Warning: I haven't watched RWBY yet. Only read fanfictions and wiki. Reactions and dialogue of characters may sound off and I may get some info wrong.
The void finished its change. Cinder instantly recognized that they were in the Salem's Domain. Her mistress raised an eyebrow, wondering why they were here.
"This place is freaky," Ruby said. An understatement, but a shared one. Ozpin and Qrow's attentions were completely focused as they too shared Salem's inquiry. Suddenly, they heard a crash near them.
Jaune was flung back by an attack with the force of speeding truck. He was face down on the ground, bruised and wounds covering his body. He coughed out blood, some staining his chestplate.
"Jaune!" cried his team and RWBY.
"Buddy, you alright?" Sun yelped.
"Guys, I'm right here!" That had the students and some of the adults to look back and forth between the two blonde knights.
"Oh you're okay!" Pyrrha placed a hand on her heart.
"Whew, you had me scared there Fearless Leader," Nora sighed in relief. Ren did the same and calmed himself down. Jaune himself was shocked to see himself beat up, but got over it quickly.
"That must be an alternate Arc," Weiss deduced. "What's he doing to get himself hurt, especially out here in this dangerous place?" She had no idea where they were again, but this also reeked of bad news.
There was a crash near him. He looked over to Cinder who was in the same condition as him, if not worse.
"What!" Cinder saw herself looking absolutely terrible. Clearly this alternate her was in a fight, but there shouldn't be anything in Salem's Domain that could injure her so severely.
The two were breathing hard, struggling to get up. "Is that all?" They glared at Salem, who had hundreds of tendrils coming out of her body. Each individual tendril had the shape of a different Grimm. "I thought you would put up more of challenge than that." Salem's voice was reeking of mockery and genuine disappointment.
"What is that!?" the Beacon students screamed in horror. Winter and Penny were not as loud, but too looked disturbed by the sight. They all looked warily at their Salem. Was she really capable of this? If so, they now understood why the rest treated her as a threat.
"So you two are opposing me?" Salem said to her minion.
"I would never, Mistress!" Cinder fearfully assured.
"Good. You'd best not give that notion any thought." Cinder bowed her head. Turning her attention back, Salem heard the tone in her alternate's voice. Was she expecting- no, actually hoping- that they would bring a better challenge? Her alternate wanted an exciting fight? Salem just decided to keep watching to get answers.
"Gods," Ozpin breathed out. He knew Salem was a monster, but this? This was a whole new level. The rest of his group and Raven thought the same. Ironwood was already making plans to combat this. It didn't escape his notice that Salem and Cinder shared a short conversation. At least it confirmed his earlier suspicions about Ms. Fall.
Ruby also saw Salem and Cinder's interaction. She wanted to deny it, but it was clear. She thought she was nice when they met, and to hear that she was working for this now revealed evil woman? She felt betrayed. Cinder was evil. Ruby had to stop her. Whenever Remnant was fixed anyway.
Salem's words got Jaune and Cinder's visibly boiling. Their anger overrode their pain and they got up. Jaune's white aura shone bright and it took shape. Jaune's body was completely covered in aura armor and his head in an aura helmet. He coated Crocea Mors with aura, his white aura protecting the sword and shield.
The winds around Cinder raged and the ground beneath her shook, rocks even floating up into the air, before it froze over. A bolt of lightning shot from the sky and struck her, and Cinder's body erupted into flames. It quickly died down. Cinder's hair was was on fire, though it did no harm. Electricity sparked around her body. Her left arm was coated in an icy blue aura and her right arm had rings of stone gravitating around it.
The little red reaper's thoughts instantly changed to focus on another. "That's so cool Jaune!" Ruby was already in front her first friend. "You look just like a knight, but in aura!" He bashfully chuckled at the praise.
"That's our Fearless Leader!" Nora cheered. Ren stared at his leader's parallel self. He thought his own aura control was decent, but this Jaune blew his skill out of the water. Could he too reach that kind of level?
"Good work Jaune! I'm proud of you!" Pyrrha happily congratulated.
"You guys do know I can't do that myself right?" Jaune said, but it came out soft because his face was flushed red with embarrassment.
"No way!" Weiss was stunned. "Such a level of aura control is unreal, impossible! How could Arc accomplish such a feat!?" Her sister, sans the hidden insult to Jaune, had the same thought process.
"That looks tough," Yang complimented, Blake agreeing.
"Taking the knight in shining armor too literally," Roman jested, but also impressed. Neo looked at both Jaunes in interest.
Their minds also reaffirmed why Cinder was the boss. That form of hers just screamed absolute power, even if she looked like shit before. Adam knew Cinder was strong, but this power her alternate possessed... Had she too attained such strength? He needed to find a way to counter it.
Qrow nudged Ozpin. "Hey Oz, that's-"
"The Maiden powers," Ozpin whispered, recognizing it when he looked upon alternate Cinder. What season was she? He looked at the Cinder of his universe. What did it mean for her? Was it just a change for an alternate reality, or was this Cinder the same in some way?
The False Maiden looked on in wonder at her parallel self. Did she gain all of the Fall Maiden's powers? Even with it, she doubted it alone could generate this much power. That means she must have gotten the other Maidens' powers too! Even as she smirked, she still had to remind herself that her alternate was using all of her powers to combat Salem. What was going through her alternate's head?
Raven figured out that this Cinder woman had gotten more than one of the Maiden's power. Did Cinder end up taking the Spring Maiden's power away from her? If that was the case, she had some serious training to do. She won't allow herself to lose unlike her own alternate apparently did.
Jaune and Cinder roared and launched themselves at Salem. The Queen of Grimm merely sighed. "This again?" A giant icicle spear formed above her. Without moving, Salem willed the tendrils at the ice. It shattered completely, but in center of the ice remains was Jaune. He swung his sword at and used his shield to block the tendrils coming at him as he fell closer to Salem. He landed in front of her and made to slash at her, but not before a blur of lightning got behind Salem. Fire mixed with stone, Cinder threw her volcanic fist at Salem's back. Their attacks were easily stopped, tendrils wrapping around Crocea Mors' and Cinder's arm. The Maiden didn't falter though. Using her other arm she mixed the ice with fire. She blasted the tendrils with water and, wasting no time, her electricity surged, shocking the black arms. The Grimm heads cried out in pain. Salem winced, more in annoyance than anything else.
This Cinder was strong. Ruby hoped their own wasn't. She didn't think she could take that on. She was at least comforted by the fact that alternate Cinder was betraying her Mistress.
"What kind of Semblance or Dust is that?" Sun questioned as he and the others watched in shock and awe.
"Elemental creation and manipulation perhaps," Blake guessed.
"There's no Dust I'm aware of that is capable of this, let alone altering one's body to such a degree," Weiss offered.
Ozpin frowned harder he saw Salem didn't even look hurt while the Grimm woman herself looked pleased at her alternate's power. A shiver went down Cinder's spine when she saw herself perform a full-on assault on Salem. She was inwardly relieved when her Mistress just kept watching.
On the other side, Jaune made to bash Salem with his shield, but was blocked by a wall formed by the Grimm tendrils. Undeterred, he bashed again and again, pumping more aura into the shield, making noticeable dents in the barrier. They had enough though. The tendrils wrapped around Jaune's shield arm, cutting off movement. More were aiming to attack him. Thinking quickly, he turned the shield back into its sheath form.
Pyrrha grew alarmed. He was making good progress and now it looked like he was giving up. "What are you going to do Jaune?"
He shrugged, but trusted that his alternate had a plan.
Jaune forced his sword into the sheath, cutting the tendril trapped around it. With the sword inside, the sharpened edges of the shielth extended. Jaune sliced the tendril that wrapped his shield arm. Free, he gripped his now two-handed sword and swung at the tendrils coming for him. Upper right. His left side. Up slash. A spin attack to counter a tendril coming behind him. He jumped, evading one planning to grab his legs. It got pinned when Jaune landed to stab it into the ground.
"Your sword has another function!? Are you holding out on me Jaune?" Ruby pouted.
Jaune held his hands up. "Crocea Mors can't do that! Wait a minute. Oh man, I hope my parents don't kill other me for tampering with it."
"Tampering? It got an upgrade! It can become a two-handler. It looks stronger."
"I guess..." He had to admit, it did look stronger. The added designs to it looked slightly familiar though.
Pyrrha recognized the new parts of Jaune's weapon. She felt giddy and blushed when she thought of Jaune thinking of her when upgrading Crcocea Mors.
"Alright, you're doing awesome Jauney! Keep slicing and dicing!" Nora cheered.
"This Jaune Arc is certainly skilled," Winter noted. It was quite a contrast from the letters she got from Weiss about the boy.
"Hmph." Still standing still, Salem retaliated. From her body, hundreds of Nevermores were born and flew at Jaune and Cinder. Jaune had cut off the aura in his sword and focused purely on defense. His aura armor held, but started cracking at the sheer number of Grimm ramming themselves into him. Cinder created a solid wall of earth, but it kept breaking, forcing her to keep repairing it.
"Forget tough," Yang took back. "Jaune's aura is a freaking fortress." No way any Huntsman or Huntress could stand up to that many Grimm hurling themselves at them.
"That's not the issue Yang! That woman created hundreds of Grimm from her body!" Weiss shrieked. The students of Beacon were in a state of surprise once again. Grimm tendrils were on thing, but actually creating Grimm? As if they couldn't think of Salem being a bigger threat, her alternate went and did something like this.
"The boy won't last much longer," Ironwood pointed out. He couldn't care less for Cinder's well-being.
Jaune's armor and helmet shattered completely. He yelled in pain as the Nevermores attacked, either shooting themselves at him or their wings cutting at his skin. Salem created even more of the black birds and they carried Jaune into the air by flying at his body from below.
"Jaune!" RWBY, NPR and Sun screamed.
"Mr. Arc..." Goodwitch whispered, gripping her sleeve.
"Tough luck kid," Qrow said. He was worried too. He'd be worried for anyone fighting Salem.
"What's your next move, Mr. Arc?" Ozpin hoped it was a good one.
Screams reached Cinder's ears. "Jaune!" She took to the skies and flew after Jaune.
Was she worried? Was that concern in her alternate's voice? That couldn't be. She would never form such attachments. Then again, she wouldn't go against Salem either. What happened to her counterpart to get her to his point?
"And she can fly too? Does she have a second semblance?!" Sun exclaimed.
The ones unaware of the Maidens couldn't find anything to argue against that. The ones who were aware kept silent.
Cinder froze the Nevermore trail carefully electrocuted the ones around Jaune. Once they were all dead, She grabbed onto Jaune's free hand and held him in place in the air. "Can you still fight?" she tensely questioned.
"Do I have a choice?" Jaune weakly joked. Cinder smirked.
"Now is not the time for jokes. You're in battle Arc, against a opponent above your league. Really, anyone's league!" Weiss reprimanded.
He didn't want to upset Weiss even further. "I get it!"
"Hmph."
"They seem to be close," Pyrrha "observed." Nora and Ren deadpanned at the jealousy.
Cinder mentally vowed to kill Jaune Arc. It was a small interaction, but Nikos' statement was spot on. Better to get rid of the boy and not let a relationship of any kind be allowed to form in the first place.
Cinder's eye widened when she heard familiar roars. She raised her other arm, creating a massive fireball, easily five times her size. "Amp! Now!"
"Holy shit." Qrow's sentiment was shared by everyone in the room.
When Cinder and Salem heard the roars, their eyes widened and eyebrow raised respectively. Could that be?
A clear white light surrounded Jaune's arm. It spread to Cinder and coated her entire body. Cinder focused it all onto the fireball. Within seconds, it grew enormously, far greater than the size of a skyscraper.
Penny spoke up for the first time. "I indicate that Jaune Arc's "Amp" increased the fireball's power tenfold."
Everyone's jaw dropped. They looked to their Jaune, who looked doubly impressed as anyone else. Cinder said "Amp!" Jaune powered up her attack. If he could do that too, his worth and interest would grow. Jaune looked upon his alternate before looking at his own hands. Was that his Semblance? Was his the same as his other self?
Jaune and Cinder looked at the Grimm flying at them. Mouths open and ready to devour them were the Grimm Dragons.
Cinder and Salem's idea was confirmed. The sight of dozens of Grimm Dragons would please Cinder if it weren't for the fact that she had to fight them. Her giant fireball looked strong enough, so she wasn't as worried.
"No..." Goodwitch muttered. The sight of a Grimm Dragon had her on edge. Ozpin watched with narrowed eyes. The others were at a loss for words. This new Grimm was truly terrifying, and there were more than one of them.
Jaune scoffed at the Grimm Dragons. "Hungry?"
Cinder finished, "Then eat this!" The colossal fireball was thrown. Its size easily dwarfed the Grimm Dragons, and the first one in the assault was instantly turned to ash, more following as they tried to stop the ball.
The tension the others felt went away. The most intimidating creatures they ever saw were easily destroyed by other Jaune and other Cinder.
Cinder was perhaps too hasty in her thoughts of murdering Jaune Arc. He clearly made her attack significantly stronger, powerful enough to effortlessly destroy Grimm Dragons. If he could do that himself, then she wanted that power.
Salem glared at the sight. Her alternate better have a plan for this.
Salem looked on at the titanic fiery sphere rather nonchalantly. "Oh my. A simple, but powerful combination attack." She raised a hand. "I wonder, what will your counter to this be?" The Grimm Dragons paused, then turned into black ooze.
Good. That unworried mentality at such a powerful attack was all the reassurance she needed. Now, what was parallel Salem going to do by turning her own Grimm back into their primordial state?
The others had the same question in their heads.
All of the black ooze came together in one spot. Salem clenched her hand, and the black ooze merged together.
A wicked idea crossed Salem and Ozpin's minds. Just as others started to make a connection-
"I can't hear them anymore," Jaune told his ally. "What's going on over there?"
"I'm not-" Cinder gasped. With a powerful roar, the new singular Grimm Dragon, with its wings and body, stopped her attack, which was now smaller than the Grimm.
-it was too late. Many of them erupted into panic.
"They combined together!?"
"It's frickin huge!"
"Size increase by 1500%."
"Oh shit" is what Neo would've said.
If he had his cane, Ozpin was sure he would have broken it at this moment.
If she had any less self control, Salem would have laughed to her heart's content.
"Jaune, stop it now!"
Alternate Cinder's order had their bodies waiting in anticipation and minds racing furiously.
"Jaune..." were the concerns of his friends. No one could see how he would stop such a monster.
"On it!" Jaune let go of her hand. His landing created a small crater due to his aura protecting him from fall damage. He jumped out and ran at the Grimm Dragon. It was so large that its feet were actually touching the ground. "Perfect!" He leaped onto a foot, coated Crocea Mors in aura, and, with all of his might, stabbed his weapon right into the Grimm's leg. He only penetrated a few inches. "Oh c'mon!"
"Well that was anticlimatic," Torchwick deadpanned with Neo.
Growling, Jaune channeled his aura into his arms and pushed. The sword got deeper. "Cmon! C'mon! C'mon" With each chant, the sword kept piercing further into the Grimm's hide. He stopped when the blade was completely embedded inside the body with only the hilt visible. "Alright, see if you like this." He channeled aura into his sword once more. A second later, white light shone from the stab wound. The giant Grimm Dragon's foot changed from its pitch black to white. The white colored traveled up the leg. The bones on its body turned brown and looked rotten.
"What's Jaune's aura doing to it Renny?"
Ren took time to answer. "It looks like it's... being purified and rotting away simultaneously."
"Can aura do that?" His partner asked.
"It could just be special for Jaune." He was trained in aura combat, and he never had this happen to him before. Usually Grimm just exploded. On the other hand, not only had he never fought a Grimm Dragon before, but his aura control was not as advanced as other Jaune's was, so he couldn't make any clear conclusions.
As more of its body changed, the Grimm Dragon continued howling, but now in agony. It couldn't hold the fireball back any longer. The Grimm was being pushed back, leaving large trails in the ground.
"You did it Jaune!"
"Incredible!"
Ruby and Pyrrha's hugs were nice, but he was feeling a bit pained.
"Awesome! So amazingly awesome!" Too much pain! Let go Nora!
Ironwood cupped his chin. "That's one way to defeat this Grimm, though not a method that just anyone could employ."
"I'm sure there's other ways to defeat it General," Winter said.
"I hope you're right."
"Guess you don't like it," Jaune joked smugly. "Then, how about this?" He tore his sword out, channeled his aura to his feet, then jumped.
Jaune redirected his aura to his sword. As he reached the wing, he swung Crocea Mors up. He let out a loud battle cry as he traveled farther up until he finally reached and landed on the Grimm Dragon's head. He looked at his handiwork and cheered with fist pump and an "Alright!" when the wing fell off with a clean slice.
Qrow whistled and Goodwitch had her mouth open. Ozpin allowed himself a grin at the feat. "Impressive."
"Man Jaune, what kind of training did you do?" Sun asked.
"I'd like to know too," Jaune answered. The rest of his team and RWBY shouldn't be surprised anymore. This Jaune seemed to be doing one impossible thing after another, it was to be expected that he could pull this off. Yet, they continued to be wowed.
Pyrrha didn't think she could be more proud. She hoped her training sessions with Jaune could make him just as strong as his parallel one day.
"Quite impressive indeed." Jaune swiftly turned around to see Salem standing beside him.
The sudden appearance spooked some of the watchers.
"Eek!"
"What the- Sis, get off!" Blake stepped back as her partner pulled Ruby off of her.
Salem pointed at the giant fireball and created her own sphere darkness. She smiled at Jaune and said, "Be a dear and help Cinder." But he was already gone before she could finish. "Rude." She shot her attack.
Tendrils, instant Grimm creation, Grimm merging, high speeds, spheres of energy. Ozpin hoped that was all this Salem was capable of, but knew she had much more up her sleeve.
A tiny part of Salem agreed with the rudeness of Arc, though she questioned why she wanted the boy to rescue Cinder and meant it. For a better challenge? The two seemed outclassed anyway, but their chances of winning were only highly unlikely together as opposed to downright impossible alone.
Jaune jumped over the fireball, reaching a hand out. "Cinder!" She understood and flew at him. She grabbed his arm and he pulled her close, already coating both of them in his aura. That's when Cinder's attack detonated.
Literally all of the watchers covered themselves when the explosion went off. They felt dumb when they realized none of them were vaporized, and again when the fiery light started hurting their eyes. A certain android remain unaffected.
The light finally went away. When they re-opened them, they noticed two things. One, they were quite a distance away from where they were previously, and two, the sight of a deep and massive crater.
Qrow almost dropped his flask. "Holy..."
Penny calculated, "From this distance, I believe the crater to be more than 200 meters deep and 500 meters wide."
Even the most hardened members of the reactors felt a tinge of fear enter their bodies. Such destruction was almost unbelievable. But they saw it. It could be possible.
Cinder looked at her hands. While a small part of her was disturbed, she felt mostly elated.
Salem was a bit concerned for her other, but she looked confident about her survival when she launched her attack. That calmed her down slightly.
Groans entered everyone's ears. They turned around to see alternate Jaune on top of alternate Cinder.
Jaune got off of Cinder and the two got up to their feet. They both sported minor burns. Some parts of their clothes were burnt away as well.
Despite the tense situation, the Beacon girls, sans Ruby and Nora, couldn't help but blush when they saw other Jaune's revealed impressive abs.
Pyrrha had to smack herself repeatedly.
Blake turned her head away, but was clearly taking glances.
Yang whistled. "Someone's been working out, and it shows. Hot bod there Jaune." She wrapped her arms around Weiss and Blake. "Don't you agree girls?"
Blake stayed silent, and Weiss quickly denied with a red face. "D-Don't project onto me! That chest is in no way, NO WAY a pleasing sight!"
Nora admired while thinking jealously, 'Can't let Fearless Leader outdo me! I'm the powerhouse of JNPR!'
Ruby was in awe. 'That explosion was huge, and Jaune is barely hurt. He's so strong! Cool!'
"Nice one buddy," Sun smacked at Jaune's (clothed) stomach. "Almost as good as mine."
Jaune sighed at his other's loss. "There goes my hoodie."
Neo stared hard between parallel Jaune and Roman. She approved of the blonde, and she was aware that Roman, whether he wanted to or not, took a peak at alternate Cinder, who's clothes burnt away to conveniently reveal side boobs.
"Knock it off Neo."
Cinder briefly lamented the loss of her favorite dress.
"They're moving," Raven pointed out as she walked along the alternates. The group followed after, making their way to the crater.
The two looked down at the crater that was created.
"What's your status?" Cinder asked.
"About 60%," Jaune answered. "You?"
"Roughly the same."
They figured other Jaune and other Cinder were aura/stamina monsters, but after everything they saw, they were dumbfounded that their reserves were just above halfway finished.
Jaune did have a lot of aura, Pyrrha remembered. Still, this was a bit surprising. His aura reserves clearly skyrocketed to an absurd amount.
"Jaune! Cinder!" The two turned around to see Ren running up to him, Neo by his side.
"Hey look Renny, there you are!"
"Huh. Didn't expect to see you Neo."
The two were also surprised to see their alternate selves. Ren felt his hair, wondering if he should get a ponytail like his other self.
Neo felt a glare. She turned to the orange haired girl. What was up with her?
Nora didn't see any another version of her with parallel Ren. Instead, this Neo girl was with him. Nora had to keep an eye on her. Don't want her getting any funny ideas.
"Ren!" Jaune smiled in relief at seeing them. "Neo! Where's everyone else?" Neo responded by pointing up and behind her. Jaune looked up in time to see two birds turn into people.
"Hope we're not too late?" Qrow said when he landed. Standing next to him was Raven, who was watching the crater.
"Uncle Qrow, you can turn into a bird!?" Ruby sped to her uncle.
Qrow patted her head. "Yeah, I'll tell you about it later."
If he can, then so can she, Yang thought as she looked to Raven. After their eventual talk, she was going to throw in at least one bird joke.
"I'm assuming Salem is still alive," Raven stated while gesturing at the crater.
"Of course," Cinder answered. "That much isn't enough to kill her."
Once again, Ozpin and his group found themselves scowling. Salem's power was even greater than they thought.
Salem smirked. She knew what was going through her arch nemesis' mind. His aggravation was so amusing.
"Hey!" The group turned to the voice. "I can't turn into birds like you two!" Yang pointed at her uncle and mother.
"And here's my debut," Yang announced while checking out her other self. Damn, she was looking good.
"Yang, what happened your arm!?" Ruby shouted in horror.
Yang's blood ran cold, as did her friends. Other Yang's right arm was metal. A metal prosthetic.
Ironwood unconsciously rubbed at his own right arm, Winter taking glances at her general. Qrow whispered, "Oh gods." Raven's eyes widened in surprise at the sight.
Yang clutched at her limb, to feel that it was there. What happened to her other self? She suddenly felt scared. Would it happen to her too?
Hands on her shoulders and in her hand. She turned to see Ruby, Weiss, and Blake comforting her. "It's alright Yang," Blake said.
"We won't allow that to happen to you," Weiss told her. Ruby was silent, but held her sister's hand tighter.
Yang smiled gratefully. "Thanks girls."
The mother watched on, her eyes looking between both versions of her daughter. "Yang..."
Qrow waved it off. "Sorry, can't exactly carry you as a bird."
"Lose a few pounds and we'll talk," Raven blandly said. In response, Yang took her arm off with a smirk "Put that on. We're still fighting."
She reattached it. "I'm catching up. Yang: 9. Mom: 13."
Whatever Yang was feeling before, it was instantly replaced with annoyance. "I'm losing a battle of wits?! And to my own mother?!" She turned her indignation to Raven, who couldn't really bring herself to care about the contest the parallels had. Yang was so going to beat her score. Luckily, she knew more than one bird pun. The rest of her team sweatdropped at Yang's reaction.
Unlike Raven, Qrow noticed how Yang called Raven "Mom." She said it so casually, even having a hint of affection under her tone. And Raven's small joke before that. Did she and other Yang have a better relationship than currently, which was barely a relationship? What about his other self? Were they on better terms? They look to be fighting alongside one another, but that didn't hint much.
"As much fun as this is," Weiss arrived with Adam by her side. "Where's Salem?"
Adam's anger went from zero to a hundred almost instantly. "What. Am. I. Doing?" Why was he there with a Schnee dammit! Had his other forgotten his objectives? Where was his drive to kill the Schnees?!
Blake's heart almost stopped when she saw Adam and Weiss. A thought crossed her mind. It sounded unbelievable, but there didn't seem to be any other explanation. Other Ren and other Neo seemed to be working together. Yang was with her mother and her uncle. Could other Adam and other Weiss be partners as well?
Weiss was thinking the same, and she didn't like it. Blake was an Ex-White Fang member, and Weiss gotten over it. Adam, on the other hand, was currently a member, and didn't seem to have any desire to leave. His hatred of her and her family was clear as day as well. Weiss didn't want to associate with this Adam, and the bull faunus wanted her dead. Why was her alternate self teaming up with that terrorist?
"Right there." At Cinder's words and finger point, they looked down at the crater to see Salem waiting patiently.
"The amusing banter is over then I take it," Salem said before jumping out and landing beside them. All of them got into fighting stances, weapons drawn. "Everyone is here now. How did you all like my Grimm army?"
"A good warm-up," Weiss sneered. "Now let's get onto the main event."
"Eager aren't you?" Salem raised a hand. "I think you all are still not ready. How about round two?" In an instant, a thousand Grimm were born behind her.
So fast, was the first thought going through more than a few of the group. Second was the variety of Grimm there. Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Ursas, Deathstalkers, King Taijitus, more Dragons, some they didn't even recognize. It was a sea of Grimm.
Nora hid slightly behind a glaring Ren when their eyes landed on a Nuckelavee.
Instant MASS Grimm creation, Ozpin mentally tweaked. He was clenching his hand so hard, he was sure his mug would have shattered of he had it. He muttered softly, "Salem, how strong have you become?"
"C-Can they really fight that many?" Ruby fearfully questioned.
"They got this Sis," Yang instantly said. "I mean, we dealt with something like this during the Breach." Yet, she herself was unsure.
"And everyone here is stronger," Weiss slowly added. "I'm... sure our other selves will be fine."
While the others were worried, Cinder was not. She remembered her training. Alternate Cinder was much stronger than herself. Her other self had allies, even if she had no idea exactly how reliable they were, except for Neo possibly. Against that many Grimm, her chances were good.
"Really? We just went like fifty rounds like twenty minutes ago!" Yang yelled with red eyes.
"Round fifty or five hundred, it doesn't matter. We have no choice now." Qrow stated.
"If you need me, come find me. I'm sure you all can handle this." Salem jumped away and disappeared into the Grimm horde.
She's/I'm toying with them, Ozpin and Salem thought. The Grimm woman couldn't get a read on her counterpart. She was so unlike herself. Parallel Salem appeared to be more playful and teasing. It looked like she could have easily destroyed her opponents, but instead decided to leave it to her creations, and apparently had confidence in them to destroy all of them. Earlier, she pushed other Cinder and other Jaune Arc to fight harder, fight better, encouraging them to be stronger than herself. What was going through her other's mind?
"Kill any Grimm in your way if necessary, but don't waste time on them," Jaune commanded. "Focus on finding Salem." They all gave an affirmative at his orders.
"Alright, you're the Fearless Leader here too!" Nora exclaimed. She shouldn't have expected anything less. Ren smiled. It seemed, no matter the team, Jaune would be his leader.
Weiss and Yang looked over to the other leader they knew. They were following him? Yang was fine with that. After those displays of power earlier, she couldn't complain about leadership. Weiss was reluctant to accept it. Other Jaune was powerful, she couldn't deny. However, this was the less than inadequate boy who annoyingly pursued her since day one. The idea of him leading her was hard to accept.
Raven and Qrow were the veteran Huntsmen, and yet they were following that kid. His skill and power were without question, but that wasn't enough. Other Jaune must have impressed them somehow to defer leadership to him.
Adam was less than pleased. First, his other self was with a Schnee, and now he was following a human! He wanted to go to his other self and beat some sense into him already!
Cinder too didn't like the fact that she wasn't the leader. What made Jaune Arc more capable than her?
Ren and Neo looked at one another and nodded. Neo ran off and Ren followed.
That's a lot of trust, Ren and Neo realized. Only Nora and Roman could interpret their partners' silently communication like that. To have another means their alternates must have a strong bond.
"Can I play the overprotective Dad?" Roman joked to Neo, who rolled her eyes. Speaking of, she felt the glares from that orange-haired girl again. She looked ready to pounce, if she weren't held back by Jaune Arc, Nikos, and Ren. She sent a teasing smirk to Nora's way.
JPR need RWBY and Sun to keep the infuriated Nora from breaking Neo's legs.
"RYQ," Raven uttered.
"Got it," both Qrow and Yang responded. Raven and Yang took off together, Qrow behind them.
"So that's our group," Qrow said after a drink. The Branwen family as one team. He never could have imagined.
Raven watched them leave, curious.
"Stay close Weiss."
"A first-name basis?!" Adam snarled. To hell with beating sense into his other. If they ever met, Adam would straight up kill him without hesitation.
Winter wondered how her sister ever got close to such an violent man.
"I know." The Schnee and faunus ran to battle together.
Blake was dumbfounded, but also felt good. As a faunus, she never thought she'd end up working with a Schnee herself, yet glad that she did. Seeing another like her, her vengeful mentor no less, reinforced her hope that the bitter hatred between humans and faunus could be ended.
Jaune went for his sheathed sword before shaking his head and reached behind his back. "I'm around 65% now."
"70%" Cinder responded. She barely took notice when Jaune held Crescent Rose in his hands.
"Ready?"
Cinder formed her own scythe made of glass. "Ready."
"Jaune, explain why you have Crescent Rose!"
"I-I-I have no idea! Ask my other!"
"I can't do that! You better not get a scratch on her!" Ruby turned her attention to Cinder, who was wondering why she made a scythe. "And you stop copying my style!"
"Did you forget who taught you?" Qrow interjected.
"Now glass manipulation?" Sun pouted. "How many semblances does she have?"
Pyrrha said, "I'm starting to think those aren't semblances."
Suddenly, the world around them changed back to the white void. They heard F's voice saying, "Pre-recorded message: You have finished viewing this world. The next world shall start in one minute. End message."
Some of them whined, wanting to see more. Others were glad it was over since they were quite done with what they saw. As they all thought on what they saw, they got a ton of questions and no answers.
Ruby, Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, and Torchwick wondered where they were. They figured they would be with their partners, but they were absent for some reason.
Jaune wanted to know how he got so strong and so confident. That wasn't the kind of power one could get just through simple training, could it?
Weiss, Yang, Raven, and Qrow questioned how their others ended up where they did. A unlikely partnership and a stronger bond between mother and daughter as well as brother and sister.
Winter worried for her sister's alternate. Or rather, she was worried why there wasn't an alternate Winter there with alternate Weiss. She was sure she would've been her sister to protect her. Instead, she was relying on a White Fang leader. Said faunus was too furious and disgusted with his other to care about anything else about the, admittedly interesting, parallel world.
Ironwood had doubts that any creations of Atlas could effectively combat other Salem. He wasn't one to give up though. The fate of Remnant, whenever it came back, was on the line. The best solution he had was to destroy Salem and her forces immediately. Don't let them get the chance to get any more powerful. In case that didn't work, he couldn't think of any contingency plans.
Penny stored away all of the information gathered in that world. Perhaps her findings would prove useful. She also mentally noted to give a proper greeting to Ruby and her friends later.
Cinder and Salem still questioned their others' actions. They were curious of their pasts and what motivated them.
It seemed the main question going through their heads was what happened in that world's history that lead to that final battle with Salem.
As they waited, Goodwitch walked up to her boss. "Are you alright?"
"...No Glynda," Ozpin answered honestly. He didn't even see himself in that battle with Salem. What did that mean? He dreaded the implications. He hated that his battle was being fought for him. It was being fought by Qrow, a single member of his group, Raven, who abandoned him long ago, three of his students and their enemies.
"We'll stop Salem. We'll stop her before she ever gets to that point."
"I sincerely hope you're right."
As the world changed around them again, everyone braced themselves for what they were going to see now.
I believe I pointed out in chapter 1 that taking other sources of material, like other animes, and replacing the characters with RWBY ones and making the characters react to that was cheap.
Those kinds of reactions are ones that won't be done in this story.
If I wanted RWBY to react to, for example, My Hero Academia, I'll make them react to that, without replacing Izuku Midoriya with Ruby or Jaune.
I'm going to try to have the cast react to original stuff that I come up with. With that said, I'm not opposed to basic ideas being suggested. For example: have them react to a world where weapons can turn into people or have them react to a world where people can only die of old age.
If those examples sounded too specific, then yes, I do plan on having them react to those in the future.
About the cast. RWBY, JNPR, Sun, Qrow, Raven, Winter, Penny, Ironwood, Goodwitch, Ozpin, Salem, Cinder, Torchwick, Neo, Adam.
This is it. No one else will be added. Why?
I decided that too many people would be way too much work, but I didn't want the cast to be too small either. So, out of all of the "important" characters shown in RWBY, I eliminated CVFY, CRDL, SSN, Ilia, Sienna Khan, Emerald, Mercury, and a bunch of others.
I can already see arguments about Penny and Torchwick's importance. I'll agree that they aren't really in the grand scheme of things, but they're fan favorites I found out. Probably wouldn't feel right to exclude them.
Finally, I'd like to remind you all that I haven't seen any of RWBY yet, so if the characters, dialogue, and reactions are off, that would be the reason.
Well, that's all. See you next time. Later.