Chapter 8: Players and Pieces

~Third POV~

From the Emerald Forest, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna step out into a clearing that reveals the circular stone temple, broken and decrepit but for the platforms around its inside, holding several black and gold objects.

Yang began to investigate the site as she noticed the black and gold objects in question as she speaks out loud to herself Blake, "Think this is it?"

In response, Blake gives Yang an incredulous look and heads down the hill, her partner following. They walk across the floor and observe the items on each pedestal, now shown to be familiar shapes.

Blake looked at a black king, as she then expressed a confused voice about what they found, "Chess pieces?"

Yang then takes notice that there are only a few remaining as she makes her discovery known to her partner, "Some of them are missing. Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

Blake then looks at the chess pieces she concluded as she shrugged her shoulders, "Well, I guess we should pick one."

Yang approaches one of the relics as she studies the golden knight, then picks it up and shows it to Blake in her curious tone of voice, "Hmmmm... How about a cute little pony?"

Blake smirks at this as they walk towards each other to the center of the temple floor as they share a smile, "Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find."

*Rustle*

Hearing some rustling sounds the two noticed a group of four students as Ruby rushed toward her sister Yang into a hug as the other three followed, "YANG!!! I miss you so much!!!"

Yang getting caught off guard by the sudden hug returned it to Ruby as Jae nods at the scene commenting on their family bonds, "Ah family is just a nice thing to see them reunite at times like these. Well then off to the artifacts."

Weiss merely huffs her face at that and Pyrrha just laughs a bit at the commotion that Jae was making but was thinking darkly to himself, 'Still though it would be better they die off soon but fortunately for me though I still need them. Ah… plot you are a real cruel mistress aren't you.'

When they finally approached the temple Jae saw the chess pieces and acted confused as he went to get the gold rook he follows the canon as he spoke, "Chess pieces? Odd choice but I ain't complaining. Don't mind if I take the gold rook Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha nods her head at this not wanting to make some complaints Ruby was done hugging Yang as she gets up to pick the gold knight piece, "Oh so these are the artifacts? In that case, I'll get the pony it looks cute right?"

Weiss grumbles at this as the group were about to move out they were interrupted by something from the distance…

*BOOM*

*CRACK*

*THUD*

"AHAHAHAHA!!!"

Before the group can continue, several crashing noises are heard in the forest ahead of them, and an Ursa comes out, claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground, depositing its rider.

That said person was Nora as she rolls off of the creature's back, then gets up and groaned, saddened as she spoke, "YEEEE-HAAAAW! Awwww... It's broken. Hmhmhmhm…."

She dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass as Ren comes up behind her. Panting and leaning on the monster Ren began to speak to his friend in a tired tone, "Nora! Please... Don't ever do that again."

However, he never got a reply as he began to look up again and notices by the pink dotted outline of where his partner should be that Nora has run off again and looked around frantically in worry.

Nora is now in the Temple, staring at a golden rook relic as she suddenly grabs it, as the law of physics as stars and her hammer symbol playing in the pink background as she dances and sings with the chess piece like a cartoon character, "Oooohh... I'm the queen of the castle! I'm the queen of the castle!"

"Nora!"

Nora stops dancing with the rook on her head, then salutes, dropping the relic into her hand as she skips off in her friend's direction. But Blake the obvious began to point out what Nora did confuse about what just occurred, "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"

Jae for his part couldn't help but let his smile escape his face with Pyrrha noticing it as he laughs a bit at how odd Nora and Ren were to him, "Hahaha… Have to admit though they are a pretty amusing duo so far. But still, though we should probably get out of here before something nasty comes out."

Hearing this everyone simply nods their heads as they began to leave making Jae think to himself honestly surprised by how successful the trial is with him manipulating certain events from happening, 'So far everything has been going according to cake so far. With Weiss and Ruby tagging along with Pyrrha and me, we managed to avoid the Nevermore and Death Stalker fight event to happen. Huh? I would expect some Grimm or some kind of rare one to pop up guess that only works on fiction well good.'

Without Ruby getting lost following Jae and Pyrrha the fight with the Nevermore never happened and with Jae leading the charge they also prevented the event of the Death Stalker to happen as well.

Thus with the successful saves, they managed to get through the trial with complete ease as they proceed to the next stage….

…

…

Now inside an auditorium that shows each of the huntsmen-in-training profiles as the boys are lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continues to speak to the crowd of students of the ones that passed the trial, "Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"

*Clap**Clap**Clap*

The audience gives one more wave of ovation, while four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen. Jae for his part though is extremely nervous about his part in front of a crowd as he swallows his spit.

Ozpin then begins to announce the team names of those that passed as he began to speak in a ceremonious tone of voice to them, "Jae Green. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by... Pyrrha Nikos! Congratulations, young lady."

Amid the clapping, Nora laughs and hugs Ren as Pyrrha herself is honestly surprised by the turn of events she spoke surprised, "Huh? L-Led by...?"

Grinning at this Jae offers a friendly shoulder bump to Pyrrha as he began to motivate her while being playful with her, "Way to go Pyrrha! Hope you can guide us well as our leader for the next four years. I know you are going to be the best there is I know it."

Pyrrha just blushes out of embarrassment at this as Nora and Ren come along saying the same with words of encouragement as Jae thinks to himself funnily, 'Assuming that you live past the volume 3 of course. But hey fewer stones in my way the better.'

Ozpin then finally motions over to the next four protagonists of RWBY have to offer as they stand before him as he spoke normally, "And finally Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

Weiss looks to her right surprised, whereas Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister as Yang says words of encouragement to her as Ozpin amid the last round of cheers begins to look at his students as he spoke seriously to himself, "It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year."

…

…

In another place at the night and seeing the moon through a window, providing a view of the outside for a shadowy room filled with shelves and a desk in the back, where Roman Torchwick is getting a call on his phone.

The muffled conversation ends with Cinder getting scolded for a job gone wrong thanks to the efforts of Ruby Rose as Roman places his hand over his head as he spoke out frustrated, "Fuck. Fucking with the red hood messed up with the operation making things be put in jeopardy…. Well, then missy next time I'll try better so bye."

*Click*

*BAM*

Roman angrily slams the phone down, sighing. He holds a cigar to his mouth and puts his symbolized lighter to the end, just as a man in a gray mask and black hood comes with a trolley. Roman holds out a collection of Lien, which he places on the table and the man takes.

The masked man does so with a crowbar, revealing a large number of Dust crystals of varying colors - orange, blue, white, red, green, cyan, gold, yellow, and more. Roman picks up a blue gem in his hand and looks at the loot.

Roman seeing the job well done could only sigh at the scene as he talks to himself tired of his shit, "Fuck we need extras for this. We're gonna need more men... Neo is on a job, that seconds me off with Cinder Bitch, and the only competent kid is at school. Sigh… I need a day off from this gig."

With that Roman began to take a whiff of his cigar as he inhales the contents and releases a breath of smoke out from his mouth as he begins to collect the Lien as he talks to himself tired but not defeated, "Whew… at least though I won't let that Little Green take any Lien since he didn't help out on the job. Hehe. Talk about leaving the loot to Neo and me at least. But I can't tell if I'm lucky to get the loot or unlucky that Little Green doesn't follow that bitch orders. Oh well."

…

…

Elsewhere inside the dorm room of team JNPR as Jae was finally awake as the rest of his team is sleeping, he began to work on his scroll in the late dead of night.

What he was working on was a virus program he developed after years of learning in his classes and paid instructors of professional hackers from the Black-Market underworld. For the last years, he was specifically planning for the time to come for a certain event to happen in the coming days…

He obtained a large sum of Lien in his underworld name as an infamous info broker and dealer to the right people as well as the informant at times for Roman and Neo. He learned from the best of the best at the time so he could only make do with spending his Lien on stuff he needed.

The scene soon changes as he works on a reprogramming virus with the keywords written on the side of the scroll screen…

'Project…. Reform... Penny.exe…'

---

A/N: As you can see the MC has already been planning and learned from what he can about the dark underbelly of the RWBY world. He knows a lot of things as well hired professional help with the amount of Lien he stole during the years under Roman and Neo other than just robbing people but also robbing the rich to further his own goals as well search for certain people... in the process...