Things have been a little... stressful around here for a while, especially this last week. I'm safe but some of the fires have been too close for comfort. Then again, it's not nearly as stressful for me as for some people. Hoping this will relieve at least some of yours.

After yanking her sword out of the head of the Faceless, Ruby climbed the stack of shipping containers that she left her rifle on and took another look over the camp. Several plumes of smoke rose over the shanty town. Some shacks and containers looked like they were completely destroyed. A few cars roamed around the perimeter with locals with guns hanging out the sides. Some people roamed between the homes on motorcycles. The screams and wails of the injured, dying, and survivors filled the air.

Yet despite all this, people still climbed onto their roofs with colorful cloth in hand. They mounted their flags on metal and wooden poles on most of the makeshift buildings. Most of the flags were the red white and blue ones from before with the third most common one consisting of red, white, and green vertical stripes with an image of an… eagle?... eating a snake while standing on a cactus. There were a few scattered others, some of them being for what looked like colleges. Most of the flag bearers either saluted the flags they mounted, pumped a fist in the air, or drank some kind of alcohol as soon as their banners were secure. Ruby shrugged. People needed something to grab onto in times like this.

After noting everything wasn't terrible in the camp, Ruby used her perch to locate the trucks she was supposed to be working on. She saw the cabs on the other side of the camp. Might as well start walking. She climbed down the stack of containers and marched toward the trucks. As she walked, she wondered how the heck those big rigs would make it to a road. It didn't look like there was anything within a mile and at least the ground she walked on wasn't the hardest.

As she walked through the camp, Ruby couldn't help but look at all the destruction. Bullet holes in buildings and people she was used to, even if some of the entry and exit wounds were a little bigger than normal. But it looked like ADVENT soldiers sued ballistics. She passed a dead Muton that had a different kind of weapon, though it was in pieces. Whatever it was, the wounds and holes were too spread out to be lasers and the area directly around the impact site had burns so they couldn't be normal ballistics. Must be that plasma weaponry she heard so much about. She really needed to get her hands on some of that tech.

Ruby clamped her teeth together as she stepped around the corpse of a civilian. Ever since Aaron died, that's how she approached these things. She hated it. She wasn't CSI, she wasn't a soldier, she was hardly even a warrior before she was taken from Remnant. Whether she spread it or not, Yang's comment of Grandma Ruby started to spread around the rest of the Riders. Ruby loved being the one to help people out in their time of need. Now… she had no time.

The Rider heard a man scream to her right. She sprinted toward the sound in case her squad missed an enemy. Ruby rounded a corner with sniper rifle raised yet lowered it when she saw the cause. A man in Kevlar body armor knelt over the body of a child, or what was left of it anyway. Most of the child's chest was burned away with their right arm missing completely. Their head was only connected by a thin string of skin. Ruby took a sharp breath through the nose and continued toward the trucks. There was nothing she could do… and Crey was the first image that popped into her mind. Her baby boy was alive and well, perfectly safe with the rest of the family. He would never end up like that. No one would allow it.

As she walked, she made a point of looking for anything she could help with. Unfortunately, with no access to her magic, the number of things she could help with was practically nothing. As much as it hurt, Ruby walked by each and every one of the people that needed medical attention. She could do wonders with magic, but without it, she could only do basic first aid, things just about everyone could do. After she passed an older man bracing a child's arm using only wood and an old shirt, she resolved to asking Invidia for some more advanced medical training without magic. Elves in general were so good at both kinds of medicine.

After several minutes, Ruby made it to what looked like the camp's motor pool. In addition to the semi-trucks she saw from her observation post, a few pickups and other vehicles sat beneath tarps and other semi-permanent structures. A group of locals worked on one of the trucks with a heavy machinegun mounted in the bed. That would have been helpful in the fight.

Ruby walked over to the nearest semi and the mechanic working on it. "Hey, I've been told you need help getting these things running?"

The man looked over his shoulder. "Yeah. You the paramilitary group that kicked ADVENT's ass?"

"XCOM, yes." Ruby looked over the man's shoulder and into the engine. It looked like so many Dust conversion engines back on Remnant with something else on top of where the pistons were. "What's the problem here?"

The mechanic grunted and glared at the engine. "ADVENT tech. The damn Martians aren't exactly shipping gas out here, so we have to steal these conversion kits. The problem is our guy got captured on his last run into the city. Likely ratted us out." The man scoffed. "Typical Californian." He glanced back at Ruby. "You know how these things work?"

Ruby shrugged. "I've worked on weirder things. I should be able to figure it out."

The man nodded. "Well, she's yours. I'm going over to help with the technicals." He pat Ruby high on the back and walked over to one of the makeshift garages.

"Okay, big girl. Let's see what you got." Ruby grabbed the toolkit the mechanic left behind and started working on popping open the casing of the device on top of the pistons. A few of the markings on it led her to believe that it was some sort of high capacity/high output battery. That certainly was one way to power a conversion engine. It definitely wasn't efficient, but it could get the job done.

She managed to top the panel to reveal what looked like the battery itself. Ruby cocked her head at the alien lettering and symbols. "Shadeslayer to Avenger, is the chief engineer on the line?"

A few moments of silence passed before Shen said over comms, "I'm here and I see what you're looking at. ADVENT power packs. More efficient and more effective than the solar panel jobs I've seen, but much riskier to steal. Only available to the rich and particular ADVENT sympathizers."

"Can this thing explode if I do something wrong?"

"Explode, no. Potentially leak radiation from the little bit of Elerium inside, yes. Want me to walk you through how it works?"

"If you're offering, yes." Ruby sat through the next several minutes of technical jabber thrown her way. She used to hate sitting through lectures, but now, especially when it came to mechanical stuff, she thought it was the most efficient way of learning new things outside of hands on experience. The worst part about the whole thing was that she likely wouldn't be able to replicate it back on Remnant. The materials just weren't there yet.

Shen walked Ruby through the particulars of hooking the powerpack up to the engine. Really, it was one of the simplest mods that she could think of. She just had to hook some things to the base of the pistons, and it should work. It was a fine piece of machinery. When this was all over, she might have to try to take one of them back to Remnant to power a Wyvern or something similar.

With everything hooked up right, Ruby hopped up into the cab and searched the area for keys. She pulled down one of the sun blockers and a keychain fell onto her lap. After a few tested keys, one of them slipped into the ignition. One quick turn and the engine started right up. A few people on the ground looked her way with a couple of them raising their fists in celebration. Ruby looked around the ceiling for a chain like in the trucks on Remnant. She found it and pulled it. A massive horn blew from the top of the cab. People on the ground either cheered or covered their ears. Ruby smirked. She'd never actually done that back on Remnant.

With that out of the way, she turned off the engine, left the keys in the ignition, and hopped out of the cap. Ruby walked toward where most other people worked. "I got that one fixed. Anything else you need me to take care of?"

A few of them looked around until the one Ruby originally talked with shook his head. "Not like that. We've got the other ones taken care of. Maybe you could give us a hand with the turrets. We've got plenty of guns and ammo, but the mounts are getting…" he trailed off as what sounded like an intercom buzzed. All the mechanics looked at each other before leaving the makeshift garage. They all placed their hands over their hearts and raised their heads.

The intercom buzzed one more time before a woman's voice filled the air. "Oh, say can you see…" It was a song that Ruby didn't recognize but she'd heard multiple Kingdom Anthems in her time. The mechanic's actions just confirmed it. Out of respect for the land, Ruby took the same position and faced where the mechanics did, the red, white, and blue flag with a bunch of stars.

After the song ended, the mechanics cheered and raised their fists in the air. A chant of, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" rolled over the camp. Ruby let her hand fall to her side and let the mechanics have their moment. This felt important to these people.

As soon as the cheering died down from that, the intercom clicked again. A different woman's voice came out of the speakers only in a language Ruby didn't recognize. One man stepped to the front of the group with his gaze focused on the white, green, and red flag. The rest of the group stayed in place with hands over their hearts so Ruby returned hers to its former place.

A little way into the song, Ruby's earpiece chirped. "Pack it up, Menace," the Commander said. "We need to get moving. Firebrand is setting down on the south side of the camp. Good work people. You could all use a break when you get back to the Avenger."

Other members of the squad reported that they heard right away but Ruby waited for the second anthem to end before clicking her comms on. "Shadeslayer copies. I'm moving south." She faced the mechanics but none of them were looking at her. She shrugged and walked away. They were doing just fine without her. She wouldn't be needed.

Despite the earlier cheers, the majority of people Ruby passed were still licking their wounds. The uninjured people she passed helped those who weren't so lucky. So many bodies laid on the ground. At one point, she caught a glimpse of what she thought was the recovery team carry away the body of a deceased ADVENT soldier. Their airship must have come in when she was working on the engine.

A single row of shacks away from the grounded Skyranger, Ruby heard a commotion to her right. A young tan skinned woman ran about to every person on the street, arms flailing about. She spoke in that same other language as before, her voice frantic. Without exception, everyone gave some kind of 'no' response. The woman tilted her head skyward and yelled at the heavens. One word caught Ruby's attention that explained the woman's reaction. It wasn't quite 'baby,' but it was close enough. The woman tilted her head back down, her teary brown eyes locking on Ruby's silver.

Ruby subconsciously straightened up. Her arms hung limp by her side and her jaw dropped a fraction. Almost all sound became white noise and faded out. She only heard the mother's cries. A child was missing in a battlefield. That child needed to be found.

Ruby walked away from the Skyranger, her eyes focused low. The mother's wails grew quieter as the search party of one got further away. Every little bit of movement made her head snap to it. Every time was some kind of rodent or scorpion. At some point she thought she heard someone scream in her earpiece, but she never heard any words. Eventually, the mother's wails silenced completely.

The Rider wandered through the camp, listening for something that couldn't be heard. Ruby caught a few people giving her strange looks, but she paid them no mind. A child was missing. Nothing else mattered.

It could have been a minute, it could have been ten hours, but Ruby finally heard a single sniffle. She snapped her head toward it and stared at a shack that was elevated a little off the ground on cinderblocks. The Rider stayed in place, silent as she listened for any other noise. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another of her squadmates marching toward her. "Shhh!" Ruby stick a finger out toward her squadmate's mouth. She was sure she heard something, just not where it was. After way too long, a whimper reached Ruby's ears. It came from the same place as the sniffle.

Ruby walked toward the house and looked it all over. Several bullet holes and plasma burns scarred the sheet metal. No one stood outside so she looked inside one of the windows. Again, she saw no one. Then she heard some movement by her feet. Ruby stared at the ground and the crawlspace beneath the shack. That explained it. Ruby stepped back and dropped to her hands and knees.

A boy that couldn't be more than five lay curled up a few feet beneath the shack. His skin matched the probable mother's. He bled from several places and his clothes were a little more tattered than most people. Another part of Ruby took over and she gave the boy the warmest smile she could. "Hi there." She reached her natural arm out toward the boy. "It's okay. The bad guys are gone. You can come out now." The boy just mumbled something in a different language.

Ruby's smile faltered for a fraction of a second. She had an idea. It worked with Violet all those years ago, but then again, she could actually use her magic back then. At the same time, it was impossible to lie in the Ancient Language. That didn't matter if you could use magic or not. In theory, it should still have the same effect. She returned her smile to its full force. "I am a Rider and a friend. You are safe here. The bad guys are gone. You can come out now. I'm going to take you to your mom." She tried to put energy into the words like before, but she felt no drain.

Still, she got the result she wanted. The boy loosened the grip on his legs and took his head off the ground. He said something in his own language. Ruby didn't understand but she nodded anyway. "You're safe. You can come out now. No one here will hurt you." The boy whimpered and he started crawling toward Ruby, with his right leg dragging behind him. "That's it. That's it." Ruby waved him along until he cleared the shack. He looked up at her with big watery eyes. "Atta boy." She gave him a quick once over. Nothing looked broken but there was a huge gash on his right leg. It wasn't bleeding much but it sure looked painful.

Ruby picked the boy up and held him close. He snuggled in close and wrapped his little arms around her neck. Ruby just had that effect on kids. "Now let's get you to your mommy." She turned around and the sound of the camp registered in her ears once again. Sall stood a few feet away with rifle in hand. His eyes focused on the boy then locked with Ruby's. He nodded then turned around and walked back toward the Skyranger.

The boy whimpered and his right leg tensed. He cried something in his own language. "I know it hurts. I do. You'll be helped soon. Just a little bit longer." Ruby kept talking to the boy as she walked. Neither of them knew what the other was saying. Still, the boy was at ease. That was all Ruby could have hoped for.

When she walked back into the main area, Ruby saw the distraught mother hunched in a corner surrounded by a few other women. "There's your mommy." Ruby used her free hand to point at the crying woman.

The boy followed Ruby's finger and his lower lip trembled. "Mamá!" he called.

The woman's head shot up with her eyes immediately focusing on her son. "Mateo!" She shot to her feet and ran toward her son. She snatched him out of Ruby's arms and hugged him close. They both spoke in their language with a few words sounding incredibly close to Vytalian. Ruby just stepped back with a respective smile on her face. It was the same thing with so many of these reunions. Every time, she wished it never happened.

Normally, she'd wait for the parents or the police to make the next move, but she didn't have the luxury of time. Ruby turned toward the Skyranger and took a step toward it. Before she could take another, a gentle hand grabbed her left arm. She turned around and faced the mother. "Thank… you," the other woman said. "Stay. I… cook for you."

Ruby's warm smile returned but she raised a placating hand and shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I can't." She gestured at the Skyranger. "I need to go. I'm needed elsewhere. Maybe some other time."

The woman took her hand off Ruby's arm and placed it on the Rider's chest. "You always welcome."

"Thank you, but now I've got to go." Ruby turned toward the Skyranger and walked toward it. This time, she made it up the ramp without a problem. The rest of the squad was already onboard. Bones was doing something with Griz' left shoulder, but otherwise the rest of the squad had their eyes on her. Everyone but Sall gave her looks like she had some dirty thing on her face. Ruby turned around and looked back at the camp. Several people there waved at the transport with the mother doing so from the back. Ruby waved back at her specifically then slammed the side of a fist into the crew compartment's wall twice. The ramp lifted as the Skyranger left the ground.

As soon as the hatch closed, Ruby's nice side disintegrated. She slotted her weapons into their slots and pulled down her restraints as she sat. Her head dipped as she crossed her arms. She'd had enough of dealing with the aftermath of Grimm attacks. Grimm were mindless beasts. How could anyone think mowing down unarmed civilians was okay? While she didn't do it much in the first place, she didn't think she'd be driving on sidewalks in video games any time soon.

"Rose," Grizzly barked, "you disobeyed orders. Why?"

Ruby focused on one particular bolt on the floor. "My daughter was kidnapped a few years ago." She felt the tension in the crew compartment shift from being against her to something else. "We found her soon after but that was the scariest time of my life." She wasn't sure if that was entirely true. It was either that or when the Nevermores had her.

"I fail to see your point," Grizzly continued, unaware of the shift in the transport. "That was not our mission."

Ruby shot her head up and gave Grizzly what felt like her fiercest glare ever. "It is mine. I am sworn to protect the innocents of all Kingdoms, an oath I can't break. That's what all my people do. I extended my oath to help any and all people in that situation. Even if I didn't do that, I still would have. I know what that mother went through. I remember that panic like it was yesterday. I-" She stopped herself from saying that she had an idea of what that child went through. "I fight for those people until my last breath. I don't care where we are or what the mission is. If someone is abducted or if someone is crying out for family, I will do whatever I can to resolve the situation." She grabbed the camera on her vest and angled the mic right at her mouth. "You hear that Commander? If I ever come across a situation like that again, I will act. These people are living through hell already. I will give them at least a little hope. If a low life civie is responsible, they're as dead as the rest of ADVENT." She let go of her mic and continued to glare lasers into Grizzly.

The big man huffed and said something in his own language. Sall yelled something right back in what sounded like the same language. Whatever that was, Grizzly winced and turned his head away. The squad leader faced Ruby and looked her up and down, his face not giving away anything. He was either really mad or she was in for a promotion.

"Besides," Ruby finally took her glare off Grizzly and crossed her arms, "I thought XCOM's mission was to protect the people of this planet. When looked at from that point of view, I did my job to the letter."

"You still disobeyed a direct order," Sall said in a flat tone. "Not only that, you might very well have ticked off the Commander. You're his problem now."

Ruby grunted. "Fine with me. I've straightened out scarier people." Ruby stayed silent the rest of the flight. She thought she heard some words of praise to the squad from the Commander and another ADVENT news broadcast, but she ignored every word of it. She just sat stewing in her own rage, at ADVENT, at the Commander, at Grizzly, at herself, at everything. In any other situation, she would have tried to keep her cool. But with the Cerise shaped hole in her head, she didn't care about any of that. To hell with that forgive and forget nonsense.

The Skyranger landed on the Avenger without incident. Ruby didn't wait for an invitation to disembark. She placed her weapons and remaining ammo back in their racks and walked out of the armory. A few people stared after her as she walked through the halls, but she ignored them all. She stormed into her room, thankful that her roommate wasn't there.

Ruby screamed and punched the wall on the back of her bed. It hurt her fingers but still felt good. So good she did it again and again until her natural hand left a red imprint on the wall. She leaned on her now bloody fist for a moment while panting. She pulled her fist back and looked at it. Her fingers from knuckle to base oozed red. She'd need to pay Invidia a visit sooner rather than later.

She growled and looked around the room. She found her loaned tablet exactly where she left it. Of course, she would. Mox felt too proper to do anything mischievous. Ruby picked up her tablet and opened the app she used to record her audio logs. "Ruby Rose' log, August 10, 2035. Fuck ADVENT. End log."

Two days after the retaliation strike, the Commander hadn't handed down any punishment. Ruby doubted her little speech scared him off. He probably got so much crap from people all the time he was used to it, not to mention he was pure military. They couldn't be that low on manpower that there was no punishment for speaking out. While she wasn't heavy handed at all, she would not have accepted that kind of talk from any junior Rider.

While waiting for any kind of punishment, Ruby worked on her blueprints for laser weapons. She had many designs for regular ballistics that were mass produced by the SDC. Designing lasers for mass production with minimal supplies was quite a challenge. At least it kept her mind busy. Also, it didn't interfere too much with her heavily bandaged hand.

Someone knocked on the door three times. "It's safe," Ruby called. It was probably Mox. After the first time he walked in on her changing, and Ruby's very real and intentional threat, he always knocked before coming in. The door slid open, but Bradford stood on the other side of the door, not Mox. Ruby straightened where she sat. "Central."

"Sergeant Rose, please come with me." Bradford stepped back and gestured to the exit of the common area.

"Sergeant?" Ruby stood up. "I've been promoted?"

"After what you did on your last mission, we had to." Bradford stayed in the same position.

Ruby stared at Bradford for another second before shrugging. "Okay. I guess the formalities on this ship are a little looser than I thought." She walked toward her room's exit and Bradford led the way out of the common area.

"Not quite." Bradford looked over his shoulder. "We just couldn't figure out what to do with you after your little speech."

"Fair enough." Ruby stayed silent as she was escorted through the ship. Most soldiers and crew members they passed saluted Bradford. Ruby caught sight of Rayla on the way to wherever they were going. The elf's acid burns looked like they were mostly healed, though a few residual scars remained. From what Ruby could see, it looked like Rayla would be back in the fight sooner rather than later.

Bradford stopped outside a door labeled 'Propaganda.' He knocked on the door three times. Something clattered on the other side followed by some colorful language. The door opened revealing a woman wearing a denim jacket with a tan shirt underneath that. Her dark brown hair was pulled up in a bun. Various tattoos covered her off white skin. "Central, you have something for me?" she asked

"I do, Kai." Bradford gestured at Ruby. "This is Sergeant Ruby 'Shadeslayer' Rose, the one I spoke to you about."

Kai looked Ruby up and down. "You're the one who hijacked an ADVENT transport while it was still in the air?" She shook her head. "Of course, you are. I've seen the footage."

"I've made higher jumps." Ruby didn't say how.

"Huh. Somehow I find that hard to believe." Kai faced Bradford. "I'll take it from here, Central. I'll get you your propaganda by the end of the day." Bradford nodded and walked off. Kai waved Ruby into the room. "Come on. I've got all the gear you'll need in here."

Ruby stepped inside and looked around. A curved green screen took up most of the far wall. Several dozen lights and cameras hung from the ceiling. Her armor and weapons lay next to a large green cylinder. She faced Kai. "I take it you're the one in charge of all this?"

"Mostly. I have control of what goes on in this room but like everything else on this ship, I can't do anything without the Commander's approval." Kai gestured at Ruby's gear. "Get your kit on and let's get to work,"

"I take it he saw something in my last mission?" Ruby asked as she started putting her armor on.

"Definitely," Kai said from a workstation in the right corner of the room. "The Commander sent the footage to me right after the Skyranger touched down." She pointed at Ruby with a computer stylus. "You've got quite a tongue on you. Not many people mouth off to the Commander and live to tell the tale."

"I generally try not to do things like that," Ruby shrugged, "but that's not something I can let go of." If Kai thought that was mouthing off, what would she think of Ruby's most recent daily logs?

"But that near insubordination isn't why they and I wanted you here." Kai turned one of her screens toward Ruby. The screen showed footage of Ruby carrying the boy into the main square. The smile on her face looked real. Its owner didn't know if it actually was. "Yes, you disobeyed orders, but in the best way possible. You went out of your way to bring a little boy back to his mother. The people of that camp saw that and loved it. The rest of the world needs to see it to."

For the first time in who knew how long, Ruby felt a little happiness well up in her chest. Not enough to smile, but it still felt nice. "That's my job. I just wish I never had to do it."

Kai straightened up and her smile widened. "We can use that." She returned her attention to her screens. "With that face and that honesty, we can make so many posters. When you're done with your armor, grab that cylinder and get to center stage. I can make you hold just about anything. The people will love you."

Ruby shrugged. If it helped the war effort… at the same time, it felt nice to know that she might be an inspiration to people again. She didn't care about being in front of the camera, far from it, but to put a smile on someone's face again, that would be nice.

Only things I have to say now, everyone, stay safe. #Blacklivesmatter #JusticeforGeorgeFloyd