RWBY Loops 11

Into the Unknown


11.1 Vadrigar 1994


"OOOF"

Ruby Awoke bumping into a dust-carrying Weiss. On a scale of the worst or most painful ways to Wake Up, it wasn't even a 2, but it still wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. Hopefully Weiss was Awake, so she wouldn't have to go through the motions of apologizing over and over.

"Oh, sorry! I guess I'm just a little Loopy today, can I help you with-"

Weiss was crying. She was sitting on the ground sobbing, not even noticing the cases of Dust scattered on the ground. Ruby immediately went into caring mode, and hugged Weiss as hard as she could.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you! Are you hurt? Is your stuff okay? Just tell me how to help!"

"She...she cares about me."

"What? Weiss, er, I mean, person I may have never met, are you speaking in the third person?"

"She cares about me, Ruby! She's actually a good sister! I was so worried..."

Ruby then understood. It was no secret that Weiss was nervous about the next expansion, and what her sister would be like. She could be caring, or a complete monster, and after so many Loops and Variants, Weiss wasn't sure what to expect anymore. Which meant that these weren't tears of sadness, as Ruby had assumed.

"Oh Weiss, I'm so happy for you!"

"She's a tough military type, but only because she cares about my well-being! It could have been so much worse!"

Ruby and Weiss then did what their Baseline selves never could have even imagined, and did a simultaneous hug and squee in the middle of Beacon's courtyard. After they were done, Ruby helped Weiss gather her things and head inside.

"Oh, Ruby, I just have one question."

"What's up?"

Ruby than felt a solid number 2 on the pain scale, as Weiss playfully punched her in the shoulder.

"WHY IS YOUR UNCLE SUCH AN ASS?!"


11.2


The door to Ozpin's office opened to the ever so rosy Qrow Branwen and the far too jaded James Ironwood. Ozpin stood up. "Qrow, James. It's good to see that you could meet with us on such short notice."

Qrow took a drag on his flask. "Yeeah, will when you says you were time traveling, I's thought you were lying or crazy." Qrow turned and glared at the empty space off to his left. "Now I know you are crazy."

The empty air rippled and chuckled. "Can't get anything past a Huntsman, can you? Even one who isn't looping." Roman and Neo cast off their invisibility cloaks. "Pleasure to meet you Qrow."

James lunged, a chainsaw tearing out of his prosthetic right arm. Neo stepped between the Atlesian Headmaster and her father, kicking the chainsaw aside. James spun with the impact and turned his momentum back on Neo. Neo ducked and lashed out with her parasol, connecting with Ironwood's side, only for the experienced Huntsman to turn with that blow as well and nearly decapitate the girl.

"Enough," Ozpin said with a slight, if forceful, tone. Neo and James stopped fighting, though both glared at each other furiously. "James, Qrow, these-"

"Are Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan Torchwick, the brains and the brute," Qrow surmised. "I take it they're your insiders."

"They are my informants," Ozpin stressed. "James, I know that Roman led the attack on Vale with the White Fang, but that was for a good reason."

"Endangering civilians? Students? There is not a good reason for that," the general growled. His chainsaw retracting into his arm, Ironwood marched over to Ozpin's desk. "You said that you were time traveling. Is that how you knew I was coming here?"

"Undoubtably."

Glynda walked into the room, Zwei at her heels. "Ozpin, I've told you to stop starting these meetings without me."

"He attacked me!" Roman whined, pointing at James.

"And I'll attack you to," Qrow said. He knelt to Zwei's level when the corgi showed up. "Hey Zwei, what's up?"

"Bark bark bark!"

"Really? Huh. Okay Ozpin, I believe you." Qrow stood up again, Zwei in his arms. "Really, ten thousand men? Impressive."

James' stare alternated between Ozpin and Qrow. "What?"

"That's how I feel," Roman joked, earning a glare.

Glynda pressed her Scroll into the clockwork table. "Gentlemen, Neo, please. We are here to discuss dangers to the world." Silence hit the room like a hammer blow. "Better."

A hologram of Cinder Fall appeared in the room. "This woman, Cinder Fall, has infiltrated the students of Haven Academy, and is the current known leader of our enemy forces. Her goal is unknown though hypothesized to be the initiation of a new War. Her means are unknown... As much as they can be. Her associates are Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, the Torchwicks, and Adam Taurus, a liaison to the White Fang. She is known to have established a powerful virus in the CCT, and would have been listening in on us right now if I hadn't forcefully blocked the local Internet access."

Ironwood glanced at his Scroll. No bars. He put it away, no one noticing the flash of a Queen's chess piece on it's screen. "So we don't know anything about her?"

"Nothing concrete," Glynda admitted. "As you have been briefed, Cinder's end game has been incredibly fluid throughout the time loops that myself, Ozpin, Zwei and the Torchwicks have been experiencing. And... this is a complication."

The hologram of Cinder changed to a hologram of her with Ruby, with Yang, with Team's RWBY and JNPR. Qrow snarled. "What is that monster doing with my nieces?"

Glynda sighed. "Similarly to how myself and company are looping... we've been informed that Cinder is looping as well."

"The dog told us," Roman deadpanned.

Qrow pulled his Scythe-Sword-Sniper Rifle from his back. "So why haven't you moved in and killed her? Or stopped her? Why are Ruby and Yang even around her?"

"Because," Glynda said gently. "Cinder is afflicted with what, in the Looping Community, is called 'Chrysalis Syndrome'. She thinks that she is Ruby and Yang's sister, and treats them as such. When she's looping, she's... Not... evil." Glynda sighed. "This Cinder isn't the Cinder you've dealt with."

"But she's not looping now?" James said.

"Only Jaune, Ruby, Blake and Ren are aware of the loops at the moment," Ozpin assured his fellow teacher. "She is the same megalomaniac she usually is now."

James glanced at his Scroll. "Are we sure that she can't listen in on us?"

Roman shrugged. "Eh, it wouldn't matter. The loop ends tomorrow morning. Unless she can move an army out of secrecy into a strike position in the course of eight hours, she can't do shit, and Red and the others will stop her."

Qrow laughed bitterly. "Trust me, I wouldn't put it past her. I've seen what she's been making, and let me tell you. We are not prepared for them."

"Ruby and her friends will surprise you," Ozpin intoned lightly. "What we need now is reconnaissance. A way to prove that Cinder isn't a threat to Ruby."

"Which is why you brought me here," Qrow said. "You need eyes on Cinder and I'm the best there is."

Ozpin shook his head. "What we need now Qrow is... your consultation. There's no magic pill or strangely terrible video tape that will let you start looping instantly. We need someone to help us get better."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. James spoke directly. "You can't be serious Ozpin. Qrow almost attacked Winter out there: the only reason he didn't was because Ruby asked him."

Ozpin raised a hand. "Now James-"

"Ozpin, we need more than recon! Look at what happened in Mountain Glen. I told you to move in with an army. Your inaction allowed an army of White Fang and Grimm into Vale. I needed to move the Atlesian Military into the city borders just to stop the Grimm."

"City-wide communications are compromised asshole!" Roman shouted at Ironwood. "You walked a robot army into a city where the most powerful communications tower is loaded with a virus. One that hacked your Scroll."

"You're out of line Roman," Glynda countered hotly.

"SILENCE!" Ozpin roared, quelling the argument before it broke out. The other adults stopped dead. "We don't know what Cinder is planning. Just that we have as many chances as we need to stop this mess. We can beat Cinder. We just need knowledge on how to do that."

Ironwood grumbled. "Oz... We are some of the strongest people in the world. We defend it from the evils no one knows about. Our mission is to stop Cinder. Why are we waiting? Why not move in now?"

Ozpin sighed. "I'm not sure what machinations Cinder has planned. I can't figure out how to stop her when I don't know if she's the only player in motion."

Ironwood gulped. "Then tell the kids about yourselves. Stop hiding in the shadows: step into the light."

"We're training them, and sometimes the trust of honesty is not worth the freedom of secrecy," Ozpin said wisely. "If we came forward as loopers, we could not do the sort of things that are necessary to train them. To help them grow."

James stood there, searching for a response, when Qrow spoke. "Look Ozpin, I'll trust your judgement for that. Just keep Ruby and Yang safe."

Glynda nodded to her friend. "We try."

"We try and teach them when we fight," Roman affirmed. Neo nodded with him. "Experience is a great teacher."

James sighed and stepped back from Ozpin's desk. "Ozzy, I-"

TWANG!

The conversation ground to a halt. Ozpin cursed Sakura Haruno under his breath. "Yes James?"

"I've been outvoted it seems," Ironwood muttered. "Look, it's your school. Your students. Qrow's family. You said that the army wouldn't be able to keep people safe."

"I never said they wouldn't be safe, just that they would be scared," Ozpin corrected. "James, an army is a symbol of conflict, a guardian a symbol of comfort. We are molding Team's RWBY and JNPR into those guardians."

"Heh... You're doing a good job with my girls," Qrow said. "You sure there's no way I can start looping right now?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow.

"Oz, I wouldn't need to worry about my nieces, I can help my brother, Hell, I might even be able to see my sisters again. Plus we can always save the cities, and we're a step ahead of our enemies. Really..." Qrow smiled. "It sounds like Heaven on Remnant."

A moment of silence seeped into the room. Ozpin smiled and broke it. "It takes work to make a Heaven. That's what we're here for."

"Bleh!" Neo said. "You sound like Ruby you big sap."

Roman, Glynda, and even Qrow all snickered at that. If it was one thing you could trust Ozpin to be, it was sappy.


11.3 Harry Leferts


Weiss Awoke and for several moments just blinked as she felt the oppressive heat and humidity beat down on her. It was then that she realized that her form that Loop wasn't that of a human which caused her to sigh. 'Okay... This is a little different...' Moving a bit, Weiss kept on eye on the wall until she could see her shadow which was that of something which looked almost like a T-Rex. 'Hmm...'

Just then, Weiss spotted a window and walked up to it to see her reflection in it. 'Okay, not a T-Rex, but I'm guessing some kind of albino... Wish I could be another color tho-' Her thoughts came to a stop as the color of her body changed. '... I can work with this.'

A grin that caused the security guard inside the booth to piss himself crossed Weiss' reptilian face as she tested out her voice and got various pitches. 'I can work with this a lot...'

Taking a sip from her mug, the Awake Claire was never as happy that the Raptor Squad could make good coffee as she was then. "Let me get this straight, Lowery... You're telling me that a number of the hybrids in the park are acting... strangely..."

Nearly pulling his hair out, Lowery tapped out several commands. "Look for yourself!"


Claire watched as first the cameras focused on the Pachyceratops Paddock. Said dinosaur, which had a yellow head and red eyes, was smashing into various objects. More disturbingly was the girlish laughter despite it looking like it was on fire. Then the cameras switched to the Carnoraptor Paddock to show one of them, which had a green body, black stripe along the back of it's head and neck with a smaller pink one. Before Claire's eyes, the carnoraptor closed it's eyes and went into a series of stances.

Finally though, the camera changed to the Indominus Paddock and Claire nearly dropped her mug. Mainly because the Indominus was singing wordlessly as it changed it's colours as if giving a show. "..."

Gesturing at the screen, Lowery groaned. "See what I mean?!"

Several moments passed before Claire sighed before she shook her head. 'Wonder who Looped in...'


11.4


"So... I'm not usually your sister?"

"No."

"...How regular is it?"

"Oh... One in one hundred. Sorry."

"I really rolled the dice on that one, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

Cinder Fall (she'd rather denote herself as Fall-Rose) cocked an eyebrow. "Hmm. That is unfortunate."

Ruby shrugged. "Hey, that's life. Besides, you're cool."

Ruby and Cinder were walking the courtyard of Beacon, Zwei trailing behind them. "Well, at least there's that." Cinder fingered a vial of Dust. "At least this is interesting." A puff of Aura and Dust formed a black glass sword. "This is really inter-alright, this is just cool." Cinder gave it a swing. "Swish."

"That is cool!" Ruby nearly cried. She unfolded Crescent Rose. "Make a scythe! Make a scythe!"

'...She really is a naive dumbass,' Cinder thought to herself. A pulse of Dust and Aura reformed the sword into a massive scythe. "Tada! Swish."

Ruby was practically drooling. "You're powers are so epic! I have two badass sisters now!"

"Well... Well I'm more badass than Yang!" Cinder said.

"Yeah, well, that's only because you got to be evil. And you're old."

Cinder started. "Old. Who are you calling old? I'm," Cinder tapped her sternum. "Experienced."

"Well... I'm more experienced," Ruby defended.


Meanwhile, high above the duo, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna watched the proceedings. Yang brushed a hair away from her eyes. "Am I the only person who thinks this is weird?"

"Our most feared enemy is looping, walking with Ruby, and thinks she's your sister," Blake said. "Really, I'm surprised someone hasn't blown her up yet.

Yang scratched her chin. "I don't know... I guess... She's great, and all. Ruby likes her and she acts just so... innocent." Yang sighed. "I mean, she doesn't really want to be evil, or dominative or... whatever Cinder is in Baseline. She's just this nice little girl and it's weird."

"You think you're the only person who's weirded out by this?" Blake asked. "I like Cinder like this, sure. She's not trying to kill us every minute, and even she doesn't know what her plans are anymore. And it's easy to stop the White Fang and everything when she's on our side."

Blake shrugged. "You don't think it's jealousy, do you?"

"No." Yang said. "So what if she's a better sister than me. It lets me do my best to keep her safe."

"Wait, Yang Xiao Long... the serious sister." Blake glanced at her teammate and partner. "I can't see it."

Yang stuck her tongue out at Blake. Out in the courtyard, a small explosion went off. The partners glanced down at Ruby and Cinder, both completely coated in soot and very stunned. "CRATER FACE!" Yang shouted at Ruby.

"BIMBO!" Cinder shouted back. A moment later, a "SORRY!" came up after that.

"Really can't see it," Blake muttered.


11.5 BIOS-Pherecydes


Watching with a grin as the newly wedded Qrow and Winter argued over who would cut the cake, the pair having already escalated to drawing their weapons to decide the point, Ruby pulled out a little book from her pocket. 'Jaune and Pyrhha, check. Ren and Nora, check; Weiss, double check; Yang, checkerooni... Almost done. Only one more to go!'

Shutting the book, she raised her head with a fire burning in her eyes and gave a cheer. "This time for sure!"

Noticing the sudden stares of the guests around her, she ducked her head. "Um, sorry. I'm just... gonna go somewhere else. Bye."

Two days later she finally got the chance to catch her prey. Sun was being particularly persistent this Loop about spending time with Blake, and the faunus girl had taken to sneaking around trying to avoid her would be suitor. Luckily with Sun and Neptune scouting out the White Fang at her request, Blake was enjoying her space as she ate breakfast with them. Now was the time to strike!

"Blake, I need you to marry me."

Jaune, who had been in a coversation with Pyrrha across the table, suddenly found himself the recipient of an unexpected shower of milk courtesy of Blake.

"Wh-what the hell Ruby! Why would you ask something like that?!"

"Pleeeease. It'll just be for one Loop I swear." Reaching into her cloak she pulled out her book and opened it, a diagram which had absolutely no business fitting inside such a small cover unfolding as she did so.

"See I have it all planned out, Operation 382-b-zeta-tau. Jaune and Pyrrha woke early, raised Nora and Ren again and became teachers, Uncle Qrow and Winter got married before the Vytal Festival - making Weiss Yang's and my sister - and they're going to hunt down Unawake Cinder on their honeymoon with help from Penny who I told all of Cinder's hiding places to so she won't be able to interfere, Sun is obviously in the closet about his feelings for Neptune this Loop which is why he's so focused on trying to get you to be his girlfriend, Neptune and Weiss were dating before she Woke up and she's keeping an open mind and so the only chance I have of making sure we get to spend the rest of the Loop as an official big happy family is if you agree to marry me."

Immediately after unloading her explanation in one go, Ruby took a deep breath before giving Blake her best puppy-dog eyes. "Pretty please with strawberries on top and a big bowl of tuna, will you?"

Blake stared open-mouthed for several moments, before groaning and massaging the bridge of her nose. "I don't need this right now."

Getting up from her chair she proceeded to storm out of the mess hall, Ruby literally trailing behind her as she gripped tightly to Blakes leg while continuing her pleas.

The rest of the table was silent for several minutes, before Yang spoke. "So Weiss, how's dating Neptune this Loop?"

Weiss finished chewing and set her silverware down before answering. "Not as horrible as I expected. He's actually behaving like a gentleman for a change."

Yang nodded. "Cool, cool. So then would you say he's being Sea-rious? Eh, Eh?"

Much groaning followed.


11.6


The Crow Bar was a fairly reputable place to get drunk. As such, Qrow Branwen had been frequenting it and watching the Vytal Tournament matches there, enjoying the fights... Or rather, being frustrated by the absolutely terrible match up for the students. It ended up being the best place for Glynda Goodwitch to find him, and break some news to him.

"She's what?" Qrow gasped.

Glynda fought down a painful groan. 'Why did I do this?' Well, the answer to that was pretty simple. Qrow deserved to know his sister was alive. Hell, Taiyang deserved to know she was alive. She was starting small though. "She's alive."

Qrow Branwen visibly staggered, far more sober than he usually seemed. "Raven... Where is she?"

"I don't know."

"What is she doing?"

"I don't know that either."

Qrow's eyes narrowed. In a flash he grabbed for Glynda's shoulders, missing by a mile as the immortal time traveler sidestepped him. "How the hell do you know she's alive then? Where is she!?"

Glynda tried to look him in the eyes. "Qrow, I'm sorry. I just saw her, for barely a minute. I don't know why she hasn't contacted you, where she went, or what she is doing. I just saw her, alive and fighting."

Qrow snarled, drunk (not that that needed to be said) and angry, but mostly... hurt. "What was happening?"

Glynda pursed her lips. She was working off of second hand information, mostly from Neo and what little info she could discreetly glean from Yang. "It was during the Grimm Invasion a few weeks back. I saw her personally, fighting the Grimm. I tried to speak to her, but she vanished before I could make contact."

Qrow flinched. "What is she doing?" Qrow tapped his glass. "Raven... what are you doing?" he whispered to himself.

Glynda couldn't answer that. In almost every loop since the latest expansion, Raven had been an unknown element of the equation. She didn't fit into the plans or even the hypothetical plans of Cinder anywhere, but if she was on the side of Ozpin and Vale... why was she hiding? Qrow was on their side, hell, he was an undercover agent. So why was Raven hiding? Why wasn't she a part of their inner circle?

"Huh. Those JNPR kids are doing pretty well."

Qrow glared at the bartender who had broken his train of thought, an then at the television. "That was pathetic."

Glynda winced, knowing that Qrow was right. JNPR shouldn't have won their match: the moment JNPR stopped fighting and stopped talking, BRNZ should have mopped the floor with them. That BRNZ hadn't was pure stupid luck.

Glynda recalled that Cinder's virus had let her take control of the matches. Which meant that Team JNPR probably shouldn't have won in her little plan. Which meant...

Glynda glanced at the television again. Team SSSN would be up against Team NDGO in a few moments, and recalling how they had done, it was likely that SSSN was supposed to lose against NDGO. Which meant their victory was also against the plan.

But compared to RWBY... "Qrow, how do you think Ruby, Yang and their team did?"

"What?" Qrow asked, confused by the sudden change in topic. "What does this have to do with my sister?"

"It has to do with the infiltrator," Glynda said.

"...Alright..." Qrow muttered. "The four of them fought well enough. Team ABRN was a joke: they didn't work together, none of them tried hard, and their leader left the lot of them in the dust. Bolin and Reese were the only ones who even tried to work together."

Glynda narrowed her eyes, thinking. Into the second round, Yang and Weiss were planned to represent the Team. Both had incredibly powerful Semblances... Which meant that they moving forward in the tournament could be part of Cinder's plan. Team JNPR though, that was a tough one. Both Nora and Pyrrha had powerful semblances, Pyrrha more so, so did their victory mean they were playing into Cinder's hands? Though... Nora getting a lightning based battlefield... and Weiss getting ice-based... those couldn't be coincidences.

Raven, the Tournament... Glynda sipped her water. "What is the evil we are fighting..."


11.7 Detective Ethan Redfield


Cinder looked on the destruction with a smug expression. Sometimes it was nice to burn down the source of her ire, Beacon Academy. It was even more delicious using Ozpin's own agents to do her dirty work for her. Sending a couple messages to Qrow threatening him with the well being of Ruby and Yang, using Winter's Scroll from a previous loop along with a few sets of Atlesian mechs commandeered and reprogrammed to assassinate the agent, pushed him over the edge. Finally, she spiked his alcohol with bath salts to ensure he would keep fighting even when Ozpin ordered him to stop.

Cinder ended up protecting the students, keeping them safe and evacuating the students as Qrow and Winter rampaged. Fear grew when Torchwick tore down the walls surrounding Vale a few minutes later with high explosives. Cinder and Ruby ended up heroes for repelling the attacking Grimm single-handedly.

Pity Ozpin didn't suffer a similar fate to Qrow. His drinks were also spiked, but somehow he was unaffected by the drink, and was able to survive the Grimm invasion.

Still, it is satisfying accomplishing one version of her plans and becoming even more popular for it. Perhaps she could use Winter's and Qrow's animosity in the future for her own ends.


Ozpin stood over Qrow's body. He knelt over and put his hand on Qrow's body. Within seconds, the body was gone, sent to his subspace pocket. In the headmaster's hand, there was a Scroll, one belonging to the dead man that was just in front of him. He flipped through the mail, noting the messages. After pocketing Qrow's Scroll, Ozpin pulled out his own Scroll and called Ironwood. "James, I need to meet with you and Winter immediately."

He needed to see Winter's Scroll. He needed to find out if Winter had actually sent those messages. Something wasn't adding up. Even if Winter had deleted those messages, which Ozpin didn't even believe she sent then, there were ways to recover them. But he needed Winter's scroll to do so. And then just as the phone turned off, he blinked and opened his eyes...only to realize in a small amount of horror that he was back in Vale before Ruby had joined Beacon Academy. He sighed and whispered a small, "Damn it."


11.8


"Glomp!" Qrow said, sagging over his nieces. Ruby promptly fell over, though Yang managed (barely) to support his drunken ass. "Heeeey girls."

"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby and Yang squealed, hugging him. "I can't believe you got here early!"

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Me? Early? Nah." He playfully punched Ruby's shoulder. "You been doing good squirt?"

"It's been awesome! We've been kicking butt, blowing things up, beating up bad guys, adventuring..."

Qrow snuck a gulp from his hip flask. "Man, you sound like your mom's wet dream. What bout you Yang?" Qrow punched his niece by blood in the face. "How you feeling?"

"I'm feeling pumped up!" Yang nearly screamed. "This is awesome, it's been so long. What about you? Your quest for the world's highest proof going well?"

"Highest proof? Nah, it's a quest to commit genocide on the great Grimm of all." Qrow pulled his nieces in closer. "My liver."

"Well that's still cool," Yang admitted. "So, we know that you and Ozpin need to meet or something. Think we can catch a movie later-"

"Actually, that won't be necessary," a new voice said. Walking up behind the Branwen-Xiao Long-Rose family, Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda were all smiles. "It's a pleasure to see you again Qrow."

"Eh, you too Ozzy."

TWANG!

The quintet of Huntresses and Huntsmen stopped and looked for the invisible guitar. "Okay..." Qrow waggled his eyebrows at Ozpin. "You get another band following you?"

Ozpin shook his head. "It's your niece. Yang did something."

Yang and Ruby shared a look and shrugged. It wasn't them.

"Our discussion has been put on hold Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long. You can have your uncle for the evening," Ozpin said politely. Glynda held up her Scroll to demonstrate the time tables. "Have a fun night. You've earned it."

Qrow, Ruby and Yang watched the Headmaster and deputy Headmistress walk off. "So, movie and pizza?" Yang suggested.

Qrow's Aura flared, the healing factor metabolizing the Alcohol and sobering him up. "Movie and pizza girls. You can tell me all about this mech fight you got into on the way."

"It was awesome!" Ruby cried as her family made off for the Airship wharf.

"As awesome as stopping a Grimm invasion?"

"Almost."


11.9 Vadrigar 1994


"Wait, that's your sister?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I don't see the resemblance."

Yang rolled her eyes as she and Gordon Freeman walked away from an Unawake Ruby, leaving her to forcibly socialize at Beacon. Gordon had Looped in as a 17 year-old student, and only Yang wanted to be within talking distance of him, for some inexplicable reason.

"We have different moms, Gordon. That must have crossed your mind."

"You have any pictures? I want to see the resemblances. It'll only be further proof of how genes in every universe work differently, which blows. How am I supposed to learn physics that no one else from my world knows if the physics ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT?! I could use the knowledge of the multiverse to change my world, but nooooooo, every damn Loop has to work on different rules, which is annoying as all hell, and-"

"HERE!"

Yang shoved an old photo into Gordon's face in a desperate attempt to make him stop talking. He took the photo and saw four people, two men and two women. The blond man had Yang's hair color, and the woman on his right was a spitting image of her.

"So, if I were to make an educated guess, these two in the center are your parents?"

"Good to see you putting that degree to good use."

"Uh huh. Which means this one must be Ruby's mom?"

"Right on the money."

Gordon looked at Ruby from across the courtyard, and looked back at the photo. Yang could have sworn she saw him muttering "blond" and "red" under his breath.

"Pale as a sheet, dark red hair. Man, your sister is just a funhouse of recessive genes, isn't she?"


"Ozpin."

"Yes Glynda?"

"Why is that student flying over the school?"

"Hmm. Maybe he just enjoys the view."


11.10 Harry Leferts


Ruby was leaning against the wall with what looked like a lit cigar in her mouth watching her team whisper worryingly to each other. Suddenly, Jaune joined her with a nearly identicle cigar. For several moments the blond haired boy was quiet before he nodded. "You go through that wierd ME/Starcraft loop as well?"

Nodding, Ruby grinned around the object in her mouth. "Yup! It was actually kind of fun!"

As he nodded toward the rest of Team RWBY, Jaune took a deep breath before he exhaled a cloud. "So... When are you going to tell them that it's not actually a cigar, but an energy bar that you're slowly chewing? And that the glowing tip is just a kind of mint which gives off scented mist and acts like a breath freshener?"

Still grinning, Ruby pulled the now revealed to be fake cigar from her mouth. "I'm going to keep quiet for a while longer... You're not going to tell them, are you?"

While he shook his head, Jaune chuckled. "Nah, this is actually kind of hilarious."

Giggling, Ruby glanced at him. "Besides, it makes me look kind of badass..." She then tapped hers. "Chocolate chip, yours?"

Jaune snickered a bit. "Strawberry."


11.11 Harry Leferts


Ruby looked over her room at Beacon, Littlefoot behind her. After a moment, she walked over to a spot, moved the carpet away from the wall, and pulled up a floorboard before nodding. "They're gone, alright... The cookie thief has struck again."

Littlefoot walked up behind her and blinked, noticing that the cookies he and Ruby had baked just that morning were gone. "Whoever it is, though..." He glanced around at the hidden traps and other measures. "They're good."

A slightly scary cackle escaped from Ruby's mouth and caused Littlefoot to lean back. "It doesn't matter how good they are... I'm about to have my revenge!"

There was a frown on Littlefoot's face as he shook his head. "You're sure that it's not someone on your team or JNPR, right? Because I don't want to see them get hit with this..."

Shaking her head, Ruby got up and placed everything back the way it was. "Nope! They all know better then to mess with my cookies! And you made sure that it wasn't your team, which means someone else is doing it..."


With a sigh, Ozpin shook his head and sipped his coffee as he watched Torchwick and Neo munch on a bunch of cookies from a bag. "Do you really need to be stealing my students' cookies?"

All the master thief did was snort as he swallowed another cookie. "Look, you want Red to get better, right? Well, she'll get better at traps and defenses or else she'll keep losing cookies..." A smirk then crossed Torchwick's face as Ozpin took one of the cookies. "Besides, you seem to be enjoying them as well."

Ozpin only shrugged. "They're good cookies... And one has to love gummy bear cookies."

From where she sat on the headmaster's desk, Neo nodded as she continued to munch on hers.


Shoving his hands into his pockets, Littlefoot frowned a bit. "Still... Using Haribo sugar-free gummy bears in those cookies may have been a bit much..."

With a fire in her eyes, Ruby pumped her fist. "No punishment is too severe for a cookie thief! None!"


11.12 BIOS-Pherecydes


"Oh, Shir~ou! Where a~re you?"

Shirou shuddered as he huddled on the roof of the Beacon Academy. Next to him Sakura and Taiga were looking around cautiously while Rin was busy trying to glare a hole in his head.

"What did you do?" She demanded.

"I don't know. One minute she was normal, and then she was suddenly acting like that!" Shirou hissed under his breath.

"I know you're here somewhere Shiro~u."

"Are all the girls from Naruto's Branch crazy?!" Taiga demanded tersely.

Sakura shook her head. "Hinata is a nice person. She and Naruto were very understanding when I visited."

"That's not the point," Rin insisted. "Tenten was completely fine, then she went with Shirou for five minutes and suddenly she's in stab-happy yandere mode. What. Did. You. DO?"

"Hey guys! What'cha doing up here on the roof?"

The visiting Loopers gave a collective cry at the unexpected presence of Ruby Rose, who was playfully balancing atop Crescent Rose as she looked down at the members of Team RSST.

"Oops, sorry. I keep forgetting not everyone has superspeed. My bad." Hopping down off her scythe, she found herself quickly pulled down with Rin's hand over her mouth.

"Quiet. If you keep making so much noise she'll find us!"

Ruby blinked confusedly, before licking Rin's palm; causing the Magus to pull back in disgust. "Who are you hiding from?"

"Tenten. She went nuts and keeps trying to chase me down. And anytime anyone else gets close to me she starts pulling out weapons." Shirou answered as his eyes darted back and forth, trying to see if his pursuer had found him.

Tilting her head, Ruby placed her finger against her cheek. "Do you owe her money?"

"What? No."

"Did you call her something mean?"

Shirou balked at that. "Of course not."

"Did you perform a high-jump over a crossbar and make her fall in love with you somehow?"

Rin and Sakura blushed at that, avoiding Shirou's gaze; Rin glaring indistinctly outwards, while Sakura buried her flushed face in her hands.

Shirou shook his head. "No. I was just trading tips on swords with her."

Ruby's eyes lit up. "Oh, so you were showing her Bakuya and Kanshou?"

Shirou chuckled. "Not just them. Tenten has been collecting swords for as long as she's been Looping. I wanted to compare our collections. But for some reason she started acting weird when I showed her Unlimited Blade Works."

Ruby processed that for a second, before glaring at him. "YOU IDIOT! You can't just lead a girl on like that, we have feelings too!"

"I know right. He just casually walks up and shows me a separate dimension filled with the kind of swords a girl can only dream of and expects me to just smile and walk away. Men are such jerks." Tenten said from behind the group.

"GAH!" Four voices cried out simultaneously.

"So Ruby, you want to go talk about how stupid Shirou is?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically and pulled out a binder of blackmail. "Yep."

Moments later Team RSST was left staring blankly at the space the two weapon aficionados had occupied seconds before. It was several moments before Taiga broke the silence. "What just happened?"

From the ground another voice answered. "I'm sure I don't want to know. However in the future, I would appreciate it if you could avoid irritating my girlfriend."

Moving over to the edge of the roof to get a look at the person who had spoken, they found themselves staring into the harsh white eyes of Neji Hyuuga. "Unlike you, I have to deal with her weapon envy after the end of this Loop."


11.13 Detective Ethan Redfield


Cinder stood watching Winter's and Qrow's fight. She looked bored at the drunken fighter and asked her partner, "How on earth can you say he's wielding a scythe? That's a Buster Sword."

Mercury tilted his head to the side and asked, "What is a Buster Sword?"

Cinder blinked, then facepalmed, "Never mind."


11.14


The Atmosian council stared down at the five new recruits, each decked out in... probably the strangest garb they had ever seen. "And who are you again."

"Ruby Rose, trainee Skyknight and sharpshooter."

"Weiss Schnee, crystal mage and wing woman."

"Blake Belladonna, navigation and mission specialist."

"Yang Xiao Long, flight mechanic and heavy ballistics!"

"Cinder Fall, Skyknight, leader, and carrier pilot."

The Atmosian Council leader adjusted his glasses. "Well, the paperwork seems in order. Sign here miss Fall."

A few minutes later, Team RWBY and Cinder stepped out of the council chambers of Terra Atmos into the bright light of midday. "Am I the only person who's going to love this Loop?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Hmm... A series of mountaintop kingdoms, at war with an evil empire, with battles fought on motorcycles that transform into biplanes and with weapons powered by magical crystals," Weiss surmised. "I'm certainly looking forward to this loop."

"Yeah, this is awesome," Yang said. "We get our own flying aircraft carrier, get to go on adventures, save good looking princes, princesses, battle evil. We're like... like... traveling heroes... uh..."

"Knights errant," Blake suggested.

"Yeah, knights errant. Wandering the world in search of adventure."

Cinder chuckled. "Be careful Yang, you might just get exactly what you wish for."

Yang playfully bumped Cinder. "This is your first fused loop. Come on, it'll be awesome. We'll get to show you exactly what the loops are all about."

Cinder shrugged as the five girls walked into one of the city's many courtyards. "It's already made a bad impression. I mean, look at our clothes! It's all patchwork fabric. I am so going a full Rarity on this Loop." After a moment, Cinder glanced at Ruby. "Full Rarity is a real saying, right?"

"It is now," Ruby said, before bumping into a redheaded boy going the other way. "Oh I'm so sorry."

The boy shrugged her off, five other teens walking up behind him. "It's nothing. Hey, who are you?"

"We're..." Ruby trailed off. "Yang, what's our team name?"

"RWBY?" Yang suggested in confusion.

"We're the Crimson Falcons," Weiss supplied. "Be careful where you're going. Nearly threw Ruby for a loop."

The boy shrugged. "Eh, I'll anchor you." He held out a hand. "Aerrow, Anchor and Skyknight. Welcome to Atmos."

"It's good to meet you Aerrow," Ruby said. "This is my team: Weiss, Blake, Yang and Cinder. Who are you?"

The blond boy went first. "Finn. Wingman, sharpshooter."

Following him was a tan girl. "Piper. Navigation and tactics."

Now a sort of rhino Faunus. "Junko. Mechanics and heavy ballistics."

A green skinned young man who looked far too sick to be moving named himself, "Stork. Carrier pilot." He also sneezed in Cinder.

Finally, a short brunette with a raspy voice spoke. "Lark Cyclonis. Tyrannical despot and adventurer."

"We're the Storm Hawks," Aerrow declared.

"...I'm going to love this loop," Ruby squealed quietly.


"Yaw up. Now level out. Good, you're a natural."

Yang stabilized her sky skimmer, coasting high above the clouds. "WAHHOOOO!" she cried. Behind her, Aerrow laughed happily.

Watching the training from the bridge of the Condor (the Storm Hawk's flying aircraft carrier) Ruby giggled as Yang took to the sky like a bird to... the... Sky. "Better watch your back Cinder. Looks like Yang's gonna beat you for best flier."

"She's just lucky," Cinder mopped. After having learned that their landing had accidentally crushed Team RWBY's carrier, the Storm Hawks had invited the now homeless girls onto their ship, and even promised them flight lessons. Ruby, Weiss and Blake had... wrecked their bikes. Badly. Cinder had been the best by far, which she attributed to being a registered pilot. Now it looked like Yang's hobby of bike riding was going to net her the gold.

Yang banked in and yawed left slightly, rolling against the wind. She landed, bounced, and stuck, gliding into the hanger bay. "Ladies, I am pretty fly."

A hammer, hubcap, tire, and Cinder's bike all tried to crush Yang's face for that one. None connected.

Aerrow rolled his eyes and made a textbook landing, sidling up next to Yang. "Well, I wouldn't certify any of you for flying soon, but you're... passable." Light cheering greeted that declaration. "As it is, Cinder's probably the best flier here thanks to her Pre-Loop experience."

"As I should be," Cinder said with a haughty tone.

"Good, because you're about to be part of a great tradition of ours," Aerrow said. He thumbed his bike's radio. "Lark, how's the offensive shaping up?"

"We're ready to roll in, just give the word Aerrow," Cyclonis' horse voice crackled through the radio.

"Five minutes, then go," Aerrow declared. He turned to the perplexed foreigners. "Cinder, you are going to be fighting an army of Cyclonian's single handedly."

A second passed in silence. "Cyclonians. The bad guys? From Terra Cyclonis, home to Master Lark Cyclonis, the Terra of evil, darkness, suffering, all that Jazz?"

"Yup."

"How about nope," Cinder said.

"Yes, inescapably and imminently," Aerrow affirmed.

Cinder scoffed. "This is my first Fused Loop. It's my... what do you call it?"

"Formative Loop," Ruby supplied.

"It's my Formative Loop," Cinder iterated. "You're going to throw me up against a fleet of bike-plane bound... Nazis!"

"I take offense to that," Lark's voice chirped through the radio. "Also, Aerrow, you said five seconds right?"

"What?" Aerrow said. "No, I said five minutes!"

"Ooh... About that..."

The air rumbled, visibly shaking, as a low flying Cyclonian Carrier broke cloud cover. The red, black and steel hull gleamed in the sun as waves of Talons, the Cyclonian foot soldiers, poured from the bay doors. Coming in hot for a landing, a more advanced form of the standard flying motorcycle landed on the Condor. Lark managed to bring it to a skidding halt. "Yeah, the army's here."

Cinder cocked an eyebrow at Lark Cyclonis. The otherwise snippy, sarcastic girl had managed to blend in well with the Storm Hawks, but now she seemed a totally different person. A long rippling purple cloak with spiked hood turned her from scrawny to regal. Looking like this, she was the leader of Cyclonia.

'I should get one of those cloaks,' Cinder decided.

Team RWBY took a step away from Cinder when Master Cyclonis and Aerrow glanced at her. Cinder glanced from the despot to the hero, and then back at her team, and sighed. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Good."

Far from the Condor, the Dark Ace finished issuing his standing orders to the generals. Long range observation contacted him. Apparently the latest incarnation of his old team were launching only a single Sky Knight out to meet them.

The Dark Ace smirked. One Sky Knight against an army of Talons? This was too easy. "TALONS! ATTACK!"


Ten minutes later...


"RETREATRETREATRETREATRETREAT!" Dark Ace screamed as the army fell into a rout. Behind them, crackling evilly with Crystal Magics even Dark Ace couldn't fully understand, Cinder Fall laughed heartily.

"FALL BEFORE ME!"

Back on the Condor's observation deck, the Storm Hawks and Team RWBY stared at the carnage. "So... She's enthusiastic," Junko offered.

"This is what you get when you let a part-time megalomaniac who doesn't get out much cut loose against an army," Blake deadpanned.

"She's coming back!" Stork screamed, obviously having forgotten that the woman who had just wrecked an army of evil Cyclonian's was on their side... probably on their side anyway.

Cinder touched down gently, giggling evilly. She hopped off her bike, still laughing a little, and smiled at Cyclonis. "That was fun. Can we do it again?"

Cyclonis stared at her, and then smiled. Evilly.

The Storm Hawks and RWBY then wisely decided that it was time to go make popcorn, and settle in to watch one woman personally decimate a country's entire armed forces.


11.15


"Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Weiss and Winter Schnee. You four claimed the White Knight Chess Piece as your artifact. From now on, you shall be known as Team RWYS, led by Ruby Rose."

"Well... that could have been a lot more awkward," Ruby said to Weiss as they stepped down from the platform where the new team had been presented to the school. "I mean, we're called Team Rice. You... ever think Professor Ozpin will find someway to fail at making an acronym name that's a color?"

"Shush," Weiss said, trailing closely behind her elder sister. Per the odd little variant that the loop was, Weiss was fifteen as well, with Winter a cute seventeen and partners with Yang. For Ruby and Weiss, it was a nice, quiet loop together with their sisters.

Ruby was waiting for the sparks to start flying.

"This is hardly up to any form of a minimum standard of living!" Winter berated Yang.

"Well I'm not the one trying to make everyone march to my drum!" Yang shot back,


Oh, there were the sparks.

As per the rule of drama that was occasionally enforced on Remnant's resident immortal time travelers, Yang this loop had a quirk of being a bit of a slob. Really, this only amounted to not cleaning up her quarter of the room. Winter took offense to this.

"Yang, you need to look after yourself, especially since we're living as a team now," Weiss pointed out.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to live," Yang countered. "Besides, we're Huntresses. Our job is to blow things up, not clean them up."

"Xiao Long, we are a team necessitating that we present a united front against our obstacles," Winter growled. "That you refuse to do the minimum amount of work necessary to provide this facade is infuriating. And you," Winter said, giving Ruby the index finger.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Though I cannot in any manner fathom why the venerable Headmaster appointed you as our team leader when superior options were present, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. That you have failed to legislate your own sister and allowed this affront against our hard work to occur has removed it."

Ruby stared at Winter. "Uh, Winter." Ruby scratched her head. "Could you... repeat that. In English."

Winter's tirade faltered and broke. Weiss facepalmed. "Ruby, she's saying that since you're our leader and you haven't tried to control Yang, you're as responsible as she is."

Ruby winced. "Sorry Winter. Thanks Weiss."

Winter grumbled something extremely profane and marched for the door, only to be barred by Ruby. Winter's eyes flashed. "Move Rose."

Ruby shook her head. "No, we're solving this as a team."

Winter opened her mouth.

"That's a legislative."

Winter faltered yet again. Weiss leaned out from behind her sister. "That's an order, Ruby."

"Right, that's an order," Ruby corrected herself.

Winter returned to her bed (neat, pristine, organized, Un-Yang-ish) and waited for Ruby to begin. She glanced at Yang's bed and night stand, which was covered in dirty clothes, a few comics, a porn magazine, and topped with a slice of pizza. 'This team is doomed.'

"I know that we have our differences, and they are as plain as day-" Ruby pointed to Yang, "-And night-" then to Winter. "I also know that there are differences that can't be reconciled, because sometimes they oppose each other and sometimes because people won't let their differences be put aside. We could have been like that once. We could have let our differences, big, small, simple and complex, keep us apart. We could have been like all the rest of people."

"But we became Huntresses. We chose to be responsible for the safety of thousand of people. In doing so, we also chose to be the best people we could be. And to be the best we can be means that we must be willing to compromise with each other. We simply can't have a perfectly clean room or one that's filled with dirty clothes anymore. We, together, must be willing to learn to live and let live. Which might mean that Yang will need to clean her side of the room, and Winter leave her alone. Or it might not. We're here to figure that out: what we're going to do."

Ruby drummed her fingers against her thigh. "We're here to make the world a better place. Which means making ourselves better first. So who's with me!?"

"..." Weiss, Yang and Winter stared at Ruby. "Did you really need to make a big speech about why we should clean our room Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"I wanted to."

"You are insufferable."

"You're just jealous that I can make a great speech."

"It was a complete tangent."

"It was relative... I think."

"See!"

Winter and Yang stared at the back and forth between their little sisters. Yang awkwardly caught Winter's eye. "So... Alright, maybe I can clean my part of the room if it gets those two to stop arguing."

"...You want help?" Winter asked, refocusing on Weiss

"No, I'm good," Yang admitted.

Winter and Yang watched as the back and forth between Weiss and Rubh broke down into an argument. "You're sister is a rather gifted orator," Winter said after a moment.

"Yeah, and Weiss is pretty cool," Yang said. "You're pretty lucky."

"I know," Winter said gently as Weiss and Ruby's argument broke down into a cat fight. "Weiss, aim for the groin!"

"Kick her in the teeth Ruby!" Yang shouted. She moved to Winter's bed and elbowed her. "Twenty lien says Ruby wins."

"It is improper for a lady of my stature to gamble."

Yang gave Winter a look. "...Thirty?"

"...You're on Xiao Long."


11.16


"You know, I'm not sure why you're not dating Ironwood."

CRUNCH.

Neo reached up and gave her crushed nose a hard yank, resetting the cartilage before it healed wrong. "Sneariously, why nut Irunwood. He's ulright."

Glynda glared at her notebooks, dropping them onto her desk with more force than strictly necessary. "Neo, I'm going to ask that you refrain from discussing this topic with me."

Neo playfully poked the teacher. "Sore subject? Can't quite figure out why he gets you so hot under the collar? Maybe you're a bit-"

Glynda ground her teeth. "Stop talking. It's not a sore subject and you will turn it into one."

Neo hopped onto Glynda's desk, legs crossed. "Eh, whatev's. So, how do you think they'll react? 'Neopolitan, mysterious teaching assistant'. The strangely powerful little girl working alongside the obviously powerful deputy headmistress of a Beacon."

"I'm not actually the deputy headmistress," Glynda muttered. "You tell me how you want them to react. You're the one who wanted to be my teaching assistant."

"Pish and tosh," Neo declared as the first students began to trickle into the classroom. "I shall be the gossip center of the school, and everyone will be asking; who is this mysterious woman? Perhaps... You daughter?"

Glynda very patiently and very calmly sat at her desk as more students walked in. Finally, as all students were seated (Team RWBY and JNPR naturally surprised by Neo having shown up) Glynda cleared her throat, and spoke to the students. "Today, we will be exploring an unorthodox method of education."

Glynda pointed at Neo. "The first person to land a blow on Neo will receive a free pass for this semester."

Neo stifled a giggled as everyone in the room gasped. "Well, that's one way to get revenge. LATERS!" Neo turned, and bolted from the room, the Loopers of Remnant charging after her. Glynda simply nodded, and went through her notes. It was time to teach.


11.17


"..." Yang and Blake stared at the moon of Remnant.

It was a shattered disco ball. Beacon was a dance academy. The Grimm were groovy.

Jaune was popular!

"...Yep, this is a virus," Yang decided.

"...Are you sure?" Blake asked.

Yang pointed at a Grimm wearing disco shades and a sequinsed leather jacket. "It's disco Blake. There is no way this is anything but a plague upon our home." Ember Celica unfolded on Yang's forearms. "Let's save our home!"

Blake pulled Gambol Shroud from her back. "This, I've been waiting for." Together, Blake and Yang charged the unspeakable evil of disco.


"This is hell," Blake observed. "We're stuck in the world's most boring universe, in the club no one wants to be a part of, I have J-cups, you have AA-cups... Yang?"

Yang whimpered unhappily as she and Blake stood in the Eiken club room.

"We're here because we tried to kill Disco. We've proved it. Disco is the root of all evil in the multiverse."

Across the room, Dio Brando simply nodded. "Word."


11.18


Now when any civilian population is forcibly evicted from their homes, corralled into airships, chloroformed en masse, flown out to an otherwise uninhabited continent, and left there with naught the clothes on their back and whatever they happened to grab from their homes, this naturally tends to breed more than a little bit of fear, anger, and resentment. All emotions that, naturally, attract the Grimm. Now normally such situations are avoided due to human rights, basic empathy, and the fact that it's horribly, horribly bloody.

This did not stop humanity from "centralizing" the Faunus population on the continent of Menagerie. In Baseline, the destined world in a way, this proposition had it's supporters but was violently shut down by the Faunus in the Faunus Rights Conflict, more colloquially known as the Faunus War, which in this case should have taken place twenty years in the past. This was summarily because the Faunus knew about such plans and had loudly and later violently voiced their disinterest. Not so in this universe.

Under such circumstances of course, even a best case scenario would end in a massacre. Had the plan merely been mass, even voluntary colonization, it would have failed as the ability to maintain a functioning military would be difficult, the fledgling colony would be utterly dependent upon outside countries for sustenance, and the entire continent was still covered in Grimm. In comparison, Mountain Glen was relatively close to Vale, relied upon a state of the art subway system to stay supplied, was within an hour's flight of Beacon Academy and Vale proper, and it still ended up the world's largest tomb.

Centralizing Faunus on Menagerie wasn't a deportation; it was a death sentence.

Well, actually that isn't true. It would have been a death sentence if it hasn't been for one very strong, very smart, and very old immortal time traveler. Blake Belladonna woke up in the center of a massive clearing, surrounded by hundreds of Faunus, and nothing on Remnant was going to stop her from saving every soul she could over the next two decades.

"Fuck fuck fuckity fuck!"

After she finished cursing the governments, of course.


"SUSANOO!" Blake shouted, the Shinto God of Valor manifesting around her, shrouding the path to Anima.

The Nevermore screeched back at her, winging in towards the giant flaming skeleton. Blake's Sharingan spun and manipulated her rarified Susanoo, the construct of chakra reaching up and tearing a hole in the Crow Grimm's chest. The monster slammed into the ground and did not rise again.

Across the battlefield, Adam Taurus tore through a pack of Beowolves, his expert Iaijitsu techniques rendering him untouchable. A charge built up along his sword, Wilt. Sheathing the blade into his rifle Blush, Adam drew the glowing blade, sweeping the entire pack of Grimm into a single, devastating blast. "Oh yeah."

"Hey, leave some for me!" Sun Wukong shouted, swinging Ryu Bang and Jingu Bang down on the stragglers. The Beowolves charged the monkey boy, but Sun Wukong was nothing if not tenacious. In what could only be called a dance of death, Sun swung his shotgun nunchuks, each resounding crash of buckshot tearing flesh from bone.

Further back, behind the trio of lead fighters, archaic glyphs enshrouded Velvet Scarlatina, her nascent supplies of Ice Dust amplified by her raw skill and Aura. Swinging her stave about, the Rabbit girl unleashed a localized snowstorm, clearing the field of any organized Grimm charge. The massed group shattered into a dozen component swarms, Blake, Adam and Sun racing in to eliminate the isolated groups before they could reform and overwhelm them. Velvet unleashed another blast, one of pure ice, and froze a Beowolf that had nearly taking Sun's head off. "Watch it Sun!"

Sun kicked the Grimm in the chest, shattering it. "What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of you saving my life!"

Velvet rolled her eyes and fought down a blush.

Black flames erupted from Blake's eyes, soaking the now thoroughly weakened Beowolves with death. The few that survived the onslaught wisely retreated into the forests. For a moment, silence hung heavy in the air.

"You think they're gone?" Sun asked as the pregnant seconds passed.

"No. But they won't bother us," Blake finally decided. "Alright Team BASV, let's get back to the city."

The other members of Team Basil (Adam, Sun and Velvet) heaved a heavy sigh of relief. The Pack had been spotted by an advance scout two days ago, and had finally reached Anima's territory that morning. As the only people with anything approaching genuine Huntress and Huntsmen training, Team BASV had run out to meet the horde, and defend their home. Again.

Sun stretched, his back audibly cracking. "Ugh... Man. What a day. Seriously, you'd think the Grimm would get the memo already. No Assholes Welcome."

"I think you'd deserve to get that memo as well," Adam muttered. A playful punch to the shoulder didn't deter him from smiling ever so slightly.

"Don't call Sun names Adam," Velvet said. "Besides, if anyone here needed that sort of memo, it would be me."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Velvet," Blake requested. "He had it coming."

"I really shouldn't have yelled at Brian," Velvet muttered.

"I thought it was pretty badass," Sun said, throwing an arm around the shrinking girl. "You're badass on and off the field."

"Brian's an ass anyway," Adam added. The elder man laced his fingers behind his head. "We'll all the family you need."

"...Thanks..." Velvet said as the quartet reached the outer most farms. A few Faunus were already walking out of the defensive walls surrounding the world's newest City State, Anima.

It had barely been a year since the relocation of the Faunus race had ended, with millions deported from Atlas, Vale and Mistral to the unsettled, unpopulated continent of Menagerie. From day one, the Grimm were upon the refugees, searching out and destroying every camp they could. And each camp had Blake though.

Blake had ran herself ragged, racing up and down the territory that the Faunus were dumped in, her Susanoo a bulwark to the darkness. By night, she was a Huntress, but by day she was trying her best to feed as many as she could. Her own stocks of food, sequestered away in her subspace pocket, were prodigious, but only meant to feed a few dozen for a few decades. There were millions of Faunus to feed.

Surprisingly enough though, Blake managed it. Food, Dust ammunition, whatever supplies she could had and could use were slaved to the task of saving the Faunus race. Weapons were deposited to the former soldiers, Food to whomever could be trusted for fair and equal distribution, and building materials went to the masons. In days, rudimentary defenses were dug and erected. Weeks of industry began to follow, men and women doing their best to prepare for the Grimm. The first few months had been a time of construction for most, and near constant war for Blake. No one alone could bear what she did.

Maybe, then, it was fate or fortune that a Huntsmen came to pledge his services to her. It was almost certainly luck that the person turned out to be Adam. "I'm not sitting around while someone else is risking their life for all of us."

It was always weird to work with Adam after having parted ways with him. Adam wasn't always a good person, sometimes either a violent man who had used the White Fang as an outlet, a righteous warrior fighting a cruel war, or just a lost boy in a world that wouldn't help him find his way. Here though, together, Blake and Adam had a purpose.

Fate soon intervened again, and a familiar blond found Blake and Adam one night, sequestered away from the small city that had sprung up around the few farms. "Sun Wukong. I saw you go up against that Dullahan herd. You saved us."

It was something of an odd balance between Sun and Adam. Sun was free wheeling and fought for the people, not for his responsibility. Adam did what he thought was necessary; what he thought was needed. He tended to enforce this on others, going straight up against Sun and his own ways.

Naturally, this ended with Blake breaking up a fight every other week as the pair of fighters clashed over ideology. Blake wasn't a confrontational person though: a life of running, and her own difficulties, reflected in her semblance, had never made her much of a leader, even when it was needed.

Here, perhaps, was where Velvet Scarlatina came in. Sun and Adam's arguments had never been easy, but one too few had turned a family of Ursa's into an army. Blake had soldiered out on her own, Sun and Adam standing guard. Now alone, seeing their friend fighting hundreds of Grimm, Adam and Sun tried to put their differences aside, only for Velvet to do it for them. Velvet, grabbing a handful of Dust Crystals and racing out onto the battlefield, unleashed a storm of fire and lightning on the Grimm. "I won't let my home be destroyed!"

Suffice to say, that was a good résumé to join the soon christened Team BASV, and become part of the only Team of Huntresses and Huntsmen in the soon christened city of Anima.

Some of the farmers waved at the team, a few even cheering at the returning heroes. Velvet shrunk back a little, Adam stepping to join in with her. Sun gave the lot a royal wave, like he was on a Sunday promenade and not fresh from a battle to save their lives.

And Blake? She smiled, waved, and thought to herself, 'What a loop this is.'


Blake stared at the metalwork. It was gold, forged over Dust fed flames, melted, formed, heated and quenched into a simple ring, albeit on that fit neatly over her head. "You want me to what?"

A council of representatives, and a large crowd, had gathered around one of the usual haunts of Team
BASV and demanded to see Blake. Once the cat Faunus had stepped forward, a metal smith and a the "Probationary Council of Anima" had stepped forward and placed the crown in Blake's hand. "Blake Belladonna, the populace has voted, near unanimously, to have you as our leader."

Blake blinked. "...Me? ...Me?"

Sun snatched the crown from Blake's fingers. "Hey, if you won't do it, I'll take over." He donned the crown. "All hail King Sun!" That got a few laughs.

"But... I don't have any experience leading a country," Blake stammered out when her thoughts finally realigned. "Why would you vote me as-"

"You have provided sound council before," Leon, the head of the council reminded her. "Your decisions for food distribution have stood well, despite them having been made five years ago. You have successfully defended our borders and you've guided the construction of our infrastructure with wisdom. You are the clear choice."

"...Me?" Blake said again. "Are you..."

The council nodded. In the crowd somebody shouted. "ALL HAIL QUEEN BLAKE!"

"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!" The crowd cheered. Blake staggered back, near deafened by the roar. "HAIL! HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!"

Velvet stepped forward, Dust swirling around her neck. "QUIET!"

The crowd fell into complete silence. Velvet nodded. "Thank you."

Blake brought herself to her full height, staring at the crowd. Thousands had turned out, the Faunus before her a massive fraction of the population. These were people who supported her. It was almost impossible not to say what she said next.

"TO THE QUEENDOM OF ANIMA!"


"So... Do the names always end up this weird?" Cinder asked.

"Team RWCY? Nah, it's just you," Jaune joked. Cinder's eyeroll was a cute response. "Seriously, has anyone seen Blake?"

Team RWCY and JNPR had gathered that evening on the roof of Beacon, watching the golden sunset of the day. The sky fleet of Atlas hung high above, Amity Colosseum floating serenely into place. Ruby shook her head in response to Jaune's question. "I don't know. I think that was her who Pinged earlier, but... I don't know where she is. Maybe she's where all the Faunus went, wherever that was."

Yang shrugged, leaning on Cinder's shoulder. She missed her partner. "I vote we catch an Airship for Menagerie. Maybe she'll be there."

"She'll be here, event-"

"What's that?" Cinder asked, interrupting Weiss.

A gray cloud was slowly approaching Beacon, growing bigger and bigger with each moment. The cloud began to diffuse into individual shapes, which resolved into a fleet of airships. The ships were slightly old fashioned, bearing a... strange symbol, one of no city alive.

The teams of Loopers were some of the first at the airship wharf, alongside Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. The flagship, the most ornate and massive one, was banking towards them, a ramp extending. With expert control, the ship landed smoothly, and the ramp connected. From it, marched an army.

Faunus, sharply dressed, well armed, and fairly young, marched in lockstep behind a team of tall, ornate men and women, each one dressed and armed to kill. The noise itself was shocking, empowering, and... well...

"Awesome," Ruby murmured.

The lead woman, the one who wore a gold ringlet across her brow, came forward to Ozpin. "Queen Blake Belladonna of the Queendom of Anima, with Headmaster Sun Wukong of Preserve. We've come to enroll our students in the Vytal Tournament."

"..." Ozpin sipped his coffee, a hint of old pain in his eyes. "Welcome Queen Belladonna. Welcome back to your home."

Blake nodded once. "It is good to be back." Blake winked at her usual Team and JNPR. "Lead the way Ozpin."

Ruby and company watched Blake, Ozpin, and the Huntresses and Huntsmen of Anima walk to Beacon. "You know, in my spare time I reforge Crescent Rose. Blake founds nations when she's bored."

Just ahead of everyone, out of earshot, Ozpin whispered to Glynda. "I told you she could do it."

"Was there ever doubt?"


A/N: This has to be the fastest I have ever put out a compilation chapter. Wow. Everyone, enjoy the fruits of our labors.


11.1: Thank god for Winter. She's so cool.

11.2: And, the obligatory lore snippet. Hello Qrow, James, good to see you.

11.3: Everything is better with Dinosaurs…

11.4: …everything is worse with Cinder…

11.5: …and everything is funnier with romance.

11.6: More Lore, this time focusing on Yang's mom.

11.7: Cinder is a supervillain. What can you do?

11.8: Qrow can be a drunkard, and a jerk, but he really does adore his nieces.

11.9: Gordon Freeman on the other hand is always a jerk.

11.10: The RWBY Loopers are Teetotalers. They are, after all, teenagers.

11.11: Gummy bear cookies will cause intestinal issues. They are not fun.

11.12: Tenten and Ruby and Shirou, oh my. And trust me, I don't get it either.

11.13: Big sword. It transforms into a scythe, but on the outside it's just a big sword.

11.14: Cinder Fall has a biplane motorcycle. That is awesome.

11.15: Winter is a good sister, just… an awkward person.

11.16: Yeah, Neo is a troll. Glynda's just better at teaching.

11.17: I helped kill disco, I hope.

11.18: All hail Queen Blake!