Edge of Life
Chapter Thirty Four
Point of Divergence
Solus hung against the wall, suspended in the air by thick aura suppressing chains. He was held low enough that his feet could touch the ground if he strained but high enough that he was in a constant state of minor pain with burning shoulder muscles and aching legs from trying to support himself. The merc was also removed the dignity of covering himself, his captors had removed every item on his person except his underwear. This was made worse by the fact the room was kept at a chilling 5 degrees celsius.
The room was a slate grey box that had no visible entrances or exits, but the imprisoned merc knew there was a door and no doubt two way mirrors to observe him.
He had only awoken moments ago, the last thing he remembered was fighting in the Ever Winter mountains in northern Atlas. He recalled feeling the needle sword bury itself into his gut, he could still feel the lingering pain from the injury, but when he glanced down the only sign he'd ever been stabbed was the thick bruise over his stomach.
The wall on the far side of the room opened up to reveal a shadowed doorway from which two people stepped through, one was a tall woman with pale skin and chocolate brown hair. The other person is what really captured the mercs attention however, the man he had hunted, the man whom had ruined his life, Shirou Schnee.
The man had pure white hair and pale ice blue eyes that held a cunning intelligence, he wore a pristine white business suit that contrasted sharply with the all grey cell.
"Schnee" Solus wheezed with all his might.
The man held a impassive face as he spoke "we meet again Argentum Mortem"
Solus snarled and thrashed weakly in his chains "you're a monster"
"So are you" the Schnee patriarch replied "but I did it because had too, you did it because you wanted too"
"You took her from me! You did this! You made me the way I am! I'll kill you!" Solus all but screamed as he jerked around in his chains.
Shirou didn't reply, instead he turned to the other person in the room and said "attach the device agent"
The tall woman walked briskly towards and held him still with her left hand, his weak attempts to escape her hold utterly futile. With her right hand the woman placed a bronze crown like device over his head, a glowing red crystal sitting between his eyebrows.
Shirou started speaking again "the device is a technological masterpiece, it allows whomever is in control to stimulate the brain into reconstructing all memories within a specified time period and transfer said memories onto a computer with the correct programs to convert the chemical signals and information into a video."
The woman released Solus once the device was firmly attached to his head, she silently exited the room without a word spoken.
Solus was horrified about what the device was, and what the male Schnee planned on doing with it "you're a monster!" He all but screamed "I should have killed you years ago!"
The elder man's impassive face finally broke and a cruel smirk leaked through onto his features "this is my revenge Mortem, you killed my wife, you killed my daughter, you tried to kill me… you will die."
Solus spat in anger.
Shirou wasn't done yet however "but I will only let you die when I allow it."
The white haired man pulled a small remote from his pocket and fiddled with a few buttons then said "this is only the beginning of your punishment" with that final statement the chains suspending the freelancer became electrified.
Screams of pain poured out of Solus' mouth as blue arcs of electricity danced across his body, illuminating his skeleton and causing untold agony.
As the merc screamed in pain Shirou looked on in glee, his face contorted into an expression of joy "this is but a fraction of the pain you will feel! I will break you! And then when you have nothing else to lose I shall take your life!"
The lightning cut out and Solus slumped downwards as far as he could go as smoke radiated from his skin. His breaths were coming in shallow pants and his muscles were spasming painfully.
"Now for my favorite part" Shirou said happily.
Agony unlike anything Solus had ever felt washed over his mind, words didn't describe the pain he felt as the crown device burrowed into his mind. Images of his life flashed through his mind as he felt the blinding agony wash through him, he saw himself doing terrible things as Mortem, his life in the armour flashed through his mind in an instant as he felt a horrible searing pain spike through his mind.
One memory above the others stood out, the memory of memories, the shattering of his mind.
The second time he met Cinder.
The SDC had been pretty clear in their orders, guard the fusion reactor at all costs and prevent ANYONE from gaining access to the main computer. Mortem had been very curious as to why they wanted it to be so well protected.
The reactor was of course the new dust fusion powered mass energy reactor that the SDC had developed for Vacuo, the massive dust fusion core would power the entire kingdom with clean and reusable energy that would last decades without needing to be replaced. The reactor was housed in the outskirts of Vacuo city in the military district, thus making any kind of civilian access extremely difficult.
Naturally the SDC wanted to protect their investment so they had hired him to guard the reactor along with a contingent of actual hunters, all of whom were fingering their weapons and looked ready to attack Mortem at any moment.
Mortem was more than happy to let them try.
Mortem had planned on taking a closer look at the reactor and its inner workings after he received his full payment from the SDC, then later he and Kira could sell the designs off to the highest bidder. All don't anonymously of course, he liked the SDC jobs because they payed extremely well and if they knew he sold the schematics for their dust reactor... it wouldn't end well.
Currently Mortem was just standing outside the main facility and ignoring the death glares the hunters were shooting him, all was calm, all was peaceful.
That's when she showed up.
On some level Mortem had felt her approach with his young twisted aura mimicking her far older and darker aura, he could feel the power in the air, an underlying current that was invisible to all but him.
Walking sensually towards the door to the facility was a woman he had no recollection of but still knew anyway. He felt his aura flutter as he laid his eyes on the form of Cinder fall, he didn't recognize her at all but he knew from the directors records that she was not only the one who had unlocked his aura but also was secretly in absolute control of the director himself.
Mortem had always been curious about this woman, he had searched far and wide for her but never found anything… so to see her now was a complete surprise.
One of the hunters approached Cinder with his weapon drawn, obviously he was unable to feel the deadly aura the woman exuded otherwise he would have been far more… accommodating that he was "i'm sorry ma'am but this is a private area and you must leave at once!"
Mortem intervened before the fool could get himself killed at the hands of the dangerous woman, with a harsh shove he punted the smaller man to the ground away from Cinder "forgive his rudeness Cinder" Mortem all but purred "he doesn't know who you are"
The deadly woman smirked and ran her finger down the side of Mortems gleaming silver armour "you feel familiar…" she said lowly "I feel your aura, so wild, so untamed… so similar to my own…"
The hunter team by now were all lined up and had their weapons pointed towards Cinder and Mortem, but the duo either didn't notice or didn't care because they completely ignored the little hunters in favour of their conversation.
Mortems aura flared slightly as he felt Cinder so close after many years apart "you freed me, i awoke anew in death, tainted by blood and swift in speed you unleashed me."
Cinders eyes widened a fraction at the words Mortem used "I see… you have grown much 13, did any of the other subjects survive?"
Mortem grinned underneath his mask "subject 8 did as well, the world knows her as the Red Lady."
A pleased smirk crossed Cinders face "truly? That is excellent news… both you and she will complete your mission and serve me. come we must disable this reactor, we cannot allow it to become fully operational"
Mortem didn't like the sound of that… both he and Kira lived for chaos, for the freedom that life in power offered. They didn't 'serve' anyone, not even their true creator.
"I cannot do that Cinder" Mortem said strongly despite his disappointment at the way this was going "she and I are free, and we will not accept another master"
Cinder grew visibly angry "I am the reason you exist Mortem, I made you what you are, you cannot stand against me"
"I am death, I am Mortem. You are nothing."
Mortem knew that engaging someone of Cinders power in open combat was foolish, but he had little choice at this point. He would at least ensure that he didn't prolong her death…
Cinder attacked first, releasing a massive wave of fire in every direction. Mortem was sent flying backwards but was otherwise fine, the hunter team was not so lucky however. They were all caught in the blast and a few of them were incinerated instantly, their ashes floating in the wind. The ones that were strong enough to not be turned to ash still suffered a terrible fate, their charred bodies collapsing onto the ground without sound.
Mortem pushed himself to his feet and glared at Cinder from his position 20 meters away "what is so important about this reactor that you must disable it?"
The woman's deadly amber eyes glowed with barely suppressed power as she hissed at Mortem "you fool, you don't understand do you? That's not a reactor"
Before Mortem could even think on her words she had all but disappeared, in a fraction of a second Cinder was 20 feet in the air with a bow in her hands. In less than a fraction of a second the old woman fired three arrows towards him.
To Mortem it seemed like the shots went wide, none of them made contact with him at all. But before he could move to attack Cinder the ground around him combusted into furiously burning flames that licked at his armour as he was sent into the air yet again.
Cinder didn't hesitate to attack Argentum as he sailed through the air, she rocketed through the air and split her bow into two razor sharp swords. with blinding speed she soared over the armoured man and unleashed a quick flurry of stabs and slashes across his thickly armoured torso.
Mortem hit the ground hard, but he didn't waste a moment, he rolled to his feet and glared at his opponent from across the concrete courtyard. He was fully aware that he was outmatched, but now that Cinder knew who he and Kira were… and more importantly where they called home…
She couldn't be allowed to leave.
So Mortem brought his full power to bear, his aura charged until it was a static shield around his body and armour, he felt his muscle tighten in anticipation, the adrenaline flowing through his blood… he would end this.
As one final show of his will to win this Mortem drew his family's ancestral blade from it sheath, and with old and worn leather still covering it he turned the other half of the weapon into it shield form. He held the sword and shield in front of him menacingly as he stared down Cinder.
The woman was just floating off the ground with a stream of fire holding her up, a casual almost bored smirk adorning her features. Almost lazily she swiped her hands outwards and a stream of fire shot out, with speed that belied his size Mortem nimbly dodged. But he didn't have time to do much else, as more streams of fire shot out wards. He dodged all of 3 streams before he was forced to used his family shield to deflect the burning flames.
The tatty leather covering the shield was burnt away in an instant, the ancient shield remained steady however, the two golden arcs glowing brightly in the intense heat. Using his great strength Mortem pushed forwards through the deadly stream of flames and towards Cinder with Crocea Mors swung upwards in an effort to remove the old womans head.
Mortem was caught by complete surprise when Cinder caught the sword. Both her hands were clasped around the razor sharp blade and were shaking with the effort of hold back Mortems intense strength.
Caught off guard Mortem didn't have time to react when Cinder lashed out with her leg and kicked him with strength that belied her feminine frame, Mortem crashed into the wall of the reactor complex with a burst of flames.
Mortem only had a second to look up and see Cinder rocketing towards him at a blinding speed, with nary a second to react the merc jumped up and towards Cinder with all his strength and shoulder bashed her away from him.
Her distraction was only momentary however, Mortem rushed forwards with his sword and shield and unleashed a flurry of powerful slashes and stabs. All were blocked by the elder woman however with her swords that had seemingly formed from nothing in her hands, with one final swipe Mortem was left open and Cinder took the opportunity and with both her weapons swiped at him and in an explosion of flames sent him into the air.
Mortem didn't miss a beat however, as he soared backwards he threw his sword at the vile woman like a spear, she battered the weapon aside with ease, the he threw his shield at her using the kite design as a razor aimed at her throat. Unfortunately she battered the old shield away with similar ease as the sword.
She was slightly caught off guard when Mortem pushed off a wall while in mid air and tackled her with all his strength.
As soon as his body came in contact with hers however he realised his mistake, Cinders body and the air around it was so hot that warning signals flashed through his helmet and the the metal on the outside layer of his armour began to soften.
Cinder didn't hesitate to use this to her advantage, she pressed her body onto his back and brought her swords over his neck to slit his throat.
Mortem was just able to catch the blades before they removed his head, once again he was shocked at just how strong Cinder was. With intense help from his semblance and armour the freelancer was able to slowly pull the deadly weapons away from his neck.
Cinder was undeterred though, with monstrous strength she kicked him in the back with all her might.
The force of the blow was so great that Mortem was sent flying through the reinforced wall of the reactor facility and tumbling through the bases internal walls like they were little more than tissue paper.
Finally he came to a stop with his back against a cracked concrete wall, he could feel that his aura was extremely low and his back felt like it was on fire with pain. Slowly his eyes raise up to see Cinder standing a few meters in front of him, a pleased smirk on her face as she hovered in the air with fire.
"You cannot win" she said sinisterly.
Mortem didn't reply, talking was irrelevant at this point. Slowly he raised his hands as if surrendering, Cinder smirked at his apparent defeat. But her smirk vanished when deadly arcs of lightning shot out of Mortems fingertips and bathed the room in energy.
She just barely managed to bring her swords up to cover herself, but the lightning was too powerful and it arced across her body and caused her to cry out slightly in pain. Mortem poured more power into his attack and a smirk began to work its way onto his face, maybe he had won?
But that was not to be, flames exploded outwards and pushed Mortem against the wall even more and burnt away the sensitive lightning apparatus on his hands, thus destroying his ability to generate the deadly electricity.
Smoke poured off her body as Cinder towered over his fallen form, her eyes glowed dangerously with rage and power as she looked at him. "You fool" she hissed "you could have served me and lived like a god!"
Mortem groaned in his armour, his ribs cracked and bruised from hitting the wall so hard with the weakened section of his armour, but one final plan to win was forming in his fatigued mind "like a slave you mean."
Despite the fact that she was ready for anything he could throw at her Mortem lashed out with some of the last dregs of his aura and fired a ball of explosive energy at her face.
Like he expected her to the old woman blocked and the explosion washed over her like nothing. Rage was clear on her face as her burning eyes locked back onto Mortem, but her rage quickly turned to shock when she noticed what surrounded her.
Dozens of greyish white balls of explosive aura hovered around the deadly woman, all the balls were the size of a beach ball and were twice the size of what he had used against her moments ago.
Mortem smirked under his helmet "you lose cindy" he snarled as he violently slammed his hands together making all the deadly aura collapse onto the elder woman.
The ground rocked and Mortem was sent flying backwards through a few more walls and tumbling ass over kettle along the ground. Despite his utterly depleted aura and pain Mortem let a chuckle bubble out of his lips, he could see a deep crater and pile of rubble when Cinders body no doubt lay.
It was over...
He was about to push himself off the ground when a dainty blood covered hand burst out of the rubble, Mortem couldn't help but gape in horror and surprise as the bloodied Cinder rose from the rubble.
With blood leaking freely from several cuts and burns across her body Cinder stalked towards where Mortem stood with rage filled eyes. Mortem was frozen in shock as he look at her, that was his most powerful attack, not even Kira could withstand that without being pulverized, just how monstrously strong was Cinder?
"You wretch!" Cinder hissed "death is too good for you!"
Mortem was caught in morbid fascination as she spoke her next words, her voice filled with barely suppressed anger "Subject 13B PXO-338"
In an instant the world exploded into agony for the armoured merc, memories of things long forgotten burnt through his mind as an utterly indescribable pain. Memories from things he could never recall before seared into his mind, he remembered the pain of having his aura unleashed, he remembered watching his father fight the grimm… oh gods…
He had a mother and a father. He remembered them, their smiles, their laughs, their good moments and their bad. He remembered the little lines of stress his father had creasing his brow, he remembered the time his mother accidentally cut herself while cooking. The time he broke a plate and he cried because he thought he would get in trouble, his mother had hugged him so tightly telling him everything was okay…
His sisters, all three of them. He had played games with them and… they had all been so carefree. He remembered being so excited about getting more playmates when his mother told them she was pregnant again, the joy he had felt had been so surreal.
He remembered the time his father took him camping on a 'boys only weekend' and they had roasted marshmallows over the fire while the older man told stories of life as a hunter, the unadulterated admiration the young boy had felt was unreal…
He finally remembered now… he wasn't Jaune Arc heir to a powerful warrior family… no.
He was Jaune Arc, son of John and Jane Arc.
Jaune Mortem writhed on the ground in agony as his life flashed before his eyes, for a split second there was a peace then it felt like the world shattered around him. His mind split in its own agony, he remembered being Jaune Arc, loving son and brother that would never hurt a fly. He remembered being Argentum Mortem, slayer of Independence, the silver death that would never again be a slave.
He was both and neither at the same time.
It… it was too much, his mind was destroying itself in untold torment.. Half of him screamed that he was Jaune Arc, the other half rejected the weakness of that and told him that he was Argentum Mortem.
"You are Jaune Arc!" The voice of his younger self screamed, it was his voice from before the eclipse.
"No! You are Argentum Mortem! The Slayer of Independence!" It was his own voice now when he wore the armour, a horrible synthetic rasp.
Argentum Arc thrashed on the ground, Cinder stood over him with her bloody form smirking viciously "do you understand now?" She all but cooed.
"Wh-what have you done to me!?" The false Arc screamed.
"I made you remember who you really are." Cinder said, obviously enjoying watching him suffer "you and all the other subjects were just another tool for me, but before that you were a person. You had dreams, hopes, desires. Now do you understand all that you have lost? What your life could have been if the director had never taken you? If the eclipse had never happened?"
Pain had faded to a background noise in the face of what the old woman was saying, all this, all his life had been a product of the woman before him. Rage filled every pore of his being, anger like he had never felt before clouded over his thought processes.
For an instant he was whole again.
With a speed that Cinder couldn't even begin to comprehend the silver Arc had leapt to his feet and back handed her across the face with such force that it shattered through her aura and broke her cheekbone, as well as sending her soaring through several concrete walls.
Cinder tumbled through the walls and across the ground very ungracefully, finally coming to a stop more than 50 meters away. Groggily she shook her head to clear away the pain and confusion, the moment she regained her equilibrium however she leapt back in shocked surprise.
Mortem stood over where she had laid and his armour glistened in blood, both hers and his own. The towering beast of a man was shaking with uncontrollable rage "YOU DID THIS!" He roared.
Cinder didn't reply, instead she threw both her hands forwards and unleashed two strong bursts of flame. The effort was moot however because Jaune again moved with speed that was completely beyond Cinder, his pure white eyes twitched in rage as he kicked the old woman with strength that entirely ignored her aura and cracked her ribs.
The dark haired beauty flew through more walls, eventually coming to a stop with her back against a cracked concrete pillar. Mortem was upon her in an instant, he grasped her by her dainty neck and lifted her up to his eye level, his unseen white eyes glaring with pure fury at the woman before him.
"How!?" Cinder hissed as she clawed at his hand "how are you this powerful!?"
"YOU MADE ME!"
With his free hand the deranged Arc unleashed a massive greyish white ball of energy in Cinders gut. The old raven haired woman was blasted away into the distance with a blood curdling scream of pain.
Jaune Mortem stood for a moment, admiring his work, but the moment was fleeting as the immense mental pain of his shattered mind returned. His two halves screamed in rage and defiance to one another, the sliver armoured man felt the pressure building in his skull, the immense pain.
But the pain was clouded with horror moments later.
The room he was in was some kind of reactor control center, the many computer screens were all displaying the same thing however. In bold red letters that covered their respective screens the words 'WARNING CRITICAL MELTDOWN IMMINENT'
He didn't know what to do, had the fight caused this? With as much haste as his fatigued body could muster the merc moved-
Solus snapped out of the torturous memory with a gasp, a blinding headache seared across his mind.
A small monitor on the wall was playing through the memory, Shirou Schnee watched with rapt attention.
As the memory came to an end the man turned to Solus who was hanging low in his chains "it seems the memory has cut off" the rich man stated "it would appear that your mind needs more 'encouragement'"
With the press of a button lightning surged through the chains and blinding pain coursed through the battered mercs body.
"Soon" Shirou purred as the man before him suffered "soon you will understand my pain"
Ruby, Yang and Blake jumped out of their 'borrowed' bullhead with a muffled thump, all three girls were decked out in state of the art snowsuits that kept them warm in the freezing conditions of the area around them.
They had arrived that the location specified by Solus' call for help, all three girls looked at the decimated ice valley before them with trepidation, it looked like a war had been fought here.
"Okay girls" Ruby said "spread out, see if you can find Solus or a clue to where he is."
The other two did as they were bid and spread out over the ice field, combing it for any sign of their missing partner.
Blake was the first to find any indication of recent human activity, she was walking through a variable maze of giant ice spikes and chunks when she kicked something extremely hard with her foot.
Her yelp of surprise and annoyance drew Yang over, the sisters looked at the faunas in curiosity as to why she made the sound.
Blake brushed the snow away to reveal a steel grey spin-up minigun, the weapon was entirely covered in snow and looked a little worse for wear. Before Blake could comment on the weapon Yang beat her to the punch "is... That a minigun?"
Blake nodded in confirmation "maybe Solus used it to-" whatever else she was going to say was cut off when Ruby called out their names loudly "YANG! BLAKE!"
The two partners didn't waste a moment, they bolted towards where Ruby was. Both girls stopped dead when they saw Ruby and what the younger girl was looking at.
It was a pool of frozen blood. The red stood in sharp contrast with the pure white snow all around them, the blood was frozen solid and was little more than an ice block though.
The real shocker though was Solus worn looking gun sticking out of the snow a few feet away, it was currently in its sniper rifle form and it looked slightly damaged.
"Solus…" Ruby muttered sadly.
Yang placed a comforting hand on her younger sister's shoulder "don't worry Rubes, i'm sure we'll find him" she said the words as convincingly as she could despite her own dwindling hope of finding the freelancer.
Ruby nodded and opened her mouth to say something but was cut off when the ground shook violently from beneath their feet.
"What the hell!?" Yang cried in surprise as the ground quaked.
A rumble then the sound of shattering ice in the center of the valley alerted the trainee's to danger. A massive worm like grimm burst out of the ground, the creature was completely black and had one massive mouth that hundreds of saliva covered teeth glistened. The beast roared at the three girls with anger that was common among grimm.
Team RSYB minus the S prepared their weapons each looking at the menacing grimm with slight trepidation.
"Okay" Ruby began, a plan already forming in her mind "Yang i need you to keep it occupied, Blake you-"
The young girl was cut off when something completely unexpected happened, out of the sky a massive purple bolt of lightning crashed into the space between the girls and the giant grimm. The worm beast was thrown backwards and smashed into the side of the valley with a thump.
The three girls who had been slightly further away were still knocked off their feet and were blasted back slightly, but they could still see what was happening. Where the lightning had struck there was a violet… rip.
Rip was the only way to describe what they were seeing, it was a vertical tear that hovered a few inches off the ground and it seemed to absorb all the light around it, making it hard to look directly at.
Both the grimm and team RSYB was transfixed as they saw a hand slowly reach out and grasp the edge of the tear, the dainty hand pulled slowly and after what felt like years but was really little more than a few seconds a person emerged from the mysterious rip.
A woman with silver eyes and a red cloak stood, her eyes surveyed the snowy valley her gaze that was akin steel. She stood with her back ramrod straight and didn't seem weighed down in the slightest from the mass of weapons she had on her person.
On her hands were shotgun gauntlets that had used to be a beautiful golden but now were little more than a sickly yellow worn by time. On her left hip sat two swords, one was in a gleaming silver sheath and had two yellow arcs on it. The other sword had a gleaming silver blade and thick red rim as well as a trigger on its handle.
On her right thigh a faded black cord was tightly wrapped around a extremely worn black pistol that was locked into a small blackish grey blade and cleaver. Sitting in the small of her back was a red collapsed scythe that had chips in its fading paint.
The woman smiled faintly and looked up at the weakly shining sun, her skin seemed so incredibly pale and was similar to the snow around them. But in the light of the sun she seemed to almost glow, her dark red hair hung limply but life surged through her entire body.
Finally after a moment of silence the strange woman turned her gaze downwards and locked eyes with Ruby, the twin sets of identical silver eyes held their gaze for a moment before Ruby quietly almost brokenly asked "mum?"
The new woman shook her head, her long hair gently swaying "no" she said in a voice much like Ruby's "my name is Ruby Rose, and i'm from the future"
A/N
Okay… so that happened.
Let's start at the beginning. Solus has been captured by the dastardly Shirou Schnee and is currently being tortured because Shirou is a dick… but a completely justified dick. We finally have confirmation that Solus (or Argentum at the time) killed Winter and the as of yet un-named mummy Schnee, but i can assure you that there was a reason for that.
So that fight with Cinder… it probably wasn't clear but Cinder does outclass Mortem she still isn't at Ozpin's level, yet. So what did you guys think of the fight? I put a lot of thought into it and i hope i made it seem realistic. And what do you all think of Cinders comment "you fool, you don't understand do you? That's not a reactor" what could she have meant?
And now we come the confusing mess that is time travel… sit tight and read carefully because i'm about to explain some extremely simplified theoretical physics, please don't take offence to that, i just want everyone to understand and i'm not belittling anyone's intelligence. This is important so please if you have any questions or don't understand feel free to PM me, i'm always happy to talk.
Time travel in this story will work in accordance to the multiverse theory i.e there is an infinite amount of different universes, some so similar that you could spend a lifetime looking for any differences and some so radically different that it's almost impossible to determine where things diverged. The reason for these differences come down to choice. say for example I was walking down the street one day, then i was faced with the option of going either left or right. I choose right then continue on my merry way, but in another universe i choose left, and in another i turn around and go back the way i came. Now apply this logic to every choice and decision that EVERY human has ever made.
Now let's say that the future Ruby comes from universe 1 and that the story we have followed so far has taken place in universe 2. In universe 1 everything was identical to what you have read in universe 2 up until the point of divergence (that being when Ruby arrived in the past) so in universe 1 events continued to unfold without outside influence for years. Then future Ruby and Weiss create a time machine and send Ruby back to the events of this chapter (let's call this point A) in doing so she created another universe that is completely separate from her own (universe 2) future Ruby hasn't exactly traveled in time per se but instead crossed dimensions. So theoretically Ruby could return to her own dimension, but to avoid creating another timeline/universe she would have to return to the same point that she left from.
So Future Ruby went into universe at point A therefore if she were to travel to any time AFTER point A she would not create a new timeline, she would just alter the existing events. But if she were to travel to a time BEFORE point A she would just create a new timeline, one in which another seemingly identical version of her would appear at point A thinking that it was a un-altered timeline.
So using this thesis for time travel it is impossible for future Ruby to do something stupid and erase herself from existence. She is a completely different person in universe 2, still Ruby Rose, but not that Ruby Rose.
I understand that this is a bit of a headache, but it is sort of a requirement for me to explain. You probably don't particularly care for the science behind it all right now but it will be important later.
So all that aside let's take a look at the reviews…
Guest:
Thanks for reviewing.
Alas Kira is dead and that cannot be changed. But it should be noted that when Ruby came from the future she did not come alone.
Smithrooks:
Thanks for reviewing.
To be entirely fair, i did warn you haha.
Solus does indeed have a bad habit of underestimating his enemies, but that stems from him being used to fighting in a nigh impervious set of power armour. As for why he didn't actually use said armour was because he's not in control when he does, as seen in chapter 21 when he was escaping Vale. And no, he is not dead as his message specifically stated "...i'll still be alive otherwise you'd be getting a different message..." but it is safe to assume that he is being tortured by the SDC.
Yeah i was intentionally vague about when exactly Future Ruby is coming from, and why exactly she is coming back. Although it should be noted that she will NOT be going back into her past body, she will come back as she is and will retain all all her skills/knowledge she gained in the future. As for her designs for the past... well, you'll see.
Next chapter there will be some explanations about the situation, future Ruby will explain stuff so don't worry.
TheMAO17:
Thanks for reviewing.
Theory 1:
Well... you're not entirely wrong, but its not right either.
Theory 2:
A lot closer but still not quite getting there.
i suppose both your theories are right to a degree, though i dare say you will be quite surprised when we really get stuck into arc 3. And no i couldn't resist referencing Red vs Blue, its amazing.
Haha i can't say i disagree with your views on alcohol coming second, i didn't think it would get so high in the ranking, but you are right that alcohol has always been there for us when we need it.
Me:
Thanks for reviewing.
The reason i have a two week break between arcs is simply because i need time to get my act together, this story is long and complicated but i try my hardest to write well.
Oh and because it builds suspense haha, what kind of author would i be if i didn't add a cliff hanger or two every now and then?
THE L0NE WANDERER:
Thanks for reviewing.
Nope, no days of futures past time travel here. This interpretaion of time travel is based on our current understanding of science, not comic books.
Also sorry but no. as i have stated numerous times in previous authors notes Salem isnt a thing in this story, she never was and never will be. The reason the world is shit is completely different, and much much worse.
Fashathus:
Thanks for reviewing.
Haha well fear not, alcohol will always hold a special place in Solus' heart. But the true pairing is as stated below.
Green Gustavo
Thanks for reviewing.
I hope that the above explanation clears things up on how time travel is gonna work. I chose the multiverse theory because that avoids the cliche going into a past body and it avoids the nasty implications of any paradoxes that might occur.
So all that aside it is finally time for me to reveal the pairing that has been so long contested…. And the answer is….
Ruby Rose!
…from the future!
So everyone that voted for Ruby were technically right so give yourselves a pat on the back. And fear not all those that voted for the only other possible pairing, the mighty Alcohol, the unspecific liquid will always hold a special place in the heart of Solus.
Anyway leave a review, tell me what you think, your thoughts/theories on what's gonna happen are always appreciated.
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