RWBY: DVNT 2.0

Chapter 9: Hey There, Little Stranger

"There's no doubt in my mind... I'll go, my friends are precious to me. If they're out there lost, I'll find them... I'll save them." Diego says confidently. And with that, Shion Zaiden finished weaving the doll, this time resembling Diego a lot more. Diego and Pyrrha are then blindfolded by the pink strings coming from Shion's 'Dream Catcher' and laid onto the pink cobweb alongside Jaune.

"Whenever you feel ready..." Shion says awaiting a response from Diego and Pyrrha. Diego holds out an okay sign with his fingers while Pyrrha affirms. Diego's consciousness fades shortly after and he awakens in a dark area. The floor was flooded with clear water reaching your calves, the area was decorated with roots resembling trees. You also couldn't see very far with how dark it was, Diego took in the surroundings and scouted Pyrrha up ahead wandering about.

"Pyrrha! Over here!" Diego cries out to her while waving his hand up high, Pyrrha turns to see him and treads over to him.

"I suppose this is Jaune's inner world... It's so cramped and gloomy." Pyrrha states while holding onto her right arm and looking around. 

"Y'know, inner worlds usually are a part of a person's soul, they reflect something- no they reflect a feeling or a state of mind... Maybe Jaune's overwhelmed, hence why this place is so gloomy and overrun with dubious roots." Diego explains while walking forward using G.C to cut through the roots like butter. "Even the roots are pathetic, there isn't no resistance to them."

"You seem to be well informed about these inner worlds, Diego." Pyrrha says while observing him closely. Diego feels her stare and lets out a nervous chuckle, he decides to not bring up his own personal world in his nightmares.

"I just stumbled upon a book in Atlas that dealt with the subject." Diego says half-assedly. Before Pyrrha can say anything else the cry of a small boy can be heard in front of them. Diego ignites his blade and cuts through the bunched up roots, he leaps through the fiery debris.

"B-Big Sis, help me..! I'm scared!" Jaune's voice can be heard up ahead, Pyrrha leaps on ahead. There, Jaune seemed to be crawled up, hugging his knees but something was off. He looked like a child with bunny ears and a fluffy bunny tail, he was surrounded by chubby-looking stone bunnies carrying swords and shields which also looked very angry.

"Jaune! We've come to save you!" Pyrrha reveals herself to Jaune, she gives him a reassuring smile. She skilfully somersaults off the root-like tree branches and with a deadly swing of her spear she cuts the stone bunnies in half around Jaune. Suddenly, Diego's mind begins to ring like a phone being called then Shion Zaiden's voice follows.

"Mr. Coronatus, can you hear me just fine?" He asks through Diego's head. Diego looks around a bit before eliminating a few more stone bunnies.

"Are you in my head!?" Diego asks

"I'm communicating with you via my semblance, normally you should have a cellphone near you but that doesn't matter I guess. Have you located Mr. Arc?" Shion demands.

"Yeah, Yeah... We found him, so what now? We just fight stone bunnies until he's cured?" Diego says while igniting his blade and clearing more of the roots surrounding Jaune.

"Precisely, to save him, you must fight." Shion says and those words resonated within Diego's core...

"To save my friends... I must fight." Diego places a hand on his chest and takes a deep breath before going on a bunny killing spree. A dance of embers and sparks, the clashing of metal against hard stone. One bunny, two bunnies, they fall one by one with Diego's burning lacerations consuming them. Diego notices the Nightmare grimm overhead Jaune. He attempts to make a break for it but as he vaults over to it, he's stopped by two buff stone bunnies carrying heavy swords but even they weren't enough to stop Diego as all it took was one touch to restructure into tiny little bits. Diego figured his semblance would work on stone statues. He thrusts his blade into the Nightmare and throws it at Pyrrha who precisely jabs and impales it on impact. On the other side with Shion and Ozpin, the dark thorn pattern on Jaune's skin dissolves and from his chest shoots out the Nightmare which is caught and sealed by Shion. Shortly after, Diego and Pyrrha wake up and join reality where Ozpin encourages Diego and Pyrrha to take a look at the grimm.