Teaser: Khaki

When in the depths of despair, the only way is forward.

AN: Welcome to my first attempt at any sort of creative writing. I enjoy watching RWBY, and my imagination can come up with some ludicrous scenarios from time to time, so I decided to put… keyboard to Word document? and see how others gauged the stories I can come up with.

First things first, this is going to be more or less a rewrite of RWBY, with my own OC (not a self-insert) taking the place of Blake. I'll be focusing most of my effort into filling in the gaps between the episodes, although the episodes themselves will also be making appearances. The first few chapters, specifically, will be focused on events during the first eight episodes.

There will be plenty of time where there isn't heart-pounding action. I consider story to be at least as important as action. There will be exposition. The story will be written mostly from third person limited. Though viewpoints differing from the OC's will be used as needed to help the story along, this is very much a story of her viewpoint and experiences as she goes through the world and happenings of RWBY.

Finally, for legal jargon/ass covering, for those of you who are too dense to figure it out on your own, I don't own RWBY, Rooster Teeth does, blah blah blah. Seriously, apparently some people can't figure that out on their own.

This is a rewrite of the original Introduction.

(Perspective: K)

"And you're sure there's no way I can sneak in? Do I really need to kick in the front door in this piece of garbage?"

A lean, dark blonde haired girl looked up from assembling her ramshackle armor. Covered in bruises and scars, and with a look of not eating enough showing through her ripped jeans and tank top, she took a look at the computer screens showing blueprints of the building in question.

"Hey, I'm the one that got these blueprints, remember? Of course there's no way to sneak in. What, did you not do a good job putting that discount iron man suit together?"

The girl scowled at the source of the robotic voice – a black, oversized tablet computer that looked more like an all-in-one PC without the stand. Plugged into some monitors and the local network, the computer was a technological marvel, built from stolen tech by the girl herself and housing none other than the artificial intelligence program that served as her best friend.

"You know I'm complete garbage at forging metal. Remember how long it took me to make ammo that didn't misfire? Not to mention that I'm dubious about the bulletproof properties of melted down scrap."

"Relax, Kassidy. You made it an inch and a half thick, right? The guards only have standard issue gear. An inch and a half of scrap should do well enough to protect you."

"Should?"

"If I were you, I'd worry less about that and more what happens if you don't stop the experiment. You do know what the Big Rip is, right?"

"Look, Bob, just because I'm not a theoretical subatomic particle physicist doesn't mean I'm not smart." Kassidy, satisfied that her makeshift armor was as good as it was going to get, then made another check of her gear. Her rifle, an M1 Garand, was a family heirloom seeing as her great-great-grandfather used it in World War II. Her sidearm, a 1911, was her father's whenever he was in the army. A bulletproof vest, frayed to the point where it wasn't quite obvious it could do its job, had pockets stitched to its front to give her easy access to all her extra rifle ammunition. Her gigantic hiking backpack, which held the remainder of her possessions, was off in the corner.

As she was checking her equipment, she talked more to her computer. "So, just to be clear, they open their impossible wormhole generator machine thing, don't have enough stabilizer fluid, and it destroys the universe as we know it. Because some dumbass dropped a zero and nobody caught it."

"More or less. The test starts in twenty minutes, so I'd advise getting your butt in gear."

With the final encouragement from her computer, she decided to pull her vest on and start strapping on armor. First were the armored greaves, covering her legs. Next up were the breastplate and lower torso armor. Before continuing, she got everything into her backpack and moved to Bob.

"Alright, are you all set up and ready to be packed away?"

"Virus implanted. I now have backdoor access to their local network. Everything else I should be able to manage on the Internet."

Unplugging the gigantic tablet, the girl stuffed it into her backpack and slung it on her shoulders. Next up was the armor covering her arms, though she didn't put on the gauntlets. Reaching for the helmet and snapping it into place, the HUD she built in flickered to life. Metal forging I might not be good with, but computers… that I know. Good to know that still works as it should. As she pulled on the gloves, she asked a question she had already asked several dozen times. "So, remind me yet again why we can't tell them they fucked up their math and need to not do the test?"

Her computer, now talking out of her earpiece, was not amused. "Well, gee, why don't we start with how they wouldn't take the word of a teenage girl over however many scientists failed to notice an arithmetic error? Oh, and from there we can go to how you're the most wanted person in the country!"

"Hey, that second one was a setup and you know it. Not my fault someone wasn't happy with how much power their elected position gave them."

"Perhaps we should focus less on talking and more on stopping things from going real bad?"

"You're the one with the self-driving box truck turned battering ram. Whenever you're ready, Bob." Her temporary staging area started moving, as the computer did as he was told. Grabbing her rifle from its sling on her backpack, she grabbed a railing with her other gauntleted hand as she felt the truck accelerate quickly, then slam into a wall. Wasting no time, she yanked the door of the truck up and stepped out into the mess room they had planned their assault to begin in.

Immediately to her left, as she turned, were a quintet of workers who were trying to get out of the way. They were all shot dead before they could leave the room. Sorry folks. Wrong place, wrong time. Further left, two guards were failing at the whole 'aiming' deal, a problem which she did not have. One more shot to someone running across the room, and she swapped the clip for a fresh one of eight. Swinging around to the far side of the truck, she dropped three more guards.

"Alright, which way to the generator room?"

"Left, then third right. Also, they're panicking and starting the test now. T minus five minutes before the process is irreversible."

Sprinting through the halls and shooting whoever got in her way, the armor proved to be up to task after all, and she was damn glad she made it. No time for stealth, no time for subterfuge. If she wanted any chance at all, she needed to blitz her way to the lab as quickly as possible, which meant eating bullets. The scrap held, at least well enough.

"I just got the power cut to the building. Shutting off the generators should kill the experiement. Seventh left down this hallway. Three minutes thirty, you're cutting it pretty close."

Ripping the door open, she did indeed find several electric generators continuing to power the facility. She hurriedly started smashing them, reasoning that the only time brute force didn't work was when you didn't use enough brute force.

As she got to the last one, though… the power stayed on. "Talk to me Bob, what's going on?"

"They just activated another set of generators in the lab itself. Ninety seconds. Out the door, third right, second left, first right. If you can find explosives, that'll be the fastest way."

Almost as if on cue, two more guards burst into the room she was in. She gunned them down, but not without getting pelted with lead. The armor still held, but it wasn't clear for how much longer it would do so. Miraculously, these guards happened to have grenades on them. She clumsily got them up as best as she could, and started sprinting for the lab itself.

Bursting down the doors, she chucked the grenades at the portal before bringing her rifle up to find there were no guards in the room. Scientists looked up from their screens and positions, staring at the metal monstrosity that had just entered. The next three seconds happened in slow motion, as the grenades flew right up to the portal… bounced off the side support, and exploded a few feet too far to destroy the device. She threw them too hard. All of a sudden, a small green disc appeared in the middle of the apparatus, humming and slowly growing in size and energy.

"What is the meaning of this?" An oriental, probably Chinese, voice called from her side. Kassidy's rifle dropped from her hands, her mouth agape underneath the suit. I failed again. I failed. I fucking failed. And it won't just be my family that pays this time. Every family is going to die. Because of me.

Bullets impacting against the back of her helmet brought her back to reality. Twisting around and killing a trio of guards, Kass looked around at the scientists. The voice from earlier asked her the same question. They did this. Their complete incompetence killed everyone. Rage overriding thought, she barred the door shut. Then she executed the nearest scientist. The room turned into a panicked shooting gallery.

After a few minutes of venting her anger, she cornered the last scientist. Rather than scared, he almost seemed resigned. "Let me guess, this is about the stabilizer fluid?"

In shock, Kassidy lowered her rifle and blinked behind her mask. "Yes, that's why. And now you're about to kill everybody."

As soon as she spoke, his eyes widened, and his jaw tried to plant itself on the floor. This is an odd reaction. It took him a moment to regain the power of speech. "Smith? Kassidy Smith? Is that you?"

It was Kass' turn to pick her jaw up from off the floor. "You know me?"

"I do. And it appears you don't know me. Hmm… well, it appears the experiments were a complete success after all."

Her patience was running out quickly. "What experiments?"

The scientist, a middle aged German man with a comical handlebar mustache, stepped to a workstation and turned on the computer. "After all these years, I never thought we'd get the chance to meet again. Such a shame, what happened to you."

"We haven't met before." It was true, the gunslinger didn't remember seeing this man before.

"Only proof that my procedures went perfectly."

"Your procedures?"

He looked up from his computer. "Oh, where are my manners? Especially considering you don't recognize me." He walked over and shook her armored hand. "I am Klaus Schmidt, genetic engineer. I know, I know, what's a genetic engineer doing working on a wormhole generator? That's an excellent question, and that is because – " The man was interrupted from his monologue by the portal hissing angrily, spurts of radiation coming from the green disc which had grown in size substantially. "Oh dear. That is not good. It appears we have no time for introductions. We don't have long if we're to survive."

"Survive? You're tearing apart the fundamental nature of the universe. There's a reason some things aren't to be messed with."

"OUR universe," he corrected. Bob let out an impressed comment about how they actually did it, but the scientist didn't hear. "It works. We have done a terrible thing, but there can be salvage from it. Because it works. We opened a doorway. An opening to a new universe."

Kassidy thought momentarily. "So then we're killing two universes, am I hearing this right? Since they're both connected now."

Klaus shook his head. "The wormhole will collapse before damage is done to the other universe. Come here." He scurried back to his workstation, and hurriedly plugged a hard drive into the computer.

After moving several terabytes worth of files onto it, he unplugged it and handed it to the armored girl. "I have a lot of explaining to do to you, and no time to do it in. That hard drive is encrypted, an unfortunate circumstance that I don't have time to remedy. But my explanation is there. Along with all of your data."

"My data?"

The scientist smirked. "Dear girl, did you really buy the story that one or two simple mutations were what allowed you to survive almost anything? Or did you already forget that I'm a genetic engineer?"

She narrowed his eyes at him. Kassidy knew instantly what he thought he was referring to. Something that was absolutely impossible. Genetic engineering on that scale… the technology didn't exist for it, first off. And she would know if she was some artificial freak grown in a test tube. If she was, then how did her mother die in childbirth?

"You don't believe me," he said with a fallen face. "We only have ninety seconds of stabilizer fluid left, and I can't shut down the machine at this point. Take this, as well." He shoved another hard drive into her backpack. "I will not let it be said that I was not prepared. That hard drive has our history stored on it. As unbiased as I could find. You need to go, Kassidy. Go and make sure our story is told."

"And what makes you think I give a damn what you want?"

"You don't. But you do give a damn about what you want. And what you want is to not die. I gave you too great a survival instinct for you to simply accept your fate." Klaus sighed and buried his hands in his face. "It's strange. So many mistakes, and the only regret I have is that I will be unable to see what my greatest creation is truly capable of."

"I can give you a hint." She finished the sentence by executing the man in his seat. She'd had heard enough of his lunatic rambling. Still, more data never hurt anyone. Shoving the hard drives into her backpack, the portal suddenly quivered.

"Thirty seconds. I'd advise getting your big metal butt in there." Bob apparently has no intentions of dying, either.

"Yeah, yeah. Anywhere's gonna be better than here in a few seconds." She stepped forward, stopping in front of the angry green disc. "Bob?"

"Yeah?"

"How many more people have to die because of me?"

"Don't do that to yourself, we've been over this. I'd also advise stepping through right about now." Reality began to tear itself apart, and Kassidy Smith took the hint as she stepped into the greenish portal.

The journey was instantaneous. The first thought that struck her was the realization of how not dead she was. Behind her, the green disc disintegrated, sighing and sputtering sadly before collapsing. Looking up, Kassidy recognized that she was in a city street, and read the sign which greeted the new arrival.

From Dust Till Dawn.