Part 1: New Kids on the Block

CHAPTER 1

It was a fine morning late in summer when two agents of chaos arrived to Remnant.

The amber light of the rising sun slid through the tall windows that lined either side of Beacon Academy's massive central cafeteria. Inside was alive with activity, with many of it's adolescent students moving too and from the long rows of wooden tables. A steady buzz of voices filled the air as students who'd finished their breakfast began talking more freely with their friends and teammates.

Off to one side, Yang Xiao-Long watched her little sister Ruby Rose with purple eyes dark in concern.

Ruby, in her black blouse along with a waist cincher with red lacing and a combat skirt with red trimmings, was scraping the remains of her breakfast into a trashcan. A breakfast of pancakes with strawberries that Ruby had done little besides pick at, despite strawberries being her favorite food after chocolate-chip cookies.

Not that she could blame Ruby; Yang hadn't noticed the taste or texture of most of her own meal. And when she had, the breakfast had tasted like ashes going down.

Even as Yang followed her sister's example with the remains of her own breakfast, Ruby deposited her tray and dirty dishes into a nearby receptacle in the wall. Before Yang could speak to her, Ruby walked off, the red cloak pinned to her blouse by a pair of silver crosses, seemed to hang limp from her back in a mirror of it's owner's dejection.

Yang's heart twisted in her chest and she bit the side of her cheek as her older sibling instincts kicked in. Being accepted into Beacon two years early and given command of her own Huntress team meant that people tended to forget that Ruby Rose was a fifteen-year-old girl. But Yang would never forget, and to her Ruby would always be her baby sister.

It was rare for her half-sister to bottle her feelings in about something that bothered her. But it didn't take much effort from Yang to know why her little sister felt not just worried, but uncertain about how they'd find Blake after she'd ran off two days ago. Both of them knew that finding Yang's partner was going to be difficult. At the same time, Yang knew her sister was too much of an optimist to believe that Blake wouldn't want to come back with them if they could find and talk to her. That and Yang couldn't help but worry that something might have happened to Blake.

Yet, Yang had managed to tuck her feelings away to give encouragement and support. To let Ruby know her big sister had her back. To help her hold what remained of Team RWBY together. To try to keep Team JNPR or anyone else from getting suspicious.

But with that sight came a stab of emotion at how Blake's absence had affected Ruby and their team. An ember of hurt and anger.

With a huff, Yang pushed the feelings aside. Setting her tray down, Yang headed towards where her sister and five other people stood at a fast walk. She knew all of them of course. Weiss Schnee, the 'W' in Team RWBY. Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren of Team JNPR.

Like the rest of her friends, Yang wasn't wearing Beacon's school uniform. In the athletic, buxom teenager's case, her customary clothing was black shorts, heavy leather boots and a tan leather jacket. The last one was worn over a low-cut yellow top with her stylized insignia of a heart engulfed in flames.

"...going to see that new Spruce Lee film, 'Enter the Nevermore,'" Pyrrha was saying as Yang walked up.

"Even if it won't be the same movie theater we'd normally go to," Jaune sounded a little sad about that as the little group walked out of the cafeteria, passing through the carved double doors.

Emerging out into the warmth of the morning sun, the six adolescents stepped onto one of the stone pathways that ran through the ornamental pools and green fields that comprised the campus' wide, sprawling grounds.

It was a sight that still sent a spark of excitement and wonder through Yang. After so many years of hard work, she was at Beacon Academy.

"Why, what happened?" asked Weiss from besides Yang. The white-haired teen looked as prim and proper as always in her white dress and jacket. On her back and somewhat hidden by Weiss's off-centered ponytail, the snowflake symbol of the Schnee Dust Company stood out proudly.

Nora Valkyrie's partner and long time friend Lie Ren spoke up. The boy, his black hair disrupted by a pink streak, wore a long-sleeved green Mistrali-style tailcoat and white pants. "They still aren't happy with us after Nora got too carried away playing 'Whack-a-Grimm' in the lobby arcade with Magnhild last month," he explained.

Nora had the decency to look a little embarrassed at this between chews. Despite having eaten a near mountain of flapjacks with enough syrup to induce a diabetic coma, she was still eating an apple.

Weiss stared at Nora, dumbfounded. Yang, however, was less surprised by Nora's antics, even if she thought that was going a bit too far, even for what passed as normal for Nora.

"Geeeez Nora!" Yang laughed. Not for the first time this morning, Yang hoped none of them noticed how fake and forced her smile felt.

Yang had always worn her heart on her sleeve, sure, but she'd kept her fair share of personal secrets. Her dad didn't know about some of Yang's dates back at Signal, or why she'd come home late the night she'd visited The Bear Necessitiesand ended up trashing Junior's club. Even when they'd started at Beacon, Yang had managed to restrain herself from doing anything about Ruby wanting Weiss to respect her as leader of Team RWBY. But none of those had been as big as what had happened to Blake.

Noticing her little sister's continued silence, Yang glanced over at Ruby as a light breeze ruffled the other's red-tipped black hair. Ruby had barely spoken when everyone had been seated at breakfast, but had made some attempt to involve herself.

The distant look in Ruby's silver eyes and glum expression told Yang that Ruby wasn't paying much attention anymore. All of JNPR's talk about plans for the day and teammates must have been a painful reminder of Team RWBY's own situation to her.

Placing an arm across her sister's shoulders, Yang gave a quick squeeze of a one-armed hug. There was not much she could do to put her sister's mind at ease in front of JNPR. Not without revealing the situation with Blake. But Yang could at least do that.

Ruby shot Yang a relieved smile. It was a small smile, but it was there.

Yang remembered how when Blake had run off, Ruby had wanted to go after her right away. But she and Weiss had talked her out of it.

Just let her get it out of her system. She needs time to calm down, Yang had told Ruby.

And if she comes back on her own, Weiss added, we don't have to worry about attracting attention and getting all of us in trouble.

That decision was one Yang had started to doubt more and more as the days had passed. She knew that sometimes people walked away because they want to be alone, but sometimes they walked away because they want to see if people cared enough to follow them.

"Are you alright Ruby? You've been acting weird." Jaune's voice brought Yang back to the present, her moment of introspection already forgotten.

The usual boyish enthusiasm in the tall blond boy's blue eyes had been replaced by one of concern, his eyebrows knitting together as he watched Ruby. The rest of JNPR looked just as curious and worried.

She barely noticed Weiss frozen in indecision; Yang's attention was on Ruby. She recognized the look on Ruby's silver eyes. Ruby was going to start babbling, like she almost always did when she was uncomfortable or had no idea what to do. Even more so with Jaune. After all, the pair of team leaders were best friends, and Ruby had probably wanted badly to tell him what was going on.

"Oh she's fine. She just didn't sleep well last night," Yang jumped in. She tried not to grimace, that had been about as subtle as an Ursa.

The reaction from JNPR was mixed. Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged glances. Nora looked more puzzled than anything else. Ren gave Yang a searching look; she answered with her best expression of polite confusion. For a moment, Yang worried that they would try to dig deeper.

"Oh. Well, if you feel better later, maybe all of us could meet up and have lunch?" Jaune suggested. Yang knew he was just being well-meaning and hoping to make Ruby feel better.

Besides her, she was aware of Weiss relaxing. She might have been better at hiding it than Yang or Ruby, but the white-haired girl had a nervous edge to her in recent days.

"Sorry, Jaune, but we've already have plans." Ruby answered, with some measure of her normal chipper tone.

"Yeah! We were planning to visit Patch for the day and visit my dad." Yang forced a somewhat apologetic expression on her face. In truth, she knew Ruby wanted to spend today searching Vale for Blake. She didn't know if Ruby had told Weiss about her plan.

Weiss shot Yang a glare out of the corner of her eye, but gave no other reaction.

"Oh I see."

"So is Blake coming with you guys?" Asked Nora.

Without thinking, one of Yang's hands brought her waist-length wild mane of curly blonde hair around her shoulder and began stroking it for a moment. She gave a small shrug that she hoped looked casual. "Maybe."

In spite of this being the two-week break between semesters, they'd known that sooner or later, someone would notice Blake's absence. So, the rest of Team RWBY had told people she was off visiting relatives outside the Kingdoms. That she'd lived outside the Kingdoms was a fact Blake herself had mentioned the few times she'd talked about her past.

"You don't know?" Pyrrha asked, puzzled.

"Well, Blake said she isn't sure if she'll be back in Vale today or not. And Scroll reception is not good where she is at." Weiss explained.

Anything Yang might have said next was forgotten. As in the next second, several things happened at once. On the edge of her vision, she caught a lightning-flash of purple and gray light in the direction of the forest of Forever Fall. In what must have been only a heartbeat later, a tearing rumble, like a thunderclap of sound, slammed into her ears.

Yang jerked in surprise, her hands clenching and moving without thought into a fighting stance. But almost stumbled back as the heel of a boot caught on one of the walkway's flagstones.

Around her, she could see and hear others reacting with sharp cries of surprise. Including Ruby jumping into the air with a startled squeak, leaving short flurry of red rose petals behind from her Semblance. Weiss, meanwhile, had cringed into herself, clapping both hands over her ears.

"Huh. Well, that was a thing." Yang remarked as the others began to recover from their joint shock.

"What was that?" asked Ruby. It was plain to Yang that any potential embarrassment she might have at accidentally using her Semblance was the last thing on her sister's mind. As her sister was busy peering towards a gap between two buildings in the direction the light had come from. To Yang's surprise, there wasn't any sign of smoke or fire.

"I have no clue sis. Some kind of weird lightning bolt?" She'd only caught a glimpse of the light, yet Yang felt troubled. She almost felt that there'd been something wrong about it. But she couldn't figure out what. Perhaps she'd just been seeing things, given how fast the flash had come and gone.

"Oooh!" Nora interjected as she pulled Jaune to his feet. "Maybe it was the climax of an epic battle between some lone, grizzled Huntsman and the giant, one-eyed Ursa that took the life of the woman he loved! Fueled by love, vengeance, and a convenient vein of burn Dust beneath their feet he destroyed the monstrosity!"

The ginger-haired teen then went from manic to melancholic, as if someone had flipped a switch, "But tragically the wounds he took in the battle were too great even for Aura to heal and perishes. In his last moments he thinks of his love hoping that at last, they'll be reunited in the afterlife."

"Nora," Ren said slowly, "that was the plot of the movie we saw last month."

Pyrrha, who Yang guessed had been subtly stunned by what had happened, spoke up. Her tone one of polite skepticism, "I'm not quite sure Huntsmen being the cause is very likely."

"Pyrrha's right. Unless they were carrying a whole shipping container worth of Dust, it's not possible," chimed in Weiss.

Nora let out a disappointed, "Aww."

"I dunno Ice Queen, you might be onto something. Maybe it was a natural pocket of Dust that got set off somehow." Yang mused, teasing Weiss with her nickname. Though it seemed to have flown over the Schnee heiress's head, as a thoughtful frown appeared on Weiss's face.

"Maybe, but I can't imagine what could have ignited it. Raw Dust isn't anywhere near as volatile as processed crystals or powder. And I'm certain that any Dust deposits that close to the surface and near to Vale would have been found already."

"Maybe it was a meteor instead?" Jaune suggested.

Weiss scoffed, "Frankly, that's about as likely as aliens being responsible."

Jaune looked disappointed at how fast Weiss had shot his idea down, while his partner winced at her words.

"Well, I'm sure the authorities are in route to the..." Pyrrha paused, searching for the right word, "disturbance and we'll find out the cause."

Which, Yang had to admit, was probably how they would find out what they had just seen. Even if they were willing to give up on looking for Blake, she could not imagine Ozpin or Goodwitch allowing them to wander around Forever Fall. And the authorities at Vale allowing a bunch of first-year student huntress to go? Forget it.

"Assuming there's anything besides a crater to find." Weiss concluded.

-RWBY-

Paula Ravenwood rolled from where she'd fallen on her side. Moving without thinking, she raised herself up with none of her usual catlike grace. A slim and shapely human woman, she was almost thirty, with dark red-gold hair that reached down to her shoulders. She wore her normal attire: black dress jeans, black boots, a blood-red shirt and equally red leather jacket.

Still dazed, she remained doubled over, gasping as she struggled to get her breath back. The fall had been punishing; hitting the ground had pushed out what little air that had remained in her lungs and made her see stars. Her hands, encased in tight-fitting opera gloves that reached up to her elbows beneath her jacket, rested on her knees. Paula forced herself to take in slow, measured breaths, letting the cool air fill her lungs and ease her racing heart.

Her dark gold eyes flicked to the fallen figure a few feet away, who'd almost gone face-down in the dirt along beside her. Even through her mental barriers, at this close range she could still feel his now-familiar presence. One of the hardest things about explaining what her telepathy could do was when she had to talk about auras, how they felt. It wasn't something she could really describe. But if she had to, the man known as Shaidar Gorthule was like when a cloud covered the sun, dropping everything into shadow.

That was not his birth-name of course; that had been Justin Chapman. But he'd been given what was more than just a new name, but a title and rank, years before the two of them had met. So far as Paula was aware, she was among a handful of people who knew his original name.

Even as she thought this, he unsteadily rose into a sitting position, much like she had. A thick layer of oily material covered his lean form from head to toe. The armor wasn't a solid color, but a motley mosaic made up of small, misshapen black segments on a lighter charcoal background. Several short curved spines of the same bio-metal protruded from the back of his upper arms. Likewise, four similar- if larger-spikes projected from his upper back in vertical pairs: two to each side of his spine.

Through the disheveled strands of her hair, she saw the black armor covering the front of his head flow back. It revealed the familiar face of a man in his late twenties as his head turned, looking at her.

His lean face and short dark hair were ordinary enough to disappear into a crowd with little trouble. His eyes were the lone alien feature on an otherwise-human face, with dark green irises flecked with orange, cat-like slits for pupils and a black sclera. They were eyes filled with intelligence, of someone who missed little of what they saw.

"That was close. You alright?" Shaidar questioned in his mutated British accent.

Even out of breath his concern was clear to hear. Though Paula knew the motion of looking her over with his eyes was a holdover from his old human life, the one he'd had before they'd even met. He could—and probably was— using his cybernetic sensors to examine her from head to toe.

Paula couldn't help but offer the cyborg a little smile. They weren't the most touchy-feely people around and their relationship might not be the most openly affectionate. They still loved each other regardless.

She shrugged, her red-gold hair shimmering with the movement. "I've been better. You?" she asked, still panting a little. Her voice carried a trace of a drawl typical to the American south.

"Tolerable." He coughed as he tried to catch his breath. "Nice thinking back there. I'd say you got us out in the nick of time."

"Thanks. You know what they say— timing is everything." It was a weak quip. She'd all but thrown herself at him in a last desperate measure and teleported them both through the portal he'd linked open. All while fighting to hang on to him against the pull of decompression into the vastness of space.

Shaidar's lip twitched into a small smile. "They have indeed."

Getting to her feet, Paula frowned at her outfit, which was covered in a thin grime of dirt. She brushed herself off with gloved hands, making a quick check of her coat pockets and belt. Luckily, she'd landed on her other side, so all three of the glass vials were intact. Likewise, the snub-nosed energy pistol was still in its holster on her belt.

That done, Paula raked her hand unevenly through her hair and got a good view of her surroundings for the first time. Her eyes widened.

"Oh, what the hell have we gotten into now?" she murmured, not without a hint of trepidation.

Overhead, a faint canvas of stars hung in a dark blue sky. All around her, a vast hillside crimson forest stretched into the distance under a morning sun. The cool air was quiet save for the sound of the creaking and groaning of trees. But this wasn't the true cause of her concern.

In the sunlight, Paula could make out a ragged circular clearing around her and Shaidar. It had to be several hundred feet across; about the size of a parking lot. The ground beneath her feet was stripped clear, exposing hard soil. Bare of bark and branches toppled trees littered the ground or lay splinted against a white boulder at the edge of the clearing. Paula only now became aware of the nose-wrinkling stench of ozone mixed in with odors of decaying leaves and earth.

All this radiated out from the central point- where she and Shaidar Gorthule now stood. As if there could be any doubt for the cause of the newly created clearing.

"Well. This is different." Shaidar said, looking around. At five foot eight he was only a little taller than her. A ripple passed through the armor as it changed from its default black to a vivid red and orange autumn forest camouflage pattern. Paula could tell he was trying to be nonchalant, but she knew better. He was worried, just as she was. But they'd both seen and done too much in their lives to let that fear rule them.

"More like the start of a bad horror film." Something caught Paula's attention, and her golden eyes gazed up into the clear sky above. To her left and low above the treeline, a shattered half-moon glowed down, faint and white. Paula's eyes traced over its craters and pockmarks, noting the similarities to others she'd seen on other worlds on its unfamiliar face.

"And I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," She added, causing Shaidar to glance up from the portal device strapped to his left arm.

"Oh dear," he said, peering upwards at the broken alien moon. The action caused a deep orange gleam flickered to life within his eyes, making them resemble a pair of faintly glowing coals.

"You're saying the obvious darling." Her voice was laced with a playful tone that was only slightly forced.

"Little bit," he agreed, looking back to her, the motion making the orange glint in his eyes die. "Can you sense anything out there?"

Lowering her mental barriers for the moment, Paula reached out, scanning for other minds. "No one but some panicking animals in my range, so on the upside we haven't been seen. On on the downside we're definitely in the middle of nowhere. You?"

Unlike herself, Shaidar Gorthule wasn't a telepath. Nor was he a Preternatural—the name used by the few aware of her 'world' and the existence of people born with supernatural abilities.

Shaidar Gorthule was a Techno-mage. Like the rest of his order, his abilities were the result of a network of bio-mechanical cybernetic implants throughout his body. That technology had been created and supplied by an ancient race of aliens known to most as the Shadows. The Techno-mages served the Shadows in variety of ways, but mostly as elite agents, soldiers or some mix of both.

"All's clear on my end too. But I'm getting metal, probably train tracks, and a signal from over there. I'd say it's an automated hazard alert." He said, gesturing towards several of the fallen trees at the far edge of the clearing. Paula thought she could see a metallic glint underneath.

"As for long range," Shaidar Gorthule continued, "I'm detecting a lot of communications traffic from the south west. Almost certainly from a major city, but it's out of scanner range. And we can't stay here; our arrival has been noticed by the locals. Seems we created quite the light-show."

"Damn. Well, if the locals don't like visitors, we'll be busy soon. It was your portal. Any clue where we are?"

"Yes and no," the Techno-mage replied evenly. "From what fragments I can pick up, the city is named 'Vale' and the people of this world call it 'Remnant'. Unfortunately, I've never heard of either before and we're too far out for me to access any computers wirelessly. I don't suppose any of that sounds familiar to you?"

"No, I don't know the names. It...it feels a bit like the Underworld or one of the other pocket Realms might have felt, back home. Not quite the same but... Of that nature, if less so. Other, is the best word I've got, in a magical sense."

"Now that is intriguing, if not what I'd hoped for. At least on the bright side, this place beats the vacuum of space."

Paula knew that, as a Techno-mage, Shaidar had been accused of being an actual wizard, warlock or even less flattering names. When in truth was he and those in the Techno-mage Order simply used technology to emulate magic. Although he rarely said anything about it, she knew that was also why even after almost a year, some part of Shaidar still wasn't used to the idea of what she and her people were capable of. As far as even the Shadows were concerned, Paula's abilities both looked and acted like magic. And he wasn't used to being the one trying to figure out how things worked and he didn't like it.

Of course, as far as Shaidar and his associates were concerned, that didn't make it mystical or magical. Merely a science they hadn't yet been unraveled.

"There is that. Still, this could be complicated. The last thing we need is people figuring out we're outsiders." She grinned, a sharp smile. "Let's hope they don't burn witches or things may get messy."

Paula was far from stupid. She knew how dangerous their situation was and that Shaidar undoubtedly was aware of it as well. They outsiders in a strange world, with no allies or friends to turn to. There were a dozens, if not hundreds of reasons why someone desperate or unscrupulous enough would want to cause them harm or kill them as a potential source of trouble. Not to mention how easy it would be to put a world-wide target on their backs.

Still, Paula refused to let herself be swallowed up by fear.

"For them, I'd think," Shaidar Gorthule commented dryly. "We should get a move on. As much as I don't fancy strolling through a strange forest, I'd rather we weren't here when some spooked and trigger-happy natives start showing up."

Here he glanced down for a speculative moment, before continuing, "Still, all things considered, I think we'll remain on foot for a bit. At least until anyone who does manage to track us will think they lost the trail in the forest. It should be safe enough- I'm not detecting anything dangerous with my scanners. And once we get into the air, I should have an easier time intercepting signal traffic."

"Can't portal us out then?" Paula asked as they started walking between the fallen trunks, their feet leaving almost no impression on the hard earth. Shaidar's armor flowed back over his face while she spoke. Only when it settled into place did he reply.

"Afraid not. The linking device was damaged by our arrival here." He said, referring to the mechanism wrapped around his wrist like an over-sized watch. It was now hidden once more beneath his armor. "In fact, I've shut everything down except diagnostics until I can give it a good look over. Preferably somewhere secure."

His words sent a cold trickle of uncertainty creeping through her gut. She'd never tried to teleport through one of the linking device's portals until now. That they'd ended up here instead of their intended destination and that the device had been damaged in the process meant that both were probably her fault.

In an instant, Paula shook the thought off before it had time to grow. There was no sense in allowing herself to feel guilty or worked up. It wasn't as if she and Shaidar had any other way out back then. And it had hardly been intentional on her part to have them wind up here.

"Well. That is inconvenient. And being only half Cerberi, I can't teleport between dimensions." Not to mention she couldn't teleport them to this 'Vale' city. She'd never been there before, didn't have a line of sight and was certain she didn't know anyone living in it either.

"Assuming this place is like one of your people's pocket dimensions, is it possibl-" His head snapped around, peering out into the forest as his voice dropped off into a sharp whisper. "Unknown contacts inbound!"

His warning came only a fraction of a second before a chorus of guttural and undeniably enraged howls filled the air, along with a cloying and horrific scent.

Paula stopped, turned, her right hand coming to rest on the grip of the energy pistol hanging on her hip. She reached out, scanning with her mind again instead of her eyes. For an instant, she felt, sensed nothing. Then there was a hint of minds that weren't quite minds at all. They were empty, hollow shells. Twisted. Animalistic. Filled with hate. And a yawning, ravenous hunger. Her heart went cold in her chest.

Quick as lightning, a dozen nightmares of black fur erupted from the underbrush at the edge of the clearing. The creatures were in the broad outline of a wolf, if a wolf had aspirations to become human. Each was roughly bipedal, with bodies that were slumped forward as they ran on all fours. Even in the faint sunlight, fangs glistened in muzzles. Burning, hate-filled red eyes glared out of faces masked by bone.

In that instant, Paula lashed out with her telepathy. But she'd never encountered anything quite like this before. Her attack wasn't coordinated enough to do more than disorientate them. Several creatures stumbled, a few even colliding with each other or fallen tree trunks.

Even while they stumbled, Paula was running through her few spell-casting options. She almost drew her pistol, but stopped before she'd barely begun. She had a better idea. These things could well be magical—she'd try an attack on those lines first.

As her hand darted to her coat pocket, the creatures shook themselves, staggering but ready to continue their attack. They never got the chance.

Two dozen bat-winged imps flickered into existence above the creatures. Each was the size of a large dog. Dark copper armor covered much of their gray bodies. Long steel teeth gleamed in crooked mouths. Paula recognized the imps for what they were of course; hard light constructs. Solid holograms of Shaidar's creation. Holo-demons.

Like a swarm of furious hornets, the imps dove on the wolf-creatures. Bear-trap jaws and arms ending in claws or short blades stabbed and tore chunks out of black-furred flesh. Again, the creatures fell into disarray. They shrieked and swatted at the holographic imps, who darted through the air or clung to their enemies as they hooted, hacked and bit.

It was then her searching fingers closed around the distinctly shaped glass vial holding an explosive potion. Paula pulled it out of her pocket, when she felt Shaidar wrap an arm around her waist and pull her close to him. She felt his breath on her cheek. "Hold on," he said in a short, clipped tone.

She felt something shift under her feet. Her gaze flickered down involuntary. She could almost see a rippling distortion under her feet in the shape of a flat, translucent square. The platform looked to be a little over a yard wide and across but only about an inch thick.

Like all Techno-mage platforms, this one was an extension of the 'mage who generated it. So, Shaidar had an instinctive ability to keep his balance through various maneuvers. But, any passenger on the platform—such as herself—had to either hold tight to the Techno-mage or hope for a gentle ride.

As they shot upwards, a guttural snarl ripped her attention back to the fight. The holographic imps were fighting well, but even as Paula looked, one fell prey to a beast's attack. Its body fizzed into nothingness as it 'died'. But that was not what drew her gaze.

One creature was bounding forward, a pair of imps still stubbornly clinging to it. This one was larger than the rest, with scattered white spines protruding from its back and arms. Its eyes, shining with menace, were fixed on her- on them.

The platform jerked sideways as the creature leaped for them with claws splayed. Paula drew her arm back, almost whacking Shaidar in the face with her elbow, and threw the explosive mixture right at the creature. More by pure luck than by design, the glass vial hit its face and shattered. There was a cough of an explosion. A burst of pallid green fire. The creature tumbled back down into the dirt with a ragged yelp.

About a dozen feet above the treetops, their ascent stopped. As the platform spun in place, Paula caught a final glimpse of the clearing before it was behind them. Their purpose now served, the holographic imps had dissipated. The other wolf-creatures were now glaring up at them, snarling and scrabbling around under them like dogs who'd gotten a cat up a tree. The larger creature she'd hit was getting to its feet. It was still smoldering, with large swaths of fur and skin burned away.

Then the creatures were gone, left behind as she and Gorthule flew out over the forest. The whole fight had only lasted a handful of seconds.

"Sorry for that," Paula said, almost absently to Gorthule. His armor had returned to its default black color. "So a little like Hadean demons—well, obviously not but in theory, could be similar. That's a bit of useful information."

"It's fine," he replied, "But I'd rather you hadn't done that."

"I just wish I'd killed the thing." Paula's eyes were still narrowed in thought, the wind ruffling her red hair. She felt more shaken than afraid by what she'd felt from those creatures. There was a pause as the rest of Shaidar's comment registered then. "I thought I only almost hit you?"

"It's not that. I'd planned to get us out and leave behind as little evidence as possible for the locals to puzzle over. If they learn about us, I want it to be on our terms. So the more we can mislead them about our capabilities the better. They can't fight what they don't know. Besides, we would have gained nothing by staying there and battling it out with those creatures."

As Shaidar elaborated, the platform beneath them grew by several feet and darkened to the color of smoke-blackened glass. She'd seen for herself in the past how platforms could be created in various shapes, such as a chair, a chariot and so on. All which would be more comfortable and easier to sit on. But, as he'd explained to her, simple designs were easier to create, maintain and also change to a degree while in use.

"Ah." She wasn't too inclined to apologize, largely since she was a little skeptical that the platform had been moving away fast enough, but it was a potential problem. But it explained why Shaidar hadn't just killed them. After all, bodies and battlefields could be examined. "Better a potion than a phaser then."

Now that she thought about it, Paula realized his decision to use holo-demons had been more than just a way to keep those creatures busy while they escaped. It was another attempted deception on his part. Anyone who investigated would probably think the creatures had been fighting some other animal. Yes, the fight would have still looked odd given the location. But, it might have been enough to allay suspicions. At least for a little while.

"True. Still, it's not your fault. I should have made my intentions clearer before those things showed up. Speaking of which, how well could you detect those creatures back there?" The platform slowed a little as Shaidar let go of Paula's waist and sat down.

"Not very well," Paula said, sitting down as well. "I've never sensed anything quite like them before. Their minds were almost empty. It's like they were some sort of projection. Which explains a little why I didn't sense them earlier." A thought struck her, "Come to think of it, I don't think I saw any of those creatures bleed. Which isn't normal, even for demons."

She'd thrown in that last sentence for Shaidar Gorthule's benefit. When Gorthule's associates had shown up in her universe early in 2010, her people's secretiveness had been directed at them, much like it had been with the rest of the human race. Of course, few people of Earth were aware of the Shadow's true nature as being from another universe. They'd gone to great lengths to hide where they'd come from and instead claimed to be from a distant galaxy.

"Neither did I. And I couldn't get a reading on them with most of my sensors. My motion scanners only picked them up as intermittent contacts and that was at a reduced range. They barely showed up on infrared as well." There was a definite trace of unease in his voice at the end.

Paula fiddled with a knife thoughtfully for a moment, its blade a dulled gray that did not reflect the light, before returning it to it's forearm sheath. "So, we know we're in a preternatural world with the weirdest damn moon I've ever seen. We've got a couple names. And we can't get out, for now."

-RWBY-

Ruby followed her big sister into Team RWBY's dorm room, her mind an uncomfortable mess of emotions.

An uneasy silence had descended on the three remaining members of Team RWBY after they'd left JNPR. So that right now, the sound of Weiss' heels clicking on the wooden floor of the hallway was the most noise being made between them.

The strange light they'd seen had been a welcomed distraction from Ruby's worries about Blake and discomfort of lying to JNPR. Although even now, Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that there'd been something wrong about it. Light shouldn't behave like that. Shouldn't be oily and twisted. But no one else seemed to have noticed it. So she'd kept quiet.

With a click, Yang closed the door behind Weiss, her shoulders slumping somewhat. The sight unlocked something within Ruby. It hadn't escaped Ruby's notice that, despite trying to walk with the usual spring in her step Yang had been uneasy the whole way here.

"This sucks! We should just tell them, except it might get Blake in trouble, and we don't even know where she is, or if she's coming back," Ruby burst out unable to keep herself contained for any longer, her words coming in a rush. Her eyes felt hot and she forced back what felt like the beginning of tears with a sniff.

Ruby saw Yang take a step forward, but stopped her with a shake of the head. She turned to face her partner, who was watching them with an unreadable expression.

"Weiss, I know she's been gone all weekend, but we need to find Blake," Ruby insisted.

"I'm sure she's fine, Blake's a big girl; she can take care of herself," Weiss said. Yet Ruby thought she could hear concern in her partner's voice.

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, she's missing and we need to try and find her," Yang retorted, taking a step forward. Her voice and stance showing that what remained of Yang's temper was fraying fast.

"Weiss, she's one of our teammates," Ruby interrupted before her sister and Weiss' argument could continue further, her voice making them turn back towards her. But most of Ruby's attention was on Weiss, trying to make her earnestness show through her expression and silver eyes.

Weiss arched her scarred eyebrow at her. For a moment, it looked like she was going to try and argue. Then, Weiss sighed, her shoulders slumped in resignation. "Alright, I'll help you look for her."

Ruby did not see the somewhat surprised look her sister shot at Weiss.

"Thank you Weiss!" Ruby almost squealed, bouncing into action as she did.

Snatching up a long cardboard tube near the foot of her and Weiss's make-shift bunk-bed, Ruby pulled from it a map of Vale she'd gotten from Beacon's library the other day. Before spreading the map across Weiss's bed. As the map is too big to fit on any of the four small tables in their dorm.

Ruby's stomach twisted in nervous excitement as her teammates gather around her. Pulling one of several cheerios she'd snuck out of Beacon's cafeteria from a pocket, Ruby placed it on the map.

From one side of her, Weiss looked on. On the other, stood her Yang. Ruby couldn't be certain, but she had a feeling Yang was trying to hide a smile.

"Okay, so we'll check out the places Blake likes to hang out at first," Ruby said, moving the lone cheerio with down the streets on the map. She thought of the list of addresses she and Yang had spent yesterday coming up with.

"If she hasn't been to any of those spots, we'll..." Ruby searched her vocabulary and tried to copy Weiss. "Reconnoiter any hotels we can find."

Despite whatever arguments they had, she and Weiss where still friends. And she kinda hoped that it'd help make her partner more comfortable with what she had planned. Going by the look on Weiss' face, Ruby could see that she was only somewhat successful.

"Um, Ruby, I don't think hotels are going to tell us who their customers are," Yang pointed out.

"We can always ask right?" Ruby replied, deflating a little. She wondered how Yang knew that- but she was the older sister after all. It made sense she'd know more.

The blonde shrugged. "Might be worth a shot."

"I know it's a little...unorthodox," started Weiss, "but I'd suggest..."

And with that, the three remaining team members of RWBY soon found themselves caught up in discussing places of interest and suggestions.

-RWBY-

Surrounded by a crowd of people, Penny Polendina waited patiently for the pedestrian crossing light to change.

Illuminated by the rising sun, the street around her was busy with cars and fellow pedestrians like herself. Although today she was was cataloging a major increase in activity compared to the correlating time on the previous days she'd spent in the city.

Given the grumbling she'd overheard, this activity -and delays, which seemed to be the cause of the grumblings- was 'typical Monday morning [expletive].' Few, if any of them, seemed to be putting much thought into the unidentified explosion in the Forever Fall she'd seen earlier.

As she pondered this, the pedestrian crossing light changed color. Penny hurried across the street along with the crowd of people, none of whom gave more than a passing glance at what, to them, seem to be a short, ginger-haired girl with bright green eyes and a freckled face.

It was almost an hour after she'd left that main street behind that a car that pulled up next to her. The vehicle appeared to be an expensive Atlas-designed civilian model, but Penny recognized it and knew that beneath its plain gray exterior it had been heavily modified. Including a reinforced chassis and armor plating.

Likewise, she recognized the man who peered back at her through the open driver's window, an expression of obvious relief on his face, "Penny, please get in."

Climbed inside and closing the door, her hearing picked up the sound of a window rolling shut. Like all those in the car, the driver's window was bullet-resistant and tinted so those outside would have a harder time looking in.

As the car began moving down the road in the direction Penny had been walking towards, the driver spoke up again, "You should know better than to go running around in a strange city." He admonished her.

Penny bowed her head, subdued, "I know, sir. I came back as fast as I could when I heard the explosion."

The man turned his head so he could look at her. His next words where said in a tone that meant to sound reassuring, "That's very commendable of you Penny. And I'm sure your father will be pleased to hear that."

The rest of the ride back to the house where Penny was supposed to be staying at was spent in silence.

Chapter Note:

Read! Enjoy! Review, whether to tell me what you liked or to scream at what you didn't!

I'm very curious to hear people's thoughts so far and how well I portrayed the canon cast and my original characters. For the canon cast, it's very important to me that I got them down right; I'd certainly like to think that I did. After all, if I can't write the characters of RWBY well, it rather defeats the whole point of the story.

As for my original characters, I did my best to put a lot of thought into them. Which is why I've tried to get across that while they might be intelligent, experienced and generally competent, they're not perfect by a long shot and make mistakes. After all, they've accidentally ended up in an unknown universe. Which is the very definition of messing up with style.

As a pair of side notes, Shaidar Gorthule is pronounced 'Shade-are Gore-thule'. Also, while I'm not usually one to recommend music for my stories, but I personally view the track 'Gehn's theme' from a game called 'Riven' as Shaidar and Paula's theme.

And last but not least, the cover art was done by thyBlake over on deviantart for anyone who'd like to check it out.