So that last chapter was REALLY long, if you read the original story technically that is two chapters Ruby killing Cinder and appearing fully in the room. As for Red first off I changed his name for this; his name is traditionally Crimson Devil but I didn't like Crimson as a good guy and Cinder as a bad guy so I changed it. Also Edward's designation codes and names tie directly into me, the code delta 4-8-0-0 holds relevance to my family and while his rank golf lima 2 is probably not the same ranking made by the original author its as close as I could find. Oh and for those who don't know situation Mr Skylight refers to on a cruiseship if someone has passed away which I thought was a funny little joke and the 5 years 8 months and 5 weeks is a reference to an old ID number I used to use. Finally his call sign Check Safe, Show Clear is a steel shooter's joke as when you finish a string you're to check safe and show clear before boxing up but here it basically means see if the target is dead and clear out. Now let's go, ps future Ruby is now Rose for the time being.
Rose chuckled sadly as she saw both Yang and Ruby mistake her, it was sad but she knew from experience with both Qrow and her father before their deaths that she looked like her mother but sadly she wasn't and the world was about to get a whole lot more complicated.
"Sorry but no, I'm Ruby Rose or you," She pointed at Ruby who looked startled at the revelation. "Or you eight years from now. And this guy here is Red who might I add needs medical attention." Her attitude was odd almost joking but tired and sad. World weary is the best description.
Red winced as he moved to stand, the last thing he remembered was trying to teleport Ruby away from the blast even if it killed him in the process, so why was he in a school dorm room surrounded by, younger versions of Ruby's team? He reached for his pistol only to hesitate when he had it halfway out of the holster, the ripped and twisted metal visible to him and him alone but when the younger Yang cocked her gauntlets it was clear weaponry was not a good choice. Checking himself over for wounds revealed a slowly closing chest wound caused by Cinder, so this wasn't a dream at least. Wait a minute; why was his face cold? Cursing under his breath he grabbed a nearby towel stained with blood where Ruby had used it to apply pressure and shoddily wrapped his face covering the burn scars down the left side of his face and sliding his goggles down over his remaining eye.
Glynda arrived promptly when Blake decided to text her a message stating that there was intruders in the teams' room, she HADN'T prepared to see Summer Rose reincarnated standing holding a man bleeding from the stomach with a bloody bath towel wrapped poorly around his head; why couldn't team Ruby ever be involved in NORMAL things like boyfriend trouble? Regardless this was above her pay grade, Ozpin could handle this.
Ruby laughed as Glynda appeared, stood in the doorway and rather than saying anything only beckoned for everyone to follow her, Red winced in pain at the slightest movement.
Ozpin looked at the people standing in his office and then at his coffee, maybe Glynda was right he might be drinking too much of it. The man in the bloody bath towel wrap spoke first though preventing Ozpin's initial question and Glynda's explanation. "Soldier Edward Cobe; designation code Delta four, eight, zero, zero, situation Mr skylight in effect for five years, eights, months, five weeks. Call sign Red Devil." Ozpin sighed before replying in kind. "Confirmation code?" Red sighed before speaking once more. "Confirmation code Check Safe, Show Clear situation 1."
"Situation 1 confirmation code acknowledged, confirmation code two Armed and Ready."
"Acknowledged, situation 1 code Sirgma. ETA: four hours ago."
"Acknowledged soldier." Ozpin sighed before grabbing a hidden bottle and pouring a generous amount into his coffee even as Glynda glared at him. A silver and black card slid onto his desk alongside a black and gold card each one corresponding to one of the two figures.
Scanning the cards revealed Ozpin's worst fears though. Edward Cobe as the man had said and Ruby Rose; drafted at 20 and 18 respectively to fight in a civil war, Edward's team was lost on their third official hit for the military where Ruby's team lasted until just recently in the timeline with Yang going first followed by Blake and then Weiss. Edward following his team's loss continued performing for three years before going rogue and abandoning the military becoming a pseudo gun for hire before being contracted to work with Ruby to what appeared to be a suicide mission along with Sun Wukong also of Haven.
Their records were long Ruby's list including political assassinations as well as Grimm horde slaughters and many war kills. Edward was more human based having hundreds of confirmed assassinations while his grimm kills were much lower than one would expect though it could be due to his going rogue. According to everything they'd been given this meant two things had happened. Everything had gone wrong and the students he'd tried hard to protect from this life had been drafted simply because everyone else was gone.
"How bad?" The distress in Ozpin's voice was clear even as he tried to hide it. Red sighed before letting the bloody towel drop and sliding up his goggles. Staring back at Ozpin was a broken man, heavy scar tissue covered the entire left side of his face along with what appeared to be gouges from claws or a blade. His eyes though were what caught Ozpin's real attention or rather eye, his right eye was forest green but the sclera was black from tattooing and the iris looked damaged, his other eye though was missing entirely. The skin was also scarred and his eyelids were noticeably missing leaving the appearance of a skull except instead of white bone pink flesh stared back.
Yang and Blake had been standing on the left of the two now Ruby and Edward apparently and though neither had missed the scarring initially the real shock was his eye. Yang excused herself to promptly vomit from the sight a feat in and of itself as the girl rarely struggled with anything while Blake stared. She'd seen war wounds in the White Fang, missing hands, limbs even parts of the face. But somehow this was worse. It was deliberate and clearly had been painful as the healed skin looked rough and jagged as if the knife hadn't been sharp and the cut by no means due to surgery; luckily Weiss and Ruby had only seen his right side with the black sclera and normal-ish skin which while scarred still resembled a human.
Ruby had nothing quite so shocking to show but the pain in her eyes was still visible. "Now is not the time for this, you four." He gestured to team RWBY. "You have classes to attend and these two clearly need medical attention. Glynda escort them to the medical wing and you four go get ready for your classes." Ozpin then dismissed everyone before sighing and looking over the data again. How had things gone so terribly wrong in such a short time?
Ruby was fine thanks to her aura and while she clearly had a few minor burns to be checked by the medical staff Red had been the real problem. His wound had started closing yes but he'd lost a large amount of blood and was still losing it just not as fast as before. He spent three hours in surgery before Ruby was even allowed inside and when she saw him the first thing she noticed was the lack of drugs. Chances are he'd put up a fight being drugged or even going through surgery but there wasn't much he could do when you're strapped to a table for trying to kill the doctor.
He was resting which was good but the problem was there was still much to do. She had to stop things before they got worse and Red's younger counterpart was arriving in a month with the Vytal festival, meaning there was a LOT to be done in a very short amount of time.
Time skip, two days
The hospital was a pain holding Red two days longer than they really needed to most likely because of the rare scenario caused by a combination of his and her semblances. The third day though and a threat to murder the doctor again let him out. His first act though was rushing to collect his rifle Ddos from team Rwby's room only to get smacked in the chest with its handle. Ruby handed it to him and as he checked it over his thoughts shifted to Malwr resting in its holster. Holstering the rifle letting the blade, stock and barrel collapse and sliding it into the larger holster on his left hip he drew forth the revolver looking over the damage.
Most of the mecha shift barrel was destroyed large chunks of the blade segments missing or damaged beyond repair and the mechanisms inside had seized together from the immense heat and explosion. He'd need to repair it and while most of it WAS repairable it was going to take time and money, time he had at least a bit of but money… being a soldier paid decently enough sure when you weren't in the middle of a civil war where your payment was accommodations and rations and his younger self would notice the significant fund draw that purchasing the pieces or even the raw materials would take. It seems he needed to talk to Ozpin.
"So you require funds to reassemble your equipment and weapon, I believe that can be arranged." Ozpin smiled though it was still pained and the harsh scent of alcohol lingered in his cup. Red nodded before asking the question he knew was more important than securing the funds. "How soon will they be available?" Ozpin checked his scroll before handing him a credit card. "Do not go crazy but do not skimp either, we need everyone we have for this upcoming fight."
The materials were easy to secure and he would use Beacon's weapons forge to fix it shortly but now he needed to handle the real issue. People had been staring at him constantly the scar tissue glaringly visible on his face as were the goggles but he'd rather people whisper over the scars than the other problem. Stepping into a shop he found a mask first, it was winter gear with a skull pattern adorning it which was fine with him and the wrap was easy to find in a fabric store the next shop over (A large piece of black cloth sewn together at the ends). Problem solved he slipped the wrap around his neck before starting to slide on the mask when a rough hand on his shoulder stopped him and nearly made him whirl around pistol in hand except he remembered where he was.
Turning red goggles met black shades and a pistol. Two policemen stood behind him the one who'd grabbed him the other one his pistol drawn when Red's hand had reached for the damaged pistol. "Sir you're coming with us, you're disturbing the public and I don't know who you are but I doubt you're gonna be doing anything good dressed like that. Red looked at himself a puzzled look reaching his face. A set or ratty black combat boots rested on his feet large steel caps covering the tip laced in military style ran under dark gray cargo pants which had two leather combat belts looped through, on his left his rifle sat in its pistol form large and intimidating while the right one held his revolver with steel cased fire dust round sat in the ammunition loops. A blank black shirt and gray jacket covered his torso holding a few survival tools and finally his scarf, goggles and backless shooting gloves.
The police dropped him in an interrogation room, his rifle had been taken but his revolver as well as one cop sat down at the table across from him. "This looks like something went badly, care to explain where you got this weapon and what exactly happened hmm?" They'd left his goggles on him not caring about his current appearance but with no official ID he'd been taken in instantly. "I made it and it was damaged during a fight." The cop chuckled. "Funny story about that, this is a hunter's weapon; specifically, it's the pistol of my cousin's son Edward a student of Haven. That name ring a bell?" Edward choked slightly recognizing his own name (obviously) before regaining his composure. "Aspiring hunter, age 16 fresh into Haven academy, member and leader of team CCRJ also pronounced Courage, height Six foot five and creator the weapons DDOS and Malwr." The cop looked taken aback before leaning in again face darker than originally. "Why do you know so much about him? Who ARE you?" He was cut short though when the other cop broke in holding Edward's axe. "Boss we got human blood on the blade as well as traces of Grimm Ichor, also you have a visitor." The man grinned. "Tell them to wait, You sir are going to jail for a LONG time."
Ozpin strolled through the door coffee mug still in his hand and smirk on his lips. "He is not going anywhere my good sir. Meet Red Devil, Atlas military sniper and no you will find his blade holds Grimm Ichor upon it not human blood, honestly you police. Trying to arrest every hunter you can get your hands on." The cop turned to Ozpin a snarl on his face. "Ah professor Ozpin, I hate to tell you but not only are his weapons stolen but this man has no formal identification and even if he is military then why isn't he in Atlas and where's his identification chip." Ozpin smirked once more before handing the man Edward's silver identification chip. "His weapons you will find are entirely his own. Both are built by his hands and furthermore you will find custom Mecha Shift tech inside each well above current levels designed by him." Well it wasn't a total lie, his weapons relied on modified mecha shift developed three years from now at the beginning of the war.
It was nice to step out of the police office and to return the credit card to Ozpin, what wasn't fun was having to get his weapon materials back. The pieces were easy to get returned but the dust was giving him issues. "Sir I can't give dust to a criminal even if you purchased it." Edward sighed. "But I am NOT a criminal, I was brought in on suspicion charges nothing more and it wasn't even anything dangerous it was literally I was lying about who I was now can I have my dust please?" The woman sighed before finally returning the dust.
Strapping his mask on and slipping the head wrap over his hair and remaining exposed skin Edward sighed finally happy to have the familiar feeling of being fully hidden from view while being in plain sight return, checking he had everything he started trekking back to the bullhead docks. He needed to return to Beacon to repair his pistol before he really needed it.
And we're done. This chapter was pretty fun to write and I'll put more details about it in the next A/N before the next chapter. See ya'll next time