"You alright Rubes?" Yang asked her sister.

"Fine. Just fin-" Ruby cut herself off with a yawn. Her younger sister didn't look like she had slept much last night. Probably from staying up on her scroll again.

"Whatever you say." Yang rolled her eyes. "Just get yourself some coffee."

The trio of Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby where currently taking their seats at the cafeteria, getting some lunch with their friends at team SALN.

"Here Ruby, you can have mine." Pyrrha kindly offered as they all sat down with their individual lunches.

"It's okay Pyrrha i'm fine." Ruby said sleepily, the she then dug into her lunch without another word.

"Wheres Blake?" Jaune asked in greeting from across the table.

"Dunno, library maybe." Yang told him with a shrug and then bit into the burger she had gotten for lunch.

The teams sat in silence as lunch was ate by all parties. Then, Jaune pulled out his scroll and typed something into it. A small ding came from Weiss's scroll causing the heiress to pull it out and type in something of her own.

This pinged Yang's own curiosity, what were they talking about?

The texting conversation continued for a few minutes, with Weiss looking more and more stern and jaune more and more defeated.

Eventually Yang had enough and with all the grace of a rampaging Grimm, stole Jaune's scroll out of his hands, and took a look at the latest message.

[We don't have to do this now. I can try and ask Pyrrha out tomorrow.]

A smile grew on Yang's face. This was just too good.

Yang handed the scroll back to Jaune who had went white in the face.

"You wanna tell her, or should I?" Yang asked vomit boy rhetorically.

This got the attention of the others at the table who looked at Jaune curiously, causing him in turn to look at Weiss.

"Don't look at me." The heiress told her partner.

This caused Jaune to turn to Pyrrha as Yang leaned forward to watch the show.

"Pyrrha?" He said the Spartans name like a question.

"Yes Jaune?" The girl in question asked.

"I was, uh wondering if maybe you- only if you want to, if you would like to, um go and see a movie with me?" Jaune awkwardly asked her, his face red in embarrassment.

All heads turned to look at Pyrrha as a strange look came over Pyrrha's face.

"Like a date?" She asked, tone betraying nothing.

"Yes."

Then Pyrrha gave a smile so wide, warm and genuine that only she could give it. "I would be more than happy to." She told him.

"What movie are you guys going to see?" Ruby asked excitedly, the scene seemingly curing her previous tiredness.

"Oh, I was thinking The Huntsman Rises, if that's okay with you Pyrrha." Jaune replied

"Fine by me."

"Wait!" Ruby called out dramatically. "What about our plans to play remnant the game later?"

Huh, Yang had kinda forgotten they'd made plans to play that this afternoon as a team.

"Don't worry Ruby." Pyrrha reassured her partner, "While I will not be there, i'm sure that Weiss will be more than happy to take my place."

Yang had to blink. Did Pyrrha Nikos of all people, just throw Weiss under the buss and to the wolves, just so she could go on a date? Yang didn't think she had it in her.

Weiss for her part seemed to be frozen in shock, while Ruby yelled out, "That's so cool!"

"Ohhhh, can we join in?" Nora butted in as Jaune and Pyrrha got up and went away.

"Sorry but it's only a four player game, but i'm sure that ice queen will want your help with winning." Yang said casually.

Weiss snapped out of her stupor. "I did not agree to that." She snapped.

"Princess, what gave you the idea that you had a say in this?" Yang retorted

Weiss's protests were music to her ears.

Today's search went about as well as Church expected.

That is to say it sucked.

"Penny?"

"Yes mister Church?" The girl in question replied.

"Why are we on the roof of this same warehouse, for the fourth day in a row?" Church asked, using his well of patience reserved exclusively for Caboose and children.

"Because, the last time I met Ruby, she was here, and social convention indicates that she will return here again to hang out." Penny explained cheerfully.

Church had to sigh, sure it had been years sense he had been a kid, (no matter what Washington said), but he was fairly certain that kids typically didn't hang around the top of warehouses more than once.

"Right, uh Penny." Church tried to say. "Ya see, we've tried looking here for Ruby like four nights in a row. Don't ya think we should ya know check other places a teenager might go?" We asked.

Penny blinked twice in succession. "Where do my fellow teenagers go to?" She asked, throwing the ghost off his game.

Did she literally never leave the house?

"Well, um uh don't they go to the cinema or cafes or sh- stuff like that?" Church quickly replaced the swear, he might not be the best person, but you shouldn't really swear in front of kids.

Penny blinked again. "There are 5 cafes in our local area, the nearest is close to a popular cinema." Penny informed him

"How do you-"

"We should go now to have a greater chance of finding Ruby." Penny quickly cut Church off.

"Alright." He sighed. "Lets go."

The journey to the cafe only took ten minutes, the cafe itself was quite nice sporting a very classical look, with a weapon rack at the door and several tables outside.

"This the place?" Church asked rhetorically.

"Affirmative." Penny said, but something with her tone was off.

"Whats wrong kid?" Church asked.

"I have to leave now mister Church." Penny said sadly, pointing at a pair of soldiers in armour, working their way to penny through the crowd. "Those two are the people that general ironwood assigned to look after me."

Penny then turned her head to the cafe and pointed at a couple in one of the outside tables. "That woman is Pyrrha Nikos, she is a friend of Ruby's." Penny explained.

"Thanks kid." Church told her sincerely, it was pretty sad that this teenage girl was the most competent person he'd worked with sense Tex.

"Your welcome mister Church!" Penny exclaimed, "When you see Ruby, tell her salutations from me!"

With that the orange haired girl ran off, causing the two soldiers that had almost reached her through the crowd to swear.

With Penny gone, Church wandered over to the couple she'd pointed out. A blonde guy that had a real dork vibe coming from him and a red haired girl, who looked familiar, but he couldn't quite reMEmbeR.

Shaking his head, Church got close enough to hear the conversation.

"-That final set piece was awesome!" The blonde said a tad too loudly.

"It was very... explosive." The red haired chick replied uncomfortably, she probably didn't enjoy the movie then.

Completely misreading the tone, blonde nodded enthusiastically. "i know right!? it's just like in the comics where-"

Church tuned out the rest of his ramblings as he got up right next to them at their table.

Then he noticed something new, they both had, what Church would call a feeling about them. It was the same feeling he first felt when he was around Penny, although he'd dismissed it at first. The sorta feeling he had about the duo extended to a bunch of the others in the cafe, mostly those with weapons. What made them different from everyone else?

Out of curiosity Church leaned forward to the blonde dude, who was still in the middle of his comic book explanation, and church touched him and was relived to feel a very familiar sensation.

"Wa-kika-herger!"

Church blinked with actual human eyes.

And smiled. He had a body now! An actual human body! Church felt like dancing things were finally looking up!

"Jaune?" A concerned voice came from across the table. "Are you alright?" The red head asked.

The same red head that was blonde guy's (who he had possessed) date.

The same red head he knew nothing about.

The same red head he needed to find the others.

Fuck.

This was the most important choice she would ever have to make.

Apon her was a choice that would make or break her entire campaign.

"Are you going to play the game or just sit there staring at it?" Weiss snapped grumpily at Ruby, pulling her out of focus.

"No, she's just thinking about how badly she's going to loose." Her tyrannical sister taunted.

Ruby ignored this and went back to her dilemma. Attack Yang or Weiss?

On one hand Weiss's force had not yet recovered from her attacking her own airships, on the other Yang's last assault had left a critical hole in her defence that Ruby could exploit.

Her situation was not helped by the peanut gallery, as Wash and Sarge argued over every tactical decision.

"I'm telling you now is the moment to strike!" Sarge yelled at Wash, who retorted with "Have you considered that this might be a trap?"

Ruby then made her decision, yang was getting too powerful, especially sense Weiss both didn't know how to play and had a peanut gallery of her own in Ren and Nora, while Blake seemed distracted ever sense they had interrupted her studying session.

"Yang Xiao Long" Ruby started dramatically. "Prepare your kingdom for battle!

"Bring it on!" Yang challenged as Sarge cheered and Wash groaned.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" She slapped her card down on the table. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" She Made noises like airplanes flying and bombing as she made a bird with her hands.

"You fiend!" Yang said dramatically as she pointed at Ruby.

Ducking down to table level Ruby continued "And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn." But as she peaked her head back up, Yang laughed arrogantly.

"Pretty sneaky sis." Yang said with a grin as she raised a card. "But you just activated my trap card!" Ruby's eye's widened, she knew she should have gotten Caboose to look at Yang's cards!

"Giant Nevermore!" Yang exclaimed as She slammed the card down on the table. "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

"But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!" Ruby pointed out with desperate hope.

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take."

They glared at each other, as the dice rolled, rolled into a solid eight. Yang gave a shout of triumph.

"Nooooo! My fearless soldiers!" Ruby mourned

"Eh, most of them were probably androids." Yang shrugged indifferently.

"Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged." Ruby promised, but her darkest hour was far from over.

"Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!"

"Bah!" She said defiantly.

"Oh, and what's this? The smugglers of wind path?" Yang rubbed the salt in her wound.

"Bah! Bah, I say!"

Yang laughed "I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

"Have you no heart?" Ruby begged her sister before collapsing on the chair.

"I always knew she was more of a blue than red." Sarge said solemnly, looking at Yang.

"You said the opposite last week." Wash reminded him.

Satisfied that her sister's forces were crush, she turned to the heiress. "Well, Weiss, it's your turn."

"I have... absolutely no idea what's going on." Weiss told them bluntly.

Yang moved up beside her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus." The blonde brawler explained

"That sounds dumb." Weiss said bluntly.

Yang being the cheater she was, looked through Weiss's cards. "See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh! Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—"

Would this nightmare ever end!?

"—And put it in your hand!"

"Okay." The heiress's eyes narrowed.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang explained before pointing a finger at Weiss. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war."

With that Yang returned to her seat.

"And that means..." Weiss trailed off, as Ruby did the math in her head.

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!" Ruby gasped. Why would Yang do this!?

Weiss stood and gave an evil laugh "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

"Trap card." Yang cut off the hammy and melodramatic speech.

"Huh?"

Yang shuffled the pieces on the board, causing Weiss' pieces to disappear in a puff of smoke. "Your armies have been destroyed."

Weiss slumped in her chair. "I hate this game of emotions we play." She whined

"This is far better than any TV show." Nora whispered not-so-quietly to Ren, who nodded in agreement. "Agreed."

Yang put her arms behind her head and leaned back. "Alright Blake, you're up!"

The faunus in question snapped to attention. "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?" Blake asked.

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!" Yang explained.

"Right." Was the only reply.

"Right." Blake repeated. "Well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later." With that Blake got up and just left the group without a further word.

"What was that about?" Yang asked Ruby, who could only shrug. Ruby didn't know either, but it worried her, so she was going to find out.

"I think I shall also fold." Weiss claimed, sensing an out.

"Alright, might as well pack it up." Yang said reluctantly.

And with that, Remnant The Game ended with no clear winner.

Only one frustrated ice queen and two sisters, concerned for their friend.

Notes:

And that's the end of that chapter.

This was a fun chapter to put together, and now we're getting right into the thick of volume 2.

If it didn't come across as clear in the chapter, Church is able to possess characters with an unlocked aura. Other than that there is nothing else to note.

As always, feel free to comment, leave a review or give some constructive criticism.

After the last chapter, a lot of people seem to believe that the Meta was the killer of the two soldiers. My response is this: No comment.

As always, thank you everyone for reading, and i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.