The Treats of Tantalizing Taste

The Treats of Tantalizing Taste is the twenty-first episode of The RWBYA Adventures. It is the first episode of Volume 3.
==Plot==
A long hallway was darkened by both the lack of turned on lights, and the nighttime setting outside. The pink hair of a young girl was seen as she quietly skipped through the hall... and was closely followed by another girl with brown hair.
----
...
An explosion sounded, catching the attention of Team RWBY and Penny, as well as Alan.
Blink.
"RUBY!" Yang cried out. Through the grill grates of NRG's containment suit, Yang could be seen knocking Ruby out of the way, taking a hit from Neopolitan in the process, and then falling off the platform.
Blink.
Kickin Hawk swooped down to fight against Cinder.
Blink.
Rabadger's red-tinted vision glared at Cinder while fighting her. The vision turned to the sight of Jaune killing Penny just before Jaune's cry of anguish.
Blink.
Flames filled the scene as a fireball launched at Alan's face.
Blink.
A view from below of the ever-growing distance between Weiss looking off the platform, and the falling Alan she was looking at.
Eyes close.
----
There was a grey sky. What appeared to be snowflakes came down from the sky in a blizzard, though upon further inspection these were not at all snowflakes, but sugar granules. The sugar hit the ground, which was coated with white icing. Brown boots stepped through the icing, and the scene panned up to reveal they belonged to Alan as trekked along, the sugar coating his face and hair. He glanced at the Simplicitrix, noting its core to be a dark red, more along the lines of burgundy than its usual vibrant color. He sighed, and continued on his trek.
----
Elsewhere, Ruby walked with curious eyes through a tropical forest comprised of curved trees. Coming to a clearing, she passed by a chattery, green shoebill, and then gazed up at a gigantic tree much further inland. Determined to get to it, she pressed onwards, as a little mouse watched her. She walked through more trees... only to somehow loop back to where she was. The shoebill let out noises as if laughing at her.
Confused, Ruby glanced around, and then tried again... and the same thing happened, causing her to let out a frustrated noise that scared off the shoebill. The mouse watched as she continued looping back around to the same place, not making any progress despite her attempts. Too annoyed to continue, Ruby walked over to a tree and leaned against it, before letting herself slide to the ground. She pulled her knees to her chest, hiding her face as she quietly cried to herself. A light rain started.
Ruby, hearing a noise, then noticed the mouse trying to pull a sprout out of the ground, but to no avail. Reaching her hand out, Ruby picked up the mouse and pulled out the vegetable with ease. Ruby stared at it in confusion upon realizing it was made out of cheese. Her attention was caught by the mouse bouncing excitedly in her other hand, pointing at the cheese to show it wanted it. Ruby handed the cheese off, and smiled as the mouse began eating, though the smile was very brief as she went back to frowning.
"Now if only you could help me..."
Chewing the food, the mouse glanced back at Ruby, before swallowing its bite. "I could try." The mouse spoke, giving a light shrug.
Ruby stared at the mouse in shock before screaming, only for the mouse to scream as well. The two soon caught their breaths, and the moue frowned.
"Why are you yelling?!" They demanded, lightly stomping their foot in Ruby's palm.
Ruby began stammering, still trying to come to terms with the fact the mouse spoke, let alone it questioning why she was surprised. "I- Uh- Because- You- Oh- You’re-"
"Did you wanna share?" The mouse guessed, before sighing. "Oh, I guess it’s only fair..."
"No, that’s- that’s alright." Ruby responded, causing the mouse to sigh with relief upon realizing they would have the cheese to themself. "Uh, I guess, uh... I’ve just never really spoken to, uh... a mouse before?"
"Hmm, well, I guess I’ve never spoken to a... You before." The mouse countered. "What are you?"
"Oh, uh, I’m a human." Ruby's response did not alleviate the mouse's confusion. "A girl?" The mouse was still confused. "...A Huntress?" Ruby's efforts were to no avail.
"That’s a lot of things." The mouse gave a confused and almost skeptical look.
"I’m..." Ruby sighed. "I’m Ruby Rose."
The mouse pondered this. "And to Ruby Rose is... Your purpose?"
Ruby chuckled. "No. No, that’s my name. Do you have a name?"
"I’m still young, so... Not yet."
Ruby pointed to her chin in thought. "How about I call you... Little, for now? Would that be alright?"
"Hm..." Little pondered. "How does one... Little?" Little bent to the side slightly.
Ruby giggled a bit before frowning again.
"Huh?" Little became concerned. "What’s wrong?"
"I’m... Uh, have you seen other people? Humans, like me."
"Exactly like you?"
"No, not... exactly like me." Ruby sat Little and the cheese down. "I mean, we’re similar, but different."
Little, still confused, tried to play it off. "I’m sure it’ll make sense eventually."
Ruby pondered for a moment. "Um... One would have long, blonde hair, the other has... Well, uh uh... Cat ears." Ruby put her hands above her head to imitate said ears, startling Little enough to hide behind the cheese with a yelp. "Sorry!" Ruby immediately apologized. "I-I should’ve known. I’ve seen plenty of cartoons..."
Little stepped back out from behind the cheese. "Well, I’ve never seen anyone who does, or doesn’t, look like you. But, maybe someone in my village has. They’re always out foraging, you know, since we need food and stuff."
Ruby sighed with a slight smile.
"...Speaking of which..." Little looked at the cheese, then to the nearby plants of the same nature "A few more of these wouldn’t hurt!"
----
Gigantic planks of gingerbread were stacked into a makeshift shelter, with only three walls and a roof; the nature of the gingerbread itself left open cracks where the snowing sugar could still get in, not to mention the entirely open side, though it was better than the direct overtop bombardment. Alan apathetically chewed from a much smaller piece of gingerbread.
"I'm not gonna go hungry, but my teeth are gonna hate me even more than usual..." Alan muttered to himself as he took another bite, clearly already tired of sugar. "...That, and diabetes. ....Yay." He groaned.
Shifting his body, Alan made a small pit in the icing where he was laying as he felt a sugar crash coming on. He closed his eyes to doze off... only to hear something nearby. He groggily opened his eyes, and looked just outside his shelter, just barely able to make out the vague silhouette of something walking or crawling on all fours. Alan stumbled to get up, and walked further into the sugar storm... Only to find a face he wasn't expecting, and most certainly wasn't wanting, to see.
"...What in the hell?" Alan muttered.
Groaning, Arthur Watts craned his head up, and was initially taken by surprise seeing Alan towering over him, though this was replaced with a knowing smirk. This smirk, however, was short-lived, as Alan almost immediately punched him in the face with his Simplicitrix hand, knocking him out.
Alan briefly looked over Watts before grabbing him by the coat collar, and dragging him back to his shelter.
----
Ruby continued through the forest, pushing her way through vines and over roots. She noticed Little asleep and snoring on her shoulder. "...Are you... Drooling on me?" She stuck her tongue out in disgust before freezing before a peculiar sight.
Weiss and Blake were tied to large stakes via vines, with various mice surrounding them.
One of the mice, colored black and white with cyan details, as well as their left eye being discolored and scarred, stood before the rest. "And on this day, we were not the prey, but the hunters!"
The leader mouse's words caused the rest to cheer. Ruby's eyes were wide as the entire scene left her flabbergasted, and she nudged her shoulder to wake Little up.
"What’s going on?" Little yawned before looking over at the rest of their tribe, as well as the two trapped girls. "...Oh, hey, it’s your cat friend..." Little said in a drowzy voice, before screaming and jumping into the air. Ruby quickly caught them and looked back to the tribe, realizing that Little had given them away.
"A new adversary approaches! We must liberate our kin!" The leader mouse commanded, causing the others to cheer.
Some time later, to prevent the group from going after Ruby, Little began recounting her initial meeting with Ruby. "I didn’t know what to do because she looked sad. But then we talked, and she seemed less sad. Then she pulled the cheese out of the ground on her own!"
The tribe of mice gasped in surprise, one mouse in particular fainting. The leader ran over to the knelt down Blake. "You have our sincerest apologies! Please understand that our kind is a bit skeptical of cats... and snakes... and cats."
"We understand." Blake nodded. "If... We could ask, have you seen anyone else who looks like us? Long, blonde hair, looks kinda scary but isn’t?"
"But could be if she wanted to." Weiss added, causing Ruby to chuckle a bit, though the leader shook their head no, causing Ruby to get sad again as Blake stood back up.
"Thanks, anyway..." Ruby sighed, then spoke to Weiss and Blake. "Before all of... this, I was trying to go to that cliff over there." She pointed in the direction she was talking about. "I figured going to higher ground and getting my bearings would be good."
"Sounds like the best option for now." Weiss nodded.
"If you wanna go to the cliff, I can help with that!" Little said as they climbed up onto Blake's shoulder, startling her. "I don't have anything to do yet."
Ruby cocked a curious eyebrow. "Yet?"
"I can be your trusty guide." Little smiled.
Little was then seen having once again fallen asleep on Ruby's shoulder as the group walked up a pathway, Ruby smiling down at them.
"Or..." Weiss huffed in annoyance as she tried to swat away a rocking horsefly. "I guess we could figure it out ourselves."
"At least they got us to this path." Blake said. "We need to hurry. Yang’s been down here the longest and we still haven’t found her. And Alan's down here, too, apparently... Well, one of the Alan's is, anyway."
Ruby's face turned from a smile to one of concern. "Weiss, I was wondering... if you and Alan fell, then are there others down here too? What happened?"
Weiss fell silent as she kept walking. Her head turned slightly, but not enough to glance back at Ruby. "...I don’t know if anyone else fell, no. I think we should find Yang, if she’s even down here. Then we can go over everything."
"I just-" Ruby started, before being interrupted by a loud roar further up the trail. The group ran up the hill, and were shocked by the sight of a bizarre creature. It was emaciated, large, and purple, with beige-grey patterns along its body, and a grey mask covering its face.
"Seeking... Searching... Scouring... Stalking... Searching... Scouring... Stalking..."
Little glanced up at the creature, their eyes filling with fright, and then they hid back in Ruby's cloak while making a squeaking sound. The creature stopped. Its head jerked about as it processed having heard Little.
"Detecting... Listening..."
The creature turned about to them. Blake and Weiss drew their weapons. Ruby went to get Crescent Rose, but faltered upon realizing it was missing. Although approaching slowly, Blake and Weiss tried to keep a proper distance. The creature took a couple of steps, its head still jerking, before it began charging the group.
"DANGER! DEATH!"
Blake jumped forward to try to attack.
"BITE! RIP! TEAR!"
Blake put up Gambol Shroud to block the creature's swipe down at her, just before Weiss went to join in.
"I said I wasn’t done with you yet!" Yang's voice called from offscreen, stopping Weiss.
A large rock hurdled through the air and landed on the creature's head, causing it to reel back in pain. Yang panted from having thrown the rock quite literally singlehandedly, given her prosthetic was missing. She glared at the creature, and joined Blake and Weiss in surrounding it towards a nearby cliffside.
"Recede... Retreat... Wait... Return."
The creature backed up more, before turning and rushing off, Weiss and Blake in tow to ensure it left. Yang fell to the ground, panting hard.
Ruby rushed over. "Yang! I-"
"Damnit!" Yang looked up at Ruby, her eyes tearing up. "You weren’t supposed to be here..."
Ruby sighed as she knelt down next to Yang, putting a hand to her knee comfortingly. "If you thought we wouldn’t come for you, then you must’ve forgotten who raised me. What happened to your arm?"
"I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you..." Yang lamented.
"Why not?" Little asked, popping up out of Ruby's hood. "You seem trustworthy."
Yang stared at little wide eyed. "Uh, Ruby? What is tha- EUGH!" Yang found herself laying on the ground, still just as wide eyed as Blake tackle-hugged her, nuzzling up against her.
"Yang..."
Smiling, Yang returned the embrace, putting her hand to the back of Blake's head.
"I sort of thought you’d be a little happier to see us." Weiss snarked.
Yang sighed as she sat up with Blake. "I am... It’s just... It must have gone pretty bad, huh?"
Ruby and Blake looked at Yang, and then Blake's ear turned to Weiss' direction. The group's eyes followed, as Weiss, unable to hold it back anymore, began to break down in tears.
"...Weiss..." Ruby whispered.
"I... Everything happened so fast!" Weiss cried. "No one came back from Vacuo to help... And Penny!" Weiss winced at saying her name. "She- Jaune tried to help, but... She sacrificed herself-"
Weiss' words faded, as Ruby's eyes flickered. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The last audible thing said was Yang saying "Ruby?!" in response to Ruby's reaction.
----
"Damnit..." Alan grumbled.
The sound of gingerbread pieces being grinded against each other was heard as Watts slowly woke up, and saw Alan attempting to light up a fire. Watts himself was tied to a large post of gingerbread via ropes of licorice. He cleared his throat in an attempt to get Alan's attention, though the latter didn't look at him.
"I don't wanna hear a damn thing out of you." Alan spoke to him angrily while still focusing on getting a fire going, to no avail still.
"You should've covered my mouth then." Watts rolled his eyes.
"SHUT UP!" Alan stood, throwing the gingerbread pieces to the ground. "YOU DON'T GET TO BE SMUG! YOU'RE A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO THE MESS WE'RE IN!"
"I beg your pardon!?"
"BEG HARDER!" Alan shouted, causing Watts to cock an eyebrow. Alan took a deep breath "Working for Salem. Political espionage by rigging the votes so my girlfriend's abusive father can join the council, putting the city in turmoil. All of those things led to the fall of Atlas."
"I don't recall being involved in the plan to use magic to save everyone." Watts countered.
"A plan we wouldn't have had to make if YOU JUST WEREN'T AROUND TO BEGIN WITH!" Alan tried to catch his breath again "...So. Shut the actual fuck up while I try to get a fire going, so I can give you what you fucking deserve."
Alan went back to trying to start the fire, and continued to fail. Watts scoffed.
"You save me from a fiery demise you say I don't deserve, just so you can try to burn me yourself and say I deserve that instead?"
"The hell are you blabbering about?" Alan sneered. "FUCK!" He yelled as he once again couldn't get a fire to start, and he kicked away his gingerbread fire pit. He turned back to Watts. "Well?! Are you going to explain or what?!"
"Cinder left me to die in Atlas in a fiery inferno. But one of your other selves prevented that, and dropped me down here with the rest of you." Watts explained "The starry one. According to him, the original plan was to take me to Vacuo to atone. But something changed in the place between the portals. And he dropped me."
Alan was taken aback. His expression gave away confusion, the gears in his head turning as he tried to comprehend what he just heard. "...He saved you.... Alien X saved you..." He put his hand to his head. "So... He managed to get Alien X to cooperate... And all he did... WAS SAVE YOU?"
Watts looked at Alan curiously. "So this isn't something you had any part in?"
"OF COURSE NOT! Why would I be in favor of saving you?! You're the one who put that virus in Penny! It's because of you that Penny is.... That she... Th-That Jaune..." 
Watts watched as the reality set in for Alan. He hadn't said any of this out loud yet, it had been processing silently in his head, but now that he was finally saying it... It was finally feeling real. He turned back away from Watts, and fell to his knees. His eyes filled up with tears, and he let out an absolutely gutteral, broken-spirited cry of agony. He punched the ground, and his tears fell to the icing. It had gotten to him so bad to the point he ended up vomiting, having to steady himself so he wouldn't collapse to the ground and end up face-first in his own regurgitation. Once he found himself able, he wiped off the remnants from around his mouth, and then wiped his hand in the icing to get it as marginally clean as possible. Back still to Watts, Alan pulled his legs to his chest and held them there with his arms, trying to self sooth.
"...So. Does Cinder have the Maiden Power then?" Watts asked, unconcerned with Alan's breakdown, or Penny's death.
Alan was silent for quite a noticeable amount of time before finally speaking, still not looking at him.
"I don't think so... I'm pretty sure th-that... W-Was the point of..." Alan stopped himself, feeling another breakdown on the horizion. He shakily inhaled before continuing. "....No. Cinder did not get the power. In regards to the Winter Maiden... We both lose." Alan closed his eyes, and rested his head against his arms.
----
The muffled voices of Weiss, Blake, and Yang could just barely be heard.
"So we have no idea what happened to the Relics? Or where Neo is?" Yang asked
The three girls were sitting near an unconscious Ruby, Yang having her hand on her shoulder and Little fanning her face with a small leaf.
Weiss lamented. "I'm not sure, but I have a really bad feeling.
"Neo's here, too..." Ruby groaned as she sat up. Yang kept her hand to her sister's shoulder as she helped her into a sitting position.
"Hey, are you okay?" Yang asked, worriedly, though to no avail.
"She attacked me when we were falling." Ruby continued about Neo.
"Alright." Blake stood, and began pacing as she began brainstorming aloud. "Yang's arm was stolen, Crescent Rose is still missing, and one of the Alan's is somewhere down here... I say we try to focus on getting back what we lost, then we can focus on getting out of here." As she finished speaking, nearby sunlight streaming into the clearing caught her eye.
"But what if we can't get out?" Weiss asked. "What if-"
"What if we're dead?" Yang interjected. "Before you all found me, I thought for sure I was..."
"No, I don't think we're dead..." Blake responded as she moved past some bizarre, yellow vines between two trees, leading to a cliffside. "I know how this sounds, but... I think we're in a fairy tale..."
The scene panned away from Blake, and showed the gigantic inland tree surrounded by gigantic lands in the shape of hexagons. Among them were a land of volcanoes, one of paper, a dark forest with glowing mushrooms, a red forest, and one that appeared to be a giant cake topped with various candies...
==Major Events==
*Team RWBY is reunited.
*Ruby Rose learns Penny Polendina sacrificed herself, though is unaware of the full context.
*Alan Nomaly is, to his dismay, united with Arthur Watts. It is through this he learns that his original self, while Alien X, saved Watts.
==Characters==
*Alan Nomaly
*Ruby Rose
*Weiss Schnee
*Blake Belladonna
*Yang Xiao Long
*Little (debut)
**Hunter Mice (debut)
===Flashback Characters===
*Penny Polendina
*Neopolitan
*Cinder Fall
===Villains===
*Arthur Watts
*Jabberwalker (debut)
==Aliens Used==
*NRG (flashback)
*Kickin Hawk (flashback)
*Rabadger (flashback)
==Trivia==
*As much as a text-based fanfiction can do, the second scene wherein Alan's moments before falling are seen from his perspective, akin to the PoV shots of Ruby and Jaune within the real Volume 9.
==Credit Scene==
"Go... Run..."
The purple creature dashed across a bridge from the forest and beach, going overtop a white void, and into a dark, eerie area with a deep purple aesthetic. Running across a few blades of grass, it cut itself, leaving blood behind.
"Fix..."
The creature looked about, trying to find something to heal itself with. Its attention was then caught by the sound of a nearby impact, made as a pink comet fell to the ground.
"Find..."
The creature looked over the nearby hill, and spotted Neopolitan having landed in the Ever After. Angered, she shifted into Ruby, and then into Cinder. She turned her head as she heard the creature approaching. Scowling, she shifted back into herself, though her fractals then flowed into the ground, and began to summon up illusionary clones of herself, much to her surprise. She glanced to her clones, before snapping her fingers, ordering them to charge the creature.
"Stop... Stop..."
The creature reeled back in fear as the Neo clones got closer and closer.
"No.... NO..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
A sharp and evil grin came over Neo's face.