Chapter Text
Ruby Rose had failed.
Through hell and high water, her comrades, her team, her friends, fought with her. Final victory looked almost within their grasp, but…
The house of cards fell, and the worst part?
The fall of the heroes of Remnant came not from a grand battle, not a drawn out siege that people would talk about for centuries, were there any people left to talk about it.
Not a bang, but a whimper.
The first to fall was Oscar, by that point fully merged with Ozpin. Of course, Salem had him killed quietly, and he would have been back, but she was faster than that. Next came Qrow, stabbed in the heart by who he had thought was just a child that needed help; in reality the child was long dead, a Chill having taken their place.
The others were a blur. Left reeling as they were, the heroes of Remnant fell one at a time, in their moments of weakness. One after another, and by the time Ruby and her team had figured out what was going on, it was far too late.
Salem had gotten ahold of the Relic of Destruction, and it was a simple matter to turn Vacuo to dust.
Ruby had survived. She had been out on a mission during Salem’s infiltration, the immortal’s change of tactics coming without warning. They had expected her to attack Vacuo directly, with everything she had; instead she used her agents of silent chaos to get what she wanted.
Maybe Ruby was lucky she had been spared the sight of her friends’, her family's, corpses. They were naught but ash, and by then Ruby hadn’t the strength to fight anymore. She fell to her knees in the corpse of the City of Sand, and Salem approached her, sparing her only a glance before a sudden blast of magic made Ruby’s vision go white.
She didn’t know what she had expected, but she certainly hadn't been anticipating a white void with the being she’d only seen before in a vision granted by Jinn looking at her. The God of Light watched her as she scowled and shook her head, “Y-You? What do you want?” She looked down, “Here to tell me I’m a failure before sending me off to whatever afterlife there is?”
“No, child,” The God of Light began in his all-too-serene voice, “Your world has fallen, this is true, but there were certain factors in that world that were always working against you. Your experience is not too dissimilar to another of you, but… that is unimportant. What is important… is that I have an offer for you.”
Ruby furrowed her brow, “What’re you talking about? Another of me?” She shook her head, “You know what, nevermind. I don’t want to know. What offer?”
The God of Light explained, “I want to give you a second chance, a new chance. If you accept, you will be taken to a new world, one that is just beginning the journey you had set out upon. You will be free to do as you will to change the course of that world’s history, however…”
“However?” Ruby asked numbly.
“The world will hold differences, differences that may result in a different outcome. You will face new foes that you have never encountered before; however, in turn, you will fight alongside heroes that never were in your time.”
Ruby was confused, “What’re you getting out of this? Sending me to a… new world? Is there something you want me to do?”
“No, Ruby Rose… the only thing I ask of you is that you continue trying to be the hero you once wished to be.”
She wasn’t sure she’d be able to do that, but regardless, this was her one chance. Regardless of what happened, or if she’d find the strength to carry on, anything was better than an eternity of despair, wondering what could have been, “Okay… I’ll do it.”
“Good.”
Without another word, the God of Light vanished, and the white void Ruby was in seemed to crack like glass. The cracks webbed their way around everything and Ruby looked around in alarm, then, suddenly, the sound of glass threatening to give way grew.
The realm shattered, and Ruby fell.
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Ruby gasped and sat up, looking around. For a moment she wondered if she had been dreaming, but as her vision came into focus, she found that she was… back in her bedroom?
Not the countless, nameless ones she’d slept in since the start of her quest, no. This was her bedroom.
She was back on Patch.
Ruby could hardly believe her eyes, or her mind, or… anything really.
She felt so much weaker than she had before. Fighting for five years had conditioned her body to be more than it was before, even if her strength was still considerable. She grimaced and coughed into her hand reflexively, feeling a bit weak. Had she been sick?
Wait, did this world have a Ruby? If so, what happened to her?
She saw on her nightstand three different bottles of pills, and she realized that, by sitting up, she’s sent a wet rag cascading down her form and onto the blankets. So she had been sick. That explained why she felt so weak, but it also brought another question to her mind.
‘What happened to the other Ruby?’
If she was there, then where was the one who had been sick?
…She didn’t like the very real possibility that she had replaced them. She pushed it out of her mind and tossed off the covers, seeing that she was wearing her original black tank top and pajama bottoms sleepwear.
It was nostalgic, really. All of this was. Her old room, her old outfit, her old photo of her and some boy she’d never seen before-
Wait, what?
It was on her nightstand, a heart-shaped picture frame that these days she felt was just a bit too cute. It was certainly something she’d have seen herself buying if she were love-sick at fifteen, but that was neither here nor there.
What was here and there, was the two in the picture. One was her, in her old outfit, and she was settled in next to another, her arm wrapped around his waist. The boy in question was her age, with fair skin that held a light tan, earthy brown eyes that glittered with happiness, platinum-blonde hair cut short, a strong build… He looked far more mature than she did.
He was wearing a forest-green short-sleeve shirt under a black tunic without any sleeves, a pair of dark brown travel pants, and dark brown work boots. On his back was a beige traveling cloak.
Ruby picked up the picture and studied it, her brow creasing in concentration. Who was this? When she was growing up on Patch, she’d never had any friends like this, just Yang. She looked around, and saw that the walls had several pictures similar to that one, in normal frames thankfully, detailing a life of companionship from a young age. A life she could have only wished for back in her old world.
She shook her head, turning away from the scenery in the process. She then got up and grimaced as she almost lost her balance. Following that, she stepped forward, carefully, and placed her hand on the doorknob, cold as it was, and turned it.
The hallway was just as she remembered, and as she followed it, familiar voices filled the living room, and she froze at the stairs as she listened.
One was her dad, Taiyang. He sounded worried, “I hope today’s the day…”
Yang, similarly, sounded concerned, “We just… we have to hope. We can’t give up now, Lunus and Ven will be around later. I just… I hope we have good news when they do.”
Lunus? Ven? Names she’d never heard before, one of them had to be the boy in the pictures. She swallowed a lump in her throat, her mind pulled more to what was familiar. Yang and her dad… Her eyes welled up with tears, and she finally found the strength to walk down the rest of the stairs.
Their voices went silent as they heard her walking down the stairs, and she found them both sitting on the count, looking rather shocked. They didn’t say anything as they stared at her. Ruby held onto the railing as she smiled tiredly, and she knew she must have looked a sight, pale, teary-eyed, and trying to give a small wave. She spoke, and found it almost startling to hear her younger voice again, but she pushed through it, “Hey.”
Both Yang and Tai were quick to jump up and hurry over to her, with Yang saying, “Ruby! You’re okay?! How?”
Tai, however, was quick to shake his head, as he pulled Ruby into a hug, “Don’t ask questions, let’s just… let’s just be happy.”
Being hugged by her family, people she’d lost and thought she’d never see again, was too much for her. She hugged them back, “Y-Yeah… I’m okay.” She sniffled, “I’m okay…” She began to cry into her father’s shirt.
Whatever happened to her other self, both Yang and Taiyang didn’t seem to think that her reaction was unwarranted. They cried some as well, tears of joy. Ruby wished that she could explain that she was not the same Ruby they knew, but she knew she couldn’t.
After a few moments, they separated, and Tai said, “I’ll whip something up for you, you must be hungry.” He headed off to do just that.
Meanwhile, Yang smiled, “Lunus is gonna be over the moon.” She chuckled at her own joke. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Three quick ones, with just enough force to let the house know the knocker was there, “Oh, that’s him! I’ll go help Dad.” Her smile grew softer, “I’m sure you’ll have a lot of things to say to him.”
Ruby had to wonder what it was Yang meant, but she didn’t dare ask about it. Instead, Yang walked off, and that left Ruby to stare at the door.
Should she answer? Should she not? Yang and her dad would be confused and ask a bunch of questions, questions she couldn’t answer. There really wasn’t a choice, she had to answer it.
So, she took a few tentative steps forward and gently opened the door.
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Earlier…
Days had been dim for Lunus Marigold.
Ruby, his best friend and girlfriend, had been sick for weeks by this point. It was beginning to look like she wouldn’t be able to attend initiation at Beacon, which meant he wouldn’t either, because he promised her he’d stay with her. If keeping that promise meant waiting until they were seventeen to go to Beacon, or at least waiting until another year had passed, then so be it.
They’d only been dating for a few months, but they’d known each other since they were children, and even if they hadn’t been dating now, he’d have still stayed with her. What kind of person would he be if he abandoned her at a time like this? That being said…
…Things had been looking grim.
The doctor wasn’t sure if she’d make it. Nothing they had done had broken the fever. Every day was a roll of the dice, and so far they’d rolled above a ten. Luck couldn’t last forever, though.
That’s why, when he woke up that morning, Lunus didn’t waste any time in throwing on some clothes and heading out towards the Xiao-Long residence. They both lived on the same stretch of road, although the Patch Marigold family lived further up than her family.
On his way to her place, his mind was so far off it might as well have been on the moon. He would never admit it, he would never say it or let it show, for her sake, but he was afraid. He wouldn’t know what he would do if he lost her; what was he without his red cloaked companion?
Not much at all.
A Huntsman? Maybe. He hoped so.
Another face in the crowd?
Oh, most definitely.
But he wasn’t that concerned with himself, not so concerned as to worry as much about himself as he was worried about Ruby. No, no, he was far more focused on her, and so he pressed onward, because stopping really wasn’t in the cards.
He really didn’t want to believe the idea of Ruby potentially dying. It didn’t seem real. She’d been a part of his life as long as he could remember, and that was literal, he could scarcely remember a time when Ruby wasn’t there. So when the doctors had said to prepare for the worst case scenario, he nodded, he said he would, he was there to help, but… her actually dying?
No, that was impossible.
Ruby Rose was a ball of energy and passion wrapped in a red cloak who carried a giant scythe and could run circles around just about everyone at Signal, himself included, and he meant that literally and metaphorically. Her laugh, her smile, the light blush that dusted her face when she looked at him—nothing but distant memories? No, it wasn’t possible. He simply refused to even acknowledge it as something that could happen.
Death was something reserved for other people. He had been there to help with Summer’s disappearance, to help Ruby recover. He was sad with her, but he held on. That was Summer, though, a distant memory, not really someone he or Ruby even really remembered that well.
He couldn’t comprehend the idea of living in a world devoid of Ruby, and so he pushed it down. He rejected it as even a remote possibility, and soon he saw the Xiao-Long household, looking just the same as it did any other day, and he approached it before knocking on the door.
Slowly, the knob turned, and pulled open.
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The two found each other looking into one another’s eyes, for just a split second. Lunus could tell, in the back of his head, there was something off. She looked at him without an ounce of recognition, though she seemed to try to bury that fact. Yet, in that moment, he only cared about the fact that she was standing there, looking like she hadn’t just been fighting for her life a day ago.
Ruby, meanwhile, found herself reeling as she met with the boy from the picture. He was taller than her, not an accomplishment by any measure, but he was. He looked boyishly handsome, but Ruby’s mind was swimming too much for her to care. She realized that she had been staring, and knew she had to say something, “Hi… Lunus.”
Lunus pushed his questions to the back of his mind as he stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, “Ruby!” His voice broke up, “You’re okay.” He didn’t miss how she tensed up as he hugged her, as if he was hugging her for the first time, but again, he chose to ignore it, “How’d you get better so suddenly? I thought…” He took a deep breath. Be strong. Be strong. “We thought you were going to…”
Damn it, he still couldn’t say it.
Ruby was incredibly lost on just what to do or say as well, albeit for a different reason. It took her a minute to return the hug, and another to respond uneasily, “I’m… I’m feeling better.” They separated after that, and Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, “I feel… good as new!” She managed a bit of a brighter smile as she gave a lazy salute, “Ruby Rose reporting for duty.”
He couldn’t shake how strange she was acting. There was an underlying sense of… wrong; the things she was saying were all stilted. As if she was talking to a stranger, but that couldn’t be, right? He frowned slightly as he crossed his arms, “Are you feeling alright, Ruby? You’re kinda acting… a little strange.”
“Whaat? Psh.” She waved her hand dismissively, “No~, I’m fine, see?” She used her index fingers to push her lips into a smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She let it go and then said, “If you’re still not sure, we could, uh…” She tried to think of what best to do, and remembered that she had no idea what this boy liked to do. Hell, she didn’t know about anyone or anything here, she couldn’t even be certain about Yang or her dad! “How about we go for a walk? Uhm-” She looked at her outfit, “After I get dressed.”
Lunus refrained from expressing how that was even stranger, considering, once again, she’d been dying just the day before. Also once again, however, he was too happy to refute, “Alright, I’ll just go say hi to Yang and Tai.”
Ruby was quick to retreat upstairs, while Lunus went to go talk with the two Xiao-Longs. He asked them if either had noticed anything weird about Ruby, but neither of them had seen anything strange. They were even more relieved and happy to have her back than he was, so maybe it was asking too much for them to have noticed anything.
Still, it remained in the back of his mind.
Meanwhile, Ruby was in her room, and once she took up her outfit, she stared at it for several long minutes. Her old Huntress outfit, the first one. It felt… somehow naive. A bright eyed girl’s ideal represented in cloth. Maybe she’d have to get a different outfit at some point, but that could wait. She started to don her outfit, her mind slowly picking itself up from its muddled state, and as it did, she began to think.
What did she do now? She was going to have to figure out exactly when this was. It had to be before Beacon, but how far? She was clearly fifteen, so maybe just before? For that matter, would she be able to get her team together again? Would Weiss and Blake even be there?
…There was no telling. Questions upon questions that she’d need to glean the answers to. Maybe she could learn something from Lunus, he seemed to know her well, or at least, her ‘old self’ well.
What was going to happen there? Were they already a thing? She couldn’t in good conscience continue that… she didn’t even know who he was.
She was already thinking about everything that she would need to do and deal with, because there was no real rest in this scenario, was there? She had to figure out what was different, and how that was going to change things. What were the new threats she’d face? Presumably Lunus was one of the new allies she’d have, but… she had no doubt that she was going to need more help if the new foes were really that worth noting.
Once she was dressed, she headed out and back down to the living room, where Lunus was waiting for her. He smiled uneasily at her, and she made an effort to smile back, though it was just as strained. He didn’t waste any time in turning and opening the door, allowing for the two of them to head out for a walk down the path.
Neither of them had their weapons, but that wasn’t a problem. This stretch of land was kept safe by patrols and by those that lived there; Grimm tended to stay deeper in the island. What few there were on Patch weren’t very common. Usually the greatest threat was wild animals, and mayhaps those animals also played a part in the Grimm being kept at bay. A Beowolf was a Beowolf, but a bear was a bear.
They didn’t talk as they kept on, with Lunus directing them off the path, to one less traveled by most, but familiar to them. As they walked, his mind began to wander. He’d had a lot of time to ruminate on his life with Ruby over the past few weeks, and yet some things still stuck in his head.
Moments crystalized as core parts of who he was.
The first, he remembered, was when he and Ruby first became friends…
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Ten Years Ago…
Back then, neither Lunus nor Ruby had very many friends. Not from a lack of desire, or even a lack of trying, but often they found that they were simply incompatible with most kids. Most kids didn’t share their interests, most of them preferred to play tag and talk of safer dreams.
Maybe that should have been surprising, but on Patch most kids were still taught from an early age the dangers of Grimm. They were nothing to laugh about and nothing to play pretend over. Indeed, most children would sooner play ‘Cops and Robbers’ over ‘Huntsmen and Grimm’. Maybe Lunus could have been there with them, as he didn’t suffer terribly with social things. Even at a young age he was fairly good at holding conversations, and maybe he should have been more predisposed to ‘normal’ things given that his parents weren’t Huntsmen nor anywhere near that.
But what could be done? The heart wants what it wants, and at the time most everyone was certain he’d grow out of it.
Ruby, meanwhile, had a lot harder time socializing. People weren’t her forte, things were. Even then she loved to dream up weapons and imagine what it’d be like to kill Grimm. Maybe it was in her blood, or maybe it was because of the stories she’d been told and the fairytales she’d read, who could say?
What could be said was that Ruby Rose was different than most children, and inevitably, that led to her being ostracized. Ostracized and picked on, for even though her sister was more than willing to stave off bullies even then, she was not always around.
One day, while she was at the park, some older kids began to pick on her. So far into the future they were naught but faceless bullies to Lunus, but he remembered what happened that day well.
He hadn’t heard exactly what they were saying to her, but he heard enough and saw enough to know that there was a girl crying and trying to make herself small while cowering against a tree. His father had taught him that you were supposed to treat everyone politely and with respect, until they proved that they weren’t worth it. As far as Lunus was concerned, those bullies weren’t worth anything.
So he put himself between the bullies and Ruby and told them to back off. He tried to make himself seem bigger than he was, even though back then he wasn’t exactly the biggest kid in his grade, not by a long shot.
The reward for his effort was getting punched in the gut by the biggest kid, a punch that sent him to the ground. As the kids were ready to start wailing on him, however, Ruby took advantage of the situation to grab a particularly hefty stick and took a hard swing at the big kid’s crotch. The effect was immediate as that boy was now the one on the ground, and Ruby brandished that stick as if it were a sword, ready to keep beating up the kids if needed.
When it was just her on the line, she was ready to deal with getting picked on, but Lunus had put himself in front of her and had gotten hurt on her behalf, and she wouldn’t stand for that.
He began to get up, and though he clearly hurt, he still clenched his fists and was ready to start swinging. The bullies, now confronted with two angry kids, one armed with a big stick and the other looking fairly pissed off, realized they were in over their head. They turned tail and fled, leaving the big one to be the last to scramble away.
Ruby was the one to talk first, her voice quivering with a mixture of adrenaline, fear, and concern, “Are you… are you okay?”
He turned to look at her, the much smaller girl with a tear stained face brandishing a stick, and started to snicker. He covered his mouth and looked away and she stomped her foot, “Heeyy! Why are you laughing? I’m serious!”
Lunus looked at her, “I’m sorry, just… I wanted to help you, but you helped me instead.” He grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m not a very good future Huntsman, am I?”
Ruby shook her head and spoke with conviction that gave him pause, “Yes you are! You tried to help me, that’s what a Huntsman would do! I helped you, that’s what a Huntsman would do too!” She then caught herself, as if realizing just now that she’d been talking so energetically, and looked away shyly, “Uhm… sorry. You probably think I’m weird.”
Lunus crossed his arms, “Nope.”
She looked at him, “Nope?”
“Nope!” He smiled, “You wanna be a Huntsman too? Wanna play Huntsmen and Grimm?”
Ruby gasped, her silver eyes lit up with glee, and she was quick to agree, “Sure!”
They went to play, and just like that, a friendship was formed.
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Present Day…
The two of them came to a stop at that old playground, empty on this day, most kids preferred the bigger playground the town had built a few years ago to this one. Lunus hummed as he looked it over, “Man… this place has really deteriorated. It’s kinda sad.”
That tree was still there, and he walked over to it, with Ruby following behind him, “Remember this place? It’s where we first became friends.”
Ruby was at a loss, he was speaking of memories she didn’t have. She stammered, “Uhm…” She then found her words, “Yep, I remember!” She felt terrible for lying, but what else was she supposed to do? The truth was, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, so she just had to play by ear until she did.
Lunus didn’t miss the uneasy way she spoke, but his suspicions weren’t worth pursuing at that moment in his mind. Instead, he turned away from the park and started to lead the way again, his mind turning again to the past as Ruby followed him.
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Three Years Ago…
By age twelve, Ruby and Lunus were already inseparable. They had even managed to stick together through the age where they thought the opposite sex was icky, never even feeling that way for one another. Both didn’t branch out that much from each other; they stuck to who they knew, with few, if any, exceptions.
Thus, it was natural that, as they hit puberty, people would start to talk. People like Yang, for example.
One such instance was on a rainy Saturday afternoon when Ruby and Lunus had settled in to watch a movie together. To them, it was entirely normal for two friends as close as they were to sit really close to each other to be comfortable while watching movies or shows. Yang called it ‘cuddling’, but neither of them saw anything particularly wrong with that. Yang acted as if it was something romantic, but the two of them refuted that, romance was something else. They were just…
Two good friends sitting really close to each other.
Two good friends, where one was resting her head on the other’s chest, arms wrapped around him, as they watched another Spruce Willis thriller. Two good friends, where the other ran his hand through the other’s hair, and felt almost too comfortable where he was.
Two good friends who didn’t want the moment to end.
But of course, it did, with the roll of the credits. It was only then that they were entirely pulled out of their tranquility by the sound of Yang’s teasing voice, “Hey, love-birds!” Which caused both children to start before they separated.
They looked over to Yang, who was holding her scroll, having apparently taken a picture. Ruby gasped, “Yang! What’s the big idea? You took a picture, didn’t you?!”
Yang waved her scroll around with a smirk, “Dunno what you’re talking about.” She then pressed a button on it, and in a couple seconds soon both kids’ scrolls buzzed.
They were quick to take them out and look at what had been sent, indeed, Yang had taken a picture of the two of them together, looking completely comfortable and at peace. Lunus thought it was a nice picture, as did Ruby, but she was still going to be indignant, “Yang you can’t take pictures without asking! That’s… illegal!”
“Sue me, then.” She smirked, “Or just admit that you’re in love and we can leave all this dirty business behind us!”
Both of them blushed, Lunus spoke, “W-We’re not in love. Love is weird!”
“Yeah!” Ruby agreed, “Love is when two people kiss, and we haven’t kissed, because that’s weird and gross!” She crossed her arms and smiled proudly, as if that completely debunked everything Yang was saying, “So there!”
Of course, Yang didn’t believe them, so she just rolled her eyes and grinned, “Alright, whatever you say Ruby.” She turned and left, and Ruby felt a bit indignant that Yang clearly didn’t believe her.
Ruby scoffed, “Psh, stupid Yang. She just doesn’t get us, right Lunus?” She looked at him, ready to say something else, but her words died in her throat. The two had found each other looking into one another’s eyes by mere chance, shining silver and earthy brown meeting, and suddenly Ruby felt as if her mouth was full of cotton.
Both of their faces heated up, but rather than pressing forward with these weird feelings for their friend, both of them looked away. Ruby looked down at her lap for a moment before settling back against Lunus, resting her head against his chest, where she could hear his heart’s beating, just a bit faster than it usually did. Softly, and with some effort to fight off her nerves, she said, “You know you’re important to me, right, Lunus? You’re my best friend.”
Lunus’ arm went around her on instinct, and surely, he told himself, this was just a friends’ thing. They were friends. Friends said they were important to each other… right? If they were best friends, surely, “Y-Yeah… uhm… you’re important to me too, Ruby. My best friend.”
Why was it that his normal ability to talk just fine went out the window when things go like this with her?
…It must have just been a coincidence.
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Present Day
Lunus smiled at the memory. They were both being silly, coming up with all sorts of excuses to pretend like they didn’t love each other. All sorts of excuses, all sorts of things that made them so certain that there was just no way.
Maybe his mind was on that, maybe Ruby’s was too, but one way or another, they found themselves on a familiar cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun glittered off the water, and facing away from the water was a silver plaque with a rose on it, the words ‘Thus kindly I scatter’ written on it.
Ruby had thought she’d never get to see it again, so of course she wasn’t going to complain about getting the chance to. It made her eyes glisten lightly as she walked over to it and knelt in front of it, her cloak pooling beneath her. Lunus followed her, kneeling at her side and softly saying, “I bet she’s proud.”
Was she?
How could she be proud of someone that’d failed and seen her world destroyed? If Ruby was Summer, she’d not be happy at all, “I…I hope I can make her proud.” She didn’t add on the words ‘this time’.
Yet, as she ran her fingers over her mother’s name, she wondered if she’d be disappointed that Ruby was keeping a secret. Pretending to be some other Ruby. She might not have known Lunus, but she knew that he didn’t deserve to be led on like this. She grimaced, and she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to keep this secret from him. Maybe she could avoid telling anyone else, but he deserved to know, “Uhm… Lunus?”
He placed a hand on her back cautiously, “Yeah, Rubes? Something wrong?”
Ruby closed her eyes, how was she going to handle this?
How could she handle this? It wasn’t like she was going to say anything even remotely believable.
Maybe she just needed to rip the bandaid off, metaphorically speaking. She took a deep breath, “I’m not… I’m not the Ruby you know. I’m not who you think I am. I’m a different Ruby.”
Lunus furrowed his brow, and though he didn’t believe her, he still felt his heart drop. He retracted his hand, “R-Ruby?” He laughed nervously, “Where’s this coming from? That fever really did a number on you, huh?”
Ruby clenched her fists. Not out of frustration or anger, but because she hated the way his voice wavered, she might not have known him, but she knew what the sound of a heart cracking was, and it was never pleasant, “I mean it.” She stood up, “I can… I can prove it.”
He stood up as well, and was about to speak to voice his disbelief again, but then Ruby stood up. She turned and looked at him, and the look in her gaze was different than any that he had ever seen before. It was edged with steel and conviction, a different kind of conviction than what he knew Ruby for. A weathered resolve had seen battle, something that should have belonged to trained Huntsmen, not a fifteen year old girl. She asked, “You want proof?” He nodded, and so she looked down, “Then… spar with me, right now. Just our fists.”
“R-Ruby? You’re terrible at fist fighting…” He blinked a few times, his shock was just growing by the minute, “A-And you were bedridden just yesterday… Now isn’t a good time to fight.”
Ruby wasn’t anywhere near Yang or Tai’s levels, true, but she was still far better at it now than she was back when she was first starting out. It was the simplest and easiest way for her to show that she meant what she said, “Just… trust me, okay? Throw a punch.”
He still wasn’t certain, but he still formed fists with his hands, and he still stepped forward before attempting to deliver a right hook. She moved to grab his arm, but he feinted and attempted to sweep her legs out from under her. She jumped over his attempt and stepped forward, delivering a knee to his jaw and causing him to stagger to his feet before she closed the distance again and punched him in the gut.
Finally, as he attempted to hit her again, she grabbed his arm and pulled, turning and tossing him forward, sending him to the ground, “I know it’s not much, but I can tell you more, but… I need you to believe me!”
That only happened in the span of a few seconds, and though the hits stung, they were nothing compared to the weight growing in his heart. Lunus got up, and he still didn’t want to believe her, but… “T-Then… tell me everything.”
Ruby relaxed her stance, “Alright… I’ll start from the beginning.” She sat on the ground, and so he did the same, sitting across from her, “So I did get into Beacon early, but…” She began to explain everything, how she got into Beacon, how her team, Team RWBY, was formed, how there was a large battle that saw Beacon Academy fall, how many people died… She skimmed over a lot of unnecessary details, but she hit point for point, though it was difficult. There were times when she would have to pause to collect herself, and when she had to wipe her eyes of fledgling tears.
Lunus could tell that, and his urge was to comfort her, but the chill in his body was growing with every word, every passing moment. She continued to explain, hours passing, and the sun soon started to sink beneath the horizon, casting reds, oranges, and yellows across the sky. It was then that Ruby finished, “That’s… everything. I never met… you, or… another you.”
He could barely hear her, his ears were ringing. Because try as he might to find some flaws in her story, something that would tell him that this wasn’t true, he couldn’t. He felt a frown pulled at his lips, “Tell me…” He began, voice weak and scared, “Tell me you’re joking, Ruby. Tell me this is just a cruel joke, or you’ve got amnesia. Not this.”
Her eyes glistened with tears of sorrow for him, “I can’t… I’m sorry. I’m telling the truth.”
He grabbed at the grass beneath him, “I don’t want to believe you. I-I can’t. Ruby… you… she…” His voice and eyes were laden with sadness and guilt, longing and loss. He got up and turned away, “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. It’s a nightmare. You were sick, but… you weren’t… no…” His breathing grew shaky, “Does that mean that… she’s…”
Ruby stood up, “I… think she died of whatever sickness she had. That’s… the only guess I have.”
There was the word he didn’t want to hear, it slammed into him like a truck filled with bricks. Died. She was dead, wasn’t she? The Ruby Rose he had known, that he had grown up with, was no more. He shook his head, “No… no no… come on… Ruby, you remember when we met, or when we watched movies together, or when we… wh-when we…”
The taste of strawberry had never been the same again after that day. It was sweeter.
But now all he tasted was ash.
Ruby didn’t respond, because what could she say? What was she supposed to do, give a rousing speech to lift his spirits? Offer him a hug? Say it’d be okay? She hated lying. She felt like she was standing in place of someone else. She was. The other Ruby should have been standing there, but she wasn’t.
He fell to his knees, and finally the glass in his heart and mind shattered, as the visage of his love cracked and fell to the floor. He felt tears falling down his face, but he didn’t feel like he was crying, “I’ll…” His voice shook and quivered, ready to snap like a bowstring, “I’ll help you.”
Ruby blinked a few times, wondering if she had misheard him, “You’ll… you’ll what?”
“I’ll help you!” He said a bit louder, still not looking back at her, “You said that you died and came here because you’re trying to save people, right? Then… I’ll help you.” She started to speak, but he cut her off, “D-Don’t try to argue with me. Just accept it, okay? Just say okay. I’m helping you either way, but if you don’t… it’s going to be harder.”
What could she say? He was clearly stricken with grief and some sort of self-loathing, but what did that mean? How was she supposed to turn him down, someone who’s whole world she just shattered into a million pieces? Someone who had loved her, or a version of her, and now was alone.
She could see that, too. There was distance between them, and she knew that any attempt to comfort him was just going to make it worse, “...Okay. What… what was your relationship with her-”
“We loved each other.” He responded, his voice growing more monotone and numb by the moment, “We’d only just gotten together a few months ago… then we went Dust shopping, and stopped a robbery. Professor Ozpin invited us to Beacon, well… He wanted to invite y- her specifically, but she didn’t want to go if I wasn’t there. He accepted her terms. She got sick, after that… I think it started at that damn shop, I don’t know why… bedridden for weeks. Doctors said there wasn’t anything more they could do… she… she said she’d be okay… she… I… I promised… I said…”
Ruby tried to steer him away from that, her voice heavy with sadness as she asked, “Who… who are you, exactly? I know your name is Lunus, and you were important to this world’s Ruby, but…”
He fell silent for several moments, and then he began, “I’m Lunus Marigold. My parents broke off from the Marigolds in Atlas after they adopted me, settled down here in Patch for a simpler life… I want to be a Huntsman, and… Ruby was there with me, almost my whole life… We designed our weapons together, built them together… I was there when she discovered her semblance, and she was there when I discovered mine.”
To demonstrate, he beckoned his hand upward, and a piece of red wood rose from nothing, seeming to obey him as it bent and morphed into the shape of a crescent moon, “I can control wood. I can make it grow from almost nothing, and I can use what’s available from around me…”
He chuckled dryly, “Guess that doesn’t matter. Semblances, Dust, aura… it didn’t stop her from dying. Ruby… she… she was right there. I felt her hand, and I told her…” The crescent moon made of wood fell apart, “I told her I’d see her in the morning.”
It was clear that he wasn’t telling her everything, but could she blame him? She’d be in the same state he was, she knew, because she had been. He stayed silent as he stared at the ground, and Ruby asked softly, “Can I… can I help, in any way?”
“Just… leave me alone for today.” He squeezed his eyes shut, “You’re not her, but I still see her. I need to… I need to mourn. I’ll see you when we leave for Beacon. That’s tomorrow.”
She didn’t want to leave him there on his own, that was dangerous, but again, she was at a total loss. Her mere presence must have been a slap on the face for him, and so she just nodded, “...I’ll see you then.”
She started to walk away, while Lunus remained staring at the ground.
He knew staying where he was was dangerous, and so he got up and headed back towards his home once he knew Ruby was gone.
‘Ruby is gone.’
It was only when he reached his bedroom that he allowed himself to let out all of his pent up tears.
/-/
Though Ruby should have been happy to be back with Yang and her dad again, she felt a pit in her stomach. How could she not? Yang talked as if she and Lunus had been on some sort of date, when in reality she had just destroyed his happiness.
Thus, she was more than a little surprised when, after preparing her luggage and heading with Yang towards where the carrier ship that would take them to Beacon was located, she found him waiting there in his Huntsman gear with a smile on his face. He greeted them as if nothing was wrong, “Hey Ruby, Yang.”
She could tell he was suffocating his sadness, but Yang didn’t notice, because why would she be looking for anything like that? Yang grinned, “Hey, Moonboy! Ready for the first day of the rest of your life? Hey, at least you’re taking this step with the love of your life, huh?” She placed a hand on Ruby’s back and gently pushed her towards him, causing her to stumble a bit.
Ruby smiled, “Uhh… yeah!” She reached out and hugged him, and he returned the hug, while she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
He whispered back, “It’s okay.”
It certainly was not okay, both of them knew that, but what could be done? Yang was right there, and Ruby had already decided that there was no point in telling anyone else. Especially someone like Yang, who would, best case scenario, think she was just insane, or worst case scenario, shatter to pieces in a way much more destructive than Lunus. No, this was between them, and maybe that was for the best.
A back breaking burden to be certain, but a burden that needed to be carried nonetheless.
The three of them made their way onto the ship, which started to take off. The ship was already populated, and so Ruby began to look around while she, Lunus, and Yang found a place to stand near one of the windows. Yang talked about how excited she was, but Ruby was already looking out to see where the other familiar faces were.
She only got about half her wish.
She saw Weiss standing in a corner, but she looked… different. A pair of white wings were on her back, appearing to be swan wings. They fluttered lightly as Weiss looked around, seemingly a bit nervous.
Ruby followed her gaze and saw the next person of interest. Pyrrha Nikos stood taller than Ruby remembered, around 6’5’’ if she had to guess, and her outfit was modified. Her normal outfit showed a decent amount of skin, but this version had a maroon colored sweater under the corset, and a pair of dark red pants instead of a skirt. Pyrrha stood off to the side, watching people as well.
Then she caught sight of a flash of blonde hair, and she started to feel hopeful that she’d see Jaune. Again, she only got half her wish. The girl she saw was tall like Jaune, had blonde hair like Jaune, albeit tied into a braid that fell over her shoulder, and she even had ocean blue eyes, fair skin, and the same outfit as Jaune, but… that’s just it. The girl, her shoulder. That wasn’t Jaune. She maybe was this world’s version, but… it was another difference. She looked sick, fighting back air sickness no doubt.
She didn’t see Blake, either. Instead she saw a girl reading a book in a corner that seemed… familiar, but different. She had fair skin, fluffy red hair that was unkempt and stopped at her shoulders, and amber eyes that held a look like she was trying her hardest to focus on reading whatever it was she had. She wore an asymmetrical black, long-sleeved, double-breasted stylized high-collared blazer with slit sleeves and red thorn sigils adorning them with a white crest that lined up on her shoulder.
She also wore long black dress pants, and had a pair of bull horns on her head, pointed backward. It was then that Ruby knew who she saw, or who she was in her own world. Adam Taurus, or maybe a sister? She couldn’t write any possibility off, and seeing her on the ship put Ruby on edge, but the girl seemed harmless.
Ruby decided to not dwell on her too much. She could figure out if she was hostile later. She could see Ren, but not Nora, which was concerning. She had no clue where she could be, and could only hope that she was alive and well.
No telling and no time to think. The ship came to a stop, and thus everyone began to pile out.
Lunus, meanwhile, was stuck in his own mind. He tried not to look at Ruby too much, this girl who had been his love turned into a stranger. Well, sort of a stranger. Presumably she was still Ruby, but… Lunus had no idea what her life was like, what her personality was really like… nothing.
Yang was quick to abandon them to talk with some friends, more people Ruby didn’t recognize, but she wasn’t paying attention to that. Instead, she stared at Beacon, shining academy on the mount. It felt like it had been a lifetime since she’d seen it, and then she realized, with some grim humor, that it technically had been a lifetime. Her lifetime.
Ruby and Lunus stood together out of the way, looking at the academy. Lunus commented softly, “It’s… a lot bigger in person.”
She nodded a few times and said, “...Yep.” with a poppin’ P.
The sound of wheels on the stone path filled their ears, and the two watched as Weiss Schnee followed her butler out of the ship. The girl that was probably a version of Jaune staggered off the ship and threw up in the grass. Ruby couldn’t help but feel a ghost of a smile cross her face; some things never changed.
Lunus cleared his throat, getting her attention again, and said, “Those two are… people you knew?” Truthfully, Lunus had been hoping she hadn’t been correct, because then he could have some ground to say she had just lost her mind when she talked about being a different Ruby from a different world. Yet he already knew that they were at least similar to people she’d known, just from the way she watched them.
She repeated her earlier statement and said, “Yep.” with a poppin’ P.
The final nail hammered home in the coffin of his hopes, but he hid that pain. Instead he smiled lightly, albeit it was fairly unconvincing, “Do you want to talk to them?”
Ruby looked conflicted as a heavy weight settled on her heart before, after a few moments, shaking her head, “...No. I… don’t know if I can right now. I can talk to them later. Right now, just…” She thought for a moment before looking at him, “Tell me what your weapon is like.”
“My weapon?” Of course, the thing she and him built together. So this Ruby at least liked weapons like the old one. He reached behind his cloak and hefted it into his hand. Ruby’s eyes widened slightly as she saw the large moonlight white box that, after a second, she realized was a buzzsaw.
He pressed a button on it, and it extended out, the saw blade popping out from the interior, and the sides extending outward slightly as he explained, “This is Selene. She’s a buzzsaw, as you can see. She’s infused with Gravity Dust so I can surf on her reliably, and her blade can be infused with all kinds of Dust to augment it.”
Ruby felt an old part of her flare up as she smiled a genuine smile, “That’s so cool!” She clenched her fists excitedly, “You gotta let me try it sometime! Uhm-” She caught herself and looked away, “If that’s okay. I understand if… you know.”
Part of him was even happier to see her reaction, another wavered just a bit, “Sure, after we get through initiation.” He smiled, “Call it a prize.” He then realized something, and his smile faltered, “...What are we going to do about Yang? As far as she knows we’re…”
Ruby bit her lip, “We could tell her we broke up, but… the way you talked and the way my- her room was… I don’t think she’d believe us. I guess… we just have to pretend. I…I’m sorry. Are you going to be alright with that?”
Alright? Alright? No, no he was not alright, but was he going to talk about that? No, of course not. Instead he nodded, “It makes the most sense; also raises the fewest questions.”
Ruby nodded, “Okay… I guess we should go to the auditorium.” She turned her attention towards the path and started to walk, with Lunus following her.
There, they encountered Yang again, and she waved them over with a smile, “Hey guys!” She was about to say something else, but frowned slightly as she looked at Lunus, “Hey, Moonboy, are you okay? You look a bit… spaced out.”
Both Ruby and Lunus recoiled slightly from the pun, and Lunus put on his best smile, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t get enough sleep last night, is all. Yeah…” He slipped his hands into his pockets and turned his attention to the stage, “Sleep, that’s all I need.”
Yang looked like she wanted to say something, but that was when Professor Ozpin stepped onto the stage, and Ruby silently promised herself that she wouldn’t let him die, if she could help it. His death would kill two people, himself and Oscar, and Ruby didn’t want either of them to go through that.
Once he was done talking, everyone was given time to explore the campus and claim their spots in the ballroom for the night. Ruby and Lunus both weren’t exactly feeling like eating, nor did Ruby want to look around a place she knew so well already, when it would just bring back more memories. Instead, the two of them went and set up their sleeping bags. As much as Ruby wanted to give Lunus the space he clearly needed, neither of them wanted Yang asking any questions.
And so the two of them sat around, either playing on their scrolls or talking to one another, later Yang as well, until it was time for them to get some sleep.
/-/
Ruby admittedly had missed the feeling of the wind in her face.
As she plunged down to the Emerald Forest, she felt somewhat excited. She didn’t know if she’d get to be Weiss’ partner again, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be. Given what differences she had seen of the girl, there was no doubt that Weiss was different now, yet she was still excited to be back there, at the Emerald Forest. It was a second chance unlike anything she would have ever asked for.
She used her semblance to break her fall, allowing herself to land on the ground fairly easily after directing herself with a mixture of her semblance and Crescent Rose.
Lunus, meanwhile, had his own landing strategy. He surfed on Selene through the air, Gravity Dust activating and enveloping both the weapon and his feet, allowing him to control his descent as he started towards the ground. Once he was amongst the trees, he used his semblance to cause one to bend forward, allowing Selene to saw straight into it, slowing him down further as the tree was split down the middle.
As he reached the top of the fallen tree, he used his Gravity Dust one more time to soften the final landing, allowing him to hop off his weapon and take it up again.
Ruby saw this, but he didn’t see her. She turned away—not because she didn’t want to be partners with him, she wouldn’t mind it, but because she didn’t want to force him to be closer to her than he already had to be.
So, in spite of her reservations, she went to try to find Weiss.
Funnily enough, she didn’t have to look far. First, she heard the sound of twigs breaking back near where Lunus was, and when she looked, she saw Pyrrha Nikos looking at him. He smiled at her and said, “Heya, partner.”
Pyrrha looked nervous as she responded with a smile, “Uhm… hello. I’m Pyrrha Nikos, but you might have already known that…”
“Through the grapevine.” He responded, “Never paid much attention to tournaments. Let’s get going, huh?”
As he and Pyrrha left, Ruby spotted Weiss not far from her, looking rather saddened as she watched Pyrrha leave with Lunus. Ruby guessed that Weiss wanted to partner with Pyrrha, judging by the sheer disappointment on her face. Ruby approached her and cleared her throat, “Uhm… hello?”
Weiss started, looking over to Ruby and then averting her gaze, “O-Oh. Hello. I’m Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. I suppose we’re partners.”
Okay, something was very wrong here. The Weiss Ruby knew at this time would not be like this at all. She spoke with a tone filled with anxiety, sadness, and shyness. Weiss Schnee was not shy! Ruby knew that much, but this girl was different. Maybe she was still Weiss, underneath that, but something had happened to make her act this way. It was off putting to Ruby, “I’m Ruby Rose, and… yeah, I guess so.”
Now, where was that Nevermore?
/-/
Lunus was only slightly surprised to find that Pyrrha was very amicable.
He was able to figure out a decent amount about her just from talking. She was kind, welcoming, a bit anxious and shy, but with a certain undercurrent of excitement that meant she was very interested to see what lay around the corner.
They reached the temple and didn’t see anyone else there at first. Though Pyrrha noted, “It seems like we weren’t the first here.” She gestured to the two missing pieces, “Which should we take?”
Lunus was about to respond, but before he could, the sound of a Nevermore cawing up ahead caught their attention. They both looked and saw Ruby riding the beast, using her scythe at its neck to keep it from making any sudden movements. She was being followed closely by Weiss, who flew beside her. Ruby then started to direct the beast down towards the earth, before firing off a .50 Caliber round that recoiled Crescent Rose so it would chop the beast’s head clean off.
The Nevermore descended further, crashing into the ground as Ruby remained on its back. She jumped off as it continued to skid past before crashing into some trees. She stretched, “That was a good workout!”
Weiss landed next to her, complaining softly, “You’re too reckless, what if that went wrong?” However, she stopped talking when she saw Pyrrha, looking away and brushing some hair out of her eyes, “Oh, uhm… hello.”
Suddenly, Yang burst through the trees, calling back, “Come on, Jeanne! Just don’t let go!” before coming to a stop near the temple, “Hey Ruby, Lunus, people I don’t know!” She grinned and went to grab the golden horse, “Oh hey, a cute little horsey!”
A Deathstalker burst through the trees with the now-named Jeanne Arc hanging on to the stinger for dear life, “Yang! Why’d you leave me here?! I’m gonna-” She then slipped, getting sent flying forward. Flying right into Yang’s arms as she moved to catch her, Jeanne blinked a few times in surprise, her face tinging red as she looked away, “U-Uhm, thanks.”
There wasn’t much time to get one’s bearings, though, as soon Lie Ren burst through the trees, and hot on his tail was a type of Grimm that Ruby had never seen before. It looked like a giant platypus and easily reached the size of an Ursa Major. On its back was armored plating that had a split in the middle, revealing several tendrils that writhed around atop it. It had two webbed feet with a pair of clawed hands, though it moved on all fours. Bone armor covered its beak and face.
Ren called back, “Eve, I told you this was a bad idea!”
Struggling to free herself from one of the tendrils was the person Ren was talking about, Eve Taurus, wielding a crimson colored katana not too dissimilar to what Ruby remembered Adam having, except as she hacked away at the tendril, her blade sparked with electricity. She gritted her teeth before delivering one final strike that sent her flying away as the tendril flared, before she landed on the ground with a grunt and muttered, “Damn it… if the other two could see me now...”
The other two? Ruby hadn’t the slightest idea what the woman was talking about, but there wasn’t really any time for that. Lunus raised his weapon and declared, “Splitback! Watch out for its claws, they can poison you.”
The Deathstalker was still approaching too, and so the eight hopeful students scrambled to get ready. First, Lunus went back and grabbed a golden queen piece before running back to the others’ side. Then, Weiss hurried to grab a piece, and Ruby let her, too focused on the Grimm to see what piece she had taken.
Ruby gripped her weapon tighter and said, “We should retreat! We can fight these things in a better spot if we keep moving!”
Weiss cleared her throat and readied her rapier after pocketing the chess piece, “Agreed! My Glyphs can slow the beasts down!”
Lunus started to step back, “A solid plan, fighting both of these things here is asking for trouble.”
Pyrrha transformed her spear into a rifle, “I’ll cover our retreat as well!”
The other four were in agreement on the plan of ‘run and live’, and so together they fled away from the beasts, Pyrrha and Weiss did what they could to slow down the beasts, allowing the group to make it to an old, worn down, bridge amidst the ruins of a long-dead kingdom.
The bridge didn’t break this time, as there was no Nevermore left to break it. Instead, the two teams split entirely on their own accord, with Ruby directing her four soon-to-be teammates to stop, “We’ll keep this thing away from the bridge! Its tendrils mean it could throw someone off easily.”
The Deathstalker continued to chase the other four, and Lunus asked, “Will they be okay?”
“They’ll be fine.” Ruby smiled, “Right now, let’s focus on taking out this thing!” She readied Crescent Rose and shot behind her, using the recoil to send her flying towards the beast. She hooked onto one of its hands and cut deep into it with her scythe, although it didn’t last, as soon the beast reared back and prepared to slam down onto the ground, forcing Ruby to flee from under it.
Lunus charged forward, tossing Selene onto the ground and letting it surf forward as he jumped onto it, ducking under one of the beast’s tendrils as it tried to strike at him. He grabbed ahold of Selene’s handle and used the Gravity Dust to make his weapon weigh less, so he could jump with it like one would a skateboard before letting the saw blade cut into the beast’s side, making it shriek in pain.
He jumped back as the beast shot several tendrils at him, pulling Selene with him. This gave Weiss the opportunity to create several Glyphs above her head, from which came several icicles that shot out and peppered the Splitback.
Pyrrha shot several rounds from her rifle into the beast before shifting her weapon back into a spear as she charged forward, stabbing at what part of the beast’s neck was exposed and causing it to shriek yet again in pain. From its back shot a bright green liquid, poison. Pyrrha jumped back and avoided it as it splashed on the ground and sizzled.
Meanwhile, Ruby was getting an idea, “Lunus! Can you keep it there?”
Lunus nodded and knelt on the ground, focusing as several trees around him bent and twisted. Wood shot from them and wrapped around the beast, rooting itself onto the ground in the process. The beast struggled, and the wood groaned; it was clear that the beast would break free given time. This prison of wood did, however, give Ruby time for the rest of her plan.
She pointed at Weiss, “Weiss! Your Glyphs can do all sorts of stuff right?” She asked, knowing the answer already, “Can you get ready to launch it into the air, and me?” Weiss nodded dutifully, and so Ruby turned to Pyrrha, “Pyrrha, when I say, I want you to shoot!”
Pyrrha nodded, and so the plan was set in motion. Lunus kept his prison of wood in place until Weiss’ Glyphs were in place, one in the air where Ruby could jump on it and prepare to get launched while the other, much larger, Glyph formed and steadied itself beneath the Splitback.
Finally, Ruby said, “Let’s go!” prompting Lunus to let the wood prison fall away, shattering to pieces as Weiss launched the beast into the air, sending it several dozen feet up, before launching Ruby right after it. She then used the recoil of Crescent Rose to launch herself further into the air, allowing her to get behind the beast.
She landed on its neck. She didn’t have time to behead it, but she did have time for something else, an old classic. She reached into her bag and produced two Dust crystals, one bright orange and the other bright red. She dropped Crescent Rose, letting it start falling as she took the crystals and jammed them into the beast’s eyes, causing it to shriek in pain.
It tried to grab her with the tendrils, but she turned into rose petals and flew away, reforming as she grabbed her scythe out of the air and shouted, “Pyrrha, now!” as she turned to face the beast.
Both her and Pyrrha fired several rounds at the beast, the recoil on Crescent Rose sending Ruby sailing towards the ground. A massive fireball exploded out due to the mixing of Dust rounds and the two potent Dust crystals, engulfing the beast while it was still in the air.
Ruby was certain she’d crash on the ground, but instead a wooden slide formed out of the ground, allowing her to land on that and instead slide safely down to the ground. She didn’t even get splinters!
The Grimm was turned to mere black smoke in the air as the fireball cleared, and Lunus found it in him to grin, “Nice job, Ruby!” She was certainly a great tactician, “I guess we should go help the others?”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said, looking back and seeing how the other team dispatched the Deathstalker, Jeanne stabbing into one of its eyes while Eve watched for an opening before slashing cleanly, cutting off one of the beast’s pincers. Yang punched out the other pincer, while Ren peppered it with bullets from a distance.
Sure enough, the beast fell, and with that, initiation was over for the two teams.
Lunus was conflicted, because there was a distinct possibility he’d end up on the same team as Ruby. He didn’t hate the idea of working with this new Ruby, but he would appreciate some breathing room. Oh well, he wasn’t the kind to complain, the opposite, in fact.
He’d deal with it, just as he’d been dealing with everything else that’s happened to him the past few days.