King: We're back here for a late Christmas gift, if you want to look at it like that. It's a little intermission with some new information gained and some set up for later. If you remember the last couple votes, you know where we're going.
Knox: Oh boy.
King: Anyway, I hope you all enjoy as always.
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With the intermission beginning, the group had to decide what they wanted to do for their free time. Jaune, however, didn't get the chance. He and Ren were roped into a Boys' Night by Sun and Neptune, since they hadn't had any time to do so before. "It just feels like everything revolves around team RWBY when we do stuff," Sun reasoned. And… he wasn't wrong. Things seemed to happen to Team RWBY more than anyone else at Beacon. As such, neither boy really considered stopping them. They did confirm they didn't have plans first, thankfully.
And thus, the girls decided to do their own thing. And considering how many of them were new or recent, Coco had an idea. Coco led them all to a private lounge area before joining them with a box and a cooler. "Alright! Time to get to know everyone better."
"Oh no." Velvet sighed and dragged her hands over her face.
"What?" Ruby asked, confused.
Coco placed the box down showing the title, [Game of Truths]. "Basically, someone asks you a question. You can answer it or you can take your punishment." She placed the cooler on the table and popped it open to reveal a series of drinks.
Blake took one of the bottles and read the title out loud, "Peach-Tree Chili?" She shivered at the description, "Why would anyone make that?"
"Oi!" Arslan shouted, "Give me that!"
"Nope!" Coco snatched the bottle before Arslan could take it, "This is someone's punishment. And they make it for this kind of game when people don't want to use alcohol. Figured we should avoid that."
"Thank you," Ruby cheered, but shivered when she read [Blueberry Spinach].
"Why are we doing this, exactly?" Weiss asked.
"Good question and one I expected," Coco pointed to Weiss before gesturing to the group, "Tell me, how much do we know about each other?" She didn't bother letting anyone answer, preemptively interrupting them, "Sure, some of us are friends or old rivals. But we're admittedly in small groups. Team RWBY. Nora and Pyrrha. Vel and me. Ciel and Penny. So on and so on. For instance, without her answering for herself, what's Ilia's favorite color?" There was silence from the table. No one knew that. A fact that made Ilia look at Blake a little hurt, but she seemed to realize it wasn't something that would come up before. "My point exactly." Coco took a bottle from the cooler and placed it hard onto the table. "So, why not fix that?"
Penny clapped her hands a few times, "I would very much like to participate!"
This caused Coco to pause before turning to Penny, "Uh… wait, can you drink the stuff or…?"
"I have been built in a way to ensure I am able to consume small amounts of food or drink to better integrate into society."
"Well okay then." Coco went right back to her excited plan, "No time like the present." She opened the box and took out an electronic spinner. "The rules are simple. You press the button and it points to someone. You ask that person a question. Any question. The person can answer honestly or choose to take a sip from their drink as punishment. If the question is deemed too inappropriate by most of the other players, it's thrown out. Continue as desired."
Arslan scoffed, "No offence, but I'm not interested." She moved to stand and walk away.
But Coco seized on the chance, "Oh well. Your loss."
Arslan stopped at the door, "Pardon?"
Coco moved in front of the monk with a smirk, speaking low so only she could hear, "If you don't want to find out more about what makes Pyrrha tick, you're free to go."
Arslan narrowed her eyes with a light growl. However, she did move back to her chair and returned to seat. Her eyes were square on Pyrrha and clearly challenging the champion in some way.
"Let's get started." Coco handed out the bottles and pressed the spinner. The hologram arrow spun around the body of the spinner before landing on Ilia. "Huh. Works out. I asked it before as an example. So, what's your favorite color?"
Ilia seemed to pause, thinking to herself. "I never really thought about it. I guess I'd say… Cobalt blue."
"Good choice."
"I guess I press the button now." She pressed the button and found her arrow landing on Weiss. There was a tension in the air almost immediately. A few people at the table looked between the two, nervously. It was no secret that Ilia had issues with the SDC, she was quite vocal since arriving. Everyone knew something like this would come up. They just didn't think it would be this quick. There was a tension in the air for a while, but eventually Ilia spoke up. "I guess I'm curious about something… What did you see in that Neptune guy?"
There was a bit of a surprised silence over the room for a moment. That was a more mundane question that fit in the spirit of girl talk. They could see Ilia formed a fist that she tensed and relaxed a few times. There was a level of frustration in her still, but she seemed to be holding it back. She knew she shouldn't blame Weiss for something she had to power over. It was a process, but she wanted to hammer that concept home.
Weiss let out a frustrated sigh, "I admit, I saw a certain charm in him. I appreciated that he seemed confident, competent, and smart. Lo and behold, he was a flirt and I couldn't see it until now."
"Well," Yang tried to comfort her teammate, "at least you figured it out sooner rather than later. Right?"
Weiss just let out an annoyed huff, "It's for the best at this point. Now let's not talk about this anymore please."
With a pat on the back from her partner, the game continued.
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Meanwhile, Winter walked along the hallways toward the bar. Goodwitch had asked her to collect Qrow for a meeting. Once she entered the almost rustic room, she found him hunched over the counter letting out a groan. Winter sighed and marched toward him, ready to cuss him out and drag him back to the Deputy Headmistress of Beacon. She was even planning a route to make him hit as many corners as possible. As she reached him, however, the mystic bartender in the form of a fire-being wearing a suit appeared before her. "I don't need a drink," she explained, "I'm just here to collect him." She pointed to Qrow and grabbed him by the shoulder.
The bartender magically knocked her hand back.
Winter turned to him, incredulous, only to be pointed to a set of rules. One of them requires ID to remove drunk patrons. Winter was confused for a moment before realizing it was likely a rule to prevent someone from basically kidnapping someone because they're drunk. Winter sighed and produced her military ID, hoping to make her point.
The bartender took the ID and a magic image appeared showing Qrow's ID. After a moment, a magical scan seemed to flow over both and started to compare and contrast between each other. Winter watched each of the information points appear and disappear. For some reason the magic confirmed their blood types. And their… hold on. The bartender found something to satisfy its rule and dismissed the magic. It returned the ID to Winter, though she seemed too stunned to move.
A low, gravely groan broke the silence as Qrow started to sit up again. "That's some good stuff." He shook off the sensation in his head and glanced to the side to see Winter. "Didn't take you for a drinker." When she didn't respond, he raised an eyebrow, "Anyone home?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face to get her back to reality.
She slowly turned toward him, her face set in a combination of confusion, disgust, incredulity, and a bit of anxiety. Oddly, there was no surprise deep down. "You…"
"What?" Her response was giving him a bad feeling, "Something on my face?"
Winter turned back to the bartender before falling onto a stool.
"Hey? Uh… you good? Kinda freaking me out here."
Winter grit her teeth, finding strength in her legs again and stomping a foot onto the ground and grabbing Qrow by his collar, lifting him off his stool a bit, "You bastard!"
"Woah!" Qrow held up his hands in surrender, "What did I do?! I was here the whole time!"
"What did you tell that bartender?! You think you can just rope me into your idiocy?! You're wrong!"
"What are you talking about?!" Qrow was getting annoyed now. "I barely talk to him!" Then he paused. "Her?"
They both paused and turned to the bartender, only seeing it stand there. Its fire-made body morphed about to and fro, never settling.
"Whatever," Qrow used this moment to pull Winter's hand off his collar and stand up properly. "What the hell are you talking about, anyway?"
"That thing," she pointed to the bartender, "seemed to be under the impression that I'm your daughter!"
"What?" That seemed to confuse him before his eyes went wide. He knew something.
His reaction made Winter pause. "No… No, no. No! I refuse to believe that!"
"You and me both." Qrow huffed, dismissing the idea before pushing himself back onto the stool.
His answer just served to confuse her more. "What are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything. I slept with a chick in Atlas back in the day. That's it. There's no way she had a kid. If she did, I don't know about 'em. And with my luck, if they did, I'll find out about it after they got killed or something." He silently ordered another drink and downed it pretty quickly.
Winter's brows furrowed a bit. She remembered the General giving her a breakdown of Qrow's Semblance a few intermissions back. His luck was awful and it affected everyone around him passively. She knew he had a pessimistic attitude as a result. She reasoned that anything good happening to him would be seen by him as either a fluke or a setup for a greater fall. "Do you even remember this woman?" She expected him to respond like it was just a one night stand he didn't care about.
But he threw her for a loop, "Course I do. I was a bit drunk, but I remember a bunch of stuff from that night." He took a long swig of his drink before placing the glass back onto the counter with a sigh, "I figured she was hiding something, but I wasn't going to ask what. Wasn't my place."
"You never thought to check? Anything?"
"I doubt Jimmy hasn't told you my Semblance at this point. If I went looking, I was never going to find anything. Besides, if there was someone to find, they'd be better off far away from me." He finished what remained of his glass in one long go.
Winter's eyes narrowed. She refused to think that bartender was being honest, but it seemed to… detached. Magic had a lot of rules she didn't understand. It was likely she never would. She doubted, far in her subconscious, that magic was lying in some way. She let out an annoyed huff. The worst part about it all was that she could believe her mother would do something like this. Everyone likes to think she's a victim to Jaques' controlling nature and harsh mentality, slowly breaking her down until she was just a sad, drunken husk of the woman she was. Truth was, however, Willow had always been neglectful. It would be so bad that Winter would often catch her mother refer to Winter by Weiss' name and vice versa. She genuinely seemed like she didn't know anything about her children beyond how many she's had. And even that seemed questionable at times…
She grumbled out a soft, "I wouldn't be so sure…" before letting out a sigh. "Doesn't matter. I was asked to collect you for Professor Goodwitch. So, pull yourself together and let's get going."
Qrow let out a huff and slowly stood back on his feet. "Fine, fine. Let's get moving, I guess."
He started to stumble, still a bit drunk, but Winter was able to catch him before he slammed face first onto the floor. It was professional courtesy to at least get him to their destination uninjured if possible. It was an odd scene, but Winter's mind was pretty scrambled given what had been suggested. Food for thought, or perhaps something to look into.
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Meanwhile, with the boys.
Sun, Neptune, Jaune, and Ren gathered in a new room labelled [Augmented Reality Room]. Neptune was flipping through the accompanying pamphlet and finished it with a nod. "Alright, it's basically a simulator room where we can experience short missions in other worlds. We can't actually get hurt or anything, but it'll feel like it."
"Neat." Sun was looking over the options available to them, represented as a set of small DVD boxes. "How about this one?" He offered one labelled [Operation: Tide Breaker]. "Says it's about killing monsters. Right up our alley."
"Sure. That sounds alright." Jaune saw it as a form of training. Something he could use without getting seriously hurt.
Ren nodded, not having any objections.
"Alright. Hook us up, Nep!" Sun tossed the box to Neptune.
Neptune hooked up the setting and joined the other three in the center of the room.
A golden light appeared over them with lettering starting to appear.
[Together you are strong. Stand brothers. We are the Sons of Macragge! For Macragge! For Guilliman! For the Emperor!]
Jaune blinked and turned to the others. They all had the same expressions on their faces.
This could only end well.
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A pair of hands slammed onto the table as Ruby shouted, "LIES! SLANDER!"
Yang was laughing her ass off.
Pyrrha, meanwhile, was holding her hands up in a placating manner, "I'm sorry! I just don't enjoy chocolate in cookies. A bar every now and then is fine, but I don't like chocolate chips."
"How can anyone not like chocolate chip?!"
"Chill Ruby." Nora placed an arm over Ruby's shoulders, with a knowing grin, "It's simple. If she doesn't like them, that means more for you, right?"
Ruby blinked for a moment before slowly coming to the realization. "Oh yeah." She sat down and was more or less back to normal.
It had been quite the experience for the group. They learned that Weiss' favorite animal is the huskie. Arslan is actually a devout monk of Mistrali-style Golden Light. Velvet is her team's designated cook because Fox is blind, Yatsuhashi is utilitarian with food, and Coco can't cook to save her life. The rest of the questions have been pretty subdued otherwise. Some of them still chose to drink from their punishment bottles. Ciel was the one to drink the most and seemed unaffected by the contents. Apparently, she had numbed taste buds due to an accident when she was younger. Everything was going great. Until someone had to stir the pot. It was inevitable. They just didn't expect where it would come from.
Pyrrha's arrow landed on… someone who wasn't there a second ago. "Saphron?"
Jaune's sister was suddenly sitting at the table with her notepad in hand, "Hello there~"
This caused the rest of the group to jump a bit away from her.
"H-how did she do that?" Weiss asked, confused, "None of us noticed her?"
Saphron chuckled, "Naturally~ I come from a giant family, so I'm great at showing up randomly."
"How does that make sense?!" Blake, an only child, shouted.
But Saphron ignored the question, "So~? What's my question?"
Pyrrha was confused for a moment, not really sure what to say in the situation.
Terra walked into the room, spotted her wife, and sighed. "So that's where you got to."
"Hi, sweetie!" Saphron put on an innocent smile.
"Don't 'sweetie' me." Terra walked in and grabbed her wife by her collar and dragged her out of the room, "Stop spying on your brother's friends for material."
"But it's the perfect set up for the next book!"
Terra reached the door and turned to the girls, "Sorry about that. Enjoy your game." She pulled Saphron from the room and closed the door for them.
Pyrrha looked back to the group, "So… what now?"
"I'm not comfortable thinking she's been spying on us during this." Weiss was watching the door, concerned the blonde woman might return.
"Yeah." Coco tapped the table, "Kind of weird to think she's considered the normal one of her siblings."
"That's concerning." Ciel responded.
A loud tone rang out over the intercom, "Five minute warning. If someone could go to the Augmented Reality Room and warn the following: Sun Wukong, Neptune Vasilias, Lie Ren, and Jaune Arc."
"Guess that's our cue." Coco was a little disappointed she didn't get anything juicier. "It's on the way to put the game back, anyway."
As they put the game away and handled the bottles appropriately, they made their way toward the ARR. They found a note on the door reading, [Operation in progress. Entering will randomly place visitors into random roles.] They all shrugged and just opened the door and entered, prepared to collect the boys from whatever they were up to.
Once they stepped through, however, all hell broke loose.
They all looked around at each other, now all dressed in drab olive and tan uniforms with green flak armor. They were confused for a moment before a huge bullet slammed into the wall behind them, causing them all to scatter.
"What's going on?!" Weiss shouted.
Only to be shouted at back, "WAAHHHGGG!" A giant, green skinned creature stomped onto the edge of what was revealed to be a trench line. The creature was almost human-like but significantly bulkier and very alien in design. Its gear was a hodgepodge and its weapon looked like garbage bolted together. It leapt over the side and raised its weird sword-looking slab of metal, only to have its head blown apart. The crew turned to see a freaking Astartes Space Marine running up toward them.
The Marine, in light blue armor, skid to a halt next to them, "What are you guys doing here?" It was revealed to be Sun inside the armor.
"Sun?" Blake asked, confused, "What's going on?"
"Cool, right?" He hopped a bit in place before turning to fire his bolter rifle at another green thing charging. "If you're here, pick up a gun and join the line!" Sun ran over to the trench as more normal soldiers surrounded him with guns to hold down the fort.
It was quiet for a moment, until Ruby shouted, "YES!" She immediately ran toward the stationary bolter and leveled the gun toward the massive wave of green approaching. She started to unload on the green tide. This caused the rest to shrug and roll with it.
As they ran up to claim various guns, Pyrrha turned to Sun, "Where are the others?"
Between rounds fired, he answered, "Neptune is a couple yards up the line. Ren is cliffside. Jaune…" He paused for a moment, "could be anywhere."
"What do you mean?"
"Ren, Nep, and I got to be the Marines because of some restriction. Jaune got something different. He's harder to track."
An explosion caught their attentions a moment as another Marine ran up to join them. His armor was significantly heavier and his run speed was hampered. "Hey!" Neptune ran up to them, using a heavy bolter he was carrying to help push back next to Sun, "The North side is holding." He then noticed the others. "Oh! Hey. Something happen?"
"Five minute warning." Coco called back, firing a Lasgun. "We came to get you guys."
"Oh crap! We can't pause it and leave unless we're all together." He activated a communications link, "Ren! Jaune! Gather on the Southern embankment! We're out of time."
Another green thing ran up to them before a grappling cable slammed into its eye. A Marine flew forward and kicked the head clean off the creature before pulling a small carbine. This Marine had lighter armor with a skull-faced helmet. "I'm here."
"Ren!" Nora cheered seeing her old friend being so cool.
"Where's Jaune?"
A random soldier with a large pack with an antenna on his back. "Sir!" He spoke with a non-descript voice. "The Lord Solar is attempting to open communications!"
"Who?" Weiss asked.
Sun turned his head back to the officer, as he reloaded his bolt rifle. "Let's hear it!" He immediately went back to firing.
The officer opened the array and a garbled voice came through, "Southern Embankment! Do not advance! Friendly artillery inbound!"
After a moment, they heard the whistle of flying shells. Seconds later, explosions ripped the world apart among the tide.
"What the heck?!" Blake was too surprised by the sudden explosions to notice the sound of galloping.
A metal armored horse ran up to the front of the trench, startling pretty much everyone. The man atop the horse was adorned in golden armor with a pale blue uniform beneath it. His helmet had an adornment of the sun's rays atop it like a crown. His sword was drawn and held aloft as his horse reared back. The surrounding soldiers let out a roar and started to fight even harder than they had before. Their accuracy improved and dealt more damage quickly. This was the power of Lord Solar among them. His very presence was awe-inspiring. His very being framed by a halo of sunlight. Then they saw his face.
"JAUNE?!" Weiss cried out.
Jaune looked toward them with a smile, "Oh hey! What are you guys doing here?"
"Time's up." Sun fired a few more shells at the now significantly smaller hoard. "We need to head back."
"Aw," Jaune was a little disappointed, but recognized the point.
The world around them turned to silhouettes before becoming wire frames. After a moment, they were back in the nearly blank room with the main machinery to the back. They started to file back to the door, but Weiss felt her brain scramble. There was so much about this that didn't make any sense.