Author's Note:
I do not own Library of Ruina or RWBY. These series belong to Project Moon and RoosterTeeth respectively.
Reviews:
Guest - Well, I'll say that you were correct in one of them.
DarkDoctorV - Dakota was enjoying her vacation. She was a bit mad, but I have some plans for her in the future.
VGBlackwing - I'm pretty sure that the ProjectMoon community has canonized Dakota into the universe.
Edit:
12/2/23 - Warp Train take 10 seconds, not 10
–THE FLOOR OF HISTORY LOUNGE, THE LIBRARY–
"God-fucking-damnit."
The purple-haired person finally spoke up. "How many times do we gotta do this? I thought it was over?" She was a bit mad at the fact that she had been brought back at least three times; she was enjoying her vacation.
The attitude of the Assistant Librarian surprised the team of girls. Once the yelling started, Yang quickly covered her sister's ears, while Weiss was stunned by the purple-haired person's vulgar language. Blake, on the other hand, was less affected having heard worse from other humans, so she wasn't as fazed as much although the yelling did hurt her ears. As for the librarians, they were accustomed to Dakota's insults and shouting by now. It was until some time passed that she stopped shouting.
"Are you done now?" Angela spoke up when Dakota had calmed down from her hysteria. "F-01-02 broke out of her book."
"Scorched Girl? Really? I thought she was stuck in her book." Dakota turned to Malkuth. "Sorry Malkuth, I just thought we were gonna be let go after all we did to the City."
"Apologies accepted Dakota, now we just need to do this and relax after." The Patron Librarian's cheerful attitude blinded the assistant. "I took the liberty of choosing Miss Mei's page for you." Dakota nodded at her choice.
Much like how she appeared, Dakota's outfit burst into a bright light. When it receded, she was equipped with a black suit that had a golden dragon painted on the front. Around her was a large, red coat with gold embroidering. She crossed her arms and examined her outfit. "I'll never get used to that feeling," she muttered.
Malkuth's default librarian uniform also erupted into golden pages. Her keypage was the same outfit as Dakota's, but with the addition of a giant guandao with a red handle and grayish blade. A golden dragon decorated the large pole weapon. It didn't go unmentioned that a certain red-hooded girl was suddenly staring the Patron Librarian down.
Dakota let out a scoff. "The Liu, huh? Looking to fight fire with fire?" Malkuth's face, in contrast to Dakota's, was beaming with a smile. As the Assistant Librarian surveyed the assembled group, she identified the Patrons but was by the presence of four unfamiliar faces. Her eyes narrowed, particularly as she noticed the match above the red and black-haired girl. "Who the hell are these girls?" she demanded, her focus drawn to the match above the girl's head.
Ruby and her team just flinched when she glared at them.
"They are special guests of ours," the A.I. librarian explained as the person asking turned to her. "We will discuss them after the suppression." Dakota sighed as she turned her gaze away and gave a half-hearted nod at her boss's boss.
'Suppression?' The entirety of Team RWBY thought.
The Assistant Librarian turned back to Malkuth who gestured toward the exit of the room. The two librarians left the room and walked over to the arena where they battled like before.
"If you wish, we can go spectate their fight," Angela noticed how Ruby was basically drooling as she watched the Patron Libarian's giant weapon. The girl in question nodded. "Let us move to the spectating booth."
–FLOOR OF HISTORY SPECTATOR BOOTH, THE LIBRARY–
When the librarians and Beacon students arrived at the viewing deck, the team of girls' jaws dropped at the sight.
The Floor of History's arena was a massive space that was filled with rows and rows of platforms made out of that zigzagging wood that lined the lounge's floor. The outside of the Library did not match the inside as the arena looked like it went on infinitely. Bright light from a distance lit up the area, glistening the wood as well. Multiple display cases that were on the platforms in a pattern held a book inside them. In the distance, they saw three other towers: a boxy brown one with a bright light inside of it, a purple one with a gear sticking out the side of it, and a dark green one that looked like wood.
On the left side of the platform, Malkuth and Dakota walked up toward the middle of the platform. Upon looking at the red hair banded girl, the weapon she was holding looked comically large for Malkuth to hold, but much like Ruby's own Crescent Rose, she looked like she was adept at using such a weapon. The other person fighting, Dakota, only cracked her knuckles, not needing a weapon for the battle.
On the other side, multiple figures started to approach them.
The girls watched the figures grow in size as they came closer and closer. Four of the figures were giant matches that looked burnt out at the tip; they sported arms and legs which they used to crawl alongside the figure in the middle. It was a young girl that was charred all over her body. She had no facial features or anything of the sort and no arms. The only things she had to describe her were her pigtails much like Dakota's, short, skinny legs, a match impaling her chest with the match head still burning on the other side of her body, and her bright white eyes which stared directly into the red-hooded girl's own silver eyes.
"EEP!" Ruby backed up from the little girl's gaze. "Is that an Abnormality thingie?! And why's she staring at me like that?!" She was feeling panic like she never had before, she fought a giant Nevermore and other types of Grimm, why was she panicking at the sight of this girl?
The rest of the team of girls held down the girl as she panicked. Yang looked particularly pissed off at the Librarians who knew what was happening. "What is going on!? Why is it looking at Ruby?!" Her pissed attitude shook Hod who reeled back in guilt.
"F-01-02, otherwise known as 'Scorched Girl', is an Abnormality we contained back in Lobotomy Corporation," Yesod made clear. "Even if her Risk Level was TETH, she was still able to kill dozens of employees due to their... carelessness."
The team of girls looked a bit confused as to how the charred child could hurt people. Seeing the confusion, the green-haired Patron Librarian spoke.
"She blows up when she reaches her target…" Netzach inputted as he remembered the times when multiple agents exploded when they couldn't escape the walking bomb. When he said that, the girls tensed up.
"We don't know why she broke out of her book, but when she did back at the facility, it was because of a match floating above someone's head," Hod inserted. The team of girls realized that the match above their leader's head was the reason why Scorched Girl broke out.
"Why is it on Ruby then?" Blake worriedly asked.
As they thought about all the possibilities, one person spoke up before all the rest. "The 'Little Match Girl' was birthed from a place of neglect and abuse," the arbiter of the librarians spoke. "The little one craved affection and love from friends and family, yet all she had were the fires that warmed her cold heart. Those that she deemed affectionate, she yearned for more of it." Binah still held a teacup in one of her hands while the other held the plate for it.
The team of girls was taken aback by Binah's wording like she was talking in metaphors and phrases. However, the cat faunus-in-hiding thought about the words that the black and gold librarian had said. She looked toward Ruby who was still trying to decipher what the older woman had said. 'Wait, the Scorched Girl desired affection from others?' Blake mentally realized. 'Ruby's a pillar of affection!'
"I got it!" Blake's shout shocked her other teammates. She turned to Ruby while the rest of the librarians keened their hearing to listen to what the girl in black had to say. "The reason why the girl is targeting Ruby is that Ruby is literally the nicest girl you can meet." Even if the librarians didn't think that instantly, the rest of Team RWBY except for Ruby herself, agreed with that notion.
"That's right! Rubes here is like a blinding pillar of light." Yang suddenly grabbed her sister and fuzzled her hair.
While Yang praised her sister for being a person, the blonde thought about the circumstances surrounding the little girl. 'She's just a little girl. The only thing she wanted was to be loved…' The blonde brawler knew what it was like to feel like they were unwanted. Despite their differences in mind and body, she understood the pain of wanting affection from a loved one. She even sought out Ruby as her main source of love and affection, much like what the Scorched Girl was trying to achieve.
"Well, even if she's the nicest out of all of us, she's still socially awkward," Weiss's words brought her teammate back to reality.
"Hey!"
"WOAH! IS THAT FIRE?!"
When the pair of red and white began to argue with each other, sounds of fighting could be heard from the arena down below. Ruby and Weiss stopped their verbal fight to spectate the battle.
–FLOOR OF HISTORY ARENA, THE LIBRARY–
Makuth and Dakota had fought the Match Stick Girl when Angela had that temper tantrum a few months back. While certainly the original version of Scorched Girl wasn't as strong as the Librarian Director's, it still was not a pushover.
Once the battle had begun, the four Fourth Match Flames charged toward the two librarians with ferocious brutality. The burnt girl was left behind as the flames on the match piercing the child were growing brighter and brighter.
Two of the Fourth Match Flames ganged up on the purple-haired assistant; their large bodies easily towering over the librarian. One of them threw a jab covered in smoldering embers; Dakota parried the blow using the key page's ability to retain the fighting experience for the user. She countered by throwing out multiple punches in rapid succession, making one of the matches step backward, fire spewing out of the suit's ignition device. Quickly, she let out a high kick as she flipped backward to gain some distance as the other matchstick tried to lunge at her.
"Jeez, when did they get a power-up?" Dakota complained. "I know you told me that the key pages were weaker due to the shit amount of Light the Library has, but damn is it me, or these sticks are a bit tankier?"
Ignoring her assistant's comments, Malkuth fended off the other two matches. The large guandao was holding off two of them at the same time. Feeling a bit overwhelmed at the pressure and heat coming off of the matches, with a flow of her weapon, she shoved both of them off and slashed one of them in the torso.
After it got staggered, a flaming palm came flying into the staggered match stick. Dakota had come to help kill the dazed enemy. With a raise of her leg, she slammed her foot down into the ground as she attacked the match with her shoulder, flames coming out from both the ground and shoulder. The Fourth Match Flame toppled over and burst into golden pages.
"That's one down," the purple-haired assistant shouted fully knowing that she stole her boss's kill. Malkuth didn't mind the kill stealing but she worried about the Scorched Girl. While the rest of the giant match sticks crawled over to the two of them, it had been enough time for the little girl to launch her Fourth Match Flame attack, yet she did not.
"Something's wrong," Malkuth commented when she blocked a strike from a flaming headbutt.
"Like what?" Dakota responded as she chopped an arm off from one of the matches.
To Malkuth, it didn't feel like a real suppression or attack. She pondered on what the Scorched Girl was trying to accomplish. Before she could think about it, the match stick that had presented its head entered her range of attack. As she raised her guandao high into the sky, she swung it down, its blade singing in the air. Just before it connected, she heard a voice in her head.
"No… Don't take hope away from me."
The voice rang out in the heads of everyone present, even the ones inside the viewing booth.
"These match lights are my only hope…"
The librarians heard these pleas before, it was beg for them to stop attacking. If one of the librarians did stop attacking, even for a moment, it was a moment for the Abnormalities to counter. Many battles with the Abnormalities were lost because one of the librarians got cold feet or succumbed to the mental attacks placed on them.
–FLOOR OF HISTORY SPECTATOR BOOTH, THE LIBRARY–
As the battle continued on, the group of girls thought about the Scorched Girl's pleas. While it was a sign of attacking the librarians, to Team RWBY, it was a sign of help. When they first laid their eyes on the Abnormality, they were frightened by it, but now, they took pity on the little girl even if she was something manifested in the minds of people. Also, like her blonde teammate, Weiss also felt a little sad when she heard the Scorched Girl's voice; she too has been neglected love by her family.
Ruby scooted closer and closer to the male black librarian to ask him something. "Hey, Mister Roland?" She timidly asked. She got a 'hmm' response from him. "Is it necessary to attack her like this?"
"Kid, I don't know," Roland thought about what the rest of the librarians told him. "They told me that a jagged match meant that the scorched kid is targeting you, but they never saw a match like yours." The match above her head was apparently special and unknown to the former employees of Lobotomy Corp.
"But," Yang called out to them. "What makes this time different?"
"We cannot be sure," Yesod pitched in.
"I'd say that we shouldn't hurt it just because it broke out," Weiss asserted.
"F-01-02 has been given multiple chances to not kill people," Angela criticized. "In every loop, she has killed people whenever she has broken out of containment."
"But I feel like she only did that because you kept her locked up," Ruby countered. She was training to be a huntress, which meant she had to defend the people; no matter if they were humans, faunus, or abnormalities, she would protect them. "I want to talk to her."
All the librarians' eyes went wide. This red girl wanted to talk to a walking bomb.
"Umm," a quiet voice spoke. "I think we should let them meet."
All eyes turned toward the person who spoke. It was the familiar short, brown-haired girl wearing a brown dress. Hod stood there embarrassed that she actually spoke and that all eyes were looking at her.
"Most of us were given second chances," she explained. "Roland, Angela, you can understand that. If Scorched Girl has really changed, then it would be beneficial to understand her." She cautiously looked at the two; they went through so much and in the end, they gave up their revenge goals to choose something different. "Plus, I think that Miss Ruby's match is the reason for that change."
"Miss Hod," Ruby gave her a huge smile. "Thank you."
It was true, Ruby's match was special, but why? She was the same human, nothing different in appearance, plus she was just as intelligent as one. But, the Librarian Director kept thinking about the differences, then she found a possible explanation.
"Miss Rose is from Remnant," the pale librarian explained. "She wasn't brought up by the cruelty of the City. Maybe the reason why her match isn't like our people's is because she is a pure, more honest soul than ours."
After a bit of time, the group of librarians agreed to let the red-hooded girl meet the burnt girl. They agreed under the fact that Ruby had Aura to protect her if things got violent.
–FLOOR OF HISTORY ARENA, THE LIBRARY–
The battle between the two librarians of the Floor of History and the three giant match sticks continued after the discussion in the spectator booth. The duo librarians were feeling a bit tired but they weren't about to go down. Their opponents, however, were still vigorous.
Unlike the first clash in the fight, Malkuth and Dakota were the ones attacking a singular match, while the other two defended their 'Little Match Girl'. A frontal assault from the Patron and a high kick from their assistant instantly staggered the poor match. It was at this point that another Fourth Match Flame jumped on top of the purple-haired librarian.
"Get the fuck off me!" She demanded as the two wrestled on the ground; tiny hands gripping the shoulder of the human while the librarian struggled to remove itself from its grasp.
In a moment of desperation, Dakota threw a flame-covered punch at the match on top of her. Once it connected, the match flew across the arena covered in flames. After it hit the ground, it exploded into golden pages.
"Heh, that was 'lit'." Unfortunately, no one was around to hear her one-liner. Dakota turned to see what her boss was doing. The Patron was finishing off the staggered match stick that the two of them overpowered. 'God, that was easy,' she mentally celebrated early. It wasn't long till she saw the last remaining Fourth Match Flame skidding its way toward her boss, glowing an unusual bright orange color as it expanded rapidly.
"MALKUTH!"
The Bronze Patron Librarian immediately swung her entire body to face the incoming match stick. However, she noticed how different this attack was compared to before. The giant match's body was pulsating like it was about to detonate; the match made a sizzling sound as it approached.
Crouching to the ground and putting up the guandao to block some of the explosion, she closed her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable blast; her red coat flailed from the abrupt change in movement. Then, all of a sudden, a loud gunshot was heard. Believing that the gunshot was the explosion, Malkuth still kept her eyes closed. After a while of not feeling anything, she slowly opened them.
The Fourth Match Flame was on the ground; its once violent pulsation was stopped. A burst of light exploded where it was. She turned around to trace where the gunshot came from. A giant red scythe was pointed toward the direction of the injured match stick.
"Are you okay, Malkuth?"
"I'm fine! Thank you for saving me!" Ruby grinned at saving her friend.
The librarian got back up to her feet and readjusted her grip on the weapon. Ruby ran up to be side by side with Malkuth with Dakota rejoining them after her tussle with her opponent. They eyed the singular entity left on the opposite side of the stage. The child's movement became a standstill and her head slacked to the floor.
"The warmth, the feast, the prettiness… All gone. There's nothing left now…"
The same voice from before had talked to them inside their head. This time it was a bit more saddened and empty. Ruby saw how heartbroken the burnt child looked; she pitied it. She collapsed her Crescent Rose to its carrying form, getting confused looks from Malkuth and Dakota.
She began to amble towards the sobbing child. She didn't know how, but she felt the match stick on top of her flickering. It was a weird feeling, but it didn't stop her from approaching the child.
"Oi, what are you doing?" The purple-haired librarian assistant shouted. She began to charge toward the walking hooded girl and scorched child, only to stop once a hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned around to face who did it. "Malkuth…What are you doing?"
"I think we should just watch," her voice sounded hopeful like she realized something that Dakota didn't. "Look."
Dakota, once again, turned around to see the red girl standing right in front of the abnormality. Fearing the worse, she clenched her teeth.
"Hey," Ruby's voice called out. "Are you okay?"
The scorched child paused in her weeping to look up at the voice.
"Are you alright?" She repeated the question as she crouched in front of her.
"..."
"My name's Ruby." She pointed to the object above the top of her head. "You were calling out to me, weren't you?"
The Scorched Girl didn't say anything but nod her head, staring at the match above the red girl's head.
"I know what it feels like to be abandoned, to feel like you were neglected."
The match's flame sparked, but no fire came.
"As l got sad, I realized that I was never alone. There were people to help me," she thought about her sister, her dad, and her uncle. "I'm sure that if I could get help, you could as well."
The match's flame was smoking, but no fire.
"And if you can't find help," her smile grew larger. "Then I will be the one to help you."
The match's flame lit up, a small fire was coming from the top of the straightened match.
The Scorched Girl slowly walked to Ruby as the match impaling her was slowly dimming as well. The child, although with no hands or arms, tightly placed herself around Ruby's leg. Seeing how the child didn't explode on her, Ruby extended both arms around the child and tightly hugged her.
"Holy shit." Dakota couldn't believe it; the abnormality that blew up some of her co-workers was being hugged by a random girl. If any of her other co-workers heard about this, it would be unbelievable.
"It's a new observation!" Malkuth shouted. Her researcher's brain racked all the possibilities as to why the Scorched Girl favored the red girl. The bronze librarian saw the burning match above Ruby and she mentally noted it in her brain.
It wasn't long till the rest of the librarians and Team RWBY assembled with the group in the arena. They split off to meet up with their respective groups; the team of girls walking over to Ruby and the 'Little Match Girl', and the Patrons with their Librarian Director making sure Malkuth and Dakota were fine.
"Geez, that red little girl is fast," Roland commented as he examined a rose petal in his hand. "Her… what's it called? Semblance? Yeah, her Semblance is damn near instantaneous."
"It seems like 'Scorched Girl' has been pacified." Angela's yellow eye gazed over to the abnormality who was standing close to the red huntress-in-training. "And it was because of a few words."
"Miss Rose is a strange one indeed," spoke Hokma. "I believe that Miss Rose will change how we should view the Abnormalities." He thought about how if one person from Remnant was able to change one Abnormality, then what would happen if they meet the rest?
"Even then, Miss Rose is a good person," Hod spoke with certainty. "She really is like a bright pillar of light." They turned to watch the girl in question, she had the brightest smile they'd seen. And none of them disagreed.
Once Yang, Weiss, and Blake reached Ruby, they were a bit skeptical of getting closer to the walking explosive, but dissuaded those feelings once Ruby introduced them to her newest friend.
"Hey, guys!" The red huntress-in-training's voice called out to them. "Get over here!"
The burnt child was a bit frightened by the new individuals approaching, but its new light calmed her down.
"These are my friends and teammates," she guided the child's gaze to the three people. "They'll become your friends too if you want them to be."
The match piercing the child grew a bit brighter, a sign to the red-hooded girl that she was excited about meeting new people.
"Introduce yourselves," the team leader commanded in a cheerful tone.
"Hey kid, I'm Ruby's sister: Yang," she pridefully stuck a thumb to her chest.
"I'm Weiss, Ruby's partner," her cold demeanor melted away as she felt more comfortable talking to the Abnormality.
"Blake." Once again, the faunus-in-hiding had a short introduction for herself.
The child just nodded at hearing their names, staring at them individually with her white, blank eyes.
"Sooo, you got a name?" The blonde directed her question to the abnormality.
The only response she got was a crestfallen expression. Even if she had a way to communicate verbally, she didn't have a name other than what the scientists and workers of the facility assigned her; only when she was in battle could she communicate using emotions.
"I don't think she can talk," the black-haired girl realized. "I think she doesn't have a name other than Scorched Girl or those numbers and letters that I didn't bother remembering."
"But she was talking to us directly in our heads," the white-haired girl countered before she placed a hand on her forehead. "It feels weird to say that."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fine," the blonde-haired girl spoke. "Let's go see what the Librarians have to say about this."
The team of girls except for Ruby and the Scorched Girl were left alone as the others walked back to the rest of the group. The former just knelt down next to the former and gave her a huge smile.
"Come on, let's go meet some new friends!"
The Scorched Girl perked up at the mention of new friends. Even if the burnt child would be hurt and cold, she would find refuge in her friend's light.
"Eh? Where did this match come from?"
–10 MINUTES LATER–
—THE FLOOR OF HISTORY LOUNGE, THE LIBRARY—
["Greetings, Miss Librarian Director," a face could be seen from the scroll. "I hope that my students have been treating you well." Behind the face was the man's trusted associate, Glynda Goodwitch.]
"They have been no trouble Headmaster," the A.I. sat firmly in her seat. The people surrounding her were a mix of Team RWBY and some of her own Patron Librarians.
Malkuth, Hod, Neztach, Tiphereth, Gebura, Binah, and Dakota went their own separate ways as they had other things to do; Dakota having been given the information about the team of girls as promised, befriended each of them, albeit, with a little bit of nuisance. The Scorched Girl happily returned to her own book, feeling satisfied with gaining some new friends to lighten her metaphorical heart. In the process of returning to her book, she gave Ruby a match as a gift. When she questioned it, the librarians said that employees who gained the favor of the Abnormalities earned an E.G.O. Gift, gaining a boost in power or defense from attacks. That led to the red huntress-in-training being happy, while her teammates were a mix of livid, interested, and jealous, but were smug once they said that Scorched Girl's E.G.O. Gift only raised the user's vitality.
["I can see that you traveled across dimensions from your world into ours, would that be correct?" Ozpin questioned.]
"Yes, we believe that is the case," replied Angela. "The Library was supposed to be transported to the Outskirts of our dimension, but it is assumed that something went wrong in the process; thus, we ended up in this Emerald Forest."
The Headmaster of Beacon put his hands together and intertwined his fingers, placing his chin on it. Glynda and the other person in the background were thinking about the situation. If they were to take the Librarians at face value, then they would have nothing to do with the opponents on the other side of the chessboard. The Library was being truthful as well, they had information foreign to Remnant, abilities that went beyond their Aura or Dust, and monsters that could rival the Grimm. The Headmaster turned to his companions to see if they had any problems, and without any complaints, he turned back to the scroll.
["Well, Miss Angela, while I have seen many things in my life," he chuckled. "I don't think I've ever seen a library from another world pop out of nowhere."]
The pale librarian just nodded. "Yes, it is strange from our perspective as well," she returned. "But, I believe I have a proposition to make."
["Oh?" Ozpin interestedly listened.]
"I would like to send some representatives of the Library to accompany Team RWBY back to Beacon Academy so that we can gather more information about this new world." Ozpin raised an eyebrow at her request.
Since the academy had a library of its own, Angela decided that an acquaintance with a school was more necessary than sending an exploration team randomly. While this is new news to everyone present, the prospect of exploring a new world excited some of the librarians. The team of girls was just as excited, well, some of them weren't as expressive as the others; Ruby thought how cool it would be to claim that they were the first people to interact with others from another dimension, Weiss believe that the librarians would cause trouble, Blake assumed that their involvement would bring change to Remnant, while Yang just wanted to fight Gebura after hearing about the Red Mist's legend.
["Well, I suppose I can't refuse an offer from interesting individuals such as yourselves. With your request in mind, I would like to propose the same offer to your Library." Angela gave him a nod to agree with his proposal as he turned to face the team leader of RWBY. "Miss Rose, I believe that the Librarians would need a guide to navigate Beacon and Vale; you and your team should help them when they need it."]
Ruby's excitement levels skyrocketed. She couldn't believe that she would actually guide them; immediately, she thought up a plan to tour the school and Vale. She thought about every fun landmark, restaurant, and weapon store at Vale. Oh, and she would have to introduce them to Team JNPR when they get back. The team leader continued to keep thinking about all the cool things they would do as the same discussion not inside her head was still ongoing.
"Yes Professor Ozpin," the three other members of Team RWBY obliged. It was about a few seconds after not hearing the team leader say anything that the heiress shook her to spur her out of her trance.
"YES, PROFESSOR!"
Quietly, the Headmaster of Beacon chuckled as the two others behind him were displeased and proud respectively. The librarians that were around the team of girls just smiled at their interaction, having a higher opinion of the red girl after the situation with Scorch Girl.
"Continuing on, I would like to take some time to choose who will accompany Team RWBY." Angela closed her eyes as she spoke.
[Professor Goodwitch was the one to speak up after her. "I will send a bullhead towards your position, so you have time before they get there." A nod from the Librarian Director was the response she got. "And Team RWBY?" The girls shivered at her tone. "I would like a written report on your mission." Weiss and Blake weren't bothered by her task while Ruby and Yang's expressions shattered like glass. The former two knew how much the latter two hated writing assignments, and Gods forbid that they actually do any of the homework.]
"Very well, we will await your arrival. This has been a pleasurable conversation," the Librarian Director smiled.
["It has been a pleasure as well."]
With that, the scroll's call ended and the team leader of RWBY grabbed her scroll to pocket it. The entire room stared at Angela who was thinking about who to send. Without a moment's notice, she told them what she was thinking.
"I would like 5 minutes to decide who will go." She raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, disappearing instantly. The Librarians were used to their Librarian Director popping in and out of nowhere, but the team of girls was still not used to it. It was a few seconds of silence after it happened till someone broke it.
"Who do you think she'll/they'll send?" Roland and Yang's voices broke the silence. A bit shocked that they spoke at the same time, they looked at each other but shrugged it off as if it was just a coincidence.
"I don't know," Yesod commented to Roland's question. "I'm fine with whoever ends up going."
"As what Mister Yesod said, we do not know who Professor Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin will send," Weiss added. "If anything, they'll probably send themselves to look for themselves." The rest of the team of girls agreed with the heiress's notion.
After some time had passed, a snap vibrated in the lounge, all eyes turned to Angela's reappearance. Everyone was silent to hear what she was going to say.
"I have decided to send out half of the Patron Librarians," she spoke. "Those being: Roland, Gebura, Tiphereth, Yesod, and Malkuth." The person of the two that were present that had their name called was a bit surprised, but it was out shadowed by the fact that he would be one of the first to explore another world's civilization. He brought his attention back to Angela who was still explaining why they were chosen.
"These five were chosen because of their personalities and abilities; Roland and Gebura are going to protect the other three who are going to perform information gathering. It was also decided so that five of the Patrons would go out while the rest would be guides for our future guests."
After she was done explaining, she snapped her fingers, disappearing again to presumably tell the other chosen Patrons to depart. The Patrons present accepted her reasoning and set out to prepare, the ones that weren't elected returned to their floors to clean up while Roland and Yesod waited for the others. Like Angela had said, Roland and Gebura were going to escort the three other Patron Librarians to Beacon, so they opted to bring their own personal weapons: those being the Gloves of the Black Silence and the Red Mist key page. The other Patrons would just be in the regular Patron Librarian uniforms as it was the most comfortable for them. Meanwhile, Team RWBY just waited around the lounge, discussing what they would show to the Patrons and other mundane activities.
–20 MINUTES LATER–
–OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY, EMERALD FOREST–
The evening sun cast long shadows from the trees on the ground. The slanting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the sky. A large metal object was seen outside the Library and above the Emerald Forest. The group of nine stood outside the Library, waiting for their ride to Beacon Academy.
"Excuse me, Miss Schnee?"
"Yes, Mister Yesod?"
"How does that vehicle operate?"
"Ah, that's right, you probably have never seen one before." She adopted a smug look. "The bullhead uses dust as fuel to propel itself forward or upwards using those dust engines on each wing."
Her explanation was mentally written down in Yesod's brain, presumably to study more on propulsion systems when he got back. The rest of the Patrons were still astonished by the technologies of Remnant; it was a curious dichotomy, with their previous world boasting technologies surpassing those of Remnant, Remnant still maintained a technological superiority in certain aspects. While their fixer augmentations boasted an unmatched level of sophistication and design, Team RWBY's world retained an unparalleled level of superiority in weapon and vehicle machinery; they knew it was because of the Head that controlled how the City operated that they were restricted from going 'overkill'.
The Vale Bullhead is mainly used for transporting huntsmen or soldiers. They are fast-moving tiltjet ships, in other words, they can move vertically and horizontally by tilting the wings of the aircraft. As they are fast, they are also exceptionally durable to attack. It is the perfect troop transport vehicle, capable of carrying up to several thousand kilograms.
Once the bullhead had gotten close to the Library, it proceeded to land as four small landing gears popped out from under the aircraft. Twigs and leaves whipped around from the powerful downdraft of the aircraft. A gust of wind blew up beneath it, dirt and leaves kicked up by it, buffeting the group near it; Tiphereth had a hard time keeping balance from the wind. Slowly, the bullhead's landing gear touched the ground. The side of the aircraft opened up to reveal the interior with a ramp extending down toward the earth.
The five Patron Librarians stared at the aircraft in awe; they'd never seen any type of aerial vehicle in the City before as it wasn't necessary since WARP trains existed. It wasn't until they learned about the horrors caused by the WARP trains that they realized the truth. They also noticed how silent the aircraft was despite the duel dust engines on each side.
"Well, what're ya waiting for," the blonde member of Team RWBY called out as she walked toward the bullhead, the rest of her team following as well. "Don't tell me you're afraid of heights." She sent that playful tease toward the short member of the Patron Librarians, who shortly became red with anger.
"I AM–," Tiphereth calmed herself down, "I am not afraid of heights." The other librarians let out a little laugh at Tiphereth's expense. "Don't you guys start laughing!" She mainly threw a weak punch at Roland, who caught her hand and let go like he was used to it already.
They slowly made their way to the ramp of the aircraft, letting their feet feel the metal surface of the aerial vehicle. Once they made sat on the small seats that lined the walls, the team leader of the group of girls told the pilot to return to Beacon. Eventually, the VTOL's dust engines came to life, lifting off the ground and into the sky.
The librarians felt themselves being lifted into the sky, they stared out one of the windows of the aircraft. The tree line that once covered their field of view was now an empty space with the forest below them. Above them, the sky stretched out endlessly in a beautiful orange-tinted canvas. If they wanted to see the City from above, they would have to climb one of the Wing's main buildings to see it, but with an aircraft, it was a newfound sense of freedom that the librarians had never experienced before.
"So," the red librarian spoke. "What can we expect from this Beacon place?"
The other red individual in the aircraft jumped up, hitting her head on the metal ceiling. Rubbing her sore head, she exclaimed, "Beacon is like the coolest place you'll ever see. It's got everything!"
Her partner, in turn, pushes Ruby out of the way to explain her partner's bias. "The Kingdom of Vale made Beacon Academy, it's to be expected that the academy lives up to its well-deserved reputation for producing excellent and prestigious huntsmen." As she spoke, Weiss thought about her family's home kingdom and how they were a bit more extreme than the other academies. "Nonetheless, it is a place of learning and training the best of the best." If Professor Goodwitch was here, she'd be praising the heiress for a good explanation.
"None of us here except for Malkuth and Yesod have gone to school," the black fixer clarified. "Too expensive and worthless when I became a fixer." The rest of the librarians, mainly Gebura, nodded at that statement.
"I have a question regarding the City," the raven-haired girl spoke. A 'go ahead' nod was given by Roland and the others. "Miss Angela briefly went over the Corporations, but we never really got to understand what each of them was or did." Looking back at it, the pale librarian only told them that the 26 Wings controlled their own Nests and Corporations using their Singularities, with each Wing representing the 26 letters of the Alphabet; except for Z, which was weird considering that the majority of the Cityfolk know about Nest Z, but never seen it.
Since it was going to be a long trip, the former-Cityfolk didn't mind telling them about the Corporations and what their Singularities did. Although they would leave out 'certain' details so as to not traumatize the group of young girls, Tiphereth excluded.
–15 MINUTES LATER–
"So… it's like a mini-fridge." The blonde member of Team RWBY deadpanned. "It's a box… that freezes food inside of it."
"Well… I mean, it's kinda…," the black-haired man paused. "Yeah, it's basically a portable fridge…" He had told them about U Corp.'s product, which was stasis preservation boxes so that food or other perishable items wouldn't… well, perish.
Despite the fact that they lived in the City, they didn't know what Singularity every Corporation used; they'd only know what read from books of others. Thanks to them 'leaving out certain details,' the young group of girls wasn't too disturbed by the Corporations. In fact, they were a bit enamored by them.
In Ruby's case, she heard about the Rabbits, Rhinos, and Reindeer from R Corp. She loved that they only based their mercenary groups on animals that started with R, considering that her name also started with an R.
Much to the dread of the Librarians, Weiss took an interest in the W Corp.'s trains. It amazed her that a train only took 10 seconds to travel between stations without using any fuel source like dust. When Yang ranted about how amazing it would be for traveling between kingdoms, Weiss caught onto the fact that first-class seats were available when it was just a 5-second train ride. None of the Librarians answered her and deflected the question to just: 'Maybe they tricked people into buying it.' Even if she looked a bit unconvinced, she dropped it anyways.
Blake thought about the Head, consisting of the three major Corporations: A Corp., B Corp., and C Corp. From the Librarian Director, she heard about how strict their laws were and how A.I. like Angela wasn't allowed to exist because of their Artificial Intelligence Ethics Amendment Act. It truly made the amber-eyed cat faunus wonder if the Head would impose such laws onto faunus if they existed in the Librarian's world.
Meanwhile, Yang played with the idea of using T Corp.'s time to manipulate Singularity, saying how it would be fun to mess around with people in stopped time much to her teammates' horror. But secretly, she wanted to use it to find that person. Time manipulation semblances were impossible with Aura or Dust, but with a Singularity, the impossible would become a possibility.
Seeing the setting sun in the sky, the group decided that silence would be the one talking in the cabin of the bullhead. The team leader of RWBY checked her scroll, seeing that it was about to turn 7:00, she thought about dinner; it was a long day after all, between meeting the Librarians, learning that a whole other world existed, and generally learning more and more about the Library was exhausting in one day.
"Woah," the youngest librarian muttered as she was looking out the window of the bullhead.
Her little gasp of amazement got the attention of the others. Upon seeing what Tiphereth saw, Team RWBY understood why she was amazed.
Beacon Academy was not too far away from the bullhead.
Author's Notes:
I'm pretty sure I didn't do a good job at the whole "Scorched Girl" solution, but I wanted to make Ruby more special than she needed to be.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually made some plans regarding pairing some Abnormalities with certain RWBY characters. Also, Team JNPR will be introduced finally after all this time!
If you have a complaint about any of my grammar or any details that I missed, please don't hesitate to tell me.