Author's note: Now we find out what happened to Ruby and Blake. Also some of Sirena's planning.
Sirena walked into General Ironwood's office and sat down on a chair in front of his desk, opposite of him. She had arranged a meeting with him, going through all the usual hoops and bureaucratic issues, so of course he had to see her.
"So, Sirena, what do you want to talk about?" General Ironwood asked.
"I want your help raising an army that can truly stop Salem," Sirena answered.
"What do you mean?" General Ironwood asked.
"The New Light protocol," Sirena answered, "I need 100 straight singles from under your command. They will copy the semblances of two different fusions, be sent to bases along the border, and protect the area, using the semblances they copied. That way, the light of those semblances will manifest in their children, and the silver eyes will pop up everywhere, making it difficult for Salem to wipe them out in time."
"You want me to divide my military?" General Ironwood asked.
"Yes," Sirena answered, "It will force Salem to divide her forces as well, allowing us to prepare on multiple fronts at once."
"We need to protect Atlas," General Ironwood said, "And we can't do that if my men are elsewhere."
"That's why it's just 100 people," Sirena said, "If each of them has one child, that means 100 new silver-eyed warriors, and 100 more problems for Salem. My kingdom, which is entirely made up of silver-eyed warriors, has not seen a single death by Grimm in almost five years. That is why Salem sent someone like Tyrian Callows after Ruby. She is scared of us, because we can neutralize her forces without lifting a single finger."
"I have to think of the future," General Ironwood said.
"I know," Sirena said, and the door to the office opened.
"Can I come in now?" Cucurbita asked, and Sirena waved her inside.
"You brought a child here?" General Ironwood asked, raising his voice a little, and Cucurbita hid behind Sirena, much to the General's surprise.
"Don't worry, I'm here," Sirena said to Cucurbita, turned to Ironwood and answered, "Yes, I did. You want to think of the future of this kingdom, so I brought her. Now you can tell her in person why you think it is pointless to make sure she won't have to struggle as much as you did, even though you could prepare a safer future for her." General Ironwood looked at the girl, and realized that Sirena at least made some sense. Children were the future, and right now that future was terrified of him. He paused for a moment, then sighed in defeat.
"Alright, we'll do things your way," General Ironwood said. After Sirena and Cucurbita left, he looked through the personal files of his men, but couldn't find either of the two criteria Sirena had asked, simply because no employer thought that one of those were important enough to take note of, and he didn't care about the personal life of his soldiers.
~o~
Harriet was walking through the hangar, following some reports of lower-ranking soldiers that they had heard some commotion in the weapon storage rooms. She was ready for just about everything, when she opened the door to where they stored the rockets for the Manta ships and saw a small figure hunched over one of the ammo crates.
"Hello," Talia said and turned around, and Harriet jumped in surprise. She recomposed herself and turned on the light, and saw Talia hold a stamp with pink ink on it. Harriet walked up to her and looked at the rockets.
"Why did you stamp 'kindness' on all of them?" Harriet asked.
"So you can kill your enemies with kindness, silly," Talia answered with an innocent smile, and giggled. Harriet let out an exasperated sigh.
"Why do I even bother?" Harriet asked, turned around and said, "You never take anything seriously."
"I do take things seriously," Talia said, and manifested in front of Harriet.
"As if," Harriet said, "You go off playing somewhere on every mission you go on. You treat your enemies like kids, and you talk like a little child a lot."
"How about we fight?" Talia asked and said, "And this time, I'll take this completely seriously."
"Sure, if you want to get hurt," Harriet answered, "Meet me in training room 3." She ran off at top speed, leaving Talia to continue stamping all the bombs, since they never agreed on a time for their fight.
~o~
When Talia entered the training room, Harriet was already waiting for her, and looking more than annoyed.
"You're late," Harriet said.
"Nope," Talia said.
"Yes, you are. I've been waiting for an hour," Harriet said.
"We never agreed on a time," Talia said, "Therefore, I cannot be late."
"Whatever, just fight," Harriet said. She really needed to vent all that pent-up frustration from the past hour.
"Just so we're clear, how serious should I get?" Talia asked.
"You can go all out for all I care," Harriet answered, "Go." She ran towards Talia at top speed and tried to punch her. Talia manifested ears, incisor teeth and claws made from her aura, ducked underneath her attack and stood behind Harriet. Harriet looked at her fists, not sure how she missed Talia, or how Talia knew where her attack would come from.
"My turn," Talia said and delivered a series of weak, yet insanely painful blows to Harriet, hitting her arms, legs, torso and head. Harriet's aura broke and she collapsed, writhing and convulsing in agony. Talia hit Harriet a few more times, this time more gentle, and the pain stopped within seconds. She gasped for air and sat up, hugging her knees.
"Wh- what was that?" Harriet asked.
"The reason why I don't like being serious," Talia answered, "But, more accurately, pressure point therapy. Weaponized acupuncture."
"That… that was hell," Harriet said.
"Nope, this is," Talia said, and while Harriet's heart skipped a beat at the idea that worse would follow, Talia's wrists were surrounded by lines of sickly green symbols. She tore open a rift in reality, and Harriet could see a barren wasteland with towers of bones dotting the landscape and extending past the pitch black clouds.
"What is that?" Harriet asked.
"Hell," Talia answered and asked, "Wanna go?"
"Wait, what?!" Harriet asked and jumped up.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Talia said, "Also, after messing up therianthropy, every human and faunus without silver eyes ends up there after they die, so I can let you talk to Tortuga if you want." Harriet looked at the sickening maw spewing a foul stench into the room, and held her left elbow with her right hand.
"Is it possible to get people out of there?" Harriet asked.
"Not for me, no," Talia answered, "At least not right now. I need more power, but I won't kill people, no matter how much some hate me for that. Also, just because I have someone's soul, doesn't mean they could just come back. I'd need to work around some limitations relating to conservation of mass and energy, plus some quantum fluctuations, and astral patterns, but if you really want to, I could bring them back."
"Wait, how did we just go from magic to science?" Harriet asked.
"You make it sound like there's a difference," Talia answered and giggled.
"I… think I'll stay here," Harriet said and stepped away from the portal to hell. Talia closed the rift again, and the repulsive odor disappeared almost immediately.
~o~
When Ruby came to, she felt like her hearing had decreased, before she remembered that this was only due to Blake's superior hearing. She sat up in her bed and looked around. Blake was also waking up, and both got up and got dressed, before they went to find the others in a break room.
"Hey guys, we're back," Ruby and Blake said in unison and asked, "How long were we out?" They looked at each other and chuckled a little.
"About… three days," Yang answered and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, why?" Ruby and Blake answered.
"Sis, what happened?" Yang asked, looking at Ruby.
"It's complicated," Ruby answered, paused for a moment, then continued, "You saw Ladybug's semblance, Shadow Step, right? Well, it lets her pop out of any shadow near a Grimm. And since she can see into other timelines, this means she kind of went timeline-hopping, saving people all over the multiverse."
"How long were you two fused?" Jaune asked, getting a bit concerned.
"Hard to say," Ruby and Blake answered, "But the longest we stayed in one timeline was a few days."
"Wait, what?!" Jaune asked, and everyone else gasped in shock.
"Is that bad?" Nora asked.
"I don't know," Jaune answered, "But their auras are clearly affected by being merged for so long." Ruby and Blake looked at each other, not sure how to process this revelation.
"So, what do we do now?" Ruby and Blake asked in unison.
"I don't know," Jaune answered, "But I guess it's best if we get you two away from one another."
"Great idea," Nora said, "Blake, you come with me." She got up, grabbed Blake and rushed off, with Yang following the two to make sure everything was fine.
"And what about me?" Ruby asked, paused for a moment and said, "Feels kinda weird being the only one speaking now."
"I suppose I can help you," Ren said.
"I have to tell Yang and Nora to keep an eye on Blake," Jaune said, "Just to see if there are any noticeable changes."
"I'll do that," Weiss said, "Ren, you keep an eye on Ruby." She followed the others and left Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Oscar to themselves.
~o~
Weiss, Blake, Yang and Nora sat in another break room, not exactly sure what they were even supposed to be doing. Weiss took out her scroll to take notes on any of their findings.
"So, Blake," Nora said and asked, "How did it feel to be fused for so long?"
"I… don't know," Blake answered, "But it feels kinda weird being the only one speaking now."
"Alright, new approach," Weiss said and asked, "Do you know who you are? As in, when you and Ruby were Ladybug, where did you end and Ruby begin?"
"Why do you ask?" Yang asked.
"Because a fusion is the merging of two people," Weiss answered, "So, if they are merged for too long, they might lose track of which parts of the fusion originally belonged to whom, and get that mixed up." Hearing that, Nora slowly backed away.
"Nora, what's wrong?" Blake asked.
"Well, you know how I've always been with Ren?" Nora asked and answered, "It's just that, what Weiss just said made me realize I don't know who I am, either. Whenever I try to think of who I am, Ren is always there."
"Maybe this could work," Weiss said thoughtfully.
"What?" Nora asked.
"You and Blake could fuse," Weiss answered, "Maybe, if you two fuse, it helps Blake realize who she is, since she can look back at what Ladybug had in common with this new fusion, and what was different. And it could help Nora by countering your associating with Ren, since you would associate yourself with Blake as well."
"And you're sure this is a good idea?" Yang asked.
"It's at least an idea," Weiss answered.
"Also, we've got nothing to lose," Blake said, "I say we try it."
"What if things get worse for you?" Yang asked.
"I'll just try again," Blake answered, paused for a moment, then said, "Dang, I forgot this is my timeline."
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.
"Well, as Ladybug, Ruby and I tried to save people," Blake answered, "But eventually, we realized that there are infinite alternate timelines. So, not only is it impossible to save every version of everyone, as there will always be timelines created where we fail, but it also doesn't matter if we fail in one timeline, because we have an infinite amount of retries."
"Meaning what now?" Nora asked.
"Eventually we just stopped fussing over messing up," Blake answered, "You know, throwing ideas at the wall and see what sticks."
"Yeah, you can't do that here," Yang said.
"I know," Blake said, "It just took me a bit to remember."
"Alright," Weiss said and asked, "Do you still want to do this?"
"Sure, why not?" Blake answered. She took Nora's hand and initiated the fusion, and both merged into one.
~o~
Jaune was pondering what he could do, while Ruby just sat around and was unsure if she should say anything.
"I guess I'll just go for a walk," Ruby said.
"I'll come with you," Jaune said, "You know, to make sure you and Blake keep some distance for now."
"Okay," Ruby said, got up and left the room, and Jaune followed her, leaving Ren and Oscar to themselves.
"So, what now?" Oscar asked, looking at Ren.
"I don't know," Ren answered. Both just sat around awkwardly, unsure what to do now, and eventually got up and left the room, going their separate ways.
~o~
Qrow walked through Atlas academy, looking for something to do. His conversation with Willow was still ringing in his head. He couldn't believe that he had told her that she could control her semblance, since it was a part of her, when he himself couldn't do that. He facepalmed internally, but recomposed himself when he saw Clover approach.
"Why the long face?" Clover asked.
"I… did something stupid," Qrow answered, "Again."
"Come on, don't be so hard on yourself," Clover said and asked, "What is it?"
"I told Willow that she could control her semblance," Qrow answered, "She just had to work hard enough."
"How's that stupid?" Clover asked.
"Because I can't control my semblance," Qrow answered, "I'm giving out advice I can't follow. That makes me look like I don't want to follow my own advice, and that's stupid."
"So far, your semblance has been quite useful to us," Clover said and asked, "So, why do you think you can't control it?"
"Because it's just this sword," Qrow answered, "Sirena used one of her semblances to make it boost my semblance, but I can't use it to harm silver-eyed warriors or their allies, intentionally or not. I'm not controlling my semblance, she is."
"I see," Clover said, "Anyway, I've actually wanted to talk to you about something else."
"And what?" Qrow asked.
"How do you get all those kids to work together?" Clover asked, "I'm the leader of the Ace Operatives, but it doesn't feel like we're really working as a team. More like we're people who happen to have the same enemy, or goal, and be at the same place at the same time. We're just a bunch of random people that stick together out of convenience, not a team. Yet those kids seem to work together perfectly. How did you do that?"
"I didn't do anything," Qrow answered, "I'm just tagging along because I care about them. And Salem wants to kill Ruby, so I've gotta keep an eye out. Ruby is actually the leader, as far as I know."
"Then, how did they get to work so well together?" Clover asked, "How did she make them work together like that?"
"That's the thing," Qrow answered, "She didn't."
"Wait, really?" Clover asked.
"Nope," Qrow answered, "Teamwork is a bit like a fart, in a way."
"What?" Clover asked.
"If you force it, it's gonna be a crap," Qrow answered with a smile, got serious again and said, "So, just let them figure it out themselves. They're people, with their own ideas. If they want the team to work out, they'll get it to work. And if not, you can't make them."
~o~
During their walk through Atlas, Ruby and Jaune talked a lot about future plans, and discussed different strategies to combat Salem's plans of dividing the world in the long term. While they were sitting in a public space, Ruby noticed something with her Grimm sense, and shuddered.
"What's wrong?" Jaune asked, getting slightly concerned, and the people around them got nervous as well when they saw two huntsmen getting concerned.
"I just… sensed something powerful," Ruby answered, "Let's go back and get everyone together." They headed back to the academy and contacted their respective team members, as well as Penny, Oscar and Maria, to meet in a break room. On the way, Ruby already put together a plan to combat this colossal Grimm, but also created a clone of herself to look through the kingdom's history on her scroll. The clone used Penny's semblance to get the info she needed, then put together a program to calculate the negative energy of that Grimm, as well as how many smaller Grimm would spawn once the big one died.
~o~
Team RWBY, Jaune, Ren, Nora, Penny, Oscar and Maria sat in a break room, discussing their plans. Ruby had her scroll on the table, projecting a map with a gigantic serpentine Grimm outlined on it, as well as several spots marked along the Grimm.
"So, what are we dealing with here?" Blake asked.
"Apparently it's called Apophis," Ruby answered, "It was sealed in ice about three decades ago, probably by a maiden, because it was too powerful to kill. It has been sleeping ever since, and only gotten stronger."
"How do we do this?" Yang asked, getting excited to fight.
"Maria will petrify Megoliath in those locations," Ruby answered, "Then, she will transmute them into oak wood and place incendiary charges on them so we can ignite them remotely, all at once. The ice will melt, and the Grimm will wake up. It will come for Mantle, and we will kill it with the military's help."
"Did you tell Ironwood yet?" Weiss asked.
"Not necessary," Ruby answered, "His pact with Sirena forces him to protect this kingdom and its people, so even if he doesn't know of the threat, he will fight it. If we told anyone, they might try to do something about it, and endanger the entire mission."
"What do I do?" Penny asked.
"You draw its attention," Ruby answered, "Take the staff and lamp, and lure it around Mantle. That way, the combat drones and turrets can do their work, while the rest of us attack it with all we've got."
"So, when do we start?" Maria asked.
"Is everyone alright with this?" Ruby asked, looking around, and said, "I won't force you to do this. If you have any objections, let me know." Everyone looked at each other, but noone had any issues with the plan.
"Let's do what we do best," Jaune said.
"Alright," Ruby said, "We'll start immediately. You all go ahead and stock up on ammunition, Maria and I get ready to wake it up. I'll make a Manta attract Grimm, so that they will follow Maria to where she needs them. Weiss, as soon as the Apophis begins to wake up, I need you to send a combat drone at it, with lightning-dust. Nora, Yang will fly you along the path it'll take to Mantle, and you put down as many turrets as you can. Ren, Blake, you two stand on the wall around Mantle and give it all you've got. We'll stay in contact, and if anyone has problems, we'll fly in air support." Everyone got up and went to stock up on ammunition, inspect their weapons one more time, or prepare in some other way. Everyone got earpiece communicators, and they all went over the plan multiple times in their heads.
~o~
Sirena was swimming along a deep ocean trench, looking for sunken ships to salvage, with a dozen of her guards following her. Through her link with Ruby, she saw that she was planning something reckless, and decided not to interfere as part of her plan to protect as many people as possible. When she got no warning from her Perfect Strategies semblance, she continued swimming through the pitch-black waters. A whale carcass landed near them, and immediately began attracting smaller fish, who wanted to feast on it.
"Everyone, stop," Sirena said, "We will bring this home first." She swam over to the whale's tail fin and extended two vines from her arms to grab it, and two of her guards grabbed its side fins in a similar fashion. Once they lifted it up enough, another guard extended vines and wrapped them around the massive creature. Sirena took the lead again, with the four guards keeping the dead cetacean stable, while the remaining eight made sure they didn't lose anything, and scavengers stayed away.
~o~
Saphron poured all of her aura into the golden bracelet Sirena had gifted her, and let out an exhausted sigh after she was done. She gave it to Terra, who put it on and began molding another roughly human-sized clay sculpture.
"This is pretty tough," Saphron said.
"It is," Terra said, "But it feels good knowing we're doing something to help." Her scroll rang and she looked at the screen, where she saw a few Beowolves approaching the city wall, courtesy of her small figurines with cameras strapped to them. On her mental command, three of her soldiers headed to the nearest position on the wall, readied their sniper rifles, and killed the Grimm.
"It sure does," Saphron said, "Plus, the military can care for all those sick people now, since they don't have to worry about Grimm as much." She continued making clay sculptures until her aura ran out, then Saphron poured all of hers into the bracelet again, and the cycle repeated.
~o~
Elm was sitting in her room, trying to sense the ambient aura in the ground, without really knowing what that was supposed to mean in the first place. She extended her roots again and tried to feel them, and their connection to the ground under her feet. Suddenly, she noticed that she did in fact feel something. She focused on that feeling, extended her roots even further than normal, and felt a kind of disturbance in the ground. It got closer, rhythmically, and stopped just before someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," Elm said, and the door opened.
"Hello Elm," Sirena said after opening the door, and asked, "So, how is the training going?"
"I think I'm getting the hang of it," Elm answered and asked, "Are you the real one, or a doppelganger?"
"Does it matter?" Sirena asked.
"So a doppelganger, got it," Elm said and asked, "How many of you guys are left?"
"Just me," Sirena answered, "But don't worry, I'll leave soon. I just wanted to see how you and Vine were doing."
"I see," Elm said, "Well, we're fine. I think I'm getting the hang of my semblance, and he of his."
"That's nice," Sirena said, "Anyway, say hi to the real me when you see her." Sirena turned into a gray sludge and gathered in a puddle on the floor, disturbing Elm for a bit, before the sludge disappeared entirely. Elm got up, left her room, trying to not step where the sludge had just been, and went to look for Vine.
~o~
Vine was still practicing his semblance in the parkour with Sirena. He managed to get through the parkour, and Sirena stopped it. Vine rested his hands on his knees, feeling exhausted, but accomplished, as if he had just climbed a mountain and was now looking down into the valley.
"So, where are the kids?" Sirena asked.
"What kids?" Vine asked, both confused and a bit concerned that Sirena put real children in danger.
"I left some dolls in there," Sirena answered, "They represent children trapped in a dangerous situation. It is your job to save them."
"How many?" Vine asked, "And why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because you won't always know who is in a situation," Sirena answered, "So, again." She shot another blast of air into the parkour, and Vine got ready to try the parkour again. He rushed through, grabbed some of the dolls with his semblance and pulled them close, then got out again.
"So, how was I?" Vine asked.
"I don't know," Sirena answered, held up half a doll and asked, "Why don't you ask her?" Vine looked at the doll of a little girl, whose lower torso had been ripped off by the parkour, and who wore a jersey for a local athletics team. Vine sighed and they took a break, allowing Sirena to get new dolls and contact the other doppelganger still in Atlas, who was on her way to Elm.
Author's note: The Apophis was created by Ricedeli on DeviantArt. Feel free to look it up, to get an idea of what's to come.
Qrow gives relationship advice.