Author's Note:
I do not own Library of Ruina or RWBY. These series belong to Project Moon and RoosterTeeth respectively.
This chapter was originally going to be longer but decided to split the chapter into two, so the next chapter might come out sooner.
Reviews:
VGBlackwing - Well, we won't know how Angela will react to Penny. Since I'm just writing this off the top of my head, I have a few good ideas regarding their interaction, but we'll just have to wait to see.
TetSuoRai - Bongbong is a confirmed character I have planned as well as some others. The guests on the other hand, will probably get mentioned, but I think I have one or two characters that can make an appearance.
holygamer123 - Team RWBY meeting the abnos are planned but I think it will be different than usual
Orchidbunny - The Queen of Hatred is most likely one of the abnormalities that the Remnant Crew will interact with. Also, the HamHamPangPang thing was filler for comedy, but I think I have something in store for Roland.
blackdragon32 - The RWBY key pages were really difficult for me to balance. As for why Ruby and Yang are more broken, all I can say is that they were trained by two members of Team STRQ, the greatest team to leave Beacon.
Pillow43 - Roland's downplayed strength stems from the fact that he went through fight after fight during the last weeks of the Library.
Guest - Thank you for your support!
Guest - I'm not planning to include the 40 librarian assistants, only some of them. The Library is only weak right now because of the low amount of light and it is still adapting to the new world. Don't worry about their strength, it will gain a boost in power once they figure out how to restore the Light.
Edited: 3/22/24 - Changed it to say that the Library 'booked' Guests so it wouldn't shock Ruby or Blake.
—ENTRANCE TO THE LIBRARY—
"…"
"…"
"…" The robotic director stared at the guests.
The white huntress-in-training just sighed, "Apologies, there's a lot to think about right now." Even Ruby, the girl who had unlimited energy, was getting a bit exhausted from this day.
"Well, I shall answer any questions that you may have. If you would prefer, we can discuss this in a more comfortable area." Her voice was smooth and seemed to please the young huntresses. A nod from both of them "Gebura, show these girls to the Floor of History's lounge."
"Aye aye," the red Patron Librarian replied as she de-equipped her keypage, light flooding over her, revealing her to be in a red high-collar jacket with maroon leggings; a red orb adorned her neck area. She tossed the keypage to Angela who in turn caught it with her eyes closed. "Come on. It's not too far."
Before the two girls could ask what happened to Gebura's outfit, the pale librarian director opened her eyes and talked again, "And Roland, could you please retrieve our other two guests." Ruby and Weiss widely blinked, how did she know that the other half of Team RWBY was just wandering outside the Library? Meanwhile, Roland thought it would be easier if all of them heard what Angela had to say or answer.
In an instant, his injured arm erupted in a blinding light similar to Gebura. His bloodied arm was now good as new, he swung it around a few times to adjust as he thanked her. The first half of Team RWBY was shocked; they knew that this couldn't be due to dust or a semblance, so they were baffled.
"Roger that Miss Director," Roland saluted with a slight smile on his face.
Angela thought about the suffering she went through back in Facility X-394. She went through a million years of going back and forth to serve that man's goals that were never his. She followed his script all the way through, and in the end, she destroyed everything that they had worked hard to gain. Over the course of the Library's operation, she had given up her greed and ignorance in turn to find a new way. Looking back at her actions, it was a bit childish. She continued to throw a tantrum until a certain man in black showed up in the Library. She had been suspicious of the individual, but over time, he had grown on her. In the end, she finally had someone to call a 'friend.'
"Wrong, try again. You should know by now that's not the right way to address me, don't you?" Her voice, although stern, held no malice.
Roland's smile grew a bit larger, "Roger that, Angela." With that, he turned to exit the Library.
The two other Patron Librarians looked on with delight but it didn't show on their faces. Even though she had reverted back into a machine, Angela was still as human as them. To the Librarians, she had changed for the better; her resentment still existed but not towards them and she was more sociable. They mentally thanked Roland, who helped her along the way.
After the exchange between the two librarians, Chesed, who had not received any instructions from Angela, took it as an order of dismissal. He had de-equipped Esther's keypage and handed it back to Angela. He felt the most comfortable in his blue Patrion Librarian uniform. Strangely enough, the girls spotted a black mug with a symbol on it that appeared in his hand. He walked away from the group and strolled off to his own floor while humming a tune.
The ones that were left at the entrance of the Library were the two huntresses-in-training and the red and light-blue librarians. "Let's go," Gebura spoke up. The group of three left the Librarian Director. As they were walking, Ruby turned to look at Angela who stood facing the opened library door, showing the Emerald Forest surrounding them. When they went through the corridor and passed the corner, the red-hooded girl blinked and the pale librarian had disappeared. The red-hooded huntress-in-training was surprised but did not question it.
—PATRON BREAK ROOM, THE LIBRARY—
In the break room only for Patron Librarians, since Roland, Chesed, and Gebura had not gotten back to them in a while, the other Patrons were doing their own activities.
Malkuth was reading up on a book regarding primitive survival techniques; it was a very thin pamphlet that read 'Survival Guide for Dummies'.
The shortest of the Patrons, Tiphereth, was making a Viennese coffee after discussing the natural order of this world with Hokma, they concluded that it would be best to wait for the investigation team's return.
The Library's own Arbiter, Binah, was making Yesod brew tea for her. Reluctantly, he agreed as he had nothing better to do than wait.
Hod was simply just reading up on a book that she didn't have time for since the Blue Reverberation Ensemble raided them.
The last Patron was still knocked out on the floor; Netzach had tired himself after trying to paint the forest.
It had been a few minutes since Angela had left them unexpectedly. Then a snap was heard in the middle of the room, making all eyes turn toward their Librarian Director.
Malkuth and Hod were the first to rush toward Angela, they were excited to hear any new bits of information regarding their situation. The rest of the Patrons, save for the long green-haired one, were giving the pale librarian their entire attention, only for Tiphereth to shake him, waking him up from his peaceful slumber.
"I would like to inform you all that we have some guests," Angela spoke with a calm demeanor. The faces of the Asiyah Layer Patrons became filled with dread. Angela had no idea what caused them to act like that, only then she remembered a conversation when she asked Roland to round them up for a chat. "Apologies, I don't mean guests in that sense."
Their mood was suddenly lifted, the upper-layer librarians were sick of killing people, they only fought during the Library's time in the City because Angela had forced them to do so.
"Ahh, that's great," The girl with a red hair band let out a large sigh. "I thought we were gonna have to kill again."
"I concur with Malkuth, killing brings great displeasure to me," Yesod agreed.
"I never got used to killing people…" Hod's voice softly trailed off. "I'd rather not do it again…"
Netzach was still stirring in his wake. "Sooo, who are our guests?" He drawled.
"For now, we have two guests. Roland is retrieving the other two as we speak." Angela had a soft smile on her face. "If you would like, you can join my discussion with them on the Floor of History's lounge."
Another snap was heard and Angela had disappeared. Some of the Patrons did not hesitate to run down the stairs to jump on in with the questions; the others only casually walked. The only ones left in the break room were Netzach and Binah. The latter of which finished her tea and put away her cup in the cupboard, as she was about to leave to add herself to the conversation downstairs, she eyed Netzach just lying there.
"A dark cloud looms over you. Our previous world has not been so kind, however, you should not collapse because of it. This is an unfamiliar world, appreciate the second chance you have received." With those words, Binah departed, leaving Netzach as the sole occupant of the break room.
After a few seconds, Netzach just sighed. "...A second chance huh…"
–THE FLOOR OF HISTORY LOUNGE, THE LIBRARY–
"We're here," the tallest female Patron announced to the red and white members of Team RWBY. "Don't destroy anything, I don't wanna get Malkuth mad at me."
The room was very similar to the entrance of the Library, but a bit browner. Brown bookshelves filled with books lined the walls. Instead of bell-shaped lamps, golden light emanated from bright objects that were unknown to the duo and the zigzagging wooden floorboards glistened due to the light. Multiple tables and chairs with books on top of them were spread all over the room. Another separate area from the tables and books was what looked like a living room, there were a bunch of couches and sofas with a little coffee table in the middle.
Curiously, the red huntress-in-training walked over to the pile of books and picked up two of them. To Ruby's demise, the books in her hands as well as on the shelves and desks were all related to history. However, upon closer inspection, they were history books about things not native to Remnant. 'History of the Kurokumo Clan? The Five Fingers' History?' She never heard of the Kurokumo Clan but it sounded Mistralian in nature; on the other hand, the Five Fingers were a complete mystery. She continued to sort through the books in hopes to find something that interested her.
On the other hand, Weiss was still interested in the room. 'I still don't believe that this place could just randomly appear out of nowhere.' Looking around the lounge, she found a small kitchen area that had a small island, however, something felt off. There were cupboards, a fridge, a sink, an oven, and a stove; it showed that many people had been through there, but as far as she knew, there were only four people in this massive tower.
"Miss Gebura?" The heiress garnered the attention of the former color fixer.
"Yeah?" She responded. "Also don't call me Miss. It sounds weird."
The heiress apologized and corrected herself before continuing with her question. "How many people are living in this library?" Weiss was intrigued by the large dead tree being a place where people lived and worked at.
Gebura took a second to look where she was pointing. "Oh yeah, there's a bunch of us," she took a second to think it over. "Well, there used to be a lot of us." Her voice held firm.
"What do mean?" The team leader of Team RWBY noticed their conversation and decided to join in.
"Don't worry about it, Angela will answer your questions later."
Ruby and Weiss decided to save their questions till later. Considering how this day was going so far, between the weird first mission and the mysterious librarians, this was becoming more and more interesting.
"Can we at least inform our headmaster about this?" Ruby timidly asked.
"Sure, don't see why not," replied Gebura as she shrugged while Ruby quickly pulled out her scroll.
After finding a nice and quiet area in the lounge, the team leader tapped on the Headmaster's portrait on her scroll. Almost immediately, the call went through. Ruby could see the two professors that had sent them here. Professor Goodwitch had a concerned expression on her face, begging the team leader to say that the team is still fine. Ozpin, on the other hand, adopted a serious face. In his calming voice, he spoke. "Miss Rose, what do you have to report?"
"Well professor," Ruby chose her wording carefully. "The tower turned out to be a library."
Ozpin's and Glynda's expressions shifted towards one of curiosity, but still caution. "A library you say?"
"Yes sir, we met some people living here. In a little bit, the person who's running the library will exchange information with us." The blonde professor looked at her headmaster with a little bit of concern on her face.
'A library?' Ozpin thought. 'Is this another one of her ploys?' It was not uncommon to find out that she would have Pawns lurking around the headmaster's place of operation. 'Placed inside the Emerald Forest no less, it's a bit close to Beacon for my comfort. But their goals is yet to be determined.' He turned toward Glynda and gave her the confirmation.
"Miss Rose, Team RWBY will continue the mission," Glynda spoke. "But your new instructions are to gather information about our new friends."
"Okay, Miss Goodwitch, we'll call you later." Ruby hung up the call and pocketed her scroll. She looked toward Weiss and Gebura. The former was browsing the books like the red leader had done so before, while the former was found on one of the couches what seemed to like to be meditating.
'I wonder how long we have to wait?' Ruby thought about Yang and Blake so that they could get some answers.
–OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY, EMERALD FOREST–
Meanwhile, Roland was trying to find the black and yellow members of the all-girl team. He circled the Library's circumference a single time, not finding a soul. 'Hmm, where did they go?'
He checked the tree line that surrounded the Library. 'Nothing.'
He double-checked the area around the entrance. 'Nope'.
He circled the Library once more. 'Nada.'
'Damn, where'd they go?' Roland was getting a bit annoyed. He stayed in his spot to think about all the possible places they could be hiding or staying at. He stared up into the sky, only to see a black bird pass by his field of view. His eyes followed the bird, it flew until it landed on a branch of a tree next to him.
Now that the bird stopped on the branch, he got a good look at it. 'A crow?' Bright red eyes gazed upon him. 'No, it's more like a raven.' As the corvid stared at the black fixer, he did so as well. Both were studying each other, although Roland was just curious whereas the raven was just staring him down. After a while, the black librarian got bored. "What do you want bird?"
The raven just croaked at him.
"Food? Don't got any," he started to converse with the avian animal.
Another croak, but it was a bit sharp like it had insulted him.
"I have no idea what you're saying bird brain." Roland couldn't believe that he was arguing with a bird.
It cawed again.
The human gave up on the conversation. "Ah shut it you."
At this point, Roland spotted two individuals of black and yellow respectively. He noticed the bird fly away from the Library and waltzed toward the two with a cracked smile on his face as they noticed him as well.
"So, how have you two been?" His words sounded sincere, but the tone demanded an answer. "Because I was having a wonderful conversation with a bird while looking for you two," his sarcastic voice gave them the message behind his words.
The two didn't think they'd been gone long, but the blonde girl smirked, "Well, can't say that it's been long to make you think I'm good enough to drive you crazy Mister Handsome." She wanted to make this man flustered even if he looked somewhat ordinary. "But Blakey here wanted to go on a walk to talk about some things."
Blake facepalmed at the attempt of provocation while Roland just sighed, "Sure, sure. Come on, my boss wants to talk to you two." He made some hand gestures to signal that he wanted them to follow him. Before he fully turned around to lead them, one of the girls called out to him.
"Roland!"
He turned around with a quizzical look on his face. "Yeah, Blake?"
"Could you tell me why you tried to hide the fact that I attacked you?" The amber-eyed girl spoke with uncertainty. "You don't know me, so why should you defend me?"
Roland thought it over before he responded to her. "Well… the initial thought was that if I told Gebura about you actually hurting me, then I wouldn't be talking to you right now," his voice said. "And she would never let it down." He grimaced about all the ways to make fun of him for losing to a young girl even if he was weakened. Even if Gebura had mellowed out since her days as the Red Mist, if she did hear about her friends getting hurt, the attackers would be terrified for life.
Next, he pointed to his arm that Blake attacked. "This is my second point," he continued with his explanation. There was no blood on him anymore.
'What?' The raven-haired faunus was confused. 'He had no Aura! How did he heal up so fast? Even with Aura, his arm would've taken at least a week or two to patch up.' Even Yang was bewildered by his tremendous healing speed.
Roland looked smug at the girls' reactions. 'Seeing it for myself is pretty nice,' he recalled when Angela detached his limbs and reattached them. "I told you girls not to worry about my arm before. It wasn't the worst injury that I received."
"The third thought is for selfish reasons," he looked past them. "I've decided to break out of an endless cycle. My rage and sorrow consumed me when times were rough, only then someone saved me from the darkest moments of my life, and they wanted me to choose my own path. I returned the favor by doing whatever I wanted to do," he let out a soft smile for the two in front of him. "Even though I don't know you all that well, I chose to save your skin, because I'm a selfish old fool."
Blake was collecting her thoughts on what Roland had said. It was somewhat similar to her; an endless cycle of faunus racism from the humans with the rage and sorrow from the faunus themselves, except for one thing: someone to save her. She thought about who would save her from the darkest moments in her life.
However, a voice cut into her thoughts, "Wait wait wait." Yang was caught up in the word 'old' in his sentence, she looked at the 'kickass' fixer with questioning eyes. "How old are you?"
Roland raised an eyebrow, "33." Yang's eyes widened before he smirked. "Sorry girlie, I'm flattered that you're into old guys like me, but I was married." He apologized like he was turning her down.
Yang had gotten a taste of her own medicine. Blake let out a soft chuckle seeing her partner's face flash a bright red. The words that came out of the blondie's mouth were attempts to make a comeback or insult Roland but failed.
However, that small detail toward the end of Roland's comment stuck with Blake. "You were married?" Ah, this was one of those moments where you wish you hadn't said anything.
Roland's smirk dropped. His face was radiating sad energy before he looked at the two. "Let's just get back to the Library, I'd answer your questions, but I'd rather not have Angela turn me into a popcorn machine."
The girls, albeit confused by his boss's threat, understood that people had sore spots. They thought of it as related to his darkest moments, but they wouldn't press further now. They continued to walk toward the Library without stopping.
–THE FLOOR OF HISTORY LOUNGE, THE LIBRARY–
–TEN MINUTES AFTER ROLAND AND BLAKE'S TALK–
–RUBY POV–
When Yang and Blake entered the lounge, we had a little talk about what was coming next.
"They're gonna ask some questions, then they'll answer ours," I explained to Yang and Blake who were left out of the loop. They agreed and we were guided to a couch that had four cushions; I sat on the middle left with Weiss on my left and Yang on my right, while Blake sat on the opposite side of Yang. Once we were settled onto the couch, a lot of people started to come into the room.
Once the number of people stopped coming into the lounge, it was filled with two groups: those that I recognized, those being Roland, Gebura, Chesed, and Angela; and the rest that I didn't know. There were a variety of colors in the unknown group, they were also varying in height and age as well. All the librarians were around Angela who was sitting in the middle of a sofa with an open book; some were sitting and others were standing.
I saw Angela scan the room with her yellow eyes. "Now that we are all present. I would suggest that the Patron Librarians should introduce themselves," her voice commanded the entire group of librarians to prepare to announce themselves. "Starting from Asiyah." I didn't understand what 'Asiyah' was, but I didn't want to interrupt.
The first person to speak up was a young woman that had a red hair band and long bronze hair that faded into light gold at the tips. With a large book in her hands and a huge smile on her face, she named herself: "Hello there! I'm the Patron Librarian in charge of the Floor of History, Malkuth! I hope we become friends!" Her cheerful tone scored some points in my book while the other girls smiled at her introduction. 'I feel like I could get along with her well.' I smiled inwardly.
"Sure!" I replied instantly to her friend request. In response, I got a squeal and a high-five from her as she quickly muttered something I didn't hear.
The second person was a young man with short purple hair that was covering his right eye. He had a serious expression on his face, if anything, he felt like he was the Professor Goodwitch of the librarians. "Greetings, I am Yesod, the Patron Librarian of Technological Sciences." His voice was stern, but I noticed how he seemed very professional about it. We all gave a quick nod to signal that we now knew his name.
The next person in line to introduce themselves was another young woman that looked very shy. She had brown hair that was styled with some plain white hairpins; she fumbled with her fingers when she couldn't look us in the eyes. 'Wow! She's like a shy princess!' Her dress only served to accentuate her point. "Hello. My name is Hod, and I'm the Patron Librarian in charge of the Floor of Literature." 'She even gave a curtsy with her skirt! She's definitely a princess like Weiss!'
"Are you a princess?" My thoughts had leaked out of my mouth. I quickly covered my mouth to prevent any more words from saying unnecessary words. My teammates and the other librarians looked at me, too much attention on me!
The short librarian held a blush on her face, she softly spoke "N-No, I'm not a princess…" 'AH, SHE'S TOO CUTE' I pushed out all my embarrassment and swore to protect this girl who was probably older than me.
Everyone else had a small chuckle to themselves watching this scene pan out.
After Hod was done making her introduction, the next person to reveal themself took a bit of time. We all saw the librarians that were standing looking behind Angela, then the person lazily stood up from… the floor? 'What? Why was he laying there?' I didn't understand what this person was doing behind the couch Angela was sitting on, but I guess he has a funny characteristic. He had long green hair that was partially wrapped up in a bun behind his head that reminded me of a slower and shorter Profes- I mean Doctor Oobleck. "Netzach," he yawned in the middle of his introduction, "librarian on the artsy floor." I felt like he was always like this but Dad always said to never judge a person based on first impressions. I noticed Weiss looking a bit vexed when he yawned, he was basically the antithesis of her.
We all gave him a nod and he went back to lying on the ground. I stared at the ground for a bit. 'Is the ground really that comfortable?' I felt a hand from my left grab my arm; I turned to see that it was Weiss's hand. She spoke with the utmost certainty: "Don't even think about it." She caught me. I gave her a guilty chuckle as she released my arm.
"Hey! Get up!" A voice brought my attention. "Stop making us look bad." The owner of the young voice belonged to a short, yellow girl who was grabbing Netzach's collar to pull him up but failed to lift him. Her short, yellow hair was decorated by a bow that arranged her hair into a crown braid. She was around the same height as me, however, she felt a little more mature than me. "Ugh. Fine, stay down there," she turned towards us and primmed herself. "I'm Tiphereth of the Briah Floor, the Patron Librarian of the Floor of Natural Sciences." She gave us an honest smile. "I hope to learn more about this world from you guys.
It was about to end well until our blondie decided to question theirs, "They let a kid like you work as a librarian?" I gasped at my sister's rude question, she didn't follow Dad's advice! Even our other teammates were baffled by Yang's question. I turned to look at the reactions of the other librarians, some of them looked a little worried while some were waiting to see how Tiphereth will react.
"HEY! Don't call me a kid!" Tiphereth's high-pitched voice made that very clear. "Even though I look like this, I'm probably older than all of you!" I and the rest of the girls looked at her with puzzling looks. 'She didn't even look older than me.' Her face was growling like she was about to punch Yang.
"Sure, ki–" I swiftly elbowed Yang in the stomach to shut her up. "I apologize." There, better.
Tiphereth whipped her head to the side, letting out a 'hmmph' sound from her mouth. She was pouting, it was kinda cute.
After that, the two other Patron Librarians that we knew, Gebura and Chesed, reintroduced themselves. Since we kinda know about them, they added some other information about themselves.
Gebura said that she was also a fixer like Roland and that they would explain what they were later, and Chesed said that he liked music and enjoyed brewing coffee. I got the feeling that this man would instantly become friends with two certain professors at Beacon.
After Gebura and Chesed's introduction, the person next sent shivers down my back. Long, black hair that was gold on the underside; dark, dead eyes that kept going deeper and deeper; her skin a pure white to contrast her outfit of gold and black. Holding her cup of something that smelled like tea, she took a sip. She radiated an aura of pure mystery and wisdom, then she placed her cup onto a cup plate: "Hello dear children. I am Binah. My domain is the Floor of Philosophy." Her blackened eyes flew over to my eyes. "Hmm, I sense something hidden deep within you, my red child."
I was scared, but also confused. "'My child?' And w-what do you mean by something in me?" My voice was shaking from this woman's presence. All my instincts were telling me to run away from this woman; I saw that even Blake looked ready to jump away. However, Yang put a hand on my thigh to show that she was there for me, and it did calm me a little.
"To spoil certain stories would not be my 'cup of tea.' It would be joyous for me for you to seek answers instead of my foreign knowledge," said Binah who picked up her tea cup. The obvious pun in that sentence just destroyed the three of us while Yang just laughed. The reactions of the other librarians were a mix of shock and delight; although Hod was the only one to be delighted.
I thought about her words. 'It's my problem to figure out, she's just giving me advice.' Binah continued to look at me for confirmation, so I gave her a slow nod of understanding. She put up an amused smile, even if it didn't fully form on her face.
The last person that I didn't know yet was the oldest person in the room. His entire color scheme was white and gray; the only bit of color was his green eyes with his right being covered by a monocle. "Hello, I am Hokma, the Patron Librarian of Religion. It's a pleasure to meet you all," he gave us a little bow as a show of etiquette. Even if he looked nice and all, I saw that his eyes were a bit distant like he was waiting for something.
"It's a pleasure as well," Weiss spoke on instinct. I noticed that her greeting felt a little too robotic like she's done this a million times before.
Hokma nodded and backed up to let the next person introduce themselves.
The man in the black suit that fought Yang and Blake stood up. "Well, I already told you girls who I am, but I still gotta do my job," Roland said nonchalantly. "Roland, Floor of General Works' Patron Librarian."
"I have a question Miss Librarian Director," Blake sounded curious. Angela gave her a nod as confirmation. "Earlier you and Tiphereth mentioned 'Asiyah' and 'Briah.' What does that mean?" The rest of Team RWBY realized that as well.
Tiphereth was about to open her mouth to explain, but Angela put up a hand to talk for her. "The Library is split into three sections: Asiyah; consisting of Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, and Netzach; Briah, the middle floors, made up of Tiphereth, Gebura, and Chesed; and the top floor, Atziluth, with Binah, Hokma, and Keter."
"Keter? Not Roland?" I was the one to catch that difference; all the other librarians were named except for Roland.
"Don't worry about it, I'm still relevant," smirked Roland. Me and the girls accepted that for now.
"With that, if you girls would please introduce yourselves so that we can talk," the light blue-haired Librarian Director hastily concluded the Patrons' introductions.
I stood up first. "I'm Ruby Rose, Team Leader of Team RWBY," I said proudly of my name and title as I sat back down.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."
"Blake Belladonna." A simple introduction, as I expected of the anti-social Blake.
"Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister," my sister's voice also proudly spoke. It caused a lot of heads to switch back and forth between Yang and me, but I knew what it was about.
"Now that we are all acquainted," Angela closed her book to give us her full attention. "I would like to ask a few questions."
–20 MINUTES LATER–
–THIRD PERSON POV–
"I…see," Angela's voice was a bit confused. "Let me get this right: this world is named Remnant, created by Two Brother Gods which created humans and monsters known as Grimm. Once the Gods had left, humanity and the newly found Faunus species were forced to fight a losing battle against the Grimm. However, they were able to repel the Grimm using Aura and a mineral called Dust?"
A collection of nods from four heads made her continue.
"After some hundred years, a war occurred between the four nations of Mantle, now known as Atlas, Mistral, Vale, and Vacuo with the former two pitting against the latter two. The outcome led to the abolishment of slavery, redistribution of territories, adoption of Huntsmen Academies, implementation of the Color Naming Rule, and equal rights to the Faunus." She paused to let the rest of the people listening take in what she said.
By now, the team of girls understood that the librarians really must have been super backwater to not even understand what they were saying. Their explanation was the simplest of topics that could be learned even in a general school, yet these people didn't know about Grimm, Aura, Dust, the Kingdoms, technology like scrolls or aircraft, or even Remnant in general. To most of the girls, this mission had become very interesting; Weiss, however, was annoyed that the librarians, who were supposed to be keepers of knowledge, were very uneducated.
"Since the war, 80 years had passed by and all four kingdoms enjoy the peace and diversity that it had left for us," Weiss added. However, Blake felt a little bothered that the Faunus were still suffering due to racism.
"Now, me and the girls here get to go to Beacon Academy to become huntresses!" Ruby chimed in.
"The girls and me, Ruby," Weiss corrected her team leader. "And remember, you're still two years younger than the rest of us."
"That's cuz Rubes is gonna be the best huntress out of all of us!" Ruby's sister defended her. "She stopped Roman 'Torch'-wick before, she can 'extinguish' him again."
A groan sounded out from most of the people in the room; even the librarians were getting a bit annoyed at Yang's terrible puns; except for Hod, Roland, and Netzach, the former just giggled at her puns while the latter two smiled at it.
The information dump from the team of huntresses-in-training left the librarians a bit confused but curious. The Grimm was an obvious curiosity considering that they didn't follow any biological laws; they never slept or ate, and nobody knew how Grimm was made or birthed. It was a downright mystery that most of the librarians wanted to figure out.
Aura was something to consider, since Roland, Chesed, and Gebura had heard it before, but the rest of the librarians had differing opinions. What can truly define the soul of a person? Most of the librarians in their first lives were scientists and researchers, they weren't the type to be religious, and there was nothing scientific about the soul.
Angela pondered on the topic of Aura. 'Do I have a soul? Can I gain Aura?' She was a memory template of a dead person, she was all metal and bolts, but she gained humanity for mere moments during their final weeks in the City. 'I was human at one point, did that mean I had a soul?' Her thoughts would go unanswered.
While Angela was thinking about her soul dilemma, the other librarians thought about the future. Mainly how different Remnant was compared to the City; the City used Singularities while Remnant used Dust and Aura, how would society differ?
"It just seems like everything that you mentioned was leading up to something," Tiphereth interjected. "The Faunus terrorist organization, the White Fang, according to you, has been increasingly growing more and more violent."
Blake had grown very small hearing the young librarian's words. 'They're just misguided. Not all of them are that bad.' Her thoughts would remain to linger in her head.
"There's also the fact that the Grimm are apparently getting stronger and stronger as time passes," Yesod's analytical voice pitched in.
"According to what Miss Xiao Long said, the resource that has helped humanity for centuries against the Grimm, is being stolen from them by this Roman Torchwick character," said Hokma. "This Dust is plentiful and cheap, I see no reason as to why he requires a large amount of Dust."
"Your guess is as good as anyone's," Yang just leaned back in her seat. "Maybe everything that's happening is just a huge coincidence."
"So it may seem, but let us not dwell on it any longer. For now, it would be a great time to answer any of your questions," Angela spoke up. It was their agreement after all.
–30 MINUTES LATER–
"I believe that's all I had to say," Angela concluded her explanation.
The pale librarian had told them a brief outline of her story: the true nature of Angela, the multiple times their co-workers had died, the script of Lobotomy Corporation, the events that lead up to the Library, the City that she discovered for the first time, and the expulsion of the Library. She and the other librarians stared at the four girls waiting for their reactions.
"..." All the girls were silent.
"Is there something wrong?" Roland popped up, trying to stir the girls out of their trance.
"You're all from another dimension?" Ruby's mouth was gaping. They stayed silent until they had to confirm what they had heard.
"Yup," A nonchalant, energetic feminine voice responded.
"You all came from a place called 'The City' that housed how many people?" Weiss added to the questions. The population of Remnant had only been around 10 million; she was shocked when she heard the number, but she wanted to verify.
"Around 7 billion and still probably increasing~," a relaxed, easygoing voice said. Weiss's mind broke once more when he said that.
"And you became an infamous entity that defeated hundreds of people in this City by 'booking' them?" Blake had kept her guard up when they said that the librarians took on thousands of people and won against them all.
"That is correct," an old, stern voice replied.
"This entire place, including you guys, are created out of this Light that was made by the knowledge and emotions of humans?" Yang was in disbelief.
"It's a bit confusing; even we don't know the full extent of the Light, but you get the gist," the black librarian mused.
"You're all completely insane," Weiss's mind was completely exhausted.
"That's the City for you," the red ponytailed librarian muttered.
"Well Lil sis, you got your wish. Here are some aliens." Yang lightly punched Ruby in the shoulder as she remembered their conversation when they entered the forest.
"Stop it Yang, they're not alien aliens," Ruby embarrassingly said. Their interaction gained a chuckle from the others.
"You all are taking this extremely well," pitched Tiphereth.
"Well, I'm just a little 'booked' right now," the blonde brawler tiredly quipped. To her surprise, no one groaned. That's because the ones that usually did were just as tired as her and had no energy to acknowledge the blonde's joke.
"I suppose now is a great time to call your headmaster," the pale librarian's voice interrupted. Jumpstarting their mind, Ruby and Weiss were shocked, they were certain that the Librarian Director wasn't in the lounge with them when they were on a call with Professor Ozpin.
"How did you know?" Weiss was disturbed. When they had left Angela, she had been at the entrance of the Library and the entrance to the Lounge of the Floor of History was a really long path.
"Oh that," Roland chagrined. "Yeah, since the Library is Angela's E.G.O., she can basically hear and see everything happening in the Library." He recalled when he helped Tiphereth bring books to Hokma, Malkuth, Yesod, and Binah on the geriatric man's floor.
Ruby and the other girls just stared at the A.I. in question. The Librarian Director had her eyes closed the entire time, holding a smile on her face.
"This ego thing keeps being mentioned," Yang curiously asked. "What is it exactly?" The pale librarian turned her head towards Gebura who nodded in return.
Angela began to speak as Gebura grabbed a keypage from the former's book. "The Extermination of Geometrical Organ, dubbed E.G.O., is the manifestation of one's mind. It's a weapon that corresponds to the mind of the wielder."
Gebura's body flared with bright yellow pages, blinding the people nearest to her.
"Back in Lobotomy Corporation, the Extraction Team, Binah's department, was responsible for extracting E.G.O. from the 'Wells' of humans by using Cognito, the Singularity of L. Corp.."
Gebura's outfit had been the same one when Team RWBY first saw her along with her weapon. The sight of it made Ruby and the other girls sick to the stomach again.
"Only one individual can produce their own E.G.O.; in armor or weapon form, anyone can equip E.G.O., however, it comes at the cost of the user's mental state."
Then out of nowhere, Gebura's entire body was engulfed in red and black armor. A black mask with a single red eye with lines leading to the back of a head with crimson flames erupting out of it. If one had to describe what she looked like, it'd be 'badass.'
"The armor you see right now is Gebura's own E.G.O., she manifested it on her own when she swore to protect the people she cared about," Angela continued. "The weapon she's currently wielding, Mimicry, was extracted from someone by chance. It has paired well with Gebura's E.G.O., and certainly fitted the character of the Red Mist." After a while, the red fixer reverted back to her previous outfit as the red and black armor melted on her, disintegrating from existence. After seeing the armor, the team of girls certainly did understand that it fits Gebura's former title.
Team RWBY had learned about the fixers' grading system. Grades 9 through 1 showed how approximately good these mercenaries were. Roland told them that he was a Grade 1 Fixer; they reveled in the fact that two of them were just good enough to 'best' a Grade 1 but the librarians told them that he had multiple excuses as to why he got injured; for one, he was still recovering from the events of the Blue Reverberation's raid on the Library, attempting to destroy the Library himself, and holding off against the City's jacked up police officers; the second was that he was also holding back against them so that they wouldn't be hurt as much.
Even if Roland was almost a challenge for the two of them, they learned that the fixers who went above and beyond were the Colored Fixers. When they were explaining the Colored Fixers, Roland and Gebura tried to remember all the names of their colored peers.
–10 MINUTES AGO–
"The only ones that were important were the ones that we received as Guests," Roland clarified. The girls inwardly listened to hear about the City's legends.
"The Purple Tear, The Blue Reverberation, and the corpse of the Vermillion Cross," Gebura mentioned.
Ruby loved hearing stories about the legends of actual people, she believed that it showed how far people can go in life to genuinely become heroes and legends, and she aspired to become one of those.
"Don't forget you two~," Chesed's voice added. "Mister Black Silence and Miss Red Mist~."
The shock had struck Team RWBY. They were in the presence of two legends in the Librarian's world; the team of girls all turned to face the two fixers.
"W-What?!" Ruby jumped in her seat. "You two are Colored Fixers?!"
"Unbelievable, we went up against a legend and survived?" Yang muttered as she looked at Blake sitting on the opposite side of the couch.
"Ah! That's not all. Angela here was sometimes called 'The Pale Librarian' by some Guests," Malkuth jumped in on the conversation.
Angela let out a sigh. "Malkuth, I do not think that I am qualified to receive a Color Grade for fixers when I am not a fixer myself." Malkuth and Angela talked back and forth, mainly about the bronze-haired girl playfully running away from the 'big bad scary Pale Librarian.'
"Excuse me Mister Coffee Addict," Roland put a hand to his forehead. "I wasn't even the original Black Silence, I just started using the Gloves; it's not my fault people didn't know I was a guy with the mask on."
"And I died years ago. If I recall, they gave the Red Color to someone else," Gebura sighed. "Think it was something like the Red Graze or something; I didn't even care for the title anyways."
"Wha-What?! How could you not care about being a legend?!" Ruby cried.
"I just did my job as a fixer properly, apparently the Hana Association decided that I was worthy of the title, nothing much to it," Gebura mused. "The City had already scarred me, it wasn't long after I received the title that I got stuck with these losers." She pointed a thumb back into the group of librarians that smiled at her.
"Roland, you mentioned that you weren't the original Black Silence," Blake derailed their conversation. "If you weren't, then who was?" The librarians including Roland had dawned a grimaced face. The entire room went silent as they listened to the two black-clothed individuals' conversation.
She wondered if she had done it again, saying something that shouldn't be said. Silence loomed over the entire room. She was about to apologize, but as she thought about it, she remembered the same feeling from Roland earlier. She scanned through the information in her head.
'Roland wasn't the original Black Silence, he knew them personally, he wore their gloves, people mistook his gender when he donned the mask, and he was–' Piece by piece, she put them together, then she realized the truth.
"You…" Her voice softly spoke. "You were married to the Black Silence. She was your wife." The look on his face told her everything that she had just said, was completely in fact, the truth. "I'm sorry for talking about perso–"
"It's alright," Roland cut her off. His face remained a saddened expression till he dropped it. "It's been…a long time since." The co-workers of the black fixer gave him a sorrowful look, they had gotten to know Roland on a personal level, and it felt bad to see him in such a state again.
Blake still felt sorry about intruding on his personal life. "What-What was her name?" She spoke in a low tone.
"...Angelica."
"I see…" Blake smiled. "It's a good name."
The black fixer also let out a smile and silently thanked her.
–PRESENT–
"—I see." Ozpin's voice can be heard from the scroll. "Thank you Team RWBY, you have done well for your first mission."
The all-girl team cheered at the mission's success. "WOO! TEAM RWBY RULES!" The team leader shouted in happiness. Professor Goodwitch and Ozpin could be seen with a proud expressions watching the red huntress-in-training celebrate.
"Ruby! Calm down, you shouldn't be so loud in a library." The heiress scolded her partner but could not get rid of the smile on her own face.
"Aw, come on Ice Queen," the blonde brawler commented with a grin. "We can celebrate a little bit."
Even Blake was nodding at the prospect of celebrating their first mission.
"I hate to cut your celebration a little short," the person on the scroll called out. "But I have one final task left for you." The chatter around the device was silenced as the girls paid attention to their headmaster.
"I wish to talk with this 'Librarian Director,'" he politely asked before explaining. "I have some questions of my own." The team of huntresses-in-training didn't question it and proceeded to walk over to the group of librarians that were having their own little discussion over what they heard about Remnant.
As they got closer, they could hear some panicked talk. It seemed like Roland and Malkuth had worried expressions on their faces, while most of the librarians except for Angela and Binah had concerned faces.
"Oi oi oi, what do you mean 'It' broke out?!" Roland quietly screamed while looking at Angela. She was quite unsure herself, it was the first time that the team of girls saw that face on the Librarian Director.
"Even I'm not sure how 'It' got out," the pale librarian said with doubt laced in her words. "But 'It's' heading its way here right now. It's currently entering this floor's arena."
Ruby and the rest of the girls looked a little confused and more concerned. What was it that worried the librarians? And what was 'It' that got out?
"I wonder who it's here for?" the short, brown-haired librarian softly spoke.
The group of girls joined up with the librarians as they were still talking. "Who is?" The little red huntress-in-training asked. All she got was silence. "What?"
All the librarians just stared at Ruby. Their eyes were wide open at her, but nonetheless, they were perplexed. She was more confused as even her team also noticed something wrong with Ruby.
"What is that?!" The Schnee heiress screamed. Her other teammates weren't doing well either; Yang had a distressed expression while Blake took a step back in shock. The team leader was about to question them, but she noticed something about the way they were staring at her. They weren't directly looking at her.
They were looking above her.
The red and black-haired teen lifted her head to look above her. A brown, straightened match was floating above her head. Its tip was still burning bright orange. 'Wha–'
"Malkuth, please go take care of F-01-02 at the arena," Angela immediately commanded. The bronze-haired girl took on a serious face, unlike her casual character. Even if Angela was still confused about how an abnormality escaped its book, she wasn't going to let them roam around the Library.
"Wha–," the male black librarian confusedly said. "F-01-02? What about the thingie above the kid's head?" Unlike the rest of the librarians who worked in L. Corp., Roland also was just as confused as Team RWBY. Although, the usually jagged match was unusually straightened this time around.
"You are allowed to bring your Assistant Librarian as well," the pale librarian ignored the General Works Patron's questions. Angela let Malkuth choose what keypage she wanted to use. "Due to the limit amount of Light the Library has available, I can only bring back one of yours, choose who you want."
Even if Malkuth's face faltered a little bit about choosing one assistant over the other, she decided to choose her most trusted one. "Dakota," her serious attitude was laced with a smile.
In an instant and a snap, a bright light emerged next to the Floor of History's Patron Librarian. When the light faded, the team of girls noticed a person standing where the light used to be.
A short, female person with purple hair was tied into short pigtails at the back. A part of the bangs was flipped up on one side of their face. Their palish face had a frown embedded in them and the pupils of their eyes were very small. A maroonish suit with lime-green outlining and the same colored tie fitted their body.
"..."
"...Um," Malkuth tried to reassure her most trusted assistant. "Dakota? We require your assistance once more." The Patron Librarian had a smile on her face looking at the purple-haired female.
Author's Notes:
I decided to reintroduce the Library of Ruina characters through the eyes of Ruby because I thought it would be a good idea to describe the Librarians more. But Dakota was the first nugget to make their appearance, sorry to all the Bongbong enjoyers, but you will have your turn later.
I have also just realized how difficult it is to write cohesive dialogue between characters. To all the other authors and writers that are most likely better than me, you have my respect.
Much like the other chapters, I have no idea how to write nor am I able to come up with a plausible story. Everything I have written so far has been off the top of my head; when Roland told Blake and Yang about how he dealt with his suffering and how Blake applied it to herself, I really don't know if it fully connected.
Either way, thank you for taking the time to read! If you saw any grammar mistakes or any details that I forgot or missed, please tell me.