Disclaimer: All characters in this story belong to their respective creators and companies, not me. Steven Universe is property of Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network. RWBY is property of the late Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth Productions. I make no monetary gain from this work and nor do I plan to in any way, please support the official releases of both series.
*Sorry, noticed a bunch of errors right after I uploaded it and had to fix them. Won't happen again I swear, just jumped the gun a bit from finally finishing this chapter. Also slight Q&A-ish kind of thing at the bottom.*
3: White As Snow (White Trailer)
"What was that!?"
Peridot felt she was perfectly justified in making that demand considering what they had just seen. While she may not know much about organic life forms, her training having specialized around machine use and maintenance and just enough basic geology to work on something like the cluster, but as a technician she knew more than enough to recognize that the kind of force both needed to wield and generated by that, well 'weapon' somehow felt a little too limited of a word, was far beyond what any organics, and quite a few Gems, could safely withstand when used in the fashion it had been. Yet the unknown girl on the screen, only marginally larger than Steven, had used it as masterfully as any Quartz soldiers would their own weapon.
Quite frankly if the other recording were anything like the previous had been she was likely to start tearing her hair out. While Peridot would admit to holding some interest in the scientific findings of the forbears of her now former Homeworld, a concept that still made her equal parts sick and giddy, it had not be her primary motivation for participating in this 'Marathon' as Steven called it. Though she would rather have her physical construct dispelled than admit it, she had been hoping to use this situation as a kind of 'bonding exercise', reasoning that while she had made some progress with connecting with her new group, she could still establish her place more firmly. The fact she may have come to enjoy the presence of the rest of the Crystal Gems to some degree none withstanding. But after seeing all that she just had, she was feeling significantly more curious at what the ancient Homeworld scientists had been attempting to study, and why.
"I've got no clue, but whatever the heck it was, it was definitely a rush!" Was in turn Amethyst's enthusiastic response. She had been a bit unsure when the whatever it was they were watching had started, what with the kinda depressing atmosphere and grave junk at the beginning, but it had really kicked it up with that sweet fight. She hadn't seen butt kicked like that except for a few times when either Pearl or Rose herself really let loose, and even then the former still occasionally took a glancing hit.
"I don't know what was going down or why, but like I said before, lil-red had some moves."
"It's the how and the why that actually has me most concerned, Amethyst." Cut in Pearl. "Especially in regard to why exactly some strange human, and an obviously young one at that, was involved in such a fight. And those, things, that she was fighting, I don't know why, considering this is just a recording, but they just felt, felt wrong."
She forced down an involuntary shiver at the thought of those strange black wolves. Pearl didn't really understand it, after all, she and the other Gems had spent millennium fighting their own kind who had fallen to corruption, all of which had taken some twisted, animalistic form, and the more recently released forced fusion experiments that had been created by Homeworld thousand of years ago where an entirely new level of horror. But there was just something about those strange creatures, their pitch black forms, the crimson glow of their eyes, that she could only describe as, well, wrong, despite their somewhat recognizable lupine form, and their was something else, something she just couldn't put her finger on…
"They didn't bleed."
With a slight start at the barely heard whisper Pearl looked downward and to the right, to where Garnet sat as she continued.
"Despite everything we saw, despite everything that happened to them, there wasn't as single drop of blood. Even before they started dissolving for whatever reason, even when the had lost a limb, or had only been slashed but not totally dismembered, not once did a single one of them actually bleed."
Garnet was right, Pearl realized. Regardless of the worlds she, and likely Ruby and Sapphire before fusing into Garnet, had been to whenever organic life was present and had suffered some form of harm there had been some kind of secretion or biological response. Dissolution or destruction of form, while rare, was not unheard of on other worlds, she and Rose before being assigned to Earth had spent time on a research planet where the temperature extremes were so sever that upon expiring the local fauna immediately either froze solid or carbonized, but even then those life forms had a kind of internal regulation system that was recognizably biological, that bled. The creatures from the recording, whatever they were, did not appear to be Gem or Silicate based either, so what did that mean, what exactly where they?
"That was Awesome!" Steven, who thankfully hadn't heard the conversation between the two senior members, cheered enthusiastically. "The way she fought! And those monsters! Oh and the music was really great, though I wonder what that little riddle was about?"
"Riddle?" Peridot and Pearl asked together, before staring at each other confused.
"Yeah." Continued Steven. "Well, maybe not really a riddle, but I think it was definitely something really important."
Garnet held her chin in her hand as she thought trying to recall what few words had been in the song, before smirking in realization. Leave it to Steven to notice a small detail like that.
"There were four lines in the song, and four silhouettes right before the recording ended."
"Oh yeah." Said Amethyst plainly. "Something about roses and white and, uh, a bunch of other colors right? You think they're related or something? "
Steven, feeling bold after apparently hitting on something, decided to chime in again "'Red like roses fills my dreams' was the first part, and the girl was wearing a red hood that had rose petals coming out of it, ant the next part started 'White is cold and always yearning' and I think one of the silhouettes had a 'W' in front of it! It also mentioned something about a test during the second part, what do you think it means?"
Garnet, still smiling, looked up at where the display cube was projecting it's holographic screen, which till now had been showing a loading message, pointed and said. "Well, I think we're about to find out."
A familiar black screen presents itself, the only contrast to the emptiness a single line of script.
"Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metric or form of measure. And all of it…irreplaceable."
Which soon fades away.
Garnet hummed in thought at the words currently on the screen, committing them to memory to consider later.
As the darkness begins to lift and a voice, distorted slightly, speaks through an intercom, the figure of a young woman begins to come forward onto a grand, castle like stage and into a brightening spotlight to the sound of applause. Her elegant clothing comprised of a jacket with a crimson interior, a dress with black-lace near the front collar, and heeled boots, all of it a white that begins to fade into light blue, complementing her pale complex and pristine, long white hair, done into an off-center ponytail held in place by a small tiara.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Weiss Schnee."
"Did anyone else have a hard time making that our?" asked Amethyst in mellow whisper, head tilting at an angle. She noted with a slight chuckle that Steven appeared to be the only one feeling inclined to respond some way, raise his hand slightly, the others still focused firmly on the screen.
As a light piano begins to ring out and she reaches the front of the stages, the girls, Weiss, lifts her head and opens her eyes, revealing bright pale blue pools, as well as a small scar over her left eye. As the grand crowd's applause ends, she once more bows and, head lowered, breathes deeply, and begins to sing, an angelic voice echoing out.
"Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all?"
Everyone in the room was enchanted at the sound of the young woman's voice, Steven especially sitting forward slightly, ever the music enthusiast. Garnet in particular was being drawn into the music as well, it's sound stirring up deep memories from part of her mind. Before meeting Ruby and becoming a permanent fusion, the part of her the was Sapphire had been an aristocratic Gem in the court of Blue Diamond for her rare ability to see into the future, and as such had been afford many, opportunities, that were not available to other Gems on Homeworld. Blue Diamond had been very keen on esthetics and the arts, unlike the more practical and industrial minded Yellow Diamond, and her court had reflected that. As such Sapphire and other Gems of the higher class had had the opportunity to experience such things as concerts and various musical performances, and Sapphire had always found herself rather taken with such things, and as a consequence so did Garnet. It didn't hurt that, unlike plays or other theatrics, she didn't have to worry about her innate ability ruining the ending or any surprise.
As the girl continues to sing the world seems to sink and flip, the stage she had before been standing on gone along with her scar. As her eyes once again open and she takes in her surroundings once more, the lighting shifts, revealing the form of a gargantuan, knightly armor kneeling before her. The Giant Armor rises slowly brandishing an equally massive broadsword, before with a slight twist and spin it brings it's blade down, intent on cleaving the white-garbed girl in half.
Just as the massive blade was about to bite home, the girl back flips away, before flawlessly dropping into a stance and bringing her own blade, an elegant rapier, up to strike. Almost too fast to follow, she lungs forward scoring a quick hit on her more cumbersome foe that sends her up into the air briefly before landing behind them. A mere second later the Giant Armor tries another overhead swing, but is once more easily evaded, allowing her to circle behind and score several more hits on its back before it counters with a hard horizontal swipe, forcing Weiss to bring her own weapon up into a block which sends her skidding back.
"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all?"
"Yo P! Check it out, looks like you got another member for your fancy sword fighting club." Called out Amethyst for her recliner, smiling as she stole a glance towards Pearl.
Pearl for her part merely hummed as she continued to watch this new battle. She had to admit, this girl, Weiss if she heard the announcer correctly, was quite good, if perhaps a bit rigid in her stance from what she could see. Regardless, she moved very fluidly and quickly, in fact down right inhumanly by the standards of humans of this dimension. Which would be important in a fight against a larger foe, a lesson she had learned the hard way looking back to her own fight against a rampaging Sugilite.
Finally coming to a stop, Weiss looks up just in time to see the Giant Armor descending from a leaping strike, forcing her to roll right. Her larger enemy, with a nimbleness belying its size, follows through with an upward slash and an immediate backhanded swipe which she barely defends against, sending her rolling back once more before regaining her footing.
"Fear of, what's inside me. Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"
Weiss raises her fingers to the hilt of her blade, a faint white glow appearing around them and motions to her feet, where a white, intricate, glowing snowflake like symbol appears. Suddenly she flies forward, almost gliding on the ground towards her opponent once more. The Armor again attempts to strike her, but her form flickers slightly before reappearing just past the strike, where she again jumps and strike twice at the giant, before using another of the snowflake glyphs in midair to redirect and launch herself to strike at it's side and lead into a combo against one of it's legs. Using two more glyphs, she takes to the air before shooting forward in a twirling lunge to the back of the knight. Just as she pauses once more, now on another glyph chest height with her foe, the Giant Armor leads once more with great broadsword in a horizontal sweep, Weiss jumping to avoid it, not realizing it was a mere feint to distract her from an oncoming punch. The blow hits, full force and unimpeded by any apparent form of deference, throwing Weiss into an undignified tumble backwards, head over heels, before finally skidding to a stop, leaving her dazed and staggering to stand.
Peridot stared at the screen, and the new round of insane and completely physically impossible stunts it depicted, in front of her. The screen, in turn, continued to be a screen that stubbornly showed said impossibilities. This continued on for a few seconds longer until finally one of them broke.
"Okay, I give. How just, how?"
Amethyst, seeing an opportunity to mess with her newest teammate and friend, spread her hands and spoke plainly, using the old default explanation the Gems and Greg had agreed upon from when Steven was legitimately too young to possibly understand their true nature. "Magic."
"…No. I refuse to just take this laying down. The last recording was one thing, that was simply hyper enhanced speed, reflex, and durability, but this? She just created some kind of hard-light platform or, or something out of nowhere! After this I am finding an explanation, there's got to be some kind of data file, or notes, or something mixed in with what was retrieved for that old facility you three went to!" Peridot ranted. This was becoming too much, even with her general acceptance of madness that she had decided was necessary to live with the Crystal Gems on Earth. She was and always would be at her core a being of logic and science, and last she checked both dictated you couldn't just make things out of nothing.
Steven for his part had different concerns. The fight till now had been great, almost like something out of one of the 'Unfamiliar Familiar' books Connie had introduced him to, but real. But after seeing the girl, Weiss, just taken a rather nasty hit to the head from that Giant Armor, he was starting to worry. The last fighter they had watched hadn't been hit once, yet he swore he had seen the young white clad combatant bleeding. "Do you thinks she's okay?"
Pearl, despite being worried herself, saw his concern and decided to intervene.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Steven. I mean, before the fight she didn't seem to have a scar over her eye, unlike at the start of the recording, so that means this fight likely, somehow, against all causal reasoning considering how we're watching this, took place before then. If anything this is probably showing us how she… got it… " She finished weakly, realizing this probably wasn't the best way to completely assuage his fears.
It was at this point Garnet decided to step in, seeing the slight rise in tension, and looked briefly to all present as she spoke in her usual plain, if accented, tone.
"Steven, I'm sure everything will work out fine. Peridot, we'll discuss your concerns after this record ends, I admit I'm getting rather curious about all this myself. Amethyst, stop teasing Peridot, even if she is new, and it is kind of funny. Pearl…doing better, but you still need to work on your comforting technique."
Peridot huffed, but accepted this, deciding that waiting a little longer wouldn't make her any more or less confused. After all, how much stranger could this fight possibly get?
Despite the blood trailing down the left side of her face, Weiss stands once more, blue eyes cold and determined, weapon held forwards. She reaches to the hilt of her rapier with her free right hand, causing it to spin like the chamber of a revolver, cycling through several color before stopping on red, a light aura of the same color beginning to creep along the blade.
The knight, as though sensing something, rushes forwards, bringing its own huge weapon downwards once more, intent to finish the duel quickly. But before the strike can land, Weiss thrust upwards, a blast of red energy billowing out from her blade and forcing the larger weapon back forcefully. Wasting no time, she capitalizes on her foe's staggered state, switches chambers once more and twirls twice before stabbing her own blade downwards, a cyan light surging forward and creating a blast of ice that holds the Giant Armor immobile. With a start at its entrapment, the Armor once more swings at her, but not quickly enough, as Weiss dashes forwards and leaps, landing on the still moving sword in a crouch, weapon now glowing greenish-yellow. Rolling forward she strikes, destroying the ice holding the Armor and sending its blade flying from its grasp.
"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me?"
Weiss slides to a stop, the huge broadsword landing point first behind her as the Giant Armor regains its footing and looks towards her. As her foes weapon finishes its falls to the floor, a huge glyph appears and spins wildly beneath Weiss, it's colors quickly and randomly flickering as she brings her own weapon up horizontally before her face. The knight rushes forward, fist draw back, trying to level a hammer blow against her, but for one final time she dodge out of the path of the strike, activating the glyph as she comes to a stand, launching the Armor skywards.
"Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all?"
Once more she twirls, a circular array of smaller glyphs forming around her before firing out, striking the descending knight's limbs and holding it spread eagle above the ground. With a great leap, Weiss rises into the air, sword arm drawn back, eyes piercing, a night sky with a shattered moon framing her back as, back in the concert hall the song reaches its final, rising line. The chamber-hilt of her weapon spins once through each chamber before stopping and glowing completely white, a singly glyph forming at an angle behind her briefly as she shoots forwards with the killing blow.
"I'm the loneliest of all~."
With blinding speed she spears into and through the knight, its form freefalling as it's inside seem to burn with white fire. As it hits the ground behind her it shatters completely, reduced to a flurry of ice and snow as Weiss raises, eyes once more closed and calm, almost serene. With a start they open once more as applause rings out, finding herself once more inside the white, castle-like concert hall, dazed as if having just woken from a dream. As she gains her bearings and the crowd continues their adulations, she looks up briefly at the sky and fractured moon, before calmly curtseying as white, sheer curtains close. As the scene begins to fade to black once, the four silhouettes appear once more, now with the second silhouette, Weiss's, depicting her along with the first.
Peridot's eye had begun twitching slightly as she stared forwards once more at the screen, face flat and devoid of emotion, before speaking in an exasperated voice.
"Why did I bother saying anything."
First seemingly origin-less solid white platforms from nowhere that can, somehow, control momentum if her observation were accurate. That alone had been straining enough, but now they were adding the ability to generate ice, energy, and who knows what else on top of that. At this point she was really beginning to question if this whole bonding thing was worth it.
"Jeez, I was joking about the magic thing earlier. Didn't think there was actually a world or whatever that really had that kind of stuff." Said Amethyst, eyes wide. While it wasn't unusual to see some Gems with element based powers or strange abilities, to see so many from individual, and an apparent human at that, was definitely something else. Whatever dimensions those old Homeworld goons had been look at, it was definitely a lot different than Earth.
"I'm honestly a bit more concerned about just what kind of world would require it's native species to develop those kinds of abilities." Was Pearls interjection to the discussion. While she had enjoyed the show of swordsmanship, she still could couldn't help but wonder as to why these conflicts kept happening, and how they were related. Did that giant, apparently empty armor have some kind of connection to those wolves from the first record? What was the relation between these to girls, the one in the red cloak and Weiss, and the two remaining figures of the four silhouettes? R, W, B, Y, those where the letters that appeared before each in turn, but what did the seemingly random jumble mean. All these questions were honestly become a bit frustrating, making her want to continue watching, if only for the chance to finally get some answers.
Steven had a rather tense look on his face, brow screwed up in thought as he replayed what he had just watched and heard over in his head. "I gotta admit that was pretty cool, but guys, didn't that song sound a little…sad? I mean it sounded like person singing it was really lonely."
That drew a bit of silence from most present, Pearl, Peridot, and Amethyst having been more focused on the fight then anything else. In retrospect the song going on throughout the fight, apparently being sung by the young girl on the screen, had been rather mournful when they actually thought of the lyrics. Considering the clothing she was wearing and the fact she was singing in what appeared to be a large concert hall, it was more than likely that she was well off by most standards. What kind of experiences could inspire such a song?
"Well either way, I still want to take a look at the data in that display cube. I'm sure there has to be something in there that could explain some of what we've been seeing." Peridot said, beginning to raise from her position on the couch next to Steven. But before she could get to far Garnet placed one of her hands on her shoulder, holding her back.
"Wait a moment Peridot." She began. "I understand you want answers, but I think we may want to wait for just a while longer."
Peridot opened her mouth to protest before being cut off. "Just think for a moment. So far, the last two records we have seen has had to do with one of the figures in the silhouettes, correct? So it might not be too much of a stretch to assume that the next to will be about the last two figures. I agree that we should check through the data in records to see if we can get some more immediate answers, but for now let's watch the at least two more records to try and see what happens alright? Then you can have free reign to try and find what you can."
Peridot looked hesitant, thinking over Garnet's idea. While she did want answers that might help to make things make some kind of logical sense, she had to admit that she was also still curious about the remaining two unknown beings that seemed to be the focus of these strange records.
"That sounds…logical enough. Very well, I'll wait for two more, then I'll start checking through the data files in the recording."
Garnet nodded once before raising her head slightly. "Does anyone have any objections to this plan?"
Not hearing any, Garnet began to lower herself once more into a comfortable position. But before she could settle down there was a slight knock followed by a slow creak at the front door to the beach house. As everyone began to rise curious to see who was there, a soft voice called out questioningly.
"Steven, are you and the Gems home?"
"Connie!"
Well I would say that's an excellent and in no way frustrating place to stop. Right?
*sorry noticed some errors I missed and had to do a little bit of fixing, won't happen again I swear I just got a little over excited to finally have this chapter done*
Okay, this is going to be a bit of a long one so you might want to bunker down a bit if you read this. Firstly, I would like to apologies for being a little late with this chapter. First it was school starting back and I had a small book report to finish and turn-in, which in itself wasn't that bad, but than on Thursday I somehow came down with a minor case of food poisoning, which I think understandably killed my drive to write for a couple of days. Honestly this one was quite a bit harder to write as well since it was longer, and that likely only becomes more the case the further along we get. The fact that I had to suppress the idea for a SU/Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare and more recently, and likely more ill thought out, SU/Frank Herbert's Dune story did not help. With that in mind, you probably shouldn't be expecting the next chapter for a while, as I have big group programming assignment coming up where we are apparently supposed to recreate a simplified version of Twitter if I understand it right, so yeah.
Now onto some more general stuff for the story. I know a few people have expressed interest in Steven and the others watching the World Of Remnant informational videos, and frankly that sounds like a good idea. However, I'm going to be doing it a little differently, mostly that instead of having them occur during volumes two and three, I'll try to intersperse them and have them come up as new things are mentioned. For example, I might have the video for Dust and Grimm happen right after episode one, where as the Aura and Semblances won't come up until either Jaune unlocks his own Aura or later just after the old Jaune's Arc. Besides that I'm not quite sure if I'll have them react to all the songs or anything (I know Steven Universe is a very musical show, and RWBY is honestly one of the few show I will actually shell out and buy the full soundtrack for) but I'm still trying to keep my workload manageable. I honestly have no idea how long it will take to get chapters out once I get to the full episodes, especially since it does seem more sensible to do certain episodes in groups.
Now as for Dust and how the Gems will react to that, well I thought about it and I suddenly got a very interesting idea for it that adds a little plot and some actually reasoning behind this fic, and as such will only say…Spoilers.
And because one of you (SoaringEgale13) asked…well the thing is with a Kamen Rider Gaim/Steven Universe crossover, it would first depend on wither or not the Gems as a species are familiar with Helheim forest or not. If so then the Crystal Gems would likely notice the signs and start freaking out, because they would know just what the end result looks like, even if they've never been through the trial themselves, considering they would have run into several failed planets that had been fully converted to the forest. Honestly I could see Homeworld's response to such worlds being about the same as how the Protoss from Starcraft react to the Zerg or the Covent from Halo react to the Flood, i.e. purge everything and use whatever is left in the now charred rock below to make as many gems as they can. The reason I suggest something like Fourze or OOOs is because they either fit really well with the tone of the show (the former, Gentaro and Steven would probably cause the planet to collapse from the sheer density of their combined over friendliness) or because it allows you take advantage of the Gems 5000+ years of existence to interact with the mythology behind the chosen rider's enemies and powers (like if they had fought both the Greeed and King who created them, or by the same vein the Grongi of Kuuga, or the Fangirie of Kiva, or several other rather interesting enemies like the hyper, if unstable, evolved humans that make up the Orpanochs).
Oh, and kudos to anyone who catches that little shout out to Capcom's' Lost Planet video game that I snuck in there.
