Saving Remnant

Ilia Amitola woke up to the sound of her alarm and turned it off as she got up. While yawning and stretching, she noticed her teammates, Argint and Luna, sleeping with their leader, Neopolitan. Part of the chameleon girl felt a bit of envy at how close the three were and made her wish she was on the same team as Blake so she could do something similar with the ninja catgirl. Unfortunately, the tri-colored girl ran a tight ship and focused on ironing out their teamwork, so Ilia had no time to seek Blake out.

The chameleon girl got out of bed and walked over to see how snug the three were on the twin bed. Neopolitan was in the middle, with Argint on her right nibbling on the tri-colored girl's neck, while Luna curled up against her on the left. Ilia sighed and decided to go ahead and get her morning shower in before they woke up. One thing the chameleon girl has come to appreciate is being able to bathe regularly with hot water, unlike in the White Fang, where they were in the woods.

As Ilia started to shower, she felt a tap on her shoulder and called out in surprise.

" Blake! Why are you-?"

Blake placed her finger on the chameleon girl's lips to shush her, then put her finger against her lips to silently convey to be quiet. The ninja catgirl then wrapped her arm around her friend's waist, and Ilia muttered to herself.

" If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up."

Blake leaned in to kiss Ilia, and the chameleon girl closed her eyes as she expected the kiss, but it never came. Ilia then opened her eyes to see Neopolitan looking at her with a mischievous smile while wiggling her eyebrows. The chameleon changed colors to convey anger, sadness, embarrassment, and anger again as she growled.

" Neo!"

The tri-colored girl booped the chameleon girl's nose before conjuring words with her Semblance out of thin air.

" I wash your back. You wash mine?"

Ilia ultimately sighed and gave up on being angry with Neopolitan, as this was not the first or last she was pranked by her team leader. The chameleon girl replied with a tired tone.

" Sure, but was it really necessary to get my hopes up that Blake sneaked in to see me?"

The tri-colored girl just grinned at her teammate, and Ilia got the message as she turned her back to Neopolitan so she could scrub her back. The chameleon girl did not dislike occasionally sharing the shower with one of her teammates as it became a sort of tradition for Team NALA.

***

Pyrrha was out doing her morning routine of jogging and exercise, followed by going through her stances. She never thought she would be made a team leader, and part of her felt she shouldn't be, as the responsibility weighed on her. The polite spartan has been trying to get to know her teammates first to understand them better and try to build up a team rapport. Emerald was somewhat easy to understand. Silva was her hero and savior, and she loved and respected him with everything she had.

Ren was quiet but had depth and calm that Pyrrha found impressive, and if she was being honest, envied a little at times as she found herself lacking as a team leader. Nora was bombastic and bubbly, with a profound love of pancakes with a strong tie to Ren that involved being childhood friends and being together for several years without any relatives or family to help them. The polite spartan admired the drive between the quiet guy and the thunderous girl to become Huntsman and Huntress, respectively, as she could not imagine not having her mother's support.

As Pyrrha finished her jog, she hydrated herself and looked up at the fading night sky as the sun started to rise and wondered if she was cut out to be a leader. She shook her head and told herself.

" Come on now, just do your best like always."

But the nagging question at the back of her mind asked, what if her best was not enough?

***

Glynda Goodwitch led Team RWBY, PERN, NALA, and CDRL, along with Cinder and Silva, to Forever Fall Forest and told them.

" Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

As the class head deeper into the beautiful red forest, the strict teacher continued as she gave them their assignments.

" Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

The red sap was going into Professor Peach's confections that she liked to make when the sap was in season, and Glynda did not mind as she often enjoyed those treats with her tea while going over her duties as the headmistress and combat instructor. Silva recalled that Cardin had plans to pay back Pyrrha in canon during this little field trip but was not sure if that would still happen, but nonetheless, he would be keeping his eyes, metaphorically, on Team CRDL just to be safe.

The snow leopard man quickly got his sap and went to where the others were and saw that Team CRDL was not in sight. He frowned as he spread his senses to find the wayward team atop a nearby hill, hidden from sight, and let out a low growl in anger as that sort of positioning is not usually by accident.

" If those idiots try anything, they will soon regret it."

Silva opened a small portal to peek at Team CRDL and saw them handling a large box with multiple jars of red sap that exceeded what they needed for class. The snow leopard man could already see that their plan was the same as the canon and already knew what to do to counter them at the right moment. He turned his back against the hill to bait the bullies and waited as he spied on them through the portal. He saw Team CRDL had the four extra jars in hand and was picking their targets.

The bullies aimed at Silva, Pyrrha, Neopolitan, and even Ruby. A cold rage filled Silva as the bullies threw the jars with smiles on their faces, and he mercilessly countered by opening portals at the line of fire for the jars and sent them back to the bullies. The snow leopard faunus then opened the box containing Rapier Wasps and smiled as he heard the screams of Team CRDL. Pyrrha heard the screams as well and said.

" Someone needs help!"

" No, they do not."

Silva stopped the teams and explained.

" What you are hearing is CRDL's plans backfiring on them. They planned to hit a few of us with the red sap and then sic some Rapier Wasps at us. I merely returned the favor. So let them have their just desserts."

Ruby then asked me.

" Is it really fine just to leave them like that? After all, Professor Goodwitch said there are Grimm in the forest."

" They can always call for help if the need arises or even run away towards us if a Grimm decides that they would make a nice snack."

" As much as it galls me to agree with Silva, he has a point. Let them suffer the consequences of their actions, Ruby."

Weiss surprisingly agreed with me, and Yang added.

" If those jerks had succeeded, we would have been in the same situation as them, and I would probably beat the living daylights out of them in payback."

" I would break their legs!"

Nora exclaimed, and even Ren nodded in agreement. Neopolitan slit her throat with her finger to convey what she would do, and the overall sentiment was the same for the majority there. Ruby and Pyrrha dropped the matter and focused on the class until everyone heard.

" Ursa! Ursa! Ursa!"

Team CRDL minus Cardin, ran toward the group while covered in wasp stings as they called out. Silva sighed as he complained.

" I guess we better go save an a*shole."

The snow leopard went in the opposite direction of the fleeing boys, and Ruby ordered her team.

" Blake, Yang, go get the professor, Weiss, with me."

" Ren, Nora, go with Blake and Yang while Emerald, you are coming with me."

Pyrrha also gave her orders while all of Team NALA followed them to the Grimm. Silva saw the Ursa Major shaking Cardin, lifting the bully in the air with its jaws biting down on his leg. The bully cried out.

" Somebody help me!"

The snow leopard man snorted as he closed the distance instantly with Flash Step and beheaded the Grimm with his claws. Cardin fell to the ground and looked to see Silva, then said.

" Thanks..."

The snow leopard man did not care, as he left the bully with a warning.

" Cross my bottom line, and you will regret it."

Just another day at Beacon Academy.

***

[ Salem Interlude]

Salem looked down at the young child with disgust as he stared at her breast with such strong lust that should not be seen in one as young as him. The witch was starting to regret agreeing to come to this universe, as hearing about this little pervert and meeting him were completely different things. Salem knew what resided in the boy's soul and ultimately decided to take it for herself as it would be put to better use in her hands. She put the little pervert to sleep with Magic and started to extract the artifact from his soul.

Silva provided Salem with enough of his knowledge of souls to allow her to heal them and extract these Sacred Gears from them to suit her needs. The witch found the snow leopard man's berth of knowledge on the subject of souls astonishing and had a newfound respect for him. She took in the Sacred Gear and then called it out, and it took the form of a red dragonic gauntlet with yellow spikes and a green gem on the back of the hand. The gem glowed as a voice rang out.

[Oh? So you are to be my wielder this time around?]

" Correct. I recommend looking through my recent memories so you can get up to speed on my plans, Red Dragon Emperor."

Draig, the Red Dragon Emperor, did just that and was left almost speechless.

" Really!? That brat would have made me the Red Dragon Emperor, into, into... THE BOOBY DRAGON!?"

The dragon was going through an existential crisis at learning of his possible future, and Salem left him be. She sent one more look of disgust toward the young perverted boy before leaving to continue the next step of her plan for this universe. Silva did warn her he would not sacrifice another universe for his own gain to deal with the Brother Gods, so the witch would have to take the place of Issei Hyodou to deal with Rizevim Livan Lucifer and his schemes along with ExE, which would start invading this universe.

Part of Salem just wanted to take the powers here and immediately deal with the brother gods after familiarizing herself with them while leaving this universe high and dry. However, Silva was firmly against this course of action as he considered doing this would be something the Brother Gods might do, which admittedly disgusted the witch as well to be compared to those two. While troublesome, Salem ultimately agreed with Silva's decision to make sure this world does not get thrown out of balance from the absence of certain key powers unique to this world.

Now she needed to find a certain spoiled redhead to gain access to a rather useful system of power.