Remnant of my heart || RWBY x S/I

1 // The bear, the forest, the overseer.

Lea felt... dazed; As if her entire body was dunked in water and hung out to dry like washing, fresh from the infernal machine. She might as well have been a sock, her cotton skin felt baked in the sun, and she herself noted a subtle windblown effect to her hair when she stood.

Her knees wobbled and buckled, a sickening, rice-krispies-esque sound erupted from her aching joints. Lea groaned in pain –well– it was closer to the cry of a wounded animal than a groan, but it wasn't quite a scream.

Despite all this, though, the first feeling she recognised was thirst. A blinding, beating, lustful thirst that could only come from depriving someone of water for a couple days; though that was a rough estimate, Lea had no clue how long she had been lying on the forest floor, or even how she came to be here.

The last thing she could remember was... hmm... pavement, railing, river, wind, splash... Splash? RIVER?!

She quickly patted her pockets for her phone, anything she found in her blazer was wet through. Not a good sign. Lea then slipped her bag off her back and began rooting through crumpled paper after crumpled paper, eventually finding both her android and headphones wedged between the pages of her 'AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1: Power and Conflict poetry' booklet, which had seen better days; It now living up to titles like 'Remains' or 'Tissue'.

In a surprising stroke of luck, not only were both her phone and headphones working, but she also had wifi? In the middle of the forest? In her phone it was listed as 'Vale CCTS' and wasn't password-protected, though she'd take it since it didn't make spotify run like complete dogwater.

Speaking of four-word exclamitives and their euphemisms, when the realisation set in that she was in the middle of absolutely bloody nowhere, Lea let her northern heritage release in a torrent of words that'd make a sailor blush and a roadman faint.

"WHERE THE HELL AM I?!" She said, finally closing the lid on her panic-induced pandora's box of every swear that Lea had ever heard.

Google maps had no clue where she was, and don't even think of using Life 360, that piece of trash couldn't track her even when she wasn't mysteriously transported into the middle of the woods.

Calling her friends and family yieled an amount of results that could only be described as 'a big, fat, goose egg', plus, she'd probably starve then slowly, agonisingly rot away if she stayed here. So came the executive decision to put on her big girl pants and explore the mysterious forest!! Yay!!

/// Now Playing: PRIDE. - Kendrick Lamar ///

Honestly? Not that bad.

Well, once the whole 'oh dear lord where am i how am i going to get home how did this happen?!' paranoia wore off, Lea finally started to appreciate the melody of light that shone through pin-pricked holes in the upper canopy which juxtaposed the heavy bassline of the leaf-shadow and coated the whole area in cool, relaxing darks. Even the subtle underscoring of the wind's drums made her want to take a nap, the atmosphere was so good. The symphony of nature barely made her want to take out her earphones. Barely.

And so, that's how it was. Lea strolled around the forest, lazily and aimlessly, hoping to stumble upon any sign of human life. The closest she got were some massive kaiju legs of grey stone, etched out into pillars. Whatever they used to be was long gone, claimed by the vines that grew upon its 'colossal wreck', as Lea was inclined to describe it; a plaque nearby was written in some language foreign to her human tongue, she had never seen anything like it before.

She arbitrarily chose a pillar then ran her hands across its form, patting it a few times for good measure. Thank god these ruins were still structurally sound. She sighed and continued onwards.

Nothing notable happened for a good while after: the occasional bug would float by, scaring the life out of Lea, though she didn't express it vocally; but that was about it. It was just her, the open forest path, and her music.

That was, until the massive, weird looking bear jumped out from the nearby bushes.

It was a huge, black mass, with its paws slicing out into a point like sickle blades. Though it appeared to be a bear, fragments of white, bony armour and long, hedgehog-esque spikes littered what Lea presumed to be its fur; and a mask of bone disguised its face (sans the beast's maw), covered in an intricate pattern of red that decorated its forehead. Its eyes were an unnatural, swirling mess of vermilion and orange that bore deep into Lea's soul.

She was shocked. Gobsmacked. Speechless. It was a Grimm. An Ursa Major, if Lea remembered correctly. Though it'd be hard to not recognise, Monty and Eileen did an amazing job designing them and- wait. A Grimm?

She didn't need to slap herself awake, as a long claw slashed a cut across her cheek. Lea placed her palm to her face and watched as her once pale hand soaked red with blood. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to cry. She wanted to- "GRWAAAAAAAAAA!" Lea's dirtied locks blew past her face as drops of spittle bled onto it in a devastating combo.

Lea decided to give back a devastating scream:

/// Now Playing: CORRUPTED AUTOMATA - AZALI ///

"AAAAAAAAAAA-" She bolted away from the Ursa as fast as her (admittedly) little legs could carry her! "-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHAHA HAAH!!" Lea had never shouted that loud before, she had never ran this fast before, she had never experienced anything like this before in her entire life. She quickly swung her head behind her and caught a glimpse of the encroaching void, making her somehow run even faster.

She felt her eyes widen, her gait stretch, her balance straighten, and her body release the kinds of levels of adrenaline you omcould only ever dream of getting in moments like these. "I'M GOING TO DIE!!!" She bawled, though the three exclamation marks could never do justice to the fear and dread in her voice.

Lea jumped over rocks, fallen branches, the occasional bush. Maybe she should consider joining a track and field team when she gets back. Although, how IS she gonna get back? Obviously, unless the thing chssing her with murderous intent was a really in-character cosplayer, she's been isekai'd into Remna- WHACK!

A tree had outstretched its hand and decided to (quite rudely) slap her face while she was distracted, reminding her to stay focused. An Ursa Major was on her tail. Thanks for the reminder, tree. She didn't really find it easy to forget that, though.

Another roar from the Ursa drove her forward, then another roar. "Okay, dude! I get it!" Then another. And another. And finally Lea turned around, a pack of around 5 Ursai were now chasing her. "HOLY MARY MOTHER OF JESUS FU-"

/// Paused. ///

Glynda Goodwitch stepped forward, swiping away at her tablet. "Our last pair has been formed, sir: Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy. I can't possibly imagine those two getting along." She almost said the latter half through gritted teeth; exactly why, Ozpin couldn't say, he had never really been good with reading people, but he assumed it had something to do with the Valkyrie girl's outwardly expressionate disposition.

Glynda continued her one sided discussion over the pairs of students that had formed. She said something about Pyrrha Nikos, he replied with a 'hmm'. Truth be told, Ozpin didn't really care about whatever Ms. Goodwitch thought of the students this year, he already had a tough enough time last year trying to listen to her ramble about Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina that he genuinely started to reconsider his whole plan with Beacon.

Eventually, he tuned back in.

"-Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year?"

Ozpin didn't respond. Partly to seem mysterious and coy, but also because his footage was focused squarely on something he found incredibly odd. Hesitantly, he turned around slightly, so that his face was only partially obscured behind his nose, and said, "Glynda, could you check camera F18?"

"I hardly see how this is relevant to the topic at-"

"It's something you're going to want to see."

She stared at him for a minute -please Gods tell him he didn't look like an idiot- before turning her attention to her tablet; he watched her fingers through the other side of the holographic screen as they changed from camera to camera until finally reaching the same one he was on.

"Now, Glynda, can you tell me who that child is?"