Soon the forest parted, and they saw plains, and on those plains was a small pass area. In the distance, they can see a walled city that wraps around the forest and a mountain that jutted out on the other side. The city is bathed in a deep orange hue as the sun hangs over to the side of the pass ahead of the walled areas. The buildings seem haphazard at first, but peering closer, they can see a pattern as it rolls and surrounds a large central building that stood somewhat taller than the closer ones. In front of the gate facing them is many areas where there are spikes, towers, and pits scattered everywhere as if letting those officially pass through, but making a line of defense for the walled city.

"This is it?" Richard asks, sounding tired.

Herleva smiles, looking over the city in the distance. "Yes. My home. I can let you in," she says, now spurring her drake onward with the horses able to follow behind. "Though, watch your step. Laws still apply after all."

'Great,' Richard thinks as they followed her in where they were quickly let through and ushered to the castle. The guards seemed overjoyed, seeing Herleva as she passed. When they reached the front gate, many, what Richard assumed to be servants, rushed to greet Herleva as they dismounted.

"Miss Herleva, we are grateful for your return. We have received the message sent to us to expect you," one of them says while Herleva looks around at them all. Richard even looks at them and sees the many maids and butler uniforms that look like the classics he would see in shows and anime.

"Yes, news of my death was greatly exaggerated. Now I must speak to my father. Is he here?" Herleva asks.

One of the butlers gives a curt bow with an arm across his chest. "Yes. He has been working on finding a solution to another house that has been approaching us."

"Is he in his study then?" Herleva asks as stable hands come and get the mounts, staring in awe at the drake for a bit.

"Yes. He has been expecting you once he has heard of your return," the butler replies.

"Good. Also, prepare a few rooms for my guests here," Herleva says, gesturing to the rest of the group before leading them all inside.

Once inside past the gates, the servants lead the group through the wide central streets which are full of citizens and many different kinds of people that everyone but Herleva is surprised by. They even spot others with weapons and armor that look like classic adventures they know from their time in their world.

"Looks like classic dungeons and dragons, huh?" Richard asks Rachel.

"I don't know much about that. I am thinking more Lord Of The Rings," Rachel says, following them inside.

Richard smiles while they walk by more and more adventures and then see why. Stalls line the edges of many items and knickknacks. Where the shops had armor, weapons, and magic items lay about, ready to be bought. "How much would all this stuff cost? Like I can imagine, at least that simple-looking sword costing…one hundred gold pieces?" he voices over to Herleva.

"What?" Herleva asks, looking at him weirdly.

Richard shrugs at that question. "A simple question and a guess."

"Gold is too valuable for one sword. Unless it's highly enchanted or a legendary weapon," Herleva informs.

"So…twenty silver?" Richard guesses again, which weirded out Herleva even more so before remembering he isn't from this world.

"Close, nineteen," Herleva says.

Richard raises an eyebrow before considering that maybe silvers are considered fifty or a hundred in their currency, and gold is close to a thousand. And then there must be another layer which could be possibly bronze or something smaller and one piece.

Once they got into the castle in the center of town, they were led in by guards to a large study lined with banners, a roll of bookshelves, suits of armor on stands, and weapons on the walls. There was a big man dressed in what seemed to be functional noble attire. The man smiled, and Herleva introduced him as her father and leader of their house. Erik Von Eberhard.

Erik greeted them warmly and called for some tea and snacks for their guests. As they waited for the refreshment, Herleva started questioning her father. It was a bit confusing the way they were talking at first, but Richard was able to gather that their king and all those next in line for the throne had simply vanished for one reason or died in a mysterious ambush and spy reports that Erik had received suggested the same was true for the emperor of the neighboring empire along with all the imperial family. There was also some talk about a Destine noble house. Herleva's knight captain had reported he had seen Herleva being torn apart and died. A bit later, the Destine offered to allow the Von Eberhard to adopt one of their members as their heir while vague political threats of what would happen if they refused.

"So her captain reported her death, and this Destine house showed up conveniently to make this offer and threat not long after is what you are saying?" Richard asks.

Erik nods along before sighing and standing up from the table. "Damn it all hell. Those bastards wanted a chance," he mutters before walking around. "With Herleva gone, it opened a huge gaping hole for us."

"So how would they know so quickly then?" Blake asks, picking up what Richard had implied.

Erik thinks profoundly before Herleva speaks up, "Because I usually have a unit with me," she announces. "It's possible they never saw me exit the temple, didn't find me, and assumed the worst," she guesses as she seems heavily in thought as well.

"Torn apart?" Richard asks.

"Then one went in," Erik adds on before sighing. "At least that is what was reported."

"Father, I think it is time we got our guests to their rooms," Herleva says, smiling at her father, who recognized she wanted to talk to him alone.

"Quite," Erik says before calling for an attendant. "Show our guests to the guest chambers. I hope you don't mind sharing a bit. We already have a guest staying with us," Erik informs.

"Um…may we know the name?" Richard asks.

"She calls herself Weiss Schnee…maybe you are related?" Erik asks, looking at Richard's white hair.

"Hardly…but they somewhat are," Richard says, smiling and nodding his head to the surprised Yang and Blake.

"Oh. Surprisingly," Erik says as the attendant leads them away.

"I can't believe it. We couldn't find them because they ended up here…our scrolls," Yang says and takes her out to make sure.

"He said, Weiss. He didn't mention Ruby," Blake interjects.

Yang immediately has her expression fall to pieces when she notices only Weiss's scroll is active in range and not Ruby's. "Dang it."

"At least it is a start, and hey, we might be able to find a solution to the dust shortage," Richard tries to reassure.

"That's right. Weiss might know something," Blake says while the two girls try to hurry their pace.

'I am happy. We now have Weiss. Now we just need to find Ruby herself,' Richard thinks, wondering how long that will take before they enter into the guest room Weiss was staying in.

"Weiss!" Yang calls into the large room, which seems to be like a five-star hotel with many beds. When the group looks around the room, they spot the white-haired, long girl sitting at a desk at the wall, which looks over in complete shock and fear before Blake and Yang run over and hug her.

Richard smiles and looks to Rachel, who is smiling as well. "Ever had moments like this back in our world?"

"No, but seen movies," Rachel says as Weiss was still in shock, and Richard was starting to dread telling her where he came from and how he knew her and the other RWBY girls.

Yang smiles, and she and Blake slowly pull back to look at Weiss. And other than her dress being slightly ruffled and back to before she entered Beacon, Weiss seems like her younger self. "How did you make it here? Where did you end up?"

"Uh…Yang, if I may interject, shouldn't the leading question be, 'What is the last thing she remembers from your world?'" Richard asks politely as possible.

Yang looks embarrassed now while Weiss slowly smiles. "It's great to see you two…Ruby?" she asks, looking behind them. "And why are you two younger…and smaller?" she asks, pointing at their bodies.

"We could ask you the same question, but Richard is right. What do you last remember from Remnant?" Yang asks, showing her she had her right arm once more.

Weiss looks thoughtful before sighing. "We just got to the train station. Ruby went to grab food. And when she came back…" Weiss stops and looks at Yang right now. "Yang…your arm," she says, standing and grabbing her right arm.

"Whatever happened to us rewind the clock. Blake no longer had that scar from when Adam stabbed her after he took off my arm," Yang informs.

"Explains how I am like this," Weiss says.

"So how long have you been here?" Blake asks.

Weiss sighs and stands before pacing around. "A few weeks at most. Got…stranded in the woods before…a knight showed up and saved me, got me inside the city. From there, the lord thought I might be some noble because of my outfit and my hair color and offered me a place to stay for now," Weiss explains what happened.

Blake becomes concerned. "You haven't met anything dangerous, right? Big grimm like monsters or little tiny ones?"

"No…did you?" Weiss asks.

"Well…no. We just saw them roaming around," Yang quickly lies and Richard sighs and looks away to the side when he hears that. Blake even seems somewhat surprised at the lie Yang spouts off.

"Ok. So who are they?" Weiss asks, focusing on Richard and Rachel.

Richard raises a hand and smiles. "Hi. Richard. Sorry for standing so awkwardly at the door," he apologizes and chuckles at his joke.

"I am Rachel," Rachel introduces as Richard looks at Yang, trying to remind him of their deal.

Yang sighs when she notices the look and turns to Weiss. "We have to explain some things."

"Rachel, shall we give them some time alone?" Richard asks, closing the door to wait outside as they talk.

"Yeah. I have seen this kind of thing before," Rachel mentions before following him outside the door and lets him close it. "I guess these worlds messing about would be about our kind of shock compared to theirs."

"Yeah, so did they take your weapons like they did mine for safekeeping?" Richard asks, trying to make small talk as they wait.

Rachel frowns and slowly breathes out while patting where her belt should be. "Yes."

The two wait a bit before Blake opens the door and motions them inside.

"Well, it is always nice to meet a fan," Weiss says to Richard, who blushes a bit in response.

"See, he embarrasses easily," Yang teases.

Richard groans playfully. "Yang? Really?"

"On behalf of my team, I want to say thanks for looking out for them," Weiss says, ignoring Yang and her antics for now.

Richard was silent for a bit before speaking. "You don't have to talk to me like I am one of your bastard of a father's business associates," Richard assures, surprising her.

Yang slowly leans over to Weiss as she stands very still. "Yeah. He's also very blunt and got screwed by a company. So he doesn't give a crap about your dad."

"No, I hate him because he had the gall to slap her when she stood up to that self-important ass and the fact he would have held all of Mantle hostage to win an election so he could end Ironwood's blockade so he could start making money again," Richard informs. "It was all money, and he didn't even know he was being played. He is that much an idiot."

Weiss was silent. She had never heard someone talk so badly about her father, and the fact he knew that her father had slapped her was one of the main reasons struck home to her. "Weiss has a fanboy," Yang teases her.

"Yang!" Richard calls with a tiny playful tone behind it.

"I see…I am sorry about that," Weiss apologizes.

"Oh, no. You have nothing to apologize for," Richard says quickly.

"Oh, Weiss, there is something else I should inform you of," Yang says, smirking.

"Yang, don't you dare!" Richard yells.

"Richard here even had a shirt with you on it," Yang says, smirking.

Weiss smiles. "Is that so?" she asks, looking at Richard.

"Now, don't tease him too much. After all, you are one of his heroes," Yang informs, surprising Weiss again.

"Yang…" Richard groans and facepalms.

"Also, be careful. We know that his world is weaker than us physically. If you don't believe me, try testing your strength against him," Yang informs.

Weiss starts to walk towards the man. "How strong?" she asks, wondering what the difference is.

"I…think I am about average strength," Richard says, a bit nervous.

Weiss reaches out before grabbing his hand and then gives a lift before becoming shocked at seeing him being lifted off his feet into the air and then lands down hard from one shake.

"See what I mean?" Yang asks.

"You proved your point," Richard groans, slowly letting go of her hand and falls to his knees. "I feel sick…"

"You alright?" Weiss asks, a bit concerned.

"I think I am good," Richard says, still on the ground.

Blake smiles gently over to him. "Guess you want to sleep now?"

"Yeah, I will go into another of the rooms as we were told we could use any of the rooms in this hallway," Richard says, getting up.

"Need me to carry you?" Yang asks, still in a teasing tone.

"I still have two legs. I will manage," Richard says, heading out.

Yang sighs as Rachel follows and helps him before looking to Weiss. "He has been so helpful to us."

"You were not kidding when you said the difference in strength," Weiss says.

Blake smiles and shrugs. "But good when it counts," she notes, remembering back to the time in his home.

"Blake has a bit of a crush after what happened," Yang says, smirking.

Blake growls, and her cat ears twitch in annoyance. "Oh, shut up already."

"He jumped in to defend her from a monster and later told her something that struck home with her," Yang informs.

Weiss turns to Blake interested and crosses her arms. "And that would be…?"

"It's a bit personal. Like how we didn't pry with your short-lived romance with Neptune," Yang says, trying to dissuade Weiss a bit from probing too deeply.

"You also realize he excused himself because he is a guy and would think it is not proper to sleep in the same room as us," Blake says, trying to show Richard was trying to be considerate to them. Something she was half sure Yang had missed.

Weiss slowly blushes and looks away. "Oh. Well, at least you two are back. Now we just need Ruby," she says, shrugging it off.

"Weiss, have you tried using your scroll yet?" Yang asks, hoping for some possible news.

"No…have you?" Weiss asks, thinking about it now.

"Yeah. So much so that my battery life is less than twenty percent. It's how we knew it was you staying here in the castle," Yang says, smiling.

"Speaking of power. Weiss, have you come across any dust while you were here?" Blake asks.

Weiss sighs and sits down on a bed. "No. The closet they got is 'magic crystals' that is not dust and too stable for how ours work."

"At least you have something similar. Richard and Rachel's world didn't even have that, but they had some old weapons like guns to us," Yang says.

Weiss gains an interesting look on her face. "How old?"

"Ah…think a bit more advanced than what Atlas used in the great war," Yang says, thinking about it a bit.

Weiss slowly nods before looking concerned at them. "Wait…have you two been able to find any weapons at all for yourself?"

Yang taps her Ember Celica while Blake shows her Gambol Shroud, which she snuck past the guards.

"Okay. That's a no on finding these worlds' weapons. Makes sense. They even took away my Myrtenaster," Weiss mentions to the side bitterly.

"So, how does it feel to have a fanboy?" Yang teases, trying to change the subject of this gloomy one.

Weiss blushes before frowning at her. "Don't start," she warns, pointing at the blond girl.

"Come on. At Beacon, you always wanted to be popular and have fans," Yang says, smirking.

"It just so happens to be the one that Yang wants, so she is trying to scare you off from him," Blake interjects, trying to get some playback in.

Yang slowly turns her smirk and whole body at the faunus girl. "Blake…please let the big girl do her teasing," she requests in a lovely voice.

"I am sorry, but he saw you naked, and he is still breathing. What am I supposed to think?" Blake asks, smirking.

Yang keeps smirking before Weiss jumps back when a massive brawl and dust cloud appears where the two stood. "Well…still the same group," Weiss says a bit happier that some things never change.