This is my New Year's Gift to Everyone.
This is now the Official Release.
Chapters will be released at my whim until Fox of Remnant is Completed.
I simply wanted to show a little of my work and have everyone prepare for the future.
I hate the auto-default of the main characters here on FFN.
Team RWBY should be first, as they're the focus, followed by Ren and Neo.
Jaune is just above the rest of the Phantom Thieves, but I plan for them all to be relevant.
So enjoy my New Year extravaganza!
The darkness all around her was all-consuming.
Every muscle and fiber of her body felt as if it was seared and being torn apart.
Being crushed by this everlasting darkness that felt like it was consuming her very flesh!
Drowning her and filling her lungs with this viscous, toxic ooze that seeped into her body as she was forced to swallow it.
They had done everything they could to save as many people and yet…
In the end, they still failed.
They lost. She and her friends had failed to stop the chaotic Cinder and the wicked witch and Queen of Darkness herself, Salem.
At every turn, they didn't have the answers, or their allies had turned against them even though they were trying to save everyone!
Sacrificing everyone to stop her was playing into her hand! It was what she wanted!
And in the fading moments, they all fell into this darkness and were suffering this fate now.
Yang had fallen into the void first.
She had given everything to save her loudmouth partner, who always made her laugh and sought to brighten everyone's mood, but it wasn't meant to be.
She fell into the void after saving her sister.
Then it was Ruby.
She had Ruby in her grasp as she caught her after Cinder had betrayed her partner to get back at Ruby and send them both into the void.
Yet she managed to sear through her ribbon and…
Now she knew they had to suffer the same fate.
Her leader was nowhere near here, but she couldn't be sure in this darkness.
Not that she could move with the imposing weight pressing down on every inch of her body, making it impossible to move or even twitch.
All she could do was watch and wait for the end to come.
Weiss…
She hoped her last friend and teammate had made it out safely. She did not want her to suffer like this. She was already dealing with enough and had been through a lot in her life…
Just let her make it through this and go back to her family.
Maybe they could finally stop Salem even if all hope seemed lost…
She believed in her.
In her sister Winter.
In Penny.
In Jaune, Ren, and Nora.
They could do this with Qrow and Oscar.
They could make a stand in Vacuo and save Remnant once and for all.
For she and the others gave it their all to get them that far.
The burning seared throughout her body, hotter than before. It felt like it was igniting and rupturing her from the inside out!
Sparkles like when she was swallowed into the void began to flicker around her as the horrid pain intensified. Tears welled up and burned in her eyes.
So this was it? This was her end.
Well, at least she went down fighting for what she believed in. It didn't matter if someone was human or faunus. Each life mattered, and they saved everyone they could when it counted.
So at the very least, she was proud of what they did in the end.
She knew her parents would be.
Feeling the scorching heat smolder through her veins, traveling through her body as the lights flickered and her body began to dissolve before her very eyes, her eyes glowed vividly in defiance.
No, she refused to accept this as the end!
She was not done! There was so much more they had to do! So much more there was to fix!
And as she was consumed by light, she screamed in defiance, refusing to let this be her end.
Blake Belladonna refused to go quietly into the darkness.
And suddenly, her world was filled with bluster and swirls of bright lights and confusing sounds.
The absolute darkness that had consumed and weighed her down released its hold on her, and she crashed into a solid surface. The audible crack caused her body to wince as it felt like pavement she had slammed into at incredible speed.
She felt her aura crackle around her. She wasn't having the best days already and taking what felt like a high velocity after experiencing that crippling despair accompanying this disorienting blur of sound and noise deafening her senses.
Blake groaned. Everything hurt. She tried to get on her feet but pathetically collapsed back onto the hard and cold concrete below. Definitely felt like concrete. And all these lights blurred her vision and made it difficult for her to see. Although the constant sounds echoing all around her could be causing some of the distortions as she had sensitive hearing…
And that blasted screeching squeal, and incessant honk was driving her insane!
Weakly lifting herself once more, golden eyes widened as the blur started to fade from her vision, and she recognized what she was lying on.
She was in the middle of a street. That meant…
Blake's head snapped forward, and the last thing she saw was two golden lights as a white car bore down on her.
"BLAKE!"
"Ow…" A voice cried out as they lay collapsed onto the bricked pavement while many onlookers shouted in surprise, startled at what suddenly happened and what they had just witnessed. "That hurt…"
"If I could never do that again, that'd be great."
Whispers began to envelope the area as a crowd looked around in wonder. Everyone stared in amazement as they couldn't believe what they saw. However…
A loud, obnoxious voice called out in a foreign language unknown to the prone girl before a young man with dyed blonde hair rushed from the small crowd to check on the girl with wavy black hair with red tinges at the tips and spoke to her as he checked on her.
"What… What are you saying?"
The obnoxious voice seemed to recognize something before, with great difficulty, began to speak in her language. "Oh, you speak English. I asked if you were okay."
"Been a lot better, that's for sure." The girl groaned as she tried to push off the ground, her body crackling as her aura snapped, and she fell back to the bricked pavement below with a plop. "Ow, ow, ow! Everything hurts!"
"I imagine! You cracked the ground when you hit! Where did you fall from?!" The obnoxious boy sounded amazed and impressed at the same time before he suddenly smeared at all the onlookers.
Looking up at the boy, as it was all the energy she had to do, she watched him bark at everyone in his native language angrily before he picked up what looked like a scroll to her. It was odd. It didn't activate like a scroll, but he used it similarly. In fact, he was calling for something. That was when she noticed that behind him was something that made tears roll down her cheeks.
It was a scythe with the blade snapped in two.
It was her baby, Crescent Rose.
"Hey, don't try to get up again! You're hurt!" The boy panicked as the black haired girl pushed herself forward and began to crawl toward the scythe.
Her silver eyes shone brightly as she reached for her scythe and gently grasped it before cradling it in her arms.
Everything that had happened and led to her being here. Everything with Salem. Everything with Cinder. Everything with Ironwood and his betrayal of the people of Mantle! If they had worked together, they could have made a stand! Then maybe…
Yang!
Blake!
Oh, she hoped Weiss didn't fall into the void too. She wouldn't wish that on anyone. She even pitied Neo for falling into that dreadful darkness of torment.
"Woah, take it easy!" The boy again spoke, trying to stay on the line with whoever he was calling as she used the scythe's pole to push herself up and off the ground.
If her friends were in danger and hurting like she was, she would find them and help them.
Ruby Rose would not abandon her friends when they were in trouble.
She wouldn't even abandon Neo if she found her. Something didn't feel right here as she looked around, pushing herself to her knees and looking around at the bustling activity around her. All the bright lights and super tall buildings.
Where was she?
This wasn't Mantle or Atlas. This was too populated and city-like to be Vacuo, so she didn't somehow get through the portal by accident. Everything was too big, and again there were too many people for this to be Vale.
So where was she? Where had the void taken her? What even was this place?
What language was everyone using? She didn't even know there were very many other languages in Remnant! She knew there was some as she heard Blake and Ren talk to each other before using a different language, but…
Wait, was that what everyone else was using?
She needed Blake with her!
This was all so disorienting for her, and coming out of the void, she knew she needed to keep calm and collected. Those answers would come later. First, she needed to find her friends.
Feeling her aura rejuvenated, it took an extraneous effort to get one foot underneath her to support her weight. And she was laboriously breathing after exerting herself to do that task.
Maybe she was more hurt than she realized. Whatever the void did, it took everything out of her.
"Damn, you are a tough one!" The obnoxious boy's voice stated, more impressed than anything as he looked dumbfounded seeing the girl that smashed into the sidewalk from a tremendous height and at high-velocity struggle to her feet, despite his protests. "But seriously, don't stress yourself! I had to call an ambulance. No thanks to all these useless adults!"
"Can't…" Ruby breathed heavily as she managed to shakily stand on both of her feet, her knees nearly buckling as she held onto her broken scythe.
"Woah, I got you!" The boy suddenly grasped her in his rather firm grip, his arm snaking around her waist as he helped keep her up, lowering himself slightly so he could get his shoulder underneath her arm. "Here, use me. Don't wanna see you fall."
"Thanks…" Ruby weakly muttered as she gave a light smile while she tried to stay positive while her aura replenished so she could focus on recovering.
Then she could look for her friends.
"Don't mention it." The boy grinned back as he helped keep Ruby steady as she struggled to take a step forward and nearly collapsed in his grasp. "Hey, hey, hey! What's so important?!"
"My friends…" Ruby breathed heavily as she regained her footing and looked around at the place they were in a little more clearly. "They were with me…"
"What?!" The boy loudly exclaimed as he started to look around in a panic, too, trying to see if anyone else had fallen and if there was another group of people gathered around. "What the hell? Did you guys jump from a plane or something?!"
"Nah, standard stuff. We trained for that at the academy and did stuff like that all the time." Ruby said as if that was normal to drop from a high altitude and land before she winced and nearly buckled again, but this time the boy managed to help assist her to a nearby bench and had her seat. "Yeah, guess I need to get my strength first…"
After excitedly responding in his native language, Ruby blinked owlishly, unsure how to react. The boy also took a moment, remembering that she didn't seem to understand him, and took a moment to translate what he was saying in his head. It took a moment for him to do so, as it seemed he had mild difficulty speaking in the language he had called English earlier. "What do you mean?! You do that all the time?! That's not normal! What are you?! A superhero or something?!"
"Um, no. I'm a Huntress. I hunt Grimm and protect people." Ruby commented in confusion as she activated the transformation for the broken Crescent Rose into its carry state and sheathed it onto her back, flicking out her cape behind her, so it wasn't so uncomfortable, and sighed, knowing she would need to repair it.
However, what she said and the transformation of her weapon freaked her rescuer out. The act of transformation caused quite a stir among all those still watching and looking, and the whispers loudly echoed around them. It was pretty annoying as she couldn't understand what they were saying as it was in the same foreign language that the boy helping her was using, but now she saw something odd.
Why was everyone freaking out? Was it something she did? Did they all understand her too? So was it something she said?
What was it? She was confused!
And now the boy was babbling in his language again, and she was really, really wishing she could understand what he was saying. It would be so helpful right now! At least then she could communicate and not make everything so complicated!
It seemed he caught on that she was looking at him strangely, and he groaned. It must have been a pain to try and use a language he knew but wasn't very proficient in. Well, she had to thank him for putting up with her for now and…
What was all that noise?! That sounded like a car's tires screeching and blaring its horn.
Well, it seemed wherever she was still had regular transport! That was a start!
The boy's attention snapped as he looked elsewhere, and Ruby followed his gaze to see what he was looking at. A large crowd gathered around what had to be one of the most elaborate crosswalks she had ever seen before.
Like, why was such a crosswalk needed? Each of the Kingdoms, while bustling, did not thrive to the extent that they needed something like this for people to get through!
In fact, there were a lot of people in this area! She had never seen so many people in such a tight space before, except when she was attending the Vytal festival! What was going on here?! And damn their whispers! She wished she could understand what they were saying!
The boy's eyes narrowed as he immediately caught onto the whispers and turned his head to her, struggling to speak. "You said your friend… Was with you?"
"Yeah?" Ruby blinked as she turned back to her rescuer and frowned.
Why was he confirming that…
The whispering!
It was about one of her friends!
Finding strength within, fighting against the exhaustion that poured through every inch of her body, Ruby's silver eyes beamed as she took off toward the street, leaving her rescuer in the dust behind her.
"Woah!" Was all that he could cry, not expecting such a burst of speed or the floating rose petals that trailed behind Ruby's wake.
She needed to get there. To help her friends! They needed her, and she needed them!
They were awesome together!
They were best as Team RWBY!
And together, they would figure all this out!
Brushing past the bustling crowd that was doing nothing but gawking, almost knocking them out of the way as she came in as a crashing wave of red petals, Ruby exhaled as her body heaved at the exertion. Her body trembled as she looked around, trying to find the center of attention.
And her silver eyes caught it at the last second, and her eyes widened in horror at the scene.
A white car struck Blake in the middle of the streak, slamming her into the hood, bending her at an awkward angle and with incredible force. The metal bent around her for a brief moment from the impact before she ricocheted from the blow. And finally, her body rolled off to the side and came to a stop as she crumpled against the asphalt.
She didn't move.
And tires screeched, and a cracking blast and pop were heard as the vehicle tried to speed away while sirens sounded and blue and red lights flickered through the intersection.
Dread filled Ruby's entire body as she watched her friend's seemingly lifeless body lie in the middle of the road. She screamed as she wildly ran to her side, rose petals dancing behind her as she burst past everyone.
"BLAKE!"
"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE!"
"Ugh…" A voice echoed from a sprawled out as they lay in an alley, face first against the cold, hard concrete. "That bitch…"
"Tried to put my sister through that. Wait until I get my hands on her. She'll know suffering when I'm done with her." The feminine voice groaned as she tried to push her body up before her scream echoed through the alley as she collapsed back to the cold ground. "Okay! Nevermind! Not moving for a while, got it!"
"What in the world was that place if it left me feeling like I was put through a meat grinder?" She growled as she looked around at her surroundings, noticing where she was before she grimaced at what she saw. "Oh great. This is where I want to be. In the back of an alley on my face. Either they're going to think I'm drunk, or I'm some kind of skank that got laid and left to deal."
"For once, I'm glad I took dad's advice and put more clothes on. I don't think I would have been helping myself a few years ago…" She muttered while biting her lip, her muscles and skin burning as she reached out with her prosthetic arm and dragged her body across the ground to the nearby wall.
She propped up against it into a seated position and drew deep, arduous breaths as sweat drenched her body, for it took a lot of her to crawl to the wall. Then, taking a more detailed survey of where she was, she needed to be more knowledgeable about everything around her.
Bicycles were propped up against the wall next to her. For an alley, there were several places she assumed were shops littered throughout it, along with doors to indistinguishable sites. At least she recognized them as shops due to what she could see in their display windows. Otherwise, she would have no clue as a language she had only seen a few times was sprawled all over the doors and signs.
She wished Blake was here.
Maybe she'd have a chance of understanding what was written on those signs as she knew she spoke that weird language as if it was her mother's native tongue. She believed it was Ren's but wasn't too confident about that. She knew the two conversed a few times to keep fluent and practice their parents' tongue even though Remnant had become predominantly dominated by a single language.
Things like that happened when humanity was on the verge of extinction from the Grimm.
So why were there so many people walking past the alley in the corner of her eye? As the blurriness had come to a rest, she had counted so many people that she was beginning to question what was happening.
She had only seen this many people when they were all escaping from, ironically, events caused by Cinder. So seeing so many people just walking and carrying on their daily lives left her quite alarmed.
What in the world was going on? Where in the world was she? This didn't look like Mantle. It didn't look like Atlas. It didn't look like Vale if she was somehow transported across Remnant, and it most certainly didn't look like the desert Kingdom of Vacuo.
Where did she end up?
Suddenly hearing a feminine voice from behind her, in a startled fashion, she turned to face the unknown voice speaking a language that sounded at least familiar to her. However, she hissed at the sudden movement, which threw off her balance, causing her to lose her seated position and crash into a bicycle next to her.
It did not even cushion her fall as she landed on top of it. To make things further aggravating, she noted her hair got caught in the spokes, and she growled in annoyance. "All right, this day is working its way up there on the list of worst days ever…"
Hearing two gasps as she struggled against the bike she was entangled with and feebly trying to break free from, something that annoyed her infinitely, she suddenly felt a pair of hands carefully comb through her blonde hair and untangle them from the wheel's spokes. "Here, let me help. It sounds like you've had a rough day."
"You don't even know the half of it." Yang Xiao Long retorted as he felt her hair freed from the abominable creation and sighed in relief as she returned to a seated position with some assistance. "Let's put it this way. It's been the longest day."
Looking at who had helped her to see a buxom platinum blonde broadly smiling as she knelt before her while her black-haired friend meekly stood behind her, almost made her laugh. Well, that reminded her of her and her partner. The significant difference was that Blake was no longer the forlorn and shy one that stayed in the background.
The kitty could roar when she wanted to.
And she felt she would be in a lot of trouble if she said that out loud. Mainly for the kitty comment, as she would be lectured for hours on end about how not to use that term and how demeaning it was to her and the faunus…
And she would be right. She always was. She just looked so gorgeous when she was upset…
Then again, so did Weiss…
And they looked so cute when they laughed…
And now she needed to get her mind out of the gutter and back to what was going on. Why were there so many people? Where was she? Where were her sister and friends?
Were they safe?
Reaching into one of her front pockets, she drew forth her scroll and winced as she fumbled it in her hands. Her fingers were still numb, and the tiny device was still tricky to activate. But maybe someone would be in range, and she could get a hold of them…
Why did she hear gasps? What was so weird?
"O. M. G! Is that a hologram?! Like in the movies!" The blonde girl squealed in a high-pitched voice that nearly caused Yang to topple over again. "Are you like a super-secret agent or something?! Oh, do you have any other cool tech or gadgets on you! Wait, are you on a mission right now?! That's so cool!"
"Um, what?" Yang seemed baffled by the blonde's reaction and the stunned reaction from the silent black-haired girl, not sure what she was seeing as they looked at her scroll. "No, this is my scroll. They're pretty common, I thought. And I'm just a Huntress. You know, to fight Grimm and protect everyone."
The blonde blinked in response. Then, it was her turn to need clarification, not understanding anything Yang said. This left Yang unsettled as it was common knowledge to know what a Huntress was and should have been the same for a scroll considering the tech was relatively widespread. But what was more disturbing was the clueless expression on her face when she mentioned Grimm.
Like, who didn't know anything about the Grimm? That didn't seem…
"No, no, no…" Yang began to mutter as she looked at the screen of her scroll, and her eyes began to bug out. "What do you mean there is no reception?! I'm clearly in a Kingdom, so there should be a CCT tower nearby…"
"Unless I'm back home in Vale, but this doesn't look like home…" Yang muttered as she gave a panicked glance at her surroundings and nothing that seemed familiar. "Where am I? Where is everyone?"
"Um, you're in Shibuya." The blonde suddenly interjected with a puzzling expression as Yang snapped her attention back to her, looking further perplexed. "You know, one of the many municipalities and one of the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo?"
"It doesn't ring any bells, does it? The platinum blonde laughed nervously as Yang stared clueless at her, not understanding a single word she said. "Oh boy, I think something is really off here."
The girl turned to her friend, speaking to her in their native language as she pointed something out and appeared very worried as she showed a cracked and semi-crater in the concrete. The very same dent that she crawled out of earlier. The said blonde looked at it and chirped in words she could understand. "Woah, that looks fresh…"
"Must have been from my thunderous entrance when I came smashing in…" Yang wiped some of the smudges off her face before she noted a smidgeon of blood staining her hand. "Huh, probably has some of my DNA on it too. Neat. Came in harder than I thought."
"What?!" The two girls turned to the blonde, obviously able to understand her before the platinum blonde looked at her astonished. "I mean, how are you okay? Let me call an ambulance! You obviously need help!"
"Nah, I'll be fine here in a few. Just need to recharge and get my bearings. Taken a lot more punishment before." Yang lied through her teeth as she felt utterly exhausted but wasn't quite sure what was going on, and the last thing she wanted was to be sidelined.
She needed to figure out what was happening. Falling through the void took her somewhere. The question was, where was this place? And what happened to her sister and her friends? She wanted to make sure they were okay, and being unable to do that bothered her.
So, pocketing her scroll, Yang bit her lip to hold back her scream as she climbed up the wall, leaning more on her prosthetic arm as the Altas tech was proving useful. Her muscles ached and groaned at every movement, begging her to stop, but she needed to move. This was all wrong, and she needed to get to the bottom of it.
"I don't think you should be moving!" The other girl finally spoke, with some strain in her voice, as she spoke a language that was foreign to her and grimaced as she noted Yang was trembling with every movement. "Ann!"
"Yeah, you shouldn't be moving now if you fell and made that crack in the pavement!" The girl named Ann tried to stop Yang as she pushed off the wall and staggered away from the alley wall, stumbled forward but stayed on her feet as her eyes temporarily burned red as a surge of strength washed over her.
"I can't." Yang breathed heavily, her now red eyes burned as she used her aura and semblance to push her body past its limits and make it listen. "I need to know that my friends and my sister didn't suffer the same fate as I did. I need to know that they are okay."
"Your friends?" Ann's eyes enlargened, looking desperately worried and shared a look with her friend and spoke a couple of words to her in her native tongue, which she communicated back before she pulled a scroll-like device out of her purse as they walked alongside her. "Would they, by chance, be around here?"
"Oum, I hope not." Yang grimaced at every step she took for the energy each step was taking more and more out of her. "I can only pray that they escaped, got everyone out of there, and stopped Cinder. But if they didn't…"
"Yeah, they might have fallen through here with me, which worries me." Yang's eyes widened seeing the sheer amount of people walking through the street before her, and she couldn't believe her eyes.
What was this place? Tokyo was what the girl called it. What place had this many people in it? She had never seen this many people gathered together, even for a tournament or anything like that, before! And this was a ward within Tokyo?!
What the in Oum was this?! She didn't think she was in Remnant anymore!
Stumbling back, her eyes shifting back to lilac as her Burn faded and her strength nearly gave out, the two girls could barely keep Yang standing upright. She was overwhelmed by the sight before her. She didn't understand what it was she was seeing.
All these people. These buildings. What was this place? It differed from anything she had ever seen or known in Remnant. There were similarities in everything she saw, so it wasn't starkly different. But the subtle changes and just how many buildings were crowded together and how everything was put together was so…
Alien.
"What is going on here? This isn't Remnant." Yang looked around in terror as everything in her vision spun around her, blurring into one vision of light, and the sounds rattled and pierced her ears. "No, no, no! Everything is so wrong!"
"Hey, it's okay!" Ann tried to comfort Yang as she looked at her startled friend, who only nodded back. "Everything will be okay here in a moment… Hey, wait!"
"Where am I?!" Yang screamed out, turning the heads of many passersby as they stared at the supposed crazy girl before she suddenly sprinted forward, desperately running ahead in a panic as she wasn't sure what to do or where she was heading.
"Wait, that's Shibuya Crossing! Don't run off into traffic!" Ann cried from behind, trying to keep up, but her voice faded quickly as she was not fast enough to keep up with her.
She was a trained Huntress, and even with all these bodies, she could easily outpace many people, even in a blind panic. However, none of that mattered to her.
Yang just wanted to know if Ruby was okay! If Blake made it out safely! If Weiss reunited with her sister and got out! That they kept Penny and the relics safe and sound from Cinder and Salem! And that they were able to protect all those people!
She wanted to know if they managed to slow the bleed, at least! To make Salem work for it!
And was this a giant crosswalk?!
What was this world?! Why did they need a crosswalk this size?! How many people needed to pass through here?!
"By Oum, I'm not in Vale anymore…" Yang muttered as she came to the crosswalk in utter awe and couldn't believe what she was seeing before she winced at hearing the screeching of brakes and squealing of tires burning on asphalt. "Well, at least that is still the same…"
"BLAKE?!" Yang screamed as her eyes widened in horror, seeing a familiar figure exhaustedly lying in the middle of the street, trying to stagger to her feet like she had minutes before.
Only for a white car to drive through her before it could even move. Yang felt a cold emptiness as she witnessed her partner helplessly crash into the hood and bend awkwardly around it, denting the hood and fender with her frail but sturdy body. Seeing her deflect off the car, bounce off the road several times, and roll to a stop before her very eyes, broken and bloody all the while, the car's tires tried to spin and squeal as it tried to keep moving forward.
And feeling a seething rage fill the emptiness within, a primal roar escaped Yang's lips as Ember Celica engaged on her left arm. With a single motion, she launched a shot into the left side of the car, firing two rounds before it could escape. One into the engine, the second into a tire. The vehicle still tried to drive forward, but Yang had none of that as red and blue lights filled the square, and sirens echoed from all around!
"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE!"
"KEEP YANG CALM! I GOT BLAKE!"
"Nnn…" A weak, feminine voice grimaced as a figure rolled to a stop, her eyes looking up, blurring at a bright light as she hit the last of what felt like dozens of steps after the sudden impact. "Oum, make it stop."
"I'll give Ruby all the cookies if you do…" She pleaded as she looked at the burning light and winced at the terrifyingly painful screech that nearly ruptured her eardrums. "I'll buy all of the spare parts for Bumblebee for Yang. I'll make a quiet little library so Blake can read till her heart's content and never be bothered again…"
"Just don't put me through that again…"
Whispers and mutters were heard around her, but she couldn't make anything out. Everything was blurry and incoherent. Given what she experienced and the excruciating burning sensation in her entire body, she wasn't surprised. She felt like giving up and passing out, but…
If she had suffered through this, her friends would have met the same fate and were, at the very least, in similar situations. So she needed to find them so, at the very least, they could suffer together.
Commiserate in their pain and inform them, unfortunately, what had happened. They had indeed failed to prevent Cinder and Salem but had saved the people of Mantle and Atlas…
Weiss Schnee's heart sank as she lay on the floor gazing hopelessly at the searing light above her. She did not look forward to informing Ruby about Penny's fate. To have finally been reunited with her friend that she had watched die…
Only to hear she had fallen yet again.
Strenuously taking in breaths, Weiss closed her eyes and felt a wave of nausea hit her as the world spun from the volume of noise and intense light burning her retinas. It was too much to handle, and she needed to stay still for a moment, let her aura recover, and she'd be in decent enough shape to move and look for the others. They most likely were doing the same thing as she was.
Oh, she hoped they were okay. She wanted to see their faces and embrace each of them after what they had been through. To be there for them.
They needed each other right now.
A voice echoed in her ears. It was unfamiliar to her, and the language was foreign. But it was one she knew. A dutiful student, her father had made sure she was tutored in the few remaining languages of Remnant, as it was a valuable skill to have. He found it prudent always to know what was being spoken in his presence, lest someone try to sneak information by him.
Her father. Whether she liked the man or not…
She hoped he got out okay. He was still…
"...you all right?" A gentle voice spoke as she felt a nudge against her left shoulder.
Weiss could barely distinguish what was spoken as she had to concentrate as her eyes fluttered open. To see a girl in an elegant light blue coat with ginger brown hair kneeling next to her, rubbing her shoulder in worry. "Can you hear me?"
"I can…" Weiss groaned as she tried to sit up, using the step she felt next to her to partially lift up against and rest on as she could who was talking to her. "But I'm not well versed in the language. I was separated from my partner, and she would be able to speak better than I."
"Oh, please tell me you can understand me." Weiss began to realize this could very well be futile as looking around and getting her bearings, she had no idea where she was, and it did not look like a place from Mantle or Atlas.
So she was quite concerned. Not to mention she hadn't heard anyone speak outside of the common tongue besides in practice. In fact, Blake and Ren were the only people she knew that spoke this particular language!
The girl's eyes grew momentarily before she took a moment to formulate her words and nodded. She then smiled brightly. "I can. Are you okay? It looks like you took quite a fall."
"I dare say I've been better." Weiss groaned as she felt thoroughly exhausted, and the strain of trying to move to a seat position caused her to cry out as she managed to do so. "Yeah, definitely seen better days."
"I wouldn't move so much. You probably have broken something." The girl commented before she started to fish through her purse and pulled out a small black handheld device. "Here, let me call for some help."
Weiss immediately frowned as the girl pulled the object out, swiped a physical screen, and then it seemed she started to type a few numbers in to make a call. It appeared very scroll-like in nature, but it wasn't. What technology was this? Where was she that someone would have a device like this around and not a scroll, as it seemed inferior? Sure, a scroll was fragile too, but it was far more portable, and you never had to scuff up the screen since it was a hologram…
This was so archaic.
In fact, from a quick scan, many people were using this device. That was very odd. Scrolls, while a fairly common device, weren't this widespread. Again, what was this place she happened to land?
What was the void? Where did it send her?
Oum, she hoped her aura would recover soon. She needed to get moving and try to find the others if they were stuck here too. This was confusing, and she could only imagine how Ruby and Yang were handling their situations. She wouldn't worry too much about Blake as she had better wherewithal to keep a calm and collected approach to all this. Ruby might, but Ruby could blatantly display everything she had and…
"What is this?" A voice caught her attention, and Weiss turned and looked above her to see something that horrified her. "Looks awesome. I might keep this for myself…"
Someone had grabbed the semi-transformed state of Gambol Shroud she had been using while fighting Cinder.
Checking to ensure Myrtenaster was sheathed in its proper place, Weiss gritted her teeth as she shakily stood up. Adrenaline filled her body as her wobbly knees managed to hold her weight, and she made her way forward and up the steps. She couldn't let somebody walk off with her friend's treasured weapon!
"That's mine! Give it back!" Weiss snapped as she climbed the steps, her eyes narrowing as she struggled with each one.
The young man who picked up the semi-transformed sword jumped in surprise, immediately dropping it and backing away from Weiss as she stumbled over to him. Without a word, she picked up the sword and sheathed it alongside hers. Suddenly it didn't seem like he wasn't so afraid of her any longer. "Hey, that's a cool cosplay! Are you cosplaying as Sabyr? It's not half bad, all things considered!"
She refused to give him the time of day. She sneered at the young man and turned her back from him. He wasn't worth her time to deal with. She needed to find her friends and figure out what they needed to do. This place was weird and…
"Hey, you shouldn't be moving too much?!" The girl trying to help called out to her, making her way up the steps and looking quite worried, seeing how difficult it was for Weiss to make it up the steps. "You shouldn't strain yourself."
"Let's take it easy, and I will have help come here." She smiled and tried to comfort the Schnee heiress, who was still looking out of sorts and finding it difficult to catch her breath. "Let's take a seat and relax. Maybe you should call your partner and let her know where you're at?"
Weiss winced. She wanted to, but after seeing the devices everyone was using, she was leery of using her scroll, and somehow, she felt it wouldn't work here. Also, she was pretty disturbed by hearing so many people speaking this language instead of the common tongue and seeing so many people in such a crowded space. Even in big venues, it was uncommon to see this many people.
Where did that magical void send her and her friends? Where were her friends?
She hoped Jaune and Winter got out. The last thing she wanted was to see her sister or him trapped here either. Considering that her sister was now the Winter Maiden, she needed to escape…
To protect everyone. She was the last line of defense.
Shaking her head, she put that out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about that for now. She had to focus on what she could take care of and pray that everything would take care of itself. So gazing quickly at the device she was calling someone on, Weiss promptly came up with a lie to cover her tracks. "I would, but I seem to have lost my Xyperia and don't know where it is…"
"Oh no, you lost your cell phone?!" The elegantly dressed girl looked distressed as she scanned around the stairwell and frowned. "I do hope no one picks it up! Remembering numbers is challenging enough in this day and age! Soon as they hang up, I'll lend you mine to see if you call your partner."
"Ah yes," Weiss lied through her teeth as she continued to scan around and hoped she could catch a glimpse of her friends but to no avail. "I'm afraid I don't remember…"
"Man, did you see that freak girl up there?" A voice caught her attention and interrupted her thoughts as a couple of passersby walked behind them in the thick crowd, and Weiss honed her attention to the conversation.
"Yeah, the one that fell from the sky and crashed into the ground! She weirded me out! What kind of gadget changes like that?! Wasn't it like a scythe before?"
"What?" Weiss caught what was said, and her eyes widened at the realization as she looked up and out of the tunnel and narrowed her eyes. "Ruby!"
"Hey, wait," The extravagant girl called out once more as Weiss began to stumble rapidly up the steps, determined to make her way to her team, hearing confirmation about the location of one of them. "Please don't strain yourself!"
Weiss tripped up on her feet several times, catching her balance with her hands as she occasionally had to crawl up the steps and slip by as many people as she could. She needed to get to Ruby. That was a start. From there, they could manage and find Blake and Yang.
And once together, they could sort this mess out and find a way back home.
If there was a way back.
Somehow, she wasn't sure there was right now.
Bright lights nearly blinded her as she passed the stairs and reached level ground. Even at night, this place was brightly lit, and the sounds were deafening. And she had no clue where to go from here as the crowds were thick, and she couldn't make heads or tails of anything here.
She was out of place, and she knew it.
The only thing she heard was the familiar sound of a car horn honking and the screeching of tires…
"Oh no, please let nothing bad be happening…" Weiss staggered toward the noise, figuring it would be her best opportunity to figure something out.
She knew Ruby was around, and she could only hope that heading toward the more chaotic noises would lead her in the right direction.
Or it would lead her to Yang.
It was a fair bet to be either of the sisters. If this led them to somewhere unfamiliar, she would put lien on one of them being the first to cause trouble. Unfortunately, she would be next in line in that betting pool as she saw Blake as the calmest of the four of them…
That was until she made her way through the crowd of people gathered, trying to figure out what was going on and what that shattering noise was.
She had never seen a crosswalk or streets like this before. It was so foreign to her. Atlas had nothing like this and certainly didn't need it. There wasn't the need to ferry so many pedestrians across the road at a given time, but there were undoubtedly so many here that she wasn't sure how to handle it.
Weiss' heart sank as she found out what the commotion was about, and her body froze as the scene played before her. Seeing Blake rolling off the side and seeing the dent in the front of the car and the tires spinning as it tried to pull away, she understood exactly what had happened.
Blake had landed here. And she was still too weak to move.
And she was struck by a car.
Tears began to welled in her eyes as fear struck her, seeing her friend's body lying limply across the massive road when another voice echoed across from her.
"BLAKE!"
A red dash of roses sprinted out of the crowd, hobbling as she did, as Ruby made her way toward the prone Blake. Weiss' eyes widened, and she began to make her way over, not caring that she wasn't in any better condition. They needed to take care of their friend!
Then the crack of a familiar weapon caught her attention as two shots rang out. Explosive shells blasted the car, and an ominous roar ripped from the other side of the massive stretch of road.
"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE!"
All of them were here!
Red and blue lights began to flicker through the scene, and Weiss wanted to scream as sirens filled the surrounding blocks. They had no clue where they were, and now the police were here! And Yang was on the warpath!
Collapsing next to Blake's prone form, desperately worried seeing her condition and Ruby freaking out, Weiss immediately planted her right hand onto her friend's wrist to search for a pulse. And it was faint, but it was there. And the smallest inhale from her chest let her know she was still breathing.
At least there was that.
"KEEP YANG CALM! I GOT BLAKE!" Weiss cried as she looked into her leader's eyes and waved to where Yang was stalking. "We don't know what's happening right now. The last thing we need is to start trouble! Keep her out of it, Ruby!"
Despite the shock of seeing Weiss here, recognizing what that meant, and wanting to scream, Ruby's attention shifted to seeing her sister stalking toward a now-stopped white car. And she realized how quickly things could get out of hand. "Right, keep her safe!"
"Yang!" Ruby cried out as she burst forward as sirens and lights flashed everywhere, trying to calm her sister.
Weiss winced and hoped Ruby could calm Yang as she was clearly in the middle of a Burn rage, and seeing her partner being struck like this must have put her in a foul mood if she wasn't already in one with everything. Glancing down at Blake, she grimaced as she checked on her friend and couldn't help but wish Jaune was here now. They needed...
"Let me through! I can help!"
"Jaune?!" Weiss cried out, her eyes widening to the horror of seeing him here and what that meant as the young man stumbled his way to her side. "No, not you too!"
"Yeah, I failed to make it." Jaune grimaced as he said as he placed his hands on Blake's stomach, concentrating his aura and beginning to focus on his semblance to help amplify Blake's. "At the very least, everyone got out. Your sister included."
"Oum, that's good to hear," Weiss breathed a sigh of relief before she sullenly glanced at her friend. "I'm sorry you're here. I wouldn't want anyone to go through that."
"Yeah, it wasn't pleasant, that's for sure. But, whatever it did to us, I can still feel it. My aura is weak and drained, so I can only do so much now." Jaune winced as he strained with every movement and draw of his aura. "Yeah, I'm going to be able to help her stabilize, and that's about it."
Weiss' eyes narrowed dangerously upon hearing that. Jaune Arc was nearly drained of his aura? No wonder why they were still struggling and felt so weak.
The void had done serious damage if it had put them in this state.
And seeing the light and cars pull up around them, Weiss poked Jaune and whispered to him. "If she's stable, stop. Something's off about this place. I don't think we should be erroneously using our semblances."
"Yeah, tell me about it. People seemed to be freaking out around me." Jaune nodded in agreement before taking a deep breath and shaking his head. "Done what I can for now. My aura is too dry to give her any more. She's stable enough for hers to take over."
Weiss softly smiled as she looked down at the frail form of her friend beneath her. At least she would be okay. Now was the real problem as people dressed in uniforms came rushing toward them…
Would they be okay wherever they were?
"Get out of there and face me, coward!" Yang roared as she strode onto the white car, the damage she inflicted with her two shots being enough to halt its momentum and it sputtered to a stop.
Stalking over as her aura burned, uncaring that she felt she could drop at any moment and darkness crept at the edges of her vision, she snarled at the sight of the vehicle. She did not care about the flashing lights or the sirens buzzing around her.
This person dared hit her friend and tried to flee the scene?! Who could do such a thing? What kind of person would do this?!
"Where do you think you are going, huh?!" Yang barked as she reached the car door and she reached for the door.
Her hand snapped back at the sound of a crack.
A gun fired, and a burn sizzled against her prosthetic hand as the bullet ricocheted off her hand. She had reached back instinctively to cover her face the moment she heard the sound. Her eyes burned brilliantly as they snapped to the cracked window and her rage heated further.
"You son of a bitch!"
In a blur, she snapped her prosthetic hand through the window, shattering it, grabbed the door, and ripped it off its hinges with a single mighty pull. Tossing it behind her and onto the street behind her, Yang saw the pathetic man inside looking horrified at what he was witnessing, holding a small caliber pistol in his trembling grasp.
She snarled as she moved faster than he could even react, pulling him out of the vehicle faster than he could respond and throwing him against the concrete below. Then, mounting him and dislodging the weapon from his grasp, and shoving it to the side, she pinned him firmly down and screamed at the defenseless man. "Do you think I would let you get away?! You ran over my friend!"
"And then you pull a gun on me! I'm about to beat your ass!"
"Yang, stop!" A voice echoed in her ears.
A familiar voice.
One that should not be here.
Her sister's.
"Ruby?!" Yang's head snapped to see her sister approaching her, who held her hands before her with worry drawn on her face as the red and blue light swarmed the scene of the square. "Why are you here?!"
"Same as you, I'm afraid. Blake tried to save me, and we ended up here." Ruby calmly talked and tried to soothe her sister, and with a quick look at the situation and saw how dire it was with police making a perimeter, she grimaced at what was about to happen, and she did not like it at all. "Weiss is here too, Yang…"
"We failed, and we're all here now. Wherever here is." Ruby cringed as she started to suspect something wasn't quite right as everything around seemed so foreign, and everyone spoke in a language she did not understand.
"No, no!" Yang trembled as tears flowed down her cheeks while she kept the driver pinned beneath her, slamming him down as she shook her head in disbelief. "We tried so hard…"
"I know," Ruby sullenly replied, her silver eyes dimming for a moment before she took a deep breath as she approached her sister. "But we have to move on, and the first step is you have to let him go. We're already in trouble, Yang. Let's not make this any worse than it is…"
Looking around, her red eyes slowly turned lilac. Everything became clear to her as all the lights came into focus. The city's massive scope and the foreign buildings surrounding her became crystal clear. The sheer number of people watching from the crosswalks at the spectacle was far greater than any amount she had seen in Remnant. And Weiss was holding Blake in her arms as paramedics came to her aid and…
Was that Jaune?
Oh, they really had failed, and they all fell into the void and came out
And surrounding her, officers with their guns drawn with a few others holding their arms out, speaking the language she didn't understand as if they were giving commands. Holding the perpetrator of the crime beneath her, she slowly let go of him as she began to understand she was out of her element and everything was wrong here.
She was in serious trouble, too, now.
Raising her hands and holding them behind her head, knowing the procedures as she may or may not have been arrested once or twice before due to her habits before becoming a Huntress, Yang blinked her eyes as she started to feel quite drowsy as darkness was creeping up on the edges of her vision. Trying to shake it off, she sighed as she felt an officer grip her wrists and pulled her off the driver and winced at being put into the ground next to him, her arms being put behind her back and cuffs snapped onto her wrists.
"Hey, wait…"
"Ruby! It's okay. I screwed up…" Yang stopped her sister from trying to help, knowing it would only make things worse. "Make sure Blake is okay for me, please?"
"I can't stand knowing one of us was hurt…"
"Yang…" Ruby started but seeing her sister's downtrodden but resolved face, she bit her lip and returned the resolution with a firm nod. "I will."
Turning to check on Blake, Ruby noted that the blonde boy helping her moments before everything turned out the way it had was out in the street complaining in his tongue to the police along with a blonde-haired girl while two others stood behind them. She absently wondered what they were talking about and why they were so adamant about arguing with officers…
Why was everything getting dark all of a sudden? And what was that?
Was that a blue butterfly fluttering before her vision?
"Ruby?" Yang called out as her lilac eyes caught Ruby stumbling and saw her sister clutch her head for a moment.
Then to her horror, she watched as her sister dropped to her knees and collapsed on the concrete below.
"RUBY!"