Thank you for joining me during the COVID-19 crisis that's currently gripping the world. As long as you're not hoarding toilet paper or other cleaning supplies, you're welcome here. (Seriously, it's a respiratory disease! It doesn't make everything liquid!) I'm still working, and I will be until the city or someone at the federal level closes all non-essential businesses. At least I've got that... and I bought toilet paper last month.

Too much reality? Yeah, onto this.

"Get away from her!" Ruby yelled as she strained against the Grimm that held her.

Salem laughed as she stood over the bloodied and beaten dragon. "Oh, you are so pathetic." She ran the flat of her black sword, Relic of Destruction, over her left hand, leaving a red stain on her white skin. "None of your friends were able to beat me. How could you and your weakling dragon?"

Cerise groaned as she tried to stand but her front legs gave out. She settled for glaring up at the Shade. Why didn't she say anything? Why wasn't she looking at her Rider? She should have…

The Shade stepped onto Cerise' snout and raised her sword. "Now, watch your dragon die, Shadeslayer!"

"No! Don't!" Ruby struggled against the Grimm even more and tried to freeze everything but her and her soulmate. But the energy never came. She could only watch as the sword fell toward her dragon's neck. "NOOOOOO-

"-OOOOOO!" Ruby sat up so fast in her bed she hit her head on the metal bunk above her. She fell back down onto her hard mattress and brought her hands to her aching head. Considering the other pain she had inside her head, she considered slamming herself into it a few more times so her actual pain wouldn't feel nearly as bad.

As soon as her forehead stopped throbbing, she pulled her hands away from her head. Her natural hand had a thin red line down the center of her palm. She lost count of how many times she hit her head on that bunk since coming onboard the Avenger. That was the first time she drew blood. Give it a few minutes and her body's natural processes would stop the bleeding, if it didn't already.

Ruby kicked her legs over the edge of her bed and sat up. She stared at the opposite wall. Her bionic hand crept up to her neck and its fingers wrapped around. The metal felt cold on her skin. The fingers tightened around her making it difficult to breathe. It would be so easy to squeeze and join Cerise… and that one thought made her fingers relax. While no magic worked, she still felt the oath she gave Cerise after her first mission in Mountain Glen. People couldn't lie in the Ancient Language. That didn't matter whether they had access to magic or not.

The Rider sighed and stood up. She grabbed some clothes from the drawers beneath her bed. Nothing fit her well, but she couldn't exactly go into town and get a good outfit. She had to settle for what looked like old jeans and a sports team from "Eastern Washington." It was red, so it wasn't atrocious.

She picked up her loaned tablet from the one table in the room. A message lit up the screen. That was early. She opened the message and grimaced. Central ordered her to return her weapons to the armory, then report to Shen in engineering. Ruby groaned and ran her hands over her head. She needed to work on both her weapons. Standard issue wasn't good enough for her. At least she didn't need to hand her armor back… She blinked as she rubbed the top of her head. It felt like she had some peach fuzz growing out of her scalp again. It had been long enough.

Ruby strapped her sword to her back and slung her sniper rifle over her shoulders. She left her room and looked around the common area. Only one other person was in the room. She had an old fashioned walkie-talkie strapped to her brown leather jacket's right shoulder. Any hair she had was covered up by her hood… and she was cleaning her weapon. It was a sniper of a sort but not as high caliber as Ruby's and it was a lot shorter as well. The woman looked up and her brown eyes bored into Ruby's. The Rider knew when she was being sized up. Tournament fight, life or death, video or card games, it was all the same. Still, it had been a long time since she felt something that intense. Probably the last time the family sat down for a card game with Uncle Qrow.

She shook it off them walked into the corridor that surrounded the bridge. A few people walked around, but not as many as Ruby had seen before. She narrowed her eyes and tried to pull up the time on her bionic eye on pure habit. Of course, it didn't cooperate. Ruby growled. It was probably too early. There were no windows on this damn ship so her sense of time was all out of whack. All she had was the clocks mounted sparingly on walls or on her loaned tablet.

Ruby walked into the armory and walked over to where the sniper rifles lay. Just as she was about to put it back in the rack, she stared at the underside of the receiver. Most of the other snipers looked like they were fresh out of the factory. Ruby did her best to turn her temporary rifle back into that same condition after her mission. Most other people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. That was a problem. Ruby drew her sword and marked an 'X' on the plastic. Maybe people wouldn't take it then. Satisfied, at least for the moment, Ruby walked to the other side of the armory and returned her sword. With how marked up that one was without proper maintenance, other people wouldn't take it.

Something clanked elsewhere in the room followed by a short string of expletives. Ruby faced the Skyranger sitting in the hangar. Firebrand walked out of the transport and started yelling at one of the mechanics working on the engines. That started a mini shouting match until Firebrand's voice rose in pitch and volume. Whatever that mechanic said, it wasn't right. Ruby turned around and left the armory. Firebrand didn't need backup. She had whatever that situation was under control.

Ruby walked down to the lowest level and followed the sound to engineering. The door to the ship's 'factory' opened and more sound spilled out. The place hadn't changed much since Ruby built her new limbs. She walked up the steps into the main cargo area of the ship. An untold amount of various metals, plastics, and other assorted building materials lay in crates simply marked with black marker. A robot assembly arm stood next to a computer station lay on the left side with much more production equipment on the right. A few smaller tables with tools on them were pressed up against the bulkhead to the rest of the ship.

Shen stood at one of those tables with a blocky black pistol laying in front of her. She turned around and nodded at Ruby. "I was wondering when you were going to get here. I was about to have someone go check if you were awake."

"I didn't set an alarm." Ruby shrugged. "Didn't expect to be needed. What do you need me for? Central didn't say."

"Apparently you told the Commander that you could build a psionic suppressor." Shen picked the pistol she was working on up and brought it over to a rack of other weapons. She placed it beside another of the same pistol. "If it works on the Viper we have, he might want to use it in the field."

"Oh. That." Ruby shook her head. She didn't know why she told the Commander that. The man hated her and she didn't know if she could trust these people completely. "Well, I've never built one, but I have a knack for figuring things out."

"I believe it. I still can't believe you didn't have any schematics for your limbs before you built them." Shen pressed a few things on the table she was working on. A small holographic screen appeared from the table, one of the few holograms on the ship. "Let's get to work. I can imagine the Commander wants this done ASAP."

Ruby stood in front of the computer and stared at the foreign design program. The one she used back home looked a lot more complicated than this, but at the same time, nothing on the screen in front of her looked familiar. "It might take me a minute to get used to this program." She glanced at the rack of guns as she looked over the program's tools. "That's an impressive collection. You a weaponsmith?"

"Yes and no. I can build just about anything if I have the plans, including weapons. But the Commander's said I can't spend too much time making my own arsenal. Most of those are weapons that people had when they came here." Shen grabbed one of the two identical pistols. "These were Rex'. DC-17 blaster pistols. They pack a punch, but we can't replicate their ammunition. Something about gas only found in certain gas giants." She put the 'blaster' pistol back down.

Ruby looked over the weapons again. She thought she didn't see a pattern in them… she leaned back and focused on the farthest gun. It was a pistol that looked like it was made out of wood from one of the trees near Ellesméra. Not a single straight edge marred its surface. The curve of the barrel flowed around the receiver and into the grip with only a twig acting as the trigger guard. Invidia's pistol. Ruby modified it so it could take Dust rounds since the elf spent so much time on Remnant instead of Alagaësia. "Why's Invidia's here? She can fight and it can take multiple kinds of ammo."

Shen shook her head. "It's a work of art, and I've seen the clips of her taking down quite a few ADVENT with it, but it's the wrong caliber. With our limited supplies, we can't provide ammunition to all these weapons."

"Makes sense." Ruby paused as something that had been bothering her since she came aboard poked into her thoughts again. "Shen, what do you know about time dilation?"

Ruby felt the strange look she got on the back of her head. "You ask that like it's not science fiction." Shen sounded as incredulous as her words.

"It's not. Frankly, with what I've seen and heard here, I'm starting to question the laws of physics." Ruby shook her head then focused back on the design program. "Long story short, we first discovered time dilation a few decades ago. I won't say how or why. As for why I asked, Invidia said she's been here for a few months. I saw her in Mor'ranar Vera a week before I got here. If we ever get back home, one or both of us is going to be waaaaay out of time." Ruby clenched her teeth. Angel's all alone. Nalia has no one… will I miss Crey grow up? She blocked that line of thought and focused completely on the program. "I think I've got enough of a handle on this. Now the design phase. What kind of power do you use here?"

From there, the two engineers got to work. Shen focused on the power systems while Ruby focused on the mechanism to suppress 'psionics' as XCOM called it. Names aside, whatever ADVENT used when they captured Ruby sure did the trick. The Rider unfortunately had plenty of experience with being targeted by those devices. She was able to figure out how to make small arms lasers by watching the Vytal and other Atlesian ships fire. She could use that same expertise here. If only she had her soulmate's near-perfect memory.

The problem with that was she knew how guns worked. Thanks to Cer… the dragons and a little extra research, she understood aerodynamics better than many actual aerospace engineers. But… what the heck was psionic? EM waves? Radio? Gamma? Something else completely? Ruby still didn't understand what the collars and Aura suppression fields in prisons did. Up until now, she didn't even try to detect magic or Aura with technology. That wasn't what she cared about or what she excelled in. She would have tried to pull her hair out if she had anything besides peach fuzz.

Ruby didn't know how long she was working on the plans for the device. At some point, Shen broke off to work on the non-standard weapons again. There were a few other points where she brought Ruby food and water. Other people came and went, the Avenger changed locations, and it sounded like the Skyranger took off and landed at least once. At least the work kept her mind off the glaring absence inside.

As soon as Ruby finally thought she had something to actually work on, she sighed and backed away from her schematics. "Okay, I think I've got something here." She turned around and faced Shen. "We should be able to whip this up in an hour or two."

Shen crossed her arms. "Twelve hours of schematic work and you're ready to go? Just like that?"

Ruby shrugged. "I used to build actual fighter jets in my spare time. One of them was a gift for my sister."

Shen blinked. "Wait, is that true? I thought Invidia was exaggerating."

"No. They're the real thing. I just don't have the materials or tools to build them here."

"Okay then. You're going to have to show me your work sometime." Shen approached the workbench and looked over the schematics. "Really? Two hours?"

"I can take care of the intricate parts for the actual suppression. If you can take everything else, we'll get it done in no time."

"Can do." Shen straightened up and nodded. "Let's get this done." From there, the two engineers started to gather the proper materials from the mass stack of random metals and plastics. At least engineering had machines that could melt and mold just about anything. Ruby was so happy to see those when she built her bionics. She'd have to copy that design when she got back to Remnant. That might get some of the more extreme environmentalists off the Riders' backs.

As they waited for some steel to take shape, Ruby asked, "Is the Commander always so… abrasive?"

"Abrasive?" Shen gave Ruby a confused look before something clicked in her eyes. "Oh. Yeah. That."

"You sound like he's not always like that."

"With people he trusts, he usually only gets mad when people mess up and get themselves or someone else hurt or worse. But from the sound of it, his trust is in short supply."

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Meaning?"

Shen hesitated. "I guess it's pretty common knowledge around here. The aliens had him plugged into one of their machines for twenty years." Ruby tensed all her muscles. "When we broke him out, he found out that most of his friends in the US military were either dead or gave their loyalty to ADVENT. With how close some of them became in operations before XCOM formed…" Shen shook her head. "That's why he chewed you out."

"So he comes after me for potentially being an ADVENT puppet," Ruby gestured in the rough direction of the bridge, "when he was in their clutches for decades?"

"Yes." Shen stiffened up. "The difference is we know what they used him for. We still have no clue why that Chosen called you 'Avatar.' I'm sure that's got him more suspicious than he's been in a long time."

"I've seen people brainwashed with less tech than you have here. I'm betting these aliens can do the same."

"We have plans in place in case anyone turns on us. That gets complicated with people of your reported abilities."

Ruby shrugged. If whatever was in her head didn't affect what she could do, she could kill everyone onboard with two syllables, not that she would even think of that if there wasn't a hole in her mind. "Fair enough." She still wasn't happy with the situation, but it was better than a few of the political situations she had on Remnant. Some of those councilmen…

After a few more rounds of recycling materials into something new, the suppression machine started to take shape. It certainly wasn't portable, and it wasn't as clean as Atlesian tech, but on this ship that meant it fit right in. The question was, would it work?

When the engineers were in the process of hooking the sensitive mechanism up to the power system, the door to engineering opened. "I've got my latest haul from the latest debris section."

Shen stiffened, relaxed, then swore under her breath. "Put it with the rest, Ellis."

Ruby glanced at Shen then at the stairs into engineering. A man almost as big as her dad walked backward up the stairs pulling a… hover sled? They had that kind of tech here? Without Gravity Dust? That was something. Ruby took her eyes off the tech and focused on the man. He was covered with tattoos… including some vulgar ones Ruby wouldn't like Angel or Crey seeing. The Rider and mother narrowed her eyes. She didn't like this guy.

Ellis pulled the cart to the center of the room and pushed it into the pile of scrap. The mess wobbled but didn't topple. He backed off and vertically clapped his hands. "That's a nice day's work." He turned around and faced the engineers for the first time. He straightened as he saw Ruby. "This the 'Avatar' bitch we picked up a few days ago?"

Ruby cocked her head and looked the guy up and down. How am I going to murder this man?

"This woman can rip your throat out if she so chooses," Shen said deadpan as she gestured at Ruby. "I suggest you treat her with the proper respect."

Ellis stepped back, raised his hands in front of his chest, and shook his head. "MY mistake." His eyes met Ruby's… then they traveled the length of her body. "I plan on showing her the respect she deserves." He turned toward the door and walked out of engineering.

Ruby faced Shen. "Does he still have balls to shoot off?"

Shen scoffed. "'We need every able-bodied person that will fight for us.' Most of the time I see the value in that. In his case, I'm hoping he does something so the Commander or Central will let us throw him out an airlock. Unfortunately, when he does work, he's a damn fine engineer. He can follow orders, but only takes them seriously when they come from the Commander or Central."

"If only he knew what I could do." Ruby shook her head. "I would so scare him straight if I could." She paused. "Why haven't you set Invidia on him?"

"We did. He avoids her like the plague." Shen smirked. "That was fun to see."

"Wish I could have been there." Ruby faced the device again. "Back to this…" The engineers finished building the device without further interruptions. They carried it to the hover cart together, though Ruby did think about taking it herself originally to show off… so many things she wouldn't have thought about a month ago were starting to surface.

Shen led the way out of engineering while Ruby pushed the cart. At first, the Rider thought they'd be going up a few levels to the parts of the ship that weren't full of alien junk but the native engineer walked right past the elevator to deeper into the level. Then again, it made sense to keep prisoners as far away from the bridge and the weapons as possible.

Around another corner, a pair of soldiers stood against the wall. Ruby had seen them around but didn't know their names. They both had some kind of… folding Scrolls. The sounds coming from them kind of sounded like Lario Kart. They looked up, folded their Scrolls up, and grabbed their rifles from where they lay by the wall. "Shen." One of them nodded at Shen like nothing happened though a bead of sweat rolled down her head.

"At ease," Shen waved them off. "I won't say anything about it to Central if you let me in next time you two decide to race."

Both soldiers relaxed a little. "Copy that," the other one said. He then slammed a fist into a button and the door opened. Shen stepped inside and Ruby followed. The main area on the other side was fairly loud like it was right next to the engines or some other important system. Ruby still hadn't inspected the outside of the ship so she couldn't say for sure. The room itself looked like it was originally designed as a storage room. Several alcoves held even more material like the kind that was in engineering proper, but most lay empty.

One of the alcoves had glass fitted in between metal slabs coming out of the ceiling and floor. A steel door stood on the far right side of the cell. The Viper slithered on the other side of the glass with its arms crossed. It turned toward the glass but kept moving like it didn't notice the people outside. One way glass. But… something about the way it moved, the way its head hung, the look of sheer depression in its eyes… There was something familiar about it but Ruby couldn't put her finger on it. Besides that, she was even more convinced that the Viper wasn't hostile.

None of that surprised her. Invidia standing in front of the glass did. The elf stared into the cell, her head following the alien everywhere it went. Ruby left the device near the center of the room and joined the elf by the cell. "Something wrong here?"

"I'm… not sure." Invidia glanced at Ruby. "I'm assuming you have an idea since we are speaking in this language."

"You can say that." Ruby stared at the Viper who had now leaned in the corner of the room. As they watched, the Viper slid down the wall until it 'sat' in the corner. It brought its arms up to its head and buried its head inside them. The Rider shifted on her feet. Part of her wanted to go in there and cheer that Viper up. "That's a very human pose."

"She was worse earlier." Invidia dipped her head. "I would say she's bordering on claustrophobia."

"People are saying 'she.' Better than it any day." Ruby paused. "At this point, I'm convinced this Viper is a civilian. You?"

Invidia raised her head to stare at the alien again. "I'm not so sure."

Ruby gave Invidia a look. "You think that thing's a fighter?"

"Once she calmed down, she started looking around the room, like she was trying to escape. She was methodical, like she'd done something like that before. It wasn't like one of the escape rooms on Remnant. She was going at it like a crime scene."

"Well, not every member of her species can be hostile." Ruby stared at the Viper again. "You able to mentally communicate with her?"

"I dare not." Invidia shook her head. "The Viper's mind is strong, as strong as a dragon's, maybe stronger. I can defend against that, I can't fight it. She didn't like that I touched her mind either. That was the one time I saw any hostility out of her. It was almost dragonlike… though she did look through the glass like a sad puppy afterward. Still, I would rather not risk it."

Ruby quirked her lips. "Better make sure it can't do anything outside its cell then." She turned around and walked back to the hover cart. "Let's get this thing set up."

Shen looked between Ruby and Invidia. "What was that about?"

"At this point, we're convinced this Viper is a civilian and doesn't pose a direct threat to the Avenger. Even so, we should still set this up so she can't interfere with anything outside her cell."

"Those are our orders." The engineers lifted the psionic inhibitor off the cart and laid it down by the solid wall beside the cell door. Shen opened a panel in the wall and pulled out some wires. A few minutes later, she had everything hooked up to its proper place. She looked up at Ruby. "It's your design. Care to do the honors?"

"I will." Ruby flicked the 'on' switch and grabbed the dial. She looked into the cell and at the Viper. Having a magic-user here would help as well. "Invidia, care to float a rock or something?"

Invidia walked over to one of the junk piles and grabbed a small piece of metal. "Rïsa." The scrap floated off her hand as she walked back to the cell's edge. "I'm ready."

Ruby nodded and started to turn the knob. The Viper's head immediately shot up. The scrap over Invidia's hand wobbled. Ruby kept turning the knob and the alien's face contorted in fear and pain. The Rider clenched her teeth together and kept upping the power. The Viper's mouth dropped open in either a silent or actual scream. That couldn't be allowed. Ruby turned the power to about half of where she was at that time and locked it in. Invidia saw what Ruby did and the scrap dropped to her hand. The Viper sagged against the wall and buried her head again.

"That'll do it." Ruby took her hands off the inhibitor. "Any more and that's torture."

"Geeze." Shen looked at the power setting. "Twenty percent? What can this do at a hundred?"

"Torture her." Ruby clenched her fists. "None of my tech is for that. The second it becomes that I destroy it." She walked off without another word. Even though she found herself angrier than she had been in a long time, there were lines she wouldn't cross. She'd never become the Nevermores. Everything else was up for grabs.

Ruby quickly went over the schematics that she just drew up for new laser rifles for XCOM. The standard ballistics they had were a step below Dust weapons, which wasn't enough if every sci-fi ever was to be believed. It sounded like both Shen and Tygan were interested in 'magnetic weapons' that sounded like railguns. After a little bit of thought, Ruby figured hyper-accelerated bits of metal could do just as much damage as a laser, but over a wider area. As soon as Ruby was satisfied with the laser weapon schematics, she'd send them off to Shen and start working on the mag weapons.

The door to her room opened and Ruby scowled. She faced the door, ready to chew whoever it was out for not knocking, but stopped herself short. The woman soldier Ruby occasionally saw working on her weapon stood with someone in armor that hadn't been seen before. The new soldier's armor was mostly white with a few red streaks scattered. The eyes on the helmet were slits, probably cameras with a heads up display on the inside. A fur… hood?... wrapped around his head. A red symbol took up most of the space on his right shoulder piece. That had two bars coming out either side of a V-shape and a four-point star inside the V. In the grand scheme of things, this guy's armor wasn't the most eye-catching, but it still stuck out.

"This will be your room, Mox," the woman told the soldier in white. "For now, it will just be you and Shadeslayer." She nodded at Ruby. "If any more soldiers join us, they will likely be placed in here with you."

The unknown soldier, presumably 'Mox' glanced back at the woman. "Thank you again for freeing me from Vox Prima's prison, Outrider." His voice sounded modulated in some way

"Elena, please," Outrider said. Ruby cocked her head. She didn't know Elena's first name or nickname until that point. That probably wouldn't have changed until they were on a mission together if the beans were spilled right there. "You saved my life, I was returning the favor… We have a common enemy, Fighting each other would not be beneficial."

"No, it would not. Now if you'll excuse me, I need my rest."

"Of course. I won't keep you." Elana turned around and walked away. Mox stepped into the room and the door closed behind him.

Ruby stood up and faced the newcomer. "I've heard rumors about a prison break. I'm taking it that's you?"

"That is correct." Mox reached up and took off his helmet. Ruby blinked in surprise as she was expecting a human. Mox was close but it looked like his whole face had been melted to some degree and had some sort of cybernetic implants. The biggest differences were his eyes. They were almost three times the size of a normal human's yet more sunken into his skull. "I am Pratal Mox of the Skirmishers."

Ruby cocked her head. "Former ADVENT? I've heard rumors that their soldiers aren't… entirely human."

If Mox was offended by that, he didn't show it. "I am no longer a slave to the Elders. I want them off this planet as much as you."

"Well, I'm not from this planet, so I doubt that." Ruby pointed to her right pointed ear. "Though I'm pretty sure you got that."

"I am… unaware of why ADVENT is searching for people from other worlds. I have only heard from new recruits that those particular sets of abductions are occurring." Mox set his helmet on the lower bed nearest to the door.

"I suppose not everyone can know everything." Ruby sat back on her bed. "Welcome to the misfit room." Mox gave her a strange look, though that was expected. "You're former ADVENT, one of the Chosen called me Avatar and wants to kidnap me."

Mox stiffened. "Avatar. Are you certain?"

"Yes. Practically the whole ship knows that." Ruby paused. "You know something about that?"

"Just the name, and that when I defected, the Elders were focused on that above all else." Mox brought a hand to his chin. "This combined with your alien origin… I need to speak to my superiors." He turned around and left the room.

Ruby sighed and shook her head. "Nice meeting you." She picked up the tablet she was loaned and opened an app that she installed herself. The tablet screen shifted to show the Viper's cell. Ruby installed a camera just outside the cell the day after the psionic inhibitor. While the bridge officially had the only feed, Ruby synced her tablet with the camera. Currently, the Viper was just sleeping on the sheets laid on the floor.

Over the week that Ruby spied on the cell, she grew more and more convinced the Viper wasn't a civilian. Not so much in her actions, but her movements. A twitch here, a tongue flick there, but the biggest one was the way she occasionally curled up. She was so close! The answer was right there! What was this Viper?

If Ruby seems a little out of character, well, half of her soul's been ripped away. Not exactly the best thing to happen to Megamom.

Stay safe out there people. Stay hopeful that sports will return soon... but seriously, stay hopeful and DON'T PANIC.

Keep calm and carry on. -WWII UK