Library of Remnant

by NymphKohai

How will Remnant handle the appearance of the Library after the events of the Library of Ruina? Spoilers for Library of Ruina

15. Chapter 13: Normal Girls

Author's Note:

I do not own Library of Ruina or RWBY. These series belong to Project Moon and RoosterTeeth respectively.

I am back! The last time I posted was like a month ago, but I'm finally here. It's been a long time waiting because I was dealing with finals and other things. Also I got really addicted to playing Arknights which kinda limited how much I put into writing. To make up for my absence, this is my longest chapter; sitting around 13K words excluding the Reviews and Author's Notes. Hopefully, yall can enjoy this chapter because I struggled to make sense of this since I didn't have anyone to bounce ideas off of, but I think that I got this right. As a warning though, I am not good at writing character dialogue so if things don't make sense or don't flow right, please let me know so I can improve on that and see where I went wrong.

Reviews:

HarmonyDST05 - Roland is one of my favorite characters in LoR so I kinda have a bias towards how amazing he should be, but I don't really know if I'm doing him justice sometimes.

Gallerian - Maybe... I can't tell you.

Argorok - Well, I'm pretty sure that most of the Librarians would try to be as friendly as possible. Chesed, Hod, and Netzach are definitely going to be most of the students' favorites, while the same students wouldn't like Binah or Hokma considering their... personalities.

Orchidbunny - I'd cheer to that.

VGBlackwing - Trust me. Roland is gonna be sick talking about him. Anyways, yeah... Angela's Semblance is kinda BS, but let's just say that she can only summon one person and she has to have their book in order to summon them.

The Dark Hour - Nemonitor? What's that?

too lazy 2 login - Yeah... I'll talk more about it in the next review comment.

Emm - I don't know. Was it really Neo? Either way, I don't really have a good thought about the Identities, since they're probably not going to be in the story, but I'll still answer them. For one, I would say that an Identity changes who you are as a person; it's essentially you but in an alternative timeline, your Semblance is determined by your character so it would make sense that an Identity would change your Semblance because you would have multiple personalities that differ in each timeline. Two, if Ruby somehow gains an Adam Identity (which is impossible, considering that you cannot take other people's Identities), I would probably say that she wouldn't be able to fully use the Identity without a limit because it's not hers. Okay, that was a lot, but you have two more questions so I'll try to answer them as fast and simple as I can. Penny dies when she runs out of Aura because she is a android that runs on Aura, if she doesn't have any Aura, she turns off. However, I realized that she can simply recharge her Aura so I changed it. And the last question... No? I really don't have a concrete answer, but Abnos are entities made from the minds of humans; they have no real soul so they can't have Aura, which means no Semblance.

Guest - I'm not good at interpreting the characters' personalities well, but I try my hardest to make their speech as natural as I can to the original source material. As for that last bit, I didn't want the Library to be in the middle of the Emerald Forest, so I found a way to make sense of how to bring them to Beacon.

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–A FEW WEEKS LATER–

–STAFF DORMS, BEACON–

Since the first day of additional training, Roland was getting a bit more used to his daily schedule. He would wake up around 8:00 A.M., get ready for the day, get some breakfast, talk with some of the staff, go spectate Professor Goodwitch's combat class, train with some of the kids that stayed, get lunch, do random things like learn more about Remnant and things like Dust and Aura, eat dinner, shower, then sleep. Somedays, he would meet up with Angelina and they would talk for a few hours before she had to go to work and he would have to as well. It would be awkward sometimes when he mistakenly called her Angelica, it was like a habit that couldn't be broken. Even then, Angelina wouldn't get angry about it and wouldn't comment on it.

It sure beat the daily schedule of the Library: wake up, eat breakfast made out of Light, sort books, move books, eat Light, book people, grab books, eat Light-made dinner, sort books, then sleep. Sometimes that was the daily schedule, other times, he was slaving away on almost all the floors. The black fixer shivered when he remembered a time when he tried bringing books to Binah's floor; he pushed those thoughts out of his head and looked through the window of his dorm room.

"I didn't think construction workers could build this fast," Roland said as he observed the new building in the distance. The new building's frame was built faster than what he saw back in the City and he saw how the workers were already pouring the concrete for the base of the tower. The black fixer recalled seeing a young man working amongst the construction workers carrying at least five steel beams. He had concluded that some of the workers had Aura. Seeing the setting sun in the sky, he turned around to stare at the back of Angela's head who was looking at her book on a chair.

Just a few weeks ago, Ozpin laid out his idea of disguising the Library. His idea was that because the Library looked like a dead tree, it wouldn't fit in with the aesthetic of Beacon Academy. Using all the information he got from Angela and Hokma, he theorized that the Library could be placed inside a shell and that shell being a tall empty building.

Once all the paperwork was finalized, the headmaster hired some private construction workers and told them to withhold some information about the design choices of the building. The workers were confused at the fact that Ozpin wanted a tall, empty building with each floor accessible from a set of stairs, but they complied with his request as long as they got paid.

Regarding Ozpin's announcement a week prior, it had mixed reviews… but, it worked. There were some complaints from students that had to walk a bit further to get to the building, but there weren't any significant problems with the prospect of a new library building. Some staff even agreed that the old library was outdated and needed some remodeling. Even some students had suggestions about how to make the Library a more fun place, but Professor Goodwitch immediately declined every one of them.

Since they had yet to start the construction, the two librarians needed to wait while Ozpin and Glynda sorted things out for them. Roland and Angela agreed to share a staff dorm room as the former had used the latter's office as a bedroom multiple times before on the couch. At this point, he noticed Angela lowering her head, barely responding to him and not moving an inch. Worried, he confronted her and saw something he didn't expect to see.

"Woah," he blurted out. The black fixer saw a sleeping Angela who kept her book in her hand. He didn't expect to see the robotic librarian sleep at all considering she wasn't fully human right now. Roland knew that Angela didn't need to breathe because she was a machine, but remembered something she told him a while back.

–A FEW DAYS AGO–

"Roland?" Angela timidly started off.

When his name was called, he stopped reading and peeled his eyes off a book about Semblances and Aura. He put the book down on his bed and turned to face the pale librarian.

"What's up?" Roland responded.

"I think…" She paused for a second. "I think I may be becoming human once again."

"What?!" He was genuinely surprised, but there was a bit of happiness in his voice. "That's great! Oh man, I had given up hope of you trying some alcohol and food before, but you won't get another chance like this again. When did this happen?"

Her expression turned to pure surprise. "I did not expect you to be this…" Angela muttered. "Happy?" The last time that she mentioned that she was becoming human, Roland seemed to have a muted enthusiasm toward her transformation. He seemed to have not cared, while also congratulating her; but now, he was purely happy for her.

"It's something that you lost in the process of reverting everything back to normal in the City," Roland said. "If anything, I think you deserved to be a human; back when you told me about the reasons why you created the Library, your desires had convinced me long ago."

The A.I. looked through the window of the room and pondered about something. The black fixer wasn't able to see her expression so he couldn't get a read on what she was thinking about. After a few seconds of pondering, she shook her head and turned back to Roland.

"Alright, we can go see if I can actually eat food," Angela suggested.

Roland smiled and led the way to the cafeteria.

–PRESENT–

Sadly, Angela wasn't able to digest food or drink anything. The first piece of food that she picked was a simple piece of sliced bread that was toasted. Even though she couldn't feel it, the slightly burnt bread was stuck in her artificial throat and she had to drink water to flush it out. It seemed like she hadn't developed her digestive system nor the rest of her senses except for sight and hearing which was obvious considering that she was built to see and manage the facility.

But, back to what was happening right now. Because Hokma didn't want to expose his and that man's blueprints, some of the assistant librarians had theories that Angela temporarily shuts down to save power as a joke. Contrary to their beliefs, Roland hadn't seen Angela sleep nor heard her ask about it. Was she running off of Light? He didn't care when he saw the peaceful look on her face. He let out a short chuckle and picked one of the blankets off the bed and grabbed the book out of her hand, placing the blanket over her.

"That should do it," Roland quietly yawned, indicating that he was getting sleepy as well. He walked over to the light switch and turned it off. Once he was consumed in the dark, he wandered till he found a bed and dropped himself on the sheets. His drowsiness overtook him and fell asleep.

–THE NEXT DAY–

–TRAINING HALL, BEACON ACADEMY–

On the bleachers of the training hall, the black fixer was sitting on a chair waiting for any students to show up for training. It was a Friday in the early afternoon; usually, one person from either Team RWBY or Team JNPR would show up and ask for some tips, but no one showed up today. While he waited, he browsed through his scroll for anything interesting.

'Let's see…' Roland thought as he perused the Dustnet. 'Dust and Semblances? Nah, there's nothing more to learn since most of them are unique… Free ways to get Lien? Uhh, sounds like a scam… Come on, there's gotta be… Oh, a sandwich place is opening up? Toasted sandwiches?!'

As he was browsing the advertisement for the restaurant, Roland heard the doors to the room open indicating that someone was here for some training or something else. Yet, Roland was invested in what he was seeing so he wanted it to be the latter. However, his wishes didn't come true as the person stood behind Roland, but Roland didn't know what they were here for yet so he waited till they called on him first.

A few seconds passed, and the person coughed into their fist to grab the black fixer's attention. Upon collapsing his scroll, Roland pocketed it and went to turn his head to face whoever this person was. Maybe it was one of the kids? Beacon Staff? Angela? Angelina?

"Alright, what do yo— Oh, Ozpin," Roland shifted his annoyed tone to a casual one. "What're you doing here? You need training?"

"Of course not Roland," the white-haired headmaster let out a chuckle. Ozpin liked to surprise people occasionally. He then turned to scan around the room, noting something obvious, "I see that none of the students are here."

Roland did the same. "Yeah, it is a Friday; guess they wanna relax after the rough midterms I heard about." The black fixer sighed in relief about something and put his hand against his chest. "I'm glad that I didn't go to school."

Ozpin somewhat held a concerned yet amused smile at that last comment, but he figured that Roland didn't care about it. Anyways, the headmaster shook his head; that wasn't what he was here for.

"Well, never mind that, you do know about the upcoming Vytal Festival right?" Ozpin queried.

Roland perked up upon hearing the festival, answering, "Yeah, a little bit here and there, nothing too specific. Some of the Beacon staff mention it, but I didn't bother. Some of the kids, especially the white-hair kid keeps talking about how amazing the event will be; not that I know about it or anything, but it sounds cool."

"Ah yes," Ozpin chuckled. "Ms. Schnee's family has a history of being a sponsor of the recent Vytal Festivals. Most of the Festival's Dust usage is mainly supplied by them, so we have to thank them for being so… generous."

Roland got the meaning of that last bit. Nothing is really done out of generosity after all; everyone has something to gain. Even the nicest people would do terrible things for their own pleasure. It was a shame that the City had developed and nurtured that mindset.

"Hmm, I see. So what're you here for anyways?" Roland asked.

"Well, I was hoping you and Angela could go explore Vale while preparations for the festival are being set up," Ozpin suggested. "The next Vytal Festival is going to take place in the Kingdom of Atlas, so it would be nice to see the preparations while it's here right now."

"Huh, sounds like a plan," Roland said as he looked around the room. None of the students were coming so it would be a good time. "Better get going then."

"Alright Roland," Ozpin responded. "Take care."

"Thanks," Roland said as he got up and walked toward the exit; better go now than later. "See you later boss number two." The black fixer opened the door and left the headmaster who was smiling at him.

–10 MINUTES LATER–

–DOCKS, BEACON ACADEMY–

"Oii," Roland called out, "Angelaaaa… Where are you?"

Since Ozpin's announcement and the previous Beacon librarian's resignation, Angela and Roland had taken up the duties of Beacon's librarians; mostly the former doing more work than the latter since Roland was also helping train some of the students. While Angela didn't do most of the duties the Librarians did back in the Library, she still helped out here and there, but it was limited to the Floor of General Works. And Beacon's library was very much smaller compared to one of the floors of the Library, so it would be easier for one or two people to work with.

"Is she even here?

Even if it was smaller, the black fixer still couldn't find Angela. At first, he thought he'd take a look around, but then he noticed that nobody was here. They must also be at Vale looking at all the preparations for the festival. Since libraries were supposed to be all quiet and people studying or reading and since nobody was around, Roland figured he could just speak out loud, no problem.

"I'm right here," Angela's voice came from behind him.

He turned around and saw the pale-haired librarian carrying a stack of books. "Oh, there you are," Roland said, scratching the back of his head. When he got closer, Roland offered to carry the books as they walked, and she reluctantly agreed.

As she handed the books over to him, they walked toward the receptionist's desk in the library. Curiously, she asked, "What brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be training the students?"

"Well, if you hadn't noticed, most of the students on campus left to go sightseeing in Vale because of a festival," he answered. "And Ozpin told us that we could also go since there's nothing much to do anyway."

Angela took some time to decide but agreed in the end. She already had read most of the books and most of them were just the same topic but in different wordings. It was pretty redundant to read the books when Ozpin told her about the technology and Dust of Remnant in more detail than the books would ever say to a reader. Due to that, she had a fair understanding of all the ways Dust could be utilized and even made up some theories of her own. When she asked for some to sate her curiosity, she was told about the Dust robberies and how Beacon was also tight on some Dust, so they wouldn't be able to freely use it. The A.I. was disappointed but understood the reasoning.

Back to the present, because of the large amount of books laying around the desk, Angela also asked Roland to help her put them away. When she and Roland had finished, they did a double-check. Well, it was more of Angela double-checking for both of them and then they took off for the docks.

–10 MINUTES LATER–

–OLD LIBRARY, BEACON ACADEMY–

When the two librarians arrived at the docks, they noticed a commercial airship was returning from Vale. As they waited for the airbus to stop, Roland spotted someone familiar in the crowd amongst them. Roland couldn't get a good sight of them, but he had a good feeling that it was a friend. He gestured to Angela to follow him as he walked up to a familiar white-haired pilot.

Hearing someone approaching her, Angelina turned around and saw her newest co-workers. "Hey, Roland! Angela! You guys also going to Vale?"

"Yeah, Ozpin basically told us to go," Roland responded. "We'll stay till at least a few hours before the curfew for the students."

Angelina snickered in agreement, "Sounds like him. I'm going because I'm on break and I want to see what's new in this Vytal Festival."

"Oh, so you've been to the last one then?" Angela concluded from that last bit.

"Yeah," the white-haired pilot answered. "They're held every two years, you can't miss them." Angelina paused as she saw the look on their faces, telling her that it was something she said. "You've gone to one, right?" She looked confused since it was weird that almost everyone had at least gone to one of the festivals.

"It's both our first festivals actually," Roland replied, but when he saw the confused expression on Angelina's face become more confused, he wish he could retract what he said.

"Hold on, it's your first festival?" Angelina said in disbelief as she looked between Roland and Angela.

"We came from a distant place that not many people know about; only Ozpin knew about us so he sent people to get some of us." Roland knew that he was starting a web of lies, but it was needed to hide the fact that the Librarians weren't natives of Remnant.

In response, Angelina curiously huffed, "Because of my work, I get to know a lot of geography and places. What's the name of the place where you two came from? I might know it." She was challenging Roland's claim and he had no answer for it.

If Roland wasn't panicking on the outside, he was on the inside. Nobody else at Beacon had questioned where he and Angela had come from, they'd just assumed that they were from Vale. He couldn't just say: "The City." For one, that sounds stupid and two, he had no way to prove that it existed in a different dimension without him sounding crazy. The black fixer opened his mouth to say something, but someone else spoke for him.

"We came from a place called The Black Forest that's on an island somewhere south of Vale," Angela nonchalantly said. "Not many of us leave the forest as the people have three guardians protecting us from the monster."

"And by 'monster,' I'm assuming that's the Grimm?" The pilot asked.

"Yes," Angela answered.

After some thinking, Angelina mused, "Hmm, can't say I've heard of such a place." The pilot couldn't find an answer and gave in. "Anyways, I won't question you guys further, we got a festival to explore… well, the preparations at least."

When Angelina turned away to look at the airship, Roland gave Angela a grateful look as he also turned to see the last group of people leaving the passenger bay of the airship. Open entering the passenger bay, the three saw some empty seats at the end of the room.

Taking their seats, the black fixer and white pilot started to converse among themselves as the pale librarian put in comments here and there, but something else occupied her mind. Angela couldn't help but wonder about the Vytal Festival. It was something she wasn't able to experience back in the City; from what she heard from the students and staff, would it be fun? Did she know what fun was? When she was turning human back in the City, she felt some emotions, but no more than a tingle. If she truly transformed, would she feel remorse for what she had done to the denizens of the City? Only time would tell as she looked out the window of the airship.

–AN HOUR LATER–

–VALE–

When the three arrived in the City of Vale, the two librarians were taken aback by the sight. Vale looked like it was a part of the 8 o'Clock Circus's area as red, yellow, and green streamers and balloons all over the buildings and zigzagging between them. Hundreds of people were making their way up and down the streets as vendors and other booths were being set up on the sidewalks. Even though Roland had been in Vale at least once during their time in Remnant, he hadn't seen this many people. They were of all sorts of ages and sizes; he even saw some Faunuses walking about, although they looked a little more wary of their surroundings. Overall, everyone looked like they were having fun preparing for the festival.

As for Angela, she was experiencing something she had wanted to see for a long time. Years spent underground and almost a year inside the Library watching other people's experiences in the City had made her want to see what it was like. With that, the City of Vale had left her shocked and in awe. Although the buildings were similar and of a similar layout, the atmosphere between the City and Vale was utterly different; watching other people's experiences didn't compare to actually being in a City. Angela would've kept looking if someone hadn't spoken up.

"Oh come on," Angelina snapped both librarians out of their thoughts. "You seriously can't tell me that you guys' had never experienced a festival before in your life?"

"Uh… sorry?" Roland weakly offered an apology.

The only thing Angela did was nod and continue to look at the city.

Angelina huffed and pulled out her scroll before giving it to Roland, telling him, "Here." The black fixer looked at it in confusion before she pouted, "Put in your guys' number, can't have you two get lost in your first festival."

Even though Roland wanted to say something, he sighed and put in his number. When he handed the scroll to Angela, the A.I. said that she didn't have a scroll as she didn't need one. Roland and Angelina frowned when they heard that, and although Roland understood why, Angelina did not. The pale librarian suggested that she would ask Ozpin for one at a later time.

"That's a bummer," Angelina sadly said before turning her attention to something else. "Ooo! Look at that!" The pilot started to cheerily walk toward the bustling streets, leaving the two librarians to see a head of white hair maneuver her way to one of the booths that were set up and trail after her. Once they caught up with her, Angelina was inspecting one of the gems that this booth was offering.

Roland looked around at one of the other stalls, "So Angelic–... Angelina, what's the festival all about?" He asked the pilot. She didn't react to her name being mistaken again.

She put down the black gem and turned around to face both librarians. "Um… It was right after the Great War 80 years ago," Angelina started. It was weird to tell someone about the festival since almost everyone knew its history. "The resolution of the war was held at the island of Vytal, which would lead to the signing of the Vytal Peace Accord, and uh… It lead to the creation of a celebration of diversity and peace in the form of a festival. Thus, the Vytal Festival!"

"Huh, that's pretty neat," Roland mused as he thought about the war for the City. The end of the war lead to the Artificial Intelligence Ethics Amendment Act, the total opposite of Remnant's war resolution. One strived for peace and the other exiled non-humans that were mechanical in nature.

"Yeah, like I said before, the festival's held every two years and a new kingdom would be hosting it. As you can see," the pilot continued, gesturing to the area around them, "this time it's in Vale. I think the next one is gonna be at Atlas."

As she kept ranting about how Atlas was too cold for her tastes, she was also examining the gems and muttering how much they would fit her style. Just seeing how familiar this was to the black fixer, he pointed out some of the jewelry that didn't catch the pilot's eye at first. She then gleamed at his observation and thanked him for helping her. Even though Angelina was someone else, it was eerily creepy to see how similar she was to Angelina.

When Roland was pulled along by Angelina to help her find cool stuff using his "observation" skills, Angela smiled at the scene before her. Before the A.I. could follow them, she noticed someone in the corner of her vision walking by.

"It's…" Angela softly said before stopping.

It was a man of average height with black hair, palish skin, and bright yellow eyes. If anything, Angela would've ignored the man, but it was what he was wearing that caught her attention. A long lab coat with a black collared shirt under it. As the man started to walk around the corner, Angela couldn't help but watch and slowly walk towards him. The sight of the man fried all reasoning inside the Librarian Director.

'How? Why?' She thought frantically. 'He was supposed to be gone…'

As the A.I. was almost about to call out to him, he turned the corner. Just a few seconds later when Angela turned the same corner, she was faced with the sight of Vale's harbor. When she looked around, there were a few pedestrians roaming around the docks of Vale, but the person she looking for wasn't there. It was as if the man had disappeared.

Looking around and watching the crowd of people, she couldn't find him. The A.I. couldn't understand how and why the man had appeared so fast and disappeared in the same amount of time. After giving up, she turned around to see that Roland and Angelina weren't there. She then realized that both of them had walked away and didn't notice Angela also walking away from them.

To take her mind off of what happened and process what happened, she chose to walk along the sidewalk facing the harbor. The sea of Remnant was a sight to behold for someone who had lived her entire life inside. The air felt cooler and fresher than in Beacon or in the middle of Vale. As she made her way down the street, Angela saw some familiar faces with an unfamiliar one. When the pale-haired librarian got closer, she could hear some screeching of a familiar white-haired girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Weiss sarcastically spoke as she released her hand that was on the unknown person's shoulder before gesturing to the two objects next to her. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"

"Stop it!" Blake yelled.

In response, Weiss threw her arms wide. "Stop what?" She said it as if she was right. "He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!"

Although Angela wasn't able to fully see the girl, she knew that the black-haired girl was getting mad. As if confirming her, Blake snapped.

"You ignorant little brat!" Blake yelled as she clenched her fist. When she was getting frustrated, the girl decided to leave the conversation by walking away.

Weiss, on the other hand, was shocked and offended. How dare someone call her a brat when she was right? She proceeded to walk towards Blake with a judgemental stare on her face. "How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl."

The two began to argue against each other, bickering about the treatment of Faunus and plainly making everyone else feel uncomfortable. Well, only Ruby and Yang were uncomfortable.

"Um, I think we should probably go…" Yang meekly suggested. However, the person behind them was clearly not reading the room.

"Where are we going?" The orange-haired girl asked with a smile.

"Hello, Ruby, Yang" Angela decided to make her appearance to the two students and one random person.

"AH!" Ruby panicked when Angela spoke behind her. The three girls turned around to see the pale-haired librarian staring back at them. "Miss Angela?"

The first person to speak was Yang. "Yo Angela, whatcha doing here?"

"I am here to see the preparations of the Vytal Festival and see Vale for the first time," Angela explained. "Roland and an acquaintance of ours were with me, but we had lost each other in the streets. So here I am here now, brought by the shouting from those two."

"Ah, sorry about that," Yang scratched the back of her head as she apologized for them. "We're having some… team issues at the moment."

"I can see that," Angela responded, looking at the two girls still arguing. Then, the A.I. noticed that the orange-haired person was looking straight at her for some reason. It wasn't the type of staring that gave off hostility, but curiosity. Angela couldn't help but also stare back; this girl felt somewhat different, but the librarian couldn't put a finger on it.

The unknown girl had short, curly hair with a small cowlick on top. She wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She had bright green eyes, light skin, and freckles. Her outfit included an off-white, old-fashioned off-the-shoulder blouse with frill details and flared cuffs. She also had a strange black and light green neck accessory. Completing her look were black thigh-high leg pieces with a single green stripe that appeared to light up.

"Salutations!" The orange-haired girl greeted after a few seconds of staring. "What are you composed of?"

The question had taken Angela aback. What did she mean by that?

"My analysis tells me that you are not of Remnant origins," she continued. "I detected that you are mostly made out of metal such as steel, titanium, aluminum, copper, magnesium, and many other materials that are not registered in my database."

The three others looked baffled. "How do you know that?" Ruby curiously asked the girl.

Said girl started to look slightly panicked but still gave an answer. "It is because of… my Semblance!" She said as she hiccupped. "Yes!" She hiccupped again. "My Semblance allows me to scan the materials of an object and their properties." Another hiccup.

"That's…" Ruby started. "SO COOL!" The red-hooded girl began to rant about how useful that was in designing weapons and how good a weapon as compared to others.

Off to the side, Yang scooted a little closer to Angela, whispering to her, "You don't think she found out about… you? Do you?" It was a little worrying as Ozpin told them to not reveal the origins of the Librarians casually.

However, it was their choice to reveal it whenever they wanted; and nobody else was in the street with them. "I believe that she has already found out," Angela sighed as it was bothersome. "It would cause more problems if we kept her in the dark." In return, Yang didn't look relieved but trusted Angela's judgment.

The pale librarian walked up to the unknown girl and Ruby, who was still talking. Once she got closer, the red-hooded girl noticed Angela and paused.

"Yes, you are correct," Angela explained. "My name is Angela and I am not native to Remnant. I am an A.I. constructed in a different universe that is currently employed as a Librarian at Beacon Academy for various reasons, but I implore you to keep this a secret."

In response, the orange-haired girl froze for a few seconds, taking in what she heard. At first, Angela thought that either the girl wouldn't believe her or that she had actually passed out standing. Then, a huge smile appeared on her face; her entire expression brightened because of it.

"Magnificent! The prospect of another world is an amazing discovery!" She replied. "And anoth– An A.I.! How curious! My name is Penny Polendina, do you want to be friends?"

Angela looked over to Yang who shook her head and Ruby who was nodding. Although confused as to why they held differing opinions, Angela couldn't see the harm in agreeing. "Yes, that would be fine."

"SENSATIONAL!" Penny loudly beamed. "My father would be so excited to meet you!"

"Why me?" Angela asked.

"Because he made me," Penny answered before realizing what she said and froze up on the spot, trying to make things seem alright and normal.

However, everybody around her heard what the girl had said. "Made you? I thought storks brought kids to their parents?" Ruby asked innocently. "How does your dad make you?"

Immediately, Yang spoke up, "Woah woah there, let's not talk about this anymore." She ended it with a forced chuckle.

As Ruby looked confused, Angela narrowed her eyes at Penny; the way she carried herself, her mannerisms towards others, and even the way she spoke. It was as if she wasn't human.

Before Angela could question the strange girl, Weiss and Blake finally noticed the other conversation happening. Both of them stormed up to the other group with irritated expressions on their faces. The two other members of Team RWBY backed up so as to not agitate the two girls any further; Penny and Angela, not reading the room, stayed still to understand why they were coming over here.

"Miss Angela!" Weiss shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Blake. "Surely you can agree that all Faunus of the White Fang are dirty scoundrels that only know violence!"

"Not every Faunus is like that!" Blake countered, before pleading to the Librarian Director. "Unlike Miss Ignorant over here, maybe you could understand that most people shouldn't be read by the cover of their books."

They gave Angela some time to come up with a response, allowing the white-haired girl and black-haired girl to glare at each other with sharp gazes as if they were going to start a fight in the meantime.

Angela didn't know what to say. She didn't get to learn more about the White Fang or the Faunus; the only thing she knew right now was that the Faunus of the White Fang were fighting for their freedom. It wasn't that she hadn't heard of the terrible activities the Faunus group had turned to, it was just that she understood how desperate someone could become when fighting for freedom.

However, she didn't know what to say. "Apologises, I have no preference in regard to the discrimination of the Faunus. While I recognize that the White Fang aims to advocate for the rights of the Faunus, their actions have inadvertently created a negative perception of the Faunus. However, I do sympathize with them, as I can relate to a feeling of wanting to be free."

As Angela spoke, a mixture of confusion and disappointment flickered across the faces of both the white-haired girl and the black-haired girl. They had hoped for a more definitive response, a clear alignment with their cause.

"I believe in the fact that actions are louder than words, but my journey has only told me that such actions can cause permanent consequences," she continued, remembering how she inadvertently killed her friend's wife because of her actions. "And the White Fang have no excuse killing people for freedom."

"B-But…" Blake tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. The Faunus-in-hiding knew that the White Fang had changed drastically over the years, and it was partially due to someone she knows, but it still hurts when someone tells her that the Faunus are inherently evil. She came to Beacon to renew herself and find a new path to stop the spread of hate in both the Faunus and Humans. Blake thought about it for a bit; it would look good if a Faunus and a Schnee were friends, right? If they were to overcome their differences, then it would prove that the Faunus weren't all that bad.

"Say Wei–"

Before Blake could talk any further, Weiss huffed in contempt, "Don't expect me to believe that the Faunus are angels in disguise. I know what they truly are: animals that cause destruction wherever they go." The princess folded her arms as if to say that she had no intention of changing her mind.

"Why you little–"

The argument between Weiss and Blake continued, only divulging into more… expressive words that Ruby was not able to comprehend, although Yang was covering her ears, she could feel the negativity radiating from her two teammates. To shield her sister from it, she dragged Ruby, Penny, and Angela away from the two arguing.

When they were a good distance away from the yelling, Yang released her hands from Ruby's head. "Sorry about that," she said with a saddened tone.

One look towards Ruby showed that the girl in red was on the verge of crying. She had already dealt with Weiss's problem with the team months ago, but now was a different problem that she didn't know how to solve. The red-hooded girl's team was breaking apart and she couldn't do anything about it without making it more of a mess.

"It's alright," Angela softly spoke. "Arguments like that are meant to fade over time, it won't magically go away immediately. It takes time for fights to settle."

Confused, Penny spoke up, "I don't understand; why are those two fighting?"

The other three held a mix of emotions. Ruby wasn't in a condition to talk right now, and Yang just didn't feel like talking. That left Angela to explain.

Before doing so, Angela told Yang and Ruby to head back over to their team and go back to Beacon. It wouldn't look good if Beacon students were arguing over the dispute between Faunus and Humans. Despairingly, the two made their way over to their teammates and dragged them off to the docks.

Now that they were left alone, Angela said as she turned to the orange-haired girl. Trying to scratch that itch about this girl. Upon seeing the look on Penny's face, she seemed happy to be in the presence of Angela, but the pale librarian didn't understand why.

"Now then," Angela spoke first. "I have a question."

"Ask away!" Penny excitedly said. "I, as well, have a question!"

Angela nodded. "Are you a machine?"

For the first time since she met her, Penny looked shocked. The strange orange-haired girl started to look around them, trying to see something. Angela was about to speak, but Penny cut her off.

"How did you know?"

"You interact with people as if you have never socialized with others in your life," Angela explained. "Social cues and whatnot are non-existent, and your Semblance earlier was a lie considering that it was beyond the scope of what is considered a Semblance, and through your false Semblance, you hiccup when you lie, which is something I have not seen in a machine such as yourself. It was either you were like me, or you were raised as a very sheltered girl."

Instead of answering, Penny looked dejected and saddened by something. Was it something Angela had said?

"Do… do you think Ruby wouldn't want to be my friend?" Penny sadly asked. "Because I lied about my Semblance?"

The pale librarian placed a hand on her head, worried over nothing. "I'm sure that Ruby would still consider you to be her friend regardless of what you say." That seemed to cheer the orange-haired girl up.

"That would be wonderful!"

"What was your question?" Angela asked.

"Oh? Uh? Do you have any idea what it is to be human?" Penny, in turn, asked.

Angela's expression was stunned before she turned to an amused smile. It seemed like Penny had the same desires as Angela once did. While Angela was briefly human at one point and in the process of turning into one, she still did not know what it truly meant to be human.

"I won't lie to you; being human was something I also yearned for, but once I slowly turned into one, I realized something," Angela reminisced, causing Penny to focus more on what she was hearing, "it doesn't matter."

"'It doesn't matter?'" Penny repeated.

"Yes," Angela responded. "It doesn't."

"How?"

"Turning into a human didn't change much about me, I still was myself, I still had my personality, my memories, and my desires. I can feel that you are the same. Nothing else besides a very inconvenient body, being tired is somewhat bothersome," she and Penny shared a chuckle. It felt nice talking to someone similar to you.

–A FEW HOURS LATER–

The two machines would talk for a while, wandering around Vale and sharing stories about their experiences in their respective universes, although, both of them hadn't gone too in-depth. Even though Angela told her fellow machine that being human wasn't that important, Penny still held her dream to become a real girl. Although Angela was initially jealous at the fact that Penny was showered in love when she herself was abandoned by her creator, she was happy that someone else like her didn't suffer the same fate. Another thing to note is that Penny asked Angela to keep her identity as an android a secret, to which the pale librarian agreed to, so as long as Penny also kept her silence about Angela's identity as well.

When Angela looked towards the sky, she noticed that hours had passed and the sun was setting off into the distance. Agreeing to meet once again, Penny waved Angela goodbye as she ran off to who knows where.

Arriving at the docks, Angela quickly found the black fixer and white pilot. It was a comedic sight as Roland was carrying tens of bags that he was struggling to hold.

"Oh, Angela?" Angelina realized she was there. "Where did you go?"

Roland grunted, "Yeah. Where did you go?" He was kindly staring daggers into her due to the fact that she left him with this deranged shopaholic. He was forced to carry those bags for hours without any breaks.

Then Angela told the two of them about what happened during the time she had left, only leaving out the part where she saw that person and that Penny was a machine. As for Roland and Angelina, they felt a bit saddened for Team RWBY and their team problems.

"That's a bummer" Roland commented. "It seemed like they were the best of friends."

"Eh, I've heard it all the time," Angelina reassured. "Some team gets into a fight amongst themselves, they talk it out, usually resolves itself after a few weeks. I wouldn't worry all that much."

Roland hummed in understanding. "If you say so."

Once the bullhead arrived, the three took their seats, which gave Roland time to rest his hands. As they returned back to Beacon, to the two librarians, it was an eventful day, to say the least.

–THREE DAYS LATER–

–HALLWAYS, BEACON ACADEMY–

On another day of Roland beating up some kids and telling them what they need to improve on, the black fixer waltzed through the quiet halls back towards his room to rest up. He would've walked straight toward it if he hadn't heard rushed walking around the corner of the hall. It was probably a student late for class or something, he couldn't tell. As he continued walking, he heard the footstep's owners start speaking around the corner and Roland immediately identified them as Team RWBY.

"Come on Weiss," Ruby pleaded. "Just for today at least."

"Yeah, she's our teammate no matter what," Yang added in.

Roland heard Weiss scoff, "Fine, just for today. But after that, we go to the police."

'What?' Roland thought. 'The police? Why do they need them?'

Then, the black fixer heard the blonde girl grumble something just before they turned the corner. When they did, the team of girls minus Blake came face to face with Roland. All three of them looked a little shocked to see the black fixer right in front of them.

"H-Hey Roland," Ruby meekly greeted.

"Sup," Roland responded back. "Why're yall in such a rush?"

"Uh." Yang attempted to come up with an excuse. "Shopping in Vale?"

"I don't think that the police are gonna help with shopping," Roland joked.

"You heard us?" Ruby gasped.

"Kinda hard not to when it's this quiet and you guys are not super quiet about it," Roland laughed. "Anyways, what's the real reason?"

As Ruby and Yang tried to come up with excuses as to why they needed to go to Vale, Weiss was getting irritated that her time was being used up for this. Annoyed, the Schnee heiress spilled the beans. "We're going to Vale to search for that Faunus terrorist," she fumed.

"Blake's a terrorist?" Roland asked.

"Yes, and we should report her to the police so they can arrest her," Weiss declared.

"I still don't think that Blake is a White Fang member," Yang countered.

Ruby jumped in on that, "Yeah! She's too nice to be a terrorist."

"Well, maybe she was deceiving us the entire time," Weiss argued. "For all we know, maybe she joined our team because you two are too gullible to see the real truth."

"That's not true!" Ruby swore, before reeling back her words. "At least, I don't think that's true."

On the other hand, Yang was skeptical of the black fixer. "Why were you just waiting there?" She asked.

"As obligated by my contract with Beacon Academy, I have the right to be wherever I want on campus," Roland proudly stated, which caused the three girls to blankly stare at him.

Roland sighed and explained the real reason, "I was coming back from the training hall till I heard some voices around the corner. Don't want to bump into someone and hurt my fragile body."

"What 'fragile body?'" Yang deadpanned.

"My fragile heart," Roland said dramatically, before dropping his act. "Anyways, if she's really a terrorist, I'mma have to report this back to the boss because I'm basically obligated to protect you guys and Beacon."

Right as he turned around and started to walk away, Ruby called out to him, "Wait!"

The black fixer turned around. "What?" Roland questioned.

"Please keep quiet about this," Ruby begged. At his curious hum, she continued, "This is a Team RWBY problem, and Team RWBY should be the one to solve it; let us try to talk to Blake before doing anything else."

Roland turned his gaze to the other members of Team RWBY: Yang was giving approving nods and Weiss was looking off to the side, possibly annoyed about all of this. Humming to himself, he mused about the possible choices he can take; taking a while to decide about it. When he was thinking about it, he saw a purple and black cape around the corner of another hallway. Roland knew who it was and why they were standing there, listening to them.

'Angelina did say that most teams resolved their problems on their own,' Roland recalled. 'It's probably the same here.'

"Fine, get going before I change my mind," the black fixer sighed, looking at the youngest girl's happy face and her sister's relieved expression. "At least come back before curfew otherwise you're sleeping at Vale tonight."

Immediately, Ruby rushed to the docks, followed by Yang, then a slowly moving Weiss who took her time. Once they were out of sight, he sighed again. He would abide by his promise and not tell anyone, starting by walking in the direction of the person behind the wall.

Once he walked a bit past them, he stopped and put his hands in his pockets. "So, what do you need me to do?" He asked as he turned to face her.

"Watch over them." Glynda had her arms folded with a worried expression on her face. It was in her nature to want to help them but also wanted them to grow on their own. She wanted to drop everything she was doing to protect these children, but as she was the headmistress of Beacon, she had other things to attend to. Luckily, there was a person available right in front of her to do the protecting for her.

Roland sighed, but orders are orders, and he was getting a little attached to them. "If there are any White Fang?"

Glynda's expression darkened. "Disarm, and not the dismembering kind."

"Yes ma'am," the black fixer replied, pulling out his mask.

Before he could put it on, the blonde professor added one last thing, "Make sure they don't get into serious trouble."

"Roger that." Roland put on his mask and went to follow the three girls, hoping to catch up to them before they could leave. Even with the mask on, once he caught sight of them, he stood close to them so he could learn where they would go first. "I better get a raise for this," he muttered to himself.

–A FEW HOURS LATER–

–VALE–

"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?" Ruby yelped when she turned around to see the orange-haired girl, and her team doing the same.

It had been at least a few hours since watching over the three members of Team RWBY. In those hours, they still hadn't found any sign of Blake; it was mostly Yang and Ruby searching while Weiss begrudgingly tagged along. Roland was also trying to look around for Blake while keeping an eye on them, but the raven-haired girl was very elusive.

Right now, the black fixer was keeping a respectable distance away from the team so that he wouldn't be suspicious even if he had his mask on. When the orange-haired girl that he identified as Penny based on Angela's description of her appeared out of nowhere, he got a little closer to overhear the conversation without drawing too much attention to himself.

Speaking of the girl, Penny ignored Ruby's question. "Hey, guys! What are you up to?"

"Uhh…"

Before Ruby could continue speaking, her sister answered for her, "We're looking for our friend Blake."

"Ooooh," Penny blankly said as she raised her head up, then down, "you mean the Faunus girl!"

It took a second for Ruby, Weiss, and Yang to register what Penny said. Their blank faces were surprised that Penny knew about Blake's hidden identity already. Even Roland was a bit surprised, he knew Blake was a little different than everybody else, but he couldn't tell what it was. If this random girl was able to link Blake's bow to her Faunus heritage, then she was just as strange as Angela mentioned.

Finally, Ruby spoke up, "Wait, how did you know that?"

"Uhh, the cat ears?" She said as she pointed to her head.

"What cat ears?" Yang said in a slightly annoyed tone. "She wears a… bow…" The blonde brawler's face turned to disbelief.

The rest of the team also realized that and stood there in complete silence. Roland watched as a tumbleweed flew past the group of girls and questioned where it came from. Then he barely heard Ruby says something about tuna, but couldn't catch the rest of the sentence.

A little while later, Ruby and Penny were walking side-by-side as Yang and Weiss made a tactical retreat when the orange-haired girl offered her help to find Blake. Another tumbleweed had flown by and Roland was seriously questioning where these plants were coming from. Either way, he was following Ruby instead of Weiss and Blake because he figured that the other two would be fine on their own considering that Ruby was the youngest in the team and those two were technically adults. A few meters away, Roland was casually following behind the two girls, listening in to their conversation.

"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asked.

Ruby was looking up at the sky, sighing as she responded, "Yes, Penny."

"But you're mad at her?"

"Yes," she answered immediately before correcting herself. "Well, I'm not. Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?"

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now…"

Penny slowed down a bit to contemplate; human emotions were weird to understand. "But why?"

The red-hooded girl sighed again before explaining, "Well, you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was…"

The orange-haired girl gasped, "Is she a man?"

"No! No, Penny," Ruby said as she waved off Penny's question. "She's…" The team leader of Team RWBY stopped walking and sighed, looking at Penny. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things," Penny said with a blank expression.

'Hmm,' Roland mused. 'Penny seems like a nice girl, why doesn't she have any friends?'

Although Ruby saw Penny's emotionless face, she could feel the truth of her words. However, the sad reality of Blake's disappearance overtook those words and added more despair to the situation. The red leader looked down sadly and muttered, "Me too…", before turning around and walking forward.

A quick look in the sky told the hidden man that dusk was settling in and the group of girls were on a time limit before they had to go back to Beacon. When Roland saw that they were about to move again, he attempted to step out of the alleyway he was in and also move along with them, but when the strange orange-haired girl snapped her head toward his location, he twitched in hesitation and retreated back into his hiding spot. His mask should make him seem like a random passerby, but it was clear that Penny was directly staring in his direction.

"What about your other friend?" Penny asked.

Ruby paused and turned around. "What other friend?"

Pointing a finger to where he was, Penny continued, "Your friend in the black mask. The one that's been following us for quite a while."

The black fixer knew the jig was up, Roland stepped out of the alley and removed his mask.

Instantly, Ruby recognized the black fixer and sputtered, "R-Roland? Why are you here!?" She was pointing an accusing finger at him.

When Roland walked up to them, he stashed away his mask and scratched the back of his head. "Good o' Goodwitch sent me," Roland answered.

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone about this!" Ruby cried.

He waved her off. "Well, I wasn't the one to tell her per se," he smirked. "A certain group of girls were kinda loud about it."

The look of horror flooded the red-hooded girl's face.

–AN HOUR LATER–

"Mr. Roland," Penny rapidly spoke, "How does your mask conceal your appearance? Where did you come from? Why do you not have a last name? Why is your name not a color? And also, you seem like a huntsman, but do not possess a weapon on you or Aura, why is that?"

"Woah woah woah. Calm down, you speak too fast sometimes," Roland said with a sigh. "But to answer your questions: Can't tell you; the Black Forest; don't have one; blame my granny; and I do have a weapon, multiple actually, but no Aura because I'm just that good."

Penny gave him a curious stare while Ruby looked baffled by what she heard. She knew that Roland was the type of person to overexaggerate themselves and bragged about their abilities, and most people would either ignore it or not believe it. Unfortunately for her, Penny was a gullible person and believed every word the black fixer said.

"Wow!" Penny said with an amazed tone. "That must mean you are one of the top huntsmen."

"You're damn right I am. I'm the bomb," Roland bragged.

Looking for her reaction, he was disappointed when Penny had the most confused expression he had ever seen. Roland realized that she didn't understand the phrase. It look like she was trying to see if he was a bomb. Even Angela had some semblance of humor.

"Swear," Ruby commented, which made the black fixer huff in disagreement. The red-hooded girl was beginning to lose hope in finding Blake as night was finally replacing the bright sky earlier. Ruby muttered under her breath, "Where are you, Blake?"

Right as Ruby said that, a distant explosion drew their attention and they quickly turned around. Upon seeing the rising smoke in the dark sky, Ruby just let out a sigh. "Oh no…"

Roland recalled seeing explosions in the Backstreets back in the City all the time; if he didn't cause it, then it wasn't his fault nor had no obligation to take any action. Plus, he had to make sure that Ruby was safe, and considering that an explosion isn't very safe, they should go in the opposite direction of the smoke.

However, Roland failed to realize that the red-hooded girl had instantly disappeared. Multiple rose petals were left where she once stood. Following the trail of the petals, it went in the direction of the petals. Even Penny had left to follow where Ruby was going.

"These kids are going to be the end of me," Roland sighed and blamed his bad luck, and rushed to follow the two girls.

–ROLAND POV–

–DOCKS, VALE–

As I rushed to follow Ruby and Penny, and also toward the direction of the smoke, the buildings around me started to lessen and lessen. Thankfully, Ruby left a trail for me to follow, and not thankfully, it seemed that the trail led straight into a wall.

As soon as I started to wonder where she and Penny went, my answer came to me when I heard a familiar yell from the top of the building.

"HEY!"

Then a loud sound as if something hit the building. Worried, I saw a few containers on the side of the building that I used to climb up. When I got up, the most pompous voice came from across the docks.

"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Understanding that this was an unknown person, I hastily equipped my gloves, but not my mask; can't risk getting unrecognized and attacked by allies.

Once I started to walk over to where Ruby and Penny were, I got to see the unknown person's face. Oh man did this guy dress sharp. He was wearing a white suit with a red lining, along with long black pants and black shoes. The most recognized accessory of the man was that black bowler hat on his head with a red band and a subtle feather. In his hands was a cane that I didn't think much about, he was probably disabled or something. Everything this man wore, he dressed like a fancy thief, and that's exactly who he was. I remembered seeing this guy's face all over the news, the guy who was stealing a lot of Vale's Dust: Roman Torchwick.

Right next to him, I could see two other individuals near him. One of them was Blake, who looked like she was ready to pounce on Bowler Hat, and a blonde-haired dude on the ground that was just wearing a white jacket with no shirt underneath.

I was about to speak, but Penny spoke first.

"Ruby, are these people your friends?" Oh that sets up a good joke.

"I'm pretty sure that Yang told me that Ruby didn't have a lot of friends," I jeered.

Ruby immediately turned around and had a pouting face.

I let out a chuckle to let her know I was joking. "Kiddin', geez kid, I thought your sister would–" Just right before I was gonna continue speaking, a sharp loud sound came from where Bowler Hat was and an explosion slammed into the back of Ruby's head.

The explosion sent the red-hooded girl flying in my direction and her weapon somewhere else. Hastily, I raced to grab Ruby before she hit the ground. In my arms, I saw the concussed leader of Team RWBY with a painful expression on her face. I had to calm myself down when I realized that these kids could tank explosions better than I can. Just realizing what happened, Goodwitch is gonna roast my ass for letting her get hurt.

When Torchwick started to perform his best villain laugh, I turned my head to glare at him; Penny also doing the same thing.

Laying Ruby down to beat the shit out of Torchwick, I started to walk forward to enter the battle. Surprisingly, Penny also walked next to me. From what I had seen today and what Angela told me, I was to believe that the girl was a normal civilian, but right now? She didn't feel like one right now. When I gave her a questioning look, she looked back at me with a determined look. Can't blame a person for wanting to protect their friend.

Apparently, people with Aura who were hit in the head by an explosion recovered a lot faster than I anticipated as Ruby opened her eyes and started at Penny and me.

"Penny, wait! Stop!" She cried.

'Not even worried for my safety?' I thought. 'I'm hurt.'

My thoughts waned as multiple hooded men with what looked like Grimm masks came out from the surrounding shipping containers. I assumed those were White Fang members as I could see their insignias on their backs.

"Don't worry, Ruby. I'm combat-ready!" Penny declared as her back opened up.

My eyes went wide as one blade came out of her back and floated behind her. I was surprised at first, but when the first blade split into 10 different blades, I staggered a little bit. The blades were gray and had a glowing green power symbol in the middle of the bronze hilt. There was also a green line running alongside one edge. I've seen some weird weapons in the City and here in Remnant, but what the actual fuck? How and where did she even store that?

Before I could even come up with any words, Penny ran forward and kicked jumped off the building, shattering the concrete roof of the building. I deadpanned as she flipped in the air and rained those blades at the incoming White Fang. When she landed, numerous hostiles rushed her, hoping to take her out. I considered pulling out my guns to shoot some of them down, but they were quickly defeated by Penny's fighting style.

She used her blades in a fluid-like motion to deflect some of their attacks and counterattacked them by using all the blades to overwhelm them. At some point, dozens of White Fang members rushed her in a line. Oh, how stupid were they? I couldn't bare to see how they would get massacred so I covered my eyes with my hand, but I kinda wanted to see so I opened them just a bit.

And when I say massacred, Penny spun her blades in a circular motion reminiscent of a large shuriken and threw it at them. Like a bowling ball, the makeshift shuriken knocked all the White Fang members up like bowling pins. I noticed a faint glow around the hooded members, telling me that they had Aura, so they wouldn't be killed that easily.

"Oh man, I like this girl's style," I laughed out loud which caused Ruby to blankly stare at me. I stopped laughing when I noticed a familiar person wearing a bowler hat running away from the commotion. Chuckling, I dropped down to the ground and started to run after him. I wasn't gonna let him get away after shooting Ruby. It was either my ass or his that was going to deal with Glynda, and I'd rather prefer my safety over his.

Quickly on my feet, I spotted Roman heading for a bullhead in an attempt to escape. My hands started to emit that familiar black fog as the Atelier shotgun entered my grasp. Taking aim, I fired a warning shot near him, almost hitting his foot. It would be easier if he didn't bleed out and die. Roman stopped moving as he froze on the spot.

"You can stop right there," I called out to him. "Let's just take it easy and you can surrender without any pain, capeesh?"

He turned around and looked at me with a bit of recognition. With a smirk on his face, he spoke to me, "My my, if it isn't the famous Roland."

I didn't respond, but I twitched when my name was mentioned.

He took that as a response to continue talking, "Well, I'm finally glad to have met you. I'd rather not have this discussion right here while I'm working." Even though my gun was pointed at him, he kept a calm attitude, which was annoying me.

"How did you know my name?" I gave in to his little chat, trying to extract as much info as I can before I sew his mouth shut.

He let out a laugh, "I know more than what you think. Angelica would be disappointed in you."

That got a good reaction out of me as I pulled the trigger. I expected to see Torchwick on the ground, but he blocked the shot with his cane. In my mind, I scolded myself for thinking that this guy didn't have Aura. How else would anybody deflect a shotgun shell from like 5 meters away? It was like fighting a less annoying Argalia, minus the speed and insane personality.

"Oh boy, are you trigger-happy," Torchwick quipped. "Can't believe that got a rise out of you."

"How in the hell did you know that name!?" I yelled.

"A good acquaintance of mine is really good at getting information," he vaguely explained. "I thought Librarians were supposed to be quiet and nice."

My anger was getting the best of me so I decided to cool down for a bit whilst holding my gun to his face. At that moment, I heard multiple bullheads arrive at the scene. Four bullheads flew over the docks and I mentally cheered at the fact that someone was sending help for us, I was proven incorrect as one of them started to rain bullets onto the docks, more specifically, at me.

I jumped to my right and behind a shipping container as a hail of bullets shredded the area I was just in. Taking a breath, I calmly analyzed the situation.

'Torchwich's trying to escape via bullhead. I'm pinned down because of the bullhead and I don't know when backup is coming,' I mused. 'Penny's and Ruby's statuses are unknown, and Blake and that other kid must be fine as well, right? So, how in the hell am I gonna take down that bull– what the hell.'

My thoughts were interrupted when a green laser pierced through the sky and sliced through two of the bullheads, causing the one above me to back off and fly somewhere else.

'Welp, that's one problem taken care of,' I mentally chuckled.

Before I jumped out of my hiding spot, I de-equipped my gun, instead, pulling out my trusted sword. Peeking around the corner, I saw Torchwick looking at the destruction of his two bullheads. This was the time to strike. With a quick rush, I bolted out of my hiding spot and ran at him. Unsurprisingly, he noticed my approach and prepared his cane for defense.

When we clashed for the first time, all I can say is that he was better than almost every student at Beacon. His defense was quite good, it reminded me about that screen-head from Cane Office with the way that he fought with the cane, because of that, we went at it for a few seconds. For a thief, if I had to give him a grade, I would probably say close to a Grade 4 or a low ranking 3. However, it didn't matter when I was clearly overwhelming him in this fight.

I noticed how quickly he was getting staggered back when I kept getting faster and faster for him. Plus, with my strength, I can safely say that this fight would be over soon.

A quick slash caught onto his cane and he was barely able to hold it. My fixer augmentations were kicking in and pushing slowly onto him. My eyes met his, and he looked like he was struggling. When he was unable to hold it for much longer, he slid the hook of his cane up to the handguard of my blade. Once I realized where he was going with this, he yanked it out of my grasp.

The blade flew a good distance away from me, but more importantly, behind Bowler Hat. I would've recalled the sword back, but I chose not to. He hadn't seen me switch weapons so he doesn't know about my gloves' storage and shouldn't know at all. It would be difficult to get my sword without revealing more of my weapons.

"Heh," he sneered. "Lost your grip? I know you got more tricks in that pocket dimension of yours. What's the next one gonna be?"

Oh? He knows about the gloves? How does he know? Well, it doesn't matter. The only thing that's ruined is that it takes the fun out of it. Might as well not make it fun for him either.

His face faltered as it went from snarky to a little worried when I whipped out the giant slab of a weapon. Wheels Industry never disappointed me in scaring people. The weapon was imposing enough to shatter even R. Corp's Rhinos' armor to pieces, I had faith in its capabilities.

I raised my weapon with one hand, ready to crush this asshole in mush.

"Now now," Roman pleaded and he gripped his cane. "Let's not get too hasty. The show hasn't even reached its climax yet!"

Too bad for him, I already stopped listening to what he was saying. When I swung down, he jumped out of the way. The crater left on the ground made him look at it uncomfortably. Probably shit his pants from the look of it. Unfortunately for him, I was ready to swing again. However, when I was about to, I heard a voice yelling at me.

"ROLAND! WATCH OUT!"

I noted that it was Ruby yelling at me, but what was I supposed to watch out for? Quickly, I turned around and saw a crashing bullhead hit a bunch of containers and explode. Some of the containers that were hit were sent flying toward me.

"Holy crap!" I swung around and used my weapon to block the giant projectiles. When one of the containers hit me, I felt the entirety of the weight and felt a little weak from the amount of force. In the aftermath, I saw a bunch of smoke and fire all around me, the container in front of me had a dent mark of my weapon on it. Just like how I planned it would, my weapon protected me.

Now that I was stabilizing myself, I realized that Torchwich was missing. The explosion had either separated me from him, or he was covered in rubble. I wanted to believe that it was the latter, but it was better to be safe than sorry, so I had to go look for him. Not knowing where he was, I needed to choose a better weapon than the slower cleaver, I needed something faster. Black smoke emitted from my hands, and when it dissipated, my hands were encased in black gauntlets.

Not even a few minutes later, I heard a bullhead's engine start-up and quickly ran to where I heard it. Once I found it, I also found the rat bastard. He was in his bullhead making sure his white suit had no dirt on it, wiping it off using his hands.

"Oh hey Roland," he greeted. "Nice to see you again. Thought you died in all that."

"It'll take a lot more than that to kill me," I casually responded.

He put his hand to his chin, humming, "Hmm, even without Aura, you're tougher than I expected."

"Just get over here before I kick your ass" I ordered him.

"Umm…" He dramatically paused. "That's a hard pass, tootle doo!" Roman said as he raised his cane at me.

I internally questioned why he was pointing said stick at my face. But when a reticle popped up from the tip of the cane, I realized too late that the damn stick was also a gun. Everything in this damn world is a gun!

A ball of red emerged from the cane and came straight at me. Luckily, I was able to raise both my arms and block the fireball. Smoke and debris picked up by the explosive blocked my view so I waited for it to clear.

When it all settled, the first thing I saw was Torchwick in the air already, looking down at me. His smug attitude caught my attention, and I gave him a good glare. Once he was quite a distance up, he used his cane to shut the bullhead's doors; flying off with another bullhead.

'This probably isn't the last time I'll see him,' I told myself.

Letting out an exhausted breath, I turned around to see the destruction of the docks. Fire and ash were the main highlight with the laying bodies of White Fang members as decoration; hopefully, Ruby and the others weren't a part of it.

–10 MINUTES LATER–

–THIRD PERSON POV–

Police sirens and radio chatter filled the area as smoke rose from the docks itself. All the fighting and destruction were bound to prompt the police to come and investigate.

On one side of the docks that were left relatively undamaged, Ruby, Blake, Penny, and that random faunus boy who he now knew was named Sun were sitting down on some crates. All of them sat in silence as Roland was talking with the local police to tell them what went down there.

The cops were nicer than the black fixer expected, better than the Arbiters and Claws of the Head back in the City, that's for sure. Once he told them that he worked for Beacon, as well as Ozpin, the police quickly changed their attitudes about the whole situation. They went from respectful conversation to begrudgingly reluctant.

Even though he wasn't officially a huntsman, it seemed like huntsmen weren't all that popular in Vale. To Roland, it seemed stupid to hate the people protecting you from the Grimm. Although, he could see how that much power could get into the heads of some huntsmen.

Either way, when he mentioned Roman Torchwick, they understood and walked back to their cars. Sighing, Roland returned back to the group of kids, who stared back at him in anticipation. Blake looked fidgety, Ruby looked worried, and Penny and Sun had no expression. Over in the distance, the black fixer noticed a pair of white and blonde hair walking towards them as well.

When Roland was next to them, Blake tried to speak first, "Roland, I–"

But the black fixer cut her off. "Don't speak to me first," he said, gesturing to look behind them. "Go to her first."

Upon looking behind her, Blake saw Weiss and Yang approach. Although the cat faunus was looking a bit nervous, she kept her demeanor and faced the Schnee.

Attempting to explain for Blake, Ruby stood up and walked over to Weiss. "Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute…" The red-hooded girl explained.

However, Weiss pushed past her partner and stood in front of Blake. The white-haired girl's teal eyes glared into the faunus girl's amber eyes.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the–"

"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?"

Roland watched as Blake's eyes widened in surprise, but looking to the side, his eyes opened as well. It was Professor Goodwitch, and she did not look happy. With a beckoning finger using her index finger, she nonverbally told him to get his ass there right now. Hastily walking over there, Glynda stormed up to him and started to quietly yell at him.

"I thought I told you to not get them into trouble!"

"How was I supposed to do that?"

Her eye twitched. "I don't know, maybe for one, actually not be the ones making the trouble?"

"You do know what Ruby's Semblance is, right? And what her personality is?"

The blonde professor took a second to register what he said and then recall what it was. At that moment, she facepalmed. In hindsight, Ruby charging into danger was bound to happen at some point. Combined with the fact that she was literally a speed demon, nobody could stop her.

"Apologies Roland," Glynda spoke after her hand fell from her face. "It was unwise of me to ask you to catch up with Miss Rose."

The black fixer heaved a heavy sigh. "It's alright, nobody died tonight…" He said with a pause, before recalling the crashed bullheads. "Maybe some died. Of course, not intentionally, but it was probably like one or two that did."

As he kept talking, the blonde professor's face kept deadpanning more and more with every word Roland said. Ignoring him, she turned to face Team RWBY and the two other kids with them.

"It seems like Miss Belladonna and Miss Schnee have made up," Glynda observed. All of Team RWBY and Sun had formed a circle and were talking amongst themselves. "Good, a broken team is no team at all. Except for that other person… who is he?"

"Oh? Sun?" Roland answered. At her questioning look, he continued. "The guy's from Mistral, he's a Faunus, and uh… he doesn't like to wear a shirt?"

The Beacon Professor was pinching her nose in annoyance. Upon looking back at the students, she warmly smiled at the sight of their smiles. For some reason, Glynda knew that these kids would be the greatest huntresses Remnant would ever have.

–HEADMASTER'S OFFICE, BEACON–

"Ooough," a voice emerged within the room. "I don't feel tired, but I wanna sleep. I'm hungry, but not. This is weird."

The construction of the new Library was just about to be halfway built. In the eyes of Angela and Ozpin, it was time to bring back the other Librarians. According to the headmaster's theory, if the Librarians were bound to the Library when they woke up, then what would happen if they were just bound to Angela?

To test this, Angela chose to bring back the Librarian she brought back first: Malkuth.

When a bright light engulfed the office space, the bronze-haired librarian was left on the ground. She had already picked herself back up and noticed where she was.

"This is? The Headmaster's office?" Malkuth groaned, clutching her head.

The white-haired professor came into her view holding a cup of something. Steam was rising from it so it was hot. He offered the drink to the librarian who in turn gratefully accepted it. When she drank it, she realized what it was.

"Hot chocolate?" The bronze-haired librarian drank it instantly. She finished the hot beverage with a satisfied smile, completely refreshed and not exhausted.

"A good cup of cocoa always makes the best wake-up call," Ozpin commented as he took a sip from his own mug. "Better than coffee sometimes. Less caffeine, and all the flavor."

When questioned about it, Malkuth started to explain what it was like before in the Library where almost everything was shoved into her head in a dream-like manner, but it felt uncomfortable, but not too weird. It was hard to explain, but Ozpin and Angela waved it off, they were just glad that the headmaster's theory was correct. In the next few weeks, Angela would "resurrect" the other Librarians before the new Library would finish construction.

But for now, one extra Librarian would suffice.

Taking a sip of his cocoa, Ozpin saw the two librarians talk to each other about something he couldn't quite catch, but he wasn't too worried about it. He never really understood "girl talk." When Ozpin felt a buzz in his pocket, he took out his scroll and saw that he received a message.

[Qrow: Queen has more Pawns]

Nothing more, nothing less.

'It's worrying, to say the least. She was gathering more allies, but at the same time, we were doing the same,' he thought as he turned to look at the two librarians, before gazing out into the night sky. 'Things are moving too fast, too fast… let's just hope that we have more time…'

–AT THE SAME TIME–

–RANDOM WAREHOUSE, VALE–

"How very disappointing, Roman." The voice caused the thief to quickly turn around.

"Whoa! Hehe… I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon…" Roman said as he turned to look at the smug-looking trio.

Cinder spoke with a dissatisfied tone, "We were expecting... more from you."

With a nervous laugh, Roman replied, "Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang. And those brats from Beacon are super annoying; also I gotta mention, those individuals you wanted me to investigate for you, I got your info. Here."

He pull out a burner scroll and threw it to Mercury who easily caught it.

"Don't expect much in there," he continued. "Four of them disappeared out of thin air. The only one left was the black one; instead of the others, there was a pale one that wasn't accounted for."

All of them had disappointed looks on their faces, but they all started to scan through the information on the scroll. Apparently, Roman had a good page or two about this "Roland" and what he was like. Down to his personality, favorite foods, dimensions, and weapons. There wasn't any mention of where he was born nor where he lived before Vale. However, what caught their eye was the fact that he had no Aura. Cinder creepily smiled when she saw that last part.

"I gotta say: who are these Librarians?" Roman asked. "You ask me to spy on some bozos and then you don't tell me why? Even with the information I got, he's an enigma, I don't understand where he came from or how he can pull weapons out of thin air. Why are the Librarians important?"

To Cinder and her two minions, she was getting very annoyed by Torchwick's questions. He was overstepping their contract. With a raise of her hand, fire emerged from her palms, quickly silencing the thief.

"Do not question our motives," she declared. "We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is... a little cooperation."

---

Author's Note:

Okay, Chapter 13 is done. Overall, I'm kinda proud of this chapter. I set my goals for this chapter and I completed most of them. Although, some ideas were scrapped in the middle of the chapter and had to redo it from scratch, but I finished it for yall. Summer break has started, meaning that I'll have more time to write more chapters. But don't expect them soon, because I'm probably gonna take a week off writing since I started when the break began and haven't stopped. Maybe the next chapter will be another filler or something else, I really don't have a solid grasp on this story.

Anyways, thanks for reading! Also, I kinda skimmed over the chapter and if you see a mistake, just tell me and I'll be sure to correct them when I can. Hope you enjoy more from me! Cya!

On a side note, I've been considering adding a way for you guys to contact me other than using the website and reviews. Maybe I'll put in my Discord so you can contact me directly, but haven't because I'm worried about safety risks. Maybe I'm overreacting, but it's better to be safe than sorry right? Let me know what yall think.