Fan Character
Team ORCL, Custom RWBY Setting
Word Count: 4800
The wind chilled the beads of sweat on the back of Rey’s neck, sending cold fingers down her spine despite the oppressing heat of the night. Siddet weighed heavy in her hands, but it was less of her being tired and more of a creeping uneasiness that refused to go away. Rey scanned the empty warehouse from side to side, looking for any sign of movement in the shadows.
Something wasn’t right. At all.
***
The call had come three hours before, put up on Beacon’s emergency Huntsman frequency. ORCL, the most highly qualified team outside of professional Hunters, was the first available option. It was supposedly a simple defense mission. White Fang were raiding a Dust warehouse, one of the few not protected by the Schnee conglomerate. All ORCL was supposed to do was arrive, assess the situation, and enact containment parameters if deemed necessary.
Headmaster Ozpin summoned the team, briefed them on the mission, and sent them on their way. Rey had been looking forward to some action; since Grimm activity had been quiet for the past few weeks, she’d started feeling a little antsy and sparring classes weren’t doing nearly enough for her. Laurel was a little more hesitant, as she always was when it came to handling White Fang cases. Rey could understand; Laurel was constantly worrying that maybe, one of these days, they’d encounter her parents in the field. Considering the last couple times they’d crossed paths, Rey was hoping otherwise.
Cano and Ori, naturally, were much more apprehensive. Why would the White Fang necessitate calling in an entire team of Huntsman? Unless there were a great many warrior Faunus, it shouldn’t take more than one or two Hunters to enact observation and containment.
Still, they accepted the assignment. Maybe it was overkill, but this way at least not too many people would get hurt.
***
The airship took less than two hours to arrive at the warehouse. It was located on the very outskirts of Vale, where most of the industrial parts of the city were located. Dusk had fallen as the ship touched down, casting the buildings in ominous shadows. The sheer silence weighed heavily on the team as they slowly exited the airship. Already they were on guard.
Having done recon before landing, Cano had immediately picked up on several suspicious details.
“Have you spotted anything out of the ordinary yet?” He inquired, peering through a side window and squinting in the dusk.
“Nothing on this side. How ‘bout you, Ori?” Laurel replied.
“Nope. Something’s really off about this. Shouldn’t we have seen something by now? A vehicle of some kind, that would have brought the White Fang here. An airship maybe, or one of those armored cars they’re so fond of.” Ori adjusted the joysticks and lowered their cruising altitude slightly, peering intently at the airship’s scanner.
“There’s no sign of broken windows or forced doors that I can see. Where are they?” Rey wondered, squinting through binoculars.
“Alright, let’s touch down at that landing pad and get a closer look. Be on guard, everyone, but remember: no engaging the enemy unless it’s deemed necessary. Observation first.” Ori veered the ship down towards the empty airstrip near the back end of the block of warehouses. Laurel and Cano checked their weapons, loading up on Dust cartridges from the supply locker.
Rey lifted Siddet from her lap and stood, stretching as well as she could in the confined space, her knuckles brushing the metal roof.
“I still don’t understand how you can have that thing on your lap and not lose feeling in your legs,” Cano commented dryly, “considering I can’t even get that thing off my bookbag most days.”
“It’s called muscle mass. You should try it sometime,” Rey returned with a smirk. Cano pointedly ignored her remark.
Ori set the airship down with a slight thunk, and the doors opened with a slight hiss of escaping pressurized air. ORCL crept down the gangplank in tight formation, all scanning in different directions for any hint of movement.
The night was warm, the wind mostly still aside from the occasional breath of air. They spread out slowly, keeping within shouting distance of each other but staying low to the ground to avoid detection.
The wind chilled the beads of sweat on the back of Rey’s neck, sending cold fingers down her spine despite the heat of the night. Siddet weighed heavy in her hands, but it was less of her being tired and more of a creeping uneasiness that refused to go away. Rey scanned the empty warehouse from side to side, looking for any sign of movement in the shadows.
Something wasn’t right. At all.
Where are they? Rey paused in her search and gazed around, taking in as much as she could see in the encroaching night. I don’t like this.
White Fang were known for ambushes, but nothing was ever this well planned. Not to mention the call they’d gotten was from an untraceable number, but since most Huntsman operated on the down-low this wasn’t too uncommon.
Still.
***
She continued creeping forward, clearing one building and starting on another. Suddenly, the uneasiness Rey had been feeling spiked. There, high above, a third story window was canted ever-so-slightly, like someone had opened it from the outside, snuck in, and hadn’t been able to close it all the way. Gotcha.
She licked her lips and whistled once, twice, paused and counted to two, then whistled again. After a few moments, answering whistles sounded and ORCL converged.
Rey nodded up at the window once the rest of the team drew close enough to see her. “Spotted that just now. What do you think?”
“Whoever climbed up there without leaving any signs must either be a monkey Faunus or have some kind of grappling device,” Cano observed in a low voice. “The door wasn’t forced or picked?”
“Not that I can tell, but it’s getting really dark out here. Laurel?” Rey asked, turning to the little squirrel Faunus. Her eyes glinted slightly in the moonlight as she slowly raked her eyes back and forth.
“Can’t see anything else on the outside, but there’s some kind of ambient light inside. I just saw a flicker from that window over there, like someone just walked in front of it.” Her ears were pressed back against her head, betraying her nervousness.
“Alright, team. Let’s take this quietly and carefully. Rey, you and Cano see if you can get in the front here. Laurel, get up to that window and be our spotter. I’ll head around back and see if there’s another way in. Do not engage unless you have reason to.” Ori doled out the responsibilities, and after they all nodded confirmation, he disappeared around the corner. Laurel crept down the building and began bouncing up and down, readying her Semblance to make the leap to the window. Rey and Cano shared a glance, all humor between them gone. It was go-time.
Cano’s Dust gauntlets glowed a bright white for the briefest of moments, and a small dust-orb coalesced in his palm. He pressed the orb against the handles of the door and watched as the ice crept along the metal. When the handles were frozen so thoroughly the metal groaned slightly, Rey grabbed them tightly (silently grateful she was wearing her fingerless gloves, which protected her from the worst of the cold) and twisted. With a thunk and a scrrrip, the handles ripped from the door. She lowered them to the ground and pushed the door open, now that the locks had been broken. Thankfully, the hinges were well oiled and they opened silently.
“On guard,” Cano breathed, drifting off to the right and keeping to the shadows. Rey simply nodded and crept to the left. She glanced to the right, up at the window, and could see Laurel perched precariously on the sill as she eased the window open. Ori was probably finding his own way in, but the dimness of the warehouse didn’t offer many clues.
Now that they were inside, Rey could just make out the light Laurel had noticed. It came from an abandoned Scroll, laying smack in the middle of the warehouse floor, still switched on. Whoever’s Scroll this was, it couldn’t have been there very long; with the screen that bright it would surely run out of battery within an hour.
And, now that she was inside, Rey could see just how the Scroll was able to cast so much light: the warehouse itself was empty. There was nothing inside that could cast a shadow of any kind, not a single crate or container, not even a mech for moving supplies.
The uneasiness that has plagued Rey since they’d set foot on the ground doubled. Are we too late? Did they manage to empty this place and leave, and we just missed them? But that didn’t make any sense; it would’ve taken at least two hours just to empty a warehouse this size of all its contents, and another half-hour after that to clean up any evidence that may have been left behind, and another hour after that to ship all the contents out of the area. There simply hadn’t been enough time between the call and ORCL arriving. And the White Fang certainly wouldn’t leave a communication device behind…
This has to be a trap. Dammit, where’s Ori? Rey scanned the far end of the warehouse but couldn’t see him at all. Laurel was still perched on the windowsill, her head moving back and forth as she, too, scanned the emptiness in confusion. Rey watched as she pushed off from the window sill and floated down to the walkway that spanned the inside circumference of the building, almost two stories above Rey’s own position. The walkway jutted out nearly ten feet on all sides, to allow mechs to move across it as well, and Rey studied it for any sign of having been used recently. Nothing; no dents or scratched paint, as far as she could tell. Laurel caught Rey’s gaze and shook her head once, before creeping down to the far end and slowly disappearing into the gloom.
Rey looked to her right and could just barely make out Cano crouching behind a support pillar. She hummed, low and quiet, and Cano’s head spun to her direction. Rey nodded at him, then at the Scroll. He followed her gaze, and nodded in return. He shifted Luoye’s hilt in his hands, Rey hefted Siddet a little higher, and they slowly began making their way towards the middle of the room. Two taps, so quiet she almost thought she imagined them, reached Rey’s ears, and she knew Ori had made his way inside. Reassured ever-so-slightly, she drew a steadying breath and continued creeping forward. She and Cano flanked the Scroll, staying behind the pillars and out of its illumination, Laurel taking up position above. Ori cleared his throat and took a step forward, making to enter the light first and pick up the Scroll. Before he could take another, however, the Scroll let out a BEEP that startled all four of them, the noise unexpected in the oppressive silence they’d been operating in, and then the light died.
The warehouse was cloaked in darkness, now barely maneuverable due to the only light source left being the last rays of sunlight slowly disappearing from the high-up windows. Cano and Ori became faceless shadows, Laurel only slightly more visible due to her being nearer the windows.
Every instinct in Rey’s body screamed TRAP, but no ambush had been sprung. Surely that beep would have been a signal to someone? She gritted her teeth and drew a slow, deep breath. The unease had quickly grown past apprehension, and cold sweat trickled down her brow. Something was definitely not right. But at this point, ORCL would have to make the first move in this strange stand-off otherwise they’d be here all night.
A burst of light came from her left, and she flinched away from it before seeing Ori holding his own Scroll. He was creeping forward, eyes darting to and fro, but approaching the now-dead Scroll nonetheless. Rey and Cano crept forward, ready to cover Ori, as he bent and picked up the Scroll. He examined it, turning it in all directions, and tapped the screen several times to make sure it was really dead. Sighing and shaking his head, Ori then slipped it into an evidence baggie and tucked it in a pocket.
“Looks like we missed the party. Better head out before we lose the last of the light.” Ori said, still keeping his voice barely above a whisper. Rey and Cano nodded, and Laurel drifted down from her perch to join them on the ground floor. They all turned and made their way across the room, heading for the front door.
“I’m telling you, something about this is not right,” Cano muttered, his brain working furiously to make sense of the situation. “Why send an emergency call for an abandoned warehouse? This place obviously hasn’t been in use recently, and there’s no evidence of White Fang to be seen.”
“Keep a sharp eye. This has ‘trap’ written all over it,” Ori replied. He reached for the door, which had somehow swung shut on silent hinges, but the second before his hand could grab the handle-hole, he jerked around and muttered, “Shit!”
A split second later, there was a clang from behind them as if someone had kicked a metal pipe across the floor. The four of them whirled around, weapons ready.
WHAM. The lockdown shutters slammed shut behind them, blocking access to the door. Shutters began slamming shut on the windows, cutting off any last gleam of light and plunging the warehouse into complete darkness.
With a startled hiss of frustration, Ori thumbed on his Scroll again and shone it around desperately searching for the source of the sound. “Cover me. Flanking positions. I’m going to check the other door,” Ori whispered. Rey, Cano, and Laurel spread out, letting Ori take the lead. Rey watched as his light bobbed up and down, slowly, as he crept forward. She fell back a few steps, then a few more, to take up position in the back. Apprehension was quickly building into something more, and she tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. I don’t get scared. No. It’s fine, just an ambush of some kind. We got this.
“What the-!” Ori’s voice rang out suddenly, but was cut off as his Scroll was sent flying. Seconds later, it clattered to the ground and the light winked out. Ori’s shadowy form flew past it, landing hard on the ground with a heavy thud and sliding almost within a foot of Rey.
“Ori!” Laurel cried, but then she let out a high-pitched squeal of pain as something collided with her as well.
“Ori! Laurel!” Cano and Rey shouted, almost in unison.
“Someone’s here!” Ori sputtered, struggling to regain his breath.
Rey spun around just in time to see Cano go flying as well, Luoye ripped from his grasp. She caught a glimpse of a tall figure darting away, and struggled to keep its movement in her peripheral as she crouched protectively over Ori.
“What did you see?” She hissed, keeping Siddet leveled at where she’d lost track of the figure.
“Whoever they are, they’re fast. And strong. Stay on guard.” Ori whispered hoarsely, curled up with his arms hugging his stomach. “They got me good.”
“Damn it.” Rey stood, stepping forward into the darkness.
***
Clap…. Clap…. Clap….
Mocking in its slowness, the figure was applauding them.
“Show yourself!” Rey demanded. She waited, her voice’s echo fading. One second, two, three passed.
“Now, why would I want to do that?” A voice replied. Smooth, low, a woman’s voice full of sweet cyanide and venom, sickly amused.
“So you can pick on someone who can give you a wallop, coward!” Rey shot back, searching for the source of the voice.
Footsteps to her left, and Rey spun and raised Siddet just in time to block some kind of projectile that had been hurled at her. The force of the blow caused her to stumble back several steps, her arms buzzing in shock. The metallic rustle of a chain being dragged on concrete filled the warehouse, and then it was replaced by a rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh as something heavy whirled through the air.
“Come on!” Rey challenged, and dodged as the projectile was flung directly towards her. She tucked and rolled, coming up in a guard position in time to be met with a foot to her face. The blow forced her onto her back, and she rolled as something was swung down from above. She turned her head and saw the blade of a scythe buried in the stone where her head had been not two seconds before. She swung herself back up and whirled Siddet as hard as she could, all in one smooth motion. There was a satisfying whump as the axehead connected with a body, and the scythe was wrenched out of the ground as the wielder was thrown from their feet.
“Got ‘em,” Rey heard Laurel say, and saw the little Faunus bound past her towards where the figure had been launched.
“Watch yourself, they’ve got a good reach!” Rey warned, and saw Laurel duck just as a scythe blade whirled over her head. A sudden glow from behind better illuminated the warehouse, and Rey risked a glance behind her to see Ori had switched his scroll back on. He and Cano had taken up sniping stances, aiming at where Laurel was now dancing back and forth as she narrowly avoided strike after strike, taking a second between each movement to fire a spurt of bullets.
The woman that had ambushed them was still mostly cloaked in shadow, but Rey could make out her weapon clear enough. She held a short staff in one hand, maybe two feet long, but one end had a chain emerging from it. The chain, in turn, was connected to the end of another short staff, but this one was tipped with a deadly curved scythe, the metal so black it was nearly swallowed in the shadows. The blade whirled above the woman’s head as she tracked Laurel’s movements, cold blue eyes glowing in the light of Ori’s scroll.
Suddenly, she struck. However, the blade missed Laurel by several feet and came straight at Rey. She parried it, and watched as the woman yanked hard on the chain and drew her weapon back to her. Roaring in anger, Rey charged in, twisting one of Siddet’s handles to light the orb at the top with a burning red. The Dust-infused orb glowed like fire, and Rey whirled and buried the blade into the ground. An explosion of fire erupted from the resulting cracks, sending a plume of molten concrete straight at the woman.
She nimbly leapt out of the way and twirled her weapon. The chain was drawn into the two ends of the staffs until they retracted into one and locked in place. She now held a wickedly tall scythe with both hands. Somehow, despite Ori’s Scroll illuminating the room, she still managed to stick to the shadows well enough that Rey couldn’t make out any defining features.
There was a crack of gunfire as Ori unloaded at the woman. The bullets streaked by, followed by Cano’s Dust-arrows, and the woman ducked and whirled and spun her scythe to dodge and block the shots. Whoever she was, she had obviously been trained well.
Too late, Rey noticed two spots of red light emanating from the scythe, and the blade erupted in flames just before the woman swung it in a wide arc. Dust-fire flew at ORCL, and they were all forced to take cover as it washed over the warehouse in a blaze of heat, their Auras taking the brunt of the attack.
Blinking in the blinding light from the flames, Rey struggled to regain her bearings.
There was a screech of metal on metal, and she could just make out the woman slicing through the shutter blocking the back door. Gathering herself, Rey leapt through the flames and gave chase.
She exited the building and immediately goosebumps rose on her arms at the sudden coolness of the not-on-fire outside. Movement in her peripheral vision, and Rey darted after the fleeing woman. The glow of the flames illuminated enough of the surrounding area that she could see the woman, and she cut across a narrow alleyway to make up the distance.
With a fearsome battle-cry, Rey swung her axe and clipped the woman on the side, sending her flying. Faintly she could hear the rest of ORCL calling for her, but before she could reply the woman was returning her attack with just as much strength.
Blow after blow their weapons collided, axe against scythe, the ringing of metal filling the night air, until Rey managed to hook the scythe with the edge of one of her blades and wrench it out of the way so she could deliver a powerful kick. Her grip ripped from her scythe, the woman tumbled out of the way and struggled to regain her footing. Rey disentangled Siddet from the woman’s scythe and made to deliver the finishing blow. She raised Siddet high above her head, ready to break the woman’s Aura, when suddenly her muscles froze.
The woman had raised her head to lock eyes with Rey, blue eyes blazing in the darkness, and Rey’s body was suddenly gripped in a paralyzing fear. Siddet slipped from limp fingers and clanged on the ground, and Rey’s vision swam as she struggled to breathe. Suddenly, her knees gave out and she slumped, heavily, trembling as her worst memories swam in her mind.
One second the woman stood in front of her. The next, a towering Beowulf, claws and fangs dripping with blood. The old scars on Rey’s arm burned as if she’d just been struck anew, and tears welled in her eyes.
Never in her life had she been more terrified than that moment, when the Beowulf had struck her down so many years ago.
She couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe as she watched it raise those wicked claws high above its head, ready to strike.
Then, it winked from existence and she was left staring into darkness. The overwhelming terror left her body with a tangible emptiness, and Rey collapsed, trembling, wracked with ugly, gasping sobs as the last dregs of that terrible nightmare faded.
Dimly, she was aware of footsteps as the woman circled her like a predator. Rey blinked through tear-blurred eyes but couldn’t see clearly. Though the initial terror had subsided, she could still feel that frigid gaze burning into her very body, pinning her in place.
“Such pain you hold,” the woman purred as she crouched over Rey, “and such horrible fear.” She raised a hand and brushed a strand of hair from Rey’s face, disgustingly tender.
“Wha… what did you do…” Rey choked out between gasps of breath, afraid to raise her eyes to see the woman’s face lest she be struck again by that horrible feeling.
The woman didn’t answer, but studied Rey’s face closely as she pursed her lips.
“Rey! Rey, where are you?” Ori called somewhere in the night.
“Rey, answer us!” Laurel shouted. “Please!”
“Where’d you go?!” Cano’s voice came from another direction, somewhat closer than the others.
“Such wonderful friends you have,” the woman murmured. “It would be a shame if anything were to happen to them.” She stood and stepped over to where her scythe lay on the ground.
“Don’t… you touch… them.” Rey said, injecting as much strength as she could into her voice.
“I don’t plan to. Not yet.” The woman said, picking up the scythe. She fiddled with something, and the blade retracted in on itself until just the staff was left. She snapped the two sections apart and hooked them to her belt.
She turned to walk away, but paused first and threw one final look over her shoulder at Rey. Her eyes bored into Rey’s, but this time there was no terrible weight behind them. It was a gaze that held many emotions, so jumbled together Rey couldn’t make sense of them.
“You’ve grown strong, Rey Amaranth. I look forward to meeting you again.” She spoke quietly, and then disappeared into the night. The second Rey could no longer see her, the last of the fear that had pinned her in place evaporated, leaving her exhausted and shaking uncontrollably in the cold night.
“Wait! How do you know my last name?!” Rey shouted desperately in the direction in which the woman had disappeared, knowing it was futile.
Lacking the strength to even sit up, she lay there, breathing hard, as the footsteps of her teammates approached.
“Oh my god, Rey!” Laurel shouted, screeching to a halt as she rounded the corner and found her indomitable friend lying prone. “Guys, I found her!”
Ori and Cano sprinted into view, weapons drawn and ready for battle. When they saw Rey was alone, they sheathed their weapons and ran to her side.
“What happened? Are you alright?”
“Where did she go? Did she say anything to you?”
“What did she do to you?”
Their onslaught of questions battered her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to not let them see any residual tears.
A gentle hand on her shoulder caught her by surprise, and she opened her eyes to see Ori leaning over her, concern radiating from every pore. Cano crouched behind her back and slipped an arm under her side, carefully maneuvering her so she could sit up. Still too exhausted to move on her own, she slumped heavily against his side, her head lolling against his shoulder, but Cano made no sign of being uncomfortable. Laurel slipped a hand into her own, and there they sat as Rey’s trembling ceased and the tears finally stopped flowing.
***
“Do you think she’ll be okay? It’s been three days now.” Laurel murmured.
“Let her rest. Whatever happened back there, it took a lot out of her. All we can do now is leave her in peace.” Ori replied, exhaustion dripping from his tone.
“That woman… it must be some kind of Semblance to have done this to Rey,” Cano observed.
“You’ve said that at least once an hour since we got back, Cano,” Laurel complained.
“I’m just thinking out loud, Laurel, you know this,” Cano quipped.
“Stop it, you two. She can probably hear us, you know; that door isn’t very thick.” Ori cautioned, sounding like an overtired parent.
Rey turned onto her other side and pulled the covers closer, trying to ignore her teammates’ slightly muffled voices from the living room of their dorm. Three days and she still couldn’t quite shake the unease from her bones. Every now and again her muscles would spasm as the faint memory of crippling terror would rise again before she could quash it back down. That woman, whoever she was, would pay. This, Rey swore. She’d made a promise to herself, to never dig up that horrid memory ever again, and for that woman to do… whatever it was she’d done to pry it from her mind… it was unforgivable. The next time they met, for surely that woman was planning on it from the way she had bade farewell, Rey would be sure to make her know just how badly she had fucked up.
But first, Rey had to rest, to clean her Aura of every last residual scrap of Semblance the woman had hit her with.
And then, Rey would train.
***
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. . .
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. . .
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri-
“I thought I told you to never call me again.”
“Oh, but dear sweetheart, I’ve missed the sound of your voice.”
“Spare me your pleasantries; I’ve not the time or the patience for your games. Why did you call me.”
“. . . You raised her well. She’s strong.”
“... What did you do to my daughter.”
“Nothing that’s permanent. And she’s not just your daughter.”
“We had an agreement - you were not to interact with her by any means.”
“I know that, but I was just so curious, what with all the buzz about her team being so powerful-”
“That’s no excuse! You should know better.”
“I’m not going to apologize, if that’s what you’re getting at. All I wanted to do was see what she could do.”
“... Cal… please… don’t be like this. She deserves better.”
“. . . I know. But she also deserves to know. The longer you wait, the more danger you put her friends in.”
“And that’s my decision. Not yours.”
“... I’ll respect that. For you. But my patience is not infinite.”
“. . . Goodbye, Calypso. Do not call me again.”
- - - Call Disconnected - - -