I'm wondering if I should up the rating to M for violence. Lots of action in this chapter. Maybe it'll even make up for the overall lack of action in the fic as a whole.

Anyway, almost done Stolen Flame, next chapter might be extra long, and if the author's notes are to be believed there's a Weiss Reacts to Emergence coming soon.

Also, whoever's updating the TVTropes page, thank you and please continue.

8: Out the Same Way

Ruby Rose

"Ruby?"

"Yang!" I repeated, then leaped forward and wrapped her in a tight hug. She was really, really dirty, covered in blood and dirt and sand and she smelled really really bad but I didn't care. This was my sister and I loved her more than anything in the world- definitely more than anything in this world.

But I could tell something was wrong. She was slow to return the gesture and kind of hesitant, and I felt my shoulder become wet when she leaned her head on it. And there just wasn't a lot of energy- usually she was really huggy but she seemed reluctant right now. "Yang?"

We didn't get a chance to say anything more because Nigel interrupted, "As much as I hate to interrupt the heartfelt reunion, we've got a big fucking problem!"

As if it was proving his point, gunshots rang out. Bullets hit the broken car behind us. I let go of Yang and readied my weapon. Lever down to shoot, right?

Another truck had pulled up on the road, and there were a bunch of guys, I guess they were ISIS, around it, shooting at us. It was kind of far away so we'd have to move to attack them. Both me and Yang got ready for action.

"Where's Crescent Rose?" Yang asked, cocking Ember Celica.

"She's safe," I replied. Weiss and I had our disagreements but I knew she'd take care of Crescent Rose because she's really caring to Myrtenaster and that means she knows how important our weapons are.

"Back here, get to cover!" Nigel shouted. I grabbed Yang and we sprinted behind the truck. It wasn't how I knew how to fight but I was supposed to follow what Nigel said.

Sam was leaning up against the side of the truck, holding onto his rifle with an iron grip and muttering swear words. Nigel was near the front of the truck, firing over the hood at the ISIS guys. Joe was at the other end

"Now I know it may be a bit much to ask, but could you get rid of those fuckers?" Nigel asked.

"On it!" I replied, and sped off. Maybe a little too quickly.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, taking off after me.

"Fuck!" someone said, but I didn't hear them.

Two of the bad guys were running toward us, with the rest still beside their truck. They shouted something I couldn't understand as I approached.

I focused my Semblance and slammed into one of them, knocking him over. I heard and felt something crack and he screamed in pain. I aimed the rifle at him and pulled the trigger.

I know they'd kept telling me this would happen and I'd even done it in a video game, but it was so much worse in real life. It blew ragged holes in him and there was a lot of blood and some splattered onto my face and when I tried to wipe it off with my glove it just smeared and he moved a bit when I shot him and then he stopped moving and what was that smell?

"Watch out!" Yang shouted. I turned to see the other guy swinging the sharp end of his rifle at me. I ducked under and swung my own rifle into him, catching him just under the ribs. I felt something break and he doubled over in pain. I hit him again in the back, and I heard something crack and he fell, gasping for breath. I hit him again in the face which completely shattered his face and it sprayed blood everywhere.

It was even worse than shooting the guy but I didn't have time to think. The guys in the other truck were shooting at us, and Nigel and Joe and maybe Sam were shooting back. Yang was beside me now. She threw her arm forward but Ember Celica didn't do anything except maybe click.

"Ruby, I'm out!" she called frantically, fumbling with her gauntlets.

"Catch!" I yelled back, tossing one of the rifles with a name I couldn't remember at her. We shot back at the guys in the truck. I'm not sure who hit who but I saw three people get hit and go down. There were little splats of blood when that happened, I think.

"How's your Aura?" Yang asked.

That was a good question. I think bullets were hitting me- actually I was pretty sure but it wasn't like getting hit by attacks on Remnant, it was more little stings but not like actual stings because that's not how Aura works. I knew that was still dangerous because it was like the death of a thousand cuts. "I don't know, I don't have my Scroll."

"Why don't you have it?" she asked, concerned. Then she added, in a colder tone, "Let's just finish this."

"Yep," I replied, zipping forward. There were still a few guys left hiding behind the truck, including one with one of those big rocket grenade things that were super dangerous. They were all surprised by my sudden appearance so I aimed at him and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. My gun was empty and I didn't have time to reload. I threw it at him, and I'm not a very good throw but I'd got a little help from Pyrrha when I was in Beacon. It was really close so it still hit him, right on the head. He fell, dropping his weapon.

I ducked behind the truck bed and reloaded my rifle. I hadn't done it before and it was slow. I was expecting one of the guys to come around and try to attack me but it didn't happen. I leaped up onto the bed and quickly found my targets.

One guy in the bed looking the other way, turning around too slowly. I shot him and it made a real mess in the bed and splashed onto my boots and I'm not thinking about that any more. The other guys were on the other side of the truck. One of them started shooting at me before I kicked the gun out of his hands and then kicked his face in.

Yang finished off the last guy, not even bothering with her gun. She just drove her fist into his face, and even without Ember Celica it was really violent, with his head exploding and bits of head going everywhere.

"I don't feel so good, sis..." I said, surveying the bloody mess around us. Fighting Grimm was nothing like this, fighting those bad guys at the store was nothing like this. The White Fang at the docks hadn't left a mess like this.

"Neither do I," Yang replied quietly.

"Let's get out of here," I told her. "I'll explain everything... but I don't want to stay here."

I took one last look at the bodies, forced down the pukey feeling, and we walked back toward the truck.

Sam

We'd given up all pretences of being a legitimate cargo truck at this point. Joe was in the front with Nigel and the fabric cover was half open. I sat on the truck bed across from Ruby and her sister, who were sitting on boxes. Our plan for dealing with checkpoints was shoot first and ask questions later.

"Two strips," Yang muttered, playing with Ember Celica. "That's all I got left."

"Yeah, umm," I half-replied. I wasn't sure what to say. This wasn't the Yang I saw on the show, or the Yang that Ruby was telling me about. She looked and sounded shell-shocked and completely out of it. "You might want to save those because you'll never be able to get any more."

She glared at me, "What?"

"We really aren't on Remnant anymore, sis," Ruby told her.

"What?" she grabbed Ruby roughly, to the surprise of everyone. "Ruby, this isn't funny. This isn't the time for jokes. Why would you even say..."

"I'm serious," Ruby insisted gently. "Think about it. The strange language, the places you've never heard of, the ridiculously squishy people-"

"I heard that!" Nigel called from the front of the truck.

"But... that means..." I don't know how, but Yang managed to look even more shocked than before.

"Welcome to Earth, Yang," I told her. "I'm sorry your introduction to our world had to be so shitty, but believe me when I say it's not all this bad."

She was silent. I didn't know what was going on in her head, nor did I really want to know. Finally, she asked with forced humour, "Why would you call your planet dirt?"

"I don't have an answer for that," I replied.

"What brought us here? Is there a way back?"

I shook my head. Yang buried her face in her arms.

Ruby consoled her bigger sister. "It's okay, sis. We'll find a way back... I hope."

"Everyone is gone, Ruby!" she shouted. "Everyone is gone!"

"Not everyone," Ruby corrected. "There's still Blake and Weiss."

"Another world..."

"I know this is a big shock to you," I said. "I know that after what you've been through this is the last thing you want to hear."

She nodded, then grimaced. "Explain it to me. Now."

"Explain what?"

"This place you call dirt."

"Okay, what's the quick rundown..." I muttered. "Okay, Earth. Population seven billion-"

Yang's eyes widened. "Seven billion?"

I nodded. "Seven billion people divided among about a hundred and ninety countries."

"How is that possible?"

"No Grimm. No Aura or Semblances or Hunters, but no Grimm..."

"No Aura? But... does that mean you have no souls?"

"Actually, many Terrans- people of Earth- don't believe in souls." I shrugged. "I asked Cliff about it and the best he could come up with is 'someone's science is wrong'."

"But you look so much like us. You look human." Yang paused. "Although you die a lot easier."

"We are human. Terran human and Remnan human are somewhat different, obviously, and to us you look like the non-humans."

"But if you don't have Grimm, why do you have so many weapons?'

"Seven billion people, divided among many lines." I was pretty much reciting Cliff verbatim at this point. "We have a lot of things to fight over. And we've become pretty damn good at it."

"You didn't seem very good at it," she replied.

"That's because war on Earth uses lots of machines and beyond-visual-range," Ruby interjected. "That's what it's called, right?"

"Who was I fighting?"

"ISIS, or just IS. Islamic State. Insane, extremely cruel, religious zealots," I explained as neutral as I could.

"Fucking hajji wackjobs," Joe said from the front.

"Bloody wankers, fucking Khmer Rouge level wankers," Nigel added.

"Okay, so they're evil," Yang said, blinking. "I heard something about America, something about Syria too. They sounded like countries. Is that right?"

"Yes," I replied. "The United States of America is a very powerful, wealthy, and prominent nation. Syria is the country we're in. It's a wartorn shithole halfway across the world."

"I know your enjoying your exposition back there, but we're in hostile territory," Joe reminded us from the front.

"He's right," Ruby agreed. "We should focus on getting out of here."

She held out a bundle of cloth. "I brought you a change of clothes."

To my partial surprise, she immediately started stripping in front of us. "Uh..."

"What?" Yang asked, as if this was just completely normal. She'd taken off her jacket and peeled off her yellow undershirt, exposing her, uh, barely contained assets.

God damn, the anime just didn't do her justice. She was hot. Pun irrelevant.

"Uh oh," Ruby muttered to me.

"Is she going to hit me?" I asked, forcing myself to avert my eyes. "Yang's going to hit me, isn't she?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, usually she'd be flirty."

"What's this?" Yang asked, holding out the bulletproof vest.

"It's a bulletproof vest," I replied, eyes still darting from averted to staring.

"Why do you need- oh, right. Why do I need it?"

"Plausible deniability," Joe replied from the front. "Just put the fucking thing on."

"So where are we headed?" the now fully clothed Yang asked, shoving her old outfit into one of the duffel bags. I liked the old outfit better. The new one made her look like some kind of mercenary.

"Kobane, a town in northern Syria," Joe replied from the front. "We cross the border at Mursitpinar into Turkey, then drive to Sanliurfa, fly to Istanbul and back home to Vancouver."

"Turkey? Like the bird?" Yang asked, though she didn't laugh. Forced humour, again.

"Long story," I replied.

"Whatever. I don't know, but, uh, Ruby?" She turned to her sister.

"Yeah, sis?"

"Do you trust these people?" Yang asked quietly, but not quietly enough.

"Yep."

Yang sounded tired, resigned. "Then I'm good. Let's just get out of here."

Yang Xiao Long

Darkness was falling when we reached the place that

"We're almost there, sis," Ruby reassured me, giving me a squeeze of the shoulder.

I felt terrible. Wasn't I the big sister? Wasn't I supposed to be the one reassuring her? This was crazy. This was all so insane. They'd tried to explain, but I only had more questions. And I felt so bad for Ruby. Did she come to this horrible place to rescue me? The horrors... I was supposed to protect her from that. I was trying to protect her from that. I had to be strong for her. Not the other way around.

She sensed something was wrong and repeated, "Everything's going to be-"

The truck swerved violently, almost making me lose balance. There was a loud bang and an explosion just behind us. Nigel shouted, "Fuck! RPG!"

"Get out, get out!" he shouted. I wasted no time, throwing aside the fabric cover and jumping through the hole that it left.

"Fuck fuck fuck," I heard Sam swear as Ruby yanked him out of the vehicle.

"Where are they?" Joe asked.

"Two o'clock!" Nigel shouted back. "Flashes!"

It was dark, but not night yet. I could see the outlines of buildings- bombed out shells of buildings- in the failing light, but I couldn't make out who was shooting at us. I could make out the flashes from the windows and the ground below. It was pretty far away, but close enough for them to hit us.

"Shit! Get to cover!" Nigel shouted. He was leaning against the wall of what might have been a store, shooting at the building in the distance "I hope to god they don't have another RPG!"

I fired my borrowed rifle at the building, even though there was no way I could hit anything with the weird gun in the darkness at that distance. I moved to the left, beside Joe in a building. Ruby was dragging Sam into an alley, trying to shield him with her body.

"Get fire onto that building!" Joe shouted at me. "Grab that PKM!"

"Grab the what?" I shouted back. The sound of gunfire filled the air, and bullets zipped around and hit the walls around us.

"Grab the fucking saw- the fucking machine gun by the-" He was interrupted by one of the loudest explosions I'd ever heard.

I looked up, and saw that a big chunk of the building in the distance was missing, with smoke pouring from it. Then it exploded again, and again. This wasn't someone with a rocket launcher, these were big explosions like Dust bombs. I counted five explosions before it stopped, and even through the smoke and the darkness I could tell the building was completely obliterated.

"Wow."

Review reply time!

linkthetoaoftime: I will, but not yet.

AnonymousReading: Who said it was only one? And they were far from quiet earlier.

15delgizzij: The US intelligence apparatus isn't completely ineffective. Suffice it to say they've decided to follow up on some of the stranger things that have been going on.

Guest: You are a cold, cold person, my friend. Like... Weiss cold.

Guest: No comment, no comment, the United States isn't the only country with a vested interest, and since fairly early in the story's development.

tH1s: What do you take issue with? Do you dislike my other fics, dislike my style of writing, or something else?