When Fire Rains XIII: The Mercenaries

Disclaimer: I own Neither RWBY or Skyrim. The honour of owning RWBY is Monty Oum's and RoosterTeeth's, and Skyrim belongs to Bethesda game studios.

Skyrim was always cold. It doesn't matter where you are, it's always cold, and nowhere more so than its mountains. Everything was almost always covered in snow, from the rocks that were sitting there just waiting to be tripped over, to the occasional tree on either side of the path. Skyrim's mountains were always really cold, but the man continued to walk to Bleak Falls Barrow as if the cold didn't affect him at all.

"Seriously, how are you not even shivering, it's fucking freezing." His accomplice was a different matter.

"Come on man, it's not that bad." The man replied, smiling at his accomplice over his shoulder.

"Says the one who isn't shivering." His accomplice said, rubbing the elbows of his armour in a futile attempt to warm himself up. The pair continued walking, passing a waist high stack of stones that probably acted as a milestone.

"In Sattelite it's at least 40 degrees daily, I'm used to it being insanely hot, but do you see me complaining?"

"Sattelite this, Sattelite that, is there a point in time when you'll ever stop referencing fucking Sattelite?" The man sighed, almost on the verge of giving up on his Inco-operable partner.

"We just need to get the claw, and bring it back, are you really going to back out because it's a little chilly?" The man asked, not slowing his progress.

"At the rate that the temperature seems to be dropping, yes." The man's accomplice replied. 'Just work with me here.' The man thought. He stopped and turned to his accomplice.

"Tell you what, if we do this, your next meal's on me." He said, placing a hand on the shoulder of his accomplices, really cold, steel armour. 'Crikey, I can see why he's complaining.'

"You can only say that because you always take all the money." His accomplice said, not backing down easily. The man then had an idea, and as much as he would regret it, it would work.

"I'll give you half." The man said, cringing at his own words on the inside.

"Done." 'Why do you have to be so agreeable?'

"Can we continue then?" His accomplice nodded, and they continued their journey. They passed a large, slightly curved, stone pillar, that probably used to be part of an arch, and it started to snow.

"I'm out." His accomplice said, turning around and walking back the way they came.

"Three quarters." The man called back to him, mentally slapping himself afterwards.

"I hate you." His accomplice replied, turning back around and re-joining the man.

"Come on, you can't stay mad at me." The man said, smiling at his accomplice, as the pair continued their journey. His accomplice huffed. "You'll thank me when we get paid." His accomplice huffed again. "You never know, it might be warmer inside."

They continued walking, the wind blowing the snow against them, and some of it sticking to his accomplices armour, reducing their visibility to about 20 metres in front of them. They passed another milestone, and a large, slightly ruined, stone tower seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the veil of grey surrounding them.

"Reckon there's anything inside?" The man asked, turning towards his accomplice.

"Not what we're looking for, but it could be worth it." This caused the man to smile.

"Let's go check it out." He said, picking up the pace slightly. They passed several small trees and bushes, as well as some larger ones, all covered in pure white snow, and the man swore he could see someone in the distance, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, and another one on the bridge.

"One guy in the distance, greatsword, another on the bridge with a bow, how do you think we should do this?" The man asked his accomplice, who just shrugged at him.

"Hail friend." The man called to the person leaning against the tree, who looked up to glare at them angrily.

"Beat it, beast," the man against the tree called back, causing the kangaroo ears on top of the man's head to twitch, "We own this place, so run back to whatever gutter you crawled out of." 'You racist fuck! Stay calm; don't want to cause too much trouble… yet.'

"Look, we just want to get something for the merchant in Riverwood, if you would let us pass without it having to get too messy, we would really appreciate it." The man called back, continuing to approach the man against the tree. However, he didn't buy into it, instead drawing his greatsword.

"I said scram, you stupid animal." He said. That was when he crossed the line. The man's expression changed from a peaceful smile, into an expression of complete anger. His accomplice sighed beside him.

"Now he's done it." He said, backing away from the man, who was now approaching the man with the greatsword.

"Call me an animal one more time." The man said, his eyes turning from grey to a bright blue.

"And why should I?" the man with the greatsword asked.

"Go on, just do it." The man with the greatsword grinned.

"Animal." There was a clanking noise beneath the sleeves of the man's hoodie, and he leapt forward, the stone beneath where he stood shattering. A pair of black, duel ranged shot-gauntlets unfolded, the sleeves of his hoodie being pushed up as the weapons enveloped his forearms and extended to cover his fists. He swung his fist into the jaw of the man with the greatsword, firing as he did so, and his head exploded, sending blood, bone and brains spattering outward.

"Tucker, let's go." He called back to his accomplice, who sighed and unsheathed the greatsword on his back.

Ruby trudged through the snow that almost reached the top of her boots, wandering almost aimlessly through the wall of white that completely surrounded her. Somehow, the hood of her cloak managed to stay up, while the winds of the blizzard billowed the rest of it behind her. At least she thought it was a blizzard, she didn't know if it was, but she assumed it was, and if it wasn't, then true blizzards are terrifying.

She didn't know where she was going originally, and the only way she could tell was by the dirt path that probably led to the terrifying structure that was Bleak Falls Barrow. Then it started to snow and the path became a lot more difficult to follow. Then the blizzard started and now Ruby had no clue where she was going, but she continued walking in the general direction that she thought Bleak Falls Barrow was.

All too suddenly, a huge, stone, wall appeared out of nowhere, and Ruby greeted it by slamming her face into it. Ruby fell back into the soft, white powder that she was beginning to get sick of. Then she jumped back up after said powder went in places that it shouldn't have. 'Great, I don't know where I'm going, I can't see, and now there's snow in my underwear, Freaking Fantastic.' She groaned, rubbed her very sore nose, and then continued walking.

She kept her eyes fixed forward, not bothering to try looking at the ground to determine where the path was leading, and instead trying to see anything through the snow. Then instead of the crunch of boots on snow, there was a squelch, as Ruby stepped in something sticky that definitely wasn't snow.

"Ew!" She looked down, and saw a massive puddle of, slightly frozen, blood, that now had a boot print in it. She unfolded Crescent Rose, and carefully walked towards where she thought the blood had come from.

Lying on the ground was a dead body, wearing very similar armour to most of the bandits, which was missing its head, with an iron greatsword lying next to it. Ruby took a good, long stare at it, completely shocked by the fact that the head wasn't anywhere nearby, as well as the barbarity, but then continued walking in the same direction that she was before.

A small, stone bridge, in the shape of an arch, emerged out of the wall of white, and Ruby almost tripped over it and into the blood that ran down it. On the bridge were the bodies of two more dead bandits, dressed almost exactly like the other one, though these two had different weaponry. One of them was missing an arm, as well as his head, while the other had a massive, gaping, hole in his chest, its contents having been spilt onto the bridge.

Ruby's anger swelled, and she strode forward with a newfound determination; to find whoever did this and make them pay for what they did.

The man and his accomplice were prepared to leave, having killed all of the bandits, including the leader, and having pocketed the loot that was in the chest at the top of the tower. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot in the chest, just some iron armour, a purple rock that the man didn't care about and sixty five gold coins, which his accomplice had gladly taken, and frankly he wasn't too happy with the lack of loot. His accomplice had started to walk down the stairs, and the man was about to join him, when something red caught his eye in the distance.

"Hey, Tucker, get up here, I think I found her." The man called down to his accomplice, who sighed and walked back up the stairs.

"You better be right, 'cause I'm freezing my ass off in this blizzard." He said, as he unsheathed his greatsword. The greatsword disintegrated into hundreds of tiny, metal shards, and then reformed into a sniper rifle. He then looked down the sights, directly at the red object in the distance. A small girl was blundering about in the blizzard, with a red cloak that billowed behind her, and a hood obscuring her face.

"Yep, that's the target." Tucker said, still looking down the sights of his Sniper Rifle. The man didn't smile, he didn't like what he was doing, but it meant getting paid, so he was going to do it. The girl walked into a large stone, and Tucker smiled, a rare spectacle to the man's experience. She then jumped back up, raised a hand to somewhere below her hood, and then continued walking in a direction that Tucker didn't like. Now he started to panic slightly.

"She's moving towards one of the guys you killed." Tucker announced, and now it was the man's turn to panic. What if she found them, then it would complicate things.

"Now she's unfolding her weapon." Tucker announced again, not doing anything to relieve the man, actually making it worse if nothing else.

"The target's walking towards us." 'Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, FUCK!' Now he really started to panic, and his mind began to race in search of an answer.

"Tell me when she gets inside." The man said, finding a solution. Tucker nodded, and there was tension in the air as they waited for it, or at least the man thought so. Tucker nodded again, and the man stepped on top of the chest, and used it as a sort of stepping stool to get himself onto the ledge of the tower.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tucker asked, and the man smiled. This was going to be fun.

"I'm gonna jump." Tucker stared at him in disbelief.

"You're going to commit suicide because she might find us?" The man blinked twice, attempting to comprehend what his partner was saying, and then shook his head rapidly.

"No, no, no, no, no," The man said in quick succession, "I'm going to jump, and you'll use your semblance to make a platform."

"Are you Crazy! There is no way in hell that I'm doing this." The man smiled, and grabbed Tuckers wrist.

"Actually you're jumping with me."

"WHAT!" Tucker yelled, and then the man jumped off, dragging his accomplice with him.

Ruby stepped into the stone tower, Crescent rose out in front of her, ready for whatever threat awaited her inside. The shelter drove away most of the snow, so she could see more than she could a few minutes ago, but snow still flew in through the holes in the walls that served as windows. There was a dead bandit lying on a broken table, his head leaning at a very awkward angle, and three more bandits at varying heights on a stone staircase that led further up the tower, and apart from the bodies, there was no one else in the room.

Ruby ascended the stone staircase, carefully stepping over the dead bandits, as she climbed the stairs one at a time. Then she thought she heard a man screaming upstairs, and she bolted up the stairs, going so fast that she vanished in a cloud of rose petals. She ran onto a wooden walkway outside of the tower, that led further upwards, and the blizzard greeted her once more. Again, she couldn't see anything through the endless wall of white but she kept running anyway. That proved to be a bad decision when the walkway ended, and she fell off, plummeting off the side and into an abyss of white.

She twisted in the air and buried Crescent Rose into the stone wall, the scythe bringing her fall to a very abrupt stop. She dangled from her scythe, both hands gripping onto it for dear life, god only knows how far above the ground. She tried to pull one of her hands off her scythe to try to pull herself up, but instead it stayed right where it was. She tried to pull her other hand away, and it too stayed in the exact same spot. She tried pulling both away, and they stayed exactly where they were. Her hands were frozen to the cold, steel handle of her beloved scythe. 'Crap!'

Seeing no other way, she swung both legs onto the wall, and used them to pull Crescent Rose out of the wall. She began to plummet again, and she twisted in the air, and fired downwards. The recoil sent her flying back up, past the wooden walkway, and she fired again, and landed at the top of the wooden construction. The wood cracked underneath her, and she took the opportunity to sprint back inside the tower.

There was no roof to speak of, so the blizzard found its way into that room as well, surrounding Ruby again and blocking most of her vision. She followed the wall closest to the entrance, and tripped over when something hit her shin. She twisted and her shoulder landed onto the pointy edge of a wooden plank that seemed to be hovering at an unnatural height. She rolled onto her back, feeling several other corners press into it, and used her scythe to pull herself back onto her feet. She looked down, and saw several wooden planks that seemed to hover at slowly ascending heights. 'Why do I have to keep walking into things?'

She very cautiously walked up the wooden staircase, wary of anything else that she could trip over, or walk into. Thankfully, she had no such luck, as the wooden planks evened out into a large wooden floor. She continued to follow the wall to her left, as it slowly looped around, and lead Ruby to another series of hovering wooden planks. Ruby groaned, and climbed up those as well, Crescent Rose, as well as her arms, hanging loosely at her side.

She reached the top of the staircase to find a wooden chest, with items that probably belonged to somebody else, and absolutely nothing else, the snow blocking out everything off the side of the wall. She sighed and walked back down the stairs, slightly disappointed that she didn't find anyone, but more so because there was no point in walking into the death trap.

The man's shoulder collided with the metal platform that was now below him, and he let out a sigh of relief. Then his accomplice landed on him, heavy, steel armour and all, and he groaned in pain. They stayed like that for a bit, Tucker's armour, as well as his weight, crushing him.

"Tucker." He gasped, trying to push his accomplice off him. "Get the fuck off me." Tucker opened his eyes, and stared at the strained face of the man, as well as the metal platform that they were now lying on. He let out a sigh of relief, and stood up, and the man sucked in air in heavy breaths.

"I can't believe you made me do that." Tucker said, and the man stared at him in disbelief.

"You weren't the one being crushed." He said, his voice strained, but smiling anyway. "Maybe instead of swinging around a weapon you can just lie on top of them." The man joked, his voice beginning to return to normal. The platform beneath the man vanished, and he screamed as he plummeted towards the ground.

The platform reappeared beneath him, and he landed on his shoulder again, a loud pop echoing to Tucker, who was now floating down on his own platform. The man rolled around on the metal platform, clutching his dislocated shoulder, hissing in pain.

"Damn, that looked like it hurt." Tucker said, as the two separate platforms reconnected. The man stared back up at him with a look of, something between, anger and malice.

"I will rip out your skull, and beat you to death with it." The man said, as his grey eyes flashed bright blue.

"Or you could stop making jokes about my weight." The man stood back up, and glared daggers at Tucker. "Oh, come on, you can't stay mad at me." The man kept glaring at his accomplice, and Tucker decided to change the subject. "The target's moving out now." The man forgot all about it, and peered off the edge of the platform. It was difficult to see, even for a Faunus, but he was right. The girl was slowly making her way to Bleak Falls Barrow. The man smiled. 'Oh this is just too perfect.' He then winced in pain and clutched his shoulder.

A/N: A small introduction (that continues next chapter) to some of my OC's. For the record, I am Australian, and have absolutely no fucking clue how snow works. I originally started reading RWBY fanfiction because season one was kinda short, and it was a way of getting more content. So with season two being released, I'm slightly sad to say that I will be having a, probably very long, hiatus, and will continue writing after season two has finished, and I've watched the shit out of it. I would like to thank you guys so much, for sticking with me through this terrible, terrible story. Everyone who ever left a review, be it good or bad, everyone who ever viewed/visited it, everyone who ever followed it, and everyone who ever favourited it, I would like to thank you, for your support. And, of course, a HUGE thankyou to Okami the blue wolf, I honestly don't know what I'd do without her. It's because of you guys that I keep writing, (Even if it would continue anyway, but a hell of a lot slower) and it's because of you guys that I'm still here frankly. So THANK YOU, everyone, and I'll catch you later.

"Questions, comments, follows, favourites and Feedback is appreciated." –Codyknight22 (Fuck the reference contest)