Chapter 1: A Remnant of Earth

There he stood at the Well of Souls, with doubt in his mind. He had come so far for the sake of his brother, but he could revive the rest of his kind and rid his mind and spirit of his burden. But he knew he must come to accept his decision and live with it. "My brother War… I would protect him above all." He looked down at the Crowfather, awaiting his response. "To return man to the Earth will require a sacrifice." Said the soul manifestation of the old man, as he referred to the fragments of the amulet lodged in Death's chest. Death walked up to the edge, one knee above the other, and began to remove his mask he had donned all those centuries ago. As he handed the Crowfather his mask, he stepped fully onto the edge, leaned in, and fell into the Well of Souls, without anyone seeing his face. The Crowfather handed Dust the mask, "Take it to him." Was all he said.

Death found himself in a dense forest, unsure of what happened. He remembered falling into the Well of Souls, and presumably restored humanity. So what did he do wrong? He looked down at his chest, and noticed the fragments of the Nephilim's souls were missing. Whatever he did, he exchanged the souls, and found himself asking the same question as before. Where ever he was now, he had to find a way back to familiar territory. It was then that something familiar appeared. It was Dust, and he was carrying his mask. He gladly took his mask from the bird, and once again donned his mask of the Kinslayer.

He looked around the forest, hoping to find any forms of civilization or perhaps a path. This world felt similar to Earth, and certainly looked the part, but something was off, something he couldn't explain. Upon closer inspection, he saw small cracks of grey beyond the trees. He could tell it was likely a stone wall, or some form of structure. Regardless, knowing it was his only lead to finding any form of assistance, he began to approach the wall.

Upon arriving at the structure, he saw there was a semicircle shaped entrance as well as a path not so far down, and walked along the wall towards it. He looked through the door frame, expecting to see a settlement in the form of a town. He also noticed there were sounds of movement, and fast at that. Both of his suspicions were confirmed, and what he saw shocked him. The town was for the most part abandoned, with the exception of six individuals. Not only were they all human, but one of them had a scorpion tail lodged into the chest of what looked to be the only other adult of the group. Death considered reaching for his scythes, but wanted to see how this panned out. If he wasn't shocked enough, a girl, a young one at that, in a slightly tattered red cloak, quickly pulled out a giant scythe, not too much smaller than his own, wrapped it around the scorpion tail, and caused some form of loud blast, supposedly a gun, and cut part of the tail off. "You bitch!" the man with the tail said, followed by grunts of pain. The other half of the humans approached the man, all in defensive stances. The man mumbled something under his breath and fled from the area. At this Death decided it was enough, and quickly drew his scythes.

Qrow dropped to the ground, grunting in pain. "Uncle Qrow, are you okay?" Ruby worriedly said, as she quickly kneeled down to aid her uncle. "I'll be fine. He just grazed me." Replied the raggedy man. Then bad things turned worse, as the group all turned around at the sound of what they all recognized as the unsheathing of a blade. What they all saw gave them all mixed emotions. On one hand he was dressed weirdly, even for their standards of normal. But by the looks of him, they could tell he spelled bad news. He wore well-worn battle armor all along his legs, as well as on his forearms, but most of his chest was bare, and incredibly pale. He wore a mask that resembled a skull, long messy black hair going a little past his shoulders, and was incredibly tall, as well holding two large dual scythes that were about the size of Crescent Rose each, if not larger. But the strangest thing about him were his eyes. They were a deep orange with no pupils. Ruby's eye color was strange, but at least they had pupils. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't have pitch black skin and bared weapons, the group would have mistaken him for a grimm. But that only made their case worse. He was definitely experienced, but the chances of him being a huntsman were beyond slim. Ruby stood up, readied Crescent Rose, and took a stance, along with the rest of team RNJR.

"Who are you?" Ruby asked, still trying to rid herself from the adrenaline from her previous encounter. Although she knew she was just going to get worked up again. "If you're here to take Ruby too, we're not going to just comply." Ren stated. "I couldn't care less about your personal lives, and as for who I am, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Death replied in a harsh tone as he tightened his grip on his scythes. "Try me." Nora said, speaking in a slightly more serious tone than usual and asserting her stance. Neither remarks eased the tension. The man didn't seem to want to give any straight answer as things went back to dead silent. After a few moments Nora charged in for an attack, knowing someone would have to at some point. "NORA, NO!" Cried Ren, trying to call her attack off. Death charged in himself, flipping forwards a couple meters before making contact. As he was bringing his body upwards he spun his scythes upwards, now connected at the ends, spinning towards Nora. She was sent flying back, and winced at how much it hurt. As the rest of team RNJR went in for an offensive blow of their own, Death pulled out Redemption, and shot Ren dead center in his forehead. Ren stopped running in and had to recover from the shot. Normally a single bullet from anything that isn't a rifle wouldn't hurt so much, but this wasn't a normal gun, or bullet. Jaune went in for a slash while Ruby anchored Crescent Rose into the ground, and supported him by firing her sniper-scythe from afar. Death was now constantly getting hit by a sharp pain that he'd rather not have to fight under, but was perfectly okay with sucking up a little of pain. Jaune brought Corcea Mors down in attempt to slash Death, but Death lunged to the left of him. As the Jaune's missed strike reached the concrete, Death lunged back at him, brought both scythes over Jaune's shield, and pried it off hi harm and onto the ground. While Jaune was left with no real defense, Death kicked him up into the air, grabbed the fallen shield, jumped into the air to join Jaune, and brought the shield down on the stunned blonde, sending him plummeting to the ground. When Jaune cratered into the concrete, Death once again slammed his own shield down on his own head, putting him down for the count.

Before Death could notice Ruby had used her speed to get the drop on him. By now Nora and Ren had recovered and were eager to get back in the fight. Ren helped Ruby in close combat while Nora pelted the pale man with grenades. Ruby engaged in melee combat while Ren did his best to keep his movement random while he shoots Death with Stormflower. Death dodged and countered most of Ruby's blows and tried to keep moving to avoid fire from Nora, but would slip up every now and then. Death lunged at Ren, buried his scythes in his shoulders, rolled over him, grabbed the handles of both scythes and brought them up and over his body, slamming Ren down. While he was still stunned Death brought the back of his heel down on Ren's face. Ruby tried to slash at Death again using her speed, but he countered by teleporting over to her while she was still bundled up in her cloak and grabbed her neck. While she was caught in his grip she tried to grab Crescent Rose which rested on her lower back. But before she could get a hold of her dearest weapon Death shot her once in the head and let her drop to the ground. He was about to deal with the girl dressed in pink and white when he realized Ren was already recovering, and Ruby wasn't far behind. Before they could hit him, Death snatched two of Nora's grenades from out of the air, and quickly threw one at Ruby, and the other at Ren, knocking them both down again. Nora gritted her teeth. The front of her launcher dropped down as all of the explosives in the magazine flew towards Death, who picked up Ruby and threw her towards the grenades, which subsequently detonated, and created a large pink cloud of smoke.

Death could tell this fight was almost over. There was just one thing wrong with this picture. The man with short black hair was missing, and Death had a guess where he was. Qrow was in no shape to fight, but still tried to get the drop on the pale man from behind. Qrow lifted up his large broad sword, and began to slash his opponent as quietly as he could. But without turning around, Death used one of his scythes to make the gash in the raggedy man's chest longer and deeper. Death looked down at Qrow, who was struggling to stand up "Stand down, this fight is over." Death said. "Not quite." Was his only response as he dodged out of the way. A gunshot was heard, and Death turned around to see its source. While Death was taking care of Qrow, Ruby had just enough energy to pull off the move she and Nora used to destroy the Geist near the town they visited not too long ago. She shot Nora with a bullet laced with electricity dust, and used her speed to propel the two of them forward. It was all or nothing. Death looked at the whirlwind of red and pink and admitted if he was hit by it he wouldn't be left in great shape to keep fighting, especially in a two on one scenario. But he wasn't going to stand still in awe. He dodged in the opposite direction and used his evade counter. Ruby and Nora weren't sure if what they saw was real, they were spinning in a helix formation, but they could have sworn they just saw what could only be described as the Grim Reaper. It was then that this monstrous being sliced upwards onto the two girls, and vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

"Who are you?" Was all Ruby could squeeze out. "Death." Replied the pale man as he sounded like a whisper in the wind to the Rose that was passing out, along with the rest of her team. "So, the Grim Reaper came to pay a little girl and her drunk uncle a visit huh? It's truly a weird world we live in." Said the Wounded man lying back on a house wall, also about to pass out. "Just be happy I went easy on you lot. I'd actually prefer you all alive. I have a few questions. And I'm more than certain you have a few answers." Was all he said before the man fell unconscious, along with the four kids.