The Void
The mercenaries and Yang found themselves being taken inside a gigantic PC which was way bigger than the one Gaben had earlier used as a Steam Sales store last time they encountered him. The entire scene was near identical to how the Star Wars gang got taken into the Death Star, except they were going in against their will instead of sneaking on. Counter-Strike CTs wearing the heraldry of Valve were all over the place acting as security guards, while Half-Life citizens dressed as Valve workers were running around to do the bidding of their lord.
When their ship got into the hanger (which was where you put CDs or DVDs), they were immediately surrounded by the CTs and Gabe himself stood waiting for them at the ramp with Monty standing close by. The mercenaries were hesitant, not quite sure what to do in a situation like this. Sure, they've been in pickles similar to this, but how the fuck do you win against an almighty God of everything?
"...is anyone going to tell me who this guy is?" Yang asked, staring back at Gaben with the other mercenaries from the viewports.
"We don't know... All we know is that he is known as 'Gaben'." Engie answered, eyeing the said person.
"Okay... what's so bad about him?" Yang asked another question, trying to figure out what exactly was so threatening about this fat guy other than the army and big ass Void station he had with him. "He looks just like a regular guy..."
"He is way more than just a normal person, Yang." Heavy said. "A good lesson to have in mind is not everyone may be what they seem, and he is most definitely not just a fat man." He said ominously, staring Gaben down just like the rest of them. It was an intense standoff that lasted like a minute or so before Gaben finally said something to break the silence.
"Welcome." His godly voice called to them. "Will you be nice enough to leave your ship? It's been th-... thr-...thre-..." He started twitching, unable to say the number three.
"Three. Three minutes." Monty said the dreaded number Gabe can't say for him.
"Thank you. It's been that long since you've been here." Gabe finished.
The mercenaries didn't say anything, still not sure what to do. Getting tired of waiting, which is ironic because he is known for delaying things, he simply used his powers to teleport them in front of him. This was a huge surprise to everyone, and the mercs and Yang nearly started fighting in a frenzy panic had Gabe not froze them in place. Everyone struggled futilely as the Lord of Gaming let them settle down a bit before letting them go. He also muted them since they instantly started insulting him because that's what they do.
"Okay... I will let you go now. Promise I won't hurt you, I just have some business with you guys." Gabe said, unfreezing them and unmuting them. He held his hands out for a few more seconds just in case they broke out into violence again, but luckily they didn't. "Awesome. Hello there. Most of you know me already. I'm Gabe Newell, but pretty much everyone calls me Gaben." The CEO of Valve politely shook everyone's hands.
"Um... hi." Yang slowly said, surprised that he had such power over them. He is the Savior of Gaming after all.
"Hello, young lady. I think you're one of Monty's creations..." He said as Gabe's not familiar with Yang, looking to the Asian guy by his side who nodded. "I also think you have a game on Steam, hmm... Guess your show's gotten quite popular."
"I...what?" Yang was confused. "He... created me?"
"Yep. Creating RWBY took some work, but I did it." Monty plainly stated, giving a thumbs up and a slight smile to Yang.
"...huh?" Yang did not understand at all, but Gabe decided to keep going before this drags out longer than it has to.
"Oh, nothing... Now! Let's get to the point. We got a deal I want to get over with." With the clap of Gaben's hands, he brought the people he wanted to make a deal with right to them. To their surprise, it was Merasmus and Saxton Hale.
"Hey there chaps!" Hale greeted them with that Australian cheer. "Long time, no see!"
"Hi Mr. Hale- AHH!" Soldier's greeting to Hale was cut short when Merasmus tackled him and held him against the floor with his cane pressed to Soldier's neck.
"FOOL! YOU HAVE THE UNFORTUNATE PLEASURE-no,wait... UNFORTUNATE MISFORTUNE TO HAPPEN ON THE PLACE MERASMUS-" Suddenly, now words were coming out the wizards mouth as Gabe had muted him. Shaking his head in disapproval, Gabe brought Merasmus to his side and froze him.
"W-what's he doing here!?" Scout yelled.
"Yes, and what's the meaning of even bringing us here!?" Spy demanded, gesturing to the massive, fuck-off, Death PC (It's like Death Star but a PC!) they were in.
"Made a deal with that wizard to bring me to Gabe here so I can talk to him." Hale said.
"And this?" Gabe began. "This is my new BattlePC I decided to built with the funds generated from the last Steam sale. Pretty neat, isn't it?"
"Okay... but why take us here instead of standing us out in the Void like you usually do?"
"Ah, I just wanted to show off my BattlePC." Gabe shrugged. "Could've talked with you outside, but you know, PC Master Race. Got to show off my dominance."
"...alright." No one knew what he was talking about, but they didn't feel like pushing any further because they knew this was something they'll never understand. If monsters check under their beds for Chuck Norris, then Chuck Norris checks his Steam account for Gaben. Terrible analogy, but let's continue.
"So!" Gabe clapped his hands. "Let's begin! So, Saxton Hale, you say that if I let you return to Remnant, you promise to never hack again?"
"Yes I do!... Even though I never hacked to begin with!" Hale cheered, jumping over to the mercenaries. "These fellas will vouch for me! Come on, boys! Start vouching!"
"Wait, wait, wait... you brought us here only so we can vouch for you?" Engineer said in disbelief. None of the mercs were feeling Saxton Hale's fuckery right now because this was a huge waste of time.
"Yep! And-wait... one's missing." Hale said. With the clap of Gabe's hands again, Medic appeared.
"And zat is how ve-WHAT!?" Medic frantically looked around, wondering why he was here when just a moment ago he was telling Pyrrha how they got back to life. "WHERE AM I!? Oh, hello my friends." He said once he saw he was surrounded by his fellow mercenaries.
"Great! Now start vouching lads! Please! It's my only shot of getting back to Remnant!"
Hale literally dropped down to his knees and started begging them. Seeing no other option of getting out of this situation, they did just that. Even though they weren't quite sure what exactly they were vouching for. Gabe listened to each of their testimonies to how Hale was a good guy intensely while Hale stood and prayed that Gabe would take the vouches. Even Yang got in on the action, though she hasn't really interacted with Hale that much if at all. Though the vouches were generally positive with some negative remarks on how he was a terrible employer in between, Hale still stood up and faced Gabe to see what he thought of them.
"W-well... whaddya think?" Hale asked nervously. Nervously. After all, this may be his actual last chance to return to Remnant. Gabe stood there, struggling to come up with a decision. Looking over to Monty, he asked him for his thoughts.
"Monty?"
"You promise not to hack again in my world?" Monty asked Hale who nodded up and down like a dog with a thumbs up for good measure.
"I promise I won't, mate! I don't even know how to hack anyway, I'm just really Australian!" Hale said truthfully. Gabe and Monty looked at him, still unconvinced.
"Well then..." Gabe began. "How can I be absolutely sure-"
"Hey, don't mean to bother this whole deal thing here, but can you send us back to what we were doing?" Scout interrupted the Savior of Gaming. Gabe visibly twitched at the notion of this fucking pleb interrupting his need to say what he needs to say, but before Gabe could do anything rash, Monty stepped in.
"Say no more." Snapping his fingers, Monty sent them all back to Remnant. He was eager to see what these crazy dudes will make of their quest in the world of his creation.
"Alrighty then, anyways, how can I be absolutely sure that you can't hack?" Gabe resumed.
Remnant
Instantly, the ship plopped in the exact spot in Remnant's atmosphere with the same flames and speed as before, and the screaming continued. It had to make a full rotation around the planet in order for it to slow down enough for a stable flight. The flaming hot ship looked just like a shooting star as Engineer guided it down, and for the citizens of Remnant, they did believe it was a shooting star.
All the way in Atlas, Weiss was training in her room when she caught sight of the ship. Even though it was daytime in Atlas, she can very clearly see the ship flash for a second far above. Believing it was a shooting star, she decided she might as well make a wish. Last time she's seen one was back in Beacon with her friends, and that is where she discovered that it's common tradition in the rest of the world to make wishes on falling stars. Even if it wasn't something she believed would actually work, she did it anyway for good times sake, and for her friends.
I wish to see them again, someday.
To the far east of the planet, nightfall was casting itself over Anima's easternmost side, as well as Menagerie since the island was in that hemisphere as well. In Menagerie, Blake's standing on the balcony of her parent's home, watching stars appear in the skies as the Sun set over the Faunus land. It was easy for her to catch sight of the shooting star as it stood out greatly with its bright light and speed across the growing darkness. She too made a wish.
Please keep my friends safe.
For Team RNJR in Anima itself though, clouds had gathered above so they could not see anything. Not like they would've noticed too since they had just discovered the unfinished ruins of Oniyuri.
However, not all who saw the star made a wish on it. At least not a good one. On the Far Western Dragon continent, Salem quite literally watched the streak of light as it flew above her palace in the Grimmscape. The foul creatures that are born here stared at it as well, feeling their Queen's contempt for those on board. Salem knew this was no mere shooting star on account of it literally circling half the planet instead of just whizzing by into the rest of space as normal one would. Cinder was currently mastering her powers on some Grimm below, and Salem did not want to bother her with them. After seeing how they're able to go to space, Salem decided it's probably best to get rid of them once they landed before they become a far bigger nuisance than they already were. Last thing Salem needed was even more adversaries to get in the way of her grand scheme.
Back with the Ship
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Were the sounds made by the occupants as it turned out returning to a planet's surface was much more intense than escaping it. The trajectory of them returning to the planet began as far west as Vacuo where Engie hoped the ship would slow down enough by the time they returned to their original spot for them to land somewhere in Anima. The G-forces acting on them were so intense, that no one could say anything other than constant screaming.
It felt like an eternity, but in reality, the time was only a few minutes, maybe even 10 until Engie deemed it the right time to activate the measures to slow down the ship. With the press of a button once they had reached minimal speed for safe usage, he reversed the thrusters so that the ship would slow down as well as deploying parachutes when they got within 30km or so from the planet's surface.
Now, the ship was beginning to slow down dramatically. If Engie's systems for right, they were already over half of Anima, which means they'd reach Mistral in pretty much no time at all if the ship would keep slowing down so they wouldn't miss the kingdom. However, what Engineer was totally unprepared for was the fact that the parachutes meant to slow down the ship's descent flew right off after a second of being deployed.
"Damn robots! Knew I shouldn't have trusted them with reinstalling the parachutes..." Engie yelled to the concern of everyone. "Oh well, least we got the thrusters to keep slowing us down. Don't worry y'all. If we overshoot Mistral then we can just turn around once we slow down enough." Engie relaxed as best as he can in the pilot's seat. The ship was so much stabler now since they've slowed down dramatically, but a rocking hit the ship again. To everyone's surprise, aerial Grimm were flying directly in the path of the ship. All power went into the thrusters trying to slow them down, so the shields and turrets were offline with the exception of the forward facing guns that were always manually controlled from the pilot's seat.
These Grimm were gathered from the local area by Salem and some for called from further away for good measure, and there just happened to be a lot of them. The Grimm were ordered directly by her to use their own bodies to destroy the ship which had little effect whatsoever as the ship was that fast and tough as balls. That was fine though. Salem was no fool, she carefully evaluates and watches every threat to her, so she knew that something heavier was needed to take down the ship. Fortunately for her, the idea of using the lesser flying Grimm to cover the charging laser of the Sea Dragon that she forced to fly out onto land from Mistral's inland sea just for the occasion of shooting them down. The creature was waiting a way ahead, and patiently waited for its target to come as its charging laser grew more and more powerful with its lesser creatures keeping it hidden until the time was right.
Inside the ship, it was total chaos as everything that wasn't strapped down was bumping and crashing all over the place like goddamn ping pong balls in a tin can. The aerial Grimm were being sliced like butter with the still fast ship going through them like the hot knife, but that did not mean it was a smooth ride at all.
"ENGINEER! DO SOMETHING!" Yang cried, still bumping into everyone and everything like everybody else.
The Texan said nothing as he quickly thought of anyway he could possibly save them. Then, he remembered he carried a teleporter. The teleporter he brought with him just in case they needed to hastily abandon the ship when everything goes wrong, but Engineer decided that he was going to attempt to use it to save the ship as well. Tying himself real good at the pilot's station, he set his teleporter and tried to see if he could link it up with the ship so that it would teleport his baby along with the people inside it. The ship was running low on power as it took so much damage that it was rapidly draining, so he decided there was only one thing to do. With much effort, he got to the container of dust crystals they packed with them just in case they needed it, and went for a white dust crystal. His plan was to return to Earth, anything to get out of this mess.
However, when he got the crystal he needed out, a massive hit rocked the ship as it was struck on the side by the charging laser of the Sea Dragon that was laying in wait, and that hit was enough to knock all the crystals out from the container and onto his teleporter. As for the ship itself, the hit to the side destroyed the engines on one side of the ship and the vessel began to veer far off course, where it had the fortune of decapitating the Sea Dragon as it was not expecting it to go in that direction at all. But for the teleporter, it went absolutely crazy with a multitude of colorful and bright lights coming out from the device. In an instant, all in the ship were blinded from the intensity.
Before anyone or anything even knew it, the ship and everyone inside it disappeared.
The ship found itself crashing like literally against the border of Mann Co. HQ, where it totally surprised Pauling, Heavy's family, and Scout's family as they were there at the time. You see, the reaction of having all those different kinds of dust hit the teleporter at once had a very different effect than that of just white dust touching it. It took everyone everywhere.
Heavy, Pyro, Soldier, and Yang were fortunate enough to be taken somewhere not very far away from where the ship disappeared from. From their location, they can still see the mass of flying Grimm that caused this to happen far in the distance, and they decided to hurry the fuck out of there lest those creatures notice them. There wasn't a lot left since the ship cut through that many of them, but it was still enough to wreck their shit.
"Ow... are you guys alright?" Yang asked them as the party limped away through the forests of Anima. She was a bit bruised but her aura managed to keep her mostly intact through the bouncing everywhere on the ship, but the same cannot be said for the mercenaries. They were alive, but very hurt. In game terms, they would be at anywhere from 1 to 20 health as even with their damage resistance did that crashing fuck them up.
"Heavy is fine..." The Russian clenched his teeth in pain.
"Mphm..." Pyro softly muffled.
"Democracy doesn't feel pain! But I do..." Soldier admitted shamefully. Things had gone horribly. Everyone was divided, no one knew where they were at, nobody knew where each other were, and their main method of getting to Mistral in no time was lost.
"Guys, you have to rest..." Yang begged them, worrying for how badly hurt they were.
"Is fine... we are still strong." Heavy claimed through pained breaths. He tried his best to stop Yang from making him sit down, but the girl was much stronger than him at the moment and she easily forced them all down. They may be far older than her, but Yang's kind, caring, big sister instincts applied to everyone.
"You said you had self-healing or whatever right?" Yang recalled some info they told her when they first returned while they nodded. "Then lay here and heal up." She ordered them, glad to see that cuts and bruises on them were already beginning to slowly go away. Sighing, the girl sat down next to the wounded mercenaries and closed her eyes.
"What do we do now?" She said aloud, not sure what's going to happen from here on out.
Then, not too far away, she heard the distinctive sounds of gunfire and explosions, the sounds of a fight. Snapping her head towards that direction, she immediately came to the conclusion that this may be her only chance to get help. Sure, the worries that it may have been bandits or maybe a village under attack were all present, but on the plus side, that meant that she can just take out all the bandits and use whatever they got to get around, or save the village and also use whatever they used to get around.
"Stay put, I'll be back!" Yang got up and launched herself in the direction of the sounds.
"Wait!" Heavy yelled after her to no avail. Feeling a bit stronger already, the tough mercs got up and limped after her while their healing kept going.
Spy and Scout found themselves in the cold of Atlas. They were very familiar with the cold as that's always the first thing that greets you when you get to this world's most advanced kingdom. From what they could see, they were on top of a large and elaborate building. A mansion, it would seem.
"Ow..." The father and son duo both groaned in pain from the rough ride of the ship. They can do nothing but lay down completely motionless until their self-healing got them to proper shape. That did not stop Spy from looking around, and judging by the kind of airships they had here alongside how cold it was, he knew they were in Atlas.
"Merde..."
Engineer found himself popping into reality close to a rural farming community. He had no idea where he was, but he was definitely sure that he scared the shit out of the kid who was tending the crops he just landed on.
"Howdy son..." Engineer wheezed to Oscar the farm boy before passing out.
"AUNTIE!" Oscar yelled for his aunt, dropping down to his knees to see if Engineer was still alive. Inside his mind, another person was just as surprised as he was at Engineer's sudden appearance. Only difference was that this other person had met Engineer before.
Sniper and Demoman found themselves landing face-flat on the dirt of a crowded street on Menegerie, scaring the Faunus around them with their sudden appearance from thin air. The Sun was still setting, and the lights were already lit, yet people still walked the streets at this time until it got really late. Both men were unable to move from how much pain they were in, but that did not stop them from looking around at the Faunus around them. Immediately, the good people of Menagerie went to help them while the other, more hateful to humanity, citizens scowled at them. To them, Humans don't belong on Menagerie.
As for the people who did help them though, they were dragged to the side of the street and laid to rest against the foundation of a house where they were given water and other aid for their bad condition. A little girl that appeared to be a mouse held up a cup of water for Demoman, but the Scot politely refused.
"Thanks lass... but I prefer if you got me some drink. If you know what I mean..." He gave a weak smile to her. Strangely enough, this girl seemed to understand and immediately went inside the house they were lying against since it was apparently hers anyway, and brought down her father's alcoholic drinks. Well then... Demoman had no problem with this. The lovable Scotsman ended up sharing the bottle with Sniper as their self healing fixed them up, much to the amazement of the people around them with how rapidly it was taking place. As for the father of the girl, he was perfectly okay with sharing with these strangers in need.
"Argh! Where the hell is everyone else?" Sniper said at the realization that none of their other teammates were here. His attention was then shifted on someone pushing their way through the crowd.
"Hey, what's going on-" Sun Wukong trailed off upon catching sight of the two mercenaries. "...here."
Patch
"Aleka! Aleka! Wait!" Glynda called out for the huntress as the party of four chased after her. They had lost the strange men long ago, but Aleka simply would not let up even though the man disappeared as if vanishing into thin air. It would seem that even with the huntsmen's aura, they were beginning to tire out with chasing after Ms. Nikos who showed no signs of fatigue at all. "Oh, for the love of-!" Having enough of this, Glynda stopped her with her semblance. "Aleka! Stop running! We lost them..."
"She's right, dear..." Argus came panting heavily with Taiyang heaving even more heavily by him. "Let it go. We've lost them."
"Husband's got a point you know..." Taiyang wheezed, falling onto one knee and resting his hand against a tree from how tired he was.
"No! They must know something! Why would they attack us like that!?" Aleka screeched.
"Well, that wasn't so much an attack as it was a random group of maniacs screaming at us..." Goodwitch said. "But the men are right, we're not going to find them." The witch of Beacon went up to her fellow woman in an attempt to calm her down.
"Please, dear. We've wasted time chasing them when we could have spent it looking for where those so called professors live." Her husband said. "You're working against yourself here!" He looked deeply into his wife's eyes and waited to see if she would calm down. With much hesitation, she did.
"Fine... I supposed chasing them halfway across the island wasn't that prodcutive..." Aleka reasoned with herself. Then, she heard something. They all heard something far in the distance. The sound of music. It was very faint, faint to the point that it was barely audible, yet it echoed far into the forest. From the sound of it, it was a violin.
"You guys hear that?" Taiyang went.
"Yes... yes I do..." Aleka had already begun walking towards the general direction of the music, leaving the others behind. Shrugging, they followed her.
"Least she's not running this time..." Taiyang muttered out. Aleka payed him no mind as she followed the source of the music, everyone following closely behind her. Considering their strange run in with those screaming men earlier, they kept a look out for them should they come out hollering out of the bush again.
"Do you know of any people who live this far in the woods?" Argus Nikos asked Taiyang who simply shrugged.
"Not that I know of. It might just be some campers enjoying themselves out here..." He suggested, though it wasn't like Aleka was listening. Anything out here was a target for the mystery of where her daughter was to her. Nearby, a group of Spy-Bots were freaking out.
Meanwhile, at the mercenary's fort, Medic popped back into his spot next to Pyrrha. Both were very shocked at his sudden disappearance then reappearance, but Medic went ahead and finished his story to Pyrrah since what happened wasn't something he had in his hands. After doing so, he got out his violin to play some more music to soothe Pyrrha's injured soul. He smiled with content at seeing Pyrrha slowly become more of herself.
However, his music was interrupted when he got a distress call from one of the Spy-Bots sent out to keep people away from the fortress.
"Ja, what is it?"
"Le Allemand! Some people are travelling towards the fort, and we cannot stop them!" The robotic Frenchness of a Spy-Bot came through.
"Have you tried leading them away? False attack even?" Medic suggested.
"Yes! We've done all of that, but they're determined!"
With a hand on his chin, Medic ordered the Spy-Bot to turn on a live feed for him to see these incoming intruders. At first, Medic expected to see some gormless hikers coming through where he would simply give the order to have them tranquilized and taken far from here, but then he caught sight of that woman. Pyrrha managed the strength to pick herself up a bit to see, and she gasped alongside Medic at who were on the screen.
"Mother..." Pyrrha said under her breath, tears welling up in her eyes at the sight of her dear mother. She was told earlier by Medic that Aleka Nikos denied them the right to take her away for treatment, and that's where he revealed that the mercenaries technically kidnapped her. Though this disturbed Pyrrha a bit, she should've expected this from the likes of her good, crazy, professors.
"Yes... zat is indeed your mother..." Medic was sweating in anxiety right now. If Aleka finds the fort and discovers Pyrrha here, then the age old saying of Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned was going to be demonstrated on him. "Zis is very bad... She cannot find zis place!" Medic declared, rushing to get orders out to prepare literally EVERYTHING.
"Professor!" Pyrrha called out to him, struggling to get off of her bed because she's not quite strong enough to walk yet. A Medic-Bot came and kept her in bed since she still needed rest, but she resisted still.
"Oh! Just stay put, Ms. Nikos, while I prepare for Mrs. Nikos..." Medic muttered out in a hurry.
Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Such developments have gone through. Things have certainly gotten severely complicated for the gang. Okay, so anyway, I came to the conclusion that I will make up my own ending solely because this story is not going to last the next four or so years of plot RWBY has left unless a large majority of you legitimately do want to see me take this to the ultimate finale of RWBY. Current plan is that I will follow up on Volume 4's ending and go wherever the fuck from there.
Review Responses:
Pootisol: It's out.
Battle9921: :v
Command8: Well let's see. I mean, he doesn't seem too excited for this meeting...
delta4phoenix: Awesome. And writing an XCOM crossover with RWBY? Das ist nicht gut... for me that is since I haven't played an XCOM game.
Guest: Is this Ramiz?
Madlice in Pyrol: Okay, but you failed to mention what characters to include.
A fan: Bro, get a fanfic account so we can RP whenever you want. I would respond to all of them, but I cannot read them because the ordering is so confusing that I don't know what's happening.
Stryker Mikazuki J: What's weird is that Velvet's my fucking bae and you're not doing shit to stop it. *Cuddles bunny* MINE!
MCZ: Gaben is far more likely. You too mate, get an account if you want to talk to me.
TheLAGGER: I know... and by the way, to those two watching from the hidden camera, I'm gonna rekt u.
(Unknown) OH SHIT, HOW'D HE KNOW!?
(TheLAGGERv.0) I-I don't know! Wait! Maybe he's just trying to dupe us out.
Then, somebody is knocking against the door of the room they are in, knocking very hard.
(chief) KNOCK KNOCK, MOTHERFUCKER! JUSTICE IS HERE!
Michamya: More like a Star Wars homage. I also did not here of the Valve team talking about TF2, and I already set up a Discord channel which is just my Fanfiction account name. And may Gabe bless thee too.
A New Challenger: Eh, I'll work something out. And don't worry about Breadzilla...
heyoboy: Done.
An Peepul: Okay... but by canon ending, do you mean at the end of the series or the end of Volume 4?
