Everything You Know Is Wrong
"Come on, Penn... Think about it, just keep thinking..."
Reason's voice was there, but growing weaker as she was drowned out. He shook his head, though it did little to clear the fog in his brain. He rose to his feet in the hopes that pacing would help him outrun the toxic thoughts beginning to bubble up from his subconscious. Thoughts of the numerous ways one could escape a room without ever leaving it. Thoughts of what his sharp teeth and a set of shoelaces could accomplish together.
You know, this is why solitary confinement is considered a human rights violation for anyone under 18... he thought to himself.
He didn't even need to see to pace the wall. He'd memorized the dimensions of his cell within two days. Well... two periods between long sleeps. That was how he measured time in here, in perfect darkness.
Within a few steps, he was already feeling the torturous exhaustion in his chest crying out against the exertion. He didn't WANT to move. But he had to at least TRY to get away from the bad thoughts. He wanted to just lay down and never move again, but the dark here... it wasn't warm. It wasn't full. It was void. It gnawed at him, pulled out the bad thoughts like poison from a wound so that they could fill it and surround him.
"Without our meds it's only gonna get worse..." Reason whined.
Where's an SRI when you need it, huh? Penn ran his hand over his head.
He only paced along a single wall. The other side of the room belonged to it. He didn't know what it was that he was sharing a cell with, he had assumed it was some creature of Grimm, but on occasion he would glance over and spot a pair of glowing red eyes, fangs somehow shining without light. It radiated hunger and cruelty, but it didn't leave its place. It only growled and glowered, warning him when he made an incorrect move. He couldn't leave a small sliver of the room against the far wall. Any more than a step away from the wall and the thing would let loose a warning that made him press himself into the mortar with renewed enthusiasm. He'd once tried walking towards the door and gotten a heavy paw swatted across his chest for his trouble, leaving a set of painful gashes over his torso.
So he stayed to his small sliver of the room, surrendering to his monstrous warden. Some days it still wasn't satisfied, advancing on him and lunging towards him until he had been pressed into the furthest corner, curled into a ball so tight he could barely breathe.
Other days, he didn't need the monster to torture him. He could swear that the wall he was up against would start pushing inwards, forcing him towards the creature. The air would get hot and muggy, and he thought he could hear the low breathing of some great beast as if he were sitting directly in its mouth. He had wondered if he was about to be swallowed alive by the walls, themselves, forced down the gullet of the castle and thrown into a vat of acid until there was nothing left of him. At least once every few hours he'd become sure that the air was running out as his breath came in shorter and shorter gasps, desperately clawing at the atmosphere for some scrap of satisfactory oxygen. They were panic attacks, he knew, but with every other sense muted and atrophying away, the pain in his chest and his desperation for air were magnified until they defined his entire existence.
He was relatively certain those usually ended with passing out, but he couldn't be certain. There was little difference between awake and asleep here. Sleep was just a way to pass the time until the monster was calm, a way to hurry along another day. At first it had been able to give him a reprieve from his depressed and fearful thoughts, but his mind had grown remarkably good at picking back up where it left off. He would start one train of thought before he fell asleep, and find himself still riding it when he woke up. This led to his primary activity outside of pacing the wall: laying on the floor, wishing for sleep to come so that he would stop thinking about the truth of his situation. There was no escape. There was no way out through cold stone walls. There wasn't anything left to do except make sure Salem couldn't use his knowledge to her advantage...
"Think about it, Penn!"
R-right... symptoms of solitary confinement. Claustrophobia, check. Depression? Heck, had that before we even got here, check. Hallucinations, both auditory and visual... He reached up, feeling the long lines of scabbing across his torso. I think we've confirmed that the monster isn't one, so those haven't quite set in, yet. Insomnia? Somehow, yes. I can never sleep when I actually WANT to, any more.
"Is it insomnia if you're trying to sleep twenty-four hours a day? Loss of appetite, dizziness, heart palpitations... Check, check... and given our panic attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if the third one had happened a few times..."
The overwhelming silence was finally broken by the sound of a metal latch being lifted. His head snapped up, only to immediately turn away again as light flooded into the room through the open door. He could tell from the lithe figure's outline that it was Salem who had come to visit him. The light was blinding and a a stark opposite to the darkness he'd been sitting in, making it impossible to make out anything except for her. She silently glided over to him, even as he pushed himself into the far corner of the room. She glanced around the cell, clicking her tongue in disapproval.
"Barbaric, isn't it? Contrary to what you may believe about me, I DO loathe doing this to you." She reached out her hand, placing a sharp nail under his chin and turning his head to face her. Her red eyes glowed, and her face held a soft expression of pity. It felt genuine, that look in her eyes. It was almost enough to make him want to trust her. "I have an exceptional eye for talent, Penn."
She knew. She freaking KNEW that was a nickname for friends only. But he couldn't stop her from using it.
"I can tell that you are being wasted in your current calling. Working under Torchwick? Working off a debt to Sunset Shimmer that you can't even properly describe, let alone quantify? You are throwing away your potential." She smiled and turned his head towards the open door. "Why fight so hard to save a race of humans who are so awful? You went to the bottom of the world. You saw the truth, the soft underbelly that Ozpin and his collection of bleeding heart humanitarians work so hard to hide. If you were to help me, tell me what you know about other worlds and how to reach them, and I would shape you into something far greater than you could ever become on your own. You could even have a seat at my table, if you were truly ambitious enough."
Penn opened his mouth to voice his rejection, only for Salem to press her finger to his lips.
"AND, should you prove faithful, I would be happy to bring Sunset into the fold here. To the winning side. At the very least, I can assure that her life will be spared, should you cooperate with us..." She removed her finger, then spread her arms wide, still smiling that almost-motherly smile. "What do you say, my child?"
Penn blinked, then lowered his eyes as he began to think. He thought and thought and thought until it felt like fuses were blowing and wires were crossed, until he heard rationality groaning under the weight of pain and fear.
"I'll... need to think about it. That's a very generous offer..."
"Yes, it is." Salem walked back to the doorway, turning back one last time. "I feel you ought to know that time is running out for Sunset Shimmer. Soon, even I will not be able to protect her. For both your sake and hers, you'd best decide quickly..."
And then Salem was gone, and the light with her. Penn sunk to the floor, his heart pounding in his chest as he was plunged back into darkness.
"Wow, I really expected her to say something like 'Join me, and I will complete your training!' or 'If you only knew the power of the dark side!' near the end, there."
Penn closed his eyes and sat back against the wall. We need to talk. Face to face.
He drew as much of his focus together as he could. Slowly, shapes and colors began to emerge from the darkness behind his eyelids. Eventually, he was sitting back at their table, but this time, things were different.
There was no grand circular table, no grand mahogany or brilliant spotlight illuminating their game. It had been reduced to a set of cards under a swinging yellowed lightbulb on a chain. The table had shrunk down until it had become a banged-up folding card table laid out between them. He glanced around, somehow surprised at just how bad things had gotten. Reason sat across from him in a folding chair, arms folded as she stared judgementally at the table.
Penn could see his opponent's side of the field, still stacked full. The monsters were even stronger, now, and he knew their life points hadn't taken so much as a dent in spite of all of his efforts.
When he looked at his own side of the field, he blinked. It was... fuzzy. He couldn't make out his cards, how many there were, or even whether or not he had a monster on his side at all. He looked at his hand, trying to find something to grasp onto, some way to form even the faintest wisp of a plan.
The cards were blank. Empty white paper stared back at him.
He sighed, fruitlessly tossing the cards onto the table. "What am I supposed to do with THIS?"
"Hey! Try to be a little respectful!" Reason chided, scooping up the cards in her claws. "They're doing their best, it's not easy being in a deck that's running out of tricks, you know! We're just as stressed as you are!"
"I can't SEE them! They're just blank, they're not even there!"
Reason blinked, surprised at his response. She glanced down at the cards again. "I can see them just fine..."
"GREAT! So now even my own cards are picking sides!" Penn threw his hands into the air.
"They're not picking sides, Penn. They're trying to send you a message." She rose up out of her chair, wings spreading somewhat as she walked around the table and rested a hand on his shoulder. "They're saying it's time for us to swap. Let me make the decisions for a bit."
Penn reeled back, incredulous at the suggestion. "YOU? You'd sell Sunset to the devil for one corn chip!"
Reason scowled, a rather frightening expression for anyone who didn't already know her. "You see, THIS is why we've been off since we got here. Because you haven't been trusting me, partner!"
"You want me to trust you? Promise me you're NOT going to take Salem's deal!" Penn folded his arms over his chest, refusing to move from the chair. "If we're going to make it out of here, we're NOT going to do it by giving in to Salem. I don't care what it takes!"
Reason grinned. "There it is. THAT'S the Penn I know and love! Remember the promise you made me when we first started dueling?" She reached down and drew a card off the top of his deck. "We're always going to play to the last card! Never surrender!"
Somehow, despite all the darkness that had been creeping in on him, Penn managed to smile. A sliver of hope began to shine through. He stood up and made his way across to the opposite chair. Rather than sit down, he snatched it up and carried it back, sitting himself alongside her, both of them focusing on his own side of the field. "Right. Sorry to have doubted you, partner."
She leaned over, holding the card she had drawn for him to see. This time, he could see the art as clear as day, and it was something he would have never expected.
"Okay, I would never have thought of it that way..." he whispered, excited as the beginnings of a plan began to form in his mind.
He opened his eyes, once again back in his dark prison. This time, though, the darkness felt a little less empty. A little less cold. He felt a familiar weight in his hands, one that had been confiscated long before he arrived. One that was impossible for them to keep from him.
He began to shuffle his cards.
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Salem turned to Emerald, who was leaning against the wall outside the cell. "He's nearly broken, but not quite. Have you been taking it easy on him?"
Emerald shook her head. "My semblance isn't easy to keep up for a long time, but I've been pretty consistent. He seems pretty open to suggestion. His biggest freak-out was when I made him think there were bugs in there with him, I think that's what he's afraid of the most."
"Then continue. It won't be long before he either gives in... or his mind breaks." She glanced back at the cell door, disgusted with the frailty of their prisoner. "In which case, this experiment will have been a complete failure, and we will dispose of him."
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"Administrator Noir?""Yes, Isis?"
"We have encountered some... difficulties in Remnant. I would like to request the allocation of a HENVEX Unit to address the situation.""Confound it, Isis! I TOLD you to be subtle!" he groaned. "What happened?"
"It would appear that the hostiles of that world became aware of my presence as I attempted to purge the Black Queen Virus from connected systems."It wasn't a lie. It was simply an omission of the complete truth. If she always told Administrator Noir the complete truth, it would be too much to process for an organic brain. Omitting Sunset and Penn's misadventures was no different than failing to give the coordinates of every single mapped star in the night sky.
"Okay, so fall back and wait for them to let their guards down again! Why would you need a HENVEX to deal with that?"
"I wish to protect points of interest from destruction. For instance, should one Cross-Continental Transmit tower fall, the entire network would be crippled. This would make data acquisition exponentially more difficult and time-consuming, if not completely impossible."Administrator Noir peered at the nearest drone unit with an expression she recognized as suspicion. "And it wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with helping the humans who live there, would it?"
"It would be a subsequent consequence, but it aligns with your generally self-interested outlook."Pointing out his self-interest was generally a good tactic to get him to relent, it tended to make him feel guilty. Administrator Noir was a kind and generous individual, as much as he tended to deny it in favor of misanthropy. Once again, the tactic seemed to work, as he snorted and turned away from the console. His attention turned back to the new drone model he had been developing, dismissing her with a wave of his tail.
"Unit 016 just finished repairs, right? I guess we can spare it for now. But from now on, if you want an extra drone for your little pet projects, fabricate it yourself! From scratch!"
It was a roundabout way of saying it, but he had just given her permission to fabricate extra drones at her leisure for any desired purpose AND allowed her to redirect a Hostile Environment Exploration unit for her own purposes. This was by far the most favorable result.
"Understood, Administrator. Also, you wished for me to inform you of any new developments in available technology, correct?""Yes, I did say that."
"I have recently accessed the files regarding Penny Polendina, and my preliminary scans show the design to be replicable.""Why on EARTH would I want to do that?" Noir huffed. "There's no humans allowed in my workshop, be they real or artificial! You only get away with having ONE gynoid because I know how much it means to you! Just file it away with the rest of the data!"
Isis did as she was told, filing the data on P.E.N.N.Y. M374 with the rest of the technical data gleaned from the world of Remnant. However... Administrator Noir HAD just given her permission to use the fabricators to create drones at her own discretion. And there was a future matter that, were he present, Isis predicted Penn would attempt to remedy or prevent altogether.
Missy had been asking herself the question of "What would Penn do?" Perhaps it was time she did the same.
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"It felt like that class would NEVER end..." Blake muttered as they all walked back into their dorm room. In a matter of minutes, they had all changed out of their school uniforms and into more comfortable clothes.
"Alright, today's the day!" Ruby declared. "Our investigation BEGINS!"
Sunset smirked and raised an eyebrow. "I think it 'began' a long time ago, Ruby. Like when Blake tried to stop the whole White Fang on her own?"
"Well, uh," Ruby fumbled over her words for a second, "Today our TEAM investigation begins! Everybody know the plan?"
"I've got a friend over one the shady side of town who usually knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard!" Yang declared, giving the clip on her gauntlets a spin.
"Sunset and I will take an airship to Amity Colosseum to meet up with Missy." Blake rolled her shoulders before shooting Sunset a glance. "Between the three of us, we're going to try to get to the bottom of what their REAL plans are. Mountain Glenn was a red herring, but this seems like the real deal."
Sunset nodded. "And if we can get any info on where we can find Cinder, then that's all the better."
"Meanwhile, Ruby and I will be coordinating with Isis." Weiss held out her arm, allowing Isis's drone to land on her. "If we combine her computing power with my family access to SDC records, we should be able to get into Atlesian military records to drop a few breadcrumbs that will lead them straight to the Colosseum before anything bad can happen!"
"I will continue monitoring security cameras, police records, and communications across the board for any sign of Penn's return on his own, accounting for the possibility of his ability to escape independently.""Alright! Team RWBYS are about to become the youngest huntresses to ever take down a corrupt criminal organization!" Ruby rubbed her hands together with glee. "Let's GO!"
She sprinted to the door, flinging it open... revealing someone standing just outside. All five of them froze in place, and Sunset felt an overwhelming sense of dread at their discovery.
Professor Ozpin took a long sip from his mug, his gaze lingering on each of them before finally coming to rest on Sunset.
"Ladies... a word. In my office. Now."
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The five of them all sat together in Ozpin's office, exchanging nervous glances. Ruby looked positively terrified at the possibility of letting down her precious mentor. Weiss still held herself with a quiet dignity, but Sunset could tell it was just a front, supported by hollow pride. Blake seemed uncomfortable in the spotlight, fidgeting in her seat. Yang was the most at ease, her glare indicating that she was clearly ready to fight for her side of an argument.
Ozpin sighed and leaned forward, finally addressing the five of them.
"Girls, I have had a lot on my plate as of late. Along with running a school of superpowered teenagers, I also have been deeply involved in the Vytal Festival preparations and consulting with the city regarding the recent slew of dust robberies. I've had Atlas breathing down my neck insisting that they should increase our security as the festival grows nearer and trying to shove their automatons into every town square and back alley. On top of all that, my students were found to have been fighting at the site of the largest dust theft on record, which left the police with several uncomfortable questions for me." He raised an eyebrow. "We've also been trying to track down an elusive hacker who appears to be hidden in every continent's major computer systems. A hacker of whom our only clue is the name 'Isis' and a slew of digital security updates no one asked for." He leaned back, folding his hands together and staring at them over the top of his sunglasses. "And now five of my star pupils are planning to usurp the duties of law enforcement and fight terrorists alone by, among other things, stealing a school airship and illegally accessing military records." He shook his head. "I'm only going to ask this once: what is going on?"
The five of them glanced at each other, unsure of what to say. Finally, Ruby cleared her throat, taking the lead.
"W-well, professor, we were at the docks because-" she shrunk back when Ozpin raised a hand.
"The issue at the docks was already resolved, or did you forget the long and arduous interviews we ALL went through?"
"N-no, sir..."
The rest of her teammates glanced at one another, and Sunset felt a deep knot in her gut as she realized what needed to be done. She pushed herself out of her chair, drawing everyone's attention.
"It's my fault, sir. I made a- I made several mistakes, and I roped the rest of my team into helping me fix them."
"Sunset!"
"You didn't rope us into anything!"
"Yeah, we're a team!"
"It's not just her, sir, it's all of us!"
Sunset shook her head. "I was willfully ignorant of the dangers around us, and when we came across the White Fang by genuine accident, one of my friends payed the price for it. My team are good friends, they wouldn't let me try to save him alone, but the blame for this is squarely on my shoulders. This is all because I wanted to get to the leaders of the White Fang and demand to know where they took him,."
"No!" Blake jumped out of her seat, grabbing Sunset's hand in a show of solidarity. "I was the one who went looking for the White Fang at the docks! If I hadn't been captured, he wouldn't have had to put himself at risk to save me! It's my fault!"
"Excuse me?" Weiss interjected, also rising from her seat and taking Sunset's other hand. "I was the one who was so blinded by my own prejudices that I drove you away and made you think you had to prove the White Fang weren't a bunch of reprobates! If anything, the blame should be on me! I was the instigator!"
"This is my fault." Ruby stood up and took hold of Weiss's hand. "I should have been a better team leader. I was the one who let this infighting get out of hand to begin with!"
Sunset watched Yang shrug, standing up and taking hold of Blake's other hand. "I mean, I don't regret a thing I've done, but I'm not letting them take a fall without me!"
The five of them stared at Ozpin, the tension in the air feeling ready to snap at any moment. He closed his eyes and shook his head before taking another sip from his mug. "I knew that you girls would be a potent team together, but it seems I may have still underestimated you. Sit down, I'm not planning on throwing the book at you." The five of them all sat down together, releasing their hold on each other as they settled back into their seats. "Sunset... you said that you were 'willfully ignorant of the dangers.' Please elaborate."
Sunset swallowed her fears. "My friend... he knew that there were bad things coming. He was working as a double agent in the White Fang, and he would send me messages warning me about dangers, but..." she shook her head, trying to push back the tears welling up. "It meant that he would tell me things about my teammates, too. I was so caught up in trying to respect their privacy, I wouldn't let him warn me properly. Because of that, I couldn't stop Blake from running away, which is what started all of this."
Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "And how would working with the White Fang make him privy to secrets about your teammates?"
"Oh, that wasn't how he knew!" Ruby interjected. "It's his semblance! He can see the FUTURE!"
There was a beat of silence. Somehow, Ozpin's eyebrow raised even further.
"Actually... it wasn't his semblance..." Blake muttered, drawing everyone's attention. "I got to talk to him. He hasn't even figured out his aura, he doesn't know what his semblance is."
"But, if that's the case... how did he know so much about what was going to happen?"
All eyes turned to Sunset. She knew that she had a decision to make yet again. The same decision she had been making over and over since she'd arrived at Beacon. Lie or omit? She looked around at her new friends, the ones who had just stood up alongside her, willing to take the consequences for her mistakes along with her.
I can't do it...
She held out her arm, letting the drone run down it onto Ozpin's desk. "Isis... pull up the footage you recovered from the hardware store. From the day Penn and I met."
"Sunset Shimmer, you are about to initiate a broken masquerade scenario. Are you certain?"Sunset nodded. "I'm sick of lies and half-truths, Isis. They deserve the whole truth."
"Affirmative..."The holographic display above Ozpin's desk activated of its own accord, showing the grainy black-and-white image of her and Penn dodging around the dalek. It was almost comical, looking back at herself throwing paint on it while Penn fruitlessly bounced a sledgehammer off of it. When the dalek fired at Penn, the screen blurred to white static. When it recovered, he was laying on the floor, she was kneeling beside him, and the dalek had been exploded.
"THAT is a dalek. It's a killer alien cyborg." Sunset stated. "Its entire species was dead-set on extermination of the entire planet."
"WHAT?"
"That's ridiculous, aliens don't exist!"
"After this, Penn and I invaded their warship and wiped the whole planet from their memories. After that, we were trapped in an underground testing facility," the image changed to a much higher-quality video of her in the testing chambers of Aperture Science, flying in and out of the blue and orange portals, "where they forced us to test their handheld wormhole generators. Isis helped us confront the AI controlling it and escape." The image changed again, this time to a photo of Sunset staring defiantly into GLaDOS's single eye, taken from the ground, clearly in Isis's last moments before the core exploded.
"It was only about a week after that when I lost my soul in a children's card game." Sunset shivered. The memories weren't exactly fresh, but they still left her shaken. "The only reason I'm still here is because Penn managed to win it back. When he DID, one of the spirits came out of the cards and started travelling with us."
This time the video was of one of their campsites, showing Missy easily defying gravity without flapping her wings as she snatched food off of Penn's plate when he wasn't looking. A moment later, he was chasing her around the campsite, trying and failing to retrieve his hot dog before she had rammed the entire thing in her mouth and swallowed.
"And then we wound up here." She sighed. "I guess it's a roundabout way of saying it, but I wanted to make sure you all would have proof of what I was going to say before I said it... When I say I'm 'not from around here,' I REALLY mean it."
"Sunset and her missing friends were at the epicenter of a temporal-spatial anomaly that had ripple effects throughout the entire multiverse. Tears have appeared in the fabric of space-time that allow for trans-dimensional travel. One such tear was how we arrived in Remnant at the start of the semester."Sunset rubbed at the back of her head as the image changed to their group photo by the highway. "Nobody from our little group is from the same world, not even me and Penn! Where he's from, they watch other universes, but they just think they're movies and TV shows. That includes my home... and yours. He doesn't have any kind of future-vision or anything, he's just watched a LOT of TV and has a really good memory."
"So... yeah. THAT'S the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
There was a long period of silence as the rest of her teammates all stared at her, jaws wide open. Meanwhile, behind his desk, Ozpin smiled and reclined back in his chair.
"Finally. I was wondering how long it would take for the truth to finally come out. I'll admit, you managed to keep it a secret longer than I thought."
Sunset turned around, shocked at how well he was taking the news. "You're... not surprised?"
That managed to bring a chuckle out of the headmaster. "Sunset, dear girl. A trans-dimensional gateway opens up practically in my back yard, and you don't at the VERY least expect me to keep a camera trained on it at all times?" He pointed up to the display. "I didn't have all the details, of course, but I had a general idea from your friend's side of the conversations I overheard at the campsite."
Somehow, despite the fact that she had just revealed how different their lives truly were, Sunset managed to still speak her next words in perfect sync with her teammates. "You KNEW?"
"Yes, I knew. And when I heard your friend painting a rather bleak outlook for our future, I also knew that I needed to introduce a new, unpredictable element here at Beacon." He gestured to Isis. "I kept a very close eye on you, of course, and you were a remarkably fast learner, a model student. It wasn't until recently I noticed you beginning to have an influence on events. I suppose it's good that I chose to come and speak to you about it when I did, or you five may have done something rash."
"Six.""Right. My apologies, Miss Isis." Ozpin sighed. "Now, I know that this 'Penn' fellow didn't want me involved, but clearly things have developed far beyond his control, especially if, as you claim, he has been captured by Cinder Fall and the White Fang."
"The last thing we want is Oz-pinhead getting involved in our interdimensional time-bending antics..." A recording played back. Everyone turned to glance at Isis, who simply tilted her head innocently.
"The quote seemed relevant.""Well, as much as I can appreciate a fellow lover of the works of L. Frank Baum, I'm afraid that he was incorrect. You've all done a fantastic job, but you're in over your heads-"
"He's a Dumbledore-type manipulator, training kids to do his dirty work with blind loyalty, even sending them to their deaths while withholding any information that might compromise their perfect view of him. Trust me, Sunset, he's one you want to avoid."
Once again everyone's gaze went to Isis. She hopped up off of the desk and climbed up Sunset's shirt, eventually retaking her previous perch on her shoulder.
"Are you finished, Miss?"
"Affirmative.""Maybe next time you'll remember to include her in the head count..." Weiss muttered.
"Indeed." Ozpin paused for a moment, clearly off-put by Penn's accusatory words. "Well, your friend certainly was vocal regarding his opinions, but I would like to prove to you that he was not correct." He rose up out of his chair, walking around to face the five of them. "Please, you've all done an admirable job of getting to the bottom of the White Fang's actions. Let the adults handle it from here, and I promise that I will do everything in my power to make certain your friend returned safely."
"What? You want us to just... stop?" Blake asked. Sunset shied away from the professor, placing herself back among her teammates.
"I understand you've invested a lot in this investigation, but you all need to acknowledge that you aren't aware of how deep this goes." He gestured towards Sunset. "Case in point."
"We can't just stop, we made a promise!" Ruby interjected. "We promised Sunset we'd help her get her friend back!"
"And you have. By tracking the White Fang to the colosseum, you've ensured that they will fail. And with that, we will be only a few small steps away from saving him." Ozpin shook his head. "Yes, you do have responsibilities, but you are also children. Please, enjoy playing that part just a little longer before you jump into defending the world."
Before any of them could respond, Isis straightened on Sunset's shoulder.
"Sunset, there is a priority message from Missy incoming. It is quite urgent."Sunset felt fear grabbing at her chest. "Go ahead, Isis."
"Sunset! It's me! Look, you need to get over here PRONTO, whatever is going down with the White Fang, it's going down NOW!"
"What? Missy, what's going on?"
"HURRY!"
There was the sound of the message being cut off, followed by static.
"It sounds as if it's time. You girls head back to your room. We'll take care of this." Ozpin left no room for debate as he grabbed his cane and walked past them. A few seconds later, he had disappeared into the elevator, leaving them all alone.
Sunset stared at her friends, and they stared back. After a few seconds of this, Ruby finally broke the silence.
"So... you're from another dimension?"
"Yeah..." Sunset looked down. "I'm sorry I lied to you all, I REALLY didn't want to, but... Penn was pretty insistent we should keep it secret."
"So... other dimensions exist?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, it was pretty big news to me, too."
"And you've been going from one dimension to the next just... fighting bad guys? Like some kind of interdimensional superheroes?" Ruby was beginning to grow more excited.
"You know, honestly, this explains a LOT about you." Yang muttered. "All your weird stuff, like that weird scroll and Isis's drones, Penn's old-looking car, your laser sword, the fact you hardly knew anything about how to fight when you first got here..."
"When we put it all together, we knew there was SOMETHING weird about you... no offense." Blake added. "This is... a lot more harmless than some of our other theories."
"Ruby thought you were an alien."
"I mean, I wasn't ENTIRELY wrong!"
Sunset looked over at Isis, then sighed. "Look, I'm- I'm going. I don't care what Ozpin says. I wasn't there when Penn needed me, I'm not going to go missing when Missy needs me, too."
The rest of Team RWBY all looked at one another, each smiling in turn. Ruby rose up out of her chair, placing her hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Then let's go!"
Sunset blinked. "You're... coming?"
"Of course!" Yang grinned and pounded her fists together. "Except now we're ALL going to the colosseum!"
"But, what about the headmaster? You could all get in trouble!" Sunset shook her head. "I- well, if I'm honest, I'm not planning to stay at Beacon forever. But this is what you all want to do with your lives! If you get in trouble, it could really-"
"Sunset, you worry too much, you know that?" Yang interrupted her. "Come on, let's go! Missy needs our help, right?"
"You're right. We were too late once." Blake shook her head. "I am NOT going to make the same mistake again."
"The colosseum is a big place... I'm fairly certain we could at LEAST get over there to extract Missy safely without drawing too much attention to ourselves." Weiss waved her hand dismissively.
"Sunset, what we want to do is help people. Whether they're from our world or not doesn't matter!" Ruby smiled. "Isn't that why YOU came to Beacon, too?"
Sunset felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "Okay... then let's do this!"
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Does it count as manipulation when he assumes it's the isolation ratcheting along right on schedule? Such things don't have near as much psychological impact when you're expecting them.
Honestly, I can't figure out how Penn is gonna get outta this jam.
So uh, does penn see Sunset and all of them as actual humans or do they appear animated to him? Same with Sunset. Does everything just appear in her world's art style?
remind me to be extra mean to Emmerad from day 0... she deserves to suffer as much as the Cinderp
10153056
They look like actual humans to him. I spent a while toying with the idea of a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" style of one being a cartoon and one being a "normal" human but it just raises too many questions.
So how is Beacon going to fare in this alternate timeline now that both sides are aware of spoilers.
10153119
Good question! Especially considering Ozpin just left the school...
10153133
Wait he left? Why? There's a good reason Ozpin never strays far from Beacon, he's not a frontline fighter he leads from the back so he can protect the things that need to be protected such as the school and even more importantly keep an eye on the secret comatose girl in his basement that only a handful of people know about.
10153305
10153384
I figured he was leaving to inform others on what to do, why would he leave the school himself? It seems weird for him to just leave instead of calling up people to handle things.
... this chapter (at least the beginning and tittle) remains me a lot of the song “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay
The idea that Peen was kind of on the top of this world, due to his knowledge of it as a result of watching the series, only for his plan to fail completely and end up captured, now is true that his “demise” is basically the fault of everyone involved (although everyone is responsible to a certain degree), but still, this song kind of fits the hole situation he founds himself into, that been said this song basically fits any kind of “fall from grace” story, from the Greek Empire and Alexander the Great, to Disney losing money due to the mismanagement of Star Wars, any way that’s the random yearly “deep” thought I have as result of staying up until 3:00 am, have a good night
Hmmm, I like it. Can’t wait for the Xenomorphs. XD
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First of all, I want to say I think you're right and you make some really good points. This is a well-thought out comment and I'm grateful you're so invested in this story!
But also thanks to this comment for the last three days all I've been able to think has been
"This is so sad, Isis play Viva La Vida."
So thanks for that. XD
Why do I get the sense that the Grimm in Penn's cell is created by Emerald's semblance?
And here's this Administrator Noir again. I think he's a dragon and that's why ISIS' drones are all dragon-shaped.
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Not entirely, but it wouldnt be surprising that she may have given it a bit of a makeover to make it more intimidating. Hard to see "gleaming fangs" in total darkness. ;)
I've been reading this story from the beginning and i got to say your RWBY arc has been the longest. I got to ask will any other arcs you write have at least 10 chapters in it as your RWBY arc is almost as long? I got to ask if you like RWBY and MLP equally as much why not do a Crossover with just them?
10251116
It was more of a case of the RWBY arc getting a bit out of hand. It was the first arc where the "main cast" had been fully assembled, so i used it as an opportunity to establish a lot of the team dynamics. It wasn't so much as a love of RWBY that inspired it and more having fun showing Penn and Sunset and how they both deal with tough situations.
I DO plan on having other long arcs, such as the ones I've lovingly titled "The Rise of the Wicked Avatar", "A Tale of Two Alolas", and my "Back to the Future"-inspired arc. I'm sure others will get away from me given time like the RWBY arc did, as well.
As for why I don't just write individual crossovers, well, for me it's less about writing crossovers and more about exploring things through the lens of this little rag-tag team on the road. This little found family's adventures is more fun than any single story i could write
Like what happens with Beacon Tower in the finale of Volume 3.
I'm pretty certain this is almost exactly how Team RWBY's investigation in Volume 2 goes down.
I wonder why Penn's Reason apparently takes the form of a dragon.
I'm honestly wonder whether Ozpin seriously doesn't want Team RWBYS involved in this or if it's more like his whole bending the rules thing in Volume 2.
Why do I get the sense Isis is planning on making a drone for herself based on Penny? 🤔
I'm pretty sure the chapter title is a reference to the Weird Al song of the same name.
10270797
Yes!
Pretty much almost word for word, yeah.
i.ytimg.com/vi/9ddJyWLqbt4/hqdefault.jpg
Sunset being there changes a lot of things, including Ozpin's responses to certain events
and
Maaaaaaybeeeeeeeee