Recording #3

January, 22981 AEA

"Progress is slow, as expected, since we have absolutely no idea what it is, how far it reaches, and even what it's made of. Theo came by earlier and suggested that I, quote, 'Blast it with *BEEP* tons of magic.' Oh, let me enable the profanity filter real quick… there we go. Anyways, I ended up banning him from my lab for a few days, just for suggesting something that crude. No, there's only one way to properly research something of this magnitude: with thorough and unrestrained scientific investigation! Okay, maybe we'll use a little bit of magic, too. Let's do this!"

? ? ?, 78 AGW

They were victorious.

"Please don't…"

Finally. All of her planning, all of her training, had finally paid off. The power of the Fall Maiden would be hers.

'The first of four…' Cinder smirked, as the beetle Grimm latched onto the maiden's face. Amber shrieked in pain as the magic left her body, her right eye blazing in desperation. Energy coursed through Cinder's body as the last of the maiden's strength petered out. The rush felt incredible, like nothing Cinder had ever experienced! It was power, it was overwhelming strength at her fingertips. Soon, nothing would stand in her way. At last, she'd be able to—

"Huh?"

The sound of rapidly falling footsteps to her right was all the warning she had as a massive blade suddenly swung for her head. Cinder barely had enough time to fling herself backwards and avoid the blow, but the damage was done.

The huntsman's sword severed the Grimm from Amber, cutting off Cinder's connection to the power. She looked as her right eye blazed, only to see her lackeys forced away from Amber by the huntsman. No matter. Half of the power was already hers; they could afford to retreat and try again later.

The dust settled, and she smirked at the huntsman—the legendary Qrow Branwen himself—before lighting up the ground beneath him with fire, signaling a retreat to Emerald. The girl's Semblance was a huge boon for her operations; she was quite the useful little tool. As she retreated from the clearing, she spared one last glance at the comatose Fall Maiden.

She smiled in grim satisfaction. 'No one will save you. You're already as good as dead."

He was too late.

It took one hell of an effort to even find Amber's general location. And just what was she thinking, traveling outside the Kingdom limits alone? After spending a frantic two hours flying around at max speed as a crow, he got just lucky enough to catch the sight of a huge explosion in the distance. A sheer miracle, given his Semblance. And yet, it wasn't enough. By the time he had gotten there, Amber was already on the ground, and their leader was doing… something to her, with that strange Grimm. He didn't miss the way only a single eye glowed with power, either.
Damn it. They needed to get back to Ozpin ASAP. He tried to shake Amber awake.

"C'mon kid, don't die on me here…" He grit his teeth in frustration. There was no response from the maiden.

Trying not to look at the spiderweb of scars covering her face, he moved to activate the distress beacon on his Scroll, before something else caught his attention.

Footsteps from behind. They were incredibly light, as if the person were almost floating in the air while walking.

"Is she going to die?" There was no malice behind those words, just curiosity and trepidation. Even so, he didn't want to take any risks. Quickly activating the distress beacon with his left hand, he tightened his grip on Harbinger and whirled around to meet the stranger.

His eyes widened in shock as his grip faltered.

"Summer?"

She was embarrassed.

Just how many stupid mistakes were made in the past few days? And now, here she was, still without any clothing sans her cloak, when she could have just looted Dee's corpse from the start! She had let herself get distracted by the implications of this new world, and hadn't noticed her error until she fully transformed into her disguise, at which point she ended up seeing a little too much skin for her tastes. Sure, her sense of touch was dulled as a skeleton, and her cloak was distractingly awesome, but that was still no excuse for making such a huge blunder.

'Sloppy, Ruby, just sloppy. A rookie mistake you'd expect from someone on their first mil, really. Get it together!" She mentally chastised herself as she sealed up the front of her cloak, fully concealing her naked disguise. Great. Now she had missed all the action.

Ruby had initially presumed that the explosion was simply an accident, and thus, even if the user needed help, they could wait a few seconds for her to button up her cloak. Instead, she managed to arrive at the tail end of what appeared to be a confrontation. She had spotted a man with black, spiky hair shielding a brown haired woman from three poorly dressed assailants: mint on green, grey on even more grey, and black on red.

Ruby sighed as her suspicions were confirmed. Dee and Dudley weren't a pair of coincidences: it seemed every mortal on this planet appeared just as dull-looking as they were. Fortunately, it would mean her disguise would probably hold water, especially since the existence of mortal women was confirmed for her as well. Ruby wasn't sure if she should be happy or unnerved that these mortals fit Eternal biology to some degree, but it did mean she wasn't entirely out of her comfort zone here, which was a win regardless.

She stepped forward as the three fled the area, noting with mild interest that the red one was capable of some rudimentary magic, something Dee and Dudley hadn't shown. Perhaps those two were even more incompetent then she had initially thought.

Black's back was turned to her, attempting to shake Brown awake, but his sword was still drawn. Right. Now was the time to test out her disguise. She noticed that Brown was lying limp in his arms, unresponsive.

She asked about her condition, then braced herself as he turned to look at her.

'Buy it. I'm just an ordinary mortal, like you. Please buy it. Please buy it please please please—'

His eyes widened in shock and recognition. "Summer?"

Okay. Maybe it worked too well. Ruby panicked as she tried to think up a response.

'What would Theo do in this situation? Make a joke?'

"Ha. Ha." She laughed mechanically. "Why yes, I was just about to ask what season it was. How did you know?"

"Sorry, I mistook you for someone else." The man shook his head. "Wrong hair color..." He muttered under his breath.

Ruby cheered internally. It worked! Well, he probably would have realized it by himself anyways, but still. When you spend more time working on Eternal tech than you do interacting with people, any resolved situation is a win.

"So!" She clapped her hands together, excited to find someone to talk to. She had so many questions to ask.

"Mind if I ask you a few questions? It shouldn't take that much time, I promise!"

Qrow was glad he topped up his flask before coming out here. He took another swig, silently praying for the Bullhead he called to arrive faster. Was she still talking?
"—and I need to know more about the entire world and everyone and everything in it so I'd appreciate it if you—"

Yep. Still talking. Gods, it was like listening to ten Ooblecks at once. With no end in sight, he closed his flask and decided to put a stop to this one-sided conversation.

"Slow down for a minute there, won't you? What's your name, kiddo?"

The girl scoffed. "I'm not a kid. And it's Ruby."

"Just Ruby?" He raised an eyebrow.

The Summer lookalike stared at him. "Um, yeah? That's my name, I just gave it to you. Are you stupid?"

He shook his head, ignoring that slight. "Never mind. Look, I can answer your questions," a lie, though Ozpin was probably patient enough, "but I need you to answer some of my questions first."

Ruby hesitated. Suspicious… Most people didn't have a reason to fear Huntsman, especially not one of Qrow's repute.

"About what?" She asked, trepidation clear in her voice.

"We'll start simple. Where are you from?" The girl was an unknown, and from what Qrow could tell, completely alone. Was it simply bad luck that she'd shown up at a time like this?

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Where am I from?"

"Where were you born, where do you live now, that kind of thing." He explained.

"Oh, right…" Her voice lost it's excited edge as she looked down. Ah, so it was like that. He didn't remember hearing about any recently failed settlements around Vale, but it was always possible he just missed it. Qrow was prepared to drop the subject when she surprised him with a response.

"I was born in the Upper District of Aetera, though I spend most of my time in my lab, located in the King's Floating City. Sound familiar?" She looked at him, a glimmer of hope sparkling in her eyes.

"What?" He croaked out, caught off guard by the confidence in her answer.

Almost immediately, her expression shifted back to one of melancholy. "I thought so…" She murmured.

Okay, so Ruby was from Atlas? But Atlas hasn't had a king since the Great War, and it definitely wasn't floating at that time. Qrow might have thought she was joking, but something about her expression was too genuine, too somber, to be faked.

"Sorry kid, just forget I asked." He offered.

She glared at him. "I already told you, I am not a child."

"Is that so?" Now was the time to fish for more information. "Then how old are you?"

"Fifteen thou—" She cut herself off, a panicked look appearing in her eyes. Funny, they had looked silver earlier, but as Qrow took a closer look, they appeared more light grey than anything.

"Er, I mean, how old are you?"

His eyes narrowed. This girl was definitely crazy. He began to calm her down when something caught the edge of his vision. Signature red eyes dotted the forest around them. It seemed the earlier fighting, and perhaps the mention of Ruby's home, attracted them.

"Grimm." He growled, drawing Harbinger. This wasn't good. He glanced down at Amber, still catatonic from whatever was done to her.

"Just my luck..." He sighed. He had to defend himself, Amber, and now Ruby from the Grimm and his semblance. And unless the girl was hiding something under that cloak of hers, he would have to do it alone. Truly, Qrow had his work cut out for him. Slowly, the Grimm emerged from the foliage. Groups of Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, Creeps, even a few King Taijitu and Deathstalkers, quickly surrounded the trio. Damn it. This wasn't looking good.

"Kid, when I tell you to, take Amber and get the hell out of here." He turned to Ruby, expecting fear.

Instead, she ignored him. "So, they're called Grimm? That's good to know." She commented, calmly walking towards the nearest one.

Panic welled up within him. She wasn't crazy, she was completely insane! Was his Semblance working overtime? He moved to stop her as she lazily raised her right arm at the approaching Beowolf. Qrow froze as he saw her eyes glow. No way…

A huge tendril of flame burst from her hand, snaking towards the Beowolf. In an instant, it was immolated in a writhing mass of red and yellow flames. It didn't even have time to cry out in pain before dissolving into nothing, leaving behind a patch of odd looking fire where it once stood. The flames that remained on the ground were almost blood red at the base, and perfectly smooth tentacles of fire rose from it, swaying like a candle light, and turning a gradient to bright yellow at the tip.

But the spectacle wasn't done there. The initial tendril continued to make its way around like a heat-seeking missile, running through the rest of the Grimm with the same horrific efficiency as the first. The Beowolves, Boarbatusks, and Creeps all incinerated in an instant to the blazing heat, and while the rest survived a hit from the tendril, they too soon fell as the conflagration burned and spread like a disease over their entire bodies. In mere seconds, Qrow and Amber were surrounded in an inferno of burning Grimm corpses and cursed fire tentacles. It was like a scene from Hell.

And Ruby stood at the center of it all, wiping some errant dust off of her right arm.

She sighed and shook her head. "What a waste of my time."

Qrow could only gape in shock at the display. A shaking hand managed to find its way to his flask.

'Well. This just got a hell of a lot more complicated.'

A/N: I actually wanted to address some reviews about the previous two chapters to clear up some confusions, and since I don't have a large following I hope I can keep it short.

One review asked why Ruby didn't bother attacking Dee and Dudley in when they attacked her. In hindsight, I probably should have described her mindset in a bit more detail then. Basically, Ruby is immortal (duh). But at that point, she doesn't know D&D are. The thought never occurs to her that they can die. Her society is one made entirely of like-minded immortals. So, Ruby has literal millennia of bias and learned behavior telling her not to fight. What's the point of fighting an immortal? Just look at Ozma and Salem if you wanna imagine how productive that is.

Another review expressed confusion at my mention of Faunus Blake in the previous A/N. It was meant to be a joke about how Blake enters Beacon disguised as a human, before revealing her Faunus heritage, but the review made me realize I hadn't actually directly stated where in the timeline the story is taking place. Sure, you could make some assumptions (and if you did last chapter I hope you were right), but the review reminded me that I shouldn't be such a blabbermouth sometimes. Thanks!

I want to reemphasize that this is my first foray into creative writing. I will make mistakes, and there will probably be a lot of them. As such, any and all reviews will always be welcome. Don't feel obligated to leave a review, though. Your viewership is enough.

Thanks for reading!