Gamer4 in. This episode is going to be a particular patchwork of the YAX version of this story and the stand-alone version- as a consequence, it's likely to take a little longer than the previous episodes. Lucky for you, I'm on a Xeno bender right now that won't let me go, so let's dive right in!
Episode XII
The Voyage Home
The Discovery
Vanessa took them to the other end of the house before pausing. "Rubes, Whitley, bedroom. Weiss, with me in the bathroom."
:"Um... why am I here?" Ruby asked awkwardly.
"Just work your magic," Vanessa rolled her eyes before pushing her and Whitley into what was unmistakably a bedroom, with a large bed, upon which was a sleeping black cat.
"Careful!" Ruby yelped, throwing a cautionary hand between Whitley and the cat. "This one's eeeeevil!"
"Is it?" Whitley crossed his arms. "Not to be rude, but why does that woman seem to think you can talk me into staying?"
"Iunno," Ruby shrugged honestly. "Maybe... because I'm Weiss's partner?"
"Ah... so you're her partner," Whitley muttered. "I suppose it's a step up from the faunus."
"Well, that's not nice," Ruby pouted- if her hearing was better even than Blake's, she might have heard Whitley's heart skip a beat when he saw the adorable look on her face. "What's your problem with faunus- okay, stupid question, we kinda already went over it all with Weiss."
"I'm not interested in sitting on a sofa with a woman who would like nothing more than to kidnap or kill me," Whitley nodded.
"Blake wouldn't do that!" Ruby shook her head emphatically. "Heck, she even defended Weiss from the White Fang not too long ago!"
"I'm sure she did," Whitley huffed. "All things to defend the precious, perfect, prodigal daughter."
Ruby looked closely. "...Did something happen between you two?"
"Nothing I want to talk about with-" Whitley started, before pausing when he once again met her shining silver eyes. "Nothing I want to talk about. You wouldn't understand."
"I guess not," Ruby admitted. "Yang and I have always gotten along! I've never thought of siblings who wouldn't even want to talk to each other."
"Well, that's how it is."
"It's... sad," Ruby pondered. "I mean, you even look the way she did when I first met her- looking all proper and stuff on the outside, but your eyes... they were so sad."
She looked down at the carpet, downcast. Whitley gulped.
"Stop that."
"Hm? Stop what?" Ruby asked, looking up.
"Stop with the... urgh... will you stop looking like a kicked dog if I agree to continue watching?"
"You will?" Ruby asked, eagerly looking up.
*Thu-thump.*
"And... and will you try to get along with Weiss?"
"Sure, sure, fine, just stop looking at me!" Whitley implored, struggling to fight the strange feelings this girl seemed to inspire in him.
"I... don't really get it... but if you say so!" Ruby smiled brightly. She turned and opened the door just in time to see Vanessa and Weiss emerging from the other room- Weiss looked even paler than usual, and wouldn't meet their gaze.
"So, are we all going to play nice, or am I going to have to go back to my time volunteering at a daycare and break out... the helper?" Vanessa asked, hands on her hips.
"Whitley promised to try and get along with Weiss!" Ruby grinned.
"Good, I thought he might," Vanessa crossed her arms, nodding curtly. "Now, enough preamble, we have a world to get back to."
As they made their way back to the living room, Ruby leaned towards Weiss. "What did she do to you?"
"Oh, she..." Weiss coughed. "She didn't do anything, as such, just... told me a story."
Ruby narrowed her eyes- unless she was very much mistaken, Weiss had shed some tears in her time away. Clearly, however, she didn't want to talk about it, so she relented for the moment.
"Ah, you're back," Ozpin greeted as they arrived. "I hope you were able to reach an accord?"
"I'll stay," Whitley sat in a chair to the side of the sofa. "At least long enough to see through these worlds. Beyond that, I promise nothing."
"Yes... right," Weiss muttered, sitting with her team.
"You didn't beat either of them, did you?" Winter arched a brow.
"No, it didn't come to that, fortunately enough," Vanessa returned to her own chair. "I thought they might be the type to listen to reason."
"Well, Weiss is, at least," Yang snorted, and jumped when Weiss touched her shoulder.
"That... that's enough, Yang."
Yang blinked, also immediately detecting the signs of tear-tracks on Weiss's face. "Hey... did Bitch-Queen do something to ya?"
"No... nothing of the sort," Weiss repeated. "Let's... let's get back to this... Xenoverse."
"You got some more beer, lady?" Qrow asked- and immediately caught the bottle Vanessa tossed his way.
"Anybody else want anything?" Vanessa asked. "No? Good. Back to business."
The screen started dark, before some text appeared:
2001 AD- Sector Industries uncovers TMA-1 within the borders of Menagerie. Upon recovery, the item is dubbed the 'Zohar' and sent to SkyTree Rhadamanthus for research in conjunction with the Mistralian government. The Saviorites declare open war on the world's governments.
"Well, that doesn't sound good."
"Zohar..." Ren tested the word on his tongue. "So, that monolith is named... the Zohar. Why does that name sound familiar to me?"
"It is the name of a collection of religious texts," Ozpin supplied. "I suppose granting such a title to the object demonstrates their reverence for it."
"It started performing miracles as soon as it appeared- little wonder there were organizations willing to go to war over it," Blake muttered.
"Crap... did they get it?" Jaune fretted.
2010 AD- New technology gives humanity the edge needed to begin colonizing the stars. In an effort to escape the war, humanity leaps from their cradle and boldy enters a new galactic community.
"That... doesn't answer much," Pyrrha pointed out.
"But wait, they were already going into space!" Ruby remembered.
"Only to the next planet over," Vanessa shook her head. "Mars was, on a galactic scale, their next-door neighbor. We're talking about interstellar travel- something that was only achieved with the power of the Zohar."
"Deep space travel, huh?" Qrow mumbled, throwing back another gulp. "Niftly little trinket they got there."
2061 AD- Earth's location disappears from star charts. The newly-formed Galactic Federation sends an expedition that is unable to locate the planet.
"Wh-wha- What?!" Weiss spluttered. "They somehow lost... an entire planet?!"
"Alright, who parked it?" Yang smirked. "Ruby, did you lose our home planet?"
"I left the parking to Blake!" Ruby pouted.
"Oh, sure, blame the faunus," Blake rolled her eyes.
"Now, now," Ren raised his hands placatingly. "I think we can all agree Nora's probably the one who lost the planet."
"Guilty as charged!" Nora happily confessed with a jaunty salute.
3001 AD- After nearly a thousand years of searching, the Galactic Federation finally decrees Earth as lost to the cosmos, dubbing it 'Lost Vytal,' an event of such cultural significance it marks Year 0 of a new calendar.
4767 TE (Transcend Earth)- Communication from planet Chorus ceases. SS Discovery is sent to investigate.
"So... we're picking up almost six thousand years after the last scene," Jaune's eyes widened. "Six thousand years... what must have happened in the meantime?"
"Yeah, where's the Zohar now?" Nora asked urgently.
"And whatever became of those... Saviorites?" Winter narrowed her eyes.
"More to the point... what could have caused an entire planet to lose contact with the rest of their community?" Ozpin pointed out. Everyone suddenly started paying more attention.
The camera had entered into space, lovingly showing off the stars of the cosmos, until a ship appeared, sleek, almost bird-like. It was significantly smaller than the Eldridge, the size of an average research ship on Remnant. Written on the side was the word DISCOVERY. As it made its way through empty space, the title appeared above it:
The Voyage Home
Act I
Der Wille Zur Macht
"Dur... willy... huh?" Ruby tilted her head as she struggled to sound it out.
"'Dare Villeh zoor Mokt,'" Winter sounded out phonetically. "It's Atlesian. It translates as 'The Will to Power.'"
"Isn't that the title of a book by an Atlesian philosopher?" Blake recognized.
"It is," Winter nodded. "I've read it- it's not an easy read."
The camera entered the bridge, which was populated by the current acting crew, including no less than six pilots in black keeping the ship on course, four military men in blue, and Captain Peter Port. "How odd," he pondered behyind his large walrus moustache. "This is where Chorus is supposed to be, is it not?"
"Ah, Port," Ozpin took a drink of his coffee. "I suppose it's as likely as anything that he'd appear in these worlds as well."
"We've seen him a couple of times in these... Xeno worlds," Pyrrha agreed.
"But last time, he kinda blew up," Nora declared tactlessly.
"Heh," Qrow chuckled. "Told him he oughtta lay off the crumpets, or that might happen."
"According to all star charts, this is the correct area," the lead pilot confirmed.
One of the soldiers, a tall, bulky redhead, took a drink from a flask. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing any planet."
"Oh, you must be joking?" Blake growled. "A mission as important as investigating a loss of contact with an entire planet, and they send Cardin Winchester?"
"A military man, it would seem," Winter observed. "I would hope serving in such an organization would lead to him obtaining some sense of discipline."
"We can hope," Pyrrha nodded in a tone that said she wasn't very hopeful at all.
Captain Port turned to the head of the military deployment on this voyage, Lieutenant Commander Hazel Rainart. "Perhaps you have some insight into this mystery?"
Hazel, as he had so often on this journey, remained silent, his gaze fixed on the space ahead. He was a large man, eight feet tall and larger around than a tree trunk.
"Wow, someone's built like a house," Yang let out a low whistle.
"Even I'd hate to take him on," Nora agreed, wide-eyed.
"A little harder to break legs the size of tree trunks, hmm?" Ren commented drily.
"Oz, you alright?" Qrow asked, noticing a subtle paling of Ozpin's face.
"That man... is a member of Salem's closest council."
"He is?!" Ruby yelped, turning and looking closely. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him- nothing suspicious will slip past me!"
He scanned the space ahead of them with his appropriately hazel eyes. Abruptly, they widened, however minutely. "There- there's something there!"
Port followed Hazel's finger, and spied the object in question- a faint shadow with very little light to illuminate it, but very clearly present. "Ah, so there is! Mr. Rainart, if you would like to-"
"Of course," Hazel nodded. He motioned to the other military men on the bridge. "Winchester, Heyman, Grif, with me."
The red-headed man and two others donned their helmets and followed him off the bridge.
They headed through the ship, past crew in black, soldiers in green, and a science team in uniforms of orange and blue. They arrived at a docking bay and boarded an exploration pod.
In a moment, the pod had left the ship, taking off towards the shadow. Before long, it was caught in their lights.
"It's the Zohar!" Ruby gasped.
"No..." Jaune leaned forward. "No, it's not. It's too small."
As the object came into further focus, they realized he was correct- while the object definitely resembled the monolith that had appeared to the apes, and was later excavated in Menagerie, made of gold with the 1:4:9 ratio, it was only roughly a third the size of that original object. There was no sapphire, no geometric etchings- the only engravement was a small square where the sapphire had been, in the center of which was a symbol.
"A human head?" Ruby wondered, a finger on her chin.
"No, you dunce, that's omega- the final letter of an ancient alphabet," Weiss rolled her eyes, subconsciously concerned they'd roll out of her head at this rate.
"So, not the Zohar, but clearly something akin to it," Pyrrha concluded. "Er... Nora?"
Nora was leaning close... closer... closer... her eyes almost pressed against the screen. "Hmmmm... hmmmm... HMMMMMMMMM..."
Finally, she leaned back and snapped her fingers. "I knew that Zohar was familiar! We've seen that shape before- it was in Pyrrha's chest!"
A ringing silence fell. "In... my... chest?" Pyrrha asked, clearly as confused as the others.
"Not you, Pyrrha, the other Pyrrha! The Pyrrha who was actually a sword!"
"Are you quite sure there's no drug trafficking going on at Beacon?" Whitley asked through half-lidded eyes.
"You'd wonder sometimes," Ren admitted.
"The Pyrrha who- you mean, the Grail? In Road to Shambhala?" Pyrrha finally realized what Nora was on about.
"Yeah! The blades had the core crystals in their chests, and Pyrrha's looked just like the Zohar!"
The others (who knew what she was talking about) looked closer. "Yeah... I think I see what you're talking about," Yang agreed. "Her crystal didn't have any engravings or symbols or anything like that, but the shape was pretty much the same."
"But what does that mean?" Jaune wondered.
"Any time you'd like to fill the rest of us in?" Winter finally interjected, aggravated.
"Oh, it's... it's a long story," was all Weiss could think to say, rather sheepishly.
"What is that thing?" Heyman asked through furrowed brows.
"Salvage," Hazel answered simply. "Grab the inhibitors."
His fellow soldiers nodded, grabbing large devices before stepping out into the void. Small jets allowed them balance as they made their way towards the monolith. They held the devices up, and tapped away at small keyboards, calling forth circles of light that ensnared the anomaly, holding it in place for the pod to safely carry back to the ship.
"Soo... cooooool..." Ruby reiterated.
They were on their own way back when Grif's jets malfunctioned, sending him reeling back through space- right towards the monolith.
"Grif, no, don't touch it!" Hazel barked.
A futile warning, as Grif turned around and landed, four-point, on the monolith, just under the symbol for omega.
Against all laws of physics, he stopped moving altogether, while the monolith remained rooted in place itself. All forward motion ceased, leaving Grif in an absurd crouch on the monolith's face.
He had been screaming, but as he crouched, that, too, ceased. A calm dreaminess had entered his voice when he next spoke: "It's so... beautiful..."
Beneath his hands, the gold seemed to visually ripple, like water. And then... he began to sink into it. It was as if the monolith was absorbing him into it. In another second, he'd disappeared altogether, leaving a trio of wide-eyed fellow soldiers in his wake.
The audience was quiet for a long moment. Finally, Ren broke the silence. "Well... the Zohar didn't do that."
"No," Blake agreed, shaking her head. "The apes ran their hands up and down the Zohar without anything like that happening."
The camera returned to the Discovery, panning through three sections- an upper section for the crew of the ship, a middle section for the military deployment sent to keep the ship safe amongst the dangers of space, and in the ship's depths, a team of scientists in red. Upon each uniform was a name: Sector.
"Sector..." Pyrrha picked up immediately. "Isn't that the company Ozpin- er, Ozma owned?"
"Yes... yes it was," Ren confirmed, flipping through his own notebook.
"Meaning that company is several times older than modern Remnant itself!" Weiss's eyes widened.
"That is rather difficult to fathom," Winter agreed.
The Discovery's lab was a sterile white chamber, a large circle of computers surrounding a central area within which sat two small pods. At the room's head stood the Division's chief, Jaune Arc, a young man with wild blond hair and crystal blue eyes, currently situated behind a small pair of glasses. His direct subordinate, Pyrrha Nikos, stood at his side- a woman only slightly shorter than he was, with long red hair tied in a ponytail, smiling at him through emerald green eyes. They were both dressed in uniforms of solid red and blue.
The rest of their team sat at the computers surrounding the units, ensuring that all systems were operating properly.
"Everything's within boundaries, Chief!" Pyrrha smiled. "We're ready to begin the test!"
"Nice, let's get some good data!" Jaune grinned back as he stepped down towards one of the pods, which opened to receive him. Both pods were sleek, just large enough for one person to lay inside. Jaune did so, and the pod closed, locking him in.
"Fearless Leader! Fearless Leader and Pyrrha!" Nora cheered, bouncing up and down.
"Eh, you did say most of these worlds were on him, I guess," Qrow shrugged.
"Hmmm..." Winter glanced between the Jaune on-screen and the one on the sofa. "Do you wear contacts, by any chance?"
"Huh? Oh- no, no, my eyesight's fine!"
"I think his is, too," Ruby interjected, looking closer at on-screen Jaune's glasses. "There's stuff popping up on those glasses- computer glasses! Ooohhhhhh, future science, space... I know there's dark stuff going on, but this world is still sooooooo cool!"
Pyrrha felt a chill run up her spine, and turned to see Ren and Nora smirking at her. "Chief, hm?" Ren was barely trying to hide his smirk behind his hands.
"A little term of affection?" Nora waggled her eyebrows.
"Nora!" Pyrrha attempted to lift up the white cat to hide behind her, but found it impossible to remove her from Ozpin's lap. The cat didn't even wake up at her efforts.
For a moment, all was darkness, until a bright blue interface appeared before him.
INPUT PASSWORD.
He allowed a small smile to cross his face as he typed it in.
YE SHALL BE AS GODS.
PASSWORD ACCEPTED. INITIATING ENCEPHALON.
"'Ye shall be as gods,' hmm?" Weiss crossed her arms. "I think this Jaune has a bit of an ego on him."
"Something you'd know nothing about, of course," Blake smirked slightly.
Weiss's response was an incomprehensible splutter that only ended when the world continued.
The world around him turned momentarily into a vortex, until he landed amongst the ruins of a virtual city. Standing across from him was the resident of the pod opposite him. On the surface, she was a young woman with curly red hair, her face concealed behind a crimson visor. Her clothing resembled a simple pink pinafore of days past. Beneath the surface, she was the Princess of First Division, the fully-functioning battle android that was the culmination of the Polendina Project, PENNY.
Jaune approached her with a smile. "Good morning, PENNY."
"And good morning to you, Jaune," PENNY greeted him in a more emotionless tone.
"P-P-Penny?!" Ruby stammered.
"Oh, that weird girl?" Yang remembered. "Haven't really seen much of her, now that I think about it."
"She's looking rather... robotic, isn't she?" Pyrrha observed.
Winter cleared her throat a little quickly. "I'm sure that is merely a quirk of this world."
"Yeah!" Ruby nodded a little too eagerly. "Yeah, that sounds about right! I mean, there was that world where Jaune and Weiss were androids, too!"
"Yeah, I remember that!" Nora nodded happily. "Makes sense to me!"
"We just have some basic drills today," Jaune said apologetically. "Sorry to wake you up just for that."
"No apology is necessary."
Jaune smiled sadly- such reactions were highly characteristic of her.
"Yeah... just basic drills, then back to sleep for you. Doesn't that make you... sad?"
"Not at all," Penny denied. "A predetermined set of emotions have been programmed into me to better facilitate iteraction with humans, but I do not believe sadness is necessary at the moment to facilitate my relationship with you, Jaune."
Jaune gave a wan laugh. "Yeah... I guess that's true..."
"Your understanding is appreciated."
"It's just... when I think about how long it will be before you wake up again, I feel sad, but... on the other hand, you're only supposed to wake up officially in the event of a gnosis attack..."
"Er... gnosis?" Jaune asked, unable to explain the shiver going up his spine.
"In essence, this world's equivalent of grimm," Vanessa explained. "Except, much like the mechon... much harder to kill. They're akin to phantoms- normal weapons pass through them. That's the primary purpose behind the Polendina Program in the first place- to create a battle android capable of defeating them."
"Ghost grimm..." Ruby shivered. "I don't like the sound of that!"
"Poltergeists exist," Ozpin acknowledged, "but they are rather fringe cases, and perfectly feasible to eliminate with ordinary weapons, if one knows what they're doing."
"Yeah, these gnosis things don't sound like much fun at all," Qrow agreed, downing the rest of his bottle.
"I... I don't want to see a day like that come, either," Jaune finally concluded. "Do you... do you understand that, PENNY?"
PENNY tilted her head. "My algorithms do not support the comprehension of illogical human thought."
Ruby rubbed at her temples. "Is everything she says gonna be so complicated?"
"Allow me to translate," Whitley sighed. "'As a robot, why should I be expected to understand silly human emotions?'"
"Oh. That... is kinda sad," Ruby mumbled.
"I guess not," Jaune admitted. "But still, I hope you'll be able to understand... someday..."
He shook his head, adjusted his glasses, and cleared his throat. "Well, I guess we'd better handle this by-the-book- would you like to state your name for the record?"
"Anti-Gnosis Humanoid Fighting System, serial number 00-00-00-00-01. Product of Project Polendina, officially designated PENNY. As any battle today will be simulated, my output is limited to 22% of its normal capacity. Estimated weapon specifications are-"
"That'll do, PENNY, that'll do," Jaune interrupted gently. "Thank you."
"You are quite welcome."
"So... robotic..." Ruby muttered uncomfortably.
Jaune glanced away momentarily, raising a hand to the bud in his ear. "Alright, let's activate process 277, Pyrrha!"
"Roger that!" Pyrrha's voice agreed. "Placing target drones, set to 'random movement' and 'ambush!'"
Jaune pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "No, no drones. I think we can skip right to the gnosis today."
"Skip to the-" Pyrrha stammered. "Wait, Chief, don't tell me-"
Jaune raised his arm, summoning a keyboard there connected to a screen about a foot from his face. He quickly tapped away one-handed. The drones that had been spawning in for PENNY to test her prowess against shifted, taking on the form of vast, alien creatures- lumbering trolls, arms bulging with muscle, hovering masses surrounded by large rings, manta rays surrouned by rippling knives. They were all semi-transparent, marking their disconnect from the normal world. It was easy to see how normal attacks would pass right through...
But that's why they were developing PENNY. "PENNY, activate the Grey Effect!"
"Affirmative," Penny nodded. The scarlet visor concealing her face began to glow, sending a pulse out over the entire ruined city. Where it travelled, the gnosis were forced into full reality.
The second they had fully manifested, PENNY rushed in, striking with arms that transformed into blades and cannons, rending the simulated gnosis asunder.
All of the students (and Qrow) slowly turned to Ruby. Starry eyes, drooling mouth. Yup, they were in for an outburst.
"THIS WORLD IS SOOOOOOOOO COOL! COOL WEAPONS, COOL TECHNOLOGY, COOL SPACE- I LOVE THIS WORLD!"
Yang quickly performed one of her patented Vulcan Neck Pinches, but even that only subdued her back to the sofa. "Please give us a heads-up before showing her things like that!"
"So, the gnosis's only weakness is this... Grey Effect," Blake summarized.
"Not necessarily their only weakness, but definitely their greatest," Vanessa elaborated.
On the outside, Pyrrha took a deep breath- her heart had skipped a beat when Jaune announced his intention to skip normal protocol, diving directly into combat with the gnosis. "Why... why are you like this, Chief? You never stop to think about the consequences..."
Nearby, two of the team's top members, Flynt Coal and Neon Katt, smirked at each other. "You know, Pyr," Neon spoke up teasingly, 'the way you worry about Jaune... we're just waiting for you to put a ring on it."
"Wha- what do you-" Pyrrha spluttered out, turning violently red.
"Hey, now, no rush," Flynt raised his hands pacifyingly. "Just... don't take too long, alright? I've got a hefty chunk of lien riding on this."
All the students except Jaune turned to smirk at Pyrrha. Every drop of her blood seemed to have taken a vacation up to her face.
"Come on, guys, enough with the teasing," Jaune chided. "I know it isn't like that in our world."
The smirks turned to looks of sympathy pretty quick.
Pyrrha groaned. "Look, just keep your eyes on the program. If anything even looks like it's going wrong, I'm pulling them out."
"Yessir!" the duo saluted, returning to their computers.
"At least he has you looking out for him," Ren whispered quietly to Pyrrha. "I quite understand the feeling."
Within the simulated city, Jaune watched as PENNY destroyed gnosis after gnosis, slicing them apart with her blades, blasting them away with her cannons, seemingly without anything approaching challenge. Finally, he came to a decision, breaking out the terminal and tapping away.
"Chief, what are you doing now?" Pyrrha's voice asked nervously.
"We'll never get anywhere at this rate," Jaune explained. "If we're going to get real data here, we need to see her when she's actually being tested."
Pyrrha felt like she was about to have a heart attack. "Not while you're in there, too!"
"Everything will be fine, Pyr," Jaune assured her. "I'm sure PENNY can handle this."
Pyrrha bit her lip- why did Jaune have to be so reckless?
"To an extent, I can appreciate his desire to make progress," Winter acknowledged, "but on the other hand, that knowledge will do him little good if it ends up getting him killed."
"Temperance is key," Ozpin agreed with a drink of coffee.
Jaune's commands on the terminal resulted in a particularly large gnosis appearing- a hulking beast with long arms leading to clawed fingers. Its lower body trailed off into a tail, rather than a pair of legs. There was no head- above where a head would normally be was a large halo.
The creature ignored PENNY, turning to face Jaune instead, bearing down on him quickly.
"What's it doing?! It's supposed to be going for PENNY, not Jaune!" Pyrrha yelped. "Pull them out, pull them out!"
"No, it's going to be alright!" Jaune insisted.
One of the vast, clawed hands reached down towards him- only to fall to the ground as PENNY struck from behind, severing the arm from the body. In another swift strike, the other arm fell away, shattering into crystal upon hitting the ground. Finally, PENNY's arm turned into a cannon to blast away the torso.
"Well, it looks like his faith wasn't misplaced," Ozpin smiled.
Jaune smiled at his protector- PENNY's expression was concealed behind the visor. A second later, Jaune found himself being pulled back into reality by a frantic-looking Pyrrha.
Jaune smiled as he climbed out of the pod, patting Pyrrha on the back- she was bent over double, panting. "You... you can't keep doing this, Chief... I'm going to get an ulcer one day..."
"Sorry," Jaune apologized sheepishly. He tapped his glasses, and a great deal of data flashed in front of him, as if it was in the air. "Guess I pushed my luck a little, huh? But at least we got some good data!"
"Forget the data!" Pyrrha shook her head wearily. "I'm worried about you!"
"Me?" Jaune asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Whitley blinked slowly. "Can the man really be that dense?"
"Yes," Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Weiss all said at once.
Before Pyrrha could respond, a voice spoke through the overhead speakers. "Attention, please- we will be gating out in three minutes. All personel report to their stations. Repeat, we will be gating out in three minutes- all personel report to their stations."
"'Gating out?'" Jaune repeated.
"Wormholes," Vanessa answered simply.
"Oooooohhhhhh!" Ruby's eyes widened. "That would let them get around faster than light! Oh, oh, can I do the paper demonstration? Can I? Can I?!"
"Ruby, we all know how wormholes work-" Weiss started, only to be immediately cowed by the same pouting maneuver that had destroyed her brother. "Oh, fine."
"Yay!" Ruby cheered, pulling out a piece of paper and proceeding to give the usual spiel while folding it.
Ignoring her, Vanessa elaborated a little further. "Gating in is entering, gating out is leaving. The gates, or columns, are essentially wormholes made safe by what they call the UMN- in essence, your world's Dust Network."
"Clearly, there is a great deal of terminology we'll have to learn to understand this world," Ozpin commented.
"I am not near drunk enough for this," Qrow grumbled, pulling out a new bottle.
"That time already?" Jaune wondered.
It seemed only a few minutes ago that the Discovery had been gating in to hyperspace, and now it seemed they were already leaving. Each tunnel only covered so much distance, after all.
"So, they can only use the gates as they are?" Ruby clarified. "They can't make them appear?"
"No more than you can make a highway appear at will," Vanessa confirmed.
On the ship's bridge sat Captain Port, in much the same position as the day the ship had stumbled upon the monolith. Hazel stood at his side once more, though the remaining two soldiers, Heyman and Winchester, were elsewhere on the ship.
"I'm sure you're happy to be almost home, Mr. Rainart," Port smiled.
Hazel gripped his left arm with his right. "Forgive me, Captain Port, but I'll not relax until we're back on solid ground."
"'Always hold your basket the tightest in the home stretch,'" Qrow agreed. "Or something like that, anyway."
"Surprisingly wise, coming from such a boor," Winter admitted.
"No need to be so dour, Mr. Rainart," Port chuckled. "There's only one more gate between us, and the odds of gnosis contact between columns is statistically low!"
"And we're going through an asteroid field!" chirped another crew member, a young squirrel faunus with dark brown hair. "That should keep any gnosis eyes off us!"
Her smile faded when Hazel directed a dark stare at her- not quite a glare, but exceedingly serious. "So, little Pollyanna thinks that all we need to protect us are a few space rocks? She presumes to know the eyes and mind of the gnosis?"
The woman quailed. "I- I'm sorry, sir."
"That's enough, Commander," Port intervened. "A little testy today, are we? Is there something on your mind? Please, confess to me your strife!"
Hazel looked away pointedly. "It's nothing, sir. My mother had a saying, is all- the last stretch of the road is always the most perilous."
"Copycat," Ruby pouted.
"I don't blame him," one of the pilots, a young, black-haired man whispered to his friend beside him. "Everyone's been a little jumpy since we picked that... that thing up last week."
"Let's see," the brown-haired man responded, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. "We go out to investigate why nobody's heard from Chorus in a year, and find an entire planet missing. Instead of sticking around to investigate, we pick up one piece of flotsam and head home right away. Yeah, nothing suspicious about that."
"Another planet gone missing?" Weiss crossed her arms. "That is starting to sound like a disturbingly common trend."
"I'm more concerned that they abandoned that investigation in favor of that... monolith," Whitley pointed out.
"Methinks there's some double-dealing afoot!" Nora cried, donning a deerstalker and a pipe.
The two jumped when Port cleared his throat- he'd clearly overheard. "Yes, of course we're all a little taken aback by the shift in orders. Leave the... salvage to the researchers- I'm sure we'll know what it is soon enough. For now, it is vital evidence in Chorus's disappearance- we are to place the utmost priority on it."
"The... utmost priority, sir?" the squirrel faunus asked nervously.
"Meaning over our very lives," Hazel said firmly.
"Yeah, time to find a new line of work," Yang suggested.
The woman's eyes widened, and there was an immediate chill in the air, which Port seemed to sense, because he immediately interjected. "Now, now, no need to scare them, Commander." He cleared his throat again. "Mere hyperbole, simply meant to emphasize the importance of this mission. Let's just operate by the book, and everything will be fine. Besides, lest we forget, we have an ace up our sleeves!"
"Yes, the ace," Hazel nodded. "What is the status on the Polendina Project?"
"I believe we're expecting a report today," Port recalled. "A-7- one step away from fully operational."
Jason- the black-haired man from before- scoffed. "Ace, yeah, right. That android's just for their boss's weird hobby."
Overhearing this, Hazel felt something stir in his chest. He almost envied them their ignorance.
"That... sounds ominous..." Jaune gulped.
It didn't take Jaune long to compile the data from the test into a harddrive. "Alright, that should do it," he decided, disconnecting the drive and standing up. Before he could make his way to the door, however, he was intercepted a short young man with messy black hair and a pair of rectangular glasses. "Excuse me, Mr. Arc, can I ask you a question?"
"Fire away," Jaune smiled amicably.
"Well, it's just... I thought the military wanted actual field data," the man said slowly. "Won't they be upset if we just keep giving them simulations?"
Jaune's smile faltered a little, but didn't disappear altogether. "Don't worry, I'll take the heat." He glanced back at the sleek red pod where PENNY slept. "If... if I had it my way, she could just stay there... in her dream world... forever."
Winter crossed her arms tightly. She could hardly say it out loud, but she did have similar feelings about their own world's Penny sometimes.
"Why?" the man pressed. "You push her as hard as you can in simulations, why should things change when it comes to the real world?"
"That'll do," Flynt interrupted, placing a gentle hand on the man's shoulder. He looked uncharacteristically stern, his brow furrowed. Behind him, even the constantly-chipper Neon Katt had her gaze on the ground, sorrow in her eyes.
Jaune remained silent, his smile finally vanishing altogether.
Finally, it was Pyrrha who interjected, a forced smile on her face as she stepped forward. "We'll get to it in our own time- we're not going to wake our princess up just for the brass until we're good and ready. Chief, the data?"
"Right," Jaune nodded, turning and heading out.
"There was... nothing about that conversation that I liked," Nora readily admitted.
With him gone, Flynt raised his hand, leaving the questioning young man to look at his coworkers nervously. "Did I say something... wrong?"
"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known," Pyrrha explained gently. "It was two years ago... there was a forced startup sequence... PENNY went berserk, and... someone died."
"Coco..." Neon whispered sadly.
"Wait, waitwaitwait!" Ruby waved her hands frantically. "Coco's dead... and Penny killed her?!"
Winter was just as taken aback- she couldn't imagine their Penny ever doing any such thing.
"Not this Penny," Blake reminded her. "A prototype... though that would definitely explain why they're so hestiant to run another field test."
A tear traced its way down Jaune's face as he made his way down one of the ship's hallways. He still remembered the long nights he'd spent under Coco's tutelage. Everything he knew today, he owed to her- the Polendina Project had been hers as much as his. PENNY had practically been their child.
One late night, he'd stayed up til half-past-three writing code for PENNY's functions. He'd been on the verge of passing out when he felt a pair of arms encircle him from behind. "I get wanting to work some late nights, but killing yourself won't do any good either, hun."
Jaune smiled at the sound of Coco's voice. "Had to get this finished before morning. What are you doing here?"
Before he knew it, a mug of coffee had been placed on the desk next to him. "I thought, if you were gonna keep staying up like this, you might need a little pick-me-up," Coco smiled. "As for me... I've been having trouble sleeping lately." She placed a hand over Jaune's, looking behind them at PENNY's pod.
"They seem to... have a close relationship," Pyrrha struggled not to resent a dead woman.
She perked up a bit when Jaune said, "Yeah, weird. I don't think I've even talked to her before in our world."
"What is it?" Jaune asked gently.
"I can't tell you, you'd think I was silly."
Jaune laughed. "No... never."
Coco looked at him, and smiled. "Alright. I've been thinking about her so much. When she finally activates... when she finally wakes up- she's almost like our daughter. What do I say to her?"
Jaune fought not to chuckle, but ended up doing so anyways. "Okay, that is a little silly..."
"Traitor!" Coco gave an exaggerated look of shock.
"No, not like that!" Jaune laughed, waving his hads. "It's just... what do you say to anyone when they wake up?"
He stood, and guided her to the pod. "Just look her in the eye and say... 'Good morning, PENNY!'"
"'Good morning, PENNY,'" Coco repeated, tasting the words on her tongue. "Huh... yeah, I really have been overcomplicating this, haven't I? Thanks, Jaune- I think I can get some sleep now."
"No problem," Jaune smiled.
"No... problem..." Jaune whispered, fingering the pendant around his neck. Attached to a fine silver chain was a small blue crystal- hardly the 'manliest' of accessories, but it had been given to him by Coco, and he'd sworn never to part with it.
"Oh, Jaune..." Ruby's eyes glistened with tears.
"There's that survivor's guilt again," Ren sighed. "Jaune, we really must talk when we get the time."
"...Sure, Ren."
"LET'S GO, LET'S GO!"
Jaune jumped, glancing quickly around before realizing that whoever was shouting, it wasn't at him.
He'd stumbled into the catwalks running over the Discovery's holds, where the military unit was currently running drills of their own. They were being overseen by Colonel Vernal, a severe, dark-skinned with woman with hair cut very close to her head. Across her face was a tattoo of a large X... and she was currently screaming at her troops.
"MOVE IT! IF YOU SHITBRAINS LISTENED TO ORDERS, MAYBE GRIF WOULD STILL BE HERE WITH US! BY THE TIME I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, YOU'LL BE PRAYING FOR A GNOSIS ATTACK FOR A BRIEF REPRIEVE!"
"Man, and we thought Colonel Goodwitch was rough," Yang winced.
"Colonel Goodwitch, huh?" Qrow chuckled. "Funny, I can actually see that."
"Hmm... I doubt she'd invite the comparison herself, however," Ozpin mused.
One of the men stumbled and fell over; Vernal picked him up just to punch him back to the ground. "YOU'LL GET NO SYMPATHY FROM ME, SHITSTAIN! ONE MILLION PUSH-UP, AND I'D BETTER NOT SEE YOU STOP UNTIL YOUR BICEPS EXPLODE!"
Jaune winced. Yeah, I'd definitely rather have Coco than her...
His thoughts trailed off when his eyes fell upon the large, golden monolith that hovered at the edge of the catwalks, roughly in the vast chamber's center. It floated serenely, held in place by inhibitor rings maintained by the large devices that continued to circle it. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but if he tilted his head, it almost seemed to glow.
"Those monoliths..." Blake narrowed her eyes. "Somehow, some way, all the answers are in them."
Then... right before his bewildered eyes, a young girl appeared. She seemed about ten years old, with short orange hair barely reaching her turqoise eyes, she wore a pink skirt, and a silver cross around her neck. She was smiling at him, her lips moving, forming words that, struggle though he might, he couldn't hear.
"Mini-me again!" Nora grinned. "Oh, I'm so cute! But... what am I saying?"
"Hmm..." Blake narrowed her eyes, leaning closer. Everyone watched her intently, certain the former spy would easily be able to lipread-
She raised her arms and shook her head. "I got nothing."
Everyone fell over.
He began moving forward, mesmerized by the sight, struggling to hear the words the girl was whispering to him. He reached out a hand, as if to touch the monolith, oblivious to one of the devices circling the object coming around towards him-
One of the privates grabbed him from behind and pulled him back. "Watch out!"
Jaune let out a startled yelp as he was pulled rudely back into reality. He landed roughly on the private in question. "Sorry..."
"Watch where you're going, sir..." the man muttered, clearly dazed from his own fall.
Before Jaune could respond, he was being forcefully pulled to his feet by Vernal. A red-faced, furious Colonel Vernal. "What the hell were you doing?!" she demanded. Then, out of nowhere, "How tall are you?"
"Huh?" Jaune asked, still clearing the haze from his mind.
"I asked you your height!"
"Er... six foot four-"
"Six foot four?! Goddamn, I didn't know they stacked shit that high!"
Yang blinked, her lips twitching between smirk and scowl. "I'm not sure whether to laugh or deck the shit out of her."
"I know exactly what I want," Nora growled, fingers flexing for her hammer.
"Get out of here! I'm having enough trouble keeping these morons under control without shitheads like you running around getting in the way! Go on, get out of here!"
Jaune nodded quickly, turning and dashing down the remaining length of the catwalk into another hallway.
"Yes... do what you will, Yang, but Nora and I are going to break her legs," Pyrrha decided.
Ren, on the other hand, was tapping his chin in thought. "So, Jaune is seeing visions of Nora... as she was six thousand years ago?"
Nora blinked. "Oh- yeah. You'd think I'd be dust back on the old planet by now, wouldn't you?"
"The monolith did it," Blake decided.
Yes... when it comes to leaders, I definitely prefer Mr. Baum...
"Mr. Baum?" Blake's ears instantly perked up.
"As in, Ozma Baum?" Pyrrha agreed, eyes widening.
Qrow and Ozpin exchanged a look.
He recalled his last meeting with Ozpin Baum very clearly- it had taken place on Ozpin's ship, the Olympus, large enough to serve as its own functioning city-state. At the top of the ship was the man's office, a pyramid of glass over a black floor, full of bookshelves, strange curios, and a mahogany desk on the opposite side of which sat Ozpin himself.
"So Sector's run by Ozpin now!" Ruby nodded cheerfully.
"So..." Whitley finally spoke up. "Not only has the company survived for over six thousand years, it has also remained in the hands of the Baum family? Forgive me if I find that... remarkably unlikely."
"Unlikely, yeah, but it's not impossible, is it?" Jaune pointed out.
"Believe what you will," Whitley shrugged before descending back into silence.
Jaune had been called up to this office one day, and stood for an unnecessarily long time outside its doors. She'd met Ozpin a few times, and he'd generally been nothing but polite to him, but still, there was a natural nervousness when one was called to meet with their superiors.
He reached up and knocked on the door- before he could knock a second time, they'd swung open, permitting him entry.
There Ozpin was, sitting on the other side of his desk, his hands folded in front of him. He was a tall man- it wasn't easy to tell now, as he was sitting down, but he was even taller than Jaune himself. He was something of a scarecrow, though, rather on the slender side. He wore a dark suit and a green kerchief, with well-kept white hair. He wore a pair of dark glasses low enough on his nose that they didn't conceal his brown eyes.
"Ah, Mr. Arc, I've been expecting you. Please, come in."
Jaune stepped forward. The floor was black, polished nearly to a mirror shine, imprinted with Sector's logo of two serpents- one red, the other blue- circling around each other, consuming each other's tails.
"Ouroboros, again," Jaune noticed. "Just like... that war world."
As Jaune took a seat, Ozpin motioned to a number of kettles nearby. "May I offer you something to drink? Tea? Coffee?... Hot chocolate?"
"Er... hot chocolate, please," Jaune requested. As Ozpin dutifully poured out a mug for his guest, Jaune's eyes roamed, taking in more details. He could hear the sounds of ancient music playing from somewhere- he couldn't truly identify where, though, thanks to his sister Saphron's love of such things, he could recognize the song as Ode to Joy.
To the left of Ozpin's desk was a small pedestal upon which sat the oddest curio of all- a crystalline cube spinning on its axis, held in place by two revolving rings.
"Fancy!" Yang whistled.
"I don't believe I noticed anything like that during my visit," Winter raised an eyebrow.
"You wouldn't have- I possess no such thing," Ozpin shook his head.
He jumped when a mug full of hot chocolate was placed in front of him, despite how gentle it had been. "Oh- thank you!"
"There's no need to be so nervous, Mr. Arc, you're not in trouble," Ozpin smiled. "I merely have a request of you."
"A request?" Jaune asked as Ozpin turned and gazed out at the stars.
"... I presume you've heard the tales of Lost Vytal?" he asked, almost absently. "The cradle of human life, now lost amongst the vastness of the universe?"
"I... I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of Lost Vytal at some point, sir," Jaune smiled awkwardly. The hot chocolate was rich, creamy, and delicious- he'd hardly expect less from the richest man in the galaxy.
"So... Lost Vytal is what they call that original planet,"Ren recorded dutifully in his notebook.
"A location of great cultural significance... I understand the logic," Weiss nodded.
"I suppose they have," Ozpin agreed. "And... what do you know of the planet Chorus?"
"I mean... I've heard the name in passing," Jaune shrugged.
"For the past year now, the Federation has lost all contact with Chorus," Ozpin related. "At long last, they're putting together an expedition to investigate this anomaly. Naturally, they have asked to borrow one of our ships. I have given them the Discovery."
"That's... that's one of the new ones, isn't it?"
"Indeed. This will be her maiden voyage. I'd like to see it go off without a hitch."
Ozpin finally turned back to Jaune. "They will, of course, receive a military unit, but I should like to send a unit of my own to help conduct research on anything they find. Furthermore, I should very much like that unit to bear with them what may be our greatest weapon against the gnosis."
Jaune caught on quickly. "You want to send my team- with PENNY."
"Correct," Ozpin nodded. "I see this as a fantastic opportunity for the Polendina Project. Of course, we'd like this to go smoothly, with no gnosis contact at all- but on the off-chance the Discovery does encounter them, they could certainly do worse than PENNY for protection."
"She... she hasn't actually been field tested yet," Jaune admitted.
"Well, I'm certain this voyage provides a prime opportunity to change that as well," Ozpin smiled. "So... Mr. Arc... what do you say?"
Jaune had, of course, agreed, and here he was, traversing across the cosmos with his team as they fought to finish their project.
...Speaking of which, he needed to stop getting lost in his own thoughts and get this test data to the captain.
"Yeah... I was about to say," Ruby giggled.
"Hmm... it is rather strange seeing an interaction with me from an outside perspective," Ozpin admitted.
"How weird do you think the rest of this is for us?" Jaune pointed out.
"A fair point, I think," Ozpin conceded.
Before he could truly act on this thought, however, he heard a quick guitar riff from the scroll in his pocket- he reached down and opened it up to reveal a simple, four-word text:
Realian Lab, please come.
He took a moment to check the time. Hmm... the lab was only a quick detour. He still had time. He adjusted his path and took off at a jog.
"More new terminology," Pyrrha sighed. "What exactly are realians?"
"Artificial humans," Vanessa explained. "Not robots, that sort of technology has been out of fashion for thousands of years at this point, but not quite human either. A blend of organic and synthetic."
It took less than a minute to make it to the lab in question. "You rang?" he smiled as he stepped into a room full of computers attached to various beds. It almost looked like a medical bay. Only the woman in the lab coat running from bed to bed was fully human- the men and women in the actual beds were, then, the realians.
The woman, Dr. Peach, turned to greet him. "Ah, Mr. Arc! Thank you for coming. Apologies, it seems we're always dragging you down here for one thing or another."
"No problem," Jaune smiled. "What's going on?"
"I'm trying to implant some new battle algorithms," Peach explained as she guided him towards one of the computers, "but it's not taking as smoothly as I'd hoped."
Jaune nodded, closely examining the data. "Yeah, I see... he's rejecting the data. Let me make some adjustments real quick..."
He spent a minute tapping away on the keyboard, then looked at the realian it was connected to. "Does that feel better?"
"It does," the realian nodded. "I cannot find the words to properly express it, but everything seems brighter somehow."
"So their brains still function somewhat like computers..." Winter observed.
"They do," Vanessa agreed. "Depending on the type, they may have special abilities, as well- the most common is the ability to output the Grey Effect."
"I suppose that would be a priority in a world haunted by gnosis, yes," Ozpin nodded.
Jaune nodded with a smile. "Well, that should do for now, but you should still call up the Third Division when we land. I think they need more help than I can give them in deep space."
"Will do," Peach nodded. "You know, I'm impressed- providing realian support and heading the Polendina Project at the same time- no wonder they call you the Star of Sector."
"Nah, it's nothing," Jaune flushed, shying away from the praise. "Just... making the most of what my mentor taught me!"
"That would be Coco, then..." Pyrrha muttered, struggling to fight back the jealousy.
"I've always been fascinated by them... their psychology. I've even been considering a transfer to Third Division when the PENNY's finished. There's... there's still so much to learn about them-"
"And a fat lotta good that'll do ya."
"Oh, god," Blake rolled her eyes.
"Go figure," Jaune sighed.
Jaune turned to see a man in military green stepping into the chamber. He was slightly taller than Jaune himself, his red hair gelled above his head, keeping his blue eyes clear. The most notable trait, however, was what seemed like a mass of scar tissue running from his forehead, down over an eye, over his lips, below one side of his chin and climbing up another. It was an ugly hook- though, as he drew closer, Jaune saw it wasn't truly a scar, more of a simple deformation, caused by intense hardening of the skin. From a distance, it would be easy to mistake it for a scar or growth.
The expression on his face was an odd mix of smirk and grimace as he sauntered in. He reached into his pocket, producing a small bottle from which he pulled a couple of pills that he dry-swallowed before speaking again. "God, it reeks in here. I can't get these things' stench out of my nose." He fixed his gaze with Jaune's. "Don't tell me you can't smell it- it makes me sick to my stomach."
"Good thing you bothered going there at all, then, isn't it, douchebag?" Yang growled.
Jaune only paid the loosest attention to his words- his gaze was fixed on the deformation. "DME... a flesh eater?"
Jaune took a deep breath as he turned to Vanessa. "...Explain?"
"DME is a reaction that occurs when a human consumes realian tissue," Vanessa explained. "It's something like a drug. Those that do so are called flesh eaters."
"You mean... this Cardin... he... he...!" Ruby couldn't bring herself to say it, but she was looking remarkably green.
"This goes... far beyond the one we know!" Blake stared on in awed horror.
Jaune knew that realian tissue could be refined into a highly-addictive drug, but he hadn't thought anybody aboard the Discovery could be involved with something so heinous. Nevertheless, that hardened skin... a classic symptom of a human who had somehow imbibed realian tissue... could it be?
It took Peach interjecting on the realians' behalf to finally snap Jaune out of it. "That's enough, Cardin. I thought it was clear that one of the goals of this mission was to increase cooperation between man and realian!"
"Cooperation, huh?" Cardin gave a dark chuckle. "I can't think of anyone I'd want on my side less against the gnosis than a bunch of untested realians."
Finally, Jaune spoke up himself. "Excuse me, but these people are all highly qualified-"
"People? People?" Cardin interrupted. "Don't tell me you're going around treating equipment like people!"
"I never thought I'd miss our Cardin," Pyrrha hissed through narrowed eyes.
"Urge... to break legs... rising..."
"Yes!" Jaune persisted. "They have the same intellect and emotions as human beings! Besides, the Vale Charter clearly spells out their rights in-"
"Charter this, rights that," Cardin scoffed. "Get off your soapbox, why don't you? Even your company considers them equipment. This batch is officially classified as weapons-grade- what more evidence do you need than that? Dress up pretty and hide behind your platitudes all you want. The second shit really hits the fan, you'll cower behind them and let them die for you without a second thought. Besides, I know Sector's dirty little secret..."
He crossed the room and whispered directly into Jaune's ear: "You have a secret code to control them, don't you?"
Jaune tilted his head slightly. "Yeah, he's... he's definitely a douchebag, but... there's something else behind it. More... bitterness."
"Cardin, that's-" Peach started, only to be interrupted by the very realian Jaune had just finished helping. He'd risen to his feet and was calmly meeting Cardin's gaze.
"If I may interject, sir... your words are not entirely without trutth. Sector does manufacture and raise us primarily as equipment. However, I do take pride in the work I do- pride that was not forced upon me. It is of my own... my own will."
For a moment, it seemed like Cardin would retort, but he broke down coughing first. He dry-swallowed another pill and straightened up. "Free will, huh?" he muttered. "God for you. Enjoy it while it lasts. Humanity only lasts in peacetime. When the chips fall... only then do we see where we really stand."
Finally, he straightened up and exited the room through the same door Jaune had entered through.
"I... think I see what Jaune's saying," Ruby admitted. "I can't forgive what he's saying, but... there's something else going on."
"...Sorry about that," Peach muttered. "Cardin, he... wasn't always like this. He was always more on the cynical side, but then... something happened. Fifteen years ago..."
Suddenly, it all made sense. "Ah," Jaune nodded. "The Fall of Beacon?"
"Yes," Peach agreed. "I don't know if you-"
"I know all about it," Jaune interrupted lightly. "I... lived on Old Vale when it happened."
"I almost want to ask for more details," Yang muttered, "but I think we can work out that one on our own. Beacon... was destroyed?"
"It wasn't an academy," Vanessa related. "It was an institute of science... and the scene of the final battle of a hundred-year long war. A battle that destroyed the entire planet of Vale."
"Damn..." Qrow's eyes widened. "And we thought the War for Remnant was rough..."
Peach seemed taken aback. "I see. I'm... sorry if I raised some painful memories."
"It's fine," Jaune smiled and shook his head. "It's not something we should forget- for our sake and theirs."
Abruptly, Jaune leapt nearly a foot in the air as his scroll buzzed. "Crap- my report! Sorry- I need to go!" He bowed his apology before turning and dashing off again.
"Try not to get distracted again," Whitley rolled his eyes. "I'm sure they need the results sometime this millennium."
"Yes, yes, I see, I understand the basic specs," Hazel nodded as he went over the report, a red-faced Jaune catching his breath near the bridge's entrance. "What I don't see is the field data."
"We haven't prepared the field data yet," Jaune answered promptly. "Only up to A-7."
"So... you don't have it," Hazel rumbled, his voice going rather cold.
"We need to ensure that the system is absolutely stable," Jaune persisted. "Once we have that under control, we'll proceed to mock-up units, and-"
"I don't want excuses," Hazel interrupted. "Chief Arc, tell me why you're on this ship. I want you to consider this very hard. This ship is newly outfitted, due to massive time constraints. We have several AGWS,-"
Yang did a spit take. "I'm sorry, what?! They have several eggs?" She snorted again. "That's gotta be the greatest thing I've ever heard!"
"Not eggs, AGWS- A-G-W-S," Vanessa corrected. "Anti-Gnosis Weapons Systems. Something like gears, but smaller. Hmmm... maybe I should turn on subtitles to prevent misunderstandings like this in future."
"Please do," Blake grumbled, wiping away the milk Yang had squirted out of her nose.
"We have several AGWS Units, but no 100-series realians to back them up. What would happen right now if, by some chance, we were assailed by gnosis? Must I describe in detail what the outcome of such a battle would be?"
"...No, sir," Jaune shook his head.
"The purpose of the Polendina Project was to address this issue, was it not?"
"Yes, sir, it was."
"Listen," Hazel ordered. "You are not simply in a lab anymore. You have entered the battlefield. PENNY was intended as our front line of defense, and here you are, telling me she hasn't even woken up yet!"
"No need to be so mean about it!" Ruby quailed.
"No... no, he has a point," Winter shook her head. "If these gnosis are as dangerous as they sound, and their best weapon isn't even on its feet yet... there's certainly cause for concern."
"But still..." Ruby pouted.
"That will do, Commander," Port interrupted. "Sector has severe time constraints of their own. Besides, from the sound of things, field testing is the very next thing on their agenda! At the end of the day, what we all want is to get home without PENNY being necessary at all, isn't it?"
"Of course," Hazel agreed, "but nevertheless, hopin for the best does not-"
He was interrupted by a buzzing from his pocket. He grunted as he pulled out his scroll. "At a time like this...?" He brought the scroll up to his eyes, and immediately paled.
"Is there a problem?" Port asked.
"No... no. I just have to take this. Something urgent has come up. If you'll excuse me..."
He turned and hurried off the bridge.
"I wonder what that was all about..." Jaune pondered aloud.
"I've never understood these military types myself," Port shook his head. "Well, if that's all, I'll dismiss you from the bridge. Keep me updated!"
"Of course," Jaune bowed. "I'm sorry for the delays."
"Not at all," Port waved aside. "Shortcuts make long delays, as a very wise man once said." He glanced at his own scroll. "Hmm... there's not much time left in the day regardless- why not take the rest of it off? I'm sure you could use the rest."
Jaune bowed again and took his leave.
"I don't know, I don't think I can rest while I'm wondering what had a goliath running scared there," Yang pointed out.
Hazel sealed himself in his room, casting the call from his scroll to a larger screen, revealing a tall, crimson-haired man. His arms were crossed, adding to his air of austerity. He wore a dark coat and wore a curved sword at his side. From his forehead protruded a set of bull horns, and his eyes were hidden behind a mask- or perhaps visor was more accurate. It was solid steel, with three horizontal scarlet slits that permitted his vision.
"Adam!" Blake gasped- only to blink in surprise when she heard violent giggling from her right. She turned to see Nora doubled over with laughter. "I'm sorry, is something about this guy funny to you?"
"Not him, not him!" Nora choked out through her chortles. "The mask! He looks like... he looks like he's about to shoot lasers out of that thi-hi-hi-hiiiiiing!"
The others tilted their heads. "I... kinda see it?" Ruby shrugged.
"That was a grave mistake, Rainart," he was growling. "Letting a crew member get absorbed like that... I thought I told you to exercise the utmost caution when handling the Zohar."
"I have no excuses, sir," Hazel apologized. "The accident was entirely my fault."
"Wait, I thought we already established that thing isn't actually the Zohar," Qrow interjected.
"Well, perhaps he simply believes it is," Winter pointed out.
"Indeed," the other man agreed. "However, that is in the past. We must focus on the larger problem. The absorption, and now transporting it through open space... the Chateau has been forced to move the plan ahead two phases. We cannot allow the Zohar to fall into the Federation's hands."
"Chateau?" Whitley repeated. "Is this yet another faction entering the fray?"
"No, you've heard of them before," Vanessa shook her head. "Back on Lost Vytal, they were known as the Saviorites."
"So they survived this long, rebranded, and... now Adam's joined them," Blake's eyes narrowed. "That last bit doesn't surprise me, somehow."
"Two- two phases?" Hazel stammered. "You- you mean-"
"Correct," Adam agreed coldly. "We've picked up activity within the UMN. There is an army of gnosis making its way towards you as we speak. You have an estimated five and a half hours until convergence."
"Well, that's not good," Qrow grumbled.
"Would you like to make any further obvious statements?" Winter rolled her eyes.
"No..." Hazel's eyes widened in terror.
"As I said... you made a grave mistake," Adam repeated. "We dispatched reinforcements an hour ago. Defend the Zohar at all costs until they arrive."
"Will they make it in time?" Hazel asked urgently.
Adam simply repeated, "Defend the Zohar at all costs until reinforcements arrive. Send it into hyperspace if you must. Keep it away from the gnosis... and the Federation."
"Wait, Commander- Commander Taurus!"
It was too late- the call ended, and the Commander's image disappeared, leaving a trembling Hazel in its wake.
"...We're out of time..."
Ruby gulped. "Er... why do I feel like we're about to go through a repeat of the Battle of Colony 9?"
"Or the Siege of Ansel?" Weiss agreed nervously.
"I suspect that's exactly what we're in for," Ren folded his hands together.
"Care to fill us in?" Winter repeated her request from a ways ago.
"Why don't you go ahead and do that," Vanessa suggested. "Fill them in on what they've missed- get a little break before we dive right into the deep end."
The others agreed.
XXXX
This is the last episode that I can take from YAM- while I still have Voyage Home and Last Contact material to work with, all reactions are going to be from scratch from now on. I hope you all enjoyed! To let me know, go ahead and drop a review, and until next time, don't you dare go hollow- Gamer4 out.