How did this happen?
Well, I guess we should probably start with the opening of the Vault three years ago.
Commandant Steele died, opening the Vault for the Atlas corporation, which she believed to hold the treasure to give Atlas the edge over the rest. Little did anyone know that what she exposed was the horror of another dimension entirely. Four heroes emerged that day, flush with the success of defeating the Destroyer held within the Vault. What no one expected to emerge was the Eridium, the priceless element that changed the way Pandora was forever. But that we knew, what we didn't know was the rift between dimensions that also opened, and plucked eight not so usual teens from their world and drop them into Pandora's open embrace.
Back on Remnant
With a shriek the Deathstalker lunged for Pyrrha and flung her forward. Unable to regain her composure, Pyrrha landed with a thud infront of the rest of the two teams.
"Great the gang's all here, now we can die together." Ruby looks at her sister then surveys the Deathstalker slowly rounding on them in turn before replying.
"Not if I can help it." With that she throws herself forward, drawing Crescent Rose as she does so. With a quick shot behind her, she propels herself at the Grimm only to be deflected by a massive claw. Picking herself up she fired off one more round, before turning back to the group and running as fast as she could. Yang sprinted towards her as the Nevermore steadied itself for an attack. With a massive thrust of it's wings, the Nevermore launched a barrage of feather flechettes that pinned Ruby's cloak to the ground and blocked Yang's path. Ruby desperately tried to pull free until she heard a dreadful sound behind her. Clicking its pincers, the Deathstalker walked up behind her and thrust it's tail straight for her. With a sudden burst of light, everything stopped.
Ruby slowly stood up, aware that she couldn't see anything around her. Suddenly she heard voices, and as she readied herself for a fight she realized with a pang of horror, that Crescent Rose was missing. As she regained her sight, she stared around her and found herself in an unfamiliar area, a walkway that lead from a city she had never seen to a massive airfield with ships that she couldn't believe were so expansive. She slowly looked around and found a sign, telling her that she had just arrived at a place called Eden-5. She also saw a young girl in striped leggings, a jean jacket and with two ponytails looking curiously at her. The girls walked toward each other and looked each other up and down. Finally, Ruby spoke up.
"Where am I, and who are you?"
"I am Gaige, you are on the planet of Eden-5, my home! Where did you come from? I have never seen anyone dressed like you before. You just suddenly appeared out of no where while I was walking back from the shipyards. I like building things and the workers there give me extra pieces that I can then build stuff with." With a sudden look of astonishment, Gaige seemed to be quivering with anticipation, "Are you a Vault Hunter?!"
Ruby stared at her in confusion before slowly replying, "No but I am training to be a huntress. I hunt things called Grimm that threaten my home with the extinction of the human race. I don't know how I got here, but my name is Ruby by the way. I am from a place called Remnant, I attend Beacon Academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses, and I am 15. I am the youngest person in over a decade to be accepted into Beacon."
Gaige was impressed, though a little unnerved. She had never heard of people being "huntsmen or huntresses," she had never heard of the Grimm, nor of a place called Remnant. But then she thought back to a few years earlier when she had heard that a Vault had been found and opened on the planet of Pandora. Maybe, like the Eridium all over the planet, the Vault had triggered some sort of space-time distortion that caused it to bring people from different, galaxies or hell even universes or dimensions to theirs. As she thought long about this, she figured that Ruby might need a place to stay.
"Want to come to my house? I am only there with my dad, so there is room for one more. I can also try to help you out with getting you to your home and maybe even tell you how you may have got here. I have a few ideas, but they will take some explaining. If you want to come with me, I just need a little bit of help carrying this stuff home, then I can get you a place to sleep and food to eat." Ruby agreed happily and she accompanied Gaige to her house, toting a rather heavy box of assorted gears and computer pieces.
Elsewhere in this new world
Weiss landed with a bump on the top of a short cliff. Behind her was a very long bridge that lead to a pretty impressive city that seemed to shine against the lake and sunlight. Standing up, she brushed herself down and looked in her belt for her weapon. With a cry of surprise she found it gone. She quickly searched all around and looked over the edge of the cliff, but her rapier was no where to be found. After resigning that she would have to look for it in the morning, as it seemed to be getting progressively darker. She adjusted her sleeves but stopped when she noticed something unusual on her left arm. Very faint, but still there nonetheless were what appeared to be tattoos. As she inspected the ones that ran up her arm, she noticed that it resembled a blizzard, with swirling winds and snowflakes of all sizes but none looked the same.
As she fixed her sleeve covering them she began to think. Damn, I have tattoos, that might be a problem when it comes to finding a job or making a good impression. Winter got a tattoo on her shoulder blade and I thought dad was going to kill her, but he made an exception because she could cover it up. Mine are so faint that maybe no one will notice them. And where the hell is Myrtenaster? How could I have lost her? I will try to find someplace to sleep for tonight then I will ask around in the morning. Her mental debate lasted the whole way to the city, which she found to be named Opportunity. She admired how the stars reflected off the buildings until she heard something behind her. A man stood over her, wearing what appeared to be a suit of contraptions that was allowing him to hold a giant steel beam. He carefully set it on the ground and removed his helmet, showing a middle aged man with lines creasing his face but with an expression somewhere between confusion and anger.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man asked gruffly, looking at her strange apparel.
Weiss stepped back from him but answered his question nonetheless, "My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. I seem to have found myself at the wrong place but I don't know how I got here. I was fighting a Grimm with my teammates but then a flash of light dropped me here." The man considered her for a moment before replying.
"I think you are out of your mind, young lady. You are on the planet of Pandora, and we have nothing here called Grimm. I can take you to our leader's office and then he will decide what to do with you." The man gently lowered his voice and spoke in an undertone. "A word to the wise, don't mention that you are an heiress to anything or you will be killed without a second thought. Oh, and my name is Sean." The name held out his real hand and Weiss shook it before leading her into the center of town to Handsome Jack's office.
Upon entering the office, Weiss was shocked to see how yellow it was. Yang would love it here, she thought silently as Sean spoke to the secretary. Weiss over heard the secretary reply that although it was late, Handsome Jack could make room for one more appointment before he left for the day. Sean led Weiss into a magnificent room with yellow carpeting with a large logo that read Hyperion. She looked around and saw several busts and statues of the same man that seemed to wear a mask. She heard someone tell her to step forward, jolting her out of her thoughts and back into reality. She looked forward and saw the same face smiling at her.
"Well well young lady, a little young to be out after curfew, lucky it's my city and not my girlfriend's. She would have shot you on site." The man took a few moments to laugh along with Sean before continuing. "Welcome to Opportunity, Sean here tells me your name is Weiss Schnee and that you have no idea where you are. Well worry not, you are in safe hands as long as you adhere to the rules which you will see after bit. I also assume that you need a job of some kind, what are you good at doing?"
Weiss thought quickly and figured it wouldn't be good to mention fighting Grimm to someone who laughed at the idea of getting shot after curfew. "I am an excellent singer, artist, and dancer. I performed several times back home and received many praises for my talents." She watched Nervously as Jack considered her for a moment.
"Tell ya what sweetheart, you can be a model and a fashion designer for my company, though we usually only do guns, and you can live here in the city under my designation. You will have plenty of work to do, and you will have plenty of space to live. The only thing that I restrict you from doing, is calling me out as a bad person, as the last person to do that ended up on the next flight straight into the sun. Are we clear?" Jack finished and stood up holding out his hand to shake Weiss's. Weiss shook his hand, thinking that life would be fairly simple here for her. He showed her to where she would be staying and left her in peace. As she looked around, she saw a lot of books explaining the history of Pandora, though all of the ones from the last two or three years seemed to highlight Jack as the god of Pandora.
"Better get to learning about this place first." She took down a heavy volume and started reading it.
Yet another place
Yang bent over with her hands on her knees, panting. She stood up and held at a small stitch in her side and looked around. She was in the middle of a bright sunlit town that seemed to have a desert feel to it. She turned slowly on the spot trying to figure out what happened when she noticed a tall brown-haired man walking down the street toward her with an assault rifle leveled. Yang immediately took her fighting stance and jerked her arms to trigger her wrist guards. To her horror, no sound followed and after checking her hands, she realized her weapons were no where to be seen. She started patting herself down and scouring the ground frantically. Before she realized however, the man drew level with her and placed his barrel directly against her chest. She paused and slowly looked up into his face. The man still seemed young, with short military style hair and brown eyes to match. He wore a brown jacket and green pants that both had seen wear and sported a military patch.
"Who the hell are you and what did you just do?" The man growled not lowering his gun. Yang looked the guy up and down, figuring that it may be beneficial to talk to him as opposed to punch him and try to run.
"My name is Yang, that's all you get for now, and I have no idea what you are talking about. I was just looking for my wea-uhh-bracelets. I seemed to have dropped them. Where am I?" The man didn't seem impressed with her story but removed his gun from her, still maintaining a secure hold on it.
"You are a town run by a guy who goes by the name of Youngblood. I don't remember which planet this is cause I am regularly jumping between them to keep my past from catching me. How did you get here? I was walking when you just ran out of a massive flash of light."
Yang took this opportunity to look around again before answering, "I was trying to get to my sister but I have no idea where she is now. Hopefully she is back on Remnant. I was trying to get her away from the Grimm but then the light brought me here, crazy right?" Yang laughed nervously trying to keep calm. Axton laughed as well relaxing a bit more.
"Tell you what, I just got a full pocket of cash from a couple of bounties, let's go find a bar and talk about this. My name is Axton by the way. 10 years military experience with the Dahl Corp, dishonorably discharged and AWOL. Making my way out here on the border planets instead of getting shot by firing squad." Axton held out his hand which Yang shook. The two made their way to the closest bar.
And finally
Blake looked around her, eyes adjusting quickly to the night around her and allowing her to see the open expanse in front of her. It was simple and open, some rocks climbing out of ravines and green trees about her. Behind her stood a lone rocky hill with a building near the top. Figuring it was the best bet for life, she started up the rocks and soon stood outside the door. She knocked and hesitated before trying to adjust her ribbon. With a shock, she realized her ribbon was gone, as was the rest of Gambol Shroud. She ran back to the edge of the hill and looked down to where she had been. Nothing stood out to her and she figured that she would have to do some looking in the morning. The door opened behind her and a voice made her turn around.
"What can I do for you miss? How did you end up here and what is your name?" The man wore a rusty brown jacket with striped jeans and had messy brown hair with goggles positioned in the tangle. He leaned against his door with a large black and pink revolver in his hand. Blake took all this in and gulped before speaking up.
"My name is Blake Belladonna, and I need a place to stay and to figure out where I am. I am from the world of Remnant, and was in the middle of my initiation to Beacon Academy when I found myself here. I have no where to go, no way to get home as far as I know, and no weapon to defend myself." Her eyes darted quickly to the large gun in his hands and the man laughed.
"Don't worry, I am not going to shoot you. I always have something on me just in case though. My name is Michael by the way. Pleased to meet you Blake." He held out his hand at this point and Blake promptly shook it. As he led the way in, he questioned her a bit more. "What were you saying about initiation and Beacon? I have never heard of a school named that. Well, not here on Artemis at least. And the place you came from was called Remnant? I could get on the ECHOnet and see if I can't find something about it but I have never heard of that place. Mind you, I have been to a lot of weird places and this may just be one I haven't had a chance to visit yet."
Blake sat on the couch and took in the room. Most of the walls contained maps and illustrations done up by Michael himself. One wall was drawn over with a huge map of a galaxy with several pins sticking into it with a large orange one drawing her attention. Michael walked back into the room with two bottles of water which he handed to Blake before walking to the map himself. He pointed at the large orange one that seemed to bear an odd symbol in red.
"That marks where Pandora is, the place where they opened the vault about three years back. Caused a shit load of weird stuff to happen too. Eridium began springing up all over the place." As he spoke he picked up a small chunk of smooth purple crystal and handed it to Blake. "That's Eridium, the stuff being mined by Hyperion on Pandora and rumor is they are getting closer to uncovering another Vault. The last Vault was opened, what, three years ago now, and Handsome Jack is laying claim that he did it. I have talked to the real guys that did it, and I am planning on moving to Pandora myself to hunt this new rumor. I am gunna wait for a while to make sure that there is some merit to what they are claiming though. Oh, and I checked the ECHO and there is nothing about a place called Remnant."
Blake's head dropped at these last words and she slowly walked back to the couch. Great, she is in the middle of some weird universe that isn't home and she has no way of getting there. Michael sat down on the other arm of the couch and considered her before speaking up. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that Vault had something to do with you appearing here. Tell you what, I will continue looking and see if I can't dig anything up. You get some rest and we will talk in the morning. Oh, and take this with you just in case." Michael walked to a case and pulled out a small revolver. "This is my Judge, pretty powerful little baby. Kicks like a mule but with a steady hand you can do a lot of damage with it. Stick that under your pillow, we usually don't have problems but I have enough valuables here to fund a regiment along with the means to arm it."
The next morning Blake woke to find Michael in his kitchen cooking something on the stove. "Morning, I have some breakfast and some bad news. There is no Remnant in my galaxy, but there is one in the next galaxy over, so I have no idea what else to do for you. If you want, you can stay here and I can help you get on your feet and teach you something about my galaxy." Blake looked at him before answering.
"If my world is a galaxy away, how can I reach it?" Blake already longed for home, for the quiet peace of her books and even that girl who managed to blow herself up in front of the Schnee heiress.
Micheal thought it over before answering her. "The only way I can think of right now is getting a long distance cruiser and hoping you can pump that thing up so full in gets you there before the end of this millennium, let alone the year. If the vault was able to do this to you, maybe there is a way that a Vault can take you back. In that case, learn about this world and then we can get you on your way to the next one." Blake smiled slightly and started to eat, wondering what happened to everyone else, or if she was the only one that this had happened too.