"When SG-1 took us to Earth they explained how things work out here. The Gates, state of the galaxy at large, that kind of stuff. Since we had no idea how addresses worked, let alone our own home's location, they offered to shelter us until they found it." Jaune finished, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked a little nervous once he was finished, unsure of how his friends would react.
The four girls stared at him, enraptured by the tale he just told them. While only Ruby had wondered where and how they ended up after the team vanished, the others had been putting fresh thought into his circumstances in the past several minutes. Weiss was the first to shake out of their thoughts and speak up after the lengthy speech, clearing her throat carefully to get everyone's attention.
"And in return, you were drafted." she stated flatly, thinking she finished the summary for him.
Jaune's cheery expression was broken, his face scrunching up in unwelcome surprise. Ruby flinched and twisted her head towards the pale girl in shock. Her face showed a clear visage of the conflict in herself; for a moment she was outright angry at Weiss for the bold accusation, but when she began to think of how to refute her, the story her friend told them was put into a fresh light.
She remembered her classes with Professor Port, how whole villages were forced to serve the various armies during the Great War eighty years ago, lest they would be abandoned to the Grimm and Bandits in the wilds. The amount of effort her professors spent on teaching them how to be Huntresses made her realize how valuable their talents were. Earth had to gain skills and knowledge of such a caliber for their own, and since they had no way to escape... a shudder worked its way through her system.
When she turned to a still off-balanced Jaune, her countenance was one of pained curiosity, like she wanted an answer but was afraid to ask.
"Forced into this... Guess I kinda gave that impression didn't I?" Jaune sighed softly, shrugging to loosen up the situation.
"Yeah, you did." Yang said carefully, eyeing him carefully.
The red Huntress gulped, looking up at the boy and hoping for an answer. "Were you?"
"Promise you won't be upset?" he asked her carefully. His blue eyes roaming around, looking for some unspoken answer from the others. None of them gave any sign.
"I won't." she agreed, bracing herself. A dozen guesses flitted through her mind, each one more unpleasant than the last: was he forced to serve for some greater good? Was he brainwashed? Were Nora and the rest taken as hostages to keep him there? Did they get drafted too? Or was he working for them under pain of death? Her imagination went wild with the horrible possibilities.
"I volunteered."
Ruby was silent, her jaw dropping at the answer. He raised a placating hand, wincing at her shock. A peek out the corner of his eye showed him the others weren't much better; Weiss was practically gaping at him and Blake was looking like he had just spouted off some nonsense. Strangely Yang was taking the admission well, frowning while she leaned back on the grass.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised." she murmured thoughtfully.
"You... you chose this?" Weiss exclaimed in shock, her blue eyes wide open.
Jaune sighed, giving the back of his neck a scratch. "Well, it was Pyrrha's idea to sign up with them, but we all agreed to it. Look, I know this is a lot to take in." he said sympathetically. His hands raised up, hoping it would help calm everyone down.
"Yeah, a lot." Blake agreed dourly.
"But we had a good reason for it. No coercion on the SGC, um, Stargate Command's part. Actually, they didn't want us to join them at all." Jaune offered instead, causing Ruby to give him a bizarre look. Yang lifted her left hand to make a circular motion in the air. "Hammond, he's the General in charge of the SGC, he was perfectly willing to resettle the four of us to anyplace that was safe. Earth, one of their off world allies, wherever it was safest." he explained hastily.
"But he let you join." Blake countered, frowning at him.
"After five weeks of bugging him and every officer in the base, yeah." Jaune responded, the corners of his mouths turned upwards. Somehow, Ruby could easily picture him harassing the Major from earlier in order to join his team. She wanted to giggle at the mental image, but what it resulted in stopped her.
"Wait, then why did you...?" Weiss struggled to say even that, having difficulty imagining what kind of people he now worked for. She shook her head, trying to cudgel her thoughts back into working order.
Jaune sighed, dropping any semblance of cheer. "Listen, there are things out here that make the Grimm look pitiful. True evil, unlike anything you have ever known. The SGC fights these things a lot."
"This means you too?" Ruby asked carefully, making him nod.
"Words don't get across just how monstrous they are. When they explained what they were up against, well, I couldn't just stand by." he explained grimly, a pained expression flashing over him for a moment.
"What's out here that's so bad?" Blake carefully questioned, peeking at the village a short distance away.
"Did the people here tell you about their gods?" he asked unexpectedly.
Weiss spoke up, having recovered most of her wits. "A little. The main god they worship here is called Thor. There's also demons called, um, what was it?" she looked to the others for an answer.
"Some weird word. I thought she said gold at first." Ruby said, frowning in thought.
"It did sound a lot like gold. The evil gods are called System Lords." Blake added, nodding.
"They're called Goa'uld." Jaune said simply.
Ruby scrunched up her brow. "Gawold." she tried to say the strange word.
"Goa'uld." Weiss repeated, letting the odd blend of syllables flow off her tongue.
"Um, Goold. Is it just a pronunciation thing?" Yang tried to lighten the mood, but the hard expression on Jaune made it wither.
"What's a Goa'uld?" Blake questioned at last, frowning. Their friend took a quiet breath, steadying himself.
"What they are is evil incarnate. They're parasitic creatures about this long." he lifted both hands, keeping them apart a distance of under half a meter. "Looks like the offspring of a worm and a snake."
"Doesn't sound so bad." Ruby shrugged off easily, then cringing at the look he sported.
"If it was all they were none of us would be here. Its what they do that makes them a nightmare." Jaune replied grimly. "They burrow into you, either from the back of your throat, through the front of your neck, even into your chest if they're close enough." he thumped the center of his vest for emphasis. "Though a lot prefer to enter through the back of the neck. Then they dig, until the thing reaches your spinal cord. It wraps around your brain stem, and it takes you over."
Yang was looking a little nauseous at the explanation, but the last words knocked her back into the present. "What'd you mean, take over?"
"Just that. The parasite controls you completely, you can't move at all. Fingers, toes, blinking, you can't even breathe without the thing willing for it. It knows everything you know, it feels your thoughts like they're its own. Once a Goa'uld is in you, you're a prisoner inside your own mind." Jaune finished, all but seething.
Ruby could only stare in shock. "And it..."
"The worst part is that you're still conscious. It controls you like a puppet, and there's nothing you can do. The host is driven insane under the treatment." he told them, a faint scowl on his features.
The red toned girl was fundamentally horrified; she tried to imagine being stripped of her free will, completely at someone's else's mercy. It was worse than repressing personal identity, it was slavery of the purest form.
"No way. No creature is like that." Weiss stated flatly, giving a short shake of her head in defiance.
"They're real." Jaune insisted tightly.
"There's nothing like that on-" Blake caught herself, wincing at the mistake. Her surroundings by itself meant her assumption was false.
"How do you know they're real?" Weiss insisted. "For all you know, those Earthers could've fed you a lie in order to-"
"I've seen it." The heiress was silenced mid rant, caught off guard once again. Blake blinked in astonishment, while Ruby never stopped staring at him in shock. Yang cleared her throat, wishing she didn't have to speak.
"You...have?" she said hesitantly, cringing at herself.
"Yeah. Saw a friend and teammate suffer possession by one of those things. Its not something I would wish upon my worst enemy." he dropped his head and sighed deeply, avoiding looking at any of them.
"Jaune?" Ruby said quietly.
"It's…" he dropped his head to sigh. "I'm sorry. Just... This wasn't how I imagined this would happen." he shook his head, tussling the messy hair she remembered.
A silent voice within her mind wondered if finding him was as good of an idea as she assumed it to be. Quashing the thought, Ruby pressed on.
"Are there any of those things here?" she asked, giving a worried look at their surroundings.
When Jaune lifted his head again, he briefly shook his head. "No. This planet is under the Asgard's protection. The monolith in front of the gate? The whole light show thing?" They nodded rapidly. "It scanned you all for one. Since you're right here, it means you're fine."
"Good to know, but what does that have to do with the local religion?" Blake asked confusedly.
"Its easier to accept something as divine than to understand what it is. The Goa'uld pretend to be gods to help control their slave populations. Some are nuts enough to believe it themselves." he answered, his tone showing disgust at the very idea.
Yang frowned. "Hold up, if the goold pretend to be gods, what're the Askgard then?"
Before Jaune answered her, he took a fresh look at his watch, widening his eyes.
"Crap, we spent too much time talking." he murmured, reaching out to snag his hat. Yang glowered at the lack of an answer.
When Jaune began to get up, Ruby jumped to her feet first with a flutter of petals. The others rose as well, all of them taking a moment to stretch sore muscles. The blond adjusted the gear on him, moving the gun to a seemingly random spot before nodding and gripping it. Once that was done, he tipped his head in the direction of the gate.
"Lets go." he said simply, walking away in a slow pace. Exchanging a short look with her team, Ruby darted after him.
Yang looked to Weiss, Weiss looked to Blake, and Blake looked to Yang. Without words they debated, the uncertainty of the situation calling for a new plan. But when the blonde saw how her sister was walking off with her long lost friend, she sighed and turned away. The faunus trudged after her, trying to keep some form of composure. The heiress grimaced at being left behind, but in the end she trotted after them, knowing there was no other way home.
Pointedly not noticing her friends' hesitation, Ruby quizzically asked, "So, what's it like? Being in the military I mean."
"Believe it or not its not much different from being a Huntsman. You see new places, spend most of the workday on your feet, and get into fights with bad guys a lot." Jaune answered as he brushed off the question.
"Really?" she went, making him give a brief chortle.
"There are a few differences though. On Earth the Stargate program is classified, so I can't tell anyone there about what I do. Makes casual conversations kinda awkward." he said bashfully. He was keeping an even pace which was distinctly not a march, but it may have been a conscious move.
"Then, what do you tell them?" she asked while she kept up. Behind them the rest of her team caught up, for the moment keeping a short distance away and whispering to each other.
"Well, I have what they call a cover identity. Officially I'm an immigrant from Quebec, Canada." Jaune chuckled, shaking his head to some inside joke, which trailed off upon seeing the blank look on her face. "Right, forgot. Earth is split up into several kingdoms, though they call them countries. The one that runs the program is called the United States of America. Canada is on its northern border." he explained.
Behind them Yang pushed forward, taking a spot opposite of her sister. "How many kingdoms are there?" she asked, a little more forcefully than she intended.
"Total? Around two hundred." he answered, making her's and the others jaws drop. "But there's only around a half dozen which really matter. The big five are the ones that make the choices which affect the whole planet."
While not obvious at first glance, Ruby noticed he was standing up straighter than she remembered. It was like the faint uncertainty he always carried with him back at Beacon was missing, and some self confidence had taken its place. What was glaringly clear was the way he held on the square gun with one hand, a ready position if she ever saw one. She wanted to congratulate whoever it was that gave him such a boost, but she also felt leery at the unwarranted paranoia he freely displayed.
"Um, how many people are on Earth?" Weiss piped up. Jaune looked over his shoulder with an evil grin. Seeing it, Ruby mentally prepared herself for a new shock. Idly she wondered if it was possible to get used to having the entire world getting turned on its head continually.
"Six billion and counting." he answered. Rather than a stunned look, the pale girl snorted, causing Blake to give her a funny look.
"Now I know that is a lie. But you'll throw out some line about 'I've seen it' or something, right?" she said dryly, causing him to shrug.
"If you don't believe me its okay. Frankly its the least weirdest thing about Earth." he looked back ahead.
"So, if there's six billion people." Blake began dubiously. "How do they keep the Grimm away? They have to have a good way of fighting them." she said, eyeing the gun he carried.
Jaune stopped walking, catching them all off guard for a moment. When the girls paused to look at him as he turned around, there was an unidentifiable look on his face. Once he was certain they all had their eyes on him, he spoke up.
"Should've said this first. Look around." he waved a hand at the crisp wilderness in every direction, broken only by the village behind them. "Noticed something strange about this place?"
"Besides the lack of hygiene?" Weiss commented blandly, crossing her arms.
"I think if I showed my scroll around, the people here would burn me as a witch." Yang added. Jaune only grinned.
"They're worried about demons invading, the Gawold." Ruby said, the gears in her head turning. She had the feeling the answer was right in front of her, but she couldn't quite see it. Not for the first time she was irritably reminded why class was her least favorite place to be.
Blake widened her eyes. "There's no Grimm here."
"Exactly." he grinned, looking quite pleased by her answer. "I've been to a lot of different places and seen some really weird stuff. But in all of my travels, I haven't encountered anything even remotely like the Grimm, anywhere."
"At all?" Weiss asked in confusion, three heads nodding in agreement.
"Remnant is the only world in the known universe with Grimm. Dunno how, dunno why. All I can say is its a good thing. Notice how no one here seems to have an awakened Aura?" he waved a hand around their location.
"I didn't think everyone here was like that." Ruby murmured thoughtfully, trying to imagine a world without Grimm. Then it dawned on her that she didn't have to: Cimmeria was a strange place for certain, but its people didn't live in fear of monsters. They could exist as they wanted to, never knowing the terror which haunted every man, woman, and child on Remnant. She stole a glance at the nearby forest, looking at the few peaks in the far distance with fresh eyes. There were a few hostile things out there if Hilda was right, none of them coming close to the danger of the Grimm.
"So, if you wanted to, its possible to settle somewhere out here and not have to deal with Grimm ever again." Yang said, half to herself.
Blake frowned. "Didn't you say the Goa'uld were out in the universe? Then being out here is a bad idea?"
"They're powerful and more dangerous than you can imagine, but the snakes aren't omnipotent. For every world they control, there's a couple dozen others no traveler has set foot on for centuries, and thats not counting uninhabited planets." Jaune said easily. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ruby giving him a strange look.
"Snakes?" she repeated confusedly. He blinked, realizing his mistake.
"Oh, right. Its just a shorthand, snake is quicker and easier to say than Goa'uld." he replied, a little too quickly. Ruby wasn't fooled; she knew an insult when she heard one. His description of the creatures mitigated the feeling somewhat, but she couldn't help wondering what kind of things the Earth people had been doing to cause the goofy yet accepting boy she knew to use a derogatory name so easily. Or what else he gave such names to. Jaune sighed.
"Lets get going." he repeated lowly, turning around to walk towards the gate again. Ruby's teammates exchanged a significant glance once again, with Blake in particular quietly simmering. This time, when they looked to Ruby she met their gazes. More was said in the brief period of eye contact than several minutes of conversation.
Still, no matter her feelings on the matter, one fact remained the same: the enigmatic circle of black stone was their only way back home, and Jaune knew how to use it better than any of them. When she caught up to him once again, Ruby resolved to give him the benefit of the doubt before she made a decision. For a moment neither said anything, continuing to walk along back to the gate. When the ring came into view she had enough of the silence, so she went to the one item which guaranteed answers.
"Where's your sword?" Ruby asked.
"Crocea Mors? On Earth right now. The SGC doesn't like it when their gate teams take unauthorized equipment, but I and the others can usually grab our stuff. Could tell you this funny story about this one time I got into a sword fight on this remote planet. Poor guy is still mad at me." Jaune shook his head in bemusement.
"But not now." she pointed out.
"Yeah, but this was supposed to be a first contact mission. Having a sword strapped to your hip, or a scythe on your back." he nodded to Crescent Rose. "Doesn't make friends very well."
"Huh. So... you use that instead?" Ruby pointed to the blocky gun.
Upon hearing the question the other girls closed in to discreetly listen, with close to the same goal. 'A man's weapon tells you much about himself' went the old saying. And there was much about these 'Tau'ri' they needed to know.
"This?" he lifted the rectangular gun up, making the sling tug on him. "Yeah. Its called an FN P90. A lot of the off-world teams use these."
"Cool." Ruby commented, relieved at finding something she could understand. "Can I see?"
Jaune cringed. "I'm... not permitted to, it's against regulations, but-" he said quickly at the first sign of her crestfallen expression. "I guess you of all people should know what you're doing. If you don't tell anyone it'll be alright."
Lifting the gun up over his head, Jaune dragged the strap keeping it looped around his body off. Weiss darted over, quietly offering to help him (and to sate her own curiosity) while Yang and Blake were content with getting a good look at the weapon held in the air. Once he was free from the sling's grasp, he gingerly offered it over to Ruby, who accepted the weapon with great care.
While her initial impression of the weapon was uncharacteristically chilled, she found herself deeply curious to what it was actually like. Turning the light gun over in her hands, she spied several details about the firearm, from the orange plastic magazine showing dozens of tiny bullets to the small sights. While there was a few things she recognized (a safety catch, ejection port, and of course the trigger) many familiar parts were missing. Frowning, she wondered if it was actually a training weapon, the lack of bulk odd from her point of view.
"Whats it do?" she asked, turning it over so the stock was close to her shoulder and the grips were in her small hands. Experimentally she pressed the gun firmly against herself, mimicking the pose she saw Atlesian troopers use. To her surprise it fit her small frame almost perfectly; if her arms were a little longer or the P90 a little shorter, she would have guessed it was purpose made just for her. When she lifted the barrel up to aim at a faraway stretch of forest, Blake and Weiss looked over her with amazement, while Yang scrambled to get her scroll out.
"Shoots stuff" Jaune answered easily. Yang's attempt to take a picture was halted, her mane of blonde hair turning in time with her companions.
"And?" Blake prompted. He chuckled nervously under their expectant stares, averting his eyes.
"Uh... it's got built in flashlight." he continued weakly.
Weiss snorted. "Who makes a gun that only shoots bullets? Tell me you can at least whack something with this dinky thing."
"You can, but doing it will probably wreck the gun. The SGC do train their people in hand to hand combat, only as a last resort though." Jaune explained bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.
In that moment, Ruby Rose reached an epoch defining conclusion. "Earth people are weird."
Jaune sighed and dropped his head in defeat. "Pretty much, yeah." he quietly agreed, listlessly accepting the P90 back when she held it out. Yang tried to touch it herself, but a quick smack by Blake stopped her attempt. While he was replacing the gun around his torso, he forcefully perked back up.
"I think that's enough about me. Why don't you fill me in on how you guys got here?" Jaune asked brightly.
As one all four girls looked away, briefly flustered. Jaune's weak cheer turned to confusion.
"Its a long story." Ruby said carefully, causing him to chuckle.
"No shortage of those. But c'mon, how? Don't tell me, Remnant has its own Stargate program." he guessed with a coy smile.
"Um... no." Blake replied hesitantly, looking away.
"We just found the thing this morning." Yang said, before sparing an uncertain look skyward. "Well, morning back home."
"Really? Then, hang on." Jaune stopped yet again, only this time the team was ready for it. Weiss discreetly sidestepped behind the others, out of his line of sight. "There are tens of thousands of possible symbol combinations, you can dial for weeks on end without getting a viable address, and that's if you're lucky. There's no way you just found the gate this morning and got it to work." he explained, frowning and crossing his arms.
"We, um." Yang looked to an interesting stretch of forest instead of continuing.
Finally Ruby sighed, glancing in the direction of her sister. Huddled behind the blonde was Weiss, who was frantically waving her away. When the bigger girl stepped aside she was left in plain view, aghast at the attention being laid upon her. Jaune especially, there was something to his gaze which had her on edge.
"Are we really doing this?" she asked despairingly.
"Please, the basics at least." he gently pressured, holding up a flattened hand.
"It's okay, no ones going to laugh at you." Yang assured, to which they all nodded to.
Finally Weiss dropped her head with a sigh. "I had a dream. There."
When she peeked up, all four pairs of eyes were still fixated on her.
"Gah, fine." she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "I don't remember what all happened in it, but when I woke up I knew you guys were in Forever Fall somewhere. Blake found the gate by accident when we went searching, and when I saw the altar thingy, I... I blacked out. When I came to, the ring was on." Wess finished testily, as if daring them to laugh at her.
No one did. In fact, Jaune's frown deepened.
"So, odd dream, overriding goal to take care of, and when you saw the thing, you made it work without being aware of it. Right?" he recounted as he crossed his arms over the weapon.
"Long and short of it." Blake agreed, frowning at his reaction.
"It was really creepy too." Ruby added, giving Weiss a sympathetic look.
"So, going to say its weird?" she challenged.
He shook his head. "No, by my standards these days that's pretty tame." he sighed once more, apparently steadying himself. "Good news is I think I know what caused this." Jaune said, causing the pale teen to blink.
"Huh? Really?" Weiss asked, astonished. He nodded.
"I know a few experts who can tell you more. But for the why, I have no idea." he admitted with a shrug.
"Wait, so what did this?" Ruby asked quickly.
"I could tell you." he began, using a tone of voice she knew meant the opposite of what he said. "But we'd be here all day, probably for a chunk of the next, and at the end you'll think I'm crazy."
"Real copout." Yang noted dryly, causing him to sigh once more.
"Not kidding, no matter how much I wish I was." he said quietly.
"Why can't you just tell me?" Weiss demanded, the beginnings of a scowl crossing her features.
"Sorry. I'm sorry in general." he began regretfully, slumping his shoulders. "I know you have a million and ten questions you want to ask me. But we have to get back-" Jaune suddenly stopped, freezing in place. Upon seeing his eyes widen, Ruby became worried, far more than before.
"What is it?" Ruby asked urgently, jerking closer in alarm. When his hands lifted to his head, Yang and Blake reflexively went for their weapons. She was a hairsbreadth away from drawing her scythe when he uttered two concise words.
"Oh. Crap." Rather than calming her down, she became even more alarmed. Looking both shocked and frightened, Jaune glanced to them. "This whole time, I assumed you guys were in some type of project like me. If you're not..." he said hoarsely.
"What? Whats the problem?" Blake demanded.
"It didn't even occur to me until just now. If you're not, and you don't know anything about the Stargate network, then you don't know how it works, then, then... crap." he half whimpered, appearing to be on the edge of a breakdown. Ruby couldn't understand what had him so upset, or why.
Yang sighed irritably, clicking Ember Celia out of its ready mode. "Jaune, drop the act and just gimme a straight answer."
"Do you know about how the Stargate works?" he questioned frantically, causing both Ruby and Weiss to wince from their proximity.
"Um, sort of. To get somewhere, you have to hit six symbols in the right order then the red button in the center. Right?" Blake responded uncertainly, taking a hand off her sword but failing to relax.
"Yeah yeah that's the basics." he waved off almost irritably. "Each gate has its own unique address. If you don't know the specific set of symbols, you're not going to be able to access that specific gate." Jaune explained tightly.
"So...?" Ruby left the question hanging, now having a decent guess of what had him upset but unwilling to assume anything.
"If you don't know your home address, you're not going home. That simple." he finished, clearly frayed.
"But we do." Yang said. At once Jaune froze again, whatever he was about to say next utterly forgotten. When she glanced to the heiress, he too creaked his head to the girl. She huffed, more out of irritation than any genuine anger.
"One of the people here filled us in, me rather, on which glyphs lit up when I dialed from Remnant. Showed me which ones in what order needed to get hit to get it to function." Weiss told him.
Jaune gulped. "You sure?"
"Tried it a minute later, worked just fine. Do you think I would screw it up?" she replied.
When he wobbled precariously, Ruby closed in with her arms out. She hovered close to him, wincing as he staggered in place. Strangely, the dumbstruck expression on his face seemed to mimic relief more than anything else. It took most of a minute for him to regain his balance, the red huntress staying close to help if he needed it. The three others decided to watch him instead, only the faunus guessing correctly what he was feeling. When he was steady again, Jaune took a deep breath.
"Okay... okay." he mumbled.
"Jaune, would you be so kind as to explain what the heck is wrong with you?" Weiss questioned dryly. He stood up straight again and gulped, Ruby backing away carefully. The moment he acted up again she would be on him, she mentally promised.
"You have no idea how big of a bullet you dodged." he got out at last.
"So I was right about the number thing, great!" Yang pumped a fist in the air. "Blake, you owe me a soda." she proclaimed, earning a raised brow from the faunus.
"I'm the one who made the mobile analogy, not you. And I never made a deal like that." she calmly refuted.
"Eh, semantics." Yang errantly waved off.
"Were you worried we'd be stuck out here?" Weiss asked with a small smirk. He nodded without a trace of mirth.
"You're taking this well." Jaune noted with confusion.
"The people here are nice." Ruby told him. "Hjord helped us out a lot. Wish I could've repaid the favor."
He ran a hand down his face. "You're a lot luckier than we were." he murmured.
"You still didn't answer me, who or what did something to me?" Weiss's good mood evaporated, stomping closer to him.
Jaune offered a sympathetic look. "Its, well, I don't think you'll believe me. The experts I mentioned though, they can tell you what happened." he told her before turning back to the Stargate, a mere twenty meters away.
Ruby followed his lead, internally cringing. Staying behind him while he strolled up to the altar she couldn't help delaying him in any way she could. Without looking at her or the others he reached out to tap the first of several symbols, making the orange chevron on the ring light up with a mechanical crack. Yang, Weiss, and Blake stayed well to the side of the steps, firmly out of the way the otherworldly fluid bloomed from.
"Hey." Ruby said, causing him to look away from the altar with only three glyphs indicated. "What happens if you don't finish typing in the number? Or, um, whatever its called?" she asked, eying both him and the machine. She noticed how at ease he was with the device however, no hesitation at all. Behind them Blake was looking over, more focused on the latter.
"Earth people call it a DHD, Dial Home Device." he explained. A couple of seconds later, the lights on the altar blinked off. The three chevrons blinked off as well. "And nothing. Just give it a few seconds and it'll be ready to go again." Jaune answered, turning back to the panel. Ruby felt the presence of someone closing in behind her, politely stepping aside so they could walk closer to him. Before his hand could touch the DHD again, she spoke.
"One last thing?" Blake asked, stopping the attempt and causing him to turn around. "I've been meaning to ask, the big whoosh thing that happens before its safe to walk in? What happens if you touch it?"
Rather than answering her, Jaune looked to Ruby. "Could you do me a real big favor?"
"Sure." she agreed, curious to what he wanted.
"Could you find me a stick? A long one, doesn't matter what condition its in." he explained.
Instead of speaking, Ruby vanished in a flutter of rose petals. Weiss and Yang took the opportunity to walk closer, both eyeing him strangely. He shrugged in response.
"You'll see." he promised. The dry look from Yang especially told him her thoughts on the matter.
Several awkward seconds later Ruby returned the same way she arrived, a piece of a dead tree branch a meter and a half long in her hands. Jaune nodded approvingly.
"Good. Now, when I dial, I want you to hold the stick out to the stuff." he explained. The look of uncertainty on her face didn't stop her from nodding, hesitantly moving closer to the ring and holding the stick out as far as she could reach.
"No technical term for the kawoosh?" Blake asked. Yang nodded in agreement, while Weiss gave her a dry look. Jaune shook his head.
"There is this super long term for it that I can never remember, but no, there isn't an official name. Now." he stepped by the DHD once more, taking enough time to see if the red toned girl was in the right place. He quickly motioned for her to step back a little before nodding. "Watch and see." he said softly, hand extending out to tap one glyph after another in quick succession. Almost as fast, the chevrons lit up in response.
When the last clicked into place, Ruby stopped herself from shivering. Unconsciously she held her breath, suppressing the urge to get away when the watery blast reached out. By sheer force of will she stayed in place, keeping the stick in the path of the bloom while it reached out a few meters. Only when it retracted to settle into the glowing surface did she relax, taking a deep breath and lowering the stick to the ground. It took her a second to notice the stick went lower to the ground than before, a lot lower.
Lifting it up, Ruby peered at the end. Her breath caught in her throat; more than half the stick (not much better than unbroken kindling) was missing. On the tip, the much closer tip, there was a sloped point on the end. While flat, it was heavily charred, as if a flamethrower had gone to it. Numbly she turned around, showing the vaporized end to the rest of her team. Curiosity quickly turned to shock, Blake in particular gulping nervously.
Jaune walked passed them fiddling with a tiny machine on his vest, pausing to look them over. "So, rule number two of gate travel: the pretty kawoosh? Don't get caught by it." he stated simply. This time all four gulped, Ruby unceremoniously dropping the charred stick. She trued desperately to not imagine herself in the stick's place.
Now throughly unsettled, Ruby glanced at the shimmering surface of the active Stargate. Jaune stood by the edge of the portal, waving for them to go in. Yang sighed and cracked her knuckles, testily strolling up the steps into the water. Whatever fear she felt was pushed aside as she stepped through the puddle. Weiss was far more subdued, giving him a worried look before she too allowed herself to be engulfed. Blake half walked, half crept closer to the shimmering surface, taking a second to run her hand over the rippling surface before entering with a wet plop.
Finally it was Ruby's turn, carefully approaching the edge. When she was within a few centimeters of it, she glanced to Jaune, cringing.
"It's perfectly safe." he told her reassuringly, quietly waving her on. She took a steadying breath.
"I know. Just, gimme a second." she said back, standing in place.
"Okay, see you on the other side." Jaune said, cheerfully strolling through and disappearing.
She was sure he mistook the source of her apprehension, thinking it was the gate which caused it. If he thought so, then he was wrong. On the other side lay things beyond her keen, beyond the keen of everyone she knew. Not her father, not the professors, not even Ozpin could possibly be prepared for what was on the other side. One more time, she took in a breath of Cimmerian air, and forced herself to step into the puddle of glowing water.
For a moment, she thought she... was...
...Moving...
...And a few seconds later, she stepped out the other side. At once all of her senses were assaulted; glaring lights of several colors from above hit her eyes, scents of things she couldn't begin to identify filled her nose. And all around her was a cacophony of noise. A blaring alarm, white noise from innumerable machines, and many, many voices. It took her a moment to adjust to the pandemonium, noting after a second the alarm at least had cut off. Behind her the glowing puddle of the Stargate cut out, vanishing with an electric crackle.
00000
...
00000
A/N: I'll be honest, I f***ing hate this chapter. It took too long to do and is NOT up to my usual standard. KisaragiKei remedied it, but this is still terrible. Hopefully future chapters are better than this piece of s***.
BETA A/N: I kinda hate as well. It's not up to the quality I usually see you write at. PS: I honesty didn't do much. As far as I was concerned; I simply acted like one of those "holier then thou" critics. Even if they are asses, they know some of their stuff. :3