We do not own RWBY or any other copyright content. All rights to it go to Monty Oum (God rest his soul), VIZ Media, and their original owners. We own all OCs.
Writing credits go to Uzumaki Ricky, Monsterhuntergod, Sharad the hedgehog, and Traines.
Return of the Dragon Warriors
Volume 1 Chapter 19: Digging for Truth
Sunday began as orderly as it ever could for Team RWBY, not helped at all by Ruby or Silfrdrengr. After breakfast, all of Teams RWBY, JNPR, AZRE and SHDW assembled in the library. To the surprise of everyone save his team, Jaune walked in carrying a luminous round stone, swaddled in a towel.
"Jaune. What is that?" Weiss asked.
"This is the weird stone Pyrrha and I found in a cave in the Emerald Forest. From what you were saying about Silf and the dragon stuff… I figured it couldn't hurt to do research to make sure it isn't a Dragonstone as well. You know, double check," Jaune explained sheepishly as he gingerly cradled the softly glowing stone.
"So, what you're saying is you and Pyrrha may have a baby without the fun part?" Sylver questioned
Everyone watched as Pyrrha's face rapidly went deep red. So deep that they could almost see the heat radiating from her face. Jaune, however, stood there unfazed by the remark.
"I mean… I guess so?" The blonde replied with a small shrug.
Hearing that, Pyrrha trembled fiercely and fell to the floor in a heap. Jaune slowly looked over to see his partner flat backed on the floor, her face redder than ever and heat radiating off her.
"Pyrrha? Are you okay? Do you need a glass of water?" Jaune asked with earnest concern, kneeling to check on her.
"Uba... guba... gobba... baby... baba…" Pyrrha stammered out nervously and incoherently.
Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright. Thank you all for coming. With all of us here, we should be able to find everything about dragons this library possesses. It is going to be difficult, and not everything we are going to find is going to be true. But if Dragons are going to become part of this world again, we need to be prepared." She explained.
"Luckily, I came prepared and mapped everything out," Azura replied, leaving the room for a moment before walking back in, wheeling in a dry erase whiteboard.
"... You mapped it out? And where did you get the whiteboard?" Jaune asked in disbelief.
"I have a guy for that," Azura simply replied.
Yang simply raised an eyebrow. "You have a guy who gets you dry erase whiteboards?" She asked in shock.
"In my experience, it is good to have a guy for everything. I even have a guy who keeps track of the other guys. He is one of my top men," Azura explained with a shrug.
"Who?" Ruby asked curiously.
Azura simply looked at her with a serious expression. "Top. Men…"
Ruby was going to inquire further when a soft tap hit her shoulder, causing her to turn around, only to have to look up. Standing behind her was a six-foot-six-inch-tall man with neck-length silverish-white hair, pale skin, and red eyes. He was toned and muscular without being overly bulky. He wore white gloves on his hands and a kimono with small wrist openings, a silken jacket over the kimono, and hakama trousers over his legs with a stylized, modest black lacquered cloth hat on top of his head. The most noticeable feature about him, however, was his feet. He had wolf feet poking out from the hem of his trousers.
His lips were in a professional thin line, but there was a certain calm, almost gentleness to his eyes that caused Ruby to be at ease, despite the sudden appearance.
Azura smiled at the tall, wolf-footed man. "You have my thanks, Grün. Everyone, this is my head retainer Grün Wulffherrmann. You could think of him as the samurai equivalent to a butler."
At the word 'butler,' the now-identified Grün tilted his head slightly and blinked, his mouth stayed the same, but the slight shift was able to give away that he was offended by the remark.
Azura rolled his eyes in response. "Right, right. Majordomo. My apologies, Grün." He replied nonchalantly.
At the correction of faux pas, Grün casually raised a gloved hand and put his forefinger and thumb together to form the 'okay' gesture.
"Now then, onto the plan. Each team will take one of the four quadrants of the mythology section. My team will take the left-western quadrant, Team RWBY the right-western. Then Team JNPR will take the left-eastern quadrant while Team SHDW takes the right-eastern quadrant. Look for every book you can on dragons and leave no proverbial stone unturned," Azura explained, pointing to the whiteboard where he had drawn out the four quadrants of the mythology section of the library.
"... When did you come up with this plan?" Weiss asked.
"Just this morning after my first caffè mocha. Why?" Azura replied nonchalantly.
After a deep sigh, Weiss looked back at the group. "Alright. You all heard the plan. Let us get to it."
Several Hours Later
The four teams scoured the library thoroughly. Every bookshelf and every book they contained was checked and double checked for every reference for dragons possible. At first, the other students and the library staff watched in confusion and awe at the frantic search. But, as the hours dragged on, they got used to it and simply went about their days. Weiss was sat at one of the long group tables in the library, rubbing her temples at how exhausting the search was becoming. On either side of her on the table sat a small mountain of books and dusty old scrolls. Before she could grab a book, she heard a small clink next to her. Looking down, she then saw a small saucer and a cup of fresh coffee, alongside a small plate of delicate coffee cakes.
"Vielen Dank, Herr Grün," Weiss said tiredly, lifting the cup to her lips and taking a delicate sip. Looking up as she set the cup down, the large man was eying her with a look of deep sympathy.
Weiss took another sip from her cup as Grün walked away with a quiet step that was uncommon for a man of his great stature. Setting her cup back down on the saucer, she grabbed the nearest book and began reading. She did not get far as Ruby, Azura, Blair, and Jaune walked over to the table, each carrying a differently sized stack of books.
"Well? What have you found?" Weiss asked tiredly.
"Blair and I didn't find much on dragons in our parts of the quadrant. But Yang is still looking and Blair and I did find things on the Fae," Ruby explained, trying to be helpful.
Weiss sighed annoyedly. "That's not helpful, Ruby," She groaned softly.
"But Weiss! I learned about magical cookies!" Ruby told her, trying to keep her teammate's spirits up.
"The only magical thing about them is what they are likely going to do to your thighs. Now focus," Weiss sternly replied, giving her partner a look to be serious.
"Right, right. I'll keep looking. Did you find anything, Weiss?" Ruby replied, trying to keep her head in the game.
"The issue has not been finding things. It is what I have found, and I do not know what is real, what is a half-truth, and what is pure fantasy," Weiss explained before biting into a piece of coffee cake.
Azura then hefted a large stack of books in his arms. "I found some books with information about dragons. However, only a few of them are purely about dragons and go into detail about them," he said as he carefully set the stack down next to Weiss.
"Why don't we sit here and help you, Weiss. You know, put our heads together?" Jaune offered, motioning a bit with his right hand as he held his glowing stone in his right.
"Because I need all of you looking for as much reference material as possible. And Ruby, please try going back to where you found information on the Fae. Since Fae and Dragons in fantasy settings typically get along well, there may be some diamonds in the rough hidden in those Fae books," Weiss replied tiredly.
"On it!" Ruby chipperly replied before disappearing in a burst of rose petals.
"I think I will stay here and help you decipher the information, Weiss. My team can handle searching for more reference material without me," Azura replied before taking a seat across from her and grabbing a book.
"Yang and Ruby can cover for me. You need more help here." Blair stoically added with a smile before sitting next to Weiss and pulling a book from her own stack.
"Same thing with my team. And I want to make sure that this right here is a Dragonstone." Jaune explained, motioning with his head to the glowing rock in his lap.
Weiss sighed, before giving them all a small nod. Putting down the book she had grabbed, she pulled out her thick and well used notebook. She flipped through the pages to the current days section and cleared her throat before beginning her explanation.
"According to this, there are dragons for each known natural Dust element. Plus, a few elements that no Dust has been discovered for yet, such as Metal, Yin or Darkness, and Yang or Light. And Silfrdrengr, being a Silver Dragon, is a rare hybrid of Ice and Metal Dragons," Weiss explained, turning the book in her hands to show the others a diagram of the various elements and how each dragon matched up with them.
"And, according to this book, Dragons can replenish their mystical energy by either absorbing their own element or foods associated with said element. For example, Metal Dragons can regain power by eating metal ores or foods high in iron. That being said, it cannot be something that they generated with their own magic," Azura added, showing the page he was on with diagram after diagram of dragons "absorbing" their elements.
"So why does Silf like deep fried food so much?" Jaune asked confusedly.
"Apparently, foods associated with the opposite of their element offer no nutritional value outside of tasting good. It is basically the dragon equivalent to a human or Faunus eating junk food like candy or other foods that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium," Azura explained, looking over the page again.
"Speaking of which… Where is he?" Blair asked, looking around for the small dragon.
Meanwhile: In City of Vale Proper
Silfrdrengr stood in front of a glowing touchscreen of a parked food truck, stumped at what he wanted to order. Wearing a brown fedora and a long baggy brown trench coat, he was obscured just enough in his human sized form for people not to notice what he looked like. He even heard some people mutter about an ugly looking Faunus as he passed.
'Tropical Funk Food. Humans really will name things anything.' He thought to himself, bemused at the vaguely tropically themed vehicle.
Cracking his neck a bit, he tapped out his order. Four extra-large coconut shakes, six orders of sweet potato fries, eight double egg sandwiches, and a whole slow-roasted pig for good measure. Skin extra crispy, of course. He then pressed the order button, and it asked for payment. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out Weiss's purse and swiped her credit card.
'She's going to kill me… but so is this food. Totally worth it.' He thought to himself as he stood there, his tail wagging under his trench coat eagerly.
Back at the Beacon Library
"Has anyone seen my purse?" Weiss asked, looking around for her purse. That was until she got a notification on her scroll. Opening it up, her face stared in utter rage.
"SIII-RRRRGH!" Weiss began to scream in rage only for Blair to cover her mouth to keep them from getting in trouble.
"That bad?" Jaune asked concernedly.
Blair's eyes widened in shock as she looked at Weiss's scroll while the Schnee heiress trembled in fury. Grabbing Weiss's hand, she turned the scroll for Jaune to see for himself. The dork knight stared in disbelief at seeing a 566-lien order from a food truck with a 113.20 lien tip.
"... What could he have possibly ordered?" Jaune asked, his face widened in shock.
"I can think of a few things." Azura replied bluntly.
"What'd I miss?" Yang asked as she came in carrying a tall stack of books.
Blair angled Weiss's scroll so she could look, all while still covering Weiss's mouth. Yang's eyes scanned the order as she read it and reread it again.
"679.20…" Yang muttered as she read it a third time. "679.20 lien!! What the fu-" SLAM! She yelled as the rest of her sentence was covered by the books she dropped onto the table.
Rolling her eyes, Blair then leaned in close to Weiss's ear. "I'm only going to let go if you promise to calm down and not yell. Got it?" She whispered softly.
Weiss took a deep breath through her nose and nodded. "Mmm-hmm…" She mumbled into Blair's hand.
Slowly, Blair took her hand off Weiss's mouth. Seeing that she was not going to scream again, Blair retracted her hand swiftly.
"Weiss. You need to discipline him more." Yang said, putting her hands on her hips.
"We're getting off the subject," Weiss growled through her teeth.
"According to this book, dragons can get nutrition from normal foods, but only foods tied to their respective element can reenergize their mystical powers," Azura explained, reading off from the page.
"We're getting off the subject," Weiss sternly reiterated, slowly turning her head to glare daggers at Azura.
"Right, right. Sorry…" Azura replied before flipping through the book more.
"According to this one, Dragon Magic is offensively limited to spells tied to their respective element. But support and defensive spells are another thing entirely. They can use healing magic, attribute buffing magic, and even conjure up mystical shields and barriers," Jaune explained, reading off the page before turning it to show diagrams of various kinds of magic available to Dragons and their riders.
"Does it say anything about how it works?" Weiss asked intently.
"It says that, while incantations in the ancient tongue make spells easier to cast, the true source of a spell's power is intent. Basically, with Dragon Magic, you need to want something and use magic to physically manifest it to let yourself have it," Jaune added, reading off from the page.
"But doesn't that also mean a Dragon Rider can use it to do messed up things too?" Yang asked.
"Not necessarily. According to this, one thing they can't access is Death Magic like necromancy or insta-kill spells," Jaune explained, pointing to a spot on the page.
"Wait. You mean to tell me that my fantasy Vacuan Soap Operas were lying with that?" Yang sternly asked.
"... You watch Vacuan telenovela's?" Blair asked in disbelief.
"Yes. Both Ruby and I watch them regularly. You have a problem with that?" Yang asked defensively.
"No, it's just… unexpected. That's all," Blair replied, recovering quickly.
Weiss sighed and rubbed her face. "Right. So, nothing really in depth. I am starting to wonder if this was a waste of time…" She muttered.
"Not necessarily. Apparently, the element most associated with Life Magic is the Element of Nature. Meaning that Life Magic spells would be easier for someone with a Nature Dragon," Jaune pointed out, pointing to a spot on a page he just turned to.
"And that helps us how, exactly?" Weiss asked, raising her eyebrow skeptically.
"Well… if one of us ends up with a Nature Dragon, that might be good to know so that they can practice using healing magic," Jaune pointed out in a rare moment of genuine insight.
"Fair enough. All right; I am calling it. Get everyone back over here," Weiss ordered as she put her notebook down.
It was then that Azura spoke up from a new book he had his face in. "Hang on. I believe that I have found something potentially helpful. This is a 'Modern-Valean-to-Namel-Kug' translation book. I can only wonder how long that took to write." He replied before handing it to Weiss.
"Thank you, Azura. This could help me reverse-engineer some spells later. I will check it out before we leave. In the meantime, call everyone back so they can help put all these books back where they belong." Weiss answered.
"I would recommend that we check out the more promising looking books rather than put them back. That way, we can continue our research in our off time," Azura replied, starting to separate his stack into books to be checked out and books to be put back.
Weiss nodded as they all broke away to find the others. Within ten minutes, they had all reconvened at the table and began to work on putting their books back. Azura's team had not found much, aside from what they put on the table. Sylver discovered that apparently, in the ancient past, Giantkin and Dragons did not get along. And Nora was ranting and raving about the idea of lightning and thunder dragons. As they worked to clean up the mess they caused, Weiss could not help but wonder if all of this was worth it.
Next day: CCT Terminal Mission Board
Hunkered at the base of the Beacon tower was the Cross Continental Transmit System. A massive terminal reminiscent of a gargantuan train station, its circular hall bustled with activity of Huntsmen from around the world. For the teams at Beacon, however, most of them were huddled in a smaller section of it in its own circular room. The room was covered with various high tech heads-up displays, showing maps, Grimm, criminals and more related to various missions. Teams RWBY, JNPR, AZRE, and SHDW walked in as a unit.
"I can't believe their opening training missions up this early," Pyrrha said with both surprise and confusion in her voice.
"C'mon, Sugah. This is a good thing," Daliah answered, giving the tournament fighter a warm smile.
"It's about time we got some action. Classes are so boring," Sylver groaned, stretching a bit as he walked.
"Does anything look interesting, Rubes?" Yang asked, leaning over to Ruby who was looking at the missions on her scroll.
"Mostly a lot of smaller missions," Ruby replied annoyedly.
"As much as I'd love a challenge, it isn't a good idea to jump into the deep end immediately," Azura warned.
"Relax, Big Blue. What's the worst that could be out there?" Yang asked with a small smile.
"Never say that Yang. It never ends well," Azura grumbled.
Weiss rolled her eyes at the banter between the two. However, quite suddenly, she ran straight into what she initially thought was a post. She looked up to see Ruby standing perfectly straight, staring wide eyed at one of the job boards. Before she could speak, Blair, Yang, and the rest of the rest of the group began running into her and Ruby. One by one, they walked into each other's backs before eventually falling backwards in a heap.
"Did anyone see the concrete post we ran into?" Jaune's voice asked from inside the heap.
"Ruby, what are you looking at?" Azura asked from near the bottom of the pile.
"It's… perfect…" Ruby's voice said with whimsy and awe, her eyes still glued to the mission board before her.
As everyone untangled themselves from the heap, they soon crowded around Ruby to look. At the top of the board was a mission asking for multiple Huntsmen teams, preferably four or five. With the title of it simply stating, "Black Market Shutdown. Extreme caution is advised. Chance of casualties: Extremely High."
To Be Continued…