Conduit's Rebirth

Hi. Pop82 here. This is going to be a first for me, as previously I wrote nothing but Yu-Gi-Oh fanfics. To those of you who had the misfortune of reading those pieces of garbage I apologize and neither of them exists anymore. However, I would like to recommend you check out a collaborative fic I'm writing with PackLord4415 on here called Hidden in Stardust if Yu-Gi-Oh is more your speed.

Anyway, this is going to be a crossover Fanfic of Infamous: Second Son, and RWBY. The timeline is about one month after the Hero ending of Second Son, and a little before the start of Volume 1 of RWBY.

I would also like to note that this story will feature an OC of mine that will eventually be appearing in a new series that I will be starting once I actually make myself start writing it. You will be able to tell him right away I'm sure.

Additionally, I may take a RWBY liberty here or there, so please suspend your disbelief just a little. Beyond that please, do not forget to review, as all constructive criticisms are welcomed. Also if you find a typo, please tell me because the doc uploader here has a bad habit of screwing up everything in any given chapter.

Finally, I make no claim of ownership to any properties mentioned above except my OC, and series which this crossover uses all belong to their respective owners.

Now without further ado, enjoy.

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Chapter 1: A New Beginning

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After healing his fellow Akomish, and leaving a memorial for his brother, Delsin Rowe couldn't bring himself to stay in Salmon Bay with his tribe. He knew that even after his victory over Augustine, his work was far from done. So instead he stayed in Seattle, continuing his hero work, and keeping the newly freed Conduits there in line. He had gained a reputation in Seattle as a stand-up guy, and due to his work in not only keeping the Conduits in line but keeping the regular crime very low, he managed to keep the military and any DUP remnants far away.

He had indulged himself a little, absorbing one new power of course. He expanded his repertoire to include not only Smoke, Neon, Video, and Concrete, but also Water. If he'd had his way, he would have absorbed more, but there were no more Core Relays in the city, so he was stuck with what he had.

One evening, he was watching over Seattle from his favorite spot: the top of the Space Needle. It was a beautiful day that morning, just on the last wisps of autumn with winter on the way. He smiled at his city, his hand gripping his brother's police badge, the only recoverable remnant of his big brother. From his perch, he saw Fetch's light trail speeding down the street. He smiled.

A little later his phone rang. He sighed and answered.

"Hello, your friendly neighborhood Conduit speaking?" he said.

"Hey Delsin, it's Eugene."

"Eugene? Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Very funny. Just calling to let you know that we got everything settled down for the night."

"So the city'll still be in one piece tomorrow? Good."

"No promises. See you in the morning."

"K. Tell Anna I said hi!"

"...Ok," Eugene said quietly as he hung up.

Delsin smiled to himself. It had taken some doing, but he had managed to get Eugene some confidence and self-esteem. And with that plus his new hero status in hand, he managed to get a girlfriend.

One who kept Eugene up late most nights.

Delsin put his phone away and flexed his Concrete power, jumping off of the space needle and heading to his apartment just on the edge of the Lantern District. He let himself freefall for a bit, but then he activated his concrete thrusters, catching himself and gliding away. He landed just in front of his building and, just for practice at this point, climbed up to his balcony.

He opened the sliding door, walked right to his couch-bed and plopped down onto it, waiting for sleep to come.

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Delsin could have sworn he had just fallen asleep, before starlight broke through his eyes, rousing him. Still groggy, he sat up, putting one hand behind him to steady himself, and using the other to rub the fatigue out of his eyes. After about fifteen seconds he opened his eyes … and nearly stopped breathing.

He immediately discovered he was no longer in his apartment. He was now in a forest of red trees. Not like fall colors, but actual scarlet-leaved trees.

"Since when did Seattle have trees like these?" he said, thinking aloud.

He started walking, taking in the sights.

"Hell, since when did Earth have trees like this? And why is it so warm out?"

He kept walking. After about 10 minutes he realized he was walking in circles.

"Ok! Where the hell am I?! Can anybody hear me?"

Nothing but the wind in the trees answered him. He sighed, thinking he had had just about enough of this. He pulled up his left sleeve to reveal a small collection of 4 tubes and a Fitbit. It was a manual Power Switcher Eugene had come up with. Each tube held enough material for each of his powers that he could easily switch between them, so long as he remembered to fill them after he did.

He absorbed energy from the neon tube, switching to it, and with his Light Dash, ran up the tallest tree he could find. At the top, the young man surveyed his surroundings. On all sides of him were nothing but trees. But, in the abnormally bright moonlight, in the distance, he could see something that at least looked like a city. There were lights shining, and a huge tower was looming over it.

"Well. That's a start," he said aloud.

He jumped down and started to Light Dash again, running as fast as he could. He had to stop a few times. Even if he could use the power indefinitely, he still could run out of stamina. Even so, he managed to get there in about an hour and a half.

He arrived at the city's outer wall. He was amazed by the border defenses he saw.

"Damn. I don't think the D.U.P. has this level of firepower."

He went back to his Switcher and filled the Neon tube, and moved his hand to the Fitbit, switching to his Video power. He walked along the wall until he found what appeared to be an entry gate manned by a small guard posting. Smirking, he used his Video power to cloak himself and walked right past the gate.

Normally he would have actually stopped and requested entry, but as a Conduit, he still didn't trust men with guns. After he was past the guards, he de-cloaked he kept walking. He wanted to find out where he was, but it was late, and there were almost no stores open or people on the streets. It was a good half hour before he found a store that had lights on.

"'From Dust Till Dawn'? What kinda name is tha-"

He was cut off as two things broke through the front window of the store. The first was a man with some kind of weird-ass gun looking thing. The other one was what got his attention. A little red-haired girl, no more than 15 and dressed in a Little Red Riding-Hood costume, rode him out of the window, carrying a massive gun on her shoulder. Which then transformed into a scythe.

"What. The. Fuck," Delsin said, his jaw on the ground.

This tiny girl then proceeded to swing said scythe around as if it weighed nothing. Delsin was amazed. He heard some indistinct chatter from inside the store, and three more men ran out, red swords in hand.

The first tried to rush in and slash at her, but she jumped up and spun on her scythe's handle kicking him in the face. After that Delsin snapped out of his daze and switched over to his Concrete power. Recognizing that the girl was in trouble, he Boulder Dashed into the second guy as he was sneaking up behind the girl.

Not missing a beat, the girl immediately started using her scythe's gun to propel herself out of the line of fire, while Delsin threw some Concrete Shrapnel at the guy firing. The man managed to evade, just as the girl sped right past Delsin and knocked the man into the air. Using her scythe to shift her momentum, she spun around, ripping it back out of the ground and smashing it right into the face of the man who was still in the air, sending him crashing to the ground.

Unnoticed, another man had emerged from the store. He was about 6'3" and he was dressed as the ultimate douche-bag. He was wearing a red single-stripe bowler hat with a feather, a white trench coat, a gray ascot, all while walking with a cane he obviously didn't need and smoking a cigar. His red hair swept over half of his face, but with his uncovered eye, he looked down at one of his men in apathy.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were," he said before looking up at his opponents.

"Well, Red, Rocky, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening," he continued squashing his dropped cigar with the end of his useless cane, "But as much as I'd love to stick around-"

He raised his cane and pointed it at the pair.

"-This is where we part ways."

Delsin was confused as a small hatch opened at the tip of the cane. Then, to Delsin's continuing dismay, he fired the cane/gun and a burning red projectile fired at them both. In the instant before it hit them Delsin summoned a concrete wall for protection, having spent time practicing for things just like this.

While the resulting blast did destroy the wall, the two of them were perfectly fine. As they looked around they saw the man climbing up on a ladder, trying to run away. The two of them turned to the shopkeeper, who was stumbling out of the store.

"You ok if we go after him?" she asked him.

The shopkeeper nodded.

She turned and looked at Delsin, motioning for him to follow.

He nodded.

In a burst of rose petals and concrete, the pair catapulted themselves onto the roof of the building.

"Hey!" the girl shouted.

Delsin threw a diagonal barrage of Concrete Shrapnel at the bowler hat guy, but he turned and smashed through all of them, dinging up his cane quite a bit.

"Persistent," he barely whispered.

At that moment, a large plane/bus/whatchamacallit rose behind him. A cargo hatch opened on its side, and a searchlight flared and blinded them both temporarily. When they could see again the man was standing in the opened cargo bay facing them.

"End of the line, you two!" he shouted.

He pulled out a red crystal and threw it between the two on the roof. Then he pointed his cane/gun at it and fired. As his bullet collided with the crystal, both objects exploded, but not before a woman jumped in front of the Delsin and the scythe-wielder. With a flick of her wrist (and a riding crop for some reason) the woman nullified the blast with some sort of cool looking magic circle.

After the smoke cleared he managed to get a better look at her. She had blonde hair, bright green eyes and wore glasses. Her outfit was a little weird though, a white close-collared blouse with a very flattering cleavage window, a black skirt that formed a gentle V around her waist, and a cape, black on one side, deep purple on the other, with metal diamonds across the middle. All together it made him think of a Hollywood witch.

Flicking her crop in a wide arc this time, she sent a flurry of purple projectiles flying straight towards the flying vehicle. As the vehicle was shaking from the onslaught, the red-haired man went up to the pilot seat and another woman returned in his place. Witch lady flicked her crop a third time, and a storm cloud appeared over the immediate area, raining shards of ice onto the vehicle.

The two women engaged in a fierce fight after that, with fireballs and concrete shards flying. After a while, the vehicle started to turn away, and with the young red-head getting desperate, she shifted her scythe back into a gun and opened fire. Delsin joined her and sent his Concrete Barrage after her, but with a single gesture, the escaping woman blasted all of the attacks away as they flew off.

Delsin looked back to see the red head giving puppy-dog eyes to the blonde. After a moment, he slipped out of combat mode and his confusion and disorientation returned. His head started to spin from everything he had just seen, and in his daze he found himself in a police interrogation room, sitting at a table with a bright white light directly overhead.

He sat there for a few minutes, still a little light-headed when the door opened, and a man walked in. Before he even looked at the man, Delsin fell back onto his old defense.

"I want a lawyer." he said to the man.

The man who had entered just smirked.

"Well, you aren't under arrest and no one is pressing charges, but if you still wish to exercise your right to an attorney, you may."

Delsin looked up at the man.

He was easily six and a half feet tall with silver hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a black three-piece suit with a green shirt and cowl scarf.

"Nice to meet you. You may call me Professor Ozpin."

"No charges? Ok, then can you tell me how to get to Seattle from here so I can get home? I got work to do," Delsin asked.

"Seattle? I'm afraid I don't know that village," Ozpin replied.

"Village? Seattle's not a 'village' it's a city up in Washington."

"Washington?"

"The state? You know, in America?"

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you are referring to."

Delsin looked confused. Then he thought back to a conversation he and Eugene had a while back about his video power and entering the digital world. Something about how even though the digital worlds he entered were fake, there were infinite amounts of other worlds that he could travel to. Delsin had dismissed it as bunk, but apparently, he was wrong.

His head fell to his hands.

"Dammit," he said, uncovering his mouth.

Ozpin looked down at him through the glasses he wore.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"I said dammit!" Delsin shouted, accidentally breaking the table with his Concrete power.

Ozpin just continued to stand there, stoic.

"Young man, there is no cause for violence," Ozpin said, trying to calm him.

Delsin just rose and switched to his Smoke power.

"Fine. Sorry for the table. I'm going," he said.

Before Ozpin could respond, Delsin smoke dashed into the air vent behind him and rode it all the way to the building's roof. Angrily, he switched over to his Neon power and Light Dashed away, running as fast as he could.

While he was running, he ran past a group of thugs beating up on a young girl in an alley.

He was going to run past them, but before he could, he sighed to himself and turned around. Still with his Neon, he unfurled his chain and smashed the first guy in the chest with it. Then with his free hand, he shot a neon bolt into the second's leg while he carried through with his swing, knocking out the third with his chain.

The last two started to run away, but he chucked a Stasis Bubble at them, stopping them cold. Just for good measure, he shot both of them in the leg and subdued them all in a light cocoon. The girl thanked him and he Dashed off to the rooftop before the cops could catch up with him.

He started to run again when he found himself face to face with the same scythe-wielding girl from earlier.

"Sup," he said.

"Yo," she replied.

The two just sat there staring at each other for a while, neither one with any idea of what to say.

Eventually, the girl spoke up.

"Sooooo, nice moves back there," she said nervously.

"Thanks. Wait, how did you follow me? No one's ever caught up to me that fast," he asked in reply.

"Oh, that's my semblance. I can move really fast," she said, gaining some conversational momentum.

"Your what?" Delsin asked, confused again.

The girl just started to giggle at him.

"I'm not from around here, ok?" he yelled defensively.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just a little funny is all," she said, still giggling.

"Ah, the hell with this, I gotta find a way home!"

He Light Dashed away again, leaving the girl alone on the rooftop.

"Wait! Professor Ozpin wanted to talk to you!" she said as he sped away.

"Way to go Ruby, he ran away. Ah well, better chase him again," she thought.

In a burst of rose petals, she sped off after him, his Neon power leaving a light trail for her to follow.

They raced throughout the city, twisting and turning around corners. However, while Ruby may not have been faster than him, she did know the city better, and she had had her speed for much longer. She had taken a shortcut and was about to try and tackle him to the ground when she found he had stopped by an electronics store. There were several TV's in the window, all with different news broadcasts on display.

"How do you do that! I've never seen anyone with more than one Semblance!" she asked, walking up to him, more than a little tired.

He didn't hear her. He just kept staring at the TV screens, watch news stories about events he had never heard of.

Ruby started to get the feeling that something was bothering Delsin. After a few minutes, he slid down the wall, turning his back to it.

"Dammit," he said softly, to no one in particular.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.

Delsin looked up to the sky.

"I can't go home," he told her.

"Why not?" she asked in reply.

"It's too far away."

"What do you mean? You're really fast, I'm sure you could make it there in no time."

"It's … It's not that kind of distance."

Ruby seemed a little confused. But, like her father taught her, she pressed on.

"Well whatever kind of distance it is, I'm sure you'll get back eventually," she said smiling.

Delsin half-smiled and stood, holding out his hand. Ruby took it, and they shook hands.

"Delsin Rowe, nice to meet you."

"Ruby Rose. Same."

"So, Ruby, why were you following me?"

Ruby looked at him questioningly before she remembered.

"Oh right! Professor Ozpin wanted to talk to you, so he asked me to chase you down."

"Great. Smug jerk-face wants to talk. Race you back?" he asked.

"Can we walk? I'm not used to running through the whole city."

Delsin laughed.

"Sure. I need to learn about here anyway."

"Ok, where should I start?"

"Just assume I know absolutely nothing about the entire world and start from there."

"Um … Alright."

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"Soo... Remnant?" he asked, gesturing to his surroundings.

"Mm-hm," she replied.

"Vale?" he continued, pointing down.

"Yep," she said, making a popping sound at the end of the word.

"Grimm?" he questioned, making claws with his fingers.

"Heh, yeah."

He pointed to his heart.

"Aura?"

"Uh-huh."

He made a motion of running.

"Semblance."

"Sort of," she answered, shaking her hand in a maybe.

"Huntress?" he asked, pointing to her weapon.

"In training."

"And …. Beacon Academy," he said, pointing to the tower in the distance. Coincidentally the same tower he saw when he ran into the city.

"Yeah."

"Wow."

While they walked, Ruby explained most of what Delsin needed to know along the way. The Ozpin guy he was going to see was back at Beacon, but he had arranged transport for him at the Airship station to take him there.

When they reached the station, Ruby left to go pack her stuff, as Ozpin was apparently letting her attend Beacon 2 years early. Delsin went on in through the station and jumped on his transport.

As he climbed on, he noticed he was not the only one on the transport. The other passenger was a young woman.

She was wearing a brown and gold jacket with brown short shorts all lined with gold.

However, that was not what got his attention. What got his attention, was the fact that she had rabbit ears on her head.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's what a Faunus looks like," he thought.

As he sat down the girl looked at him quizzically, like she had seen him before. Then her face lit up.

"You!" she exclaimed, with what Delsin knew as an Australian accent.

"Huh?" he asked, confused again.

"You're the one! The one who saved me!"

"I'm sorry, I do-" he stopped himself as he flashed back to the alley. The thugs, and the girl they were beating.

"Oh! Now I remember," he said, "Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah, are you a student at Beacon?"

"Nope, just visiting."

"Well, since you ran off so quickly, I never got a chance to say thank you. So, thank you."

"No problem," Delsin said with his typical smile, "Names' Delsin, nice to meet you."

He held out his hand.

"Velvet Scarlatina," she said, though she seemed nervous to shake his hand, extending hers very cautiously.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, confused by her hesitance.

"Oh, it's just that, most Humans aren't nice to Faunus like me."

"What? Why? I mean, look at those ears! They're adorable!"

Velvet turned beet red.

"T-t-thank y-you, but still, why are you being so nice?"

Delsin leaned back in his seat.

"You could say I know a thing or two about being treated differently because of who I am."

The rest of their trip, the two enjoyed a pleasant conversation, just having fun getting to know one another, even if Delsin did have to edit his backstory a bit. When they landed Velvet left him to go off to the dorms, while Delsin walked around, trying to find his way to Ozpin's office.

"Man, is there like, a directory or something around here?" he asked aloud.

"Mm-HM!" a voice coughed behind him.

He turned around to see the same lady in a witch costume that he had seen earlier standing behind him.

"Oh. Hey there," he said, throwing on his usual smirk.

"Professor Ozpin is waiting for you in his office. Please follow me," she said flatly.

"Ok."

She led him inside to an elevator, which took them to the top floor. When they arrived the woman motioned for him to enter while she stayed behind.

Delsin found himself in a strange looking room, decorated like the inside of a clock, gears everywhere, and clock numbers om the floor. Ozpin was in front of him, sitting behind a very large desk.

"Mr. Rowe. Please, have a seat," Ozpin said.

"Nice place you got here Ozzy," Delsin replied.

"Thank you," Ozpin said, a small smile on his face.

"Wait, how do you know my name? I never told you."

Ozpin's smile grew, and he placed a small object on the table: Delsin's wallet.

"You passed out after the fight on top of that building, so we searched you for identification. You left before I could give it back."

"Hm," he said, picking up his wallet, "Ok you wanted to talk. I'm here."

"Good. First, I should ask, why did you run away?"

"Well Oz, I should probably say, I'm not from here," Delsin started.

"I gathered that much."

"No, not from Vale. From Remnant."

Ozpin stayed silent for a moment.

"Go on."

And so, Delsin told his story. Growing up on a Native American reservation, his delinquency, discovering his Conduit abilities, fighting the DUP, Augustine, all of it. During his tale, Ozpin looked at him unflinchingly. Even the worst parts of the story didn't make him so much as twitch.

When the story was done, Ozpin took one last sip from his mug and set it down on the desk in front of him.

"I must say Mr. Rowe, your story is a little hard to believe. And no Grimm? That is a little hard to imagine."

"It's the truth. I can even show you my Conduit powers if you want."

"No need. I said it was hard to believe, not unbelievable. I am willing to trust that you are telling the truth, and given that you don't have an Aura, I am inclined to believe you anyway. So I now need to ask, what do you plan to do now that you are here?"

Delsin leaned back in his chair, thinking.

"Well, eventually I'd like to go home. But back in Seattle, I was a hero. I guess, I just wanna help people till I can go home."

Ozpin smiled again.

"Well as it happens I run a school designed to teach students to do just that. If you do mean to help, might I suggest you do so as a Huntsman?"

"Uh, well Oz, I'm 24 years old. I'm a little too old to go back to school."

"Nonsense. There is no age limit for my school. Some of my advanced students are older than you are. So, how about it?"

Delsin just sighed.

"Fine," he said.

"Very well," Ozpin replied.

He pulled out a small box and placed it on the table.

"This is a welcome package I had put together for you. In it, you will find a small monetary allowance, basic toiletries, your Scroll, a sort of cell phone I believe you called it complete with a campus map so you don't get lost, and your school uniform."

"Wait, uniform?"

"Yes, Mr. Rowe. A uniform, which I will expect you to wear at all times during classes."

"Ugh..." Delsin groaned. He turned to leave, and pulled out his new Scroll to find his room.

"And Mr. Rowe?"

Delsin turned to see Ozpin smiling again.

"Welcome to Beacon."

CHAPTER END

I hope you all enjoyed this story, also be on the look out for my other story "The Hammer that Forges Steel" a Pokémon/RWBY crossover. Don't forget to Review please, it really helps.