A Cosmic Journey

A/N: Hello FNDM, Sleepless Elite here. I've been a fan of RWBY for years now, and after reading many fanfics figured that I'd give my own idea a shot. Like the description above mentions, this is a SI/OC fanfic, and if you have reservations about the idea and practice I completely understand as it may not be for everyone. That being said, I ask that any interested or potential readers give the story a proper shot, to see if I've done right by the idea and the RWBYverse. As for why I decided on an SI/OC, I think that literally writing oneself into a markedly different set of circumstances can be a creatively introspective process. You have to really sit down and think about what you would really do in a given situation, and not just fulfill an idealized version of yourself in your head. Believe me, I've scrubbed over this chapter about eight times trying to avoid any Sue characterizations, and hope to keep the same level of vigilance going forward. And of course, I endeavor to portray any and all canon characters written in what I hope is their truest interpretation. If there is any original information I add to a given character it'll hopefully be compliant with their canon histories and personalities, unless it's completely unavoidable and I've painstakingly thought it over and given advance notice and explanation.

In addition to the A/N in the beginning, I think I'll try and have one at the end of every chapter as well, so keep an eye at the bottom for a couple interesting ideas and explanations I've got there. And that's, that's about it. Without further ado, A Cosmic Journey. Hope you enjoy the read!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, all rights are owned by Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, R.I.P.

Chapter 1: Dead on Arrival…?

Chapter Date: 08/26/219

I didn't know what was stranger: the feeling that the hardwood desk my head had been slumped against felt noticeably harder, or that the air smelled distinctly crisp and fresh, compared to the stagnant air of the city. Opening my russet brown eyes, I sat up and looked around.

…

'You know, when all those grad school students told me how going to grad school would make you lose your marbles, I honestly thought I'd at least get to start classes before losing it. Clearly not, because nothing around me makes sense.'

I was in some sort of forest, with sturdy branches twisting off trees and reaching dozens of feet in the air, foliage nearly blocking out what must have been moonlight save for the rare sliver. The ground had little in terms of undergrowth, but was covered in a healthy spread of grass just visible in the dark…

'WHO CARES ABOUT ANY OF THAT? WHERE THE HELL AM I?!'

I'd literally just put my head down for a break after hitting the books nearly all night, in the confines of my snug (read: small) apartment in Manhattan. How and when the hell did I go from the concrete jungle to a literal jungle?

'Ok, think it through, don't panic. Jersey is right across the river, it's definitely got huge forests and parks and stuff. I was probably just taken from my apartment and dropped into some park…scratch that, definitely panic! I got kidnapped into the middle of some forest in New Jersey! That's four crappy things right there, and yes, being in New Jersey counts as two!"

Then I remembered New Jersey was right across the river. Meaning…

I jerked around, pulling at my jean pockets and sifting through my earphones and keys before yanking out my phone, holding it in the air with both hands like some offering to the gods.

'Oh sweet Jesus, they didn't take my phone! And it's got battery! I retract everything I've ever said about the state, if I make it out of here I'm moving here for life! Wait, that makes no sense, I wouldn't step within a hundred miles of this place!' A mountain of cold reality hit when I checked the screen again.

'No signal? Dafuq is this, I'm supposed to have spotless-ass coverage nation-fucking-wide! Either some chucklefuck out there is dropping all the balls, or…'

…

'…or I'm not in the country anymore.'

I shivered like liquid nitrogen was shot through my veins, before growling and getting to my feet. Checking the battery on my phone, I shut it off for now to conserve battery life.

'Unh Unh, we are not doing this right now.' I ground out, adjusting the jeans trying to slip off my waist. "We are going to march the hell out of whatever remote place we're in, we are going to contact someone to find us, and then we're gonna find whatever terminally stupid idiot with a death wish had the balls to KIDNAP ME and DROP ME IN A FOREST!"

It occurred to me that those last few parts were likely said and then shouted out loud, given the silence ringing in my ears. It was after that silence that I then noticed three very important things:

One. My growling stomach was telling me I needed to move fast before food became a more immediate priority.

Two. Looking at my stomach made me realize something was seriously wrong with my clothes. My shirt and jeans may not have been painted on me, but I shouldn't have been able to see down the neckhole of my shirt and have to roll my jeans just to keep them from sliding.

Three. On further inspection, I realized it wasn't my stomach doing the growling.

Slowly, in infinitesimally small degrees, I turned around.

Coal black fur, coating a body that made Great Danes look like cocker spaniels. Claws longer and sharper than every kitchen knife I owned, with ivory spikes jutting out from nearly every joint on its quadrupedal body, with a tail lazily whipping back and forth. A mouth of razor-sharp canines, surrounded by a decorated skull-like structure affixed to its growling head. From within came two orbs of pure crimson, somehow shining in the night and yet sucking all the remaining light around it.

The thing before me only had one name that I could place upon that description, but my mind refused to acknowledge the impossibility, instead going for the next best thing.

'That's a big…wolf.'

We eyed each other for a moment, before the B-wolf! The wolf decided it wanted to indulge in its snack. Howling into the sky, it zeroed on me before lunging forward.

I was already flat-out booking it as fast as my stubby legs could carry me. Chancing a glance back, the large wolf was already closing in on me like a damn bloodhound, which I guess it was in a way.

"SHIT! SHITE! SCHEISSE! MIERDA!" I swore at the top of my lungs, my voice sounding high from all the hyperventilating. I had maybe four seconds before this thing caught up and pounced. Looking around, I spent all of one second swiveling trying to find a plan, and roughly zero thinking before whipping my arms out and launching myself at a branch I could grab. As it was, my fingers barely latched over the top and scrabbled for a hold before I hauled myself on top of the branch and jumped up for a higher one.

SNAP!

The branch I'd just left was shredded by the thing's claws like it was half-ply toilet paper. Giving into my inner squirrel, I bounced up to higher and higher branches till I was about two stories up. Glancing down, I saw the B-! The wolf sauntering around my tree, like it was looking at some sort of annoying puzzle. Noticing something at the edge of my vision, I looked down at myself, nearly fell and became food out of sheer shock.

I had never been a huge guy by any definition of the word, but I should've had legs longer than TWO FEET! My arms looked even closer to the twigs that my friends sometimes joked that they were. A glance down at the predator gave me the slap in the face I'd somehow been avoiding.

'My clothes…they didn't loosen, my body's fucking tiny now! No wonder why that thing looks like a damn bear! Shit, I've gotta be less than five feet right now!' I ran my fingers through my short locks of black hair out of nervous habit.

Another howl from below refocused my immediate priorities. "I'll deal with my physical crisis of identity later! I need to find a way down this tree and outta this forest before I'm a meal for The-thing-I'm-not-calling-it! If I just climb down a couple branches, I can try to jump-"

KRRRRCCHHH!

CCCCRRRNNNNCCHHH!

A great series of tearing sounds resounded below me, and I gazed in naked terror as claws repeatedly gouged tough wood, sending wood chips everywhere as a hole the size of my mini-fridge opened up in the tree.

"Or I can jump now, that's JUST FINE!" I screamed as the tree groaned and began to tip in the opposite direction of where I'd been aiming. I leaped up and out, shooting for the sturdiest branch on the much younger tree within my reach. As I sailed forward, I caught the barest glimpse of the view over the tree's canopy.

'Lights?'

CRRAASSHH!

WHAM! The good news: I'd reached the branch I'd been aiming for. The bad: my landing was awful, and I was probably coming away from it with a broken rib, definitely some bruising at the very least.

CREEEAAK…

Aaaand there was the ugly news…

The branch I was holding onto gave way and I plummeted downwards, grunting as I slammed through another branch before smacking against the ground on my side.

'Pain. Great pain. Mistakes were made.' My non-bruised side was definitely bruised now.'

Shoving myself off the ground, I staggered to my feet as the dog, yeah, that's what I'm calling it now, stepped around the downed tree with an almost gentle rustle of leaves. Crimson orbs stared at my own russet brown, as an impossibly long and gray tongue licked a menacing set of jaws.

'…Alright, fuck all of this.' I clenched my fists, sharp tingles running up my arms from where bark had scraped my forearms and palms.

Slowly, I bent down and picked up pieces of the two branches that'd snapped on me, holding them as improvised weapons as I planted my feet wide, back towards the tree I'd fallen from. All the while, neither of us broke eye contact.

"Like Hell I'm dying here to some Teen Wolf wannabe. I'm kicking your ass, marching out of this forsaken forest and socking whoever put me here even if I lose my damn arm in the process."

I couldn't outrun it, couldn't hide from it, and we both knew it. I had a snowball's chance in Hell of overpowering something strong enough to tear trees apart, but that was just it: I didn't need to overpower it.

I just needed to survive it.

"Come on then. Come On." I bared my teeth and snarled.

The Wolf's howl pierced the night, as I let loose a shout of my own.

"COME OOOONNNN!"

By the time I'd moved it had covered half the ten yards separating us, but I had about twelve percent of a plan to work with, my right arm rearing back. "HEY! FETCH!"

Chucking the piece of branch as hard as I could, the wood spun lopsidedly through the air before thunking off the Wolf's skull. With barely a flinch, it twisted its head back around and snatched the branch out of the air with its jaws. As teeth sheared through the wood, its right arm streaked diagonally downward towards my head spelling certain death. Diving to the side for all I was worth, I saw claws cut through air less than a foot from where I was now. Gritting my teeth before I lost my nerve, I grasped the other branch in both hands and drove it down onto its outstretched arm with a dull crack. The momentum staggered it just the briefest of steps, time that I used to jackknife back to my feet, back the hell up and reset the distance, grabbing another branch piece for my right hand as its head swiveled back towards me.

As it turned, I noticed that the claws on its right arm were still pristinely sharp. The paw they were attached to though…that hung a little limply.

'Ok, so a full killshot on a human or regular wolf is worth about a broken wrist or hand or something." I had something between a grin and grimace on my face as I shook my arms out, the echoes of reverberations from that one strike still rocking my arms. Whatever muscles I had in my shrunken body were taxed from the running, climbing, fighting and just all-around terror. "I just need to repeat that strategy about a hundred times, preferably on parts that aren't as tough as a piece of rebar.'

"WHAT'S THE MATTER? I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CHALLENGE!" I roared. This was essentially my whole strategy: piss it off, dodge the claws, whack it somewhere soft, rinse and repeat. One of the many issues with that plan was that I didn't know if this thing understood words.

GGGRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

…Judging by that bone chilling roar, I was inclined to say yes. Therein was another problem: if this thing adapted to my shambles of a plan I was screwed.

Leaping off the ground with its hind- and right forelegs, the Wolf hurtled itself forward with a sweeping left arm directly in line for my head. Having no time, I dropped as if my legs had been cut from under me, banged my left kneecap against the ground, then rocketed upwards when the left arm grazed the hairs on my head. Swinging with the left branch, I smashed its left arm with all the strength I could muster, as the branch split apart from the repeated impacts. Before I lost the chance, I sliced down with the right branch onto the left side of its skull. This time, I swear I heard a small crack, but whether that came from the branch or its skull, I would never know.

Movement from the periphery of my vision gave me just enough time to bring the branch up in a vertical block, only for the Wolf to fucking backhand straight through the wood. Plowing through, its forearm crushed my right arm into my chest and sent me flying, literally flying over a dozen yards. I hit the ground and rolled a few more before ending with my face pressed into the ground, my left arm slung over my head to fruitlessly ward off any potential concussions. Considering that it sounded like explosions of noise were bombarding my ears, there was a high likelihood the effort failed.

'Well shit…' "KHAAAGGH" '…I tried capitalizing and ended up overreaching…' "AAARRRGHH" '…not a mistake that I can come back from.' Hazily, I heard the thing howling up a storm, its echoes through the forest making it sound like I was surrounded on all sides.

Propping my working elbow against the ground, I pushed my face off the dirt to stare at what was now the certain cause of my death, claws and teeth and all. 'If I pray to all the deities I can think of before this thing attacks again, will I have a chance?...Nah, it'd be a bit late at this stage in the game, and I think I'd be blaspheming the monotheistic ones. Let's just get this over with…' "RRRRGGGH!"

Leveraging myself to my feet, I hunched over, my right arm dangling limp at my side and my left clutching at what I was sure were multiple broken ribs at this point. Throbbing on my back, arms and just about everywhere else told me where the friction burns were. I stared scornfully at the predator watching me, as if sizing up whether I was capable or motivated to put up a fight anymore. If my physical state wasn't telling enough, the waves of palpable despair I must've been giving off surely satisfied it. Licking its chops once more, it bounded forward to rend life from my body.

'Alone at the end…maybe I'll see them all again soon...' I could almost hear them, like voices calling out to me…

As it lunged towards my neck, I stared it right in its pupil-less eyes…and completely missed when the world lit up in color.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

I was flung back, flipping through the air once, twice, three times before I saw the ground rushing up towards my head. Knee-jerk reflexes shoved my arm in between first, hitting the dirt with a solid thud. Rolling onto my back, I wheezed as spots of color, either red or purple or everything in between assaulted my eyes. But undeniably, shining clear in the sky now without the treeline around, a hauntingly beautiful shattered moon cut through into my vision.

'Guess I can't…play the fool anymore…that was a Beowolf…meaning…'

A shadow stepped into my space, and my exhausted eyes caught the silhouettes of two figures blocking out the moonlight before my world went dark.

'Heh…Welcome to Remnant…"

A/N: Aaand break. Hope everyone enjoyed this first chapter. I tried to write it setting the tone for future chapters, as a more realistic, tougher depiction of existing on Remnant, especially without Aura. The length was a bit short for my tastes, but I'll be able to make future chapters longer once I've got more than one character to work with. As for the fight with the Beowolf, I did some re-watching of episodes to figure out how big, strong, fast and tough this creature of Grimm could and should be. The Breach and Volume 4 character short were especially helpful there, and I stuck with the most recent design of the Beowolf as both videos show that yes, 1:1 the average citizen without aura is pretty much screwed against even one of the weakest Grimm. Alright, onto the fun stuff. Well, funner.

Those silhouettes at the end there? They're unknown for a reason. I've got a few ideas for where this story could lead, and each of them involve those two people being different in each one. I'm having a tough time deciding, so I'm putting up a taste of all three! Following this first chapter will be three Chapter 2's, each going down a different path and highlighting a different pair of people. If you happen to have an opinion on which choice you prefer or are so inclined, I'll be setting up a poll on my profile and will note any preference choices in any reviews received. I'll leave the poll up for 2 weeks, and afterwards I'll tally everything up and take one week to write the chosen Chapter 3 from then on. For reference, I aim to be providing chapters weekly, barring any extenuating circumstances. As for what day of the week, still thinking that one over but will post that too once I've got an answer.

So, exciting times ahead! I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter and any of the next ones. Any reviews or constructive criticism will be noted and appreciated.

See you all in three weeks!

Until then,

-SE

Next Chapter Date: 08/26/19