Paradise II

Footsteps thudded, as Ruby and her friends drew themselves closer to this large tree found first by Yang. The question the youngest of them had asked earlier would be answered later on. Jaune had recently covered it up saying he doesn't know what happened to Penny.

"What a tree..." Weiss said as she looked up at the spectacle; the enormous tree that stood over a hundred feet tall. Not only was there this tree, but the plants around them seemed different as well as from they are on a different planet. Sadly they didn't know much about the idea of planets.

"Wonder if I can touch it..." Yang said and stepped towards the tree.

"It doesn't look so harmful." Jaune said.

"Yang." Blake said as she held her hand out to the blonde.

She poked the tree swiftly, just to eliminate the thrill whether if it would be dangerous or not. The tree did not budge at all, proven to be normal.

Blake sighed of relief, Weiss looked at the former with raised brow, confused.

"Okay, then. I guess it just so happened to be big." Yang said.

"That thing must be about a hundred years old, don't you think?" Weiss said.

"Likely case." Jaune said.

Yang shook her head. "Darn. We need something useful."

Suddenly, a strange hand with green-coated cosmic-ridden texture reached out to Yang and grabbed hold of the back of her jacket. It viciously pulled Yang into the tree, now the tree seemed magical. Things can magically phase into it.

The others shouted her name, Blake ran towards the tree hoping to phase into it as well, her foot thrusted forward onto the tree. She did not phase.

"No! Not again!" Blake said as she kept touching the tree.

{}{}{}{}{}

Yang spaced out into this strange cosmic void, and felt floor below her feet as she stepped forward. This domain didn't seem to like for her to fall. Even with her fast reflexes she could not pull off the hand that took her.

She could no longer feel the hand, but only the strange invisible floor and all the glowing lights from universes. Her vision boggled, eyeing around this colorful void, as she heard the sounds of crystals being shredded or grinded into eachother. What a strange realm.

"Wh-Where the heck am I?" She said, as her voice echoed within the space.

"That matters not at the moment, kid." A masculine voice answered.

"Who are you? Ruby, my friends, they're out there." She said.

"I'm in control of whoever can enter The Ash Tree Drazeel of R-27." The voice said.

Yang's vision and mind further boggled the more time she spent inside this domain the voice dubbed a 'Drazeel'.

"What is this?" Yang stared down unto her hands, all clear and well. Only her environment was beaming and gleaming all around her, as if she was seeing all the universes in existence.

"The Drazeel is a gateway that allows us to enter other worlds. And you heard that right, Yang Xiao Long.." The voice said.

"How do you know my name? Show yourself, will you?" She said, and for she chose to calm down. Even her environment was doing that along with her.

"You're calming down. That's good. As for your my identity. Let's just say I only exists in fairy tales." The voice said.

A faceless hooded figure appeared, hovering infront of Yang, colored of midnight green. This entity was thrilled to show these kids around and teach them a lesson.

"We're not alone in the universe, Xiao Long. You, including your friends and everyone you know? We are all living in one universe. One of many." He said.

Yang let Ember Celica sprawl out and encase around her fists as she prepared to punch stuff. Even this did not alarm the entity. "Considering the existence of maidens, relics, and gods... I guess I have no choice but to believe you yet not feel surprised about it." She said, as she crossed her arms.

"Good girl." He said. "Care to take this ticket for your first try with Drazeel?"

"Huh?" Yang said and raised her brows.

"Try to focus. Search memories, things that make you feel a certain emotion..." He said.

Flashbacks flooded Yang's vision, the sight of a little blonde girl sadly looking out the window. She had pondered a thousand times where her real mother had gone, although she was left with a nicer mother figure. Her one problem was the fact that her biological mother left days after she was born. Abandoned.

"...the events that made you feel this way, and where it all led you." He said.

Yang sighed and peered down. "Is this really the time and place to talk about it?" She said.

The figure landed infront of her, now on their feet.

"Your abandonment issues, Yang." He said.

"Stop!" She said. "It was already bad enough when Blake left when..." She stopped herself, looking at her hands, halted herself from talking further about the Fall.

"You waited for someone who never came." He said.

"Oh, let me guess. You know how that feels?" Yang asked.

"Sadly not. But I can imagine it." He said. "Keep on focusing, I just want you to do this one thing. Then I'll take you back to your friends."

Yang shook her head, concerned. "How do I know I can trust you?" She said.

The figure nodded. "Good point." He peered down. "Look at this way: I just so happened to be the closest person you bumped into. If I'm not to be trusted, I would've just thrown you and your friends out of The Paradome." He said then shrugged it off.

"Paradome?" Yang said.

"I'll explain later." He said.

Yang sighed, taking deep breaths before she began to gather all of those tainting memories. Blobs of color in her mind fused, then formed a simple tree which had green-ish wood.

"A tree?" She said.

"There, you focused. Now imagine you're flying to the tree." He said.

"Uhuh.." She said.

Then so, she did as told. In her perspective, flying into a random tree as if filling the void of a video game. The void would later disappear.