Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kim Possible or RWBY.
Mint
By: Imyoshi
It was a first for the Schnee Company and the world of Remnant all together.
It was only logical when anyone thought right down to it. Drilling and mining Dust after Dust from mountain after mountain and eventually someone's bound to find some hidden treasure or long lost artifact from ancient times buried deep within the bedrock.
Finding a frozen block of mysterious ice hidden in some old mountain with a human trapped inside only seemed semi-normal in the end. A layer in between treasure and long lost artifact and window to the past, but it happened. And experts dated the ice to be as old as two thousand years, meaning the dead male trapped inside was the same age in theory even though he looked not to be any younger than his mid-teens. It also meant that Remnant's human history needed a serious revaluation.
But what the experts were really interested in was the weapon frozen within his hands.
To find a weapon dated so far in the past was a dream for weapon masters and engineers who secretly hoped to study and see the ancient craft of their far distant ancestors. A dream come true, really. But the Council of Remnant had prohibited anymore tampering with the ancient relic for fear of damaging the body and weapon dormant inside, and thus decided to properly place the frozen specimen into a museum for others to see and awe at Remnant's distance and shrouded past.
And hence, the mysterious block of ice and its prisoner remained at Vale's National Museum for all to see.
Perfect for a field trip!
...
"Alright class!" Professor Oobleck hummed in absolute glee, unable to contain much of his excitement at the off chance to properly teach his naive ducklings on the finer points of history. "For today's special field trip, you have permission to wander off for an hour before we have to meet up at the collection of prehistoric bones for a brief lecture. Any questions—no! Good!"
Weiss Schnee, who had her hand half raised up, puffed out her cheeks at her professor's blatant escape. Obviously the man was too enthralled with being in a museum to consider taking questions, just asking for the pleasantries and whatnot.
The nerve.
As other students started to wander off and stare at pictures and artifacts that made them think nonsensical things, Team RWBY remained at the entrance while Team JNPR chased after a fleeing Nora, stuck at deciding which exhibit to head over first. Blake had a certain gleam in her eyes for the animal exhibit even with her head in her book, while both Yang and Ruby wanted to head towards the ancient art room and explore. Weiss on the other hand remembers Winter messaging her the day before that a new attraction had been added to the museum—the frozen boy—and she's quite gripped at the chance of seeing this famous ice prison for herself.
Pictures and videos only do so much compared to actually staring right at the ice in person.
"Let's head over to the frozen boy exhibit," Weiss added firmly into the mix, stopping her friend's squabble. They blink a few times at her, and she's crossing her arms. "What? I thought it would be interesting to see what all the fuss was about."
Blake hummed, "Besides the fact that it changes Remnant's entire human history?"
"Yup!"
Ruby's not too convinced. Her heart's really set on seeing that painting of the dogs playing poker, "I don't know..."
"They say his weapon is the oldest ever found and dates back to over two thousand years old—!"
"What are we waiting for?!" Ruby pushed Weiss towards the room, using her semblance to give her an extra oomph! "We have a block of ice to see!"
Weiss smirked in a Schnee like manner, knowing anything weapon related could grab her leader's attention. Underhanded towards Blake and Yang, maybe. But the sight shouldn't take too long to see; after all, it is just a block of ice housing a dead teen inside. Sure the guy is from an era long forgotten to even Remnant's greatest scholars, which shrouds the teen in a bit of mystery, but in the end, it was just a man trapped in a block of ice.
And soon enough, Team RWBY finds themselves within the exhibit, experiencing the ablest cold the second they enter. Makes sense to them, gotta keep the room cold so the ice does not melt and destroy the precious treasure. But even Weiss will admit the room's is unusually cold to the point it gives her goose bumps.
Spotting the display easy enough in the center of the room, Team RWBY walk over and stand between relic and the stand separating them, getting a much better look at the individual trapped inside the icy prison. And if wasn't for the fact that he was trapped in a block of ice, none of them would've clinched that this guy was from the past, except for maybe the primitive looking sword resting between his arms and feet in a sleeping position.
Getting past his unusual style of dark clothing, Ruby notes his bright yellow hair and layer of freckles on his face. She couldn't see his eyes with them shut in a sleeping gesture, but she could see the strange sword resting from the center of his legs all the way up to his shoulder. To her, the position looked a tiny bit strange. It sort of looked like he was sleeping before he somehow got frozen, like he knew was going to be frozen on purpose.
But of course that's all just the crazy inside her head.
Still, "He looks kinda sad."
"He's dead, Ruby," Yang smirked, tapping on the ice when no one was looking. "I would be sad too if I kicked the bucket."
"Aw! I see you found the frozen boy exhibit!" They didn't even need to turn around and greet the voice; Professor Oobleck just zoomed in front of them with Ruby like speed before they had the chance to. "Quite a marvelous specimen, isn't he? A true work of history."
"Professor," Ruby quipped, raising and swinging her hand in an unneeded fashion. "Does anyone know how he got frozen?"
The question doesn't catch Oobleck off guard, merely forces a small pause, "Aw, yes! I mean, no! No one is certain on how our young friend came to be frozen! We don't even have any record from the time period he's estimated to be from or any indication if he had been alive or dead when he got frozen. Why do you ask?"
Ruby glanced back at the ice, feeling an unnerving feeling chilling down to her bones, "I don't know. It's just... he looks like he knew he was going to be put in a block of ice. I just want to know why."
Oobleck smiled proudly at the young historian hiding within the adorable girl, fixing his glasses with a slight push up his nose. "And that is why we record our history, Miss Rose. So we can have the answers to those confusing questions. And even more so we don't repeat our past mistakes."
The answer seemed to pacify his student, and Oobleck fixed Team RWBY and the chuck of ice with a nod of his head before he's gone in a quick zoom of speed. Off to educate some other clueless students on the marvels that existed within the museum. Maybe even steal some coffee from the museum staff room before anyone noticed. His blood sugar was dangerously reaching normal levels.
Most of Team RWBY sighed and watched off in the distance as Professor Oobleck matched a speed only Ruby could move with the latter glaring back at the ice with the poor soul dead inside. She felt strange looking at the sleeping teen, wondering how it feels to be trapped in a block of ice for over two thousand years.
Must really be lonely?
Ruby didn't know why, but her mouth beat her logic to the punch—again.
"Hi! I'm Ruby Rose!" the glorious leader waved, attracting her team's attention. "I'm going to keep you company! It must be lonely in there with no one to talk to? I'll be your friend!" Eh, she's always been more of a doer than thinker, anyways.
Yang's the first to react, snickering a bit, "Ruby, he's not alive anymore. It's just a chunk of ice."
"Nope!" she fought with Ruby Rose level logic, slapping the ice, ignoring the Do Not Touch sign hanging right beside her. "Doesn't matter! He's still my new friend!"
Only Ruby Rose could find a way to become best friends with a huge chunk of ice.
Blake peered over her book, actually snapping it shut when Ruby hugged the exhibit, ignoring the freezing ice to the touch. The feline eyes her partner, "Don't you think you should talk to your sister? She's making friends with a block of ice?"
Yang thought real hard about that, and memories of Ruby playing tea party and make believe with hers and Uncle Crow's weapons flashed before her eyes. Adorable and flustered Ruby hugging and cleaning Crescent Rose also flashed before her. And in the end, Yang probably should've snip that bud before the talking to her weapon became a thing.
Eh... Ruby turned out fine. A little kooky, sure. Maybe some socially awkward tendencies came forth from that as well, but there are much worst things Ruby could get herself into than being friends with a chunk of ice. And it's not like Yang's worried about the frozen water influencing poor impressionable Ruby.
Who knows? Maybe the chunk of ice and guy inside had more personality than their resident Snow Angel.
"Eh," Yang waved nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders with no worry whatsoever. "She'll be fine. What harm could it do? We already got an Ice Queen with zero personality on our team already. What's one more?"
"Hey!" Weiss huffed, not feeling any sort of jealously that her leader was choosing a block of ice to be her new friend. It's not the weirdest thing she's seen her do.
Playing Weiss's emotions with that silver tongue of hers, Yang grinned cheekily at Weiss, daring her to challenge the brawler. Weiss actually looked ready to counter, an argument on the tip of her tongue, but she bit her lip, and with a small twirl and humph, began walking away to the next exhibit. No way in Monty was she going to let Yang jump on her nerves. She's much stronger than that.
"What's wrong, Weiss-cream? You need to cool off," Yang smirked, chasing after the girl. "Aww, don't give me the cold shoulder!"
Much stronger Weiss keeps telling herself as her pace quickened ever so slightly.
Sighing at her partner running off, Blake peered over her shoulder to see her leader truly talking to the dead guy. Now that's commitment if Blake ever saw it. She didn't think she could actually go ahead and make conversation with a piece of history. Granted, she's never tried and history is one of her favorite subjects. But she's not going to either, anytime soon. And the words leaving her leader's mouth are all nonsense, childish really.
But who was she to judge? She's still hiding from that damn dog in their room.
Allowing Ruby to finish up her... conversation... Blake calmly followed the voice of a boisterous Yang, clearly noting which exhibit they wandered off to. If she actually hurries, she might be able to stop Yang from breaking anything valuable or causing too big of a problem.
Left alone with the frosty relic, Ruby continued telling him about her second day at Beacon, going almost into Nora Valkyrie level detail when it came to the part of the Death Stalker and Nevermore. More specifically, the part where Weiss didn't jump when ordered to and had to be saved by Jaune for failing to follow such simple instructions.
Seriously! Her partner could be so stubborn sometimes. And she's the one that calls her a dolt! She didn't even thank Jaune for softening up her landing. And that fall had looked so painful. So did the sound of his back breaking. But did Weiss say thank you? Nope!
"Then I was running up the wall like a ninja!" Ruby demonstrated with her fingers on the block of ice, making whoosh sounds as her fingers traveled higher until she's standing on her tiptoes. "And then I cut that Nevermore's head clean off. It was awesome!"
The block doesn't reply—she's totally fine with that—and Ruby thinks about what else to talk about. Then her eyes lit up as she recalls her first day at Beacon. So Ruby Rose goes into some snippets of detail until the moment where Yang left her to fend for herself in an unforgiving courtyard. The cruelty of her sister still haunts her to this day, and she'll never forget what happened after!
"So after Yang ditched me," she huffed angrily, refusing to stomp her feet even if the temptation vexed her so. "I accidentally tripped and fell on my partner Weiss's luggage. Oh! She's the girl with the white hair," Ruby added so her frozen friend wouldn't be too confused. "And boy you should have seen her! She was really mad and wouldn't stop yelling about some stuff that had to do with not being responsible and bleh!"
"Then it everything went horribly wrong. She pulled out a vial of Red Dust," reaching into her combat skirt's hidden pocket, Ruby fished out a vial of Red Dust. "Like this and I—achoo!"
Professor Oobleck did say history has an annoying habit of repeating itself. Another one of life's cruel lessons.
Falling hard from the sudden force, the little reaper fell on her butt as she sneezed at the worst possible time. Somewhere in the background, she can hear the telltale signs of another Crater Face incident happening all over again, and she groans at both her sore butt and her utter humiliation.
Not again! Not in front of her new friend! Not—?
Crack!
Opening her eyes, she looks up to see a small crack form on the ice, and her heart almost leaps out of her chest. In a flash, she's at the ice, inspecting the damage, forever grateful that no one but her had been around to see her little accident. Ruby then breathes a sigh of relief as the crack appears to be nonthreatening. It would've looked bad if she'd actually broke the relic.
"Phew!" Ruby sighed with a slow wipe of her forehead and easy grin. "You scared me there! Don't do that!" and she lightly slaps the ice prison.
Which promptly shatters as her hand remains leveled in the air.
Whelp, she's so screwed it's not even funny! She just destroyed history! A new personal best.
"Gah!" she screamed, horror entrapping each of her facial muscles. Ruby panics even more, looking around the pile of ice shards as a heavy mist dwells within the dead center. She feebly tries to reattach the blocks of ice, refusing to give up... until the blocks in her hands break into even more pieces. "I'm in sooooo much trouble! Dad's gonna have my head! Gasp! He might even take away Crescent Rose!"
Panicking, Ruby's arms move in a blur to gather the ice into a pile, but a weak cough stops everything she's doing. Her head whips back, hoping whoever it was might give her the chance to explain, but no one's there. Another cough echoes in front of her, and Ruby slowly turns around to stare at the icy mist with wide eyes. From within the mist, she can see the outline of a person weakly standing up.
Time seems to freeze for Ruby as parts of the mist begins to dissolve away until she can finally make out a more prominent outline of the figure. Then her heart stops at the mop of unkempt blond hair peeking out from spots of the mist.
Stepping weakly out the mist, the teen uses his sword to balance himself as he shoos away the fog to reveal his dark chocolate eyes. He's got a good head over her in the terms of height. He then rubs away some stray ice still frozen to his hair and shoulders, grunting at the obvious stiffness of his muscles. Eventually his and her eyes meet, and the tiny grin of his draws her completely in.
"Where am I?" he asked suddenly, observing the cooler of a room. "And why am I so cold. It's like a freezer in here."
Afraid to move, Ruby doesn't answer his question. She's far too stunned at everything to even acknowledge his valid point that said room is in fact a freezer. Meant to preserve him! The supposed dead guy! Standing right in front of her!
"Hello?" he smiles, waving a hand in front of her face, but the action causes him to grunt in discomfort from his muscle's soreness. "Arg! It feels like I got crushed by a steamroller."
Luckily for him, that seemed to pull Ruby out of her funk, and she jumps to her feet in an explosion of emotions!
"How! Huh! Who! What! When! Why!" she couldn't seem to focus on a single question, and she never gets to chose either with the pitter-patter pf nearby voices and footsteps stealing the scene. Beyond terrified and confused, she impulsively grabs the guy's hand and drags in a hurry out the exhibit before anyone could spot them.
He struggles to stay steady as his legs burn from the sudden exertion, "Wait! Where are we going?!"
Ruby ignores him as much as she's ignoring the sudden cries from onlookers at the frozen teen exhibit that lacked a frozen teen. They round a corner and she shushes him in an effort to hear what the commotion sounded like. Mostly security detail rushing to the sudden news of the missing teen, but security nonetheless. And she fears for some unknown reason. Maybe it's her hunter instincts acting up?
Pushing him aside, Ruby drags the guy outside as they sneak past more of the museum's security force. Fortunate for her, the guy seems to play along, actually sneaking through the corners and shadows far better than she ever could, like he's been doing this for his whole life. Then before she knows it, they're outside the museum and walking by some fountain while the inside of the museum is in a state of wide panic.
Reaching the exit, the guys grabs her by the arm, "Now that you're done dragging me around like some rag doll, would you mind telling me where I'm at or what's even going on? I'm kinda freaking out here!"
Ruby suddenly remembers who she had kidnapped—er! Liberator? No. Rescued sounds better.
Freeing her arm, her tongue is still tied, not sure at all where to begin. Her eyes are wide again, and she plays the the hem of her combat skirt at her shyness. What is she supposed to say? That's she's both scared and fascinated? That she has absolutely no idea what to say?
Not liking her silence, he crosses his arms, "Well? Can you at least tell me why we were running?"
And her shyness turns into boldness, "I don't know, okay! I panicked! One minute we were there and now we're here! And—And what's your name?"
Unfazed by her sudden question, he blinks as he strains to edge away the stiffness in his limbs, "My name's Ron, Ron Stoppable! Nice to meet ya! And what's yours my current kidnapper?"
Remembering her manners, Ruby's face lights up, "Hi! I'm Ruby Rose!" Whoa! Déjà vu much!
Glad to have some sort of normalcy back, Ron groans from the burning coming from his legs. The pain's almost hot and cold at the same time, and he can feel his body fight tooth and nail to keep him standing. Each muscle of his hurts like hell, and all he wants to do is sit down. Strangely enough, he feels rejuvenated, so he's not tired, just very sore.
"Okay..." he trailed, relying somewhat on his sword to stand. "Now, can you tell me where I'm at and how I'd get here?"
Ruby seems again to be at a loss for words, still not believing what or who she was talking to. It's just not possible, "You're at a museum?" Pausing, she has her own question, "What's the last thing you remember?"
That's a great question!
Ron tries to remember what he can, but everything is doused in a heavy fog. He can remember his past just fine, but the bits and pieces of the last few days in his memories are all just a giant blur on a chalkboard. Still, he did catch what this girl Ruby had just told him, "Nothing much... why are we at a museum? Why was I at a museum?"
Ruby seems to deflate at his answer, not sure if she could just blurt out where her new friend Ron had just been residing at only a few minutes ago. It's a delicate situation, but she must push on through. Her Uncle Qrow always did say go with the direct approach. No matter how uncomfortable the moment was, he taught her to treat it like a band-aid. Just tear it off!
"You were frozen in a block of ice! You were a museum display before I accidentally sneezed and broke the ice imprisoning you!" she blurts out, slapping her hands over mouth. Before he could respond, she grabs his wrist and pulls him away as more guards seem to focus around the museum. "C'mon! We can talk more once we're away from here!"
Oh! They're running again! Just what his legs need right now. Although, through the run, Ron almost trips as Ruby's words seem to snap something in him. He briefly looks back at the building they've escaped from, allowing pure confusion to grab hold of his features.
"Wait? I've been frozen in a block of ice? Wait a minute! I was a museum display!"
...
Walking around the Kingdom called Vale, Ron struggled to keep up with Ruby as his legs burned with intensity. After learning that he had been frozen—which made the stiff muscles problem a lot more understanding—he started asking Ruby a lot of questions through the run, but she hardly answered, only giving him the briefest yes or no responses and focused more on looking over her shoulder in a constant state of paranoia.
Finally they reach something that Ruby explains is a Bullhead, and the little reaper finally relaxes as they take a seat. The moment's short lived though as Ron sighs to catch his breath, and Ruby can't help but giggle, "Wow! You're outta shape."
He returns her mocking with an amused sideways glance. "Sorry, it feels like my muscles are gonna explode. I'm normally way better at running. Trust me. I got mad running away skills."
Mad running away skills? She almost scoffs at his claim. She has mad running away skills. Her power is literally to run! What can he possibly know about running? Nothing she wants to say, but instead remains quiet as Ron tries to even out his breathing. It's a fairly awkward silence in the Bullhead as the shuttle takes off, but Ron doesn't seem to notice. He just closes his eyes for a bit and settles down onto the seat, content to allowing wherever this machine was taking him.
Time doesn't seem to matter anymore, and she's stuck with a lot of questions. Like maybe how he survived being trapped in a block of ice or maybe what the past was like. Were there Grimm there? Does he know what a Grimm was? So many questions! Yet Ruby makes no attempt to talk, thinking over what might be happening at the museum right now.
"So... I've been frozen for over two thousand years."
Pulled from her thoughts, Ruby frowns at the broken tone in his voice, hating how she had to be the one to tell him that. A little something of Ron had died the second he heard, and she wished she could've taken that all away. But what said has been said, and she can't do anything about it. Hell, the little fact still irked her to no end. How he survived being encased in ice for so long confused her profoundly. Not so much the idea, but just everything about it!
"Yup."
Ron seems to smile at the simplicity of her answer, it's a weak and fragile grin, but a smile is a smile. "Great, just perfect. Frozen in a block of ice for over two thousand years. That's the smell of a blockbuster hit right there. My life's just one crazy adventure after another."
Ruby tilts her head at Ron's easy joke, "You're... you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would?"
"I could say the same thing about you." Ruby remains quiet, and Ron settles down into his chair and stares wishfully at the window. "It's not the strangest thing that's happened to me." It's a blatant lie. He pretends it's the truth, though. More for his sake than Ruby's. "One time I was turned into a giant beaver and almost a monkey."
"You're not normal."
This time Ron's smile is stronger, "This coming from the girl who likes to talk to blocks of ice? Besides, I don't believe in being normal. Never be normal! That's the motto I live by. It's gotten me this far!" she's affected by his positive mood. "So, where are we going?"
She seems to be at a loss for an answer. Ruby couldn't exactly pinpoint the reason she even rushed Ron out of the museum. And everything after that had been purely instinctual from there. There's no plan. No goal. Nothing. The little reaper isn't even sure what her next step was.
Take him to Beacon... and then what? Talk to Headmaster Ozpin and hope for the best. Normally that plan worked perfectly in the past, but she's not too keen on pushing her luck anymore than absolutely necessary. Plus, this problem wasn't exactly... normal. Even for the shenanigans she gets herself into.
"Ruby?" Ron nudged her shoulder. "Hello? Earth to Ruby Rose."
"Oh! Sorry," she laughed awkwardly, pausing at his weird phrase. "Wait? What does Earth to Ruby Rose mean?"
He blinked, "It means what it means. Your mind was stuck somewhere else and I pulled you back down to our planet. Simple."
She still can't seem to wrap her mind around it, "But why did you say Earth?"
Now Ron's really lost, slightly glaring at her, "You know, because the planet we live on is called Earth? It's not that hard."
She shook her head, "No... it's called Remnant." he doesn't respond, allowing his eyes to widen slightly. Then he's looking out the window and the passing clouds, face scrunched up in sadness once more. It concerns her, "Ron?"
"... So much has changed." Another awkward silence fills the Bullhead, and Ruby sees Ron tightly grip that sword of his. She wants to ask about it, but her curiosity is held back by the sad emotions Ron seemed to be releasing. Maybe a different question that's been bugging her could satisfy her deep, growing hunger for history. If only Professor Oobleck could see her now.
She kicks her feet out, "Sooo... what were the Grimm like in your time?"
"What the heck's a Grimm?"
...
Sneaking Ron Stoppable into her team's room wasn't so hard. They literally walked there as soon as the Bullhead had landed, and Ron hadn't stopped asking many questions. Mostly ones about the strange powers everyone has after Ruby explained to him what the enemies of humanity were like. He had been stunned—still was—but compared to the vast majority of humans, Ron seemed able to cope to any situation given to him after a few minute of relentless panic.
He calls it the power that nothing is impossible.
She just thinks he's weird.
"And this is Team RWBY's room! My team's room," Ruby proclaims powerfully as she opens the door to Team RWBY. "This is where all the magic happens!"
Ron observes the room in a quiet stare. He didn't know what to comment on first. The half-haphazardly hanging bed, the split room curtains, the idea Ruby named her team after her, or the other bed being held by a stack of books. Well, at least someone got more use out of those than he every did. Good for them.
Closing the door behind him, he's glad that his muscle's stiffness has seemed to fix itself. They're still sore, but the pain has finally come and gone. Don't get the guy wrong, he's still stuck on how he survived being frozen in a block of ice for so long. By all accounts of science he should have kicked the bucket a long time. But Ron Stoppable is anything but optimistic. Magic does in fact exist in this world.
Maybe some came through for him all these years?
Wouldn't be the first time.
It would help if he could remember the days leading up to being frozen. That would be perfect! Maybe he had been on a mission?
Shaking his head, Ron tosses his sword and sits on the bed directly under the other bed suspend by a stack of books. He's far more trusting on the books to hold out over the bed being suspend by ropes tattered to the ceiling.
Ruby sits on the other bed, having seemed to get the whole frozen in a block of ice out of her system, and kicks her feet out, "So, tell me about yourself? What did you do all those years ago?"
Remembering his past brings up an uncomfortable feeling in his heart, and Ron fights the urge to reach out and grab his chest. Still, the memories bring some hope to his eyes, "Me and my best friend used to travel around the world and stop bad guys from taking over the world. We were a crime fighting team. She was a hero."
What's the point in lying now? Everyone he knows is dead. Whoa! That's a grim outlook on life. True, but grim.
Ruby can't help herself as she jumps off the bed to sit beside him, "Really! You used to go around the world and stop bad guys?" Her eyes furrowed, "Wait a gosh darn second! How do I know you're not lying to me?"
He shrugs easily, grinning, "You don't. But I have no reason to lie. What would I gain out of it? Nothing! Zip! Everyone I know is gone, so there's no reason to keep my past a secret," he joked tiredly, but the humor is lost as Ruby's face falls.
"I'm sorry."
Ron waved away her concern, "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. I got myself somehow stuck in this sitch. Not I gotta deal with it."
Ruby wants to ask about what the word sitch meant, but she's suddenly stopped by the sword Ron had thrown onto the bed. The blade floats beside Ron's shoulder, and the light returns once more to his sadden smile, actually erasing all the coldness that grabbed him. He doesn't seemed at all freaked out about a floating sword, in fact, the gesture only makes him happier than before.
Though the gesture is lost to Ruby who's jumped away in a panic, "Ah! The sword's floating!"
Grabbing the sword, Ron laughed at her freak out, "What? I thought you told me that this world is all about the weaponry and freaky powers?" he points the sword smugly at her. "Have you been lying to me, Miss Rose?"
"What? No! It's just we don't have swords that float!"
Ron throws the sword up, laughing even more at Ruby's expression as the sword floats playfully in the air, "Well... as you can see, the Lotus Blade is more than just a sword. It's the greatest weapon you'll ever see!"
Bragging. He's bragging now. And it's feels great. Great to laugh even against the dire sitch he was in. Even when he's faced with a harsh reality. Because for just one moment, life doesn't seem all that bad. At least he had the Lotus Blade. One item from his past survived alongside him. Now if only he could figure out how he came to being frozen in a block of ice or how he survived being frozen, then everything will finally make sense.
What Ron Stoppable didn't know was that Ruby Rose was a classic weapon's nut, and anyone claiming to have a super awesome weapon or superior weapon always ignited a fire in her eyes, "Oh yea!" she pulls out a red rectangle from behind her back, waving it in front of Ron's amused face. "Well I have a better weapon. This is my baby! Crescent Rose!"
Pressing a hidden switch, the rectangle box turns into a high-caliber sniper-scythe, and she waits for her new friend to see the error of his ways. But it never comes. His smirk is still strong.
"I've seen better." Honestly, after seeing Spinning Tops of Doom, doors that go whoosh, and death rays of all sizes, the wow factor just wasn't there anymore. The part being frozen in a block of ice only cinched it, "And the Lotus Blade still beats your badical scythe."
The fire only burns brighter in her eyes, "Are you comparing that piece of scrap metal to my baby!"
He pretends to take offense to that, smirking with a challenging smile, "I think you stole my line." Tossing the sword again into the air, it spins and comes back down as an exact replica of Crescent Rose. "My weapon's power is limited to my imagination. If I can imagine the weapon I need, then I have it. So... sorry! I win! But, you know, thanks for playing!"
The Lotus scythe then floats in the air, next to Ron Stoppable, doing cool like flips for his amusement. He toys with the weapon's features, already knowing how it works thanks to his link with his sword. Although, seeing Ruby trying to collect her thoughts and not trip on her two feet is his own reward.
"How! Huh! Who! What! When! Why!" so, they're back to this?
"You might want to slow down before you bite your tongue." she did no such thing and kept on rambling nonsense, and Ron wondered if perhaps he broke her? Maybe this was why the sword's origins had been kept a secret. People tended to break when faced with its sheer awesome power or simply the impossible. "Uh, Ruby? You okay?"
She's shaking him by the collar of his black shirt, inducing Ron in a never-ending loop, "How did you do that?" she lets him go and jumps to grab the Lotus Blade, inspecting the doppelganger scythe with her weapon smith eye for any faulty details. But, nope! It's an exact replica, right down to the paint job. "And how can I get one of these?!"
She tries to make the scythe change into something with even more shaking, but nothing happens. Ron has to pluck the weapon out of her hands before she damages the room and promptly changes the scythe back into a sword. Of course the action only attracts more questions than answers, and Ruby Rose has a lot of questions for the ex-sidekick.
He rubs the side of his neck, "It's kinda of weird. You see, I have this strange power that allows me transform the Lotus Blade into any weapon I imagine. There used to be another person who could also do that, but..." he doesn't say more, Ruby already knows where that line had been heading. "So the sword only works for me, and it's the only one I know of."
Outraged and broken, Ruby folds her hands and pouts, "That's not fair." She then slumps back down onto the bed, sadden at the miss opportunity. "I really wanted to see what Crescent Rose looked like with an extended mag and maybe a flamethrower."
Taken back by her usual defeated sigh, Ron looks down at the Lotus Blade, having a sort of eye conversation with the piece of mystical metal, and sighs at Ruby's sad groan.
Well, she did free him from his icy tomb. And Ron Stoppable's all about returning the favor.
Plus, his muscles are starting to ache again. He could really use a breather and this bed was soft.
...
Before resting for a bit, Ron transformed the Lotus Blade into a Crescent Rose of Ruby's dreams so she could dismantle the scythe and discover all the little quirks that made the weapon tick. Oh sure, she still had so many questions for Ron and vice-versa, but Crescent Rose 2.0 had her complete attention for now. And she tinkered away, awing at the hidden delights she finds as she takes apart the bolts and screws of her future baby.
Taking all the notes she needs, she tucks them away for later usage. Then the Lotus Blade floats in the air and transforms back into its base form and Ruby can't stop her words of utmost wisdom escape her lips as she reaches for the sword.
"Now that's a katana."
Grabbing the blade, Ruby looks over her shoulder at a sleeping Ron and then back at the magical blade. An imaginary light bulb flickers on above her head, and she tightly grips the blade above her shoulders in a ninja pose she saw in a movie once. And it's not like Ron would mind if she messed around with his awesome piece of scrap metal. He was once part of a hero team, after all.
They're all about the sharing.
Swinging the sword playfully in the room, Ruby makes ninja sounds and does kicking poses as she flings herself between the beds. She attempts to run up the wall, but falls flat on her butt. Doesn't stop her from trying it a second time before quitting that idea and going back to pretending to be a ninja. She's even tempted at asking her frozen friend if he had been ninja, hence the katana for a weapon.
Swinging the blade in an arc, Ruby doesn't hear the knob to her team's door turning until it's far too late.
Opening the door, Yang stepped in with Weiss and Blake on her tail, and spots Ruby's hair off in the corner of her eye. She grins at her sister's presence, "Hey sis! Where have you been? You missed it! Apparently somebody stole that frozen guy's dead body. Some crazy whack job probably stole it to do something... freaky... with... it?"
Yang, Blake, and Weiss stop to see Ruby trip over her own two feet and lose grip of the sword she had been holding. The blade flies upward and cuts one of the ropes holding her bed up and the other rope barely manages to keep the bed from falling. The Lotus Blade is in the meantime stuck into the drywall, but the girls' eyes are on their glorious leader.
"Uh?" Ruby stalls, looking up at the sword and Ron's still undiscovered body, "I can explain?"
And the rope holding the bed together snaps.
Crash!
The crash shakes the walls enough to free the sword stuck in the ceiling and land right by Blake's feet. The Faunus peers down at the sword, calmly grabbing it, and picking up Ruby's distress gasp as she does. Her catlike eyes narrow at the blade and then the way Ruby seemed to be twiddling her fingers in a guilty way. And finally her eyes spot a fifth person in the other bed and all hell breaks loose.
"This sword..." Blake dawns accusingly, "is the same one at the museum that had been trapped in the frozen boy exhibit... that had just been recently hit by a theft. And the missing dead body is right there," she points, and all eyes are centered at the motionless body.
No one says a word for the briefest of seconds. Blake's calm and strained, Weiss is angry and confused, and Yang's twitching with a meltdown around the corner. Ruby has her hand raised to speak, but no words come out. In all, it's a pretty awkward silence in Team RWBY's room.
Then, without much warning, Yang's meltdown happens as her eyes dart between the Ruby and the missing body. She's not stupid. Why steal the sword and the body if all Ruby wanted was the sword... unless she also wanted the body. But why? Unless... unless... no!
"Ruby! How could you?!" Yang cried suddenly, putting all the pieces together in Yang's patent detective mode! "I know you love weapons! But this was going too far!"
Weiss's eyes narrowed indignantly, "You're the crazy whack job?!"
"I knew it! I just knew it! Talking to a block of ice! To weapons! I should've done something. But this," Yang cried harder as she pointed at the dead body on her sister's bed, ignoring Ruby's evil heartless lies to get herself out of trouble. The facts were just too stacked against her baby sister. She should've nipped Ruby's crazy bud when she still had a chance. It's all her fault. "My baby sister's a thief and a necrophile! Where did I go wrong?"
Weiss narrowed her eyes tighter against her partner, seeing Ruby Rose in a whole new light. A thief she can understand. Life would be so much easier if her leader had only turned out to be a crazed weapon thief, but this other thing just made her insides churn uncomfortably. How did no one know about this?
"Don't worry, Yang," Blake reassured Yang carefully with a tight smile, lightly clasping the shoulder of her partner. "There are places we can send our necrophile leader to so she can get the help she needs. She'll come back normal and not a crazy whack job."
"I am not a crazy whack job!" Ruby defended, stomping her foot adorably on the floor, but the effect is wasted on her team who look at her with horror.
"I don't know," an amused male voice says slick with traces of slumber, startling Ruby's three teammates but not the leader. "That's coming from the girl who makes friends with a block of ice and kidnaps bodies. You might just be a little crazy," Ruby is instantly at Ron's side, pointing at him for his guilty crime. Her face only flushes more as Ron seems to be laughing at her. "But I didn't know you liked me that much! I'm flattered."
"Ron! Whose side are you on?!"
He raises his hand in a surrendering motion, but he remained laughing, "Whoa! Hold up! I didn't say that was a bad thing. Being normal isn't terrible. All the greatest people in history were a little wacky. Like Martin Smarty."
"Who?"
Busy arguing with Ruby about one of the greatest men in Ron's past, the rest of Team RWBY are utterly speechless at the spectacle taking place in front of them. The body was talking! And Ruby, their team leader, was arguing with him! The damn body was talking! He wasn't dead. And the biggest fact of them all, the damn body was talking and alive!
"So..." he stressed. "You see. Being a whack-a-doodle isn't so bad."
Ruby pouts anyways, looking away from her traitorous friend. "I'm not a whack-a-doodle."
"Excuse me!" Weiss is the first to break out of her stupor, quickly succumbing to anger when she's confused. "What in bloody Monty Oum is going on here?! Who are you?! Why are you here! How are you are here?! How are you even alive?!"
"In a minute..." Ron glances at Weiss, taking in her snowy appearance. "... Snowflake. I'm trying to convince Ruby here that being crazy is a good thing."
"Snowflake?!"
...
Sitting on their respected beds—while Ron crashed with Ruby's on hers much to Yang's discomfort—Team RWBY tried to piece together the day's events as best as they could in the short time they had until it was lights out.
"So..." Yang groans, sinking her head back onto her pillow. "Let's go over this one more time before I pull my hair out. You don't know how you got frozen or how you even survived getting frozen. One minute you were at home and the next, Ruby's freeing you from your icy prison back at the museum? Am I right so far?" Both Ruby and Ron nodded. "And instead of waiting at the museum, Ruby, you instead ran away and took him to our room?" Ruby barely nods, and Yang pinches the bridge of her nose. "Why?"
Ruby fidgets under the gaze of her team while Ron merely batted away the attention. Peer pressure has never gotten to him before and it won't now.
"I don't know," she answers meekly. "It seemed like the right thing to do. Who knows what would've happened to him if he stayed behind."
Weiss and Yang don't see the big deal about it, but it's Blake who can see the bigger picture. Ruby's friend... Ron Stoppable... would've been subjugated to who knows what kind of interrogation and exams. There would had been little chance for a normal life and even less for Ron and Ruby to remain friends. In a way, her leader saved Ron. He was a valuable asset to human history. Unlike other relics, he could actually tell them what it was like back then.
There's no telling of the treasure cove of information he possessed.
And information is power—and power corrupts.
"It doesn't matter," Blake adds, saving Ruby from answering a question she had solved based off natural instinct. "What matters now is what to do with him."
Weiss puffs up her nose, "Well, he can't stay here. I will not allow some guy to be present in our room longer than necessary."
Normally Yang would be against Weiss and her judgmental assumptions, but this situation was a little out of her area of expertise. And even the mad brawler has a limit to what she would and would not do. And harboring a human from the past just screamed out trouble. Besides, she didn't like the way he teased Ruby earlier.
That teasing compared to hers... had been different. And not in a good way.
"We can't just let him out of our sights! Who knows what kind of trouble he could get into!" Ruby argued, feeling responsible for this whole ordeal. She whips her head towards Ron, "No offense."
The sidekick shrugged, "None taken. I've been in more trouble than humanly possible. I'm like a magnet for trouble. It's nothing new!"
Ruby shuffles her feet, "Still, we have do something."
"Why not just tell Headmaster Ozpin?" Weiss asked.
"Because I don't want to bother him," Ruby answered. "And I'm afraid of what he might do."
This time Yang rolled her eyes, jumping off her bed, "Ruby, please. Ozpin lives for this type of trouble. And I don't think he'll turn Ron away to the council. He's a good guy. You can trust him." Ruby only seems halfway convinced. Yang can see why. Ozpin's loyal to the good of Remnant. And Yang's not sure which side of the line that puts Ruby's friend in yet, "Okay, fine. Do you have anybody in mind that will probably take Ron in until you feel comfortable telling Oz?"
Her sister thinks for a moment before her eyes light up!
...
Ron's not too sure how much he likes the idea of rooming with this guy, even if only for one night. Especially with the way this green haired man kept zooming around him a speed that seemed unnatural. His hair actual kind of reminded him of another sidekick he sort of misses. At least when it came to the green hair. And there's the whole fact with him being the center of attention like a slab of meat in a lion's den.
"Marvelous! Simply Marvelous!" the man marveled in absolute wonder, inspecting the cloth Ron's mission shirt was made out of. "A wonderful and one of a kind specimen! And here I thought we had lost a major part of our history!"
Ron's feeling very unnerved, "You know, I'm standing right here—?"
"Exactly! Only hours ago, I witnessed you lifeless in a stature of suspend animation, and now you're standing right before me, alive and well! How? I must know! How could you have survived being frozen in a block of frozen liquid for so long!"
He merely shook his, amazed at his Ruby level energy, "I wish I knew, buddy."
Pausing, the green haired man fixed him a light glare, "The name's Bartholomew Oobleck! But you can call me Doctor Oobleck!"
Ron's essential Ron-ness kicks in, "How about Prof. Dr. B?"
He fixed Ron another light glare, gamely fixing his glasses at the challenge, "Under normal circumstances, no! But since this beyond a normal circumstance, I'll allow it! And what may I call you my dear comrade in history!"
"Ron Stoppable, but Ron's just fine. I'm good either way." he shakes Prof. Dr. B's hand and the man returns it with revived vigor. He has so many questions! And so little time!
"Professor Oobleck?" the man looked over his shoulder, not bothering to correct young Ruby Rose, knowing dead set it was a futile effort on his part. "Can you please keep Ron's, uh, being alive a secret? Please!"
The Professor/Doctor wanted to argue and ask why, but he's a man with a quicker brain than mouth. Speed may be his game, but it's history that grabs him. And Doctor Oobleck knows history can be a messy and heart wrenching thing. Why, there's no telling of the ramifications that would unfold if Ruby's young friend's existence was released out to the public. That he could understand very well, but still.
"Very well... but!" he paused, scrunching close to Ruby and fixing his glasses into place. "You must tell Ozpin by tomorrow. I will not lie to him about something so important! This secret can change Remnant's very foundation—!"
"Earth!" Ruby cuts in.
"Pardon me?"
She points at Ron for an answer, "Remnant's actual name was once called Earth. Ron told me that was the name of the planet when he was born." Ruby sighed happily at her turn of good luck. "And okay, I'll tell Headmaster Ozpin tomorrow. Thank you, Professor Oobleck!"
And she's gone with her semblance—another thing she's informed Ron about—leaving behind a trail of rose petals. Neither of the males say much to her disappearance, and the Doctor is already pulling out a notepad and pencil for his round of questioning before Ron gets a chance to breathe.
Prof. Dr. B pulls out a chair and a container that contains his signature coffee before sitting down and fixing Ron an intense glare, "I have many, many things to ask you."
"So do I..." Ron said in a sagely tone. "Where's the kitchen at? I'm starving."
...
After having answered an ungodly amount of questions for the crazy professor, questions that seemed like common sense to him but a gold mine for Prof. Dr. B, Ron settled down in the room and bed the mad doctor had so graciously provided for him. For the first time today, he's given time to think about the earth-shattering sitch that he was in without another distraction to divert his attention. And the outcome it has on his self-esteem and inner core is less than pleasant.
He wasn't lying to Ruby when he told her he used to be part of a crime fighting duo. Strange stuff happened to Ron all the time on missions, but nowhere this extreme before. If only he could remember what the mission had been before he got frozen. Must've been huge for him to have the Lotus Blade on his person. Ron rarely ever called the sword for help, more preferable on not relying on anything that dwell with the mystical monkey powers.
Sitting up, Ron searched for his cargo pants and checked the pockets until he found what he was looking for. There, hidden away was something he kept tucked away from prying eyes. Trust isn't easy to come by, his years of hero life, natural fear, and ninja training taught him at least that. And Ron wanted at least one ace up his sleeve. This world sounded tougher than the one he had belonged to. The world he knew had died a long time ago and he missed it in the blink of any eye. Passing by him in a blur as he remained stuck behind.
Pulling out the device, Ron sighs at the sight of his mission Kimmunicator and lightly taps the screen alive. He's damn happy the gadget didn't short-circuit while he was trapped in the ice and even more so at the battery still running.
He immediately searches for any signal that the Kimmunicator normally honed on, but none came up. Ron figured that would be the outcome, and he had on blind trust, truly believed he might find a remnant of his past. No such luck. Even his super genius friend Wade's stuff couldn't have lasted over two thousand years. That's just wishful, desperate thinking on his part.
Combing through the files instead, Ron eventually settled on a picture of a redhead with a smile that could melt away pain. Her green eyes brightened up the room even now. The picture of his best friend, Kim Possible, the girl that could do anything, brings a smile to his bleak features, and he silently wonders how she died. Even going so far to wonder if Kim had looked high and low for him until Death eventually claimed her.
It's a terrible thought, and Ron backs away from the lingering emotions.
Seeing some moonlight passing through his current bedroom's window, Ron Stoppable walked over and looked out the window, furrowing his brows at the odd moon hanging above his head.
"Would you look at that, the moon's broken," he jokes, gripping the Kimmunicator tighter in fear. "What sitch have I've gotten myself into now, KP?"
Feeling that same gut wrenching burn in his chest—he's come to accept that as sadness—Ron shuts off the Kimmunicator. He hides the machine back in his cargo pants, fighting the urge to cry. A losing battle. He's never been one too good with guarding his emotions.
Rubbing away almost tears, Ron's spooked by the sudden pressure felt on his shoulder, but he sighs a breath of relief at the floating sword beside him. Never before did the sidekick think he would be glad for anything monkey related. Anything to chain some part of him back to his own time would bring a smile to face. Even a floating, magical sword will have to do.
"At least I still have you."
Turning over, he grabs the Lotus Blade, thinking more about his past life and his current one. More importantly, the current sitch he was stuck in.
There's too many lingering questions for his liking. Like how did he get frozen in that block of ice? How did he survive being frozen? Why can't he remember the last mission he had been on? What has happened to the world while he was stuck on ice? What happened to his best friend? To his family? To everyone?
But in the end, after some fruitless searching for answers in his current bedroom and limited knowledge, he settles back down into bed in a state of exhaustion.
It's just another random day for Ron Stoppable.
Author Notes: I'm such a weird writer. I tackle both the Kim Possible (Ron Stoppable) and RWBY fandom.