(A/N) I've decided to change my upload day to Fridays, so there won't be one on Monday, but you're getting this now! So... enjoy!

Chapter Ten

A Single Step On A Long Road

/-\ Yang Xiao Long /-\

I stood right behind her as she looked on at the last family portrait we'd ever have. An XCOM operative had retrieved it from Qrow's cabin after we'd left. Now, the picture of me, Mom, Dad, Qrow, Penny, and her was properly framed and hung on the center wall between the bunk beds.

With a nervous twitch, I reached out, placing my hand on Ruby's shoulder. She stiffened, slowly turning her head backwards to meet my gaze. "U- Umm… hey," I said.

Slowly, she wormed her way out of my loose grip and turned to face me. "...hey…" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

I scratched the back of my head. "Umm, Blake wants us to meet her in the gym for aura training."

She blinked. "Us?"

"Yeah, uhh, I got it unlocked yesterday. I'm honestly still not sure why she did it, but I'm not complaining."

She stared at me for a few moments, eyes puffy but not quite crying. "You- you still want to be around me? After what I did?"

"I should be asking you that," I said. "I was… I was angry. I'm still angry. But… not at you. It wasn't really your fault and I said a lot of horrible things." I let out a sigh. "I'm… I'm sorry, sis. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I really am sorry."

She let out a shuddering breath, tears finally spilling free as she lunged forwards and entrapped me in a hug. "I fucked up and I thought you'd hate me forever!"

"I… I don't think I could do that," I said. For just a moment, there was a little voice in the back of my mind that screamed about how she killed him – how I should hate her forever. I simply squeezed her tighter, clamping down on that voice and locking it into the furthest recesses of my mind.

We stayed like that for a while, Ruby softly crying into the crook of my neck while I held her. It brought back memories of simpler times – when she fell off her bike as a kid or got clotheslined by a treebranch in the woods or even when our old dog died. Whenever there was heartache or she hurt herself, she came to me. In my anger, I'd nearly ruined everything we had. Jaune was a great guy – I can't honestly say I wasn't considering marrying him a few years down the line – and his death was a tragedy, but even as good as he was, no boy would ever be worth what Ruby and I had.

Of course, then I realized that the same had just happened sevenfold to Jaune's sisters. I still had my sibling, but theirs was irrevocably taken away by the invaders. Once more, my resolve to get on one of those damn strike teams was affirmed. I already had my first shift with Security in about five hours from now. I had no idea what it would entail, nor what Blake's training would either. I simply knew that both were necessary.

Eventually, Ruby pulled back, drying her face on her sleeve. We both changed into the gymwear provided by XCOM – apparently they had basic sets of clothes for people like us who were completely uprooted with no prior warning – and headed up a level to the gym.

We found Blake easy enough, her guards stuck out like sore thumbs. She seemed not to notice us for a minute, maintaining her side plank while staring off into space. After a few awkward moments of us staring at each other, she finally blinked, hopping back to her feet with seemingly zero effort.

"Ah, good, you're here," she said, moving over to a small backpack off to the side. "I swiped some uncooked spaghetti from the kitchen for practice since we can't go outside and get any sticks. They'll work just as well."

One of the guards blinked. "You did what?" he asked. "We've been watching you this entire time."

"Okay, I requested it from them. Happy?"

"Fine," he mumbled.

"Where does spaghetti come into this?" I asked as she led us over to a series of empty mats.

She took one of them, sitting on her knees. "It's basic aura training. It doesn't really matter what we use, just as long as we don't care about it breaking. I'll get you started before I go through something else with Ruby – she's already graduated from this exercise."

Both of us took our seats on mats next to her. She handed us each a dry noodle and we began what was quite possibly the most frustrating task I'd ever done.

/-\ Ruby Xiao Long /-\

Eventually, Yang had to leave for her new job at Security. We'd taken a few breaks to do simple exercises – even if they'd worn me out – but we had made progress on our aura training. Well, Blake said we did. It really didn't feel like much, but it was at least a distraction.

I was happy that Yang seemed to forgive me, but I still didn't believe her when she said the aliens were at fault for Jaune's death and not myself. So here I was, sitting in the dorm not really doing much of anything. When I closed my eyes, I saw his face… or his head, laid against the hulk of that F-16. I preferred the former. The five of us were planning on having a private funeral for him and Dad – both killed by the aliens far before they should've left us. Though it was only a week out, it still felt like an eternity and a half to wait.

And yet, it already seemed like ancient history that Dad was alive. Things were just so different, then. I worried about normal things like homework, mourning my disappeared mother and sister, being a loner at school… all of them just seemed so childish compared to being a murderer.

The door opened, startling me a bit. In came Mom, once again. "Oh, good, you're here," she said. "C'mon, I think I've got something that'll start getting you back into gear again."

"Huh?"

She gently grabbed my wrist, tugging me out of the chair. "I think half your problem is that you don't have much to do. Well, I talked to Shen and he approved a little apprenticeship program between the two of us. Engineering can always use another set of hands."

"Wha-?" I muttered as she practically dragged me out into the hallway. "Wait, I thought your shift was over today?"

"It is, yeah. I still have my own duties and they'll get done while I'm on the clock. This is something we can do for a few hours while I'm not."

"Umm, okay?" I said. Eventually, she let go of my wrist and we walked through the base's halls. After a few levels of stairs, we arrived in one of the many workshops in the Engineering Quarter of the base. After putting on a hardhat, safety glasses, and earplugs, we let ourselves into the surprisingly vacant space. There was only a single other engineer here, using a welding station in the corner. Mom led me past him to a series of workbenches with some finished parts and a lot of what looked like raw materials. Also a soldering iron, a few printed circuitboards, and a lot of electrical components. "Uhh, what are we doing?"

She sat on a chair in front of the iron, patting the one next to her. "Well, usually our job is to assemble whatever's put on the docket, but seeing as this is a little extracurricular… I convinced Shen to part with a few components that could – with some assistance – become a really nice way to barbeque the aliens at range."

"Wha-?"

"We're building a laser rifle."

I hesitated. The last time I'd touched a weapon… "Oh," I said. Even so, looking at all the components… it was tantalizing. Laser guns were obviously only a thing in science fiction – until now, apparently. Frowning, I picked up a piece, turning it over in my hand. As long as I'm not the one to use it, maybe it's okay? Others can do this better than I ever could anyways.

Mom smirked. "Figured it'd be right up your alley," she said, completely oblivious to what was going on in my head. "They're really new – first batch just rolled off the assembly line a week ago and the men are still retraining on them. The things are really complicated, though, so even with the two of us, it'll probably take a good two weeks to finish this one rifle. But that's still another rifle that someone can use to protect as many people as they can." She turned on the soldering irons. "Now, I know you know how to do this, but I have to go through it just for completeness sake. Hold the iron like this and for the love of God do not touch any part of the metal…"

We got to work. Ever so slowly, thoughts of my deceased friend began leaving my consciousness. This brought back so many good memories from even further back. Memories of just… me and her building something. Last year, she'd even let me help maintain Penny for the first time. Now I was building an instrument to defend our planet. It all seemed so much larger than me.

Over the next few hours, we got through all of the PCBs, but it was already time for supper. Mom said that was a good place to stop for the day and that we'd pick it up tomorrow. I found myself eagerly awaiting it.

The nightmares didn't go away that night, but at least I had something to do now.

/-\ Blake Belladonna /-\

I sat down at the primitive computer, logging in with the credentials they'd finally given me. I still had the two soldiers breathing down my neck and I most assuredly had part of the Base AI's attention – be it Penny or Julian that was watching at any given time. Still, that did not deter me from searching what needed to be searched.

Far more limiting was my simple unfamiliarity with Terran computers – I had to ask the guards a few questions before I got the hang of things. Gods, I feel like a grandma who spent the last few decades of her life off the grid, I thought. Regardless, I powered through, and eventually my investigations bore fruit.

Information on the alien invasion was actually very easy to find, once I figured out how to stop missing things with this stupid mouse peripheral. Why couldn't they have just stuck to hotkeys like we did? The first few articles spoke of the UFOs shot down over Harvard. Some of them lambasted the USAF – whatever that was – for their recklessness in not waiting for the aliens to be over a less populated area. Others touted it as a victory for all Mankind – that Human craft could and would beat the aliens, given enough resources. There was, however, only one that mentioned just how many aircraft had been shot down that day – thirty-eight aircraft with another three severely damaged – and that article was buried quite far down, even sorted below other stories.

I kept digging and found articles on other strange events. People went missing in various parts of the globe after UFOs were sighted in the area, the rate of ghost ships appearing was up over a thousand percent this year alone, freak weather patterns were becoming even more common, and many other things. With every passing second I researched, it became more and more obvious that the aliens were a genuine menace to society here. As if I didn't already know that from seeing them shoot unarmed civilians.

And then I discovered the Yakutsk Massacre.

Aliens had landed in force outside the city several months ago and had just… stormed the place. From the description of survivors, both XCOM and some local military did respond, but there were just so many of them that very few civilians got out. On top of that, there was one account of… a sword-wielding demon. For just a moment, my mind flashed back to my experiences with him. He would be right at home, slaughtering civilians.

I shook my head. No, Adam isn't here, I told myself. He can't be here. I'm the only one. I'm never going to see another person from Remnant… and that's good. A tiny bit of wetness stained my cheek, but I wiped it away. There were more important things to worry about.

I set up a meeting with Bradford; thankfully, he could meet after lunch. I stood outside his office first thing, waiting for him to return. When he did, he was accompanied by a couple more guards. "Standard protocol, Miss Belladonna," he said, stepping into his office. "Come in, have a seat." I did so. It was a tight squeeze, getting all the soldiers in here with us, but we managed it – crowding around his metal desk. "So, what can I do for you?"

"I'm going to cut to the chase… I want to join a strike team," I said. "I've been doing research and I've seen some of the things the aliens do to people. You've seen me in action. This is what I do."

He rested his head on his hands. "I like the sentiment, I really do, but I'm afraid that's just not possible at this juncture."

I blinked. "What? Why? Again, you know what I can do. Why would you not want that on-"

"I do want it, Miss Belladonna," he interrupted. "But unfortunately, the Council doesn't see things that way. I've already got half of them gunning for me for not putting you on a vivisection table the second we met. I need to convince them that you're not with the aliens, which is a hard sell, given where you were found and the fact that you're openly not from Earth."

"But that's-"

"Complete bullshit," he said. "Welcome to the Council of Nations. Personally, you had me convinced that you wouldn't try anything after the first couple days, but it's just not enough for some people. No less than three nations have threatened to pull their funding over concerns we've been compromised."

"Well then what am I supposed to do?!"

He sighed. "Honestly? Just… keep your head down. I've heard you're training the Xiao Long sisters, keep that up. I'll work on the council, and as more things pile up, their attention will be drawn elsewhere. I'm sorry I can't give a better answer, but my hands are tied on this one. Perhaps if we'd covertly recruited you, your origins could've been hidden, but dozens of security cameras at Harvard got a good look at your ears and something like that doesn't go unnoticed."

I stared at him for a long moment, mind whirling. I took off my beanie to have better tactical awareness, I remembered. If I knew they would cause that much trouble… I huffed. "Well, thank you for your time, Central Officer Bradford."

He nodded. "I'll let you know if the situation changes."

"Please do," I said, walking out of his office.

When I was out of earshot of him, I let out a heavy breath. I thought I wouldn't have to deal with racism in a world without Faunus, I thought. So much for that idea.

I looked in the vague direction of the lounge and headed that way. Gods, I needed a drink…

/-\ Weiss Schnee /-\

Another page turned, another sip of tea.

I scribbled down a practice problem in my notebook and got back to reading. The equations in this mechanical engineering textbook were already on the upper edge of what I'd learned from the tutors – it would be good to practice them even more.

Today when I'd gotten to the library, Blake hadn't been there. I did run into that blonde from Harvard in the hallway, though – apparently she'd become a security guard. Part of me wondered why she did it, but then I remembered she'd already had a shotgun even during the battle. It was nearly over by the time she'd made herself known, but she had still shown up… and her friend had paid the price for it.

Someone cleared their throat and I looked up to see an older man wearing a green zip-up sweater. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Possibly. Mind if I sit? These old bones aren't quite what they used to be."

"Go ahead," I said, closing my book after putting a scrap of notebook paper inside to mark the page.

He sat down with a grunt. "Apologies for the sudden intrusion, I simply noticed what you were reading and found myself curious."

"Well, mister…" I checked the nametag he was wearing. "Doctor Shen, I simply have a desire to continue my education. After all, it appears I will be interned here for an unknown amount of time."

"Ah… my apologies for that. You must understand, the nature of this war forces some… unsavory decisions to be made."

I frowned. "And I'm sure that explanation will be of great comfort to the people who likely think I'm dead now."

"Right. My apologies again. Anyways, the book. You have an interest in mechanical engineering?"

"Automotive specifically, but mechanical engineering is obviously a significant portion of that," I said. "It should be fairly obvious as to where the interest stems from."

He nodded. "Yes, you are somewhat of a local celebrity, Miss Schnee. And you are far from alone in wanting to follow in your family's footsteps – I first picked up a wrench in my father's garage, helping him when he occasionally brought work home, after all. If my little Lily has her way, she'll be right beside me in a decade or two."

I blinked. "Your daughter wants to be an engineer too?"

"Of course. Ever since I fixed up her bike a few years back, she's been keenly interested. I brought her here when the Project was activated and she's basically made Engineering her second home. She can't do much, of course, but she likes watching." He chuckled. "She calls me The Maker of Cool Things."

"That's… sweet," I said. "Well, I do appreciate this little conversation, Doctor, but I should probably get back to my studies."

"Yes, yes you should. But before I go, I actually had an offer for you," he said. "One of my engineers has started an apprenticeship program of sorts. She already has a student, but one or two more can't hurt, if you're interested."

"I…" I cut myself off. I'd been about to refuse him just as I'd refused Corporal Durand, but… now I'd seen more of XCOM. I still hated that I was kept here against my will, but I was starting to see it may be a little more complicated than that. "I'll… think about it."

He nodded, producing a scrap of paper and sliding it across the table. "Well, if you decide to take me up on my offer, you can contact the engineer in question at this terminal address." He stood up with a grunt. "Good day, Miss Schnee."

"And you, Doctor Shen…" I said, looking at the paper he'd left.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to get some experience in the field…

On A Planet Far, Far Away

/-\ Ruby Rose /-\

We strode through the ruins of the latest Mistralian town – Oniyuri, Ren and Nora had called it. They'd compared it to Mountain Glenn and, looking around, I could easily see why. Ruined buildings, slashes everywhere, the whole works. All that was missing were the bodies, but this place had apparently never been completed. Small mercies.

Ren suddenly stopped, holding up a hand. He was always in-touch with his surroundings, so we four all froze mid-step. When he grabbed Stormflower off his thigh, the rest of us readied our weapons as well. I turned around, looking past Jaune and Yang towards the entrance of the village. I heard the thunk of someone landing heavily to my side, looking over, I saw a wild-eyed huntsman in a brown duster, already charging Ren.

He barely got a few shots off before he was knocked aside, the madman gunning straight for me. I didn't fare much better than Ren, only deflecting two of his strikes with Crescent Rose before he landed a blow that sent me spinning. I got up as soon as I could and saw Yang land a hit, only to be knocked down, herself. She did, however, allow Jaune to get in a heavy hit that caused the huntsman to miss a strike against my prone sister.

I raised Crescent Rose and fired several shots, each one half-heartedly deflected by a single one of his gauntlets while the other fended off Ren. Yang fired the gauntlet strapped to her leg, sending it straight into the back of the huntsman's knee. As he fell, Yang fired again, this time from her arm gauntlet – it both hit him in the face and propelled her out of grappling range. I couldn't blame her – she wouldn't want to tangle with someone so obviously skilled while down an arm.

The man spun on the ground, righting himself almost instantly while firing off shots from his wrist gauntlets. Ren ducked behind Jaune, who braced his shield against the onslaught. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nora grin like a madwoman, hefting her grenade launcher. The front popped open, revealing a full salvo of six high-explosive grenades with little hearts on them. Less than a second after she pulled the trigger, there was a brand new smoking crater where the creepy huntsman used to be.

We all relaxed just a tad, still tense. "Just who the hell was that guy?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, my name is Tyrian," a voice said from inside the smoke cloud. All of us tensed up again as it cleared, revealing the same man as he discarded the brown rags that his duster had been turned into. "And I liked that coat." He slowly strode out of the crater, stopping on the ruins of stone pavers just at the lip. "I think I'm done playing with my food now. Come along, little Rose, you have had the privilege of being personally noticed and summoned by Her Grace."

I blinked. "Wha- me? I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"Oh, you misunderstand," he said, taking in a deep breath. "The summons is not a reques-"

Nora shot him again with the grenade launcher, enveloping the area around him in smoke and extending the crater significantly. She shrugged as we looked at her. "What? It was pretty obvious he wasn't gonna take no for an answer. He's a real cree-"

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, diving towards me. I caught her meaning immediately and jerked to the side with my semblance just as a scorpion tail thrust through the space where my body was only a moment ago and grazing my side. I heard fabric tear and felt a much more sharp pain than usual – hadn't gotten my aura up quite quick enough. I looked back, raising my weapon, only to see Tyrian's smirking face as he slashed at my sister with his tail.

Yang deflected the strike with her black pauldron as I slashed in retaliation, but he parried my blow with one of his gauntlets. Crescent Rose ended up at a weird angle in my grip and it was easily wrenched away, clattering to the ground a few feet away. I gasped, now defenseless and with Yang tied up dealing with his tail. My attempt at a punch only resulted in my arm being caught. I struggled and flailed, but I couldn't do anything to break his grip.

He slashed at me with his other blade, breaking my aura but not physically harming me. "Ruby!" Yang shouted. "Ruby get out of there!" I tried – I struggled, I pulled, I kicked, but nothing did anything. A large shadow blocked out the sun for just a moment. I looked up in time to see a tattered red cape, and a ginormous blade seeking Tyrian's head. The impact jarred him and I was finally able to pull free. I lost my footing on a loose paver, slipping onto the ground and-

The sharpest pain I'd ever felt shot through my stomach. I gasped, the motion sending lances of pain through me as something moved inside my belly. My hands went there first, finding a smooth and sticky hunk of blocky metal. Then my eyes trailed downwards and I saw a spike sticking out of my stomach, just to the left of center.

I gasped again, more blood coating the red-painted metal. My breaths got quicker and shallower, the noises of battle began fading, the world began to lose color. I heard someone shout my name – a girl's voice, a girl's voice I knew well. I looked over to its source and barely registered my sister standing there, mouth agape and tears leaking from her eyes. I looked down again, at the spike of my weapon, and let out a choked laugh. "Looks like I owe you twenty lien, sis…" I said, remembering our little bet from when we were kids.

I felt arms around me, but they weren't Yang's. No, she was way over there – by that building. Her hair was burning the brightest I'd ever seen. I could even see her aura, a literal inferno as she and Qrow beat… the other huntsman mercilessly.

My eyes drifted closed. There was a… coolness in my stomach now. People were shouting my name, but I was just so tired. There was a warmth… around some of the hands touching me.

It felt… nice.

(A/N) Being impaled on your own weapon… sounds quite unlucky, eh? Since it'll be two weeks before we get another Remnant PoV, though, I think I'll say here that Jaune unlocked his semblance just in the nick of time here. I mean, these are the exact same circumstances that lead to him unlocking it in canon, just with Ruby instead of Weiss. Also, yes, the name is a pun… partially because it was a single step that put Ruby in peril here, but also because the people on Earth are taking steps to recover from Harvard. I love it when a simple title has more than one meaning, like that.

Other than that, not really all that much to say here, so I'll see you all next Friday! Upload time will either be noon-ish US Central, or about now-ish (7:30 - 8:00)... at least until my work schedule switches for summer in a few months.