Chp. 34: The Black Queen On Earth
Earth
Harrison, Arkansas, USA
Outskirt Home
Outside the town of Harrison, a Mexican family of three were walking up to a large three story home with a swimming pool in the back of the house which was in the middle of a grassy lawn surrounded by a forest.
"Now that we're here, what do we do now?" the daughter asked.
"Now we get settled. Our friends have already set up our new electronics and they said the passwords for our computers and wifi are on the counter, along with our new credit cards and PIN codes," the mother explained.
"It wasn't easy sneaking past the U.S./Mexican border, but it will all be worth it once we settle," the father said.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed before them. When the light died away, they find Salem, Cinder, Tyrian, Watts, Hazel, Adam, Emerald, and Mercury all on the ground. The family approached the group of Remnans.
"What just happened? And who are these people?" the mother asked.
"Hey, aren't these people dressed up as-" before the daughter could finish her sentence, Adam sprung up from the ground.
The bull Faunus drew his sword and slashed at all three family members at once, killing them instantly. Adam sheathed Wilt back into Blush as the others started to get up from the ground and brush themselves off.
"Where are we?" Mercury asked.
"I'm not sure," Salem answered.
"Perhaps we should look around and maybe we can get some clues," Watts said.
Emerald and Mercury knelt down at the dead bodies and started to search through their pockets.
"Did you really have to kill them?" Hazel asked Adam with a disappointed look.
"These pathetic humans could have gone to the authorities and have us on the run," Adam answered.
"So what happened and how are we here?" Tyrian asked.
"It may appear that Cinder's blunder may have helped us discover the secret to this new Dust and the result was that it sent us here," Watts explained, looking at a Dust crystal in his hand.
"Wherever 'here' is," Cinder said.
"I found a set of keys and a wallet," Mercury said. "What did you find, Emerald?"
Emerald didn't speak and her eyes were widened in shock as she held something in her hands.
"Emerald?" Mercury asked.
Mercury approached Emerald to see what she has and grew a surprised look on his face upon seeing what Emerald has in her hands.
"What are you two looking at?" Cinder asked as she approached her two subordinates.
She grabbed the object from Emerald's hands and looked at it. Cinder gained a surprised look on her face upon looking at the object. It was a small keychain which featured Ruby Rose.
"What is this?" Cinder asked.
"Do you think people are creating merchandise for Ruby and her friends? They already did so with Pyrrha way before she came to Beacon," Mercury said.
"If they are, the products would have been made much later on," Hazel said.
"We better see what's inside that house. It could help give us answers," Watts said.
Everyone walks up to the front door. Mercury unlocks the door with one of the keys he looted from the family as everyone then stepped inside. They all split off to search the house.
Mercury walks into the kitchen to find some food. He walks up to the refrigerator and opens it to look inside. He closes it after taking a brief look and walks toward the pantry. Mercury the door and sees a lot of stored food inside. He then started to look through the canned food.
"Beans. Beans. Beans. Chili. Beans. Carrots. What a surprise, more beans," Mercury said as he looked through each can.
Watts and Tyrian walked into the garage and saw a lot of tools and some building supplies inside. Watts walked up to the work table and noticed a couple large bags of cocaine.
"It seems this family may be in a shady business," Watts said as he grabbed the bags and dropped them in a nearby trash can. "No use for this stuff."
"Too bad their business fell before it began," Tyrian said with a laugh.
Cinder walks into an office and sees a desk with three laptops, three iPhones, an iPad, three credit cards, and a sticky note on each of the items. She turned head and noticed a large map of Earth taped to the wall next to a bookshelf filled with books.
"What is this?" she asked herself.
Adam and Hazel walked out to the balcony facing the swimming pool down below. Hazel turned to the outdoor table and saw a plastic bag filled with cocaine. Hazel shook his head in disappointment before grabbing the bag and walked inside to throw the bag away.
Salem walks into the master bedroom and sees a bag on the bed. She walks up to it and opens the bag and finds it filled with stakes of green paper. Salem turns and walks into the master bathroom. She looked and saw a large bathtub and had a small smile, knowing that there was a place in the house where she could relieve some stress. She turned her head and saw a plastic bag full of cocaine.
"The things people will do to make a fool of themselves," she said.
Emerald wanders through the living room looking for anything of value. She noticed a note in front of a flat screen television and read it.
"TV is hooked up to Apple tv. Your favorite movies and shows are on here."
Emerald picked up the remote and sat down on the couch. She turned on the TV to see what was on. Emerald looked through many shows and movies, all of which she had never seen or heard of before. She was confused on why she was not familiar with anything displayed on the TV. Everyone else gathered down into the living room.
"Anyone find anything of any use? Anything other than cocaine?" Salem asked.
"I found an office with electronics and some books that may help us with finding some information," Cinder answered. "And I found this."
Cinder pulls out the map of Earth she found in the office and presents it to everyone.
"What is this?" Adam asked.
Watts leaned in closer to the map with his hand to his chin.
"I may have a theory. The Dust that we have taken may have sent us to another world. And this world may be where those unknown militaries have come fromIncluding those new students Ozpin let attend," he explained.
"But That doesn't explain how they knew about our plans to begin with," Hazel said.
As Emerald listened in to the conversation while streaming through the TV, she scrolled down to something that made her widen her eyes in full attention.
"Uh... Cinder? You need to look at this," she called.
"What is it? And why are you watching on the television?" Cinder asked in an annoyed tone.
"But Cinder, you really, really need to look at this," Emerald insisted.
Cinder looked at the television and then gained a shocked look on her face.
"Ma'am, look what's on the TV," Cinder said to Salem.
Salem and the rest of the group looked at the TV and gained surprised and shocked looks on their faces. On the screen was the icon for RWBY Volume 1.
"Does Team RWBY have their own show?" Mercury asked.
"There are also six other volumes following this one," Emerald said.
"Perhaps we should take a look at this show," Salem said.
Emerald turned on RWBY Volume 1 as everyone sat down and began to watch the show.
May 31, 2020
It was now morning the next day as everyone had watched RWBY Volumes 1-7 for the rest of the day yesterday and throughout last night. As they just finished watching all seven volumes, their reactions were mixed.
Cinder was furious that she failed to get the powers of the Spring and Winter Maidens. Although she was satisfied that she had the second half of the Fall Maiden powers in the show, she was more upset that she did not in real life.
Tyrian was angered that Ruby cut off his stinger and had to get a prosthetic tail from Watts. He did enjoy the carnage he helped unleashed in Volume 7, especially when he killed Clover and framed Qrow for his murder.
Watts was dumbfounded by the fact that the show had predicted their original future. He enjoyed watching all off Cinder's failures and smiled at Salem's arrival in Atlas and that General Ironwood had turned on Ozpin and his allies due to his paranoia getting the better of him, along with his constantly active semblance, Mettle, making him strengthening his resolve to carry out his decisions to protect Atlas without seeing reasoning from Ozpin and Team RWBY.
Hazel was unsure on what to think of this. However, he was angry that Ozpin had reincarnated into Oscar's body after his death at the end of Volume 3.
Mercury and Emerald couldn't believe that there was a show that predicted their future. Emerald felt worried for Cinder while Mercury couldn't care less about Cinder, knowing that she never cared about them to begin with.
Salem was angered that Cinder failed to get the Relic of Knowledge and tried to go against her orders, but felt a bit of satisfaction that she now knows the password for the Lamp. She smiled at General Ironwood's paranoia getting the better of him and at her arrival in Atlas as she stood on top of the whale Grimm, Monstra. She was a bit concerned that everyone now knows that she was once married to Ozpin, or Ozma as he was known back then, and had four daughters, but brushed it all aside for now.
Adam was surprisingly silent the entire time. He was silent that Ilia betrayed the White Fang and joined Blake and her parents, how he and the White Fang failed to destroy Haven Academy, how the White Fang turned on him after he retreated, he was even silent after watching his own death by the hands of Blake and Yang at the end of Volume 6.
"I can't believe this. To this world, we're nothing but a show to them?!" Mercury asked.
"I find this both unbelievable and highly confusing," Watts said.
"Volumes 1, 2, and half of 3 have already happened before those idiots from this world came and ruined everything," Cinder growled.
"And the rest of it is what would have happened if they hadn't. This explains how they knew of our plans to begin with," Hazel said.
"And now our enemies have taken extra precautions to counter any future plans we could come up with," Watts added.
Adam stood up from his chair and walked outside into the balcony. After a brief pause, he unsheathed his sword and with a furious yell, cut through two chairs and sliced a table in half. He then tosses another char over the balcony and into the pool and chops up the last chair. through all the furniture on the balcony.
"Everything I've tried to do for the Faunus was all for NOTHING!" he screamed. "WHY?! WHY DO YOU HURT ME, BLAKE?!"
After taking a few breaths, Adam walked back inside as everyone had watched his meltdown. After a moment of silence, Salem finally spoke.
"They believe that they can hide this secret forever and believe they have the superior advantage. But they haven't prepared for when we would find this world."
"What should we do now, my lady?" Tyrian asked.
"Find everything you can about this world. It cultures, its technological advances, its history, how it thrives, everything," Salem instructed to everyone. "And Cinder?"
Cinder faced Salem who was frowning at her. Her wide left sleeve suddenly hissed and emit smoke as she grunted and cried out in pain, trying to hold the writhing sleeve. Salem stretched out her arm and grabbed Cinder by the neck and pulled her close, while slightly choking her.
"Do not think you can go around what I have specifically ordered. If you go against my orders for your own pitiful desires, I will make certain you will not ever have the power you seek. Do I make myself clear?" Salem asked with an intense glare.
Without saying a word, Cinder nods in response. Salem drops Cinder to the floor as the pain within her sleeve stopped. She began coughing and breathing heavily. Emerald rushed to Cinder side to help her up, but she reeled her arm back and slowly stood back up.
"Ma'am, about what we saw on this show. Did you really have kids with Ozpin?" Hazel asked.
Salem was silent and everyone else felt concerned for Hazel's safety. But to their surprise, Salem walked up the stairs and into the hall where she was now out of sight. Everyone then thought to not bring up her daughters again in case she does do something to them.
Throughout the day everyone uses laptops and iPhones to look up as much as they can about the planet known as Earth.
Watts looked up all the technology that Earth has made. He grew more and more intrigued and obsessed when he discovered that Earth has made many achievements that Remnant hasn't despite being technologically behind, such as achieving space flight, creating satellites, using other sources of energy other than Dust, and most eye catching of all, the creation of nuclear weapons.
"I simply find this all too fascinating that all these achievements are made and all without the use of Dust," Watts said. "Perhaps when I get back, I could replicate this technology and harvest the same energy from Remnant that this world, Earth uses."
Hazel and Tyrian looked up as much of Earth's history as they could, mainly the important events such as the rise and collapse of the Soviet Union, the discovery of America, the writing of the American Constitution, The French Revolution, The Great Depression, the moon landing, and all the countless wars and conflicts Earth had. They were surprised with how many wars Earth had, including two great wars while Remnant suffered only one. Hazel was unamused with Earth's constant fighting, while Tyrian laughed at the number of deaths in those wars.
"Some much death and destruction. I find this all too beautiful in this world then the destruction Remnant possesses," Tyrian giggled in excitement.
"Of course you would," Hazel said. "The Great War is nothing compared to the wars this world has. Especially those two World Wars this world has suffered."
Adam uses one of the iPhones to look up anything about the Faunus community on Earth, only to find that the Faunus don't exist on this planet much to his disappointment and displeasure. However, he did discover that racism and slavery does exist upon humanity in this world which includes skin color, religion, creed, sexuality, and other minor things. Adam's hatred for humanity had increased further from this believing that the Faunus would be wiped out by Earth's humanity not that Earth's militaries are hunting down the White Fang.
"The humans here are even worse than those of Remnant. I will show this world why the Faunus are the true dominant species," he said.
Cinder looks up information about the show, RWBY and the company that made it, Rooster Teeth. She looked up the people who worked for the company and the show's voice actors. She thought they were a bunch of hopeless idiots who drink and swear a lot. Cinder especially hated her own voice actress, Jessica Nigri because she thought she was one of those people who shows herself off a lot for being a cosplayer. She also hated her portrayal in the spinoff series, RWBY Chibi as it displayed her as a comedic villain.
"It's bad enough I'm voiced by some bimbo who like to show herself off, but to be mocked in that ridiculous spinoff show? Do these people how any real lives?!" she asked.
Salem was looking up information on the Creatures of Grimm in this world called Earth on the iPad, but to her surprise they never existed in this world to begin with. She looked up anything on Dust and aura, only to find that neither of those exist on Earth as well. She finally decided to look up Earth's magic and to her interest found a long history. Salem took a great interest in Earth's magic because there were spells and other forms of magic that she did not believe were possible and wanted to learn more about, though she felt offended when there were people on Earth that referred to magic as science and cheap tricks.
However, Salem learned that the magic on Earth in the past in various parts of the world was considered a forbidden art and led to witch hunts, which today happens in Africa and parts of Asia, due to being tied to devil worship. This led Salem to learning about Earth's religion of God. She thought back to the words on Jacob's sword that Cinder had told her about; In God We Trust, and thought he must have worshipped this god. She thought that this world's god held empty promises and was no better than The Brother Gods, and thought Jacob was a fool for believing in him.
"This world holds so many possibilities that I didn't think would be possible, including certain magical properties that never exist within Remnant. I must learn these forms of magic to see if they work. I could perhaps combine Earth's spells with my own magic," Salem said.
Emerald and Mercury were watching various news media on the television for what has been occuring on Earth recently.
"Three more people have now lost their lives due to the coronavirus," a news anchor said.
"Coronavirus? What's that?" Mercury asked.
"Let me check out what that is," Emerald said as she pulls out an iPhone.
They looked up what the coronavirus, or most refer to as COVID-19 was on the iPhone and discovered that this world is currently on a worldwide pandemic due to this virus, and many are businesses were closed and many were forced to wear masks when going into public areas and/or self quarantine inside their homes to prevent the virus from spreading. Many people around the world are blaming China for unleashing the COVID upon the world and not giving any early warnings.
"This world is plagued with a deadly virus?" Mercury asked as he covered his nose and mouth with the collar of his shirt.
"We should warn Cinder about this," Emerald said.
Later at night, everyone was gathered in the living room making plans on what to do next.
"This world has no Aura, Dust, or even Grimm, yet this world is even more divided than Remnant. Not to mention that the Fall Maiden is probably somewhere hiding in this world as well," Cinder said.
"And this coronavirus seems to be stirring up more chaos from what the articles and the media are saying," Watts said.
"It will be a matter of time until they try to do more aggressive actions due to the isolation from the public," Tyrian said.
"Despite the wars and violence here, humanity here still finds a way to thrive, to the point where Earth is ruled by it," Salem said.
"So what do we do now?" Hazel asked.
Salem turned her head away thoughtfully and brought her fingers to her chin. She looks down at the Dust crystal that was laying on the coffee table before grabbing it. A moment later, Salem looks back at her subordinates.
"As we continue to find out what we can about Earth, we will make some slight... arrangements for this world," she said.
Remnant
Land of Darkness
Evernight Castle
Castle Laboratory
Back on Remnant in the lab of Evernight Castle, Dr. Merlot was studying one of the new Dust crystals as he was trying to figure out what happened.
"I finally got a reaction from one of the samples after all this time. But the question is what did it do to Salem and the others with her?" the scientist asked.
Suddenly a bright flash appeared to the spot where Salem and her subordinates disappeared. When the flash went away, Salem stood in its place.
"Your grace, what happened? And where are the others" Merlot asked.
"Assemble The Crown in the lab, and I'll explain everything," Salem ordered.