Authors note: Keep in mind as you read that not all the opinions are correct, they are opinions after all. Some characters have viewpoints that are "wrong", that's not the case. People have their own way of doing things even when they are different from the norm or expected. Some of the things they say may seem confusing or wrong at first, but have explanations later down the line.
The lounge aboard Shepard's ship was relatively comfortable, featuring a semicircle couch around a large circular table, not unlike the one they had woken up at in Mos Eisley. It was confusing to Ruby to have one part of your ship be comfortable while the rest of it was so… not. But Ruby hadn't seen most of the ship yet, maybe the rest of it was just as nice and it was only the cockpit and hallway that were simple and uncomfortable. After a few minutes Shepard and Blake came from the cockpit and joined them around the table. Blake sat down at the table with the rest of them while Shepard stood, even though there was still room on the couch.
"We're safe now, I put us on course to another planet, and it's high time we explained some things." Shepard said.
"Agreed." Weiss said somewhat snarkily.
"First things first." Shepard said before removing his helmet, letting short brown hair and grey eyes free before placing his helmet on the table. "I'm Shepard, captain of the Nightingale, and I'd like to lay some ground rules while you're aboard my ship."
Team RWBY didn't respond, instead waiting for him to continue.
"It's clear none of you have ever been on a starship in your life. I'll say this once, don't touch anything. If you don't know what it does assume it'll kill everyone aboard. Ask me first if you have to." Shepard said.
"We aren't children." Weiss scoffed quietly.
"Rule two, treat my droids right, if you're gonna be staying aboard for any length of time you will show them the appropriate level of respect." Shepard ordered.
"Droids?" Yang asked.
Shepard looked surprised. "Of course you don't have droids on your backwater planet." Shepard sighed. "ok so it's like a computer that has a body-"
"Robots." Weiss said pointedly.
"Ok so you do have droids, good." Shepard said. "I'll introduce them later. The most important rule of all, don't drink all my Caf!"
Ruby didn't know what Caf was, but was willing to follow that rule, she was more of a milk person anyway.
"Now then, let's talk about this cube o-"
"Hey! We answered your questions, now you need to answer some of ours." Weiss managed to sound both insulted and curious at the same time.
"Yeah, who are you?" Yang asked.
"Name's Shepard, in case you weren't paying attention.." Shepard said.
"Yeah we got that, I meant what do you do? I'd like to know who my sister is trusting." Yang narrowed her eyes but they stayed lavender in color.
"Small things mostly, nothing big. Just the occasional odd job." Shepard said.
"Odd jobs?" Blake asked suspiciously.
"Freight hauling, fighting pirates, and other stuff like that." Shepard said.
"So are you just on your own?" Blake asked.
"No, I have my droids." Shepard said.
"So your friends are robots?" Yang asked unimpressed.
"I didn't invite you aboard my ship for you to judge me." Shepard said, his arms crossed.
"I seem to recall we weren't invited, but forced aboard." Weiss said.
"Yes, because of what your friend there is carrying, speaking of which, take it out." Shepard said.
Ruby did as he asked and retrieved the cube from a pocket and placed it on the table.
"What is it?" Ruby asked.
"That is a holocron, and from the looks of its an old one, I'd guess from the old republic days." Shepard said. "Where did you get it?"
"Well before you woke me up, I picked it up in a dream-" Ruby began.
"A dream?" Shepard asked, not in a disbelieving manner, but more like he was curious. "Go on." The rest of her team was staring at her with confused looks before she continued.
"Well, everything was black, and the holocron was the only thing there, so I picked it up, and then you woke me up and I had it in my hands." Ruby said. "Why is it dangerous enough that we had to leave that planet?"
"Because that damn thing isn't being concealed at all, it's an incredibly powerful object, and any force user can sense the energy coming off of it." Shepard said.
"Force users?" Blake asked.
"The force is... ugh, don't worry about the specifics." Shepard said before continuing. "It gives some people abilities, one of which make that thing stick out like a Bantha in a bar to anyone with force abilities of their own."
"Like a semblance?" Ruby admitted
"I don't know what that is, but the force can be harnessed to do some crazy things." Shepard said.
"Like what?" Yang asked.
"Telekinesis, precognition, battle mediation, shooting lightning out of your fingers, it sorta depends on the person.." Shepard said.
"So you're telling me magic is real, forgive me if I'm skeptical." Weiss said.
In response Shepard closed his eyes and extended a hand with an open palm pointed at the holocron, moments later, it began to levitate. As team RWBY watched the object float in awe, Shepard opened his eyes again.
"I should have also explained I am a force user." Shepard said as he lowered the holocron back down to the table.
"That, is, awesome!" Ruby shouted.
"Woah." Yang said in obvious awe.
"What else can you do?" Blake asked.
"A lot of stuff." Shepard said. "Most of it's pretty boring though."
"Is that how you deflected that laser blast?" Ruby asked.
"No, that was just some skillful work with a lightsaber and a little bit of luck." Shepard said. "Since you brought up the subject, how'd you learn to fight like that?"
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Mostly you two" Shepard gestured towards Yang and Blake. "You did most of the fighting back there, how did you move like that?"
"Umm... training?" Yang asked, not sure what he wanted as an answer. Blake didn't even give him that much.
"What about you?" Shepard said gesturing at Weiss. "I missed a blaster bolt back there and it hit you square in the chest, not to sound insensitive but you should be dead."
"My aura absorbed it." Weiss explained.
"Aura?"
"Yeah it makes our weapons stronger and protects us from harm." Weiss said.
"All of us have our aura unlocked." Ruby said.
"Why didn't those soldiers have theirs?" Weiss asked.
"Up until now, I've never heard of aura." Shepard said. "If what you say is true, then you have a power new to the galaxy."
Ruby and the rest of her team were shocked by the revelation.
"A whole galaxy of people? Without aura?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know what to say, but I've never seen nor heard of such a thing. Frankly I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes." Shepard said.
"What makes you so certain that nobody has aura?" Weiss asked skeptically.
"I travel a lot, and spend an irresponsible amount of time on the holonet, I would have heard about this." Shepard responded. "Is this aura common for your people back home?"
"Mostly only Huntsmen and soldiers use it." Blake explained.
"Huntsmen?" Shepard asked.
"Huntsmen are really cool, they protect people from Grimm and fight bad guys!" Ruby said. "We're training to become Huntresses."
Shepard stood in deep thought for a moment before speaking. "Grimm?"
"Creatures that are attracted to negativity and hunt humans." Blake explained.
"Give me a general description." Shepard said.
"Big, black, bony armor, yellow eyes, and there's a lot of different types." Yang said.
"I've never heard of anything like that." Shepard said.
"Wow, a whole galaxy without Grimm..." Weiss trailed off.
"What was up with your weapons? I've never seen anything like them before." Shepard said.
"Oh! You want to know about Crescent Rose?!" Ruby said drawing her weapon.
"Oh boy, here we go." Yang said, exasperated.
For the next 20 minutes Ruby gave Shepard an extremely detailed breakdown on Crescent Rose until finally she finished explaining all of it's intricacies. She handed him the weapons so he could examine it.
"So, what do you think?" Ruby asked.
"How did you get it to be so light?" Shepard asked.
"Lightweight materials, like titanium. Plus aura amplifies strength." Ruby said.
"And you said you made this thing yourself?" Shepard asked.
"Yup." Ruby said.
"Without the force?" Shepard said.
"Yup!" Ruby said.
"Aren't you a little young to make something this advanced?"
"Nope!" Ruby said.
Shepard handed the weapon back over. "Extremely impressive, that's a one of a kind weapon right there, although why not use a vibroblade?"
"Vibroblade?" Ruby asked excitedly. Now that she was talking about weapons, her mood had dramatically improved.
"Yeah, one of these." Shepard said pulling what looked like an ordinary knife out of a sheath on his leg.
"Hey, you said you were gonna hand over all your weapons back in the spaceport!" Weiss said, Blake and Yang joined in with similar angry glares, Ruby was too busy staring at the weapon as she snatched it out of Shepard's hands.
"I lied to complete strangers I had, and still have, no reason to trust. Besides, I don't need my weapons, their simply nice to have." Shepard said as he sheathed the blade once more.
"I see." Weiss said, not buying his excuse.
"Where is this Remnant, got any mappable constellations we can plug into the flight computer?" Shepard changed the subject before the glares could get any more intense. .
"Do I look like an astronomer?" Weiss asked.
"Do you wanna get home or not?!" Shepard finally snapped. "I will throw you out at the next imperial station we come across, let them deal with your bitchy attitude. "
Weiss was slightly intimidated, but she kept her mouth closed.
Shepard took a deep breath and turned away from the heiress. "Do any of you remember any constellations?"
"There's the two brothers." Blake suggested.
"Yeah, that's the obvious one." Yang said. "And Vale's shortsword."
"Haven't heard of either of them, give me a second." Shepard said before leaving down the hallway deeper into the ship.
"What an arrogant-." Weiss said.
"Weiss, I understand you're upset but calm down, in case you didn't notice we can't exactly have him pull over." Yang said, trying to calm her down.
"I'll admit that's true, but that doesn't change the fact that he's so bossy" Weiss trailed off looking for the right word.
"It is his ship Ice Queen." Yang shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the doorway he had left out of.
"I'm back." Shepard said as he arrived. Rolling up behind him was a cylinder on struts, and on the bottom of those struts were wheels. The top of the cylinder was rounded off and see through, exposing computer components, and it was painted grey everywhere else.
"What is that?" Blake asked.
"This is R3-E7, he's my astromech." Shepard said.
"Cool!" Ruby said, always excited to see new cool technological stuff. "Does he have weapons?!"
"He has a stunner I guess." Shepard said.
The droid made a series of bleeps and bloops.
"He says hello." Shepard said.
"You understood that?" Weiss asked.
"Hi?" Blake said tentatively back, Yang and Weiss were staring at Shepard with confused expressions.
"What's the matter, I thought you guys had droids on your planet?" Shepard said, not understanding why they looked so uncomfortable.
"Yeah, but they are... well..." Yang began.
"Still primitive?" Shepard asked, now understanding.
"Yeah." Yang said.
"Well you may not have sentient droids back home, but out here in the galaxy we do." Shepard said, his arms crossed. "So don't go around treating them like garbage."
"I put both of the constellations you mentioned into R3 here, and nothing popped up, so that means one of two things." Shepard said. "Either Remnant doesn't exist, or it's in deep space, at least relatively far from the main center of the galaxy."
"Of course it exists, thats where we came from, it has too..." Ruby said to herself.
"It does Ruby, I'm sure the bot just made a miscalculation or something." Yang said.
"Maybe that thing will give us some hints." Shepard said pointing at the holocron, still on the table. "Pick it up, I want you to try something."
"Uh... okay?" Ruby said, seeing no reason not to comply.
"It's not dangerous right?" Yang asked skeptically and worriedly.
"Not unless you chuck it at someone's head, no." Shepard said sarcastically. "Now, try focusing on opening it."
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Just imagine it opening in your head." Shepard instructed.
"Uh... okay." Ruby said doing as he asked.
The holocron remained still.
"Is… is something supposed to be happening?" Yang stage whispered to her partner.
"Hand it back over." Shepard said. "You're not missing out on anything, trust me. " Shepard said as he took the holocron.
Almost immediately all the corners turned several times, until the cube was fully open. It displayed a hologram of what looked like some foreign language.
"Woah." Blake said.
"I was not expecting that." Yang said.
"So uh... what do holocrons do?" Ruby asked.
"They hold information." Shepard said. "In this case, a set of star coordinates apparently. Funny, there's room for a lot more stuff in this thing..."
R3 beeped and booped some more.
"My bad, apparently it's star coordinates and a location on the ground, apparently the star coordinates take us too Arkanis system, and theres some coordinates on Arkanis Prime." Shepard said.
"Maybe that's where Remnant is!" Yang said.
"I'd doubt it, Arkanis is a hotspot for traders and pirates, so it's likely that Remnant would have been discovered." Shepard said. "But I believe it would be prudent to see what this "map" points too."
"It's our only lead, we don't have much choice." Weiss said.
"Alright, any other questions before I give you all your quarters?" Shepard asked.
"The guy back in the bar called you a Jedi, you never told us what that is." Blake said"
"They were a symbol of peace… once." Shepard seemed to dwell on something for a moment before continuing. "I need to go change course to the Arkanis system."
And with that, Shepard left for the cockpit.
"Well, that went...okay." Weiss said.
"At least we have someone willing to help us find a way home." Yang said.
"At least we have each other." Ruby said optimistically.
"Yeah, speaking of which, how did we get here?" Blake asked.
Ruby thought. "I don't know, my last memory is us training for the Vytal festival and then... nothing. It's like it was erased from my memory or something." Ruby adopted an expression somewhere between a pout and a curious expression.
"We'll figure it out, and we'll get home." Yang said, with a mediocre amount of confidence.
"I hope you're right." Blake said.
