Side A part 1

Everyone jumped back in a distinctly comical fashion when they heard Ruby sneeze.

Sneeze. In a workshop. While holding vials of dust.

"DUCK AND COVER!" Nora all but screamed as she dived behind a bench. The rest of the students' present followed suit with screams of their own, and they escaped just in time to avoid the blast of heat, the crimson haired girl triggering an explosion of epic proportions.

Ruby's vision went red, every muscle in her body shrieking as she felt the world give way beneath her feet.

"Ruby? Oh grimm and dust, are you alive?" The wielder of Magnhild cursed as she peeked out from behind the workbench.

The cacophony of coughs and sneezes lessened as the smoke slowly began to clear, everyone warily observing their surroundings as they emerged from their respective hiding places. Some set about looking for tissues to dab at their watery eyes, while others brushed the lint off their clothes, muttering curses under their breath.

Ren coughed as he took a shaky step forward, waiting for his vision to clear. "Nora!" He called, his voice cutting through the din. "Do you see anything?"

"Nope!" Nora said, before her expression fell. "Oh no. Yang is going to kill us! We're gonna have to quit Beacon and hide in some far off continent to avoid her. We may even need to change our names."

"What are you talking about?" Her partner said, looking rightly confused. "That explosion had nothing to do with us."

"Great idea, Ren! I mean– Yeah it wasn't our fault. Psh, we had nothing to do with it." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "To fool our enemies, we must first fool our comrades. Let's hope Yang believes us. If she doesn't, we'll just go into hiding for about…ten years, give or take?"

She nodded sagely, her mop of bright orange hair clearly bobbing up and down through the mild haze. Ren groaned quietly. He really needed to stop Nora from watching too much TV, she was getting more dramatic than usual. As if video games hadn't corrupted her enough.

At this point, the smoke had lessened considerably, and the students had gathered their courage to venture into the scene of the explosion. Just then, a groan rang loudly throughout the room, making everyone jump.

"God damn it." The voice was unmistakably Ruby's and yet, it was an octave lower than normal and sounded distinctly…adult. "You need to stop pushing me off the bed. I swear to oum, if you do that again, I'm not going to wear that outfit you picked out–"

The tall, lithe figure stood and leaned against the edge of the bench, rubbing her temples in small circles. "Are you even listen…ing?" She trailed off. An older Ruby stared at her surroundings, her jaw unhinging as she took in her surroundings.

This was definitely not their room…and these teeny boppers were definitely, not her girlfriend. She took in a deep breath.

"Oh fuck me." She cursed, blanching when she became aware of her state of dress. Or the correct term would be, her state of undress.

The older version of Ruby let out a small 'eep' and yanked the tablecloth off one of the nearby tables, causing all the tools to slide off the sheet and scatter noisily all over the floor. With the sharp fluorescent lights shining down on them, the white sheet that she wrapped around herself did a terrible job at concealing the lingerie clad body of the huntress, the flimsy thing barely long enough to reach her knees.

Everyone drank in the alluring form of the very attractive woman, some students even fainting dead away. Nora let out a wolf-whistle, "Hot damn!" The orange haired girl cheered, pumping her fist into the air. A quick glance at Ren made a sly smile spread across her face. The boy's face was nearly burning in embarrassment. "Gosh, Ren, you really look like you want a piece of that booty!"

"Nora!" Ruby and Ren yelled simultaneously. At the outburst, both parties turned to face each other, their eyes meeting in surprise. Ren then shook his head wryly, unable to believe that the half-naked woman hiding behind a plastic sheet had been one of the most innocent people ever to walk the halls of Beacon.

Ren shivered. Puberty was dangerous.

"Er, guys." Ruby cocked her head to the side, annoyed at all the stares she was getting. "This sheet is real nice and all, but getting dressed sometime today would be good." Her gaze raked across the room, and she rolled her eyes when someone sighed dreamily.

Nora beamed at her. The action made alarm bells go off in Ruby's head.

"Alright, I know just the place!" Nora glanced at Ren and gave him the barest of nods. He responded with a small nod of his own, if somewhat reluctantly. Ruby looked between the two, not understanding why they were suddenly silent. And then-

"Get her!"

Ruby yelped when her arms were seized. They pulled her out of the workshop, the force of their combined strength toppling her and sending her stumbling after her captors.

The three of them walked through the hallways, Ruby letting out an annoyed grunt whenever a student they'd passed stopped to stare at her. To Nora's credit, the girl shooed them away when she realised how much Ruby was beginning to fidget. Her actions were always rewarded by a grateful smile that could've made the toes of lesser humans, curl.

As they neared the dorm room of team JNPR, Nora broke out in a skip, but was thankfully held back by Ren's patented looks.

"You guys didn't need to drag me along, you know." Ruby said, breaking the silence, "I would have come if you'd just asked."

Nora laughed and shook her head. "We're not going to fall for that! Don't try anything funny, older Ruby person, we'll get the answers out of you soon enough." The sentence was punctuated by an ominous cackle that made the crimson haired woman sigh.

She turned to look at Ren. "You realize that both of you have yet to ask me anything, right?"

He had the decency to look somewhat apologetic but the grip on her wrist held firm. The woman shrugged, resigning herself to her fate. She would have broken free already, but it was either this, or running around the campus in her birthday suit. This was obviously the lesser of two evils.

'And besides,' The Ruby of twenty three grinned. 'It'll be fun to take a trip down memory lane.'

When they finally reached their destination, Ruby was gently escorted – read, pushed – inside. Ruby rubbed her wrists in relief. The two had let go once the door had clicked shut, and now, Nora rushed to the closet to dig up something respectable their guest, while Ren set to brewing a cup of tea.

Ruby grimaced at the flimsy piece of plastic she was holding. Gods, she missed her cape. Her musings were interrupted by a shout of, "Here's a pair of sweats!"

Grey sweatpants flew across the room, eliciting a snort of laughter from Ren when it smacked Ruby in the face.

"Okay, which one do you like better? This one-"

Nora held up a largish brown tank top that would expose more than was completely necessary. Who knew that Pyrrha liked this sort of thing?

"-Or this one?"

Nora held up a red oversized shirt with the words 'I fought in the Mistral championship and all I got was this lousy T-shirt' printed across the front in big, bolded letters. Ruby chuckled. Now that was a good shirt.

"The second one." She remarked, smiling when said shirt was tossed to her. She caught it before it hit her in the face, and rolled her eyes when Nora pouted.

"Aw, I was hoping you'd choose the first one." She shut the closet door with an over dramatic sigh, making Ren shake his head good naturedly.

"Nope, no way." Ruby snorted. "At your age, I would've spontaneously combusted if anyone showed that much skin." She coughed when she caught them staring at her exposed legs, "And besides, I think you've seen enough for today."

Nora and Ren looked away with a blush. Hey, it wasn't their fault that the woman was so darn good lookin'!

"Well…I guess I'll be borrowing your bathroom."

"Hey c'mon!" Nora protested. "We're all girls here, and it's not like you're naked or anything. You could just put on those clothes."

"Nora!" Ren pleaded. The mere thought of seeing Ruby in her undressed state again was making him light headed.

"Oh, right." The girl slumped against her bed, crestfallen. "Fine, it looks like you win, Ruby. Wait a sec, you are Ruby right? Or are you her evil twin." Nora waggled her eyebrows, "Her hotter evil twin."

Ruby snorted, feeling an smile creep onto her face. "Close, but no. I'm not her twin. I'm her, but from the future." She held up her hand before they released a barrage of possibly headache inducing questions. "I'll explain everything. But let me get dressed before I blow your minds."

At their respective (if confused) nods, Ruby turned and headed for the bathroom. It was just her luck that the door suddenly burst open. Jaune and Pyrrha stood at the doorway with matching stunned expressions, their jaws flapping at the sight before them. Ren subtly face palmed, and Nora clutched her sides as she began to laugh uproariously.

Ruby shook her head, and muttered, "This is going to be a long day."

"Wow." Jaune breathed, shaking his head. Folding his arms, he looked to Nora for some kind of sign that this was all just one big prank, as if the younger Ruby would suddenly run through the door, screaming 'gotcha!'

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. That's basically it. It looks like my past self was some kind of genius."

Pyrrha leaned back, scratching her head. "I'm not one to believe in such things," She admitted after a beat of silence, "But seeing as the proof is right in front of me…" Ruby gave her a grin and a thumbs up. Pyrrha blushed, noting that the red haired girl had filled out extremely well. Too well, actually. "But how are you going to go back? Is this going to be permanent?"

Ruby shrugged. "I dunno, but I doubt it. Won't me being here affect the past, or something?"

"We'd be experiencing the results of this mishap if that were true." Ren pointed out. "If we follow this train of logic, there's a large chance this might be a temporary arrangement." All five of them nodded, relief visible on their faces.

Nora let out a sudden gasp. "What about your team, Ruby? I mean, it's awesome that you're here and all, but Yang is probably going to flip."

Ruby groaned. She'd conveniently forgotten to about the consequences of her younger self's actions. Weiss was right. She really did have a knack for getting into trouble. A grin split Ruby's face at that thought, the woman suddenly remembering what had been occurring before the switch took place. Her younger self would be in for a nice surprise.

"Er, do you think they would've heard about the accident by now?" Jaune asked, his forehead creasing in worry. "There was a pretty big explosion, right?"

"I'm not sure, but–"

Yang barrelled through the door, her hair ablaze. The temperature in the room leaped at her arrival, crimson eyes burning with fury as she stomped into the room. Jaune and Nora shrank at the sight of the intimidating figure and crawled behind their respective partners. Ren sighed. Pyrrha's lips curled upward into an amused smile.

"Where's Ruby?" Yang demanded.

"Right here." Ruby raised her hand, a large smirk spreading across her face. "Sup, lil' sis?"

Yang did a double take, hands falling to her side in surprise as she gaped at Ruby. Distracted by the sight of how Ruby looked, she didn't notice team JNPR sigh, Nora and Jaune shaking hands at having averted the disaster. I

Wiping the beads of sweat off her brow, the wielder of Magnhild laughed weakly.

"Wha-?" The blonde spluttered, "Rubes, you look– why are you so old?!"

"Hey!" Ruby snapped. For dust sakes, she could barely even be considered an adult! Now that was just plain rude.

"Can someone tell me what the fuck is happening?" Yang threw her hands up in frustration, looking fit to explode. Seeing that Yang's hair was beginning to take that ethereal glow once more, Pyrrha quickly tried to explain, not wanting the room to be burnt into a crisp.

"There was dust explosion, and our Ruby switched places with her future self." Pyrrha made a face as soon as she said it. Wow, that sounded a lot dumber out loud.

"It's true." Ruby nodded, "And I'm only twenty three you ass." She finished, pursing her lips.

Yang shook her head, letting out a large groan. "I can't believe this is happening."