Shit... Okay, before anyone else reads the rough edit of this chapter I'm replacing it with this one. Sorry for the inconvenience and hopefully this edit is just as good as the rough draft.
'Do you believe in gods, Mr. Lefrenier? Do you believe in mystical beings that created, and rule over, their own segments of the world? If so, then where are they now..?'
June, 2038
"There's an old legend that goes back to about the generation of our parent's time here at Beacon," A young man wearing a pair work boots, dark blue denim pants, and a black hoodie under an equally dark coloured leather coat that extended down to his knees with a grey bandanna that covered his face while the hood covered the rest of his head said as eight other students that had formed a circle around a dimly lit dorm room paid close attention to his story. It was the last week of the semester at Beacon, and teams RWBY and JNPR had decided to throw a small party amongst themselves and a few guests that they had wanted to join in on the fun. Of which, only one actually showed up thus far, so they had decided on swapping stories until more came. "A legend," he continued after a brief pause to take a sip from his soda, "about how the Headmaster and the team he lead came to be, and how they were brutally torn from this realm of existence..." His voice was calm, but the way he told the story made it seem like he was there to experience the events firsthand.
"This should be good," Yang stated absentmindedly, twirling a lock of her blond mane around one of her fingers.
"Wait, Jon... What do you mean by 'This realm of existence'?" Ruby asked, slightly tilting her head. "Like, they're aliens from another universe or something?"
"Not exactly," Jon replied, thinking on how to phrase his next few sentences so that everyone would understand. "It's more like they found a wormhole to another universe in a way, or so the story goes."
"Bor-ring!" The ever hyper Nora blurted out. "Get to the part with all the action and fighting and stuff!"
Chuckling, Jon raised his hands saying "Fine, if I must. Long story short on one of their missions, team JONS, Ozpin's team, were tasked with storming this abandoned hospital sweep & clear style, but wound up one of their team members, while another died going after the first... Only Ozpin and someone by the name of James got out, haunted by what they saw..."
"Well, that's not dark at all!" Jaune said sarcastically before getting an elbow to the side from Pyrrha that shut him up.
"But..." Jon continued, ignoring the blond leader's comment. "Rumor has it that someone tried bombing this place not too long ago, with enough explosives to level a city block, but when the dust cleared, the building was unscathed and the bomber was found walking in the deserts of Vacuo totally drenched in blood." Weiss gagged at the thought, the others showed their thoughts on their faces from disgust to a mild interest in what might have happened.
Blake set her book to the side, sighing. "That rumor is true..." she began, the angst of her thoughts hung on every word. "The White Fang use to use that hospital as a training grounds for only the toughest of their combatants, but it was more so used to eliminate traitors and those that turned on the rest of their faction for any reason..."
"You know of it?" Jon asked, wanting to confirm a suspicion that arose from her description of the facility in question.
"During my time with them, I managed to clear it a few times," the Ravenette admitted, lowering her head as a shiver overwhelmed her. "But it's only thanks to someone that haunts that place that I'm still alive..."
Nodding understandingly, he sighed, deciding to finish the story. "Apparently, and correct me if I'm wrong Blake, the reward at the end of it is that you have some sort of gift bestowed upon you as well as you can keep everything you're carrying: lien, ammo, weapons, armour..." Looking to Blake, she nodded, her amber eyes glossed over with tears as she was pulled into a hug from the blond brawler beside her. "But if one does enter this place, time outside of it pauses and warps around them so if they make it out alive, it's like nothing ever happened." Again, another nod. "But the wormhole factor of this whole thing is that apparently if you clear this place in a fast enough time, you can travel time or something like it."
A silence fell over the room that was almost deafening, until a wolves howl emitted through the open window that made all of the students jump.
October
Jon was standing in front of the door leading to team RWBY's room…
But he was nervous about asking one of its occupants to the party that one of the Clans, multiple teams that had joined together to form one formal company, had told him about. The only conditions were that you had to bring your own drink (of which he went and got a 2-4 of whisky and rum,) you had to be in costume, and you had to bring someone with you, due to previous parties going astray and a lot of expensive things were damaged and enough idiots would be drunk that night and the plus one would need to drag the other back to their dorm.
'Relax, Jonathan…' he thought as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves 'The worst that could happen is that she denies your invite… right..?'
Raising a balled fist to the door in front of him to knock, the door suddenly swings open and a very pissed off Ruby Rose steps out with her back turned to him, screaming "Like fucking hell I'm going as that two-bit, trashy whore!"
"But Ruby-" Yang tries to but in, but is stopped by Ruby's rant continuing where it left off at.
"No! And that's final!" The Crimson leader yells before slamming the door shut, and sliding down the wall to the left of it.
She was dressed in a black and grey with red highlights coat with a matching colour scheme for her skirt and knee length boots. Her trademark red cloak pinned to her collar, and Crescent Rose slung over her right shoulder. A secondary weapon that Jon had only seen once as nothing but scrap parts on a table her with slung over her left he assumed was the finished work of her latest weapon: a sniper/great axe that, to his knowledge, didn't have a name. To top the outfit off, she dyed her now mid-bicep length hair in the same colour as her cloak.
"There's no way I'm wearing a full leather suit strapped with knives to this party…" she mumbled to herself, oblivious to her audience. "Even if he'd find it 'sexy' or if it 'upped my odds' with him... It's unethical and unnecessary."
Deciding he had heard enough, Jon leaned up against the opposite wall, saying "You never know..."
Looking up quizzically, a blush to rival her cloak crawled up from her neck as she stammered "H-How long have you been there!? How much did you hear!?"
Chuckling lightly, he sat down beside her, raising a knee in front of his chest, allowing the other to fall beside him as he crossed his arms and rested them on his erect leg. "Well… everything after you opened your door and yelled at your sister."
"Half sister" she corrected, causing a puzzled look to cross Jonathan's face, an equally confused stair followed as they maid eye contact. "Different mothers, but the same dad." She explained while looking away.
"I see." he responded in a light monotone.
A moment of silence followed before he broke it off.
"You going to that Halloween party tonight?" He asked, adjusting his glasses.
"It's a couples party, Jay," she said, sadness edging its way into her voice. "That and I'm still single..."
"You really want to go to this party, right?" he asked, looking towards the crimsonette leader, hoping to catch a glance of her silver eyes.
"More than anything…" she whispered, tilting her head towards the ceiling and resting her head on the wall behind her with a light thud.
"Even cookies..?" he asked, not anticipating the open palm moving towards his face that ended with a loud SMACK, and Ruby pouting beside him adorably. "Ow! Damn, I was kidding!" chuckling, he rubbed his now reddened cheek.
Sighing, Jonathan considered his next words carefully, before blurting them out. "Ruby..." he practically whispered, not bothering to hide his desperation any further, looking directly ahead of him.
"Yeah..?" She asked, curiosity now leaking into her voice.
"Remember that time we first met?" he asked, rewarding him with a quizzical look again, but he continued anyway. "I figured at that time that you would never notice a nobody like me in Goodwitch's class, and even if you did, you'd never return the feelings I had for you..." he confessed, not caring what happened during it all; he had taken a fancy to the young Reaper at the beginning of the semester the year before, never having the nerve to say anything to her directly and playing the awkward idiot for the longest time.
Still confused, she said "Jay... What exactly are you trying to say?"
A heavy sigh left the young man, giving him a moment to revaluate his confession. After what might have been the longest moment in history, he said "Say if I go as your date…"
"Jay-"
"And this being possibly the first of many…" he interrupted, wanting to get as much of what he needed to say in that moment through to her.
The confusion that had just masked her face melted away to realization and anticipation. "Jay, are you..." is all that she managed as her voice trailed off, hoping that what she thought was happening actually was.
"Yup." he said coolly, anticipating her question.
"You know that-"
"Don't care about the numbers between us." he replied flatly, the corner of his lip twitching upwards a little.
"You relies that-"
"Ruby…" he said looking into her silver eyes for a moment before responding, "Dose it look like I give a fuck what others think about me? Primarily my relationship status?"
A moment passed as she thought about his question and giggled. "Good point."
"Soo…?" he asked, anticipation filling his voice.
"Race you there?" she asked, standing up and straightening her dress.
"No use of semblances!"
"Wha? Come on! What's the point in it then?" She pouted causing the slightly older man (about a year and a half difference) before running past him down the hall towards the stairwell while he was distracted as her pouting.
Struggling to keep up with her, they both made their way to a quiet wing on Beacon's property. Upon arriving to the Clan's private dorm, they were greeted with light music that could be heard behind the buildings doors and lights flickering behind the windows. The building itself looked as if it hadn't been used in years: shattered windows, boarded up side entrances, and chains locked on the front door, spray painted "Keep out! Death awaits" on it.
"This is it?" Ruby asked, trusting her instincts and drawing her scythe.
"Apparently." he said, activating his weapon, "Shall we?"
After a moment of hesitation, she wordlessly nods, as Jon takes out a key, inserts it into the lock on the door, and removing the chain on it.
Opening the door, a raspy voice asks "What… is the colour… of night…?"
Jon, knowing the answer, says "Sanguine, my brother."
The doors creak open, Ruby keeps both her now drawn weapons in their compacted gun forms on the door as the voice says "Welcome… home…"
"Jay…" a worried Ruby says, activating a flashlight attached to her axe's under barrel that lights the darkened hallway ahead of them, "What the fuck is this place..?"
He activates the flashlight on his shotgun before cocking his weapon, and says "The closest thing we got to Hell by the looks of it..." walking in, he asks, "Remember the story I told your team and JNPR back in June?"
"What about it?" she asks, sticking close to him.
"The place was formally called The Gamble over the summer." he explained. "I think this might be it."
"Fuck sakes" the siper says. "What're we up against?"
A blood curdling screech comes from around the corridor, sending the crimsonette on edge.
"Sounds like we got demons this time... Guess we lucked out-"
The screech rings out again as a humanoid in hospital clothing charges them. Taking aim, he fires a single slug into the creatures head. Hitting true, its head explodes as its corps falls lifelessly to the ground.
"Ruby. I'll need you to trust me with this and cover my six." He stated between shots. "I'll explain later."
"This better be a damn good explanation, Jay!" she yelled, firing at whatever came down the hallway.
After dispatching ten more of the creatures, he rotates the custom drum mag of his shotgun, loading in explosive rounds, and sarcastically said "Maybe I'll just take a stroll instead."
As the hordes came, they where just as fast destroyed. After what seemed like three hours of combat, the bodies evaporated and a faint buzzer ran through the halls, followed be a female voice saying, "Floor one complete. Time: Twenty-one minutes."
"Twenty-one minutes flat? Not bad. Almost a record." Jon said as he reloaded his empty clips. "I suggest you do the same."
Dropping her magazines, she says "You mentioned an explanation before all hell broke lose?"
Sighing, he replied calmly "Yeah... Over the summer, I did some digging on The Gamble when I could between flipping burgers, and managed to find some info leading back to the origins of this whole thing... Apparently this thing moves from one abandoned location to the next and upping it's wave factor with every 'floor' we clear... Seriously, you wont be getting those back if you leave them, load them back up."
Deadpanning, she asks "Aaaaaannnnddd whose idea was this?"
"The Headmaster before Ozpin." he replied, loading what shells he had left into a drum mag.
Loading her empty clips, she thought about what she had just went through, and if she'd ever make it out alive.
Loading a clip into his gun, he turned to her and asked "Ready to go?"
Sighing, she reinserted the clips into her rifles, trained her weapons on him, confusion and fear morphed her face into something close to hysteria. "How exactly did you know what was coming for us before it did?"
"Because this isn't my first time here." He sighed. Looking her in the eye, he wore a mask of sadness and seriousness. Both translated into his voice as he explained, "Like I said before, this place is a gateway between worlds: we enter and train, but time back in our world stops until we finish. Every 'floor', once cleared, is like a enemy free dungeon in an RPG video game: loot is able to be plundered, in this case ammo types, lien and weapons parts will be optimal. Every five or so floors a merchant can be found to buy gear and ammo. Around every ten or fifteen is a 'boss' that we have to kill to proceed. This making sense to you?"
"All but one thing…" she said as she lowered her guns, seething Crescent Rose, but keeping her ax trained on him from the hip, "If this is a training ground, what are we supposed to be training for?"
"Which leads me to the team/clan forming." He continued, not missing a beat "Every two or three floors there'll be a civilian from another world. Only three others have reportedly survived this from our world: me, the Headmaster before Ozpin, and our worlds Beta Testers: Team JONS. Rumor has it Scarlet 'Kill Smith' Mason still reside here. The Headmaster keeps coming back to this Hellhole because he can and will, Kill Smith to bring back a fallen friend, went by .50 or something like it. Anyways, if we can find someone and persuade them to join us, it'll quicken the cleared times per 'floor', and reaping its rewards that much faster."
"What do you mean by 'reaping its rewards'?" She asked, annoyance the only thing in her voice.
Taking off his glasses to clean them, he remains silent until he reapplies them to speak again. "Every minute you don't use per floor is added to a counter, everyone's different for their usage, but the theory behind it remains the same: we can use each minute we save to travel time lengths or add them to a life of our choosing. An example being you can turn back time and visit a long dead relative or even resurrecting them with enough saved time."
"And how many floors do we have to clear before we can go home again?"
"99 and the rest of this one... You sure about this?" he asked with a raised brow?
"Do we have a choice? C'mon, let's get going." she said, walking on ahead of him.
Again, sorry for the wrong chapter. Fair warning: my upload time for chapters is as random as Ruby is fast. If you guys like the rough draft better (for those who read it), either drop a review or fire off a PM to me and I'll see what I can do.