RWBY
RWBY Loops Theater!
By BrokenChosenofEva
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Title: [continued]
Prompt: various
Word Count: 4.1k+
Rating: T
Summary: Loops Theater AU. RWBY joins the Loops. Weiss Awakes to the same thing everytime, Ruby blowing her whistle in their room on the first day of classes.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Notes: This is not Part of Innortal's "Infinite Loops" universe. Feel free to send me any ideas you have or scenes you'd like me to do. I'll credit you at the beginning of the block where I use it.
Intro is "This Will Be the Day (James Landino remix)", and the outro is "Time to Say Goodbye (James Landino remix)". Find them on YouTube.
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5.a
She blinked, feeling like she had just woken up from a nightmare or deep sleep, and looked around the courtyard between Beacon itself and the airship dock. Later, she would realize how accurate "Waking up" was for what happened.
Blake watched Ruby yell happily as she charged at and missed Weiss, the Heiress easily sidestepping the brunette. Yang caught Weiss' eye and lazily drew a circle beside her head, which the other girl acknowledged with a nod, before moving in her direction.
Everything was wrong. This- this had happened already... There was no way she had dreamed the last six years of her life, not in such vivid detail. She- she'd watched Yang die...
And She had died... The thought caught her off-balance and froze her even as Yang approached. She had died, there was no way she should be back here. Unless her penance for her crimes in the White Fang was to relive her adopted family dying in six years over and over.
"Hey there! Name's Yang Xiao Long!" Yang walked up to her, smiling with a wave of greeting, drawing Blake's attention and bringing everything back into focus.
Looking -really looking- at her past and future partner, teammate, and friend, Blake thought she saw age in the blonde's calm lilac eyes. Something old that wasn't there in her memories.
"Yang..." Blake blinked, trying to keep her suddenly blurring vision clear, "W-what's going on? We, I, You j-just..."
"Blakey...?" Yang froze, her grin vanishing in an instant, and Blake thought she felt the brush of a warm, golden Aura against her own, "Kitty, focus. Just breathe, I'm right here."
"How- I just-" though normally a quiet woman by choice, Blake was an avid reader with an appropriately large vocabulary -one which rivalled even Weiss' educated lexicon-, but she found herself without it as she finally noticed the tears pouring down her face, "Y-yang...?"
"Come here, Blakey." Yang pulled her into a hug, wrapping her in that same golden glow she remembered from the last few years, "It's alright, we're all here. It wasn't a dream, Kitty, I remember it too. I'm sorry you saw that."
"How?" she mewled plaintively, leaning into her close friend, letting the tears fall as she fought her memories to gain some kind of even footing in her mind.
"Weiss says Time is... broken, or something." there was another pulse of Aura, and Blake felt a faint brush of what must be Weiss' chilly Aura followed by the scent of roses she knew was Ruby, "She's been in these Loops for awhile, then I started. Ruby started not long ago, though that kinda depends on your definition of "long"."
Yang snickered at her joke, letting Blake regain some control and stop her tears.
"Come on, we can chat tonight, and Weiss can explain." the blonde begins pulling Blake along, acting -to outsiders- like she was hanging with a close friend. Which she was, "I know Rubes will be glad the whole team is back together."
0o0o0o0
5.b
"Zombies! Yeah!" Ruby cheered, darting forward from the defenses after the four of them Woke up in unison.
"Ruby, hold up!" Yang blasted after her, leaving just Weiss and Blake to deal with the few undead already at the low walls.
Blake stayed in place using the pistol function and her ribbon to arc her sword into and through zombies, while Weiss shook her head and used her dust to burn and freeze groups of targets.
After a few minutes, Weiss and Blake are able to take a breather with the local zombies now firmly focused on the Sisters and their mix of gunfire and cheering.
"You don't seem bothered by this."
"Yang and I have been "here" before." Weiss admits, glancing over at Blake's calm question, "Last time it ended with the two of us trapped in the dining hall."
"How long did that take?" Blake blinked, glancing back over the barricades to see Ruby finish off the last zombie and high-five Yang, "I imagine you ran out of food first."
"No." Weiss shook her head, opening Myrternaster and removing the partially spent Dust cylinder, "CRDN and JNPR took all the food and the kids, while Yang and I drew in the creatures. Maybe... half an hour? I think? Yang had been bitten several times and I'd been clawed, and one of her shots went wide."
"She shot you?"
"No, the roof. I was crushed right as the horde swamped her, so I doubt she suffered." Weiss winced, "That sounded cold."
"If she never complained about it, I doubt she actually went down." Blake snickered.
"Fair point. Let's get settled in, maybe we can make a record this time."
0o0o0o0
5.c
Yang took a deep breath, then pushed open the doors to Junior's Club and Bar.
Something Blake had said when describing her thoughts upon Waking up at the beginning of her First Loop had put an itch in her own head. "Penance for her crimes", Blake had said, and it triggered Yang's own memory of how she trashed Junior's Club before the start of the Loops.
While she'd never given it much thought, Blake's words had struck a cord, and she found herself wanting to do something to "balance the scales", as Weiss might say. The only thing she could come up with, though, was what she was doing now: ask Junior for a job bartending or waitressing to pay him back for the cost of repairs.
By this point in the Loops, Yang was pretty sure she could get the Bartender/Information Broker to let her, even if it took some fast talking or "suggestions" with Ember Celica. But this would be the first time she interacted with him outside of ordering drinks on Team Nights with RWBY -and, on occassion, JNPR-, and she was glad this was a Home Loop. Every little bit helped, after all, and not to forget she was just old enough and -even if she did say so herself- rather hot.
Snickering at her internal joke, the Blonde made her way to the bar not far from Junior, feeling his gaze and the eyes of his Boys as she walked around the large dance floor. It put her on edge, since she knew they must be thinking of the fight several months ago, but she kept her cool and left Ember Celica as "mere" bracelets.
Sliding onto a stool, she paused a moment before gently sliding her weapons off and setting them on the counter top.
"Strawberry Sunrise, with the little umbrella." She grinned, watching Junior begin making the drink, "I wanna ask ya somethin'.
"Not information." She quickly held up her hands and continued, Junior pausing mid-turn with a glare, "A job. I wanna work here. Ya know, try to pay off the damage I caused last time."
He eyed her, finishing the drink and stepping over to set it next to the bracelets.
"Why now?" he grumbled, shooting her a dark look, "Ya coulda come back any time before now, or just stayed away. Not like I'm gonna involve the police to chase down a Huntress, they'd ask too many questions."
"Let's just say a friend gave me a new perspective." Yang took a sip of her drink, looking at the mirror behind the bar, "You gonna let me or not?"
"Friday and Saturday nights. You'll waitress for a couple weeks, then maybe I'll see how you mix drinks." Junior grabs a cloth from under the bar and begins to wipe it down, glancing at Yang to see how she reacts, "I'll let ya keep any tips, you'll have earned those, but instead of paying ya I'll put that money back until you've payed for the Dance Floor.
He snorted, "Won't make ya pay for everything, I'm not that much of a hard-ass."
Yang nods, accepting she won't be getting much free time on weekends for the forseeable future. Then again, depending on if she liked it, she might try again next Loop.
"Now get outta here, Blondie. I expect you at six, after classes." he nods to the doors, "And don't think you can show up late, I know when Beacon classes end."
"Inside information?" Yang teased.
"Personal experience. Where did you think I learned to use my weapon? I may be rusty, but I'm no mook."
"Alright, see ya tomorrow Junior." Yang stood, setting down some Lien to pay and collecting Ember Celica, and started walking away.
"And it's Mr. Xiong when you're working. Junior is for friends and business associates, you're just an employee."
Yang waved over her shoulder, already thinking of ways to get out of anything not school related on Friday nights.
0o0o0o0
5.d
Having Black Rock Shooter appear instead of Coco as Velvet's partner and team leader was, in Weiss opinion, a rather appropriate twist. The girl, small as Weiss herself, used a weapon similar to Coco's own, and their personalities -while different- were not too different.
Honestly, Weiss had been wondering when she would share a Loop on Remnant with her just as Weiss had been in Shooter's. Being able to introduce the other girl to her Awake friends was a treat as well, since the last time they'd been Unawake versions.
Still, getting Shooter to help her plan out some interesting changes to the timeline would -she hoped- be an entertaining exercise.
0o0o0o0
5.e
"It's time." Weiss growled, blinking behind her Grimm mask as she Woke up to the site of a younger Blake seated on a rock in the Forever Fall Forest, This is going to be...odd...
"Okay." Blake murmurred, standing to follow Weiss as the currently Bull Faunus "Heiress" lead the way to where her Loop memories directed her.
I'm Adam? Really now? The irony of being my own executioner... Weiss grumbled in her mind, letting her memories and their disturbingly detailed instincts lead her through the Raid on the train. Blake had told her, in a few different Loops, how this had played out. The only difference this time -aside from being in Adam's place- was that she had her Semblance, instead of swapping to the "new" person's Semblance as had happened when she was Neo near the beginning of Yang's Loops.
Fighting with a Katana and Shotgun was a challenge, but an enjoyable one. The simple elegance of the Katana, the clean and precise strikes that cut through her targets, was attractive to her. It reminded her somewhat of her Fencing, quick and precise moves meant to limit wasted energy. The Shotgun was an interesting addition, giving her a close-in punch she normally lacked, though she missed her arsenal of Dust.
For her finishing strike against the spider droid, she decided to use something she'd been experimenting with using Myrternaster. Summoning a Time Glyph beneath the large robot, she leapt towards it. Bounding around it, she struck at the main joints and ended with a strike that clove its head in two as she landed with her back to it, sheathing her sword. Thirteen Cuts of the Mirror, she called it in her mind, and the machine fell to pieces as the Glyph faded and time resumed.
Looking up, she saw Blake on the next car, standing alone and ears folded.
"Goodbye." she called, drawing Gambol Shroud and cutting the linkage, her voice soft and forlorn. But then something sparked in her eyes as she looked at Weiss, and the Heiress felt a shift in the Cat Faunus' Aura.
Clearing the gap with a Glyph assisted leap, Weiss reached up and swept the Grimm mask off, curtseying with a smile at her Awake friend.
"Hello, Blake." she tossed the mask off the back of the train, "I'd been wondering what to do with this Loop. Do you think a take-over would be acceptable?"
"Hello, Weiss." Blake smiled, sighing as she relaxed against a crate, weapon limp at her side, "What are we taking over?"
"How do you feel about converting the White Fang and trapping Cinder?" Weiss smirked.
Blake smirked back, her expression predatory, "I think that sounds good."
0o0o0o0
5.f [idea from Christopherweebkingjr, hopefully it's what you were talking about]
Blake was the first to call attention to it, and it surprised Weiss that neither she nor Yang had seen it before then. On Ruby's left ring finger was a plain silver band. When Ruby Woke up after Sparring Class, the group decided to ask her back in the room.
"Hey, guys?"
"Yeah, Rubes?" Yang turned to her sister, seeing the younger girl sitting at the desk and playing with the ring. Looks like little sis will bring it up first, she thought.
"Have... any of you been engaged, in the Loops?" Ruby glanced over to Weiss, grinning for a moment, "And Jaune doesn't count."
Weiss huffed, cheeks flushing as she turned her head away, and Yang laughed while Blake chuckled softly.
"Who is it, little sis?" the blonde teased.
"Their name is on the ring." she slides it off, turning it over and around as she searches for the small, engraved cursive letters, "It looks kinda faded... Nob Ropuno?"
"Give me that." Weiss snaps, gently taking the ring and turning it around and over before reading with a dumb-founded expression, "Cinder Fall?!"
Dead silence fills the dorm room before Yang starts laughing, ending up falling from her bunk and landing unhurt with a flare of heat from her Aura, gasping for breath. Blake stares, unblinking, looking for all the world like "the lights are on and no one is home". Weiss, however, stares at the ring much like Ruby: with morbid facination.
"Not a Home Loop..."
Which of the two girls speaks is hard to tell, but it restarts Yang's laughter and the blonde begins to wheeze as she tries to catch her breath.
"Nope." Blake speaks a single word and leaps from the window, Gambol Shroud suddenly on her back, and darts off into the evening light.
"Guys..." Ruby looks up to Weiss after sparing her sister a single glance, "Um... what do I do...? My Loop memories aren't really clear, and I did't recognize the guy. It was kinda dark when they gave it to me..."
"Wait, guy?" Weiss stared, and Yang froze to blink owlishly at her sister.
"Yeah... That's why I read it like I did..." Ruby blushed, ducking her head, "You can see the engraving is old...kinda... and Cinder didn't make sense!"
Ruby waved her hands, "I kinda remember a guy in a red, tailed coat and amber...eyes... oh..."
"Definitely not a Home Loop." Yang commented, "Maybe we should get Blake back here..."
"You do that," Weiss frowned and began rubbing her temples, eyes pressed closed, "This is not something I've experienced before."
"Gender-swapping?" Ruby asked, earning an odd look from the other two girls, and she blushed again as her eyes darted around the room, "I, uh, may have read a couple of Blake's Ninjas of Love books a couple Loops ago..."
Weiss shook her head and left, calling out she would get Blake, while Yang looked like she couldn't decide between laughing or blowing up Blake's bookshelf.
0o0o0o0
5.g
Yang glanced around the airship excited to finally be heading for Beacon, and as she turned back to her sister she Woke up. Blinking, she finished turning and wished she waited the extra few seconds for her Loop memories to settle.
Stand where Ruby normally stood was a girl her size with lavender hair and red eyes. Zero Rose her Loop memories whispered, but the confusion in the girl's eyes bespoke a possible new angle to this -apparently- Home Loop.
"This is not the Geofront." Calm, almost cool, the other girl eyed her with a hint of burried curiosity.
That clinched it for Yang. She didn't know what a "geofront" was, but whoever this girl was, she wasn't from Remnant.
"My name's Yang Xiao Long. Welcome to Remnant." she grinned, hoping this odd replacement for Ruby would catch the hint.
"Rei Ayanami, First Children." she paused, "Earth. What is this place?"
"Uh, dirt?" Yang blinked, then snickered, "Check your Loop memories, that should help. Looks like you might be standing in for Ruby, my baby sister."
"Interesting..."
"Oh, Weiss is gonna love this."
0o0o0
One thing Yang hadn't really realized until she followed her "sister" out of the airship was her cape. Ice blue, just a little darker than Weiss' symbol on her bolero jacket. The other was Rei's symbol: a stylized bird-skull with seven eye-sockets, reminicent of the Nevermore's Grimm mask. She'd have to ask the mysterious and quiet girl about it later; the symbols that Hunters wore often signified their family or something about themselves.
"So, Weiss Schnee is the Anchor. I'm guessing you're one, or know what that is?" Yang asks, spotting the Heiress in the distance.
"I do. However, my Anchor is Asuka Suzuhara-Sohryu." Rei's soft voice can just be heard over the chatter of the other students leaving around them and poor Jaune vomiting in the trash can nearby, "I was the second to Awake in my World. I am no longer sure how many Loops I have experienced, though it is over a hundred."
"That's about how long I've been Looping." Yang gave a nod, then paused in thought, "Hey, how long are your Loops? We've got about six years before ours ends, seems pretty much a Home Loop so far."
"One year, bar any changes we make to avoid the ending event. Which do not always work." Rei turns to look at Yang, "How many of your Anchor's companions are Looping? For my World, it is only myself and Shinji."
"Four, including Ice Queen." Yang sees Rei squint her eyes and grins, "Ice Queen is the nickname everybody gave Weiss."
"I see." despite her words, Yang feels confident Rei doesn't but lets it go.
"That's Weiss, I'm pretty sure she's Awake. She's always Awake by the time we reach Beacon, which is where we are now." the Blonde points out the Heiress, gesturing for Rei to go over, "I'm gonna chat with Blake, see if she's Awake this time too."
Rei gives a single bob of her head to signify she heard, and separates from Yang to greet Weiss as the other girl turns.
"You're not Ruby." Weiss stares for a moment, recalling her odd Loop with one "Black Rock Shooter", and offers her hand in greeting, "I'm Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."
"Rei Ayanami, First Chidlren of NERV." Rei takes the offered hand, giving it a single shake before letting go, "Though here my memories say I am Zero Rose."
"Better get used to the new name." Weiss turns, gesturing for Rei to follow, and begins walking to the Main Hall, "Is your sister, Yang, Awake?"
"Yes. She's talking to Blake, to ascertain if she is Awake as well." Rei falls in step beside the Heiress, then asks, "Ms. Schnee, are there any locations we could talk in private? I am curious about the difference between this "Semblance" and Aura I appear to have, and my AT-Field."
"Now you've caught my interest. An AT-Field?" Weiss spares her a glance, "But yes, we can go to the roof tonight before Lights-Out."
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5.h
Ruby Woke up, bolting upright in bed and shaking it in it's precarious looking hangings. She managed to stay silent, but the tears pouring down her face wouldn't stop, and neither would the sense of being swallowed in a sea of others.
Sending out her Aura, a swirl of rose petals exploded into existance in the room and filled it instantly with the scent of them. She rolled out of bed, trying to land lightly and slamming to the floor instead, startling the other three girls awake -and Awake- as she struggled with a twisted ankle and tears fighting to become sobs.
Weiss reached her first, by virtue of being right next to her on the bottom bed of their "bunk bed". The Heiress asked no questions, simply wrapping her in a hug and lightly pressing her own Aura firmly against Ruby's. She was quickly joined by Yang, with Blake just behind her, the other two girls applying their own Auras as Yang joined in the hug and Blake stood just behind her partner.
It was an instant relief to the Red Reaper, and never before had she hated that nickname. Reaper, like what she'd been trapped into doing. Even if she'd had no control in what happened, she'd been in the center of it, and she felt truly sorry that Rei and Shinji were forced to experience it over and over in their World and its Loops.
She felt the separation between herself and the others, their Auras contacting but not mixing with hers, and leaned into her sister and all their Auras.
"I'm me, just me." she chanted, soon breaking down into quiet cries as her tears soaked into Yang's tank top, "I'm back, you're here, it's ok."
Later, after she'd calmed and passed out, after they'd gone back to bed -though Yang and Weiss quietly argued if Ruby should stay with one of them before Blake told them to just put her into her own bed with Yang's scarf and her red cloak-, and after they'd gone about their day of classes while keeping a close eye on their lethargic leader, she finally told them about her Loop.
She'd cried again, but not as much as last night, and they'd told her about Rei and her visit -Weiss theorizing that Ruby had indeed been correct in assuming Rei returned in Asuka's next Loop, since Ruby had returned- and let Ruby avoid describing exactly what the end of the Loop had put her through. Whatever it had been, the other three knew they wouldn't force the younger girl to relive those memories before she was ready to share.
It would be sometime before the Red Reaper stopped reacting to the nickname with a wince. And longer before she was comfortable sharing her AT-Field with her team, though when Weiss Awoke with her own AT-Field and told them of her time in Asuka's world she found it a little easier.
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A/N: For any confusion, and crossovers/cameos.
Here goes:
5.a You may have noticed in an earlier block that I mention "expanding" their Auras out away from themselves. I'll be visiting that in a future Loop, but for now it's based on the thought that Hunters need to "expand" their Aura into their weapons to trigger the Dust -like Weiss and Myrternaster-, so why not use that ability for other things?
5.b Finally! Details on Weiss and Yang's "Zombies!" Loop. ^_^
5.g "Well hello, Blue." ...nah, doesn't sound quite right. Merged Loop! {Crossover with "Instrumentality Loopers"} And silly me, I forgot to tag the "Black Rock Shooter" Loop -back near the beginning- as a Merged Loop. Feel free to write Black Rock Shooter Loops, or suggest the idea to someone who might enjoy doing so.
5.h Ruby is back from her Loop on Second Impact Earth, and it left a mark. {plays into a later Loop, it'll be obvious when posted}