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7:31 AM, Monday Morning
Beacon Academy Dormitory, Fourth Floor - Team RWBY Dorm Room
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Everything that was happening in the room around her was a bit of a blur at the moment. Shapes were fuzzy and noises were muffled, among other things… but that was all a matter of perception. Weiss just hadn't had any coffee yet.
The fact that she had been awoken by a loud bang and a shout did little to ease the transition from sleepy to awakey. The heiress sat mostly upright in her bed, swaying back and forth while trying to decide if she should simply get up …or return to her almond butter kingdom of cotton candy trees and giraffes wearing skirts.
A small weight on her lap brought Weiss back to the land of the living, but only briefly. She looked down to find a child-like version of Ruby Rose, her partner back in reality land, sitting in her lap and regarding her with the biggest puppy-dog eyes you ever did see. Her bleary mind was at least able to register the sight with enough clarity that the heiress wondered how she could imagine such a cute version of the redhead.
Eh, what the hell. No one was complete master of their own minds, after all.
Weiss' sleepy fuzz quickly warmed up as she returned to the land of dreams, grabbing the Ruby Child in a hug and plopping back down into bed. She ignored the meep! of surprise as she did so. The kitty ears were a nice bonus, too.
She sighed, drifting away to once again enjoy the sleep of angels.
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8:30 AM
Beacon Academy Cafeteria
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She knew nothing else until her first cup of the caffeinated bean juice almost an hour later.
Somewhere along the line she had actually gotten dressed, though when and how were minor questions. Moments after the life returned to her limbs and her mind, the very next thing she noticed was that the Ruby Head Count had, once again, been changed. Now she spied no less than five heads of red hair sitting around their table, all casually eating breakfast. One of them sported a large pair of cat ears.
Oh yeah… every 12 hours. She must've grabbed another one this morning... looks like it's a faunus this time.
"I had a weird dream last night, …although maybe it was more of a sad dream," Ruby was sharing with the group. The normal Ruby. Her Ruby.
"I saw my mom… at least, I think it was her… standing at a distance. It looked like she was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't hear her…"
"No lip reading, eh?" Carmine jabbed good-naturedly. The issue of their mother was one of the few things she and Ruby still had in common, so she behaved herself.
"No… but after that, a big wooden door appeared. It shut by itself, blocking mom off from me. I can remember looking at that door and seeing every little detail, so much that'd if I ever saw it in real life, I'd just know that's the door… but now, it's all kinda fuzzy…"
Yang, who was sitting next to Ruby, rubbed her sister's back in a comforting manner. They both missed Summer Rose terribly, so the emotions that a vision like that could bring were well known to both.
Weiss watched all of this, trying to imagine what it must be like to grow up without the true love of a mother to bring you through the toughest of times. She was somewhat lucky in that her own mother was still alive and well, although to say she was the most caring woman in the world would be a serious stretch of logic.
Of course, the woman did love Weiss, as well as the other two Schnee children, but it was a …remote sort of love. Weiss never really felt it the way Yang and Ruby must have felt it.
…She was almost jealous. Almost.
"Well, I had a dream, too," Blake spoke up, "I dreamed that every single man, woman, and child in both Beacon and Vale had been replaced with copies of Ruby."
No one responded for a few moments as Blake took a sip of her tea. She was waiting for it to sink in, apparently. "Would that count as a scary dream?" She asked with a half-grin.
Various mutters made their way around the table. Ruby's expression flattened, "Ho-ho, very funny. Ha-ha, it is to laugh," she replied mechanically.
Rose, who was sitting at the other end of the table from Blake, considered throwing a strawberry at the faunus… for about half a second. Not worth it, she decided. She plopped the whole thing in her mouth at once.
Weiss slowly brought her mind back to the present situation – The Invasion of The Rubys.
Her meltdown yesterday had nearly been forgotten, but as she spied the Boy Ruby, the one who apparently called himself Red, Weiss was reminded of why she had freaked out in the first place. Having to deal with a single Ruby Rose was already taking up most of Weiss' mental facilities, alongside her schoolwork and combat training. Bringing more into the mix was threatening to upend the balance of everything. Rose coming into the picture did, admittedly, restore a bit of that balance (because damn those were some nice shoulders)… but a freaking guy was just too much.
And besides, as far was Weiss could see, this male Ruby was more like Jaune Arc dressed up in a Ruby cosplay outfit. The normal attitude and bubbly personality was just not there. The guy looked like a whipped dog.
As the heiress thought about the boy, something else began to bug her about him – something no one had bothered to point out. As she kept thinking, she slowly began to wonder why she seemed to be the only one to notice.
Why did Red have a copy of Yang's weapon instead of Ruby's?
Rose had already shown them her own Crescent Rose (which she called 'mark-2' for some reason), and Carmine only claimed that she, too, still wielded a scythe (though she didn't offer to show it to them)… so why the gauntlets? Something about that just didn't seem right…
Weiss was very close to interrupting the friendly banter to bring up this very topic, but a new presence caused a reaction in the Boy Ruby that the heiress did not see coming.
Lie Ren walked into the cafeteria. Red's eyes locked onto him and didn't leave.
"Mornin' Ren!" Ruby chirped. The other residents of the table spared him a glance, then returned to their conversation.
The tall boy stopped, stared at the congregation of redheads for a moment, then turned back to the task of collecting his food. All he uttered was a single, "…Nope."
Once he was finished, Ren strode out with tray in hand, apparently heading back to his dorm room… with Red's silver eyes fixed on his departing form. Yang noticed this and said, "Oh yeah, 'gender-swap.' So your Ren is a girl, right Red?"
The Boy Ruby sputtered and coughed, not expecting to be spoken to directly, and said, "Y-yeah, she's a girl. There's almost n-no difference in how they look, though…" No one bothered to point out the fact that Red was slowly turning the color of his namesake.
Yang had the new Child Ruby in her lap, helping the kid reach her plate. Weiss had to admit that this one, at least, was far cuter than she would have expected. "So… we have a little faunus Ruby now?" Weiss mused, face blank of emotion.
"She is not a faunus," Blake snapped. Weiss heard a fair amount of irritation in the brunette's voice. "Faunus don't have both ears and a tail! I keep telling you people that!"
"Settle down, tiger…" Yang tried, motioning towards Blake with an open hand, "No need to get snippy." This earned a glare for the blonde.
Carmine adjusted her glasses, going into lecture mode, "Indeed, she is not a true faunus. There is no pre-established classification for her species, but the closest term I have found to most adequately describe what she is would be …a catgirl."
Nearly everyone at the table sweat-dropped at the same time. The cat-Ruby made an adorable mew sound as she took a sip of milk from her drink box.
The Mad Scientist continued, "Her name is, of course, Ruby Rose. She's from Remnant-2208. That world happens to be one with no humans at all. Everyone there is like her…" she waved at cat-Ruby with one hand, "Part animal. Yang, move her hair back from the ear area and show them, would you?"
A bit hesitant, Yang complied and brushed little Ruby's hair back away from the lower ears… or at least where those ears would have been. While true faunus had a pair of animal ears and a normal pair of human ears, this catgirl version of Ruby had only the cat ears. The space where her normal ears should have been was just blank flesh at the base of her jawbone.
"Well that's kinda freaky…" Rose said, unhelpfully. Blake just grunted.
The child-like catgirl suddenly decided that she no longer wished to sit in Yang's lap. She quickly scooted herself off and onto the floor, hobbled around Ruby's chair, then climbed up to sit on the lap of her larger, human clone. Once there, she gave a really cute grunt (ni-sho) and settled herself in and leaned back into Ruby's lap. She then looked up and smiled, eyes half-closed in sheer bliss, and gave an adorable little nyaa. Both ears went low on her head, but not flat against it.
Nearly everyone at the table squealed in delight. How could anything be so damned cute?
Weiss (after calming herself) said, "So… why the heck are they all named Ruby Rose, anyway?"
"Because that's who they are. Why ask why?" Carmine replied cryptically.
Yang spoke up next, "Well, what do we call her, then? Everyone else got a nickname."
"I vote 'Tiger,'" tried Rose.
"How about 'Strawberry'?" Blake offered.
"'Rosalyn' is a pretty name…" Weiss added.
"Uh, how about…" Red started to say, "…Poppy?"
Carmine said, "Hmm… maybe 'Firepaw' or something…"
"I say we call her 'Lady Snugglebuns!'" Yang said with a giggle. "What about you, Ruby? Ideas?"
"Okay, uh…" Ruby stopped her hugging long enough to think. She then spied the bowl of fruit on the table and said, "…how 'bout 'Cherry'?"
At the sound of that name, the cat-Ruby looked up at Ruby with wide, sparkling silver eyes, then broke into a big smile and cooed, "Cherry…? I like cherries…" in an adorable kiddy-voice.
Once again the table broke into a chorus of squee-ing. Weiss fully expected the newly named Cherry to be rather squished after all the savage snuggling, hugging and loving she was soon to receive.
But then, such was the fate of the overly adorable when surrounded by a bunch of girls… and you can't prove me wrong.
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2:50 PM
Beacon Academy East Courtyard, The Pavilion
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Considering all of the high-tech, outer-spacey things attached to it, Carmine's inter-dimensional transport system worked rather …quietly.
Weiss had been present yesterday when Red was 'summoned,' and she was determined to not miss anything that came next – after the surprise of Cherry's arrival, she wanted to make absolutely sure she watched this last one. The heiress found herself wishing Carmine would at least tell them what to expect with each new subject… but the Mad Scientist seemed to enjoy catching them off guard. A lot. It was getting rather annoying.
Since it was the final arrival and all that, the group decided to make it something of a garden party. Drinks and snack, things like that. It was a nice enough day for it, no doubt.
Much to everyone's surprise, Glynda Goodwitch had shown up for today's experiment. She claimed it was because she was curious and, as she put it, she had a fair amount of free time at the moment. Weiss suspected she was just trying to get away from the headmaster for a while.
All but one of the standard team RWBY was currently present, each teen standing just behind Carmine at the controls. Yang had gone inside to fetch more food since they suddenly had more guests than expected. The three 'other' Rubys stood further back – although Cherry wasn't really standing. The cat-child was currently perched atop Rose's chiseled shoulders for a better view. All of the new visitors properly introduced themselves to the older woman.
Just before things got started, Glynda approached Carmine and quietly discussed something with her. Weiss could only make out the word 'pictures' and the fact that both women were glancing back at Cherry. The blonde had a hungry gleam in her eyes.
Weiss felt a small pang of sympathy for the kid. As bad as Glynda was about photos of Zwei, …this was bound to be much worse. Never get between a maniac and her hobby.
"Well, is everybody ready?" Carmine was rather giddy now that she had a full audience. "Time to bring in our final alternate-reality Ruby Rose!"
After she finished her fantastic (short) speech, the woman hit a few buttons, the machine silently charged up, and a brilliant light erupted from the empty door frame at the center of the machine. Weiss noticed a blue-green tinge to the outer edges of the white, the same as before. Other than the hum of the generators, there was almost no noise at all.
The light simply appeared, grew stronger, and then faded. Once everyone's eyes re-adjusted, a new person once again stood before them.
If not for the silver eyes and dark red hair, Weiss Schnee would have sworn on all the gods in existence that she was staring at her sister Winter. A clone, at least. Gods. Nearly everything was the same.
Same hairstyle (although it now matched Ruby's standard dark red color, save for a single streak of snowy white down the front bang), same white uniform (with very small differences in details), and even the same poise and stature while standing still. The heiress was almost shocked to the point of passing out …but that was right before she remembered to keep breathing. As the taller woman stepped down from the machine, Weiss was possessed with an urge to start screaming …yet deep down she knew that if she did, she may never stop.
A male Ruby was bad all my itself. A Ruby that literally copied her beloved older sister… Weiss was close to taking it as a personal offense.
With a voice as deep as Rose, yet with almost as much authority as Ozpin himself, the new arrival looked at the scientist and said, "Am I to assume you are the one called Carmine?"
The bespectacled Ruby hesitated, the briefest of shivers causing her white lab coat to sway, then said, "I am. I'm running this experiment, and therefore I assume responsibility for the safety and well-being of my test subjects. Those people behind me are also strangers to this world, same as you…" she pointed to each of the alternate Rubys as she said each name, "They're called Rose, Red and Cherry."
"A colorful bunch," the newcomer quipped with a raised eyebrow. "And the rest?"
More pointing for each name, "That's Blake, Weiss and Ruby. I'll explain why so many of us look alike later. The last one's inside, but…" Carmine was ready to go on, but noticed the newcomer's attention was no longer on her, nor on any of the teens for that matter. No… those intense silver eyes were currently locked onto the only teacher in the group and were wide with shock.
She breathed, "…Glynda?" before stepping forward slowly.
Ms. Goodwitch also had a bit of a shocked look since somehow a trans-dimensional visitor knew her name right away… but collected herself quickly. "Indeed, I am Glynda Goodwitch, but I don't believe we've met. You are…?"
The woman in the white uniform looked a bit taken aback, her brow furrowing just a bit.
Carmine piped up quickly, "Yeah, um, …new world, new rules, …and new people. This is not the Glynda you know, so… you should really introduce yourself."
Her eyes darted over the gathered crowd, then back onto Glynda, apparently reassessing her situation, before the woman cleared her throat and said, in a much calmer voice, "My apologies, I forget myself. I am called Sapphire Schnee, eldest daughter of the Schnee family and Specialist of the Atlesian Army."
"…!"
The same look was bad enough.
The similar voice and attitude was worse.
But the blatant copying of nearly every detail of her beloved sister's life…
That. Was. IT.
In the span of about one second, numerous things happened: Weiss drew her weapon, loaded an ice cartridge as she shot forward, screamed in rage, and let loose a blast of pure cold energy. Carmine had only just enough time to dive out of the way before being caught in the wave.
Her foe seemed to be anticipating this, however, and was able to dodge the attack. Upon landing, she quickly drew her own weapon and began to retaliate. Weiss was already charging for another attack, but faltered just a bit when her opponent began to answer with attacks of her own. Thin steel met wide sword as metal struck metal in a deadly dance.
And this woman was good. Weiss could find no openings in her stance or form. The heiress struck with a lightning fast volley of blows, a combo designed to take down the toughest of Grimm by hitting all the weak points at once so there could be no defending, …but the woman tanked every blow, not even bothering to block.
Weiss had realized a bit too late that her opponent's aura levels must be far superior to her own to take such blows with no issue. In a contest of pure skill with the sword, Weiss knew she would have no chance.
Fortunately for her, the heiress had a few tricks up her billowy white sleeves. With another rotation of the dust chamber, Myrtenaster was ready to go again. She laid down a glyph, absorbed the energy into her feet, and shot forward with far more speed than before. The move worked to catch the impersonator off guard long enough for Weiss to land a few good hits, sending the woman backwards several feet before she skidded to a stop, breathing hard and clutching her shoulder.
Silver eyes raised up and locked with ice-blue. The wide, segmented blade was raised. The rapier was lifted into position.
Both combatants gave a shout as they charged.
…Right before the ground between them blew apart. Dirt and grass flew everywhere in the cloud of dust.
Yang had landed, and she was a bit… aggravated. Luckily for the newcomer, the blonde's first target was the shorter of the two Schnees.
"Mind telling me just what the crispy crap you were trying to do here, princess?" Yang was livid, her eyes like blazing hot coals, hair glowing like a furnace. "Even I could tell this bitch is a professional soldier, and I just got out here! Do you have some kind of death wish?!"
Rose was covering Cherry's ears by this point and blushing slightly.
Weiss' face was going red as well as she yelled back, "What do you think I'm doing? This little piece of..." A pause. The heiress did a double-take of Yang, followed by her very seriously saying, "Yang, …don't ever say that word again."
Also calming down, the blonde crossed her arms in irritation and growled, "Well I'm not sorry… and it wasn't that bad. Don't be such a prude."
"And as for you, I… … … I, uh… … …" Weiss deflated quickly when she next beheld her opponent.
Much like before, the self-named Sapphire Schnee was looking at a blonde and wearing the expression of someone who has either witnessed a murder or seen a ghost. Eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape, and trembling finger pointing. At Yang.
No one moved for several beats.
All at once the soldier dropped her sword to the ground, the metal clanking loudly as it struck the pavers. Turning with a huff, Sapphire stormed away into the distance, seemingly not caring in the slightest where she was going, but in a royal hurry to get there. Anywhere seemed a better place than here. The stunned group watched her departure in silence for a full minute.
"…What the hell was that about?" Yang muttered to no one in particular.
Carmine, who was busy brushing the debris from her lab coat, suggested, "Well it looked like she was mad at you for some reason."
"…The hell did I do?" Yang complained, throwing her hands into the air for emphasis.
Blake spoke next, her voice echoing from the hallway she dove into when the fight started, "You know… someone should probably stop her before she gets lost in the Emerald Forest, don't you think…?"
"Agreed," Carmine nodded. She then clapped her hands and shouted, "Everyone who answers to the name 'Ruby,' front and center! We're going on a search and rescue!"
Five heads of identical dark red hair headed out, one of which also sported that pair of ever-so-cute cat ears that twitched with every sharp noise and loud footstep as she rode atop Rose's shoulders. The 'normal' Ruby (why, oh why was that becoming the standard way to tell her apart?!) gave the others a little encouragement before huffing after the others.
Glynda walked up next to Weiss and spoke calmly – but it was the icy calm of a judge passing sentence. "Young lady, I expect a full explanation for your actions before the day is out. That was highly irresponsible and dangerous. You were lucky no one was badly hurt."
Weiss could only nod meekly, "…Yes, ma'am."
As she turned to go back inside, Weiss spied Yang picking up the newcomer's dropped sword and carefully studying it. The blonde had a look of open suspicion as she looked out into the woods where the Schnee woman had vanished.
The fencer asked, "Something wrong?"
To which the brawler answered, "…Why did she have Uncle Qrow's sword?"
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The next few hours crawled by.
After Weiss' scolding, team RWBY (minus the 'R') waited in their dorm room for any news of the runaway Schnee-Ruby. Since it seemed like a situation better suited for those of the same red-headed variety, Blake, Weiss, and Yang elected to simply trust their leader and wait it out.
For Yang, waiting meant listening to her music on headphones that were terrible at keeping the audio private. For Blake, that meant reading. Obviously. Never one to waste too much of her time, Weiss studied during their entire siesta. It's not like she had better things to do, after all.
Ruby had finally come back just before sunset. It only took them about 10 minutes to find the woman, but all the rest of the time was spent getting her to calm down. It had just been one shock after another and the poor thing was on the verge of a total breakdown.
According to the woman called Sapphire, she had literally just come off of a battlefield before she showed up here, so she was still a bit …tense. Getting attacked without provocation (quit whining Weiss) was also bad, but made worse when her attacker used the same glyphs as her family did. She didn't know Weiss at all, so how was it possible?
On top of that, seeing this world's Glynda had thrown her for a serious loop. In her world, Glynda was her little sister and was pretty much where Weiss is now. She was simply not ready to see a fully-grown version so quickly.
The final straw, however, came when she saw Yang. Apparently, the blonde looked exactly like Sapphire's mother.
Needless to say, this information was received with a bit of shock. As in, Yang did a glorious spit-take. Her expression was something Weiss made an effort to remember from then on. It was rather …satisfying.
In the end, the group managed to convince Sapphire to give them another chance. Carmine would stay up and bring Rain back with one last 'transmission' early tomorrow morning, and then we'll all get the detailed explanations we've been so patiently waiting for.
Ruby, of course, had a thickly sarcastic tone when she said that part. Weiss couldn't have blamed her if she tried.
Although there was some noise and rumbling next door later in the evening, Weiss didn't bother the Ruby Squad any more for today. Nor did they bother her. She knew good and well that she'd have to apologize in the morning when next she met Sapphire, but she was definitely not ready for that tonight.
Nope, best to let everyone sleep on it. Surely things would make more sense tomorrow.
The heiress turned in promptly at 10:00.
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3:02 AM, Tuesday Morning
Beacon Academy Dormitory, Fourth Floor - Team RWBY Dorm Room
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Under normal circumstances, Weiss Schnee could sleep through a bomb going off outside her window …if that bomb happened to go off at 3:00 in the morning.
This, however, was not a normal circumstance.
"Weiss… Weiss, wake up… Seriously Weiss, this is an emergency…" a sharp whisper penetrated the veil of dreams and brought the heiress fully into reality land.
Before her was the face of Carmine, the older, glasses-wearing, mad scientist version of Ruby Rose. As soon as the woman saw Weiss' eyes open, she quickly put a hand over the teen's mouth to prevent any unwanted noise from escaping. Those silver eyes darted to the window, then to the door, both wide with terror. It was like she was expecting the boogeyman to appear at any moment. Waiting for some masked psycho to come in and murder them all.
Weiss actually smelled the fear coming off Carmine.
Something was very wrong.
She spoke in the lightest of whispers, keeping her mouth right next to Weiss' ear, "Get the others up and dressed and meet down in front of the building as soon as you can. Be fast and BE QUIET. We're in a LOT of trouble right now…" Weiss clearly saw the sweat dripping down the woman's face as she spoke.
Carmine then quickly stood up and dashed in complete silence to the door, ghosted it open, then ghosted it shut behind her. She didn't make a single blessed sound the entire time.
"…"
Adrenaline can do funny things to a human, especially at the wee hours of the morning. Weiss found with a laugh that she didn't even want coffee right now… that would have to come later, if only to get that taste out of her mouth.
Ignoring the pressing questions and focusing on the problem at hand, the heiress quietly stood up to fetch her clothes… then froze. In every sense of the word. The room seemed to get several degrees colder in an instant. She almost swore she could see her breath.
Something was right outside the window. The fourth floor window.
The drapes were completely shut, but Weiss could almost see the shadowy outline of a person standing on the windowsill outside.
She somehow knew the person (thing?) was trying to see inside.
No, not see. It was listening.
Weiss almost believed that her heart had quit beating.
"…"
In a mere instant, the shadow was gone. It didn't leave… but it was gone none the less. The chill in the air seemed to follow it.
The next thought that went through Weiss' head surprised her a bit but she just knew, without a doubt, That was NOT the one called Rain.
Weiss had never moved so fast in her life as she did in those next five minutes.
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Chapter 4:
Red and Blue
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Meet the Rubys:
Name: Sapphire
Age: 28
Home World: Remnant-8843
Description: Pretty much the same appearance as Winter Schnee, except with Ruby's deep red hair and silver eyes. Front part of her hair sports a streak of pure white. Wields a slightly altered version of Qrow's sword, given to her as a gift.
Backstory: Concurrence, Chapter 4.
Sapphire was created to be exactly what she looks like here - a clone of Winter. I mainly wanted to explore the idea that Ruby would have still turned out this way if she'd been raised as a Schnee, rather than a Rose. And I picked Winter because simply swapping her out with Weiss would have been too easy (no offense to The Layman, btw).
=^w^=