Chapter Text
-Team RWBY, Emerald Forest-
After taking walkbul to the ever-familiar emerald forest Team RWBY begins their mission by walking to the location of the energy surge according to the map on their scrolls.
Seeing the forest since their initiation the youngest of the team decides to comment about their nostalgia.
“You know it feels nice walking through here without worrying about making it into beacon” ruby says with a natural chipper mood accompanying her voice.
“I know what you mean sis it feels like yesterday since we were thrown off that cliff” the blonde of the team also reminisces on the event pointing to the cliff that the professors launched in the air with.
“That was three months ago.” The cat faunus of the group quickly burst the illusion of large amount of time passing with a simple comment making the rest of the team realize the same.
“Wait its only been that long? Could've sworn it felt much longer than that” ruby mentions putting her hand in a thinking position.
“Guys, quiet you all hear that” the heiress suddenly quiets the group making them all hear the sounds of a battle near the ruins where they all fought a nevermore.
“Come on guys! It could be what we’re looking for!” Ruby suddenly decides to help with the ongoing battle, using her semblance to boost her speed leaving rose petals in her wake.
“Ruby wait!” her yang yells out to her sister trying to catch up with her in vain.
“I swear that idiot is going to get us killed” the ice queen complains about her leader’s lack of planning as she runs in the same directions as the rest of her team.
Deciding to not be left behind Blake quickly uses her gambol shroud ribbon to grapple with the tree’s branches to propel herself to the trees to catch up with the rest.
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-The Ruins-
After dealing with the first round of Grimm, Asuka quickly decided to head south from his location eventually finding some ruins he quickly decides to head inside to see if he can find any clues to find out where he is.
Seeing the lack of light Asuka activates a simple light spell creating a small cube to brighten his surroundings, finally being able to see with his one eye he looks around and luckily finds a simple map on the wall that helps detail his location.
“so I'm in a place called the emerald forest, if I'm reading this right then if I keep heading in the direction of this academy called beacon hopefully, I can find the others soon enough.” the man formerly known as the gear maker worries for his companions especially sol because if he didn’t get some medical care, it could very spell the end for the former flame of corruption.
Suddenly being taken away from his thoughts Asuka begins to hear soft growling outside the ruins, seeing more of the wolves that he just fought surround him. “interesting I thought I masked my presence with a spell from the rest of the pack, could it be that they’re able to sense something else to track me down?” seeing the inevitable fight that will begin momentarily he quickly summons his tome at hand and begins to prepare a handful of spells each with a different effect in the shape of cubes.
“I apologize but as much as I would like to finish this as quickly if you all don’t mind” the gear maker tells the embodiments of chaos about his urgency in finding his companions in time.
Noticing the similar hierarchy like regular wolves back home he decides to attack the head of the pack with a simple fireball trying to conserve mana from the long day that he has had from being transported to the white house and helping fight his former mentor, needless to say his mana hasn’t been this low since his novice days training with said mentor.
If her was to compare his total and current reserves, it would be the difference between an ocean to a river both still having a vast amount of water but the difference between the two being far grander.
As he was firing off a handful of spells to the hoard, he quickly takes note at the sound of something quickly heading his way he prepares in response to the unknown object heading his way.
However, upon seeing the object reveals itself as a young girl with a trail of rose petals leaving in her wake.
Being alive far longer than most people would believe him to be, he has met with various surprising figures throughout his long life, most notably the genius called Dr.Paradigm a gear with an intelligence that rivals his own in certain subjects.
but noting would be ask shocking as the sight of a little girl swinging a scythe that was taller than she was killing the creatures with relative ease.
Trailing behind her Asuka could see a tall blonde lacking any form of weaponry but quickly sees that the girl had a preference for close quarters combat when she punched one of the wolves in between the eyes, letting out a large bang suggesting the use of some sort of firearm in the gauntlets that she uses.
Standing near him was a short girl with white hair similar to his own holding a rapier and casting her own spells hitting a bear with a blast of fire but what caught his eye was the lack of magical energy coming from the glyph “odd, I will put that away to study later”
Hearing the bushes behind him he quickly turns around and goes to attack the wolve that was behind him until a black and white blur strikes the wolf by a young lady that was holding a cleaver in one hand and a thin black katana-like sword in the other.
Finally ending the battle once all the black monsters were killed quietly looking at the corpses dissolve into nothing Asuka tries to figure out the mechanisms behind their creation “perhaps they’re the result of a living spell, or a life form similar to the gears, maybe a little of both”
“are you ok sir?” the shortest of the group response’s letting Asuka to finally take a good look at his helpers noting that all of them (to his knowledge were female).
-a young girl with silver eyes and black hair with red tips wearing a black dress and a red cape with a hood in it.
- a blonde with lilac eyes wearing two large bracelets around her wrist with a brown jacket
-a blue-eyed white-hair young lady wearing a white dress that clearly shows her high-class upbringing.
-And the final member would be a brunette with amber colored eyes similar to a cat’s wearing a sleeveless white shirt with a black button up vest.
Needless to say being helped by such a diverse group of people didn’t appear on Asuka's mind.
“I am fine but I'm wondering as to why there are you four ladies are in these parts?” the gear maker asks the young ladies.
Noticing that the youngest was about to say something the heiress quickly answers, “we were sent by Professor Ozpin to investigate some unknown energy signatures in the forest, but we need to ask, have you seen anything strange happening through here?” Weiss finishes her answer with a question to the unknown individual.
“if you could describe what you are looking for, I may be of help but only if you can lead me out of the forest, I am trying to look for my companions” Asuka tries to bargain with the young lady while trying to reveal too much about his situation.
“Team RWBY huddle up!” After hearing his situation, the one that Asuka assumes is the leader of this colorful group makes the group leave Asuka on his own as they discuss their next course of action.
“I say we help him” ruby immediately decides to help him.
“I don’t know, did you see what he did with those Grimm, Ozpin told us that he didn’t send any huntsmen around here” the cat faunus tells the team clearly suspicious about the unknown man.
Agreeing with the faunus Weiss decides to pitch in her opinion
“I agree with Blake when I had the chance, I could see him looking at the Grimm with surprise as if he's never seen them before.”
“How about we bring him back to beacon tell him that Ozpin can help find his friends and on the way there ask if we he saw anything” yang proposes to the group acting as an intermediary between ruby, Blake, and Weiss.
Unbeknownst to the group however was that Asuka was hearing their conversation with a beginner spell designed for listening on small distances simple and easy to find, but the fact that the group of ladies quietly talking to themselves didn’t notice the bug showed Asuka the fact that they didn’t have any knowledge about magic.
Deciding to digest some of the new information and planning for his cover story for himself and his companions.
Finally deciding on yang’s plan ruby decides to tell the man what they need to do.
“ ok Mr.....” “Asuka, Asuka R Kreutz” the gear maker decides to reveal his name.
“oh, weird name but anyways we can bring you to beacon to find your friends but if you can you don’t have tell us but if you can, could you tell us if you’ve seen a black ball about this tall” the silver-eyed maiden tries to demonstrate the height of the orb as it was taller than her by a significant margin.
“of course, I have considering how I arrived here” Deciding to just adjust the truth to his benefits so that if Ky and Jack-O say anything else it wouldn’t contradict his story.
“Ok, so just follow us to beacon” ruby tells the gear maker as she begins walking in a direction.
“Um...ruby? beacon is that way.” Blake decides to tell her leader about the correct direction of beacon.
Noticing her mistake, ruby’s mood visibly deflated with the revelation.
Making their way back to the beacon Asuka wondered about the whereabouts of his companions hoping that they didn’t end up somewhere far away or dangerous.
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-10 minutes ago, team JNPR, Forever Fall-
Finally leaving the bullhead and letting Jaune recover from his air sickness team JNPR begins their mission to investigate the forest for any abnormalities, but not without its difficulties.
“Hey guys! Let's get as much red sap as we can!” Nora decides to take advantage of the situation to satisfy her insatiable sweet tooth.
“Nora, we already have enough back at beacon” Lie ren decides to tell his best friend about the sizeable stock of red tree sap that he stocked up on since the last time they were in forever fall.
“Besides Nora we have a mission we have to complete” the emerald clad teen reminds her of their objective.
“Okay! Renny”
Finishing their conversation JNPR continue walking towards the forest but are quick to notice something odd.
“Hey pyr? Don't you think that we would have run into any Grimm by now” the jaune asks the invincible girl.
Finally noticing the lack of Grimm, the huntress in training replies “yeah your right jaune there should have been at least a Beowulf by now”
As if by clockwork, a bolt of blue lightning could be seen coming from the ground.
“I think we should head that way” Ren says as he is pointing in the direction of the lightning bolt.
Preparing their weapons for a possible fight, team JNPR heads toward the source of the lightning strikes.
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-3 minutes ago, Forever Fall-
To say that Ky Kiske was tired at the moment would be an understatement.
After battling a goddess and going to a foreign land, one would of feel some sort of fatigue in their system after a while.
That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t defenseless compared to his childhood during the crusades the mindless beast that he was currently fighting didn’t help the nostalgia that he was feeling.
After slaying more of the shadow covered creatures with the Thunderseal he notices Jack-O wearing her signature mask fighting with more of the wolves like he was.
To say that her fighting style was odd would be an understatement, when given the chance she would cast a summoning spell that would bring forth a small robot that she could command with a whistle to attack and defend she seems to only have three of summons out.
That wasn’t to say that she was defenseless on her own if a beast ever got near her, she would use her ball and chain to either defend and/or attack with a simple kick.
Needless to say, she could hold her own in a fight.
After seeing that the hoard that they were fighting wasn’t decreasing its intensity Ky decided to try something.
“Jack-O please get behind me”
“alright” Hearing Ky’s request Jack-O goes behind Ky’s back calling her summons towards her with a whistle ky prepares his signature spell while yelling.
“RIDE THE LIGHTNING”
Swinging his sword above in a diagonal hold a magic circle that covers him like shield generating blue lightning as he rushes towards the beast each of them getting fatally electrocuted from the spell leaving a symphony of carcasses dissolving in his wake.
“Are you okay Jack-O?” The king of Illyria asks his companion about her condition.
“Yeah, but the static is messing with my hair” the holder of aria’s soul complains.
Upon hearing the answer however Ky suddenly laughs merely saying that “my wife has the same complaint that I usually don’t use it around with her.”
Finally noticing something shining in the corner of his eye Ky turned his head to see a group of teenagers armed with various weapons at hand.
- a young blonde boy with a shield and sword combo that he would frequently see during the crusades.
- a young girl with a hair color similar to Jack-O's keeping her shield up with one hand up while the other held a spear of some kind.
- behind the two was a young man of Asian descent holding a gun with a blade attached to it in each hand.
- lastly was a ginger girl that could be seen holding a war hammer with relative ease.
But the common factor among the group right now would be their faces currently displaying shock at the released with his spell.
Suddenly the young girl wielding a hammer sprang forward in excitement.
“THAT.WAS.AWESOME!” Yelling as if she was alone, she decided to prattle on with her excitement about Ky.
“you two were surrounded by all those Grimm and then you used your semblance to go ‘wooosh’ , ‘bang’ ‘bang’ ‘bang’” the young maiden kept on talking at a rate where even Ky didn’t even understand what she was saying at times.
The Asian boy seeing the king be overwhelmed by his companion quickly came to his rescue “Nora please calm down you’re overdoing it again.”
“Okay Renny!” with a simple salute she calms down enough for the boy with a shield to talk with him.
“Sorry about Nora she can get a little hyperactive sometimes” the boy apologizes for his teammate's behavior.
Seeing the blonde’s apology Ky replies with a simple “its no problem mr....?”
Hearing that the person standing in front of him didn’t know their names the boy quickly make sure to correct that.
“Oh, I'm sorry I didn’t introduce myself I'm jaune, jaune arc the over there is Pyrrha Nikos” the now introduced jaune points to the spartan clad girl who waves and replies with a “hello there”.
After letting his partner finish her greeting, he moves on “you’ve met Nora” seeing the pink wearing adolescent wave at Ky with a smile
“And last is-” ”Renny! He’s my best friend in the whole world and can make the best pancakes ever” Nora decides to introduce the final member of the team with a simple bow.
Noticing the embarrassment from jaune Ky decides to relief his worries with a simple joke.
“Don’t worry I'm used to hyperactive people my son acts just like her at times” the king of Illyria decides to mention his six-year-old son to help the young Arc.
“Well, I'm glad that you’re not overwhelmed by her most people are when they meet her” jaune sighs implying that this isn’t the first time this has occurred.
“Well could we ask your names too?”
“Of course, my name is Ky Kiske.” The first king of Illyria introduces himself to the group not hiding some of the regal aura that he uses during his ‘work mode’.
Not trying to be rude, his companion introduces herself.
“And I'm Jack-O valentine” deciding to take off her mask since the battle was over.
Seeing her face, Jaune was quick to look at the similarities between her partner and Jack-O.
“Wow pyr she looks just like you” finally noticing the Valentine Nora decides to say what was on team JNPR’s mind at the time.
“Nora, you don’t say that to people.” ren decides to stop Nora from offending Jack-O
“it's alright I've had that happen to me before” Jack-O says remembering her first encounter with Sol
“Well Umm can I ask what you’re doing here?” Jaune decides to ask Ky before something interrupts him again.
“Well, I was hoping that you could tell us because we just ended up here” Ky tells the blonde a little about their situation.
“Wait you guys wouldn’t happen to see a black ball around here?” Finally, seeing the parallels with the strange phenomenon at beacon he connects the dots between the two events, Jaune decides to ask them a simple question.
Noticing that Jaune knows about the wormhole, Ky asks the young boy about his missing companions especially sol “yes but we are looking for two people one wearing a winged eyepatch and the other wearing a red leather jacket”.
Upon seeing the boy react when Ky mentioned Sol’s favorite clothing the first king of Illyria soon knew that the huntsman in training knew about Sol.
“yeah, he’s currently at beacon and Team RWBY is checking out another sphere at The Emerald Forest, we could take you to beacon since team RWBY is also heading back there.” The young boy offers the war veteran a ride to the academy.
Deciding to analyze the situation Ky begins his train of thought “currently going with them is the best option, but on the off chance this other team meets happy chaos instead of Asuka and Naggoriyuki could spell disaster for sol.”
As Ky and jaune were discussing the situation about their situation, Jack-O was talking with the rest of Team JNPR about various subjects.
“So, what’s the name of your weapon” Nora decided to use a topic most huntsmen talk about.
“Oh, well his name is Dopros I mainly just kick him around when something gets nearby” as Jack-O is talking about the ball and chain she picks him up for the others to see.
“him? Sound like something ruby would say” both ren and Pyrrha both thought about the infamous weapons maniac of team RWBY each of them had given her the chance to see each their weapons throughout their stay at beacon.
“Did you make him yourself?” ren asks Jack-O trying to see if there were more similarities to Ruby than Pyrrha.
“Oh no, my friend Asuka made this for me and my mask he made these in case I ever got into a fight I would be able to take care of myself in case I was on my own, he’s actually one of the people were trying to find.” Jack-O tells the group about their situation.
“it's ok we can go back to beacon to see if Professor Ozpin has seen them anywhere” Seeing the crestfallen expression on her face Pyrrha decides to comfort her about her missing companions.
“Could you tell us about them?" The invincible girl offers up a simple solution to Jack-O's dilemma.
Hearing that the huntress cares about her situation brings a smile to Jack-O's face
“Well first there’s Frederick or Sol as he goes by now used to be someone who preferred to be alone but now? I think he's gotten better, but I guess right now he’s still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago.” When Jack-O finishes however, she could see the faces of both Nora and Pyrrha blush slightly.
Ren being the only one not stunned by Jack-O's feeling for Sol decides to continue with the conversation
“He sounds like a lovely person”
Hearing this Jack-O just giggled at his response leaving the boy confused
Seeing his confusion Jack-O clarifies.
“oh, I'm sorry it's just lovely isn’t a way to describe Sol a friend of ours would say ‘crude, lazy, or disrespectful’ to describe him” jack-O mentions the various words that both Leo and Daryl have described sol on the short time she managed to meet with them.
“I... I see” Lie Ren is now wondering if it would be a good idea if this man should meet Weiss knowing her prickly attitude.
“And then there’s Asuka he’s someone who just wants to make up for the mistakes that he’s made some small, and some.... not so small ones” jack-O hesitates remembering everything the man who’s knows as the gear maker has committed across the centuries.
“But after everything he’s done, I can say that it was for everyone’s sake, even if it did seem a little extreme.” finishing her description of That man.
Finishing describing her creator/best friend Ky looks over and decides on his decision.
“We accept”
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-Team RWBY, the walk towards beacon-
As Team RWBY and the new companion made their towards beacon ruby decided to ask a question to their new friend.
Deciding that she had enough of the silence Yang asks their guest a simple question.
“So, could you tell us where you’re from?”
Thinking over the answer Asuka replies with the place he lived before the crusades began.
“I am from a place called the United States though I doubt you all have heard of this place.”
“ohh how's it like?” Hearing his answer ruby decides to hijack the conversation after hearing his answer.
“It would depend on where you are, for example if one was at the east side they would be in the parts of the US that got affected most by the crusades' "upon finishing his answer Asuka could be seen wearing a mask of guilty because of his involvement with the event.
“The crusades?” Weiss asks hearing the unfamiliar term.
“It was the war the likes of which has never been seen and I hope never will ever again”
“You mean the great war?” Weiss ask’s been one of the two most informed on the subject aside from Blake.
“no I believe we are referencing two different concepts” Asuka says to Weiss knowing that this world’s history would most likely be different to his own.
“Come on, it couldn’t have been worse than the great war besides the faunus won it in the end” yang says
“I'm sorry but what is a faunus?” Asuka tries to understand what the unfamiliar term was.
“Wait how have you not heard of faunus” Blake asks the man known as the gear maker about his lack of knowledge about Faunus.
“I where I was from, we did not have anything that we called faunus” Asuka answers
“Wow this place must have been really isolated” yang comments on Asuka's answer still believing that he was from an isolated village.
“Welp! I guess that the best way to learn about a faunus would be from the expert.” the blonde thinking of a way to explain faunus’ looks at her partner to help in explaining what a faunus was.
Seeing her partner look at her she instantly knew what she was implying.
“yang” Blake looks at her trying to tell her that she doesn’t want a stranger to know.
“Come on Blakey, you need to get used to it for other people” yang tries to make her partner open up about her ears.
“If she isn’t comfortable able it, I don’t want to make her do something uncomfortable” Asuka tries to dissuade Blake from the unknown action, unfortunately it seems to have the opposite effect.
“No, you deserve to know what a faunus is” thinking that if the person before her deserved to know about faunus and their intricacies beginning of course with her.
Taking off her bow she reveals two pairs of cat ears to Asuka, expecting him to either see what the man though of her ears she was caught off guard when she heard his response.
“Interesting, are your ears a result from naturally occurring trait or are they artificially introduced? Do other faunus’ have similar traits or can they have different kinds of extensions on their body?” Asuka upon seeing the two appendages ask Blake a question as to the origins of her ears as his scientific side tries to find out the specifics on faunus physiology.
“wha?” upon hearing his bombardment of questions Blake's mind briefly shuts down from the unexpected response.
“See Blake he doesn’t mind” ruby deciding to comfort her after seeing her blank out from Asuka's response.
“Oh, um yes, they’re natural and other faunus’ can have different traits.” Finally, processing his questions, Blake decides to answer them to the best of her ability.
“well, you all can save the questions for later we’re here.” Weiss tells the rest of her team and guest about their arrival at beacon.
Seeing the academy and noting the incredible size for an academy it made him think of one of the Illyrian castle he had teleported to in the past.
Deciding to give Asuka a dramatic introduction Ruby faces Asuka and says, “welcome to beacon!”.