Team RNJR.
Yang.
Weiss.
Blake.
Uncle Qrow.
Oscar.
And the suddenly dimmed lights of the entrance to the Haven's academy that was ,coincidentally, also the entrance to the Spring Maiden Vault. The atmosphere of the room became dark...
...suffocating...
...grimm...
Evil.
A tall figure, all dressed in black, emerged near the Huntsmen, slowly forming into that of a woman with pure white skin color, white braids and red eyes that were covered by a abyssal black sclera, along with purple veins on her face.
The woman's arms and fingers were bent in such an unnaturally creepy way that it looked like it almost had no bones in it's limbs whatsoever.
The scream was the last thing she remembered.
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"AAAHHH!"
Ruby jolted as she suddenly woke up, the fear and panic still etched in her mind after witnessing the horrifying scene that seemingly ended the battle of Haven. 'Seemingly' being the appropriate word because, when she composed herself for a few seconds and looked around her, she couldn't recognize the spacious room she found herself in.
Pitch black walls and ceilings were contrasted with the common white lamps that effectively lit up the whole room. In front of her was a large, wide, rectangular screen that looked like some sort of a high-quality cinema projection screens, as she noticed that the screen was perfectly flat and white, like it was a shinning example of the word 'flawless'.
The next thing she noticed was that she woke up in a sitting position. Ordinarily, waking up while sitting would usually mean the back pain that would shortly arrive after being asleep in a position that was not meant to sleep in.
However, the chair she was sitting in was quite comfy and soft and, upon quick hand inspection, realized that she could switch the angle of the chair from a sitting to a diagonal, semi-lying position.
Realization of her being in an unknown place struck her shortly as Ruby stood up from the comfortable chair. The sight of multiple cinema seats was the first thing Ruby noticed as she turned behind, and looked in various directions.
'Hmm, let's see...1,3,5,9,15, aaaandd...33 seats? If this is some sort of a cinema, there would've been a lot more than tat. Weird.'
Ruby also noticed how the seats were colored and positioned. By colors and the space between by them, she divided the chairs into 3 groups - White, Gray and Black.
The chair she was sitting in moments ago was one of the White chairs, which only confused Ruby a bit, so she decided to drop the whole color theory scheme. The positioning of the seats was interesting, as there were 22 White seats, the first 3 rows had 7 seats respectively, and the last one was on the top of the White chairs.
The last one, Ruby noticed, was actually quite big and spacious, and it almost resembled...
'Hey, I know this! It's a 'Couples-Only' seat! But... for who?'
So it was actually 23 White seats, with the whole being 34 seats in general. The next group were the Gray seats, were the first row was occupied by one seat, while the row above had two seats.
'Ooookay, whoever designed the seat order was probably either lazy, or... had some super secret agenda in plan!'
The last group were the Black seats, the first row having four, the second three, and the third had one seat that stood above the two rows.
'Alright, now to find others! I do hope they aren't hurt.'
"Don't worry, Miss Rose, all of your teammates and friends are in perfect health."
Ruby quickly turned around and tried to pinpoint the source of the unknown voice. As she instinctively reached her hand behind her back to grab her weapon, she realized something.
Crescent Rose wasn't there.
Ruby took the next course of action and lifted her fists in a combative style, ready to face any opponent that might come after her.
'Only if it isn't that big, angry guy with a grudge against Headmaster Ozpin. Then I'll be in a LOT of trouble.'
"No need to get worried. Mister Rainart is fine and won't pose a problem to you or anyone in that matter."
Ruby wasn't sure if the voice was truthful or not, so she remained vigilant and didn't let her guard down.
"Where are my friends? What did you do to them?"
The unknown voice chuckled at the statement, almost sounding as if it is amused.
"Your friends should be here right about...now."
And just as the voice finished the sentence, a small flash of light that was accompanied by a quick 'ping' sound, and in the next moment - all the seats were taken by their now quite confused occupants.
"WAUGH!"
"W-What happened?"
"AGH! Where... am I?!"
"Well, this is most...unexpected."
But there was one voice that actually stood out among the other, confused voices. A voice that emanated a tone of disbelief, surprise, and...
"P-Pyrrha?"
Happiness?
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Jaune Arc couldn't believe his eyes.
In one moment he was fighting for his and his friend's lives against the enemy, and in the next moment he was sitting in front of a girl he thought he lost forever...the girl whose life he did not manage to save due to his incompetence and inability to do anything back then...and the girl, whose feelings he never had a chance to...
"Jaune...I..."
No. This is just a cruel trick his mind is playing on him. It had to be, and yet...Jaune reached out his hand and rested on Pyrrha's shoulder, and actually felt something.
A soft warmth.
The brief touch quickly turned into a tight hug Jaune enveloped Pyrrha in, holding her tightly, almost like he didn't want for her to slip and leave, never to return.
Like last time.
The Invincible Girl was caught off guard a bit, but was quick to return the hug as she enveloped the boy she loved in her arms.
This was a moment that both of them wanted to last, perhaps forever.
"Oh get a room, you two!"
Both of the 'lovers' and all present in the room got their attention at the voice in middle, showing no one other than-
"Torchwick!" Ruby yelped, her finger pointing at her former adversary.
The self-proclaimed master theif and the kingping of crime didn't got the time to respond at as he got his own smothering snuggle by a girl with half-pink, half-brown hair and actually managed to get down on the floor.
"Uh, Ruby... what's going on?"
Oscar was confused by the whole situation. In one moment they were fighting for their lives, and in the next - they simply appeared here, with no explanation whatsoever!
"I have no idea, Os..."
"OZPIN!"
A towering familiar voice boomed throughout the room, and all of the current occupants turned to see a very, VERY pissed off Hazel, who was standing from the Black seats and looked like he was ready to gut the boy.
"NOTHING WILL NOW STAND IN MY WAY! I WILL KILL YOU HERE AND N-" Hazel was however cut off by the same voice that he planned to silence.
"Leave the boy alone, Hazel. He is not your source of anger anymore."
The calm and reasoning voice belonged to no other than the Beacon Headmaster Ozpin...in the flesh. Ruby and Oscar, alongside the other members who are the participants in the secret war against Salem, were shocked to see the Headmaster of Beacon alive and well.
Ozpin's sudden appearance only added fuel to the fire that was Hazel's hatred. But Hazel Rainart was not the only one who were 'unpleasently' surprised by the sight of Ozpin.
Salem always prefered to see her enemies either dead or quivering on their knees, and thus she was definitely not happy when her rival wasn't in neither of those states.
The Grimm master wasn't the only one, if Cinder Fall's scowl was anything but a hint. She personally made sure that Ozpin was grinded down to nothing, since she had that kind of opinion of him. And she will be glad to do so again. That, however, could be a problem, as both Hazel and Cinder realized one thing.
They were completely unarmed and powerless.
Hazel immediately noticed it when he searched his pockets for any Dust crystals to use, while it took Cinder a bit while to realize that she couldn't summon the power of the Fall Maiden. Add insult to injury, she couldn't even feel the power in her.
And that fact completely terrified her.
While Emerald was estatic to see her mistress alive, especially since she immediately thought that Cinder was dead when she saw the blonde bimbo holding the artifact - Sustrai could immediately recognize that it was one of those moments where Cinder was not to be distracted with anything, less if she wants a large fireball right in the face.
"While I do love a good brawl, especially a one where I'm not involved in, I am sorry to inform you all that that kind of activity is NOT on our schedule. I'd advise you to control your anger Mr Reinart, because nothing good will come out of it, and you really would not like it when my hand is forced. That applies to everybody here too.
The voice sounded like it was getting closer, and as everyone turned their attention to the source to see who is the mysterious speaker.
"Okay, I honestly didn't expected that." Nora sounded unimpressed, and with pretty good reason, as before them stood a boy dressed in casual clothing consisting of a pair of grey socks, relaxed blue trousers and a black t-shirt with...a very familiar image on it.
So familiar that Ruby raised an eyebrow in a slight combination of suprise and confusion and muttered: "Hey, is-is that me on your shirt?"
The black shirt had a red figure that had a scythe that closely resembled a silhouette of Crescent Rose in a walking position, rose petals covering the trail behind her, and the space below the figure were covered with the red colored letters RWBY.
The figure chuckled at the young Huntress-in-training.
"Why yes. Yes it is. Now..." The figure took a few steps and stood straight in the middle, with all of the seats in his view.
"Before I start anything, I would like to inform all of the cripples here - you just received... a miracle!" The figure raised his arms over his head like some sort of a priest.
Yang was confused at first, but a quick glance to her right explained it all. Her arm, her own flesh and blood arm, was there! She held it, and there it was - like nothing ever happened. Fingers moving, wrist turning and the warmth that radiated from it was enough to convince Yang that she wasn't armless.
Mercury already knew that his legs felt different, and only confirmed his suspicions after a quick touch and squeeze. He couldn't say that he wasn't dissapointed - having your own legs is a nice feeling after all, but he would always pick his prosthetics over his actual legs.
Maybe he just got used to them.
Cinder on the other hand was still in shock after her own revelation of being powerless. But she couldn't say she wasn't at least relieved that she got her actual arm back with the face that wasn't horrendously scarred. Her hair even grew back to it's original length!
At least some good came out of this.
"We all good? Good. Now, you may be all wondering - why are we here? Well, for starters, let me ask you this..."
"Do you believe in destiny?"
The out of the blue question raised some eyebrows. Pyrrha looked at the guy, a bit suprised at his question and unsure if she should answer. On the other side, Cinder malevolently gazed at the speaker, waiting for him to speak, as if he asked a rhetorical question.
"Personally, I believe it's a pile of horseshit. You are the 'Chosen One', you are destined to fulfill the prophecy, to save the world and other overused stuff that simply makes me want to vomit."
The Huntsmen-in-training teams, alongside Roman and Neo, snickered at the remark, while the older and a bit more sinister members remained silent, wondering what this...boy would say next.
"Destiny didn't do much good to you, now did it, Nikos, hm?" Pyrrha's posture went on the defensive at the comment, but she couldn't deny that it actually was true - groomed to be the best, never actually being normal and fated to die without any chance of obtaining what she truly desired.
Her teammates and friends all had mixed feelings about that - some of anger and guilt, and some of remorse as they all shifted in their seats.
"But hey, everything, no matter how bad it is, has a silver lining! You see, to counter the stupid thing, we, or to be fair - I have a good, good thing, or should I say things called infinite timelines."
Almost everyone was baffled in the room. The theory of infinite timelines and how they work is supposed to be only but mere fiction in made-up stories.
Through the waves of confused voices, one managed to stand out of it's own. And it was the voice which belonged to Salem's closest adviser Arthur Watts.
"Do you perhaps have any legitimate proof to support your claim?"
The boyish figure smirked and looked down to his own feet, but he never broke the focus between the 'audience' and him.
"Your existence here is enough proof as it is. As to why you are here, well, I'll try to explain it as in much detail I can, so that you can understand everything. Now, as I said, there are infinite timelines with infinite possibilities of the outcomes of your world
For an example, somewhere there exists a timeline where Pyrrha survived her encounter with Cinder, or where Roman managed to wiggle his way out of the Griffon, or where even a totally new character appears and pretty much screws everything."
"Now just wait a minute! How could you possibly know all that?!" Roman pointed a finger at the guy in front of him like an interogator. The sole figure in front of the kingpin had a wide smile on his face and said:
"You could say that I've been following you all for quite a while. Your adventures, your fights, your personal problems. Too put it in short terms - I. Know. Everything.
"Woah there! Are you some kind of stalker or something?" Neptune also raised a finger, his voice betraying him that he was a tad bit uncomfortable, to which the boy just laughed.
" 'Stalker' is too strong a word. I'd prefer the term 'viewer', as I was...observing your lives in a manner similar to watching a TV show."
The self named 'viewer' could already see some worried faces among the audience members.
"Don't worry, not ALL of your life moments. Even we 'viewers' have our limits and boundaries to what we can and can't watch."
"We? There are more people like you?" Ironwood asked.
"A lot more. And you know the infinite timelines I talked about earlier?" The guy stretched his arms wide, like he was a merchant that was showing off his goods.
"We have them at our disposal. So, before you get outraged and start telling on how inhumane that is - no, we as viewers do not have any control of your MAIN timeline. That is ran by...the higher ups."
Mercury's raised an eyebrow to that statement and asked:
"Higher ups?"
"Your creators, the ones that weave your fates. They're the ones who decide how the story goes and finishes, who lives and dies. Most of the other timelines are defined by the main one, but not all of them." the figure further explained.
"So you are telling me that we are not the MAIN versions of ourselves right now?" Qrow said.
Qrow's implication stirred up some of the audience members. Before anyone could voice their opinion, Weiss stood up and started to rant in an angered manner: "You think that gives you the RIGHT to tamper with us?! To kidnap us all here?!"
The boy scratched his head a bit, but his smile didn't falter at the accusation.
"Hmm, it does kinda sound awful when you put it that way...no, you are not. And yes, that gives me full right to do that.
Buuuuuuut, I do not like to do that, since I'm not that much of a sadist. I much more prefer to...observe. Alas, when I was watching your timeline, I did notice that something was quite...well, let's say wrong with it.
Cracks started popping up left and right, which was something that you could not see. They started pretty much the moment Ruby unleashes her ocular power.
What sealed the deal is when Emy here",the guy nodded at Emerald, who was currently at the Black seats,"performed quite a nifty illusion trick with Salem. Your timeline then got shattered and your would've been reduced to nothing, like you didn't exist in the first place. So, I brought you here!"
"Why would you...save us? Do you gain something by doing that?"
The question that was asked came from Salem herself, and Ozpin, in such rare occasions, couldn't helped to agree with his enemy - why would he do that?
The boy put his palms together and stretched his fingers towards the audience.
"It's quite simple, really - I like you guys!"
An answer that was as unexpected as it was...pleasant? Whatever it was, it did bring a few smiles and a lot of confused looks.
'An altruistic reason isn't quite unbelievable as it may seem. But still...' Ozpin held up his chin. It was true that good Samaritans weren't that uncommon. However, hundreds of years of experience taught Ozpin that he shouldn't always take things as they are in the moments notice.
Never judge a book by it's cover, they said.
"You like us? Like, like us, or like-like us? Or even really really like-like us?" Nora jumped and put her palm on her chin in wonder.
"Eh, normal like. I empathize and sympathize with you, to the point that I actually understand you. Well, most of you, if I'm being honest.
Anyway, I'm now currently repairing your whole timeline, so that you will all be returning to your timeline, which is the good news, or bad news for some. Now, the bad, or good news, is that the repair is gonna take quite a long time."
"Can't you speed up the process?" Raven asked, and the boy couldn't help but notice that the Spring Maiden's impatience. He was almost inclined to respond in a sarcastic manner, but he controled himself.
For now.
"Nah, the process is natural and cannot be tampered with, no matter what I do. Meaning, you are stuck here. But!" The figure raised his index finger up and went towards the blank screen.
"During your stay here, I will try to entertain you as much as I can by showing the potential timelines that could've occurred had something been different in the world of Remnant."
"Oh, oh! Is there one where we are super heroes?" Nora asked cheerfully.
"Super heroes, ninjas, musicians, villains - you name it! Now, I'm off to set the show. I'll leave you to alone, so please TRY at least not to kill one another while I'm not here. Also, take this short time to, heh, make up for lost time, aaaa WINK!" The guy smiled and winked at the 'Couple seat' occupants, to which one of the said occupants blush was the same color as her hair, while the other started laughing nervously and was scratching his head.
"Wait! Before you go, please tell us how do we call you? What is your name?" Ruby asked, to which the guy gazed at her with all the swagger he could obtain to look serious...before he burst out laughing at the attempt.
"I go by many names, nicknames and titles, but you can call me - Bob."
To which Yang burst out of laughter, and others joining her too, since - well, who the hell names their kid - or themselves Bob?
"I'm off now guys, and please - do get comfortable here.
Shoot, I almost forgot the official greeting! Ahem.
Welcome to my Dimensional Cinema - hope you have a wonderful time! Ninja vanish!" Bob said as he threw a smoke bomb at his feet and disappeared from plain sight.
The pregnant pause that came after Bob's disappearance was broken by Ruby who thought out loud:
"Why do I have a feeling that I've seen that somewhere before...?"