Backed by popular demand, I give you the next chapter!*
*I actually was doing this chapter anyways.
Also, RSBX is pronounced Rosebush.
"Ungh." Ruby let out a groan as her eyes fluttered open. "What happened?"
The last thing she could remember was touching a mirror, then waking up on the floor. She could barely see anything in the room now. The light that she turned on must have burnt out while she was passed out. Unable to tell the time from light cues, she slowly sat up, rubbing her head, and checked her scroll for the time.
"1:46am?!" She had been gone for that long?
Opening the lock screen, she noticed she had no missed calls or text messages. Were her teammates not worried about her at all?
Trying to send a quick message to the rest of her team, she received an error. Apparently she wasn't getting any reception. Turning on the flashlight feature of her scroll Ruby slowly made her way out of the old antique shop.
Reaching the main room of the shop, she stopped. Shining the light about, she didn't remember the store being this demolished. Splintered furniture laid scattered around the room, a broken beam sagged from ceiling, causing the cloaked girl to wonder how she could have missed the damage. As she made her way through the debris littered floor, a small gleam caught her eye.
Crouching down, the girl picked up a small item on a thin chain. Sweeping off the dust with her thumb, she brought her scroll light closer and gasped in surprise. It was a silver apple pendant, the same pendant that she had spent a significant amount of time trying to find as a gift for Weiss.
Eagerly pocketing the necklace, she spun on her heel and started making her way towards the doorly. Before she could leave she sighed and looked back. Digging into her pouch she pulled out several Lien cards and tossed them into the rubble.
Content that she wasn't stealing, Ruby strolled out into the night, whistling a small tune. Checking her scroll again, she was baffled to see she still didn't have reception. She would either have to to make it all the way back to Beacon, or preferably borrow someone else's scroll to let them know she was alright.
The lack of people out confused her. This wasn't the first time she had been out about the town postmidnight, but even the small hours had a certain amount of hustle and bustle as the various nightshift workers that kept the kingdom running came and went, and the late night partiers stumbled to another bar. But all of that was missing, the cloaked girl couldn't see a single person.
Pulling her hood over her head and wrapping her cloak around herself for warmth, she picked up the pace. Jogging lightly down the street, she directed herself to the nearest airship terminal. Because students, instructors, and Hunters were constantly coming and going from the school at every hour, Beacon alway had airships on alert. So getting home wouldn't be a problem, it just would take awhile.
As she turned down another street, a pair of figures facing the opposite direction caught her eye.
"Oh, thank goodness." She mumbled to herself as she angled towards the duo.
"Excuse me, guardsmen!" She greeted them warmly and calmly, trying her best not to surprise the guards. "Can I borrow-"
Both guards whipped around to face her, training their rifles on her chest. "Halt! Stay right there!"
"Whoa! I'm not dangerous!" She squeaked out in surprise, waving her hands in front of her.
"Shut it!" One of the guardsmen commanded her. "Stop talking and slowly put your hands on your head."
Nervous about their reactions, and not wanting to cause problems, she slowly raised her arms and settled her hands on top of her hood.
"Sorry if I surprised you, but-"
"I said, shut up!" The guard commanded again, raising his voice a little. "You will only talk when I ask you a direct question, is that understood?"
She nodded back slowly.
"Check her." Turning to his companion he gave him a nod.
"Yes, sir."
As the second guard slowly approached her, weapon still raised, the first one addressed her again.
"Why are out past curfew?"
"Curfew? I don't understand. There is no curfew."
"Don't play games with me." He snarled at her. "Why are you out past curfew?"
As the first guard spoke the second guard finally reached her. Pulling her scythe out of its holster he reeled back slightly.
"She's a human!"
"What?!"
Reaching up the second guard ripped her hood off of her head. "No ears and no tail!"
"Don't move, human!" The first guard moved his aim from her chest to her head. "Cuff her, we'll take her down to the station. Call them so they can prepare a cell, they can interrogate her there."
A harsh buzzing filled the dorm room followed shortly by a series of groans. The harsh sound caused Weiss to fold her snow-white fox ear down against her head in an attempt to dampen the sound. Like every other day, the ex-heiress was unhappy about waking so early. Usually it wasn't by choice though, her partner, girlfriend, and bedmate was an incredibly early riser and Weiss herself was a light sleeper. The second Ruby would get for anything, she would be awoken and be unable to fall back asleep.
So being roused by the alarm clock was an almost alien experience for her. Feeling no immediate presence to her she stretched out, seeking the warmth of the taller girl. As the search came up empty, she opened her eyes and sat up. With no visible sign of Ruby present, the situation from last night hit her. Had her partner not returned at all last night?
Checking her comlink, she saw no missed calls or new messages. As she started to get worried she called out to her teammates.
"Blake, Yang, wake up!"
Frustrated by the lack of response, she mashed the 'dismiss' on her alarm and clambered out of bed. Unlike the twin beds that the other two team members slept on, her and Ruby's bed was much larger. In contrast to the strict rules they followed for just about everything else, the HUNTER program was very providing for those with intra-team relationships, almost to the point of encouraging intimacy between partners. It made sense in a way. The world they lived in was cruel and dangerous, and those with a more personal stake tended to fight harder than those without. A piece of logic the blonde and black-haired members of RSBX seemed to blatantly ignore. Just like their painfully obvious feelings for each other.
Walking to the nearest bed, she reached down and shook the shoulders of the only human member of their team.
"Wake up, Blake."
"Let go of me before I slit your throat." Amber eyes flashed open and narrowed into a glare.
"Not likely." Weiss scoffed at the black-haired human. "You're about as intimidating as a grumpy cat. Plus, I have Yang on my side."
"Sorry, Frosty. But if she kills you before 9am, I'm not waking up." A tired voice floated over from the last bed. "You're on your own for the next hour and a half."
"Would you wake up if I told you your sister is still missing?"
"What?!" Yang immediately shot up to a sitting position. Weiss briefly smirked at the girl's appearance. The blonde's normally luxurious mane of golden hair was so twisted and tangled that the fencer could barely even see the golden lion ears poking out.
Blake also reacted swiftly, though in a different manner. Rolling away from Weiss, she sprang out of bed, deftly landing on her feet. Staring the snow-haired girl down, she spoke in her natural monotone.
"What do you mean she isn't back?"
"She wasn't here this morning when I woke up, and I don't have any calls or messages from her."
"How do you know she just didn't leave early this morning?" Yang inquired as she worked on extricating herself from her sheets.
"You know your sister enough to know that she would've left a note or a message."
"She probably couldn't make it back before curfew and rented a hotel room."
"Then why didn't she message us?"
"Maybe her comlink is dead."
"She wakes up too early. She would have made it back by now."
"Hey." Blake interrupted the both of them. "Let's get breakfast. If Ruby isn't back by then, we'll go search for her. We're on alert anyways, so we need to know where she is."
"Yes, ma'am" Yang tossed Blake a play salute.
"Alright." Weiss sighed. "I'll wait until after breakfast.
"Are you sure it's ok for Weiss to go by herself?" Yang inquired to her laconic partner. The two of them heading down on of the main boulevards of Vale. "She seems really worried about Ruby and she can have quite the temper when agitated."
"Are you not worried about your sister?"
"Pssht. That's the great thing about being the little sister. She's the one that gets to worry about me."
The blonde smiled nervously as the human fixed her with a cold stare.
"Alright, alright. I am a little worried. But Ruby is a big girl, she can take care of herself. I'm seriously more worried about Weiss though. She barely ate anything for breakfast and kept stealing glances at her comlink."
"At least she's headed to a police station. I don't think she can get into any trouble there." Blake stopped in front of a door. "Here we are, Vale's CSC."
Yang sighed and pulled the door open. Their plan wasn't a particularly complex one. They would split into two teams and investigate the two nearest security centers. The first was one of Vale Police Department's substations. That would give them access to any police reports that might lead them to their missing leader. The second, the one that she and Blake were at, was Vale's City Security Center. Independent of VPD's system, the security center monitored the usage of an credentials inside the city, the only crossover between the two systems was if credentials were used in booking an arrestee, or if the offender reported their actual name. Despite the security center's name, it's biggest concern wasn't the protection of citizens, but tracking the movement of said citizens through the city to avoid conspiracies and unrest.
Making their way past the building's guards they approached the front desk, both with their ID credentials in hand.
"My name is Blake Belladonna and this is my partner Yang Xiao Long. As members of Beacon's HUNTER program we require access to your databases."
Despite her spiteful stare towards Blake, the receptionist, whom Yang had no doubt was actually a highly trained operative, took each of their credential cards and swiped them into her system.
"You may use terminal three over there." The woman handed their cards back to them. "But I'm keeping my eye on you, human."
While Blake walked past as though she hadn't heard anything, Yang threw the woman a dirty look before following after her partner. Sitting next to her human companion who was accessing the terminal she forced her anger back down. Nothing good could come of confronting a government official in an irate manner. At least when they graduated they would both be free of almost all restrictions, assuming they survived that long.
"Here's something." Blake's voice interrupted her thinking. "A person by the name of Ruby Rose was detained at VPD substation 7 under suspicion of espionage and conspiracy to commit terrorism."
"Isn't that the station Weiss went to?"
"Yes, but I doubt it is actually her. It says she was booked as a human."
"We should check it out. In the off chance it is her, we better get there before Weiss gets there. You've had to duel her before. We'd be lucky if there was a building left after she is done there"
The little color that existed on Blake's face drained away as she realized the implications of what Yang was saying. If Ruby was actually being held there, Weiss' temper was likely to flatten the entire building, as well as anyone that got in her way.
"We should get over there." The human logged out of the terminal and chased after her partner as Yang bolted out the door. "Yang! Wait for me!"
Sprinting across a small part of the city, they arrived at the substation Weiss had originally headed to. Instantly Yang could tell something was wrong, her ears twitching as faint, angry voices slipped through the doorway.
"Uh-oh" She whispered to Blake. "Weiss is really pissed."
"Good, they probably deserve it." Blake pushed past her blonde partner and entered the building.
"Here we go again." The lion faunus sighed and followed.
With the front room empty, they followed the yelling down the hallway and into the detention area. Lining three of the walls were small cells, only a few square meters each. All of the cells were empty except one. In the back right the door was closed with small girl wrapped in red sitting in the back, her face obscured by a hood. In front of the cell stood a very irate Weiss arguing with over half a dozen guardsmen, several of whom had weapons trained on the short fencer. Not without provocation however, as a layer of frost slowly spread from the ex-heiress, covering several cell and a great deal of the floor.
"That's enough." Yang shouted at the guards. "What's going on here."
Much to their credit, the officers kept their composure, though several showed their annoyance with the flick of an ear or tail. One of them, the senior officer if Yang were to warrant a guess, turned towards her and Blake.
"As we've tried explaining to Lieutenant Schnee, this girl is being held legally. She was out past curfew with no valid ID. And she is a human. However, Lieutenant Schnee is insisting the girl be release, which is something we can not do."
Ignoring the guardsmen, Blake crossed the room to where Weiss stood with her rapier drawn, glass blade at the ready, and other hand on her holstered revolver. Peering into the cell and seeing the small shaking mass of red-swathed girl, she turned to Weiss.
"Are you sure it's her?"
"Positive" Weiss responded without taking her eyes off the guardsmen.
"But... why is she human? And so small?"
"I'll explain later."
Blake paused for only a few second before turning back to the officers.
"Open the cell."
The senior officer snorted in derision. "I already told her that we can't do that. I'm really not looking to indulge in another human either."
Lunging forward, Yang grabbed the man by the lapel and slammed him into the wall, her tail twitching erratically. "We are huntresses-in-training. Our word is law as far as you are concerned. You will open the cell and let her go." Bringing her face in close to the man's her voice dropped into a threatening tone. "And if you ever insult my partner or my sister again, there won't be enough of your body left over for the Wraiths to eat."
"Alright!" The man gulped before signalling to one of his subordinates. "She's all yours. Just take her and get out of here."
As the cell opened, Yang was surprised to see the girl inside disappear in a swirl of rose petals, only to have a solid object crash solidly into her.
Clutching the small girl clinging to her she looked confusedly at Weiss.
"I'll explain later." Weiss looked almost nervous. "I'll meet you back at the dorms, I need to met with General Ozpin."
"Uh… Ok?" Yang watched the white-haired girl hurry from the building before looking down at the cloaked girl in her arms."
"Come on, Ruby." She gave her a squeeze. "Let's get home."
Now back in their room and dressed in casual clothing, Blake smirked as she looked at Ruby. Sitting on Weiss' bed and facing her and Yang, who were sitting on her own bed, the diminutive girl was sipping on hot chocolate and dressed in sweats. Turning down the offer to use Weiss' clothing, which would have fit her much better, the brunette had chosen to dress herself in 'her own' clothing, which was many sizes too big for her.
Especially swathed in oversized clothing, the girl looked at least several years younger than she was supposed to. Blake thought back to when she first met Ruby, when they were both 17. Even then, their leader was in the midst of a growth spurt. This Ruby had to be younger than that, which was impossible. Well, Ruby was also supposed to be a faunus as well.
"So… How are you… Ya know… Human?" Leave it to Yang to be upfront and blunt.
Looking up, she took a moment to admire the lion faunus' long blonde locks before focusing her attention on the other human in the room.
"I've always been human." Ruby looked back with a quizzical expression. Her trepidation from earlier in the day was gone. Once they had gotten back to the room she had literally fawned over her sister's lion ears and tail, and Blake's own lack of cat ears.
"No." Blake responded. "You're supposed to be a wolf faunus."
"What? I mean it would be soooo cool to be a wolf, but I've always been human." The young girl took another sip of her cocoa. "I don't get it. This has all been weird ever since I found that mirror."
"Mirror?"
"Yes." A fourth voice entered the conversation. Blake turned to see Weiss shutting the door behind her. "A mirror is responsible for this. It was that mirror that brought her here. This Ruby isn't ours. This Ruby is from a different world."
I would follow the finale up with 'dun dun dun' but we knew she was from Remnant Land and not Unity.
As some of you have noticed, there are inconsistencies, some of them kind of subtle. These are intentional, and not me forgetting something(to the best of my knowledge). Sometimes they don't make sense, but they are there for a reason.
As always, let me know how I'm doing. Fav, follow, or, most importantly, review. The Tumbleweed demands it.