Preface: Greetings, everyone! I know that this kind of story will probably make you want to press the back button, but if you decided to read on to sate your curiosity, I appreciate y'all taking the time to pay this story some attention!

As mentioned, it's a self-insert, but not an actual author insert, mind! The character is as originally as I could write her. I suppose you could say that there's so many good SI fics out there that's done really well for itself, and I've been inspired to write my own. To be honest, I'm quite nervous; haven't written anything in a long while. I only have my RP experience for my writing style. Lol, I feel like a first-time writer! XD

That said, sit back and I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Chapter One

Let it be known that, after the accident and her immediate reincarnation, she would have preferred staying dead.

There were just no words in her vocabulary to perfectly describe what she'd been feeling after that. But if anyone knew how, they better ring her up and tell her, thank you very much; there was no best way to tell what being suspended in weird, sticky fluid was like. Not to mention being one hundred percent conscious while inside what appeared to be someone's womb, and to be unable to do anything about it.

However, if she had to throw around any second-best adjectives she could think of, she had this to say: the whole experience was freaky. It was traumatizing, unnatural, and most importantly, nonsensical.

It was especially that last part. Normally, when a person died, that was it. The End. Finis.

Normally, a person didn't get a second chance at life. It was only something people liked to write about on their spare time.

And, normally, a person wouldn't—shouldn't—be aware of being a fetus with all the whimsical, wonderful qualities that came with it. If a god existed, she'd like to have a talk about her being a freak of nature. Oh, she would especially like to have a talk about how she'd prefer never experiencing this whole thing again.

Because, let it be also known that being birthed into a completely new world was the worst encounter she'd ever had in her entire life.

Her name used to be Amelie Gauthier. But after the day she was pushed out of her new mother's womb, her name became Lune Beryl, a sweet bundle of joy that brought a tired smile from her mother and a proud one from her father. She was, in their eyes, the best kind of baby first-time parents could ever have: helpless, small, and perfect.

Until she opened her tiny mouth and started wailing like a banshee.

But to be fair, babies crying soon after they were born was a natural thing. It was their best way of using their lungs for the first time, to show that yes, mommy and daddy, they were alive and well.

At least, normal babies did. For Lune, crying was her immediate way of portraying her shock at the new changes she wasn't prepared for. The sensory overload was too much for her to handle; the lights were too bright, the sounds too harsh, and before she was cocooned in blankets, the cold air felt like a thousand needles pricking her sensitive skin. Her fine motor skills had pretty much flown out of the window as her old life had. And she was currently being handled by these gigantic but strangely colorful blobs. If she didn't feel so stupidly disoriented, she would have been bemused at being passed around like a basketball.

Once upon a time, she thought that babies had it easy. If they weren't sleeping, they were drinking milk. If they weren't drinking milk, they were pooping on their diapers or rolling around in their cribs. A simple life.

Boy, oh boy, was she dead wrong.

Honestly? This was the type of thing she'd prefer happening to her worst enemies. This should be the type of vulnerability that should happen to rapists and terrorists and murderers. Not to innocent teenagers who accidentally plummeted to their deaths because some asshole pushed them over the railings.

Yup, that was how she died. On a nice, autumn afternoon, then-Amelie had been strolling in the mall with her friend, chatting and giggling like elementary schoolgirls. Typical girl talk. They were having the time of their lives—until a man had harshly shoved her and her friend aside as he squeezed between them and fled towards the nearest staircase. The man was a shoplifter, and he was being chased by a security guard.

Her friend had been lucky enough to only bump and trip a window shopper. She hadn't been as fortunate. The moment she was falling, watching the ground rush closer and closer to her, she knew it was game over.

But then, someone pressed a reset button—sorry, the reset button—and here she was now.

"Shh, Little Lune, it's all right. Mommy's here," whispered someone. It took Lune a few seconds before she realized her crying stopped and she was now being cradled by someone: her new mom, it appeared. Oh… yeah… I have new parents now, Lune thought. She guessed she was still in a state of shock to let that sink in fully. She expected to feel a stab of pain from being reminded of what she'd lost… but it didn't come.

As her infant body relaxed, Lune felt the woman's warm lips come into contact with her forehead—a gentle kiss. It reminded her of sunshowers.

"I know this isn't going to be the best 'welcome to the world' message out there, but I'm going to say it anyway," Mom continued. As Lune's eyes were still blurry and unfocused, all she could do was imagine a wry smile on her mom's face. "Welcome to the world, little bunny. You might find life to be tough, particularly for people like us, but at least we have each other. Just remember: we love you, and that, at least, will never change."

It wouldn't be until a long, long while later that Lune fully understood what her mom was getting at. The implications wouldn't sink in right away.

Because, oh no, there was something else she was going to end up realizing first. And it was something that could rock her world to its core.

By the time Lune had turned one, she had accepted what had happened to her.

Not that she had any trouble doing so, anyway. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't as upset as she thought she would be. No depressive episodes, aka angst (thank God), no bargaining, raging, nothing. Just water pure acceptance. She knew she'd left behind a life that had yet to reach its full bloom, along with everything she'd cared about, but… Dead was dead. Spilled milk. Shattered glass. Unless you're good buddies with the Grim Reaper and you could have your soul returned to its original body, you don't really have any options but to move forward with your head held as high as you can.

And, well, she supposed her new life as a baby had helped her deal with those issues plenty. Being one was distracting! Ninety percent of the time, she was asleep. The remaining ten percent was usually divided between being breastfed, rolling around on her bed, relearning how to walk and talk, and trying to acquaint herself with the world she now lived in.

She hadn't really gotten far with that last part. Other than the fact that coherency was a rarity for a growing infant, her world these past few months had been nothing but the wooden bars of her crib. She'd pretend that the mobile hanging above her was the sun during the day, and the moon, during the night. Sometimes, she'd think it was one big star. Or a planet, if she so fancied. Lune's crib, center of the universe.

The only hints that she'd gotten so far about her current world being a wholly different one from the last was the fact that River, her mother, and Vert, her father, had some unusually strange characteristics.

There was their keen sense of sight (she'd noticed how Mom and Dad moved in the dark as if the lights were turned on… waitaminute she saw them in the dark!), their strange preference for certain foods (Mom with carrots; Dad with chickens), and… well, they had their appendage. Animal appendage. While Lune had dismissed it as a trippy hallucination at first, constant contact with her mom revealed that the woman had a really short puffy tail behind her. Her dad always wore a bandanna, but there was no mistaking the strange bumps on his head as ears; Lune had seen them twitch once or twice, when Daddy was peering on the crib and she was giggling from the hilarious faces he made at her.

Not Earth. This was definitely not Earth. Her list of ideas got narrowed down, down from an ocean to a lake, but she hadn't learned enough to pinpoint any location. She figured her situation was too far-fetched already that any kind of fictional universe was a possibility.

Where, then?

"Hey, sweetie, guess who's here?" said a male voice. At the same time, the door to Lune's nursery creaked open. A head of russet hair popped into her line of sight, a foxy grin set on his face. Which was kind of funny, because his bandanna was removed and his fox ears were in plain sight. "Yup, that's right, Daddy's back."

As her greeting, Lune let out a happy sound. It was quite the adjustment to think of River and Vert as her parents now, but they were just so nice she'd feel bad if she regarded them with anything but affection. Aw, who was she kidding? She came to love these two people.

"Yes," another person continued in a bemused drawl, making her dad draw back and look behind him. There went the door again. "Daddy came back, alright. He entered through front door with a stupid, dopey grin on his face. When I asked how his day went, he gave me a quick peck on the lips and rushed straight ahead to the nursery."

They probably thought their banter was just between the two of them. Something private, something that only they could understand because they were the ones who had the power of language. Little did they know, their little girl was listening as intently as she could. Lune rolled to her side, and with an innocent look on her face, she watched the two grownups stare at each other with a certain spark in their eyes.

"What can I say?" Dad shot back good-naturedly. "I just love seeing my little girl that much."

"Way more than me? Wow, that's just… ow. Plunge the knife through the heart, will you?" Mom then said. She honestly didn't mean it. In fact, Lune had come to learn that her mother simply liked wielding sarcasm like a sword, and everyone she talked to were on the business end of it. Most of the time. The woman shook her head and quickly wrapped her arms around her husband before she stepped away. "But hah, seriously, welcome back to this humble abode. Really, how did your day go, hon? You've been out late today. Busier day at Signal?"

"Well, it's not exactly busy—I'm just a part-time teacher there, remember? Rather, it's just, y'know, the usual." He rolled his eyes at the thought. "I mean it. It's been a typical day. Get up early to make a quick trip to Vale, grab some breakfast in the commercial district, get scowled at by some random passer-by because in their eyes, I'm a 'filthy Faunus who shouldn't be standing in the same place' as him. Like, sheesh, I'd wonder how far in that stick's up his…" He trailed off after seeing the knife-sharp look on Mom's face. Language. He shrugged helplessly, but it was clear on his face that he definitely didn't like the way he'd been treated.

"Anyway. Yeah, the rest of the day was spent in Signal. Honestly, I would have been home much earlier if it weren't for that Beowolf in the forest outside the academy. A student must've been feeling really down in the dumps and decided to talk a walk and all before going back inside. Probably unintentionally attracted the thing; it's all good, though, since I dealt with it. It was a particular tough one, but I managed. What I'd kill for a Grimm that isn't attracted by negativity…" He finished.

"Considering that you, Mr. Huntsman, only have Grimm to kill, I doubt you'd find anything you're hoping for." She shook her head and grinned. Mom resembled the sun whenever she did that. "Well! Anyway, I'm glad I didn't end up a widow today, or else Lune and I will have words with you in the afterlife. Just when she's taken to babbling, too. I bet it won't be long before she starts talking."

"Huh, is that so. Wanna bet on what word she says first? Loser gets to treat the other for dinner. Personally, I think she'll go with 'Daddy.'"

"Boyish as always, oh husband of mine. And for the record, Lune looks much closer to saying 'Mommy.' If only you'd hear what syllable she's been trying to say these days…"

Fiddlesticks. It was a good thing Lune didn't have enough mastery over her facial expressions, or else she might have scrunched her face as an urge to kick herself arose. Mom must've been watching her during one of those days when Lune was trying to make her voice box work the way she wanted it to, right after her nth attempt to stand up and walk failed.

But… wait…

As her parents continued chatting by the side of the room, the Amelie in her blinked and grew still. Her hand hovered in front of her face as her mouth began opening slightly, some sort of pressure building up inside her.

Because, really, some of the words her parents have mentioned had felt like a trigger to her past memories. A shiny, big red button unintentionally pressed. And right now, the lights were flashing red and the alarms were blaring everywhere.

Signal Academy.

Grimm.

Huntsman.

Faunus.

RWBY.

Lune suddenly had the urge to scream when Amelie already had. And whether it was in sunshine joy or storm cloud despair, she had absolutely no idea. There was only one thought in her mind that repeated itself, over and over like an old record that she'd get annoyed with until she threw the thing out of the figurative window.

Just when she'd thought she accepted her new life with open arms, this particular scale ended up getting tipped.

She was reborn in the world of Remnant. The Remnant, the world where one of her favorite shows took place. Where all sorts of different characters she grew to know and love resided. That would explain the color-inspired names, the equally colorful outfits, and the animal appendages. The realization definitely socked her hard in the gut.

While this happening was every fangirl's dream come true, at the same time this could possibly be a nightmare. The world of Remnant was dangerous. That was why most people grew to become Hunstmen and Huntresses—to keep the Grimm at bay and protect those who couldn't protect themselves. And the Grimm? Not only could they end up destroying a city if they were plenty enough, they could mean the death of a person. Any person.

And this? This was her reality now. It was as if the rose-tinted glasses she'd been wearing for one year had been snatched away. Stomped on and thrown in the trash.

She wouldn't be anything like a fictional main character, who always seemed to wear some sort of plot armor at all times. There wouldn't always be some deus ex machina there to save her out of a bind. If she got killed… if she got killed, it was all over.

And she might not get another chance at life.

Lune unintentionally made a strange sound at that, making her parents look at her in concern. A gurgle and a giggle immediately reassured them that nothing was wrong. When the two adults returned to chatting, she went back to mulling over her thoughts.

On second thought, maybe she didn't feel like screaming at all. She simply rolled her body until she faced the other side of her crib.

Maybe something already changed in her as she reincarnated, but instead of shrinking back and pretending that everything was going to be alright, she felt like letting out a long, resigned sigh, shaking her head, squaring her shoulders, and marching towards her future with grim determination. That she'll make the most out of this life, and whether she lived or died at the end of her story, she would be fine as long as she had no regrets. Not like her old life.

No pressure. She could handle this. She will handle this.

But for now… she was going to live in the moment. Carpe diem. She was just a one-year-old, after all. She had plenty of time to decide what she wanted to do with her life—and babies, certainly, didn't really stress over their futures until they were at the right age. Mom and Dad would be there to protect her always, and she could just rely on them, stay under their shade as she physically grew.

When River and Vert went over to smile at their little girl, Lune stared at them and gave a gummy smile back.

A/N: I hope I managed to make it interesting enough from start to end. Please, feel free to review and tell me what you think! I would appreciate any feedback you would give me. It could help me improve in the long run and really make this story shine! :D