams are closed, you will collaborate with a first year team or your choice. Either team RWBY, JNPR, or CRDL." He showed me on his scroll who was on each team. I looked up for a second when I saw that Ruby was mouthing something. She was mouthing: Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. So I thought "Oh what the hell" and decided I would align with Team RWBY. Ozpin later showed me where I would sleep. It was a dorm not far from Team RWBY's dorm that hadn't been used yet. As soon as Ozpin left after saying that I would receive my scroll from Signal later this evening, I took off the bandages to see that the cuts had somehow disappeared. I cleaned the blood stains off my robes and set Iglamin next to the bed in my dorm. Ruby then walked me over to her team's dorm and introduced me to everyone there.

"Hey guys, we have a new member." Ruby cheerfully said as I walked through the door.

"What is this nonsense?" The girl in the white and blue dress began rudely. I explained to her why I was technically not on Team RWBY but was helping them and my whole story of being left for dead.

"Well it's nice to meet you". The skimpy dressed blonde girl greeted me and told me who she was along with everyone else on Team RWBY. The sleeveless black-haired girl was looking at me odd like she knew something. I conversed with them until evening struck. I gave them a farewell for the night and walked over to my dorm. A uniform and my scroll were waiting for me there. I turned on my scroll, laid down on my bed, and began to review the files in the folder I had named "SECRET". So much knowledge, so much lost knowledge, how could the people just forget?


	3. Chapter 3: The Forgotten Past

Maybe it was the fact that this knowledge had destroyed them once before that I never shared this with anyone. I skimmed through the sub-file code-named "W" and kept the same thought in my mind.

"_our species is awful_".

I locked the folder and powered off my scroll to bid a fair night's rest. I woke up the following morning to not to another person or to the natural phenomena of the sun's light overpowering the room, but to my own body clock. I had become so used to waking up in the morning back in the forest that my body adapted to where I woke up by myself very early. I instinctively peered out the window to see that the sun was just beginning to rise. The hues of red, orange, and purple were so perfectly colored and vibrant, it was as if a master artist had painted the dawn sky. I stared at the beauty that was nature for a little while before I powered on my scroll to see what the time was; 6:17 the clock read. I was about to put my tech pad down until I received a message from one of the main editors of Vytal Tribune that told how news of my survival has gained a great deal of public attention. He asked if he could use the entries I wrote in the book while I was in the forest for an exclusive story on their page.

Without hesitation, I gave him the prompted "no". If they got their hands on my writings, they would suspect I was a madman from when I had short episodes of lunacy and wrote strange things in the book that I could never remember writing. It was as if someone or something else had complete dominion over my thoughts and actions for a few seconds. They might even have wanted to use those writs of pure psychosis against me to hinder my career as a huntsmen. Besides, I prefer to cling to the cold shadows of the day rather than the burning light of the night. I looked back on the secret files for the next 2 hours and then tried on the uniform that still hanged on the rack in the corner of my dorm. A perfect fit. I had half an hour before the first class of the day began. I simply sat on my bed and thought of those ominous quotes that seemed like the dark epitome of humanity.

"We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most were silent."

"Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

I sat there reflecting the words in my conscience over and over. I got up once I felt a reasonable time had passed and walked out of my dorm room, through the hallways, then the courtyards I had trekked upon a year ago. The tall, wood, and arc-shaped doors to the classroom of "Professor Oobleck" opened and I immediately noticed that the professor was extremely ecstatic and was a living powerhouse of energy. We sat down looking at the man whose clothes were disheveled. In his lecture, he talked about a war that nearly wiped out the entire human population on Vytal. Speaking that so many died that the motives of war were lost to the tides of history in its seventh year. People fought each other without knowing why other than that they were the "bad guys" but couldn't pinpoint as to exactly what made them so.

That is exactly what I feared most in this world, people fighting each other for no solid reason. That or people fearing and rejecting knowledge. He continued the subject while pacing around the room at what seemed like the speed of light. His statements were sometimes so rushed that you had a hard time of processing what he was saying. After the energetic lecture, he assigned some readings and told us that if you do not learn from history, that is basically a tree trying to live without its roots and dismissed us. I listened attentively to all the lectures and classes I had that day and completed the readings back at my dorm around the time the crescent moon began to rise. I redressed into my combat outfit and took out my scroll to unlock the secret files once more. This time, I would see if the old network still ran. It didn't. Not a single thing was left of communications, all purged and fried by the Warming.

I locked the folder, set my scroll down, and walked out to one of the balconies for a better view of the night sky besides by dorm window thinking that everyone else would still be doing their work, but to my surprise, I found that someone was already there. Ruby was sitting on the edge of the balcony, looking at the crescent moon. Her red cape flapped in the air from the wind.

"Beautiful ain't it?" I spoke which caught her off-guard. But there was something wrong, her face showed deep sorrow.

"It is, but I need time alone". She said with deep depression in her voice as if she was about to cry.

"What's the matter?" I asked hoping she would tell me why she was randomly out here in sadness which was estrange from her chipper personality.

"My mother... She..." Ruby began to clutch her heart with pain. I knew that this was a huge deal and listened full heartedly.

"You don't have to tell if you don't want to." For a second, I thought I would have accidentally just sent her into a wave of tears instead of actually trying to help her.

"Summer was her name. She was my mother... she died 8 years ago today." I instantly felt bad for her, losing someone who was close to you that young. I walked over and sat down next to her and put my arm around her and told her straight up:

"Look, I am here if you need me, don't hesitate for help. Måtte din mor husker deg også." I meant that. I didn't say that just make her feel better, I meant that if she needed an ally, I wasn't far away.

"Why do you say that?" She questioned.

"Because you're not the only one who's lost someone who meant the whole world to them." I spoke only the truth on that balcony. After I said that, she buried her face in my shoulder and began to cry. I remembered what that was like, except I was always alone with no one to turn to. The vivid memories of looking over their bodies and wondering "Why?" I will admit that while holding Ruby, I felt a tear or two of my own flow down my face but I didn't make a sound. I guess no one is immune to sadness. We must have been there until midnight because it felt awful late and my

eyes were ready to give out.

"Thank you for telling me this. Måtte din mor bli husket." I almost always spoke figuratively in my native language, which in my opinion was the best type of writing.

"You always say those things I don't understand. What are you saying?" I was troubled by the question. If I told her that, I would have to explain the secrets as well. Thoughts of excuses and lies raced through my brain for a few milliseconds before I decided to just tell the truth since she just told me something extremely personal and obviously trusts me with it.

"The answer to that is complicated. Come over here and I'll show you everything." I led Ruby into my dorm and turned on my scroll to enter the password to the "Secrets" folder. I entered the passcode: "The kingdom by the sea." The menu of pictures, videos, science, math, schematics, all the things we had previously known were right here right now. There was the breath-taking photos of the green and blue jewel to the horrid weapons. I first showed Ruby a picture of the planet we called Earth. She was absolutely astonished to the bone. I began to explain all of this.

"Vytal isn't the home planet of humankind. Earth was, and we lived on that planet for at least 100,000 years." I then showed her a 3D Earth that you could move around and showed her the names of the 7 continents. Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, Australia, Antarctica, and South America. The questions she had were coming from left, right and center. I then showed her the major cities of Earth and explained that there were no Grimm, no dust, no aura, etc on Earth and that we killed off our natural predators long before recorded history. I showed her our society and finally our god awful weapons which she seemingly seemed to be enthralled to. I then made the worst mistake I've probably ever made: I showed her the Atomic Bomb and told her about the Warming.

The atomic bomb was the weapon that had nearly made our species go extinct. The Warming was the event where tempers between nations flared for political reasons and fired nuclear warheads at each other. I will never forget the ash lands and the dead bodies decaying on the sides of streets. I told her what the effects of just one bomb would do. When I was through speaking, she was utterly speechless. I had just revealed the "Forgotten Past" that the people on this planet knew they had but couldn't figure out what it was. I could easily tell that the revelations I had just shown her was boggling her mind.

"You need to show this to our team." She hastily said with urgency.

"Betray one friend for another I guess" I said while looking out the window.

I walked over to Team RWBY's dorm with my scroll and with Ruby on my tail. Ruby walked into the room and was practically hyper from the gravity of the info I carried.

"You have to see this!" she said with importance.

"What needle in the haystack have we found this time?" The girl in the blue and white dress whose name was "Weiss" said sarcastically. I walked into the room and gave them a brief description of what I was going to say before I blew their minds. I opened the folder and showed them the picture of Earth I had shown Ruby. I went on to the same explanation as before while my eyes stung from the tear I had let go a few hours ago. They all looked at each other with disbelief, as if what I was showing them was too good to be true. I eventually showed them the atomic bomb as well and began to describe its effects.

"Within a thousandth of a second of the detonation of this bomb, a fireball would form. Reaching out for two miles in every direction; four miles across. Within this area, temperatures would rise to 20 million degrees. Which is almost as hot as the core of the sun. And everything would be vaporized, the buildings, the people, the trees, the upper level of the earth itself. To a distance of four miles in every direction, the blast would generate winds in excess of 600 MPH, and blast pressures greater than 25 pounds per square inch. Forces of this magnitude could destroy anything that human beings could ever build; underground shelters would collapse. To a distance of six miles in every direction, the heat would be so intense that even the toughest metals would melt. To a distance of ten miles in every direction, the blast would still generate winds in excess of 200 MPH, and blast pressures greater than 10 pounds per square inch. Forces of this magnitude would level wood-frame buildings and modern steel and concrete buildings would see its walls and floors swept out. Only the steel skeleton would remain.

To a distance of 16 miles in every direction, the heat would so intense that everything flammable would burn. Wood, paper, cloth, it would all ignite. Hundreds of thousands of fires would over the next half hour, coalesce into a massive firestorm 32 miles across. Within this entire area, temperatures would rise to 1,400 degrees. All the oxygen in the air would be consumed and every living thing would die. Beyond this great firestorm, the destruction would continue. There would be hundreds of thousands if not millions of people suffering severe injuries. Crush injuries, penetrating injuries, extensive burns, and blindness from retinal burning. All of these people would require intensive medical care, but it would not be available. Because most of the hospitals would be destroyed, most the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals would be dead. And there would be no electricity to run the cardiac monitors and other machines. All the medical supplies would be exhausted within hours."

They all fell silent, they could not believe their ears at what I had just described. There was silence in the room for an awkwardly long time before the black-haired girl named "Blake" spoke.

"As amazing and terrible as that is, your whole speech sounded rehearsed."

"It is, I practiced it on Earth so if anyone who didn't what the Warming was or what caused it, I would be able to fully explain it."

"What's this "Warming" you keep talking about?" the blonde named "Yang" questioned.

"The Warming was the event that drove humanity off Earth and onto Vytal. Those effects I just talked about are just the effects of one bomb, now imagine those being used on a mass scale all over the planet. That was what the Warming was. The only survivors uncovered an experimental space rocket engine that could make a shuttle move insanely fast. Your ancestors got on those ships fastened with them and desperately explored the galaxy for another hospitable world, and they found it. We're standing on its surface as I speak. My 4 greats grand-parents were some of the unlucky few who were left behind on Earth to rot. Fast forward 200 years and Earth still is showing no signs of recovery but the fallout had finally subsided and it was safe to return to the surface. My parents were killed by thieves who killed you for the water in your hands and the food in your pantry when I was only a baby that was too young to remember anything. I then grew up under the care of this man who taught me all that I know." I felt remorse run through me as I talked about my dead parents, but I could not let something like this be halted because of my emotions.

"He told me that he knew my parents and knew about me when they died. When I was ten years old, he found one of those rockets along with coordinates to Vytal that were transmitted back to Earth over a hundred years ago and sent me on my way to this planet your ancestors found because he felt I should live a better life on this planet than the hell-hole that post apocalyptic Earth was. I then enrolled to Signal Academy a year after I landed on Vytal unnoticed and moved on up. While radiation levels were still extremely high on Earth, some of the mutations that humans begin to experience were mutated body parts that resembled animals; the Faunus." As soon as I said that, Blake was so astonished that she literally took a step as if she had been moderately struck by a sledgehammer.

"What?" I wondered. Why was she so bewildered by this to that extent but not by the atomic bomb? She didn't say a word and pulled off the black bow she had on the top of her head that revealed her cat ears.

"I am sorry that you are one of the victims. Still proceeding, other mutations included one that we may as well consider a gift: Aura. That's right, aura came from the radiation our ancestors had to live through. Strangely colored eyes and hair is another result as well. But dust didn't come from all this. They're native to Vytal and seem to coincidentally react to our aura via radiation."

"Alright, but exactly why did someone just decide to kill half the people on Earth?" Weiss demanded.

"That's a good question, but unfortunately, it's all a bunch of politics that I'll spare you the details of since it's all long and complicated." I couldn't help but feel I had betrayed the man who raised me since he always told me that if I somehow got on the other planet to not mention Earth whatsoever. No, the people of this planet had the right to know their past whether or not it isn't one to be proud of since that is a tree trying to live without its roots.

"I promise to answer any of your questions later since my eyes are going to collapse in any second, but for now I'll tell you all this: While I was on Earth, I was trained and mastered the art of the kill. I am an assassin. How do you think I mastered the teachings at Signal so easily?" I asked while looking at Ruby. They all looked at me suddenly with distrust, especially Weiss.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can trust someone who was trained to kill other people like it is like any other skill." Weiss said with vigilance.

"I can understand why you think that, it was mandatory for people on Earth at the time to know how to fight, I was just taught the higher levels of it. And just to clear something up, I would never kill someone who attends this school unless they were trying to kill me." I gave them a farewell for the night and plodded off to my dorm with my scroll in hand. I hid the tech pad in the drawer of a desk in my dorm and crashed on my bed. I dreamt slightly odd dreams tonight imagining a conversation with myself in it. Would I ever be able to use my art on this planet or are people like us no longer needed? I'll let the currents of time handle that decision.


	4. Chapter 4: Old Ways

Without a voice, without a soul. His true life stripped away from him, wishing he had it. Rejected and shunned by society as a whole. Walking into the detestable dark with no other choice. Hiding from the people who had once called him friend. Threatened with violence and living in the shadow of death day after day. Lying up against a wall with his head down in depression and fatigue. Beaten, stabbed, nearly murdered on several occasions. Feared with plenty of reason. Bleeding from cuts the violent mob inflicted on him. Regretting the lives he took while staring at the blood dripping from his dagger. Told not to engage in social contact with others. Pervading the two-legged prey undetected. Almost everyone he personally knew was either dead or missing. Hunted by the local militia and poorly organized military. Only one person was left for him. That would be me, at least while on Earth.

I was one of if not the most undesirable person on Earth at the time. Being an assassin doesn't really give you the most prestigious reputation. I was sent to kill corrupt politicians and bandit leaders that favored looting other villages, supported oppressive rule, secretly gave city money to thief organizations, and other things of that sort. I would stand there in the crowd with the white robes with armor and leather straps attached in some places. Waiting patiently for the right time to kill him. Keep in mind, I was barely ten years old while doing this while being trained by the old man who looked after me. I was practically a child soldier with questionable motives, but that didn't stop me. When the time came, I moved through the crowd and began running when his security recognized that it was me. I pulled the daggers out of my sleeves and gripped them in my hands to slice the belly of one of his bodyguards and the leg of the other in a smooth movement. The politician booked it out of there but I sprinted after him creating gashes in the necks of his reinforcements in the process. I eventually cornered him and he pleaded me in a desperate tone to not end his life and offering power. I refused as usual and shoved the blade into his heart and purposely severed the major arteries around the organ to ensure death.

I let his lifeless body crash to the ground and gave the respect to him as always: "Hvil i fred". I said which simply meant "Rest in peace" in my tongue while closing his still open eyes. I wasted no time and ran from the scene to avoid the onslaught of advanced police and military that would soon attempt to track me down for committing a crime such as this. The crowd had clearly known what I had done from the fact that they threw rocks at me while I ran and some even followed me through the torn up streets. The blood of the politician on my dagger still left a trail as I moved quickly around the war struck city. This was surprisingly the hardest part of an assassination: getting out alive. You had the militiamen shooting at you from 2-story houses and vigilantes punching you and trying to throw you onto the ground for an easy kill. The strategy towards this is to pretend to be some of the people who are fleeing the scene which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

"No one on Vytal is like that." I thought while I opened my eyes from the dreams of my past. I pulled down the white hood that was attached to my white robes and stared at the sky of orange and purple, my dark-brown hair reflecting the light directly back. Thoughts of regret were haunting my brain ever since I revealed to the team their "Forgotten Past."

"You do realize that if just one of them leaks the info, you're screwed." I thought to myself in a manner as if I was talking to a clone of myself inside my head.

"If they do, I'll have no choice but to return to the fringes of society, to be a practicing assassin again." Who is corrupt on Vytal? The Schee's? No, the heiress is on your team, why would you do that? As much grief the assassin life gave me back in the day, I secretly hoped deep down inside that a reason to return to that life would arise. Oh man, to be back in that light. Problem was, there is almost no official on Vytal that is corrupt. The Schee's were the only possible corruption on this planet. Then again, there's the White Fang. Kill the leader of the White Fang? You would have half of the Fauna on the planet after you in a heartbeat.

"Why the hell are you thinking of these things?" A powerful thought I had created circled through my neurons. "Why do you want to return to the very thing that you believe stripped your life away from you? The very thing that caused you to just sit on the side of a street and silently cry and make you hate yourself for feeling that you killed too many, thinking their bodyguards were just obstacles from the real target. You honestly want to cry yourself to sleep every night again?" I couldn't deny the truth, the target's security were just obstacles from the real target, they were the innocent. They did not need to die. Think of their families when they learned of their father's or husband's death. Imagine how many childhoods and lives you have ripped apart. I...I am a monster. A psychopathic killer raised to be this way since I was six years old. There is a profound darkness inside of my soul.

I did not put on the uniform since today was combat evaluation day. Our fighting skills would be put to the test today in a practice tournament before the actual tournament at the Vytal Festival would be held. People all around the academy ranging from us first year students to the senior four-year students were attending this trial tournament. Only though first year students could fight. The mood of the whole school seemed raised. It was as if everyone's attitude had been lightened overnight. The overall feeling of energy in everyone had been heightened. I walked out of my room to immediately hear escalated talking coming from team RWBY's dorm. I instinctively looked around to see if anyone would see me, and then put my ear to the wall to hear this conversation better out of suspicion.

"He clearly stated who he was!" A voice that seemed to belong to Weiss exclaimed.

"Come on Weiss, he's just a lonely soul who was forced to start life on the wrong foot." Yang diplomatically said trying to calm the situation down.

"Yeah, and what happens the day when we all find dead bodies with their entrails hanging out of their stomachs in the courtyards?!" Weiss said strongly obviously holding her ground firmly. I will say that what she said there physically made me slump since I actually have done that before.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled.

"Well I'm sorry, would you want me to stop referring him to what he actually said himself who he was?" Weiss questioned sarcastically.

"Do you know how many assassins have changed the course of Vytal's history for the worse? What makes him any different?!" Weiss exclaimed again. After she said this, a sudden veil of silence fell over the room. No one talked minutes afterwards. I knew that this was a scene of people questioning their original motives. The moment when they enter a delicate state of mind where they rethink their standing in an argument after a riveting statement had been given. For one of the first times in my life in this moment, I actually heard true silence. Nothing at all made any audible sound. The only sound you could hear in times like these was your ears ringing from being so used to sound and ring from desperately searching for a sound.

This was taking longer than usual, so I walked away and went outside for the tournament. It was a beautiful late summer day. Cloudless skies gave the sun its true power. The tournament would be held in Beacon's combat auditorium, the same one used for when we first arrived here. The place was packed with many of those who couldn't fight but wanted to watch anyways. All of the first year teams filed into the crowd minutes later. Ozpin was on the microphone again, this time more direct and not so cryptic.

"Welcome to the Beacon Practice Tournament. First year students here today are here to evaluate their skill in battle in a tournament-style competition in which you will be separated from your teams and might be forced to fight your own teammates. Once the tournament is over, the last person standing will automatically be nominated for the real tournament at the Vytal Festival early next month. A chart showing the movement of the competition will be displayed on the board above the battle stage. You may inflict harm on your opponents but not life-threatening injuries. Now, if I could have all first year students report to the stage, we'll get started. Good luck to all of you." Ozpin had told me last night that since there was an uneven number of students in the tournament, I would face off against the finalist since he believed in my skills. We first year students all walked up to the stage and watched the first battle.

This was between Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. The board displayed the contestant's name with a picture of them along with an aura meter. Jaune charged with his sword and lunged it at her arm which she deflected with her spear and countered with a thrust of her spear. Jaune used her move to his advantage, he spun around completely dodging the spear and used the tip of his sword to clang with the metal handle of Pyrrha's spear which disarmed her. Pyrrha had an expression of shock, as if she didn't expect him to have that sort of skill. Jaune dived for her spear lying on the ground which she followed. Pyrrha beat him to it though. Jaune tried to slash her while she picked her weapon up, but she somersaulted to the side and quickly drew the carbine rifle from her spear and shot Jaune in his left arm. He staggered with the pain while clutching his arm to prevent the blood from gorging out of his artery. He was then rushed off the stage to receive medical attention. A large stain of blood now stained the floor of the stage.

The fights ensued with Cardin Winchester vs Lie Ren. Cardin swung his giant mace at the green and grey clad hunter, but barely missed and allowed Ren to shove one of the bladed ends of his SMG's into Cardin's armor which did little damage. Cardin then powerfully kicked Ren in the face making him drop his SMG's and stumble to the ground dramatically. He didn't move for a few seconds and finally raised his hand and gave the surrender signal while still laying face down on the floor. Small streams of blood were coming from his face while he still laid there on the ground. He eventually got up and held his nose with obvious pain and walked off towards the medical bay.

Other battles raged on throughout the day. Weiss was beat by Blake with a clever juke. Cardin had been defeated by the perfectly timed strike of Yang's shotgun gauntlets. Blake had been stomped by Pyrrha in a ferocious battle. All these cataclysms carried on throughout the day until it was finally my time to face the finalist. My enemy was Ruby Rose. I swear, if she had the skill of a full-blown huntress, she could conquer the world with that scythe. I had a fighting style of surprise; pull out the daggers hidden in my sleeves when the target least expects it. I pulled Iglamin out of its sheath and stared upon the many blood stains that had found their way onto the stage floor throughout the day. The match began and I waited for Ruby to make the first move.

She angled her scythe backwards and fired a shot behind her to get a major propellant. I jumped to the side and looked upon her as she stopped herself. She then ran towards me and attempted to nick me with the tip of her scythe. I used the move to collide the metal of her weapon with the metal of mine. I slid the blade of Iglamin down the metal of her scythe to try to at least graze the skin of one of her hands. She noticed this and countered by swiftly swinging her scythe toward the ground which cut a small section of my right arm. That was a small cut, but it was enough for me lose myself. I violently kicked her in the stomach with uncontrollable fury, dropped Iglamin, pulled out the daggers I hid in my sleeves, and shoved on dagger into her abdomen along with the other one in her back in a blink of an eye.

Revelation. Revelation. Ruby screamed with pure agony while dropping Crescent Rose. Time faltered. I heard the terror of the crowd, but it was distant. I was absolutely mortified. I slowly pulled out the daggers and stared at them with discontent. I looked upon her face and saw the most haunting face I had ever seen. Her mouth wide open from the pain, her eyes snapped and staring into my eyes with disbelief. I examined the wound. She would almost certainly die. Her intestines had been compromised. I turned to the side and saw the crowd full of fear. But one figure stood out. Yang was staring at me with her eyes colored maroon instead of lavender. She ran towards the stage ignoring the bandages on her arms and midsection. I had no choice but to sprint out of Beacon. I jumped into the crowd and pushed people out of my way with Yang right behind me. I never ran faster in my life, not even the time I assassinated the mayor of New Portland did I run faster.

"GET BACK HERE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Yang yelled while she chased me through the courtyards of the academy. I was cornered when I ran into what I though was an incline, but turned out to be the edge of Beacon Cliff. I turned around to see Yang slowly walking up to me smiling this time around. I let her walk towards me, activated my semblance, and then jumped off the cliff into the massive lake below. In reality, you would have died falling into water from that height, but thanks to my guardian semblance, I landed in the water unscathed. I swam towards the shoreline and realized the critical error I had made. I forgot to pick up Iglamin! I only had the daggers that were drenched with Ruby's blood. I stared at them while standing in the sunlight to dry off feeling overwhelming waves of guilt and anger towards myself.

"You wanted it earlier today, well now you have it you sick bastard." My voice inside my head blared. This was it, I was now forced to return back to the old ways. I am an assassin again. To think that Ruby might already be dead up there while you stare at her blood all thanks to my damn PTSD. It's funny how I developed it here on Vytal and not on Earth. Well, here I am again back to my old life. I no longer find myself around others with open arms. Instead, I find myself now again alone in the green.

I trekked through the forest heading west. I knew that I was heading west from the fact that I could see Vale from the top of the cliff and Beacon was on the eastern most part of the city borders. I walked along feeling pure regret. Ruby was most likely dead and no one at that school would ever trust you again. And when word gets out, I'll be the one of the most wanted criminals in all of Vale. Yang would either be furious or emotionally broken. I had probably killed her sister which even if she lived, she would never forgive me. I began to blame myself.

"If you had never signed up for that program at Signal, none of this would have happened. You would not be walking through this forest right now if you even considered the risks of the sieges." More similar thoughts flowed through my brain until I told myself the real situation. I didn't have control, it wasn't my fault. The PTSD kicked in when I got nicked and I lost control of myself. I treaded through the forest for about an hour before I finally reached the grand metropolis. I entered the city and immediately took to looking around for the police station. I'm bound to find some guns in there. I plodded on the sidewalks in downtown when I saw a building with an engraved sign that read "Vale Police Department".

I walked in like I was a normal person and snuck into the armory when no one was looking. The racks were lined guns from pistols to sniper rifles. I grabbed a fully automatic assault rifle and hid it in my robes. I walked out of the station undetected and roamed the streets again. I went into an alley to pull out the rifle and strap it to my back. I then headed back into the heart of the city and looked around to see if I had become notorious or not. I was in the midst of searching when I heard a reporter. I turned to the direction of which the sound came from to see the reporter Lisa Lavender who was the lead reporter on VNN on an electronic billboard talking about me.

"We urge all of Vale to help the VPD track down the ruthless killer known by the name of Vitale Tegn. He stabbed Beacon Academy attendee Ruby Rose twice while in the school's practice tournament. She is currently in the hospital in critical condition. He is 5,8, has dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a slice scar on his right arm. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department". As soon as she said that, an image of me in my white robes appeared on the screen showing my face. People around me instantly noticed that I was right there. I climbed up a building to avoid conflict and jumped to and climbed other buildings to reach the higher ends of Vale's skyline. I was just fortunate and relieved that Ruby was still alive. But now, people would know I was in the city's limits. I stared down upon Vale as I reached the top of the tallest building in the city thinking about what I would do from here on out.


	5. Chapter 5: Life Is Fragile

"Looks like I have some blood to spill." I quietly said aloud to myself. Only one thing troubled me though. I don't know why, but the thought of Ruby dying an agonizingly slow death or making a recovery was pervading my brain. I couldn't keep my mind off of her. I didn't love her, just the guilt of stabbing her near to death haunted me. That face I swear will never leave my conscience. If she died, I would just like to tell her that I had no control over myself at the time. I climbed half way down the spire and then jumped onto the roof of a moderately tall building. I searched the skyline for anything that looked like a medical establishment. I eventually found a fairly large building that had a sign near the front door reading "Vale Emergency Hospital."

I climbed up the walls of the hospital rather than going through the front door since I was a wanted man at this point. I climbed and climbed for hours peeking through windows to see if Ruby was through one of them. I was giving up hope. "She's dead and they've probably begun the funeral preparations." I grimly thought. I peeked through an open window finally to see Ruby on the bed unconscious hooked up to a cardiac monitor and Yang with her head laid face down on her sister's right hand. Blake and Weiss merely looked at Yang while both holding expressions of concern and misfortune. I climbed into the window to get into the room which made Blake and Weiss turn around swiftly.

"Have you come to finish the job?!" Weiss yelled at me. She was obviously furious at me. Blake held a blank expression and Yang looked up slowly at first but then suddenly as soon as she realized who I was.

"I had no control over what I did." I said calmly trying to avoid flaring any more tempers.

"No control? How can one have "no control" when they're attempting to murder someone?!" She replied raising her voice.

"I have PTSD from Signal Academy's survivals and sieges. When I receive trauma, I just lose myself." I honestly said trying to give her a viewpoint from my vision. She didn't say a word and walked up to me with her eyes still angry. She kicked me in the leg which made me go into psychopathic killer mode again. I pulled out the rifle that was strapped to my back which Weiss quickly retaliated towards. She now had fear in her eyes. She pulled out her rapier named Myrnstenaster and used her glyphs to move around the room faster than I could comprehend. She stayed moving about until after a few seconds she launched down from the air and tore the frame of the rifle I held in my hands. The gun split in two and I dropped the piece I held. The bullets that were loaded now scattered the floor. I regained my thinking and nearly dropped to the ground in doing so.

"Don't you see? I have no control over my actions when that sort of thing happens." I said while I was nearly crumbling to the ground. I soon got back up and saw all three of their faces in immeasurable anxiousness. Silence dominated the room for a while. Not a single soul spoke a single word. The room was quiet for a painfully long time as the three girls had their eyes fixed onto me. The sound of the cardiac monitor giving the signal of a flat line interrupted this. Everyone in the room, including myself turned towards the still body on the bed. We stood there until a doctor came rushing into the room with a defibrillator ignoring the bullets that were scattered on the floor and instantly got to work by placing the electrodes on Ruby's body. He kept charging and pulsating the electricity through her body, but she wouldn't come back. Yang stood to the doctor's side silently begging with her hands clutched together that she would be alright. This carried on several minutes before the doctor stopped and turned to all of us with a look of grief upon his face. Yang was already tearing up.

"I'm sorry, but she is not coming back." The doctor said. Yang was visibly crushed. She slowly crumbled to the ground while she began to put her head in her hands and cry. The doctor pulled a small tarp over Ruby's face and unplugged the cardiac monitor. He stepped out of the room and left us alone. Weiss teared up but didn't cry, same thing with Blake. I walked over to Ruby's motionless body and raised the tarp over her face to give her a final farewell.

"Jeg vet du var kuttet kort fra din tid takket være meg, men bare vet at jeg dypt beklager for det jeg har gjort. Jeg lover deg livet mitt i retur for mine handlinger. Hvil i fred, min venn." I softly spoke. In the tongue of this world, that farewell meant: "I know you were cut short from your time thanks to me, but just know that I deeply apologize for what I have done. I pledge to you my life in return for my acts. Rest in peace, my friend." I wasn't exactly sure why I said the part about me pledging my life to her, but deep down I knew that meant something to me. I then treaded back over to the window and turned to face the three. Yang was still sobbing with her head in hands, Blake's face was still blank but I could see a tear in her eye that she wiped away, Weiss however was boiling over with rage. Her eyes pierced into my soul with their intensity. Her face was literally turning red with fury.

"Look at what you've done to all of us. You murder others in cold blood as if it were a sport. Now do you see what that inflicts upon us on the sidelines? I should have listened to my instinct that you were going to be nothing but a plague!" Weiss yelled beginning a tirade.

"It. wasn't. my. fault." I said defensively raising my voice.

"Riddle me this: why are you even here in the first place? To complete the murder? Laugh when she dies? Or are you here just to kill us all and get rid of the evidence?!" Weiss scolded me far enough. She had just touched a very sensitive nerve.

"I'm here you little shit because I felt bad for what I did and I just wanted to tell her that I had no control over what I did if she died! Now it seems I'm never going to be able to do that now!" I yelled at her with the inner fire inside of myself beginning to ignite. Weiss kept the same expression but pulled out Myrnstenaster again.

"The venom of lies and deceit." She muttered under her breath. She walked over to me with her rapier still unsheathed and unexpectedly shoved the blade into the right section of my abdomen. I let out a decent sound of pain. She pulled the blade out of my skin and flicked the metal towards the ground to make the blood stop dripping.

"Why the hell would you do this?!" I demanded. She merely sheathed her rapier and yelled "Get the fuck off our planet!" as she punched me out the window. I landed onto the concrete below with a heavy crash. I laid there for a few moments before I forced myself onto my feet. I tore one of the leather straps off my robes to wrap it around the small puncture. I then stared up towards the window I fell out of to hear voices arguing with each other while another simply cried.

"I am sorry, Yang." I quietly said aloud. I walked away from the hospital since I knew escalation such as this would surely attract the wrong kind of attention. I roamed the streets as dusk fell upon the city. I knew I'd have to go back to Beacon and retrieve both my long-sword and my scroll that hid the knowledge of Earth before Weiss or someone else told Ozpin about it. I walked out of the city's walls and trekked through the forest in the pitch black. The forest gleamed with moonlight as I treaded through the foliage. I came to a clearing with the ocean waves subtlety crashing onto the beach to my left. I stopped there and stared at the moon that dimly lit up the summer night. The silver rays bestowed upon the earth with everlasting grace. The shards that broke off the moon were floating around the parent body. I stared at the marvel until I heard footsteps behind me in the distance.

I heard more footsteps as I turned around coming from three different directions. I pulled out both of my knives from my sleeves and gripped them in my hands. I got into a defensive stance and waited for the contacts to reveal themselves.

"You survived, I'm impressed." A semi-deep voice called from the woods. A single figure walked out of the bushes and looked upon me. Teal eyes met hazel. It was him: Soturi. Savagery rushed through my veins as soon as I realized that he was here.

"We knew who you were. Our mission was to find wherever you were in the galaxy and kill you. The old man, everyone in your order, all of your followers on Earth are all dead. You are the last assassin we have to kill before our thousands year-long war will be won." I quickly processed the burdening thoughts. In a way, I was humanity's final hope. The faction our order fought against was a powerful one that was sworn to control humanity in a so-called "New World Order." They wanted complete dominion and slavery over the human race. If I am the last assassin, that means if I die, no one will know who these people are, what they're planning and how they intend to do so. I am the last blade fighting against humanity's greatest enemy: themselves. I will not let human's free will be controlled by the Knight's Templar. Malae and Saudara both jumped out of the woods to join Soturi.

I held a firm grip on the knives and waited for one of them to make the first move. Soturi attempted to stab me with the spikes on the barrel of his sniper, but I dodged and jammed the blade of one of my daggers into his left leg. I ripped the sniper from his hands and shot Malae in the head. She dropped to the ground as the explosion of blood and brain tissue hit the grass. Saudara charged at me with her katana but when she got close, I rammed the spikes into her arm which made her drop the katana. I then grabbed her cape that had a Templar cross painted as the coat of arms instead of the lion with the sword from a year ago. I dragged her to the ground with the help of the cape and stomped as hard as I could on her face. I walked over to Soturi leaving the other stone dead bodies behind. I spoke to him as I crouched down and held a dagger to his throat.

"You understood my language." I began in a normal tone.

"Yes, I knew the whole time that you were Norwegian." He remarked.

"I still want to know what your name meant." I said.

"My name means warrior in Finnish. We are in a way brothers. Whether or not we are Assassin or Templar." Soturi gravely responded.

"You are not my fellow Viking, not under that banner at least. Hvil i fred. I spoke as the light in Soturi's eyes began to flicker out as I slit his throat. I then pulled out the knife that I had lodged into his leg earlier and continued my journey to Beacon. It was darker after the battle, as if nature was reminding me of what I had done. They tried to kill me a year ago and again a few minutes ago so that was justified. I advanced through the forest towards the colossal cliff and began climbing the rock wall with the help of indents. I scaled up the cliff for about an hour before I reached the top. Midnight had settled in at this point. I snuck around the academy until I found my dorm room. I opened the window from the outside thanks to a trick I learned with break-ins back on Earth. I climbed into the room and quickly grabbed my scroll along with the book and snuck into the hallways. I was unsure about what I would do from here in my life. Everything seemed impossible from me being a wanted man.

I paced through the halls and decided to go into Ozpin's office to explain what happened earlier today. I walked into his office where I saw him deep in thought. He noticed I was there after a few moments and turned his head in my direction.

"Tegn, we need to talk." Ozpin said in a serious tone. I walked up to his desk and took a seat across from him.

"I have two things I need to talk to you about, the first being Ruby's death. She surprisingly came back.

"Wait, you mean... she's alive?!" I said with astonishment.

"Yes, her sister, Yang, noticed a pulse in her as she was saying her last goodbye. Turns out the doctor in fact saved her life but didn't notice. She's now expected to make a full recovery." At this, I felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"But what of my crime? Does it still count against me?" I asked him.

"I sent your medical records to the VPD. They reviewed them and decided to pardon you. But you will never again be allowed to partake in another tournament whether it be practice or real." He responded.

"That I can live with, thank you." I replied with gratitude.

"Now the second thing that I'm really interested in. You're not from Vytal, as so your teammates tell me. Care to elaborate?" Ozpin said. I knew my time had come. I would have to reveal the long forbidden secrets.

"That is correct, I was born on a planet named Earth. Vytal is not the birthplace of mankind; Earth is. We had a very bleak future looking towards us despite major advances in science, medicine, and sanitation. We held a population of 7 billion people spread out over 7 continents and a little over 200 nations. Things were looking horrible for the species. Revolution had just ran its course in one of the three world's superpower nations, mass famine was taking place in one the largest continents on the planet, the average global temperature was rising which caused the polar ice sheets to melt which then caused the sea level to rise which finally caused all the major coastal cities on the planet to be consumed by the ocean, etc.

But one event stood out which gave birth to the Faunus and us having aura. This event was called The Warming." I pulled out my scroll and quickly showed Ozpin the effects of the nuclear bomb and the facts about oil before going into detail about The Warming.

"Oil production on Earth was becoming more and more difficult with each passing day. So all three superpower nations started stealing oil from each other, hijacking oil rigs out at sea, even invading entire cities for their oil refineries. This escalated out of control when a superpower country named China launched missiles at another superpower named the United States as their way of telling them to stop stealing their oil. The US responded with a nuclear strike. The reasons behind the decision were lost to the tides of history. The nuke accidentally hit the third superpower: the Russian Federation. International Law dictated that when a country is nuked, the victim nation has to counter-nuke. Nuclear warheads also accidentally struck neighboring nations of these three countries. They were also forced to retaliate. This led to a massive global chain reaction that within a few hours sent the world into a nuclear winter for 40 years. The radiation didn't subside until 200 years after The Warming."

Ozpin took a sip of his tea instead of the usual coffee to not wake himself up in the middle of the night.

"Quite the story. But how did you find yourself here?" He asked.

"During the nuclear apocalypse, people overwhelmed the offices of a major space agency named NASA. They came upon an experimental rocket design named the VASIMR Plasma Rocket. Armed men threatened NASA engineers with violence and forced them to attach the rockets to space shuttles. Hundreds of thousands of people went on board hundreds of these shuttles and desperately explored the galaxy for another hospitable world. And they found it. My family were some of the unlucky few who were uninformed about the shuttles and were too late to catch a ride. When I was born, the radiation levels had died down and it was safe to walk on the surface again. My parents were killed very early on in my life and I was then raised by an old man who said he personally knew my parents. He then trained me to be an assassin to kill corrupt officials and bandit leaders."

"This is most interesting. Please continue." Ozpin said as he took another sip of his tea.

"When I was about ten years old, the old man rediscovered the VASIMR rockets along with the coordinates to Vytal that were sent back over a hundred years ago. He attached it to an old shuttle and told me that I would live a better life on that planet than Earth. He launched the shuttle with me in it to Vytal where I began my new life. I will tell you now that life on Vytal is better than anything I could ever ask for."

"That's quite the tale for someone your age." Ozpin remarked.

"But I do have one last thing I have to tell you. The whole concept was more than just me killing politicians. We were a faction that battled another faction over the course of thousands of years. The Knight's Templar. The Templars wanted complete dominance over humanity and to control the minds of men. The Assassins defied and fought them over the course of history. But I'm afraid that Earth is now Templar dominated and if they discover Vytal." I stopped speaking that sentence since Ozpin gave the expression that of which he already knew what I was going to say.

"Very troubling indeed." He softly spoke to the air as he turned away from me and gazed upon the night sky through his window.

"It will probably take them hundreds of years to have the technological ability to find and land on Vytal but I would keep them in mind." I said.

"I will inform the government. Oh, and here's your blade and you are free to go." Ozpin remarked as he gave Iglamin back to me along with its sheath and began writing on a parchment. I thanked him and walked back to my dorm. I set my scroll and the book inside the drawer in the desk as I had found it. I crashed onto my bed and fell asleep within seconds. I dreamt that night of what might unfold in Vytal's future. A world dominated by Templars fighting a world influenced by Assassins. That would be the climax of the wars we fight among ourselves indeed.


	6. Chapter 6: The Frontlines

"What are you doing back here?!" Was the first thing I heard when I was rudely interrupted in my sleep. I opened my eyes to see Weiss standing over me with her fist clenched.

"Yeah, that was real good; waking up to yelling in the morning. Yeah, that was real nice." I said sarcastically while I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and got up from my bed.

"Are you purposely evading the subject?" She demanded rather bitterly.

"No, I'm back here because my crime has been pardoned and I had a chat with Ozpin. Nothing more nothing less." I said. She then quietly entered a thought for a few seconds.

"But there is one thing I have to ask you: Why exactly did you come into my room?" I asked Weiss.

"Will it mean any value towards you whatsoever?" She resentfully questioned as if I had just offended her.

"I am merely asking why." I replied

"Not for inquiry, that's for sure." She hatefully said back.

"I'm not exactly sure why you're getting all feisty with me, but I have reason to suspect that you might have gone here to steal my scroll." I countered.

"What in the world makes you say that?" She questioned with disgust

"The fact that you would so easily attempt to murder me shortly after I had just revealed your 'Forgotten Past' without any foresight or worry for the loss of all that I did not reveal to you yet." I returned.

"That's not a fact, that's pure speculation!" She said while raising her voice.

"Like I said, I have reason. Would you allow all the knowledge of the planet we both originated from to be lost forever because of your emotional impulse of aggression towards me or would you rather keep it after I was hypothetically dead to preserve our history?" I questioned with strong intent. She fell silent while she pondered the question in her mind. Silence seemed to be dominating more places in my life now ever since the forgotten had been rediscovered. Just like back then.

"It's ok to protect the precious records" I said to break the silence.

"You have no proof of that and it still doesn't justify your blatant accusations. She responded.

"Maybe not, but I was trained to decipher human emotions." I said with all honesty. This concluded our conversation and she trotted out of the room. I then dressed into the uniform and plodded through the school to the classes I had to attend. I sat down as usual and listened to the professor speak. The seminars proceeded normally with professors talking and asking us questions frequently to keep us engaged. I was writing down the key weaknesses on the Ursa's body when the intercom blared with an urgent voice being the operator.

"Vitale Tegn, your presence is immediately needed with Professor Ozpin. You are dismissed from your current class." The voice then abruptly halted and I got up and walked out of the classroom. I trekked through the halls wondering what could be going on. Does Ozpin want to know an important detail about Earth? What else would it be? I paced through the rest of the hallways and found Ozpin's office with my scroll on his desk.

"I'm glad you're here. Now, can you please explain why your scroll was generating a strange noise and the emergency mode automatically kicked in while you were in your classes?" Ozpin questioned with an expression of curiosity.

"I'm not sure, but I will check the ordeal out." I said. I entered the pass-code to instantly find an emergency signal radiating from an extreme distance away. The encryptions around this file were strange. I had never seen this file before but I did know how to work the encryption. I entered symbols corresponding to their direct and indirect meaning which then made my scroll project upwards a large holographic star chart revealing the location of the emergency signal. This could not get any worse.

"... Ozpin." I said stuttering from the immense shock I had just received.

"What is going on?" He asked patiently.

"The Templars... They've found Vytal. A whole fleet of starships are inbound for the surface. The fleet is an astronomical unit away from Vytal's exosphere and should be here in a few hours at their current velocity." I grimly replied while staring at the highlighted figures representing vessels on the star chart with their speed and degree of motion displayed on a thin holographic card in the middle of the projection. For the first time I had actually seen grave concern upon the headmaster's face. He set down his cup of coffee and looked at me with desperation in his eyes.

"We know that if they invade the planet, we'll have to muster our defenses but we're obviously up against a more powerful enemy... do you know how to make weapons from Earth?" He asked me with an extremely serious look in his eyes.

"We can only hope we can use Signal Academy's Grand Forge to create all of the guns alone in time but you do realize these are the galaxy's most dangerous weapons and if they end up in the wrong hands-"

"If we all die defending our free will then we must be remembered by the few who survive as the ones who went to pay any price to stop this, that is if any of us make it out of this alive." He stated with wisdom. I silently agreed and pulled out schematics for weapons on my scroll. He examined them with great detail and quickly sketched them to forward to Vytal'sgovernment for a defense plan for a planetary invasion. He spent the next hour copying entire blueprints for guns, explosives, tanks, fighters, and much more. He then got in touch with federal officials to warn them of the incoming death fleet and showed them the design layouts he copied from blueprints on my scroll. The conversation lasted a little while but they agreed with the plan to swiftly manufacture these weapons to give our guests the warm welcome.

All four of the kingdoms were instantly united under one temporary banner to repel the invaders. Vale, Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo all conjoined to create these weapons and set up military outposts in the cities to respond fist hand. Every single huntsmen and huntress on Vytal were called upon to defend the cities and the people from the fleet; nobody sat out of this one. Production was at an all time high as mechanics rushed to complete the vehicles and the Schnee Dust Company was reaping record profits as huntsmen and huntresses around all four kingdoms bought dust that was required for their weapons in this grand battle. Even members of the White Fang stepped in to help set up anti-aircraft guns on the tops of skyscrapers. This is what I cherished most about our species: the peace of unity. When we forget our differences and work together to achieve the impossible instead of claiming it for ourselves.

I watched as this second Industrial Revolution took place in downtown Vale with the summer afternoon sun beating down on the beloved city. Tanks were assembled in the middle of streets, Tyrant-class Anti-Aircraft guns were loaded with thousands upon thousands of rounds of explosive shells, newly built naval destroyers were docked in the harbor, assault rifles such as AK-12's were given to the general public just in case the military and the huntsmen/huntresses couldn't hold the fleet off, etc. The fact that all of these monstrous war machines were created within a few simple hours was mind numbing to me and everyone else on the planet. But there was no time celebrate, the fleet would enter Vytal'satmosphere by dusk or late afternoon by the earliest and we would have to be prepared to face our corrupt brethren. But I gravely fear that many of the people of Vytal will feel something tonight that I have felt ever since I was a child.

"Alert; Templar frigate Equinox has entered the atmosphere." The computer-generated voice on my scroll distressed in a relaxed manner.

"So that's it's name, Equinox." I said to myself as I was perched on a mound in the green hillsides surrounding the city. In the short time I had discovered that file in Ozpin's office I had found a sub-file in that one containing a battle-net program that I fully customized to fit Vytal's needs. The whole planet was connected to the network that held the official name "Vytal Planetary Battle Network." I served as a scout on this grand defense since the general public was still on edge about me and the military didn't want to cause controversy so I laid here in the lush hillsides watching the city from a safe distance with binoculars in hand giving a tactical view. I never knew what became of my teammates. They could also be scouting or be in the goddamn apocalypse that is battles on this scale. I didn't want to waste the battle-net's time or energy trying to find out either though.

I sat there waiting as I finally saw the silhouette of the frigate emerge from the clouds of the summer evening. I swiftly warned our army through the battle-net and then hoped for the best. These Templars sure did have one hell of a space program. The ominous figure was slowly lit by the setting sun revealing its tan metal armor. The vessel then cruised over the city's tallest skyscrapers while opening fire and deploying countless fighter jets and helicopters in a single flurry. I peered through the binoculars to see helicopters firing away with mounted chain guns devastating our ground forces. Blood smeared and splattered onto the black concrete of the street as the young huntsmen fell to their unplanned demise. Just what could they have done in this world if they had not been killed just now?

The word terrible barely scratched the surface at attempting to paint a vivid picture of the scene. Our anti-aircraft guns were shooting down jets and helicopters left and right as well as firing at the frigate to no avail, someone dropped dead at least every few seconds, tank shells exploding on their targets echoed throughout the valley, the gunfire of a thousand rifles rendered the vehicles mute, the streets were torn up, the rubble of shot down aircraft occasionally crashed into buildings, soldiers ran out of ammo and resorted to breaking their rifles into pieces to use as blunt weapons, embers ignited and soon grew into wildfires that could not be fought, screams of agony from hundreds of the wounded acted in tune like a chorus, some skyscrapers collapsed and you could see the terror in the eyes of people fleeing the scene as they sprinted away from the massive dust clouds in a panic while trampling those who had tripped and I lay here utterly speechless viewing this blood-churning spectacle with neutral morale. Is there any hope for us if the Templars can crush us this easily? I didn't care what happened to me, I'm going into the heart of the war zone to help the innocent. I simply typed "I'm going into the inferno and nothing you can do or say will change my mind. Tegn out." into the battle-net and grabbed my scroll and headed into the fray.

I rushed through the emerald hills with Iglamin in my right hand like a Turkish Jennesarie while witnessing one of our AA's explode with a force so powerful it literally shook your vision and almost made me lose my footing. I entered the siege at an unfortunate time with morale on the brink of collapse and the city on the verge of complete annihilation. Debris and dead bodies littered the streets and gunfire still relentlessly prolonged into the dead cold of night. I took shelter in a destroyed lobby of a building with some soldiers and a young huntress with me. I peeked around the cover and nearly got my face shot off by a sniper. Shortly thereafter, a helicopter began circling us with the obvious dark intent.

"Stay here, I have an insane idea." I cryptically told the others beside me. I charged out of the lobby and climbed the buildings undetected and leaped from the building onto the helicopter. I held onto the door handle and firmly gripped the outlining of the windshield while smashing the co-pilot's window with a shot from Iglamin and slit the co-pilot's throat as he struggled to fight me. I unlocked the door and got inside the cockpit to kill the pilot and quickly took authority of the helicopter's controls as I threw both bodies out of the shattered window. I aimed the chopper towards the tan frigate and increased the throttle to 100%. I had flown a plane in my time before so I was quite comfortable with the controls.

I achieved boarding distance with the frigate so I naturally opened my door and jumped out of the helicopter while landing on one of the wings of the frigate. The chopper fell dramatically towards the ground and exploded on contact with a wildfire which in turn intensified it. I immediately took to inspecting the armor of the frigate for any weak points along the hull. I carefully treaded on the wings having my arms outwards from my sides to see how balanced I was since the frigate was moving a cruising speed. I eventually reached the plating of the body and found a plate hanging onto the armor by a thread thanks to the AA's. I sliced the plate and peered inside the vessel. I was looking into the engine room with little security. I jumped into the ship and fired my rifle away.

The security had little time to react and fell to the floor like tree leaves in autumn. The room had become a void of life within a matter of seconds leaving a chilling, quiet room in its wake. I walked over the engine and found some boxes labeled "Gunpowder" not far away from the tank; I had an idea. I grabbed the boxes and laid them flat on the floor next to the engine specifically towards the fuel tank. I walked to the opposite end of the room and fired a single shot fromIglamin at the gray boxes.

A deafening roar along with a blinding light was instantly followed by the shot. I was thrown to my feet by the explosion and sat up shortly thereafter awing at the gigantic rupture I had crafted. Fires were ablaze on the edges of metal that narrowly avoided obliteration. Emergency alarms boomed throughout the ship. Special forces teams were already storming the engine room with assault rifles in their hands. I leaped out of the vessel through the gaping fissure briefly feeling the heat of the flames. I descended rapidly while I manifested my aura into my semblance to ensure a safe landing. I landed on the black asphalt below unscathed thanks to the strange anomaly that was semblances. It is very strange to think that these mysterious wonders are merely reflections of our inner selves. It does make sense for me tohave a semblance granting me brief invulnerability since I had defended humanity's free will almost all my life.

I forced myself up onto my feet for my eyes to meet the sight of the frigate's thrusters burning out and the frigate itself falling from the sky from the lack of an engine to sustain altitude. The frigate landed into the river that separated the residential district from the commercial district with a thundering clatter. I observed the devastated and war-torn city. Shrapnel and the dead lined city blocks, buildings toppled over with only their foundations remaining, entire streets wereimpassable, destroyed tanks had bullet holes along with some of them with their cannons torn off, glass shards were everywhere from the windows of buildings being smashed, bullets and random hunter weapons laid on the ground in some places and blood stained the concrete. I pulled out my scroll to see if anyone else made it through the siege alive.

"This is Vitale Tegn of Beacon Academy, is anyone still out there?" I asked the battle-net through my scroll's built-in microphone.

"We were wondering where you ended up." A soft-spoken female voice returned.

"Is that you Blake?" I asked.

"Yes, where are you in all this mess?" She questioned in return.

"Residential district near the bridge to the Commercial district. There's also the crashed frigate in the river here so you can't miss it." I replied.

"Are there any survivors with you?" She asked.

"No; this section of the city is quite a void of life." I responded.

"Is there any one with you?" I asked.

"The rest of our team, yes." She said.

"I'll be guarding the wreckage until we get a proper search team." I said.

"Then we'll come to you. Ingenting er sant, alt er tillatt." She replied.

"Tegn out." I simply responded. Wait... How did she know that? She spoke the Creed's maxim in my native language. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. How could she have known the maxim let alone in my language? Someone has a bit of explaining to do. I stood next to the crashed vessel for the next half hour in the cold darkness of the night shooting the fatigued crew members that attempted to escape the wreckage. To most people it would seem inhumane to kill the weak and injured but these were the people who were currently committing a genocide. The ones who are endeavoring on wiping out an entire world's population for the passage of tyranny. Eventually my teammates arrived at the base of the bridge all except one of them held a blank expression. Yang was mortified on a scale beyond compare as she looked around her surroundings. The dead people with forgotten names, the scattered weapons and the war-torn city was likely the culprit. I don't think she had ever seen real dead bodies before like I have.

"I think I owe all of you an apology. Not just to Ruby or to Yang but to every last one of you. I stabbed you, Ruby out of an uncontrollable psychosis episode and made the rest of you think she was dead. If you wish to exile me from your team, so be it. I am fine with either outcome." I spoke to my team as they stood before me. I had nearly murdered Ruby yesterday. But yesterday was forever ago, a lifetime ago. Ruby walked up to me with her head pointed up to meet mine.

"You've lived your entire life in mayhem; why would you want to keep it that way if you know you can live peacefully among those who are the only stars in your life?" She poetically said to me. I felt enlightened in a way. She described my life and how I felt throughout it in a single philosophical question. I turned my head towards the moon as I spoke to the air.

"That is the one thing I have always asked myself, but I never could understand it. The thought had no meaning to me all my life because I lived in a world of eternal strife. I could never see what was 'normal'. But I think you might be ones to change that. You could say my life so far has been like a typhoon. Chaos and discord filled the skies followed by peace, but somehow, war always found its way back in." I said still staring at the lunar shards floating in the nighttime sky. I honestly did not know why I looked upon the moon so often; it was just out of instinct. As if the act of doing so had been riveted into my DNA. We stood there for a while just staring at something. I stared at the moon while the others stared at the remnants of Equinox.

"This is Fireteam Gamma searching for survivors. Does anyone read me? A voice emitting from my scroll in my robe's pocket asked. I pulled out my scroll and opened the battle-net program.

"This is Vitale Tegn and Team RWBY of Beacon Academy, we hear you loud and clear." I replied.

"Oh, thank god we weren't the only ones who made it. Can you please hurry to 2nd Street in the commercial district? We need medical assistance with someone here who is seriously injured." He desperately said.

"Affirmative; we're en route." I responded I ran across the bridge with the team right far behind. I jogged until I reached the squadron. It was painfully obvious to see where they were since there laid a barely conscious young woman on the asphalt in a pool of blood while she clutched her bleeding side. I rushed over when I say that her face was pale as a ghost. I reached her and knelt down to immediately help her while the troops stood to the side. This young woman was Pyrrha Nikos. Her Emerald eyes were dilated and she was showing symptoms of anemia. She gasped for air every time she inhaled which led to believe she was experiencing air hunger from tremendous blood loss. I removed her hand from the wound and saw a wide, gaping hole in her side. She must have been shot by a high velocity sniper bullet.

I tore off almost all of the leather straps on my robe-like armor and wrapped them around her wound. I then tied them all together into a knot around her midsection which fortunately stopped the bleeding. Three people ran out of the shadows and stopped suddenly when they saw the body on the ground with me kneeling over it.

"What's going on?!" A familiar voice called. I looked up and saw Jaune with his ocean blue eyes full of concern.

"Nothing to be worried about now, I stopped the bleeding." I simply said. He walked over to her body and I stood up and backed away to give him space. He looked at the wound I patched up and he looked at me and silently thanked me. I nodded in return and turned towards the troops and my team.

"Are there any more hostiles on the radar?" I asked the soldiers.

"No sir, not a single one." One of the privates responded.

"I just hope the other kingdoms are doing alright. That was only the first wave and we nearly lost the city." I stated.

"Emergency broadcast: all remaining forces in Vale regroup on 2nd Street of the commercial district immediately." A voice belonging to Ozpin commanded over the battle-net.

"That's cool, we don't have to go anywhere." I said. Within minutes Ozpin and hundreds of troops and huntsmen/huntresses filled the block.

"I know many of you are wounded or traumatized but we been victorious with this assault force. Last I heard, the rest of the fleet was I bound for the other three kingdoms. I am afraid all we can do is send some naval destroyers to aid them since we're all that's left and the city was nearly lost. I advise you all rest for tonight and prepare for tomorrow because it's going to be a very busy day. Thank you for your service here tonight. You've all won a tremendous victory." Ozpinspoke to the crowd. Shortly thereafter, Ozpin ordered all hunters board an air vessel to Beacon. We boarded around midnight and landed at the academy a half hour later. We exited and walked into the halls and crashed on our beds. No one talked to each other since we were on the verge of collapsing from sleep. The medical bay was fairly full that night.

I practically fell on my bed and fell asleep fatigued from the siege. I was just fortunate that my team and I made it through this night. I will never forget this chapter of my life. I still need to figure out how Blake knew the maxim though.


End file.
