Ruby woke up from her slumber with a groan. In yesterdays training Shadow did indeed kick her butt and the silver-eyed girl´s entire body was aching. There had only been breaks to get something to eat, but otherwise the black hedgehog was relentless. Even if the huntress-in-training had a slight edge with her Semblance having gotten a bit faster (which Shadow theorizes may have happen due to Chaos Energy improving it but he wasn´t sure) she still got pretty much obliterated. Now, Ruby wouldn't want a teacher that was to lax. However, she wished he could maybe take it down a notch.
But she knew if she were to say anything like that to Shadow, his reply would be: "Our enemies won´t be merciful toward you, so why should I be?"
Or something like that.
On a positive note, Ruby had been so tired that, once she reached her room inside the Resistance base, she fell immediately into a deep and dreamless slumber. It was pretty relaxing, if only her muscles wouldn't ache so much…
With another groan, the huntress-in-training got up from bed, her silver eyes shifting trough her room. It was smaller than the dorm she and her team had shared in Beacon but that made sense since it was supposed to be for just a single person. The walls were rather barren, having no posters or other personal belongings from Remnant to decorate them. Not counting the fact that Ruby didn't even have the time for such things. All she had was a wardrobe, a table where she could put Crescent Rose and some blueprints for collaborative projects with Tails, and of course a bed to sleep in, with a nightstand next to it. At the foot of the bed was a small nest made of blankets and pillows where her Wisps could sleep. Kurtis and Zen slept peacefully there, well recovered from the battle in Metropolis.
Ruby decided to let the two of them sleep a little longer while she grabbed her scroll from her nightstand to see if there was anything new. In fact, she had received a message from Tails:
Hey, don't forget, today is the presentation about the Phantom Ruby and our strategy on how to render it harmless. Be there at 10:30.
Ruby checked the time. It was 10:10.
"Crap!" Ruby cursed. I should have set the alarm clock or something! If Weiss were here she would let me never hear the end of it!
Making use of her Semblance, Ruby dashed towards the door that lead into her bathroom, only to stumble out from it later to get some clothes from her wardrobe and then return into it.
After changing and doing the other stuff there to get ready for the day, the silver-eyed girl sped out from it and scooped up her Wisps.
Zen and Kurtis, who woke up drowsily from their sleep because of Ruby's panicked actions, were suddenly wide awake as she picked them up, held them in the crook of her arm like a baby (there was enough space for the two little aliens) and stormed out of her room down the hallways of the base.
"Sorry guys, we´re late to an important meeting because I forgot to check my messages yesterday."
The Wisps grumbled in their language but still rose from Ruby´s arm and flied besides her. Thanks to Petal Burst and the natural high speed of Wisps, the trio reached the main hall in time.
It was full, humans and mobians talking to one another. Alongside Kurtis and Zen there were several more Wisps flying at the side of their partners. Ruby had to push trough the mass, quickly muttering stuff like: "Sorry." or "Please let me trough."
She finally found a spot where she was close enough to see Tails standing in front of the huge screen, Miles-Electric in hand and Strom and Flare hovering close by. He tipped some things in before looking up and smiling when he saw Ruby in the crowd. The two friends exchanged nods and waved hand to one another until Knuckles and Amy appeared at the fox´s side.
"Everyone, please quiet down!" the echidna said in a loud and firm voice. Silence immediately followed. The leader of the Resistance gave a grateful nod.
"Thank you. As most of you already know, today we will be discussing the nature of the Phantom Ruby, the source of Infinite's power, and our strategy for neutralizing our enemy's greatest weapon. Tails," Knuckles turned to his friend. "Please present us with the information you and Rouge were able to recover from Metropolis."
"Of course." The fox sent a signal to the hall's computer screen via Miles-Electric.
Every pair of eyes turned towards the screen as a gemstone of varying red hues was displayed there. It was vaguely triangular shaped but warped and dark rings running along its form towards the center.
"The Phantom Ruby. Eggman's newest weapon to try, and unfortunately in this case, succeed in gaining world domination," Tails began. He tapped once again something on his Miles-Electric and the image changed to a picture of Infinite wearing the gem, along with some videos of Resistance soldiers who had been able to capture some of the feats the entity had shown.
"A powerful artifact with the power to manipulate both reality and the perception of living beings. The exact origin is unknown. Eggman´s technology one day picked up strange signals from a remote desert and after an expedition he found the Phantom Ruby in a crater in the sand."
The recordings on the computer were briefly replaced by another picture of the Phantom Ruby. It seemed to have been taken by Eggman. The red gem was hovering in a glass capsule inside a laboratory. What was noticeable was the different form of the Phantom Ruby: In the current picture it was bigger, possessing more mass and having more of a hexagon like shape. Many areas of it were cracked and damaged. Around those areas strong glitches were distorting reality.
"As you can see, it originally looked different and was badly damaged. The ruby's energies were unstable and difficult to control. Eggman tried to repair it, but ultimately was only able to carefully remove the damaged parts after several attempts and reshape it into the form we are familiar with. However, not only became the capability of its power smaller but it remained still somewhat unstable."
"Then how is Infinite able to use it to such a massive extend? And while we´re at it: Why did Eggman give the Phantom Ruby to a mobian and not just created another robot?" someone asked from within the crowd. Ruby had wondered that herself.
"I was getting to that," Tails answered. "There was a file labeled `Test Series´ inside Eggman´s server but me and Rouge had been discovered by his robots before I could take a look and download it. But with some side notes in the rest of the gathered Data I was able to piece together a picture. Apparently most robots and machines were unable to properly conduct the energies from the Phantom Ruby. Either they were warped beyond usage or got out of control before suffering the same fate of the former. The only things that gave results were organic tissue, which seemed to handle the energies better, and something called `Ultrom´." Confused whispers rose among the people. Tails was quick to quell the confusion.
"After some research of my own, I managed to find out that Ultrom is a rare metal. So rare in fact it only can be found in the areas of a kingdom called Soleanna. Eggman apparently harvested all the Ultrom he could find but it wasn't enough to build a complex and functional robot. But it was apparently enough to build a mask like construct that allowed Infinite to better focus and channel the power of the Phantom Ruby when he got it."
"But how did he get it? Why exactly him?" Ruby asked. Tails scratched his head.
"That… I couldn't gather. Just that Eggman had one day a `breakthrough´ and soon started testing things with Infinite. Who Infinite is, where he came from or why Eggman chose him is unclear. But luckily, while there are holes in our understanding in how Infinite came to be, we have the necessary information in how to defeat him. As I´ve mentioned before the Phantom Ruby only has a limited capability on how its abilities work." The screen showed a display of the Phantom Ruby in its triangular form, surrounded by a red circle. "It needs an additional energy source to gain the power it now possesses."
The image of a giant, round space station with Eggman's face appeared next to the Phantom Ruby. An arrow came out of the picture and into the red gem. The circle around the ruby enlarged massively.
"Said energy source is in the Death Egg."
Murmurs permeated the previously silent room.
"Guys, guys, I know the Death Egg is a heavily fortified… well, Death Egg. But we've managed to infiltrate it before," Knuckles tried to calm everyone down.
"Yes, but we had the moment of surprise on our side! With Eggman having gotten wind from the hacking of his servers he will definitely prepare for us," someone shouted.
Amy stepped forth. She raised her hands in a calming manner, gesturing the crowd to calm down.
"I know our odds doesn't look good… because their aren't. But we still tried to come up with the best of plans."
Knuckles said, "Yes, we will send several teams to attack parts of Empire territory. While it certainly won´t cause a full distraction, Eggman will be forced to aim some focus and troops away from the Death Egg if he doesn't give up important pieces of his land. Meanwhile, the majority of our force will fly towards the Death Egg from multiple sides and attack. Some of our spaceships should get close enough for Sonic, Tails, Shadow and other assistants of their choice to teleport into the Death Egg via Chaos Control. They will locate the computer room and disable the security systems. Once this is the case, our troops will dock and storm the Death Egg. With our combined efforts, we will then look for the Phantom Ruby's energy source and destroy it." The echidna crossed his arms and looked at everyone present with a serious look. "I know that all of this is easier said than done. We'll most likely have to be worried about Infinite, Cinder Fall, and whatever Eggman put into the Death Egg. That's why we will need every single combat-ready members at their best and, just like for Operation Big Wave, we will spend several weeks training, preparing and gearing ourselves up."
Mobians and humans sighed in relief. Operation Great Wave had taken a toll on them all and they were not ready to jump into the next deadly mission. Even if this one could lead to a decisive victory over the war, people needed their moments of peace. Otherwise they would break under the constant strain.
"That's it for now," said Amy. "People can retreat and relax or do tasks on the site to collect their thoughts. If later anyone has objections and better suggestions, alternatives to our plan, they are welcome to let us know. We know that this plan involves more risk as Operation Big Wave, but if we really want to win the war then we have no other choice."
Silence followed after the hedgehog´s statement before people began discussing with one another. The meeting broke up into smaller groups going their different ways.
Ruby immediately rushed to Tails.
"Hey, what about-"
"Don't worry Ruby, I haven't forgotten about you. I didn't mention anything regarding your situation as I wanted to discuss it with you in private." The silver-eyed girl nodded. They walked through the corridors of the base. Their Wisps bid them farewell, apparently they wanted to visit some family members and also give the duo some space for themselves for the following talk.
Tails begun with: "I was able to gather information that Eggman actually wanted to test the Phantom Ruby's influence on other realities. It wasn't clear what his goals were with this. He described Cinder's appearance as an unexpected but needed part of his plans."
"What exactly could that mean?" Ruby asked the fox while also lowering her gaze downwards in thought. She remembered the moment when she´d confronted Eggman in Ash Field Zone. Specifically the words they had exchanged:
"My presence here was not a simple accident caused by one of your experiments. Your ripped me out of my world on purpose!"
Eggman said nothing, he just stared thoughtfully at Ruby while absentmindedly tugging his mustache. Then a grin spread across his face.
"Well… you could say it was both intentional and accidental."
Tails also seemed to remember that situation. He scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, I´m not really sure what to make of this. The only theory I came up with is that Eggman wanted more soldiers for his army, but wasn't sure what he would get from other realities. And with the Fall Maiden magic, Cinder was probably a lucky grab for him. But I´m not really sure."
"Hm… I guess for now it doesn't matter why he and Infinite took me and Cinder from Remnant but how they did it."
Tails face brightened a little at that.
"Regarding this, I have luckily more info. Infinite can gain access and manipulate other realities with a special intermediate step."
"And that would be?"
"Eggman described it as `entering a realm of paradoxical quantity in its physical nature which allows it to be everywhere and nowhere at once."
Ruby blinked with a gaping mouth until she said: "Tails, I know we´ve been working together for a while now and you have been teaching me here and there some really advanced stuff. But I´m still not some wonder IQ genius like you and Eggman. Please explain this in the language of us commoner."
The mobian couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, it´s really easy (It is not, Ruby thought). Infinite can enter a certain place that has unusual anomalous characteristics. Those allow this special place to influence other dimensions."
Ruby opened her mouth again to say she still didn't understand but then she really thought about what Tails said. The gears started turning in her head as she recalled everything she had experienced since she landed into the world of Mobius. And what had happened before that. Realization dawned on her.
"The purple void!"
"Exactly! If we can somehow recover the Phantom Ruby and Infinite´s mask intact, perhaps I could build a machine that would provide access to it and create a bridge between our worlds."
"But what if one or both of the two things get damaged?" Ruby pointed out. "I doubt Infinite would just hand over them peacefully and during a battle many things can happen. Stuff gets destroyed." Or people…
"That… would of course complicate things. In that case we would have to consider alternatives with the Chaos Emeralds. Of which we are still missing still four."
"From what Sonic had told with his encounter with Phantom Shadow, the Eggman Empire seemed to have possessed them all. Metal Sonic showing up later with the white one only confirms this. So maybe we will find them during the raid of the Death Egg. Some could even be part of the energy source for the Phantom Ruby."
Tails put a finger to his chin.
"You could be right with this theory, Ruby. It is all the more important that the following mission is a success. Guess we should get to work repairing Crescent Rose and making more of the Double-Wispons."
This made Ruby let out a squeak of both pleasure and relief.
"Yes please! It´s already been to long since I held my baby in my hand and let her have a taste of battle. And it would give me a good reason for Shadow as to why we don't need to practice hand to hand in today's training." She slumped a little. "I need a little break from yesterday."
"Heh… seems Shadow has taken a liking to you if he is so serious about your training."
"I guess. He did kinda mention the reason why, I remember him of someone called Maria."
Tails became quickly serious. "So he told you."
Ruby nodded. "Mhm. Did you know?"
"Me and Shadow are not that close but yeah, I do know about his past. This is why I went to him and told him about your problem. I thought he could help you…"
"And he did." Ruby gave Tails a grateful smile. "It was a bit awkward at first when he brought the topic up. But it still felt… nice in a way. It was reliving to talk with someone about it who not only listened but would also understand."
Tails looked at his human friend sadly. "Could you never talk about it with you family?"
Ruby´s smile turned into a frown.
"I have told you how my mom´s disappearance affected my family. It was… still is a sensitive topic."
The silver-eyed girl sighed. Tails reached up and patted her arm. He gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Well, at the very least you can talk about it with me if you want."
The duo reached the destination of their walk. The heavy steel door of the armory.
Ruby mirrored Tails´ smile as they entered.
"Thank you, Tails. I will keep that in mind."
Ruby dodged several Chaos Spears that Shadow threw at her. The black hedgehog summoned more and this time shot the projectiles faster, causing Ruby to draw energy from her Chaos Emerald to increase her speed. She tried not to lose herself to the chaotic energy and remain focused.
The huntress-in-training rushed towards Shadow with her scythe raised, but he easily jumped over the blade and landed on the ground behind Ruby. She turned and stopped the momentum of her speed by driving Crescent Rose's blade into the ground. She quickly shot at Shadow, but the hedgehog retaliated and destroyed her shots with Chaos Spears. Explosions flashed, Ruby just managed to close her eyes in time to not get blinded. When she opened them she saw that Shadow had jumped into the air and fired a Chaos Lance. It shot straight down toward Ruby. With the speed it came at her, pulling Crescent Rose out of the ground would take too long, so she released her weapon and jumped backwards, the Chaos Lance striking the earth between her and the scythe. Which is exactly what Shadow had planned.
He fell and, before Ruby could retrieve her weapon, the mobian landed between the human girl and her weapon and pushed her back with a Spindash. Ruby crashed with her back into the ground with flickering Aura but she managed to quickly recover. She jumped back on her feet and ducked under another Spindash. The Ultimate Lifeform uncurled and turned around, his fist flying towards Ruby. She was able to raise her arms in front of her and block the hit with her forearms. The force of the attack send her a few feet backwards, the blow hurting like hell. But Ruby just gritted her teeth and then ran at Shadow to retaliate with a punch of her own. Aiding to its momentum with Petal Burst´s speed. He swiftly evaded her fist and let Ruby move past him. When she was behind the mobian, he jumped up to roundhouse kick her to the ground. But instead of the back of her head, Shadow only hit some rose petals as his airshoe sailed through a red cloud.
Using her Semblance, Ruby glided trough the hedgehog and manifested above him. Kicking her two feet out she landed on him. Even the Ultimate Lifeform can get flattened to the ground if a person much bigger than him suddenly crashes onto him with her entire weight.
Ruby took advantage of Shadow's dazed state and ran back to Crescent Rose. She managed to pull her out just in time as Shadow rose from the ground with a disgruntled groan.
Putting the barrel of her weapon behind her, Ruby fired wildly and, together with her Semblance, the recoils send her dashing toward Shadow. She only heightened her speed and strength with her Chaos Emerald.
In the face of this attack, Shadow just thought to himself: You're getting better at controlling Chaos Energies. But you still have a long way to go before true mastery.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
The world´s time came to a halt as everything flickered in negative colors. Ruby and her raised scythe came froze just a few inched in front of Shadow´s face. The black hedgehog started attacking the silver-eyed girl from several angles with Spindashes before time resumed its flow.
In an explosion of pain, Ruby found herself falling to the ground, completely disoriented, and Crescent Rose and the Chaos Emerald rolling from her hands.
She tried to regain her bearings and reach for them, but two Chaos Spears pierced themselves in front of her searching fingers. Hearing, or rather sensing, Shadow´s intimidating presence coming closer, Ruby quickly rolled on to her back. She tried to get up and get some distance to rethink of another plan. But before she could do so, Shadow put a foot on her chest and a crackling Chaos Spear on her neck.
"How is your Aura?"
She checked. The human girl´s scroll showed her it was in the red area. Ruby sighed loudly. "You trashed me again."
Shadow stepped back and let the Chaos Spears in his hands and the ground disappear.
"It's good that, despite your access to Crescent Rose today, you used the experience from yesterday's training to be able to fight unarmed. You slowly but surely get better in this area of combat. You also used the Chaos Emerald accordingly to strengthen you, but you let it go. You should never let yourself be separated from it during combat. At the same time, you shouldn't rely too much on its energies. Remember that."
Ruby sat up. "You do realize that these two things slightly contradict each other."
"Life is full of contradictions. Better get used to it quickly." Shadow held out his hand. Ruby grabbed it and allowed herself to be helped up.
"Otherwise, I have to say that you are getting better and better at dealing with Chaos Energies. And your skills with your weapon a truly remarkable."
"Thank you, Shadow. And thanks again for training me and… you know, for yesterday…"
The black hedgehog just nodded. "Of course. I assume you feel now more confident of potentially facing Cinder again?"
"Well, I´m still nervous and a bit fearful…"
"Understandable. In your situation, only a fool would be."
"… yeah. But I don't want to let that stop me. In fact, lately, since having recovered from the... shock of what happened in Metropolis, I fell this really strong urge to face Cinder soon as possible and beat her. No matter what!"
"That's understandable too, but don't forget what I said about revenge."
Ruby shook her head. "No no no. It is not like that. I just… feel like it…"
The human girl just looked to the side with an odd and thoughtful expression. Shadow wasn't quite sure what how to interpret that, so he just said, "Alright… if you say so."
So here we have the chapter that describes the story of the Phantom Ruby. Basically, it got damaged during the final battle in Mania and used its remaining power to flee into another reality, the Modern timeline. Were Eggman found it in the desert and started experimenting on it. Of course there is still many pieces of information missing that we will get to in later chapters.
I also want to say that next week I wont be posting anything. Life is currently a bit... hectic on my part. And I also want to properly plan and write the attack on the Death Egg. So expect Chapter 30 to appear on 28.10.
To Guest: Many of RWBY´s ideas have potential but often fail in the execution. I try to utilize them better but like I have said in a previous response, I don't aim towards writing the objectivly perfect and ultimate RWBY rewrite. I just write a story with cool action scenes and tender moments like we had last chapter but are still important. I argue that a healthier mindset helps greatly in better planning and fighting against your enemy. Especially if said enemy is tied to the trauma of you losing your mother and also able to use it against you. But even then, it isn´t always about the great battle. Sometimes the people in the story need their time to be… people. It is pretty common in stories for the protagonists to have personal struggles alongside their adventure.
And for the part with people understanding Ruby´s trauma: Why do you think did I have Shadow be the one interacting with her in this chapter?
And even then, people still should try to open up to others, even if they don't share the exact kind of pain they do. People can be sympathetic and empathetic. Would you tell a friend, who just went trough trauma, that you don't care because you didn't experience something identical?
To Guest: Among all the hectic chaos there were moments were things calmed down. Season 5 the gang was busy training and planning, but still had a lot of time to just talk about stuff. Or their flight to Atlas at the end of Season 6. There they could´ve done nothing but to sit and talk.
And even if one say there is no time for that in Canon RWBY, in this story the people did find/made the time to talk about things.
To SuperSaiyanFever: I say that anti-heroes especially have tragic backstories. But yeah, your review is pretty much on point what Ruby needs to learn in order to grow and become better in the future as a leader.