Forgot to Remember to Forget

[ThatOnePsycho]

Qrow stared at the landmass above Vale, before looking down at Glynda and Ozpin, offering a weak smile, "Can't just be some experiment of Jimmy's or something, right?"


Glynda didn't dignify it with a response, continuing to stare out the clocktower window. Ozpin, on the other hand, cracked a small smile, "I'll have to ask him at our monthly meeting, if you can't figure it out, Qrow, but I doubt it."


"So you want me to, what, find a way past the barrier and take a peak around?"


"The later, yes. The former isn't needed," Ozpin said, "the barrier isn't airtight, according to the bullheads' pilots that have gone close enough. The spaces between are just too small for them to fly through."


"Convenient," Qrow said.


"If the barrier blocks off air, they need to keep holes big enough to let air through, theoretically," Ozpin shrugged, opening the window and waving his hand, "off you go, Qrow."


"I'm on it, I'm on it," Qrow waved a hand, shrinking down into his crow form and taking off out the window and into the sky.


Less than five minutes later, he was gliding along the sharp, red, crystal face of the barrier around the island in the sky. Finding a long, if small, hole between two of the faces, Qrow slipped in. Looking around, he nearly stopped beating his wings.


Along the edge of the sky island were walls bristling with archaic defenses. Ballistas, trebuchets, a few cannons, pre-Great War, all of it. And passed that, an idyllic farming town with a castle at the center, men, women and children working the fields. As he flitted over, he noticed a green haired girl look up from where she was clearly chatting the ear off of a blue haired man, tugging the tunic he was wearing and pointing up at Qrow.


Qrow sped up, flying over stone pillars built in the fields and towards the castle as fast he could. Even if it was empty, that would answer one question. And if it wasn't, well…


That would open up a whole lot more.


—


Shez exited the castle to the Breidablik flipping through the air, shifting into sword form as it did and landing in Ruby's hand. An effortless spin of her fingers saw it flipped again and shifted into spear form, "Coin for your thoughts?"


Ruby didn't say anything at first, just flipping the spear into the air and catching it in Crescent Rose form. The white and gold scythe came down, resting on the balcony so the scope was even with Ruby's hooded head. Finally, she seemed satisfied with whatever she saw so she flipped the scythe back into the form of a pistol. The white, gold filigree covered cloak swiveled around and silver eyes met purple, "Oh, Shez. I didn't hear you come out!'


"I could tell," Shez said, brushing her puple hair out of her face and placing two goblets on the wooden table in front of Ruby before sitting down with a corked bottle and raising it with a smirk. Ruby cracked a small grin.


"Couldn't get ale?" Ruby said.


"As the lady summoner's assistant," Shez faked an Adrestian accent for the words, cracking a grin at the giggle from Ruby, "I'm just as confined to the castle as you are until we figure out what we're doing. So no, no ale, and no cookies from the bakery either."


"Dastards," Ruby giggled.


"Absolute dastards," Shez agreed, "So, we're stuck with wine. Want some, or will I be drinking alone?"


"I'll take some," Ruby said, pushing the goblet towards Shez, who opened it with glee. Decanting the wine into both goblets, Shez pushed one towards Ruby and toasted her.


"From one mercenary to another," Shez said.


"Excuse me," Ruby sniffed, faux-hautily, "That's one landed noble to another."


"Landed Mecenary and we split the difference," Shez laughed, "We both know neither of us would be nobility if we didn't have to be."


"To your health, Shez," Ruby said, drinking the wine. Glancing around, Shez lowered her voice.


"So, listen. If you wanted to sneak off and out of this place, we could."


"Go to the bakery?" Ruby joked.


"No, I mean leave the Resort for a bit," Shez said, "I'm sure you got places you want to go that they're keeping you from. All we gotta do is ask Arval, Epimenides created the barrier so they can drop a part of it for us to sneak through. I'll be with you, so they can't even complain you snuck out alone. I am," Shez retook the Adrestian accent, "your bodyguard, my lady."


Ruby didn't respond to the joke at first, just stared at Shez. Finally, she spoke, voice cracking, "You'd do that for me? We'll get in trouble-"


"Bah, what's the worst that could happen? They can't try you for insubordination, since they need you. And you won't let me hang for anything. What's on your mind?"


"Beacon for one," Ruby said, pointing out the red crystal barrier towards a tower below them, "Last time I saw it, there was a huge Grimm clinging to the tower. I wanna know how they got it off, but that can wait."


"Then what can't?" Shez urged.


"Yang and Dad," Ruby admitted, "I ran off to save the world and left them behind. I need to apologize to them. I guess the world… didn't need to be saved after all…"


Ruby downed most of her goblet in one gulp, eyes staring out over the balcony, "I never said goodbye to them. I'm not, I'm not any better than Blake or Weiss about that. My sister lost an arm and I just- just- just ran off to play hero."


"And then you became one," Shez said, resting a hand on her shoulder, "So hold your head high and go home with stories to tell. You're a tyrant toppler, a god killer, Askr's summoner. You are a hero. So let's go and show your family what you did."


Ruby cracked a smile, standing up, "Ok, let's go."


—


Ruby ran a hand down one of the wyverns in the stables, before a voice spoke up from behind her and Shez and caused her to jump, "So you're heading out then?"


"Fjorm!" Ruby whipped around to see the other young woman approaching, her blond hair that transitioned to frosty blue at the tips, the opposite of Ruby's dark hair lightening to red, was swaying in the light breeze winding its way through the Aether Resort. Leiptr, her golden spear with a blade of ice, resting butt first on the ground, "What are you doing here?!"


"Waiting for you," Fjorm said.


"Here to stop me?" Ruby said, knowing she sounded like a scolded puppy. Fjorm's hand touched her face, making her look up to see her quirked lips.


"Of course not," Fjorm said, "I'm going with you."


"I- bwuh?" Ruby blinked at Fjorm, not even responding as Fjorm gave her a peck on the lips, "What?"


"I'm going with you," Fjorm said, walking over to a pegasus and casually mounting it, "If you feel the need to go somewhere, we're going. Alfonse expected you to go, so he asked me to help you."


"...I love that man," Ruby breathed, "and I love you, Fjorm. Shez, when you settle down and get married, make sure it's to someone as awesome as these two."


"I'm never getting married," Shez snorted, climbing on one of the wyverns, "too much of a hassle."


"Can we please hurry up?" Arval said, "We don't want you getting caught, do we? Don't take this personally, but everyone here other than Fjorm have rather distinctive appearances."


"Right," Ruby climbed onto her wyvern and shifted her cloak, "Thanks for this, Arval. You didn't have to do this."


"Come on, ruining the bodyjacker's spell for a minute? I wanted to, Ruby," Arval said as the trip goaded their steeds into the air and towards the crack Arval opened in the barrier, passing through it and out over Vale before entering over the ocean.


"Patch is about two hours away by boat!" Ruby called over her shoulder, taking the Breidablik off her hip. She missed the original form of Crescent Rose, but the fact that the Breidablik had been destined for her, and the fact that it could transform into a copy of her beloved scythe, made it a worthy replacement, "So probably half an hour by air!"


"Are we expecting enemies?" Shez called.


"Always expect Grimm on Remnant!" Ruby called back, resting the pistol form of the Breidablik on her thigh, "You never know when they're gonna show up!"


"Right," Shez grabbed the white and blue bone sword that represented her bond with Arval. On her other side, Fjorm couched her lance.


It was ultimately unnecessary, they made their way across the sea to a few bubblings that went nowhere, passed over Patch and landed just outside the piece of property that belonged to Ruby's family. Climbing off the wyvern, Ruby ran a hand down its back.


"This is the place, huh?" Shez said.


"It's so small," Fjorm said.


"It hasn't changed at all," Ruby said, opening the gate of the fence and beginning to walk towards the front door. As worn travel boots crushed the yellow gravel below her feet, years of baggage faded.


The wars with Embla, with Niðavellir. Their travels through Dökkálfheimr and Ljósálfheimr. The dead version of Askr looking for Angrboða's Heart to stop Hel. The thrum of battle as she thought she would lose Alfonse to Hel's curse, the flames of Múspell and cold of Nifl, traveling through Sanus to reach Mistral.


Slowly, not even really aware of what she was doing, Ruby rapped her fist against the door. She expected one of two things, her dad opening the door, gray in his blond hair, or Yang to open it, hair even longer than it had been when she had last seen her.


What she didn't expect, was a miniature version of herself to open the door, red cloak off, "Hello-"


Ruby stared at Ruby.


Alfaðör was a dastard alright. ALFAÐÖR WAS A COMPLETE AND UTTER-


"Dad!" Little Ruby turned, rushing into the house, "DAAAAADDDDD!"


"What. Just happened?" Shez asked.


"We're pulling a Líf," Ruby said, toying with the raised brim of her hood.


"That dastard," Shez said after a second, realizing what she meant. This wasn't Ruby's Remnant.


"How do you think I feel!" Ruby said, pushing open the door and walking inside, "At least that explains how they got the dragon off the tower!"



—


"DAAAAAAD!" Tai looked up at the tone in Ruby's voice, putting down the paper and opening the door as she came barreling to his chest at super speed.


"I told you not to run like that inside the house, Rosebud," Tai chided without any heat, only for Ruby to immediately grab his hand and begin to tug him towards the stairs, "What's up?"


"Therearethreeladiesdownstairsandoneofthemlookslikemom!" Ruby blabbered out, causing Tai to freeze in place as he deciphered what she was saying.


"There's somewhere downstairs that looks like your mother?" Tai asked, and Ruby nodded rapidly, eyes wide. Tai's lips tightened, and he made his way down the hall and to the staircase. It wasn't like Raven, it wouldn't be like Raven, it couldn't be like Raven. He had loved them both, but Raven and Summer had been as different as night and day. Summer would have never, ever abandoned them, only to show up on the doorstep years later-


It wasn't Summer. He could see how Ruby, at a look, had thought it was Summer, the white cloak over her head and silver eyes staring up at him, but Tai knew Summer far better than Ruby did. The face was more angular, the bust fuller. Her beloved white cloak with a red inside was replaced with a cream colored one, embroidered with lines of gold. Her black and white dress was replaced with a red and black combat skirt and bodice and she was playing with Zwei happily.


"Who are you?" Tai demanded, looking at the other two. Leaning against one wall was a woman with long purple hair and eyes the same color, one eye hidden by her hair, wearing armor of gunmetal gray with red on the underside of her breasts and her stomach, scarves of the same color trailing down her back and a pair of black torn half hakama around her waist. Next to the fireplace, looking at the pictures on the mantle, was a woman wearing a white and blue minidress, golden shoulderpads embedded with pale blue crystals and a golden tiara on her head.


"This is gonna seem real weird," Not-Summer said, reaching for her hood and toying with it for a second before pulling it down. Tai heard Ruby breath in behind him, while his heart stopped in his chest. That voice was…


The woman lowered her hood, revealing familiarly shaped silver eyes, spiky black hair that lightened to red. Tai felt his jaw drop, "That- This isn't - This is a Semblance, isn't it-"


"No," Ruby Rose said, giggling slightly as Zwei licked her cheeks, "I missed you too, boy! Is Yang home? I'd rather we didn't need to explain this more than once."

 

[Balrog]

Interesting, I recognize RWBY but what is the other half to this story? Is it a crossover or something you came up with?

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Interesting, I recognize RWBY but what is the other half to this story? Is it a crossover or something you came up with?

Click to shrink...

WHY DO I ALWAYS FORGOT TO ADD THAT ON SUFFICIENT VELOCITY!?

*STOMP OFF TO FIX IT*

Ahm, anyways, the other half of the crossover is Fire Emblem Heroes, the FE Gatcha game. Essentially, you (in this case, You is Ruby) are summoned to act as the Summoner to the Order of Heroes. I decided that after copious schinanagary and god killing, Alfaðör (the FEH version of Odin, named such because Fire Emblem already has an Odin) decided to get rid of them for a bit. Why? Well, that's to be shown in time.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Fjorm looked at the blond haired young woman with purple eyes as she stared at them, offering a friendly smile before looking back at the pictures on the mantelpiece, "Just ignore me and Shez if it makes things easier, Yang. We can even step outside if you want."


"Don't let Anna know you said that," Shez said, "I swear, she hates it any time I let Ruby out of my sight."


"To be fair," Ruby said, "Letting me out of your sight is the exact moment where an assassin would try to get me. But yeah, if you want Shez and Fjorm to leave the room, you three, they can. I trust you… well, I trust you as much as I trust myself. Kinda hard not to when one of you is me."


"Why would you need to worry about assassins?" Little Ruby asked, "I'm strong enough to beat anyone!"


"Someone can still be overwhelmed by numbers," Ruby pointed out without any heat, "I know I can defend myself, but having a partner to help doesn't hurt. It's rare for me to fight alone."


Little Ruby seemed to pout at the concept. That was strange. Ruby had never been particularly adverse to working with others in the time Fjorm had known her. Had she grown out of this?


"So, uh, you know me?" Yang asked.


"Ruby talks about you," Fjorm offered, "She loves to tell stories of you, Weiss and Blake."


"Who?" Yang said.


"Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee," Ruby offered, "They were… are… will be, whatever, on our team back, uh… holy crap this is annoying. We were Team RWBY at Beacon."


"Why would we be on the same team at Beacon?" Yang asked.


"I was let in a couple years early," Ruby said, to the puffing of Little Ruby's chest.


"Anyways, yes, Ruby likes to talk about you all," Fjorm said.


"How many times has she told the food fight story?" Shez teased.


"C'mon," Ruby protested, "That story is awesome!"


"Maybe the first time. The fifteenth? Not so much," Shez said.


"I'm sorry I only had a year of stories to tell!" Ruby said, before sighing, "So anyways, do you want Fjorm and Shez to step out?"


"If you trust them," Tai said, staring at her tight lipped, "They can stay."


"I trust Shez with my life, and Fjorm with more than that," Ruby said, fervently.


"Flatterer," Fjorm said.


"It's the truth," Ruby said, "this isn't how I wanted it to happen, but I always wanted you and Alfonse to meet my family."


"I don't think any of us expected for it to happen this way," Fjorm said.


"Anyways," Ruby sighed, putting her hands on her legs, "Where do we start with this?"


—


Yang stared at the older version of her younger sister. Ruby, her Ruby, and Dad were doing the same. Behind her, purple haired woman was looking around with a tilted head. Finally, the purple haired woman said, "Where do you keep your alcohol?"


"I, uh," Dad blinked, before coughing, "I don't drink, and I prefer to keep alcohol out of the house."


"Ah," she said, like Dad saying that had revealed something to her, "alright, then."


And then she leaned against the wall again as if she hadn't said anything, while Dad coughed into his hand, "Why don't you introduce us to your friends, Ruby? That's a good way to start."


"Right," Ruby nodded, running her hand through her spiky hair. Finally, she gestured to the blond haired woman staring at a picture of Yang and Ruby, "This is Fjorm, a princess of the realm of Nifl. We helped save it from being conquered by Surtr, king of the realm of Múspell. Afterwards, for some reason, she decided to stay with the Order of Heroes as a full time member."


"Gloating will get you nowhere, dear," Fjorm chided as Ruby shot the Xiao Long signature grin at her.


"Love you," Ruby said, causing little Ruby to squeak.


"Give the kid a heart attack, why don't you?" The purple haired woman chuckled as little Ruby sank back into the couch with a blush on her face.


"Y-you two, uh," little Ruby stammered out, "You two are, uh, uh, aredatingthen?"


"Yeah, we're in a relationship," Ruby chuffed a laugh, "it's a bit of a complicated one, so don't worry about it."


"I thought you liked that blue haired guy in the year between us?" Yang said, not sure which Ruby she was asking, and getting a bark of laughter from Purple.


"I don't-" little Ruby started to protest.


"I did-" older Ruby said.


"So you have a type, then?" Purple laughed.


"What?" Yang deadpanned.


"Don't worry about it," older Ruby waved his hand, "my romantic life isn't why we're here."


"She isn't cheating on you, is she?" Dad asked Fjorm, sounding worried.


"Nothing so sordid," Fjorm said, "it's a complicated relationship, but we make it work. Anyways, dear, introductions?"


"Right," Ruby said, gesturing towards Purple, "this is Shez, one of the first people I summoned when I joined the Order of Heroes."


"Summoned?" Little Ruby asked.


—


Ruby watched the older version of herself reach down and pull the gun off her hip. Yang started to move in front of Ruby before the older one flipped it so the barrel was pointing directly at her own chest and offered it to Ruby. She shook ot slightly, "Go on, take it. It won't hurt me."


Ruby reached out, taking the heavy gun from the other Ruby and began to look it over. Heavy, smooth, white stone was interrupted with lines of golden metal, ending on a oval barrel made of several layers of gold formed over each other. It sat in Ruby's hand, warm and slightly off, like it wanted to fit but couldn't quite, "What is this?"


"The Breidablik," other Ruby said, the same affection Ruby held for Crescent Rose in her voice, "a legendary relic from the world of Zenith. It summoned me to be its wielder, oh, what's it been, Shez, five years now?"


"Might be six, your sixth birthday since we met is coming up in a couple of months," Shez threw out, having knelt down to play with Zwei.


"How old does that make you?" Dad asked.


"Twenty One," other Ruby said.


"So you were 'summoned'," Dad practically spat the word, taking hold of the hand not holding the Breidablik just a bit too tight, "when you were sixteen?"


"Sounds a bit like a horror story, doesn't it?" Other Ruby said, reaching out to gently tug the Breidablik from Ruby's hand and returning it to it's holster, "it isn't as bad as it sounds, I promise. Life on Remnant was, it was rough when I was summoned. I won't pretend I don't have regrets, I came to visit because I thought this was my Remnant and I wanted to apologize to my Yang and Dad. But I'm happy in Askr. I have plenty of friends, and if I had to guess, if you turned on the news, they'd probably be talking about where we all live. We weren't subtle."


"That sky island?" Dad asked.


"What sky island?" Ruby and Yang asked as one.


"An island showed up over Vale earlier today," Dad said, "that was you?"


"To be fair, we didn't mean to show up on Remnant at all. A… enemy showed up and used a spell to throw us here, probably to weaken us… or maybe distract us… or maybe help us. It's hard to tell with Alfaðör."


"Why would an enemy help you?" Ruby asked, tilting her head.


"Things the aesir do almost never make sense," other Ruby practically whined, "We have one that works with us and she's…"


"A bitch?" Shez finished, laying on her back and petting Zwei, who had happily popped down on her chest.


"I don't want to speak ill of an ally," Fjorm started, "but after that incident with the bunny suit, I don't feel saying "sex crazed" is speaking ill."


Bunny suit? "What's wrong with bunny suits? They're adorable!"


Silence stretched for a second, before other Ruby's hand fell into her face and Shez sounded like she was choking on something, "Not that kind of bunny suit, rosebud. Askr, was I seriously that naive at fifteen?"


"It took me getting a wedding dress made for you to realize I liked someone," Fjorm pointed out, "it took you another year to realize it was you. Your naivete is one of your most appealing traits."


"Did that actually happen?" Yang asked.


"Yes," other Ruby, Fjorm and Shez all said.


"You said things were rough when you were summoned," Dad said, breaking from watching the banter with a strange look on his face, "How?"


—


Tai watched the Older Ruby lock up for a second, before she met his eyes, sliver staring into blue before she said, "Does it matter? I'm not gonna let it rest until I get authorization to bring the full might of the Order of Heroes to bear to keep it from happening."


"So it was something bigger than our family?" Tai asked, feeling some relief going through him.


"If you're trying to figure out if we had a fight or something, it was bigger than that. Don't worry about it," Ruby's voice was clipped and evasive, and she broke from looking at Tai's eyes. Tai reached out, taking her hand.


"Ruby, Rosebud, look at me. Please," Tai pled, and Ruby's eyes flickered to Tai before looking away again, shame in them, "I might not be your Tai, and you might not be my Ruby, but you're still my daughter, and you said you had something to apologize to me and Yang for. What? Why?"


"...I ran away from home," Ruby finally admitted, to gasps from Yang and her younger self, "Beacon and the CCT had fallen, Ozpin was missing, probably dead, and Qrow thought that Professor Lionheart and Haven were next, so I grabbed some friends and headed east, leaving a letter explaining why I was going. That was the last time I saw you."


"Was it your team? RWBY?" Tai asked, and Ruby shook her head, rubbing her eyes.


"I had blacked out at the Fall, had to do with these," Ruby waved a hand lamely over her face. No, not her face, her eyes, "by the time I woke up, Blake had run off to Askr only knows where, Weiss's father had shown up and dragged her back to Atlas, and Yang wasn't in any place to be going anywhere, so I headed off wth a team from our year that had lost a member. I like to imagine that if I hadn't been summoned we would have met up one day, but it's probably wishful thinking. What are the chances we'd all end up in Mistral?"


"You left without me?" Yang said, "Why-? I would have gone with you!"


"I know you think that now," Ruby said without any emotion, "But I saw you after… everything. Even if I had dragged you out of bed and with us, you would have just been a walking Grimm magnet. You weren't-"


Tai had time to realize red had bled into Yang's eyes before she lunged across the table, a loud crack echoing. Fjorm whipped around, grabbing the spear she had on her back, while Shez shot up, Zwei yelping, and grabbed a bone sword out of thin air.


Ruby didn't flinch at the shattered chairback, or the large splinter that had scraped her cheek, leaving red aura flashing. She didn't flinch as Yang grabbed her by the front of her cloak and dragged her out of her chair, "I would never, ever leave Ruby! You're- you're just saying that because you acted like, like Mom! I would-"


"Yang!' little Ruby said, while the older one just stared at Yang without showing any sign of anything in front of the dragon's rage. Finally, she spoke.


"Outside," she said, not breaking sight from Yang's gaze, "c'mon, if you want to throw punches we can. But we're gonna do it outside. There's no point in destroying the house."


Yang hesitated for a second, before dropping Ruby, who immediately caught herself, "Fine. Outside."


"She needs this," Ruby muttered to the group once Yang had stormed out of the room, "She would have backed off if I let her, but she needs this."


"You shouldn't encourage her to be throw tantrums-" Tai started, only for Ruby to shake her head.


"It's not a tantrum, she doesn't get why I would have left her. She needs to get this out of her system," Ruby said, handing the Breidablik to Fjorm.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Yang rushed towards the Older Ruby the minute Shez stepped out from between them with a resigned look on her face, Ruby's cloak in hand. Seconds before the haymaker hit, Ruby's hand snapped up and caught it, pushing it up so it sailed over her head harmlessly. Yang growled, pulling her hand from the grip while launching a quick punch with her other hand. Ruby dropped, the punch flying over her head harmlessly, and Yang launched a knee at her jaw, only for Ruby to roll out of the way.


"Stay still and fight me!" Yang barked, to Ruby shaking her head.


"This fight ends when you land a clean hit on me," Ruby said, "not a second sooner, and I won't be making this easy for yo-"


"Shut up!" Yang rushed forwards, throwing another punch at Ruby, only for it to be batted aside. The next punch was dodged just as easily, and the next, and the next, and the next.


Uppercut was caught and thrown wide, haymaker was ducked under with ease, rabbit punch was dodged by seemingly turning into flower petals and letting Yang fly through her before reforming.


Guess Ruby had practiced with her Semblance while she was gone. That was gonna make landing a punch harder.


"Why!?" Yang demanded, "Why would you… I'm your sister! Why would you leave me!?"


"Would it make you feel better if I had a good reason?" Ruby asked, voice not holding any heat, "Or would it make you feel worse about yourself?"


"I-" Yang went silent, trying to think. Would she feel better about Ruby leaving if there was a good reason? What would a good reason even look like? "I deserve to know. If it isn't, I… I can't forgive it, but if there is a good reason, I'll know it when I hear it! And that way, I can keep it from happening to us!"


Ruby curled her lips upwards, and at that exact moment, Yang decked her flat across the face, sending her flying back through the air. Shez was immediately between them while Fjorm rushed over to help Ruby up. That was… it had been too easy, Ruby had practically stood there and taken the punch, "You let me hit you!"


"I don't know what you're talking about," Ruby waved, "You nearly took off my jaw there. Feel better?"


Ohhhh, "So what happened, why'd you leave me?"


"You lost an arm," Ruby said, and Yang immediately locked up, "trying to protect Blake from some White Fang thug. You were, you weren't getting out of bed, you had… you had a thing for Blake, I think, and her running off after you lost an arm to protect her kinda just… it broke you. You said you didn't care what I did, you were just going to lie in bed! That was it, that was how you acted from then. You just wanted to stay in bed feeling bad about what we had lost, but I wouldn't, I couldn't let that be the end. I had to protect Remnant, so I left. If you think that's a bad reason for leaving you, I'm sorry but I don't think a good reason exists to you!"


"I lose an arm?" Yang said weakly, and Ruby immediately locked up in turn, before pushing off Fjorm and past Shez so she could grab Yang gently by the arms.


"Hey, no, listen to me. My Yang lost an arm, if we go into this thinking that what happened in my timeline will happen in this one, we've lost. I know the future can be changed, and we will change it. I promise."


"You sound… you sound so sure," Yang said.


"I've seen it happen before. My… other, significant other, Alfonse. We met a version of him from another timeline where things went wrong in a way that makes what happened with me look hilariously minor and petty. If we could keep what happened in his timeline from happening, we can stop my timeline from happening. There are parts that should, you and little Ruby should go to Beacon together, you should meet Blake and Weiss and become friends with them… more, if you want. But the bad parts won't happen, not if I have anything to say about it."


"Feh!" Fjorm called, and suddenly a fluffy owl dropped from the sky and landed on her shoulder, "I suppose that Commander Anna noticed we're gone and sent you with our reproach?"


The owl's head bobbed, and it held out a leg with a note on it. Fjorm took the letter, reading it.


"She says she isn't angry at us," Fjorm said, "but we need to head back. Your Uncle Qrow was found snooping around the Keep."


"Well," Ruby shot a grin at Yang, Dad and little Ruby, "How do you want to see a castle in the sky?"


—


Qrow landed on the balcony leading to an open door, hopping inside and looking around carefully. Once he was sure nobody was in it, he changed shape and began to seriously look around.


Question, was this castle in use? Answer, oh, hell yes. Qrow had been almost caught, or at least noticed, five times trying to find a room to transform in. Most of the castle, it seemed, was barracks for soldiers, with the highest rooms being reserved for officers, if he had to guess from the less uniform nature of them. And this was one of the highest rooms in the castle. Not the highest, but one of them.


Against one wall was a carefully made king-sized bed with alternating blood red and black sheets, the curtains pulled tight over the windows were the same shade of red, and against another wall sat a desk full of scrolls of parchment, flanked on either side by a pair of bookshelves. One full to the seams, while the other was more sparsely filled. Strategist, maybe?


Before Qrow could do anything, the door slammed open and he whipped around. Shit.


Into the room walked a young boy wearing white, scaled robes. Hanging above his white marked face was a red circlet seemingly made of crystal, a red neck brace of the same material hanging around his neck. Qrow immediately turned, transforming into his crow form as he went and flying for the exit. Before he could reach it, a red, diamond shaped barrier formed around him and locked him in. He was dragged back towards the boy, who stared at him with a curious look on his face.


"I had wondered why I sensed a human pass through my barrier," he said, "Ruby never said there were beings capable of turning into animals here."


The boy turned with Qrow's prison floating above his hand, making his way through the halls of the castle, unintentionally, or maybe uncaringly, giving Qrow a plain view of the inside he had hoped to scope out.


Irony was a son of a bitch.


Stuck turning with the cage, Qrow noticed that the boy's feet never once touched the ground.


Finally, after about ten minutes of walking down flights of stairs and guarded hallways, they reached where they were going. The first thing he noticed, just because of how differently they were dressed from the others, were two women and a man.


The first was a woman with long, light green hair wearing a blue qipao with yellow accents along the edge, a orange-red belt along her waist with a O-katana sheathed there, and some sort of animal pelt over her shoulder alongside a bow and quiver.


The second was a grey haired, though by no means old, woman wearing a white and yellow dress that opened in the front to expose her long legs. Light seemed to shine out from her skin, gentle and soothing.


The third, the only male of the trio, had traditionally "noble" features, wore a black coat under a black half cape with a white sash around his waist and a white cravat around his neck.


Then his eyes focused on the three wearing clear uniforms. Long white shirts that trailed passed the waist and ended with pteruges at the mid hip. Over that, they wore a golden shirt of scalemail, white and blue capes of various lengths pinned in place by a single large pauldron on their left shoulder. There were slight customizations, pants for the blue haired man, a tabard for the red haired woman.


As one, all six of them stopped focusing on the table in front of them to focus on the boy and Qrow, "Epimenides, what do you have there?"


That was a name…


—


Alfonse pushed off the table enchanted to look like a copy of Vale, following Anna towards the Agarthan mage. Epimenides raised the barrier, showing a slowly revolving blackbird captured within it, "I found him snooping about Ruby's room. Don't mistake him for a crow, Commander Anna, Lord Alfonse, Lady Sharena. He is a shapeshifter, I found him in the form of a human."


All three Askrans shared a look at the declaration, Ruby had never mentioned someone with that ability, even in passing. Was it rare here, so rare that she hadn't heard of it?


"Reinhardt," Anna called, and the Friege Mage Knight stepped forwards, "if he tries to fly away, shock him. Nothing lethal, just enough to stun them. I hope you understand that, we're gonna assume you're a threat until we have a conversation. Let him out."


Epimenides let go of the barrier, freeing the crow to land on the ground and stare up at them. Alfonse and the others stared at it, Lyn approached behind them, drawing the bow Mulagar off her back and nocking an arrow. Meanwhile Eir ghosted behind Sharena, the feet of the princess of Ymir and Hel not touching the ground for more of a second as she drew the daggers Ymir and Lyfjaberg sliding into her hands without a noise.


"We don't know they're a threat," Alfonse said quietly to Lyn.


"Which is why I'm ready, not hoping for it," she said, smiling at the blue haired Askr prince, "Ruby believes in my ability to help keep you safe. I'd hate to prove her wrong."


"Our bed is always open," Alfonse offered, and Lyn gave a hum.


"I must admit, I'm surprised at how well you embraced an open relationship," Lyn said.


"I just hid the growing pains from everyone but Ruby, trust me," Alfonse said, "Marrying Fjorm was a formality at first. But I'd be lying if I said I don't enjoy it. And Askr's blessing helps put my mind at ease."


"I'll give it a thought," Lyn said as Anna crouched down in front of the black bird.


"Epimenides isn't one for lying," Anna said, "or jokes. If he says you're a shapeshifter, we have every reason to think you are one. Please transform back so we can have a conversation about this, we aren't angry, but we would like to talk to a representative of Vale. That is where we are, right?"


The black bird blinked for a second, before suddenly shifting into a tall man with slicked back graying hair and five o'clock shadow, as Ruby called it. He was wearing a scruffy shirt with a torn red cape over one shoulder, "You don't know where you are? Ehh, you're right by the way, but you didn't know for sure?"


"We didn't know for certain," Anna agreed, "We were teleported here quite unexpectedly. We're sorry for closing ourselves off, but we wanted to figure out how to put our best foot forwards. Where would be a good place to move towards to make us look less aggressive, which members to act as envoys, stuff like that. Anyways, I am Commander Anna of Askr's Order of Heroes. It's a pleasure to meet you…?"


"Modest group name, don't you think?" The man snorted, "I'm Qrow Branwen-"


"Former teacher at Signal combat academy?" Alfonse immediately said, talking a look at the man again. Yes, he looked like he could be Qrow, now that he had thought about it. Immediately, it felt like the room had taken a deep breath, Lyn's grip on her arrow became softer, Eir stoed away her daggers, even Reinhardt lowered his hands slightly as Sharena and Anna took another look over Qrow.


"Uh not former but… yeah, I teach at Signal. How'd you know that?"


"We're friends with your neice, Ruby," Alfonse said, "She likes to talk about her Uncle Qrow sometimes. The "awesome one who taught her to fight"."


"Ruby hasn't mentioned meeting any of you on the CCT," Qrow said in confusion, causing every member of the Order of Heroes to pause. The CCT, Ruby had mentioned that going down as one of the after effects of the Fall.


"Alfonse," Anna said, turning away from Qrow and walking to him, "Go get Ruby."


"I can't," Alfonse said, "She left with Fjorm and Shez an hour ago."


The look Anna gave Alfonse was less betrayal and more bewildered disappointment, "Really?"


"I didn't think it was gonna hurt anyone," Alfonse said, "Send Feh, they'll be back in an hour. Qrow, can I show you to tavern in town while we wait for Commander Anna to send a letter to Ruby? She said you were a man fond of the bottle."


—

Sorry that this chapter is shorter, I"m dealing with stuff in my life again. We were supposed to see TRY reach the Aether Resort, but that got pushed off to next chapter.

Also, while I promise this won't get into an absurd harem, I do reserve the right to add characters with ship tease with the Summoner, such as Lyn.

 

[BigFan10]

I like how Yang and Ruby are talking, and I guess you could say Qrow got Bird-Caged.

,,,And today's was just Ouch,

Spoiler: RWBY Vol. 9 Episode 8

Robbie Daymond certainly plays the Best Traitors, Neo discovered without something to drive her forward she's "Hollow", Ruby after seeing Visions of everyone she Failed within the Past Volumes call her a failure, Willingly Ascended right in front of her Friends

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Hey, so, I hit a rough patch where I'm not very happy with my writing. I'll try to keep on updating, I just feel really low right now.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Ruby watched the older version of herself work her jaw as they flew on the dragon-like creature over the sea of Vale, "Are you alright?"


"Yeah, just thinking about how long it'd been since I'd seen Yang throw a punch," older Ruby said, "you know, part of me never expected to see it again."


"Oh," Ruby said, not really sure how to respond to that. The person other Ruby described, broken, depressed… she couldn't really picture Yang as that. Not that she thought the other Ruby was lying! She just couldn't picture it. Yang was the strong one, the one who broke hearts, not the one who ended up so broken-hearted she just gave up, "Do you think she forgave you?"


Other Ruby hummed, before speaking, "Forgiveness is a strange thing, little Rose. If you have to ask it for something as big as this, there'll always be some resentment over it. The best you can do is not let resentment control your relationship, simple as that. It's up to Yang to decide if she can forgive me that much, or if she doesn't want a relationship with me. I hope she can, but I won't hold it against her if she can't. Hold on tight, we're gonna land, and that's always the roughest part. Bloom, no tricks, she isn't ready for that."


"Bloom-? You named the dragon!" Ruby looked down at the dragon, wanting to run her hand over the scales even as she tightened her grip on other Ruby's waist.


"Wyvern, Dragons are sapient, they can think like you or me. But yes, I named Bloom. I don't fight on her very often, but I needed some way off the Aether Keep and Minevra had just laid a clutch of eggs."


"You can fight on one?" Ruby breathed.


"Yeah, I can show you how. Or on a pegasus or kinshi if you don't like riding Bloom, though Fjorm would probably be better at those. We have stables full of animals. Horses, Wyverns, Pegasus, kinshi, just to name some of them."


"Awesome," Ruby breathed again as they landed in front of a stable. Other Ruby slid off, before helping her down. Around her, the rest of the group climbed off too, looking around.


"Ruby," a voice called, and everyone turned to a woman with her red hair in a ponytail, golden armor on various parts of her body and an awesome white and gold ax in her hand.


"Hey, Anna," Other Ruby laughed, sounding a bit… embarrassed? That wasn't quite the right word.


"You couldn't at least tell me you were going?" She sighed, "I put the barrier up to keep people out, not us in for Askr's sake! You could have just asked, I would have said go ahead. Who are these?"


"This… is where things get complicated," other Ruby said, "you know Yang, and my dad, Taiyang-"


"Oh, yes," Anna smiled at the two of them climbing off the back of Fjorm's pegasus and Shez's wyvern, "I'm Commander Anna of the Order of Heroes. I'm technically in charge of keeping things in order around here. It's a pleasure to finally put faces to names."


"Technically?" Ruby said.


"As a general rule, a lot of the heroes are more interested in listening to Ruby than me," she shrugged, "I don't take it personally, the ones that actually matter listen to me. Who are you?"


"We're in a Líf situation," other Ruby said.


"We were thrown backwards in time to an alternate timeline?"


"Why is that a thing you can sum up as a "blank" situation?" Yang asked.


"Because our life is weird," Ruby said, "Yes, this is me from the past. We need to figure out how to differentiate between the two of us."


"We'll figure that out eventually," Anna said, "Shall we go see your uncle? Alfonse brought him to the tavern."


—-


Qrow walked along the line of kegs, trying to pick which one to try. Finally, he stopped in front of one and lowered the tankard.


"The year of death," Alfonse appraised, "a good year for alcohol, if nothing else."


"Cheery name," Qrow snorted, opening the tap.


"We believe in using names that summarize the times," Alfonse said, "it was a hard year, easily harder than any in living memory."


"So what happened?" Qrow asked, "bad crop? Lots of Grimm attacks? Can't see you getting a lot of them, with that kid able to make a barrier around the whole island."


"War," Alfonse said, "with the realm of Hel. The Order of Heroes was on the front lines of it. We mercifully lost few members, but the Askran knights lost a lot more, and the civilian casualties were bad."


"Can't say I heard of Askr or Hel before," Qrow said, "They small "kingdoms" somewhere?"


"They're kingdoms," Alfonse agreed, "I'm the crown prince of Askr, actually."


"Should I call you "your highness" then?"


"Please don't," Alfonse said, "We're as good as family, given my relationship with Ruby, it would just make things awkward."


"And what is your relationship with Ruby?" Qrow asked.


"We are… companions," Alfonse said, "in every sense of the word."


"Might want to rethink that wording, makes it sound like you're sleeping together."


"As I said," Alfonse repeated politely, "in every sense of the word."


Qrow stopped with the tankard half way to his lips, "She's fifteen, you creepy fuck!"


"I'm sorr- what…?" Alfonse shook his head, "Ruby isn't, she hasn't been- what?"


"What, what?" A voice said, causing Qrow and Alfonse to turn towards the door. The woman in the doorway nearly caused Qrow to drop his tankard, before he took another look at her.


She looked, superficially, like Summer but there were things wrong with it. Her hair was too spiky, her face too angular as opposed to Summer's soft features.


No, no.


"You're looking pretty good, old man," she joked.


"What," Qrow put down the tankard, standing up and walking towards her, eyes drinking in the young woman wearing a white cloak with a red inside, "What's going -


"Uncle Qrow!" A familiar voice called and the woman in the doorway swung to the side to let Ruby, Qrow's Ruby, to rush in and tackle him around the waist, "look who showed up at Patch! It's me! Well, not me, but me from the future, like in the Annihilator or something! She is here to stop her timeline from happening because bad stuff happened, like Yang losing an arm and, uh… I dunno what else, but it's bad. Really bad!"


"Why don't you call Ozpin," the other Ruby said, "tell him we're ready to meet him if he wants to come on up. That's what I'd want to do l, land an eye on the new question. But we can go to Beacon if he wants."


—-


"I don't like this," Glynda said.


"You've said that several times," Ozpin said


"Because it's the truth," Glynda said, "meeting with them on their territory is a terrible idea, Ozpin. It gives them the advantage."


"Qrow trusts them-"


"Because one of them is apparently his niece from the future," Glynda said, "which could be any number of things. A Semblance, an uncanny resemblance, both more likely that an alternate dimension, future version of anyone, let alone someone one of us knows."


"An uncanny resemblance to someone we know is any more likely than it happening to be a time traveler?" Ozpin said, a joke in his voice.


"Ok, so that one is less likely," she admitted, "but it could still easily be a Semblance to make herself look like Ruby Rose."


"Could be," Ozpin said as they landed, using the Long Memory to stand, "but I strongly doubt it, if Qrow believes it."


"You have too much faith in that man," Glynda grumbled.


"I have exactly as much faith as he has earned, and not an ounce more," Ozpin said, walking out of the Bullhead and towards a little girl standing in front of where they had landed, wearing a blue and white dress with a long white cloak bundled around her like a blanket, "Hello, little one, can you show us how to reach the castle?"


"Ruby asked me to!" The girl chirped, immediately beginning to walk, "I'm Ylgr, a princess of Nifl and a member of the Order of Heroes!"


"They let someone so… young, join the order?" Ozpin asked while Glynda shot a look at him.


"Well, Ruby doesn't really want anyone younger than she was when she went to Beacon fighting, so we mostly stay in the Aether Resort. That's here, by the way. But I was summoned by the Breidablik, so I'm a Hero contracted to Ruby! Isn't that awesome? I'm just like my big brother Hríd and sisters Gunnthrá and Fjorm!"


"Are there many children contracted to Ruby?"


"There's me, and Tiki and Myrrah and Fae and Nah," the girl started, "and all the little versions of the big heroes like Ike and Marth and Lyn and Mark and Eliwood."


"You know," Glynda said, "You're only supposed to use and for the last thing of a list."


"Oh…" Ylgr said, "so there Soren, Mia, Illyana, Merric, Caeda-"


"So quite a few, we get it," Glynda cut the girl off, getting the feeling she would go on for a while if they let her.


"Yeah!" Ylgr said, "we could be, like, a team of heroes! But Ruby won't let us!"


"You think I'm gonna get you killed and have to explain that to your family?" A voice asked as they approached the castle. Sitting in front of them was a woman with a white and red cloak and a green haired, muscular man wearing white and gold armor with a red cape and loincloth, "Can you deal with it, Duma?"


"Easily," The man said, "Finding it will be the hardest part."


"Just… take a Pegasus or Wyvern," she said, "no offense, but your dragon form would…"


"Frighten the masses?" He said, "yes, I suppose it would. May I borrow Bloom then?"


"Yeah, go ahead," the woman waved him off, "take anyone you think you need."


"I will, but I don't," Duma said.


"Come on in," the woman said, "We've got a lot to discuss to keep my timeline from happening, Ozpin."


"Miss Rose, then?" Ozpin said.


"Call me Ruby," she said, "I barely ever use my last name nowadays."


—


Ruby walked through the great hall, towards the table filled with sand where her family and friends were gathered. Once she was there, she silently, if reluctantly drew a line by walking over to the half of the table with the Order of Heroes, leaving Ozpin and Goodwitch to join the extended Xiao Long family.


"Professor Ozpin," Anna said, reaching a hand across the table, "I'm Commander Anna, leader of the Order of Heroes. These are Prince Alfonse and Princess Sharena of Askr, and Princess Veronica of Embla," Veronica bowed at the waist in her black and white gold outfit, "And behind me are Shez, Lady Lyndis of Lycia, Princess Eir of Ymir, Sir Reinhardt of Friege and Prince Xander of Nohr. Before I hand everything off to Ruby, since she has more understanding of what happened and how we might avoid it, may I ask if there's a place we can move the Aether Resort to help stifle tensions. I'm sure the people of Vale aren't happy to have an island appear above them suddenly."


"This place can move then?" Ozpin hummed, "Mountain Glenn, likely. It's close enough for us to stay together but far enough away to ease tensions. Is that fine for you?"


Anna glanced at Ruby, and she nodded. Mountain Glenn made things easier, in fact.


"Alright, we'll begin moving as soon as this meeting is done. Ruby?"


Ruby stepped forwards as Anna stepped backwards, breathing in, "We're ready to share all the information we have about the threat towards Vale, in return for one concession on your parts.


"And what is that?"


"Ruby, that is, her," Ruby pointed at the younger version of herself, "be allowed into Beacon in the coming year. You let me in, but if everything goes right the thing I did to get your attention won't happen."


"Because it's related to what threat we're going to discuss?"


"Yeah," Ruby said.


"Then I see no problem with letting her in," Ozpin said.


"Sir!" Goodwitch protested, to Ruby and Qrow rolling their eyes.


"Alright, so let's start with the star player," Ruby waved her hand over the sand table and several figures formed, "and it needs to be said that these could all be fake names, so keep that in mind. First, we have Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black and Trivia Noir."


"Mercury Black," Ozpin hummed, looking down at the figure.


"Name sound familiar?"


"I can't help wondering if he's related to the assassin Marcus Black," Ozpin said.


"Hard saying, I don't know much about them for sure. They infiltrated Beacon through Haven during next year's Vytal festival. They're good enough to make it to the semi finals, which is where things get… messy. Yang… something happened, where it looked like Yang kneecapped Black, but Yang swore she didn't remember doing it and I later fought him and he was moving fine, so the rat bastard was probably lying.


"I would never-"


"I know, Yang," Ruby said, "if I had to guess-"


"They used some form of Semblance to frame her?" Ozpin said.


"Makes sense," Ruby said, "they were trying to rile up the crowd, and a Beacon student suddenly hauling off and kneecapping someone from Mistral is a good way to rile up two countries in one go. After that, things got worse. The second semi-finals, which became the finals, was between Penny Polendina of Atlas and Pyrrha Nikos, who's gonna go to Beacon next year. Things, things went wrong there too…"


Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and breathed in, a pair of hands landed on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to see Lyn and Alfonse had both moved to join her.


"...We never found out why, but Pyrrha used her Semblance to take control of Penny's weapon and dismembered her. The minute it happened, Cinder came on the speaker system and began to rant, rile up people even more. And no, before you ask I don't think Pyrrha was in on it. Things that happened after make the chances of that basically zero. Eventually, she managed to get people upset enough that a giant Wyvern Grimm woke up in the mountains and started to head towards Vale. I've already made moves to make sure that will be a non-factor this timeline. In the original timeline, I ended up petrifying it to Beacon Tower, where it was acting like a… well, beacon to other Grimm, but I didn't do that before Cinder killed Pyrrha."


"How'd you do that?" Little Ruby asked.


"We'll tell you when you're more ready," Ruby deflected, "I don't want to get sidetracked with what we're here to discuss. Anyways, that's the first pillar of sucky problems. Next is Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan, and some high ranking member of the White Fang."


"The White Fang? You're sure?" Ozpin said.


"Yeah, I'm not sure how high up it goes, if it was a splinter faction in Vale, or Vale entirely, or the entire Fang gave up on sanity, but there were definitely White Fang members at the Fall of Beacon, using Bullheads to carry Grimm to Amity and Beacon. And before that we found and dealt a plan to blow the barrier between Mountain Glenn and Vale, so they were probably planning to let Grimm in that way too."


"This may be a lot to ask-" Ozpin started.


"We'll send routine patrols once we move over it," Anna interjected, "it's the least we can do."


"Thank you," Ozpin said, "And we'll redouble our efforts to catch Torchwick, if what you're saying is true, he has gone from a persistent nuisance to part of an existential threat to Vale."


"The last threat is one I'm gonna head out to personally take care of once this meeting ends," Ruby said, "Dr. Merlot."


"Merlot?" Ozpin's carefully schooled expression slipped, "He's alive?"


"And experimenting on Grimm," Ruby confirmed, "I don't know if he has anything to do with Cinder's plan, but I'm gonna take Shez and Ike and clear out the island he's on. The last thing we need is even more hyper aggressive Grimm out there for Cinder to take advantage of."


Ozpin nodded, "If I can suggest something, Ruby?"


"Go ahead."


"From what I understand, you have people of all ages in the Order of Heroes," Ozpin said, "might I suggest sending four of qualifying age to Beacon as a sign of trust between our organizations?"


"We'll have to pick out four, but sure, if it's fine with Anna."


"The Morgans are going to fight each other over the chance," Anna joked.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Ruby followed her older self through the village, Yang with her. Older Ruby was hiding something from her, and the adults knew what.


"How do you think she did it?" She finally asked Yang.


"Did what?" Yang asked.


"Froze the giant Grimm she was talking about?"


"Dunno," Yang shrugged, "maybe a lot of ice Dust? Or maybe she has some sort of special power because of the Breidablik? Legendary weapons in stories normally give their owner some special powers, don't they? Hey, Ruby, what special powers does the Breidablik have!?"


"Well, other then the obvious one," Older Ruby said, drawing the white-gold gun off her hip, "it can shoot magic and do this."


Ruby watched as Older Ruby whirled the gun by the trigger guard. Instead of the expected blast, the gun glowed before changing shape, becoming a gold, one edged sword with red accents and, strangely, a power symbol on the guard, then she whirled it again and the light extended, becoming a golden dory spear with blue accents. A third whirl saw the blade extend and sharpen, ending as a gold and green form of "Crescent Rose!"


"Yep," other Ruby grinned, before spinning the scythe back into the gun form, "the Breidablik can transform into any weapon I imagine, but I generally prefer Crescent Rose unless I'm in some place too small for her. Anyways, come on, we're almost there. I want to introduce you to Morgan before I go."


They made their way to the top of a hill with a tree on it, an axe lodged in the ground in front of it, and older Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth, "Hey, Morgan! Working hard, or hardly working!?"


The tree rustled, and then a young woman dropped from it. She had purple tinted black hair and eyes, a robe the same color, and silver armor around her hips, her biceps and her neck.


"I always work hard, that way I can relax just as hard," the girl complained, and Ruby plopped a hand on her head and tossed her hair.


"I'm teasing you," she said, "anyways, I have a pair of new friends to introduce to you. This is Yang, and this is Ruby."


Morgan looked at them both, before looking at Ruby, "did Thórr makes the Breidablik go wonky again?"


"The Breidablik doesn't go wonky," older Ruby said.


"It does though! Thórr touches it and then it's suddenly shooting kids instead of adults!"


"Phrasing," other Ruby said, "And ok, yes, occasionally Thórr messes with the Breidablik and I start summoning children for a bit, but this isn't that. We got sent to a past version of Remnant."


"So this is you from the past?" Morgan said, looking over Ruby, who stepped back and behind Yang, "What's that about?"


"I wasn't the best at making friends as a kid," Older Ruby crouched, "hey, listen. I know. Morgan can be a bit… much, for someone like us. But despite how she might behave sometimes, she's a good kid. She'll be a good friend to you, if you let her. I've spent a lot of time helping her learn melee combat and tactics, and trust me, she does have her heart in the right place."


"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?"


"I've seen how you treat Yarne," Ruby said, "I don't care if you have a crush on him, you shouldn't treat the poor kid like that."


"I don't-!" Other Ruby gave Morgan a look, and Morgan stopped, "I'll try to be better."


"Good to hear," Ruby said, "Now I got to go, I have a mad scientist to deal with."


"Speaking of that," Yang, Ruby and Morgan all jumped while Older Ruby gave Lyndis an exasperated look as she seemed to suddenly appear cresting up the hill, "I'm going with you."


"Ok, then," other Ruby said, "Let's go."


—-


Lyn stopped her pegasus behind Ruby, who was looking down at the island. Finally, she nodded, "This is it."


"You're sure?" Ike said, "No offense, but this looks like it could be any other island in the world, not a secret base."


"Pretty sure, yeah," Ruby said, rocking back and forth on the pegasus she was on, "and even if I'm wrong, worst comes to worst, we clean an island of Grimm so people can come settle!"


Then she tipped sideways off her steed and plummeted into freefall, the Breidablik transforming into a spear as she went. Shez, Lyn and Ike all went silent, before Shez signed, goading her mount into landing, "I hate it when she does that."


Lyn did the same, along with Ike, landing in time to see the last of a group of five two legged black and bone creatures die on Ruby's spear. The spear changed in the Grimm's body and Ruby put her weight into ripping her scythe from it.


"Creeps," Ruby said, tapping the decaying body with the Breidablik, "they're dangerous if they get the jump on you and you're unarmed, but otherwise they're basically a nuisance. They like to dig underground and ambush people."


"Right," Ike said, drawing Ragnell off his back, Lyn drawing the Sol Katti off her hip, while a twist of Shez's hand saw her relic sword appear in it while she drew a plain steel sword from her hip, "I probably shouldn't have to ask this, but rules of engagement, Ruby?"


"No quarter. The Grimm won't show you or anyone else alive any mercy, so don't bother giving them any. Merlot… if you can take him alive, do so, but I won't cry if he dies. He has a lot of blood on his hands."


"So some quarter," Ike joked as the underbrush around them shook. Lunging forward, the Hero of Blue Flames easily decapitated a large wolf Grimm. Lyn leapt over the lunge from another, landing on its back and swinging Sol Katti through its neck. Ruby swept in between two and bisected them at the waist. A third lunged for her and she was gone in a flash of rose petals, and Shez was on them, living up to her title of Asura as she ripped it to pieces with a flurry of sword slashes.


"He'll die either way for his crimes," Ruby reformed with a shrug, "Making Grimm more dangerous, causing the fall of Mountain Glenn. Those are crimes that'll get him an execution. You're just speeding up how quickly he dies."


"Whatever happened to the girl who wanted us to take as many people captive as possible?" Shez joked, and Lyn cracked a smile.


"Don't get me wrong, I think we should capture people whenever it's possible. But last time Merlot tried to blow up his base with us in it. He absolutely does not care about our lives, so I'm not gonna force you to care about his."


—-


Ike was a modest man, he knew he was a good fighter. If he was a bad fighter, he would have died years ago, probably when he started out as a member of his father's mercenary company, but just as likely in any of the hundreds of battles he had fought over the years since taking charge of Greil's Mercenaries.


That did not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that he was the strongest hero in all the worlds. He didn't know how that myth started before he even left Tellius, but it had and had marked his life since defeating Ashera. First, it had been Veronica coming and tricking him into a Contract in the form of, well, of a mercenary contract. Then upon being summoned by the Breidablik, he had quickly found that few people wanted to face him in the sparring pits of the Order of Heroes.


There were, of course, exceptions to that rule. Lyndis, Chrom, Alm, and Blyeth were all willing to fight him if they had the time. As was, of course, Ruby Rose.


"Ruby, how many Grimm are on this island again?" He called, looking over his shoulder in time to see Ruby rip open a wolf's mouth and shove the Breidablik down it. Three loud thunder cracks sent the monster spasming before Ruby dropped it and let it decay. Throwing the Breidablik in the air and kicking it at a second, she let it transform into the spear and punch through the approaching Grimm before disintegrating into rose petals and reforming at the blade, ripping it from the decaying body.


"I didn't!" Ruby laughed, the spear transforming back into Crescent Rose so she could decapitate another Grimm, "We haven't even gotten to the good ones yet! Those should be in the base up ahead!"


"Oh, good," Ike couldn't keep the snark out of his voice as the winded up an overhead swing, Yune's flames building around Ragnell before he brought it down in an explosion of blue fire that swallowed two wolf Grimm, "I was worried we'd get BORED!"


"Right?" Shez called from in a vortex of wind, tearing four wolves to pieces with it, "Ruby says it's a scientist experimenting on Grimm and I expected something out of the Agarthans! This is practically a walk in the park!"


"Come on," Ruby said, shifting the Breidablik into the form of a sword, "Let's go find Merlot."


—


Ruby wasn't the most adept with the sword form of Breidablik, for a couple of reasons. The first, of course, was that she was primarily a scythe user. While she had some training with swords from Signal, it wasn't where she had put her primary focus. The second was that she didn't really need to be, the sword was capable of being used telekinetically. And the third, and most glaring reason, was that the damn thing steadfastly refused to not take the form of Floating Array, Askr damnit!


Great sword? Oversized Floating Array. Short sword? Small Floating Array. Dagger? Miniature Floating Array.


Yes, she got it, dear sweet Relic of hers, she wasn't over Penny's death half a decade later. She didn't need to be reminded every time she needed a sword.


This was why she never, ever used it as an ax. Because if the sword was Floating Array, and the spear was Miló, there was only one ax there was any chance the Breidablik would transform into and Ruby didn't want to reopen a decade and a half's worth of dealt with abandonment issues.


Pushing those thoughts aside, Ruby launched the Breidablik at the first mutated Grimm they found, a Beowolf. It slit the tendons of the claw raised towards Ike, who swung up Ragell and took off the arm at the shoulder, sending black and green smoke pouring from the wound. Another swing took its head off and let it drop.


"There should be more," Ruby said softly, "there were more when Teams RWBY and JNPR dealt with them. It took us all working together to clean them out."


"Wasn't that months after this?" Lyn offered as they continued forwards, "maybe he hasn't had time to modify more than a few."


"I doubt that," Ruby said, "because that implies that he modified them all in a few months. And he's suspiciously quiet, he wouldn't shut up last time we were here."


"Then he moved locations?" Ike offered.


"Maybe," Ruby walked to a door at the end of the hall, pressing the button, "but I get the feeling- yeah, that's about what I expected. He panicked when we got here."


In the room, surrounded by a dozen mutated Creeps and Beowolves, was the mutilated body of Dr. Merlot. Reaching down, Ruby picked up the decapitated head and sighed. Well, at least that was one loose end tied up.


Ruby looked up at the Grimm, reaching deep inside her. Past the tendrils of magic from the Breidablik into the core deep within. An all consuming flash of silver light came out of her eyes and swallowed the room, and when it faded, the Grimm had been scattered as dust on the air.


"C'mon," Ruby said, "Let's get back to the Resort. I'm sure Ozpin wants to be able to introduce us to the other leaders sooner or later."



—

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Yang followed Morgan through the halls of the castle, slightly startled by how many people stopped not just to greet Morgan, but Yang and, after a moment of confused staring, Ruby. Yang was slightly self-conscious about the fact that half the stares seemed to be targeted on her right arm, before they shrugged and just moved on.


Finally, they came to a door where Morgan stopped, turning and grinning wildly and said, "This is your room."


"You have a room picked out for us?" Yang asked.


"We've always had a room ready for if Team RWBY was summoned," Morgan said, "Ruby likes to come here sometimes and talk about our adventures."


That was… a depressing thought. Was Older Ruby that starved for having her team back, that she would come and pretend they were just sitting around in a room? How much did team RWBY mean to her?


It was just bizarre to think of, because Ruby, her Ruby, was so proud of being an independent fighter. She hated group combat exercises.


The door swung open to reveal a room that was best described as "controlled chaos". Ropes and books were used to turn four beds with red sheets into two bunk beds, a short, empty bookshelf under a window dividing them. A cruddy, hand drawn Achieve Men poster was pinned to the wall over one bed, extra bookspace ready for the one under it, while the one across from it had a white sheet covering it and the one below that had extra, empty space next to it.


"This… feels like a recreation of something," Yang said, stepping into the room and looking around. It definitely felt like something that only made sense if you "got the joke". And Yang didn't really get it.


"This is what your room at Beacon looked like," Morgan shrugged, "I don't really get it, but that's what Ruby always said."


"It's awesome," Ruby breathed, eyes twinkling.


"It's ok," Yang said.


"We finally got those bunk beds we were always bugging Dad for!"


—


"So," Tai said, meeting the eyes of the blue haired man wearing golden scale mail as he twirled a white and gold sword from one hand to another to limber up. Howl and Roar were in Tai's hands even as he stretched to do the same, "You and Ruby are dating, then?"


"Dating," Alfonse said as if tasting the word, before nodding, "Yes, I guess that's what you would call our relationship, from what Ruby has said about dating."


"You don't know what dating is?" Tai asked, feeling slightly bemused.


"I'm sure the peasantry does it," Alfonse admitted, "but I'm royalty, our courtships tend to be a political tool far more often than they tend to be for love. It just so happens that I was able to argue to my mother that courting Ruby was politically sound."


"How'd you do that?" Tai asked.


"The Summoner is an important ally of the crown," Alfonse said, "before the Order numbered in the dozen, now we number in the hundreds. Marrying her into the bloodline is a good way to keep her from deciding to leave, not that I think Ruby would leave us before our need for her ended, and with her the reinforcements she represents."


Tai worked his jaw, which had set on edge over the course of the dry, clinical explanation. Finally, he said, clipped, "I don't like you talking about her that way."


"Neither do I," Alfonse said, "but I don't really like politics in general, far too clinical for my tastes. "Everything is a number game when you look at it from far enough away" to quote Ruby."


"What made her say that?"


"She was talking about why she prefers to deploy with us despite it not being the most tactically sound decision in the world," Alfonse said, "Essentially, she meant it's too easy to turn us into just a casualty if we die and she isn't there to know. This was back when we first started working together, of course."


"Isn't she your strategist?" Tai asked.


"Yes, but she could send Robin, Mark or Corrin with us instead. The way we go out, if we were wiped out it would be a decapitation strike to the Order, we'd lose the prince and Princess of Askr, the Commander of the Order of Heroes and the Summoner who could bring in new versions of us all in one go. And trust me, we've seen the results of losing Ruby before. Has she mentioned Líf to you?"


"She's said the name near us, but hasn't explained who he is," Tai said.


"Líf is one of my… less proud ghosts, you could say. Líf is a version of me from a timeline where everyone else died. And I do mean everyone, everyone in Zenith, starting with Ruby and Sharena. It drove him, me, quite insane. He made a deal to resurrect them, one death for one life. So he planned to wipe out our version of Zenith to resurrect his own. You'll see him at some point, I'm sure. He likes to lurk with Thrasir, but he pops up from time to time. Now, let's begin this spar, shall we?"


—


Qrow sat in Ozpin's office along with Ozpin and Glynda, waiting for the call to start. Finally, Glynda asked, "Should we have told them?"


"About Salem?" Qrow asked, and Glynda nodded.


"They gave us all the information they could to keep their "terrorist attack" from happening, and we hid everything we know from them."


"They don't need to know," Ozpin said, immediately and in a tone that refused to argue the topic. Which was unfortunate for him, because Glynda clearly felt like arguing it.


"You don't really think that," Glynda said, "They're on our side in this fight, Ozpin."


"So are the police and Huntsmen of Vale, they don't need to know, you'll grant me that," Ozpin said, "So why do Miss Rose and the Order of Heroes?"


"Because they know the destruction of Vale is Cinder's endgame? They've seen it and have devoted everything to stopping it? How can we say we're doing the same when we're leaving them half in the dark?"


"We can argue this later," Ozpin said as a call came through the CCT, "James."


"Oz," James said, "What's this about a floating island that's blowing up the CCT?"


"I'll explain once the others are online," Ozpin said, "but I can assure you Vale is safe."


Slowly, over the course of ten minutes, Theodore and Leonardo joined the call, and Ozpin folded his hand on the Long Memory.


—


"As I'm sure you're aware," James leaned forwards in his office's chair as Ozpin started, "early yesterday, a relatively large landmass suddenly appeared floating above Vale. Before anyone could get close enough to examine it, however, a barrier closed around it. At that point I sent for Qrow, who infiltrated the barrier and found inhabited farmland and a castle. Within three hours, we were granted an invitation from the castle's rulers to come up and discuss their arrival with them."


"Who are they?" James asked.


"They call themselves the Order of Heroes, from the World of Zenith. And yes, that does imply, and I have every reason to believe them, that they are not from Remnant. However, that isn't the most important and standout part. That would be that one of their most important members is an older version of Qrow's niece, from her own version of Remnant."


What.


"And before you ask, yes, I do believe it's her. As I was saying, Miss Rose divulged several threats to Vale from her timeline for us to deal with."


"What kind of threats?" James asked, still trying to wrap his head around what Ozpin had just said.


"A successful attempt to destroy Beacon during next year's Vytal Festival," Ozpin said, "a cabal consisting of, likely, Autumn's attacker and most definitely Roman Torchwick pull strings to get one of your students killed and rile up the crowd to the point of a Grimm attack. They then, with the support of the White Fang, directly deliver Grimm to Beacon's front door."


"I told you we should have stamped them out years ago," James said darkly, "They won't stop until society is wiped out."


"We don't know that. Even Miss Rose herself admitted they might be a rogue faction within the Valen White Fang, let alone the whole organization."


"And you might be willing to risk Vale on that chance, but I won't risk Atlas on it, I'm going to crack down on them."


"The more you crack down on them," Theodore said, "the more they're gonna feel like they have to push back, James. Why do you think we don't have problems with the Fang out here? It's because we leave them alone-"


"I didn't ask for opinions," James said, "I'm doing it. Which student was it that died, Oz?"


"Penny Polendina," James locked up, "You didn't tell me Pietro had a daughter?"


"Pietro wanted her kept safe," James said, swallowing to wet his dry mouth. P.E.N.N.Y was destroyed? How? She was supposed to be equivalent to a Third Year out of the gate! "Did they tell you how she died?"


"Only that it happened during her match with Pyrrha Nikos, and that it involved Miss Nikos taking control of Miss Polendina's weapons and using them to dismember her."


So the Order of Heroes definitely knew Penny was a gynandroid if that was the case. But they hadn't told Ozpin, or was Ozpin keeping it a secret from him for some reason?


—-