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10:12 AM, Sunday Morning
Beacon Academy Dormitory, Fourth Floor - Team RWBY Dorm Room
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The sun had been up for several hours now. That was several more hours than team RWBY could boast.
It wasn't that they weren't awake… it was more like they simply didn't want to get out of bed. There was very little noise outside of their dorm room, what with it being the end of the weekend, so there wasn't anything to distract from the constant droning of everyone's regular breathing. Every so often a bird would perch just outside their fourth floor window and sing a merry little tune, but it never lasted more than a minute or two. Then it was back to silence.
Once the initial shock of yesterday had worn off, none of the teens could quite bring themselves to believe that what had happened was actually real. Yang was convinced they were the unwilling victims of an elaborate practical joke. Weiss was starting to believe it was all a vivid dream. Blake was simply denying it ever happened. Ruby was wondering if they might still have a few cookies in the cafeteria from yesterday.
… … …What? She just didn't let this kind of stuff bother her for too long, okay?
After far too long a silence, Yang spoke first, her voice echoing off the ceiling, "Okay… so either we all had the same dream, …or that was one big-ass prank…"
Weiss next, muffled by the pillow next to her mouth, "We couldn't have all had the same dream, oaf."
Then Blake, "I swear… if that was a prank, someone's gonna die today…"
And finally Ruby, "…I'm hungry."
All four teens sighed. No one had the motivation to do anything after their doozy of a day yesterday. Sleep began to return to the teens, slowly but surely. The land of dreams had to be better than this nonsense. Of course, that was when a banging on the door brought them back down to reality – or at least someone's twisted version of it.
"Good mo~o~or~ning, everybody!" In came their nightmare in physical form, the Ruby look-alike who called herself Carmine. She was dressed the same as last night and carried a tray of food with her – a few pastries and other assorted sweets. She set it all down on the desk and proceeded to drag the unwilling children from their mattresses with a highly… unwelcome vigor. "Come on lazy bones! Time to get up! Big day ahead of us! Up! Up! Up!"
"That's it…" the blonde growled as she fell to the floor with a thump, "Oof! …I'm taking Ember Celica to bed with me from now on… Next one to yank me outta bed gets shot…"
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About half an hour later, all four teens were out of bed… mostly. Yang and Blake sat on the edge of Blake's bed in a silent stupor while Ruby nibbled on a danish like a zombie. Weiss was at least awake enough to spare the room's intruder one of her patented glares.
"What's wrong with you?" The older Ruby said over her glasses.
"I looked up 'sublimating' last night," the heiress growled, "that's what."
Carmine could only giggle with mischief before saying, "Well, while we're waiting for the coffee, …maybe I could continue from last night? There's still a lot to explain."
Yang stood up groggily, her blonde hair mostly in a bedraggled state, and walked over to Carmine until they were face-to-face. "We, um… well, I… I'm not so sure… uh, what I mean is… are you real?" Her lavender eyes were still half-closed due to the lack of any caffeinated fluids.
The woman called Carmine blinked, "What… do you mean? I'm standing right here, aren't I?"
"How do we know you're not someone else dressed up to look like Ruby? How can we be sure this isn't all some big joke?"
Carmine adjusted her glasses and gave a cheshire grin, "That is the mystery, isn't it? :3"
"…"
Another voice called from the hallway, "Hey Carmine… which room is it?"
"The open one!" she called back through the cracked door. At a lower volume, she addressed the teens, "And that would be our coffee."
The door was nudged open with a foot, followed by toned legs bearing a tray with several empty mugs and an electric coffee pot. The tray was quickly set down on the desk next to the sweets. Three out of four members of team RWBY stared at the newcomer with a bit of confusion… the fourth simply ducked over and grabbed another danish.
The issue here was not the tray nor the mugs, but the face of the one bearing it all. The four teens slowly came out of their trance and stared hard at the newest intruder to the team RWBY dorm room.
It was another Ruby. A third Ruby. A third goddamn Ruby.
"Perfect timing, Rose," Carmine purred as she poured herself a cup. "I'd say it's time you introduced yourself to the …younger audience."
Standing before a stunned group of teens was a girl of almost 18 (couldn't be any older) wearing a gray sleeveless shirt and dark red knee-length pants. She also had on nice leather boots and fingerless gloves. Her hairstyle was, like with Carmine, nearly identical to Ruby's – in this case, though, it was long enough to touch her shoulders. She also had a bright red scarf tied around her neck in place of Ruby's trademark cloak. The same silver eyes peered out over the onlookers as the girl gave an awkward wave and simply said, "…Hello."
Yang, Blake and Weiss all noticed instantly that the new Ruby's voice was deeper, most likely due to her more developed frame. And boy was it developed. It was clear to all three that this was a girl who enjoyed working out – the muscles of both arms and her calves were well toned and very …pleasing to look at.
Yang found it quite hard to remember that this girl was basically the same person as her baby sister. Blake was startled to realize that her mouth had begun to water. Weiss just stared, her issue with Carmine's vocabulary forgotten. Ruby was busy licking her fingers from the danish.
The scientist piped up next, "This is Ruby Rose from Remnant-2789. It's pretty much the same as this world, except for …uh, let's see…" She pulled out her scroll with her free hand and called up the information, "Ah, nearly everyone who is a student is in a different place or year. That's what I wrote, anyway."
Yang blinked, "…the hell does that mean?"
"I think it means…" the new girl leaned back against the desk, "…that there's a lot of people here I don't know yet. You can all call me Rose, by the way." She scratched the back of her head then crossed her well-toned arms as she mused, "I haven't really heard too much either, to be honest with you. I just got in last night… or was it this morning?"
"It was almost 3 AM…" Carmine answered in between sips of coffee. "The machine only needs twelve hours to re-calibrate. It'll be ready to go again by 3 this afternoon."
"Ri~i~ight…" a pause, "So Yang and Weiss I know, but you…" Rose turned to Blake, "You I don't know…"
The brunette swallowed hard before choking out, "B-Blake…"
A gloved hand was extended with a warm smile, "Nice to meet you, Blake." The hand was shaken (Blake's hand was trembling the whole time), then, "So I take it you all are a team here?"
Ruby finally piped up, "Yep, we're team RWBY!"
"Team Ruby? They name teams after the leader here?"
"No no, it's R-W-B-Y. RWBY."
"Oh that's not confusing at aaaaall…" there was no lack of sarcasm in her comment. "So, uh… which team is Coco on?"
Weiss blinked, "You mean Coco Adel, the second-year?"
"That's the one… I guess…"
"She's the leader of team CFVY. That's C-F-V-Y."
"Considering how much coffee she always drank, that just …fits," Rose chuckled at the thought. "What about Octavia? Or Ciel? Maybe Emerald or May?"
Weiss simply sighed, "Well this is going to take a while…"
For the next 30 minutes, Weiss rattled off the teams at Beacon that she knew about, including the names of each member. She also included a few of the more well-known teams from other schools, the names of those students, and as much as she could remember of the rest. She often referred to her scroll for anything she couldn't quite nail down on her own. Carmine and Rose both stood by, silently nodding every so often as she spoke.
It was a lot of information, but she got through it. Ruby 'ooh'-ed and gave a small applause when she finished.
"Wow…" Rose finally said after a pause, "I don't know a single one of those teams. I recognize lots of the names, but…"
Carmine piped up, "Well that is one of the biggest differences between your world and this one."
Another few minutes of no talking. There was only the slurping of coffee. It was clear to any onlookers that there was a lot of thinking going on in the room, but most of the faces gave away nothing. The members of team RWBY frequently shifted glances at each other and at the newest Ruby, trying to piece together what was going on a little better. Rose sat in the desk chair with her eyes closed. Carmine was too absorbed in drinking her coffee to notice anything.
"So… are you a second-year?" Yang asked, fidgeting a bit. She was still trying to avoid staring at this very …attractive version of her little sister.
"Almost. I was nearly finished with my first year when the shit hit the- …I mean, when everything went to hell." Rose slurped the last of her coffee, showing off one nice set of muscles on her right arm. Blake began to cough a bit, her own face going flush. Rose then looked right at Yang and said, "But you guys were just finishing your third year."
Weiss' brow furrowed. "Third? You mean we're not the same year?"
"Well, we almost were. I passed on Ozpin's offer to attend Beacon early…"
"I didn't!" Ruby squeaked gleefully.
Rose fixed her silver eyes on the smaller version of herself, regarding the girl with a mix of curiosity and annoyance. "So I see… I'm almost jealous."
Yang tried again, "Could you… tell us about the teams back in your world?"
The toned girl sighed lightly, then crossed her arms as she said, "Sure. Why not? I'm the leader of team ROCC. There's me, Coco, Octavia Ember, and Ciel Soliel."
Weiss' eyebrows shot upwards, "Wow… that's quite a group. Ciel ranks pretty high on Atlas' charts, and I remember that Octavia's team has become rather popular of late. So… you and Coco, huh?"
Rose appeared to shudder just a bit before she said, "…Yeah. Me and Coco." She didn't sound happy. The other people in the room gave each other a look of confusion before settling back in to listen. No one asked what that tone was for.
"Then there's team WYZE," she continued, "That's got Weiss and Yang, along with Emerald Sustrai and, uh …May Zedong."
"Emerald?" Ruby's eyes opened wide, "but she's here now! She's from …was it Haven or Shade Academy?"
Yang only shrugged. Rose's eyes widened to match Ruby's.
"Emerald's …here? Now…?" The girl's face became a shade redder than before, "Do you know what team she's on?"
This time Ruby shrugged, "No… but I know she's here with some guy named Mercury and a woman called, …what was it… Cinder…"
"We're not going to talk about Cinder here, …do I make myself clear?"
Five pairs of eyes quickly turned to regard the sudden outburst from Carmine. She had barely raised her voice, yet the words cut off all other conversation instantly. The woman was still smiling, but underneath that smile was a thick, black darkness…
"DO. I. MAKE. MYSELF. CLEAR?"
Rose and team RWBY all nodded quickly.
"Good!" The blackness was gone in an instant, "Then we should finish getting ready for the day. After all, I've got another Ruby Rose to bring in this afternoon. I don't think you'll want to miss that, would you?" Everyone vigorously shook their heads. The bespectacled woman briskly walked out of the room, leaving an awkward silence behind her.
Well… that was different. And kinda scary… Everyone in the room made a mental note to never piss off the mad scientist version of Ruby Rose.
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Chapter 2 :
They're Multiplying
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Meet the Rubys:
Name: Rose
Age: 18
Home World: Remnant-2789
Description: A bit taller than Carmine, wears a sleeveless shirt and Capri-length pants with boots. Wears a red scarf in place of a cloak. Hair is long enough to touch her shoulders.
Backstory: Concurrence, Chapter 2.
Rose was the product of wondering how Ruby would turn out if she went 'butch,' similar to how Yang is when compared with other girls. The result is a version that ended up fairly unique and only got more interesting as I fleshed her out.
=^w^=