The 11th Son, the Reaction

by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh

Three teams and a random Queen of the Grimm have their heads up in the clouds today... along with their entire bodies! Brought there by a mysterious entity, they are now forced to watch the events of an alternative dimension. Commission for azuring-galaxy. Story is "The 11th Son".

First of all, Merry Christmas to you all!

Second, sorry if I haven't updated anything in forever. Really busy, to be honest, and the motivation was just... never there, I suppose. Honestly, every day ends with me wondering what changed from the one before that, lol... isn't that a depressing thought?

This is a commission from azuring-galaxy, commission dedicated to Sam, story by Sam.

Mercury Black was having a perfectly normal day. Well, a perfectly normal day for him, at least.

His normal days usually included training like hell, studying and eating. Sometimes Cinder would go over the plan again, mostly just to point out a few changes made, but overall his stay at Beacon had turned out to be fairly dull and repetitive. Adding to that the fact that they would be pretty much inactive right up until the Festival, there really wasn't anything fun to do.

Some Beacon classes were interesting enough, he supposed as he effortlessly performed the umpteenth sit-up. They could still teach him a lot, and learning new things meant possibly getting better at fighting too, not to mention it gave him the chance to observe the staff and plan accordingly. Cinder was more powerful than him and he could freely admit (in his own head) that Emerald was smarter than him, but he knew he'd be their main fighting force until Cinder got her full powers, so it never hurt to be prepared.

Still, he mused as he kept up the exercise, even when not related to combat some lessons were nice. Being trained by an assassin, to become an assassin, had left a lot of gaps in his academic knowledge, and those classes could sometimes bring up something he didn't know or something he might've been curious about. He found the Weapon Maintenance class particularly inspiring, given that he needed his prosthetics to work in order to even just live his own life, not to mention that he found Professor Port's rambling to be quite informative. Not so much in terms of Grimm (he was already an expert and he only picked up a couple of tricks from the veteran Huntsman's tales), but in terms of bullshitting and acting over-the-top in order to fool his opponents and hide his real strength. Most students considered Port to be a jolly, fat idiot, even though they'd never say that to his face, but the truth was that the Professor was actually fairly competent, enough that even Mercury would be careful when fighting him.

History was also fairly nice. He did not care about people or culture, but Doctor Oobleck's motto about history repeating itself was enlightening. It was the same as his father's teaching of never doing the same mistake twice, though applied to the world as a whole. 'Then again, Dr Oobleck may be over-the-top, but he's an accomplished Huntsman and has published a few books as well. With his speed, I'd actually rank him on the same level as Professor Port despite the obviously lesser experience,' the silver-haired assassin thought, ignoring his aching abs as he powered through his sit-ups.

Ironically, combat class was the one he enjoyed the least, despite Cinder demanding him to study the other students' styles. Everyone was always excited for it, even the slowly-improving knight wannabe on Team JNPR. Well, all but Mercury himself. Being an extremely skilled assassin and fighter meant that while others saw cool and badass matches, shows of strength and skill, all he saw were inexperienced imbeciles waving metal toys around and jumping all over the place.

It would've actually been disheartening to see the supposed 'Defenders of Mankind' act so pathetic, had he been on their side. Thankfully he was on the winning side, Salem's, so he could just laugh at their idiocy while he waited for the world to take off the kid gloves and go town on their unprepared asses.

Most of them wouldn't even survive a basic Grimm invasion on a village, much less the Grimm apocalypse Cinder was planning. True, they were powerhouses when compared to the town militia he'd seen (wasn't that ironic? The strongest fighters stayed in the safest places, while the weakest struggled in the Grimmland) and most of them could easily fight a pack of Beowolves with their teams, but there was a reason why Grimm were undefeatable – they were endless and, quite simply, these students didn't have enough stamina to last through a Grimm invasion. They'd tire themselves out rushing to kill the first waves, not realizing that Grimm attacks could take hours, sometimes days when there were lots of Grimm around or strong negativity.

Team RWBY was a bit of an outliner in that regards. They were unusually strong and Mercury knew they could last a bit longer than most other students, but they were too excitable and carefree to be Huntresses just yet. They'd tire themselves out halfway through an invasion too.

Honestly, if he wasn't so weak, he'd say the knight wannabe from JNPR was the one with the best attitude. But that only came from his lack of strength, which meant that he physically couldn't rush to kill the first waves and tire himself out, because his damage output was simply too low to destroy his stamina quickly enough.

Mercury absent-mindedly finished his sit-ups and stood up, taking deep breaths for a second to make sure he didn't rush through his exercises. Aura helping him or not, the best results always came from not over-relying on the ever-present healing power of his soul.

While he stretched lightly to relax his abdominal muscles, he grabbed his Scroll and checked the time. Umph, it was almost time for dinner. 'I'll just grab dinner an hour later, then,' he decided as he glanced through his notifications. He made note to check out a new gym they opened in the city. 'Besides, Beacon definitely overfeeds its students unless it's a weekday lunch that has to be quick. Why would it even serve whole roasted turkeys? Not to mention it doesn't even teach students how to keep a balanced diet depending on their lifestyles…'

Mercury shook his head and finished his stretching before he grabbed some weights. He considered them for a second before shrugging and tossing them aside, ignoring the loud thunk as they landed on the floor, before dropping down in a split. He'd lifted enough weights at the gym anyway.

'Still, I'm honestly surprised. I thought a school as famous as Beacon would do more than just let its students teach themselves everything. Most students either underwork and overfeed, like Scythe-y, or overwork and underfeed, like Blondie. Or simply don't work enough. I wonder why a woman as strict and supposedly demanding as Goodwitch would ever allow such chaos.'

Eventually, it didn't really concern him. He didn't particularly like being in the dark about something (surprises were lethal, after all) but it wasn't something he could see giving him problems in the future, so after a few more seconds of contemplation, he simply dropped the matter altogether.

Click.

He glanced up to see Cinder and Emerald walking into his room. Without knocking. And then Emerald called him rude (amongst other things). Seeing as his boss didn't seem annoyed by his current position, he simply kept up his exercises, switching to push-ups – and not only because it gave him a much better view of his teammates' lower halves, that was just an added bonus.

"Everything seems to be going well," Cinder spoke up. Ah, so it was another meeting about the plan. Considering that talking about it within Beacon walls wasn't secure (they couldn't know if a student had a super-sensory Semblance, after all), all these meetings amount to were Cinder talking about how well it was going, and giving them small tasks for the near future.

Speaking of tasks…

"There weren't any particularly interesting matches today, aside from Winchester and Arc. Seems like Arc is improving faster than a lot of other students." Not out of the norm, the learning curve for most things was usually steep at first and only evened out after a while. "Winchester still won, but it was more out of luck than anything."

Emerald groaned, rolling her eyes. Winchester's teammate, Thrush if he wasn't mistaken, had asked her out right before the match and she'd been forced to pretend Mercury was her boyfriend, something unpleasant for the both of them. It would've been more believable if she said she was lesbian and liked Cinder, at least it would've actually looked like she believed it.

"Cardin is an idiot," she said bluntly. For different reasons, she too disliked how unskilled the students were, though Mercury guessed it was more because they had the chance to learn safely and squandered it while she learned fighting for her life. Eh, didn't really matter to him. "The only reason he won is because he kept swinging that overcompensating mace of his around and Jaune couldn't get close without getting hit. Had he been even slightly more skilled, he would've done Cardin in within twenty seconds of the fight."

"I suppose we can erase Cardin Winchester from our list of threats." Arc had already been erased, as had most other Beacon students. Cinder idly looked through her Scroll, which was connected to the hacked CCT system. "I received news from our… teacher."

Mercury stiffened slightly, though that went unnoticed since he was already doing push-ups. Salem, contacting them at Beacon? First, the idea of Salem using a Scroll was ridiculous – did she even know what electricity was? But second, the risks were immense, why would she do that?

"She told me that some of her… other students… were acting restless today, especially the more sensitive ones." The Grimm, acting restless? Wasn't that like, their usual behaviour? Also, did Salem have some kind of sensory-type Grimm? Scouts, maybe? Or spies? "But that despite having investigated, she cannot find the source. She warned us to be careful… it might be a virus that hit her school, after all, and we were there not too long ago."

Ah, so Salem was worried something was wrong and they might be revealed. All the more reason to keep in tip-top shape, then.

"So, I suppose we should do some check-ups ourselves, being careful not to infect anyone else. I wouldn't want this virus to spread to the Beacon students right before the Vytal Festival, don't you agree?" Ugh, recon mission. Again. Emerald was quick to nod, and Mercury didn't protest, which was as good as any agreements for him. "We can talk about it more in the evening, after dinner."

Great, there went his chance of working out 'til dinner. And chances were that he'd have to make small talk with the students too.

Before he could complain, Cinder continued. "We'll do this as a team – there's not point in spreading the virus even more by splitting up, now?" Mercury felt his eyebrows rise. Were they really in so much danger they needed to stick together? Even when they could easily kick anyone's butt here? "Our missing teammate will meet us in the courtyard, so we better hurry."

Ugh, and there went the rest of his push-ups.

/-/

Salem, Lady of the Grimm, was for the first time in millennia, absolutely dumbfounded.

But after all, who wouldn't be, in her situation?

After all, not everyone could claim to have just started to spontaneously float.

After all, not everyone could claim to have become invisible while doing so.

After all, not everyone could claim to have become intangible as well.

After all, not everyone could claim to have floated up to the clouds.

After all, not everyone could claim to have landed on them like they were solid.

All in all, she was fairly sure that her shocked silence was an under-reaction to it all.

"S-Salem?" a voice tore her away from her thoughts and she turned around to see Cinder Fall herself slowly floating over the cloud alongside the three underlings she'd found in Vale. She managed to hide her surprise (or maybe she was just so shocked she couldn't be surprised any further) as her servant continued. "What are- No, what is happening? I can't use my powers to get down! Did you…?"

Still somewhat thinking that she'd fallen asleep while bathing in a Grimm pool (which had never happened if one asked her), the Queen of the Grimm slowly shook her head. "No… some other force must be at work. Someone extremely powerful, if they were able to bring even me here, against my will."

She barely caught the 'oh great' scoff from the only male of Cinder's team, but she wholeheartedly agreed.

"But Mistress, what-"

"Whatever, or whoever, brought us here must be tricky, but not necessarily more powerful than me," Salem reassured her underling as millennia of self-control training took over. She was a bit like Hazel in that regard – always calm, but with a few trigger arguments. Although she at least didn't start hyperventilating and screaming like a madman whenever faced with the man – she'd probably just disintegrate him anyway. "There could be ways around my power…"

"Uh… Cinder? M-Mistress?" Emerald called out, stuttering over her title for a second. The white-and-black haired women turned to look at her. She awkwardly pointed to Neo, who was looking fairly cornered.

"She won't breathe a word of what she's seen right now," Cinder replied suavely before lighting a flame in her hand. "Won't you, Neo?"

The assassin frowned at the threat but nodded after a glance at the Grimm-like woman.

"Uh… I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but we're getting company," Mercury spoke up from what appeared to be the edge of the cloud. He was pointing down, somewhere hidden from their eyes. "Two Beacon teams coming right up. Literally. And they're not happy about it."

Cinder glanced at Salem, who simply used some of her magic to change her look back to what it was before she became the Queen of the Grimm. The surprised faces of her servants amused her, although Cinder was frowning as if she'd seen her somewhere before (which was impossible since she hated that form). "Well then, act confused, but be friendly. If anyone asks, and they will, tell them I'm your former instructor. I'm a lone Huntress who trained you before Haven. Leave the rest to me. And call me Madam, not mistress."

"Yes, Madam," Cinder and Emerald replied.

"Yes, Ma'am," Mercury added while Neo nodded slowly.

The five of them patiently waited for the two other teams to float up and join them, some more patiently than others. Mercury, after testing if the clouds were solid enough, began to work out, trying to make up for the exercise lost because of their 'investigation' (though he was fairly sure they found the disease, so mission accomplished, no?). Emerald just kept shooting Cinder looks, as if confirming the plan over and over… and Neo was just weirded out by the Grimm-like woman just randomly turning human (did that mean there were other human-Grimm things around and she'd never known? Was Cinder one too? That would explain so much).

Eventually, the seven students floated onto the cloud as well. One of them, a ginger-haired short girl, was seemingly trying to talk, even though no sound exited her mouth, like a movie set on mute.

Much to their hidden chagrin, they were un-muted as soon as they touched down on the cloud.

"-red because it really does not fit with the rest of Beacon and-" She stopped herself in the middle of a rant about who knows what. "Oh, I can talk again!"

"Unfortunately," muttered the short white-haired girl with a white theme going on before she looked around (or more like glared around). "What is going on here? Why are we on a cloud?"

"Emerald!" a third short girl with black-and-red hair called out upon spotting the green-haired thief-and-murderer, who put on a smile more resembling a grimace. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"

"I could say the same about you guys." Mercury almost scoffed at the forcefully cheery tone Emerald ground out, knowing that she hated anything cheerful. Probably something about her stupid tragic background complete with sob story that made her lose faith in humanity or something. Boring, if one asked him. "We just arrived! We have no idea what's going on! Do you know of anyone with a Semblance like this?"

"As far as we're aware, no," the taller redhead that even an idiot could recognize as Pyrrha Nikos spoke up, testing the ground before taking a tentative step forward. "Unless this is some sort of dream we're trapped in."

"I doubt that," the only other male of the group said dully, glancing around to check his surroundings. "Why would we be on a cloud if that were the case?"

"Well, at least now Weiss can say that I couldn't study because I had my head up in the clouds for real," the long-haired blonde girl joked with a grin, being met with forced grins from Emerald and Pyrrha, and deadpans from all the other students.

"Uhm… who is she?" The shorter redhead ignored Weiss's hiss of 'Ruby!' and pointed at Salem, confused. "Do you guys know her?"

"Yes, she was our teacher before Haven," Cinder cut in suavely. Mercury would never know why she needed to sound… what, enticing?… while talking to anyone at all. He supposed it was part of her disguise but what kind of student acted like a stripper at a club? Her strict no-nonsense persona was much more tolerable in his opinion.

Salem took a step forward and bowed her head in greetings. "Hello, students. My name is Sally. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

As the students mumbled their own introductions, the blonde bimbo (as Emerald called her) stared at Salem with suspicion. Had she noticed something off? It was unlikely she knew there was no Huntress named Sally (there were probably plenty) with that appearance, so what was her deal?

"…Are you related to Jaune?"

Or maybe the stupid blondes prejudiced stereotype wasn't always wrong after all.

"I'm afraid I don't know who this 'Jaune' is, but I have no family of my own," Salem assured her while Emerald looked like she'd swallowed a lemon. Yeah, thinking of Salem possibly having children was nightmarish for him as well.

"Well," and there went the Schnee heiress again. Huh, with all the blue and white around them, she was almost invisible. "Does anyone know why we're here?"

A series of shrugs was the only answer she received, and Mercury almost forgot to deny it himself when Cinder and Salem both shrugged as well. He thought they were above such casual movements.

"Well, I do." Everyone startled (or, in Salem's case, narrowed her eyes) and looked around when the voice rang out, but there was no one there. Nora went as far as to check in the cloud itself, and for a second Mercury hoped she'd fallen off. Unfortunately for him, she reappeared a minute later. "Don't bother looking for me, you won't find me. Now, I guess this whole 'being kidnapped by a strange entity' must be getting annoying for you, so I'll try to keep this as quick as possible."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, frowning. "This is the first time we've been kidnapped!"

"That's what you think. The Multiverse disagrees. But it doesn't matter. If you would kindly listen, I'm going to explain what's going on here." Not receiving any replies, the voice continued. "You are here to witness the events of a parallel universe. As in, what is happening in a universe where you still exist, but things are radically different. You will see what I mean in a few minutes."

Mercury shook his head. That sounded so far-fetched, it was almost believable. Besides, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd seen today – that belonged to Salem shrugging like a teenager.

"Everything will happen around you. You will be able to touch and move around as if it were real, but you're not allowed to interfere with anything. So don't bother trying to open a door or pick up a fruit, you won't be able to move it." So basically, they were completely powerless. "Fortunately for you, the same can be said in reverse – you won't be harmed by attacks and you will be completely undetectable. If you were to, for example, find yourself under falling debris, you would simply be teleported to the nearest empty space available."

Well, that was one less thing to worry about. He wondered how many secrets he could find out just by wandering around idly.

"I apologize for the disturb, but I hope you will learn a great deal from this. A bit of introspection never hurts anyone anyway. Enjoy your stay! Oh, and don't worry, I'll float you back down safely at the end of the day."

The voice faded into nothing as their surroundings shifted and melted into a futuristic-looking gigantic spaceship. Or well, what they thought was an unnecessarily large airship. None of them ever actually thought space travel was possible.

Before anything could even fully form, everyone scattered around the ship's bridge (they were vaguely surprised by the fact that it even had a bridge, considering planes usually didn't), curious about the strange technology and even more so about why everyone seemed to be rushing around in a panic.

The woman smiled up at him, she was beautiful. Her long vibrant red hair flowed freely, with faint signs of graying. Her face was mature with small wrinkles near her eyes. A gold circlet rested under her hair, keeping her bangs from covering her face. Vibrant green eyes looked up at him. The smile upon her face always brought him calmness.

"Pyrrha, is that your mom?" Yang asked, squinting at the image before walking over, ignoring the frenetic soldiers on the deck.

Pyrrha shook her head from where she was examining the ship's walls. "No, my mother's hair is not so bright, more or a faded red with a vague purplish tint." She continued to examine the metal walls. They were made of something she didn't recognize, and now that was odd. She had studied a lot about metals to find out just how her Polarity would affect them, yet she'd never seen this one. Of course, she couldn't tell metals apart by a glance, but this was different from anything she'd ever seen, and it didn't look painted or anything – who would decorate an airship, anyway?

A baby boy held in her arms played with her hair while a young girl standing next to her, looking no older than 12, made a face. The boy had a mop of red hair on his head with ocean blue eyes. The young girl was a spitting image of her mother in her younger years, the only difference was the mixture of blonde and red hair that was cut short. Most likely in reminiscent of her aunt.

"Wait a second, Pyrrha, is that you, but older?" Yang asked again.

"She does show some resemblances, but we can't really know for sure unless we could see the future ourselves," Weiss noted, glancing up from the monitors she was trying to make sense of (and so were the soldiers stationed in front of them, apparently). She was by no means ignorant about technology, but those screens just didn't make sense to her. She turned away with a frustrated huff and stormed over to Yang, barely sparing a glance to the man who stood unmoving in front of the hologram. "Besides, why would a hologram of her appear in here… wherever 'here' is?"

"Yang's right though, she does look a lot like Pyrrha," Ruby piped up, Semblancing her way over and startling Weiss in the process. Yang, far too used to her sister's sudden appearances, barely even flinched. "Well, if Pyrrha were to be three decades older, of course."

All three of them ignored Ren's yell of 'Nora, no!' in the background. The voice said they couldn't do anything to that illusion or alternative dimension or virtual simulation, so none of them worried too much about the ginger-headed hammer-wielder.

The hologram flickered for a second. The pendant, a gift given to him by her before he left for the stars once again. It was so small in his gauntlet, but he was gentle with it.

"Ok… wait… Is this-"

Yang's hand covered Weiss's mouth before she could utter the name. Ignoring the heiress's dirty glare, Yang whistled loudly to get everyone's attention (well, everyone from their universe, at least) and then shouted "Come here, everyone! You have to see this!"

The people who had scattered -mainly Cinder's team and their 'teacher' Sally- reluctantly walked away from whatever they were doing to join her and her teammates. Mercury in particular murmured an overly-dramatic and tearful goodbye to the weapons he was looking at.

"What is it? Have you found something important?" Emerald asked with a veiled note of annoyance in her voice. Understandable, conceded Yang, but ultimately undeserved. After all, this was too good to be true!

"Guess who got married?" she grinned wickedly, pointing at the man in armour and the woman in the small hologram.

"Wait…" Cinder frowned at the soldier. "I've seen him somewhere else before…"

"...The Wolves have come!" A voice rang out, it was distorted somewhat as it echoed over the vox.

"Jaune, my beloved knight…" she spoke, the hologram flickered as an explosion rocked the area he was in. He didn't care. His ocean blue eyes focused on the hologram. Ignoring the various alarms and Vox messages that played. Ignoring the various people that ran past him. The man was too focused on the small hologram that played within his large gauntlet.

"I married… Jaune?" Pyrrha wondered softly, paling and blushing at the same time. Sure, she liked him… but marriage? With children? She idly wondered if her friends would be worried if she fainted on the spot.

"Well… I suppose I'm happy for you…" Weiss said hesitantly. It was clear she wasn't really sure if being with Jaune would make her happy, but at least she was trying. Then, as an afterthought, she added "Congratulations."

"I call dibs on being the godmother!" Nora exclaimed with stars in her eyes. If they weren't just a hologram, she'd probably try to hug the childre- nevermind, she tried anyway despite the hologram being just a few inches tall and, well, being intangible.

"…I hope I at least got to be the best man," Ren stated with a slight smile before gently patting his teammate's shoulder. "Congratulations."

"I can't imagine Pyrrha being a stay-at-home housewife," Blake mumbled with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't even know you were interested in Jaune. When did that happen?"

"It was kind of a secret," Nora admitted with a sheepish grin, glancing at the still-dazed champion of Mistral. "No one was really supposed to know… Sorry, Pyrrha."

"…it's okay…"

"I must say, I agree with Blake," Cinder mused, perhaps to add fuel to the fire. "I've never really thought about it, but despite my limited amount of interactions with Jaune… I can't see him as the source of income for a family, just as a housewife… well, househusband anyway."

"I think he'd do fine," Ruby pouted at the lack of faith in her friend, and then pouted further when literally everyone else guiltily glanced away, including Sally, who supposed didn't even know Jaune!

"…my husband. I know you have to leave, I know you don't want to, but it's something you can't control." She continued.

"…Death to the Wolves! To the Traitors!…"

"Yeah, speaking of which, what's up with these alarms?" Emerald spoke up, glancing around. "And why is everyone rushing all over the place? I thought military ships were supposed to be very organized. Everyone at their own position all the time, always ready for a battle, or something like that."

"Maybe this is a guerrilla airship or just a group of rebels?" Blake offered with a shrug. "No… why would they call the others 'traitors' then…"

I don't know, but I don't like this, Neo wrote on her Scroll before showing it to everyone. The bicoloured assassin (now under the guise of an innocent black-haired green-eyed teen) had apparently recovered from meeting 'Sally', though now she seemed to be eyeing both all three her teammates with mistrust – which was fine by Mercury. Hell, even better, she wouldn't annoy him or try to kill him, that was always a plus in his books.

"But I understand why. You have a much greater responsibility, one that affects all of humanity. It Impacts our future and our children's future." The young girl yawned a bit, an act that brought a smile to his face. They were probably tired, seeing that they were in their sleep wear. Most likely decided to make this last minute for him before he left.

"Stop, rewind, rewatch, what the hell is this?" Yang exclaimed with a frown. Mercury found himself sharing the feeling. "All of humanity? The future of our children? No offence Pyrrha, but I wouldn't assign anyone to do something like that, much less Lover Boy, unless they were some kind of God of fighting or whatever."

"I'm sure she's exaggerating, Yang." Albeit the words were meant to be reassuring, there was a slight edge to Cinder's voice, possibly more aimed at whatever this 'it' was than the girl herself. "If this is really a battle ship and he is a soldier here, it's likely that she just means that he'll be fighting a war whose outcome will affect their people. Every soldier would fall in that category, in that case."

"My dear student is right," 'Sally' interjected quietly, somehow still heard above the ruckus. "But even if she were wrong and your friend were to be truly the focal point of this whole picture of war, you must consider that this is not our world. Who knows what could've happened in this world." She paused for a second before trying to push her hand through Jaune's shoulder. He didn't move. "For all we know, this could all be an illusion of some sort, albeit one without a clear origin and whose creator has somehow brought us all here from different parts of Remnant."

"So… you think this is all fake?" asked Ruby.

"I'm not sure… but it could be."

"Wolves battle barges! Assault Ships enroute to the Juniper!"

"But I want you to know that I love you, all of us do" she said, gesturing to the children. "Our children are too young to understand, but when you come back, you can tell them all about your adventures and what you've seen out in space! The planets you've saved and the people you've brought Into your Imperium." She sighed. "I'll always love you. No matter how far you go or how long you're gone, my love will always be strong as the day we met. We will always be waiting here for you…"

"Awwwwww," Yang, Ruby and Nora cooed with a smile while Pyrrha blushed.

Mercury ignored them and subtly elbowed Cinder, giving her an incredulous look. Space? Planets? His Imperium? What the hell was going on? He didn't dare ask Salem about it, even though she knew more than all of them combined, but he couldn't keep his shock to himself.

Cinder replied with a slight frown, probably not knowing the answer herself. After all, no one had ever been in space (not alive, at least. Maybe Nora had sent a few up there with her hammer) since Dust didn't work past the stratosphere, and while they knew of the existence of other planets, they would never be able to reach them. And finally, what was up with that 'Imperium'? As far as she knew, there were no empires in Remnant, only Kingdoms or small semi-independent communities like Menagerie.

"What do you think is this 'Imperium'?" finally Emerald asked the question most of them had been thinking, snapping the three out of their awing session.

"Maybe it's Remnant?" Weiss offered uncertainly. "We haven't seen a lot, so it could be just about anything."

"…Vengeance for the Crimson King! Vengeance for the Thousand sons!"

He closed the pendant, carefully placing it one his pouches as he turned his focus to the events happening before him. Ships of various sizes waged battle. From small strike craft to behemoth capital ships, all in battle against his similar fleet. Former comrades now enemies. Brothers slaying brothers.

"Holy shit, they're really in space?" Mercury cursed, not caring if there was a fifteen-year-old amongst the audience.

"Isn't that impossible?" Nora piped up with an incredulous expression.

"More importantly, what's going on with those ships?" Blake wondered, staring at the ships as if they would give her the answers she was looking for. Obviously they weren't made by Atlas like she half-expected them to be, but they were surprisingly similar to the Northern kingdom's technologically advanced aircrafts, something that didn't really inspire her with hope for a bloodless solution. "Why are they at war?"

"Conflict and hostility is something that will always follow humankind, for it is in its nature. For as long as humans have been, conflict was there with them," Salem mused, slightly interested in the large crafts. She wondered what had become of her, if humanity was comfortable with leaving their planet to explore space. Had they left soldiers back in Remnant to guard it from the Grimm? Was she involved in that war? Was she the reason for that war? So many interesting possibilities…

"Heed thy call my Legion!" He finally spoke up, his voice booming and demanding their attention. It was the voice of a warrior. A general. But most importantly, a father. "The Wolves of Fenris attack us on all sides, aided by our former brothers of the Salamanders, but we must not falter!" He yelled out, from way atop his bridge. Many looked upon him as his voice rang out; From the Hundreds of thousands of regular crewmen made of both humans and Faunus to the hundreds of Astartes looked up to him while the others throughout the ship looked from various monitors. His sons, The Remnant knights. He stood tall and proud, cladded in marble white power armor with a gold trim. The two crescent arcs proudly displayed upon his left pauldron, similar to how there were. His blue eyes scanned them all. His long hair tied into a warrior's wolf tail. His face was stern, showing signs of countless battles and countless deaths he'd seen and even caused. A deep scar running down his right eye, a gift from one of his brothers. His eyes were full of determination and focus as the various sirens blared. But he wasn't afraid and neither were any of his sons. He was Jaune arc! Primarch of the 11th Legion; the Remnant Knights!

"We shall ensure that all those that have betrayed us will know our fury! For the Warmaster!

"What the hell?!" was the general consensus. Even Weiss looked like she'd very much like to join the collective shout.

"Jaune is a… whatever that was… since when?!" Nora shouted, torn between being worried about the interplanetary war and all, and whooping at her Fearless Leader's achievements. If she had to be honest, she never expected him to become famous or anything. Even if they did stick together after graduation, more than likely Pyrrha would've been the one known and Jaune would just fade in the background – harsh, but not untrue, and it applied to Ren too. But apparently this Jaune climbed the ranks big time!

"Are you just ignoring the fact that he's killed countless people?" Blake retorted, far less joyous. She didn't interact much with Jaune, but he was a nice if a tad annoying person with too naive ideals. She didn't like the change nearly as much as the others did. "He's a killer. I mean, I know he's a soldier and he had to kill them, but he's made a living out of killing!"

"Oh sure, because him dying alongside all his friends was obviously the better choice if it kept him from killing," Mercury mumbled under his breath. Blake shot him a glare, but no one else seemed to have heard him. He didn't care. The kitty cat seemed to have quite the skewed view of the world.

"Blake, you can't say that!" Ruby exclaimed, shocked and angry at her friend being called a killer. Sure, Jaune wasn't as close as Team RWBY was to her, but he was still a great friend and eventually the reason why their teams even interacted at all. And he wasn't here to defend himself, so that responsibility fell on her. "We're going to become Huntresses -and Huntsman, sorry Ren- and we're going to have to fight people too! Uncle Qrow always warned me that sooner or later there would be a criminal who didn't stay down after losing their Aura, and I'm prepared for that! If this Jaune killed to protect his friends and Remnant, then I think he's a hero, not a killer!"

"Calm down, Ruby, she's not saying that he's a monster, she just said that it must not have been pleasant for him and we shouldn't just assume he wanted to kill those people." Ever the older sister (and Blake's partner and basically caretaker), Yang immediately stepped in before the WeissVsBlake Fight 2.0 could break out. She knew how stubborn Blake could be and Ruby would match her word by word. She didn't want to stay there forever. "Let's just see how this goes, okay?"

-750.M30; Terra-

Terra, the Birthplace of humanity. A planet once dubbed the Blue jewel of the Sol System now nothing more than a wasteland, centuries of war have dried its once vibrant oceans and burned the green vibrant forests. Upon this world, Humanity rebuilds. For the Emperor of Mankind has foreseen that humanity shall take their place as the true rulers of the Galaxy...for that he will need Generals unlike history has ever seen before…

"What is that?" Weiss wondered out loud, frowning as she noticed that the planet's continents did not match Remnant's own ones. "Is it another planet?"

"It looks destroyed though," noticed Yang, frowning sadly at the poor state of the planet. "What happened to it?"

"Maybe it's part of this war they mentioned?" Pyrrha offered. It saddened her to see a planet look so dead, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that this 'Terra' wasn't going to remain the focus for long. After all, Jaune was from Remnant, so why would it focus on 'Terra' rather than Remnant?

Deep below the ancient Hymalayan mountains that were slowly becoming the Imperial palace, within the Gene-laboratory of The Emperor, 20 infants moved within their gestation pods. Various machinery along with runes and strange wards were upon each capsule. A hulking figure of man walked by each one, he wore simple silk robes with a red silk sash across his chest. A wreath crown made of gold rested upon his head, long black hair flowed a bit past his broad shoulders. His face was that of a god to the mere mortals that walked by him. Piercing golden eyes looked down at each child as he walked by. Each step he took was of grace and royalty but with determination unlike any other. He was towering giant among his mortal subjects, standing at an impressive 10 feet, the tallest of men only barely passing his waist. He is the master of mankind, all of humanity were his subjects and loyal only to him. For he was their Emperor.

He was flanked on both sides by armored giants, standing at nine feet tall, they towered over the mortals that worked diligently on each pod. the Adeptus Custodes. The ever present shield of the Emperor of mankind. Each one was clad in magnificent golden armor, the likes of which had never been seen. Their armor was a work of art itself, each finely crafted and customized for every single member of the Emperor's Legion of Demigods. Their face hidden behind helmets with masterfully cut gems encrusted upon their foreheads. Spears in hand, these large pole arms were their signature weapons. With a blade so wreathed in energy, it could slice through the thickest of armors with ease.

"Wow, those guys must've gone heavy on the steroids or something," Yang whistled. "Unless they have some kind of Semblance that enables them to grow in size, humans can't grow that tall."

"That's not completely true." All eyes turned to Salem, who met their gazes evenly. "Between Aura and the constant usage of Dust, humanity has adapted and changed a lot, so much that even without Aura people can withstand physical traumas that would've previously killed them. I myself have seen a few people reaching close to that height."

"Although it would appear this is not as common on this 'Terra'," Cinder added her own two cents, staring the so-called 'Emperor'. "If this man calls himself a god and these soldiers are proclaimed to be demigods, it's obvious their size and likely power is beyond what any human could possibly ever achieve on this planet."

"My lord, the 11th and 7th primarch have shown remarkable growth. We estimate that it will only require five years for them to reach adulthood!" a hooded figure spoke as he went back to examining another pod.

Of course they would, the design was flawless.

"What are they building? I thought there were children in those weird cradles." Ruby scratched the top of her head, confused.

"I think they may be referring to the children," Weiss replied slowly. She was obviously still trying to understand why. "Though I wonder how they would be supposedly able to reach adulthood in only five years."

"Perhaps they look human but they're not," Salem offered, slightly intrigued. Watts may not have been the best at genetics, but perhaps she would recruit someone with that knowledge to try and replicate the experiment. Once she was capable of literally building her followers years in advance, exactly as she wanted them to be, she could finally get rid of those unstable and emotional humans. Even Cinder was barely tolerable, despite being the most serious of the group. "They might be intelligent robots, or other forms of organisms."

Each child within the pods were painstakingly crafted down to the genetic level by the Emperor himself. Created from his very own genes. They were all to be his perfect generals. Warriors of unsurpassed skill, statesmen with unparalleled charisma that they could bring armies to surrender with only a few sentences. They would be larger, stronger, faster and smarter than any human could ever be! Untouchable by disease or age, they will be his herald's of the imperial truth as they will help him reclaim all of mankind's lost worlds and welcome them into the bright future of his imperium. They were the embodiment of what humanity could be as they evolved. Each Primarch had a purpose and their purpose would be known to each in time.

"What the hell? They're creating clones?!" Yang yelled, disturbed. Sure, the babies looked normal (and adorable, a little voice in her head said), but creating them like one built a car was just wrong!

"I didn't think it was possible." Cinder's voice was awed, and her underlings could see it clearly, but luckily the students of Beacon passed it off as horror and didn't ask questions. "How could they even replicate it? Artificial gestation, perhaps? Why would they grow so fast?"

Neo stuck her tongue out and showed a double thumbs-down and for once, Mercury agreed with the short woman. Yeah, babies were awful, why would someone create them without even getting to fuck beforehand? So dumb.

"Here me now! All of you present!" he spoke, his deep voice grabbing all those present. He looked at them all before looking at each infant,

"They shall be my sons, and in them will live the hopes of a unified humanity. Theirs will be the strength to prevail, not only when victory lies within easy reach, but even when it seems unattainable, when doom settles like a shroud all about. In those times of darkness, my noble sons will shine the brightest of all." He proclaimed, each robed person bowed before him before continuing to work.

"Mmh, so he's just a dictator like many others, just stronger," Cinder commented, even more interested now.

"What do you mean?" asked Pyrrha, confused. "He just said that he wants to protect humanity?"

"You have to look beyond his words and just envision it – he basically said that he's creating superpowered warriors so that he can win any war and rule over everything. It does not matter whether he's a tyrant or a liberator – a dictator is someone who rules over everything, who dictates all rules and all orders." Cinder's words brought thoughtful frowns on the faces of the students as they looked back at the giant of a man (was he even a man?) with much less awe. "It doesn't matter whether he's trying to do good or just to conquer more land. He's creating his son as a means to win, regardless of the situation. Eventually, he's trying to create human super weapons."

"Isn't that a bit too cynical?" Yang tried to joke. It didn't work. "Maybe this guy is just a proud father who thinks his children will go far in life. Dad certainly embarrasses me and Ruby by gushing how he knew we were going to be great even while he was changing our diapers."

"He doesn't look the type to 'gush'," Mercury had to step in, because seriously, Blondie had to be grasping at the straws to even think it could possibly ever work like that. "Also, according to the contract of our team, I have to agree with my leader twenty-four-seven."

He said that to lighten the mood and appear more like a teenager than an adult, but honestly, it was kinda true if one thought about it. Cinder didn't like not having complete control over people.

"My Lord, if i may," one came up to him, bowing his as not to look at the Emperor directly,

"Speak your mind."

"Have you names for your sons? So that we may inscribe them upon the records for the future."

"Barely born and already famous…" Pyrrha trailed off, feeling sorry for the children. She had a hard time with her fame, and she became famous only a few years prior. Those babies would probably be even more lonely than she was.

The Emperor was surprised slightly. He had never thought of naming them, rather to let them name themselves for their deeds. He looked at the 11th, the young baby looking at him. A small smile on the infant's face as he looked upon his father. A name, yes. But before he could utter another word, a rumbling sound was heard followed by a loud boom. Purple lightning materialized above the pods, striking one of the doctors as a purple swirling vortex began to appear, slowly the pods began to shake.

"NO!" The Emperor roared as he reached out, in a vain attempt to stop the hand of fate. Within a split second, his sons were gone. Sucked into the vortex as parts of the lab were destroyed. All that remained of the pods were sparking wires and tubes. The Emperor gazed upon where they had once stood, ignoring that some of the robed men had changed dramatically from their exposure to the vortex.

"Wait, what's happening?" asked Nora, slightly intrigued by the strange vortex. "Was that some kind of teleporting Semblance?"

"Perhaps…" Salem hummed carefully. It was fairly easy to maintain the pretence of being a Huntress, but she had to admit that perhaps too long had passed since she last interacted with someone who was not one of her underlings. Even longer since she'd last spoke to someone who wasn't her enemy without being hostile about it. Perhaps she had underestimated how difficult it would be for Cinder and her two servants to maintain the illusion too. She decided she'd praise Cinder a little bit more as soon as this was over.

"Where did the children go!?" Yang and Weiss shouted at the same time, afraid for the little babies.

Their faces deformed and grotesque, resembling an eldritch horror more than a man. Their skin peeling off in places as a snarling inhuman face formed on the chest of one. They looked at the Emperor, whose eyes angrily stared at the aftermath of the event. They ran at him, wielding whatever debris they could use as a weapon. Before the custodes could react, the daemonic men erupted into golden fire, screaming In agony as the Emperor walked forward, more of the mutated robed men began to spontaneously combust into gold fire, their cries of agony ignored by the one causing their painful deaths. His golden eyes were replaced with that of a light of pure gold, like that of a god. He looked at one of the final daemonic possessed men, his illuminated eyes piercing the creatures very own eyes. Fear. thats what it felt. pure fear from the Emperor's piercing gaze. The creature too erupted into a flame of golden fire.

"Holy shit!" Yang, who previously been investigating the empty spots where the pods had been, jumped three feet in the air when the monsters appeared, and then again when they spontaneously combusted into golden flames.

"What are those things?! Shapeshifters?!" Despite knowing it was some kind of illusion (or more like, they were illusions), all the students fell into their own practised (and clumsy, in Mercury's opinion) combat stances, ready to fight, only to be shocked when the Emperor took care of all those creatures with his sheer presence, without raising a single finger.

"What kind of Semblance is that?" Blake gasped, shocked by the sight.

"…We have no idea what this 'Terra' planet holds. Perhaps people without Semblances… or perhaps people with much stronger powers," Salem hypothesised, calm despite the obvious surprise hiding behind her eyes.

"She's right," Cinder added. Mercury rolled her eyes. It felt so unreal for anyone to have to agree with Salem. Everything that left her lips was law and truth, that was how Salem worked. But the students didn't know that, he supposed, so Cinder coming to her aid didn't feel so weird for them. "We have never explored the outer atmosphere, much less space or other planets. It's possible they hold even more surprising secrets than this."

"We must not delay, "They" may seek to undermine my efforts but mankind will thrive." He stated as he walked away from the smoldering remains of the creatures, his eyes returning to normal. "Save all that you can and seal the room."

Each primarch was taken by the gods of chaos, the Emperor knew this. Each one scattered to the farthest reaches of the galaxy...waiting to be reunited with their father…

"Phew…" Ruby sagged in relief at learning the fate of the babies. "At least they're still alive…"

"For now…" Emerald muttered under her breath before everything warped around them (or maybe they warped and everything remained the same).

Too shocked by the power of the Emperor still, everyone just froze as their surroundings changed and bled into something else entirely.

-unknown sector of space-

The gestation pod ripped its way from the warp, the runes placed upon it by the Emperor aiding its escape. Space Cracked and ripped open with purple lightning over a planet with a shattered moon. The pod raced towards the planet, breaking the atmosphere with a thunderous boom as it screeched across the landscape in flames before crashing into the trees below. Alerting a nearby individual making a journey home...among other things…

"What? What is that? Did it travel through space?" Weiss mumbled confusedly as they all reconciled themselves with their surroundings. "Did it become a meteor? Oh gods, is the baby okay?"

"Weiss, you're acting like an anxious mother," Ren commented, which fell to deaf ears. The black-haired boy just sighed and decided to fade into the background again. Literally, he mused. With all the green around them, his green clothes almost camouflaged him.

"Where are we, though?" Emerald looked around. As a street thief, she was excellent at identifying her surroundings, had great memory for places (and people) and a good sense of direction. That being said, she still couldn't recognize the place. It looked like Remnant, but yet again, who said it wasn't another alien planet that was only similar to their home one?

"A forest?" Mercury offered sarcastically, earning himself a glare from both Emerald and Cinder. Tsk, of course Cinder took the side of the no-fun uptight thief. Always so serious. Bah.

"What the hell was that?" the man asked himself as he hurriedly made his way towards the impact sight. He was large and muscular, standing at nearly six and half feet with short blond hair. A large broadsword nearly the same length rested upon his back. His face showed that of a grizzled warrior with a stubble of beard growing.. An eye patch covering his right eye. A brown cloak hid most of his armor but what could be seen was white with gold trimmings with leather straps here and there. As he neared the crater, faint crying began to fill the air, kicking him into high gear as he ran faster. A crying baby from what he could tell. But out here? By itself? He didn't have time to think as he noticed the destroyed and splintered tree line leading to whatever crashed and the source of the crying.

As he came upon the site, the crying was more prominent. "By the brothers…"

A gazed down a large crater, formed by whatever just plummeted from the sky. He noticed that the crying was coming from a strange looking capsule in the center. Sliding down, making his descent as he got near the capsule, seeing it was a machine of sorts with strange writing on it. Though more concerned about who or what was crying within it, he was surprised to see a blonde haired baby boy lying within it.

"So cute!" Yang and Weiss squealed, their worry forgotten, as they phased through the man to make weird faces at the child.

The other students crowded around the pod as well, while the 'villains' all collectively rolled their eyes and exchanged exasperated glances. They couldn't do anything in this illusion – why even try? Wandering around would've probably been much more productive than staring at the little wailer.

"Hey, hey there little one." he says, trying to sooth the baby as he took off his cloak. Revealing an armored breastplate with various daggers in leather pouches. Armored gauntlet upon his arms and greaves upon his legs. He gently lifted the child within his large hands as he wrapped him in the cloak. The child slowly stopped crying, looking up at the man with blue eyes before smiling a bit. "You're safe now." he looked at the capsule then back down at the baby.

"So, you were in that thing? And you fell from the sky?"

He didn't have time to ponder anymore as he heard the familiar sound of a growl. He looked up at the edge of the crater to see Beowolves snarling at him.

"So this is Remnant," Salem noted, finding a little satisfaction in knowing that in this dimension at least, a patriarch and the son of this 'Emperor' had landed on her planet, where she would be free to corrupt and manipulate him. She was fairly annoyed by the fact that there were no girls amongst the children, but she supposed that a perfect clone of a male can only be another male, and they were clones of the Emperor. She turned to look at the man who had found the baby, surprisingly similar to the child as well. "And this man must be a Huntsman."

"Yay! Cutie Pie is going to be adopted by a Huntsman and will grow up to be a kickass Huntsman himself!" Yang cheered before she stopped and turned around, realizing what she'd said and in front of who. Red in the face, she coughed embarrassed to try and get the amused gazes off of her. "I mean… it's good to know that he'll be safe?"

"Not all Huntsmen are good parents," Cinder replied, with maybe a tad more harshness than she strictly needed to put in her tone.

"But-"

"Being able to fight doesn't mean you're ready to take care of another human being – in fact, the combat instincts Hunters have are actually counterproductive, not to mention dangerous to the baby. Hunters may look cool, but they are essentially war machines with feelings and free will." Cinder's words were clipped, but somehow she managed to maintain her 'I'm a student, don't mind me' façade. Mercury had to give it to her, she at least was a good actor when she wanted to be. "Their Aura also immensely increases their strength, which means they might seriously hurt children unless they unlock their Aura – something all Hunters do to their children soon after birth for that exact reason. This means that the children grow up having over ten times the physical abilities of all other children, often leading to ego, arrogance, bullying, isolation, unfounded dreams of grandeur and even cruelty and violence. This is not directly their parents' fault, of course, but a natural occurrence in an environment where a six-year-old can easily beat up children twice their age, and by the age of ten they can easily defeat non-Aura-user adults, which makes them far less controllable and far less likely to respect adults in general."

She dully returned the looks of shock sent her way by the students before pointing at Salem. "Sally, our instructor, made sure to make us learn the statistics and the side-effects of having a super-powered chaste in our society. As I said, it is not strictly the parents' fault. Put a tiger in a room of cats and we all know what would happen at the first sign of a fight. When it comes to adoption, Hunters often use their influence and money to become more likely candidates, but they should really think about what it will entail for the children."

Mercury barely stopped himself from clapping. He hadn't known any of that. Of course, if he thought about it, it made perfect sense, but he'd never actually looked into it. Apparently, Cinder was more than just power incarnated.

"My former student is correct," Salem interjected, moving the stares from Cinder onto her. "Hunters may have the best intentions, but they often don't know their own strength or what effects they may cause simply by having children. The practice of waiting until seventeen to unlock children's Aura -and thus after at least four years of previous training- was a very intelligent tradition. The Hunter Academies were supposed to teach how to integrate Aura into their students' fighting styles. But considering how easy it is for someone to unlock their Aura, this tradition became obsolete and now even the pets of Hunter families have Aura."

Yang and Ruby exchanged glances with the rest of their friends and slowly nodded. Of course Zwei had Aura, how could he survive living with them otherwise?

…Maybe Cinder and Sally were onto something.

"Shit."

He reached for his sword, instinctively pulling the baby protectively close to him as he pulled the massive claymore free with one hand. The Beowolves snarled from where they stood atop the edge of the crater. The baby began to cry, and as if on signal the beowolves began to race towards them, an entire pack. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to take on a pack with a child in hand, he immediately put his weapon away and began running and climbing. Holding the baby close as the beowolves raced past the pod, some stopping to look upon it as if drawn to it while the rest aimed for the fleeing pair. The hunter was too focused on escaping, too focused on protecting the crying baby as he neared the edge of the crater that he failed to notice a beowulf lunge at him. With nothing to stop it from sinking its claws into his back only to be stopped in midair by something as the baby let out one loud cry. Something pushing it back with such force at the other creatures it caused them all to tumble back down the crater. But all that mattered was the safety of the child as he climbed out of the crater and ran. Running as far as he can towards the closest village. Failing to see as many Grimm converged onto the crater as if moths were drawn to a flame.

"So the Grimm are attracted to the pod," Cinder mused as they all ran after the Hunter – with some of them complaining about it as well. She glanced back to the crowding Grimm, wondering. "Or maybe what was inside it?" 'Did Salem know and sent some Grimm to investigate?' It wasn't impossible.

"Let's hope not, since what was inside it was an adorable baby," Yang replied, trying to peek over the Huntsman's shoulder at the child. "I'm more curious about how the Beowolf was thrown back like a broken doll, honestly. Was it this man's Semblance?"

"Some kind of forcefield around him?" hypothesised Weiss. "Possible, but unlikely. He didn't seem to have noticed the Beowolf, and a Semblance that repels all entities passively would've repelled the child too. Considering the baby is a clone of the Emperor, it's more than likely that he did it himself, using some of his… 'father's… powers."

"Wouldn't that be something?" Mercury commented off-handedly. "The little tyke having such powers. It'd make him hell to raise, that's for sure. Imagine being unable to stop him from doing anything he wants… from stealing the cookies to beating up his classmates."

"What?! Why are you assuming he'd be a violent child?!" Ruby exclaimed, aghast at the thought of the baby growing up so vicious.

"Hey, I'm not saying he'd be cruel – I'm saying that during little scuffles at school, he'd more than likely get the upper hand no matter what. That kind of power can go to someone's head, especially if like many strong children, he were to be praised for his strength and halfheartedly admonished, rather than scolded and punished." Mercury didn't point at anyone, but Yang still felt a stab of annoyance for some reason. "I mean, I'm sure you know Team CRDL, right? Well, their leader, Cardin Winchester, is the perfect example of what happens when you praise a child for brutish feats of strength rather than good manners or behaviour. He's only just now learning that he isn't on top of the world, isn't he?"

Pyrrha bit her lip to prevent herself from nodding. Cardin had been doing better in that department, that's for sure. He and Jaune even kind-of managed to work together on duo projects. But Mercury was spot on with his description of Cardin at the beginning of the year.

-hours later-

He didn't stop running. No, he couldn't. He needed to ensure this child was safe. It was his duty to ensure the safety of others, his duty as a hunter. He fell to his knees with exhaustion at the gate of the village, the guards were quick to surround him. Realizing he wasn't a bandit but rather someone they knew.

"Alexander! Lad are you alright?" an elderly portly guard asked as the others helped him get to his feet. "Here, drink some water." the guard handed Alexander a canteen of water the exhausted hunter gulped down greedily as they walked him towards a bench.

"So his name is Alexander… Sally, do you know anyone by that name?" Blake asked, turning to face the disguised Queen of the Grimm. "Or have you seen him somewhere?"

"I can't say I have, although that is not surprising. Hunters don't keep in touch very often. We report to the authorities whenever we take or finish a mission, but unless we meet in the wildlands, we don't usually seek each other out." Salem pretended to be thoughtful, although she most likely was just bored of the topic already. Hunters, Hunters, Hunters… ugh. Grimm, world domination and killing Ozpin would've been a much better choice of topic, especially since in her case they were all tied together. "Not only because with our strength, any bar brawl or small competition might get out of hand and destroy a city block, but also because we tend to keep our missions to ourselves, so seeking company of competitors is ill-advised. Of course, many Hunters do meet up every once in a while, but due to my gender, I'm more often than not regarded as weaker than my male colleagues, which is something I cannot stand, hence why I try to avoid them."

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked," Blake hurried to reply, embarrassed at having brought up the topic even though she had no way of knowing – especially since Salem was just pretending anyway.

"No need to apologize, girl. You couldn't have known."

"Thank you.." He gasped as he sat down, the bundle he held close to him moved a bit as he remembered he was carrying precious cargo. "You're safe now little one." he told the baby, opening his cloak a bit as the child struggled to free itself.

"A baby? Alexander, why do you have a child with you?" The elderly guard asked him, motioning another to get more water.

"I stole him from the stork. It didn't like that, hence the running." Mercury commented with a straight face, making the students snort in amusement and his teammates glare at him. Seriously, was he the only one with a sense of humour? Emerald's smiles wouldn't work without humour to back them up!

"I found him in the woods, after his alien spaceship crash-landed and created a meteor-sized crater. Beowolves found us, so I grabbed the unknown baby and ran, obviously." Ren replied with an equally flat tone.

Mercury's eyes twinkled darkly. "I found the star child crying in the woods and took him back out of the goodness of my heart, fighting off the dreadful monsters of the shadows to keep his light safe, and now here I am, gazing upon his innocence and vowing to keep him safe forever."

Ren closed his eyes for a second, concentrating and tuning out the questioning sounds of his friends, before he stared hardly at Mercury. "Deep inside the fair woods of the fertile land a heart of metal pure I found, wherein holding the purest of souls, a baby beneath the blessing of the sun father. Alas the envy of night preyed on him as foul horrors of the dark lunged, teeth poised to strike and snuff out his light. My life as his shield, I stole him from death, holding the treasure great to my chest as I left the darkness behind me, the sun in my eyes and heart. Hours and hours running I kept, burning in my legs and dread in my soul, as eventually the blessing refuge of the village kind in led me, and solace I found for my weary body. Now safe and victorious my eyes I rest, on the sunshine trapped within the precious most treasure, and life couldn't be sweeter."

Mercury stumbled as if hit and fell to his knees, lowering his head. "Beaten I am, as words now escape me. Breathless and lost, I let your light guide me. Apologies I give you, master of poetry. My arrogance spoke as my heart stayed silent."

Then he dusted himself off and stood up, the two returning to look at the kneeling Huntsman not too far from them.

"…what the hell was that?" Yang asked, flabbergasted.

Ren shrugged. "During my meditation, the only thing that could keep Nora asleep as to not distract me was poetry. I'm a bit rusty, but it seems not as much as I thought."

The stares turned to Mercury, who just shrugged. "I was looking for ways to mess with people. It's no lyric prank, but talking like a poet or whatever weirds people out. It's funny."

"Mason," he looked at the old guard, "You wouldn't believe me if i told you. I need to rest. I literally ran for hours to get here and even aura has its limits when it comes to exhaustion. Here, take the child, make sure he's alright." As soon as he tried to hand the baby to Mason, he started to cry loudly, only stopping once Alexander held him back.

"Seems like the young lad has taken a liking to ya!" Mason laughed as he looked down at the baby. "Might be hard for you to give him back to his folks."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem…" Emerald commented, raising an eyebrow at how attached the baby had gotten to the man.

"It's possible he's the first human contact he's ever had, considering he was grown in that pod, so he might have latched onto him," Cinder theorized.

Behind them, Neo rolled her eyes at the two. Not being able to talk sucked when she had to play nice around people for prolonged periods of time.

"Don't think he has any Mason. Found him all alone in the forest." he explained to the guard, he looked at him and Mason knew he wanted to explain more but not in front of others.

"Bron, you're taking my watch tonight. Need to see make sure Alexander here gets to the inn alright and write down any Grimm he might have spotted." The two walked away as Alexander held the infant closely as he drifted off to sleep.

-hour later-

"You're saying you found him in some machine after it fell from the sky?" Mason asked, rubbing his chin in disbelief. Alexander looked at him then back to the sleeping baby on the bed.

"Honestly, I'm sure I would think he had too much to drink…" Yang laughed awkwardly. "Think if he had a wife – Hi dear, don't be angry, but we now have a son who I found in the forest in a metal thing that fell from the sky. Please don't kill me."

"Bold of you to assume she wouldn't immediately love the child herself," Blake sassed with a small grin.

"She's right, no one would ever be able to dislike such a cute little baby," Weiss smiled as she cooed at the sleeping baby. Now that they were still, it was much easier to get a look at him and he was Adorable with a capital A!

"Basically. I didn't have much time to examine it more but it had this strange writing on it and it gave off a feeling of dread honestly. The Grimm came down on us before I could make sense of what I was looking at."

"That's quite a story, if it was coming from anyone else i would have thought they were hitting the bottle too hard…" Mason looked at Alexander, he knew this man for many years. He knew when he was being serious and when he was joking. Right now? He was being the most serious he'd ever seen. Mason looked at the baby, sighing.

"I wish I knew people enough to just immediately tell when they're lying or not," mumbled Ruby. "It would make fooling Dad much easier if I could see whether he actually saw me sneaking out to improve Crescent Rose instead of just being bluffing. He's done that so many times!"

"At least you don't get grounded whenever he just so happens to know you were out clubbing and you slip up and confess right away while he was just baiting you," Yang complained as well, rolling her eyes at her father's strictness. Seriously, what kind of adult didn't let sixteen-year-old girls with superpowers and superweapons out clubbing? It wasn't like she would get harassed anyway, so what was the point of keeping her out of the pubs?

"I'm not even going to bother telling her that underage drinking is literally against the law," Ren sighed, shaking his head. Pyrrha placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"What are you gonna do about him?" he asked.

"I don't know honestly. Maybe an orphanage?" Alexander answered,

"Alexander, the closest Orphanage is in the city and you know that ain't no life for a child. A child deserves a loving home and family. Not the walls of an orphanage hoping they will be adopted, and even then-"

"Orphanages are horrid," Cinder stated bluntly. "A few may be less dreary and dreadful than others, but every last one of them holds the same message – you don't have a family, hope the one that picks you up isn't a monster in disguise. Whether your parents died or abandoned you, no one is ever happy going to the orphanage. Growing up there, with no memories of a happier life, would most likely result in several psychological problems, first and foremost abandonment issues."

No one dared to speak up after her tirade, the students out of fear of the suddenly angry woman, and her allies simply because they had nothing else to add. If Mercury had anything to say, he swallowed it down as well – some women were hot while angry, Cinder was just dangerous and scary… even while calm.

"What would you have me do then?" Alexander interrupted him.

"Take the child lad, take him home. It wouldn't be hard to pass him off as one your own since he has the same mop of blonde on his head as you."

"What about papers? How am i gonna explain it when he needs to get shots or even school?"

"There are ways, but that would mean that first and foremost, the government would need to get involved, and with a child as special as this, chances are that he would never experience the warmth of a loving family, more likely to be taken and studied like a lab rat, to try and see what made him tick and how he could be different from normal humans," Salem huffed, shaking her head. While she was not above child experimentation, she knew fully well that the so-called 'good government' wasn't either. With the excuse of checking for a threat in the boy, they'd take him apart and rebuild him 'for science and safety'. "Especially true if he does have the powers of the Emperor – they would do anything to try and find out how to harvest those powers. The only reason they haven't done so with the Grimm already, is because any part that is cut off disintegrates, and they themselves turn to dust after being slain, making them impossible to study beyond the basics. He doesn't have that luxury and would likely spend the rest of his days in a lab or as a human weapon."

"…isn't that a bit cynical?" Ruby spoke up weakly. She wasn't usually so meek, but the fervent talk about human experimentation on a child had her cowed – especially since the baby was so adorable! "I mean, I know there are some bad people in the world, but the government and the Hunters wouldn't just let that happen, right?"

"It has happened in the past, several times," Cinder replied for her mistress. "Faunus were studied much in the same way at first. It's the harsh truth – if you are doing something illegal like human experimentation and no one finds out because you're doing it away from prying eyes, you can't be processed as there is no proof. You get away with inhumane practices such as that. Until the law has proof, no permanent actions can be taken." Not to mention the law could be easily paid off, she didn't add. It was enough of a hard argument as it was.

"Lad, you forget! I'm Mason Xiong, I can easily get you all that no problem whatsoever." he could see that his friend was still not convinced. "Lad, this boy is special. I can feel it, there is more to him than meets the eye! If what you say is true, then it was by the brothers doing that you were to find him!" Mason finished, hoping his friend would agree.

Alexander laughed, "You're right, he's alone. Doesn't have anyone to look out for him, and I'm sure my grandfather and father would kick my ass for abandoning a child like that. Plus, my wife and I have been trying for a boy for some time now." Alexander looked at the baby as he moved around, waking up.

Nora snorted loudly. "That's what Jaune said his parents did with him – kept trying until they got him. Took them several tries."

Team JNPR sniggered quietly as they remembered the stupidly high number of sisters their leader had. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but Jaune always looked so tiredly resigned whenever he mentioned them, that the mere mention was now funny.

Team RWBY and Salem's underlings exchanged confused glances. Ruby vaguely recalled Jaune mentioning… four sisters? Five? Must've been rough, she thought, looking at Yang with narrowed eyes. So much babying from her sister taught her that older sisters only had one goal in life – to embarrass their younger siblings. She shuddered to think of Yang's teasing multiplied by five!

"Good on you lad, I'll set to work acquiring the papers, by the time I'm done, no one will doubt he's yours."

"Do me another favor, this might be a longshot but maybe you can figure out this symbol at least." Alexander said, grabbing a piece of paper and pen from the night stand, drawing a symbol of a two headed eagle with its wing open as each head looked in a different direction.

"What's this?" Mason examined the drawing.

"Oh, just the symbol of some immensely powerful guy who also happens to be the Emperor of an interplanetary kingdom that is at war with monstrous creatures who kidnapped the child and sent him here," Mercury snarked while rolling his eyes.

"That, or a variation of Cardin's symbol," Pyrrha noted, frowning slightly – now that was a scary thought, the Emperor being anything like Cardin. "But I'm sure they're not related at all."

"Thank the gods…" all her friends mumbled at the same time.

Mercury blinked owlishly at them, but they refused to answer, instead turning to look at the two talking men. He then turned to Cinder, who just shrugged slightly, indicating she too was in the dark about their sudden synchronization.

"One of the symbols on the machine, the thing about this particular one is that it was larger than the others and practically made of gold."

"You think someone might know where this kid came from?" Mason asked, putting the paper in his pocket.

"Who knows? Could be an Atlas experiment gone bad, I wouldn't be surprised if they were experimenting on kids." he picked up the boy, ensuring the cloak wasn't too tight before setting off on his journey back home

"W-WHAT?! OF COURSE NOT!" Weiss practically yelled, her pale complexion quickly turning red with anger and outrage at the accusation. "Who does he think he is, accusing Atlas of such horrid practices!? That's unfounded slander based on rumours started by Atlas's detractors, and would never find any root because it's completely false!"

"You have to admit, Weiss, Atlas is infamous for its… questionable practices and love for money and power," Blake tried to reason with her, only adding fuel to the already burning fire.

"What is that supposed to mean?! That all Atlasians are power-hungry, money-hoarders who cared not for whose lives they trample as long as they get what they want?!" The sudden interest everyone had for the walls and ceiling seemed to piss her off even further. "Atlas is regarded as 'evil' only because the other kingdoms are envious of Atlas's technology! We have technology you could only ever dream of having, and the other kingdoms reply by shunning the Northern and slandering its name to try and hide the fact that they're envious of how much more advanced we are!"

"Except that Atlas jealously hoards that technology and every last one of their scientists is under a Non-Disclosure Agreement as to prevent any and all of their precious tech from falling into the hands of the other kingdoms," Emerald snapped bitterly before she could help herself. "Because, oh the horror, how could they ever let other kingdoms become as great as they are?! Then they wouldn't stand out any more and they wouldn't be able to lord their power and money over everything! What would come next, after equality, sharing the Dust trade instead of holding the monopoly with over ninety percent of the Dust trades belonging to the Schnee Dust Company?! Oh, the horror!"

Apparently Emerald wasn't as over her previous miserable life as she thought she was.

Cinder put a hand on the green-haired thief's shoulder before things could get any worse. "Forgive Em, she just has a very bad history with Atlasians and she's suffered from it a lot," she explained vaguely, inwardly sighing in relief when Weiss lost some of her anger and looked slightly guilty instead. Guilt-tripping was an efficient strategy for diffusing arguments, after all. "However, her words were out of line and I hope" she gave Emerald a withering glare "that it won't happen again."

The two girls, now appropriately cowed, nodded and meekly apologized to each other before they returned to pay attention to the illusion around them.

"Alright then, I'll see what i can do. Before you go, What name are you gonna give him?"

Alexander looked at the baby, he smiled up at Alexander, "Jaune. Jaune Arc." he said to his friend, a small smile on his face as he left.

For a second, in the room silence reigned supreme. Then that second went to hell and chaos merrily took its place, wrecking the silence with heartfelt joy.

"What? What is this travesty?! There's no way that baby could be our Jaune!" Weiss screeched – not that she'd ever admit screeching, but it was true. "This is impossible!"

"Holy hell, Vomit Boy, alien son of the overpowered ruler of planets? Fuck me if I'm wrong but I can't see it." Yang was elbowed in the side by Blake, but she didn't correct her foul language.

"This isn't real… right?" Pyrrha rubbed her forehead, not knowing what to think. "I mean, this is just an alternative universe that we're being shown, not our own. We cannot know if this is true or not."

"In fact, even if it were, Jaune himself likely wouldn't know about it," Ren cut in as well, looking surprised but nowhere near the level of the others. A lifetime with Nora will do that to a person. "I doubt his parents will just tell him that he is an unknown alien dropped from the sky and adopted. It… definitely would cause a lot of trauma."

Salem hummed, frowning. A glance at her underlings told her that the idea of this 'Jaune Arc' being anyone important was so ridiculous it shocked them into silence. Whoever he was, he must've been truly pathetic for even Cinder to be holding in laughter – she had trained her to show only the emotions she wanted to show, and she prided herself in being a good teacher.

"Is he the one you thought I was related to?" she asked idly, getting a shocked nod in return from Emerald. Not the one who had asked the question, but good enough still. "I do not see why you find this so disconcerting. Isn't this a parallel universe?"

"It must be very parallel, almost perpendicular, for that dunce to be anything like that Emperor," mumbled Weiss, rolling her eyes as she slowly composed herself. "He's mediocre at best, and shows none of the talent required to become an outstanding Hunter, much less the patriarch of this 'Emperor' or the warmaster he seemed to be earlier."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Nora asked, peeved at the remark about her Fearless Leader.

"Well, you can't deny that Jaune's pretty much at the bottom of combat class, and he's not doing so good in any academic class either. And he's clumsy. And socially awkward. And…" Yang scratched the back of her head, sheepish about being badmouthing the boy behind his back. "Well, sure he's friendly, but have you seen anything he's good at and doesn't mess up at?"

"Yang!" Ruby immediately protested. "You make it sound like he's useless! Just because he doesn't have the same interests as you doesn't mean you can just write him off!"

"I don't want to be rude, Ruby, but she does have a point," Blake noted with a little grimace. "From what I understood of what he's mentioned about his family, they were overprotective to the point he barely interacted with people and if he did, his sisters embarrassed him to the point he wished he hadn't, and I can understand that's the origin of a lot of his… shortcomings… so I don't blame him, but you have to admit, he really does lack a lot of the skills necessary to be a Hunter. He barely scrapes by in grades…"

The villains exchanged glances. They didn't say it, but it was more than likely that this 'Jaune' only fell so short of their expectations because they all had either experience or high-quality personal training and tutoring, and so the average person couldn't compare, but if his friends talked about him in such a way, what kind of person was he? Could he really be that incompetent and yet have gotten into Beacon?

"Jaune has a lot of good qualities," Ren interjected. "First and foremost his patience. He may get angry at times, but he's normally very accommodating of anything our team needs – without butchering beds and shelves to create safety-hazardous bunk beds, if I may add." Team RWBY shifted guiltily. "Not to mention he is fairly strong for someone with so little training. Even at the beginning of the year, he was stronger than me, and I've been training for years. He may not have the skill, but he certainly does have the body of a Hunter. And he's eager to learn as well, even though he's still behind."

"I think he mentioned that he dealt with stress by working out since he couldn't go out very often and since working out was the only way his sisters would leave him alone," Pyrrha recalled. "Although I may be wrong."

Neo clapped her hands and showed her Scroll to everyone. 'Can we just keep going? I understand this is shocking and all, but wouldn't it be better to wait until it's over before jumping to conclusions? Besides, this is a parallel universe, so there's no telling what is the same and what is different from ours. There's no point in arguing about it.'

Mercury grinned at the short girl. "Couldn't you have said that two minutes ago?"

She just deadpanned at him.

"Welcome to the Arc family Jaune!" Mason exclaimed, chuckling as set about his task.

Alexander would arrive home a day later, his daughters and wife surprised by the baby boy but welcomed the newest addition to their family when Alexander explained he found the boy abandoned near the road on his way home from his mission.

"Alexander, I know there is more to this story of where Jaune came from." Aryl stated as she fed the infant some milk from a bottle. It was late and their daughters had gone to bed, leaving them alone with Jaune.

"Alexander and Aryl… we should mark that down just in case we need to ask Jaune if his parents are called that," Pyrrha pointed out. All the students pulled out their Scrolls and made a note of it while Salem subtly rolled her eyes. Technology…

Seriously, what was wrong with the old pen and paper?

"Hon, You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Look, I know this was sudden but he didn't have home and i doubt he would have survived on his own out th-"

"Hush, there's no reason to apologize. I'd be disappointed if you brought him to some orphanage. I don't need to know where he came from or how you found him, what matters is that he's our son now. He's an Arc." she stated with a smile. Alexander couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, he is." he smiled at Jaune as he had drifted off to sleep. He leaned forward to stroke his cheek with a finger, "Our son."

"Kudos for the supermom, she's officially awesome!" Nora grinned.

Not that it was hard, honestly. For Ren and Ruby, their mothers were dead. For Yang, her mother had abandoned her immediately after her birth for whatever the hell reason. For Nora, she was either dead or who knows where. Weiss's mother was a miserable alcoholic emotionally abused and neglected by her husband. Blake had a loving mother, but considering she ran away, she had no idea if she would ever be welcome back home.

For Cinder… she would torch anyone would dared talk about her family. Emerald, again she really didn't like talking about it. Mercury had had a great mother! …for all of two years, when his father had killed her and then, a few years later, began to train him to the bone. Neo… she had Torchwick and that was all the family she needed.

As for Salem, they had locked her in that stupid tower and one of the first things she'd done after becoming immortal had been to seek them out and kill them. Honestly, they fully deserved it. Not to mention, hadn't they locked her in there, she wouldn't have met Ozpin, and this whole mess wouldn't have happened in the first place. So yeah, no love lost between them.

Pyrrha suddenly felt the urgent, unstoppable need to call her mother as soon as she could and start bawling about how much she loved her and how good of a mother she was. She didn't understand why that need had come to her and her Scroll couldn't connect, so she made a mental note to come back to it later.

Seriously, what a bunch of mommy issues. And in some cases, daddy issues as well.

-790.M30, 50 years after the scattering-

"50 years after the scattering? What's that supposed to mean?" Yang wondered out loud. "What's the scattering?"

"Maybe it's when the babies were kidnapped and sent away?" Weiss hypothesised. "That would mean it's over thirty years in the future, though."

"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them and in the furnace of war I shall forge them. They shall be of iron will and steely sinew. In great armour I shall clad them and with the mightiest weapons shall they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight them. They shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines...and they shall know no fear."

The Emperor walked on top of a marble podium, his golden power armor glistening in the sun as he gazed upon the massive armies before him. His sons were gone, but their genetic material remained and with it, he created tens of thousands of genetically altered transhuman soldiers from the youth of Terra. While not in the same category as his missing Primarchs. They were still a formidable force of warriors.

"So now instead of a dozen Primarchs, he wants millions of supersoldiers just barely inferior to them," Blake commented, idly noting how the process of forming an army of clones was eerily similar to Atlas's robot army – one project Alpha that was then replicated and mass-produced to create an army. She wondered if this Imperium had the same conquest-driven mentality as the cold kingdom of the North.

"Sounds like a fair trade," shrugged Emerald. "Although I'd much rather not be on the defenders' side, because they don't look so friendly."

Larger and far stronger than any ordinary human, these giants of men were cladded in magnificent power armor and given weaponry that no army could match. They were the Adeptus Astartes, Space Marines. Many held large banners of the Palatine Aquila, the two headed eagle. A symbol of the Emperor of Mankind.

A massive shadow began to cover everything, the Emperor looked up towards the sky, seeing his fleet of massive warships hovering in the sky, The Armada Imperialis. He spoke, his voice was powerful and awe inspiring, a normal human voice could never compare to his.

"My Asartes! We shall go forth and reclaim the lost colonies of humanity! Freeing them of ignorance, mysticism, and self destruction. Those that hold my people in chains shall suffer the wrath of humanity!" he yelled out as the Space Marines looked on. "We will bring them into the Imperium, ensuring humanity's rightful place as the true dominant race of the galaxy!" the space marines roared in agreement at this proclamation from their Emperor. "None shall stand before us." Thus the Emperor began the great crusade, the greatest galactic conquest the galaxy has ever seen.

"What?! He wants to rule the entire galaxy?" Ruby exclaimed, shocked.

'Well, he sure is ambitious,' Salem remarked to herself, grinning slightly. She loved a good war, and although so long had passed since her last big battle, she still liked the thrill it gave her. She obviously wasn't the only one. 'I'm curious as to how far he is going to go before he's stopped.'

Blake groaned. The one thing she wished she was wrong, she hit the nail right on the head. She was sure that if Atlas ever got the chance, they too would try to claim dominance over everything else in the whole universe just because it was their birthright or something, as if being Atlasians made them superior to all other life forms.

Then, they all yelped as their surroundings bled away once again, and the clouds they had been initially floated to reappeared under their feet.

"Is it… over?" Weiss wondered out loud.

"Not… exactly." Salem was the only one not to jump as the voice from earlier returned, a slightly sheepish undertone easily detectable in the words. "You see, this is where I would normally dump you back on the ground to stew on what you've seen… but this time, I wanted to do it a little more kindly and so I wanted you to think what you'll do next instead of dropping you outright. First of all – don't worry, I won't literally drop you. I'll just float you down like I floated you up." Blake opened her mouth, but the voice beat her to it. "Who I am and anything about me is a no-no, okay? Just talk it out amongst yourselves."

"What is there to talk about?" Yang exclaimed. "We just got told that in that universe there's a crazy guy who wants to rule the universe, and that apparently Jaune there is a superwarrior from another planet. It's not exactly something we can do much about anyway."

"I think he meant, who are we going to tell?" Salem interjected smoothly, seemingly deep in thought. "I would suggest you to stay silent about this whole experience. We cannot be sure if this was just the result of an illusion-type Semblance and we certainly cannot be sure if what we've seen is true or not, so mentioning it to others might end poorly – they might become convinced you've gone crazy, for once. My advice would be to not tell anyone and investigate on your own… subtly."

"My teacher has a lot of experience, I think we should do what she said, don't you agree?" Cinder spoke up as well, silencing both Emerald and Mercury with a glance. "After all, who would we even tell?"

"Well, I think we should tell Jaune," Nora pointed. "It's about him, it's only fair we tell him."

"And risk adding ego to the list of his annoying traits?" Weiss scoffed. "No, thank you."

"Ego… look who's talking," Yang stage-whispered to Ruby, who snickered despite the glare the white-haired heiress sent them.

"Is there anything else you wish to talk about?"

"Yes. I would appreciate if you did not mention me at all," Salem continued, a plan already forming in her head. "They would ask you how you know about me, and that would result in people questioning you about this whole experience. If you need to contact me for advice, feel free to ask Cinder. She'll be glad to help you get to me. I'm afraid I'm a bit hard to reach on most days, what's with my missions and all."

"I suppose we should say goodbye, then," Ren stated, bowing slightly. "It has been a pleasure."

"Alright then! Here we go!"

The clouds disappeared, and the people on them slowly began to descend. As they did, Mercury looked at Ren and grinned. "Too humble you are, dearest of friends. The pleasure all mine was, as in your company I found delight and cheer. No matter what darkness that universe held, your friendship could always brighten it."

Ren ignored the groans of the other students and smiled back. "Thee words are kind and thee soul even more, poet of words. I-"

Without any warning, both boys stopped floating and free-fell down to Remnant, screaming.