I Do Not Own RWBY

Starting from the Remnants

The trees seemed to embrace us as we ran deeper into the forest, the sound of death fast approaching. I was in the lead while the others ran behind me. Lucas caught up to my side.

"How the hell do we keep getting ourselves stuck in these kinds of situations?" he asked. He started gaining momentum as his second wind kicked in. I thought about his question for a hot second. How did we get into this situation? Let's track this from the beginning.

My name is Drew. I like to think I lead a normal life. I went to college, work at an anxiety ridden job and have mostly normal friends.

The day had gone as normal as possible. I worked my shift, got home and saw that everyone was going out for bevs at the mall, so naturally I decided to tag along. We all met up at my friend Lucas's house to car pool together. I pull up and see everyone standing outside.

"Hey, what's up Drew? Took ya long enough." shouted Lucas as I pull up beside his car.

I get out of my car and see that it's just him, Julie and Shaun. "Did no one else show up?" I asked.

"Na, the rest all bailed on us at the last minute, now get in already." replied Julie as she slipped into the car.

I jumped into the passenger front as Shaun sat behind me. Lucas pulled up his anime playlist as he pulled out of his space.

Shaun poked his head between the seats, "So, what have you been up to?"

"Not much, same old same old. Trying not to kill my coworkers every day, you know the routine."

"Yea, you tell us every time. I don't even know why I ask anymore." Shaun replied.

"Because you care." I sarcastically retort.

He scoffed as he recoiled back into his seat. Of course there was more, but I don't like to bog down my friends with my own personal problems. I wouldn't ever want to reveal any of my weaknesses to the only people who can stand to be around me.

The ride to the mall was pretty none eventful after that. I just kind of kept to myself like I normally do. We went in and found a nice place to sit and drink for a while. I caught up with what everyone was doing at the moment. Lucas finally got his own apartment, Shaun was still going to college and Julie just broke up with her latest boyfriend.

"And then he told me that my manga collection sucked! I mean, what kind of person disuses a women's manga?" Julie yelled while clinging to Shaun. Shaun just continued to play on his phone trying to ignore her.

"That just means that he wasn't worth your time" I reply hoping she takes the hint and just stops talking about their breakup. Hearing about other people's relationships always brought me down.

"Ya, I guess your right. Not really any point in going forward with someone who has so many dissimilar interests." she finalized, taking in the fact that maybe she just has to wait and find the right guy instead of just putting herself out there all of the time.

"So Drew, while we're on the subject, have you found someone yet?" asks Lucas. He must know that I haven't, but I play along.

"Na. You know me, I prefer to avoid awkward situations if I can. I just don't have the confidence you or Julie have to just try and find someone." I answer, hoping it was sufficient enough to quell the part of him that is fixated on my social life for some reason.

"I figured, but just so you know. We're all rooting for you. You'll find someone just as hopelessly romantic and awkward as you some day." he says as he starts to stand up.

We all pay our tabs and head out. The drive home was quiet. Julie and Shaun were both sleeping in the back with Julie resting her head on his shoulder. Meanwhile Lucas and I were in the front chatting away trying to keep each other awake enough to make it back.

"You still doing okay? You weren't as talkative tonight as you usually are man." Lucas asks. I don't know why, but he always seems to be the pillar of our small group of misfits.

"Ya" I respond, "I just have a lot going on at the moment." I look out the window trying to focus on the night sky. I don't like talking about my depressing life, so I try to avoid any confrontation about it.

"Look, if you ever need to talk about anything we're all here for you. We're here for each other. If something's bothering you just feel free to talk to us, okay." Lucas states.

I look over at him wondering what he's thinking. I couldn't bring my mistakes into their lives. I don't ever want my baggage to weigh any of them down.

Lucas continues, "I know you aren't the most social member of the group, and that's okay. But there is a limit to how much a person can take. I know that more than most."

I was beginning to process what he was saying. How does he know more than most? I was thinking about it for a second, but then I saw it. Those lights behind Lucas's head. They were getting larger, and brighter.

"So please, don't think you can handle everything on your own. Just remember that..."

"Lucas stop!" I yell, reaching for the wheel to try and swerve us out of the way. He didn't even have time to process what I said and look at what was coming. It had been that fast.

We were dead.

But then we weren't.

A void, stretching out for an eternity. That was all that I saw. I don't know how long I was there, but it felt unnatural. Then with a rush a world popped into existence. First the ground manifested itself as sort of a grassy hill. Then a tree at the top, and what looked to be a forest formed at the bottom. Then as if they were there the whole time my three friends were standing beside me.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" yelled Lucas. He was in a frenzy. I've never seen him like that before. Tears were rolling down his face, his eyes looked as if someone stabbed him in the heart and just kept twisting it. He stood the furthest away from all of us, the other two looking to be in shock were just standing there with blank faces.

"Where are we?" questions Julie.

"Wasn't I just in the car dozing off? What happened?" wondered Shaun.

Then in front of us appeared a dude. That's the best way to describe him, just a dude. Like straight out of a bad 80's sitcom sort of dude. He looked like a cross between Ryan Reynolds and Jimmy Fallon.

"You are all dead." he answered, plain and nonchalantly.

"What do you mean we're dead?" asks Julie, terror and dread starting to spread across her face.

"I mean all four of you are dead, and I should know since I'm the god of death. Sup." the supposed god of death answered. "If you don't want to call me the god of death every time you reference me, you can just call me Greg."

Greg? Did the god of death just call himself Greg? And is this really what happens after we die? Maybe I just got knocked into a coma and this is my brain trying to keep me asleep or something.

"And before you ask, no you are not in a coma." Greg said looking over in my direction.

"What exactly happen?" asks Shaun, who seemed to be the most calm other than myself after that last revelation.

"Well, it seems that on your way home from your little group meetup, your car was hit pretty harshly by a loaded down tanker. Luckily the driver survived so I don't have to deal with him as well, but you four didn't make it." Greg explained.

"It's my fault." I hear Lucas whisper to himself. "I should have been paying more attention to the road. If I was, then I could have been able to swerve out of the way or something, but instead I just didn't see it. I killed us." Lucas said, a morbid look on his face. I was about to try and tell him that it wasn't his fault when Greg interrupted me.

"Well, it doesn't matter who's fault it is, because in the end you're all still dead. But that's about to change. You see, you aren't talking personally to the god of death for no reason. I have decided to give you all chances at life again." he begins to explain.

"You mean not everyone gets a face to face credits reel with the man himself, the almighty Greg?" Julie questions sarcastically. I'm guessing she was trying to cheer everyone up a bit, not that it helped at all, but at least someone was trying.

"You're right. You see, being the god of death is a pretty taxing job. You wouldn't believe how many antidepressants my doctor has me taking daily. I need something to invest in, something to look forward to. So, you guys dying at just the right time bought you all some extra lives. Congratulations!"

Julie and Lucas looked disgusted. Shaun just looked, annoyed? Wary? Meanwhile I was just standing there accepting it all. If this guy was going to give us another chance at life then I was all for it.

"So what your saying is that you want to revive us so we can put on a show for you?" Julie accused Greg.

"To put it bluntly, yes. But if you want I can just find some other people who've just died and revive them and leave you to roam around purgatory for all of eternity." he stated with an innocent smile painted on his face. Julie stopped talking after that.

"So, to put it simply I will let you live through a few lives. All of which will take place in different realities. Wouldn't be much fun if I just dropped you back into your normal life now would it. You could be brought back together, with a few of your friends, or by yourselves. Also the time frame your revived in will vary depending on the reality. So without further adieu, let's get on with it. This first world is going to be a fun one." he explained quickly. Without a moments notice the ground was gone beneath us and the trees vanished before our eyes. "Good luck, and try to work as a team for this one." Greg yelled as we were whisked away.

Blackness. Thankfully not the void this time. I open my eyes and take stock of my surroundings.

A dorm room, or what looked to be a dorm room. This was all happening a little too fast for my brain to process. I sit up, trying to not give myself a headache while thinking about everything that just went down. I look around and see Shaun, Julie and Lucas all sleeping in similar beds to mine, except there was something different about them. I get up and I nearly lose my balance. I was lighter, and leaner. For some reason this dorm room looked familiar, but I just couldn't think of why. There were our four beds, a bookshelf and small desk accompanying each one, and there also looked to be a metal suitcase at the foot of each bed. I hesitantly crouch down and lift mine up onto my bed. I glance over to see if anyone else has started to wake yet, but none have risen. I undo the clasps on the case and slowly open it, thinking that what was inside would reveal what world we now inhabit.

"Fuck me." I exclaim.

Inside the case was a weapon, but not just any weapon. My dream weapon. I shove the case aside and run to the window. I look outside and see what I was hoping for.

"Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me." I say to myself, mentally preparing for the roller coaster of emotions this world would inevitably bring to me.

We were in Beacon Academy. In Vale. In the world of Remnant.

"This is going to be fun." Greg said to himself as he kicked back and started to watch these four friends as they begin their journey in the first world he picked.

RWBY.

Thank you for reading the first chapter of my first official fan fiction. I apologize if the pacing is a bit off, I'm still trying to hone in on what good pacing feels like to write. Also I apologize if this was a lot of setup, I just felt that if I just dropped these four straight into the world of Remnant without a little bit of character development from the normal world then it just wouldn't have felt right. I will have them discovering all of their semblances and weapons in the next chapter which is what I'm really excited for, so hopefully I will be able to upload that faster than how long it took me to finish this. I'm not really sure on an upload schedule, so to start off with I will just be updating this as I finish each chapter, I do however have a storyboard already written out all the way through to about the second volume, I just have to add a lot of character development along the way.

Thanks.