UPDATE: When this was first posted I thought I wanted a trilogy with three books and three different fics on my profile. I have changed my mind, and adjusted this Author's Note accordingly. I will also be adjusting the formatting of this chapter, and possibly many others.

Here's a completely new story. I am doing what I initially thought I wouldn't do by posting this before I have all the trailers complete or any other long form story idea of mine under my belt. But, YOLO, am I right? My reasoning is I was too excited to write this and get feedback on the first chapter and I couldn't wait any longer.

"What is this story, anyway?" You ask. Well let me tell you: it's a Halo x RWBY cross over fic that I intend to put a lot of thought and planning into it to make the connection between the two universes have a proper explanation. I'm sick and tired of the boring "Remnant is a lost colony" explanation, or even worse, no explanation at all. I know this seems ambitious for someone as novice as me, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head once it was in there. I also realize that I won't be able to write this and only this for however long it will take me to finish it, so I will be writing other stories along side it, and hopefully balancing between two, or maybe even three, stories will mean I don't get too bored of one fic over another.

This long chapter is long, so I'll quit my ramblings so you can get onto the story.


Part I

The Lost Child


July 22, 2537 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

The whirring servos of complicated measuring equipment filled his vision as he sat on a swivel chair behind a thick plane of bulletproof glass. The room was filled with them: high tech machines and computers that would give him a migraine if any one of the eggheads tried explaining them to him.

It was not his job to understand them, fortunately. Not only was it above his pay grade, but he was here for a different reason: to make sure none of the information learned here left the planet.

Lieutenant Jeremy Gomez sipped his cold coffee with a grimace as he watched the scientists he was assigned to manage work. They would bitch and moan all they wanted about having a non-egghead as their supervisor. But, since ONI was involved, and especially since they were dealing with highly classified alien technology, they would have to keep it to themselves.

These days, alien technology wasn't that big of a deal, it hadn't been for over a decade, not since the first contact with the covenant. Now, people couldn't get away from alien technology, quite literally; they would run away screaming as their homes were scorched under high energy plasma beams that would lead to all they knew and loved smoldering under a mile thick layer of hazardous chemical glass.

Jeremy shook his head at the morbid thought. Downing the last of his coffee, he leaned forward, pressing the button on his console for the intercoms and spoke to the eggheads inside the chamber.

"What's going on in there? You mind telling me what's taking so long?" He said, definitely louder than he needed to. He always got a kick out of watching the nerds get all flustered after being startled.

"Ugh! If you would let me work without the risk of having a heart attack for more than five minutes, then we would be done sooner!" The lead egghead practically yelled back at him. He wore a thick, state-of-the-art hazmat suit. Jeremy thought he could probably relax right beside a slipspace drive for an hour in that thing, and walk away fresh as a daisy. That's how serious ONI was about researching this place: only the highest quality equipment would be accepted, no expense spared. At least, of the small budget they were given, relative to their budget before the beginning of the war.

Jeremy leaned back on his chair, a cheeky smile spread across his unshaven face. This was no ordinary alien technology, this was something completely new. The covenant had a certain, irritatingly purple, architecture that could be spotted from a mile away. This tech was different. Long, smooth, continuous panels of pure silver reflected the bright white lights that seemed to come from nowhere. The room they were in was preceded by large corridors that could only be described as ornamental due to the discrepancy between the sheer volume of the building, and the size of the walkway made of some hard light technology that not even the eggheads could explain.

My brother would have a field day with this. He was always so fascinated by the covenant's ships, he would probably blow a fuse if he knew there was something even more hightech than them. Jeremy thought.

The entirety of the complex was buried underneath a small mountain. This area had been cordoned off, and declared off limits to most people on the planet. Zone 67 is what the higher ups called it, and it was where he spent his days, overseeing the skittish little White Coats and their fun little experiments.

That probably made this place sound like a fun time. In reality, Jeremy knew, this was one of, if not the most, boring assignments he was ever given. Nothing happened, ever. All the tech they found around here was either inert, impossible to experiment on without compromising the integrity of the facility - in the case of the hard light bridge outside - or wasn't even technology to begin with, like the floors and stuff. For the first time in six months, the scouting crews finally found something worth looking into: the room he was in now.

Before him was a strange configuration of silver struts floating over a transparent floor. Initial readings had shown this place was rather high in dangerous radiation, hence the hazmat suits. At least it gave the eggheads something to drool over for a few days. Jeremy knew it wouldn't lead to anything, as did most of the garbage on this stupid planet, and then it would be back to them complaining about having nothing to do, and missing their families. Jeremy knew that was bullshit, he's been working for ONI for several years, he knew they didn't put people on projects like this that couldn't easily disappear. Each and every one of them had nothing to return to; perfect cannon fodder for the all seeing eye of ONI.

Jeremy stood from his favorite chair, and walked over to the coffee machine installed near the back of the observation room. As dreadful as this place could be, it did have its niceties.

A low whooshing sound resonated from behind him, he quickly turned, careful not to spill his hot cup of black gold over his black suit, only to see what looked like a swirling mass of blue light coalescing towards a pitch black center. A loud beeping noise filled his ears, he looked to see that the machine used to measure the room's radiation levels was displaying a dangerous red color on its screen.

The next thing he heard was the shattering of his mug hitting the floor and frantic footsteps as he ran to the intercom.

"Evacuate the area! Get out of there, the radiation is through the roof!" Jeremy shouted into the microphone. He didn't know if anyone responded, as the low whooshing slowly raised into a deafening hum that filled the room.

Jeremy looked around through the glass, relieved to account for all the scientists having been far enough away from the object that none of them were affected by it in any detrimental way. Partially because it meant no one had died, but mainly because it meant he didn't have to do the paperwork associated with a death under his management.

Jeremy covered his ears as the hum continued to rise, transforming into a high pitched screech. The blue light swirled ever more violently the longer the object remained in existence.

"Can't you shut that thing down?" Jeremy practically screamed through the microphone.

"We can't!" He didn't recognize the voice that responded.

"Well, just do the opposite of what you did that made that thing!"

"We would, but we didn't make it!"

Jeremy looked up as the whirling light seemed to reach a fever pitch, rotating so rapidly that the struts around it seemed to be falling apart under its own energy. The light being emitted from the object grew in brightness until he had to shield his eyes, else his retinas began to burn off.

The energy dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Leaving behind shattered pieces of silver metal scattered across the floor, some even appeared to be embedded in the walls. A quick glance showed that everyone was still okay.

Jeremy looked back to the source of the event, wondering if there might be any clues as to how it had happened in the moments just afterwards. His jaw hung open and his brows furrowed as he saw a small figure at the center of the clear platform, huddled up in a fetal position.

Jeremy ran to the heavy door connecting the observation room to the large chamber and wrenched it open, much to the dismay of the scientific staff still present in the room. He jogged forward to the figure, and dropped to his knees, observing what had been left by the strange blue light.

He reached out with a tentative hand and rolled it over. Gasping at the sight of a little girl with dark hair turned red at the tips, and a long red cloak flowing down her back, unconscious.

He put his fingers to her neck, reading her pulse: it was dangerously low.

"Call a medical team in here, now!" He said to one of the scientists near the door. Satisfied when he followed his orders, leaving the chamber in a sprint, he turned back to the girl, who had begun to stir.

"Hey, hey, can you hear me?" Jeremy said softly. He saw movement behind the girl's eyes, but received no response.

Half a minute had passed with sweat dripping down Jeremy's brow as he tended to the girl before she finally spoke.

"M-Mommy? W-Where's Mommy?" slowly, the slits of her eyelids began to widen, and Jeremy remained at her side.

Jeremy looked up to the other scientists still in the room, all he got were shrugs of confusion from not knowing what the hell the protocol was for a situation like this.

"Uh… you need to go to the doctor, we need to make sure you're alright. You can see your Mommy afterwards, ok?" Jeremy said, in as disarming a voice as he could manage. The little girl before him simply nodded, clearly not lucid from what must have been a harrowing experience coming from… wherever she came from, to here.

The girl didn't speak another word as her head fell limp to her side, being caught by Jeremy before it could hit the hard glass beneath her. Jeremy slowly rolled her to her side, remembering something about the recovery position he learned about in school as a kid.

"What the fuck did you just do?!" Jeremy hissed under his breath at the lead scientist. Said scientist raised his hands in surrender once Jeremy had made a beeline for him.

"I-I-I-I I have no idea! W-We didn't activate anything, there should be no reason why she is here. We weren't going to be ready to test the damn thing for another hour by the time the portal opened."

"Portal? When did you learn it was a portal?"

"Just now. The portal was closed, there was no girl here; the portal opened, and now there's a girl here. It seems pretty self evident on the nature of such a machi-"

"I don't care about the 'nature' of what just happened. Find a way to open that thing back up so we can send her home." Jeremy said, bearing his teeth at the egghead.

"I-I don't think the protocol here is to send her back home." The scientist said as he stood from his position lying on the floor.

"That's because there is no protocol for something like this, this has never happened before."

"Are you sure sending her home is what we're supposed to do?"

"I don't know. You know what, hold off on that, I need to contact my superior, maybe she'll know what to do."


Jeremy tugged at his collar and rubbed his freshly shaven face as he tried to make contact with his superior back on Earth. The data pad before him displayed a loading animation as it attempted to connect with another terminal in Bravo-6, the veritable capital of humanity at this point in the war.

Jeremy swallowed deep and gasped as the connection was made, causing him to cough in his fist as his worst nightmare answered the call.

"Lieutenant." The aged woman on the other end of the call said in greeting.

"Admiral Parangosky, I have a report for you." Jeremy hoped his voice didn't tremble as he spoke. He had heard the stories surrounding this woman. He knew just how easily people could, and would, disappear should they disappoint her.

"Well, Lieutenant, I don't have all day, get on with it." Admiral Margaret Parangosky, Commander in Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence, or CINCONI for short, leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms.

"There have been several developments. A few days ago, the scouting team discovered a large facility hidden underneath the mountain deep inside zone 67. This facility was mostly empty. The only significant technological findings were the hard light bridge leading into the facility, and what appeared to be a portal of some sort, near the bottom of the facility."

"A portal? And where does this portal lead to?" Parangosky raised her eyebrows, forming deep wrinkles on her forehead.

"We were unable to discern that Ma'am, the portal collapsed before we could send any probes inside."

"What makes you think it was a portal, if there were no tests performed on it?"

"Well, Ma'am, something - someone - came out of it." Jeremy winced at the correction. "A little girl around the age of five fell through the portal while it was active. We have since tried to reactivate the portal, though the means by which the portal was made appear to be damaged beyond our capability to repair them."

"Hmm, that is unfortunate. What else do you know of this little girl?"

"She seemed pretty out of it once she passed through, Ma'am. She spoke of her mother, asking where she had gone, but has since fallen back into unconsciousness, and has remained that way for the last several hours."

"And the meaning of this call?" Parangosky leaned forward, what must have been a mundane move for her left sweat dripping down Jeremy's back.

"W-well, Ma'am, we don't know what to do. There is no precedent for a situation such as this, at least, none that I know of."

"Yes, this is a strange situation indeed. Wait until she wakes, after which you may run a psych evaluation, and determine what she knows, how she ended up through the portal, and by what means might we be able to send her back. Be sure that she is not privy to any classified information before she is sent home, of that I must insist." Jeremy nodded his head.

Parangosky continued, "Should those attempts prove fruitless, or she appears abnormal by any standards, treat her as any other alien artefact on Onyx: study her, find her origin, discover what makes her tick, if you must. And whatever you do, don't let her out of your sight. This whole thing reeks of a potential leak should things get out of control. I put you in that position, for a reason: because I trust you to do your tasks as you see fit. Don't make this girl the reason why I regret that decision." Parangosky ended the call abruptly, she was a busy bee for someone of her age. All the same, it left Jeremy breathing heavily at the subtle, but very real, threat at what's to come should he mess this up.

Jeremy reached his hand out to grasp a nearby glass of water, and brought it shakily to his lips. Drinking deep of the life giving substance, he continued to calm himself down by taking deep breaths. Alright, I have my orders, all I need to do is follow them, and things will go by smoothly. Just another day at the office.


"What's the situation, doc?" Jeremy asked, standing beside the lead scientist. Neither were wearing those stuffy hazmat suits, the radiation had dissipated after the destruction of the portal.

"I have no idea. There is not a single piece of recognizable technology built into the pieces that broke apart once the portal closed. It all looks like solid metal to me." The scientist sat on the floor, literally scratching his head as he tried to fit two broken pieces together like it was a particularly complicated jigsaw puzzle.

"We have half a billion credits worth of scientific equipment and all you can do is sit on your ass and try to put two pieces together? The round peg goes in the round hole, doc, how hard can it be?"

The scientist looked up at him, his brows coming together in a frown. "Look at this, this is just metal. There are no wires, there are no pipes, there are no motors, there is nothing. I have no clue as to how this technology works. I don't believe we will be able to reopen this portal within the next century, much less a few days."

Jeremy sighed in frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he paced around the room. Thinking about what else they could do about the unconscious girl in the breakroom built in zone 67.

"What makes you so hellbent on sending this girl home anyways?" the scientist said as he stood up.

"I- ugh… She reminds me of my little sister. She and my brother were my best friends growing up."

"I didn't know you have siblings."

"Because I don't. I had siblings."

"Oh… shit. I'm sorry to hear that." The scientist placed his hand on Jeremy's shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"Don't be, you weren't the one that glassed their home."

"Well… I can keep on trying. Give me a few hours and I can determine whether this can be fixed or not." The scientist stood there as if wondering if he had something more to say. He seemed to have given up when he looked down and returned to his work, fiddling with the alien technology.

Jeremy left the room soon afterwards. His mood soured from remembering his siblings in such a negative light.

He made his way to the breakroom. The little girl remained on the couch, unmoving. Jeremy knew he would need to ask her a shitload of uncomfortable questions as soon as she woke up, but thought it would be better for the girl to have the rest she needed before that happened.

Jeremy yawned loudly, realizing he needed some sleep too. But, as his grandfather would say, "there ain't no rest for the wicked." As such, he silently moved to the wall opposite the door, and poured himself another mug of cold coffee.

He turned, the mug stopped at his lips as he saw the girl sitting up and staring at him through one silver eye, the other was being rubbed by one of the girl's small hands.

"Where am I?" the girl asked groggily, letting out a yawn of her own.

Oh shit! What do I tell her? I should've thought this through better. Jeremy cleared his throat as he set the mug down on the table beside him. He approached the girl slowly, belying the panicked confusion he was feeling inside. He sat down next to the girl on the couch, looking her in the eyes as he spoke.

"That doesn't matter right now, all that matters is that you're safe." He said. He hadn't had the slightest clue on what was the right thing to say, so he went for something easier instead: dodging the question. Jeremy saw the girl's eyes widen in fear as she must have remembered what happened prior to coming here.

"Mommy! Is Mommy okay? She was attacked, and she was bleeding, and the people who attacked her were chasing me-" The girl dissolved into loud cries as she spoke. Her hands rose to cover her eyes, wiping away tears as they formed.

"Sh sh sh, it's okay, you're safe, the people that attacked you won't hurt you here." Jeremy leaned in to hug the little girl as she continued to cry. Filling the room with heart wrenching sobs to anyone that was unfortunate enough to pass by.

They sat there for at least a half hour. Jeremy holding the girl, and the girl thankful for the warmth. Jeremy was used to this sort of thing; his little sister often had nightmares when she was younger, and it had often been him there to comfort her when she couldn't fall back asleep.

He was content to let her take all the time she needed. Thus, he found it impressive when she spoke so soon. "I… I think my Mom is dead." Jeremy looked at her, the tears having since run dry, leaving only puffy, red cheeks.

"Don't say that, you don't know that for sure." Jeremy tried to stay optimistic for the girl, but she wasn't having it.

"But I do. They stabbed her through the heart. I saw it." she placed her hand on her chest, where her heart was. Jeremy didn't know what to say, so he just tightened his hug around her. She welcomed the affection greedily.

Jeremy knew this was… abnormal, to say the least. He sent back glares to everyone who walked by with inquisitive expressions on their faces. Now wasn't the time for other people to question whether he was a creep or not, right now this little girl needed consoling.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." Jeremy would have expected a girl her age to be bawling her eyes out for days after something as traumatic as watching your own mother's murder. But maybe it was just that: so traumatic that this girl was going into shock. Or something like that; people would call Jeremy many things, but a psychiatrist was not one of them.

Feeling it would be best to try and distract her with something other than her dead mother, Jeremy released the hug and kneeled in front of her, filling her vision.

"Can you tell me your name? My name's Jeremy."

"Ruby." The girl, Ruby, kept her eyes to the floor as they spoke.

"Hello, Ruby. Can you tell me where you come from?"

"I… I live on an island, called Patch."

"That's awesome, do you like to go swimming?" Most people would say that question was irrelevant to his little 'interrogation'. But, considering this girl couldn't be older than six, he was willing to take his time earning her trust.

"Sometimes. The water is usually too cold to swim though."

Jeremy nodded, happy to be getting details that weren't directly related to the question. That meant she would be willing to give more information on the important questions.

"I hate it when the water is cold, don't you?" The girl nodded.

"Okay, Ruby, can you tell me where Patch is?"

The girl looked at him now, confusion in her eyes. "It's in Vale, off the coast, I could point to it on a map."

None of these were sounding familiar to Jeremy. He was beginning to become worried they wouldn't be able to send her home the old fashioned way: in a ship through space.

"And what colony is Vale in?" Jeremy asked. "So we can get you a map."

"Colony? What's that?"

"What planet, I should say." This really confused Ruby. The girl's brows furrowed and she looked at him like he was the strange one.

"What are you talking about? Are you crazy or something?"

Jeremy leaned back, surprised at her tone. "No, I'm simply asking a question."

"It's on the only planet we live on: Remnant." The girl said as if it was a matter of fact.

That really set some alarm bells off in his head. He had found the vast human empire enthralling as a kid, as such he had taken to learning of all the human colonies he could. Not once in his studies did the planet Remnant show up.

"Do you know where this, 'Remnant', is by any chance?" Jeremy said, voice raising in pitch in a way that he hoped hid his concern.

"You're confusing me. We're on Remnant. No one has ever left, my sister told me it's not possible."

Oh dear. That threw a wrench in things. Either this girl was crazy and was making up stories in her head, Or she has been lied to her whole life and is probably better off being away from wherever she had come from.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Jeremy wished he could ask something that wasn't so close to her mother's murder, but he needed to be able to understand where this little girl was coming from, so to speak.

"After my Mom was murdered," The girl paused, sniffling, and wiping the tears from her eyes. "I ran away from the two men that killed her. They chased me into the forest, and I remember falling into a big hole, hitting my head, and then waking up here. I don't remember anything else." She said, drying up the last of her tears from the difficult memory.

"This hole, do you remember what it looked like?"

"Not really, it looked like a normal hole when I fell in, I think. Dirt and stuff. But then, I think it turned into metal or something. I don't remember anything after that." The girl's eyes crossed as she tried to replay the memories in her head. Jeremy chuckled, telling her not to hurt herself.

"Can you tell me how old you are?" Jeremy asked suddenly, breaking a short silence that had fallen between them.

"I'm four and a half. My birthday is in October."

That was strange. She didn't have a clue about space travel, something that had been a normal part of everyday life for centuries, but did know about the months. Or just October at the very least. That hopefully narrowed it down from her being crazy, just to her being lied to.

Before Jeremy could ask another question, his data pad dinged. Probably the lead egghead with some information about the portal. Jeremy stood, groaning as his knees adjusted from being bent for what must have been a half hour.

"That's my work calling. Okay, Ruby, I need you to stay here. There is very dangerous stuff outside this room, and I don't want you getting hurt. I'm going to lock the door, but don't worry, there is a bathroom over there," Jeremy pointed to the door opposite them. "And plenty of snacks in the refrigerator over there, I'm sure you must be hungry."

Jeremy expected resistance, but she only nodded her head and laid back down on the couch. She must have been more tired than he had thought.

Jeremy closed the door with a soft click, locking it with a security code that only he would know. He didn't need anyone accidentally opening the door for her, and allowing her to wander off.

He made his way back to the portal chamber, hoping beyond belief that they had found a way to get her home, but knowing they most likely hadn't.

"Alright, nerds, I've been up for twenty one hours and I want to get some shut eye, you better have something good for me." Jeremy said harshly as he barged into the room. He didn't have a mirror, but if he did, he was confident he would see bags starting to form under his eyes.

"I'm afraid it's mostly bad news, sir. All the pieces to the portal have just… dissolved." The lead scientist said.

Jeremy was not in the mood for jokes. "Dissolved? What the fuck does that mean?"

"Do you see any of the pieces around here? We didn't move them, they dissolved in hot metal shards. At least, we assumed they were hot, they were orange, and floated away as if experiencing an updraft from a fire. Like embers."

"So there's no chance of sending her back home, there's nothing we can do?" Jeremy felt his shoulders slump at the thought.

"I am afraid not." No one spoke for a few seconds. They must have sensed how much this meant for Jeremy.

"You said it was mostly bad news, what's the good news?" Jeremy broke the silence.

"Well, there was a small bag that we overlooked initially, due to all the rubble. There appears to be identification and a data pad stored inside it, as well as other things. I'm fairly sure it was someone's purse." The scientist grabbed it from a nearby table.

"Give it here." Jeremy said. He opened the bag and flipped it, spilling its contents over the table. He ruffled through strange, yet familiar products that any woman in her thirties might hold in her bag: lipstick, wipes, hand sanitizer, a hair tie. There were a few things that gripped Jeremy's attention, however.

"What is this? A 7.62 caliber round?" Jeremy picked up one of many large bullets, bringing it closer to his eye. "This doesn't match anything standard for the UNSC. whoever this was must have known what they were doing to have something as specialized as this." He looked over to the scientist, who shrugged as if he didn't know what to think of the bullet. Typical egghead.

"Here we go; identification… Summer Rose, a bunch of number mumbo jumbo, the years don't match up, must be using a local calendar rather than the military one, date of birth looks to be roughly thirty years before the expiration date, sex: female, eye color: silver, height: five foot five inches, weight: 145 pounds. Well, it looks like this is Ruby's mother." The scientist looked at him, the gap between his eyebrows had closed in an inquisitive gesture. Jeremy guessed it was because he used her name, often seen as a term of affection, something that, in a place like this, run by an organization like ONI, was not permitted to foster under any circumstances.

Jeremy didn't care about any of it. "Oh give me a break, she's a little girl." He shook his head, dismissing his judgemental look.

"The only thing out of the ordinary are the dates- hold on, Huntsman license? What the hell is a huntsman?"

"I don't know, you tell me." the scientist said.

"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to myself." Jeremy shot a glare at the man.

"I don't know what's worse: asking stupid questions, or asking stupid questions to yourself."

"Oh fuck off."

Jeremy looked through the rest of the purse's contents in silence. Noting several more bullets and a few small jars of strange colored powders. He would probably have to ask Ruby about that.

Speaking of Ruby, Jeremy thought it had been enough time since he left her alone. He didn't want her antsy when he had so many more questions to ask her.


July 25, 2537 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

"Admiral Parangosky." Jeremy greeted his superior as she appeared on his terminal.

"Hello, Lieutenant. You have something to tell me?" Parangosky asked, one eyebrow raising.

"Yes. It is in regard to the girl that has unwillingly come into our care." Jeremy hoped that portraying the incident as an accident, unintended by Ruby, will help to convince Parangosky to go easy in deciding what to do with the little girl.

"Unwilling, hmm? Tell me more."

"The girl, Ruby Rose, was being chased by two hostile men, who, by Ruby's account, had murdered her mother only moments prior, through a nearby wooded area when she fell down a large hole, she noticed architecture similar to that of this facility and passed out. The next thing she knew, she was here, under scrutiny by my team and I." Jeremy said, back straight as he sat behind his desk.

"Anything else of note?" Parangosky asked.

"We have a woman's purse that also traveled through the portal. It appears to be Ruby's mother, the girl confirmed it herself once we showed her the identification inside. The only things that were out of the ordinary were several high caliber rounds stored loosely in the purse, strange vials of some unknown powder that my team is looking into, and the identification having dates which do not align with the UNSC's military calendar, and the fact the identification itself was a 'Huntsmen License'." Jeremy said. It wasn't easy trying to pry information from the little girl, especially since everything they presented reminded her of her mother, something that made the interrogation very time consuming.

"After further interrogations into the contents, Ruby stated that a 'huntsman' is a hero that protects people from monsters which she called 'Grimm'. She also told us the powder is called 'Dust', and that it can be used as a fuel source or ballistic propellant, she told us it was also in the bullets. She said her mother was one of these huntsmen, or huntresses in her case. She seemed confused at our questions, stating, 'Huntsmen, Grimm, and Dust are all over Remnant'. Remnant being the planet where she claims she was born." Jeremy was just as confused as Ruby was during the conversation, and now it appeared that Parangosky was confused too. Not that she showed it very often, or very overtly, but years working under her had let Jeremy in on some of her ticks.

"Although the bullets and the powder appear incriminating, I have come to the conclusion that Ruby does not possess any ill intentions for our facility. I don't believe she even knows what the UNSC is. I believe she is either making up stories with her childlike imagination, has been lied to about the reality she lives in, or is mentally unstable, either from the trauma of watching her mother's murder, or from some previous incident." Jeremy was sure Parangosky would have been somewhat worried about the possibility of some child insurrectionist infiltrating the facility. He was relieved to dismiss that notion quickly.

"That is interesting indeed. Any news on her… more invasive tests?" Parangosky waved her hand lazily as she found the words.

"The genetic testing. No, we still have more tests to complete, and the ones we have are yet to be concluded. I will report back to you once they have finished." Jeremy said.

"Very well. Keep an eye on her, I don't want her wandering around the facility getting into trouble she, and you, ought not to." Jeremy swallowed at the subtle threat, and nodded.

"Understood Ma'am, she has been under supervision since she got here." Jeremy hoped she wouldn't call out his bluff. Locking her in the break room all alone wasn't exactly proper supervision.

"That being said, I want you to keep her around. This strange girl, this Ruby Rose, might prove useful in the future. At the very least she is a mystery that I would like to be solved. I trust you've watched those classic Scooby-Doo cartoons haven't you? You seem the type. Good luck, Shaggy." Admiral Parangosky ended the call. Jeremy scratched his head, wondering what Scooby-Doo was; he was too busy to watch old cartoons.

Jeremy left his office soon afterwards. Hoping those tests were complete so he could get on with his life.

He walked through the bland concrete hallways of the hastily constructed base inside zone 67. It was here they did all the poking and prodding into strange alien technology, and into stranger, potentially alien, little girls.

He walked past the officer's quarters Ruby was staying in. Looking through the small window in the door, he saw her lying on the couch, eyes open. She must be having a terrible time, Jeremy thought: stuck in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, who worked for a strange organization. Jeremy would have gone crazy if he had to deal with just that as a kid, but sprinkle watching his own mother's murder on top of that, and Jeremy didn't know if he would have survived it. This little girl kept on impressing him with how strong she was.

After a short walk to the lab, and a few button presses to input the security code, Jeremy walked into the main laboratory. Seeing his favorite egghead standing over some confusing, spinning machine.

"Any news, doc? Tell me, is it cancer?" Jeremy said, a smirk on his face.

"Can't you have any consistency in your attitude? I swear, it's like I'm working under a schizo." The lead scientist didn't turn his back as he kept on working.

"Hey, don't make me call HR. This is a progressive workplace, we don't tolerate name calling, egghead." Jeremy said, placing a hand on the scientist's shoulder as he leaned over him, observing his work. The egghead only sighed, muttering about needing a vacation or something.

"Most of the tests have come back in, and, I have to say, she is something special. I'm not a geneticist myself, but my colleague over there filled me in, she's astonishing." He pointed to a woman sitting behind a desk, typing at a terminal. At her mention, she stood, walking over to where they were standing, a manilla folder in hand.

"Here's the raw data, sir." The woman said, opening the folder, and handing it to him.

Jeremy tried to read it, but most of the science-y jargon went over his head. "Explain it like I'm five, please. I'm running low on migraine medicine."

"Well, sir. She displays several genes that coincide with the top one percent of all human DNA. To put it bluntly, sir, she's got the genes required for: intelligence, pain tolerance, high muscle mass, at least for her size, and a well above average IQ, among other things." The woman said.

"So, she's one of a kind?" Jeremy asked, looking up from the folder to meet the woman's eyes.

"Very much, sir. It has been said that great minds like these make for some of the greatest geniuses in history." The woman's eyes widened, clearly fascinated by the little girl's winning genetic lottery ticket.

"Well, that's something. And what of the powder, or Dust, or whatever you want to call it." Jeremy turned his attention back to the lead scientist.

"Firstly, we decided to test it for any hazardous properties. Fortunately, there were basically none, except for high combustibility. Though, strangely, further tests have failed to reproduce this effect, as if it's slowly losing its potency." The doctor said, raising one of the vials to eye level.

"So, is this material unstable? Is it experiencing a half-life or something?" Jeremy usually didn't mind being the dumb one, but when he was in a room full of people who had more PhDs than friends, he was feeling a little inadequate about his intelligence, and wanted to at least feel like he was contributing to the conversation.

"Not likely. The containers they were packaged in suggest relative stability, at least, that is what we presume, and because this substance wouldn't work well as propellant for a bullet from what we have discovered, we believe this is decaying due to its presence in our dimension."

Jeremy squinted at that last word. "I'm sorry, dimension? What are you talking about?"

"We didn't have the proper tools to study such a substance from here, so we sent it to another ONI laboratory elsewhere, and they reported only experiencing the decay once they received it. It was shipped via slipspace; more tests revealed the substance does not decay while in slipspace. It appears as if this material only functions outside of our dimension, and the only other dimension we regularly access is slipspace." The scientist was looking Jeremy in the eye now.

"So what are you telling me?" Jeremy still couldn't grasp what the egghead was saying.

"I'm telling you that we believe this girl wasn't sent here through a portal, but was instead exiting slipspace."


After only a few hours since their last call, Jeremy was trying to contact Parangosky, again. He felt it was getting to the point where he was becoming a bother to her. And he prayed to god that she had a lot of patience for bothers like him.

"Yes, Lieutenant. What is this, the fifth time you've called me?" Parangosky did not look amused.

"Third, actually. B-but that's beside the point. I'm reporting in on information regarding Ruby Rose; we believe we discovered the method in which she arrived here, as well as the results from the genetic testing." Jeremy said, hands clammy as they rested on his desk.

"Well, get on with it, it's well past my bedtime."

"Yes, Ma'am. Tests on the powder that was sent through with the purse have shown that the reactivity of the powder decreases the longer it is in realspace. It has also been discovered that the powder's decay is delayed during slipspace travel. As such, we have come to the conclusion that Ruby Rose was not sent here through a portal, but was instead stuck inside slipspace, and had simply found an exit."

"And, if Ruby's story is to be believed, she grew up on a seemingly normal planet, outside the influence of the UNSC or the war going on. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that this entire planet, the civilizations that originated on it, and the flora and fauna that have evolved on it have done so entirely inside slipspace."

"The genetic test seems to further validate this hypothesis. While Ruby is undeniably human, there is evidence to suggest that her genes have evolved separately from our human population. The only evidence of any sort of split seems to be in very small amounts of DNA that was common to our ancestors… from almost one hundred thousand years ago. My lead scientist likened it to what would happen if someone plucked a group of cavemen from sub saharan Africa, put them all on one planet, and transported them all to slipspace. Although, that doesn't explain the similarities in culture between Remnant and our own."

"That is quite the tall tale you're telling Lieutenant. I'm not sure how this is relevant either." Parangosky said, her face was blank.

"I'm not sure that it is Ma'am, it's simply a theory." Jeremy said.

"I'm more interested in things more based in reality, if you don't mind."

"If you look at your data pad, I've sent you the results of the tests. Turns out she's one in a million." Jeremy said. He watched Parangosky's expression as she read, still completely blank.

"More like one in a billion, Halsey would have a field day." Parangosky muttered under her breath.

Jeremy didn't quite hear it. "What was that, Ma'am?"

"Oh, nothing. Just the ramblings of an old woman." Parangosky continued to read in silence, leaving Jeremy to remain on the other end, trying not to make too much noise.

"This is rather fascinating. I had a feeling this would bear fruit. I want you to transfer her to another ONI officer of mine; Colonel James Ackerson, I'm sure you're familiar."

"I'm afraid I'm not, Ma'am." Jeremy said.

"No matter. Make sure she's ready for transfer. There should be a pelican dropping by to pick her up in a few days. Good day, Lieutenant." The call ended, again without waiting for a response from Jeremy. He sighed, hoping he finally could get some distance from the scary woman as soon as this whole ordeal was over with.

Still, despite their short time together, Jeremy had a feeling he would miss Ruby once she was gone.


July 30, 2537 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system

Half a week had gone by, and Jeremy was starting to get a little tired of having to entertain Ruby all the time. Of course, he would never say this to anyone, but a man whose career revolved around secrecy and walking the proverbial line of human morality isn't made for babysitting, even if he did spend a lot of his childhood looking after his little sister.

A stark black pelican landed in the hanger bay at around midday. Jeremy's fellow ONI agent stepped off the back hatch and made her way toward him.

"Hello, Lieutenant Jeremy Gomez, a pleasure to be of service to-"

"I don't care, where's the child?" The woman, who couldn't have been much older than Jeremy, wore a similar black uniform to his own, along with black sunglasses stereotypical of secret agents. Oh, so this one's got a stick up her ass, eh? I see how it is. Jeremy thought to himself, hiding a sigh behind a quick exhale.

"Very well, follow me." Jeremy led her inside the base, passing through long corridors as they went. Not a word was spoken between them. Jeremy could tell what 'type' of ONI agent this woman was, and he wasn't too keen on interacting with her very much. I hope she doesn't give Ruby a hard time.

They stopped outside the officers quarters that Ruby had stayed in for the past week or so. Opening the door so the woman could walk inside, Jeremy gently closed it behind him with a click.

Ruby looked up from a piece of paper, she was drawing knights in shining armor saving princesses from towers, there were, as Jeremy saw them, grotesque wolf-like monsters with black fur surrounding the knight. Those must be the Grimm she's made up. Ain't that cute.

"Am I going home now?" Ruby said. Jeremy opened her mouth to speak, but the woman beat him to it.

"I'm afraid not, Ruby. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you don't have a home anymore." Ruby looked up at the woman, her mouth opened in an 'o' shape as she processed what she had said. Jeremy looked at the woman too, wondering where she was going with this.

"I'm afraid that the people who attacked your mother, also attacked the rest of your family. You appear to be the only survivor." Jeremy felt his heart drop for a moment, but then he remembered they wouldn't know anything about her family, he hadn't asked Ruby about it at all, and now they were claiming they were all dead?

"W-w-wha-... Dad and Yang? They're dead too?" Jeremy's heart broke as the smart and strong girl before him brought her hands to her face as she began another bout of weeping. It had been a day since she last cried, the longest it had been since she arrived here, he didn't like that streak being broken.

"We have reason to believe the people behind this tragedy were a part of the insurrection, a group of terrorists who take what they want, when they want, and to hell with the bodies they leave behind." Jeremy's brows furrowed. There was no way they could know this for sure, that meant this lady was concocting a story. She wanted something from Ruby, but he didn't know what.

No one in the room spoke as Ruby continued to cry. The woman watched her with hard eyes, and Jeremy watched the woman with harder eyes. He knew how ONI did things; hell, he had done them himself a few times, but that didn't mean he agreed with it.

"What's… going… to happen… to me… now?" Ruby said between heavy sniffles and quiet sobs.

"There are a few options for you: you can go into an orphanage, or foster care system, there you will find a new family that will love you and take care of you." The woman paused for a moment, letting the information sink in before she spoke again.

"Or, I can take you somewhere where you'll be trained to become a warrior. Where you can be strong enough to take revenge. Where you can be strong enough to save people. You'll be strong enough to stop something like this from ever happening again." Bingo, that's what Jeremy thought would happen. ONI wants her from one of their special projects. It made sense to him now.

The woman dropped to one knee as she approached Ruby. "If you follow me, I can take you to become a Spartan. You'll get the best training the UNSC has to offer, you'll be surrounded by trainees just like you: smart, brave, and orphaned. I'm here to help you, Ruby. I'm here so you can learn to be strong, and help yourself."

Jeremy had heard of Spartans. All he knew was that they were some sort of super soldiers, and that they were invaluable to the war effort. It looks like ONI was responsible for their creation, and now they wanted to make some more.

"I can get the people… that did this to my Mom, Dad, and Yang?" Ruby asked, she looked up through her eyebrows at the woman, and Jeremy was afraid of what she might become if she joined them.

"Yes. and more: you'll be able to stop more people like them. You'll be saving lives, you'll be a hero." The woman placed her hand underneath Ruby's chin and brought it up so their eyes met.

"Okay. I want to be a hero." Jeremy hoped Ruby wouldn't regret her decision, which was much less a decision and more coercion.

"Excellent. Go pack your things, we have a long journey ahead of us, and training will be starting soon." Ruby stood up as she moved to grab the spare clothing she had been given during her short time here. The last thing she grabbed was a blood red cloak, draping it over her shoulders like one of his favorite childhood fairy tales.

As Ruby and the woman left the room, leaving Jeremy behind, he couldn't help but overhear the next words the woman said to the little girl. "Welcome to Beta Company, Spartan candidate Ruby-B419."


July 28, 1356 KE (Kingdom Era, Remnant Calendar) / Remnant

The sun shouldn't be shining above her, but it was, and Yang Xiao-Long hated it.

A Gentle breeze played with the fringes of her black dress at her knees. Silence filled the air around her, only broken momentarily by someone's sniffling. It took her a moment to realize it was herself.

Two ornate wooden caskets lie side by side, and six foot holes were dug underneath to accommodate them. One was for her mother, Summer Rose, and one was for her sister, Ruby Rose.

The authorities had told her they fell during a Grimm attack. Evident by what they had said was a brutal display of violence; Yang knew she wasn't meant to hear that part, but she did. She couldn't believe it all the same. Her mother, a top tier huntress who had been fighting the Grimm for well over two decades, suddenly was overrun on her walk home to patch along a regularly peaceful road? And this same Grimm attack didn't leave a single trace of her little sister's body? Yang had never heard of a Grimm acting that way. They said it was an intelligent Grimm, but intelligent Grimm don't get this close to high population areas on their own. Everything the authorities said, Yang had something to shoot it down.

But, regardless of what she believed, her mother and sister were both gone. Her mother's body lay peacefully in one casket, and they were burying several of Ruby's personal belongings in the other; her favorite books and toys and clothing.

All she would have after this were pictures and memories. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes when she realized that after only seven years of being with Summer, and only four years of being with Ruby, she didn't have as many memories as she would have liked.

After a long moment of silence, she, her father, her uncle, and several friends from her huntsman career watched as their caskets were lowered into the ground.

Yang couldn't help herself. "She's not dead." she whispered. Her father turned his head to look at her, and she looked at him.

"She's not dead." She said a little louder. The thick streaks of sadness flowed down her face.

"She's not dead!" Yang practically screamed this time. She tried to run forward to her sister's casket, tried to make it stop going down. But her father's grip on her hand was too absolute; he brought her closer to her and crushed her in a hug as she pounded her fists on his chest, desperate for him to let her go.

"She's not dead…" Yang said one final time as her hands fell limp to her sides. Her father buried his face in her hair, and they both wept.


And there we go, first chapter in the books. As I'm writing this, the second one is about a quarter of the way done. Although, I will probably take a break from writing that to finish some, and start a few other, projects. I don't really have an upload schedule (I almost uploaded this on the same day as I uploaded something else) So I'll post it when it is ready.

In the mean time, it's sunny out, and I want to get a tan!

Until next time.