A/N: Eyy, meaning of life! I wouldn't expect this chapter to be too long, because I'm wanting to get the Iron Rose revival out of the way, but I don't want to bring any of the Avengers into The Crisis, because then its no longer a fusion and requires me to label it as a crossover. So, I'm just gonna wrap up the Remnant 616 subplot in this chapter, then I might do a prologue for each of the surviving worlds. Yeeeeeah, not all of the worlds you're seeing will make it to the other side.
Avengers Tower
13:55
Steve secured his shield on his back, prepared for a fight if need be, but really hoping to avoid one. He was dressed in his normal Captain America attire, but for the first time ever, it didn't inspire the same optimism in him as it always had before. He didn't expect to find Ruby in a good shape, or even alive at all. Truth be told, Steve didn't know what to expect when they passed through that portal. Those Ren and Nora kids had told him exactly what was going on, and he didn't know whether or not to believe the insane story. Something deep inside told him to. That he had to.
He'd thought about asking The War Machine to help them retrieve Ruby, but if they found a corpse-he didn't want to put Jaune through that. The kid couldn't handle it. The hope that she was still alive somewhere was what got Jaune out of bed every morning, and if they found her body, it'd break the poor boy. Steve didn't want him to lose hope.
Even now, as he watched the Avengers pile onto the Quinn-Jet, he realized that he'd only chosen the few that had little personal connection with Ruby; Barton, Romanoff, and the new guy, Thor. Steve had chosen them because they were used to losing people. They'd all gone on rescue missions that had soon become little more than corpse retrieval duty.
"You sure about this, Doctor?" Steve asked the wizard.
Strange nodded, "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."
Steve supposed that was meant to be comforting, but all it did was point out just how little they knew about this man. He was confident, Steve would give him that, but his confidence bordered on arrogance. At least that's how it came off to him.
"Alright, Romanoff." Steve called, the vehicle's ramp closing behind him, "time to go."
300ft Above Atlas Skyline.
1400 Hours
The ride was short, Steve had to admit. It had to be, the portal Ruby had gone through was only three hundred feet above the new Avengers headquarters. Paid for entirely by Rose Energy, Steve was a bit reluctant to accept but Weiss had insisted. She'd been named the recipient of Ruby's brand new company in the event of the girl's death. And with her being gone for nearly three weeks at the time, Ruby herself had her pronounced dead. She'd set Jarvis with a timer; if he didn't get confirmation she was alive in three weeks time, to play a message.
Having fought in a war, Steve thought he had seen enough young men and women die to dull that regret of a young life lost, but once he saw the message, it was like salt on an unacknowledged wound.
The message had been a hologram of the girl herself, and even as she stood in front of her friends and told them that she was more than likely dead, they still wouldn't lose hope. They still didn't give up believing that she was alive somewhere. Ruby had left Jaune the mantle of the Iron Rose. Left Weiss her newborn company, Blake a good sum of money to help with the faunas rights movement however she saw fit. And then she left her half sister a nice house in Patch.
Steve didn't quite understand where this bout of pessimism came from, or why he was thinking about Ruby's funeral while they were going to bring her home-because dead or alive-Steve was going to bring her home. She deserved a proper burial if she was dead, but if she wasn't, then he'd make sure she stayed that way. Ten weeks, she'd been gone. Ten weeks. It felt like a lifetime. So much had happened in her absence.
"Opening the portal now." Strange announced, circling his left hand with his right and creating a large portal in front of the Quinn-Jet. When they entered, the first thing Steve noticed was the complete absence of any and all light. I was pitch black in there. The moment Strange closed the portal behind them, the Quinn-Jet sputtered and died.
"What happened?!" Steve asked.
We're no longer within Remnant's atmosphere," Strange explained, "shouldn't be a problem much longer. Let me see if I can get a more precise reading now." Strange said. The wizard sat down, legs crossed on the floor, and began to float.
The room was filled with an oddly pregnant silence as they awaited any further comments from Dr. Strange. "She's close." His eyes snapped open seconds before something collided with the windshield. "That's her." He announced. He circled his left hand with his right hand once more, and the portal reopened right on top of the jet. Remnant's gravity immediately leached through and pulled them down. The engine sputtered, as Romanoff continued to try and start the engine, hopefully before they impacted the ground.
Almost as soon as they were through, the suit of armor that had previously been stuck to the windshield plummeted off. Strange simply closed the portal behind them and opened a new one to catch Ruby and dump her off inside the jet.
The armor collided with the hard metal of the jet with a loud, metallic thud. The arc reactor slowly flickered to life, as did the eyes. But still, no movement. They waited for Ruby to move for what felt like forever. She didn't move. Steve closed his eyes and bowed his head.
"Guess we should try to get her out of that." He somberly said. Steve kneeled down beside the younger girl, putting one hand on her collarbone and another on the bottom of the helmet's chin. He pulled with all of his might, and the helmet came flying off. Ren knelt down next, pressing two fingers to Ruby's neck. He waited a moment. It was faint, but she had a pulse. He relayed this information to the Avengers, and Thor rushed over.
"She saved my life once before," he announced, "it is high time I paid my debt!" He brought his hammer down on her chest, and the girl jumped. Her eyes shot open and she loudly gasped.
Avengers Tower
1600 Hours
"Wait," Ruby said. "You're telling me that god sent you to come and find me, because the world is ending?" She still couldn't believe what she was being told. Was she really supposed to?
"Not just your world." Ren corrected. "Every world."
"This is outlandish. Even for us. Why do you need me anyway? Wouldn't the big green guy be enough?"
"We were told to get Ruby Rose of Remnant 616. No one else." Nora explained. Ruby sighed.
"Alright, Jarvis!" She loudly announced. "Vacation's over. The boss is back."
"Here I was beside myself…" Jarvis sarcastically remarked.
"How long before we can have a suit ready?"
A/N: That took WAY too long. Either way, here it is. Gonna try and wrap up The Crisis a lot quicker from here on out. I want to at least finish it before the end of the semester. Hopefully long before then, but we'll see. I'm a master procrastinator.