Nightmarish Remnant

After the movie marathon, everyone in Silva's group returned to Beacon feeling refreshed.

" We have got to do this again! That is, if you don't mind, Silva?"

" Sure, it was fun."

The snow leopard man replied to Ruby's question as he shrugged. Weiss added with a look of displeasure.

" I still want to know where you got those movies; the CG and script were better than some blockbusters."

" I am telling you, Weiss, it's a secret, and nothing you can do or say can make me tell you."

Silva grinned at the snow princess as he was not going to reveal the multiverse to her or the rest of Team RWBY and PERN, aside from Emerald, who already knew until their relationship reached a certain amount of trust. The movies he picked were a teaser of some of his secrets. As they all returned to Beacon via a portal, Silva opened for them. The snow leopard man wondered how the rest of the school year would pan out, aside from the obvious.

Silva then went through his portal, the opened in front of the dorms. As he made his way back to his dorm room, he was stopped by Pyrrha.

" Silva, can we talk?"

" Sure. What about?"

" About Cardin or, more specifically, what happened to him and our disagreement."

The snow leopard man suppressed the urge to sigh and asked with an even tone.

" What about it?"

" Let's go somewhere more private."

The polite spartan led him to the rooftop of the dorms and started with a serious tone.

" After our... Disagreement, I realized I don't really know you outside of the time we spent after the Mistral Regional Cup. Your apathy surprised me more than I thought toward the death of a fellow classmate. I know Cardin was an atrocious bully, but he did not deserve to die, and I know I can't change your mind, nor do I want to impose my views on you. However, I do want to understand you better, at least."

Silva stopped himself from looking annoyed with Pyrrha at still being on this subject, as he could not care less about the now-dead bully. He sighed before asking her.

" What do you want to know specifically, Pyrrha?"

" What are your views on death or, rather, the death of others?"

" Philosophically or literally?"

Pyrrha tilted her head in confusion and asked.

" What do you mean?"

" Both it is, then. Philosophically, death for me is an inevitable end that I take comfort in as it represents release and rest from the path known as life but also the next leg of the journey for one's self. Literally, death is the end of one's existence among the living. As for the death of others, it depends on how I feel about them. The more I care, the more I would mourn, but the less I care, the less I have any reaction I have to the death of others. Any other questions?"

The polite spartan was surprised at the depth of the answer she received and said, with a hint of surprise.

" You keep on showing me sides I did not know about you, Silva."

" The more you know about a person, the more likely you will end up with one of two results, you either love them or you hate them."

Silva said with a shrug as he based this on his own experience of walking through various worlds on his journey to return to his Remnant. The two continued to talk for several hours until the sun started to set, and Pyrrha ended the talks.

" Thank you for this, Silva. While I may not agree with some of your views but they are enlightening."

" Sure, I never thought we would wind up going into a philosophical debate like this, but it was not a bad experience. Night."

" Good night, Silva."

The one thing the polite spartan kept to herself was that she was shaken by some of Silva's more jaded views on life in general. That preserving one's own life comes first when you have people that you care about, and they care back, as sacrificing yourself to save strangers only hurts the people that truly matter to you. Pyrrha could not disagree with it despite the ideal she held in her heart to lay down her life for others is what it means to be a Huntress for her. Everyone wants to live, and no one wants to die, truly.

It made her wonder why Silva was attending Beacon in the first place, and as she was lost in her thoughts, she heard.

" It is hard to understand others, isn't it?"

The polite turned to see herself in her dorm room with her team. The other Pyrrha continued to talk.

" We are so disconnected from others that we can not see others for what they are, and others can't see us for who we are. Silva served as an example of that as he showed us sides of him we had no idea about in the slightest. Maybe it's time for a rest, wouldn't you agree?"

Thorny vines formed around them to form a cage as darkness consumed them.

***

My name is Silva Branwen, and I finally decided to start skipping classes as they were too boring. I figure I would be better off spending my time on my projects and adding the places I could go to throughout the multiverse. Even if I don't attend classes, I already know my future homework assignments, and I can easily pass any exams. Plus, I also need to finalize where I will be going to improve my strength to help finally deal with the Brother Gods once and for all with Raven and Salem.

I had a few ideas, but some I have not been to before, so I lack the necessary coordinates. While part of me enjoys exploring the multiverse, another part wants to avoid running into particularly troublesome universes, mostly Xianxia or cultivation worlds. I am planning on focusing on synergy with my current abilities, which are mostly soul related along with my undefined divine core that I have yet to settle on any particular law or authority out of fear it would change me drastically.

However, I can't keep putting it off, as I can not underestimate creator-god-level opponents like the Brothers. The Ever After is on my list of stops since that is their origin, as I need to understand better how they came to be in order to dismantle them and their divinity. I guess I better get breakfast first before I start fumbling around the multiverse to find the worlds I need to go to, as I not only need strength but specific abilities to deal with the aftermath of the Brother Gods' deaths at my claws.

As I got dressed and left my dorm room, I heard a commotion in Team PERN's room and went to see what was going on.

" Hey, what's going on-?"

My sentence died in my throat as I saw Pyrrha covered in thorny markings...

***

[ Raven Interlude]

" Again, Goku!"

Raven barked as she had her new sword, which Silva made for her before she was sent to this world, still covered by its sheath as the two were sparring. Goku got up as he rubbed his head from getting whacked again by the sheathed blade. He had his power pole at the ready to continue sparring with the former bandit chief. The monkey-tailed boy grinned as he enjoyed fighting against his guest after being alone for so long.

Raven vanished with Flash Step, and Goku barely blocked her attack from his exposed flank. The black-haired woman unleashed a barrage of attacks against the young Saiyan until his guard was broken, and he got a new collection of bruises. Not that he minded. Goku could feel himself getting stronger after each day, and he never thought that fighting with weapons could show him just how limited he was by just relying on his fists in terms of reach and types of attacks he could use.

Getting battered again by Raven again, Goku just laughed off his new bruises. The former bandit chief continued to be surprised by the young Saiyan's improvements as before; he could not even react to her speed before, but now he could hold on a bit longer. She knew her defeat was inevitable, but that was fine, as her goal was to abuse the dragon balls during the brief period of peace between the end of Dragon Ball and the start of the Saiyan Saga to gain specific benefits to enhance her gains in this universe.

Silva provided Raven with a wishlist to make along with what sort of wishes to avoid with the dragon balls. The former bandit puts away her new sword that she was coming to love as the snow leopard man refers to it as an Imperial Arm that was a living weapon with a very special ability. Every time it got damaged, it would repair itself and become more durable and sharper in its sheath. It could even gain other abilities, given the right stimulation. It was called Unyielding, the Ever Improving Blade.

Raven decided to call it a day with sparring.

" Come on, Goku; we now need to work on your general studies along with tactics and strategies."

" Ah, come on, Raven, it's so boring and hard."

Goku complained as this was something he did not enjoy compared to sparring and training. The former bandit chief told him for the umpteenth time.

" Goku, you need to train your mind, body, and spirit in order to truly become strong. Are you fine with falling for every trick in the book and getting cheated?"

At Raven's question, Goku stopped grumbling as he learned the hard way what she meant as she used tricks and misdirection to cause him a bit of suffering when they first started sparring together. Raven went over basic math, the scientific steps, and theories of tactics and strategies to build a decent foundation. The young Saiyan studied hard as he knew he would be rewarded with one of the former bandit chief's meal bars that made him full for an entire day. Silva made these along with a dimensional storage ring for his lover so she would never go hungry during her stay in this universe.