A/N: So...it seems I move at the speed of a glacier. Nice. Again, thanks to KisaragiKei for proofing, and thanks to all y'all who stuck around.
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Out of the four members of Team RWBY, Weiss was taking the strange new reality of theirs in stride. To be more precise, she was doing a far better job of hiding her bewilderment. Not because she was understanding everything, far from it. The white toned girl was dumbfounded at everything she saw, from the people, to the surroundings, even the decor. It was all different from what she was used to.
Then she corrected herself; nothing she saw was truly unfamiliar. All of it was like Remnant, but as if it were viewed through a warped mirror. There were any number of things which she could recognize at a glance, such as an unmistakable whiff of pizza coming from a door she passed. If she had time to process everything, she might have begun to wonder at the uncanny similarities, perhaps be interested enough in finding out what matched and what didn't.
The cardinal problem for Weiss, for her entire team she assumed, there just wasn't time. Again and again something entirely new came along to shake up her world like a cheap Atlesian snow globe, and she had just begun to process it when something new smacked her in the face and made her start over. No small amount of frustration was building up inside her at the constant string of events. That wasn't factoring in the supposed cause of the strange dream which brought her here in the first place, according to the Earthers anyway.
It didn't help that her friends scattered once Hammond dismissed the briefing, going every which way. Ruby and Yang went with Nora and Ren to the armory (where else, she reflected wryly), Pyrrha left for a needed shower, Blake sat down in the conference room with Dr. Jackson and Teal'c to begin a polite interrogation session on what things were like here, and Jaune had left with O'Neill to Hammond's office with nary a word of explanation. Weiss herself was taken by Major Carter to the dialing computer to figure out how to return home.
When the woman lead her into the gate control room, she realized it happened yet again. The poorly lit room felt far smaller than what it was, and it wasn't very spacious to begin with. Banks of noisy computers were everywhere, with numerous screens showing incomprehensible information to whoever dared look at them. Several technicians were at work on their own tasks, while a few guards stood at attention.
Yet despite the bulk and apparent prowess, the machines didn't seem too advanced. There wasn't a single hologram in sight, the closest thing to portable she observed was a flimsy laptop the size of a textbook, and they seemed to rely on physical interface widgets rather than touch screens. Weiss didn't take Tech History, but she saw enough of Blake's work to recognize most of what she saw was hopelessly outdated.
"This...this is the control system." she said slowly, looking to the blonde woman for affirmation. Major Carter, though she insisted on just Carter, nodded with a small shrug.
"It doesn't look like much I know, but our dialing computer really is a feat of engineering." she answered easily, mistaking her disbelief for awe.
For people who were from her point of view literally aliens,their equipment was, by her reasonably well informed observations, garbage.
"This way." Carter lead her to one set of terminals, situated right in front of the glass. Beyond it, Weiss spotted the Stargate they used to arrive here, only now there was a silver colored plate filling in the interior. She wondered why; wouldn't the watery bloom destroy it as it did for the stick on Cimmeria?
As occupied as her thoughts were, Weiss was far from blind. She spotted a bespectacled man clad in a uniform in front of a console, busy typing away on the primitive computer. Apparently sensing their movement, he turned away from the terminal to acknowledge them. She noticed he made no move to stand up.
"Major." he nodded deferentially. The blonde soldier held up a hand towards the girl behind her.
"Miss Schnee, this is Master Sergeant Walter Harriman. He's responsible for organizing all off world traffic through the gate." Carter introduced.
Without waiting for a cue, Weiss stuck out a flat hand to the soldier. He blinked in astonishment at her boldness, but after a hesitant moment he returned the gesture.
"Pleased to meet you Sergeant Harriman." she greeted, giving his hand exactly two measured swings before relaxing her grip. His own limp hand fell away, while he gave her a quizzical look.
"Uh, hi." he replied, frowning confusedly.
As much as Weiss hated her etiquette filled upbringing, she admitted the lessons hammered into her had their uses. There was no substitute for a good introduction, no matter where they were on the social ladder. She could attest to the fact by her own experiences, thinking of the initial meetings with Ruby and Blake.
A convenient bonus was her learning a bit more about this man. His grip was clammy with sweat, but there were bumps on his palm which spoke of faded calluses. Evidently he wasn't used to hard work, but wasn't a stranger to it either. Perhaps it was a worthless detail, but until she knew otherwise, she filed the information away.
"Okay, lets get started." Carter prompted. Weiss tracked the woman, wondering if she realized the point of the innocuous gesture.
Because of her attention, the white toned girl saw Carter discover something behind her almost immediately, and reacted by turning to the same direction. Who it was surprised her.
"Pyrrha?" The redhead stopped in place, evidently powering to their location a scant few seconds ago. Her entire posture shifted, turning into deferential respect.
"Major Carter." she spoke with a small nod, her right arm twitching upwards in an automatic effort. Only when her green eyes flickered to Weiss did she hesitate, pausing at the halfway point.
"Nikos." Carter nodded back, raising a brow at the aborted salute. It was that or her presence in the control room, but Weiss guessed was the first option.
Ruby wasn't the only one to notice the change in their missing friends, changes beyond what was immediately visible. Weiss saw a number of the same cues in Jaune, and now Pyrrha, as her sister Winter the last time she saw her. Her body language was exactly like what Atlesian troopers did when a superior officer was present.
"Ma'am, I... I wish to be present for the dialing procedure." Pyrrha said carefully, apparently mustering her nerves. She crossed her arms behind her back, more nervous now than any other time Weiss had ever seen.
A quiet feeling of unease filled the white toned girl when she glanced at the Earther, questioning whether she would agree or not. They seemed fairly casual about their operations, but she had no idea if they let someone as low ranking as her observe the procedure itself. Her muted dread was dispelled when Carter nodded easily.
"Of course." she agreed, waving her closer. Pyrrha took a breath, showing plain relief. It was certainly weird to see her loosen up, but considering that they had been essentially trapped for three years, it made sense.
Though Weiss was one of five people who knew Remnant's address and one of four who could tell the Earthers (why she was the one stuck with the responsibility of getting home was a mystery), she decided to take a moment to speak to the redhead. Back at Beacon she wouldn't say they were friends, hardly more than passing acquaintances really. Nevertheless, she felt a friendly greeting was in order.
Gathering a polite smile once she was within arms reach, Weiss nodded at her. "Good to see you, you cleaned up-"
A whiff of sweat reached her nose, causing Weiss to pause. Pyrrha blinked and looked away, suddenly bashful. "Sorry. I was on my way to get a shower, but I wanted to see this."
"You know I would've shown you the address in a bit, right?" Carter asked her, crossing her own arms. The warrior turned soldier cleared her throat, mutedly embarrassed to the amazement of Weiss.
"Ma'am, its not how I pictured it, but I've been waiting for this day for a while. Forgive my excitement." she replied carefully. Glancing to the blonde, the white toned girl observed her thoughtful nod.
"Alright I suppose." she murmured, apparently dismissing the issue before turning back to the new arrival. "Now, if you would please pick out the glyphs for your address." she stepped aside, showing a screen filled with data. A step closer to it confirmed it had the same symbols as the altar-DHD she mentally corrected. The thought occurred to her these people were the ones who came up with the name.
After scanning through the assembled symbols, Weiss reached out to tap on the first of the glyphs Hjord showed her back on Cimmeria. To her confusion, nothing happened. Then she mentally kicked herself; there were no touchscreens here. For an idle second she speculated if they would try to make her a bargain for her scroll, then she pondered if JNPR still had theirs.
A new arrow shaped icon appeared on the screen, a flat two dimensional thing which moved over the glyph she touched. It blinked, and the glyph blacked out to reappear inside of a tiny box near the top of the display, the first in a row of six. Her curious gaze swiveled over to the sergeant, discovering one of his hands was on a tiny widget connected by a cord. When he moved his hand, the icon moved in the same direction.
"Alright, next?" Carter said, causing Weiss to quietly snort.
It felt like a game to her, tapping the screen again and again to watch the icon follow her directions. A childishly simple game, suited for toddlers. The fact that this was their only way back home was rubbing salt in the wound. It came as a relief to her when the sixth and last box was filled, completing the code she was taught a few hours earlier.
Carter looked over the collected symbols carefully. "Are you sure this is it?"
"Yes." Weiss replied.
"Absolutely?" she pressed.
"Yes." she repeated, an edge of irritation in her tone.
"Okay, take it away Walter." Carter nodded to the bespectacled man, who immediately went to work on his console.
After tapping several keys on a keyboard, a physical keyboard she noted, the inner ring of the Stargate began to spin. A number of new lights appeared in the gateroom, evidently announcing that the thing was being used. Weiss saw at once the process they were using was far slower than what the al-DHD did, taking easily twice as long as the ones on Cimmeria and Remnant. When the first of the glowing chevrons locked in place, Walter announced, "Chevron one encoded."
Seeing as she had a moment to burn, Weiss sneaked a glance at Pyrrha. She saw how the girl held herself, standing at attention in a ramrod posture with her arms at her side, incidentally giving her a good view of the patch on her jacket's shoulder. It was almost like Jaune's, but it had an emboldened 10 instead. Her eyes were focused solely on the display in front of her, with a faint expression of longing. The only real movement from her was the shallow rise and fall of her torso.
Weiss then sourly noted an overlooked detail about the redhead's chest, but fortunately Walter announcing "Chevron six locked." gave her the perfect excuse to take her mind of it.
Tuning out the Earther, Weiss stared ahead intently. Unconsciously she held her breath, waiting for the destructive bloom to obliterate the silver cover. The moment the last chevron locked in place, there was the warping sound of the opening portal. The back of the gate lit up, showing the distorted light. And that was all. There was no bloom, no shockwave, nothing. If not for the lights on the Stargate and the room, she never would have known it was on.
That's it? The question made her want to laugh; she just discovered the gate existed a few hours ago. She knew next to nothing about the thing, especially compared to these people. Making any sort of assumption about it was an exercise in futility.
"Did it work?" Pyrrha asked softly, hardly audible over the background noise.
A chime came from Weiss's pocket, originating from her scroll. Quickly she yanked her device out, opening it up to see what the problem was. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of an icon she had gone without for hours now: a signal.
"It worked." she reported excitedly.
Carter nodded approvingly, offering a congratulatory "Great, a moment please." to her before going to another console, becoming occupied by something else. At the same time Pyrrha crowded uncomfortably close to her in order to see the screen herself, her body language rippling with well concealed excitement.
"The formats different." she commented interestedly.
"Yeah, there was this big update a few months ago. Um, do you...?" Weiss glanced to her, hoping she would catch the hint.
"My scroll is in my room, it works fine. Major Carter made a charger for all of ours a long time ago." she answered the unfinished question, understanding the subtext. Weiss nodded quickly, feeling relief she couldn't speak the cause of.
Predictably a new pane popped up, showing the alert for a missed message. When it began to download, Weiss frowned. The signal was weak, it was crossing a distance the CCT designers could never have imagined in their wildest dreams after all, but even so it was taking a long- "Oh."
She was peripherally aware of Pyrrha blinking in surprise at what the screen showed them. Just as peripherally, she was aware of Carter abandoning whatever it was she was doing to glance at them.
"What is it?" she questioned, concern in her tone.
"I have some, um, missed calls." Weiss answered, staring mutedly at her screen. In the corner of her vision she saw Carter raising an eyebrow.
"How many?" she asked.
Weiss gulped. "Four."
Carter frowned. "Is that unusual-"
"Tee seven." Pyrrha finished for her, causing the blonde to blink. Even Walter glanced over his shoulder, raising a brow at her.
"You have forty seven missed calls." she summarized carefully, looking dumbfounded.
"How long have you been off-world?" Pyrrha asked confusedly, giving her a strange look.
"A few hours." she quietly answered, her finger rising to the screen to click on the icon. "Um, Carter?" Weiss spoke up, catching the woman's gaze just as she returned to the console she was previously fixated on. "Do you mind keeping the gate on for a few minutes? I need to make a call." she requested, half hoping it would be denied.
"Sure, go ahead." she invited, dashing the pale girl's hopes.
Weiss put her attention back on the scroll, wishing she was somewhere else. She didn't want to hit the call back icon, since she had a good guess to who it was that spammed her inbox. Not for the first time, she silently cursed Ruby for handing out her contact information.
Finally she bit the knife and tapped her screen, just as a fresh message began to download. A new pane appeared, showing a picture of a certain teenager she was regrettably familiar with. Weiss was aware of Pyrrha's curious gaze, but she didn't have the time to explain before it connected.
"There you are!"
Weiss winced instantly, pushing the scroll an arms length away from her. Her volume wasn't set high, yet the exited voice managed to make her scroll's speakers crackle anyway.
"Man, I was so worried! I checked and rechecked, but I lost track of all of you guys! The twins went scouting around looking for you, I know Blake said not to but c'mon." the teen babbled from her scroll. The white toned girl was painfully aware that she had caught the attention of everyone in the altogether too small room. Every pair of eyes had stopped what they were doing to check on the source of the noise.
"Sorry for calling you so much, but I couldn't get ahold of Ruby or the others. Hey, if she's right there tell her I got my homework done, just like she told me to. I did have to use the, uh, hang on a sec. Where are you guys anyway?" Weiss gulped, bringing her scroll closer.
"Valentine." she began carefully, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"Um, if its serious I'll call back later. Just, you know, I got worried when I couldn't reach you guys." he backpedaled quickly. For a second she marveled at his utter cluelessness.
"Its fine, listen." she glanced sideways to Pyrrha, hoping her nervousness wasn't too obvious. The redhead was muted, looking completely lost at what was going on.
She did mouth 'classified' while waving her a hand around their surroundings, a cue Weiss didn't need. Even if she did want to tell Valentine about the things she had discovered (and knew for sure the Earthers would be okay with her spilling such a massive secret), there was no way she would do it over a call. Even after seeing it herself, she had trouble believing any of it was real.
"We're fine for now. Its, uh, something important. I can't tell you right now." Weiss began, mindful of how many people were watching. "Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah we're fine. A pack of Beowolves raided the camp earlier, but we took care of them. Well, Raoul took care of them, I was, uh..." Valentine trailed off, likely thinking of an excuse.
"I get it. Listen, I want you to start-" There was a scuffle sound from the other end, making her pause. She couldn't help the pang of worry, despite knowing the first years were competent enough to take care of themselves.
A few seconds later her belief was validated by a brief crackle of someone breathing too close to the scroll's mike. "Sorry about that, the twins nabbed a Boarbatusk. What were you saying?"
"Start packing up the camp, be ready to go in a..." Weiss made a haphazard estimate, "Couple of hours. We'll all be heading back to Beacon once we get there."
"Huh? Why? There's still a day left." Valentine pointed out.
"I know. But this is important. Just be ready to go by then." she said hurriedly, more forcefully than she intended.
"Oh...okay. We'll do that, I guess." he agreed, making Weiss sigh in relief. A moment too soon as it turned out, since he added, "Good thing you called though, I was getting scared you guys ended up like the last team that disappeared out here." before ending the call. A tiny chirp signaled the severed connection, coinciding with an embarrassed gulp from the pale toned girl. Seeing as her call was finished, Carter silently nodded to Walter, who pressed a key. The gate shorted out a few seconds later, leaving the room as it was several minutes ago.
Weiss didn't want to do it. She didn't want to, she was willing to do anything to avoid doing what she knew she had to do in the next moment. Recalling her situation back home, she mentally amended the thought to almost anything, before fate decided to grant her wish in its usual regrettable way. Slowly she creaked her head to the side, meeting the nonplussed eyes of her former classmate. Her green eyes bored into Weiss, disconcerted curiosity seeking out answers she desperately didn't want to give. Though trailed by guilt, she mentally cursed Ruby for leaving her on her own like this.
"Last team." Pyrrha repeated.
"Um, you guys were, um, declared dead." Internally Weiss marveled at stuttering much less than she thought she would. What little joy the accomplishment gave her died when the redhead nodded neutrally, showing little reaction to her official status.
"Makes sense." she commented with a tiny nod.
Fortunately Carter chose to clear her throat for attention, giving her an excuse to move on from that subject. "I have the telemetry data. Do either of you want to see?"
Weiss darted over to the terminal the woman used, a display of speed more in line with what Ruby would do. She started to hunch over the outdated machine, but she quickly changed her mind and backed off a little. Pyrrha came closer as well of course, no matter how much the pale girl wished she wouldn't. Expanding on her status was not something she wanted to delve into; she recalled the funeral with Yang and Blake with a special type of apprehension.
Carter seemed like she picked up on her unease, but fortunately she didn't inquire on the situation, a fact Weiss was grateful for. The woman then tapped a random key, making the low resolution screen, by her standards anyway, show something new. In this case, it was a purple and blue picture of a large spiraled disk, set to a black background. One icon was present already, situated midway on one spiral.
"That's Earth." Pyrrha said, apparently for Weiss's benefit.
The pale toned girl blinked once the implication sank in. She was staring at a poorly rendered map of the stars above her head, the vast space that she knew was beyond her people's reach, always had been. All the infinite splendor of the unknown universe, and they had it reduced to a single unassuming picture. It boggled her mind how the SGC were so casual about such a thing.
Yet in a bizarre way she understood how they could do it. Flicking her gaze out the window, Weiss saw the Stargate at rest. The black ring was capable of sending someone to any other gate provided they knew the correct code, address. At instantaneous speed to boot, if her call was anything to go by. In a way, it was like the CCT towers. Just done in a way which was impossible to compare.
"And here." Carter continued, dragging Weiss back to the present. "Is Remnant." a new icon punctuated her sentence, one on the same level as the first but on the spiral next to it. "Its approximately twenty five hundred light years away, give or take a dozen or so."
Staring at her home's place in the universe, Weiss was compelled to ask, "Light years?"
"Its in the name, the distance light travels in a year." Pyrrha spoke up distantly, peering at the screen. The look on her face made Weiss think she was memorizing what it told her.
"So, if your civilization had radios two and a half millennia ago, they'd just now be reaching here." Carter explained, glancing at Walter for something. Checking herself, the pale girl saw him engrossed with his terminal. She had the feeling what she saw constituted the majority of his job here.
"Okay." Pyrrha said softly, straightening herself up and turning around, "Now that's done, I'm going to-" she stopped mid sentence. Taking a deep breath, Weiss prepared for whatever fresh problem decided to visit her today. She spun around, discovering a uniformed woman less than a meter from her. One of her hands was almost tapping her.
She noticed several details about this woman who had come close to touching her; she wasn't ugly by strict definition but was far from beautiful, there was a purple stripe on her bangs, and she had a red beret to go with her splotched green uniform. It was like the two soldiers she passed in the hallway on the way to the briefing, or close to them anyway. The unknown soldier quickly withdrew her hand, crossing her arms with a huff.
"This jobs making me sloppy." she muttered. The lilt to her words was unlike anything Weiss had ever heard before, leaving the end result almost musical in execution.
"Lieutenant Kozak." Carter acknowledged from behind the muted girls. The woman gave perhaps the laziest salute the pale girl had ever seen before crossing her arms.
"Right mum." Weiss was sure she meant ma'am, but her pronunciation mangled it so badly she couldn't tell, "Sokol sent me up 'ere to see why you were screwing with the gate."
"We're inputting the address to these girls's home world." the blonde explained, waving at Weiss and Pyrrha. The former noticed the later trying to seemingly shrink away, more than the normal level of low ranking troops. The woman, Kozak, nodded and scoffed at the same time.
"That's all? Well, as long as ya don't blow up the planet." she shook her head for a second, taking the time to look over a visibly off put Weiss. "Havin fun lass?"
"Who are you?" she questioned back, disturbed yet unseemly curious.
"Call me Clover if you want. Now, what's that behind you?" Kozak pointed over her shoulder. Frowning, Weiss looked to the direction she indicated. Apart from glass and more terminals, she saw nothing.
"What are you talking-" Weiss began as she turned around, "About." she finished emptily. The woman was gone, like she had never existed.
Mutedly, she turned to the side. Whatever her feelings at the sight of the former invincible warrior looking sheepish were pushed aside, in favor of learning what she knew about the encounter just now.
"That was...one of the Russian team members." she explained quietly. The pale girl didn't let up on her questioning gaze, so the redhead added, "She's Irish though." her cheeks reddened more at the uncomprehending look on Weiss's face.
Carter cleared her throat, loudly. "Nikos, go get cleaned up, I'll take it from here."
"Yes ma'am." Pyrrha replied, very quickly in Weiss's opinion. Seeing her power off made the heiress reflect that turnabout was fair play.
"So, I imagine you have many questions about that." Carter said carefully. Schooling her features back to her calm state, Weiss turned back around, noting the blonde soldier appearing a little embarrassed. She also noted Walter doing his upmost to stay focused on what he was doing instead of getting involved.
"Just one for now. Is being weird a job requirement here?" she asked, forcing the casualness in her tone.
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"Well Weiss, you're up." Yang nudged her friend with her elbow, sliding just far enough away so her retaliation couldn't be hidden.
The white toned girl found herself at the center of attention, twelve separate pairs of eyes focused on her. Blake, Ruby, Ren, and Nora gave her a sympathetic look, while Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang tried to look encouraging. Meanwhile the Earthers waited patiently for her to speak, none of them showing much besides friendly looks. Especially O'Neill; the others had straightened up in General Hammond's presence, but he leaned back in his chair with a pen in his grip once more.
She took a deep breath, mustering her nerves.
"Okay. From the beginning?" she checked first, directing her gaze to the end of the table.
"Yes. As much as you are willing to share." Hammond said, the twang in his words strange from her point of view.
Jackson spoke up with, "Try to remember as many details as you can, no matter how trivial they may seem."
"Okay." Weiss murmured, dredging her memory for everything she could recall of the the fleeting dream. "I don't remember everything, but I know there was this big open field. Lots of grass, flat, clear sky, so on. In the distance there was this large golden pyramid." she recounted as a shorter version.
"Was there a small mountain range in the distance? In the suns direction?" Jaune asked her, glancing to Hammond carefully.
Weiss did a double take. "Y-yeah. How'd you know that?"
Upon seeing the collective attention switch to him, Jaune brought up a fist to clear his throat.
"P5Z-502, a month ago." he recited the string of letters from memory without hesitation.
"The search and rescue mission for those missing archeologists?" Ren asked him, which he nodded. Nora made an 'ah' expression, while Pyrrha nodded.
When Ruby pointedly cleared her own throat, Major Carter added, "There was a civilian archeological team that was doing research there, but the local wildlife chased them away from their camp. When they failed to check in, we ended up dispatching four SG teams to locate them." she concluded with a nod to the other side of the table as Team RWBY.
"They're fine if you're wondering. Very upset, but who wouldn't be?" Pyrrha added.
"On the way back I told these guys this really funny joke I overheard in the mess, it was about..." Nora trailed off, not by her apparent superiors looks but by the dropped jaw of Weiss. The rest of her team was similarly disturbed, all three of them feeling off balance by the uncanny guess.
"Continue please." Hammond spoke gently. Seeing her friend go a shade paler, Blake felt obliged to gently nudge her.
Taking a second to work a shudder out of her system, Weiss pressed on. "W-when I woke up, I knew they were in Forever Fall somewhere. Um, that's a local forest..." she gulped at their expectant stares, their friends and the Earthers alike, "And we went to check it out."
"An overwhelming compulsion." Teal'c spoke up for the first time since the introduction. His basso voice lacked any emotion, as did his body language. More than one of the visitors considered the possibility he was an android.
"Yeah, that's putting it lightly." Yang commented.
"Go on if you can." Hammond spoke carefully.
"Mind if I..." Ruby looked to her friend, receiving a grateful nod. "We found the gate by accident. Well, Blake found it." she nodded to the direction of the faunus, "Poked around it for a few, figured no ones been by it anytime recently." she explained.
"When did this happen?" Jackson asked her, taking a peek at the report for reference.
"This morning." the red toned girl answered apprehensively, seeing confused frowns go over the faces of everyone but Jaune.
"Just a puddle of hours ago." Yang added.
Blank stares met her; the closest thing to a laugh she got was an aborted snicker from Nora. She groaned.
"Really? No one?" she muttered ruefully. Blake was the third one since the briefing started to clear her throat, making her sighed irritably. "C'mon, someone has to lighten the mood."
"They can't all be gems." O'Neill shrugged, giving Hammond an apologetic look when the General turned his hard gaze to him.
"Still, that doesn't make any sense. The gate I mean." Carter commented.
"Well, we didn't figure out how to turn it on ourselves." Blake spoke up, "What happened was when Weiss saw the DHD..." she paused, trying to word her answer properly.
"I blacked out, made the thing work while I was out, then, well." Weiss interrupted quickly, wishing to move passed the unpleasant memories to find out what they knew.
"You weren't conscious at the time it was working? And when you came to, your intuition told you what glyphs you hit." Jackson guessed, frowning.
"Yeah. It was, um, not good." Ruby added, giving Weiss another sympathetic look. She wasn't the only one; all four members of the formerly missing team did their best to show support for her, even the previously informed Jaune.
"Then we stepped through the Stargate, and ended up on Cimmeria. You probably know the rest." Weiss finished hastily, crossing her arms then repositioning them nervously.
The Earthers exchanged looks, letting their supposed expertise go over the information she provided. O'Neill played with a pen, though none of the girls were sure it was the same one from earlier. "So, who else thinks Ancients?"
"Sounds like the Ancients." Carter agreed with a nod.
"Her testimony is in line with what we know of them." Teal'c rumbled.
"I agree." Hammond nodded.
"Fits their MO." Jackson finished.
Team RWBY was quiet for a moment, which not even a glance to a sheepish JNPR could fix. Ruby took the lead in breaking the silence by a simplistic question.
"Um, Ancients?"
00000
Yang Xiao Long was well aware she wasn't perfect. She was good; maybe not behavior wise, but she was good where it counted. From taking a punch to her jaw to breaking bones and hearts, she could do it all. Keep the bad guys away from the people she cared about, kill Grimm for fun and profit, squeezing in a discount here and there, it was all part of her gig.
But still, she could make mistakes. The reminder that never went away was on her right hand, a lack of something which complicated everything in her life. Every day, from when she woke up to when she fell asleep, it was there, mocking her. She told her friends and her dad it was alright, even spouting a lie about making herself a southpaw as a challenge, which soon became an actual goal she mostly succeeded at. Screw ups were a part of life, the only thing she could do was move on from them and try not to get into the same mess again.
Screw ups like shooting herself with alien weapons on accident.
Yang was in a lot of pain, feeling like she got hit with lightning. Which was odd, since she did get hit by lightning once and it didn't hurt this much. More widely, worldly, weirdly (why was thinking so hard all of a sudden?) she should've been on her feet ready to hit someone. Instead Yang was on her back, using the concrete floor as her new bed. It was rough and dirty, but it was cool. It felt nice all of a sudden. She felt a pair of hands grab her, tiny ones. Probably Ruby. She was right by her, wasn't she? Other ones touched her other side, a rougher pair of palms. Ren? Maybe Nora, but she left though. Yang couldn't tell. As long as they didn't try copping a feel while she was like this, she didn't mind.
She was certain she heard "Yang!" from her sister though. That sounded like alarm, not good.
Idly she wondered how she got into this mess, remembering after a second.
Ren hadn't lied per se, he and Nora took the siblings to the armory at Ruby's request. The weapons buff in her sister couldn't resist the allure of new toys, and it took her mind off the freaky stuff which summed up the day. Aliens, new worlds, her missing friends were soldiers in the airship specialist branch of an alien military, and more people who didn't think highly of Yang's puns. What a shock.
He conveniently left out the part about a medical checkup first, claiming it was on the way after they got there. The infirmary didn't look like much, but since nothing here did she wasn't going to hold it against the Earthers. Some sandy blonde woman checked Yang's and her sister's vitals, asked them if they had any allergies or sickness recently (faking a cough had the funniest reaction), then asked for a sample of blood from both of them.
Ruby rolled up her sleeve first thing, trusting Nora when she enthusiastically told them it was normal. Yang was suspicious, but the doctor said it was part of an experiment. Something about 'genetic divergence over diaspora populations' or whatever. She rolled her eyes and offered her arm, regretting it when she produced an old fashioned syringe. Doctor Brightman (her name tag proved to be so helpful) saw her cringing and immediately explained herself.
"I've been doing this for fifteen years. I assure you, I'm a professional." She used the tone that other doctors she knew of liked to bust out for nervous patients, so Yang was sure this woman was the real deal.
Didn't make getting stabbed by an oversized needle any easier, but since her sister only winced a little when the Earther took her blood, Yang was obligated to smirk when her turn came. It still hurt, though in the grand scheme of things she couldn't say it was all that bad. She got a piece of candy out of the deal too, a tiny lollipop. Hers was green for some reason, so she swapped for Ruby's brown one when she wasn't looking.
Oddly her favorite pair of opposites looked uneasy at being around the doctor; Yang wanted to assume they didn't like her or whatever, nothing to get worked up over. But since she had been wrong so many times today, she was willing to bet it was something else.
After the five minutes of the weird stuff was done with and they stepped outside, Ren pointed in a direction for them to go, leading the way. He and Nora fell into old habits; she babbled about the stuff they'd been up to, making up for his silence. As much as Yang didn't want to admit it, seeing them be like that relived her. It was good to know they were still how they used to be, not counting the terrible fashion sense and new habits.
Ruby talked with Nora for as much as she could keep up with, which wasn't much. The bubbly girl kept switching subjects, sometimes mid sentence. Stuff like where she'd been, things she'd seen, and something about lizard people. Yang gave up on tracking her, going over to Ren instead. He was tight lipped of course, she would've been more surprised if he wasn't. She did get to see his shoulder patch though, wondering what the 14 meant.
"Its a designation. On paper, what matters is what the teams do, not what number they have. A member of SG-24 is no better than one in SG-2. In practice though, SG-1 is much more prestigious than the rest." Ren explained to her when her curiosity got the better of her. When Yang asked him why the first team was so much better, he replied with: "Been here the longest. They're the go-to team for whatever crisis is hitting today."
In Yang's own opinion, that answer made a thousand more questions. Like how often did a crisis happen, and what qualified as one. But since she just found her three year old ironclad facts were a whole new brand of wrong, she decided to give him a break for the time being. Picking his brain about everything here would come later, preferably once they were back home safe and sound.
But after a minute of Nora's exited yammering, Yang changed her mind. "So what kind of stuff have you been up to?"
"What do you mean?" Ren asked her back.
Jerking a thumb over her shoulder, she replied with, "Nora hasn't stopped yet about what she's done. Got any stories you want to share?"
"Not really." he shrugged off.
Yang snorted then. "C'mon, there's gotta be something. Like, I dunno, have you taken down a goold or something?"
"Or something. What about you? If I remember right, Vale was supposed to host the next Vytal festival." Ren offered.
In retrospect, Yang should've known that would come up sooner or later. "Uh, yeah. It was, um, we were there. Hey where's the armory at?"
Ren raised one sable brow at her stammering. Yang didn't want to go down that road, but she knew she was going to have to sooner or later. When he stopped to announce "Here." she breathed a sigh of relief at it being later instead.
The armory was plain of course, but then again so was everything else in this mountain. Yang ignored the thought of how much rock separated her from the sky like she'd been doing for a while now, taking a second to glance over the only thing which made this door stand out: a sign on the door which said 'Armory 2B.'
Predictably, there was yet another surprise waiting for them inside. Unlike others she would've had an easier time dealing with, this one made Yang brace herself.
"Miss Rose. Miss Xiao Long." greeted Major Smith, going away from a small desk to stand at attention. Yang tuned out everything else, mostly. It was hard to ignore Ren and Nora snapping out quick salutes, though she tried her hardest. If the faint looks of regret on them was anything to go by, she didn't do a good job at it.
"Smith." Ruby replied. The way she got the name out told Yang the Earther had done something very hard: he got on her bad side. She'd never seen someone get that way so soon after meeting her, even beating out Cardin Winchester. To his credit, he took her quiet hostility in stride.
"First, you two." he nodded towards the pair with the siblings. "For the time being, you can drop the salutes. I still expect a sir." he ordered to them. Seeing them both looking dumbstruck would've been funny in any other situation, if she didn't just see what caused it. At least she thought she saw the cause.
"Secondly, I do apologize for not recognizing who you were back on Cimmeria." he directed to Ruby. To Yang, while she still looked at him distastefully, there was also plenty of surprise mixed in.
Seeing a chance, the blonde jumped in. "You knew who she was?"
"Heard enough stories about you both. In hindsight, I should have known who you were immediately." he told them, sounding almost sincere about it.
"Okay." Ruby had replied neutrally, definitely confused by him.
Yang could understand why her sister didn't like the man; besides being a soldier, her first encounter with him handily showed off the unwelcome change in Jaune. At the same time though, the blonde thought it was unfair to him. Sure he seemed like an uptight jerk, but he didn't look or act like a bully. In his defense, and Yang surprised herself when she realized she was mentally defending him, it seemed like he stuck up for their old friend a lot.
"It seems the second hand intelligence I have on you was right. But there's something you should be aware of if you're not already. Regulations forbid civilians such as yourselves from touching anything in here without an officer's direct permission. Technically, you're not supposed to be in here at all." Smith explained, his tone unchanging.
Yang hardened her gaze when she turned to the wonder duo, catching them cringing at her. Nora opened her mouth to defend herself, but she was interrupted by Smith talking. "To do anything but gawk, you need an officer's permission. Such as myself."
"Huh?" Ruby got out, raising an eyebrow. He held out a hand to the wall, leading the sisters eyes to a most wondrous sight: guns, rows and rows of black guns they'd never seen before.
"I'll take care of the paperwork. Provided you follow the rules in here, you two can do whatever you want, within reason. No touching the antitank missiles." he added quickly with a raised hand for emphasis.
Yang planted a fist on her hip and grinned at him. "You're a big softy underneath, aren't you?" she asked him, peeking to the closest of the duo with a look which she hoped got across the question of 'Is this normal for him?' As the nearest, Ren caught the gesture and imperceptibly shook his head. Idly she wondered what a tank was.
"I owe Jaune a favor. Besides, if you're anything like how he described you, then no force on this planet is going to keep you away." he finished. The corners of his mouth twitched up, likely the closest thing to a smile they were going to get.
Nora cleared her throat. "So, uh, what do you wanna see first?"
"Actually, I've been wondering. What happened to your guys' weapons? The ones you had before." Ruby asked her carefully, making it obvious she was watching the Earther out of the corner of her eye. To Yang, it didn't look like he cared. Smith picked a reasonably bare wall to lean against, crossing his arms and watching them.
"Still got em, don't get to use them much anymore." she answered glumly. She immediately brightened up though. "Did get them upgraded though, wanna see?"
"Upgraded?" Ruby asked confusedly. "How?"
Nora glanced to Smith, who nodded. "You'll see. Be right back!" she bolted the second she finished, darting out the door in not quite a sprint.
Both siblings looked to Ren, who quietly sighed. "Over here." he gestured to the wall.
Leading them over, he picked out a single weapon from the rack of guns. Yang kept an eye on Ruby, prepared to grab her in case her enthusiasm got the better of her. Fortunately she didn't try to pinch one herself, waiting until the sable haired young man turned back with a familiar shape in his grip.
"Uh, that's a P90 right?" Yang asked, which he nodded to.
"Jaune told you?" he inquired, offering it with the barrel pointed at the ceiling. Yang took it upon herself to try it first, having been curious since she first saw the gun.
"Yeah. He showed it to us back on Cimmeria, just let us see it." Ruby hurriedly lied, alternating between the otherworldly gun and the Earther.
Speaking of seeing, Yang turned the weapon over in her hands, though she wasn't careless enough to accidentally point it at someone. Her dad hammered that lesson into them both almost as soon as she could walk, she didn't need a reminder. She spotted a big difference between this one and Jaune's: this one didn't have the orange magazine slid on top. Even so, she took care.
Taking it into her left hand, she pointed it at a bare wall, unable to resist posing. In Yang's opinion, the grip's design could be better, a pistol grip instead of the curved circles would make it much easier to use.
"Cool." she commented regardless, bringing it back around.
Yang could tell Ruby wanted to play with it, but she wanted to see a bit more first. Fiddling with a notch above the trigger, she made an accidental discovery.
"Is this thing ambidextrous?" she asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Built from the ground up to be like that." Ren answered. Shaking her head in patient amazement, Yang finally handed the P90 over to Ruby. She immediately checked the same notches as the blonde, finding everything to be the same way.
"Sure was nice of the builder. Are there that many lefties here?" Yang asked him.
"Not very many." Ren answered. When she frowned at him, he pointed to Ruby.
The red toned girl had the gun nestled into her shoulder, just like a full rifle. She raised it to the same wall her sister pointed at, looking down the sights. Then, she moved it to her other shoulder. All it took was a couple of seconds and a repositioning of her hands, and her pose was mirrored. Ruby switched between her shoulders several times, amazed that her born favorite hand could be fully utilized.
"I get it." Yang said, nodding. "Its so you can flip between hands in a fight really easy, right?" she looked at him for an answer.
"That too." he shrugged.
"I wanna shoot it." Ruby interrupted her questioning look, holding the gun so it was pointed at the ceiling again.
"Don't you want see what else is here first?" Yang asked her, crossing her arms and smiling at the girl's deflated form as Ren silently asked for the P90 back, which she agreed to. She knew her well enough to know that the promise of new weapons would make her bounce back soon enough, and when he went to a locker for something hand sized, she was proven right.
Ren held up the lump of bluish brown metal to them, giving them a good view. "This is called a Zat'nik'tel, Zat for short."
Yang caught the difference, but Ruby beat her to the punch.
"That's different from the others." she noted, glancing to the gun row.
There was something distinctly off about the 'Zat.' Aesthetically it didn't match the other weapons on the wall, either for color or shape. She didn't see a visible magazine, safety, anything really. Just decal covered metal, split into three segments. Thinking it over, Yang was certain Jaune had a similar gun on him while they were on Cimmeria.
"This is a Goa'uld weapon." Ren answered, causing them both to do a double take.
"But, wait. Why do you guys have Goold equipment? I thought they were supposed to be evil?" Yang questioned, crossing her arms. In the edge of her vision she saw Ruby nodding as well.
"They are. They like this weapon because it causes a lot of pain to the target. The SGC uses it because you can incapacitate someone without permanent harm." he explained.
Ren clicked something, and the Zat suddenly popped up. With the overall design, it bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a snake. Upon thinking that, Yang remembered Jaune's casual slur; was this the source of the insult?
"Huh. Lemme see." Before he could stop her, Yang reached out to snag the weapon from his grip. He tensed up, alarm clouding his features.
"Hey, be careful-" Ren said quickly, trying to grab it back. Yang twisted herself around to evade him, idly discovering Smith abandoning the wall to power over to them.
"Um, Yang?" Ruby quietly protested, holding up her own hands plaintively.
"C'mon." Yang fiddled with it, unintentionally making the headpiece face her instead of the wall. Her finger rubbed against a tiny lever on the grip, accidentally applying just enough pressure. "How bad can it-"
A bolt of blue electricity left the headpiece, striking the closest target. Yang's world went from zero to pain in record time, and her mind was scrambled. She dropped to the floor, the Zat slipping from her limp hold. She was hardly aware of anything but her nerves screaming in agony. Of maybe it was her sister screaming her name, she couldn't tell.
So concluded the tale of how Yang shot herself.
The blonde didn't lose consciousness, but she couldn't do anything other than groan in pain for an unknown amount of time. A helpful pair of hands slid on her back to her armpits, helping to lift her off the floor. As she came to, Yang grew more and more aware of the things around her. Like Ruby on her knees in front of her, tears in her eyes as relief flooded her features. Or Ren and Nora crouched beside her, both appearing relieved as the latter handled her right arm to help drag her up.
"You okay?" asked a voice behind her. After a hazy second, she realized it was Smith.
"Uuhh." she moaned when she was tried to speak, grimacing in pain.
When she felt well enough to sit up on her own, the helpful hands withdrew. Along the way, Nora brushed over her hand. Her worried expression flickered, the grip hesitating over the misshapen hand for several long seconds. Yang was close to normal again, so she caught the flash of something over the girl's face. Something which made her nervous. Nora didn't push it though, she just took the chance to reassuringly pat her hand.
Ruby took a shuddering breath before turning severely to them. "What just happened?"
Ren sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was going to tell you before she took it. I don't know how or why, but Auras don't block energy weapons like these."
Both Yang and Ruby gave him a shocked look.
"Our Auras don't work out here?" the latter questioned sharply, surprise and worry coming over her. Both of them shook their heads.
"Oh no, they work just fine." Nora corrected, waving her hands in placation.
"Seen it often enough myself." Smith said from behind her, causing her to creak her head around. The crouched man was, as probably normal for him, calm. "The Aura thing you guys have? I've seen Jaune's take hits that would put down a bull and he kept going. But stuff like Zats or Staffs? Doesn't do a thing."
"But, how? How do they do that?" Ruby looked to the Zat suspiciously, still in the same place as where she dropped it.
"Beats me. It makes things harder though." Ren shook his head once more.
In contrast, Nora grinned evilly. "Not me though, I get stronger."
Yang groaned and slapped her face. "Any more unpleasant surprises?"
"Like the time Jaune-" Nora began, but when Ren gave her a look she clamped her mouth shut.
"If it makes you feel better, you took the hit well. I was out cold for an hour the first time I got hit with one." Smith offered with a shrug.
Yang didn't bother replying; planting both hands on the floor, she began to push herself up. Seeing her struggle, Ruby and Ren grabbed her shoulders to help her. She feebly protested, but with her nerves still raw she did need the assistance. Back on her shaky feet, the blonde sighed.
"So... want to see our gear? I brought Magnhild and Stormflower." Nora offered to lighten the mood. Cracking her neck, Yang nodded.