Ruby stood in a secluded part of the Dreadscar Rift, reading through a tome she had gotten from Argus as she carved Eredun runes into the ground with felfire. The green energy glowed on the blackened ground.

"So you're leaving," Ruby glanced up as Kanrethad approached, the other Demonologist walked across the floating rocks without glancing down into the infinite void of the Twisting Nether below them.

"The Horde and Alliance look like they're getting ready for war again," Ruby said, "figured if there was ever a time to get going, it'd be now. You'll summon me back if something happens that doesn't involve the war?"

"Of course," Kanrethad said, "Do you need help?"

"No, I think I just about got it," Ruby said.

"Somehow," Thal'kiel said snidely, the skull floating just above Ruby's shoulder.

"Shut up, demon," Ruby said without any heat, flicking a dart of felfire at the eredar skull. Thal'kiel just cackled, dodging the halfhearted attack.

"Well then," Kanrethad said, "good luck, Netherlord, the Black Harvest will stand ready when you need us."

Ruby smiled thinly, before opening the portal and stepping into it, back to Remnant.

Or rather, a Remnant.

β€”

Blake's ears stood on end as the green portal opened in between the eight students gathered at the ruins. It stank like rotting eggs and licked at the world like fire at the edges. Out of it stepped a figure wearing red and black hooded robes, black taloned fingers visible out of one sleeve and on their back was a green, jeweled scepter with a green, hooked scythe blade. They stared at the group before their eyes seemed to land on the Deathstalker that had been chasing the blonde haired boy and Pyrrha Nikos. Behind them, out of the portal came a floating, flaming, gilded skull with a pair of horns then the portal snapped shut leaving just the smell of rotten eggs.

They raised their hand, fingers splayed before curving into hooks and they slowly brought it down like they were dragging it through muck instead of air. The smell of burning eggs grew more prominent, and Blake glanced up, watching another portal open. Was that their Sembl-?

And then a large, black and green meteor emerged from the portal and Blake's mind stuttered. Where had that portal grabbed it from? Green flames licked around the stone, and small, strange creatures clung to it as it smashed into the Deathstalker and crushed it underneath.

They turned, uttering words in a language Blake had never heard and made her ears, both pairs of them, ache. The imps shrieked and chittered in the same torture tongue as they were swallowed by green fire that surged forwards in long tongues, forming a ball in the mystery figure's hand before they flung it at the Nevermore flying at them. The black bird shrieked and thrashed as the green flames swallowed it and sent it crashing into the ground. The figure drew the scythe off their back, walking over to the Grimm and gently hooked the flaming blade around its neck. The blade slid through the inky meat and ivory bone, cleaving the head from the body.

"Well," the woman said, the hint of an accent in her voice, shrugging off her hood to gasps from Yang and the younger girl that had been with her. She looked exactly like the girl, if taller, with a blinder across her left eye through which a green light glowed, "It was probably too much of a hope to think I would arrive on my Remnant. Still, it's good to see you all again."

β€”

Ruby took a step forwards as she stared at her.. her older self? It wasn't mom, that was for sure.

"You're… me?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, I am," the other Ruby said.

A million questions blazed through Ruby's mind. How, why, where, when? Finally, she settled on one that seemed inconsequential but burned in her gut, "What's wrong with your, our, eye."

"Huh?" Other Ruby blinked, before touching the blinder across the left side of her face, "Oh, nothing's wrong with it, technically, it just tends to creep people out so I wear this to make them more comfortable. It's actually enchanted to be one way, I forget I have it on most of the time.

She pulled it down, revealing the skin around the eye was darker, as if someone had tanned their pale skin even though Ruby knew, from a lot of experience, that she didn't tan, she burned. At the center of the starburst patch of skin sat an eye that was sickly green warring with their natural silver.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"Fel corruption," other Ruby said, scratching under the eye with her clawed hand, "same with this. Demon Hunting takes a lot out of you, demonology studying even more if you don't have a safe teacher. And I didn't."

"Fel? Demon?" Ruby asked, still marveling at the older version of herself in front of her.

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell you more about it later," other Ruby said, "they're not gonna be a threat to you."

"Ok," Ruby said, "Where's Crescent Rose?"

"Are these really the questions we're asking?" Weiss hissed, "Instead of, you know, how this is possible!?"

"She was broken at the Rout on the Broken Shore," Ruby could hear the capitalization on the words, "Felfire melted her blade and jammed her gears. I use this now, it's called the Jeweled Scepter of Ulthalesh."

"It?"

"She doesn't like it," the skull around her shoulder chattered, "so she refuses to gender it like she does other weapons. Isn't that right, Netherlord?"

"I could have explained that myself," Other Ruby said, sounding irritated, "but yes, basically. It's a very evil weapon, it doesn't deserve to be loved, just used."

"I-it can talk?" Yang stuttered out, taking a step back.

"I am Thal'kiel, the greatest-"

"Another tool I collected during my career as a demon hunter and warlock, ignore him, or he goes in the sack."

"You wouldn't dare," Thal'kiel hissed, and the other Ruby just curved an eyebrow at him, "you would.*

"I've done it before, I'll do it again. I don't mind you insulting and mocking me, but I won't have you do it to them. Am I understood?"

"Fine," Thal'kiel growled.

"Let's head back to the Beacon," Other Ruby said, putting Ulthalesh on her back. What did she mean, it was an evil weapon? How could a weapon be evil, and why would she use it if it was? "I'm sure Ozpin and Goodwitch have questions."

"We all do," Yang said.

β€”