Fortune Favors The Prepared

Let's recap, shall we?

I woke up stranded in an abandoned city, I spent the next few weeks surviving said city, stopped terrorists who were planning on blowing up the actual city. I killed a few White Fang goons, I killed the Wyvern grimm that would have caused so much trouble. Now, the main cast have arrived. 

I don't think I left anything out. Should I feel upset that they only came after I killed the ancient grimm? No, but I still do. These people have trained their whole life for this, I haven't. 

Still, it means that I have a way out of this ruined city. I wonder if this is how Oliver felt when he was rescued from Liam Yu. 

Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I focus on the fight going on in front of me. I can't actually call it a fight. Unsurprisingly, the faunus got their asses handed to them quite handily. 

Still hidden in the corner, I pull down my hood, feeling very exposed. I'd developed a habit of having it on full time for the past weeks so I understandably felt vulnerable despite the shield effect from my ring. 

"I told you we could do it!" Ruby told her teammates who rolled their eyes at her.

"I'm more worried about what happened before the fight." I hear Weiss say, getting nods of agreement. 

"That light earlier came from the top of the mountain. We shou-" Blake was interrupted as the dog that I hadn't paid much attention to barked in my direction. 

Oobleck was now facing me as well. Well, my plan was to get seen.

"We missed one. I got it!" Yang exclaimed, her gauntlets snapping to life as she noticed me. 

My gun was immediately in my grip, pointed at her. Main character or not, I'm not getting my bones broken. 

"Hold your fire, Miss Xiao Long!" Oobleck quickly stopped her, confusing her as well as her team. "I do not believe he is with the White Fang."

There was a moment of silence as they scrutinized my appearance before Ruby spoke. "Now that you mentioned it, he does look different from them."

"You mean, other than the fact that I'm not a faunus?" I said, dryly. 

"You look terrible." Weiss blurted out. 

Raising a brow, I look down at myself. Dirt clung to my clothes and skin. My hair was undoubtedly messy as well. Hygiene had taken a seat behind survival. 

"Well that's what happens when you're stuck here for weeks." I retort, finally lowering my firearm. 

"Weeks? That's not possible. What were you doing out here? Do you have any idea what that source of light a few minutes ago was?" Oobleck fired off his questions, getting in my personal space in the blink of an eye. 

Moving back to get my space back, I answered. "Oh that was me. There was a grimm sleeping in the mountain, I killed it."

They looked at me with skepticism yet, Oobleck seemed to freeze for a moment. He probably knew what I was talking about. 

"Tell me everything." He all but demanded, getting into my personal space once more.

"Back up a bit." I say, gently pushing him away from me. "Come on before more of them find us."

Without waiting for a response, I turned and began walking, the five of them following close behind. 

-[Oobleck]-

"So are you a huntsman?" Miss Rose asked the boy as they settled in one of the many ruined buildings. 

They sat on fallen debris, all facing the young man. 'Man' was an overstatement. The boy looked like he was barely out of his teens, no older than the very students that were shadowing him. 

In all his years of being a huntsman, he prioritized the use of his mind to solve problems, rather than brute force. That alone took a lot of mental skills, one of those being observation and being able to pick up hints and cues. 

That made it all too clear and somewhat sad looking at the boy before them. Despite how he tried to hide it with snark, he was tired. It was more than physical fatigue, it was tiredness of the mind. 

His appearance alone spoke in great lengths about that. Dust and dirt smeared across his clothing, his hair unkempt and good lord the smell. It all gave credence to the fact that he'd in fact been here for weeks and without rest. 

He was definitely not a huntsman and he also definitely wasn't a student at beacon.

Everything about him screamed 'civilian' despite his condition. 

"Not in the slightest definition of the profession." The boy, Corvus, said with a scoff. 

"Then what are you doing here?" The blonde on the team asked. 

"I'm not too sure of that myself." Corvus said solemnly, peeking out of the window for a moment. 

He's on edge, Oobleck noted. 

"Would you care to elaborate on that?" Oobleck asked, finally jumping into the conversation. 

"There's nothing much to elaborate really. One minute I'm in a car and the next I'm here with these guys crawling all around the place." He explained. 

"The White Fang kidnapped you?" The Belladonna girl asked, cautiously. 

"I don't know. My memories aren't quite what they used to be." Corvus answered, a hard look entering his eyes. 

"What does that mean?" Ruby asked, confused. 

"I know things. Like where this place is, what continent I'm on and who the White Fang are but things about my personal life are a blur. I know my name is Corvus and I'm eighteen but nothing else." He explained. 

That's terrible. There was silence for a while as the implications of that sunk in. 

"How are you still alive? You said you've been here for weeks?" Weiss asked quietly, finally breaking the silence. 

The boy let out a chuckle. "It hasn't been easy, I'll tell you that much. Between the White Fang and the Grimm, it's like playing hide and seek with deadly stakes."

"You said you killed a giant grimm on the mountaintop, what did it look like?" Oobleck asked, drawing their attention back to one of the earlier questions he'd asked. 

"It looked like a dragon to me." The boy said. 

So his suspicions were true. He'd read about it while researching a long time ago. After the city was invaded by grimm, some of the refugees reported seeing a dragon type grimm among them. 

Fortunately, after the city was evacuated, it didn't venture further. Attempts had been later made to reclaim the lost city but all failed and the Grimm hadn't been sighted which meant it was still out there. 

By this time, it would have evolved so much. Ancient Grimm were very dangerous to groups of huntsmen and huntresses. It's rather unbelievable that a single 'civilian' killed it on his own. 

"How did you manage to kill it?" Oobleck asked, the huntresses in training also paying close attention. 

"That light you saw earlier. It's part of my semblance."

"Part of?" Yang asked, getting a smirk from Corvus with no further explanation. 

-[Corvus]-

Just because they're the main characters doesn't mean I'm going to go around broadcasting why my semblance is. I'll keep that close to my chest thank you very much. 

"It's my turn to ask the questions. What are all of you doing here?" I ask, despite the fact that I already know why.

Ruby perked up with pride. "We're shadowing a professional huntsman."

I turned to Oobleck who was still in thought. "Right." I drawled. "That works for me because I need a way out of this place."

"That won't be a problem. As huntsmen it is our duty to protect citizens such as yourself." Oobleck said before narrowing his eyes. "But first, we have to uncover what the White Fang are doing here."

Fishing a scroll out of my pocket, I tossed it to the man. "I've already got that covered. I've swiped a few of these so far and all of them had more than enough information to point to what they want."

I omit the part where I actually looted it from the faunus I killed but they don't need to know that. 

"And what is that?" Their resident blonde asked. 

"Leading Grimm into the city." I answered simply. 

"What would they stand to gain from that?! It doesn't make any sense." Blake muttered in confusion. 

"Beats me." I say with a sigh. 

Oobleck, to his credit, was already perusing the scroll for anything he could find. I transferred a copy of all the evidence I'd gathered into that scroll. In the event that I decide to hand it in to the authorities, I wouldn't give them my phone. 

I imagine an iPhone isn't an item ever seen before on Remnant. 

"This is troubling. We have to stop them before they can go along with it." Oobleck said to the girls, getting to his feet. 

"Actually, I already took care of that." I say, getting a questioning look. "I destroyed all the bombs and dismantled the train wheels. Even if they manage to get more bombs, that train isn't going anywhere."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Ruby broke it. "Are you sure you're not a huntsman?"

"I'm quite sure." I shot back. "But if you're up for it, I can take you to where they're camped at."

~~~

It was so unfair. After leading them to the underground city, I watched them beat the crap out of the gathering of White Fang goons. 

Only one of them, who I remember to be the lieutenant, gave them some trouble but even then it was solved pretty quickly. Their numbers had already dwindled after my consistent attacks and the occasional grimm that managed to kill them. 

Torchwick, being the opportunist that he is, was already long gone. That meant that Neo was gone as well, giving me no small amount of relief. 

A large amount of the grimm on the surface had also been dealt with due to the aftermath of my attack. 

Grimm dealt with, White fang dealt with, bombs dealt with…I deserve an award but I'll take a bed and a shower instead. 

"I have a question." Ruby asked as we all traversed the terrain to make sure there was nothing missed. 

"Fire away."

"If you've been here for weeks then what have you been eating?" Her question was valid. 

"Yeah, it's not like there's a vending machine somewhere around here." Yang added. 

"For the most part, I've been living on the weeds that grow in the cracks. It's terrible but it's not like I had a choice." I lied with a straight face. 

Like hell I was going to explain my ring. 

"That's disgusting." Weiss said with an equally disgusted look. 

"Can't argue with you there." I say with a laugh. 

Yang perked up, apparently having a question on her mind. Had I not been used to Marcus barrage of questions while growing up I'd have lost my mind already. 

"What's your plan after you get out of here? You know, since you can't remember much of anything." She asked. 

That…I didn't have an answer to that. 

"I don't know. I've never really thought past getting out of here." I admit. Of course there was Salem to stop but I couldn't just waltz into her palace and demand that she stop terrorizing remnant. "I'll probably talk to the headmaster at your school to see if he can find anything about me."

"I'm sure professor Ozpin would be happy to help." Weiss said with confidence. 

"Children, you're falling behind. We'll have to work fast if we want to finish before the airship arrives!" Oobleck called out from up ahead. 

Due to my actions, the White Fang were visible from the getgo to team RWBY and Oobleck who changed the nature of the mission from a search and destroy to a scouting mission. 

Reinforcements were on their way as well as a ship to pick us up. That meant that I'd finally be getting out of here. I could almost scream with joy. 

-[Salem]-

Sitting in her palace, she had a frown on her face. Over the centuries, she had made many types of grimm creatures of varying strength. 

She'd nurtured a particularly unique type of grimm back then.

A Wyvern shaped grimm, formed from her take on the brother gods' true forms. When Ozma, as a king at that time, attempted to expand Vale, she sent it forth to crush their hope and it had remained there as a reminder that nothing was safe from her. 

Many had tried to conquer it, all had failed. Until eventually, people stopped trying and wrote the place off as a failed project. 

That is why she felt a brief moment of shock when she felt it, as well as a large number of her creations around it, be destroyed by a familiar power. 

The gods hadn't returned so it could be only one thing; a silver eyed warrior. The light felt purer than that of any silver eyed warrior she'd observed over her lifetime. 

'It appears Ozma found another one, a powerful one at that.' She mused. 

Even after millennia, Ozpin refused to end his futile struggle and relinquish the relics to her. After driving many to her, to their deaths, he continued to groom more warriors for her to snuff out.

Looking out the window and across the land of darkness, she hummed. Perhaps it was time to get creative once more. 

-[Corvus]-

I suddenly feel the urge to sneeze. Meh, I'll get over it. After searching the ruins and finding nothing, they had returned to the surface to find an airship waiting for them as well as a number of other ships, each with a number of Vale's soldiers coming down from them. 

Such a plot was not something that could be brushed away easily. I couldn't help but feel strange as I boarded the airship. 

This is where I woke up. It is also where I'd spent my days killing grimm and white fang alike for days. I'd fallen into a rhythm and I'm happy to break that rhythm. Still, it held some sentimental value in my mind. 

The place that changed me from an engineering student to…whatever I am now. The most trying time of my life so far and it's only the beginning. How did Ozpin do this for thousands of years? I'm already tired from year zero. 

Why couldn't it have been a Food Wars CYOA? No world ending threats or evil mastermind with dreams of world domination. 

Still, I wonder. I wonder where Marcus is. Was he brought here like me, taken somewhere else or did he die? I tried not to think about it too much but the questions still resurfaced. 

If he's here then it's my job as a responsible older sibling to find him. If not…well, the fact that I'm here means there are other worlds out there. I'll just have to keep searching till I find him, no matter how long that takes.