It's been a day after the recent viewing, and the girls of Team RWBY are currently relaxing in their dorm room, waiting for a notification from their Scrolls from their Headmaster. Early in the morning, they received a text informing them and others to continue viewing after lunchtime.
It's already passed that time, and the girls are just spending time in their room.
Weiss is sitting on her desk as she took note of everything she learned from the past viewing from yesterday.
Blake is sitting on her bed while reading her books.
Yang is lying on her bed relaxing but had a lot on her mind.
Ruby was sitting on her bed while she held her knees with a contemplated look on her face.
And Zwei is sleeping underneath Weiss's bed.
Not surprising for the two sisters, seeing that they learned that their mother Summer Rose is alive but held captive in the alternate world and learned a few things at that revelation for the two girls.
Yang sighed as she sat up on her bed with a bored look on her face. "When can we watch the next viewing?"
"Be patient, Yang its most likely that the professors are just preparing for the next viewing." Weiss said as she finished writing down her note.
"What's there to prepare? All I can think of them getting ready is the chairs and the television."
"There might be more to that, Yang." Blake said without looking away from the book.
Yang huffed then looked at her sister. "What do you think, sis?" She asks Ruby, but she didn't respond. She was still staying the same way while still having a contemplated look on her face.
"Ruby?" Yang repeated this time with a tone of concern.
Ruby blinked a couple of times before turning her head to her sister. "Yes? What?" She stuttered, making the others look at her in concern.
"Ruby, what's wrong?" Weiss asked.
"Nothing's wrong! I-I'm perfectly fine!" Ruby stuttered with a smile, but the others are not convinced.
"Ruby… what's wrong?" Yang asked, this time making her sister shift a bit nervously until she gave in sighed.
"I'm sorry… I was just thinking about the last viewing…" This made Yang give a sad frown knowing what her younger sister was talking about.
"It's about mom, isn't it?" Yang asked, making Ruby silently nodded in response. The older half-sister got out of her bed and gave her sister a hug which she returned in kind.
"Still haven't gone over it?" Blake asked as she put her book away.
Ruby nodded as she lets go of her sister. "Only a bit… I was just thinking…" She drifted off.
"You think your mother is still alive in this timeline." Weiss finished already being explained about what happened to their mother and that the fact that her body was never found after her last mission making Ruby nod.
"It's wishful thinking, but really hope that it's the case." Ruby said with a sad smile.
"I wish for that too, Rubes." Yang said with a sad smile as she held her sister closer with her arm.
After a moment of silence, they all received a notification from their Scrolls from the Headmaster that they are ready to present the subsequent viewings.
"Looks like it's time for us to go." Blake said as she got out of her bed and walked out of the door soon. The others followed her. They decided to leave Zwei behind, not wanting to disturb his sleep.
They were soon joined by JNPR and soon reached the headmaster's office, where their professors are waiting for them.
"Welcome back, students. Are you ready for the next viewing?" Ozpin asked his students. They all smiled and nodded with excitement making him smile. Then he turns to the two sisters. "I trust that you two are ready for the next viewing?"
Both Ruby and Yang smiled and nodded. "Yup! Yang and I are good to go." Ruby cheered, making the professors glad that there willing to continue.
The students all sat in their chairs that have already been prepared in advance, and as usual, Glynda starts the subsequent viewing making the television in the room start.
[S&%# o!? c&$ o?! l^#; d ]
As usual, the screen shows a hidden message which Weiss takes the privilege to decode quickly.
"'So cold'. That's what this message says." Weiss said.
"So my other is going to do something that involves the cold?" Ruby questionably tilts her head.
After climbing up the stairs, and removing some rather pesky ghost bats, Ruby found there were two doors at the top of the stairs.
One of which was coated in flames, so Ruby made it a personal priority to search that one first after dousing flames with water.
"Ain't that ominous." Blake comments, noting how the door was coated in flames.
"A defense mechanism no doubt developed by the Boos." Oobleck deduces as he straightens his glasses.
Once the door was doused and cooled, Ruby stepped into the Tea Room, seeing two moderately large tables, a pair of cabinets on the wall… and a bucket of ice so cold the bucket is partially frozen.
"Why did you decide to pick that door instead of the one that wasn't on fire?" Jaune asks.
"I guess I was curious?" Ruby says unsurely she would probably do the same in her other's position.
"Okay…" Ruby muttered as she looked around the room, "What's in this- OW!" Ruby interrupted herself when one of the plates in the room threw themselves at her.
And almost immediately afterward, she was grabbed from behind by ghostly why arms and pulled into a hug.
This made some of the audience jumps at the sudden attack of the plates. Then they became worried at the surprise attack of the ghost towards the other Ruby.
"AH! Oh, No!" The viewing Ruby yelped.
"AH!" Ruby yelped as she struggled a bit to look behind her at the ghost before she activated her Semblance once again and bounced around.
The ghost could barely hold onto Ruby in the first place, and now it was flung across the room from her movements and slammed into a second grabber ghost and then into one of the cabinets.
"Yes! Good job, me!" Ruby cheered.
"Hey… I just realized but isn't this the first time that the other Ruby used her Semblance in the mansion?" Nora tilted her head, noticing that fact along with everyone. Ruby began to see that, and she slowly blushed, and Yang blinked a couple of times before laughing.
"I… don't know?" Ruby embarrassingly said.
"I don't know why I haven't been using my Semblance this whole time." Ruby muttered as she blinded the ghost with her flashlight before vacuuming them up, which in turn allowed the lights to come back on.
"Ha! Even your other doesn't know." Nora laughed.
With a large white chest appearing on the table without the frozen bucket.
"Wait… that chest…" Weiss comments as she recalled something similar with finding another chest that the other Ruby found.
"Wait… Could that be the Ice Medal in there?" Ruby muttered to herself as she pulled the chest off the table and opened it, revealing a white medal that was cold to the touch.
"Yes!" The viewing Ruby cheered. "My other found a new Medal!"
"I very much like to see what this Medal can do." Oobleck eagerly says.
"Indeed! I like to see how it's used in action." Peter said.
"Yes!" Ruby cheered, holding the medal high, "I don't think I need E. Gadd to explain this one at this point. I just need a source of… Cold." Ruby's head turned to the frozen bucket, "Well, that's convenient."
"Did you just make a pun?" Yang muttered with a growing smirk on her face while shocking her friends at that fact.
Ruby, on the other hand, was shocked in horror that she had unintentionally made a pun. "Noooooo!" She cried out loud that her worst nightmare has come to true.
As she approached the frozen bucket, an Ice Elemental Spirit popped out and was prompt, with an apology, sucked into the vacuum that was the Poltergust.
"The poor thing…" Pyrrha smiled sadly at the cute Spirit.
"If it's going help Ruby, it helps her." Jaune shrugged but was also a bit sad.
"I wonder what use for the Ice Elemental will be?" Ren wondered.
Next, Ruby checked the Boo Radar, who was hiding in the cabinets.
"Jingle, jangles, Mr. Boojangles!" The Boo declared… Right before it was vacuumed up with extreme proficiency.
Yang laughed while the others just groan in annoyance.
"One less." Ruby said, "You know, ghosts aren't starting to scare me as much now."
"Glad that I'm not the only one thinking the same." Ruby smiled. Watching these viewing is really helping her get other her fear of ghosts.
"Ditto!" Nora chirped even she was feeling less and less scared of ghosts.
With the Tea Room cleared, Ruby turned her attention to the Dustboy Horror's map of the mansion to figure out where to go next.
Only to be surprised that there were four unlocked doors she could enter.
"Four unlocked rooms?" Blake says in surprise. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."
"Okay… I'll start with the cluster of doors at the end there!" Ruby muttered.
With that, Ruby stepped out of the tearoom and into the Second-Floor hallways, avoiding ghost mice, bats, and the exploding ghost hedgehogs that were crawling out of the painting near the bathrooms.
"Why must there be so many of them…?" Peter shuddered to see the mice.
"It is an old mansion, after all." Ozpin lightly quips.
"I'm more confused about the exploding ghost hedgehogs." Glynda questioned, that dumbfounded even the rest.
Thankfully only a few came out of the wall, leaving Ruby completely dumbfounded at what they were.
"That just makes no sense!" Ruby cried out before she stepped into the door on her right, entering Nana's Room.
"Best not to question the supernatural at this point, Ruby." Ren says, much to everyone's agreement.
Where the first thing Ruby noticed was a rocking chair that was consistently rocking with no one in it.
"Looks like there is another Portrait Ghost in the room." Pyrrha comments.
"Oh no." Ruby muttered as she lifted the Dustboy Horror up to see the ghost.
An old woman with large white hair and a purple dress that was constantly knitting… Something.
"Now that's not creepy at all…" Yang sarcastically said.
"She looks harmless." Jaune comments.
"Looks can be deceiving, my boy. Never let your guard down at all." Peter tells not only Jaune but to the rest of the students.
"She's probably guarding a key." Ruby muttered, she really didn't want to harass an old lady, but she had to if she needed to progress through the Mansion.
"I don't like that idea either." Ruby comments. "Wouldn't that count as disrespecting the dead?"
"As long as they aren't the ones doing the disrespecting." Yang quipped.
She started to approach the old lady, only to trip on the carpet and knock a trio of yarn balls out of their bowl.
"Ah-ha! Haha, ha!" The old ghost laughed at Ruby's mistake.
"Now that was rude." Weiss narrowed her eyes at the elderly ghosts.
"Why you…" Ruby growled, grabbing one of the yarn balls and throwing it at the old lady, something Ruby wouldn't normally do, but if it meant saving her mom, Ruby would do anything.
"You would do that?" Jaune asks, a bit surprised at that claim.
"I-I would." Ruby quickly said but filled with determination. "If I were in my other's position, I would do the same."
Surprising Ruby was the fact that the yarn not only made contact with the old woman but knocked her out of the rocking chair and exposed her Spectral Heart. To which Ruby was quick to take advantage of and began to vacuum the old ghost up.
Ruby stumbled a bit when she stepped on one of the yarn balls, causing her to careen into the bookshelf in the room, but Ruby quickly recovered and managed to capture the old ghost, lighting up the room and revealing a chest.
"That was unexpected but not unwanted." Ozpin blinked at how quickly that escalated.
"At this point, my other will have no problem catching all the ghosts!" Ruby cheered.
Ruby smiled as she looked at the chest, then noticed an old journal had been knocked out of the bookshelf.
"Another good reward." Nora cheered.
"And a journal along with it." Ren added.
"You think it belonged to that Portrait Ghost?" Pyrrha asked.
Ruby frowned and looked at the journal, and skimmed it a bit. From what Ruby figured, it was the old lady's journal, and she had a bit of a mischievous streak considering she dumped ice in this 'Ms. Petunia's' bath. Still, at the very least, it would be information to file away for later as Ruby got to work finding the Boo in the room, and find it she did as the Boo hid in the old spinning wheel in the room.
Yang, Ruby, and Nora laughed at this revelation. "I like this lady!" Nora giggled.
"Well… she's sound certainly lively during her time." Pyrrha chuckled.
"So immature." Weiss comments but hid a slight smirk on her face, which was not unnoticed by Blake but kept quiet.
"Stinky, Stinky, LimBooger!" The Boo cackled as Ruby began to vacuum the ghost up.
"Okay, that one was disgusting." Yang admitted cringing in disgust.
"Glad there's one she doesn't like." Weiss muttered to Blake, which made her silently giggle.
"I don't care about your names!" Ruby cried out as the ghost was quickly captured, "Seriously, I don't need to know all your pun names! I get enough bad puns from my sister!"
Yang made a mock gasp. "Rubes, is that true?"
"You know it is!" Ruby jokingly comments, making the two laugh.
Ruby took a minute to calm down, taking the key from the chest, which, much to her ire, lead all the way back near the entrance of the mansion, right next to Chauncey's Room, before leaving the room and heading to the room at the end of the hall, The Bathroom.
And the first thing Ruby noticed was that the Shower was running, and then she noticed the shadow on the drawn curtain was a female one… One with a body shape that would bring most women to envy.
The two younger boys choked in in their own air and blushed at the scene while the mature men just respectfully looked away.
The woman in the room couldn't help but admit, but the silhouette of the possible Portrait Ghost did bring much envy to them.
"Jaune, don't look!" Pyrrha shouts to her partner.
"I-I'm not!" He stuttered, looking away while covering his eyes for good measure.
"Don't look, Renny!" Nora shouts as she covers her childhood friend's eyes despite the fact he is looking away.
"Nora! I'm not looking!" Ren said, but Nora still did what she's doing.
"Damn… she has one heck of a body." Yang teasingly smirked.
"Yang!" Ruby shouts in embarrassment.
"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Weiss groaned, blushed a bit, followed by Blake but stayed quiet while she couldn't help but imagine one of her books.
"Miss Xiao Long, I ask that you don't make those comments again." Glynda sternly said, being the most mature one of the group of women in the room, making the blond girl shiver at her stern look and nodding in acknowledgment.
"That's no doubt a ghost." Ruby muttered, "Still, I hope nobody sees this, or I'll be labeled a pervert, no doubt.
"I certainly am not!" Ruby squeaked, making everyone in the room laugh at her predicament. Fortunately, they all understand that she is not.
Ruby grabbed the curtain and tore it to the side to reveal…
A fat woman in a bikini, pink skin, and a pig's nose.
That made the girls in the room make a spit take at what they just saw. They did not expect to see that at all. And unfortunately, this caused all the men to look because of their sudden reactions unintentionally.
"MY EYES!" Jaune shouts as he tried to shield his eyes.
"It burns…!" Ren muttered, doing the same.
"Serves you two right." Nora comments but was also shocked.
"I… did not expect this." Pyrrha comments as well as being shocked.
"Goodness…!" Peter and Oobleck said as they quickly looked away. Unfortunately, the memory is burned in their brains.
"This is what I deserve for looking…" Ozpin muttered, also looking away.
"How is that even possible!" Blake comments with a shocked expression.
"I- wha- WHAT?" Wiess stuttered, having a hard time processing this.
"I take back what I said…" Yang muttered as her eyes were wide open in shock.
"Now I've seen everything…" Glynda quietly comments in shock.
"What that-!?" Ruby cried out in shock.
"What the-!?" Ruby cried out, and the ghost herself gave off a huff of annoyance and chuck a large amount of water from the tub at Ruby, who jumped out of the way as she didn't want to get wet… Then proceeded to ignore Ruby.
After calming down a bit from that episode, everyone made a little laugh at that scene.
"Okay, that was what my other deserved, I suppose." Ruby muttered.
"Okay, that was deserved, I suppose." Ruby muttered before releasing a stream of ice from the Poltergust, dropping the temperature of the water quickly.
"I guess this does seem like a good chance to use that Meddle." Ozpin comments.
"Ah- Achoo!" The ghost of Ms. Petunia sneezed right before Ruby began the suction of the Poltergust and very quickly caught the ghost. Lighting up the room and causing a key to appear on top of a shelf in the room.
"Another ghost caught." Jaune sighed in relief, glad that particular ghost is gone, much to the men's comfort.
After grabbing the key, which leads back to the only room she couldn't access on the first floor, Ruby went into the next room, the Washroom.
"A Washroom?" Nora tilted her head.
Ruby noticed the leak coming off the pipe to the toilet and the Water Elemental Spirit floating around, and quickly sucked it up in case she needed it in the room, and in doing so, shook a ghost out of the toilet, whose Spectral Heart was ablaze.
"Looks like there are ghosts with a Spectral Heart that's on fire." Oobleck took note of it.
"Ew." Nora comments, seeing the fact the ghost literally came out from the toilet.
Ruby took a brief moment to douse the heart and then continued to soak it until it had faded away, lighting up the room and revealing a green chest full of money and treasure, of which Ruby was happy to vacuum up.
"Yay! Get richer, other me!" Ruby cheered.
Next was the last door of the floor that was unlocked for Ruby, to which, after dealing with a ghost that pulled purple orbs from its mouth in an attempt to bowl Ruby over, literally, ruby entered the Astral Hall.
It was just two cabinets and five candelabras making a circle around a star on the ground, with each candelabra sat at a point.
"What kind of room is this? The Astral Room?" Jaune asks, confused by the room.
"I'm not sure." Weiss said, not knowing what the purpose of the room is.
"Okay." Ruby said as she searched the room, but not a single ghost appeared, "Maybe later?" Ruby asked before leaving the room through the door at the end opposite of where she entered…
Only to find herself back in the same room.
"Wait, what?" Ruby blinked, seeing what happened to her other. "Why did that happen?"
"It seems that there is more to that room than it seems." Glynda points out.
"What?" Ruby asked, turning around and opening the door, finding herself in the hallway once more, "Maybe I need to light the candles in there?" Ruby asked as a Fire Elemental Spirit floated out of one of the nearby candles attached to the walls, which Ruby quickly sucked up before returning to the Astral Hall and lighting all the candles.
As soon as they were lit, all of them started to turn purple, and metallic vines sealed the doors shut.
"Of course, that would happen." Blake sighed, starting to get used to the obvious.
Followed by a yellow ghost crying out from behind Ruby. Causing the Huntress in training to jump from the surprise, but she recovered fast enough to turn around, flash, then capture the ghost.
Almost immediately after, a Masked Ghost appeared, to which Ruby quickly removed the mask off and caught.
Then a Masked ghost and a yellow ghost appeared. Ruby used the flames of the Poltergust to erase the yellow ghost from existence before focusing on capturing the Masked ghost.
To end the onslaught was a pair of masked ghosts and a grabber, to which Ruby disposed of the grabber like she did the previous Yellow Ghost and, after demasking both of the other ghosts, caught them at the same time.
The room lit up after that, but unlike normal, nothing appeared outside of the Boo Radar activating.
"And that's that." Yang smiled, glad that her baby sister pulled through.
"Let's not forget about any Boos." Ruby pointed out.
To which Ruby found that Boo is hiding within one of the Candelabra.
"And there it is." Jaune comments.
"I'm Boonswoggle! Plooah!" The Boo declared before Ruby attempted to capture it. However, it slipped out through the wall… This resulted in Ruby chasing the Boo between the Hall and the Astral Hall for a good minute before it was captured.
"Finally!" Ruby raised her arms, glad that her other finally caught it.
"That pun didn't even make any sense." Yang pouted.
"Why can't they just stay and fight." Ruby muttered as she returned to the Astral Hall and, this time, successfully entered the next room.
"Because they know they're going to lose." Nora smiled.
The Observatory, where Ruby noticed and was quickly drawn to the telescope.
"Oh! An Observatory." Oobleck says in interest.
Peering through the Telescope, Ruby found herself amazed that she could see the stars, even though she was certain that it was stormy out… And then she saw the moon, but something wasn't right.
"Wait, what?" Almost everyone said.
The moon was whole, no debris of rocks, just a whole moon.
"The moon! It's whole!" Jaune says in surprise.
"So pretty…" Pyrrha says in awe while everyone agreed with her.
"Is this real?" Weiss asked in awe.
"What?" Ruby muttered as she stepped away from the Telescope and then noticed that the room had changed.
In fact, half of the walls were gone, with stars surrounding the area and a small balcony that she could step onto.
"Whoa…" All the students say in awe, and the professors are in silent awe.
"Whoa…" Ruby muttered as she stepped out onto the balcony, where she noticed several small comets streaking past her. "So pretty." Ruby muttered as she reached out to try and grab one of the comets.
"What do you think you're doing?" Weiss raised a brow.
"What? Can you blame me for wanting to touch a literal comment?" Ruby innocently asks.
Instead, she hit one of them and launched it toward the moon, which caused several explosions to come from the moon, and when the explosions stopped, the moon was gone.
"…"
This made the audience stunned in silence.
"Oops." Ruby muttered right before she was blinded.
"Oops, is right." Yang quipped as she and the others shield their eyes a bit.
When she could see again, she saw a snaking path of light in front of her, ending at a small dome of meteorite that had something white flowing above it.
"Whoa…" Everyone was shocked in awe at the result.
"What is that?" Blake asks.
Ruby was shocked at the white object as she knew what it was. She used her Semblance to traverse the short path to reach the white object, which was reintroduced to gravity the moment Ruby touched it.
A white cloak and hood, with a rose motif pin on it.
"Mom…" Both Ruby and Yang said.
"Why is that doing there?" Weiss asks.
"Probably a game the Boos did." Port frowned, not liking how the Boos would do that.
"Mom…" Ruby said, looking at the cloak, taking a moment to sit down and hug the cloak close to her.
Above all else at the moment, Ruby just needed a moment to herself.
The screen ended.
"I wish I could do that too…" Ruby muttered sadly as she looked down. Yang gave her sister a hug which she returned in kind.
After a while, they continued the next episode.
To be continued…
Next Update: Team RWBY Plays Assassin's Creed II
