AN: Sorry this took so long I was working on other projects and other fan fictions. But I want to let you know that this might be the last chapter in this story arc. A lot of my friends and people around the rwby community have told me about problems in my characters and story and I agree. While most of these problems I might not be able to fix through more chapters, but I don't want to just throw away the basis of my story. So this is what I decided to do, depending on what you guys think and what a couple of my friends say, I'm going to start over from the beginning of Rwby at the first day of school instead of after volume 1 with the same OCs plus a few new ones. Your feedback on this would be extremely helpful. Thank you from support, so without further nagging from me, here is the next chapter.
Ruby mind kept swimming back to Alex and his explanation he gave them. What he said seemed to be too farfetched to be true but how he said it… how he reacted as he told them, she kind of believed it. She put her hand on her face and rubbed her eyes. Why us, why does Ozpin want us to learn these skills.
"Ruby, you okay?" Jaune asked.
"Uh what, is it time to eat?" she quickly said not sure of what's going on
"Umm, no, we already ate, we are at the mall" He told her.
She looked up and realized she didn't know where she was. She looked around real quick, they were in a clothes shop but she didn't know how they got here. She was so in thought about Alex that she completely spaced.
He looked at her unsure for a moment but shrugged and walked away.
"Hey sis, what do you think about this one?" Yang called from a dressing room near Ruby.
Yang stepped out from it wearing a two-piece yellow swimming suit that was a size too small so it squeezed her boobs so the top of them popped up.
"Yang… I love you from the bottom from my heart but that swimming suit is holding up a sign that says open for a business" Ruby commented.
"You think so? But it's so comfortable" Yang said.
"Yang we are huntresses, not prostitutes. What's wrong with your old swimsuit?"
"I had that suit for so long, I wanted something new for when I go swimming"
"You're a volleyball player, not a swimmer" Ruby reminded.
"I know" Yang looked at herself in the mirror one last time and sighed, "Maybe next time" She turned around and went back into the changing room.
Ruby sat down in a chair near the dressing room and looked out the entrance of the clothes store. She watched people walking back and forth as they enjoyed their break from school. She was about to go check up on Yang when she noticed Lance walking down the hall. She watched him as he walked into a fast food place and sat down at a table.
"Hey Yang I'm going to go use the restroom real quick, I'll be right back okay" Ruby said still watching Lance.
She got up and walked towards Lance without hearing an acknowledgement from Yang. She walked into the restaurant and took a seat at the table where Lance was sitting.
"Hello Lance, how are you?" She asked.
"Ruby… What are you doing here?" He asked in return.
"I saw walking in here and just wanted to stop by and checkup how you are liking things at Beacon academy"
"Something tells me that's not the reason you came over"
Ruby pretended to look confused, "What are you talking about? I wanted to be your friend to help as you adjust to life here at Vale and at Beacon academy" She said in her most cheerful voice.
Lance quickly examined her, "Okay, so what do you want to know about Alex?"
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Well chances are that if Alex told me the truth in saying he told you guys his life story, you are pretty skeptical on believing that it is true. So you came over to me to "have a friendly conversation" in hopes that you can gain some more info on whether my best friend is lying or not"
Ruby stared at him for a moment, carefully picking out her next few words, "What, I would never," Lance gave her an annoyed look, "Alright, I'll stop with that, is what Alex says true about him being the son of a mafia boss, that he saw his parents get killed and that he faked his death to come to Vale?"
"Yeah, it's all true, everything he said" Lance confirmed.
Ruby started at him for a moment, "Are you sure? He could have just lied to you too about his past"
Lance chuckled, "I wish I could say it was not true but I have experienced the madness that is Alex Caponen and his past first-hand"
"What do you mean?"
Lance rested his head on his fist and thought for a moment, he then got up and walked away.
Great, another asshole, another mystery
Ruby was about to get up when Lance came back with two soft drinks in his hands, he sat back down and handed her one of the drinks.
"One thing I have learned from hanging out with Alex, is to never tell a story without a drink in your hand. It really calms your nerves" He pointed out.
He took a sip from his drink and put down on the table, "When I first met Alex, it was 4 years ago at the Sanctum Combat School Orientation. Being from a wealthy family, I was very popular and everyone wanted to be my friend. You know what, it would be better if I just showed you"
Ruby gave him a confused look, "What do you mean you can show me?"
Lance put his arm on the table and rolled up his sleeve. "Here, grab my forearm and close your eyes"
Ruby was unsure, slowly, she reached over and grabbed his arm. She took a quick deep breath and closed her eyes. With the hand on the table, Lance grabbed her forearm and gripped firmly. Ruby, not sure what was going, opened her eyes slightly to see Lance with his eyes closed radiating a gray aura around him.
He opened his eyes and looked at her, "Close your eyes, don't worry. I won't do anything." He promised.
Ruby closed her eyes and waited quietly. All of a sudden a small white light appeared and slowly started getting bigger and brighter. Soon, everything was just a bright white light. Then the light faded out and all she saw was black again.
"Ok, you can open your eyes now" Lance said.
Ruby opened her eyes to find herself in large open white room. There were large white columns surrounding the outskirts of the room. At the end of the room there was wide stage with a microphone on it. People filled the room and mingled amongst each other. She looked to her see Lance standing next to her with wonder on his face.
"I thought I never be here again. Man, this brings back memories" Lance said with a smile on his face.
"Where are we?" Ruby asked looking around.
"Sanctum Combat School's Auditorium four years ago during freshmen orientation" Lance explained.
"How is that possible? Can you travel back in time, OOH can you go back to a week ago and find out who stole me sandwich?" Ruby asked amazed by the idea of finally getting revenge on the great Beacon sandwich thief.
"Umm… No, not exactly, I can access memories and revisit them"
"Oh… well that's as cool" Ruby said a little disappointed.
"I do what I can okay, now come on, I'm around here somewhere" He said walking forward.
Ruby followed him through the various crowds of people till they got to the largest group of people.
"Check this out" Lance said. He held out his hand with his palm facing down and moved it down ward. When he did this, they started to levitate or more like he pushed the world below them.
"Now that's pretty sweet" Ruby admitted.
Lance smiled, he looked down to see the big crowd and pointed at the guy who was in the middle, he was the obvious leader of the group. He looked familiar, he had short black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt with what looked like metal around the hood and had armor down his legs and on his hands.
"Is that… you?" She said looking between the two men. The similarities were too great for them to be different people.
"Yep, four years ago and even then I was a handsome devil" He said complementing himself.
"I don't think you brought me here to show that you were a chick magnet back in the day"
"I'm getting to that, here watch" He said pointing at a small red headed boy.
The boy was carrying books in his arms and was trying to make his way through the crowds of people. When he got to Lance's group instead of going around it, the boy tried to go through it.
"Excuse me, excuse me" The boy said to people as he made his way through the group.
The boy eventually got to where Lance was and when he tried to pass him, Lance put out his foot and tripped him.
"Well well, looks like we got our first test subject of the year" Lance looking down at him with a smug smile, "What test shall we do first?" He asked to people around.
Ruby was shocked at this sight, "You were a bully?" she asked.
Lance took a breath, "Yeah, I wasn't that smart and I wasn't that resourceful. I realized that the only way to be noticed and make it through was to be the feared kid. Man, what a douche I was" he said looking at his younger self torment to small kid.
Ruby watched as Lance made to kid to humiliating stuff like give himself a wedgie. "Why are you showing this to me? I can live without knowing that you were a bully"
"This is why" He said.
Ruby looked back down to see a man making a way to where Lance was. He was a tall man with brown hair. He was wearing a black fedora, when she saw this, it clicked in her head. "That's Alex isn't it" She said.
"Yeah"
She looked at him, he was wearing his normal outfit, black jeans, vest with white shirt underneath. The only difference was that his vest had ammo on it and he wasn't wearing a tie. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal two longs scars on both arms starting from hands all the way up his arms.
"What's with the scars" she asked without losing sight of Alex.
Lance looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "So, he didn't tell you that part, note to self" He replied.
"Tell me what?"
"If he didn't tell you, then he didn't what you to know. Sorry, that's how it goes"
Ruby got very annoyed immediately, she was very tired of all these mysteries and riddles. She shook her head and continued to watch what would happen next.
"Hey Python, why don't you go pick on something your own size" Alex said making his way to where Lance was.
Lance stopped messing with the kid and looked up to see Alex walking towards him. "Who are you? His bodyguard"
"Alex Caponen, at your service" He said taking off his hat and bowing. He got up from his bow and put on his hat.
"At my service?" Lance said in mock surprise.
"Not yours Python, his" Alex said pointing at the kid on the ground.
He went over to the kid and helped him up. The kid dusted himself off and picked up all of his book.
"Thank you" the kid said to Alex.
"No problem, now get out of here" Alex replied.
The kid nodded and hurried off. Lance was shocked about this man who dared defy him.
"You got some balls to go up against me, too bad you won't have any left when I'm done with you?" Lance threatened.
"I've dealt with men twice your size before, I think I can take a bully like you"
Alex raised his fist in preparation for a fight. Lance raised his in response. Two of them looked at each other in a silent standstill, waiting for the other to make the first move.
Lance move forward and swung his fist. Alex dodged it and hit Lance in right cheek causing him to stubble back. Lance put his hand on the area where Alex hit him.
"You hit me?" Lance said shocked.
Alex smirked "Come on, this can't be the first time someone did something you didn't want them to"
"PYTHON. CAPONEN. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING" a booming voice said.
Ruby looked off to the side to see an adult woman, a teacher, storming towards the fight.
"That's Miss Kemblr, she is the scariest teacher out of all of Sanctum, of all of Vale for that matter" the older Lance explained.
Ruby watched this woman contently as she grabbed the fighting duo by their ears and dragged them off.
"4 years and I still can feel the pain on the back of my ear. Alright scene change" Lance said snapping his fingers.
The scene around them melted and was replaced by a small brown room. A desk was at the end of the room with an older man sitting at it. Lance and Alex where sitting at the other end.
"Are you two serious…? A fight on the first day of school! We haven't even told you guys the rules yet and you two have broken about 8 of them. What do you have to say for yourself?" The man said.
"Headmaster" Lance started, "I was just merely defending myself against this unruly man. You know I come from a family of highly res…"
"Quiet Python, you're lucky I don't call your parents and have they drag you back to your home where I'm quite sure you will be punished more severely"
Lance winced at the word severely as it was bringing him back painful memories.
"And you Mr. Caponen, I find you… interesting. When I looked up your file, there was hardly anything in it. No past education records, no information on your family, now why is that?"
Alex nodded "Most of my family died when I was young, I was raised by a friend of my father and he homeschooled me. This is the first time I went to a school" He replied.
"No matter, I know Python's point of view that he was… how you put it "Merely defending yourself. So what's your side of the story Mr. Caponen?"
"I don't like bullies, I have dealt with many of them in my life and hate it when I see some else get bullied. So when I saw him picking on the red head, I decided to take action. I was simply standing up for the little guy" Alex explained.
"That's very admirable of you but there are rules that even the good guy must follow" the headmaster said.
"Sir, if everyone followed every regulation and protocol there was, life wouldn't be worth living. Besides we even haven't learned the rules so how could we break them" he said.
"Well that maybe because you decided to play Mortal Kombat in the middle of the auditorium" The headmaster reminded.
"Fair enough"
"All right then, since it's the first day of your first year at a combat school, I'll take it easy on you two. I won't anything too drastic but you will have to do some work for me okay"
The two boys nodded in agreement.
"Alright, now that we got that settle you can go, you're going to have to talk to your fellow class mates about what you went over in orientation. Do you guys have dorms here?"
Both of them shake their head no.
"No? Then where are you staying?"
"I'm still staying at my house" Lance said.
"And you Alex"
"Can't afford the dorms here, I'll find a place to stay don't worry" Alex assured.
"Whatever. As long as both of you get back in my office at 7 tomorrow. Now get out of my office.
The two boys got up and left the room. They walked down the hall a little bit before Lance stopped.
"Do you realize what you have done?" He said.
"What I have done, what about you?" Alex asked.
"All I was doing was having some fun then you had to show up and make a big scene out of all of this" Lance said clenching his fist.
Alex stopped when he said this and laughed. "Fun… is that what you call it, I call it discrimination"
"What?"
"Bullying"
"Oh… Well I don't care, I don't think you realize what of enemy you made. Do you have any idea how powerful my family is? I can make your life a living hell" He threatened.
"No, I don't think you realize what type of enemy you just made. I have dealt with people more powerful than weapon manufacturers. I suggest you take me more seriously Arthur" Alex said before he walked off.
Once Alex was out of view, the scene melted again until it was just a black room with only Ruby and the real Lance.
"Arthur… is that your real name?"
Lance looked down at the non-existent floor, "Yeah, Arthur Grail Python is my real name" He admitted.
This made Ruby confused even more. "Okay wait, I have so many questions right now. First of all… What type of screwed up parents would give their child the middle name of Grail?"
"My parents apparently. As you know they are weapon manufacturers and they are obsessed with the greatest weapon ever created. Excalibur, a sword with a blade created out of pure dust. It was wield by the greatest warrior Lord Arthur, the man who ended the Great War by finding the Holy Grail. The cup that has over 500 dust crystals in it. They wanted a son just like him, so they named me after him and his greatest accomplishment." He explained.
"Alright second question, why do you go by Lance then instead of Arthur" she asked.
"That is a story for a different time but unfortunately I have to go" Lance said.
"But I want to see more, I have so many questions" Ruby pleaded.
Lance looked at her and sighed. "Fine, meet me here again tomorrow at 4. Now if you will excuse me I have to go meet up with Nate"
"Before you go, can you tell me where Alex is?" She asked.
"He should be on his way to his date" Lance answered.
"What… Date?"
"Um… the date that he was asked on" Lance said cautiously upon realizing his mistake.
What happened next was like an interrogation.
"With who?"
"With a women"
"Which Women?"
"One at our school"
"Who is it?"
"I don't know, I barely saw her"
"Describe her to me"
"She had boobs"
"No shit Sherlock, can you at least tell me where they're going.
"They were going to a fancy restaurant"
Ruby nodded and got up, "Okay, there are 50 different fancy restaurants in Vale, all of I have to do is check all of them" she got up and ran out the door.
"Well, this is going to end badly" Lance took out his phone and dialed Alex's number. "Hey Alex… yeah whatever you need to tell me it can wait. You might have some trouble on your date tonight" Lance said watching Ruby run as fast as she can for the nearest exit.