AN: Hello dear RWBY community! This is the start of my second story. If you haven't read my first one yet, which I published yesterday, I hope you can give it a try if you like Neo and Roman and don't mind OCs!

Shameless self-advertising aside, this story is about time travel Ruby. I sought long and hard but couldn't really find anything of this kind that tickled my fancy. It either was not completed or the wrong pairing or some Joane harem kind of fic or just a Joane MC fic. Yeah, not that big of a fan of him. Anywho, there was one fic I enjoyed to a certain extend and that was Remnant's Reclaimer by Hysterical Clerical Hijinks, which unfortunately was both the wrong pairing and unfinished. So, with some inspiration from RR, I decided to make my own time travel fic. I hope you enjoy it!

Some warnings: graphic depictions of violence, sexual situations (possibly), language

Standing at the cliff and staring at the gravestones of her fallen teammates, her comrades and friends, her sister, father and uncle, Ruby Rose let her thoughts wander. The full-scale war against Salem had been going on for almost 12 years now. She had been but a 15-year-old teenager when it began, when Beacon fell. She had seen Pyrrha die, she had defended Haven against that traitorous coward Lionheart, Cinder and her cronies.

In her young age, instead of learning and living her teenager years to its fullest she was thrust into war. Granted, she did train to become a huntress, she wanted to fight and defend people but not like this. War of this scale was not what she wanted. Her dream was defending villages, defending travellers, defending city gates against Grimm. Instead, in the past 12 years, she changed from a huntress trainee to a warrior, a killing machine. Ruby took no satisfaction from taking someone's life. There was nothing glorious, nothing pleasurable in killing people but at this point it didn't plague her anymore. It was war, it was either her or them. Traitors didn't deserve to survive a war so they had to die; they would die. One way or another, a traitor's life was forfeit once they faced her in battle. If they didn't surrender to her she would kill them in the battlefield and it rarely ever was a clean kill; the drawbacks of using a scythe. If they did surrender however, they would be court-martialled and usually their punishment would be death.

So, one way or another, traitors died and she was glad they did. To 27-year-old Ruby Rose traitors were worse than Cinder ever was or Salem could ever be. They betrayed their friends, their freedom. They betrayed their families. But worst of all, it was a traitor that killed Weiss Schnee.

Weiss and she had been together since half a year after they stopped the attempt on Haven. Through all the destruction and death, it was Weiss that kept Ruby's sanity intact until she died three years ago. Stabbed from behind through her heart.

She couldn't even say goodbye.

Getting down on one knee, Ruby touched all of their makeshift gravestones, lingering on Weiss'.

"This is it," she whispered, "I'll either join you all and this world will finally crumble or I'll somehow manage it and live the rest of my life alone."

With a wary and tired sigh, she got up, a finger touching the scar running down over her right eye, a gift from Tyrian Callows as revenge after she cut off his tail, causing him to flee which resulted in severe and years long punishment by Salem. He wasn't mentally stable to begin with but he was worse when she saw him again after their first meeting.

Losing that eye didn't matter much to her though; she could still see with it but in all honesty, it was basically blind after it started to bleed when she used her silver eyes on an army of Grimm.

Taking a breath, she gathered her thoughts before pulling the hood of her trademark red cloak over her head, starting her journey to the fight that would ultimately decide the fate of Remnant.

Cutting her way through Grimm didn't even take much effort anymore. They were simple-minded creatures, even the intelligent ones. They had no souls, no sentience and she had grown into a most formidable huntress. Powerful, strong, agile and deadly and, most importantly, no more helpless without Crescent Rose.

It didn't take long for her to see her target.

Salem had left her hideout a couple years ago to further advance and ensure the destruction of Remnant. Most of her officers, her high ranked cronies were dead at this point but even more important names died on Ruby's side. Still, Ruby stood steadfast and lead the small resistance that remained so Salem finally showed herself to snuff it out.

The fight between the two went on for two years but remained undecided.

Until now.

"Ruby Rose. Have you finally decided to end this?" Salem stared at her with her black and crimson eyes.

Ruby didn't answer, instead pulled out Crescent and immediately switched it to its Scythe Form.

The queen of the Grimm smirked at her. "Good enough."

With that, she charged at Ruby who immediately dodged with her semblance and attempted to attack her opponent from behind with an overhead spin attack with the queen blocked with her forearms, smirking at the huntress. Ruby took the opportunity and fired a point black dust round at Salem, causing an explosion that pushed her back but she easily landed back on her feet, waiting for the dust to clear. She had no illusions that Salem would be harmed in any way and she was proven right as the Grimm queen stepped out of the dust, unscathed.

"Is this all the last huntress can do?"

Not reacting to her taunts, Ruby charged at Salem with her semblance, using a wild combination of slashes and spins which were blocked by her opponent. It looked like she was advancing, slowly getting the upper hand but once Salem got a grip on Crescent's blade with one and hit her in the stomach with the palm of her other hand, ultimately sending her flying, she realized she was wrong about that assumption.

Getting up from the rubble she created as she crashed into the wall of a building, she frowned back at the smirking Salem.

She morphed Crescent back into its rifle form and changed the clip from explosive rounds to freezing rounds before activating her semblance once more.

"Always the same tricks, huntress. I am starting to get disappointed." Salem looked around her, taking in the storm of rose petals surrounding her before suddenly seemingly hundreds of shots were fired at the same time.

She felt the thin coating of ice starting to appear on her body before the petals collected at a single point and charged at her, a spinning Ruby with her scythe appearing, the layer of ice, as thin as it was, enough to minimally slow Salem's movement and allowing Ruby with her speed to land a hit on Salem's hard Grimm skin, managing a small crack as she blew the queen across the street and into crashed and burnt out bullhead. Not wasting a moment with this opportunity, Ruby quickly changed her clip back to the explosive dust rounds, lodged Crescent's blade onto the street and fired seemingly never-ending explosions to the spot Salem crashed into.

As suddenly a shadow appeared around her, Ruby quickly dashed away before Salem landed on the spot she was at just a moment ago. A small amount of satisfaction coursed through her as she saw that she caused the queen to bleed, even if after all those attacks it was just a cut on her cheek.

Salem herself wasn't as amused about that fact as Ruby, if the angry frown was any indicator. "You will regret this, huntress."

Ruby sighed to herself. 'This is hopeless,' she thought to herself. 'All my power, all my speed and I barely scratch her. Is this why you died, mum?'

Switching Crescent back to its compact form, she holstered it on her lower back, staring at Salem for only a moment before charging at her. Salem prepared to black but Ruby split her semblances before connecting it back behind the Grimm queen, grabbing one of her arms, turning her around and landing a punch on her face. She then took the other arm, holding them both firmly in her grasp and activated her silver eye, point blank.

"No!" Salem, feeling the burning sensation on herself, kicked Ruby with one foot in her stomach, interrupting the huntress in the process. It was still a lot of damage done to her, enraging her immensely. She looked down at her body, her arms shaking, angering her even more. The earth shook beneath her feet, cracking. Advancing towards the struggling huntress, the cracks widened more and more, causing Ruby to scramble away before she got back on her feet.

For the first time during this fight her emotions were clearly visible on her face as her eye was wide once she saw what was happening.

"This will be the end of you, Ruby Rose. You will regret ever using your cursed eyes against me!" Salem then let out an eldritch scream and Ruby saw the cracks advancing faster and faster as everything surrounding Salem seemed to turn to dust; buildings, signs, the streets- nothing was spared.

Ruby dodged away, jumped and ran. She saw several guerrilla fighters hiding out in buildings look out from windows, curious about what was going on before they evaporated with the building into a mixture of grey with a bit of red in it.

She activated her semblance and ran as fast as she could once she saw she couldn't outrun whatever Salem was doing but even with her semblance it still closed in on her.

Desperate, Ruby poured all she had, all of her aura into her semblance, closing her eyes as she felt the wind whip against her before a pressure unlike anything she ever felt before surrounded her as everything went black.

A silver eye slowly fluttered open, followed by a low groan. Rolling onto her side, Ruby shakily used an arm to support herself before getting back onto her feet. Looking around herself, she saw red leaves surrounding her. As far as she could see, everything seemed to be covered in red. There was only one place in Vale she knew that looked like this and it was Forever Fall but that was impossible. It was overrun by Grimm and what they didn't destroy they corrupted.

Shaking her head, she checked her lower back for Crescent even as she felt its weight but better safe than sorry. Once satisfied with the feel of steel on her fingertips, Ruby pulled her hood over her head and slowly began her trek southwards after she checked her compass.

Her eye took her surroundings in, the surreality of it all getting to her. The huntress didn't understand how this was possible, how she could be here in what could only be Forever Fall, a forest that was destroyed and made inhabitable for anything other than Grimm. It made no sense whatsoever.

Trying to remember what happened wasn't helping her either; her mind was fuzzy from the time she was fleeing from Salem's attack onwards. Yes, she was running and pushed her semblance beyond its limits but from then on? Blank.

Walking up a small slope Ruby's eye widened at the sight of an intact air bus station ahead of her and she almost fainted when she saw Beacon Tower in the horizon beyond the deep cliff of Forever Fall.

This simply wasn't possible. This couldn't be.

Once she reached the console of the air bus station a choked gasp escaped her before her legs gave away.

She had to be dead. Or at least in a deep, very deep coma. There was no other explanation why she was suddenly twelve years in the past.

Pulling her legs up to her chest, Ruby rested her head on her folded arms, trying to make sense of everything. How was this possible? How was it possible for anyone at all to travel into the past? What did that mean for her time? Why was she here in her current body? Were there different parallel timelines? What were the consequences of her being here?

There were so many questions running through her head, making her dizzy, confusing her and she had no answers to any of them.

But there was one thought, one silent thought in the far recesses of her mind she zoned in on. Maybe, just maybe she could change things here, for this timeline. She knew things. She saw things. She learned things. There could be things done differently here, approached differently.

A few more moments to gather herself were definitely needed before she took some calming breaths. Then, standing back up, Ruby approached the console once more to call for an airbus to take her to Beacon.

She had things to do.

Stepping out of that air bus and into the courtyard of Beacon Academy brought unreal amounts of melancholy with it. The feeling of standing here, of what was supposed to be her home, her school was something she never thought she'd experience again.

And yet, here she was. Fate, the universe, destiny- whatever it was that brought her back here surely had a wicked sense of humour.

With a strengthening breath, the huntress began to walk up the courtyard, making sure to take in the smell, the sight of her former school. She missed this, she truly did.

It didn't take her too long and she was at the amphitheatre. She remembered when Ozpin held his welcoming speech for the new cadets. She remembered how annoyed Weiss was with her and how awkward her 15-year-old self was. Those were good times, innocent times. Her biggest worry back then was making Weiss like her.

In the end she succeeded but unfortunately, they had no real time or peace of mind to make the most of it. Fleeting moments were all they had. Maybe this timeline's Ruby would have more luck but would she even be into Weiss like she was? Would Weiss even like her back?

A few stray students threw her the odd look as she passed through the amphitheatre and exited it on the other side to head to the Tower. She paid them no heed and even though her red cloak was kind of a 'Ruby-only-thing' she knew that no one would think that she was a Ruby Rose from the future.

Once she reached the tower she looked up, remembering Pyrrha's death. Her family didn't even have a body to bury as Cinder turned it to ash after shooting her arrow.

Shaking her head, Ruby entered the tower but saw nobody at the reception. With a shrug she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to the headmaster's office.

Upon arrival she stepped out and stood in front of the door before taking another deep breath. Then, after knocking, she waited a couple moments until a voice she hadn't heard in 12 years called her in. With shaking hands, she opened the door to the office and, with wide eyes never leaving her former headmaster, closed it behind her.

"Professor Ozpin."

The millennia old man…or soul, which was probably more accurate, had his intelligent eyes firmly on her, his elbows resting on his desk, his hands folded. "And who might you be, if I may ask?" He motioned for her to sit down on a chair, his gaze never leaving her. "I have to admit, your arrival certainly peaked my interest and I am very curious why the first person you sought out would be me."

Ruby sat down across from him, making sure to make eye contact with him and satisfied to see his eyes widen as he saw her silver iris. "The first thing you told me when we met was that I have silver eyes."

"That's…impossible." The Beacon headmaster never lost his composure but he had no other chance here.

"We have to talk, Professor."

There was a long silence after Ruby told her tale, of the bleak future that awaited this timeline. Ozpin was standing at a large window, staring outside with his arms folded behind his back, his usual coffee forgotten on his desk.

"That is certainly troubling, Ruby," he finally spoke, "and I still have trouble trying to grasp onto the concept of…time travel, for lack of a better wording."

"I still can't believe it either but here I am." Ruby retorted with outstretched arms. "I told you everything I know, including your soul-merging-reincarnation thing. How else would I know about that? How would I know about Blake, about Weiss? How would I know about Raven being the Spring Maiden?"

"I understand, I believe but…" He turned around, giving her an apologetic look. "You made something impossible possible."

"Yeah…"

"So, how do you propose we proceed from here?"

Ruby frowned and chewed on her bottom lip as she stared down at her lap. "I want you to tell a select group of your students the truth…and I mean team RWBY."

"And why would that be?"

"Because half-truths, lies and secrets are what lost us Beacon in my timeline. You should trust those four at least. I am aware that you can't tell everyone something this big but…lives are at stake here. Teenagers who have their whole futures ahead of them. If they know what's up then they can prepare accordingly, then they have a bigger and better chance to fight when it is needed. For the real fights I am here now but if worse comes to worst then they should be prepared."

Ozpin was deep in thought for a few moments before looking back up at her. "What about your uncle? Your father?"

"They'll know something's up when they see me so might as well."

"Very well then," Ozpin gave her a small smile as he took out his scroll, "I will send Glynda a message to join us with team RWBY once class is over. This should make for an interesting meeting."

On that Ruby agreed with him.