When Ruby came to, she found that her arms, legs and her head were bound, tying her to what seemed to be a dolley. Ruby strained against the straps, but it didn't help.
"It seems as though the Time Lord wannabe is awake." Cinder taunted from behind Ruby. She slowly walked around in front of Ruby. Only now did the girl see what her eyes had done to Cinder's face. It was horribly burnt and scarred and it seemed as though she was missing an eye. "The end of time?" Cinder asked her. "What makes you think I want to end time? I don't want to end time. I want to rule it."
"And that gateway," Ruby began. "How does it help you with that?" Cinder smiled evilly, and grabbed another strap from behind Ruby, wrapping it around the girl's mouth and disabling her ability to speak.
"I need an army," she told Ruby. "But I cannot rule with a frail form such as this one." Cinder's hands began to glow in a familiar fashion. Ruby knew what was happening. What Cinder was. Ruby's eyes widened as the glow began to get brighter and brighter, until it exploded out of Cinder's neck and wrists. When it finally stopped, Cinder was no more. Now, stood in her place was a man with slicked, black hair. He had a chiseled jaw line, and a neck that was just as thick as his head. Contrary to this, he was not particularly buff. His eyebrows came down, covering nearly half of his eyes and making him look rather threatening. His nose was a very average and forgettable feature about his face. Ruby thought Cinder's new form was that of your average Bond villain, yet also like Sherlock Holmes, and she found this quite humorous. Especially the fact that the man was still wearing Cinder's dress. But Ruby did not laugh. She didn't dare. It's not like Cinder needed her anymore, and anything she did to offend him would just result in her own death.
"Now," Cinder spoke with an oddly posh and lilting accent. His voice was deep and now carried some authority to it. Not that Cinder wasn't threatening before, but this voice seemed to lack the eloquence that Cinder had before. "Oh." He stopped himself. "I'm a man now, it would seem. British, too." Ruby rolled her eyes, then raised her eyebrows, as if to say, "Get on with it!"
"Right," Cinder said, as if he understood. "Where was I?" Ruby looked over at the gate, and Cinder followed her gaze. "Right! Yes! I forgot!" This new version of Cinder seemed far friendlier than the previous. "Now! On with the gate!" He commanded the others around him. Only now did Ruby notice the workers in labcoats sitting at desks around her. They began tapping away at their computers, and the gate roared to life. The loud whirring filled the room as Cinder stepped inside. Ruby curiously watched this, expecting a doorway of some sort. A weapon. A clone. Ruby didn't know what she was expecting. The gate seemed to scan Cinder, then a shockwave flew out, sending papers flying and reaching past the building, far off into the horizon. The lab technicians began to rapidly shake their heads, a blur taking their heads' places.
Ruby's eyes widened in realization, and then darted over to where Cinder stood. He was laughing.
"You know what they say; 'If you want something done right, you oughta do it yourself'!" He shouted. The head shaking stopped, and Cinder's head took the place of them all. Ruby struggled to break free of her restraints, but to no avail. Cinder strode over to her, tearing open the mouth strap.
"You're a monster!" Ruby told her. Cinder shook his head.
"No." He said. "I'm a master." He laughed as he stepped away.
"You can't win." Ruby told him.
"Why not?" He asked. "You're tied up and anyone who has any chance of helping you is now me!" Ruby smirked at this comment. This only angered Cinder. "Kill her." He ordered his guards. One of the guards stepped forward and Ruby laughed.
"You're stone cold brilliant," Ruby began. "Yet you're still so stupid. You can't see the obvious!"
"And what is that?" Cinder asked.
"That guard is one inch too short." Ruby told her. The guard suddenly turned and knocked Cinder out, quickly taking their helmet off.
"What the hell is going on?" The person behind the helmet asked, ruffling her black hair to disrupt the helmet hair.
"Never mind that now," Ruby told her. "Unstrap me!"
"No time!" Blake said, grabbing the back of the dolley.
"No!" Ruby shouted. "No! Untie me!" Blake hid a small smile as Ruby yelled at her. "Blake, there are stairs in this building! A lot of them!" Blake wheeled Ruby down the stairs, despite the girl's protests.
"After them!" A voice called. Blake's only sped up at hearing this, no longer rolling Ruby down the stairs with care. She rolled Ruby out the door and laid her down inside of a bullhead. She then climbed in herself and shut both doors behind her, hopping into the pilot's seat.
"I didn't know you were a pilot." Ruby said.
"I'm not." Blake told her.
"Wait, what?!"
[Shift]
When Ruby and Blake arrived at their destination—wherever it was, Ruby had no clue—other people slid the doors open and lifted Ruby out of the bullhead. Ruby noted that these men were Atlesian soldiers and they were in what seemed to be a hangar bay. General Ironwood was standing not too far off with the rest of Ruby's friends and family. It didn't take long for Ruby to figure out why they were all unaffected by Cinder's transformation gate. It most likely used radiation to spread the template across the planet, and most Atlesian command vessels were made to deflect any form of radiation.
"Untie me." Ruby told the soldiers. Neither even bothered with the straps, grabbing small pocket knives and cutting her free. Ruby immediately sprinted over to a panel on the wall and pulled out her sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the panel. The blast doors for the hangar closed, and all the lights shut off. She turned to Ironwood, who stood not too far away, both shocked and angry.
"Cinder has control of every kingdom. Imagine what he could do if he found out where we were." She said. Ironwood simply nodded.
"Did you find out what she's planning?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded.
"She's a he now, so there's that." Ruby said. "But that's not important right now. He's planning to bring Gallifrey here. To Remnant! So that he can destroy it and become the sole ruler of time!"
"Let's pretend that you're the only one who understands what Gallifrey is or why she—he needs it to become the ruler of time." Yang told her.
"Gallifrey is a planet." Ruby said. "Home of the Time Lords. The rulers of time. If he were to kill all of them, then he would inherit the title; ruler of time!"
"Why not just go to them?" Jaune asked her.
"Because Remnant doesn't have the resources necessary to allow long distance space travel. Even if we did, it would take a very long time to get all the way out there." She said. "And if he's doing what I think he's going to do, there won't be anything left of Remnant when she's done."
"How do we stop her?" Taiyang finally asked. Ruby gave him a blank stare.
"I don't know." She said. "Anything I do will result in someone dying. And there are things I can't account for that will probably result in my death."
"That healing thing you did back in the Emerald Forest," Yang said. "Didn't the Doctor say you could do that eleven more times?"
"Yes." Ruby said. "But I can still die. If I'm killed before I can regenerate, then I'm dead. And even then, this time it would be different."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
"Last time I regenerated, I did it enough to let myself heal, then I siphoned the excess energy into my hand. But this time I won't be able to do that. My hand was severed before I was given the ability to regenerate, so I didn't begin to regenerate immediately. If we tried to do that again, then it would start before we could be properly prepared."
"And what happens if we don't do that?" Taiyang curiously asked.
"Everything I am dies, and some new person comes walking away." She told them.
"I don't understand." Taiyang said. "If you 'regenerate', then someone else takes your place?"
"Well, it's me. But they'll look different, sound different and act different." She told him. "And it looks like I don't have much of a choice in this." She sighed and turned back to Ironwood. "Get your men on repairing the electrical systems. If you don't hear from me or my colleagues by the time you see a large planet on the horizon, I need you to bomb the Schnee Mansion." Ironwood nodded and Ruby pointed her screwdriver at the blast doors. They very slowly opened and Ruby climbed back into the bullhead, her friends right behind her. They didn't know what her plan was, but neither did she. Taiyang slowly approached her.
"Ruby. Qrow and I are gonna stay here and help however we can." He reached into the larger pocket of his cargo shorts and pulled out a pistol. "If it comes down to it, I want you to kill Cinder before he can kill you, okay?" Ruby just looked at him, showing no signs of wanting to take the gun. "Take it." He told her. "I can't lose you too. Please. Take it." Ruby grasped the handle of the gun firmly, nodding as she stuffed it into her belt.
[Shift]
"What's the plan?" Blake asked, once again piloting the bullhead.
"Fly low over the mansion." Ruby told her. Blake did as told, and just as they began to pass over it, Ruby jumped, shocking her teammates and friends. They watched her crash through the skylight of the mansion, hitting the ground hard.
Ruby looked around. She could see Cinder on one side of her, and Salem on the other. She quickly rose and pulled out the gun, pointing it at Salem, then she spun around and pointed the gun at Cinder.
"You never would," Cinder said. "You coward." Ruby just stared at the man before spinning around and pointing the gun at Salem again.
"Kill the Time Lord." The witch said. "He is the enemy. Not I." Ruby spun back around to face Cinder, pointing the gun at him once more. Then Ruby saw it; behind Cinder was the machine he was going to use to bring Gallifrey to Remnant.
"Move." She simply said. Cinder leapt out of the way and Ruby pulled the trigger, causing the machine to explode, sparks flying up and burning Ruby's face.
The girl turned back around to Salem, feeling her eyes beginning to activate. White streams of light reached out and attacked the witch, tearing her to pieces as Ruby simply looked at her. Ruby could feel her eyes draining her body, making her legs feel weak. But she did not fall. She began to unload the gun into Salem, hearing the vile woman scream in agony. And then Ruby fell. Everything went black and she felt her body hit the hard, cold, glass covered floor.
[Shift]
Yang, Blake and the remainder of Team JNPR ran from room to room in the Schnee mansion, hoping to find the room that housed Ruby, and possibly even Weiss.
"Over here!" Jaune shouted. Their attention was brought to a large, white, wooden door. Jaune pushed on it, but it didn't budge. "I heard something in here!" He told them. He threw his weight against the door as the others came to aid him. The door didn't budge, so he did it once again. Still, nothing. He tried again, and the door still didn't move, but then he tried on final time and the door flew open, revealing the decimated room. Furniture was thrown about, and shards of glass covered the floor. And in the center of the room was Ruby. She seemed to be conscious, laying on her hands and knees with a shocked expression on her bloody face.
"Did you really have to knock?" She jokingly asked. Only then did they realize what Jaune had done; he had hit the door four times. He had knocked four times. Ruby dragged herself to her feet, nervously pacing, as Blake ran over to Weiss' prone form. "They were turned back when Salem was killed." Ruby told them. "I don't know why, but she'll be fine nonetheless." She leaned against a nearby desk, trying hard to hide the sobs that wracked her body. "I could do so much more…" She quietly said. She pushed off the desk and pounded her fists on her chest. "So much more!" She screamed. She resumed her position, knelt over the desk, as the others carefully watched her. "But this is what I get?" She asked. "This is my reward?" A look of anger flashed on her face and she screamed, "It's not fair!" before swiping everything off of the desk.
None of them could blame her for reacting in such a way. She felt as though she was being replaced. And forgotten. Ruby turned back to her friends, noting that her screaming had woken Weiss.
"Promise me you won't forget." Ruby said, breaking a small smile as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "No matter how much cooler they are; please don't forget me." Her face had every so suddenly healed without any of them noticing.
"Never." Jaune told her. Ruby's smile widened, but she wasn't happy. She tugged the rose brooch from her cloak, letting it clatter to the floor as she dropped her cloak as well. Her smile fully disappeared and she began to break down, a faint, golden glow appearing on her skin. Ruby began to hyperventilate as the glow got brighter.
"I don't wanna go." She sobbed. Her hands and neck suddenly exploded into a display of golden fire, licking the support columns and causing them to crumple and fall over. When the fire was gone, so was Ruby.