Alright, so I'm finally back. As you can imagine, Volume 3 of RWBY rather threw a barrel of monkey wrenches into my plans for this story, so as a result, instead of being set after Volume 3, most of this will happen between episodes 5 and 6 of that volume (i.e., before Yang is framed), or even earlier. Contrarily, on the Avatar side, the post-series graphic novels through Smoke and Shadow have already happened (mostly; time shenanigans). If you haven't read the comics, don't worry too much - these are still the characters you know, just a few years older. The main thing is that Zuko found his mom. While I'm hoping to prevent this story from contradicting anything in Volume 4 of RWBY, I'm not worrying so much about maintaining continuity with the next set of comics, North and South, due for release in October, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens there.

Legend of Korra is also the canon future here, and that'll be important for this first chapter. However, this is an Avatar/RWBY fic, not a Korra one, so you shouldn't expect these characters to become the focus.

I find the idea of a disclaimer a bit silly when "fanfiction" is in the website's name, but I don't own either of these shows nor the aforementioned comics. If you're reading this anywhere besides FFN, then someone has stolen this thievery from me.

"Greetings, fiction fans, and welcome to the long-awaited sequel to RWBY: The Last Airbender, appropriately titled Book 2: The Second One! I'm Shiro Shinobi, and joining me all the way from Vale's prestigious Beacon Academy is none other than Professor Bartholomew Oobleck!"

"That's Doctor Oobleck! And yes Shiro I'm absolutely delighted to be here with you today for the recap of the previous story so let's not waste any time and dive right into it shall we? Last time in this outlandish crossover between these two popular American-made yet anime-influenced productions we found Avatar Aang searching desperately for a way to end the hundred-year-long war with the Fire Nation without being forced to take the life of their leader Fire Lord Ozai for all life is sacred to the airbending monks who raised him. After even the advice of his own past lives failed to console him Aang discovered the last living lion turtle and upon presenting it with his dilemma he was promptly whisked away to an entirely different world known only as - Remnant."

"Indeed! Remnant, a world home to soulless monsters called Grimm and the Huntsmen and Huntresses who slay them, is where the Avatar met Team RWBY, a group of four Huntresses-in-training who would ultimately aid him in his quest! Ruby Rose, the young, enthusiastic team leader; Weiss Schnee, the abrasive heiress to the Schnee Dust Company; Blake Belladonna, the stealthy Faunus with a troubled past; and Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half-sister, who burns with a fiery determination! After some comedic shenanigans, Team RWBY was launched into the Emerald Forest alongside Aang, tasked with protecting him from the bloodthirsty Grimm who dwelt within!"

"Aang had a run-in with a mysterious multicolored femme fatale known to the fandom as Neopolitan before finally encountering the Grimm and confirming for himself that these monsters lack even a simple animalistic soul. Following this however he met a strange man-shaped Grimm entity that displayed human-level intelligence and waterbending abilities and was eventually revealed to the readers to be the corrupted remains of the villain Unalaq from Avatar's sequel series The Legend of Korra, although because Korra's storyline takes place seventy years after Aang's the Avatar himself did not recognize the fiend and he remained something of a mystery in-universe even after his defeat."

"The monstrous Grimmlock proved impossible to destroy by conventional means, despite the fact that weaponry and intrinsic powers in the world of Remnant tend to take very unconventional forms! With Team RWBY unable to vanquish the villain, Aang attempted to purge the darkness from Unalaq's soul using his newly-acquired power of Aura! In Remnant, all beings possessing a soul are capable of manifesting an Aura, which allows them to shield against damage from lethal attacks, heal wounds more quickly, and trigger the additional powers of Dust, a natural substance mined from the earth with a plethora of seemingly magical abilities!"

"As Aang's spiritual energy battled the darkness within Grimmlock all other Grimm in the area were drawn to the pure hatred emanating from the corrupted waterbender and Team RWBY was forced to hold them off to further protect the young Avatar. Things looked grim in more ways than one but eventually Aang's light overcame the darkness and Grimmlock disappeared completely with the surge of positive spiritual energy driving away the remaining Grimm. Aang was then transported back to his own world and in an even more impressive battle he subdued the Fire Lord and used his new ability to bend the energy within a person's soul to take away Ozai's firebending powers thereby rendering him unable to coerce people by force thus ending the war and bringing a new age of peace to his world."

"Right you are, Doctor! But Aang's short time in Remnant left Team RWBY, as well as readers of the story, wondering if the two worlds would ever collide again! Now, the wait is over!"

紅白黑黃降卋神通
RWBY: The Last Airbender

第二個
Book 2: The Second One

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

Red. White. Black. Yellow.

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

A hundred years passed and my brother Sokka and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. Although his airbending skills were great, he had a lot to learn before he was ready to save anyone. But from the day I first met him, I believed Aang would save the world. And you know what?

I was right. With the help of his friends, Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai and ended the Hundred Year War. Zuko, Ozai's son and our ally, became the new Fire Lord. Together with Earth King Kuei, Aang and Zuko promised to return the four nations to harmony.

But even with friends working hard all over the world, maintaining balance was a neverending struggle. The sovereignty of the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom, lingering support for Ozai in the Fire Nation, the rift between humans and spirits, the clashing of tradition and innovation - these were all sources of conflict even after the war.

It is the duty of the Avatar to lead the world down the right path. Along with those he regards as his new family - Sokka, Zuko, Toph, Appa and Momo, and of course his loving girlfriend - Aang has continued to fulfill his destiny, and stands as a beacon of light in the darkness, a symbol of peace for the four nations of the world.

But one day the question arose . . . what does an Avatar do when he finds himself with more than one world to worry about?

For in some worlds, even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone, darkness will return . . .

With the sun roughly halfway over the horizon, the dawn sky was a burning sheet of orange, unbroken due to the absence of cloud cover. Appearing first as just a mild disturbance, almost imperceptible in the intense light, a Satomobile cut its way across the barren landscape, kicking up a powerful tail of dust. Highlighted by the sun, the car drove - and drove. Its driver, for the time, remained stoic, while the fire ferret in the passenger's seat slept through the engine's roar, its tail curled over its head.

Eventually, a figure became visible before the vehicle, and it slowed its pace. By the time the car reached the woman - standing, ever so importantly, in the middle of nowhere - it had decelerated to a crawl, and finally turned off to the side before stopping.

The woman opened the driver's side door, and the driver stepped out, removing the helmet that had been obscuring his boyish face. The two smiled at each other.

"Zhu Li," Bolin said, offering her a hand, which she shook. "It's been a while. How was the honeymoon?"

Zhu Li rolled her eyes, but maintained her smile. "As good as I could have expected. The Fire Nation has some breathtaking scenery, but also a lot of . . ." She glanced backward over her shoulder. "Distractions."

Some distance behind her, a man flitted this way and that over a ring of bizarre-looking machines arranged in a completely unremarkable location in the larger, aforementioned middle of nowhere. Despite the size and complexity of the machines, there seemed to be no one else around, leaving Bolin to wonder how the metallic behemoths had been transported.

With a light purring noise, Pabu climbed out of the Satomobile and onto Bolin's shoulder. Zhu Li reached up and scratched the fire ferret behind the ear while Bolin tried, vainly, to extract some kind of meaning out of the appearance of Varrick's devices. As usual, the man himself interfered before this could be accomplished.

"There you are, kid! Great to see ya! How's the gang these days?"

Bolin reflected. "Opal's good. Mako's -"

"Okay, don't need the life story," said Varrick, grabbing Bolin and Zhu Li by the arms and dragging them toward the odd machines.

"Is this all just measurement equipment?" Bolin asked as they skidded to a halt.

"Yeah," said Varrick, "well, I don't know what all I need to measure, so, y'know, better safe than sorry."

Leaning over one of the devices and stroking his chin, Bolin's expression changed from curious to concerned. "If that's what I think it is, then I don't know about safe . . ."

Embedded within the machine was a cylinder containing a severed portion of a woody, green vine. Purplish light was emanating from the vine, and innumerable wires were connected to the cylinder, snaking every which way. The machine was emitting a low humming sound.

Zhu Li put a hand on Bolin's unoccupied shoulder. "I wasn't happy about it either, but admittedly it was the only way to get enough power to properly analyze this sample."

"And the infamous sample is . . . ?" Bolin inquired.

Varrick swooped into position behind them, and they turned to look. Held in his hand was a yellow crystal, as large as the man's torso but apparently not weighing much; the way that light played within it gave it an otherworldly quality. Varrick thrust the gem into Bolin's grasp, then returned to his erratic examination of the ring of devices. Bolin lifted the sample and peered at it from different angles, and Pabu imitated him. Neither could find their faces reflected amongst the visual chaos, and they shot each other a look of uncertainty.

"We're gonna have to boost the power to a hundred and five percent," came Varrick's voice. Bolin turned to find him on the other side of the ring, where one of the machines appeared to have a control panel built into it. "We'll have a limited window here, so when you're done gawking at the thing, we should get started." The mechanical hum increased in volume as Varrick eased a lever upward.

"I don't understand," Bolin said. "Korra and Asami found this in the Spirit World?"

"Yeah, but a really weird part of the Spirit World," Varrick nodded, pressing buttons.

"I'm pretty sure all of the Spirit World is a really weird part," said Bolin.

Zhu Li attempted a better explanation. "According to the spirits in the area, this crystal is not typical of their world, and such otherworldly artifacts habitually show up in that particular location. In short, not even the spirits know what it is."

"Which means," Varrick shouted over the increasing bass hum, "we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today! That's where you come in!"

This much Bolin had been informed of already. "Pabu," he said, "this could be dangerous. Wait with Zhu Li, okay?" After a scratch beneath the chin, Pabu happily hopped over to Zhu Li's shoulder, and she walked around to join her husband while Bolin carried the crystal into the center of the circle of machinery. Setting it down, he took a few steps back, and then a proper stance.

One of the machines gave off a loud bang and a plume of black smoke, followed by a sizzling crackle and a spark of electricity. Bolin turned to Varrick and yelled, "Are you sure this is safe?!"

"Don't worry, kid! If you do exactly what I tell you, everything will be fine!"

"I don't know how you can say that!" Zhu Li interjected. "Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely!"

"A what?!" Bolin bellowed.

"Never mind!" said Varrick as another machine sparked. "Just do the thing!"

Taking a deep breath amidst all the noise, Bolin simultaneously stomped his foot and spread his hands apart, and the ground underneath the yellow crystal was within seconds melted into a pool of glowing red lava. The typical burst of heat washed over the earthbender, but he was more concerned with the purple arcs of electricity that sprouted from each machine and met in the center, writhing all over the surface of the crystal.

"Is that supposed to happen?!" he asked urgently.

"It's probably not a problem!" Varrick replied, frantically pressing buttons. "Probably!"

The crystal sparked, and then a solid shaft of purple light shot skyward out of it. The blast was all too reminiscent of those produced by Kuvira's spirit energy cannon.

"Oh dear!" cried Zhu Li. "Bolin, get away from the beam!"

Bolin wasted no time in producing a slanted pillar of earth beneath his feet that launched him away from the increasingly bright column of energy. He landed heavily as the beam began to give off a high-pitched whine.

"Shutting down!" Varrick yelled, yanking at levers. When nothing changed, he corrected himself, "Attempting shut down . . . It's not . . . i-it's not - it's not shutting down! It's -"

Purple explosions began manifesting in the air around the beam. Bizarrely, it began raining black, animal-like figures - they would fall out of one explosion and then disappear into another before they hit the ground. Zhu Li pulled Varrick away from the control panel, and then everything went black for Bolin.

After a moment, he realized that he could still hear himself breathing, which suggested he was actually still conscious. But no matter how much he tried opening and closing his eyes, all he saw was darkness.

Then there was a purple flash of light, and he could once more see the malfunctioning machinery. It appeared that Varrick, Zhu Li, and Pabu were unharmed -

A second flash, and suddenly Bolin was standing in the Spirit World. He recognized the location as the site of the new spirit portal that led to Republic City, though he did not recognize the two oblong spirits in front of him. But Republic City was so far away -

Flash, now he had no idea where he was. Some kind of forest, and all the leaves were red - it seemed to be autumn, because they were falling. Standing before him in a semicircle were several unpleasant-looking - spirits? Animals? He had never seen anything like them before. They vaguely resembled wolves, but stood on their hind legs in a hunchbacked position, and their fur was entirely black. On their heads were strange, bony masks or helmets of some kind, and their eyes glowed fiery red from beneath these. They sniffed at him and one another uncertainly, and then one approached him and raised its claw to strike.

Flash. He was back again. With a monstrous noise, all of the machines exploded, and the beam of energy finally ceased, leaving just a large crater in the ground where the crystal had been. There was no trace of the yellow gem remaining, nor any of the black creatures.

As Bolin jogged over to where Varrick and Zhu Li sat on the ground, Zhu Li slapped Varrick on the back of the head.

"I told you it was too dangerous!"

Varrick frowned at the smoking heap of charred metal and earth. "I never thought I'd see a resonance cascade, let alone create one . . ."

As Bolin helped them to their feet, Pabu climbed back onto his shoulders. Varrick brushed the dust off of himself and then did the same for his wife, who seemed to take it as something of an apology. Finishing this, he suddenly narrowed his eyes at the nearest of the machines, and then darted over to it. A singed slip of paper was hanging from a slit in the machine's side; Varrick swiped it up and held it close to his face as he bounded back over to the others.

Lowering the paper and grinning widely, he said, "Ha! We're in the clear!" He shoved the printout toward Bolin, who took it from his hand as he continued, "According to these readings, the secondary effects of this cascade won't be felt for some seventy-odd years! That's plenty of time for Korra to come up with a solution. If she and Asami aren't too, y'know - busy." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

The information on the paper swam before Bolin's gaze, eluding the formation of any meaning. But one thing did stand out to him.

"What's this minus sign here?"

"Hwhuh?" Varrick asked, snatching the paper back. After a close examination he said, "Well I'll be a hog monkey's uncle, you're right! It's seventy-some years in the past, not the future."

"In the past?!" exclaimed Bolin. "How is that even possible?!"

Varrick jabbed the paper with his finger and reprimanded, "You just showed me how!"

The earthbender looked one way and another as unpleasant possibilities flocked through his mind. "But if the past gets changed, doesn't that mean we could all just disappear?!"

"Of course not!" said Varrick with a dismissive wave. "If that were going to will have already happened, it would've already . . ." He thought for a moment. "Happened!"

"But - but - when I was getting zapped around back there, I could've just gotten trapped in the past!" Bolin's eyes widened. "Wait a minute! How do I know you're really Varrick, and not some great-great-ancestor of Varrick who's also named Varrick?!" He pointed at Zhu Li, his finger an inch from her nose. "And how do I know you're the regular Zhu Li, and not some alternate dimension Zhu Li?!" Then he gasped, and removed Pabu from his shoulders, holding him at arm's length. "Are you even Pabu?!"

The fire ferret tilted his head and let out a short squeak.

Once more, Zhu Li placed a hand on Bolin's shoulder. Affecting a motherly tone, she said, "Bolin, settle down. This isn't the past, and if there are alternate versions of us . . ." She glanced down uncertainly for a moment, but then smiled back up at him. "Well, I'm sure we'd still be friends."

Bolin gave a relieved sigh and held Pabu close to his chest.

"Besides . . ." Zhu Li added, wrapping her arms around her husband, who responded with a toothy smile. "If anything, this event should be a reminder that -" she kissed him lightly on the cheek - "there's only one Varrick."

Bolin rubbed Pabu on the head as he tried to think more calmly about the possibilities of the resonance cascade. Seventy years ago . . . Avatar Aang's time. What kind of craziness was about to have already been unleashed back then?