The others probably didn't realise it but Yang could hear everything that was happening while she was retrieving the letter. She realised that showing the letter to everyone didn't really have anything to do with how Blake had reacted, and since she could rightfully place all the blame on Cinders group somehow, she no longer needed to show them.
But that didn't stop her. She'd decided she was going to reveal the letter, so she was going to do it.
But as she was about to open the door she paused, not out of hesitation, but because she wasn't sure how to reveal it to the others. Should she pretend she just got it? No, that wouldn't work with how she purposely went to retrieve it. She could say she wasn't allowed to show it to them until they'd watched up to this point, but she doubted they'd all believe that, and they may draw some wrong conclusions about their host.
She could hear Blake walking towards the door from the other side, so she had to make a decision quick or instead this wouldn't be happening because of her resolve.
Seeing no other option, Yang settles on being completely honest and opens the door.
Blake actually jumps a bit, startled by the door opening. In most any other situation Yang would laugh, but she has something she must do.
She holds up her right hand, showing the envelope to everyone. "I need to show you something."
"Yang." Blake ignores this as she needs to apologise. "I'm so sorry about how I acted, I-I promise it won't happen again."
Yang smiles. She would have interrupted, saying it wasn't necessary, but she just got a since of comfort in hearing Blake say she wouldn't distance herself from them. "It's fine, I understand it was just the heat of the moment."
"What is that?" Weiss asks, looking at the envelope. Something about this just annoys her, Yang has something to show them and she chooses now of all times. Has she been hiding something? That doesn't sound like Yang, but it's hard to imagine anything else right now.
"This is… something I found on the floor of my training room a while back." Yang explains. "I was going to show it to you all before but… it just never seemed like the right time."
"How long ago?" Weiss marches right up to Yang and practically snatches it from her hands.
Yang winces. "Around the start of Volume 2."
Weiss glares at Yang. There's been plenty of opportunities since then, she should have known better than to wait this long.
"What does it say?" Ruby asks. She and the rest are still in their seats so they don't have a good view.
"You never received this in the future, so take it now as a gift. Some parts have been censored for various reasons." Weiss reads the envelope itself, then takes out the letter inside. "Plus there seems to be a lot of writing inside. I suppose I'll read it out for everyone." She walks over so she's standing in front of the screen, gesturing for Yang and Blake to go back to their seats.
"So it's a letter sent in the future?" Ren asks. "One Yang doesn't receive for some reason?"
"From what I can tell." Yang answers meekly, feeling ashamed after the telling of Weiss gave her. "And maybe it would be best if someone else read it out, because of…" She trails off at the end.
"What are you talking abou… ohh." Weiss reads the first sentence and it becomes clear. "Ruby, you're up."
"Me?" Ruby questions.
"It seems appropriate since you're the one who wrote it." Weiss says, taking back her seat as she hands Ruby the letter.
"I- I don't understand." Ruby says.
"It's a letter from future Ruby that apparently I never received." Yang explains.
"Err… okay." Ruby's blown away by the surreality of the situation, but even still she stands up and faces her audience.
"Hey sis, I hope my letters have been reaching you and BLANK." Ruby reads
"Who the heck is Blank?" Sun asks.
"I can't read that part, it's covered up." Ruby explains.
"That's the censoring." Yang explains. "I'm pretty sure it hides some really important information, but it's pretty much impossible to figure out just based on context."
"So do you have any idea who that part is referring to?" Jaune asks.
"I have some guesses." Yang replies. "Our dad, Qrow, Weiss, Blake. Those seem like the most obvious. But given later parts I'm leaning more towards it being our dad."
Ruby continues. "Hand-written stuff's never been super reliable, but BLANKBLANKBLANKBLANKBLANK."
"Seriously?" Oscar says.
"There was a very big censored part, what else am I meant to do?" Ruby says.
"So there's a reason you don't send it by Scroll but that part's censored." Ren deduces. "Any clue what the reason could be?"
"I wasn't sure at first." Yang says. "But since we saw Cinder upload the Virus I've become confident it's because Ruby didn't what it being intercepted."
"In other words we eventually find out about Cinder and her actions." Pyrrha says. "But then why haven't we requested the system be rebooted? I'm sure Ironwood could make it happen if we just explained it to him."
"Anyway, in case you haven't been getting them, I want to say I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. I know you told me it was a reckless idea, and after everything I've been through, I can definitely say you were right." Ruby reads. "Wait, so I leave for some reason?" The idea of this doesn't sit right for her, why would she leave Yang behind?
"I'm guessing it's part of a mission for Ozpin." Yang explains. "One I apparently wanted no part in."
"That doesn't add up." Jaune says. "I mean… I get you not wanting to work for Ozpin, but if Ruby's going…."
"I know right!" Yang agrees. "That's the one part I don't get. I would definitely help Ruby on a mission, especially one as dangerous as this sounds."
"Every step we made took us further and further from the things we knew. And every morning we woke up wondering, if just over the next hill would be something good or something terrible." Ruby flinches at her own words. How could she ever write something like that? She's always tried to make sure her optimism comes through her writing, but this doesn't have any of that. It sounds broken and tired, like she just wants it to be over with.
Weiss looks at Ruby and feels her hurt, perhaps having her read it wasn't the best idea. But worse than that, they may get to see how her words turn so bleak. If Ruby's uncomfortable now, how will she react if she actually sees it?
"It's scary not knowing what's going to happen next. And the things we do know now, just how bad it can get, it almost makes it all worse. We've all lost something, and I've seen what loss can do to people."
Everyone in the room is feeling it again. The crushing dread that something horrible is about to happen. They've heard the warnings before, they already knew it would coming. But before they could imagine it being exaggerated. They had no real point of reference for what the Host considers a catastrophe.
But this is Ruby, the one person who never makes a situation sound worse than it is.
"But if we gave up every time we lost, then we'd never be able to move forward. We'd never have a chance to see what beautiful things the future might have waiting for us. We'd never have the strength to change, whether it's ourselves, or the world around us." Ruby breathes a sigh of relief at this. It finally sounds like her voice again.
Everyone else reacts the same way. A moment of collective relaxation you can identify just by the sound of it.
Yang has a small but forced chuckle at this. "Yeah, I felt the same way."
"And we'd never be there for other people who might one day be lost without us. This is what we were training for, Yang, to become Huntresses, to be the ones to stand up and do something about all the bad in the world. Because there are plenty of people out there who are still lost and even more who will try to gain everything they can from their sorrow."
Blake finds herself agreeing with this. In a way, the Black Fang Adam's been spearheading is a collection of people trying to gain from their sorrows, people who have lost their way. These kind of people stopped caring about what they think is best, instead focusing on what feels right. But for people who have been hurt their entire lives, that just means trying to pass it on to someone else.
"Believe me when I say, I know it can feel impossible, like every single day is a struggle against some unstoppable monster we can never hope to beat. But we have to try, if not for us, then for the people BLANKBLANK we haven't… lost… yet." Ruby practically chokes up on this, just thinking about the implications. Does this mean that they actually lose someone? Surely not. Some of it was covered. Whatever was missing must put everything into context. Right?
"This is the main reason I didn't want to show it to everyone." Yang says. "It's sorta hard to tell, but the fact that it implies that… 'you know what' might happen just seems… I just didn't want to worry you all over what might be nothing."
Hearing this, Weiss starts to understand. These people, along with Winter, are the most important to her in the world. If she was told that one of them would die, and that nothing they could do would change it, she doubts she'd be able to tell them. The situation isn't completely comparable but she can at least understand it.
"Are you sure there was a censored part?" Ren asks. "The sentence seems to make sense even without it."
"I-it's there." Ruby murmurs.
No one else speaks, they don't really know what to say about this. So, Ruby continues.
"I miss you so much. BLANK SENTENCE. But I think you'd all be proud to know that I made it to BLANK. BLANKBLANKBLANK, and we even ran into BLANK along the way."
"This seems to be getting harder and harder to get anything out of." Blake says.
"It just means that the information is becoming more and more important." Weiss says. "What I'm interested in is where you're going, who with, and who you met."
"I've got no idea where it is that they're going." Yang admits. "But I'm guessing I was the only member of RWBY left out, and that Qrow's they one you all meet up with."
"I'll note the possibility." Ren says. "But we can't assume anything."
"He's going to take us to see BLANKBLANK, the BLANKBLANKBLANK. And he told us some things that you're gonna wanna hear, things I can't trust will make it to you in this letter."
"Definitely some heavily classified information." Sun says. "I mean, you're going out of your way to write a letter but still omit stuff. You think Ruby ends up learning about the Maidens?"
"I certainly hope so." Pyrrha says. "It'll be weird seeing everyone calm when we know what might be at stake. Though I guess that's not a worry with how the last one ended."
"But maybe, if you join us, he could tell you himself. With BLANKBLANKBLANKBLANKBLANKBLANKBLANK, and I know you need to focus on yourself before I can expect you to come out with me. But it sure would be great to BLANKBLANKBLANKBLANK."
"We seem to be getting just glimpses of the situation without any of the context." Jaune says. "What do you think you're up to Yang?"
"Probably dealing with the aftermath of injuring Mercury." Yang answers. "I'd like to think that's not enough to stop me from going with Ruby, but the alternative is that something even worse happens."
'That's all but inevitable at this point.' Oscar thinks. He want's this to be over more than anyone, but even he knows that what's happened isn't enough to count as a 'catastrophe'.
"Until next time, your loving sister, Ruby Rose.
Oh! Uh, PS. I'll be sure to give you the address of where we're staying in BLANK! I'd love to hear back from you BLANK, and I can't wait to fill you in on whatever's going to happen next! Now that we've made it BLANK, I really think things are gonna start going our way."
"Ending it on a positive note. That certainly sounds like Ruby." Blake says.
"I mean… yeah." Ruby agrees.
"So… what does this mean?" Nora asks.
"Ruby goes on a journey with some people, Yang chooses not to come because of personal reasons, bad things happen before this, but Ruby eventually reaches her destination." Ren summarises. "The censoring takes away too much for us to properly come to any conclusions, and with what we've learned about the Maidens, it's not impossible that something completely unexpected would put everything in a different light."
"I think there's a more pressing issue then that." Weiss says. "Before we concluded that this would be the final Volume, but now I think we can safely say that isn't the case."
"That's… a bad thing. Right?" Oscar asks. "If what Ruby wrote about isn't the catastrophe then…"
"We can't be sure of that." Blake says. "We were only told that the videos would be useful to avert the catastrophe. The was no indication that it would happen at the end. Rather, knowing how it was potentially fixed could help us avert it."
"I guess that makes sense." Sun agrees.
'That's still not a guarantee.' Ren thinks. 'Ruby's letter indicated that things could still go badly. We can't let our guard down even if we think it's over. That's what got us into this mess.' He remembers how team RWBY was acting at the end of Volume 2.
"Can we stop now?" Pyrrha asks. "I just… I have a lot to come to terms with."
"S-sure." Ruby agrees. "We know this must be a lot for you to take in, what with last episode and all. I think we could all do with a break."
"Before that, we have a World of Remnant to Watch." Ren points out. "I don't expect it to contain much, but it's probably best for us to get it over with."
"Ghhhh. Fine!" Weiss grumbles. "At least it shouldn't take long."
Volume 3: World of Remnant 3: Cross Continental Transmit System
"Seems like an interesting topic." Sun says. "Think it'll become relevant."
"None of the others have." Weiss gripes.
"It's probably just to explain how it works." Blake says. "Like how we apparently needed an explanation on what Aura is."
"Throughout the years, the world of Remnant has seen hundreds of technological advances that changed society, the most influential out of all of them, being the Cross Continental Transmit System." Ozpin narrates.
'Certainly undeniable.' Yang thinks. 'People in other Kingdoms went from being strangers and potential enemies, to potential friends who could share interests.' That's how it'd been explained to her at least.
"Prior to the invention of the CCTS, long range communication was extremely limited. The discovery and development of radio technology allowed for communication within the boundaries of most Kingdoms. But communication with other parts of the world was restricted to the physical delivery of messengers." Radio communication between Vale and Patch is shown, but between Vale and Vacuo a travel route has to be used instead.
'Letters are a thing of the past in any sufficiently populated area.' Pyrrha thinks. 'Which makes Ruby's letter all the more suspicious. What circumstance could lead her to thinking it was the better option?'
"With every alternative form of communication that was proposed, there seemed to be the perfect obstacle." A postman walks down the travel route, but is intercepted by a Beowolf.
"The destructive nature of the creatures of Grimm severely limited the reliability of ground-based technologies." A pack of Beowolves assault and destroy a cargo train.
"The Grimm just have to ruin everything, don't they?" Ruby complains.
"Sorta makes you wonder what life would be like without them." Nora says. "Better, for starters."
"Can you believe there are actually some people who disagree with that." Jaune chuckles at the idea. "I mean, I get some of their arguments, but none of it could ever compare to how much damage the Grimm do."
Nora nods her head frantically.
"The concept of relay satellites orbiting around the planet was promising. Unfortunately, modern man has yet to make the technological advancements to achieve spaceflight, as all known Dust types lose their power as they begin to leave Remnant's atmosphere." A Spaceship ascends to great heights, but loses power once it reaches a certain point.
"That's another big mystery about Dust." Blake says. "I doubt we'll find an answer, but we also didn't expect to learn about Maidens so…"
"I actually heard they figured out a way to make artificial satellites without the need for Dust usage." Weiss recalls. "Although, it would still need Dust to get into orbit, but a few scientists claim they can use the momentum from the launch to make it fly forever."
"That sounds like it might have been useful in the past." Sun says. "But right now it's sorta redundant."
"Eventually, it was the people of Atlas, the world's leader in science and technology, which developed the Cross Continental Transmit system." On the Remnant map, a great tower ascends from Atlas.
"And the people of Atlas have never let us forget it." Nora moans.
"We're not that bad." Weiss complains.
"You sorta are." Ruby whispers, hoping Weiss doesn't actually hear her.
"It was revolutionary. Like radio, signals were sent and received wirelessly, though the contents of these transmissions were not nearly as limited. Audio, video, images and text were all capable of transmission. Eventually, an entire online web of information was at mankind's fingertips." Another tower appears at Haven, so the two towers have various data sent between them.
"Anyone else remember that disaster movie where all Dust stopped working." Jaune asks. "All anyone ever did was complain about losing access to the web."
"I assure you, if that ever did happen, the web would be the least of our concerns." Weiss says.
"Y-yeah." Jaune shudders at the thought of the Grimm attacks. That's one aspect the movies always end up ignoring.
"Currently, the system is supported by four primary relay towers, each located within a safeguarded area of the kingdoms. These towers allow for wireless communication within a Kingdom through the use of devices such as Scrolls. The signals become less reliable the farther a user travels from the CCT Tower." Towers appear at Vale and Vacuo, each tower lighting up the area around them.
"Do some places still not have good connection?" Ruby asks.
Nora tilts her head. "Have you ever even left Vale?"
"I-I mean." Ruby stutters. "I've been to Mountain Glenn."
"That doesn't count." Sun says. "Seriously, you're sounding sorta sheltered right now."
'I was almost going to ask the exact same question as Ruby.' Weiss thinks, very glad that she didn't.
"And although smaller support towers do exist outside of Kingdoms, they are constantly at risk of destruction by the creatures of Grimm." Relay tower appear but some are destroyed by Beowolf claws.
Everyone groans. It's as if the Grimm just exist to ruin everything. They'd be more surprised if that wasn't the case.
"Shortcomings aside, for the first time in history, digital transmissions between Kingdoms were possible through the use of slightly more advanced devices, typically found in homes and CCT centres." An artful version of when Weiss used the CCT centre is shown.
Weiss rolls her eyes. 'There goes any hope this video could be used as an informative aid for kids.'
"The Cross Continental Transmit System has, and will continue to advance the progression of mankind. However, if one of the four towers is taken offline, the entire network falls with it, a slight inconvenience during routine maintenance." The tower at Vacuo short-circuits, so the other towers each cease to function.
"Seriously?" Oscar asks. "Why?"
"It's one of the trade offs that came with getting such a reliable signal between towers." Weiss explains. "Nowadays it could be fixed with a few months of planning, but Vacuo has been extremely against this idea, fearing getting cut of from the rest of the world."
"I think I remember one of those rally's." Sun says. "Though riot would better describe it."
"But to be honest, I find the limitations somewhat poetic. No one voice is louder than the others, and no voice may be silent without the rest. If the people of Remnant are to speak, then they shall do so together..." The screen fades to black.
"That's actually quite nice." Ruby says.
"...or not at all."
"Foreshadowing?" Yang wonders.
"I wouldn't count on it." Weiss says. "All the bonus videos end on an ominous note. It's probably just trying to set the tone."
With that, they decide to end the viewing for now. Some decide to stay, while others leave to mull things over.
The one thing they all know though, is that the videos going forwards will have a completely different tone.
It's not one any of them are looking forwards to.