Cliff
"Guys, there's another possibility we have not yet considered," I said slowly. "At this point I think it
would be within the realm of reason to at least consider the possibility that this really is Ruby Rose
standing in front of us."
I mean, look at the evidence. Keeping in character even now is unusual, but not entirely unheard of.
Crescent Rose, okay, yeah, it's difficult, but technically doable to build one that actually unfolds.
Appearing in front of us in an extremely accurate simulation of Ruby's Semblance is maybe doable
if you're good at parkour, but it's not easy either. And all three at once?
I paused. "The other possibility, of course, is that our drinks were contaminated with a hallucinogen
at some point, and that we're all tripping fucking balls right now."
"Not for three hundred bucks it better not have!" Ben snapped, butchering his grammar.
"When did you pay?" I asked him.
A pause. "After the drinks."
It's like that comic where Neo points out that the human batteries violated the laws of
thermodynamics, and then the black guy points out that he learned those laws inside the Matrix. I
smirked. "Exactly."
"Exactly what?"
"So, how do we tell?" Sam asked, interrupting Ben.
"I'm still here, you know," Ruby- if that's who she was- reminded us.
I thought it over for a moment. If we really were hallucinating, it would be nearly impossible to
prove or disprove that from within the hallucination. I didn't feel like I was hallucinating- from what
I've heard hallucinating is more strange and surreal- but that's not exactly conclusive proof. It was
late, I was tired, I couldn't think well.
However, irregardless of whether this was real or not, we could prove Ruby's identity with a
reasonable percentile of consistency... accuracy... something. "Show me Crescent Rose again. Don't
unfold it."
She took it out again and cradled it in her arms. "Now hand it to me."
"I don't know if that's a good idea..." Ruby replied questioningly.
A cosplayer would be more willing to show her work, but if she was still in character, then she
wouldn't show it. But that's not what I wanted to see anyway. "Just hand me one of the cartridges,
then."
"Well, okay," Ruby agreed grudgingly. In a smooth, practised motion, she racked the charging
handle, caught one of the cartridges, and presented it to me in and open palm.
I took it and examined it. "Hmm. Big round. About the size of a .50 BMG, but I'm not going to
measure. Silver case, that's odd. Black marking in the middle. Okay, it's belted, so it's not .50 BMG.
Standard primer- that surprises me. Bullet has a red tip, silver, not sure if this is full metal jacket or
ballistic tip hollowpoint."
I looked up, shrugged, and handed the round back to Ruby. It was definitely not a standard round,
but it would not be impossible to assemble an accurate replica. That wasn't conclusive at all. In fact,
I'm not sure what I was trying to prove. I could barely think. Combination of tiredness, stress, and
shock.
"What about her scroll?" Isaac suggested. Damn, I guess I hadn't thought of that. Too busy being
distracted by Crescent Rose.
"Why do you want to see my scroll?" Ruby asked.
"To see if it's real or not."
In response, she pulled the device out of her pocket and opened it. Transparent, folding display.
Those existed, but to the best of my knowledge only as prototypes. Either someone went through a
lot of money and effort or that was a genuine RWBY scroll.
"I think we should just assume that this really is Ruby Rose and go from there," Isaac suggested.
"That's a pretty big fucking assumption to make," I told him, but I didn't get a chance to elaborate.
"Guys, train," Sam reminded.
"Fuck!" I shouted. "God damn it!"
I turned to Ruby. "Look, Ruby, if you are who you say you are, or even if you aren't, we can discuss
this on the SkyTrain."
Her eyes lit up, which surprised me a bit. "Ooh, SkyTrain? Is that like a flying train?"
I almost felt bad disappointing her... almost. "No. It's just elevated rail with sections of subway."
"Oh." She paused, then gestured to a sign as we passed it. "What's Pacific Centre? Is that a mall?"
"Yeah, it's a big one," I replied. "I prefer Metrotown, though. That's around where I'm living."
She looked down, eyes sad. "They would have liked to come here."
"They?" Sam asked.
"Her team."
"Ah." I'm not sure what he meant by that.
I found myself reassuring her as we descended down the empty escalator into the station. "Hey. I'm
sure they're fine."
"Yeah, if they're here, we'll find them," Isaac said, with more conviction than any of us probably
felt. Even then I felt that he shouldn't have said that. We could easily get dragged into something.
If we were wrong, and this wasn't the real Ruby, we were being sucked right in. Either this really
was Ruby Rose, or she was a really good actor.
"Tickets," Sam pointed out as we entered the station.
"Right," I said, steering her toward the vending machine. "Okay, we're headed out to Burnaby,
except for Sam, so that's two zones, but it's late, so a one-zone fare is fine. I think you qualify for
the concession rate, too."
I tapped the necessary buttons, then suppressed a laugh as Ruby tried to pay with Lien chits.
"Uh, money is different here," I interrupted. "Here. I'll pay."
I got out my wallet, then fed a loonie and three quarters into the machine. It chirped, whirred, and
spat out a ticket. I briefly wondered if the machine was running embedded Linux, Windows XP, a
newer embedded Windows, or if it was still on OS/2 Warp before deciding it was completely
irrelevant.
Ruby, meanwhile, had already grabbed her ticket and was halfway to the platform. While we waited
for the elevator to descend, she hopped onto the rail and slid down on her cape.
"Fuck you guys and your college discounts," Ben grumbled as we stepped onto the platform. The
eastbound train was already coming into the station, and we rushed into it as soon as the doors
opened.
The train was next to empty, and we found ourselves in an empty car. I took a seat across from
Ruby, with Isaac beside her and Ben to my right. Sam stayed standing.
"There's a few things we have to explain, Ruby," I began as the train began to move. "I assume
you're assuming you're somewhere on Remnant?"
"Well, where else could this be?"
I took a deep breath. "This is going to be hard for you to believe, but you're not on Remnant at all.
This is another world. We call it Earth."
Then, to my surprise, Ruby began to laugh. I made out something about believing us through the
laughing.
Loudly, I interrupted her. "I'm dead fucking serious. This isn't Remnant."
"How is that possible?"
I sighed. "I don't know. I don't know how that's possible. I don't know how you got here, why you're
here, how or why any of this fucked up shit is happening. I don't know what to do or where to go or
what the fuck happens next!"
"Cliff, calm down," Isaac cautioned.
I took a deep breath. "Look, we're all half-wasted. I'm assuming you don't have a place to go?"
She nodded.
"Right. Well, you can stay with one of us tonight, and we'll explain as much as we can tomorrow,
try to get this fucked up shit figured out."
Ruby squeaked out a "Thanks," before Sam interrupted us. Loudly.
"Which one of us is she going to stay with? I mean, I'm in a dorm, so that's not going to work."
"Same here," Isaac said.
I quickly said, "Don't look at me! Uncle Fujimori already thinks I'm crazy!"
We looked at Ben. All of us. Including Ruby.
"Oh, for fucks sakes..."
Benjamin
I sighed before rapping three times on the door of my apartment. I had hoped to get the girl inside
and stuff her in a closet or something, without waking up Jen. Unfortunately, I didn't have my keys
on me. It had occurred to me about halfway through the train ride that they were still on the dresser.
At least, I hoped they were.
The door creaked open, and I found myself staring at a pair of sleepy yet brilliant green eyes. "Hey,
honey! How was your... night..."
She looked at me, then at the girl in red. Then she looked at me, then at the girl again. "That's pretty
good. Now, are you going to tell me who she is and why she's here?"
"Hi, I'm Ruby Rose!" the girl introduced loudly, sticking out her hand.
Jen turned to me again, and I said quietly, "We need to talk."
She must have read into that more than I meant, because her eyes narrowed and she snapped,
"Bedroom. Now."
Then she turned to Ruby and forced a smile. "You can grab a Coke from the fridge if you want,
okay?"
"A what?" I heard the confused reply as Jen dragged me into our bedroom and slammed the door.
As soon as the door was shut, my beloved exploded in uncontrolled rage. She screeched at the top
of her lungs, "Benjamin Taylor! What the actual fuck did you do?"
She forced herself to calm down, taking a deep breath and lowering her voice. "Who is that girl?
Does the costume really turn you on that much? Is she even legal? Is she the first one? How long
has this been going on?"
"What?" I exclaimed. "No! It's not like that at all!"
"Oh, sure! Of course it isn't!"
I took her small hands in my big ones. "I would never cheat on you, Jen. I love you. Please...
believe me."
She sniffed. "I'm sorry. Damn it, I feel like such a fool, jumping to conclusions."
I reassured her, "It's okay. I should have called ahead. We're tired. We're all tired, and it's a pretty
big shock."
Jen took a step back and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. "So, who is she, really?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "Isaac just said that it's really important that I let her stay here."
She blinked. "Isaac? Is she Isaac's cousin or something?"
"No. It's some girl named Ruby." I shrugged. "From something called Ruby. Whatever that is."
"Wait, wait, wait," Jen said, holding up her hands. "Are you trying to tell me that's the actual Ruby
Rose standing in our living room?"
"Yes. Apparently." I shrugged. Honestly, I didn't get the story and I wasn't really buying it.
Her beautiful eyes narrowed again. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"If it is, I'm not in on it. You can call Isaac and ask him."
"I think that's a good idea," Jen replied. I think she was still angry, but it was directed at Isaac now.
She picked up her phone, a pink Galaxy S4, and called Isaac and his piece of shit Huawei Ascend. It
only took a few seconds before he answered.
"Isaac... Hey, it's Jen... Yeah, they're here... There's a Ruby cosplayer standing in our living room...
This is a joke, right?... What?...You're not serious, are you?... Actually?... What do you mean?...
How is that possible?... Well, that's helpful... As long as you're sure... Thanks, I guess."
She put down the phone and sighed. "What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know. Look, we're all tired. It's three in the morning, friday night... no wait, saturday
morning. She has nowhere to go. Let's just let her crash on the couch and we can deal with this
tomorrow."
Jen sighed that cute little sigh again. "Okay. But tomorrow night..."
I smirked. "Of course."
Ruby Rose
They didn't know I was listening.
I probably shouldn't have done it. I definitely shouldn't have done it. It was wrong to mess in other
people's private lives. But I was curious, and lost, and I felt like I had to know more. Something
strange about this place. I had to know more.
Something called Ruby, she had said. And they thought I was something called a cosplayer, a word
that Isaac had used, too. And the part about being real, the actual Ruby Rose. What did that mean?
Was I some kind of celebrity here?
Where was here? They said it wasn't Remnant, it was a place called Earth. But wasn't earth just
another word for dirt? Who would name their planet dirt?
It was a strange place, and it seemed so safe and so dangerous at the same time. They didn't seem to
talk about the Grimm, so I guess this place- Vancouver or Burnaby or wherever it was- was safe. It
was dark and there weren't many people, but the ones I saw were so plain and drab. It wasn't like
the bright colors of Vale. Maybe more like Atlas.
There was one thing that stood out to me, bothering me the whole time. Something off. Something
different. Something missing. While I was drinking the stuff they called coke (which is
AWESOME!), I finally figured it out.
Aura.
I could feel it in Vale, with all the people around. Some of us had stronger Aura, and I could feel
them giving it off. I could feel the lack of it in the Grimm. It wasn't something I thought about a lot,
because it was always there. But here, it wasn't. It was like being surrounded by Grimm, but it
wasn't. The Grimm had almost a draining feeling, kind of menacing and stuff. Here, it just wasn't
there. There was just nothing.
No Aura.
I didn't get to think about it much more, because the young woman with the green eyes and brown
hair came out of the bedroom. Her name was Jen, I think. "Hey. Ruby, you said your name was?"
"That's right. I'm Ruby Rose."
An odd look crossed Jen's face before she motioned to the couch and said, "We don't have a spare
room, so you'll have to sleep on the couch. Sorry about that, it's more comfortable than it looks,
though."
"That's okay, I'll manage," I said. After all, I've slept on worse. Just not very well.
"Do you want me to wake you up in the morning?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Just wake me up when you get up."
She nodded, retreating back into the bedroom. "Sure. Good night, Ruby. You have a long road ahead of you."