After 2

"What is that?" Ruby asked as she stared at the body in the crater. Though her question wasn't to nobody in particular.

"It's not Madara this time, that's for sure." Yang quipped, to which Ruby puffed her cheeks out.

By focusing with her right eye, Ruby could see chakra flowing through the insides of their body, There was a lot of chakra flowing in and coming out from their body; at least twenty or thirty times more than even she had, maybe even a hundred times. It was even more than what Madara had when she last saw him. That being said, it was moving wildly and in directions it didn't in her body.

Needless to say it didn't look like anyone they'd ever seen before. Though a thought crossed Yang's mind; maybe they were from the same place Madara was from. They both fell from the sky. Albeit this time, the person who descended from the stars wasn't conscious. Thank goodness that the order wasn't reversed, or Yang and Ruby wouldn't be here in the first place.

The two slid down the side of the crater towards the body, Ruby slightly ahead of her sister who managed to kick up a small cloud of dust behind her.

They arrived beside the body, and their eyes went to work. Upon further inspection, the red which was splattered across their clothes wasn't blood at all. It was just part of the outfit's design apparently, much to the both of their relief. Whether they were male or female or something else, neither could tell for sure. The protrusions on their forehead were indeed horns, so it was probably a faunus of some sort. Albeit the type of horn didn't correspond to any faunus type either recognized. If it was a faunus, it was a rare one. And even if they were a Faunus, that still didn't explain how this person fell from the sky.

Thankfully, Their chest was rising up and down, so they were at least still alive. Assuming they even spoke the same language, then they could find the answers they needed. However, there was what looked to be a problem with their breathing. It was irregular, rapid and out of any sort of rhythm. If they had human-like anatomy, then the chakra in their "heart" was spiking at random intervals.

"Yang, go ask if an ambulance has been called yet." Ruby commanded.

"Alright. What're you planning?" Yang asked curiously. She then heard a crackling sound coming from Ruby, and static electricity covered one of her hands. She nodded her head, and made her way back to ground level.

"Here goes nothing." Ruby thought, gathering the appropriate amount of electricity into her palm. She thrusted it into the person's chest, sending the payload directly into their heart. They fidgeted violently for a moment, but soon after their breathing steadied. The flow of chakra in their body also smoothed out. Ruby sighed in relief. "Glad that worked."

She turned her head back to the edge of the crater to see if Yang was back yet or not. But she couldn't see her sister anywhere. She looked back, and just barely caught sight of something moving very quickly towards her. She swung her body back and to the side, and something grazed the side of her head. It was the pale person's hand, with abnormally sharp nails that they didn't have before, accompanied with the rest of their body.

Ruby rolled away from them and got back on her feet, feeling the pain of her heart rate shifting so rapidly. Still, she pulled out Crescent Rose and transformed it into its scythe mode.

She could now see the pale person's eyes, which were a pale off-white color. Veins were bulging around their eyes, and they looked frantic.

"H-hey! I'm not trying to hurt you!" Ruby shouted, holding her weapon at the ready.

They had nothing to say in response, only continuing to glare at Ruby with clawed hands at the ready.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted as she returned to the edge of the crater. A couple of officers followed, their sidearms trained on the stronger.

"Everyone stay back!" Ruby shouted back at Yang, keeping her attention on the stranger. "Look, we're not trying to fight you or anything… do you know what I'm saying?" She asked.

Still there was no response from the stranger. Instead they wound one arm back, stretching out their fingers. A ball of fire appeared in hand, and even Yang could feel the heat coming from it. Of course, Ruby felt it as well, but to an even greater degree. Despite the small volume, a lot of chakra went towards creating that hand-held inferno. However, before they could unleash it upon anyone, it suddenly vanished into thin air. The veins around their eyes receded, and they looked disoriented now. Another second or two later, their face met the ground with a thud, and things went silent.

"Are you okay Ruby?" Yang called out.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Ruby took in another breath, keeping her weapon out and holding it close as she inched closer to the body. She tapped their arm with her foot, and got no reaction. Their chakra had also calmed down a lot. "I think it's safe? They're unconscious now." She said aloud, not not too loudly.

Finally they heard the sound of ambulance sirens, off in the distance but coming closer by the second. At Ruby's behest, Yang had about three minutes to carry the body to surface level.


"You alright sis?" Yang asked, looking worried while she leaned against the wall opposite to her sister. Conversely, Ruby wasn't standing, but sitting lazily in a bed. A bandage had been placed on the side of her head, with a doctor next to her holding her arm under a large machine..

Currently, they were in a high-security hospital meant for both huntsmen and high-bounty criminals. Such locations had cutting edge medical equipment and facilities. Coupled with a number of employees that possessed healing semblances, and they were set to handle virtually any state someone could approach them in.

"Yeah, i'm fine. I don't know why this is necessary though." Ruby said, glancing to her side.

"Sorry Ms. Rose, but it is just a precautionary measure." The doctor explained, not taking his eyes off the huntress. "We do not know the origin of that person, and for all we know the injury you sustained could have caused some sort of infection. But worry not, we will do the best that we can to ensure that your health remains in top shape."

"Yeah, thanks for the consideration." Ruby said with a smile. The doctor smiled back, and went back to his work. "Speaking of which, how's whatever that guy is doing?"

"That is a difficult question, Ms. Rose, one I don't have any answers to. They were still breathing the last I saw of them, and it is likely that they have been put in intensive care, if not quarantine altogether.

"Any idea of where they came from?" Yang asked, half serious at most.

"Not one. At least at first, I thought they were some sort of faunus, but based on what you both have said, I'm not sure anymore." the doctor sighed. "Ms. Rose, you mentioned that they has claws and bulging veins around their eyes, yes?"

"Yup." Ruby answered promptly and casually.

"I'm not aware of any animals that exhibit both of those qualities simultaneously. They could be a newly discovered type of faunus, but that would surely lead to more questions than answers. We simply don't know enough at the moment." He said, sounding disappointed.

"Eh, don't worry about it. It isn't like we can do anything about something new like this." Ruby said, trying to comfort the old man with a pat on the shoulder.

While Ruby's examination continued, Yang tapped away on her scroll.

"Hey Blake." She sent, and a few seconds later there was a response.

"Yang? Long time no see. How have you and Ruby been?" Blake responded for the first time in a few months.

"Great as always. But guess what, we got some news for you."

"You're not messaging me from a detainment cell this time?"

Yang couldn't help but chuckle as she read her answer. Not that she was proud to be laughing, however. That was an experience that she and Ruby would much rather forget.

"Well yeah, but even better. Look at this." Yang coupled her message with an attached file, a screenshot of the same message that she showed Ruby. After it was sent, there was a solid 10 seconds of radio silence. So then Yang sent another message. "Wanna come by?"

Another two to three minutes passed, and Blake said nothing. Yang was worried for a moment that her scroll was experiencing technical issues, but then she saw Blake was typing.

"Just bought a plane ticket Hope to see you all soon." Blake sent, and Yang smiled wide.

"Hey Ruby, good news; Blake's coming too." Yang announced.

"Really? That's awesome!" Ruby cheered; her excitement stifled by the fact that a man was holding her arm still.

Yang chuckled at her, putting her scroll away. "Slow down sis. Won't be another week before they're here. We still have a bunch to do before then too. For starters we need money for tickets home."

"Money?" Ruby tilted her head. "We have plenty in our backup account don't we?"

Yang wasn't quick to respond, to Ruby's concern. Rather, she averted her gaze less then subtly, causing Ruby to grimace.

"Yang?" Ruby said aloud, but received no reply. "Yang?!" She said louder and more frantic.

"Uh… remember two weeks ago when we had that party with Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren?" She said nervously. Ruby nodded, albeit hesitantly. She didn't quite remember that day, not all of it for that matter. "Well you and Nora got a little too curious about how much electricity she could take. And uh, I had to pay the bar a lot in reparation fees. We've been living off mission to mission since then."

Her heart sank. Or maybe it flat out stopped, after hearing what Yang said. Some kind of glass somewhere nearby yet also far shattered into a thousand pieces, and the world felt as if it was collapsing.

"But it's fine." Yang shrugged. "All we need to do is do a couple missions, or find one that pays a lot. Shouldn't be a problem for us."

"I… I guess." Ruby said, her voice devoid of much of the enthusiasm it had a minute ago. "But we might not be able to do enough jobs in time. The higher paying ones are always a fight just to get assigned to. And just because I'm fast doesn't mean I can be in two places at-." she froze mid sentence, seemingly lost in thought.

"Uhh, Doc, you might want to let go of her now." Yang said, concerned for the man's safety.

"A-ah, yes. Well, as it so happens, I've finished my examination." He said, backing up in his chair slowly. "She is in perfect health, and the wound doesn't seem to have caused any infections. She should be fine."

Yang nodded, relieved that her sister hadn't contracted any other-worldly diseases. Her eyes then focused on Ruby, as she seemed to be slowly exiting from her trance. Ruby raised both of her hands, and crossed her index finger with her middle finger.

"He did it like this… right?" She thought, before channelling a bit of chakra into her fingers.

An explosion went off next to Ruby, but it brought harm to nothing and caused only a large body of smoke to remain beside her. As the cloud settled and dissipated, another Ruby stood beside her. The two Rubies looked at one another, mildly surprised but relatively calm.

"Ruby, did you just do the shadow clone thing?" Yang asked, a hint of hope growing in her voice.

"I think I did." Ruby replied, still staring at her doppelganger. As it seemed, they had a solution to their problem. But a new question arose.

"How did I never try this before?!"

Unfortunately, neither had the time to question Ruby's lack of diligence. The intercom within the room beeped to life, and a voice came out.

"Would Ms. Rose and Ms. Xiao Long please come to the HazMat containment room. The patient is awake. I repeat, the patient is awake."

END