Well, here's the next chapter. A little bit on the shorter side, and I had a lot of this outlined already prior to releasing the last chapter so I could get this one out in a short-ish time. Next one might be a little longer of a wait, but hopefully only 3 weeks or so.
More notes at the end.
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Haven Academy, The Next Day
"Talos," Esper chimed over the comms, "I'm detecting abnormal bending of the electromagnetic field about half a klick east of here, still inside the school grounds, or at least close to it. Consistent with Eliksni active camo."
"A skiff?"
"Huh, maybe." Harmony commented. "Or it could be some sort of dust machinery that the school uses. Would be a pretty terrible cloaking device if a ghost could instantly flag it. We had to get this close before anything looked out of the ordinary on scopes."
Talos turned to the group of huntsmen and huntresses, motioning for them to stop. "We may have a problem. Nothing concrete, but some enemies from my world may be watching. New Light, come with me and check it out. No need for anyone else to come - no guarantee it's even anyone there, and if there is, then it's not your fight anyways. We'll regroup back with you in the central building soon."
Oscar, the young boy, or perhaps the immortal soul sharing his body, nodded, then answered curtly. "Good luck."
Talos and Rose - Ruby? - split off from the group and lept onto a nearby structure, Light trailing off of their legs as it propelled them into the air. Talos spoke through comms as he glided across the gap to the next building.
"Have the hang of your Light-based mobility yet, Rose?"
"Getting used to it, yeah," came the reply. She leapt off of nothing, then briefly disappeared into a ball of lightning before reappearing in a swirl of roses, traveling even farther than Talos had. He could hear her smile in her tone.
"Good! Good." He gestured below, unholstering his hand cannon. "If there's anything to be found, it's down there. Look for anything out of the ordinary."
The newly risen Guardian took out her sniper rifle and looked through the scope as Talos landed softly on the ground.
"Talos, now that we're practically right on top of them, I can tell there's definitely something here. Skiff, likely hovering a dozen or so meters in the air. Almost dead ahead," Esper said, "but I don't understand. How are they here? Why?"
Now, with the aid of the instruments built into his helmet, Talos could see the subtle shifting and shimmering in the light above him, and he could sense the distortion in the electromagnetic fields. He kept walking towards it. "We don't need to know," he said, Void Light coalescing in his fist, "we just need them to die."
He dashed forwards, flying into the air and unleashing a spread of void energy straight into the cloaked skiff. Its camouflage field failed, and, damaged, it twisted to the side trying to get its turrets in position to fire upon Talos. Multiple shanks descended from the underside of the vessel, along with a few smaller-sized Eliksni dregs and wretched with only two of their four original arms.
Talos somewhat doubted that Eramis would continue Docking as a punishment since stranded in this world, so he figured these must have been punished and demoted prior to their arrival here.
His hand cannon fired three times, killing one of the dregs and destroying two of the shanks. The massive plasma cannons on the fore of the skiff opened fire upon Talos, bringing his shields down totally and knocking him back. A phoenix dive brought him to the ground, ready again to fight.
A clap sounded from the roof behind him, and a Vandal in front of Talos collapsed, its upper arms twitching as it fell. Rose's sniper fired again, taking out a shank, and Talos unleashed a spiral of flaming projectiles towards another dreg nearby, disintegrating it. A few shock rounds flew toward Talos, but he slid out of the way, drawing Stormshaper. He stood and held it out, keying the shield function, generating a strong electromagnetic field in front the blade to deflect anything that came near. Pieces of superheated, molten shrapnel smashed into the barrier as Talos advanced towards a captain, but before he reached it, the captain teleported backwards. Talos dropped his guard and dashed to the side as fire hit the ground where he had been.
He heard a crackle of lightning as a whirl of rose petals blurred through his vision. It ended near the captain, as Rose appeared behind it, gripping her hunter's knife tightly and driving it towards the Eliksni's back. Arc energy crackled as shields broke, blasting the New Light back as the captain roared out in pain and anger. It drew a shock blade and swung wildly at its attacker, but she sidestepped deftly and brought her submachine gun level, firing at the captain. It blinked behind some of the nearby brush as the skiff came around, bringing its weaponry to bear and knocking Rose off of her feet. She didn't even get up before blinking away, the second volley hitting nothing but grass.
Talos, who had closed the distance in that time, took the opportunity to step up and lob the Captain's head off with Stormshaper. It crumpled to its knees, and then, down to the floor. "Rose's blinks are impressive," Esper sounded through comms, "Judging by the length of that rose trail, she blinked a good 40-60 feet."
Talos just grunted in response, looking at the skiff. It was dropping a few more Fallen units on top of them - a few shanks, another Vandal, and what looked to be one of Eramis's lower-ranked Barons. He could feel the Darkness emanating from that one.
"Machine-spawn!" The Baroness called, "Your Ghosts' dead husks will make fine trophies for me to bring back to Eramis!"
The Eliksni dropped to the ground, flanked by a pair of shanks, and drew a singular, icy-looking blade. "Legends will be told about this day. About how I, Milleks, felled two lightbearers with the power granted to us by Salvation itself!"
The baroness lunged towards Talos, who sidestepped the first strike, then brought stormshaper up to bat her blade aside. Frostbite materialized in his off hand, and he drove the point towards her throat - but one of her four hands grabbed him by the wrist before the tip could pierce her armor. Dark power surged towards Talos's hand, encasing it in a perfect crystal of solidified nitrogen and oxygen, the entropy and energy being sapped away into a bottomless pit of paracausal Darkness.
Even through his armor and shielding, Talos felt the biting cold. He staggered back, swinging Stormshaper wildly in front of himself and blasting a flow of electricity towards the baroness. Unfazed, she blinked through the attack and behind him, then threw something charged with Darkness onto the ground between them. Talos pivoted quickly, but a field expanded between them, slowing his movements not unlike the effects of a fallen web-mine.
"Huh," Esper chirped over comms, "It's almost like you've undergone a Lorentz Transform into a different, slower frame. But the space-time geometry isn't right for that-"
"Not the time, Esper!" Talos hissed, snapping the fingers of his frozen arm as he pushed Solar Light through it, a torrent of nuclear fire blasting forwards as the atoms in the crystal that moments ago had encased him fused into newer, heavier elements. Much of his attack hit his opponent, causing her to move laterally to evade the rest, and Talos used the opening to icarus dash out of the strange icy field surrounding him, drawing his hand cannon.
The two heard a crackle and an explosion behind them. Talos glanced over his shoulder for just a moment to find that Rose had blinked from her hiding spot in the woods to the fore of the skiff, burying her sword into one of the plasma turrets. She then shoved a grenade made of Light into one of the engines, and vaulted off of the ship's structure as it exploded. Rose landed on the ground in a crouch, then raised one hand toward the skiff, holding in it a flaming revolver, charged with Solar Light.
She really was a quick learner.
Talos turned back towards his adversary, not wanting to be caught off-guard, and comfortable assuming that the New Light could finish off the skiff as he heard a couple shots go off behind him, followed by explosions. The baroness's shields had mostly recharged by this point, but she had also been momentarily distracted by the spectacle behind Talos. But then she raised her shrapnel launcher and fired, forcing Talos to move. She lobbed another Darkness grenade at Talos, trying to slow him down once more, but he reacted fast enough to get out of the field, sprinting to the side while fan-firing his revolver. A few of his shots plinked off of her shield.
Talos saw that another burst of dark energy was about to hit him head-on, but he drew his Dawnblade and plunged it into the ground beneath him, feeling the warmth of his Well helping him counteract the cold Darkness. He squeezed off a few more shots before brandishing stormshaper, calling down a bolt of lightning and redirecting it towards the Eliksni. She screamed as her shielding system overloaded and exploded, shattering a nearby tree. She slammed a fist into the ground, creating a crystal barrier to protect from Talos's onslaught.
Talos took off running towards the hastily-made crystal fortress, drawing his sniper rifle and hip firing a few shots into the crystals, hoping to break them. Just then, Rose vaulted upwards near her, throwing a knife towards the baroness. Talos saw their adversary catch the blade in one of her hands, but then rose blinked forward, holding a second knife, and drove it through her shoulder as she closed the gap between them in an instant. As the Baroness swung her blade, it passed through nothing as Rose blinked away again, taking the Eliksni's arm with her. As she bellowed in pain, Talos used his own blink, gripping frostbite in both hands, and drove the point of the blade through her helmet and out the back of her head.
Milleks, Baroness of House Salvation, was dead before she hit the ground.
Talos pulled off his helmet and looked at his left arm, flexing his fingers. Residual shards of Darkness-frozen crystal flaked off as he did so. Rose was suddenly by his side, petals falling to the ground behind her.
"Are you alright?" she asked, a hint of worry in her voice. "That was the Darkness powers you were telling me about, right? Can that stuff like, destroy your soul or something?"
"I'm fine," Talos responded, "It's just unfamiliar. Still throws me off to fight something like that." He looked up. "Those blinks really are something, New Light. You use them instinctively, perfectly controlling your spacing in a fight. I'd feel sorry for any other newbie going up against you in the Crucible."
Rose beamed at the compliment and nodded. "It just… feels right to use it like that. I guess it makes sense, being like the old me's semblance and all…"
"Yeah," Esper said, materializing over Tal's shoulder, "That paracausal technique and the sort of… muscle memory, if you will, of how to use it, is still etched into you. It's not actually a muscle, but it works similarly. Like how you still knew how to walk, or speak your native language."
"Speaking of," Talos said, tilting his head, "What exactly do you want me to call you from now on? Rose? Ruby? New Light? Just, 'Guardian'?"
She paused for a moment, then replied. "I think it would be best if you just called me Ruby. Is that okay?"
"Guardians aren't supposed to look into their past," Esper said. She bobbed in the air. "Buuut, this isn't exactly a place where standard guardian protocol can be followed, AND you didn't exactly go looking. It got shoved in your face. We'll respect your choices, whatever you decide to call yourself."
"Thank you," Rose - no, Ruby - breathed a sigh of relief. "I may not have the memories of the girl that died on that tower. But people want and expect me to be like her. AND from what I've heard, she sounded like a good person, so I want to be like her too. Better, even." She held her head high. "I'm going to be the best version of myself, and of her, that I can be."
Talos gave a small smile. "There comes a time when we all have to forge our own paths. Make your own fate, then, Ruby." He nodded back towards the school. "Let's make our way back there."
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Leonardo Lionheart was clearly nervous. Though exactly why, Qrow couldn't say. The headmaster of Haven Academy stood at the top of the staircase ahead of the group from Beacon. His expression was strained, and he tapped his fingers in a quick beat on the bannister.
"Qrow!" He called as the group approached. "I know you say the situation is dire, but was this impromptu meeting really necessary? I could h-"
"We know where the maiden is, Leo. My sister has the power. We learned it from some new arrivals that ran into her."
The lion faunus blinked. His eyes flicked briefly to one side as he opened his mouth as if to say something indicating surprise.
Before he could speak, however, Qrow's weapon was in his hand, and he quickly aimed and fired towards the black bird Leo had looked at just beforehand. However, it moved out of the way, as if it had already known what was about to happen.
His sister was here.
Raven, in her bird form, flew around in front of the group, transforming into her human form. She clearly looked ruffled, angry - probably mad that he had recognized her presence so fast.
She wasted no time in drawing her sword, either.
"Raven," Qrow growled. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Sorry brother, but I made a deal."
"With who?"
Raven didn't answer with words. Her sword sliced open a tear in reality, a red and swirling shape that seemed to bend the space around it. As the first of Raven's men started pouring out of Raven's portal, Qrow held his scroll up close to his mouth, keying in to Talos' comm frequencies.
"Talos, my sister is here. She's going to try to open the vault. We need t-"
Raven was on him before he could continue, and Qrow dropped the scroll defending from her relentless assault. Her blade slashed downwards, and the device was in pieces before it hit the ground.
"We'll just have to finish this before your friend gets here, hm?"
Tribe members still poured out of the portal, followed by Cinder and her lackeys. Salem, unsurprisingly, was behind this - Qrow just couldn't believe his sister had folded to her.
"Why, Raven? Why?"
"I'm sorry you were never able to understand, brother. But I'm afraid this is goodbye."
Qrow looked around briefly, seeing all of the shocked students bracing for combat. He raised his own blade, and steeled himself for the fight to come.
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Somewhere in low orbit, a House Salvation ketch hovered, cloaked, far above the sea of Remnant.
"Eramis,"
The Kell looked down at the vandal that had addressed her.
"One of the barons you positioned near the artifact has reported in. They've engaged the Guardians."
Eramis's two working eyes narrowed. "Guardians? There are more of them here?"
"The baroness seemed to indicate that there were at least two, my Kell. Her skiff stopped responding a short while after her first message, indicating that it may be destroyed."
Eramis stood up straight. "No matter. They are making a play for the relic. Set course for the city this message is from - we will confront the Guardians head on, and give the locals a reason to fear us while we're at it."
Eramis turned around and strode off the bridge, two of her arms clasped behind her back, preparing for the coming fight. As she did so, she called back to the Eliksni crewing the ship behind her. "The gifts of the crux that I bestowed unto my barons is strong. Strong enough even to let them stand up to the Machine-Spawn for a time. Anyone who does well enough in the coming conflict may be deemed worthy of that blessing."
The access to extra ether rations went unsaid but was clearly implied. The ship had been running low in this new, strange world.
Eramis met with Praksis, the only one of her council that was stranded with her in this strange world, in the engineering bay. His prototypes for controlling the new dark, cold powers she had discovered were growing more refined by the day.
He greeted her with a short bow, and held up his newest revision: a gauntlet, fit for an Eliksni hand, with multiple layers of insulation and instruments to help manipulate their new powers. "Eramis," he said, "This is my best work yet. I was finally able to integrate some of that technology and data we recovered from the human Exomind facilities back on Europa."
Eramis lifted the device from her subordinate's hands, and slipped it onto her arm, inserting the Splinter of Darkness she had claimed for herself. "You have done well, Praksis. Outfit some of Phylaks's elite that are still with us."
She flexed her fingers, testing out the feel of the new device. "We fly now to confront the Guardian that got us into this mess. With any luck, we'll meet back with our comrades at Riis-reborn soon."
Tonight, this backwards world of primitives would be forced to reckon with the fact that they weren't alone in the universe. She had nothing against this population, per se - they didn't worship and cower beneath the traitor machine like humanity back in Sol. But Eramis wasn't so naive as to think that she could get what she needed to escape this place without a little bit of collateral damage.
These people needed to learn that the rest of the universe was a hostile place. Better to learn it now, from House Salvation, than from the Hive or the Vex, or from their own whirlwind.
And besides, at least her ketch could give the residents of this world a bit of a show.
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Story-wise, the current group inside of Haven is smaller than the one in the show (they don't have Ruby or Yang there.) Raven, being spooked in this, also ordered more of her men through the portal here. This group is heavily on the back foot unless and until Talos and Ruby show up, in which case the dynamic obviously shifts back in their favor. They're close by, so we'll see what happens here.
Also, I want to talk about names for a bit. Some people may be disappointed with Ruby choosing to tie her new identity to her old one, but this is very intentional. It wasn't just a choice I made to make writing this easier. Some Guardians do this, and some don't. In the narrative of Destiny, names are very important, and a change or lack thereof in a character's name sort of denotes that a person is choosing to either change themselves and their own identity or choosing to not do that.
In the Books of Sorrow, Aurash becomes Auryx becomes Oryx, for instance, denoting a significant shift in their character identity each time. In the Marasenna, Alice Li becomes Alis Li, Uldwyn becomes Uldren, but Mara stays Mara despite technically undergoing the same transformation from human to Awoken, because she was in control, and she chose to be the same person. Uldren became Crow when he became a Guardian, and stayed that way even after regaining his memories, but Savathun stayed Savathun, even when she had lost the bulk of her memories, and after she got them back. Ana Bray was and still is Ana Bray even with no memories to be found whatsoever.
In this way, Ruby is choosing to still self-identify as Ruby, because names in this context are about identity. She's not completely done with this struggle about her past, of course, and her lack of memory will continue to be a challenge when interacting with others, but this decision is what I wanted for her in this story and what I thought was best, not something I did for no reason.
As for non-story stuff, I'd like to thank everyone who waited patiently for these couple of years. It's a bit surreal to be working on this again tbh.
Anyways, I'll see you guys next time. I'm aiming for maybe two to three weeks on the next chapter as well, but it MIGHT be a bit longer. We'll see how it goes.