Ruby coughed, or did the best as Umbra could. Pushing herself up, she stood and spoke in the Orbiter, her voice being carried to the Warframe in the Railjack, "Cy, what was that?"

"An error in the jump, Tenno," Cy said, "We appears to have arrived at an… Unknown planet. Would you like to see it?"

"Yes," Ruby said, and the planet and its moon flickered in front of the Warframe. She froze, just for a second, before saying, "is this accurate?"

"Yes, Tenno," Cy said.

"Operator?" Ordis asked, "is something wrong?"

"This is Remnant, Ordis, Cy," Ruby said.

"Your homeworld, Operator?" Ordis asked, "that is- STRANGE- wonderful!"

"It's strange alright," Ruby muttered, feeling every ounce of her age. She hadn't seen Remnant since she had been teleported aboard the Zariman, centuries ago. Slowly, regretfully, she cut the Somatic Link and stood up. Picking up the miniature Skiajati, she walked outside to the window of the Orbiter, staring at Remnant and finally said, "Decouple the Liset once I've moved Umbra on board. We're going to land."

"Are you certain, Operator?" Ordis asked.

"Yes," Ruby said. Turning and climbing back into the Somatic Link, she reconnected to Umbra and began to soothe his rage, quietly guiding him to the Orbiter and then the Liset. The minute the door to the Orbiter shut, Ruby felt the smaller ship decouple from the larger, flying down towards Remnant.

"Land us close to the equator, we'll figure out how to get to Patch from there," the Tenno said, Umbra picking up Skiajati, Dex Furies and Vectis Prime.

Don't say I never gave you anything, Kiddo.

— X Blake X—

Blake was walking through Forever Fall listlessly, trying to figure out what to do now that she had cut Adam out of her life, damn near literally, when she made First Contact. Which, when you thought about it, was a surreal thing to say, but it was the truth.

The Alien walked through the forest without a sound, stopping as it saw Blake. She stopped too, eyes scanning it in bewilderment. At first, she thought it might be a Grimm, but quickly cast that thought aside as she examined it more.

It was slate gray and had a runner's build, with a red tabard and scarf and small amounts of golden ornamentation. Off the elbows, embedded in the biceps and pecs, framing the featureless face and horn rising from where there should have been eyes. Blake reached for Gambol Shroud just in case, especially as she noticed the weapons on its back and hips.

The Alien reached for something on its hip, pulling off a small disk and holding it out as if in offering. When Blake didn't come any closer, didn't show any sign she would take it because why the hell would she, it clicked a button on the side of the item and a high-pitched voice came from the disk.

"Hello, hello, are you a Huntress?" The voice said cheerfully. Blake couldn't resist the snort, "No? But you have high quality weapons… Huh. Anyways, I'm Ruby Rose, and this is Excalibur Umbra-" the Alien waved, a surprisingly jovial thing, "But you can call him Umbra! Do you mind coming to my ship? I need advice on how to get home from here."

"And how do I know you won't dissect me or something?" Blake asked, trying to keep her unflappable facade up. This was… What the fuck was even happening right now!? Had she hit her head during the mission!? Was this all a hallucination and she would wake up at the White Fang base any minute now?

"Why would I do that?" Ruby sounded so befuddled and hurt by the question Blake almost laughed, "You're a human… Or maybe a faunus? Point is, I know all about you, I have no reason to dissect you… Or anyone really, I'm not Alad V."

Ruby spat the name like a curse, enough to make it clear that whoever this 'Alad V' was, there was a mountain of bad blood between them. Blake breathed in, before finally saying, "Fine."

"Great!" Ruby chirped and Umbra handed Blake a pair of metal cuffs. Separated, so they obviously weren't handcuffs, "The Liset uses magnets to pick people up, so I need you to put those on."

Blake eyed the cuffs suspiciously, before hooking them to her wrists. A second later, a strange ship, unlike any on Remnant, flew over them and Blake felt a strong pull upwards locking into place in a human shaped crevice, Umbra joining her in another. They flipped around, into a small cubby in the ship, and began to move.

Well, if they wanted to prove they weren't abducting Blake, they were doing very poorly. After only a minute however, she felt the Liset click into place in something bigger and they flipped again.

"Welcome to the Orbiter," Ruby's voice came from a speaker system, "Come on up, I'll meet you there."

Blake walked into an elevator waiting for them, ascending into a room that gave her a clear look at… At Remnant. Blake's breath quickened as she stared at the planet she had spent her entire life on.

"It's awesome, isn't it?" Blake turned at the same high-pitched voice, staring at Ruby Rose. She hadn't known what to expect, maybe a female version of Umbra? That would have made sense. She definitely hadn't expected a rail thin, teenage girl wearing a baggy spacesuit, "Why don't we move this to my quarters, we can get a good view of the moon from there."

— X Ruby X—

Ruby watched the other girl, who she was just now, embarrassingly, realizing she didn't know the name of, stare out at the moon in awe. In the meantime, she poured two glasses of maprico juice into cups and put them on the table. Finally, the girl turned and walked over, sitting down.

"Can I ask your name, I just realized I never got it?" Ruby said.

"Blake Belladonna," Blake said, "are you… human?"

Ruby's knife flashed in the light as the hunting squad approached, heavy breathing and mad looks in their eyes. The cooking utensil sunk into the lead man's throat as she flashed forwards.

"I really don't know anymore," Ruby admitted, "I was at one point, but… Stuff happened. I don't want to talk about it. Call me a Tenno, it's what I identify as now."

"Sounds like there's a story behind that," Ruby opened her mouth with a growl, "I'm not asking you to tell me. Just saying, people don't just stop being what they are because they want to, or easily."

"Good, there's no one alive I would talk to about it," Ruby huffed. How did you explain the nightmare aboard the Zariman? How did you explain getting Margulis's unconditional love and having that taken away? The Old War and the Orokin genocide that followed? Issah and Umbra and Transference? "Are you a human, or a faunus?"

Blake's bow twitched, and Ruby politely ignored it even as her lips twitched upwards. Faunus, then, there was something below that bow.

"I… I don't want to talk about it either," Blake said, "call me a human for now, if you have to."

"Fair enough," Ruby said, sipping the maprico juice through a straw. The sweet fruit juice burned her tongue in a familiar way, and Blake sipped her own, "It wouldn't be fair for me to force you to tell me your story when I won't tell you mine."

"You said you needed help getting home," Blake said, "Does that mean you're from Remnant?"

"I was born here, yeah. Then things got… Complicated."

"Right, what's with Umbra, is he some sort of bodyguard?"

"He's what we call a Warframe. I can… Sync up with him, do things through him without leaving the Orbiter. He can do things himself, but unless it's fighting something he just… doesn't. He might still be standing out by the Liset for all I know. I know, it sounds cowardly, but the complicatedness means I'm not really built for fights myself. I have training, plenty of it, but physically well-"

"-you look like an anorexic mess," Blake finished bluntly.

"Yeah, that," Ruby said, "but I was hoping you could help me find the island of Patch? That's where I grew up, and even if my family is gone I'd like to visit it one last time before… I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Maybe I'll wander through Umbra? Fight Grimm where I find them? He doesn't need to eat, can't, so we'd just be wandering heroes. Hey, weird question, how many years after the Great War is it?"

"Seventy Nine, almost eighty."

"It's only been five years?" Ruby breathed. Oh, no. No, no, no. How was she supposed to explain this to Dad and Yang? She was not talking about what happened, but she wasn't gonna avoid her home because of that.

"Did you think it had been longer?" Blake asked.

"It has been longer… Fine, I'll explain a bit, I got trapped in a place called the Void, and everything gets… Wonky, there. Time, space, all that just stops making sense. I've been gone for… A long, long time. I was sure they were gone but…

"Now they aren't and you don't know what to do," Blake said.

"I'm gonna go see them, I just don't know how to avoid telling them what happened. Because-"

"It must have been bad in the Void, if even your family can't make you talk about it," Blake commented without any pressure, "And yeah, I can help you find Patch. It's off the coast of Vale, I need to go there anyways. Vale, not Patch."