Chapter Text
Fall. Falling.
Ruby watched as darkness engulfed her, weightless, emotionless, her body numb. Whether it was from the weight of her failure this time around, or the overwhelming damage to her body that built upon itself from the events of the past few weeks.
She had no thoughts, or her thoughts would prove a risk of collapsing what was left of her emotional ego.
Why?
Why was it that everything had fallen out of place?
She witnessed her friend die once more, an entire kingdom fall to ruins partially from her gamble. She lied and fractured the mind of the very man who could have saved them all had they just been more trusting of him. And now, she doesn't even know if her comrades are even alive.
Her uncle Qrow, sister Yang, and teammates Weiss and Blake.
She didn't understand how her plan had ended up in failure, even after all that she had gone through, after all that planning...
Suddenly, she found herself somewhere.
Her eyes stared down at the dry dirt of the ground, the chill winds tugging her red cloak, as if telling her to wake from the nightmare.
And so she did.
Wordlessly, she brought her frame up from the dirt, body still exhausted from what had previously happened. Yet in an instant, she gasped as an impossible sight befell her vision.
A giant city on tracks rested in the distance, its huge metallic frame seemingly stretching for miles in the girl's estimate, with a trail of the massive city's tracks stretching well beyond the horizon.
Realizing that the city was the only way of survival in such a barren land devoid of life, She began her long trek forward, hoping nothing bad would happen.
It took an hour for the girl to reach the entrance, the massive landship appearing even larger than how it was from afar. Gathered around the entrance was a large group of people, who also wanted to enter. Yet what else caught her attention was the large sign on the top of the entrance, painted in white paint, with a curious logo on each side of the word.
ЧЕРНОБОГ
Ruby guessed the word was the name of the city, though it was indecipherable to her, as no written language from Remnant used these letters.
As Ruby blended into the crowd, her eyes drifted amongst the people. They were all faunus. Mostly exhibiting bear ears and tails, some more closely resembled an actual bear than a human. Yet what was similar amongst the crowd was how dishevelled they all were, wearing rags and tattered clothes, to the point where Ruby feared that she stood out amongst the crowd.
The line towards the entrance was long, and the girl's only form of 'entertainment' or something to do was listening in on the endless droning noise the crowd made. Yet in her moment of bored, she noticed something else strange within the crowd. Every once in a while, she'd spot a few individuals with even thicker clothes covering themselves. Some wrapped their arms, while others their entire face. Each time she got close to these individuals, she could feel her aura beginning to react like something was slowly breaking her aura, but not fast enough for it to regenerate before the next second of damage.
Having waited for about another hour, the exhausted huntress finally found herself in the front of the line, deep inside the megastructure was a sort of gate.
Surrounding the gates were a squad of heavily armed men, a black baton on their side, with some having their batons dyed red.
What she also realized was that the endless droning of indecipherable noise was indeed these people's language... And she probably was in trouble...
"Имя." The faceless soldier asked with a low growl, his voice sounding like it emitted from an old damaged radio.
"W-what?" Ruby could only squint her eyes in confusion as she tried to process what the soldier had just said. It was in a language totally foreign to her, and quite possibly not from her world.
"сука, у меня нет всего дня. Имя!" The soldier's voice grew angrier under the static of his broken speaker, his imposing body taking a step forward as Ruby noticed his hand already resting by the pummel of his baton. Yet Ruby still had nothing. Unable to answer, the two seemingly stared at each other, each one waiting for the other to answer, whilst the line behind them grew increasingly impatient.
"Просто впусти ее!"
"У нас тоже не весь день!" Some of the people in the crowd commented in irritation.
"I-I don't understand what you're saying..." Ruby muttered as she felt suffocated from all the attention that was forced onto her. She had no idea what to do, this helplessness crushing her, and so she froze, like a child nervous for their first-ever school presentation, she was frozen still.
"Чертов ответ!" The guard's short patience finally snapped as he produced his baton, raising it with the intent to strike down the defenseless girl.
Ruby had seen this before, how helpless she was in the face of danger. And in that instance, fear drowned her, instinctively raising her arms to cover her head in the process. Yet the moment the guard's arm was at its peak, a second guard rushed between the two and placed a hand by the first's shoulders.
"Вау! Вау! Товарищ, эта девушка из Виктории, дай мне разобраться с этим и иди уже на перерыв..." The second guard explained as the first finally backed off, turning around and leaving in the same direction the second came from.
"Чертовы викторианские подонки..." Ruby faintly heard the first mutter, still not knowing what he said. Finally calming down, Ruby lowered her arms as the new guard let out a sigh, only to lazily lean to the side of the podium, seemingly uncaring that the guard nearly struck Ruby down.
"Little lady, apologies for my comrade's personality... He just dealt with an infected shitbag at the start of his shift." The man explained. He still wore the same gas mask, furred hat and same trench coat over combat armour, but he wore a curious badge on his armband.
"Ah, that's unfortunate for him... Sorry for the commotion, kinda new here." Not knowing what an 'infected shitbag' was, Ruby decided to play along, hoping that her acting skills would allow her entrance into the city.
"Anyways, my comrade was just asking for your name. See, this is the border gate into our fine city of Chernobog, lovely for being absolutely average and boring." The man explained, Ruby finally noticing how his radio was far clearer than the first, allowing her to hear the faint accent of the man. English was clearly not his first language.
"Ruby, Ruby Rose." The girl explained with a fake smile, still feeling unwelcomed even with the second guard's familiarity of English.
"And why is a beautiful little Victorian lady like you doing in the borders of great Ursus?" The man asked as he eyed the impatient crowd behind Ruby.
'Ursus must be the country, and Chernobog is this city.' Ruby thought to herself.
"Well, I just wanted a quiet life for myself I guess. After all, Chernobog is boring like what you said, and Victoria is quite a busy place."
"Ah, of course, of course. From what I've heard, Victoria had become a shitstorm after the dukes there partnered up with those disgusting Sarkaz. Well, you're free to go, just after I check your body." The guard simply explained, with Ruby nodding- She recoiled back after taking a second to process what the man had just said.
"What?!" She asked in surprise, also a bit violated as she held her arms around her chest.
"Oh, no, no. Not like that. I mean this." The guard, suddenly realizing his mistake, produced a small device in his hand, something that resembled a scanner. "I meant to check if you are infected."
"Ah, sure..." Calming down, the girl simply began to follow the guard's instructions, waving the scanner around areas of her body, seemingly the only time it felt like he was taking his job seriously.
"Welp, no sign of infection, you're good to go, Miss Ruby Rose." The guard explained with a nod, pressing a button on the podium as the screen door opened up.
"T-thank you." Still not knowing what 'infection' the guard was checking for, Ruby kept her act together as she proceeded onwards, soon finding herself past the screen door.
"Oh and Miss Ruby." The guard suddenly called for her, "If you ever visit the police station to report some trouble, request for my assistance, Guard Captain Alexis Korschi!"
Nodding silently at the suggestion, Ruby finally stepped on the moving escalator and ascended. The escalator was extremely lengthy, as minutes went by, the girl scanned the ever-changing environment, from building-size engines to chains the length of miles. It was no magical floating city like Atlas, but it was in fact real. A real moving city, not bound by magic or a godlike artefact making it move, but a technological marvel that even puts the best of Remnant's technology to shame...
Yet as she eyed in awe at the impossibility of such a megastructure, she couldn't help but notice the multiple cloaked figures huddled in fires like rats, some laid motionless, while others sickly waddled and shuddered. She was quickly reminded of Mantle, how the people there suffered under the wrath of nature and Grimm. These cloaked figures were the trash of Chernobog, the untouchables.
Finally reaching the top of the escalator, her vision was quickly bombarded by the sight of a lively city, the people bustling with activity moved passed her, uncaring of who she was.
Minutes passed as she walked aimlessly across the streets, not knowing what her next plan might be. Though she knew it was better in the city than out in the wilderness, she still needed to find a place to sleep, and something to eat.
"Маленькая мисс, не хочешь ли ты познакомиться с этим городом?" A sudden voice alerts the girl as she sees a group of men beckoning Ruby to come with them, their smiles creeping her out.
"N-no thank you..." She waved her hands when suddenly, one of the men grabbed her by her cloak.
In an instant, she was thrown deeper into the alleyway, the men finally revealing their pipe weapons, all aimed at her. They were robbers.
"Она должна быть богатой дворянкой из столицы." Their leader snickered as one of his men dashed forward, swinging his pipe right onto her face.
It was so sudden that Ruby was once again reminded of her nightmare, and instinctively, the girl activated her semblance, covering herself in a cloud of rose petals, the steel pipe passed right through her.
The robbers froze as Ruby materialized a few steps away from them, falling backwards from how suddenly she had activated her semblance.
"Она заражена! Она заражена! Убей ее!" The leading man shouted as the group grew violent, putting their scarves over their nose and mouth as they charged the girl once more, but this time, they weren't going to rob her...
Ruby recognized the manic anger in their eyes as she took a step back. They wanted to kill her, for some reason, but they just wanted to. Whatever the case was, it must have been because of the use of her semblance.
'Do these people not know what semblances are?' The thought felt foreign to the girl, well, she quickly remembered herself to be in a world not of her own...
She ran, tired, but she kept her pace. Her manic breath unstill, her heart beating faster than ever. She had realized that all the events leading to this moment, the hours trying to get to the city, the fall from the crossroads, and even her plan on defeating the general, these all happened in the span of a single day, and her exhaustion had finally reached its climax.
Suddenly as she turned a corner, something blocks her view, and her heart dropped.
She was backed into a corner, with no way to over the wall, or anywhere else, she stood face to face with the vicious robbers, their weapons tensed as they all charged, shouting words still alien to her.
It felt suffocating, and she was scared, helpless, she wanted to cry. Without her weapon, she could do nothing, and without anything, she could die right there, without seeing any of her friends ever again, without even returning to her world once more...
She then remembered the screams of the people she tried to save, how her plan nearly succeeded in the end, only to have it all come crashing down as she watched her team fall one by one into the void.
"Привет!" Suddenly, a shout catches everyone's attention as Ruby was snapped out of her nightmarish trance, tears trailing down her cheeks as she could eye a singular old man at the alleyway's entrance.
His long hair was white as snow, only to be differentiated by a set of colourful wings sprouting from his top. Wrapped around his body was a slick raincoat, and embellished on the right shoulder was a large A, and underneath, the word 'Azazel'.
"Это тот зараженный ублюдок-доктор!" The robbers shouted as they quickly changed their attention towards the man.
The man calmly walked forward as the closest of the group swung his pipe. Ruby, still frozen in fear, could only watch as the man simply dodged the attack, countering with a punch that sent the first attacker flying backwards, only landing a foot close to the terror-stricken girl.
"Wha-" Ruby mumbled as the man continued to walk, dodging and striking so fast that even a trained huntsman like her had a hard time tracking his movements. From her eyes, it looked as if the man wasn't even real as each attack seemingly phased right through him. But in reality, the man was simply moving in tiny margins to where each attack only slid across his coat, never once touching him.
"Какого черта вы, ребята, делаете!? Это просто старик!" The leader shouted as more and more men were flung into different areas of the alley, the old man still calmly walking towards her. Only, as the last of his men came crashing into a nearby window, the leader finally showed fear, he was now also cornered by the old man.
Yet a malicious thought quickly surfaced on the man's mind as he turned to face the terrified Ruby,
"Не двигайся или я нападу на девушку!" The leader smiled as he laid his pipe mere inches beside Ruby's neck, the girl shaking once more as terrifying memories haunted her thoughts, tears streaming down her face as she helplessly squeezed herself even further into the wall, her head hurting from the pressure.
Eyeing the old man, Ruby silently plead for his help, her hands grasping each other to stop the uncontrollable shaking. In what felt like minutes, the old man simply nodded.
"Молодой человек, вы действительно хотите это сделать?" The old man asked in a low hum. Even with the language barrier, Ruby could tell that his words carried a sense of sorrow and regret for whatever he was going to do, but also a rising danger, like his words were hot embers.
"Что делать? Ты собираешься убить меня?" The robber snickered as he gestured at the ten feet of land separating him and the old man.
"Тогда очень хорошо..." The old man sighed as his tone stiffened.
SHING!
In a flash, the man had instantly travelled the ten feet separating him and the robber, his coat separating down the middle as Ruby noticed a large two-handed sword unsheathed from his hip. In a single second, she felt his blade run between the two, severing the robber's arm in the process.
"Гаах! Чертовски больно!" The robber collapsed to the ground in pain as he grasped the stump of where his hand once was. Yet the old man simply ignored the cries as he finally stood face to face with the terrified Ruby, still in shock by how fast and skilled the man was.
"Юная леди, вы ранены?" The old man asked, once more breaking
"W-what?" She stammered, also surprised by how tall he was even with his aged appearance.
"You speak Victorian? Then let me repeat what I said. Young lady, are you hurt?"