Hello and welcome to my story, The Fall of Ash. This is a story I came up after watching the ending of RWBY Volume 3. Basically, the story follows an OC I have created as he lives the events of Volumes 2 and 3. I try to keep the story as close to canon as possible but the story will not be following Team RWBY's storyline. Instead, it will be focused more on a Team ASHS as they deal with their own conflicts/villains. But because this story is a pairing between Yang Xiao Long and my OC, plan on watching watching the team's separate story's come together quite a bit.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. That all belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, a man who I respect with my whole being. He opened up this wonderful world to all of us RT fans and continues to inspire me to follow my dream. All I ask is that the OCs be considered mine so that I don't discredit his, as well as Rooster Teeth's, work.

Chapter 1

"Ugh, it feels so good to walk around," Henna Asaty stretched her dark floral inked arms to the sky. "God, I thought that flight would never end."

"What are you talking about? You slept through most of it," Slate Lager said, wrapping his arm around Henna with one of his sly grins.

"So? What's your point?" Henna forced him to duck aside with a sharp jab at his side.

Slate gave a roar and wrapped his massive arms around his girlfriend, who squealed with delight, drawing glances from onlookers and the couple's two teammates.

"We've been in Vale for about ten minutes and you two already need to find a room," Silvia Lager said, rolling her eyes at her twin.

"Hmm… a room sounds pretty nice," Slate smirked, but he still put Henna down.

"Considering we all share a room, that's gross," Silvia said to her twin.

"Oh, common sis. Grow up a little. Everyone does it."

"Not on my team," another voice said from the back of the group. "And more importantly, not in my room."

Slate, Silvia, and Henna turned and stared at the fourth member, and leader, of their team.

"Silvia, looks like we will need to make sure these two behave," Aurum Aureate continued, pushing past Slate and Henna. "Guys, remember we're representing Haven Academy while we're here, so behave."

The group were all dressed in their school uniforms. Each wore a black jacket with gray trim, a white undershirt and matching white band on their left arms. The boys wore black trousers, while the two girls had a gray and black checkered skirt. The uniforms were built for fashion and not functionality, as the four knew quite well as the sun's rays followed them where ever they went. The only really striking things about their uniforms was that it was a real contrast to Silvia and Aurum's natural hair colors, silver and gold.

Their school, Haven Academy, was the Huntsmen school of the Kingdom of Mistral. All of them were Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, preparing for the day when they would defend the four kingdoms of Mistral, Vale, Vacuo, and Atlas from the Grimm, monsters intent on the destruction of mankind.

"I'll behave if you-know-who does," Slate said darkly.

It didn't take much for Slate to bring up the topic Aurum was tired of arguing. "Good god Slate, forget about Sun. Leave him alone, okay?"

"Leave him alone? In case you didn't notice, he wasn't on the ship with the rest of his team."

"He came early, so what?"

"He stole away aboard a different boat," Slate said, pointing to emphasize his point. "Tell me that is not something a criminal would do."

"I admit that is weird, but why does it matter?" Aurum sighed.

"It matters because Sun's a thief," Slate insisted. Henna rolled her eyes, having heard this argument numerous times. Silvia avoided making eye contact with her brother. She agreed that Sun wasn't the best of people, but unlike her brother she did not feel as strongly about it.

"So was I," Aurum reminded him.

"Yeah, but you're different," Slate pointed out.

"How am I different? You mean because I am not a Faunus?"

"No, that has nothing to do with this," Slate insisted. "I mean you no longer steal and break the law. Sun does it without a second thought."

"Look, I am not going to have this debate with you again." Aurum felt a migraine beginning to form. He had had to deal with Slate's complaints about Sun ever since Aurum had been made Team ASHS's leader. Ever since laying eyes on each other, Slate and Sun had hated each other. Sun was much more cool about it, but Silvia was the levelheaded one of the twins, not Slate. Every chance he got, Slate would take a jab at Sun, whether that be with words or actual fighting. The rest of Team ASHS had tried to rein in their teammate, but they couldn't always stop Slate and Sun from having a go at each other.

Most days, Aurum could ignore Slate's comments about Sun, but with the Vytal Festival tournament approaching? No, he did not need this extra stress. If they wanted to perform well for their school against the other three Huntsmen Academies, Team ASHS would have to be working at a hundred percent, not worried about what Sun Wukong was up to.

Massaging his temples, Aurum continued, "While we're in Vale, leave Sun alone."

"I will if he stays in line."

Aurum figured that was the best he was going to get from Slate. He sighed. "Silvia, where are we?"

"Commercial District," she replied, pausing to look into a shop window. "If we stay on this road we will be back where we got off the boat in the Industrial District."

"How do you know all this?" Henna asked, joining Silvia at the window.

Silvia passed Henna a slip of paper from her pocket.

Henna opened it and snorted. "Really? You got a map of Vale?"

"Might as well know the streets if we are going to be staying here for the next few weeks."

"Gosh, you are so weird. You do realize you have all this on your Scroll right?"

Silvia snatched her map back. "I prefer something more physical."

Henna rolled her eyes. She was a child who whole heartedly embraced technology while Silvia used it but favored more tangible stuff. "Hey, anyone wanna go back and change into something not as warm and constricting?"

"You were the one in a hurry to explore the city," Aurum reminded Henna. When they got to the kingdom of Vale, the students of Haven Academy had been transferred from the boat straight to Vale's own Huntsmen school, Beacon Academy. They had barely put their personal belongings, including their weapons, in the dorms they would be in for their visit before Henna was rushing the team out the door to wander the streets of Vale. The soft sea breeze had done little to combat the alliance of their black school uniforms and blaring sun.

"But I wouldn't mind changing into something more comfortable," Aurum said, tugging at his collar. The team turned around, retracing their path back to Beacon.

Aurum had been impressed with Vale, so far. Up until two years ago, when he had been accepted into Haven, he had been living in a cramped rundown apartment in one of Mistral's cities. It had been rough for him and his family, so that was where he had learned to fight until he was taken under the wing of a retired Huntsman living on the street, Gelwaz.

Vale was different from the cities Aurum knew. For one, Vale was clean and unpolluted. Vale also felt more peaceful. Everyone Team ASHS had encountered was calm and happy, which was weird considering the rumors Aurum had heard about the recent happenings in Vale. Despite passive atmosphere, there were signs of unrest in the city, signs that Aurum could see from his time on the streets. Every Dust shop they had passed was closed and Aurum had not seen many Faunus out and about.

Aurum was by no means prejudice towards the Faunus, considering he had spent the majority of his life "working" beside them. Although mostly human, Faunus had animal features, usually a tail or an extra set of animal ears, although Aurum had seen some with weirder body parts (even pro-Faunus advocates could admit cow udders was a little freaky). The Faunus had been facing discrimination from humanity for decades, leading to multiple conflicts and one particular major war. Nowadays the Faunus technically had equal rights but there were a large number of humans who viewed them as little less than vermin.

But Aurum knew that despite the fears and hatred of others, the Faunus were still a large part of society, especially in Vale. Technically they were still a minority, but the Faunus community was still quite large. Aurum had expected to see more Faunus. Not exactly everywhere, but Aurum had thought they would be more present in Vale then they were in Mistral.

So far, he had seen no Faunus except for a few at Beacon.

To not see as many of them lead Aurum to think something must be going on. He had heard that there had been more action in Vale from the White Fang, an organization that had been originally focused on securing equal rights for Faunus. A few years ago, the leadership had changed and the White Fang began to take militant action to achieve their goals. Now, the White Fang were seen as little more than terrorists. Mistral did not have as much of a problem with the White Fang since the majority of the population was not Faunus, but Vale was different. It housed the second largest population of Faunus, beaten by Vacuo, where Faunus lived in peace with their human neighbors. So naturally Vale had become something of a battlefield for the government to clash with the White Fang.

"Hey, who are they?" Henna said, interrupting Aurum's musings.

Two girls were walking towards them. They both looked around team ASHS's age range, maybe a year or two younger. One wore matching white boots and short dress, covered in a pale blue jacket. Her white hair was pulled back into an off-center ponytail, displaying a crooked scar over one of her eyes. The other girl looked younger to Aurum, maybe by two years. She was something of the opposite of the other girls outfit: black blouse, red skirt, and a dark red hooded cloak. They must both be from one of the Huntsmen schools, because both carried weapons. The girl in white had a rapier at her side while the younger girl had what appeared to be some sort of collapsible weapon tucked under her cloak.

"Dunno," Slate said with a wolfish grin. "But I wouldn't mind getting to know them. That one on the left is quite a looker."

"Excuse me?" Henna demanded, jabbing him in the side. Despite the two being in a relationship, Slate was always ready to give his opinion of other women. It was all in joke, since he would never cheat on Henna, mostly because she would be the crap out of him if he ever did.

"Not this again," Silvia complained.

"Hello there," Aurum said as the two came to a stop in front of them. "Can we help you?"

"Hello," the girl in white said with a small curtsey. The other girl tried to imitate her, but lost her balance.

"My name is Weiss Schnee, Huntress in training at Beacon Academy. This is Ruby Rose, also a student at Beacon" she said, casting the other girl a distasteful glance. "My companion and I wished to welcome you to Vale."

"I'm Aurum and this is Silvia, Slate, and Henna," Aurum said, gesturing at each of his teammates in turn. "We're from the Haven Academy in Mistral."

"You're from Haven?" the girl called Ruby asked excitedly. Her silver eyes glinted as she broke into a wide smile. "Wow, that's so cool! What is it like in Mistral?"

"Kind of similar to here, but not as nice," Aurum admitted. He turned to the other girl, Weiss. Was she really a Schnee? "Did you say your last name was Schnee?"

"Yes," Weiss said with a pained smile, like her heritage was uncomfortable for her to think about. Then again, the Schnee's were kind of far from a "good" family. "I'm the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."

"So are you two part of a welcoming committee?" Henna asked forcefully. After Slate's comment, she obviously saw Weiss as an enemy, even if she was practically royalty. The Schnee Dust Company was the largest supplier of Dust in the world with their only competition being the White Fang, who were overly fond of stealing the SDC's dust supplies. The SDC used Faunus as their main force of labor, forcing them to work in very dangerous conditions for little pay. This made them a very big enemy of the White Fang's.

"Not officially," Weiss waved her hand like that didn't matter. "But I just thought it'd be nice to greet the out-of-kingdom students."

"Meaning you want to study us before the tournament," Silvia said.

"Uh, no. Of course not," Ruby said. Team ASHS exchanged knowing looks.

"We simply wanted to help project a friendly image of the students from Beacon Academy," Weiss insisted with a blush.

"What she said."

"Don't worry about it," Silvia continued, ignoring their protests. "We'll be scoping out the competition as well."

"So what team are you on?" Weiss asked, changing the subject.

"Team ASHS. We're a second year team," Aurum said. If they wanted to know more about the competition, might as well tell them how much experience they have. Aurum was not usually a judgmental person (that was Slate's job), but these two didn't look like much. They probably had very little experience fighting, although Weiss, being an heiress to her family company, could probably hold her own: the SDC had been battling the White Fang for years. But honestly, Weiss and Ruby were nothing to worry about. "What about you two?"

"We're on team RWBY," Ruby said proudly. "I'm the team leader."

"Maybe you've heard of us?" Weiss smirked, flipping her ponytail aside. "Ruby and another of our teammates broke up a dust robbery down at the docks a few nights ago."

"Really?" Aurum asked, taken aback. She couldn't be serious.

"Yes, but you will probably see it in the newspapers," Weiss said offhandedly. "It was kind of a big thing, taking on the White Fang."

Silence descended on their group as Team ASHS stared at the two huntresses-to-be. Weiss really knew how to play her cards.

"There you two are," called a voice.

Two more girls walked up to them. Like Weiss and Ruby, these two also seemed like opposites of each other. One was a riot of different clothes: stockings, a black vest with coattails over a white undershirt, white shorts, and a black bow atop her dark hair. Strapped to her back was some sort of pistol sword sheathed in a sharpened case.

But it was the second girl, the one who had spoken, who drew Aurum's attention. Long, messy blonde hair stood in contrast to her companion's. Zippered up boots, shorts, tan vest with puffy sleeves and an orange infinity scarf, this girl was armed with twin yellow gauntlets. But it wasn't her looks that caught Aurums eyes, even if she was very beautiful.

No, growing up on the streets, Aurum had learned to read people's body language. It was a skill that he was quite good at, and one that had saved him from plenty of "delicate" situations.

This girl practically radiated confidence. Aurum could tell she knew her abilities, strengths, and weakness and was quite ready to push them to their limits. Even without seeing her in battle, Aurum could tell he did not want to face off against her without his team behind him, which was kind of hot.

"Oh, hello," the blonde girl said with a grin. "Visiting students?"

"Uh, yeah," Aurum said. He mentally slapped himself for not saying something cooler. Then he mentally slapped himself again because why did it matter if he sounded cool to this girl?

"That's cool." She turned to Weiss and Ruby, like that was enough said. "Hey, I thought we were going to meet up with Team JNPR?"

Ruby slapped her forehead. "Oh, that's right! I forgot all about that. When were we supposed to meet them?"

"In two minutes," the dark haired girl muttered.

"What?! Come on guys, let's go!"

"It was a pleasure meeting you all," Weiss said with a wave as she ran after Ruby, who was heading towards Beacon.

"Yeah, maybe we'll see ya around," blondie said, making to go. "What were your names?"

"I'm Aurum, and this is Henna, Slate, and Silvia," Aurum stammered, gesturing at each of his companions as he said their names.

"I'm Yang."

"Blake," the other girl said with a small nod.

"We gotta get going. Catch you later," Yang said, chasing after her teammates. Blake sighed before taking off after them.

Team ASHS stood quiet for about thirty seconds.

"That is literally the weirdest team I've ever met," Slate said, breaking the silence. "And that's saying something because I've spent time with Team ABRN."

"It will be interesting to see how they perform in the tournament," Henna said.

"It will be interesting to see how they perform in general," Slate corrected her.

Silvia nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything about team RWBY as she stared at her team leader.

"Aurum, you okay?" she asked suspiciously. She must have noticed how nervous he had been around Yang.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Aurum said, still looking at the corner Team RWBY had disappeared around.