This is an idea I had bouncing around in my head for a while. Shout out to Haseoblade-Skyking01 for letting me use his Fallen Arc idea for the base of this story. This is also the story I needed a Team name for and the winner is Team MEAN entered by Karlos1234ify. I own neither Tokyo Ghoul nor RWBY. I do own Shifters though. Jaune's background for this story will be ignored and cold with them, but not hated by the Arc family. Now I know the ages are probably off but in this story Mercury and Emerald are 18 and Neo is 17

Neo's text talk – "Ice Cream"

Chapter 1- Team MEAN's fromation

Jaune's POV

Pain. That's all I had felt for the past four months ever since that mad woman found me. Things had been going fine for me before then. I had told my friends about my fake transcripts and while they were a bit cold for a while we regained our bond. At least until Crocera Mors went missing. When it was found again it was next to the bloody form of Ruby, leader of Team RWBY and my first friend at Beacon. Someone had beaten her viciously, so much so that her aura had forced her into a coma to deal with the damage. Things went south quickly for me from there.

WBY was out for my blood before an investigation even began, they felt I had hurt her out of jealousy for her high skill at such a young age. My team soon began to believe it as well, I'm not the smartest guy but even I knew to lay low with Yang after my hide. I left Beacon and hiked through the woods, admirably quite stupid since I wasn't given Crocera Mors back as it was evidence, but give me an Ursa over a murderous Yang any day. Seeing this as a sign of guilt WBY and NPR tracked me down and proceeded to attempt to eliminate me.

All I good do was focus on running and dodging until I reached a cliff with a river below it. Before I could even think of another option Pyrrha's spear was buried in my heart. Yang's fist plowed into my back and launched me off the cliff with Pyrrha using her semblance to call her spear back, I had blacked out right before I hit the water. When I came to a week later I soon came to wish I had died.

Cinder Fall, that's the name of the woman that found me. She also admitted to setting up the whole thing with Ruby so she could get ahold of me. My healing factor is quite high and that's what made me valuable to her, a test subject for her pet scientist Kanou to use. He said I should be grateful he saved my life, my heart was destroyed. My aura kept me alive but in order to "save" me they needed to replace it. They used a Shifter's heart to do it.

Shifters are a dangerous species of Grimm, the closest thing to a true form they have is a black ball with two red eyes. Shapeshifters obviously, only the outside changes while the inside stays the same. What makes them so dangerous is their ability to know what form to take for an advantage over their foes, for instance if an opponent is slow yet hard hitting it takes a Beowolf's form for speed or a Deathstalker's form for defense. Only a team of varied skill sets stands a chance of killing one. The heart they put in me has adapted my body, adding a new organ Kanou named Kagune. The Kagune is made of a special kind of cell only Grimm have called Rc cells, now I need to eat Grimm to survive. I tried starving myself once but they forced the food down my mouth. It disgusts me how my taste buds find Grimm delicious now.

The thing moves up and down my spinal cord based on something when I'm shown pictures of opponents. I think that's the Shifter's instinct telling it how to best deal with an opponent, I've tried using it to escape but Kanou uses a sedative he developed for capturing Grimm to calm the Rc cells in me making it useless. Also because my skin is now damm near unbreakable it has to be injected through the eye, hurts like hell. I'm the first to survive the process and only someone with a prior regeneration factor like mine has a chance of surviving. Two months of wave after wave of painful experiments and I'm sent to a guy named Banesaw, a member of the White fang, which Cinder is allied with, for reeducation, AKA torture.

Banesaw is an extremely tall faunus, although I haven't seen his animal characteristic yet, who takes extreme pleasure in torturing me both physically and mentally. He calls me a gold mine because since I have an even greater healing factor capable of regenerating limbs, I hated that experiment the most, he can go all out and not worry about me dying. He rips my fingers and toes off repeatedly, stuffs centipedes down my ear, and uses the weapon which gave him his name, a giant chainsaw, to hack away at me. All the while having me count down from one thousand by sevens in order to keep me sane longer, I tried not doing it once to agitate him. I won't repeat that mistake again. This went on for month and three and a half weeks before he upped his ante.

Kidnapping two teens that were out on a date he forced me to pick who lived and who died, counting down from twenty while cracking his knuckles, a habit he always does when he's torturing me. The male begged me to pick him and save his girlfriend, I obliged him seeing how much he wanted her to live. I should have known Banesaw was lying about one getting out alive, he killed the girl first and then the boy. I swear if I ever get free I'll kill him slowly just for that. I last saw him was about a day ago where he gloated that he would be leading a team to help open a gap in Vale's walls so Grimm could pour through. I could care less about that I'm only worried about Ruby. Did she recover? Will this plan of theirs harm her? Those thoughts race through my head as I'm chained to a chair in the middle of a room.

My own family life sucked, being so weak my relatives had a detached attitude towards me. I was usually just ignored, Ruby was the sister I always wanted. Now I can't help her out of whatever is coming her way. I begin to cry for the first time in months when I hear something, a few seconds later I realize it's fighting. I'm surprised to hear fighting outside the door, brawls aren't common in the Fang due to their military like discipline. Suddenly the door bursts in and a gray themed guy, a red eyed, green haired girl, and another girl with pink, white, and brown hair run in. While the green girl starts breaking my chains the guy starts talking. "Listen no time for long explanations, I'm Mercury, the mute midget is Neo…" the now named Neo kicked Mercury in the leg here, at which a clang is produced "…, and the girl breaking your chains is Emerald. We're here to get you out." This is might be a trap but they're my best shot at escaping. Accepting Neo's help getting up once my chains are broken Mercury then shows me a syringe.

"This should get the sedative out of your system." He moves to inject it in my arm but I stop him. "Not going to work, someone push the plunger for me okay." Not giving him time to question that I grab the syringe and plunge it into my left eye. I don't even feel it, my sense of pain having left long ago. Neo pushes the plunger and I feel the sedative leaving and the Rc cells waking up. Pulling the syringe out I try to walk forward only to nearly fall to the ground if Mercury didn't catch me, Dragging me along they take me towards the air docks of the base we're at, Emerald says they have a bullhead ready to go, I regain the ability to walk halfway back. We reach there with no problem but upon arriving Kanou and about thirty guards are waiting.

"My, my I never expected Cinder's protégés to betray us, and Neo I thought you worked for Roman. Oh well, at least you should make good test subjects. Men subdue with extreme prejudice." I don't give a crap about these three's pasts after what they've done for me and the clear danger they put themselves in. They saved me, now I'll return the favor. I want to tear Kanou apart myself anyway. "You guy's hang back okay, I need to stretch my legs." I can ignore their protests as I walk forward cracking my knuckles like Banesaw does. I can feel my grasp on sanity slip, a thread is really all I have left now. When I speak my voice is higher and has a sadistic edge to it. A burning sensation enters my right eye.

"So which one of you wants to be torn apart first?" With confusion and amusement welling up in them I charge, my kagune moving to my waist and four purple and red tentacles burst out. Before what's happened has registered I've skewered three of them and one has his head completely wrapped up. His screams of fear are intoxicating as I crush his skull. Withdrawing my tentacles a broken laugh escapes my lips, finally some payback for everything. A Fang only slightly smaller than Banesaw wielding a large gauntlet charges me, jumping over him and landing on his shoulders I grab his head and pull until it comes off. Holding the head by the hair I turn towards the remaining guards and speak in a sing-song tone "Pop goes the fang." The remaining guards take a step back. Now that won't do, I haven't finished having fun yet.

The tentacles slip back in and the Kagune moves up between my shoulder blades, from there two wing like appendages with the same color scheme burst forth. Instinct takes over and I feel them harden, looking over my shoulder I see they've crystalized. Following the instinct I turn back to the guards and will the "feathers" of the wings to shoot forth like a Nevermore's. What follows is the rest of the guards painting the concrete a lovely red from the crystals that shoot forth piercing them. More insane laughter leaves me. Now where's Kanou, feeling a tap on the shoulder I turn to see Neo holding Kanou by his collar with him sporting a bloody leg now. Patting Neo on the head with a smile I turn towards Kanou.

"So Kanou, what do you think of your creation now?" A smirk crosses his face and he pulls a trigger out of his coat. "I think more tests are needed." Pushing the trigger before a crystal is buried in his skull a loud roar then reaches us. We all turn to see an Alpha Ursa, twice the size of a normal Alpha, bursts through the doors of a warehouse, one of Kanou's test subject most likely. I force myself to regain my grip on sanity, I can't fall into the cracks with this kind of opponent. "Alright you three I need to know weapons, fighting styles, and semblances to make a plan alright." Their surprised at the change in my voice but start giving me the info I need. Mercury is a kicking version of Yang with cybernetic prosthetics that shoot air blasts and more variety of shots in his gun boots, Emerald uses duel revolver/sickles with a long reach kusarigama mode and a perception manipulation semblance, and Neo has a umbrella with two blades, one in the cane and the other comes out of the tip, along with an illusion and teleportation semblance. A plan is already formed in my head moments after processing this.

"Alright Emerald focus on using your Kusarigama's to bleed this thing and try to shoot it's eyes out, Mercury pour on some heavy fire and if you see an opening try to kick it in the joints, Neo I need you to play decoy since you only have those blades. You don't have to if you don't want to though." A nod from her tells me she'll do it. "Thanks, I'll focus on suppressing fire with these "wings" and I'll move in when I see an opening for the neck. Got it? Two yes's and a nod tell me we're good to go. Emerald flanks the Ursa and uses her weapon to open up some nasty gashes while Neo draws its attention by teleporting in front of it and whacking it on the nose, Mercury runs around it taking pot shots, and I send a barrage of crystals at it. The Ursa focuses completely on Neo and ignores my crystals, Mercury's shots, and Emerald's slashes like I planned. Neo's able to avoid the first couple of blows from the Ursa but takes a charge attack from it when she stumbled on a Fang corpse I left behind. Fear fills me when it rears back to finish her off, I already have a bond with these three and I refuse to lose them.

I feel my aura act in a way I haven't felt before and a white portal opens up under Neo and a second appears next to me followed by Neo who fell through the first. Neo stares up at me with wide eyes while I turn my focus on the Grimm, this must be my semblance and I know just how to use it. Willing portals to appear all around it I open one in front of me and let loose a barrage of crystals into it, ending the Ursa under in the barrage from all sides. Shooting the Crystals must drain my Rc cell supply pretty fast because I drop to one knee and the "wings" go back in. Mercury and Emerald help me up "Get me to the Ursa before it dissolves." Listening to me they help me to the corpse and I begin to feed. I force it down my throat and only stop once I've eaten everything that hasn't dissolved. I turn to see my three allies waiting for me "Thanks for that, I'm going to sleep now." I immediately conk out afterwards having been sleep deprived for the past few months.

When I wake up I'm on a Bullhead and Mercury is watching over me. "Finally up huh?" I nod not feeling the slightest bit of motion sickness, maybe there was a bright side to this after all. "We're headed to Beacon, we need to warn them what's coming. With luck we might be able to give an advanced notice." Panic fills me when I hear where we're headed. "In case you don't know I'm not exactly well liked there, not to mention they think I'm dead." Mercury raises his hands to try and calm me "Don't worry, once that Ruby girl woke up she cleared your name. I heard the aftermath of her learning of her team and yours revenge mission wasn't pretty." I calm down upon hearing that. "Who hurt her?" Mercury asks me to wait and calls into the cockpit telling the girls to activate auto-pilot and come back into the cabin. When they do Emerald ask me why my eye is still changed. "What are you talking about?" Directing me to the bathroom I look in the mirror and see my right eye is black with a pure red iris and no pupil. I'm wearing a black t-shirt and white shorts, both of which are stained with blood. My hair has also turned pure white. I focus on my eye and eventually will the change away. That taken care of I go back to the others and sit down.

Emerald begins "To start with Roman Torchwick was the one to steal your weapon and attack Ruby…" Roman consider yourself living on borrowed time. At this point all three look uneasy "… as for me I joined Cinder in order to get off the streets and when Mercury and I found out about just how far she was willing to go we decided to leave. Neo found out about you and the experiments and brought us in on it when she learned we were planning to leave." I turn to Neo and she pulls out a scroll and begins to type "I have no problem killing those in my way, but mass slaughter and human experimentation, I refuse to be a part of even if Roman is. As Emerald said I found out they were going to run for it and brought what I found out about you to them. I offered to help them escape if they helped free you, we thought having you as an ally rather than Cinder's weapon was a good idea." I nod in understanding and Mercury finishes for them "Personally I joined for a place to crash and new legs after my originals were damaged killing my asshole assassin father after I couldn't take his abuse anymore. Any way we made Cinder think we were heading to some location she wanted us at when really Neo teleported us to the base you were being held. Also don't worry about the notes on you, I rigged the whole place to blow and detonated once we took off." I give him my thanks and then begin to speak.

"From the sounds of it you read a profile on me so no introduction is needed. As for your pasts I could care less after what you guys did for me. So thanks for everything." I make my way back to the cot I was sleeping on only to stop when an emergency announcement starts playing on the holoscreen. It's an A.I. warning all flights to turn around as Vale has been breached. Mercury begins swearing "Damm it we're too late." The others look downcast until I point something out "So, you're all skilled Hunters and I can handle myself with this Kagune in me. Let's go help out, doing so might allow you to cut a deal for leniency in exchange for information you have." The three former criminals share a look before turning back and agreeing with me. Mercury and Emerald head to the cockpit to speed us up and I approach Neo.

"Neo how close are you to Roman?" Neo tilts her head at me and begins to type "Not very, he's simply an employer. Why?" I can feel the smile filled with madness on my face, my tone once more taking on a sadistic edge. "Just wanted to make sure you wouldn't be too upset when I tear him to pieces." Is it just me or is Neo blushing? Oh well I better focus on planning how to deal with seeing my ex-friends. I honestly don't know how I'll react. It takes us about another hour but we arrive in Vale airspace only to see the city filled with grimm and widespread destruction. Neo's mouth drops slighty while Emerald and Mercury have a solemn look on their faces.

Emerald is the first to speak "We helped cause this." Her voice is fragile, Mercury puts a hand on her shoulder and tries to snap her out of it "Yah we did and now we have a chance to make up for it." Emerald nods and wipes her eyes when a Nevermore feather pierces the cabin and some wreckage hits Neo in the head. This is bad, we'll crash soon enough. I grab Neo and her Umbrella and call out to the Mercury and Emerald "OPEN THE DOORS NOW! WE GOTTA JUMP!" Doing what I say they rush to join us and we jump out with me holding Neo. We luckily land in an area with Hunters and the jolt of hitting the ground wakes Neo up. I put her down and turn around to see the fighters. Okay we're unlucky as its RWBY and NPR with who appears to be my twin sister Janice. A red blur suddenly crashes into me and I look down to see Ruby with teary eyes. "Jaune is that you?" I nod and reply to her "Yep Rubes, it's me."

Ruby's POV

Jaune is actually back, he isn't dead although his hair's white and he's covered in blood. I'm so glad. I was furious when I woke up and learned that my team and NPR had killed Jaune thinking he was guilty. I'll admit I took some pleasure in seeing their faces when I told them Torchwood attacked me. Ozpin said the only reason he wasn't throwing them out was because He couldn't afford to let skilled individuals with the willingness to kill out on the streets. Their all on probation till they gradate though, the only privilege their allowed is to enter the tournament. Janice, Jaune's twin joined soon after and I don't care for her. She didn't even care Jaune died, saying it was his fault for being so weak.

A growl reminds me of our situation, Grimm have once more surrounded us. I know my team is out of ammo and the new JNPR is beginning to run low as well. Jaune suddenly lets go of me and walks towards the Grimm calling out orders to the three people with him. "Mercury handle the Deathstalkers, Emerald you take that pack of Beowolfs, and Neo think you can take those three Ursa?" The grey haired boy nods and attacks the Deathstalkers with what appears to be shotgun boots, the green girl starts shooting at the Beowolfs before moving close for melee attacks and the girl smaller then me nods before gaining a sadistic smirk and teleporting in front of the Ursa. I call out to Jaune as he walks towards a crowd of assorted Grimm.

"Jaune what are you doing? You don't have a weapon." Jaune turns his head toward me and he gives me a broken smile, something like that shouldn't be on Jaune's face. "Don't worry Ruby I always have a weapon on me." My question of what weapon dies in my throat when a purple and red tail bursts from his tail bone. What happened to you Jaune?

Jaune's POV

I can feel their eyes on me as soon as the Kagune bursts from my tail bone. This tail feels balanced between speed and strength, perfect for the wide assortment of enemies I'm facing. I charge them and slid under an Ursa, my kagune ripping open its gut and as soon as I come out the other side I jump and slam my Kagune into some Beowolfs. This crushes them and I sprout three more tails which spear some Boarbatusks coming at me. An Ursa charge me and my tails retract followed by my Kagune moving up to my waist and four tentacles come out meeting the Ursa head on and piercing it's front legs, head, and chest before throwing the body on some Beowolfs to crush them. Some Nevermores begin to circle which is a problem, none of my kagune's forms, even the "wings", have the range to get them.

A barrage of bullets takes care of that problem. I turn to see Velvet and her team along with Port and Oobleck walking towards our group. I move over to Neo and the others and stand across from the Beacon group. I'm surprised when Ozpin shows up with Glynda a few minutes later. Ozpin addresses me first.

"Mr. Arc would you mind telling me where you've been the past four months." It's not a question but an order, after all I've been through I really don't feel like listening to orders. Mercury answers for me "He's been held captive and experimented on by the Queen." The Queen must be a codename for Cinder and Ozpin sure seems to know it judging by the widening of his eyes. Followed by the narrowing of them "And how do you know that?" Mercury swallows hard before continuing. "We worked for her before we found out she planned this." He gestures around him before continuing "We broke Jaune out and were on our way to warn you when but we were too late." Ozpin stares at them before speaking "Come with me you three, we'll discuss the course of action to be taken from here. Mr. Arc go see the school nurse for an examination." Knowing we have no choice Mercury and the others go with Ozpin while Port leads me to the nurse.

Three hours later

It's been a few hours and after a through medical exam I'm cleared to leave and go to Ozpin's office, unfortunately I ran into WBY and the new JNPR on the way. I simply stare at them for a bit before trying to walk past them, but Yang grabs my arm. "Listen, Jaune we need to apologize for what happened." I don't even want to bother with this. Removing my arm from her grasp I walk on only to stop when Ren asks me a question.

"Jaune how did your clothes get so bloody?" heh I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they hear this. "Some of it's mine from Banesaw, a White Fang member, torturing me, the rest is from some Fang I killed during my esacpe." They all gasp at that. Honestly it's quite pathetic, even before I was captured I knew we may someday have to kill humans or faunus. I don't bother sticking around and simply walk on towards Ozpin's office.

Upon arrival I see the others are sitting across from Ozpin and I join them, once I'm seated Ozpin addresses me. "Mr. Arc these three have explained your changes and have shared all the information they have on Cinder, as such I have managed to get the council to place them under my custody. I doubt you want to be returned to your old team so would you like to join these three?" Honestly I don't even need to think it over "Sure, I'd love to form a team with them." They rescued me from hell, this is the least I could do. Ozpin nods with a smirk on his face, like he knew I'd automatically accept.

"Very well Jaune Arc, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Neopolitan from this day forth you are Team MEAN led by Jaune Arc. I look forward to seeing how far you go, and try to keep bloodshed to a minimum. The other students just don't understand how dark this world can be." The four of us share a look and have similar smirks. Look out Beacon you've never seen a team like us.

So what do you think? I look forward to working on this story.