Yang stared at the stick thin girl standing in the door, feeling her breath pick up as she did. The short red-black hair, the silver eyes. No way, no freaking way, "Is this… Is this some sort of joke!?"
That was it. That had to be it. Dad and Uncle Qrow had gone insane and decided it was funny to hire some random girl to dress up like Ruby and-
"No," Not-Ruby shook her head and began to walk forwards, holding out her arms like she expected a hug. Yang's breath picked up more, part of her yelling at herself for hyperventilating. Dad's hand landed on Not-Ruby's shoulder and gently pushed her to the side, walking to Yang and crouching down in front of her.
"Yang," Dad said, "Listen, it's-"
"Why?" Yang asked, voice cracking as she did, hearing Zwei rush into the room. The emotional support dog wrapped himself around Yang's leg quietly. Why would he do something so cruel, why wasn't he laughing at this stupid joke, why-
"It's really Ruby," Dad said, "I know it seems impossible and insane and all that, but it's really Ruby. There's no trick, we're not gonna suddenly say "got ya", it's really her."
"Yang?" Ruby said.
"But, you're dead," Yang protested, voice hitching, "You died!"
"No, despite a lot of things' best efforts," Ruby said, voice soft and calming, and Yang was dully aware of Dad and Uncle Qrow shooting each other bewildered looks, "I- it's really me, Yang. It took a lot to get home, and I mean A LOT, but I'm here. I missed you so much, can I please get a hug?"
Yang reached up with shaking arms, wrapping them around Ruby as she did the same to Yang. Ruby nestled into Yang, head fitting under Yang's. Tears began to brim in Yang's eyes and she tightened her grip around Ruby, half afraid the girl would disintegrate again if she let go.
Finally, she noticed the two other people in the room, a girl about her age with black hair and amber eyes and a tall, faceless man with golden ornaments and a horn, hand touching a sword with a golden pommel, "Who?"
"I'm Blake," the girl said, "Ruby asked for my help getting home."
"She's gonna be staying with us," Ruby said.
"Did you decide that on your own, Rosebud?" Dad asked, sounding amused.
"She can have my bed, I'm not here remember? I have a bed on the Orbiter I can use."
"The Orbiter?"
"It's my ship," Ruby said, "It's where I am when I'm piloting Umbra. I'll show you it soon."
"You're on the sea?" Dad said.
"No? I didn't say that."
"So some sort of airship then?"
"Spaceship," Ruby corrected.
…
"What?" Dad deadpanned.
"The Orbiter is a spaceship," Ruby said, like it was the most simple thing in the world.
"She's not joking," Blake said, "I was on it before we came to Patch. She actually has a spaceship, it's insane."
"And where did you get a spaceship?" Dad said, half sounding like he was just humoring Ruby. Which he was, obviously, everyone knew Dust didn't work outside of Remnant.
"All Tenno have an Orbiter," Ruby said, "It's how we get from one place to another."
"What the heck is a Tenno?" Yang asked.
"It's what I am," Ruby said confidently and surely.
"Tai," Uncle Qrow said, apparently having fished out his Scroll during the insanity, "I just got a text from Oz, he wants to see me stat. I gotta go."
"Hug before you go?" Ruby said, pulling out of Yang's embrace to hug Qrow.
"See you on the other side, Pipsqueak. You'll have to show me this magical spaceship then."
— X Qrow X—
Qrow walked into Beacon, passing by the various students until he was at Ozpin's receptionist. Flora Pauling took one glance at him before waving him towards the elevator. Qrow tapped his Scroll against the sensor, it taking a moment to verify his identity, before bringing him up to Ozpin's office.
"What's up, Oz?" Qrow asked.
"I don't know myself," Oz admitted, "James just called for an emergency meeting suddenly."
The screens flickered on one at a time, revealing Jimmy, Theo and Leo. Jimmy was looking at something on a screen in front of his face, one hand gripping Due Process tightly.
"What is it, James?" Oz asked.
"This is going to sound insane," Jimmy said, "but I think it's aliens."
Silence stretched in the wake of Jimmy's declaration. Theo coughed and said, "You want to go into more detail there? What makes you say aliens, because that sounds pretty insane, General?"
"I know," Jimmy said, "but the Atlas telescope picked up something earlier today… It's easier if I just show you."
Jimmy hit a button, and a new screen popped up, showing a sleak, curved red and black ship framed by the stars. Silence stretched again, this time in disbelieving shock.
"This is real?" Oz asked.
"I personally hooked into the telescope's feed to make sure this wasn't a stupid prank," Jimmy said, "There's a ship out there, Ozpin, and it gets worse. They've been sending people to Remnant. The following ship has flown into Remnant's atmosphere twice so far.
James hit another button, and a familiar red and black ship, curved in front and with two blade-like fins in the back was shown detaching from the ship. Qrow briefly flashed back to what Ruby had said just before he left and breathed, "Well, I'll be damned."
"Qrow?" Oz prompted.
"That ship landed, well, didn't quite land, over Patch earlier, and dropped Ruby," Qrow said, "Well, something she called a Warframe that she pilots apparently. She said she had a spaceship, but I figured she was talking nonsense. Guess she wasn't."
"Back up," Theo said, "Who's Ruby?"
"Qrow's niece," Oz said, "Who was thought deceased after an accident involving her Aura. You're saying she returned?"
"Yeah, like I said, showed up with a weird thing. Definitely could be called an alien, I guess. Called it Umbra."
"Did she say where she'd been?" Oz asked.
"She's not talking, got angry when Tai tried to get her to talk about it, made Umbra real angry too. Ruby said… Said whoever made him hurt him and that she took away the pain."
"Can you get her to Beacon?" Oz said, "If there's someone with a spaceship, we need to talk to them."
"We need to take it," Jimmy said.
"How?" Theo said, "Dust doesn't work outside Remnant. Hell, how's her ship being powered in the first place?"
"It doesn't matter, it's an asset we need to acquire," Jimmy said, without any room for argument.
Well, fuck that, Qrow was arguing, "And if Ruby doesn't feel like giving up the ship? She basically said she lives on it."
"She's a child, Qrow," Jimmy said, "We can make her."
Good fucking luck with that.
"We'll decide what to do about the ship later," Oz said, "for now, I'd just like to talk to Miss Rose about it. It's a curiosity to be sure, but so far she hasn't done anything with it, that we know of, other than return home."
"You can't seriously be considering letting her keep it!" Jimmy demanded, "Ozpin, if we can reverse engineer that ship, it changes everything. We can begin to chart the stars, we can find a world without Grimm-!"
"If Miss Rose doesn't wish to give it up, I don't see how we can make her," Oz said, "Qrow, can you call Tai so we can ask for Miss Rose's presence?"
"Yeah, sure," Qrow fished out his Scroll, hitting Tai's number. After a few rings, it connected.
"What's up, Qrow?"
"You mind if the Pipsqueak comes to Beacon?" Qrow asked, "She, uh, turns out she wasn't lying about the spaceship. That or it's the mother of all coincidences."
"One sec," Tai said.
"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby said, clearly on speakerphone.
"Hey, Pip, that meeting I had to go to? Uh, turns out it was about your ship. You mind coming to Beacon to talk it over?"
"No," Ruby said, "I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Just gotta get Umbra in the Liset and fly over."
A second later, Yang's voice came, shrill and full of hysteria, "RUBY!"
— X Ruby X—
Ruby blinked, both with her real eyes and Umbra's eyes, at Yang's reaction to her ending the Transference. She lunged forwards grabbing the air where Ruby had been, shouting Ruby's name hysterically, "Yang?"
"Ruby?" Yang said, looking up towards Umbra. Ruby reactivated Transference, appearing in front of her sister. Ruby wasted no time bundling Yang into a hug, deeply aware she had triggered something in the older, well, younger girl. Closing her eyes, she breathed in and dove lightly.
Flashes of Ruby's eyes turning black and silver, before she disintegrated into red light. A pair of empty graves. A hollow loss in her stomach, weeks when she visited every day, months where the loss was too much and too great to do so.
"I'm here," Ruby said softly, dulling the pain the best she could, "I'm never gonna go further than the Orbiter again, and then I can teleport back immediately if you want me or need me. I'm never gonna leave you again. I won't say you can't hurt, you can, I'm not trying to take away the pain of what you went through when I was gone because you're entitled to feel how you feel. But I'll always be here to dull the pain. The choice of what to do with the memory is up to you. Use the memory, let the pain fuel you if you want, return it to the Void, and find peace in the emptiness left behind, or accept it and move beyond it. None of them are wrong, but all of them are right."
"How-?" Yang started, having sunk to her knees across from Ruby.
"When I disappeared, I was sent to a place called the Void," Ruby said quietly, "I learned a lot there, how to see into people who are hurting and make the pain less. It's why me and Umbra are the team, he is strong, a warrior to the end. But he's hurt, by a very evil man, so I take on some of the pain so together we can do what needs to be done. And I'll always be there to do the same to you, when the pain gets too much, when you're so angry at the world you can't even move, I'll be there to take on some of that pain. Because you're my sister, and I love you. Professor, are you there?"
"Yes, Miss Rose. I'm sorry for intruding on such a private moment. Can I help you?"
"I'm going to need you to send a ship to pick Yang, Umbra and me up. I'm not going to leave her like this."
—- X AN X—
Thoughts, questions, opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?