Chapter 2: A Gathering of Characters
A gentle gust of wind blows through the house as Salem sits on the windowsill watching her son and daughter play with each other in the backyard. She takes along sip of her tea letting the smell of pancakes, bacon, and eggs float in from the kitchen moments witnessing her son run away from his sister after pulling some sort of prank on her.
She sighs deeply when she sees her son trip over himself somehow into a puddle of mud with his sister not too far behind him. She quickly drinks the rest of her tea to mentally prepare herself for the inevitable bath time that is to come. Salem gets up off the windowsill and makes her way to the bathroom to fill the bathtub with water.
"Breakfast is almost ready!" her husband calls out from the kitchen, bringing a smile to Salem's face.
Once the tub is filled, Salem makes her way to the back door and calls out to her children. "Arnold! Sarah! It's time to come back inside!"
"Yay" the twins call out as they stop what they are doing and immediately rush over to the back door.
Salem catches the children just before they enter the house. "But first you two need a bath."
"Aw~" The twins whine. "But Dorothy~! It's time to wake up."
"What?" Salem immediately responds with a blink. She blinks again and sees the ceiling of a bedroom and to her left, a man wearing t-shirt with steaming coffee cup on the front of it accompanied by the caption: Mug Life.
"I said it's to wake up, Dorothy." The man calmly says while taking a step backwards. "Breakfast is ready."
Salem blinks for a third time to realize that she's in her bedroom of her parent's Vale apartment and that her father just woke her up.
"Okay Oz- er… dad. She replies groggily, earning a raised eyebrow from her father. "I'll be up in a couple minutes."
"Please don't take too long" Ozpin chides. "Remember that you have a big day ahead of you."
"Already?" Salem groans.
"Yes already." Ozpin huffs. "Come on now, get up. You know how your mother is when it comes to students who are late for their first day of Beacon Academy."
"Yeah, yeah." Salem grumbles as she slowly rolls at of bed as Ozpin leaves the room.
Once she is standing, she shuffles towards the kitchen trying to delay the inevitable. As she approaches the kitchen, the smells like of freshly made pancakes, eggs, and bacon drift into her nose and motivates her to pick up her pace to a walk. Arriving at her destination, her stomach grumbles at the sight of food and she quickly makes her plate before heading to the dining room table. She arrives and sits down just as the morning news intro begins playing on the living room TV before revealing the news anchors.
"Good Morning Vale~. This is Melanie..." The dark haired newscaster announces.
"And Militiades..." The other similar looking newscaster announces.
"Malachite of the Vale News Network, bringing you latest stories of what is happening around the world." Melanie and Militiades announce at the same time.
The camera focuses on Melanie. "This year's Vytal festival is going to be the first time the fifth and newest huntsman academy, Bastion Academy located in Menagerie, is going to participate since its founding 5 years ago. Its headmaster, Sienna Khan, said in a statement that she is proud that her academy finally has a chance to participate after all of the trouble the academy has dealt with."
The camera pans over to Militiades. "Speaking of trouble, White Fang activity in Vale has increased since the announcement with reports of crimes against various SDC business related ventures have been reported. CEO Willow Schnee announced at a press conference that the SDC security forces will be working the VPD, the Atlesian army, and Beacon Academy to ensure the safety of the festival."
"In other news..." Salem tunes out the rest of the news broadcast as she finishes eating her breakfast before getting up and head towards the kitchen to put her dishes in the dishwasher. Checking the time on the nearest clock, she hurries off to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day.
Once she is showered, she heads back towards her bedroom to get dressed in her usual outfit consisting of loose black cargo pants, knee high combat boots, an untucked grey suit vest with a white button up shirt underneath, and skinny black tie. Then she proceeds to spawn two small pairs of Nucklevee arms to assist her in putting up her into her signature regal-looking, spider-like hair bun.
"Dorothy, are you ready to go?" Ozpin calls out from the living room.
"Yeah I am." Salem replies as she looks over one last time in the mirror. As she leaves her room, she grabs her painted witch's hat that her mother gave her for birthday and hurries down the hallway towards the front door.
"Are you for your first year at Beacon Academy?" Ozpin asks just as Salem reaches the front door where all of her pre-packed suitcases of belongings are.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Salem sighs, grabbing a suitcase.
A couple trips to and from the apartment later, the suitcases were safely into their car and soon they were on their way to the nearest airship station with a route to Beacon. As Ozpin drives them through the city, Salem lays her head against the passenger side window, barely paying attention the radio as an advertisement for a grand opening of some fast food restaurant called The General's Atlesian Fried Chicken comes on.
Half an hour later, they arrive at the airship station just as a passenger airship floats down to land at a terminal. After finding the closest parking spot, a trolley to move the suitcases, and a speedy check; Ozpin and Salem find themselves standing in front of the security checkpoint leading into the concourse.
"Well Dorothy, I believe this where we part ways for a while." Ozpin announces, getting teary eyed. "I'm going miss you."
"You know the cafe is an airship ride away from Beacon, right Dad?"
"I know." Ozpin replies, pulling Salem into a loving hug. "But I am still going to worry."
"I'll be as careful as I can be."
"And try not lose control of your semblance."
"Dad, that only happened ONCE."
"So far and don't forget the damage that it caused as a result." Ozpin admonishes. "So please promise me that you'll at least try not to lose control of your semblance."
Salem sighs in defeat, knowing that she isn't going to win this conversation as she returns the hug. "Yeah... I promise, dad. But I can make no guarantee that I'll be able to keep it though."
"That's more than enough Doroythy." Ozpin says, tightening the hug. "Thank you."
"Your welcome, dad." Salem says, breaking the hug. "And while I'm gone, try not to go too crazy with being the 'wise and mysterious owner of the Emerald City Coffee shop' around the new girl. You know how long it took us to find a replacement after the latest Mr. Oobleck incident."
"I'll try." Ozpin replies, sighing regretfully at the memory of the previous waitress quitting because she could no longer deal with the fast paced author and the admittedly vague advice Ozpin gave her on how to deal with him. 'At least he isn't lugging that typewriter around with him anymore."
He takes out and looks at his pocket watch to check the time. "Well, you better get going. Your flight is leaving in an hour."
"I guess so." Salem says before heading towards the end of the line. "I'll see you around."
"You too." Ozpin proudly replies before heading back to the car.
Slogging through the security check point, hurrying through the concourse, and only getting slightly lost; Salem arrives at the gate where the passenger airship to Beacon sits just as they announce that it is time for the passengers to begin boarding. She curses underneath her breath and rushes over to the check in desk, getting checked in quickly along with a quick lecture about being on time before she rushes over to the gate and boards just as quickly.
Once onboard, Salem calms herself and begins searching the nearest passenger compartment for an open seat to secure herself for the airship takes off. A couple minutes of fruitless searching later, she spots an open seat next to a person who is wearing an oversized red hoodie with the hood up, concealing their face and is looking really nervous about something.
"Uh... excuse me, is this seat open?" Salem hesitantly asks, startling the person. The person quickly looks up and Salem recognizes the half of the person's emerald eyed face that she can see from somewhere but is not quite sure where.
"Huh?" the person asks, revealing themselves as female.
"Is the seat next to you open?" Salem asks again. She doesn't the girl from her new memories so she recalls her previous life's memories and thinks she recognizes the girl as Pyrrha Nikos from Cinder's reports.
"Oh. Yes it its!" Pyrrha(?) quickly says, scooting away a little bit.
"Are you ok?" Salem asks as she sits down.
"I'm… just a little nervous about the takeoff." Pyrrha(?) says a little too quickly. "I had a bad experience as a child and I haven't quite gotten over it yet."
"Oh dear, I'm sorry to that." Salem replies with a little concern, knowing that Pyrrha(?) is clearing lying but she decides drop the subject anyways.
"Thank you." Pyrrha(?) quietly says, with a small smile on her face as she turns away from Salem.
A couple minutes later, a small group of stewardesses comes into the compartment and begins making sure everyone is strapped in and secure. Once they're done with their checks, they move onto the next compartment as the airship's engines begin to spool up.
"Ladies and Gentleman, This is your captain speaking." The intercom announces. "We are about to take off from the terminal. So please make sure all loose items are secured and please remain seated until we say it is safe to move about the airship." A pair of stewards comes into the compartment as the captain explains what to do in an emergency with the two stewards miming what to do.
When the captain announces that it is safe to move about the airship, Salem unbuckles herself and goes to stand but a pair of orange and white figures rush past her. Turning towards them, she sees the pair quickly enter a lavatory followed by the sound of one of them puking their guts out.
Salem gets up and stretches her legs before weaving through the other passengers. Along the way, she happens to pass by the lavatory the two figures in time to catch part of their conversation.
"So Romana, what did we learn from this?" A male asks as the other person empties their stomach again.
"Not to celebrate my enrollment to Beacon all night long with alcohol you hid specifically to prevent this situation happening, dad." Romana weakly replies.
"That's my girl." The dad replies. "Now let's get you cleaned up."
Salem doesn't hear the rest of their conversation as she moves away from the lavatory in an attempt to get out of the crowded passenger compartment. Later, she makes her way towards the observation deck to get a good look of what this version of Beacon looks since for all of her current life, she has only seen it from afar or in advertisements.
Entering the observation deck, Salem is surprised to find it nearly empty save for few people scattered about. Moving further in, she spots a familiar pair of people next a bay window talking to each other about something. Moving closer allows Salem to recognize them as Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long but something feels off about.
Inconspicuously inspecting Ruby as she moves to a window that is away from them along with a good view, she sees that Ruby is almost as tall as Yang, is wearing her Slayer outfit instead of the outfit from Cinder's initial report of her, and is missing her red hooded cape while wearing a vaguely familiar belt. Yang on the other hand looks exactly the same as Cinder's initial report except for the pair of dragon like horns growing from the sides of her head.
Looking out the window, she sees Beacon Academy slowly getting closer and bigger. In the reflection of the window, Salem sees Ruby taking multiple subtle glances in her general direction as if she recognizes Salem. Salem brushes these glances off, knowing that is impossible because Salem has never met Ruby before in this new life.
Soon, the captain announces over the intercom that passengers and crew members should find the nearest seat to buckle themselves into due to arriving at Beacon Academy in a little bit. Salem heads back towards the observation deck entrance and passes by Ruby who gives her a strange look of recognition that Salem doesn't see.
Once the airship lands safely at Beacon, everyone unbuckled themselves, stand up, and slowly make their way off the airship while grabbing whatever carry on they brought with them. As Salem waits for an opening to get up, she sees an excited Cinder strut past her, humming. Unsure of what she saw, Salem gets up and joins the rest of the passengers trying to get off the airship at the same time.
Eventually, Salem nears the exit of the airship when suddenly a girly scream is let loose. Turning to the source, Salem sees a blue eyed boy with short brown in a suit of knight armor, cowering before a blue eyed girl with short brown hair in a sleeveless jacket who waving an animal themed hand puppet in front of the boy.
Salem recognizes the girl from somewhere in her past life but she doesn't dwell on it since the line in front of her begins moving again. After a few minutes of inching her way towards the exit, Salem finally exits the airship and makes her towards the auditorium where her mother is to give a welcome speech to all of the potential new students. As she nears the auditorium's entrance, she is suddenly pushed into a secluded spot near the entrance and right into a wall by someone.
"What was that for?" Salem asks to whoever pushed her. Turning around, she discovers Ruby glaring at her.
"H- Have we met before?" Salem asks, feigning non-recognition while nervously sweating a little bit.
"Yes we have at your castle during the final battle of the war you started." Ruby sternly replies, catching Salem off guard with her unexpected answer. Salem recovers quickly and notices that Ruby has pale gold irises instead of silver irises like she had in their original world.
"You remember?" Salem inquires.
"Of course I remember." Ruby confidently replies. "You had some sort of foul magic that allowed you to escape our original world via reincarnation so you can begin plotting Remnant's destruction once again and I just happen to get caught up in it."
Salem blinks a few times at what Ruby said, unsure what to say. Ruby leans back a bit and crosses her arms with confidence look clear on her face. "Too shocked to respond now that your evil plans have been exposed?"
Salem nervously rubs the back of head. "Uh... I don't have plans for such a thing nor do I any reasons to do so."
"Bullshit. Then why did you reincarnate?" Ruby angrily ask as her belt quickly unfurls from around Ruby's waist, revealing itself as a scorpions tail and stabs the wall behind Salem, missing her head by an inch.
"Look Ruby, I know I don't deserve this life after all the things I did in our previous life and I didn't for this either. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to take advantage of this surprise second chance and try not to cause history repeat itself." Salem pleads.
Ruby opens her to retort but a very familiar voice cuts her off. "Ah there you are, Dorothy."
Salem and Ruby turn to face the voice and see Glynda hurrying over to them. Glynda immediately pulls Salem into a tight loving hug when she reaches them, leaving Ruby very confused.
"I thought for sure you would have spawned a Shadow Nevermore and flown off the airship, considering how much of a fuss you made about being a student here." Glynda tightens her hug a little bit. "But here you are!"
"Yes I am, mom." Salem says, gasping for air a little bit and deepening Ruby's confusion.
"I trust the flight over was okay?" Glynda asks, as she releases Salem from the hug.
"It was a little packed but it was nothing I couldn't handle."
"Are you sure?"
"Mom, it was only one time that happened and I much better control now."
"But I still worry that a random thing will spontaneously trigger another episode."
"Isn't that the reason why you convinced me to become a huntress?"
Glynda chuckles in response with smile on her face as she accidentally elbows Ruby who has been awkwardly standing there, unsure what to make of what was happening. "You got me there."
When Ruby grunts at the elbowing, Glynda turns to face her in surprise and takes a moment to place a name to Ruby's face. "Oh my, Ms. Callows. Are you okay? I didn't see you there."
"I'm okay, Prof. Goodwitch."
"Actually it's Headmistress Pine." Glynda corrects, causing Ruby to stare at her for couple moments in disbelief. Glynda opens her mouth to reminisce by then she realizes something when she looks between Salem and Ruby. "How long have been here?"
"About a minute before you ran over."
A prideful expression appears on her face. "Oh look at you, Dorothy. You're already making new friends before the start of the school year!"
"Mom, we just met and-" Salem begins to say.
"Oh dear, it's almost time for the speech." Glynda suddenly announces after she checks her watch. "Well I'll see later, Dorothy." Glynda says as hurries towards the auditorium, not giving Salem a chance to finish what she was going to say. Ruby and Salem stand there unsure what to do as they try to process what they just learned.
"So... Prof. Goodwitch is your mom?" Ruby asks after a minute of silence.
"Yes she is and Ozpin is indeed my father." Salem replies. Ruby looks at her with very clear disbelief on her face. "So... about Tyrian..."
"Yes he is my dad but I'll have you know that he isn't crazy, he's just very eccentric" Ruby proudly says, causing Salem to raise an eyebrow.
"What about Sum-" Salem begins to ask with curiosity getting the best of her but Ruby interrupts her.
"You don't need to know that. Especially not after what you did in the previous life to her." Ruby quickly says, getting defensive. "I don't know what you have planned but Team RWBY will rise again and stop you."
Before Salem has a chance to respond to that, Ruby quickly turns around and runs away at a normal human pace without leaving any Rose petals behind. She is left standing there awkwardly, wondering what is going to happen throughout the school year.
With a sigh, she recomposes herself and quickly makes her way into the entrance hall of the auditorium. She arrives just as the lights begin to dim and moments later a woman who looks like Yang but with a black and red color scheme approaches the podium on the stage.
"Hello everyone. I am Professor Raven Xiao Long the combat instructor and I would like welcome all of you to what is sure to be an exciting year at Beacon Academy!"
Character Introductions:
Introducing Ruby Rose as Ruby Callows the scorpion Faunus who also reincarnated into this version of Remnant and is the proud daughter of Tyrian and Summer Rose.
Introducing Ozpin as Oscar 'Ozpin' Pine: Salem's father, Glynda's husband, and the owner of the Emerald City Coffee shop.
Introducing Glynda Goodwitch as Glynda Pine: Salem's mother, Ozpin's wife, and headmistress of Beacon Academy.
Introducing Raven Branwen as Raven Xiao Long: The combat instructor at Beacon Academy, mother of Yang Xiao Long who may have stayed with Taiyang.