And here's the second new chapter people, enjoy!
Observations and Plans
"Well… this is going to be interesting." Gyro said after a moment for them to sit down. He and Pierce had never gotten the chance to see this after all… and they could even see a playlist for Volume 7 below this one, meaning they had more to watch after.
"You'll have time yes, but what you want to see is in Volume 6, episode 3...even if there is some build up to that," Gennai sighed. "Do you want to see the whole thing or start from 3?"
"We should probably see the whole thing," Veemon said, earning nods of agreement from the others.
"Alright then, let's begin," Gennai said. "But first…" he pressed a few buttons, and there were some mechanical noises as the doors locked and armor unfolded. "Just in case any Grimm come by. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention the vehicle's energy source also creates a field that will protect this vehicle from even the Geist Grimm should they try to possess it."
"Yeah...thanks for that. Wouldn't want to have to destroy our own ride…" Yang said with a sweat drop as the playlist began.
And right off the bat…
"Ok, Manticores… right, I remember seeing some back at Beacon during the Battle. Guess I thought they were something never shown in the series like the Kraken and the Hell March. Turns out they just appeared after we left." Gyro mused "Though what's with the train?"
And then…
"Well… I knew he was gone, but not THAT far gone." Blake said with a sigh as she saw that Adam had killed the White Fang members that refused to listen to him anymore after she defeated him easily.
"Ok, and after that… right, Qrow is recapping the events at Haven, but it's the cover story given to the press… ah, a letter to the General, right, that makes sense now." Weiss muttered.
"Oh, ok, I get it, this is a flashback to before the fight on the train, so this is us about to board it… and we're going to Argus… ooh boy, we're gonna see Saphron soon, aren't we?" Jaune sighed in realization.
"And my mother." Pyrrha added with a frown, since in the canon timeline, she was still dead, and thus her mother would probably appear in a sad moment, since this was being shown like a TV show.
"Oh, hey, new characters." Pierce said in interest as two Hunters appeared on screen, and when he heard their names… he started laughing so hard they had to pause the video "I… I get the joke already! Those two are Tweedledee and Tweedledum."
"And you're laughing because…?" Yang trailed off.
"Because it reminds him of a video game we like where two recurring idiots get called Tweedle A and Tweedle B." Gyro snorted as he thought of one of his favorite games, before they restarted the video.
"And… of course canon Neptune flirts with Ilia." Blake sighed, feeling a little irritated at seeing someone trying (and failing obviously) to flirt with her girlfriend. Seriously, it was just… so bad when even Sun knew that his partner was barking up the wrong tree. A real testament to how stupid Neptune was originally… she was very glad that they had all strayed far enough away from their canon paths that they were all essentially different people. After all, from what she could see, the original Weiss wasn't as tech focused as their own.
"And say hello to a new important character. Calling it now." Nora laughed as the current scene showed the inside of the train… and a short old woman hobbling along with her cane "Seriously, I watch TV enough to know when a character is in the center frame like that for enough seconds, they're gonna be important."
"She's not wrong." Jaune chuckled. "It's a decent cinematography trope that a lot of movies use to point us to characters that will pop back up later without being blatant about it."
"You studied that huh?" Gomamon asked.
"I wanted to try and direct movies when I was a kid, before the whole Hunter thing of course." Jaune shrugged.
The following bit was a bit sweet. "Glad to see everyone's trying to go back to normal now that Team RWBY is back together again," Weiss smiled. "A shame it couldn't have been over better circumstances…"
"This is Remnant. You take what you can get," Blake sighed.
"The sad part is she's not wrong," Salamon said a little glumly.
"Though… yeah, we can all see what RT is hinting at, yeah?" Pierce said awkwardly.
"Yeah… yeah we see it." Yang sighed, knowing what he was talking about "I mean, I'm bi yeah, and I think Blake is cute, but seriously. There's barely any build up to it. And I know you and Ilia got together quickly, but…" Yang said, looking to her partner.
"But we'd known each other for years, and even though it was spur of the moment, we did our best to make it work by going on plenty of dates in Vale, our own kind of date of course." Blake said with a smile, knowing what Yang meant.
"Don't forget the part where they've only just reunited after MONTHS of being apart, complete with the fact they parted on very poor circumstances…" Gyro sweat dropped. "Seriously, it's like they were reading so much fan mail and decided, sure let's go for that, just like that…"
"Ah...I hate it when a show shoehorns stuff just because the fans want it…" Ruby agreed. She'd seen enough shows get ruined like that.
"Let me guess, you guys have a show that started the trend of doing sudden stuff out of nowhere that makes it all go downhill yeah? What's the trope name for it over here? Ours is 'Jump the Shark'." Pierce asked.
Pyrrha snorted "It's called 'Kiss the Grimm' and I wish I was kidding." she said before outright laughing "This old show that was being filmed in Mistral about 20 years ago, they were clearly running out of ideas, so when they hit the limit, they had one where the female lead of the show kissed a Grimm, obviously a person in a costume, and it turned into a handsome boyfriend for her out of nowhere. The stupidest thing ever, and whenever a show runs out of ideas, we always pray they never hit that point and instead try to wrap up everything in a finale."
"And now I'm worried about how our others would be...and VERY glad that we're not them," Jaune sighed. "Then again...I've been glad since the moment I heard how...bad...my other was at first…"
The group returned to watching silently after that, nothing of note happening for a few moments other than the Manticore attack suddenly starting… and Dee dying because he was an idiot.
They just kept on watching… until they all winced at Dudley's arm getting broken while he tried to get back inside to avoid the tunnel.
"Well… at least he didn't lose it." Wormmon said once the scene showed them the inside of the train and Dudley clutching his broken arm "Now it just needs to be healed properly."
"Huh… masking the whole train." Jaune spoke once they saw the plan to avoid the Grimm "That would definitely need me to boost you… though if we do it NOW…"
"The train would go invisible to anyone watching." Ren spoke in amusement.
But then came what would no doubt be the first bomb of many…
"Woah, woah, wait. Our others are lugging around a Grimm Magnet?" Yang asked incredulously after Ozpin in the show revealed that the Relic attracted Grimm to it "And he didn't tell them EARLIER?! What the shit Oz! That's super important! We wouldn't have gotten on a populated train if we knew!"
"That was very irresponsible of him." Weiss sighed "Well, at least WE know in advance now, and we'll think of alternatives."
"Maybe we could have Gennai hold onto it in the Digital World?" Bemmon suggested after a few moments.
"Hey, yeah, that could work." Rusty said with a slowly forming grin "The Grimm can't track it if it's in another world, right?"
"There are no Grimm in the Digital World, nor have any ever appeared before. But considering the danger they pose, let's just say Yggdrasil has set up some...defenses...to ensure even if the Grimm somehow get through, they won't be staying for long," Gennai said. "So yes, if it means avoiding something like this, I'd be more than happy to hold on to the Relic if need be."
"Glad to know we just got a place we can safely store that then," Gyro sighed. "Any less headaches would help greatly."
They continued watching after that, until the fight with the Grimm resumed, and music started up, Gyro and Pierce getting excited at hearing a new piece from Casey and her dad… until the lyrics hit.
"Huh… well… it's good… but man is it a downer." Gyro frowned.
"Casey's always been an amazing singer, but, yeah, this piece… wow the lyrics are kind of depressing." Pierce agreed.
"Considering what I learned from watching this and assuming it is indeed the original path this world would have taken...It's sadly very fitting," Gennai said solemnly. It honestly hurt to know that in one version of this world, the children who'd fought and saved his world were pushed into a daunting battle in a world that may as well be hopeless and with no real way to truly fight back or even the odds based on what he'd seen so far.
After that they kept watching until the end of the fight, up to the train crashing and…
"Hah! Called it!" Nora shouted when she saw the little old lady hobble out of the train.
"And new intro now, ok, what's it like?" Gyro said, a bit eager, since the intro songs were always the best of each Volume in his opinion.
They kept listening, and watching the imagery from the opening animation, and well…
"Ok… imagery is… pretty worrying." Ruby said with a wince after they saw Jaune in the intro slam Oscar into a wall "But the song is hopeful at least so… think we win this season?"
"Hopefully. And I hope whatever pissed me off at Oscar gets explained pretty quickly, because even though it's probably Ozpin, I don't want to hurt the kid too." Jaune said with a wince.
"I wonder who the person in the hood is?" Pyrrha mused as they saw said character twice in the intro, so they'd be important enough.
"Well… we saw Roman's hat for a few seconds… could be Neo?" Gyro shrugged.
After that, they started the next episode, and…
"Oh come the FUCK ON ALREADY!" Gyro shouted as the FIRST shot in Episode 2 was of Cinder "Why won't this bitch just fucking die already?! I mean, I know she probably barely survived after what WE did to her in our timeline, but come on! Raven froze her and dropped her into a lake deep below! Physics dictates she should have hit terminal velocity and shattered upon hitting the water!"
"And of course she's the hooded person in the intro." Agumon sighed "She just kills a woman and steals her clothes… right, we're gonna have to make sure she's actually dead next time we see her."
"Oh absolutely." Pyrrha said with a frown "At this point she's just pathetic."
"Ok, moving on from the annoying bitch." Pierce sighed as the next scene started up, a flashback obviously "And… Yang hasn't told anybody Raven is the Spring Maiden."
"Goddammit Canon me." Yang sighed as she slumped into her boyfriend, palming her face at how dumb her canon self was for defending the bitch like that.
"This is REALLY not a good start for the season," Blake groaned.
"Oh, hey, the lamp's powers." Patamon perked up as they shifted the topic in the show, the group listening intently.
"So… three questions every century, but they can only be about events that have happened." Aile summed up the lamp's powers.
"I can see it coming now. Even though he says it has no questions left, there's actually still one left, and they use it to see the past of the world, against his wishes." Hawkmon sighed.
"Wouldn't surprise me. Ozpin is… really big on keeping secrets." Gomamon frowned.
"Yeah...it's kinda hard to trust him now…" Tentomon said dryly as they continued watching...and saw Ozpin's sort of breakdown.
"Okay...yeah, kind of justified, but still not the best way to prove you can be trusted," Veemon scratched the back of his head. "Guess that Salem lady must really be good at pulling people's strings…"
"Something like that," Gennai sighed. "Still, it's admirable he wants to try and have Lionheart be remembered for himself before Salem got to him…even if calling what he did 'missteps' is too light of words…"
"Afraid or not, he was basically snuffing out potential pieces of hope just to save his own hide," Gyro said dryly. "I can agree to wanting a guy to at least be remembered for stuff WE don't know about, but when we get to Haven, we're tearing that guy a new one."
"I would be surprised if you didn't," Gennai chuckled.
The group continued to watch as Ozpin seemed...quite keen on being the one to carry it...which led to…
"Called it," Nora said simply as Oscar forced control to tell them how to use the Lamp, and cue calling the name of the being inside the Lamp.
"Really? Jinn?" Pierce chuckled.
"Why is that funny?" Biyomon asked, confused.
"Jinn is another way of saying Genie. As in, Genie of the Lamp," Gyro snorted, gaining a few amused chuckles from the others at understanding the joke.
"At least it wasn't rubbing the lamp, or that would be REALLY cliche," Pyrrha said in amusement. Then the snow stopped.
"Well, something really important is about to happen," Falcomon said matter of factly.
And then Jinn came out of the lamp and…
"Uh… wow… do not blame Qrow for looking away." Gyro said with wide eyes.
"Yeah, you don't know where to put your eyes." Ruby admitted with a bit of blush at how… curvaceous Jinn looked. Plus the entity was just about naked to boot.
"Daaaaamn." Pierce and Yang said together with hanging jaws.
Once the group eventually got over the admittedly very attractive spirit of the lamp, they were quickly focused on the scene change which showed Cinder in a town.
"As much as I hate seeing her, at least we know what she's up to." Gabumon frowned as they paid close attention.
And then they saw the wanted poster "Hah! Serves you right BITCH!" Gyro shouted at the fact that Cinder's group was now wanted by the authorities.
"Hmm… step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly." Pierce quoted when they saw the spider sitting on a web printed on a wooden beam, followed by Cinder walking into a bar/tavern of some sort.
"Lil' Miss Malachite?" Jaune repeated the name of the woman in the tavern, blinking in confusion, before Gyro paused the video and opened another tab to check something called the RWBY Wiki apparently and…
"Huh… so she IS their mom… good to know." he said, before closing the extra tab back up and resuming the video.
"Wait… the two girls I fought at Junior's club last year… are her daughters?" Yang asked in very well warranted surprise, considering Melanie and Miltia looked nothing like their mother.
"Fun fact about the twins actually, their designs, you know, back when the world was nothing but a show, were based on early versions of Ruby and Weiss. And they were made because one of Monty's friends asked for a set of twins to cosplay." Pierce said, and the group did find the fact interesting for a moment before they focused back on the show. Cinder went in, used up whatever money she'd gotten off of that woman she killed, and asked to know where team RNJR was...clearly still very much holding a grudge.
"By all means, come at us again this time too," Agumon challenged. "We'll treat ya so well there won't be anything left."
"I like how pragmatic Lil' Miss is though. She's both stalling Cinder and trying to double cross her." Gabumon chuckled.
The scene soon shifted back to the group with Jinn confirming she could answer questions and that she still had some open questions...until Ozpin cut in...leaving Jinn to almost comically finish her statement revealing she had 2 more questions left available. What followed made the group notice how...against...Ozpin was about what they no doubt were about to ask. "Okay...wow...that goes beyond wanting to keep a secret and straight into trauma alley…" Nora said with a wince.
"Could do without the girls being so antagonistic at least." Jaune added as Weiss, Blake and Yang in the show seemed ready to attack at one wrong move. "Even if they've been through a lot, that's pretty much making yourself look like traitors, despite how he's hiding stuff from us."
"Yeah, other us could handle this better." Yang winced at seeing Weiss point her rapier at Qrow "Still… he must either be ashamed or scared of this big secret he's keeping from us."
"I….wouldn't be surprised…" Gennai sighed. True enough, when Ruby asked the question to know what he was hiding, he all but ran at her with a big drawn out no...before the scene suddenly turned white, and Jinn started telling a tale, a tale of a tower that held a lonely girl named...Salem, as the scene revealed a normal looking beautiful woman with blonde hair.
"... What?" Gyro said in shock.
"She was… normal once?" Pierce added, equally shocked.
"Next episode, next episode, come on!" Palmon said quickly and clicked episode 3 quickly before the credits for episode 2 even started.
Thankfully, after skipping the intro, they jumped right back into Jinn's tale, and listened with rapt attention.
"So she had a cruel father too." Weiss frowned at the fact that Salem was locked in a tower by her own father.
And then came the reveal of the hero that was coming to save her…
"Oz...ma?" Blake repeated "Hey, do you think that's…?"
"It… could be him yeah." Salamon said, though everyone looked unsure.
The group watched the...admittedly rushed...romance story that formed between Ozma and Salem, and despite everything, they smiled a bit when it seemed like the two would be happy together...but inwardly they knew how this would likely go. True enough, the next scene showed Ozma dying ironically not of battle or heroic deeds...but of sickness, leaving Salem sobbing with grief as she held his staff.
"...what IS it with this world and kicking people in the balls?" Pierce couldn't help but say. Even knowing what she'd become, they could sympathize with someone grieving over the loss of a loved one.
"I REALLY wish we can find an actual answer to that. Preferably with a solution too," Jaune sighed.
After that, they watched Salem go to the God of Light, to try and convince him to bring back Ozma.
"He's right." Gyro sighed "You can't just upset the balance of life and death like that. Maybe if she'd instead ask to speak with him one last time, he would have granted that, but outright bringing him back fully is wrong."
And then of course… Salem tried the younger brother.
"Oh… oh ok… so THIS is where the Grimm came from… also WOW that is creepy." Yang said as she saw various Grimm prowling the area of the younger brother's black fountain… and then when he rose up from it and snapped his body into place gradually.
"Okay, he HAS to be doing that on purpose," Gomamon said, looking a bit grossed out.
And then when Salem managed to trick the younger brother into reviving Ozma…
"Ok… either he's really dumb… or her Semblance was active back then and it can make people stupid." Gyro said in deadpan.
"I doubt anyone would have a semblance like THAT." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.
And then they watched as the brothers essentially played tug of war with Ozma's life, alternating between killing and reviving him.
"And cue giving Salem a psychotic breakdown." Pierce facepalmed with a groan.
"Its like something out of a demented cartoon…" Jaune said, with a twitching eye. Seriously, the whole thing was horrifying, yet the context was so unbelievably childish he seriously questioned these supposed gods.
Then they saw Salem's understandable, if somewhat unwarranted anger at the gods, to which they responded by...dunking her into the Spring of Life, which...apparently gave her immortality.
The group paused the video at that, and Gennai gave them all a worried look as they soaked it in.
"Salem… is immortal… she CAN'T die… because these two fucking IDIOTS thought THAT would be a smart way to punish her." Gyro summed up, seething as Ruby rubbed his back to help keep him relatively calm.
"Ok… who else wants to go God of War on their asses?" Pierce asked with a growl.
"If it didn't probably lead to the end of the world, I'd honestly be all for it." Jaune sighed.
"If she can't die… then how do we beat her?" Veemon frowned in thought.
"She could probably escape any sort of prison we throw her into." Agumon added.
"Wait… prison… what if we throw her into a different dimension though?" Ren suggested, turning to look at Patamon.
"The Heaven's Gate… that might work!" the little Digimon said with a nod, and immediately, the mood did a 180 and everyone was feeling hopeful again.
"Yeah… we don't NEED to kill her! Just banish her somewhere she can never escape from!" Gyro said with a grin. "Seriously, words can't describe how GLAD I am we have the Digimon on our side," he said...before getting a bit more glum. "Damn...if we'd gone for the original plan without knowing this…"
"...let's not think about what might have happened and just be glad our friends gave us an answer before we even knew we needed one," Blake sighed, though she could tell what Gyro was thinking. The brothers came to Remnant without knowing THAT crucial bit of information. They could have very well found out at a later date that they'd walked into their own deaths…
"So...should we continue watching?" Pyrrha asked after a while.
"We should yeah," Keenan nodded. "We'll probably want to know how she ended up becoming what she is now."
With that in agreement, the group continued the vid, seeing how Salem naturally didn't take her new punishment well and instead of focusing on the conditions to break her curse which was flat out given to her...she ended up focusing on how to spite the gods, how to destroy them...or at least make life difficult for them.
"...oh boy…" several of them couldn't help but say. This wasn't going to end well…
True enough…
"He… he just…" Pyrrha gasped, eyes wide.
"She made humanity rebel against them… and he just wiped them all out in return after taking back the magic." Gabumon said in shock, as they watched the Brother of Darkness eradicate mankind.
"We're just… an experiment to them?" Jaune said, feeling some anger at the Brother of Light's words before he disappeared, his own brother leaving the planet soon after… and now they finally knew how their moon ended up the way it did.
"It's all their fault… they destroyed everything… all because they think they know better than mortals." Yang said with wide eyes at how… uncaring the gods were.
"Just because they didn't turn out how you initially intended...that's not a reason to destroy them all…" Gennai said with a shake of his head. "Something Lord Yggdrasil learned a long time ago…"
"Did...something like this happen with Yggdrasil?" Ren asked in surprise.
"Yes, but to make a long story short, it didn't end with the annihilation of all Digimon at the time. Rather, it ended with a major step that allowed the Digimon to develop into the beings they are today," Gennai said with a soft smile.
"And this is why I'm happy to introduce myself as one of Yggdrasil's Chosen." Gyro said with a chuckle, before they returned to the video… and saw what Salem's final attempt to die was.
"Ah… so THAT'S how she became what she is today." Pierce said with a sigh as they saw Salem emerge from the Grimm pool, her skin now deadly white along with her hair, her sclera black,and her eyes and angry red.
"I do pity her… but in the end, she caused all this suffering, and won't own up to it." Pyrrha sighed "She's like a spoiled child, and we're the parents that have to clean up the mess she keeps making worse and worse."
"And we'll clean it up with the mother of all vacuum cleaners," Patamon said, gaining a few amused chuckles at that one.
Then they saw the Brother of Light reviving Ozma…
"We were right. It IS him." Weiss said as they saw Ozma's soul basically bond itself to another human being.
"And of course there's the whole 'humanity will be judged' thing if they come back," Pierce sighed. "I don't think I need to say how SCREWED Remnant is if they came back now, right?" Nobody responded to that, though they all had uncomfortable looks knowing the obvious answer. They just focused on Ozma's first life as an 'envoy' or something.
"And of COURSE early Faunus were caged like animals." Blake sighed, before feeling a few of the others give her reassuring hands on her back.
"Huh… first meeting with Salem again… this almost feels… nice." Jaune said as they saw Salem and Ozma meet again after who knows how long of being without each other, and they seemed… happy.
And then came watching the two become revered as gods, having statues built in their image, ruling over a kingdom… and having a family.
"Aww… they're so cute." Nora cooed as they saw the daughters of Ozma and Salem playing around happily.
"I really hate that I'm saying this but...how does it all crash and burn?" Yang asked. What they'd seen so far basically made the drill clear. They'd get their happiness for a while...before it was taken away in the most brutal way. True enough...they saw Salem become more and more...ambitious...with expanding their Kingdom, and with the reveal that their daughters wielded the same magic they could...got it in her head to...replace...humanity with their own descendants.
"Ignoring the squick implications...she's definitely nuts…" Jaune said. Then Ozma decided to address this issue. In the worst way possible.
"You know… if he'd been patient with her and tried to reason… maybe everything would still be ok. Sure, they'd probably have rough patches, as all couples do, but… he could have helped her stick on a righteous path if he hadn't decided to just sneak their daughters out in the middle of the night." Gyro sighed.
"I pity them… I really do." Ruby said with a sad sigh as they watched Ozma and Salem fight… and of course, the girls were caught in the crossfire and died, with Salem killing Ozma, for no doubt the first of many times.
"This is...this is just messed up on every level," Blake shook her head.
"Two lovers torn apart by fate, only to be reunited then turned into bitter enemies for all eternity? Yeah, sounds like someone upstairs' idea of a sick sick joke," Pierce agreed as they watched the quick montage of his lives and his struggles, which soon ended with Jinn revealing he'd used her to answer several of his questions...but the final one was the one that broke him.
"So he can't destroy Salem...that's probably the moment he broke…" Weiss frowned.
"But that just confirms what we thought. We can't beat her by destroying her, but if we lock her away somewhere she can't escape from, it'll be just as good," Wormmon said.
"As for Oz… do we give him a chance? He may be an idiot, but he IS a victim in all this. He died, and then the gods decided to make him into a pawn." Jaune wondered.
"Maybe we should. If we tell him that we know the truth, and that we HAVE a plan to get rid of Salem, he'll trust us?" Rusty said.
"At this point, he can't stop us anyway even if he was against our plan. Oscar's body isn't used to moving the way Ozpin does yet, so he wouldn't have enough power to stop us if he suddenly becomes an enemy. We give him a chance to accept our way. If he's against it… then we find a way to kick him out of Oscar, simple as that." Gyro sighed "It's an ultimatum obviously, but it needs to be set as a precaution, so we know what to do if it comes to that."
"The only problem is…'how'," Ruby frowned.
"Well…I'll admit it's not an ideal method but...perhaps the method I'd intended to use to extract the Maiden Powers could be used here as well," Gennai frowned. "Just understand this is quite different from extracting a source of power."
"We know. This is pushing the lines," Jaune said with a nod. "But we'll want to have something ready just in case either way," he sighed. "So...should we keep going with the videos or...should we save the rest for another time?"
Gyro sighed, leaning back into the seat, before looking at a watch he kept hidden under his clothes most of the time "Let's save them for tomorrow, it's getting late so we should eat and do anything else before we go claim some rooms."
"In that case, hey Aile, mind if I take you aside for a bit, I think we need to do something about your outfit." Yang said as she stood up and gave a smile to one of their newest members.
Aile blinked before looking down at her plug suit, covered under her clothes for now "What about it?"
"It's not very good as a battle outfit, don't you think? So we're gonna go make you something better." Yang said, and Aile couldn't deny that.
"Well… in that case, I need to sow some special gloves. I got an idea the other day while using my chakrams and the delay until they come back to me. I want to use Gravity Dust to manipulate them." Aile explained.
"Oh! That sounds perfect!" Ruby cheered "I'll even reforge your weapons for you if you want while you make the gloves, put some Gravity Dust in them and presto!"
"Actually, before you start on that…" Gennai said with a smile "I've been stocking up on Chrome Digizoid these past years… I think there's enough you could make brand new weapons out of it."
Ruby gasped at that, before she grinned "Yes! I'm doing it! I learned some stuff from Vermillimon back on File, and mom taught me how to work with Chrome Digizoid when we did the coating, so I'm feeling confident!"
"In that case, let me help you with it. More hands would be better after all. Just gonna need everyone's weapon plans again, unless you still have them of course." Gyro said with a smile as he got up.
"Still do yeah. Just need the plans for… what are your weapons called actually?" Ruby asked as she looked to Rusty and Aile.
"I call them Jessie and James." Rusty said as he drew his twin pistols, spinning them around his fingers a bit before turning them into a pair of batons, and then putting them together into a single rifle with twin barrels.
Pierce hid a snort at the names, because of the accidental reference Rusty had made.
"And these are Samsara." Aile said as she produced her chakrams "They don't have an alternate mode though."
Ruby hummed, coming to take a closer look at the weapons, before taking one of the chakrams from Aile "How about… knives?"
"Huh?" Aile blinked.
"Yeah. Folding the wheels together to turn them into some pretty thick knives, though I guess they would look more like kunai," Ruby explained her idea.
"Huh… that could work, yes." Aile said with a nod, before smiling at Ruby "Please do so then."
"I doubt you'll be able to keep EVERYTHING Pandora can do, so just put the essentials." Pierce told Ruby while Rusty forwarded the blueprints for his weapons to her.
"Sure, so a gun, a naginata, a flamethrower nozzle is easy to hide in there, I can probably do an elemental trident mode like what Neptune has, and the grappling hook/electro rope function. Those are all easy to replicate. I'll see if I can't keep more in, but yeah, don't expect 666 modes." Ruby joked.
"Even my original doesn't have that many," Pierce snorted.
"Well, while you guys are doing that, we'll get started on food." Jaune said, with everyone leaving the computer room for now, Gennai guiding Yang, Aile, Gyro and Ruby to the rooms where they would be spending the next several hours working.
The next morning had the group on the road with their RV, the trees passing by the windows for anyone watching. They'd decided it would be best to keep moving every day, so that one way or another they'd get closer and closer to their destination. As expected, the Grimm did show up here and there...but the numbers weren't too much of an issue, so much so the RV's defenses were enough to deal with them be it via the guns or ramming.
In the meantime, they'd gotten to make the RV their new home, furnishing the rooms they were given (which were sizable for single person rooms, enough so that it was easy to share it with their Digimon partners). Likewise, they'd managed to finish work on several upgrades and even the new weapons.
And of course, Yang had managed to finish Aile's new look, having looked up images from Earth to get references and ideas, and she found something that she knew would work for the faunus girl.
"Alright, we just put the finishing touch on her new look this morning." Yang said as she came into the dining room where everyone was having breakfast, Biyomon and Hawkmon right behind her "She's changing into it right now, and I am proud to say that I did a VERY good job." she said with a grin.
"She really did, Aile's new outfit looks amazing." Hawkmon nodded, having been one of the first to see the new look and it worked well for his partner.
"Well, bring her in then, I managed to finish her new weapons first. We're using a simple naming scheme since the weapons are practically the same as the old ones for everyone, but we just added X to the end." Ruby shrugged before producing a pair of chakrams from underneath the table, several parts of it having dark purple pieces of gravity dust embedded into it, and the weapon itself was a dark silver "So, yeah, this is Samsara X."
"So far we've finished Myrtenaster X, Stormflower X, Crocea Mors X, and Ember Celica X, on top of Samsara X" Gyro said before yawning a bit "We'll work on the rest later today."
"Good job guys." Yang grinned, before turning to the door "Come on in girl! Show them the new you!"
At her words, Aile confidently strode in, now wearing a brand new look. Tight midnight blue pants with high heeled boots on her feet, her top being sleeveless and the same midnight blue as the pants, save for the front of it which was made of what looked like a malleable silver material, covering her stomach and breasts fully, though there was a bit of cleavage as well, long gloves covering her forearms with glowing purple lines on them, her hair pulled back into a ponytail with her feathers arranged like a crown around the base of the ponytail.
Rusty… his jaw dropped as he looked at his friend, and his cheeks became red.
"So, do you guys like it? Yang said she took some inspiration from a music video she saw while searching for stuff." Aile said, turning around to give everyone a full look.
"Looks good." Gyro nodded with a smile, before humming "And I think I know what reference she used. Give her the weapons Ruby, I think that'll complete the look." he chuckled a bit, while Ruby was confused but shrugged, tossing Samsara X to Aile… who lifted her hands and stopped the weapons in midair, slowly moving her fingers and making them move before her movements became more confident and she made them spin around her and even shifted them into their new kunai mode and let them rest just behind her shoulders.
"Ah… now I see it." Pierce chuckled "You watched the K/DA video from League of Legends. She looks like Kai'sa now."
"What's League of Legends?" Veemon asked.
"A video game from Earth. They did a collaboration with a k-pop group and they made costumes for four of the female playable characters in the game. Aile looks just like one of them, just with some differences." Gyro explained.
"Yeah, I thought the outfits were pretty cool in the video… and the song was also pretty good." Yang said with a grin. "Oh, it doesn't look like it, but this," she started, patting Aile's stomach, producing a soft clang sound "Is actually a flexible metal, so she's got some armored protection and most people would just think it's some shiny cloth."
"It's certainly a more serious look than a plugsuit with normal clothing over it." Weiss said in amusement "No offense meant Aile, but your old look was very…"
"I know, it wasn't the best." Aile said with a bit of a blush. "To be fair, it was a modified diving suit that I attached the plugs to so I could attach Samsara to it and use them in different ways, like rotors on my feet when I dove underwater to catch fish."
"But since you're going to be in battles now, a more flexible and less restrictive outfit is better… plus this one actually has some armor." Blake said, with Aile nodding in agreement before she sat down to eat.
"Uh… you gonna just leave those floating there?" Gomamon asked as he pointed at Samsara X floating behind her.
"Oh, right, almost forgot." Aile said with an embarrassed blush before she grabbed the weapons and put them into a pair of holsters she strapped to her hips. "So...now that that's taken care of, what's the plan today?"
"Aside from continuing on the way we already had planned? We'll want to see more of those episodes. We may have deviated a lot, but we'll still want to know any possible players in the future, and if possible, more secrets we can use to topple Salem's faction," Gyro said. "Just as soon as we find a relatively secure place to park. We may be living in a moving bunker, but that's no reason to get cocky."
"Definitely a smart move," Aile agreed...right before her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn't started eating yet. "So...what's for breakfast?"
They quickly got back to the computer room and settled in to watch the rest of the show now, just to see if there was anything else interesting to learn.
And they decided to hold their commentary till the end of each episode this time.
"Ok, so that was episode 4. First, Qrow's a fucking jackass because he punched Oscar, not Ozpin." Gyro sighed.
"Also this Maria lady is pretty funny… and it's fun to see Salem angry at her goons." Pierce chuckled.
"As for the Brunswick farm… something's gonna happen there. I can tell." Jaune frowned.
"Our others seemed to have broken Ozpin further though if he locked himself up deep in Oscar's mind." Pyrrha sighed. "I can't say I blame them considering what they just found out...not to mention finding out Ozpin doesn't actually have any plan...but still…"
"Kicking a guy while he's down yeah…" Ruby said a bit sadly.
"Well...at least we have a plan," Palmon said.
"Yeah, let's put this tragedy to rest once and for all," Patamon agreed.
"This world has had enough suffering. Let's do everything in our power to finally end it," Keenan said with a firm nod, before they moved on to the next episode.
"Ok, so Neo joined up with Cinder… though I'm hoping she's gonna backstab her later." Weiss said with fingers crossed.
"At least she won't be coming after me this time. Both her AND Roman were arrested by General Ironwood, so even if they're mad at me, it probably won't be enough to want to kill me if they escape." Ruby said with a shrug.
"And then everyone's feeling depressed in that farm which is looking more and more like a horror movie setting." Ren sighed.
"The creaking cellar doors at the end sure didn't help." Wormmon shivered.
"We'll probably find out what's going on soon enough, but still...it's really strange…" Pierce frowned.
"Either way, if we have to go that way, thankfully we'll probably not have to deal with the farm since we have the RV," Agumon sighed.
"And if the show reveals whatever monster or evil is living on the farm...we can always deal with it on principle," Veemon added.
"Anyway, next one." Blake sighed as they started Episode 6 and quickly went through it.
"Ok, so… the Apathy are FUCKING creepy." Gyro said with a shiver, thinking of the zombie like Grimm that apparently filled the well of the Brunswick farm.
"An enemy that can make you feel like nothing matters at all… that's just… REALLY bad." Tentomon said, a bit scared of fighting something like that, since it might hit them hard enough to decide protecting their partners wouldn't be important.
"Still, now we know why Maria is so important. She was a Silver Eyed Warrior just like Ruby and Summer before she probably lost them." Palmon said, glad that mystery was solved. The next episode soon played and it opened with…
"Ouch...yeah...clearly Salem has been making sure the Silver Eyed Warriors didn't last long considering what they can do to Grimm," Gyro winced at seeing how Maria lost her eyes.
"But...if she's going through that much trouble, doesn't that mean it's because she feels they're an actual threat?" Gabumon mused.
"You...might be right, but I don't think that's it," Jaune frowned.
"What do you mean? If she's part Grimm, doesn't that mean the Eyes would work on her?" Gomamon asked in confusion.
"If it was that simple, don't you think Ozpin would have tried that?" Jaune pointed out. "He's literally had thousands of years to try. Heck, he's technically got 2 on his side already for us, and one more or less on his side there. And he has no plan. What does that say?"
"...it says either he's tried using a Silver Eyed Warrior and failed, or something else is going on that basically made that plan invalid...fuck…" Gyro groaned. "Sorry everyone, but at this point I think your canon selves are SCREWED."
"Considering our canon selves' best trump card is probably useless? Yeah...I can't say you're wrong there…" Yang groaned.
Still, the Grimm Reaper… I think Uncle Qrow's told me stories about her. It's cool that other me gets to learn from her." Ruby grinned.
"You could still learn a thing or two from her...assuming she joins the party," Palmon said.
"Let's put that as a maybe for now, since her joining is more or less dependent on whether or not the train crash happens...and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't want that if we can help it," Gyro sighed as they continued watching as the group reached Argus, and eventually…
"It's nice to see home again." Pyrrha said with a smile, as even though it wasn't real life, this WAS her home she was seeing right now, as the show had Team RWBY overlooking the city of Argus from a cliff.
"It's shots like these where this show really shines. Make you feel that there's something still worth protecting," Pierce nodded with a smile.
Then they got to inside the city…
"So THAT's Saphron… and her son?" Gyro blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, little Adrian Cotta-Arc, my nephew." Jaune chuckled.
"Wait… you said your sister married a woman… how did they…?" Nora trailed off in confusion.
Jaune sighed "My sister in law Terra got artificially inseminated, simple as that. Sure, Adrian isn't related by blood to my side of the family, but he's still an Arc."
"Cut and dry, yeahp." Gomamon nodded.
Pierce snorted as they saw the family picture of Jaune with his sisters "Sucks to be you man. Which one is Saphron though? I'm not trying to be rude, but you're ALL blue eyed blondes."
"The one in orange next to me, she's the second oldest, we've got an eight year difference. The twins are my youngest sisters, and the nerdy looking one came out just a year after me, so I'm right just about in the middle." Jaune pointed them out.
"And the one messing up your hair is the one that became a Huntress." Gyro figured, earning a nod from Jaune.
"Not gonna tell us their names?" Gabumon asked.
"I'm gonna let you stumble over every possible name until you guess them." Jaune shot back in amusement.
"Sure, we'll work on that right as soon as Salem is safely behind the Heaven's Gate, and whatever evil Yggdrasil is holding down is bits of junk data," Gomamon snorted.
The group laughed at that, before they watch the end of the episode… and sighed as they saw the gates of the Argus military base being closed shut in front of Team RWBY.
"Of course it's not going to be easy. Still 6 episodes to go through in this volume." Weiss sighed.
After that they just went through the rest of the season, finishing in the afternoon after breaking for lunch and started summing up everything.
"So, Cordovin MIGHT be a problem once we go to Argus, more so if we have Miss Calavera with us." Pierce said with an awkward laugh.
"She threw a giant robot at canon us! Of course she's gonna be a problem!" Nora pointed out.
"Well, I know how we can counter it." Gyro said confidently.
"Is it another giant robot?" Blake asked in deadpan.
"Yes! Because giant mechs are a man's romance dammit!" Gyro said, slamming his fist on the table… and all the other guys agreed with him.
"Well, I'd be all for it… but do we have the material to make one?" Ruby pointed out, causing Gyro to deflate a bit.
"And do we have the TIME to make one big enough to fight hers?" Weiss added with a raised eyebrow.
"And finally… can you make one stable enough? Because we KNOW you plan on making it a multi component one and have us pilot different parts." Yang finished, and Gyro just started pouting.
"I'll get my giant mecha one day, I swear dammit." he muttered as he made a circle with his finger on the table.
"Outside of that, we FINALLY kill Adam, and thank Oum for that." Blake sighed in relief, glad her stalker was finally going to end up dead.
"And I know a bit more about how Silver Eyes work now. I mean, mom got me started, but even she didn't know a lot since she rarely used them." Ruby said with a shrug.
"Maybe you can have Maria teach you other things if you show her you already know the basic stuff?" Palmon suggested.
"It's worth a shot at least." Yang grinned as she pictured her little sister becoming a super badass.
"Also, canon me is a jackass." Jaune muttered, ashamed at how his other had snapped at Oscar like that.
"He's still angry at Ozpin over, in his opinion, causing my canon self's death." Pyrrha sighed sadly.
"I'm still a bit miffed that Miss Calavera has the same semblance as me." Rusty sighed "I mean, it's not the same name, she calls it Preflexes, and I call it Hyper Sense, but still, we have the same power essentially."
"It's perfect for both of you though when you think about it. She had to be hyper aware of her surroundings, especially to use her weapons perfectly, and you need the same to always hit your correct target and never an ally." Bemmon reassured his partner, who nodded with a smile.
"We know more about Emerald and Mercury now as well." Aile said "Mercury had his Semblance stolen by his father, and Emerald saw Cinder as family."
"We'll have to be careful with them. For all we know, a powerful enough emotion COULD reactivate Mercury's Semblance, since there's the possibility his father only sealed it." Hawkmon frowned in thought "Not to mention, as soon as we kill Cinder, we need to knock out Emerald so we can capture her, or else she will act wildly and lash out in an unpredictable manner."
"Tyrian got a new tail after it got cut off, but since we plan on straight up killing him, we won't have to worry about that, same for what he's planning in Atlas with Watts." Ren added, as he had everything written down on a list in front of him, to help keep track of it all.
"Anything else we're forgetting?" Agumon mused.
"Well… canon me loses Bumblebee." Yang said with a shrug.
"Where IS your bike anyway?" Biyomon asked.
"Oh, Gennai showed me we had a garage in here, it's stored in there." the blonde grinned.
"Cinder and Neo are making their way to Atlas, trying to get to Ruby to kill her. And, surprisingly, because no one ever clarified it for us, Atlas is a FLYING kingdom, which is a dumb idea unless you're floating over water like Angel Island does." Gyro said with a groan.
"And why is that?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.
Gyro gave her a deadpan look, then tapped on his scroll, which made a crude holographic diagram, which showed Atlas floating above Mantle… then the Diagram removed something labelled 'Power Source' from Atlas… and it crashed onto Mantle.
"Ah... I see your point now." she said with her eyes wide.
"Also I managed to turn the Leviathan Grimm to stone, so that's something." Ruby said, happy about that, even though someone else had to do the kill.
"And finally, Salem is going full Wicked Witch and making flying monkeys." Pierce said before snorting "Now she just needs to scream out 'Fly my pretties!'" he said in a bad imitation of a witch's cackle.
"So, should we watch Volume 7 right now?" Jaune asked, looking between everyone.
"Maybe we should wait a little, we DID just finish Volume 6, 7 will no doubt have more surprises in store for us if the trailer we opened after the final episode was any indication." Pyrrha said with a frown.
"Any insight on who the people who took the Relic were?" Gyro asked Weiss.
"I'm not entirely positive, but from the little part of the outfit I could see, and the military grade bolo, I think they may have been the Ace-Ops. An elite team of Atlesian Specialists like Winter. If I'm right, then them taking the Relic isn't as bad, since they'll take it straight to the General, and even though we might not see eye to eye with him, we're on the same side of this conflict." Weiss reasoned.
"Let's hope you're right then. I'd prefer cocky morons on our side than asshole jerks against us." Gyro sighed "Anyway, yeah, we'll save V7 for tomorrow. For the rest of the day, we'll just do what we need to. Rusty, you're on driving duty, Nora and Jaune will handle the turrets while Blake takes the radar." he said, starting to assign tasks "Ren, Yang, think you two can try to see if you can make some sturdier clothes?"
"I think I got some ideas, yeah." Yang nodded.
"And I suppose I can use some of what my mother taught me before she passed to help." Ren said with a small smile.
"Great. Aile, Keenan, you two are gonna be our lookouts from the roof, warn us if you see any signs of smoke in the distance." Gyro continued, to which the two nodded nodded. "Weiss, Pyrrha, you two are on computer duty. I want you two to be on the lookout for anything the Digimon King could be planning. And Pierce, you're gonna be handling food, keep us all fed for the day, sandwiches will be enough." he said in amusement as his brother nodded "Meanwhile, Ruby and I will be finishing up the weapons. Let's get to it people!"
"Roger!" everyone nodded.
And we're moving on to the next one people, because as always...
The Adventure Evolves