Collision Course - First Encounter

It took a brief moment for Jaune to remember an old adage that his grandfather had taught him, one of the few 'lessons' on being a Huntsman that he'd ever had.

"Ruby," the lightly-armored boy said, grabbing Crocea Mors' hilt. She turned to him with a look that he shared - suppressed dread. "We gotta get moving - I don't really want to find out what's around here."

"Yeah, okay." She answered, also readying herself as they began to cautiously walk down the strange cobbled path that seemed to distort itself with ripples as they walked over it. An ominous silence began to settle over them, with naught but their footsteps accompanying them.

"This is so freaky," Jaune muttered to himself, absently rubbing his arms from the chill that settled on his skin.

Ruby must have heard him since he felt a distinct, if hesitant, pat on his back. "At least we've got each other. Being alone in this place would be…"

"Yeah… I know what you mean." He replied with a small shudder, feeling rather selfish about that fact. He was the reason they were down here in the first place and yet he was feeling better because she was here...

The blond put that thought aside for a moment, as they eventually arrived in front of the tower. Two red-coloured doors stood in front of them, standing far taller then even him, with a distinct lack of handle to actually open the door. Glancing at Ruby, he felt rather relieved to not be the only one who felt nonplussed by this.

"Are we meant to just… Push it open?" Jaune asked, feeling more and more like an idiot the more he stood there.

"What else can we do?" His companion replied somewhat rhetorically as she began to push against the door - only for it to slam open at the slightest push of her shoulder.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, barely catching herself from falling over. Glancing at Jaune with an embarrassed flush of her cheeks, she nervously began poking her fingers together. "Sorry, didn't mean to uh…"

"Don't worry about it," he waved it away, having barely suppressed the instinct to react the exact same way. Looking briefly inside the place, it looked like an eerily dark reception area with absolutely nobody around. The reception desk looked old and dusty, like it hadn't been touched in years, and all of the chairs for sitting down were broken. Jaune did spy various tables however, with strange papers on them, and to the right of the reception area was a door to another area. "Let's look around here, then… I'll check the reception, you wanna look at whatever's on those tables?"

"Sure," Ruby replied as nonchalantly as she could manage, even as her bottom lip trembled. "And I'll… I'll look for a lightswitch, hehe."

"Hadn't thought of that," Jaune quietly admitted to himself, as he moved further towards the reception. He glanced at his friend zipping around the place, and wondered aloud, "how can you even see anything when you do that?"

"I uh… Don't, really. It's super fast even for me." The girl replied, seemingly embarrassed by that little tidbit. "I just try to not go so far that I crash into stuff."

"It's still cool either way," he replied immediately, hoping to make her feel a bit better. "You're like a female version of the Blur with that power, so…"

"Can't he use his speed all the time?" Ruby replied, still sounding a tiny bit downcast despite her efforts to sound curious.

"Maybe," Jaune admitted. "But the Blur hasn't got a badass scythe or a cool red cloak, so you're actually cooler then he is."

"...Thanks." She quietly said, sounding genuinely happier after what he'd said.

His work as a friend accomplished, at least for now, Jaune began to search around the reception desk, starting first by opening the drawers and unsurprisingly finding absolutely nothing besides dust and cobwebs. Grimacing at the thought of this stuff entering his lungs, he steeled himself and knelt down in the dusty ground and began poking around, his hand eventually briefly touching some sort of piece of paper.

Grabbing it and pulling it out to look at, he frowned. It was a map of the place, with the only other room being where you could take the elevator to that movie theater… But no indication on how to actually get out of this hellhole.

"Found anything?" Ruby asked curiously, leaning casually against the reception desk, seemingly having finished her sweep.

"A map of this floor… And no, they don't say how we can get out of here." Jaune replied, letting out a frustrated sigh, showing her the map.

"Ouch," she answered, wincing at that. "I didn't do much better… All I found was this weird key."

Jaune glanced at the golden key, engraved with a movie reel indentation and shook his head. "It's better then nothing…"

The two teenagers stood there in silence, contemplating what to do when Ruby turned to him with a bright expression on her face, having seemingly come to a realization. "Hey, what about going back the way we came in?"

"I can't believe I didn't think of that." Jaune replied, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Thank god that Ruby seemed to be more together then he was… "Let's go then."

Walking back to where they'd fallen in was just as tense as before, especially with how… still, the place was. Literally no life anywhere, in anything. It still unsettled Jaune to think that he might be stuck here… But he knew now was not the time to think about that prospect.

Standing in the small, strangely serene, cobbled circle where they'd landed, Jaune blinked. Why the hell was a bizarrely familiar blue door doing there on that half-destroyed wall, to the right side of the circle?

He'd gotten so distracted by the door that he hadn't noticed that Ruby had begun dashing around, looking for any way to get back. There didn't seem to be, from where he was standing - past the circle, going away from the tower, there was nothing besides the forest of bones - not even a cobbled path.

"Found anything?" The young man asked, hoping that he'd missed some important detail that Ruby hadn't.

The black-haired girl frowned, utterly downcast. "I… No… I didn't find anything."

Jaune frowned, feeling a surge of red-hot anger rise up at their situation. If he found whoever or whatever had thrown them in here… He didn't even want to think about what he'd do to them.

After a brief moment of stewing to himself, the prospective huntsman asked with strained calmness, "do you see a blue door on that wall? Like, to the right side of this clearing?"

"...No?" Ruby replied, unsure of herself for a moment. "Are you okay, Jaune?"

"I'm fine," the boy said aloud even as his mind began racing, his anger now long-forgotten. Why come he could see it and she couldn't? Had he officially gone insane after coming here?

Ignoring the questions plaguing his mind, Jaune approached the door with hesitant steps. Tentatively pressing his hand towards it, he found it opening without much fanfare, leading to naught but blackness… Stepping through that black veil, he came across one of the strangest things he'd ever seen in his life.

A large, old pirate ship, with blue velvet sails with a distinctive V symbol in the middle, with unlit, all distinct from one another, lanterns. The hull was At the helm of the ship, were two figures, a well-dressed man with a distinct long nose and wide, bloodshot eyes and the other… Well, it was safe to say that he hadn't expected to meet Gabriel here.

The darkness of night hung around the ship like an ominous weight, and when Jaune glanced up at the few stars that lit up the ship, he saw something that made him realize how far away from everything he knew, he actually was.

The cracked moon that had been a constant presence in his life, was now seemingly leaking some sort of black energy that seemed to be that ominous darkness from before.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, Jaune Arc." the man said with an almost torturously wide smile, interrupting his terrifying stream of thought.

"Who are you?" The young man asked, unable to contain himself anymore. He wanted some answers, goddammit, and from where he was standing, being calm didn't seem to be giving any! "And where is this place?!"

"I know you're confused, Jaune, but-" his tentative friend tried to say comfortingly from the strange man's side, but Jaune was having none of it.

"Me and my friend have been in a nightmare world for god knows how long, with no means to get out, and now I'm here for some reason… I think I deserve some answers god dammit!" He exploded angrily, feeling a surge of guilt when he saw her recoil at the outburst.

"Of course you do," the man said, smiling just a tiny bit less widely, shooting Gabriel a warning look. "I will answer in order: I am Igor, the master of this Room. This is Gabriel, my assistant, who will be helping you throughout your quest, and lastly… In the crow's nest, lies the Prisoner."

"The Prisoner…?" Jaune asked himself, turning around to look at another man, slightly shorter than Igor, cast into chains with an iron mask bounding him. His only defining feature was bizarrely good-looking grey hair, that seemed at odds with how… Feral he looked everywhere else.

"He is not important for now," the strange man replied smoothly, as if it wasn't that unusual. "Perhaps later when you have uncovered your abilities, but for now…"

When the annoyed lightly-armored man was about to open his mouth accusingly, Gabriel interrupted him with a pleading tone, ignoring the look that Igor shot her. "Please, Jaune… Igor-I mean, my master can only give so much information at this juncture… Especially with the time afforded to us."

"...Alright," he said, feeling bad for putting her on the spot like that, even as he wondered why she was here… On reflection, after he'd calmed down some more, she nor Igor really deserved his ire, not when they were trying to help him. "Could you tell me how I get out of that place then?"

"Unfortunately, there is only one way for you and your friend to get out of there." Igor said apologetically, leaning forward to look at Jaune. "It is out of my power to help you directly, but as your guide in the strange powers that are just out of your grasp as of now… I can tell you that you must confront your inner self."

"What?" The blond asked, utterly confused by what he was saying. "That doesn't make sense..?"

"I mean… Look at where you are. Is anything a surprise after that?" Gabriel pointed out, with a wry look on her.

"... Good point." The young man conceded after a moment.

How the hell had he ended up in this situation in the first place, from a baseline of going to a new school? He wondered, feeling a small inkling of fear that he really wished wasn't there.

"Don't worry if you feel out of your depth," his friend said quietly, pulling him out of his thoughts, looking at him with a glimmer of concerned kindness. "I… I felt the same when I was first introduced to all this… It's just about getting used to it."

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this, if I'm being honest." Jaune offered with a self-deprecating smile, as he began to slowly calm down. He wasn't about to… Accept this situation just yet, but reaffirming his tentative friendship with Gabriel was enough to make him feel better about it.

"I'll be honest right back at you… Neither have I." She replied with an almost mischievous look to her, that would have made his mood skyrocket… If Jaune hadn't noticed the slight sliver of sadness and regret entering her voice towards the end.

Unfortunately for him, he knew quite well that he wasn't even close to having enough Understanding to truly comprehend what she was truly going through, so he chose to leave it at that, as much as it hurt him to do so.

"Ahem," Igor interrupted with a small polite cough, causing the two teenagers to look at him with somewhat abashed looks. He looked more amused than angry however, as far as the blond could tell. "Please, Gabriel… If you must interact with our guest, try to do it when we aren't short on time as it is."

The red-eyed teen seemed to take the chiding in her stride, which was rather impressive in his book… If those words had been addressed to him, he was pretty sure he would have wilted like a wallflower.

Turning back to him, the long-nosed man looked rather pensive. "I believe you have already visited the place where you'll be able to confront your other self. I must warn you however… When you awaken to your power, you must escape as soon as you can."

The only question he could summon at that point was a simple and quiet, "why?"

"You'll be weakened by your awakening, and if the ruler of that place catches wind of your presence…" Igor said, letting the sentence hang over him like the guillotine.

Jaune heard the distinctive sound of chains moving from behind him, distracting him from that ominous statement. He turned around to see the Prisoner, still in the crow's nest, looking down directly at him, his iron mask betraying nothing, not even some sort of grunt of exertion from moving those heavy chains around.

"He… He isn't going to attack me, is he?" He asked, swallowing hard. It was a rather intimidating sight to say the least…

"I uh… Don't think so?" Gabriel offered, sounding rather unsure herself. "He hasn't… I dunno, seemed as interested before you've come."

"Ah… That's nice..?" The young man mumbled, trying to put a somewhat more positive spin on those words… And failing.

"I believe that you have other concerns, Jaune Arc, do you not?" Igor stated, sounding almost amused. "Your friend is getting concerned in the other world..."

Jaune smacked his forehead in self-annoyance and more than a bit of concern. "Dammit! I got so caught up about this place… I'm such an idiot!"

After looking around the darkly-colored hull of the ship, and seeing the distinctive figurehead of a woman covering her ears as she sang, he found himself nonplussed by how he was supposed to get out. "Uh… How do I do that?"

"You enter the Captain's Cabin and it lets you out." His friend supplied, as if that wasn't rather contradictory… But given what he'd seen and heard, it was admittedly one of the least weird things about this place.

"Alright… I'll be back soon, you hear me?" Jaune stated, with some confidence that he didn't really feel.

"You signed a contract, did you not?" Igor replied with a mysterious grin, which merely widened at his confused look. "And even if you do not remember it, you would not have been able to get in here if you hadn't."

With that somewhat unsettling thought burrowing its way into his skull, he waved a somewhat hesitant goodbye to Gabriel, before pushing open the Captain's Cabin, a familiar blue space greeting him as he did. Walking through it once more, he found himself in the same cobbled plaza as before… With an extremely worried Ruby standing in front of him, poking his cheek.

"Oh uh… Hey, Ruby." Jaune said as casually as he could, which wasn't all that casually at all.

"You okay, Jaune? You looked a bit… Empty there." Ruby asked, with an incredibly concerned look in her eyes, with some other emotion hidden there that he had no idea how to discern.

"Don't worry about me," the young man said, waving away her concern. "I was just lost in thought for a bit there."

Relief flowed through her eyes, and she relaxed almost instantly. "Alright, nice to know it wasn't like… I dunno, the air in here got to you."

"I'm Jaune Arc - some air isn't about to fell me, I'll have you know!" Jaune declared, in a falsely boisterous knightly voice that seemed utterly out of place on him, even clumsily pulling out his sword and pointing at the sky in mock defiance.

Ruby let out a giggle at his antics, and he instantly knew that was the right thing to say. "If you say so, Sir Jaune."

The young man let out a small cough, his throat utterly abused by the voice. "Well uh… I think I have an idea on how we can get out of here."

"Going back to the tower? I already thought about it before-" The silver-eyed girl finished for him exuberantly, only to falter as she realized that she'd broken his mojo. "Uh… Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you."

"It ain't no biggie," Jaune replied with a slightly depressed downturn of his face, wondering if he was ever going to think up something that someone hadn't already thought up beforehand. "Well, let's go…"

As they stood in front of the elevator in the other room of the reception area, that looked rather ominously like a massive cage, Jaune couldn't help but wonder if this place could get any more freaky.

"Well… This is the only place that lets us go further up," Ruby stated, sounding slightly scared at the prospect of using it.

"Not a horror movie fan?" He asked inquisitively, as an attempt to distract her from getting more scared.

"No… Not really… My sister, Yang, she's a massive fan of them, but I dunno…" The gothic-styled girl replied, sounding rather embarrassed at admitting something like that.

"I don't particularly like them either," Jaune replied, as he began to fiddle around with a control panel near the unopened elevator doors. "My older sisters forced me at times to watch them, when I was still the youngest, and… Yeah."

"How many sisters have you got?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Three older sisters and four younger ones." He replied, feeling a pang of sorrow and guilt rise up in him at the thought of them. "Our family is pretty massive for what it's worth."

"Sounds… Nice." The girl reflected, sounding forlorn for whatever reason.

"Chaotic too," Jaune said with a fond laugh, as he began to wipe away the dust from the panel, in an attempt to read what was above the various buttons. "We had a dinner party at my grandma's place, that somehow turned into some sorta food fight that ended us completely soaked in whipped cream."

"How did your grandma react?" Ruby asked curiously, her voice hitched upwards for some reason.

"Well, she scolded us." Jaune continued, a small grin rising on his face. "But not for the reason you'll expect - she thought that our foodfight lacked a certain amount of creativity, and urged us to do better next time."

The girl let out a small yet noticeably happier chuckle. "Your grandma sounds pretty cool."

"She is," the young man said fondly. He briefly hesitated, wondering if he was going too far if he said this… Before throwing caution to the wind. "When we get out of here and we're on our break, I could take you to meet her and my sisters. If you want to, of course."

"Really?" She asked, sounding rather… Amazed…?

"I'm pretty sure they'll like you… Especially my younger sisters." Jaune replied honestly, even as a small part of his mind wondered if they'd like him after the stunt he'd pulled…

"You're a great guy, Jaune, you know that?" Ruby stated, as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

"I… I ain't sure about that." The blond replied, his good mood traded in for self-pity… After all he'd done to get here, how could he be a good guy by any margin?

"Well from where I'm standing, you gotta be." The girl insisted, crossing her arms at him.

Jaune didn't bother replying to that… He couldn't admit that he'd lied to get into Beacon, that he was by all measures, a criminal. Any and all respect/friendship she had with him would just evaporate, he just knew it.

Pressing a big red button in muted frustration that he was reasonably sure would open the doors, he found himself being… Correct.

"Nice going," Ruby complimented, shooting him a smile.

Jaune tried to smile back, but it probably came across as more strained than anything else. Entering the cage-elevator was more than a bit disconcerting, especially with how it creaked when they entered.

Glancing around, the young man spied a floor panel… That had only two options: first floor and ground floor.

"I guess there are multiple elevators?" The black-haired girl muttered to herself by his side.

"We gotta hope so," Jaune replied with a small frown, as he pressed the button to the first floor. With a great shudder-inducing metallic groan, the elevator began to rise through the tower.

A silent dread began to rise in him as the elevator climbed through the tower, that didn't go away even as lights began to drift in from above.

Multi-colored lights illuminated them, briefly making Jaune cover his eyes from the bloom… When he reopened them again, he felt a distinct feeling of confusion at what he was seeing, quietly murmuring, "what the…?"

An honest to god movie theater stood in front of them, like they were at the premiere for some sort of blockbuster. The movie theater itself looked incredibly grandiose, being far closer to some sort of dedicated theater then a cinema, and having the smashing colors of red and yellow to back it up.

But what shocked him more, was the title of the movie…

Jaune Arc and the Fabulous Lies stood out to him like a neon sign, illuminated with bright white letters on a black background, with the only person on the poster being a parody of himself, who was shirtless with nameless and faceless women surrounding him.

Words escaped him at that moment, and in that moment, all he could do was stare.

"Yang… We have to go." A quiet voice rose through the panicked worry that she felt, that had been slowly rising for nearly an entire day now. "We're going to miss initiation otherwise."

"But… Ruby, she hasn't…" Yang replied, biting her lip as she glanced at the duo that was Ren and Nora, who looked worried about her.

"She's here somewhere," Ren continued reassuringly, trying his utmost to coax her to come. "Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch already said they were on the case."

"Exactly… You gotta trust that she's handling herself wherever she is." Nora said, with a bright smile that broke at the edges. "She's pretty strong from the sounds of her anyway, so I'm sure she's kicking the butt of whatever delayed her!"

Yang hesitated… Before remembering a promise that she'd made with Ruby long ago, that they were both going to be huntresses, no matter what.

"Fine." She said, somewhat huffily. "But as soon as we're done, I'm going to try and find her anyway, you get me?!"

"Well, we're going to be helping out!" Nora declared fiercely, even pumping her fist to the air.

"Naturally," Ren said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

As the trio walked to where initiation was being held… Yang Xiao Long could only hope that Ruby was doing okay.

It was the only thing she could do… As of right now, anyway.

AN: A minor cliffhanger, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless.

Not much more to say then that, besides the fact that I hope everyone is in character, and peeps are interested in where the story is going.