Chapter Text
“…o’clock news. I’m Lisa Lavender and here are the top stories.
“Exciting news for the Kingdom of Vale: Yang Xiao Long, a first-year student of Beacon Academy, has taken home the title of Champion of the 40th Vytal Festival Tournament in what can only be called a stunning upset. In spite of numerous obstacles, powerful opponents, a broken arm, and even a major scandal that threatened to end her career entirely, Yang managed to outperform even the ‘Invincible Girl’ of Mistral, Pyrrha Nikos – once considered the favorite to win, Pyrrha didn’t even reach the final match. Oh well, there’s always the next Tournament, Mistral fans.
“General James Ironwood, head of the Atlas military, is currently investigating the source of the aforementioned scandal – three students claiming to hail from Haven Academy are sought in connection with multiple terrorist attacks across the kingdom, and it is believed they were behind the attempt at defaming Miss Xiao Long’s good name. Ironwood refused to speculate further, and the young Champion could not be reached for comment as she was apparently ‘going to party the night away.’ Let’s hope Miss Xiao Long doesn’t take things too far.
“And now for the weather-”
CRASH! The pillow hit its mark, knocking the Scroll to the floor and ending the newscast. Weiss drew her arm back, groaning as she let it fall over her face to try and stop the sun’s rays from scalding her eyes.
I am NEVER touching alcohol again for as long as I live! the heiress silently bemoaned, Whoever invented the practice of “doing shots” should be drug out into the street and be hung for terrorism via chemical warfare!
She slowly sat up, careful not to go too fast. Her clothes from the previous day were all rumpled from having been slept in, and her hairpiece was on the mattress, having presumably fallen out during the night. Maybe. Her memory of the previous evening was incredibly spotty, but she knew that Ruby and Yang’s uncle had taken the Team out for celebratory drinks- despite her protests to the contrary, she might add! She’d reluctantly agreed to one drink, and that had somehow led to all of them back in their room at Beacon Academy.
Taking stock of the room, the first thing she saw and heard was Yang, sounding as though her motorbike was having trouble turning over. She was half on Blake’s bunk, her voluminous, golden blonde hair splayed out on the sheets, covering up her face, and while still dressed, it looked like she was in the process of undressing before losing consciousness: her jacket hanging off one arm, her belt was undone, and the zippers on her boots unzipped despite still wearing them.
By contrast, Blake was wrapped up in her blankets so only her head was clearly visible. (Yang would probably have some asinine pun about the Faunus girl’s current state if she were awake, Weiss reasoned.) Weiss noticed Blake was currently sans her bow, her cat ears twitching in her sleep. Curse these alcohol-induced gaps in my memory…
It was then she felt something nudging her shin and glanced down; Zwei, Yang and Ruby’s dog, was sitting next to her, panting, a can of dog food and a can opener laying in front of him. He was looking expectantly up at her.
“Oh, of course I’ll get your breakfast,~” she cooed, gingerly kneeling down to give the pooch scritches behind the ears. She briefly glanced back at the other bunk bed and her teammates sleeping in it…and decided that they’d keep for the moment while she fed Zwei.
The Xiao-Long/Rose sisters insisted that the dog was able to feed himself, but Ruby also insisted that she could consume an entire cookie through her nose once, and Yang was… Yang… so their credibility was a little suspect.
“Here you go. Try not to make a mess, OK?” She set the can back down, Zwei digging into the processed meat with aplomb.
With the important business taken care of, Weiss finally turned her attention back to her team, specifically Ruby’s bunk. The young Huntress had been hesitant to join in the festivities at first, but had eventually started “knocking them back” with the rest of them. At least as far as Weiss’s missing memory could recall. Taking care not to make too many sudden movements (there was still a dull throbbing in her head) she stepped onto her bed in order to peer over the top bunk.
Sure enough, Ruby was lying on her side, still in her normal outfit from yesterday: no fishnet stockings or heavy mascara, and as far as Weiss could tell there were no additional Lien tucked into the 15-year-old’s waistband. She was just slumbering peacefully, both of her.
Weiss softly shook her head as she returned to the floor. For as much as Ruby Rose some something of a prodigy, there were times when Weiss couldn’t help but see a child underneath that red hood-
She zipped back to her perch, her brain finally catching up with what her eyes had seen; laying on the suspended bunk, like a perfect reflection, were two Ruby Roses.
…WUT???
“How the-?” She took a second to rub her eyes, blink, then pinch herself for good measure.
…nope, the second Ruby was still there.
Yang chose this moment to return to consciousness, thankfully before Weiss startled all the birds in a 100-kilometer radius.
“Man…what a- fffft! -night. …wish I could remember any of it.” She flipped over onto her back, groaning as she brushed her hair out of her face. “…oh, Weiss, you’re up too!” She squinted for a moment. “…something up with Rubes?”
“Stop being so loud…!” Blake moaned feebly, tugging the covers further up and turning over so she faced the wall. “Go be loud somewhere else…”
“ Sorry! ” Yang whispered.
The blonde kicked off her boots and tiptoed over to join Weiss, jumping up next to her and causing her head to (“Ow…!”) throb a bit at the sudden motion. That went away after a few seconds and she glanced over at the heiress. “So what’s up, Weiss?”
The weary heiress simply gestured nebulously at the bed before her; her face was even paler than normal, as though she’d caught a glimpse of Professor Port posing in sexy lingerie or something equally as traumatizing. After a brief moment silently wondering what Weiss could have seen that would cause such an expression she finally looked over at her sister’s bed.
“…welp, mystery solved. Yo, Blake!”
“ Mmmmmm…! ”
“You might wanna take a look at this-”
A round pillow styled like a dog’s face beaned Yang right in the kisser.
“ You made me do shots yesterday, ” she said from her blanket burrito, “just leave me alone…”
“Um…you might actually want to see this.”
Blake just flashed Yang a rude gesture and rolled over again.
While that byplay was going on, Weiss continued to have trouble processing the sight laid out before her. When Yang noticed this she decided to investigate the problem directly.
“ Ruuuuuuuuby…,~ ” she called softly, nudging her sister in the shoulder, “Wakey-wakey, Rubes, up ‘n at ‘em!”
The young Huntress proceeded to weakly swat her sister’s arm away. “ Five more minutes… ”
…welp, time for Plan B.
“They’re serving cookies for breakfast.”
“WAIT, REALLY?!?” she squealed, instantly shooting into a sitting position.
She doubled over immediately as her hangover said ‘Not yet, kid.’
“ Owwwwwowowowowowowowow! ” she moaned. “ Ohhhhh… I don’t understand why people like alcohol so much… ‘morning, Yang. …what’s wrong with Weiss?”
“Never mind that for now; care to explain your strange bedfellow?”
“My… huh? ” Ruby rubbed the sleep from her eyes, little question marks floating around her head from Yang’s choice of words. Fortunately, Yang pointed a finger to the bed behind her, directing her gaze to where the issue lay.
“Lay” being quite literal in this case; for all intents and purposes she was looking at an identical copy of herself laying on her bed (above the covers), facing the wall, the hood of her cloak pulled mostly over her face. She hugged what they guessed was a copy of Crescent Rose tightly to her chest, as though holding onto it for dear life. Apart from her outfit looking a bit more worn than usual, the other figure appeared identical to her in just about every way.
“…huh, that’s weird.” She let out a mighty yawn and a stretch, Yang counting down on one hand until it clicked for her sister.
3…
2…
1.
“…wait, WUT??? ”
“And there’s the penny.”
Now that her brain had caught up with her eyes, Ruby whirled towards Yang and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, shaking her. “ Why is there another me sleeping next to me in my- ” Both girls suddenly grabbed their heads, groaning. “ Oooooowwwwww , not again…!”
Hangovers.
“…I don’t suppose you know why you have your own clone now, do you?” Yang asked.
“ Of course not! ” Ruby whisperyelled. “The last thing I remember is drinking some weirdly burning juice, and then I woke up here! Everything in between?” She mimed a small explosion, complete with muffled sound effects. “Nada! …does this always happen when you get drunk?”
“Iunno,” she shrugged. “I usually just stop at the second Strawberry Sunrise. You’re better off asking Uncle Qrow about it-”
“ Why are you all still here? ” Blake demanded. She’d finally gotten out of bed, currently in the process of retying her bow. “My head feels like it’s trying to split itself open, and you all sound like you’re talking from a megaphone; what could possibly be so important that you have to-”
“ WHY ARE THERE TWO RUBIES?!? ” Weiss shrieked, finally able to words again.
This managed to get Blake’s attention (as well as sending a splitting pain through her skull). She climbed up next to Weiss, her eyes going wide. “…are we sure this person is actually a second Ruby?” She glanced at her teammates, “None of us can actually remember what happened last night, right?”
“Nope.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Alcohol should be illegal.”
That last one was Weiss.
“I thought not. So…” She gestured to the “copy” of Ruby, “…how do we know she’s actually a person? She hasn’t moved, this could just be a mannequin.”
All of them looked sheepish.
“…we should at least see if there’s someone under that hood,” Weiss suggested.
Blake just smirked.
“Oh hush, you!”
“Welp,” Yang gave Ruby a pat on the shoulder, “have at it, Rubes!”
“Hey, why me?”
“Uh…cuz you’re right next to them?”
“…oh yeah.” She glanced at the figure, then back at her friends- they were all making a “get on with it” motion -then back at the figure again. “Heh heh, what could possibly go wrong, right?” She pinched the edge of the figure’s hood and slowly began drawing it back-
The figure suddenly bolted upright and leaped off the bed, nearly causing the other girls to fall over in the process as they scrambled for the door. Upon finding it locked they instead headed for the window and threw it open, apparently intent on leaping out before the inevitable realization that Team RWBY’s dorm room was several stories off the ground.
“Guess that answers that question…,” Yang remarked as she hopped back to the floor.
“Hey, we’re not going to hurt you,” Blake called to the figure perched on the window sill, “I’m sure this is all just a big misunderstanding. Let’s talk about-”
Blake suddenly found herself on the business end of the stranger’s version of Crescent Rose in sniper mode.
“Y-y-you stay b-back!” the figure stuttered, her voice sounding exactly like Ruby’s. “I kn-know how to u-use this, a-and I’m n-n-not afraid to sh-shoot!”
Blake slowly raised her hand in the air. “…look, we don’t want to hurt you-”
“Sh-shut up!” The girl chambered a round. “D-d-don’t think you c-can sweet talk me w-with those p-p-pretty words; th-this isn’t the first t-time you people have t-t-tried this!”
“ Psst, Blake! ” Yang whispered, peeking out from under the covers on Weiss’s bunk, “ Keep the crazy clone Ruby occupied, I’ve got a plan…! ”
Weiss peeked out next to Yang. “Why are you under my covers again?”
“Don’t judge me! Besides, you’re here too!“
“She has a point,” added Ruby, her head hanging over from the top bunk.
BANG!!! Team RWBY all flinched as a shot rang out, thankfully missing all of them (though the wall behind them was less fortunate). The Doppelgänger squeaked and fumbled against the recoil, but regained her grip after a few seconds.
“All of you, sh-shut up! …th-that was a warning sh-shot,” she unconvincingly explained thanks to her stutter, “Now, y-you’re gonna answer all my qu-questions, it I’ll sh-shoot you for r-real!” She then leveled the barrel towards Ruby. “St-t-tarting with that…that f-fake!” Ruby squawked in indignation.
Yang, however…
“OK, that tears it!” Faster than anyone expected she leaped from the bed and charged, rolling to the side as the figure tried to adjust its aim to the blonde brawler. She backhanded the duplicate Crescent Rose off to the side and grabbed the figure by her throat, causing a few books to clatter to the floor as she slammed the Doppelgänger against the bookcase. “Look,” she growled, her eyes flashing red, “I don’t care if you’re the freaking king of Vale, but nobody, and I mean NOBODY , threatens my little sister and lives to- …to…” As her anger faded, her eyes returning to their normal lilac color, all Yang could do was gape in shock.
Ruby, Weiss, and Blake (in that order) all popped their heads out from behind Yang.
The girl’s hood had been knocked back, now revealing her face; apart from the grime and a more unkempt hairstyle the girl looked absolutely identical to Ruby. She had the same eyes (which never rested in the same spot for longer than a second), the same nose, the same mouth…if her clothes were less ratty she could have passed for a perfect copy of Ruby Rose.
The floppy dog ears atop her head were a bit of a departure, though.
“…wh-whatever you p-plan on doing with me…j-just do it. D-don’t make me suffer…,” she pleaded as Yang set her on the floor.
Naturally, all the girls balked at this.
“What makes you think we’d want that?” Blake asked, kneeling down to the girl’s level, causing her to scoot further into the bookcase.
She's so scared…like I was back then.
This girl's behavior was reminding her of her early years with the White Fang: tired, scared, and wanting to go home and get away from the scary humans. Her fervent beliefs kept her there, but this child... she had no choice in the matter. It was disconcerting and heartbreaking that this girl had to live through such pain that she'd ended up like this.
No one
deserved that.
“OK, look,” Weiss said, “We know you’re scared and you don’t know what’s going on, but we
promise
you that we don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why sh-should I believe you?” the girl glared up at Weiss, hugging her knees to her chest. “All y-y-you dirty humans do is lie t-to us and kill Faunus, even when they s-say they’re sorry! I mean…it wasn’t her f-fault that she was tired from w-w-working in the mines all d-day, a-and the apple was already on the g-ground anyway, and she s-said she’d give it back, but they just k-kept hitting her, and hitting her, and… A-and then Yang, she…Yang tried to get them to s-t-top, and sh-she punched them, and th-then one of them hit her, and he pulled out a g-gun, and he…he…” Her words quickly became unintelligible as she devolved into wretched sobbing. None of the girls had expected this girl, this young Faunus (by all outward indications) to suddenly unload such sadness apropos of seemingly nothing, and as a result, didn't know how to immediately respond.
Except for Blake; she reached for her bow, tugging it off and exposing her Faunus ears again. "I know what it's like," she said, speaking gently, "growing up with nothing."
"N-no you d-don't!" the girl spat, her gaze directed at the floor, "Y-you're the w-worst *hic* of them all!"
Blake continued, heedless of the girl's claims. "I'm a Faunus like you."
For whatever reason, this seemed to deeply offend the Faunus Ruby, because she suddenly made a lunge for her weapon with a scream of pure rage. Of course, Yang was having none of this and tackled the Faunus version of her sister down before she retrieved her prize. The girl actually managed to put up a struggle against Yang’s grip, the blonde just barely keeping hold of her amidst all the wriggling.
"Calm down already, would ya? Geez, you’re worse than Ruby when we’re trying to get her to eat her vegetables!"
“Hey! It’s not my fault that they taste so-”
Weiss’s hand on her shoulder silenced Ruby’s protests.
“Not the time,” she said.
“Yang, keep her held down,” Blake said, “I’ve got a think I want to try.”
“Yeah…no problem…”
“Good. Now let one of her arms go.”
“What???”
Blake rolled her eyes. “Just do it!”
Yang raised an eyebrow at her partner’s (admittedly crazy) suggestion but didn’t protest, having known Blake long enough that she trusted the Faunus girl really did have a plan, and so let one of the Doppelgänger’s arms go.
“Whatever you’re gonna do, make it quick; this isn’t as fun as it looks!” She grunted as the girl got a lucky elbow to her (“Oof!”) face.
Blake nodded and knelt next to them, grabbing hold of the wild girl’s arm after a few attempts. Once held, she guided the girl’s hand to her head, positioning it on one of her cat ears.
The reaction was instant: the Faunus version of Ruby stopped thrashing once her hand touched Blake’s ears, now staring enraptured at the older girl as she rubbed them experimentally. Then she gave one a small tug, causing Blake to wince.
“See? I’m a Faunus like you.” She smiled and nodded to Yang, who let the younger girl free now that she stopped struggling. “No one is going to hurt you, least of all us.”
“...you’re r-really a Faunus?” the girl asked, astonished.
“I am.” She held out her hand to the girl, who whimpered for a moment before throwing her arms around Blake in a tight hug.
“Impressive…,” Weiss remarked. “Actually, what was that thing you did with your ears? I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”
“It’s something Faunus can do for each other if we’re feeling scared or panicked,” Blake explained. “It doesn’t matter which body part we use- I just happen to have cat ears -just that the person is touching a part of you.”
“So how’d you know that would work here?” Yang asked.
“I’m not sure,” Blake shrugged, “I just had a hunch given what she said about humans before. Besides, my dad used to let me hold onto his hand when I was younger.”
Ruby, who’d been mostly silent since getting chastised before, now came forward and tried to shake hands with her Faunus double, only for the girl to shrink behind Blake more, glaring at Ruby.
“Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you,” she said, still holding out her hand. “Honest!”
No change.
“Um...I‘ll share my cookies with you?”
Still nothing.
“I’m fairly certain she still doesn’t trust the rest of us,” Weiss put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, “Why don’t let Blake handle this for now?”
Ruby nodded, her shoulders visibly drooping. “But I wanted to talk with myself…”
“But she’s not actually- …you know what? Never mind; it’s too complicated to explain.”
“Oh, you mean multiverse theory?” Ruby asked, much to the surprise of Weiss’s (and everyone else’s) raised eyebrows. “Back on Patch I used to pretend to build a machine that could travel to other universes.” She bopped her fingers together sheepishly. “I
may
have gone a little overboard on the research for it, heh heh…”
“Wait…is
that
why you always brought home textbooks home from the library?” Yang realized.
“You- …y-you have lib-b-braries here?” the Faunus girl asked, peeking over Blake’s shoulder. “...and you g-get to u-use them?”
“Well…yeah,” Ruby answered. “Why, do you not have them from where you’re from?”
“N-no…I mean, th-there
are
, but F-faunus aren’t allowed i-in them…”
“...are you
serious
?” Weiss asked, unable to comprehend just what she was hearing. She certainly wasn’t blind to the discrimination the Faunus constantly faced, but even her own father, a man infamous for exploiting Faunus labor, wouldn’t
dare
suggest something so utterly abhorrent as to keep an entire people from having access to literature.
Unfortunately, her indignation must have come off as anger to the poor girl, who whimpered and shrunk further behind her makeshift shield.
“Weiss!” Blake glared.
“I’m sorry! I was just asking.”
“Well, ask nicer next time.” Then she turned to the scared Faunus. “Ignore Weiss; she’s insensitive.”
“
Hey!
”
“Regardless, things aren’t like that here-”
A loud knocking suddenly rang throughout the room, which caused the Faunus Ruby to dive for cover under Blake’s bed, grabbing her Crescent Rose on the way.
“Girls,”
Glynda Goodwitch said from the other side of the door,
“is everything alright in there?”
“Uh…y-yeah, everything’s fine!” Ruby called back, “We’re all fine here, now…thank you. …how’re you?”
The other three girls of Team RWBY collectively facepalmed.
“You dunce…,” lamented Weiss, slowly shaking her head.
“I’m doing just fine, Miss Rose. Would you mind opening the door?”
“Uh, sure! Just a second!” she replied, zooming over to and opening the door despite the numerous and explicit signals her team was sending to the contrary. “What’s up?”
“Well, I just received some reports of a weapons discharge in this part of the building,” the teacher explained, forgoing pleasantries, “And since Miss Valkyrie wasn’t responsible, I have to ask the other students if they know anything about it.”
Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, unsure exactly how to explain everything that had happened in the past 30 minutes without sounds like she was making any of it up. Glynda’s no-nonsense, penetrating glare wasn’t helping matters either.
“Ruby was doing some maintenance on Crescent Rose, then Yang started roughhousing with her,” Blake fibbed, stepping up behind Ruby and placing a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “She didn’t have a chance to make sure the chamber was empty.”
“Um…oops?” she shrugged. Ruby wasn’t sure why Blake was keeping the Faunus version of her a secret (though she could venture a reasonable guess), but in for a Lien and all that… “Sorry…”
Glynda merely stared down at the 15-year-old for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Very well then, given that this was apparently an accident I won’t formally reprimand you for it.”
All the girls sighed in relief.
“
However
…”
They all groaned.
“I will expect you all to repair the damage yourself, not simply hang a picture over it to hide the hole.”
Yang coughed.
“I’ll have the supplies sent up before the end of the day,” she said, nodding to the team. “Have a pleasant afternoon, ladies.” And with that, she headed off to…wherever she went when she wasn’t teaching.
“Holy crap, it’s
afternoon
?” exclaimed Yang, “I thought it was still morning! When did it get so late?”
“OK, now what was
that
about?” Weiss asked Blake, ignoring her blonde teammate’s revelation, “Why not let Ms. Goodwitch know about that Faunus girl?
We
certainly don’t have any idea how to handle this.”
“Have you
seen
her?” Blake countered, “She’s still a nervous wreck. Besides, for all we know Ms. Goodwitch is the head of the Faunus Extermination Corp or something!”
“But she could
also
be just like ours, none of us know for sure!”
“I know that she doesn’t trust humans, and is only barely OK with us because of me!”
“Sh-sh-she has a n-name, y-you know…”
Team RWBY all turned towards Blake’s bunk, the Faunus girl’s head poking out from underneath.
“I have a n-name,” she repeated, finally crawling back into the open, “I-it’s Ruby…”
“I mean…that figures,” Yang drawled.
“So,” Ruby spoke up, extending her hand once again, “‘Ruby’, I’m Ruby too! As in: also. Pleasure to meet you!”
The Faunus Ruby glanced at the proffered hand before cautiously taking it with her own.
“P-pleasure to m-meet you…”
“
So
, I hate to break up this beautiful friendship,” Yang interrupted, “but I’m just gonna say it: we need something else to call Little Miss Faunus or else things are gonna get real confusing real fast.”
“We can worry about that later,” Weiss said. She’d picked up Zwei (who’d been hiding under
her
bunk during the commotion) and was scratching him behind the ears. “Right now, I think our biggest problem is figuring out what to do with Ruby now that she’s here.”
“Huh?”
both Rubies said in unison.
“...
OK
,” Weiss admitted, “point taken. If anyone has a suggestion, toss it out. Regardless, how feasible is it for her to keep hiding here?”
“...so you want to kick her out?” Blake accused, the Faunus Ruby squeaking in fright at the suggestion.
“Of course not! She can stay with us until we can find a better long-term option.”
“You think Dad would mind taking her?” Yang asked her sister, who shrugged.
“I mean, maybe? It’s still a little rural, but maybe she’d enjoy that?”
The Faunus Ruby’s dog ears drooped.
“Um…you don’t have to make a decision right now, though!” Ruby backpedaled. “You can totally stay with us until you’ve thought about this.”
“OK then…thanks…”
“Hmm…” Yang rubbed her chin, regarding the Faunus doppelgänger of her sister. “Well, ‘Ruby 2’ seems kinda lazy…how about Rose’?”
“…no, that doesn’t feel quite right,” Weiss shook her head. “How about something regal, like ‘Byzantium’!”
“What about ‘Garnet’?” Ruby suggested.
“Um…,” Blake interjected, holding up a finger, “why don’t we let her pick what she wants to be called?”
All three girls suddenly found themselves very interested in the floor.
Blake turned to the Faunus girl. “Is there anything we can call you so we don’t confuse you with our Ruby?”
She thought for a moment. “U-um…my m-mom used to c-call me ‘Roseb-b-bud-‘“ She suddenly shook her head violently. “C-call me Rosey,” she decided, looking pleased.
“ Rrrrrrrrosey ,” Ruby said, trying the name out. “…sounds good to me, Other Me- I mean Rosey!”
“I mean, it kinda sounds like my suggestion-” Yang harrumphed, Blake punching her in the arm. “Hey!”
While Team Ruby was all expressing their affirmation to Rosey’s choice in name, none of them noticed the bathroom door swing open, a towel-clad girl walked out, currently drying off her hair.
Only when she spoke up did everyone else notice her presence. “Hey, Barb, have you seen my clothes?” she asked, “I know I put them right next to the tub! I swear, if Samantha hid them on me again, I’m gonna-”
As she wrapped the second towel around her head (who they could now see
also
bore a striking resemblance to the eponymous team leader) she suddenly noticed the others staring at her.
“...,” she said, frozen in place.
“...,” they said, shocked at the appearance of
another
Ruby.
“...
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!!
” the new girl screamed, practically
leaping
back into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
Weiss audibly facepalmed.
“Good grief…”