Tai watched where Ruby sat next to Yang, holding her sister's hand and quietly breathing in and out, eyes closed. If Tai hadn't known any better, he would have thought she was asleep. Yang was gripping her hand like a lifeline, like she was afraid Ruby would go back to piloting Umbra if she let go, Zwei in her lap. Finally, he broke his vigil to look at Blake, the other girl standing next to Umbra awkwardly, the Warframe continuing to loom over the smaller girl like he wasn't aware of how uncomfortable he was making her. If he was even capable of noticing that.
"So, you were on this spaceship?" Tai asked, "the Orbiter?"
"Technically, it's a Sigma Series Railjack," Ruby said, "but my Orbiter is attached to it, so I'm just lumping them together. I'll take you up as soon as Yang's comfortable enough with me using Transference to take control of Umbra. I need the Liset to do so."
"Sorry," Yang said quietly.
"Don't apologize. Me disappearing into thin air again would obviously bring up bad memories, especially when I did it without warning you," Ruby said softly, "Margulis taught me better than to blame the victim."
"Margulis?" Yang asked.
"She was the woman assigned to take care of the Tenno after we left the Void," Ruby said, "She became like a new mom to us."
Well, at least Yang could pry some information from Ruby over what had happened over the last five years. He supposed it made sense, Ruby had always been closer to Yang than she had been to him or Qrow. Not that she hadn't been close to Qrow, but compared to the quasi-motherly role Yang had taken, it was nothing.
"But what about Summer?" Yang asked.
"Sometimes, sometimes you have to accept you didn't know someone, and never will," Ruby said, "Summer Rose gave birth to me and I'll always be thankful for that, but Margulis gave everything she had for us, and I can't thank her enough for that."
"You're talking like she isn't here anymore," Tai said, hoping Ruby wouldn't immediately clam up upon realizing she was spilling her secrets, not just to Yang, but to him and Blake as well.
"She was killed," Ruby said after a minute where Tai honestly thought she was going to, "By the same man who hurt Umbra."
"Is that why you're partners? This man hurt you both?"
"We're partners because I can take on Umbra's pain," Ruby said, "What Ballas did to us both. Who he took from us, has nothing to do with it."
Ballas, a name, to hate for hurting his daughter. It was better than nothing.
So let's examine what Tai had learned in the last few minutes. Ruby considered herself something called a Tenno, she had implied there was more than one of them, they had a mother figure called Margulis, and that mother figure had been killed by a man named Ballas. That still left a dozen questions, like where Ruby had gotten a damn spaceship from, but compared to what he had known before this started, it was a damn waterfall of information.
They lapsed into silence then, Ruby going back to her breathing exercises, until finally, the familiar rumble of a Bullhead landing came from outside. The group, minus Blake, made their way outside and onto the ship, Ruby carefully guiding Umbra to sit in one of the chairs and be strapped in, before doing so herself next to Yang.
— X Yang X—
Yang stood up next to Ruby as they landed at Beacon, watching her walk over to Umbra and undo the straps keeping the Warframe in place as and guiding him to stand. Immediately, he fell into lockstep behind them, hand going to rest on his sword.
She was painfully aware of people turning and gawking at the tall creature as they walked through the courtyard of Beacon, though if Ruby and Umbra noticed, they definitely weren't showing it. Ruby stopped in front of a tall, taller than Umbra, teen and a rabbit faunus, "Excuse me, could you point us towards Professor Ozpin's office? We're supposed to meet him."
The girl closed her mouth, which had fallen open at the sight of Umbra and nodded, "Follow me."
They did so, people continuing to gawk and pull out their scrolls to snap pictures of them as they made their way through the school Yang would be going to next year. Finally, they stopped in front of a receptionist, who glanced up and then faltered, immediately pressing a button on an intercom, "Professor, you have guests?"
"I see them Flora, send them up," a calm voice said, and the three stepped into the elevator. It smoothly slide until it stopped with a thunk, opening to reveal Qrow and a white haired man with small black spectacles on his face.
"Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long, Tai," Ozpin greeted, stepping around his desk to walk towards them, "and I take it this is the mysterious Umbra?"
Umbra didn't say anything, didn't show any sign he had heard Ozpin's words. Which, honestly, fit the track record he had established for himself so far. He was like Ruby's creepy shadow.
"He doesn't talk," Ruby said, as if to confirm that, "Hi?"
"Hello, Miss Rose," Ozpin gestured to the seats pulled around his desk, a plate of chocolate covered strawberries sitting waiting for them. Once they were all seated, Dad on one side of Ruby and Yang on the other, he sat down across from them, "Now, I assume you know why we're here, Miss Rose?"
— x Qrow X—
"The Railjack," Qrow blinked as Ruby said, immediately.
"Is that the name of your ship, then?"
"It's a type of ship," Ruby said, "I never got around to naming it, never seemed important. How did you find out about it?"
"The Atlas Telescope picked it up," Oz admitted.
"Give me a sec," Ruby reached back and grabbed a small diskoff Umbra's hip, "Cy?"
"Yes, Tenno?" a deep voice came from the commutator.
"You're being watched."
"...Should I deploy countermeasures?" "Cy" asked.
"Move behind the moon and establish orbit," Ruby ordered.
"Understood, moving out," Cy said.
Oh, boy, that was gonna give Jimmy an aneurysm. He was probably watching the thing like a hawk, and it moving to somewhere he couldn't was gonna send him into a fit.
Sure enough, within seconds, Oz's scroll began beeping. He reached out, and hung up on the General, putting his scroll to silent as he did and lacing his fingers, "I'm sorry, that was probably General Ironwood. He was the one who noticed your Railjack and was quite insistent we acquire it."
Ruby snorted, "Yeah, no. I'm not gonna give up the Railjack."
"I didn't expect you to," Oz said, "It is, of course, rather presumptuous to assume anyone would give up their property just because we want it. I will admit it would be a nice thing to acquire, I wasn't deluding myself into thinking you would give it up willingly."
Ruby's eyes went sharp, just for a second, and she said, "Is that a threat, Professor?"
"I can see how you might interpret it as such," Oz said, lacing his fingers and leaning forwards as he said, "What happened to you, out in space, Miss Rose? That ship isn't like anything on Remnant, before you ask what makes me assume that's where you were, and Umbra is clearly not human."
Ruby muttered something about half credit before saying, "I don't want to talk about it. I already made it clear to my family that's a non-negotiable fact of me being back on Remnant. Maybe, maybe I'll talk about it one day. Maybe I never will. That's up to me to decide."
"But you won't deny you were in space?"
"No point to, like you said, nothing like the Railjack exists on Remnant," Ruby admitted.
"Do we need to fear an alien invasion of any sort?"
"No, it was only a malfunction of my Reliquary Drive that brought me back to Remnant," Ruby answered, "and even then, we never found aliens."
Luckiest. Malfunction. Ever.
"Hmm. Then might I offer you a deal, Miss Rose?" Oz said, "You will grant me, I assume, that letting an unknown factor be is foolish?"
"I wouldn't do it myself, no," Ruby said.
"Then may I request you prove to me that you're of sufficient skill to enter Beacon? I would be happy to have you as a student, and it is by definition, "not letting an unknown factor be".
Ruby's breath, calm and level throughout the meeting, sped up slightly. And then she said, "I'm staying with Yang."
"You wouldn't enter Beacon until next school year, when Miss Xiao Long would enter anyways," Oz said, sliding two scrolls across the table, "one for you and one for Umbra, since it appears he keeps various gadgets on his person. Now, would you be willing to prove you're good enough for Beacon?"
Ruby handed one scroll to Umbra, glancing down at the mission blinking on hers… And hitting yes, "If it lets me stay with Yang, then fine. Yang, I'm gonna have to go pilot Umbra for a couple, ok? It's so we can stay together."
"Ok," Yang said, blinking back tears, "You'd go to Beacon to stay with me? I know you didn't like school…"
"I'd do anything to stay with you," Ruby said, disintegrating into motes of light. The minute she was gone, Umbra suddenly became more active, storing the scroll at his hip and stretching.
"Miss Rose?" Oz said.
"What's up?" Ruby's voice came from the commutator.
"You control Umbra in some way to fight, I take it?"
"Or my other Warframes," Ruby confirmed, "Think of it as a symbiotic link. My Warframe is the hand, I am the will. Together we're one thing."
— X AN X—
Thoughts, questions, opinions? Good? Bad? Meh? Bit of a slower chapter, setting up the action for next chapter