A/N Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing! I'd like to say that I finished the rough draft to the last chapters of the story! Should end up to a total of 24 chapters at around 75k words. I'll try to update once a week or more until completion.
After a nap, Weiss is feeling much better. Now it's time to begin the long and tedious process of looking through the materials that Ozpin has gathered for her.
They start with the physical papers. Each member of RWBY takes a fourth of the stack and starts from the top. Soon enough, they discover that it's horribly dry reading. Most of the stack is made up of science articles with a heavy focus on theoretical physics and quantum mechanics. Apparently, the concept of alternate universes and parallel dimensions is far less sentimental and romantic than disgustingly mathematical.
Weiss thinks she's pretty intelligent, but a good ninety percent of what she's reading goes over her head. Azula, on the other hand—well, she's stubborn. She's a prodigy and genius, there's no doubt, and she's used to getting concepts fast, but just like Weiss, even she eventually concedes that she's getting stumped. There's a big difference between military strategy and hard science.
About revenge, Weiss says, flipping through another page full of unreadable jargon.
About revenge, Azula parrots.
When you return to your body and get home, Weiss says, because she's going to be optimistic and think of it as 'when' and not 'if', what are you going to do?
I am going to depose my brother and become Fire Lord, Azula says, casually. Maybe exile him again, for old time's sake.
I see, Weiss says, more neutrally than she thought possible.
At the very least, I have to make a serious attempt at it, Azula says.
And becoming the Fire Lord would make you… I don't know. Happy?
'Happiness' has never been a part of the equation. But I'd be satisfied. And that's about as much as I can ask for.
Azula's tone about this subject is not quite clear to Weiss. Weiss wants to think that Azula is saying what she says because she has never learned to say anything else, to want anything else, to think anything else, but she can't be sure. If Azula really tried to do what she said she would do, wouldn't that mean restarting a war? Isn't Azula tired of having to fight over and over again?
What if your firebending hasn't returned by then? How will you depose your brother?
It will have.
What if it hasn't?
It will.
What about your father then? Ozai? What are you going to do with him? Are you going to let him go free when you're Fire Lord?
Yes. No. I don't know. I'll figure it out when it happens. This line of questioning is useless and distracting us.
Not that Weiss thinks they're being distracted from much. Ruby is reading pages upside down and not seeming to notice. The slant of Yang's eyebrows gets steeper and steeper with each passing moment. Blake might be making progress, but she is also reading at a pace one-fourth as fast as the rest of them, and she keeps picking up her Scroll to look up words.
"Basically," Blake eventually announces, "alternate universes may or may not exist. The physics says it could really go either way."
"We know they exist because I came from one." In substitution of her bending, Azula chooses to burn holes at the stack of papers with her eyes. "What a waste of time."
"There is something interesting about the degrees of proximity between alternate universes and their proximity according to this paper," Blake says, waving a few loose pages around. "The idea is that the more similar two universes are, the more 'closely' they should be situated across the nth dimensional space-time continuum, and the easier it should be, theoretically, to travel between the two of them."
"Well," Weiss says. "I think Azula's world is not very similar to ours at all. Not to completely refute, um—" she takes a look at the paper Blake's looking at and concludes she cannot pronounce the author's name, "—this scientist's theory. But for one thing, the levels of technology are completely different. The shapes of the continents are completely different. The overall size of the planet seems somewhat smaller than Remnant as well. And there exists things like chi and bending, not Aura and Semblances."
"'Azula'?" Yang repeats.
There's a moment where Weiss is confused before she remembers. "Oh, right," Weiss says, awkwardly. "I never told you. But the other me—er, her—I managed to remember her name. I guess we never did something like introductions, did we. Well, anyway, you're… all acquainted with each other by this point."
It really is a bit awkward all told. Thankfully, Yang doesn't seem afraid to tackle the topic. She turns to face Weiss with, "So, you're saying, we should call you 'Azula' when you're acting all emo and broody?"
"I am not 'emo', nor do I brood," Azula comes out with a snap. She jabs a finger toward Blake. "That person is the one who does those things."
"There, there, no need to get so upset," Blake says, the corner of her mouth twitching. "I can give you some pointers if you'd like?"
"Wait a second," Ruby says, setting down her papers. She looks intrigued. "Wait. Do you not know our names?"
Everyone turns to her in critical expectation. Weiss feels her arms cross. "Of course I know, I'm not an idiot. You're not-Ty Lee. You're not-Mai. And you're—" Azula pauses to frown for a moment. "What's with your name, anyway? 'Sunny Little Dragon'?"
"Oh my gosh that's so rude," Yang faux-gasps.
"There's no subtlety to it whatsoever," Azula continues. "It's a dumb name."
"It's a cool name!" Ruby defends.
"I think it's a cool name," Blake nods.
"Weiss is the dumb name," Yang says. "Like, we get it, your whole aesthetic is the delicate snow princess thing. But it literally means 'white' and it rhymes with things like ice, rice, nice, mice, price—"
"Wha—I'm not even a part of this conversation, why are you insulting me?!" Weiss comes back with a protest.
"Your buddy insulted me first!"
"Then insult her back, not me!"
"She's from another world, I didn't want to be culturally insensitive!"
"I'm Atlesian, it's an Atlesian name, you are being culturally insensitive!"
The argument escalates for a few minutes. Not much work is being done. Blake and Ruby agree with her that 'Weiss' is a perfectly respectable name although Weiss does feel slighted when Ruby admits that it would have been 'actually awesome' if her name started with a 'U' instead of 'W' (Ueiss? Ureiss?) so then they could have been Team RUBY instead of RWBY.
"That's vain."
"That is a little vain, Ruby."
"I'm just saying, it would have been awesome."
" You-ice ." Yang is still laughing. "Imagine if your parents named you that. Hot damn."
"I am in support of a name change for the ice queen," Ruby grins. "All in favor say 'aye'. Aye."
"Aye!"
"Aye."
"Blake! I thought you were on my side!"
This is offending me. You should challenge them to an Agni Kai, Azula says, suddenly. She adds, with a goading tone, Do it.
So they could beat me up? No thanks. Weiss tries to rub the red color out of her cheeks, feeling a strange mix of happy and embarrassed. Nothing to the guy, but we lost to Jaune , remember?
But you're better now, Azula argues. Azula reasserts herself, and before Weiss can get an edge in otherwise, turns to Yang, and dramatically announces, "I challenge you to a spar."
Yang seems taken aback. "Uhh. Are you sure? Given, you know, everything?" She gestures in Weiss's general direction. "And I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but aren't we also supposed to be doing work right now?"
"Hand to hand," Azula says. "First to ten hits. Recalibrating our minds is important to improve our efficiency. And it will be over fast."
Yang narrows her eyes competitively. "Yeah? You think so?"
"I know so," Azula smirks.
"Fine then. Bring it on!"
Weiss knows Azula challenged Yang because she thinks Yang is the best fighter in RWBY. This spar sounds on all accounts like a fairly bad idea but Azula seems pretty deadset on it and if it humbles Azula's ego when Yang beats her up, why the hell not. Azula thinks that Yang is not going to win. Weiss reminds Azula that she has to compensate for the fact that Weiss currently has the body of a wet noodle. Azula reluctantly concedes this fact and tells Weiss they should restart the regime of firebending katas on the rooftop every sunrise as well as push-ups to build upper body strength. Weiss accuses her of being a tryhard. Better a tryhard than a wimp, Azula tells her smugly.
"Why don't we make it a team exercise? It's been a while since we've done something together," Ruby suggests. "Plus, if we really are going to be doing the Vytal tournament, we kind of need the practice."
No weapons, no Semblance, first to ten hits for each person, as Azula proposed. Two on two, partners-style: Ruby and Weiss versus Blake and Yang.
They go to one of the outdoor fields. Weiss's single consolation is that at least Ruby is the worst disaster at hand-to-hand that she has ever seen, even worse than she is. And while Blake is excellent at weaving and dodging, she doesn't quite know how to throw hits, and keeps defaulting to using her Semblance by habit. Ruby is out pretty fast (Yang seems to feel bad and taps her hits on her sister lightly each time). Blake, after another fumble with her Semblance, decides to take remove herself from the field with a graceful bow.
So it's just Weiss and Yang who're left, then. Or Azula and Yang who're left, rather, exactly as Azula wants it to be.
"Prepare to meet your doom," Azula says, all dramatically.
"Looking forward to it!" Yang grins, cracking her knuckles.
Don't go too hard, okay? Weiss sighs, and lets Azula take full control.
It's a surprisingly close match. Azula is more agile than Yang and moves faster, and it seems she's gotten pretty used to maneuvering around Weiss's body. The rules also favor Azula—Yang is more of a heavy-hitter type, with her fight style favoring less hits overall but each individual hit dishing more damage, while Azula can get away with light jabs and strikes. But Weiss's body truly just doesn't have the stamina and endurance to keep up for long. A few too many back handsprings and Weiss's body kind of just folds to the ground.
I feel like I've just run three marathons. That was awful.
Yes, that was completely and utterly humiliating, Azula huffs. I'm telling you, we need to restart your training.
"You can't beat these guys!" Yang flexes her biceps and if Weiss wasn't still struggling to catch her breath, she'd tell Blake to wipe the drool off her chin. Brightly, Yang continues, "You're really good, though, I'm kind of surprised."
Yang pulls her to her feet. In return, Azula vows, "Next time, I'll get you."
Seeing as how they're at the field already, Ruby wants Blake and Yang to work through a series of partner exercises while Ruby does some laps on her own. Weiss sits off to the side, trying to even out her still ragged breathing. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of her face. There's an alarming taste of copper at the back of her mouth.
"I told you not to go too hard." Weiss wipes the bead of sweat away.
"...And I didn't," Azula says, begrudgingly, her words causing Weiss to freeze. There's almost a hint of apology to Azula's voice as she says, next, "I can help you shoulder the burden, if you—"
"No, it's fine," Weiss cuts her off.
"You're scared."
Weiss doesn't say anything for a while. Her heart is still going too fast. It's not exactly the fight itself which feels so burdensome, but trying to recover from it.
"It's happening faster than I thought it would," is what Weiss says. "And I feel like we haven't made much progress. It feels more real now. The threat of… of no longer existing. I don't think I'm scared, I think I'm terrified. I just can't think too much about it otherwise it'll get to me. I mean, this is what I chose, you told me the risk, but of course, it's not what I want to happen."
Weiss swallows. Azula radiates a sense of discomfort and unease at her vulnerability, as much an admission of not knowing what to say or do you can get from Azula. "You should think about other practical concerns, then," Azula offers. "Such as how you're going to be able to make it through the Vytal Tournament. At this rate, it'll be a significant challenge, to say the least."
"If it'll just be the team round, I should be fine. But I do want to do it as entirely myself, without any of your help."
"I don't think that's wise."
"I know, but it's what I want. They're my teammates," Weiss takes a breath, then gestures at the scene before her. "My stupid, idiotic, wonderful teammates. If… If it somehow happens to be the last time I'll ever get to be with them, then I want to cherish it. I want to stand up there with them side by side, proudly. It's what would make me happy."
She's speaking the truth, from her heart.
One of her hands clenches into a tight fist, before relaxing. "I thought you were supposed to be the optimist."
"...Yes. I suppose you're right."
Back at the dorm, as the only one with her Scroll out of commission, Weiss continues to work through the physical papers while the others start on the electronic materials.
"Hey, isn't this blog by that same guy from before who wrote about the, uh, 'degrees of proximity'?" Ruby eventually breaks the silence, drawing everyone's attention. "Blake, can you take a look?"
Ruby shows her Scroll to Blake. Blake's eyebrows shoot up as her fingers flit across the screen of her own Scroll in order to pull up the blog in question.
"It is," Blake says. "Oh, hm, this is interesting."
"...What's a blog," Azula says.
"It's something that we can read and actually understand!" Yang says. She pulls up the blog as well and starts scanning through it. "Man, Ozpin was really thorough. I wonder how he even found a big half this stuff."
Weiss sets down her papers and scooches over to Ruby to share her screen. Ruby projects the text onto a holographic board in front of them, expanding the words so that they can more easily read through the author's posts. Although the language is still technical, thankfully, like Yang said, it's much more readable
Parallel worlds… Weiss sees. Parallel worlds of parallel worlds… anchor worlds… the Other Realm...
Anchor worlds…? The Other Realm…? Oh, wait, is that a reference to…?
"The Spirit world," Weiss says, suddenly.
"The what now?"
"I… Before Azula woke up here in my body," Weiss says, and begins to speak faster, getting a little excited. "Something happened to her own body, she said she fell through a river into a place called the Spirit world, which is a place that the people from her world have regular contact with and are able to travel in between. I don't know why I always assumed that the Spirit world was just a supernatural part of her world, like one piece of a greater sum, but now, I'm thinking it's probably not, it's probably in its own universe, isn't it?"
"You're thinking it's what this guy calls an anchor world," Blake picks up on her train of thought. "A place that holds the quote unquote 'universe cluster' together, a central location that many universes are connected through. Like a lake that is bordered by many houses, so that even if you have two starkly different universes like yours and hers, you're able to interact with one another through it more easily than directly interacting with one another."
"One anchor world can be linked to many different universes," Weiss says, "but each universe can only be linked to one anchor world. So this 'Other Realm' and the Spirit world, they have to be referring to the same thing!"
The author of the blog terms the anchor world that he thinks Remnant is connected to as the 'Other Realm'. He adds a note to the top of every single one of his posts warning that all of this is his own personal conjecture and speculation without any real concrete proof. Unlike any of his officially published science papers, he hasn't done any of the mathematics or physics, but regardless, intuitively, he believes what he's saying to be true.
As for the reason why he calls it the Other Realm, the name is based, surprisingly, on the myths of the early tribes of people who inhabited the northern Solitas continent before it had been settled by Atlas and Mantle. They believed the bands of eerie green and purple aurora borealis that would occasionally appear across the otherwise dark night sky to be the dance of otherworldly celestial spirits in careful reverence of the guardians of this world, the Brother Gods. According to those same myths, every year on the winter solstice, when the intensity of the aurora borealis reaches their peak, somewhere high up in the sky, a gateway to the Other Realm where the celestial spirits live opens up.
The winter solstice...
...That's more than two months away from now, Azula, who has been uncharacteristically quiet up until this moment, finally speaks up.
It'll be fine, Weiss asserts. I can make it.