Me: Alright you two, let's get busy.
Lilithmon & Cinder: Yes master.
It had been few hours since Novice had left to check on whatever he was supposed to check on. And they were seriously wondering where their host was.
Asking from the three Babysitters didn't help... Or they were able to point to the general direction on where Novice may have gone to, but after turning to a particular hallway, Veemon hit his head on an invisible wall. Which meant that wherever he is, Novice doesn't want anyone near there.
Shortly after, an announcement was heard throughout the lair in Wisemon's voice. Telling the Children and their digimon to return to the reading room if they were up for another chapter.
The gang did just that, though Mimi, Sora and Gatomon had annoyed looks.
"Where is Novice," Mimi asked rather rudely.
"Mimi!" Sora said in a scolding tone, even though she did want to know too.
"I do not know," Wisemon lied. The truth is he had a very good guess when he saw Lilithmon walking in the halls with a giddy look before the Overseer went missing. "However, I have received a message from him, telling that I will be supervising this reading for the time being," the wise digimon explained.
"Great, he disappeared on us again," Taichi groaned.
"Well he hasn't done that too many times," Yamato pointed out, "Or at least he's not gone for long."
"Let's just get to the next chapter, I want to see what happens next," Daisuke said, clearly excited for more.
"Yeah!" Veemon chimed in.
Everyone else gave various signs of acknowledgement, which prompted Wisemon to make the book float towards Hawkmon.
"Why me?" Hawkmon asked as he grabbed the book from the air.
"Novice granted me a list of people who would read which chapter in the event that he would stay out longer," Wisemon replied easily.
"Okay," Hawkmon said slightly unsurely before opening the book from the proper page.
A Dark Retelling
The title card showed the Remnant crew and their partners sitting together, with the brothers standing.
The group was wide awake more or less, with everyone gathered, the brothers standing opposite to them, fiddling with their scrolls. It was time for them to come completely clean. No more secrets, no more hiding. For that, they had prepared a lock inside their scrolls to be released just for this occasion.
"They were very prepared," Ken couldn't help commenting.
"But it makes sense," Iori commented, "If wrong people knew then it would be a problem."
"You are correct," Wisemon said, having taken a seat on the chair that was normally occupied by Novice.
"Alright, first of all, the information we're about to give you? It can't leave our group without our say so. The only other one who knows is Azure, and he's higher on the authority than us, but when he's not around, it's up to me and Pierce to decide who gets to learn, and we DO have a list of people who can, but quite a few of them depend on timing it right." Gyro started.
"We had to go through a lot of trouble to transfer everything from our old phones into our scrolls while keeping it heavily encrypted so no one on the network could end up seeing it by accident, especially since we had to dump it all into a computer first before transferring it into the scrolls." Pierce added, before muttering "Still a bit peeved about having to completely destroy our old phones and then scatter the pieces into the ocean."
"Wow, they even have a system ready," Patamon commented with an impressed look.
"But why did they scatter the pieces of their phones into the ocean," Hikari commented, "And how did they get their hands on scrolls while on earth?"
"Hikari," Gatomon sounded out with a sigh, "They probably did all that while on Remnant."
"Oh," was the most intelligent comment Hikari could give while blushing in embarrassment.
"Well the wording could be a little confusing on that," Taichi said consolingly, which made the younger Yagami only look down with even redder face. Which made many of the Children and their partners to laugh a little at the poor girl's misfortune.
"Just keep reading Hawkmon," Miyako encourage hoping to save her friend from further embarrassment.
"Now, full disclosure, what we're about to tell you was only a possible future, but with the last two months in mind, it's pretty much a guarantee that the timeline has been derailed, considering how we've been missing since the initiation." Gyro said, and everyone frowned as they were reminded that no doubt everyone on Remnant had been searching for them nonstop for these last two months.
"Unless time moves faster in this digital world too," Taichi commented.
"Yeah," Yamato added in, "Actually, I think until this book shows otherwise, I think it's safe to say that it is the same."
"What was it that made the time to go at the same speed again," Iori asked the first generation.
"We defeated Apocalymon," Mimi answered for everyone,"Since then, the time had run as fast on digital world as it does on Earth."
With that information, Hawkmon continued reading.
"Now, our first change apparently happened without any of us knowing about it, when all of you saw the night Greymon fought against Parrotmon." Pierce said, everyone nodding.
"Good thing we found out the bird's name in the Analyzer." Gyro muttered before focusing back "Our next change happened after we arrived on Remnant, where we interfered with Jaune's life and gave him basic training, which originally, he wouldn't have had, and would have falsified his way into Beacon."
"That's right," Jo said having taken out the guidebook he had received after a long time, seeing as most of the pages were blank back then. But as Novice had said the book is filling itself. "According to the guidebook, Jaune never received any kind of training even from his family. And managed to get his hands on false transcripts that allowed him to get into Beacon."
"We already know this," Gomamon pointed out.
"Yeah, I think this thing is only filling up on information we already know," Jo commented, "Although now there are also summaries for some of the RWBY episodes. Or at least episodes we have gone through, which is about half of volume one."
"Okay, maybe we should check that book more often from now on," Tentomon then said, earning various sounds of agreement.
But for now, Hawkmon continued reading.
Jaune frowned at that "Well… original me is kind of an idiot then if you're saying the truth."
"We are." Pierce said dryly, before pulling up a video on his scroll and showing it to everyone, showing the scene where Jaune had revealed to Pyrrha how he had falsified his papers to get into Beacon.
Everyone chuckled a little at hearing that.
"Hey, Jo. Have you ever falsified your test papers," Gomamon asked jokingly.
This earned the seal a blanched look from Jo. "Gomamon, that makes no sense," the Chosen of Reliability said dryly.
Jaune winced at that "Yeah, that's not good." he then gave the twins a thumbs up "Thanks for the training then."
"On the upside, at least other you was smart enough to make good papers, right?" Gomamon commented idly.
"I'm not sure that's a good thing," Sora commented with a dry look.
"Agreed," Jo piped up.
"I… don't think that's a skill I'd like to flaunt." Jaune said slowly.
"Good," Iori spoke up with a frown. The kid is still honest to a fault, but acknowledges that things aren't always black and white.
"Next thing we changed after that was the initiation, we weren't originally part of it, so you all had handled it on your own… oh, and Azure wasn't there to get a teaching job, but that's not a major timeline change." Pierce added as he showed the original fights of the initiation, deciding to leave out the part where Jaune had screamed like a girl, no matter how hilarious it had been.
"Okay, I want to see that," Daisuke complained.
"As you wish," Wisemon said before flicking a wrist and the screen shows the scene in question. Sure enough, it was hilarious.
"He sounds like Jo," Gomamon snickered, causing the said boy to stop laughing.
"HEY! I do NOT scream like some girl," Jo protested.
"And what's that supposed to mean," Mimi asked with a look that promised unspeakable horrors if he said the wrong thing.
"I uhhh...," Jo stammered with a fearful look.
And then Mimi dropped the look and laughed her head off, "Just kidding!"
Palmon, Sora and Biyomon couldn't help laughing with the girl. All the while others also laughed a little at Jo getting trolled.
"And now we enter the remaining territory of the short list of things we missed, and the larger one of things yet to happen." Gyro said before starting a clip on his scroll "First on the tiny list, our first day at Beacon, which was composed of waking up to fix up the room, rushing to class, Weiss getting angry because Ruby was the leader of the team."
"Wait what?" Weiss and Ruby said together.
"Yeah, Ruby was the leader of the team, know as team RWBY, spelled R, W, B, Y, with the other two members being Blake and Yang." Gyro said for clarification.
Everyone chuckled a little at the fact that the team was named after the leader.
"Oh, so THAT's why you wanted us to have Ruby be one of the secondary leaders if you weren't around." Nora said in realisation, and honestly they'd stopped being surprised by her new calmer self rather quickly. Seems whatever happened when she awakened her Crest had given the girl something of an 'epiphany', and ultimately they decided to just take it in stride.
"I'm happy for my other," Gatomon approved of Nora's now calmer self.
"Wait… that means the leader of the other team was Jaune, right?" Salamon deduced.
"Yeah, team JNPR, spelled J,N,P,R, and Jaune was leader, because of his tactical mind for the most part." Pierce confirmed. "Jaune in the show may have sucked in a fight, but he managed to make some pretty good strategies. You even made a strategy to fight a Geist type Grimm."
"What's a Geist," Armadimon asked with a headtilt.
"Keep reading," Wisemon said simply.
"... I feel like I should be impressed, but I don't know what a Geist is." Jaune admitted.
"We've been over this before Jaune, remember ghost Grimm? Basically that, and Geist can possess inanimate objects." Gyro clarified. "The one you made a strategy to beat was basically constantly 'fixing' the stone body it made for itself with whatever was nearby, meaning whittling away at it was a waste of time. You managed to figure out how to topple the whole thing in one shot."
"Okay, there are werewolfs, bears, giant scorpions and birds," Mimi questioned, "What other types of Grimm are there?"
"If the guidebook doesn't say then it's not my place to answer," Wisemona replied while Jo consulted the said book.
"...A lot," Jo could only say because some of the Grimm revealed in the Grimm section were disturbing to say the least.
"Look at that, you became reliable without needing me around." Gomamon said with a grin as he nudged Jaune.
"Shows how helpful you really are." Jaune said jokingly, to which Gomamon laughed.
Everyone found it in themselves to chuckle a little.
"Our Jo is very reliable these days," Yamato commented with a small grin. The mentioned blue haired boy rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Anyway, speaking of Jaune, next is someone who's likely gonna be a pain in the ass for us for the next semester or two, and assuming we can still prevent the bad things from happening, a bit longer than that. One Cardin Winchester, leader of team CRDL. I'll be blunt, he's the textbook definition of a dumb jock. A big guy who thinks he's all that, a bully who doesn't give a damn, and an all round muscle head. All brawn barely any brain," Gyro said in annoyance. "Oh and he's a complete racist too, and a coward to boot. He'll act all tough when he's with his team, but once he's alone or against someone stronger than him, he'll turn tail and run."
"The guidebook says that Cardin has no brain," Jo commented on the guidebook.
"While inaccurate physically," Wisemon commented, "From what I have witness, not in-accurate description metaphorically."
This earned several laughters out of everyone.
"So he's going to be a pain in our behinds then." Ren said with a sigh.
"I can probably tie him up and leave him hanging off the ceiling if he keeps talking too much." Wormmon assured his partner.
"You could probably cover his mouth too," Ken commented with a rare smile at an action like that.
"I know I wouldn't mind," Miyako commented with a smile.
"I don't think any of us would," Agumon commented, earning various sounds of agreement
"Well that's something to look forward too." Pierce said with a grin "But yeah, he's gonna be a pain to us, first major thing he does is overhear Jaune tell Pyrrha about his false papers, so he uses that as blackmail to get Jaune to do all his schoolwork for him."
"Sounds like one of those stupid highschool dramas." Blake said as she rolled her eyes.
"Honestly...the first season of RWBY kind of DID play like that...only with guns...and killing monsters…" Gyro admitted with an amused chuckle.
"High School drama can be interesting if done right," Miyako commented, having watched a few of those.
"Too true," Sora agreed with a small smile.
"Anyway, back on track, those events originally came to a head about… I think a week ago would have been accurate. We would have had a trip to Forever Fall to collect sap, and Cardin, being the jerk he is with an over inflated ego that could give Etemon a run for his money, planned on setting a box of rapier wasps free on Pyrrha...to get back at her for 'humiliating' him in history class...just because she knew the answer to a question HE was quized on but didn't get right...yeah, he's THAT petty."
Some of the kids could attest to being annoyed when someone got an answer right when they didn't, but they never actually held a grudge.
"He sounds like a big baby." Agumon said.
"Pretty sure a baby is calmer than him." Veemon added with a snicker, everyone laughing at the joke.
As did the Children and their partners.
"Definitely breaking his legs first chance I get," Nora actually deadpanned.
"I don't think any of us would stop you," Salamon nodded in agreement.
"...What?" Gatomon asked at the stares she was getting.
"Aren't you going to refute that?" Gabumon asked.
"Why should I?" Gatomon asked with a confused look.
"Nevermind," Takeru quickly said before this could even try to escalate.
"That'd be something to see," Pierce chuckled. "Anyway, moving on...the next big thing that happens is well...how its revealed Blake is a Faunus...which is gonna be VERY different, seeing as we already know Blake is a Faunus now."
"How it went was that Weiss wanted to 'observe', read: spy, on the students coming over for the Vytal Festival from other academies," Gyro started.
Everybody looked at the heiress at that, prompting her to look back "What?"
Everyone chuckled at Weiss' response.
"Nothing." Yang said, before turning back to the twins. "How did that turn out?"
"Well, the student you ended up finding was a faunus who stowed away on a boat to get to Vale early, he's a monkey called Sun Wukong, and despite his...lively...personality, he actually ends up one of your best friends and allies over time in the original timeline anyway," Gyro continued.
"Honestly, we doubt that's gonna change, dude is too friendly, so we plan on actively befriending him ourselves." Pierce said with a chuckle. "Anyway, seeing as in that timeline Weiss hadn't had much if any positive interactions with faunus, save for Blake, who she didn't know was a faunus at the time...you can probably guess how this goes…"
Nobody said anything as Weiss and Blake looked away. They could already tell how their other selves probably acted.
"Jo?" Gomamon piped up. It didn't take a genious to figure out the seal wanted to consult the guidebook.
"According to this, Weiss and Blake got into a huge fight which ended in Blake running in fear of being hated," Jo red with a somber look.
"Ow," Mimi winced at that, "Did they at least make up later?"
"Yes, although the show doesn't really show Weiss' side much, which makes it feel abrupt," Jo raised an eyebrow at the last part.
"That part depends on who you ask," Wisemon chimed in, "Although back then, the show was done with minimum budget, but every volume improved something as the show progressed."
"Is the show popular on the Earth Novice came from?" Biyomon asked out of curiosity.
"You will have to ask him once he decides to return," Wisemon replied.
"Long story short, you had an argument, ending with Blake accidentally revealing she's a faunus...then she ran away. What followed was you guys needing to find her and a bunch of shenanigans that we hope to avert this time around...though I guess we COULD still try to stop the shipment," Gyro mused. "Oh, and before we move on, you met another friend in that incident. A girl named Penny Polendina from Atlas."
Ruby's eyes widened when she heard that, quickly realizing who she was. "She has orange hair with a mainly green outfit with green eyes, right?" she checked.
"Ah...so you saw her…" Gyro frowned.
"The girl that was torn apart," Yamato said with a grim look.
"Penny Polendina, according to the guidebook," Jo commented with a small frown at the biography that appeared, "Nothing else about her for now."
Hawkmon took that as a signal to keep reading.
Ruby nodded. "I saw a lot more than I would have wanted…" Ruby said glumly, glancing at Pyrrha for a brief second, enough only those directly looking at her face noticed.
Gyro internally winced, figuring out how much she'd seen "Yeah, spoilers for everyone, Penny is neither human or faunus, she's an android made by Atlas."
"Wait, what? But wasn't she a student too?" Jaune blinked. "How does a robot become a student? I mean, wouldn't the lack of aura...or the ability to awaken it for that matter, be a dead give away?"
"That would be true...if she were a normal machine," Pierce sighed. "Penny is...somehow...an android with a soul. Tons of unconfirmed theories, but it boils down to either Atlas found a way to artificially replicate/create a living soul...or the more disturbing, they transplanted a living soul into a mechanical body. Take your pick on which one you think it is, but either way the end result was Penny, who despite her mechanical body, is as much a person as any of us."
"Penny could be considered a mechanical lifeform with how human her actions are for the most part," Wisemon commented.
"That's... that's amazing," Koshiro commented with wide eyes, before glancing at the laptop which was still locked by Novice. "I wonder if Novice gave me blueprints for something like her?"
"Seriously, she ended up becoming one of Ruby's best friends, despite how Atlas forbade her from talking to Ruby again." Gyro added, smiling a bit.
"Why would they do that," Iori asked with an annoyed look.
"If Penny is an Atlesian project then they probably didn't want anyone to find out," Yamato replied with a frown.
"It's not fair," Agumon complained.
"You said it," Gabumon joined in.
"I'm afraid to ask...but what happened to her?" Pyrrha of all people asked, causing the brothers to wince. "...I'm not going to like the answer, am I?"
"Absolutely not." Pierce said seriously.
"That's an understatement," Palmon muttered, remembering the flashes Ruby had.
"One of our enemies has a semblance that allows her to make people see illusions, but she can only use it one person at a time, so during the Vytal Festival finals, she used it on you to make you see Penny's weapon, a few swords she swings around with thin cables, suddenly multiply to thousands of copies, like a torrent of blades, so that made you use your semblance at full blast to send it all back flying… and the cables got wrapped up around Penny's body and… and they ended up tearing her to shreds." Gyro finished sadly. "And the sad part of it all? It was all done just to sow discord and distrust. THAT is how cruel and merciless our future enemies are."
Pyrrha looked like she wanted to throw up by the time they finished talking at hearing what she would have been tricked into doing. "I...I did that…?" she choked.
"No you didn't!" Jaune and Gabumon quickly said.
Everyone felt grateful for Jaune's and other Gabumon's intervention. They now had hope that with the brothers there, these events would never come to pass.
"You didn't do it on purpose, and this time you won't do it, not when you know what's going to happen!" Gabumon said, quickly placing a paw on her shoulder.
"I'm sure it won't," Takeru voiced everyone's shared faith in the brothers.
"He's right. Maybe this was what would have happened, but we can change that now," Jaune nodded in agreement.
"Their right, we know it's coming, so we can prepare for it. We've been thinking of several plans to stop the abilities of our enemies, well, the ones we know of, we don't know everything our two main threats can do. BUT, now that we have the Digimon on our side, I think we'll be able to handle them." Gyro said, finishing with a smile as he looked at all of the Digimon.
"Unless great evils of the digital world join forces with them," Wisemon spoke up, causing an air of dread around everyone.
"Did you have to say that," Taichi asked with a frown.
"I just stated a possibility," Wisemon replied easily. Too easily for everyone else's liking.
"In that case, we promise we'll be there to help you out." Tentomon said.
"That's right, you said it yourselves on the first day, we'll come to the real world with you." Palmon added, all the other Digimon soon throwing in their agreement.
"Speaking of threats, before you start to face the real threats, you have a bit of a 'taste' in the form of Roman Torchwick," Pierce added. "The first semester was mainly calm, but come the second semester, things started getting rougher, especially when you all got info regarding the White Fang, which you later find out that Torchwick is working with the White Fang."
"Wait, what? But that's impossible," Blake said. "The White Fang as it is now, most of them hate humans that they'd rather drink broken glass than work with a human...and I wish that was a metaphor…"
Unfortunately, after hearing Adam killing a faunus that was pregnant with a human child, all the humans could see it happening.
"...okay, putting aside that rather disturbing, albeit strangely amusing image, that's what happens. Also, no offense Weiss, but the Atlas military is REALLY slacking off if Torchwick could get his hands on a Paladin of all things," Gyro added to which Weiss jaw dropped at hearing the criminal actually got one of those.
"Paladin?" Nora asked.
"It's a mechanical exo suit. Something the military was working on," Weiss answered. "My family's company provides a good deal of the Dust used in projects, so we hear a thing or two."
"..How much does Weiss' company have a say in what the military does," Koshiro wondered aloud.
"To my knowledge, not too much," Wisemon replied, "Although there are theories that say that the company is immune to law with how much they get away."
"WHAT?!" Came out of everyone.
"They're just theories," Wisemon reiterated.
"Honest thing, Earth has better exo suit designs, less bulky and more flexible." Pierce said, the Paladin's design had always irked him honestly.
"What does a Paladin look like," Daisuke asked with an interested look.
Wisemon replied by showing an image of the said mech.
"...I've seen better mechas," Daisuke said, understanding where Pierce was coming from.
As did all the other boys who have watched any kind of mecha-anime.
"So yeah, bla bla bla, Paladin, fight, and team RWBY managed to smash it, but Torchwick got away thanks to his mute and psycho partner, Neopolitan, Neo for short. The original Yang ended up growing an annoyance towards the girl." Gyro explained. "Its partly cause she beat the original Yang, though that was also due to a flaw in her fight style. Bluntly put, she was too reckless, and it got her into a LOT of trouble. So much so after a rather...traumatic event...she got depressed for a few months, but eventually got out of it and started learning a new style. One that is more...controlled, and yes Yang, we'll be sure to explain it to you like how your dad did. Better to nip this one in the bud, right?"
Everyone winced at the reminder that Yang would lose an arm in the original timeline. Anyone would probably be traumatized by that.
"Yeah, I...kinda learned my lesson after our last fight with Etemon…" Yang admitted, looking at Biyomon guiltily, only for the bird to smile and place a wing on her shoulder comfortingly.
Sora smiled widely at hearing Yang wanting to improve herself so that a situation like that won't happen again.
'At least something good came out of that then...besides the Crests anyway…' Pierce and Gyro couldn't help but inwardly smile. Yang learning the lesson that took her losing an arm in canon now...would help her a LOT down the road.
"Now, next thing that happened was the dance at Beacon." Pierce started.
"Let me guess, it also goes wrong." Pyrrha said with a sigh.
"Now a dance gets ruined," Mimi said with a glare, hoping that it was directed at the bad guys of the show. Even though she knew it probably wasn't happening.
"Kind of, the dance itself goes off without a hitch, but one of our enemies uses it to cover their attempt at inserting a virus into the CCT which they'll use to hijack airwaves and even take control of the new Atlesian Knight models during a later event." Gyro said seriously.
"Weiss, I swear to Oum, call your sister, and have her find a way to upgrade the anti-virus in their tech, and ESPECIALLY don't let Ironwood go through with his stupid idea of putting an AI in a Paladin." Pierce said, some annoyance in his tone.
"Is Ironwood really so stupid that he doesn't have any kind of security on his robots," Taichi questioned with a disbelieving look.
"Remnant Technology has evolved faster on hardware than software. The concept of cyberwar barely exists," Wisemon spoke up.
"It's true," Koshiro mentioned, "The computers on Earth used to be massive, until someone came up with the downsized version of the hardware. From there, the softwares evolved, and the hardware followed."
"On the plus side, I just realized if the Digimon are with us, we can get the amusing image of Godzilla stomping on one Paladin," Gyro added jokingly. "No seriously, a Paladin is big, but you guys can still be bigger."
Everyone agreed with that, the primary example being MetalGreymon. Or maybe just blast one with Giga Destroyer.
"I'll make sure to give my sister a call and try to slip a message about anti-virus upgrades." Weiss said with a sigh.
"Anyway, back onto important matters, Ruby tried to stop the enemy who put in the virus, but she got away when Ironwood entered the room, however, we plan to not only stop the virus, but replace it with a proxy too, one that looks and acts like the original, but it'll actually give them useless information, while feeding US helpful things from their scrolls. Azure was working on the virus last time we talked to him, and hopefully, you can help him finish it Weiss." Pierce explained, grinning a bit at the thought of their own plan.
"Clever," Blake chuckled. "Make them THINK their plan is working, when it actually isn't."
"That's evil," Gomamon commented with a chuckle.
"But very smart," Ken agreed, as did everyone else.
"That's what we were going for. Our enemies have us outnumbered and...questionably outgunned. They beat the Kingdoms last time using cunning, so we gotta be even more cunning to outdo them," Gyro nodded.
"So what happens next?" Ren asked, very curious now.
"After that is the next big event, the Breach. Basically, when the original team RWBY dealt with Roman, they ended up learning about an operation in the south-east… and biggest failure of humanity is in that area, and perfect for a hideout?" Pierce started, asking his question with a knowing look.
"Mountain Glenn." Ruby whispered in understanding.
"Jo?" Came out of Gomamon.
"Mountain Glenn was Vale's attempt at an expansion, but it was overrun by Grimm," Jo red from the guidebook. Then he had an apprehensive look, "Thousands of people died in the process."
This made everyone feel bad about the failure.
"What made it fail?" Taichi asked, wanting to know what exactly went wrong.
"Mountain Glenn lacked the natural barriers that Vale had, which made it easier for the Grimm to invade," Jo continued, "Despite all the defenses that were set up first." That last one was added because Miyako, Ken and Mimi wanted to protest.
"Bingo," Gyro nodded. "So the original team RWBY tried to get there, which ended with Ozpin 'bending the rules' to allow them to go. Oh and your dad sent your dog over to live with you a bit before you guys left for Mount Glenn."
"They have a dog?" Came out of Iori
"How'd he send a dog over?" Weiss couldn't help but ask.
"In the mail," Pierce deadpanned. "No seriously, he somehow fit Zwei inside this tube he mailed to your room...and also fit in a ton of cans of dog food...and a can opener...which Ruby and Yang implied Zwei could use…"
"...What?" Was the universal reaction.
"...How," Koshiro asked Wisemon about the absurdity he heard.
"No one knows," Wisemon said.
"Oh yeah, Zwei got a lot smarter after we had his aura awakened," Yang nodded.
"So THAT's why he's a super dog." Gyro said with wide eyes.
"But... dogs don't have opposable thumbs," Jo protested about Zwei knowing how to use a can opener.
"So what? Zwei's a super dog," Daisuke commented, earning unimpressed looks from Koshiro and Jo. Miyako looked annoyed, while everyone else let out small laughs.
"Huh...the more you know…" Pierce blinked. "Anyway, you got saddled with Prof...I mean, Doctor Oobleck, your history teacher, on the mission, while Ruby got it in her head to bring Zwei along...which actually turned out to be a good idea."
Ruby grinned at that one, while her future teammates gave her a dry look.
"Maybe they used Zwei to sniff them out?" Hikari suggested, this earned chuckles from everyone.
"So yeah, after a day of hunting Grimm, and a few things, Ruby followed Zwei and ended up stumbling upon the hideout...literally," Gyro said.
"And by stumble, we mean she fell through the ground right into the hideout. Turns out they were using the old tunnels," Pierce said. "Oh and speaking of which, another thing we gotta work on. Your unarmed combat. No offense Ruby, but you suck worse than Jaune's original self did without your weapon."
Ruby winced at that, while Jaune felt mildly miffed, but figured it wasn't so bad since they were taking a jab at the original him.
"So yeah, seeing as Ruby lost Crescent Rose...you can probably guess what happened next. Fortunately it seemed Torchwick sorta picked up the Villain Ball and ended up spilling his immediate plan, so when the others came to rescue her, they could do more to try stopping the train," Pierce said.
"That and apparently Torchwick was beating Ruby for stress relief," Jo said, having a disgusted look at that.
Which was shared by everyone else. What kind of sick criminal does that? Actually many of their enemies were like that. Including Myotismon, which Gatomon had personal experience of.
"So, what happened with that was, you all ended up finding that the train was full of bombs, and that Torchwick was using it to lead Grimm towards Vale, Ruby stayed on top of the train to help Doctor Oobleck try and deal with that from the outside, while the rest of the girls went inside, where Yang ended up fighting Neo, but lost, and was saved by a freebie given to her by her bitch of a mom." Gyro explained, not even bothering to censor himself for once.
On instinct, everyone turned to Iori.
"What?" the smallest of them asked.
"...Nothing," Miyako said first, figuring that the earbuds were doing their job.
"If I meet Raven… I'm gonna punch her in the face." Yang said calmly, no rage at all, and was simply stating a fact.
"On that I think we can all agree," Jaune frowned. He didn't know that much, but Yang's biological mom seemed like someone they'd all really not like.
"What happens next?" Pyrrha frowned.
"Well, they made a breach and Grimm came in, but you managed to stop it with a bit of help from a few other teams," Pierce said. "Things calmed down a bit...but that was just the calm before the storm as the next bit is the Vytal Festival AKA when shit hits the fan."
"Or as I have heard Novice call it, 'everyone dies'," Wisemon piped up, "An inaccurate phrase if you ask me."
This earned a small scowl out of everyone at the non-chalant way Wisemon said it. But they chose to let it pass.
"What happened?" Blake asked, having a feeling she wouldn't like it.
"Well, at first, seemingly nothing, the tournament was going normally, both teams RWBY and JNPR even made it to the finals… but so did our main enemies at the time. First, Cinder Fall, the ringleader behind the attack, second, Emerald Sustrai, the girl with the illusion semblance, and finally, Mercury Black, son of Marcus Black, a well known assassin in underground circles." Gyro started, his face completely serious.
"So, those are the three baddies," Palmon commented, before smiling, "They don't stand a chance now."
"Yeah," Veemon agreed.
"...How would huntsmen fair against digimon," Ken then suddenly asked, "Fully trained ones I mean."
Wisemon had a thoughtful look, "I would estimate that a single capable huntsman is able to fight off Child level digimon easily, and many of the Adults with more effort. They might also be able to take out some of the lesser Perfects as a team. But I would say that against an Ultimate they will never stand a chance."
That sounded about right, considering how powerful Ultimates tend to be.
"We'll start on the goons before miss head honcho, because the information on her is… big." Pierce said, pausing to find the right word "So, first, Emerald, easy way to identify her, mint green hair, dark skin, and red eyes, she's completely devoted to Cinder and is a master pickpocket, so be wary around her. Her weapons are a pair of revolvers she can turn into sickles."
The screen showed a picture of Emerald for visual support, and some of the guys averted their gazes from her outfit.
"Next up, Mercury Black, AKA, Mr. I'm-too-cool. No, really, he's cocky as hell. He's got silver hair and likes to wear clothes in shade of greyish blue and black. Now, the main thing about him, his legs are artificial, so we'll have to find a way to expose that to everyone, probably pull them off during a fight. Pyrrha, if you ever end up having to spar against him when they infiltrate Beacon, don't hold back on the semblance, pull his legs off, make sure everyone knows so they can't pull the broken leg card during the Vytal Festival finals." Gyro said.
Then the screen showed Mercury, with highlights on his artificial legs.
"So Remnant can make full on cybernetics," Koshiro commented with a facinated look.
"What do they mean by, 'Broken Leg card'," Takeru questioned.
"Keep reading, Hawkmon," Wisemon said simply.
"Broken Leg card?" Nora asked, just a tiny bit eager to hear the answer.
Pierce sighed. "They 'framed' Yang by making it look like she broke Mercury's leg during their match. How they did it was that Emerald used her Semblance to make Yang think Mercury was attacking, while in reality, Mercury had moved to 'shake her hand' after she beat him, so to the crowd it looked like she went and broke the guy's leg for no reason. Naturally you can guess that didn't go over so well with everyone...or with her for that matter when the illusion was lifted."
"So they made everyone think that Yang was crazy?" Biyomon commented with a frown.
"So they made everyone think Yang was crazy?" Biyomon asked with a frown.
Biyomon blinked at her other saying the exact same thing.
"I guess our others are more like us than we thought," Tentomon suggested, though he was trying not to laugh. As did many of the others, despite the current context.
"Basically yeah, and honestly, it was working, even the other members of RWBY were unsure about what actually happened. That's why it's imperative we find a way to stop Emerald from being able to use her Semblance." Gyro said seriously.
"But how would they do that," Armadimon questioned.
"There are magics that can shield your mind," Wisemon replied easily, "Perhaps they will meet a digimon who can."
Hikari's eyes widened before she addressed Gatomon, "Gatomon, could Wizardmon do something like that?"
"I don't know," Gatomon admitted,"I never asked about what spells he could use. But maybe he could."
"Right, green haired girl, BAD news," Ren nodded. "Now...about that ringleader you mentioned?"
"Right. Get ready everyone, cause this one is gonna be a doozy," Pierce nodded. "First of all, everyone here knows the story of the Four Maidens, right?"
"Huh?" Was the universal reaction.
"Uh...we don't," the Digimon said.
"Neither do we," Patamon spoke for everyone.
"Keep reading," Wisemon said simply.
"It's a classic story in Remnant," Pyrrha smiled, before reciting the tale for the Digimon to hear.
"Centuries ago, Deep in the forests of Remnant, beside a great and mighty river, stood the small, fragile home of a cold, frail man- a lone wizard.
Hidden from the dangers and distractions of the world, the wizard seldom had visitors. But on this day, as he peered out his window, his gaze fell upon a young maiden.
Calmly, she sat beneath his tree in a state of absolute tranquility. When the wizard demanded an explanation, the maiden simply replied, "My name is Winter. I am on a journey, and I am waiting for my sisters."
The Children and the digimon were listening with interest what sounded like a fairy tail. There was also visual support on this part.
With that, she closed her eyes and sat in silence.
The wizard told himself the girl was a fool, but the longer she sat, the more he wished to share in the serenity the young maiden enjoyed. In time, he grew tired and decided to close his eyes as well, thinking on this strange predicament.
Upon opening his eyes, the wizard was befuddled to find that a second maiden appeared beneath his tree, cheerful and spry, with a basket of fruit and flowers.
When he asked for an explanation, the girl simply replied,
"My name is Spring. I am on a journey, and I am waiting for my sisters."
To show her gratitude for his reluctant hospitality, the girl retrieved a handful of seeds from her basket and planted them in the wizard's garden.
The old hermit could hardly believe his eyes as the maiden turned what was once a mere pile of dirt and manure into a beautiful garden, from which life would surely blossom.
All the girls felt it was nice of these girls to help the old wizard. While most of the guys wondered what kind of life the wizard had to sound that bitter. As did the digimon.
It's likely he would have gazed for hours, were it not for the unfamiliar laughter he heard from beneath his tree.
A young woman with a warm smile now stood beside the two maidens.
The wizard begged her to introduce herself, to which she happily responded,
"My name is Summer. I am on a journey, and I am waiting for my sister."
"Of course," thought the wizard. But another chirp of laughter left the old man perplexed.
What in the world was so funny?
As it turned out, it was him. The new arrival found the wizard's insistence on staying indoors so very amusing.
"How long has he been staying there," Mimi muttered. She couldn't imagine herself cooping up indoors forever.
Neither could Miyako who thought that this couldn't be healthy.
Why choose to view the world through a small window when the door leading out to it was right at his side?
It was a compelling argument. And after only a moment of brief hesitation, the wizard left his home -
- and stepped outside.
The warmth of the sun brought with it a surge of energy and life, and soon the wizard wasn't feeling much like himself anymore.
He was feeling much better.
That brought a smile to everyone.
As the day drew to a close, the maidens and the wizard all settled down and prepared a feast.
Winter set the table. Spring supplied the crops, Summer prepped the meal, and the wizard was the happiest he'd been in ages.
But in all the excitement, he nearly failed to notice the delicate woman that now stood beneath his tree.
He smiled, and beckoned her to join them, asking only for her name.
"My name is Fall," she replied softly. "I am on a journey, and am here to meet my sisters. Who are you?"
"Me?", the wizard wondered. "Well, I am but an old hermit - I have lived in these woods alone for centuries and I'm afraid my story is not very interesting, as I have no one to love and nothing to my name."
"Surely an old wizard would have some interesting tales to tell," Daisuke commented.
"Maybe he had to fight an evil witch or something!" Veemon suggested with a grin.
Wisemon resisted a chuckle.
The elder sister looked up at all that surrounded them.
"But sir, do you not see? You have so much."
It was true. With their help, it was now clear to see that the wizard had everything he could ever need. He was grateful, but a question lingered in his mind.
"Why me?", he asked. "Why did the four of you choose to open my eyes? To share with me your gifts? Why am I so special?"
"I think they did it just because they could," Ken guessed.
The four sisters looked to one another, perplexed. Finally, the eldest spoke.
"I beg your pardon sir, but we did not do these things for you because you were special. We do what we can for everyone, because we are able."
"Wow, Ken," Miyako sounded out in surprise, "You were right!"
"How did you guess that," Hawkmon also asked.
"Just a feeling," Ken replied with a mildly embarrassed look.
"That's nice of them," Hikari commented with a smile about the sisters motives. Everyone agreed with the Chosen of Light.
The old wizard was at a loss. Never in his years had he come across such kindness. It was in that moment that he knew what should be done.
The wizard summoned his magic, every ounce he could muster, and bestowed it upon the sisters.
He smiled. "Take this gift, and know now that you are able to do so much more."
Everyone was surprised that the wizard would give his power to these girls. But then again, he must have thought that these girls would do more good with them than he would.
Now armed with the elements, the very powers of nature, and the unimaginable magic of the wizard, the four maidens, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, promised to carry on with their journey, using their gifts to aid others, just as they aided him.
One by one, the sisters left. Before they did, they made one final promise.
They promised to return each and every year, to visit their dear friend."
Once she was done, Pierce nodded. "Now then, that story has a BIG role here, seeing as it's true. Heck, that old wizard? Believe it or not...it's Ozpin."
"Say what?!" The Children and the digimon shouted in unison.
"Wait! That explains Ozpin being centuries old when the brothers went to Remnant," Yamato pointed out.
"But if he's the old wizard then... who are the maidens," Taichi questioned, turning to Wisemon along with everyone else.
"The story should explain this," Wisemon said, which prompted Hawkmon to continue reading.
A long silence passed, during which the Digimon looked at their partners in confusion, not understanding why they were so shocked.
Eventually, Weiss managed to recover first "Wait, so… the maidens exist? And Professor Ozpin is the wizard from the tale?"
"Yeahp, and what's more, Cinder is one of the maidens. Cinder Fall, AKA, the False Fall Maiden." Gyro said.
"False?" came out of Gomamon.
"False?" Pyrrha asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She stole the Maiden powers from the true Fall Maiden, a young woman by the name of Amber, except she didn't get ALL of the powers, just a large portion, Amber still holds the last few drops of it so to speak." he said. "Now, to explain, Amber is NOT the Fall from the story. See, Maidens can still die, and when they do, their power transfers to the last person in their minds...provided that person is a maiden. If it was an old person or a guy, then the power randomly flies off to another person. Really annoying, we know."
"So the Maidens from the story are long dead, but the power they had lives on," Armadimon commented with a head tilt.
"But why would Ozpin keep this all a secret," Tentomon asked.
"Simple, to prevent people like Cinder from getting their hands on it," Wisemon replied.
"And speaking of maidens, about punching Raven in the face…" Pierce started.
"Let me guess," Blake sighed. "She's gotten her hands on Maiden Powers too, hasn't she?" she deadpanned, cause why not.
This made everyone's opinion of Raven drop further. Because in order for her to get the Maiden Power, she would have had to kill the previous one.
"Got it in one," Pierce sighed. "She's got the Spring Maiden powers, when she killed the previous Spring Maiden as a 'mercy kill' she said. To be fair, if she was telling the truth, then the previous one really didn't like her powers and the troubles that came with them, but still..."
"She still murdered someone." Ren summed up with a frown, he really wasn't liking Yang's mother by now.
Everyone agreed with Ren about Raven.
"Exactly. Anyway, back to Cinder, she's going to be trouble, considering she has a good handle on the Fall Maiden powers, which seem to include flame control for starters, and being able to weaponize leaves as well if what we saw from Amber was correct." Gyro said "The easiest way to identify Cinder is that she has amber colored eyes and black hair that covers up a bit of her face, she also likes to wear a red dress with fire dust woven into it, but, when she infiltrated Beacon, she wore an outfit that looked like something a scrap fighter would wear. She's also the woman you fought when you were accepted into Beacon, Ruby."
The screen then showed a picture of Cinder. None of the older guys dared to say it, but Cinder looked hot. But that did nothing to ease their growing dislike of her.
Neihter did it for the girls. Mimi and Miyako actually felt a little jealous of the False Maiden, but they didn't dare to voice it.
At that moment, the door to the reading room opened, allowing entry for Novice who was once again in a hover chair. "So, what did I miss?" Novice asked before looking at the screen. "Oh. You were introduced to one of the people on Remnant I wanted to sic Lilithmon at," Novice said with a smirk as he the memories of several hours ago played in his head.
"Where were you this time," Sora asked wondering why he was in that hover chair again.
"And are your legs brokem or something," Biyomon then asked.
"Nah, just feeling lazy right now," Novice replied to Biyomon, as he moved his hover chair next to the seat Wisemon had taken.
Although everyone noted that he didn't answer Sora.
"I see…" Ruby frowned, remembering that woman well. To think she had a glimpse of someone who would have caused so much pain and suffering...the thought was admittedly more than a little frightening now that she realized what was going on.
"Now, regarding the tournament. First, Cinder had managed to gain control of Atlas tech through Ironwood's scroll thanks to her virus, which most fans dubbed the Castle Virus since it shows the image of a rook chess piece. Thanks to that, she also gained control of the match selections for the Vytal Festival, meaning she was able to setup some favorable matchups for her goons, as well as rig the finals. And because earlier in the year they'd been able to figure out Pyrrha's semblance, as well as obtain the blueprints for Penny, they set up that match, and, well, you know how that turned out." Pierce explained, grimacing at the end.
And the Children grimaced with Pierce.
"...The guidebook doesn't say how the virus went unnoticed," Jo commented, having checked the book.
"That's because there's no confirmation on how it happened," Novice replied easily, "But if I had to guess, either Ironwood didn't think that someone would try that, or he did check the system but the virus was advanced enough to avoid whatever system check he performed."
"That's actually very real possibility," Koshiro commented, wondering how such a virus was created.
"And right after that, that's when shit hit the fan. They broadcasted the whole thing, starting to plant doubt into the people...before beginning the next phase. With help from the White Fang, they smuggled live Grimm and unleashed them into Vale, throwing the city into a panic. The Atlesian Military tried to stop them, but...well...remember that virus? Yeah, it ended up being that the Knights soon turned on the people, something they were sure to broadcast to all the Kingdoms to watch. And if that wasn't bad enough, turns out there was this BIG Grimm Dragon hibernating in the mountains outside of Vale and all the fear and other negative emotions must have woken it up...you can probably guess what happened next…" Gyro said grimly.
"So much destruction and for what?!" Taichi practically yelled, "Was their goal to just destroy the Kigndoms?"
"Destroying the Kingdoms is just a side effect," Novice replied, "As for their full goal, the story will explain in time." the latter part was said in a pacifying tone.
"...I wonder if my others can destroy that monster," Agumon wondered aloud.
"If not as Adult, then definitely as Perfect," Tentomon said confidently.
"I wouldn't be surprised if just one of you was enough," Yamato commented, believing that Ultimate would be overkill."
"Long story short, Grimm Dragon wakes up, smashes up Vale a bit, then destroys Beacon castle, the CCT Tower with it, thus shutting down the entire CCT Network with the last scenes the world saw being the berserk Knights killing civilians, thus fucking up the relationship between the Kingdoms. Suffice to say, the bad guys won that day. Spectacularly I might add…" Pierce sighed. "There are a few more details of course, but that's the overall of events that we're trying to prevent."
"So that's it? We lost Beacon and Vale, and the bad guys won?" Jaune asked in abject disbelief. Sure he wasn't one of those types who believed in the 'good always wins' mentality, since he knew there was more to things than just that, but still…
"Not a complete victory mind you, but very nearly that," Gyro said. "You got out of it alive...well...most of you did…" he said, and when he did, he couldn't help glancing at Pyrrha, something all of them noticed.
Everyone felt small comfort in that the bad guys apparently didn't get a complete win. Whatever that might be.
"...I died, didn't I?" Pyrrha said...her voice unnaturally calm for someone who just pieced together their own possible fate.
"Probably trying to keep it together instead of breaking down," Sora commented in sympathy.
"You tried to stop Cinder, who'd managed to kill Amber thus gaining the full maiden powers, alone. It...didn't end well for you…" was Gyro's response.
"Over my deleted/dead body!" were Gabumon's and Jaune's angry growls at what they'd heard.
"Yeah!" Gabumon agreed with his other, glaring at the screen. The pelt wearing lizard knew how he would feel if it was Yamato instead.
Something that all digimon partners could relate to.
"It won't get to that this time. The original issue was that Pyrrha had decided to go at it alone and not bring backup." Pierce said, crossing his arms. "But I'm pretty sure we won't need to worry about that now, would we?"
Pyrrha blinked, before realizing what he was getting at and smiled a little. "No we won't," she smiled. "I think I know why my other self tried to do that...but I won't be like that. I'm not alone anymore."
"Damn straight," Yang said as they all smiled.
"Right, now then...while Cinder is the main issue, we have a few smaller but no less important things to worry about. Among them is one Adam Taurus," Gyro continued.
"The psychopath," Takeru muttered. What Blake said about the things he did still made them wince.
"Of course Adam would be involved…" Blake sighed.
"Adam? Isn't he that bad faunus who you used to work with?" Patamon checked.
"That's him," Blake confirmed. Strange as it sounded, being with the group right now, the idea of having to face Adam in the future didn't scare her as much as she thought it would.
"Now, the obvious issue with Adam, his Semblance." Gyro started.
This made the group interested.
"Right, he calls it Moonslice for some reason, though I don't know where he got the name. He absorbs attacks that collide with his sword and charges himself up, before returning it all in one powerful strike that can easily cut through a full aura." Blake explained, seeing as she knew Adam the most.
"Considering he destroyed an entire robot and some of the surroundings from some of the clips we saw? Yeah, we can confirm that much," Pierce sighed.
"And... Yang's arm," Biyomon commented, earning a small hug from Sora.
"...something wrong? You seemed kinda...upset...when Blake explained that," Biyomon asked.
"The irony of you asking…" Gyro couldn't help but say as they decided to come clean. "In the battle of Beacon, Yang tried to help Blake who Adam had pinned down and was in the middle of stabbing...and ended up losing her right arm to that ability…"
Yang flinched at that, her left hand grasping her right arm instinctively.
"I think anyone would be after hearing something like that," Jo commented on Yang's reaction.
"I know I would be terrified," Iori muttered, earning a pat on the head from Miyako.
"Don't worry, we won't let that happen either," Pierce reassured. "On top of that, the fact that you learned the very lesson that it took said loss of a limb now, that's going to help you a LOT. Trust me, even if the you after you recovered was a lot less...lively...she'd definitely improved a lot."
"...somehow that doesn't sound like it came out right," Ren commented.
"You try consoling your girlfriend over how in one timeline she's gonna lose her arm and see how you do," Pierce deadpanned.
"...He's not wrong," Daisuke commented somberly on Pierce.
"Hear, hear," Patamon added.
"Moving on," Gyro quickly said before any arguments could start. "Right, there was the part where Ironwood kept Torchwick locked up in a cell on one of his airships...which made it so when Neo came calling, having infiltrated with her Physical Illusion semblance, it was...stupidly easy for them to use the virus to hijack an airship…"
"Wait, what? They hijacked an airship? No offense to the people of Atlas, but what the heck?" Jaune couldn't help but say incredulously.
"How weak are the soldiers of Atlas to allow it," Taichi asked with a disbelieving look.
"Most likely they don't possess the same training huntsmen and huntresses do," Wisemon gave the most likely answer.
"Or Ironwood never thought that someone could infiltrate his ship," Novice gave his own opinion with a frown, "I'm not sure how many fans believe this, but I think the general has grown arrogant. And arrogance is one of the first thing to cripple a nation."
"None taken. I can't believe how...incompetent the army seemed to be in that timeline…" Weiss said.
"If there was anything good that came from that, at least when Torchwick had to fight Ruby, he went on a rant about how the world is cruel, so you gotta do anything to survive, which was dripping with negativity...while they were surrounded by Grimm," Pierce smirked. "The irony of Torchwick saying he's good at surviving...only to be swallowed by a Gryphon like 2 seconds later."
"I'm not sure if I should be happy about that," Gabumon commented.
"I don't think any of us are," Palmon added in.
"Sweet, sweet irony." Gyro said with a grin "As for Neo, Ruby ended up making her parasol open while there were powerful winds around, so the ice cream runt got sent flying and hasn't been seen since."
"But you don't know if she's actually gone or not," Pyrrha noted.
"Yep, so until we get some solid proof...assume she's still at large," Gyro nodded, before adding "And blaming Ruby for Roman's death."
"Okay, that could be bad." Was the universal opinon on Neo's motive to kill Ruby.
"Now then...the last big thing...Ozpin kinda...gets killed…" Pierce said.
"Ok… that's bad." Yang said a bit nervously.
"Yeah, somehow, Cinder was able to overpower him… but, being dead hasn't stopped him before." Gyro added after a few moments.
After all the surprising things the group learned about Remnant now, they chose to have looks of disbelief instead of voicing it. Something that surprised Novice a bit.
"Huh?" was the universal response from everyone present.
"Ok, so you know how Ozpin is the wizard from the story of the maidens? Well, there's a reason he's so old, and that's because whenever he dies, his soul finds a new host body, kind of dark yes, but even he admits he doesn't like it. Anyway, his new host is a farm boy by the name of Oscar Pine, who lives somewhere in Anima with his aunt." Pierce explained.
"So... he possesses someone and takes over," Mimi asked, fearing that they were dealing with some kind of evil spirit.
"No, no, no." Novice corrected instantly, "More like... how should I say it... two souls sharing one body."
"The relationship with Ozpin and the host body seems to be purely symbiotic. Of course, he can take control but only in an emergency, and when the host allows it," Wisemon piped up, deciding to leave the part that Ozpin could take the control forcibly.
The explanation seems to have pacified everyone.
"Preferably we'd like to avoid that, but if we can't...at least we know who to look for," Gyro said, crossing his arms a little.
"So, what's Oscar like? In case we have to look for him." Jaune asked just in case.
"Shorter than Nora, has a tan with freckles, black hair, and his eyes are this really weird orangish green." Pierce summed up, and Nora actually laughed at hearing there was someone shorter than her.
The screen showed the boy in question and everyone was surprised that Oscar looked to be about the age of the older members of the first generation.
"So that's about everything in the immediate future we need to worry about," Gyro said. "Sure there's a bit more, but depending on what we do, how relevant that knowledge will be...varies. For now, just worry about this first."
"Right," the group nodded.
"Hey, uh...thanks for trusting us with this," Ruby started. "And thanks for coming to try and help us," she smiled.
The twins smiled at that. "This world is hard enough as is...you guys didn't deserve what happened to you, that's why we wanted to change that," they said.
"And two of them wanted to get to their crushes," Miyako said teasingly earning several laughs out of that.
Everyone nodded in thanks at that, and as they were about discuss what to do next, the ground between them rose up… and revealed a projector, with Gennai quickly appearing on it.
"Chosen Children! I have some important information!"
As soon as that last line was heard, the book shut itself.
"Seriously?!" Miyako exclaimed at being left at a cliffhanger.
"It can't just end there," Iori commented before glaring at their host.
"Swift wrote this, not me," Novice said defensively.
"Urgh, let's just hurry up with the next chapter," Miyako then complained.
"Don't you think we should take a moment to digest this new information first," Wormmon asked in slight worry.
"I would recommend that," Novice said, supporting the green caterpillar.
"Well... maybe we should," Sora muttered, "I mean, this was kind of surprising. The Maidens, Ozpin being who knows how old, and the plot to destroy a Kingdom."
"I think Sora's right," Jo agreed, "We should take a small break to let this settle in."
Novice smiled, while idly wondering if he should have let Lilithmon's pet project walk out... Nah, that would put him on more thin ice than he already is. Besides, he now had better things to do, which was also why he reverted Lilithom back to Black.
Black: *yawns*...Really? He couldn't stay just a little longer *looks at paws* Couldn't he have let me stay as Lilithmon a little longer?
Cinder: Mmm... yes... master
Black: *rolls eyes* She's very dependent now... Then again, I guess that means I did a good job.