The Other Tale

It seemed like calling out to someone you thought had been lost a long time ago, that was more or less what Ruby felt like when she shouted at him.
"LUCIFER!" she calls.
He turned, and a wide grin spread across his face.
"GUYS!"
"You can talk now?" says Weiss.
"Mastered every language two months ago."
"Wait." said Blake "Did you say you mastered every language in Remnant in ONE MONTH?"
He shrugged "Yeah. Information sponge, didn't Ozpin say something like that?"
"You understood him?" said Yang.
"No. I remembered the sounds and understood them after I learned the languages. If you guys have any other questions, follow me. I gotta go see Ozpin for the questioning session that didn't go through the last time. You can add some to the list while you're there."

At Ozpin's office, after everyone was seated, the questions began.
"What's your story, Lucifer?" asked Ozpin.
"I lived in a lab - what lab, I don't know - since I could remember. I got experimented on all the time I was there, though, truthfully, 'tortured' is a better word. They burned me, stabbed me, jabbed me ... you name it, I probably got hurt by it. One day, I guess they decided there was nothing more to learn, so they strapped me to a metal rack and shot me through with electricity. They thought I was dead later - though I was just unconscious - but none of them could say for sure, so they decided to bury me in some forest. I managed to boogie out of there before they could dump the dirt on me, walked I-don't-know-how-far to a rundown-looking house and slept there. I woke up to see myself surrounded by guys pointing guns at me. Though I didn't know anything about guns then, being surrounded ticked me off and I did ... this-"
He reached out with his right hand. It morphed into the same blade that took the Alfa's life.
"They were scared at first, but thought they should bring me to their boss. Now that I think about it, it's the Torchwick guy on the posters everywhere. Anyway, he tried to tell me that I should join them. I didn't know alphabets then so I couldn't understand or respond, and he thought I was being stubborn about not joining, so he ordered to had me put under, uh, 'special convincing techniques' or whatever."
They stared at him.
"Torture me. again. Torture chamber in the basement." he coughed.
"Anyway, I saw the rack, remembered the same rack back at the lab, and broke out of the building and took off.."
"I noticed you skipped from the basement to outside the building." noted Weiss.
"Bloody scene. Don't go there." he said evasively.
"Huh."
"Anyway, I broke out of there, and went on the run. I remembered some of the bloody scene that took place there, and, long story short, told myself I won't take another life for as long as I live. I ran, and ran, and ran. might have ran around the world and did it for decades for all I know. Then, one clear, sunny day, I rammed into Weiss here. It slowed me down enough for the mercenaries after my ass at the time to jump me. You know more or less what happened there, but for the sake of point of view ... I saw you girls try to help me, and the girl with the bunny ears. who was - you know what? introduce me later. Anyway, I saw that, and I sort of thought to myself like 'These are good people.' Then the guy attacked you. At that moment, I made a decision. I won't take an innocent life, but I won't let anyone else get hurt because of me, and I didn't care who I had to kill to make sure of that."
He fell silent for a moment.
"The white-haired guy was my, uh, 'Inner Grimm', i guess. Back at the lab, I was quite a trouble, as far as I remember, so they tried to drive out the Grimm in me. What they really did was drive it into a corner and put bars around it. When I'm mentally weak and he's strong ... in his own way, he can reach out and take control for some time. It was him that broke me out of the building, and it was him that killed those suits, but he can't be controlled, once he's out, it's for blood. Not good."
He paused.
"I ran because I knew whoever was after me would find me again, somehow. I wanted to keep others away from it. But they followed ... actually, more like half of them followed ... me into the Emerald Forest. I found a hiding spot in a bush on the edge of a clearing and hid there. When they came, they got swamped my Beowolves and the Alfa came to kill them. I knew then I had to stop it. You were there because i was. I had to help. I planned to run again later, but three deep claw cuts took away whatever chance there was of that happening."
He sighed and chuckled.
"You know the rest. Ruby and Yang got me back, Peter took me to Ozpin, Ozpin sent me to Signal, I passed Signal in three months and here I am."
Ozpin nodded, and then said with the tone of someone who has made a decision: "Would you like to stay here at Beacon?"
"Worried you wouldn't ask. Not to become a Huntsman, though, I'm going to be a Bounty Hunter."
"Why? Don't want to kill your own kind?" asked Yang.
Lucifer laughed.
"Nope. Nope. No problem killing Grimms here. Hey, those things and me aren't the same thing, I'm different, I have a conscience. Bloodshed isn't part of my nature. No, the reason I'm not going to be a Huntsman is because of the teams thing."
"But why?" asked Ruby.
"Because teams work together. And working with others may stick me into situations I have to abandon my cover."
"Cover?"
Ozpin explained. "Of the things I wrote on the letter I gave him, one was telling him not to let anyone know he was a Grimm."
"And Bounty Hunters are lone wolves, so no worries there."
"I understand." said Ozpin "Effective tomorrow, you will be an official student of Beacon Academy. You will be present during class and any written tests, but physical tests will be taken separately. You may interact with other students in this school, but no more people get to know about you being a Grimm. You will follow the instructions given to you in the letter you have the best you can. Breaking any of these or those I just mentioned will result in expulsion of yourself here. Are you clear?"
"Yes, sir." said Lucifer.
"Very well." said Ozpin "Dismissed."

Outside, some more questions were asked.
"What are your weapons?" asked Ruby.
Pulling out the gun on his right, he said "I call this the 'Handcannon'. High-calibre, long ranged, low magazine capacity. Rock-and-roll dammit-shit-hit-the-fan weapon."
Pulling out the gun on his right, he said "I call this the 'Silent Bite'. Low-calibre, mid ranged, high magazine capacity and suppressor. Ninja weapon."
Pulling out the two daggers, he said "These are the 'Dicers'. I took time sharpening these edges. Hard-wearing metal, it was a tough job. also-" he pulled the trigger on the daggers, and the fell off the hilt and dangled on two strings of barely visible wire each. "Razor wire. Vicious."
"What rifle is that?" asked Ruby.
"This?" he asked, and took it out. "This is just a basic rifle."
"Is that it's name?" joked Yang.
"Oh yeah," he said "Justabasic Rifle."
They all laughed.