Author's Notes:
I do not own Library of Ruina or RWBY. These series belong to Project Moon and RoosterTeeth respectively.
Just watched the first episode of Volume 9, it was great to the cast again after all these years. I'm excited to watch more episodes when they come out. It got me excited enough to finish this chapter today.
Reviews:
Plico0 - I thought about this for a while but decided to say no to page attributes. It would make this needlessly complicated and yeah, the Light situation is a problem. But I can say for sure that there will be a way for the Library to regain Light.
Pillow43 - Oh man, I didn't think about the ALEPHs and WAWs. I'm probably not going to have the RWBY cast 'befriend' certain Abnos, but they will most likely interact with some of them in a 'non-friendly' manner.
–OUTSIDE, BEACON ACADEMY–
In the orange-tinted sky, a bullhead was proceeding to land on the gray platform with a cyan-painted target for the aircraft to land in the middle. The bullhead's twin engines pivoted to hover mode, gently lowering the aircraft down from the sky. As the landing gear made contact with the ground, the pilot told the passengers that they were ready to exit the craft.
Two individuals were approaching the docking bay to meet the arrivals. One of them was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy; he stood carrying his personal hot cocoa mug that never left his side. While the other one was his trusted blonde associate, crossing their arms as they stood next to her boss. They watched as the ramp from the bullhead descended onto the ground and the people inside the aircraft slowly walked down it.
Team RWBY was the first group of people out of the bullhead, followed by the five librarians. Signaling to the pilot that they all left the vehicle, the bullhead slowly ascended as its twin engines shifted to their horizontal form, flying off into the sky. The group returned their attention to the two Professors of Beacon and walked toward them.
"I see that you all have arrived safely," Ozpin said. He looked at the librarians who were still a bit bewildered by the sight behind the Headmaster. "How was the ride?"
Spurring out of their entrancement, they returned their gaze to the man with gray hair. Although, it took the black and yellow librarians a few moments to do so.
"I had no problem with the ride," Yesod said. "But I would like to study the aircraft when I have the time to do so." The Headmaster nodded in response as if the purple librarian was like a child that curiously deconstructed objects to see how they work.
"I believe that you would have all the time to do so," the Headmaster responded.
The group of people began to walk down a long, wide road with red flags that featured two axes crossing each other attached to streetlights that led to what seemed like the main academy building. They arrived at a courtyard surrounding a fountain with some Huntsmen and Huntresses standing atop a rock with a scared wolf under them.
Considering this was a school, there was a lack of students around the place; the court outside the main tower of Beacon was empty except for the group. Upon asking about it, the group of girls explained it considering that they were also a part of the student body. Since it was late into the day, most students and staff were either studying in the library, training, or eating dinner.
The Headmaster of Beacon thought about how the Librarians will fit in considering they were outsiders and had no identification. "Since the Librarians arrived yesterday, it would be troublesome if the public caught wind of it. Be mindful of telling others about your origins, we don't want to cause any unwanted situations." After getting no response, he realized why. "But I assume that you are all tired after such a long day, so we can save it for later."
If it wasn't any clearer, the faces of every person except for the professors turned to exhaustion. Ruby and Yang looked ready to go to sleep while their teammates kept their eyes barely open, a small frown was shown on the heiress of the team. The Librarians weren't tired as much as the team of girls, but they had their own limits. Tiphereth still needed as much sleep as she could get, Malkuth and Yesod were in a similar position as Blake and Weiss, and the two fixers were used to long-term contracts that required them to stay up.
Even if no one responded to the professor, he understood what they were internally saying. He prompted Glynda to tell them what was going to happen next. "Professor Goodwitch here will provide you with what you need during your stay." He turned to walk away from the group, taking a sip from his steaming mug.
With the Headmaster gone into the main building, the green-eyed professor spoke, "Professor Ozpin has informed me to provide the Librarians with accommodations and scrolls." She held out 5 white, rectangular objects that were received by each of the Librarians. "If you don't know, these will allow you to call and message others as well as let you search up any information through the CCT." Even though they knew what they were and saw the red-hooded girl use a scroll, the Librarians fiddled with the small object in their hands, not understanding how to operate such a device. It wasn't until Tiphereth took a few seconds to unlock the scroll and began to register herself into the device. The rest of the Librarians decided to do it later and pocketed their scrolls.
"With that out of the way, Team RWBY is to return to their dorms for class tomorrow while the Librarians will follow me to their rooms." She commanded the group. After saying their farewells to each other, the team of girls made their way in the opposite direction from the Librarians. It had been decided that if they were questioned about who they were, they would reply that Yesod and Malkuth were academic librarians, Tiphereth was a young intern studying under them, and the two fixers were hired bodyguards.
After a long walk to one of the buildings of the academy, Professor Goodwitch separated the group of librarians into two genders. Upon inspecting both rooms, they were completely the same. The dorm rooms were simple bedrooms with four beds instead of one, two desks on each side, a white door that presumably led to a bathroom or closet, and a large window in the middle with a small bookshelf under it. The floor was a lightish-brown carpet and a red rug was in the middle of it.
The females of the Librarians decided to retire for the night, closing the door behind them as the two males decided to go to their room across from the girls. Roland opted to randomly choose a bed and sleep on it, instantly snoring once the soft platform took his tiredness away. The other person in the room decided to inspect the device handed to him as he sat on one of the beds; he messed around with the scroll late into the night, scrounging any bit of information that he came across on the CCT internet.
—THE NEXT DAY—
—GUEST DORMS, BEACON ACADEMY—
"Uugh…." Roland had woken up, still a bit disoriented. "I just had the craziest dream." The black fixer noticed how different the ceiling was from the ceiling of the Floor of General Works. He then realized that he was in one of the dorm rooms of Beacon Academy; he sighed and noticed Yesod perfectly up and about in the morning light. Roland was a bit jealous that his purple companion had the ability to wake up early with perfect consistency. Wanting to know the time, he remembered the scroll in his pocket.
The scroll had to register Roland as its user before he was able to check the time. After inputting information like his name, age, and gender into the device, he was able to marvel at the technological differences Remnant had shown them. The scroll had everything; it was able to take photos, record audio, send and receive messages, look up information, and has a built-in clock. Curiously, he ask for his purple friend's number, and he quickly registered Yesod's contact information into the device and tested it out.
[Roland: Yo.]
A buzz went off in the room, signaling that the message had been received. He looked up to see Yesod who was a bit annoyed that the alert had bothered him when he was reading an article about Dust.
"Please do not message me when I am right next to you," Yesod spoke coldly. The only response the black fixer could make was to chuckle a little bit and raise both hands to calm him down.
Their short conversation was cut abruptly when they heard shouting outside their window. They paused what they were currently doing and looked through the glass. They saw Team RWBY dressed in similar clothing alongside another group of four students running toward the main building of the academy. The two librarians didn't think much about it, or well in Yesod's case, he didn't care as he figured out that they were late to class or something of similar importance.
Realizing that he didn't check the time, he turned to the scroll to reveal that it was about to turn to 9:00 A.M. He also noticed the current date of Remnant, that being Thursday 26th, 2013. It was coincidental that Remnant used the same calendar system as the City, but something caught his attention. 'Wow, they're a few hundred years behind.'
"Well, wanna get the girls in the other room?" Roland asked.
Yesod thought about it for a moment before finally agreeing because it seemed like their 'guides' were a bit preoccupied at the moment. The two opened their room's door, only for it to slam into something in the process of opening it.
"OW!" A familiar feminine voice moaned in pain. "Geez, who told you to open doors that hard?" The person in pain revealed themselves to be none other than Malkuth herself, with Gebura and Tiphereth not too far behind her.
"I'm pretty sure people are supposed to knock with their hands, not their faces," Roland smirked. This got the Floor of History's Patron a bit mad, her face puffing up at his insult. Excluding those two, the rest of the Librarians greeted each other with a "good morning" or a "hello."
"So, what's the plan?" Gebura asked.
"I got a message from Professor Goodwitch," the shortest librarian said. "We were given the option to wait for Team RWBY or go exploring on our own." The decision wasn't a hard one. The result was a unanimous decision by all the Librarians present and they walked back out the same way they came into the building.
—BEACON ACADEMY—
To say that Beacon was a huge place was inaccurate, it was more accurately a massive place that rivaled even Corporation Headquarters back in the City. When the Librarians were still in the bullhead above, they'd noticed that Beacon Academy was situated on a cliff looking over the large body of water that they'd never seen before in the City. If one had to describe this place, it would be a giant castle. And much like a castle, it was very easy to get lost in. The giant tower in the middle of the academy helped the Librarians understand where they were, which probably alluded to the fact that the tower itself was a beacon as it glowed a bright green color from the top. Upon looking closer at the tower, they saw a clock on the top much like Hokma's floor had his clock.
"Man, this place really is like that old man's floor." Roland scratched the back of his head. It was white and had clocks, which usually led the General Works' Patron to get lost in the bookshelves.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird that there's no directory or any kind of map of the place." Malkuth searched around finding nothing of the sort.
"Considering that we are not from Beacon, it would be obvious that we don't know the layout," Yesod responded.
It had been around half an hour since they left their guest rooms. Much to the chagrin of the blonde librarian, they wanted to ask other people for directions but found a problem. Much like yesterday, there were barely any students roaming around the campus. It did seem like they started class already, even then, it just gave the Librarians more freedom to explore. Their little journey came to a stop when they realized that it would take hours to explore the academy, so they decided to split off into separate groups. After getting each other's contact info, Tiphereth, Yesod, and Roland decided to go find the school's library while Gebura and Malkuth would go explore the rest of the campus and meet back up at the courtyard they were in yesterday.
–TIPHERETH, YESOD, AND ROLAND–
"Is this it?" Roland questioned.
"I believe so," Yesod replied.
The girl in the group was getting impatient trying to find this place. "Let's just go in already," she demanded.
They walked inside the room to find a normal-looking library. While not impressive like their Library, it still held some appealing aspects. Beacon's library had two stories of rows of red bookshelves and white tables that had terminals with holographic screens on them. Interacting with the terminals, the Librarians found out that they were computers that could access the CCT. They could see that there were some students; the students didn't seem to pay attention to the Patrons as they were busy doing their own things either studying or socializing with others. Much to the disdain of the Librarians, it was not a quiet place unlike what a library should be. Multiple voices could be heard and they were not quiet. Ignoring those students, the trio made their way to one of the bookshelves to find a book.
Yesod grabbed two books about the technological advancements of Remnant while Tiphereth took a book titled "The Geography of Remnant." Roland opted to relax in one of the chairs next to a desk. He pulled down his tie a bit to make himself a bit more comfortable but felt a tap on his shoulder. The black fixer turned around to see a person standing behind him.
There stood a girl wearing the school uniform. She had long, brown hair that reminded him of Malkuth, but noticed something obviously apparently different than Malkuth. Instead of a red hair band, there was a set of big bunny ears on top of her head. She sheepishly stared at Roland with her brown eyes as if she was looking to ask him something but was shy about it.
"Um," she spoke. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I've never seen you at Beacon before. Who are you?" Her eyes darted away from his as she stared everywhere except for him.
On the other hand, Roland realized that he was speaking with a faunus. He didn't think that there were humans with animal parts, but lo and behold, he was seeing one for the first time. Even if he was a bit intrigued by the faunus girl in front of him, he still needed to respond to her.
"The name's Roland," he replied. "I'm here as a hired mercenary to protect my contractors." The reply was something he got used to saying during his time as a fixer. "They're here to collaborate with Beacon in a study so they hired another person and me to protect them."
"Oh, I see…," she trailed off before realizing something. "Oh! I forgot to tell you my name, it's Velvet."
"Hmm, nice to meet ya Velvet." Roland gave her a small smile.
She began to walk away from him with her own small smile. As she continued to walk, he saw another girl walk up to her, talking to her like a friend would. The new girl was wearing a black beret and black aviator sunglasses. She noticed him looking in their direction, and pulled her sunglasses down to give him a seductive look. Even if he was a little taken aback by the sunglasses girl's actions, he didn't show it on his face. Velvet was a bit embarrassed by her friend's actions and the two made their way out of the library.
'Well, that was a thing,' Roland thought. 'Wonder what the other two are doing?'
–GEBURA AND MALKUTH–
After they split off from the other three, Gebura and Malkuth found the Dining Hall and what looked like to be a large amphitheater. They garnered a lot of attention from students passing by to get to their next class but didn't advance further than watching. Thankfully, Gebura had hidden her weapon so as to not cause disgust among the students, but her key page outfit made her stand out a little too much. Malkuth, however, could be seen as one of the staff seeing as she was holding a rather large book.
Walking down one of the halls, they heard the sounds of metal clashing in one of the nearby buildings. Upon reaching the building, a huge wooden door stood in front of them. The two librarians looked at each other and shrugged, pushing the door slightly so they can peek inside.
It was an open room with a raised platform toward the end of the room. Surrounding the entire room were bleachers that also lined near the bottom of the stage. A pair of students were fighting on the stage with the lights on; they could see other students watching the fight, but couldn't see as the light wasn't shining on them. They saw that Professor Goodwitch was overseeing the fight as she held a scroll that was extended to its full size. Two banners hung over the stage showing the two student's portraits and a bar under them, presumably measuring their Aura. One of the students, a blonde knight with a shield, was leaning on his weapon exhausted. He was wearing a simple black hoodie with jeans, and a plate of armor covering his chest and upper arms. The other student was a dark orange-haired man clad in almost full armor with black attire under, only leaving his groin and hips exposed. He wielded a large, black mace with what looked like claws instead of the traditional blunt mace.
The blonde knight charged forward, swinging his blade at the mace user, but failed as his opponent dodged away. The dark orange-haired guy counterattacked by swinging his weapon at the knight, thrashing him onto the floor. Losing his shield, the blonde kid charged another attack, only for his opponent to block it with his mace and send a knee into his gut. Upon studying how they fought, it was apparent who was winning.
'That blonde kid has his entire stance wrong,' the red fixer criticized. 'Is this really one of the top combat academies if that kid is in it?' She noticed how the bar under the blonde kid dropped to a low percentage and turned from green to red.
As the knight tumbled to the ground, the mace user raised his weapon into the sky and swung down. Seeing how brutal it would've become, Malkuth turned away from the sight. Gebura only sighed, thinking how even if the winner was a better fight, it was clear that the blonde kid had no fight in him left, it was unnecessary to beat him while he was down. Only then does a buzzer sound out and the mace user stops all movement. The lights turn off, revealing the entire group of students watching the fight.
"Cardin, that's enough," the blonde professor commanded as he relented and walked away from the downed knight. She walked onto the stage, looking at the rest of the students."Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match." The group of students muttered amongst themselves about the fight. The professor turned to the now-named Jaune Arc and saw how he took out his own scroll to monitor his Aura levels.
"Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now," she sighed. "Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?" That got some of the students to giggle at her remark, while Jaune's opponent said some harsh words.
"Speak for yourself…" The mace user walked off-stage and joined the rest of his presumed team.
"Geez, how is someone like that, classmates with Ruby and the others?" Malkuth said. Gebura had no response to that.
A bell rang throughout the campus, signaling to the students that it was time for lunch. Gebura took a step back from the door much to Malkuth's confusion as an energetic girl blasted through the door, stunning the Patron Librarian as the door slammed into her again for the second time today. The girl that did it, didn't notice them as the rest of the students started to flow out of the building, not noticing them either. It was only then that they noticed four familiar individuals in the crowd of people, those being the members of Team RWBY.
Gebura held out a hand to Malkuth and picked her up from the ground. "Hey, I saw Team RWBY," she mentioned. "Let's go meet up with the rest."
As if she did a 180, Malkuth turned her frown after being hit again by a door to a smile when she heard Team RWBY being mentioned. The two librarians followed the group of students; only for Gebura to turn her head around to see a red-haired girl staring at the Jaune kid still on the stage. Even if she couldn't see it, she felt the redhead girl frown sadly, but the fixer continued to walk along, sending a message to the others about where the dining hall was.
–DINING HALL, BEACON ACADEMY–
"So! There we were, in the middle of the night…"
"It was day."
"We were surrounded by Ursai…"
"They were Beowolves."
"Dozens of them!"
"Two of 'em."
"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"
Ren just sighed, lowering his head. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." Even if Nora was his partner and the person that he's been with for the past decade since they were children, he could barely keep up with her sometimes.
The only person paying attention to their little back and forth was Yang. Weiss was filing her nails, Blake was reading her book, and Ruby and Pyrrha stared at each other before sadly turning their gaze at Jaune who picked at his food.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with concern. "Are you okay?"
Her voice snapped him out of it. "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?" The two weren't entirely convinced.
"It's just that you seem a little…," Ruby took a moment to choose her words. "Not okay…"
The rest of the two teams looked at the serious conversation happening. They all stared at the team leader of JNPR who was nervously quivering at their stares.
"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously! Look!" He gave a small grin that seemed genuine but avoiding their eyes gave away his true feelings. A group of laughs got the attention of the two teams, turning their heads, they saw the same mace user and his team bullying a rabbit faunus.
Seeing the bully in action, Pyrrha turned to her again. "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school." She had a frown on her face the entire time.
"Who? Cardin Winchester?" He tried deflecting the accusation. "Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!" The group of boys and girls instantly became unconvinced.
"He's a bully," Ruby scornfully said.
"Oh, please!" He scoffed. "Name one time he's 'bullied' me."
While the two teams were telling all the times Jaune was bullied, there was a group of four adults and one teen near the exit of the dining hall. They spotted Team RWBY talking with another team that had the blonde knight on their team.
"So…" The black fixer spoke. "When are they going to be done?" He was a bit bored waiting for Team RWBY to be their 'guides' but realized that it wasn't the moment to ask.
"I don't know," Tiphereth said. "Maybe we should just find the headmaster or that professor." She wasn't really enthusiastic about asking others for help, but it was something they needed to do if they wanted to gather more information.
"I believe that isn't necessary."
Roland and Malkuth gasped in shock at a voice behind them. Turning around, they saw the Headmaster of Beacon with a coffee mug in hand. He had his eyes closed behind those glasses of his, a questioning look on his face.
"When did you get here?" Gebura asked with an eyebrow raised. She didn't hear him get close at all, was her hearing weakening? "How?"
"I can assure you all that even though I look unassuming, I am a Headmaster of a Huntsmen Academy," he said with proudness. "As for when I got here, it was when Mister Roland asked about Team RWBY." A nod of understanding went around the Librarians.
"We believe that Team RWBY is preoccupied at the moment with another team." The purple librarian looked over to the tables.
"Ah, Team JNPR," his voice filled with concern. "The leader, Mr. Arc, has been… to say the least, unsuccessful in both combat and studies. The attitude of the team leader has been affecting his partner, Ms. Nikos."
"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think that kid is fit to fight." Gebura knew young people that tried to become fixers and died young as they weren't prepared for the nature of the City. Roland heard about what happened at the combat arena and nodded at his fellow fixer's statement
"I agree with you that Mr. Arc isn't capable like his peers," he opened his eyes. "But I can guarantee you, he will make a fine leader." His voice held certainty like he knew the blonde knight would become just that.
A cry of pain was heard from inside the dining hall. Upon looking inside, they saw the same team from before harassing the familiar person to Roland. He squinted his eyes to see where he recognized them, only realizing that he met them back at the school's library.
"I recognize her," he pointed out. "Her name's Velvet, she's a faunus that I met in the school's library." They watched as the boy who fought Jaune was pulling on one of her bunny ears, laughing at her pain. The guy's team was also taking part in the bullying, insulting her for her faunus heritage.
Even if they weren't from this world, the Librarians felt disgusted to be a part of the same humanity as that guy. Seeing their anger boil up, Ozpin decided to step in before things got out of hand. The Headmaster quickly, but calmly walked through the doors of the dining hall. Everyone had their attention on Velvet's torment, but no one did anything to help.
The Headmaster mentally sighed. 'Even though Beacon was supposed to be a place where humans and faunus could get along, it seems that things will remain the same no matter what.' Just as people were trying to avoid looking at the rabbit faunus's pain, they spotted their headmaster walking to where the problem was. The entire dining hall was silent, Team RWBY and Team JNPR watched as the headmaster stood behind Team CRDL and Velvet, the latter of whom was still being held on by the ears.
"Mr. Winchester?"
The entire CRDL team except for the leader and Velvet turned to see Ozpin standing there, with a smile on his face and eyes closed. Even though he looked friendly, there was hidden anger behind that appearance. The three humans and a single faunus froze in fear.
"Huh." Cardin finally turned around in annoyance. Upon seeing the headmaster, he instantly let go of Velvet's ears. Adopting a nervous smile, he spoke, "Ah, Headmaster! What brings you here?" A bead of sweat dripped down his face.
"Mr. Winchester, would you like to explain what you are doing to Ms. Scarlatina?"
Cardin looked a little panicked, he was just caught red-handed bullying another student in front of the headmaster. In all his wisdom, he came up with an excuse. "Ah! Me and the anim– Scarlatina here are old friends," his voice shook nervously. "She doesn't mind this at all." His face was covered in sweat, shaking every so often; rightfully so because that was an awful attempt at an excuse.
"I see…," Ozpin trailed off, giving Velvet a good look. She was obviously frightened by Cardin but did nothing to solve it. "And Ms. Scarlatina? Is what Mr. Winchester saying true?" If he got her consent, he would most likely expel Cardin for picking on another student, regardless of their species.
The rabbit faunus was still scared by Cardin, so she spoke. "Um… Cardin and I are…" She paused for a second to think about it. "Yeah, we're… the greatest of friends…" She trailed off with a shake of her body.
In an act of betrayal to everyone present, she admitted that she wasn't being bullied in front of the headmaster. Even Cardin looked shocked that the person he was bullying, defended him. Ozpin held up a raised eyebrow, but couldn't do anything if the victim wasn't going to admit it, he mentally felt disappointed in himself for letting the racism of faunus get this far.
"Well then, I suppose your 'friendship' is quite intimate with each other," he strained the 'friendship' part of his sentence. "As for now, I have other business to attend to." He directed his attention to Team RWBY, whom of which flinched when he stared at them.
"Team RWBY, you have some guests waiting outside the dining hall." He quickly exited the room in great despair, hearing murmurs going about behind him.
He exited the hall only to see the Librarians mad for him because Cardin didn't go unpunished. "I can see that you are mad as well."
"Obviously! What the hell was that?" Roland shouted, but not too loud that the cafeteria could hear him. "Is this how bad the racism is here?" The City had its share fair of racism, but people tended to disregard race when the only thing that mattered was surviving the next day.
"I can assure you that it gets much worse," the headmaster depressingly said. He thought about faunus slavery, abuse, and Menagerie, the worst deal in the history of all Remnant. "For now, please accompany Team RWBY for the time being." He walked off, leaving the Librarians waiting for the girls to arrive.
Soon, a group of four students popped out of the dining hall; it was Team RWBY. The team of girls all had differing opinions about the event in the cafeteria. The red huntress-in-training had a look of sadness on her face, the white heiress looked a bit indifferent about the whole ordeal, the yellow brawler looked a bit pissed, and the black faunus-in-hiding held resentment in her amber-colored eyes. They all turned to face the people they were supposedly meeting, they stared at the five librarians who also shared similar looks to them.
"Pissed?"
"Of course."
"Revenge?"
"Most definitely."
"We can't…" Ruby's voice cut the conversation off. "We can't hurt Cardin."
"Why not?" Malkuth said. Even if she forbid ever killing again, she didn't mind breaking people.
"The people that he's bullying don't want us to help them." She explained.
"What," Gebura spoke with a scowl.
The team of girls, mostly Ruby, explained what was happening to their sister team's leader. In short, they told the Librarians about Team JNPR and how Jaune was being weird. Even though his team and another were offering to help him, he was pushing them away to protect his own pride. To the Librarians, it just sounded like he was being a wimp.
"Hoo boy…" Roland sighed. "I guess there's really nothing we can do." He scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, that Ozpin guy told us to follow you for the day. Supposedly, after all your classes, you can give us an actual guide."
"It's Professor Ozpin, you ruffian," the ice-cold member of Team RWBY spoke. "And we have separate classes in a few minutes, so we'll have to split you up." Since Weiss and Blake were going to history class, Malkuth, Yesod, and Gebura went with them. That left Ruby and Yang with Roland and Tiphereth to go to their dustology class.
–HISTORY CLASS, BEACON ACADEMY–
The lecture halls of Beacon were like any other lecture hall the Librarians had seen. It was a room that had stairs that descended to the area where the professor taught. Surrounding the staircase, rows of long desks up to four seats high lined the room. Down in the professor's area, the board was a map of Remnant but covered up with multiple pages of paper and articles connected with tacks and red string. The professor's desk was littered with caffeine and stacks of paper, even the surrounding bookshelves and floor were covered in paper.
Disregarding the strange work area, the professor was also strange. It was a very tall man with messy green hair. Professor Oobleck was wearing a simple suit shirt and pants with a loose yellow tie and circular glasses that covered his eyes. With one hand on a thin pointing stick and another on a cup of coffee, he darted around the room at near instantaneous speed that could rival Ruby's Semblance.
Malkuth and Yesod felt like they were back at university in their respective Nests. The professor taught just as fast as he moved, speeding between students as he asked questions. While they got permission to attend the lecture, they were delegated to the back of the class, watching everything unfold below them.
They saw a sleeping Jaune at the front of the class with Cardin behind him; Velvet, Weiss, and Blake were a few seats away from them. It still seemed like Blake was furious at Cardin while Weiss paid attention to the speeding professor. As if the event at the dining hall didn't happen, the three librarians spotted Cardin attempting to wake Jaune up with a paper football he made earlier. It was at this moment that the professor asked a question.
"And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" The professor's eyes darted all over the place, trying to spot anyone who would answer.
Only then did Cardin flick the projectile onto Jaune's head, causing the blonde boy to wake up from his nap.
"Hey!"
The green-haired professor zoomed toward the now-awakened boy. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?" He excitedly awaited his student's answer.
"Uhhh…" He couldn't think of an answer. "The answer… The advantage… that the Faunus…," he noticed Pyrrha mouth the answer, but didn't understand. "...had over that guy's stuff…," Pyrrha gave him another hint in the form of cupping her hands over her eyes. "Uhh... Binoculars!" Pleased with his response, he smiled, only to hear multiple face slaps and laughter from the other students. The professor calmly took a sip of his coffee while Malkuth and Yesod looked on with confusion, the latter of who had her mouth wide open while Gebura was one of the people that facepalmed.
Oobleck only went back to his desk before speaking. "Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin!" The boy in question had his legs perched on top of the desk as he picked his wax from his ear using his pinky. "Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"
"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," he said as he flicked his earwax off his finger. In utter disappointment, Oobleck shook his head at the apparent racism.
"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?"
"What? You got a problem?" He directed his glare at the redheaded member of Team JNPR.
"No, I have the answer!" She turned to face the professor. "It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." Satisfied with the answer, Oobleck nodded in agreement, making Cardin growl.
Unlike her professor, Blake wasn't satisfied enough. "General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." She directed her glare to Cardin. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." A round of 'Ooo's' sounded in the classroom, with the Librarians sharing a smirk on their faces.
After being insulted in his face, Cardin got up from his seat, ready to start a fight. Gebura looked ready to sit his ass down if he tried attacking someone, but was cut off by a voice.
"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat," the professor calmly said. Only to hear snickering from the person below the agitated boy. Zooming up to him, he spoke again. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."
"Oohhhh…."
Once class ended, both Patrons followed Weiss and Blake out of the classroom, only to see Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha come out behind them. However, the bronze librarian felt that something was weird about this.
'Wait, Nora and Ren were inside the classroom? I didn't see them at all…' Malkuth questioned, but shrugged it off as her not paying attention.
They overheard Pyrrha say something to the other two about waiting for their leader. But they weren't here for Team JNPR, so they left with the girls of Team RWBY.
–STUDENT DORMS, BEACON ACADEMY–
Since this was a mission given by their boss, the Librarians shared every bit of info about the classes they could get. According to Yesod, he learned a lot about the history of the faunus and how much discrimination they faced over the past couple of decades since he was paying attention and able to keep up with the speedy professor. According to Roland, they learned about all different types of Dust and its appliances. Since he asked for one, he held a piece of Burn Dust in his hand, showing off the red-colored crystal to the other Patrons. Yesod immediately swiped the crystal from his hands to study the mineral, much to the disappointment of Roland.
Soon after classes ended, the rest of Team RWBY and the Librarians met up. The rest of the day was given to the students to do whatever they wanted as long as it was within reason, but Team RWBY still needed to be guides for the Librarians; and that they did.
When asked about a map of Beacon or any type of directory, the team of girls looked at them with a strange look. The heiress pulled out her scroll and tapped it a few times, showing them a full map of Beacon Academy. The Librarians facepalmed at the fact that they were in possession of a device that literally had information on it at a moment's notice.
They took them all around parts of the campus they haven't seen yet, showing off the history behind Beacon's creation and the 'coolest' parts of Beacon according to Ruby's standards of cool; those being the forge and combat arena. Later, they were guided to the student dorms where the leader of Team RWBY wanted to show off their dorm room.
"–ere's our dorm!" The red-hooded girl exclaimed. Much like their guest dorm rooms, the layout of the hallways was the same for the Librarians. When the girl opened the door, Roland could feel Yesod's eye twitch in disbelief.
Team RWBY's dorm room was similar to the Librarians'; four beds, some desks, a small bookshelf, and a window, but there was a noticeable difference between the rooms.
"Why…" Yesod could barely speak. "Why is it…" He could not finish his sentence as he stared directly at the problem.
Even the other Librarians were a bit shocked that it actually looked… 'stable.' The problem was that Team RWBY decided to make bunk beds, but the way they did it was, frightening to say the least. The left bunk bed had the top bunk covered by a cloth held up by ropes connected to a hook in the ceiling, and the right side had the bunk bed… supported… by stacks of books.
"Has it never fallen before?" Tiphereth asked.
"Uh…" All of them except for Weiss said.
–A WEEK AGO–
"Goodnight Weiss," Ruby said.
"Goodnight Ruby."
After a few hours, Weiss could not find herself to sleep. 'Dangit Ruby, I can't believe she didn't do her homework.' While the other two members were sleeping peacefully, Ruby sheepishly asked Weiss for help with Professor Port's homework, thus making them stay up a little bit.
'Hmph, it has been a week since then,' she thought. 'I suppose she does have some redeeming qualities.' As if on cue, the red leader was rolling around in her bed. A little too much, as the top bunk was shaking.
"Aaaah… Cookieeesss," the voice above said.
Suddenly a loud snap was heard throughout the dorm room. Weiss opened her eyes as a large object was falling at her laying body. The bed on top had fallen due to Ruby's excessive movements in her dream. Everyone had woken up to see what happened. Yang and Blake instantly scanned the room, seeing the top bunk directly on top of the bottom bunk. Ruby was stirring as she was waking up as if she barely noticed falling, but realized that the bed was lower than usual.
Soon after the lights came on, the blonde member lifted the bed off of Weiss's, only to find Weiss perfectly fine with her eyes wide open, blankly staring at the bottom of the bed. She stared back at Yang with eyes that looked like her life flashed before her eyes.
"T-Thank you," she let out a scared voice.
–PRESENT–
"Ah," Yang started to tell them. "There was that tim–" A hand quickly covered her mouth, following the person's hand to their face, it was Weiss who did it.
"WE DON'T TALK ABOUT IT," her voice demanded as she held an innocent-looking smile. The blonde brawler reeled back in compliance and laughed nervously. The Librarians raised an eyebrow but didn't question it further.
"Well, it is getting pretty late." Roland glanced at the window. "I'd say we continue this tour tomorrow."
"Maybe we'll go to Vale," Ruby suggested. "It'd be a good chance for them to see how Remnant's cities look." A group of agreement circled the group.
"It'll take a few days to sightsee all of Vale," Weiss chimed in. "I'd rather wait till we finish showing them Beacon before we head to Vale." It was confusing at first for the Librarians to differentiate the City of Vale from the Kingdom of Vale, but they learned to just roll with it.
"Oh, we have to go to the Forever Fall Forest in a few days," Blake mentioned. "It's a request from one of the professors, every student from her class is going." The Librarians took a moment to think about it before agreeing to see more of this world, so they traveled back to their guest rooms.
Once they left, Tiphereth took out her scroll immediately to look up information about the Forever Fall Forest; she was particularly excited to study the flora of the forest. As the yellow librarian read out the information, Malkuth and Yesod discussed why the forest was always forever in fall but decided to study more when they got there. Roland and Gebura thought about how this Vale would compare to the City, sure the City was larger than all of Vale, but what matters is the true nature of Vale's city.
As they were walking down the hall of the student dorms, the two fixers noticed two people standing on a rooftop outside. They let the others walk back to their rooms as they heard something serious from the two outside.
"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!"
The two fixers noticed that the person being spoken to was the person Ruby mentioned earlier; Roland remembered that Ruby told them that Jaune's partner was getting concerned with his well-being and recalled that her name was Pyrrha. Jaune turned away from the girl he was conversing with. Looking at the back of her head, Gebura realized it was the girl who was staring at the blonde knight in the training hall after he lost.
"You're wrong. I-I don't belong here."
"That's a terrible thing to say!" She said. "Of course, you do!"
That made the blonde knight angry, he whipped around to face her. "No, I don't!" He sighed as his partner looked shocked before he continued to explain. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon…" Jaune turned away to avoid facing her as he revealed the truth.
"I know the headmaster told us that he had the qualities of a leader," the black fixer muttered. "But I just can't see it in him." Roland sighed as he thought back to Finn, the kid he killed in the early days of the Library. 'Hopefully, that kid made it out alright…'
"Shut up and listen," the red fixer said as the conversation they were not a part of continued.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Pyrrha asked confusedly.
"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests. I didn't earn my spot at this Academy!" The truth shocked the hiding librarians as he turned back to face the red-haired girl. "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!"
"Damn…," the red fixer quietly muttered. "That kid really isn't cut out to fight." She really hated being right sometimes.
"What? But... why?" Pyrrha, still confused, asked.
"'Cause this is always what I've wanted to be!" He turned away again. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough." He poured his heart out to the four people listening to him.
Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Then let me help you!" The only response she got was a backlash.
"I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!" He spoke with frustration.
"Kid's got some problems," Roland muttered as Gebura nodded with him.
"Jaune, I–" She was about to reason with him but was cut off by his anger.
"I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand?" His voice progressively started from anger but turned to sadness. "If I can't do this on my own... then what good am I?"
The redheaded girl tried to reach out for his arm, only for him to lean back, avoiding her grasp. Grabbing his arm with his other hand, he spoke again.
"Just... leave me alone. Okay?"
"If that's what you think is best…" She put her head down and solemnly walked away from him.
"Hooooly Shit," the black fixer said. "I've seen bad breakups, but this is probably up there."
"Stop that you idiot." The red fixer slapped him on the back. "That girl's trying to help, but the kid is also being an idiot about it." Even though the situation wasn't the same, Gebura needed help from the other librarians if she wanted to learn how to read.
"You can't do everything by yourself," Roland added before sighing. "We should get back to our rooms." Gebura sighed as well before turning to walk away with Roland following her.
As they left, Jaune was still hanging around the rooftop, moping in despair. His mood changed quickly when he heard a familiar laugh come from the side of the rooftop. A hand emerged from the side of the roof and grabbed on. Pulling himself up, Cardin stared directly at Jaune with a mischievous tone in his voice.
"Oh, Jaune…"
Author's Note:
There we go! Beacon Academy! This was probably my best chapter so far, but I'm pretty sure there are a few mistakes in it.
Even though the Librarians felt a little in the background, they will get the spotlight in a few chapters. This is just them laying low so that they can see how to interact with the inhabitants of Remnant before they do anything. Also, we'll get back to Angela and the Library awaiting their guest from Beacon. You can probably guess who it's going to be at this point.
Anyways, thanks for reading! If there were any grammar mistakes or a bit of information wrong, please correct me on it.