Hello, and welcome to Resistance! Honestly, this first chapter is going up to gauge interest to see if this is something people like. Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I typically upload once a week. That's not going to happen this time around. Also, if you're expecting DrAmishMD level stuff, you won't find that here. This will have shorter chapters with most missions confined to one chapter.
Anyway, this is an unofficial/not canon continuation of my long-running crossover series between RWBY and the Inheritance Cycle, pretty much RWBY with dragons. There will be a slight continuation between then and this. Slight because, well, you'll see if it gets that far. In other words, relationships are set, various people are in various positions that they weren't before, and a lot of extra baggage. This is more of an alternate future if that makes sense. Wibbly wobbly timey whimey and all that.
Not going to lie, things that happen in this are influenced by things that happened in some of my more recent XCOM games. This includes some modded craziness and some head canons for a few things. Also, my games tend to cross series, like Captain Picard fighting alongside Legolas. There's going to be some of that, though that example won't be in here. I'm going to keep it at least somewhat contained. No other universe character will be included without meaning.
Enough of that. Onto this experiment.
Ruby opened her eyes and all she saw was green, and not the kind she'd grown used too. That was followed by burning pain to her eyes, lungs, and head. She jerked around and felt like she was in some fluid that wasn't water. She thrust her arms out in front of her and her left hand connected with what felt like glass. There was also a slight breeze. That meant air.
The Huntress thrust her head up and out of the fluid. She gasped for air as she looked around. As she collected herself, she noticed the worst pain in her head wasn't going away. A huge hole in her mind that her soulmate used to occupy. "Cerise?" Her voice sounded horse in her own ears.
Ruby brought her hands to her head, or one of her hands anyway. She jerked her eyes toward her right arm. The mechanical interface on the stump of her arm was there but nothing else. That explained one thing, nothing else.
She returned her attention to the glass in front of her. "Jierda." The glass didn't shake and Ruby didn't feel an energy drain. She didn't feel any of her Aura either… just like the suppression collar. Break out of here, get everything back. Get Cerise back. She clenched her good fist and thanked Yang for not the first time for teaching her how to punch. Ruby found what looked like a bullet hole in the glass and launched her fist at that. Her hand went straight through the glass, shattering the rest of it. Ruby turned her head away to protect her eyes from the glass.
When the shards stopped raining, Ruby pulled herself up and out of whatever was holding her. She leaned over a black bar around her glass cell and fell about ten feet to the ground, landing on her right shoulder. She kept gasping for air as her lungs burned. Even though she was out of whatever that stuff was, she still couldn't feel Cerise or her Aura. Something was very, very wrong.
The Huntress tried to push herself up but she felt something enter her lungs. She coughed and hacked while her body tried to clear its airways. The same green goop from whatever held her came out of her mouth. Whatever it was triggered her gag reflex. Her body contracted and a whole stream of the gunk burst out of her mouth. After three repeats, the gunk stopped coming but she kept on hacking. At least it wasn't as severe.
Ruby collapsed under her own weight, thankfully to the side of the junk she coughed and barfed up. No Cerise. Still no Cerise. She balled herself up, only barely noticing her bionic leg was missing too. What happened? She was just out getting things for Crey's first birthday. Grimmcast wasn't even active in Vale, hadn't been for months. No intel suggested anything was wrong. But… Cerise… dead? That couldn't be… The defenses were up. She was playing with Crey… Nalia was coming around and in fighting shape… How…
She thought she heard footsteps on metal. Ruby tried to face it but whatever that stuff was still covered her eyes. Whoever it was yelled something either in a language she didn't understand, or her hearing was messed up as well. She ran her arm in front of her eyes and looked up at a soldier in red armor. His helmet covered most of his face. Two other soldiers behind him in black armor aimed their weapons at her. Ruby had a bad feeling about these guys but she couldn't do anything but glare at them. The one in red motioned to the one on his right and the ordered soldier stepped forward.
Before he took a second step, something shot through his helmet. A gunshot rang out a split second later. The two other soldiers aimed their rifles at where the shot came from before their comrade hit the ground. They split up and jumped off the metal ledge behind the Rider. Ruby turned her head toward them. The red one took a three-shot burst to the right shoulder but kept on moving to cover behind a forklift. The one in black ran through three other streams of fire, one of them being from a shotgun, before sliding into cover behind a car.
Ruby faced the cliff where the gunfire came from. Three soldiers were up top, one of them being a sniper, one of them with an LMG or something similar, the last with an assault rifle. On the ground, one of the attackers had a shotgun and the last had two pistols. Five against two. This was only going to go one way.
"Oh, you," a voice said behind Ruby. She jerked her head toward the sound. A giant man with purple skin stood on the edge of a half wall and the stack of… whatever the thing was that held Ruby. "You're not supposed to be out of your pod, Avatar." He stuck out of cover for a second and pointed a massive black sniper rifle at the ones near the cliff. "I'll take care of this pest, then I'll take care of you." He fired one shot and someone screamed.
A hail of gunfire rained on the mystery man's position. He ducked back behind the pods and grunted. "Typical. I'll get you yet, Avatar. I might get the Elders off my back for a day for resecuring you." Resecuring? That said at least he wasn't a good guy. That didn't mean anything about the others.
As bullets continued to fly in both directions, Ruby pushed herself with her one remaining leg toward the half wall opposite the sniper to get away from him and to protect herself from the bullets. While she did that, she looked around. It looked like she was on an open-air train car or something like that.
All she could do was count the number of different weapons she heard. Why were they wasting so much ammo? Probably because a few shots actually hit the sniper and they barely did a thing. Every once and awhile, one would drop out and come back in a few seconds later… all except what sounded like a shotgun. That had yet to rejoin. Then again, shotguns at range… She pushed down the thoughts that she should try to force herself into the line of fire to end the pain of having Cerise ripped from her mind. Her Wards were gone, her Aura was gone, it would be quick… But Cerise dying wouldn't take those away…
A woman screamed from the side of the sniper. A woman in all black jumped at the purple-skinned man with a sword raised above her head. She brought it down across the sniper's chest. The wound oozed purple blood and the man fell to his knees. "Got you again, bitch."
The sniper spit out blood. "You never will again." A black and purple column of light rose around him, a color combination that Ruby recognized from her own portals over the years. He was gone. No way to track him, not that she could do much in her current state.
The woman straightened and cocked her head. "Copy that, Central." She turned her head toward Ruby and did a double-take. "Commander, I think I found the civvie." She jumped over the other side of the train car. A shotgun was slung over her shoulders. "You okay, ma'am?"
Ruby glared at the woman. "Who are you?" She didn't know why she said it in that language, but she wasn't exactly in the right mind to think straight.
The sword wielder hesitated. "Can anyone translate that?"
"Whatever language that was," a male voice started, "it wasn't happy." Ruby turned her head toward the voice. Someone in white and blue armor jumped into the train car. Unlike the woman, this armor covered his whole body and looked at least fairly sturdy. The helmet's black visor looked like a top-heavy 'T' with what looked like a respirator forming legs. "Never thought I'd want a protocol droid to help with something."
"What do you want?" Ruby glared at each of them.
The woman sighed. "Look, we can do this the easy way," she pulled her shotgun off her back with the stock facing Ruby, "or the hard way." The Huntress continued to glare before dropping it and looking away. If these people weren't hostile, it wouldn't do to treat them like the enemy, not that it would do much good to fight them
"Glad we understand each other." The woman walked forward and grabbed Ruby's good arm. She picked the Huntress up and flung her over her shoulder.
Ruby expected her hair to flop in front of her face but the turn never came. Ruby blinked and reached her arm up to her head. She just felt skin up there. "Oh come on…"
"Oh, so you do speak English." The woman sighed. "Quiet to Firebrand, we're plus one warm body." She climbed over the edge of the train car and started walking away from it. That's when Ruby noticed a breeze. She turned her head to look over herself… her normal combat clothes were gone, replaced by loose-fitting rags that barely kept her modest.
Ruby sighed and shook her head. She was being taken somewhere by people she didn't know… and worst of all, she had no idea if Cerise was still alive. She clenched her eyes and tried to expand her mind past where it already was. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't feel any mind outside her own. No magic of either kind, no friends nearby, no help coming. This was not good. "Cerise, where are you?"
She said nothing else as she was carried away. The grass and dirt beneath her turned to metal as the one carrying her walked up a ramp. Her carrier inhaled through her teeth. "Geeze, Eagle-eye, that bastard got you good." Someone, presumably Eagle-eye, groaned.
The sword wielder turned and set Ruby down on a seat. "Sit here and don't touch anything." She sat on a bench directly across from Ruby. "If you play nice, we'll drop you off at a resistance haven."
"Don't promise what you can't give," a voice called from the cockpit. "You heard what the Commander said."
"Firebrand's right." The white and blue armored soldier from before walked up the ramp into whatever transport this was. He looked right at Ruby as he grabbed one of the handles hanging from the ceiling. "She answers our questions, and depending on what this 'Avatar' says, the Commander will decide the best course of action." Ruby clamped her teeth together. That could either be good or bad… and what was this 'Avatar' thing anyway?
Ruby looked around the transport. Two other people were in the crew compartment. One of them, dressed in blue and red Kevlar armor, knelt in front of the other with a medkit sitting beside her and other medical tools in hand. The guy on the same bench as Ruby… it looked like his right arm was being held on by a thin strip of skin. Ruby stared at cross-section of the shoulder, though most of it was covered in some kind of blue film. And he was awake. Ruby winced and brought a hand to her stump arm. She was out cold for all that. She couldn't imagine being awake through it, with or without painkillers.
One more person walked up the ramp of the transport. He was built like Yatsuhashi and carried a minigun to compliment his size. "Recovery team is on ground," he said with a thick accent Ruby couldn't place. He glared at Ruby for a second before facing the other standing soldier. "They say we are no longer needed."
The white armored soldier nodded then faced the cockpit. "Firebrand, take us home." It looked like he was the leader of this group.
"Copy that, Rex. Buttoning up. I'll try to keep this thing stable for Eagle-eye." The engines on the transport spun up. The ramp folded up and Ruby felt the transport lift off the ground. The thing accelerated a little slow compared to the Bullheads she was used to.
Ruby started coughing again, bringing up more green stuff. It sounded like the woman who carried her in made a noise of disgust. "We need a bucket back here."
"Hey!" The pilot, likely Firebrand, yelled. "No losing your lunch on my Skyranger! You make a mess in my baby, you clean it up with a toothbrush."
After she stopped coughing and water left her eyes, she noticed someone slid a helmet in front of her. Not all of the green stuff made it into there. Ruby ran her arm across her mouth. As she sat back up, she noticed the three that weren't occupied with something were staring at her, and not in a concerned way. She shrunk under their combined gazes and tried to cover herself up a little more. "Anyone have a spare jacket or something?"
The woman across from her looked her up and down and nodded. "Firebrand, I know you have something."
"Quiet, who's asking? You or the 'Avatar' we picked up?"
"The elf, Vulcan, whatever she is." 'Quiet' gestured at Ruby. "If the doc said she shouldn't pose a threat, I'm not going to treat her like one."
"Those pods were full of humans," 'Rex' said. "For all we know, her and everyone else were heading to another place like that Black Site."
The medic shivered as she reached into her medkit. "I don't need any reminder of that place."
Firebrand groaned. "If she turns out to be a Faceless, I'm blaming you." A few seconds later, a leather jacket flew out of the cockpit and landed at Quiet's feet.
"Thank you." Quiet picked the jacket up and tossed it to Ruby. The Huntress grabbed it with her one good arm and fumbled around with it while trying to put it on. She eventually got the sleeves over her arms and pulled it closed. It only covered her top half but it was better than nothing.
As time drew on, the silence in the 'Skyranger' gave Ruby too much time to think. The pain and the emptiness in her head hurt even more. She clenched her eyes and tried to stretch her mind out again, to just maybe feel a sliver of her dragon's mind. Much like last time, she couldn't even feel the people around her. Her dragon was… gone… just gone. "Cerise…" A whine escaped past her clenched teeth.
The longer the flight went on, the more it hurt. This was the longest Cerise had been out of her head since hatching. The suppression collars that held her before she either tore off after a few seconds or she was unconscious for. Now, she felt the full force of it. This was what Yang and Nalia felt… but her Aura was gone too. Ruby held onto that fact. That was the only thing that kept her from breaking down completely. If Cerise was gone gone, it wouldn't take away her Aura. Something was holding that back. Some suppression collar or something similar was doing this to her. Just how?
She ran her hand over her bald head… and felt a scar that wasn't there before on the back of her skull. Ruby ran her fingers up and down the scar. It felt like a perfectly straight line… That would do it. She clenched her teeth again. Find a doctor, get whatever it was removed, get her soulmate back…
Ruby blinked. She hadn't noticed it before but her vision was skewed. She held her hand in front of her right eye… and saw nothing. She kept her index finger extended while folding back everything else. She brought her finger toward her eye socket but her finger didn't make contact with anything. "They took everything from me…" She pulled her hand back and looked at her ring finger. Even her gold and emerald wedding ring was missing. She whimpered. Her dragon, her magic, her Aura, her bionics, her clothes, her favorite gift from her husband… she had nothing. Ruby blinked once more and a tear fell onto her lap. She really hoped these people were good guys. Otherwise…
She felt the transport slow down and herself press against the side and bottom of her seat. "We're coming in fast, ladies," Firebrand called. "Commander says the recovery team had to bug out early. We've got to clear the elevator."
"You heard the lady." Rex stood up and grabbed one of the bars on the ceiling. "Bones, get Eagle-eye immediately to the surgery center. Points is expecting you there. Quiet, the infirmary will do for our guest."
"Got it, boss," the medic said.
Quiet shrugged. "As long as she doesn't vomit on me." Ruby shook her head. If Yang said it, she'd growl and elbow her sister. She still had no idea who these people were. All she knew was they didn't put her in that pod. That wasn't enough to trust them.
The transport set down a few seconds after Rex stood up. The ramp opened and the apparent leader of the squad jumped out. The big guy followed him. Quiet stood up and looked down at Ruby. "Can you lean on me or do I need to carry you out there?"
Ruby thought about it for a second. She'd walked without her leg in front of Crey to get him to laugh in the last few months, not to mention all the training before… but that was with Aura, and she still hurt all over. She couldn't do that, but she could do the next best thing. "If walking's an option, I'll take it." Ruby pulled the sleeve on her stump arm back and raised the interface toward the woman
Quiet looked at the arm before grabbing it and helping Ruby to her feet. The Rider immediately slung the stump around the other woman's shoulders, while she hopped around trying to get a good balance. "You ready?" Quiet asked.
"As I'll ever be." Ruby hopped forward once, trying to show a little initiative. Maybe if she acted at least somewhat confident, she could get some answers out of these people… that, and she hated being patronized by people who knew nothing about what was going on.
Quiet took the lead again and gave Ruby a look the wounded woman couldn't place. They stepped into open air and walked by a medical cart that was likely for Eagle-eye. Ruby turned her head to look around what looked like the dorsal hull of an airship. Far off to the sides, twin turbine-like engines were attached to the ship. Definitely not the design of any Kingdom. Some of the hull markings looked similar to those she'd seen on airships of all Kingdoms but those were cautionary in nature. None of their crests were painted anywhere. The upside-down pentagon with an 'X' certainly wasn't it. 'Vigilo Confido…' Sounded like ancient Mistrili. Some paramilitary group that somehow hid from the Kingdoms and Riders? No… There was no way anyone could hide something this big without magic. She could understand people not recognizing her without her hair and clothes, but all this tech said something very different was going on.
They entered the ship proper with Rex and the other guy waiting for them in what looked like an elevator. The car descended for a bit and the other two walked out first. Quiet led Ruby out as well but their paths diverged after the first turn. "I'm going to apologize right now for the medical facilities," the sword wielder said. "We don't have a proper infirmary yet. Docs say that's coming by the end of the week. We had to set aside a part of the crew quarters for non-life-threatening medical procedures." Ruby gave her escort a look. This felt like a huge ship, what kind of unit was this?
Quiet pushed her way into what looked like the crew quarters and Ruby thought she got her answer, and another that she didn't know she had a question about. This place was decorated like an older restaurant. Posters of what looked like movies and theatrical productions lined the walls… with a few scantily clad women, of course… but that wasn't a thing in any military barracks common room she'd seen. This wasn't military and it wasn't any Rider sanctioned operation. A wildcard, and one that Ruby had no idea how to play.
Then there were the people. She didn't see any Faunus in the room, but there were people that clearly weren't human. One of them had silver hair and horns growing out of her head, and she was talking to a blue-skinned man with two tails growing out of the back of his head and hanging down his back. I don't think we're in Vale, anymore, Dodo. A few of the people in the room stared at Ruby as she passed but it only looked like it was out of idle curiosity.
Ruby's escort led her to a tarped off area and opened one of the flaps to reveal another door. She opened that and led her charge into what used to be a room a squad of six could have taken, judging from the bunks built into the wall. Only the bottom three were used while three wireframe beds lined the other wall. It didn't look like there was enough medical equipment for everyone. Whoever these people were, it didn't look like they had their priorities set right.
Quiet laid Ruby down on one of the freestanding beds. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, especially with the thin, lumpy mattress and the metal bar frame, but it was better than nothing. "Both our docs are going to be held up with surgery for a bit. Someone will be in here at some point to ask you questions." She turned around and left without another word.
Now alone, Ruby made a more intense visual check of the room. She didn't see any cameras or other listening devices, so she was alone. No need to fake being put together anymore. Ruby curled up into a ball on her bed and clenched her eyes. Once again, she tried to expand her mind out. It gave her one hell of a headache to try that hard but the pain of not having her dragon hurt worse.
Ruby whipped her hand onto the back of her head and felt up and down the scar. That had to be where whatever kept her mind isolated was kept. That scar was not there this morning and as far as Ruby knew that was the only thing that was different. She poked her fingernails into the scar and dug in. It hurt but she didn't have enough fingernails to get the job done… She was still tempted. Very tempted. She needed Cerise back in her head and she didn't want to wait for a doctor… but the sane part of her mind kept her from tearing her head open. Ruby pulled her shaking hand back in front of her and grabbed her knee. Yang waited months… Nalia would never feel Aaron again. A few more minutes wouldn't hurt.
Only it wasn't just a few more minutes. Time just dragged on and on with no clock to tell how much time was really passing. At some point, Ruby felt the room shift, like the ship was raising and banking. The 'recovery team' had to be back and secured. While waiting, Ruby repeatedly slammed her head into her bed's pillow to feel something other than empty. She thought about moving to smack her forehead on one of the iron bars but she didn't like the idea of being put in a straitjacket.
After way too long, the door opened again. Ruby uncoiled herself and faced the opening. Two men that Ruby hadn't seen before stepped inside. The Huntress caught sight of someone with a gun on the other side before the door closed. The man in front had graying hair and beard yet the way he carried himself said he wasn't exactly ready to live in a nursing home. A combat knife rested in a holster on the left shoulder of his two-tone green sweater. The other man had dark skin and was completely bald. He wore a mainly white lab coat with green accents on the shoulders. He carried a large box with a red plus sign on it. What that meant, Ruby didn't know. Good cop, bad cop? Which was which? This likely wasn't going to be fun.
The first man looked down at Ruby. "I understand that you may be confused as to what's going on. Frankly, so are we. As far as we know, you are the first one to wake up from one of those pods and break out. Doctor Tygan's here to check for adverse effects of being in the pod." He gestured to the other man.
"It is astounding for someone to punch their way through that glass," Tygan said. "I wouldn't think that any human would be able to break through with their bare fists." He set his box down on a side table and faced Ruby. "Then again, you aren't human." Ruby didn't feel like correcting him.
"As you're not human, there are a few things you should know," the first man said. "You are no longer-"
"Who the hell are you people?" Ruby growled out.
The man narrowed his eyes and knocked on the door behind him. The door slid open and the big man from before stepped through, only with a much smaller assault rifle. "I'm trying to be civil here. Considering you didn't attack our soldiers on sight, you aren't with the alien's we're fighting."
Aliens? Ruby blinked. Well, that explains the purple and blue guy.
"We've come across several that now either fight with us or live in a few select havens. However, the way we found you has made a lot of people suspicious, including me." Ruby clamped her mouth shut but didn't lower her glare.
"As I was saying, you are no longer on your home planet. You're on Earth, and you picked one hell of a time to visit. Our planet's been invaded by aliens and we're trying to take it back. We don't have the resources to keep every civvie we see on the ship, so if you behave yourself, we'll drop you off at a haven that will accept you. But first, we need to know that you're not a threat to wherever we decide to place you. Understand?"
Ruby just stared at the man. In the back of her head, she thought of another world… for a minute before she discarded it. Yet at the same time, she couldn't dismiss the idea. The alien invasion, well, she'd seen two that she knew of. For the longest time, she relied on wards to know if people were lying to her. Considering she felt none of those, she had to rely on her natural senses. Even so, she couldn't pick out a lie. She might as well see what this guy told her. "Understood."
The man nodded. "First things first, who are you, and where are you from?"
"Scarlet Calrow," Ruby said without a second's hesitation. Whoever held her had to have known her name, and there was still the strong possibility that these guys weren't the good guys. "I'm from the Kingdom of Mistral… and I guess… planet Remnant." She narrowed her eyes. "You?"
The man straightened up. "Central Officer John Bradford, Kansas City Missouri, United States."
Central Officer, Ruby thought. Sounds high ranking… you know, he kind of reminds me of Captain Bradford. Motion to her left caught her eye. Tygan pulled over a cart of medical equipment and his box was also opened on it. More medical supplies rested in that. Good to know for the future.
"What is the last thing you remember before waking up in the pod?"
Ruby blinked. With all the pain in her head, she hardly even thought about that. She faced her lap. "I… just got into the city for some grocery shopping. I met with one of my friends in a park… then everything went purple and I stood in a pure white room. After that… I don't know what hit me…" She actually didn't. None of those stun soldiers hit her. "It was a black… tentacly… ball." Please tell me Viki didn't get caught up in this...
Bradford looked at Tygan. "That ring any bells?"
Tygan shook his head. "No. None of the others have said they encountered anything like that." He faced Ruby and narrowed his eyes. He repositioned to look at the back of Ruby's head. "How long have you had this scar?"
"Since after I woke up from the pod." Ruby turned her head to point the scar directly a the doctor. "Any idea what it is?" Those words almost came out of her mouth as one.
"I may." Tygan straightened and looked at Bradford. "It's in much the same position as the Commander's."
Bradford stiffened. "Could it be transmitting?"
"Hold on." Tygan grabbed some thick Scroll looking device and held it to Ruby's head. "I am not detecting anything, though I would prefer Shen to make the final call. I also cannot tell if it's receiving any information."
"As long as it can't give away our position." Bradford sighed. "Still, if you have something in your head, it would be better to remove it sooner rather than later."
"No arguments here," Ruby mumbled. She wanted to say get the thing out of her head immediately, but it wouldn't do to pressure these people. Just get whatever it was out of her head, then explain her situation in full and get more information out of them. With Cerise back in her head, she'd be able to think much clearer.
Bradford continued to ask questions, mainly about Ruby's history and where she came from. The Rider downplayed her contributions to society, including leaving out the fact she was a Rider completely. She didn't want to give herself up so easily, especially since she couldn't defend herself. All the while, Tygan took her pulse, blood pressure, all that normal doctor stuff. He appeared to take interest in the stumps and interfaces for her bionics along with the silver mark on her hand but didn't touch anything. He mainly took notes on those.
"One last question for now." Bradford crossed his arms. "Several soldiers reported that they heard you mumbling 'Cerise.' What does the color red have to do with anything?"
Ruby wanted to scream everything. She barely held herself back. She did not want to deny her dragon's existence... but what if these people weren't good guys and were looking for her too? She couldn't give up her soulmate so easily.
A knock came from the door, stopping Ruby's mental panic, at least for the moment. Bradford and the guard faced it. "Doctor, you expecting anyone?"
"My assistant, yes," Tygan said. "She would have arrived with me but she stayed back to clean the operating room after Corporal Thompson's surgery. She may be able to detect injuries that I may not."
"That she may." Bradford nodded at the guard. The big guy pressed a button and the door slid open.
Ruby sat straight up on her bed and stared at the newcomer. Black hair, pointed ears sticking out of it… the symbol of the Dragon Riders across from the pentagon. The woman raised her head from her tablet and green eyes met silver. Ruby dropped her jaw. "Invidia?"
The elf let her arms drop and she straightened. "Shadeslayer?"
That's it for the introduction. Let me know if you want to see this continued... geeze, this is the first week for four years I don't have/want to upload anything next week. That's different. What am going to do with my life...
Also, for those of you coming over from Reconstruction, rsclaymore commissioned another piece of art from manu-chann on deviantart. Green is my favorite color, so this one is my personal favorite. Go check that one out.