Petrograd, Northern Russia (Formerly Known as St Petersburg), Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, August 1st 1918 Ruby Rose awoke gagging from a putrid smell filling her olfactory senses. The smell, possibly of Fish, penetrated her nose and awoke her from her deep sleep.
"Yuck, Blake I know you're a cat Faunus but..." Her complaint tapered off and came to a stop as she rose her head only to quickly raelise that she was not in team team's dorm room.
"Where... where am I?" she asked herself in obvious confusion as she drank in her surroundings. The room she was so used to waking up in every morning at Beacon had changed into what looked like an ally, but this one did not resembled any alley that could be found in Vale. All the buildings in Vale were concrete, the walls of this alley and the buildings she could see past the entrance of the alley looked like brick buildings she had seen in old pictures from her Remnant History class, most brick buildings on Remnant having long ago been destroyed during The Great War leaving few brick alleys to be seen after the rebuilding of the 4 major cities.
She stood up from the spot on the floor she had found herself sprawled upon.
"HELLO?" she yelled, putting her hands between her mouth to amplify her calls.
"WEISS, BLAKE, YANG, WERE AM I?"
No one answered her calls.
"OK Ruby, don't panic, maybe this is some kind of joke... wait Yang only does Puns not pranks"
Suddenly she noticed what appeared to be some kind of Newspaper underneath her feet.
"Maybe this will help with showing where I am" she stated optimistically as she moved her shoes away from the dirty paper and grabbed it. Unlike her teammate Blake, she wasn't really that into reading, Newspapers being an example. The exception of course was when it was mission related or comic strips.
As she tried to read the heading, she gasped slightly. The paper was in some type of weird writing that didn't look Valic, or for that matter anything like the written languages on Remnant. Then she noticed the front cover photo had no colour, though this wasn't really the most important thing to take note of as what was framed in the photo. The photo was of what looked like a boring meeting of old or middle aged men with funny looking beards and moustaches along with clothes that looked rather unusual.
The photo itself gave her the a slight gut feeling that maybe she was not in Vale anymore, or for that matter, possibly not even on Remnant. Although, unlike Nora, she wouldn't accept such speculation in a heartbeat, not as though she even wanted to. After all, no Human had ever left the world of Remnant before. Perhaps she was just in an unknown part of Remnant?.
As she walked to the entrance of the alley and onto the sidewalk it lead to, in order to look for answers, she peered to her right to see a poster with the same similar type of weird and alien writing. It showed an old bearded man sweeping away some fat people over a globe. The globe didn't look right, the continents on it not at all resembling the ones she was used to seeing on maps, nowhere at all was there anything that resembled in some way Sanus, Anima, Solitas or even Menagerie for that matter. Maybe she really was on another planet?
"HONK"
The sound, what could only be described as a robot duck, coming from somewhere nearby startled her yet only made her more curious as to where she had found herself situated.
Finally she decided to walk further from the alley entrance into what she would later describe as a city of cobblestone streets, brick buildings, and people wearing funny looking clothes.
Just then a man and a woman, who looked to be around Glynda or Ozpin's age passed her by on a horse and wagon with hay. The couple gave her odd looks, as if they never seen a Huntress before.
'Maybe I should ask them where I am? ' She thought and proceeded to do just that. She used her semblance to move to where the couple were. Her sudden appearance scared the horse and the couple.
"Excuse me could you tell me were I am?" she asked the couple ignoring their shock at her fast speed. Non-Valic sounding words came from their mouths, none of which she understood.
They then raced away from her on their wagon, frantically spurring on the horse pulling the wagon.
"They didn't understand me" she stated the obvious as she hung her head down in disappointment. "Now how I am supposed find my friends if I can't even communicate with anyone?"
Her head shot back up as she heard footsteps. She shrieked in shock. In front of her was a tall stoic looking man with a red and black trench coat that almost matched Ruby's dress.
"Kulak"
Southern Ukraine, the border between Anarchist territory and the Don Cossack Republic
*RATATATATAATATATATA* was the sound that Weiss Schnee awoke to. She expected the first thing to see as she opened her eyes was the bottom of Ruby's bunk bed. Instead she was relegated to the view of a clear blue sky and one small cloud lazily moving across it. To say she was highly confused was an understatement. To top the confusion off, the "bed "she was supposed to be resting on was shaking and bumping, as if something was pulling it.
*RATATATATAATATAATATATATAAT*
"What's going on? Where am I? What's that noise?" were only some of the questions muttered under her breath. The noise sounded close by, almost right beside her, pounding her ears.
Upon pondering the noise's distance further, the noise sounded like some type of automatic weapon. Was she in the heat of battle, what sort of situation had she found herself in?
As she straightened up from her position laying down, she hoped that she would be greeted by her friends. She should have known better, why would anyone great you in the heat of battle? Instead of her friends she found the backside of a stranger. A man wearing a black coat and a cap who was directing a group of horses with the reins in his hands. The place she had found herself in was not her bed (obviously) but a carriage.
"A carriage? What is this ? the Frontier Era?" she asked quietly under her breath. This felt even more confusing to her. To her knowledge carriages were practically obsolete, only nowadays used by distant outlining villages who didn't have the funding for an airship to deliver precious Dust so far away from the Kingdoms. Carriages had long ago replace by Dust powered automobiles sometime during the Golden Age following the end of The Great War.
*RATATATATATATATAT*
She turned to finally face the weapon. Just as she had assumed, it was some type of automatic weapon, being handled by two men wearing the same outfit as the driver. The weapon looked like nothing she had seen before. It was too big to be used Hunters and had some kind of belt mechanism beside it which one of the men was grasping at it as it moved like a conveyor belt in one of her fathers factories. The two men were firing there weapon at a group of 8 or 10 men on horseback, who were armed with swords and guns. Could those men be Hunters of sorts? What Hunters would ride on horseback? Seriously, Who still rode on horseback at all? The last time she saw a horse was as a birthday present given to her sister. It all seemed surreal to her, like this was some sort of lucid dream. But this couldn't be a dream. The breeze, the smell of gunpowder, the bumps of the carriage, the smell of the horses, the sound of the machine gun, it all felt too real.
Where was she? To answer that question she looked around the area. It was a grassy field, somewhere away from civilization, which meant she was definitely not in Vale.
Who were these people? The first thing on her mind was criminals or terrorists. Was she being kidnapped? These men did not look like members of the White Fang. For one thing they wore no masks nor had any characteristics of a Faunus. These men were completely human.
How exactly had she been kidnapped from Beacon was barred from her mind as thoughts of her team and family crept through her mind. They must be so worried of her whereabouts. She had to return to her team.
Like a catapult, she flipped her body out of the carriage and landed herself on the grass. As she got back up she looked in disgust as her dress was covered in grass stains.
"Great, now I have to clean this" she said in an annoyed tone.
She briefly glance at her "kidnappers" who were descending away from her and the "Hunters" chasing them. Behind the carriage that the machine gun was mounted on, adorned a black banner with a white skull and crossbones and what seemed to be words in an alien language that definitely was not Valic. The "Hunters" suddenly petered off in speed as they seemingly gave up on chasing her "kidnappers", instead opting to approach her and gather loosely around the area she had landed.
She then turned to the group of horsemen surrounding her. They spoke in an alien language that like the black banner, did not seem Valic, in fact it sounded nothing like any of the languages spoken on Remnant. The Horsemen all uniformly wore grey coats and wore furry hats. Most of them seemed to have facial hair of sorts. They withdrew there weapons as they looked in curiosity at the sight of her. They whispered their foreign tongue to each other.
If these were Hunters, then they were the strangest looking Hunters she has ever seen before. They didn't seem like they belonged to any known kingdom (again, their language and what she assumed was their uniform). Maybe they were a tribe of Hunters that she had never heard of, one that somehow managed to live off the land and survive the Grimm?
Then the center horseman, who probably was there leader, stretched out his hand and spoke something in his foreign tongue. The gesture of his face and hand read "come with me if you want to live". Perhaps they could help her find way back to Vale? She had no other option, she was not going to wander aimlessly through the middle of nowhere, especially if she happened to be deep in Grimm overrun lands.
As she grabbed on to the mans hand she immediately though of Ruby.
"Don't worry Ruby, I'm coming" she promised to herself out-loud.
Vladivostok, Russian Far East, Siberia
Blake's opened her eyes as she awoke from her slumber. However, as she awoke she immediately asserted that she was not in her team's dorm room, but a hospital room.
"What happened" she asked herself. Did she injure herself ? No, how could she, when from her perspective only a few minutes ago she had been safe and sound asleep in her bed at Beacon. Just to make sure she lifted the sheet covering her body to examine herself for any injuries. No cuts or wounds, not even a bruise was to be found on her arms, legs, or torso. She then lifted her hands to her head to feel for any bandages, none were t be found. Her clothes were still on, so she moved her hands further upwards to feel for her bow. The bow was still securely tied over her Faunus heritage.
"Thank goodness" she muttered in relief.
Now all she needed to do is wait for the academy Doctor or Nurse to arrive to explain what was going on. She did not have a book on her, so she decided to pass the time examining the room. There was a beautiful looking painting of babbling brook on the right side. Below the painting was a porcelain vase with a white rose on it. The door of the room was closed, she assumed so as to not disturb her. For an academy hospital, this room seemed quaint. Then she noticed on top of the door was a cross with a the bas-relief of man with his hands spread out and his legs intertwined near the bottom of the cross, she couldn't be sure but it seemed as though his hands and feet were nailed to the coffin. She did not know what that was about, perhaps one of the staff was part of a obscure religion or possibly even a cult? Then her ears noticed a cacophony of loud noise coming from the window on her left. It sounded like a parade. Oddly enough it sounded much too nearby. The academy infirmary rooms were on the second floor, never-mind exactly why there would even be a parade on the academy grounds (probably another one of Nora's weird activities). She got up from her bed to see what was going on outside, hopefully the staff wouldn't mind her moving about. As she walked towards the window and gazed through it, her assured belief that this was the Beacon infirmary or a hospital Vale was now gone with the wind.
"What the?" she muttered. Blake had seen plenty of strange and unexplained things in her life, but none like this. For the first and least audacious observation, the window's height from the ground betrayed the fact that room was on the first floor, definitely not the academy infirmary then. What she heard was partly correct, this was a parade, but it was... alien. The parade looked military, each soldier wearing different uniforms, unlike any of the uniforms that the soldiers of Remnant's Kingdoms would wear, some even looked like they were wearing dishes on there heads! The buildings themselves were out of place, they looked too old fashioned to be from anywhere in Vale. The flags on the buildings also did not resemble any of the flags that were associated with the Four Kingdoms, or Menagerie for that matter. One of the flags was made-up of a white with a read circle, one was blue with red stripes, one with a red white and blue tri-colored, and one with white stars on blue and horizontal red and white stripes.
"Where am I?" she asked herself.
Due to her keen Faunus hearing she was able to hear the click of the door handle from behind her, quickly she turned her head away from the parade and towards the area where the door was located, a door which was now open. A doctor and a nurse stepped inside the room and spoke to her in a language that Blake did not know. She had read about many of the languages of Remnant before, and had even encountered some native speakers of those languages during her time in the White Fang, but this not language that they addressed her with was in no way familiar to her, at all.
"Where am I and why am I here?" she asked, well, more like demanded. The two didn't seem to understand her. This wasn't good, not good at all. In her mind she hoped that her friends knew where she was, and if not then that they would hurry up and find her.
Turkmenistan, formerly a part of Russian Turkestan
'Why is the pillow on my face?' Yang questioned in her mind as she awoke. She specifically remembered laying her head on the pillow, not the other way around, which was how most people did it. Then the pillow hit her. This was no pillow, pillows were soft, whatever had hit her was most definitely not. Her head was laying someone's back. She lifted her head to take in her surroundings, her search revealed the backside of a man in white uniform who was wearing a white cap.
Oh and it was daytime. In the middle of a desert. And she was riding on a horse.
'And I thought Nora was the one with the weird dreams...'
Moving beside the horse, was a young man wearing red military garb, with a silly looking pointy hat.
She lifted her hands so as to confirm or deny a suspicion. They were not tied, so this obviously wasn't a kidnapping (Why would she dream of herself getting kidnapped, in real life it was practically impossible for her to be kidnapped, any person that attempted to be kidnap her would be beaten to a pulp by her).
This dream felt weird to Yang, 'Must be one of those "interactive dreams", or what ever they call them' , she thought to herself. 'Might as well interact with this dream, yeah that's a sentence I just put together in my head'.
"Excuse me, military horse guy, Hi, I'm Yang Xiao Long, why are we in the desert?" she asked with pleasant demeanor in her tone of voice.
The man responded with a weird accent, "I've never heard of an American with a Chinese name, then again I wouldn't know what a blonde American girl would be doing in a desert like this, in the middle of a conflict."
'Damn, this would give Nora's dreams a run for their money' she thought to herself. She didn't know what an "American" or a "Chinese" was but it sounded strange and foreign to her.
"That still doesn't answer my question, why are we in a desert?"
"Heading home" the man responded, "Maybe find your parents, you do have parents do you not?"
Yang instead choose to ignore this rather sensitive question and decided to ask him a different question. "Okay, so why am I here?"
"I do not know, what I do know is that I found your body buried in the sand, with only your head sticking out."
Her eyes lowered to her cleavage, where bits of sand were between her bosom, which she dusted off.
The man then continued. "I must say, you dress rather strange for a girl your age, you wouldn't happen to be a prostitute?"
"PROSTITUTE?!" yelled out Yang in fury. Now, Yang didn't have anything against sex workers (She respected them), but she did not like having people question her fashion decisions.
"For your information, I am a Huntress, well Huntress in training technically, but still I kick ass for free", She then continued her little rant, "Fuck, what a judgmental ass dream".
"Dream?" said the man, "The last time I checked, this was no dream."
Anger turned to confusion for Yang. If this wasn't a dream, then what was this?
"Can you prove I'm not dreaming?" she challenged.
"Do you feel the heat of the desert?" asked the man. Now that he mentioned it, she did feel a bit hot. Then she felt something funny about her throat, it was dry. She was thirsty.
"Water" she said. A brown canteen was handed towards. With swift moves, she furiously uncapped it and drank the water. The water felt cool and refreshing, as though it was... real. She slowly handed back the canteen to the man as a major epiphany hit her.
This was possibly way more than just a dream if she could actually "taste" the water.