Hey! So in a turn of… a lot of different things going on right now with me, it seems I have a bit more free time than anticipated. Computer is not yet fixed, but in the meantime I had an idea to hopefully help bridge the gap. What follows is kind of a bonus chapter/interlude of an OC that will be wrapped into the overall story. If other people like chapters like this, or just the character, I will try to sprinkle chapters like these in the story later on. Also, I'm going to be trying a little different style this time, focusing on one person's perspective per chapter. Might not stay that way for the normal story, but at least for this it will.

*Roughly two years ago*

Ulfric sat by himself in the locker room. The time for his final combat exam at Beacon was at hand. Standing up, he glanced at the mirror in front of him checking over his gear. Ulfric stood tall compared to most, a 6'2''. His face had sharp features, accompanied with dull blue eyes and mangy thick grey hair. However, the main stand out feature of his head were the two wolf ears that stood out. He also had another Faunus trait, making him a bit of an anomaly. His grey wolf tailed slowly swayed back and forth behind him. He wore a small grey coat with a fur lining around his neck, leaving it open showing off his bare chest. Ulfric by no means was a humble guy, he knew his extremely well-toned chest and abs were something he would take every opportunity to show off. His pants were black, a simple light brown leather belt holding them up. His combat boots however were almost knee high, made of steel in order to be used for his protection. He held his falchion in his right hand. It was a good sword, nothing too fancy. Infused with dust to make sure it can withstand the punishment of Grimm claws and other weapons. His left arm was encased in something which could be best described by the arm piece of an exoskeleton suit. The hand was completely encased in a metal glove, with a small barrel extending from the top of his hand which functioned as a sub-machine gun. Dust infused steel claws extended from each of his fingers allowing him to draw blood with both hands .Ulfric enjoyed fighting up close and personal. He would let his quick reflexes and Faunus instincts take over. Plus, as Ulfric found out through trial and error, a good portion of people's semblances are better used from a distance. So once he closes the gap, they can be on an even playing field since his semblance was not the most useful in combat. He quickly activated it, looking into the mirror. Around him, everything turned to black and white, save for a blob of colors where he stood. Mixture of red, blue, and green. He thought. To be expected if I'm being honest. With one more deep breath, he headed towards the exit of the locker room to the combat arena.

The center of the arena was raised about 10 feet. He leapt up looking around, both weapons at the ready. The center circle was extremely well lit, making most everything outside of it being not visible. Seeing no immediate threat, he activated his semblance. His dull blue pupils turned into multicolored brightly lit eyes, scanning his surroundings. He saw a few blotches in the stand. Must be the judges or other teachers. The colors this time were mostly orange and yellow. Directly in front of him however, just outside of the center circle stood a much different colored blob. Mix of blue, red, and grey. Guess I found the prof. He poised defensively, loosely holding his falchion across his body, claws out and ready in his left arm.

"Ulfric Greymane. This will most likely be your last test at Beacon. Please try your best do act accordingly to how I and the other teachers have taught you. Remember what it means to be a Huntsman. Also… good luck" The Combat Professor spoke in her usual manner. Proper and powerful, but reserved.

Suddenly surrounding Ulfric, multiple glyphs appeared. From them, several white summoned Alpha Beowolves rose up. Deciding it would be better to act quickly, Ulfric immediately charged to his right. Spraying bullets in towards the front to keep two on the defensive, he engaged another with his falchion. After a few quick and precise strikes, the summoned Grimm began to fade away. Quickly turning, he took stock of the others. Five more to go… at least for this round. Once again, Ulfric charged towards the next Summon. With a flurry of blows switching of from sword to gun to claws, Ulfric deftly disposed of the other five Summons. As soon as the last one started to disappear, more glyphs appeared. This time only four, but they were all Ursa Majors. Smiling, Ulfric continued fighting on always enjoying when the opponents were big and slow.

Now breathing heavily, Ulfric dealt the finishing blow to the second King Tajitu that had been summoned. What is going on? Now getting frustrated, Ulfric felt his aura running low. He had no idea how long he had been fighting, but had lost track of how many rounds he had gone through. In reality, Ulfric had been fighting for nearly fifteen minutes straight, wave after wave of summoned Grimm bombarding him with attacks. Am I meant to lose this? Nope. Not gonna happen. Wait… there hasn't been another Sum…mon. As he finished that thought, the largest glyph he had ever seen appeared before him. Clambering out of it, a massive suit of armor wielding a great sword. This summoned construct stood before him, gave a slight bow then attacked. Well at least this one is big and- Caught off guard by the speed of the knight, Ulfric barely managed to deflect the blow with both hands, saving him from a massive headache when he would have woken up from the blow. He backed up, trying to gauge exactly how tough this thing was. The knight pressed his attack, leaving no real openings for him to close the distance. Fuck. It's big and disciplined. What the fuck is this thing? Think Ulfric. While being pursed around the circle, he then had a… bold idea. Welp, since it's the last test hopefully won't get in too much trouble for this. If I can't deal with the summon, then maybe deal with the source. Activating his semblance, he found the now red and blue color splotch. Dodging under the great sword, Ulfric leaped towards the Combat Professor hoping to catch her off guard. However, as he neared her a series of black glyphs appeared thrusting him back out into the arena. Quickly looking around, the knight was gone but a new challenger had appeared. Or really the only challenger. Before him, with her rapier poised stood his Combat Professor, Weiss Schnee. Ulfric stood back up trying to catch his breath and readying his weapons.

"So" He spoke while smirking, deep breaths between each word. " if I beat you do I graduate?"

"Do you think you can best me Greymane?"

"Why not give it a SHOT!" He yelled while charging forward. He figured his best chance was to land a hit early on and keep pressing the attack. Weiss, one hand behind her back, barely moved under his assault. She parried everything with ease, only slightly moving her feet. Ulfric disengaged, beginning to realize that there was a reason she was the one teaching combat at Beacon.

"Done already?" Asked Weiss, a little smugness in her voice.

"Well, in the state is I'm in I doubt it would be much of a challenge for you." Ulfric stated, hoping there was something more to the test then him getting his ass handed to him. He was prideful, but not dumb. He knew there was almost 0% chance for him to win 1v1 versus Weiss, even if he was fully rested.

Weiss put down her rapier and assumed her teaching pose. "Well done Ulfric. This will conclude the exam."

"Huh?"

"The test was to see your combat capabilities versus a wide number of Grimm, in which you lasted longer than most students. Then when met with a problem you couldn't solve, you thought outside the box… or in this case the arena. As Huntresses and Huntsmen it is often our job to just deal with Grimm for a short term solutions. But investigating deeper and dealing with the root of the problem is something which every graduate should strive to do. Clearly, at least when you are by yourself, you can keep your head about you and look to solve the bigger issues."

Seeing the slight undercut, he had to agree. He worked well by himself, but his team BURN were all full of prideful and stubborn guys that were not the best at "teamwork".

"Congratulations on graduating Beacon Academy." Weiss said. With that, Ulfric finally became a real Huntsman. Ulfric flashed his cocky smirk, but was slightly undercut by the fact he was still struggling for breath.

*Roughly one year ago*

Ulfric stayed around Vail after graduating Beacon. It was much easier to find solo contracts within and around the large city, rather than have to team up with others and go out to the countryside. He mainly dealt with minor security details for the privileged. He occasionally would get contracts from the police force in helping hunt down/track a wanted criminal. Through the year he managed to at least upgrade his exo-arm. It now fully encased his arm up to his shoulder in a flexible dust-infused steel. It collapsed into just a small metal glove, making it much easier to be discreet. Ulfric still wielded his trusty falchion, which at this moment in time was strapped to his left him. He reached out and grabbed the drink in front of him, idly watching the screen above the bar. He quickly became a regular at the Crow Bar, appreciating the cleanliness, since he normally spent his time in not the best parts of the city. Another contract down. He thought to himself while counting his recently acquired Lien. I figure I can take a day or two off before finding another. It was about noon, day was fairly clear. For Ulfric it was shaping up to be a peaceful uneventful day.

"HeeellllooooOOOOO"

Ulfric nearly jumped at the loud greeting from behind him. He quickly turned since who the hell would be that quite then loud when directly behind him. Once Ulfric had turned, he was met with the sight of two very different individuals. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, though to Ulfric both of them were unknown. The Huntress, judging by the weapons was the one that loudly greeted.

"Hello, my name is Lie Ren, sorry about Nora she gets… excited at times." Ren extended a hand.

Taking the hand in a firm shake, Ulfric responded "Yeah… a bit loud. Didn't even here you enter." Quickly using his semblance, Ulfric wanted to gauge their demeanors towards him. Nora was a bright mixture of red, yellow, and orange. Ren was… nothing? This fact immediately set Ulfric on guard, wary of the two individuals in front of him. "So you here for a drink or what?"

"Actually we came to-"

"Give you a JOB!" Cut in Nora, who did indeed already order a drink from the bar.

Looking at them quizzically "Uhhh okay?" Ulfric said, thrown off by the whole situation. He had never really been personally requested for a job, so this was a change.

"Yes, give you a job. Nora and I are heading up an expansion mission to re-settle a village in between Vale and Haven. We are going about selecting a team for this mission which will be led by one of our friends. We were recommended to offer you a job both due to your skills and semblance."

"Who recommended me?" Ulfric asked, curiosity peaked. Always good to be praised.

"Why the Ice Queen herself silly" Nora replied.

Guessing that means Weiss? It was a nickname he had thrown around during school.

Ren continued. "Correct me if I am wrong, but your semblance allows you to see the feelings/emotions of people right?"

Ulfric nodded in the affirmative not liking that they knew so much about him, and he knew next to nothing about them.

"Then of course having someone like you around a group in the wild would be beneficiary. We could be prepared if the general mood negative and attracting Grimm. Every edge we can have out there to prevent any losses is worth taking." He finished, in his calm voice.

Ulfric could tell these two had put in a good deal of time and thought around this mission. He figured they probably knew he didn't work well with others, but it didn't seem to matter. After another hour or two of figuring out the details, Ulfric eventually agreed to be part of the settlement team of Kuroyuri.

The team left a month later. Upon arriving, Ulfric saw there was about 10 other Hunters and Huntresses, in addition to him, Ren, and Nora. The wolf Faunus was a bit surprised to learn that neither Ren nor Nora were in charge of leading the group though. He scanned the group looking for the leader. In a flash of rose petals, a red-hooded scythe wielder appeared. No way… Is it the Grimm Reaper? Over the past few years in the Hunter/Huntress community, rumors had been circling about their generations Grimm Reaper. Faster than the eye could keep see, red hood, scythe in matching color, silver eyes. She was lorded as one of the all-time legendary Huntresses. As Ulfric was still processing this, the hooded Huntress tripped over her cloak. Nope… definitely not her. Then Nora ran over and hugged her. Yeah… not a Grimm Reaper.

"Noraaaaa get offffff" Said the Huntress. "You're making me look bad!"

Both the Huntresses got up. The scythe wielder spoke up removing her hood. "Hello! I am the leader of the defense group for this trip. My name is Ruby Rose, I look forward to working with you."

Ulfric was surprised to say the least. Ruby looked maybe his age, or barely older. He hung towards the back of the group, now reconsidering his decision to come. Both Nora and Ren seemed competent and did their research, but this Ruby seems… a bit green. He had already signed though, so no backing out now. The handsome amount of Lien and guaranteed work for the next year or so was a bit too enticing for Ulfric to pass up.

The journey started shortly after. Besides the 13 Hunters and Huntresses, there were about 50 civilians. Most ranged from carpenters, blacksmiths, leather workers, farmers. The base jobs of settling a new town, with one or two additional families with a few kids looking for a new start somewhere outside the rule of Vale. With all of the wagons and supplies, the journey would take roughly a month and a half. Ulfric kept mainly to himself. It was quite easy to since while moving all of the defense group was stationed around the civilians, prepared for any attack. Ren also gave Ulfric the job to survey the emotions of the group, to give them the edge against the Grimm. With his shining eyes, the wolf Faunus observed mostly shades of nervousness and excitement with the civilians. The defense group was a whole other situation, shades ranging from boredom, anger, excitement, and nothing. Was it something Semblance related with Ren? Never found anyone that just shows up as blank… even Grimm have shades of color. Lost in his thought about Ren, Ulfric was surprised when Ruby appeared right in front of him… staring directly into his eyes, a little too close for comfort.

"Dust" Ulfric exclaimed, stepping back. "Little close there, don't you think?"

"Oh! Sorry hehe. Your eyes were just sooooo shiny! Was that using your semblance? What colors did you see? What colors am I?"

Ulfric waited till the onslaught of questions was done. "Yes that was my semblance. What's up?"

"We are about to stop for a few days for maintenance! During this, if you want I can take a look at your weapons if you would like an improvement." Little Red said, quickly scanning over his glove and falchion.

"Thanks, but I think I've made all the improvements that I want."

"Oh…" Looking slightly downtrodden Ruby continued. Her colors change to nervous and embarrassed. "Well… if you want them cleaned or anything let me know. I… I really like looking at everyone's weapons. They give me a good look into how the fight!"

"Okayyyy… Maybe." Ulfric said. Meh… probably would be good just to try to fit in. And if it really does help her figure out how I fight might as well. Upon finishing thought, there was a massive roar nearby. Every member of the defense group dropped immediately into a combative stance. To the right through the trees, where Ulfric and Ruby were standing, the largest Beringel Ulfric had ever seen. He looked to Ruby for direction, but she was no longer beside him. Looking back towards the Grimm, Ulfric saw streaks of red, rose petals, and a muzzle flash of a gun. From the time it took Ulfric to look beside him and back up, the Beringel fell on its face, disintegrating into the air. Behind it, with her back facing the group stood Ruby. Scythe out and held behind her. A whirl of rose petals were behind her swirling around her flowing cloak. Holy. Shit. I didn't even see her move. She might actually be the Reaper then. The next hour or so passed without issue. The caravan settled down for a few days rest.

Once two days had passed, Ulfric decided to finally take the potential Grimm Reaper up on her offer. Finding her tent he knocked… well as good as knocking on a tent can be.

"Hey Ruby? You said you wanted to take a look at my weapons?"

Tent flap immediately opening, Ruby looked up towards him. "Oh yes! Come on in."

Going in, it looked like Ruby had brought along her own weapons workshop with her. Random tools, gears, blades, and bullets were scattered across multiple tables. There were a few odd pictures in frames on one table further in that looked like her main station. Ulfric handed Ruby both his falchion and exo-glove. "Here you go. Let me know if you have any… questions." In a blur of movement, Ruby was sitting down at her table, inspecting both weapons. Ulfric got closer to see what she was up to. Though she seemed erratic and a bit clumsy when talking to people, Ulfric noticed her small hands move with extreme precision when handling his tools. Ruby didn't even reply to him, too engrossed in learning about his glove he guessed. Ulfric took this time to look at the photos upon her table. The first was a team of Hunters and Huntresses, none that he recognized. Two black haired individuals on the right, wielding what looked light a greatsword and a sheathed longsword. Both with piercing red eyes. A blonde guy leaning on a tree, no apparent weapon. Then on the far left, someone who looked like Ruby. Silver eyes, white cloak. This figure seemed slightly different though. Hm maybe her mom? The next photo was also a team photo. Ulfric saw Ruby in this one in the front. Two other Huntresses behind and to her left. But his eyes were drawn to the forth. That looks like a young Professor Schnee… Wait.

"Uh Ruby?" Gently tapping her on her shoulder. She looked up back at him. "Were you on a team with Professor Schnee?"

"Pffft Professor Schnee" Ruby giggled. "Sounds so weird hehehe."

"Soooo that's a yes?"

"Oh yeah! Weiss on my team! Wait why? Oh right you went to Beacon?"

Ulfric nodded. "Yeah… wait you lead that team? You look… no offense… but a bit young to be the leader."

"Heh… yeah, that's what I thought to. But the former headmaster Ozpin made me leader of Team RWBY! So it made it a little confusing telling people I was the leader of RWBY. I got into Beacon early. Would have been the youngest ever to graduate… except kind of the graduating part never happened."

"Oh you dropped out?"

"We all did"

"Wait… Weiss never graduated?! And now she is teaching? How the hell did that happen?" Ulfric exclaimed, shocked that a teacher at Beacon had not even made it through the same curriculum.

"The Fall of Beacon happened." Ruby said, looking more serious than Ulfric had seen her before. "We fought there, then set out on our own path. We didn't graduate because there was no place to graduate at. Weiss helped rebuild the academy with Headmistress Goodwitch once our mission was finished. She has worked harder than most people will work in all of their lifes. If there was a person that should be teaching there it is her." Turning back to her work, Ruby seemed a bit off put about this topic.

"Oh… Right." Now feeling extremely dumb that he had not thought of that, Ulfric started to try to backpedal. "Well, she was a very good teacher, a bit cold, but she knew what she was talking about." Ruby didn't respond, seeming to want to focus on her work. With that awkward silence, Ulfric left her tent. He walked back towards his post to wait until Ruby was done with his weapons. Ulfric felt he had finally glimpsed why Ruby was in charge of this group. She might indeed be the Grimm Reaper, but from her tone and conviction when talking about Weiss, Ulfric guessed she had more than enough experience.

/*End Chapter notes

So first off, computer got delayed so that's no fun. But besides that, I started writing this little bonus chapter and the length kind of got away from me! So in the near future you will see the part 2 to this story, as I am sure you can guess it will tie into the overall story. Please let me know what you think of this and whether or not after the part 2 you would like to have these interludes.

*/