Author's Headnote: Now to answer some questions:
- I doubt that the ex-slaves would cause much trouble. As for any diplomatic incidents, the Batarians already closed their embassy to the Citadel in 2171, it is 2174, and 2175 is approaching. There will be stuff covering from it later, but I should add news reports to this stuff, yes.
Anyways, here's the chapter
The Ruby of Cerberus: Getting on By
Ruby Rose:
Health: Healthy
Aura: 100%
Semblance: Petal Burst
Weapons: Crescent Rose, M-7 Lancer, M-2 Kessler
Credits: 524
Party Relations:
- Weiss Schnee: Chilling in her underwear since the clothes are at the laundry, same as Ruby
- Blake Belladonna: Also chilling in her underwear
- Yang Xiao Long: Is actually working today, wonder where she'll be working at.
End of Main character status report
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commerical District, December 2, 2174, 9:00 (Military Time), Friday, Rented Room
Long story short, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake can't leave the room. Why? Because the three of them are in their underwear because the clothes they wore back in remnant are the only set they have, besides the armor. And she doesn't want to ruin the armor, which chances are that'll need some cleaning too.
The reason to why they're not doing jobs today is because Yang managed to get a job... as a maid... in the hotel they are residing in. Which means, she needs to cover all of the housekeeping needs. Ruby is grateful for
Ruby is in the main room by herself, with Weiss and Blake in the other. All three of them in their underwear by unwilling means. Thankfully, Ruby has her omnitool to keep her occupied. She searches up today's news, let's see what's going on the galaxy.
[News Music, whatever... do they still do that in the future?]
"Hello, welcome to the Citadel News Broadcast, or CNB for short. I am Landaal Caryx, former drill seargent for the turian military, and current news reporter." Landaal announced.
"Three days ago, a bunch of ships containing eighty-four refugees from Adek have arrived. Former slaves, consisting of human, batarian, asari, and drell. Families have been contacted and notified that their lost relatives are on the citadel. As for the savior apparent, the identity remains unknown. But is described as four females, three of them were wearing helmets. And one in which the refugees have described to look like, according to this sketch artist."
An image of a black cat has appeared besides the newscaster.
"Sir, that's a png file of a cat." The camera man stated.
"Damnit, wrong image. Slide to previous!" Landaal demanded. The image now depicts a middle-aged woman, with thin eyes and a large jaw. which barely resembles Blake. Although they did get the bow part right, everything else was wrong.
"As we see here, the image is of a middle-aged woman, wearing a bow. She is described to be ethnically a mix between Japanese and Navajo. Although it could be possible that she may just be Ainu. She is also described to look like she's entered her early forties. She's known to be incredibly acrobatic, and is a skilled swordsman, and capable with a handgun. The combat armor she was wearing was said being mostly white, black, and yellow. We suspect that she may be a member of the Eclipse Mercenary Band. Journalists have yet to meet with Jona Sendels to either confirm or debunk her involvement in their liberation."
"Now we switch to another local incident. Cat Alarms going haywire?" The image then switches back to the cat from earlier. "Cat alarms across one of the commercial wards have been triggered back and back two days ago. Officers were dispatched, and no felines were caught. The officers in question stated that the cat may as well be hiding in plain sight."
The image is now switched to a planet.
"Talk about various elections under the capital of the Systems Alliance Capital, Earth: the home world of the human race. With presidential elections in North America and China, and a Parliamentary Election in the European Union. The three major players in the Systems Alliance government, and the most influential. Elections results may impact foreign policy and co-operation with the galactic council. So far, it seems the status quo of walking the middle line is taking a lead. We'll update on the election status next month, when the year of the election actually occurs."
[You can end the news music now if you're still playing it]
Ruby closed the video, because she is by no means interested in politics. Especially politics from another dimension, it's usually a boring subject for her. She usually doesn't care whose in charge, so as long as everything runs on time, she's fine. And political debates are typically boring for her, especially back in remnant. She just wants to kill grimm for goodness sakes.
Let's just hope that Yang can get the rest of the group a spare pair of clothes.
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Yang Xiao Long
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commerical District, December 1, 2174, 13:00 (Military Time), Thursday, Commercial District Hotel (1 day from the present)
Yang decided to get a job up front at the hotel. Figured it'd be smart to have a job that's nearby rather than going around for various odd jobs. She had gone up to counter and cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, do you have any spare jobs?" Yang asked.
"Aren't you one of the students who checked out a room?" The asari asked.
"The school is incredibly underfunded... we can't even afford to fix the walls."
"Well, why didn't you say that? Such a shame, most kids growing up in the terminus system don't even bother with schools..."
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, you are from the terminus systems, right?"
"uhhhhhh... ya... sure..." Yang said, nodding her head, not having a clue what the 'terminus systems' are.
"Like I said, I am so sorry. Here, I'll make sure the room is half-off. And let me just check for spare slots... there's an opening as a maid. You don't have to bother with the tenants, and you basically clean up the rooms."
"Eh, fair enough... I don't have to wear an incredibly embarrassing outfit now, do I?"
"Like from those shows? Goddess no. I can assure you, our hotel meets standards for the citadel labor laws."
"Well, that's good. So, how much do I get?"
"The minimal wage that employees here are provided... which is 30 credits per hour..."
"Fair enough, just show me to the locker and I can get to work..."
Back to Present (Still in the hotel)
The job description is made it sound easier said than done, and it is only Yang's second day at work. So far, people seem to ignore putting the 'do-not-disturb' sign on the door... well, one for every 10 residents... and the results seem to reside from disturbing to disgusting. Needless to say, she ain't having any of that. Thankfully she hasn't walked onto a sexual act yet. She tends to be a flirt with the guys back at remnant, but here she just wants to focus on getting money, getting on the illusive man's good side, and get back home. Well, unless they find another one of those gateways...
There's a lot to uncover on Cerberus and the gateways... how could they manage to get the thing to work, much less create their own version back on remnant? It's been almost two months and she doesn't believe JNPR, CVFY, or the Beacon staff had wound up here... they likely wouldn't instantly think: 'oh, they hopped into another dimension'. Well, maybe Nora... yet again, Nora was never one to have a rational conversation... or one with a serious topic. She's a bit eccentric.
There's also a chance she may have to accept the fact that she'd die here. Especially with someone as shady as the 'Illusive Man' as one's boss. Doesn't even know the guy's name. And yet, he then proceeds to learn almost everything about her and the rest of team RWBY...
Worst of all, it's her fault that they're in this mess, they could be back at the dorm, after completing their first huntress mission, which would have been after the dance. They could have easily won the Vytal tournament. But what happens, portal to another dimension where their dust doesn't work, got knocked out way too easily, and spent an entire month in a communal prison cell... with the bare minimum for food to eat. Her metabolism might have slowed from the month of being there.
But she can't get distracted by her thoughts, she needed to get this laundry done. She managed to scrounge up some left behind clothes from the vacant rooms previous residents left behind, and she checked, they all matched their team member's sizes. Albeit the clothes and underwear will not match since it was fringe articles, but they need to take what they can get. Men's, women's, until they can get a stable income of money that doesn't rely on keeping them in residence, all their clothes come from the previous residents...
Labor laws for maid services in hotels on the citadel says that they can claim abandoned clothes found in a hotel room for themselves, she actually had to look that up before heading to bed. The clothes she had scrounged up have made up around 1 full set for each person on team RWBY.
That's why she's in the laundro-mat. The uniforms are humane, the job pays well and upfront, the only complaint is that people do some weird stuff in private... But the job pays, and she gets money... Blake is said that she's going to be expecting a custom-made helmet for her in around five days from now... although she's likely going to come to the guy, rather than vice-versa...
The washing is done, got to move all of the stuff from the washer to the dryer... she's washed laundry before, she knows what to do when it comes to doing laundry. She even does her own sister's laundry for her... Ruby's said to be a genius, but for some reason, she never learned how to do her own laundry...
Now she's got to head back and clean the rest of the rooms. Yang clears her throat and gets the cleaning supplies. Even in a futuristic dimension with flying cars and stuff, rooms can't clean themselves. If they did, Yang wouldn't have a job. One that she doesn't intend on keeping anyway... after all, she wants to get back home, off the citadel no less. No need to keep a job as a maid. Not like Miranda would let them anyway.
But then she heard a noise as she was walking through the walls, in which she instinctively opens the door. She sees and asari woman with a gun in her hand, and a dead batarian on the floor. With a bullet hole through the head. Yang was stunned apon witnessing it.
"Spectre business, move along civilian." the asari said, pushing Yang out of the way and onto the floor.
Spectre? What's a spectre? Likely some sort of secret agent force. Regardless, she needs to head to the next room and clean it... not the room with the dead batarian, she's not going to meddle with anything she doesn't want anything to do with. Last thing Yang needs right now is to get involved in something too big for her. She's just going to ignore it and pretend she didn't see anything. She went into the next room and thankfully, it was empty. Dirty, but empty. Yang had started to proceed by cleaning by removing the bed sheets and send them to the laundry room. In which, just in time... her teammate's clothes are done. She'll plop them over to the room, and she'll continue cleaning.
Character Change: Yang Xiao-Long - Ruby Rose
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commerical District, December 2, 2174, 15:00 (Military Time), Friday, Rented Room
Ruby heard some knocking... in which Ruby sighed...
"Can't you read the sign? It says: 'Do Not Disturb!'" Ruby yelled.
"Don't worry, it's just me and this big ol' pile of clothes from other people." Yang said from the door. "You're going to have to open the door."
Ruby opened the door and quickly waved at Yang to come in. She does not want people to see her undies right now. She then closes the door quickly and quietly.
"So... which ones are mine?" Ruby asked.
Yang then threw at her a pair of boxers and a bra, along with some non-matching socks, one red, the other black. Along with a pair of sneakers, a pair of pants, and a tank top.
"The new underwear is overdue... I'll put the clothes I found for myself in this pile and then proceed to deliver the rest of the clothes to Blake and Weiss. Along with our initial clothes, which will be put in the clean pile, since hotel rooms never come with dressers." Yang stated.
"It'd be great if they did." Ruby retorted, with her new clothes in hand.
Ruby then went to the bathroom, using it as a private changing room, removing her underwear... she then takes a brief five-minute shower, followed by her quickly drying off her body. And then putting on the underwear and socks, followed by the tank top and pants, finally the sneakers.
The tank-top was grey, sporting a symbol Ruby does not recognize. The pants were black with red stripes, it comes with pockets. This stuff mostly looks like an outfit she'd see a person back on remnant wear, so she's not uncomfortable with it. But it'll do for now. Now she needs to head out and earn some money. She retrieved Crescent Rose and headed out of the hotel to do some odd jobs.
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commercial District, December 2, 2174, 16:04 (Military Time), Friday, Markets
With her new outfit, chances are she could take more jobs. Well, that's what she is thinking as she heads down to the store that rejected her offer, a simple store selling home electronics. Mostly oven-stoves, dishwashers, all that sort of stuff.
She approached the individual at the counter, a turian.
"Hello... it's me again." Ruby announced her presence.
"Didn't I tell you to go away?" the turian asked.
"Ya... but I can assure you, I'm not wearing a dress this time!"
"Yes, but your outfit is still unprofessional."
"How so?"
"Track pants and a tank top are not acceptable choices of clothes for professional humans."
"Oh. Well, darn. This is the only other set of clothes I have."
"You're kidding me."
"I'm being serious. That other outfit, is what I almost always wear."
"Oooookay... so... we're not going to give you a job here..."
"Do you not have uniforms?"
"We expect our employees to bring their own."
"Oh... well, do you need help cleaning up?"
"Not up front, no. We're not looking for hirings anyway."
"Alright, I'll go." Ruby said, leaving.
Ruby had sadly left, not getting a job from the appliance store... again. Well, she could try again with another store. It's going to be a long journey finding jobs to work in. Don't worry, she can scrape by some credits. Now how did Blake get money to afford a custom helmet...? That's what she's wondering. Well, that is until she sees a peculiar looking device on a machine. She recognizes that it's used for credits transfer, from context clues and analyzing her surroundings. The device looks like it was made from another culture.
No less, Ruby confronts the strange object and used Crescent Rose to destroy it. She doubts any credits would have been recovered. But no less, with her novice investigation skills, she takes the thing with her back to the hotel to investigate later. For now, she needs to get an odd job. Somewhere she could get some money for a one-time payment.
Which means, she's going to have to work at the same place she did last time, hopefully for a longer time and for a higher payment.
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Miranda Lawson
Anadius, Cronos Station, Upper-Station, December 2, 2174, 7:00 PM, Friday, Miranda's Office
With her early promotion, she was given her own office in the upper part of Cronos Station. It was mid-sized, enough for all of Miranda's equipment. Though Miranda does not sleep here, she has her own private bedroom on the station.
Miranda was doing some research on the weapons of the four girls. Being that she's the handler for the four of them. It'd make sense to research the weapon schematics. Combustible gunpowder weapons are outdated, so no human enterprise manufactures it even anymore, not even for civilian use. The ammunition calibers for three of the weapons match the calibers for weapons from the early twenty-first century, specifically between the 2000's to 2020's... which is a strange coincidence, and it appears to be from the American design of the ammunition, no less.
It could be a coincidence, convenient for producing ammo for them, but quite odd nonetheless.
As for the rapier... well, it's esoteric in design. The powder goes out of the blade... though, she's quite unsure what the moondust did in their home dimension. But it appears to also function as some sort of mystical wand of some sort. The black powder revolver rounds are also an interesting choice of design. What's also interesting is that the metal for each of the weapons... is steel, stainless nonetheless. Except the rapier, which is made of a decorative material.
It can be assumed that the silver-haired girl. Named: 'Weiss Schnee', the name is translated to 'White Snow' from German, is from a higher-up aristocracy or plutocracy. Though this is unknown if the name means the same thing in their native tongue.
But as for the... wait, she got a text from the illusive man. It's a video link.
'Correct this.' The illusive man captioned.
It's a video of 'Yang Xiao Long', meaning 'Sunny Little Dragon' in Chinese, though connection between names between their dimension and this one is unknown. But no less, she's partying wearing the outfit she wore when she got on the Unity cell base. She also appears to be drunk and singing in her native language. The thing about translators is that it doesn't work during specific conditions. Translators don't work for the mentally unstable, for one. Also, during extreme emotions, like enragement for one. As for drunkenness... well, she'd have to be drunk out of her brim if it's not translating her words. Regardless, like all videos of a drunk girl partying, it has a lot of views. Though, thankfully it's not trending.
However, she needs to get the video taken down. Thankfully, she's an expert hacker. She went and hacked the website and deleted the video before it hits trending. Claiming it violated some obscure rule. She then exited... thankfully, she knows how to conceal the IP when hacking.
And, that's one way to prevent an incident. All that's left is hopefully all of the viewers would forget that the video existed.
As for any assignments she may have... well, she has given them a week before she has them do anything the illusive man needs of Miranda. Thankfully, nothing came up for them just yet.
Character Change: Miranda Lawson - Ruby Rose
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commercial District, December 2, 2174, 20:34 (Military Time), Friday, Getli's Munitions
Ran by a Turian, and close by the hotel. The store layout is quite interesting here, consisting of many weapons. Ruby likes weapons, so why not get a temporary job here for some pay and head out?
Ruby approached the turian and cleared her throat...
"So... do you need any help?" Ruby asked.
"Sure, I could use a new test dummy..." the turian said in a light tone... "I'm kidding, though I doubt you could fill any vacancies in employment here."
"Even if it's for a one-time thing?" Ruby asked.
"One-time? As in odd jobs? Do you want to dust off the weapons or something?"
"Sure. I like weapons, so I figured this would be a fun place to work."
"You consider tools dedicated to incapacitate, subdue, and even kill fun?"
"Yes. Well, not if you put it like that."
"Ya, ya, if you want me to pay you for doing something one-time, you need to know that this isn't a TV-show. People die from these, kid."
"I still need the money, though."
"To what? Buy one of these weapons here?"
"What? No. I already made my own." Ruby said, pulling out Crescent Rose in rifle form. And showing it off."
"Well, it does look like it's designed from a human... but the weapon is quite primitive."
"Excuse me?" Ruby said, sounding offended.
"It's bolt action, meaning you have to pull the bolt manually after every shot. Something that modern designs scrapped in favor of semi-automatic. Seriously, modern sniper rifles and hunting rifles are semi-automatic. Your gun simply fires too slow. Oh, and the stock has a small support for recoil, how have you not broken your arm by firing that thing? And if you have made it, you likely never fired it either since it uses ballistic ammunition. Pulling up that here is an outright insult." the turian said, in a scolding tone. "However, the caliber seems appropriate, if studying human weapons, that is."
"So...?"
"You're going to have to prove your handiness to me. You're going to have to assemble a simple M-7 Lancer rifle, Hahne-Kedar design. It's easy enough for any novice to assemble." The turian said, placing parts of an M-7 lancer assault rifle on the counter.
Ruby has seen the kind of weapon before, though she never took it apart. But she wanted to try anyway, so she should know how to put it together. She begins to assemble the weapon piece by piece. In an organized tone. It was surprisingly easy, being that she was assembling guns since she was five. Fighting however, took longer to learn. In the time of four minutes, she was able to assemble the assault rifle in one.
"Well, that's unexpected." the turian said, surprised.
"Like I said, I just want a quick, one-time job."
"One-time? I think you can work here full time!"
"Eh... no thanks, I just need something quick and easy."
"Well, sorry. I'm not looking for anyone to sweep brooms."
"It's alright. Wait, before I go. Do you anywhere that sells anything that could fit in my weapon?" Ruby asked.
"The only place that sells pre-coolant ammunition would be Tuchanka, and even then, they won't have anything in your caliber." The turian said, leaving.
"Well, that's alright. I can keep looking." Ruby said, heading out to leave. "Well, got to go, bye!" Ruby said, now actually leaving. Not using her semblance, though. No need to leave a mess exploring a space station. Though, she could theoretically go through the entire Citadel in a couple of hours with her semblance, well... she thinks so... but only one way to find out. But not now, only when she's financially stable.
Unknown Star, The Citadel, Commerical District, December 2, 2174, 22:41 (Military Time), Friday, Rented Room
After a quick odd job session. Everyone turned up what money they would have.
"Well, I got nothing but this device from a citadel credits exchange machine." Ruby said, with defeat her in voice.
"I only got 25 credits this time." Weiss said, complaining. She was wearing a T-shirt and a skirt, along with mismatching socks and sneakers.
"Nothing, people keep telling me to take off the bow." Blake stated. She was wearing cargo pants, longsleve T-shirt, with mismatching socks, and a sneaker and a loafer. "Not to mention AVINA thinks I'm a cat so the VI keeps setting off silent alarms wherever I go."
"We all know that Bow can't come off of your head. At least faunas were actually commonplace on remnant, here... you're likely going to see some interesting reactions."
"I had to take it off when I ordered my helmet."
"WHAT!?"
"BLAKE! WHY!?" Ruby asked.
"Well, given that we're going to exposed to hostile environments our auras were never trained to combat, armor is a necessity now. And there isn't any standard issue helmet that fits my unique head." Blake stated.
"You could remove the ears..." Weiss suggested.
"What? Get my ears surgically removed? They're a part of me."
"Blake's gotta point, it's like telling Yang to shave her head." Ruby added. "Which you should NEVER do."
"Suggesting it or actually doing it?" Weiss asked.
"Yes."
"Waring taken."
"Well, we need to head to sleep now. Hopefully we'll get some money in the morning." Ruby said, heading to bed.
And then Yang came back, still wearing the maid outfit and went to walk over and pass out on her bed. Guess she had a long workday. Well, at least she's paying for them to stay in this room. As for food... well, Yang just brings them whatever food people left behind.
Though, she wonders how expensive that custom helmet Blake ordered is... or how it would look... it seems pricy, hopefully when Miranda gets them their next mission, they can manage to scrounge up some credits while doing it. Because odd jobs aren't cutting it. As for solving the case on whoever's trying to sap money from the citadel... Ruby figures that'd be up to investigation. But solving the case would be mean the four of them would get a heap ton of money from the thief.
Author's Footnote: Well... That's the end of the chapter. And let me explain a bit of things.
- Why Blake took off the bow for Lefdal is different than her taking it off to do a job is because one she needs places for her ears on her helmet, and for the latter she needs to keep her cat ears mostly a secret, despite that cat alarms go off all around her. Although the inconvenience is obvious.
- Why didn't Ruby show the scythe form? Well, she can understand here that combination weapons aren't exactly a norm in this dimension, so she tries to appeal with Crescent Rose's Rifle form, which leads to modern gun nuts revolted about how inconvenient Crescent Rose's design is compared to the modern issue magnetic weaponry.
- As for Yang stealing clothes and food from hotels. She took it from checked out hotel rooms if you had not implied that. Besides, the four members of team RWBY needs more clothes anyway. given that they only brought the clothes on their back and their weapons here. I won't elaborate to why people leave fringe parts of their wardrobe behind.
The rest is fairly obvious. Sorry it took so long; I had a writer's block. Hope you've enjoyed the chapter, it may not be my greatest work right now, but I want to at least keep the fic from not dying... so, see ya next chapter.