So there we were, me and Aaron at the entrance to the cave everyone else was sleeping in. I took a deep breath of the cold night air and expelling it made my breath white.
Aaron on the other hand was shivering "How are you not cold?" Aaron asked.
I shrugged "Well, my jacket has fire dust. I can keep myself warm and look badass at the same time." I answered.
Aaron rolled his eyes "That explains why your jacket's designs are glowing right now." Aaron noted.
"Oh yeah, if I think heat it acts kind of like a winter jacket. Anything else like light or something and I can use it as a torch or attack. But I can't exactly discharge it like in Skyrim where I can just put my hands down and the spells deactivate." I explained "So I'd have to fire it in order to safely discharge it."
Aaron's eyes narrowed at me "Can't you just think 'disengage' or something?" Aaron asked.
I had honestly never thought of that. "I will have to test that later."
Aaron sighed as if he expected that answer "Dumbass." Aaron replied.
I pointed at him "Hey at least it's useful." I deadpanned.
We both shared a laugh to which Aaron nodded looking rather impressed. "That's actually pretty cool man."
I couldn't help but give a smile "Thanks, I found out during our time here a couple weeks ago."
He chuckled. "There's one more detail I didn't add to the story by the way." He said looking back at me.
I looked back at him "Oh yeah? What did you do?" I asked.
"Well…" Aaron started "Let's just say that Cinder is missing a few pieces of jewelry."
That took me a moment to process. "You actually managed to steal her jewelry?"
"Yep" Aaron answered
"And you're not fried to a crisp?" I asked
"She was going to kill me anyway once I-" Aaron explained before clearing his throat "Lived out his usefulness" He continued giving his best Cinder impression
I chuckled "So you made her life hell? Absolute mad lad you are."
Aaron shrugged again "You know me, I like making people's life difficult."
I then suddenly remembered one detail of one of his stories "Oh and speaking of making people's life difficult; the fact you stole Mercury's legs without him knowing says something about you in Remnant." I said.
Aaron shrugged "He's apparently a heavy sleeper," he explained.
I crossed my arms "So you tied them to a tree?" I asked.
"Yep" Aaron said with a shrug. "Gave everyone a reason to laugh at him."
"Oh I bet." I said barely keeping myself from laughing. "With the fact no one helped him"
Aaron held back his own laughter "I know, I thought I even heard Roman say 'Neo quit taunting the crippled man' before I left for the Café."
We shared another stifled laughter before I changed the subject "You know you should have stolen Cinder's dress" I said wiping a tear out of my eye from the laughter
"Oh of course you would say that you enf pervert." Aaron deadpanned.
I raised an eyebrow at him "You're fucking one to talk mr 'I-have-three-gigabytes-worth-of-pictures-of-Neo-and-Velvet-in-my-phone'." I retorted.
Aaron spread his arms out in a 'really' sort of manner "They're fucking hot give me a break!" he fired back.
"Guys can you keep it down out there!" Yang shouted.
I turned to see a pissed off Yang that was sitting upright "Sorry Yang." I said apologetically.
I tend to forget sound bounces around in caves. Which is weird considering that I used to play in some caves back in the day as a child.
"Yeah sorry." Aaron said. We then went back to our conversation as Yang flopped back down into her sleeping bag.
"So you trolled team CMEN." I said with a chuckle.
Aaron sighed "Why are you the way you are?" he deadpanned "And for your information, it was CRNFME when I was there."
I put my hands up in a slight chuckle "Alright alright" I said "Whatever you say my friend."
We shared a chuckle before fixing our gaze upon the broken moon. Or as I called it, the casualty of when the God of Darkness yeeted himself off this planet. But in the interest of time, we're not going to deep into that.
"Hey, do you ever think about the people we left behind?" Aaron asked.
I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts before answering. "Yes, I think about them all the time. How I can't contact them to let them know I'm safe, how I may not be able to see my little brothers, my sister, or my parents again." I said with a heavy sigh "And all of my coworkers who are probably still grieving at the loss of me, and my friends who probably saw the crash on the news." I said somberly.
Back home I wasn't one for making others cry, I always want others to smile even when I couldn't.
The way I see it, it's better to give someone a reason to smile for a day than to go an entire life without making someone smile.
I've always put others before myself throughout my life. And others would say it's self destructive or I need time for myself too, but I say it's more like I can't think of myself when other people are more important than me.
There is a quote that I like quite a lot: "be the change you want to see in the world". But that is just my philosophy. I looked back over at Aaron.
Aaron looked at the ground with a frown forming across his face. "Yeah…" He simply said. "I think about that a lot since you 'hard reset' my brain."
I shrugged "But I can't let it affect me. I already had one mental break-down."
"You did?" Aaron asked.
"A while back, it was… before we went out on that mission that ended in a paladin shattering."
"Ah I see, I'm guessing also before the cafe?" Aaron asked.
"Oh you remember that?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm starting to recover my memory." Aaron admitted "Including the first two dates with Neo."
"Ah I see, how did they go?" I asked.
"Well the first date was just to an Ice Cream shop, the second we went to see that Spruce Willis movie."
"You mean 'discount Bruce Willis'?" I asked.
"Sure CinimaSins." Aaron fired back. "Anyway, it wasn't bad, but definitely felt like a Fast and Furious movie."
"Before or after it went to shit?" I asked.
"Before, obviously." Aaron answered.
"Ah. I see." I said with a nod. I honestly have never been too into the Fast and the Furious series, but my own mother was obsessed with it before the movie franchise became horrible according to her. So I take her and Aaron's words for it.
"Anyway, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't too good either." Aaron said with a shrug.
"I've seen it too, and I have to agree." I said with a half shrug.
It was then we heard rustling in the bushes. Of course my immediate first instinct was to draw my sword. Aaron stopped me before I could fully unsheathe my sword.
He then flicked his head in the direction of the rustling as if to say 'I'll go investigate.'
'You do that, I'll be here' I silently said back.
Aaron then went towards the direction of the sound. And after that he hadn't returned even when Yang and Blake took their turn.
I put my head down in my spot in between Jaune and Pyrrha, it looks as though they didn't attempt any hanky panky while I was standing guard, thank god. I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
But my sleep was anything but peaceful.
I woke up to find myself submerged in water.
Looking around I noticed a few other bodies floating in the water.
Some of which were in various stages of burned.
A body right next to me was almost completely fried with their eyes missing.
With that now haunting image, I swam myself to the surface only to find that there were various pieces of debris floating in the water.
I grabbed a nearby debris that wasn't on fire and looked around.
There were a lot of bodies floating on the water that weren't moving. I tried to shout for Jocelyn but no sound came.
I then was blinded by a light. I covered my eyes enough to see it was a ship of some sort.
I heard some of them shouting something about "None of them can be alive" It was then I noticed one of the corpses was wearing a jacket that looked like mine.
I then came to the startling conclusion as they fished the body out of the water, that was my body! And Jocelyn was nowhere to be found!?
I soon found myself on the ship where two crewmates were talking. One of them was wearing a green trench coat and had a rough face with a five o clock shadow.
Whereas the crewmate had a more plain face with not much complexion other than peachfuzz, I could quite tell he was not as experienced.
"In total we were able to find at least 70 out of the 148 passengers and crew." One of them said lighting a cigarette.
"So captain, do you think…?" The other asked not wanting to continue his sentence.
The captain blew smoke out of his mouth "Yeah, we can only assume that. We'll leave it to the morgue to identify these bodies. We'll call their families when we do. For now we need to keep searching. A hurricane will be coming in a few days, we won't be able to find anything if that happens."
"And the fuselage?" The second crewmate asked.
"Probably sunk, And in this part of the ocean it's way too deep for any man to go out. We'll need the rovers. After we get the bodies out of the water, The Black Boxes are what we'll prioritize sonny. We can't let this end like MH370." The captain said as he walked to the bow of the ship.
"Sir, if I may?" The second asked.
"You may." The captain answered.
"MH370 is still unfound. But we managed to find this one." the crewmate stated. "Why do you want to help?"
"Because we happened to be around the area when it turned into a fireball." The captain remarked.
"That is true, but why help? Surely the NTSB would be sent out here first?" The crewmate asked
The captain first looked up at the sky before answering "I had someone disappear on that flight, many families have asked me if I saw anything. Problem was I was asleep when this plane was overhead. And none of you numbskulls bothered to wake me. So I made it my mission to make sure no more families stay awake at night wondering what happened to their sons or daughters."
"Sir! One is responding!" Said a third voice.
The captain and the crewmate ran to the stern.
One of the bodies weakly repeated the name "Joce-lyn…"
And that made my stomach do a 360. That was indeed me. And I was alive?!
If I am then what does that mean for me being in Remnant?
What is going on here?
Before they could uncover me, it looked like I went back to a state of unconsciousness.
They checked my pulse. "He's gone again…" The third said somberly.
The captain grunted as he flicked his cigarette to the deck and stomped on it. "Grab whatever debris you can, We'll get our drone down there to see if we can spot the wreck. And someone get me the NTSB on the phone!"
I then woke up in a cold sweat and gasping for air.
I can't quite explain it but it felt like I was unable to breath throughout that entire… dream? Vision? I have no idea.
I then looked at Weiss who had her hands on my chest to the left of me while Ruby looked down at me with a look of concern to my right. As if I were sick or in need of medical help.
"Are you alright?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah… just a nightmare." I said sitting up "What time is it?" I said grabbing my head.
"It's morning. We need to head to Mountain Glenn, Oobleck said he will tell us more once we are there." Weiss explained.
"Thanks Weiss." I said rubbing my head once more before grabbing my weapons and rolling up my bag. "Where did everyone else go?"
"They're waiting outside, they figured you needed some space with how you were tossing and turning." Weiss answered "Are you sure you don't need to talk about it?"
"I'm fine Weiss, really I just want to get this mission over with." I replied coldly.
[Near the meadow that I woke up in when I arrived on Remnant]
The nightmare is still giving me goosebumps… It was so real and yet… I don't know, something about it seemed like it was trying to tell me something.
I honestly haven't put too much thought into what the aftermath might have been like. Let alone who it was scooping up my body.
We soon passed by the rock with a carving on it, I managed a closer look and it had a T and an R on it with a heart around it.
I'm pretty sure I know what that means but now isn't the time to think about it.
My head is still filled with so many questions. Why was I shown this? Was it a premonition? Or am I just crazy?
On the path down no one really said anything and I was staring off into space. Aaron then caught up to me.
"Hey dude you alright?" Aaron asked "You look like you've seen a ghost.
"I… had a dream… or a vision? I have no idea. All I know is I saw things." I replied quietly.
"What do you mean?" Aaron asked slightly above a whisper.
"Well, I saw my body in the pacific." I clarified.
"What was your body doing?" Aaron asked again.
"Well… dead." I deadpanned.
"Well I guess this is our heaven." Aaron noted "Since we're dead this is either heaven, hell or purgatory. It is certainly a weird punishment or gift we got here. Might as well make the most of it."
"I suppose so my friend. Our families may have had our funerals and sent their prayers and everything." I added onto his thoughts.
"Yeah…" He said "We may never see them again… right now though, we're the family we got."
I smiled "Thank you my friend. You have lifted my spirits."
"Any time dude." Aaron said.
"Hey guys. We're at Mountain Glenn!" Ruby yelled.
Oh finally. I thought this hike would never end!
Oobleck was explaining something over the intercom. I didn't pay any attention because 1) I've heard him say that exact same thing thousands of times. And 2) I ignore it anyway even in the game it was annoying nonsense.
But for the sake of explanations, I will give a SparkNotes explanation and say he was theorizing on what is going on which, spoilers, ended up being the entire plot of the game.
Anyway we strolled along, steam rolling any grimm in our path, and eventually came across the gate in the waterway, with Ruby adorably yelling "ECHO" into it.
I joined in and yelled the same.
Once we got to the gate Yang pushed a button.
And then Grimm showed up, how predictable.
Anyway we hack-and-slashed our way through.
I even managed to perfect the stinger technique like Dante. And even performed a million stabs, which hurt my arms afterwards.
So I will not be doing that too often until I perfect it enough to the point in which it will not hurt my arms.
Anyway we made it through despite the Ursas that got in our way and Jocelyn, though I suppose I should call this new personality Rose, was basically doing nothing but sitting on an old pipe.
One blade was out and she was inspecting it.
"Hey! Rose! A little assistance would be appreciated!" I yelled.
"Nah I think you can handle it." Rose said coldly.
"Alright I didn't want to do this." I deadpanned. I then used a beowolf as a footstool to jump behind her and kicked her right as another beowolf was about to charge Yang. Rose fell on top of the beowolf causing it to howl.
Rose then picked her head up, on all fours she shook her head, she then looked up at me as she got into a kneel. "HEY! THAT WAS RUDE!" Rose yelled.
"SO IS NOT HELPING THE REST OF THE TEAM!" I yelled back "Now stop being like Aqua and help!"
"What does that mean?!" She yelled back as she decapitated a grimm.
"It's a reference, meaning you're being useless!" I retorted.
"Go fuck yourself!" Jocelyn yelled.
"Fuck me yourself you coward!" I yelled back.
"GUYS WE'RE RIGHT HERE!" Aaron yelled.
"AND YOUR BICKERING IS BOUNCING OFF THE FUCKING WALLS!" Keoth yelled.
"Alright I'll be quiet!" I yelled as I jumped down to finish off the rest of the grimm.
At some point during the fight I heard Aaron yell "You killed Kenny!"
Followed by Keoth yelling "You bastards!"
I looked back to see that Yang had just finished off a beowolf and looked rather confused at Aaron and Keoth "You named it?"
The Grimm died down they looked at each other with a grin the looked back at Yang.
"It's an obscure reference you're never going to get" Aaron explained.
The gate opened as Yang looked rather confused still "But you named a Beowolf Kenny?"
I patted Yang's shoulder "Yang don't worry about it, they're unique in their sense of humor."
Yang whispered to me "What are they referencing?"
"An obscure show you'll never get" I explained before walking ahead of her
Yang scratched her head as her sister dragged her along "But from what?" She asked mostly herself.
So eventually we made our way to the tower that looked like Tony Stark's tower from Avengers.
I think it was the Merlot Industries tower I can't be certain… then again, mad scientists will do anything to compensate for their lack of… recognition lets call it.
"-That, students, is Merlot Industries tower." Oobleck said over our coms.
"Looks like someone was here recently." Ren noted.
"You're right Ren" Jaune added "I don't see any damage on it like the other buildings here."
"Which means Merlot was here." Keoth thought out loud.
Just then we saw an Ursa Major burst out of the ground.
"We'll have to investigate later guys." I said unsheathing my sword. "We got company. Let's entertain our guest."
And so we fought. Aaron, Yang and I whittling down the enemies around the ursa.
While the others attacked from different directions.
It was then I suddenly remembered it's AOE (Area Of Effect) attack.
"GUYS GET BACK!" I yelled. To which they acknowledged and jumped away before it struck the ground. As it did that, it became surrounded by boulders that spread out for a good 2 maybe three feet (.6 to .9 meters).
"Thanks for the shot call Achilles!" Jaune said.
"No worries, but there's more where that came from. So be cautious." I replied as I slashed through another beowolf.
More grimm appeared for backup, and we were ready to answer in kind.
I turned to Aaron and Keoth "One of you take some of our forces and keep those grimm off us."
Keoth nodded and beckoned Blake, Ren, Weiss, Nora, Yang and Pyrrha to follow him.
the rest of us were left to deal with the Ursa.
I turned to Jocelyn and told her "Use your crossbows!"
She glared at me "Don't tell me what to do!"
I gestured to the beast that was charging at us "Do you want us to die?"
She rolled her eyes and fired at it.
I then turned to Jaune and told him "Come with me, you and I will cut down on his defences."
Jaune nodded.
I then turned to Aaron. "And you will make sure that beast doesn't try any sneaky attacks."
He crossed his arms at me "Since when did you make all of the strategies?"
I shrugged. "Dunno, but we need to deal with this thing."
Jaune and I charged in.
Jaune shielded me from an attack while I slid under him and slashed through the Ursa's legs.
I then ran up the beast's back and jumped up slightly.
I brought my blade down on the back of the Ursa's head as I shouted "AD VICTORIAM"
And like that, the Ursa Major was down. And it seems like the other part of the team fended off the grimm.
I was about to celebreate when an explosion rocked the courtyard we were in, well several actually.
I looked up to see that the Merlot Industries building was collapsing and falling directly on us…
"Oh this will hurt won't it?" I asked mostly to myself.
Author's note
Cliffhanger, how profound. Like I said in the previous chapter, it is rather hard to put a game that is 2 hours long and stretch it over a few chapters. But I'm getting there. Just gotta take things one step at a time. And with Volume 8's premiere, well I do not like what it implies. I will not spoil anything to those who don't have a first account. And I implore you to do the same. As always thank you for reading. Support Roosterteeth's RWBY through all of the legal means
Reviewer session
Ue1: Yes, it is a reference to Cayde's line in Destiny 2. He's one of my top favorite sarcastic funny characters. I myself don't play Destiny much anymore since I had all of my progress wiped and I really don't feel like doing that grind all over again. So thanks for the info on the next update
