The world was a sea of combat. Ruby and her team were pressed into a corner, and it didn't seem like they'd be able to escape. The Grimm outnumbered them a million to one, and they were growing tired, unable to fight on.

Blake was the first to fall. After using her semblance one too many times, her aura broke, and the sea of Grimm swallowed her whole. The loss was terrible; not only had team RWBY and the world just lost one of their last defenders, and a true friend, but the Grimm that Blake had been holding back moved in to surround the rest of the team.

Yang was next. She had been fighting close to Blake, and the influx of Grimm that her partner had been holding back overwhelmed her, and though she had some small respite from a burst of power, courtesy of her semblance, she still failed in the end. At the very least, she went down swinging.

Weiss and Ruby were the last ones standing. They were all that remained between Salem, and her goal. Shade academy, the last bastion of humanity. Try as they might, they were unable to overcome the odds.

When Weiss died, her final act was to surround her teammate and partner in a shroud of flame, purging the surrounding area of Grimm.

As the last one standing, Ruby let loose with all that she could muster, the power of her silver eyes turned legions of Grimm to stone, only to have more fill the gap. At this point, Shade had already been overrun, the sheer amount of Grimm present had assured that.

Finally, the Grimm seemed to clear up, a clearing of open earth was revealed, and the Grimm made a wide berth around the exhausted Huntress. Just as hope sparked in Ruby's eyes, Salem made her appearance.

She strode into the clearing with confidence, a small victorious smile rested on her face as she walked leisurely to the hunched over form of Ruby. Coming to a stop only 2 or 3 feet away, Salem reached out and lifted Ruby's chin, meeting her eyes.

Silver stared into red, and to Ruby, it seemed that for a moment, the world stopped.

And then it shifted.

Ruby's head pounded, her whole body felt sore, and her neck had a throbbing pain. She realized that she was lying on the ground somewhere, the whole place felt… warm, but not overbearingly so, like a late spring afternoon.

As she sat up, Ruby opened her eyes and was greeted by the strange sight of her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that the ground she was sitting on was a soft white color, lacking definition or even depth, like it was made of plastic or marble. It seemingly had no texture either, though she found she could grip it and find traction quite easily.

She also noticed that she was sitting on a beach of some sort, the ground sloped down until it met the water of a rather large river, though the 'Water' of the river didn't seem quite… fluid, it was more of a fog, like a turquoise haze. She stood up and brushed herself off, then she stepped closer to the river.

After a short hesitation, she knelt and waved her hand through the shallow water, marveling as instead of feeling viscous as one would typically expect, she instead felt a light buoyancy, but no resistance to her hand. She moved her hand about some more and watched as light puffs of blue mist came up and off the river, disintegrating into nothingness as they traveled further away from the surface.

Standing back up, Ruby took in the rest of her surroundings, namely, that the sky was a uniform dull gray color, with a point light slowly traveling across the sky, and that she was alone in this white expanse, which seemed to only be populated by her, and large plates of off white metal that stuck up out of the ground.

Ruby sat in contemplative silence for a short moment before inspecting herself, taking inventory of what she had on her still, and of how injured she was. After a short examination, she found she still had Crescent Rose and all of her ammo. She also found that she was fine physically, if exhausted, and slightly sore.

Ruby sighed and spoke for the first time since arriving in this place. "Keep moving forward Rube…"

"A kind sentiment, young one. Though one you may not find very useful here, not for your purposes at least."

Ruby jumped, she began frantically looking around to find who had spoken to her. Her eyes eventually came to rest on a small boat in the river, standing on it was what appeared to be a man in a cloak holding a large staff that faded from gold at the top to purple at the bottom. The top of the staff curved forwards and a lantern made of off-white metal was hung from the overhang, lit with a small white flame.

The man had blue skin and heterochromatic eyes, his left being a bright silver color, and his right a jet black. His hair was a shaggy mop of black hair that turned silver and blue at the tips. He also had a very distinctive pair of lantern earrings on, his left had a golden lantern with a tiny silver flame inside, and his right a purple one with a pitch-black flame.

A small smile rested on his face as he watched the confused girl take in his appearance. He simply waited as she took him in, and after a short while, Ruby asked a question.

"Who… are you? …And, Where are we?"

The man smiled and responded, "Easy answers first, this place is called 'The Inbetween', some may call it the Ether, or Purgatory, or Limbo. Us locals much prefer our chosen name for it. Secondly, my name is Charan, I am the keeper of the river, and greeter to new souls. You, little one, are magic. And so when your life sadly came to a close, you were granted passage to the shores of this world."

Ruby sat, confused for a while, and the man, Charan, waited patiently. After a while, Ruby asked another question, "So… I'm… dead? Right?"

"Correct, little one."

"And this isn't the afterlife?" Ruby asked pointedly.

"Not quite. If it were your desire, you could have gone there, but when given the choice, your essence chose the Inbetween over the Great Beyond, and so, you woke up on our shores."

"Hmm… what all is here? I mean, I can't be the only one in history to come here, right?"

The man chuckled lightly, "No, you most assuredly are not. Why, even I once walked the mortal plane, oh so very long ago. I was among the first to come here, and I was chosen for my special task by the brothers. I have served faithfully ever since. Come, board my boat, and I will take you to the nearest village. Though I'm afraid you must pay the tithe."

"Tithe? What do you mean?"

"New souls must pay the tithe to get transport from the keeper of the river, residents can travel free, and visitors must pay double. Those are the rules, and I am bound by them. The tithe is simple, anything of value from the mortal plane will do, bar currency. Your lien chits will do you no good, it must be of objective value. If you cannot pay, then I cannot take you. You are free to attempt to find your own way, but the Nephilim and endless expanse have claimed many in the past. Fail to find your way to a village by land, and you will meet your end, one way, or another."

Ruby fumbled about for a bit, before pulling a dust refill for Myrtenaster out from her utility belt; Weiss had asked Ruby to carry them for her because her dress had no pockets. She handed one of the vials to Charan, and he inspected it for a short moment; He then reached up to his staff and opened the white metal lantern that hung from atop it. As the side of the lantern opened, the flame that was inside snuffed out, and he placed the vial of dust into it.

After closing the lantern, the flame inside sprung back to life, before quickly consuming the vial, and turning from its soft white color to a light blue. Charan nodded and extended a hand to Ruby, who accepted it and confusedly climbed aboard.

Not long after Ruby had sat down, Charan took his staff and gently pushed off of the shore, setting the boat adrift down the river. Ruby noticed that the boat seemed to be traveling at quite a high speed for the small shove Charan gave it, making its way down the river at an exceptionally fast rate, but curiously, no wind fought them on their way. Ruby grew curious about the inbetween, and decided to ask Charan more about the world she had found herself in. "Charan? What… Is this place, not like, as a dimension, but place wise."

Charan chuckled and responded kindly, "This river is known as The Great Divide, it is where mortal souls cross over, and it is what separates the two continents of this world. Yin and Yang, two halves, each containing a piece of the other.

"This world is the source of all magic, like the Grimm you fought during your time in the world of light, or the silver eyes that countered them. It all comes from here, in the Inbetween."

"And what about the metal sticking up out of the ground, and why are there no people?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

Charan smiled softly, "There are people here little one, they form villages and have trade, they get married, have children and watch them grow. They simply do not roam the wastes as I do, except to get metal. Speaking of, the metal is called Relic Iron, and it is mainly used in construction. Though, the waters of life and death can taint the metal, creating Relic Gold-" He gestured to the top of his staff, the golden colored half, he then gestured to the purple half, "-or Relic Steel.

"However, these metals are usually reserved for us spirits. There are 15 of us. I believe you have already met two of us, well, three counting me."

Ruby hummed. "So the spirits are here? I could meet Jinn? Or Ambrosius?"

Charan smiled. "Yes, yes you could. We spirits are residents of this world just as you now are, all of us once lived lives in the mortal worlds, and then in our time here, were chosen by the gods to ascend to spirit form, and assist humanity on its path."

Ruby was about to ask another question, her curiosity overflowing, but her attention was grabbed by the sight of something cresting the horizon. Up until this point, Ruby hadn't appreciated the sheer scale of the world she had found herself in, assuming it to be two islands separated by a river.

What she didn't, and could not have known at the time, was that each continent stretched on for a few thousand miles. Each one had four major cities, two minor cities, and thousands of small villages that dotted their landscape. As more of the object came into view, Ruby's jaw dropped. Before her stood a city the likes of which she had never seen. Houses and streets filled her view, as well as what appeared to be farmland on the edges of the urban metropolis. The neighborhoods seemed to go on and on, off into the distance. At the tip of the horizon, Ruby could make out more squared-off buildings, of different shapes and sizes; she presumed that that was the commercial district.

The more she scanned the city, the more small details she began to notice, like that there were more commercial districts dotting the city, none of them centralized. She also noticed a golden object beginning to peek its way over the horizon.

Ruby was startled out of her wonder by the voice of Charan. "Ah, the grand city of Knowledge, always a charming sight to see the accomplishments of man when not burdened by the Nephilim or Grimm."

Ruby looked up at him with a confused look on her face. "Huh? 'The City of Knowledge?' Why is it called that?"

Charan simply pointed to the horizon, where the golden object that had previously been obscured was now slowly coming into view. Ruby's jaw went slack all over again. Before her, in what seemed to be the dead center of the massive city, was the Relic of Knowledge. However, this version had to be 100 times larger, taking up a few dozen city blocks. Just judging by eye alone she figured that the lamp section, which was sunk into the ground, was at least a mile in diameter at its largest, the sheer size and starkly different color to the rest of the city made it stand out all the more.

"I-Is th-that? T-The Relic of Knowledge?" Ruby asked, stuttering slightly in amazement.

Charan smiled softly, "Yes, yes it is, The relic stands in its true splendor here in the inbetween; while it is but a small trinket in your world, in ours, it is a monument, a beacon of knowledge for all. Many mathematicians, scholars, and scientists flock to this city in hopes to earn enough to ask the relic their questions, and gain the knowledge they desire. Though not all of the residents of this city are of that vein, many simply choose to live quiet lives here, awaiting the day they find their calling."

Ruby simply let out a small "Wooow." As stars shone in her eyes as she took in the vast sight of the city as a whole with childlike wonder. As they traveled down the river further, Ruby could see a dock coming up, the pale white metal that the whole city seemed to use as construction material formed a small dock connected to a boardwalk. The dock went out into the river just a few yards, and was tipped off by a post with a golden lantern hanging from it, a similar flame to the one within Charan's lantern burned within it.

The boat slowed to a stop at the edge of the dock, and Charan gestured to Ruby to step out onto the ground. Ruby did so, but as she opened her mouth to bid farewell to Charan, he put a finger up.

Charan opened his lantern, the flame was still a light blue color. He reached in and gently cupped the flame, pulling it out and letting it rest in his palm, he then reached over and opened the lantern attached to the dock, placing the blue flame inside. After closing it, they both watched as the flame grew to fill the lantern, turning the inside a uniform blue color. Charan then spoke softly, "Open the lantern, and insert the hand you would place a watch on into the flame."

Ruby tentatively did so, and marveled as her hand passed straight through the blue haze, and then after a short moment, the blue color began to glow slightly, curling in on itself and coalescing on her wrist in the form of a small band. Then, after a few seconds, the blue circle of swirling mist solidified into a golden bracelet, presumably made of relic gold. It was covered in small swirling designs, like depictions of wind in old artwork. On the top of the band, was a symbol embossed into it. To Ruby's surprise, it looked just like a Yin-Yang. Ruby turned her attention to Charan, who had been patiently watching.

"What… what is this?"

Charan smiled softly once again, "That is a resident band, It will grant you passage with any of the guide spirits, myself included. It also demarcates where you are residing, the symbol of the inbetween is on that one, it will change according to where you choose to reside later. You will find it fits perfectly, and you can take it off should you so desire. I believe you can even get it changed to another type of jewelry at certain shops. Now, on to the ceremony. Ruby Rose, I have granted you passage, should you ever truly need my services again, all you need to do is come to the river, and I will be there. Please, step onto the boardwalk."

Ruby did so, after a small, "Goodbye Charan!" and a wave, she turned around, not noticing the dock and the spirit vanishing from sight behind her, leaving behind just another section of regular boardwalk.

After a short moment of contemplation on the boardwalk, Ruby began to take in her surroundings. The point light in the sky hadn't moved very far since she arrived, only seeming to reach what seemed like mid-afternoon. The boardwalk was sparsely populated, Ruby could see people going about their business, not seeming to pay her any mind.

The area surrounding where she was seemed like it was just any other part of the city, Ruby decided to just walk around and see what was nearby, and maybe she would find someone to explain to her just how this strange world worked, beyond what minimal details Charan had provided her.

It was then that Ruby was startled slightly by the soft vibrating of her resident band, upon bringing it up, like one would to read a watch, she found that the symbol on the top of the band had started glowing a soft blue, with a line of blue smoke trailing off of it in one direction.

Ruby looked up and saw that the smoke led up the boardwalk a small ways, and then turned down a city street. She also saw that nobody seemed to pay the line any mind, as if it wasn't even there, or it was such a common occurrence that it was just normal.

Ruby looked around, and then shrugged and began following the blue smoke, walking down the winding path it took her through the city.

As Ruby moved inland, she noticed her surroundings changing, instead of the stark white metal facades that populated the boardwalk, the homes she walked past had siding made of differing types of wood, none of them a regular color, she noticed several that were colored silver, along with a few deep red and blue wood sidings. Curiously, the color of the sidings appeared to be the color of the wood itself rather than paint.

Continuing on, she reached what seemed like a higher-class neighborhood, with houses starting to have lawns and gardens. The gardens of most houses had multicolored flowers of all types, but none that she recognized, some of them gave off particles and other effects, seeming magical in origin. The lawns were particularly interesting, the grass had a strange translucent gray color, like foggy glass, and the actual ground looked more granular and dirt-like than the smooth glass-like slope she had arrived on.

After nearly a half hour of walking, Ruby found herself in a commercial district. There were considerably more people walking around, making their way to buy products, or simply heading to one destination or another. Ruby followed the blue line to one of the buildings in the main square of the district. The building had a sign hung out front that read 'Orientation and Immigration, Portside district'. After she read the sign, Ruby walked in.

The first thing Ruby noticed was the silence, the hustle and bustle of people walking around had died down considerably, and was replaced with the soft crackling of fire in lanterns. The room she had walked into had no windows and appeared to be a small clerk's office with 3 booths, one of which was occupied, there were several white lanterns lit with small blue flames hung up around the room lighting it up. After looking around for a moment, she followed the blue line further, into one of the open booths, where it terminated.

Ruby closed the booth door behind her and looked around, the booth was small, with a counter and a pane of glass that had a golden lantern hung on it. There wasn't a person on the other side of the glass, but there was a small sign hung at the top of it, the sign read, 'Place your resident band within the lantern and close it to get started.'

Ruby looked at her wrist, and then at the gold lantern that was attached to the glass. She shrugged, and grabbed the resident band, pulling it off with surprising ease. Then she opened the lamp and placed her resident band on the floor of the empty chamber. Upon closing it, she jumped a little when her resident band lit up with a bright blue flame that quickly filled the lantern, she then noticed that the glass had also become an opaque turquoise color.

After a few seconds, the color in the glass began to change and coagulate, forming into several groups that eventually cleared up into text, and an image.

On the glass was a photo of Ruby in the outfit she was wearing, along with some key information:

Ruby Rose
House of Rose:
House Status: Uncontacted
Soul Number: 1,277,711,648L
Timeline: 37/50
Residency Status: New Soul
Immigration Status: N/A
Time Spent in the Inbetween: 1hr 7min
Age at Death: 19 Years, 157 Days, 8 Hours, 41 Minutes, 8~ Seconds
Time of Death: Second Age, Year 4802, Day 97, Hour 14, Minute 12, Second 32.593832…
Location of death: Largest Continent of the Light World
Method of Death: Dark Magic applied to head
Magic Type: Innate-Light, Silver Eyes

Total Allotment: 15 Local, 10 Regional, 5 of _ (User Choice)
Total Accommodation: Hotel located at 174832 Portside Ln, Room 214. 7 days prepaid by the city.

For locational accommodations and information, please locate the nearest information center. If you require assistance in locating something, simply attempt to activate your magic while looking at your resident band, and thinking of the location. It will guide you toward what you seek.

Please select a City to receive currency from: Choice, Destruction, Creation, Hope, or Progress. Speak aloud to choose.

After looking over the information, Ruby pulled her scroll out of her pocket, checking first that it still worked, she snapped a photo of the glass pane. She then softly said aloud, "hmm… Hope."

Suddenly, blue smoke came out from the counter, gathering into a small pile that solidified into a bag. Inside the bag, there were 30 relic gold coins with differing symbols, 15 had the symbol of Haven on them, 10 had the white half of a Yin-Yang etched into both sides, and 5 had a Rose design on them. Ruby opened the bag and examined them, before closing it and turning her attention to the glass. On the glass was a short paragraph:

Thank you for undergoing Orientation/Immigration, please open the lantern and place the hand you would place a timepiece on in it to receive your resident band.

Ruby blinked and looked at the lantern, after a second she opened the lantern and stuck her hand into it, and just as it had on the dock, the blue haze coalesced onto her wrist, forming a band.

Ruby held the band up and her eyes widened as she saw the symbol of Haven where the Yin-Yang previously was. Humming to herself Ruby left the booth and walked back out onto the street. Ruby then brought her band up and focused, attempting to use her silver eyes while thinking about an information center.

After a short moment of concentration, the Symbol on the bracelet began to glow a bright blue, smoke rolled out of it and began pointing in a direction, forming a line in midair traveling down the road.

Ruby followed the blue trail, walking for another 10 minutes or so through the weaving streets of the city. At the end of the trail was a small building on the side of the pathway that had a sign hung up on the door that read, 'CLOSED FOR THE NIGHT'.

Ruby huffed, she had been wandering around the City for just under an hour at this point and all she had to show for it was a few coins and an address, and now she had to wait a whole day for more information.

Though she was slightly dejected, Ruby decided to press on and find her hotel. She once again used her band to locate the address, looking at the photo she took with her scroll to remember the exact numbers.

After another forty minutes of walking, Ruby found herself near the boardwalk once more, the hotel was a small two-story affair, only seeming to take up a single corner space. Ruby walked in and was greeted by the hostess, she was a fair-looking woman wearing what looked like olden days casualwear, she had a woven shirt and a woolen jacket on, the rest of her was hidden behind the silver-colored wooden desk. "Hi! Welcome to Scholar's Rest! You seem… lost. You must be new here, That must mean you have a city-paid stay correct?"

Ruby was taken aback by the inquisitiveness of this woman but nodded anyway. The woman continued, "Ah, alrighty then, all I'll need is your soul number and timeline, do you have them? If not there's a booth down the hall to view your ID.

Ruby shook her head while pulling out her scroll, she looked at the photo she had taken once more and told the woman, "No, no, I have them, my soul number is one billion, two hundred seventy-seven million, seven hundred eleven thousand, six hundred forty-eight L. And my timeline is thirty-seven out of fifty."

The woman nodded before rifling through some oddly colored paper, eventually landing on something. She stood up and handed Ruby a key with a piece of paper attached, "Ruby Rose right? Welcome to the inbetween, feel free to look around. If by the end of your stay you would like to extend it, all it will take is one local or regional, and your stay will be extended for another week. Enjoy!"

Ruby waved farewell and traveled further into the building up to the second floor and into her room. The hotel was quaint, there seemed to be not much to the place, a small pool of actual water was present in a side room, as well as a small gym that appeared to be sparsely equipped, just some free weights and mats spread around on racks. Ruby also noticed the booth the hostess had mentioned, it looked just like the one at the orientation office, but the lantern was white, not gold.

Eventually, Ruby made her way to her room, unlocked the silver door's white lock, and stepped inside. The room was sparsely furnished, with a bed framed with a red wood, and a few chairs, along with a desk made of the same wood. The mattress itself was nothing of note, perhaps the most interesting thing about it was just how utterly plain it was. There was also a window on the far wall, covered up by some red-colored curtains.

After settling in, Ruby looked out the window and examined the surrounding area. Everything in this world was strange… Magical IDs, the white metal that seemingly everything was made of, even the wood and paper were off… It rubbed her the wrong way, like there was something more to this world she was missing.

Resigning herself to trying to sleep while her mind remained abuzz with questions, Ruby stood up and dressed down, crawling into the bed with a dejected sigh.

Maybe tomorrow she would find answers, she hoped.