Recording #302

November, 22981 AEA

"Okay, there's no easy way to put this. The King has… expressed his… disapproval of my continued attempts to probe the Veil. He's given me a week to wrap up my research, and put a stop to it. So, I guess this is about it for us, unless I come up with something soon to change his mind. I hate being backed into a corner like this—huh? Oh, looks like Apollo and Theo are at the door. Maybe they'll have some idea of what to do..."

Beacon Academy

April, 79 AGW

The moon shone brightly over Beacon, as clear skies revealed hundreds of tiny stars in the horizon. All was dark on campus at this late hour, save for a few unlucky students pulling an all-nighter in public spaces. Professor Goodwitch was right: they were experiencing an incredible time of peace, and you could practically feel the tranquility in the air!

Or, at least, that's what Beacon should have felt like, if not for the massive Atlesian battleship seemingly permanently parked outside the Headmaster's tower.

Pyrrha let out a loose sigh and leaned back from her seat at the edge of the rooftop. A month ago, it used to be a perfect place to relax, to unwind a bit after classes. But now? It seemed nothing could escape getting tangled in the needlessly complex web of mysteries that was Beacon Academy. Despite her attempts to relax, her mind was a jumbled mess of concerns and endless worrying. Whereas normal students might have to contend with their academics and social life—standard fare for school life—Pyrrha was not so lucky.

Her expression soured as the Flagship floated into view again. "What is even going on anymore?" She whispered to herself.

Pyrrha glanced behind her as the rooftop door creaked open, revealing a billowy red cloak.

"Ruby?"

This was unexpected. In the past few weeks, Ruby's appearances among the student body and even in their dorm room became increasingly scarce, having spent every moment of free time and even some class time sequestered away in that laboratory of hers.

'You said you'd make friends with her, but you haven't even tried.' An annoying little voice whispered in her head. She cringed internally and pushed down that thought as impossibly light footsteps approached her.

"Hey, Pyrrha." Ruby plopped down next to her, her legs dangling over the edge of the roof as she gazed up at the moon.

Her face was utterly without flaws, as always, but Pyrrha recognized that morose stare she wore all too easily.

"Is…" She tried tentatively. "Is something bothering you?"

Her partner looked directly at her with dull grey eyes. "Do you mind if I vent a little?"

Pyrrha found herself unable to turn down her request. "Of course not. I'd be glad to listen."

"Thanks. Okay, where to begin…" The Eternal pulled her cloak tightly around herself. "Do you hate hindsight? The feeling of regret, that you didn't know you were making a mistake, that there was nothing you could have done at the time?"

Pyrrha blinked in surprise.

"Hmm, well… I suppose I don't enjoy the feeling. After tournaments, my trainers would often review footage of my fights and point out where things could have gone better, even though I won. It was a bit grating, but I tried to look at it objectively as a way to improve. Everyone makes mistakes, Ruby."

"Then did I make a mistake in coming here?"

Pyrrha froze. What could have possibly happened to have brought this on?

"Recently I… I've learned that a few of my seemingly innocuous decisions have come back to inconvenience me at the worst possible time." Ruby tightly gripped the edge of the rooftop, accidentally ripping off small chunks of the corner. "Now obviously, I had no way of knowing at the time. But it's just so frustrating!"

"What happened?" Pyrrha replied, genuinely curious.

"Oh, nothing much." Ruby replied in a scathing tone. "Just that I've probably got enough people monitoring me to fill an entire classroom, I've been sworn into silence over a completely trivial issue, and I've garnered the attention of not one, not two, but three separate groups all caught up in some stupid power struggle!"

Her partner flung her hands up and flopped on her back. "I've trapped myself. And I can't just up and disappear now, or they'll really start hunting me down."

Ruby chuckled.

"Funny, isn't it? I've got all this power, and no easy way to make everyone understand. And using force to make them all back down seems so…" Her eyes flitted around as she searched for a proper word. "...primitive."

Pyrrha eyed her carefully. "You're not going to use excessive force on them, right?"

"What? Of course not." Ruby scoffed. "I am an Eternal; I refuse to sink to their level."

Pyrrha opted to ignore that supremacist comment, and the duo remained silent for a few minutes as storm clouds rolled in. Tiny, infrequent droplets began hitting her face.

Finally, Pyrrha spoke. "Then, what are you going to do?"

"Who knows?" She shrugged. "To be honest, I got so caught up in planning out my quest that I never bothered to account for everyone else. Usually when I encounter a setback I have Apollo or Theo to complain to, but—"

Her voice caught, and a flash of lightning illuminated a face wracked with grief.

"—but they aren't around, so…"

Thunder crackled in the background as the rain suddenly intensified. Her partner stood up and offered her a hand.

"Thanks, Pyrrha. I know I'm probably not the most likeable person in Beacon, but you seem to stick around me anyways. I, uh, appreciate that." She finished awkwardly.

Pyrrha gave a faint smile as they hurried inside. "We're partners. It worries me when you run off alone to your lab doing who knows what."

Ruby hummed quietly in response.

"But, um, if you need help with anything…" Pyrrha added, as they walked through the dorm hallways. "I could always lend a hand."

Ruby stopped suddenly and faced her. "Do you really mean that?"

She blinked twice. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

"...It's nothing." Ruby looked away.

The conversation faded as they crept into their dorm room, carefully sneaking into bed as to not awaken their teammates. When Pyrrha woke up the next morning, she found a few messages on her Scroll.

4:59 AM - Ruby: [If you're not busy, meet me in the library today.]

5:00 AM - Ruby: [I need your insight on something.]

5:02 AM - Ruby: [Anytime is fine.]

Her mask was fraying. She could only ever periodically check in the one place she had utmost privacy: their dorm's bathroom, but it was definitely falling apart at the bottom. It wasn't a huge deal just yet, but she'd have to be mindful not do anything foolish like letting buildings fall on her head. Just another problem to add to the ever-growing list of issues that could have been easily solved if it weren't for that manipulative little—

'Don't go there, Ruby. You're better than that.'

She flipped through a few pages to calm herself down. So what if Ozpin was secretly leveraging his influence to stall out the delivery of her much-needed resources in an attempt to keep her at Beacon? She had allies too! Sure, that list was limited to basically Pyrrha, and maybe Weiss and Blake, but she had to start somewhere. Diplomacy and politicking was always Apollo's thing anyways.

Ruby absentmindedly checked her Scroll. To her delight, Pyrrha had responded, saying that the whole team would be with her shortly. She supposed they had nothing better to do on a Sunday.

Spotting the trio enter, she quickly waved them over. They were all dressed in loungewear, though Blake was still wearing that beanie. She'd never really seen her without it, but it was none of her business.

"Thanks for coming!" She chirped as they settled around her table.

"What's this about, Ruby?" Blake asked. "No offense, but you usually never want to hang out."

"I want your input on…this." She leaned over and scooped up the pile of books beside her, before laying them out on the table.

Weiss grabbed the nearest one and examined the cover. "These are… fairy tales?"

The Eternal nodded. "I've only just barely read through all of these, but I'm sure you all have grown up reading tons of different fairy tales, right? In other words, you're probably more familiar with them than I am."

"This is the advice you wanted?" Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it seems like fun, but why?"

Ruby rubbed her hands together in excitement. "Because today, we're gonna do some theorycrafting! At least one of these fairy tales is real. I'm not asking you to somehow find out which one it is simply by reading them, just think about which ones might be more likely to actually exist compared to the others. Sounds good?"

She almost got three nods from her teammates before Weiss cut in with her usual discordant tripe.

"Wait, which one is the real one? How do you even know what you've said is true?"

"A little birdie told me. Well, actually I spied on him while he was chatting with his stupid bird friends, but that's not important. Which book should we start with first?"

Pyrrha held up a book with a howling Beowolf on the cover. "How about this one?"

She rolled her shoulders. "Might as well get the really obvious ones out of the way first…"

So, they started out small, tackling stories with very minor subject matters or vague settings with the intent of eliminating them from the massive pile of books Ruby had accumulated in the morning. It seemed Pyrrha was the most knowledgeable about these tales, followed by Blake, and then Weiss and lastly herself.

She knew the majority of these stories were a waste of time, something she usually hated, but Ruby couldn't help but feel relaxed in spite of her situation. When did she become so used to doing things alone? Watching Pyrrha carefully and kindly explain each story, laughing as Blake threw in a sarcastic or cynical quip at some of the main characters' actions, debating or agreeing with Weiss's logical deductions, it was… fun, in a way.

"Oh hey, this one's a two-in-one. The Judgement of the Faunus and The Shallow Sea. I… haven't heard of these before." Pyrrha said.

"They're Faunus creation myths." Blake cut in. "I wouldn't put too much stock into these two. If there was a God of Animals, he would have done something by now." A bitter edge entered her voice.

"I have to agree. Surely he would be more widely touted by the Faunus if they were actually created by him. The first Faunus would have passed down the legends through their families, at the very least." Weiss added.

Blake gave her a wide-eyed look. "That's… actually a pretty good point, Weiss."

"Of course it is!" The heiress preened.

Ruby didn't think it was particularly clever, but maybe she was missing something. Regardless, she didn't think any of the other Faunus-specific myths were relevant, so she quickly sorted through their rapidly shrinking stack of books and removed them.

The team toiled on through the day, with Weiss at some point leaving to get them all lunch, and Ruby could tell they were making good progress.

"What about general creation myths? The Tale of the Two Brothers is a fairly popular one."

"Brothers?" Ruby tilted her head.

"It details the existence of a God of Light and a God of Darkness. Apparently, the God of Darkness is responsible for the creation of the Grimm."

"So in other words, he's basically a Master of the Grimm, if he exists." Ruby concluded.

"Right. Though, the idea of someone controlling the Grimm…" Blake shivered. "Imagine if that were real."

"Hypothetically speaking, he wouldn't. There's a God of Light, too, remember?" Weiss interjected.

Ruby filed it away under 'possible, but with zero influence' given how no Gods have made themselves known throughout Remnant's history. Though, if there were Gods, Ruby would definitely like to meet them.

The afternoon passed by as they sorted through the rest of the low-consequence stories before Ruby finally arrived at the ones she really wanted to dig into. She had a few hypotheses of her own, but she wanted to know how a 'local', as it was, would react.

Dramatically, she slammed the book down in front of them all. "The Story of the Seasons."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Is this the one?"

"Oh, my mother loves this one." Pyrrha chimed in, before detailing the contents of the story.

"So, to sum up," Blake began. "An old man grants the Maidens 'incredible power', who promise to return and visit him annually, representing the seasonal cycle."

"Incredible power, huh…" Ruby echoed.

"I suppose someone's Semblance could involve a transfer of power, realistically speaking." Weiss mused. "Still, it seems weird that this is the story that explains the seasons."

"I agree." Pyrrha murmured. "Mother enjoys this one because of the actions of the four sisters and how they change the old man, but none of that actually has anything to do with the weather…"

Ruby perked up. The weather? Did she overthink things yet again? Could it really be that simple?

"What if it's the other way around?" Blake suggested. "What if these four sisters just happened to have really powerful weather-related semblances, and they wrote a tale detailing their origins? The ending does suggest that they go on to help the rest of Remnant, so maybe the Maidens were actually folk heroes? That is, if they did actually exist—"

"They exist!" Ruby quickly added. "In what capacity, I wasn't sure—which was why I wanted your help. There's a lot to unpack when you only have guesswork and vague references at your disposal."

"...You're never going to tell us how you found this out, are you?" Blake grumbled.

"I'm pretty sure I'd get you all inducted into a secret cult if I did." Ruby replied, much to the alarm of her teammates. "Don't worry about it too much. We're merely spending our Sunday afternoon doing fun little thought exercises on fairy tales, right? And if I just happen to stumble upon the truth about some of them, then that's just a lucky coincidence, and nothing more." She finished with a cheeky grin.

"Well, I don't mind finishing up the rest of these," Pyrrha gestured to the small stack of books remaining. "But Ruby, you'll tell us if you're in any trouble, right?"

Weiss nodded in agreement. "Despite all of the crazy situations you seem to be getting yourself into, we're still a team. As leader, I won't have any singular member recklessly putting herself in danger alone. That would be foolish."

Ruby was stunned. Did they truly know what they were getting themselves into? Well, there was no need to involve them now, even if they were the strongest first year team at Beacon.

Especially since Ruby herself knew exceedingly little about their 'enemies' as well, having only picked up coded phrases about some vague, far-off threat to the peace of the Kingdoms. It didn't help that Ozpin and his cronies used chess metaphors, a game she wasn't familiar with since the Eternals never got around to inventing it.

"I… appreciate your concern." She found herself saying. "And if you're offering your support, then it's only fair that I help with your problems, too."

Weiss immediately brightened after that. "Then in that case, let's have a team training session after dinner. The Vytal Tournament is coming up in a few months; I expect all of you to be in peak condition for when the time comes!"

As they returned to the last of the fairy tales, Ruby's mind wandered towards her current predicament. The situation was still manageable; she just had to find another way to get what she wanted in a timely fashion, without pissing off every major power around her. There was no harm in helping out the rest of Team SAPR while she brainstormed up the perfect solution, was there?

Mercury raised his hand.

"I'll do it."

"Mercury, was it?" The professor replied. "Very well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, I wanna fight…" He scanned the peanut gallery for a red cloak. "Her."

"Miss Rose?" Professor Goodwitch asked, though the expression on her face showed she clearly didn't expect anything.

The girl in question opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the Schnee, who was furiously whispering into her ear. Oh well, he'd just ask Emerald about it later.

"Ehh, sure?"

"Seriously?" A blonde girl stood up. "I've been trying to fight you for literal months!"

Both Mercury and the professor blinked in surprise. When he called on her, he'd been looking to scout out both her and the teacher's reactions, then when she declined, he'd just pick the Invincible Girl instead. He could work with this, though.

"V-very well. Come on down." Professor Goodwitch stated, and began setting up the scoreboard.

Mercury didn't miss how the girl didn't bother to get dressed into a combat uniform before coming down, nor did he miss the golden ripple of light that briefly enveloped her body before she slotted in her Scroll to the display. Was she seriously trying to intimidate him by flaring her Aura?

"Not gonna use a weapon?" He taunted.

She shrugged, before pulling out a comically large hammer out of nowhere. It was a menacing looking thing, sporting a two-handed shaft that carried both a dense head at the front, and a blade at the back. Despite its top-heavy proportions, she twirled it around with a practiced ease.

A gasp rang out from the crowd.

"Hey, she's ripping off my style!" An orange-haired girl shouted before being chastised by her partner.

At the countdown, he charged, eager to scout out the girl's capabilities. As he drew closer, he picked up a distinct humming sound from the hammer's head, which seemed to pulse with energy. Mercury led with a roundhouse kick to the head, which was promptly blocked and repelled by a distinct purple pulse from her weapon.

'Gravity Dust, huh?'

Well then, he'd just have to avoid the hammer and outmaneuver her. Yet as Mercury upped the tempo, throwing in jabs, leg sweeps, axe kicks, and more, his opponent likewise matched his speed, and met each attack with a swing of her hammer. Their dance continued for a few short seconds before Mercury finally snuck past her guard and planted his feet squarely on her chest. And fired.

'Oops.' He thought as she was launched back from the impact. Did he go a bit overboard?

A small laugh proved otherwise. "Wow, I guess I am really rusty, huh?"

His opponent quickly recovered, putting a few feet between them. A button clicked, and her hammer roared to life. In an instant, Ruby closed in, bringing her weapon down in an overhead swing.

Mercury backflipped to dodge the blow, but as the hammer struck the ground, a powerful shockwave carried him up into the air, flinging him out of the arena. At least he stuck the landing.

"Mercury is out of bounds. Excellent work, Miss Rose."

Well, that was productive.

But where the hell was she getting all of this Dust from? Weren't Torchwick and his goons busy draining Vale dry of all their resources?

Ruby skipped up to him. "That was a good match." She offered him a hand.

"Yeah, you're lucky I didn't break my legs from that landing." He snarked.

The girl tilted her head to the side, clearly confused. "If you did, I'd repair them free of charge. Maybe even throw in a cool upgrade—with your permission, of course. Like—ooh, what about jet boots? Or shotgun knees!"

She missed his shocked expression when her teammates called her from the stands, leaving him alone as the class ended. Frantically, he checked his legs.

…Nope, there weren't any signs of damage that would have given him away; his Aura did its job. So how?

Emerald ran up to him as the bell rang. "What the hell was that about?" She hissed.

Yeah, this was not gonna be a fun conversation.

A/N: Shotgun knees!

As you can see, we've skipped through time a bit. RWBY's timeline is a bit difficult to navigate, but hopefully it'll get better.

It's unlikely, but I wish they'd release more lore around Remnant's culture. RWBY: The Fairy Tales of Remnant was neat, but imagine if they really went all out with the worldbuilding. It's hard to write dialogue around stuff like the Brother Gods because (I'm pretty sure) we don't know anything about the Kingdom's religions or whatnot. Judging by the dialogue in V4, V5, and a bit of V6, it doesn't seem like our main cast is particularly religious either.

At least, that's my interpretation. Let me know if you think I'm wrong, and where I could have handled things better. Many thanks.