Copyright disclaimer: RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth, The Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo, Pokemon belongs to Game Freak, any other franchises mentioned or included in this work belong to their respective owners (not me). All I own are my OC's (Aris, Perci, Raylo, Takashi, and Loretta), the cover (made it myself via Google Slides), and this story itself.

Yang, Weiss, and team AWLT all sat cross-legged on cushions around a low table. Raven sat across from them as Vernal took a teapot and poured the hot herbal beverage into the teacups that had been set out. No one spoke a word; the only audible sounds were the pouring of tea and the light breeze outside.

"You can wait outside," Raven said to Vernal after she'd finished pouring tea into everyone's cups. "Thanks."

Vernal set down the teapot and exited the tent.

"So," said Yang once Vernal was out of earshot. "What's the truth?"

Raven sipped her tea, ignoring her daughter. "Y'know, it's better when it's hot."

Lucina narrowed her eyes at Raven. "You know, you're starting to get on my nerves."

"Preach," Weiss said quietly.

Raven ignored Lucina. "The truth," she said, "is that 'truth' is really hard to come by. A story of victory for one person might be a tale of defeat for another. By now, I imagine Qrow has told Ruby and her friends plenty of stories."

"Well, he's never given me a reason to doubt him before," said Yang.

"Doesn't necessarily mean those reasons don't exist," Raven replied. "Y'know, team RWBY, and team AMPR, might as well be the poster children for the Huntsman academies. Your motives vary, but you all enrolled with the desire to make the world a better place. Adorable, really."

"It's what Huntsmen and Huntresses do," said Raylo.

"Not all of them," said Raven. "Some are just in it for money and fame, but there's even more who are just looking to grow stronger. Your uncle Qrow and I didn't attend Beacon to become Huntsmen, we did it to learn how to kill Huntsmen."

Yang and Weiss quietly gasped. Lucina's hand drifted towards the hilt of her Parallel Falchion.

"Daddy and uncle left out that part, huh?" said Raven. She leaned forward and poured more tea into her cup. "Aside from the Grimm, Huntsmen and Huntresses were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counterforce." She took a sip. "Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child's play in comparison to our past experiences. We were good. So good, that we caught the attention of Beacon's very own headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping a close eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew, but it was all of team STRQ that he was interested in." Raven got up and began pacing in small circles.

"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked.

"Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should've. Deja vu, anyone?"

Yang, Weiss, Aris, Raylo, and Takashi exchanged a look.

"What're you on about?" Aris asked.

Raven answered the Hylian's query with a query of her own. "How much do you know about Ozpin? About his past?"

"He was a prodigy, if I remember correctly," Weiss answered. "One of the youngest headmasters to be appointed to a school."

"That's exactly how he planned it," Raven explained. "Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers within every academy on Remnant. They're loyal to him, and no one else."

"That doesn't make any sense," says Takashi. "How-wait, no. Why would someone even do that?"

"Because Ozzy boy has a great and terrible secret," Raven answered. "A secret that could spark fear all across Remnant. One that he eventually entrusted to team STRQ, and once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but with every new discovery I made, the world became all the more horrifying."

"Okay," said Yang. "What's this big secret of his, then?"

Raven sighed. "The creatures of Grimm...have a master by the name of Salem. She can't be stopped, can't and won't listen to reason, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet."

"...What?" said Weiss.

"You know, you kids haven't even touched your tea," Raven said, ignoring Weiss.

As Raven sipped her drink, Yang got up. "Why should we believe any of this?" she asked.

"Now you're catching on," said Raven. "So far you've done nothing but accept what others tell you. But you need to learn to question everything. Otherwise you'll end up just as blind as Qrow...and your fool of a father."

Yang raised her arm and smashed the table, wood and porcelain flying everywhere. "Don't you dare talk about my family like that!" she exclaimed, her once-purple eyes now shining scarlet.

Behind her, Vernal reentered the tent, pointing some sort of bladed wrist-gun at Yang. "You need to chill out."

"Please." Weiss grabbed Yang's hand.

"Listen to your friend, Yang," said Raven. "Your teammates have never let you down before, right?"

"You don't know the first thing about my teammates!" Yang snapped. "About me! You were never there! You left us!" Yang lowered her head, her voice quieting down. "Why?"

"I know more than you realize," Raven responded. "Not just about you, and not just about what I've been told, but things I've seen with my own damn eyes. I know the Grimm have a leader, I know people who can come back from the dead, I know that magic is real, and not just in other universes, which I also know about. Magic exists in Remnant, and I can prove it."

Weiss got to her feet, as did team AWLT.

"You said Tai told you about my Semblance," Raven said. She began walking towards a back door in the tent. "But I doubt he ever told you what Oz did to my brother and me." Raven exited the tent.

Everyone exchanged glances. "Go see for yourself," said Vernal.

Yang, Weiss, and team AWLT went out of the tent through the back door.

Raven wasn't there. It was as if she'd completely disappeared. "Mom?" Yang called.

Raylo looked at Yang, worried. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I will be once I can get her to take us to Ruby," Yang answered.

"It's okay if...you're not okay," Weiss assured her.

"You didn't believe what she said, right?" Yang asked.

"I-no, of course not," Weiss answered. "Well, I didn't believe all of it. It was really crazy. We have Dust, Semblances, Aura, but there's no such thing as magic, at least, not in this universe. I know it exists in Aris's world, and maybe a few others that might exist, but definitely not here."

From the skies above, a bird cawed. Overhead, a black bird the size of a red-tailed hawk flew.

"That was a raven," said Lucina.

"Wait..." Aris slapped a palm to his forehead. "I think I know what she was talking about."

"I know I've seen that bird before somewhere," said Yang.

"Maybe it belongs to your mom?" Weiss suggested.

The raven circled above the group before diving down towards them. It flew behind a few trees, and it emerged in the form of Raven Branwen. The bandit leader landed on the ground in front of the party with a graceful bend of her knees.

"How..." Yang was bewildered. "How did you do that?"

"Well," Raven answered, "I could explain it to you."

She drew her sword. On instinct, Lucina unsheathed her Parallel Falchion.

Instead of attacking, Raven swung the sword vertically beside her. A swirling red portal appeared. "Or, you could ask your uncle."

"Wait a minute," said Takashi. "You're letting us go?"

"You, yes," said Raven. "Same goes for blonde elf boy, ginger, and blue-hair. And Weiss." Raven turned to Yang. "But, I'm giving you a choice here. You can stay here with me, and I'll answer all your questions and more. We can start fresh. Or, you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's impossible war against Salem, and meet the same fate as so many others. But can you really go back to trusting someone who's kept so much hidden from you?"

Everyone glanced worriedly at Yang.

"All I care about is making sure that my sister is safe," said the blonde brawler.

Raven scoffed.

Yang hopped onto her motorcycle, revving the engine and driving slowly towards the portal as Weiss and team AWLT walked behind her.

"Yang."

Yang stopped her bike at the sound of Raven's voice.

"If you all side with your uncle," said Raven, "then I won't be so friendly the next time we meet."

Yang sighed. "You weren't very nice this time."

She drove her bike slowly through the portal as Weiss and team AWLT followed behind her.

On a balcony in Mistral, Qrow Branwen stood, pondering. "This isn't right," he said. "I get one or two of them, but every single one?"

Some sort of portal, swirling crimson, opened behind him. "Raven?"

It wasn't her. A familiar teenage girl with blonde hair and a prosthetic right arm emerged, riding slowly through on a motorcycle. Following behind her on foot were a familiar Schnee heiress, a young man in a black leather trench coat and a masquerade mask, a ginger-haired boy with a long, thin braid, and a pointy-eared blonde boy with a sword on his back and a strange-looking prosthesis for a left arm.

"Oh," said the younger Branwen twin.

Inside the house, carrots were being chopped, a table was being prepared with a bowl and some chopsticks set for everyone to eat.

"Alright," said Lie Ren as he stirred some piping hot food in a large pot. "First batch is complete."

"Awesome!" chirped the cheerful Ruby Rose next to him. "Now we just need Qrow and we're all set."

"Do you really think he's gonna bring that many people?" Nora asked as she chopped another carrot. "This is a lot of food." She popped a small slice into her mouth.

"Don't know," said Ruby. "But it sounds like we'll need all the help we can get."

A familiar gruff voice from the living room. "I'm back!"

Meanwhile...

Aris and team AWLT stood outside the open front door, waiting to surprise Ruby and whoever else was present here in this home in Mistral. He peeked through the doorway, watching.

None other than Ruby Rose walked out from the kitchen, carrying a tea set on a wooden tray. "So, we didn't know how many people were coming," she said to Qrow, "so we just cooked all of it off."

She gasped. The tea set fell from her hands, porcelain shattering on the floor. Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee stood before her.

Yang slowly took a few steps toward her sister.

"Yang," said Ruby, "I-I'm so sorry! I-I should've stayed, and I should've kept in contact with you more! I...I just...I wasn't sure if you wanted me around and-"

BGM: Family - Super Mario Galaxy

Yang walked over and embraced her sister. Ruby stopped talking. "I love you," said Yang.

Ruby sniffled. Tears began to flow from her eyes as she returned her sister's hug. "I love you too..."

From the kitchen, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren entered the living room. Someone else, a stranger of a young boy with sun-kissed skin and avocado green eyes entered the living room as well. Weiss wiped a tear away from her face.

"Weiss," Ruby called. She and Yang stood arm in arm, inviting Weiss into an embrace.

A blissful smile forming on her face, Weiss ran into the arms of her teammates. "I missed you guys..."

End BGM

After RWY broke from their hug, Weiss winked at Aris, who still stood outside the open front door. She turned to Ruby. "We aren't alone, you know."

On that note, Aris led team AWLT into the house. Ruby gasped, her grin growing from ear to ear. "You guys!" she exclaimed happily.

Aris, Takashi, and Raylo welcomed Ruby into a group hug. After pulling away, Aris smirked. "That's right, we're here. And I guess you could say we're..." Aris lifted his Sheikah prosthesis, "...armed and ready!"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I guess some things just never change."

"Oh, changes have happened," said Takashi, gesturing to Lucina. "One of them is right here."

Ruby looked at Lucina. "Hi."

Lucina bowed her head. "Greetings, Ruby Rose."

From there, everyone exchanged warm reunion hugs, Lucina introduced herself to everyone in the group, and dinner was beginning to be served.