-0-

Following the first two hours, Sun spent his time with Neptune handling the tourist's protection, as was their job. Those guys who'd arrived with V left around half an hour after he disappeared into the rock. Around six hours later they were let go from their duty, free to do as they wished and paid straight up for the day's work.

For the week to come, Neptune and him would return to check for a few minutes or so, asking around town to see if V had popped out at some point. He never did, and they were hence back on the grind. Having spendable cash to cover their rent and a little bit extra was nice, but every passing day only made him more worried.

That would all change when word of Atlas ships passing through came into play, and seeing as V was out of commission still, he and Nep opted to see what all the fuss was about.

"Sorry, but we're not open to the public."

"C'mon man." Sun wasn't exactly having the greatest of times getting through. "At least cut us a little slack and share with a brother."

"I'm not your brother."

Okay, so that didn't work.

While he was in the midst of thinking about possibly sneaking inside under the cover of nightfall, a familiar - and dare he say joyful - voice called out to him.

"Sun! Is that you?"

Thank Dust. It relieved him to see someone on the other side of the fence of people rush out to greet him, doubly so that it was a friend. Weiss appeared to be doing good, although her style apparently went through a bit of an overhaul. Still, she kept her oversized ponytail, so recognising her based on looks remained possible.

"Hey hey!" Catching her in a little hug, he twirled her around before lifting her up, totally catching her off guard. Weiss, being a good sport - or so he liked to think - withheld any comments about inappropriate behaviors leading to rumors and whatnot. "How's it going?"

"Smooth." Nep leaned in, sporting a hushed tone and a stagnant flat look. Spitting a small raspberry, Sun returned his focus on to Weiss before setting her back down, to which she briefly worked on correcting any wrinkling his spin brought on. Fixing her battle skirt, she cleared her throat before looking up at him, a little red in the cheeks but otherwise fine.

"It's good to see you both again. How have things been?"

"Eh, I'd say so-so." Flipping the motion with his hand, he settled it on his hip before gazing around half heartedly with a grin. "Can't do too much with the world going through its constant crisis and whatever, but we've managed. Got our hunter's license and have been a part of Vacuo's defense for a total of..." Quickly he leaned over towards Neptune and whispered, "How long have we been doing this?"

"About a year."

"About a year!"

Sun took her giggling as a positive sign, happy that he hadn't totally blundered things. From behind, he spied the others as well who watched mostly from afar. Each of them seemed alright, but as he'd come to learn over the following rest of the day...

Things weren't so good.

"Bummer." Yeah, everything had been a bummer, but he had even more... slightly questionable info to add, which then perked everyone's ears. "Hey, listen. You're probably not going to like this, but we have seen V."

"Really, where?" Ruby's insistence came off a bit pushy, but he himself pushed it aside considering things. He wasn't a master of critical thinking, sure, but Sun was about as aware as your average joe. When they began mumbling off mentions of magic and reincarnation, it probably should have had him rolling his eyes. But the thing was: he trusted them. They - and especially their uncle hanging by the front of the little secluded patch of desert they'd chosen to hang around - wouldn't pull a fast one that ridiculous on him.

Plus... the two they'd told him took V had, bar for bar, matched the pair who'd come along with him.

V himself was strange in his own right, but Sun was willing to go along with things no matter how crazy they were; his scars, even now, stood as proof of his commitment to his friends. And besides, restoring global communications seemed like a killer idea, and one he was sure would help turn the tide of whatever battles they had to face.

Even the apparent Queen Of Grimm.

.

.

-2-

"Sir."

"Specialist Schnee," Ironwood greeted, feeling himself relax from the presence of a familiar face. Although, he figured she was here more so with a report than for casual banter. He'd been proven right with her approaching and carrying an open set of plans on her scroll.

"We've got word from the technicians working on the engines that we'll need at least twice as much Dust as currently in stock to keep ourselves airborne for the coming two months."

"Mhmm." Humming as he mulled over the fact, he twisted an eye towards the scene ahead. From atop the bow of their currently docked battleship within the still waves of the Grand Vacuo Desert, a part of him wondered just how hostile the kingdom itself remained. "And how is construction back in Vale?"

"Moving at a steady pace," Winter clarified, removing the visible plans of the hologram and pulling up a graph. "If they keep it steady, construction may be finished within the expected time frame."

"Not before?"

"Vale's making things exceedingly difficult according to Robin and Clover." Yep, that tracked. The council, while conceding to their proposal thanks to legal documentation Ozpin had in preparation for this very scenario - although, James doubted he'd expect it to play out as it had - they were able to secure Emerald Forest with little pushback. However, while they had the machinery to clear the forest thanks to the staff, getting it done without the council stepping in with their constant badgering made for irritating work.

Really, he should have been thankful they hadn't slowed production; the shelters would be finished at least.

"And have Roman and Neo been behaving?" While domesticated in a sense, the pair still maintained their habit of... "ludacris trickery," as the men liked to call it.

"Other than rumors of the council "misplacing" several official papers permitting things like search warrants and their own personal supervision over the Beacon Housing Project, nothing."

Well, at least their efforts for small-scale thievery were being used to their benefit.

"If you get the chance, send them a message to avoid doing anything too drastic." The last thing they needed was Vale's official heads of office catching on and having a genuine reason to pause the work going down in Beacon."

"Of course. I'll see to it next time we trade supplies."

With that out of the way, there were a few things James wanted to check up on.

"Good. And, if it's not too much of a bother: how is your family doing?" A bit personal, but when it came to Jacques Schnee, you could never be too careful. From the way she sighed, he could swear she so badly wished to roll her eyes.

"Most are well off. Mother is settling into things aboard the ship, mostly keeping an eye on little brother while he takes tutoring under Dr Polendina."

That had been an interesting change to things as well. Apparently, the boy had, at some point, become... intrigued by Penny. But rather than grow to fear her, or idolize her, he wished to understand what went into her. Pietro talked of his curiosity towards the process of her creation, and why she's so much more real than any other project seeking to do the same. This, strangely, led into talks over the good doctor's own personal work, including his research into V's strange aura readings.

Getting along well had put the boy on the path of, perhaps, becoming a decent scientific mind in his own right, and his desire to improve himself trumped any of the shortcomings born of lacking experience, which could be ironed out as he grew - something his father should take a cue from.

"I see, and what of your grandfather?"

"He's... living." Nicolas Schnee hadn't been in the best of states when they'd gotten him on board, but with his inability to really hold on to new memories for more than a day at most, it was merely a matter of time before he fell off completely. "His mind has gotten worse; he's forgetting little things only an hour after he learns them. It's not a major issue yet, but..."

"It is... unfortunate," James admitted, gently carrying on with, "But from what I'm hearing from those tending to him, he's content."

"That's him," Winter solemnly smiled, "If there is any upside to his condition, it's that he's no longer swamped with depression and regret. He seems to have moved on from his choice to hand the company over to Jacques, and spends most days just teasing the workers in some fashion or another; they themselves don't seem to mind."

"That's good. It's nice having a positive force in play for a change, even if it's not under the brightest of circumstances." And now, on to the main man of the group, and the one on his mind most. "Speaking of your father, how is he taking on his duties?"

For the first time since her arrival, Ironwood bore witness to an outright evil smirk.

"He hates it."

"That's a given." And so he put up his own. "But I've a feeling there's more to it than that."

"He can barely hammer straight, and he has workers not even half his age teaching him where, and where not, to cut with a saw; constant supervision from what I've been told."

Putting Jacques Schnee on the frontlines of the Beacon Housing Project had been a bit of a risk, but seeing as the man so badly wanted to debate doing better by the people - before the camera feed of the Atlas Elections, of course - then he figured the best way for Jacques to do so was by aiding in the work they wanted done directly. Jacques Schnee, kneeling in the mud and clearing away stones to level the ground for framing: the mere image of that alone had James holding back laughs.

"So it's a bit of a challenge then?" Settling his hands behind his back, he added, "I hope he hasn't been causing problems."

"Nope~" Winter's sass only elevated the mood. "He's slow, but they have him working on superficial components with a small team. And the best part: they're all Faunus, including his supervisor."

Ah yes: karmic retribution. Upon Winter and Qrow's investigations, James himself had confronted Jacques midway through the trip to Beacon. Seeing as he had no immediate idea of how to punish the man for his crimes of treachery, he held off on doing anything drastic. However, with Ambrosius giving them the tools to start construction and Ozpin's legal ownership of the Emerald Forest, the thought to have Jacques physically apply himself to a project that not only helped Faunus directly, but also made him no profits, became a no-brainer.

It was either that, he offered, or permanent incarceration: Jacques, being a generally clever - if deceptive - man at his core, made the wise choice.

Allowing some peace to fall between them anew, James redirected his questions on to a more... unsettled figure.

"How is Miss Rose holding up?"

And that was how you killed any semblance of joy between comrades: mention a budding issue. Not that Ruby was at fault in any way, but she'd not exactly taken V's departure all that well. James recalled her frantic calls towards him back when he'd split the sky, fearful and having to be held back as he leapt away. She'd settled down, of course, but her sour demeanor never fully left.

"I haven't gotten word yet, but I'd assume she's reached the spot."

"She was desperate to check out that mine, wasn't she?" James called the whole fiasco unsettling, especially since you couldn't really verify "my friend said he saw an obelisk there" at all. None of her team recalled the Wukong boy ever saying such, but with him already having left for Vacuo before they'd even come to Atlas, it couldn't easily be contested. In the end, and due to her apparent certainty, James himself permitted a small ship to trail from the main course and drop the girls off.

"Then all we can do is hope," he announced firmly, in a strong, but understanding tone of voice. "It's carried us this far, so perhaps it may take us the rest of the way."

.

.

-5-

"Ruby?"

Yang was never a woman to easily give into fear; not since she'd centered herself on being the guardian her little sister needed. Creeping into the bedroom, she spied Ruby laying flat atop her bed.

"Rubes?" she tried again, cautiously taking a few steps in. "You awake?"

Upon getting no answer, she made her approach and gave the girl a little shake.

"Come on," she attempted again, a bit more forceful. "I... I know how you feel, trust me." Yang couldn't help the tears welling in her eyes. "They were my friends too, but we can't just give up. If we do, their sacrifice will be in vain."

"They were supposed to run." Ruby croaked out, sending a small shock through Yang's heart. She'd finally gotten through, but the absolute agony in her sister's voice only served to salt her already aching wounds. "I told them to run if things got bad…"

"Yeah... But you know as well as I do that they wouldn't abandon the others like that."

"But they're no good dead!" The shout reverberated through the cushion her face lay buried within, and her pounding fist only made a soft thump as it smashed effortlessly against the bed, digging into the cushioning and letting little more than a flat thump echo into the air. "They... t-they can't save anyone dead."

"Ruby..." Gently, Yang pulled her little sister into a small embrace. "Getting worked up over it won't help either. I know it's hard, I really do, but it was their choice."

"I told you." The venom of which she muttered only made Yang's heart ache worse. "I told you they might not work. I told everyone that Salem might have something in store! But NOBODY LISTENED!"

Yes, she did, and while it hadn't made sense initially, none of them could discount what had happened. And now, even V had up and disappeared, in Salem's grasp and off to who knows where. Everything had gone wrong, and none of them knew what to do about it. All Yang could think to do was comfort her sister as best she could, and hope they could find him fast.

.

.

-17-

"I won't let you go!"

"Get out of my way." V's commands meant nothing to her, not anymore.

Feeling the dead charcoal stair on her did nothing to dissuade Ruby, and she took a battle stance matching his no-nonsense attitude with a fierceness all her own. For the first time, she'd managed to get back to this point, with JNPR now alongside them for the battle against Cinder. It cost them Pietro's shop, and ended with her lambasting her own team upon Jinn's reveal of Ozpin's history, but Ruby felt it gave her a deeper relationship with her son.

And now, here he stood: readying his stance to force her to move.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said, and for a second she saw what looked like genuine feeling in his eyes.

"Neither do I, but I'm not going to let you run off on your own." If he left her here and now, then there was a chance JNPR would die as they got motioned off to the front lines following the evacuation plot. He'd already split the sky, shattering the shield and letting the Grimm in, making this the critical apex where he'd leave them for good.

"I can't let Salem get away."

"We're not letting her get away," Ruby clarified, hoping it would work in halting V's advance. "We're just getting the people out of here first." When that didn't stagger his stance, she tried spoiling things a tiny bit. "I'm sure General Ironwood has some ideas for how to tackle a direct invasion from Salem - he had one for Robyn after all."

The aforementioned woman was most likely mumbling something along the lines of "put a sock in it" right now, but if her words could reach V, then it didn't matter how annoying they came off. To some extent, it did... something, to him. He let up on his stance, and for a second she thought she'd actually won for once, until he crouched. She recognised that low dip, and outpacing even her speed, he rocketed up and over.

Ruby got no further than a couple of blocks before Raven hauled her back by hand, and it took nearly everyone present to wear her down through battle before her already tired body gave in and passed out - even having fought through a broken aura just to have a chance.

.

.

-76-

Fighting through the chaos, Pyrrha wondered where it all went wrong.

Bit by bit, blood and smoke abandoned his body, but the light had already faded from V's eyes. She wasn't sure how he found her, or why Ruby seemed to pay his passing no mind; everything, to her, had become little more than a dream.

"Oh, I'm sorry~" Cinder leaned back beyond Ruby's swipe, grinning wide with a cocky flair to her movements. "Was he important to you?"

Ruby kept up her silence, merely swaying along the melody of battle, almost like she had during the night of the dance, before she'd slipped off without a word. Everything the leader of Beacon's infamous Team RWBY did in this fight echoed dream-like radiance. Over the past year, Ruby had been the one outspoken voice when it came to understanding and advocating for V as a decent person.

To see her not even caring he died of a stab wound through the heart from one of Cinder's own arrows had Pyrrha leaning into this all being a dream.

But the blood on her arm, even if evaporating into mist, was unbearably warm, and the day itself moved both consistent and unpredictable, revealing this all to be real. Incarceration; escape; and rescue: she couldn't make sense of the dying man who'd come out of nowhere to save her.

"What's wrong, little rose?" Cinder taunted again, swelling up the powers of the Fall Maiden in her hands. "Upset that you're woefully outclassed."

Ruby smiled brightly, catching even the now flying menace fairly off beat.

"Nope!" Holding her scythe with one hand now, she playfully exclaimed, as her eyes began to glow, "I was just waiting for you to show your weakness. Say hello to the brothers for me, would you?"

The blinding glow to illuminate the distraught CCT hurt even Pyrrha's eyes, and accompanying a bloodcurdling scream that certainly wasn't her own or Ruby's, a slick meaty thump hit the ground. As the light did die down, Ruby flicked the blood from her weapon before sheathing it and twisting away from Cinder's headless corpse like she'd simply handed in an assignment. When Pyrrha thus saw the way the usually chipper young leader's eyes carried nothing more than cool relaxation, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, it was upon being offered a casual hand up - as V's body fully turned to dust - that Pyrrha finally felt it.

Uncontrollable fear.

.

.

-205-

Lifting her head from the makeshift pillow, Ruby rolled over.

The cold midnight air had gotten to her, and she was shivering even under their covers. Sun was right: deserts really were freezing at night. But what could they really do? Vale was nothing but a wash of muddy black from Salem's Grimm Ocean: a final move she'd seen only a scarce few times, which flooded the land quickly and swallowed everything in its wake - flora included.

"C-can't sleep?" Sun asked, shivering right next to her. She nodded, and he chuckled a little himself, pulling her in tighter. "Yeah. T-the nights have been getting colder, haven't they?"

"Yep." That wasn't the only thing that had grown unbearably cold.

"Hmm?" Sun wore his concern proudly when she pushed off and stood, shivering and naked under the midnight breeze. Really, he was no better, but most of their clothing sat atop their covers in an attempt to insulate their little sandy cocoon. "What's up?"

"I just need to... go, you know?" Ruby had long since abandoned the notion of embarrassment for stating personal things, and so too had Sun.

"You want your coat then?" He picked it from the top and handed it her way, but she turned it down.

"I'll just be a bit, don't worry."

"Alright."

She made off after that, but not before passing by the small hut parallel to their own. Amongst the ruins of Kiaʻi o Nalo, where V stumbled across his first obelisk. Ironically, this had been Remnant's last stand multiple times, and each and every one ended with her friends and family erased from the land, and Salem summoning the brother gods. Perhaps that was why she took the staff from the wall. Part of her wanted to ask Jinn, but using a question in secret without telling her only surviving companion just didn't sit right with her.

Besides, Ruby had a feeling she already knew the answer; she just wanted a second opinion.

Shivering hard at the edge of town with no one around, save the shattered remains of ruins, Ruby called forth Ambrosius once again. His arrival remained as silent as before, and he appeared to catch her solitude.

"Let me guess: everyone's all gone, right?"

"I have Sun."

"But one isn't enough, is it?"

"When has it ever been?"

"That's fair." Sighing, Ambrosius shrunk to human size and sat back against the ruined wall, inviting her over. She accepted, of course, and settled into his side. Despite being born of the gods, the guardians of the relics were shockingly warm and lively, carrying all the boons of a human body while negating the weaknesses - although the lack of a cock meant she couldn't expect more than head if she ever fell so low into degeneracy as a way to cope with the constant failures evoking unbridled insanity. For once she'd like to succeed; just once.

"I wanted to ask you for your take again."

"Like always, right?" She nodded, cuddling her face into him more, and earning another level of pity. "Okay, lay it on me."

"We've lost again, haven't we?"

"Afraid so."

"Figures." With little hope left, Ruby mounted him, not so much for lucrative activities but rather because she wanted to speak face to face, all the while staying warm and without having to twist her neck all over the place. "Do you think I'll ever make it? Will we ever see a world where things go right, I mean."

A tiny complacent grin fell into place, even if what he had to offer wasn't all that grand.

"Who can say? But if you're asking for my personal opinion, then I think you might."

"Even after all my failures?"

"I told you before that things wouldn't be easy; many times at that. But no matter what, you keep coming up with new ideas to go through things." A mischievous grin sprinkled across his cheeks. "Like that time you said "forget it" to Beacon and joined Roman Torchwick's side, turning the dastardly duo into the terrible trio."

"Or that time I took on Cinder as my tutor under Salem." At which point she'd stabbed her in the back and fled. This drew a wide smirk from Ambrosius, who'd been the one to forge the arrow itself, solely for the sake of popping the woman like a balloon.

"What about when you became the head of the White Fang, and got yourself crowned empress of Menagerie with the help of Kali?"

"That was fun," she admitted, only to drop her budding playfulness right after. "Although it didn't matter when Salem rolled around."

"Maybe not, but think about it: you're slowly finding ways to distance things from how they should be; far as I recall, you couldn't really do that as much before." The world kept pushing for things to happen a certain way, and while that was probably due to the fact it was set up for such due to her only ever hopping into past events she'd already lived through, Ruby couldn't help but feel she was making progress.

"I am... but, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I still don't understand how it all works. Everything is very clearly how it was when I go back-"

"Not going back; we've been over this." Ambrosius cut her off, and she puffed her cheeks, crossing her arms too.

"Yeah, and that's what bothers me. You keep saying I'm not going back and changing things, but when what makes that true, you clam up. Do you ever plan on telling me why that is, or what's even happening?"

"Sorry, but you know I can't." Like always, he was genuinely remorseful, so her own irritation towards him didn't last long. "You set this up, not me. I tried telling you before, but I could never get the words out in a way you could understand; a part of me thinks that was your doing too; the crown can be picky like that when it comes to its work, leaving behind side effects even I myself have a hard time standing. Remnant cannot support traversal back through time, but it still altered the world in a way to provoke the illusion of such."

Which she still couldn't wrap her head around at all, but she'd long ago given up on fawning over that riddle. Following this, she sat in silence; any real distaste of his explanation wholly non-existent since she'd grown so used to it.

"Okay. But tell me this then: am I even making a difference?"

With this, Ambrosius smiled, pure with what he told her.

"More than you could ever know."

Author's note

…

Not going to lie: I'm not satisfied with this one. But to be honest, I was never going to be.

You can probably tell what's going on here, and what it means. I debated carrying this out over the course of three or so chapters, slowly leading into the reveal of what the above meant in terms of the story, but that wouldn't do anything other than add a tiny bit of suspense to a point that doesn't need it. We've been waiting long enough already, so getting it all out in one chapter is sufficient.

Coming up, we reach the pinnacle of everything built up until now, where everything hinges on a make or break scenario. There ain't no way around it, and that's for the better: this has been going on long enough, and needs to end. Personally speaking, I'm shocked it managed to stay mostly the same throughout all of this: the ending remains on track for its original outline.

But, of course, that's up to all of you to decide. The final arch carries through a few more chapters, but we're here, and it all starts next time.

Until then.