Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Doctor was working on a gun when Closure found her deep in the bowels of Rhodes Island's land ship. Far from her room, and, perhaps more importantly to her, the prying eyes of Kal'tsit and Elite Ops.

"Hey," she said.

"Hello, Closure," the Doctor said, "how are you?"

"Good," Closure hopped on a crate and watched her work, "Where'd you get that?"

"Exusiai ordered it for me," the Doctor said, "I wanted something I could mess with and figure out the workings of while we were traveling."

"And the axe blade?" Closure prompted.

"I want to be able to fight if things go wrong, and I suck at Originium Arts that aren't petrification," the Doctor said, before saying, conversationally, "I had a rifle at Babel, didn't I?"

Closure locked up, and the Doctor nodded, "Thought as much. I don't remember it, you don't need to worry, I just get the feeling… this isn't the first time I messed around with a rifle."

"Why would I worry about it?" Closure hedged.

"I'm not dumb, Close," the Doctor said, "Everything everyone other than Amiya has ever said implies I wasn't a very good person before my amnesia. W wants to kill me over it, Kal'tsit hates me for it… I did something bad, didn't I?"

…

"Yeah," Closure admitted finally, "I don't blame you though."

"Hm?"

"You don't remember it, obviously, but I've known you nearly your entire life, Ruby," Ada said, "You wanted to be Hunter, you wanted to help people. That's why you started studying Oripathy. You wanted to help people. The war changed everyone, it made us all do things we hated. And the big thing you did that makes W hate you… I don't think you did it randomly. It was just… too random, trust me."

"Thanks, Close," Ruby said.

"Doctor, Closure, we need you in operations, Amiya's voice came across the speakers, "We found something… strange."

—

Chapter Text

Amiya watched the Doctor and Closure walk into the AIC, Ruby's burgandy, hooded version of the Rhodes Island coat flaring like she had just swept it on as the doors opened which, going by the amused look Closure sent her way, she probably had. That became especially obvious when she reached into a pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves the same color, pulling them on over oil stained hands and planted one on Amiya's head, "What's up, Jackalope?"

Amiya leaned into the motherly touch, glad, not for the first time, that Ruby's amnesia hadn't stopped her from falling back into the relationship they had had before they had lost her. Ruby had always shown a different side around off the battlefield than on. Softer, warmer, friendlier. More than willing to turn a blind eye to Closure's pranks with a finger to her lips and a laughter in her eyes as she met Amiya's. If anything, that version of Ruby had become the version to survive her coma and amnesia. The exhaustion and near mono-manical focus on victory on the battlefield, for Theresa, she had constantly felt from Ruby had vanished, replaced with open warmth.

"Jackalope? Everything alright?" Ruby prompted again.

"We… we don't know where we are," she said.

"That sandstorm got us turned around?" Ruby asked, "Close, you mind getting our radar up and going?"

"It is, Doctor," Amiya said, "That's why we're confused. The land around us, it's less like Victoria and more like RIM Billiton territory."

Ruby shot her a bewildered look, before turning to the screen and looking it over, "We're sure it's accurate?"

"Yes," Amiya said, "and all our other sensors went offline when we exited the sandstorm. Calamity Detectors, radio, everything. It's like we're alone, except… there appears to be a small, coastal town about thirty miles away."

"I'll grab Blaze, Kroos and some other RIM Billiton Operatives and we'll go check it out," Ruby said immediately, "Don't worry, Jackalope, we'll get to the bottom of this."

—

Blaze sat in the back of the humvee alongside Kroos, Savage, Nearl, Ansel and Ruby, one of the less important, in Blaze's mind, Operators driving the thing, "So why did you decide to drag me out on a scouting mission, Doc?"

"Because this is us," Ruby said bluntly, the Doctor practically sprawling out over the seats, "I have every reason to think something will attack us, and I want you there to burn everything down if it does."

"And here I was thinking you just wanted a pretty face," Blaze said with a cat's grin. If Ruby was flustered by the statement, she didn't show it.

"I never let business and pleasure mix," Ruby scoffed as they began moving.

—

People from the other Kingdoms, when they talked about Kuo Kuana, which wasn't often, made it out to be a dangerous, seedy place filled with duplicitous Faunus who couldn't be trusted in the Kingdoms. A haven for White Fang members, criminals and all together ne'er-do-wells. For Summer Rose, who had been there for a two month stint as a Huntress, it seemed more like a peaceful, if crowded, town built to accommodate people who weren't accepted anywhere else. A Kingdom in all but name, and an all together pleasant place.

She had come here two months ago to hunt a Helhest, a large, horse-like Grimm normally more endemic to Sanus. Too dangerous for the local branch of the White Fang to take down themselves, they had needed a professional Huntsman to do it. Ozpin, knowing how she hated being home for long periods of time, had suggested her.

It was, truthfully, a bit unfair to say she hated being home. There was a lot to like about home. Her loving, handsome husband was there, even if she had to sit him down and shave off the scruff he called a beard every time she got home. Her beautiful teenage daughter was there, always ready to tell her about whatever antics she had gotten up to while she was gone. Her drunk as a skunk best friend was there, raring and eager to tell her all the stupid stuff his students had done while she was gone.

But it was impossible to pretend there wasn't something missing, that there hadn't been something missing for the past decade. Since Ruby had vanished after going out to play, likely killed by some sort of Grimm where they never found her body, and that was if they were lucky.

Summer didn't want to think about what it meant if they were unlucky. She didn't want to imagine a mission for Ozpin where she came across her daughter, raised and manipulated by Salem to want to destroy the world Summer loved so much.

"Summer," a voice said with a knock at the door, snapping her out of her thoughts as she ran a whetstone down Hewer's blade. Summer stood up, opening the door to Ghira Belladonna standing in it, taking up the entire frame.

"Can I help you, Chieftain Belladonna?"

"Summer, you've been here for two months, you can call me Ghira," the bear of a man said, "and yes. A strange, large vehicle appeared out of the sandstorm an hour ago. We only noticed it because of the telescope systems. We're hoping they'll send someone to talk to us, but if they don't, I want you to come with us when I go to check it out.

"Sir!" A voice called from the first floor of the house, "a vehicle is approaching from the larger one. We think they sent a small team.

"Let's hope they are here to be diplomatic," Ghira said, "Coming, Summer?"

Summer nodded, a feeling deep in her gut. Something was about to happen to change her life, she could feel it.

—

Ghira watched the vehicle pull up, Saber, Ilia, the Albain brothers, Summer, and several members of the Menagerie Guard waiting for them. The passenger side door opened, and everyone tensed as a hooded woman came out holding a rifle-ax. The moment the weapons of the group bristled, however, she immediately raised her hands slowly and lowered herself, putting the gun on the ground and kicking it towards them.

Ghira immediately kicked it back, "I appreciate the gesture, stranger, but it wouldn't be right for me to leave you weaponless while I'm surrounded by weapons"

"I have friends to defend me too," they said, voice clearly effeminate. Out of the back of the vehicle came a cat Faunus with… both ears and a tail(?), another of impossible to tell breed with ears and a tail as well and two rabbit Faunus, "We're peaceful, we don't want any fight if there isn't a need for one."

"Who are you, what do you want?" Ghira said, hiding his distaste at the standoff. It reminded him of that time with Adam too much, when he had realized that his control of the White Fang was slipping and with it, the entire organization towards extremism. 

"I'm Ruby," the woman said, standing up and holding her hands upwards, "I'm a doctor working for Rhodes Island. That's the landship we came from. We're a pharmaceutical company for the treatment of Oripathy. This is Blaze, Nearl, Ansel and Kroos, they're Operatives working for Rhodes Island."

"Why would a pharmaceutical company need a giant "landship" and "Operatives"?" Ilia scoffed, and Ghira shot her a look.

"We need a place to safely treat the Infected," Ruby said, "and we need people to protect them if someone decides to assault our patients."

"I've never heard of Oripathy," Ghira said, and every member of the other group went silent.

"What?" Blaze finally said, "You've never heard of Oripat- how haven't you heard of Oripathy!"

"Blaze, calm down," Ruby said, "Oripathy is a disease contracted by contact with Originum. It's non contagious on a person to person basis, but it's highly painful and lethal. We're doing our best to find a cure, if one exists, and in the meantime treat those with it. Blaze, do you want to-?"

Before Ruby could finish, Blaze ripped off a bandage around her arm, revealing a section of skin with craggy, crystalline growths along it.

"That's what Oripathy does," Ruby finished, before turning away and pulling a fresh bandage from a box around her waist, carefully wrapping it around Blaze's infection, "it isn't pretty, I know. Anyways, as for what we want, our sensors got turned around in the sandstorm. We're trying to figure out how we got to RIM Billiton when we were heading to Victoria."

"I've never heard of either of those places," Ghira said, "You're at Kuo Kuana. Does that help you place yourself?"

"No," Ruby said, "Do you have a map we can borrow? I get the feeling… I get the feeling we're far from home."

"You can come look at the map at my home," Ghira said, "I won't pretend I have the best sense of people, but I feel I can trust you. I'm Ghira Belladonna, Chieftain of Menagerie, so long as you don't try to hurt us, I won't allow any harm to come to you."

"Thank you," Ruby said, lowering her hood and drawing a startled gasp from Summer, "Doctor Ruby Rose, if we're going by full names and titles."

The two of them looked disturbingly similar.

—

Ruby took the cup of tea from the woman with a smile, "Thank you."

"Oh, it's no problem," the woman said, "I'll go tend to the rest of your friends while you look over those maps."

"Thanks," Ruby said again, before focusing on the maps in front of her, PRTS?

Yes, Doctor?

Upload everything I see related to maps to Rhodes Island, and alert Amiya.

Done, Doctor .

Thank you, PRTS.

The mental conversation only took a second. Ruby downed the tea in about half a second, ignoring the burning as it went down, and began to look over the maps.

Yep. They were officially, undeniably, lost. Like, stuck in another world lost. Ruby could go for something harder than tea right now. Or barring that, one of her manic episodes.

They had, of course, known that other worlds existed since Team RAINBOW had arrived and joined Rhodes Island. But that didn't mean they had ever expected to see one themselves.

Doctor? Amiya would like to talk to you .

Put her on.

Doctor.

Amiya. I know, This doesn't look good.

What do we do?

What do we always do when things go wrong, Jackalope?

Roll with the punches, Doctor.

This is a heavy one to the chin, I know, but that's all we can do. I'll be back at Rhodes Island soon, we can figure out what we do next from there.

"Doctor Rose?" A voice said, snapping Ruby out of the conversation. A woman with a white cloak stepped into the room and swallowed, "Can we… Can we talk?"

"Sure," Ruby said, gesturing for her to sit, "What's up… uh?"

"Summer, Summer Rose," Summer introduced herself, before swallowing, "This is going to sound strange, but do you know… do you have a good relationship with your mother?"

"Not really, no," Ruby said, "I… I have complete retrograde amnesia. Everything before the past two years? Nothing. I might have had a good relationship with her, might have had a bad relationship, might be an orphan. I really don't know. I'd have to ask Close, uh… that's a friend of mine. Why do you ask?"

"I… I had a daughter," Summer admitted, "named Ruby too. She went missing, years ago. We never found out what happened to her."

"So?" Ruby said.

"Do you… do you have a scar on your left side? Long, kinda jagged?"

"Yeah, I- you can't be serious," Ruby deadpanned, "You'd have to have been stupid young to have a kid my age, unless- It's- PRTS, what are the chances?"

There are a chance that there is some form of time dilation between worlds,  PRTS admitted.

"You think I'm your daughter?" Ruby said, mind trying to grasp onto something. That would require her to be from this world.

"A mother always knows their child," Summer said, "From the moment you took off that hood, I got the feeling. You said you had the scar? You got that playing with your father's knife, needed sixteen stitches and he slept in your room for a week afterwards."

"It has to be just that, a feeling," Ruby said, "the odds are… are…"

As good as a random sandstorm bringing them to another world?

"I need to talk to Closure," Ruby said finally, "If I didn't know my mother, or if I talked about you, then I guess there's a chance. But the chances of this seem stupidly low.