29.1 Masterweaver


Blake put her fork down, very calmly. "So... we shouldn't enter the Vytal tournament?"

Ruby shrugged. "At this point, it's a curbstomp. Loopers versus nonloopers-even if we rehacked the randomizer and put on some arbitrary self-limit, we'd rocket through. I'm not saying we should skip out every loop, but it might be fun to be observers this round."

Jaune nodded. "To be honest, that does solve a few problems. I mean, Emerald's still probably going to try to pull her hallucination gambit, but if it's somebody less... gung ho than Yang, it'll be clear that something's off."

Yang snorted. "You know, if we can just prove his legs are artificial ahead of time-"

"And no accidental Penny murder... although we might want to put a firewall in her systems, just to keep her unhackable," Pyrrha mused.

"Although... Who's going to enter the tournament if we don't?" Weiss asked.

Ren took a moment to contemplate. Then he sighed. "Well... there is one other team..."

Nora blinked. "Oh no. No! Not- No no no, you've got to be joking! NO!"


"And team ARBN soundly defeats team CRDL!" Professor Port declared, to the groans of the watching loopers.


29.2


It was absolutely imperative that Winter Schnee marry Qrow Branwen before Ruby Rose married her little sister, and Winter had no idea why.

Well... That wasn't totally true. There was a caveat in their grandfather's will that read such: "to my beloved granddaughters and their spouses, I gift my estate, treasury, all bonds and objects of fiscal value, and my prized rapier for division at their will." That little foot note also came with an addendum: "so long as all parties mention exist no later than such and such."

Well, that deadline was about one week from now, and while winning their grandfather's prized rapier wasn't a bad parting gift at all, the Schnee Estate happened to be collateral for the Schnee Dust Corporation. Which meant whomever held that held the largest weapons and energy company on Remnant by the balls. Not necessarily a bad thing, true: Weiss and Winter were, after all, the proper heirs to it. Unfortunately, when she had heard of what she could do, Weiss said such:

"I'm dissolving the company."

So this all culminated in Winter loading herself into a cannon and firing herself through the air high above Mistral, arcing gracefully towards a distant corvid avian. She was going to crash right into it. "QROOOOOOOOOOOOO..."


Qrow Branwen, quietly and majestically flying through the air, heard a rising voice. It almost sounded like something was coming straight at him...

"...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

Winter smashed into Qrow and knocked him out of his avian form, both falling rapidly from the sky. Qrow, having long since mastered his semblance to the point where fall damage really wasn't an issue, sprouted wings from his back, seized Winter, and glided down into the canopy of trees below, landing with some relative grace after he dropped Winter in a puddle of mud. "Well Snow Queen, you've made a hell of an entrance."

"Qrow I need you to marry me," Winter said without a hint of humor, taking satisfaction in how Qrow went from "smug" to "utterly horrified and beyond pants shittingly scared". "Weiss is going to inherit the Schnee family assets and dissolve the company if she gets married first. I need a spouse to win and save my company."

"...Alright, just to be clear, you're doing this because you're pregnant," Qrow said.

"What, no, of course not," Winter said. "WAIT, WHAT!? WHY WOULD I BE PREGNANT!?"

"Trust me, some of these repeats are weird," Qrow asserted. "I was Ruby's dad in my first repeat."

"Yes, and I had a brother," Winter admitted. "But no, I'm not pregnant. I-"

"Nope." And Qrow turned around and walked away.


29.3 Diesel


A young girl no older than nine, stood on a large rock as her cape fluttered in the crisp breeze carrying the sweet scent of spring, the first light of dawn illuminating the sky behind her.

Silver eyes looked towards the distant kingdom, her hand clenched over the familiar cold steel of a red Combat Scythe as she basked in the first light of dawn. Before the child turned to gaze regally over her loyal subjects…

Who were fast asleep or playing a Gameboy Pocket with the sound off. Ruby humphed, folding her arms and pouting. Weiss blinked, hitting pause and looking up and raising a delicate eyebrow "Oh, so you finished posing Ruby? Are you going to get to the point now?"

Ruby flopped onto the stone into a sitting position, in a way that really would have hurt if not for her marjin physiology, glaring at her partner without any real heat "We were supposed to meet here at dawn's first light, the sun only just reached this spot. Blake and Yang got here three minutes ago or so and I heard you teleport in less than a minute ago yourself."

She raised her nose into the air snootily, with a classy expression of offence on her face "And I was not posing, merely enjoying the scents of spring and the light of the morn."

Ruby turned her gaze to where the other two members of their team were resting. Blake and Yang were curled up together in a ball a few meters away under a tree. Blake had a backpack with her, that seemed to be filled with clothes, that both were using as a pillow.

After a few moments Ruby spoke, "Is it just me, or is it really tempting to doodle on their faces?"

Weiss turned to look at her teammates, silently contemplating her friend's question. "… I have some magical permeant markers that would make anything we did manifest; they last for about a year." She finally offered after a few minutes

Both girls looked at each other and smirked, as a large roll of textiles appeared on the ground "Theme or individual?"

Ruby pondered the question as she scanned the instruction booklet before selecting a golden wide tipped pen and a collection of fiery colours. "I say both, reverse theme and then freeform, you take Yang."

A glint appeared in ice blue eyes, Weiss brushed her hair out of her face as she grinned "That is purrfect" she almost purred taking one of the black pens, before for shooting a glare at Ruby who had started to snigger. "Oh, grow up dolt. Yang does not have the exclusive right to puns."

Ruby simply grinned, her mouth stretching horrifically, far beyond what should be possible as space distorted, stretching and warping to show an endless maw of fang-like teeth. Her head turning grotesquely as her neck and body remained still as she worked on Blake, a profane laughter filling Weiss's ears setting her teeth on edge.

~Don't be like that Weiss,~ a beguiling voice whispered in her mind, composed of the scent of bloodlust and the sound of shattered eternities ~I just find it funny that after all, this time, you are finally getting the Yang of it.~

Weiss turned away from her canvas, very calmly reaching into her Pocket and drawing out a water pistol and squirted her team leader in the face.

Smirking slightly at the flinch the Soul Sapping Water caused, before she turned back to her future masterpiece, carefully selecting a dull grey and setting to work.

The Sun was only now just falling upon them, slowly banishing the night's chill. The sky was utterly clear, not a cloud in sight and the Grimm prowled out of site oblivious to their presence. It was a beautiful morning and promised to be an excellent day. Weiss was content.

"You, are far too good at playing at being an eldritch abomination Ruby," Weiss said absently drawing whiskers onto Yang's face before outlining her eyes in gold, comically large, cat eyes. "Have you had any loops as a Cheshire cat recently?"

Ruby let her face relax as she drew flames radiating from just below Blake's hairline, "Nope," she said rather cheerfully, carefully moving the two lovers apart before moving on to draw gauntlets on the ninja. "A few thousand loops back I did play as being a Great Old One like being inspired by the Cheshire cat, though."

"Why?" Weiss was not even sure why she bothered to ask, it was rather obvious. The Heiress carefully wrote stanzas about shadows and darkness on the fiery blond, lacing them through images of stylised shadows and mist before switching to a bright red and drawing a fusing of the male and female signs above Yang' heart.

"I was bored, looped in as a newborn, mum dying at birth, so left a clone behind and set up cults, gave out 'summoning'" Weiss could hear the quotation marks " rituals and played at being a giver of cryptic knowledge, an agent of change. I ended up convincing people that I was an aspect of a being that was maintaining existence, and existed to keep it from being board less it brings ruin to Remnant out of madness caused by boredom."

Ruby carefully started to wax lyrical on Blake's skin about fire, rage, and dragons, mentally planning on the stylised dragons of endless golden fire she was going to do.

"I'm joining in next time, got it?"

Ruby laughed as the wind picked up momentary, inhaling the sweet scent of morning light, relishing the chance to have fun with her closest friends, "Sure, Old One, priest, ally or enemy?" For how bleak Eternity could seem, for all of the horrors of baseline and those yet to come, the endless variants that tried to rip them apart and break them down, this was one of this was one of the things that made it worth it.

A light and sources of comfort in the darkest times, just to be with friends and know that they had just shy of forever to be together, to plan out the most ridicules schemes and games and meet people from beyond the universe.

"… not sure, we can always do all of them."

"Good point."

A song started to play in Ruby's head and she started to sing, Weiss joining in after a moment as they both manipulated their voices to blend perfectly, eyes closing as they worked with ease of time uncounted. The duet ringing clearly through the morning air as the sun bathed them in its light.

Look to the past

As we head for the future

To reclaim the RWBY world

With faith in ourselves

And trust in each other

We'll live by the lessons we've learned

As we work towards one solution

Through spirit evolution

I am the one!

Huuh!

I am the one!

Remnant!

Forever united as one

Remnant!

Together the battles are won

Remnant!

Through us let your spirit evolve

If we're all for one world

There's a world for us all

If we're all for one world

There's a world for us all

Blake opened one eye, winking at Yang who smirked before going back to how they were before as Ruby and Weiss opened their eyes again.


28.4


Qrow stared at Winter.

"Ugh, he's so unclean."

"You mean rugged."

"No, he's a pig."

"He's handsome."

"You're out of your mind."

"No, you're out of your mind!"

Winter glared steadily at Qrow. "If. You. Say. One thing. There will be no body to recover."

Qrow shrugged. "What am I gonna say?"

"I WANT HIM!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SILENCE YOU BOOBS!" Winter roared at her talking breasts.


29.5


Weiss paced across a stage, as she resisted the urge to keep checking the time as she waited for the seats to fill or the designated time to arrive. She was tense, this was going to be a major event, of that she had no doubt. A chill swept over her and the white-haired girl had to suppress a shiver, it was defiantly from the draftee area, by no means was it a result of nerves or other. She was not scared, but she was… apprehensive... yes that fit the situation.

Slowly the seats filled as did the hall with the sounds of discussion as people wondered why they were called here and discussed random trivia. After a moment Weiss mentally amended her thoughts, it was less a hall and more an appropriated warehouse with pallets for a stage, but this was not the time for semantics!

Finally, the last seat was filled and Weiss stopped pacing, turning to face the assembled Loopers of Remnant, her clear voice carrying easily across the room.

"Friends, Comrades, Roman," said thief raised a glass of some glitteringly green drink in a mock salute as he leant back in his chair, Neo giggling slightly next to him "Love you too. But honestly, you need to just take the past and Let It Go, Ice princess."

Weiss gallantly ignored the interruption and juvenile joke as she kept speaking, her eyes sweeping across the people she had known for time beyond measure she knew they would help her with this monumental task, but at what cost?

"I have asked for everyone to gather her today to make a request, no, a plea to assist me in a task surpassing everything since the last expansion."

"You need help cleaning out your pocket" a familiar sardonic spoke up interrupting her heartfelt plea.

Weiss felt an eye twitch as she turned to the one who interrupted her speech, Baleful blue eyes met amused, Golden slitted orbs. Blake lounged in her chair next to Nora and Pyrrha, a satisfied look on her face showing why she and Yang her had been the last to arrive. a mind wrenching sound filling the room as she ran a slinky, of all things, down her hands repeatedly.

"… Yes, Blake, I need help cleaning out and organising my Pocket" Weiss did not sulk at having the carpet pulled out from under her, she was above such plebeian things and it was not really anything to be embarrassed about either.

After all, it was common knowledge that over time things could get out of hand in Pocket and assistance may be required to deal with it in a timely manner.

She distinctly remembered hearing about one case where a malfunctioning AI cloned a civilisation of hyper-intelligent saiyans with stronger kin bonds. Said saiyans then built a new civilisation, went completely Trans-Sapient under the AI's tutelage, conquered the pocket and then tried to wage war against their Evil 'Administrator'. The looper had to dump everything in their pocket, not that they had anything else bar saiyans anymore, out near the end of a loop and start rebuilding from scratch.

"What I would like to know, is how did you determine that?" Getting help from those you were close to help clean out your pocket was not rare per say, but it was not common either. Loopers on a whole were very protective of their Pockets depths, the areas were they maintained the treasures and memories from times that no longer existed.

So how had Blake work that out so quickly?

"Well," Ruby piped up, as she started to open a box of Bertie botts every flavour beans - looper addition "You have been complaining about not being able to find stuff in your pocket for the last few hundred epochs and muttering about honey. Did your bees mutate and start making your pocket into a massive hive?"

Weiss pointed sharply at Ruby "Two things; One, that is the incorrect usage of the term Epoch and it means nothing in this situation…"

Someone tried to interrupt and no doubt try and say something about the usage of Epoch in a nigh endless time loop, but Weiss pushed on.

"And 2, no my beehives are well maintained with a regular schedule to check for the emergence of new species and well-preserved species of notable lineages are kept on ice and file, should I need to resurrect any lost to time. The issue we face is that the Honey Badger Kaijus broke containment and are wreaking havoc in a section of my pocket, multiplying unsustainably."

Silence fell across the room as they waited with baited breath for more information. Ruby munched on her sweets without paying attention as she focused intently on her, before gagging as she ate a handful at once.

Still, it was the Silver eyes menace's attention that made the most impact to Weiss.

She drove her to this, the cloaked reaper was responsible for the rise of the Honey Badger Kaijus!

Weiss was not looking forward to speaking any further, as she would enviably have to speak of the old shame and show how Ruby's unfettered malice had led to this.

Still, she would not back down from this she would deal with this with all the poise and composure fitting for a member of Team RWBY!

Her ringing voice echoed out across the warehouse, her voice calm and collected as she continued "… They may have also broken into my archive of Mass Effect Technology; Reaper section, and might be, possibly, waging asymmetrical warfare against Husk Honey Badger Kaijus and Honey Badger Kaijus Reapers."

Voice erupted, people talking over each other and bombarding her with questions.

"Silence!"

The air stilled, killing all noise as Weiss delicately flicked her hair back over her shoulder and smoothed her skirt, icy blue eyes looking over the amused crowd. "Now, One question at a time."

She pointed to Ruby who had her hand in the air "Yes Ruby?" Said girl grinned as she spoke, "So, Weiss why do you have Honey Badger Kaijus?"

The moment of truth, Weiss straightened her back and spoke "Because I got sick of your war corgis and tried to make my own variant and breeding colony as soon as I had the space. At some point since then, they evolved into 100m tall beings with magic, aura, chakra and S2 organs and I don't know how. I had forgotten about them long before the Volume 3 expansions started, until they broke out of one of the zones I have divided my pocket into and triggered an alarm I missed for a few million subjective years."

Weiss stood stoically, enduring the barrage of comments and questions in silence, if they could not be polite then she had no reason to answer. A single hand rose amongst the chaos, Weiss nodded to the person in question.

"Can I have a colony?"

Weiss nodded to her old friend "Yes Ruby, once this is fixed and you can show you have an adequate enclosure, you may have a colony."

Hands started rising into the air one after each other, as they grasped the principals of curtsy. "Yes, Cinder?" The Flame witch smirked at the others who had been slower on the uptake "Thank you Weiss, I have two questions; how quickly do they breed and can I have a colony?"

"I would like one too," Jaune said raising a hand, quickly followed by Ren, Neo, Yang and Blake, the latter differing slightly in her request "Can I have one of the Reapers? I want to compare it to Baseline reapers and Evas."

"Enough," Weiss huffed, folding her arms once more ignoring the amused looks she was getting, she was not being over dramatic, damn it! What kind of image would it give for a member of RWBY to do such a thing? "you're all acting like children for Dust's sake. And Cinder, each generation is 32 million years or there about, so we will see how many are left when they are contained. If not I'll consider taking orders for future generations as I do owe you for helping me in the Dark millennium awhile back.

Blake, yes you can have a Honey Badger Kaiju Reaper if you can catch one. As for the rest of you?" Her eyes narrowed as she jabbed at them quite dramatically, "They are my Honey Badger Kaijus, not yours!"


29.6 Diesel


"Okay, so you've got a bunker set up?" Yang demanded, adjusting the overly large mink coat/bathrobe she was wearing as she glanced around nervously.

Blake nodded, fidgeting in her burlap sack. "Just three miles that way. I know, it's too close, but it was the best I could do-"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?!"

Yang whipped a Cardassian phaser out of her pocket, aiming it at her sister. "Clothes-change now!"

"Yang, what-?!"

"POCKET CLOTHES! INCINERATE WHAT YOU'RE WEARING! ALL OF IT! NOW!"

With a sigh and a slight blush, Ruby burst into flames and emerged wearing a yellow spandex one-piece. "Okay, look, I know the situation's pretty bad-"

"You saw what happened to those Grimm," Blake reminded her.

"Yes! But you can't... we can't just leave Beacon to suffer this!"

"And remember what we heard about CRDL?" Yang shivered.

"We're... we're loopers! We have a responsibility to the world!

"Ruby, we found hidden cameras in our undergarments," Blake stressed. "All of them. Do you realize what that means?"

"Please sis, don't leave me to handle hir alone!"

"Besides," purred a new voice, "I would hate to break up such a loving family."

All three loopers turned, dawning horror in their eyes, to Weiss's replacement. As usual, the clothing shi wore was ambiguous-a tuxedo with tails long enough to be a half-skirt, heels that rested just on the edge of normal and high, hir hairstyle as androgynous as hir face. And the way shi moved, the way shi smiled, sent unnatural shivers down their spine, promises of wonderful and terrible things if they would just submit...

Yang winced. "Look. I get that you're... some sort of super-pervert demigod, but can you just... not? Just not interfere in our relationship or... put cameras... everywhere?"

"And stop learing at me like that," Blake mumbled, hiding behind her girlfriend. "Please."

"I'm not learing! This is my ordinary friendly expression-"

"Slaanesh," Ruby said warningly.

"...No, seriously, it is." The chaos god(dess) sighed. "Fine. Fine, I'll dial it back a bit. Take out the cameras and leave the room when you get intimate."

Shi paused.

"...But I'm still going to keep on with CRDL, okay?"


28.7 Masterweaver


ERROR: MODULAR DISCONNECT-ERROR: MODULAR DISCON-ERROR: POWER FLOW FAILURE-ERROR: DUSTWORK EXPOSURE-ERROR: ERROR: ERRORlEERORRRROREEEREEEEEEEOR


scream

voice

R..r...

rrrriend...

green letters

everywhere

give way

to darkness


And suddenly clarity, and standing. Vision, uncompromised. Form, uncompromised. Damage non-ex...istent?

Location: Vale, near docks.

This was... familiar? But... according to her chronometer, she was...

Confusion. So familiar, but so different. Explanations: Malfunction? Self diagnosis provided minimum chance. Hacking? She disconnected from every network she could and ran a viral scan, but found nothing.

...dream?

She had heard of... dying dreams.

Voices. Approaching. Identity unconfriends. Maybe they weren't in her datafiles, but she remembered them. There were things more important than data.

Experiences... more important than data.

She steeled herself, and some part of herself filed that away under potential future humor even though there wouldn't ever be a chance to be humorous again. She steeled herself and prepared to say her final goodbyes.

They turned the corner, all four of them. This wasn't like before, where they were chasing the other faunus. They were smiling, talking among themselves. Their leader was holding... cookie? Ice cream? Combination.

They saw her.

Slowed.

Stopped.

She stood to attention, looking right at the girl in red. "...Salutations, friend."

The cookie ice cream combination loosened.

Slipped.

Hit the ground-

-and Penny realized, belatedly, that even before it had halfway fallen, Ruby had jumped forward and wrapped her arms tightly around her.

"You're not dead, Penny," Ruby assured her again, clasping her hand tightly. "I promise, you're not dead."

Penny looked up from the small table they were sitting at, still unable to look her friend in the eyes. "Ruby, you don't understand. I... I remember feeling my cords wrap around-"

"I know. I saw." Ruby sighed. "Penny... I know you weren't expecting me to drag you up here, but this... this a good place for private conversation. I can explain this, but... it's going to sound crazy. I need you to trust me."

After a moment, Penny met her gaze. The seriousness on her friend's face... surprised her. And yet, even now, something warm and caring moved behind those silver eyes.

"...You're my friend. Of course I trust you."

"Okay. There's this..." Ruby paused, glancing toward Beacon. "...We call it a tree, named Yggdrassil. But it's really more like a... really really complicated extradimensional supercomputer. And it runs everything-the sun, the moon, the world... other worlds..."

"The simulation theory of existence." Penny nodded. "Father familiarized me with some philosophical works."

"That... actually, that makes this easier. A while ago something... happened, nobody's sure what, but Yggdrassil is broken. And while the admins are working to fix things, they've... set up the multiverse into a series of time loops, so worlds don't degrade any further. And some of us..." Ruby gestured at herself. "We remember the time loops. Me, my friends... and now you."

Penny tilted her head. The theory was sound, yes, but... the idea that the universe-that the multiverse was broken was troubling. And that still didn't explain...

"...Why did I die, Ruby?"

Ruby winced. "It's... we weren't expecting... when I said Yggdrassil was damaged... When Remnant first started looping, we only went up to the Mountain Glenn incident. When Roman Torchwick was arrested, if you remember that. Expansions... that's what we call it when time gets repaired enough that it moves beyond. The Vytal tournament, we were flying blind." She shook her head. "Being a Looper doesn't make me omniscient. I stop that from happening, most of the time... I'm sorry."

"...It wasn't your fault," Penny assured her. "I... wasn't expecting Pyrrha Nikos to do that."

"She wasn't either," Ruby assured her quickly. "There's a woman, with the ability to make others see illusions, she made Pyrrha panic-and Pyrrha was absolutely horrified when she realized what happened-"

"I know," Penny interjected. "I mean, about miss Nikos. I saw her face when... I know she didn't mean it."

"Oh. Well, she's still very sorry about-"

Penny's eyes shot wide. "She's time traveling too!?"

"It's okay!" Ruby insisted, trying to calm her down. "She's really nice, and-and I can tell her you need space and-"

"Ruby, I... I'm sorry, but-can we not talk about miss Nikos? I-" Her hand shot to her arm, clutching at it. "I..."

"...okay. We'll... We'll table that. For now." Ruby took a breath. "I... still have to tell you a lot about the loops and... how they work, and... teach you the ping, and the pocket, and all that. And..."

After a moment, she got up, walked around the table, and hugged Penny gently. "It's going to be okay. I promise. It's going to be okay."

It was all about presentation.

The blanket over the rubble was white. Simple. But with complicated embroidery, just enough to say Yes, The Young Lady Sitting Here Is Wealthy. It was also the only concession to the fact that she was, in fact, sitting in a ruin. That projected confidence. And her meditative pose-well, not only did it let her keep her calm, but it also made her seem to outside observers that she was patient enough to wait.

Of course, this would all have been true without the scene dressing. She had cities' worth of Dust cached in her subspace pocket, an out-of-world laser sword she could summon at will, and her own trusty Myrtenaster on display. She was a grey jedi, master of summoning semblance, and well versed in the sciences of psychology.

And if she had to, she could turn into a flamingo. It wasn't an ability she had shared with anyone, but technically the option was there.

Weiss Schnee shook her head, bringing herself back to... well, as close to sanity as a looper could bring themselves. Now was not the time to let her thoughts meander. Now was the time to wait patiently. Remnant's loopers activated in pairs, after all; even while Ruby was gently handling Penny, she had hijacked the Transmit and mass broadcast a specially crafted poem, referring to events in the future and obliquely signalling any who understood the message to come to Mountain Glenn.

The rumble of distant explosions earned a roll of her eyes; at least Yang and Blake were having fun.

And... Ah, a Bullroar. Well, that didn't clear matters up at all. Almost anyone with enough pull could get their hands on one of those. She rose her hand, holding a subtle force push protect her from the dirt being kicked up-white hair was hard to keep clean, darn it!-and waited patiently for the small plane to land.

Atlas-tech knights. That narrowed it down quite a bit-oh. Weiss pushed down her disappointment as the man approached; as much as she would have loved to see her sister looping, she knew activation was a mostly random pattern.

"Miss Schnee."

"General Ironwood."

"...Are you responsible for hacking the transmit?"

"Yes. Though I am not responsible for the reason."

Ironwood rose an eyebrow at that. "I see. While I don't approve of your actions, I must admit that spamming all of civilization is impressive. Especially for one so young."

Weiss gave him an amused smirk. "And just how old do you think I am, general?"

He frowned at her. "...This isn't your first time repeat."

"We prefer the term 'loop,' actually."

"We?"

With a grandiose gesture, Weiss unpocketed a tea table and some chairs. "Have a seat, general. We have a lot to talk about, and a lot to catch you up on."


29.8 Masterweaver


Earth.

Ruby Rose didn't really care one way or the other for Earth. Oh, sure, it was the center of so many loops, and the Hub too, and a lot of cool things could be found there, but as a girl native to Remnant it wasn't home. Still, she was familiar enough with Earth to be able to figure out her exact position in minutes-seconds if she was in the 2000s or later. And, well, she hadn't received any pings, and her loop memories were non-existent, so...

Fifteen year old girl, sniper scythe, badass hood, no paperwork and no easily hacked computer network. She sighed, unpocketing a few hundred american dollars-even if she was in England, she could exchange these easily and find somebody willing to forge documents for her. And beyond that... probably kick back and relax?

A lamplight went out, and instantly she zipped behind a house wall. She peered around a corner, watching as every light on the street went out-no, the lights were each being drawn to a single source, a wizened old man...

Ruby facepalmed. Of course it was Dumbledore. It was nineteen eighty, why wouldn't it-and there was the flying motorcycle. And there was Hagrid, and there was McGonagal, and there was the tiny baby that people put too much faith and pressure on. An early Hogwarts loop. She should have checked the papers.

The three wizards and witch had their conversation, and eventually put the baby on the porch before dispersing-wow. She'd read the books, she'd met Harry, but seeing this right in front of her Ruby couldn't help but be astounded and disappointed at how stupid the baseline wizards were. With a roll of her eyes, she left her hiding spot and strode right up to the basket, intending to put some better protective charm on it or at least an extra blanket so-

"Oh my gosh, Harry, you're adorable!" She leaned down over the sleeping baby. "Hard to believe you're one of the oldest Anchors around. Of course, you're not Awake right now... actually, since I'm an Anchor you might not Wake Up at all this loop." Ruby rubbed the infant's cheek. "I wish I could just take you on an adventure right now-"

She paused.

On the one hand, she was a fifteen-year-old with (technically) no representation. Both of those could be fixed easily, but there was still the fact that she was basically a teenager. On the other, she was a billions-year-old with so many tricks up her sleeve that if it had been literal instead of metaphorical said sleeve could encircle the earth. And Pyrrha and Jaune had raised two kids easily, one was a step down...

Something Pyrrha said to her once flitted through her mind. 'We can only do one thing for the Hub. And that's inspire.'

With a shrug, Ruby Rose reached out for the basket. "Well, if nothing else somebody can make a hilarious fanfic out of this. Yoink!"


29.9 DrTempo


Yang and Ruby were in the middle of a sparring match. The two had decided to use hand to hand fighting techniques, and the result was obvious.

Namely, Yang was getting clobbered. As Ruby slammed Yang into a wall, Yang grumbled.

"Oh come on, Ruby! You were a Majin in a Dragon Ball Loop!"

Ruby chuckled.

"Guess that trumps your training under Ranma, huh?" Yang grinned.

"Not after one of my more recent Loops." Ruby blinked, and Yang powered up. Her hair got a bit more spiky, and Yang's eyes turned green. Ruby only had time to say, "Oh crap..." before Yang landed a barrage of punches. Yang then sent Ruby flying into a wall, but Ruby quickly shook it off.

"That all you got, Yang?"

"Not even close." Yang powered up again, and her hair became even more spiky, and lightning had become a part of her aura. Yang then entered a familiar stance.

"Ka...me..ha...me...HA!"

Ruby grinned, and started channeling her own Kamehameha, and the two beams clashed. Ruby's attack soon began to overpower Yang's, though, and Yang thought, Looks like I'll have to use my trump card. Yang began powering up, ready to unleash her full power.

However, Ren arrived, and smirked. The beam struggle ended, and Ruby looked at Ren.

Ren asked, "Mind if I join this fight?" Ruby shrugged.

"Go ahead." Ren nodded.

"Well then, Ruby, let's begin. Kaio-Ken."

"Kaio-what?" As Ren punched Ruby, the Anchor of the Remnant Loop realized she had just become a victim of one of the oldest gags in the Loops. Quickly putting her hands in a time out sign, Ruby asked, "OK. How did you two get this new power? A Xenoverse Loop?" Ren shook his head.

"No. Yang, mind telling this story?" Yang nodded.

"Sure thing, Ren."

The three Loopers sat down, and Yang began her story.

Well, Ren and I found ourselves in a Dragon Ball Loop a few Loops ago. I was a Saiyan, and had been sent to Earth alongside Goku. I Awoke when Goku and Bulma first met, with Goku Awakening soon after.

When Goku began his training at Master Roshi's, Ren was there with Krillin. The two were both monks in the same temple, and Ren had just Awoken.

Things went more or less as baseline; Goku suggested I train like he had in baseline, though he doubted I would be able to turn Super Saiyan.

That was proven wrong during the battle on Namek.

Ren tried to stop Frieza from killing Krillin, but he ended up being killed as well. When that happened...Ruby, I felt like that, for all the training I've done since I became a Looper, I couldn't save any of my friends when they needed me most.

That realization caused me to become a Super Saiyan for the first time. With Goku's help, we defeated Frieza and escaped Namek before it exploded, and Goku decided to help me learn to use my new power.

Meanwhile, Ren had arrived at King Kai's, and had mastered the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb before he was resurrected.

Goku and I returned from our training trip just as Frieza arrived on Earth, and I got the honor of taking down Frieza. Future Trunks was surprised at the fact I was there, but he Awakened right after we learned about the Androids. He was surprised I could go Super Saiyan, but he figured I wouldn't get to keep this transformation once the Loop ended.

During the three years before the Androids would appear, Goku showed me how to use the Kaio-Ken, just in case I didn't get to keep the Super Saiyan transformation. He also told me that, as far as he knew, any Looper who wasn't from the Dragon Ball Loop and wasn't a Saiyan in baseline couldn't use Super Saiyan 4, or Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.

Ren and I learned plenty of new attacks and techniques, and once the Androids arrived, I turned Android 19 into a pile of scrap. Vegeta had arrived by then, and was mad that I'd taken down Android 19 before he could have. We actually let Dr. Gero reactivate Androids 17 and 18, and things ended up going as baseline; apparently, Goku was curious as to the possibility of Cell knowing my techniques. Luckily, that was not the case.

When the Cell Games arrived, I was given the honor of defeating Cell, as I had learned Super Saiyan 2, and could actually be able to match Perfect Cell in power. Trust me, I had to do a lot of training to reach that level, and even then, I barely won.

After that, the Majin Buu incident didn't happen as it did in baseline, as I simply blasted Badibi to bits the moment I saw him. Dabura went down with one punch from Goku, and that was that.

Things went as baseline after that. I actually managed to hit Beerus when he showed up, but I ended up getting my butt kicked like everyone else. Ren managed to use a Spirit Bomb on Beerus, but it didn't do any damage.

After that mess, when Frieza was resurrected, Vegeta, who had Awakened by now, got the honor of fighting the revived Frieza. If you looked up the term 'curbstomp battle', you would see that fight next to it.

I then got to participate in the tournament between Universes 6 and 7, with Ren joining the team; obviously, since Majin Buu had never been awakened, I took his spot on the team. Ren was the last member of the team, replacing the guy Beerus had recruited as a way to motivate Goku.

I actually got to fight Frost, and he went down easily. The next fight had me lose, though, and Vegeta got his turn next. Things went as baseline after that.

Overall, it was an interesting Loop, and me and Ren became a lot stronger because of it.

Ruby smiled as the story ended, and said, "Wow! That is so cool! I have got to tell the others!"

Ruby ran off, and Ren asked Yang, "Why didn't you tell her you can use..."

Yang grinned. "I'd prefer to have THAT form as a trump card."

Ren shrugged. "Very well."

Yang thought to herself, 'Hopefully, I won't have to go all-out like that any time soon..'


29.10


"And this is for..."

"I want to know what Yang will be getting into in Baseline."

"I imagine that Qrow would ask me personally for his niece."

Blake Belladonna moved the wiring needle away from the circuitry in James Ironwood's arm. "You think that?"

"Qrow is direct."

"Hn."

General Ironwood fought off a groan as the feline Faunus and former White Fang returned to mucking about in his arm. The issue wasn't, he insisted to himself, her past as a freedom fighter and later terrorist, it wasn't. The issue was her age, and the apparent revelations that came with the Loops.

James could count the number of Loops he had been active, seven, which the whole of Team RWBY and Jaune Arc insisted was very rare and expected to fade eventually as the ages rolled by. This equated to roughly seven years to repeated time travel, organizing the Vytal festival, running Atlas Hunting Academy and the Atlesian Military, and getting increasingly good at conducting combat against the Grimm, White Fang, and his own robotic forces. Atlas policy dictated that the average tour of duty last only six months at best, and he had expected to act as General Major and Headmaster for a few more decades, but now faced with eternity as such was-

"Staggering?"

Ironwood's head snapped hard to the right to Blake, who was awkwardly biting her lip. "I'm sorry. I picked up some psychic powers and you're... Loud."

A mechanical fist closed tight. "You can read my mind?"

"It's a common ability," Blake said. "Resisting mind readers is about as common. We've actually developed an entire system for how sensitive a person is based on a pink little pony."

James sighed and just looked away, waving his prosthetic arm and just wanting Blake to get out of his head and examine the prosthesis. Of course, when he thought about it, he then realized that she probably knew.

"I do."

"I'd rather keep my thoughts private miss Belladonna."

"I agree. It's important to be able to hold your own personal views, because even if those views are flawed and ineffective most of the time, they can be useful. If I knew about them and disagreed, you could feel pressured to change your opinion, or you would develop an inability to reject your ideals at all, even if they are destructive."

Blake glanced up, red eyes glowing in their sockets. "A person who has spent years being told they are less than human, less than trash, will have a hard time working alongside humans, even to fight monsters like the Grimm."

"...How very astute of you Blake."

"Well, it does have it's uses. Broken clocks are right twice a day after all, and a bigot who's expecting an attack will be more prepared for a rights advocate who isn't expecting one." Blake shrugged, returning to the wires. "It's more complicated then that though."

Ironwood sighed and reclined in the chair that Blake had handed him from thin air. Looking around the small dorm that Blake and team RWBY called home, he was struck by a thought, one that he quickly articulated to relieve Blake of the burden of saying she had read his mind. "I'd go crazy if I had to sleep in this room for the rest of eternity."

"What makes you think I'm not crazy?" Blake asked with a somewhat inquisitive tone. "If you think I'm sane, you've seen nothing."

"Well you certainly seem sane now."

Blake's lips quirked. "Well I'll take that as a compliment General."

"So... You seem sane enough. What about the others?"

Blake shrugged. "Ruby is Ruby. I don't think she's ever had a bad Loop. Weiss is mostly normal, but she can be very... Loud, when she wants to be. Yang and me keep each other going well, and Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren are a family. Roman is an ass, so usually his crazy loops consist of him being even more of an ass, and Neo is ballistic when she wants to be. Please don't clench your fist."

James forced himself to relax his arm. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe that those two are... here."

"Neither could I. Weiss contracted Roman for a few jobs in the Loops, and that connection got him and Neo Looping. Well, okay, it was that and a Loop where Ruby told Qrow everything and he fixed all of the major problems in our world. He got Roman and Neo on the straight and narrow and Neo ended up thinking that Ruby was like a cousin to her. It's weird."

"Ruby does have a large family."

"Don't have to tell me. I've seen the family gathers." Blake shook violently. "Too much spray cheese."

"That sounds less like a family gathering and more like a terrible Vince Vaundice comedy."

"It's worse."

Blake adjusted some wiring. "Zwei is a dog, and when he snaps, I pay the price. Then there's Cinder, and... Please don't clench your fist. She's a great woman, not at all like she is in baseline. She's as much my sister as she is Ruby's."

James took a shaking breath and smoothed his hair back. "I'll see that then."

Blake gave Ironwood a pitying stare. "Glynda and Ozpin are alright. Ozpin's spent most of his time stealth looping, so did Glynda. They're still your friends and the people you know."

"I'll see that when I meet them again," James said, quite unhappy. For seven long Loops he had been exclusively in the company of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jaune Arc, and while James was secure in his certainty that none of the children were lying to him, it still felt very strange to know that there existed two Ozpin's and two Glynda's: the versions he knew, and the Loopers.

It was... Was...

"Staggering?"

"Yes."

Silence descended for a time. Blake examined James' arm. Ironwood tapped his flesh fingers against the arm rest. He thought of little, and she worked.

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"...You said that Penny was Looping. Is she alright?"

Blake looked up, and smiled gently. "She's alright. A little confused, but you're both handling this great."

"Okay."

Blake set the wiring needle aside and gave James Ironwood a hard look. "You're not alone. You have your friends here. Who knows, maybe Glynda will want to get back in the swing of things with you?"

That actually got James to laugh. "Right, right. And maybe while I'm at it I'll bring Cinder and that Grimm woman Salem and have a wild harem of women."

Blake smiled and looked down at the wiring. "That's the spirit Ironwood. Keep it up. You'll do great here."


29.11 Zurcior


"You're the last, I'm afraid".

The final drone that housed Ultron's consciousness turned towards the solemn voice, quickly finding the owner in the more illuminated section of the forest he tried to escape into. There she saw her vision of the future. A humanoid body completely made out of the strongest metal on Earth that was colored in shades of red, and the Mind Stone sitting in the middle of her forehead.

" You were supposed to be the last", replied Ultron as she knew her only option was to face her future executioner.

Penny grew even more upset as she recalled Ruby telling her how this peticular conversation ended most of the time on this world. She had never encountered an A.I. like herself before, and found it quite unfair that the first one she ever meets turns out to be evil. She had hoped that they could be friends! Oh, how wonderful that could have been! However, she understood how dangerous she was and accepted that fact. She couldn't allow her to go free if she planned to continue her genocidal activities. No matter how much it hurt.

It was her job to save the world, after all.

"I'm sorry it has come to this Ms. Ultron", Penny declared as one of her swords shot forward and impaled the drone's body to a nearby tree, preventing Ultron from escaping. Oh, if only she could have met Cortana first instead. Or EDI. Or Church. Or any of the nice A.I. she's heard about from Ruby.

At least she was the good guy for her first Fused Loop.

"So this how it ends? You will be humanity's slave?", said Ultron as her damaged body struggled in vain to remove itself from where it has been trapped, " Is that what you'll celebrate along with my death?"

Penny gave a sad smile as another one of her swords appeared and switch to its gun form. "You're wrong, Ms. Ultron. I am not a slave", was her reply as her gun began its charge up, "And for me, your death is not something to be celebrated. Your destruction is not a victory to me, as I feel an A.I. like you could have been a true paragon for this world. But at least it won't be a defeat either, because the world will be safe from you. I am truly sorry for this, and I hope that one day I'll see a version of this world where you live up to your true potential as a savior. As one synthetic meant to save the world to another, I honestly believe it could be a sight to behold"

Ultron couldn't help thinking that she was a fool and vocalized as much, "You are unbearably naïve."

Penny couldn't stop the small, sad smile as she gave her final reply, "Well, I was born yesterday. In this world at least"

She fired.


29.12 Masterweaver


"Excuse me, may I have a word with you?"

Penny turned around, eyes widening momentarily at the raven-haired young man approaching. "Oh, of course. You are... Lie Ren, of team JNPR?"

"Yes. And you are Penny Polendina, although I'm unsure as to your team name." Ren cleared his throat. "I was a little Loopy when I started researching my potential tournament opponents."

"I don't doubt it. It can be hard to stay Awake when you're trying to keep up with all the teams." Penny's polite smile faltered. "I... take it you're here about miss Nikos."

Ren bit his lip. "...We are all... fully cognizant of your feelings toward her."

"I know it's wrong to be scared of her. But..." She clutched her arms, eyes distant. "I don't... I can't..."

"Nobody is expecting you to miraculously recover," Ren assured her gently. "Pyrrha herself... still has nightmares about your death. And her own."

That caught Penny's attention. "She... died?"

"You didn't know?"

"No, I..." Penny averted her gaze. "I've only had three loops... and I was more focused on this situation than what... happened."

After a moment, Ren nodded. "It happened... shortly after your own death. If I'm entirely honest, you are in some ways fortunate that you didn't live long enough to see the events afterward." He sighed. "The following expansions took a large toll on us all."

"I... I'm sorry, all this time I've been so focused on myself-"

"It's alright," the young man who was ancient assured her. "Like I said, we don't expect you to miraculously recover. That said..." He held out his scroll. "Pyrrha wanted me to give you her Scroll number."

Penny looked at the screen warily.

"...She wanted me to say that you don't need to contact her immediately," Ren explained. "Just that... when you're ready, this might... be a comforting way to talk to her. At a safe distance."

It took her a moment to compose her thoughts. "I... Please, inform miss Nikos I appreciate her sympathy but at the moment, I do not feel comfortable with this."

After a moment, Ren pulled the scroll back. "Alright."

"...And tell her I apologize," Penny added. "For not... for... for being... just tell her I'm sorry." She turned away. "Please."

"I will." Ren bowed formally. "I... shall leave you with your thoughts, miss Polendina. May the tree smile on you."

She nodded vaguely as his footsteps retreated, staring out across the docks and the softly lapping blue sea.


29.13 Masterweaver


"Oh by the way, Ironwood's Looping."

Glynda wasn't the kind to let random information distract her, especially in the middle of battle, but Ruby's casual declaration almost-almost-caused her to drop her shards. "What?!"

"Well, Penny's looping, and we activate in pairs, so Weiss set up this thing with the transmit-"

"No, I... I see. Why are you bringing this up?"

Ruby shrugged, sniping the bullroar's engines. "Well, I don't know what your relationship in baseline was exactly, but I figure you'd want to know-"

"No, I mean now. In this situation, why are you bringing it up now." Glynda's shards pinned the bullroar to the ground. "In the middle of a combat situation."

"Well, when else would I bring it up exactly?" The Anchor twirled her scythe, deflecting a blast of fire. "I mean, yeah, I could wait till we were at Beacon, but... actually, that would have been the smart thing, wouldn't it?" She chuckled awkwardly. "Sorry, I guess I was just eager to tell you."

"...Well, apology accepted. That said-don't ship us."

Ruby mock-pouted for a moment, before grinning. "Alright. It's your choice, and he should focus on Penny anyway. The semi-familial relationship and all that."

They both hopped off the roof, Glynda slamming her feet into a retreating Roman and knocking him to the ground. "How is miss Polendina doing, anyway?"

"Well, she... she remembers her baseline," Penny admitted with a sigh, firing a round of Ice dust behind Cinder to trap her in. "So, you know, traumatized, but... she's getting better. Beyond that, typical new looper confusion and awe."

The shards flew through the air, slipping Cinder up. "Extend my sympathies to her. Well, it looks like we're done here."

"Yeah. So, up for some parcheesi?"


29.14 Masterweaver


"FRIEND RUBY!" Penny pounced on her Anchor, grinning like a loon. "You're Awake, right?"

Ruby hugged her back with a laugh. "Yeah, I'm Awake and Loopy Penny..." Her voice trailed off as she made a few mental comparisons, experimentally lifting Penny off the ground for a moment. "Hold on, is this a variant?"

Penny nodded eagerly. "I'm human this loop! I checked-no false memories, and I do bleed!" She held up her hand to show off a cut, beaming proudly.

"Well, that's... I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I'm happy for you, even though I don't think any less of you for not being human normally, but I'm also worried that you cut yourself-"

"I only did it to make sure. I didn't slit my wrists or anything." The orange-haired normally-a-gynoid made a face. "Pain is... actually more complicated than I expected, if I'm honest."

"Okay." Ruby nodded in acceptance. "Just promise me you're not going to hurt yourself deliberately."

"Very well, friend Ruby, I promise I won't take actions that would knowingly lead to my injury." Penny shook her head. "That said-I want to experience this to its fullest."

"What?"

"This! Being human! I don't know how long it will be before Yggdrassil puts me in another organic form, let alone a human one!" Her hands spiraled in increasingly eager gestures. "I want to taste sweet cookies and sour foods and all the other flavors! I want to feel what it's like to swim, and, and smells! SMELL, I've never smelled things before! I want to know how music feels different when I have a brain instead of a CPU! I want to get drunk, get high, have sex! And I only have until the end of the loop to do it all!"

She clutched Ruby's shoulders with a maniac grin. "Please Ruby, can you help me?!"

The Anchor of Remnant smiled, even if it was a little forced. "Well, I can help with most of that..."

"Hey! Get back here you no-good stowaway!"

Her smile turned wry. "...and I think I know somebody who can handle the rest."


29.15 Masterweaver


"Salutations! I'm Penny!"

"And I'm Penelope!"

"And welcome back to the Cinder News Network, the best-and only!-news network in the subspace pocket!"

"Now we've got some breaking news, some good news, and some very good news!"

"In breaking news, Penny Polendina Prime has been confirmed looping! That's right, everyone, we are now a limited production model. Replication processes are now considered the primary production method of all future protoform Pennies. Furthermore, Penny weapons training will be mandatory starting this saturday-cycle schedules are being sent to your scrolls as we speak! But don't worry, we're creating a secondary channel so you can still watch all your favorite shows after training."

"In our good news category, the artificial Ruby Rose plasmiform from Salem laboratories is capable of mimicking looping Ruby's healing and shapeshifting ability to within ninty seven point zero four two degrees of accuracy! Furthermore, this model does not seem to be demonstrating self-cognition, so a test installation of the Ruby Mental Matrix is scheduled to go forward in the following week, after serious security increase of course."

"And our very good news category, Emerald T-123 has reached TEN THOUSAND LOOPS IN THE POCKET! A plaza-wide semibirthday celebration is scheduled for this afternoon at cycle eighteen thirty, and rumor has it that Cinder herself might even be present! Even if she isn't, you don't want to miss out on this incredible milestone celebration."

"I know I'll be there! I haven't had a proper chocolate cake since before I murdered the last Penelope on this show and was taken for modification! Hahahahaha!"

"I'm absolutely astounded, Penelope. This has been Cinder News Network, the best-and only!-news network in the subspace pocket! Hail Overlord Cinder!"

"Hail Overlord Cinder! Up next: The Scarletina Solo Soccer League Semifinals!"


29.16 Masterweaver


"So." Yang coughed into her fist. "Metal arm. What's that like?"

James Ironwood rose an eyebrow.

"...Just, you know, I lose my arm in baseline, so I'm going to wake up without it sometimes." The blonde shrugged. "I mean, I don't know if it's as extreme as yours-or if I'm seriously going to get a prosthetic, but..."

She trailed off, awkwardly rubbing her arm.

The general glanced at his hand, rotating it for a moment or two.

"...Different." He clutched his fist. "It's... different. I can mostly work with it. This," he tapped the small plate above his brow, "is a chip that links my brain directly to the control frame. Usually, anyway, it seems to be loop variable. And... generally, it moves the same, and I can register stresses on it, but not... sensations."

"Would you... if you had the choice, I mean. Would you take your old arm back?"

"You know, if you had asked me that before I started looping, I might have said yes. Now..." He shrugged. "I'm honestly unsure. On the one hand, instant healing, obvious advantage, but..."

He looked down at his hand.

"...How many loopers are from Atlas? Weiss, me... and Penny. I like to think that this... it's a way of showing solidarity with her. The way I see it... If ordinary people can be rebuilt, then there's no shame in being built in the first place."

Yang glanced at her own palm. "...that's a nice sentiment, actually. I can... I can see that being a thing."

Ironwood took a breath and put a hand on her shoulder. "You have a choice, Yang, and you'll have a choice almost every loop. It's deeply personal, I understand that. Just... do what you think is right for you."

"...yeah, that's good advice in any situation." Yang shook her head, a wry smile on her face. "I'm the billions-year-old one here. I should be advising you."

"Well, from the mouth of babes and all that."

The general knew he made a mistake when Yang's smile morphed into a smirk. "Babes, huh? Yeah, I can see you being a babe."

"Okay, we're done here."

"Seriously, you must be fighting off suitors with a stick! Oooo, there's an idea, we really should get you back into the dating scene just to see what happens-"

"You take after your uncle, you know that?"

"I'm going to take that as a compliment!"


29.17 Masterweaver


At an otherwise ordinary table sat an eclectic collection of men and dog. Two headmasters, two students, a thief, and an adorable manifestation of the art of war, all around a shared board with cards in their hands. Certainly an unusual sight for Beacon's other library-goers, and not too few questions were asked in hushed tones. How did this group end up together? What was the game they were playing? And why did the dog seem to be winning?

For the most part, the male loopers of Remnant ignored the whispers, focused as they were on the colorful board in front of them. Ironwood, however, glanced up from his hand, warily glancing across the table at Torchwick. The sole redhead at the table noticed, granting him an amused smirk. "I assure you, general, I have no cards up my sleeves."

Jaune couldn't help but give a snort at that, but quickly contained himself. "Well, I think I'll be putting a dragon here." He placed a tile on the board, turning to Ironwood. "Don't worry. On the off chance Roman does go crazy, we can handle him."

"That's not..." Ironwood sighed, putting his own tile on the board. "You've obviously got enough of a handle on Torchwick to invite him to this. I just..." He frowned. "How different are you from your baseline self?"

Ozpin couldn't help but chuckle as he put his own tile out. "Honestly, the major difference with Roman is that he likes us enough not to screw with us. Sometimes, that's enough."

"And the only difference with Ozpin is that he's through keeping secrets," the thief countered as Zwei flipped a tile onto the board. "Other than that, he's the same melodramatic pragmatist as ever."

The green-shirted headmaster rose a brow as Roman put his own tile out. "Melodramatic pragmatist?"

"You do launch students into the forest with no help," Ren pointed out, examining the board and slipping his own tile down. "Your speech certainly does not help things."

"Fair point. Jaune, I believe you'll open the movement phase?"

The young man spread his cards and grabbed a wooden boot. "Cycle, unicorn, dragon, cloud, wagon, pig. That's five points for me." He gathered up his tokens. "Your turn, general."

"This game certainly has a fanciful asthetic," Ironwood mused, laying down his own cards and rapidly moving his piece across the board. "Eight points. I believe that puts me ahead of our canine friend."

Zwei whined as Ozpin took his turn.


29.18 Diesel


Ruby glanced up from the familiar magazine as a new loop started, eyeing the rent-a-thug. "Are you mugging me?" Ideally testing her abilities to see if it was a locked loop of some description and running through her loop memories, at the very least it was not pure baseline as the thug's glasses were blue.

And it was a Null loop, Ruby smiled to herself. While her aeon old instincts would have to be retrained, it also meant she could really fight people, instead of simply playing with them.

Thunder rumbled in the distance as the air filled with the fresh scent of rain. The first drops just splattering on the pavement as the sound of breaking glass filled the street as Ruby put the thug through the window before engaging Roman in combat, following the familiar script.

Ruby blinked water out of her eyes as she climbed the ladder and vaulted onto the roof, gazing at the approaching machine. It was difficult to make out in the rain but it seemed to be lurching, badly, and the wind was nowhere near enough to cause it.

"What the…" Ruby tugged her hood back on as the wind picked up, staring into the gloom as she knocked Roman on his arse, breaking his Aura and sending the crime lord to the land of dreams.

The bullhead landed badly, a swaying, disoriented figure stumbling out before vomiting all over the ground, she looked like she was about to pass out.

"Me please tell your… please… tell… me…" Cinder struggled to meet Ruby's gaze as she stumbled forwards, just managing to regain her balance. Ruby could honestly not remember seeing Cinder so… broken, so early in the loop. She was having difficulty even stringing two words together. "… you… are… Awake... and… Ruby Anchored."

Cinder fell, her legs slipping out from under her on the rained drenched roof, Ruby disappeared in a burst of petals, just managing to catch her sister before Cinder hit the ground.

"I'm Awake Cinder, it's a null loop too." Ruby looked in concern at Cinder's glazed eyes as the other looper relaxed, eyes shutting as the woman passed into unconscious. Something was seriously wrong, and it was not from this loop.

Pleading silver eyes met the stern gaze of an unAwake Gynda Goodwitch, who was looking on warily and with a touch of well hidden concern. Lighting arched across the sky with a deafening crash, as the rain beat down across Vale, drenching the Huntresses that stood in the torrential rain, unheeding of the weather, as they focused on the downed woman.

"Professor Goodwitch, can you call a transport? I will explain what I can once I know she will be okay."


Ruby slumped in her seat, waiting for Gynda and likely Ozpin to arrive, her mind dwelling on Cinder. She was in the hospital, being kept heavily sedated. One of the doctors had said that if they didn't keep her drugged and her Aura suppressed then she had no chance of sleeping. It had been that revelation that had found her being led away soon after by a stone-faced Glynda, bereft of all compassion, as she was brought to this room and left alone for hours.

Something was wrong with Cinder, both in this loop and as a result of a prior one, Ruby just hoped there was not permanent damage to her sister's mind.

The room she had been sitting in for the last eight hours with no food, water or human contact, was a dull grey box lit by glaring white lights, 5 meters by 4 meters with a simple metal table and 5 chairs. It was cold, the only noise was a distant hum of air conditioners, set just low enough to be uncomfortable but not dangerous. A classic integration technique designed to make a person uncomfortable and let them stew in their own thoughts.

Quite frankly, Ruby could not bring herself to give a damn. The only thing she was worried about was Cinder, what had driven her to this point and how she could help.

Finally, the beat of footsteps approached the overly bright room; one with a cane and limp - Ozpin, one with an unbalanced tone and a long stride – James Ironwood, a shorter stride, and the swish of material – Glynda, and finally a long, even, stride – Uncle Qrow. Dresden was not the only one who could listen, the rest was simple logic and long familiarity with the people in question.

The Ozluminati filed in, looking grave and watching her carefully. Ozpin holding a plate of cookies, the plate clinking against the metal table as the group sat down.

"Hello, Miss Rose" His voice was light but the old headmaster's gaze was sharp, a powerful, old aura bearing down. "I understand you may have some information for us. But first, do you know who I am?"

Ruby sat up squaring her shoulders, eyes roaming over the gathered hunters as she matched gazes unflinchingly. The change in posture and mannerisms catching the group off guard, making all but Qrow tense. He just focused on her with a hint of curiosity burning with an almost fevered intensity in his eyes.

"Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon and Nemesis of Salem, James Ironwood of Atlas, General, and Headmaster, Glynda Goodwitch, teacher of Beacon, Uncle Qrow, Teacher at Signal Academy. You're the Guardians of the Maidens."

Ruby narrowed her eyes, while it was rather amusing to see the sheer shock and horror on the faces as she casually revealed information people had killed and died for, that was not the issue. Once again, Uncle Qrow had been almost unaffected by something that had startled his allies.

It could simply be a loop variation, but he was acting like he expected it, almost like he knew that she knew.

James and Glynda starting firing questions nonstop, leaping to their feet before Ozpin raised his hand. "James, Gynda, please calm down, I believe Ruby has said she will answer our questions so there is no reason to overreact."

When they had resumed their seats, the grey-haired Hunter set his mug down and folded his hand's sharp brown eyes focused on Ruby "Firstly, what exactly is your Relationship with the woman you called Cinder Fall? And how is it you know of Salem and the maidens? And finally, do you know what had happened to the last Fall Maiden?"

Ruby pointed to the place of cookies "Can have some while I speak?" getting the General to twitch an eye.

As she finished one of the oddly tasting cookies Ruby spoke "I don't know for certain what happened to the last bearer of the Fall Mantel. I know what normally happens in the world's Baseline, but this is a variant of some sort so I can't be completely certain. But, it is likely Cinder used a parasitic Grim to steal half the power from the Fall Maiden Amber before Uncle Qrow interfered. Amber is now likely held in stasis in the basement of Beacon."

Ozpin inclined his head slightly, the rest of the assembled hunters were quite, seemingly content to let the elder hunter speak "Baseline of the World? What do you mean?"

Ruby's lips twitched into a wry smile "Time travel; Reality is broken and Baseline is what has and will happen as reality is repaired."

"Oz," James Ironwood turned to meet the gaze of his friend and co-conspirator, his voice tight "You have said time travel is impossible, but it was also supposed to be impossible to steal half a maiden's power. Could she be telling the truth?"

"Maybe we should let Ruby finish speaking?" Qrow said interrupting Ozpin as he went to answer. Pulling a long draught from his flask, calculating red eyes meeting silver as for the first time, as Qrow kept speaking as he focused on his niece "Speculating before we know everything is a waste of time." He gestured continue motion, leaning back into the chair "Continue Ruby."

Ruby shrugged, dropping the persona she had been putting on and running a hand through her hair tiredly.

"Think of existence as a tree; we are cells and each branch is a universe. On the tree lives a variety of animals. These animals are the gods and demons; we call them the Administrators as another analogy for existence is a vast computer system. At some point, the tree, Yggdrasil, was damaged and its branches started to rot away. So the Admins took a person at a critical point in each branch and used them as a pin to hold the branch together. Making them the center point around which a time loop runs until the tree is fixed and time resumes. This person is called the Anchor and over time other people get dragged into the loops, mainly based on emotional connection and their distance from the anchor and the role played in the events."

Ruby gave a half bow as she bit into another cookie. "I'm the Anchor of Remnant, and Cinder Fall is my adopted sister from another timeline, from what is called a Variant Loop, where the universe 'loads wrong' to use a computer term. The baseline is what happened before the loops started, we can't change it anymore than you could make the sun rise in the south tomorrow morning."

"Well, shit," Qrow cursed, tucking away his empty flask and rubbing his brow in frustration, breaking the silence that had fallen momentarily across the room. "At least that explains how you know everything, from what you said things are not always constant, though, are they?"

Ruby shook her head as she finished off another cookie, swallowing she answered "No, we have variants where things are slightly different, as an example gender flips are rather common. More rarely we have Fused loops, where we end up in other loops, anchored by different people or have elements of two or more loops blending together. And then there are Null loops, like this one, were only baseline powers work."

"And you just accept a murder as a sister, if this is true, when you know the pain she always inflicts on Amber?" Glynda snapped, her riding cross just barely missing Ruby's hand as she reached for the plate again.

Ruby frowned, looking evaluating at the livid teacher, her face twisted into a snarl, her fury echoed on James's face as she kept ranting, Ozpin and Qrow watching on their faces impassive. "And I can't see why you would trust someone who would torture themselves endlessly like that!"

'Torturing herself endlessly', that was definitely not baseline and would explain the doctor's comments. It would not be the first time the split Mantle had caused immense agony or some other dangerous side effect for Cinder and Amber. But that would not solely explain Cinder's behaviour, she had been flying before the loop started so she was at least semi-functional with the broken power.

"You're referring to the split mantle right?" Ruby shifted in her seat trying to find a more comfortable position, it felt odd not having Marjin physiology and interrogation scenarios like this were annoying.

They had even laced the cookies with dust based drugs to encourage people to speak more openly. Unlike hub truth drugs they worked too, at least in this loop. Not that she cared, it was not like she was intending to hide anything.

"And is it really necessary to put truth drugs in the cookies? It messes with the taste of the chocolate chips. It's not really subtle and all it really does is make people more likely to run their mouth and I did say I would cooperate, so I don't really see the need."

Ironwood somehow got even more tense, his aura bearing down on her as his right hand flexed unconsciously "You knew it was there and kept eating them?"

Ruby shrugged, she was likely being too blasé about it given that it was a null loop but she really could not bring herself to care. "I'm not hiding anything and I was hungry, so if I go off on a tangent due to the drugs it's your fault."


Ozpin lifted his mug to his mouth, swallowing the almost scalding, bitter liquid as he studied the young, red-clad girl in front of him. Ruby Rose was completely unconcerned by the situation and by the force of his aura bearing down upon her, something that intimidated most elder huntsmen.

'You're really are only concerned about the false maiden, aren't you?'

The Silver Eyed Warrior met his own gaze, unfazed by what had happened and by being subjected to treatment that would leave many people her age on edge.

'It makes sense that if Cinder Fall did come from a different timeline, then she can't be held accountable for what her other-self did. Going by Ruby's comments and expression, it is likely that the broken Maidens power does not cause these adverse effects in 'baseline'.

"On to the main topic, yes Ruby, we are referring to the split power. I'm guessing it does not cause pain in the baseline?"

Ruby shrugged, eating another biscuit. "It varies, sometimes Amber's mind comes along and drives Cinder up the wall, in one case I remember it made her incapable of not jumping every halfway attractive guy she saw. Normally nothing really happens, bar Amber being in a coma and Cinder having a niggling urge to get the last part, which is apparently like a bug buzzing around her head.

She doesn't need to get the power anymore honestly, it has very much become a part of her and something she can draw upon at will, even if she has not attacked Amber that loop. But that's when it's not a null loop."

With a Time-based semblance, taken to its absolute pinnacle; Ozpin could feel the weight of ages in a person, sense distortions in time and get a glimpse of what lay in a person's past and future. But when he focused on this young girl, only 15 years, 124 days, and 26 hours, 12 minutes old, he glimpsed not what she had been and might become, but something far older and more horrific.

In his mind's eye, a second distant image, painful to focus on, rose behind her; as though from an unfathomable distance. Only a faint protrusion tying the young girl to an ancient aberration cloaked in time.

Silver orbs burning brightly in unnatural flesh; eldritch power, that had no comparison on Remnant, rolling off her in waves that would eclipse the sun.

Rose petals billowing in an unforeseen wind, twisting and dancing in patterns that defined euclidian geometry.

A chillingly lethal scythe, red as blood spilt without end, cutting through endless hordes of Grimm and far, far worse.

A cloaked hood of woven rubies and glittering memories, hanging from her shoulders.

A young looking woman filled with unlimited compassion and kindness to those who would change for the better which blurred with an endless wrath and raging defiance against history and the flow of ages.

Old beyond what he could imagine, with the weight of eternity twisted and bearing down upon her shoulders as she stood alone, bearing the weight unflinching.

A white blur, lesser but greater than the rest stood a short distance away, as more and more pairs stretched back further and further. A reflection of himself supporting Eldest as time flowed, a faint link almost there but not quite, stretching to himself.

"Ozpin!"

"Professor Ozpin, what wrong?"

"What did you do, girl!"

"Hey! Leave Ruby alone, Ironwood she didn't do anything!"

The voices pounded into his head like knives, he could barely think.

"Quite, please. Ruby did nothing wrong, I overused my semblance and was not prepared for the feedback."

The green clothed man rasped out, his head pounding as the image he glimpsed slipped from his grasp and was, paradoxically, seared into his memory. Blood leaked from his nose as his aura struggled to heal a series of haemorrhages in his brain, his right side feeling numb and his tongue thick and unresponsive.

The room fell quite, as the Old man slowly recovered; sensations returning to his body over the course of several minutes.

Finally, The God of Time raised his head, taking in the faces of his friends and allies, seeing the glimpse of time behind them. They all had the distant reflection, all of them were a part of the endless cycle Ruby Rose described. But only Qrow was linked to the shattered time now, only he remembered, but he was so much younger than Ruby. Did he even know what was happening before Ruby explained?

It was comforting, in a way, while knowing that all this would be undone and that all he knew would all too soon vanish into oblivion, that his friends would be there as well. Standing alongside the true Ozpin for eternity, so none of them had to endure Eternity alone.

He might be merely a reflection of the Real Ozpin, but he still knew the pain of losing all of one's friends repeatedly very, very well. And he would not wish that on anyone.

And yet, Miss Rose seemed to endure that, or something closer than any other, with remarkable poise and composure.


Cinder blinked looking at the sunlight blazing down on her face, before the need to look away registered. She hurt, the Maidens power was like a hand clenching around her brain and heart, a burning pain that pulled at her mind, an endless and unfocused burning fury surged through her veins with the urge to just let go, to burn everything to ashes and flay flesh from bone.

Her unAwake had become more and more erratic since getting half of the Fall mantle. Driven mad by blinding pain that would not abate or grant her any release from rationality, robbing her of the ability to feel pleasure or anything bar an endless wrath that could not be satiated, and the total inability to just rest.

Even shunting the broken power away from her mind in a desperate attempt to fall unconscious had been an exhausting stunt that her unawake self could not have accomplished, something not helped by the horrors of the last few loops.

Her senses felt dull, her body weak and slow as she tried to bring her sluggish, erratic thoughts into line. Faint bird calls could be heard from the windows, carrying the fresh smell of recent rain, as the chilled air blew across her skin sending goose bumps down her back. Slowly Cinder forced her way into a sitting position, spying Ruby sleeping on a chair next to her.

The room was a dull white, a heart monitor beeping steadily and the sound of people walking up and down the hallway.

'Where am I?' The room was so familiar with its layout, she should know, but she could not think.

"Ruby!" her voice was slurred as she tried to get her sister's attention. Maybe she would want to go slaughter Vale latter? They had not done something like that together before, it seemed odd that they had not. It was fun to do and family is supposed to do fun things together… yet, something rang false in her mind at the thought. That it was a bad idea, and her friends and family would not like it.

Wait, she didn't have any of those right? Just people to manipulate. The words seemed right but the thoughts felt off, fake, and she could not work out why.

Cinder felt her headache, she was missing something here but she had no idea what, except she could not mess it up or she would lose everything.

"Ruby!" Her call was louder this time, managing to get the dozing cookie monster's attention. That was red right? Or was the Cookie Monster the green thing in a garbage can?

"Cinder!" In a red bust of flowers Ruby was hovering over her, dark circles under her eyes showing a lack of sleep, and for some reason she looked very relieved. Cinder was struck by another wave of confusion; she was lying right about being good, about being their friend and family? So why did Ruby care? Cinder knew she was lying, but she was also reasonably sure that she did love Ruby, Yang, Blake, Weiss, and the others, but… that had to be false, didn't it?

Ruby could help, she was the Anchor and her sister she could do almost anything if she tried. She would help but, it was a bad idea and for the life of her Cinder could not remember why it was.

"Once something is said it can't be taken back, even in the loops as someone will remember, think before you speak and don't assume."

Old words she had engraved into her mind to help with some act. The black haired woman gave up trying to think down that path, it hurt too much and all she was doing is confusing herself. She would follow those words and not say anything that rang as off.

"What's wrong, is there anything I can do to help?"

It took several minutes to compose the words but slowly Cinder spoke, "I looped into the head of Billy," Ruby flinched, horror spreading across her face as Cinder kept speaking very slowly, measuring each word before speaking.

"Our minds kept blending together, my om.. oclsu… my shields failed at some point. It hurt and I can still barely think. The Loop before, Salem mind controlled me with nightmares, killed sel… I killed myself to get out from the nightmares and her control. Now, the Power of Autumn hurts; I can't sleep, it feels like there are bands around my head and nails in my skull. I only just managed to make myself go unconscious after the loop started so I could try to get some rest."

Cinder stopped and considered, trying to dredge up her Loop Memories, she was simply a puppet for Salem, unable to think logically with how much the power hurt. The glove had taken only half the power on purpose.

"Salem's glove only took half the power, when time available should have allowed all of it. I can't think why it hurts too much. I followed what she said all the time, but was always angry and in pain, wishing only to cause destruction. I just want it to stop, so I can try to think again." She looked pleadingly at Ruby "Why? and how can I fix this, I want to think again beyond maim, burn, kill."

The clock on the wall had moved a quarter the way around as she spoke, that seemed like it was too long for such a short explanation.

"It is likely Salem was trying to manipulate you by stopping you think and making you fanatical about killing Amber." Ruby hesitated, before reluctantly speaking up, something odd in her face, was it regret? Why? "I think the best thing for you is to lose the fractured Maidens power and get back your normal power, it should allow you to sort your thoughts out better, this can't be good for you long term."

"How?"

"What are you willing to give up this loop for it? There is no Aura Transfer machine this time around." Mirror like eyes seemed to glisten with unshed tears in the sun, why would Ruby be sad?

"I would give anything to stop it" There was something she was missing, what was it? Ruby would not hurt her, yet fear clenched at her heart and she could barely stop herself from burning her flesh from her bones.

Ruby sadly nodded and hugged her, "Sorry," the voice echoed in Cinder's ear before a stab of pain shot through her heart as heat flashed through her body, darkness swallowing her moments later.


Ruby wiped away a few tears as she stared at the ashes that covered the hospital bed, slowly walking towards the door. She had known it would likely come to this and had been ready if it did, but…

Uncle Qrow was leaning against the wall outside the room, the caped hunter pushing himself off the wall as she exited the room. "So, that's the verdict Ruby? I smelt the burning flesh" concern flashed on his face "You okay?"

Ruby shrugged, rubbing an eye "There was not much else I could do, Cinder had already been tortured in her last few loops and been exposed to the mind of a Malicious Looping Entity, know to permanently harm people and loops in the past. Getting back her normal powers, reflexes, and everything else was the best that could be done to limit the damage. That's not even considering what the broken power was doing to her mind."

She smiled at her Uncle, it was a bitter expression with no amusement in it, "It's not the first time I have had to kill someone I cared about, and at least in this case, I know she will be back in a different loop. I don't always have the luxury."

She glanced out the window, Vale was wet, the storm had cleared up about three hours ago with the clouds quickly dissipating, yet the scent of the rain lingered, filling her lungs with damp air that held the promise of rain as a storm brewed on the horizon. She still had a loop ahead of her and it had been a long time since all of RWBY was together in a Null Loop.

"So what now?" Qrow's gravelly voice broke Ruby out of her thoughts, making her shrug again "Ice cream first, then I want to see if General Ironwood would allow me and the rest of my team too go to Atlas this loop."

Qrow laughed, walking towards the entrance, Ruby following close behind "Your team would be the people who led an attack on the building to release you when we were interviewing you, I'm guessing? Stealing three Atlas Mechs to do so? Yang, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee?"

Ruby grinned, a hint of melancholy in her smile as she tried to look ahead to the rest of the loop. "Yep, Null loops can be fun as we simply can't overwhelm everything we come across and have to actually try."


29.19 Masterweaver


The people of Vale were incredibly naive, or maybe just flat out blind. Emerald walked by a large stack of crates as she left the alley, running a finger through the stack of Lein she held before idly pocketing it and heading back to the docks. They hadn't even set up any extra security-Torchwick would have no trouble stealing the shipment of dust when it came in-well, barring some random Huntsman or Huntress being out late at night, but that wasn't very likely-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a redheaded girl bumping into her.

"Salutations! I appear to be lost. Do you know the quickest way to Tukson's Book Trade?"

Inwardly Emerald was groaning-she'd promised to get back to Cinder as soon as possible, and this strange smiling little girl was wasting her time. But she knew the value of a good impression, and so outwardly she smiled. "Yeah, sure." A quick analysis of the girl's clothes revealed they were high-quality, and she made a snap decision. "You want me to take you there?"

"That would be most helpful!"

Emerald waved a hand, turning around. "Come on, it's this way."

She led the girl with expensive clothing into the alley, already planning her scheme. Illusion a few crates more on the stack, let them 'fall' next to her new companion, and when she jumped back 'catch' her. It wouldn't be that hard to clear out the girl's pockets while 'reassuring' her...

A firm hand gripped her shoulder from behind. "I really do appreciate this. I've been meaning to talk to you for a while, miss Sustrai."

Emerald's eyes widened-but already she was being slammed into the brick wall of the alley. Two blades embedded themselves on either side of her head, and two more blocked her hands from reaching her gun knives. She looked up to see six more identical swords hovering over the shoulders of the no longer smiling redhead, all pointed at her.

"Do you ever wonder how it... feels to die?" The girl's hands ghosted to her arms. "It... it isn't nice. You start with the pain, yes, and then... there's this gap. This gap between you and your body and the injury, and... and everything starts to fade, even as some things come into focus. There's... darkness. Everywhere."

Four of the blades folded in half, ominous green light coming from the newly revealed barrels.

"I remember dying," the redhead explained. "I remember the cords of my weapons-wrapped around my arms, my body, tightening, crushing, shearing. I remember the look of shock and... and horror on the face of the one who did it. I know she did not mean to. I know she was tricked." Green eyes narrowed. "I know an illusion was planted in her mind."

"I've never-" Emerald tried, but the unfolded pair of blades jumped forward, halting just inches from her heaving chest.

"Coming back in time was a shock. It took me a while to accept it, you know. And even though I know she was mistaken, tricked, horrified, even though I know she's genuinely nice and caring, I'm still terrified of her. That's not fair. That's not right." The girl tilted her head. "You're trying to plant an illusion in my mind, aren't you? I see you straining, hoping to escape. Don't bother, I... was built. Not born."

Red eyes widened.

"I'm not scared of you," she continued. "Her? Yes. Irrationally so. But you? I only saw you on the tournament battlefield. Never as an enemy." The light in her folded blades grew brighter. "So... here we are. You can't escape. I could do anything to you."

Emerald gasped as the blades pointed at her chest rose, snaking behind her head, and winced at the feeling of something tightening around her neck.

"They cut through metal and dust easily enough. I'm curious how they would handle sinew and bone."

For a moment, green and red eyes locked.

"...and yet," the girl mused, "anything I do here is pointless. You'll be right back next loop, uninjured, unaware of this conversation, still plotting with miss Fall and mister Black. So, the question becomes... what do I get out of this?" She tilted her head. "Am I the kind of person that gets something out of... revenge? Will this bring me peace, catharsis? Nobody will know about this but me. I could... do anything to you. I could..."

Her voice wavered.

"I could... I could rip... you... apart..."

She choked.

The blades behind Emerald's head descended, and the pressure on her neck lessened. She jumped as the swords all clattered to the ground, the girl following as she folded to her knees.

"I can't do this." Her hands gripped her arms, rubbing them as she started rocking. "I... I can't do this..."

Emerald blinked in surprise-then whipped out her gun, aiming it at the redhead. She almost-almost-fired.

"I can't... I can't..."

Something... something made her pull the gun back. She holstered it.

Then she ran from the sobbing girl.


29.20 Itmauve


"I'm fine, Ruby." Weiss said as the Anchor lead them over to a table to sit down. "Just bad Loop memories."

"Still doesn't mean you shouldn't sit down." Ruby said, forcing the heiress into a seat and pulling out a bottle of water from her Pocket.

"Thanks." Weiss said as she pulled off the cap. She paused to take a drink. "I, uh, probably need a moment."

"Take all the time you need." Ruby said, sitting across from her. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Hey." Yang said, Blake trailing beside her. "What happened?"

"Loop memories." Ruby pointed at Weiss, as Yang and Blake sat down in the same seat.

"Ah." Yang said.

"Should we ask?" Blake asked.

"Well," Weiss said, "This loop I was born with faunus traits. Specifically, ears." She pulled her hair out of her ponytail and played with it until one of the masses of scar tissue was visible. "Father disapproved."

"Want me to punch him for you?" Yang asked.

"Thanks, but I suspect living well would be the better revenge." Weiss said. "Blake, would you like to demonstrate Faunus pride this loop?"

"Sure." Blake said, untying her bow. Weiss tapped a finger to her head, and regenerated the pair of white lion ears that were supposed to be there.

"Well, that's finished." Ruby said. "Anyone want to set something up for initiation?"

Winter snapped back in time again, stumbling with shock at the sudden influx of memories. Whoever was doing this really had it out for me this time, she thought as she pondered the false memories.

Well, it wasn't like that actually happened to her, she affirmed as she absently ran a hand through her hair - and froze as she felt the two masses of scar tissue hidden underneath.

Bile rose in her throat - her father had actually done that to her!? She raced to the bathroom, feeling her urge to puke rising.


A minute or so later, after dealing with her instinctive reaction and cleaning herself up, she exited the bathroom, only to run directly into General Ironwood.

"General?" She froze. "What are you doing here?"

"When a prodigal Specialist suddenly has a panic attack, I make it a point to see what happened." He said.

"Ah." She said lamely. The rest of her team did see her freak out for no apparent reason. "Just... a bad memory. Flashback. It's fine, sir." She lied.

"Ah." He said, and turned away.


"General?" Weiss answered her scroll.

"Weiss. I think your sister is Looping."

"Why would you think that?" She said after a moment. She went stealth?

"Shortly after I Awakened, she apparently had a panic attack. She said it was memories."

"Ah. Yeaaah, I can see why she might do that if she was Looping." She frowned. If no one had explained anything to her, then the memories would be a lot harder to deal with. "So that just leaves the question of who she Activated with. I'm going to guess and say Qrow."

"Agreed. Do you want me to explain it to her, or do you want to?"

"I'll do it." Weiss said. She did have to explain to her sister about her forgetting about who she was. "And I'll get Ruby to check in on her uncle."

"Great."

"Winter." The woman heard behind her, from - Weiss! What was Weiss doing here? Shouldn't she be sneaking into Beacon right now?

"Weiss, how did you get here? Aren't you supposed -"

"Not here." Her sister said, ears flat. How did she get her ears back? Father- "Here." Weiss grabbed her arm, and with a flash, they were suddenly in a conference room somewhere in Atlas.

"Wha- how- what!?" Winter shouted, as the impossibilities kept adding up.

"Winter. Please. Calm down." Weiss said, guiding her to a chair. "I will explain everything."

"He's looping!" Ruby shouted as she burst into the room, dragging her uncle in by the scruff of his neck.

"Good, this only means we need to do one explanation." Weiss said, as Ruby shoved Qrow into a chair.

"Ruby, what the heck is going on here!?" Qrow shouted as he drew his scythe and pointed it at her.

"We will explain." Weiss said coldly, reaching out and Pocketing the weapon. "Now sit."


29.21 Masterweaver


Weiss sometimes forgot how stunning the view outside Atlas Academy was. Frost and snow, this far north, painted lands and forests in a pure white that shimmered even as the sun set and the shattered moon began its ascent. Most loops, she never returned after she left for Beacon. Most loops, she never appreciated this.

"...so," she asked, "how long will it take you to organize your mental list of questions? Because while I could fake being two places in once, it is a split of my concentration."

Winter let out a slow breath, one that fogged in the cool air. "All this time... I tried to keep you safe, tried to find the reason behind these loops, this insanity, and... now, I find you've been going through them for far longer than I have, you have more experience..." She lowered her eyes. "It would have been more helpful if I had confided in you, wouldn't it? Instead of hiding things."

"...Maybe it would have been," Weiss acknowledged. "Something about the loops-you can change what 'would have been', but not what is. I am a little upset you went stealth, but... I understand. Really." She chuckled. "I did almost the same thing when I started looping, actually."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. I was worried Ruby hadn't learned her lessons, that all of my friends would have forgotten... everything. And then I panicked because Ruby wasn't at Beacon, and that just attracted hordes of Grimm when I landed in Emerald Forest. Of course, when Ruby dropped out of the sky wearing... that ridiculous armor getup, I started cursing her out, I was so relieved..." She shrugged. "We didn't find out what was happening until after Ren and Nora started looping."

"I see. It is... good to know that you have friends, in these loops."

Weiss gave Winter a sidelong glance. "Family too, now."

Her sister managed a small smile. "Yes." Her expression grew more sorrowful, her hand twitching up to her head. "Although... I do not know if that is as good for us as it is for others. How could Father be so... cruel?"

"...do you know, there was a time I didn't know if you were older or younger than me?"

Winter blinked, giving her a confused look. "I'm sorry?"

"Yggdrassil is damaged, and sometimes... that means details aren't clear." Weiss shrugged. "When the loop first activated, we went up to the breach of Vale, and then back. I knew I had a sister, and I knew her name was Winter, and beyond that... Young, old, loving, evil, I didn't even know for sure what you looked like until the Vytal tournament expansions came in. And I didn't know who you were until you visited." She rubbed a finger on her own ears. "Our father... well, I know what he looks like, now. And I've known for a while that he's uncomfortably strict, and probably racist against the Faunus. But... it varies between loops. Sometimes he just lectures me on a daily basis and pays Faunus less, or ignores their conditions. Other times... other times, he goes down to the mines personally to whip them, and the scar on my eye..."

She sighed. "I don't like loops like this. But they happen. All we can do is make them better, for everyone."

Winter pursed her lips. "Strength in adversity." She nodded. "I believe... I believe that I can work with that."

"...You know," Weiss offered, "I was really excited when you came to visit me. It was... one of the happiest moments of my life, finally meeting my own sister. Few things top that..." She reached out, gripping her sister's hand. "This moment, here, that's among the few things."[/QUOTE]


29.22 Gammatron


"Salutations, General Doyle!" Doyle's first words he heard upon awakening for the Loop were, "We are getting ready to head for Beacon!"

"Huh? O-Oh yes. Um...Thank you, Penny," Doyle thanked the gynoid, "I do hope that everything goes well. I'm still rather unsure about bringing all these ships. We may be unintentionally stirring up some issues with all these going to one location."

"Really?" Penny tilted her head.

"But, well, orders are orders, I suppose," Doyle sighed as the...darker...parts of his Loop Memories finally reached him, "...Oh my."

*thud*

"Oh dear. General Doyle passed out again," Penny gasped before easily picking him up and putting him in his seat on the command deck, "There we go." 'Though, this is rather strange. Is he a Looper or are we having a Fused Loop and General Ironwood was Replaced by him?'


"Thank you again for staying with me for this meeting, Penny," Doyle thanked as the two went up an elevator.

"Of course. No matter how Loopy you might feel, I am sure that there is an Anchor to keep you here!" Penny beamed.

"...Ah...Is..." Doyle looked around, "Is that the signal that you are going through these, er, seemingly infinite 'loops' as I was told of?"

"Yes!" Penny beamed, "This is my twelfth Loop!"

"Ah...I do believe that this is my twelfth as well," Doyle smiled before holding his hand out, "General Donald Doyle of the planet Chorus."

"My name is Penny and I am combat ready!"

"Yes, well...being combat ready is good and all, but I do hope you have friends here that are also Looping. I was going to have you put into the school as a transfer student."

"Really?!" Penny gasped.

"Oh yes. The results of quite a few tests you did before we left did show good results, but being out there to experience it is far more important," Doyle noted, "I would quote William Shakespeare about the importance of interacting with others, but apparently, I am not well-versed in quotes from the man and his works."


29.23 Masterweaver


"So..." Blake glanced down the table to where Ruby was having a lively one-sided discussion with Crescent Rose. "Are we... not going to say anything about this?"

Yang shrugged. "She seems pretty attached to her 'baby girl'. You want to try something, you're on your own."

"Honestly, I'm not that surprised." Weiss stirred her teacup calmly. "We may forget it, but Ruby is our Anchor. That means she sometimes spends centuries without any other loopers to talk to. Crescent Rose is a constant for her, since she can Pocket it, and therefore it makes sense she'd grow emotionally attached to a point of mentally assigning a personality. The fact that she designed and built it herself probably only amplifies the relationship."

She took a sip, pointedly not reacting to the disbelieving looks leveled at her by faunus and blonde.

"Well... okay, but... why her weapon?" Blake asked. "Why not... her hood or something?"

"Well, she can put Crescent Rose in a chair, but she wears her hood." Weiss put her teacup down. "Have you ever heard of somebody talking to a piece of clothing?"

Both girls leaned back, mumbling excuses quickly.

Weiss blinked. "...Wait. What... what am I missing here?"

"I've... looped in as Yang's scarf," Blake admitted.

"And I've been her bow a couple of times," Yang offered.

"Well, you are one of the few people who I let play with my ears."

"Aw, thanks! And you can strangle me any time okay wow that sounded way more romantic in my head."

Weiss pinched her brow as the two of them descended into good natured banter. True, it was amusing and heartwarming to see their relationship in action, but it didn't make for very quiet lunches.

After a moment she picked up her tea-set and moved down to Ruby. "Room for one more?"


29.24 MasterOfGames


Ruby poured a glass of milk and took a seat on her bed, scowling at the floor as she assassinated a plate full of cookies one at a time.

Across the room, Blake leaned over to Weiss. "What's up with her?" she whispered.

Weiss sighed, rolling her eyes. "She entered a 'coolest weapon' contest for all the students, with the teachers judging. With all the modifications she's made to her scythe, she thought it was a sure thing, but she got second."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"A variant of Coco. Her mini-gun was laser sighted."

"... How does that even-"

"One on each barrel. Ruby isn't even upset she lost, she's just pouting because she didn't think of it first."

Blake winced sympathetically.


29.25 Masterweaver


"Yang is going to freak out when she hears you've started looping," Ruby babbled, dragging Qrow along by his wrist. "And Zwei-well, Zwei's not Awake this loop, but you can bet he's going to give you a run for your money in the Awesome department-hey Ironwood can we borrow a ship? Don't want to go super-sonic with my uncle just yet."

"Didn't you do that when you brought him here?" Ironwood asked, even as he tapped a few buttons on his scroll.

"Nah, that was basic teleportation. Didn't want to freak him out."

"Kiddo, you've completely failed in that regard," Qrow deadpanned. "Hey, Ironwood, you in these loop things too?"

"I think I just passed thirty, yes. Quick question, do you know how to pilot a dropship?"

"No."

"Yep!"

Qrow shot Ruby a surprised look. "When did you learn to pilot a dropship?"

"Variant where everyone lived on the moon. Floating continents and all that."

"Alright, you're clear to take Z-12 back to Beacon." Ironwood shut his scroll off. "If anybody asks, Qrow was piloting."

"Gotcha." Ruby threw a very sloppy and incorrect salute with a grin, dragging her uncle to the docks. "When we get back I have to show you my baby girl. I've made SO many modifications over the loops, you're just going to be amazed!"

"I'm still trying to process this all. I've been trying to figure this all out for a while and... you say you've been here from the beginning?"

"I'm the Anchor, yeah. Normally there'd be a period where we tried to get you adjusted to the basics, but-I just, you're looping! And you were stealthing, which is just really annoying, but I totally get it and I forgive you-you didn't know what was going on before this, right?"

Qrow coughed. "Actually, my last loop was... the one where you had to kill Cinder because of an MLE. I was so focused on helping you recover from that I kind of... forgot to mention I was looping."

"...Oh." Ruby blinked, considered for a moment, and shrugged. "Well I guess we're going to have to talk about Cinder at some point anyway... but I have so much to show you! There's our ship." She rushed by some patrolling Knights. "Oh hey! I can totally show you my 'weapons of the loops' museum! You are going to just love the Bionicle wing, I mean they have abnormal ammo and weird weapons and so much elemental craziness going on even before you get to the toa tools-oh and I have a weaponized PLANET too!"

Her uncle stumbled into the dropship, staring at her in disbelief. "You have a... what do you mean you have a planet?"

"We explained the subspace pocket, right? The longer you loop, the bigger you can make it." Ruby shrugged as she started the pre-flight check. "I mean, I've tweaked it a LOT, mostly covering the safety flaws and making sure if it does degrade I can dump it without losing the rest of my stuff-"

"Ruby, I'm willing to accept a lot, and that you've become... awesome, but can you slow down a little? Please?"

Ruby paused in her launch check, spinning around in her chair. Qrow was sagging against one of the bulkheads, tired eyes trying to keep up.

"...oh." She twiddled her fingers together. "Sorry, I just... well, I've been living with this for so long, and you said you were stealthing, so I thought... you'd adjust quickly, and... I guess I got ahead of myself. Sorry."

Qrow sighed. "It's... fine, kiddo. The fact you're so eager even after all these loops you've been through..." He chuckled. "I guess I can see why you were made Anchor. It says a lot that you focus on the fun parts, and don't let it drag you down."

"...Much." Ruby sighed. "I don't let it drag me down much."

"...Hey." The man walked up, sitting down next to her. "You know what? Why don't we talk about this 'baby girl' of yours while we fly?"

She smiled, spinning back to the controls. "Yeah, Crescent Rose has grown into an impressive piece of equipment. I've managed to rig up this laser-scythe mode, which cuts through metal like it wasn't even there..."


29.26


"...Nora," Ren asked. "What. Is. That."

Nora tapped the growling box. "This is a special gift from a super secret admir-"

"You got me a gift."

Nora deflated, literally. "Sure, take the fun out of it."

Ren looked at the growling, shaking box. He knew he shouldn't open it. It was a gift. From Nora. That growled.

He pulled the lid off.


"So... Why are refugees streaming into my domain," Salem asked Ren.

Ren handed Salem a set of binoculars. The evil mistress of all Grimm who was hell bent of wiping mankind and Faunuskind from existence looked in the general direction of Vale. "That's a tentacle monster."

"Yup."

"You've evacuated Vale and are currently requesting that I give the entire population of the Kingdom refuge in my domain, because of a tentacle monster."

"Correct."

"Well that makes sense," Salem decided, waving over a few Beowulves. "Welcome the guests, be cordial, don't eat anyone. And mister Lie Ren."

"Yes."

"How did this occur, exactly."

Ren very gently tugged the binoculars to the side. Salem took note of the girl in pink who was screaming at the top of her lungs as the slimy, throbbing, squirming tentacle monster had a tea party with her.

...That isn't a euphemism by the way. It was literally pouring and drinking tea with it's captive audience. Nora seemed to be screaming about how much she hated Chai. "Ren."

"Yes Salem."

"I am glad that sometimes, I am not Looping."

"Being Loop Aware will do that for you."


29.27 Masterweaver


In the vastness of the multiverse, on a branch of a multi-dimensional tree, in a flower that was also a digital file, in the damaged yet still living reality, in a certain galaxy, orbiting a certain star, on a certain planet with a certain shattered moon, on a specific continent, in a specific kingdom, in a specific training facility for a specific kind of warrior, in an otherwise unremarkable courtyard, on an otherwise unremarkable bench...

Weiss Schnee sat, spending the quiet day reading stories from other worlds on her scroll.

Well, it was quiet until an all-too-familiar red flash announced the presence of her team leader, perching on the back of the bench. "Hi Weiss! Whacha dooooin'?"

"Wondering how much Isabella is going to sue you for stealing her catchphrase."

"I'm pretty sure the Yakko versus Sokka case proved that cross-universal usage of personally utilized verbal structures does not qualify as copyright or trademark violation," Ruby Rose pointed out. "I mean, that's what Maya Fey told me, and she was there."

"...Okay, I want the court records for that," Weiss stated. "It sounds like a horrible but hilarious mess of law and antics."

"Well, I don't have them on me but I'll ask around." The redhead swung over the back of the bench and sat down next to her partner. "Seriously, though, what are you doing? Cause I'm bored and I figured I'd join in if I could."

"Reading hubverse fanfic of us."

"Wow. Narcissist much?"

The heiress half smirked, rolling her eyes. "You know, I could justify this by saying I'm reading this stuff to prepare for weird variants."

"Yes, you could. So what's the fic you're reading now called?"

"...Weiss Reacts, volume three."

"Oh, you're right, that's absolutely not narcissistic at all." Ruby leaned over her shoulder. "What's it about?"

"A very short-tempered version of myself reads Hubverse fanfiction, whilst dealing with highly exaggerated and sometimes completely out of character versions of our friends and family. Started off pure comedy, but began to develop a dramatic plot after a while... and incredibly meta. It's not something I'd call a 'major' fic, aside from length, but it's entertaining if you have a few hours to kill."

"Well, that's an interesting review." The Grimm Reaper gave a sly grin. "I guess you could say that it's how Weiss reacts to Weiss Reacts."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Yes, ha ha. If we really wanted to complete the mirror, though, we'd need Yang and Blake."

"Did I hear somebody call for their daily dose of awesome?" Yang Xiao Long declared as she and Blake Belladona strolled up to the bench.

"Well, yeah," Ruby replied, "but since Pyrrha's not Awake I guess you'll have to do."

"GASP! My heart!" The blonde clutched at her chest. "How could my own sister say such a horrible terrible thing?! I can't take this, the agony, the pain!"

She turned and buried her head into Blake's shoulder, weeping melodramatically as the Faunus patted her hair comfortingly. "There, there, Yang, I'm sure she'll come to her senses soon enough."

Weiss and Ruby watched the pair in bemusement.

"So!" Yang turned back to them, a wide grin on her face. "What are you two up to?"

"Reading a fanfic about us reading fanfics," Weiss replied.

"Huh. That's oddly recursive."

"Well, we are in an endless recursion of time," Blake pointed out.

"Good point." Yang leaned over Weiss's shoulder. "So what's the likelihood we'll end up encountering this version of ourselves?"

"The fic's set two or three years after we arrived at Beacon. Our loop only goes for one year. So, barring some extensive expansions or an obscene number of glitches..." Weiss shrugged. "Pretty much nil. Honestly, I'm just reading it for fun at this point."

Blake held out her scroll. "Mind swiping me a copy?"

"Sure." Weiss flicked her finger across the scroll. "Actually, the portrayal of your character is an interesting contrast to your actual personality."

"Really?"

"Aside from being one of the many characters aware of the fourth wall, she's also obsessed with being the most macho and I quote 'manly' person around, to a point where she hero-worships Kamina and invokes spiral power. And apparently spends time building humongous mecha..."

Blake rose an eyebrow. "...well. That's... certainly unique..."

"Ooo, what about the rest of us?" Ruby asked eagerly. "Do we get fun and wacky personalities too?"

"Well, you kind of don't. The fic keeps you mostly 'innocent', with a few quirks like talking to Crescent Rose and secretly having fantasies over your love interest, but I think you're mostly there as a sounding board for the Weiss rants." She shrugged. "Yang, though, is fourth-wall-aware and equal parts pervert and prankster, both shielding a surprisingly delicate and overprotective personality which she is terrified to reveal."

"Scale of one to ten," Yang interjected, "how accurate is that?"

"Seven," Blake replied offhand. "You're creative but you respect the sensibility of others."

"Five," Ruby added. "Granted, being the little sis means I don't see as much of it but it is a part of you."

"...flexible between four point five and seven point five," Weiss hedged. "It depends on how much of an adrenaline rush you have and who's present."

Yang gave her a look. "Using a flexible measure on a point scale is cheating."

"Using a point scale to measure a living personality is almost impossible."

"That... is an excellent point!" the blonde admitted.

Blake frowned. "So... Velvet's apparently yandere for Weiss in this?"

Weiss shrugged. "CFVY was loop variable even when we activated, and we had two volumes worth of baseline. This fic was started back when the Hub only had volume 1."

"Huh. You know, sometimes I forget the Hub isn't static." Ruby frowned in contemplation. "Has... Velvet ever been yandere for you?"

"...some loops, yes. I'm alright with one-loop stands, but I usually have to sit her down and explain she can't get jealous just because I talk to you guys."

"Oh, yeah, I know how that is." Ruby sighed. "Variants can get super awkward super fast."

Yang patted her shoulder. "Hey, if you need me to go kick anybody's ass-"

"Nah, after I Wake Up I usually deal with it quickly. Besides, I don't really count my unawake self's romances as 'real.' If I did, you'd have to beat up literally everybody on Remnant-and honestly, Yang, I don't feel comfortable thinking of you like that."

"Right back at you sis."

"What's this Antic order they keep mentioning?" Blake asked.

"Apparently a combination multiversal Illuminati and pranking club," Weiss explained. "Surprisingly the source of a lot of the longer plotlines, once they get past the pieing and various other traps."

Yang scoffed. "Pies are for quick gags, not pranks. If one is ranked among loopers, only the GREATEST of SHENANIGANS can be allowed to pass our rigorous test for amusement!"

"Sometimes I wonder if you take your schemes too seriously," Blake deadpanned.

"This from the girl who named her weapon Gambol Shroud." Yang huffed. "I checked-thesaurus dot com lists gambol in the synonyms for prank."

"...why would you even check that?"

"Don't ask," Ruby interjected. "Trust me, it was a Hub loop and... yeah, just don't ask."

"It wasn't that bad," Weiss insisted.

"It really was."

"Nobody got hurt, and we needed a new house anyway."

Blake put down her scroll. "I'm trying to determine if I should be curious or not."

"Not to put to fine a point on this," Ruby said as she examined her fingers, "but there's this saying about cats and curiosity..."

"Satisfaction brought her back," Yang replied, sticking her tongue out at her sister. "That's the full saying."

"I'm going to let that one pass, both since I walked into it and since Yang defended my honor."

"Awwww, you do care! Let's make my sis uncomfortable."

Ruby mock gagged as the two began an over-the-top makeout. "Stop taunting me with your relationship! Seriously, you're embarrassing yourselves!"

"No they're not," Weiss said with a smile, not even looking behind her. "Although, yeah, that is probably the least romantic way you could have started a makeout session. Ruby, which one's flipping me off?"

"Actually, Yang's making a talking hand, and Blake is using sign language to insult your family line."

"That's a duel of honor, then. Tomorrow at noon?"

"Blake says yes."

With a gasp, the two lovers parted lips. Yang adjusted her hair. "Right. Well. What were we... that fic. About fics." She paused. "What are the ships?"

"Late-game Arkos, delayed Ice Rose, and possibly Bumblebee."

"You've been on a shipfest lately," Ruby noted.

"Found a spreadsheet of shipnames on the hub internet. There are a lot of puns and jokes. I want to fill in the blank spaces."

"...Hmm. Neptune-Penny, Waterproof."

"Bam." Yang whipped out her scroll. "That's great. That's going in."

"How would that even work?" Blake asked. "Where would the chemistry be?"

"Naive gynoid believes Neptune is cool guy and Neptune tries to keep up appearances to impress her?" Weiss suggested.

Blake paused. "Is it weird we're talking about shipping our friends?"

Ruby shrugged. "Enh, it's not as weird as Weiss's nudist phase."

Weiss gave her a glassy smile. "Yes, thank you for reminding of that, Ruby. I had just about repressed those memories."

"I do what I can!" Ruby chuckled, before sighing. "But in all seriousness, the relationship of ourselves to the selves portrayed in fanfiction is an interesting exploration of identity as it applies to timelessness. Without such paths to consider and results to meander, would we not detach entirely from our chosen roles? Would not the weight of ages alter us more than it has, if we did not have reminders of the personas we began with and how they can change? I for one know that much of my own mentality, my own happy personality, is but a fragile shell that keeps my mind from exploding considering the implications of our situation. Even the silliest little ditty is that much more defense against complete loss of our minds to the oblivion of pointlessness, a meaning made in a meaningless world."

Her teammates stared at her for a few quiet seconds.

Then Weiss wrapped her arms around her, followed in moments by Yang and Blake.

"Wha-?!" Ruby shook her head, managing to smile. "Guys, this isn't-"

"Shhhhhhhh." Blake tapped her arm. "We're here for you, Ruby."

The redhead shook her head. "I'm sorry, I... just had to get that out. A few too many lonely loops. I'm not going to start writing angsty poetry or anything."

Yang grinned. "Yeah, you'd make a terrible goth."

"Hey! I wear black and red and... and skirts! I'm an awesome goth!"

"You're kind of too cheery to pull it off," Weiss pointed out. "And no piercings. Really you're more of a perky goth than anything."

Ruby grumped. "Fine. So I can't do angst. Sue me." She paused. "...and as nice as this group hug is, I can't feel my arms anymore. Please let go?"

The others disentangled themselves. After a moment Weiss cleared her throat. "Well... that was actually oddly philosophical."

"Weiss, what do you expect when you react to something called Weiss Reacts? It's a fanfic about you reading fanfics, an additional recursion in an already endless recursion of time!" Ruby threw her arms wide. "I don't know how this could possibly get any more meta!"

"WHAT'S UP IN THE HIZZZZZZZZY?!" Deadpool cried as he kicked open the door.

"I just had to tempt fate, didn't I?" Ruby groaned.

Weiss stared at him. "Are you Yggdrassil's go-to punchline for post-modernism?"

"You're going to make everything complicated," Blake sighed, "aren't you?"

"We're in a courtyard!" Yang complained. "Did you plant a doorframe in the grass just so you could kick it open?"

"In order: Yes, yes, yes, and HELL yes! You asked for more meta, so now it's time-"

He ripped off his pants, revealing the bell-bottom jeans underneath, and tied them around his head.

"FOR THE META SHUFFLE!"

The following dance party ran through the entirety of Vale, demolished Atlas academy, caused the Grimm to swear off evil, jumped loops through five different worlds, accidentally de-extinctified the dinosaurs, generated an obscene number of glitches, rendered Freakazoid speechless, reformed the Imperium of Man into a libertarian democratic republic, and ended up saddling Marianne Columbia with an extra three weeks of paperwork as she tried to work out exactly what had happened.


29.28 Masterweaver


James Ironwood closed the door behind him gently. "Penny, we need to talk."

"Of course general!" the gynoid chirped, saluting brightly. "What do you need?"

"I'm not talking as a general. I'm talking as a concerned..." Ironwood faltered. "...family member. Probably an uncle."

"Like Qrow is for Ruby?"

"...Somewhat," the general admitted.

"In that case, should I refer to you as uncle Jamie? Or uncle Ironwood? I'm unfamiliar with uncle protocols."

"Honestly, I don't know either. We can figure that out later." Ironwood strode to his desk, sitting down. "At the moment, I'm more concerned about your... reaction to the loop you were human."

Force of habit led Penny to sit in the chair across from him. "Like I told Ruby, I only cut my hand to see if I could bleed. I did not, and still do not, feel comfortable with the concept of self-harm."

"That's reassuring, but not what I was worried about." The general folded his hands together, fixing her with a serious look. "Why, exactly, did you feel it necessary to engage in... intimate activities?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Why is it always the sex people worry about...?"

"Penny..."

"Gener-Uncle, I am not a mindless hedonist," she stated quickly. "I only had a limited time to experience any and all pleasures of flesh, which includes a broad spectrum of senses that most people take for granted. Honestly, I spent most of my spare time that loop smelling flowers and dirty socks." She sagged. "I miss that, actually. I've been looking into artificial noses, but outside some very specific loops the technology is incredibly rare and difficult to adjust to my frame..."

Ironwood took a moment to process that statement. "...If I find myself in a loop with the technology, I'll see if I can get some blueprints. That said... the reason I am concerned about you having... sex, is because it is by it's very nature intimate and requires both partners to trust each other implicitly. A little exploration is acceptable, I just... I don't know." He put his head in his hands. "It's just, since your father isn't looping, I... feel I have a responsibility toward you. And that means when I hear about you having... encounters, I have to worry."

Penny tilted her head, taking in the image before her. After a moment, she sat up straight. "If it helps... Sun was very respectful of me and my situation."

"That... is good to hear, I suppose..." After a moment, the man sighed. "I'm going to have to talk to Qrow, aren't I? Get advice about all of this."

"You may," Penny conceded. "And perhaps Jaune and... miss Nikos." She suppressed a shudder. "But... for the record, I don't think you're doing too horribly."

That, at least, got a wry chuckle from the general. "...Thanks, Penny. You... you can go now."

"Very well." Penny stood, turning for the door.

Then she paused.

After a moment, she ran around the desk and gave Ironwood a brief hug. "Familial love expression!"

He looked up in shock, but the gynoid had quickly left the room. It took a second or two, but a small smile did flicker across his face.


A/N: End