Chapter 7

RWBY was onboard their jump-ship, flying through warp-space toward the planet Venus.

Ruby: "Where did the transmission come from on Venus?"

B Ghost: "It's difficult to say. I'd say somewhere around the Ishtar Sink at best."

The ships rocketed out of warp, finding the sun scorched land of Venus. The ship flew downwards towards a ruined city.

Weiss: "What happened to this place?"

W Ghost: "The Collapse happened. So many great cities, thriving under the care of the Traveler...gone. We can rebuild worlds like these if we save the Traveler."

Blake: "Then let's find the stranger and find out what she knows."

The jump-ship flew downwards towards the ground dropped RWBY in front of the city. They walked through the ruined city, and took in the destroyed scenery. The buildings were covered in moss and decayed from thousands of years of no service. Fallen chatter was heard.

Blake: "Fallen."

Ruby: "In the building. Go!"

The four ran into one of the buildings. Fallen warriors dressed in bright white cloth were patrolling the area, looting for supplies.

Yang: "Blake. Who are these guys?"

Blake: "They're the House of Winter. They're leader is Kell Draksis."

Yang: "I can take 'em."

Ruby: "Wait. Let's try and avoid them right now."

Blake: "Actually, I got this."

Blake walked out of cover.

Ruby: "Blake! No! Wait!"

The Winter Fallen heard Ruby's yell. They turned to see Blake standing out in the open. The Captain let out a yell, sending the Fallen to attack. Blake closed her eyes as the ruthless Fallen closed the distance. When they were within range, Blake opened her eyes, and revealed that they were glowing bright blue. Electric energy flooded her body and a knife of arc light appeared in her hands. She teleported forward, leaving behind a shadow of herself to draw the Fallen's attention. She jumped forward, slashing her blade into two Vandals. She let out an arc explosion that blasted back three Dregs, and noticed the Captain try to charge her from behind. She teleported backwards, leaving a shadow that the Captain hit, causing an arc blast that sent him reeling as Blake stabbed him in the back with her arc blade, finishing it off. The arc energy dissipated from her body and her eyes returned to normal. She was panting heavily, the arc trance taking a toll on her body.

Blake: "Ow."

Yang: "Blake. That was awesome!"

Blake: "Glad you liked it. Because its going be at least an hour before I can do that again."

A transmission was received by Y Ghost.

Y Ghost: "I'm picking up the stranger's transmission again. It's a little distorted. But I have a general location."

Yang: "Then let's get to it."

RWBY summoned their Sparrows, speeding towards the transmission location. They arrived in what looked like an abandoned library.

Weiss: "Our vehicles can't go this far."

W Ghost: "Let's continue on foot."

The team walked inside the library, seeing the destroyed statues of unknown figures. A single pillar of energy streams was emerging from the ground in the middle of a massive library with two walkways above two hallways on either side of a massive garden-like field. Y Ghost began scanning the energy pillar.

Y Ghost: "Interesting. It's a conflux of non-baryonic streams."

Ruby: "What?"

Weiss: "Non-baryonic. It means its antimatter streams. But going where?"

Y Ghost: "I don't know. There's something constantly repeated here about the V..."

Before he could finish, blue energy orbs began to appear inside clouds of arc energy. Suddenly, hundreds of humanoid war machines began dropping out of the orbs. Some were basic foot soldiers, others carried massive snipers, others were large with energy shields, and the rest were floating drones with auto-cannons. All of them opened fire with energy weapons.

Yang: "Look out!"

Yang stomped the ground and a massive void shield engulfed RWBY, protecting them from the onslaught of death. She stood in a holding position to maintain the shield.

Yang: "Come up with a plan quickly! I can't hold this thing up forever!"

Blake: "What are those things?"

Ruby: "It's the Vex! The message was faked to lure us into a trap!"

Weiss: "What are they individually called?"

Ruby: "Uh the floating ones are Harpies, the foot soldiers are Goblins, the snipers are Hobgoblins, and the big ones are called Minotaurs."

Yang: "Hurry up with that plan!"

Ruby: "Alright. Alright. Weiss. Blake. Take the top walkways. Yang. Take the bottom right!"

Yang: "Got it. Dome's dropping in 3...2...1!"

The dome dropped and RWBY rocketed sideways to their respective walkways. Ruby sliced through the Goblins on her level with her scythe, jumping forward, sweeping away multiple Goblins in one strike. She fired a sniper into a Hobgoblin on the opposite walkway. The Hobgoblin crouched down, creating a fiery aura that disintegrated the coming shots. Weiss used an ice blast from her sword to freeze it in place then smash through it. She fired her body with solar energy, increasing her movement speed. She dashed forward, slicing through two Harpies and then throwing out fiery grenades that melted the Goblins in the center aisle. A Minotaur teleported in front of her. She waved her hand, and a blast of energy sent the Minotaur flying back and falling into pieces. Yang flew forward on her walkway, smashing through the Goblins with quick strikes from her gauntlets, firing off concussive shotgun blasts that went through the Goblins, hitting the Hobgoblins behind. She picked up a Goblin, throwing it into a Harpy on Blake's walkway. Blake threw her knife into a Hobgoblin, firing her pistol, blasting off multiple Hobgoblins. Blake smacked multiple Goblins off the walkway into Yang's shotgun blast with her whip.

When all the Vex were destroyed, RWBY began investigating the mechanical husks.

Female voice: "You survived."

The group saw a female Exo in a hunter cloak walk down to them.

Ruby: "You sent the message."

Stranger: "I did."

Yang: "What do you want from us?"

Stranger: "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain. Yes, I found them."

Y Ghost: "Who are you talking to?"

Stranger: "Not to you...little light."

Y Ghost: "I'm a Ghost, actually."

Stranger: "There's not a lot of time, so I'll make this quick. I'm from the future of your timeline. You're in a timeline in which Grimm and Faunus never existed. When the Collapse began here, a temporal rift opened that threw you four into this timeline."

She walked over to a still functioning Vex, placing her foot on its stomach.

Stranger: "And where our paths cross...ground could break."

She crushed the Vex, killing it.

Stranger: "Have you ever heard of the Black Garden?"

R Ghost: "Only the legends."

Stranger: "The Black Garden is one of the things keeping you here. Find the Garden and rip out its heart. Only then will the Traveler begin to heal. What's that? Kill the engines and don't let them find you."

The Stranger pulled out a rifle and disappeared.

Ruby: "That was...weird."

R Ghost: "To find the Black Garden, we'd have to travel to the realm of the Awoken. The ones that aren't friends with Earth. At the edge of space and light. Can't we just stay here with the murderous robots?"

Ruby: "No little light."

R Ghost: "Don't do that."