RWBY: Tales From The Paradox

Kingdom of Remnants Act I: The Lonesome Drifter

Sat upon the high throne was the Red Queen herself. Adorned on her was no crown nor jewels, but a simple mask. It was nothing more than a steel cold face, yet it conveyed so many emotions at once. Her many servants cowered before her, before her burning hate, her sickening joy, her childish envy, her sudden fright and her outbursts of sorrow. Slowly, she raised her right hand, fingers curled into a fist, and slammed it on the throne.

"Begin. AGAIN!"

As her voice echoed through the air, the set changed again, back to the empty amphitheater, with only the Leverian. Rows upon rows of dolls raised, created new lines of audiences. At the end of the amphitheater was the Queen's throne.

Yang swore that she had heard the voice before. But she couldn't put her hand on where. Got to give credit to Leverian, his voice acting and puppeteering almost made the puppet alive, somehow.

"Ladies and gentlemen! An entertainment!"

A new doll entered the stage. It was the drifter, dressed in rag, but her emblem shone like crystal under the light. In her hand was a scythe.

The doll wandered around the stage, back hunched down, head turned from side to side, alerted. The scythe in its hand shook with each movement.

"How many times will one dissenter die...before accepting their fate?"

Leverian frolicked on the stage. His hand raised up, danced in the air as if he was controlling something. And that something soon showed itself. A porcelain wyvern, a skeletal replica of the wyvern that attacked them that night.

"I ask you once more!"

Leverian's voice was booming, as if it was thunder.

Some of the audience dreaded at the sight, others cowered. Most couldn't rid the image of death and destruction from their mind.

"How many times will one fool die... "

The wyvern descended.

It assaulted the drifter doll, again, again, and again. Its body twisting, its fangs bared out. Its wings created great winds. Like a great beast against the small prey, it toyed with the doll.

"How much will one proud human soul suffer…"

Audiences gasped at the sight, the weak hearted and empathetic felt queasy due to how brutal and odd realistic it was.

"Before bending a knee to the greatness of their eternal queen?"

The Red Queen descended. Leverian kneeled down with grace, as if he was one of her servants, her jester.

Controlling the wyvern wasn't Leverian, but the Queen herself.

Yet, against the unending assault of the great beast, the drifter stood, scythe in hand. She raised a defense pose, prepared for the wyvern to come. And it came, again, again and again. With each strike, the drifter slowly broke down, pieces by pieces. Until it was nothing more than a broken doll.

Yet, it stood up once more, using the scythe as its support.

"Citizens of Remnants."

The Queen spoke with a child like voice. She turned to the drifter doll dangled on the stage.

She reminded Yang of something in the past, while Weiss and Blake found it oddly familiar.

Her tone was full of pride and mockery.

"It is a well-known fact, to each and every one of us, yes?"

Her hand twisted, so was the wyvern.

"That the unbent knee... must… be… broken."

With a flick of her finger, the wyvern flew straight toward the drifter, devouring her.

The curtain dropped down, signifying the change of the set.

"That was a good way to show the dynamic of the show. A lowly drifter against a tyrant queen, a little cliché but I think it isn't bad."

Nora commented. Her teammates stared at her.

"What?"

"When did you become an expert in storytelling?" Jaune asked.

"I watch plenty of movies, you know?"

Ren however, didn't pay attention to his friend's conversation.

"Anyone one else feel like… we are watching a movie?"

"We are watching a play, Ren. It's the ancestor of movies." Nora said with a professional voice.

"No, I mean it's like… like we are not watching a play, but a movie. Like down there, they aren't dolls, but real people, in a scene…" He found the word rolled from his tongue. "Like we are watching a recorded scene."

That didn't make much sense, did it?
"Ren's right. It does feel like that, especially when the wyvern moves. It felt like… Like someone was really fighting against it." Pyrrha almost spoke her mind out. The idea itself was outlandish.

The scythe, the hair, the way the drifter doll moved, Jaune couldn't shake the nagging thought out of his mind.

"It felt like Ruby was fighting it." Jaune spurted out, quickly covering his mouth out of shame. "No, nah, forget it! Let's just focus on the play."

"Ever get that feeling you're stuck? Spinning inside your little wheel. Only to find... you're right back where you started."

A female voice came. Yang realized whose it was. It was Rose's voice.

She turned to her 'older' sister. Only to find sweats ran on her check, with a red blush on it. Her eyes, however, were filled with something else, less cheerful.

"Uh, Rose, was that your voice?" Ruby asked.

"Ah, yes, I mean, no. He asked me to voice this part for him once, and he has been using it ever since, that's all."

Blake felt like this was something else, something more personal.

"But that is yours, isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"This… play, you are, or more like were, an actor in it, right?"

"Just… just an actor, nothing else."

She didn't want to push it since Rose clearly didn't want to talk about it.

The curtain raised. The scene changed back to the Queen's Palace square, when the execution of the drifter occurred.

"And so it goes."

Came the tired voice of the drifter.

She was dragged into the square, with the Grimm Guard surrounding her. The guard was humanoid, but they were made of porcelain plates upon a metal skeleton, on their faces were a mask much akin to the Grimm's. They pushed her down, forced her to kneel before the executor.

"Day by day, year by year, until you're dead... inside."

Slowly, she raised up. Her unkempt hair covered part of her face, her eyes dulled with time. Her visage showed a long endured tiredness and sadness.

"You feel nothing."

The play became more and more uncanny as the seconds passed by. On the stage weren't mere dolls any more. In the eyes of the spectator, they were real people, trapped in a monotonous world. To those who came to see, it was a warrior who was punished for sins they knew not of. To the invited, it was their friend's.

Jaune thought that he might be crazy. Maybe, the fight left him with some form of shell shock, because from the moment he entered the amphitheater, all he saw was his friend, down there. He hoped that it was just his delusion. Unfortunate for him, his sentiment was shared among his friends.

To the four members of team RWBY, they too saw Ruby. But not the one they knew, their childish, kind and eccentric leader. The Ruby on the stage was a veteran, an old huntsman, much like her father, Taiyang. No, that wasn't Ruby, it was Rose's. She was the drifter.

"You're just a prisoner trapped in the spiral of someone else's dream..."

Spear in the executor's hand came down, struck through her chest, giving her a swift, but painful death, as she gasped and groaned before finally leaving the world behind.

Or so they thought, before the scene played once more, as the Queen stared down from her tower. Her voice was a mix of fury and malice.

"Begin. AGAIN!"

"What kind of play is this? Someone has a kink about killing that girl or what?"

One of the spectators grunted. To be precise, it was Coco, team CFVY's leader. Her team was offered a stay at this place, and while they were resting yesterday, one of the staff recommended the amphitheater. Needless to say, while the effects used were spectacular, the story opening wasn't what she expected from something advertised as 'fairy tale inspired'.

As the drifter was dragged to the square, came the voice of the executor.

Pyrrha spoke, with anger laced into her tone.

"You've made the queen furious."

Her eyes were wild with rage, yet kept in a controlled state. Her body tensed, ready to strike, but also strained to keep her in place. She was akin to a beast, with a burning hunger within, waiting to strike her prey with spear in hand.

"Not just her. ME!"

She spat. The rage that was kept in check lashed out.

"We both had enough of you!"

Her voice lowered, turned into a snarl

To anyone who knew Pyrrha, well or not, it was, in short, unusual. She wasn't really a perfect goddess, that was something they knew by default. But she had never shown such hatred and anger before.

Needless to say, her team was caught by surprise, somewhat weakened by the scenes before, but surprised still. She was always gentle, not anger incarnate.

"Well, she sure does look like you. What… What a coincidence, right?"

Jaune tried to break the tension formed on Pyrrha's face. But to no avail, as she grimaced at the other Pyrrha. As much as she hated to say it, the scene reminded her of her childhood. However, why would anyone do it, adding her into a play as an antagonist?

Regaining her composure, Pyrrha bellowed..

"By the order of her majesty. Death. BY-"

The drifter rolled her eyes, tired and wanted for it to finish. With a mocking tone, she went:

"Death. By. Impal-"

And accidentally stole the executor's words.

"YOU WILL LOOK AT ME WENT I-"

The drifter, however, didn't follow her word. Instead, she zoned out and turned to the sky. A bright green comet painted the gray blanket. She furrowed. Green?

Out of nowhere, she felt a blade struck through her heart. A phantom pain, manifested in her mind as an astral blade came from one side and entered out from another of her body. A voice echoed.

'If you can't kill it, send it to hell.'

Her aura flared a bright red, as her body spasmed. When she opened her eyes, no wound was to be found. And as some kind of irony, her mind became clearer, as life returned to her eyes.

"Is there supposed to be a prequel, which we miss, or is that a plot point for a future sequel? Why is there a blade? Why did it come through not-Ruby's chest? What was that voice? Why did her aura flared up? Will there be any explanation to this at all in the future? Why is the story so confusing?"

Nora ranted. With one hand, Ren hugged his head, with the other, he held Nora down from jumping toward the stage.

"It's only 5 minutes into the play, Nora. I think there will be explanations."

"There's better be one, several! I am not going to spend days and months piecing the story out after this."

She finally sat down and gave Ren some peace of mind.

The executor was also surprised by what happened, turned around to find the source of it. As her gaze switched to the sky, she chuckled.

"HA! Even better!"

The drifter followed her gaze as Pyrrha's hand pointed to it. The green comet came down at an alarming rate, threatening to fall at her exact position.

"Death. BY… METEOR!"

Pyrrha raised her hand up with a victorious bellow. The Grimm Guard stood still, like the doll they were. Only she moved, at the exact right time.

The green meteor collided with the ground, blasted the guards always, while Pyrrha was nowhere to be found.

The drifter pushed herself up and cautiously moved toward the crater. Laid inside of it, wasn't a piece of rock, but…

"Headmaster's Ozpin cane?!" Ruby exclaimed by the bizarre object. It was Beacon's headmaster's weapon, which was one of the most vital parts of his ensemble. Who could ever forget his iconic pose in almost every picture he took?

Yang turned to her sister, but before she did so, she decided to check on her other sister first. Rose was still acting weird, or maybe that was how she often acted, but she was clearly feeling uneasy. She held her right hand, which was something she wanted to ask, before Ruby yelled (lowly) again.

She reached out to grab the cane, but it grabbed her first. Latched onto her right hand was some kind of ethereal green wire, pulling her down. When she managed to pull her hand out, she found a new thing on it. The cane turned into a gauntlet, which locked itself on her hand. She tried to take it off, but no matter how hard she tried it wouldn't even budge. She gave up and inspected the gauntlet. On it was a lever and golden gears. A sphere of light came out when she pulled the lever. It flew around, before making its way straight out of the square.

"Hey!" The drifter yelled. Without any other viable option, she decided to follow the light.

"It can do that?" Ruby squealed. Weiss had to remind her friend that they were in an amphitheater.

One could simply imagine her reaction to the next scene.

Facing a Grim Guard, she raised her hand up and pressed the trigger. A bolt of green magic shot out, turning the guard into black ashes. She ran, as fast as she could, laughed victoriously. But without any attention to her surroundings, she found her victory came short. She took a turn, for the worst in both the literal sense and the metaphorical sense, as a guard caught her and immediately grabbed her by her neck. With a quick snap, her body went limp.

"And so, the daring huntress was slain!"

The Red Queen chuckled darkly.

Velvet, another member of team CFVY, almost jumped when she heard the Queen's voice. She forgot that the Queen was there, always on her throne in the background.

"Or was it?"

The Queen's fist met the throne, then the scene repeated again. The drifter awoke with a sharp breath, a hand on her neck. She looked around, the gauntlet still in her hand. She turned to the light, it was there, still floating in the air. She followed it once again, this time with more focus.

She made her way toward the entrance of the Palace, finding her way out. The light guided her, and there it was. Connected to the mainland was a bridge, when she crossed it, she would be out of this place soon. She jumped from roof to roof, made her way to the bridge. Then the Queen's voice echoed again.

"A glimmer of hope… until the great wyvern Pyrrha darkened the sky above."

A portal tore the sky open, and from it, a wyvern appeared, cladded in red bronze armor. A single roar was enough to shake the ground.

"Hungry for the huntress's flesh."

Whoever wrote the script was either a messed up fan, or a deranged hater of his partner, Jaune concluded. Pyrrha seemed to fare it better than he thought she would, considering that her name was being used by that monster. Then again, Pyrrha might not be an uncommon name either.

The wyvern danced in the sky, she decided to leave it aside and ran as fast as she could toward the bridge. She used the gauntlet to destroy some of the guard around the bridge then focusing all of her stamina into running away. When she reached the middle of the bridge, the wyvern dove down. Its enormous body crashed the bridge right in front of her. The bridge crashed down, she managed to return to the Palace's side. Looking around, she tried to find a different way out. What she found was a spear to her chest, by the guard that surrounded the area after the wyvern's descent.

"What's gotten into you?"

The Queen spoke, her voice laced with mockery.

"My world, my rules!"

And her fist slammed onto the throne once more.

"Why does this feel like a video game?" Coco rubbed her chin. "Doesn't the Queen want her death? Why did she let her begin again and again?"

"Prolonged suffering," Fox, her partner, answered. "She can kill her, but why do that once if she can do it as many times as she could? Looking at her face during the execution, you can see that she was dead inside. That's the worst kind of torture I could think of."

"I see… wait a minute." Coco immediately turned to Fox. "You can see what's happening?!"

While it wasn't the first time she brought her friend to a play, or a movie, they didn't expect him to actually 'see' something. 'It's like listening to the radio,' he said.

"Yeah… it's weird, really. I can see them. It's like when I use my semblance, the images just being sent straight into my mind."

The uncanny level of the play just reached a new height.

Once again, she bolted out of the square. But this time, she knew what was going to happen next. Changed her course toward a nearby guard station, something sparked in her foggy memory. She turned around, and found a guard riding on a skeletal porcelain horse's back. Quickly, she raised her gauntlet at the guard, and blasted them away. She grabbed the horse's saddle and jumped up on it.

"Easy, easy now." She whispered to it as the horse tried to shake her down. Finally, it gave up, letting her ride on it with ease.

Ruby immediately remembered the sight she saw atop the tower, when Rose arrived with a horse out of nowhere. She wondered if she could also learn how to ride one, because it looked too cool to pass.

The drifter rode the horse back to the bridge. With a small kick to its side, the horse began to gallop at high speed. And the wyvern descended. The bridge crashed down, but they didn't stop. Instead, the horse pushed all of its power into its hooves, and leaped. They were flung across the air, like a cannonball.

And the horse landed. Her entire body shook. She turned back to the bridge. They were on the other side, while the guards stuck on the other end. It would take them sometime to get to her.

Weiss furrowed. "That is her entire Palace and she only has a single horse? That doesn't make sense."

Yang spoke to Weiss, shoulder to shoulder. "Come one, Weiss. It's a play, it doesn't have to make sense all the time, right?"

While she could just let her suspension of disbelief do the work, something told her that this was more than just a play. That kept her irritated when something she considered 'illogical' happened.

Danger had passed, but where should she be? The drifter wandered into the village around the Palace. Settled there were porcelain people, much akin to the Grim Guard. But they live like normal people, having their peaceful and quiet life, with artisan tools and musical instruments by their side, not a single blade or gun found. As she passed by, however, they cowered in fear.

"The Queen! The Queen! There goes out honored Queen!"

An old man shouted to his neighbor.

This caught them off guard, and so was the drifter.

"Too… many… plot… points!" Nora grunted in her seat. Jaune tried to help Ren keep their friend in check.

"Queen? Isn't the Red Queen supposed to be the queen?" Velvet said, she turned to her friend, looking for an answer. But by the look of it, they had no clue whatsoever.

"Maybe there was a coup?" Yatsuhashi suggested. That was possible.

"Where? Where?! She gave me no eyes to see her!"

"I can relate with that." Fox said with a straight face.

"There! I think it's her? Sire, will the dragon devour us today?"

She tried to get away, but the people gathered at her horse's hooves and kneeled around it, trying to grab her clothes or the horse's tail. They begged, cried and praised her, much to her discomfort.

"I live to serve, even as food!"

This single line made many cringe, especially those who studied into the history of Remnant. There was a time where tyrants roamed the land, turning people into their slaves. Many of those slaves were taught to readily give up their lives as their owner demanded it.

"What?! There's a dragon too?!"

"Didn't you hear it?"

The drifter turned to the dragon in question. The wyvern soared in the sky, but showed no intention to attack her yet.

She wandered aimlessly, until she came by a statue.

To the audiences, it was a familiar sight. The huntsman statue had been one of Beacon's main attractions for a long time. While it wasn't complete, as there was only a single huntsman there, they were able to recognize it.

She touched the statue, wondering what it was. Suddenly, the gauntlet shone. The light transferred from the gauntlet to the statue. And as the statue began to glow, so was the area around it. monotonous great turned to vibrant color, and the world was lively again.

Her gaze stuck on the statue. A single tear of happiness ran on her cheek.

"This place… can change?"

She laughed out like a child.

"This place can change!"

"Poor girl. I can't imagine living in a gray world, where I can't see my hair color." Yang said, playing with her hair. Rose gave her a kind smile, which almost was a snicker.

She rode across the verdant land. The road was paved, decorated with gold and teal lines. Hills and plains came into view, with many strange plants and flowers. Skeletal porcelain animals rested on the field, resembling a herd of mountain goats. She came by some canine beast, and some feline too. They allowed her to pet them, gave her some small comfort. She saw ruins of the old kingdom, quaint villages and hamlets. She only stopped at an open area, where an amphitheater was. On the stage was a person, a girl dressed in white and green Old Mantelian's scholar clothes. Surrounding her were audiences of many ages.

As the drifter approached them, the actress turned to her. With a bombastic voice, she greeted her.

"The queen graced us… I am THE Weiss Schnee, of the courtly stage. Until that witch, Yang, took it from me. You do remember your courtly playwright?"

To say that Weiss was flabbergasted would be quite the understatement. And to say that it made the whole amphitheater laugh out loud could be quite the correct statement.

"I… what… wait, what?!" Weiss blabbered like a fish on land. She turned from Ruby then to Yang. Her face blushed so red it made tomatoes pale in comparison. "What is the meaning of this?!"

Blake was conflicted. On one hand, she would pay top lien to see a Schnee made a fool out of themselves. On the other hand, Weiss was her friend. She decided to keep her snicker to herself, no matter how hard it was. Yang, however, while as confused as Weiss when she heard her name, which might actually wasn't hers since Yang wasn't that much of an uncommon name, burst into laughter when she saw how fabulous and bombastic that 'Weiss' was.

The odd one out was Ruby. She wasn't as shocked as Weiss, or found the situation that funny. She felt something else. As the moment passed by, she began to see more of 'herself' in the play. She could feel 'her' reaction when the people called the drifter queen. And when she turned to Rose, the scene became even more real, as if it was part of her memory.

"I'm… I am not your queen… Why does everyone call me queen? I am not her!"

The drifter spat. But Weiss paid no mind. Instead, she stared at the gauntlet, letting out an envious sigh.

"A fancy new hand, my sire? Lucky you."

She was visibly frustrated. "I don't belong here. Damn it. I don't even know why I'm talking to you!"

Weiss hummed at the sight, clearly enjoying the drifter's anger. Something came to her mind, the drifter spoke.

"You are just some playthings of Red, right?"

That hit the spot, as Weiss replied.

"Too true. Not like you. No matter how much work I put in."

Her body twisted until it seemed like an overdramatic pose of sadness, her face furrowed into a theatrical lamenting face. But her voice slowly turned into venom as the word rolled out.

Tired, the drifter only asked.

"I'm just looking for a way out of here."

This, however, seemed to touch something deeper inside Weiss. The malice wasn't hidden away, it was on full display. Her eyes became steely cold.

"A way out? When all of us are obliged to stay?" Every single words were stressed out to make a point.

"Hmm…" Ren hummed. "It seems that there are more to this kingdom than we think."

"Of course there are more, Ren. I told you so!"

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" Jaune asked.

"That everyone in this kingdom is forced to be there and serve the Queen?" Pyrrha replied, much to Jaune's surprise.

"Y-yeah, kind of. It does seem that way, doesn't it?"

Then again, the drifter could care less.

"Where?"

Weiss returned to her 'normal' state. She danced on the stage, then pointed far away.

"Yonder."

The drifter tried to see where she pointed to, but couldn't find anything, or anywhere.

"Are you messing with me?"

"Oh, how could you think so, my sire? I simply stated the truth."

"And it is?"

"There's no way out of here, my sire." She said with a flat tone. "But you can try if you want to."

Defeated, the drifter sighed, then stepped closer to Weiss, hand held her collar tight.

"Fine, but do not get in my way!" She released her grip, but gaze still fixed on the playwright.

Weiss cringed. The audience, however, thought this was part of the play and gave them a round of applause.

"Ah! The audience loves you. Of course they would." She said with bitterness.

The drifter jumped back onto her horse. Before she could go, Weiss called her back.

"Wait!"

For a moment, in front of her wasn't the bombastic playwright, but a girl, dressed in white, desperately calling out for her. It didn't last long before the smug face of the playwright returned.

"If you are planning to leave this place, might as well bring your belongings with you, yes?"

"My… belongings?"

"Yes, my sire. If I remember it correctly, you love it, don't you? Should be somewhere near too."

As confusing as it might sound, she found the idea quite sensible. There might be something she could use. But where?

She let her instinct guide her.

And came across a lonely table amid the plain. She left her horse behind and walked toward the table. She found something on it. A wooden plate? She wasn't so sure. She turned it around, and saw a signature on it.

"R…WBY?"

Her vision blurred, as a migraine came and wrecked her mind. When she looked up, she was no longer on a plain, but a room.

To describe it simply, it was the organized chaos in the material form. The room was cramped. Behind and in front of her was… what could she even call it? Bunk beds? Boxes were scattered on the floor, so were slippers and books. She knew where she was. At the same time, she couldn't remember what it was.

Team RWBY felt exposed. More than exposed, even, as their dorm room was shown to the public.

"That's…" Blake's eye twitched. She could even see the book's titles with her eyes, every single one of them.

"Yes, that's…" Shamed twice, Weiss became speechless. She hugged her head.

Yang stopped snickering. Instead, something dawned on her, so was Ruby. They both turned to Rose.

"I… can explain, I think?" She struggled.

Ruby wanted to ask her something. But she stopped when she heard her voice. Her own voices, coming from the stage.

"This is yours, right?"

The drifter immediately turned back to where the voice came from. On the top left bunk bed was a girl, about 14 or 15. She held the object in her hands, gently caressed it. Their eyes met, silver eyes stared at each other. Her feet dangled in the air, while she hummed a familiar tune.

"Who… are you?" The drifter asked.

If Weiss's situation was hilarious and Pyrrha's was quite surprising, Ruby found herself in a bizarre, if not a downright creepy one. Sitting on that bed was her. Not a doll which looked like her, but herself, in the flesh. Or was she? She wasn't quite sure.

"Is that… Ruby?" Jaune asked with uncertainty.

"I think so?" The uncanniness of the play suddenly spiked. Pyrrha found herself chilled to the bone.

"Ruby… since when did you participate in this?" Yang asked.

But Ruby didn't reply. Could this be a semblance? Was she hallucinating again? It reminded them of Yang's fight. Yes, that must be it. It was just someone's semblance, like the one used by Mercury's allies… Could they be in the enemy's territory?

Blake turned to Rose, hand reached out for her weapon, only to realize that they left them behind in their room. Her eyes fixed on the young woman, prepared to react should she reveal her intention.

"Keep it close to you this time, please?"

The girl said, giving her back the object. The drifter finally recognized what it was. It was a picture frame. Inside of it was a picture, she supposed. But it faded with time.

"Can you promise?"

Her hand touched the picture, trying to remember what it was. What she could gather from it gave her a headache. As she struggled to keep concentration, the world shifted, and she returned to the plain.

"Wait!' She called out, eyes desperately trying to find the girl. "Who are you?"

But she was nowhere to be found.

"What am I supposed to do?" She held the picture frame in her hand. It was empty.

"Who am I?" Tears ran on her face, she couldn't understand why. She held it tight and kneeled down. Emotion foreign to her surfaced. Shattered pieces of memories returned as the picture frame shone. The drifter ran her hand on it.

They didn't expect this. No one did. Rose felt something warm on her hand. It was Ruby's hand. They turned to each other. Ruby's eyes were filled with tears.

"Why does it hurt?" She asked Rose. Her older self struggled to find words. Instead, she hugged her by her side.

"Don't worry. It will be over soon."

Yang gave them a worried look. It was painful to hear her sister cry, even her found something stirred as the drifter's sudden emotional breakdown. It seemed that Weiss shared her thoughts to some degree, the girl casted a sad gaze to them.

Blake found whatever guard she posed just seconds before fell down.

While the drifter was still a broken mess, something was sneaking in the grass. Too preoccupied with her emotion, the drifter didn't realize it was there before it was too late. It jumped toward her, not to attack, but to snatch the picture frame from her hand. Immediately, she snapped back into reality. With rage in her voice, she shouted.

"HEY! That's mine!"

"Come one! We are having a moment here!" Nora almost jumped out of her seat.

The creature jumped into a clearing. It was a jackalope, with white and yellow porcelain skin. It turned to the drifter, with mocking eyes, taunting her.

"Get back here!" She ran toward it, but it was faster. With a whistle, she called her horse to her side. They chased the creature, but it seemed that even horse speed wasn't enough. They chased it to the end of the plain, where she saw a portal opened. It jumped inside the portal. Without a moment of hesitation, she followed it. Anywhere would be better than this place.

Light surrounded her. She was in a tunnel. On the other end, she saw something. She reached out to it, and found herself and her horse fell right down to an open ground.

She raised herself up, felt her bones aching with how much she strained it. She observed her surroundings.

She was in a cave, lit up with a strange ethereal light. Not too far away, she could see a bonfire. In the middle of the chamber was a pedestal. On it was a red case, small canisters, some roses and a white cloak. She came closer to inspect them. The case was battered, it had many metallical parts, painted in red and black. On it were triggers and buttons, all of which were broken. The canisters contained some kind of particle inside, it was colorful, but she didn't know exactly what it was. The cloak seemed to be in good condition, and the roses were freshly cut. It reminded her of an altar.

"Right now, you are thinking… is this real?..."

An old voice came from behind her. From the shadow, a man stepped out. He wore a black hooded cloak, with a gray robe underneath. In one hand, he held a makeshift cane, made from a pure white stick and a wooden handle. On his other hand, was the jackalope, but the picture frame was nowhere to be found. His face was wrinkled, covered with a beard and a scar on its left side.

"... Or some fevered dream?"

Rose stared at him, then to the cave. She was at lost. Striding toward the man, she spoke.

"I am wondering why the hell this all feels so damn familiar."

"Emotion." He said, his hand patting the small critter. "It guides where others fail. The queen's spiral takes away time… experience… memories."

"Well that wasn't cryptic at all." Coco snorted.

Fox snickered. "He sounds like Ozpin."

Bewildered, she kept her gaze at him.

"You don't seem like the others."

The man nodded. "I am Qrow." He replied, calmly.

Had they drank anything, the Xiao Long sisters would spit it all out within seconds. Yang coughed and laughed while Ruby's eyes widened.

"Uncle Qrow?!"

"HIM?!" Weiss didn't fare much better.

"Oh my god this is rich." Yang tried to keep her voice down, but to no avail.

"You know him?" Blake asked.

"Yes, he is our uncle… but he doesn't look like this at all. Not this old… sober and cryptic?" Ruby replied, it didn't feel right. Uncle Qrow and sober shouldn't appear together in a sentence.

"Really?" Rose raised her eyebrows. "I have never seen him drink, at all."

"That's impossible!" Yang laughter died down. She was relieved to see her sister normal again.

"He only drinks tea. Trust me."

The jackalope stirred in his embrace, it let out a small squeal to get his attention.

"Oh! And this is… well, it was you who named him… remember?"

She did? When? How?

If she did, what did she call him? The drifter looked at the small thing. Well, it was small, harmless even. But it managed to outspeed her. Packing full of surprises, it was. And its form, it gave her comfort, knowing that it was there. Comfort she didn't know existed. The jackalope reminded her of the feeling of dependance, the feeling that she could rely on it.

"Jaune…"

Jaune buried his face in his hand. Steam came from him as his face blushed. Nora gave him a smug face.

"Nora, don't." Pyrrha turned to her friend, however, she could barely contain her emotion.

"A… rabbit…"

"Jaune~" Nora whispered into his ear.

"Ren, help me please." A small smile crept onto her face. Ren struggled too. He didn't want to disrespect his friend… but…

"Jauny Jaune~" Nora teased him.

"Just do it…" Jaune breathed out in defeat.

"Rabbit Boy~" Nora put two hands on his head, mimicking rabbit ears.

Ren almost choked by his own wheeze.

Pyrrha smiled, patting him on the back. "It wasn't that bad, compared to me, or Weiss."

"Ah, the warm yellow sunlight. How I miss the optimism it brings."

"See?" Pyrrha put her hand on his. Jaune, still embarrassed, managed to raise his head up.

"Here we spiral in the constant glare of absurd purgatory. You need to break free."

'Oh really?' Was what her eyes tried to convey to him. But all she could let out was a sigh.

All of the action, emotional breakdown she experienced began to take toll on her.

"I am… Just. So. Tired." She sat down.

Qrow picked up something, then passed it to her.

"The picture frame you found from the paradox."

She took it. The emotion wasn't as strong, but it was there.

"A lost treasure of a temperamental child."

It was still empty, but she knew that something was in it before.

"You only need to find the picture it once held."

She immediately casted a questionable gaze at him.

"You can't be serious."

She threw it back to him, even if part of her didn't want to.

Ruby felt her heart ache at the scene.

"You can keep this thing. I've got to get as far away from here as I can."

He hunched down to pick it up again, laying it on a stone table.

"You know you cannot run from here with the Queen on the throne."

He let Jaune down and came toward a small footlocker.

"But by all means, try again. I'll even give you my blade."

Qrow stepped aside, inviting her to see for herself. Inside of it was a compacted scythe. The Harbinger.

Everything hit her all at once. 'This wasn't a play.' Ruby began to hyperventilate, which caught her teammate's attention. Her eyes stared wildly at Rose.

"Ruby, are you okay? Ruby, answer me!" Weiss shook her.

"Ruby, look at me, Ruby!" Yang held her sister's face in her hand, trying to get her attention.

Blake snapped to Rose, hissing. If it was her work, then…

Rose hummed. Yang knew the tune, but she didn't remember what it was. It was calming, warm. Ruby's breathing slowly stabilized. Slowly, she fell asleep.

"What did you do?" Blake would fight her, even without her weapon if needed.

Rose put a finger on her lips, then pointed at the audiences around them.

Yang hugged her sister while trying to figure out what Rose was, exactly. However, they had come to the conclusion, as to who the drifter really was. Their eyes didn't lie to them, they just didn't want to acknowledge the truth. The drifter was Ruby, a broken image of what Ruby was.
The drifter stepped into the portal. Qrow gave her one last farewell.

"Until the next spiral, then."

Stepping out of the portal, she found the world changed. The sky was blazing, and a red hue covered the land. On her feet was an envelope. She hunched down to grab it.

'For the person who had everything, a little something extra.'

Inside of it was a letter and an emblem. A burning rose. The drifter put it in one of hers pouches before continuing to read the letter.

'Be on your way, that wyvern is hunting, and it has your scent.

P/s: Though you could buy some time if you fed it Yang first.

- Weiss Schnee, your loyal friend.'

She closed the letter. Her horse came by her side, huffed out a little. She jumped on it and began to move forward, as far as possible from the Queen's Palace.

The Queen's voice echoed in the air.

"I am your cloud above, your fire below. your reckoning."

The wyvern's roar could be heard from afar. She turned to the road, it was blocked by the Grim Guard. Swinging the scythe out, she used it to cleave the heads of the guards. It was hardly efficient, if she wasn't quite clumsy at first. Soon, muscle memory and instinct filled her place, letting her handle the weapon a bit better.

"Did someone make a new friend? Trying to make me jealous, are you?" Queen spat. "I'll find him soon enough."

The guards kept on coming. Their number increased with time. The scythe shifted into a great blade, allowing her to attack more enemies at once. But it wasn't enough.

"I'm trying to laugh it off."

She shifted the weapon again, revealing two barrels. She pressed the trigger, but nothing came out, angrily, she shifted it back to its blade form. The guard swarmed her, tailing her like a giant centipede. Still, she fought against them, making her way to the end of the plains and hills.

"But… you are testing my limits!"

She stopped, as they reached a cliff. The guards surrounded her.

With a leap of faith, her horse dove down in her surprise.

"What the hell?!"

And it took flight, spreading its wings out and soared in the sky.

"Didn't know you could do that." She patted it with glee.

"I want one, Ren, I want one!"

Ren could only muster so much power. This was one of the reasons why they were often hesitant to invite Nora to a movie night. While everyone chilled and enjoyed the movie, she was quite 'eccentric'.

The wyvern caught up to them. It flew across them blowing hard winds to those small silhouettes.

"Didn't I warn you?"

They tried to escape its grasp, but it didn't even put any effort in catching them. It toyed with them in the sky, like a wicked hunter against a naive prey. That didn't last long either, as the horse eventually had to land. And the moment its hooves touched the earth, their fate was sealed.

The wyvern swooped down, with a single strike, devoured both of them into its stomach.

Velvet gasped. She too was affected by the previous emotional scene, and became attached to the drifter. Coco put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait for it."

That however, wasn't the end of the drifter, as she awoke in the cave. Qrow stepped out of the shadow.

"-you are thinking… is this real?"

"Or some fevered dream." She stole his word right out of his mouth. With a defeated sigh, she continued. "Alright, Qrow. I'll try your way."

Qrow smiled, for a second, then his gaze turned steel cold.

"You remember. Good. Now we can begin."

He then pointed at the pedestal.

"They were yours, initially. I couldn't fix the weapon. But you should take the others with you."

She lifted the white cloak up, wore it on, dropped her old nomad cloak down. It suited her, at least she thought so. Qrow seemed to share that sentiment. She picked one of the canisters up.

"What is this?"

"Dust, brought here by the paradox. In the world beyond the wall, along with aura and semblance, they were weapons of a warrior caste called the huntsmen."

"Huntsman? Some kind of hunter?"

"Yes, and no. They hunted, but their prey weren't animals, but creatures of darkness called the Grimms."

"Like the Grimm Guard?"

He nodded.

"Quite, but much more feral and beastly."

"What are aura and semblance?"

"Weapons of the soul. I suspect your 'hand' had already awakened yours."

"What do you mean?"

He sat down, eyes still on her. Pointing at the ground next to him, he told her to sit.

"Try, focus on your inner self."

The drifter sat down, confused. She closed her eyes, tried to meditate. Red aura flared around her before died out.

"Relax. Let your mind adjust to the disassociation."

Breathed in, breathed out. She focused on the light within her. Slowly, the aura fortified, creating a shield around her.

"I… I think I got it."

Qrow smirked. A portal opened behind her. He pushed her into it.

"Then go."

Ruby woke up, it felt like she was hit by an ursa. She found herself in Yang's embrace.

"Yang? What did I miss?"

"... Nothing much, Ruby. Just some fillers."

The drifter found herself stranded in a shattered land. A twisted replica of the Kingdom, mixed with bits and parts of something else.

"Where am I?"

"The Queen's reach is weakened here, in the Undercroft." Qrow voice echoed in her ears. Her hand reached to the side of her head, and found a device on her left right ear. A transmitter.

"On the surface, I suspect aura and semblance would be a liability, as the wyverns can use it to track you down. But here, you can roam free and revel in its power. Now try it."

The drifter felt her aura still here, covering her. But what was a semblance? She concentrated, trying to figure out what it was. Semblance, a situation or condition that is similar to what is wanted or expected, but is not exactly as hoped for. What did she want to do? Running away from this place, to be free.

She felt herself crumble away with the wind. Like a lightning, her mind moved, so was her body. Snapped out of her trance, she stomped down, managed to break her 'movement'. She found herself further away from where she once stood. Was that her semblance? She tried again, her body turned into a spiral of rose petals moving at a high speed. She danced around the ruined city, feeling the sense of freedom once again after a long time.

She stopped, with a satisfying smile on her face.

Yang remembered the day when Ruby first awakened her semblance. She used it to ran from halls to halls in signal, making the teachers furious of how reckless she was until she exhausted herself. They came home and Ruby couldn't move an inch due to how tired she was. But she laughed heartily.

"You still got it, I see."

"Yeah, right." She exhaled. "So, what am I doing here, Qrow? A joyride?"

"You are seeking a paradox. You will need more than his cane and my blade to survive above."

A pillar of light rose from the center of the city, attracting her attention.

"Hmm. Here they come."

Roars came from every direction. Creature, with black fur and bone armor instead of porcelain, appeared. The Grimms had come.

Swinging Harbinger, she managed to kill a wolf-like beast, before using her semblance to escape the onslaught of its pack.

"There's something else down here."

The pillar of light was close, she was only a few steps away from it.

"Yes, a paradox. You must find it."

As she got closer, the light slowly dissipated. On where it once was, were a trio of weapons. A pair of gauntlets, a bladed pistol, and a rapier.

She picked them up. Each one of them reminded her of someone, someone she once cherished. Someone she once remembered. But there was no time to dawdle. Armed with new weapons, she faced the coming Grimms.

"Think you can hide from me, drifter? I play wherever I want!"

A beowolf jumped at her. She raised her fist up, bracing herself, before letting out a barrage of dust filled shotgun shells upon the creature, blasting it to pieces. Memories not hers flooded her mind. She moved flourishly, each blow landed harder and faster than the last. She kept her rhythm, while also dodging and countering the Grimm's attack.

Of course team RWBY realized what the weapons were, because it was theirs. Ember Celica, Gambol Shroud and Myrtenaster. What surprised them was how the drifter, or 'Ruby' used them. She fought just like Yang, if not more refined. That wasn't how Ruby fought, not their at least. She could barely hold a fight when unarmed.

Making some distance with the Grimms, she switched to the pistol, Gambol Shroud. Firing some shots to delay an ursa, she swung the blade out with the ribbon in her hand. It latched onto the ursa, bound the beast down. Using it as an anchor, she ran around it, gathering momentum to kick the smaller Grimms away. She then jumped on the ursa, using the blade of the weapon to end it.

As crude as it was, Blake could see some of her style in the drifter's move. Could it be that the weapon also gave them the knowledge of how to use them?

A roar cut the air into two. On top of a building was an Alpha Beowolf. Gambol Shroud small caliber round couldn't dent its armor. She switched to Ember Celica, and tried to attack it at close range. She quickly realized that it was a bad idea for two reason:

She hadn't mastered her powers yet.

That thing can cleave the building into two.

Retracting the gauntlet, she turned to the last weapon, the rapier. What could she even do with it?

'Focus.' A voice came to her mind. It wasn't hers.

Guiding her hands was a white girl. She moved with her, showing her the secrets of her weapon.

'Take aim.' The drifter raised the rapier up, pulled the hammer down. The revolving cylinder turned.

'Release.' Pulling the trigger, the dust inside was blasted out, creating a fire arrow bolted straight to the alpha's eye, blinding it. Switching the cylinder once more, it changed to gravity dust. Focus. Take aim. Release. She whispered to her, giving her the experience needed.

Rose unleashed the weapon's entire loads upon the creature rendered it to nothing.

'If only Ruby would let me teach her like this.' Weiss lamented, but decided to keep it to herself.

It seemed that the Grimms had retreated, she let herself rest for a moment.

"You are no huntsman, but I have seen worse."

Harsh as his words were, it also held a certain amount of pride.

"Sure... You want to tell me... what's so special about these 'huntsmen'?" She replied with a cocky tone. "This ain't so hard..."

"On the other side… they are guarding the selfsame powers that make the walls of our prison."

He stopped for a moment. Her breath became heavier.

"I suspect the paradox is using your memories of them to help us."

"My memories? What... do you... mean by my… memories?" She passed out.

This gave Blake conflicted feelings. For one, the weapons and what Qrow said suggested that deeply, 'Ruby' still remembered them to some degree. At the same time, who was the Weiss she met in the Kingdom? It was clear that she wasn't exactly Weiss, considering the fact that Weiss was more of a doll given life, while 'Ruby' also manifested a 'ghost' of Weiss to guide her. Yang was also mentioned, but was it Yang, or a doll version of Yang? Could she also be there too? And Pyrrha, why did she look so twisted? It didn't resemble her at all, except the face. Weiss was also brought to an extreme level of expression. Envious, maybe? Or malice?

"It was war, after all, that defined us."

When she came to be, the drifter found herself on a simple mattress within the cave. She rose up, following the voice she heard.

"We were made to hate without reflection."

She saw Qrow resting by the bonfire, Jaune in his embrace. The jackalope licked his face, to which he laughed.

"Ha! No. No vacation. Hm… I suppose Menagerie, maybe? I always wanted to see the mountains up close…"

This struck Blake harder than she thought it would. How long has it been since she left her hometown, chasing her dream from one to another? It would be nice to visit it once again.

"Who are you talking to?" The drifter asked, looking around. Only to find Jaune's squeaking to get her attention. "Right…"

"Feeling better? Using aura took a greater toll on you than I expected."

"Yeah, I think? Wasn't that bad, still got a lot of fight in me."

Qrow shrugged. He continued.

"When you are recovered, we must begin at once to seek the picture. I expect they will manifest the same as paradoxes on the surface. Now, rest."

"If you insist." She sat down, next to him. After all, it was a long day. Too much happened, too much for her to process. Her silver eyes shone, reflecting the flickering fire.

"Your name, do you remember it?"

"My name?"

Qrow nodded, looking at her. At that angle, he looked sad, like a father to a wounded child.

"My name… it's…"

She struggled. How long has it been, since the last time she heard her name? What was it, exactly? She tried her best.

"Ru… Rose… it's Rose."

"I… see. Well then, Rose, rest now. You should be prepared for tomorrow."

Everyone snapped out of the trance. They rubbed their eyes, curiously stared at the stage. All they could see was dolls, sitting around a bonfire prop. Simple, detailed but simply, porcelain dolls. Darkness returned to Fox. He held a hand out, as if to tell it to stay. At the end, he smirked.

"Hello darkness, my old friend."

It seemed that there was a break in between the acts, as the curtain fell and Leverian was nowhere to be found.

Team RWBY eyes focused on their leader and the 'drifter'.

Rose was making a call.

"You are not going to come? A date? Cancel? For WHO? Alright, I will tell her about that. Oh yeah, she is going to kill you, not even kidding. Record it for you? No way, I am… having some trouble on this end too. Yeah, see ya. At least replay something tonight, alright? People are going to miss you. Bye, have a nice date, I guess?"

She closed her scroll then returned to her seat.

"So… you want to grab something? We have drinks and snacks" She tried to give them an awkward smile.

It was Ruby who spoke first.

"Rose… what is going to happen to me?! What happened to you?"

"Hey Rose, I am here with the dead weight~" Gretchen stepped in with Emerald, hand tied and Mercury with shackled legs.

Tears hadn't dried on Ruby's face. Yang and Blake seemed to be on edge, while Weiss tried to calm her friend down.

"Oh damn it, I came at the wrong time, didn't I?"

COMING SOON: Kingdom of Remnants Act II: The Princess of Fire

Author Note:

I hate action scenes. Not because I hate action scenes in general, but because I can't write them well.

*Realizing that both Warframe and RWBY are high octane action focused game/film*

Ha ha, f**k me then!

Real Author Note:

Trying to polishing my writing, and goddamnit isn't this thing just awful? You won't believe how much time I spent to find words in place of 'turn', 'said', 'look' and 'replied'. This is what learning IT do to a motherf**ker. My English dulled every second I type a line of code. So if you found grammatical errors, poor vocabulary or anything which is a stug (a grimm, if you are a RWBY fan) to your eye, please put it in your review, please. English isn't my first language, so please bear with me.

The addition of team CFVY is kind of a last minute thing. Originally, it would be just Emerald and Mercury. I know that the current cast is pretty diluted, the same problem with many other reaction fics. But I do have plans for them in the future chapters. My current plan is to have the first part of the story about the Duviri, which is focused more on the reaction side. The next parts are about the Remnant in the Paradox verse.

And I think it is quite clear who the 'mysterious~' characters are, and you might actually guess the others are too.

So I am thinking, I am going to give you a name, and if you managed to guess who that character is in the original RWBY world, I will give you a cameo in the chapter about that character. How's about that?

And the Name of today is: Vauban!

He is mentioned by Rose as the partner of Kahl, who was a White Fang in the Paradox verse. Here are some clues:

Vauban is the name of a real life French engineer and an engineer themed warframe, his design vaugely resemble a train head.

In the game, Kahl has a partner named Chipper, who was a debt slave to Corpus, a faction made up of mega-corporations.

In the story, Kahl is an 'original' character, which was based on Kahl-175 from Warframe. He is a faunus who was part of the White Fang coming from Menagerie.

The theme of Vauban is redemption.

Sometime I question why I even wrote this author note in the first place?