Introductions
Ruby Rose quickly opened and shut her eyes as she awoke to a blinding light in her face. She could feel that she was laying on a hard, cold floor. The last thing she remembered was Cinder stealing the lamp and making her and Neo fall into the void below the bridge Ambrosias made for them. He had said "Don't fall" before they left...
Was she... dead...?
She slowly opened her eyes and shielded them with her hand as she sat up. She looked around her and saw that she was in a... theater? She rubbed her eyes and did a double-take. Yep, she was in a theater.
There were a bunch of people there, but she didn't register who was who. She stood up and looked around again. It was a rather large theater, considering there was at least forty seats, all of which were either black, white, or gray. There was also a giant timer- which was set to go off in five minutes- at the top of the stairs connected to an even bigger stereo speaker.
"Oh! You're awake!"
Ruby looked around to see who was talking, but everyone else was still asleep.
"Look up."
She looked up and saw a girl- no, boy- no- agh! She saw someone sitting criss-cross on some sort of floating black block with red outlines. They hopped off the block as it disappeared and landed in front of her. They were the same height as her, but that was probably because their boots added an inch.
"Hiya! I'm Spade!" they said while holding out their hand.
Ruby hesitantly shook it, "I'm Ruby..."
Ruby looked Spade up and down. They didn't really look odd per say, they just looked... out of place? She couldn't help but stare. She just felt like something was off about this person.
This "Spade" person was pretty pale and had white hair that came to their mid-back, and was styled into an undercut with the rest being braided. Their bangs nearly covered their left eye, but were being kept up by slight defiance of gravity. What was even weirder was that their eyes were red. Sure, people's eyes can turn red when using their Semblance (take Yang for example), but she could tell that they were natural.
And their clothes weren't exactly that of a Hunter's.
A black sleeveless turtleneck, high-waisted black pants, black combat books, a black jacket with a red interior tied around their waist, fingerless black gloves, and a black bracelet with spikes on each wrist. They also had three piercings in each ear. Their outfit looked really cool, but realistically it'd be pretty inconvenient in battle.
"Uhm... who exactly ar-" Ruby was interrupted when Spade held up their hand and looked over at the timer, making Ruby look over as well. Three minutes.
"I'll explain when everyone's awake. Here, put these on before the timer runs out." they handed Ruby earplugs and thick headphones.
Ruby looked at them for a moment before looking back at Spade. Well, where Spade was. They disappeared.
She looked around before her eyes landed back on the timer. It was counting down quickly. Very quickly. As in she had ten seconds left...
Nine...
Eight...
"Huh?! Wasn't it just at three minutes?!" she shouted. She started to panic a bit.
Seven...
Six...
"Put the damn headphones on!"
Ruby jumped at Spade's voice coming from nowhere, but did as they said and quickly put the earplugs and headphones on.
Five...
Four...
She saw Spade briefly appear in front of the speaker and turn one of the dials all the way to the right before disappearing again.
"That was probably the volume..." she thought.
Three...
Ruby quickly ducked behind one of the seats.
Two...
She braced herself for what she thought would be an extremely loud alarm.
One...
She was right about it being extremely loud. But it wasn't an alarm.
Zero.
The timer went off and the speaker blared a shrill, ear bleeding-ly loud scream that she could hear through the headphones.
(The scream from Maretu's "Magical Doctor" to be specific.)
Almost everyone in the room practically jumped out of their skin from the sudden scream. Those who didn't get the shit scared outta them jumped awake and bolted upright with wide eyes.
When the speaker was shut off everyone took a moment to collect themselves. Ruby stood up and took the headphones and earplugs off before looking around. Almost everyone she knew was there. Including...
"Yang...? Is that really you...?" she asked, tears welling up upon seeing her sister.
"Ruby...?" Yang turned to her little sister and stared for a moment before finally running to her and giving her a hug.
"Ruby!"
"Yang! I thought you were dead!" Ruby began to cry. Did falling into the void not kill them?
The two separated before being jumped by Blake and Weiss, followed by Nora once she saw them.
"I thought you were all dead!" Weiss was trying not to cry her eyes out.
Ren went to pull Nora off of the pile while Jaune stayed put, still being a bit disoriented. That was until someone hugged him from behind. He looked behind him and saw bright red hair.
"P-Pyrrha?!" he spun around and looked at the girl. Yep, it was Pyrrha alright.
Jaune hugged her tightly, Pyrrha hugging back. Ren, Nora, and team RWBY looked over and we're stunned to see Pyrrha, who was alive and well. The six of them all went over and hugged her in a giant group hug.
A few feet away, Qrow and Winter were trying to figure out where the hell they were. Winter looked past Qrow and gasped, going wide-eyed.
"What's with you, Ice Queen?" Qrow asked, still kinda being half-asleep.
She pointed behind him. He turned around and was met with the sight of Clover Ebi, the one person who he thought wouldn't die because of him but did anyways, standing there. Alive and perfectly fine. He nearly collapsed, making Winter worry a bit.
Nearby, the rest of the Ace Ops were shocked to see their leader alive. Harriet then hugged Vine and repeatedly apologized to him. Marrow and Elm looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Clover. Ironwood, who was behind them, was relieved to see them all okay.
At the back of the theater, Salem and Cinder were having a stare-down with Hazel and Arthur. Tyrian looked back and forth between them, rubbing his hands together. Emerald was hiding behind Hazel, hoping Cinder wouldn't notice her. Merc was just sitting in a black seat with his legs propped up on the gray one in front of him.
Across from where team RWBY was was Ozpin and Oscar, along with Glynda, Oobleck, and Port. Oscar was staring up at Ozpin. The Beacon staff were all shocked to see him alive. Glynda was fighting the urge to both hug him and slap him.
In the middle of the gray seats stood Raven, Adam, Sienna, Roman, and Neo. Neo had practically jumped on Roman, hugging him tight enough to actually hurt a little. Adam and Sienna were wondering how they were alive, both examining where they had been stabbed. Raven was tempted to go down to Yang, but decided to stay put.
Coco and Velvet looked at each other, both mentally saying "What the hell?" before looking around at the theater. Coco frowned a bit at how plain the place was. Ilia was a bit dazed, patches of her skin turning random colors. Sun, who was behind her with Neptune, snapped his fingers next to her head to get her to focus.
Blake turned around to see her parents sitting on the other side of the aisle.
"Mom! Dad!" she ran and hugged Kali, who hugged her back.
"Blake! Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!" Kali said.
Ghira patted Blake's head before lifting up a piece of her hair.
"You cut your hair?" he asked.
Blake nodded, "It's... more convenient."
Sun was looking at her with a slight blush. Neptune elbowed him a bit to tease him, which ended with him getting smacked by Sun's tail. Ilia was also blushing a bit, but she was able to hide it better than Sun.
Whitley was practically glued to Weiss's side. He'd been frightened by the sudden Grimm attack in Vacuo and now he was in a strange theater in god knows where. Weiss put a hand on his back to try to comfort him. Winter glanced over at them before going back to watching Qrow.
Tai, Ruby, and Yang had a group hug. That was when Ruby noticed something.
"Uhm, Yang? Why's your arm normal?"
Yang looked at her arm. It was normal alright. She moved her fingers around a pinched it to make sure they weren't seeing things. She had her arm back.
"How...?"
Emerald overheard them and a lightbulb turned on. She took a deep breath and walked over to Cinder, who was still glaring at Arthur. Her gaze switched to Emerald as soon as she entered her line of view. Emerald knew she wasn't happy, but she just had to know.
She reached up and moved Cinder's hair out of her face, eyes widening.
"Y-Your eye...!"
Cinder touched her face and felt that it was whole. She then moved her cloak, upon which she saw that her arm was also normal. It was as if she'd never gotten injured in the first place.
Everyone was pulled out of their thoughts by a loud thud that came from the corner of the room. Something had hit the floor, but nothing was there. That was when everyone noticed everyone else...
And all hell broke loose.
Lots of yelling, screaming, fighting, and Sienna and Yang trying to rip Adam's throat out erupted throughout the room.
Blake and Sun had to hold Yang back while Raven held Sienna. Roman and Neo stood between the two and Adam, acting as shields in case they broke free.
Tai, Winter, and Clover were trying to keep Qrow from going at Tyrian, who was only staying put because Salem told him to.
Harriet and Marrow started arguing with Ironwood about what he did, Elm standing between them and Vine having a hand on their shoulders.
Hazel yanked Emerald back before Cinder could hit her, and Mercury was keeping Arthur from attacking Cinder. Let's be honest, he wouldn't win. Tyrian was just laughing his ass off at all the conflict.
Salem and Ozpin were glaring at each other. If looks could kill, Ozpin would've died three times over. The Beacon staff looked between them worriedly. They could only hope Salem wouldn't try to attack.
Ruby and Weiss were trying to calm Yang down while team JNPR helped with Qrow and Ironwood and the Ace Ops.
Oscar looked around at everyone and saw Whitley looking terrified. There was so much yelling that he couldn't hear himself think, much less try to say something to him. So, instead, he ran over to him and hugged him. Whitley was a bit startled, but he didn't mind given the current circumstances.
Unbeknownst to almost everyone, a girl had appeared at the front of the room. Oscar and Whitley had spotted her, being the closest to her. She had a microphone that didn't seem to be hooked up to anything. She sighed and gestured for the two to cover their ears.
Once they did, she took a deep breath and yelled into the mic.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP."
The sheer volume made everyone cover their ears. Even Salem winced a bit. Velvet, Blake, Kali, and Sienna thought their ears were going to explode.
Everyone looked at the girl with the mic. There was an awkward silence hanging in the air. Ruby decided to break it.
"You... look like Cinder..."
Those who didn't know Cinder or what she looked like looked back and forth between her and the girl. They were very similar.
The girl tossed the mic behind her and it disappeared. She had black hair and orange eyes, only being a few shades off from Cinder's. Her hair was longer and was being kept in a ponytail by a red ribbon tied to resemble bunny ears. She was obviously younger than Cinder, so they didn't look identical.
"Ah, well, my name is Cinder, so I suppose I should look like myself." she joked.
Everyone just stared at her.
"... anyways. You fuckers need to quiet the fuck down. We can hear you loud and clear from the fifth floor." she snapped while pointing at them with her right and pointing up with her left.
Another awkward silence.
"Who are you?" Salem asked.
"Aiya... my name is Cinder Ignis. If you have to you can refer to me as Cici so there's no confusion."
Cinder stared at Cici for a few minutes, not knowing how to react. This child looked almost identical to her and had the same first name.
Ruby spoke up again.
"Are you Spade's friend?"
Cici nodded, "Yep!"
"Speaking of Spade, they told me to tell you that there's one more person joining you guys, but it'll take some time to get her here." she added.
"Who's Spade?" Weiss asked.
Cici only giggled and disappeared, leaving Weiss both shocked and offended.
Ruby sighed, "I think Spade is the one who brought us here. They said they'd explain when everyone was awake, so I hope they come back soon."
"So what do we do in the mean time? Just sit down and wait?" Emerald asked, sticking close to Hazel.
"Probably. I don't see any way out of here and there's not much else we can do." Yang answered.
She was right when she said there was no way out. The room didn't have any doors or windows, and the closest vent they could fit through was on the ceiling. Which was at least thirty feet from the ground. So, yeah, no way out.
Everyone started shifting around. Hazel and Emerald went down to the white seats and Arthur went to the gray ones. Adam stayed as far away from Sienna as he could, which, to be perfectly honest, wasn't very far. Blake sat with her parents, who were right in front of Sun and next to Ilia.
After a bit more shifting everyone finally settled down. There was a tension lingering in the air. Those in the white seats kept their guard up since the black seats were behind them, and those in the black seats glared at everyone around them. Those in the gray seats were, unfortunately, caught in the crossfire and had to deal with both side's unease. They all shifted in their seats, hoping nobody would start fighting again.
After about an hour of uneasy silence, Cici reappeared at the front of the room.
"Holy shit you guys are tense- uhm, so, Spade got the last person, aanndd they're on their way here right now. They'll probably end up shifting you guys around, so be warned about that. Those who aren't use to teleportation usually get nauseous the first few times." she explained, all while doing random gestures with her hands.
"But first- a change of wardrobe!" she added.
She clapped her hands and four trails of fire swept through the theater, wrapping around everyone and then dissipating. Everyone's clothes had been change and those with their hair up had it taken down. They were all wearing the same thing: black hoodies with a black shirt underneath, sweatpants, and socks.
Adam noticed that his bad eye was being covered with a bandage and reached up to touch it. It felt like it was doing something to his eye, but he wasn't sure what. He decided it best not to remove it though.
"Hey! These are our crests!" Nora commented.
Everyone's shirt had their crest on the front, and those who were on a team had their team anagram below it.
"Why'd you change our clothes? These are pretty plain..." Coco asked, looking down at herself and frowning.
"You're gonna be sitting here for several hours. Do you really want to wear your normal clothes?" Cici questioned.
Coco thought about it for a moment before sighing. She was right. It wouldn't be comfortable wearing their regular clothes if they were going to be there for a few hours.
"Now!" Cici clapped her hands together, "I shall take my leave and let Spade explain what's happening! If you need me, just call for me! Au revoir!" she disappeared in a flash of fire and Spade appeared in her place.
"I see you've met Cinder already. Must be a shocker that she looks so similar to your Cinder." they said, glancing at the maiden for a split second.
"Anyways, Ruby," they looked at the girl in question and smiled, "I have a surprise for you."
Ruby tilted her head, "Surprise?"
Spade nodded and stepped to the side, revealing a human Penny Polindina standing behind them.
Jaune, Weiss, Winter, and Cinder all went wide-eyed. Ruby jumped up from her seat and ran to Penny, bear-hugging her.
"Penny! You're still human!"
"It was difficult getting her here as a human since she only spent a couple hours as one. But I was able to do it." Spade smiled proudly.
"Wait- what do you mean 'spent'?" Ruby looked at them, the confusion on her face evident.
"Ah... right... uhm..." they didn't know how to tell Ruby Penny had died again.
"Cinder tried to take her maiden powers and ended up severely hurting her, so she told me to kill her... so she could give the powers to Winter..." Jaune explained.
The entire room went quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone turned to Cinder, who was glaring daggers at Spade. The person in question was wondering how the hell they were going to break the silence now. There's been way too many silences so far.
"I also brought your mom back."
Everyone who knew Summer whipped around to look at Spade.
"YOU DID WHAT?!" they all yelling in unison.
Spade snapped their fingers and a portal of sorts opened up next to them. They reached their hand in and guided out a woman who looked just like Ruby.
"I present to you: Summer Rose." they said, gesturing to the woman next to them.
Ruby hesitantly walked towards her, reaching her hand out. The rest of team STRQ couldn't believe their eyes. Summer was right there. Alive.
Summer smiled at Ruby, to which Ruby responded by latching onto her in a hug.
"M-Mom! Y-You're alive!" she started to cry.
Tai and Qrow ran to her as fast as they could and piled into a group hug, while Raven simply smiled. Those who didn't know Summer too well or at all looked at the person next to them and shrugged. Salem clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Summer was supposed to be dead.
After a few minutes, everyone settled back down. Spade scanned over the crowd and started pointing around and whispering to themself.
"Okay, uhm, I'm going to move you guys around a bit. You'll probably feel nauseous afterwards, but that's completely normal." they said.
They didn't even give anyone time to react before clapping twice, making most everyone disappear in a black and red mist and reappear in different seats. They went back over the crowd to make sure everyone was in the right spot. They'd hate to have to teleport them all again.
In the first left row (going from the aisle outwards) was Penny, Ruby, Summer, Yang, and Tai all in single seats. Winter, Qrow, and Clover's seats had morphed into one giant one to fit all three of them.
On the first right row was Port, Oobleck, Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood, with Whitley and Oscar sitting in a double seat so they both fit.
In the row behind Ruby sat Weiss, Neptune, Ilia, Sun, and Blake in single seats, while Ghira and Kali were also in a double seat.
Across from them were the Ace Ops and team JNPR, with Pyrrha and Jaune and Ren and Nora being in double seats.
Behind them were Hazel, Emerald, Coco, and Velvet in the remaining white seats, while Arthur, Raven, Adam, Roman, Neo, and Sienna occupied the gray seats.
Salem, Cinder, Mercury, and Tyrian hadn't been moved, seeing as they were the only ones in the black seats. Salem sat in the middle with Cinder on her left and Tyrian on her right. Mercury was on the other side of Cinder.
Most everyone had the urge to throw up afterwards, but they were all able to keep it down.
"Alright! Now I can finally explain what the hell you're doing here!" Spade announced.
They jumped up and a block like the one from earlier appeared beneath them, making them two feet taller.
"Ladies and gentlemen, humans, Faunus, and Grimm, I welcome you to my Multiverse Theater!" they gestured to the room with their arms.
"I've brought you all here today because I've decided I wanted to do a multiverse showing of my own. The two I've been reading have given me the confidence and inspiration to do so. So here we are! You'll all be watching alternate version of yourselves while I... take care of some things..." they started to trail off, but quickly refocused.
"Ahem. Anyways," they continued, "I have a few rules you need to follow while you're here." they were being more serious now.
"Number one: Absolutely NO violence. You can insult each other all you want, but you will be restrained if you try to attack someone. I've temporarily removed your Auras and Semblances because of this."
Sienna and Yang glared at Adam, who tried his best to ignore them.
"Number two: While I did say that you can insult each other, I won't allow them to go too far. If you insult someone on a personal level I will duct tape your mouth shut."
Everyone looked at each other with some concern. Duct tape their mouths shut?
"And number three: Don't question where the fuck I found some of these AUs 'cause honestly I might've just pulled some of them outta my ass."
The room went silent once again. This kid sure did curse a lot.
Salem noticed Spade had two rings on their right hand. One with a purple gem and the other with a yellow gem.
"What are those rings on your hand?" she asked.
Spade held their hand up and pointed at the rings, "These are how I keep those shitheads you call gods under control."
Everyone's jaws dropped.
"You..." Salem started.
"Are controlling the brother gods...?" Ozpin finished.
"Yep. I'll let you in on a little secret." Spade held out their right hand and a black and red pen appeared.
"Once someone commits to becoming a writer, they get one of these. It gives them the ability to warp reality into what they want it to be. Even if the brothers are gods, they're still inferior to me in a lot of ways. The pen gives its owner powers that exceed that of gods." they explained.
"What kind of powers?" Blake asked.
"Uhm... let's see..." Spade thought about it for a moment before snapping their fingers and pointing at Velvet.
"Velv, gimme a color, a weapon, and a type of accessory."
Velvet jumped at suddenly being called on. She hurriedly tried to think of something and just spat out the first thing that came to mind.
"U-Uhm... purple, axe, and piercings."
A black notebook appeared in Spade's other hand and they began scribbling something down. Everyone looked at them confused.
After a couple minutes they snapped the book shut.
"Ruby," they looked at the girl, "who's Mura Sakino?"
"She's the leader of team MNNT. She has most of her classes with us, and is a really good friend of ours. Although she can be a bit loud sometimes." Ruby didn't even realize what she was talking about until afterwards.
"Wait, how-" she started, Spade interrupting her.
"I made a Beacon student with what Velvet gave me. Mura fights with a guitar axe and her color scheme is black and purple. She also has a lot of piercings. And, since she's friends with you, you all have memories of her even though you've never met her." they explained.
"That's one of your powers?! That's so cool!" Ruby's eyes lit up, her younger self resurfacing a bit.
"But that doesn't explain why you're controlling the brother gods." Salem said.
"Because I don't want them fucking anything up. Plus it's fun to fuck around with them." Spade smiled innocently.
They hopped down from the block and it dissipated. They turned to the screen and snapped their fingers, making an image appear onscreen. It was the brother gods, in their dragon forms, being restrained by black chains emitting a red glow. A girl with an odd looking polearm was keeping them from escaping.
Nobody could believe their eyes. This kid- who was probably younger than Ruby- had detained two gods. Literal GODS.
At that very moment, the Dark brother tried to break free from his chains, but was met with a purple lighting bolt to the face. The girl guarding them apparently had lighting powers. Spade's purple ring glowed red and his chains tightened. Then the screen shut off.
Spade turned back to the audience.
"If they get free they'll try to 'restore balance' or some shit by killing those who're supposed to be dead right now. Even though I'm technically above them, it's still pretty fuckin' hard for beginners to write gods out of existence. Even if they're never mentioned, they're still there." they explained upon seeing everyone's faces.
"Now!" they clapped their hands together, "I suppose we should start with the viewings! We've been talking for way too long now and I'm getting bored. Plus Cinder- er, Cici, I guess, really wants to see your reactions to the universes she picked out."
Spade reached into their pocket and pulled out a... uhm... something?
"What's that?" Nora asked.
"VHS tape. Old piece of shit that people used to keep movies 'n' shit on or something. I have no idea why we didn't just download these viewings or put them on CDs. Agatha's idea, apparently." Spade explained while reading the label on the tape.
"Agatha?" Ilia questioned.
"Cici's mom. You might meet her later. She's rarely ever here since she's busy most of the time." Spade stated, putting the tape into a machine in the wall before grabbing a remote.
Most of the younger audience settled back down and got ready for whatever they were about to see, but the adults all had an uneasy feeling about Spade. If this kid could restrain gods, who knows what else they can do...
"Everyone ready?" the kid in question asked.
Various responses came from the audience, but they were all the same answer. And with that, Spade pressed play, making the screen light up and start the viewing of the first alternate universe. And boy was it one to kick the show off with.
A/N
Hello! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my fanfic! I'm really sorry if it's wordy or not very well written. Since it's my first time writing fanfiction, it's probably not gonna have correct grammar in a lot of places. Plus I'm really bad at grammar in the first place. Anyways, I hope you liked it! I need to rewatch the source material (I think that's the right term?) before I begin writing the next chapter. See ya!