Chapter 3
Genesis
Monty Memorial Hospital - 0630 Hours
A violent klaxon startled the temporary inhabitants of the hospital's reception.
Groggy groans of discontent sounded from every member, expressing their complaints about the hospital furniture. Even Weiss, who managed to take up an entire arm of the couch and part of Ruby's lap, managed to complain.
"Note to self, don't fall asleep on crappy furniture." Qrow stretched his back, jarring cracks emanating from the compressed joints. A few more shoulder rotations worked out the remainder.
Weiss pried open her eyes to face a sheet of crimson. The comfortable material of Ruby's cloak had wrapped her in a bundle of warmth. It took several moments for her hands to find an opening in the material and release her person from it. Weiss blushed at Ruby's amusement when she managed to free herself.
While Ruby looked none the worse for wear after their sleep, Weiss' hair decided it wouldn't cooperate this morning, frazzled strands refusing to stay tucked into her bun. She pawed fruitlessly at them, attempting to order the chaos.
Ren and Nora chuckled at their morning entertainment, further causing the heiress embarrassment. Their short hair proved no trouble in the mornings.
On the other side of the room, Glynda hadn't woken up. A line of drool dripped out of her mouth as she snoozed through the wake up call. James rubbed his hand over his face, scratching at the faint emergence of his beard.
"Morning." A new head nurse greeted them as she thumbed the off button on her scroll, ceasing the annoying alarm. "I hope you all slept well."
While the youngsters didn't have too many snide remarks to the nurse, due to their more malleable bodies, James and Qrow looked ready to rip her a new one.
"Would you mind waking Glynda, James?" She fiddled with a pen, spinning it between fingers as she read off a post-it note the Headmaster had scribbled instructions on. "Ozpin said you have much to do today and so little time to do it in."
"Why can't he tell me that himself." Qrow scanned the reception area, not finding the Headmaster anywhere. To the side, James prodded Glynda, afraid of the ticking bomb waiting underneath. "Where'd he go?"
"He left when I took over for Xanna, so around 0300. He said he had things to do and took a ship back to Beacon."
"Fucking bastard." Qrow developed a twitch. A sharp crack resounded off James' face as Glynda subconsciously snapped her riding crop in her morning haze. "Come on midgets, let's check up on your friends and then chase down the Headmaster."
The students scrambled after the crow through their lethargy, passing the General with a red mark on his cheek. In the wee hours of daybreak, the hospital grew in life; many more people roamed the halls.
Qrow cut a swathe around the many orderly until he reached the emergency room's desk.
" , how are my three charges?" He managed to grab the attention of the head of ER, who looked at him quizzically.
"Any particular reason you're here and not Ozpin?" She finished lining up a stack of papers against the table. "You know you're not allowing to be here after the last time?"
"Didn't get the memo." He smiled disarmingly. "He left sometime during the night leaving them in my care."
"Right, like I'm suppose to believe he left you in charge of children." He grinned weakly, caught in the act. She shoved the stack of papers at him. "Doesn't matter to me. You know the drill. They're all in room 0016."
"Thank you dear Allison." He took the stack of papers. She knew him too well. He turned back to the corridor they had left, the students dutifully following. "I'll try to not break the ordinance too often."
" , you didn't even ask if they were ready to be discharged." Weiss interrupted their silent walk. "How do you know they're ready?"
"I don't." He opened the sliding door, brushing aside the vertical shades which provided a smidgen of privacy to its occupants through the glass walls. "But they're huntresses. They heal fast."
The room's residents perked up at the sound of the door sliding open. Yang was stabbing her breakfast, mutilating the poor eggs and sausage. Blake was reading a book whose cover she hid behind the bed sheets. Pyrrha had her eyes closed in meditation.
"Yang!" Ruby rocketed up onto the bed. Yang barely managed to push her breakfast table away before her little sister slammed into her midsection. Ren and Nora moved to Pyrrha's side while Weiss sat on Blake's bed. "How you feeling?"
"Well, eating is a bit hard." She waved the stump of her right arm animatedly. "You know, because of a lack of a certain appendage."
"Qrow says we can get you a new one. General Ironwood had his entire right arm, leg and chest replaced with cybernetic parts." She grabbed Yang's stump and began to check it over. "I'll even help you design it."
"You're entirely too energetic about playing with my replacement arm Rubes." She managed to pull her arm free from Ruby's inspection. "We're painting it gold though."
"He said we could do that too." Yang chuckled at the thoughtfulness of her uncle.
"We'll also have to create another gauntlet." The gauntlet she had on her person when she'd been admitted had been removed and placed on her bedside.
"Sorry." Team RWBY's other bedridden member spoke, closing her book and hiding it under her pillow. "I was more concerned with escaping my homicidal former mentor."
"The person who did this to you two was your mentor?" Weiss twisted and lifted her hanging legs, crossing them on Blake's bed to face her. "I'm assuming he comes from your time in the White Fang."
Team JNPR's turned to Team RWBY in shock. Qrow watched the fallout, waiting to step in if needed.
"You were once a member of the White Fang?" Nora asked for her entire team.
"Once." She sighed as her past was dredged up, but smiled genially at them. "Not anymore. There was a time when I believed in their cause, and I still do, but when they turned to violence I left and found myself at Beacon."
"You knew this?" Pyrrha asked the Headmaster's right hand.
"Of course." He leaned against the glass wall, sword at his side. "I watched as Ozpin interviewed her."
"Will you judge me on my past?" Blake may not have shown it on her face, but she didn't want to lose the few friends she had at Beacon. "I'll understand if you do."
"You're an idiot Blake." Pyrrha chastised the Faunus. "If Team RWBY can accept you then so can we."
"Thank you." Blake swiped a tear from her eye, happy she found another group who'd accept her.
"Does anyone know where Jaune is?" Pyrrha noticed the lack of her team leader, but held her tongue until Team RWBY had had their reunion.
"He's recovering at Beacon. We couldn't take him with us and we didn't have the time to find him. You had an injury Ren couldn't treat on the field, unlike Yang's and Blake's." Pyrrha made to protest but a raised hand stopped her. "Don't worry. Apparently Ozpin assigned a team to Beacon and they found him."
"Ren treated us?" Yang and Blake looked over to the quietest member of Team JNPR, who they noticed wasn't wearing his usual tailcoat and instead had a green scrub covering his torso. "Thank you."
Ren nodded at their thanks, grateful his minimal training in the medicinal arts had saved his friends.
"You also own him a new shirt." They sent Qrow puzzled expressions. "He's wearing a new shirt so I assume he used it to patch you up."
"The colour matches the old one." Yang noted.
"Are you here to discharge us?" Blake broke the lull in the conversation.
"Since Ozpin decided to abscond back to Beacon, yes. You will continue your recoveries in Beacon." He handed the discharge papers to each patient, who looked over the legalese and signed their names on the dotted line. "Beacon was evacuated and cleared of enemy hostiles. The team Ozpin assigned also managed to retrieve your gauntlet Yang and offered to repair it."
"Oh yeah, you weren't there to see it Pyrrha, but there was this massive explosion and bombs going off and then older versions of Team RWBY popped out of nowhere." Nora used her arms and legs to gesture in the air, drawing out the mentioned explosions. "They downed a huge Grimm dragon and saved Pyrrha's life."
The following silence could be only be cut through by the razor edge of Crescent Rose.
"That's what Ozpin was hiding from me? A great big practical joke he managed to rope you all into?" He stared at Ruby exasperated.
"I didn't want to tell you. It was suppose to be a surprise." Ruby pouted cutely at him, saddened she couldn't see her Uncle's face when he saw the older team. "And it's not a joke. There really was a massive explosion and an older version of my team walked out of it. We saw it."
"Oh yeah, sure. I'll believe when I see it. Can you all walk? There's a bullhead waiting to take us back to Beacon." He said, unbelieving in the lie they were feeding him. He received hesitant nods in return. "Hmm. Your teammates will help you walk then. That's what they're there for."
Yang was the first to leap from her bed, more than relieved she no longer had to spend time on it.
Blake winched as she lifted herself to a seat and turned to dangle her legs over the bed's edge. Ruby and Weiss rushed to either of her sides as she lowered herself to the floor. She waved them away, leaning heavily on the bed. Taking a deep breath, she pushed off to a stand, throwing her team a weak smile.
Pyrrha eased down to the floor in a similar fashion, but as she placed her weight on her right leg, she collapsed. Nora and Ren threw her arms around their shoulders, helping her back to the bed.
"I'll go ask for a wheelchair." Qrow made for the door, placing his hand on the handle. "Ren, come with. Let the girls change out of their hospital gowns."
Yang and Blake moved over to their clothes, folded nicely and waiting for them on chairs by the doors. Nora grabbed Pyrrha's pile, bringing it to the redhead's side. The hospital had deemed it prudent to wash their clothes for them, bloodied as they were.
Due to the placement of the injuries on Yang and Blake, the attendings had left their clothing on their lower halves untouched.
Yang unfolded her jacket and inspected the sleeves, comparing the lengths. Next to the short sleeves, the cut sleeve looked nearly identical sans the cuffs. Her yellow crop top lay unblemished, its sleeves spared any tears.
She shimmied her hospital gown down her shoulders as her lone arm untied the strings, pooling it around her boots. She kicked the gown under the chair as she pulled her top over her head, struggling to fit it around her head and torso with only one hand. Taking her jacket, she slotted her stump into the sleeve before sliding her arm through the other sleeve.
"How do I look?" Sliding Ember Celica onto her wrist, she turned to a room full of blushing teenagers, who averted their faces when the unabashed Yang started stripping. "Oi, you prudes! I'm dressed."
"Do-o you have to be so open about undressing?" Weiss stammered through her blush, refusing to look at her teammate until it died down.
Yang stuck her tongue out and struck a coy pose, her hand trailing up her leg from her knee. She released a laugh as Weiss made eye contact from her peripheral and she flushed a deeper red.
While the foreplay between the two teammates ensued, Blake had turned towards the wall and gotten dressed. Her white undershirt fit snugly across her chest. She buttoned her vest across her waist, a diagonal tear on the fabric partially encircling the stitching on her abs. She turned back to her team, adjusting her vest, fingers gently probing the muscles around the forming scar tissue.
"Well?" She brushed off imaginary dust on her shorts as she presented herself, attaching Gambol Shroud to the electromagnetic plate under her blouse with a click.
Ruby and Yang gave her thumbs up while Weiss attempted to douse her flaming cheeks.
Pyrrha looked on in amusement as Nora tightened Pyrrha's breastplate, tying the leather strings and tucking them into themselves. Nora moved to fasten on her right cuisse and greave but Pyrrha waved her off, leaning forward to remove them from her left leg. She unlatched each and handed them to Nora.
"Nora, where's my skirt?" She frowned, unable to locate the garment among her possessions.
"The attendings had to cut it off to get to the arrow."
"Great. All I have is my briefs and my waist wrap." She banged her head against her inclined bed. "I can't leave."
A sudden knock on the glass partition startled the girls and the door slid open a fraction of a meter. A hand holding a pair of violet scrub pants poked through the blinds and tauntingly waved it at them. Ruby snatched it and brought it over to Pyrrha.
Pyrrha inspected the pants, playing with the material between her fingers. She tore each pant leg at the thigh, folding each detached sleeve and placing it by her side. Bending forward on her bed, she slipped her legs in one by one, avoiding placing any weight on her right hip.
"Alright, we're decent." Yang knocked on the door, letting Qrow and Ren know they could walk back in. Ren pushed a wheelchair through the door's threshold and rolled it to Pyrrha's side. She gently lowered down to the ground, balancing on her left leg and fell back onto the wheelchair, winching as her hip brushed the chair arm.
"Ruby, Weiss, I never managed to thank you for saving my life, so thank you." Pyrrha directed her gratitude as Ren wheeled her out to the hallway. Nora nearly dropped Pyrrha's armor, and Ren stopped pushing Pyrrha, both stunned at the piece of information.
"Well, Pyrrha it wasn't us, but if you don't believe us like Qrow then you're welcome." Ruby made to cover Weiss' mouth, preventing the already revealed surprise from being ruined but Weiss batted the hand away.
"You're welcome Pyrrha." Ruby sighed, hoping Pyrrha wouldn't believe Weiss. "Don't mention it."
Pyrrha, Blake, and Yang watched the two with suspicion, on edge about the two sides of the secret presented to them.
"You nearly died?" Nora choked back a sob, wiping a tear from her eye. Ren froze, hands white from gripping the wheelchair's handles.
"Sadly, it's an occupational hazard and one day, you may even have to deal with the loss of a teammate." Qrow leaned against the door frame, lecturing the first year students on one of the hardest possibilities a team could go through. "Thankfully, to Ozpin's secret friends, she is alive and well."
"We'll talk about it as a team when we get to Beacon and find Jaune." Pyrrha placated her teammates, resting her hand on Ren's and squeezing lightly. "Come on, let's go."
On her queue, the group filed out into the hallway, following the older Hunter to the elevator. Waiting for them by the doors stood Glynda and James
A quick press of the button opened the doors and they piled inside. Another press of a button and the elevator jerked upward, the same jaunty tune as before following their journey to the roof.
A bullhead, fueled and ready, sat on a landing pad with its side hatches slid open.
"Sorry about the bullhead. The transport ship was needed to assist the evac." Qrow said as he jumped up into the raised fuselage, grabbing a safety handle to pull himself into the ship. Ruby followed him, ready to assist Ren with Pyrrha. Ren lifted the wheelchair's handles onto his shoulders and Weiss guided it to Ruby.
With a sharp tug, the chair's wheels cleared the lip and Ruby locked the wheels.
"Thank you." Pyrrha played with her waist wrap, draped over her lap.
"You're welcome." The rest of her group boarded the plane, Yang slipping on her leap as her missing arm attempted to grasp onto a handle. Blake, thankfully, grabbed her other flailing arm and heaved, successfully dragging her onto the ship. They both fell against the aft wall, Yang on her back and Blake on her knees.
"That's going to be something I'm going to have to get used to." Yang panted, her hand rubbing the bandages concealing the sewn skin.
"Yeah…" Blake's face scrunched in pain having torn open a stitch hauling her partner in. She pressed on the bandages, alleviating the pressure. She leaned her head back, controlling her breathing. A smidgen of red bleed through the protective covering.
"You okay?" Yang took notice of Blake's intermittent releases of air. Her eyes fell upon Blake's abdomen, eyes widening at the results her clumsy actions caused. "You're hurt."
Blake pushed Yang's helping hand away, but it dodged around her hasty blockade and covered her hand, more for comfort than for practicality.
Blake weakly smiled, rotating her head along the wall to meet amethyst eyes. Her own eyes slowly closed as her aura worked to seal the reopened wound. Her head slid down until lightly colliding with Yang's shoulder.
She breathed in the scent of her teammate, the crisp smell of ash and ember invading her nostrils, as she shuffled into Yang's side. Her hand sought its mirror, landing on Yang's thigh before uniting in a tangle of fingers.
Ruby plopped down on Blake's other side with Weiss following her lead, both feeling left out from the other two team members. They collapsed against the wall, tangled in Ruby's red cloak. Ren and Nora took their place at Pyrrha's side and grabbed the overhead straps, bracing for takeoff.
A series of footfalls marked the boarding of Glynda and James. The last one on slammed the hatch shut, which sealed with a pneumatic hiss. The fuselage lights flickered on, bathing the occupants in fluorescence.
Within moments, the whine of the engines resonated against the eardrums of the passengers. The ship smoothly lifted from the pad, clearing the landing airspace of the hospital. Everyone jostled as the engines rotated forward, dropping in the air before the wings caught lift. Banking to the right, they angled a direct route to Beacon.
Before Daybreak; 0300 Hours
Chocolate eyes snapped open when his biological chronometer let him know his set alarm was going off. Coupled with the change in shifts between the two head nurses, his clock was still accurate.
He rotated the various joints in his body after his short sleep, sending soft crackles rippling through his muscles. He grabbed his cane and dragged himself to a standing, observing the quiet reception.
In varying states only ragdoll physics could explain, his underlings sprawled across the room's seating arrangements. They would feel it in the morning. He chuckled wryly at their misfortune.
He choked his grip on his cane, silencing the usual clack it would create when he used it to walk. He greeted the two head nurses as he gestured in the air for a writing utensil and a pad of paper.
The new head nurse, Angela, handed him a post-it and pen. He wrote down brief instructions for her and pointed at the group behind him. Angela nodded at his orders, peeling off the post-it and tacking it to the computer screen.
He bade farewell to both of them and made his way to the elevator, the doors gliding open on precision milled bearings the instance his finger came in contact with the button. The harrowing tune played in an endless cycle on his way to the rooftop landing platforms.
He breathed a deep sigh as he left behind the enclosed area of the elevator where the song echoed off the walls. In front of him sat a dozen bullheads, give or take. A couple belonged to the hospital but the rest of them belongs to his forces. He beelined towards the nearest one.
Once on the platform he slid open the door and stepped inside. Dim lights flickered on, detecting motion in the cabin. He strolled the short distance to the cockpit and opened the door, revealing the double seats reserved for the pilot and co-pilot. He sat down on one, rested his cane against the console and swiveled his seat to face the front.
Several lights instantly lit up, registering his presence. The primary flight display shone on the center console in bright green, denoting the altitude and airspeed. He slotted his scroll into a molded recess and the ship beeped warmly as it read his credentials.
The centre stick fought him for control before giving it to its master and allowed the ship to rotate its engine to vertical. Throttling forward once at a safe altitude, he banked towards his school, mentally preparing himself for the coming hours.
Six hours ago, he witnessed his theory of multiverses proven true. A team which shouldn't exist without displacing the current one punched into his universe.
Remnant's moon shone in its full form, illuminating the quiet countryside. Not a Grimm in sight. The ship's silhouette glided towards the academy, black against the midnight.
He raised an elegant eyebrow as he approached the school, barely able to make out the shape in the darkness. A single source of light twinkled in his tower, the rest of the buildings bathed in the moonlight.
Not a single shred of evidence existed to prove they were actively performing the duty he had bestowed on them.
Ozpin pressed his craft through the airspace above the landing platforms which brightly lit up upon detecting motion. The adjacent pads lit up in sequence, illuminating the objects resting on them.
Landing on the centre platform, he wasted no time in securing the ship before leaping down onto the pad. He slowly raked his gaze over the surrounding land, taking in the serene peace the invasion had robbed from this place.
The landing platforms to his left was piled high with the disassembled bodies of Knight and Paladin. The platforms to his right was crammed with bullheads, wings meshing with the engines of others. They all looked combat ready, their hulls barely scratched.
He stepped forward, his foot impacting on the metal flooring. A miniature glyph, barely the length of his boot pulsed briefly before disappearing. His scroll vibrated with an incoming message.
Welcome back Headmaster.
Team RWBY were more than thorough in their orders. Only one other part of the invasion was missing and he feared what the team had done with them.
The lone Hunter walked along the path, each footfall accompanied with a glyph, through the maintained lawn. A gentle wind rolled through the short grass, a faint scent of fire catching his attention. He recognized the metallic tang hiding in the fresh air but gave it no thought. It confirmed his suspicions.
In front of him loomed the tallest tower on the grounds; the CCTS tower. It parted the sunrise, casting him in shadow. Gouges along the tower marked the spots the Grimm Dragon perched and the missing stone lay strewn across the plaza.
The atrium looked remarkably untouched sans the rent open elevator doors. Ozpin moved towards an unmarked section of the wall, pulled out his scroll and held it over a hidden scanner. The scroll chimed and light up green as the section of wall receded and split along the middle, revealing an elevator.
Ozpin waltzed into the pristine elevator, unblemished from the assault. He thumbed the button for his office, scanning his scroll again.
As the elevator doors closed, the blasted elevator tune turned on, the very same the hospital used. Without missing a beat, he started humming along, bolstering his own mood in light of the events prior. He would never tire of the tune.
Ozpin stepped into his secured office, barely batting an eye at the presence of a team within. He zeroed in on his bar and prepared a batch of hot chocolate, needing it for the coming hours of interrogation.
The team leader, Ruby, stood facing away from him, gazing over the impressive panorama the office had over Vale. Blake sat at his desk, quickly typing in commands into the keyboard, her uncovered ears twitching at the his presence. Weiss partially leant and sat on the desk by Blake's side, quietly watching over the screen the Faunus worked on. Yang sprawled across a couch, positioned next to another containing the missing member of Team JNPR.
Ruby followed the Headmaster's form as he placed the finishing touches on his cocoa. She lifted a cookie to her mouth, breaking a pliable chunk and swallowing the chocolate chip piece.
He stirred his cocoa as he made his way to his desk, mirroring the position the heiress took. Lines of code rained upward as Blake inputted keystrokes faster than he could read them. She paid him no mind.
"What are you doing?" He needed to know. The computer housed the heart of the academy's database. "I'm trying to follow along but you're outpacing my reading speed."
"She's ransacking your system looking for the virus which allowed Cinder to take control over the Atlesian androids and ships." Weiss answered for her, gently swaying her legs. "She's also initiating a statewide wipe and reset along every relay station."
"I've noticed you haven't said a word to me since I met you." He sighed as Blake shifted her ears to lay flat against her hair. "You even let Miss Schnee speak for you which leads me to believe you have trouble speaking, or you can't."
Blake tilted her head to indicate the latter. Her fingers tapped another few keys before the system died, the holographic screen disappearing in a blink. She brushed her thumb over the reset button and the system lit up again.
"She's done." Weiss spoke as Blake stood from his seat, offering it to its rightful owner. "And call us all by our first names. Miss Schnee makes me feel old."
He sat at his desk and inputted his passcode, revealing a plain desktop.
"Thank you for your work." He pulled up a notepad on the screen, ready to jot down any relevant notes he'd need to remember later. "Time to explain yourself. I entrusted you with my school to test your mettle and you proved yourselves enough."
"We told you we're from the future." He nodded. Weiss rummaged among her pack and wrenched two SSDs from the depths and handed it over to him. "This drive contains every major event from the last four years of our timeline."
"It includes our history, profiles, the Hunter forces' profiles, our intelligence, enemy intelligence, rumors, base locations, data et cetera." Ruby rattled off the contents within as Ozpin plugged the drive into his computer. "It saves us the trouble of delivering a verbal or written report."
"I see you planned this out." The drives opened in his explorer, filled to the brim with compressed folders, each labeled meticulously. He opened the first file; a file containing the information about their forces.
The folder uncompressed into dozens of folders, each named after the four letter acronyms of the team they represented. Next to to each folder, columns denoted the team's clearance and rank.
He scrolled down the list until he found team RWBY and read off the three columns.
"Team RWBY, Clearance: High Command (0), Rank: S-SS." He sounded incredulous at the last column. He received blank stares in return.
"Two of my team's members are ranked SS while the other two are ranked S." Ruby blandly stated, almost amused in her tone. "Guess which ones?"
He didn't have to. He opened the sub folder and several folders spanned the window, one for each member, another titled Serenity, yet another for operations, and other miscellaneous.
"Yang Xiao-Long and Weiss Xiao-Long are both SS ranked, while Ruby Rose and Blake Rose are S ranked."
"Take the fun out of it, why don't you." Weiss ran a hand through her hair, tousling it messily.
"Didn't realize you were married." He pouted at the pairings.
"You sound disappointed." Yang noticed his exaggerated emotions.
"I just lost a lot of Lien." He opened a large spreadsheet on his desktop and swiveled it to the side to show the team. Each column denoted a ship and each row denoted a professor or Huntsman. Each Huntsman had monetary values placed in the column of their choice. "This is, or was, the betting pool for academy pairings."
At the top of the list, his own name had a thousand lien under BlakexYang and another thousand under JaunexPyrrha. Glynda had a five-hundred under RubyxJaune and five-hundred under BlakexYang.
"None of you look surprised." The team continued to scan the sheet, looking for their own names in the columns.
"Blake and I created our own version for our forces." Weiss ran a finger along the columns and stopped on the column with her and Yang's name. Underneath the column, only one row held a value.
"Qrow is going to be very, very happy." Ruby let out a resigned sigh. "Just what he needs. More money to feed his habits."
"Not really." Weiss chimed in. "Whatever happened in our world isn't guaranteed to happen in this world."
"Good time for an explanation, since the amalgamation of our Semblances didn't work properly." Ruby asked of her.
"Time travel has three main theories behind it, with several lesser theories branching from each one. The first one states all events in a timeline are fixed and cannot be changed, no matter what. This is called a fixed timeline. The second theory, the dynamic timeline, states altered events have a definite impact on the present, yet this theory is inherently problematic as it allows for the creation of paradoxes. The universe doesn't allow for the generation of them, so the second theory flies out the window."
She took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts.
"I'm a damn good physicist, even if I didn't attend university. With the second theory out, it only left the first and the third. The first theory is useless as it ruined the point of the time travel. So, I worked around it and went along with the third theory, knowing we'd come into a new universe instead of actually going back in time."
"You knew your glyph wouldn't work properly, yet you kept it from me?" Ruby narrowed her eye, yet her voice unwavered.
"The whole point of the technique was to fix events we had no control over. The first and second theories didn't allow so. I knew how much you wanted it to work they way it should have, having us return to our younger bodies in our own universe. Instead we punched into a new universe, still in our own bodies. I kept it from you because with this technique we could prevent another universe from falling rather than us dying in defense of our world. I'm sorry."
She hung her head low, unable to meet her leader's gaze. Ruby stepped over to her and raised her hand, ready to deliver punishment. Weiss flinched and shut her eyes, waiting for the slap to the back of her head. She snapped her eyes open when a hand gently pat her cheek. Ruby pulled her into a hug, resting her head on top of hers.
"Thank you." Her voice lowly rumbled. Weiss let a tear trail down her cheek. A short silence descended in the office as Ozpin continued to rummage through their file.
"Who is Serenity?" The team's folder's lay spread across his desktop. "Every other file seems to be in its proper folder, yet Serenity has her own leading me to believe she's a fifth member of a four man cell."
"She's our daughter." The team members who could articulate speech replied to him in sync. He simply raised an eyebrow.
"Adopted I assume unless one of you found a sperm donor and carried a child." He hovered his mouse over the folder, waiting for their permission. "Though none of you look older than twenty."
"Just open the file Ozpin. Anything on the drive is yours to peruse freely." Yang snapped at the impatient Headmaster. He did just so.
It opened to reveal nothing vaguely similar to a profile. One file was a blueprint while a folder was titled maintenance. He stretched the blueprint across his screen, marvelling at the design within.
"She's our daughter. We all had some part of building her." Yang couldn't tear her gaze from the display. "Sadly, we couldn't take her with us when we made the jump. So I request access to one of Beacon's hangers and two of the seized bullheads."
"Why two of them?" He opened several applications, one of which pertained to the hanger allotment. "I can give you hanger two for about two weeks. Hand me your scroll so I can give you the access code."
"We need two of them as one provides the frame and the other spare parts. You'll need to register the scroll in the system first." Every team member pulled out their respective scroll and placed it on his desk. "We tried to use them to communicate with each other and realized they didn't work."
"Which explains why you broke into my office. How'd you do it?"
"Your balcony isn't secure." Ruby blandly deadpanned, revealing the most glaring flaw in his design. "One of your windows was open."
He sweatdrop.
He grumbled discontentedly as he activated and registered each scroll, giving each the required clearance they required. He handed them back to each member who tucked them away in their respective spots.
"Alright, next question." He took a long draught from his mug before continuing, "How did you, Ruby, come to possess the title of High Command? No one knows the title even exists save for the few I keep around personally."
"Open the History folder from the drive."
"There's no way you girls planned to put a History folder…" His words faded into indistinguishable mumbles as he located the History folder. "I'll be damned."
"After Weiss designed the last ditch effort technique to have us jump in time, we deemed it prudent to store as much data from our time onto the drive." Ruby said, unmoving from her rigid stance. "Serenity already acted as a backup for all of our information. We simply took it with us."
"You've mentioned several times over your time jump technique for your last hope."
"The file doesn't exist yet as it happened less than twenty four hours ago. If you look over each folder pertaining to a major event in history, you'll find over a dozen smaller reports which Weiss and I broke down into one final report." She dragged her fingers along to scroll the list before pressing the event labelled 'Battle of Beacon'. "This is the first event we deemed important enough to catalogue and it just finished a few hours ago in this timeline."
Ozpin scanned the provided report, glazing over the dense and detailed writings of Weiss and skipped over to the casualties list.
"Around two hundred died?" He continued reading. "You lost the school and the CCTS?"
"Our greatest bastion was lost. We could have reclaimed it but we saw no point in it. We had neither the funds or materials to rebuild the tower." Ruby scrolled down for Ozpin, drawing his attention to the conclusion of the report. "We went underground and waged our war."
"And what of Vale's council?" While the council irritated him at best, they should've provided the funds necessary for the rebuilding of such a critical infrastructure.
"What council?" Summer remarked blandly. "You mean the council that completely ignored the advice of their special forces commander and blindly thrust Vale into a war with Atlas? That council?"
"They ignored every advice High Commander Qrow gave them, ignored his pleas to give General Ironwood a chance to explain, and ignored the special forces under their thumb." Ozpin continued to read the report, going back to the dense paragraphs and reading them over carefully.
"It's interesting. I'm declared MIA, Qrow steps up to take my place, James is vilified, and the Hunters fracture from the core military." He resisted the urge to petulantly bang his head on his desk. "After Qrow, I take it you took his place as the High Commander.
Ruby nodded an affirmative.
"The next four years was an extended guerilla war against the White Fang, the Grimm and Salem's faction." Ozpin perked up at the mention of her name. "In our final battle, the one not yet listed in our archive, we went in with over three thousand Hunters and came out with only four. Not four hundred, but four. The four standing in front of you."
Ozpin stilled. From what they were telling him, they have gone directly from a cataclysmic defense to a time jump, not given the time to rest or grieve for their comrades.
"Yang, upload Serenity's final transmissions from your scroll." Ruby interrupted Ozpin's continued barrage of questions with a raised hand. "Just read through everything. It'll answer most of the questions. We can deal with registering our team later. Point us to our quarters and we'll meet around noon today, after lunch."
"Fine. I've already given your scrolls access to the room next to the current Team RWBY." He waved them away, taking another drink of his cocoa. "Do get cleaned up and enjoy your rest. The smell of blood doesn't beget you. Dismissed."
How little he knew until he delved deeper into their archive.
Team RWBY grabbed their packs and slung them over their shoulders. The prospect of hot showers, comfortable beds and Beacon's delicious food hung in their minds.
"Headmaster, would you also be kind enough to write up two marriage licenses and certificates?" Ruby caught Ozpin's attention as her team filed into the elevator with their packs. "We didn't get a chance to do so in our own timeline. If you're wondering how Weiss got the last name of Ironwood, then just check the files."
He mutely nodded before bringing his attention back to the treasure trove of data the team had graciously gifted him.
As the elevator doors shut, a catchy jingle began to play from the ceiling's hidden speakers. Each member hummed or tapped along with the beat, waiting for the elevator to reach the ground level.
Idly shifting their packs, they trudged out of the car and meandered towards the tower's entrance, taking careful note of the damage around them; most was simply aesthetic.
The early morning provided minimal light, even with the moon reflecting light onto the surface of Remnant. Weiss still hadn't figured out how the moon's pieces perpetually hung in its orbit, and it ticked her off.
The silence draped on the school would have frayed the nerves any Hunter on the premises, simply unaccustomed to Beacon being empty rather than the boisterous academy it was during the day. Even at night, the sounds of nocturnal students and craft moving in the airspace provided a break from the absolute nothingness.
The team ignored it. They had seen their school fall and this was a living heaven compared to theirs.
Weiss generated a glyph at their feet, angled it forward and released the energy, sending the team flying through the air to land on the nearby rooftop. One after the other, they broke into runs, following their leader in a haphazard trail towards the dormitories.
The added danger of errant rubble strewn in their path provided light entertainment to them as they adjusted their courses minutely to avoid them. Throughout their route, none of them stopped observing their surrounding, mentally noting which parts of the school Ozpin would have to repair.
With a final impact of boots onto concrete, they arrived by the door leading to a descending staircase. Without pause, Ruby turned the handle and opened the door to complete darkness. She waved her hand in front of herself, waiting for the sensor to detect motion.
Blake drew her arm down, shaking her head at the amusement. She turned a flick a switch, its tiny form hidden from the moonlight streaming in through the open door.
Ruby's lip twitched, undecided between facepalming in shame for missing the switch or blushing in embarrassment for the same. Blake clicked her tongue, mimicking a laugh in her mute state.
Yang dutifully closed the door behind them, shutting out the outside world. Her heavy boots thudded against the wooden slats of the service stairs as she chased after her team, barely a second behind them.
The exceptionally wide hallways of Beacon were a welcome relief to the enclosed ones many of their bases held. Full windows allowed for ample sunlight and at night, moonlight to filter in. Another commodity many Hunters took for granted.
Memories shifted into place as their subconscious took their feet along a path they had memorized eons ago. They turned into a nondescript hallway; looking exactly as any other.
Yet this hallway held some of, if not most of the happiest memories the team shared together. The room on their right housed their sister team, Team JNPR, and the room directly opposite housed their team, or this universe's Team RWBY.
They marched forward, eyes glued to their old room as they passed in front of it, towards the room Ozpin had assigned to them.
Ruby scanned her scroll, confirming her identity. The latch unlocked with an audible shrill of metal in the silent corridor. Almost hesitantly, she strode into the room, the door running on oiled hinges.
Four beds, four desks, four chairs, and a wide bookshelf met their eyes. The room was stripped of all luxuries, leaving a bare minimum; the standard of every Beacon room before its resident team decorated it.
"Those beds are going to have to go." Weiss peeked over Ruby's shoulder. "Maybe we should get bigger beds too."
"Stop complaining." Yang scolded her wife, resting her elbow on her head. "Be happy we get these beds and not the usual cots."
Yang tossed her bag onto a bed, unzipped it and began to rummage about. she pulled out her night clothes, a towel and toiletries. The rest of the team got the idea. Weiss threw her bag next to Yang's and pulled out the same.
Ruby and Blake stalked over to the other bed, leaving the two remaining beds as a divider between the two couples. Rather than prepare for bed, Ruby and Blake started to rearrange the room.
Following Weiss' suggestion, Ruby pushed one bed off the wall, preparing it for transport to storage. She quickly absconded back to her bag and retrieved a multitool, placing it on her back. Blake copied her, attaching the tool to her own magnetic plate. The two stripped the bed of its sheets and pillows, throwing them to the side.
Once relieved of its decorations, the two hoisted the mattress from the frame over their shoulders. They awkwardly shuffled the weigh between themselves to fit it through the door. The dorm, thankfully had a storage room for excess furniture just around the corner.
They repeated the process of passing the mattress into the room and set it to rest against the wall where the other ones sat. They passed the rest of the team on the way back, Weiss using her glyphs to carry her share of the weight.
Unable to rest before the job was done, the duo marshalled on, with Ruby grabbing her multitool. Blake collected the slats from the frame and lashed them together with the lengthy ribbon of Gambol Shroud. Hoisting the resulting cord of wood onto her back, she repeated the walk to storage.
As she performed her task, Ruby began to disassemble the frame. Screws flew from Ruby's masterful manipulation of the tool. The bed rails released from the steads, leaving the bed frame completely disassembled and ready for transport.
Across the room, Yang had partially finished the same task, releasing one bed rail from the frame.
"While you finish with your bed, I'm going to raid the kitchen...again." The team's cook, and leader, strode out of the room, catching Blake on her return trip back. She muttered the same on seeing her wife's questioning look. "Don't expect anything fancy. I'm tired."
Without another word, she disappeared down the hallway, lightly channeling her Semblance to carry her to the kitchen faster.
"Where'd Ruby go?" Weiss walked back into the room after her second trip.
"Food." Yang wiped off a bead of sweat forming on the side of her head. "Don't expect anything fancy."
"If she gets an MRE I'll be happy." Weiss rolled a piece of frame onto a raised glyph. She continued spawning glyphs underneath the piece, pushing it forward on the frictionless surface. "I'm starving."
The team's stomachs rumbled in unison, agreeing with the sentiment.
Blake lashed the four beds rails together, repeating the process, but instead of hoisting it onto her back, she placed them behind Weiss, taking advantage of the system. Weiss blew a strand of hair out of her eye in smug satisfaction.
Yang grabbed one of the last three bedsteads and placed it on the growing conveyer belt, sending it flying towards Blake with a word of warning. She lifted the remaining frames, her muscles rippling under the strain, and followed the monochromatic duo to storage.
She caught up as Blake pulled the bed rails from the glyph and placed them against the foot of the wall, rewrapping her ribbon back onto her forearm. Striding through the fading glyph set, she placed the frames inside and turned off the light.
Their return to room was sedate until their noses caught the whiff of food. Blake had characteristically smelt the food first and dashed ahead of them, leaving them confused until their less refined noses caught on.
"I got us MREs. I did say 'nothing fancy'." Ruby sat on the floor, fork raised to her mouth with mouth watering BBQ. Three steaming packs rested against her thigh, waiting for anyone to claim them. "Blake has tuna, Weiss has chicken with noodles and Yang has Mistal-style beef strips."
Yang skipped over to her sister and planted a kiss on her head, reached down and plucked Weiss' and her food from the ground. Blake lifted her own food packet and sniffed its contents, a pleased smile growing on her face. She sat to Ruby's side, leaning against the bed, and nudged her lover with her foot in thanks.
Yang handed Weiss one of the packets before moving to demolish her own. The poor packet lasted seconds against the endless black hole of her stomach. The beef strips and fried rice disappeared down her gullet before she tore into the snack bread provided. She patted her stomach in contentment.
"Join me in the shower when you're done." She threw the empty pack into the rubbish, grabbed her bathroom kit and zipped away. Intent on getting to sleep as fast as she could and saving water, she also scarfed down the packet's contents.
Ruby and Blake watched on, bemused as they ate their food more slowly. There was only one shower stall and four was a crowd.
Weiss helped the last noodle into her lips with her thumb before she disappeared into the washroom. She tossed the packet into the bin on her way past.
A comfortable silence blanketed the room, only broken by the movement of the cheap, plastic utensils and mouths moving to crush the delectable food. The scrape of plastic on the bottom of the pack disappointed the Faunus, who wanted more of the seasoned lemon pepper tuna.
Ruby chuckled at Blake's dismay. She set aside her own empty pack and scooted over to her, copying her sitting position.
"Don't worry." Ruby brushed Blake's ears, which had flattened at their master's emotions. "You can have more later."
Her ears perked up at the prospect.
"I hope no one else abuses the power of fish against you." She continued to chuckle as Blake pouted. "I might lose you if they learn of your weakness."
Blake said nothing and shuffled away from Ruby, before dropping her upper body down onto Ruby's lap. She shifted to settle into Ruby's lap and closed her eyes, waiting to drift off into bliss.
She only got so far before a flick to her forehead snapped her out. She glared up at Ruby, demanding an explanation.
"You don't get to sleep until we've showered." Blake rubbed the growing red spot on her olive skin. "We deserve a hot shower after Vale's fall."
Blake reached up and caressed Ruby's cheek, consoling the young leader. The world had asked much of her, yet she was only a mortal against the terrifying might of nature.
A cacophony of giggles erupted from bathroom as Weiss and Yang stumbled into the bedroom, dripping water onto the carpet. Weiss moved the packs onto the floor, but not before retrieving a wide tooth comb.
Yang sat on the edge of the bed, folding her hands on her lap and patiently waited for Weiss to begin her job. Weiss bound onto the bed and kneeled behind Yang. Yang's hair clung to her night shirt, golden locks stained a deep brown from the water.
Weiss placed the handle of the comb between her teeth as her hands began the arduous process of untangling Yang's hair. With a towel, she drained as much water from the soaked tresses. Yang hummed and closed her eyes as Weiss catered to her needs.
Calloused fingers wedges between strands and ran down the length of Yang's mane, splitting tangles apart with practiced ease. Weiss continued the process several times, making sure to catch even the smallest snags hidden within.
Watching the duo with the hint of a smile, Ruby dragged Blake up from the floor. Grabbing their clothes and toiletries, they vanish into the bathroom, needing to wash the day's toils down the drain. Ruby took a double take at the sheer amount of water the previous occupants had thrown about the confines.
Yang, subject to the tender mercies of her wife, waited for Ruby to reprimand her on the mess they left, but was supremely disatisfied when the red demoness failed to reappear. Weiss tutted at her failed plan, continuing with her mission.
She removed the comb from her mouth, ready to begin the final part. With careful precision, she ran the comb, shifting it to dislodge the tangles she missed. Starting from the end of her hair, she worked upwards, combing the hair to the side.
With a final tug of the comb near Yang's hairline, she dropped the comb back into her bag. She removed the hair tie from her wrist and styled Yang's hair into a ponytail. Yang ruffled her fingers through her hair, checking through Weiss' work.
She rewarded her with a kiss.
A playful smirk made its way across Yang's face as she pushed Weiss down onto the bed. She lifted the covers and shimmied under them. With a small amount of effort, Weiss found herself under them as well. They automatically sought the other and drifted into oblivion, grateful for the chance to do so.
Ruby and Blake stepped out into their shared living space, toweling their hair off. With a few more pats and passes over their heads, their short hair was dry; dry enough to fall asleep at least. Blake had never been more thankful Ruby had forced her to cut her hair.
Blake smiled wistfully at the sleeping pair. Weiss curled into Yang's side, resting her head on Yang's shoulder as Yang wrapped her arm around Weiss and pressed her into her side. Weiss had tucked her head under Yang's chin, quite content on their sleeping arrangement.
Ruby and Blake, however, had a different sleeping arrangement. Weiss's smaller stature allowed her to fit comfortable into Yang's larger frame. Their similar heights forced them to share the bed equally, curling up in each other's arms.
Climbing in together, they joined their sisters in the land of never the second they closed their eyes.
Airspace above Vale
A comfortable silence descended throughout the fuselage. The rising sun peeked through the sapphire windows, shining its light on the faces of Team RWBY. Scattered beams glinted across the threshold, reflected from various weapons, armor and body parts.
No one had much to say on their ride to the school, each person simply enjoying the quiet after the dealing with the influx of hostiles the night before.
The ship jostled in the morning turbulence, shaking off excess speed as it approached the landing platforms. Qrow inspected the available landing zones, grimacing at the two pads taken up by scrapped droids, mechs, and bullheads. He chose the closest pad to the main route to the school and landed the craft.
James opened the sliding hatch and leapt to the ground. He turned to observe the the city, gazing on the unchanged scape. Any damage done to the city was minimal enough that his eyes couldn't make it out. Glynda and Qrow stepped to his side, watching the students pile off the bullhead.
Ren and Ruby teamed up to lower Pyrrha from the craft while the rest of their teams spilled onto the platform. The grouped up behind their elders and waited to move into the school.
They observed the carnage and loot piled around them. Disembodied androids and mechs littered one platform, while another held enough bullheads to resupply the Hunter fleet for another year, even with heavy casualties.
The rag tag team of Hunters and students strolled along the path towards the school. The utter lifelessness of their surroundings set most of them on edge. For the first time in living memory, the school was empty. Even the air complied to their somber mood; still.
In front of them loomed the most imposing tower on the grounds; the CCTS tower. It parted the sunset, casting the group in shadow. An odd sense of deja vu overtook the group as they basked in the tower's shadow.
The atrium looked the same from the last time Pyrrha had been in it. As the group moved towards the Headmaster's private elevator, the doors slid open, waiting for them to board the car.
"He's watching us." More than used to Ozpin's antics, Qrow looked over to a convenient camera bolted in the corner of the lobby. It moved in a human mimicry of a nod, telling them the Headmaster was indeed watching them.
The group of ten shoved into the elevator, making space for Pyrrha's wheelchair. Weapons pressed against fleshy body parts making them shift around to avoid them.
As the elevator doors closed, the blasted elevator tune turned on, the very same the hospital used. Without missing a beat, Qrow started humming along and not long after James joined it. It spread to the younger members and created a lighter atmosphere in light of the events.
Glynda remained the only one not humming and simply looked annoyed as she had to listen to the damned tune amplified.
"Took you awhile to get here." Ozpin greeted them before the doors had fully opened. "Did you enjoy my wake up call?"
"Good morning to you too Oz." Qrow broke from the group, striding forward into the office. "Anything new with you since you decided to ditch us earlier this morning?"
"I learned many things this morning." He took a sip of his cocoa and further delved into his computer, browsing through what seemed to be endless folders and files. "Thank you for asking."
"Anything you care to share?" Glynda twitched an eyebrow upward, showing her annoyance. She clearly didn't enjoy her wake up call.
"You may have noticed a massive pile of wrecked Atlas robotic personnel on one of the landing pads." They group nodded, having taken notice of said pile. "Those are for you James. They've been disassembled and are waiting for repossession."
"I'll have to give my thanks to the team you assigned. From the look of things, their cores remain intact." He stepped around Ozpin's desk and leaned forward, eager to glimpse at whatever had taken Oz's attention so raptly. "There is a pesky rumor going on that this team is from the future."
"Yes." Ozpin quickly navigated the drive to display the Hunter roster. "They were more than thorough in following my orders, if not enthusiastic."
"Ruby told me it was an older version of her team." Qrow scoffed laughter as he uncapped his flask and took a drink. "You mean to tell me it's true?"
"Unless Summer had another child who looked exactly like Miss Rose over there, and the other three members of the team were cloned and aged faster than usual, then yes, it's true."
"You could have just said yes." Glynda sweatdrop at the long winded explanation. "Learn anything about them?"
"I learned some things." He placed his empty mug on a coaster and pushed it aside. "If you wish to know more about them, you'll have to ask them yourselves."
"Not going to tell us anything?" Ozpin shook his head. "Not even where their room is?"
"Let them sleep. They've been awake for over 36 hours. They may not have shown it, but they were exhausted after keeping watch over my school. They gifted me with a drive containing an exorbitant amount of information and I've spent the last three hours drowning in it." He swiveled the screen towards the group. Displayed on it were four folders, titled to each member of Team RWBY.
He'd taken the liberty of changing their names back to their originals until they let him release their relationships to the public.
"I suggest you go down and laze the day away until they wake up. I'll warn them to expect a horde of fangirls with questions." He chuckled at his own joke. "The kitchens are open if you're hungry and I have no doubt you are."
With his parting words, they all began shuffling back towards the door.
"Don't forget your wayward leader, Team JNPR." Ozpin gestured to the young lad spread haphazardly across a couch, snoring lightly. "I'm surprised we haven't woken him up with all this chatter."
"Jaune!" Nora strode over to the sleeping buffoon. She leant over, placing her mouth next to his ear. "Jaune!"
The blonde snapped awake, flailing his arms randomly in the air. Planting his feet on the ground, he attempted to stand, only to fail as his vision darkened and vertigo overtook his sense of balance. His teammates laughed lightly at his struggles with Team RWBY joining them.
"What'd I miss?" Jaune groggily slurred through the morning fog bank in his brain. "Where's Pyrrha?"
"Right here." Pyrrha waved jauntily at him, the usual smile reserved for Jaune on her face. "I'm fine. No need to worry."
In the background, Ozpin pulled up the pairing list and attempted to fudge some bets before Glynda harshly smacked him over his head. His discontented grumbles filled the office space.
"So...uh...what'd I miss." A sound of crickets joined Ozpin's grumbles as Qrow took the liberty to answer him with a conveniently installed scroll application.
"I'm sure your team would be happy fill you in." James, Qrow and Team RWBY left clouds of dust in their wake as they charged into the elevator and nearly lost fingers as the doors closed, seemingly sensing their hurry.
Jaune alternated eye contact between his three teammates, his cerulean eyes begging for answer. His team shied away, no member knowing where to begin the story they'd been thrown into over the last dozen hours.
"We'd like to tell you, but you'll find out in a few hours nonetheless." Ren closed the subject. "Us telling you would be a poor comparison to witnessing."
"Witnessing what?" Jaune called to his team as they walked to the elevator with Ren pushing Pyrrha along. He surged forward to catch up with them as they patiently waited for the elevator car. "Witnessing what?"
"You'll have to wait and see." Nora watched as the light of the car shone through the crack of the exterior doors. Jaune hung in head petulantly, unable to extract the needed information. They moved into the elevator and journey down to the earth.
Inside the Elevator Car
Team RWBY, Qrow and James let loose sighs of relief as the elevator descended along its tracks down to the lobby. They were so relieved they never noticed the haunting melody playing from the speakers.
"Food?" Qrow queried the group as the doors opened to reveal the atrium they had left less than an hour prior.
A clashing symphonies of agreements answered his question. The sound of engines caught their attention as they left the sanctity of the tower.
The Hunters wasted no time in returning to the school. Dozens of bullheads held positions above the landing pads, waiting for the unloading craft to leave and divert to the hangers for standby.
The main causeway connecting the school and the platforms looked akin to the first day of semester as groups moved along towards the campus. Evidently, sometime around sunrise, the Headmaster had given the all clear signal.
It was humorous watching them have to work around the single open landing pad. Glaring red LEDs blocked the first and third landing pad, leaving the second one to service the influx of Hunters. An unvoiced agreement passed between the pilots' minds as they worked out a method to efficiently deal with the rapidly filling airspace corridor.
Lost in the growing hubbub of Beacon in the morning, they arrived at the canteen, already opened for the hungry students and professors. Spread across the tables, the early risers commanded their holds on their territory.
James and Qrow frowned at the menu, staring incessantly at the brown cardboard boxes with a hatred reserved for their mothers-in-law, if they had any. They watched as students reached into the boxes and pulled out brown plastic packs.
Team RWBY took notice of their frowns of disgust.
"What is it?" Yang poked Qrow on his side, causing his to reflexively curl around the finger. She too had taken notice of the pouches.
"It seems the kitchen staff has been slacking in their duties and retrieved boxes of MREs as breakfast." They proceeded to the lunch counters and received a pack and a bottle of water for each. "It's decent food, but it's nothing compared to the usual menu Beacon serves."
They wound around the tables, choosing one at random near the windows and sat down, the six taking their places around it. Qrow and James sat on one side while the four team members sat on the other, creating a clear divide between seniority.
Qrow and James tore their packs apart, divulging the contents onto the table. Team RWBY followed their actions, spreading the contents in front of them. Each pack contained two packs for breakfast and a packet of pudding.
"This is food?" Weiss poked the food in disdain, shifting the packets around. "I wouldn't serve this is to my servants."
"Suck it up Schnee." Qrow ripped open his packet of muesli and poured some water in. Shifting the oats around with a spoon to disperse the water, he lifted the spoon to his mouth, savoring the most simple of breakfasts. "You're a soldier here, not a spoiled heiress."
She shut up after that, tearing her packet open and mimicked their actions. Her teammates had already done so, slowly devouring the breakfast. They had also torn open their packets of apple flakes, eating it side along with the muesli or pouring it directly in.
When they had finished with their breakfast, they greedily ripped into the pudding. It wasn't of the chocolate variety, which hugely disappointed Ruby, but was made from peach and pineapple.
"Get used to it." James shoveled the pudding into his mouth, noticing the young leader's expression. "Out in the field, this is gourmet.
"She's more disappointed it's not chocolate, not that it's pudding." Qrow answered to his side, placing the empty packet with the rest, ready to be thrown out.
"Oh." He grabbed his trash, piling it together in his arms and stood from the table. "I'm off back to the CCTS. Ozpin's going to need my help with this storm brewing around us."
"What do you brats want to do until we meet yourselves?" Qrow inquired after James left him with a pat on his back.
"I don't know." Ruby shrugged. "Usually class would be starting soon, but with the Vytal Festival down and summer starting, we really have nothing to do."
"Video games?" Yang stretched her arm behind her, forgetting she lacked the other arm to help her. She pantomimed reaching for her arm before sheepishly dropping both. She settled for rotating her arm in a circle. "Or we could go spar?"
"You and what arm?" Qrow remarked. "Video games require two hands to work with. You also can't go to the gym for at least a day. Doctor's orders."
"Like I'd actually listen to those. Besides, I'd like to at least figure out how to fight without one arm in case anything ever happens to my prosthetic."
"That's actually not that bad of an idea."
"I do have them sometimes." She puffed her chest out proudly. Qrow pondered the benefits and downsides of ignoring the doctor's fake orders before remembering who he was.
"Since when am I the responsible one? To the arena!" He stood and placed his foot on his seat and pointed towards the door. Team RWBY shared quick looks with their respective partners before sprinting towards the door, depositing their rubbish in the bins located in their paths.
The stifling heat slammed into them the moment they passed the safety of the canteen doors, causing them to slow down.
"Maybe sparring during the midday heat isn't the best idea." Ruby voiced her concern, her cloak starting to stick to her arms from her perspiration. Her team and uncle voiced their agreements, feeling the sun baking them in its heat. "Video games?"
They sped off to their room, eager to escape to climate controlled heaven.
AN: Chapter 4 is in the works. I've had them sitting in my Drive for several months, and finally decided to release all of the finished ones. After 4 is released, updates will slow down, as I've said before it takes me several weeks to finish one chapter. I started this story around December 2016. Enjoy.