Chapter 2

The Near Murder Mystery

A laugh echoed, but only through her mind, heard by none but herself. Such an incessant laughter kept her nightmares close, and her dreams far away. But Ruby didn't let this get to her, and got dressed for the day. Which, in reality, was a break day. So she simply dressed in her casual blue jean shorts and red T-shirt, pulled her hair back for her Rose hairpin, and put on her shoes to head downstairs. She learned quickly that shoes were her best bet on not getting splinters in the shack.

When Stan wanted to make a realistic house in the middle of the forest, he went to the extreme.

Regardless, Ruby still took the necessary precautions and headed downstairs, where the pines twins were already settled in for a show Ruby always saw them watching: Duck-tective. They even got Ruby hooked onto it, considering the mystery aspect to it. Which was one of her favorite genres to begin with.

So Ruby sat with them, feeding herself off the popcorn they already had and drinking from some Pitt Cola she picked up on the way. But soon they had to pause the show for another mystery: a peculiar room that Soos had found. It nearly camouflaged with the walls.

"Looks like a panic room, if you ask me." Ruby said.

"Not really. If it were, the door would be separate from the wall cover. But it's not." Dipper observed, proving his point by feeling the wall paper along the door. If it were a panic room, it'd be smooth, but instead it was ripped.

"Yeah, I just found the doorknob on the floor next to it. But this is more of a spook room than a safe room. Just look." Soos said, opening the door. And inside was something that would do well in a horror show: a room full of wax statues. Numerous figure heads of the world that Ruby didn't recognize. But she didn't want to say, for the sake of them thinking her not crazy.

The only one she recognized was Sherlock Holmes, mainly because his background shared her interest in mystery. Probably the only famous person on Earth that Ruby actually knew about.

"You weren't kidding. This place is giving me the creeps." Dipper said.

"Anyone else feel like their eyes are following you?" Mabel asked.

"Starting to get that feeling, now that you say it." Ruby nodded. If it were up to her, she'd get rid of every wax statue in there. She knew that anything similar to mannequins stored in a creepy closet meant bad news. But as they continued forward, they heard the door open behind them. They turned to see Stan with a wide grin.

"Never thought I'd see these suckers again." Stan smirked, entering the room.

"So you knew about these wax statues?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, I used to have them on display way back when, but… well, it didn't pay all that much, so I had to shut it down. Took too much space, y'know?" Stan explained.

"Even still, with such realistic looking wax figures, I'd think it would make a pretty penny or two." Ruby said.

"Ya think, kid?" Stan asked.

"Yeah, they seem really cool looking." Mabel agreed.

"Huh. Maybe this new generation might take a liking to it." Stan mused. "But yeah, I got them all: wax Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes… and… weird, goblin guy?"

Ruby felt she saw one of the wax figures move a bit, but she merely passed it off as her mind playing tricks on her.

"And lastly, my personal favorite, wax Abraham Lin-" Stan said, but then saw a puddle of melted wax on the floor next to a window. "Oh, come on!"

"Who puts a window in a wax storage room?" Ruby asked, questioning Stan.

"Hindsight's always 20/20." Stan sighed in annoyance, running his finger through the wax. "How would one even fix one of these things?"

"I could give it a shot, Grunkle." Mabel volunteered, Stan giving her a raised eyebrow.

"You think you can make one of these puppies?" Stan questioned.

"Grunkle Stan, please. I am an arts and crafts master. That's why I always have this glue gun stuck to my sleeve." Mabel said.

"Wasn't that from-" Ruby tried to say.

"MASTER ARTIST!" Mabel shouted over her.

"Ah, what's the harm in trying? Give it a go, kid." Stan smiled warmly.

The next day was spent with Mabel making the wax sculpture, which resulted in somewhat of a success. The main success being Stan reopening the wax museum. However, as usual, that ended with not much success. And a riot.

But later that night, as the twins went to brush their teeth, Stan left the wax statue with Ruby, along with his fez. Ruby slyly put the fez on her head. Which turned out to be a bit big.

Meanwhile, the kids were oblivious to any commotion, until they heard Stan screaming. They ran quickly to the family room, where there he stood terrified.

"It's… it's horrible! Look!" Stan exclaimed. And there, on the floor, was Wax Stan headless… and Ruby limp on the floor, along with small specks of red while the TV was cracked at the screen.

"We should called the police." Dipper said quickly, Mabel nodding as she ran for the phone, while Dipper checked Ruby. She felt her neck quickly, and was relieved to feel a pulse. "She's alive, just unconscious."

"But wax Stan… he didn't make it." Stan sniffed as he looked over the wax figure of himself. "He was so young!"

Later, the police arrived, Who chalked where wax Stan and Ruby were just before taking Ruby up to her bedroom where she could rest until she awoke, hopefully with information about the near murder. Next, they began investigating.

"So I was just using the john, and when I come back- Wax Stan is headless, and then Ruby limp on the floor! Worst of all, the TV was cracked!" Stan exclaimed.

"That's the worst part?" Dipper said with disappointment.

"And how long were you gone?" Officer Blubs asked.

"Only a minute or two." Stan replied.

"And when was this?" Blubs asked.

"Wasn't it 11 O'clock?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah, somewhere around there." Stan nodded. Blubs took a few notes.

"There has to be something you can do, officer." Mabel pleaded.

"Sorry, But we don't got a lot of evidence to go off of." Blubs said. "Besides, not like anyone actually died today."

"Nobody died?! My artistic work has been beheaded! That's murder enough!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Yeah, it took a dang long time to make my wax double! You gotta help, officer!" Stan demanded.

"Look, I apologize, but we got other, more important cases." Blubs said, a call going over the radio as he said this. Something about someone stuffing a whole cantaloupe in their mouth. "Like that one. Let's roll, deputy." Then just like that, they were gone.

"Bah, who needs police? Never made me any money." Stan grumbled.

"We should look for clues." Dipper said, observing the blood on the ground. He then recalled some red in Ruby's nose. "Nose blood. My guess is that someone slammed Ruby's head into the TV, and that knocked her out."

"Hey, look at this!" Mabel exclaimed. Dipper then saw her point out a footprint with a hole in the center, along with the stain of red on the edge of it.

"The footprint of the murderer." Dipper gasped. He found another footprint that led to the murder weapon: a single edged axe. He was careful not to taint the fingerprints of the weapon. "If only I had a blacklight." Dipper sighed as he grabbed the axe by the head.

Meanwhile, as the day passed, Ruby's dreams kept her unconscious for a long time. They told of a distant reality that seemed so close. A bright blue flash down an alley lured her as she saw a coat tail leap into the strange, blue portal. It remained open as Ruby leapt in. Then as time and space swirled around her, something went wrong. Very wrong. The timestream broke apart, and a dimension of darkness circled around her, and in the distance, a giant pyramid. Then a voice.

"A new visitor so soon? Alright freaks, kill that girl! Whoever gets her first earns a treat: the hunt itself!" The voice laughed. Every dodge she made felt like it really happened. Then suddenly, a bright blue light engulfed her, and then the dream ended. She awoke in her room, with a splitting headache. Then downstairs, she heard the collision of metal, as if a sword battle were taking place.

She jumped out of her bed and ran to the sound, which continued to upstairs and outside. 'The roof!' Ruby thought as she opened the window.

"I'm Sherlock bleeding Holmes! Have you seen my magnifying glass?! It's enormous!" Ruby heard. She looked to see… wax Sherlock Homes walking with a sword?

'Gods, what did I miss?' Ruby wondered. As Sherlock climbed up the roof, she pursued, coming to a hot poker. 'Huh. Wax, eh?' Ruby smirked as she followed the wax figure. Over the roof, she saw him with Dipper cornered. He was going to kill him! Ruby used her semblance for the first time since coming to Earth, and sliced Sherlock's hands right off. As the sword fell from his hand, Ruby caught it and beheaded the living wax man, catching the head with the poker.

"Sorry for sleeping for a while." Ruby smiled.

"You! I thought I killed you!" Sherlock exclaimed. "I bloody sliced you with an axe!"

"Dude, I've been shot before. It takes more than an axe to kill me." Ruby smirked as she rose his head. "Hope you like sunbathing."

"Sunbath-?" Sherlock asked, but then light shone on his face. "Oh. Well, crud."

"Next time, don't try to kill a huntress." Ruby said smugly as the wax head melted. Soon after, she tossed the poker into a trash can just below. "You Alright, Dipper?"

"Yeah. Thanks to you." Dipper said as Ruby helped him up. "How did you move so fast?"

"Oh. Uh…" Ruby said, her cheek beginning to flare. 'Well, jig's up now.' "I've got my fair share of secrets, too."

"Mind if I ask a few million questions?" Dipper asked.

"Oh boy." Ruby sighed.

By the time they returned to the fireplace room, Ruby had explained that she was from a world called Remnant, and she was a trained warrior to destroy creatures of darkness.

"What kinds of creatures of darkness? What kind of weapon do you use?" Dipper asked quickly.

"Slow down, dude! I'm not a search engine!" Ruby finally said.

"Oh. Sorry." Dipper said sheepishly.

"It's okay. There's just a lot to take in at once, so I just want you to be able to digest." Ruby smiled. Dipper smiled back as they entered the room. "Okay, Yep, I missed something."

"Hey, Rubes is back!" Mabel cheered.

"Yeah, sorry for being in a bit of a coma for… how long was I out?" Ruby asked.

"A day and a morning." Dipper answered.

"Man, That Sherlock knocked me out for that long?" Ruby whistled.

"What even happened?" Dipper asked.

Ruby recalled the day. She sat at the TV with the fez on her head. She figured the fez covered her hair, which must've confused Sherlock, who then took out Wax Stan, realized it was a decoy, and then tried to kill Ruby. Before she could react, Sherlock slammed her head into the TV.

"Never thought a wax figure could outsmart me." Ruby sighed. "Still at least we caught the near murderer."

At that moment, Stan walked in and jumped at the scene. "What on earth happened here?!" Stan exclaimed.

"The Wax figures had sentience and we melted them all." Dipper replied with a matter of fact tone.

"What now?" Stan said in a confused tone. "Well, never mind that. I see a familiar face here!" Stan said as he took the Wax Stan head from a rhino wall mount. "Also, good to see you back on your feet, kid."

"Good to be back, sir." Ruby nodded. The rest of the day was uneventful, but Ruby would never forget her day long dream. 'Was that real? Or was it…' Ruby thought, but then shook her head. 'No, it was just a dream. Nothing more. Just need to focus on keeping my secret guarded from everyone else. Only Dipper understands what kind of weirdness there is here. And that author… I'll find him eventually. He might even have answers as to how I got here."

But for now, Ruby could at least relax in knowing that she was alive, and that her friends had not changed.

A/N

Hey, sorry about the long break in updates. I couldn't find either inspiration or originality in this story for a while, so I took my time writing it. That, and I wanted to work on some pet projects.