"Oww," Ruby Rose moaned as she crawled out of a male adult sized container and out into a thunderous storm raining pencil-tipped droplets. Pain was all over her like she was thrown into a blender and said blender was blending a smoothie.. The worst of it was in the back of her skull as if a device was inserted into her brain. However, as she got out the pain began to subside, allowing Ruby's mind to focus on what was going on.

The Huntress stood up on leaded legs and barely had the strength to keep upright, but Ruby forced herself to remain standing. She took baby steps, feeling the mud shift underneath her weight and looked around to get a view on her surroundings.

To her right was a black train boxcar that had seen better days. It was derailed, partially devoured by a ditch, and bullet-sized holes painted every inch of it. The boxcar's contents, human-sized 'pods' and black boxes, were spilled across autumn grass. Looking at the container she just crawled out of, it was a pod just like the others but grass-green goo pooled around it in comparison with the same grass-green goo that was inside the pod and not outside.

Ruby then looked at herself and let out a small eep. The green goo and mud were caked on her (mostly) naked pale body. Two white clothed pieces were the only things that guarded her modesty. A cool wind blew from the forested left causing her to shiver, but that was a minor concern when compared to what was happening right now, or, well, the assessment of what was happening right now.

As the pains in her body started to subside, Ruby wondered where she was and who took her clothes. More importantly where was everybody? Last she remembered 'Everybody' was at the Vytal Tournament, Vale, and last she remembered of that place was that it was under attacked by Grimm and The White Fang.

Suddenly, she felt an intense pain crawling up her stomach and bad thoughts going through her head.

Penny, Pyrrha, Ozpin, Beacon… all gone. Every single one dead. Yang had also given up. Weiss had been taken back to Atlas by her father to 'safety'. Blake ran off to who knows where and why. She and JNR attempted to head to Mistrial, but were overwhelmed by ancient Grimm. Ruby placed a shaky hand on a scar that was located on her left cheek. She barely remembered what happened back there, and another question aroused in her head, how long has time past since then? Ruby remembered that she got pinned down by an Ursa. It just kept her down instead of killing her and she was forced to painfully watch as the remaining of Team JNPR were drowned in a sea of dark beasts. Shortly after that, a green blob smashed into the ground followed by a group of what she presumed to be soldiers.

Ruby stumbled about and readied herself to collapse. The emotional strain was simply too much, wrapping around and crushing her with all of its despairing might. Sorrowful tears welted up, but a hopeful thought crossed her mind. Maybe JNR were alive! Had the androgynous, facet-helmeted person stabilized them as well?

Ruby vowed in her head to find them and reunite the now-disbanded Team RWBY. Then they would defeat Cinder and her goons.

Then a thought came to her mind. If she was in a pod then surely there were others trapped! And that scared her a little. Why were they in a pod filled with a green liquid, for some horrible genetic experiment or food like in a Sci-Fi movie? Ruby slowly moved to the nearest one and pressed a hand onto the cool glass while trying to peer through the thick substance.

She searched for anything that might have related to the people she was familiar with. Weiss's left eye scar, Blake's cat ears, or Yang's… missing arm. She wasn't sure if they were captured as well and hopefully they weren't as she overheard plans of world domination before going unconscious. The green in the goo was so dense that all Ruby saw was a naked silhouette of a person. She then took a step back, wondering how to open it and a violent light blinked from the left. Turning her head, she saw a keypad with the light on the upper right and foreign symbols on the buttons. Ruby did the first thing that came to her mind, she leaped in front of it and arbitrarily pressed any symbol that her finger could grasp.

Ruby then realized how stupid it was when the the screen on the keypad started to violently blink an ominous red. Guess it was a wrong password.

"Capture or terminate!" The voice of a grizzled man yelled from the right, on the outside of the container of course.

That was fast.

And as Ruby turned to run to the forest, gunfire shrieked and crimson stars zoomed by. This prompted her to use her Semblance and as Aura channeled into her legs, but Ruby felt a hot metal piece bounce off of her back, draining a good deal of Aura. The hot metal piece flew at her at what seemed like a really fast velocity which served to send her flying towards the woods leaving behind a trail of rose petals. She put at least eleven meters between her and whoever was shooting.

As soon as Ruby's feet dug into the mud, she took off running with her mind on overdrive, absorbing any information that might help with her escape. The attackers chased after her, shooting and shouting while Ruby refused to look back in fear of receiving a star-shaped projectile to the face. Just one had managed to take off nearly a quarter of Aura. Ruby could tell by the diminished warmth she felt. She also wished she had her sweetheart, the attackers would fall just as quick as the mobsters she took down at From Dusk till Dawn shop, a long time ago. Probably.

And for what seemed like hours, Ruby played a game of cat and mouse dodging or hiding from patrols. Occasionally one would poke around a bush or look up at a tree branch where she hid and as soon as she was found, it or he alerted its or his friends. Ruby always got away before the rest came, leaving a confused trooper pondering why there was a bunch of rose petals in a forest, on a tree branch or a bush

She also caught glimpses of her pursuers' appearances. For whatever reason, they wore all black making it easy for Ruby to distinguish who was a soldier and who wasn't. Somehow they reminded her of Atlas soldiers, just add more armor padding and evil. Even their weapons seemed like a twisted version of the Atlas Versatile Assault Rifle, their standard military issued rifle, though Ruby did admire it for being powerful enough to eat up Aura. If only they had that kind of firepower against the Grimm then maybe Beacon would have been saved.

As Ruby continued the evading, she noticed there was a steady decrease of patrols. At first it seemed she constantly ran into a group of four or five, but now, with the storm waning and the sunrays shining through the eastern horizon, there was a long period between groups which now only had maybe two or three. There were also the screams of gunfire and thunderous explosions echoing near where the train was.

Ruby, sitting on a branch, thought about heading back to the train. Maybe her team or her other friends were there! Or it could be rebels trying to defeat whoever these people are.

Whatever the case, Ruby decided against her better judgement and jumped down from the branch and hurried to the sounds of distant combat. During her journey, a lull appeared and as she got closer, she felt her muscles tense up in hope and fear. She hoped she at least came across some friendly faces, but fearful that the fight ended in her pursuers' victory and they would resume the chase once more.

As she emerged from the forest onto a semi-intact section of the train, Ruby thought she came across the wrong area. There were no signs of a firefight aside from the fresh scent of gunpowder though a few fires still crackled near a on rails boxcar, but that could have been the result of a engine exploding.

She cautiously maneuvered to the boxcar to search it for supplies. Trying not to be dead prevented her from attempting such a thing because of the seemingly omnipresent patrols.

When Ruby raised both arms to pull the handle, the door hissed opened and she jumped back in fearful surprise. Everything slowed to a turtle's crawl as a dark skinned male leaped back as well, brown eyes widening. Giant, gloved hands lifted up a white rifle and it spewed out more of the dreaded red stars, or hot-pieces-of-metal-that-weren't-bullets-and-hurt-a-lot-more as she called it.

Instinctively, Ruby threw herself down, the projectiles whizzing just above her, and mud married her face as her face planted itself into the ground.

"Oh shit! You alright?!" The man asked, panic and concern in his voice.

Ruby lifted her head up and groaned. The mud was much harder than she thought, but other than that she nodded.

"Sorry! Thought you were ADVENT." the man said as he went by her side and helped her up.

"ADVENT?" Ruby repeated. Were they the ones who tried killing her?

"You don't know who ADVENT is?"

Before Ruby could reply, a voice yelled out, "Shooting little girls now are we Greenhorn? Your itchy trigger finger is going to get someone killed and It would be better for all of us if it was a alien!"

Ruby looked to her right to see a brown-skinned man wearing olive-green Kevlar armor staring at the now identified 'Greenhorn' with disappointment in his somewhat dull brown eyes. He held a black shotgun and a fat, lit cigar was clumped firmly in his mouth. Stress wrinkles and graying black hair decorated his face telling Ruby that the man was at least in his early forties.

"Sorry sir! Won't happen again sir!" Greenhorn apologized and hastily formed a crude salute.

"You should be apologizing to the little girl here," the newcomer said as he lifted up his hand and pointed his index finger at her, then let it fall to his side.

Greenhorn then turned to Ruby and apologized.

"Oh, it's alright!" Ruby rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. Even though he did just shoot her, Ruby understood the paranoia that come from combat. She, herself, would occasionally shoot Weiss by accident. The resulting scolding on tactical awareness always caused Ruby discomfort. It was as if a younger version of her mom was scolding Ruby because her head was nearly blown off because of her. She completely understood Greenhorn's nervous glances at the newcomer.

When Ruby nodded, accepting the apology, he let out a sigh of relief and she thought she heard him mutter something about shit patrol. She could only guess that it was related to fecal matter as it had the S word.

"Good, now it's time for you to prove it! While the rest of your team enjoys whooping alien ass, you have the honor of escorting her to Firebrand," the newcomer then turned his hardened gaze upon Ruby, "He'll answer all of your questions." He turned to face Greenhorn, "Now move it!"

"Sir yes Sir!" Greenhorn yelled through gritted teeth. The forced words caused Ruby to flinch and wonder why he made such an effort to say the words.

"Uh huh. Alright little Miss, you'll get your introductions from him, but first, you need some clothes. Firebrand has some clothes stored to replace those rags, right now I got to make sure this latest batch of idiots don't go and blow themselves up," The newcomer said and then walked away, moving through a gap between the boxcars.

"Let's get moving, Firebrand's at the last boxcar. Also, name's Gallows, XCOM Resistance." The now named 'Gallows' said as he started walking and scanned the area for threats.. Ruby also noticed that his body was tensed up and held his rifle close to his chest. She assumed that Gallows was just on the lookout for any 'aliens'. Strange name for ADVENT, what were they? Little green men? Maybe they look human from the outside but are actually reptilian lizards when the armor is taken- No Ruby, this isn't some Internet conspiracy theory.

"I heard something about aliens," she said as she followed Gallows.

"What?" He stared at her with a questioning eyebrow.

"You know, little green men? Creatures with acid blood? They can't be real right?"

"Ah shit," Gallows swore to himself a little more, "I'm either dealing with a pre-ADVENT abductee or a mind controlled one. This is going to be great."

"Mind control?" Ruby said frightfully, "Like actual mind control?"

"Yes."

Ruby's shoulder slumped. Mind control? She heard rumors that some people had a Semblance similar to it, but never seen it and she assumed it was movie stuff. Then there was the fact that this ADVENT had aliens. Living, breathing aliens. The thought of meeting one should have been exciting. After all, they could have all sorts of awesome technology like a plasma gun! But now Ruby was frightened.

"And, are they evil?"

"I would say so. They do melt people down into goo and kill unarmed civs while invading random planets for bullshit reasons. Fuckers weren't satisfied with Earth so they went to other worlds and conquered them. Latest one being called Remnant. I'm not sure why you call a planet that, but hey, that ain't my problem.."

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks and stared a thousand yards. Remnant conquered? Planets? Earth? Was the attack on Beacon apart of ADVENT's own plan? So many questions stormed in her head, with each new question she asked herself the answer was even more scarier.

"Hey, you okay? You look… confused."

"I-I don't know what's going on. You mentioned ADVENT, aliens, other planets, Earth. I'm just… shocked."

"Wait, do you know what Earth is?"

"Yeah. The stuff we're standing on right now. Dirt, soil, mud, that stuff."

"Where are you from?"

"Patch, it's a small island off of Vale."

"Which planet." Gallows expression quickly darkened and the tone became a lot more serious.

A long, terrifying silence followed after that. The two locked eyes, Gallows stared seriously at an even more confused Ruby. He had just asked which planet she came from. If she was on another planet then that would make her Remnant's first interplanetary traveler. That should have been exciting, but the amount of pain that has happened during these recent times, her usual enthusiastic self had been cut down by a fiery sword of fear, hatred and a desire for vengeance."

"I'm from Remnant."

Another long silence followed, what was minutes seemed like hours.

"Holy shit," Gallows said. Ruby jumped in surprise after he had stayed quiet for so long." You're the first alien that hasn't tried to tear my head off."

"Just exactly how am I an alien?" Ruby placed crossed her arms and frowned. She wasn't some space tentacle monster!

"Despite your human appearance, you are foreign to Earth, therefore you're an alien."

Okay, when put it like that then maybe Ruby was a alien, at least to these people of Dirt World.

"You named your planet after soil?"

"I think it's a fitting name. Our world is covered in dirt and rock. I'll explain who ADVENT are and who we are soon, right now we need to get to Firebrand and from there she'll explain more. After all, our pilot isn't as… xenophobic as some others."

"Okay!" Ruby replied and the two resumed their trek to Firebrand occasionally having to navigate through a heavily damaged section of the train caused by the 'Resistance'. Ruby thought of it as clichéd, but it was fitting given they were resisting ADVENT.

"In short the ADVENT Coalition is a group of various alien races. About a hundred years ago they visited Earth, blew up someplace in Germany, started a war, fought against XCOM and the entire combined militaries of the world, won, and shortly after ADVENT was formed, but even after the war was 'officially' over, XCOM continued to fight till the aliens found the base and raided it. With the only organized resistance force gone, ADVENT curbed stomped the rest. A few lucky folk, though, managed to escape like Johnson. In fact, he did participate in the war!"

"Wait, you said that was a hundred years ago. How is he still alive?"

"Gene Mods, modifications to your genes, one of the many 'gifts' that ADVENT used to pacify most of Humanity, but some rebels, including me, managed to secure one before we booked it from the City Centers and hooked up with the now reformed XCOM."

"So, which one do you have?"

"One that allows me to jump like a certain Italian Plumber."

"Huh?" Ruby had no idea what Italian was, but she was sure that plumbers were average people unless they had a Aura.

"Oh, sorry. It just allows me to jump very high like from this ground to the top of a two story building."

"That's neat!"

"Not unless a Viper is laying in wait."

"A Viper?"

"Oh, the Snaketits? I hate those fuckers with a burning rage because like some snakes they bind you and hiss in your face. I seriously don't get why so many people find a real life snake woman attractive. Like seriously, each time a Viper is just slithering around in the city center, there's always this ONE fat guy with glasses drawing something either erotic or making a portrait of it." Gallows shuddered a bit at that. "And as I hate to admit it, the drawings are pretty good." He stopped his rant after looking at Ruby again.

"This is only getting more confusing," Ruby said. Gallows had switched from Viper to Snaketits. Why did they call it something inappropriate?

"You'll learn more, but back to XCOM! As I said, after XCOM fell, there were a few resistance cells that grew with time, mainly through kids, but a good portion of people moved out of the City Centers and even though the Resistance has been labeled Terrorists ADVENT seems content on just letting us live outside and only deal with the internal threats. That all change though when a few months ago, XCOM managed to locate and rescue its greatest asset, the Commander. Since then the bastards stepped up anti-resistance operations and indiscriminately attacked refugee camps. I lived at a camp when a surprise ADVENT raid happened and XCOM saved our asses.. I owed them my life so what better way other than to join the biggest group of badasses since the SEALs? Oh, and Firebrand isn't too far from here now. It should be just over there!"

"Um, where is it?" Ruby said as they reached the end of the train. There was nothing, and Gallows was pointing at nothing, seeing as she was looking at him like he was stupid he continued walking till he was several meters away from her and then turned to Ruby, crossed his arms, and leaned air as it seemed like an invisible wall was there.

That brought up an interesting question. Did they know about Aura and Semblances? If not, then how was he leaning on nothing?

Then he tapped three times with his right hand and a hollow, metal clank came in response. A couple minutes past before a electric buzz heralded the appearance of a sleek aircraft facing the forest. Ruby shook her head and blinked in disbelief as extending blue patches slowly revealed the craft. In just a few seconds, it fully decloaked.

That was cloaking tech, fitted on a aircraft. Atlas's scientists would have wet dreams about studying it since creating true invisibility nearly overlapped impossible. Ruby's mouth was slightly unhinged, watering with the thought of the kinds of weapons they might had since they that. She also noticed Gallows smiling.

"Love the invisible aircraft trick."

Before Ruby could respond, the craft's ramp landed down with a explosive thud and sending a tiny wave of mud flying. A person in black, bulky armor and a bug eyed helmet walked down the ramp. She couldn't discern any features since the pilot was covered in protective layers, but when the person waved and greeted with a 'yo' in a feminine tone, she then assumed 'Firebrand' was female.

"Firebrand, got a escapee here and Johnson ordered me to escort her to you," Gallows said as he stepped next to the pilot.

"Got it, shove the random naked chick into the Skyranger, give her clothes, and wait while Spartan one-eight cleans up any remaining ADVENT. Anything else?"

"Nothing else unless you got that five dollars you owe me in gambling debt."

"Does Monopoly money count?"

"Still a no."

"But it's paper…"

"We'll discuss this later," Gallows said in annoyance. It sounded like he had this conversation one too many times." Now take care of our little alien friend here-"

"Alien? Where?!" Firebrand panicked. Her head darted faster than a hummingbird all over the place looking for the 'alien' while Ruby pouted her lips. She did not enjoy being called alien, it was dehumanizing and mean even if it was true.

"The escapee!"

Firebrand stopped and glanced at Ruby, slightly moved her head up and down examining her, and then stared at Gallows.

"You mean the escapee, whose name I don't know, is a alien despite looking human? That doesn't make a lick of sense," Firebrand said.

"I know. I didn't believe that human aliens existed until ADVENT started broadcasting on Remnant."

Ruby heard the last part and blinded by her need to know what happened to her planet, interrupted the two by yelling," Do you know what happened then?!"

"Nope, ADVENT's keeping a tight lid on what's going on. Damned propaganda keeps spewing out that everything is under control and shortly after Remnant was invaded, ADVENT deployed a new unit. They call them 'Huntsmen' and 'Huntresses', people from your planet that 'willingly' joined upon seeing that the aliens were there to 'help them'. I bet five bucks that they're abducting people at random and sticking chips into their brains,." Gallows answered.

Ruby clutched her stomach. It felt like she had just been pierced by an arrow that was on fire.. Hunters and Huntresses helping the enemy? They were supposed to be the Protectors of Mankind so being controlled sounded a lot more plausible than willingly serve invading aliens.

"I think so, because Hunters are the Defenders of Mankind and the Faunus from the Grimm."

"Faunus?" Gallows said.

"Wait, you call those black and white things Grimm?" Firebrand also said.

"Yep, they're creatures drawn to negative emotions and as they age, they become bigger and smarter."

"How big can they get?"

"Pretty big, like a four story building,even though I'm not sure of their maximum height."

"Intelligent Kaijus?!" Firebrand squealed excitedly which Ruby found concerning," and can they be tamed?"

"No."

"Has anyone tried?"

"As far as I know, no," Ruby answered. She looked at Firebrand trying to think of a reason why anyone would want to tame a soulless, murderous beast made out of darkness.

"I'm taming one, naming it Godzilla, and unleashing it on ADVENT's New Tokyo. I'll finally get my revenge for them ruining my favorite movie!"

"Wouldn't that put the civs in harm's way? And seriously, what is a Faunus?"

"They're mostly humans with animal traits like bunny or cat ears, monkey tails, or deer antlers."

"Japan and maybe India would go crazy for them, especially the catgirls and cows," Gallows mumbled.

"Do they have heat cycles?"

"Huh?"

"You know," Firebrand said and began dry humping the air. Gallows took a step away and Ruby let out a ew while turning away.

"What are you doing… "

"Because out in nature, heat cycles are a period where animals become sexually active and-" Gallows started to explain, but held up a finger and then placed it on his right ear. "Firebrand, Ruby's, gotta go. Johnson reports that a few Troopers managed to barricade themselves in the engine and are likely trying to radio for backup. A well placed grenade should drive them out so bye!" Gallows said and he bolted like lightening towards the other end of the train leaving both the pilot and Ruby alone.

"We'll talk about the Faunus later, but for now step onto the Skyranger! I'll give you a some new clothes, info on what's going on, and if you don't want to dig your own grave, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT tell anyone else that you're from Remnant." Firebrand said as the two headed inside the Skyranger.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"They're all Xenophobics, Supremacists and are generally really racist. Most are going to tear you apart because of ADVENT's alien pimps."

"But why would they hate me when my friends could be under Mind Control?"

"Earth Humans, as a species, like to think of ourselves as being on top of everything. Hell, at one point we thought Earth was the center of the Universe! So guess what happened when a bunch of high tech aliens came and shattered that?" Firebrand asked as she went between two middle seats and pressed light green buttons.

"Actually at one point, Remnant was thought to be the center of the Universe too."

"Huh, guess we have more in common than modern media would like to believe."

While she said that, Firebrand slid a panel out and placed it against the dull gray wall. Inside the hole was stuffed with varying colored cloths. The pilot pulled out brown cloths and then wadded it up before, without warning, tossed it to Ruby. "Here are your new clothes!" However, she let out an 'oof' and bent her head back when the soft, almost bed-like, fabric smashed into her face. The clothes then dropped to the floor in a messy heap.

"You need to work on your reflexes."

"Hey! I'm pretty fast!" Ruby protested as she picked up the clothes.

"Being fast and having fast reflexes are two different things kid, like Vipers and their insane dodging skills."

"What are Vipers anyway?"

"They're Snake women, don't know why, but men and women gawk at them despite the reptiles hissing in their faces all day. Maybe it's because of the tits?"

"Huh?" Ruby raised an eyebrow. The image of a small snake with breasts appeared in her boggled mind. Why would a reptilian have normally human body parts?

Firebrand shrugged as if she sensed what Ruby was thinking.

"Well, I'll head back into the cockpit while ya get dressed." The pilot said before she left for the cockpit, leaving the small allowing Ruby to put on the oh-so comfortable, loose clothes. It felt as though they were made out of puffy clouds though the sleeves and the pants were just a couple inches too long. It didn't bother Ruby too much, however, and she actually liked it. It reminded her of the old outfit, speaking of which what happened to it, especially her precious cloak? It was a gift her mother gave and the only thing to remember her by.

"Forgot about the shoes too!" Firebrand said and threw a pair of black boots through the cockpit. Ruby let out a surprised squeal as she ducked. Shortly after, a thud was heard and the boots went flying into the wall with a metallic bang.

"Friendly fire, dumbass," Johnson's annoyed voice caused Ruby to turn around to see that he and five others were entering the Skyranger.

"Johnson, you're back? Already? What happened?"

"ADVENT were dug in, but a couple of explosives convinced them to come out and play. They then had a good filling of hot lead and aiming fit for a Stormtrooper."

"Don't forget about Gallows being grenade happy." A graying blond haired, olive skinned man in tattered gray armor said. He moved sluggishly like some shoulder slumped veteran Hunter who had lived through hell, but kept upright as if he was still trying to remain optimistic. The man took a seat directly facing Johnson when he sat down.

"I was not grenade happy! I just...favor them as a weapon to eliminate the enemy's cover!" Gallows crossed his arms and took one of the two seats closest to the cockpit.

"Nobody mentioning the little girl in the middle of the cabin?" A big man said. Ruby was in awe at what appeared to be a bear in human form and unlike the rest of team, he had no sleeves showing off muscled biceps with a tattoo of three stars above a semi-circle inside a pentagon. His brown eyes, filled with a concerned curiosity, rested upon Ruby.

"Ah, a little girl lost her way?" A light blond, white skinned woman madly grinned. For a moment Ruby thought it was the pint-sized girl that worked for Roman, but this woman was taller, at least by a good foot and… were those human fingers dangling on her hips? The Huntress shivered at the sight while the woman just hearty chuckled and took a seat by the ramp.

"I'm guessing she's a escapee." Another white skinned male said. Ruby couldn't determine what hair color he had since he wore a water-blue beanie. A single strap of glass was held in place by black frames and a drone roughly the size of a VCR player hovered on his left.. Ruby also noticed he was half a foot taller than the woman. Unlike the rest who took seats, he opted to stand and pointed to the last empty seat right next to the cockpit.

"Thanks!" Ruby said as she took the seat.

"That she is or at least I'm hoping so and not one of those Chryssalid Shapeshifters," Johnson grumbled, "And here's your boots." He then threw them with enough skill and force that they landed right at Ruby's feet who nodded and proceeded to put them on. Just like the clothes, it felt as though the boots were manufactured from clouds.

They didn't have anything like that on Remnant. That also brought up a question, if they were rebels then how could they get stuff like this? And Johnson mentioned 'Chryssalid Shapeshifters', which hopefully weren't bodysnatchers. Ruby still had nightmares about Yang screaming in an unearthly voice.

"Fuck those things, as if the regular ones were bad enough with their shitty reproduction that spawns three they had to go and give them shape shfiting abilities!" Gallows growled, a bestial anger seeping into his voice.

"What are Chryssalids?" Ruby asked and immediately shrunk into her seat when every eye stared at her.

"In short, oversized bugs that disregard the Laws of Biology and inject embryos into their victims resulting in a very disgusting cocoon that ends up killing the host. Then the cocoon gives birth to three new Chryssalid Hatchlings." the man with the drone explained inducing a gape from Ruby. She felt queasy like the first time she learned how babies came to be, but tenfold.

"Alright, enough chit-chat ya Redshirts, we're taking off soon!" Firebrand shouted from the cockpit loud enough for everyone to hear. With that, Ruby felt the cabin shake as the Skyranger's ramp closed and the aircraft itself lifted off. "We'll be at the Avenger in five to seven minutes so enjoy your R-and-R."

"Ruby, when we land we're going straight to the Commander to decide what to do with you. But don't expect much cause we're most likely we're going to drop you off at a refugee camp," Johnson sternly said.

"But my friends are out there!" Ruby yelled out. She was not going to sit around in some camp while her friends and teammates suffered.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen." Ruby replied proudly. She was certain that her combat skills would help, if only she could get Crescent Rose back.

"Kid, the world isn't your average superhero cartoon, most likely that's whats in your head. Chances are, your friends are either dead, melted down into some goop for the aliens to use and, if not they're under control of ADVENT as grunts if they were abducted. Honor their memory by being in the land of the living living, because Lord knows they'll be dead before this war is over. "

Ruby flinched at each word. More of her friends dead when there were already so many? No, she wasn't going to allow that to happen!

"Guys and gals, we're on fast approach to the Avenger!" Firebrand announced, interrupting the conversation. "There have been reports of a UFO so our HQ heliship is meeting us mid-flight so get your asses ready for a bumpy landing!"

"Those seven minutes went by fast…" The man with the drone quietly said.

And with that, the cabin shook once again and when it stopped, the ramp went down allowing the sunlight to flood in. Ruby had to raise a hand over her eyes to shield it from the blinding rays.

"Come on, the Commander's waiting," Johnson said and walked out of the aircraft. Ruby followed, believing she could convince the leader of XCOM on letting her stay.

Maybe it was just a fleeting hope but hope was the last thing Ruby could hold onto.

A/N

Betaread and edited by frigginnope.

Hello everyone! Archwar here with the rewrite ready to go! Also, kudos to frigginnope for their awesome editing! Anyways, I do hope you find this rewrite to be far better than my original story and please write constructive reviews and not flame me as those reviews will be reported or deleted.

This is Archwar, signing off!