Ruby ends up on Earth. That's basically the plot right there. I think there's an opportunity for some interesting stories in it, and I haven't seen this concept done before.

Technically, this isn't a self-insert, since the OCs are Expys of my friends with some mixing and blending and not actual avatars of them. Yes, there are errors in geography. I should know better, but I don't.

We'll see how this one goes.

Does this mean Dust to Dust is dead? We'll see.

Ruby Rose

Cold.

Sleepy.

Hard.

Sleepy.

Uncomfortable.

Sleepy.

Pavement.

Sleepy.

Alone.

Slee- awake!

My eyes snapped open and I went from half-asleep to totally awake in like two seconds. I was still sleepy, but my brain started trying to process everything right away. I was alone! Where was everyone? Where could I be? It was dark, but not pitch black.

I felt for Crescent Rose, and it was reassuring that it was still attached to my waist. I didn't really feel like I was in any danger, so I didn't take it out. But if something did happen it would really really suck to not have it.

I looked around. I was sitting on pavement, so it was probably a city or pretty close to one. I looked up and yeah, there was the city all right. Lots of big towers and bright lights. It didn't look like Vale, really it looked bigger than Vale. And it was maybe five minutes away. Well, five minutes for me, anyway.

What happened? I couldn't remember. I mean, I remembered Torchwick, Beacon, the strange girl, the night at the docks, but I couldn't remember falling asleep or being knocked out or last night or anything recent or what happened to us-

"Yang! Weiss! Blake!" I called, but nobody responded. I stood up, dusting off my combat skirt. The road was dirty, and smelled like something gross I couldn't identify. If they weren't around here, where were they?

I was on a road, with the city one way and fields the other way. And more fields around me. It's dark and it's hard to see, but I don't see them around. I'll never find them in the fields, not on my own. If only there was a way to contact them...

Of course, my scroll! I whip it out and open it, only to find out that there's no signal. "Gah..."

So much for that idea.

"Yang! Weiss! Blake! Where are you?" I yelled again, hopping off the road into the fields. I don't know how long I looked, but it felt like a long time. Finally, I realized it was pointless to shout and search in a field in the darkness. They weren't here, not close enough for me to find them anyway. I was sad as I retraced my steps and went back to the road.

One last try, at the top of my lungs. "Weiss! Yang! Blake! Anyone?"

"Hey, girl, shut the..." someone shouted from a car as it drove by, but I didn't hear the whole sentence.

I waved frantically at them, but they were already gone.

Maybe I could get a signal or find a phone in the city. And if Yang or Blake or Weiss woke up out here and didn't find me, where would they look? In the city, of course! So I started walking toward it, still keeping a look out for the rest of Team RWBY.

It was further away than I thought. Forty minutes later by my scroll, I finally started to see buildings and a sign. It looked like the sign at the entrance of a city, one that would tell me where I was. I could barely make out the letters in this light.

Welcome to Vancouver

Vancouver? Where was that? I groaned, frustrated with what was going on. Where could I be, and how did I end up here?

XCVG Systems presents



Everyone imagines ending up in their favorite fictional universe, meeting the characters, fighting the bad guys, trying to find their way in the new world. But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. What if one day, some of them were to arrive in our world? To our new visitors, I say this. Welcome to a world of disillusion. Welcome to a world of bloody revolutions. Welcome to Earth.

EMERGENCE

Chapter 1: Another Year of Good Times

Sam

Drink in hand, I held up my glass. "To another year of good times."

"More like another year of bullshit," the Asian guy beside me muttered darkly. Well, okay, he's got a French last name and sounds kind of American, barely looks Asian but that's the part we all focus on.

"Just drink that piss and smile for once, Cliff," I shot back. Cliff was a good guy, but man he could be a depressing asshole sometimes. Always busy with something or other, always ripping on us for being lazy pieces of shit.

It may be true, but you don't have to be an asshole about it.

I hold up my mostly-empty glass of beer again. "One last toast. To another year of good times."

Isaac and Ben both raise their glasses right away. Cliff sighs, says "Fuck it," and raises his too. Unlike our glasses, which are full of golden yellow beer, his is dark brown, full of Diet Coke. Cliff doesn't drink.

I shoot back the rest of my drink, then stand up. "Well, it's getting late. Let's head back." Wait too long and you'll find the SkyTrain isn't running. I learned that the hard way.

Ben, the only one of us that really had any money, paid the bill. Somewhat reluctantly, but he did it. Ben was the only one of us that had a job. He worked at Sobeys, deputy deli supervisor or something like that. With a job, girlfriend, and apartment, he was probably the only successful one of us losers. Oh, and he's really good at computers and makes money off that, too. I wish he would stop rubbing all that in our faces at every opportunity.

Isaac was on the opposite end of the scale. Dirt poor, he subsisted on student loans, grants, and mooching. Isaac isn't actually very smart, doesn't fall into the disadvantaged groups, and is kind of mouthy and arrogant, so I don't know how he actually got any of the aid. He went to BCIT to become a game designer, by studying systems administration. Yeah, I don't know how that works. But for being in such a shitty situation, he's remarkably pleasant. Until you piss him off. Or disagree with him.

And then there was Cliff. Cliff is... different. No, not gay different. Completely batshit insane different. He spent a lot of time working. Except his definition of working meant "make shitty games that nobody likes". I thought he was going to come with me to UBC in engineering, but halfway through first year he gave up. He was going to BCIT, to study the fine art of game creation, and stayed with his uncle, who we knew only as Fujimori-san.

I jest, of course. These guys are great, even when-

"Sam, yo, Sam!" Ben called, having finished paying. "Let's go."

"Right, sorry," I replied, taking the lead as we exited the bar.

The weather was nice that night. The sky was clear, but it wasn't too hot. Not unusual weather for the last day of August, but pleasant nonetheless.

We walked along the streets of Vancouver, aware of our destination but not in any hurry to get there. Even at this hour, there were people out and about. People going about their late night business. Store employees and city workers conducting night-time maintenance. Vagrants sleeping on the street. Some cops arresting a druggie. A girl in bright red asking for directions-

I nearly ran into Cliff, who suddenly stopped and asked. "Is that a cosplayer?"

"Yeah, Ruby Rose," Isaac... confirmed, I guess.

"What the hell is Ruby Rose?" I asked, stepping around Cliff and resuming my pace. Look, I'll give directions, but not to some crazy little girl! Out in the middle of the night, alone, in bright goddamn red? She could be like... Hit Girl or something!

I wasn't really thinking straight, but then again, I was drunk.

"The main character of Ruby."

I give Cliff a blank look. "The computer thing?"

He returns a slightly different, much more slanted blank look for a few seconds. "No, not the programming language!"

"Hey, stop, I want to meet her," Isaac interrupted, crossing the street. He shouted at the girl. "Hey!"

"Yeah, I don't want any trouble, let's go," Cliff said, following me. He's curious, but antisocial as all hell. I look behind us, and I see that Ben has stopped, with something in his hands.

"Ben, put that shit down!" I hiss, pushing his phone down. He pushed my arm away with surprising strength and brought it back up.

"Why? I like videos." God, Ben could be so infuriating sometimes. It's not really arrogance- okay, yeah, it's arrogance.

Isaac, meanwhile, had come back across the road with the red girl beside him. She looks maybe fifteen or sixteen, pretty small, and she's wearing this weird dress and hood combo. And her hair is also red. Well, reddish-black, anyway.

"These are my friends Sam, Cliff, and Benjamin. Guys, this is Ruby Rose. She's really good," Isaac explained. "She sounds just like Ruby Rose and she hasn't broken character."

The girl huffed. "I keep telling you, I am Ruby Rose!"

Isaac waved his arm. "See what I mean?"

"This is actually kind of awesome," Cliff admitted quietly.

Isaac asked her, "Hey, do you mind if we take pictures?"

"I don't see why you would want to, but I don't see why not," she replied.

"Great! Benjamin, your phone has the best camera, you should take the picture."

I glanced at Ben, who shrugged as he readied his Nexus. I guess he didn't know what Ruby was either.

"Cliff, do you want to be in the picture?" Isaac asked.

Cliff stood there for a moment, thinking. He does that sometimes. Then he shrugged and replied, "Sure, why not?"

"Say cheese, derps," Ben said. A second later, they were bathed in the bright white of his LED flash. "Hey, this picture isn't too bad."

"Hey, do you think we could get one with Crescent Rose?" Cliff asked. Oh no, he was starting to get enthusiastic. Sometimes this was good, usually it was bad. "Does yours fold out into the scythe?"

"Of course it does!" I watched as she reached behind her back and pulled out something. Then, with a loud clanking noise, it unfolded into a giant red metal scythe, in a rapid and almost comical fashion.

I blinked. Nope, not the booze. Something in our booze, perhaps?

"Holy shit!" Cliff exclaimed, taking a step back. "That's... pretty awesome, actually. I think there's only one in the world that can do that! It must have been really expensive to make!"

She looked like she was about to reply, but Isaac interrupted her. "Maybe you could just like, hold it behind you, like in the cover art?"

"Cover art?" the girl asked, confused. "Do you think I'm a musician? Maybe you have me mistaken for someone else."

"You're pretty distinctive."

I didn't really mean that as a compliment, but she smiled and replied, "Thanks."

"Okay, on three," Ben interrupted, bringing his phone up again. Ruby hurried to get her scythe in the frame. "One, two-" He snapped the picture on two, of course.

"So, uh, where am I?" the girl asked after Ben put down his phone.

"Looks like... Burrard and Nelson," I replied, trying to make out the signs. "No, wait-"

I was going for my phone and its Maps app when she asked, "No, I mean, what city?"

"Vancouver," we all replied in near-unison.

She blinked, a blank look in her eyes. "What kingdom is that in?"

I guess this was part of the staying in character thing. Whatever, I'll play along. "Canada. But technically, we have a queen right now, and she doesn't really do anything."

"Yeah, we're only technically a monarchy," Cliff added.

"And, uh, what continent is that on?"

Cliff answered that one. "North America. Well, I mean, it depends on how you define the continents. So maybe it's just America. Wait- god damn it!"

"What?" I asked.

Cliff wasn't listening. He jabbed a finger in the girl's direction. "You're good. Really good."

"I don't know where that is," she replied. "Oh, this is such a strange place. Maybe one of you has a map?"

"Yeah sure," Cliff replied, handing her his phone. "I just got that phone, so be careful with it."

"Uh, how do I use this?"

"Well maybe if you used Android instead of iCrap, you wouldn't have so much trouble." Ben grabbed Cliff's phone, did something with it, and handed it back.

"Ben!" Cliff and Isaac shouted, probably for completely different reasons. Cliff was very possessive of his tech and Isaac liked to call Ben out on it when he was being an asshole.

"What?" In true Ben fashion, he saw no problem at all with what he did.

"Is this Remnant?"

"No, it's Earth," Isaac replied. "Sorry. I mean, I'm a big Ruby fan, and Cliff follows it, too, but I don't think anyone has actually written a Remnant map app."

Ruby blinked again. "What?"

Cliff sighed. "Okay, look, whoever you are, you're really good, and we appreciate it, but you're starting to freak us out. Please just tell us who you are."

"It might be helpful," Isaac agreed.

"I told you, I'm Ruby Rose! I'm a huntress-in-training at Beacon Academy."

I checked my watch. "Guys, we'd better get moving. SkyTrain."

"Do you want the pictures?" Isaac asked the girl as I began walking. "I can send them to your email, or your Facebook, or if you're on a certain forum..."

"No, just, please don't leave me here! I've been wandering around for hours and you're the only people who've talked to me at all!" she whined. I heard Isaac apologize behind us, something about not being able to help a fictional character.

We had made it maybe half a block away when suddenly, the girl in red just appeared in front of us, in what looked like a flurry of red petals.

"Holy shit!"

"Fuck me!"

"What the hell?"

"Jesus Christ!"

That was freaky. Seriously freaky. I mean, she just appeared. If she moved, it would have had to be really fast. I looked up. Nowhere to drop from. I grabbed her shoulders. "How did you do that?"

"It's my semblance!" she replied. Whatever that meant. I let her go, realizing a little late that if she could move that fast I probably shouldn't even make any sudden moves in her presence.

Isaac was animated. I couldn't understand what he was saying. Something something aura, something something semblance, something something how did you do that, something something awards, something something awesome. I could tell he wanted to know how she did that, but it didn't alarm him the way it did me and Ben.

Cliff, on the other hand, had gone quiet. His head was down, and he had a contemplative look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked. Quiet Cliff was not Good Cliff. Quiet Cliff was Scary Cliff.

"Guys, there's another possibility we have not yet considered," Cliff said slowly. "At this point I think it would be within the realm of reason to at least consider the possibility that this really is Ruby Rose standing in front of us."