Given Code Vein's expansive character creator and mod options, why would a RWBY fan not recreate their favourite character, modified backstory and all?
Why would anybody suspect that they'd be reincarnated into their Queenslayer, be thrown into the world of Remnant, and only remember their past life three seconds after it would have been useful?
She hadn't.
Looking around at the pristine city around her, Ruby came to one simple conclusion.
She had no idea where she was.
"Gah! Did I die again?"
It wouldn't be the first time she'd lost memories to death, so Ruby did the responsible thing and recited the usual memory test to herself.
"My name's Ruby Rose. Age seventeen. I was a veteran in Operation Queenslayer and my most recent memory was exploring outside the red mist with Rin and my other BFFs."
"Okay?" came a voice from behind her.
Oh!
Ruby turned around to find that some of the pedestrians had stopped to look at her. Four of them in fact.
...
Huh.
Why did these four seem so familiar to her?
'Ruby... Ruby...'
And for some reason she found herself repeating her name, which suddenly felt strange in her mouth.
It was her name, yes, but there was something else about it.
Some memory that she had probably lost over her countless deaths at the hands of the Lost, or perhaps even earlier than that.
A memory from back when she was a human, before the Great Collapse.
And whatever it was, it had something to do with the four-coloured strangers standing a few yards away from her.
"Oh!"
Not 'Ruby' but 'RWBY'. Like the web series!
But that was released in 2013, so how could she have...?
"...Oh boy."
Swaying on her feet, she collapsed. Ruby could feel the existential crisis incoming.
"Wooooow!" Ruby gawked.
Blake sighed. "Okay, I'll bite. Why are you pretending to be Ruby?"
Weiss looked distinctly unimpressed, Yang thought, while Blake seemed a little embarrassed for the girl sprawled in front of them.
"Uhh... W-who am I? I uh, don't remember anything?" the cosplayer fidgeted.
"You just claimed that your name was Ruby," Blake pointed out.
Weiss sniffed but opted to simply continue looking as though she was witnessing a particularly embarrassing attempt at... well, this.
"Uh, yes, of course!" the girl faltered. "Wait, okay. You are all in great danger," the girl intoned and raised her arms for emphasis. "My name is Ruby Rose, and I come from the future, except also another dimension. I've come to warn you of great danger."
"You said 'great danger' twice," interrupted Blake.
"That's just how dangerous it is," the girl replied, seeming to find her stride.
Yikes. As amusing as this was, Yang couldn't help but feel a little pity. The girl didn't seem dangerous, except perhaps to herself, but Yang wasn't sure that it wasn't best for all parties if they simply walked away.
"Oh my god...!" her sister exclaimed.
Aw! Trust her little sister to buy it at least.
Yang chewed on her gum and gave Ruby Fauxse another look over while her sister rushed to help her up.
The thing was, the girl didn't look a thing like Ruby. If anything, her delicate features and high cheekbones reminded Yang more of Weiss.
Sure, if you squinted then maybe she had the colours right, but on closer examination her contacts were the wrong shade of silver, her hair was a much brighter red, and Yang wasn't even sure what that outfit was supposed to be. Or what the deal with that gas mask was, for that matter.
"And you even have a Crescent Rose! What can she transform into?!"
At least her "Crescent Rose" looked decent enough.
"The same as yours. She just- hmm? Huh…?" The girl pulled a lever that didn't do anything. "Uhh, actually my Crescent Rose is one of the types that doesn't transform. She does suck blood though."
It was probably where she focused all her costuming efforts, although Yang wasn't sure why anyone would want to cosplay her sister to begin with.
"Because you're a vampire version of me! That is so cool!"
Yang was proud of her baby sister, but Ruby wasn't famous or anything. At least not before the tournament began. And she was kind of a dork too, which was maybe the only thing the imposter was bringing to life faithfully.
She watched the girl open her mouth comically wide to show off her canine prosthetics.
Yeah, picking her baby sis to stalk was odd. Then again you got all sorts of weirdos in the world.
Three minutes later and Yang had revised her previous statement to "crazies".
While this was all very entertaining to Yang, they were short on time today and needed to get stuff done.
She made eye contact with Blake and Weiss, and before long the four of them were walking away, with a reluctant Ruby dragged along by her own partner.
To Yang's amusement, Ruby Fauxse took that as a cue to follow them.
The story the girl tried to sell them for the last few hundred yards involved something about a world with no Grimm and a city called Vein that was inhabited by good vampires who fought evil vampires for control, and was walled off by a mist made of magical blood, except lately the fighting had been about relics that could grant magic powers which could combine into a Queen Cruz of the Vampires if left unchecked, which was why the girl had been involved in an epic battle with an evil vampire scientist named Jewzoh Meedoh who really wanted to stimulate human evolution.
And of course the reason he wanted to do that was to fight previously unmentioned monsters outside of the mist (that were emphatically not Grimm) because the mist wasn't made to trap the vampires in there like all her friends had thought, but was actually created to protect them by a man called Gregorio Silva who was the King of Vein, and was also a pro wrestler and the dead Queen's dad, except 'Huh? Wouldn't that make her a princess then?' but Gregorio accidentally ate all the relics and turned into a werewolf, which is why she and her friends had to beat him to take out all the relics and her friend Eeyo used the relics and turned into a big tree, except it was a tree that made blood so the vampires didn't have to drink human blood anymore.
Yang nodded to herself. Now that was a movie she'd pay money to see.
The girl was just getting started though.
"And speaking of relics," the girl said before that she segued into her next story, which impressively managed to be even more out there. "That's actually why I'm here. Because Remnant has Relics too, just like in my world. And they give special powers too, just like in my world.
"Except instead of being protected by the Successors who are vampires, they're spread across Remnant and protected by the Four Maidens, who all have amazing magic powers. And the Maidens are protected by people like Ozpin, who's actually this secret reincarnator except not really because I think only half of his soul was reincarnated."
"Wait, how does that work?" Weiss asked.
Why Weiss was questioning that part in particular, Yang had no idea, but the girl's response was about what Yang expected.
"Eh, well, he's actually this ancient king named Ozmo who died like a billion years ago. If he's dead he can't protect the Maidens though, so he possesses people instead. Every time they die he pops off, and gets passed off to the next one like a crown - which makes sense because only the people he possesses can lead the Order of the Phoenix."
She paused for a moment and then concluded, "And that's how he lives on forever, worn as a crown by one host after another. Like what Voldemort did, in Harry Potter."
That last part had Blake looking desperate to comment, but she managed to hold her tongue with grace.
"Whaaat!? So Professor Ozpin is actually being possessed by a ghost?" Ruby gaped.
"I know. It surprised me too," Fauxse nodded in return.
This time it was her sister's turn to pause.
"But wait, you said the Maidens are the ones with the magic. Why does he need the Order of the Phoenix?"
"To manage the Maidens. Sometimes they turn evil or run away.
"See, the Spring Maiden ran away but then bumped into a bunch of bandits led by this lady called Raven, who's also Yang's mom."
Yang almost missed a step. Okay, that was crossing the line even for a lunatic.
"And then Raven killed her and stole her powers."
Yang definitely missed her step that time, and then looked balefully at the girl.
"You wanna say that again...?"
Yang didn't know what her deal was, but there were things that were okay to joke about, and things that really weren't. At least if you knew what was good for you.
"Eh? Ah, sorry, that was insensitive of me. But it's true, and you're all in danger. Raven might be off destroying villages or whatever, but the Fall Maiden Cinder is coming here to destroy Beacon and steal its relic, and she's going to bring an army of Grimm and kill Pyrrha."
Yeah. This really wasn't funny any more.
"I think we've had enough of your make-believe."
Yang moved to grab the girl and slap a little sense into her, but the imposter backed away with widened eyes. And then began running really fast. Towards the street corner.
"Hey-, wai-!"
After a moment of confusion, Yang activated her aura and sprang off the paved footpath after her, with the rest of Team RWBY following not too long after.
"Stop running, so I can teach you a lesson about reality!" Yang yelled after the girl.
The girl just ran faster, if anything, and then made the turn out of sight.
By the time Yang had dashed around the corner herself, the girl was gone. Somehow.
Yang could feel her temple throb.
"Get back here!"
AN: This was the story I wrote during my first attempt at getting into fanfiction, back in 2019. It was wildly unpopular with my friends, so I never got past 6000 words. As it turns out, Six Amnesiacs was even worse.
If I'm uploading that anyway, why not this, right? The freedom of being at rock bottom can be so empowering.