Chapter 4 – AETHER I, Blade and Fae/End of Era

"Hmm, okay then, yep were good now, the energy has dispersed from your bodies, so you should all be okay now," Emma finished looking over the scans of her assorted patients, the members of RWBY and NPR laying on special beds that had rings of light hovering around them as they lay, feeling as the pain that flowed through their bodies faded away, "now you just need to get your clothes back on and then you can go out, also we have no hospital fees here, mostly because we wholly believe in the Hippocratic Oath here, and partly because we have no real need for more material wealth considering how much even the most basic citizen in this megastructure has and the scientific advances that allowed for most material needs to be fulfilled, go Progress."

The assorted group was both stunned and shocked at the girls claim, but it wore of quickly as they remembered they were in a completely different reality with uncountable differences from their own, plus with what they saw and what happened to them it was far from the most shocking thing they knew.

"I uh, I just want to ask about one thing," Ruby asked Emma as the doctor went over the data from her analysis of the two groups, "that 'bleed-over' thing that happened, what do you know about it?"

"Well, for one, 'Bleed-over' is a very watered down wording of what the event really is, with its really name being Dimension Link Interference or DLI, which usually happens when two or more dimensions with a similar pattern of energy and existence become close enough to one another that energy from one reality ends up passing into another reality with a similar energy pattern, or similar enough that the energy could still pass through. The effect of a DLI can range either minutely or drastically, from the smallest of effects, such as an individual in on reality seeing sporadic flashes of memory, emotion, desire and other such things that originate from an individual of similar existence in another reality, all the way to major effects, such as actual individuals, locations, creatures, powers or 'what have you' that exist in one reality suddenly appearing within the new reality. The most basic example of such an event would be if you were to suddenly see a tear in reality appear in front of you, and through that reality, you see a different version of yourself through the tear, and for simplicities sake, what you see is a version of yourself that didn't become a huntsman/huntress, and then the tear vanishes, leaving you with the experience of what you witnessed," Emma finished explaining to the group about what the 'Bleed over' or DLI, was as the group was getting dressed behind obscured light barriers as they listened, "that would be the most basic explanation I can give to you, though there are other, far more stranger and unbelievable events that transpired during a 'bleed-over' , but that's is just the nature of dimensional realities, its simply that unpredictable."

"So what you're saying is that we end up feeling or experiencing what another version of ourselves is going through, or that something from their reality could appear in our world, even a different version of ourselves," Wiess said as she got her clothes back on, finding that they smelled very nice, and being thankful for that.

"That would be the most basic definition of DLI, though there is a lot more to it than that, but basically yes, that is it," Emma then saw a hologram appear, just as the assorted group finished getting dressed, feeling strangely refreshed, even though they were left sweating heavily and in great pain before, now they felt pretty good and smelled nice as well, "that was Mirai, she just finished discussing with the newcomers what has transpired, now she asks that you all return as the next viewing will be starting in a bit, but believes you may have questions you still seek to ask, and decided to answer them before the viewing begins, also the Medical Life Core that you all lay on thinking they were ordinary beds has a 'sterilization' function that cleanses the body of all grime, filth, infection or illness that is detected by the system, so right you guys are as fresh and clean as can possibly be, the level of cleanliness that a Medical Life Core or MLC can achieve is only comparable to an intense decontamination procedure or a high quality, S-class luxury spa treatment for the impossibly wealthy, so your welcome and Ciao."

An opening appeared in the wall, now appearing to be a portal of some type, and the group said their farewells to Emma as they left, though her last words caused a brief shudder to pass through their bodies.

"Don't worry, we will probably see each other anyway, so take care until then."

The members of RWBY and NPR appeared in the viewing room of the facility once more and looked to see a small discussion taking place between Mirai and -!

"Professor Ozpin, Headmistress Goodwitch, your both here," Wiess's outburst drew the attention of the two.

"Ah, there back, and as I promised you Professor, they are in good health, though now I must ask of your answer, even though there is really only one real answer now, apologies for seeming rude in that area," Mirai stated to the Professor as he sipped on a mug that held his favorite beverage.

"Ah, none taken miss Mirai, I understand the situation and I understand that there is no real option than to continue in this case if we are to return to our present reality then viewing these realities is essential to this end, so yes, miss Goodwitch and I will view these realities so we may return to our own, though hopefully they will not be as dark as the previous realities," Ozpin then sipped his caffeinated beverage and let out a sigh of silent happiness.

"No promises in what realities we will view I'm afraid, I only know when they come in and the knowledge of what they have, not what will be shown, the content of what is shown or how well you will take it, so when a reality you may not like is shown that happens to be quite dark for your tastes, I am afraid I can only offer you my apologies, some more comfortable accommodations and nothing more," Mirai stated, Ozpin contemplated this fact and nodded in understanding, he himself also having experiences with things that one cannot control and understood Mirai's situation, "though you should count yourself as quite fortunate, very few non-organic items have been able to survive dimensional transmission, especially in such good condition, your cane must be something truly special."

Ozpin eyed the cane at his side, and a warm smile graced his lips as he looked at it, "it is, it truly is special item to me, and in regards to the viewings, the situation is not … ideal, but so few situations ever really are, but we will get through it, you can be assured of that, right Gly-oh, ahem, I mean headmistress."

"Haah, honestly Oz, the situations I end up getting into when I'm with you, but in the end, yes, I will watch these 'viewings' as well, be they good, bad, or brothers forbid, worse than what is shown, I will watch along with everyone here," Glynda stated from her spot, rather calm as she sipped from a cup that wafted a warm and gentle fragrance that Wiess and Blake seemed to know, remembering the tea they drank, "ah, so soothing, so calming … where have you been when I needed you," Glynda asked her mug of tea as the soothing effects sunk into her body.

"Well, that was something," Mirai then turned to the assorted members of RWBY and NPR as they watched the calm and relaxed side of their headmistress they didn't even know existed, "so, I know that there is a question that you have been wanting to ask, and there is quite a bit of time before the next viewing, so ask away."

The assorted group looked at one another, and wondered which question they should ask, whispers abounded, hushed arguments came and went, until it was decided what the question would be.

It was Ruby who would deliver the question to Mirai.

"Uh, well uhm, the thing we wanna know, uhm … wh-why does Jaune become a girl in so many realities," Ruby popped one of the more bigger questions that the group had, and even Ozpin and Glynda, who had been given the truncated experience of the viewings were left wondering why the main focus ended up becoming a female in these viewings.

"Haaaahhhhh, I knew that would be it, I am honestly not surprised that that is your question," Mirai then put a hologram up, a set of symbols that seemed to change was shown, and the group saw it was a countdown, "we have plenty of time, good."

Then Mirai waved her arm as several screen appeared, showing images of Jaune Arc along with many diagrams, charts and a strange rippling color pattern on a screen that was like ripples on a liquid surface.

"So, the reason why Jaune Arc becomes female in the realities being shown, the reasons for this are varied, but they mostly center around two main points, one that is more localized while the other is more far reaching and is far, far more complex than what it may seem that I can assure you of," Mirai told them as they sat before her, listening to what she has to say.

"Well, the first reason is a more common reason that tends to happen, and it is that either the energy of the reality that Jaune Arc is transferred into ends up altering his existence so drastically that he ends up turning into a she from exposure to this energy whilst being empowered by it in some way, and according to most of the observations done, this event has a probability of occurring within a forty-five percent interval in most cases, with forty percent being that Jaune Arc remain a man and being empowered, which is the case most individuals know, while the remaining fifteen percent ends with him becoming altered and twisted by the energy into … well, something not human … or humanoid. Another part of the common reason also ends up being from certain entities that exist within the veil of most realities, and some of them, for reasons entirely their own, ranging from a necessary part of Jaune Arc's 'journey' into that reality all the way to literal boredom and a need to 'spice things up' in their warped minds, some beings of power tend to really do what they want with it, some even like to intentionally mess with mortal beings 'for kicks', enough said," the haggard tone in Mirai's voice and her exhausted look made it clear that this had happened before and left her worn out, RWBY and NPR both wondering how bad it truly was, Glynda had an idea of how having others in power do what they want while making more problems for others.

Ozpin … he knew, he sat with a complacent smile hinting to a deep sadness as he understood at a deep level, exactly what Mirai meant, having deep sympathy for her and the multitudes of Jaune Arc's that were subjected to the whims of beings of immense power with no say in the circumstances he would find himself in.

"Now, we have the second reason … and it is one of the more complex and dimensionally ingrained reasons as to why the result of Jaune becoming a female is the more likely result, and it deals with realities that contain the essence or fragment of, or themselves are, Primordial, Prime or Origin realities," Mirai continued as the group raised their hands, explaining the concept of Primordial realities.

"A Primordial, Prime and/or Origin reality is basically a reality that would best be described as either a reality that came into being at the initial point of the beginning of existence itself, with its essence branching through existence and leading to the conception of other such realities into the flow of reality itself, forming new dimensions and other universes, or are realities that are still being formed from existence itself even now, or even from Primordial entities that contain the power of existence themselves, and I am sorry to crush any dreams you may be having, but your reality, Remnant, is a branch reality that was conceived from the essence of a Primordial reality, thus not being conceived from existence or from a being of existence, but was itself conceived from a Prime reality into a sort of lesser reality, and that leads to … something that will shock you, and make you question your very existence in reality, a lot," Mirai looked at them as she gave a serious and intense stare as she gave them this knowledge, and the nervousness that they felt as she stated this, a feeling of deep dread welling up inside them as Mirai seemed like she was going to do something drastic, "would you like to know what that is, would you like to see … the TRUTH."

The group looked at one another, and nervously, the agreed.

"To those of you who believe that your world, reality and selves held some deep universal significance …"

Mirai raised her hand and was ready to snap her fingers.

"… forgive me."

SNAP

(-RWBY Volume 1 OST-"This Will Be the Day")

The group were startled as they witnessed a hologram displaying team RWBY, all of JNPR, Ozpin, Glynda in a way that seemed like some form of introducing them in some way, and saw as it kept shifting through fighting Grimm, Ruby in front of her mother's gravestone with an apparition of her mother appearing, Wiess under a spotlight, Blake on a branch in forever fall before disappearing as another branch passes (Blake got nervous as some intricate patterns appeared on the broken moon, patterns Blake seemed to recognize), Yang on her bike Bumblebee near Juniors club, an image of Roman Torchwick with the White Fang, the shadowed silhouettes of three people, with one appearing to have a glowing eye and holding a fireball revealing the person was a woman (Ozpin and Glynda paid considerable attention to this part, especially the woman), and then it ended with Ruby twirling her weapon as she became a shadowy silhouette and the words RWBY flashed on the screen in large, stylized letters, and the song ended.

The group was shocked, stunned and were left with a breadth of questions as scenes in their lives appeared, with the scenes starting by showing that the episodes had 'starring' or 'written by' at the beginning of each part of what was being shown, and a title appearing at the beginning.

To the people in the room, they were familiar with where they saw such a thing, but at the same time they felt a strong sense of existential dread as it kept playing out in what they saw, with the scenes ending in a scrolling ending that they only saw in … in!

"This," Mirai got out of her chair, a table appearing near them where they could all see, and Mirai set what looked like a thin case on the table, "is the truth of your reality."

Mirai stepped back as they group nervously approached the table, and Ruby picked up the case, eyes widening along with the others as she gazed at the cover of the box, and on the box …

… 'RWBY Volume 1', showing Ruby, Wiess, Yang and Blake on the cover in a fighting position with their weapons with the background being night with the moon in the back.

"In your reality, in your world you are real," the group looked at Mirai, feeling of shock in their eyes as she looked at them with a serious and leveled gaze, "but in the Primordial realities, in the main worlds that exist, you, your world, your story, your reality itself, all of it … they don't exist, not in the way of you being physically real."

The group had the urge to voice words of denial, to say it was lies, but what they saw, what had happened, what they experienced, it made them unable to speak but some had tears at the edge of their eyes and others gripped tightly whatever they had in their hands.

"Haah, I will tell you now, I despise what I am doing, I don't want to do this at all, I want to bury this and talk about something else, and if you are willing, we can drop the issue of why Jaune Arc becomes female and you can feel free to think all of this was a sick game or some twisted vile joke I am doing, I will neither hold it against you nor will I say anything against it, we can talk about something else and end this discussion right now, honestly I don't want to do this and I know you don't want to keep going either," Mirai now looked incredibly haggard and had a look that was deeply apologetic and incredibly exhausted, looking at the group that still felt the sense of shock in them, but at the same time they had come to far and seen to much, they knew there was no going back, no matter how much they wanted to go back, "so, shall we end this discussion and talk about something different, or …."

Mirai chose not to finish, for Ruby gave the answer of the group …

"Wh-wha-what … 'gulp', what is … the truth, what … are we really?"

Mirai looked saddened at that, shook her head, looked back up, and held her hand as more holographic panels appeared.

On one panel, was Ruby … as a portrait that seemed to shift as it appeared on the screen of a computer, the portrait being rendered into three-dimensions on the screen, multiple instructions appearing on the screen that appeared to cause the image of Ruby to move, shift and orient itself, then it showed the three dimensional image of Ruby speaking … only to also show another image of a young woman that was speaking in her voice talking into a microphone, the mouth of the Ruby on the computer spoke at the same time the woman spoke words into the microphone. Then it showed an image of a computer movement model that seemed to move similar to Ruby herself, and then the movement model was overlaid with Ruby holding Crescent Rose as she moved with the model, swinging and moving her weapon at the same rate that the model moved.

Ruby had a horrified and disturbed look on their face, and she was not alone.

The others present now held their mouths, shook their heads, and had eyes that were horrified and wished to look away but kept looking. They saw themselves being generated on computer screens, had people with their voices talk into microphones, voices and words that came out of their own mouths, and then saw as Beacon, Forever Fall, and Vale itself were soon created on computer screens, drawn using an art program and them rendered in three dimensions from their drawn phase and then came themselves on the screen with most others shown either being vague outlines or solid shadow while they themselves and a few others were fully rendered in, the looks of stark horror as they saw a scene generated, a scene showing their life, journey and more … being created on the screen of a computer!

"This is the truth of your existence in the Prime realities, you are all … characters … characters for an animated cartoon series titled RWBY, produced by the animation company Rooster Teeth in the Prime reality, your reality and others like it branched off from the Prime reality, gaining a life of its own from the essence of reality, but by the very facet of existence itself, your reality … does not exist," Mirai's have, none joking tone made the realize the truth of what they saw.

"Though whether you believe you are real or not is entirely up for debate, since to an overwhelming number, you are all quite real … and immensely loved," Mirai's sudden words caused them to gaze at the screens as they shifted, showing something … they could never expect.

A screen played the inside of a large building, and in the building were booths that showed many toys, accessories, books, shirts and more showing different characters from countless works, yet there was one part of the display that seemed to be larger than the rest, and a large amount of people were around the area, a display showing …

"… us."

Wiess could only see as a small figurine, one of a large number, were being bought and sold by large numbers, along with other figurines of her being bought by a sizeable amount of people, along with figurines of her friends and other Ruby characters. Then the image changed to people who whore merchandise that had them in dramatic poses with their weapons, and some showed them differently, older, more confident, though with Yang expressing concern as she saw a rather awesome looking image of her on a shirt but her right arm was robotic, 'I'll tell you once this has passed' was Mirai's answer as they saw how they were treated by those of the Prime reality. Ruby then saw a young girl reaching up for something that was up high and tearing up at not being able to reach it, then a woman who was the little girl's mother asked her which toy she wanted, Ruby's eyes went wide when the little girl said 'wuby' and saw the woman pick up a plushie of herself holding Crescent Rose (plushie version) and the girl squealed in joy as she hugged the toy close to her, then she felt something warm blossom inside of her as she saw the girl sleep in her bed holding the plushie … while surrounded by other plushies of her team and team JNPR with the blanket having an image of her and her team on it.

The group had mixed feelings as they saw this, ranging from confusion, to a strange yet welcome warmth that seemed to blossom from deep inside themselves.

"It's them you know, it's those individuals, all of them, those who watch you and your actions and experiences, their feelings towards you and your world are what give your world its existence, from this Prime reality and from other such realities where your world was conceived, and their strong emotions to not just your 'truth' but other 'truth's' as well resonate into the fabric of reality, causing reality to shape new realities based on these 'truths', and this gave birth to not just your reality, but near infinite numbers that are born from others who create new stories centered around your reality, either to create better path for you world, to merge your reality with another to create something entirely new and never before seen, and some just do it for their own reasons, be they good or ill, though don't worry, the number of truly dark realities formed from darker interpretations of your 'truth' are relatively miniscule and not very prevalent. Your reality is one of these conceived realities, though how it is and what occurred, I know not, that is why you are here," then Mirai cleared her throat, a small glass of water appeared from an opening in the floor on a floating tray, which she took and drank down quickly before putting it back on the tray, which went back into the floor as she continued speaking. "Puhaaah, okay, now we get to the point of the discussion that involves your question, the complex answer of why Jaune Arc has a higher chance of becoming female when certain dimensional events transpire, the meaning behind how it happens is complex but the circumstances of why are not, and that involves the 'source' of Jaune Arc, the Prime point that is linked to his existence."

"P-prime point-!"

"Let me stop you there Ozpin, I will explain something I missed," Mirai then showed a screen and each of those assembled was on the screen, and Jaune himself was on a slightly large screen, as was Pyrrha herself.

"I should have mentioned that you all were created from a 'source' for the show that forms your reality, the show RWBY, which I must point out is still ongoing and has not reached completion, not yet anyway, more on that later. You all have a 'source' if you will, a reference from which your character was based off of, with the originals being characters from other works, each work known in its own way, and for sake of simplicity I would like team RWBY to stand with Ozpin and Glynda on one side, and for NPR to stand on this side," Mira gestured to one spot for RWBY, Ozpin and Glynda, while NPR walked to the other spot, and the holograms showing them moved to the side they stood as Mirai continued again.

"The reason I had you all move to different spots is to, in a way, place you in a group that share's similar origins to your 'sources', essentially showing that those in your group had their 'source' come from basically the same origin, and as to what that is."

Mirai waved her hand to the RWBY/Ozpin/Glynda sign and above the hologram images showing them, a string of word appeared like a title, and the words spelled 'Nursery Rhymes' above the hologram panels, then above the hologram images of NPR came the word 'Mythology/History'.

"It is as you see, Ruby Rose, Wiess Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, Ozpin, Glynda, the source of your existence, the characters used to bring you into existence, were all sourced from Nursery Rhyme stories."

The hologram panel showing Ruby then had a new image on it, showing a young girl wearing a red hood while holding a basket in a forest.

"Ruby Rose, the character that inspired your creation is the main character of the Nursery Rhyme story titled 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

The image shifted to Weiss, and then showed an image of a young woman with short black hair, a fairly beautiful face and gentle physique, in a forest appearing to be singing as seven small men seemed to watch from a distance, while a dark, hunched over figure observed from a cliff in the distance.

"Wiess Schnee, the character that inspired your creation is the main character from the Nursery Rhyme 'Snow White'.

Then it shifted to Yang's image and split to show a young girl eating a bowl of what looked like porridge in a house that seemed to be for some exceptionally large individuals.

"Yang Xiao Long, you were inspired by the main character of the Nursery Rhyme 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'.

Then it showed Blake, and she was bothered by the image of a young woman standing next to a large bipedal beast of some kind, though it wore clothes and seemed to be trying to treat her well, as the girl seemed happy and the beast was also happy.

"Blake Belladonna, you were inspired in part by both of the main characters of the Nursery Rhyme 'Beauty and the Beast'.

Then she turned to Ozpin and Glynda, both of whom were a bit nervous about what she was going to say, and then saw their holo-panels merge together, and beneath was the image of a relatively old man surrounded by machinery and a woman in a flowing white dress holding what seemed to be a 'magic wand'.

"Ozpin and Glynda, the both of you share a source, that source being the Nursery Rhyme known as 'The Wizard of Oz', with Ozpin based on the titular Wizard and Glynda being based on the character called 'The good witch of the North' who ironically is called 'Glinda', imagine that."

With that, and the assorted group left to wonder about their connection to story book characters, Mirai then turned to team NPR, who were nervous about what she would show.

The image of Lie Ren was the first brought up, laid over with the image of a young woman in attire that seemed to fit Mistralian style, yet also different, then it showed the woman again, only this time wearing armor that was meant for men, and appeared to be trying to look like a man.

"Lie Ren, the inspiration for your existence is a character from the mythology of a land on the Prime world of your shows origin, a land known as China, and the character herself is known as Mulan, a woman who disguised herself as a man to enter the army during an invasion from a hostile army in order to protect her father, who was too old to do any strenuous activity, much less fight in a war, and did so even with the threat of death should her true identity be discovered, the Chinese at the time were incredibly strict about what could and could not be allowed, though would later be forgiven for her actions by saving her country from the invading army and helping to save the leader of her country as well, that is who inspired your creation, Lie Ren, you should be honored."

The image of Nora Valkyrie was brought up, and from it came two images, one of a woman on a winged horse holding a lance and another of a man in armor with a heavy fur cape holding a hammer that seemed to emit lightning.

"Nora Valkyrie, you hold two powerful sources of inspiration, both from what is called Norse Mythology, the first being the Valkyries who were 'warrior spirits' said to have been charged with protecting powerful warriors on the battlefield and even taking particularly strong souls of deceased warriors to the heaven of all great warriors, Valhalla. Then there is your other source, one who holds an immense amount of importance in the Norse Myths, and that 'source' is the highest deity, the strongest God, of Norse Mythology, Thor, God of Lightning and the protector of mankind."

Then the large image of Pyrrha Nikos came down, and on the screen appeared a man wearing a rather ancient form of the armor that Pyrrha herself wore, and had a helmet while using a spear and shield, with sword at the hip, yet there was a power from the individual that everyone could feel.

"Pyrrha Nikos, the inspiration for your creation was a hero, a hero of Greek Mythology, the legendary warrior, and demi-god Achilles, a powerful warrior trained by a legendary sage and became a powerful warrior in service to his nation, winning many battles against countless foes and armies, until he died a warriors death in battle, his name living on even now, in history and myth."

With that, a final holo-panel appeared, and on the panel was shown Jaune himself.

"Haah, the show that forms your reality truly made an error by making his role so lacking in comparison to your own, especially given who the source of his existence was and how important she was in history," Mirai turned to the others as she prepared to unveil the 'source' of Jaune Arc's existence.

"The second reason of why Jaune ends up becoming female in such a number of realities besides the first, well the reason is linked to one important aspect that you all seem to take for granted, and that is … potential. When Jaune Arc makes a shift into a female form, the potential that he held as a male rises immensely as a female, and as to why this is the case, it is linked to the 'source' of his existence, an individual of great renown in the Prime reality."

An image appeared next to Jaune, and it was a woman that was wearing old world knights armor, holding a banner and on a horse, yet a deep part of them felt something from the woman, a feeling of warm light that the woman seemed to exude.

"Meet the 'source' of Jaune Arc, the one who inspired his existence, and unlike the 'source's' of your existence, was not a being of fiction or myth, but an actual, real individual in the history of the Prime reality, a hero who not only fought in a war, but ended it as well. A saint of one of the largest religions of the Prime reality and even as she was sentenced to death under accusation of being a practitioner of darkness and evil, held her faith in her god to the end and beyond …"

"… the Saint of the nation of France, heroine of the Hundred-year war, and the source of the man you know of as Jaune Arc, her name is Jeanne D' Arc or Joan of Arc."

The group was left astounded at this knowledge, at knowing that the boy they knew had originated from a person of such immense importance, a person who truly did exist in the reality that their reality originated from, and as they compared the Jaune Arc the knew to the source of his existence, they saw the reality of why Jaune Arc seemed to gain a female form so often.

"Yep, you are all realizing it, and it is as you think, the reason why Jaune Arc has such a high probability of attaining a female form is that when it occurs, 'she' ends up channeling a large amount of the potential of his now her source, the source being a both a legendary saint and hero, and you can easily imagine how much potential could be had from such a change, which is where I must apologize to those with the Nursery Rhyme sources as your potentials are still high, but are quickly becoming maxed out and you soon will hit a potential limit without developing outside of your latent potential, this is due to the fact that your 'sources' do not actually exist in reality and are mostly popular among children and infants, sorry. As for you mythology derived guys, your potentials are a bit higher, and can develop much more than the Nursey Rhyme group, and a does still exist, and your potentials will grow similar to Jaune Arc's should you also undergo a, ahem, 'sudden shift in gender', but you will reach a limit eventually as you're sources, while existing as a part of a more broader subject and known to a larger amount of people, are not as potent since they do not truly exist in the Prime reality."

With that she rounded her explanation off with the conclusion.

"There you have it, you expected simple answers and got life altering and questioning revelations to yourselves and your world, and the reasons as to why Jaune Arc seems to take on a female form more often than a male form, and with that I would like to answer a question from earlier, one that was asked by Miss Xiao Long, and that was why her arm had become a robotic one," Mirai asked as Yang gulped, slightly worried about the answer she would receive.

"It was cut off, by an individual from Blake Belladona's past, when she was still a member of the White Fang …"

Eyes turned to Blake, whose own eyes seemed to grow wide with horror and dread as she seemed to know who Mirai was speaking.

"… and the individual was one of the main reasons for Blake's desertion of the White Fang, and an individual with the most wasted potential I have ever seen …"

Mirai snapped her fingers and on the screen, shown to all, was the visage of an individual that many of the group knew from wanted posters and news reports, the teachers knew of him from the many public security services that operated in Vale and elsewhere, while Blake backed away in horror at seeing the visage of the person she hoped to never meet again.

"… leader of the Vale chapter of the White Fang and its most violent and unrepentant extremist, and also Blake's … former partner … Adam Taurus."

A scene played, showing Blake stabbed to the ground by Adam, and then showed Yang seeing what happened to Blake, fly into a rage as she charged at Adam, only to pull his blade out and then focus his semblance, Blake watching in horror at what Adam was going to do, with Yang gritting her teeth at seeing Blake being hurt, her eyes slightly becoming red …

SLAAAASSSHHH

… then widened and became purple as Adam sliced of Yang's right arm, leaving her to flop to the ground, and Blake crawling over to Yang, holding her as Adam walked up to them, and saying, for everyone to hear …

"I will destroy everything you care for, starting with her."

… Adam stabbed and everyone gasped, only for it to be revealed that he had stabbed a shadow clone image Blake made, and turned to see Blake leading Yang away from the building they were in, while Adam looked on and then sliced apart a Beowolf that got to close, before he then walked way.

The image then switched, Mirai addressing the group.

"That is all I can show for now, and you can watch not only what led up that event, but all that transpires after at a later time, specifically when you turn in after this 'viewing', which will be the last we shall see and then turn in, as it should be coming … up … now."

The distant and disheartened gaze now worried and unnerved the assorted group even more now as she seemed to have a dark look on her face.

"Oh dear … that is… oh no … this is …. Oh no," Mirai had a worried gaze as she shook her head and held a hand over her mouth as she seemed to be contemplating some very ill news, then she sucked in a breath of air and turned to the group.

"Ozpin, everyone, I'm sorry, the reality that will be shone will be very dark, not only for the Jaune Arc of that reality but for that realities Remnant itself, also to answer, this reality has a slight essence of Prime reality within it, and it did affect Jaune Arc, so yeah, he's female in this reality, though more to a … humanoid extent, and as to what happens," Mirai sat on her chair as she levelled a strong gaze to the group, tired and sorrowful eyes looking at them, making worry swell in the hearts. "There are certain forces in Remnant, dark forces that work in parallel with the Grimm, forces that work to undermine not just the kingdoms, but humanity itself, a dark force that consists of traitors to humanity, and in the viewing that will be shown, the reality that is shown can be summed up into two words, words Ozpin and Glynda, that you would know the meaning of …"

Ozpin, who had been holding his cane tightly already, suddenly found himself gripping the shaft in a literal death grip as he feared the word Mirai would speak, Glynda next to him as she also grasped the hem of her skirt, worried about what Mirai was going to say.

They were right to be worried.

"… SHE … WON."

The look of anger and frustration on Ozpin and Glynda's faces brought a level of fear to the students, now worried about who this 'she' was and why it would get such a reaction from the heads of Beacon.

"There are several things in this reality, things that will make this version of Remnant diverge from the one you know, but a large part of the Remnant you see is in fact a strong possibility of what may befall your world, what you will see is the result of what happens if these dark forces of Remnant … succeed," the lights dimmed, and the screen came on, slowly becoming clear as the group took their seats, watching as the image became clear and showing them this new and dark reality.

The possible dark fate of Remnant.

"…"

VWHOOOHH

"…"

Clink-Clink-Clink

Skrsh-skrsh-skrsh

A lone figure made their way through the silent and broken ruins that surrounded them, making their way through the broken and twisted ruins of buildings that had fallen and apart or were smashed apart from whatever had torn through the area …

… large gaping claw marks, massive holes that appeared to have been made by exceptionally large creatures and finally imprints on the floor that looked like large paws or clawed feet.

The source of the devastation was obvious …

GRRRRR

… and was still present.

The figure turned to see a pack of four beowolves, led by a beowolf alpha, its body coated in a heavy layer of bone armor as it glared hatefully at the figure …

… who merely looked back at the wolves.

GROOAA-SKIIICHHH

The Alpha roared at the figure … and was suddenly impaled by a pointed spear of light green light that seemed to emit the energy that made it up like a mist that came off in a subtle wafting pattern.

The Alpha began to drop to the ground from the spear as it seemed to … harden!

Instead of the body dispersing into a puff of ashen dust as all Grimm are known to, its whole structure instead seemed to harden up, the colors that made it up slowly melting away as veins of light spread from the spear to the alphas body, the color from all parts disappearing, until finally its eyes seemed to burn away in a puff of ashen dust that it should have turned into when it is normally killed.

Instead the body of the alpha beowolf had completely solidified into a stonelike material, the Grimm now a large hardened statue of a pitch-black material, the cracked lines of light still shining through the body, only to fade.

CRRSSCCHHHH

The moment the light faded and the spear dispersed, the statue crumbled apart, crashing to the ground in a broken and shattered heap, the head of what was the alpha beowolf rolling a good distance before it broke apart against a large chunk of debris.

The remaining beowolves could only look on as their leader was reduced to a shattered pile on the ground before looking back to the one that killed their leader …

… who had three more spears hovering above them, three spears that then shot forward.

SRRIISCCHHH-SKRISCHH-SKIICHH

CRRRMMMBBLLLEEE

Three piles of dark material now littered the ground, and the unknown figure made their way past the piles and onward through the ruin.

The group could only look on in stunned silence, wondering what they had just looked at.

"Wait-wait, th-the Grimm don't die like that, you kill them and they turn into dust right, well not the Dust we use in our stuff, but the stuff that covers stuff when it's not cleaned, they don't … solidify into black statues, right?" Yang was left very confused by what she saw, as all her experience told her that what she saw not what happened to Grimm when they die.

"Th-the Grimm, they b-became like-like statues, they don't do that right, they aren't like that, right?" Ruby was incredibly confused at how the Grimm died in such a way.

Wiess was left to stunned by what she saw to make a quote, Blake did not even know what to say.

For Ozpin and Glynda, it took their years of training and muscle memory …

… not to spill their drinks all over their laps, which would have hurt, a lot.

"What you see will be explained later on, and trust me, when you see it, you will be shocked beyond words or memory," Mirai turned back as the viewing continued.

The figure made their way through the broken ruins of their current location, walking along until the individual stopped.

They looked at what caused them to stop, and suddenly the scenery before them began to change.

Suddenly they were surrounded by a large courtyard, and around them walked many individuals, and all of them were young men and women that seemed to be in their late teens or early adult years, all of them wearing similar clothes, uniforms if the individual remembered correctly.

It looked around at the image as it saw many individuals as they walked to and fro, talking to those by their side, sitting around in the shade of trees that adorned the courtyard, or making their way to their next class, a stack of books in hand.

Then it looked back, the figures hood obscuring their features, and there stood …

"ME," Ruby gasped as she saw who it was that stood in the courtyard.

Indeed, the group saw that the person the figure was looking at was in fact Ruby Rose, dressed in her Beacon Academy uniform, her hood draped on her shoulders and looking up with a bright smile at whatever she was seeing.

"But if that's Ruby, and she and all those people are wearing," Wiess felt her eyes widen as fear enters her eyes, "then that means that that's!"

Then the figure saw as the girl turned to look elsewhere, the figure seeing a group consisting of a three other girls, a white haired girl who emitted a type of regal elegance, a dark haired girl with a rather mysterious and slightly dark aura, and a boisterous girl with voluminous yellow hair and a well-developed body as she appeared to be calling out to the first girl.

The girl ran over to them, in a way that she burst into flower petals that wafted off of her rapidly accelerated form, before stopping directly in front of the girls and talking them for a bit before the went into one of the buildings.

The figure looked to see them enter one of the buildings at the end of the courtyard, and in the center of the courtyard, where there was a fountain in the middle of the courtyard in front of a large building, the fountain showing statue an armed man and woman standing on a large rock with the statue of a beowolf that seemed to be fleeing.

The figure then watched as an autumn leaf flew near where they stood, and reached out to grab it …

… only for the leaf to crumble to dust, and the vibrant world where the figure stood faded away.

The figure stood once more in the broken and decayed ruins of what was once a large and vibrant academy, the buildings now collapsing and ruined, the large building having fallen in on itself, and the statue was smashed to pieces.

The figure noticed a piece fabric beneath some rubble near the fountain, and slowly moved the rubble out of the way to find what seemed to have been a piece of the clothing she saw the individuals in her 'vision' wear, and it appeared to be a badge of some type.

The words were legible, and the figure spoke what they said, in a soft voice that bordered on a whisper, but with clear effeminate tone that denoted the possible gender of the individual.

"… Beacon Academy …"

"Dammit, dammit," Yang said as she spoke through ground teeth as she saw the fate of the school that had become such a large part of her and her friends lives, now reduced to a broken ruin of itself, smashed to pieces, another thing that was destroyed by the beasts of Grimm.

Though the question remained.

"H-How, how did that happen, that's BEACON ACADEMY, the school of huntsmen, a school filled with huntsmen, everyone who lived there was a huntsman, how could that have happened, why did happen," Wiess was beside herself with worry and confusion, seeing one of the most prestigious huntsman academies on all of Remnant reduced to a dilapidated, Grimm filled ruin was too much for her to handle.

CRASH

Everyone turned their attention to see that it was a cup of coffee that had fallen to the ground, and the saw Ozpin holding the broken pieces of the coffee mugs handle in the now iron tight and slightly bleeding clenched fist of a very upset and angered Ozpin, seeing the Academy he swore to guard now reduced to a broken and twisted ruin.

Ozpin and Glynda, joined by RWBY and NPR, all gave intense looks to Mirai, who impassively looked back at them before she spoke.

"You will have your answer, for the protagonist of this viewing will soon have another vision, one that will put you front and center to what happened," Mirai stated as she looked at the screen as it continued, before making on last quip, "a look at 'The Fall of Beacon', and 'The destruction of Vale'.

The viewing continued as the assembled group were left in silent horror at what they would see next.

The individual continued on her way, using her light spears to strike down any Grimm that happened to be nearby, with the remains of the Academy mostly having Beowolves and the errant Ursa, the bear-like Grimm being left crumbling piles of dark material just like the Beowolves before them.

The figure continued on their way, and saw what appeared to be the base of what was once a massive tower in the distance, now a broken and crumbled pile of broken stone and metal scattered all over the wide expanse around the former tower.

This time, the figure was able to see it …

… an 'coalescent memory node' or a 'memory node'.

If a 'memory node' was here, then it meant that an event involving many memories of individuals who were now gone had occurred and giving the size of the 'node' whatever occurred was immense.

'It probably centers around the events that led to this place becoming a ruin,' the figure thought to themself, the slightly effeminate tone should have made the individuals gender clear …

… yet there was still something slightly off.

The person walked over to the node, then felt their foot hit something, causing them to turn and see …

… the remains of a mechanized soldier, a humanoid weapon developed by a nation called Atlas, and the figure noted several others that seemed to lie on the ground in various states of damage.

As she looked over the machines she noted that most of them appeared to have been damaged not by the Grimm's bestial means, rather noting clean single cuts and multiple holes from projectile weapons, including some with blunt damage that seemed to have come from a fist, a human fist.

The individual was left perplexed, why were these machines, created solely to safeguard humans, left in such a state by human weapons.

'What happened here …' the figure thought, wondering why human weapons had been destroyed by human means.

Then it noticed a large object not too far away, the figures seeing that it was one of Atlas's automated bipedal weapon platforms, a mechanized system that was used to fight larger Grimm species, and noticed damage to a building that the weapon was facing.

'Gaping holes rimmed with scorch marks, deep impacts in the ground around it, and impacts that would be consistent with an individual of either human or faunas weight being slammed into the surface, it was attacking people … why?'

The figure realized that it would get no further answers from just looking around and made their way to the 'node'.

"Wh-what is, why in the," Wiess was beside herself with confusion and warry, "why are Atlas 'Knights' on Beacon ground, why is there a 'Paladin', why is there all that damage, why were they damaged by weapons, what's going on."

"I would also like to have an answer as to why there are Atlesian weapons on the Academies grounds, or why they seem to have caused direct damage to the school infrastructure and perhaps even the faculty, or worst …" Ozpin gave off a dangerous air as he decided that the moment he could, he would have some choice words with the man who led the Armed Forces of Atlas.

The others, nervous at seeing an angry Ozpin and worried over why Atlas weapons were left littered over the Academy and were apparently responsible for some of the destruction.

"You will see soon enough, because the answer for the 'Atlas robots' need to be there' part will be coming … now," Mirai queued.

The figure moved over to the 'node' and stepped into the wisps that made up the 'node', and when it did, the world shifted …

… and the world was burning.

The figure moved around rapidly as it saw multiple individuals running around rapidly, all heading into on general direction, each wearing their own unique clothes and wielding a weapon that was either relatively simple or overtly complex, all of whom were rushing in the direction of multiple flashing lights, as the vision was soundless …

… that was until a red hue covered the 'vision' and with it came noise.

/ALERT, LEVEL 9 GRIMM INVASION DETECTED, ALERT/

The alarm mixed with the automated alert blared through the area as the multiple individuals, the huntsmen of Beacon were running to fight the threat.

Then a loud rush of air came up, and the figure turned to see what it was.

The sound came from sixteen verti-craft, all flying low as they seemed to stop above the Academy, and all having the red mark of an angry beast baring its fangs, then it opened its side door …

… and from it, an Ursa Minor roared as it then leapt out onto the ground, and immediately attacked the students.

The scene played itself several times as more verti-craft released more Grimm from their holds, the individual left confused as to how the craft could even transport the Grimm without the monsters destroying the craft from the inside out, much less not attacking or lashing out in anyway, given how smoothly the verti-craft flew as they disgorged their violent packages.

The situation seemed to escalate drastically as the beasts tore through the Academy grounds, and witnessed several of the students fall to the beasts, many either being outright torn apart and some just being overwhelmed, though for the most part the students held firm.

Then gunfire erupted through the area, the individual seeing several students and people being shot until their aura dropped and then killed or just died outright, looking to the source as several individuals in white and black clothing, wielding either swords or rifles, and all wearing masks similar to that of the Grimm were now running attacking both the huntsmen and civilians indiscriminately, and only attacking Grimm that seemed to come to close, yet the majority of the beasts of Grimm seemed to ignore the murderous group as they continued to attack the young huntsmen and civilians.

'Murderous man-beasts, White Fang, Vale branch, murderous beasts using the excuse of 'justice' and 'equality' to justify their malice and violence against any they see as being in their way …"

The individual witnessed as several of the White Fang surrounded a young huntress, who had been left injured and bleeding from fighting off a Grimm, and was also a faunas just like them, but they offered no aid … only death.

SQUELCH

A blade pierced the faunas huntress in the chest, the huntress dying on the spot as her murderers continue to attack other huntsmen and civilians.

'… even their own people,' the individual stated sadly as they looked at the girls dead body, cut down in cold blood while still young, and showing the sheer hypocrisy of the of the so called ' faunas liberators'.

'The original founder, whoever it is, should feel nothing but shame and despair at seeing what was once a 'movement of peace' become a 'cult of evil'.'

The group were left stunned, confused and horrified at what they had just witnessed, none more so than the resident faunas, who was now trying to say anything to try and refute what was being said, what was being done, yet all that came out was …

"N-n-n-no-no, th-this, it can't, no, but the … the Whi- … they …. No … no … 'hick' why 'ugh' 'uuugh' 'uuaaahh," Yang moved to hug her now crying partner, the rest of RWBY also coming to the now loudly weeping Faunas as she now held her partner and she cried her heart out at seeing the how far gone the group her father had created and that she once believed so deeply in, now a twisted mockery of the original organization she once knew.

"Miss Mirai is what is happening here also what happens in our world," Ozpin asked with a dark look on his face at what he witnessed.

"The part regarding the 'Altered Arc', yeah lets use that now for these moments, for the 'Altered Arc', the power the 'Arc' wields, and how they came to know about that calamity, I believe those things are basically part of that reality," Mirai stated as she then took on a more darker tone and had a saddened expression, "but the Grimm invasion, the White Fang using Grimm in the attack, and the Fang themselves attacking and killing civilians and huntsmen alike in the attack … yes, yes that indeed happens in the vast majority of a RWBY-type realities and is very likely to happen in your reality, to those who cant handle the cold hearted truth, sorry."

The group were now left quite disturbed and very worried, now knowing that such a thing can happen in their reality, and that it likely will happen caused a sense of fear and dread to well up in them …

… then Mirai spoke, and it got worse.

"What comes next is even worse."

The memory continued, the Grimm were now storming into the campus from wherever they had come from, and the White Fang continued to attack the huntsmen and civilians that were still in the area, the huntsmen being pushed as they were still too young and inexperienced, having only expected to fight and kill Grimm, none of them able to fight with the White Fang well as the murderous terrorists fought with terrible ferocity against the young huntsmen, ending their lives while most of the huntsmen could only really try to knock their opponents out of the fight, which was honestly easier said than done.

'This is getting worse, and I feel it will only worsen'

Yet the entity was then shaken from that thought when several large bullets shot from behind passed by and through them, as it was reliving a large memory and thus not really present, and saw the bullets cut down the Grimm in sizeable numbers and also tore into the terrorists, forcing many to cover as the new attackers made their way in.

The individual was soon among a large force of Atlas's automated weapons in the form of several Atlas 'Knights' supported by three 'Paladins', the automated units firing at the Grimm, cutting down their number, while at the same time the White Fang kept their heads down, some of their number getting caught in the open and being shot down by the multitude of Atlesian automatons.

The individual saw this as a major turning point in the fighting, with the defending huntsmen now able to evacuate the civilians quicker and start pushing the Grimm and White Fang back.

Yet something was not right.

'Why are they not retreating,' the individual noticed that the White Fang troops were staying hunkered in their position, holding their ground even as the Atlas machines closed in, and even when some of their group were overtaken, they still held firm, 'its almost like … they are waiting for something.'

Then … it happened.

The world was tinged a much darker red color, with everything now bathed in a deep crimson light, as though blood now covered everything in sight.

It was then that the 'Knights' and 'Paladins', just stopped moving.

The individual was disturbed by this and held their hand out to a 'knight' and found that they could now enter the 'machine-mind' of the Knight.

It found itself before a blue screen, showing order on it that read …

/OBJECTIVE: Eliminate Grimm and White Fang hostiles

/SECONDARY: Ensure Civilian safety. Aid local Huntsmen and Kingdom security forces

The screen showed that these were the goals that drove the actions of the automatons, yet now there was a thin bar, with the words 'updating' over the thin bar as red light seemed to rapidly fill the bar.

Then the bar filled, the screen said complete …

… and the whole screen turned blood red, and on the screen appeared a piece from what the individual remembered was from a 'strategy-type' board game that humans and faunas were known to play, a game called chess.

The piece shown was the 'Queen' piece of the game, the piece was pitch black and ominous against the red screen.

Then the goals of the automaton disappeared, and in their place, a single goal appeared.

/OBJECTIVE: Eliminate Targets

Then it saw three columns of information open, all linked to the new goal and they were labeled.

/VALE CIVILIAN REGISTRY

/BEACON STUDENT REGISTRY

/ATLAS MILITARY ROSTER

'Oh no'

Its vision returned to where it still stood, looking at the unmoving Atlas machine …

… that then started to move again.

The moment they stood straight, the 'machine eyes' of the units shifted from a cool blue, to a deep red.

The machines soon hefted their weapons into firing position …

… and turned to face the huntsmen and civilians.

'… horrible …'

RATATATATATA

BSHOOM-BSHOOM

The Atlas machines opened fire at the huntsmen and civilians, tearing into the scared and terrified civilians, not even noticing as White Fang forces rushed out of their spots, helping the machines in their horrific goal, and the Grimm soon were amongst the machine, and attacked them as well as the fleeing civilians, huntsmen and even Fang, though the machines didn't even react to this.

They just kept shooting, striking down human, huntsmen, and non-White Fang faunas as they attacked, and the sounds of weapons fire was echoing around the city, along with the screams of the dying and wounded.

Then a 'Paladin' aimed up, targeting a civilian verti-craft that was trying to fly away …

… it fired, and it hit.

The craft fell, sent careening straight at where the individual now stood, and it smashed into the 'Paladin' that had shot it down before crashing in front of the individual, the light from its explosion blossomed forward, and the world fell away.

"…"

"…"

The individual found themselves back in the middle of the now empty and ruined courtyard, looking to the one side of the courtyard to see the destroyed civilian verti-craft from the 'memory', the wreckage entangled with the now destroyed and inert 'Paladin', another appearing to have been cut in two and a final one simply lying collapsed against the ground, seeming to have just shut off.

The individual turned to the collapsed tower and made their way to the structure in silence.

If they thought they could not feel greater sorrow before, everyone was now feeling it now, and it was now Wiess was now the one who was left wallowing in despair.

"Why … why would … who would, those people, they killed them, those were from my home, they should have saved them, why … why would … ugh … gugh," Ruby now came to Wiess's side, the Schnee heiress gripping on to Ruby as she bawled her eyes out, seeing what the machines of Wiess's home had done, and felt heartbreak at it all.

Ozpin and Glynda had very angered and crossed looks on their faces and had the same thought of speaking to a certain Atlesian General that they both knew needed to answer some profoundly serious questions.

"Now we get to see a bit more of the 'Altered Arc' and I will explain why there is now use of gender-specific pronouns being used here as well as why they are at the ruins of what was that realities Beacon Academy," Mirai stated as the viewing continued.

The individual continued onto the tower, and walked through a large hole that used to be the front entrance, walking past shattered desks, smashed walls, countless pieces of technology that were left broken beyond repair …

… and arrived before a massive pit that used to be the bottom floor of the tower, the pit reached deep into the earth, and seemed to continue for a long while.

The individual then removed the hood, allowing a glimpse of their face.

The face indeed seemed to fit that of a young woman in their early twenties, the face having the all the features denoting the individual's identity as a woman.

Yet, there were some subtle portions, more sharpened features, deeper complexion, a near imperceptible masculine edge that seemed to place the current gender of the individual in doubt.

Then … there was everything else.

The eyes that gazed into the pit glowed with light green light, a pattern infused into the iris that channeled the energy, the pupil of the eye emitted the same light green energy, causing the eye to slightly glow. Then came the face and visible parts of the head and neck, which had lines running along it that seemed like a sort of tattoo that was drawn on, the lines a dark green color, only the lines were too deeply flush to the skin to be actual tattoos and the light green energy that lightly ran through the marks showed that the marks were in fact a natural part of its body. The other notable feature were the ears, which seemed to be the right size and shape for a human ear, yet instead of being circular, the ears seemed to be slightly pointed, and the inside of the ear had small lines of the same dark green pattern as the other lines on the head along with shoulder length light green hair that had a soft glow to it.

The seemingly female individual then peered into the pit, its eyes glowed briefly as it looked deep into the hole, and through its vision, it made out what lay below.

'Found it'

The individual nodded as it had reached its destination.

Then the cloak seemed to flutter up a bit, a strong gust of wind seemed to a blown in and revealed the rest of the individual.

The individual wore an outfit that seemed to mix parts of a relatively sturdy dress with light armor at certain parts, the outfit appearing to be what a huntsman would wear, a long sleeve white shirt with a small breastplate covering parts of the chest and stomach, the breastplate being a more flexible type with the armor worn in segments connected by a thread-like metal weave, which also showed the chest, while not very large, was in fact that of a female and should have been the final nail in the coffin for the argument.

Yet it was not, as the rest of the individual seemed to still have a more structured and masculine build, which could just be attributed to having a more muscular physique, there was still that small inkling that gave the impression that the gender of the individual was still in doubt.

The individual wore relatively tight shorts that were about thigh length with a waist cape at the hips, the shape also appearing to be another nail in an already mostly sealed coffin, yet it was not, and the outfit ended with black stockings that were of a thick fabric specifically for colder times, and had boots that were low heeled and light green in color.

Also, on its back, hanging at the waist was a large scabbard that had the hilt of the blade showing small patterns on its surface and what seemed like minute scribbling on much of the hilts surface.

Yet in the middle of its back, the shirt had a large diamond shaped opening, and along the center of the back, moving parallel to the spine on both sides, were the same dark green patterns as on the other parts of the body, except the patterns were a darker color and formed a sweeping pattern that went along the spine in a downward sweeping direction.

The reason for such an opening and the patterns on the individuals back were soon made clear.

'Well, time to begin'

Then, from the swept marks on the individuals back, the light green energy erupted outward and then rapidly coalesced into a tangible form, the form of two thin, slightly curved wings, the wings themselves appeared to resemble long thin leaves, four in total, the top two being longer, larger and more spread out, while the bottom two were a bit smaller, thinner, and closer together. The wings themselves rippled with light green energy, the glow strong and clear in the darkened sky, the grey clouds, causing the surrounding area to have a haze of grey, no lit by the individuals 'wings of light'.

The wings pulsed as they moved slightly down, and the individual was lifted slightly off the ground as they now seemed to glide up into the sky, and then moved forward in the air, until they hovered over the very center of the hole.

'Right here, this is where the 'pulse' must be set'

The figure then reached into the cloak, and a circle of energy appeared within, and the figure reached into the circle, pulling out a single cube, the texture of the cube resembled polished stone, with a mix of emerald and forest green colors on its surface.

The individual then held the cube up, and started to fill the cube with energy, and then held the cube with using the energy, the cube floating between its hands as energy funneled into the cube, and the cube soon began to pulse with energy, and its form began to morph opening into five parts, the four sides of the cube and a single sphere in the center that radiated the energy the individual had poured into the cube.

Then the pieces began to expand as the individual flew slightly back while still feeding energy into the cube as it began to expand, and its shape began to change.

The cube had now fully expanded into a sphere one meter in diameter, three elongated scalene triangles, all four sided and half a meter in length, with the final piece having become two meters long and formed a for sided triangle pyramid shape with an opening on the top and bottom, the pyramid itself was inverted so the bottom was pointing up to the sphere while the top pointed into the hole, and inside the whole were many turbine-like shapes within the bottom pyramid structure, all rotating at separate speeds.

The light from the sphere began to glow brightly and then funneled into the bottom structure, going into the opening on the top(bottom), and then the flowing down as the 'turbine' began to merge and focus the energy into a denser and more potent form, the light of the energy growing more radiant as it made its way to the opening at the bottom(top), and began to build up from there, waiting to be released.

'It's ready, and with this, the Grimm will not be an issue here anymore'

The individual then held its hand out to the structure, energy coalesced in its hand.

Then the individual spoke …

{Aktivieren}

The structure pulsed as the three pyramids hovering at three points around the sphere rapidly rotated, and from the opening on the bottom pyramid aimed into the hole …

THHHRRRRMMMMMM

… a beam of pure energy shot straight down into the whole, a radiant green light pulsing through the area as the light shot deep into the hole, traveling at rapid speed …

… until it reached the bottom …

… and what lay at the bottom.

BSSSRRHHHHMMM

GRAAAAAAAAAOOOOORRRR

The light struck the bottom of the whole, and punched straight down onto a massive draconic Grimm that made its den within the hole, the very hole it created long ago, the monster surrounded by many viscous black pools and several small Grimm that seemed to emerge from the holes, mostly Creeps, Beowolves, some Ursa and even some aerial Grimm such as Griffons and Nevermores.

Then the beam struck, and a pulse of energy blasted through the whole, smashing the dragon Grimm into the ground and sending pulses of energy throughout the hole, the energy burning into the beasts of darkness, pulsing through their bodies …

… and causing the Grimm to begin breaking into pieces, hardening and breaking down in a way similar to how the individual dispatched the earlier Grimm, only this was happening on a much larger scale as countless numbers of the beasts died and the Dragon Grimm roared in pain and agony as its own skin started to harden and break apart.

The energy soon began to sink into the ground and spread rapidly, and when the energy hit the Grimm spawning pools at the bottom of the pit, the pools began to rapidly and viciously bubble up as the energy began to spread through and into the pools, until the pools finally hardened up, becoming the same solid black material and crumbling soon after, leaving just a dark patch on the ground.

The spawning pools had been purged, and the energy continued to spread into the ground as continued onward, the Dragon Grimm roaring in obvious agony as it thrashed around the bottom of the pit, still being hit by the beam and being harmed by the energy particles that now began to fill the whole from the beams impact, along with the ground around it which was now saturated by the energy.

The individual nodded to itself as it sensed the energies progress from where it still hovered.

'Thus, does the reach of the Fae and the end of 'their' dominion draw ever closer to concluding, but now is the time to be alert and to guard this point until the 'Aether Pulse' has fully stabilized.'

The now known Fae then reached for the sword on its back, and pulled the sword out, though the 'sword' was markedly short and a bit uneven, and appeared to have been made of many metal pieces, looking like it would come apart at any moment …

PIINNGG

… until a pulse of energy resonated through the blade and it expanded into a giant sword, with the blade having the standard shape of a regular sword only much large and the blade was made out of the same energy that the Fae itself used.

The Fae held its sword in its right hand, and held the blade to its side as it prepared to fight, the multiple shadows approaching from the distance and rushing to the Fae and more specifically to the 'Aether Pulse' construct, and the Fae looked to the approaching Grimm, mostly Griffins and Nevermores and calmly said …

{kommen und sterben Tiere der Zerstörung}

"To those who want some answers I can answer only three questions before we go back into the viewing, speak want you want to say now or hold to the end," Mirai turned to the crowd who had faces that demanded answers, and who now spoke to one another to try and decide what their questions will be, until they finished and Ruby spoke first.

"So, what is Jaune now, what is a Fae," Ruby asked, then Nora chirped as she realized what the others did not.

"Oh, I know what that is, glowing fluttering wings, the bright light, and come on … Fae," Nora went on, though the others didn't seem to get it yet, "a fairy, Fearless Leaders a Fairy."

The others were about to question what Nora was talking about, until they heard someone clapping, and saw it was Mirai herself, a content smile on her face.

"Once again Nora, your hidden intelligence and perception shine through again, yes, the Jaune Arc in this reality was is, in simple terms, a fairy, though different yet similar to the type talked about in myth, and since we need to get back to the viewing in a bit I will give you all a brief rundown," Mirai cleared her throat as a holo-screen came up.

"Fairies or the Fae are spirits of nature, or spirits that embody nature, be it the trees, the wind, the light, the shadow, even the seasons of the year, and are usually seen as small humanoids with fluttering wings and the ability to manifest the aspect of nature they represent, and in the case of that realities Jaune Arc, he had become a Fae and thus was altered into the form you now see, and this is where the question of 'his' gender comes into play," Mirai waited to until all where now paying attention and spoke again, "you see, in this instance, in technical terms, the Jaune Arc in this reality is, to your shock and amazement, a 'male'."

"WHAT, bu-but h-she's," then Mirai held her hand up to the confused audience.

"I said this Jaune was 'male', but I did not say a male human, for the Fae of that reality are a uni-gendered race, the whole species has the same body type, but can be classified by their proportions, standard size, even the shape of their wings, but all members of the species that that realities Arc has now become all have a female form, with their wings being their primary distinguishing point between 'male' and 'female' Fae, also a small spoiler here," two holo-screen came up, one showed Fae 'Jaune Arc', and the other showed a separate Fae, the other Fae being far more feminine having long red hair and deep red eyes that seemed to hold a deep warmth within along with being more 'developed' than Fae 'Arc', wearing an 'armored dress', the fabric a sort of vibrant red with armor segments on the front on at the hem of the skirt, white/red shorts with a satchel hanging from the back along with the Fae's scabbard, the Fae holding its sword out, with the blade being large single edged blade that glowed a fiery red through its structure, and wore armored boots that went to just below the knees and had thigh high socks that were also red but had white patterns on them, the Fae's body had 'aether lines' similar to Fae 'Arc' but were red instead of green, and the wings were more rounded and larger than the wings of Fae 'Arc'.

"Here it is, the main difference between a 'male' and 'female' Fae is their wing structure, a 'males' wings are thinner and more streamlined while a 'females' are larger and more stable, there is also the fact that 'male' Fae are not as 'developed' as a 'female' Fae but that is not a stable form of identifying the difference in a Fae's gender, and that is all I can give to you now, you can go over any other information later, on to the other two questions," Mirai waited for them to answer, and it was Wiess who asked next.

"What is the language sh-the Fae, what was the Fae speaking, it sounds a bit like Old Mantlelian, but it sounds a lot older than that," Wiess asked and Mirai smirked a bit.

"The language is actually from the Prime reality and is known as German, originating from those who, in the Prime reality, would go on to create the nation of Germany as well as a few other smaller nations, and this ties into the existence of the Fae in your reality as the myth of fairies and other such spiritual creatures emerged in the Prime reality, on the continent Europe, a continent which Germany is a country of, along several other countries that are part of Europe, and Germanic-dialect is what the Fae in the reality we are seeing, speak," Mirai stated before saying, "last question, what is it Ozpin.

"Ahem, the 'Aether' that the Fae make use of, why does it have such effects, and what exactly is it," Ozpins question came with a response, one he did not expect.

"If you are wondering whether the 'Aether' has any correlation to the 'other' important matter that you know about, then I must disappoint you as 'Aether' is not at all linked to what you may be thinking off, as its effects on the Grimm all but show, 'Aether' is a foreign energy to the Grimm, and thus their bodies suffer worse damage from exposure to it, leading to them dying as you saw," Mirai stated to them, before a darker tone came in, "and not just the Grimm, later on you will see that the 'Aether's' lethality can go far beyond just the soulless beasts that roam your world."

Then the screen pulsed a bit and Mirai turned back to it, "now comes the more intricate part, where we will get an explanation as to how the Jaune Arc of this reality had become a Fae, which is not a happy tale I'm afraid."

'Haah, another battle, more of the Dark ones constructs sent to die for a purpose now gone,' the Fae held its weapon at the ready to kill the oncoming hordes, still thinking to itself, 'to think that, all those years ago, I was told by those closest to me that I would never be someone who could threaten even the weakest of these dark constructs, that I would never become a 'hero', one who would save the people …'

'… guess they were right.'

The Fae witnessed the first Grimm that approach, and sent forth several lances of pure light, sending several Griffin and a few Nevermores crashing to the ground and shattering on impact, and witnessed more approaching.

The Fae's wings flashed with light, and it shot forth, flying straight at the approaching horde, all the while, thoughts of its life came through, what it was now, how it came to be …

… and who it was before, all weaving together into a tale, the tale of its past.

The beginning came upon its past form being born into the world, a child of the human race, borne of the male gender, or a 'boy' as humans called young males of their race, and it was borne with the name of Jaune Arc, a name that now seemed distant and strange to it. It was borne to a very large human family, known as the Arc family, who were renown for the many warriors that went to battle against the beasts of Grimm, be they male or 'female', with human females having a physical form closer to our own. Yet the fate of becoming a warrior of this large family called 'the Arc Clan', was not to be for Jaune Arc …

… for a different fate awaited much further into 'his' life.

SKRISSCHH

An Ancient Nervermore and many Elder Grimm were sliced in twain and crumbled into pieces before falling to the ground below, the Fae swinging its blade behind it, the blade releasing a crescent wave of energy, cutting down a flock of Griffon as they attacked, dying all at once.

The Fae gazed back at the construct, seeing the 'core' glowing with a soft green light, with a glittering light in the center.

{es braucht noch Zeit, um sich vorzubereiten, und ich werde ihm diese Zeit geben}

It happened on the time where the four seasons would renew in what was called a year, in fact twelve years had passed when a certain fact became acknowledged, actually a few. The first was that it had stopped growing after its eight year of growth, remaining at roughly the size of a child. The second was that its muscle development was not increasing, no amount training or workout seemed to increase. There was also the fact that Jaune Arc, a 'male', had a form the was almost blatantly 'female', though that was not as important in the long run. It was what occurred later, in Jaune Arc's twelfth year that events took a turn for the worse, at least in 'his' mind.

His father, the one who told 'him' the stories of his ancestors, of the great and noble deeds, had slowly grown distant as he saw his 'son' remain young and undeveloped, while Jaune's sisters all developed into fine young women and strong warriors, having gone on to become the heroes known as 'huntsmen', while Jaune 'himself' remained a small, weak child, who grew to curse 'his' own weakness. Then one day, his father and mother both decided that they would at least unlock his Aura, and Jaune agreed, hoping that at least 'he' could show that, like all the huntsmen out there, he could have power …

… he could have been a hero.

This is where events took a horrible turn.

The process began as normal, and suddenly went directly downhill, with Jaune Arc being left deeply scarred and injured when the Aura that entered him to awaken his own instead began to surge through Jaune Arc and cause direct damage to his body as it continuously went through him.

The process ended in failure and a trip to the doctor heralded the death of Jaune Arc's dream.

ADS, Aura Deficiency Syndrome, an illness that afflicts a small percentage of the population, with the illness causing an individual to have a defect in their body that not only prevented Aura generation, but appeared to outright reject it …

… and Jaune had it.

"Aura … Deficiency … Syndrome," Wiess said in shock as she heard that the Jaune in the reality they saw had such a disease, "is there, did we have such a disease like that in our reality."

It was, unsurprisingly, Ozpin who answered.

"I am afraid that, yes, there is a disease in our world that has similar qualities in our world, it's called Aura Suppression Disease, it is a temporary illness with flu like symptoms, but so long as an individual is infected by it, they are wholly unable to use either their Aura or Semblance until they get better, other such illnesses of the type are either unimaginably rare, or are almost entirely rumors."

Ozpin's explanation of such an illness actually existing did not go over well with the group, though compared to a temporary loss of Aura compared to never being able to use it, the group felt even worse for the fate of their friend in the reality they were seeing.

Though considering their friends change and how they were cutting down Grimm left and right, it seemed they got better somehow.

Mirai then cut that thought apart.

"Jaune never got better, though its more prudent to say that 'he' was never actually sick, a point that will be explained later on," Mirai sated as the viewing returned.

SLISCH-SKRSCH-VRRSSCCHH

The Fae ended several dozen more Griffons as it flew through the sky around the construct, and unleashed countless more energy lances, striking down many more airborne Grimm, with ground based Grimm crowding around the hole, none able to reach the construct from where they stood, and many ended up falling into the pit itself as the edges began to crumble, the dragon-Grimm within still thrashing as its body began to fail.

Then the Fae noticed an attack coming, and the energy flowed into the air, and drew the air into a vortex next to the Fae, becoming a twisting barrier of wind and 'Aether' …

… a wind barrier.

FSCHM, SCHM, FSCHH

The wind barrier dispersed the attacks as they came in the form of several large fireballs.

The culprits, a horde of several large Sphinx, with several Grendel leading them, flew in, each one preparing to attack once more.

'Looks like more have come to join in the festivities, which means it's getting closer to ending …'

'… and that I can start using some more heavy 'Arts'."

The Fae then held its blade forward, 'Aether' gathering into the blade, and then she spoke …

{Hölle}

… and a burning lance of vibrant green energy erupted from the blade, shot to the center of the horde and exploded.

KSHHHOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

The blaze expanded in an instant, swallowing up nearly the whole horde, with a couple managing to escape the blast, and managed to fly away from the main area of the explosion, the blast being a kilometer in diameter, and every Sphinx and Grendel caught within the blast was annihilated …

… none that were hit by the blast survived, not one.

The few Sphinx and Grendel that survived tried to attack again, only for lances of pure energy to pierce the remaining few, killing off the horde, except for three Sphinx and two Grendel that had gotten close.

SCHRRIIII

The three Sphinx were instantly dispatched by an energy slash, and a Grendel lost its tail.

GROOOOAAAAAA

The two Grendel roared in rage, both preparing to attack together, with both unleashing a standard fireball attack, and both were deflected at one of the Grendel, its head disappearing as the fireballs blasted it off. The final Grendel rushed forward to strike at the Fae, only for the Fae to fly over the strike, now above the Grimm, where normally the tail would then strike at the Fae, which didn't happen as the Fae had cut the tail off.

SKISCH

A sharp thrust was all that was needed to slice the Grendel in half … vertically.

The Fae turned to gaze at the remaining horde, and then looked back to the 'Aether Pulse'.

The smirk on the Fae's lips was lit up by the strong light of the 'Aether Pulse', now glowing strongly as energy seemed to 'waft' from the construct and into the air.

{Jetzt kommt der letzte Angriff mehr Bestien eilen zu ihrem Tod}

As the Fae charged forward to destroy the last of the attacking Grimm, the memory of its existence continued …

… to its conclusion.

Jaune Arc had given up.

'His' dream was dead, 'his' hope was dead, and just to drive the knife in further, his ADS caused Dust-based systems to short out or be disrupted, and basically all of Remnant used Dust-based technology in all walks of life.

A weak body, a debilitating and crippling illness, and a broken spirit.

Jaune Arc was now stuck in 'his' home, now just working at a small store in his home village, and only at night due to 'his' illness causing Dust-based devices to short out during the day, and now mostly lived with his parents, neither of whom could find or even think of a way to lift 'his' spirits, 'his' father especially, having told Jaune all about the history of their family, filling Jaune's heart with dreams and hopes, none of which will come to pass.

This left Jaune Arc to wallow in the nothing but darkness and despair, the 'boy' crying in his room, feeling 'his' heart break and his mind go deeper into its own pit of darkness, an emptiness that seemed to rush up from within his soul to course through his body.

Yet it was falling to the depths of despair …

… that awoke the light of his salvation.

In an instant, Jaune Arc awoke an unknown light that rested within the depths of his very existence, one that had been awoken by Jaune abandoning his desire to become a huntsman, and this light urged him to travel to a far off place, one where 'he' would find answers to a myriad of questions, even those that would tell 'him' of many truths of the world he lived in.

Jaune Arc resolved himself to go on this journey, and secretly made ready to begin his quest, and hoped to find the opening 'he' would need in order to go on his journey, for his family including his sisters had been keeping tabs on him at all times in hopes of finding a way to improve his mood.

Jaune was ashamed of himself when he seized a chance through a tragedy, a terrible conflict had sparked in the capital city of Vale, and his town had been forced to defend itself from a sudden influx of Grimm, in which 'his' family fought against.

It was then that Jaune left his home, exiting the town and running into the forest, his family left unaware as they fought against the Grimm, and would only find out a day later that Jaune Arc had disappeared.

'I know that I am causing them pain by doing this, but I need to do this, I need to know, I don't know why, but I know it's important.'

Jaune Arc had been re-invigorated by the light within 'himself', the light now a light-green in color, and had the feel of pure wind, and with it, Jaune was able to travel incredibly quick, being guided by an instinctual path that led 'him' to the place 'he' needed to go.

It would not be alone, for others began to join 'him' on 'his' journey.

A young 'girl' wearing rags from Mistral, a 'male' wolf-faunas from Mantle, and a child of ambiguous gender who wore indistinct clothing from Vacuo.

This group, all from different races, backgrounds, and continents, all came together, all afflicted by ADS, and all seeking the truth at the end of their journey, and through their journey had avoided many perils, claimed some small victories against the beasts of Grimm, finding that their lights gave them strength that could at least allow them to fight back, yet they encountered little to any of the beasts as they journeyed forward, needing only a little rest at certain points, as their light aided them in their travel.

Their group then met another who, like themselves, also had ADS and ambiguous genders as well, and more were met along the way as they traveled, the number of their group swelling from a few dozen to several hundred, and the newcomers brought with them news of what had been happening.

Remnant was dying, the nations were being overrun by the monsters of Grimm, and to the horror of all, it was by human and faunas' hands that this tragedy was being perpetuated.

Vale was a ruin, Mistral was aflame, Atlas had fallen, Vacuo had been overwhelmed, and Menagerie was only barely holding against the darkness.

As for those who had aided in bringing about the destruction, they had disappeared, either dead or in hiding after what they had wrought on the world.

The assembled group could only continue their journey, now with heavy heart at knowing that there was no home to return to, the world they once knew now gone.

"Why", Ruby could not comprehend what she was hearing, Jaune losing his dream, the destruction of all the nations of Remnant, and the fact that humans and faunas helped to make the disaster happen …

… "it just doesn't make any sense, why would … WHY WOULD ANYONE DO SOMETHING SO HORRIBLE!"

Ruby was not alone, the thought that the world they knew of was gone, and that people had helped make it happen, compounded by seeing their friend essentially losing his dream, many were left either softly crying or feeling deeply frustrated.

None more so than Ozpin, seeing the state of the world that he had tried to protect, seeing that it had all fallen apart, seeing that he, in this reality, had failed, and the world of Remnant …

… was gone.

Ozpin noticed that a bottle of wine had come up from Mass Transmission Array, but he thought it back through the system.

'I swore I wouldn't go back to that, even though there are moments where I have been truly tempted, but that time is not now, and hopefully not anytime soon.'

Their journey took them to a mountain range at the very edge of (the now fallen) Vacuo, and they entered the mountain, and went down, deep down.

It was within the depths of the Earth that they found a part of the truth they sought.

They entered a path deep beneath the mountain, a path that radiated energy that felt like the light they felt within themselves, the energy giving them strength and stamina to continue deeper into the unknown.

They made to the end of the path, and into a massive ruin deep beneath the surface, the ruin of …

… and inverted city, groups of buildings hanging down from the ceiling of the cavern, roots of massive trees long dead weaving through the inverted city, many chunks of the dead city littered the floor of the massive cavern.

The now thousand strong group looked in awe at this strange and unknown city, but their journey had not ended and they made their way into the city, moving along massive pathways and the huge dead roots to head to where they needed to go.

Yet as they went onward, the noticed that their bodies were now changing further, noticing that the energy was fueling their light, and that light was permeating their bodies, changing them on a deep level, altering them as they went on.

They had reached the very heart of the dead city, and the all now stood in the center of a large courtyard, and above them all was a ring, one that floated lazily in the air above them, suspended by the energy that permeated the dead city.

Then as the last of the group entered the courtyard, the ring began to glow with pure light, and from within the group themselves, their light came forth, their bodies now glowing the color of their light.

The ring expanded and lowered itself as energy now flowed to the center of the ring, opening into a gateway of radiant light.

No one from the group backed away or fled, they had come all the way to this unknown place, they had nothing to go back to …

… they would see the journey to the end and beyond, they all felt, with Jaune taking the hand of the 'girl' in his own, her hand gripping his in return as they and all others gazed at the ring of light as the portal came down on them.

A flash of light followed and then came silence.

Jaune opened his eyes, and gazed around 'himself', and found a pure white expanse, and saw none around where he stood.

Then 'it' appeared.

An unknown figure, wrapped in pure white cloth, appeared in a coalescent pulse of pure energy, the figure had a powerful light that seemed to fill the entirety of the space they occupied, and it held a near translucent white hand at Jau-, no.

'I am not Jaune Arc, I haven't been for a long time'

The once 'Jaune Arc' held 'his' hand forward, and the figures hand faced palm up, and a light shined in the palm, one of a warm and strong power, a power that would fully awaken the light with the (former) Jaune and lead to a final irreversible change, a change that once completed would never be undone.

No question or hesitation occurred, and the former Arc allowed the energy into 'his' body, and 'his' light now fully blossomed forward, enveloping his full form and changing his very being.

As the white expanse began to fall away and 'he' began to reawaken to the new change, the figure said but one thing, something that 'he' smiled at.

{Danke} - (Thank you)

"At least now we know what that word means," Nora said, the others nodding at now knowing at least one of the German words, "but man, Jaune-Jaune has to go through all of that to become a fairy, sheesh. I don't even think I could do all that, seriously, me."

Nora's quip was largely ignored as the audience was mostly looking at the journey Jaune had taken, the path into the city, why the city had been there, what could have happened, the energy they knew was called 'Aether', all of it.

So many questions, and so little they knew.

Though a peek at Pyrrha and her reaction to Jaune grabbing the hand of a girl she did not know caused a bit of jealousy in her, but it went away as the Jaune of this reality had never even met or known her, so she let it go as her relationship with Jaune wasn't meant to be in this reality.

'He' opened his eyes and noted that the clothes 'he' wore had become a bit tight in some spots and loose in others.

'He' would have made the decision from just the observation that 'he' was now a she, but from deep within new that 'he' was still a 'he' …

… just not a human 'he'.

'Then what am I,' thought the new being as they slowly looked around, finding themself on a polished floor, the surface clear and pristine, and saw how their body had become completely feminine, which left them wondering wh-!

BADUMP

A sharp pain from their back.

BADUMP

The pain mixed with heat became stronger.

BADUMP

'He' felt 'his' awakened light begin to build in 'his' back, feeling like something was about to erupt out from 'his' back, teeth clenched at the building pain.

BADUMP-BADUMP-BADUMP

The pain and heat bloomed, and 'he' felt the back of his shirt tear open.

BADUMP-SCHRRRRR

{GUHAAAH}

'He' felt the pain ease away, and now could see what the difference was between humanity and 'himself'.

'Wings'

The thin light green wings softly twitched and fluttered as 'he' felt them move slightly and gently, now able to stand upright once more, the soft glow of the wings illuminated the expanse of the chamber.

A light soon joined by many others, as the rest of the those who arrived now had wings of light, made from their light, now fluttering or twitching softly as they slowly got up, the forms of all present now mostly or entirely feminine, though the difference was felt within the former humans and faunas, the faunas having retained their animal features, though the features seemed far more natural in with their new bodies.

'He' was happy when 'he' saw 'her', altered as well, with radiant red wings on 'her' back, and radiant red hair and eyes, 'he' 'himself' also having a light green hair that was a bit long, reaching to 'his' back, another strong reminder of 'his' change.

It was as the two came together in a warm embrace, joyful at their survival and having been able to recognize the other, that a large door opened, the doors made of dense metal and stone, opening to outside the chamber where light poured in to the chamber along with …

(Start and /GU-Wailing Capital Wald Uberlisterin)

'Music …'

As the two walked to the light, they heard a sad and sorrowful music echoing through the chamber from the doorway, and both 'he' and 'his' companion made their way to the door, the others following close behind.

The stepped outside, and their vision cleared quickly as they saw where they now were.

'…'

'…'

'…'

No words could be found, none spoke even a word as everyone walked onto a large platform, flanked by two with withering trees at the top, roots running through the towers, and water gushing out of the towers openings like a waterfall.

Though any fascination at what was seen was taken away from the fact that the towers were inverted, the top pointing down and the base broken and with a tree in it, were both floating in the air with no real explanation as to how they were floating, and the water pouring from them was coming from a steady stream of water coming from the …

… 'sky'?

It was not only these structures that they saw that brought silencing shock to their minds and bodies, with the unnamed 'boy' and 'girl' now holding each other's hands to try and comfort each other as they gazed at things that neither could comprehend.

The main thing that appeared before their eyes was …

… a castle …

… a MASSIVE, INVERTED, FLYING CASTLE!

The organized group was … stunned, stunned into silence just as the people they saw were.

Wiess, who had lived in the flying city of Atlas and should not have been as bothered by seeing a flying structure, was left shocked into silence at seeing the utterly immense citadel that by itself seemed to be roughly the size of Atlas itself, city and all, and seeing the whole structure completely inverted and with trees hanging from the structure and water cascading in large waterfalls that seemed to come from the 'sky' gave the castle a truly otherworldly feel.

Ruby felt a strong sense of wonder at seeing a true flying castle like she had heard about in fairytales, but also a strong sadness as she saw the castle, the sky a dreary purplish hue, with red and orange contrasting against the clouds, making it kind of sad and depressing to look at.

The others also felt how Ruby did, with Nora even saying, "It's kinda … sad."

The 'boy' and 'girl' looked on at the massive citadel, the base appearing like a massive gear with high walls that seemed to be several meters thick, the extensions of the 'gear wall' having a tower that seemed to float with the extensions, pointed downward and looking like the towers that were near them. The main part of the castle was a single massive building with many openings located along its structure, all intricately built into the frame of the castle, the building itself appeared to be made of smooth yet weathered stone. Around the main building were countless pathways that also floated in the sky, in fact as the two and their group looked around they witnessed many platforms, towers and large pieces of debris that seemed to be from either or both floating aimlessly in the empty 'sky' around the castle.

Yet it was not the platforms that drew the eyes of the group, rather it was what was on the platforms that drew the eyes of those assembled.

'They are the ones who are singing and playing this sorrowful melody'

They saw as many figure clad in white, tattered robes appeared to be conducting the music that echoed through the entirety of the realm they found themselves in, also startled at seeing that the building and platform they were on was also suspended in the 'sky' as well.

Then a small platform appeared, and on it they saw one of the unknown figures in person.

It had the form of a woman wearing flowing yet tattered white robes over her body, her skin a pale white color, a simple white blouse that seemed to show a bit of the chest, and a blindfold over the eyes that seemed to be patterned after a thorny vine being a strip of cloth with small triangle coming from the edges at certain point, and both hands had long fingerless gloves that went past the elbow and were also white. The rest of the 'woman's' form showed its inhuman nature, for beneath the blindfold from the eyes came thin streams of black liquid that made the 'boy' think of 'tears of perpetual sorrow', and the final point was at the hips where the legs would be.

There were none, in place of the legs was a large cluster of white, thorny roots that seemed to make up the entire lower half of the unknown creature that was most likely not a 'woman', the roots imbedded into a square platform beneath the creature.

Then it stopped singing, just the one, the rest continued the music.

It gazed at the group, and then pointed its hand to the citadel itself, and looked at them once more before the platform moved away and it continued to sing its sorrowful song.

A twitch from the back of 'boy' made 'him' aware of what needed to happen next.

The 'boy' walked to the edge of the platform, staring down into the seemingly endless abyss as 'he' focused on his new extension, feeling as light flowed from the depths of 'his' existence to the wings on 'his' back.

'He' stepped of the platform …

… dropped down into the clouds beneath.

The 'girl', worried about 'her' companion rushed to the edge of the platform …

… and was blown back as the 'boy' shot up from the clouds, leaving a strong rush of air in their wake, and flew at a rapid rate, small wisps of light coming of their wings as they flew, a look of joy on their face as they flew through the sky, the feeling of actually being able to fly sent waves of happiness through the boy.

The 'girl' got up from where 'she' had collapsed, a bit upset at the 'boy' for knocking 'her' down, so 'she' focused her own light, 'her' larger wings shining a radiant red, and then blasted off into the sky, a fiery wake trailing behind 'her' as she flew up.

The 'girl' soon caught up the 'boy', and they both began to fly with one another through the air, passing between platforms, around towers and finding that they could make contrails of light, which the used to paint many patterns of light in the sky, all while flying to the citadel.

The two were soon joined by the others, all of whom now flew with their wings, some enjoying their newfound ability, others just having fun flying in the sky, and a few who had inherent height problems were trying to keep focused on their flight ability and not how they were flying over a near endless abyss that seemed to go on forever.

They all soon focused on where they had to go, and all made a beeline for the castle, flying to one of the large openings near base of the castle.

The flight was far longer than any of them had thought, which put into perspective how unimaginably massive the castle was, with all of the members of the group as the flew into an opening in the immense citadel, and found themselves in an inverted hallway, pale roots reaching through carved and spaced openings in the floors and ceilings, statues showing armored winged warriors with swords spears and halberds were near the ceiling openings, while the bottom openings had more of the …

… 'sorrowful singers' near them.

They would call the them that for now, and they now saw two other versions besides the singing one, with one having spheres around it that created the sound of a piano key when they lit up, while the other had an arm completely grown over by a many roots, which took the shape of a violin while the other held the bow that was used to play the violin, the group feeling a deep sadness at the song they played, one that would the realized seemed to seamlessly go in a loop, being played in this sorrowful place for always and eternity.

They could only continue deeper into the citadel, flying through several large passageways, over multiple expanses, passing through into the main area of the citadel.

It was here that they discovered what lay within.

A city, there was a large city that had been built into the fortress, and the city seemed to have a mix between old and new, the buildings with the designs of large houses and cottages, yet built with a smooth marble-like material that was mixed with smooth yet sturdy wood that still appeared to be in their prime even after such a massive amount of time, the traditional brick and mortar style homes with the embedded material were also in great shape.

This was not the end to what they found, as the flew together, they saw spaces for planting food and streams of clear water running through many canal systems the ran through the city itself.

Whatever other special properties the city had to offer were lost on them as they continued to fly to where they felt the end of their journey lay, flying over the silent city as they neared their destination.

It felt like almost an hour flying and many felt themselves tire from the flight, with some who were more active holding others up and bearing more of the load, giving rides on their backs to the more exhausted, while the most energetic found that they could give some of their power to another and helped those who needed more energy the most to stay aloft.

Then, they arrived.

It was at the very heart of the city, a massive building resembling a large skyscraper, with many stain glassed windows on many parts of its surface, yet what drew their attention was the was the sheer amount of light that seemed to radiate from the building itself.

{endlich bist du gekommen}

This voice echoed through the entirety of the city and spoke in a language that none of them had heard …

… yet they understood it the moment it was spoken.

The door to the building opened and the assorted members of the group entered the building, the song of the 'sorrowful singers' seeming to fade slightly into the background as the thousand person group walked into the heart of the building, passing by the statues of winged warriors, now on the ground and spaced around parts of the room, and heading to an opening that led up into the building.

The group flew up this large shaft, passing by many passages that seemed to go into several darkened passages that led deeper into the building, and over the openings was a symbol of a type, each different from one another as they flew up the long shat illuminated by the soft lights of strange lanterns that seemed more like glass containers with spheres of weakly glowing light within.

Then they felt the presence before they saw it as they arrived at the top of the building, domed with stained glass making up the ceiling, they saw statues, they saw several pedestals that weapons on them ranging from swords, spears and halberds, and …

… they saw … 'it'?

No …

{sie haben meine Kinder zurückgegeben Hoffnung ist nach so sehr lange auferstanden} / (you have returned my children; hope has risen after so very long)

… 'her'?

Surrounded by a large cluster of roots and many small trees was a young woman, who stood at over 15 feet in height, was covered in the same long flowing robes and similar apparel of the 'sorrowful singers' but had no blindfold which showed her bright purple eyes, with a diamond shaped pupil pulsing with the light that radiated from 'her' body, and 'she' also had legs and feet that had pure white stockings covering them, and from her back were large radiant wings resembling that of a butterflies with thin white veins that were merged with the large roots that were around the giant.

The one to step forward, was the 'boy' (the former Jaune Arc), and the 'girl' (the one who stood by Jaune Arc for practically the entirety of their journey), and the 'boy' spoke to the giant 'female', and found that 'he' now spoke the same language as the giant 'female'.

{bist du unsere Wahrheit} / (Are you our truth)

The giant, winged 'woman' looked at the 'boy', smiled softly, and nodded before she gently rubbed the 'boys' head in an affectionate way with one of her fingers, and spoke to them all.

{Ich bin meine lieben Kinder, mein geliebter Fae} / (I am my dear children, my beloved Fae)

This was our beginning, where our future as the Fae, began.

(Music Ends)

"Uh, I um, honestly I am trying to find the right words to describe well … everything," Ruby had seen so much of what had happened to not just Jaune Arc, but so many others that had also suffered a similar fate to his own, the journey they went on, how they were changed into their new form, the upside down flying castle, the 'sorrowful singers', and even the being that she guessed was a giant Fae, all of it left Ruby with some very heavy thinking.

"So, fearless leader got sick, lost his dream, went on a journey because of some new power that woke up inside of him, went on a journey and met other like him, then they all went and found some lost civilization from a long time ago and got transformed into fairies who were probably that that lost civilization, then met what I'm thinking is the fairy queen since she called them her children and all that, and then all that stuff happening earlier was after the probably learned a whole buncha stuff and got new weapons and junk to start bringing real pain to the Grimm, probably for their survival and also probably to avenge humanity and the faunas, of course I am just guessing all of this," Nora stated aloud to the rest of the audience for giving what was a shockingly very sound explanation for what they had seen the whole time.

"There are a few more pieces to that, but everything else was nicely spot on," Mirai nodded quite content at Nora's explanation while the others could only silently contemplate what they heard, thinking through all they heard when Mirai spoke again, "there will be an explanation later on in our viewings regarding the history of the Fae in that reality, but as a freebie for staying with viewings I can tell you that the civilization created by the Fae existed on that realities Remnant from an unimaginably long time ago, and the information of how long I will also provide as a freebie for you having to suffer the effects of the 'bleed over', but I can only provide it in the form of a mural which shows the event that led to the civilizations collapse, which I will show after the viewing has concluded, and I will say now that to some here it may not make much sense, but to a very few …"

Mirai then glanced to look at Ozpin and Glynda, who were wary and a bit nervous of the hard look they gave her, as they she knew something the did not … or worst, did.

"… it will be quite familiar."

The viewing went on, now showing …

SHUNK

The Fae's blade pierced through the bone armor of a Grendel, the monster breaking apart from the impact into shard of black material.

All around the Fae were large piles of black material, made from the countless Grimm that 'he' had executed, including multitudes of massive piles from the more massive Grimm types that were part of the ground bound types.

The Fae stood near the pit as the construct began to glow with pure light …

… and then.

GROOOOAAAAAARRRR

The Dragon Grimm emerged from the pit, its body now mostly turned into black material and falling apart, but with what strength it could manage it attempted to lunge at the Fae.

'To slow,' the Fae thought.

THRUUUUUUUMMMMM

A burst of light and a surge of energy erupted from the construct as the built-up energy surged out in a tsunami of light and 'aether', the energy pulsed into the ground and burned its way through the earth and surged up into the sky, the 'aether' spread into the city, filling the tunnels beneath the ground and infusing itself in to the water of every river, while the sky had contrails of 'aether' now flowing in wisps and bursts as the energy surged up into the sky and filled the air itself.

GROAAAAaaaaaahhhh

The Dragon roared once more, this time only in a weak and pitiable manner as its entire body rapidly hardened into the dark material, and soon was just a large black statue lying against the ground in its last moments.

The Fae walked over, lifted 'his' sword …

SHUNK-CRRRRMMMBBBLLLLLEEEEEEE

… and the massive statue crumbled into pieces,

The Fae turned around to view the fallen ruin of Vale itself, the energy flowing through the ruined streets, buildings, alleys and even coming up from underground as the 'aether' filled the entirety of the dead city with a radiant green light …

… and bringing death to the current inhabitants.

GRAAAAA, RAAAAGH, IAAAAGGGHHHhhhhhh-CCRRRRRMMMMMBBBLLLEEEEE

The Grimm that flooded the streets of Vale crumbled broke apart into pieces on the ground.

The Grimm in the surrounding forests including Forever Fall shattered to pieces in an instant, even the mighty Megoliath's that were the terror of all humans and faunas and the bane of all huntsmen fell to pieces on the ground, whole herds reduced to nothing but broken piles of black material on the ground.

Below, deep in the earth, energy seeped through the bedrock deep into the ground, saturating the countless tunnels that snaked through the mountains, all Grimm based life dying in droves from the effects of the 'aether', Grimm spawning pools fracturing and hardening over like 'earthen scabs', ending the Grimm at their source.

The energy soon made its way into the Ocean, sinking deep to the very bottom, poisoning the water-based Grimm, leaving them to break down into pieces in the deep ocean, with many left untouched and unchallenged for so many millennia now breaking down and dying as the 'aether' poisoned their bodies, leading to a slow and drawn out death in the darkness of the ocean.

The Fae watched through its eyes as the energy lead to a mass Grimm extinction, every Grimm in an area of at least 50 kilometers was now dead and would never come back.

"Awesome, sh-'he' wiped out all the Grimm in pretty much all of Vale, that is awesome and my brain hurts from trying to figure out what is going on with the whole Fae gender thing," Ruby stated to everyone, both awed and confused.

The others also agreed, happy to see the sworn enemy of all mankind being wiped out.

Except …

THRRR-SKRISCH

… for one.

Three severed, spiked tendrils fell to the ground, the Fae looking at 'his' attacker.

'Took her long enough to realize,' the Fae glared impassively at the creature that appeared and smirked at what she saw.

What resembled a crystal ball with spiked tentacles floated unsteadily before the Fae, the crystal ball having many cracks in its surface, and much of the body was hardened into the same dark material, leaving only one tendril left.

Then an unsteady cloud of darkness erupted from the creature, and a humanoid figure began to take shape before the Fae, standing tall and menacingly before 'him' …

'So, you finally showed after all time, so called Grimm Queen, Salem.'

"Whoa, wait, Grimm Queen, the Grimm have a Queen in this world," Yang stated aloud as she, her team and NPR were stunned at the news of the Grimm having a Queen.

Ozpin and Glynda both had hard looks on their faces as they saw what was the greatest secret either of them had kept now being shown on the screen and to those who had no knowledge of her, now feeling nervous at what they were going to see …

… that is until they and their students saw the smirk on Mirai's face as she looked at them.

"You're gonna love this," she said with a worryingly sadistic edge.

'Though I do wonder …'

… and then fell over, trying to keep steady only to collapse to the ground, the dark figure now on its hand and knees as it seemed to shudder and shake, as though the individual was in terrible pain.

'… did she like the gift we sent her.'

The malicious smirk that was on the Fae's face as the image of the individual became clear …

… and it was quite a sight for 'his' eyes.

"HAAH, HAAAAAAHHHHH, Y-You fu-ucks," the Grimm Queen uttered as she tried to stand, only to fail as her form became clearer.

She … was a wreck.

Hair either burnt or hanging completely loose, left mostly solid black and stone-like, her right arm almost entirely hardened over, fissures of 'aether' marred the arms entirely, the dark black dress that once gave her a malicious flair was now a charred and torn shadow of its former glory that barely covered her body, it showed her legs, both almost completely solidified into dark material, her torso had multitudes of deep gashes now hardened over into the same material as the many large dark spots that covered her body. Her head was as bad as her body, her hair now left hanging down over her face, the hair damaged and frayed from whatever had been used to attack her, then she lifted her face up …

… showing that half her face was twisted into an enraged snarl with a single blood red eye with a black sclera looking back in a fixed gaze of fury, while the other half had completely hardened into the same black material, cracking from Salem's attempts to move the hardened matter that was once the other half of her face.

Oddly, over her dark body a glowing gold light that seemed similar to an Aura pulsed on her form, and where it pulsed the dark material and hardened tears on her body seemed to try and close up and heal …

CRRSSHHKKKRRAAACCCKKKKK

… only for the light to fissure and break, what seemed to be many tears in the golden light made out of many compounded types of 'aether' that seemed like a chaotic color mix pierced the unknown light and caused it to break down, preventing it from healing Salem, in fact with each time it fissured it seemed to just spread the damage further along Salem's body.

Literally the power that should have been helping her, was instead now hurting her.

'Such a powerful thing irony is,' the Fae thought happily as Salem's tried once more to stand, and finally managed to stand upright, though very unsteadily and looking like she could collapse at any given moment.

Then she spoke, which proved exceedingly difficult with half her face hardened up.

"Yo-you, you, do you know what you have even done, wh-what you have j-just deci-ded to bring up-on y-you a-and your people, you w-will a-all d-d-dieee, m-my chil-dren will hunt all of you to the ends of the world, j-just as w-we hun-ted the humans a-and the f-faunas to extinction, y-you will a-all d-d-D-DIEEEEEE!"

The Fae looked at the enraged form of the Grimm Queen, still trying to look intimidating even in her current state, then 'he' smirked which seemed to further anger her as 'he' stated.

{Gut, das heißt, wir müssen nicht nach ihnen suchen, wir können sie alle auf einmal beenden} / (Good, that means we do not have to search for them, we can just end them all at once)

"Huh," Salem did not understand a word that was spoken, which made they Fae smirk more.

{Genau} / (Exactly)

Then 'he' pointed to the sky, which Salem looked up to …

BTOOOOOOOMMMMM

… just as a raging ball off fire came down right on her, dispersing her image and incinerating her Seer Grimm, leaving nothing but an ashen crater …

… and a familiar face for the Fae, its smirk changing to a warm and genuine smile at who stood in the crater.

Standing in the middle of the crater was another Fae, one with fiery red hair, red eyes and an armored dress, larger more curved wings which glowed a radiant red denoting the Fae as 'female', and in 'her' right hand, piercing the ground, was a spear made of the same metal and structure as 'male' Fae's sword though instead of light green, the bladed edges glowed a radiant red like the 'girl' wings.

The 'girl' then looked at the 'boy', and smiled warmly in return, before 'she' spoke to 'him'.

{es ist gut, Sie Aera zu sehen} / (It's good to see you Aera)

{Ich zu Argen, ich freue mich, Sie auch zu sehen.} / (Me to Argen, I am happy to see you as well.)

The two Fae greeted each other, the 'male' Aera and the 'female' Argen, now stood looking at one another, genuinely happy at seeing the other, and wishing to discuss more personal matters with one another.

Then both felt a strong pulse coming from the construct, and both knew what was going to happen now.

Argent - {Sollen wir gemeinsam die 'radiante Morgendämmerung' sehen?} / (Shall we go see the 'radiant dawn' together?)

Aera - {Natürlich, los lässt los} / (Of course, let us go)

The two Fae flew up into the sky, hovering high above the dead city, and gazed at the horizon as they looked expectantly at the 'Radiant Dawn'.

Then they felt a pulse rush through them from every direction, with Aera stating.

{Hier kommt es} / (Here it comes)

The two held onto each other as a strong rush of wind came from all directions, followed shortly by massive waves of pure 'aether' that consisted of countless colors, sweeping through the skies and pulsing through the earth.

With this pulse, Aera and Argen began to not only sense, but 'see' events that played out in every other corner of the world.

'Aether Pulse' constructs, set up on every corner of the world of Remnant, including many larger constructs created high in the sky over the oceans released massive amounts of 'Aether' into the depths of the oceans, the darkest corner of the earth, and to the highest point in the sky.

With this release of raw 'aether' the entirety of Remnant now flowed with 'aether', the energy flowing in a radiant rainbow of colors across the whole planet, and to all who viewed it, a dazzling sight to behold …

… well, not all.

GRYAAAAAAAaaaahhh

GROOOAaaaahhh

RAAAAHHhhhh

CRICK-BRCK-CRCK

Then, in a resounding noise …

CRRRRUUUMMMMMBBBBLLLEEEE

Across the whole of Remnant, the Grimm, the enemy of all life, the embodiment of destruction, the unknown demons and the genocidal monsters that destroyed all life on the surface of Remnant and gained dominion over all of Remnant …

… DIED.

In the ruins and deserts of Vacuo, large piles of black material were blown out across the desert landscape, the ground erupting as a massive Blind Worm Grimm shot out of the Earth, screeching to the heavens for the last time as its body then hardened and crumbled to pieces on the ground.

In the capital of Mistral, Black material was strewn through the buildings as every species of Grimm in the continent tried to attack the constructs only to fall to the guarding Fae, the last being a monstrous horse/gremlin hybrid named the Nuckelavee that trotted in a slow and unsteady manor, its legs rapidly hardening until it could walk no longer, the horse hardening as the gremlin looked up once more to the sky at the Fae and the constructs as the hardening rapidly consumed its arms body and head, until the monstrous creature fully solidified with its red eyes simply going out like turning of a lamp, before it completely crumbled into powder on the ground.

"It … it died, just like that, it just walked into Mistral … and died," Ren, who had a very bad history in regards to that particular Grimm, was left stunned that the beast that had killed his family and destroyed his home ended up dying in such an anticlimactic way.

"Well of course, the 'Aether' killed every Grimm on the planet, and regardless of what its fighting ability is or what it had done, it was still just a Grimm, and died just like all the others to," Mirai pointed out to Ren who was just left stunned at seeing his mortal enemy just simply died in such a hollow and empty way.

"Oh, and sorry if I end up rubbing salt into a wound here, but you and Nora end up having a revenge match with it in that reality and both died for your troubles, sorry," Mirai then said, causing shock to come over Ren and Nora at the thought of them both dying at the monstrous hands of the Grimm that destroyed the place they lived in.

Atlas, the city of dreams that once hovered above the clouds above the old capital of Mantle, now lay shattered and ruined on top of the now devastated old capital, both shattered ruins with the entire Atlesian Air Fleet destroyed and wrecked around the dead city, now flooded with light as countless beasts of Grimm broke apart on the ground, with the bodies of winged-Beringel's smashing into and shattering against the ground, followed soon by an utterly titanic Grimm, one that was based on a humpback whale in form, and the direct cause of Atlas's fall, now breaking to pieces and falling from the sky, smashing straight into the ground and shattering apart, crumbling further until all that was left was a shattered husk.

"Well, at least Atlas was avenged in the end, at least that's a good thing, right Wiess," Ruby said nervously to her Atlesian teammate, who had tears dripping from her eyes at the sight of her home completely destroyed and left a shattered ruin, yet held a vindictive happiness within at seeing the monster that performed the deed fall dead on the ground.

Deep beneath the oceans, the 'Aether' flowed through the water, sinking to the darkest depths of the ocean, and in those depths, countless terrors of the deep now writhing and shattering in the darkness, from the swift and agile to the titanic and terrifying, all dunk back into the depths of the sea never to rise again.

The sky and the mountains offered not safety for the Grimm either, their bodies could only fly so high before they could go no farther, and soon the 'Aether' caught up to them, hardening their bodies and leaving nothing to large black sculptures to fall back to the surface, smashing to pieces on impact.

It was over in minutes, the Grimm were gone, never to walk the surface of Remnant again.

It was not yet over however, with both Aera and Argen knowing this to be the case.

'The beasts of Grimm are gone, the constructs of the Dark One have been forever erased from the world, which now leaves us with … them,' Aera thought, holding up another 'Aether' construct, this one opened into a floating screen before 'his' eyes, and on the screen appeared ten circles, the center being crimson/black, one dark red, the next black and grey, another emerald green, the next a mix of white/pink/brown, another being a dark brown with black streaks, then a red and black circle, and the last colored circle was a mix of black/crimson/orange, the last two were greyed out with black x's over the circles, showing that the individuals were deceased.

Argen looked at the screen, floating beside Aera as 'he' looked at the screen, and then spoke to 'him'.

{jetzt wissen wir, wo sie sind, und gingen ihnen nach} / (Now, we know where they are, and were going after them)

Aera looked at Argen and smiled with a firm resolve.

{Ja, jetzt wissen wir, wo sie sich verstecken, und jetzt können wir sie jagen} / (Yes, now we know where they are hiding, and now we can hunt them down)

On the screen, the circles then lined up, and beneath each was an image and name of an individual, in order.

Crimson/Black: Salem

Dark red: Adam Taurus

Black and Grey: Mercury Black

Emerald green: Emerald Sustrai

White/Pink/Brown: Neopolitan

Dark brown with black streaks: Hazel Rainart

Red and Black: Raven Branwen

Black/crimson/orange: Cinder Fall

Deceased – Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows

The screen widened to show the entirety of all of Remnant, and on the screen, the circles appeared on the screen showing the current locations of the individuals. Emerald and Mercury were in two separate parts of Anima, Adam Taurus was slinking around in the mountainous region of Solitas, Hazel was roaming the mountainous region of western Sanus, and shockingly to Aera and Argen, the heavier targets Neopolitan, Raven and Cinder were all in eastern Sanus where they were.

{Es sieht also so aus, als hätten wir die schwierige Aufgabe} / (So it looks like we have the hard task)

{Es scheint auf jeden Fall, dass Argen} / (It certainly seems that way Argen)

They screen zoomed in on eastern Sanus and showed the exact locations of the three targets.

Neopolitan was located in the ruins of the failed city in Mount Glenn, Raven was offshore on a small island that once used to be known as Patch, and as to Cinder Fall herself, she was also offshore in the northern-most part of Sanus on the island once called Vytal.

{So versteckt sich einer in den Trümmern eines vergangenen Scheiterns, ein anderer in der Vergangenheit, von dem sie weggelaufen ist, und die letzte in der Vergangenheit, die einst der Welt Hoffnung brachte, wie ironisch} / (So one is hiding in the ruins of a past failure, another in the past that she ran away from and the last in the past that once brought hope to the world, how ironic)

{Sie alle liefen vor dem, was sie taten, als sie tatsächlich erkannten, was die tatsächlich taten, und verstecken sich nun, um die Realität ihrer Handlungen zu leugnen.} / (They all ran from what they did when they actually realized what the actually did, and now are hiding away to deny the reality of their actions.)

Aera and Argen contemplated on what they knew of the targets so far, and their visages darkened significantly, now looking darkly at the three women they were to hunt down, and …

… terminate.

"What, b-but those are people, killing people is bad, it is," Ruby stated.

"Why is my mother on that list, what did she do, I can understand that 'ice-cream' girl but what did my mom and the other girl do," Yang was left perplexed at all of this.

Meanwhile, Ozpin and Glynda looked at how the names of the individuals shown appeared linked to Salem, which left them with the rather dark conclusion that the individuals named on the list along with Salem were all associated with her.

This also led to the dark conclusion of why they would be marked for death, and even they saw it as understandable.

"If neither you nor Yang could get why the last non-Grimm based life forms that were on a list alongside the Grimm Queen herself would be seen as individuals who needed to not be alive anymore, this next part should tell you why," Mirai glared at the two, both nervous at Mirai's glare before she and they turned back to the screen.

Argen spoke up first.

{Diese Menschen ekeln mich bis zum Kern meiner Existenz} / (These humans disgust me to the core of my very existence)

Aera agreed, feeling that these individuals deserved nothing but a long painful death for what they had done.

{Das Verbrechen, ihre eigene Art zu verraten und zum Aussterben ihrer ganzen Art beizutragen, verdient nichts weniger als den schmerzlichsten Tod, den man sich vorstellen kann.} / (Agreed, the crime of betraying their own species and helping to bring about the extinction of their whole species deserves nothing short of the most painful death imaginable.)

Argen and Aera were both fully aware of the sheer scope of the betrayal that everyone on the list had committed, a betrayal that aided in the total extinction of all human and faunas kind on all of Remnant.

These pe- no, these monsters, monsters who wore the skin of humans and faunas, had directly aided in the death and destruction, had through their own actions helped bring about the extinction to all faunas and humans of Remnant.

They had destroyed everything, the killed everyone …

{Solche Monster weiterleben zu lassen, würde in Zukunft nur dazu dienen, schreckliches Chaos einzuladen, ihre Verbrechen sind einfach zu unersetzlich, wir müssen sie jagen, so wie sie selbst so viele andere gejagt haben.} / (To let such monsters continue to live, would only serve to either invite terrible chaos latter in the future, their crimes are simply to irredeemable, we must hunt them down just as they themselves hunted down so many others.)

{Ja, und jetzt haben sie nicht mehr die Konstrukte der Finsternis, um ihnen zu helfen, und die Auswirkungen des Lichts auf sie sollten dazu dienen, sie weiter zu schwächen und ihre Flucht zu verhindern.} / (Yes, and now they no longer have the constructs of darkness to aid them any longer, and the effects of the light on them should serve to further weaken them and prevent their escape.)

{Sie sind jetzt ganz allein, niemand wird ihre Hilfe kommen. Wir auf der anderen Seite ...} / (They are all alone now, nobody will come their aid. We on the other hand ...)

Aera and Argen soon looked to the sky, and a large shape soon took up their view of the sky, and both smirked at what came into view.

{... haben viele Freunde an unserer Seite.} / (... have many friends by our side.)

A ship, an airship, with a sloped hull that was angled and smooth, with an outer hull shell that was covered with a white metal frame that was sloped and angled with the armor at the ships front sloping down with three large towers on the angled section running along the spine of the ship, beneath the sloped armor, the ship was a mix of utilitarian and biomechanical, with the biological component consisting of multitudes of white roots that bore a striking resemblance to the white tree roots used by their 'mother', the roots flowing with power that ran through the angled and block structure made of the same dark reflective metal of the constructs they used. The ship had a loosely triangular shape, with the white metal of the hull sweeping forward in an elongated pyramid fashion before stopping at the bow, two long curved portions of the same metal running along the bottom of the ship running parallel to one another, and two more metal sections ran alongside the ship, covering two extended portions of the internal structure, with light radiating from the sections, which were the ships main propulsion units. On the outer hull of the ship were multitudes of what were turrets, which appeared to be long gun-barrels at a glance but were in fact long, large poles of the same wood as the roots that made up much of the ships frame, all in rotating turret housings and radiating with 'aether', with twelve such turrets on the bottom of the ship, ten on the top and five located around the propulsion structures, yet it was the front of he ship, where the internal structure opened into what would appear to be a giant gun barrel that was of particular note, with the roots within the 'gun' swirling around at the walls of the 'gun', pointing forward.

The ship was only slightly shorter than an Atlesian airship in size, but obviously followed a vastly different, almost alien, design philosophy, and it now hovered over the ruins of Vale, its bow pointed in the direction of Mount Glenn.

Aera then used her light to manipulate the construct and open a channel to ship, and the channel was established.

{Ah, Aera, Argen, es ist gut, euch beide zu sehen, seid bereit, die letzten Monster dieser Welt zu jagen.} / (Ah, Aera, Argen, it's good to see you both, are you ready to hunt down the last monsters of this world.)

{Wir sind Cryse, wir warteten nur darauf, dass du auftauchtst, was dich gehalten hat.} / (We are Cryse, we were just waiting for you to show up, what kept you.)

{Es tut uns leid, eine letzte Herde Grimm strotzte uns zu und wir haben uns mit ihnen auseinandergesetzt, jetzt sind wir hier, um mit den letzten gegenwärtigen Bedrohungen für diese Welt fertig zu werden.} / (Sorry about that, a final flock of Grimm ended up flying into us and we dealt with them, now we are here to deal with the last present threats to this world.)

{Nun gut, wir wissen, wo sie jetzt sind, also greifen wir sie direkt an, während Cryse und "seine" Crew sie davon abhalten, wegzukommen und ihnen zu helfen, sie einzusperren, oder werden wir sie alle auf einmal mit den 'Deimos' los.} / (All right, well we know where they are now, so do we attack them directly while Cryse and 'his' crew keep them from getting away and help box them in, or do we just get rid of them all at once with the 'Deimos'.)

Aera and Argen gazed at the bow of the ship, a strong amount of 'aether' flowing around the 'gun-barrel' of the weapon known as 'Deimos', which was designed specifically to counter massive Grimm hordes or a massive Grimm.

The weapons power was not in doubt, its power having been proven several times already yet using it against a single individual seemed to be overkill.

Yet knowing that the individuals in question had a direct hand in the death of all life on the planet minus themselves already spoke volumes of the evil these people were capable of.

Aera looked over the information of the three they had, and decided in but a moment, with Argen standing by her ready to accept whatever her decision was.

{Cryse, wir werden Cinder und Raven direkt mit ihrer Unterstützung konfrontieren, Neopolitanscheinte jedoch scheint nichts anderes als ein Vollstrecker der Gruppe zu sein, wahrscheinlich nur einige Muskeln, die sie mitgebracht haben, um beim Töten ihrer Feinde zu helfen, sie hat wahrscheinlich keine wirklichen Kenntnisse oder Informationen über die anderen oder irgendwelche Fallback-Pläne, die sie haben könnten. Sperre 'Deimos' an ihrem Standort und offenes Feuer.} / (Cryse, we will confront Cinder and Raven directly with your support, Neopolitan however appears to be nothing but an enforcer of the group, likely just some muscle they brought along to help with killing their enemies, she likely holds no real knowledge or information regarding the others or any fall back plans they may have. Lock 'Deimos' on her location and open fire.)

{Bestätigt Aera, 'Deimos' Vorbereitung zu feuern.} / (Confirmed Aera, 'Deimos' preparing to fire.)

Within the ship, multiple Fae ran or flew through the ship, moving along and working on the many parts of the ship, while in a chamber at the center of the ship, seven Fae in heavy clothes were around a mass of shifting material, and releasing their light into the material, which soon fused to the 'aether' that ran through the ship, and a sphere of the material appeared, warping and shifting slightly as 'aether' and light leaked out of the sphere in a chaotic mix, then the sphere was moved through many 'aether' rings running from the room, along the center of the ship straight to the 'Deimos', there the sphere was bombarded with multiple forms of Aether and further shaped by light from the Fae that manned the weapon, until it became diamond-shaped, pointing out of the barrel and straight at its target …

… the ruins of Mount Glenn.

"Wow, okay that was, that really is um, I honestly am still trying to come to terms with the fact that humans would actually betray, much less kill their own people," Pyrrha said, now visibly shocked at finding out that humans and one faunas had actually helped the leader of the Grimm in the reality they saw kill all human and faunas kind.

Ruby was in worse shape, for once not able to make a retort on why killing is wrong when she heard that the people who were going to be killed, including Yang's mother, had actually helped the Grimm, the GRIMM, to destroy humanity and the Faunas, even the explanation of the weapon 'Deimos' which was one of her passions didn't mover her from the horror of what she had heard.

Yang now looked at the image of her mother with complete disgust, now knowing that not only had she walked out on her and her family, causing all of them heartache and pain, but now, knowing that in the reality that she saw, her mother actually helped the Grimm and destroyed human and faunas kind, she hoped she would never see that woman anytime soon, because if she did, she would not be held responsible for what she may do to her.

"Oh, looks like were gonna be seeing things from Neopolitans perspective for a bit," Mirai stated before she turned to the screen, the others as well.

HRRRRRRKKKK

Neopolitan vomited out on the floor, spilling more materials onto the ground, and collapsing onto her hands and knees from the sheer, incomprehensible pain that wracked her body.

She grabbed onto a crate nearby and tried to steady herself, only trip and pull the crate down, the crate spilling over to reveal several containers of dust-bullets and explosives …

… none of which were useable as the dust inside the bullets and explosives had completely blackened and broke down in the bullets and explosives, rendering all of the ammo and explosives useless.

Neo got her hand on the table next to her, her body in agony as she lifted herself, her once fancy clothes now a patchwork of cloths and rags that she stitched to her clothes to hold her outfit together, and it was not only her outfit that was in disrepair.

Neo herself was a terrible condition, her hair color was fading rapidly, becoming just white and grey, with the brown and pink having faded a long while ago, the girls arms had many sores and injuries that seemed to open up at random, and her face was worse.

Her eyes seemed to be sparking slightly, her irises fading to a dull white, which showed that she was at the cusp of losing her sight as well as her voice, many sores and purple veins lined her once young face and her skin was a sickly white color as she gritted her teeth and fought through the pain as her Aura came up and triad to help her …

… instead it broke and fissured as 'Aether' infused itself into her Aura, causing it to break and fissure, causing deep rents and cuts to appear on Neo's body, and forced her to shut her Aura down.

Silence took hold as they witnessed what the 'aether' did to an persons Aura, which they all saw as the light of the soul that protected a person, now seeing it be used against a person (even a monster like Neopolitan) left them all quite disturbed, and all looked to Mirai with looks that demanded answers.

"The energy that the Fae use, their light and 'aether', it can be weaved into a complex form of itself, which would be known as a 'spell', which forms the basis of what their 'magic' is, and in this case, the effects of the 'Aether' used by the construct were basically 'Damage and Ruin to foreign power', and the only foreign power left in that reality were the beasts of Grimm and the traitor of all life, so it really was not a hard decision to use that power, though later on, when we view this world once more, we will be seeing that the power of the Fae is far more substantial and powerful than you can believe," Mirai turned to look at the viewing as it continued, the crowd also looking as they accepted the explanation, for now.

Neo managed to get herself on the table, and looked at what she had been preparing, having scrounged what ruins she could, what little she could find …

… all to kill her.

The map was a close-up of the island of Vytal, and marked with a red X was what used to be an Atlesian fortress, the sight of a battle against the Grimm, one that ended in complete failure, a failure she helped to bring about.

Neo shook her head, she already knew, she had done things that were beyond monstrous, things that would and should never be forgiven or forgotten, she killed uncountable people, aided in destroying the defenses of the kingdoms and the death of countless who tried to protect the lives of countless innocents, all of whom now lay dead, because of what she had done.

'Why, why did I ever listen to that bitch, was I really that stupid to have believed anything she said,' Neo thought aloud, hating herself for having believed a word of what the bitch she had not only listened to, but followed, said.

She had followed her, entirely focused on killing the person that took her most important person, who took Roman away from her, the wannabe 'hero' Ruby Rose, and how she ended up following along with Cinder's and then Salem's plans in her desire for vengeance.

Then, when she had succeeded, when she felt she had gotten her vengeance and was destroying the last defense made by humanity, Ruby Rose used managed to her the truth, having found a video recording from the fall of Beacon, from an observation camera from Ironwoods airship.

Neo was left hollow and empty when she saw Roman was beating down Ruby Rose, while ranting allowed about being a survivor … only for a Griffon to devour him, leaving only his hat to flutter away in the wind, and Ruby trying to kill the Griffon, only for another to attack her, while the other Griffon, Romans true killer, just flew away.

"I tried, ugh-hrk, I really tried to save him, I , I'm sorrrruuuugghh."

Those were the last words spoken by Ruby Rose, and instantly she actually looked back on every single thing she had done, and who had actually benefited from it happening.

Then she came …

"Hmm, shame you had to see that, but I guess all good things must end," Neo looked back, gazing at Cinder Fall, hair shorter and an eye patch over her left eye, and the same sadistic smirk on her face, and then Neo was slammed into the far wall as a powerful gale of wind erupted in the room, and looked up to see Cinder's right a light up with an orange flame, "though before send you away, allow me to give you my thanks, for getting rid of the only real threat to my mistress, and the one who dared to scar me …"

A fireball was then lit in her right hand.

"… and now … GOODBYE."

A blast of fire erupted from the room, incinerating Ruby's body and blasting Neo out of the room, and falling to the depths below, barely surviving thanks to her weapon, which was left broken after barely surviving the fight against the Grimm as they stormed the last bastion of human and faunas kind.

After that, she was left a wreck, the world was gone, Grimm now ruled the surface, and she was left with nothing, nothing but the knowledge that she had been used, and that she had led to a world that was now infinitely worse than the world she had come from.

She decided, she knew she would die, probably sooner rather than later given how the world was, she made countless mistakes and had now been left in a hell of her own creation from all those mistakes, she would hunt down Cinder, she would use whatever means to at least kill that bitch and send her to hell, only then would she end her own life.

So she gathered all she could, searched everywhere, trying to find Cinder, and ended up finding out that whoever her mistress was, apparently had removed Cinder from her services, and that all of her associates were now in the wind, all having gone their own separate ways, no longer needed by whoever Cinder's boss, the monstrous Grimm Queen, Salem.

Neo actually smirked when she learned that Cinder had been thrown away just like she had been, continuously hunting her any way she could, until Neo found Cinder's hideout, the Atlesian fortress that Neo had conquered with her, another mistake Neo had to live with.

She had been preparing to go there, taking all the weapons and explosives she had scrounged up from wherever she could …

… then the strange light flooded her hideout, broke her weapons, shut down all of the power in her hideout, and left her crippled and in agony on the floor.

She made her way to the patio of the apartment she had been hiding in, and looked outside with her barely functioning eyes, somehow able to make out the lights that now took up the horizon …

… and a large shape in the sky, a ship, one that was still extremely far away, but bore no resemblance to the ships she knew, yet appeared to be roughly the size of an Atlesian cruiser.

SKOOOOM

A sharp glint of light and a loud blast were her only warning as she saw the bow of the ship fire, at her.

The projectile flew straight at her, and in her last moments, actually flashed back to her whole life, with Roman taking up most of her view as the projectile detonated, releasing an explosion of proportions not possible by any weapon known to Remnant.

Her body, the buildings a kilometer from the center of the explosion, and everything in that distance …

… were completely vaporized.

The next time Neo woke up, she was falling to a dark hole with a dark red light coming from it.

'Yep, hell,' Neo fell to the pit, and soon slammed into the surface of the pit, countless hands swathed in darkness and burning like magma grabbed her body and pulled her down into the depths of hell.

Neo made no effort at resisting, knowing that there was nothing left anymore, her last thoughts being of Roman as her head sunk into the darkness, strangely content with her fate, knowing deep down that whoever erased her from existence …

… would be going after Cinder next.

The group were left with some very, mixed feelings at the fate and path of Neopolitan.

Ruby was torn, on one hand she was deeply upset that the girl had killed her, and had destroyed and murdered so many for what turned out to be a lie, on the other, she had been driven by the loss of the only person she cared for, which Ruby (such a kind soul) couldn't help but sympathize with her.

No such feelings were felt from the others of her team or NPR, especially Yang, who wished that she could have been the one to murder the little imp that had killed her sister in the reality she saw, and she honestly would have felt no regrets if she could performed the deed.

Ozpin and Glynda noted the power Cinder Fall showed, and both immediately knew who the culprit was in an incident that they had been pondering for a long while.

"We only have a tiny amount left, we will be done shortly, also hell is real," Mirai told the group as the last of the viewing played.

A strong gust of wind blew by Aera and Argen as they witnessed the titanic explosion coming from what was one Mount Glenn, most of the top of the mountain completely blasted apart as a massive cloud rose into the sky, taking on a shape that resembled a mushroom at a glance, with 'Aether' and light surging through the cloud as the cloud soon reached over a few kilometers into the sky.

{Auf Wiedersehen Mord von Millionen, mögen Sie wahre Strafe für Ihre Verbrechen in den Tiefen der Hölle zu finden.} / (Goodbye murder of millions, may you find true punishment for your crimes in the depths of hell.)

Aera spoke, viewing the cloud and knowing that one of the betrayers against her whole species was now dead, and would never come back.

Argen nodded, also feeling that the death of a true traitor was for the best, for those who had passed, for the souls seeking retribution, and for those who currently lived.

Aera and Argen began to fly up, heading to the ship, which itself had turned, preparing to head for its next target, as the two soon flew alongside as the ship slowly left the city of Vale behind, heading to the island offshore …

… Patch.

{Raven kommen wir für dich, und im Gegensatz zu deinen vergangenen Schlachten hast du keinen Ausweg, du defätistischer Feigling.} / (Raven we are coming for you, and unlike your past battles, you don't have a way out, you defeatist coward.)

The viewing ended, and a timer appeared, showing twelve hours until the next viewing.

"That's the end of this viewing, and it was longer than I thought it would be, and as I promised, I said that I would show you a mural from that reality, one that will show both the age of the civilization and its destruction," a holo-screen appeared and the crowd looked at the screen, ready to see what had happened to the Fae civilization, Ozpin taking a sip of some particularly good coffee, and then Mirai showed the mural, "this is how their civilization ended."

PFFFFFFFFFFFFSSS

Ozpin, for once in only a small number of times, spit out his coffee in pure shock at what he saw, shocked beyond words, the action catching everyone off-guard, and Glynda herself was a bit shocked, but was more shocked at the mural, showing something that left her feeling both worried and conflicted.

The Mural showed many Fae in ancient armor and wielding multiple weapons of the old era, from swords to crossbows, and some holding long staves with their 'magic' coming out of them, all attacking the source of a great fire, one that was consuming a city surrounded by a forest, and incinerating the land, leaving death and destruction in its wake, and the source of this terrible flame was a dragon …

… a dark purple dragon with a skull-like head, twisting horns, small dark purple points for eyes, and the body of a western dragon, four limbs, two large wings and a long spiked tail, flying through the sky and raining death and destruction in its wake. Behind the purple dragon was another dragon, this one was gold and white, with long antler-like horns, eyes shining pure white light, and a long serpentine body with four small limbs and no wings, which was releasing light on the ground and causing plants to grow and animals to flourish, all while erasing the now destroyed Fae cities and breaking down the weapons and bodies, all but erasing the Fae from existence, like they were never even there.

The group stared in stunned silence at the mural, showing two dragons destroying and erasing the Fae from the world, and it was Ruby that popped the question.

"What are they?"

"He-hehehehe, hehehehe, HEHEHEHEHEHEHE-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhaha, haaa," the whole group was startled by Mirai's outburst, hearing her life in an almost hysterical manner as she stared at the group, and then looked at the group and simply stated an answer that stunned them all and shocked Ozpin and Glynda.

"The true gods of Remnant, the ones that, by the lore of your reality, created your world, and more importantly …"

"… created you, allof you, including me."

The group were left shocked by Mirai's words, her completely serios tone left so little room for argument, also they knew that she knew of their reality from what they saw, and thus could not find it in them to say something disprove her words.

Then a small note popped up on Weiss's lap from her Transmission Array, and she picked it up and had instructions with a single line, and she gulped down as she stated what it said.

"Th-that's impossible, a-and you know it."

The group turned to her, staring with incredulity at her words, causing the heiress to almost visibly shrink into her seat, face red with embarrassment.

"I am so, so sorry to have to put you through that Weiss, but I wanted that line brought up so I could deliver the following counter, but I never wanted it to be as awkward as that got, but since you said it I may as well finish," Mirai cleared her throat and then spoke her counter.

"It is not impossible, and he knows it, again sorry Weiss."

The group all knew that Mirai was holding her hand to Ozpin, and were strangely not as surprised as they should have been that Ozpin knew what the two dragons were, and it was Ozpin who spoke next, this time contemplating his coffee as he spoke.

"Mirai, how much of what we saw was, relevant to our reality," Ozpin stated.

"Cinder Fall and her associates Mercury and Emerald all exist in your reality, and they are responsible for the fate of the individual you are thinking about, Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows and Hazel Rainart are all working for you already now who, the you know who being the 'seemingly' immortal Grimm Queen, Salem, the supposed creator and leader of the Grimm, which we both know is a load of some very crass things all at once, and her plans center on four very distinct objects, all residing beneath the four academies in very special vaults that need four specific some ones to open, I have far more knowledge but I will stop at that for now," Mirai sated, and Ozpin just took a sip of the coffee, accepting the explanation, but had a bit of a haggard look.

"I am not trying to make things harder for you, whether you believe it or not, my position here was one I made after so many long and arduous hardships, especially given some of the abilities and powers I picked up along the way, two of which have allowed me to at least understand the suffering you and others like you suffer, one I gained in my travels, the other the result of a curse not of divine origin, and both have made things hard, but I have so far managed, so far at least," Mirai said sadly, suddenly having a very haggard on expression on her face, a sullen look in her eyes as she recalled some very unpleasant memories.

"Haah, I know when not to pry, and past experiences have allowed me to have a more open mind, all I ask right now is to see the … 'episodes' surrounding our reality, though I believe I have no right to stop others if they wish to see," Ozpin asked Mirai, who could only nod solemnly at his question.

"The truth is that I only act as the overseer of this room and your accommodations, access to any information and items is determined by the facilities intelligence and the overseeing administrator, who hold final say in all of primary functions of this facility. So, if the others wish to see something and the intelligence and administration approves, their gonna see it, read it, paly it, whatever, and I am afraid that includes the 'source' of your reality."

Ozpin could only sigh as he heard this, already knowing that his students would likely want to see the 'source' of their reality, which would also likely show some of if nor all of the secrets he had been keeping would be revealed, and he knew he had no real way to dissuade them, though it looked like they were going to ask anyway.

"Hey, that person, the Grimm Queen, is she in our reality, do the Grimm actually have a leader," Wiess was left quite disturbed by what she saw, the knowledge of the Grimm having a sentient leader worried her tremendously.

"She is and they do, her name is Salem and she not only has a form of control of the Grimm, but as you may have guessed, she also has human and faunas collaborators that work for her for reasons ranging from vain, stupid, sadistic and other such reasons, and the individuals you witnessed from the last viewing, specifically Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Hazel, Arthur and Tyrian, in the prime realities and those mirroring the prime reality, the all exist and work for Salem, though there are other realities where others are collaborate with her, but they are few and far in between, and the reality you hail from is one that was running through the same events as the prime reality, so the individuals and their factional loyalties should all be the same," Mirai stated to them, Wiess nodding in understanding.

"I didn't get to ask, but about the Fae's weapons, what exactly are they," Ruby said in a shockingly subdued manner, which was understandable since she had to see her own death, suffer a moral quandary, and deal with the confusing gender designations of a 'uni-gender' species.

"Well, I am sorry to say that there is not really much to say, other than the fact that Fae armaments are essentially channeling devices for a Fae's power, and usually come in the form of a close to mid-range weapon, like swords, spears and halberds, with only few being true long range weapons like a bow, crossbow and sometimes a gun since Fae can use ranged 'spells' for long range attacks, which largely eliminates that need for a ranged armament, the can even channel powerful 'spells' into their weapons to make powerful ranged attacks, but all this is due to the strong flow of Fae light or 'Aether' that they use in their weapons, so unless you have a means of turning Aura into a force similar to Fae light or 'Aether' such weapons can neither be made or even conceived," Mirai pointed out to Ruby, who was a bit saddened by the news, but at least tried to cheer herself up with the ideas she could come up with regarding the weapons power channeling abilities.

Anyone else still need to say something, any thing at all, if not you can all go to the dormitories which are all ready for your use, and the recreation center for those looking for entertainment or workout, including a combat simulator similar to but far more advanced than what you have at either Beacon or even on remnant, including a system that can simulate the beasts of Grimm and the environments they live in, though nothing above titan-class I'm afraid, at least not yet," Mirai stated, the group nodding, and they began to make their way to the rooms …

… except for one, who stayed behind.

"Yang, I assume that you wish to speak regarding a certain individual, one who has earned both my ire and hatred through her actions," Mirai stated with unhidden anger.

Yang clenched her fists as she was about ready to talk about an extremely hard subject, the others noticing and stopping to see, with Ruby approaching closer.

"You want to know about her, about your blood related mother, even though you can just watch the prime reality version of her, which should tell you everything you need to know, so why come to me," Mirai stated to Yang, who had a frustrated expression on her face.

"I want to … to know from you about her, what is she like, what is she really like, I do want to see I for myself, but I don't want it fed to me slow or be made to just figure out myself, I want to know the truth in it unbiased and real form, so … so … please, tell me," Yang forced the words out, which actually shocked the group that Yang would do something so unlike her, but she seemed desperate.

Mirai stood looking at Yang, Yang having a powerful resolve in her eyes.

Then held up a paper in front of her eyes, which had a drawn image of Raven Branwen on it, "here's the truth about you mother."

Yang looked at the paper, with Ruby, Blake, Wiess, Pyrrha, Nora and ren also looking at it, their eyes widening at what they read.

"WANTED, Raven Branwen, wanted for the following crimes - murder, armed robbery, multiple huntsman deaths, destruction of multiple villages, causing large scale Grimm incursions in outlying communities, WARNING, suspect extremely dangerous, currently acting leader of large scale bandit operation known as 'Branwen Bandit Tribe', report any information on subject to local authorities, all persons advised not to attack individual, report information to local authorities or huntsmen, REWARD, Dead or Alive – 500,000 Lien," Wiess read off the wanted poster for Yang's mother, shocked at the number of crimes she had committed, how dangerous she was and the shockingly high bounty on her head.

Yang and the group were left shocked at what they had just read, Mirai setting the paper down, before looking at Yang straight in the eye.

"Everything your father has told you regarding your mother, only the talk of her combat prowess was true, the things about her being a complicated individual, being strong willed and having powerful morals, all lies. Your mother is the leader of a bunch of violent criminals and believes in the warped ideal of the strong feeding on the weak to survive, and that attacking small peaceful communities shows that she is strong, and also in times were there is an actual threat, like a huntsman, she sends her bandits in first to distract them so she can sneak attack them when their to busy protecting the lives of the people they are paid or are trying to protect, essentially never truly facing her opponent and using tricks and lies to win her battles just to present the least amount of risk to herself even though she is strong enough to not need to do such things but does so anyway. That is who she is, she's a murder and a liar who leads murders and liars, robs from those who were only trying to live their lives or threatens them to give her their resources while calling it pay for 'protecting' them, the second the situation gets even a little bit too hard for her tribe, she outright abandons the towns she 'protects' to the fate of being slaughtered by either Grimm or other bandit groups when they either aren't able to provide her bandit group with supplies or when she just decides that they aren't worth her time anymore, and then there is what she did for the sake of giving her group of bandits an edge and to further sate her own inflated ego, she found and took in a girl, no more then ten years of age from a ruined settlement, one that was destroyed by that little girl from her trying to protect herself from another bandit tribe, using magic."

The group were left stunned by this fact, but Mirai pointed to Ozpin, and they saw him holding his mug in a death grip enough to crack it, and his knuckles going white as Mirai then dropped the bomb, screen showing multiple scenes from the prime reality to back her claim, "you heard it here first, magic is real, the legend of the seasonal maidens was based on the existence of four young women on Remnant who wield actual magic, magic that is passed along through the very inefficient and easily corruptible method of the magic going to the last person the maiden has in their thought before the die, with the only real factor being that the person must be female and that's it, not morally good, not of excellent character, just female. The maiden Raven found was the Spring Maiden, who she then took in and decided to raise to be another murderous thug among her band of murderous thugs, but the girl was not like that, and would likely never be like that, which Raven in her warped mind took as a sign of weakness, even as she raised and nurtured her like she should have raised and nurtured her actual daughter," Mirai looked to Yang, who had a very angered and furious look on her face at her learning who her mother was, which overrode the surprise of learning that magic was actually real.

"Though in that regard, I guess its good she didn't raise you Yang, since you may have met with a similar end to the young maiden," the looks of stunned silence from the group made it clear that they understood what she meant by end, and the thought horrified them, "yes, your looks of silent horror are exactly what I expected, when Raven realized she couldn't get what she wanted the maiden alive, she took her time making the girl see her as the most important thing in her life, and then Raven killed her, and the Spring Maidens power went right into her, all because the girl couldn't be a monster, monster like her!"

Mirai was huffing in anger, her rage clear and anger palpable as she then breathed as deeply as she could before sighing loudly, and then said, "there is one last thing, one major thing in particular that makes Raven Branwen one of the most loathed and hated individuals that I have ever encountered, and the core reason behind all her lies, excuses, actions and warped beliefs, the one thing she hides beneath all her gained or stolen power, and is the one thing that should have been obvious given that she is a bandit and thief."

"Raven Branwen, has been and is still, a coward, worst a defeatist coward, in spite all of her skill, all her strength and ability, the very moment she so much as thinks a battle is against her and a fight is not worth it, she's the first one to call it quits, when she is before a situation and does not know a way to truly make in go in her favor, she bolts right then and there, and even though she continuously preaches about being the strongest and being number one, the second she thinks her odds are actually in doubt or she cant salvage a situation, no matter who is with her, even her 'so-called' family, she will abandon them where they are while blaming them for being the weak ones. That's why she left you Yang, not because she couldn't have raised you, not because of some cheap 'noble goal' or even because of her own warped ideals, she left because the moment she was confronted with a life that could have actually given her real happiness and fulfilment, something that could have actually made her a better person overall, she automatically decided she didn't want that, left Yang almost a birth with her father, and bolted back to the life she always knew, the life of a the lowest of the low, those who steal and abuse those weaker than themselves so they can fell strong, the life of a lying, murderous, bandit who even now still lies to herself with her own warped ideals and plunders the livelihoods of small villages and communities that want to live their own lives away from the governance of the kingdoms and instead have to deal with life stealing monster like Raven and her murder gang, and this time I can say that with absolute assurance that this is the truth …"

"… and he knows it."

Mirai pointed her finger straight to a gateway opening behind them … revealing.

"Uncle Qrow!"

"Winter!"

"Ironwood"

"Wiess"

"Hey … munchkin."

"Ozpin, Glynda"

The gathered individuals exchanged greetings, with Ruby and Yang noting that their Uncle had a very solemn look, Ironwood was cordial with Glynda and Ozpin but gave Qrow a sad look, and for once Winter was mostly focusing on Wiess and not exchanging the usual sharp barb with Qrow which Ozpin and Glynda noted was odd considering the two.

"They heard everything I was saying, everything regarding Raven Branwen, something that mister Branwen likely wanted to keep unsaid for as long as he possibly could, and apologies for saying those things regarding your sister Qrow Branwen, but we just got through seeing a reality where your sister helped to destroy human and faunas kind, so excuse me if there are no kind feelings for her here at the moment, or ever," Mirai stated bluntly to Qrow, who could only sigh at what her heard, subtly saying "Dang it Rae".

"Anyway, I believe you got a brief overview before you came here, and I know you don't have personal experience with the individual who is at the heart of this matter, but at the most I can say that something happened to your reality, with said individual, an individual named Jaune Arc, yep there is the recoil from knowing but you guys are coming out of it so okay, currently Jaune is at the heart of whatever happened to your reality but he's not the cause I can assure you of that," Mirai assured them, especially those she knew had a more paranoid side, "also he isn't here so you couldn't really do anything to him anyway, in fact finding out what happened by viewing the realities linked to the Jaune Arc of your reality, and your reality by extension which are causing whatever is happening in your reality, also my name is Mirai and I am the one who is overseeing the viewings to try and get everyone here and likely others back to your reality."

"You mean to tell me that a single individual is somehow the reason or part of the reason why we are here in this place," Ironwood asked Mirai, who nodded at his basic explanation, "and to get back to Remnant, we have to see these 'realities' in order to return, is this correct."

"That is it in its most basic terms, but yes Ironwood, and no Winter I will not call him General or refer to him by his rank since as you have already seen, there is no Atlas here nor is there any Atlesian presence, and this is also a completely separate reality, so Ironwoods title as General of the Atlesian military nor his position as headmaster of Atlas Academy have any form of sway or meaning here, but I know the habit of referencing his title is not going to go anytime soon, so for now I will differ to his title as well, is that alright, general," Mirai stated to Ironwood as he thought about the confusion caused by use of his title.

"Actually, I do believe there is a point to be made, my title could cause some confusion if taken out of context here, and you are correct, there is neither an Atlas or an Atlesian presence in this place, so until the time where we have returned to Remnant and by extension Atlas, I believe my title as General will be put on hold until we are able to return, so you are allowed to refer to me as Ironwood, Miss Mirai," Ironwood stated, a stunned Winter looking on at Ironwood's acceptance at allowing himself to be called in an un-professional manor.

"Fair enough, I shall refer to you by your last name or full name as the situation changes, but for now the viewings are on hold for at least eleven and a half hours, so you can rest, sleep, enjoy recreation, read, watch something from the digital media system, or, as I am sure your planning on doing, talk about some things that may be quite a bit uncomfortable to talk about, until then I will excuse myself to look over the viewing system and inform you of anything that may come up through the communication relay, right now I will catch our guests up on what has already passed and you can speak to them after, beyond that, enjoy your accommodations here," Mirai finished before guiding the three new arrivals to the chairs so she could begin talking to them, though Qrow still looked at Yang and Ruby, who had gazes that demanded explanations that he was very uncomfortable with saying, while Winter looked at Wiess and wished to speak to her but would hold off until after everything was explained, while Ironwood noted that Ozpin and Glynda had a critical look in their eyes as they looked at him, and Mirai stated she would explain why later on.

Those who had already arrived went to their the dormitory rooms that were designated by hologram pathways leading to their respective rooms, and Mirai sat with Ironwood, Winter and Qrow as hologram panels appeared behind her, explaining and showing them what had been seen so far.

The viewings had been done for the current time …

… yet there was always the possibility of truly unexpected 'events' occurring …

… especially those that no one ever expects.

Aeos React here,

First off, OMG this chapter was likely my longest one yet, I honestly did not expect it to be this long, but as I kept writing, it became harder to round out the ending, and by the time I finally made the end of the chapter, BAM a chapter big enough to be a short story, I will try to write less next time, but I make no promises.

Second, I know a lot of you are either perplexed or confused by my focus on the character in the viewings being either female, female form or something of the sort, I have put an explanation as to why this occurs within this chapter, but other reasons include trying to stand out from other multiverse writers who, lets face it, have already done to death Jaune Arc in their writings, so I decided to be both unorthodox and challenge myself to make compelling writing with this alteration, and personally, yeah I have gotten a bit tired of the same old male protagonist writing that currently takes up not only Fanfiction works, but mainstream works as well, and I am trying to go against the grain in my own personal way, I have nothing against Jaune as a man, but he has been used to death in so many works, I just wanted to try something new.

Three is what inspired the 'viewing' in this current chapter, and honestly it was a bit of a mixed bag that I used, with one part you will recognize where I got it from if the music used wasn't a big enough hint, the rest was mix of my own ideas and some elements from an anime with a long title about fairy-like creatures called leprechauns fighting monsters with ancient weapon that has some light Lovecraftian undertone to it, and that's about as much as I can say, if any of you recognize something that could have been from a work you know, know that I didn't know at the time so I apologize for that.

Hope you keep reading, enjoy it, and I will see you all in the next one.