Chapter 1 – Introduction and Revelation
The girls of team RWBY all stood in front of the unknown individual as they looked at the four, watching them as looked at the girl yet their minds were focused on her question.
"Are you familiar with the name … Jaune Arc?"
The four of them could only look at the unknown figure as they made this statement to them, but then Ruby stated what the others also knew.
"Y-yes, he's our classmate, he was the leader of team JNPR at Beacon, we hung out with them and him," Ruby stated firmly first, but then seemed to become unsure and panicked in her next words, "yet, somehow, even though I remember his name, even though I know who he is, it all feels so … distant, vague, like he isn't truly there, like he could just disappear at any given time."
As Ruby spoke, her memories of Jaune Arc were almost broken, or even fading, with Jaune in her memories either having most of his body blotted out with a rippling darkness, or with cracks appearing in her memories of him, the cracks centered on him and only faded when he left the memory.
The other girls also had this happen in their minds, with Jaune being a broken, distorted part within their memories.
The figure looked at the four, seeing their faces in obvious distress, before she then spoke to them, "you are wondering why your memories of Jaune Arc are so … broken, aren't you, why he appears to be fading from your memories, or why he seems to be a fractured distortion when you try to recall who he is."
The girls are now fully attentive to the girl, who they now believed knew what they wished to be answered.
"The reason for this, for why you are here, for what brought you here, all of these answers can be found here," the girl told them, to which their eyes widened and were about to speak had the girl held a hand up showing she had more to say, "but to get these answers, you will need to do something first, something that ties into all that has and is happening to you."
"So, what is it, what's this important thing we need to do so that we know, well, everything about what the heck is happening to us," Yang was the one who said this.
"This structure, the Quanta Aeterna, was created to store the 'journeys' of a specific individual throughout many divergent paths, where different actions have been taken, actions that lead to changes in the reality of the worlds these 'journeys' take place in. Whether minor, such as certain individuals developing different desires and wants in their lives, or one relationship happening in one reality that did not occur in another reality, to immense changes such as the world, galaxy or universe itself developing in such a way as to be entirely alien from the branching reality, to entire worlds, solar systems and entire galaxies that exist in another reality, not existing at all in the current reality." The girl finished her long speech to catch her breath, breathing in and out as team RWBY listened to her, even Yang was listening, though just because what she was saying sounded interesting to her, then the girl spoke again, "this is what people refer to as the theory of the Multiverse, different realities all branching outward, infinitely and eternally, causing realities to form in ways that either are either plausible and sometimes logical even, to realities so absurd and illogical that attempting to understand them usually drives the one trying to understand to the depths of either madness or suicide. It is realities like this, centered on the individual known as Jaune Arc that formed what could be called a mutiversal convergence, in which events, areas and even entities from these realities can bleed over from one reality into another, in this case, some of these realities grew close enough together that aspects from one reality ended up in another, causing minor alterations that grew steadily, until it lead to a large spillover, a spillover that happened to your reality."
It was Wiess that responded to this, "Okay, hold up right there, your saying that from these 'alternate realities', something came from them into our reality, and that's the reason we are here, and why we can't recall Jaune," Wiess said as she told the unknown girl what she got from the explanation,
"I'm afraid it is exactly what that means, a large something or worse, a compounded amount of something's have entered your world and caused enough of a distortion to the current reality of your world that it has changed your reality in a quite honestly, major alteration event," the girl then turned their attention to a large holo-screen that appeared on one of the walls of the large room, with the screen appearing a light charcoal color to them, "this screen is used to display either one of the multitude of 'journeys' that are catalogued and archived here and in the adjoining complexes, or to show a certain reality and its current state as it is observed, and brace yourselves for this, because all we are receiving from viewing your reality is … this."
The screen flickers to … a warped, flickering shuddering, discordant mess of dissonant tones, harsh and clashing colors, and distorted, broken, unidentifiable images. The entire thing was a completely chaotic and unsalvageable mess that the current occupants of the room couldn't identify no matter how they try to view it.
Then with flicker the image went out, leaving the screen its light gray charcoal color once more.
"That is all we end up getting when we try to view your reality, only a chaotic mess of unreadable images and broken static, as for why this is happening and what is causing this to happen, we have linked it to multiple other realities that we have archived here in the Quanta, all of these realities range from high minor and lesser massive divergence types," the girl states to them, " essentially, they are from realities linked to realities sharing a similar energy imprint to your currently reality, but range from a significant change from the events of your worlds timeline all the way to your world, the world of Remnant, not even existing at all."
This got a very shocked reaction out of everyone, the thought of their world not even existing at all was a very terrifying prospect for them, as that meant that they didn't exist, not them not their families (though the thought of Jaques Gele (refuse to call him Schnee) was a very appealing thought to Blake and, (not) surprisingly Wiess Schnee).
"If you are wondering, you still exist in these realities, Remnant or no Remnant, though with how different these realities are, you end up with vastly different upbringings, names, even genders," the girl stated matter of factly to the four now bewildered girls.
"So, your saying that in another world, I'm a boy," Ruby stated, a bit disturbed by the idea.
The screen came on, this time showing a reality, which shows team RWBY at Beacon Academy, except that their genders are now quite noticeably different in this reality.
"Well, this is kinda awkward," Ruby says, looking at her male self, "though why am I still so short even as a guy."
"You know, in a way I guess I sort of look like a younger version of dad," Yang noted the striking similarity to her version in this reality to Taiyang, "and isn't it nice Ruby, your still my cute little bro in that reality."
"NO," Ruby shouted in exasperation.
"I look like my father," Wiess bitterly noted, seeing a stark (and unwelcome) resemblance between herself and Jacques.
Blake was more reserved in her judgement of her male self but seeing that he did not hide his faunas features from others showed he far braver that then she ever was, still unwilling to reveal her heritage.
"This is, in a surprising aspect to you, a medium minor alteration to your reality," the girl spoke, then a new image appeared, "this reality would best be described as a major medium alteration."
The girls looked at the screen, and it immediately flashed on.
They were treated to what seemed to be a large and terrible battle, fought between two groups.
The first group appeared clad in dark clothes with an armored vest, knee and elbow pads, and helmets with an ocular device on top, with them using rifles of some variety, rifles that they noted had rather large magazines.
"Those guns must be using at least .44 or a smaller .50 caliber ammunition, which is not that strong but does have a lot of impact," Ruby said, taking extra close notice of the weapons.
The scene continues showing that on the shoulder patches of many soldiers is the flag that none of them can place seeing anywhere on Remnant, and running alongside four wheeled armored vehicles, which all had large guns on top that were rapidly shooting shells ahead of them at their unknown enemy. Then on the screen someone runs by the view at high speed, weaving through the soldiers and rushing ahead of the battle line.
"THAT'S UNCLE QROW," Ruby screamed at such a high volume and pitch it was almost a screech, "what's he doing with those guys, are they fighting Grimm, is that what their fighting, oh this is gonna be so awesome."
Then the viewing stopped, and the girls looked at the girl, confused, only to see her with a deep frown and rather sad eyes, with a look that seemed almost apologetic in a way.
"Ruby, what will be shown next, is something that will be dark for you given your innocence, but also essential, given the path you have chosen," the girl continued before Ruby could speak, "what you are about to see is the darker half of the profession known as huntsman, a part that involves something that, due to you being raised in such a sheltered environment, has made it much more difficult for you to accept."
Ruby looked at the girl, taking in her words, Yang herself looked a little worried at what the girl was saying and what Ruby was about to see, while Wiess was just left with a questioning expression as to what Ruby would be shown and Blake had a look that had a pointed anger at girl, thinking that this girl was about to do something terrible to Ruby.
"Haah, well as the modern expression goes, 'better to just rip off the bandage now and deal with the pain now, rather than let it just get worst later on," the girl then prepared to let the scene play, "prepare yourselves, for this is the darker side of the huntsman profession."
The screen played, showing Qrow running with Harbinger in its sword form, and then he thrust the blade forward.
'SQUELCH'
To the horror of Ruby, it showed her uncle not striking into the body of a Grimm, but with his weapon having gone completely through another person, one wielding a dust rifle with an Atlesian design ethic to it, and wearing white and black armored clothing with the symbol of a fist that was dark red in color on the armor, now further stained red by the blood flowing out of the man's body and onto the ground.
Everyone was in stunned silence as they saw this happen, seeing a supposed champion of mankind effortlessly cut down another human, ending his life and spilling his blood.
"Wha-What the fu-heck was that," Yang said, now holding a traumatized Ruby near her, "why did Uncle Qrow kill that man, what is going on."
"What he did miss Xiaolong, was his job, the job of a fully trained professional huntsman," then the image changed, showing what seemed to be a fourth year class of Beacon Academy, "and if time allowed it and you had finished your time at Beacon, something you would also understand as the necessary evil that all huntsmen must go through."
The screened then focused on the textbook of the Beacon fourth year, showing the title of the book to be, 'Huntsman Ethics and Responsibilities, Course 4, Beacon Academy', then it showed the book open to a later chapter of the book, and at the title of the chapter, team RWBY's blood became cold.
"Wiess," Wiess then looked to the girl who had a focused on her with a piercing glare, "since you are such an avid reader of educational guides, and other such assorted literature, then I believe you who was so forward with entering the Huntsman career, should read what is perhaps one of the more impactful and in-depth pieces of knowledge all huntsmen will inevitable face."
Wiess wanted to say no, and protest saying out loud what is written, but the girls glare did not falter and thus, word for word, Wiess spoke.
"Th-the Morality, Ethics and Consequence of Huntsman actions, Part 1, S-Saving life by t-t-t-taking life," Wiess read the initial portion of the chapter, "In the career of Huntsmen and Huntresses, there will come moments in which either your very life will be at stake, you have innocent lives on the line, or the situation is such that no other option is present, where your enemy will not be the creatures of Grimm but will instead be either your fellow man, human or Faunus, and the situation is set that you are left with either of two terrible options, where you and your enemy('s) will be in conflict, with the end result being either you or the opponent leaving the battle … alive."
Ruby shuddered at this, having not known at all this fact and having believed that the career of a huntsman was to protect all life, and that to stop villains simply meant beating them until they were unconscious. Now, now she felt a coldness in her as she shuddered at the fact that she would need to one day take the life of another in order to protect another.
"I qu-," spoke Blake softly.
The other girls turned to look at Blake with Yang saying, "what?"
"I quit, I'm quitting, I won't be a huntress," Blake said in a shuddering tone, "I joined Beacon because I wanted to redeem myself of what I did in the White Fang, to be away from the killing and death, to try and save others, not go back to the killing!"
"Blake, listen its not like-," Blake cut of Wiess.
"No Wiess, you saw and read it to, we have to take the lives of others, this is what I swore I would never do again, and now I find out that we will be nothing more than killers, that everything I ever tried to do was for nothing, this isn't what I wanted, this is so fucked up," Blake cursed aloud, startling Ruby and shocking Wiess and Yang, "they want us to kill others, to take another life and justify it with some excuse, that 'there was no other way', 'that it needed to be done', well I am done, I quit being a huntress or anything like it and this fucking stupid huntsman profession can go an-!"
KA-BAM
Blake was sent slamming into the far wall with incredible force, enough to cause a ripple on the wall itself, leaving her to slide down its surface, and to the ground, blood leaking out of her nose as she was left dazed by the hit.
The three girls, in completely stunned silence saw the girl, her hand outstretched into a fist, the gauntlet of the fist almost smoking from the impact.
"Your words," the girl spoke as she seemed to loom threateningly over the four, the sheer killing intent leaking off of her almost indescribable as she then caused an the shadows to erupt out of all corners of the room, and seizing Blake, bringing her right in front of the girl, suspended in mid-air, Blakes nose having already healed (though not by what she usually thinks). "your words, they shame and dishonor all of whom chose to do what needed to be done, to save the lives of those who lived, and prevent further death at the hands of the irredeemable."
Blake could only look fearfully at the girl as she was held off the ground unable to escape the girls power (which she incorrectly guessed was her Semblance), then she was slowly lowered to the ground, and was released from the hold.
"Yet I know what your speaking of, the desire to not shed blood, to 'not be like them', I am fully aware of what you are going through and why you don't want to go down that path, besides knowing of your entire history," the girl said as the unknown shadow dispersed into the empty air, " because, in my past I to was once a huntress, specifically from Shade Academy in Vacuo, though that was a long time ago."
The four girls were stunned at what they heard, finding out the person they were speaking to be a huntress, but the girl continued.
"Shocking isn't it, I fought hard through all the pain and poverty of Vacuo to become a huntress, with the dream of destroying Grimm and protecting all life, and even after I became a fully licensed huntsman I never once lifted my hand to kill, never took a life four years regardless of how terrible and irredeemable the person was, for the same reason as you, so I don't become like them." The girl seemed to reminisce for a bit, a small smile on her face as she remembered her past, "My team and I went on many missions, fought and beat any human or Faunus that attacked us or threatened others, and we would kept at it … that is until, that happened."
As Blake was about to ask what the girl continued.
"As to what it was, it was the event that had cost me everything, and left me with a permanent reminder of why some individuals can only be stopped by death," the girl stated, and then like swallowing a bitter and heavy pill, she gulped down and went to explain the worst time of her existence.
"We had managed to take down a particularly nasty rouge huntress with the help of at least nine other hunter teams, her and her entire bandit tribe, we didn't kill her, only beat her and had her taken by the authorities, and we thought it was all over when we handed her over to them." Then the girls vision darkened completely, "then, almost a week later, the hunters from the other groups started to disappear, one after the other, no one found anything, just that we went on missions and never came back, and everyone thought that Grimm got them, but it wasn't the Grimm."
The girls were all nervous, seeing as a screen suddenly came up, and showed the images of huntsman, and all of them had the words MIA (missing in action) as their status, though they were more focused on what the girl would tell them.
"It was when my team started getting picked of that I found out what happened, the huntress we put away had gotten out, and she came right at us for revenge, and not just her, she had new subordinates with her now, and I managed to follow them straight back to their hideout," the haunted look on her face was telling of a horrible event transpiring, "I found them, all of them, they were alive."
The girls were about breathe a sigh of relief when the next words took that breath away.
"Is what I want to say, they were being kept alive, so that they could continue to suffer," a screen came on, and all the girls were beyond horrified to the image of a young man having been viciously flayed, his clothes in tatters, his face a bloody mess and on his skin were patches inlaid with salt and the still living boy was writhing against his restraints in sheer agony, then the image clips out, "the truly horrifying part is that image is the least graphic of what I was made to experience that day, with worse as I had to make my way through what I had then believed was the depths of hell itself, seeing the missing huntsmen being tortured and kept alive solely to suffer."
RWBY were horrified into silence, Ruby being held close by Yang, Wiess holding onto Ruby by the side, and Blake was visibly in shock from what she heard.
"It was worse when after going through who knows how many of her followers I finally found her, she had tortured to death the huntsman who captured her, the one who brought her to justice, and she was tearing him apart while he was paralyzed and broken from all the torture," then she formed an angry scowl and through gritted teeth said, "and she was smiling, she was happy, she was enjoying everything she was doing to him, and laughed every time he voiced his pain, and it just made her happier."
"I wanted to take her down, bring her in, but then all of her followers just rushed in where we were all at once, and I had to fight them all, dodging striking, attacking, and then I got one down to no aura, but he didn't stop," she said in a cold voice as she remembered, "and it happened, my first kill, cut his head clean, and it all came down on me, 'I became like them', 'I'm a murder', 'monster', all of those thoughts passed through my head that I was a truly horrible person … then I saw the face."
The screen then showed it, a severed head falling to the ground, the girls all screaming, Yang yelling 'what is wrong with you', Ruby pressed herself against her sister in terror of seeing a man being cut down, Wiess and Blake not faring any better with holding back their disgust at the brutal death.
Then they all saw his face.
It was more horrifying than seeing his death.
Instead of his face being twisted into a rictus of fear and pain as they thought a person would be when they died, the man's face wasn't. It was frozen in a horrifying smile, the man's eyes wide and open in a look of utter madness and a big toothy smile that reached to his cheeks was on his face, a scene that the girls saw as more wrong than his death.
Then the screen panned, and it showed the faces of all the others, and on every face, was that same psychotic smile or an equally psychotic grin, all of them holding weapons caked in blood, their clothes covered in blood.
"They all murdered people, they butchered and tortured countless people for a long time," the girl continued, the team slowly turning to look at her, terror in their eyes, "and the enjoyed every second of it!"
Then the screen showed an Estoc blade with a less advanced (compared to Wiess's weapon) Dust-revolver system in the hilt, as it shifted to use fire dust.
"After that, I could no longer see any of them as human, Faunus, or even as sentient creatures, all I could see then, were humanoid monsters, that only looked like people," she showed the rest of what happened, "and throughout the rest of the fight, they did nothing to dissuade my view, instead, they only reinforced it."
The men died, cut down during the fight, but they didn't die screaming or in pain, no, they died while laughing, they held those same wretched smiles even as they were cut down, the girl cutting them all down, now without any restraint as she ended their lives one after the other, up until it showed her face on a broken mirror.
It was a dead face, completely empty of any expression and emotion, eyes were dark and lifeless, and the skin was completely pale in contrast to the blood that stained her face, clothes and weapons.
This continued until she reached the girl herself, who had finished cutting the head off the dead hunter, and she was shown to be …
… making out with the head!
"That is wrong, that is both fucked up and vile," Yang couldn't and didn't dare process what she was looking at, the scene already more than horrific for her eyes.
Ruby and Wiess were regurgitating the contents of their stomach into a waste disposal chute that opened itself up in the room.
Blake herself covered her mouth to force down the bile that built up, the horror of the rouge huntress's actions horrible enough as is, but she then saw that the girl was also a Faunus, and a feline-type like herself.
"Why must you get in the way, after so long my love and I are finally together," the psychotic cradles the head close, but the girl only aims her blade at the insane Faunus, and the Faunus tentatively puts don the head, and pulls out two long whips with sharp edges, one coated with fire dust, the second with electric dust, before turning to the severed head, "sorry darling, but I'm afraid me and my children, Flay and Rend have to take care of a small distraction, but don't worry love, I'll be back soon."
The fight went, the girls of RWBY watching as the girl faced the insane rouge huntress, dodging many attacks from the whips, as well as elemental slashes made by the whips at range, but the girl soon begins to counter the insane huntress's whip attacks, while at the same time, wearing down her Aura as well, at least until the insane huntress suddenly began to move erratic and sporadic, like some deranged beast.
As the fight on the screen continued, the rouge then rushed the girl, pushing her to the ground, and stabbing her in the shoulder, the bladed bottom of the whip piercing the girls arm, causing her to scream in pain, and the insane girl was now poised to end the young huntress then and there.
The girls of RWBY watched in horror as the rouge huntress was about to kill the young huntress … who was currently standing right next to them and was looking at the in a deadpan stare.
"One, I am not dead," she spoke to them, "two, one of the two reasons why are coming up."
The girl stretched her hand, which now had a subtle glow to it, and thrust it into the chest of the rouge huntress, and then the place she pressed, which was visible since the rouge wore clothes that revealed her cleavage, suddenly became a dark red. The Huntress's aura violently flared as she suddenly began to spasm, the reddening on the spot touched by the girl became even more red and blisters began to appear, and the insane rouge huntress soon looked like she was having a violent seizure.
The girls of RWBY turned to their current host, who only looked at them and said, "thermal control," she stated, "I can make something as hot or as cold as I want, with the temperature between 91 and 39
, degrees Fahrenheit, which can happen around my body or on objects that I touch, and with my training at the time, I could sustain it for five minutes, or thirty if I keep physical contact with the object."
"So, you can make things as hot as boiling water or as cold as ice water," Blake stated, not liking what she saw where the screen was going with this info.
"Yes, and the effect on liquids is quite pronounced," the girl then turned to the screen with an almost malicious glint, "especially to violent, insane and irredeemable skin sacks full of water.
The girls of RWBY soon bore witness to the horror of this fact, as the girl on screen began to cool and heat the girl, blistering skin, chilling bone, bursting blood vessels and causing blood to freeze.
By the team it was over, the rouge insane huntress was a broken wreck of herself, her broken body shuddering as one of her lungs had burst and her heart beat was now slowed, her legs broken from rapidly cooling and freezing them, and her right hand was shattered from the temperature semblance, and her left arm was fractured, half of her face boiled badly.
The girls of Ruby watched this horrible scene as their host them moved to the rouge, blade in hand, but then their host pointed the blade end of her sword at the neck of her opponent and stated that even though she should kill her, that she deserved to die, she would give the rouge huntress one and only one chance, the chance that no one else would give her, surrender and get taken in, or die were she lay.
The girls were quite proud of their host for trying to get her enemy to accept surrender, though given the battle and how malicious the rouge huntress was, none of team RWBY's members saw there being a good ending to this whole situation.
Their hosts brief sentence all but solidified their worries.
"It was the greatest mistake in my life."
The rouge huntress turned to look at the girl … then she flashed a final manic grin, which on her mangled face was more horrifying than it was before. Then her fractured left arm shot up, grabbed her whip, and shot the whip at a random pillar …
… a pillar covered in fire dust bombs, bombs that the huntress girl saw planted all over the entire building!
The last rouge huntress said only one final thing …
… "burn" …
… and then.
BFOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM
Team RWBY could only watch as the screen was swallowed in flame, and then the screen just went dark.
Clunk-Floof-Pank
Team RWBY, their faces frozen in horrified silence at what they had seen, turned to see what their host had been doing, finding her removing her armor and clothes, though only enough that it left her with less cloth and armor on her body, but enough to leave her decent.
Though the clothing was not what the team was focusing on, rather it was the girl herself. They saw her face, with half of her face looking quite pretty and nice to look at, she had relatively shoulder length dark brown hair with a lighter colored fringe, but the other half of her face had bandages covering the raw skin that signified the severe burns beneath the bandages, and they saw that where their wasn't cloth or armor, only some parts had healthy lightly tan skin, the rest was white and raw or covered in advanced medical bandages.
"I tried, I really tried to be a pure and honest person, to be the type of person all of you wish to remain," the girl then shifted to stare at them as she put the removed pieces of armor and cloth back on, "but the world wouldn't allow that, when the explosion happened I truly thought I would die there in that fire, but I was saved, saved by the very beings who call this superstructure home, and through the viewing of my reality and the reality of countless others, I discovered what I chose to be, and it wasn't a hero."
After a rather long pause that seemed to last for an eternity, it was Blake that spoke, "wh-wha-what d-did you ch-choose to do?"
"I chose the path of the outcast, the path of those who do not exist," she spoke with a strong determination, "I choose to leave behind any chance of a good and honest life behind, and went on to live in the darkness, fighting against the deepest parts of the darkness, killing the most vile and irredeemable of souls, ending entire criminal enterprises and terrorist plots leaving not a soul alive to tell. I chose to dive headfirst into the wretched filth of the world, ending the dreams of the maniacal and the insane before they could bring their nightmarish desires into reality. I chose to get dirty …
… so that the rest of the world, including you all, could remain clean and pure, continuing to have your wonderful dreams while I and others like myself staved off the nightmares in the darkness."
The girl finished speaking, allowing team RWBY to take in what they saw, and felt as though everything they believed about the world was wrong, and the girl continued.
"This is what I chose for myself, this what I decided my path would be, what I did was simply show you why I chose this path, in no way am I trying to force you to agree or tried to break your dreams, although I am pretty sure I already did that." The look from Yang that all but screamed 'no really' was all she needed to do, "I did this as a way to wake you up to the reality of these events, to give you a sense of caution so that should such horrible events, though not at the magnitude you witnessed occur to you, you will not be caught off guard and either wind up in a terrible position, horribly injured or worse from such encounters, encounters that I am sorry to say are a very real and expected possibility to those who take up arms against the darkness of your or any world, be they Grimm, human, Faunas or otherwise. This is a fact that I understand very well …
… and he as well."
The screen then came back on to show the image of Qrow Branwen, now removing the blade from the dead body of the unknown enemy soldier, only to barely block the strike of a young woman whose weapon, a lance-cannon hybrid, showed her to be a huntsman or had huntsman training, but was wearing the dark black and white clothing with a crimson-colored, hand shaped insignia on the of her clothes and on armored shoulder pauidrons.
"Traitor," the girl all but screeched at Qrow, "don't you realize who you are fighting against, what we are trying to achieve, our grand goal to safe guard all of humanity, and you are getting in the way of that, the goal of a true and pure future, for humans, by humans!"
The girls of RWBY, who had originally acted with shock at a huntsman attacking another human, were now having many second thoughts due having their eyes opened to the worst of humans and Faunus, began to draw very disturbing parallels to the girls words and how they sounded very similar to the creed of the radical White Fang, though in this case it was instead human supremacy rather than Faunus supremacy.
"That girl, she sort of sounds like how I used to, before I left the White Fang," Blake states this, remembering the hypocritical things she said of how the White Fang fought for the future of all Faunas and how all Faunas had a part to play.
"In many ways, you and her were a lot alike, yet also quite different," the host said to them, "you saw the error of your ways and the wrongs that the people you supported were causing, you left before you fell to it all, something this girl did not realize or do, and thus she will end as you would have, had you chosen to remain with the White Fang."
Before Blake could question what, her fate could end up as, the screen continued.
Qrow was now in pitched battle with the girl, and then said, "unfortunately for you, I am not crazy, and also not a racist asshole, unlike your gang of idiocy that is literally made up entirely of racist assholes, you included I bet," Qrow spoke, before the girl charged again, fury on her face as she tried to skewer Qrow, then she switched the form of the lance and fired the cannon at Qrow, pushing him back quite a distance, a battle raging around them, before she spoke to Qrow in a mad tirade.
"This is the only way for our species to survive, for the humans of Remnant to flourish. When that event happened, when we suddenly came to this world, a world entirely of humans, where they rule much of the land and have even succeeded where we failed and ascended to the heavens, we thought we had found our paradise, a place for the humanity of Remnant to flourish, a world ruled by humans. Then, oh then, when they discovered the Faunus, they did the most unforgivable act that they could and welcomed them, allowed the Faunus to have rights and privileges, giving them what should belong to humans and humans alone."
The girl charged Qrow, who met her charge with a sharp strike to her head, which she deflected with her lance, yet before she could give chase a missile slammed into her, blasting her into the wall of the base she was defending, Qrow following her in, while the soldiers he was with were rapidly gaining ground outside.
They now stood in a room, one that had a map that the girls did not know, showing many new landmasses that they didn't recognize, yet also showing the continents of their world, though markedly smaller in comparison to the larger landmasses and now spread out a great distance in different and far more distant oceans of the new land.
"This world, a world vastly larger than anything we ever knew, it should have been our salvation, the new hope for all of Remnant, even with the Grimm this world still holds firm, its vast lands still within the hands of humanity, and the Grimm scattered and dispersed throughout this world, even now the armies of this world strike back at the beasts of Grimm, doing more damage against them and reclaiming more land from them within days what our civilization could not do in years. Yet when we believed we would stand together in a true human unity they spat on our friendship by giving those animals rights as well, foolishly allowing those beasts the means to rise above their station. We couldn't allow it, yet every time we tried to show them the true and proper path of human dominion, they smeared our ideals in mud, calling us anarchists, madmen, even monsters, and what's worse is that our leaders, the very councils themselves betrayed us, they gave into the governments of this world, enforcing laws to outlaw discrimination, to allow Faunus the right to work in our jobs and take our place, even the very countries we believed would back our cause, and even our greatest hope for domination over the faunas, all of them BETRAYED US!"
The girl charged Qrow, dragging the fight deeper into the base, soon passing through several rooms, all filled with propaganda posters and paraphernalia that belonged to the organization the girl was with, all showing something or other of human domination and some slander against faunas, all the while, battles broke out throughout the base, the soldiers with Qrow blasting their way into the base, opening fire on the soldiers of the unknown organization, deaths began to mount on both sides as the soldiers used multiple forms of grenades and concentrated fire to kill many of the organizations troopers, all using darker more utilitarian versions of Atlesian technology and automation, the organization even had their own huntsmen, though they were not at the level of the girl, who was likely the leader of the base, though even if they stood above the soldiers in terms of speed, strength and had their auras, the soldiers started to switch tactics, by using the enclosed areas and multiple corridors of the base to lure the enemy huntsmen into kill zones, also employing multiple stun and disorientation weapons to leave the huntsmen in vulnerable positions, where the soldiers high caliber guns soon tore through the auras of the huntsman and ended with their deaths.
The scenes shocked RWBY quite deeply, as they saw regular human soldiers taking down multiple huntsman-class enemies, and that unlike dust rifles, they noticed the weapons used by the soldiers seemed to be quite vastly different than what they knew. It wasn't near the advanced level of Atlesian weapons, or as impressive as mecha-shift systems that most huntsmen used, but they all knew that they were still far more advanced than what Mistral or Vale still used, and easily surpassed whatever Vacuo ever made.
"H-hey, those weapons those soldiers are using, what are-," Ruby was cut off as the girl explained.
"Dust, its literally the main component of everything used in Remnant, even in weapons, but what most don't realize is the relation of Dust and Aura, specifically how Dust doesn't cause much damage beyond some physical trauma to an aura user, heck, the best proof of this was when a large vial of highly concentrated fire dust blew up in the faces of Ruby and Wiess and they hardly had anything happen beyond a small amount of soot," the host stated while Ruby and Wiess remembered that honestly embarrassing first meeting, "same thing when you put it into bullets, the dust used in bullets is only at full strength against Grimm but is honestly not worth mentioning against everything else, most dust bullets are quite low quality and even better quality dust bullets mostly travel at either a few yards per second at the lowest to being almost entirely subsonic at the highest, but it mainly comes down to the fact that against human enemies, Dust bullets just get sapped of power or don't even do any meaningful damage to the enemy when it contacts their aura, even those with inactive Aura's don't receive any real damage, and before you ask, this was tested to death and back with many dust based weapons, and the only weapons that can actually do the damage that matches up to Earth's weapons is basically only Atlesian produced weapons, with only a few dozens of huntsman weapons, and that's it."
The girls could only listen as the girl made her rant on the inadequacies of Remnant Dust weapons, which she states that only those who either have a strong Aura which influences the dust in or on the weapon, or use Atlas made weapons, are the only weapons that can get the full power of dust out of their weapons, while everyone else has to deal with weak, subpar armaments that are horribly inadequate, have low power and penetration, and are largely easy for even a standard human to effectively dodge.
"Then there's the reason that the weapons that the soldiers with Qrow are so much more powerful and effective, and it is the fact that there is no dust used in the construction of the bullets, but rather a specially made ignition substance that's largely referred to as 'gunpowder' that has become more potent as it was developed along with the bullets and guns its used for, with the main point of the material being that it is able to cause extensive damage to Aura do to its complete lack of Dust, which doesn't take away from the impact power of the bullet and allows more kinetic force to be put out by the bullets, allowing them to cut through an enemies aura much faster." The screen then showed a .50 caliber M100 sniper rifle, and shows the round blast a hole almost 4 inches wide in a 2 centimeter thick piece of steel, and another shot of the same weapon all but annihilating 6 large ceramic vases lined up in a row in an instant, then it showed a shot of Ruby's Crescent Rose during the fight in Mount Glenn, and from the same distance, the bullet shot from her weapon, which just missed a Beowolf shot into a store an hit a vase of similar make to what was shot by the other sniper rifle, and pinging off of the vase dealing almost no real damage to it, Ruby herself suddenly feeling a strong sense that her and her weapon had been viciously dissed. "I rest my case on that note, and that is not even getting into much of the technology and energy used by the people of the world Remnant found itself in, which is largely ahead of pretty much all of the kingdoms of Remnant save for Atlas, which is mostly due to Atlas's rather intense monopoly on technology, but unlike Atlas tech most of Earths tech was made to last, unlike most Atlas tech which has several fragile parts to it that can create a great deal of problems when in sustained conflict in some of the more dirtier and harsher environments, such as the forests, jungles, swamps and deserts of either Remnant or the current reality."
Wiess would have actually raised a complaint at that statement, but then recalled a massive amount of issues her father had with several new Atlas built systems that really did not pan out, causing more trouble for the SDC and some angry ranting from her father, who then, in his typical fashion, fixed the issue by selling the failed tech to Vacuo, who were in desperate need of adequate weapons for defense against the Grimm, failing or not, something that honestly made Wiess feel even more disgusted at her father.
Then the screen went back to the fight in the unknown base, between Qrow Branwen and the unknown terrorist huntress, both striking at one another in a vicious attempt to end the others life, all the while, the base was slowly being taken apart, explosions tearing through the building, the two even had to jump back from a weapon lock as part of the ceiling and a quad legged drone fell through the ceiling, its whole frame a smoking, burnt out hulk from whatever weapons were used on it.
"Hey, if you don't seem to notice, things are going pretty bad for your pals here," Qrow spoke, pointing to the many deceased organization troops and huntsmen, the alarms blaring as an electronic female voice reported breaches all throughout the base, that is until the voice was cut and the base darkened a bit before emergency power kicked on, "I think its safe to say that this fights basically over, and right now I'm really don't wanna make this any bloodier than it needs to, so why not just put the weapon down and go in peacefully."
His response was a strong overhead swing as the enemy huntress brought down her lance with all her strength, forcing Qrow to the ground, all while putting more strength into her attack, pushing the sharpened edge of the lance as close as possible to his head, fully intent on splitting his head open. Ruby and Yang urging Qrow to fight back, hoping their encouragement (not that Qrow could hear them), could give their uncle the strength to push back the enemy huntress.
"Never, I will never surrender, WE will never surrender, we wont stop until everyone has paid," the huntress now had a near manic look on her face she pressed her weapon down harder against Qrow's own, forcing him into a kneeling position, "The humans of this world betrayed us, our own kingdoms betrayed us, then when we thought they would stand firm with us, that they would deny the desire of the traitorous humans of this world to free those animals … but no, they also betrayed us, giving those animals the privilege of humans and then throwing us away for standing by our beliefs. We now seek nothing but vengeance against them all, against the humans of this world, against the traitorous kingdoms, and against the cowards of the SDC who betrayed us all. We will fight them all, we will ensure the future of all humanity, and we will put the Faunus back where they belong, or else, end them, and no one will stop us, none will stand in our way. Long live humanity, LONG LIVE THE RED HAND!
BIKKAAAAAANG-BSSSHHHHRRRR
A large hole was blasted through the woman's chest, a massive blood spatter decorating the wall behind her, the woman's body having been blasted back by the shot now lay a short distance away from Qrow, eyes glazed over and quite obviously dead.
The girls of Ruby gazed in silence at the sheer power of whatever weapon was used to kill the woman, though Wiess and Blake were a bit more pre-occupied with what they heard.
"Jacques may be a scumbag, abusive husband and father, and massive douchebag, but he's first and foremost a businessman, and one thing businessmen know is how to ride the everchanging tide known as business," the host said as the girls now listened to her as she spoke about Jacques actions on the screen, "when Remnant was transferred to its current reality, Jacques saw many new opportunities, but of course when he hit the wall of the current worlds business practices, which were naturally against what he had in place, he realized he either had to lose the Faunus (slave) workforce, or lose what would be a monumental opportunity to vastly expand his business to new heights that had never been seen before, obviously he followed the path that would get him more lucrative opportunities, and acquiesced to their demands of giving the Faunus actual equal business rights. Same for the kingdoms, since they had at most one standing army that while technologically advanced, was up against almost a hundred nations, each with their own standing armies, with years of experience in warfare and conflict, as well as the Grimm, though now more dispersed throughout the new reality and thus no longer as present in the Remnant nations, still a very real and present threat, decided to do the smart thing and also acquiesced to the demands of the new reality's nations."
Wiess nodded (reluctant) agreement at this, knowing that her father always goes for paths that would ensure a high profit, though seeing him be humbled by powers greater than his own still put a smile on her face, Blake herself also thrilled at the Faunus working for the SDC finally getting the rights they deserve, and also being allowed to work and pursue new paths in life.
Then the girls turned to ask another question, yet it seemed like their host had some psychic power to tell what they were going to say.
"Racist humans angry about Faunus getting rights, began rioting in all kingdoms, outside countries help, many riots put down and tons of people arrested, racists then come together becoming human supremacist organization called Red Hand, replace White Fang as main terrorist threat. They are not as big as the White Fang and their numbers are not as high, but have many people from all over Remnant, mostly from Atlas and Mistral, have more advanced weapons and equipment compared to Fang, due to Scientists from Atlas joining them, and they also have a large elite force made of rouge huntsmen, from huntsmen in training to Veteran huntsmen, all racist, all deadly. They fight for supremacy and vengeance, wont stop even if Grimm are still a threat, fought world, your team in that reality fight their soldiers and rouge huntsmen on many occasions, more difficult than fighting White Fang due to advanced weapons and murderous rouge huntsmen." The host said this, giving them a basic idea as to the threat in that reality, and the enemy that their selves in that reality face.
The four girls of RWBY observe this information as they learned about the threat faced by the Remnant of the reality they witnessed, then Wiess spoke. "So, what was the reason for showing us all of that, your past, the Red Hand, that lesson about huntsmen having to kill, what was the point of all of that."
"It was for preparation and desensitization," spoke the host, "for you see in order to be able to once again view your own reality once more, we need to peer into several realities that share a Causal Pattern with the interference in your reality. Quick note, a Causal Pattern is the background dimensional energy pattern that is linked to each separate reality, and there are a number of such patterns currently linked to your reality and I will tell you now, these realities don't pull their punches."
"Meaning what that these are like bad realities or something," Yang said, getting the meaning.
"Yes and no, these realities while not inherently bad do have points that are very hard and sometimes outright vicious to the specific individual, either at the beginning, at points throughout or even along the whole of the 'journey', with the only saving grace that the ending of these journeys end at best on a true good ending and at worst on a positive bittersweet ending," their host told them, suddenly getting a very saddened and distant look in her eyes, "some of those that rescued me, and helped me when I was almost killed, you'll be seeing them in this, and not just you, as we go along this viewing, others will arrive, all of whom have a level of importance in your reality and thus are key to ensuring that we see the viewing of these realities through to the end, some you know very well, some you may know and others who are important later on had events progressed as they should have."
It was Wiess that spoke up then, "wait a minute, your saying that if we look at these realities, the ones that are somehow linked to our own, then we can see what is happening to our world, how would tha-!"
"You and your friends are one of the central figures in your reality, one of the individuals who will play a vital role in the very history of your civilization and your reality itself, this creates a link that connects you deeply to your reality, a link that we can use to essentially unclutter the mess that now keeps your reality obscured." The host spoke, having interrupted Wiess but not stopping her explanation, "by viewing the realities shown, it will allow you and thus the reality your linked to, to essentially make sense of what is happening thus allowing the clutter to be made sense of and thus allow us to peer into your reality to both find out what's wrong and even do something about what has happened. Also, the more individuals who view these realities, the more we can make sense of the interference and what is happening."
The girls of RWBY looked at one another, taking in everything said to them, though not understanding a few points they got the larger parts of what their host was talking about, and gave their answer.
"Alright, we'll look at these other reality things, if it will help with finding out what happened, and also finding Jaune," Ruby spoke to their host, firm in her resolve to discover what happened to the boy she considered a close friend.
"Then lets begin, also apologies need to be made, I didn't tell you my name when we began, I was pretty focused on getting everything across, Mirai Noire, that is the name I go by," the now named Mirai told them, "and now we look at the lives of the realities that center around the individual once known as, or have a direct relation with Jaune Arc."
The girls of Ruby looked at Mirai, who looked at the three and stated, "lets just say that in all of these realities, many things change around Jaune in these realities, and Jaune himself ends up experiencing quite a noticeable change to his existence or his life, usually in ways neither he nor others ever see coming, so be prepared to see quite a few unorthodox things, unorthodox means things that are not normal in the way society or humanity sees as normal."
Then the screen started to flicker, but then it suddenly switched to a symbol, one Mirai knew all too well.
"First though, it appears that we have some new company, so why don't we all go and greet them," Mirai stated, getting up and moving to the main entry hallway, team RWBY right behind her.
The wall of the room oriented itself to become an opening, the material simply forming into polygon blocks and merging into the wall, revealing the new arrivals, with RWBY surprised by the new arrivals and vice versa.
"Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos welcome to the Quanta Aeterna," stated Mirai, "unlike with team RWBY I will tell you who I am, Mirai Noire, host of the events to come, and I wish to ask you only one thing."
Nora was about ready to make a statement, but headshakes from team RWBY and a hand on her shoulder from Ren held her back from saying what it was quite obvious to those who know her she would say.
"Yes Nora, to answer your question we do have the baked confection you call pancakes here, along with toppings and syrup, there are sloths here but they are kept in the nature preservation area of the Megastructure and are for letting live freely, not for treating as a pet and being handled by non-trained hands, of which we all know you were not trained to handle them," the girl said with a very accusatory glare pointed at Nora, who while happy for the pancakes was a bit upset at the girl for thinking she would hurt her favorite animal but kept it down for now, still happy knowing they were here. "Is it now okay if I tell you the question now, please, it does have a lot to do with why you are all here."
"Okay, lets hear it," Nora spoke, a bit upset at the accusation, but she did want to hear what she had to say.
"Okay then, well my question is …"
"Are you familiar with the name … Jaune Arc."
Author Note-
It is done, the second chapter of the story, also I am pretty set on what I wish to put in the story, though any new ideas are welcome, though my main ideas for the story are what go, though I still hope you enjoy my work.
Aeos React Signing out-