Chapter Text
It had been a long day, and Ruby was exhausted. Well it was more accurate to say it had been a long life, or series of them.
She’d thought when she’d fallen into the Ever After that things might start to get better. Heck she’d found this weird place, and her semblance had changed, evolved like Ren’s had!
Time Travel! How cool was that? Ok, well it was more like she could only go back to the point where she’d first unlocked her semblance, but still once she’d figured that out it had seemed like it could only help!
With that, she could go back, and change things, help prevent so many deaths, and save everyone! At least that had been her thought.
Her first time back she’d come back in the middle of combat practice, and she ended up getting beaned by her opponent's practice sword sending her to the medical wing.
Trying to explain her new ability to Uncle Qrow had him thinking she’d been hit a little too hard, at least until she’d started listing off things about Salem, his sister, and secrets Ozpin hadn’t told really anyone.
That had gotten her an audience with Ozpin rather quickly, and she was sure that informing him about everything would only help to save people.
And at first it almost seemed to! Beacon didn’t fall, Pyrrha had lived, and so had Penny!
But in the end Salem had won anyway, she’d just started with Vacuo first, then Menagerie, Atlas, and Vale last.
With a tearful goodbye she’d left just before the end.
That had been the start of it at least. Dozens, if not hundreds of tries, some better, some worse.
It had taken her only a few resets to realize that informing the headmaster about things never seemed to make a difference, well not enough of one at any rate.
He was too passive, too interested in trying to keep things in an uneasy status quo, and while a few times he’d managed to keep things from falling apart for a few more years it was never really worth it in Ruby’s opinion. There had to be more that could be done than merely delaying things a handful of years after all!
She’d eventually realized that the only things she could take back with her were things she thought of as ‘hers’ that she owned, property like her outfit, and weapon, which was great, because it saved her days each time having to rebuild Crescent Rose just how she liked it.
Thankfully her scroll came back too, but it was weird. From time to time it would display strange symbols, or messages she didn’t understand.
She just assumed it was the result of technology trying to deal with magic, and put it out of her mind.
She just removed the small tracker in it so she wouldn’t be bothered, and went on her way.
Eventually she’d stopped going to Beacon altogether. While sometimes people did surprise her, Nora most especially, including the one time she’d cornered her, and told her she knew she was a time traveler, and if she made a time travel harem she absolutely wanted in was beyond strange, even to Ruby.
Too often you could manipulate people into doing whatever you wanted, and then that’s all they became, puzzle pieces to be solved, and used as needed.
Ruby hadn't wanted to do that to her friends, she didn’t want her team to be a solved puzzle like she suspected Ozpin saw most people as.
Finding out an easy way to get Blake, and her sister together? Child’s play. She could have them dating inside a week. Making Blake date Sun instead? Or Ilia? Or even herself? Easily done, and she’d tried it just to do something new.
She didn’t want Weiss to be that. She didn’t want her friends to be that.
She’d figured out ways she could make her life better, to make Weiss happier, to be her best friend, more besides, and…she couldn’t bear it.
She couldn’t bear to relive her life over, and over as if she didn’t know the outcomes before they happened. She couldn’t afford to waste time at school when there might be something she could do to change things.
The problem with fighting, being a living weapon, was that soon it got boring when you had no challenges. There were few who could hold a candle to her skills in fighting Grimm, or even people now.
She wasn’t unbeatable, but she was very, very good. Strange what an untold number of years of practice could do for you.
Uncle Qrow was good enough along with his semblance to give her a workout, but once you worked out how his semblance worked, the fight was in her favor more often than not.
Clover was much the same the few times she’d gotten to spar with the man. Truthfully without his semblance he wasn’t nearly as good as he liked to think, and he relied on it far too heavily, unlike her uncle.
Even Salem for all her powers wasn’t all that much of a challenge. She wanted to die, and while she was powerful the fact that she was immortal meant she could just take whatever you could dish out, and keep coming at you. She also didn’t really have a style, or anything to adapt to. Fights with her usually boiled down to avoiding her magic, and sweeping attacks while she tried new moves on her until she found out how effective they were, and leaving.
From the few times she’d ‘worked’ with Salem she knew the woman hadn’t ever seen a semblance like hers before, and had admitted it freely. It was strange how open, and honest she was really.
She’d tried, and eventually managed to get her new semblance to work on shorter time jumps, but learned very quickly that it was not a good idea to use it more than a few times per try.
Things were…weird, and she’d learned it was best not to use it more than a half dozen or so times per ‘reset’ so she typically saved it for emergencies.
Of course, the first time she’d managed it she’d overshot, and ended up back during her fight against Roman the first time, and her surprise that she’d managed it had let one of the thugs shoot her dead center with his gun.
Thankfully, with her aura it wasn’t fatal, but it was highly embarrassing to be almost killed by a random thug when she’d went toe to toe with the gods themselves in more than a few resets.
She’d ended up being invited to Beacon anyway, figures. ‘The girl who got shot’ was not a fun nickname to be stuck with that go around. At least until she actually broke Cardin’s legs to put a stop to the rumors, which had led to her finding out that Pyrrha liked violence when deserved more than the prim, and proper image she projected suggested. Just wow.
There had been more than a few times she’d even managed to talk, and convince Salem to stand with them, and all of humanity had been united against the brother gods.
It hadn’t mattered in the end, but Ruby felt it was the closest she’d come yet. It figured that the brother gods claiming humanity needing to be united didn’t count when it was them they were united against. Hypocrites.
Still, if nothing else, it proved they were either unaware of her new semblance, or more chillingly perhaps, didn’t care.
Either way, Ruby was currently in Menagerie. She’d ‘run away’ this reset mostly just content to take it easy for a bit. Her dad as much as she loved him was not in nearly good enough shape to find her, or even notice her gone really, and as long as she kept a low profile Uncle Qrow would look closer to home for a long while before expanding his search, which gave her plenty of free time.
Vacuo was her other option to visit, and frankly the heat was less than pleasant, but she might give it a try soon enough. She’d only visited Atlas once, but she’d ended up running across Jacques, and General Ironwood, and…that hadn’t ended well.
It had gotten her approached by Cinder for recruitment though, which if nothing else was her usual surefire way to get into Salem’s inner circle. It worked better than just going up to the woman in her castle, and talking to her usually did.
Some, even her past self, might have taken offense that she wasn’t working toward saving everything all the time, but she’d learned, or rather Weiss had beaten into her head, that she needed to rest to keep her mind fresh, and she loved the mostly new experiences in this kingdom.
She was going to test what difference it made if she dealt with Adam before Sienna was assassinated. She didn’t think it would be better than her current favored solution, which was to pay Neo to avoid fighting her sister, saving her ‘one freebie’ from Raven for the seemingly inevitable fight against Adam that Yang always seemed to get drawn into.
Watching Raven dismantle the arrogant bull was very amusing, and helped start the process of Yang, and her mom reconnecting, albeit slowly.
The maiden powers were very interesting, and she liked watching them at work, and setting Raven on Adam was the best way she had of seeing them in action without dealing with Cinder on a power trip.
Cinder did not take it well being beaten when she gained the maiden’s magic, but after so many lives fighting her Cinder just didn’t have the experience she did, and magic powers or not there was too much skill difference between them after all this time.
No, better to just watch Raven from afar when she could.
She’d long ago learned all of Ozpin, or Ozma’s secrets. He was more than happy, after learning to say exactly what he wanted,or needed to hear, to assist her as they shared the same goal, or at least he believed so, and truthfully their goals were aligned well enough she didn’t mind his presumption.
Salem? Less so. She certainly knew more about her, and her secrets than any other living person, including Ozma, hell she’d gotten them to make up once, or twice, and while it went well the end result was still the same.
Still, she resigned herself to a few more lifetimes in the near future of playing at being on Salem’s team. Once she realized how broken the woman was, that she was actually just as bad as Ruby had been at dealing with people it was easy to lose her fear of her.
She was still a horrifyingly powerful opponent during the times they were enemies, but Ruby wasn’t able to bring herself to hate her no matter what after learning so much about her past.
She’d found it hard to hate most of the ‘villains’ she dealt with after so much time getting to know them.
Except Tyrian, Watts, and Weiss’s father. She still really hated those three, and had yet to find a way to make her dad less of a dick.
Ozma had theorized that those with silver eyes would be unable to handle the maiden’s magic. Normally that might be true, but dozens, and dozens attempts of experience had taught her it was possible, if not extremely painful.
Of course, while the powers were fun they were also a bright target on her back, and unless Ruby had a sure fire plan for using them she generally let them be.
It was strange being best friends with someone like Cinder, and Emerald in one lifetime to being bitter enemies the next, but they, like most, had become mostly just pieces to be poked, and prodded. She’d learned long ago the words, and actions needed to make them switch sides, or just leave.
She had to make sure her acting was up to par though as Cinder was, rightfully, a paranoid sort.
Her past had left scars invisible to the naked eye, and nothing less than her best acting, or performance would work for getting through to her. The slightest hint of insincerity, or acting would send her on a murderous war path.
She was currently looking through the various street stalls for a strawberry crepe vendor she remembered trying several lifetimes ago.
If she remembered correctly they were very, very good, which is why she tried to limit how often she ate there so it didn’t become dull.
She missed Weiss, or what she thought of as her Weiss. One time long ago she’d let slip everything to Weiss, well she’d made a small slip, and Weiss had picked up on it, and Ruby, at the time, had been terrible at lying, and spilled the beans.
Weiss had spent the rest of that timeline, or reset going over every bit of information she had on her time dilation glyphs convinced she would find a way to join Ruby.
The fact that she merely believed her without any convincing, and merely staring at her for a few minutes meant more to Ruby than she could say.
Others needed proof, which was fair, but the sheer trust Weiss had in her with nothing more than her word was humbling.
Based on how long it had been, Ruby was fairly sure she hadn’t managed it.
Another reason she avoided Beacon more often than not, seeing a facsimile of her partner wasn’t something she could stand, or was strong enough to deal with, not this time at least.
She was just enjoying her crepe when her well honed senses screamed at her, and she instantly placed the person about to ambush her.
She had only seconds to decide on what to do, and decided that misdirection would save her a lot of hassle since she was trying not to get too involved.
She tilted her head letting the lash pass by her head harmlessly before she recalled her attackers favored pattern, and danced to the left twice before dropping down to let the whip crack overhead harmlessly.
She was exceedingly grateful that whatever her semblance allowed her to do, it also allowed her to retain, and remember all sorts of useful information. She couldn’t even begin to think how impossible her task would be without that.
“Halt human,” the voice ordered, derision heavy in their tone as Ruby raised an eyebrow to communicate that it didn’t matter what she wanted, and Ruby could do as she pleased.
“Is that any way to treat a friend?” Ruby asked glibly as she withdrew a small mask she kept on hand, courtesy of a White Fang goon she’d liberated it from earlier when she’d arrived. He’d been hassling a few humans who hadn’t been doing anything, and well…Ruby had to persuade him to leave them alone.
“Oh…” the woman said, her attitude doing a one-eighty on the spot. “I just saw you, and thought …you could pass for a human.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. Ilia could be, was a good person deep down, but her current state was highly irritating to handle.
She could be made to see that humans were good, and the error of her ways, but as Ruby didn’t plan on staying in this reset all that long she didn’t have time for that, and so the easiest way was to misdirect, and play it off. She’d reset things long before Ilia could find out, or take offense to it.
Besides she wasn’t exactly saying she was a Faunus. Just letting Ilia draw her own conclusions.
“Pot calling the kettle black much?” Ruby asked with a sharp grin as she put the mask away.
“Alright, that’s fair,” Ilia allowed as she subtly made a few discreet hand signs that Ruby returned effortlessly having spent more than enough time with Blake, or other members of the White Fang to have them memorized.
At that Ilia fully relaxed, and Ruby smiled brightly content she’d be able to continue her ‘break’ as it were.
Ruby made a mental note that the White Fang were much more tolerable under Sienna than Adam, although his fanatics had ended up causing an uprising that she’d stepped in to help, if only because Ilia, and another Faunus friend Ruby had made named Trifa had ended up involved, and she felt guilty.
Then again this was a new test so different results were expected, and this was good to know.
In the end it hadn’t mattered much, although apparently she’d forgotten to hire Neo, and Raven had ‘saved’ her daughter.
How her team kept getting that mission no matter if she was there, or not, was highly suspect, but she put it out of her mind for now.
Not when it was almost time for the end.
Salem had the relics, and was about to doom all of humanity, again. In theory, Ruby could step in, and take them from her, but her experience with most of them was limited, and beyond the lamp, and staff she didn’t really know how best to use them, and it just delayed the inevitable.
She still had no idea where the sword was kept, or how to get to it even after all this time, and she wasn’t going to just try to hunt the Summer Maiden, or Theordore down, and torture it out of them. There were lines she wasn’t crossing, at least for people who didn’t deserve it.
Jinn had informed her that her semblance didn’t grant her free questions. Apparently she’d known, but said she’d keep the secret, but she still had to wait a hundred years for more questions.
When Ruby had said she’d stopped counting the time, Jinn had countered that she hadn’t, and she’d know when she could ask again.
Cinder sat behind her on the ground, disabled, in great pain, but still alive. Even with the maiden powers in her, against a person who knew your every trick inside, and out, there was only so much you could do, especially when the person had plenty of chances to learn all your capabilities.
She didn’t bother killing her though. No point when the end was so close, and she didn’t want to deal with the hassle assimilating the powers would be this close to the end anyway.
Not to mention the few times she had come back with them she’d had to deal with the feeling of being ripped apart as they split when she landed, leaving her with a fraction of them, and a horrible feeling of wrongness that lasted for weeks.
Better to just let Cinder keep them for now, and go back unburdened. She’d learned a lot this time, and had a lot more still to learn.
It might seem hopeless, but she was sure there had to be something she could do to fix things.
As Salem began her ritual she spied Jaune, who more often than not was at the final battle. His robust aura always served him well, and he was there at the end doing his best.
Her mind clicked as she thought of something she’d never tried before.
Rushing over she appeared next to him.
“Jaune,” Ruby began as the man who was breathing heavily turned to her.
“Ruby, right?” Jaune asked, and Ruby nodded knowing he had precious little idea who she was this time. “Did you get her?”
“She’s done for, and not going anywhere,” Ruby promised as she nodded toward the crater she’d left Cinder in.
“Good, she deserves it,” Jaune spat. “At least if I’m dying she paid for what she did to Pyrrha.”
Ruby nodded. “I have a plan, but I need your help to pull it off.”
“Do you really think it’ll work?” Jaune asked.
“Not sure, but no reason not to try anything at this point right?” Ruby asked, her tone light to contrast the seeming darkness all around them.
With a bitter laugh Jaune agreed. “What do you need from me?”
“I’m going to use my semblance, and I need you to amp me as much as possible. When you can’t go anymore then let me know, and I’ll go.”
Jaune pursed his lips clearly not liking how vague it was before he turned back toward the fallen maiden, and nodded. “Alright, I owe you one, and I don’t want to die with a debt.”
“Wish me luck,” Ruby offered as she got in her stance, and let Jaune’s semblance get to work.
After several minutes, Jaune always had a loooooot of aura, he signaled he was ready, and Ruby dug deep within herself.
She flung herself backward, back, back, back, and felt herself hit a sort of wall, but she refused to back down.
Instead of bouncing off it like the first few times she slowly tunneled into it, bored a hole in the wall inch by inch with Jaune’s aura reinforcing her own, until eventually it gave, and the momentum caused the wall to collapse as she was off like a shot into the unknown.
There had to be something she’d find to help her whenever she ended up. There had to be!