Author's note: Now we'll get some answers I'm sure some of you haven't thought about.
In the evening after Harriet's legs were healed, Ruby entered her team's dorm room and found Weiss standing on a chair like she did back at Beacon when she confronted Blake. Yang was sitting on a chair next to the door, and Blake was sitting on her bed.
"Ruby Rose, why have you been acting so strange lately?" Weiss asked. Ruby knew that she was cornered and had to come clean eventually.
"Well, you see," Ruby answered, "The thing is, I kinda, sorta, in a sense, may have found some videos on my scroll the night after we got here." Weiss got off of her chair and sat down on it.
"So, what's the problem?" Yang asked.
"They... don't show the past," Ruby answered.
"Wait, you mean you know the future?" Blake asked.
"One future, yes," Ruby answered, "Sirena isn't there, and our counterparts are… kinda weak compared to us, and the other me is somewhat childish, too. I think it happened when I fused with Maria, back in Argus. Our fusion likely saw the other timeline and used her prosthetic eyes to transfer that information to my scroll."
"Wait, I thought you two didn't fuse," Yang said.
"We did fuse, actually," Ruby said, "But our fusion's semblance made it… difficult to tell you." Seeing her friends' confused expression, Ruby sighed and began explaining how she and Maria fused into one.
~o~
Trifa walked along a road in eastern Vale, leaving Blackport behind her. As a result of her training with Argent, she could sense the negativity of the people around her, even of those long gone. Her spider sense told her that the trees to her right were full of spiders watching her every step. The forest to her right was much healthier and greener than the one on her left, even though some trees near the road still seemed better off than the others. As she walked down the road, she sensed that a boulder behind her disappeared, with a girl taking its place. She turned around and saw the hard-light construct vanish and a girl sitting under it. She wore black sneakers and shorts, a white shirt and had her black hair tied to a ponytail. The girl created a hard-light construct resembling sunglasses before opening her eyes.
"Hello, I'm Lily," Lily said and asked, "Do you want to join my mother's swarm?"
"Sure," Trifa answered and asked, "But, how did you do that with the boulder?"
"My skin naturally generates hard-light-dust," Lily answered, "And as a mimic octopus faunus, I can freely change the color and texture of my skin. This also means that my constructs can do the same. Try it." She walked over to her and made a hard-light construct resembling a short staircase until the two were on eye level, then made her lower right arm look like the bark of a birch tree. Trifa touched it and was surprised that it actually felt like real birch tree bark. Even her spider sense was tricked by this.
"Incredible," Trifa said, "I wish I could do that, too."
"Well, maybe you'll be able to do something else," Lily said.
"What do you mean?" Trifa asked and slightly tilted her head.
"My mother has a special fungus growing in her webs," Lily answered, "A few years ago, she fed it mutant faunus, and since then, the mushroom has been modifying any faunus that eat from it, making their traits naturally generate a random type of dust. Anyway, let's add you to the swarm." Lily made the tips of her left index- and middle fingers light up red and touched Trifa's forehead with them.
"That's it?" Trifa asked and said, "I don't feel any different." Suddenly, she was flooded with tricks and techniques for using a knife like the one she used. She also learned the swarm's plans for Vale, but offered her own expertise. Sophie quickly agreed to the new plan. The termites digging through the mountain range changed their course, various birds scouted out the perfect location in the Forest of Forever Fall, and flies added honey bees to the swarm. Trifa went into the heart of the web, into the old village of Windblock, and began cooking mushroom stew.
~o~
In Argus, on the third day of their training, Ruby and Maria got ready to fuse in order to allow Ruby to access Maria's knowledge directly. Ruby used her silver eyes to initiate the fusion, and the two merged into one. Their fusion looked down on herself and saw that she wore a dark purple dress with black accents, a necklace like the one Maria wore, a dark purple hooded cloak, brown leather gloves and a bionic mask.
"This is amazing," the fusion said to herself, "I have to tell everyone." She tried to open the door to the living room, but it wouldn't budge. She tried the front door as well, but that didn't work either. When she looked around, she saw that a man was about to be hit on the head by a flower pot. She dashed towards the man to push him aside, but when she slammed into him, he wouldn't budge one bit and the fusion landed on her rump.
"Now, that's a problem," the fusion said and asked, "How do I move this guy?" She tried pushing, pulling, lifting, shoving, tackling, and any other form of moving an object or person, but nothing worked. She checked her scroll and realized that she had been trying for over a year to move this man, but to no avail.
"Alright, quick break," the fusion said, sat down on a bench and said, "I also need a name. Then again, time is frozen, and I'm the only being around. Screw it, everyone needs a name." She thought for some time, and finally decided on Shachar.
"So, what's next?" Shachar asked herself and looked up. She spent another year trying to move the flower pot, but again to no avail. She finally decided it was time for more drastic measures, and put her right hand on the man's left shoulder.
"Poor soul lost and stranded in darkness," Shachar said, "Let me be your guiding light, bearing your burdens and shielding your heart, and follow me into a future of prosperity. And to ensure we reach it, I release your soul, to ward off all harm." The man's purple aura flared up and Shachar stepped back.
"At least now he won't get hurt once time resumes," Shachar said. She kept walking through Argus, creating an ice-dust ramp to redirect a stray stroller so it would head to the baby's mother instead of into oncoming traffic, then left the city and walked around northern Anima, killing Grimm wherever she found them. After clearing out the biggest Grimm between Argus and Mistral, Shachar went on to kill the bigger Grimm in the rest of the kingdom. She eventually discovered that, since everything was motionless, water acted like a solid surface for her.
~o~
As Ruby explained what Shachar did, she noticed her friends getting more and more confused and shocked, so she stopped her rambling.
"Anyway, we eventually went back to Argus and split up again," Ruby concluded with a smile.
"So that's why you were so sentimental that day…" Yang said.
"And you really saw the future?" Weiss asked.
"One future, yes," Ruby answered and said, "But I can't tell you too much."
"What? Why not?" Weiss asked and said, "I get that we're keeping things from Ironwood for now, but we're your friends."
"I know," Ruby said, "Believe me, I know that. I know how you feel, too. I can sense it."
"But?" Blake asked.
"Remember the Apathy?" Ruby asked and said, "Sirena saw them when she fused with Talia the second time. If she had warned us, we would have avoided them, and then they would have gotten to Argus and wiped out the entire town. Certain things need to happen in order for everyone to survive, and if too many people know what is going to happen, the risk is just too big that they try to change things for the better, only to end up making things worse."
"And what should we do?" Yang asked.
"Just trust me," Ruby answered, "I have a plan, Sirena and Maria are in on it as well, and if everything goes smoothly, noone will die."
"Are you sure you can handle this?" Yang asked and said, "I mean, it's a pretty big deal to secretly avert the deaths of hundreds of people while knowing the future."
"Also, resisting the urge to prevent things," Blake said.
"Don't worry, I can handle it," Ruby said, "After all, I handled the pain Sirena experienced as well."
"About that," Blake said and asked, "Just one. What does that mean?"
"I didn't share all the pain with James," Ruby answered, "There is more. Much more."
"How much?" Weiss asked, and Yang also got worried.
"My silver eyes give me a much higher tolerance," Ruby said and answered, "But if Ironwood experienced all that pain, it would break his soul, and he would die from the shock."
"You- you're kidding, right?" Blake asked, while Weiss and Yang were stunned in shock.
"No, I'm not," Ruby answered, "I asked Sirena about it, and apparently, emotional trauma causes physical, mental, and astral damage, depending on severity. For some people, the body responds to things that remind them of the trauma. For some, the mind is affected. Theoretically, the soul can be equally affected, and put up barriers to protect itself from the trauma. Difficulty using one's semblance, having one's aura automatically disable a specific semblance if it is directly connected to the trauma, even developing a new semblance that replaces the old one is possible." The room was quiet for a moment, until Blake spoke up.
"Forget I asked," Blake said.
"Alright, done," Weiss said and asked, "Now, Ruby, can you help me get rid of that idiot I have to call father?"
"Weiss, we're not here to fix your family problems," Blake said.
"Actually, I already have a plan," Ruby said and explained, "Sirena is helping me a bit, since she is more experienced in setting things in motion to play out in her favor, but once he gets arrested, he'll pay for what he did to you."
"I never thought you'd be so vindictive," Yang said.
"Jacques is getting arrested?" Weiss asked, "By whom?"
"I have my own style," Ruby said and answered, "By one of the best huntresses in all of Remnant."
"Anything else we need to know?" Yang asked.
"If you see Tyrian, get him out of Atlas," Ruby answered, "Don't let Qrow, Clover and Robyn arrest him. Under any circumstances."
"Wait, Tyrian?" Yang asked.
"Yep," Ruby answered, "And be careful when fighting him, his semblance lets him disrupt your aura, letting him injure you without having to completely drop it."
"So, who else can we tell?" Weiss asked.
"I'll tell Jaune, Ren and Nora in their dreams," Ruby answered, "But that's it." They talked a bit more, then went to bed, and Ruby astral projected into their friends' dorm room to tell them what they needed to know.
~o~
Later that night, Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha were walking through Atlas Academy, training the Ace-Ops in their dreams. They were meant to forget them, but the dreams would still leave them wanting to make friends. Vine was put on a remote tropical island and had to survive by making his own decisions, while Elm had to follow a drug lord while she and a random huntsman pretended to be a couple as cover. As the trio entered Clover's room, Jaune walked over to his closet.
"Jaune, where are you going?" Ruby asked, and Jaune opened the closet.
"His brooch has the same aura stuck to it as Qrow's sword," Jaune answered.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Sirena messed with it," Jaune answered, "And probably also his semblance." He focused and relived the past, specifically the day after they arrived in Atlas. Sirena snuck into the room at night and took the brooch. Clover woke up and looked around.
"What's going on?" Clover asked, still half asleep.
"Nothing, go back to sleep," Sirena answered and used one of her semblances to put Clover to sleep.
"Alright," Clover said sleepily as the semblance made him doze off. He slumped over sideways and almost fell out of bed, with his face resting on the floor.
"Now, onto business," Sirena said, took Clover's brooch and said, "He who holds this brooch may have their semblance blocked until they prove themselves worthy, but once they have proven themselves, all their allies shall benefit from their semblance." Jaune returned to the present, and both Ruby and Pyrrha looked at him.
"And?" Ruby asked.
"She messed with his semblance," Jaune answered, "He has to prove himself, otherwise it won't work while he has the brooch. Also, once he proves himself, all of his allies will have access to his semblance."
"You think we should tell him?" Pyrrha asked.
"No," Ruby answered, "If he knows what is going on, and then proves himself, it won't be genuine, and won't count. We'll just wait for him to prove himself. His semblance is passive, so the people in Mantle won't even have to do anything to get lucky. Anyway, I still have something else to take care of, sorry." She left and walked to a computer room, where she used Penny's semblance to enter cyberspace.
~o~
Wandering through the Vale section of cyberspace, thanks to the new, Seer-based communication system, Ruby looked for the files of a beach she, Yang, Taiyang and Summer went to, around the time Sirena would have been a first-year student at Beacon. While she was going through some files to try and hopefully disprove her theory, Ruby suddenly heard an audible clicking noise behind her and put up her hands.
"Is that a pump-action short barrel shotgun with buckshot ammunition?" Ruby asked and turned around, pushing the gun aside with one arm. She saw a woman wearing black boots with copper colored laces, black pants with brown patches on the knees, and a white shirt under a brown under-bust corset. She had shoulder-long dark red hair and amber eyes, and a flat tail covered in purple scales protruded from her back.
"Sorry, I didn't know it was one of you," the woman said, "I'm Jenny, nice to meet you."
"Jenny?" Ruby asked, "Do you know Penny?"
"Yes, she's my sister," Jenny answered, "She decided to have some fun in the material world, leaving me stuck dealing with not only my own problems, but also hers."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Ruby said and asked, "Can I help you somehow?"
"Thanks, but I'm fine," Jenny said and asked, "Anyway, how and why are you here?"
"Astral projection, and I copied Penny's semblance," Ruby answered, "Also, I need to find out if Sirena ever went on a mission at a beach on Patch. And when."
"Sorry, can't help you," Jenny said, "Penny is the personal assistant AI, I'm made specifically for combat. Speaking of which, some Grimm just came in." She jumped up, curled up into a ball, was coated in purple energy and dashed away.
"Now that's a nice semblance," Ruby thought, "But let's get back to work." She shifted through numerous files, looking for all the missions the owners of the different beach establishments had issued and who had taken them.
~o~
The next morning, after the group got their huntsman licenses, and Maria had hers renewed, the group didn't quite know how to respond. After a moment of awkward silence, they all gathered around a cake, Yang and Blake took selfies, Jaune talked to Weiss and Ren, and Nora and Maria talked to Penny. Ruby was sitting on the bleachers, and Qrow sat down next to her.
"Big day for you, right, kiddo?" Qrow asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," Ruby answered, "It's just so much to take in at once. Making it to Atlas, getting our licenses, not telling Ironwood everything… I mean, I'm going to tell him everything when he proves himself, but so far, it doesn't look good. I can sense the people of Mantle losing hope, even all the way over here, there are Grimm everywhere, and they're coming closer every day."
"Yeah, it looks bad," Qrow said, "But that's why you're here now. To make it better."
"You're a huntsman too," Ruby said with a stern tone and a smile, "So you better help us. Speaking of helping, I'll go help myself to more cake." She dashed over to the others, and a mission board popped up. A red portal opened between Ruby and the board, Sirena stepped out of it, and the portal closed again.
"Hello," Ruby said, with much less enthusiasm than anyone expected.
"Hello Ruby," Sirena said, gestured at the mission board and asked, "See anything you like?"
"I'd like to go to the beach," Ruby said, and Sirena stopped for a moment.
"So, you know," Sirena said.
"Know what?" Yang asked, stepping forward.
"Yes, I know," Ruby said, ignoring Yang, and asked, "How could you do that?"
"Do what?" Nora asked.
"I had to stop Sophie," Sirena answered.
"You still see us, right?" Blake asked.
"What does she have to do with this?!" Ruby shouted, and her friends jumped in surprise at her outburst.
"Everything," Sirena answered sternly, "If she isn't stopped, she will conquer the world. Her semblance catches the souls of dead swarm members, and reincarnates them when a new body is available." Ruby's anger and pain were replaced by confusion and disbelief.
"W- wait, you mean she…" Ruby said.
"She was reborn as Sophie's daughter," Sirena said, "When she is old enough, Sophie will begin working on the plan I discussed with you and Maria. Back then, I didn't know copying semblances was possible, so I had no other option." Ruby felt Sirena's pain and stepped back a little.
"I'm… sorry. I didn't know that," Ruby said.
"Alright you two, what is going on?" Weiss asked, stepping between Ruby and Sirena.
"It's fine, forget about it," Ruby answered.
"Yeah, no," Weiss said and asked, "This is obviously important, so are you going to tell us, or do we have to ask Jinn?"
"I… really don't want to talk about it," Ruby answered and looked away sadly.
"Alright," Jaune said, and the rest of the group slowly changed their pose, signaling their agreement.
"But when you change your mind, please let us know," Weiss said.
"Of course," Ruby said, "Thanks."
"You're welcome, sis," Yang said.
"Anyway, Sirena," Ruby said and asked, "Why does Oda look so much like you?"
"Simple," Sirena answered, "We have the same mother."
"Wait, hold on," Yang said and asked, "She's your half sister and you treat her like just another one of your people?"
"Soraklian familial customs are different," Sirena answered, "The parent of the same gender as the child gets to decide who the child stays with. The other parent has no personal connection to the child. I have over a dozen half sisters on my father's side, as he needed an heir to his throne, but all their mothers decided that the girls should stay with them. We simply cannot afford both parents to be occupied with raising the child."
"That sounds pretty rough," Yang said.
"It's fine," Sirena said, "That is how we always did things, so I didn't mind. Not until I came to the surface, that is." They went back to eating cake, waiting for the Ace-Ops to show up so they could get started on their first missions as official huntsmen and huntresses. Shortly after that, Elm, Marrow and Vine came into the arena through the tunnel.
"Do you guys smell that?" Marrow asked, dramatically sniffing the air.
"Yep, fresh meat," Ruby answered with a smile, and Marrow stopped mid-step.
"Exactly," Marrow said, tried to save his entrance, and asked, "Anyway, is it true that you can copy semblances?"
"I'll let you decide," Ruby said, pointed at Elm and said, "Stay." Elm froze in motion for a few seconds, until Ruby stopped pointing at her.
"Not cool," Elm said.
"I thought you were all about rooting yourself in place," Ruby said, "In any case, you now also have my semblance, so there's that. Here, I'll show you how you can use it." She went and used her Mentor semblance to teach the three how they can enter their soul cores.
"That's really nice," Nora said and asked, "But can we please get to going on missions now?" Hearing that, Elm laughed.
"The enthusiasm of the youth," Elm said, "You haven't been official huntsmen for an hour and already want to go out and hunt Grimm. I like it."
"Actually," Ruby said, "We've been official huntresses and huntsmen for one hour and one minute already."
"And we didn't come here to hunt Grimm," Maria said, "You can do that if you want, but we came here to kill them. No chance of failure on our side, or survivors on theirs." Marrow walked over to the mission board, smiling at how Ruby and Maria shut down Elm.
"So, who's up for an important mission?" Marrow asked, and everyone but Ruby and Maria raised their hand. Marrow gave the mission board a whirl, and it stopped at crossing guard for primary school children. Everyone but Jaune and Sirena lowered their hand again.
"Looks like the two of us will be going on a mission," Sirena said.
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked and said, "I mean, given your experience, that job is probably too easy for you."
"I'll be fine," Sirena answered, "After all, most of the jobs I took back at Beacon also had me protect people. It's kind of what I do. Besides, the parents are worried for their children, and since someone still hasn't repaired the wall, it means more work for us because the Grimm can just come into the city whenever they feel like it."
"So, how do we do this?" Jaune asked.
"Normally, we should tell each other of our abilities," Sirena answered, "But since we already know what the other is capable of, we can skip that step. Next, I'd say we gather information on potential hazards or risk factors that we need to account for during the mission. I suppose I can take care of that." While Sirena showed Jaune how to properly gather unreasonably large amounts of information by accessing the military's network of camera drones in order to learn the behavioral patterns of every citizen that crosses the route they would go during their mission, Weiss, Maria and Marrow signed up to eliminate some Grimm in the sewers.
~o~
In Salem's throne room, Mercury sat on the table and looked a large dark red egg resting on an unoccupied chair. The eggshell cracked a little, then some more, and finally evaporated. The smoke cleared up, revealing a man with white hair and red eyes, who wore heavy black boots, dark brown cargo pants and a red shirt.
"Dad, wake up," Mercury said, snapping his fingers in front of his father.
"Wha- where am I?" Marcus asked.
"Hey dad, long time no see," Mercury said and asked, "Now, where is my semblance?"
"I told you that you could get it back-" Marcus said, but was cut off by Mercury.
"When I got stronger, yes," Mercury said, "And so far, I've helped someone to kill a maiden, destroyed the CCTS, and now I'm working for a woman who can bring back the dead. Semblance, now."
"Maidens?" Marcus asked, "Do you really expect me to-" The door to the throne room opened and Salem stepped in, cutting him off again. Mercury got off the table and Marcus walked over to Salem. Before he could reach her, she made Grimm arms appear on the chair behind him, pulling him back into the chair.
"Marcus, was it?" Salem asked coldly and said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Salem. Mercury has assured me that you will be a valuable addition to my team. Do not make me regret the decision to bring you back." She let Marcus go, and he rubbed his aching throat.
"Now, my semblance," Mercury said.
Author's note: Yeah, Clover's semblance hasn't been working for a while now.
Some say Sirena is excessive when gathering information for a mission. She says she never fails a mission. Well, there was one case, where she argued with the person she was supposed to protect, causing them to get severely crippled, but it taught her not to try and force others to let her protect them.
Ruby knows something that Sirena didn't plan on her finding out so soon. Any ideas what it could be?